Home again

I am so grateful to be home again. I love walking into my home, smelling our own smell and sleeping in my bed, showering in our shower and eating my own food. We started our trip friday the 28, around 9pm quite suddenly. Originally we were going to leave Saturday morning the 29, when Taylor gets a wild hair up his butt and decides he has to leave NOW so we load everyone up and trek the 7.5 hours to Oklahoma. Taylor was a trooper and drove the whole way i slept about 3hours on and off while the boys slept the whole way. We reached OK city around 4am. The boys woke around 7am so i got a total of 3-4 hours once we were out of the car. Taylor slept in and my kids drove me crazy.
Then we "rested"and got on the road again leaving okcity around 615pm and making our way home. Little did we know (because we did not watch the weather and our dear friends in stl didnt call to tell us, even though they knew we were coming in) that snow was acoming! we hit rain and heavy flurries the last leg of the trip about 3hours worth. The wipers were sucky so it felt like we were going warp speed(with out the multi colors) in a blurred blizzard. I am exaggerating of course but man it was tough. The boys slept through it all while taylor and i jammed out to various songs on the radio. Poor suckers. we finally made it in around 140am putall the monkeys in bed and unloaded the car.
We attempted to sleep in which didnt work since the kids slept in the car :( we were up by 7am having gone to bed around 3am and finally made it to church(it was my turn to teach and i must honor my committments) which went well then home again (starting to hate this car) and napping (love that)
all in all it has been a productive weekend.... there will be more to come on the actual vacation. Stay tuned!!!

vacation

So family time is a great thing, its been nice to have family around that i havent seen in at least a year. This year i have seen everyone, even my uncle who's never around. the trip has been pretty uneventful so far. The boys have been sick all week until today, even now they are fighting off a cough. The baby has been horrible, constantly waking up at night and my mom has to work real early so she hasnt appreciated the 230am wake up calls and keeps yelling at me to give him the boobie!!!! I cant wait to go home. Its gonna suck getting Brynden back on schedule ..............anyway gotta go watch tropic thunder.....

Leaving .... on a jet plane

Today is the day!!!! I am not leaving today but i am getting everything ready. I have a list and i am checking things off. But of course it had to start out like any other jam packed day.... Baby woke up at 230 and then at 430 AM of course. I refused to get him until 445 to feed him breakfast.... changed him cause he soaked thru and sucked his boogers out(not with my mouth) and gave him some meds cause not only is he teething(top two) but he has a cough and a runny nose a fever and 2 sick brothers. YEP! So at 630 after Taylor has left for work in the morning Brody has woken up crying bc he peed his diaper and he is sleepy and feverish and coughing.... he ditches the underpants and comes snuggling into bed with me... keeping me nice and toasty with his fevered body. now it is 720 all the monkeys are up and its time to start the school rush. since we woke up late i am trying to get boston to eat FASTER, since it is 755 he is not done yet and needs to brush his teeth and get his jacket on and did i mention that we need to LEAVE?!?? Brody is whining, Brynden is crying and i am frustrated.......finally get him off to school and start my list mopping laundry the whole nine yards..... and then i get a phone call. School Nurse ::Boston threw up in PE 2x and refuses to come home..... now i think great dont have my car, taylor is at work and my pals are busy.... i could always walk to go get him but i have 3 kids and going to get a fourth kid a little over a mile away (and a mile back) in the COLD is not my idea of FUN> call TAY beg him to go get Boston in his police car.... B gets a kick out of that.

Now everyone is home napping and medicated and I still need to mop, laundry etc.,..... grr vacation cannot come soon enough

friendly faces

oh who are the people in the neighbor hood we have daila , boston, Naked Brynden, Brody and dad ......just your average friendly faces

Brotherly love

Brody really likes Brynden which was a suprise to me bc i thought he would resent the bundle of joy that kicked him out of our beds and into his own. He likes him so much he squishes the heck out of Brynden....

Mormon Missionaries

So here arethe future mormon missionaries.... arent they the cutest you have seen?

Who the heck knew

Remember when things were so easy? Gosh it seems as though once again i never take advantage of the easiness when it is near. Every new section in life where we take on new responsiblilites, from no children to one and a job, to two with a husband and no job added to the mix, to now three (one in school) and still no job and thankfully still a husband. And at each section in my life i can remember thinking. Gosh why is this so hard? when does it get easy? only to find out that i had it pretty good each time. I look back to my days without any kids or a hubby and think, what was so hard about that? i mean really? and boy was i skinny!!!!! then I remember when i had Boston as a single mother , and a newly 21 year old and thinking What the heck am i doing, and did i make the right decision and please let it get better and easier. Now i think (only on some days when it is tough) why cant the boys grow up just a little?!? cant they ever stop fighting? And when can i have my girl? what will the future hold?I may still be asking like Heavenly Father is a crystal ball but I definitely am much better at counting my blessings. I do it ever time i lay down and close my eyes. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband. Friends that support me in our beliefs (esp when i want those jelly shots) and three great boys who love to drive me nuts.... a family who has always supported me even when i was wrong and a heavenly father who was loved me through out and it has been with the help of The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints that i have such a strong testimony. And funny enough i didnt realize it till right this second. I have never gotten up and spoken and today being fast and testimony makes this posting seem ironic. I had no intention of testifiying but when you count your blessings and name them one by one (love that song) its very easy to see that Heavenly Father has been very clear and present in my life and without the church i knew that he exisited but have never felt him like this..... there is a point to going to church on sundays....crazy i know. who knew that it would be a blessing when every sunday it is such a fight (its too cold, i am too sleepy, the boys are sick, etc) to even get there......

Big boys

Long day today as to be expected. Seriously love that the boys are able to play by themseleves. They take their blankets and build forts, without any help and play power rangers. Have been longing for these days. The few minutes to myself. Not quite having to help them get dressed or put their shoes on. they still need help on occassion but it is nice to have them act like big boys. They dont last very long yet, and after 15 minutes someone is crying but it makes me sad. They grow up so fast. Part of it is me giving them responsiblities. Boston is the biggest helper and best hanger uper we have while Brody does well with picking up toys and getting the dog food bowl. Part of it is them, desperate to help to do something that adults do. Little do they know that we wish we could be their age again.

More on VOTING

A girlfriend of mine who is for barack obama said she was an OBAMA girl and OBAMANOS (she's mexican, its funny)

My reply to that is I am an ameriCAIN .... (cant claim the credit for that witty one. I got it from Elisabeth Hasselback on the view)

Voting .....And the winner is McCain

So today i voted. I am 26 years old and have never voted in my life. Serious problem i know but now i want to add my 2cents to the pile. Will it matter? not sure but i woke up at 530 this morning and ran/walked the mile to the polls to place my vote. I waited in line for an hour and half with my pal linda(who met me there, we did not plan that, she drove and i pretended to run) This is all well and good and while we were waiting in line and snacking on donuts so thoughtfully provided, we came up with a couple of What If's . Any one who spends any time with me knows that i love those kind of questions.... i think i annoy linda with them but she takes it on the chin and tries to answer me. so first what if question is....

What if you live on a house boat between missouri and illinois and your address is the RED HOUSE BOAT on the river then where do you vote? (dumb i know)

Second what if question is what if you are in space (ie space shuttle) what do you do about voting? What if you have been there for the past 2 years and you were not able to absentee vote? then what? do they send a pollster to the shuttle and have you vote? I mean if they can send a plumber to the shuttle to fix the broken toilet, then they can send a ballot to you, right?!?

anyway i read my friend Kara's blogspot and i have to agree with her....
I'll keep my guns, my freedom and my money and you can keep THE CHANGE!
Texas bumper sticker seen by April Baker
I am Kara Hess, I am an American and I approve this message
the difference is I am April Williams, I am an AmeriCAIN and I approve this message!!

sleeping beauty

Brynden is getting to be lots of fun these days. he is a very busy boy who crawls everywhere. Here is a list of a few of his favorite things to do. When you first set him on the floor he hightails it the kitchen where he licks the air vent on the floor. If we stop him then his next place to go to is the bathroom where he tries to get in the tub.... he also likes our entertainment center. he climbs in and plays prisoner....


then there is his walker. He likes it, so much so that today he fell asleep in it twice. the second time he face planted into his cherrios.... poor guy

More halloween

at the top is anna voelkel, Boston, and Janae Voelkel




next are the boys trick or treating






and finally are our pumpkins that's joe, larry, moe and the twins and the bottom is larry moe and the twins but their alternate faces .... .just turn them around and you have a whole new family we didnt carve pumpkins this year we poke holes in them like a mister potato head and it was fun.

More on the pinkeye

One day taylor was rubbing his eye and saying that there was something in it. THis was saturday..... By monday it was full blown demon eyes. Then Daila came down with it.... By wednesday i had it and the house was going nuts. We cleaned everything, lots of washing of the hands, rubbed them raw. :( then the next week comes and daila and i are healed and janae(daila's sister) has it, its monday again. By wednesday Linda(daila's mom) has it and today is sunday and Anna(daila's sister) has it now too. Luckily enough none of my children have it but i am not holding my breath.... that pink eye is a sneaky dastardly thing....... wish us luck

Halloween

I know its November now but i wanted to touch on halloween. Boston was a white power ranger Brody and Brynden were pirates. Our neighbor hood is great about halloween there is this one street, the "haunted" side of Windom that goes all out. All the houses except like 5 are decorated, we walked the streets with our pals the Voelkels, the Guymons, the Douglas's and the Woolley's. Somewhere on the page will be pics of the boys, and voelkel girls and my hubby..... It was great fun.

Wreath of Diapers

thanks to the great internet i snagged the idea and made it my own. It came out pretty well. I made it for my friend Shannon who is having a baby soon.... for her baby shower. It was a big hit... Next will be a diaper cake. Keep your fingers crossed

Church

So today i thought i was going to be all cool. We had a stake conference and i thought that i would catch it on the BYU channel so i didnt worry about getting the monkeys ready, i set the dvr to record the conference and went about my day. I realized later that they couldnt possibly have the STAKE conference because the church is so large they wouldnt be able to televise all the stake conferences.....My bad.