Katherine's getting Baptized

My Sweet Daughter Katherine is getting baptized on Saturday -- so I made this invitation and thought it to be just adorable. I used some elements from my friend Christina who designs. So I thought that I'd share it.

So if any of my friends that are close by want to come, feel free.

Last year, we went through the same thing, only with Kaylee. It's such a special occasion, and we're excited that she has made this decision. It will be a wonderful day.

May 2008

I've been going through my post lists, and found some old started thoughts, that I forgot to actually publish, so if these are not current, that's why.

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We had a fun Memorial Day, yesturday. We went over to Amy and Richard's house (my sister in law) and had a BBQ over there. Of course, it wasn't the best weather for the day, but we still had fun. It also happened to be Chris's birthday too!! So they kind of hosted a gathering for him. It was great because I didn't have to organize anything. Because this weekend we will host a BBQ after Smartie Pants is baptized. We'll have both of our families there so I'm glad we've got the back yard so that we can hang out there.

Two Wonderful People that I know!!

I sit here and try and remember some of the things that I did with my grandfather, and a grandmother who have both passed on. My grandmother was Neva Amoi Sinclair -- born Dec 5, 1933 in Nampa Canyon, Idaho. She married my grandfather (who is still alive) on 10 Feb 1952 in Payette, Idaho. They eventually had 7 children, one of which was born prematurely due to an automobile accident and died a few hours later. My grandma and grandpa were sealed together in the Salt Lake Temple on the 8th of July 1965. My own dad was just a child at that time. The remaining 6 children were all married as early adults and had their own children. Here is the breakdown for the number of grandchildren that they have, 4, 8 (the family from which I come), 4, 3 plus a step grandson, 4, and 3 so that equals 27!! Now that all the grandchildren have been married for some years we too, have begun to have our own children. I don't have all the numbers in my family history file yet, but I'm sure it is somewhere around 20 - 26 great grandchildren that they have. My grandmother was killed in a work related accident and has been gone since July of 1988. So this July it will have been 20 years!! So I'm glad I asked my grandpa for a copy of a good picture of her and this is all I have left, besides the few faded memories of her!! I love and miss you grandma!!



Now my grandpa is from my Mom's side and he is my mom's stepdad, but he's the only grandpa I ever knew. So I did a lot of things with this man. Gerald Lee Gardiner was born 5 Nov 1932 in Vernal Utah. He came from a long line of early church pioneers ( at least that's what I can gather from records I'm finding) -- He served in the Navy and was in the Korean War and various others wars, if I remember right. He did manage to start the unhealthy habit of smoking and caused him to have lung cancer, emphyzma and most other lung related health issues. When I was in high school my grandpa supported me in all my games and he was always there. Most of the time he was video taping the games. He was always the game watcher that would pipe in with "come on REF!!" and he wasn't nice about it either. Everyone knew who he was!! So later when the team would watch the game tapes you could always hear my grandpa when he didn't think something was fair. The whole team would laugh. My two other favorite memories about him : he never liked his toes being pulled, but he would always pull our toes. So occasionally when we went over to their house, me siblings and I would gather around and "wrestle" him and start pulling the toes, and he had some LONG TOES!!, he would start saying, " NOT THE TOES!!" and as kids we all started to laugh!! We also could never remember how old he was and he would never tell us, but I was smart enough to know that he had a drivers license and that would give the info that we wanted, so then every year around his birthday we would try to get his wallet away from him, and one year we finally succeeded!!! But I don't know if that's because we were the strongest ones or because he let us. At any rate it was fun and a great victory for us!! He has now been gone for 3 1/2 years, so it's still fresh for me and I get teary eyed sometime when I think about him. Grandpa I love you and MISS YOU!!

I know that I have a lot more memories of them, but for now on Memorial Day I wanted to take the time to make mention of these two wonderful people that I happened to know in my lifetime. I'm glad that we have holidays to help us take time out to remember those that have gone on. May God Bless them all and us as well, while we still tarry in this mortal state.

Wendy, Wendy quite contrary how does my garden Go??

Well here is the first half of my garden -- we're going to go the same size only extend it to the right end of the picture. Chris has actually now taken down that tree to the right also. This is by our shed in the back it's always grown weeds, but I wanted some color back there and something pretty to look at so I added in some bushes and flowers. And couldn't resist the cute little border fence, although I'm going to purchase two more sections to place on the ends to designate this as a flower bed, so there is no mistaken when my kids are nearby.
Here is our section of garden in our front yard, these are tomatoes and cucumbers.
Here is a flower bed in my front yard, and yes my porch needs some serious work!! We even use the blue buckets as compost buckets, so we're going to try our hand at composting. We'll see!!

Welcome this new baby!!

No this isn't my baby, but he sure is cute!! Our friends Loren and Barbara Young became parents on the morning of May 22, 2008!! This is their son, (Caden) -- not sure on the spelling yet. But he weighed 7 lbs 7 oz and I didn't find out how long he was. Mom and baby are doing great though!! Congratulations you guys!!!
Doesn't she look GOOD!! For just having a baby, the day before.

Katherine's 8 !!

Katherine had her birthday on May 23, and now she's 8!! Here is a page I've created so far from when she was a Newborn!! Wow, she's grown so much since then and has quite a personality.

May I present the many "faces of Katherine"
I think she's ready for Broadway!! Hurry Mom, I'm Hungry!!!
How much longer, I'm getting bored!!
It took so long, now I'm going to sleep on my new PILLOW!!

Random Pictures from 2003!! With Katherine in them.

Her hands were cold from helping to make a snowman.

Notice the SHORT BANGS!!! Kaylee cut Katherines hair, and Kath claimed that Kaylee did it but of couse, she didn't stop her either. She looked so ridiculous for weeks. Katherine is in the lighter shirt. In California at Great Grandma's house sitting on Uncle Joe's quad. She's in the middle here.

A long week with lots of happenings.

This is just to paraphrase the next few posts, mainly because I don't want to forget them.

#1. Thomas and his Special Visit

#2. Happy Birthday Katherine

#3. The Young's

#4. Garden Pictures

#5. School Carnival

#6. Cake Pictures

#7. Heidi's last day of Kindergarten

#8. Busy Weekend!!!

So things have just been a whirlwind of craziness here this last week and even still!! Mid week I took my son Thomas up to Primary Children's for a visit with the urologist, Patrick Cartwright, upon a referral from his pediatrician . We've used him before for Kaylee!! So at any rate the doctor said that we need to schedule a surgery within the next 3 months to correct this issue before it becomes a more severe problem. So come June 13th, my husband and I will take our son up to Primary's to have this surgery performed to correct the hydocele that he has. Which I guess it's common for lots of boys to have done. But let me tell you about some of the fun from the visit that I thought was important to remember.

This office was so COOL!! Of course, I've been here before, but even still some remodeling had taken place. But the TRAIN is always the COOLEST thing. Thomas is way into trains, and with this one on a track up high to look at -- how could any kid not like it. This train helped calm my son down while we were waiting at the beginning. (Thomas fell asleep in the car on the drive from Provo to Salt Lake and then I had to take him out of his seat and he woke up "prematurely" so he was CRANKY and not too Happy.)

Here he is waiting in the room, and crying and screaming that he "WANTS TO GO HOME!"

He finally calmed down and then was able to pick out this cool green snake, and then get a "sugar-free" succor from the doctor's nurse. I'm so glad that he stopped crying, I was trying to do everything in my power to help cheer him up, but it was very hard and frustrating.

Primary's has the coolest elevators, here are a couple that I couldn't resist not taking a picture of. What cooler thing than that of a trajn engine. "Hurry Thomas, MOVE!" Did I also mention that we went on an African Safari too??

And that Thomas became a GIANT!!! And was intimidating people in a nearby village?

Thomas and I then left the hospital and I managed to get this picture of the valley while stopped at a light. Pretty gross!! I mean the quality of the air. But then I sit and try to imagine what it looked like when the pioneers first came through and Brigham Young said, "this is the place" -- WOW!!! I wish that I could have seen it around the time they finished building the Salt Lake Temple.

Saturday is a special day .....

It's dark now, but it's been quite the day!! We've been busy working on our yard today. We put a border around our garden area, so we can keep the dog out of it. We also planted what he had so far into it. So altogether we planted 18 tomato plants of various kinds and 4 cucumber plants, 2 cauliflower, cantaloupe, and watermelon plants too!! We're making some reall nice plans for our yard and are considering putting in an Apple tree !!! Maybe even this year. We'll see. We want to put in more "flower beds" along our fences and actually use our patio this year and acquire some patio furniture so we can kick it outside this summer. Isn't it great to have dreams and goals, because it gives you something to look forward to, or work towards. I'm EXCITED!!! We've been in our house for 7 years now and we haven't done any changes to our yard since the first growing season we were here back in 2001!! We need CHANGE!!! I'll post pictures later of the progress we've made in the yard. And my own latest undertaking that I'm just adoring right now. Everyone is quiet right now, and I still have to finish unloading the van from the few things I just bought on a late night run to walmart. I'm tired and exhausted and wearing the same "yard clothes that I work in" and need a shower big time. Thomas was so worn out today that he started getting whiny around 7pm while it was still very much daylight outside and Chris and I were still working, he wanted me to hold him. Which only really meant one thing, that he was TIRED!! He was also filthy and still is right now, he climbed onto our porch wicker love seat spot and laid down on the cushions, I walked to the back yard and was there for 1 or 2 minutes, came back up to the front and he was already asleep. I hope that he doesn't have an accident tonight!! What a great productive day. Now if I can only feel like I've accomplished that much in a day on the inside of my home. And feel just as satisfied that will be a miracle!! And must mean that I don't have kids living here anymore. LOL!!

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Heidi and Katherine have managed to find a "fort" to play in, only problem, the hill to get up to it is a bit steep. Heidi wasn't wearing the right kind of shoes so she kept slipping down, and Katherine had to keep reaching out to help her up. But they still had lots of fun.
Ethan loves to get around and it was so windy that he decided to crawl instead of trying to walk because he was almost knocked down because a big wind gust that came up. I just love this because of the pocket. I can't ever seem to keep the pockets the way they are supposed to be. Kaylee was so excited that she found this "orange blade of grass". There are spray painted lines all over the yard marking where underground lines are, like the gas, and phone line. So she pulled this up and came to show me, because she loves ORANGE .
My in-laws also have an orchard, a small one but they do get peaches in the fall. Here is a blossom from one of the trees that I thought was really pretty.
Katherine roaming in the vacant field right beside grandma and granpa's house. She's almost standing near the "entrance" to her fort. What great memories the kids will have of going to their house. I love it!!

Ethan has more firsts ~~~

Okay so this isn't one that I'm excited about, but this morning he started to cry and I ran over to where he was, there was a huge bumble bee moving around on the floor. So unfortunately he got stung by the bee!!! I was looking around for a while trying to find where on his body he was stung, but I couldn't see any stinger sticking out anywhere. And Ethan was crying the whole time, sort of thrashing around in my arms. I felt so bad for him, and still do. But after about a few minutes I could see the white spot and then the redness followed by some "swelling" . I was concerned about all of this, and called the nurse who told me what to look for, but that this was a normal reaction with a sting on the hands and feet. I took a picture, so I could remember this. And how I felt when my little baby was harmed. Poor Ethan.

Ethan's first bee sting:

I'm holding onto his arm to try and keep it still. I'm still concerned about the tip of his finger just under his nail, because it's purple, and not because of a marker.

Mother, I love you --

So I went out last week and bought these three plants, the two on the right are rose bushes and the one on the left is a verbena plant. It has such a beautiful flower on it. I love the color purple and this is just the perfect little flower for me to enjoy while sitting in the neighbors backyard.

I had a great Mother's Day!! Well, actually I'm calling Saturday my mother's day!! I was able to attend the temple that morning and afterwards, came home and started working some more in the yard, to get the various flower beds ready for planting. We also decided to go and get some tomato plants and flowers, to start transplanting into our various locations. After getting the flowers at one of the local nurseries in Orem, we came home to await the arrival of the newest addition to our family: Yes, so normally I wouldn't put a picture up like this but because I want to remember the story behind it I'm going to. Heidi was told by her Kinder teacher that there was a list of 5 things she had to do for her mom, over the weekend. I don't remember what they all were but I do remember a few. Sunday morning, we woke up late, like 8:30 late with church at 9am !!! The kids were all bathed the night before so that helped, I had one late that day as well, so I didn't need to jump in the shower. Chris needed one, so before he jumped in, he managed to take this picture for me. Heidi came into my room and said, "mommy, come look in your spot!" ( the spot at the table) So I came out, and she managed to make me breakfast all by herself. I just wanted to melt. So this is what she came up with, two pieces of toast (dry) -- I like them that way, and a purple candy cane (after breakfast mint??). She also managed to get my mug off the windowsill and fill it with water for me to drink. Not much, but how sweet is that??? I must be loved!! So this picture was taken as I was when I woke up out of bed. So I look like "DEATH!! " --- remember that AMY (roomie)?

We ended up going to my mother in laws for dinner after church on Sunday and Chris took this picture of me and the kids on their swing. This picture pretty much says everything. We took a nice picture but it looked blurry so I didn't want to post it here. We sure know how to enjoy and have fun with one another.
Here is Chris working on clearing out our garden area. This was early last week, and then .....

My back yard from the very back of the yard.
And here is my garden spot as of Saturday May 10th, and it will be twice the length but the same width down the fence line. Here are the flowers that we picked up and yes, I'm slow on getting Christmas lights put away. But there are the different kinds of tomatoes that we will plant as well. I'm excited to do more than just those this year. So hopefully by the end of this week we can have the garden put in. I had some cute home-made cards from the kids, and the girls had made some "bath salt" concoctions and they smell nice!! I am blessed to have these wonderful kids in my life, even though they do frustrate me often. The joy they bring to me in my life is so worth all the "hard" times we have to go through. Hope that you all had a Happy Mother's Day.

Scrapbooking Layouts

I've been playing around today, and here are some layouts that I've come up with, let me know what you think. No I didn't design the stuff myself -- I used these elements from a designer at scrapbookflair.com and I decided where I wanted them placed.

I've also been practicing some new techniques here -- playing around with my wedding photos that were only taken with a disposable camera and were not anywhere close to being done by a professional. So I've scanned them into my computer and am working on a gift for my husband for our 10th anniversary coming up in June !!! So I need to get busy !! I also used these layouts from a few different sites around the net. I've been looking around for free stuff that I like and thought that this was some cute stuff. The page on the left I used elements except the prongs from scrapbookflair as well and the page on the right I can't remember where I found the background. I'll have to backtrack and start keeping better notes of where I get these things.

And I've started Ethan's birthday pages, and here are the first few that I've put together. They might not go in this exact order in an actual scrapbook but you get the idea. I can't remember where I got everything, sorry!! Someday I hope to learn enough to design my own elements and e-papers. I'm so addicted to this digital scrapbooking now. I've downloaded a free software just to get started and learn the basics, and now I'm hooked!!! So I'm slowly working on scanning in my old photos and putting them on disc as I complete years. I'm going to go in and scrapbook all of that. Now that I know what I'm doing I can go back and easily put things together. It'll be a lot of fun for me. And hopefully a lot of fun for my family in the years to come as they look back at all of these memories.

It's Official ---- I'm ..... ??????

I'm getting a piano!!! Okay so we're using some of our savings from the stimulus payment to pay for it. But Happy Mother's Day to ME!! It's coming from a lady that Chris works with, and we just booked some movers to move it to our house this Saturday. So that will require some rearranging of the furniture but hey, I'm getting a PIANO!!! Now I can really start to develop this talent that I want to get better at. And now I can start my kids with lessons soon!! Here's a picture of the piano it is blurry but at least you can get an idea!!! The funny thing is, this ladies boyfriend had just posted it to ksl.com and she wasn't aware of it when she was talking with Chris earlier today -- but we're buying it -- so nobody else gets a chance!!!

So when it's in my house I'll be sure and post a nice picture of it. I'm so EXCITED!!!

Thomas and his male anatomy

The following is more for my documentation, feel free to ignore if you wish.

My son Thomas has been quite a huge blessing to me in my life and ever since he's been a tiny newborn baby we've had some issues with his anatomy. Well, the most recent discovery started about 6 months ago. I noticed when I would change his diaper ( Because he was still wearing them back then), that he looked a little bigger on the left side of his scrotum and that it seem to get bigger doing some activities and sometimes disappear. I was concerned and mentioned it to the doctor some time ago, and was told that I should get an ultrasound done to know why it's like that. I hesitated back then, because I didn't want to deal with my insurance with anymore possible "problems" -- so a few more months passed and over the course, I had a few other doctors give me their opinion on what they thought that it was -- the first doctor (who recommended the ultrasound) thought it could be a "veracocele"--- another doctor told me she thought it was more like a "hernia" -- ( which can be fatal) and another doctor that thought it might also be a hernia. Well, nobody was right!! I'm glad that it wasn't a hernia, and I don't know a lot about a veracocele so I wasn't that concerned. But it turns out that the reason he is "lopsided" -- he has a hydrocele ( a fluid filled sac in his scrotum area) they aren't that harmless by themselves but the opening into the body cavity is not sealed from having the testes drop through, and that means this hydrocele could lead to a hernia. That freaked me out again. So now we are going to head to Primary Children's yet again, for another visit to the urologist. One that we have a history with -- in regards to Kaylee. So he'll have a look, and discuss with us what our options are and what he suggest that we do. Whether we just watch and wait -- and then do a surgery later if needed. Or if he thinks we should do a surgery right away to reduce the chances of a hernia developing. Poor little guy, he's had so many male anatomy problems so far in his life and he's only 3!! So I won't know anything new until May 21st, when I head to Primary's for his appointment.

I love my GIRLS!!!

Okay so today was a rare occasion for me. What??? Well, if you know my girls at all they would much rather not mess with their hair. They scream and cry when I go to brush it, and then if I get it brushed out, they don't want anything done with it. No braids, no clips, nothing. So really it is quite SAD!!! I have three beautiful girls, and they have very nice hair, IF it gets brushed and they let me do something with it.

Well, last night Katherine asked me to "french braid" her hair before bed. So I proceeded to do two braids since her hair is so short to just do one down the middle. And Kaylee asked to have a braid down the middle of her head. They went to bed and slept on it, and then this morning, Katherine wanted me to redo one of the sides, and then Kaylee had brushed hers out and asked me to braid it again. Heidi too, she had two braids like Katherine did. I only wish now that I had taken a few pictures to show PROOF!!! They claim that they want the braids done again tomorrow, and Heidi wants her hair curled!! We'll see if everyone actually wakes up in enough time to get it all done again.

I'm so glad they are starting to blossom into these young ladies that they are starting to become, granted they are only 9 and almost 8 and 5 1/2!! But if it's anything similar to what they will be as teenagers then I will be happy with that!! They all play well together and they get along. But they can also push buttons and make each other very upset, hopefully they can outgrow that stage.

Mrs. MOM!!!

Okay so I have heard the song, " Mr. Mom" by Lonestar

Lonestar - Mr. Mom Lyrics

Lost my job, came home mad
Got a hug and kiss and that's too bad
She said I can go to work until you find another job
I thought I like the sound of that
Watch TV and take long naps
Go from a hand working dad to being Mr. Mom

Well Pampers melt in a Maytag dryer
Crayons go up one drawer higher
Rewind Barney for the fifteenth time
Breakfast, six naps at nine
There's bubble gum in the baby's hair
Sweet potatoes in my lazy chair
Been crazy all day long and it's only Monday
Mr. Mom

Football, soccer and ballet
Squeeze in Scouts and PTA
And there's that shopping list she left
That's seven pages long
How much smoke can one stove make
The kids won't eat my charcoal cake
It's more than any maid can take
Being Mr. Mom

Well Pampers melt in a Maytag dryer
Crayons go up one drawer higher
Rewind Barney for the sixteenth time
Breakfast, six naps at nine
There's bubble gum in the baby's hair
Sweet potatoes in my lazy chair
Been crazy all day long and it's only Monday
Mr. Mom

Before I fall in bed tonight
If the dog didn't eat the classifieds
I'm gonna look just one more time
'Cause Pampers melt in a Maytag dryer
Crayons go up one drawer higher
Rewind Barney for the eighteenth time
Breakfast, six naps at nine
There's bubble gum in the baby's hair
Sweet potatoes in my lazy chair
Been crazy all day long
Oh been crazy all day long and it's only
MondayMr. Mom

Balancin' checkbooks, juggling bills
Thought there was nothing to it
Baby, now I know how you feel
What I don't know is how you do it

Okay so I've never actually had a diaper in the dryer, but somehow I found one in the washing machine last night when I went to change the loads!! It was GROSS!! When the diapers get all wet and then some the "gel -like" stuff in the center kind of ruptures and explodes and then I have gel mess all over the inside of the washing machine. So my question is: Diapers ________ in an Amana washer. What can I possibly phrase that as?? I don't know how the heck the diaper made it into the washing machine I sorted out the load ahead of time and left for a little bit, maybe one of the boys laid a diaper on the pile and it got mixed into the clothes. Now I'll have to be even more careful as I load the washing machine in the future. I've been busy making some strawberry-peach jam and will make some more tonight!! I love being all "skilled" or at least "Pretend" that I can do these kind of "homemaking" skills. I've also been working on the girls bedroom today -- I almost have it all cleaned and then I can vaccuum the floor as well as finish washing the few loads of laundry I gathered from their floor and under the beds. When will they ever learn?? I even have a hamper for them to use, and somehow they don't SEE it. Someday!!! Someday!!!