Meridian Temple open house and family pictures

Yep, we went. We drove the five hours to be able to go inside. Being in the temple is so awesome and I love being in there with our littles. I always pray that they will be able to feel the spirit while we are in there. We try so hard to teach these little humans the gospel. We try to help them know that the only way to find true, lasting happiness is through living the gospel. We talk about getting married in the temple and being sealed together forever. We talk about the basics of the gospel a lot. The only wrench in this little plan is that dang agency. We hope and pray that what we are teaching and what we are doing, like reading scriptures and praying and going to the temple, will be enough. We hope that all four of these strong, amazing little ones will choose to live the gospel and have strong foundations in our Savior. We also pray that if they choose another path that they will still know that we love them. They all loved being in the temple and thought that the chandeliers were beautiful, which they are. It was really hot inside and so in an effort to not pass out, we kind of hustled through. The heat and the fact that there were a ton of people in there. The temple was exquisite and there weren't too many protesters on the corners of the parking lot either. The ones that were there were kind of weird anyway, like the guy dressed up as the devil waving to people. He wasn't even standing up, he was sitting on a lawn chair. Weird. Or the guy holding the sign that said, Jesus created Satan too.  Things that make ya go, huh. Anyhow, my grandma Kent used to live in Meridian and when we would drive to her house when I was a wee lass, I always knew we were close when we saw the yellow water tower. Meridian is huge now and I don't recognize anything, except for the water tower. When I saw it I couldn't help myself and I shouted,"We're almost there!" It's still Yellow, it still has the word, Meridian, painted on the side but everything around it has changed. I miss grandma Kent a lot. I miss her red house and her giant bunk beds and her container of Kix that she kept in the red room. I am so thankful for temples and the sealing power and that although grandma wasn't in Meridian for us to go visit, I know that we will see her again. Next item of business, family pictures. We do family pictures every year. Let's be honest, I'm anal about a lot of things. Family pictures once a year is one of those things. We love to do it in the fall because of the colors and sometimes we get really great colors like this one from a few years ago.

Or this one from last year

This year I was hoping that we would get good colors. I waited until the leaves started to turn. Now, bear in mind that we don't live in a beautiful place. Far from it actually. There are hardly any trees so when I say the leaves were changing I mean that the tree in the church parking lot was yellow so we were on the hunt for more trees to stand in front of. The lady taking our pictures told us that she found the perfect spot. We drove and drove and drove. We passed some beautiful spots so I was thinking that we had hit the ugly valley jackpot. Nope. instead we pulled up to a cement bridge. Now, I do love taking pictures on a bridge too. The lady had just misunderstood me. She thought that I only wanted the bridge as the background. She knew we have a baby so she said she would be fast. She was right. She took two family pictures, one of the kids and one of B and I and we were done. It took us waaaaaay longer to get ready, and we aren't fancy folk so getting ready included putting on clean clothes and brushing through our hair, and drive out there than it did for the actual picture taking. 

There you have it folks. These are the ones that we have. I am still happy that we got them. I do wish that we had more to choose from, but At least no one's picking their nose or crying or making a pooping face so it's a win! I love my family so much and love having family pictures taken every year.

I think I'll run a half marathon..... in two weeks

Once upon a time, B and I ran a half marathon. The idea was exciting and we trained hard for it. Looking back on the experience, I'm pretty sure I peaked a few weeks before the actual race. It was the day I did my ten mile run. I felt like I could have run all day. I felt so good that I was sure that the half wouldn't be a problem at all. Wrong. It. was. awful! I did fine until mile nine and then I wanted to die. I did make it across the finish line, dry heaving and vowing that I would never do that again. I have stuck to my guns and the longest I have run since that fateful day in 2012, is 7 miles. 13.1 is just too much for me. However, my amazing boyfriend views the running world differently than I. He loved the half that we did and was talking about doing another one on the car ride home from the race. Well, time passes and two babies later, he hears about a half that's here in this stinky city we live in. He was kind of wishy-washy about doing it until two weeks before the race. He has been running pretty consistently for a really long time. His normal run is at least four miles. Two weeks before the race, he decided to do a long run to see if doing the half was an option. He ran a measly 11 miles that morning. When he told me that, my mouth fell open, literally. He had run 4 miles everyday for a while but to go from 4 miles to 11 is no small task. The most annoying part is that he was totally fine with the mileage upgrade. Not that I wanted it to be hard for him, but come on! He's some kind of super human to not be effected at all by almost tripling his distance. Maybe I just truly suck as a runner, but there's no way I would be able to go from 4 miles to even 6 miles and be fine, let alone 4 to 11. Anyway, he got done with his long run, got home and registered for the half that was taking place in seven days. He took most of the week off of running so that he would be well rested for his short little jaunt the following Saturday. I happily volunteered to be on kid duty so that he could go run his race. He went, he ran, he kicked fanny. He finished 39 overall and felt amazing the entire time.

 This was after the race was over. The cheeseballer in the blue shirt over yonder is a guy in our ward. He's the one that told B about the race.

His goal was to do it under two hours. Not too shabby for a fella that only trained for two weeks.

I'm bursting with pride! There's a guy that ran the same race that saw B at the school, picking up M and K, one afternoon and stopped to talk to him about the race and tell him there's another one in March. He told B that he should do it. B doesn't know if he will but, thankfully he only needs two weeks to train, so he doesn't have to decide until the middle of February😉.  I am so happy to stay on kid duty so that he can run his little heart out. I have no desire to ever run that long ever again in my whole life. Being the cheerleader is an amazing spot to be in. 

October brings with it, a lot

Boys and using tools are like me and chocolate. They just need to be together. Well, B put a cement slab in our backyard for a shed. The next night after work, he went out there to take the cement forms off the cement. K and little B were out there helping. I'm not sure what happened really. I just know that he came in the house crying because he had taken a hammer to the face. I don't know what he was hammering, I just know that the hammer bounced off and hit him in the face. Thankfully he didn't hit his teeth. Poor kid.

Of course we made our tootsie sucker ghost's. This is one of our favorite traditions. They love to make their ghosts and hang them on the light above the table. 

We made our graveyards too but this year instead of putting the gravestones in no bake cookies, we put them in dirt and worms. A didn't care that she didn't construct a ghost or a graveyard but, she loved that M had her try some of the pudding. We think that this little one has a nut allergy.

This picture doesn't do justice. This was taken one night after we had made poppy seed muffins. They have almond extract in them. We gave her some and within minutes her eyelids started to get hives on them. Her ears swelled up really bad and she started getting a rash all over her stomach and back. She got hives on her back, legs and stomach. We said no more of anything with almonds or other tree nuts. B said maybe she was allergic to the poppy seeds. We gave her some Benadryl and once the swelling started to go down, we put her to bed for the night but checked on her every hour or so throughout the night. 

These ones were taken last night. At her nine month check, the dr had said that they have now changed food recommendations and anything goes. So, I had given her a peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch. I didn't feed her the whole thing because as she was eating it, she would take a bite, swallow and then cough and cough. She seemed ok after her bottle so I laid her down for a nap. She didn't sleep well and when she woke up, she was totally swollen. Her face is puffy, her left ear is so swollen that it's sticking out. You can see she has a rash on her neck.

She's a moving target so you can't tell that these bumps were really big and she had hives on her stomach again. It's so scary! Thankfully Benadryl has taken care of the swelling but it takes several hours for it to go all the way away. No nuts at all for this little lady until we know for sure what the allergy is.  Anyway,

We tried to put our ghost's in the dirt, but they kept falling over and the tissue was turning brown. No one liked the idea of it looking like they had poopy ghost's so, we took the ghost's out of the pudding. We had done this as a FHE activity. They next day as little B was eating lunch, he started to chuckle and shake his head. I asked what he was laughing at and he said,"that really was a great activity last night." 

Next on the tradition schedule was pumpkin decorating. We truly hate carving pumpkins. We don't like the mess or the smell. Not to mention it seems like as soon as you carve them, they go schlumpy. So, we paint ours instead. 

I must say, that I love all of our pumpkins. However, whoever did that minion takes the cake! I think that's one of the best pumpkins I've ever seen.

We think this picture is funny! We were trying to get her to smile from behind the camera and she was trying to find us. We love our start of October traditions and that it's the start of the holiday season!

Ho hum

I feel like our life has been pretty dull lately. I have thought about throwing some pictures on here and rambling on like I do but, I just haven't wanted to. Really what I want to do with all of my heart is take a nap. Maybe someday. Anyway, lets see here..... Nope. Nothing. There is a funny joke that I heard. What's brown and squishes through an elephant's toes? Slow natives! I know, it's terrible but so funny! Go ahead, laugh. What else what else?

K get's his fashion sense from me. It was cold one day and by cold I mean like 55. I know that in some parts of the country that's balmy but around these parts that's down right cold! To be fair it had been 102 two days before so 55 really did feel cold. Anyway, he didn't want to wear long pants so he wore his soccer socks and shorts. Genius!

Little B learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels! He had a knock off brand of a Strider bike and that helped so much. The day B took the training wheels off, I thought it would take a little bit to teach little B how to ride a bike. So, I kept making dinner. Little B came running in literally two minutes after the training wheels were removed and he yelled,"I can ride a bike with two wheels!" I went out to watch and sure enough he got on his tiny bike and off he went. His little legs pump so fast and sometimes he yells,"I think I'm going about like 50 miles an hour!" 

She loves gymnastics. She has been working on and has mastered a back flip on the trampoline. That's pretty awesome to watch. 

Yep, still cute, still tiny. That's a 0-3 month outfit. She still has pretty bad eczema on her face. We walk to get M and K from school every day and a little girl came up to me and asked why her cheeks were so red. I told her she has really dry skin. The little girl looked at me and said,"maybe you should put lotion on it."I wanted to say,"duh! what do you think we do? Run along you impossible child." But, I didn't. I told her that was a great idea and thanked her for her great idea. 

Date night at it's finest! The only store around here that's open later than 8 is Wal-Mart. If anyone knows me, they know I hate Wal-Mart. I'm more of a Target kind of a girl. However, walking around Wal-Mart is an experience that's for sure. Not to mention they sell weird giant animal heads that you can put on and die laughing while you take a picture. Oh man, that's funny, or it's late. Maybe next time I'll have something interesting to say. Until then, laugh at the funny elephant joke and wish you could put an animal head on for date night.

Oregon

Ahhhhh, the Oregon coast. We had never been there before but now that I know what I'm missing, I want to move there. It was August and we were in jackets in the morning. It warmed up during the day but cooled down enough in the evening that it felt good to get in the hot tub. Besides the fighting and arguing amongst the children, it was awesome! Can I just vent about fighting and arguing for a minute? Why do they fight and arguing? That's the million dollar question. You know the quote that says if you read the Book of Mormon there will be more love in your home? If this is the more love we are experiencing then we can NEVER stop reading the Book of Mormon. It's not great. I hear that most behaviors are learned. I don't know if I agree with that. I don't fight over who's job it is to put my backpack away or who spilled the crumbs at my spot at the table or any of the other one million things they fight over. President Hinkley said that he and his brother fought so much that their dad gave them boxing gloves and told them to go at it and get it out of their system because he had had enough. I might try it. Anyway, lest you think negative about our almost always angelic, unless they're fighting, children, let's stop talking about it. They really are good kids, usually. Anyway, we went to the Oregon coast and had a great time.

We played at the beach.

Took a quick nap.

Flew kites. The wind in Oregon is perfect for kites! We just bought the cheap from the dollar store. They were perfect!

We stayed in this cute little house. We could walk to the beach and we had our own little space. We cooked our own food and were able to put A to bed, in her own space and we stayed up.

We loved the hot tub and although it said not to use it after ten, B and I may or may not have used our stealth and used it at night. If we had used it, I'm sure we would have just sat there being silent because I was so nervous that there were hidden camera's and we were going to get caught. There was a note on the fridge that says if you use the hot tub after ten, you'll be kicked out. So, in the event that we would have been crazy enough to risk eviction, I would have tried to be brave and relax but with every car that passed I would have been nervous it was them coming to tell us to vacate the premises. B would have told me to relax because we were in the backyard being very quiet. My nervousness would have been a total buzz kill. Of course, I can only say what might have happened if we had tried to be sneaky.

We did have a fire pit in the back and we were excited to use it but, we never got firewood so we just used the stove instead to make s'mores.

We stayed up every night playing games, which I usually lost because winning games is not one of my talents. Truly. Little B and I played a matching game the other day. He got 22 matches and I got 12. I didn't help him or let him cheat. He's just good at it and I'm not. Anyway, games are fun and if one is accustomed to losing, it's not that bad.

She got the raw end of the stick and had to take naps in the carrier. She was a champ and was happy when she was awake.

This was our favorite beach. We had planned on only staying for a few minutes, but ended up staying for a few hours. The water is like burn your skin cold but they didn't seem to mind. We didn't put on swimsuits because we hadn't planned on staying. Clothes can double as a swimsuit right?

She loved the water and as soon as she woke up she wanted to play in it. She would stomp her feet and scream at the water. She didn't mind that it was freezing and cried when we would take her out of it.

Seriously, look how cute this is! He wanted to hold her in the carrier. I told him if she got too heavy that I would take her back. He wouldn't have it and carried her back to the car. The walk back included a flight of stairs that looked like it had close to 10 million steps. As we walked up the stairs, people coming down would tell him good job; which made him beam and even more determined to carry her all the way back to the car. One lady stopped him because she thought he was carrying a doll.  When we made it back to the shower by the car, I was taking her out while B was manning the shower. Well, little B was covered in sand and while B and M were washing off their feet, he found an opening in the feet washing escapade and got in the shower, like all the way in the shower, clothes and all. I asked him what he was doing. He told me that there was sand on his shorts and undies and so he washed them off. What a helpful child! 

We saw whales! We were standing on the rocks about 30 feet away and it kept rolling and blowing air out of it's blow hole. There was a park ranger there and she said that the whale was probably a female  grey whale with her pup. They are usually 40-45 feet long and weigh about 50,000 pounds. She said that the whale needs at least 650 feet of water to swim and dive so there must have been a drop off  right by the rocks. It was really cool to watch. We stayed there for a long time because watching her was incredible! 

You can't tell, but she's pointing at a lighthouse that they went in.  It's the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. They loved it and while they were inside, I couldn't go in because they had to climb 114 stairs and they wouldn't let me hold A and climb the stairs. Anyway, while they were inside I looked at whales and seals. It was awesome!

On our way out of town we went to the Tillamook factory. I feel like it was a little overrated but that's only because I don't like ice cream or chunks of cheese. However, the other members of my family loved it, A included. They all loved the ice cream. We loved spending the week as a family and even had long moments of no arguing. I hope that our kids remember the good times we had as a family.

Priest Lake

Isn't it so beautiful?! Priest Lake. It truly is a beautiful place with awful sand and wind almost every afternoon. It's beautiful nonetheless and we went with B's family. Since we have this one,

And the fact that I'm a snot, staying in a tent was out of the question. Actually renting a trailer was B's idea. He just didn't have to do a whole lot of convincing. I agreed that it was a great idea before he even got the whole word, trailer, out of his mouth. Sleeping in a bed all week and having a bite size shower and a fridge was magical. When I say the shower was bite size, I'm not kidding. The tub was so so tiny that when we put her in it she almost touched the ends with her head and feet and she couldn't extend her arms out to the side without hitting the sides of the tub. But, it had warm, clean, running water so that's all that matters. The kiddos loved having bunk beds and they would shove cousins in the beds with them at night. M usually had two other cousins sleeping with her. You can imagine how cozy that was. But, they loved it and actually slept so that's all that really matters. Aaaaaaanyway, 

Going to the water. Some of us were way more excited about it than others. Little B could hardly wait to get there. Telling him that we needed to put on sunscreen was like telling a fat kid that there's no more ice cream. There were tears and protests but, he survived, barely, and made it to the water before 10 in the morning.

When they weren't on the boat, they loved playing in the water. They are brave humans that's for sure. If water isn't 100 degrees or close to it, like, 99.9, it's too cold for me. I was on baby duty and spent a lot of the week at the trailer reading. What book you ask? A Man Called Ove. It's amazing! The main guy reminded me so much of my dad. I laughed and cried and missed my dad a lot. It's so good. I digress. I had a love hate relationship with staying at the trailer. I loved the book but I didn't love being by myself. I know, A was there. but she was sleeping. I wanted to be at the beach so I could at least see my family. I did go down there one time when she was awake and she just screamed her head off. So I took her back to the trailer.

They got to go on the tube and they loved it. I don't know who took this picture, but I love that they did! I am so happy that they got to ride together.

One morning we went on a short little hike before they went to the water. What a weird sign right? Well, I thought that since there are arrows pointing in opposite directions for the same hike, that it must be a loop. The other folks we were with must have had similar thoughts. We picked, choosing the right, and went to the right. We made it about 5 minutes down the trail before we hit a dead end and had to turn around. Talk about a backfire when you're trying to teach your kids that life's like the sign and they should always choose the right. When we hit the dead end we had to add, and sometimes things don't go your way, so turn around and keep going. That earned us a couple of smirks from our oldest. Thankfully K was in his own little world and just kept whistling and walking. 

After the hike, they went boating. I love this picture! I think it looks like M's cousin, A, has plans to pull M off by her feet. I wish that she would have, that would have been so funny! Thankfully she didn't and M stayed safely on the tube.

Both M and K tried water skiing. The ski's didn't go small enough so they kept popping off. If we had had the right sized ski's, both of them would have been able to get up without any problem. They were both pretty nervous to try it, but they did awesome and I'm so proud of them for giving it a go!

M even tried wake boarding! B says that if she had been able to get the board out of the water more, she would have been able to stand all the way up. She really liked it. K was feeling pretty traumatized from trying skiing so he opted out of the wake boarding experience.

One of the days we did the waterslide hike. It's a mile long hike to this natural warerslide. One has to wear a garbage bag over your swim suit so your suit doesn't get torn up. That's what people say. I think it's so you can go a lot faster as you're sliding down but, I was on baby duty and couldn't go down so what do I know? M said she liked it but, the water was so cold, like burn your feet because it's so cold, that she only went down a couple times. The boys, on the other hand, loved it!

I wish you could hear him. He is laughing as he's sliding down backwards. K didn't care at all that the water was hurt your skin cold. He loved it!

I was a little worried to have little B go down by himself, but I shouldn't have been. He loved it and when he got to the bottom he would run up to the top to go again. 

 

After we got back from the hike, we went on the boat. I was tired of sitting alone at the trailer,(and I had finished my book) so, we knew that A would fall asleep on the boat. Off we went and she was asleep within minutes. She looks so big in this picture. She's not really. She still wears 0-3 month clothes.

WHOA!!!! M is on the outside edge, her 18 year old cousin, J, is in the middle and B is on the side closest to the water. They somehow landed back on the water dry, and none worse for the wear. When they got back in the boat they all said they thought they were flipping over on this one.

I love him! He loves boating. He loves driving it, skiing behind it or pulling people on the tube. He loves that it's something our entire family can do regardless of age. He has big plans to own a boat someday and when people tell him it's a waste of money, he will tells them they're wrong because of the great time his family had with their boat growing up. He says the best vacations were boating ones. He says a boat is worth every penny. 

Jumping off the dock is a must whilst visiting Priest Lake. The water is freezing, but worth the plunge. I don't know how the boys can jump in without plugging their noses. I keep every opening I have squeezed tight so there's no rushing water.

BAHAHAHA!!!!! I love this one! I love B's face! Right as they were getting to the end of the dock, little B slipped. Thankfully he didn't hit his head. Instead he came out of the water laughing and yelling,"did you see that?!" 

CANNON BALL!!!!!

All of B's siblings were there with their families except for one brother. Can you see how A is FREAKING out? Why oh why are we doing family pictures at 7:00 at night? I know for 98% of the people that were there, 7:00 is a great time. The sun's not beating in your face and it's not too hot. You've had dinner so kids won't be hungry. But by 7:00 babies are melting down. All of B's mom's siblings were there with most of their kids. It was a big group and some of them only saw A at the family picture. Or when we got together at 7:00 on Sunday night to sing hymns. Another, late night for a baby, event. One of them asked me if A was always so colicky because any time she saw her, she was screaming her face off. I told her she's usually a super happy baby, just not when it's bedtime and we're waiting in line to take a picture or trying to sing a song. In three years when we go back, hopefully it'll be someone else's baby freaking out. Of course by then, A will be three and a different kind of rotten for family pictures. The week went by too fast but, we loved Priest Lake. We loved being with family and can't wait for the next reunion!