Oh, The Things They Say.......

Kids are funny. They don't mean to be. Most of the time, they don't realize what they said was hilarious.

Scott wakes Thomas up every morning for school. One morning Thomas, who was still very tired says in this perturbed voice to his dad, "You can't just come in here and wake people up. I was sleeping!" Oh really? Sorry about that.

This morning as Samantha was getting her breakfast, she noticed the condition of the tub of butter. "What happened to the butter?" she asked. "Oh Isaiah took a wire whisk to it yesterday." That happens at your house too, right?

I was having a conversation with Savannah about doing certain things when she was older. She still has a little trouble saying her "g's" sometimes so the conversation went something like this:

"Mama, when I fro up like you, I will wear shoes like this!" She was putting on a pair of my heels. I was busy putting clean clothes away and wasn't really paying attention. "When you 'fro up' like me? What are you talking about? When did I throw up, Baby?"

"No Mama, when I FRO up like you!" "What do you mean? I don't think I'm understanding what you are trying to say!" Shakes head back and forth, "I mean when I'm a Mama I will wear shoes like this!" "OHHH, gotcha! You mean when you grow up."

By this time she was done with the conversation and left the room, probably wondering to herself how I honestly make it through the day.

Happy Tuesday All!!!

Mother-In-Laws

I don't know about your mother in law, but mine never ceases to amaze me!

Scott had a phone call from her last night. The first words out of her mouth were, "I'm ok." With an opener like that, there's no telling what happened.

Turns out she was robbed at gun point yesterday!! She works as a manager at a dry cleaners in Kansas. She watched the guy pace back and forth, smoking for awhile across the parking lot so when he entered the store, she had a pretty good idea what was going to happen.

He had a gun. A big gun. He pointed it at her. He demanded money. She gave him all $142 of it. He wanted the safe opened. She told him it was empty and it would be a waste of time. He still wanted it opened. So she did. She had already pressed the 'panic' button on the floor by this time, with her foot.

He told her to turn around and face the wall. It was at this point that she had a feeling he was going to shoot her in the back. She wanted him to look her in the eyes if he was going to shoot her. She started to turn around and then she stopped and turned back around and said, "No, I'm not turning around!"

It was at this point that he turned and ran out the door.

She had a feeling that he would have shot anyone who walked in that door. She thought he was going to shoot her as well.

The police came and watched the whole thing on the security cameras. The guy was good. He had on a hat, glasses, gloves and never turned towards the camera. If they catch him, he gets 5 years.

It's not the first time she has been robbed at gunpoint. When we lived in Arizona, she was at the bank one day when a group of gunmen entered the building. Everyone dropped to the floor while they demanded money. She had a gunmen standing right next to her, pointing a gun at everyone, including her. She actually made it out of there with her purse still intact!

I think most of us will go through life never experiencing something like that. It just amazes me that it's happened to her.....twice. In fact last night when Scott started to tell the kids what happened, the first thing they said, in unison was, "Again???"

We love you Nana. Be careful out there!

Annual Family Fall Festival!!!!

Rolling, rolling, rolling......

Thomas, happy as a clam!

Please remember those happy faces......in a moment you will see what happens when they run out of dough........

Um, we didn't cook his dough.

I love this shot. It's kind of like a "Where's Waldo?", except it's "Where's Jasmine?" Do you see her cute little eyes peeking through???

There she is, Beautiful girl!!!!

Uh-oh, I told you it was coming......"My dough is all gone."

The look of pure happiness!!!! Cookies are done!!!

Are they hilarious?? Can we keep the frosting in our mouths???

Let the fishing begin!!!! Jasmine could really care less about that pole.....

Izzy on the other hand is taking his job very seriously. He's a backwards fisherman. It's all in the technique. Must have something to do with the way he wears his hats......

Oh yeah, she's happy now!!

Yup, her too!!

Oh my, can you believe all these smiles!!! You would think they were catching something really good!!

He can hardly stand the wait!!

Now that is some serious strain on the line!!! Must be a Marlin!!!

It's so hard to be cool when you are fishing with your younger siblings....why yes, that little spot of white on his cheek is frosting, thanks for asking!!!

But you are never, never too old to fish!!

Never! Do you see that smile????

No this was not my costume. I was the "Hat holder" for Tanner while he was fishing. The Oregon Duck game was on that night and he had 2 Duck hats on....at the same time.

Another Family Fall Festival has come and gone! We were trying to remember how long we have been doing these......I know it started back when we lived in Arizona. I just couldn't see the point of taking our kiddos out to collect candy from the neighbors. It just made no sense to me at all. The cost of the costumes, the weather, not to mention the amount of candy we would come home with. It was just crazy. We decided to start having our own Fall Family Festival. We have pretty much done the same thing each year.

We usually do face painting, bobbing for apples, a cake walk, decorating sugar cookies, fishing pond, and sometimes watch a fun movie together.

This year we ended up decorating sugar cookies, doing the fishing pond and watching Ice Age 3 while we ate Cheesy popcorn and carmel apples!!

Everyone had a great time!!

Presenting.......The Family Of Acrobats!!!

Ok, I know you have been wondering and waiting to see what on earth we could possibly be doing over here that is so much fun and wearing us all out at the same time (just for the record, some of us are more sore than others. Some of us actually had muscles where others of us, cough, only had flab).

When we were at IKEA a couple of weeks ago, we came across yet another exciting find: rings!!!! I know, I know, that may not sound very exciting to you, but to us it opened up a world of possibilities!!! You see, we have very active children and we are always looking for ways to use up some energy!

We bought two sets of rings with the intent of putting them in the upstairs bonus room. And that's exactly where they are. Screwed into the studs in the ceiling, they are incredibly strong and safe.

Every one of us, with the exception of Jasmine, have been on the rings. Flipping, swinging, hanging, pulling, etc. And we all have the callouses to prove it!!! Never in a million years did I ever think I would be doing front flips and back flips again. I was a little (lot) nervous about spinning around because gone are the days of doing anything like that without feeling like I'm going to lose my breakfast. But one day, when no one else was around, I gave it a shot! It was tons of fun! And as long as I don't do flip after flip after flip, I'm ok.

I must say, my kiddos were knocked off their rockers! I heard comments like, "I didn't know you could do that, Mom!", or "That's just weird to see you doing that Mom!" way too many times. They expect it from their dad, he'll try anything! In fact it was so cute yesterday. Just Savannah and I were upstairs. She was watching me on the rings. Her eyes got big when I did a back flip and she said, "Good job Mama!!" Then I tried to do a front flip on the shorter rings (much harder since you actually have to use some stomach muscles). I got about half way and came back down. Savannah piped up, "Come on Mama, you can do it!" So cute!

So there you have it! I'm pretty sure we are the only family we know with 2 sets of rings in our bonus room! I highly recommend them to everyone! They are great for kids.......and adults! ;)

Oh, and Sabrina, no more messing around today when the camera comes out! I am getting a picture of you! Or at the very least, I'm getting a picture of those callouses on your hands!! You too, Savannah!

Talisha!

Tanner, just hanging around!

Yeah, he's one of the ones with muscles I was talking about...

I'm so weird, I know!

Sam!

Levi

Izzy!

Tanner!

Nice shot....sorry.

I'm not sure where his shirt is.....I think he took it off so it wouldn't restrict his movements...um, yeah.

No Really....I'm Back!

Sabrina and Savannah, 'taking a bath' in that warm, warm water!!

Sitting on the step, waiting for her turn to 'swim' with a big sister!

The look on his face says it all!!

Two frogs in the pond!!

I know, I know it's been almost a week since my last post but we've been having so much fun over here that I haven't had time to sit down and write a post. In fact, I'm hardly ever online anymore! Too much to do right now.

We all survived the big "Flu" season over here. Samantha never did get it. Either did Scott or I. Thanks goodness. Who has time for that??? We still have a few coughs but we can deal with those.

We had a busy weekend, lots of little things accomplished. On Friday, the clouds even parted and let some sunshine in which meant we were able to get some of Samantha's Senior pictures done!!!

Earlier in the week (maybe Wednesday?), Scott turned on the pool heater. The water was around 60 at that point. He wanted to see how long it would take to heat the pool so that the kids could swim. On Friday when he checked it, it was 90!!!! Needless to say, there were a few kids in the pool Friday after school! It was like bath water!!! Saturday they swam some more.....like for 5 hours!!!!

My arms, shoulders and stomach muscles are so sore........for that matter, so are most of the other family members. And no, it's not from moving boxes. Can anyone guess why?????? No, don't bother. There is no way anyone will guess this. You would have to really know our family and be thinking totally outside the box and I'm just going to say that never in a million, billion years will anyone guess why we have sore muscles. Stay tuned. I will post pics tomorrow of what on earth we are doing over here!!!!! More fun than you could ever imagine!!!! Just wait!!!!!! See you tomorrow!!!!!!

I'm Back!!!!!

Internet finally got installed today!! It's been a busy past few days. My head is still spinning. More details later. But just so you will know how much fun we have been having: Started moving on Thursday. Finished up on Friday. Levi was the first to get sick, he was asleep all day Thursday, on the floor. We moved around him. The next day, it started to hit a few others, the day after that we had 9 out of 10 kids down with the flu. The good news is, the slept a lot! The bad news is, 9 kids with the flu is the worst!

We were at the doctor yesterday for Samantha's physical for cheerleading and she said that the only flu they are seeing is Swine flu. Pretty much the "regular" type hasn't hit yet....doesn't usually hit until February/March time frame. So she said you can just assume everyone that is down with the flu right now has Swine Flu!

No craving for bacon over here, I think they are all going to survive! Scott, Samantha and I are the only ones that didn't get it. We're feeling extremely blessed!!!!!

More later!!

It's Moving Day!!!!

When we went in to sign papers yesterday, we were under the assumption that everything would be wrapped up on Friday and that we could start moving that day. So when they handed us the keys last night and said, "It's all yours!", we were kind of in shock. Today was supposed to be my last day of packing all the stuff we use every day. Now it's my "shove everything in a box and hope I find it later" day.

We'll be back soon!!!!!!