Christmas Overload

I'll have to apologize for the million pictures I'll have to put into this post -- apparently it takes awhile to blog when you wait 3 weeks between posts in December!
Last weekend was seriously crazy crazy and full of Christmas! We raced to Utah on Thursday night to do some last minute shopping and get new hairdos for all the parties (Thanks again, Hay!) Then we headed to Layton for the Wolfley party.
Brielle was a little bit excited to open her gift!

This party was mostly about kids running all over the place and just enjoying seeing each other. I seriously caught only glimpses of my boys the entire night, but did manage to catch a few of my girls enjoying their cousins.

Somebody had the bright idea to snap a shot of all the Wolfley women together -- I love that I somehow ended up behind Treva for once.

Then the guys had to get in on the action as well -- this wasn't even everybody, folks, and yes, this is just immediate family.

We ended up at Jody's brother's house with three extra kids at 11 pm, all together in the family room. Talk about a sleepover! Then Saturday we were off shopping again on our way to SLC and Grandpa's house!

Grandpa's party is what we all look forward to every year. I hardly ever see Grandpa and Grandma and the cousins who I considered my best friends growing up. It doesn't truly seem like Christmas until we've all reconnected and eaten way more delicious food than should be humanly possible!

Brielle and Sienna hugged each other like they hadn't been together for a month!

I love watching how close my kids have become to my cousin's kids. Breje and Trayson get so excited every year to see Holly and Becky's kids-they seriously usually only see each other once a year, but these friendships remind me how much I love their parents!

We couldn't tear ourselves away until 9:00, then we had to drive all the way home! What a whirlwind weekend-- but so full of fun and family!

Flamenco Barbie

Hayley and Travis recently took a blissful trip to Spain and returned with this adorable little number for Brielle. She thinks it's about the most beautiful thing she's ever had. You can tell she just feels like dancing when she wears it. She loves it so much that she insisted on wearing it to church on Sunday. Seriously, all out tantrum until we put it on, then she gave us this happy little pose. We're in trouble!She got so much attention at church that I'll probably never get her to wear anything else ever again!

On a gloomy, rainy day in October, my friend Sherida and I decided that the best way to get over the autumn blues was to spend the afternoon making a cute craft. Sherida had an idea in mind, I had some leftover wood, we both had a free day the next day (by free, of course I mean tons of stuff we didn't really want to clean, places we could pretend we didn't have to go....) We figured it would be simple, and we'd feel good about shirking responsibilities, because we would have something lovely to show for it by the end of the day...

... It actually took us about three weeks of pretending to have free days before we finally put this little number together! I get my optimism (time frame denial) from my mom -- not sure where Sherida gets hers! Please tell us you think it was worth all that undone laundry!
Anyway, we finally have it done, only to stumble upon...

WINTER! In all it's hideous snow filled, so not autumn anymore slushiness! I'm thinking we should've just started our Christmas craft last month, instead. (which we blissfully began planning for the first craft day, you know, just in case we had some leftover time!)

It's a good thing my kids are having so much fun out there, or I'd be really, really ticked!

I'm loving how hard Trayson is concentrating on building this snowman. It takes a lot of hard work to get it just perfect!

As much as I despise being cold and wet, and driving on slick roads I was deeply grateful for the hours --yes, I said hours, that my kids spent outside this weekend playing together and NOT fighting.

Last weekend I was bound and determined to visit my family while Jody and the guys went on their fishing trip. I thought about it for weeks. The kids packed for days. And then I got sick. I woke up Saturday morning, popped some pills and decided that, hey, I wasn't feeling all that bad.

Okay, so I probably shouldn't have driven that far when I was feeling like garbage (in retrospect, I KNOW I shouldn't have driven!) I probably shouldn't have dragged my germs with me, and I really should've just waited until I felt better so that I could totally enjoy hanging with the family. I'm really not good at making the intelligent choice.
We actually made it there safely and I promptly discovered that I wasn't feeling all that much better. Of course, I decided to ignore that and go to lunch and shopping with the girls. Brilliant!

Aren't I doing a great job pretending like I'm feeling fine?! (but seriously, how beautiful is my daughter!) I dragged my poor mom and sister along for the ride, they were pretty great sports, dragging me to stores and just forcing me to buy stuff so that I would give up the farce and go home to bed!

The real reason I was so determined to go is to watch the kids play with their cousins. They spent the whole weekend proving to me that it was worth it. They all have such sweet relationships with each other, and just smiled and giggled the whole time.

Thanks, guys, for taking such care of me!

Brielle has really been outdoing herself with witty one-liners lately and I just had to share a couple.
I had a bunch of stuff all over the counter the other day while I was doing her hair and ended up knocking a few things onto the floor in my hurry. Without missing a beat she said ,"I saw that one coming!" Is she really only 3?!

This is a conversation that Jody related to me the other night when I came home from scouts.
Jody: "Brielle, you know you're not supposed to be jumping on the couch."

Brielle: "I know, Dad, but mom's not home!"

Then, in the middle of the afternoon last week, I recieved one of those phone calls we mothers dread, "Your son fell off the monkey bars at school. He won't get up and he doesn't want us to touch his arm." Crap! Crap! Crap! (long story short, no break, just a nasty, nasty cut!) Brielle was very tender and worried about him in the ER, promising to watch "that dragon movie" with him instead of Barbie and everything. So sweet, until she got a look at the gash in his arm. "Mom, Kutter's elbow looks just like a crabby patty!"
He wouldn't let me take any pictures that day, so this is after a couple days of some serious neosporin. Poor kid!

Happy Halloween

The holidays started for us a couple weeks ago, when Breje volunteered our barn for her Beehive's Halloween Party. I guess unfinished walls and no electricity spells spooky to 13 year old girls! Breje did her best to drag some Halloween spirit out of me for the occasion. I mustered just enough to create this creepy "forked eyeball" treats for her to share. Not much, but for me it was a huge gesture! That was all I had, so Breje and her friend did their best to add some more chill factor to the barn. I was pretty impressed with how much they accomplished with a few fake spiderwebs and my meager supply of spooky fare. They even managed to create coordinating costumes for the event-- Breje's happened about 2 hours before the party! Does she have some Johnson in her or what?!

We were invited to a friends house for the annual pumpkin carving. Doesn't Brielle look thrilled to finally be given a modestly sharp object? And can you tell how seriously my boys took this task? Somehow, we forgot to take pictures of the final project and they have not aged well this past week. Just image the most stunning Halloween display ever, and you're close!

Saturday night we finally got to dress up for the ward trunk or treat. Brielle could hardly contain herself-- as she's tried to sneak this fabulous witch costume on countless times during the last month! (Hayley, these pictures are for you!) She's very proud to be a SCARY witch this year. She was even more excited when Breje found a costume that matched hers. She went around telling everyone that she was a witch, just like her big sister!

Trayson was determined to be a sorcerer this year -- wouldn't you know that we couldn't find one single dang sorcerer costume around here--even with a trip to Boise! We did our best with a trip to the thrift store and a little imagination. He added the dramatic flair himself!

Kutter's costume was a piece of cake this year. Our good friends gave him some pretty awesome motorcycle gear for his birthday, and Halloween just gave him one more chance to show it off. Please tell him he looks tough!

Hope you all had a happy halloween!

Quick Catching UP

I seem to have completly lost my blogging mojo! This is my sorry attempt to get back in gear, and get caught up with what's been happenning in our lives the last couple of weeks. We've actually been super busy -- though you wouldn't know it by glancing at my camera. I have gotten camera lazy -- someone should harrasse Breje and get her to download her pictures!Blogger won't let me rearrange my photos, so this is about as random as you can get!

Kutter turned SEVEN this year! How has this happenned? He is getting so tall and oh so grown up! He got to celebrate by going to soccer practice (such has been our life!) and then motorcycle cake with the Wortham family. (I'm pretty dang good at a muddy motorcycle track, huh?!)

We had a lovely visit with cute little Carmen --- yes, she did bring big sis and her parents, but they were a little camera shy. It was a whirlwind visit since Jarin spent most of his time building our fence, half of us drove to Hailey for a football game, and Jody had to coach Kutter's soccer game. We did get a little bit of time to just chat and it was priceless. Thanks, guys!

We got to go hear Breje and her friend sing at their choir concert. They were awesome and they totally earned their flowers!

A few weeks ago, we had a lovely visit with my entire family. It was another crazy weekend with us all splitting up for games and running all over the place, but we managed to squeeze in a few games of canasta, tons of great food, some shopping, Conference, and this fabulous moment with the girls riding Sugar Legs. What more could we ask for?
My cute friend, Angie, flew in from ALASKA to surprise Sherida for her birthday -- Terrible picture, but can you tell how happy we all are to be at Olive Garden together?

Camping

Mom REALLY wanted to blog, but she had book club, so she put her daughter up to the job. Again. So yes, Breje is blogging today.

A while ago, we went camping with some friends and their friends. We boated most of the time, but eventually the boys brought out the motorcycles and we didn't see them for the rest of the day. Mom didn't have a camera then, but I did! Mostly, I got pictures of me and my friend messing around in our tent, so I didn't have much pictures to work with, but I was able to get a couple of Brielle and tubing!
Me, Rowdy, Kenzie. This was about our 5th time on the tube that day!

Mackenzie and I getting ready to go "fish" with her cousin. We didn't catch anything with his handmade fishing pole until he left and kenzie and I were in the car, ready to go. her brother caught a little one with the pole. (A stick with fishing line tied on it, holding a hook and some bait)it was interesting to watch though!

Mackenzie finally got me on a motorcycle. She was so proud! Eventually I got on my own and rode around, which made her even more proud!

When we went boating, the water was so cold we only stopped to swim once, and if we ever stopped to get in the water again, it ws because the little girls needed to go potty.

It was nice to get in one last camping trip before

school really got started! We had only been in 2-3 weeks when we went camping.

(Mom also wanted me to add that we had a great time last weekend when our family visited! I had no pictures on the computer yet, so I just posted this instead. A post will be coming soon- though I may be writing it again. Anyway, thanks for a fun weekend!)

The need to paint

It's a strong urge, my friends. When it strikes, nothing in your home is safe. If you've ever caught yourself roaming around the house, looking for something that needs a little color change, just because you seem to be lacking a creative outlet, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I was absolutely distraught a couple weeks ago when I discovered that I have already painted nearly every object in my home at least once--but no worries -- I just headed to the thrift shop and picked up this bad boy for $4.
It didn't occur to me to take a picture until after I started sanding, but the whole thing originally looked as bad as the back -- nasty warped laminate topped off with a faux brass handle straight out of the 70's. I already had the sandpaper, the paint, and even some leftover beadboard, so all I had to do was buy new knobs and the total cost of this new nightstand for Breje's room is just $7.
I got to be creative AND cheap. You know this makes me happy, happy!

You Gotta Love It!

Remember when they were babies and you just adored their toothless grins? I'm thinking there's a reason that they lose their teeth again when they are nearly seven -- it takes you back a few years to when their every move was adorable. You know, before they started talking back!

While the Cat's Away ....

Have you ever wondered what your kids do when you leave the oldest one in charge? Thanks to Breje's awesome camera skills, I was able to find out some of what they were up to this summer. I should probably freak out and never leave them alone again, but no one got hurt and you have to admit that these are some pretty great shots!

It's a bird, it's a plane ....

... it's synchronized jumping!

Summer

Mom says she has no time to blog, so she is having me do it for her. These are just a fraction of some of Brielle's little poses she loves to do.

We're Back!

I vaguely remember May. It was full of piano recitals, final school projects and soccer games. It consisted mostly of mad dashes from one place to the next, with between 1 and 4 children in tow and the hope that it was the right number, the right children, and they had -at some point- been fed something! I remember thinking that, surely, when all this stuff is over and summer finally begins, I will relax a bit and then get caught up on my blog.

I guess I've always been a bit forgetful. I forgot how ready I'd be to sleep in everyday, to spend time soaking up sunshine, and to visit the fam. I forgot how much mess kids make when they are home all day and how often those pesky creatures insist on being fed! I forgot that I usually spend the month of August whistfully imagining all the free time I'll have when the kids start school again.
Lucky for me, they started seriously early this year. While we are still lamenting the loss of those final weeks of summer, I, for one, am feeling extremely ready to have a real schedule again!

This is the first year that I had 3 of my kids leaving for school bright and early in the morning. These are the largest and most sincere smiles that I could coax from them. They don't seem to be sharing my enthusiasm!Actually, they are all doing really well so far (they've been back for a whole week now!) so there is a slight chance that I may find time to share a few pictures from the summer. Who knows?

Happy Mother's Day!

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four

pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never

did care for pie---Tenneva Jordan

I spent a lot of time today listening to the talks on motherhood in church and thinking about all of the wonderful moms that I've been surrounded by in my life. Several of them are the friends gathered around me in church, some are friends I've left behind in other wards. So many of them are women I get to thank my own mother for --- my aunts, her closest friends, my sister, my grandmother (my 2 yr old told me that she loves me "from ocean to ocean" the other day, and that reminder of her legacy alone is enough to be truly grateful for!), my great gram. There's all the women in my extended family -- my many wonderful sils, my mother in law, grandmothers. I was overwhelmed with the many wonderful examples of motherhood that I've been given and all the amazing things I've learned from them. It got me to wondering if I could even list all the things I've learned from my mom. I'm pretty sure I can't, but here's a few of my favorite....

.... Integrity is EVERYTHING. Chocolate is a food group --- in fact, it is the most important one. There is ALWAYS something you can do for someone else. It is important for women to go shopping together - even if there's nothing they need to buy --- (but there's usually something they need to buy!). I am a daughter of Heavenly Father and He loves me and that's really all I need to know. I have a coupon! It is NEVER okay to judge someone else. It's ALWAYS possible to make something prettier and it is not meaningless or unnecessary to do so. It's important to expect a lot from other people. She taught me my love for books and gave me the knowledge that sticks and stones are way less harmful than words. Choose them carefully! You can never have too many friends. Chocolate should be shared. Most people are truly wonderful, if you give them a chance to show you that they are. Laugh at yourself. A Lot. Make sure you KNOW your kids, and it's a pretty good idea to know their friends, too. Be fun. Be happy. Make sure you treat yourself sometimes -- but treat others way more. ALWAYS be willing to drop everything to whip up a quick dessert, throw together a cute craft, or write someone a quick note because somebody you know needs a little boost today. It's always possible to learn something if you're open to learning. You should always be open to learning. EVERYONE has a talent, some of us just have to look harder to find them. Kindness is everything. Willingness is right up there. It's okay to think your own children are better than everyone else, and to tell them that all the time! Being a mom is harder but the only thing better than being a mom is being a Grandma!

Thanks, mom, for all that and so much more! I love You!

What have we been up to?

for the last three weeks? I can't believe it's been 3 whole weeks since I've blogged, and I hardly have any pictures on my camera to prove it. The last month has been such a blur that I can hardly remember why we've been so busy. Here goes ....



Trayson got celebrated in his school assembly. His teacher couldn't stop saying nice things about him. It was almost embarrassing. We got to see Breje compete in track. Doesn't she look like such a pro?! She did great this season and it was so much fun to watch her improve every week!

Jody made a quick trip to Utah to watch his little sis and her family be sealed in the temple. It was tough to not be there, but I think this pic says it all! Aren't they cute?

We headed back to Utah for another weekend that we packed absolutely full! We did baptisms at the Salt Lake Temple with our 12-year-olds, saw the Beehive House and the conference center, saw a motocross race, drove tons of my in-laws nuts (thanks so much Marcus and Yvette and Heath and Kaycee, for being so kind!) visited with tons of family, drove Jody to the airport for a last minute TDY, and stopped by Travis and Sienna's birthday party before we finally made it home!

(Can you tell Kutter is ticked that we've spent all our time at Temple Square and he still hasn't seen one motorcycle?)

Add countless soccer practices and games, scouts, young womens, and school activities and is it any wonder that I've been too tired to blog?