travel, travel, travel

So it all started with a trip to Utah. We drove down for a family reunion and used 1 1/2 days on each end to visit with a few friends & family. I didn't get pictures of it all, as I am a terrible picture taker these days! I just forget all the time!

First, on our way down to the reunion, we saw my old roomie Tiff, and my kids just LOVED staying a night with them. All 3 of my kids are within a month of tiffany's kids (Braden and meg just a day apart). They really do have a bond. I think they'll be friends forever!

Jane found a bosom buddy in Camilla. They were two peas in a pod, chasing the kitten, running around the house. Seriously, the cutest things I have ever seen!Braden terrorized Meg, and she LOVED every minute of it! No shyness when my kids are with these kids!

Cameron and Cooper read a WHoLE Captain Underpants book in the few short hours we had there. They thought it was SO funny! They took turns reading aloud...so cute!

One reason I think they'll be friends forever is b/c here is my mom and her old college roommate who have stayed in touch all these years. My sisters and I got to be friends with Francie's girls 20 years ago and we've been great friends ever since. Heather even stayed with me in NY one summer for a few weeks! Now she has 3 kids (Kaden (Cameron's age), Kameryn (Braden's age), and Ellie (a year older than Jane)). We had a great afternoon visiting with them after our reunion. Francie made us a wonderful lunch in the park!I love cousins. We got to see some of my cousins on my mom's side that grew up on the East coast with us. Amy and Abby, my beautiful, fun, amazingly talented cousins that I haven't seen in YEARS! I'm so glad we got to spend a little time with them!
We also got to see Grandpa and Grandma Hawkes for a few hours. Always great to see them!

People I LOVED to see but didn't get a picture...

Sugarhouse friends and old neighbors...thanks for squeezing me in for the few hours we had!!!

Cam and Mandee...thanks for the guest room!!!

TheTree Family...thanks for letting us stay the night! So lucky to have family like you!

Writing about it, I'm amazed I fit it all in with the few short days I had, one before and one after our reunion at Aspen grove!

I wish we had more time b/c there are a million people I would have loved to visit with!

Seattle trip

We had a fast and furious trip to Seattle last weekend for 2 major events... 1 eagle court of honor and 1 missionary farewell (actually 2).

1. the eagle court of honor. Why a trip for this? Well, because Tom's dad always imagined that when his 7th and final son got his eagle, that all of his boys would be together, in their scout uniform, to celebrate the occasion. How many families have 7 eagle scouts?

2. Jake, Tom's little brother, is heading to the MTC this wednesday where he'll be for the next 2 months before going to Paraguay for the next 2 YEARS!!! (His cousin, Blake, had his missionary farewell just 2 hours before Jakes in the same building, so we got to attend both!

Jane was not very happy about saying goodbye (or not happy about being held by a strange man)

With the whole gang together, we took some family pictures. A few different poses and some fun ones of the siblings...

It was also Braden's birthday weekend, so he got to have a HUGE family birthday party. He was so happy. I can't believe my boy is 6!

I had to post this picture of me and beautiful Kari because people always tell us we look like sisters. Seriously, when we are together, they wouldn't guess Tom and Jeff were brothers, but Kari and I were sisters! I'll take the compliment!
The boys had a blast with cousins, uncles, aunts, and grandma and grandpa.

Try to find Braden

So we've had a TON going on here the last few weeks. This video is of Braden at his end-of-the-year kindergarten performance. I was cracking up the whole time. This went on for 25 minutes. Yes Braden is the ONLY one, seriously ONLY one just standing there. Oh well. Blame it on the shy genes from the Dance family.

More pictures to follow soon! :)

Happy Mothers Day!

Luckily for me, my life has slowed down a ton! But of course, as soon as my calendar is clear, my children take up all of my time. Jane turned 18 months a few weeks ago and seriously, this week she snapped. She is suddenly independent. She has to do things herself. She SCREAMS when she doesn't get what she wants, she fights naptime, and despite her independence, she's decided she suddenly wants to put up a fight when I leave her with anyone or anywhere.

She gets into everything and on top of everything. Check this out...I decided to document her the last 2 days. I didn't get a picture of her lifting the toilet seat once again, or standing on top of the table, but here are a few others.

The places I find my daughter...

We just got our garden ready for planting, and NO JOKE, Jane did this herself! Dragged it all over, got in and started playing. All while we were cleaning up from mothers day dinner. She's got no clothes on b/c we just stripped her down after getting food all over her clothes. Who needs the beach?

Don't be fooled by the darling strawberry-messy-face smile...

And here is a picture of my crazy boys. The scouts delivered phone books to our garage for storage till they could deliver them tomorrow. The boys were so hyper.!

I just love being a mother! It really is a full-time job!

This is what Tom got me for Mothers Day...
Thanks honey! I LOVE IT!!! Now I can make 4 loaves of wheat bread at a time!

my crazy life

ahhhhhhhhh! I'm sitting at the computer and blogging! Wow! My wheels have been spinning a hundred miles a minute the last two weeks. Now it's somewhat over, and I can breathe.

It all started about two weeks ago when Tom left for Utah.
Thursday:
I woke up and had big plans to remake our closets. They have been a mess since we moved in and I was determined to solve the problem before Tom got home. I had gotten a quote from a guy to build in closets, but after the $2600 quote I decided to do it myself. Off to home depot I went, and thanks to ClosetMaid, I did it with 1/3 the cost.
Friday-Sunday:
All weekend I was obsessed with building, and reading. Yup, I was hosting book group at my house Monday for lunch and had to start my book. So basically, I stayed up till 12:30 ''
/every night and was up at the crack of dawn with Jane. Did I mention I made it to TWO soccer games Saturday, one starting at 8:30am, with all the kids and their winter gear, as it was 45 degrees that morning?

Tom came home on Sunday night, and my closet project was not quite finished. That means my whole room had every bit of clothing and shoes layed out on every square inch of my bedroom floor.
Monday:
I had book group, managed to make lunch, and finish the book 15 minutes before everyone arrived. After book group, I cleaned up the house, and geared up for my next project...making 4 little beds in my house for visitors. After coming home that night from a double header basetball game (Hayden City Rec league...SO fun!!!), we got to have the gatten kiddos sleep over while Tim and Lizzy spent some time at an endo conference in FLORIDA! Let's just say we didn't get too many hours of sleep that night, but that's okay b/c the kids were great.
Tuesday:
Crazy... hanging out with 3-7 kids at any given time. After dinner, Tom and I picked up our house and prepared for a baby shower I was hosting that night. After a bit of craziness, and at about 10:45, it was over and everyone was gone.
Wednesday:
One more early morning...5:30 to be exact...and I got to relax, for about an hour at least. All 7 kids were dressed, hair combed, teeth brushed, looking great by 8:00am. My 4 house guests were picked up at 8:15, and I was able to then get ready for babsitting co-op at my house that morning. After co-op, I went to the store and prepared for my young women's activity at MY house that night where I was teaching the girls to make cinnamon rolls.

Here is a picture of the kids I had at co-op this week. I had to post a picture...6 girls! After constantly having a house full of boys (cameron,braden and friends) who would've ever thought I'd get a house full of girls?

Thursday:
I did some laundry, packed clothes, food, and the car and we left for Seattle the second tom got home from work. We got in around 10:00pm, and finally crashed in our beds around midnight.
Friday:
Julienne and I woke up early to catch a flight to Utah. Once there, we had a fabulous time with Maria, my sweet, beautiful, talented sister-in-law. She had her masters recital on Saturday night and so we spent our Friday and saturday preparing for that, mixed with a little shopping, eating out, and a lot of talking and staying up till 1-2:00am.
Sunday:
Up at 6:30am, heading back to Seattle. In at 10:30, just in time for 11:00 church where Jeff and Kari blessed their beautiful darling baby Brighton Ann. We enjoyed a fun-filled Sunday visiting with family all day before heading back to Coeur d'Alene.
Monday:
Unpack, laundry, go to bed at 10:30pm and get a full night sleep for the first time in 2 weeks!

Oh, and I finally finished the closets...

I still need a few baskets and a few more drawers, but it's 1000 times better than before!

save save save

So I did it. After the Albertsons ad came out this week I knew it was going to be a good week for coupons. I have been saving some I clip from the sunday paper and I decided this was the week I'd really try to stock up on some of those things that were on sale. So I went to www.pinchingyourpennies.com and found the Albertsons ad for Idaho this week and hit the jackpot. I printed off about 14 or so more coupons (each one you print twice) thanks to that website linking me to manufacture's coupons around the web. What was my result?
8 boxes of cereal
3 betty crocker frostings
3 cookie mixes
6 boxes of different granola bars (we LOVE the fiber one chocolate bars...$0.20 each thanks)
3 boxes of brownies (one of those the "warm delights"...we'll see about that)
2 boxes South Beach cereal bars
2 egg beaters

What was my total? $30.35
What was my savings? 91.59

Happy Easter

This year I REALLY slacked on taking Easter pictures! I didn't get any of our inside easter egg hunt (it was drizzling all day) and I didn't get the boys new Easter outfits like I do every year. I did manage to get a few snapshots after church today. By a few, I mean like 5 pictures total. So I feel lucky there are even any to post. The kids were not cooperating and Jane gave me one good smile and that was about it. Oh well!

The picture doesn't do this little dress justice. It has little flowers and sequins all layered into it. It really is darling. This was my absolute favorite baby gift! I've been waiting for it to fit!

My boys are getting so old! It's sad, but fun at the same time. Cameron is starting to LOVE reading and just gets books and sits and reads on the couch without me asking! WOW! I'll have to take a picture of that one!Jane is my little angel!

The Most Magical Place on Earth

Disneyland!!!

What a blast! It was our first family trip to Disneyland and MY first time as well! And it really was amazing. I loved it way more than I thought I would. Everything was just so well done and clean and just magical! Did I mention I loved it? My kids did too!

We went with my brother & sister-in-law, Greg and Whitney, and their 3 kids. We couldn't have asked for better guides! We enjoyed all the best rides, got fast passes, stroller passes, and really got to see as much as we could in the 2 days we were there. We partied as long as we could and then crashed every night!

Jane got glasses. Isn't she cute! Actually, these are my niece, Marlee's glasses. I just thought jane was cute!

I wasn't sure how it would be with an 18 month old at Disneyland but it was actually awesome! We got stroller passes at every ride so after Tom took them, I got to go and take them again since I waited with Jane! She was a trooper, napping in the stroller, waiting in lines. She really just loved all the attention from cousins and had a blast! Our favorite ride (it was 80 degrees that day) in California Adventure...Grizzly rapids. Here is a before...

And here is the after...


My favorite rides were the Pirates of the Carribean, and this one...Indiana Jones! They were AMAZING! All the animated people. The kids kept asking me if they were real people. (Just a note on the Indiana Jones ride...Braden tried to get on but they measured him right before. He even got on his tippy toes and they ALMOST let him on till another worker came over and said "Hey, I think he's on his toes". It was SO funny! Poor kid really wanted to go. I guess there's next time!

We all loved the Bugs life movie and activities!

Can you believe it? I couldn't come all the way to disneyland and not get at least 1 picture with a character. So I did it. I waited in line for at least 25 minutes with braden and Jane while the others were waiting for a ride and I got my Mickey picture.

You had better believe this will be a tradition in our family... Disneyland at least every other year!

After Disneyland we visited the beach and the kids loved it! Who doesn't love the beach? It was 75 and sunny. Absolute heaven if you ask me!

After the beach we drove to Las Vegas where we visited with my family for 6 days. It was one of the best times I've ever had visiting vegas. My kids just bonded with their cousins, Jane LOVED the little girl cousins! We had 2 birthday parties, 1 baby blessing, 1 baby shower...it was just a big party! I'll have to post other pictures later. My mom took a bunch and I have to get them. I love my sisters (& brothers) & in-laws and really just wish they'd all move to Coeur d'Alene by me!!! Thanks guys, it was an amazing trip!

My latest purchase

I'm so excited I finally bought myself a bike! I've been wanting one since we moved to Coeur d'Alene. Tom thought I should get a mountain bike or a road bike, but I picked out this beauty!

I can ride Tom's mountain or road bike if I want to, one advantage to being the same height as your husband, and I really wanted something to put a bike seat on for Jane (which I just bought from REI.com with my dividend and 20$ off!)and ride around town with the boys. There is a great new bike trail about 1/4 mile from my house and it goes down to the Croc center (the new HUGE community center opening in May) and on to the Riverstone Park (play at the park and eat Coldstone), and on to the city beach. The city beach is about 4 1/2 miles I think, so totally do-able with the kids on bikes. I'm really excited!
So here is Jane's latest. When you pick her up, she puts her arms around your neck and squeezes. It's so sweet.
This is how I found her the other day. She LOVES smoothies with the Magic bullet! She pulls everything out of my cupboards lately. Oh well, keeps her entertained while I cook!

Gotta love those teeth coming in! It changes her whole look! She's got 2 on the top, 4 on the bottom, and her molars are about popping though. We've had a few sleepless nights as she tries to pop them through.

I really should post a picture of the boys. I haven't been good at taking pictures lately! They look the same, but Braden did get a good scratch on his nose and cheek from "playing" last week with Cameron and Jackson. Crazy boys!

read this!!!

http://www.laughyourway.com/blog/young-marriage/

My friend from high school, Susan, forwarded me this link and I REALLY enjoyed this article! I think you all would too! Cut and paste it into your web browser. I think you'll be forwarding it to your friends too!

To anyone who ever said I was too young to get married, too young to have kids yet, or that we have too many kids...HA!

Where is Omak?

Tom works some weekends in Omak doing hospital cases Friday and Saturday. We decided that this trip we'd take the kids and go explore Omak. It is about a 3 hour drive from CDA. What is there to do there? Well, we stayed in a pretty nice place so we enjoyed the Continental breakfast (twice the first morning...the kids were up by 7 so we ate at 7:15 and then again at 9:30), swimming in the pool, we went bowling, to the Dollar store, visited Dad at work, went to the library, out to dinner, and swam and swam some more. It was a great little get-away and the kids had fun!

the woes of teething

I used to think that when people said their kids were teething that it was just an excuse parents used to justify any behavior they didn't like in their child. Why is your child suddenly waking up 3 times each night? They are teething. Why do they have a runny nose and are so dang grumpy? They are teething.

Bologne. It's just an excuse. Or so I thought. And why did I think this? I had two boys, 18 months apart, who cut teeth and I didn't notice any change in behavior, sleeping, eating, etc.

Granted, I do think that the "teething" card is WAY overused, but now that I have a baby who is teething and making my life miserable (okay, I'm exhagerating a little), I finally get it, and I'm taking back any thoughts I had before!

When we left for the cruise, Jane had two bottom teeth. When we got home, she had cut one tooth and was close to cutting another. I get the term "cut" now. It hurts! She was so sad! She kept our babysitter up all night. When we got home, she had several cranky days and early mornings, up a few times at night, and then sure enough, the other one came through.

I got a break for about a week and a half when she was my normal, happy baby. Then, here we go again. This week has brought to me: a baby who is up at 5:45am crying, won't eat anything but smoothies with a straw, yogart, oranges, blueberries, and some milk. Seriously folks, that is IT. She won't eat. She refuses everything. She napped today for 45 minutes before waking up screaming. She is clingy and just cries in the middle of the day for no reason whether I'm holding her or not.

The result: 2 more bottom teeth in 4 days.

Conclusion: teething stinks! And I'm SO sorry for anyone going through it!

My happiest time of the day? See below:
ps. look at her fingernails. after watching sally get hers painted, she let lizzy paint hers! her first time. ohhhhh, my baby girl!