An Answer to Prayer

About mid December our car decided to call it quits. This was really not helpful since the week before Dave had bought new tires, and even thought it is old and not super pretty:) it is the best on gas. Dave had been driving his truck, which really is NOT good on gas, and been trying to figure out what is wrong with the car. Two weeks ago I was saying my prayer and just prayed that he would be able to figure it out so we could drive it again. Ten minutes later Dave walked in and said,'Hey I think I know what is wrong with the car.' Sure enough he fixed it. (If you are mechanically curious than ask Dave, I just understand enough to listen not to blog) But we have been having a little trouble with the starter. Yesterday I had early morning meetings. Which, on a side note, is the first time we have both not had them together since Leah was 2 1/2. People sometimes say to me that I can do certain things because my kids are older now. This is a true statement but it bugs me because they didn't see me doing it being pregnant, or with a new born, a 4 yr old and a 2 1/2 yr old while I was on crutches. I went to those meetings or ballet or whatever and sometimes had to stick my kids in a room when they were small and just hope for the best. I did do it. So don't look at my life now and think I have it easy. I am not complaining just realize there is more than you see there. OK sorry about that rant. Anyways so Dave brought the kids to church yesterday by himself. This is the first time he has had to do this. The car wouldn't start and he was a little upset. He said he did not want to be the guy that is late the first time he had to get the kids ready by himself. They were ready an hour before it was time to go. After trying a couple of times Dave said a prayer that it would start and it did. Someone did say something to him as he walked in 2 minutes late about how he couldn't handle the kids alone. I am surprised he didn't smack him. (That isn't Dave's way but he felt like it:) Most of the time I seem to wait a long time for the answer to my prayer. It was nice to get an instant result. I made sure to tell my kids right then.

Week out of School

My kids have been out of school all week and Dave had to go back on midnights this one week. Good timing:) Because of this I took the kids out to HillSpring Tuesday and Wednesday. I did some more typing for mom, although I seem to be doing a lot of chatting. I have really enjoyed reading my mom's history and it is really fun to type. I miss typing and that is one reason I started a blog. It has been great practice and I feel I am getting faster again. That night I read through old newspaper clipping of my dad's. I didn't get very far into that but what I did was fasinating. My parents did so much and my dad accomplished alot for the community. I had know the basic story of my dad fighting the Hog Board but now have a much better understanding. I want to finish the clippings and then I will type his history also. Natalie came out Wednesday and I set up the computer in the kitchen so I could still chat and type. I barely saw Colton the entire day. The boys made a fort in the basement, which I have no idea if they cleaned up. Sorry mom!! And the girls were playing basketball or at Cannon's house.

Mom gave Ryan a full glass of water. He could barely reach the counter and it was dripping because he had to tip it so far to even reach it. It was really funny. Cora had a spot on her chin that I had tried to pick and couldn't get. I asked Natalie to look at it and suddenly there was a mini spa set up in the kitchen. Cora was being a little brat about it because she was embarred. Mom managed to sneak some pictures for me. After Cora said it was a little fun. She didn't want to admit to much! My mom gave me a new bedspread set that she had had for a few years. My old one, which also came from mom:), was getting pretty ratty. We have set that up and it looks great.

At 3 Cora, Kailey, and I went to do baptisms with the HillSpring YW. When we were done Natalie met me at the 10 mile corner with Leah and Blake and we all went home. Dave pulled in right behind us, he had been out to the farm, and we decided to take our certificates and go to Cheesecake. It was yummy as always and I didn't have to do dishes.
This morning was Dave's court date. Nothing was finalized yet. But it was frustrating for me to watch. We sat there for 45 minutes and every case was either stood down or adjorned for a later date. Really lets just solve things already. A lot of paper shuffling and nothing resolved. Crazy!!!

Family Day Ski Day

We all went skiing for Family Day today. I even went with them. Dave said I was a little 'snarky' in the morning. I was extremely tired and really did not want to ski. I wanted to sit in the lodge and read and drink hot chocolate. But once again I had fun once I was out there. I really should stop complaining, I enjoy being with my kids. We didn't stay on the green run to much this time. My kids are all getting too good for that. They far surpass my skill. Blake would take off and yell up the hill at me. 'You look like you are having trouble mom. I think I am a better skier than you.' This is true. 'It's OK mom you are doing really good, keep coming.' I was given shorter skies this round and I really think it made a difference. I didn't feel so out of control. Jared and Emry were there with us also. (Jared took Calum up a few times and Amber was in the lodge with Armin) My kids had fun skiing with their cousins. Emry was making us laugh by some of her comments. Dave and Jared took one run up to the top. I think that Dave was really excited that Jared was able to do that. I know he has really missed his ski companion. It was a perfect day. Not to cold but just below 0 so it wasn't slushy. We get back home around 6pm when we go and then I still have to make dinner. The kids are hungry and we have to put everything away. This time I was smart and made up sloppy joes. I cooked it Saturday then stuck it in the fridge. When we got home tonight I just heated and cut up some oranges. We were eating with in 10 minutes. Must remember this next time. We also saved our hot chocolate until the end of the day. This was nice to have a little warm up treat before we headed home. It was a fabulous day together as a family.

Squeal and Run

Yesterday the kids were playing hide and seek. I had finally gotten a few minutes to just sit and suddenly there was alot of squealling and running. Dave had come inside and would pop out at the kids and chase them. Either with a nerf gun or a roll or newspapers. They seriously played for 45 minutes. Dave was a little hoarse afterwards from all his yelling as he ran after them. They had the best time. Nobody wanted to stop for dinner.

Leah Wins!!!!

Leah's final basketball tournament was yesterday. At this level they don't have a real tournament. Every team place every team and every person gets a medal.

She had a great time and got a few baskets. Leah really enjoys playing and is one of the tall ones, which makes it nice for rebounds and such.

They had some interesting team names this year. Leah played for the Kool Aids the others were the Purple Pickles, Lemon Limes and Road Runners.:)

I got a call from the library Wednesday telling me that Leah had won the Passport to Literacy Day draw. Beginning the first of January the library had a little 'passport' that the kids could fill out. They had to do 5 of the things. There was cook a meal for your family, some countries they had to look up to find the capital, some books they had to know the main characters for, etc. Leah did way more than 5 because it was fun for her. Blake did a passport also. They then turned it in before Family Literacy Day. The library would then draw and get the winner.

She was the grand prize winner. WOW!! Leah got to choose between a $100 gift certificate to Chapters and an eReader from Kobo. After telling her the pros and cons of both she chose the eReader. I was amazed at this great prize. When I asked Leah what she thought she had won, she said a book maybe or just a sucker. Way better.

We are in the process of learning how to use and download it right now. But it sure looks fun and Leah can't wait to take it on holiday instead of a pile of books.

Valentine's P.S.

I asked Cora to set the table last night and this is what she did. She has been wanting a mulit-course meal for months. We turned our simple meal into one for her. We just served everything seperatly. I loved that I didn't have to show her how to set the table or tell any of my kids how to use the flatware. They already knew. Even though Blake won't sit down always and Leah has a hard time chewing with her mouth closed, they do know how to set and use a properly set table.

Blake has been very concerned about Dave getting released from his church calling. He keeps asking how we are going to play basketball now that he turned in his keys. (I have never been given keys, I always just used Dave's). Priorities....Really:)

Happy Valentine's Day

We started out this Valentine's with pink heart shaped pancakes and raspberry smoothies. It was delicious. I wanted to do something different then the usual store bought Valentine's for my kids this year and since I have recently discovered Pinterest (very cool but very addicting) I had a few ideas. For Blake he did these Glowsticks with a note that said 'I hope you have a GLOWing Valentine's Day'.

I found a couple of cute little ideas and couldn't decided which one to do for Dave. I decided to do a countdown to Valentine's Day. I made up a lot of little things and and snuck one in his lunch/truck/suit each day. I started Feb. 2. It was fun. Dave said I should do it all year long:)

For Leah we made up popcorn with chocolate and cinnamon hearts. We stuck them in heart cupcake holders and put on a sign that said 'Just POPping through to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day'.

For the teacher we said 'You are a Pop-Pop-Popular teacher.

I tried a double heart french braid for Cora hair this morning.

Leah saw these heart pig tails and asked me to do them for her. She got sent to the office to get her picture taken because her teacher thought they were so cool. Shaye Pierson had her hair done the same way. I asked her if her mom had been on Pinterest too. :)

Tonight for dinner we are having the best dinner. Kita's hassleback potatoes, Shake and Bake pork chops, red Jell-O, and chocolate terrine with raspberry sauce. YUM YUM!!
Some V-Day facts 52% of Canadian are single and 15% of women send themselves flower.
Happy Valentine's Day.

Leah got a thank you note from Locks of Love the other day. It was a nice postcard that explained what they do with the hair. I will put that in her scrapbook. I love having all my kids in school full time. Today I dropped them off, came home and shovelled the walks, went to Cardston, had my teeth clean, my root canal filled, did a temple session, drove home, cleaned my kitchen, folded laundry, vacuumed, check my email, and still had time to walk up to the school to get my kids. Awesome.

What a Day..Actually Weekend

It all started Friday right after school. Each one of the kids had a friend over. It started out as just Cora and then escalated. It was a little crazy. I was trying to put away groceries, make lunch, separate meat, cook meat, and chop veggies for my soup Sunday. After a couple of hours Dave and I dropped the friends off and picked up Jeremy and Christi. We had gotten a certificate from Myrna for our anniversary to Firestone, so we actually had a night out. It was fun with Pierson's, we always have a great time with them. I renedt a movie for the kids to watch while we were gone. Men In Black. When we got home they were all standing at the back door crying because they were so scared. I remember the movie as funny but apparently I was wrong. Aren't I a great mom:) They only got about 15 minutes into it, we are going to try again today with us here. We will see how it goes. Saturday we got up early and packed lunch and tin foil dinners to go to Champion. Dave wanted to move some more barley. It was even colder than last time. I had bought some lined work gloves and wore LOTS of layers. We got the kids settled in Grandma's house. (The kids were again so great by themselves. They keep things clean and I never have to worry about them while I am out.) Dave and I got everything that we would need started and running for a few minutes. We then moved all the augers, tractors, and trucks into place. Dave had to turn off the auger to put on the belt and it would not start again. He tried everything that both of us could think of. Four hours we did this. He knew that it had something to do with the gas intake. It wasn't flowing in. Dave had to take it off and on a number of times, then he would suck on it to get it flowing. I think he had a lovely taste of gas a couple of time. There was gas all over the ground his gloves and boots. Then he decided to get the matches out. I said are you crazy???? We also tried the heat gun. I was sure we were going to have an explosion. Of course we didn't because Dave knows just what he is doing, even if I don't:) We did see a few mice and Dave just stepped on them to kill them. I finally just said, 'Today was the day that something like you chopping your hand off was going to happen and the Lord is protecting you." He was not please but finally gave up and we did other things. It was frustrating but sometimes that happens. We had dinner and chatted with Grandma briefly and went home. I was gather last minute things for Sunday and then went into my room. Dave was asleep with all his work clothes on, the kids sitting around him chatting. He was tired. Today Dave got released. We have a new bishopric and I think they are going to be great. We are looking forward to what is up next for him. But for now the kids are really excited to sit with their dad again in church. And hopefully a quiet evening. (Last time I said that we had the fire warning, hope this one is better:))

More Baketball

Cora's final tournament. (Just in case anyone is as nosy as me, the girl I told you about that got taken out in the ambulance, I found out what happened. Apparently one of our players elbowed her in the neck and she couldn't breath. She is back to school now and OK.)

Leah is #9. She playes for the Kool-Aids. Last night they played the 'Purple Pickles' and lost by one point.

She did pretty good. This was a little hum drum after watching Cora's team. They still don't know what they are doing at this age. Alot of traveling going on, and everybody is better than all their team mates so they need the ball all the time:).

But you got to start some where right??

I had my first day as a Canada Post worker today. I really enjoy sorting the mail in the back and the people I work with are great. I am not at all confident at the till but hopefully that will come. There are 3 on call workers and I am the 3rd one, so I don't anticipate lots of hours, but it is fun anyways.

Basketball Finals

I actually have lots of pictures but figured everyone was sick of fuzzy basketball pictures:) Cora had her final tournament this weekend. They did not do good at all. The team came in fourth. It was very disappointing since they had only lost one game the entire season. They don't play really good as a team. There are 3 girls that pretty much run the show. One that will not pass to anyone else but her two favorites, even if she is being covered by 3 players. And another one that is good but she can only go right, she will dribble all the way around the key to get to the right side. The team that we lost to in the end, they lost by 22 points. It took them about 5 minutes to realize how our players played. In the first game Friday night we were up about 20 and the rest of the team seemed to decided to make sure Cora made a basket. They tried over and over. The only basket she made all season, except in warm-up she did awesome then:), we missed because they started the game early and we were not there yet. In the final game one girl started having trouble and they stopped the game for about 5 minutes. Later they had an ambulance come for her. I have no idea what happened, I hope to find out somehow. Cora said something like she stopped breathing?? They all went out to dinner as a team afterwards and had a great time.

Someone once asked me what my favorite gift was. I answered that is was unexpected gifts. A couple of years ago my friend Christi gave me a magazine for my birthday. It was nothing big, but really big on thought. She knew I liked to read them and surprised me. This year I got two. Kita sent me a stack of cards. They were funny cards and she knew my stash was running low. That was really thoughtful. So if anyone get a great card this year you can thank her;) Also my friend Mandy gave me a pair of earrings. They are small white roses, and a little sparkly. Perfect for me. Again very unexpected and nice. Thank you to everyone for your thoughtfulness. I have loved it all.

Family Basketball

Yesterday Leah wanted me to come out and play basketball with her. I had just put dinner in the oven and had 20 mins till I got Cora from practice. So we went out and played. It was a lot of fun. I was thinking it would be fun to take the kids to the church sometime and play on a real court. She has a lot of potential and some good skills. We walked up and got Cora, then had dinner. After the kids went back out to play. Dave said, "it is crazy that is it is Feb 2 and our kids are out there in sweaters". I thought, Oh blog post" Dave went out and took pictures for me.

A few minutes later he came in and said, "Let's take the kids to the church to play ball." Seriously we often do that, think alike. That is just what we did. It was so much fun playing with the kids. Dave decided that if Blake hit the rim we were going to count it as a shot. He did make two in the net anyway.

I am really enjoying this age with my kids. Even though I seem to be busier than ever, even though we took them out of ballet and gynmastics. I can't even imagine my schedule then. They are all so much fun.

Jeremy just happened to show up at the end and he played the last 20 mins with us. Blake got a little offened and sat in the corner and cried because he thought we were not passing to him enough. Crazy kid! Every kid got hit in the face with the ball. I told them you get hurt in basketball, thats what happens. Shake it off and keep playing. I even sprained my pinky and was proud of it:)

It was a great night. Much better than watching a movie.

Made Me Laugh

Yesterday was Cora's New Beginnings, which again we were almost the only ones not in jeans. I really don't get why people can't dress up a little, but I digress. We decided because we were so close to just leave Blake and Leah home. As soon as we walked back in the door Blake came running up the stairs and said, "Leah and I did not have fun together. She killed me." I guess they had been playing on the DS together and he did not like the outcome.

Monday night I had 40 mins from the time Cora walked in the door from basketball until Leah walked out for basketball. In that time we had to eat, do dished, and have FHE. I had dinner right ready to go, we ate quick and just rinsed dished for later (remember my dishwasher is broken and I am washing by hand that takes time)then sat down for FHE. Cora picked 'Families Can be Together Forever' for an opening song and is was taking forever. I yelled, "double time!" We sang opening and closing this way and the kids thought it was hilarious but we made it. Blake gave us a short lesson and when I came back from dropping Leah off, Blake and Dave where doing my dishes for me. What great men I have in my life.

The other day I was buying almonds from the bulk section of the grocery store. On the outside of the bin there was a sign that read. "This product may contain nuts" Not does but may, I thought that super funny.