Evolving

 Now that my children are getting older I can't help but remember how life was when when they were all small.

The days were spent here at my house, washing and tidying and playing at home. Our big outings would be a trip to Coscto, Walmart, Grandma's house, or the park.

It was busy! There was always some mess to clean up, or a diaper to change. I would look forward to nap time and bed time for just a little down time. Don't get me wrong I love my job and wouldn't want to do anything else. There was just so much going on that a little down time was needed for sanity. You know what I mean.

Anyway the busy was mostly in the morning and by evening things would slow down.

 Now that my children are bigger, everyone will be in school next year, There is a very different kind of busy. Now sure it's busy until 8:00 am when the kids leave for school, Then I have some down time.

I'll be honest I take some time to put my feet up and watch a show, or even close my eyes. I know what  is  coming.

Then I start the daily jobs, the never ending laundry( thank goodness for washers and dryers) the dishes all the jobs that need to get done at my liesure of course.

 I might work on girls camp stuff or go over my lesson on Sunday. It's my time and I try to use it wisely.

THen when the afternoon hits I know that is when my new busy time hits. Picking up the kids and getting the homework done. Dropping off one child or another at piano, scouts, young womens, gymnastics... the list goes on and on.

The homework folders come out and need to be checked and signed. Everyone is supposed to read a half an hour a day... try fitting that in! I do my best, it doesn't always work out and twice now I have written a note to a teacher and said we just ran out of time to finish homework and I sent them to bed at 9.

I would have never thought that when I was in the trenches with little ones that it could actually get more busy! Who knew?!

Well it does, It is exhausting most days, but I STILL LOVE IT!!!!!

IT is a joy to see them learn and grow. Now, is it bedtime yet?

Awkward...

Today I went over to the San Tan mall to look for some shorts for Ashlynn. After walking in to many stores and not quite finding what I was looking for I decided to head home.

Since I have had my new car it is a little more difficult to pick it out. There are many more white suburbans than green.

I walked down the row and got to where I thought my car was, looking at it I had parked on the end... yes it's on the end.

White, yes, ok let me hit the clicker and see if it unlocks, yes.

Meanwhile there was a woman in the car next to me asking me if I could get out. I told her I was fine, it wouldn't be a problem.

As I grab the handle and open the door, it hits me, This IS NOT my car!

At exactly the same time I hear a woman say behind me, This is MY car.

Oh MY GOODNESS!!!! How embarrassing!

She accepted my apology, She happened to be unlocking her doors right at the same time I was hitting the unlock button to listen to check and see if i was walking up to the right car! What are the odds?!

Too funny. Well I found my car one more row down, and chuckled to myself as I got in.

It's good to laugh at ones self.

Friday the 13th

This Easter weekend the Utah Whites came down to stay the week. It was their spring break, and they stayed at Angela and Jody's house.

The kids have a blast together! I feel like I hardly saw them all week.

Of course my children still had school so we made it over to play on Monday afternoon, but had things going on Tuesday and Wednesday. I took the little kids out of school Thursday and Friday. It only happens once a year!

Thursday morning we packed up and headed over to Angela's to play all day. The little girls each took a turn in Aunt Dawn's hair salon. They all wanted the same hair do.

Thursday night some of the kids came to my house to "sleep over".

Friday (the 13th) Greta brought her children over to see the puppies and play in the morning and we planned to meet up with Angela in the afternoon at the park.

We played and visited, and had lunch. Then it was time to head out. Greta started looking for her keys, they seemed to have disappeared....

We then tried to think of anywhere they could have gone (the spare was in Utah!)

Couches were taken apart several times, we checked every toy bin, cabinet, bookshelf, backyard, under beds, I even looked in the fridge! 2 hours later we were still looking! Three of us had even emptied Greta's purse at different times just to make sure.

Finally we decided to call a dealership to have a new key made. It would be $50.00, but we could not begin to imagine where the keys had gone. With Registration and i.d. in hand the men went to get the key.

When they returned they told us it would take 30 minutes to reprogram the new key, so Greta and I ran to the store for some gatorade because the baby had started throwing up while all this was going on.

The programing was started and we were all enjoying some ice cream out front when the battery on the car died! Yes, I said it died!

Well time to hook up the charger and wait a while to start the process again. Greta and I decided to load up the 12 kiddos in my truck and suburban and take them to Angela's house so they could all be together the last day. Andrew and Adam would come when they had the car working.

15 minutes later almost to Angela's, Greta calls me to say they just found the keys in her purse!!!! Are you kidding?! We checked there several times!

She quickly called the guys to stop the reprogram! We pulled in to Angela's and Jody took my truck back with the long lost keys so we could go out.

It was decided divine intervention was in play and we just were not meant to travel at the time we intended.

The park was cancelled as it was now dinner time. I picked up some Taco Bell for the children and we headed for Oreganos.

All was well.

IT is such a joy to watch the kids interact. We stood at one point and watched as 15 year old Conner and some of the little kids played a game of crack the eggs on the trampoline all blissfully happy. This makes me blissfully happy.

What a blessing to have so many built in friends.
I love to watch them interact and enjoy each other! It was a great week. Now back to real life I guess. No more canceling my responsibilities to have fun.

Eggstravaganza!

Easter this year was split between the two families. We went to the Gillespie house to hunt eggs and eat!

True to tradition all the children have different eggs to hunt. You get to search for your 5 eggs. I love it!
Sienna had purple.
Ashlynn didn't hunt but still had eggs with jelly beans.

Rigdon had green, and isn't Andee K just the cutest! She gets all the love.

While hunting for his eggs Mason found a tortoise!!!! What the heck?! It was just hanging out behind the mulch pile. He was so distracted he never even found his last three eggs.
After that we headed off to the Whites for some dessert. We hunted eggs the day before but I put the pictures here.

Apparently I like the purple flowers.

Three cute girl cousins.


So many places to search!
Blaze and Rig.
It's been a while since everyone has been together at the same time. Mom and Dad are still serving their mission so we did our best to get all 28 grandchildren in a picture for her!
This picture will be outdated soon with two baby girls coming in July and another baby(sex unknown) in October.

Not from myself, sad to say. No baby for me, I'm trying not to feel too sorry for myself.

My baby is in this group all born in a 9 month span. They will all be going to kindergarden this fall.

We took this picture when they were small...
Mom has been wanting another one for quite some time... Yes they are all the same age. Even the really tall one.
Rigdon, Brooklyn, Daigen, Paisey, Rowdy, and Ava.

So many fun cousins!

Easter was such a great weekend. I was very tired when it was over.

Random

General Conference can be difficult to keep the little ones interested. I did my best and printed off the conference packets so they could take notes. Then we promised to do conference trivia for Family home evening. They take great notes with some incentive! We also made this conference spring garden. On each flower is the name of an apostle and they filled in what they talked bout then colored them and we put them in the garden. I thought it was pretty cute.
The boys also recently spent the night on the trampoline. I'm not too sure how I feel about that because they get up early and are right outside my window.... they had fun though. Rigdon only lasted an hour. But made it the whole night the next week with the girls.

Easter Pageant!

We made it to the Easter Pageant! YAy! We went the first night and I am so happy we did. We easily had pretty good seats, not like waiting till the friday before Easter when it is jam packed!

Everyone enjoying some dinner while we waited for it to start.
I saw Brother Blaylock! One of my favorite leaders from my youth.

Ashlynn was sitting with the young women.
Rigdon really wanted to get his picture with the roman soldier. He even asked him to pose for the photo himself!
I love going to the Easter pageant. Now it's all about the beautiful message and not scoping out cute boys...

We had such a beautiful experience I could tell that my children were feeling the spirit as we watched the Saviors life, death, and then the resurrection. I think we all had tears in our eyes by the end. I know that my Redeemer lives!

Camping for Spring break

This spring break we decided to go camping, It had been a while and the kids were begging. So off to Payson area we went.

The weather was perfect and the cousins had a great time. We went with the Jody White family.
Gunner never took off his "cape" I didn't really know what to make of that, but to each his own. He thought he was cool.
Mason spent plenty of time sharpening sticks, building forts, and riding bikes.
Rigdon also got plenty of bike time in! They really LOVE to be outside. It's kind of the best type of vacation with kids.
Sienna taking off down the hill.
I always like to get a picture of our camp site. I was a little, ok a lot worried about my new car pulling the trailer. It has a smaller motor than my other car. It pulled it like a champ, could have been there was no ranger in it... but I was pleasantly surprised. We were parked on a little bit of a slant, and all night the first night I was sure we were rolling down the hill! We didn't but I was sure I was going to wake up as we hit a tree or something.
Conner cutting us some fire wood.


I'm so glad we went! These are the trips my children talk about. These are the kinds of trips I remember as a kid. LOVE IT!!!!