May all your wildest deams come true...

Christmas came and went. Guitar Hero made it to the basement and that saved my sanity for now. We have slowed down on working on the basement. It took a long time to get the house organized again. Who am I kidding?!? Is a house with 5 children ever organized?

Life is better than I thought with a 95% finished basement. But I haven't cleaned it all yet. It is still pretty clean from being new.

Happy Christmas Adam!

I don't remember how this started but my nephew, Brandon, decided that if we have a Christmas Eve, then the day before that (the 23rd) is Christmas Adam. I am not sure that he knows that every year I wish people a happy Christmas Adam all because of him.

Most of you know that I am the very youngest in my family, by 13 years. So I have nieces and nephews that are really close to my age. And my youngest nephew (on my side) is about a week younger than Rian. I love that I am an in-between age of my siblings and nieces and nephews. I love spending time with all of them.

This is a picture of my family party that we had on Sunday. Brandon is the one in the brown sweatshirt. His cute wife is below him. Brandon is the person who named my blog. He has an amazing talent for writing and I love to read his blog. One last thing about "Brenden", he named his son Cannon. Brandon's last name is Ball. Cannon Ball. You gotta love Brandon. (Brandon-Tacoma is a little out there. Really.)

Christmas?

I am glad that a small miracle happened and we were mostly ready early this year because all we eat, sleep and breath is basement. I was so happy that the carpet was being installed today because then I didn't have to go down there and walk around with a paintbrush trying to find touch up spots. :) Instead I tried to make some sense of the upstairs and laundry.

Here are some more pics. I am very proud of Rians Real room. I can't believe we even pulled it off! I would be happy to show anyone so stop by and see. Before a few weeks ago I didn't think I could paint a wall the same color and have it look good! Rians walls have 5 colors of paint (or primer). We are telling him he should rent out his "theme room" and provide breakfast int he morning. He makes killer french toast!

After some of the carpet was laid on Sat Brad and I climbed under the stairs in the play room and counted 12 different paints (or primer) that we used in the basement. Crazy! I actually liked doing it. Maybe Katherine Elliott will take me on as an apprentice.

The inspector comes on xmas eve morning. Cross you fingers-but really, what could be wrong? We (Brad) has passed all inspections with flying colors!

copy cat

Can you tell what we spend a little too much time doing at our house?

Our bass player

Not many people know that Rian plays the string bass. He played in 6th grade and stuck to it the whole year. I remember because I had to take him to school and pick him up about twice a week. What I really meant to say was I had to take him AND HIS BASS to school. He did take piano for a few years and did good at it but it wasn't his thing. I am amazed when I watch him play at how he knows where to put his fingers to make the right notes.

This picture is of a concert earlier this month. Tonight he had a concert and when I saw him he had a bow tie on instead of his black tie. It made me smile. Because of where he stands and the places to sit I can never get a good picture of him.

I hope he continues to play all through high school. It is a fun thing to see him do.

Snow Day

The first year we moved in (2003) we had enough snow to build our own sledding hill of our patio. Now every time it snows the kids go build a hill. This time it was down the rock stairs. Then Rian made one in the usual place (see the picnic table on the right? That was the top of his hill. And it went straight down from there.)

Sweet Sarah got the perfect spot to watch them.

Mouse House

Only 8 more days until......the basement will be done (I was just informed "mostly" done). You thought I was going to say Christmas. Well, at our house we are counting down the days until the basement is done and hopefully that will be the 24th at 9:10 when the inspector leaves! We have been frantically painting and doing all those little things to get it ready and we are tired.

This is an entrance to the under the stairs playroom. Our neighbor came over and called it the mouse hole and we thought it was a good name. This is the color of green we ended up with for the hall and family room. Hopefully we like it. It always looks so different than the 3 inch square you see in the store.

Party Girl!

We decided to take Sarah to the work party this year. She was the life of the party. I didn't know she could dance. It was pretty cute. She lasted longer than me that night. A lot of people passed her around and she danced with everyone. I put her in pj's before we left and she was asleep as soon as she hit the car seat.

warm and bright

This is a wall in Emily's new room. This is the color she chose (the real name of the paint is scooter). I am not sure what happened to pink, but this color fits her better. She has always liked orange. When she was 12 months old she loved a hunter orange fleece jacket we bought for her to wear on Halloween. I could not figure how a 12 month old could like a jacket so much,but she did. Since then we have noticed she has always favored orange. The room is all painted now and it is the color of yellow mustard with a hint of orange. It is really pretty and fits her perfectly. And if you look close you can still see her name under the painted wall.

Em's Baptism

Elmo was baptized today. This is the picture of her just after the baptism. It was such an exciting day for her. She has been looking forward to it for a long time. It was a beautiful day to be baptized.

Christmas Cards

I actually made my own cards this year in photo shop elements. It is the first thing I have done that has been printed. Maybe now I can work on the years and years of actual scrap booking and my wildest dreams of being "caught up" will come true. Doubtful.

hair

Making my girls or my hair look cute is something I don't like to spend time on. Sometimes I don't mind doing a french braid or curlers, maybe I might like it because they have to sit still in front of me and it makes me sit down and talk to them for a minute. But generally I don't do hair.
I ran into an old friend on "Black Friday" and she told me about a blog that I thought some of you might like. It is piggiesnponies.blogspot.com.
Have fun-some are actually pretty easy.

Yeah!

Every milestone must be documented with the last child. Sweet baby Sarah has figured out how to clap. It is pretty cute, of course. Now when you walk in a room she will wave then clap and smile at you.

Hmmm....

Have you ever seen a tomato that has sprouted seeds? I guess I let this one sit on the counter too long. Are sprouted tomato seeds more healthy than non sprouted seeds?

Black Friday

I guess I am not much of a shopper. I think dragging 5 kids (or 4, or any for that matter!) will ruin it. Usually Brad goes on his own on Black Friday but for some reason I went with him this year. Oh, it was to keep HIS spending under control. I was not planning on a 9 hour shopping spree-UGH!
Our first stop was Smiths Market Place. We got there about 7:00 am (one good thing about Brad-he won't wake up super early to go). I walked around with Sal and we made our way to the free donuts. I put some in the cart on a napkin and started looking for white underwear for Emily to wear for her baptism (ever look for all white panties for an 8 year old? not so easy-) and then I look at Sal and she has grabbed most of the donut holes and is covered in powdered sugar. This picture isn't so bad, but then she got her fists rubbing in it all and it was from the top of her face all the way down.
She is till too cute for words! :)

We went to Karen's home for Thanksgiving this year. We had our traditional yummy salads that Kim makes: rainbow ribbon and layered lettuce. It was a fun day and the food was yummy (and the pies were the best ;). Nothing better than a day with the family!

our pies

Last year I decided to have my children learn how to make a pie. Rian learned how to make White Chocolate pie and ice cream pie; Paige made the banana pie. This year Rian made the triple mud and the white chocolate and Paige made the key lime, Emily helped me with the apple pie. Here are our creations: (left to right) ice cream, triple mud, white chocolate, apple, key lime, banana. I love to have them help me and they love to do it.

"We got ourselves a crawler!"

It finally happened! Sarah got all four extremities going the right direction at the right time. She has been doing this frog thing with her back legs (it is really cute) when she jumps her back legs up to her tummy at the same time.

She doesn't move very fast yet, but I am sure she will.

Jakes "world"

We wrote in our journals last night as part of our FHE lesson. Jake is sounding words out now and it is really cute! He wrote "My wildl is gow good!". Translated is "My world is going good!". I am glad about his world going good, but I am starting to wonder about this "world" of his.......

Indian Summer and a loaf of bread

We decided to go feed the ducks on one of these warm days we have been having. Sarah loves to be outside and in her stroller and I don't make the time like I should to take her on walks. Today I took a loaf of old bread I had been saving to try and get me to the park and we were off.

The ducks and geese were horribly loud. But they boys (Jake and his friend Tyson) loved to throw the bread. We took a long walk around the stream and played on the playground for a while. It was a great afternoon.

Jakeism for today

at least for this morning.

While looking at the sugar I just put on his cheerios he said "Sugar is small. Smaller than a chicken,.... even smaller that a rat,..... smaller than anything."

Am I a good mom if when he says these things I immediately leave to come blog them so I don't forget?

Eight is Great!

On Sunday we went to Layton Park and took pictures of our Elmo for her baptism announcement. This is our first attemp at taking a picture for anything important. I think they turned out OK for 20 minutes at the park.

Sarah loved to sit in the leaves but when we picked her up she had about 10 spiders on her! Luckily she had tights on so I wasn''t too worried about those creepy crawlies. But she does have some nice spider guts on her feet and dress.

I love Dans!

Do most people "love" a grocery store? Maybe I am crazy (don't answer that) but I drive by 2 other grocery stores to shop at Dans. Jake knew how to say "Dans" just after he learned how to say "Dr Pepper". They do an open house every year for Christmas and have Santa, food samples, prizes, face painting and other fun stuff going on. We missed it last year so I wrote in on the calendar this year. I wanted to take the girls to get their face painted. This girl does a fabulous job. I want to have her do a bday party sometime for one of my girls. Dans is better than Dicks grocery store in a lot of ways, but the most important one is Dans bakery is not as good as Dicks so I am not tempted to eat a chocolate honey bun every time I go!

This is what my life has been and why my family and house has been falling apart this week. I do love the book fair. I am co-chairing it this year again. I decided a few things about it this year: I like it because I am a social person; it is easier to be pregnant and be at the school for 6 days than have a 9 month old and be at the school for 6 days (remember she has an ear infection?); I can do intense volunteering 3 times a year better than once a week in the classroom.

Luckily we (the whole family) made it through! My kids only missed the bus twice (My kiddos owe Mike $5 for the ride to school-at least that is what I charge to take them to school when they miss the bus-they conveniently didn't tell me about that one until Sunday) and I think all the homework got done. Laundry is a never ending battle, but we all had clothes to wear. And they ate a good dinner every night except the night Brad brought pizza home. :)

And it all starts over at the end of January! But only for about 6 days. It is all for the children! :)

jakeisms

The world is still changing.

At a friends house yesterday he was asked if he wanted to go feed the ducks tomorrow afternoon. He said "I don't know". On our way home I said "Do you want to go feed the ducks tomorrow with Marcia and Tyson? Marcia said you didn't know if you wanted to." he replied "I pretty know I want to, its just I want to wear my hot wheel shoes."
A friend gave us some hand-me-down hot wheel shoes and they are too big so I try to get him to wear his tennis shoes that fit him instead. :)

More Jakeisms

A few days ago before school he said "My brain hurts" as he was rubbing his forehead.

At lunch today he said "The world is changing at my school". He is referring to him bringing home books every day instead of once a week.

He said something really cute yesterday and I can't remember it, but then at the credit union this morning I couldn't remember my ssn. The teller was so polite about it but I could tell he was thinking "you have got to be kidding me-you can't remember your own ssn!"

for short sewers....

A friend told me how to hem pants and keep original seam. If you can tell prom the picture you take you pants and fold them up (right sides together), like you were cuffing them. Then pin and sew right below the original seam of pant leg (of course, measure how much). Then the extra just folds up. My pants were so long that I actually sewed up the sides (in the seam) to keep the extra up. Make sense?

As I was taking this picture my kids asked why I was taking a picture of my pants!?!

mudding and taping

It really smells, not like the egg fridge at Sams either. They hung the drywall on Firday (all that noise plus a baby with an ear infection makes for a long day) then I woke up Sat morning thinking someone was trying to fumigate us! The glue they used was so strong smelling. Luckily it was a warm day and we could air out the house!
We have been looking for carpet the last few days and I am feeling like we are buying a used car. We hear a different story at each store. HELP!

ELMO turns 8!

The yuumy cake!------ Brock, Em & Paige at CEC.


After recital ----------------------the loot

traditional bbay cake pose

Our Emily turned 8 today! She is a very energetic girl but on her birthdays she seems to have an extra energy about her. Her celebration started on Tuesday when we went to Chuck E Cheese's for dinner (might we recommend you eat at home and play games only there). Then on her birthday me and Grandma Beveridge took her to Cafe Rio for lunch. Her and Jake ate a WHOLE pork salad (I forgot to take a picture of that). After school we went to pick out a baptism dress and came home to eat her bday dinner (sweet and sour chicken and peas) and open presents. Then off to a piano recital. Yep, she had to perform on her bday (if I was really smart I would figure out how to put the video of it on the blog). Paige was performing in a graduation recital and all siblings have to perform also. Em played "Mary had a little lamb" and did a great job (so did Paige). Then home to cake and ice cream.

The party will continue with a family dinner on Saturday. And it will all end with her baptism on December 6th. Celebrating eight year old birthdays seems to last a while.

Our Emily loves to play soccer, bake (or just crack eggs) and play piano. She is our family cheerleader and is always helpful. If she sees something she can do to help she will. She has a very carefree personality. Happy 8 Em! We love you!

Beautiful!

This is a beautiful sight. We have been in our home for 5 1/2 years. Working (OK-only Brad has been) on the basement for 2 years. We have Sarah sleeping with us (OK again-she would be even if she did have her own room) and the boys and girls are doubled up in their rooms. I know we are still a ways away from completion but it seems to go faster after this part.
BTW-a room full of rained on drywall smells like a carton full of eggs but it is still beautiful. I think I might cry.

Jake isms

On a Saturday before soccer I was reminding Jake not to use his hands in the game and he said "I'll show you things you can't use: arms, your armpit, because that would be really hard, your elbow and your hands."

Driving home from the pumpkin patch "Mom, I am having a problem deciding who I should marry."

"This is Halloween"

Here are our little "trick-or-treaters". Rian snuck off to his party before I could get his picture taken. I took our little pumpkin (has now been worn by all 5 "Luci" children) to a few neighbors and "the Dad" took the others around the neighborhood. About 8:00 I got a call asking to be picked up. They were tired and it was raining enough they wanted to come home.

Sarah and I had fun watching all the costumes and it was warn enough to pass out candy outside and we got to listen to live musical entertainment provided by neighbors. One neighbor counted over 300 children this year. We get a lot in our circle because of our neighbors. A few really go "all out" for the day.

The best part about Halloween for me? The day after when we hit Target and Wall mart for the sales. We got good stuff this year. "the Husband" went with Jen and I. I was left (with a tired baby) to watch 4 carts of decorations and candy while they shopped. I did have to scare off a few onlookers who wanted out goods and a few employees who wanted to restock our stuff.

Found this picture of Rian from 2 years ago. A little blury, but it is all I have of him in this costume. This is what he wore this year to the party. Cami, the boys have grown a foot or two in two years, don't you think?

"I'm Jack, The Pumpkin King!"

As usual, we started carving pumpkins about 9:30 last night. We turned on "The nightmare before Christmas" and got out the carving tools. At 11:00 we were done (since we only let the kids pick easy faces this year). We had to do a test run. For this picture I asked the kids to make the same face as their pumpkin. you can see who even chose to participate.

None of the pictures with lit pumkins turned out. We will try again tonight.

Happy Halloween!

pumpkin patch

I don't think my middle child has ever been to a pumpkin patch, at least with her family. So today I decided to take these two to a local pumpkin patch. I just wanted to take a few pictures for blogging and srapbooking. Just so Emily would have evidence that she was neglected.:)

Today is so beautiful. Days like this makes me think I could live somewhere where there are only 2 seasons: spring and fall.

We came home with a urban turban gourd (something like that), a pumpkin, and a mini snake looking gourd all for $3! And Jake got to run around in the pumpkin patch for a while looking for his pumpkin. Maybe I will take Emily back tonight.