Pirate-a-Thon

The boys had a read-a-thon this week. It was pirate themed. Every time they read they took in a gold coin and got a part of their pirate costume. Today was the day they wore all their stuff. Unfortunately, I had to go to work early and didn't get to see them. Fortunately, I have an amazing babysitter that took a picture for me.

I think we might save the moustaches for Halloween and do Mario and Luigi.

Piling Up

Things are getting neglected around here. Blog posts, cleaning, reading, homework, pretty much anything that needs to be done to keep the Hoard going. And when I do have a spare minute I just sit on the couch and take a breather. I hope to catch up on some things. First on my list is the laundry. This mound of clothes are all just waiting to be folded. And I am hoping today is the day.

Another thing on my list, but probably at the bottom, are these magazines. You see, we had some sky miles that we had to use and we were no where near the amount for a trip, so I opted for magazines. It's pretty awesome. I got 5 or 6 prescriptions for free. The only problem is I don't even have time to flip through them.

So, if any one wants a good magazine come on over. I have about 30 to choose from.

And if you want to fold some clothes your welcome to do that too.

Mini Cheer

I am a little behind in the blogging world. But I had to do a post about the girls and their mini cheerleading performance. They were so cute and were so excited about the whole thing. My pictures didn't turn out, so I stole this from Lindsey.

Caroline, Izzy, Oakley, Morgan, and Paige.

If you can believe it, the 3 on the left are all born within a couple weeks of each other. I may need to get Oakley tested for dwarfism.

And here is their performance. It is long, so don't feel like you need to watch it all, but some of the cutest moves are at the end. Enjoy!

Got Cereal?

I went to the store today to get some cereal. We were running low. And when I say running low I mean we only had 25 boxes left. We go through cereal like nothing else around here, especially when we have it for breakfast and dinner. And to make things even better General Mills was on sale. Yep, thats our cart full of just cereal. I think our food storage is good for a couple weeks.

My Loves

Since it is Valentine's Day I thought I would post a couple pics of the Loves in my life.

Of course, The Hoard.

Who wouldn't love these five?

And my greatest Love, Trent.
He's the hottest boy I know.


And that's all I've got for a V Day post. After helping the kids with 60+ Valentine cards for their classmates, I was all Valentined out.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Brookukkah

Some of the Jensen's think the world should stop and have a week long celebration for their birthday. Brooke is one of those Jensen's. Yesterday was the first day of Brookukkah. I think she really does have 8 crazy nights planned for her birthday celebrations, ending with the real Jensen celebration next Sunday.

Yesterday, we all met at Spaghetti Factory and surprised Brooke. We had a big crew and luckily had the whole balcony to ourselves....and luckily for the other patrons-we are a loud and rowdy bunch.

And the kids table. It was awesome having them on their own table.

Later that night Brooke left to do more celebrating and we had Josh for a sleepover. We came up to find them all passed out.

We thought it was cute, but at the same time could be a murder scene with how they were all sprawled out.

Is that morbid? We may or may not be watching too many scary movies.

2 for 2

We have had cereal for dinner for the past 2 nights.

I am a great wife and mother.

Seriously.

Trent and the kids couldn't be happier.

Sick

Our weekend consisted of medicine, naps, throw up bowls, hot baths, more medicine, tissues, cuddling, and coughing. It was a whopper of a weekend. And to top it off my work was even busier than my other "busy" weekends. It stinks to have busy weekends, but when you feel like crap it is that much worse. Although, I may or may not have prayed to get sicker so I could call in Sunday morning and not feel guilty about it. And guess what? That is exactly what happened. I had never been so happy to have a fever in my life. I still did feel a tiny bit guilty, but sleep and rest were much needed.
We are on our way out of the darkness. Still a few of us lingering, but for the most part things are getting better. Morgan still has it, which is normal. When she gets sick it lasts for a while and is usually worse than anyone else.

This morning I looked over and Oakley was rubbing her face making her feel better. You gotta love sisterly love.

Who Knows?

I just had to document this in The Hoard's history. Loved it.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

So, my hair finally fit in a pony tail again:

Then I went and did something like this:

Kim and I got a little carried away in the photo shoot.

Happy New Year

Chinese New Year that is.

Last night we went and celebrated at the Mandarin. What better place to ring in the Chinese New Year than the best Chinese restaurant. And in honor of the Holiday we all found our signs.

My mom is a Rabbit and Emily is a Horse.

I am a Ram and Kimmy is a Boar.

We devoured egg rolls, imperial noodles, sweet and sour pork, beef and sweat pea pods, and lettuce wraps. It was all so delicious and totally worth starving myself all day to prepare for the binge fest. And it was great to hang out with the girls. We hit up Ross before we went home. I mean, what is better than eating good food with family and shopping at Ross? We had so much fun we decided to make it a monthly thing. I, for one, am already looking forward to the next Girls Night Out. Thanks ladies.

Salon D'Lu Lu

On Sunday Lu Lu gave my girls an amazing spa treatment.

"Oh, you want nails done fo special price?"

"One fo 2 dollas or 3 for six."

"Special deal, tell no one."

Of course the girls jumped at the bargains she was throwing our way. First up, cutting their gross nails. Brooke, I mean Lu Lu, gets 2 gold stars for including this in her price.

Next up, the painting. The girls all picked Valentine colors in honor of the upcoming holiday.

And the finished product. I told the girls they had to sit on the stools and not move for a half hour. They did pretty good too.

And Lu Lu even gave herself a manicure. She is amazing.

We couldn't be happier with the service. Thanks Brooke!

Cold

Can anyone else believe how cold it is? Going outside yesterday was a joke. Inside our house wasn't much better. We have some of the worst windows in some of our rooms. You can actually feel a light cold breeze coming through our single pane windows.

Here is just one example. This is a window just off the kitchen and it had ice on the INSIDE. I can't wait to see what our heating bill will be. Hopefully it starts to warm up soon and it looks like it will. Phil did not see his shadow this morning. Yay for an early Spring!

The kids loved licking the ice off the window though. Gave me the chills, but they couldn't get enough of it..

Happy February

I can't believe it is already February. It seems like Christmas was just yesterday. My how time flies. So, in honor of the Love Month and to try and get me to like V Day a little more, I did some crafting. I can already feel the love growing here at The Hoard. If you want your house to have a more loving feeling here is how I did it.

I just bought some foam balls at Roberts, flowers at All a Dollar, used left over yarn, and tissue paper for this decoration. I took the flowers apart and just pushed them in the ball, which took a lot more flowers than I thought. For the pink balls I just modge podged some pink tissue paper on. And obviously I just wrapped the yarn around and around to make the grey balls. And the cute bowl I found at Ross.

And since I had leftover supplies, I put this together. I found the tiny red balls at All a Dollar and the jar they are in at the DI. Very simple, but just goes to show you what you can make for a couple dollars and whatever you have around the house.

Not really a big fan of this one. I need to get a different doily thing. It is a little too Grandma-ish for me, but I love the flower ball in the big glass cylinder. Once again, just leftover flowers and I already had the glass cylinder.

And finally my old school heart wreath. I love it. I love the colors, the block letters, and the simplicity of the whole thing. Like I said, love it.

Hope you all have a great February and enjoy your Valentine Celebrations. I would say we will be enjoying ours, but Trent and I don't believe in the big V Day. Just not our thing. But maybe my decor will change our minds. We.'ll see.

And here is to hoping the groundhog does NOT see his shadow tomorrow.