Now look who's walkin'

Little Morgs is now walking everywhere. I said this before, but I think it is the cutest thing when kids start walking. I love it! And, once again, we have left another stage in our lives for the last time. No more crawling babies. Ahh. It feels good.

Fun with Bikes!

Aiden and Andrew decided one day to ride down our little hill with their bikes. This fun activity actually lasted a good 15 minutes. I think that is the longest they have done any activity!

On your marks, get set, GO!
I love their faces. Andrew's is the best!
They would even carry their own bikes up the hill. Amazing.
And once in a while they would crash at the bottom...
... without crying. That is even more amazing!

Oakley saw how much fun the boys were having. She grabbed her car, but it didn't work very well. This is as far as she got.

An Uneventful Weekend

I have nothing to post. Our weekend was not so exciting, so I will just give you the "highlights."

• Watching the Red Sox beat the Rays Saturday and, sadly, watching them lose last night.


• Enjoying the good weather with the kids. I am kind of dreading winter...


• Leaving early in the morning to drive 45 mins to check a patients blood sugar and give him insulin while his wife gets to sleep in. What is that?


• Trent realizing Saturday night after midnight that he is supposed to teach the lesson in Elders Quorum.


• Returning 2 of my shirts, 2 kid shirts, and 1 pair of kid pants to the outlets AND getting in return-3 T-shirts, 3 "nicer" shirts, 1 long sleeved button up shirt, 1 sweater, 1 sweatshirt, and 1 pair of capris for $1 less than the amount I returned. Aeropostal was having the BEST sale ever!


• Having Sunday dinner with the Veigels. It was the first time Oliver has experienced dinner with the Veigel clan!


• Hanging out with my friend Cecilie and kiddos on Friday. She is ALWAYS a good time.


• Going to the mall with all 5 kids and getting Trent dress clothes.


• Aiden climbing up on a huge shelf at the Gap and saying "I am going to die" when he couldn't get back down.


• Having the kids run inside to tell me there was a "mean bird" by the sand box. It appears Woody Woodpecker is visiting us for a while.


• Watching the new Indiana Jones. Not the best. Didn't like the ending of the show.


• Missing Kimmy's shower because I simply forgot. I really am sorry Kimmy!


• Basically surviving another weekend with the hoard....

I went to my camera to post some pics from the weekend and the only one I had was of the dumb bird??? Sad. A woodpecker is the highlight of our weekend.

Kiddie Kandids

Last night we finally went to get Paige and Morgan's 1 year pictures taken. It had been so long since the other kids pictures were done, we decided to do everyone. I was a little worried about the whole experience, getting pictures taken is NOT my favorite thing. We always have a hard time getting kids to look at the camera and smile. I have a mug shot for my kids group picture from last year. Really, they don't smile. But can I tell you how different this photo shoot went? It was heaven. It took only 20 mins to get everyone's individual and a group shot. Honestly, my kids were swapped with smiley, happy, photogenic clones!

Aiden

Andrew
Oakley
Paige
Morgan

The Hoard

I wanted to a bunch of different poses, but they could only do 6 poses in one sitting or package. I guess that is what you get when you have a litter of children. One pose each! I think they turned out very good and it was such an UNstressful event. Would you believe the hardest ones to get a good picture of were Aiden and Andrew? It didn't surprise me at all...

Wrestling Match!

Paige and Morgan love to wrestle with their brothers, their sister, their mom, their dad, and even each other!

I think this picture is so darn cute. Morgan was actually giving Paige loves. Precious.
Paige had enough and was trying to escape the clasp of Morgan. Morgan was pretty strong and held on for a while. Pretty funny.
Pay back time. Paige was trying to get on top of Morgan. They were both laughing so hard.
Too bad this picture is blurry. I love the bum on the face. It looks like Paige got even!

Counting Cheerios...

I am sure most of you have kids that love to count, I know mine do. This morning I was counting cheerios over and over wondering when I could stop without my kids freaking out. Sometimes I get so bored sitting here counting cheerios or what not, thinking what it will be like when my kids finally grow up and I can have some time to myself. It got me thinking….

Next I will be counting…

The steps it takes to get to preschool…
How many kids are in their kindergarten classes…
The number of soccer games and dance classes we have to go to…
How many times I have to do PTA functions…
The dollars we hand out for allowance…
How many times a note gets sent home with them…
The numbers on the padlock of their first locker…
The number of different rooms they will need to find at school…
The days until they get their drivers license…
The number of times they stall out our car trying to learn stick…
The number of times all five will fight over who gets the car…
The number of dances they will go to…
The number of tears after their first breakup…
The days to graduation…
The number of credits in their first college semester…
The miles between us when they are on their missions…
How many people they will date until they find the one…
How many people surrounding them when they are sealed…
The number of hours it takes to move them into their first homes…
The number of grand kids they give us…
The number of letters or phone calls we exchange…
The days in between visits from family…
The number of family reunions we can force into one year…
Our great grand kids…
All the moments that made up our life…
How many times I wish I could go back and relive every one of those moments.

I guess I shouldn't wish these times away and just enjoy counting the cheerios!

The "Overdose" Weekend

We had an extra loooong weekend. Jake came to town so Trent took Friday off and he had Monday of because it was a "holiday." (you gotta love banking hours!) Jake flew in Thursday night and you would have thought it was Christmas at our house. The kids got to stay up late (way too late) to see Jake come home. They were waiting in the front room, looking out the window. It was pretty cute. The night ended watching The Office. It was a great way to start out our weekend of Jake.


Friday we met some of the Jensen crew for lunch at Yanni's. A Jensen favorite. Here is where the "overdose" of food began. Gyros, Souvlakas, salads, and, of course, fries and fry sauce. Delicious.


Saturday morning Trent and Jake went on a small run before the big games began. They finished their 20 miler just as the party was starting. They ran a total of 35 miles while Jake was here. Yet another "overdose." Who does that?

Then the sport watching began. I would have never thought people could watch so many hours of sports. Saturday consisted of eating too much food and watching too much television. But, the food was good and I suppose the games were good. I didn't see too much of them.
Heidi made an excellent horse for ALL the kids. She got a good work out. She is always playing with the kids. It is great!
Paige and Oakley were trying to help Jamie feed Annie. Look at Annie's cute chub!
Grandpa Brad was a jungle gym for the night. My kids were all over him.

And here is Jake. He came here for a vacation and got stuck doing loads of dishes.

That night it started snowing. Aiden and Andrew were in heaven. They loved it.

I love this picture. I couldn't see them until the flash went off, so I got pretty lucky getting a good shot!
Who needs sleds?

Sunday consisted of church, food, naps, football, more food, football, baseball, and sleep. Honestly, we really did "overdose" in all these areas this weekend.
Monday was the last day of Jake's visit. We decided to head out to Molca Salsa for one more binge fest. The adults picked up some breakfast burritos and tacos and we went to McDonalds for the kids. It was a perfect combination! After being filled one last time we went to REI for a little shopping, always a fun experience with 5 kids...

When it was time for Trent to Jake to the airport Andrew got pretty upset. He started crying and really didn't want Jake to leave. He said he was going to "broke the plane" so Jake couldn't go. Oakley then added that she would "shoot the plane" so Jake couldn't go. Aiden slept through the departure. Later, Andrew asked me why we didn't "get in the jeep and chase Jake." They love their Uncle Jake.

Trent has named this past weekend the "overdose" weekend, because of the excess food, running, and t.v. watching (and an overdose of kids for Jake I'm sure.) We're guessing Jake was very glad to get out of this crazy house and have some piece and quiet. We are a lot to handle, especially for 4 days straight. Yikes. Poor Jake.

Oakley's Quotes

In this picture Oakley went to the bathroom and came out screaming, "I did all myself!!" and then did this pose. She was so proud!

One day Oakley was coloring and one of the markers had dried out, she kept trying to get it to work and finally she asks. "Mom I need mo batteries?"

I was working on making some invites one day and had all the paper spread out on the table. Oakley was messing around with it and I very sternly told not to touch my stuff. She looks at me and says, "Why so serious?" I guess we found a replacement for Heath Ledger as the Joker...

The kids had their primary program a few weeks ago and Oakley was sitting with Grandma Teri. She told Grandma that she heard one of the kids say, "I am a child of God." Grandma Teri asked Oakley if she was a child of God and Oakley replied, "No, I just Oakley!"

Oakley was playing on the tramp with Jill and Morgan. She looked over and saw Paige on the ground and tells Jill, "Lets get 'nother Morgan to play."

One day Oakley was not being very nice, I told her she had needed to be a nice girl. She said, "No. I'm Spiderman!" I guess Spiderman doesn't have to be nice?

This morning Trent and Jake left for a run. Oakley looked around after they left and said, "Where did my dad and my Jake go?" All my kids think of Uncle Jake as theirs.

These are a few of our favorite things...

Jamie did a Home Tag on her blog and told a few of us that we had no choice in the matter of doing it or not. Not that I wouldn't want to do it. I love tags, I think they give us a little variety in the everyday blog. The tag is basically this: Take pictures of 10 of your favorite things about your house. Perfect. I LOVE my house and it was hard to choose only 10. So hard in fact that I actually have 11 and then I made myself stop.

Here is a little history about how we came to live in our house, for those of you who don't know. Back in the day of only having 2 babies we lived in Kaysville, in the cutest little house ever. We had no intention of moving anytime soon and thought we would stay in Kaysville forever. One not so important day I called Trent and thought we should just keep our eye open in case the perfect house comes on the market. It was a Wednesday. Trent jumped right on it and in an hour or two he called me with some houses he found. We drove by a bunch that night and the last one was our favorite. We called the realtor the next morning, made an appt for the afternoon to go through it. We LOVED it. Granted, we wanted to change everything about it, but the basic "mold" of the house was good, the neighborhood was awesome, and the yard was what we were searching for. The next morning, which would be Friday, we put an offer on the house and that night we signed the papers. So, in a matter of 2 days we decided to look for a house, we found a house, and bought a house. Some people thought we were crazy to do it that fast, but we never regretted it. And it is a good thing, because it only took 2 more years to fill it completely up with kids! So that is how we came to be in our "perfect" house. Now on to the real tag...

A laundry chute. This thing is awesome. The kids can put all their own clothes down it and it goes right to my laundry room. I am just waiting for one of my kids to decide to go down it themselves and get stuck. It hasn't happened yet....

My closet. It is not huge or anything, but the thing I am most proud of are my shoe shelves. I found them at the store, purchased them, and put them together myself! I know, Trent usually does everything around here, but I actually did this, so I am proud!
Here is a sample of what we want our entire house to look like one day. We love the wood windows and trim. Trent and Jake actually put the windows in themselves. Granted Jake nearly lost his hands to frostbite, but they look good. Trent installed all the wood himself too. This guy is amazing.
This is actually the room that sold me on the house. My very own craft room. I love having a space for all my craftiness, not that I have time to use it anymore, but some day...
We remodeled one bathroom (of course it is Jill's-not ours.) I love the tile work, the shower, and the counter tops. It is such a cool bathroom.
Here is where we spend A LOT of our time. Trent is very into the picture and sound of movies, so this is our set up. One day we will have a real theater room, but this works just fine for now.

The openness of our house. There used to be a wall here. See the remodel post. It is so much nicer now to have parties, there is actually space to move around. We love the look and feeling of our upstairs!
The woodwork on the outside. Yet another thing Trent has done on his own. As you can tell we really love wood. Trent added the lighting in the soffit as well. I LOVE how it turned out.
Our backyard. It is an amazing yard. You can't see any of our neighbors houses. You can sit back there and you feel like you are all alone. And to top it off it has a perfect view of the Temple. The front yard is included in our favorite, but a before and after post is in the works, so stay tuned.
I know what you are thinking, your trash compactor? Well, it has to be one of the great surprises about this house. I love it. When I have an arm full of garbage all I have to do is step on the lever and it opens for me. It really makes my life easier.
My bed. I love sleep. That is all I have to say about that.

***

Now, I thought I would add some of the things we don't like about our house. The list is getting smaller as more remodels are done, but there are still a few...
Our dog room. Everything about it is disgusting. It used to have shelves and carpet, but Milo kept peeing on it so everything came out and he hasn't peed in there since. Dumb dog.
We have the most beautiful shag carpets downstairs. Really, Luke as already claimed this piece when we tear it out, but we have some nice brown still available.
We have two of these flower tiles things in the kitchen. I do not like them one bit. But that is a big job in the far future.

Our "master" bathroom. It is pathetic. When I was huge and pregnant I couldn't even turn around in the shower. It is old and ugly. Why did Jill get the nice bathroom again?

The mirrors above our bed. I just hate them.

Our front door. Trent was embarrassed when I posted a picture of our Halloween stuff. We hate gold, the trim is flaking, and, simply, we just hate the door.

Wallpaper. This house had wallpaper on every wall. Horrible. I will NEVER put wall paper up in my life. Only a few more rooms to destroy to get the ugly stuff off...

Our lovely gold fans. We have 2 of these beauties in our house. Trent and I really hate gold, no offense to anyone that likes it, but it is not for us. It took us 3 years to get one nice fan, so I am thinking in about 6 years we will no longer have ugly gold fans.

So there you have it. Participate if you want. I love seeing pictures of people's homes and it was fun to think of the things I love about my home.

A Visit From Oliver!

My kids have been sick ever since little Oliver came into this world, so last night was the first time they got to see him! Kimmy brought him up for a little visit. He is the cutest little thing and all my kids were infatuated with him.
My whole hoard checking out his cuteness. What would it be like to just have one???
I absolutely LOVE this picture of them. They were tickling his feet trying to get him to wake up. I am not sure he appreciated it too much!
Then it was my turn. Little babies are so precious, but I am glad it is Kim and Luke going through the newborn months and not me! Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but I would be in a mental institute if I had any more...;)

My kids were so funny about Oliver. Here are a few things they said:

*Aiden, "She is a boy like me!"

*Oakley told Kimmy she heard him talking. Kimmy asked Oakley what he said and Oakley said, "Oink, Oink." I guess maybe his grunts sounded a little like a pig???

*When we told Andrew that Kimmy had her baby and named him Oliver he said, "All of her babies?" I had to explain that his NAME was Oliver, not how many babies she had.