I am actually posting - it's a miracle!

Life is sure keeping us busy. I have about 5 weeks until I am due! Crazy!!!! I have been busy with trying to get things ready for Christmas and for this baby to get here. We still have not decided on a name , we need to get going on that.

Ray has been working on the basement a lot. He got all the lights in and electrical and started on the sheetrock (with the help of Randy) but it was taking way to long. His goal was to finish the whole thing, I kept telling him we just needed one room done so we could move Trent and Tyler down there and move Kara to their old room and the baby into Kara’s old room. Anyway, he decided he just wanted to get the whole thing done. So we decided to hire someone to finish the sheetrock and do the mudding, taping and texturing. This past week they brought all the sheetrock, hung it and mudded, taped and textured it. It is looking really good. They come back tomorrow to sand it a bit and clean up (it is a mess! The floor is covered in mud. ) I am glad we didn’t just do one or two rooms because it makes such a mess. So downstairs we will have 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a large family room, another random long open room and my storage room. It will be very nice!

We had to move a lot of stuff up stairs, like these lovely gold couches that Ray got from work they are from the 70's I think, which made him have to move our loveseat from the living room to our room and the piano to Kara’s room and then just other random things that are cluttering up my upstairs. I will be glad when it is all done so I don't feel so cramped!


I also have been going to the doctor once a week. Because I have gestational diabetes with this baby like I did with Trent, the doctor has me doing a non stress test (they monitor the baby for 45 minutes to see how the heart beat is) and a fluid check (quick ultrasound) to see how much amniotic fluid I have (it has been a little high, which happens with mothers that have gestational, it was high with Kara too). Anyway so I go every Monday and it takes about 1 and a half hours, which is just kind of annoying, but at least my doctor is tying to be on top of things. I am just thankful for modern day medicine, I also will be very happy to get this child here.

Our kids are excited for Christmas. They do not need anymore toys, so we decided to get a Wii and call it good. Santa will bring them a small something, but other than that they are just getting the Wii. Plus all the stuff that the grandmas and grandpas spoil them with. We will have a wonderful Christmas.

We are planning on just staying up here for Christmas so Ray can work on the basement (we still have tons to do – paint, finish bathroom, put up baseboards, and carpet). Ray needs to get it done because he is going to be super busy with work here pretty soon.

Well, if I don’t get around to posting again, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Ray’s parents came up Wednesday, so we got to see them and they ate cake and ice cream with us for Trent’s birthday. They brought up a lot of Ray’s old Legos. The boys have been spending hours and hours playing with the Legos. I told Ray we should of given it to the boys for Christmas.

We left early Thursday (Thanksgiving) to drive down to Enoch. We ate over at Aaron and Lacey’s with a lot of the Grimshaw family. It was fun to see everyone. There was so much food! I tried to conserve on my carbs so I could have some pumpkin pie. It was so good! I love pumpkin pie with fresh whipping cream. I have been having braxton hicks , and they started coming on after our "dinner", so I left with Kara and put her down for a nap back at my parents and I took a nap too. I have never had these with my other kids, so it seems odd.

Later that night we went and visited with the Clark cousins and talked about the black Friday deals. Tennille and I planned to go to Wal-Mart at 4:30 ish. Some of the Clarks decided to go to the Zion factory stores in St. George, so Tennille went with them. They left a little after 10 p.m. When I got up at 4:15 and went up stairs Tennille was in the living room and she got back to Enoch around 4 a.m. – she is crazy. I wanted to go, but didn’t know how I would function without sleep. Anyway, we headed into "town’ and went to Wal-Mart. It is a 24-hour Wal-Mart, so the doors were open. We walked back to the toy area and there were just tons of pallets of all the ad items in the isles and tons of people standing by what they wanted. We found the leapsters that Tennille was looking for and she stood there. Then I went looking for my cousin Heather to see if she needed us to get her one of those because she wanted one too. It was insane, I could barely get anywhere, then there were random lines for things in the electronics and other items. I couldn’t find Heather so I told Tennille to just get her one and I stood over by some other items Tennille wanted. At 5 a.m. they came on over the loud speaker and told people to be nice. Then everyone started grabbing everything. I got two of the car packages and another toy then I was stuck and couldn’t move forever because all the isles were so crowded. I found Tennille and she got the two leapsters, then we found Heather and she was glad we got the leapster for her. It took forever to get up to the front of the store but we didn’t have to wait in line to buy the stuff. Then we headed over to Staple's and we saw Mitch in line. We got at the back, but I told him to get me the two things I was after, so he did and then we got in line to pay and it was quick too. We went to a couple more stores then headed home.

I met some of my friends for lunch and that was fun. I always laugh so hard when I am with these girls. I took my camera but didn’t think to take a picture until we were out in the parking lot. Check out my belly! A friend of mine told me it doesn't look real, like I just have a basketball under my shirt. Well, it is a big basketball! I am measuring 3 weeks bigger. I am getting another ultrasound tomorrow to see if I have high fluid (like I did with Kara) or what the deal is. I seriously don't know if I can make it another 8 weeks!

We headed back home around 4 p.m. We wanted to get back to have all day Saturday to work in the basement.

Yesterday, we got a lot done in the basement, but there is still so much to do. I worked mainly on making room in the storage room. We have a lot of stuff, and lots of food storage that needs to be put somewhere before the Sheetrock guys come finish up the Sheetrock and mud and tape. Maybe tomorrow I will work on it.

Where did November go?

Seriously this month has been CRAZY!!!

I am FINALLY going to quit my main accounting job, so I have been trying to train my replacement (the wife of my boss) I have been going over there for a couple of hours each week. It is coming along. I hope I can have her trained before this baby gets here.

Ray has spent a lot of time this month working on the basement, trying to get a room done for Trent and Tyler to move to so the baby can have a room upstairs. A great big THANK YOU to Randy for his many Saturdays he has spent here helping Ray (and thanks to Keri for letting him spend so many hours working here). Thanks to Mike too! There is no way Ray could of done it himself. It is coming along, but we are now getting some bids to have someone finish the Sheetrock and do the muding and taping.

Kara turned two this month. I can’t believe she is two. Two is such a fun age! She talks really well and says the cutest things. I think she had a good birthday. She kept singing Happy Birthday dear Kara all week long, and even on Trent’s birthday. She loved blowing out her candles and opening her presents. I still need to go get her pictures taken in her new birthday dress.

Trent turned 7 this month. Crazy, I can’t believe we have a 7-year-old! He also had a good birthday. It is always so close to Thanksgiving. He actually got to go to a friend’s birthday party at Kangaroo Zoo that night and had so much fun.

Ray and I went to St. George earlier in the month for his work manager/partner retreat. We left the kids at my parents’ house and had a nice weekend together. I was able to get some Christmas shopping done and go visit my grandma that lives in Santa Clara. The only damper was that I just found out that I have gestational diabetes so I had to try and watch what I ate. I really love food, especially high carb foods!

So like I said I found out that I have gestational. I had it with Trent, but not with Tyler or Kara. I re-read about it and I am thinking that I really just lucked out not having it with the other two. My doctor wanted me to go meet with the people at the diabetes clinic and when they called they said it would be 3 hours long, I told them I didn’t have that much time, plus I still had my meal plan. So I just went and bought a machine and the test strips and I have been testing myself 7 times a day. I did that for 2 weeks, then this last week when I went to my Dr. he said I only had to do it 2 times a day and then 1-3 days before my appointment with him I do 7 in one day to see where I am at. I have been doing pretty good, so hopefully I can just control it with diet and exercise like I did with Trent. The nice thing is that once I have the baby, and the placenta is gone, I won’t have it anymore (caused by placenta) bad thing is I have a 40% higher chance of developing diabetes later in life than women that don’t have gestational. A friend in my ward got it 10 years after she had gestational. I need to keep eating like I am. Diabetes also runs on both sides of my family so I really need to watch it!

Halloween

Ok, so I am late getting this posted but I wanted to at least put up some pictures of the kids on Halloween.

The night before Halloween we went to the annual ward/neighborhood Halloween party. Ray had a scout meeting, so I just took the kids. They had fun and Kara even did some of the games. Trent just kept doing them over and over again and getting as much candy and tickets as he could. Then he could go trade in the tickets for prizes and go do play some more games to earn tickets. I think they all had fun. Ray came around 8 p.m. and that is when it got over. I had signed us up to help clean up so I took down the crate paper, and cleaned up the craft area. Then me and the kids left and Ray helped take down the tables and chairs. Kara didn’t have a very good night, she had a fever and ended up sleeping with us.

On Halloween I got Trent off to school and he took his cowboy costume with him. Tyler went to preschool in his Ninja costume and Kara and I ran around doing errands. I am looking for a dress for her birthday. No luck so far! We came home at 11 so she could take a nap. We headed over to Trent’s school around 2 p.m. for the Halloween party. I was in charge of the bingo game. Tyler and Kara both liked helping and had fun. Tyler also got to make the craft with Trent, a mummy, and they both had fun doing that. They handed out treats and had a lot left so Tyler got some and that made him happy. After school we hurried home and got Kara in her costume, then went up to Ray’s work for the annual trick or treat around the office. We got there later than most people, but there was still plenty of candy. Kara was cute as she walked from office to office and helped herself to a candy at each one.

We came home and had dinner, but the boys were not really interested in eating. Kara was back to having a fever and not acting like she felt good. So I stayed home with her and Ray took the boys out. It was a nice evening and they were gone for a while. I handed out most of our candy. Kara cried because they left her and she wanted her costume on so I got her dressed we went to 2 neighbors then came home. She wanted to take a bath, then "take a nap" so she was in bed by 7 p.m. I just continued handing out candy.

We had another long night of Kara crying and being very hot. I called our pediatrician the next day and couldn’t get in until 4:30. By 3 she was acting all happy and didn’t have a fever. So I canceled. Then by 5:30 she was back to miserable, crying, and a fever again. This time they couldn’t get me in until 7:30. We drove over there and waited until 8p.m. Then finally they looked in her ears and she had a ear infection and a "yucky" throat. They swabbed it to see if it was strep, but it wasn’t. So then they put her on Omnicef since she has had 4 ear infections in the last 6 months. She is doing much better now.

And here is a family picture - check out my GIANT Belly!

Last Monday, October 27, 2008

We had a super busy week last week. On Monday it was Ray's grandpa's viewing and graveside service. Ray went to work in the morning and I got the kids ready to leave here at 10 a.m. We went to Anderson’s Mortuary for the viewing and family prayer. Ray said the prayer, just like he did at grandma’s funeral. It was a good prayer. Then we all headed over to the cemetery. The bishop from the ward there conducted the meeting. Aunt Susan gave the life sketch. She did a really good job. A couple of things that stick out to me was his love of work, and his work ethic. He always worked an honest days work for an honest day’s pay. These last couple of years have been hard for him because he just couldn’t get out and work in the garden or yard like he used to. He was quite sad about just being stuck inside, looking out at the world and not being able to get out and work. She also said one of his favorite sayings, he would pull a quarter out of his pocket and say "do you know why I have this quarter in my pocket? Because I didn’t spend it". Ray always told me how he would ask them if they wanted something, if they NEEDED it or just wanted it. Grandpa lived through the depression and that is how they were raised, we all could really learn from that generation and make do with what we have. We will miss grandpa, but we know he is in a better place and that he is back with grandma and Jim.

I took this picture of all the grand kids at the mortuary.

These are the pallbearers, Ray and all his male cousins (minus Dave who couldn't make it).

Later that day Louise picked me up and her, Jenny, Keri and I went up to Gardner Village. I had never been there, so it was fun to walk around and see things. We got home just in time for me to make dinner, well, we just had left over soup from the night before then we gathered up the kids and went over to Jenny’s to carve pumpkins. My mom gave us a book with patterns in it a few years ago, along with fancy tools to carve with. Trent picked out a grim reaper and Tyler chose a scary ghost. I helped Trent, well mostly just did his for him. I cut off the top and he got out most of the seeds and goop. Then we taped the pattern on and poked all the holes (so you know where to cut) then I cut it all out. It took forever, but they all turned out really neat. I cut open Kara’s and it was black and moldy inside, it was disgusting, we just ended up throwing it away, she didn’t seem to care. We had root beer floats and just hung out with Ray’s parents. Then it was getting late so we headed home. BUSY, BUSY day! This picture does not do the pumpkins justice. They all turned out really cool looking.

Family filled weekend

My parents came up Friday night to visit with all of their children that live "up north". They came here first since Tennille was at enrichment. Ray’s parents also came up. Ray’s grandpa passed away on Thursday so they came up for the funeral and to get things sorted out with his estate. It was fun to visit with both sets of parents at the same time. Around 7 p.m. Tennille and Whit came to get my parents and Ray’s parents left so we went with my family up to Cabela's. We just wanted to do something other than sit at home. Mike, Ashlee and Jensen came as well. The kids enjoyed looking at the fish in the giant aquarium and looking at all the other animals – mounts is that what you call them? They especially liked feeding the fish over by the mountain and shooting the fake guns in the shooting gallery. We left a little before 9 p.m. On the way home there was a bad accident and luckily we saw that the freeway was not moving and exited before getting caught in it. We took State Street and I dropped Ray off at our favorite auto mechanics’ to pick up his car that has had A LOT of problems lately. It is hopefully fixed and will not need any repairs for a long, long, long time.

We ate dinner at Tennille’s on Saturday night with all of my family and Ray’s and Whit’s mom and step dad. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Tennille and Whit! It was Jack’s birthday earlier this week so we sang to him and had cake and ice cream. This is Jack in his cool dude sunglasses. I took my camera and didn’t take as many pictures as I should of.

Today after church we ate over at Jenny’s with all of Rays family (even Brad made it up). Thanks Jenny and David! Then we went to the mortuary for the viewing. Grandpa didn’t want a funeral so they are just having a graveside service tomorrow at the cemetery. Here are the 4 grand daughters on Ray’s side of the family.

Apples

My friend Anna that lives down the street was put on bed rest because she is expecting. She has a apple tree that was LOADED with apples so she said that anyone who wanted them could come pick them. We grabbed some buckets and went and picked some. I think the boys had fun and even Kara helped. I bought a dehydrator like 6 months ago and had never used it, so I got it out and dried a batch of apples. I just sprinkled some cinnamon and sugar on them and they turned out really good. I also made crockpot applesauce from this recipe. I just doubled the recipe, but personally it was way too much lemon juice. I normally do not like applesauce, but I added additional sugar (because it seemed to sour) and it was really good. The boys liked it too. I also made some apple crisp – yummy! Later in the week I decided that I wanted to get some more so I could dry more and bottle some. So, Christina brought her ladder and we picked quite a bit. I plan on attempting to can them this week. I didn’t have any canning equipment, but my mom brought some up to me, so I am going to give it a try. I think it is going to be a lot of work, oh well! Thank you Anna for sharing your apple with us!


Ever since we moved here I have wanted to plant some fruit trees. We just never seem to get around to doing it. Well, Ray’s friend at work gave him some golden delicious apples and he thought they were the best apples he has ever had, so he wanted to get a golden delicious tree. I have always wanted a peach tree, so Ray went and bought one of each. The peach tree is very small, but hopefully in a couple of years we will get some fruit on them both. This is the apple tree. It is a lot larger than the peach tree (I still need to take a picture). There used to be a hazel nut tree here, but after 4 years, and no nuts (and the fact that it gets suckers and looks pathetic) we pulled it out (with Ray’s truck) and planted the apple tree.

Entrepreneurs

So, Trent is going to be my little entrepreneur. He is always asking me what he can do to make money. He also always wants to make things to sell. He decided to make some Halloween decorations and sell them out side. He colored an empty yogurt container black and then glued a pumpkin that he had made on top of the upside down container. He made two, but sold one to Tyler. Tyler seems to always buy the stuff he makes. Anyway, they got some boxes and made some signs. At first they just sat on the porch, then I told them that I didn’t think anyone could read their signs from there. So they moved to the driveway. I helped them make some bigger signs, then I tried to think of something else they could sell along with the single Halloween decoration. I grabbed a box of granola bars, and made a sign for that. The kids were all out of school, so a neighbor lady was walking by taking her kids to the park. I heard her ask Trent what he was selling and for how much. I went out and helped him, because he didn’t have any change. She sent her daughter home to get her purse. She picked up Trent’s decoration and said she had to buy it because it was so awesome and she got some granola bars. She gave him a dollar and he was in heaven. They had sold everything so I told them to put away their shop so they could come help me get apples.

just call me Teri the tipster

Well, I have been learning all kinds of stuff this week. Like don’t take your child to the ER for an ear infection unless you want to pay (out of pocket) $375.00 after the insurance adjustment when you have a super high deductible, dumb dumb dumb!!!!!!!!!

Today I was cleaning up dinner and realized Kara was in the back of the house being very quite which means she is into something. I walk into my room and she has my very red "cherry crush" fingernail polish and she is painting her toes, along with her shoes, pants and the carpet! She said to me as I walked in "paint it toes?" I freaked out.

She kept saying "wash it hands mommy", because it was all over her hands. I got it off her shoes with fingernail polish remover, but that didn’t work on the carpet, it actually made it worse, rubbed it everywhere. I got her all cleaned up, and by that time the little drops had dried on the surface of my shag carpet so I was able to cut those out. But I was left with one large spot of cherry crush. I googled it and people talked about using men’s shaving cream and Windex. So I gave it a try, I just used Ray’s Gillette shaving cream ,rubbed it in and waited a few minutes then squirted some Windex on it and low and behold, it came off! You can’t even tell, I am absolutely amazed. I wonder what is in shaving cream that would get it out, and how it would be safe to use on your face? Anyway, just a tip to remember for next time you or your unsupervised child get fingernail polish on your carpet. Here are my before and after shots for you.

first what it looked like, Okay it could of been a whole lot worse. She could of spilled the whole bottle on the floor.

after I cut the little spots off

after the magic shaving cream.

Peach Jam and kid entertainers

I made several batches of freezer peach jam today. IT is so good! Thanks Leanne for the peaches!

I tried a new kind of pectin - Ball Fruit Pectin, I just got it at Walmart - it was the cheapest at $1.41 a box (which is still a lot) but anyway, there is a coupon inside (in the instructions) for 50 cents off your next box, that will make them 91 cents, that seems like a good deal. I also liked that this kind doesn't require a cup of corn syrup like the MCP kind. You add water to the pectin and cook it. The recipe also required less fruit, but same sugar (minus the corn syrup so maybe a wash?) It really streched the peaches. MCP called for 3 1/4 cups of peaches the Ball kind only called for 2 1/4 cups. It seemed way faster than the MCP kind too. - my two cents!

So I saw these on PYP, seemed like they were cute, don't know if my kids will actually do any of them, but someone sure put a lot of work into them.

General Conference packet #1 for kids

General Conference packet #2 for kids

Last Sunday the kids wanted something to do and I showed them these. It entertained them for a good hour. They would just click on each chapter (on the side bar, the window's media player) I couldn't figure out a way to just play the whole thing. They listened/watched the whole Book of Mormon Stories and then started over. They were quiet as can be. I am going to show them the other books and they can watch them on Sunday if they won't watch conference, so I can listen to part of conference in peace and quiet.

Happy General Conference!

Canning and DQ

So this post is long and boring, but I decided I am going to use this as my journal since I never write in it anymore. That was my plan when I first started this blog, but lately I haven't had much to write about. So I am going back to just writing what we do during the week so I can remember what our life was like in 2008. This picture is from when I took the kids to get their pictures taken at Target a couple of weeks ago. Kara would NOT smile. I scanned it in and our scanner is so old it is full of dust, so the whole picture was covered in dust, I airbrushed the black background but couldn't do much with their jeans. OH WELL!

This week has been busy as usual. I picked up my canner from the cannery on Thursday, and finished getting wheat, cans, labels, lids and oxygen packs. I should of left Tyler and Kara with someone but they came with me. Tyler was actually really helpful. He helped me fill the empty boxes with cans, Kara helped with that a little but was mostly in the way a.k.a. wanted me to hold her. There were signs posted everywhere that it was not a safe place for kids, next time I will leave them with someone. The very nice old men missionaries helped me carry the canner and the wheat and boxes out to the van. Ray came home before he went golfing with a client to lift the canner out of the box and attach it to the counter. Tyler and I canned some sugar and then some wheat. I am glad I had Tyler to help, even though he just pushed the button that made the can rotate and he liked lifting the can in to the locked position. I didn’t think it would be as much work as it was. When Trent got home from school we did some more wheat. I am quite the wimp, and add to that pregnant, so I brought the stroller into the house and I would slide two 25 pound bags of wheat onto the seat and push it over to the counter where the kids were. They would scoop out the wheat and fill the #10 cans. They were kind of racing each other. "I’m on #9, oh yeah, well I’m on #10." Then I had them put the oxy packs in and the lids on top. Then the boys took turns pushing the button and pushing the torque wrench thing (I had to help with that because Trent couldn’t quite get it to 25 pounds) Then Tyler would unlock it and put it in the box. When they were pouring the wheat into the cans it kind of kicked up dust/smashed wheat powder into the air and I think I had a small allergic reaction to it. My nose ran out of control and my ears and throat were really itchy. Once we were done I was fine. I planned to do more on Friday, but didn’t, so yesterday I did 2 bags of oats and 50 #s of rice. I had the boys help me with the sealing part and they were not as helpful as on Thursday. They kept saying it was to hard, and just whined, whined ,whined! I plan to finish up 3 more bags of wheat, sugar and another bag of rice. The sad thing is we still have a lot more to get if I am going to get what the church says you should have.

Here’s the LDS church’s food storage calculator
http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7498-1-4070-1,00.html

I thought about putting the wheat in big 5 gallon buckets, but they are quite expensive. I called the cannery to see if they sold the plastic bucket and the lady there told me the #10 can was far superior to the buckets so that is why I went that route. The church put out new "Life Sustaining" Shelf-Life Estimates on many items. Most of the stuff I canned should last 30 years.

http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,7636-1-4104-1,00.html#question_5

On Saturday Tennille and Whit moved from their apartment to their new house. Ray, and Mike helped Whit load the trailer. I took the kids down to Tennille’s. Their backyard fence backs up to a community park and you can see it perfectly from her kitchen, so the boys had fun playing out there. Then Kara wanted me to push her on the swing so we went over there for a bit. I am excited for her to have a house again. She has been going crazy without a washer and dryer. They are only 15 minutes from us so we should still see them a lot.

After helping at Tennille and Whits’ , Ray wanted to go to McDonald's to get a shake. I suggested we go to the Dairy Queen in Provo. For the longest time Ray has not believed me that there was one in Provo. As we got close to where I thought it was I almost thought I had been seeing things, but sure enough it was there. We used to go to Dairy Queen a lot whenever we wanted ice cream treats but the closest one to us closed down more than a year ago. It was a treat! Their blizzards are FAR superior to Arctic Circle and McDonald's and their french fries with fry sauce, all I can say is YUMMY! ( and I wonder why I gain so much weight when I am prego!) It was really good. I have a feeling we will be going there much more often. It wasn’t very busy, which I think is kind of sad. We drove past Coldstone and it was packed, don’t get me wrong I like Coldstone, but I LOVE Dairy queen!

Cabin, Canning, and the ER

We went to my grandma’s cabin over the weekend. IT was a short trip. We left here Friday afternoon and came back Saturday afternoon. We had a good time. The cabin is really nice. It was a little chili there and my dad started a fire in the evening. We had a wonderful meal Friday night when we got there (compliments of my mom). It was like thanksgiving, so much yummy food. I brought my book so I read that some during our trip. It was also fun to just visit with everyone. Kara had a bad night and woke up several times wanting her milk, and something to eat. It was a long night. Saturday morning the big boys went hiking and we had a Halloween party with the kids. My mom sent them on a treasure hunt the night before and they got a whole bunch of Halloween stuff. At the party they decorated pumpkins, cauldrons (to hold their candy) and they hit the piñata. We dressed everyone up too. Tennille's boys didn't want to stay in their outfits and Jensen slept through all the festivities. I know it is only the middle of September, but last year we started the "grandma Halloween party tradition", and this was the best time to do it. I think the kids had fun.


We had a great weekend, Thanks Mom and Dad!

So, I have been wanting to acquire more food storage. I scheduled with the cannery to check out a canner this Thursday, I had to schedule it several weeks in advance. So I am gearing up to do a lot. I went to the cannery yesterday and got half of the stuff. When I go back on Thursday I will get the rest.

So, the book I have been reading (book club book) Life as we knew it has really been getting me thinking about what I would want to live off if it came to living off canned (stored) food. If you get the chance read the book, do. I really thought it was good. I just finished it last night.

So last night as Tyler was laying in bed ready to go to sleep he said his ear hurt. He has kind of had a small cold in his eyes that I noticed in the evening. Anyway, I gave him some Tylenol, and in anticipation that he would be staying home from preschool I ran to the store to get what I needed to make dinner for a friend. Anyway, I got home around 10 p.m. and he was crying really hard. (you would think his arm got cut off) I tried calling the pediatrician, but their after hours service closed at 10 p.m. I talked to a nurse and she said all I could really do was take him to the ER. So Ray took him. They got back about 11:45 p.m. and he has a ear infection. I wonder how much that is going to cost us! So, I need to go get his antibiotic this morning. They gave him on dose at the hospital last night. I guess I should just be glad that I wasn’t up all night with him crying.

Blessing and Birthday

On Sunday we went to Mike and Ashlee's ward for Jensen's blessing. Mike did a good job despite the fact that Jensen cried during most of it. It was pretty funny, Mike kept his calm though. After sacrament meeting we had a wonderful brunch at their house. The kids had fun playing outside, it was a beautiful day. I forgot my camera, but Mitch just sent me these pictures that he took.

This week we also celebrated Tyler's birthday. He turned the big 5. He has been waiting for his birthday for so long. He picked out his presents months ago. He wanted some castle knight guys and a galactic hero set. He seemed pleased with all the presents he received from the grandparents too. It was like Christmas, he got so much!He also was excited to get knight costume stuff for him to wear from Aunt Tennille. We had fun eating cake and ice cream and visiting. The kids always have fun with their cousins.

IT'S A ...................

Well, I have been super out of the bloging loop. Just haven't felt up to posting, don't know why.

On Monday, was it that long ago? We found out what we are having. Ray and Kara came with me for the ultra sound. When Tyler got home from preschool I told him that we found out what we were having, I asked him what he thought it was and he said "boy". When Trent got home from school I asked him the same question, he said "boy". Ray and I both said it would be a boy and when I would ask Kara she would say "brother, sister"

So the ultra sound reveled that it is a . . . . . . . . BOY!

I am just fine with that. I have said all along that if it was a girl we might be done, but I think that we might just have to have one more so Kara can maybe have a sister. I mentioned this to Ray and he said, "so your o.k. with having 4 boys" - to which I replyed, you will have your basketball team. He always said if we had 4 boys , then with him they would have a team.

I am not sure how we are going to do the rooms. I thought maybe Kara and the baby could share a room, but lately she wakes up when I go in to check on her, and now that they are opposite sexes, I think that they need to have separate rooms. Ray is going to try to finish a room downstairs for the older boys, then we will move Kara into T&T's old room and put the baby in her room. We will have to see.

Anyway, everything in the ultrasound looked good, so that is what I really want. Just a healthy baby. Hopefully he will be like his brothers (and mother) and like to eat. UNLIKE HIS SISTER who still drives me crazy with her refusal to eat food.

Anyway, so that is our news!

Ray is gone tonight on a camp out to Goblin Valley with the scouts. My parents and Mitch are coming up tomorrow for Jensen's blessing on Sunday (Mike and Ashlee's little boy). It will be fun to spend time with family the next couple of days.

Kings Peak

Ray and his two brothers (Randy and Brad), my brother Mike, and brother in law Whit hiked to Kings Peak last weekend.

Tennille and I went to my parents last minute. The kids had fun, both the BIG kids hiking and our kids at grandma and grandpas.

Here is the link to the awesome pictures they took on the hike.

1st day of school

Trent started school yesterday. He was pretty excited. He wanted to be the first one to the bus stop so we were about 15 minutes early. I think he had a good day.

It was a long day with Tyler. He didn't like any of my ideas about what to do all day and kept telling me how board he was.

Today has been a better day. We took Trent to school because I needed to pay for his "pizza day" school lunch. He doesn't eat much so I am going to just make him a lunch to take everyday, but pizza day ,which is once a week. He is also quite forgetful and I didn't think he would remember to take the check to the lunch ladies so I went with him to show him how.

After we dropped him off we ran some errands. Tyler was really good, now it is Kara that isn't so good at the stores. She doesn't want to sit in the cart. If I try to do anything that she doesn't want to do she throws a huge fit. She kicks her legs and her shoes usually go flying off and then there is the screaming and crying. LITTLE GIRL!

Anyway, Tyler is over at a friend's house right now. I need to be more proactive about calling and arranging for him to play with friends.

One week until school starts!

School starts a week from today. I am excited and I think Trent is too. He found out who his teacher is today and that we got our request to be on the pm schedule.

The weather seems to be cooling down a bit. We have had quite a few days of afternoon/evening showers which has made it super nice to be outside.

Lately the kids' favorite things to do are feed the horses across the street and ride their scooters at the church. Kara LOVES the horses, well she says horses a lot and pulls on my hand to take her over there, but she doesn't like feeding them much, it scares her. I talked to her about the horses and said did you see their big teeth? So now when we go over there she wants me to feed them then she says "TEETH" while pointing to the horse.

Ray has been hiking a bit. This photo was taken on the top of Timp. with Randy and Chris.

That's my super freakin' boring post!

My Announcement - edited

Man, it seems my posts are becoming less frequent. We have been up to our usual busyness. For those of you who don’t know, I am pregnant. I am 14 weeks along. I am due Jan 25th, I was wanting to have a spring baby, so much for that, it is not going to be the best time of year seeing how Ray has his most busy month with work during February, but we will just deal with that. I am excited. I think it will be another boy, because if it is a girl that would be too perfect. I am just glad that it didn’t take me as long as it did with Kara, we tried for 9 months and I was on AFLAC and felt like I was throwing money into a bottomless pit. Anyway, I have been nauseous since week 5, but I think it is getting better, even though I still really don’t feel like doing much.

With school out, high gas prices, our busy summer and my nauseousness, I really haven’t been couponing like I LOVE to. My favorite thing (has been for some time now) is doing beer rebates. I’m sure you’re thinking what in the world, Teri is drinking beer now, NEGITIVE. In Hawaii and Utah a beer purchase is not required to do the beer rebates (on some of the rebates for other states they require beer purchase, but some of them do not) Anyway, I get them at Smith’s and Albertson’s in the beer isle. I just slowly go down the isle scanning the shelves and everything for tearpads. If I can’t find the ones that are currently going on I trade for them.

I had a giant paragraph about Checkmyrebate, it has Coors rebates and you can just print them off the internet. WELL, in the past you could just print them off and mail them in. Then just within the last couple of weeks they started putting on the form that it was NOT A REBATE FORM, I kind of thought that is what it has always said, but I just looked at one that I did in July (and that I received the check for) but it didn't say that, so I am afraid that printing them off the internet will not work anymore. I don't know but I am ERASING my links just in case. I am going to just trade for the original forms and not press my luck with the printed ones. By the lovely comments that you all left - sounds like you think I am crazy for doing them and won't be following in my path.

I still look at beer rebates as free money. If you live in a small town where you actually know the bank teller and you might be embarrassed to cash the check, you will get over it soon when you realize how much money you are making, or see the food storage that it is building. Sometimes you also might have your sister-in-law ask you why you have a coorslight check on your refrigerator waiting to be cashed, I just explained it and now she does them. It’s great fun! Here is an example, spend $10 on meat , salty snacks, soda, ice, or bottled water get $10.00 – How easy is that! You just fill out the form, send your receipt(s) and wait for your check. I keep track and I have received $220.00 since Jan of this year. (I am waiting on $80 more) Sometimes it is as easy as spend $100.00 on grocery items get $25.00, or spend $30.00 on fuel get $10.00. I usually just go back through my receipts (because I keep them) and find what I need and send them off. They do have time frames that they are good for, so you need to make sure your receipts are in the time frame.I also make a copy(scan it) of the form and receipts just incase I need to call on it. I haven't had to call on any beer ones yet.

Anyway, I have told a few people about these recently, and one of them I can’t email because I get blocked so I am posting this info for her and I thought maybe some of my other loyal blog fans would be interested as well. If not, oh well you’re missing out!

We have been going up the canyon a lot lately. My parents were here over the 24th so we had a family picnic up by Bridal Veil Falls. It was a lot of fun. Ray has been taking the boys hiking a lot as well. Here are a few pictures.

Kara is getting older and talking a lot. She is at such a fun age. Pretty much everything she does is so cute. She tells me when she has a stinky diaper then runs to her room and hides between the wall and the changing table, and says "HIDEin" She can put her sandals on herself and I ask her where she is going and she says "church". She also is quite the little mother, she yells at Trent and Tyler when they aren’t listening, (gee wonder where she learned that from). She also says NO to them a lot when they are bugging her. If anyone, other than Jack, is trying to jump on the trampoline with her she lets them know that she does not want them jumping. Another cute thing she will say is "mom, are you?" = mom, where are you? She still doesn’t like to eat and I am super frustrated. I don’t know if something is wrong with her or if she is just super picky. She currently likes pancakes and has them for pretty much every meal.

San Francisco and Flash back Friday

We had a fun week. We left the kids at my parent’s house on Sunday and Ray and I flew from Vegas to San Francisco. Ray had an IIA conference so I went with him. Part of the reason was so we could celebrate our 10-year anniversary. I can’t believe we have been married ten years! I couldn’t have picked anyone else more perfect for me. I LOVE YOU RAY! Here’s a flashback Friday photo for you of us on our wedding day.

We got into San Fran around 9:30 p.m. and took a cab to the downtown Marriott. On Monday, Ray went to his conference around 7:30 a.m. I went across the street and got breakfast at the Jack in the Box, then got ready for the day. I walked around, went to the mall, and some other outside stores. There was a gigantic Gap and Old Navy. I also spent time reading my book, Eclipse. Ray got done around 5 p.m. so we got on the F-line street car and went over to the fisherman’s wharf (pier 39) We walked around and then ate dinner at the Bubba Gump shrimp restaurant. It was a interesting place, everything had to do with the Forrest Gump movie. The food was really good. It was pretty windy down there on the coast, I was underdressed (shorts and short sleeve shirt) and I was freezing. I left my jacket at the hotel, dang it! We went to get back on the streetcar and the line was really long, then when it came only a couple of people were able to get on because it was packed full of people. So we decided to just walk back. We walked through some neighborhoods, and some other "touristy"places, we also walked through China town, but it was late enough that everything was closed.

Tuesday I pretty much did the same thing - shopped and read my book. That night we went to a steak place for dinner, John’s grill. It was established in 1908, crazy. The food, once again was really good.

Wednesday, Ray just had a half-day of his conference, and we were supposed to check out by noon. He ended up not going to the last speaker and we just checked our luggage in the "luggage storage" because we didn’t fly out until 8:30 p.m. We got on a bus and headed over to Ghirardelli Square. We ate lunch there, then walked down to the beach. It was a nice day. Then we headed back to the hotel. We hung out in the lobby, I finished my book and Ray surfed the internet. We caught a shuttle to the airport and flew out around 8:30 p.m. When we got to Vegas we drove to our hotel and hit the hay.

Thursday we got up and headed out. I planned on going to lunch with my friends in Cedar at noon. Just after we passed Mesquite we had a tire blow out. Ray took off the shredded tire in the 100 + degrees (man it was hot) and put on the spare then we drove back to Mesquite to get a new tire. The first place we went said it would be a hour and a ½ wait, so then we went to Wal-Mart and they got it changed in about 40 minutes, then we were on our way again. I postponed my lunch by an hour and fifteen minutes, but I got there. Julie, Kami, Sundee and Laura were all able to come. Most of these girls I have known since I was 3. Kami and Julie were my age and in my ward, Sundee is a year younger than us, but one of the gang. Laura and I became friends in high school. Here is another flash back photo. This was taken our freshman year of college. Suzette is the only one in the picture that couldn’t come to lunch because she lives in Texas (we missed you!) Sundee, I don’t know why you weren’t in the picture – sorry! We had fun catching up with everyone and LAUGHING a ton. After we ate and gabbed for hours Laura gave me a ride to my parents and we got ready to head for home.

It was nice to be able to spend time with just Ray for a few days, Thanks mom and dad for tending the kids – again!

4th of JULY

We had a great 4th! We came down to Enoch on Thursday night. We all went to the parade in Cedar in the morning. Trent and Tyler had fun getting lots of candy and other free things. This is them with their loot.

Then we road up to my grandma's cabin (up Parowan Canyon). It is almost done and it is really nice. It will be fun to have family gatherings up there. It has a beautiful view.

This picture is us standing on the balcony.

Around 4 pm we went up to the Enoch parade. It was interesting, and short, which is always good. We went home and ate dinner then headed up to the Old Enoch Park. The kids ran races and did the "dig", where there was hidden candy and prizes in the sand and they got to dig through the dirt to find the treasure. DUSTY! The boys had fun.

When it got dark we let off some simple fireworks, and did sparklers. Then everyone but me and Kara (who was sleeping) went to watch the fireworks. I watched about 5 minutes out on the porch, then I came in and read my book.

We had a great day and it was nice to reflect on the FREEDOM that we enjoy in this country and the brave men and women who fight to protect that freedom.