1.27.2008

Very sad news

We just found out that our dear prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley died this evening. He has been the prophet for most of my adult life. We are thankful for his service and will miss him dearly. It is hard to believe that he has passed on.





Happy Birthday Rylee


Rylee celebrated her 10th birthday today. She had a friends birthday party on Friday night - we took them to the YMCA in Taylorville for fun and swimming. They then came to our house for pizza and cake. It was a lot of fun.


Blowing out the candles!

Mckenna, Aryn, Haley, Rylee and Paulette

Rylee is getting an American Girl doll for her birthday. We will be going to Chicago soon to pick it up! She is really excited.

Some pictures of our Idaho trip


Abby, Carson and Cody - all the same age



Melissa and Max, the newest VanOrden member. He is almost 4 months in this picture.


Cody, Grandma "Bell", Carson and Abby




Cody and Carson with their reindeer hats from Abby's birthday party.


Morgan and Mema


Papa and Morgan




Abby (Mel's 2nd) and Carson - best of buddies


All I want to do is cry - She actually posed for this picture, she wasn't


really crying just wanted to see what it would look like


Morgan - happy happy happy

Carson, Caden (Michelle's youngest), Papa and Morgan. This is the only picture I got of Morgan and Caden together. They are about three weeks apart and also best buddies.

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

Carson is officially a sunbeam now! I look at her and can't believe she is old enough to be in primary. She loves her teachers as she calls them "Bro Carmel" and "Bro Mardi" actually their names are Brother Kyle Corriveau and Brother Paul Mardis. They are both brave men to take on our sunbeam class. They have two girls including Carson and five boys who regularly attend. It is a busy class.

Here she is in all of her glory. Whenever I take a picture of her now, she says "Cheese" and doesn't smile very well.

It's about time, don't ya think?

Well, this month has almost slipped by and I haven't taken the time to write anything. Of course, it woudn't be because we lead a boring life, which I promise we don't! Hee hee. Yes, sometimes it is very boring doing the same thing over and over but every once in a while we try and throw in a good time. Work has been going well for me and I must say, I'm not really missing the paper route. Not at all. Mondays are a scary day for me because usually the weekend is a whirl around here, so I go to work with my house in disarray. The older kids have been here this past week and go back to their mom's so tmw when I come home from work, I hopefully will be able to get a bit of work done around the house. Let's hope I'm not too worn out. I have about 10 loads of laundry awaiting me. I'm so excited. I think I'm going to get a jump start on it this evening.

Sundays have been nice around here, with not doing the paper route anymore and our church schedule changed, so we go from 1 - 4 pm. I don't really like this time for church, it means the whole day is taken BUT it is nice to sleep in and be able to work on primary stuff before church. Bryan has been working part-time at H & R Block since the beginning of January so he is gone 2-3 nights per week plus Saturdays and a couple of Sundays. We don't really like to have him work on Sundays but his manager promised not to schedule him much on Sundays so it's not too bad. Today is one of his Sunday's he has to work so he left right from church. I brought the kids home and now have dinner in the oven, just waiting for it to be done. Afternoon church is difficult for Morgan - he is napping right now. As soon as we eat dinner, I'll go wake him up for a couple of hours.

Carson is talking like crazy and she loves to sing. The last couple of months in Sacrament Meeting she sits by me and when we are singing a hymn, she looks at my mouth and sings. It's so darn cute. I love it that she loves to sing! So far, she seems to be able to carry a tune really well. I sure want to encourage that talent for her... I loved singing as a child and still do.

Some Carsonisms:
  1. "Mom, that's awesome!"
  2. "Mom, you made me sad." (When I don't let her do something she wants :))
  3. "Please, please, please? Please, Mom? Please, please, please!" - Yes it drives me crazy :)
  4. "Thank you very much!"
  5. "Mom, do you want to watch Scooby Doo or Dora with me?"
  6. "Mom, get Morgan off of me!"
  7. "Mom, he's going to fall."

She is just so funny some days.

Morgan was sick last week and so he has turned into this whining, screaming child when he is not in my arms. If I'm not in the room and he can't see me, he is fine. However, as soon as I enter, he gets this look on his face and just starts to cry. It's so much fun, let me tell you. He is still a cutie-pie though and we'll keep him around for a while. He has earned a nickname - he is Morgan the Menace. He is the biggest tease. He teases Carson, me, Cameron, anyone he can. He thinks he is pretty funny. He won't stop either. He laughs and laughs. Boys are so much different than girls.

1.04.2008

Happy New Year's

Carson, Morgan and I flew to SLC, Utah on the 29th of December to visit our relatives. We rode the shuttle bus up to Blackfoot to stay with Mema and Papa and see all of our VanOrden cousins. It's been a fun week, both the kids have thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We have spent some good quality time with all of my siblings. It's always so good to come and visit and fill up my cup from being around family.

It's been nice to have some downtime. I have read like crazy this time. I bought the conference issue of the Ensign and have been devouring all the talks. So far, some of my favorites (I still have not read them all):

1. Enduring Together - by Bishop Richard C Edgley My favorite quote:
"What happens to one happens to all. We endure together."

2. Mrs. Patton - The Story Continues - by President Thomas S. Monson

3. Live by Faith and Not by Fear - Elder Quentin L. Cook

4. The Power to Change - President James E. Faust - he prepared this talk before he died and it is in the November 2007 Ensign, great talk.

We have a few days left here in Idaho. Tomorrow is Abby's birthday and a party and Sunday we will have a family dinner. Monday we leave to go back to our family who we miss dearly. It's been a great way to start off the new year.

Christmas

Well, it was Christmas and parts of it were Merry, I'm just happy to say that it is over!

Due to lack of planning and forethought on both Bryan's and my part, (see previous post) we DID NOT get one thing wrapped before Christmas Eve! I fell asleep with Carson around 8:45 pm, and Bryan woke me up at 10:30 pm so that I could start wrapping presents. I finished up at about 4:30 - 4:45 am in time to help Bryan complete the paper route. We arrived back at home at 6 am and promptly fell asleep, only to be woken up around 7 am by completely hysterically happy children who wanted to open their presents!

So we put them off for awhile and both of us finally woke up around 8 am and we began our Christmas Day! I was so tired, I didn't even get pictures :( Luckily, everyone was quite happy with what they received and after breakfast, I went back to sleep. I woke up early afternoon to complete our dinner preparations. We went to the Drowns for a festive Mexican fiesta dinner and had a great evening! So even with the rough start in the morning, it turned out well.

Our tree only lasted for a mere 24 hours. Bryan worked diligently the night of the 23rd getting the tree up and putting on the lights. When the kids came home on the 24th, they put the decorations on the tree - it looked nice! Then that evening, before our fondue feast, Carson decided to help decorate the tree and as she was standing behind it, placing another ornament on it, it crashed to the ground. Luckily, she was not in the path of the fall; however, she was quite scared. The tree did not survive the fall as well as some lights and a few decorations. That tree gave a good life though, we bought it our first Christmas after we got married. It was the cheapest one at WalMart, $29.99 and including decorations, I think the grand total was $50.00. So it gave it's all.

Because of our tree's death, Bryan went and found a wonderful, pre-lite tree the day after Christmas for HALF price. We were excited to get it. It's bigger and taller than our first tree and hopefully will last for several years. Can't wait to put it up next year, especially since I detest more than anything putting on the lights. It should make putting up the Christmas tree a much more enjoyable adventure.

12.24.2007

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, it's almost Christmas. We are getting ready to do our Christmas Eve activities. I think we are going to make it!



MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HOLIDAYS! WISHING YOU JOY
AND HAPPINESS WITH YOUR LOVED ONES!

12.21.2007

When traveling remember:

From Yahoo, WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN TRAVELING:

1. Mindlessly Stuffing Your Toiletries Kit in Your Carry-On

From now on, write this on your forehead: 3-1-1 for liquids and gels.

If your toiletry kit contains a family-size bottle of mouthwash and an oversize canister of shave cream, you can say goodbye to both at the security checkpoint.

No one bottle of liquid bigger than three ounces is allowed, and all the liquid bottles must fit into a one-quart clear, plastic zip-top bag. This is the most important rule to think about in advance, because it's the least intuitive one, and can cause your sundries to be tossed in the garbage bin if it's not followed.

The Transportation Security Administration maintains a Web site devoted to outlining this rule.
There are just a few exceptions to the 3-1-1 rule, according to the TSA Web site:
Medications, breast milk, baby formula, baby food and juice can be brought past security in amounts larger than three ounces, but they must be declared for inspection at the security checkpoint. "You just need to say it's for a child" if you bring those things, says TSA spokesperson Sterling Payne. (My comment: You can bring formula or juice BUT not milk or water, strange!)

Companies, meanwhile, are starting to make products designed to ease the difficulty of complying with the 3-1-1 rule. Businesses such as Easy Traveler, Tamperseal, Alltravelsizes.com and Family On Board, among others, offer products that can help make packing and traveling easier. (Again, let's make money wherever and however we can!)

Pictures

Had to post some pics of my extended family...

My nephews - Alex and Sammy. They belong to Merritt and Mandee. Aren't they cute?




These are my nieces and nephews at the VanOrden family christmas party - all of my dad's family.


L-R, Chase Bowman, Alex VanOrden, (I'm guessing my cousin Kelly's daughter), Abby VanOrden and Sammy VanOrden. Chase is Michelle and Todd's oldest son and Abby is Melissa and Shay's 2nd daughter.

Perspective

When I was delivering papers this morning, there was a card waiting at a house for us and addressed to the following:

Which made my day because it's been a LONG time since I felt like a girl, this 37 year old woman's body and mind sometimes doesn't feel so young! But it was surely a nice complement.

Getting ready...

I'm finally finally F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. starting to feel the holiday spirit. I've been able to do a little bit more shopping. I was able to get my little holiday scrapbooks mailed to my family this week, so I was happy about that. Yes, if you are waiting for a Christmas card from us, it won't be there before Christmas, SORRY! Bryan and I are just enduring until the end of the month between me working at the bank, him working his regular job and then doing H & R Block classes every night this week AND then us splitting the paper route, we are both very worn out! But the finish line is just around the corner and we are both excited for the new year to start. It seems like every time a new phase starts in our lives, we think, "Oh, everything is going to be SO MUCH BETTER!" and sometimes it is and sometimes it's not. So I say we are looking forward to the new challenges and adventures our lives will take come January 1 when we can get a little more sleep, depending on how are children sleep :) and maybe go away for the weekend. Of course, we are still not rich so we will go see friends where we can stay for free ;0 but it will feel nice to get away!

12.13.2007

Half-way through...

Well today is December 13 and I have accomplished NONE of my christmas tasks that I set forth to do months ago. Almost everything I wanted to have finished a couple of weeks ago, I'm in the middle of it. I don't even have any of our Christmas decorations up yet...

Part of the reason for this delay is that I have started working at the bank again, part-time. We (me and TPTB - The Powers That Be) went back and forth for about three weeks, finally settling on all the details of this "new" job that we both agreed upon. I am doing the same job I did before but I insisted and they agreed that I only had to work Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I was worried because I know what this job entails and I never dreamed they would agree to it. I was dreading having to work every day when I only need a part-time job plus it is extremely difficult to find daycare, let alone have to worry about half-days, full-days, etc. I was extremely lucky that this awesome lady in our ward wants to watch Carson and Morgan. Kimberly is a dream come true. She has a son Carson's age and a daughter Morgan's age. Her husband is in his first year of medical residency and she needed a little extra money so we were an answer to each other's prayers. They live in Rochester so Bryan takes the little ones to her house on the way to work and I pick them up afterwards. It is a little bit out of the way, but the peace of mind it brings knowing my kids are in a wonderful house is worth it. I don't mind driving the few extra miles...

I started working this week on Tuesday and let me say that the older three were not thrilled with this new schedule. It requires that I get them to school about 20-25 minutes earlier than they are used to, so we have to get up earlier, eat breakfast earlier, and they were not happy. On my first day of work, Cameron came home with a detention slip because he got in a fight with another kid at school at the bus stop. Yesterday when I dropped the kids off at school, Rylee was in tears because I had taken her AR book away. Jordan and Cameron were fighting in the back seat all the way to school. I had to go into the school and talk to a teacher so I hussled in with the kids behind me. As they all were walking into school, Jordan started screaming at Rylee and continued his melt down into the school which prompted Rylee to another round of tears for the morning. He was stopped by a teacher who then came in and told me what had happened, so I had to deal with that, talk to another teacher and try and make it to work as fast as possible.

Honestly, I don't even know if I am embarrassed anymore by Jordan's public meltdowns. It happens. However, I feel so helpless when he does that because I feel like I don't know how to calm him down. I pulled him to the side and told him he could not yell at other kids and if he was going to have a bad day at school, he would not stay. I also told him that he would have to go spend the day with Mark (his step-dad) because I had to work, his mom had to work and Bryan had to work. He pretty much calmed down after that, because he likes to be at school. I know 90% of Jordan's anger comes from interactions with Cameron but what do we do? They are brothers and they live together.

So hopefully they will get used to this new schedule. Tuesday nights and Wednesday mornings are always difficult around our house because Tuesday is church night and the activities don't start until 7 pm. Not that I'm complaining because for the past three years they started at 6 pm and that was almost more difficult trying to get the kids home after school, fed, homework done in an hour and a half before we had to head to the church. Now we have 2 1/2 hours BUT we always get home between 8:30 and 9:00 pm and that is so late. The kids are never ready to get out of bed on Wednesday mornings.

Concerning my job, I feel very lucky and also very torn. I am so lucky that this job just basically fell into my lap. Bryan and I had decided at the beginning of the summer that we would quit the paper route at the end of the year. I had decided that I was going to substitute teach to earn some extra money since we still need me to work some to get by. I did all the necessary steps to become a substitute teacher at the beginning of this school year and then I received little or no calls for the whole semester. I did get a call once when I was in St Louis at a drs appt for Morgan and then another time when Bryan was out of town on training. Both times I had to say no. Then the day before my interview for this job at the bank, I got another call to substitute. I just told them I was getting a job somewhere else... I need to make sure they take me off the roster. I thought that would work best for our family because then I would have my summers off and still feel like a stay-at-home mom. BUT that was not to be, so now I'm working at the bank. It will work well, that I still get some time with my kids but I won't get summers off and we'll have to find babysitters for the older kids when they are at our house (very expensive). However, it will allow us to stop the paper route with it's crazy schedule and to be able to take family vacations together or at the very least go spend the night in St Louis or at our friends in Charleston and not have to worry about the stinkin' paper route. Finally, I do feel like I have let my kids down since I won't be with all the time. I feel bad that I haven't been able to live so frugally that I can stay home with them. We have been living on the cheap side since we married, I mean have you seen our house and cars? BUT I have to remember that I have two wonderful happy children who are the light of my life and a husband who works incredibly hard for our family. It won't always be like this. Yeah, now I can stop my pity-party.

12.04.2007

Ice Cream

What flavor are you? I'm chocolate.

Click on this link and take the test...




Thanks Mandee for the great idea.

I LOVE ICE CREAM!

12.02.2007

Dishwasher


Morgan loves the dishwasher. As soon as he hears me open it, he crawls as fast as he can to "help" me out whether I need it or not...


Morgan's Hair

Well, it finally got to me so I gave in and had Morgan's curls cut. They were cute but he is so messy now and his hair would be sticky about five minutes after he woke up because he couldn't keep his hands away.

Here are some of his recent pictures:

We went to the Drown's house yesterday and Aunt Ashley cut Morgan's hair for me since I have no talent or expertise in that area.

Here is our new little man - all grown up. He made it to 13 1/2 months old without one single hair on his head being trimmed or cut.

Taking the kids to school

What has become a morning tradition at our house is about to change drastically. I just wanted to show what we have done for the past year and a half...

Most mornings the kids are at our house, Carson, Morgan and I take them to school. Many times, the younger ones go in their pjs. Sometimes we stop at Casey's and get a doughnut on the way home. They love them.



Cameron's 7th Birthday

This is a little bit late, but I wanted everyone to see Cameron's birthday cake. He wanted the funfetti cake mix and frosting. We ran out of sprinkles, so we used some of our own. If you look really hard you can see that the cake says - "Happy B-DAY". He loved it.



The kids were excited to have another birthday celebration.

Although at times it is difficult to get them to all look at the camera at the same time and smile.

Cameron was excited his presents were walkie talkies (real ones that have a 12 mile radius) and some Crayola Color Explosion books.

11.28.2007

Pie Pig Out

We started a new tradition this year, we invited several families from church over on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and asked each one of them to bring a pie. We ate pie, only pie, and talked and laughed and prepared ourselves for a wonderful feast on Thanksgiving day. I came across this idea in a Family Traditions book that my Grandma DaBell gave me. It said how one family always got together on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and ate the pies - so they could enjoy them since it always seems like you are so full from the turkey and all the trimmings to actually enjoy the pie. So, we ate them ahead of time and it was wonderful. Especially after our hotdog fiasco , it was wonderful to have plenty of people accept our invitation. I think Bryan counted at one time and there were over 30 people in our house. It was fun.

Of course, I didn't make pumpkin pie because I thought someone else would bring it. Everyone must of been thinking the same thing because there was not one pumpkin pie to eat that evening. We also were asked several times if this was the first annual to which we replied, "YES!" So next year we will again have a Pie Pig Out the sunday before Thanksgiving and I will make the pumpkin pies and let everyone else bring whatever they want :)