That was fast!

Dumbo lost his feather, and faster than expected! After dinner at Grandma Susan's tonight, I set him on the floor, and he unexpectedly walked about 4 steps to Grandma. It was so cute. He got so excited and loved doing it. Within about 20 minutes he was taking about 8 steps.

Watch out world - here he comes!

Wanted: New Neighbors

I neglected to get this published in today's classifieds, so I thought I would post it here.

House for rent. Located in West Jordan, on a great little street called Cedar Hill, nestled at the foot of the Oquirrh mountains. Available for immediate occupancy.

Please do not apply if you do any of the following:

#1 If your trashcans look like this on Tuesday, and the pickup is not until Friday. You must bring your cans in from the curb right after the pickup and not leave them out 24/7 for a straight year.

#2 You must take care of the property. This sod was planted last summer, and doesn't it just look lovely now?#3 If you smoke, you must not throw your cigarette butts on our property next door.
#4 You must keep your vehicles on your property. Not 6 "abandoned looking" vehicles parked in the street for weeks on end. Not a humongous trailer full of trash parked on our property and blocking the sidewalk. Just your couple of cars, parked in your garage or driveway. Is that too much to ask??

#5 You must not yell at me, accuse me of wrongdoing, or call me an idiot in front my 3 young children.

#6 You must close your blinds when you are using the bathroom, or doing other "private" activities. #7 You must not waste water by scrubbing the asphalt street in front of your house at least once a week, in your nightgown.

#8 You must not have 8-10 adults living in the home, with 4-5 small children as well.

#9 You must at least explain to me why the many women in your household take a taxi everywhere, while there are 8 cars parked outside.

#10 Last but not least, if I come over to put out a kitchen fire for you, with MY fire extinguisher, you could at least say thank you.

By the way, we really do need good renters next door. If you, or anyone you know is interested, please let me know! I can hardly contain my excitement as they are loading their trailer as we speak!

Beautiful Utah

It is so pretty in Utah, when it's not all covered in snow. We had a very fun playgroup today up in the mountains of Herriman. We were at a beautiful home enjoying the fabulous weather, lunch, and friends.

The girls each got to ride a horse (including me!). And Reed made great friends with the dog. He loved him and would crawl under the table just so he could sit by him.

We even got to see a doe up close, it was under the porch while all the kids were out playing.

It was a fabulous view of the valley, and we had such a great time. Thanks Stacey for making it happen!

Dumbo's feather

Yes, Reed has hit 14 months old and is still not walking yet (no complaints here!). Although he has just discovered his "Dumbo's Feather" and LOVES this little walker. We couldn't get him to use it before, and now he goes everywhere around the house with this thing. He navigates it quite well. It won't be long now!

A wonderful weekend

We had the pleasure of visiting one of my favorite people in this world, Suzanne, this last weekend. We were friends in Gilbert, and share many interests, talents, sense of humor, etc.

We love to sew together, cook together, go shopping together, yell at kids together and all that fun stuff.

Our little girls are very similar in ages and have missed each other dearly over the last year (their mothers included). Suzanne & her family moved to Virginia the same time we moved to Utah, the funny thing was that we each moved to Gilbert at the same time as well.

Suzanne's parents live right outside of Paris, Idaho (near Bear Lake) and she has been visiting for a few weeks. It was great to enjoy the countryside, and just get out and breathe some fresh air.

The girls loved jumping on the trampoline, wandering off into the alfalfa field, picking flowers, and taking rides with "Grandma" on her quad around and around the house.

We miss you guys already! It was a blast!

Bathing Buddies

I just came across this photo Jeff took and thought it was hilarious! I will definitely miss this someday.

First of a lifetime

The first time, and the most momentous haircut my little guy will ever have.

Yes, he has very little hair on top of his little head. It was the mullet in the back (pictured above)that was driving me crazy. We went to Cookie Cutters, (I love that place!) and he sat so still and watched about 3 minutes of his Baby Einstein video and the girl was done.

H.B.D.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, and I neglected to post about it.

I had such a good time in Kansas visiting her last month, and it's always hard when the time comes to an end.


With 10 kids in our house, you don't get an awful lot of one on one time with parents. I must say, I am so thankful to have such a good relationship with my mom as an adult. We love having my parents come and visit. When we lived in Phoenix, they would often stay for quite some time, because 2 of my sisters live there as well. Once they stayed for 2 months, during the holidays, and it was great. I miss having them around, and the kids do too!


We will see them next month at the family reunion in South Dakota, and they are thinking of going to Phoenix for Thanksgiving (which we will be there as well).


I love being able to pick up the phone and talk to them often, talk about anything, but mostly about nothing. Love you mom! Happy Birthday!

Ode to the Porcelain Throne

We have a couple of items today regarding the "throne" at our house.

Bad news first:

We were all very sad for Jeff yesterday. His present from the kids was the stomach flu! How generous was that? He unwrapped his new tie, and then he promplty went and threw up. So nice. So he ate his dinner at 10:30 p.m. and went to bed. We are all happy that he is once again among the living.

And the good news:

Sofie is potty trained! Yea!!!! We started Thursday, and aside from a couple of accidents, she has done great. So if you use my guest bathroom, just so you know, the M&M's (or skittles as she calls them) on top of the shelf are her motivation - they're not decorations!

We signed up for the summer reading program last week, and Sofie is off to a great start. I don't even want to know how many times I read "Hello Kitty, Hello Numbers" to her while she waited to do her thing.

She made me proud!

Tonight was Bella's Preschool Graduation. FINALLY!!! I can't believe I'm going to have a school-aged child.

I say "finally" because this was her 3rd year of preschool. She will be one of the oldest in her grade - which I am so very happy about. I hope when she's a teenager that it will mean that she will be more responsible and less likely to give into peer pressure (we'll see about that!).

I teased her teacher, Miss Caroline, before it began and asked if she had any Kleenex, and she said she didn't. Little did I know I might actually need them. It was so sweet and her teacher did such a great little ceremony. The kids loved it, and Bella is going to really miss it.

Bella and her cousin Julia have really become great friends this year. Julia was in the younger class, so they didn't go to school at the same time, but they were so excited to graduate together today!

This is Bailee - the only other girl in her class this year. They had so much fun together and will miss each other!

Way to go Bells - we're proud of you!

A Fresh Commitment

Needless to say, I have been very much out of the blogging world lately. I have had much on my plate, and no time for myself. I am recommitting myself with several new posts today, to catch up. Hopefully it won't be long before I post again.

The weather is absolutely amazing - but soon to change, expecting rain for the next two days. I am glad that spring has finally arrived (a better late than never!). Not to mention that when summer decides to peek it's little head out, I will welcome it with open arms as well.

Sound Familiar?

The last couple of days I have really tried to concentrate on keeping the house clean and picked up. I even mopped my kitchen floor twice within a few days, that never happens!

I am realizing that I fight a losing battle. It doesn't matter what I do, it gets 'undone'. I clean the mirror, and within 5 minutes a child has squirted something on it. I vacuum the carpet, and Sofie decided to carry around the box of cereal and spill it all over it. I mop the floor just in time for someone to spill their milk.

'Tis the story of my life!

Banana Boy

Reed loves breakfast. Every morning I slice a whole banana and he has Cheerios and a his cup of milk. He seriously devours the banana in about 90 seconds. It is hilarious to watch him. Now that his is learning how to climb, I really do think that this one evolved from monkeys.

Our unusual dates

So, I can't quite recall the last time my husband and I went on a dinner and a movie date. But that doesn't mean we don't go out. We go out pretty much every weekend, and about 5 nights a week. Babysitter? Oh no, we don't need one of those. We just put the kids to bed, open the girls window a bit, and leave.

Our dates are in our front yard. We are in the process of putting in our sprinkler system, and are constantly sitting in the dirt. Or in a hole.

We had most of our front yard trenches dug when we had a huge rainstorm. A few of them led to a 4 1/2' hole we dug by our water meter to hook up our line. So, that meant we had 4 1/2' of water to bale out before we could work. It rained again the night after we emptied it, so the next day we had 2' of water to empty. Don't you just want to jump right in?

So this last Saturday Night we decided to stay in for our date. We were at the kitchen table assembling our RPZ (backflow prevention device), valves, and pressure reducing valve. We had the mood lighting, and I told Jeff - It's just you, me and the RPZ.

We really need to get out of here and on a real date!

What are WE watching?

I don't know how it happened, or more importantly WHY they chose us, but . . . (drumroll please)

It's official - we are Nielsen TV Viewers.

If you don't know, the Nielsen Ratings are what the TV ratings are based on. When you hear that "31.7 million viewers tuned in to watch the Season Finale of American Idol", that's based on the Nielsen Ratings. Whether or not a show gets cancelled, or a News anchor gets a better paying job at another station, is typically based on how many people are watching.

Our home represents 15,000 homes in our area. After 4 1/2 hours of installing equipment into and onto our TV's, our selections count.

Like I said, I don't know why they chose us. We don't have cable or sattelite, we just get the local channels. I think I must have asked the Nielsen guy 5 times if he had the right house, and if he really wanted us to do it.

So, if you have a favorite - let me know. After all, it may just turn out to be my favorite too! I just may become a couch potato after all.

Sing a little song

Don't you sometimes wish that life would be a musical? When the girls and I clean, we put on the "Enchanted" CD, and start looking for the cochroaches and rats to come to our rescue.

This morning when I was trying to sleep in, I could hear Bella talking to Jeff in a whiny/bratty voice (which doesn't come out TOO often!). It would have gone over better, with me anyway, had she burst into Veruca Salt's song from "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory".

After Bella would sing her snappy little song "I want the world, I want the whole world!", I would turn and say "No, I don't think so. Run along and play now."

Maybe we would all have great singing voices if the world were like that. It would be quite entertaining anyway!