Happy 9th B... our impromptu adventure

It was Labor Day weekend, more specifically Saturday, and Sean's actual birthday, but as we'd celebrated his birthday the day before, and were having his friend party the next weekend, and he was now spending the remainder of this weekend with his mom, it was just plain Saturday. West was going riding at sand mountain on "my" new four wheeler with his Uncle and I had plans to join my friend Jen at the farmer's market downtown. Tomorrow would be Brynn's birthday with her friend party also happening next weekend, so when it was all said and done, it should have been a relatively relaxing Saturday. But I live with West and nothing is as simple as it should be :). I was drying my hair, waiting for Jen to show up, when I flipped off my hair dryer and my phone rang. I noticed as I was answering it that it was West and I already had a missed call from him while I was drying my hair. "Hey babe"... what West read to be sand mountain in an email, should have been read Sand Hollow. A FIVE hour difference of location. West tells me he got to sand mountain and couldn't find his uncle, so he called him. In the static phone call he hears his uncle say sand hollow camp site... and he was gone. So now West is on the phone with me explaining this. I shrug my shoulders and tell him I can pack him some clean clothes and meet him at my parents house in St. George. He replies "good, because when you didn't answer the first time I started heading that way". I'm glad we can think the same :). I called my mom to make sure they didn't have any plans, relayed Brynn's birthday dinner request for the next day so she could go to the grocery store.
Jen showed up and we headed to the farmer's market. We got the best peaches and pears and the best pulled pork sandwiches for lunch. The kids had fun with a bunch of hula hoops that were set out: We found some cute material hair flowers and finished off with delicious fresh limeades: I went home after a quick stop with Jen at Orson Gygi's and quickly cleaned up the house, took out the garbage, got everyone to pack bags, took a half hour nap and headed out to St. George. It was getting dark so we swung by Sand Hollow, picked up West (who by this point had a broke down truck by this point in the trip) and headed to my parents house to crash. Bug was pretty excited to be going to Grandma E's. She had high hopes of Grandma giving her something to sew, and Grandma didn't fail her.
The next morning: HAPPY BIRTHDAY B!!
She's been one patient girl waiting for the D.S. We spent a very toasty day on the beach of sand hollow while West got his riding in, and said "hey" to his uncle and aunt and cousins there. Deeds taking a page out of her mom's book:

Then we headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's for chicken fettuccine alfredo and chocolate cupcakes. And an improvised candle blowing... After a long night of trying to drive home in a broken truck, West luckily made it home safely early Monday morning. I spent the morning at Tai Pan shopping for Halloween decorations with my mom, and after lunch, the girls and I headed home too. Since Toad and Jaybird were back with us, we took B to the Mayan for her birthday dinner with all of us.

Happiest birthday to my sweet Go ahead B, try to blow it out ha ha ha

Catching up the blog... or April in a nutshell... or here you go Jami:)

I got an email from my cousin Jami: "So since you've decided to abandon your blog I have no idea what is going on with you. So I need some updates.
*When is the wedding?
*How are the kids?
*Are you in school? If so, how are you liking it?
*Are ya'll living in the same house now and how is that?
*How exactly do you keep up on laundry for 5+ people while working, making cakes, going to school, etc because I only have four people and we're really suffering in the laundry department? Detailed plan please.
*And when are you coming up to visit? You can bring the circus or just come with West."
Thanks Jami, I needed that to get me going again ha ha. So here we go...
I've actually been thinking about this blog for awhile and I wanted and needed to write all the things that are going on and happening and how I'm feeling and dealing but when it boils right down to it I can sum it up with two simple words: I'm. Tired. You know when people ask "when do you sleep?"... I don't. When do you think the stinking cakes get done??? I'll tell you, between the hours of 9 PM and midnight or 1 AM. But I digress... sort of. On to Jami's questions! When is the wedding??? I'll email you West's number and you can call him and ask :). We've been waiting for all the big stuff to settle down before we add another thing to it... you know, big stuff never settles down. There's always something, isn't there?
How are the kids... here's a run down of April, minus Easter which I just realized I didn't add so it gets to be special with it's own post.
Nerd day at school:
Cas played volleyball on a Rec team and I got to be her coach. Oh yes, add that to my list, because you know, I'm not doing anything else. But I'm so thankful to have been able to do it with her! Time with the kids can not be replaced by anything else in meaning in my life. Cas loves volleyball and wants to keep practicing so she can play on Jr. High and High School teams, I'm way OK with that.We spent a weekend at the dunes with some of our crazy friends. The kids dug a lot of holes
and drove the little dune buggy. Sean has something about being buried. He does it everywhere we go where there's sand.This picture didn't get turned but I took it in the first place to show Casidee's style... or lack of concern for it. Please not the tag hanging off her butt. Yes, her pants are on inside out. My question is how in the world did she do them up???

A ladybug landed in my cheesy noodles. Not cool. As cute as it is, it's still a BUG and it was in my food.My good friends Linda and Sarah. Love them.We got spring fever badly so we headed south for some sun. We spent the weekend in St. George with my parents, but mostly we spent a very long and very toasty day on the beach of Sand Hollow. Well, the kids and I did, with Grandpa Dick and Grandma KC for some of the day. West rode 4-wheelers on the dunes with Wess and Aaron. Our picnic table :)See what I mean about Sean getting buried everywhere we go with sand?

Aaron buried Sean (again) while he was standing in a hole and then made him fight his way out.

I take lots of pictures of my feet... it shows where I've been... where I am... where I'm going.

Ashley, Megan, Wess:

And the cutest thing ever, the entire circus singing back up for Grandpa on his guitar. I did get it on video so hopefully in the next day or two I'll figure out how to 1. get the video of my camera and 2. how to get it on my blog. Cuteness Sam-am-I had a third birthday. Here's his monkey face:

Jes rented an awesome blow up slide that kept the kids occupied and laughing, and Jes let me make a fun spiderman cake for him. Jes' yard looks awesome by the way! She's done so much with it.

My bug, my super sweet bug, turned 7. This girl was the best baby. The best toddler. And even now, she's such a good girl. She's honest, responsible, sincere, and caring. She's also VERY sensitive. I love this girl. She just wanted to have the party at home, we have a lot of game tables (foosball, air hockey, a basketball hoop, a pin ball machine) in the basement, and that was fine with me. It was the easiest party ever, they just went downstairs and played for an hour and a half.

And then my fam and West's fam came over for a BBQ:

My cute great niece Asher:

And the spiral cake that didn't turn out how I wanted it to, but gave me a much better idea on how to try it next time.

Ella and Asher:

I love this picture :) just showing West and me interacting. He's so good for me. Or, we're good for each other. I'm thankful for my man. So for the most part of April, that's how the kids, and all of us really, are :).

Am I in school and am I liking it? I was. It just finished. You know the saying there's a time and a place for everything? It may have been the place, but it's certainly not the time. We can revert back to the two words... I'm tired. I very literally just do not have the time to put into it right now. So it's back on the back burner.

Are we in the same house? Yes. It was Tayler's party that FINALLY got me to finish unpacking and organizing my stuff in West's, now our, house. I was possessive about my stuff. I NEEDED it all to come with me. But after four months of realizing I hadn't missed any of it yet, I pulled our outside garbage cans up to the front door and started tossing thing out of the house. Things look great now, and we still have some great remodel and face lift plans for the house. Now that my decorations are unpacked and in place, it doesn't feel like West's bachelor pad anymore... it feels like I actually live here too. It's home. We've had some rocky patches combining two families, but communication and trial and error and we're getting it. I really do love our family dynamics.

As for my laundry detailed plan... we have six kids, so we took six days of the week, Monday through Saturday, and set up six chores. They all rotate on a grid system rotation. Laundry is one of those chores, so on their given day of the week they are in charge of putting their dirty laundry in the washing machine before school, switching it to the dryer after school, and putting it in their dresser after dinner. It still takes a little, or a lot, of prodding, but for the most part we're keeping up. West and I do our loads on the weekends or in the evenings after the kids. I'm not very good at keeping up with mine!!

And I definitely want to visit! It will probably just be West and me since we'll have to fly because West has an aversion to driving anywhere that takes longer than 6 hours, not that I can blame him ha ha. I've added it to our to do list :).

I think this post is plenty long enough so I'll have to do Easter and May tomorrow. I know, we're only barely half way through May, but if you haven't notice by now... we don't sit still very well LOL.