My crazy girl!

So Friday night Emmy starts crying about how her eye hurts. She literally goes on for hours and hours about how bad her eye hurts. Devin the Dr., looks in her eye and doesn't see anything, gives her Benadryl, hoping that will make her feel better but nothing is working. She is walking around the house with one eye shut, watching T.V. one eyed......kinda funny really, but trying to feel sad for her that we don't know what to do. We keep telling her if she goes to sleep she will wake up and feel better in the morning. So around midnight she cries herself to sleep finally. Poor thing! Saturday morning she wakes up and the one eyed girl continues her quest to get us to understand how bad her eye hurts. So Devin runs to WalMart and buys different eye drops and some eye patches so she can keep it shut. He has her layed on the kitchen table to perform his operations and I finally look in her eye and I just about dye when I see what is in her eye....ITS MY CONTACT!!!! (its ripped in two places so no kidding it hurts!) I'm not even joking! My 5 year old daughter got my contacts and put one in her eye. She was so afraid of getting in trouble (cuz duh, she knows shes not supposed to be in my stuff!) that she wouldn't tell us, "well, it might be hurting because I PUT SOMETHING IN IT!" Devin was feeling so bad and I couldn't stop laughing because I couldn't believe she actually got it in her eye! Devin doesn't understand what a feet that is if you don't know how to put in contacts!! I'll just add that to her list of talents I guess!

(This is Emmy, McKenna, Brooklyn & my Moms new Puppy Mona)

Meet Maddy

I have been needing to post this for quite a while, but life always manages to get in the way! This is my (ok, our) new baby girl Maddy! She is 3/4 dachshund 1/4 chiuaua (I have NO idea how to spell that!!!)and I LOVE HER! She is the best addition to our family. We got her when she was 8 weeks old and everyone loves her. We have had her almost 2 months now and the kids STILL fight over whose turn it is to hold her. The girls carry her around like their little baby......I swear the poor thing is going to forget how to walk!! We have a new chocolate lab (that's Devins dog....he tried to let that one be an inside dog too, but that is WAY too much crazy for me!) named rocky and they get along really well. Maddy rules the roost though, she puts Rocky in his place and makes sure he does what she says even though she is like a sixteenth his size, it's flippin hilarious!! We love having her, and heaven help the sweet puppy that she lives through this zoo!

Our worst Nightmare

So as a mother of a large family one of my greatest fears has always been that some accident would happen and some person/Dr/Nurse etc. would get suspicious and call CPS on us. I have heard so many horror stories about families being torn apart when there was no cause to do so and so I have always been afraid of that just out of the sheer numbers we have here and because kids will be kids, they fall, they get hurt, stuff happens. Well, our worst nightmare, became a reality this weekend. Thursday night Brigham and Devin were playing and Brigg was running down the hall away from Devin and as he ran by a table, at the last second, he decided to duck under the table and hide. Since he stopped so quick and turned, it snapped his femur. At first we thought maybe he just dislocated his knee or something bc there was no swelling but after 20 min of non stop screaming we decided Devin should take him to the ER. This was around 9:30 at night. Around midnight Devin called me to tell me it was broken and that they were transferring him to St. Joes and he was going to have to have surgery to set it and possibly put a pin in it. So of course I didn't sleep the rest of the night worrying about my poor baby. Well, I made arrangements for the rest of the kids and after I got the kids out the door for school I was headed out the door around 9 am when I got the call from Devin that CPS was on there way down to the hospital. He was a wreck, I felt like I was going to pass out or through up, or both. So I rushed to the hospital, sobbing all the way there, calling all of our family asking them to please say a prayer that everything would be ok. When I got there the CPS worker was already there talking to Devin so she continued the interview and then let us know that she needed to go out to the house to meet with the rest of the kids......panic attack #2. Devin and I couldn't leave bc Brigg was scheduled for surgery @ 4:00 so my mom was left to be the one to deal with that. When my mom got to my house my two sister in laws and brother in law were there straitening up, putting on outlet covers, putting up cleansers, medications, everything. It was amazing! So things went fine with that. The kid behaved well and the lady was nice and told my mom everything looked good and she was going to write up her report and close the case. Briggs surgery went fine, no pin, thank goodness. They just set his leg and put his cast on. He will be in this miserable cast for 2 months poor baby!!! So we thought we would be going home soon, until the Dr. on Saturday told us that they were going to do a full body X-ray to check for any other injuries as well as an eye exam to make sure that his retinas had not been detached from his eyes (shaken baby syndrome) panic attack #3! So they did all that Sat. night, spent another miserable night there. Finally found out Sunday morning that everything came back perfect (duh!!!) and he was medically cleared to go, but now we had to wait for a phone call from CPS saying that we could take him home. AHHHHHHH!!! We were dying to get out of there and have this whole entire nightmare be over! So finally at 6:00 we were able to take him home! He is SOOOO happy to be home and we are SOOOO happy to be home with all of our kids!! I am so incredibly grateful for all of our family and their prayers and their love, concern, and help. While I was driving to the hospital after I had called everyone, the closer I got, I started to feel this warm calming feeling come over me and I knew it was every ones prayers....it felt like a blanket, it was so amazing! I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood and for blessings. I love my family so much and don't know how I could ever live without any of my children. I feel like a mother hen and I just want to gather all my chicks under my wings and keep them there forever! I thank the Lord every day for keeping us safe, but especially this weekend, for keeping us a family!

We miss you Cassie!!

Well, it was bound to happen some day. Some crazy boy would sweep Cassie off her feet and wisk her away and keep her all to himself!! We just never thought that "all to himself" place would be in UTAH!! WHAAAAAA! :( Cassie has met this super great guy that she has totally fallen for and he has likewise fallen for her, and they both made the decision that they would like to be close to each other so they could actually go on dates more than once every couple of months.........stupid!! I did long distance for a year; no biggie!! (LOL!!) So about a month ago she quit her job, packed up her stuff and headed off to Utah. Afew days later, she had a new place to live, a new job and is loving getting to see her cutie pie boyfriend up close and personal on a regular basis. We miss her like CRAZY!! Especially now that it's the holidays and we are doing a ton of family stuff; it just isn't the same without her here. She is coming to visit for Christmas and I can't wait. Lots of people make me laugh, but there is something different about the way that girl makes me laugh! I love her to pieces. Hopefully the next couple of years will fly by (the time it takes for L to finish school) and before we know it she will be back here making us all laugh till we cry. We love you Cass and can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks!!!

8 months old

What an adorable baby!! Ryker is growing up way too fast!!! He turned 8 months on the 10th, even though he looks 2!! He weights over 20 lbs, he FINALLY sits up ;) and he has 4 teeth which is so dang cute cuz they are his 2 top K9 and bottom 2 middle...SOOO cute!! He says dada, and loves to sit in the highchair, or in his exosaucer and watch all the craziness that goes on around here. He adores Austin and loves to go to him as much as he loves to be with me! I gave him his 1st haircut on Wednesday which is the youngest I have ever cut any of my boys hair (he beat Hunter by one month!) He looks so dang cute! He makes everyone smile and we pinch all his fat rolls about a million times a day! Thanks Ryker for being such an amazing baby!!!

Happy Birthday Jacob

Its so sad that I am still trying to catch up on my posts!! August 16th my brother Jacob turned 27. He is so much fun!! He always makes me laugh and I love it when he plays with my kids. We enjoyed dinner (just the adults, yahoo) at Red Robin and then did cake and ice cream at mom & dads after. Happy Birthday Jacob! Thanks for being so awsome!!!
(I guess I will have to post the pictures when I find them....oops)

The new ride

Jeremiah demonstrating the handle located directly to your right as you enter the bus!

There have been lots of changes around here lately! So just a bit of trivia for you....did you know if you have more than 7 children the only vehicle that fits your family is a 12 passenger van?? Thats what I have been driving for the past 2 years. It took some getting used to, and getting over realizing that I'm not the "cool" mom ;) Anyways, we got rid of my 12 passenger last month (ummmm, not really sure if it is called getting rid of when it is leaving on a tow truck while you are upstairs taking a nap?) Anywhoo......we were blessed enough to have loving family members help us get new transportation and this is the new vanbus (that is what Liberty calls it). My Dad & I went to Peoria on a Saturday (Devin had to work) and my Dad couldn't believe that I really wanted to take a look at this thing. When I saw it I knew immediately that Devin would LOVE it. When I called him he said "well? what do you think? do you like it?" and I said, "nope, but you will" while laughing at the same time. Although it is SO not cool, it is SO practical and SO great loading the kids in and out, and packing everyone in....we have moved from 12 to holding 14 now! It has a TV, and I can even stand up all the way inside. It even came equipped with its own no smoking sign in case the kids forget. hehe! Now that I have had it for 4 weeks, I absolutely love it and I really don't mind being the not cool one cuz when you have 8 kids, its all about being practical! (And yes, that is an isle down the middle of the van!!!)

My funnies for the day!

I love it when my kids make me laugh, so I just thought I would share my laughter from today. Tonight we went to a family party (pictures to follow later) and when we walked in Mason was w/his cousin and when he saw that they were watching Iron Man he turned to his cousin and said, "oh cool, I have this movie. It's the #1 movie in America you know" He is such a crack up!!

Then this morning Devins example to our children really shined through when I was driving the kids to school. The air wasn't on and when I turned it on, Austin started messing with the vents and said, "Man, it's hot in here. It must be because Mom's in the car" Devin says stuff like that to me all the dang time and I laughed my butt off that Austin actually repeated it!!

I LOVE my kiddos!!

Our new venture

I don't know why I haven't posted about this yet.....I really kept hoping to find some cool picture to add cuz it bugs me not to have a picture? Anyways, about a month ago Devin & I made the huge decision to leave his company that he has had for the past 8 years with his brothers, and take another job. I could go into great detail surrounding the decision, but honestly, no one wants to hear all tha t boring stuff. :) I will tell you how he got the job cuz it really was a blessing strait from the Lord. He found a position on lds.org for a company looking for a part time installer for ceiling/lighting fixtures. Cool...totally something he can do on the side until business picks up. When he went in to talk to the owner he said to him, "oh I'm sorry, that position has been filled, but let me tell you what I would like to offer you" By the time Devin walked out the door he had been offered a salary position to work as the #1 Supervisor @ this company. Running the store (selling lighting, ceiling fans and ALL kinds of flooring) as well as checking on jobs, measuring out jobs, running crews, stuff like that. It was unbelievable! The owner had two other interviews set up for later that week, but told Devin that he basically had the job if he wanted it. This was even before he got a resume from Devin or anything. We were both stunned and through much prayer and temple attendance we knew that this was the Lords way of helping us to make our financial situation better. It has been a very hard adjustment for both of us. For over 12 years Devin has basically set his own hours and been home anywhere from 2:00 to 5:00 depending on the day. I have always made any Dr.'s appointments for late in the afternoon and he could usually be home for me so I wouldn't have to take any kids with me. I am so used to having him around when I need him. Now he leaves a little before 7:00 and isn't home until 6:30-7:30. I know a lot of you are thinking, "boo, hoo, sad life for you.....after all those years of being spoiled and now you have to live like the rest of us" but yes I have been spoiled and it is taking some adjusting but I am managing. His past work schedule is what has made it so easy to do things I need to do with 8 kids. Now I am kinda on my own! The later in the day the harder it gets. For the 1st 3 days my twins would stand at the front windows by the front door for like 1/2 an hour and just cry for their dad. The kids still aren't used to it. Devin is having a hard time being away from all of us so much too. It was a huge sacrifice for him to give up his freedom to take this job to provide for us and I am so grateful that he has been willing to do whatever it takes to make things work. He is a good man and I am so blessed to have him. We have had the most amazing financial struggle of our lives over this past year, and I know we are not alone. But I know that the Lord loves us and that when we humble ourselves and try to do the simple things that He wants us to do, He is literally standing in front of us with the answers just waiting for us to grab ahold of them. I hope we never have to go through what we have been through this past year again, BUT I am a changed person, for the better, and my marriage is stronger, and I do love the Lord for giving us trials to help build us up and make us better people. He promised us that he will never give us more than we can handle, and every time, just as it feels like the whole world is going to come crashing down around me, He is always there and things always work out for the best. I am very grateful that through all of this that our family has been blessed with our health because I know that there are many families struggling with different medical problems and our hearts reach out to them. I hope all of us can remember that He is there and He wants us to be happy, sometimes it just takes a while to humble ourselves and realize that our happiness is right in front of us. Our families! They are the only thing on this earth that is important. No car, house, boat, RV, or amount of money, will ever be as important as the happiness and love that our family has.

I win coolest mom!

I am the coolest mom!! Yesterday morning my scheduled alarm goes off and we were rushing to get the kids ready for school. Hurry and get the lunches made, hurry and get hair done. All of the sudden I notice that it is after 7:15, which their carpool is never late...whats the deal? So I pick up a school flyer that says fall break is until October 20th. I call my sister in law, "ummmm, do the kids have school today??" "nope, they start back tomorrow" Ok great, cuz we are all up and ready to go to school! DUH!! I turned to the boys and said, "gotcha! that was our trial run for tomorrow and it's a good thing we did that cuz you would have been WAY late!" Emberlyn cried, how cute it that?!? Another point for mom of the year! LOL!!

oops

I forgot a few important details.........

The swivel sweeper runs off a rechargable battery that lasts long enough for me to do my entire downstairs before it dies. You can buy it at WalMart, BUT you can get it on Ebay for about $6 ot $7 cheaper. There is a new one that has a "no touch" release button to empty the tray, but it is about $15-$20 more. Happy Sweeping!!!!

My New Favorite

This is my new FAVORITE!!! In case you have never been blessed enough to see the fab infomercial for the Swivel Sweeper....you MUST check it out! I have been wanting one since they came out a couple of years ago and since using a simalar Shark rechargable produduct that was more exspensive, thought I would try out the Swivel Sweeper before I purchased the Shark (although I did find a pink one....which is hard to resist!!) This thing is freakin' awsome! It picks up everything from goldfish, (crackers, not real ones.......hey, you never know at my house) to buttons (dont ask why I know that) The VERY best part is that my kids love it and they all fight over whos turn it is to use it. Finally I am happy to let someone else do the floors! Everyone needs one of these!

A 6th Sense???

My twins are 28 months old, and I have just now figured out that they were born with a 6th sense! I have named it their mommy sense and this is how it works. AS SOON as I am exactly 10 feet away from them it kicks in...their brain tells them, "shes gone...GO!!" and amazingly it happens in both of their brains at the exact same time! As they bolt for the nearest thing to reap mass destruction upon, their brain is still thinking, "what next, what next, hurry, hurry" Here is an example from this morning....."she's gone, lets make a bottle with the formula using a piece of pipe AND flood the kitchen floor....check......NEXT......


















"We could bust into the bathroom and flood that floor........














AND dump out all the Q-tips and get them soaking wet so they have to be thrown away....check, NEXT........




















"AND even though we have done it a THOUSAND times, lets go throw all of the folded laundry on the floor in the loft...we know how much mom loves to fold 20 loads of laundry......and

we can dump that HUGE bin of clothes that mom folded to be put into storage! Check....NEXT.............

"Then, we could climb on top of the table, put a tub of cool whip on the light on the chandelier to see if it can burn a hole in the bottom of it! Oh wait, we did that last night? Hmmmmm, what next?????? It's only 12:00!!! (I don't make this stuff up people!) ;)

Emmys 1st Cottage Fair

At the kids school every quarter they have a Cottage Fair, which is a little celebration/presentation about the main subject they have been studying. Emmys was "All About Me". We had a pot luck where each kid brought a food that started with the 1st letter of their name and then a short program of cute songs in their classroom. It was fun to see Emmy in her new daily element! Its still weird to think that she has this whole different life away from me during the day. She really is a super smart girl and never gets in trouble in school (thank goodness...I needed at least one!) and she has also been betrothed to a boy in her class who happens to be in our ward who happens to be the son of my super great friend! Life is good!!

Crazy Hair Day

So I haven't been posting all that much lately b/c I CANNOT find the dang charger for my camera battery!!! AHHHHHH!!!! So these are off my phone (not bad for a phone huh?) Emmy had crazy hair day @ school & I was excited to do something fun for her. I was really glad to see that her friend Brooklyn had pink hair b/c she was a little concerned about how "crazy" it really was. I LOVE having girls!!

Masons missing teeth!

Mason lost TWO teeth last week. Hey was very excited! He is convinced that we are the tooth fairy and we told him he better be careful b/c those who don't believe, don't get the cash!! This is a baggie with water in it and his tooth. When I asked him why it was in water he said, "because I want to keep it nice and fresh for the tooth fairy!" Duh, I'm such an airhead!! ;)

1/2 a year already!!!

Where does the time go?? SERIOUSLY! Ryker is 6 months today! Crazy I know. I actually weighed him yesterday and is 21 lbs., officially caught up with my 17 month old niece! He has two cute teeth, not loving baby cereal so much, drinks 8-10 oz. bottles AND still nurses, sleeps great (when he isn't cutting teeth), loves his bumbo and LOVES his exosaucer. He does roll over, but I'm not quite sure how he is supposed to learn how to sit up or crawl or anything if he is always IN something to keep him safe (from B&B) and when they are asleep, he is sleeping. Hmmmmm? I love his big chocolate eyes and I LOVE that he is my rolly polly snugly baby! (and the marks on his head are b/c no matter how often I trim his nails, he has baby itchy forehead syndrome and scratches it in his sleep...poor baby!)

Mason the crack up!

Mason has always been our funny kid. He is always making us laugh. I was cleaning out a cupboard yesterday and found my journal (before I started my blog) and it only had one entry in it, so I thought I would just post it so I wouldn't loose it. The entry was dated April 10th 2007,
"Mason had a tuff day at school today and his teacher had to call me. Luckily she started out the phone call with a funny Mason story. Mason took this cheap trinket gold chain (necklace) to school for show & tell. Later in the day Mrs. Hoopes (who loves Mason like crazy) noticed that he had it in his mouth. (which is wonderful in itself because I have NO idea where he got it) So she told him not to put it in his mouth because he could choke. Obviously he didn't listen and about 10 min. later when they were lining up for recess Mason was crying and freaking out. When she asked him what was wrong he said, "I swallowed my necklace!!" So she took him to the nurses office and they checked his throat & the nurse told him, "It's not in your throat so it must be in your tummy" and Mason responded with, "I know, I can feel it!"
My Dad likes to call these our "masonisms"!! :)

Liberty turns 4!

I know, it is so awful that I am still trying to catch up with things I haven't posted about over the past two months! Liberty turned 4 on June 28th. WOW, she is one 4 year old drama mama!! But she still manages to win us over with her adorable smile. It was really fun being pregnant with her because I was pregnant with my sister, 2 sister in laws, and one very dear friend (probably more than that if I thought about it long enough) I was on the list for induction at Chandler Regional and instead of going in the afternoon like I was supposed to, they called me at 2 a.m. Our super best friends (that were expecting their 1st) came and hung out with us; it was a lot of fun to visit and just hang until it was time to actually do something. I don't remember all the details for sure, but I know it was early in the morning when they started the pitociin and I decided to just wait until I needed the epidural (bad idea!) Oh, and I forgot to mention that this was our first experience of letting it be a surprise. I was FOR SURE it was another boy, but desperately wanted a sister for Emberlyn, especially because they would be 18 months apart, which is what my sister Tiffany & I are, and we are best friends! Anyways, things were going slow so Devin & our friends decided to go down to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. Devin double checked to make sure that I was ok if he went b/c the contractions were starting to pick up and I assured him I was fine. Little did I know that in the 20 min. they were gone my contractions went from fine, to bawling b/c they hurt so bad. Good ol' pitocin! I have NEVER had that happen before and it was SO awful. I was crying for the nurse to hurry and get the anesthesiologist there, who was of course not available for 30 min. After about 15 min. I asked her if she could turn down the pit to see if that would help and her response was, "oh, yeah I could do that, I'm sure that would help a lot" Well geez thanks lady!! Shortly after that the Dr. showed up and placed my ever wonderful epidural and I have a picture of me smiling and re-applying my makeup after he left. Dr. Lamb came and broke my water and withing 30 min. it was go time. The coolest thing about Libertys delivery was that the Dr. had before hand asked Devin if he wanted to help deliver the baby and he said no thanks, so I asked if I could pull the baby out and he said "sure". (Dr. Lamb is the BEST most AMAZING Dr. ever, by the way!!) So I pushed her head out, and delivered the shoulders, then I reached down and pulled her out. It was so cool!! I laid her on my chest and Devin looked to see what we had and as soon as he said, "it's a girl" we both started crying because we were so excited for Emmy to have a sister. It was so wonderful to have my sister and our friends in the waiting room so they could come in as soon as she arrived. She weighed 8 lbs. and was so perfect. When the kids came to see her in the hospital Emberlyn refused to let anyone hold her, except for her. We have another pic of Emmy screaming b/c Tiffany tried to take her away. Despite all the drama, I do love my girls. And I love my little Liberty and the sweet smiles and love she brings into our home.

Food for thought

I keep wanting to start a new blog for recipe sharing & cooking tips, but it hasn't happened yet. (I know....I'm so lazy!) ;) Anyways, I just wanted to share something in the mean time. I am trying to find ways to sneek in more healthy things for my family. My husband is even worse than the kids sometimes.....even with things like trying to drink 1% milk instead of 2%! Anyways, one of my new favorites is using flaxmeal! It has TONS of nutritional benefits & I am learning about ways you can use it to substitute things like eggs, oil, & butter. I have done this in my breads and even in a store bought muffin mix (cuz I was out of eggs) and it turned out wonderful, you would NEVER know I had changed anything. PLUS I think one of the best things about learning to use flaxmeal is that we can store it in our food storage!!! Instead of paying for very pricy powdered butter and powdered eggs, you can use the flaxmeal, which is fairly inexpensive. Here is some info I copied off the web. Happy Baking!

1T flaxmeal + 3 T water (let sit for afew min.) = 1 egg

"Here are a few ways I've used the flax meal so far:
I've put a teaspoon in the kids' chocolate milk-they didn't notice.
I added a few tablespoons to my cookies- can't tell.
I put a few tablespoons in my banana bread- can't taste it.
I sprinkled a teaspoon on my oatmeal- I could taste it, but it was good."

(http://www.agardenofblessings.blogspot.com/)

Happy B-day Mason!

Mason turned 7 years old on the 16th. He is such a funny and sweet little man. As I put in an earlier post, this year I am going to recall events of each childs birth experience for journaling purposes.
At first when I found out I was having another boy I was sad, BUT only because I had a previous ultrasound and was told I was having a girl, so I was quite shocked. But when it came time to meet him I was very excited about having 3 little men in my life. This was my first experience with putting myself into labor. My sister in law is a mid wife and she gave me her recipe for her "bomb" that puts you into labor, and it did just that. Masons labor was actually the best experience I have ever had. I went into the hospital and I was at a 3 and started moving along quickly. This was also the first time that I had my mom there with me, which was really special to me. Anyways, I got to a 7 and was still pretty comfortable, which is ABSOLUTELY not my normal experience!!! I got too scared about how bad the actual delivery would be so I went ahead and got the epidural. I went from a 7 to ready to push in about 20 min. He arrived weighing 7 lbs. 15 oz., he seemed to tiny to me! We still had not decided on a name until he was born, Devin wanted Ammon and I wanted Mason; while I was pushing the Dr. asked me, "what is this little guys name?" And I just looked at Devin and he said, "it's Mason" What was he supposed to say as his wife was pushing out his 3rd son. HEHEHE! :)
Poor little Mason came down the birth canal so fast that his whole face was black and blue. The nurses had to put a little sign on his bassinet that said, "yes, my face is bruised" because they said they didn't want the Dr's & nurses to think he was purple from not breathing. The umbilical cord was wrapped 3 times around his neck and he was having a hard time breathing right after he was born so he was rushed off to the NICU. He stayed there for 24 hours under an oxygen bubble thing. He also had jaundice so he after he was home we had to sit in the sun with him every day. But regardless of all of that, he was perfectly fine and Austin & Hunter were thrilled to have a new little baby in the house.
Mason has always been our funny little man that makes us laugh. He has such a big heart and about a dozen times a day will come up to me and wrap his arms around me and tell me how much he loves me. He says the sweetest prayers too. The other night we explained to all the kids about my 3 Day walk and why I was doing it. His prayer that night was, "Heavenly Father, please bless that lots and lots of people will come to the garage sale, so people won't be sick and have cancer." You don't get much more pure in heart than that. He is such a blessing to our home and I don't know what I would do without all his hugs and kisses.

(Thank you Uncle Jacob for the WAY cool Spiderman cake!!!!)