Chasing Sunsets!

Growing up in North Idaho, we always had beautiful sunsets. One of my childhood memories is chasing sunsets with my mom and some of our best friends! Our kitchen window looked out on our field and that was where the sunsets would take place. My mom would load us in our station wagon right when the sunset would start and drive out through the prairie and fields towards the sunset, watching it as we went. We would often call our friends on the spur of the moment when the sunset would start and they would jump in their car, meet us at our house and we would follow each other, chasing sunsets! We saw some great sunsets! My mom still calls me and says, have you seen the sunset? We love watching them where ever we are. Just tonight I called out to my kids and their friends, "hurry, come see the sunset!" And they all came running! The sight was spectacular! We had major thunderstorms and lightning this afternoon and then the rain poured! There is nothing like an eastern thunderstorm! Right after all the rain dumped it was blue sky and puffy clouds! So tonight at dusk when we went out on the back porch to watch the sunset, the humidity was hanging over the forest like a mist and it was so quiet and peaceful! The kids found water in all the seashells we had collected on one of our trips, we found some slugs and huge spider webs--the kids loved it! The lightning bugs were out and we had a great time! I would have loaded them all in the van but there weren't enough seats for all the kids that were over and I would probably get lost if I tried chasing a sunset out here! :) I don't think the GPS has a "follow the sunset" setting! But we do and we love it!

Bunnies and Birds and Bats...Oh My!

We have lots of wildlife around here and we are really enjoying it! We found a little nest of bunnies in our back yard a week or so ago and they are so cute! Today the little bunnies came out of the nest for the first time, there are 4! They are so small and cute! We go look at them everyday, it's the highlight of the morning every day before school. Rodney also found a robin's nest under our deck in the backyard, he found it when there were 3 eggs in there. On saturday we looked and the birds have hatched! Now when you look at the nest there are just these beaks poking up from the edge of the nest, it is very cute too! We also have fireflies! We went outside tonight and found lots of them, they are fascinating to watch! John caught one and gave it to Rodney and it was fun to watch it light up in his hands, Joey didn't know what to think of it! Rodney let it go after a while so it even survived the captivity! :) While we were out finding fireflies Julia saw the bats, there were several flying all over the neighborhood they were kind of cool, but a little creepy! We have also seen several foxes out around the neighborhood in the evening, we are glad we have a fenced in backyard! We think that is why the bunny decided to put her nest in our backyard, no foxes! We found a really funky bug yesterday, it looks like a centipede body but with lots of long legs that looks like spider legs, there are about 26 legs! We don't know what kind of bug that is yet, we might have to do an internet search! So even though we don't have pets we are having a good ol'time with the animals!

My first 5K Race!!!

Well, I have decided to start running! Mostly due to my sister Kim's motivation and also one day at the gym all the elliptical machines were in use so instead of waiting a really long time I said "why not?" and got on a treadmill to run/jog! Mind you, I am a beginner so it's more like jogging than running but I'll eventually get there! :)So my first race was the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure and it was amazing! There were over 45,ooo participants! Plus all the other people there to watch, it was very exciting! We all got up at 5am to get into DC on time, and we found an awesome parking place just a few blocks from the starting line! The kids were loving the atmosphere of excitement, Rodney thought it was so cool to have the streets blocked off, he decided to lay down in the middle of the road by the starting line! They had several celebrities there to kick off the race, the crown prince and princess of Serbia were there and spoke to us, and the Vice President was also there and spoke to us! His wife is a big supporter, so he was there with her. There were a couple singers who sang some songs, they are famous but I can't remember their names so they aren't too famous to me! :) LOTS of PINK everywhere! We started the race a little after 8am and it took me 5 minutes just to get to the starting line there were so many people! John and the kids were there to see me off and John said the crowd was going through the starting line for at least 15 minutes! And that was just the runner's starting line, they had another section a few blocks down that was the walkers starting line! The route was so fun to run! They had Constitution Ave. blocked off and we started off running in front of the National Archives, then in front of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and then in front of the American History Museum. Then over in front of the White House! And on down the street, we turned around over by the Viet Nam Memorial and came up by the Washington Monument, on by the Holocaust Museum, ran along the National Mall in front of the Smithsonian Castle and around over by the Air and Space Museum. We ended up over by the Capitol building! It was a long race for me since I"m not use to doing this type of thing but I loved it!!! I even beat my best time I had at the gym! At the gym my normal time for a 5K is 49 minutes, the best I've ever done it in is 47 minutes. At the race I did it in 43 minutes!! So I was happy about that! John and the kids were at the finish line waiting for me and that was awesome, he is so nice to get up so early and bring all the kids down to support me! They were giving out pink capes and Julia got one for her and me and put it on me when I crossed the finish line, she is so cute! I even have pictures of my really red sweaty face! :) Then we walked around with the kids, they had lots of booths out like an Expo and had tons of free stuff. Yoplait and Fuze drinks were major sponsors so we had lots of yogurt that day! yummy! Over by the Capitol they had complimentary snacks for everyone so we had a little picnic over there with apples, bananas, pretzels, applesauce, granola bars, lemonade and apple juice! We had fun walking around the mall enjoying everything, then we walked through the sculpture gardens on the way back to the car and headed home! We were very tired after getting up at 5am!

Amazing Memorial Weekend!

We had an incredible Memorial Weekend! John's family came down to visit and we saw so many things! Some of us were sick but we still managed to salvage the weekend! We started out going to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and watching the movie "Night at the Museum 2--Battle of the Smithsonian". We saw it on the IMAX and it was so fun to see it that big and be sitting in the museum where they filmed it, and to have seen the DC sights that day that were in the film! Julia's foot is still hurting so we got her a wheelchair, she had already done a ton of walking that day, she is a trooper! The boys loved having her in a wheelchair, she had lots of offers to be pushed around! Joey even gave up his stroller on the walk back to the car! We also went to Arlington National Cemetary, they had put flags on ALL the gravestones and it was beautiful and sad all at the same time. We were able to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and that was a neat ceremony. We did a walking tour of the war monuments that are between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, which included the World War II Memorial, the Viet Nam Wall, the Korean War wall and we saw the FDR memorial. Those were so reverent and sobering, there were tons of flowers, pictures, and stories on all the war memorials, I was so glad we were able to see those memorials on memorial weekend, we've seen them before but they meant a lot more this weekend to see all of the personal items people had left in memory. We went to Gettysburg and the town of Gettysburg was having their parade and we made it in time for that which was a pleasant suprise! They had lots of people dressed up in costume from the civil war era in the parade along with the modern day military, it was fun to watch that! We went to the Battlefield and it is huge! We drove through it and they have lots and lots of monuments for each regiment that was there and the sheer number of monuments makes you realize the large number of soldiers that were there. We also went and saw a film talking about the war and then went to a presentation at what is called a Cyclorama. It is a huge painting that was done all around a circular room. It depicts the battle of Gettysburg and the narration is really neat because different parts of the painting light up as it tells the story. It was very cool. The thing I loved about it is that it was done shortly after the Civil War and veterans of the war came and saw the exact painting we were looking at and the experience brought tears to their eyes because it was so realistic. It was amazing to think that we were looking at something a veteran of the civil war saw! So all in all it was a great weekend and I feel very blessed we were able to share it with family and pay honor to our military.

I just discovered that some of the captions are not on the right picture but I can't change it! :)

Getting Ticked and Ticked-Off!!!

Well, we aren't having anger management problems around here but we are having bug problems! :) The ticks are out in full force right now and it is unbelieveable! Usually to us "tick season" means check yourself after you've been camping or out in the forest but here we have to check every day, even for just going out in the backyard to play! Our first tick encounter was over the weekend when John came home from camping and we found one crawling on him, it hadn't attatched yet. So we got rid of it and just assumed that it had come from camping. Then the next day we were sitting on the couch and Julia starts screaming about a tick being on her and sure enough, there was one crawling on her! The boys did their brotherly part and started screaming too to make Julia even more frantic, it was lovely. So we disposed of that tick and instigated the rules for tick checks. I told everyone they were to shower every day and when they washed their hair to run their fingers over the scalp and feel for any bumps and if they found them to come tell me. So yesterday Julia was doing her homework and running her fingers through her hair and found a bump! So she came running to me and sure enough, it was a tick and this time it was attatched! She of course started freaking out again and the boys helped her, they love it when anyone gets worried over something, they definitely make the most of the situation! So I looked on the internet to see how to remove a tick, (it's not with a match or vaseline by the way) it said to call the dr. and remove it with tweezers pulling it straight up until it came off, hopefully with all it's body parts intact! Then to disinfect the would and watch for signs of Lyme disease. So we got the tick off and luckily it came off with it's head so nothing got stuck in Julia's scalp! We put neosporin on it and talked to the dr. She said the ticks around here definitely have Lyme disease most of the time so we are to watch for a ring rash around where the tick was, if that happens they put Julia on antibiotics and within the next 2-3 weeks we are to watch for signs of Lyme disease--it mimics a viral infection, fever, chills, body aches, etc... if she gets those I'm not sure what they do, I'm suppose to call! She would not be contagious though. But they do check blood tests for the Lyme disease at that point but they can't tell through blood tests for about a month after the bite. Sounds great huh?! :( The dr. also said that there are so many ticks around here that the kids can get them from being anywhere, even in the grass in the backyard, so we really do need to check every time they've been outside! The bug spray works to repel them but then you have to put that on all the time and that's not so good either. Then this morning we had the patio door open for a few minutes and we found a tick on the floor by the door, so I definitely think they are in our backyard! ugh! Now maybe that will motivate my kids to "shut the door"! when they go outside! We are also having lots of fun with "ticked off" jokes the last couple days! Julia got "ticked" yesterday and I "ticked her off" last night! :) Have a lovely day and if you don't live around ticks, enjoy it!

How many tries?!

This slide show is about getting all 4 kids to look at the camera at the same time! The spring is beautiful here and there were these trees that were full of pink flowers and I just had to get a picture of the kids in front of them! There is a really pretty neighborhood next to ours that had a row of these trees so I warned the kids that the next day we were going to take pictures after school--I have to warn them in advance so I don't have mutiny on my hands. You'd think after all the pictures I take they'd be use to it?! Well, it rained for days and I was sure the blossoms would be gone soon with all the rain and then poor Julia tripped at school and sprained/broke her foot so we had a couple days at different doctors figuring that one out. So one day it rained all day but after school it was nice so I loaded the kids in the car and drove to the spot. Then came the fun part! Julia was trying to not stand on her foot, Johnny was trying to hold Joey but he moves too much so we finally put him on Johnny's shoulders and Rodney just has way too much fun goofing off! When I can get Joey to look at the camera, all the other kids are looking at him to see if he's looking at the camera--therefore THEY are not looking at the camera! I finally get everyone to realize that I need them to look at me and not Joey, no matter what he is doing and then Joey finds that he can reach one of the branches and starts shaking it and laughing his head off! It is really very funny to be part of this photo-shoot! Joey takes the branch and starts hitting Julia in the head with it and blossoms shower down on her and Johnny---Rodney loves this part! Finally I've taken enough pictures that there HAS to be at least one I can frame so I decide to pack it up and go home! Since it has rained there is mud on everyone's shoes but who cares if we get a good picture, right? On the way home from the bus stop the next day the trees had dropped tons of their blossoms and Johnny said, hey we should make and angel so Rodney ran over and made a flower angel! It was awesome! When he got up he was soaking wet because the ground was all wet but we didn't care! The blossoms are all gone now but I have a great picture to remind us of them!

A Black Tie Event!

Here is my second post for today! John received an award for a fuel cell that was commercialized this year that he has patents on and so we got to go to North Carolina for the award ceremony! There was also a conference that he went to so he and I went for the whole week! John's mom and sister came and watched the kids and we all had a great time! The ceremony was black tie so John rented a tux and I had fun finding a dress, shoes, purse, and jewelry--it was like prom! :) I also got a pedicure that week and had my hair done, which I have never done before so that was fun. I found an outlet mall and entertained myself all day by shopping for the kids' summer clothes, the mall was huge with lots of different stores that I'd never heard of so I had a lot of fun! The weather was crazy while we were there, they had severe weather and it rained a ton, they were in a drought but this storm made up their water deficit in 2 hours--there was also a tornado warning one day and a funnel cloud the next, so that was pretty exciting! Our car broke too ( we drove) so we had to get that fixed but it was done in one day so we felt very blessed. My cousin that I haven't seen in 15 years lived close by so we met her and her husband and had dinner at a Cajun Cafe---we ate Alligator Tail! No kidding! John said it tasted like green scaly chicken! I thought it just tasted like chicken! :) Her husband works for a NASCAR driver so that was fun talking to him about that, everything out there is Nascar! The award ceremony was neat, they had pictures and a reception before hand and then the actual ceremony where they tell all of the details of what people were getting awards for, it was for the transfer of technology, where government departments get research commercialized and out on the market, which they like to do! There were lots of gov't deptartments there, the ones I remember are the departments of Energy (John's area), transportaion, defense, agriculture, NASA, health, and lots of others. The meal was good and there was tons of silverware on the table, we had a fork for everything! :) We had a really nice time and it was fun! I loved having a week off of normal life and John and I got a date every evening, we found several good restaurants! We had some seafood, brazilian BBQ and Southern BBQ, and the cajun, it was all delicious! The drive there was beautiful, everything was very green and there were tons of wildflowers growing all over. The kids were glad we came back but no one thinks they really missed us, they played with cousins all week and had Grandma taking care of them, life can't get better than that can it?! We did get lots of hugs and kisses though when we returned! So, after the Ball, the carriage has dropped the Prince and Princess off back at the castle and life happily ever after continues on!

Birthday's and Mother's Day!

Here is my first post for May! Maybe I will be good and get a couple done today, we've had a lot going on! But here's for Mother's Day! Saturday was John's birthday, Sunday Mother's Day and Monday (today) is Joey's birthday! Lots of celebrating! My plan for Mother's day food is to go to costco and buy a yummy frozen meal that is easy to make, we don't do that often so it is a treat and I don't have to do an entire production of a nice meal! So saturday Julia and I went and got an appetizer, meal and dessert for sunday. Our dessert was a big chocolate cake since we have two birthdays to celebrate also. Friday and saturday were the father son campout that the boys went on so Julia and Joey and I did the shopping on saturday, I think she had fun?! There were lots of "food ladies" doing samples at costco so that helped. One thing I have learned with kids and mother's day or my birthday is not to expect a glorious, wonderful, perfect day--it doesn't happen normally so why should it happen on a particular day just because we say so? :) I always tell them, "the only thing I want today is for you guys not to fight and to do what I ask you" they say okay and try for a little while but then the wish from their mom goes away and it turns into a normal day! Now, they are great kids but very normal and they do chores good but not instantly! Luckily I have an awesome husband that does his best to make my day wonderful! So sunday I was trying hard not to expect perfect children and we have 1 pm church so we have all day to be nice to each other before we go to church, and it's always a blessing if we actually walk into church with everyone happy! :) Mother's day started out with a migraine, I don't get them too often anymore but all the stars lined up just right and I had one sunday morning, so I took my medicine and went back to bed to try and get rid of it. John's back was kind of out since he had been camping the night before and then ran a bunch of relay races at the campout (which they did really good in and had lots of fun!) so he was staying in bed too trying to catch up on sleep and rest his back. So that leaves all 4 kids downstairs by themselves eating breakfast. That normally works pretty good, Johnny puts Joey in the highchair and feeds him and they watch church movies on sunday morning. Well, Joey had finished eating and wanted out so he was let out of his highchair. I heard this CRASH of something and then the kids were all saying "oh, no!" And I start taking inventory in my mind of what is downstairs that could have made a crash like that, and would also concern the children. Sometimes things crash and nobody cares! But they obviously cared about this crash, then after a few minutes Johnny calls up the stairs and informs us that Joey had gotten into the big huge chocolate cake and that is what had crashed and fallen to the floor! No wonder they were concerned, it was dessert! I decided NOT to go down and see the mess, I figured things would go better if I stayed upstairs! Johnny said he cleaned most of it up and John went down to check it out but I was grateful that there was a big area rug under the dining room table that got the huge chocolate smear on it and not on the actual carpet! The cake did pretty well, it didn't look so pretty anymore but it was intact and there wasn't dirt all over it so we of course still used it for dessert! Later that morning the kids brought me up wonderful homemade cards and their gifts they had made and it was so cute! That's the best part of Mother's Day is the cards the kids make and seeing what they like the most about you! In primary we have been practicing a mother's day song for the kids to sing in church on sunday and Rodney has been really good at learning it, he is at a really cute age right now. He is still a little boy but starting to act big so he doesn't like kisses all the time but he likes to bring me flowers and make me cards and pictures, he is adorable! Singing in church at his age is very loud but he is still singing which is good. A little older and the boys start not singing in primary! So Rodney has been really cute learning this mother's day song and occasionally he will sing it around the house but since he has so much energy instead of "singing" he is yelling it. But I don't mind the yelling because at least it is nice words and they are about a lovely mother! :) Yesterday morning he was jumping all around the bed yelling and singing the song for me and then he stopped for a few minutes and then the finale came: he BELCHED the entire song for me! It was quite the serenade! I couldn't believe he could belch for that long! So now I have had the experience of being belched to for mother's day! Later in church all 3 kids got up with the primary and sang the song and they did really good, at least there was no belching in church! :) After church we had our wonderful dinner, dessert and birthday party for John and watched a new church movie with the kids. So it was a great day!

Adventure Park

We spent the last day of Spring Break at an awesome park that is less than a mile from our house! It was the first time I had taken the kids there and we had a blast! The weather was perfect and we even found a bunch of daffodils in bloom, they were beautiful. Most of the daffodils around here just bloom up through the grass in big patches and there are several different color combinations, it is really cool! We stayed for a long time and then headed home around dinner time, it was the perfect end to our time off from school!

Spring Break!

Hello! I'm back on attempting to keep up with ourselves! :) We took the kids to an amusement park for spring break, had to add some excitement to our historical lessons! :) Busch Gardens Europe is about 3 hours from here and it was a great park. We stayed there for 3 days, two nice days and one rainy! But the rainy day paid off because there were NO lines and we got to ride anything we wanted as many times as we wanted! The day did turn sunny in the afternoon and the park was still uncrowded so that was a great day! The kids loved the big roller coasters, John took Johnny and Julia on the really big ones and I hung out with Rodney and Joey. There were a lot of big roller coasters that Rodney could go on so halfway through the day John would come get Rodney to join their group. Joey and I saw all the shops and found the cute kiddie rides! They had a Land of the Dragons for little kids and a Sesame Street park that was really cute. I took turns going on the big roller coasters with the kids too but I"m happy going once or twice and then I turn the honors back over to John! There was a really big roller coaster there called The Griffon and it takes you up 205 feet almost straight up, levels out, then hangs you out over a drop off for 4 seconds before you plunge straight down, then go through a loop and continue on a death defying ride! Needless to say, I only went on that once and will probably never go on it again! John, Julia and Johnny on the other hand loved it and went on it 11 times, being in the front row 5 times! Crazy. Rodney's claim to fame was winning the near-impossible ring toss and we adopted a huge blue gorilla to take home! It wouldn't fit in the car so we had to move things from the trunk to fit it in back there! Joey loved most of the little rides, we took him on a couple kid roller coasters and they scared him but he had fun on the other things. The gardens there were beautiful, lots of tulips and pansies so that was fun to see spring! We had a really enjoyable time and today it was back to school! :)

Playing Catch-Up!

Hello! Well, I haven't been as diligent with my blog as I'd like! We are so busy on the weekends that I have to play "catch-up" all week long it seems! Today in the next 1/2 hour before kids get home I need to go do yesterday's dishes--I decided Family Home Evening was more important than doing the dishes (not a hard choice!) so there are lots of dishes to do. And of course I need to clean up after Joey, there is lucky charms and dried macaroni and cheese all over the kitchen floor than I need to clean up and then mop. That doesn't count the piles of clean laundry up in my bedroom or the growing pile of dirty laundry! :) BUT the kids did get to school on time today with lunches and I went to the gym so that has to count for something! Maybe after I clean the kitchen I can figure out dinner too, that's coming up pretty soon! I need to do this fast because when the kids get home they will be hungry and have homework to do and also want to play! I hope you all are having a great week, I need to read up on your blogs to catch up with you too!
Valaney :)

How many seconds to get home?!

I just love the phases our children go through! :) Currently Rodney is in the counting state, our older kids have all done this and this phase lasts quite a long time! But it's great for figuring out numbers. The counting phase is that they always want to know how long it takes to do things or get somewhere, they also want to count EVERYTHING. He counts the stairs in buildings, the silverware and cups when doing the dishes, the steps when we're walking, and the seconds when we're driving! On the drive home from school this morning, Rodney just started counting for no reason and continued all the way home. (He is home sick today with a high fever but still up and around with medicine) When we pulled into the driveway he announced "it takes us 200 seconds to get home"! In reality it takes us longer but he didn't start counting right away. It was an interesting ride home for me, wondering what in the world he was counting, having Joey jabbering away in the background---my attempt at listening to music ended real fast! Then the counting was interspersed with things like, "I"m going to be a bad driver when I grow up because I crash a lot on car video games." And "what day is today", "what are we doing tomorrow", "I'm going to miss PE today" and all sorts of other observations and questions! That's why it only took us 200 seconds to get home! My favorite is when I get asked how far away we are from home and I answer "5 minutes, but you can't count it!" because there have been times when I've said that and then he starts counting and is planning on counting out loud the whole way home. I have to draw the line there! I can handle a couple hundred seconds in countdown but not that many! That of course doesn't stop them from looking at the clock to see how close I am to my estimate of getting home, I'm getting pretty good at estimating times around here. They also all know about speed limit signs and my spedometer, so if I ever go over that magic number they'll let me know-- Thank goodness I don't speed or that would bother me! :) Rodney is really good with numbers so this is sometimes a fun thing to experience, he is always adding things together and getting it right, I think he might have some of his Dad's math talent! So that is all for right now, I've been informed of how many minutes I've been on here (someone is watching me) so maybe I should go be productive now?! Oh, by the way, it only takes 30 seconds to make a bed so why are the beds still unmade? :)

The 8th World Wonder!

This of course is my Valentine's Day post so I get to be mushy! :) We had a wonderful Valentine's Day up in New York with John's family, John and I went out to dinner to one of our favorite places, The Century Manor. That is where we went for our first anniversary dinner! It is a beautiful place and they serve wonderful food! They had a pianist there, Carol Swenson that played on "The Love Boat" TV show for 12 years! So that was a treat to hear her play all evening. After dinner we went to a movie, Confessions of a Shopaholic which made my husband appreciate all the shopping I don't do! It was a pretty good chick flick! The slide show I've made shows all the ways that John is wonderful, he is an amazing husband, father, brother, friend, etc..... I think he is perfect! He does so many things but always makes time for his family and is completely dedicated to the Lord, which is the most important thing! We couldn't be more blessed to have him in our lives! We have so much fun together and life is wonderful! He definitely is the "8th World Wonder"! :)

The Documents of Freedom

We went to the National Archives the beginning of December and it was amazing! They were doing some cleaning/upkeep on the building so there was scaffolding all on the front and I took pictures because it was so huge! Also it was interesting that there was a line of workers all the way up the middle and they were handing poles one at a time up over their head to the worker above them, it was really cool to watch! We got inside and there were tons of maps and documents from before we were officially a country and that was fun to see the different boundaries for things, also neat to see the original old documents and treaties. Then we went to the main Rotunda and had to wait in line about 20 minutes because they only let so many people into the viewing area at a time to see the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Outside the Rotunda while we waited they had a display of the Magna Carta and that was an exhibit which is fairly new. I had no idea what this document was before now but in a nutshell it is the contract the King over in England would sign saying he would follow certain laws to be fair to the people. This was the basis for the revolution of the colonists over here, among other things they thought were unfair. The King was not upholding the Magna Carta that he had signed and so the law was being broken. This document dates back to the 13th century! It was very enlightening to learn about it and see the original! In the Rotunda we could only take pictures without a flash and the lights were not that great for picture taking, as you can see! These pictures were actually BLACK on my camera and I've been able to lighten them enough to kind of see who is in them! :) The Constitution is in the cases under the yellow lights (you can see those good in the pictures!) and then The Declaration and Bill of Rights is in cases next to it. There were also documents and photos leading up to and after those points in history that were in the Rotunda that we got to look at while we waited in line to see the documents. I still can't believe we looked at the real thing!! It is really awe inspiring to see the beginnings of this country and what people went through to give us what we have today. Our kids thought is was pretty neat although I'm sure they think it's mostly cool because it was like a "National Treasure" moment! We love those movies! :) After the Rotunda we got to go into the section where they have some of the declassified documents and saw some of the classified things from the past wars, they had a lot of hands on exhibits there for the kids and they got to read spy things and make movies from real war clips and watch it on a big screen. We had a great day and even the elevator was cool because the Declaration of Independance was engraved inside the door!

PS Here is a link for the Magna Carta that tells more about it--very awesome!
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured_documents/magna_carta/

The National Archives Pictures!

Sledding on the Floor!

Okay, I figured I'd better post on here again before I get out of the habit! Not being able to download new pics kind of puts a kink in things! Maybe next week we will get out and get our computer thing figured out. I think I might have some christmas pics I haven't posted so I'll have to check that out. Everything is going good here, actually today I am sick and so is Rodney but tomorrow should be better. The kids have been passing this thing around and it's only a matter of time before the MOM gets it! Being around the sick kids all day and not getting very much sleep at night is enough to overpower anyone! Oh well. We had some snow and an ice storm last week, the kids were out of school 3 1/2 days, we loved it! I love it when my kids get to stay home and play! We have a hill in our backyard that is good for sledding but they don't get that much snow around here so when it snowed we didn't have a sled and there was no way I was going to go drive and get one that day, there is a reason they cancel school! So I decided we could have an adventure and find something to make a sled--I was thinking cardboard and garbage bags! :) So I went to the basement to attack all our moving boxes and find the perfect cardboard to sled on. WELL, I found something better! Scraps of vinyl flooring (linoleum)!! There were a couple pieces that were rectangle shaped and very much scrap pieces so I brought them up and showed them to my kids and told them to sled with the vinyl side down and it was the best thing EVER!!! They were going so fast and stayed out there for about 2 hours! I think the flooring worked better than a sled would have since we really didn't have that much snow! Then the next day the ice storm hit and covered everything with a nice layer of slick ice---very awesome for sliding on! John's work was canceled that day too so we had a family sledding party and it was so fun, John and I would hold Joey and go down with him and we had a blast! We even had one of our babysitters come over with her siblings the next day and ask if the kids wanted to play and so we told her what we were doing and they loved it! Even the teenagers were having fun, you wouldn't believe how fast they were going! They played that day for another two hours, it was great! The flooring broke up eventually because it gets so brittle when it's frozen but it lasted long enough. We did have one injury, on Rodney's face of course. That kid has bad luck with his face and injuries! He fell off his sled and face-planted in the ice and it cut him on the cheek and above the eyebrow, poor little kid! But it's looking better now and almost gone. Two weeks ago he was running through the kitchen, slipped and hit his lip on a bar stool and got a really bad fat lip. His two times with stitches have also been on his eyebrow (the same one)--like I say--bad luck with face owies!! I own several tubes of neosporin and I"m trained in first aid!! :)
Well, that's about it for now! Have a wonderful Monday and week!

PS I just finished a really good book, it's a short good read! The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck. very uplifting, John and I both liked it and now Johnny is reading it next!

Take Time to Smell the Flowers!

"God gave us memory so we could smell the roses in December" It's not December anymore but it's still cold for a while so enjoy images of warm spring and summer from years past!

Salt or No Salt?

Okay, I must get some votes on this! I like salty foods, John does not so I only put salt in my food. I've heard several other instances where the woman likes salt and the man does not. Anyone else out there want to give me a little survey of who likes the salt in your house? :)

Does the Tooth Fairy dig through garbage?!

Here's the story: Rodney lost his second little tooth last week and was so excited! The first one was more exciting but he is still new to this so the excitement still runs high! He actually pulled out his tooth, it didn't involve me at all, it was quite suprising. So, he liked this little tooth so much he wanted to keep it. I said that would be fine, he could give it to the tooth fairy whenever he wanted. So we got a little snack baggie and it was put safely on his shelf. Well a few days ago he was playing with it, and probably deciding when it was worth it to give it up for a dollar! The next thing I know is that little tooth is lost! I had been cleaning and was not watching out for the snack baggie with the nearly invisilbe little tooth in it! Since I didn't know the tooth was missing I wasn't checking garbage before I threw it away and had no idea if it was in the garbage or not. Rodney searched all over the house and I promised him we would go dig through the garbage soon--this all happened right before it was time to go to school of course! So we had to get out the door, that's when anything will get promised just to get the kids to school on time! It was garbage day so I promised not to put the garbage out until we had checked the garbage inside it. So a few days go by and I mention to several people around here that they should go help Rodney find his tooth and hoping that someone else would dig through the stinky garbage! No such luck! Tonight after the kids went to bed I gave in and decided to dig through the garbage, garbage day is on monday again and we can't wait through another one! Unfortunately this story has a sad ending because even though I looked through every piece of slimy garbage and checked lots of used snack baggies I did not find the precious little tooth! So now the next stage is to let Rodney know it's up to him to find it in the house! The things the tooth fairy does for the sweet little children! :)

5 Things Tag--I got tagged! So fun! :)

5 things I was doing 5 years ago:
*Didn't have wrinkles!
*Only had 3 children
*Getting ready to buy our first house!
*Traveled to Coeur d'Alene every other week
*Weight Watchers

5 Things on my to do list for today:
*Keep Joey's fever down by keeping medicine on schedule
*Take a nap with Joey--up late and early with him
*Look at the laundry to be folded--I'm sure it won't actually get folded! :)
*Prepare Primary lesson
*Call my mom :)

5 things I would do with a million dollars:
*Get completely out of debt
*give to charity/church
*stock up retirement accounts
*help family members
*Go on a Disney Cruise!

5 Places I have lived:
*Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
*Provo, Utah
*Laie, Hawaii
*Mansfield, Ohio
*Alfred, New York

5 jobs I have held:
*Housecleaner (in high school, my own house doesn't show it too often!)
*Cashier at hardware store
*Post Office person
*Teacher at Missionary Training Center
*Data entry at a bank

5 People I tag:
Dana
Katie
Dedra
Jackson
Becky

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation! We just got back after two weeks up at John's parents house in New York state. They live about a hour and a half south of Buffalo. They had some snow but not too much so the kids had fun playing in it. We were able to visit with cousins and aunts and uncles. All of John's siblings live up there in the same area so everyone was home for the holidays! We took the kids ice skating and to a movie, played in the snow, made fudge and lots of yummy recipes. Some new recipes and some old favorites that are family traditions! We played lots of games, card games, board games, video games--anything you can think of! Some of us got sick but we survived! It was a really nice time and we feel so blessed that we are able to have this time to spend with John's family, we don't ususally get to see them this much! I have lots of pictures of course but I don't know if I can download them. My sweet husband has informed me that my pictures have used up most of the space on our hard drive! Who knew you could actually do that? Well, thousands of pictures apparently do! Sooo we are going to get another external hard drive to transfer the pictures to! He is so nice to me! :) So it might be a few days before I download new pictures, we don't really know what happens when you max out the hard drive space, there is only 2GB left and my camera card is 2GB! Well, I'll catch up more later but I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!!!!