Holy Cow!

I think this picture is funny, I'm sure the poor guy is scared out of his mind!
Some of my family are coming up this week. My twin sister and her family will be staying with us. The spare bedroom has been a disaster since we turned it into a play room. The kids throw the toys everywhere and I just shut the door so I don't see the mess. So with them coming I needed to get it livable. Today I had the kids go through and say which toys should be sent to DI and then organized the bins. I was shocked how much junk there was. I was even more surprised at how many dinosaurs they have, 26.
Every time we go to the fun park they turn in their tickets for those dinky plastic dinosaurs. Oh well...at least the room is now clean for them to use this weekend! Hope your all having an excellent Monday!

FOOD FRENZY FRIDAY

So this morning I had another Doctors appointment. Its always nice to hear the babies heart beat but its not so fun to get the other exam part done. Every time I have those exams I think of the joke where the mom forgot that she had an appointment. She rushed to clean herself up by grabbing the first wash cloth she found in a bathroom. Sprayed some perfume and off she went. She thought it was strange that her doctor would say "Wow, looks like someone has been taking care of herself" during the exam. She later found that it was her teenage daughters makeup wash cloth she used which was caked with glitter. How embarrassing would that be! It's embarrassing enough to try and cover your bottom half with those nice paper gowns he he.
Here is this weeks recipe: Sausage Hash brown Breakfast Bake. I actually haven't tried this yet. I got it from my sister this week, it sounds yummy. I've tried many breakfast bakes that sound similar to this one. We like to have breakfast for dinner so I may just do this tonight.
Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups frozen shredded hash browns
1 lb sausage cooked
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
6 eggs beaten
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp. dried mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Directions:
Grease a 9x13 pan. Place hash browns in pan, sprinkle with sausage and cheese. Combine milk, salt, pepper, and mustard. Poor evenly over casserole. Cover and refrigerate at least two hours or overnight. Take out of refrigerator at least 20 min. before baking. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 min. I hope there's leftovers so I can make a breakfast burrito with it tomorrow umm :)

Just a reminder that if you try a recipe, let me know on the most recent post. I never go back to check the older ones. Anyway, I hope you all have a great Friday!

How do you Relax?

I completely wore myself out yesterday. I don't know if it was since I was in the sun so much but my body is shutting down. I think it's trying to tell me to slow down. I walked with Tina at 6 am, made breakfast, mowed the lawn, watered it, went to swimming lessons with the kids, babysat Olivia, made lunch, did the laundry, mopped the floor, made dinner, went to the Library and the grocery store etc...you know all the things between from changing diapers to playing with the kids. That night I put the kids to bed and then headed to bed myself. I was so weak. I even turned down ice cream which I'm sure shocked Kevin. I slept in the next day and didn't feel the same energy I usually have. My fear is that if I slow down, I'll stop. I fear that if things don't get done that day, that they will never get done. Really, who is going to do it if I don't? If the kids wake up in the night I have a hard time getting back to sleep because my to do list runs through my head. Maybe I need to do some relaxation exercises or something. I usually relax in front of the TV with a box of ice cream on my lap. I'm sure that's not healthy or real relaxation. My question is what do you do to relax? Do you meditate? Deep Breath? What works for you? Any suggestions?

Tagged

Luke was tagged by his friend Matthew- 10 things about him

1. His nickname is Lukie Ookie
2. His favorite phrase right now is "your not the boss of me" (he has learned not to say this to Mommy and Daddy)
3. He has a soft heart (if I raise my voice to much he breaks down and cries)
4. He is our family clown, he will do anything to make someone laugh!
5. He likes to take medicine (even if it's not his)
6. He plays well with his siblings
7. He has lots of energy that bubbles out into a loud scream periodically
8. He knows the first Article of Faith word for word
9. He still takes naps....sometimes three hours long
10. He's so darn cute, I always want to give him hugs and kisses!
We love you Luke! Thanks for being a part of our family!

Our flight back

Today was our first day for swimming lessons. They opened up a new class for water babies so I was able to get Jacob in too. I'm in that stage where I don't need a maternity swimming suit but I can't fit in my old one grrrr..... Anyway I'll have to post some pictures for that later. Here is a picture of the kids with Bob and Larry. There was a Veggie Tales show we went to at Silver Dollar City. Now I will share our lovely experience coming home from Missouri. It's nice to hear others struggle with kids. At least it always makes me feel better to know others go through what we do. So hopefully someone will walk away feeling good after reading this. The night before we left, Luke had thrown up. The next day he didn't want breakfast and once again threw up. Great...the day we go on a plane with a bunch of other people and have a four hour drive to the airport. So we packed a bunch of garbage sacks. He ate lunch just fine so we thought we were home free. Danika a little while after started screaming that she was going to throw up. We are in the middle of nowhere! We pull off the road and she says she needs to go to the bathroom...joy. So we try to block her and she has diarrhea...great, I always keep a fresh roll of TP in a rental car. Thankfully, we didn't have tummy problems 'til our flight from Phoenix to Utah. We grabbed some pizza and well it didn't sit well with Luke. Thank goodness for barf bags! Here is a picture of him after that, it just took it all out of him (no pun intended). I think the worst, was the baby so overly tired that he screamed for 45 minutes. I had to apologize to the people around us. I was about to cry when a guy told us we were the most patient parents he had ever seen. Oh and I believe they should make a baby changing table for airplanes. One year old's do not fit on toilet seats! We landed at 10:30 pm and made it home at 1 in the morning. The next morning Andrew woke up and asked "Mom, what is this?" pointing to crusty dried stuff on this PJ's. "Oh isn't that great....that's throw up sweetheart."

More Pictures

Thanks for all the congrats on the last post, I really appreciate having all you guys as friends. Its always nice to know your not alone in mothering. We are excited but I'm nervous, Angie I might be calling you for advice on five. Well, I guess I already do laundry everyday so whats one more child going to change, bring it on he he. I'm due November 29th since I didn't post that before. Thanks again guys!
Here is one with Kevin tubing with his brother Matt. Its amazing how much they look like each other. Kevin is on the bottom.This picture shows a better view of geyser gulchSee Tina, the kids did get wetThis is a picture of part of circus on ice. I thought it was amazing that they could skate on those stilt skates.This was taken at the Hunts condo. They had a great play area for the kids with a miniature golf course. Ahhhh the happy couple he he. (Man I need a tan!)

Okay Okay WERE PREGO!

That's the secret, I guess its not a secret anymore. I wanted to wait till I could tell people if we were having a boy or a girl but when you are on child number five your belly starts to protrude by the first week he he. Sorry Stephanie, we thought we should let ma and pa know first. I guess she has told a lot of people because when Kevin called Grandpa Smith on Fathers Day he already knew. We will let you know what we are having, I go in for the ultrasound on July 8th. Of course I'm hoping for a girl and so is Danika but as long as he/she is healthy I'm happy. Although the Chinese gender chart says girl he he. Okay onto more pictures from our trip. This first one is of the kids on a ride, Grandpa is in front with Danika and in the third car Uncle Matt is with Andrew. Skip one more car and you can see Grandma with Lukie.They had a section dealing with just water. It was awesome! The kids could shoot, pump, run and play.
This is one with some of the family. It sure was great to see everyone. I have more pictures but I'll post a little at a time so I don't make the posts too long.

Our Trip

We had a great time on our trip. The flight there was great, the kids did awesome. Jacob fell asleep for the first half which made it really nice. The trip back was uhhh... not so great, that's probably a whole other post in itself. It was a bit of a pain to carry all the luggage and car seats. We had Danika and Andrew carry theirs. We didn't know that you could rent car seats from car rental companies...so I guess we will know for next time. It was amazing the looks we got from people at the airport. Looks that seemed to say "Are all those your kids?" Then we got the random old couple telling us they were cute and that we were brave. This next picture is of the kids with their cousins Joseph and McKayla at the entrance to Silver Dollar City. We bought season passes so we could come and go as we pleased which was nice, plus our condo was only a few minutes away.I'll post more pictures from the trip later. Hope your all having a fabulous Monday. Oh and Tayli, yep its true.

T-Ball

The kids are starting up T-ball again. Danika is old enough to be in coaches pitch but I feel better having her in the same class with Andrew. Andrew would actually do better at coaches pitch than Danika, he already hits a Daddy's pitch. This will probably be my last post for a few weeks. We are heading out Wednesday morning, I feel so unprepared, but do you ever feel ready when taking a trip with kids?Doesn't Andrew look so excited!Ahh that's better.