Update in Pictures...in random order :)

I fell down the stairs last week.  I had just woke up from a nap and wasn't quite awake.  It was rather shocking to find myself at the bottom of the stairs when I had just been at the top.  I sat on the floor for several minutes while Aaron told me just get up and "walk it off".....compassion is not his strong suit.  Anyway, this bruise is on the top of my thigh on the side/back of my leg just below my bum.  I also have a nasty bruise on my arm just below my elbow.  I guess I just feel glad I didn't break my hip....I am getting up there in age :)

Joe wearing a few of my buttons.  I have quite a collection now!  I try to order buttons every time my kids do a show. 

On the first day of Spring Break I took the kids to have lunch (and a treat) at Sam's Club.  It was fun.  Megan was there too, she just wasn't in the picture.  Matthew got to go to California where he did not take any pictures of his adventures :( 

This picture was taken at the Friday night show of Beauty and the Beast.  There were so many people there that it took like 20 minutes for everyone to be able to get out of the auditorium!

My dad is famous now.  His name is the first one under the Castle Level on this banner.  He donated a very generous amount to North Star Theatre's production of Beauty and the Beast.  He's super cool like that!

So, I always knew I wanted to try having really short hair at some point when I grew older  It came a little sooner than I planned but now that I have it I think I'm going to keep it like this.  It's soooooo easy to do and I never have to worry about it getting messed up in the wind or having to use a flatiron.  It's awesome!  Maybe I will let it go the natural gray that it is.....but not yet...not ready for that yet! 

On Valentines Day I came out from work to find that my van had been given a heart attack.  It was hard to get good pics but there were streamers hanging down from the ceiling and stickers everywhere.  Thanks honey!  It's nice when that romantic part of you comes out to play. 

feeling loved on Valentines Day

Beauty and the Beast was the last show for Megan's High School theatre career.  She was the stage manager and did an awesome job!  She is a very talented actress and I'm really glad I got to see her in a couple really fun roles (the principal in Grease and Mrs Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) but her true love is being bossy....she's really good at it.  She gets lots of practice at home.  :)  She is planning to move to Utah right after she graduates.  I'm going to miss her....but I don't think she will miss me, she's too excited to be out on her own. 

One of the very fun things the North Star kids did for a fund raiser is have a tea party before the Saturday Matinee of Beauty and the Beast.  Hannah was so super excited that she got to participate in this.  She got her picture taken with Belle and the Beast and then had tea (lemonade) and cupcakes with all the characters.  She also made a tiny tea cup, which you can see in the next picture and she got a light up rose to turn on during the last song in the play.  It was really fun!

Josh came to see the last show.  He also auditioned for the show at Pinewood Bowl (they are doing Shrek the Musical this summer).  He got a call back and the part of Shrek was between him and two other men and even though he thought he wouldn't do the show if he didn't get the part of Shrek he decided to accept the part of one of the three little pigs.  I'm super excited that he will be living at home this summer while he works and does the play. 

I really wanted a good pic of the kids all looking at the camera and all having cute faces.....Megan was not cooperating and then a couple of her friends photo bombed. 

Hannah is super proud of her teacup. We could not find Matthew anywhere to be in these pictures.  We found out later that he was up on the catwalk which is where he was during all of the performances of the plays, he was in charge of the flies...he really likes doing tech for theatre. 

Zacharoni

It's Funny how kids are born and right away you can see little pieces of their personalities.   I have so many funny memories of Zack.  He loved doors!  I mean he had an obsession with opening them and then closing them.  Cupboard doors and doors to rooms.  When he figured out how to open the sliding glass door he would constantly open it...wave goodbye to me, go outside, close it and then start the whole process over and over again.  This was a precursor to his naturally curious nature....always wondering what's "behind the door".  Later on..when he could talk he would constantly ask questions...so many!!  I would always try to answer them, he really wanted to know pretty much everything.  His favorite thing to say was "cause why" before every question.  I can remember his Aunt Michelle driving him home from one of family camping trips and she couldn't believe all the questions he asked all the way home.  I still find myself saying "cause why" before I ask a question, it became a staple in our family language.  

I can also remember him interacting with his cousin, Stephanie.  He would take a toy she was playing with just so he could watch her react.  He didn't even really want the toy...he just wanted to see the "show".  She would get so mad....her whole body would shake....he usually would end up getting hit or bit but apparently this was worth seeing the "show".  He didn't really do things until he was pretty sure he knew he could do them....he would sit back and watch and then make a conscious choice to do things.  

I see these same things in him as an adult...yes, he's an adult now....it's so hard to put my head around that!  He's still curious.  He still likes to sit back and watch.  I think he still likes to get reactions from people and "watch the show".  He's probably one of the funniest people I know.  I can't even tell you how much I miss him.  He's in college now and lives three states away.  Sometimes I ache for those annoying questions and his cute red hair and that freckled face.  I miss all the times he wanted to hang out with me and listen to me gossip with my girlfriends.  I miss the times we had adult conversations before he was even an adult.  I can't tell you how much I miss those early mornings we did a paper route together and he made me laugh and laugh when he would run to the doors.  I miss his hugs that feel like a hug and a shove all at the same time.  I miss his laugh and his smile.  Sometimes it's so sad and yet so wonderful when kids grow up.  I'm so excited for him and what lays in store for him.  He's so talented and such an awesome person.  I'm so glad I'm his mom and always will be!  

With Aunt Michelle at Sweet Tomatoes

Ice Cream time at Ivanna Cone

Oldest and Youngest

My sweet boy

Joshy

We bought a leash for Josh when he was little.  We were going on a trip to Disneyland and I knew from a few experiences that he was a wanderer.  He never really thought of the consequences,  if something looked interesting he went off to explore.  He never seemed upset about being "lost". He'd look at me and say "oh hi mom...look what I found" as I stood there looking at him tears in my eyes and feeling absolute relief that I found him.  Too bad you can't put a leash on your "adult/teen" kids.  Well, I suppose you could but you might go to jail.  Anyway, I can remember the exact moment I realized I had lost complete control over what my teenagers do and say.  It was one of the sickest, most sinking feelings I've ever felt.  I knew "my say" was over and theirs had just begun.  I realize there are teens out there who do what their parents want and expect....I just haven't gotten any of those (yet....hopefully?)

So, Josh....I just can't tell you how much I enjoy his company.  He's a very sweet, very intelligent young man.  He's struggled this past year or so...and I think he's still struggling some, but not as much.  Just trying to figure himself out and what he wants in life.  He hasn't made the choices I would of made for him and guess what?  I still love him...I'm still proud of him and I'm still rooting for him!

He's going to school in Kearney Nebraska.  He's studying theatre performance at UNK.  He's a pretty talented actor, even though I'm bias he really is quite talented  :)

Aaron and I got to go out to Kearney and see him in a couple plays and that was pretty cool.  He's made some really good friends this year also.  I know next year he and some of his friends are hoping to move into a house and share the rent.  He is auditioning for a few different plays this summer, so we shall see if he gets any roles.

He's a pretty great guy...I love him dearly   

Megan

a cheesy selfie

Mrs Gloop and her mom

A picture taken at the DMV...she was annoyed with me :/

What can I say about Megan.  She's ready to get the heck out of Dodge and pretty much never misses an opportunity to tell me so.  She graduates this year and plans to move to Utah (insert jealous face here).  She's going to live with my sister for a year (again, insert jealous face here) and then move down to St George and go to school at Dixie State.  She's had this planned for years and I have no doubt she will accomplish this goal. 

There are many things I admire about Megan.  She's independent and sure of herself.  When she puts her mind to something she figures out a way to make it happen.  She's beautiful. 

She has had a great Senior year so far.  She is also a theatre junkie...my kids all love theatre.  She played Mrs Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and now she is stage manager for Beauty and the Beast...she also was the Stage Manager for North Stars One Act play.  She likes being on stage but I think organizing and bossing people around is her true calling.  She really likes that! 

She likes to wear flip flops all the time!!  She even wears them in the snow.  She does own closed toe shoes and wears them sometimes but her true love is being barefoot and flip flops are the next best thing. 
She saved up her money and bought a laptop (she loves playing on it).  She also went in on a car with her dad...he's using it right now but as soon as he finds one he wants and can afford she will have her own car. 

She goes to early morning Seminary and is the Pres of her Laurels class at Church.  She promises me she will get involved in Singles Ward while in Utah and I really hope she does. 

The one thing I hope for her...well, I hope many things for her, but the one thing I really really hope for her is that she will someday understand being compassionate.  She is so strong willed and minded that I think that's something she doesn't think is so important...I also really hope she will someday like me more.  I know many of my friends have these great and wonderful relationships with their daughters....I have really tried for that, but alas Megan thinks I've tried too hard and she pushes me away at every turn.  She and I do have fun together sometimes but most of the time I think she's just annoyed with me. 

I love her dearly and I'm very proud of her. 

Matthew not Matt

His braces should come off soon!!  woo hoo!

When we decided on Matthew's name, before he was born, Aaron and I both agreed that we liked the name Matthew but not the name Matt.  So, from the time he was born we have always called him Matthew, except for when we called him "Chewey" (a nickname he got from Megan;  she could not say Matthew so she called him Matchew and it ended up chewey).  I'm actually sad that we no longer call him Chewey :(.  Anyway....we all call him Matthew now, everyone in our family.....but everyone outside our family call him Matt.  It sounds so very foreign when people refer to him as Matt.  I think Matthew doesn't mind it at all.
He's a pretty easy going kid.

He's 15 now...and getting soooo tall!  I swear last year at this time he was still shorter than me and now he's taller that Megan and Josh and I think he's just about as tall as Aaron.  He is so handsome too.

He really likes doing tech for North Star Theatre.  He likes being up above the ceiling doing the flies (controlling all the stuff that comes down from the ceiling during a show).  He likes building things too.  I really think he also loves all the friendships he has through theatre too...it's his at school family.

He LOVES being a ginger...he's pretty proud of that big ole thick head of red hair.  He has about the thickest head of hair I've ever seen or felt...that boy has a TON of hair!!  When it grows out it looks like a mushroom shape...so I like it when he keeps it short.  :)

Out of all of my kids I can honestly say  he's the most willing helper.  I know I take advantage of this way more than I should.  He will just about always jump up and help me when I ask him to do something...until I ask one too many times and he'll say "how come I always have to do it!"  And I think to myself  "because you will".  He won't give me hugs in public though and that truly makes me sad.  He does hug me when no one else is looking though....

He likes video games and watching TV.  He's started to hang out with friends more often and he tells me he likes girls but won't give me names.  I can't believe he's almost old enough to date!!  AHHHHH!

He's a wonderful young man...except when he fights with Joe...come on!!  Joe is 5 years younger than him and it's really not a fair fight!  He is pretty respectful most of the time.  He loves Scouts and camping!  He passes the Sacrament at Church and holds the microphone for baby blessings...it's nice to see him up there.  I've had many people in our ward recently tell me how grown up he's looking.  A few people have mentioned how much he looks like Zack....well, they are brothers :)

 After High School he plans to go on a Mission and then join the Military.  I'm excited to see what's in store for him...I love him just so very much!

Joe Henry

snuggling with Hannah

helping make cookies

Joseph is growing up...I remember when he was so little and just a fierce ball of fire.  Well, he's still pretty fierce and the ball of fire part is still going on most of the time too!. 

He's 10 now and is in 4th grade.  He's kinda fazing out of his super hero craze, which actually saddens me some.  He still likes them but just not as much as he used to.  He loves to build things with legos.  He LOVES to draw and is working on his 4th sketch book.  he especially likes to draw comic book like drawings and monsters and even super heroes.  He also loves to play video games (big surprise).  He doesn't like to do homework.  He even lies about not having any. 

Some very exciting news is that he is going to play Chip in North Star's production of Beauty and the Beast.  He's pretty excited about that!  Megan was not excited about it...LOL!  She feels like he is intruding upon her world.  The rest of the kids are very happy he's there and treat him as one of them...which is very cool for him. 

Joe continues to have struggles with behavior.  He's just sweetest boy sometimes but there is the flip side to that and it can come out like a vengeance at any given moment. I was explaining his "explosions" to a friend of mine and she commented that he is "very justice oriented" and I thought that was a perfect explanation.  That is almost always what sets him off...when he thinks he there is some injustice occurring and he can't "fix" it.  He is working on it and really does continue to improve and in the mean time he's learned how to give very heart felt apologies. 

He still loves to snuggle with me and for that I am more thankful than I can express.  Having little ones around at the same time there are teenagers living in the home can be very therapeutic.  It's so good for this mom's soul to still get some loving when half the kids are not into that anymore. 

Joe has quite a wonderful sense of humor too.  He likes telling jokes and hearing them too.  He truly is my sweet boy and I love him so dearly.  He is very tender hearted.  He loves Hannah so much and even though he sometimes teases her and fights with her he loves to play with her and even snuggle with her (sometimes).

 

Hannah Banana 8 years old!

Hannah on her baptism day

beautiful girl

I really started to think about how fast time is flying on by and how bad my memory is getting.  I know I used to have a really good memory and could remember many details.  I don't know if it's stress or age or maybe some of both but I just don't remember things like I used to.  So, I need to write here on my blog more often.  I know I will be glad to have a record of things later on.

Hannah has been really cute lately.  She's just at a really fun age.  She still loves to snuggle (I know this will be going away sooner than I think or want).  She's really starting to discover the world around her and realize there's much more going on than just what happens in her own world.  She really enjoys telling me about her day in great detail and I enjoy her telling me....for I know soon enough she will get irritated with me just for asking how her day was.  She is so pretty and I just love her dearly.  She is growing her hair long and it's so much fun to play with right now.

On Saturday she really wanted to go get stuff to make her valentines for school.  So I told her she better help me put my shoes and socks on...I was really being lazy and she was more than willing to do that for me.  She got out my shamrock socks and put them on and then put my shoes on for me.... I told her she better get used to that because when I'm an old woman she will have to do it all the time.  :).  I then asked her if she'd change my diaper when I'm old and she told me right away that would be Joe's job.  LOL. She then "assigned" all of her siblings with jobs to help take care of me when I'm old:
Zacky will drive me around to "all the stores"
Matthew will make me breakfast, lunch and dinner and dessert (I'm glad I'll get dessert)
Joshy will take naps with me.
And my favorite one is that Megan will "cheer" me up.  After she told me that she paused for a couple seconds and then said "she's not going to like that very much, but she will have to cheer you up even if she's the one who made you sad".  LOL!  

Then, on the way to JoAnns to get paper and supplies for valentines she asked me "Why are chicken nuggets called nuggets".  I said "because they are shaped like a "nugget".  She wanted to know what a nugget is and I realized it's really hard to explain what a nugget is...so I said like a nugget of gold..shaped kinda like a hunk of something it's shaped kinda like a circle or a square and she said "Or a dinosaur"....which I laughed about.  She told me sometimes chicken nuggets are shaped like dinosaurs....which I suppose they are.  We then talked about how nuggets and strips are different from each other.  I love that she thinks about these things.  I want her to feel free to talk to me about anything so if chicken is the subject of conversation, I'll take it!

Some of things she loves right now are singing, especially the song "do you want to build a snowman" from the movie Frozen.  She also loves playing with her stuffed animals and playing with legos with Joe.  She really loves Joe so much right now.  She likes riding her scooter.  She loves school and playing with her friends at school.  They pretend to be dogs at recess alot.  Some of her favorite foods right now are spaghetti and she loves tostadas.  She doesn't like to clean her room...at all.  she is quite the hoarder actually and it truly amazes me how fast she fill it back up with clutter after I declutter it.

So, there are some things about my sweet Hannah girl.  Oh, she told me the other day that she loves her name because it rhymes with banana and she loves bananas.  She's just a really happy girl most of the time...she can throw a mean tantrum though....

Christmas Greetings and New Year hopes

We had a wonderful Christmas.  I big gigantic thank you to my sister, Jenny and my dad, without them it would not have been nearly as wonderful.  Thank you thank you!  

The kids got many nice gifts and it was just nice to be together as a family.  We really  missed Zackers though and really hope next year he can come home for Christmas.  We also really missed extended family and we really miss all the traditions we had with them. Especially the decorating of cupcakes for Jesus' birthday.  On New Years Eve we went to see the movie Frozen, everyone except Megan, who had  to work on Christmas Eve.  It was the cutest movie and I'm looking forward to seeing it again when it comes out on DVD.  

Christmas morning I came home from work (I worked overnight from 1130pm til 8am).  I expected to find everyone waiting for me upstairs in our bedroom but what I found was a house of sleeping people.  NO ONE was awake!  So, I changed to my jammies and went to the bathroom and when I came out I heard Hannah in her room asking if it was time to get up.  We woke everyone up and came in to find a wonderous sight of gifts under the tree (thanks again to my sis and dad).  It was a low key event where everyone opended their gifts and ooohhhed and ahhhed.  Everyone was very happy.  I stayed up just a bit longer and then it was off to bed for me......the best gift I got was a big long sleep.  I slept the whole day long into the evening and it was lovely.  

I hope all of our friends and family also enjoyed their Christmas.  I'm really hoping the new year brings much happiness and fulfillment to all.

This year I'm really hoping to work on myself.  I have really let myself go and have lost my way a bit.  I'm hoping to get back on track spiritually, emotionally and physically.  Here's to a fabulous 2014.

Happy Birthday Hannah

It was Hannah's birthday on Dec 17th.  She is now 8 years old and will be baptized soon.   She is such a creative person and loves to do crafts.  She also loves stuffed animals and playing with My little ponies and petshops.  She is a very loving girl and I'm glad she still likes lots of snuggle time with me.  I'm so thankful she's in our family and I just love her more than I can say.

School of Rock

On Fridays Joe has an after school club called School of Rock.  A couple young musicians come to his school and teach the kids to play instruments and sing.   We were excited to attend his first performance.  My phone is not taking the best pictures lately :-/  You'll notice in the last picture he is wearing his Ninja hoodie....yep, he played the entire song like that.  That's my boy.....