Pictures

I cannot get Adobe to work. It keeps freezing up on me, so therefore I haven't been able to edit pictures. Maybe I'll try again later. I have some cute pics of the kids that I want to post.

Joseph was sick Sunday night/early Monday morning. Fever and could not breathe. Only reason I took him in to the doctor that morning was because a month or so ago he had an ear infection (or so she said...no fever though), and I just wanted to make sure that he didn't have another one. He checked out fine. He has been great since then, with only small amount of congestion. He has actually slept pretty well considering. I did go in there this morning to check him, and he was so cute lying there (awake) sucking on his 2 fingers! I tried so hard with that MAM!! I think Jared sucks on his fingers too. Girls have been pushing him around in the doll stroller today. I am going to post a pic of him and Lindsey at the same age, and just check out the hair that Lindsey had at 4-5 months!

Kristen & Lindsey got their hair cut yesterday. I CUT IT OFF!!!! Yeah, let's see who reads this and responds to that. LOL!!

Jacob won first place with his Battle of the Books competion. In the link, there are 2 pictures of Jacob. The 3rd picture, he is on the far left, and on the 4th picture, he is the far right.

Kayley was bummed out last night that she couldn't go to church. But she is only in Primary still, and not Young Womens like Lauren! Last night was Lauren's first time to go to YW activity, and she loved it. Her YW President was just put in a few weeks ago after serving as Lauren's Primary teacher/Activity Leader for the past 2 years. She really loved her and is excited that she can still be with her. Kayley survived last night being home by herself with 2 little brothers and sisters, and was fine when I told her she could watch some TV. Kayley also got on the Ashdown website. She is in the top right picture, middle student with the pink shirt on.

Josh is so bummed. His life sucks right now he says. No soccer in Ashdown, no Mormon girls in Ashdown, no nothin' in Ashdown. I can see how he feels. Ashdown sucks. I called to see how much Texarkana TX schools would cost us if he wanted to go there...$3000 a year. Don't know about that, since gas prices are so high too. I suggested he live with Mimi and Gramps in Killeen and go to EHS. He is debating going to Ellison, as Shawn said he wouldn't mind since he would be living with some good people. We are still sorting things out, and I have to call EHS back next week. I mean, it would be sad if he was to go live there, as in 2 1/2 short years he will be leaving on his mission. I want my baby to stay here as long as possible. But it's not like we would never see him. I already have all the trips planned that he would take back to us, or us to see him. His girly-friend, Louissa has cooled off their long-distance relationship too, so he is totally bummed about that. She is suppose to be going to EFY this summer with Josh, so we shall see. He is a good kid. I hardly ever have any problems with him. In fact, I have none except for the occasional smart-mouth, but that's normal. The Bishop told me the other night "that whatever you are doing with your children, to keep it up. You have great kids." Awwwwwwwwwww, made me feel good.

I've lost 5 lbs so far. I've cut back the Dr Pepper, but I have had 2 this week. Better then 5! LOL!!

Mother's Day Weekend

I guess I should have posted this earlier, but I actually forgot all about this blog this past week. I need to take more pictures of my kids too since I have gotten my dig. camera to work now.

Shawn was actually home for Mother's Day this year. I think he was last year too, but I don't remember it. Shawn got me a corsage to wear to church...always pink, and always very pretty. I should say that I got myself the corsage since I am the one that goes pays for it and one for his mom too. But he always takes the credit. Oh well. I also got my mom a corsage from Christall's Flowers in Killeen. I was trying to decide what I wanted for dinner, since I was going to have to also make sure Shawn's mom got dinner too. Shawn is not a cook, nor is his dad, but Shawn could survive if he had too. Not sure about his dad. He doesn't even know how to make oatmeal in a microwave. Anyway, my kids wanted to make me breakfast in bed. Umm, no. Why? Because I have to get up early, and Sunday is about the only day I literally have to drag my kids out of bed, and I knew no one would be up before 6am to get me breakfast, so I said no just because I didn't want the hassle of me getting them up. LOL!! So, like I said, I got up early (6:30am), got in the shower, got Joey bathed & dressed, got me ready, started dragging kids out of bed, called Josh on his cell phone 5 times to tell him to get in the shower for the 100th time, got kids fed, got dresses picked and hair done and finally at 8:30 was able to sit down for a moment to feed Joey. I can't believe I do this every Sunday! Just typing this made me tired! Oh, and I made a cake as well before heading to church because I knew if the cake didn't get made, I wouldn't have my favorite dessert after dinner (coconut cake). After church Shawn thought it would be good to go find an in-active elder on his list. Okay...2 hrs later we are finally home, and I somewhat got a small nap on the couch. I already had the chicken marinating in the soy sauce for teryaki chicken. Josh made dinner. I really didn't do anything else for dinner after that. It was good. Kinda nice not having to make dinner for once, and then my mother-in-law rinsed the dishes as I fed Joey, even though I told her not to worry about the dishes. Shawn did go in there and took over. He is good about doing the dishes.

On Saturday, my mother-in-law, Lauren & I went shopping at JCPenny's. She wanted to get Lauren some new clothes since Lauren's birthday is the 20th. Can you believe she is going to be 12? We found her some cute stuff, and I went to look for something nice to wear for Mother's Day. Of course I am to fat to wear anything in the size I want to buy, so I didn't get anything. I don't know why I can't get more gung-ho about loosing weight because I know 2 people (Hil & Kenna) who have lost weight, and they look so good!!! Why can't I get more motivated? All I want to do is eat and eat!! Yeah, I'm nursing a baby, but still! My goal is to loose 10 lbs by July 1st. Let's see if that will happen. I need a gym close by. Now that gas prices are over $3/gallon here, no way can I go in to Texarkana daily. I need to just buy a walking machine. I love using those.

My day

I got up this morning after sleeping quiet good since Joey slept all night. I get kids to school, nurse Joey, get the girls dressed (Lindsey didn't match today, but she didn't go anywhere, and I rather play in old clothes then nice clothes), and sit down in front of the computer to check email. As soon as I get off, my sister-in-law called me. She is Shawn's brother's wife. She is my maid. She wanted to know if I needed her this morning. I was like "Heck ya!". She comes over, and starts on the 2 bathrooms...4 hrs later she leaves with $40. I offered her more, but she said $40 was good. But a freakin' 4 hrs later!!! My bathrooms are spotless now. I told the kids they better not even think of bringing dirt into the bathroom! It's so hard living on a farm and having dirt brought in day after day. Now that they are cleaned good, I should be able to keep up with them for a while, or at least Kayley will. LOL!! That's the hardest thing I have. Since I can't get my Mom to come up to clean my frige, I mean to visit, guess I'll have Mary (sister-in-law) clean my friges next and maybe do the windows. I am just soooooooooooo not into housework, and I sooooooooooooo am tired all the time. I think I have fibermyalgea or however the heck you spell it. My TSH on my thryoid came back good, so I don't know what else it could be unless it's just because I have 7 kids. I dunno. Anyway, so when she finally leaves like at noon, I hit the bed again for a 2 hr nap, then I get in the shower and take Lauren & Kayley to piano as soon as they got home at 3:40. The 2 little girls are with Shawn or Mamaw and I had Joey in the bed with me. We had breakfast for dinner tonight, and then I nursed Joey some more and got him in bed. I did the dishes, had Lauren & Jacob finish up some folding while they watched "The Testaments" upstairs, and got Kayley (who was crying and carrying on again because she wanted to watch "Night at the Museum"), Kristen & Lindsey in bed. And with that, I'm off to bed too...

Of course...

I didn't get to sleep until after midnight, and by 4am, Joey was crying. I go get him and nurse him in bed with me. Next thing I know the alarm is going off~again. I didn't even hear it the first time! I am sure I did as I hit the snooze, but as I laid there thinking about it, I couldn't remember it going off at 5:40am. Yeah! 5:40am! Have to get 1 to seminary (last day is the tomorrow!), and the other 3 out the door by 7:10am to catch the bus. Jacob runs down to get me the paper, but before I can get to section B, Joey is crying again. I sit back on the couch, and nurse him. I then get up and get Shawn some breakfast (hey, I hardly ever make him breakfast, so when I offered like a good little wife, he was like "heck yeah"!). By then the girls were over at Mamaw's, but not dressed, and Shawn left to work on the fence for the goats (I tell ya, the post is coming!). Hmmmmmmm, I thought...nothing on my calendar, I'm going back to bed. This is now like 8-something, maybe close to 9. Have Joey in bed with me. I keep hearing the girls coming in and out of the house. I wasn't really sleeping great, but I was in the bed. At 11:10am, the girls come back in, and says that Shawn needs me at the door. Geez! Get up, walk to the back door, and he yells up to me that he needs 2- 80 lb bags of QuickCrete from Ashdown. "Go get it yourself" I wanted to yell. But, I didn't. Joey was still sleeping, so I jumped into the shower. At least it was a quiet shower. Yesterday I had 3 kids crying all at the same time while trying to shower. I get out, and look at the girls. OF COURSE they got dressed by themselves hours earlier, and OF COURSE I didn't see what they had on, and OF COURSE they have on nice clothes, and OF COURSE they are now covered in mud and dirt. Into the tub they go so we can go to town. I squirt some Baby Magic in the tub with them, and it bubbles up some. I tell them to rinse up good and get out. Didn't have time to really scrub them. They get out...the tub is left brown. We go to town getting the few things Shawn needed, and decide to head to McDonalds~again~to have some lunch. I am trying to loose weight, so I ordered a snack wrap w/out cheese, and have a water. I only got the girls a burger and chocolate cake. Lindsey didn't like that at all. She cried and cried for fries, but I told her next time. I didn't want to eat the fries. I was trying to be good. We then go to Walmart, and we get the tomato cages, and a King-size bag of peanut M&M's for me. And then I stop at Sonic to get me a Route 44 Diet Dr Pepper for me. Good thing I didn't have those fries! See why I can't loose weight? No will-power for that long. I love to eat, and I love to eat sugary, full of carbos, stuff.

We get home, and I nurse Joey. He lays on his blanket to play, and next thing I know he has fallen asleep himself, w/out anyone holding him! I pick him up and snuggle with him for a moment, and go lay him in his crib.

Fast foward to the mail, and sorting out bills, and realizing that I didn't pay 2 bills on-time, and so I was on-line paying those. Cleaned up the kitchen some, did some laundry, fixed dinner, went to an in-active sister's house up the road to visit with her and her visiting brother, who is from Utah, a bishop and the head dude over the Church Welfare System/Humanitarian Dept. (his name was in the Church News a lot during the Hurrican Katrina thing...Benny Lilly), came home put kids in bed after hearing 5 kids cry that they didn't want to go to bed or take baths, nursed the baby some more, did the dishes, cleaned up some more, looked at the laundry, and allowed Josh to go to Sonic to meet with his girlfriend, Morgan, only if he brought me home another Route 44 Diet Dr Pepper, and it's 10:20pm.

Hand-me-downs at 36?

You would think I was a little to old for hand-me-downs. I am wearing some shirts that Hilary gave me because I am still fat, and she is not. She has been loosing a lot of weight, so when I went to visit her I told her if she was to small for some of her shirts, I could use them. So, I wear them. Geez! Oh, well. I don't plan on being this way forever, but at the moment I could use a few more shirts. Let me tell ya, being the fattest sister now is so not cool! LOL!! But then again, I've had 7 kids, so no one else had excuses, but still! I don't see myself as being obese, but when I look in the mirror...well, mirrors don't lie. It's been really hard for me with not loosing the weight easy because I was always so skinny in high school and all the way up until I had Jacob. Took me almost a year, but I got back into size 10 after having Jacob. I haven't seen size 10 since. I haven't seen size 12 since for that fact either. I did buy some size 12/14 maternity jeans, but that doesn't count. Ok...off topic there. Glad I have a sister I can get hand-me-downs from. I am sure she is glad that she can't get them from me anymore. LOL!

And then Josh decides he needs he needs a new cell phone. Oh, the joys of teenagers! So we go to Sams last night to look at the ones there. He wasn't ligable for a new one yet, but I was. ME! I could have gotten a new Razr or something cool like that. I didn't even have a flip phone. So being the cool mom that I am, I let him choose the phone he liked, and I let him have it. They put his SIMS card in the new one, and I put mine in his old flip phone. No camera on mine, but at least it's a flip. A hand-me-down cell phone. Geez!

Ok, so I lied...

This is me. I took it this morning after my haircut. I feel so much better whenever I get my haircut. I always know when I need it cut because for one, it never does right, and 2, I don't want to put on make-up or even do my hair because of number one. LOL!! I need my hair cut every 4 weeks, and colored every 8. Such a price one has to pay to stay beautiful! LOL!! Anyway, just thought I would share before I head out into the heat and humidity (where my hair will "fall") to take pics of the goats (new post to come).

Jacob

This past weekend was a family get-together at Shawn's brother's house. They had some cake purchased from Walmart, and last night they brought the rest over to us. There was a good-size square peice left, and I told the kids after FHE tonight then they could each have a small piece. This afternoon I take Joey over to Mamaw's house (she likes to hold him...I like for her to hold him especially when I am trying to get dinner done) while Jacob is at the table doing his homework. I get back, and the frosting is gone, and a piece is gone. "Jacob, did you do this?" No, Mom. "Now, Jacob you know you can't have this, why did you eat it?" I didn't Mom. I go sit by him, trying to be serious but trying not to laugh because he has colored frosting on his mouth, his tongue is bright pink and his teeth are colored. So, I call over to Mamaw's to see if the girls ate it, and he then confessed that he did. Of course we had another serious talk about how he just cannot do that. I think when his blood sugar tonight was almost 500, I think he realized it. Of course I tried not to freak out to much, but silly boy!

Kayley

Kayley turned 10 on April 1st. We had a small family party for her. I am so not into friend parties, but I do have them occasionally for them. She wanted new glasses this year, so she got them the week of her birthday. She was excited for them. We are also big fans of cupcakes now because it's easier for Jacob and his diabetes. Kayley is still the little mama. She recently earned some money working with her dad cutting down trees, and she bought herself a Wheel of Fortune hand-held game. She's getting quite good with it. She also got a new bike for her birthday, so she was beyond thrilled with that.

Lindsey

Lindsey recently got her ears pierced. She is 3. She's been wanting them done for a while. I actually was going to get Kayley's done (again!) on her birthday, but she chickened out, but Lindsey didn't. She was so brave. She picked little pink "diamonds". She is so proud of them. Lindsey is a hoot. She loves to tease Kristen, carry Joey, and to shake her booty at you, especially when she knows she is doing something she isn't suppose to be doing. Her favorite saying right now is "hello dum-dum...I want gum-gum" (from the movie "Night at the Museum"). She has been banned from gum because she got a big wad of it in the back of her hair! I thought I was going to have to cut it off! It finally came out with some ice, but it's the 2nd time she has had gum stuck in her hair. Lindsey no longer sucks pacis! Can you believe it, family? I got her off of them! No more MAMS (sniff sniff) for us as Joey will not suck them...and I tried so hard! She get 1 Starburst every morning if she sleeps the night without them. As soon as the bag is empty, I won't by anymore. It's been a week, I think, maybe longer. She also gets another Starburst if she stays in her bed the whole night. So tired of kids in bed with me! Gets old after a while! She is getting big, and loves the outdoors. We got 5 goats today (post on that later), and she thinks it's cool.

Joey, 4 months

Joey, May 2007


Joey, May 2007


Joey & Lindsey, May 2007

It's funny because even though I have 7 children, and I should be a pro by now, I still forget things. It finally dawned on me the other day that Joey wasn't rolling over. He is 4 months old afterall. But how would I know if he was rolling over? The child has been held every second of the day his whole life so far! So I took out Mimi's quilt that she made, and laid it out, and put Joey on his stomach. He immediately flipped over. Again and again he kept doing it. He never did it in his crib before I laid him on the floor. Since then I have gone in and he is on his back. He now also flips from his back to stomach too, starting yesterday.

The first 3 months...

Lindsey & Krissy pushing Joey (4 weeks old)in the doll stroller. That stroller has also been used for Krissy & Lindsey when they were babies.


Joey, 6 weeks old


Joey (3 months) and cousin, Jared (4 weeks), March 2007


Joey, 3 months old

Our new baby

Joseph was born 12-27-06. He is now 4 months old. He was not a good baby at first with sleeping and all. He has gotten better over the last month & a half or so, and is such a good little baby. He is a very sweet baby.