The next two days of spring break

Day 3

The first two days of spring break were awesome because the weather was so warm. This is day three and it is very ugly outside. Therefore I had to be a little more creative because we couldn't go out. Whenever it is raining outside I think of a saying from the Dennis the Menace movie. Dennis says to Mr. Wilson, "well there sure isn't a lot to do when it's raining outside". That is how I feel when it rains, especially when it should be nice!

To kill time I went and bought a movie the kids have been wanting to see and we had popcorn and soda. Unfortunately we didn't like the movie because it ended very sad but we got cheered up by watching American Idol. My kids love that show as much as me.

Here is a bad picture of all the kids eating and watching the movie
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Day 4

Same bad, wet, cold weather! Today I went and bought another guitar for our guitar hero game. It is really sweet! I can't wait to dual with Bobby (he was at work so he missed out). Trevor of course kicked all of our butts and Abbey of course went to her room crying because he always wins. I have never seen her cry so much over anything. I think it is because she is naturally good at most things like school and it frustrates her when she has to make extra effort. I personally think it is good for her. It teaches her patience. Jacob even liked the new guitar. He put it on and played one whole song with me. He got no points obviously but he kept saying how good he was doing and I just agreed with him. Anything to keep him happy right? I am hoping and praying for nice weather tommorrow and the rest of the weekend. Here's hoping!

The first two days of spring break

This year for spring break since we weren't going anywhere cool, I decided we should do something fun everyday. Today was the first day and we went to the park on cliffside. It is a very nice park and the kids had a lot of fun. They of course did not want to go home so we had to bribe them with slurpees (it works everytime)! We will definitely have to go to that park again. At the bottom of this post there is a video of Abbey. When we were at the park all the kids were running down this big hill. You will see in the video that Trevor was the first to come down, then Kyra, then Jakie and me and then finally Abbey. Boy did she fall hard or what. We are seriously going to send that one in to America's Funniest Home Videos. We all had a good laugh (even her-after it stopped hurting)!

Day 2

Tuesday, day two we rode our bikes to Mt. Logan Middle School and made sand castles. They have volleyball nets there in a big sand box. We took all the needed equipment like bowls, spoons, water, empty flower pot to make something cool. Above are some of our creations. First we made this awesome sand castle. Then, we buried all the kids, except Jacob who doesn't like to get dirty. After a couple of hours we rode our bikes to Mcdonalds (my kids' favorite place to eat) and had dinner. I think the kids had a lot of fun playing in the sand. I don't think they will have fun trying to get all the sand out of their hair! Jacob's favorite thing to do was to throw the sand on everyone!

Here's what my kids think!

I am not sure what I expected my kids to say when it came to these surveys but I had to laugh at a lot of their answers! I wish Jacob was old enough to get his opinion! I loved how Trevor said I am taller but he's smarter! I also loved how he said I love Las Vegas. That's funny because I don't like Vegas at all!

Trevor age 9

1. What is something mom always says to you? NO!

2. What makes mom happy? me

3. What makes mom sad? fish

4. How does mom make you laugh? jokes

5. What was mom like as a child? lazy always watching TV

6. How old is mom? 35

7. How tall is mom? taller than Abbey

8. What is her favorite thing to do? play ticket to ride

9. What does mom do when you're not around? take care of Jakie

10. If mom becomes famous, what will it be for? making jokes

11. What is mom really good at? ticket to ride

12. What is mom not very good at? chess

13. What does mom do for a job? nothing

14.What is mom favorite food? I don't know

15. What makes you proud of mom? lots of things

16. If mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? garfield

17. What do you and mother do together? read scriptures

18. How are you and mom the same? brown hair

19. How are you and mom different? she taller, I'm smarter

20. How do you know mom loves you? very much (what?)

21. What does mommy love most about daddy? that he has a mustache

22. What does mom like most about daddy? and beard

23. Where is mom favorite place to go? Las Vegas (WHAT??)

Abbey age 8

1. What is something mom always says to you? Go clean your room!

2. What makes mom happy? sushi- no wait! Getting time off from the kids!

3. What makes mom sad? sushi-no wait! onions!

4. How does mom make you laugh? going to the Barlows and they say something funny!

5. What was mom like as a child? lonely

6. How old is mom? 35

7. How tall is mom? almost as tall as me

8. What is her favorite thing to do? go to bear lake and spend time with friends

9. What does mom do when you're not around? take care of Jakie

10. If mom becomes famous, what will it be for? scrapbooking

11. What is mom really good at? playing ticket to ride

12. What is mom not very good at? playing little pet shop on the wii

13. What does mom do for a job? be a mom

14.What is mom favorite food? not sushi

15. What makes you proud of mom? that she takes care of me

16. If mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? minnie

17. What do you and mother do together? have a date

18. How are you and mom the same? same haircut

19. How are you and mom different? her feet are bigger than mine!

20. How do you know mom loves you? you hug me

21. What does mommy love most about daddy? that he goes down the slide outside

22. What does mom like most about daddy? daddy makes money for us

23. Where is mom favorite place to go? to bear lake and have free time

Seriously! Do none of my kids think I work!? Do they think I have this huge supply of MK for myself? And what about every answer for a food question being sushi- I have that stuff!

Kyra age 6 (almost 7)

1. What is something mom always says to you? Do your homework!

2. What makes mom happy? Doing what she asks me to do

3. What makes mom sad? Not doing what she asks me to do

4. How does mom make you laugh? jokes

5. What was mom like as a child? cute

6. How old is mom? I don't know

7. How tall is mom? very tall

8. What is her favorite thing to do? spend time with her friends

9. What does mom do when you're not around? take care of Jakie

10. If mom becomes famous, what will it be for? scrapbooking (daddy whispered that into her ear!)

11. What is mom really good at? scrapbooking (she said that on her own!)

12. What is mom not very good at? I don't know

13. What does mom do for a job? cleans the house

14.What is mom favorite food? pasta roni

15. What makes you proud of mom? when she comes back (what?)

16. If mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? I don't know

17. What do you and mother do together? play games

18. How are you and mom the same? we have the same middle name

19. How are you and mom different? we have different first names

20. How do you know mom loves you? because I love her

21. What does mommy love most about daddy? that he helps us

22. What does mom like most about daddy? that he likes her

23. Where is mom favorite place to go? with her friends

My favorite answer of Kyra's is how was I as a child. Of course I was cute! Maybe not as cute as her! Since I clean the house for my job how come no one pays me? Ha-Ha!

Why do women take pictures of food?

That is the question of the day. I took pictures of this food because I was proud that I made it myself. I have always said I am a bad cook and don't like to cook but I think things are changing for me. I bought a bread maker and have made several (like 20) loaves of bread. I also made this homemade pizza dough (which I have never done!). The best part is that it all turned out good, so good Bobby was wondering if I really made it. I came the realization that I am starting to enjoy cooking more when I was cooking dinner for a family in our ward and I had the thought a couple of times while I was doing it that "hey I am actually enjoying this"

There are about 10 things that I am really good at cooking and that is about it. I hardly ever try a new recipe that I have never tried. I prefer to have it referred to me by someone or have actually tried myself. Bobby even bought me a new apron so I don't get stuff all over my clothes, and it is really cute (no it doesn't say "kiss the cook" ha-ha).

One part of cooking I don't like is deciding what to have for dinner, everyday. That gets so old. Someone please just tell me what to cook and someone please make sure I have all the ingredients I need and someone please clean up after it is all done! I hope that someone would show up soon because there is no in our house like that!

25 random things

This is a note from facebook-for some of you it is a repeat sorry!


1. I am playing on an indoor soccer team for the first time in my life.
2. I wish it is summer every day it is winter.
3. I love Mt. Dew but stopped drinking it because it's bad for me. Good for the soul bad for the heart.
4. I would love to be in a handbell choir someday.
5. I love playing guitar hero and I am on the "HARD" section.
6. I really like living in Logan.
7. I wish I had a new camera and the skills to take fabulous pictures of my kids.
8. Although I think our new president is a step forward for our generation, I am scared for our country.
9. I could probably open a scrapbook store with all the supplies I own.
10. I have a MK store in my house.
11. In my dream house, I will have a library.
12. I am a homebody, I love to be at home but.....
13. I also love to shop, even for food.
14. I am very unsocial at times (surprising?!).
15. I use the skills from my Psychology degree on my kids and husband!
16. I love teaching!
17. I love to dress up and feel pretty but....
18. I also love to get dirty!
19. The best way to cheer me up is take me to lunch or dinner or buy me a Mt. Dew.
20. My dream vacation is to go to Lake Powell or disneyland.
21. I haven't seen my real dad in 26 years- his loss!
22. I wish I could write a book someday.
23. I would love to be a comedian.
24. I am very competitive.
25. I would do anything fo my kids or husband.

The miracle of birth

For some strange reason I feel the need to write this post about my kids and their births. I have been a mom for 9 years now and I have noticed how different each one of them are. I don't ever want to forget the details of their births' so I am going to write it down.

Trevor was my first baby and with that comes a lot of unknown expectations. When we went to the birthing class I knew for sure that I would not be having an epidural. All it took for me to make my decision was to see the needle. I said to Bobby that night "now that is something I will not be doing" and it was true. In fact, I had all of my kids natural. I was very glad to take the birthing class because it taught me to stay calm and breath properly to divert the pain. The night before he was born I had my first ever contractions and I knew it was time. (He was only 3 days early.) I actually had quite a long labor (12-13 hours total). Since he was my first baby I pushed more than the others. I probably pushed for 2 hours which is a long time when you are doing it natural (it is a long time even with an epidural I am sure). The breathing and focusing on objects really helped keep me calm. Right after he came out I felt so good. I could have walked myself to my room but they wouldn't let me because I still had an IV and they didn't want to risk of me falling. Trevor was so cute and sweet. He was perfect in every way. Trevor was such a good baby. He loved to be held and rocked to sleep. Everyone (esp. my mom) told me not to rock him because he would be spoiled and in my mind I said "so what" so I rocked him until he was about 2 years old.


Abbey's birth was much different than Trevors. The day I was in labor I did a MK facial, an interview and helped a consultant with an order. As the day went on the contractions got stronger and harder. I went to bed and they weren't quitting. I was not going to go to the hospital early again like I did with Trevor. The nurses want you to just lay there so they can have those monitors on and I didn't enjoy that so I was determined not to do that. So I went to bed, slept for a little while, got up took a bath, put on my makeup, did my hair and then woke up Bobby. The contractions were going pretty hard by then and I could barely walk in the hospital. The nurse was really calm until she checked me. Then she ran out of the room and was yelling for someone to call my doctor. Abbey was born not 15 minutes after that. I had no pain medication whatsoever and no epidural obviously. My doctor basically just caught the baby and that was it. Abbey came 2 1/2 weeks early and she had the white stuff ( I don't know how to spell the technical name) all over her. She was also blue which was very scary. They wouldn't let me hold her and I was crying because I knew something was wrong. They did a lot of tests on her and she really didn't have anything wrong. She basically just stopped breathing when she started to eat. She had to wear a cake pan looking clear thing over her head for oxygen. She was put into ICU immediately and was not going to be released until the monitor didn't go off. The monitor went off if she wasn't getting enough oxygen. One funny thing the doctor said to me was that next time I should come in earlier to have the baby or I might not make it (he thought I cut it a little too close-I didn't tell him everything I did before I came in). I stayed in the hotel stay rooms at the hospital for a few extra days. That was hard because I already had Trevor to take care of. Through all of this I was sure that Abbey would not breast feed. The nurses preferred giving her a bottle because she could drink and breath easier that way. After I went home I came back to the hospital 3 times a day to see her. I only did that for 1 week thank goodness. The nurses told me that Abbey knew when I was there and tried her hardest to be alert and awake when I came. After I would leave she would crash for quite a long time. After the week was up I was very very nervous to take her home. We weren't going home with any monitors and we were basically on our own. We had one scare where we took her back in and she stayed at the hospital for a couple of hours but after that she had no problems. When we were finally home for good Abbey caught right on to the breast feeding thing. She did so well, she never had 1 bottle and she breast feed for one solid year. One funny thing about Abbey is that she hated to be rocked or cuddled. I would rock and rock her and she would cry and cry. Finally I decided I needed a time-out and set her down in her bed to cry but to my surprise she went right to sleep. Being the determined mother I was, I tried to rock her again the next time and sure enough the same thing. She cried and cried. When I layed her down in her bed she went right to sleep. That was all it took for me to decide that she didn't want to rocked to sleep and I never did it again. Sniff, sniff.

Kyra's birth was also unlike either one of the other births. First of all I went into the hospital more than I want to remember with false labor (I think 2 times). It seemed that I was having those serious contractions earlier with each pregnancy. Kyra was supposed to be born on May 20th but when people would ask I just told them I was having her in the first week of May. I just knew that would happen. She was born on May 8th so I was right. I went to bed early on the night my water broke. It was about one a.m. and Bobby had just come to bed about one hour earlier. I suddenly felt like I peed the bed. I was really embarrassed but I didn't want to wake Bobby up because he had just gotten to sleep. I just put a towel down and tried to go back to sleep. When the same thing happened again I knew my water had broke. The bad thing was that I was having absolutely no contractions. So we called labor and delivery and they said come in. When we got there, they made me walk the halls to get things going. NOTHING! Finally they gave me a low dose of Pitosin to get things going. That helped but I didn't enjoy that pain much. I hadn't had any pain medication yet because I was doing all right. Then the nurse asked me if I would you like something to just take the edge off and I said sure. While she was gone, Kyra completely dropped and I had this instant urge to push. Bobby ran and got the nurse. When she checked me she said the famous "Don't push". That is the worst thing you can say to someone in that position I think because the pressure is so great that is all you want to do. Kyra was born a few minutes later and no I didn't have any drugs. Kyra was the only baby that I didn't have my doctor for. Dr. Norda was the doctor on call and he did a good job. He basically was just there to catch her and stitch me.up. The funny thing about Kyra's birth was how busy they were that day at the hospital. They let me stay in the delivery room with Kyra for a long time. We of course wanted to check out little Kyra's features and when we opened the blanket, she didn't have a diaper on. We immediately fixed that problem. Nobody wanted baby tar poops on them. When Bobby finally gave her a bath, he could not get all the afterbirth stuff off of her because she didn't have a bath right away. Kyra was a very good baby like the others but she loved to be rocked like Trevor, yeah!

Jacob is my last child and final pregnancy Yeah! Even though I have really good pregnancies and really easy labor, my body is done having children. I had 4 ultrasounds with him because of different reasons. I knew long before 20 weeks that he was a boy and I was so excited. Now I could have 2 girls and 2 boys. I lost a lot of weight with Jacob and that was fine with me. I exercised up until 7 months and felt good. I had a lot of false labor with Jacob just like with Kyra. Right when I got to the hospital the contractions would completely stop. I didn't want to have a baby at home or in the car like Dr. Heiner warned so I would go in even though it was embarrassing to be sent home. When the time finally came to go to the hospital for real, Zanette came with us. She was planning to come the whole time, especially if Bobby couldn't be there (he was working in LA). It was a snowy icy morning and on the way to the hospital Zanette's truck went off the road. We just left it in the barrow pit and she got in with us. We made it there in plenty of time and the delivery went well. Again like with all the other pregnancies, when I could put my legs down and rest, I felt really good and wanted to walk to my room but again they wouldn't let me. It is a really good thing Jacob was my last baby. He was my hardest baby by far. It didn't help that he was born with double ear infections and had jaundice really bad. He had to have the billy Ruben lights for a week and get his foot poked everyday. That was exhausting for me. He did like the lights though so that made it easier. He never passed the hearing test at the hospital because of the ear infections. He had tubes put in a 8 weeks old. That helped his mood a little and the crying decreased but I held that little baby for 10 months straight. He would not sleep if I put him down so I just held him day and night. Bobby was still in LA for the first 6 months so I had no relief. Heavenly Father gave me extra patience during that time otherwise I don't know how I made it through. My problem is that I am a very independent woman and I like my children to be independent too and Jacob was not independent at all and really still isn't.

I love all 4 of my children very much and have special feelings for each one of them. I think birth is that greatest miracle there is . Each of my experiences was different but special. It is funny how each baby comes with her/his personality already intact starting on the day they were born. I think the greatest blessing in my life is to be a mother. I am thankful Heavenly Father trusts me enough to keep 4 of his children and raise them and teach the things they need to learn in this life.

Decemember 2008

Ok here is the story. Every December I get involved in all these projects that keep me sooo busy the whole month. I promised myself I wouldn't get overwhelmed this year with everything so I eliminated some things. I still kept very busy right up until Christmas. I finished Janice's present very last (on Dec. 23rd) and forgot to take pictures.

My friends in Hyrum used to tease me about having so many scrapbook supplies. They called my house the "Christy Scrapbook Store" and would come over whenever they needed a scrapbook supply. I always had what they needed. I mention this because I didn't buy any paper for any of my projects. I only bought a few supplies for the advent calendar but I had everything else already in my possession. (Don't mention any of this to my husband --but do come over if you need any scrapbook supply :)).


Project #1


I like to get my Christmas card out early in December. This year I asked Mike Doxey to take pictures of my kids holding the letters spelling love. One of the pictures is at the top of this blog. There is another one below also. One of my most favorite part of Christmas is making my card and getting others' cards in the mail. I vow to never buy my cards but to always make them homemade.

Project #2

Our ward did a progressive dinner for their Christmas party this year. I was in charge of putting the cookbook together. I had to collect all the recipes from ward members and type and print them into this book. It turned out really good, except for the fact I forgot Bethany and LuAnn's recipe. I didn't forget because they were late either, I just plum forgot them. The party was really fun and we might do it again next year! Thanks Brooke Lambert for making the cover of the cookbook for us!

Project #3

On Dec. 8th I went to a Christmas/birthday dinner with my scrapbook friends. Melanie made us all a advent calendar and I decided to re-create it for my friend Zanette for her Christmas gift. When I gave it to her, she begged me to help her make 4 more. We gave 1 of those 4 to Dana White from both of us. I made 5 total. It was fun but it was a project, that's for sure! They sure turned out cute. I made Janice a 12 days of Christmas advent calendar with the meaning of the "12 days of Christmas" song in each tin but I didn't take any pictures of that either. I will show pictures later.

Project #4

My Friend Emily Younker was having a birthday on Dec. 19th so I made her these cards and delivered them to her. She used to be in our ward but she moved, sniff, sniff :( .I had to hurry and make these so I could do other Christmas projects- I only have 6 days left.

Project #5

I don't actually have any pictures of this project because it was unexpected and I just had to throw it together and honestly I forgot about the pictures. I also forgot to take my camera

to the family Christmas party so I didn't take pictures of the album but I will add some later if I get any copies. Susie (Bobby's sister) wanted to do something special for Oma and Opa's 50th Anniversary. She asked every family to write a letter to their parents/grandparents etc. and some pages with pictures to represent their family. I made 4 pages of the kids and Bobby and I. We gave them the book that night (the 20th) and they liked it.

Project #6

When I had just 3 kids we did a "JOY" picture. Now that I have 4 kids my mom has been asking when we were going to do another one with the word "LOVE". You saw one picture in the photo shoot that I used for my Christmas card and this is the framed picture I gave my mom.

Project #7

This looks like a strange Christmas project but it was. A long time ago my mom bought a shamrock just like this one and gave it to me to decorate for St. Patrick's Day. Just before we moved from Hyrum she asked for it back since I wasn't using it. When we moved from Hyrum we couldn't find it anywhere but just figured it would show up sometime. When we moved across the street this summer, we couldn't find it again so Bobby made her a new one. I actually can't take any of the credit for this project except for the raffia bow. Bobby made the whole thing including the painting and wire. Great job Bobby! My mom loved the gift but Keith (her husband) thought it was a little weird.