Chapter 32: Almost famous!!!

Girls just wanna have fun!

This is mine and Lainee's theme song, since we have alot of time that we get to spend together. Well today was just one of those days, that I want to be able to remember because although it may not seem like a big deal to anyone else, it's days like these that make me really, truly appreciate that I get to be a stay at home mom and that I have the priveledge of having these little moments to treasure.

So after a pretty much routine morning of getting the older kids off to school, I was loading the dishwasher and clearing off the cupboards when my little Lainee hollers in from the front room "Mom, will you put High School Musical 3 on T.V. for me?" my response to this most awesome request, "You bet Lainee!" so I put it in and go about finishing up the kitchen, when again from the front room I hear her say "But Mom, don't you want to come and sit on the couch with me and watch it?" well of course how can you say no, so I hurried to finish the kitchen and put in a batch of Laundry and sat down to watch (but mostly to sing loudly) HSM3, and of course anytime one of us got up we had to pause the movie so we wouldn't miss a thing and then when it ended once Lainee wanted to start all over (ahhhh!!! Heaven, who wouldn't love to just sit and oogle over Zac and Corbin!) Sadly though about half way through the movie we did have to take a shopping break (mostly because we had nothing to eat for lunch) so while I finished getting myself ready for the day so did Lainee, including lotioning our legs which she gave my legs a good dose and then proceeded to pound on them as if I were at the spa (and no I didn't even teach her that, but for the future I think I will instruct her on how to do good pedicures), so with flip-flops flipping and sun glasses shading off we went to the store. As I was opening Lainee's door she looks at me and with complete and total honesty she says "MOM, what am I going to do if people think I am famous!!!" I kind of chuckled saying "Oh! uh-well why would people think you are famous Lainee?" and then doing her little side hip thing and pointing to her hair she states as if I am totally blind "Because of my hair", so I smile and say "Well if the crowd starts mobbing us I will just grab you and run to the car." and that seemed to be good enough! Ahhhhh, what did I ever do before I had kids to entertain me. Oh and the "hair-do" was a headband with a big flower on it, so if you run into a short blonde with a flower in her hair, don't rush at her to get an autograph or anything, she just wants to be treated like any normal little 4 year old.

Chapter 31: Sniffle, Sniffle, Cry, Cry, Cry.....

School Bag in hand, they leave home in the early morning, waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile. I watch them go with a surge of that well-known sadness, and I just have to sit down for a while. The feeling that I'm losing them forever and without really entering their world. I'm glad whenever I can share their laughter, my funny little ones. Slipping through my fingers all the time, I try to capture every minute, the feeling in it, Slipping through my fingers all the time, do I really see what's in their mind? Each time I think I'm close to knowing they keep on growing, slipping through my fingers all the time.

I just happened to be watching Mamma Mia sometime last week and Bradley walked in when she is singing this song to her daughter, so he said "Mom, why don't you ever sing that song to us?" Well as I pondered on it, and thought about it, all I could come up with is that, really that isn't the song I would choose, the song I really feel in my heart the first few weeks of school is..............

It's the most wonderful time of the year, with the school bell a-ringing, and mom always telling me, "be of good cheer", it's the most wonderful time of the year. It's the hap-happiest season of all, with your pencils a writing and school lunch your biting, and friends who are near. It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Maybe in a few years when all my kids are in school and I have many, many moments to ponder, who knows I will probably be sitting at home singing of them slipping through my fingers *sigh* okay maybe not, but it's the thought that counts, right, right, anybody. Okay fine, at least enjoy their pictures from the first day of school!

Chapter 30: I am the "Queen"

Okay so Kari has declared herself the coupon Queen but I think I may have taken the title from her today!!!! I have been seriously coupon shopping now for a few months and I have been so excited to see my grocery bill go down but my intake of groceries explode, I have been getting some really good deals and not spending very much money to get my every day groceries and also see a huge growth in my food storage. Today I went to Albertson's because I got some double coupons in the newspaper from them and decided that I would use them before they expired, below you will see a picture of all the groceries I was able to get, I made 4 seperate purchases and here my totals: $8.70, $2.97, $19.10 and $1.03 for a grand total of $31.80, but wait, if you think that is the final total, you would be wrong, the suspense is going to kill you isn't it:)


Here is the list of groceries I purchased:
4 Colgate Toothpaste
2 Philadelphia Cream Cheese
4 Easy Mac
8 Boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats
2 CPK Pizza's
8 large boxes of Jello
2 Kraft Cheese Singles
2 Kraft Cheese Bricks
1 block Velveeta Cheese
4 (6 pack) Jello Pudding
4 Candy Bars
1 Bag Green Grapes


so with this purchase I also got 2-$20 rebate offers that I need to mail in and I have one $5.00 coupon that I can use next time I go to Albertson's, so if you are not good at math or you just gave up, remember I told you that I paid $31.80 today, but with my mail in rebates and my $5.00 coupon, Albertson's actually paid me $13.20 to go shopping and get all those groceries, not bad for a day's work. So the challenge is on (mainly to Kari) to try and take my crown away (anyone that has an old crown laying around I really could use it:), but for those few who do accept this challenge, may your eyes be sharp, may your ears be tuned (to the sound of sales), may your legs be swift, and may your purse be light!!!! Good couponing to all!!!

Chapter 29: Oh the things they do and say.......

So with the new school year fast approaching, all moms know what is to be done; buy new pencils, crayons, notebooks, shoes, shirts, socks, hair accessories, pants, socks, and underwear. Yes, I know I mentioned socks twice but hey when your kids go through them like mine do you need to buy twice as many. From the time that Bradley started pre-school I have tried to make back to school shopping an event that they will look forward to and also one that they will remember and hopefully have some "good" memories when they are older. On Wednesday it was the girls turn, we picked up the Patty's and headed off for our day of shopping til we dropped (and we literally did), what I learned about the girls is that; Lainee "loves, loves, loves" everything, and she "needs it" because "it is so adorable", one of the things I have always said is that I would never have a baby of the family, because they are always so spoiled and they always get more than the older ones, and although technically she didn't get everything she wanted, she did get more than she needed because after all she is the baby of my family. Kennadee loves trying on clothes, I wish I could do more to emphasize the word loves, I really thought that we were going to have to camp overnight at Old Navy so Kennadee and Makayla could finish trying on everything, I did have to giggle though as I am watching them in the dressing room, they would go in, you could see a whilrwind of activity for a long time and then they would suddenly appear and you would notice that they had only changed a shirt or that they had just layered a tank top over the top, it made you wonder what in the heck they were doing with all those clothes flying around. But to sum up my shopping experience with the girls you will have to imagine with me please 4 little girls, they all just purchased matching sunglasses (because they were 2.99 on clearance) they are talking and giggling as they go to the double doors leading to outside world, the older girls are in the lead with the younger girls mimicking their stride, the doors open, with purses on shoulder and bags in hand, and a gentle breeze blowing to keep their hair out of their faces, they exude confidence as they walk down the sidewalk to our next destination where once again they will leave their cares behind because after all there are other clothes that need to be tried on!!!

Thursday was Boy's day, now let me give you a little background on my boys, they are only jeans and T-shirt kind of boys, but the jeans have to fit just so and the shirts have to hang just right and the coloring of both cannot be to bold nor the pattern to odd and forget about button up or collared shirts (seriously, come on), so I usually take them and make them try on everything and then persist to ask them over and over and over again, "will you still like this tomorrow, next week, next month, how about in January", I have learned the hard, pricey way that in order to avoid fighting with them every day, I have to let them pick out what they want and only interject my opinion when cost, or just plain bad taste is involved. So this year having just been with the girls, I knew what stores had the best prices for their usual jeans and T-shirt, we were off to a good start and then a store that I had not been to in a while caught my eye, so I asked the boys if they wanted to go there, being boys they said they didn't care, I am telling you right now, in that very store a miracle occurred, had I not been there and witnessed it I would never have believed it. Although Bradley is very picky about his clothes he does like the plaid shorts (after I spent 45 min. talking him into them) and so he found a pair that he liked and a shirt to go with it and then as he was looking over some other clothes he pointed to a button up collared shirt and was like "hey mom, what do you think of this shirt" before I spoke I had to take a deep breath and stifle my sob (10 years I have been trying to get this boy to see the other side of clothes, 10 years) so playing it cool, I was like "yeah, it has a good color you could wear it this way or you could roll up the sleeves for a more fall look, you should try it on and see if you like it." and then a little while later BAM he hit me with another one, this time a long sleeved collared shirt with stripes, oh yeah I said it stripes and he was like "Mom, could I layer this with the other shirt", can you hear the angels singing, because I could, and then I saw the coolest thing ever, right before he came out of the dressing room he fixed his hair, now for some of you this may be nothing but for me I wanted to shout it from the rooftop "MY son finally cares about how he looks!!!!" I just think this may be a turning point, he may actually start brushing his teeth without constant reminders or maybe when he showers he will use soap and shampoo the first time and not have to suffer through a cold repeat shower, who knows what all this entails, the possibilities are endless (oh and just so you know I don't think I will let him read this blog, so try and keep this under wraps), so you would think this is the end of the tale but alas it is not, so we move on and he again finds some shirts that he likes and something must have rubbed off on Zacky because he to was trying things that are not in their "norm" and then not only that but when they were tying on clothes (in between bouts of take downs) they were actually telling one another if the shirt they picked looked good on them or if they needed maybe a different color or size. I know, I know, I about passed out from the shock of it all too. Well after I recovered and we finished our shopping, the boys took me to dinner, opening the doors, acting grown up, being very polite, and sitting in their seat the whole time, and not one fight, seriously how many miracles can occur in one day, I think this must have been a record. So now that the school shopping is done and another year of memories is stored, I will bid you farewell with the promise of pictures to come and another story yet to share about Bradley asking me about dating........................

Yellowstone (Day 5)

Our vacation was now winding down, but we still had a few fun things to see. We started this day by heading down to the West Thumb Geyser Basin, where the famous Fishing Cone is located, the story goes; there were some explorers fishing in the Lake and one guy dropped his fish in this cone shaped pool of water and when he pulled it back out the fish was cooked, the kids enjoyed the story and sad to say when we finally found the fishing cone it was under water, but we had to take our picture by it anyway, hence the family picture up above. We then took a ride through Gull Point Drive and had some fun walking along the shoreline of the Lake. We then stopped at the LeHardy Rapids and saw some Pelicans trying to find their lunch. We found another of our favorite spots at the Mud Volcano, where we got to experience the "Dragon's Cave",
it was awesome to hear it hissing and roaring and to see it spewing steam, I can see why they gave it such a name. As we were making our final loop down the mountainside, we found that we were not the only ones on the path, there were 4 Buffalo that had decided they would take a tour as well, lucky for us, they decided to take a short cut and headed a different direction. Our last stop was to see the Upper Falls Overlook,
which is located at the top of the Falls, it was a little unnerving to have the kids so close to a powerful waterfall, so we made sure not to linger, after all my mom had warned us not to lose any kids on our trip!!!
We then finished our travels for the day by walking across fishing bridge, where we stopped and watch a beaver cut down a weed and swim back to his home with it in his mouth. Our Family Vacation to Yellowstone was such a wonderful experience, from all the wild animals we saw to the power of nature we experienced,
a trip well worth taking and a great memory maker. Hope you all have enjoyed sharing a little bit of our vacation and as for our license plate game, we found 46.5, I say .5 because Kennadee and Zachary were positive they found a Hawaii plate but it was not confirmed by Scott or I, so we counted it as a half, we also missed Delaware, Conneticut and Vermont, not to shabby if I do say so myself.

Yellowstone (Day 4)

Well Good News everybody, today's post is not about Yellowstone, it is about Jackson Hole :). Roughly 15 years ago a boy asked a girl to marry him, she said "no" and then realized he was serious and then said "YES", so the boy and girl got married and decided to spend their honeymoon in a place called Jackson Hole, now fast forward fifteen years, where the now man and woman have come back with their 4 children to have some fun visiting the place where it all began ;) (hey Taci, that wink, wink, is just for you!)

Since there was lots of construction on our way to Jackson Hole we didn't arrive until close to lunch time, so we hurried to the Visitor's Center and made our plans for the day. We ate lunch at a park where there were lots of geese (I think that is what they were) and let's just say lot's of geese droppings, so I was glad when lunch was done and we could move on. Bradley knew that they had a Ripley's believe it or not Museum there and so we went to see if we could beleve it or not. It actually was really fun to see and read some of the unbelievable and freakish things people have or have done, I think the boys favorites were the wierd facts of some of the outlaws like Billy the Kid, and I am sure the girls favorite was the story of the woman who killed a Bear with a frying pan, and of course Scott and my favorite was the Love Throne the "King's" got to sit upon, and no it wasn't in the bathroom. After the Museum we just did alot of sightseeing and wandering the streets of Jackson, we stopped by the Million Dollar Saloon, a Moose Christmas shop and another fun store, that I can't remember the name of but it is where Lainee latched onto her pink "cowgal" hat, which she looks absolutely adorable in. We ate dinner at the Teton Steakhouse and then went to the Town Square to catch sight of the Western Shoot-out, which had everyone laughing and plugging their ears, cause the guns were so loud.
I loved the time we just got to meander through the town and remember the time spent there oh so many years ago, and now to make some new memories with our kids. Oh and just as a side note, on our way back into Yellowstone as we were passing the Tetons we did come upon a Grizzly Bear that was just off the road, he was so big and close, he was just on the other side of a construction embankment so we couldn't great really great pictures, and then when we were a little closer to home, coming down the middle of the road was a coyote, so Scott decided he would try out his coyote call, and I'll be danged if it didn't work on the poor guy,
he kept turning and looking at us, after that excitement the kids just wanted to drive around and see what else we could find in the roads but we decided that it was better to get some sleep so we wouldn't run anything over.

Yellowstone (Day 3)

So for those of you that are following our family blog and are saying to yourself at this very moment, "holy crap, how long did they stay in Yellowstone", just remember one thing, the biggest reason I do a blog is so that I (me, myself and I) can remember what happened on our vacation, so that when I go to scrapbook our trip I can actually know in what order we did things and remember the names of such places. So enduldge me for a while, as I record yet another day in Yellowstone.

Monday morning came and with it came a little patch of sun, so we gathered the kids, packed our lunch and headed off to see the famed "Old Faithful",
we must have arrived just after one of the eruptions, so we were able to find pretty good seats. As we were sitting waiting for the show, we kept looking to the sky, because it looked like there was a storm brewin', we also met a family sitting behind us that was from Orem (and come to find out they are Ute fans, huh???), so just as Old Faithful was starting to sputter and spit, sure enough here came the rain, and of course here came the wind, just so happens that the wind was blowing our direction and so not only were we getting rained upon, but we were also having all the steam and other stuff that blows out of geysers soaking us as well. After Old Faithful blew, we ran for cover in the visitor's center, we did not have to wait long and as soon as the sun peeked out again we headed for the jaunt around Old Faithful, called the Geyser Basin, we got to see some really neat geysers up close and had a few erupt just as we were going by. Little did we know however that the best geysers were coming up. We took a little drive off the beaten path called the Firehole Lake Drive, where we found the White Dome Geyser which was by far the coolest geyser, it sprayed only 30-40 ft. in the air but we were so close and there were only 3 other families that we had to share the area with. After that we went over to Fountain Paint pot where we got to see the Mudpots and if you haven't ever seen boiling mud, let me tell you it is awesome, they were a definate favorite, especially with Zacky (I think mostly because he was the first to spot "boiling mud", but who knows), we ended our day at the Artist's Paint Pot (yes it is different from Fountain) and I loved that some of the pictures I took of the kids actually look like they are sitting in front of a fake background, again just a beautiful day and a perfect sunset to compliment the landscape.

Yellowstone (Day 2)

Day 2 dawned still early, but not so bright, there was a storm moving in and boy could you feel it in the air. We got up and headed northward again, we figured we would complete the north loop this day. We started out at the Tower-Roosevelt junction where we left off yesterday, and drove to the petrified tree, where we got caught in a downpour which turned into a hailstorm, as we were waiting we saw these 2hikers that were trying to find shelter from the storm, we told them we didn't have much room, but would be gald to squish, and so we ended up giving them a ride back to their car at the Roosevelt Lodge, they where very appreciative and we were very glad for the lesson of kindness this provided for our kids. By the time we got done with our little detour, the clouds had cleared and the trails were dried up enough that we stopped by Lava Creek and had our lunch and played in the water a little, where Zacky and Bradley tried to catch a fish bare handed (they just couldn't quite reach far enough, so alas the fish eluded them). From there we went on a 1 mi. hike to the Wraith Falls and Undine Falls, which again were truly magnificent. Just as we were finishing our hikes it started to rain a little again so we headed for Mammoth Springs and the Albright Visitors Center, still raining so we went to the store and had some ice cream and wrote some postcards, still raining so we went and parked the truck in front of the Travertines, where Scott and I took a nap and the kids waited out the storm watching a movie. When the storm finally let up we were able to explore Mammoth Springs and I think this spot was one of our favorites, we loved the deep springs of blue water, the ridges of crust left by the minerals in the waters,
and the mists that surrounded us, making the scenery breathtaking. After Mammoth Springs we were able to drive through the Hoo Doos, visit the top of Rustic Falls and then just before dark we made it to the Roaring Mountain (which may have been falling asleep, hence no roaring). So a busy and eventful 2nd day in Yellowstone. Oh! I will be taking bets on how many state license plates we found.

Chapter 28: Yellowstone (Day 1)

For our Summer Family Vacation we decided that we would travel to Yellowstone National Park, having never been there, Scott and I thought it would be quite an adventure for not only ourselves but for the kids as well. As many of you know traveling in a car for more than about 20 min. with kids sometimes makes you want to pull your hair out, so we started playing the license plate game and I can not believe how the kids really got into the game...(stay tuned to see how we did). We arrived at our campsite around midnight and hurried to get some sleep before our vacation offically began.

Our first day in Yellowstone dawned bright and beautiful, it just seemed to make us all the more excited to explore the Park. We stopped by the Fishing Bridge Visitor's Center and got some maps and off we went. Driving towards Canyon Village we were taken back by how many Buffalo we encountered,
we stopped at one point to let the kids get out and watch these buffalo that were just covering an entire hillside (don't worry we were at least 100 ft. from them). Next we decided to explore the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and see the majestic Lower Falls. We walked the short distance to see the falls and were completely amazed by the size and the sheer beauty of the waterfall, and seeing all the colors and the depth of the Grand Canyon was breathtaking. After enjoying the Falls we went and ate lunch at the Canyon Village Deli, then went to the Visitor Center there and walked around looking at the souveniors in the shops. When we got back on the road we continued Northward and ended up at the Tower Falls, which once again we had to marvel at the Beauty of Nature as well as enjoy the fallen logs in which the kids had to see if they could "walk the log". All in all a great first day of Vacation!!!