Ten on Tuesday

Someday I will actually take photos again, and upload them, just not today

1.      I waited to write this so I would know for sure if we were castles in the house first and . . . we are!!! Annmarie got her cast off today. I cannot tell you how excited I am that she can shower by herself (She had to do baths and I had to hold her arm. . . PAIN) again and get all clean!!!!

2.      Peas – I used to love these now not so much. Why you ask well during Confrence my kids were playing great in their room. Over a week later we found out that they had put peas in their ears. Jeffrey actually told us that day. But Will and Annmarie waited until I actually looked in their ears last Monday. We got one out of Will’s ear and thought that was all. But the next day a family friend who is a Dr looked in all their ears. Will had a pea in his other ear still! And Annmarie had tons of junk in them. Needless to say a trip to urgent care for Will and an ear flush and he is pea free. Then a trip the following day to The dr and Annmarie ends her ear drops today to hopefully help her stop picking at her ears. Morals of this story? 1. If your kids are behaving really good, go find out why. 2. Never by snap peas again!

3.      Chris is staying here this summer. He accepted the internship with the governor here this summer. I think the biggest factor was his family was going to be with him. We could not be happier!

4.      Church callings – I must say we (both of us) are learning more and more about how things go in branches than we had ever hoped to. We love our callings and are thankful for them, but are learning the “joys” that go along with callings that we have never experienced.

5.      Kris Allen – Why other than she is just plain awesome? Well her habit of 10 on Tuesday got me doing this. Plus she texted me today to remind me that she was waiting to read my oh so exciting 10 items.

6.      A new addition to our family. . . a new car! We have bought a 2001 VW Passat standard!!  I was bumed at first thinking Chris would get all the fun driving it to work this summer until I realized that I only have 3 kids at home during the day and I can drive it to The YMCA, to run errands etc. It gets much better gas milage than our van.

7.      Babies!! No I am not pregnant (see above) but in the last week I have gotten to hold 2 brand new babies. Plus my sister in law was induced early this morning so sometime soon I’ll have a new niece or nephew. I love holding newborns. Yes it always makes me want more and someday when Heavenly Father decides its time we will add more to our family.

8.      YMCA – I love love love our Y. They have treated us so kindly. When my parents came to visit they gave them a free guest pass for the whole time they were there. My kids love the child watch, early out PE and any other class I put them in. I love their exercising classes and the people who work there. They all remind me of Kindy, rec management majors! Plus they did an Easter egg hunt on Saturday. It was great. Jed was so funny. He didn’t want to pick up any eggs. He only wanted candy. It took him a good 3 min before he would accept there was candy in the eggs. Then he was good to go.

9.      Rain and cold weather – I forgot that just because the snow has melted it doesn’t mean that it will not be cold anymore. The last few days have been cold cold cold. Today is all rain and maybe snow tonight. Yes I still do love spring.

10.  Harry Potter – yes I am a huge fan. We bought the new movie and yes it was date night, kind of. Plus it makes me so much more excited for July 15^th! Also what do I listen to when I run on the dreaded treadmill? Why yes it would be Harry Potter 7. Right now I’m where Harry is walking into the forbidden forest. Oh I love that book and hope that the movie does justice to the book.

Ten on Tuesday

That's right I've succumbed to the realization this is the only way I'm going to write here.
so since Its my first I will write from how ever far back I want

1. Annmarie broke her arm. She has a wonderful sparkly pink cast. She fell off her cousin's bunk bed. She was a huge trooper and stopped whimpering as soon as she got to play angry birds on the Itouch (not ours)

2.The Lee's Sealing. For spring break (well a few days of it) we went to Las Vegas to see our great friends get sealed in the temple to each other and then their kids. Such a wonderful moment. So happy to be there to see another family be sealed for time and all eternity.

3. Chris has been offered 2 internships this summer. Now we are off to decide which to take one in AZ or one here in Des Moines

4. I (Karen) have signed up for a half marathon. It is the last Saturday of this month. Hopefully I can finish it this time since my training has been limited due to 2 weeks of sick kids, traveling and me being sick. I think there is no time goal for me this time, just cross the line.

5. Spring has sprung!!!! Oh how I have missed a spring that lasts and is not 3 days long. I have had allergy issues but am happy to have them because I love where I live so much!

6. Harry Potter 7 part 1 comes out on Friday. I know what date night will be this week.

7. Thanks to a good friend and her kind husband I got to have a girls trip to the mall complete with pedicures. So nice to sit and talk with TerriLyn without or kids and before she had her 3rd (today at 12:29pm) such a great time.

8.  Tangled. Oh my this movie is AWESOME!!! I love Maximus.  Chris laughed hysterically during Flyn and max's "sword" fight. Annmarie now wants hair like Rapunzel. Its going to take a long time to get there.

9. Star wars. Jed is so obsessed. That is all he wants to play and has his own "Anikin" jacket (a blue hoodie). He knows all the characters, and can make all the noises perfect. He even dies great.

10. General Conference! Wow it was amazing. Sunday Afternoon session was just for me. Elder Scott's talk was one in a million. So glad to have living prophets today to help us make it back to live with Heavenly Father someday.

My soapbox

I need to vent!

As I was reading online today an article about how schools in Chicago are not allowing students to bring lunch from home, because the school's is better, this really set me off. What happened to our right to choose. So some kids packs their lunch and all it is is Cheetos M & M's and Mt Dew. Should a 7 yr old be eating this, not so much. But it is the parent and the kids responsibility to make sure things are taken care of. Are some parents not so with it. sure but lets not punish everyone else because a small amount of people won't take responsibility for their job (parenting). The more and more of our choices that are getting taken away is ridiculous. I'm now waiting from the government to require all children need to be in rear facing car seats until they are 2 ( a recent study suggested that this is much safer for the child). You know what. They are my kids. My responsibility! Let me choose what happens with them. Will comes home and tells us that sugar is bad for us. Is it yes, but there is nothing wrong with every once in a while having something with straight up sugar.

I fully understand that there is a lack of parenting going on in a lot of houses, but this does not mean that big brother needs to step in and tell us all what to do. Soon they will be telling us we can only buy GM cars because that is the best for the USA. You know what, maybe I might buy a Yukon XL but don't force me. Next you know they will be telling me Each family can only have 3 kids. Well which once do I choose to get rid of. In the past I never really saw a huge issue with the government adding laws. but as I get older (and a lot more stubborn) I say get out of my hair. Will my child eating cheetos for lunch be the end of the world. No, but let me decide!

Sorry I guess I'm a little frustrated with the involvement of the government in our every day lives. How many choices do you make because you don't want to get in trouble or get a ticket by the government. I've said my peace thanks for letting me rant.

So funny

Got this off a friends blog. sooo funny. Much funnier if your from Rochester. BUt it is Jon Stewart so be forwarded. no nothing political but you get my point. 

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-16-2009/windowless-news-van-for-kids---the-ball

also my new favorite Commercial Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

Letting the offended choose the consequence

I've realized that most of these "moments" that I'm trying to remember happen after some bad choices made by someone in our house. I guess it's just Heavenly Father's way of showing me that things are really ok.

Last night Will and Annmarie were cleaning the boys room, Annmarie had finished cleaning her room, and She said to him your a bad cleaner upper. Will came out upset. I told him if he wasn't cleaning then at that moment he might be a bad cleaner. We he proceeded to return to his room and tell her she was a bad cleaner and  I'm sure there was s hug of some sort that used fists or straight arms. Needless to say now Annmarie was crying and she had her feelings hurt. I told her she did not need to help the boys anymore, but to remember how she felt when someone called her a not nice thing and to remind herself of this when she wanted to call someone something not nice.

Will had some other issues so I told him to get his pajamas on and get to bed. Once again crying in sued. I called Annmarie into me and said It is your choice if Will gets off his bed, because he was unkind to you, you get to choose his consequence. I told her to think about what Jesus would do. A little bit later they came in holding hands. Will told her she was sorry. I said give her a hug and a kiss. When he kissed her on the cheek, she wiped it off. Then because in our house when you wipe off a kiss you get a ton more, Will kept kissing her cheek, and her laughter erupted, as well as screams of delight and Will's laughter as well

I Love that my kids so easily forgive each other and hope this trait continues throughout their lives. I also love to see how good of friends my kids are to each other.

Wonderful sounds

As my kids were running about the house today playing. I was asking them not to jump on the couch and scream. As I sat doing the kids puzzles, they had dumped all 8 puzzles together and I was trying to separate them, I listened to them instead of stressing. I heard the best sounds. Annmarie laughing. It was a laugh that you don't hear very often, one of her truly having fun. She was being chased around the house by her brothers. I've decided that every house needs a circle to run around in. Without it I think its incomplete.

Chris was in AZ the last week and we missed him! I think this is the longest he has ever been away from us since we've had kids. I was so excited to see him yesterday. But thanks to Chicago weather he was 2 hours late. All in all I'm so thankful that he got to come home. I understand even more now who We are counseled to be married. I also understand why there need to be a mom and a dad in each family. So thankful that I'm married to my best friend and that he loves us and misses us when he's not with us.


side note. I haven't figured out how to get photos on this computer yet so that's why there are no photos. Plus I think I'm turning this more into an everyday small things that my kids do to make me smile. . . I need to focus on that a lot more than I do.

A moment I don't want to forget

After I had a blow up with Jeffrey and sent him to his bed (it was something stupid and he didn't deserve it). He went to his room then came out a few min's later with his little Book of Mormon in hand, and said he was sorry. the he came and sat next to me and said what does this say. We read about 2 verses, but I love how it totally brought the spirit back into our home. Thanks Jeffrey for making a better choice than your mom.

New video's ok the kids

Here are 2 video's of the kids

 One has them singing Zippidy do da.Will has been learning this in school

the other is I am a Child of God.

They were so excited to sing which blows me away considering . . . yeah anyone who knows me knows I turn pages I don't sing. 

We Emailed out Christmas cards yesterday. If you didn't get one and want one please let me know.  My new goal is to post to the blog every Sunday. I setting some new goals for myself and I'm optimistic that I'll accomplish it. Hope your all having a wonderful Christmas season.