Video of Melody and Karina swinging a couple of weeks ago..."PUUMP, PUUMP, PUUMP!".

A Park Day

These are from the park last Thursday. I have more from other trips which, again, I will post at a later time...

Mr. Ethan

Just some recent photos of Ethan. I have a ton from the park from last week. I'll post those later, Ethan's calling me....

Erica got Tagged...

Jenn tagged me nearly a month ago and Cindi just tagged me so I guess I better get to work on the first one!...Here goes, try not to snore...

1. Where was I 30, 20 and 10 years ago? (I added the 30 and 20...I know sooome of you can't answer that far back, yeah yeah yeah!)

30 years ago: I was 5, living in Maine with my Mom and baby sister Melanie. Mom and Dad had divorced just a year or two before that. I was about to enter kindergarten.

20 years ago: I was 15 and in the 10th grade at Lowell High School in Mass. Lived with my Dad and step-mother at that point. I remember 10th being a good year. I had harder classes than 9th because I started taking more honors but I liked the challenge. I wish I had that motivation today...

10 years ago: Married, not happily, (not to Scott) wondering where my life was going to head next.

2. Five things on my to do list for today:

Since it's 8:30 at night, I'll tell you what I did today:
1. Laundry
2. More laundry
3. Even more laundry
4. Still doing laundry..
5. Pack a bag for tomorrow with snacks and water bottles (drop off the van, dentist appt. and maybe the park after)

3. Five snacks I enjoy:

1. I'm with Jenn on the blueberries..I'll eat a whole pint if I'm not looking!
2. Ice cream is nice when it's not cold.
3. Nachos
4. Raw carrots or broccoli with veggie dip...preferably spinach dip!
5. Mints (are they a snack food??)

4. What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire:

BUY MOM A HOUSE, BUY MEL A HOUSE, PAY OFF OUR HOUSE, PAY OFF OTHER RELATIVES' HOUSES, GIVE TO CHURCH AND OTHER CHARITIES AND THEN SAVE SAVE SAVE!....not necessarily in that order!

5. Four of my bad habits:

1. Having too much to do and not knowing where to start so I stand there in limbo and nothing gets done.
2. Whining about dumb stuff I can't change.
3. Raising my voice or being harsh with my babies.
4. Procrastination

6. Five jobs I have had:

1. Dunkin Donuts
2. McDonald's (for one month!)
3. KFC
ALL 3 OF THE ABOVE WERE MY TEENAGE JOBS! :) AAAWFUL!
4. Job coach or residential counselor to mentally retarded adults...some of the best times of my life.
5. MOTHER/WIFE (is it wrong to call those jobs??)

7. Five things people don't know about me:

1. I grew up in Maine but was born in Massachusetts....and then lived in Mass. later on in my childhood.
2. I love 80's music (HA) and yes I listen to it on the radio most Saturday nights as I'm cleaning up and getting ready for Sunday.
3. I LOOOOVE Phil Collins' music!! (See #2)
4. I'm the opposite of Jenn...I HATE to cook! However, I love to bake. I think it's because I find it easier.
5. In the summer of '99 I was supposed to, and already had plans, to move to Arizona. I had just gotten divorced and wanted a fresh start.....then...I met Scott. Most of you know the rest of that story!

I tag Mariluz and Jess....sorry ladies...but don't feel obligated either!! :)

Fun with Cardboard Boxes!

Here is Elijah with Daddy and cousin Emily...although you can barely see her :) If you listen closely, you can hear Kara say, "I WANT TO GO IN!". She did, but the camera batteries died before I could get her on film :(

Elijah's First Visit to the Dentist!

Elijah went to see Angela, our hygienist, last Monday for the first time. He was SUCH a well-behaved boy! Even three months ago I was thinking he is SO not ready to sit still and not flip out. He opened wide and was so good for Angela and Dr. Jay! YAY ELIJAH! Here are some photos from before we left, in the van on the way there and with Angela...

A Day in the Life of a Baby Blessing

MARCH 30, 2008--Ethan's Blessing by his father, Scott. Photos of Daddy getting Ethan dressed, riding to church, after-the-blessing photos and finally WHEW!...it's been a long day!...

General Conference Activity

So during General Conference last weekend, we stayed home and watched it on the internet. At one point during an afternoon session, we told Noah and Kara they could play on the other side of the basement, quietly. Our basement is basically our family room with computer, TV, toys etc all down here. They both came over all excited about what they had just done. "Mommie, Daddy! Come see what we did!" and dragged us over. We did not coax them into this activity, they both came up with it all on their own. We LOVE their sweet little spirits! Here's what we found...sorry the picture quality is so dark...it was a rainy afternoon and we had all the lights off down here....

HOME IMPROVEMENT??!!

We are attempting to finally finish the "striped room" as Kristen would call it :) AKA our living room. You've all seen the yellow walls with white stripes (drywall compound) in previous listings/photos. Well, last week I decided to get out the can of sage green that we bought about a half year ago for the kitchen and start painting the living room. I didn't get far before I was needed by one of the younger boys. Later after they all went to bed, Scott finished off 2 of the walls and I came out of our room to check it out (it was late when he finished). I THOUGHT the color looked great and I loved it. I even remember saying it made the room look more warm and inviting compared to the yellow.

Well, fast forward to the next morning with the sun shining brightly in the room and me staring at the 2 new, freshly painted walls. I immediately had the thought, "Scott's going to shoot me" because I did NOT like the color anymore. YIKES! I came to the conclusion that it is because that room is SO bright that the lighter colors are just washing out the room. I called his voice mail at work and left a message and finished with "please don't be mad at me". He called back and said no problem what color do you want this time? LOL! AAhhh thank goodness for a patient husband!

Friday I came home with a new color green after much deliberating (for 2 days) between me and Scott and he started painting AGAIN. Well it was DARK but we loved it...he had about 1/4 of the first wall done and it started bubbling. We started freaking out like WHAT THE HAY is going on??!! What we eventually realized is that the sage green paint had "rubberized" from sitting too long and that when it got wet from the dark green it started to bubble like wallpaper! We started to peel it up and gave up because it got really messy, really fast.

We came to terms with the fact that we had to let it dry and sand ALL THE SAGE GREEN WALLS down in order to begin on the dark green again!!! This is after already using dry wall compound to fill in all holes and 2 sessions of sanding them down! DUST CITY!! We were both really frustrated but we figured hey at least we only did the sage on 2 walls and not on all 4!

Soooo then on Saturday Scott painted the 2 non-sage, still-yellow walls with the dark green and we have yet to start sanding the 'bad' walls. We think we are really liking this color. I say 'we' but of course I mean ME. I think if he has to help me paint it again he's going to choke me lovingly...HA HA JUST KIDDING! Here's a photo of the messed up wall....after we tried peeling it!!



And here's a picture of the dark green on one of the 'good' walls...with the to-be-fixed sage wall...

Our Boy Elijah

This is my beautiful boy, Elijah....Sometimes I feel like he is the "odd man out" because he's not the cute, new little baby and he's not one of the older, smarter kids who go to school and play a lot of 'older kid' stuff that he can't understand right now. So, I wanted to pay tribute to my nutty, crazy, 100MPH, loud, excited, wonderful, smart, beautiful, sweet little 3-year-old boy. I'm so glad he came to be with us so he could teach his mother and father LOTS of stuff!! ;)

Flashdance (Well, not really!)

This is a video of Scott, Noah and Elijah bustin' a move! Boy, do they have rhythm (NOT!). That's ok, they were having fun! About that 'flashing thing'...yes, Noah's robe does move but you don't see anything! (From what I can see anyway!) Sorry about how dark the video is, you can barely see Scott dancing with MOLLY! Enjoy!