Felonies and Fun!

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This has been a strange summer for us. I like to spend a month back in Utah with family. It is great for me because it helps to re-energize me and the kids love getting out of the AZ heat. We are usually gone in July as it is so very hot here and then I can be in Utah for Joseph's birthday and my birthday.

However, this year it just was not going to happen because Joseph was graduating and I knew I did not want to miss that. So we planned the trip for June. My sister in law, Amy, offered to come and help me get home. Road trips are not something that I can do myself yet. So she came a week before we left and offered a tremendous amount of help. It is hard for me to ask for help so I tend to not to that. What was so great about having her around was I never had to ask her to do anything. She saw what needed to be done and just jumped in and did it. The kids loved having her here. We went to the park, the pool, and the movie. The kids thought they were in heaven.

As for the road trip home, well this is where the felonies come in. I love to leave very early so we can drive all the way. 15 hours of fun. This time was no different. We pulled out at 4:03 am. Only three minutes late. I was very proud. After three hours driving, I see a cop behind me. I make sure I am not speeding and just keep on going. I had just complained to Amy that he was pacing traffic and it was going to slow us down. Next thing I know he has his lights on.

Hmmmmmm. He slowly approached the van on the passenger side, peering into the windows. Of course, the kids think this is great because it has never happened before and they are jumping out of their car seats to see the police officer. He wants to know if I am running a day school. I explain , no they are all my children. So then he starts comparing me to Jon and Kate plus 8. Are you serious?!?!?!? You pulled me over at 7:00 in the morning for this? So he then proceeds to ask me if I know why he pulled me over. No....... (seriously, if I knew that it could have saved us all some time )

Well I am driving on an expired registration. No way....... We are always on top of this, how did this happen to me? It had been expired for three days. So he then wants proof of insurance. I hand that to him too. Uh-oh.... Yes, expired too. (four days on that one) Finally he wants my drivers license. I carry a Utah drivers license so I do not have to change it each time we move. Well, according to him if I have lived in AZ for two years I have to change it to the state I am actually residing in.

Well there you have it 3 felonies. He asks Amy what he should do with me. The insurance fee alone is $1,810.00 and he can impound the van. At this point, I am thinking..... do it then. (I am seriously getting irritated at this point) It would be a nice vacation........ and I don't have to hear, "how much farther until we see Grandma Neice". I swear it has not changed that much in the last 30 seconds!!!

So the police officer heads back to his car. I would love to be mad at Jay for allowing this to happen to me, but with the job stress and trying to figure out what is best for us he has not been thinking anymore clearly than I was. So we wait, for what seemed like hours. I am sure it was only minutes. He comes back to the window with a very snide look on his face. His back up is just arriving (are you kidding me?!?!!?). He lets me know he is just warning me but I should get to the nearest library and have my insurance company fax me up to date proof (luckily I had more than one expired one in the van so he knew I usually kept it up to date), he also warned me that I should not get pulled over again because the next cop would probably not be nearly as kind and understanding as he was.( I also have five days to get it all taken care of and send them proof for there will be a warrant out for my immediate arrest!!!)

Okay, so no stress, 12 hours to go with six kids, three felonies, not enough sleep and I cannot even speed. I swear it was the longest drive EVER!!!! But I will also say my kids are the best. How many kids will sit in car seats in a van for 15 hours and still be laughing when we arrive at our destination? They are the best!!! So this is the beginning fun of our summer. I will update again later, with yet another chapter to our endless adventures. Sleep well, my friends!!

Camping

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Now this is my idea of camping!!! We tried camping when I was little and somehow somone always managed to get sick and we ended up in a cabin. Jay and I have done a little camping and he will camp with the the older boys in the back yard. I suppose one day we may really try it. :>

While we were in Utah Aunt Amy and Uncle Adam, who are campers, promised to camp with the kids. I thought they were crazy. :> But it rained every night we were there and it was a bit too cold. They did not want to disappoint the kids so they cooked yummy treats, and set up air mattresses and joined them on the floor in the basement. The kids loved it and it was a memory they will always have. They are still waiting for the big tent experience!!! Thanks again Adam and Amy , we love you!!!!

Graduation for Uncle Jo!!

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Dear Friends,
So much is happening here and I am very behind on blogging. So my goal is to slowly update and give you as much information as we have. Which is not much. For now, enjoy our graduation celebration with my baby brother. Way to go JoJo, hard to believe you have grown up so fast. We love you!!!!

Summer Vacation Begins!!!

I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that summer "vacation" has started here. The quads were done with preschool last week. Tanner and Hunter are done on Thursday. We are wasting no time in making this a summer to remember. :>
I recently got a new Nestle cookbook full of yummy treats. We have decided to try one new treat a week. Each youngin gets a week to pick their treat and help make it. We have been doing this for several weeks now and have only found one really good and one moderate dessert we like. Jayson picked this cake last week. We were pretty impressed with how well it turned out. However, no matter how hard we tried we could not get the chocolate shavings to be as long and beautiful as the recipe picture. We need Aunt Mary (the family baker) to help us!!! But we tried!!!

Poor Nathan has suffered our first injury of the summer. We had gone to the gym to workout. Cassie, Nathan, Jayson and Bryan were being sooooo good. We were all walking ever so nicely to the van, staying on the sidewalk, staying close together, and from out of no where jumped this stinkin brick wall and bashed Nathan in the face. I saw it happen in slow motion but could not do anything about it. The first thought through my head , was..... Man, that is going to bruise. However, when he turned around and I saw the blood everywhere, I realized this was not going to be an easy fix. Once he saw the blood it was all over.

The clubhouse was closer than the van so we headed back as quickly as we could. Luckily my two friends that had been there with us jumped right in, one ran to get paper towels while the other tried to herd and calm down kids. I also had a fellow ward member pull up. I am telling you I have never met a woman more prepared than she was. She had it all in her van. Wipes, ice packs, juice boxes, granola bars, and tylenol. There was also a nurse leaving so she came over and looked and said we probably needed stitches. So armed with some butterfly bandages, three grumpy and hungry kids, and the poor injured bloody one we headed to the doctor office.

Between the blood all over me and Nathan we were quite a scene so we were ushered into a room immediately. The sad thing is they do not do stitches in the office anymore so we would have had to have gone to the ER or a plastic surgeon. But the doctor said that they really do not do stitches anymore they just glue you back together. Since we had done a good job sealing it back together with the butterfly bandages he said the plastic surgeon would have had to tear it open again to stitch it back. I told the doctor that "chicks dig scars". (Jay keeps telling me this is true. ) So he cleaned Natty up, rebandaged him and sent us on our way with a prescription for antibotics. We raced home to get the boys off the bus, dropped off the prescription, ran to finally get some lunch, ran to the post office, back to pick up the prescription and finally home. It only took us five hours to go to the gym yesterday. :> Not bad!!! All in a day's work. LOL. Aunt Amy if you are reading this..... don't let it deter you from coming!!! :>

Natty is doing better today. He is more sore, but his injury did not slow him down at all. I must admit I am very disappointed that they do not do stitches anymore. I would think it would keep infection out better and I know several of our scars would not be so large. The cut was open again today so I super glued him back together and cleaned it up again. Yes, you read that right. I super glued him myself. I have also been known to do this too. It seems like such a waste of time to go all the way to the doctor for them to do something that I can do myself. :> I must admit, I am getting really good at this.

We go back to the doctor tomorrow for a follow up. So there you have it my friends, the fun begins!!! Have a great night and rest well. I know I will. (mostly from shear exhaustion.... I still have not figured out how to bottle their and use some for myself. :>)

Another "first" tooth GONE!!!

Hmmmmmmmm. Not really sure about how I feel about this one. I think that may have hurt a little. :>



Okay, I do have this really cool hole in my mouth and there is blood. That is "awesome". (new kid word of the week)



Now I am loving it, has that darn tooth fairy been here yet?!?!?!?! Oh, how quickly they grow up. This is Jayson and he has been working on his teeth for about a month now. And now that one is gone he is working on tooth number two, while Nathan is going for three, and Bryan and Cassie are still trying back for one again. They all just want their dollar for the dollar store. :>

So grown up so fast. Hug your little ones tonight and remember how quickly it all changes. Good night my friends!!!

Happy Mother's Day!!

I think this year was the best Mother's Day yet!!! Jay is usually out of town on Mother's Day, so just having him in town was a treat. :> I remember one year..... not only was he gone, but we had to be out of one base house and in the new house within three days. The little ones were almost 2, I think. Luckily, mom flew out and the ward helped out or there is no way I would have pulled that one off.

So this week was interesting. I love to listen to the raido as I am dropping kids off at school and I heard that a local station was honoring moms the entire month of May. I came home and told Jay he should nominate me!!! I even found the form and emailed it to him. Subtle, I know!!! But hey, they are giving away a trip to San Diego for four days and three nights. How awesome would that be?!?!!? Well Jay wrote a letter and sent it. ( I think he is hoping I will take him with me if I win!!! )

I was on my way into the gym and my cell phone rings. It sounded like someone trying to sell me something so I was getting ready to tell them that I did not have time right now to talk to them. Well, lo and behold it was the radio station. I was so excited and surprised!! I was the Mom of the Day!! When they asked me who might have nominated me it just did not seem right to say...... well I made my husband do it because I wanted to win a prize...... So I told them I hoped it was my husband. They did read me the letter and it was very nice. I really sounded good. It is a good thing that he has to write a lot of performance reviews, he knows how to say things. :> However, there was a catch. Since we have a half dozen kids (which is basically abnormal ) and Jay is a pilot for the air force they wanted to come out and do a news story for the 10:00 news on Mother's Day. I really do not like doing news stories. We have done sevearl since we were to pregnant with the quads. But I agreed as long as they promised to make me look good. :> So the next day they came out to meet the kids and do a story. It did turn out nice and the kids always enjoy seeing themselves on tv. We are still waiting to see if we will win the trip, and now a local pool company is also giving away a above ground pool so we might win that instead. That would all be fun!!!! Keep your fingers crossed!!!!

Sunday was great. The kids made me some great cards, gorgeous pictures, and took really good care of me. I got to lay in bed a little longer, got some great flowers, a cake, and Bride Wars. I love that movie!!! Great romantic comedy. All in all I was sad to see the day end and get back to the grind. It was nice to be appreciated!!! And then came Monday and everyone forgot "that I was the best mom ever." Just kidding. I am very lucky to have such a great family. My kids are miracles and even though being a mom is the hardest job I have ever had, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I recently heard the song "Ordinary Miracle" by Sarah Mclachlan. If you have not heard it you should take a moment a listen to it. It will give you a whole new look at each day. I am thankful for my "ordinary miracles". Sleep well, my friends.

March of Dimes T-shirts

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I am making some good progress catching up. LOL. Here are the t-shirts that I made for our March of Dimes walk. Thank you so very much to all of our sponsors for the walk. We were able to reach our $500.00 goal. We were so very proud to be able to do this walk and help to support March of Dimes. As you can tell by our pictures having had four preemies this is a very near and dear topic for us.

I spent 7 weeks in the hospital on bed rest after having been on bed rest at week 12 of our pregnancy. The babies were born at 30.5 weeks and we then spent another 7 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit before being released. It was a roller coaster of a ride but we made it!!! And as you have read in previous posts they are truly keeping me on my toes. Again, thank you everyone who helped us to reach our fundraising goal. Have a great night my friends. I will post actual walk pictures very soon!!!