What's your favorite time of day?

I flopped down on our bed last night after all the kids were tucked in and I layed there thinking that this is my favorite time of day, especially Sunday night. The kids are quiet, sleeping in their beds, no TV, cuddling, talking with Ryan. Although he usually is lulled to sleep with my thinking out loud, just those peaceful moments were I can count my blessings and reflect. Too often I find myself rushing around trying to meet the demands of the day, hushing children that are bickering, and some days just trying to find an "escape" and not giving much thought to what a great life I have.

Do you find moments in your day for reflection? What's your favorite time of day?

I Love My Boys!

My favorite boys in the whole world celebrate their birthdays just two days apart. Ryan turned 29 and Clay turned 5. This year we decided to combine the cake and ice cream party the night of Clay's birthday. Here are some pics of the fun! Happy Birthday Guys!

Lemonade

We got this card in the mail yesterday from Reecy and Eric and thought it was so true and hilarious that we had to share.


(On the outside of the card)

Hang in there...

Sometimes life
hands you lemons,
but then
you can make lemonade

(on the inside)

Of course, sometimes life
pulls down your pants,
runs a power sander across
your naked butt,
then pours lemon juice on your raw,
abraded buttocks.

In that case, a cool citrus drink
wouldn't really help, but darn it...
you've got to hang in there anyway!

Thanks Reecy, so sweet and it really made us laugh! Although we have to replace our newly laid wood floors, we still have our health, our family and tremendous blessings! What more can you really ask for.

Tagged...You're It!

Short and sweet, kind of.

What I was doing ten years ago: I had just started my senior year at Farmington High School in Michigan. I was working at my first job as a server at Bill Knapps. I was also applying to Ricks College and BYU.

What I was doing 5 years ago: Let's see 2002...I graduated (on time baby!) from BYU in Sociology in the Spring and in then in the Fall, end of Sept, we had just come back from Boise, Idaho for our nephew Nathan's blessing. I was super huge and ready to give birth to Clay in just 4 weeks. Rylee was almost 16 mos and ran the house. Ryan was starting his senior year at the Y in Economics.

One Year Ago: We (Ryan, me, Rylee, Clay, Kaycee and Lucy) were living in Mom and Dad Hunt's basement as we had rented out our condo and were waiting to close on a house. Kaycee was recovery nicely from her tonsillectomy and I was driving to and fro dropping off and picking up Rylee from Kindergarten. Ryan was working at REMAX for Protiviti and I was trying to get a handle on toting four children around.

Yesterday: We took Rylee to school at 9, Clay at 9:30 and then headed over to the condo to make sure the fans were still drying the carpet. (yeah, so I went over to the condo on Saturday to check things out before our two showings scheduled that day, only to find a running and leaking toilet tank. WATER EVERYWHERE!! The bathroom floor had an inch of water on it and the carpet was completely soaked past the vanity area, closet and into half the master bedroom. YAY. Who knows how long it was leaking. Anyways, Ryan and I sucked up about 10 gallons of water and then pulled the carpet back to dry it and the pad out. Thankfully, everything is okay now, the carpet laid back down nicely, yet we still missed the two showings...bummer.) Back to yesterday, we came home and then picked Clay up at noon and Rylee later on at 3:40. Then calling Ryan to tell him we have water under our new hardwood floor. Our darn dishwasher! We ate dinner while waiting for Ryan to come home. Then after an hour of getting kids in pj's and watching Chuck (still waiting for Ryan) we said prayers and went to bed. After checking in on the condo, Ryan came home at 9pm. Long day for him, poor guy. I crashed around 10pm.

5 Snacks I Enjoy: Candy (sweet and sour), snap peas, rice krispie treats, Swiss Rolls, anything else with sugar or chocolate (or both!).

5 things I would do if I had $100 Million: Pay off our houses, buy some more houses and hire all the work to be done, buy a bigger vehicle (or two), buy a cabin and a boat, and put away a bunch for my kids and for Ryan and me.

5 Places I would run away to: I would love to go back to Hawaii with Ryan. And then anywhere where someone would take care of me and I wouldn't have to "lift a finger." Just a nice relaxing, stress-free environment.

5 TV Shows I Like: America's Test Kitchen, Everyday Food, Law and Order: SVU, The Office (with Ryan) and King of Queens.

5 Things I hate doing: LAUNDRY! It's the thorn in my side! It's never ending! Waking up tired. Paying bills (watching money going down the drain!) Weeding and yard work. Yuck!

5 Biggest Joys of the moment: my family, going to bed, eating delicious food/treats, feeling well, having hot chocolate with toast listening to Christmas music - love it!

People to be tagged: YOU'RE IT!

They Make Me Laugh - cont'd.

I was just going to add these to my list below, but then I was afraid you wouldn't see the cute things my kids have been saying and doing. Here they are:

1.Clay heading out the door to continue playing with KC, says "bye mom" and then pounds his fist to his chest and throws up a peace sign. Nice.
2.It was a Friday night and we all headed to the grocery store to find something really tasty for dinner. The kids were wandering off a little so Ryan told them to stay by me, by the cart while he picked out some meat. The kids obeyed yet Rylee noticed that Clay was moving away and in her big sister voice said "Clay didn't you hear what Daddy said? Stay by the cart, or you'll never see the sun again!" (WHAT?!)
3. I was fixing something in the kitchen and Clay and Rylee come in. Clay's making horse sounds and then asks if I was in the wagon with the horses. What? He continues making the noises and then asks, "or did you walk?" It took me a second as I was trying to figure out what he was talking about. I ask "Are you asking me if I was a pioneer??" Clay: "yeah." I know kids think they're parents are old, but COME ON!! :)
4. I handed each of the kids a caramel to eat after they'd climbed into their car seats. They all say "thank you" as I'm backing out the door Clay asks "is it your pleasure mom?" I don't know where he gets it!

I found this picture the other day and it made me smile. This picture was taken exactly one month before our wedding (7 years ago) at Jason and Christina's wedding and in fact two days before our engagement was official with the proposal and ring. Looking back at how Ryan and I met (a blind date) and getting married two and a half months later, there's no other way I would have done it. I love my Ryno and all that he is and is striving to become. He is my favorite person in the whole wide world and the best dad to our 4.25 children. (Yes! Number 5 should be joining us the end of March! Can you believe it??) I love you Ryan. Thanks for all you do and for being you.

They Make Me Laugh

I wish I had done this over the past 6 or so years. The kids have made me laugh with some of the things they've said and done. Here are some of the more recent things, in no particular order:

1. Rylee came into my room crying one day and said "Clay hit me for no reason." From the other room Clay yells "I had a reason!"
2. Kaycee came to me whining saying that Clay hit her. Now, we'd had this conversation before with Kaycee about a little boy in nursery that is a little rough. I asked her if she'd told Clay that she didn't like it and to tell him to stop. She answered "no" so I jokingly asked her if she punched him in the nose. (Ryan had told KC that if this little boy didn't leave her alone in nursery to punch him in the nose..not sure how serious he was.) So I begin doing something else and seconds later KC comes burning around the corner and Clay is screaming in the other room. I asked KC what happened and she didn't answer and started to hide as Clay's crying grew closer. Clay came in holding his nose! I couldn't punish her as I told her to do it, but she did have to apologize.
3. In the car on the way home from Utah, Clay takes tattling to a new level: "Dad, Rylee's going to tell on me." (Hmmm...)
4.Me: "Clay, you can come out of your room now." Clay: "I am out of my room."
5. Clay: "Dad, my bed doesn't want me to make it. It wants you to."

Our Cute Kiddies

Here are some pics of the kids we took the other day. Ryan did such a good job capturing their natural smiles. I had to include KC's "Chandler Bing" picture. We love our cute kiddies!

The Denver Post

Here is a scan of the front page. If you look closely, you'll see me. Also, notice the flames behind the cabin. What a ride! Here is another clip from The Rocky Mountain News newspaper. It gives you a better idea of how close the fire actually came to our cabin. These were both taken when they let us go back into the cabin (30 mins)to get all the bags out.

On the Front Page

Funny story:

Okay, so Monday June 25th, Girls Camp, we (44 girls, 10 leaders and I) have just arrived at the YMCA Of the Rockies Snow Mountain Ranch. We are having a wonderful time in our own cabin and the girls are playing games and getting to know each other. After two hours of being in the cabin we are chased out by a fire that has started about 100 feet from us. We evacuate the girls and move our vehicles, only to see now what had started as minimal flames to a full blown wildfire raging above the trees with black smoke everywhere moving towards our cabin! (Anyways, if you want the full story, you'll have to call me for it.) We watched as several emergency vehicles came in and of course media people come in. There were helicopters flying overhead and it seemed only reasonable for the media people to come and talk to someone from our group since we were the ones to report the fire and were the most put out by it. Alas, no one was interested...so I thought. The next day we woke up (obviously not in the cabin) we realize that because of the poor air quality and having some girls with asthma, we cannot stay there at Snow Mountain. So we decide to move over to the YMCA of the Rockies over in Estes Park about 70 miles away. We made the trek over there. We arrived there to find that our rooms were not ready so we took the girls over to the pool. After being there for 20 mins, the lifeguard blows the whistle and tells everyone they need to get out of the pool and leave the building due to lightening (the building had a metal roof - of course they did!). After feeling we cannot catch a break at Girls Camp another director informs us that the activities that we had planned at Snow Mountain, we can do here. The girls were very excited. The next day they would be in groups for archery, the climbing wall and the high ropes/zip line. In charge of the zip line group I escorted the very excited girls to their activity. They donned on their gear and practiced on the low ropes. When it came time for the high ropes and zip, what else could happen but lightening AGAIN!! Oh, these girls were so disappointed. We waited half an hour to see if it would clear, but it didn't, and they wouldn't get their chance. As a leader, by now, I just had to laugh and tell the girls that they would never forget this camp. We'd been chased out by a fire (it ended up completely surrounding the cabin - I wish I had my camera!) then the lightening had prevented us from any activities we wanted to do. Luckily that morning we had snuck our hike in. Anwyays, that night as the Bishops from the three wards came up for the last night and testimony meeting, one of the bishops that had helped me and some other leaders clear out the cabin brought me a clip of the front page of the Denver Post Newspaper. It was me! I was carrying out pillows and bags from our cabin with two fire personnelle further down digging about the smoldering ground. WOW!! After "whining" that we were the group that the media should be talking to, there I was, on the front page! I was so embarrassed!