All done...kinda.

The quilting is pretty much done.

I still need to put the binding on.

But...I am close.

That shouldn't take too much time.

I just need to find the time.

Finishing a present 6 months after the birthday...not too bad, right?

Oh well.

Madi's happy with it.

Elsie had another bad night last night.

I sure hope she sleeps better tonight.

She had fun hanging around me while I finished up the quilt.

She pretended like I was driving a car and she told me where to go.

We had a birthday party.

First we had to go to the store and buy balloons.

Then we went and picked up all her friends.

Oh, and we had to pick up the birthday cake.

Between each stop, she would 'hop out' and go get whatever it was, then get back in and tell me when she was buckled up.

Elsie definitely has a great imagination.

She could go on like that for the entire day!

Sleep wanted.

It has been a long day.

Elsie was up at 4:00 a.m. this morning.

I got up with her, and tried my darnedest to get her to go back to sleep...

Finally at about 6:00 she was back asleep...and that is when my sweet Porter woke up for the day.

So, right now, I am pretty dang tired.

I had a talk with Elsie tonight, and asked her NOT to wake up that early anymore.

She gladly said "Okay!"

I hope she remembers.

Anyway...so I was planning to skip church today.

But I also really wanted to go.

So we went.

Sacrament was, again, pretty hilarious to those around me.

We weren't very quiet...I tried hard though.

Anyway, we survived.

The rest of the day went smoothly.

I enjoyed my classes, the kids enjoyed their classes...all good.

If I would have stayed home, I am sure it would have been a day full of fighting.

So I guess I made the right choice.

The kids played good after church.

Elsie loves to have a horsey back ride.

In fact, all day Friday she made Dad give her horsey back rides all day long....

Madi and Cassi also put together a band to go along with Cassi's guitar.

Drums made out of oatmeal canisters...

Maracas made from mac and cheese boxes.

Tambourines made from kitchen utensils.

It was pretty fun.

Too bad bedtime snuck up on us so quickly.

I am sure they will get back to their band equipment tomorrow.

(The girls got their little knit hats on sale from Target the other day.

I think they look cute in them and they sure love them!)

We had a pretty laid back day.

Everyone slept good last night...and we just hung around this morning.

I did some quilting while the kiddos played nicely with each other.

It was pretty nice.

But messy.

The girls had a birthday party at 11:30.

Porter napped while they were gone, so Elsie and I watched a movie while I quilted some more.

When the girls came home, they continued to play really nice upstairs.

It was great.

A little later they had a friend, Keva, over.

They decided they wanted to do some painting.

So they sat and painted for a little bit.

I had a hard time figuring out what to do with Porter.

He just wanted to make trouble for the girls.

The rest of the day went pretty good.

Not much fighting...more messes made.

But over-all, happy kids.

The girls got some lipstick and nail polish from the birthday party.

Cassi was so excited to have lipstick...she would love it if she could wear make-up every day!

Oh man, those days aren't very far off, are they?

Cassi had guitar lessons this evening.

She is learning a Taylor Swift song now.

And she is very excited about that.

If I haven't said it before...I think she is absolutely adorable playing the guitar.

And she does so good with it too.

Keep up the great work Cassi!

Proud

For the last couple weeks, Madi has been working on jump roping.

Her friends talked her into trying out for the speed jump team.

She made it through many cuts and today was the final try-out.

We didn't think the little kids would behave very well if we took them, so I stayed with them at home and Brent went to support Madi.

First thing he texted me saying that Madi had to do it in front of all the 4th and 5th graders.

My stomach dropped...I was so worried for her, and her nerves.

This is the girl who won't say prayers in front of our families, cause she is so nervous.

It was a good thing I didn't go, cause I probably would have made things worse as I tried to make things better.

But Brent said she did awesome.

She made it through 2 of the 4 rounds before she was cut.

There were 18 kids going for one of the 2 spots that Madi was trying for.

Yes, it is a bummer that she got cut....

But I am so PROUD of her for putting herself out there.

Making a goal, and working hard towards it.

She made sure to practice at home as much as she could.

We even had to get her some nice comfy pants so she didn't have to jump in jeans.

It was a fun experience for her, and now she knows even better what will be expected next year if she decides to try out again.

Good job Madi.

Your Mom and Dad are very proud of you!

So proud, we decided to go out to dinner to Primos.

The kids had a lot of fun, and we didn't have to cook.

That's always nice.

Now I need some sleep.

Elsie and I were up at 4:30 this morning...I hope she doesn't do that again tomorrow!

I love you, a bushel and a peck!!!

Emmy and Elsie sang this song over and over and over again the whole time Emmy was here.

I love Elsie's sweet little muchkin voice.

So we thought it would be fun to record it.

Grandma Ene also loves this song, so we thought she would enjoy listening to it.

Thanks Em.

My great little helper.

We are getting close to getting this quilt done.

Madi has fun sitting and quilting in her spare time.

It warms my heart to see her do it.

I hope it is something she enjoys, and we can continue to do it as she grows older.

But today, I had an awesome little helper.

Elsie was so serious, and really trying hard to get that needle in and out.

So cute!

Look at those little fingers working.

What a sweet little helper.

****

I decided to stitch it in rows...instead of around the blocks.

It was so much easier not to go the opposite direction of what feels normal.

So now it is all stitched on one side, now I need to unroll the quilt, and start the other direction.

Shouldn't take long.

It takes about 10 min. to go down a row.

So if I could just sit down for a good couple hours, it should get done.

I have had some great helpers.

Heather came over yesterday again and helped for a long time.

Thanks Heather!

I am excited to get it done and in the wash and then show the final product!

Blankets

Porter loves his blanket.

He really does take it everywhere.

We keep it home usually.

But around the house, he is regular little Linus.

He has a new habit of putting it on the back of his chair when he is eating or snacking.

It has to be on there pretty perfectly.

He is funny about that.

Then he sits and rubs the blanket.

When he goes to bed, he likes it to be around the top of his head.

Like, rolled up and arched around his head.

Then he rubs it with his fingers.

Pretty cute.

I don't know how long he will do this, but I wanted to be sure and write it down so I never forget it.

***

Elsie is also a blanket girl...with her Emmy blanket.

She loves to cuddle with it.

Porter also has to have his Emmy blanket when he is sleeping.

If it's dirty, and I try to use another one in its place, he gets mad at me.

I love my kids.

Peanut butter cookies!!!

I guess we didn't make enough cookies yesterday.

So this evening we put together another batch.

I had some great helpers...

Stirring....

Mixing....

And eating.

I love my sweet girlies.

Playing at the station.

It was a pretty good day today.

The Young girls came over this morning....all the girls, including Heather who sat and helped me stitch Madi's quilt.

Things are going really good on the quilt.

I will be really excited when it gets done.

Thanks a ton Heather....that was a lot of fun having you hang out with me.

Then at noon...it was my plan to sign up for Robie Creek.

But the site crashed...like it does every year.

I tried all day long to get back on....

Then at 2:00, Elsie's speech Therapist came over.

And between the time of 2 and 3, the site opened back up, and the race was full.

I am so bummed!

I am still hoping to get a chance with someone deciding they don't want to do it....but I still just wish I KNEW I got in.

Oh well....

After speech, we hopped in the car and took some cookies to Dad at the Fire Station.

The kiddos always love to go to the station.

But no one loves it more than the boy.

He just eats the whole thing up.

And Dad loves that more than anything!

The kids had fun playing in the firetruck...sliding down the fire pole, and talking with all the guys at the firehouse.

They all climbed up the bucket truck, not when it was extended, but still high up on top of the truck.

Elsie wasn't so sure about that.

She is like her mamma...she likes her feet firmly planted on the ground.

You can always tell when Elsie is done with doing whatever we are doing.

She had had enough horns, and heights.

And she was ready to go inside and have some cookies.

Silly kiddo.

When she went inside she perked back up and had fun showing off for the guys.

Music

Well, another Sunday getting the kids ready and going to church alone.

It didn't go bad this morning, except we left with a house that looked like it was hit by a tornado.

Sacrament meeting was pretty crazy.

Porter was not very good.

The rest of the kids were, so that was great.

But I had to go out several times with Porter cause he was so noisy and wanted to wrestle.

Always nice at church, right?

On the drive home from church I asked the girls if the could entertain the little ones upstairs, so I could get the tornado cleaned up and dinner started.

They were fine with doing that.

Except that the little ones came down about 10 minutes later, without the big girls noticing.

That is okay.

I figured that they were doing fine upstairs and the little ones were being good downstairs.

So I started making dinner.

Then I wondered what they were doing up there.

They were together, but there was no fighting or tattle-telling.

So I went up, and I found them rocking out to music in Madi's room together.

Pretty cute right.

Even better, they made their own surround sound.

They put their Mp3 players on the same station and hooked them to their speakers.

Then they each tuned their radios to the same station...bunched them all together...and WALLA!

Anyway, I have mentioned before how much I LOVE when they get along!

They could have so many great memories like this if they just GOT ALONG!!!!!!!

She's gone... :(

Oh bummer.

Emmy left today.

We sure are gonna miss her.

We all had so much fun with her while she was here.

We are so Thankful she was so willing to come and hang out here for a week.

We think she ROCKS!

We LOVE you Emmy!

After cleaning the house, and after Porter took a nap...we decided to get out of the house and go swimming at the Y.

That is always a fun time.

Elsie LOVES the water...but is very unsure when there is so many people there.

And there were a lot of people there today.

So after playing a bit, she was happy to hang by the side and watch all the others.

Bubba couldn't get enough water.

He was excited to wear his "swimming pools", as he calls them.

He found these when we were looking for pants at my favorite second hand store.

I couldn't turn him down when he brought these "swimming pools" to me.

I mean they were only $2.

Not bad.

(They have lighting McQueen and Mater on them....he has worn them a lot, usually over his pants.  This is the first time he has worn them swimming.)

Madi and Cassi stayed in the bigger pools and slides most of the time.

The couldn't go off the diving boards because that part of the pool was taken over by Marines doing some testing.

They were happy to go down the slide over and over.

Sweet Elsie Rose...showing off her size 2 swim suit.

Man, this girl is skinny!

I had to include this picture.

Right after I took it, Cassi ran right into that purple pole.

She as throwing a bit of a fit cause she wanted a turn to take Porter up the slide, and she wasn't watching where she was going.

WHACK!  She gave herself a nice little goose egg on her forehead.

Porter is a water baby...it will be fun to play with him at our pool this summer!

Lots of sore fingers ahead.

I made a quilt for Madi for her birthday last August.

Well, I made the quilt top.

I didn't have time to actually quilt it.

I know...surprise, surprise!

Well, six months later...look what we are doing!

It was Emily's suggestion that we set it up while she was here so she could help out.

And I think she knew that once it was up...I HAD to get it done and out of the way.

I mean, it is in the middle of the front room!

I look forward to some one-on-one time in the next few days with Madi putting stitches in her quilt.

And I am VERY excited to get it done.

I told her that it will be something that she cherishes forever.

She said that she might out-grow it.

Well, the back is a king size sheet....so I am pretty sure she won't be growing out of this.

I really do hope she treasures it and that she will always know that it was made out of love from her momma.

I am pretty sure she will.

(Just a little info...that is not toilet paper in the picture...that is the roll of thread/string we are quilting with.)

The boys were having a tough time watching the movie as we were quilting with the light on.

So they found a solution.

Like father, like son.

Love it.

Good to be home.

We had to check out today at 12:00.

It would have been fun to stay another day, but we were also excited to get back home.

We had a great get-away.

Just what we needed.

We would have liked to try cross-country skiing...

But apparently the resort doesn't really open until Thursday, so no rentals.

But that was totally okay.

We really did what we wanted to do...and that was to spend time with each other and relax!

**************

We headed for home just before noon.

It was a beautiful drive...everything covered in a fresh layer of snow.

We got home to a VERY excited Elsie Rose.

And Porter woke up just a little bit after we got home.

He was pretty happy to see me, but was pretty concerned where his Daddy way.

And he hasn't let Dad out of his sight for most of the day.

The big girls weren't expecting us home until around dinner time.

So they were excited when they saw us out there when they got off the bus.

Today was Cassi's 100 day celebration at school.

A very exciting day.

I sure missed these kiddos.

We are so glad to be home...

And we are happy that Emmy is sticking around for a couple more days.

But I will for sure let her catch up on her sleep!!!

Gold Forks day

Today has been another great...and very relaxing day.

We both slept in.

I had no idea I could sleep all the way until 8:30...crazy stuff!

It sure was nice.

We got up...ate some breakfast and hopped in the hot tub again.

It was snowing...kinda of a lot...

That was fun to sit in the hot tub while getting snowed on.

Then we laid around and watched movies and cuddled.

That is what vacation is for, right?

Later in the day we took a drive around.

And we decided to go to Gold Forks Hot Springs.

It was a pretty bad drive up there.

Lots of snow.

But we made it there, safe and sound.

And it was so much fun.

Such a great hot springs place.

And amazingly beautiful views, especially with the newly fallen snow.

We almost had the place to ourselves.

There was another little family there.

It made us really lonely for our little ones.

And we are definitely planning a trip out here with them.

It had a lot of different pools with the hottest being a 108 degrees.

It was the coolest thing...watching the natural hot water coming out of the rocks.

Man, I love nature!

It was nice a steamy.

I told Brent that our poor skin isn't gonna know what to do when we go back home.

We have been immersed with hot water the whole vacation.

But it sure is nice.

It really was beautiful.

We got to talk with the little ones again too.

It is silly.

I am totally loving the time with just Brent and I.

Joking and playing around and teasing and snuggling.

It is so great.

But both of us have a hard time forgetting about the kiddos.

We keep saying, "Oh Madi would love this!" or "Cassi would love that!"

How much Elsie would love the hot tub...and how much Porter would love the snow.

We sure miss them.

According to Em, they have been pretty good today.

And last night wasn't too bad for her.

I hope they have a great night tonight...and I can't wait to see them tomorrow!

Just the two of us.....

Oh man...this is so much FUN!!!!

It is so beautiful here.

This is just what we needed.

Look how BEAUTIFUL this is...all nestled in the woods.

Our very own Hot tub...

We left home around noon.

Did some shopping for some groceries....and got to the cabin around 2.

After unpacking and jumping in the hot tub....we made a really REALLY yummy dinner!

Okay...cheesy picture, I know...

But it sure was yummy!

And, or course, we can't end the night without telling the little ones how much we love them.

We walked the laptop around the cabin to give them a tour of the place.

And we told them that we definitely plan to bring them here some time soon.

Cause they would LOVE it here!

We sure to miss those kiddos.

The peace and quiet is sure nice, but we still miss those noisy messy kiddos!

Sounds like things went pretty good for Emmy today.

I wish her the best of luck tonight.

I hope they all sleep really good!

Thanks, Em.

We really are so very thankful for you and your willingness to do this for us!

We love you.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Happy HEART day.

We all had a fun day here.

Elsie got to take Emmy to school today and show her off.

One of her teachers told Emily that she was like a rock star there at school the way Elsie spoke about her.

The kids had a lot of fun...just sugar after sugar...

And more sugar...

They had a little game/therapy with these tongs picking up sweethearts.

Then they decorated cookies...

Then they got a big chocolate cupcake...

THEN they got a pink rice krispy treat...

SO MUCH SUGAR!!!!!

But it sure was a fun time.

******

For dinner tonight we made fun pink heart pancakes with fruit and whipped cream.

Yummy!

Now I need to start thinking about packing.

We leave tomorrow.

I am excited for some time away with my hubby.

I am so Thankful to Emmy, and her willingness to stay with my kiddos.

I am so glad she loves them so much!!!!

I just hope they are perfect Angels for her.

(I swear I do NOT teach that head tilt that my kids tend to do for pictures...I think it is so funny that they do it!)

I sure hope she survives!

Emily has got to be so exhausted.

In church today she had a hard time keeping her eyes open.

Yes, she is in primary in her ward, so just sitting there is a hard thing to do!

But I do think that her exhaustion has a lot to do with these little kiddos of mine.

Elsie holds her hand and races back and forth and back and forth all around down stairs...all day long.

Porter likes to wrestle her and tackle her.

Elsie spurts out "I love you Emmy!!!" about every 10 min and gives her a giant hug along with it....it is pretty cute.

Porter likes to shove things up, or down, her shirt.

Oh, did I say that Port likes to tackle her?

Oh, we sure do love having her here...

I hope she is enjoying herself...

And I hope she can get enough sleep.

And we just thought that Porters diaper was pretty funny.

I wonder how much these things can hold?