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!

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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?

Can't get enough Emmy!

Elsie has not left Emmy's side.

One time Emmy went to the bathroom, and Elsie kept yelling from the bottom of the stairs, "You done yet?  You done yet????"

Emmy might be completely exhausted by the time we even leave for our vacation.

Let's hope she survives!

They sat in the kitchen for a long time singing primary songs.

Elsie always has such an endearing look in her eyes when she looks at her Emmy.

It is pretty great.

A couple weeks ago we ordered new doors for the downstairs.

They finally came in, and Brent put them up today....I am so in love with them.

They still need to be painted...but we will wait until the weather is warmer so we can pull out our paint sprayer and do a good job.

But they are solid wood, and they just look so beautiful.

I can't wait to finally get the kitchen finished...but that will still take a while.

The picture shows the before on the left and the after on the right.

I love the straight lines...

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

We had a fun night.

We all hopped in the car and went out to eat at Red Robin.

Good stuff.

Then we came home and they had ice cream floats...and then we put some very tired kids to bed.

It was a good day.

And the mauling of Emmy begins!!!

Emmy made it here safe and sound.

Elsie waited around all day long....

She was upstairs when Emmy showed up.

Madi went and got Elsie...and she must have been hyperventilating...

When she got to Emily she had no color in her lips and she looked VERY pale.

Needless to say, so was VERY EXCITED to see her Emmy.

Elsie didn't leave Emmy's side all night until she went to bed.

And I have a feeling that is how it is gonna be for the whole week.