Blessings are Abundant!

Just wanted to say that we are so blessed! I have been feeling rather selfish lately as "I look at others with their lands and gold" and felt I needed to count my blessings to remember all I've been given.
1. The gospel that reminds me why it's all worth it
2. My sweet husband who strives with me to be worthy of our temple covenants and blessings
3. 6 amazing, incredible, talented, beautiful children who love me
4. A job that supports our family in these tough times
5. Wonderful family on both sides who love us and care about us
6. Friends who encircle me and lift me
7. A house big enough for our hooligans
8. A car big enough for our whole family to ride together places
9. Health to care for my little ones
10. Ability to read all I ever have time for and wealth of books to choose from
11. Beautiful music whether from my family or favorite CD's
So I couldn't stop at 10 and if I got into details I'd be here all day. I just needed a moment to reflect and remember. Thanks for letting me share!

Loathing Loads of Laundry

CLEAN!

DIRTY!

Mom, Where is my_____?

INSERT: PE clothes, Band shirt, Sunday pants, socks, favorite shirt or jammies...let alone a match to Ben's socks.

This is the phrase I hear every day and if you see the tons of laundry that is produced by our large family you will see why it's not always neatly folded in their drawers!

When the table looks like this, it's about 5-6 loads and there are still 5-6 to go without counting the extra towels or doing sheets and pillowcases. There are also loads in the washer and dryer currently. I did 2 loads yesterday (Monday) and this is only the weekend amount of clothing. So in about 4 days we go through 12-14 loads of laundry without doing beds or finishing towels. Just the towels on the floor fit in those loads.

See why I'm not anxious to pottytrain and have more wet stinky clothes?

There are plenty with 5 sweaty boys and Brookly!

Now, this is only going to get worse as Winter comes and the clothes are bigger with all the jeans and long sleeve shirts, let alone as they grow and need bigger clothes that take up more room altogether!

I don't mind washing, it's the folding and putting away that I can't stand!

Our table will look like this until they fold their own and do their service for the family by doing usually about 50 things and putting away more than just their own piles.

They won't eat tonight until this is clear and that won't be the end of the piles to come... :)

Thanks Lynnette for the idea of documenting the laundry at our home!

Dallin is Officially Taller Than Mom!!

Oct. 4th, 2009

OK, last night we measured and Dallin is officially a fraction taller than me now. Maybe the spiritual growth of Conference this weekend helped him to surpass me:) This is happening so fast! Look at the pictures from January at the wedding and he's still much shorter than me. This is only Oct. 5th! He thinks he can push me around now that he's bigger but we'll see about that!

Brennen's Arrow of Light Ceremony

What an awesome ceremony! And to think it almost didn't happen when the Order of Arrow didn't show up. Brother Fish knew these members of another branch of the OA and they came after another ceremony so we were able to have the ceremony that night still. We are so grateful to them! Awesome Arrow!

Dallin is so Proud of his little brother! Josh actually had mutual somewhere else since this was so late in the evening so we missed him.
Cool skull!
The rest of the family that got to come!

Sept. 30, 2009

The top award of Cub Scouts is this Arrow of Light and so far all our boys have earned it! We are so proud of you Brennen! We were so happy Wes was home and that Grandma and Grandpa

were down and got to come! Grandpa had to take Ben out for us:) Thanks! What an amazing achievement! He still has until his birthday to earn compass points! Love you Brennen!

Cowboy Ben

Cutest cowboy in the West!

Darling Ben and his dress up antics! I don't even think Brookly ever dressed up quite as much as he does! He found the boots and hat and so I helped him find the rest and his horse because he wanted to show Grandma and Grandpa his horse. They were down for a few days and stayed with us.

Josh's First Concert of 09-10 School Year

Dallin and Josh "Pass in Review" Concert with stand tunes with older Band members helping surrounding the audience. I love this concert sound!

Tuesday, September 29th
Josh is an excellent drummer and he didn't complain when he got to play the xylophone for this first concert for Smith Jr. High this year. He worked so hard and played it perfect and loud! He practiced a ton! Go Josh! Love you!

Josh's Wall

As always Josh has come up with another wonderful creation from Legos!

This wall was the product of he and Brennen's hours of work and look at all the details of people doing things! Love you Josh and all your creativity!

End of Sept. 2009

Student of the Month Jarom

Here we are with our amazing Jarom! What a cutie!

We were so glad that Wes was not in CA for this!

Wow! The first month of the school year and Jarom was chosen as Student of the Month! His teacher, Ms. James, said, "Jarom comes into our classroom every day ready to learn. He is always listening, participating and following directions. He enjoys sharing his knowledge and helping his classmates. He is a joy to have in class!" What a sweet boy! I love you my Jar!

Ben's Batcave

Oh, this cute boy has done it again! My dear friend Jennifer saved us for Halloween and happened to have Spiderman and Batman and SnowWhite costumes! Ben can't get enough and today he was Batman and this is his batcave in our pantry. He tells us to stay out of his batcave and then invites us in to his batcar and tells us to Buckle Up! Such a cute boy!!

Sept 2009

Brennen's New Trumpet

Wow!So shiny!
Even Dallin is a little jealous at this beautiful instrument.
He wants to hold out for a silver one though.

Well Brennen lucked out! Since his birthday is coming soon and his Band instructor says his trumpet isn't suitable to play we had to get him a new one or rent one so he was thrilled to see this come early for his birthday! It's beautiful and Brennen is doing great! Live your dreams Brennen and be all you want to be!

Slip N Slide Early September

Ben, Brennen and Brookly brave the rocks for the slip n slide.

What would summer be without a Slip n Slide? Our rocks were not the best for this scenario! I guess that's why we're working so hard to get some grass back there! Grammy sent this one for all the kids in the Dallin Birthday Box!

Still lots of fun for all!

August Pack Meeting

Brennen in a game of Who Wants to be a Webelos with Brother Tyler Hyer, the Cubmaster. Awesome balloons at the end of the game.

Here we are with Brennen getting his awards.

Brennen is earning far more of the extra Webelos Activity badges than his brothers did. He works on it on his own and asks for help more. He has earned his Webelos and Compass Points and his Arrow of Light. That ceremony will be in Sept. Go Brennen!

Labor Day September 2009

Sweet Boys! Andrew and Brennen

Those video boys! Andrew, Brennen, Jarom and Jordan
We ended up at Greg and Lynnette's to play and had a great time!
Wish they lived even an hour closer though!
Brookly and Elise
Jacob and Kelcie came to help out with our yard work!

Go Brennen!

Daddy's Big Helper

Where are all Dad's tools?

Wes loves to work outside to beautify our yard and I'm so grateful!

I do wish we had more time like this...we'd have an incredible refuge out back.

For Labor Day we had Wes home for the day! So rare these days so we worked hard all morning before we went to play at Greg and Lynnette's for a BBQ. We dug holes for trees and started to clear the jungle in our backyard. Fun to work together but still so HOT here!

New Violin and Black Eye

Brookly has decided to try violin this year and she loves it! She is getting lessons by phone from her Aunt Adrian and hope to be as good as her someday!

She got this black eye from Ben's elbow on Greg's trampoline when we visited in September.