Funny Bits

Taite-

~She is such a fan of Oma (my mom) and has a picture of her in a frame that we keep in her room always. Taite went a little crazy when we unpacked it. She takes it everywhere and talks to it as if it is my mom. She says things like "My Oma wants to come to Aunt Becky's with me" Pretty cute! She even sleeps with it some nights.

~We had the missionaries over for dinner the other day. The kids LOVE the missionaries, only Taite has a hard time saying the word- she lovingly calls them Mr. Naries!!

~ Taite got a little confused when Matt tried to explain who Aunt Becky and Aunt Beth were. He told her that they were his sisters, so now she goes around calling them Sister Aunt Becky and Sister Aunt Beth. Makes sense to me that is what we say at church!

Bailey-

~The other day we were driving around town, lots and lots of older homes. Bailey yells out all of the sudden "Mom!! Oh my goodness- somebody threw their microwave out the window and it got stuck!!"
It was a window air conditioner unit!! She looked around and saw another and another and was just astonished! "Why are all these people doing this Mom?" It was hilarious!

Ellery-

~Ellie loves to read- really loves to read. I told her how proud it makes me and that she will always be very smart if she loves to read. She said "Yeah, I learned to read a lot because you are always reading a lot." She paused for a long minute and then said kind of sadly "Dad doesn't read." I started to correct her but she really looked upset about it and then finally got really excited- "No, no he does read!! When ever we get a new toy or he has to put something together he READS! He does read!" She was so relieved, like oh close call, he is smart!!

~For some reason the other day, Taite brought up my Mom's 2 cats. She mentioned how they had to go stay overnight at the animal doctor's house! (They got "fixed!!" Snip snip!") Ellery asked me why they had to have their "operation" which is what my Mom told the kids. I said that when you have cats they will just keep having more and more kittens if they don't have a little operation. That upset her because she loves kittens! I said that cats will have TONS of kittens and we just can't take care of so many cats. I thought it was a good explanation. I left it alone and the conversation moved on. Then I caught Ellie's face- total concentration. She goes "But Mom, Leo and Sammy are both boys. Why do they have to have the "operation" if they are boys?" I looked at her and tried to just smooth it over and move on, but Ellie just kept asking "Why Why Why? Girls have the babies, why why why?" None of my generic answers seemed to satisfy her. Finally I just said "Lets ask Dad when he gets home!!"

Pre-Game Jitters for an old Pro like Me?

Yes, yes its true even after all these babies I am still so nervous before the baby gets here. I always have to kind of get myself mentally ready for a while for what happens on Delivery Day, I don't care who you are, once you are in all that pain the drugs sound good to anyone. I have to build up my conviction so I don't cave! But I have really been so nervous and anxious this time! Up all night worrying- its the middle of the night right now.

I think that its different this time, obviously because of all the stress and physical exhaustion we've been through this summer with our big move and just how much harder this pregnancy has been, but there was one thing I wasn't counting on adding so much anxiety to my life... finding a new doctor!

Someone please tell me when we lost any control as the "patients"? Isn't it still our body and our baby? I knew it would be frustrating, I guess to find a new doctor, especially since I LOVE my Dr. Nance back in Utah, and I know that I am picky- I know what I want after all the pregnancies- but this experience I have had has been rediculous.

First- I guess a rule of small town life that I didn't expect.... limited options! The closest hospital only offers you 2 choices in who will deliver your baby, yes only 2 choices. So before I knew that and kept getting "recommended," highly recommended to one doctor, I thought wow everyone loves that Doctor! Little did I know that he had a 50% chance of being everyone's "favorite." Kind of diminishes all the raving reviews! I decided to travel a little further and keep looking!

Second- Like I said I know I am picky, but don't we have that right as patients, paying for a service. I know they are Doctors, but still don't they work for us? I must be up in the night on that one. I called several places inquiring about the doctor and I received some interesting responses.

*One place I called actually told me as I was asking some questions that were important to me, "Do you want an appointment with the doctor or not?" Oh, oh I am sorry, am I bothering you?

*Another place that I asked some questions about, the receptionist was getting a little history from me and when asked if I had an epidural and I said I have never had one, she said "Oh that really isn't his favorite way to do things, but its okay he'll still work with you." Sorry, not his favorite way to do things? Still work with me? What?

*Then, I was at an appointment at one clinic and was told that under no circumstances do they induce labor before 41 weeks unless there is a problem with the baby or the mother. I explained my history of big babies and always having to be induced and expressed that I would not be interested in waiting past 40 weeks only to have to be induced anyway. The only thing that does for me is to let that baby get even bigger. Isn't 9-9 1/2lbs enough? My babies would stay in there forever if we let them. She said that there was no way for me to know what my body will do. I said I was fairly confident that I knew how my body generally works with labor and that I have kind of a pattern going. She looked at me and dryly said "Patient preference is not really one of our criteria for deciding to induce." I said that I am not "induction happy" I gladly give it until 40 weeks, but I don't see the point going past that with my history. Again she said firmly "We don't induce until 41 weeks" ...I guess I am just along for the ride!

Oh well, I decided on someone and I am sure that everything will go fine! I just have to settle down and get ready! Its all worth it in the end any way right! Look at some of my cute little newborns!

Tagged- All about my Hoss!!

Thanks Kelli! You know how much I like to talk about Mattie

This is a Big Happy Birthday! Mattie Turns the BIG 35 on the 24th!! I love you so much Hoss!

1-Where did you meet your husband? On a blind date. My cousin set us up. I was all ready to go on a mission, papers and all, and yet felt like that wasn't the right thing for me. I wasn't happy and vented to my huge Offensive Lineman cousin and his wife that I needed to find a big huge guy like him if I wasn't supposed to go on a mission. I was just kidding around but they said they knew the "perfect guy" and the rest is history!

2-How long did you date before you got married? Ha-We were engaged after only 9 weeks and married 3 months after that. And to this day he still whines about how he wanted to get married a month before we did!

3-How long have you been married? It was 8 wonderful years this last June!

4-What does he do that surprises you? I was surprised that he even wanted to marry me. Now that he still loves me and finds me attractive after this many babies- I can't believe it sometimes. He is always helping me out, more than any husband I know. He will do anything to make sure I am happy- what a hubby!

5-What is his favorite feature? My favorite feature of him- definitely just sheer size and muscles! Hello!!! I always said that I wanted to marry a man who had to turn sideways to fit through the door! Check, Check! When we met and he was finishing up at BYU, he was benching like 550 lbs or something crazy like that- I just love it! He has the perfect butt too! Sorry you asked!

6-What is his favorite quality? That truly is hard because he has so many. I think how he loves- loves me and how he makes me feel about myself, how he is always making sure that I am happy. How he loves our kids and the wonderful father that he is- I've never seen anything like the kind of dad he is. How he loves the gospel, I can't imagine being 19 and making that kind of a choice, converting and changing your whole life to accept the gospel.
Matt is just fun, he's easy going in general and really laid back, yet diligent when he needs to be, I love him!

7-Does he have a nickname for you? Yes- Jelly Bean, DerDer, Beav (for my big beaver front teeth- so rude!) I know there are more, but I can't think.

8-What is his favorite food? Easy- PIZZA! You have no idea how much the man loves Pizza!

9-What is his favorite sport? That is hard, Matt likes all sports. The obvious would be football, but I really think he likes basketball just as much.

10-When & where was your first kiss? Oh this is always embarassing- we kissed on our first date alright!! I wasn't goint to pass that up- I thought he would never take me out again. It was a tiny peck -- believe me?

11-What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Well we really can't talk about that!! Kidding- but really, Mattie and I just love to be together. We are fortunate that we have so much in common, it makes spending time together really easy with how much we both love sports and other things. We could spend hours just talking, I love being with him more than anything else in the world. But we also just love being with our kids and being outdoors. We wrestle with the kids and go on silly outings, to parks and family walks. We aren't really big on getting away, maybe someday. For now, hanging out with each other and our kids is our favorite thing.

12-Do you have any children? Um yeah! (refer to previous ?) Could we be more fertile- expecting number 5 in a few weeks.

13- Does he have any hidden talents? Yes, maybe some of you know, but Matt is a FABULOUS cook! He does everything from scratch too- I lucked out big time!

14-How old is he? Hahaha!! He is turning 35 in a few days!!!

15-Who said I love you first? Totally Mattie!

16-What is his favorite music? Matt likes more types of music than anyone I know, a little bit of everything. I think his favorite is Hard Rock, really Hard Rock- (or as I lovingly call it "Devil Music"!!!) and he loves Classic Rock- Led Zeppelin is how we first bonded!

17-What do you admire most about him? There are so many, he is such a hard worker. But I admire the very most that his family is everything to him. Many people say that, but Matt lives it. He does everything for us, spends all his time and energy on us. I never could have imagined or hand picked the kind of husband that he is and the same is true as a Dad. He is the greatest person that I know!

18-What is his favorite color? BYU Blue!!! Go Cougs!

19-Will he read this? Yeah, he always reads our blog!!

20-Who do you tag? Ashley, I've never heard how you met Don. And Deid- tell us all the goods about John. Megan and Tiffany, tell me the story!

Must be a farm thing!

I love this picture so much!

The kids are having so much fun at our new place! So much room to run! We just go out in the back yard, I plop down on a chair and record the fun. This is something Matt always did as a kid with his Dad I guess. Throwing produce! Only, I think Matt, his Dad and brother would throw it AT each other- so the more rotten the better! But today we just threw it for fun. Amazingly our kids had a blast! I think they would have stayed out there all day.
Cyrus was hilarious because he couldn't throw it as far. So he would watch where everyone else was throwing and then run his over and toss it in the grass! It was so funny to watch.

A couple of things I've learned!

Some words of wisdom- to myself really- that I have learned recently.

**I have learned that if you do not enjoy heat (okay I HATE the heat) especially if that is dry desert heat, then you are going to die in humid heat!! I hate humidity!!! And I am just catching the tail end of it here at the end of summer.

**I have learned that if you want to make life interesting, live on the border of a time zone! Yes you heard me correctly, we live on the border of Central and Eastern time zones. I can walk around in my house with Cell Phone in hand and watch it change time back and forth from Cent. to East. time. It messes up my free night time minutes if I move around too much because I could change zones without realizing.
Let me just explain some problems this causes, we are "technically" in central time. School- Eastern, so school starts for our kids at 7:20am and the bus comes at 6:15 am! Church different time zone, the nearest bigger town that we go to for everything goes by Eastern so they open and close a little earlier than you would think. Plus you just have to be aware when making Dr. appointments etc. which time zone you are talking about. Neighbors, who knows which time zone they choose to go by. So we decided to go by Eastern time zone so it makes school and church etc. a little easier. Our TV automatically comes in programed to central time, so we get everything, news etc. at a different time than you would think. Everyone around here refers to it as "fast" and "slow" time so you stay on top of it. "10 o'clock slow time right?" Pretty funny huh!

**I had to put this picture up of my Mattie because the girls are OBSESSED with pictures of their Daddy playing football! Plus I just love him so much I never get tired of looking at him! I'll admit there is one more small reason, its because I am going to make fun of him a little bit right now!
-Things I have learned..never, NEVER move your poor pregnant wife across the country in the last weeks of her pregnancy! It is just not a good idea.
-NEVER- let your husband choose a rental home by himself!! I won't go into too much detail about this one, but lets just say don't do it! Its different even than finding a home to buy because buying you think long term, renting I guess you think about just hanging in there since you won't be living there long. Well I think men and women have different things that they consider non negotiable to deal with or live without- lets just leave it at that! (I love you honey! We can laugh now right?)

**Never let your kids take pictures of you and promise that you'll post them on your blog for the whole world to see! It is all I have heard about "Mom you PROMISED!" So here I am in all my pregnant glory fulfilling a stupid promise. Just remember how many times I have been prego and that you do get bigger each time- I swear! I still have 7 weeks to go at this point!

Making life a little bit more difficult!

**Never underestimate a child. We were sitting in church and Bailey was staring at me sitting next to me. (She loves to snuggle in at church!) She motioned for me to lean over. She whispered in my ear, "Mommy, everyone says that I look like you." Then she paused for a really long time just looking at me. I was dying to know what she was thinking, bracing myself a little. Finally she whispered "It makes me really happy that I look like you Mommy! I want to look like you!" then she added " ...even big and pregnant!"

**Here is the most important thing! Never, NEVER forget how blessed you are!I'd live in any old dumpy house as long as I get to be there with this guy and all those beautiful kids!

No wonder the Lord sent us all these beautiful daughters. He is a big, gigantic protector and teddy bear all in one!

I am so sorry to bother anyone, but it has to be said, I could enjoy looking at this scenery all day long! And I'm not talking about the farm! Look at that rear view!!! Umm umm umm!

Then there is the boy just trying to keep up!

Life is so good and the Lord has been so good to me! It makes me feel so bad for any of the whining I've done lately!

Welcome to the Country!

Well there is no doubting that we are country folk now! Matt is in heaven out here in the boonies and so are the kids! When we were moving in, we let the kids have their run of the yard, its huge and they can just go hog wild. After about half an hour the kids wandered over and they all looked like they had been having a blast...then there was Bailey! That is my little girl isn't it??





Honestly the pictures don't do justice, it was just getting dark and the flash I swear makes her look cleaner than she was. The tub water was seriously black when she was done!
Now those of you who know me know that I love camping and playing outdoors and have no problem getting dirty some of the time--BUT if this is going to be an every day occasion, we are going to have problems out here in our new country life. I am way too OCD to deal with this every day! Plus I have soon to be 5 kids and one very old, small tub! We live in an older than dirt farm house and all I can say is that Mattie is lucky he didn't marry a girly, squeamish, spider-a-phobic girl because like I said, we are way out in the country and there are animals, spiders, mice, and bugs galore!!

There are a couple of things that are going to take some getting used to, but that I think will be great. We are in a branch out here and there are only about 50-60 members attending. We doubled the primary and nursery! We have the largest family! We are really excited because it seems to be such a close knit family and every one was so kind. The Spirit was very strong and we enjoyed the simple truths of the doctrine being taught! We are going to have to get a little better at getting out the door because it is a 25 minute drive to our little meeting house.

We are excited about our new life and being together in a new experience. I do have a list of things that I am REALLY missing, but we'll save that for another day! Plus I'll have to put on some pictures of our beautiful green surroundings.

First Day of School, First Day of School!!

Here are some pictures just before we left Utah. Even though I knew it would only be a week or so, Ellery didn't want to miss out on any school while we were still in Eagle Mountain. The week when Matt came back to get us and we were loading up she insisted on going to school. I told her she could stay home and she put her hands on her hips and gave me a mother hen look and said "Mom! I have to learn ALL that I can!" That is our Ellie!

We got them in school out here as soon as we could. They have all day Kindergarten, which I thought I would love, but I actually hate her being gone all day! I wish Ellery was only gone half a day still! I didn't realize that I would miss them so much.

I think it has a lot to do with where we live, we are WAY out in the country! The bus ride is 40 minutes each way! Matt drives them in the morning on his way to work and then they ride the bus home. The school is only 4 miles from our house, but we are the first stop and then the route travels way out and around a lake! I want to start picking them up so that they don't get home so late- but they are still loving the bus and won't hear of it! I think the fun will fade day after day of a boring bus ride! I am hoping anyway!

It is weird only having two kids to take care of all day! I can't believe I ever thought that was hard! When they are taking their naps, I barely know what to do with myself. Actually that is not true, with all that my poor prego body has been through in the last 2 months I SLEEP!!

This is why I need another boy!!!

Any of you who knew me in high school know that I was never much into doing hair very well. Now the Lord has blessed me with 3 daughters and look at what I deal with every morning! I can't handle it--this baby has got to be a boy! I don't know who cries more, me or them!