A little bit of everything!

So if you have a few hours and would like to read this whole blog post - yay!! But if not, I understand!! Last week was super busy for us and I want to post everything that happened and I'm too lazy to make it 4 different posts, so here you go - a novel!

First of all, last Tuesday was a surprise retirement get-together for my high school color guard instructor. She had been the instructor for 26 years!!! It started when her daughter, Jennie was a freshman in high school and they needed a majorette instructor. Joyce was a private majorette teacher so they asked her, and she figured she'd do it for 4 years, while Jennie was in high school, and then move on. But those 4 years came and went and then they asked her to not only be the majorette instructor, but the flag corp instructor too! In her words she said 'why not?' Ha ha! How was she to know it would last 26 years??? So Tuesday was the high school band banquet and we got as many of Joyce's alumni together as we could find - which unfortunately wasn't near as many as we should have been able to get - and surprised her by showing up and had a slide show of old pictures for her and stuff. It was fun to see everyone again and send Joyce out in style. Here are a couple pics from the night:

This is Lisa, Joyce, and Jennie. Lisa and Jennie were in Joyce's first majorette line 26 years ago.

This is Joyce with the group of alumni we were able to get together - we had about 20 all together, but not all of them stuck around long enough for pictures. She was happy there were 20 there, but in my opion we should have had more! She was instructor to - I would bet - at least 500 girls - if not more!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next is Thursday. Cami, a friend of mine from my freshman year at BYU - she was on the same floor of my dorm with me - came to Ohio to visit! It's actually kind of funny, I think. I grew up within 20 miles from her husband here in Ohio, but I never knew him. She is from Texas and went to Utah for BYU. Then, after she served a mission to California, she moved back home in Texas for a while. Meanwhile, her husband, Martin also went to Texas for work - and that's where they met! Also, Martin's mother worked at Keytel with Kris for a while before he bought into the company. When we made all these connections with Cami, it made me want to sing 'it's a small world after all'! I mean - you've heard of the 6 degrees of separation? Well we know each other through 3 of those degrees! Odd, huh? And another tid bit fact - we share a birthday! I know, lame, but it's something that I always remember every year on my birthday 'o - it's Cami's birthday too!'

So, yes, she came to Ohio to visit. Unfortunately, they had to come to Ohio because Martin's father passed away unexpectedly - which is very sad - but I was very happy that they took time to come have dinner and visit with us! Here are some pics from the visit:

This is Sydney (Cami and Martin's baby girl - she is almost 1!) and Savanna - friends already!

This is Savanna, me, Cami, and Sydney.

It was soooo great to see you again Cami! I am so happy things are working out so well for you and Martin. :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Friday we went to the drive-ins with Amy's family - so fun! I didn't even know that drive-ins still existed! There is a really nice one still in Lancaster - and it's super busy! They played 'night at the museum 2' and 'star trek'. Both were awesome movies! I don't have any pictures cause I forgot my camera - boo! But both kids were extremely cooperative for being out till 2 in the morning! Savanna took a bottle at the beginning of the first movie, then I put her in her car seat and she fell asleep and I didn't hear from her again till we got home. Joey was great cause I took our portable DVD player and he sat in the car eating snacks and watching a Tom and Jerry DVD. LOL - he loved it! Then he finally fell asleep at about 12:30. Can't wait to do it again soon - so fun!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Then Saturday we went to Portsmouth for the Slack family reunion. This is the first reunion since my grandfather passed away. My dad and sister took my grandmother and they went the reunion and to visit the graves of her family and decorate them for Memorial day. We were planning on going down for the reunion, spending some time at the Ohio river, going to dinner, then driving back that night. But Kris decided on a whim to check at the Ramada to see if any rooms were availabe and yay! There was! We got a super nice room and the hotel had an indoor pool and spa and stuff and a Damon's right down stairs. It was a nice little family vacation! Unfortunately I hadn't packed for the kids over night - or for swimming - so we made a quick trip to wal-mart and got cheap swimming stuff for all of us and the necessities we would need for the night. It ended up being an expensive weekend between Kris' speeding ticket (cops were out in force....), the hotel, the extra stuff we had to buy, dinner, and stuff, but it was soooo worth it to have a weekend away with the family and to spend some extra time with my extended family!

Here is my grandmother, my dad, and my sister, Amanda

Joey and kris enjoying the reunion

A shot of some of the people at the reunion - unfortunately it was MUCH smaller this year than it has been in years past. There were quite a few deaths in the family this year and alot of people didn't want to come with the losses.... But it was still a decent turn out.

4 generations! Me, Savanna, Grandma, and my Dad. It is this grandma whose maiden name is Austin, where Savanna got her middle name.

Our hotel room - I was so excited! The couch was a fold-out bed, too, so with that and the pack-and-play, Kris and I didn't have to share the bed with kids. Savanna is playing witht he groceries... and Kris is sleeping - keep in mind this was only 10 mins after walking in and Kris passed out! LOL!

My cuties

Such a happy baby!!

Savanna promptly found the mirror on the bathroom door and that was where she was whenever we were in the room - she had a BLAST playing with the 'baby in the mirror!'

And here is a short video I got of Joey and Savanna playing - it is soooo cute! Savanna was CRACKING UP at Joey's antics. I haven't found anything to make Savanna laugh the way Joey does - she sure does love her big brother!! Unfortunately, my camera died :( So I only got a 12 second video, but it's still cute! Enjoy!

Time Out!!!!

This past weekend I attended 'Time Out for Women' in Cincinnatti with my Mom and sister, Amanda. This was my third year going, and I would say so far the best!! Every year there is a theme for the presenters and the whole conference and this year the theme was 'Sweet Assurance - the certainty that comes when you know life's truths'. It was absolutely amazing. The past 2 years that I have gone, it has been just a Saturday thing, but this year it was a Friday night and all day Saturday. For those of you who are not familiar, it is run by Deseret Books, a book company that is affiliated with the LDS church. The presenters are people who have published books or CDs through Deseret Books.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Friday night (forgot I had the camera!!!). But the presenters were Sherri Dew (CEO of Deseret books), Wendy Watson Nelson (a marriage/family therapist and wife of apostle Russel M. Nelson), and an amazing violinist, Jenny Oaks Baker (daughter of apostle Dallin H. Oaks). Jenny Oaks Baker truly has a gift at the violin! She started playing when she was 4 and was performing solos at the age of 8. She went to the Juliard(sp?) school and performed for years as the first chair violin in the National Symphony Orchestra. She resigned from that position when she was pregnant with her 4th child. The fact she was able to tour the country with 3 little ones at home amazed me!

Saturday the presenters were Emily Watts, Kris Belcher, Kim Nelson, Michael Wilcox, and music by Hilary Weeks.

This is the 2nd time I have heard Emily Watts speak and let me tell you what - whenever I have heard her speak, it's like she's speaking right to me!! A favorite quote of hers this year for me was 'What if the fruits of your parenting is in YOU?' - this was in reference of the scripture 'by their fruits ye shall know them' and women wondering if it means they were a bad mother if their children go astray, or make some wrong choices. She was trying to convey the idea that just as important as it is to cultivate our children's testimonies, it is just as important for us to become softer, more loving, more giving, etc - all of which are attributes we work on as parents.

Kris Belcher I found quite interesting too - she is completely blind after battling eye cancer all of her life, but she didn't lose her sight until she was in her 30s, when her son was only 1 year old. She underwent many painful and horrible surgerys, but she spoke of how she overcame her challenges and became a better stronger woman and servant of the Lord.

One thing I found interesting in Kim Nelson's presentation was how he was trying to convey that we are truly children of God. When we think of our own children, God loves them just as much as we do, and God loves us just as much as we love our children. On of his quotes was 'if you saw a woman treating her daughter the way you treat yourself, what would you think of her?' How true is that? How many of us tell ourselves how ugly, fat, worthless, etc we are on an every day basis? Kim was trying to tell us that we are daughters of God and we are of infinate worth - how do we think God feels of us talking ourselves down the way we do? Yes, we all have flaws, but would we go to our own children and say - you are fat! you are ugly! Why do you even try?? Then why do we do that to ourselves? He said 'I'm not telling you to put on the rose colored glasses, I'm just telling you to take off the garbage colored ones!'

I truly enjoyed listening to Hilary Weeks sing. She is amazing!!! My favorite song by her is 'If I Only Had Today' someday I will post the lyrics to that song because I dearly love it - it really speaks to me. What I like the most is she writes most of her own music. I think that makes it more personal.

Here are some pics from the weekend fory our viewing pleasure...

My sister Amanda, my Mommy, and me.

The Saturday presenters (L to R) - Kim Nelson, Kris Belcher, Emily Watts, Hilary Weeks, and Michael Wilcox.

Hilary Weeks performing one of her songs - I love that dress! She is just too gorgeous...

Here is a picture of the 1400 women that attended filing in. It's a tremendous undertaking! And to imagine they do 20 of these 'Time Out for Womens' around the country per year and all of them average about 1400 attendees!

All in all, it was an amazing weekend and it was great to have my own little 'Time Out' and get away from everything for a while. I was soooo thankful my mother-in-law kept my children because Kris had a business trip to San Diego on the same weekend! It was my first time leaving Savanna over night and she did just fine. I have such wonderful family! I am so grateful everyone is so willing to help out with my crazy monkeys!

A little slice of heaven

My friend, Amy, and I met in August of 2006 when I first got my horse, Olivia. When I moved Olivia in, her neighbor was a big white percheron named Ed. Ed was Amy's horse. Over time, Amy and I talked and became great friends! She is an awesome person. I blogged a couple months ago about how she was moving and getting a farm of her own. It's not too far away - only about 35 minutes. I unfortunately don't get to go out there very often, but I'm hoping as time goes by I'll be able to go there more. As I said before, her new place is amazing! It's super old and has soooo much charm. It just has soo much history! Here are a few pictures I took recently last time I went to visit.

This is the house! I love it - I always thought when we move (which of course will be a long time away..) I would want to build a new house. But, now that I've seen Amy's house, I've come to really want a rustic old farm house. I think the would be sooo fun to fix it up and make it my own, ya know? I love the summer kitchen off to the left of the house - super cute huh?? She's going to make it into her chicken coop, which I think is an awesome idea!

This is the red barn - she's not using it for anything currently, but I like it - you can tell when you go in it that it was hand built a looooong time ago. It's so neat!

This is looking out at her pasture from her front porch. Her 4 horses are there, though you can't really see them. On the L is Dancer, then Leo, then the black one is Bella, then Miley.

This is Arabella, Amy's new baby. Amy always talked about wanting to get another Percheron, or maybe getting a baby horse. Well, she got both! This is a paint/percheron cross and is one month shy of a year old. Her name is Arabella, but they call her bella. She's super sweet and soooo cute! I know Amy will do well raising her! Look how big she is at not even a year old - she's gonna be a BIG horse! It'll be fun to watch her grow.

These are Amy's new baby chicks - SO CUTE! She has 16. I can't wait to get my free-range farm fresh eggs when they get older! he he he

Joey with a chick - this one pooped on him - nice, huh?

Joey with another chick

Amy's daughter, Alyssa, with a chick. Alyssa is such a cutie and Joey just adores her!

Amy's kids, Michael and Alyssa and my Joey. I think the chick is giving Alyssa a kiss. I didn't get a picture of Amy's oldest, Brandon.

Best of luck to you, Amy, with your new place! I love it - whenever I come to visit it truly does seem like a little slice of heaven! I love it!!!

Landscaping

The landscaping infront of our house has bugged me for... forever. I SO don't have a green thumb... whenever I have tried to plant anything out there, it has turned out down right yucky. I did edge around the flower bed and re-mulch once, but I still wasn't happy with it. Last year, while I was pregnant I got all gung-ho and decided we would do a retaining wall and all new plants and so on. I pulled up all the mulch, and took out one ugly half dead bush. But then my motivation went away, then I had Savanna and needless to say I have had better things to do. So for the past year our front flowerbed has looked awful - no mulch, over grown bushes, and LOTS of weeds. Well we got a flyer for a local landscaping company on our mail box and I thought, what the heck - I'll get a quote. They were out that night to give me a quote - which I thought was a great one!! and they finished the work within 4 days!!!

Here are some before(ish) pictures. (beforeish because I forgot to take the pictures before they started working, but they didn't do much except install the new plants in these pictures - you can still see all the yucky weeds and over grown bushes and stuff...

And here are the after...

Huge improvement, huh?? I love it! :) I just hope I can keep it up now... we shall see!

All in all for 5 new plants, 1 1/2 yards of mulch, 3 hours labor, transporting and installing new plants, and edging it was $290. I thought that was very reasonable!! ($80 for new plants, $40 for mulch, $50 transporting/installing plants, $120 labor) TOTALLY worth it in my opinion!

In the words of the mastercard commercial...

New plants/mulching/edging - $290
Having a front yard to be proud of (finally!!) and NOT having to do the work- priceless!!!

If you are in the columbus/pataskala/newark area and need a good landscaper, I highly recommend Integrity Landscaping - located in Pataskala. Give them a call at 614-557-5157. They do it all from simple weeding to retaining walls. :)

Adventures in babysitting

Anyone remember that movie? I remember watching at as a child and thinking it was outrageous - that things that crazy don't really happen while babysitting. Well, I have learned - they can and do!!!

I have been babysitting regularly since Joey was 6 months old, so that makes it just over 3 years now. I started off babysitting for a friend of mine from when I worked at the middle school, Laurie. She and I had boys 2 1/2 months apart. I had Joey in July and she had Ethan in October. So when she started back to work in January, I started babysitting for her. A coulple of months later, I started watching a little girl named Dyllan - she was only 2 weeks younger than Joey. Then, I was watching a little boy named Aiden for a little while, and a little boy named Jack, then a little girl named Landynne. Needless to say before I knew it I had a regular day care going!! I rarely had more than 4 kids here at a time - other wise I think I would have gone nuts.

Then when I got pregnant with Savanna and Laurie was pregnant for her second as well, Maggie. I told everyone that after mid-June I would no longer be able to babysit for them, on account I would keep my original client - and between her 2 and my 2, I would be full until the babies got older. I was sad to have to send the other children away. After watching them for so long, I really came to love them! But now I have Ethan and Maggie and they are awesome! I am so happy that Laurie and Brian trust me with them, as I have sooo much fun with them! And it's just perfect how Ethan and Joey are the same age and Savanna and Maggie are the same age. The babies have really started to play well together recently, too!

At any rate, I figured I would put in a few pictures of my 'adventures in babysitting' so I can have them on record, as I am hoping to print this blog into a book for my children someday... I know I'm a horrible photographer, but it's still fun to look at the pictrues!

This picture is still by far my favorite! It was taken probably spring of 2007. I had some visitors here from church and the kids were playing so well in the front room that I just let them play since they were happy. This is what the room looked like when my visitors left!! Landynne is the one in the car - she was only a few months old at the time. Joey and Ethan are 'in jail' in the toy shelves that they have taken all the bins off of. Dyllan is playing and then of course my dog, Ace, was having a good time, as well.

This is one of my favorites of Ethan. This was Christmas of 2006. He was 14 months old at the time. I just think this picture really shows what an ornery kid he was - and still is! I love it!

This is also Christmas of 2006. From L to R is Aiden: 8 months, Joey: 17 months, Ethan: 14 months, and Dyllan: 16 months. I could NOT get them all to cooperate, so this is really as good as it got!

This is Ethan and Joey - they are such partners in crime! I was in the laundry room switching laundry - I was only out of the room for 5 minutes and came back to this. Ever since they just LOVE pulling the cushions off the couches and jumping and/or sliding when they get a chance. I'm not real sure whent his picture was, but I think it might have been some time early 2007.

This was Joey's birthday party when he turned 2. July 2007 Joey: 2 years, Landynne: 6 months, Dyllan: 23 months and Ethan: 21 months.

Turn your head sideways for thsi one... this was Christmas 2007. Dyllan (back L): 2, Joey (back R): 2, Ethan (mid L): 2, Jack (mid R): 14 months, Landynne (front): 11 months.



This is Easter 2008 (yes.. the date stamp is way off... just recently fixed it). Ethan (back L): 2 1/2 yrs, Joey (back R): 2 1/2 yrs, Landynne (front L): 15 months, Dyllan (front R): 2 1/2 yrs


This is Maggie (6 mo) and Savanna (4 mo) around christmas 2008

This is Joey (3), Savanna (4 mo), Ethan (3) and Maggie (6 mo), Christmas 2008.

This is Savanna (back): 9 months and Maggie (front): 11 months

The next three are from last Friday (5/8/09) - I actually braved taking all 4 to McDonalds by myself. It went really well and they all had fun, but the babies lost patience towards the end. I know the boys had a blast - they always do when they can run around!

The boys enjoying a hot fudge sundae after a hard day of playing.

Joye is the one running in the OSU jersey - I didn't get any good pictures of Ethan playing because he was here there and everywhere! I had a hard time keeping track of him. Joey's just too wussy to actually venture far into the play place.

Maggie enjoying a french fry - I teach the kids healthy eating habits early - can't you tell?? ha ha

My big boy!

Look closely at this picture...


Can you believe it? Joey can write his own name all by himself! I am so proud of my little man. I really haven't even worked with him on it - he just figured it out one day. He did it the first time the other day at the barn on the white board - he was just coloring on the board and I wasn't paying attention and he said 'mommy - I wrote my name!' and I looked and he did! But unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me. But he did it again yesterday while we were playing with side walk chalk. He did a better job at the barn, but hey - side walk chalk is hard to write with! Yes, the J is a sideways, and the E has a few too many lines and the Y isn't quite connected, but hey - he's 3! And he has the main idea of L to R writing and the forming of letters. He has even gotten frustrated lately because he'll want to read a book, but (in his words) 'I don't know the words!' I can tell he really wants to read! I'm so proud of him. This is probably normal for a 3 - almost 4 year old, but I'm still proud of him. He's my little man! Oh - and underneith the JOEY in the picture is a 1 and an X. He's really gotten into writing those recently, too. He thinks it's funny to write 1s becaues 'they are easy' he says. he he he

And they're off - video

This is a video of Savanna crawling her new and creative crawl. Please forgive me - I'm NOT a good video taker, and this is just the video setting on my digital camera, and Joey kept distracting Savanna. He knew something cool was happening and he wanted to be a part of it! LOL! At the end you can even hear him say 'mommy - say 'come here Joey'' - how dare Savanna get all the attention when he can 'come here' much better than she can! he he - I'm just sad I didn't get him in the video at all - except his legs. Maybe I'll get some cool videos of him soon!

And They're Off!!

Savanna officially started crawling today! So cute! I know she's been super close for a while but today she finally figured it out. It's cute though, because it's not really hands and knees crawling - it's hands, right knee, and left foot. She does hand, hand, right knee, and pushes off with her left foot, hand, hand, right knee, and left foot. In just a matter of 2 hours, she got super efficient with it! I don't know if she'll figure out to do hands and knees, but I hope she doesn't because I love this cute creative crawling! Of course I think I would love anything she would do!

This does mean now that while I'm babysitting, instead of having 2 toddlers and 2 infants, like I used to, now I have 2 3 almost 4 year-olds and 2 mobile babies. Don't know if this will be easier or harder! But it'll be fun. I love watching these guys grow up!