Update on moving

I know you all probably think I have dropped off the face of the planet, but I have just been so BUSY! Needless to say, taking care of five children without a husband does not leave much room for down time.

Wouldn't ya know it? The fridge started leaking a couple of days after Ben left. The second day I noticed water in the same place and realized that it wasn't just a spill I decided I had better get someone over to fix it. So I called my home teacher and he was kind enough to come over, move the fridge out and discover that there was a tiny leak in the water line. He fixed it and I thought that was the end of my troubles. Unfortunately, I later discovered that this tiny leak caused water damage to the ceiling in the basement and the kitchen floor.

Anyway, long story short, I've spent the last two weeks ripping things up, painting, and doing all sorts of projects I really didn't want to do. Ben was home last weekend and helped me with some of it. I've had to enlist the help of several friends and family members for the rest of it.

In the meantime, not one person has come to see the house and I'm not sure whether I should be concerned that no one is coming or relieved that a potential buyer has not walked in to see my fridge in the living room!

Remind me why I'm doing this again?

The rumors are true.....

I know you’re all rolling yours eyes out there, but I’m just posting to confirm the rumors. Yes, we are moving---again. Ben has been interviewing for jobs due to the fact that there have been several rounds of lay-offs at his work in the past year and there will most likely be more in the future. I was trying really hard not to think about the possibility of moving, but when he was offered two jobs a couple of weeks ago (one in Texas and one in Arizona) I had to stop ignoring it and actually start praying about it. I was definitely leaning more towards the job in Texas for JC Penney's corporation and honestly thought that's where we would most likely end up. It just made more sense. However, the Lord obviously has other plans for us. Arizona it is. All we can do now is have faith and move forward.

Crazy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is usually one of my favorite holidays. I love to make heart shaped sugar-cookies, surprise the kids with cute little homeade valentine's and go out to dinner with my sweetheart. Mostly because I was put in charge of a school Valentine's party for 100 3rd graders, this year I was feeling a little too frazzled to enjoy Valentines day as much as I would have liked. And is that wasn't enough, I decided that all of my girls should make homeade Valentine's for their classes along with presents for their teachers and a treats for their friends who aren't in their class. Needless to say, I was a little bit stressed last week and there were no heart-shaped pancakes for my family on Valentine's Day morning. Oh well, can't be a super mom all the time, right?
All in all I think the party was a success and, hopefully, by the time I ever have to do that again, I will have learned the art of delegating. In the meantime, if anyone out there ever needs Valentine's Day party ideas feel free to call me!

Here are the few pictures I managed to take in my scattered state last week:Rachel enjoyed her first school Valentine's party this year even though she missed half of it because I forgot that they had changed the starting time from the normal 11:00 to 10:00 because of the party!
I've seen these all over on-line, maybe you have too. You take all your little broken pieces of crayons and melt them in the oven in a heart mold to make these cute little heart-shaped crayons. It was actually a lot more work that I would have thought it would be because you have to peel all the crayons and then break (or chop) them into really small pieces. I forgot to put the mold on a cookie sheet before putting it in the oven and had crayon wax dripping onto the bottom of my oven, then I tried to pick them up and almost spilled the rest all over. We were able to salvage them in the end, but when I mentioned to Rachel that we might have to try it again she said "I don't want to--it was too hard" to which I responded, "Okay, we'll just have to go buy some Barbie valentine's from the store."Eliza made these cute tootsie pop flowers which she actually wasn't too thrilled about because she really wanted to make these other flower valentine's we saw on-line that used those little flat suckers that they used to give out at the bank drive-through when I was kid. Unfortunately, I couldn't find those suckers at any of the grocery stores around here so she got the tootsie pop flowers instead. She was okay with it in the end.

Emma actually took these pictures (she asked me too, but then took matters into her own hands when she saw that I was busy with one of my many projects) of the hot cocoa valentine's she made for her class. I thought this was a really fun idea and she actually did most of it all by herself which was great for mom. The girls also gave these cute little handprint valentine's to their teachers with a little bottle of lotion inside.

By the time Ben and went out on our for our Valentine's date on Friday night, I was completely exhausted. Then to top it off, I had told him all week that I wanted to go to the Union Grill in Ogden for dinner and we ended up waiting almost an hour to be seated. Next time, I think we'll just go to a burger joint and save the fancy stuff for a weekend other than Valentine's day weekend!

Ben brought me home these beautiful flowers on Saturday. The other part of my present was a Costco membership, which I've been wanting for a long time. Yay!

We also had a really fun family dinner on Valentine's day which I was going to take pictures of, but didn't. We had a really fun time at my parent's house with my sister, brother and one of our favorite friends from college, Clay.

What is this stuff?

Beginning spoon feeding is something that I usually put off as long as possible, but today I decided it was finally time to give Hazel her first taste of solid food. Honestly, I think her sisters and brother were much more thrilled than she was. But how tasty can rice cereal really be?

The 100th day of school

Eliza's grade celebrated the 100th day of school today. She made this lovely necklace with 100 beads.

Fun times with Grandma and Grandpa!

Ben was out of town last weekend so we spent a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa. I love it that my parents are always up for an adventure on a Saturday afternoon--so much more fun than scrubbing toilets!My parents were very sweet and offered to come sit with me during sacrament on Sunday, but I opted just to come over for dinner. I don't seem to cook much when Ben's gone so that was nice. The kids had such a good time Sunday night playing with all of Grandma's instruments and fun dress-up clothes. I couldn't resist taking this video of them marching around the table playing pipe chimes while my mom played the piano. The song is actually one that her grandmother used to play for her children as they marched around the kitchen table.

Hazel Jane: 6 months old

I can't believe Hazel is six months old already! She is still just as sweet as ever and since I don't plan on having another one for a long, long time (if ever) I keep thinking about how sad I'll be when I don't have a baby around anymore. You just can't help being happy when they smile those sweet smiles!

At her six month check-up yesterday Hazel weighed 17 lbs. 3 oz. (73%) and was 26 3/4" (85%). The doctor actually said she was "on the tall side" which seemed very strange for a baby of mine. Hazel is still quite easy in the fact that she isn't at all mobile. She doesn't roll, scoot, crawl....nada. She does, however, grab anything that's within her reach. She especially loves grabbing onto mommy's necklaces and this keeps her quite entertained at church. She has started to really enjoy her saucer and will actually play with all the little gadgets on it. She sucks on her right hand (not her thumb--her hand) which causes her to have a big red mark, but it doesn't seem to bother her at all. She mostly only does it when she's tired because it helps her to fall asleep. She is a great sleeper so mommy doesn't really mind either. She is a very happy baby and usually has smiles for anyone who will pay any attention to her. She especially loves her older sisters and brother and smiles at them all the time, which they love. She makes lots of cute cooing and gurgling noises and she sometimes drools....a lot. She doesn't have any teeth yet, but I'm expecting them any day now. Overall, she is just a joy to have in our home and it's so fun (and sort of sad) to see her grow up.