Sunday, November 25, 2012

Kitchen Pictures to Drool Over

Kitchen Before:
On Oct 21st, our dishwasher line broke. We didn't discover this until 3am in the morning when Andrew woke up and thought he heard water running. They had to remove my entire kitchen and replaced it with this:

Kitchen After:
And you can see the newest MOBILE member of my house in the picture above-Little James started crawling.



At first I was apprehensive-Andrew removed the soffit and upper cabinets.

But I have to admit, I totally LOVE my kitchen now!!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Hogle Zoo


Hogle Zoo has greatly changed since I was younger. The newest edition is called Rocky Shores and hosts a variety of eagles, otters, seals, sea lions, polar bears and other bears.

We bought a year pass which also allows 2 visitors in free. So if you're in the area and want to go to the Zoo, call me, I'll get 2 people in free! :)

Polar Bear Awesomeness.

My favorite animal - Snow Leopard.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Life, Universe and Everything

Here's a little bit of what we have been doing.
The kiddos and I made finger puppets out of pipe cleaners and pom-poms. I hot glued a small piece of fabric over a glue stick then wrapped the pipecleaners around and decorated them. The kids love them!
Here's the animals the kiddos requested: Antelope, Mountain Goat, Parrot, Doggie, Giraffe, Tiger, Bunny, Crazy Caterpillar.




I added the aliens. Evil Mr. Pineapple, Green Dude, Ms. Squiggles, Flower Head and Cherry Crab.
James first experience with rice cereal. He is so big (97% percentile) the doctor is having him start now. He was so excited he started trying to eat through his bib.

James is also teething.

I've been making/canning homemade applesauce - delicious!
He rolled over for the first time on July 28th!
Pardon my foot!

Antelope Island- I drove there with my kiddos and two of my best friends Kaitlin and Tiffany. I have known Kait and Tiff since I was in elementary school.
Kaitlin was awesome and requested to carry James.
Sarah wouldn't look at my camera she was too busy running to the salt water.
Looks like she's flying.
Mikey is right behind her-they got sandy and wet but had a blast.
Chub, Chub - I've never had a baby this tiny! Sarah was 2 when we adopted her and Mikey was 1. So, having a baby in the house is a new experience for us.

If the sound doesn't work-sorry. He was giggling.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

2012 Pictures


Sarie and Mikey love having a baby brother. James giggles at everything they do.




James is a very sweet baby. He doesn't cry very often. He smacks his lips to tell you he's hungry and it's very easy to get him to smile. (Getting all 3 to smile at the same time is another challenge!)







Monday, May 28, 2012

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome


My oldest 2 children are both meth, alcohol and other drugs affected. Several people have continued to tell me that my kiddos are perfectly normal and that they don't need any extra help. So, I'm writing this To be informative. I know my children. I know where they struggle. Yes, for short times my kids seem just like normal kids- but you don't see the everyday. Meth has issues of its own a lot of which haven't been pinpointed yet. Instead I will focus on FAS or fetal alcohol syndrome. Yes my oldest 2 have FAS. "An FAS child can have a spectrum of problems, ranging from learning disabilities to severe mental retardation.  FAS are usually very likable and sweet, generous to a fault, and usually have poor impulse control.  FAS children can have short term memory problems and be very untrustworthy because of it.  FAS women (in the moderate to severe range) tend to have FAS babies.  They don't have the ability to reason through the consequences of their actions.  They tend to be very sexually active when they are old enough because they don't reason well cause and effect.  They are extremely trusting yet resist anyone who tries to control them.  As younger children, they are apt to wander off, can't always remember simple instructions.  But always appear very capable and normal.  They are brain damaged.  The result of a birth-mother who drank while pregnant.  The severity of the FAS is normally related to how much the mother drank, but there is no way to tell until the child is older as to what disabilities she/he will have. parents of FAS children need to provide as much stability and routine as possible.  They they have to keep their eyes on them and give them a lot of wiggle room if they forget to do something after you told them the 100th time.  That their impulsiveness is a result of brain damage, not because they don't want to obey.  An older FAS child needs an advocate at all times.  They don't have the ability to make good decisions about where they go after school or with whom.  They are likely to get themselves into compromising situations." wifeandmommy.blogspot.com Sarah-Ruby has low impulse control. She likes to hoard things that aren't hers. She struggles with short term memory loss. She is very sweet when she wants to be. Michael has a speech delay, he struggles with partial hearing loss. Forgets simple instructions.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Content?


As an early adult I was content. Happy in my knowledge that I would someday marry, have children and spent my life as a stay at home mom. Life was simple and uncomplicated. I never intended to use my degree. I wanted a degree to stand as an example to my kids, a way to teach them to accomplish their goals. I have 4 days left to teach. Actually less than that if you consider that Mon no school, Tues is a full day, Wed yearbooks and a dance, Thurs all day assemblies and Lagoon, Friday school is 3 hours long and basically no one comes. So, I have 1 day. T'was the week before the end of school, I've gone through my class, I've packed up my 'admiral rosenvall' pencils but left the orange hall pass, I scrubbed all the sinks, my tables, my walls. They look sad and lonely, just like the school halls. The kids have all left, school year is over! I hope they've had fun, learned something or another. The core curriculum is hard to fully cover, "See you next year!" shouted with delight, Sounds bitter when followed by, "oh, you're leaving. That's right." My 8th graders wonder what fate they await, Some fear the future, imagine their plight. Mr. Nichols my replacement; I hope he's alright. My 9th graders angry, bitter at a loss, Mr. Anderson said, "Devastated." he's my boss. I made Kathi cry when I told her and then, Todd soon followed the grief parade. That's when I decided to end the tirade, And not say a thing, for as long as I could. Until rumor spread, I knew that it would. 8th grade do you remember: When I ate play dough in half? To show you the layers of a rock, what a laugh! The play dough stuck to my teeth all day long, Tasted way salty-- super gross. How about when I burned Ryan's paper for the class? And Zandons I cut into a string of little men. To show physical and chemical change. Will you join my particle party? Fusion? Fission? Convection dance! Will you remember the song? Convection fueled by fission forms mid-ocean ridges, Ridge push leads to sea floor spreading, slab pull and subduction, Weak subduction zones good for Earthquakes, melting plutons and volcanoes, Silicic volcanoes they constantly flow, Pyroclastic volcanoes get stuck and then blow, Volcanic gases help form the atmosphere. Spewing gases, carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen. Layers divided due to density. Troposphere, Stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere. Exosphere is the beginning of space, Welcome to the final frontier, Our sun, the medium star,and her satellites, Mercury, Venus, earth, mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris. So many songs, things to remember. Fair well, my 210 teenager children, My 3 kiddos at home need their mommy.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Love

As beautifully stated by Elder Wirthlin:

"The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude."