Remembering Spetember 11, 2001

I can still remember the day as if it happened just yesterday. I was pregnant with Maddie and an emotional basket case anyway, and I just kept thinking about those poor people who have just lost loved ones. There were thousands lost. Not just a few, so many. We are so lucky to have the time that we have with our husbands, children, friends, family that we do have. Never waste an opportunity to tell someone that you love them. I have been thinking about that a lot today and wanted to share it. I can't even express how much I love my family. My husband and children are the world to me. Just as my parents and siblings and in-laws. I am so grateful for them. I hope that we can just remember how much they mean to us and to hold them just a little bit tighter and for just a little bit longer tonight. When I think about the songs that were written about 9/11 the song called "One Last Time" comes to mind. It's a song about one of the pilots that gets to call his wife just before the plane goes down. How would that have been to have to hear your husband say goodbye and that he knew that he wasn't going to be coming home? I think it would be great to have gotten to talk to him, but so hard. I just hope that we can remember all those that helped that day and who lost their lives.

Another Maddie Adventure!

I'm sure you know that if it says Maddie "adventure" that it is going to be something pretty crazy. It wouldn't be a complete week if we didn't have some sort of Maddie Adventure, that's for sure. What would I do with all my free time?
Yesterday I told my husband that I was going to go upstairs and ride my bike and basically that he was supposed to watch the kids. I guess I didn't say it in those exact words because he didn't even know where the kids were. I was in my room riding my bike and the two little kids were playing some kind of hut thing on my bed. After about 20 minutes of listening to them scream and fight over who gets this pillow and what blanket etc... I finally told them to go down and find Dad. Basically to remove themselves from my sight. I finished the bike ride a little while later and the next thing I know Seth comes into my bathroom (while I am in the shower) and hands me my straight edge razor. Atleast his fingers were all still attached. I knew that I had left my haircutting stuff in the front room, but it was all bagged up. That has never stopped her before. I took the razor and thought OK I will go and put everything away when I get out. Then not 3 minutes later I hear Joe walking up the stairs saying OH NO over and over. The thought ran through my mind that she got into some color and proceed to color the "nice" carpet up the stairs. He scolded Maddie and said no we don't do that etc.. and then made it into the bathroom. I asked him what happened and he told me that Maddie gave herself a haircut. I thought oh is that all? He said you didn't see all the hair on the ground. Well at least hair grows back. At least I didn't have dark brown color stains going up my stairs. That would have been about par with the rest of the house, however. So in Maddie comes sporting tears of being in trouble. Her hair was a mess. She gave herself bangs!! Not just bangs but all kinds of layers and such. Her hair was half way down her back and then the front was to her eyebrows. The before picture doesn't do it justice, but it was bad news. I wanted to cut her hair to her shoulders or something cute, but I wasn't expecting 8 inches or more in places. We had to go to Grandma's house to spray for bugs later that day and grandma said what did you do to all your long hair? Maddie said "haircut". She was quite proud of herself. I guess in all the time that I have been doing hair with her around I should be grateful that she hasn't done it sooner. Oh well like I told Joe "its just hair!" Hope you enjoy Maddie's NEW do.

These don't really do the hair cut justice, but see if you can see all her random layers.

Maybe I should have left the mullet, we are in Lehi now...

Do pardon the toy room disaster behind her.

We are going to need some serious bobby pins for the front for the next year or so, but she does look really cute!

Starting Pre-School

My little dude started pre-school this week. He has been so excited for the past 3 weeks, ever since the other kids started school, to get to go to his own school. Every time we would drive by it he would tell me that is his school and I will leave him there. He was really big on going by himself. I hate to see him growing up so fast. I am so excited for him to be getting big and to get to experience those fun things of growing up, but I am not liking it. Everyone always asks me if I am going to have anymore kids, and to be honest, I don't think it's in my cards (at least for now). So needless to say I want him to stay little as long as possible. Here are some cute pictures of his first day of pre-school.

Two Dollar Tuesday

I have never been to the dinosaur museum here in in this lovely town that I live in, and probably wouldn't have taken all the kids if it hadn't been for 2$ Tuesdays in August. It could break you to have to pay the full price, so we didn't. Anna and the kids and I decided to brave the last Tuesday in August (and the crowds) and take the kids to see the dinosaur museum. It was really neat. I have to say that if it wasn't such a hoppin place it would be a really neat place to go to again. There was hundreds of people taking advantage of the really great price (and can you blame them?) so it was kind of hard to get around. Needless to say we had fun and had some great pictures to boot. If you ever get another chance for a good deal to the museum, take the kids and go in the day time while the rest of the hoodlums are in school. That was our first mistake was waiting for Makenna, Belle and Maddie, but they loved it!! Here are a few pictures of our adventure.

I did it!

So I decided the other day that I was going to be a blonde again. I got it into my head, so there was no changing my mind. After the kids went to school I whipped out the bleach and the 40 volume developer. I put it all over my hair and on the head. I cannot even begin to describe how bad it itched and burned my head. I think I made it for over 45 minutes on there, but I am not sure how I did it. I was scratching and itching and screaming while it was on there. I'm sure that Seth thought that I had gone super crazy. I was afraid that I was. Well I had to wash it off (of course) before the hair all fell off and then realized that I had to get Makenna a 3 ring binder for school. Good thing I have my trusty (not quite pink) Yankees hat. I threw that onto my orange hair and ran to the store. I forgot the mention that the roots were blonde, just not the ends. It was a beautiful sight. I wish that I would have taken pictures. I made it to the store and even to the school and then Helen called and wanted to go to Lunch. I still had on the hat, so I went to lunch too. It was so tasty. I haven't been to Los Hermanos in forever and I love that place. After lunch I went back to Anna's house and luckily for me my cousin Krista was there to help me put some more bleach onto the ends. It was a great idea (before) but who knows why I do these things to myself. Then I had to drive down to my moms house to say goodbye to Sarah (because she was leaving the next morning to go home to New York). Here I was driving on the freeway with bleach all over my hair and looking oh so nice. I thought after over a half an hour with more 40 volume and bleach that I should wash it out, and then it was peach. Not SO good. I was just a tiny bit bothered by that point. I had bought some ash to put on it because I knew that red is the hardest to remove, and I knew that I would need it, so I then put that on. There were some parts that took too well to the bleach because then they went purple. I had some really peach colored hair and some gray hair. I was really worried at that point. After I made it back to my house I looked into my stash of color to see if I possibly had any extra color and to my surprise I had a 10n and a 10bg. I mixed them together and this is the end result. It is a lot lighter than what I think I was planning to be, but this is what it is going to have to stay for a while, or else it will all fall out!!!

Fun at the Bean Museum

Oh what fun it is to play at the Bean Museum today! So this past week we had a chance to take (almost) all the grand kids on the Preston side to the Bean Museum to see the reptiles etc... We left baby Max at the babysitter. Jill was working. Sarah and her family are here in town from New York and we thought it would be fun to have the lady talk to all the kids about the snakes and turtles and to see them too. It was great. I haven't ever been to Bean Museum and (other than the smell) I found it rather fascinating. Nothing like the smell of moth balls to get ones sinuses working correctly, right? A fun time was had by all when after the museum we headed to Costco for smoothies and ice cream. That was the best part for sure. I am so glad that Sarah is here and that we got to spend time with her and her kids. They are so darling and I wish that we could see them more often.

Jen's Before and After

Before

After

I just wanted to take and minute and toot my own horn. I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself for being able to have lost 75 lbs and to have a before and after, so I thought that I would share it! Its pretty sad how big I was, but hooray for me. I still have more to lose, but we'll get there eventually. It's actually kind of hard to see in these pictures, but you can definitely tell in the face.