Now thats a pile a ....

 

 

 

 

So thats it a pile of puppies. So this is our giveaway. Each of you that made a comment have won a yellow lab cross puppy and a friend of each of you also so you chose the friend. Help we have 7 of the cutest puppies that we need to giveaway. The mom is a great dog. She is purebred yellow lab and were fairly certain (HAHA) that the father is a well bred yellow lab because all the puppies look like the mom Dora. They come well adjusted to families M would pack them around all day if I would let her. They are starting to eat puppy food but will still need a week or so on the mom. We have 3 males and 4 females or vice versa we can't keep them still while we try and figure it out. So if you know ANYONE that is thinking about a puppy have them come look. They are soo cute and we love the mom. She is a great hunter, good with the kids, quiet as in she doesn't bark, She just is great.

We are jumping on the Giveaway bandwagon

You know this time of year people are so kind and good and with blog these days its so easy to get the word out about a giveaway. Well we have decided to be a part too. We are giving something a way too. I'm not telling what it is but, doggone it will be worth it. Just leave any comment about a favorite Christmas tradition and I will get back in a few days and tell more about the giveaway.

She is 8

 

 

D was baptized last Saturday. What a neat day. We had lots and lots of family so that made it even more special. She got to pick out a dress, she got a few presents, she had a great day. I asked her that night if she felt different and she said "yes, it's hard to say but it was like whooosh." I said "like whoosh?" "Well like clean." When I went into the dressing room she was crying and J said that as soon as he pulled her out of the water that he could tell she was emotional. She said that she felt the Holy Ghost when the men put their hands on her head too. It was such a neat day. I was just as excited as she was I think. I love when these moments of joy come and I look forward to many, many more.

Families are Forever

 

 

 

 

My grandpa passed away on Monday so all of my siblings and spouses were here and all grandkids but 4. It was too long of a drive from CA to bring them for a quick trip. He was 85 and had alzheimers and was ready to home as he said. The funeral was Sat. It was good. He was such a jolly man always tickling, laughing, teasing. He will be missed. He was a veteran of WW2 and so they did the military service at the graveside. It was neat. He lived a good life raised 8 great kids and had a huge posterity, 46 grandkids and 89 great grandkids. All of the cousins were there but 4 and two of them are on missions. Pretty awesome, I would say. So while we were together we took some family pictures. We didn't include the grandkids because we were missing some. So we took individual families, siblings and spouses, boys, and girls. It was so fun to be together even for the few minutes that we were. I have such an awesome family and thank my Heavenly Father everyday for them. Thanks for making the effort to do pictures and to be together. Families really are forever.

Be Careful

I was at a friends house last night and she was telling me a story that I think is worth repeating. She said that Sat. something was bothering her, that she felt danger and she didn't know what the feeling was. She didn't sleep at all that night early Sun. morning she told her husband that she felt like she needed to delete her blog. Weird but she had a very strong feeling. So later she deleted it after she had copied it to a folder. Her sister-in-law called her that same morning and said "I'm deleting my blog" The sister-in-law had typed in her name and it was the first thing that came up in google and my friends blog was was linked to hers. Anyways to make a long story understandable(?) her blog had been viewed 1.4 million times. She has her town, her childrens school, tons of pictures, all sorts of info on there. There was anarticle done on blogging in SLC and the person pulled up a random blog and was at there house in 10 minutes. There are so many freaks out there be careful what you put on your blog because anyone can take it and claim it as theirs. I am going to be even more careful than I am about what pictures I use and what I say. I may even go private. I typed our names in and my blog name and nothing came up so I think I will wait for now on the private thing. Sorry to be so doom and gloom but better safe than sorry.

a day in the life of M

I need to take pictures and replace the pictures that are on the wall so I thought one child at a time. I took about 40 pictures and none of them turned out. She is moving in them, picking her nose, doing sommersaults, you name it. She is impossible to take pictures of. Unless she is sitting on the toilet with her shirt over her head or she is afraid to get down after she has scaled the pantry shelves trying to get bubbles. I don't know how they would look on the living room wall though. What a joy they are.

PARTY REMINDER

My candle/jewelry party is Thurs and Sat. The official time for Thursday is 6:58 but you are welcome anytime. Saturday is from 10-12. Say you saw this reminder and I will give you something for free no purchase necessary. They sell some Willow tree statues and I ordered the Nativity and love it. Candles make great gifts too. As does jewelry. Hope to see you there. Tell your friends. Just for fun bring a friend and I will throw in another freebie. You can probably smell the candles from my blog they are sooo good.

I'm having a PARTY

I have had an open house for the candles that I sell for the last few years and this year decided to combine it with Lia Sophia Jewelry. You all are invited and will receive an invitation just as soon as I get them out (and the flu bug leaves us.) It is next Thursday Nov. 6th at 6:58pm or for your convenience on Sat. Nov. 8th from 10-12AM at my house. You can order online at Lia Sophia and look at candles at Ashmancandles.com. These are great candles. I have sold them for 7 years and love them. They have great new scents and great old scents too. Hope to see you there.

A few of my favorite things

We brought dads cows home on Saturday. It was such a beautiful day for a ride. These are my brothers T and T. T came up and it was so fun to visit with them. We had a great day.

This is the other thing that we did this weekend. We dipped about 40lbs? of chocolates. We brought different centers and went to town. These on the plate are orange slices, peanut clusters, butterfingers, toasted coconut, pecan turtles, mint truffles, and pretzel carmels. Yum huh?

J's neat experience

Well our baby is due on Apr. 4. It seems forever away but I know it will be here sooner than I am ready. We are secretly hopeing for a boy so that P can have a brother even if they are 6 years apart. I wanted to share the experience that J had on trek. Yes I was pregant on the trek just didn't know it. The Stake YW president was talking to all the boys as the Stake Pres 1st couselor was talking to all the girls just before the womens pull up the huge hill. She was talking about hardships and challenges and Jon was thinking about the last trek and how I was pregnant on the last trek. (I have committed to not being preggo on the next trek if only to myself) He said that he the spirit said "A is pregnant this time too." So he was excited but did't say anything to me for about 3 or 4 days. Then he said "When you find out your pregnant, I have something to tell you." I told him I wasn't going to take the test for a few weeks just to make sure because I have such a weird body. Well I couldn't wait that long so I took the test a few days later and then he told me his story. Anyway it was pretty neat I thought. This is not written very well so I don't know that you can get the full jist but if not call me. Anyway we are excited. We should find out in two weeks but we don't know how much we will believe it because of past experience. I will for sure followup.

Outdoor Adventures

The last two Saturdays we have taken a few minutes to go fishing. They have been local lakes with planted fish but we have had a good time. The weather has been great and the time together even better.

Our oldest

Our spotlight would not be complete if I didn't share about Carter. I wanted to post pictures but I ( imagine this) can't figure out how to scan them in. Sorry. He was born Mar. 2, 1997. He was born with Down syndrome and about 40% of kids with Downs have heart problems. He had many heart surgeries. The first starting at 9 days and then 6 months, 7 months, 3 years. The 3 year surgery he had his mitral valve replaced with a titanium valve. He was very very sick for a long time and was on the ventilater for about 4 weeks. We were in Denver at the time which is an awesome childrens hospital. From there I flew to CA to live with J parents hoping we could return to CO. Well it never happened and J moved to CA. C also had eye muscle surgery, tonsils and adnoids removed, pneumonia a few times requiring hospital stays. He was on oxygen most of his life and enough meds to have a medicne cabinet with his name all over it. That is some of the depressing medical parts of his life, but he didn't know any different. He loved life and was so happy all the time. He had to have blood draws every week and he was so tough he would just put his arm out and rarely cried. He never talked so we signed to him and he signed back but he understood everything we said. I think he really understood alot more than we did about alot of things. He loved to look at the childrens friend magazine and would find the pictures of Jesus Christ and sign Jesus. He loved Primary songs. He loved cheetos and hotdogs, broccoli and water. He was tube fed for 2 years so we think that he didn't know the joy food could bring and it was a fight. And with all the meds his mouth was fried of taste buds. When he did eat it was very strong flavors, salsa, garlic, chips, lemon juice, ketchup, mustard. Well this is getting long so I will wrap it up here soon. He was happy. He loved to have J come home everynight that was the highlight. He would play and talk his jibberish and love his dad to pieces. He passed away on June 14, 2002 in my arms. We miss him but are so grateful that we got to enjoy him as long as we did. Well I guess that is all of our spotlights or is it?

our sweet D

I know that my pictures are old. I will take some new one of these days. D is almost 8. She is a great helper. She loves to "babysit" (watch other kids not her siblings while they are outside). She loves school and learning especially math and science. She is like a sponge and just absorbs it all. She likes to ride her bike, train Dora (dog), jump on the trampoline, be outside. She is agreat kid. She is a super helper to M and loves to carry her(?). Most of all I think she loves to play with friends. She is very social and loves to have people over. We love her and sure appreciate all she does.

The P man

Ok so I haven't blog for awhile. I need to finish my spotlights like I was going to do so here is one more. P is 51/2. He has a funny sense of humor. He loves to be with dad doing anything. He is very sensitive and tender, usually. One horse got out the other day while we were messing with the others and he burst into tears. "Mom mom hurry she is getting out" It is ok we are right here she is not going anywhere" But mom" He was so worried about Moe getting out. He loves to jump on the trampoline. He is very athletic and strong, but we also call him crash sometimes because if someone is going to fall, run into something, it is going to be him. He loves school. He loves to tell me about his lessons in primary and goes into great lenght to relay what he has learned. Well that is about all that I can think of. He is a great kid and a good helper and we love him.

Camping

We went camping on Friday night. We had a very long, miserable, sleepless night, hence the very asleep kids on the way home. The wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour. Wind and tents don't mix, not with sleep anyway. We had fun but will find a not so winding spot next time.

Precious Boy

These are few pictures that I just took of my sisters baby that is 3 weeks old. He cooperated after he was asleep. He is precious.

Summers over

The kids entered a pet show at the Jefferson County fair and took horses. They had fun. We made it through our two weeks of swim lessons everyday eventhough I thought I would go crazy having to go somewhere everyday. They loved it and learned alot.

This is the first day of school. Hurrah. They were both very excited to go. P has the same teacher D had for kindergarten so that is very good. She is great. They both have good friends in their classes so that made it even better for them. Maybe not the teacher.