Steph's 'Run-Down'

There was a "chicken run" at the foot rodeo, and the owners of the property promised the kids that they could keep the chicken if they caught it. Of course Weston caught one. I tried to tell him that visiting rights for the chicken were almost as good as owning it. After tears and pouting (from Weston, not me) I finally convinced him that the chicken was better off with its friends at the farm than on our dinner table. (Desperate times call for desperate threats I mean measures)

but these ribbons look aqua to me!

Here's Scotty getting ready for the horse race at our annual foot rodeo. We aren't in Vegas anymore! The kids have a BLAST...

Doesn't this face just strike fear into any contender? Scotty and Weston both play flag football, and they always complain that I don't let them play tackle football. Maybe next year, or the year after that, or the year after that...

How do you say "no" to this face? My last little guy, Jason, using every ounce of his charm to get his way.

One of my best friends and roommate from BYU, Kory Brown. Mark and Kory live in Virginia, so we went to see them while we were in D.C. Oh how I miss them! Kory made an amazing dinner and we laughed and cried about old times while Troy and Mark compared "glory days", Sam Hall, CDU, etc.! We're keeping the dream alive that we aren't all 15 years older! ha. We had FHE together with their 5 kids. Fun times. Thanks Kor and Mark!

Hayley holding her cousin Jaisa... someone needs a sister (but I'm done- so Hayley will have to settle for other people's kids)

This is the awesome pool at the Redrock Hotel where we stayed this last week.

Scotty split his head open on the corner of a bench in our hotel room.... (we put it back together with super glue)FYI Troy was babysitting!
Jason fell on a corner of the table at Taco Bell and cut his eye open...(we bought some more super glue to glue him back together)FYI Troy was babysitting while I was in the ladies room. Luckily, as Troy explains it, Jason didn't hit the floor because the table broke his fall...
..and as we were gluing back together one of our children, Truman, decided to shave a lucky "7" on his head in honor of our trip to Vegas.....all in all, a pretty ordinary week with the kids... FYI the line for Troy to babysit your precious children starts here...

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebs - Collage - Morph

The power of persuasion- somehow Weston got Scotty's teammates to hold his stanky shoes while he trained (ala Rocky Balboa) for his big basketball game.

(From the witness aka my sister Lyndsay)
Steph, you forgot to add that when I came out to the car and saw you, I had the double side by side pizza thing goin on(Little Caesars) and back then was about 50 pounds overweight, so as I ran back in the store, I was already being looked at and when I told the workers, they literally jumped over the counter screaming for someone to call 911. It all started because I saw some kids wearing black and smoking, with mohawks, and just the sight of them, put me on edge. I COULD have saved your life that day. No thanks needed:)

So when I was a senior in high school in Las Vegas, I had a pretty packed schedule. I was VP of our Seminary program (early- morning, no time- release there), and I played volleyball, had student council, a couple of college-prep classes, and worked after school when we didn't have games. And I THOUGHT I was exhausted then- ha. Anyways, one night my mom ordered pizza and sent me to pick it up, I drove to the pizza place and then as any big sister would do, sent my younger sister (Lyndsay-maybe 12-years old) in to pay and get the pizzas. It was taking a loooong time, and I was so tired that I layed down across the front seat and rested my poor overworked head. The next thing I know, the pizza employees and my sister and concerned customers were all standing outside the window knocking furiously and sending someone in to call an ambulance. Lyndsay had come out with the pizzas and had seen me laying across the seat and thought something had happened to me or someone had hurt me. So she ran back in the the place screaming that something had happened to her sister and she needed help. Thus the scores of people at my window. She's always been my most paranoid sister! ha. I sat up and told everyone that everything was fine, peeled rubber out of the parking lot, and yelled at my sister all the way home for embarassing me. Sorry, Lynds. Thanks for your concern- I know it was just your immense love for me that made you react that way! The moral is, be careful about what you do in the front seat (or any other seat) of your car. You never know who might overreact. Peace out.

and I am actually on my computer (while my 18 mo. old and 4 year-old wreak havoc with a package of Top Ramen they found in the pantry) . I don't have to look up a recipe or sign children up for anything or prepare a lesson or check practice and game schedules or check the definition of a word I heard on talk-radio.
Target owes me my picture on the wall or a aisle with my name on it or something. I am embarassed to admit that I have been to Target 4 out of 5 days this week (and all before 9AM). Hayley needed new P.E. shoes, and we had already made a hefty investment in some cool ones for the beginning of school, so Target will get us through the last couple of months. I get nothing done when I take all 5 of the kids, and end up with strange purchases (silly putty, press-on nails, the entire line-up of Nerf products) in my cart, so I thought I would take my chances and guess at Hayley's shoe size so I would only have T-Rex and the baby with me. I guessed wrong, so I went straight back the next day to trade sizes, and overnight Hayley had also outgrown her sandals, so they were added to the list. I also got some grocery shopping done, etc. From too big, to too small, the shoes never fit, and since I planned on going back the next morning to fix the previous mornings mistakes, people (my kids) kept adding things to the list that they needed for school projects or dance class or the beginning of football season for the boys. Today is Friday and I just got back from Target (BTW, I didn't always go to the same store, there are 2 within the same distance, so I mixed it up a bit...) and I don't care if the shoe doesn't fit or the shorts are the wrong color, we will make it work.
On a tangent, as we pulled up to our second home, Target, this morning, I realized I had forgotten to pray (and boy did I need it today), so I turned the car off and quickly bowed my head and closed my eyes in the car, people were walking by and Truman kept asking what I was doing, and I had this image in my mind of someone thinking I was slumped over the steering wheel for a different reason (*see next story for this line of thinking), so I finished quickly and hoped nobody was calling an ambulance.

I've decided that having a blog is like having a pet. I already have five kids, and every time they ask for a pet, I point to their one year-old brother and tell them that we have him instead of a pet. I'm not romantic about pets, I know they take a LOT of work and commitment, even the ones that are supposedly low-maintenance. Now that I have reluctantly joined the blogites, I realize that every mess my kids make or every funny thing they say or do, or every annoying or redeeming quality they have, or every beautiful or weird place I see (I know, English majors, this is a run-on sentence at its worst) I have to remember to put it on "the blog". Obviously I don't actually put it on the blog, though, I just wake up in the middle of the night mad at myself that I didn't put it on the blog. In the analogy of a pet, it's like worrying about cleaning up the you-know-what, or checking the food and water bowl, or taking it for a walk regularly. I won't tell you what happened to some of the pets I had when I was younger, but look, my kids are still alive and healthy (for now). And even though (I know, English majors, avoid starting sentences with the word "and") I'm not an uberblogger, this site will stay alive. I know there would be a huge backlash if I cut you guys off now. So even if I don't document every brilliant thought I have, or dirty diaper I change, or injury I heal, or load of laundry I do, or romantic gesture by my husband, I will push down those competitive urges to blog like no one has ever blogged before, and just be content with mediocrity. Now when my kids ask for a puppy or a goldfish, instead of pointing to Jason, I'll tell them mommy already has a pet- named Blog.

As I view most people's blogs, I realize I have very few talents. I'm not a photographer, I'm not a crafter, I'm not a scrapbooker, I haven't run a marathon, I don't sing. But I'm a decent cook, I'm pretty good at Trivial Pursuit, I can tie a knot in a cherry stem with my tongue, I'm well-practiced at laundry, AND I can do this semi-difficult, not-so-pretty yoga pose called the "crane". This is my self-affirmation for the day!

Since this is new to me, I have found about 10 pictures that sum up last year for our family, and I can think of at least 10 things we did that aren't necessarily documented and you'll just have to take my word for it! Wait for it...Wait for it...