Swim Meets & Sweet Becca!

Summer is still BUSY with swim practices and swim meets for all four girls-thankfully they are all together which makes sports SO NICE! I have to volunteer for SO MUCH because we have them all on the team which requires LOTS OF LONG hours at the meet. A typical meet starts at 5 (but you have to be there at 430) and ends at 9pm or later--geesh! Atleast the snack bar is grub. It is always fun for me to meet new people and get to know them-I was the "scorer" at the meet & the announcer was hilarious and made the meet go by fast. He got a kick out of embarrassing me as I was scoring too--good times!

Thursday was Becca's 5th bday. I love this little girl-she is just TOO CUTE with her dimple and all. Our friend Russell has taught her that when anyone asks her "how come you are so cute?" to say "because i have a big dimple!" She continues to carry some sort of blanket around with her. I love that she does, Jon doesnt care for it much! One time my dad talked her into throwing IT AWAY!!! she did. I told him when she wakes up in the middle of the night, i'd be calling him. He said "i hope you wont be calling me bad names!?" Of course in true mom fashion, my mom made her ANOTHER blanket-YES! both my dad and jon were thinking.."WHAT?!" so funny. She has been using that blanket, only a few weeks ago left it at my friends house, so jon sweet talked me into having kristen "hide" it in our small garage. It has remained in there, but becca managed to find another one. Surprisingly she isnt as attached to this blanket but we shall see. She loves to just SNIFF the fabric-I have TRIED to just use a little small piece, but nope wants the whole thing. Its pretty funny.
We took the family out to dinner (our tradition) and then she got to open her gifts from gma/gpa. Why are bday squeals from 5 year olds oh so cute!!?? We also gave her the gift cards for toys r us and target. The next day me and the 3 other girls went with her to toys r us to pick out gifts-it was so fun to watch. They would each try to persuade her to pick whatever they brought to her. We kept loading it into the basket, then we told her there was only enough money for 2 so pick your two favorites-best way to do bday gifts EVER!!!! She got her balloon and bday crown from toys r us as well--I still need to take her to Target (this will be just me and her tho, that was wearing taking ALL OF THEM!!)

FUN weekend!

We had a fun weekend--Saturday we took off to my parents to hang with my bro Brian and his family, clay was there & russell was there..David my cousin came down with his family from Las Vegas too-so fun to see them all! It is weird for me to sit back and relax (since we have older kids) and watch all my younger siblings, cousins chasing kids, changing diapers, filling bottles etc--i love where we are!! I dont miss those days that's for sure!!

Sunday we did church, and then we took off to Todd's house to hang with jons parents and uncle mark. So fun to hang with so much family all the time-we are really lucky to live so close to everyone. We got to "see" Todd's new guns--so fun!

Monday we again took off to OC--Im beginning to wonder why we live here in Riverside!? Chad was down for the evening-he was surprised that we would all pick up and just come down to see him-that's what I love about jons family-everyone is always so willing to drop everything to come visit.

This week we have Swim Meet (tonight), family portraits (tomorrow), jons Dr appt (thur) no plans friday & im still working on saturday's plans!

Being that it was Fathers Day weekend - I think about my own Father and the things I have learned from him. He is a hard worker. He has worked since he was 8 years old. He had two papers routes. He worked so his sister could serve a mission (who served with my mother & that's how they met later on!). He has ALWAYS been thee most generous man i know! All throughout my life he has helped those in need. He is an honorable man. One of thee most honest men I know as well. He adores my mother & I believe that is the greatest gift you can give your children!
I have married a wonderful husband who is the Father of my children. I married him because he had many qualities that my own Father has. I also married him because I ADORED his father and thought if he is anything like his Father-I will be blessed!

bedtimes...better mornings...too much stress!

I am not a fan of bedtimes, my girls keep switching beds to sleep in, Rachel & Sarah like to keep everyone giggling - I start out at the "nice mom" then end up turning into the "mean mom"! I think by the end of the day having everyone home I am just done with it all! I hate going to bed feeling that way...I guess some nights are better then others and I have to remember that. Rachel has been on my case about "her" bedtime being that she's "12" now and it is "summer". Jon & I will talk it over with her and we will come up with an appropriate time. She likes to just stay down stairs and draw, read or play her Wii.

This morning has been a little easier then last night. Woke up, got ready for the day and ran to Fresh & Easy to grab some cereal for the crew here. They had Trix and Coco Puffs for 99 cents each-not the "healthiest" cereal but for 99 cents-Im game! Brought that back home for the girls and told them after cereal starts chores. So they did their required 2 pages of school work,

dishwasher, cleaned their rooms/made bed, brushed teeth/hair and got dressed. Surprisingly nobody complained and they just got it done. They are now all sitting on the couch playing the Wii together. I love that ALL four of them can play at the SAME TIME!

I am under a lot of stress right now. Cant really say what it is about until it all comes together but Ive been under heavy stress for about 7-8 weeks now. Some nights it is hard for me to go to sleep and some mornings I wake up and cant stay asleep! I do my best to not let it get the best of me, but sometimes I do fail. Grateful to have another "day" to do things differently. Most days are good though! I am in a situation which is completely out of my hands. I know it will all come together, but it is all the before stuff that is rough. Again, it's hard for me to really say till it comes together.

Looking forward to the weekend. We will be heading down to my parents house to hang out with family for Fathers Day. Just a simple bbq/swim type thing. My cousin David and his cute family will be visiting from Vegas so that will be fun!

Today I need to figure out somethings for Jon for Fathers Day. Wish me luck!

beach day, swim meets, fevers oh my!

Sunday Sarah came down with a fever and slept the day away, tuesday becca came down with a fever and slept the day away, today wednesday anna came down with a fever and has slept the day away---time will tell when rachels turn will hit, or mine or jons..yikes!

We headed out to CDM today--the clouds were out, i was a baby and FREEZING! of course the sun decides to show itself 30 minutes before we had to leave...nice. the girls had a blast ( even tho anna just slept on the beach-poor thing!) we met tons of our friends there and have decided my usual "cove" spot will be where we will go from now on-i LOVE that its secluded and we feel like we have the whole beach to ourselves! I am at a time in my life where my kids are bigger so all i have to say is "girls get your swim suits on, find a towel, flip flops and hop in the car" 5 minutes later we are out the door. I felt bad for all the other moms with tiny babies and small children who spent 2 hours just getting their car packed...i remember those days and are THRILLED they are so far behind me now!! I love having our four girls and im so grateful we had them all before jon got hurt. I know that we could have more children even now, but i also know that would throw me over the edge--not cute. People need me here!!! So four will be our number for us. I LOVE that they are all girls and LOVE that they are all so close to eachother, hardly fight YET-im sure the days are coming of clothes borrowing without asking, make up using, boyfriend stealing...good times!

After the beach we headed home in time to turn around and head for the swim meet. I had becca and anna stay home with dad. I had to keep score for the meet-which we SLAUGHTERED the other team (yes im THAT competitive!!) and the girls had a blast. The meets tend to be LONGGGG we got there shortly after 4 and didnt get back into the car till 815!

Hopefully my girls will ALL sleep in tomorrow...we shall see. All in all a great day for us-time for me to go feed jon since he didnt get any dinner with me being gone-poor guy, wonder which fast food joint he will choose!

some family funnies...

tonights family prayer...sarah had to "excuse" herself becuz she needed to break wind..so we were laughing about it--i finally got everyone settle down to say prayer..only to start and then moments later have my cell go off vibrate style on the leather couch..nice.

sarah was sick allll during church-i dont understand how they can all be hyper then as soon as i say its time to get ready for church begins the "oh why do we have to go? are we staying the whole time? can we just do primary? im not feeling good, i feel tired, my tummy" geesh...as usual i spiritually yelled them all to church anyways with enough time for me to repent before i took the sacrament! apparently sarah really was not feeling well THIS TIME..i told her to just roll down all the windows in the truck and sleep in the back..she did..two hours.

we came home and she slept the entire day away--we headed to our friends house for dinner/birthday celebration-fun times! tons of people from the ward were there which is always fun to visit with. all the kids ran around and around the ungated pool..shocking no one fell in..more shocking that i didnt get to push anyone IN the pool!

Monday morning began our first day of summer! Started off with telling the girls their morning chores which included picking up their rooms, making bed & doing the dishwasher duty. They all SURPRISINGLY did it all without any complaints! I decided since swim practice was cancelled we could go on another hike. We had gone on one on saturday after their chores and they LOVED it-more then i thought they would! So they were excited to go again monday. We went with our friends and it was a little harder then the saturday one-but fun nonetheless. after the hike we all hit up the slurpe machine--good times! Rachel got invited to a birthday party for one of her friends from church. It was an overnighter but we have a family rule of no overnighters, so we let her stay till she called us which was at 10pm --right on! while she was gone jon was in charge of FHE which was on emergencies and what do to--they remembered what we had taught them before, fire: get on the floor crawl out and call 911 at the neighbors, earthquake: run outside to the light pole (our family meeting command center!) if mommy or daddy are hurt, call 911, wrote down our friends, neighbors phone numbers--talked about stranger danger--it was a good FHE..of course jon likes to tell me if any of those things happen--to "just walk away and save myself" vs trying to rescue him--good grief!

today becca woke up with a headache and fever-she just stayed mellow all day--SO NICE! she's too cute to be not feeling good-hopefully its just what sarah had and she feels herself in the morning. The older 3 went to their swim practice, rachel hung out at her church friend's house, & everyone else just layed low watching movies--a nice summer break so far! Later on they all ended up swimmming this evening which for me means GREAT no baths cuz chlorine kills! We had our usual del taco for dinner and all was well.

Today we received their school workbooks which reminds me i better go rip out their answer sheets in the back before they realize they are there!! I have asked them to do their "morning chores" which also include 2 pages from their school workbooks-they seem excited to do it-especially because its only 2 pages!!

Bdays, Graduations, Summer Oh My!

Let us begin with Anna's 7th birthday. She went to school wearing the tshirt that gma had made for gpa's 60th bday-so it was a black tshirt that said HAPPY 60th BIRTHDAY! too funny. She wanted to make sure everyone knew it was her birthday i guess! She came home after school and we opened up her gifts which was a gift card to Target, and a gift card to Toys R us. We all as a family went to Chili's for dinner-so grub! I dropped everyone back off at home, then Anna, Becca & myself took off for Toys R Us. They walked together thru all the aisles trying to decide what to get. Anna decided on a Baby Doll that does all sorts of things, a highchair to put her in and a stuffed spotted dog. We then went to Target where she picked ANOTHER baby doll that does all sorts of things. Took the loot home and began the FOREVER untying, undoing of all those lame plastic wires that keep the toy to the stupid cardboard. Patience! The next morning she was able to take homemade cupcakes to her class--too fun. Anna is such a lovely little girl. She is very sensitive to the Spirit. She once cried when she was 4 in Sunbeams because she said "I am just thinking about Jesus and it makes me happy!" So they were happy tears. How touching! When we have FHE and discuss spiritually sensitive things, she is always teary. She is very loving, kind & gentle. She is my ONE and only child that looks most like ME! Big brown eyes and somewhat dark hair. I love having Anna in our family.

Friday morning was Rachel 6th grade promotion. It was interesting to see the different degree's of excitement from the parents. You had the ones like us who came to show our love and support. You had those that came with gmas, gpas, cousins, neighbors! You had those that had outrageously huge balloons, those that even came with the boat blow horn. It just made me chuckle.
She was in the 1st seat on the front row-talk about GREAT position for her to be in so we could see her! She has been an excellent student & received the Mega Skills Award (which they said is given to someone who really every month could get a student of the month award because they are so good in every subject). She was also given the Prestiges Presidential Award! She was one of the 1st original students to JFK when it first opened 7 years ago in 2002. Kind of special for this 6th grade class. They were also the 1st 6th grade class since it opened to get to go to Science Camp. The ceremony was simple & quick! I then went to her classroom and checked her out for the day. She wanted ice cream so I took her to get ice cream. She had a graduation party at a friends house from 1230-6pm then another end of the school year party with the Mutual kids at 6pm, it was round the clock party time for her!

Summer has official begun! Last night I told the girls, when you wake up please try to be quiet and get your Saturday morning chores done. This AM they did just that. I did have to "rehelp" them but they never complained (SHOCKING) and just got their work done. Once we were done I took the girls on a hike & they LOVED IT! Becca at the beginning was quite nervous, holding my hand the whole time. After a while she "got brave" and was able to let go and be on her own, a BIG kid. I loved that we were able to do that together. We were all bummed that Jon could not join us as the hike was not workable with a wheelchair-but fun nonetheless. I took pictures the whole time and kept posting them on facebook via my cell phone so he could feel like he was on the hike with us-he loved it!

We have no real plans this summer, other then LOTS of beach time, LOTS of swim meet practice & races, movies etc. I will need to get a calendar out and get some things organized. One thing I do plan on doing is renting a big dumpster for like a month and going thru EACH room, EACH drawer, and EACH cupboard. Im SO ready to dejunk again! I love that feeling!! I have also ordered books from Barnes & Noble that the girls will work on each morning. They will have to do their morning chores, a workbook page & the older 2 girls have to teach piano to the younger 2 girls then we can play the rest of the day away. Hopefully this helps to KEEP ME SANE!!!

Rachel turns 12...

Rachel turned 12 on May 22nd. Fun day for her-I sent 4 large pepperoni pizza's to her class to enjoy. Then we went as a family to Olive Garden for dinner- GRUB! The waiters/waitresses all sang to her-she was embarrassed which made it even more fun for Jon and I! We came home she opened up one gift card to Justice (clothes store) and one gift card to Michaels (colored pencils). She also got a cute sewing basket that Aunt Katie put together for her. Gma and Gpa got her a VERY nice gift...a sewing machine complete with a few patterns and material. Rachel loves to sew--she seems to be NOTHING like me! HA She is very much her daddy--
This morning Rachel received her Primary advancement award from the bishopric. She had to walk up to the front and recite an article of faith. She chose to do #10! She nailed it and I was a proud mama--trying not to cry my head off!
Today was her last day in Primary-I had the primary kids sing "Goodbye, Goodbye" instead of Hello, Hello--it was cute...and off to YW's she went. Poor Becca cried for about 10 minutes after Rachel left--soooo cute! Her Beehive leader came over today to introduce her to all that YW is about--
Rachel has grown into such a lovely girl. She LOVES to be creative. You can find her drawing, making origami, creating anything out of EVERYTHING which leads to me saying "rachel can you pick up what you created here!!", she is sweet to becca & anna, she loves to read-and reads BIG BOOKS!, she loves to play the flute and her latest is the mission impossible theme you can hear throughout the house flute style!, she enjoys volleyball and currently the swim team, she has AMAZING confidence in herself, she is good to always include everyone, & continues to always be smiling..just like when she was a baby.
It is great to see her growing up and moving into this next phase of her life!

Rachel's 1st Mutual activity & American Idol Season 8 Finale

Rachel had her FIRST mutual activity-they went in the spa at one of the leaders house. She had a BLAST! I took photos of her leaving and then recordered her on the video camera as I drove her there and then as she walked into the house. I drove home quietly thinking, wow we are at the next stage of life for her. She's amazing. I will post more about her on her actual 12th bday on Friday.
American Idol was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am still HIGH from watching the show!!! The guy who won is the person I wanted to win--Kris Allen. I LOVED that he's from a small town, married and humble!
Life has been good-I have been busy with some things-but all is well!
The girls have their first REAL swim meet this Saturday 9-1230pm. Jon is coming with-which is GREAT! He doesnt get to come to a lot of things, but since it is SO hot right now outside..he is able to come. The girls are SUPER excited about that.

Sunday Simpleness...

We had a good weekend, Rachel had TONS of fun at her 12th bday overnighter. We have a family rule of no sleepovers at anyone else's house and we rarely do them at our house, but decided for their 12th bday's they could have one here in our home with their friends. She had about 7 girls here. They were a lot of fun and were really good. They first swam in the pool, then I picked up pizza for them, then they went on their scavenger hunt & returned back with a bunch of items, one of them being a cake mix WITH frosting-SCORE! So I whipped that up and they DEVOURED that along with rootbeer floats. Then she opened up her gifts, one of them being a hot pink pillowcase where each of the girls signed it so that's a fun memory for her. Then they went on to play hide n seek in the dark, along with taking a twin size mattress and sliding down the stairs with it-classic overnighter stuff! By 1am I told them time to limit the madness to ONE room--so they giggled in the tv room and finally fell asleep. Jon & I were out just after 1am-so we slept good!!
Rachel woke up and made them all french toast-what a hostess in the making huh! They all left by 11am and Rachel cleaned up the mess they made.
We then drove to OC & I took Rachel to Claires Accessories to use up one of her gift cards. She has changed SO much, she matches now, like to use a purse, keeps her hair down instead of pulled back into a ponytail-she's really a cute girl.
We then hit the Orange Stake Talent show..it was longgggggg. Some of them were pretty funny--I recorded some good ones. Grandpa was dressed back in the 50's...he ended up looking like Jack Nicholson! Even his own grandkids didnt recognize him-pretty funny! I love going back to that Stake, we both grew up there and have such fond memories of it and everyone there. It is always like going back "home" when we go to any of their functions-it's like we never left. I kept thinking, I wish I brought my still camera so I could go around taking pics of everyone to share with all my old Orange stake friends!
Sunday was good-we shockingly made it before the Opening Prayer-which NEVER happens, and sadly church is at 1130!! Today was Rachel's last day in Primary..sniff sniff. Next week they will sing her favorite Primary song and off she will go to YW's. This Wednesday they have invited her to go in the spa for her first activity. We are extremely sad that there are ONLY SIX YOUNG WOMEN in our entire ward. We grew up with TONS of youth. We will see what happens.
Enjoyed the rest of our Sunday-we watched Freaky Friday on tv as a family. We hadnt seen that movie-so it was fun to be with just the girls & Jon.
Gearing up for another school week-along with a 4th grade school project looming, it's due next friday-I need to make sure we stay on top of that. I wish the school wouldn't give homework for the last month of school!

1st Swim Meet--too cute

Yesterday the girls had their 1st Swim Meet (it was a practice one but still!). They all had fun, it was too cute to see Becca working her hardest to get to the other side. I was incharge of getting 150 kids in proper placing for their race, it was 4-almost 8pm..HELLO long time, but I managed to do it correctly with no mistakes-WHEW!

My back is definately on the mend, Im feeling better and the muscles are not as sore as they have been. I have been taking the 800mg motrin with a muscle relaxer before I go to bed and it seems to really help, only it takes me longer to wake up in the mornings! Good thing my 3 girls that are in school are self sufficient enough to get dressed, eat breakfast and head out the door by 755am without any help!

A couple of nights ago when it was hot, Jon asked the younger two, Anna & Becca to roll up his pants so he could cool off. Becca was fascinated by Jons hair legs and kept rubbing them asking Anna to check it out. As they were both walking out the bedroom Becca said "wow Daddy has hairy legs Anna!" Then Anna replied, "Ya I know and someday when you get married and have a husband he will have hairy legs too!"
So funny....

Rachel is excited to have her birthday sleepover celebration with her friends THIS Friday. She's invited 5 or 6 I believe. Hopefully the other 3 siblings can have a fun night at grandma's house. It will be VERY low key-which I like! She just wants to go swimming, spa, pizza & the Wii-EASY!! Her real birthday is next friday-but she has a swim meet that next morning, so we opted for this weekend instead. She is definatley turning into a young lady, although she is still little in some ways, like still hates to take a shower!!! We are working on this...

Rough weekend...

Saturday I ended up messing up my back doing the food run, I still drove to OC to my sisters house to hang with my family--it was pretty miserable for me tho..came back home to see that Anna had somehow contracted pink eye!? what on earth!
SO sunday was spent as much as i could in bed, with drugs and anna with pink eye--the girls gave me their homemade cards and jon wrote a nice letter. I love that all my girls wrote in their cards "my mom loves to cuddle with me" - it makes me happy to hear that.
There were a couple interesting points..anna in her card said "Please dont brake up with dad"...um nice! And then Rachel's said "I know you are a "single" parent and it is hard but it makes you strong." Interesting to see things from their point of views.
I talked to them to reassure them I would never leave and that I love their daddy. Life would be terribly sad & lonely without him!
Hopefully tomorrow is a better day for my back & I can drive Anna down to the Dr's to get her a prescription poor thing. She's kind of had it rough with sore throat and now this---
This tuesday is a practice swim meet-hopefully everyone here is healthy enough to make it-including me!

Sad news for Rachel...

Well Rachel did not make the cheer squad for her soon to be Junior HS. She is upset and cried for a good hour. What's a parent to do...sniff sniff. It is definately a learning experience/growing experience for her. We are so proud she even tried out-that takes a lot of self confidence!
Tomorrow is my BUSY saturday mornings, I have to take care of Jon in the morning from 730am-1015am, get the younger 3 to swim meet practice by 9am, then drop rachel off for her practice by 1015am & pick up the other 3 by 1030am, then rush to go do the food run get back in time to pick up rachel by 1130am and then hand out all the food-GEESH its a nitemare every saturday-but somehow i make it happen!
Tomorrow the plan is to go to my parents to swim, clay, russell, heidi & her fam, brian & his fam will all be there, then Rachel will babysit all the grandkids while the adults go out to dinner for moms day..should be fun!
Im excited for Mom's day-jon and the girls do a fun/good job of making it so wonderful for me--they are such sweet sweet girls, im so lucky to have Jon and the four girls.
Anna told jon on sunday she was going to sit ALL thru sac meeting with her hands folded..sure enough 1 hour and 15 minutes she did! Never made ONE peep! So this evening jon walked with her to Kohls and she got to pick out a cute sunday dress and a new pink shirt-she LOVED it--she's so sweet.

Wednesday Funny's...

Becca was at my friends house whose walls are painted a plum color.
Becca: "Um how come'd you paint your walls purple?"
Tracy: "Because I like purple. Why did your mom paint your house yellow?"
Becca: "My mom didnt paint it yellow, it come'd like that!"
Tracy: "No, your mom painted it that way."
Becca: "No, she didnt."

Becca came outside to the truck after I brought him back from his Dr. appt.
Becca: "Where'd you go?"
Jon: "To the Dr.s."
Becca: "Oh, can you walk now?"
Jon: "No."
Becca: "When are you going to walk again?"

Too cute huh---I cant believe she'll be going to school here soon in a few months.
Life is going well, Rachel is grasping her cheerleading stuff-it's been fun to watch her here at home and be "judged" by her sisters and myself. Anna's comment was "Oh, wow Rachel, it was better then I expected!" Too funny.

It was super warm today-which helps Jons pain level to be at a lower spot. I spent the day cleaning up the upstairs-WHEW THREE HOURS LONG! I need my house cleaner back for sure!

The girls continue to do their swim meet practice. They have their 1st meet next tuesday-that will be fun. Hopefully it is warm and Jon can go. It is 3 hours long tho so we'll see if that is something he's capable of doing or not.

I went to a R/S activity where we talked about the symbols on the temple. It was really neat to see so many on the SLC temple. I was aware of the ones on the Redlands temple here, but not of SLC. Very intriguing!

Anna just came down suddenly with a sore throat and low fever. Hopefully she doesnt throw up during the night as we've had the flu going around the school. Time will tell!

Trying to be a little better...

at keeping a journal for our family. Life has been good. We are all healthy. Summer is ALMOST here. We have about 30 or so days left of school. We are excited to not have ANY homework once summer comes!
The girls are currently all in Swim. They are conditioning right now and then will be competing in Swim Meets-this is a first for our family so very exciting! Rachel is currently on a special volleyball team that is geared towards 8-9th graders but was asked to come play because the coach sees some potential in her abilities-OH YA!
The girls are all doing very well in school, last month they didnt miss ONE day of school-so they got to have a special party at school with their teacher and classmates.
Jon is busy trying to secure employment. No word on the book as of yet. He is waiting to see if he can get a teaching job at the local college here. We shall see! It wont start till September so we have lots of waiting time.
The food run continues to go well. I have more help on a daily basis now, I decided I just couldnt do it all myself. It works out quite nicely now-although Saturdays are my days and its very hard to try to get Jon ready for the day, all 4 girls at swim practice AND the food run all between the hours of 9-12!! But with help I miraculously make it happen!
Rachel's getting older, cant believe she'll be in YW's NEXT MONTH! She's going to have Cheer tryouts next week-we'll know by Friday if she makes the team or not. Im so proud of her for even wanting to try out- I was never that brave!! She is also doing lots of babysitting-which she loves and enjoys earning her own money.
So life is good, we just keep on rolling!

Trying to keep up!

SORRRYYY for the lack of postings-Since the beginning of Sept I've started my own company www.ScriptedLiving.com. Jon has worked my website (which he has also made it possible for people to order RIGHT off my website!) We are able to do ANYTHING that a client requests. We have been able to use their own logo's if requested or design something unique for their business. It's been a lot of fun working with people. Im VERY lucky to have Jon in my corner & use his art knowledge & computer skills! I have been CRAZY busy getting new clients & accounts. (Scripted Living is a vinyl lettering business.) I also have lined myself up with a screen printer so I can do any kind of tshirts, hats, jackets, etc. So lots and lotsss of time spent on the computer doing my thing. Its been successful so far! I hope my company continues to grow & help to lighten our burden.

In other Hales family news, Rachel was awarded "most confident" in her class. She was nominated by her classmates at school-so we got to be there for that.



This will be her LAST student of the month award as an elementary student..sniff sniff. They also announced that she was nominated to attend the Pres. Inaguration infront of the 5th/6th grade classes, teachers & parents--the kids were like WOOOOOWWWW!! It was really cool to be there to see her get the award and see the excitment of her classmates.

In the end of Sept was Sarah's 9th bday-all she wanted were "gift cards". So thats essentially what she got! Made shopping SO easy!! When I took her to spend her cards she wanted to spend them ALLLLL ON HER SISTERS!!!!!!!!!!! WHO DOES THAT??????


I had to keep telling her over and over..Sarah these are NOT for your sisters..they are for you--they have xmas coming up!! "we'll they are my cards, so i can spend them how i want!" rhghghhghg if thats my only battle with her-then she rocks. She did get things for herself after MUCH pleading from me but STILL managed to get each of the girls a few things.

she had a 2 dollar movie theatre bday party for sarah with a few friends SOOOO EASY!

The two older girls have started up volleyball and they LOVEEEE IT! They are both quite good -hopefully they have their parents athletic coordination. They go tue/thur nights for 2 hours each time. Its been GREAT for the both of them.

Lastly only a house full of girls will you walk in and see this:




Girls are soooo easy!! (Atleast right now i can say that-right!)

Glorious Week of SCHOOL!

So I have been ENJOYING the past week because school started. The house has stayed clean, quiet & just oh so lovely! My girls did their homework promptly when they got home, did their chore right after, dishwasher..all that is required of them to earn their marbles. SO NICE!
On Saturday they have their "saturday chores" & if they get them ALL done perfectly BEFORE I get back home from my food runs, I treat them to a Slurpee. So Rachel managed to get them all in gear so here they are grubing their prize.


This past Monday for Labor Day we went to Pres. Goodmans house of the OC Stake. Their son is married to Jons sister Katie. It was seriously a FAMILY reunion! In the OC Stake there are soooooo many of us that married someone else from the stake. We had the Goodmans, Hales, Williams, Christensens, one of the Fishers were there, we just were missing my family the Roberts & the Wingers-SO CRAZY!

Tuesday was Becca's first day of pre-school. She is going to Ms. Heather. She has been Sarah & Anna's teacher before. Here she is all ready to go!

Here are the girls wishing her Good Luck!

Here she is walking thru the front door WITHOUT her blanket-I think we have PROGRESSED!

This is Ms. Heather:

I mentioned my girls earning their "marbles"..this is the girl picking out their prize from the treasure box for having atleast 10 marbles..they were all SO close to have 20 marbles but came just shy (trying to show them to be better is BETTER then to be bad..you could have had TWO prizes instead of just one!)

They get one marble for making their bed in the morning, another for brushing their teeth, another for homework, another for their chore, another for the dishwasher & THREE for coming to family scripture reading time which we do by about 7pm. We are using the books "A Standard Unto My People" that the Hales wrote. The younger two just color the paragraphs that we are reading while the rest of us read from it and discuss. I love it! Its just like the old days where families would gather together by candle light after dinner to read scriptures. It really helps to set the tone for our family at night. We have been discussing Spiritual Death/Physical Death and why we need the Savior. We then have family prayer.
The girls also can LOSE marbles for fighting, yelling, being mean, not doing their chore (they get 2 taken out!) etc..it REALLLLLLYYYYYY helps on the no yelling from mom & dad!!
Jon is doing good--his body seems to be really tight. Other then that he is doing well. He is working on his 2nd book. He is heavily involved with his calling now Duty to God & Scouts. Our scout program is being revamped so there is a lot going on with that. But he LOVES working with the YM!
He's excited (or maybe not) that he's on Medicare now

which will help TREMENDOUSLY with our costs of things for him. We are grateful for a system in which our family is helped to pay for health insurance etc. We are extremely grateful for each & everyone of Jons siblings & parents that contribute to pay our mortgage so that we can stay in our home. Where would our lives be without family.

Well I just got back from the Gym

& Im ready to grub on SOMETHING!!! Why does working out make me so famished?!?!?! Probably because I just love food WAY too much--

Back to School

We've had a REALLY fun summer, beach days on tuesdays, swim days on mondays/wednesdays and fridays-carls jr from gpa on fridays--bbq's, movies lots of good times!

Here is a photo of my cuz jason playing the drums on the girls (he use to be in a band and is a REALLY fun guy-always the life of EVERY party!)


i had some of my cousins that live nearby for a bbq--so fun! i love family!!!

It has been fun getting "new" things for the girls for school (THANKS gma!)they each had their "first day of school" outfits-shopping with girls is SO FUN! so far still very modest and no skimpy sketchy stuff! WHEW!

On Sunday I put together our family schedule-no need to read just for my documentation purposes:
730 wake
800 school/mom@gym
900 Albertsons
300 homework/chore
530 make dinner
600 eat/dishwasher/pick up rooms/read scriptures as family w/Hiss Forth books
730 prepare for sleep/showers/brush teeth/jammies
800 color/read
830 lights out
900 stretching

CHORES for girls after homework:

Mon: bathrooms
Tue: stairs
We : wipe back door
Thu: clean own rooms
Fri: take out trash

Sat morning chores:
office-Becca
TV room-Anna
piano room-Rachel
dining room-Sarah
Sweep floor-Sarah
Mop floor – Rachel

FHE:
1st mom
2nd dad
3rd rachel
4th sarah
5th PLAY DAY!

We use a marble jar reward/punishment system that works GREAT for us--thanks to gma for giving FUN stuff to the treasure box!

We had a family meeting sunday night to go over all of this, it was followed up with jon giving each of the four girls a fathers blessing for school..they were so precious and placed a pillow at the foot of his wheelchair and laid their head on his knees so he could reach them with his hands..so tender & sweet. He told them he was grateful that this was something that HE could do for THEM.

The girls had a GREAT 1st day of school--



this is how becca spent the day today after an hour at the water park with a friend!


The girls were treated with homemade warm chocolate chip cookies when they got back

(its a family tradition we do with them).

After homework/chores-they went swimming:


At the dinner table we go around and everyone says what made them mad or sad or frustrated that day, then we go around and ask what made them happy that day-its a great way to hear how their day REALLY went! It was fun to hear how school REALLY went today for them--

Today I started back at the gym-SO FUN! im SHOCKED that i ate VERY POORLY (like mcdonalds for breakfast, carls jr for lunch followed by del taco for dinner- I KNOW in one day ive done that! and on SEVERAL occassions)so i thought FOR SURE i had gained 10 lbs or more--but MUCH TO MY SURPRISE i only gained 2lbs..hmmm crazy..but its good to be back at the gym doing my circuit training/protein shake drinking.
Im THRILLED that i can still fit into these bad girl jeans!

Im working on a no sugar no white flour no soda gig..im committed..tonight i had a turkey burger with mushrooms, onions, tomatoes with lettuce wrapped around it! SO GRUB!

On my food runs I do to Albertsons, I used french bread, pizza sauce, cut up tomatoes, mushrooms & peppers & we made french bread pizza- SO GRUBILICIOUS too!!