Highs & Lows

My friend Amber does Highs & Lows on Sundays-I always look forward to them. She's HILARIOUS too--always great posts.

Lows:
Dealing with Rachel and her choice in boys. It's SO HARD to raise girls-and we are just beginning! Jon has been working REALLY hard at staying calm and letting Rachel do most of the talking. That is key I think. Kids know right from wrong-sometimes we have to step in and remind them that the DO know right from wrong and can change behaviors. This is the third "round" of dealing with this same boy so I decided to step in and texted the kid "This is Mr. and Mrs. Hales. Please do not call, text, email, facebook or message our daughter any further. Thank you." I think as parents-we sometimes need to step in when the time is right. Rachel is WAY happier when she's not having interactions with this boy. Here's to hoping she has a better week. So far so good.
(Side note-my dad told me last night that the Stake YM's president came to our house to meet with my dad and said "There are lots of boys that would like to date your daughter but they are too afraid of you." My dad replied "Well Alan, lets just keep it that way." --good grief that explains why I didnt get asked out one ONE DATE EVER in High School! It's okay I more then made up for it in college.)

Dealing with Sarah who likes to C.O.N.S.T.A.N.T.L.Y pick on Anna. Sarah will make some remark about ANYTHING Anna is doing-then Anna comes to use crying. It's a cycle that get's old-real fast. What is it with 2nd and 3rd children!?

Man I didnt really have a lot of lows this week? I could add how Rachel didnt do ANY of her chores this week and that so bugs.

HIGHS:
This is a photo Rachel asked me to take of Jon & her.

This is what she wrote about him on her Facebook: "This is my daddy. Go ahead and laugh, I don't care. I've been told every possible thing imaginable. He is my idol, my world, my hero. He's there to listen to everything I say. He's a best friend, a father, a teacher. He's the one I look up to. This is my daddy that could never be replaced.♥" She was teased in 5th-8th grade about her daddy being in a wheelchair-it was R.E.A.L.L.Y. hard on her.
I LOVE this photo and it will definitely be one of her wedding montage video photos.

Yesterday after Stake Conference we drove to Todd's house. I had texted to see if it was okay to come-but neither of them saw their cell phones with the text. So when my girls knocked on the door their kids were yelling "NO WAY OUR COUSINS ARE HERE!" Jon and I left them there and we drove around looking at houses.

The Hales purchased a cabin in Lake Arrowhead. You can see photos at http://cabin.jonathanhales.com/ The family is SO EXCITED! It JUST closed on Friday. I picked up the keys. Our family is only 40 minutes away. We are 20 minutes from our house to the base of the mountain, then 20 minutes from base to cabin. I am also helping Sandra pick out tile, carpet, colors etc. SO FUN.

Lastly Jon & I started a Ticket business and it is doing great. You can see the website Jon built at www.stubgate.com PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD! Any concerts, shows, games etc--use our site! It's been GREAT to work side by side with Jon. We pretty much live in our office. We LOVE that we can really live anywhere-as long as we have internet access we can work. What a blessing to our family.

Goals, changes & date nights

Last Sunday afternoon Jon had PPI's with each girl. They went over their goals for 2012. Jon had them write them down and hang on fridge. I then took a photo snap of each one, printed it up at Walgreens and now they are hanging on our "to do list" wall. I love that they can see them and keeps tabs on how they are doing. At dinner Jon will ask "So how is everyone doing on their goals?!" Suddenly the girls start hugging one another, or saying a nice thing. Whatever works.
Here's Rachels:

Here's Sarah's:

Here's Anna's:

Here's Becca's:


Having our "to do list" thing on our wall-seriously FABULOUS!


Jon had to prepare a talk on Sunday-which meant on Saturday evening, I had to keep all of the girls out of the house. The older two went to a friends house (because our Stake Dances are kind of lame here) so I took the younger two on a date. MEXICAN FOOD!

This GIANT garnish was on Becca's plate-she asked "Um....am I suppose to eat this?!"

Seriously-who doesn't look at this photo and get a tinsy bit twitter paited!?


I've been doing SO GOOD with eating well thanks to this

I use it in my protein shake for breakfast, have a snack, then repeat for lunch, have a snack then enjoy a yummy dinner. Down 3lbs my first week. Whoo hoo!


Rachel has start HS Track (she's doing sprints.) She has been running sprints everyday all last week. Between early 6am seminary, training in Volleyball after HS, and then immediately into sprinting for an hour with track-she.is.beat. She said she just wore sweats to school all week and her hair in a ponytail. So when she decided to go out Friday night she got "dressed up." Now if you know my Rachel SHE IS SUCH A TOMBOY--but I love her girly side coming through!

We are excited to see how she does in Track. So far she's placing first every sprint. My older two girls ask "Why did we get stuck with Grandpa Hales' legs?!" Now they know why--they are athletes.

I dont know how you are about your Ward Church Xmas parties-but I could TOTALLY enjoy staying home and skipping the whole thing. I'm thinking next year-Im good with each family bringing a plate of cookies, we serve hot cocoa and then we go home. Over and done in 60 minutes! My sister Heidi is all.about.christmas. The over the top kind of people. I like that I can enjoy (and slightly make fun of) from afar. She did her ward Xmas party and texted me a photo.

I mean seriously-for reals?! She built that thing-did everything-even had a play with Jacob in it. I am SO THANKFUL for people like Heidi-so I can sit back and well-do nothing.

Anna's funny ways

Anna cracks us up. This is how she LITERALLY eats dinner every night.

What in the world?! We teach the girls-how they behave at dinner is how they will behave on dates ie "Are you going to chew with your mouth open on your dates? Are you going to burp on your dates? Are you going to SIT on your date?!" Weird huh?

This is what she wore to school today.

Cutesy?!

I LOVE this board that I made.

The girls walk in and can see what the plan is for the day. It makes our life simple having structure like this. Kids REALLY do well when they know what is going on.

This year I started having each girl pick a dinner dish job.

You can A)rinse, B)unload, C)load or D)sweep & change table cloth. THIS HAS BEEN FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!!! Whoever had to pick last-gets to pick first the next night. No one complains & it helps keep order in my home.

Science Projects & Girls Goals 2012

The younger two girls got handed science projects 2 weeks before the Holiday Break--seriously-what kind of teacher does that?! And it was due pretty much 4 days after Break was over. We did SUPER EASY projects.

Anna did a thing where she mixed 10 tablespoons of cornstarch into a 1/2 cup of water one tablespoon at a time then kept mixing it.

Eventually it turned into puddy. When you let it "slide out" of the cup-it flows easily-if you try to "force" it out with a spoon it breaks and cracks.

Becca did "which flavor of gum lasts the longest?"

In the end each one really only lasted 15 minutes.

Each Fast Sunday Jon takes each girl one at a time and has a PPI with them. Last night he had them write one church, family & school goal. They then hung them on the fridge.

I think I will frame them somehow and hang on our wall. I created a wall that has everything Hales.

Are you impressed that I MADE THIS all by myself-super easy, GIGANTIC and SO HELPFUL!

Made this too--it's so nice they can walk in from school and just do whatever I write on the board. I usually write Homework 330, snack, chore for each girl. Here I just listed things on there so I wouldn't forget about them later. I think I will put their framed goals here so they can see it all the time.

Thought I'd throw this HUGE HALES family photo in--

this is when we all went up to Chad's house for thanksgiving. Todd/Jon stayed back because it was cold and to watch sleeping babies.

I also LOVE this truck photo----

we have a photo of each of the older 3 boys with their Mercedes when they all first got married-now they have all had kids so they all have black denali's--such a crack up!

Good Times!

The weather in so cal has been AWESOME--total beach weather--which of course we took total advantage of. My girls are beach freaks-

and cold water does not affect them.
It is really strange to be having 80 degree weather during the day and 40 degree weather at night. It's AWESOME that we can go to Newport beach one day and then off to Lake Arrowhead the next day!

This is a gift Anna picked out with her $30 from my parents for Christmas.

Seriously-how do my children know about such things like this?! It's HUGE.

It makes me laugh how Sarah can keep her room super organized and spotless and Rachel is the complete opposite. Jon tells me it is because she is an artist. Here are all her clothes I cleaned-I just tossed them back onto her floor-

where they sit. I have learned you "pick the hill you want to die for." PLEASE refrain from any judgmental comments about how I need to make her clean this up-I got enough of them from Facebook friends (why do women feel the need to do that?!) and quite frankly I am doing the best I can with a paralyzed husband, four children, a house to take care of, money to provide etc etc. Geez I'm sensitive huh! HA

Today while dropping the younger two off at school they were looking at our drivers licenses.

Here is their conversation:
Anna "wow-dad looks weird!"
Becca "that's because he was standing up then and not in a wheelchair."
Anna "no it's cuz he looks like uncle Todd!"
Becca "Mom looks like a maniac."
Anna "you mean a mannequin."

For the record--i was waiting for the lady to say 1, 2, 3--all she said was "next"---for.the.love now i have a mugshot of myself!

I saw this photo and feel like this needs to be shared with all teenagers--

and well some adults too!

What just happened!?

Another year has past. I feel like these past 5 years have been a total blur. Here's to remembering the next 5!


Everyone is healthy & happy. I will be working from home now (YEAH) side by side with Jon. We are both VERY productive, organized, optimistic & excited for 2012. One of my goals is to better document our family life--the good, the bad and even the ugly!

Realization....

that I just don't have time to blog--and I am really okay with that!

Work from 9am-4pm Monday thru Friday-thankfully my commute is only 5 minutes away!
Freshmen on the volleyball HS team.
7th grader on softball team.
4th grader taking piano lessons (and wanting to take karate)
2nd grader---well she just gets to be cute at this point!

Add in taking care of Jon, thinking of dinners, shopping for dinners, making dinners, running kids here, there and everywhere, seminary, school drop offs, pick ups, attending practices, games, tournaments, church callings, helping Jon with his High Priest church calling (did you know I am his home teaching COMPANION!?-does this get me out of visiting teaching--cuz that would be super helpful), my work with Nuriche (although helping family/friends lose weight is SOOO FUN to watch-I truly do love it!), family home evening, family scripture study, family prayers, paying the bills, keeping the house clean, staying on top of girls homework and school projects, helping girls pass of faith in God and Personal Progress goals (no drivers license until they are DONE with Personal Progress -rachel is half way done.), keeping up with my pool, breaking up fights (usually between Sarah and Anna, or Sarah & Becca, or Sarah & Rachel--you get the picture), figuring out what to do with my washer that decided to billow out smoke, figuring out how to fix the girls potty that keeps running, replacing burnt out lights (i swear i replace 8 lights and 15 more burn out in this house!!), managing everything financially for our family, and lastly putting on a smile, positive attitude and sense of humor to make it through each day!

So...yeah...no time to blog---and I'm done feeling guilty about it.

PS: Oh great--I just saw our family photo on the top of my blog--which is like 3 years OLD---lovely--add to my list "find photographer for updated family photo"!

Highs & Lows:

Lows:

Jons grandma that lived in Corona Del Mar on the beach passed away. It's Sandra's mom. All the family flew in and we attended her funeral, followed by the grave site service. We saw the program and Jon saw his name as grave site dedication/prayer-he's never done that before. It was a good experience for him. After the ward put on a lunch for the family and were so nice to all of us. After the service all of sandra's kids and grandkids headed to the beach just for an hour. Grandma would have wanted it that way!

At the end of our WEEK LONG beach vacation with all of Jons family-all four girls barfed. I cant complain much though. They are all old enough to hit the toilet, stayed in the rooms & kept to themselves. I hardly saw them much! It was kind of nice to be alone after a long weekend of craziness. I got ALL the laundry done, totally unpacked, rented a TON of chick flicks and ate gobs of candy--all by myself-glorious. I guess part of this could have gone in the HIGHS section.

BOREDOM seems to be the theme at our house over here. We havent had cable in 1.5 years. I dont get why the older girls dont call a friend to come over?! When I was in summer I was always AT someone's house or HAD someone over. What is it with teens these days?! It honestly drives me crazy.

HIGHS:

A WEEK LONG beach vacation with Jons entire family!


SERIOUSLY SO FUN--he REALLY has SUCH great siblings-each and everyone are so genuine and so great. I really am so very lucky to be part of the Hales family. It's still strange to me after 15 years that I am ACTUALLY a HALES!


Chad/Kelly bought these longboard chips & salsa for each of us-GRUBTASTIC!

Girls learned how to surf from Uncle Chad and Uncle Todd. How nice are they to teach my girls! They got up on the boards too--so so so very fun. They even managed to get Jon out there-


Im not sure why Jon looks so trashed in this photo-I do know it was a hard day for him that day--poor guy-only one hard day out of the whole week though so that's good!
me & my girls were kind of a mess watching Jons brothers all take him out there and put him on a board-but Jon loved it (mostly because he was with all 4 of his brothers & 2 sisters in the water) and he enjoyed being a little crazy/reckless.


Todd/Taylor made this HUGE screen set up--so cool to watch it indoors!


watching cash cab with most of the kids-we made a great team and they thought I was kinda smart cuz I got some answers right!

Rachel made the HS volleyball team--and the ONLY girl that was NOT on a club team prior (to the tune of 300 bucks a month-sigh). We are so proud she made it and she has a LOT of work to do to catch up to all these girls-but this will be a great experience for her. Im definitely READY for her to be REALLY busy during the school year and super tired when she gets home!!!

Highs & Lows

LOWS:
Last Sunday I was SO DONE with my messy house. I am CRAZY busy with Nuriche and ALL four of my L.A.Z.Y. children are home full time. Instead of yelling at them-I put all my frustration into their "chore list."--Each girl had a list of things to get done. IT WAS MAJOR. I also wrote "I will be gone for a LONG TIME so do NOT call me until this house is CLEANED UP and DONE WELL!" Then I went grocery shopping and got a ton of errands done in peace while my free child labor was getting stuff done.
It worked like a charm and the house was FABULOUS. This will be repeated EVERY Monday morning. They clean, I shop for groceries and get errands done (or maybe just go see a movie...SHHHH!)

My dumb pool is giving me issues. Why must it taunt me so?! I THINK I finally have it taken care of--but good grief--I'm getting tired of spending cash on it!

My two older girls fighting over who wears who's jeans, who sits in what seat of my truck etc etc etc--when does school start again?!?!?

HIGHS:

GRADUATION GALORE! Rachels graduation:

Apparently her 8th grade class was the TOP class in all of Riverside county-so they got to have their graduation at the HS-kind of a big deal.

Her drawing also made the cover of the graduation programs:


The Hales still have the STANG they all drove in HS--Rachel has her eye on it BIG TIME!

We have a friend who is ready to restore it back to good shape. Grandma said if Rachel earns money for it-she can have it-so start saving those pennies!

She made it on the HS Volleyball team. Out of ALL the girls that made it-Rachel was the ONLY ONE who WASNT currently playing on a club team (to the tune of 300 a MONTH!) that made the HS team. I swear-why must everything be SO competitive-and why do parents think their children will all be sports super stars?! WHATEVAS.

Sarahs graduation:


Having fun in Las Vegas with my Nuriche company. Giving our 40 minute presentation on stage. It was NOT what I was expecting-HUGE stage, HUGE lights, HUGE screens-I was mic'd LOUD music--it was like a concert-way way WAY FUN!

This is David Parker giving his presentation.

I was able to receive my Gold pin for my efforts in the company so far-WAY FUN!


Getting Rachel ready to send off to BYU EFY. Her & her cousin Kaylee will be going together--SO EXCITED for them! Jons cousin Kim is married to John Bytheway-so they will be staying with them over night then they will help take the girls get checked into EFY.

Lastly-it's Sunday night which means tomorrow my house will be looking FABULOUS!

Girls Weekend, New Garden, Teenagers...

Last weekend was my annual Girls Weekend--i LOVE it! Sadly we only took like FOUR photos the entire time!?

Probably because we were too busy sleeping, eating or shopping-just as it should be I say! I LOADED UP at Nordstroms Rack--I've been wearing the SAME black skirt with different shirts for two years now-it was time to find something else. I got LOTS of pencil skirts ($16.97) & LOTS of cardigans ($14.57) & LOTS of cute ruffly tanks ($12.95) to go under the cardigans & a pair of SUPER expensive jeans that were cheap and WAY cute summer denim shorts.

While on Girls Weekend-Jons mom Sandra came to stay with him & the four girls. Each year I go, she comes & plants my garden for me. The girls worked to clear it all out-and then mainly Anna/Becca helped her plant the new crop. The girls (Sarah/Anna) have been watering the garden & watching it-so cute.

Over the weekend I invited some of the youth Rachel's age to play in the pool & have pizookies-surprisingly they all ended up playing the Wii's Just Dance 2-


it was like a stake dance in our livingroom--so fun.

This week is our LAST week of school--We have Sarah's 6th grade promotion on Thursday at 9am, then Rachel's 8th grade graduation on Friday at 9am. They already had the awards for Rachel's grade--she ended up getting the Bronze Award for Honors both years, Excellence in Mathematics & the Presidents Award for Outstanding Academics. Seriously-this girl is going places! It will be fun to see what awards the other girls get this week. I REALLY do NOT know how we got such smart girls--every single one of them get amazing grades and are all in the Gate Program. With the huge trial we already have going on-it TRULY is a blessing to me that my girls can get their homework done & somehow manage to get good grades. Now if I could just get them to keep their rooms cleaned..........

Doing my THANG!

I have been BUSY!!!! I'm loving life & I'm really really REALLY happy--thank you for your continued support for our family-I have awesome friends!

This is a fun video I put together--click on the link below:
Talk Fusion Studio UTC

Gardens, Babies, Easter-oh my!

Every year I go away for MUCH NEEDED girls weekend. These are the group girls that rallied around me like no other girls and were there for me day & night when Jon broke his neck. The things they did for my family (and Im sure MUCH MORE I dont even know about) just brings me to instant tears. I am soooooooooo lucky to have friends that care and love me.

While I am gone on this Girls Weekend trip-Sandra comes to stay with Jon & the girls. While she is here the girls along with her help like to plant a garden. So before she does her green thumb thing I had the girls weed out last years garden.

No men on the corner were hired for this job--100% free child labor!



Not bad huh - This makes one HAPPY MOM & DAD!


I've been wanting to SHED those "last 20 lbs" after having my four girls. I realized I didnt have a "before" photo of me-but found this one. I've COMPLETELY changed the way I eat, the way I eat out, the way I work out-I've never been healthier and happier! I'm vigorously pushing Nuriche along to help as many people as I can-it's so fun! I cant WAIT to post the photo of my friend who's lost over 80 lbs with Nuriche & exercise next.



This is my friend Erin. She has struggled to have a baby of her own. Breaks my heart. If Jon didnt break his neck-I would be a surrogate for her in a HEART BEAT! I am sad that I can't do that for her. Oh how I WISH that I could! Being adopted myself I was one of her first calls to learn more information. I will FOREVER be grateful to parents that wanted children so bad-they flew CLEAR to Brazil for a little brown eyed, brown haired 2 year old.

Easter was good-Sat we hit Irvine park with Scott & Kellie's side of the family. Then Sunday we ate with Jons family (small-just us, Mom & Dad, Scott & Kellie).
Earlier in the week-the girls saw that I had just purchased 99 cent cheapo plastic eggs and candy-they asked if they could all put candy in the eggs. SURE WHY NOT! (Is that like having them wrap their own xmas presents?! -cool I didnt think so either!)Then Easter Eve Rachel & Sarah hid all the eggs. Rachel asked me "Mom are you going to do clues for our baskets like you always do?" I being kind of tired from the long day said "Well I hadnt planned on it" Rachel sighed a small "ahhhh" I asked her "Oh do you like that?" Her eyes got REAL big--"Yeah I love it!" So I managed to come up with 5 clues for each of them. The older two girls I made harder clues. The LAST clue for their basket was "When you want to look hip -you come here!" They couldn't figure it out--DUH it's MY CLOSET since they BOTH wear ALL MY CLOTHES!!!

Today I took the older two girls to find cute dresses for their 6th & 8th grade graduations-DUDE WHY DIDNT I HAVE BOYS?! I can just give them a tie and be done with it all. We searched EVERYWHERE for a DECENT MODEST dress. I SWEAR everything is strapless and no joke just under the butt.

Drives me batty. It's sad to think pretty much all the girls will be sporting these trendy looks on the graduation runway--except for mine. Oh well. So if anyone knows where I can get two decent dresses that dont look like they are 12 sizes too small LET ME KNOW!!!!

I cant even be clever with my title!

I am too busy too even think of a clever title. Oh well!

Our cruise was FABUUUUUUUUUULOUS! You found yourself sitting on each island that looked like a postcard and taking a few minutes to take it all in. It was truly beautiful!

Grenada-My FAVORITE Island



Nuriche Team Members



Laziest Day---sooooooooo nice! I even went in the water. I DO NOT LIKE snorkeling or being around fishes--creeps me out.

Formal Dinner Photo--I was lazy and just wore a church outfit-nothing fancy. Can you tell the theme of my trip--LAZY!

Some Plantation--see even Jon got out and about!

BIG thanks to our friends that stayed with our girls so we could go. BIGGER thanks to Sandra who took all four girls to Yosemite for their school competition thingy. Sadly they didnt win (yeah for us cuz that means not having to travel the family to Tenessee in May for four days!). Fun experience for them though.

I cant believe school is over June 2nd here. I will have Sarah graduating from 6th, and Rachel graduating from 8th. CRAZY!

Life is good--just really, really, REALLY busy right now for the next few months. I am working Nuriche full time, Jon is working full time doing websites & a project for his dad all while helping me with Nuriche too.

Ive been without my laptop for a MONTH-my Dad fixed it for me-I finally feel whole and complete. I have SO MANY fun shows to catch up on now, greys anatomy, Modern Family, Parenthood, Bethany, and all the Housewives-HA