How lucky are we

2 Grandma's and 3 "Great" Grandma's
L-R: The Great Grandma Payne (Pam's Grandma), The Great Grandma Bullock (Pam's Grandma), The Great Grandma Allen (Jared's Grandma), Grandma Bullock (Pam's mom), and Grandma Allen (Jared's mom)

The Foolish Said To the Wise...

Isn't this picture beautiful?! (click for article)
Matthew 25
25:1 "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins
who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
25:2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
25:3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them,
25:4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
25:5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
25:6 And at midnight a cry was heard:
'Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!'
25:7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.
25:8 And the foolish said to the wise,
'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'
25:9 But the wise answered, saying,
'No, lest there should not be enough for us and you;
but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.'
25:10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came,
And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding;
and the door was shut.
25:11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying,
'Lord, Lord, open to us!'
25:12 But he answered and said,
'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.'
25:13 Watch therefore,
for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming

WOW!

Here it is, February already! Took my January snowmen down yesterday and replaced them with the few Valentine decorations I have.
Right now my parents are entering the MTC! Don't think it has hit me that I won't be able to call my mom up during the middle of the day when I need a question answered or just bored and want to talk! Any one's phone want to replace hers?
I am not always good at calling people. If I don't get a call from a friend for awhile, I am afraid if I am the one always doing the calling I am bothering them and don't know if I should call or not...anyone else feel this way or is it just my insecurities coming out?!
Are you glad I replaced my Christmas music now that it is February?
Watch out February always goes fast too since it is a short month.
Not too much longer until spring! Ya! I love Spring, not too cold, not too hot, the plants bloom, I LOVE my flowers
and have more great flower ideas for my gardens this year. I always have great ideas for my flower gardens, it is my budget that doesn't always agree! I am hoping to do the one in front of my house around the rocks this year first!
I love the flowers and the sunshine.
I miss having a living room to lay on the carpet with a blanket, or curl up in a chair with a blanket and a book and feel the heat from the rays come in through the window and eventually fall asleep in the warmth of the sun.
I use to always do this in my house growing up!
I don't see moving for 5 years or more, but there are a few things I wish my house had, I am not complaining, I do feel blessed for what I have, just making a statement.

Christmas Music

I know, I know, I should take the Christmas music off the blog, but I love these songs and even more, I love when my kids hear them and they sing along. The best is when they "try" and hit the high notes! So, just endure a little longer, or hit pause on my music side bar!

Not today, but since July-ish of 2008!!

~Painted boys old room and moved the girls into it. Decorations are still to come!
~ripped out the carpet, padding and scraped all the nails out of the plywood
~the floors done (thanks to our friends for help with this)






~moved the hutch out of the kitchen to downstairs, and then back upstairs to girls room for dolls and drawers for clothes (thank you for Jared's help in both moves of this!)




~finally took Anika out of the crib (that's what happens when your the youngest and never learned to crawl out!) and am able for the first time with 4 kids to use it as a toddler bed









~bought a cute quilt for Aubrey's bed










~painted closet doors cream










Master Bathroom/Bedroom
I took the ugly "bar light" down to find the lazy builders covered a big & lovely mistake hole with the light, therefore, I filled it and sanded it twice, then painted it, put up and wired this light instead.

~ I ripped out all the carpet, padding, and scraped all the nails out of the floor in preparation for the wood laminate floors to be installed, we installed the floors yes, again with help!

The New Office
~ the floor







~ the shelves from IKEA,
so of course I had to put them togther, and after they were all laying on the living room floor done, I realized I put one of the main peices on the wrong way and Jared helped me fix it and put them together again! So nice.

~Jared and I took the desk apart, and then we set it back up together
~painted closet doors cream
~painted door cream, but is not put up as I accidently brushed by it before it was hung and it fell into the hall closest door and the handle of the closet door went through it making a nice big hole! firewood anyone?!
Living Room
~I moved our Grandfather clock into the corner, thus freeing up the hallway and making the room look much more open- I love it here!









~hung a new entry light with the help of my neighbor










~and some pitures










The Kitchen

~ as I said took the hutch out, now my table can slide back further, creating more walking room, hung a new chandelier (again some help from my neighbor- these things are heavy!)









~ rearranged above my cupboards (thanks to my friend for help with this too!)





~took the curtains down, but have not yet replaced them!

The Basement
~made a second storage room for decorations and really anything that is not a food item! Moved these shelves and the fridge around a few times, that is all I will say about that!








~ I once had a crap room, I mean scrap book room where nothing happened in it, except all the extra stuff got put in it, so the scrapbook stuff was reorganized and became part of the new office. I rolled the treadmill in, took apart the weight bench and pulled it in, rolled or carried (depending how heavy thet were!) the free weights in and set up a weight room.




The toy room was also dissolved, and the toys "left" the house, or were put in bins which are stored in a somewhat organized manner in the closet of this room.
The boys took over the old toy room! (picture to come)

The family room has been made into three rooms so to speak- on the west side, a book shelf full of the kids books, a rocking chair to sit in, the kids little table to sit and color, do puzzles, or whatever.
The middle: the couch and t.v.
and the east side: now has the toys in again a some what organized manner- no pictures of this as they are not quite somewhat organized right now-later!!!
~finally got my pictures up




So there you have it, my house projects since summer! I posted in earlier posts the outside summer stuff in between all this!

So Glad It Is Done- Finally

I just got done getting all of these things on the wall:
The Master Bathroom
This shelf was downstairs in the bathroom and I moved it to my bathroom.
Hand Towel Ring







The Main Bathroom




This was already done, but thought I would post it for my own history!










The Basement Bathroom

This shelf was in my bathroom and I moved it to the basement! There is no where good for a toilet paper holder in this bathroom, but I am so tired of a whole roll falling out of kids hands and into the toilet, so I put it here! Once I hang a towel, hopefully it will look a little better.
Hand Towel Ring
And made one of the only things my 3 year old

will eat for lunch- a cheese taco!
All this plus this post and it is only 1pm! I love a productive day!

Breakfast Shake Recipe

Yum, my kids love this! It will use some of your food storage too allowing you to rotate all that good stuff. Also, a good after school, or right before sport practise snack. What's great about it, you can take it in the car if you are in a rush.
So easy and fast!!!
Put in blender: ice, some water 1 cup? maybe, then whatever you want! I usually put in an orange, frozen strawberries, peaches, a banana, I had grapes to use up so I threw those in, I had a few kiwi's I threw in once you could buy the frozen bag of mixed fruit at Costco, which is what I will do when I run out of my other stuff, a handful of spinach. Just whatever! I don't add any sugar or sweetener. Oh, I almost forgot, put 1/2 cup of oatmeal with 1 cup of water in microwave and cook for 1:33 and then add that to your mixture.
Turn blender on for about 2 minutes until all the spinach leaves, etc. are ground up and pour into glasses!!!
Just use whatever you want. Maybe start with a nongreen shake! And maybe don't let them know you put spinach in it until they drink it all and then lay it on them!!!!
For the toast I do butter it and then I do sometimes sprinkle a little bit of a cinnamon sugar mix on it.

Breakfast

I have often wondered why "sugar cereal" is for breakfast, and why we send our kids off to school with a bowl full of sugar and think it is getting their brains and bodies ready for the day. I was talking to Jared about this not long ago when Alex chirped in, "It's healthy, the box says it has vitamins in it and it lowers your cholesterol!" We just had to laugh!
So since the kids have gone back to school after Christmas break we have decided no more sugar cereal in the mornings and have made toast and a healthy drink.
Just look at the color, it has too be healthy! The best thing is my kids love it and request it! There were a few days this week I forgot to add the spinach, and yesterday they asked me to remember to add the spinach! Can you hardly believe that?! This has no yogurt or milk to add any more sugar, calories, or fat! Yum! Yum! Drink up!

Today Jared and I got to go volunteer at the Draper Temple VIP Open House. Our shift was really slow, but it was still fun. We got to go on a guided tour (when it is open to the public, it will not be guided) from our Stake President. The Temple is so Peaceful and Beautiful and I highly recommend everyone go through the Open House. Remember, you do not need to be LDS (Mormon) to go through the public open house! It is open to the public until sometime in March.

Reverant-to be or not to be?

The first week of implementing a new rule: if you are not going to be reverent during church you will have to practise when we get home. I guess no one believed me!
(I pulled the camera out and Alex tried to get out of the picture, Andrew just sat there grumpy and look Aubrey smiled for the camera!!!)
If you decide to goof around at home on the chair an extra minute will be added to the first 15 minutes. Boy did they sit quiet at home and no extra minutes had to be added! If we have to do this again, each week we will add 5 minutes to the base...see if we are back here with 20 minutes next week- I am guessing no!
Oh, how I hated it when my mom made us sit on chair when we got home if we were naughty in church!!!! Ha!
On a happier note, the oldest three are liking their new Primary class and teacher's. But, child #4 has a little issue: Funny how kid's cry because they have to go to nursrey, and then they cry because they have to leave! Well Anika loved her nursrey teachers, Brother and Sister Jensen and Sister Kilborne and was actually excited to go to Primary, until it actually came down to it. After a little fit, some coaxing and the Primary worker having to take her in the hall and talk to her she finally decided to stay. But, half way through the class, I had to take her potty and found out she had been hiding under her chair becasue she was "scared"! After that though she was fine and sat on her chair nicely!
That is her latest thing, to be "scared" of anything and everything-she even does it to Grandparents! So, I don't know what this phase is!

Surprise

A nice surprise from Jared last Friday.
Thanks for loving me.
Y.A.M.S.

I Have a Butt, NOT a Tail

Tonight Jared was carrying Anika into the store and he told her she is very squirrelly-she quickly responded back to him, "I NOT a Squirrel, I have a butt, not a tail-see!" He wasn't sure if he heard her right so he said, "what" and she went on to repeat the whole thing, "I have a Butt, not a tail!"