Cheering Section

Alex had a basketball game at noon. We all went and Brandon was supposed to meet us there. He called a few times for directions and it is pretty easy to find so I was surprised when he wasn't there and the game was almost over.


I guess we didn't communicate very well but he found it eventually and we are so glad that he came. Alex had the biggest cheering section and played really well.
After the game we all went to Bajio for lunch. Rich is doing an open house all day so we took him some lunch when we were finished eating. He is trying to sell our friend's house and so he did his first open house and had a few people come by and look at it!!

Big TroubleMakers

We went to the Mall and Target after lunch and I bought Max some Batman markers from the dollar spot. We came home and had dinner and I was making cookies and we were all just hanging out in the kitchen. Max was coloring pictures on paper for a while and then went to find Owen to play with him. Alexa heard a strange noise in the living room a while later and realized that the boys had been coloring all over the couch. Owen had the blue marker and Max had the green one.
We have microfiber couches and I have gotten fingernail polish out of them so I wasn't too worried about it. Amy was really upset with Owen and she made him help her clean up the couch. I tried to be as mad at Max but I couldn't. I guess since it was my couch etc. and if Max would have done that at someones elses house I would have been a lot more upset.

We all rushed to get wash cloths to get it cleaned off and then I thought "would this be an appropriate time to take pictures for the blog?" Melissa said it was so I went and got my camera. Owen felt bad and got in trouble. Max didn't really care too much but I told him that he would get in big trouble if it ever happened again.

 

It came off pretty well and no permanent damage was done. I tried to make Amy feel better and Rich didn't even get that mad (I was kind of surprised). We should have been paying better attention to what they were doing. Sunday morning we discovered that they had polka-dotted the walls as well. It washed right off too thankfully. No more markers for Max!!!

Party and Friday Fun!!

The reason Melissa and Steve are here is because Alexa wanted to have a Lia Sophia party. Melissa sells it and I guess they had it all figured out. She invited her friends and I invited mine too. It was an Open House from 7 to 8:30pm. Alexa also made some cute new flower clips so she wanted to sell those too.
We had a pretty good turnout of people but they all just bought flower clips and NO jewelry. I felt really bad that she came all this way to do a party and didn't even sell anything (well we had 2 people order but they had gift certificates so it didn't count). I guess it was a good way to get her down here for the weekend though at least. Alexa ended up making some pretty good money on her flowers so she ended up just buying some jewelry from Melissa.
Friday morning I went to work and Rich went to help his Grandpa and Grandma's house (he has been doing that for a few weeks. He goes over there in the morning and helps get breakfast or helps his grandpa shave or whatever they need), then he went to the temple to see if he should accept a job offer that would require a lot of time away from his family and also working several Sunday's.
I had Max at work with me and Melissa and Steve met Amy and Owen at IKEA. After they were done shopping me and Max and Brandon met them at Zuppa's in Provo for a late lunch. If you haven't been there, go, it was so yummy and not too expensive either. We had a great time and sat there talking for hours. I mean we were there for like 2 1/2 hours I think. We said good-bye to Brandon and then headed back to my house. We sat around talking some more and Rich made us toast with the delicious bread Jennifer made us. We also had a "good laugh" looking at all my old pictures and playing Nertz (a card game that I love)!!
We watched "The Rocker" well at least I did. Amy had to take Owen on a drive so he would fall asleep and by the time she got back everyone was asleep but me so we watched the end together, it was a pretty dumb movie. I love it when we have company and I am so glad we have places for them to sleep!!!

Church Ball

Alexa has church basketball games every Thursday and she LOVES going. She really doesn't, I force her to and I also made her play volleyball. We have such a bad ward turn-out that we have to combine with another ward. This was the first time that I have seen her play and it was pretty entertaining.

 

Melissa and Steve are here so they came to watch her too. You can tell that most of the girls don't really know what they are doing and don't really want to be there. Alexa spent most of the game on the floor for some reason, but it looked like she was having fun!!!

Kitchen Make-Over

A week or so ago Rich started sanding the cabinets so we could stain them. We have been talking about doing it for several months but just haven't done it, Jennifer gave us a can of stain a long time ago so it was supposed to be a really cheap kitchen make-over. His sister has a friend that did it and they said it was really easy and just took an afternoon to do. Well he started sanding one evening and then put on a "test coat" of the stain to see what it would look like and it just rubbed right off. He decided that he needed to sand them more but wasn't very excited about it because it is a pain in the butt and he was making a HUGE mess all over everything in the kitchen.
Here is what the cabinets looked like before and lightly sanded. They are pine and really light and they look like really cheap cabinets. We have talked about doing something to them since we moved in 3 1/2 yrs ago.

Well we figured that we needed to remove the lacquer from the finish so the stain would take. He went and bought lacquer thinner and set to work again. This time he had to work really hard to get the lacquer off and thought there is no way I am doing this to all of these cupboards. He was frustrated and I was not happy with him for starting the project in the first place. I told him to talk to his sister and have her find out exactly what these people did that was "so easy."
He went over to the lady's house and she gave him all the instructions. After another trip to Home Depot armed with all the right stuff he set off once again to get our kitchen back in working order. What was supposed to be a "free" upgrade ended up costing about $75 but it was WELL WORTH IT!!

 

He finished lightly sanding all the cabinets and the island. He then rubbed "spirits" on all the surfaces that were to be stained. Next he applied a "gel stain" that is where we went wrong the first time. To finish it off you apply several coats of lacquer. It took him 2 days to sand and stain and then he got the first coat of lacquer on. We didn't eat dinner at our house for 2 days because we had such a big mess but he did such a great job and I love how they look!!!

The pictures look OK but to really see how great it looks you need to come by. It was a fairly easy project once we got all the information and the right stuff. He worked really hard on this project and it turned out better than either one of us imagined. If you need a quick make-over for your kitchen give it a try or better yet, hire Rich to do it...he is out of work you know!!!

New Beginnings

We had New Beginnings tonight at the church. I am a Beehive advisor so I had to help get everything set up and ready. We decided to do a dinner this year and had pasta, salad, rolls and dessert. All the food was really yummy. We are trying to focus on Personal Progress this year. We thought that the girls needed a little motivation.

 

The Young Women's President found these cute charm bracelets and we all thought it would be a great way to motivate the girls. They each got a bracelet tonight with a torch charm and if they had any values passed off then they got the charm for each value they had done. Alexa has her individual worth value all done and she is getting close to finishing a couple other ones. Each time they complete a value they will get the charm for that value and once they are all done they will have a complete charm bracelet with all 8 value charms and also get their Young Womanhood recognition necklace.
It was a really fun night and I think the girls are excited about getting more charms for their braclets. We also announced that we will be going to Bear Lake for girls camp this year and I am SO excited!!

Max's Haircut

I came home from work a few days ago and when I saw Max I wanted to start crying...Rich had got him ready for the day and for some unknown reason decided to cut his bangs. When I say bangs that is literally all he cut. His hair was getting pretty long and it was for sure time for a trim but he chopped them...really short.
I asked him what the heck he was thinking and he said "it doesn't look that bad." I was so mad. The next day Rich's mom cut the rest of his hair to try and even it up better but the bangs were still just too short. Alex needed a haircut so I gave him one and then decided to just be brave and cut Max's too. I had to do it really short so that it wouldn't be so obvious that his bangs had been chopped off.


I really wanted to cry after I finished with the hair cut and saw this child I did not even recognize staring back at me in the mirror. He was really excited about his new look and couldn't wait to show everyone. When Rich saw him he was mad at me and had the nerve to ask me why I cut it "so short" I wanted to punch him...duh, it was your fault, remember?
Well it took some time for me to get used to it but I think he looks really cute and he can even have a little mohawk now. I am anxious for it to grow back though.

25 Random things about Rich...

1. I hate doing these kinds of things, but Angela insisted because she wants to get to know me better
2. I love Politics
3. I am a commited conservative Republican
4. I would love to run for political office someday
5. I like to flip back and forth between a basketball game, and Fox News
6. I love to run
7. I look forward to summer time so I can run in as many races as possible
8. I like having my real estate license, and showing houses to people even if I don't end up selling them a house.
9. I always look forward to weekends so Angela and I can go on a date
10. I think we have really good kids even though I get mad at them sometimes
11. I wish I had the money to take the whole family to Disneyland 2-3 times each year
12. The Tidlewave ride at Lagoon makes me sick
13. I like to sit and ponder upon life
14. I enjoy sitting on the toilet reading
15. I love when Angela tickles my back with her fake finger nails
16. I have a great wife named Angela
17. I sometimes don't have much patience
18. I wish I lived in a place that was warm all year round
19. Affection is not always easy for me to show
20. My favorite movie is "A Few Good Men"
21. My favorite holiday is Christmas
22. My favorite time of year is Summer
23. I want to go to Hawaii on vacation
24. I have a great family
25. Lastly, I have great in laws as well

25 Random things about me...

1. i do not stress too much about things that are out of my control
2. i am probably too laid back
3. i work with old, cranky people everyday (they aren't all cranky)
4. i love my kids more than i thought possible
5. i have a loud, obnoxious laugh
6. i ran a marathon last fall and it was the hardest thing i have ever done,
but i do want to try it again sometime
7. rich is such a great husband, i got so lucky
8. i love the snow
9. reading is a great escape for me, i love it!
10. i want another baby
11. i think three kids is all i am going to get
12. i wish i knew more about my dad's family (my mom's too actually)
13. i miss my grandpa hansen
14. i have 10 pounds that HAVE to go
15. i am so anxious to see what my kids grow up to be
16. my house isn't huge or beautiful but i LOVE it
17. i am nervous that rich isn't going to ever find a job
18. i love music
19. i love it when you catch up with old friends and it's like you never lost touch
20. i try to be positive and happy
21. i can't wait to come face-to-face with a great white shark
22. i don't feel like i will live to be very old
23. i miss my family in logan every day!!
24. i wish i was better at serving people and being a better friend
25. i am ready for a vacation!

Utah Flash Game

Late last night my Mom, Dad, Amy, Jason and Amberly came to our house. They are heading to Las Vegas for the Donny and Marie Osmund concert and they are leaving Amberly with us for the weekend. She came to work with me and we went to lunch and ran some errands.
Whenever Amberly is at my house I always like to try and do something fun with her. We decided to check out a Utah Flash game. We have never been but we like watching basketball games so we went to Arby's for dinner and headed to Orem. Alexa was hanging out with friends so it was me, Amb, Rich, Max, Alex and his friend Carson.

 

There weren't a ton of people there so we had great seats. It was a really fast paced, energetic game, I was pretty impressed. They would throw out t-shirts during time-outs etc. and that is when I started to get worried that Amberly might start complaining. She loves free t-shirts even more than me (bet you didn't think that was possible). She feels like if she goes to an event she needs to leave with something, and so the pestering began. "Ang, can we go look and see how much the hats cost?" "Ang, do you think they are going to throw a shirt over here?" Ang, at halftime can we go check out the store?" And so on and so on. I had to go to the bathroom and she decided to come with me. I noticed that the guy throwing out the shirts was just standing behind the hoop and that if she went down to court she could just ask him for one. I sent her down, there were a few cheerleaders there and I figured they would take pity on the cute "special needs" girl. They did, and it was Casey from the Channel 2 morning show that gave her the shirt...too bad I didn't take my camera to the bathroom. She asked me if we could go back to get a picture with him but we never did. She put her new shirt on immediately (you can see in the picture), and was happy the rest of the game.

The Flash won and the Fox was silly stringing everyone. Alex went over to him and got nailed. He got me too, Max wanted to give him "five" but instead he just grabbed him and threw him on his shoulder. It was a fun night topped off with a trip to Krispy Kreme for a hot, fresh glazed donut!!!

The Spiders

Today was Alex's first basketball game (well not the first, he missed last week's game). He didn't want to play but I made him. He is catching on pretty well. He has played "little hoopsters" the past few years but now they actually play a game. He is learning and getting better and better. He made a basket and everything.

 

We all went and watched his game. They wear a colored wrist band so they know who they are guarding. His team is really good. I know one day he will be glad that I "made" him play basketball and other sports. It is good for kids to get out there and learn to play and be good sports etc.

The Auto Show

We headed up to Sandy after Alex's game to check out the auto show. We have never been before and Rich loves cars and really wanted to go. I was pleasantly surprised...it wasn't as boring as I thought it would be. We even got T-shirts from Ford so that made it for me.
They let you get inside the cars and check them out...well not all the cars, you couldn't even touch the Bentley's they had them all roped off and I think the Porsche's were all locked but other than that we were able to climb in and imagine living the good life in a Hummer or an Acura (Rich is dying for one) or a Lexus (I have wanted one since I was 16).

 

The boys had a blast locking themselves in the trunks of all the cars. Alexa really didn't enjoy herself that much but she was a pretty good sport. Max liked being able to climb in and out of all the cars but he liked the "big trucks" the best!!

We were there for a few hours and Rich said next time he would rather go without the kids so he could pay more attention to the cars and not have to worry about chasing kids around but they were all pretty good!!!

Draper Temple

We ate dinner at Fazzoli's, I love their bread sticks and the one in Provo closed so we thought that would be a good place to eat. I think all the kids liked it. We headed up to the Stake Center to get ready to go to the Draper Temple. We were supposed to be there at 7:20pm. We got there on time but it was a mad house...the line was outside the door. We had to wait 30 or more minutes just to get in the line to go in and watch the 12 minute movie about temples. We saw alot of people from the ward there. The kids were getting really anxious and it was hard for them to just stand there in the hall waiting. Finally we got into the room and watched the movie. It was a good way to start the event, it really set the tone and helped bring the spirit. After that we were moved into the cultural hall where we waited another good 30 minutes or so to load a bus. Max loved the bus ride. I didn't want to haul around my purse so I don't have any pictures. The bus ride up there was fun and it was a great view. The houses surrounding the Temple are beautiful.
Finally we were there...

 

and yes MORE WAITING. There were all these big white tents set up that led you into the temple. The lines were long again and we stood and moved slowly and wondered when we were ever going to get inside. Harrison and Alexa had a hilarious moment that I won't share cause it would embarrass Harrison but it was a good one!!!
So after who knows how long, we finally made it to the doors and there was a sign that said "please be reverent inside the temple" I thought to myself "Max, please be good." You have to remember that we started this adventure at 7pm and didn't even get inside the temple until after 9pm so he had been really good considering that. Once inside the temple it was still just a big long line of people walking really slowly, looking around and that is HARD for a 2 yr old. He wanted to walk after a while and I knew that was a bad idea but I didn't want to make him mad either. He was climbing under the ropes that were keeping people on the right track and so I had to grab him and he tried to get away and ended up falling. He started screaming, yes having a fit in the middle of the silence of the temple...I didn't know what to do. A lady pointed out a bathroom that was right there so I went in and set him on the floor to calm down. I was so embarrassed and felt bad about ruining every ones experience. He sat there and just kept crying and then I looked and saw blood on his fingers. Then I looked down at my shirt and there was blood all over my shirt. I guess when he fell he bit his tongue or something and was bleeding. I felt bad that I got so mad at him for having a fit when he was just crying because he got hurt. I washed out his mouth and wiped his face and then he was OK and we went back out and finished our tour. He was really good after that and loved looking at all the pictures and he loved the big light in the celestial room. I really loved the murals in the ordinance rooms. They were amazing and it made you feel like you were there. Beautiful.
Well we got our cookies and waited for the bus to take us back to our car. What a long night. We got home at 11:30pm and dropped Harrison and Parker off at home. I am really glad we had the opportunity to go through the Temple and especially to take the kids and let them see how beautiful it is inside.

5 kids this week

I just wanted to give a quick update on our week with 5 kids. Rich is so great and he was running around a ton this week getting Parker and Harrison to school and picking them up and going to scouts with all the boys and then taking Harrison and Parker to their scouts too so they wouldn't miss the Pine Wood Derby. He is such a great dad and he is so helpful and I just wanted to make sure and tell him how much I love him and how thankful I am for him and all he does for me!!

We had a good week and the kids all got along pretty well for the most part. I found that Alex and Parker's personalities clash a little bit and Alex has acquired this need to put in his 2 cents every time someone has something to say (especially Parker) but it is really a bad habit and is getting out of control so I am working with him to fix that.

We did have a little trouble with the air mattress that the boys slept on while they were here. We told them not to jump on it etc. and Rich even put it away in the storage room during the day so that is wouldn't get a hole in it. Well the temptation was too great and all the boys were downstairs playing football and they got out the air mattress and needless to say it got a hole in it. They came upstairs and we knew something was up...one of them finally told us what happened and then they were feeling bad and said they would buy us a new one. It was cute and it made it hard to be mad at them. I remember being that age and sometimes you just can't resist certain things that you have been told not to do. When we were little my sisters and I would get out sleeping bags and slide down the stairs and we were told so many times not to do it by our parents but we still did it when they weren't home!!!

Friday there was no school but I still had to work so Rich had the kids all day (except Alexa who was with Paige). We met at McDonald's for lunch and then he took them to the movie "Hotel for Dogs." They all liked the movie. Alexa had a "Rock Band" party at our house with her friends and we got pizza and they hung out til 11pm. Alex and Parker had a great time following them around and bugging them, Alexa wasn't too happy about that. Harrison just kind of did his own thing and watched "Eagle Eye." Rich was happy when everyone left. We hung out in the kitchen and watched TV.

Kenzie's Birthday

Today is McKenzie's 12th birthday. We all went up for her party. The Clark's really know how to party and this was a great one!! We had the most delicious ham and soup and salads etc. We sat around talking and catching up. We are watching Harrison and Parker for a week and a half while Steph and Jeff are on a cruise so they came with us. Jake and Parker had a great time playing together.

 

Kenzie got a lot of wonderful gifts and she is going to YW now. It is sad how fast kids grow up!! After the party we headed to my parents house to sleep. My dad LOVES watching movies with the grand kids so we watched "Wild America" it's an old one but so good!! We stayed up really late and in the morning at 8am my dad and the boys went back to Wellsville to watch Jake's basketball game!!
We went to Wendy's for lunch and played cards all day, Melissa got this new card game for Christmas called "Nertz" and it is really fun!!
We had dinner and then headed for home (I have to teach YW lesson). We had a great time but it was way too short!!

Book Club @ BORDERS

We had our January Book Club at Borders last night. There were several people that weren't able to make it tonight but we managed to have a great time, especially searching through the "bargain" books. Adorable "pop-up" books for $5, you just can't beat that!! We roamed around looking for new books to purchase but mostly just chatted.
We sat down at the cafe with our steamed milk or hot chocolate and yummy desserts and had a very wonderful conversation.

 

We had some really inquisitive and thought provoking questions asked by Julie and we heard some "juicy gossip" from Liz (of all people). We had several hilarious stories told by various people, and did a LOT of laughing.
We also shared different parenting tips and I was grateful for Julie's idea about what to do with fighting kids. She said that when her kids were fighting she would make them sit down and write 10 things that they like about each other. I have never thought of that but I hope my kids will get in a big fight soon so I can try it out!!
Melanie also revealed several bargain tips on Amazon and discovered that Walmart sells furniture...who would have guessed that you could buy a couch at Walmart (I should have known, you can get anything at Walmart)!!

Target Practice

While I was at work some of the guys wanted to go shoot targets. Rich thought Max would have fun so he took him. I was a little nervous about that but he promised me he would watch him really good.

 

Dustin, Joseph, Rich and Max had fun playing with their guns. Rich thought that more people were going to be there and he thought there would be other kids but they couldn't come so Max was kind of bored and it was really cold. They didn't stay out too long but had a fun time!!!