Jaden turns 10! Kinda

So Jaden's birthday is December 22nd...mean.  So this year we told him to pick a new birthday....he picked April 29th.  So we went with it.  ANd we did a campout birthday. I told him he could invite 6, in hopes that a couple couldnt' make it and we'd be having a nice little 4 kid camp out.....all 6 came!

And it was awesome.  I was worried, but it's been awesome.  It's still going on, but I have myself locked in my room....they're having dart gun wars behind all of my couch cushions and it just goes better if it's outta site for me.

Here's how it all went down though, I was only able to get ONE picture of the dance off before being yelled at for taking pictures.  The dance off got down to BJ and Jaden....then Jaden won!  

Then I fed them all pizza which I thought they'd be excited about, but they had all just came from another friend's party at Mr. G's.  So they jumped on the trampline til it broke, then set up the tent.  Then they got on their jackets and snatched their flashlights and headed out for the nature hunt....

 Lesson Learned:  Don't put "something cool" on a nature hunt for 9 year old boys....you'll get a snake lose in your house.

 I made this great basket for them to find at twin rock, filled with smores packs and pre done hot cocoa...and YES, they did appreciate my craftiness...although, they did not get to appreciate my cheddar cheese campfire because Pearcen destroyed it....

So far, that's all I have....we'll see how the morning goes.
But, in othe rMulderish news....Kam got a bunny...a cute, cute, cute bunny named Freddie.  He WILL be posted soon.  But he got lost in the house the first day and we all freaked out, tearing the house apart, and cleaning and then the next morning we heard him...in the cabinet work, so Jase took a baseboard off and pulled him out.  Then yesterday I looked in his box because I was told to keep an eye on him while everyone was at school...and HE WAS GONE!  Luckiliy Foxxie already has it out for him, so foxxie started scratching behind the table....Freddie fell behind there and was stuck.  So I got him, and I think we bonded for me saving his life.  Awesome!

SEVENTIES?!?!

Ok, so I remember as a kid, 50 was soo old.  And then after the 70's, you pretty much just were waiting for the ole grim reaper.  But now I think 70's is awesome.  My dad is awesome!  He just turned  70 last week and Jase and I got to go to dinner with him and ma at El Rancho.  We got the special and talked and talked about family and friends and our small towns and a lot about Christ, and his love and I can always feel the spirit when my dad talks or writes to us about the Savior and his love.   He got teary eyed as he talked and it was hard to keep my tears back, but i've had years of practice.  He's the most amazing dad ever!!!! I'm soo glad I picked him.  

This last week we told the kids that the special "golden" egg was under grandpa...who was lying peacefully on the hill.....not for long....

 Now I'm going to list 70 things tha tI love about my dad.
ha, ok, not really, but I could.  but it's 10:30pm and as  you all know that's midnight for a Mulder.

So, top 5.

I LOVE how involved he is with Jase's new business.  It's awesome.  If I ever want to know how things are goin in the business, I talk to dad.

I love that he made valentines SOO amazing for my mom this year.  He even decorated heart cookies for her.

I love how hard of a worker he is on his new amazingly beautiful home.

I love his love for animals.  He's always concerned about our chickens and Foxxie when we go on trips, and he is the reason they are all still alive.

I love how much he loves his girls.  I know they wanted me to be a boy, but I would have never known it.  He's an amazing girl dad!!!!!

A big....Long....day....and a remedy...

Ok, so yesterday, ok the last 4 months have been "one of those days".  The kind where at noon, you're ready for bed and dreading all that still needs to be done.  Freaking out about the bank accounts, so tired of changing poop, wondering why you have NO hair at all anymore and to top it off, a little pink eye.  That was my day yesterday.  So when Jase got home, I said, "I'm taking a bath, watch the kids...WATCH THEM!".  So I put the ole paint can behind the door (the door to our master bedroom doesn't stay closed or lock...but NO one can move the 5 gallon bucket of paint). Started an ALL hot bath, and prepared my arsenal. 

I started with an apple...which I ate before I even got into the bath.  A aluminum cup of ice cold water to keep me from over  heating, 2 of my favorite magazines that I just got in the mail, 3 towels...why 3 you ask?  one for my hair, one for my body and one for my face.  I usually just do 1 or 2, but for a fancy bath, I take 3. All kinda of facial things.  This bath was my favorite combination.  I started with the Neutrogena battery operated face scrubber thing that my girl LIssy gave me for my birthday last year. Then on to my Mary Kay mask, followed by the mary kay cleanser, and finished afterwards with my free night solution that mary kay just sent me.  My skin looked lovely this morning.  Also, there is a razor and shaving creme...this part may gross youg uys out.  I only shave my legs a couple times a month if I'm not wearing shorts.  So yea, this was my 2nd time this month.  I may even hit 3 this month.  The sugar scrub I didnt' use this bath, but it's always there, just in case.  And the chocolate...ahhh, the chocolate.  My stinking friend Mel introduced me to Lindt's Dark chocoalte with sea salt. I could eat the whole bar if I wanted.  But I chose to break off one square and put it on my magazines for safe keeping...it was the first thing gone.
I stayed in the hot hot bath, and my eye started feeling better, but I was tired, so I got out, went to bed....so I thought!  I woke up every couple of hours because my eye was killing me...and when I finally got out of bed at 5 this morning, it was swollen shut.  I have biephartis.  And yea, I think that's  a "fart" in the middle there.  But this sucks!  bad!  IThe swellign has gone down, but the redness and killingness is still there!  ugh!!!!!  I know it's from leaving my eye mak eup on for 3 days in a row.  bad, I know...but after our weekend trip I got lazy.  So sue me!

Whatever.

Cedar City Mulders....

This past weekend we got to go see Justin and Elissa....FINALLY! It was a super short trip, but we crammed a lotta fun into it. LIssy made an awesome itinerary to keep us and the kids happy the whole time.  We went to a super awesome park with a creek running through it and lots of grass and trees, and of coarse mountains all around.  (why are we all not living there???)

 Boston decided to be Pearcen's horse....for a very short ride.

 Kamryn decided to have dad be her horse....again for a very short while.

 Then Pearcius decided to try out his new climbing shoes...and they worked great.  he got up that far on his own....then crashed down.

 Jase giving a random adjustment to Jaden.

 Pearce, being cute...

 Kam and Boss loved the playground of coarse....

These two were my favorite part of the trip.  kam likes hanging out with the girls now and Lissy took us to a bunch of fun shops.  Sorry Kam is blinking and Lissy is about to. I should have snapped more.

 And even though it was super muddy, I made lissy let me take a couple of her...all of which were over exposed...blah!  Another reason I'm not a photographer.  But she looked freaking hot that day, so I had to post one.

 Jaden is STILL in the phase of making goofy faces, so I hafta catch him off guard.  He had a lot of fun doing ALL of the outdoor stuff this weekend.  He wanted to stop at every rest area on the way up and back.

 Pearce liked the rocks and sticks...

Later that day we went to St. George to get some more shopping and eatting done.  Pearce fell asleep with his pacifier as a face prop.

 and we finaly got to try Jimmy Johns....not impressed (this is J at the drive thru, in his killer new buffalo check shirt.....I have a thing for buffalo check)

 And this is what our car looked like. We forgot to put the other back seat in, so Justy and Lissy made a sweet little seat of their own in the back with jaden.

We also go to eat a lot of really bad food and watch Hop, both were great...but the additional 3lbs, not so great.

On our way home the kids were dying to play in the snow, so we stopped, and yes, Kam has shorts on with Boston's boots.  There was lots of snow, but the temps were perfect.

 And someone couldn't keep his LOUD trap shut the whoel way home so his dad shoved a bunch of napkins in it to try and muffle it....didnt' last long.  Oh, and the dirty face is from our Oreo lunch.  Jase wouldn't let us stop to eat or poop....because it was the sabbath.  ugh.  So luckily Aunt lissy packed us some oreos to go with the bananas, kashi bars and trail mix Jase packed. Oh, quick story on this guy...threw up about 5 gallons on our way up....we realize he had a quesadilla for lunch, shake, donuts, cookie, chocolate, etc.....all day long.  It was disgusting...and hilarious!

 And I wish I had a pciture of when we first got to Justin and Elissa's...our bed was covered in shoe Christmas.  It was lovely.  We spent about an hour going through new shoes that Aunt LIssy (manager and future CEO of Payless) hooked us up with.  But I did tell the kids to line up for a picture with the shoes before we put them away.  I think we're all set for a year or two.  Thanks again Justin and Elissa!  Awesome weekend!

Slow Day in Joseph City....

After explaining my busyness of the week, I realized that all that's on my calendar for TODAY is, a few phone calls and hostess packet deliveries.  What am I going to do with the other 10 hours of my day?
Options:
- change poop
- cook
-clean
-facebook
-attempt pictures of the kids
-make a craft
-play memory
-read The Mouse and the Motorcycle, chapter 10
-fill out tons and tons of paperwork per child for next years registration
-eat
-workout
-clean the yard with pearce
-finish painting a few things white
-deep conditioning treatment
-clear out closet
-get kid's "next size" boxes out
-figure out the stinking hand strap for the battery grip on the camera
-watch some jewelry training videos
-make some amazing healthy treat to go with tonight's Tangled party with the kids.
-laundry, how could I forget the option of laundry?!
-yell at the ebay seller through e mail, that screwed me out of $50 this week.
-track my packages....clothes for Kam, wooden newborn bowl, amazon book for gramsicle, jewelry, and free outfit from zulily.
-wash and cut produce
-attempt sleep.

I think I'll chose ALL of the above.

I'll let you know how many I actually accomplish.  haha

stuff

First I have to apologize for my white legs in the post below. Last year I thought, "I'm going to stay out of the sun this summer, protect my skin since I've been a big tanner in the past".
After that picture...I will be spending the next 4 months outside.




2nd, a breakdown of my diet
Apple w/PB
Banana
Spinach shake
All that before noon.  Not too shabby you might be thinking.
Lunch, BIG lunch, but healthy and usually WW approved.
another apple
then 3pm hits
So do chocolate covered anythings.....
tostitos....
SOBE (not so bad diet wise)....
6pm hits...I swear no more eatting for the day, and about half of the time I do good, the other half, i find whatever is on the top shelf of the pantry, the tiny cupboard above the fridge, or hidden in the microwave.  Eat it.  Feel guilt.  Vow to do better tomorrow.

A breakdown of my diet...for the past 5 years!





Now a breakdown of my week.
Get home from trip. Enjoy a few minutes with Jase before he lives on the phone. Then he leaves on Tuesday-Thursday.  Getting back to a babysitter because I'm already gone to Show Low for my jewelry show...which means I won't see him until Friday morning, and even then, only for a few minutes before he...again, gets on the phone.  Then as soon as he's done with work on Friday, we all pile in the car and go to Cedar City for a few days.  hopefully next week I can have some time to do NOTHING.
 So my girl's trip really was a week and a half break from husband, 4 days from kids.  Which works out just lovely since I need more time to learn to appreciate my husband right now.  Which I do.

GIRL"S TRIP!!!!!!!!

I've been planning girl's trips for YEARS!  And I usually just invite one or two girls, and someone bails and so we cancel.  This year I decided to invite tons of girls and whoever came, came, but I was bound to go, even if it were alone.  We had about 7 or 8 of us, and slowly, one by one they dropped...even up until the week before. but there were 4 of us that stayed strong and true!

Trina....a good ole home town girl that has practice runs of girls trips with me every few months to Flag.

Becky....a long time friend, my mother in Premier, and an easy goin girl.

Mel....my bestie from Texas, sarcastic, fashionable, inspiring and awesome.

And me, aging, tired,a nd so in need of this girls trip!

The first day we drove, and drove (and Mel flew) and we got there, checked into our sweet Sheraton, then went to pick up Melissa at the airport.  We got her, then went and shopped.  Went to gap to find my jeans I'd been lusting after and a sexy black dress for the dress up night the next night...both there, and both about half price.  Sweet!

 Then we ate some awesome pizza, cheesey fried artichoke (an artichoke first for Becky) and delicious donuts from Sammy's Woodfire Pizza, then tried to find where we parked our car.

The next day, we got up, went to Panera bakery for some sweet breakfast, headed to the grocery store for a bunch of snacks for the spa, then off to the spa.  We got our own rom to chill in between treatments.  Then one by one they wisked us away to the relaxation of amazingness...aka, facials,  massages, pedicures and manicures, all lasting 50-60 minutes.  AMAZING!

Uh, we forgot to get pics before, so this is us, with greasy hair from the massages, and no make up (facials)  

 This is us posing while Mel metered her camera for the above shot.  It's our fancy "rich" looks.

 Then we went shopping some more at some rich fancy mall that was NOT our style.  But we could afford some frozen yogurt....

Then we went back to the hotel and got ready for our big night out.  We went to The Melting Pot.....for 3 hours!  It usually takes around 2 hours to do a fondue meal, but we had a slow waiter....and we got double cheese....and double chocolate.  I always get stuffed at fondue, but this time, it was more than usual...it was fantastic.  It's also fun to watch Becky eat. I eat about 9x more than she does in a 30 minute time frame.  We're fast eaters in the Mulder home...and yes, I'm an amazon....

 Me showing my new dress whilst waiting for our table....

 I believe this was cheese #2.  Mmmm, soo good!  

 Then we were super super tired, so no dancing or kareoke (next trip for SURE) so we went home and went to bed....or did we? I don't remember.  I remember we died that night.  Some couldn't stop crapping, others went the whole trip w/o crapping (I'll let you guess) others had crazy digestion and had to go to the gym at 4am.  But ALL of us were up at 2am because of drunk neighbors yelling and throwing bottles at the wall...then smoking....in a non smoking room!  Rough night.  Plus Mel put a pillow between us and said, "don't cross"...in the sarcastic manner that we share, and for some reason all through the night I kept checking to see if I crossed.  haha.  Trina also had to keep one eye opened with her stripping bed partner.  haha!  But they all got to deal with me farting into the closet.
But we finally all got outta bed, got ready and decided to stop by the harbor that our hotel was in for pictures.  There were awesome sailboats on one side and piratey ships and cruise ships on the other. It was really pretty.  Obviously the bright sun was in our eyes.

Then we hit the OC swap meet.  It was a lot of fun.  We all got a few pairs of sunglasses, and a couple of other things. Not as great of stuff as I had hoped, but I heard it's hit and miss.  Next full day shopping event will be First Monday in Canton.  heck yes!
That night we stayed at our sweet Hyatt...where I proceeded to fart out the door.
The swap meet closed at 4, so we went to the beach where Mel took awesome pics of Becky and Trina, and I took some awesome ones of her with her awesome camera.  I was having a horrible hair day, so I decided to not even try to look cute for them.  But here's Trina fake fishing off the peir.

Ahh, and the 4 of us on the beach.

And a pic with Trina, my fun LITTLE friend that I wanna pick up.

And Bekcy, my friend with a great rack!

Mel, my friend that makes it fun to be fake cheesey!  haha.

Um, seriously?  HOT!  

And since we forgot to take pedicure pics....here's our toes...which ones are mine.

and the only picture of me where I don't look super super ugly

Anyway, that night we ate some amazing mexican food, back to the hotel, then got up early, drove to San Diego, dropped Mel off at the airport, then drove...and drove...and ate In and Out, and drove, then went to the gap outlet, then drove, then went to arizon mills, then drove and drove.  then got home!!!!!

Awesome trip! Must be done again SOON!!!!!!

best baby EVER!

Ok, I remember saying Boston was the best baby ever, and I'll probably always say that with whoever is the baby at the time,  but this one....so easy! And adorable, and entertaining, and so cute and a good sleeper, a good eater, loves to hug, loves to dance.  He's just awesome!  yesterday I let him try to feed himself oatmeal while I did some chores....here's what we ended up with....

 But the other day when I was taking pictures of him, Jaden came over and said, "give me a hug"...and bam.....

a hug was given.  He's such a sweet boy!  I love their guts... Both of these boys!

Kinda fun....kinda sad....

So it's kinda fun to have grandparents to go visit again, but it's even more sad that they aren't here to visit everyday and that grandma isn't there to call up to help me make stuff.  But it is fun to go stay the night at their new house.  We decided to spend conference weekend up there. This is Grandpa listening intently 

 And this is the 2 crossword puzzle queens listening as they make themselves smarter.

 And Jaden and I hiding from the camera....and listening.

It was a fun weekend.  The boys helped grandpa lay some pavers, the girls made cake balls and lunch and dinner.  Jase took the kids for rides on grandpa's new riding mower, lots of cards, some Mexican train and a trip to the park.  It was a fantastic weekend!