Creeper mom

I spy on my kids sleeping... a lot!  It's wheN I love them most!  they're so ridiculously sweet when they sleep...even my older monkeys!  I had to wake tru up a week or two ago, so I decided to do it with the click of my camera...

 Geez!  He's so stinking cute with sleepy face!
And then there's this guy!  He likes to wrestle.  He likes to tease.  He likes girls. He likes bringing his dorky friends over so they can do dorky stuff and say dorky things.  I had to wrestle him down for this shot.  His shot out tooth came out again, and he wouldn't open his trap for a week...until his super strong mom held him and made him!!!!

What now sexymexi? (his nickname to some)

Self Journaling

Last weeks #52 week journaling idea was "what goals are you actively working on right now?" And of course, I just posted my goals a few weeks ago, and of course, I've already failed miserably at the diet one.  I feel like I'm doing pretty well at being a happier mom with more compliments and less criticism.  I can definitely tell a difference in our home, and in my relationships with my kids. I love it.  Who know all it took was thinking about it constantly day and night and praying about it constantly day and night to get closer to becoming the mom I want to (used to) be!  

Back to the goal I fail miserably at!  My baby is almost 1!  I weight 180!  That's HORRIBLE!  I weight about 180 when Jaden was one, but I was 3 months pregnant with Kam.  And I weighed about 180 when Kam turned one, but I didn't care.  And when Boss turned 1, I discovered weight watchers, so I was probably about 170, but quickly worked my way down to 140 by the time he turned 2...

And then of course, I got pregnant again with this guy....

 My weight came off quickly with him because I ate super healthy and worked out till week 38...hard!  So when he turned one I was already 150....but then I got pregnant again...let's keep in mind I gained between 68-75 EVERY SINGLE PREGNANCY!  So, yea, I got fat again, and I didn't workout with my Vivian pregnancy...I actually ate a lot and worked out probably 2-3x a week until about month 7 or 8 then I threw in the towel...still gaining my usual 70.  But luckily I had danica and lots of fun gym classes and a huge house and elliptical machine to whip me back into shape...this is me at her first birthday party....Probably weighing around 155-160...which is happy for me.  It's not skinny, but it's not hungry either. ;)

 I've been casually weighing in with my friend Kiri at her husbands office each Thursday and we're about the same weight (even though she's taller than me and her baby is half Truman's age) but last week I realized it's only 8 weeks until the cruise, I realized it's my 20 year reunion this year, and I am SO TIRED OF WEARING MY FAT CLOTHES!  I'm just 10 lousy pounds from wearing cuter close, and 20 pounds from wearing my favorites! I HAVE TO DO THIS!!!!!!!  Plus yesterday at church, a girl with THE cutest hair walked in.  I stared at her all of church!   Then I realized our baby boys are the same age, and we dressed them the same...we were wearing the same dress (but mine was about 10 sizes bigger) and I coveted her jacket and leather diaper bag as well...but the hair...the hair is similar to my hair in the above picture, but less round...this was my pixie grown out.   I'm rewarding myself for this next 10 pounds by going to Flag to get some cute outfits with kiri, but the next 10, I'm rewarding myself with cut and color by Tia!
And the next journaling idea is dumb, so I'll quickly add it onto this one.  It's "what would you want your family and friends to learn about setting and achieving goals from your example?".  Uh, obvious!  Set reasonable goals for your season of life.  I used to be able to hit weight loss goals so easy 8 years ago when I didn't have teenagers AND babies to  take care of, and I had so much time to workout.  Now I need to say a pound a week, rather than 2-3 like I used to do.  And same with reading the scriptures.  When I used to be able to do a chapter a day, I can now do a few verses a day. Another huge one is what I started with....have your main goal on the forefront of your mind always and it'll happen.  What was most important to me for 2017 is being a fun happy mom that's raising fun, happy, kind and confident kids.  So I wake up thinking and praying about it, I go to bed thinking and praying about it, and of course, if there's a second in between the daily chaos, I do the same.  But I always want my kids to know that setting goals is SO important....in all areas of life.  It's how we progress.  It's how we become the people we want to be and the people Heavenly Father wants us to be. I learned at New Beginnings last night, that less than 3% of people set goals, and less than half of those write them down....yet the ones that write them down are something like 85% more likely to succeed.  WRITE THEM DOWN!  And review them weekly!  Set weekly goals, set daily goals, and monthly goals.  Year long goals are fine, but don't think about them...think about the small goals to help you achieve the yearly goals.  Bam, there's my 411 on goals, thanks to Shelbi's husband, New Beginnings speaker, Chalene Johnson and life's experiences.

Bumble bee bear

I LOOVE watching Tru sleep. This week he fell asleep on me as I was watching TV, when I should have been working out, but he wanted to cuddle, and I canNOT resist.  So I held him for a while then laid him down then had to take pictures so I could remember how perfect he is forever.  SERIOUSLY...PERFECT!!!! The kids love putting this Hong Kong outfit on him and calling him the bumble bee bear.  It's hilarious on because his big ole belly pokes out and makes it even more adorable!!

 This week I vowed to keep the cookie jar filled....then today I vowed to unvow it!  I made over 90 cookies and they lasted 3 days!  I can't keep up!...and we'll all be diabetic if I do!  But it was fun, and I was the "cool" mom for a couple of days.  now I'm back to just regular just dance queen mom, which in my book would have been the coolest, but whatev.

This week I also went to volleyball, Zumba, turbo kick, planned my 20 year school reunion, ordered a super cool thing called a Kidbox...go HERE and check it out.  I was a bit nervous at first, but the girl that I learned about it from dresses her kids so cute, so I gave it a try for Boston, and they sent THE cutest stuff for only $88.  It's a bunch of Lucky and humanity for all mankind and RL clothes that are super cute and all go together...which HE HAS to have.   It was 3 shirts, 3 pants and a sweater. They send a box every season. I think I'll sign Kam or Tru up next.  If you use that link you get $25 off of your first box...and you can cancel after that!

and my NEW favorite thing of the week is THE FITNESS MARSHALL!!!!!! I'm so glad my nieces introduced him to me. I can't stop doing his dances!  Jaden's friends come over and I make them do it with me....since he won't. It's so much fun!

11 months!

I can't believe this big guy is almost a year!  He's been the funnest baby!!!  We all adore him and pretty much, our world's ALL revolve around baby Trubear.   The dude is spoiled all day long.  This week he learned to stand.  And he'lll get balance and we'll all get so excited for him so he'll get excited and start bouncing, and usually keeps his balance, but his record is 30 seconds.   Makes me so sad, but it's so cute!  This picture makes his feet look HUGE!  They're not.

 this picture makes him look super cute...he is.

 Tru does NOT like the kitty.  Don't let this picture fool you. He either totally ignores the cat (which the cat loves) or he slaps her face till she goes away.  He's not a fan...I understand...Jase and I are both cat haters...but this thing is growing on us...other than the fact that she thinks it's ok to get on our bed in the middle of the night and make that motory sound in our ears!!!!!

 Tru's awesome.  He's got the best personality.  He's so chill and prefers his mom and grandma to everyone.  But he knows grandpa hatch is the dr. pepper/ ice cream hook up, and he knows Kam will protect him when chaos is happening with the other kids and all of their friends.  He HATES having his diaper changed....not so much changed, but he hates having a diaper put back on.  He loves being nakie...which is the Boston in him...and his favorite place is still the bathtub, where he splashes and laughs like crazy!  He's a decent napper...he's winding himself down to 1 nap a day, which is good. I'm not good at morning naps...that's when I run errands and go to Zumba/volleyball.
I'm so tempted to chop his mop, but we vowed to let it grow until his 1st birthday...just 3 more weeks!!! I love the curls on the back and sides, but the rest  is just too shaggy and stringy.

 He does a fake cry and fake laugh, both crack us up.  He squints his eyes as tight as he can and makes this fake sound.  it's adorable!

 Pretty much majorly in love with this tiny fat round face. I'm so glad he's part of us!

Scriptural Lip Sync

This week for FHE, our activity was scriptural lip sync.   Each kid had to pick a person and sing as hymn as that person.  Jaden was Mary....

 Tiny Teeth Pearcen was Nephi....

 Boston was Captain Moroni

 Vivian was Ester

 Kam was Noah...with braces....

It was pretty hilarious!!! I had to post pictures.

Kitty Stella Princess Frosting Sprinkles Dumb....

This new kitty had NOOO idea what she was in for when I brought her home from the shelter.  Luckily she's already incredible at ignoring and letting the kids she doesn't care a drop for them.....

 The older two kids were trying to watch a show the other day and Vivian was driving them bonkers, so Jaden threw pillows at her, which just fueled her obnoxious little sister fire, then finally Kam got her trapped.  Sometimes it's HARD to be the baby sister...I know Viv!

Pinewood Derby...round 5!

 The way our boys are spaced, we will be attending the pine stinking wood derby for 16 years IN A ROW!  No breaks. They're all 4 years apart.  AHHH!!!!!  So right now it's Boston's 2nd year.  He's always so excited about scout stuff.  Jase helped him cut his car and he designed it.   Our ward had me a little sad at first because there were no decorations, and the last 2 derbys we'd been to the walls were covered in checker flags, and there was racing music going and it was all decked out...but out of nowhere,  the Star Wars music starts, and a Jedi appears.....

 Then Darth Vader and his storm troopers came in and started a whole war....

 Then it was racing time.  Boss was super precise about putting his car on the track.

 He came in 1st and 2nd EVERYTIME! He was so excited! (his is the one with the little yellow lego dude on it)

 For the championship at the end, they turned the lights out and gave all of the kids in the audience light sabers and let them turn them on the second he released the cars.  It was pretty sweet!

Boston got 2nd place speed!  Which is great for him, but that means we have to go to district again.

He may have been a little excited!

Good job Boss! Way to get 2nd and eat the most donuts after!!!! Atta boy!

Best Bros

Saturday morning was amazing!  It snowed so much.  We still have a little bit today (Monday).

Boston was of course the first one out in it before 7 am!

Jase went out a little later to serve as target.

And it cracks us up! Boston has a hard time getting the sizes right for snowmen, so he served as the head for his. 

This was my view...I didn't go out in the snow till I had to, but I still served as target, our front porch walls and windows were covered in snowball marks. 

These two are so good to each other.  They share a room, and we have not had a single problem with it.  They love to play together, they like to invite each other on their mom dad dates, and they had SUCH a great time in the snow on Saturday together!

SNOW DAY!

Saturday we got a bunch of snow so I took Jaden and Boston and Kamryn and a few of Jaden's friends tubing/sleding in Show Low.  I was not a fun mom this day, and I just dropped them off and went to Ross for a nice quiet hour of leisurely shopping which resulted in a valentines table cloth, a bathroom rug and dill pickle chips.  nothing too exciting.  These boys crack me up!  They so ridiculous and crazy.  I'm glad they all have each other.

 I stayed long enough to watch my 2 boys go down (Kam didn't get out of the car until I got back to it, but she didn't end up sledding because her pants and socks were NOT snow ready, I don't blame her!)

 It was a fun hour and a half for them, followed by Freals at Maverick....when they were already cold...again, ridiculous and crazy!
That night Jase and I got to go out with our good friends Justin and Kiri. Since it was so snowy out we just went to the Italian restaurant right behind our house.  It's SO good, but so slow and so expensive....but our conversation is always great with those two!

The night before we took our 2 straight A boys out for the seafood buffet up at the casino...IN A BLIZZARD!  We literally had an SUV spinning around in slow motion right by us as we were driving.  I yelled "JASE"!  And he looked out the window just in time to see it's headlights pointed right at our car about 3' away!  Luckily he was smart enough to keep going because if we would have stopped, it's back end probably would have clipped us....but we did watch to make sure they were ok. They didn't even go off the road, and they were far from the few other cars that were dumb enough to be driving in it. Anyway, it was AMAZING to watch Boston eat crab and shrimp.  We all filled up in about 15 minutes...he went on for about an hour. He would grab a dessert, and we'd think he was done, then he'd come back with a whole new plate full of crab!  Pearce on the other hand looked at the buffet and decided order a cheeseburger (my kid for sure!). But he fell asleep halfway through the meal...so Boston decided to use his jacket to go under Pearcen's head because he knew the kid had a while to sleep there.  ha!  Funny thing, Boston's teacher was up there that night too!  Those two boys are so responsible with their school work.  Makes me so proud!

My life...

My friend posted this on her blog and it gives you a story for each week of the year for journaling purposes. I would LOVE to know all of this about my parents, so I figured maybe one or possibly 2 of my kids will care about this about me in 20 or 30 years, so I'm going to play a little catch up and do the first 2 weeks right here.

Goals that I  hope to achieve this year, I already posted.  But with a. few weeks behind me, My focus is on getting healthy and getting nicer to my kids. I want to be remembered as the fun, kind mom, not that crazy sarcastic one that I've shot for the last 10 years or so.

The 2nd one is, What is something you've learned by yourself without help from anyone else.  This is A HARD one.   I feel like everything is at least inspired by others. I would say photography since I didn't take a class, or a workshop or any thing, but I do remember asking lots of questions on forums and to Holly in the beginning and to Melissa these last few years.  Maybe my most recent thing is painting boards. I have 3 that we're framing today that I'll post pictures of, but I just wanted some and realized most everyone charges crazy amounts when it takes about $3 to make (if you steal wood from old lots or from your friends that are clearing a lot to build and it has AMAZING old wood fence posts).  And the lettering, I've just practiced and had lots of ugly papers full of them.  But I started it about 3 weeks ago and have already given away 3 gifts to friends that had stuff pinned. Quilting is something that I've pretty much taught myself.  My mom put me in some sewing classes as a little girl, but quilting I just started the year we got married and have averaged about a quilt a year.  Last year I did 2 quilts and 2 baby quilts. this year my goal is one family quilt (not sure if it'll be 4th of July or Christmas, I have plenty of fabric for both....I've realized I'm a fabric hoarder...self taught, but it's in my genes from my aunt Jackie who has taken it to the extreme) and one quilt for my sister.  Each year I'm making a quilt and giving it to one sister a year.  It's been so much fun! I figured since I've given one to each of my kids...twice....I'll start on my sisters then go back to my kids, because by then, they'll probably be washed to death from all of the muddy forts, peed beds and picnics.
Something I"d like to teach myself this year is wood work!!! Just making these frames has been so much fun, and I just made a cute industrial bench, next I'd like to make a sewing table then a breakfast nook!  I know it'll probably take me all year, but luckily, I've got all year!  I'd like to teach my boys to do it too...and Kam, she loves shop class!

Productivity!

This week has felt awesome!   There's been the same chaos, but so much productivity!  One of my goals is to help my kids be more productive with their free time, and another is to speak more positively to my kids...the two don't really go hand in hand with me. ha!  But this week went well.   There was still a lot of apologizing, and lessons learned, but so much got done, and I feel like so much was learned by  all of us!
     On Tuesday,  I got to go to the movies in the middle of the day...with my two favorite guys...my dad and Jase.  We went to Hidden Figures.  There was a part where one of the women was so grateful to her husband because he did all he could to help her go back to school to get her masters to work for NASA as an engineer, and for a second I held a grudge because I remember the first few years out of college, everything we had went towards Jason's clinics and all I wanted was to take ONE class or workshop or to be able to set up a real studio, and I feel like not being able to learn more and go farther with photography is kind of what made me be done with it. I watched friend after friend pass me up because they went to workshops, or they got a studio with great lighting, and I went 13 years in photography without a single class or workshop.  But then SO quickly after holding that few second grudge, I realized he's helped me reach my #1 dream and only important dream....all of these amazing kids, and the fun houses (and some not so fun houses) we've lived in.  We've had so many adventures. A nd although I would have loved to have been settled about 6 moves ago, I'm grateful for the friends, changes, challenges and lessons we've been given with each move.

Tuesday night, after riding the quads for a couple of hours, Jaden and Josh dressed up and went to Walmart....the second they walked in the greeter pointed to each of them and said, "nope, nope"...so they had to take their masks off (understandable, haha) but they still went around to different sections of Walmart and asked people, "do you know which one of these mouth washes is the best?"  or "do you know which cleaner works the best?" for that one they got a good 10 minute answer.  Then they fake tripped, falling all the way to the ground to see what people would do.  Small town fun cracks me up!

Wednesday, Vivian pulled Tru around on his exersaucer. He loved it!   He was walking with it as fast as his chubby legs would go.  She's been really sneaky about being mean to him, but she's of course, very out there when she's sweet to him, which is now finally, outweighing the sneaky moments.  She's a pistol.  I feel like I'm raising Kamryn all over again...which is fine, if she turns out as great as Kam I can endure.

A couple of days ago, Jase made us a really. "yummy" breakfast.  We're doing his diet, and we're in the hard part, so it's only vegetables and some meats and eggs, and we're all burned out on eggs, so he steamed and squashed cauliflower and added coconut oil and cinnamon hoping it would taste like oatmeal...um, no.  Then he made a shake using only vegetables and coconut oil....um, no.  So we made it a fun morning chug challenge and every kid drank he whole thing!!!

Try kept warm in his little fort.

This weekend we made Saturday a project day.  Jase and Boss worked on the playset, Jaden made corn hole boards and I made wooden signs.  Kam kept the littles busy by making the bottom part of the playset into a fort.

This baby!   He is the center of our world...all of us.  I spent a good part of my evenings just watching the older kids love Tru and make him laugh.  Jase snapped these pictures of me and Tru yesterday after church.  He loves to be tickeled around his neck.  He busts up laughing.  When the kids are loving on him I throw out there "why don't we have another baby?".  I get a mixed response...actually it's 5 yeses and one no....Jaden.  haha!

 This is just baby Tru in his favorite spot eating his favorite food...which are both the same as his big brother Pearcen's at that age.

 And Boston took these pictures of Tru and I dancing in the kitchen the other night as I was making dinner.  Alexa has jams pumping all day!  Usually either Hilary Weeks, Newsies, Trolls soundtrack, Classical or I can make your hands clap.  haha.   We're all in phases.  It'll pass.

 Friday Pearcen was able to bring in the kitty for show and tell.  I don't know if he's ever been more excited.  He loved it! And of course, Viviany loved to be the little sister helper.

 I spent a good half hour collecting and sharpening pencils on Friday, only to realize that we'v stolen a pencil from the house of de Lord.  whoops!

 This diet...this diet is DUMB!  I'm not starving, but I'm feeling deprived.  Jase made elk jerky which I DID NOT eat, and I made some zoodles, which I do not enjoy without either butter or  spaghetti sauce, which I can't have either.   So Sunday, I ate 2 bites of Vivian's hamburger, a couple of brownies and an apple, all not allowed.

started over again today. ;(

Today is MLK jr. day.  To celebrate, we worked on the playhouse some more, we helped grandpa put his Christmas decorations away, we watched Storks, we cleaned, went to piano lessons, I made a bench and a shelf, went to aerobics and we'll probably watch Last man standing after dinner and I might say how great civil rights are somewhere in the evening.