We're settled

It was a crazy few days, but we're moved and settled. We're totally unpacked and I even hung pictures today. It's never fun, but it's even less fun to live in chaos and clutter. It drives me insane. We suffered a casualty this time though. Our dryer. It slipped off of the appliance dolly and rolled down the basement stairs. The guy that was helping Brandon take it up stairs had to run down the stairs away from it. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he literally stuck his arm out and stopped it cold. Amazingly enough, he suffered no injuries. The dryer cannot say the same. The worst part is the fact that it's only two years old. Brandon is trying to fix it.

We've been without a phone and internet since last Friday. Not fun. Time Warner is supposed to come tomorrow. I've been "borrowing" our neighbors internet access. I would never have our network unsecured, but I've been grateful for theirs the last few days.

I'll post some pictures soon. It's late and I'm unusually tired, so I'm signing off. Talk to you soon. Good night.

What did you do last night?

We hung out here last night:


About five minutes after we put Seth to bed, we heard this loud thunk and insane crying. We ran to his room and he was standing at the door holding his mouth which was already covered in blood. We got the bleeding stopped and realized that he bit through his lip and needed stitches.

Can you believe that we're the parents of five wild, rowdy, CRAZY boys and that this was our first experience with stitches? Sterling needed them back in December, but he was OK in the end. Here are some pictures of the big event. For those of you who don't like blood and gore, you should probably turn away now.

Here we are sitting in the waiting room:


This is him with the numbing stuff on his lip. They covered it with tape so it would stay in place:
Here they are irrigating it before the Doctor came in to stitch it up:

He did so good. He didn't even cry. He said "Owie" during the last two stitches and started to get upset. I'm thinking the numbing stuff was wearing off. He was such a champ. I still can't believe how well he did.

He got to keep the syringe they used to clean him up with. He refused to put it down. He also got a puppy that he's now in total love with.

Here he is this morning. His poor little lip is worse today then it was last night.

Sebastian's Baptism and other random things

It was a great day. Afterwords, we came home and had his and Seth's birthday party. It was a lot of fun.




It's crazy to think that the weather was warm and beautiful a couple of weeks ago when we had the party. It's as if it warmed up just for that weekend. The following weekend is snowed four inches. Crazy.

Crazy. That's an interesting word. I think it sums up our life to a T. I was recently called to be the Young Women's president. What in the world do I know about teen age girls? Other than the fact that I don't want to be one again, I know NOTHING! Truth be told....I'm really enjoying it. Really.

Brandon came home from California, but other than extra laundry and having to cook more for dinner, I can't tell. APPARENTLY, while he was gone, MOBCOM decided it was time to WORK for a living. Can you say LONG HOURS? I feel like this is what we've become:

And because I was getting a little bored, we decided to buy a house. LOL. No really, we did, but not because I'm bored. We made this decision long before we knew that April was going to be the month from "the hot place." Thank goodness it's not our usually fixer upper. It's totally move in ready. Well, except for the color of the walls. Those are NEVER right. But over time, I'll fix that. Here are a couple of pictures:







This next one is a picture of the master bedroom ceiling. I think it's cool.

This is the family room downstairs.

We are very excited. It will be SO NICE to not have major projects the entire time we live there. We close on the 23rd. We'll move in that weekend. Feel free to stop by anytime.

The next couple of pictures are of Seth and his girlfriend. The first Sunday we were here in Missouri he saw her and it was love and first sight. I kid you not. They both acted like they knew each other. They were 15 months at the time. Seth looks at her with stars in his eyes. I babysat her the other day and he acted SO FUNNY the whole time she was here. He was showing off like you wouldn't believe. He flipped his high chair over and pushed it all over the house, he stood on the table, and he gave her all the toys he could find. It was adorable. I truly think they new each other before this life. Here is the happy couple:


I think they are cute.

It's Great to be Eight

Sebastian turns eight tomorrow. It's been a very fast eight years. It's hard to believe. I'm very excited and way more emotional than I thought I'd be. I've been through this before, but for some reason, I'm finding it to be an emotional event. (for those readers who aren't aware, in our religion, once children turn eight, they can choose to be baptized). Sebastian asked months ago if he could be baptized on his birthday. Tomorrow's the big day. As excited as I am for Sebastian, I'm a little melancholic as well. There are days where I dream on not having little ones around 24/7, but for the vast majority of the time I dread the day they grow up and leave our nest. Sebastian's baptism is an outward sign of the fact that he's growing up right before my eyes. Though I would never deny him his God given right to grow and progress, I sure would slow it down if I could.

Happy Birthday Seby Subs. May your next eight be as joyous as your first. We're proud of you son!

I'll be sure to post pictures of his big day soon.

Brandon is home!!

YAY! All is right in the world. Well every thing except our government leaders. But we won't talk about that kind of stuff. It's a family blog and things could get ugly....

His flight got in around 7pm Friday night. The boys and I were going to be there before the flight with balloons and a welcome home banner, but the dang tail wind was so strong he beat us there. So we just drove up and he hopped in. We went to the Outback for dinner and had the nicest thing EVER happen to us. An older couple came in and was seated next to us shortly after we started eating our appetizers. In true Sterling fashion, he leaned over and started talking to the gentleman, who's name happened to be Stephen, and that got the whole thing started.

We talked back and forth through out the rest of the meal, and as they finished their meal and paid their bill, we said our good-byes. Shortly after they left, our server came to our table and asked us if we were finished and then told us that the couple who had been there paid our bill. Talk about shocked. Our bill alone was $80.00. Needless to say, we were humbled and grateful. We're not sure why they did it. Perhaps it was because Brandon is in the service, or because they really enjoyed the company of our sweet children. We will never know, but where ever they are, THANK YOU.

I hope that we can some day do for someone else what they did for us Friday night.

Diesel was driving me nuts...

.....so I killed him.






He looks dead doesn't he? Whenever it's warm outside, this is where you'll find him. If I let him out, I have to bribe him back inside with food. Here he is sunbathing his belly:


I love my big headed dog. He's a sweet boy.

Why is it

that the sky falls when Brandon is gone? Is he REALLY that important? Am I not able to handle this by myself? Are we really supposed to do this together? Is the Priesthood REALLY that important? If you answered Yes, No, Yes, Yes, then you just won. Be sure to check your mailbox several times a day for your reward.

I'm assuming that the answers are YNYY. Because things literally fall apart when he's gone. It was by far the worst when he was in Iraq, because there was so much more time for things TO fall apart.

Thank goodness he's coming home in less than two weeks. I'm not sure about how much more falling apart I can take. The latest event would be food poisoning.

I took the younger three to Mc Donald's for lunch on Saturday. I ordered them apples instead of fries(without the caramel sauce). I got to see those apples again 12 hours later. Coming out of three small children. It started with Seth. He literally threw up every 5-15 minutes the WHOLE night. By 5am, he was alternating ends. It was so bad I just put him in bed with me so when he started coughing, I could just sit up and catch it. I had a pile of diapers and the wipes of the end of the bed and when he needed a diaper change he got the wipes and handed them to me. I was thankful for the help. LOL At 7am, while I was changing a diaper no less, Sterling started coughing and threw up in his bed. At the same time, Spencer came running down the hall to the bathroom. They are all still at it now. It got so bad yesterday, that I took them to the ER. They gave them some Zofram (?) and it stopped the throwing up.

Thank goodness, because I've got more laundry to do than should be allowed by law.

With all of the throwing up, it really was only the apples that made an appearance. The human body is amazing. How their digestive systems could digest all the other food they ate AFTER the apples, but not allow the "toxic" food to pass through amazes me. We are divinly designed aren't we?

Stay tuned, because I'm sure something else will happen before next Friday. Any guesses? I'll be sure to send another reward to the winner. That or a bill....