Randomness

Why am I always playing catch up? Oh yeah, I'm crazy, that's why. We just had our Christmas Enrichment Dinner for church-which is always a big deal-and I'm still recovering from that. So now I've got some pics to post. . .


Here's Spencer-Bencer hanging out on the swings a couple of weeks ago.




Our little 'pirate' Avery is adjusting well to the torture I put her through with the headbands. Cory just HAD to document her pain and suffering.

Not a bit camera shy, is she?

Andi did her little Thanksgiving song in preschool a couple of weeks ago- she's loving having lots of friends. She often tells us that she's going to marry her 'boyfriend' Cole. Great. . .

Ainslee is posing in front of one of our traditional Christmas season breakfasts-feel free to steal the idea! It's green french toast (dye the milk egg mix) with sausages for tree stumps.

Here are most of the kids (Ains in green, Ash on the top, Spence on the right) at the Rice Family Farm for Thanksgiving.

Another Christmas tradition is laying under the Christmas tree and singing Christmas songs while I play the piano. I think it only lasted 3 songs this year. . .

So you got me. This is how I get my girls' hair so curly for church. This is the night before taking pictures for the Christmas card.

Here's Cory and his Dad working hard at the Farm. It was COLD! By the way- does anyone know how to fix a 1950's Ford Tractor? Just wondering.

The many faces of Avery

This is the "See,-my-family-is-normal" look.



This is the "Why-is-my-brother-always-sticking-his-finger-in-my-nose" look.




This is the "My-eyes-are-bigger-than-yours" look.



This is the "Why-did-I-give-up-heaven-for-this" look.

Isn't she adorable!!!

Isn't it amazing. . .

how you can be feeling so down on yourself because you don't sew, bake, sing, write funny blog posts, and a million other awesome things that other people do and then your wonderful naughty little boy will wipe away your tears and everything bad is suddenly gone. AMAZING.

Don't give up on us!

Okay, really, we're not dead- just really busy. 5 kids will do that to a person I guess :) But for reals we're all still here, alive and happy. And now we're going away for 1 week! Then I promise, I'll be back at it (and hopefully our computer will be working a little better so I can post pictures).

As AUNAULD says:
I'll be back

You wanna know what happened to me today. . .

The first 5 minutes of our sacament meeting was very exciting for me- full on baby poop explosion up Avery's back and all over my skirt. Nothing like a little mustard colored stain on my white skirt for the rest of the meeting. And of course I had to take the little ones out twice so I couldn't even hide it! Everyone look at me!!!! I'm sure everyone wondered why I ate a hotdog before church and got a little crazy with it and spilled it and didn't care enough to change! What a day.

Look Out Below!

No, really. Look underneath this post and you'll find some other new ones!

Much better quote!

This quote trumps my "American President" quote. And it well should, as it was given by a prophet of the Lord. Thanks to Mark and Angela for sending this spiritual buoy in these difficult times.

The below was given in an address to BYU students by Elder Neal A. Maxwellin 1978.

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'

"This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.

"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened.... Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

--- Elder Neal A. Maxwell

Finally!

Geez, it took so long for this sucker to come out!

Pictures again!

So we're finally getting our Halloweenie pictures up. Our brand new computer has decided to not recognize our SD card drive. You want to know what's fun? Knowing now that you have to go through the hassle of fixing something that is brand new and you're so ticked about it that you scream out loud. Not that I did that or anything. So here we go:

Cory as Cowboy Cory, Ashley as a Black Cat, Ainslee as a High School Musical Cheerleader, Andi as Tinkerbelle, and Spencer as a Pirate

And Avery as a sad little girl who didn't dress up for Halloween because she kept sleeping through all the opportune times!

We actually went trick or treating at my brother's house in the bay area (2 1/2 hours away). We went for his new baby's blessing. Here are Magnus and Avery together- they're only 5 days apart!

Oh man, Spencer decided to have his daily temper tantrum today. It lasted a good 45 minutes. Half way into it, he was so exhausted he fell asleep face down on the tile. Here's the proof- sound asleep!

The Freedom of Speech Paradox

Well, it happened today between the hours of 2 PM and 5 PM. Broad daylight. The brazen opponents of Prop 8 strolled onto our front lawn and stole our "Yes on Prop 8" sign.

Hold on while I vomit from the sickness of violation. Okay, much better.

I continue to think of one of my favorite movie line quotes. It is from "The American President"

"America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free". "

I am all for freedom of speech. Because I cannot have it if I refuse to provide it to others.

It is just odd that the very group clamoring for equality and protesting exclusivity of rights is the very group refusing to allow that same right to me.

And thus the paradox of "you cannot eliminate the right of a same sex couple to marry, but I can eliminate your right to oppose it." Satan is good...or is it bad. Let's just say very effective at leading people astray by the subtle craftiness of men.

Pictures Galore

I had one of "those" days yesterday. While I was sitting on the couch feeding Avery, Spencer was very busy behind the kitchen island with the new case of juice boxes from Costco. I couldn't figure out what he was doing and of course every time I called him over to me, he ignore me. So when I finished with Avery I walked over to check it out. He had cut with scissors (!) into the case and pierced some of the juice boxes. I figured out later that it was 4 boxes. But all the juice from those boxes leaked all over the other boxes AND all over the floor. And then of course Spencer walked throught the mess a few times and got sticky footprints throughout the family room. Yeah, THAT's fun to clean up. To salvage the juices, I had to rinse off each box. Here's the evidence:

Here's the culprit:


And while I was cleaning that mess, Andi got the ink stamper from the top of Ainslee's pen and stamped her eyelids to look like eyeshadow and her lips to look like lipstick. She had asked me earlier in the day if she could put my makeup on. I should have known something naughty was going to happen. Here's the naughty one:

Here's the first-grader that all the others look up to:

Here's Ainslee, mommy's little helper, and Avery at 4 weeks:

Here's Little Missy at 5 weeks. You didn't know I gave birth to a baby Buddha, did you:

You also didn't know I gave birth to an owl:

Did you ALSO know that brussel sprouts grow on a stalk? We didn't until we bought a stalk at a farmers market last weekend. And the kids loved eating them! Yeah!

La Jolla

So I haven't blogged for a while because me and Avery went with Cory to La Jolla.

He had business meetings and I went for a little R&R. The other kids stayed home- sorry! I was on my own for 2 days while he had breakfast, lunch, and dinner with his associates. But that was fine. So we stayed at a really nice hotel just 1/4 mile from La Jolla Cove.

Of course we didn't take the camera- I always forget it. Dang. I'm trying to entertain you with pictures I found on the internet- just pretend I took them!

There were also little boutique shops (with a few scumy souveneir shops mixed in) and little restaurants up and down the streets. I shopped- window shopped that is. There were a ton of art galleries there- not exactly in my price range.

Down in the cove, there were sea lions just chillin' on the rocks 15 feet from the beach. Way cool.

I ate breakfast and lunch in the hotel, you know, cup o' noodles, oatmeal cereal bars, sink water. Then I went out for 2 dinners on my own (with Avery of course). I kinda felt like Rachel Ray on Tasty Travels or $40 a day, sampling the cuisine by myself.

I felt kinda weird and felt the need to explain my situation to the servers so they didn't think I was a single mom going on a date with myself. I did have dinner with Cory 1 night and we went to this kinda fancy restaurant. It was outdoor and at the top of a tall building so we could overlook the ocean. Food was not so great, but the view was!

While hanging out in the room, I got my recipe project finished that I brought from home. Success!

All in all it was really great and I'm glad I was able to go. Love You, Cory!

She's official now

Today was Avery's blessing day. I always joke with Cory that he'll forget the baby's name during the blessing but he didn't so she's officially Avery Melissa. The blessing was of course beautiful though I can't remember exactly what was said. My friend in the ward wrote down the details so I can read it over later. Here are a few pictures to show:

Okay, the picture below won't upload the right way. So either turn your head or turn the monitor to see!

My mom makes blessing blankets for all the grandkids and they each have a different stitch. This is the one she made for Avery.

And in 2 weeks we get to be at my nephew's blessing (Steve & Deb's boy). Can't wait!!!

These 2 weeks in pictures

So last week, the kids and I went to Provo with Cory. He was doing some recruiting for HP at BYU. Hey, free trip to Utah!!! Me and the kids just kinda hung out like we would normally while Cory was working. We did get to meet up with some family and eat dinner at Johnny Carino's. I highly recommend the Italian nachos with chicken and sausage. Seriously, it's SO good. We also got to meet up with some friends we haven't kept in touch with over the past 5 or so years. It was great to see you Jen & Ryan! Everytime we go back, we never have enough time to visit everyone we want to. When you add up immediate family, extended family, and friends there is just not enough time! We'll be out for Christmas so I'm hoping we can visit EVERYONE!
Here are the future BYU-ites:


We took a Sunday walk in the canyon and collected amazing leaves to decorate Grama Jo & Grampa Jo's house. So pretty. I wish we had neat-o canyons closer to us. Leaves from the backyard just aren't the same!


Here are the kids with Grama Jo, Grampa Jo, & Lucy (the dog).


One day we went to Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove. It's a big one made of wood so it looks like a huge fort. The kids loved it!


Here's the baby. Now, I threw this picture in the mix because if you click on it to make it larger, you'll see that her eyes look blue. Now I know she's only 2 weeks old and all babies have slate blue eyes until they change. But hers are way more blue than the other kids'. For just a short time anyway we'll enjoy her "blue" eyes until they turn brown.





Today we went on a Field Trip with Andi's preschool to a pumpkin patch. I took the 3 younger ones. Avery slept the whole time (yeah) while Spencer and Andi had a blast.