I Love to See the Temple

This morning my little 6 year old, Rilyn, was singing this song all morning - so I decided to capture it on video.

Today I'm Tired!

The Day in a Life of a Crazy Mother of Five...

We are crazy busy around here. I'm so tired! My "Girlfriend Getaway" set me back on sleep and then yesterday I just woke up at 4am thinking of stuff I had to do. And this morning when the alarm sounded at 5:30 I was SOOO sleepy - but I meet my girlfriend, Tara, to walk every morning and so I had to get up, that's probably a good thing! I feel like I'm dragging today, though.

This keeping the house clean is good and bad, it's a pain with 5 kids, but it's nice to have everything spiffy all the time! It is good until we have to do something like make and eat dinner, breakfast or lunch, or do laundry. Or if the kids want to do anything slightly messy, like play Legos, a game, or Pet Shop. In other words, it's clean except for when we have to actually live in here! We'll see how long it lasts! I just got back from Michael's and Costco.

Tyler LOVES Costco! I am not completely sure why, but I think it's all the food samples they have in there! But I hate that I can't get out of there without spending at least $100!!

I did manage to make this Crockpot Cake Recipe today. It is done baking and I tasted it and it is rich! If you really like Chocolate, it is for you! (Ahem, Denise.)

Officially on the Market

For Sale

Yesterday the Realtor came over and put up the sign in our yard. The photographer also came over and took pictures of our home. I'm so sad to sell it. It has been such a great place to call home for the past (almost) 2 years! And we, most especially Laren, have put in A LOT of work to make this place what it is.

But I just keep reminding myself it is a "moth and rust corruptible". It is just a thing, what I love about it more than anything else is that my favorite people in the world reside here and that's what makes it what it really is!

Back Home!!

Over the weekend, some girlfriends and I got together and rented a huge house in Heber City, Utah (outside Park City) and had a fun girls get together!! No husbands, no kids (except nursing babies) = fun!!

I took quite a few pictures - but after trying to upload them and having blogger mess up and lose all my pictures, here are just a few!

Alisa and I taking a self portrait.

Me and Krista.

The house we stayed in.

We played games, had a gift exchange, ate out, went to Olympic Park and went down the Zip line (that was a RUSH!), we went shopping at the Outlet Mall in Park City, stayed up late and did what girls do best: chat and eat!! We were concerned for our friends, Tamara and Mel, who had to survive the Hurricane in Houston.

And the day before I left for Utah, one of my favorite friends of all time came to Denver to visit me - all the way from Houston, Texas!

Me and Julie taking a self-portrait at lunch at Qdoba.

Julie and I were neighbors when we lived at Wymount Terrace at BYU. She and I would go walking together in the Smith Fieldhouse and push our babies, who are now 12 years old, in their strollers. She is the type of friend who inspires me to be better and every time we talk or get together we can chat just like we never missed a beat!! I'm glad you guys are safe after Hurricane, Ike, Julie!!

Lucky!

Lucky!

The Loot!

I'm not usually one to win anything. In fact, the only time I remember winning anything was at my Senior Graduation Party. We had our party in the bowling alley. All through the night they had raffles and drawings going on to win various different things.



The top prize was $500 cash. The second prize to the top was $250 cash. The other prizes were things like boom boxes (some of you young'uns probably don't know what those are ;) ), gift cards and stuff like that. I remember sitting there chatting with my fellow cheerleader and girlfriend, Tami, and we were both commiserating how neither of us win anything - so we let go of any hopes of it!



Wouldn't you know it, just a minute later - they drew my name for the $250 cash prize and hers for the $500 cash prize. My money went towards a down payment on my first car (a 1972 Toyota Celica - woohoo!). I don't know what Tami spent her $ on.

Rilyn, our loot and me!

So all of that to say, that I don't usually win stuff! But I recently did win the "grand" prize on my cute blogging friend, Mary's blog. I won make-up, card/scrapbooking making stuff, a cute polk-a-dotted notebook, sharpies (who doesn't love sharpies?), nail polish, some fat quarters, and a whole boat load of stuff! (She had some "smaller" contests and then one person could win everything from all the smaller contests - and that was me!)



It arrived today when I was at my daughter's volleyball game. Alyssa called me on my cell phone to tell me there was a big box at the door with my name on it! It was cute how she got so excited for me. After I got home, my 3 girls helped me open it up.



We cannot wait to put this stuff to good use!! Thanks Mary!!!

Our House

Our House,

is a very, very fine house....

The family room - My favorite room in the house.


The Study.

Because I've never posted video here before, I'm an amateur. But here's a little tour of the formal living and dining rooms.

And this is our Family Room and Kitchen.

Kitchen

We love our house -- and we're going to miss it! Anyone know any buyers? Laren accepted a job in Utah, being a project manager on the I-15 reconstruction project in Utah County. He leaves in a couple of weeks and the kids and I will stay here until our house sells.