Good Idea/Bad Idea and a Cousins Party!!

Someone gave me this idea, which doesnt seem that big of a deal, but I didnt think of it... for kids/husbands lunch ideas... she makes a sub sandwich on frenchbread and keeps it in the refrigerator. Good for all week, and the kids slice off size they want. This is YUM and my kids have been loving that I do this for school lunches lately... they tell me their friends are jealous! My favorite combo: ham, pepper turkey, hard salami, munster cheese slices

not so good idea.... what is this???
BAD IDEA: keeping the tupperware of homemade cookies in the oven as a place to store out of sight... I forgot, ofcourse, and the next morning I turned on the oven at breakfast time and smelled something wierd... oozing plastic, coating the cookies. This WAS a huge round tupperware... not anymore!
Best Idea: COUSINS PARTIES!

What is a cousins party?? Well, I am one of the older cousins, and babysat all my younger ones, love them, so 9 years ago, when they were in jr. high/highschool I started having them all over for Cousins Party sleepovers. We did random retarded things like video games, karaoke, heart attack Wal Mart at 1:00am, serenade gas stations, T.P, and always LOTS of junk food, etc... All the boy cousins have gone on missions and many of them have told me the thing they missed most were cousins parties, how sweet! But now most everyone is grown, married and in their 20's, and we still do cousin parties! No sleepovers... but the last one to leave this time was 2:30am. They bring their little ones, and it is a full house, and my kids just pass out wherever, having eaten candy all night. My kids live for cousins parties... and all week in family prayers they were blessin and thankin for the

cousins party on friday!


This time we rented a big slide for it...

and a cotton candy machine!
Grand Total for the night: 45 (including adults and kids)
And yes, the neighbors did tell us to keep it down at 11:00pm, oops!

Happy B-day Karen!

Rockband ofcourse...

So, the next morning at 10:00am the kids were playing on the slide outside, and Bruce and I start seeing kids running by the window happy as they can be with big sticks of fresh cotton candy... Ashlin and Macy had mastered the art the night before and cranked it up for breakfast...

YUM!

A Day Off

So, after our cousins party friday night... I finally woke up monday morning physically recovered and decided I should probably clean up after the party now! Since it was MLK day and no school, I said if we spent the morning cleaning, THEN we would go to FUDDRUCKERS, yum! Why Fuddruckers, well because sunday night Ashlin was complaining to me about all her friends who go out to eat more than us, and informed me that MACY's family goes to Fuddruckers ALL the time, so why don't we EVER go?? Wow, the deprivation. Well, Ashlin is lucky because I was feeling unusually kind and did not say, too bad so sad, but said, lets go tomorrow!! YUM! Everyone complained it up while we cleaned, but sure enjoyed the reward afterwards... shakes and hamburgers all around!

...afterwards we went to the Riparian Preserve behind the library to walk around the lake and play at the park, because we thought it was a beautiful day... WRONG, it was 84 degrees, and it felt HOT, did I miss the memo, is it not still winter??! But thats ok, fun outing, house cleaned, good day!

Superstars

Before we get to the "Superstars"...

Introducing:

Miss. Unibrow

Oh this is not the first time Lily has dove head first into the unibrow world via the mascara from my makeup purse. It really makes her feel like a princess to have mascara on. How do we break the very un-princess news to her?? not cute lily.

And where are her parents while she is doing this... below you will see Bruce is planted on the counch addicted to LOGAN's christmas present (a DS), and most likely I was just as unproductive on the computer.

And don't we love the new kitten Ashlin got for Christmas.

Introducing: Blitz

He slept in Lily's lap for almost an hour, oh, she loves her new baby while the older kids are gone at school!

I think that Blitz likes Logan's new DS about as much as Bruce and Logan do!




On to the Superstars...

So, we have a stage in our backyard... it was meant to be an elevated stone area for a table and chairs, but we soon discovered a better use for it... the stage!

Emma had karaoke birthday party #2 (2 years ago also) for her 9th bday. Don't think they let Lily up on stage, oh no, this picture is taken after the party is over and Lily's princess CD is in, I only sat in the audience and Lily finally got her moment to shine...

this photo as well, after the party Logan got a turn at the mike...

Now, the PARTY!! You get a karaoke machine, balloons, some microphones, and random dress up stuff... and lots of girls who like to be the center of attention... and you have a great

Karaoke Party!!




Below is Emma's favorite friend Kinsely she has made at Mesquite this year. She is in Emma's class and in a wheelchair, with some physical disabilities. Emma loves her and wanted her to come to the party. It was so sweet to see all the girls so nice to her and helping her and loving seeing her sing to the music, even though her vocals are a little slow, and not quite with the beat of the song... but she rocked out anyway!! Go Kinsley!!



And below, a very quickly put together assortment of video/pictures of the karaoke fun, 1 minute. (beware, not a full "Vernon Production")...




Happy 9th Birthday Emma!

We love you!

"Jingle Bells"

So the Blake fam does a Christmas talent show each year at Val Vista Lakes club house. Here is our families talent... not too fancy, but we did get the whole family on some instrument:

Emma and me- piano duet
Ashlin- flute
Dallin- percussion bells
Bruce- harmonica
Logan and Lily- jingle bells

check her out, but keep your expectations fairly low:


Merry Christmas!

The Magic of Night

How many children usually sleep in a twin bed?

These 3 children above are the fighting children. All through out the long hours of day the battle rages between them. Random small things wage large wars, where they often reside on opposing teams. And then as soon as I announce "bed time"... something mysterious happens. Each night they beg to sleep in the same bed. Anyone who has witnessed the day time fights would think, they will not survive the night. Nope, I know the "Magic of Night". Some very special "not wanting to go to bed" bond happens, and magically unites the fighting children in to peaceful children who love eachother for night. Wierd. We have 5 children, 5 beds, and atleast 2-3 beds are empty each night. This is the honest truth.

And now.... Merry Christmas!

And next year, 1 more stocking will have to fit amongst the rest...

And just in case you didn't notice in the above picture, here is the up close of our tacky angel, yes, a stuffed dog angel, it just fit, because you know, Bruce IS a Veterinarian.

...and our up close of Bruce's stocking. He will not let me get him a new stocking which matches the rest. His even faces the wrong way. But he insists we keep the stocking he has had since I bought it for him when just engaged! (Engaged and cared more about impressing him then worrying about the tackyness of our future home) Oh well.


And some more Christmas fun... Lily's "Princess Playgroup".
(Lily in middle)

They gathered on the bean bag to watch a short "Rudolph the Reindeer" video...

... then made reindeer cookies. How cute!

And below you will see the cutest surprise that awaited my door one day... the Activity Days girls in our ward came a caroling and bringing me a box of cookies. I even knew what activity they had, as I dropped Emma off at the church myself, but didn't even consider they would come to my house! It made me cry. And they sang, and sang, and sang. We kept trying to applaude and they kept telling us they weren't done. So sweet!!

And last, I am thankful our new elementary school celebrates Christmas openly!!! YEAH! We have Christmas Concerts with Christmas songs!! Logan's kindergarten class below is singing "Jingle Bells". And it too made me cry. Why, I don't know. It just is so cute to see those little people up there shaking those bells! (Logan all the way to left)

Merry Christmas!
(Santa by Ashlin)

Another One.

So, we found out at the end of October that we were expecting baby #6. Because we have had miscarriages in the past, we waited to tell people that we were expecting until after the first doctors visit. But when I went to the first doctors visit, they couldn't find a heartbeat. They scheduled an ultrasound for the next day. Since I have been through it before... I was preparing myself for another miscarriage, though praying and praying that everything was ok.



I went to the ultrasound and it seemed like forever that the lady searched around without saying anything (when they say nothing, that is bad) then her first verbal response was, "have you had any bleeding this pregnancy?", to which my heart sank. I just knew that meant she wasn't finding anything. BUT then she told me to hold my breath and she turned the sound up really loud, and there was the most precious sound, a little fast heartbeat, and she said, "there's your babies heart beat!" I immediately started sobbing, I was so happy! A heart beat. I said, "my baby has a heart beat???" I was overcome with emotions of gratitude and joy. Another heart beat. Another baby. Another one!! I cried for an hour, no joke. I was suppose to call Bruce right after the ultrasound, but couldn't compose my self the whole ride home, just cried. I am so happy. I am so thankful. I feel so blessed.



My feelings about having 6 children:



I am going to be honest. I am nervous. I worry constantly that I will be a good enough mother, that all of my children will feel loved, that all of them will feel like they had enough attention. I pray constantly that God will bless my efforts. I am so not a perfect mom. But I do love being a mom. I love reading books to my kids, I love going on walks with my kids, I love having parties for my kids, I love making treats with them. Whenever I am not focused on the fact that I feel so sick, and remember that I get to hold another tiny baby in my arms, I can't believe it,
I am so happy.

BUT, when I yell at my kids, or the house is a wreck, or my kids talk back, or laundry is piling, I think, how will I do this?

I have always wanted a big family. When I was a little girl, I loved Cabbage Patch Kids. They were really hard to buy for a while there, other girls were happy to have 1. I was generally not spoiled, but I had 7 cabbage patch kids. I never wanted to take care of just one, I wanted to play "orphanage" and take care of a whole group. I loved hanging out at friends houses with big families, I loved babysitting my cousins of big families. It's what I always wanted and Bruce was warned when he married me.

Bruce is the best. My sort of strength and weakness is that I take on a lot. My response is always, I can do that, or we should do this. I always think I can fit everything in somehow. Bruce is not like this. He is more pessimistic. He always thinks we are too busy, or we won't be able to get to it. The reason why he is the best, is because as I take on a ton, and am flailing the night before stressed about everything that needs to get done, he is always right there helping me get it all done. I am so thankful for him. He said to me that he didn't feel the need for another baby, but he didn't want to be the one to not allow me if I would always regret it. And now he is the one next to me doing more laundry and working harder to keep the house clean, because I feel so sick. How did I get so lucky to have him? Thank you Bruce. I love you!

And I am thankful for 5 kids who are so excited for another baby. Even before they knew I was pregnant Logan put on his Christmas list, "a new baby brother".

I have faith God will bless our efforts, because quite honestly, I know in my heart how guided through prayer I felt
in bringing this on.