Random picture

I chose a picture from a file that said 'couch'

It popped up and I was pleasantly surprised.

It makes me want summer here even faster.

This is Emma at my friends pool in South Florida.

Oh, I miss it!!

Icky Sicky

Friday night I was driving home from Russell's basketball game, and as I was driving up the canyon, I kept feeling pressure in my sinuses. I kept telling Russ that I thought I was getting sick. By the time we got home, my cold was in full force. No wonder why I was dragging at the gym all week long. I was on the road to a cold. I stayed in bed most of the day yesterday. And today...right now, I am skipping church. I really should go lay down because my head feels like its going to explode. But, I can only lay down for so long before I am restless. It's just your typical cold. Stuffy, sneezy, achy, runny nose, pain in the rear cold. Hopefully no one else gets it. Of course, every time I say that, someone inevitably gets sick. So I should say...I wonder who is going to get it next!

I am looking forward to thursday. It is my turn for a weekend away. I am going to St. George to stay at my parents house while they are gone to Seattle for my nephews wedding. And best news of all, its going to be just me!! Russ went to mesquite on a golf trip with his dad for a weekend, a couple of weeks ago, so now its my turn! I am excited. The weather should be fabulous! I am determined to get the rest and alone time that I need to come home afterwards and be the best mom and wife I can be.

Hey, we all need a break every now and then right? This will be my longest break since we got married 14 years ago.

black and whites

Russell's parents Alice and Forrest came out to dugway to watch Carter and Emma's basketball games. Then we celebrated Russell's birthday. We made homemade pizza and had cake. Then Russ and his dad went golfing.

It's a shame I didn't get pictures of the basketball games.

Tomorrow is their last season games so I will have to shoot some then!

I had to turn all the pictures to black and white because the lighting in the gym is very offensive.

I leave there with a dizzy head every time!

Allie, the dancer

Allie is in dance.

Her very first time.

She loves it.

It's only once a week. Much to her dismay. She was up and dressed and ready for dance class this morning only to be disappointed when I told her she didn't have dance today.

They are going to put on a "pre-school musical" performance in April.
So cute.

love her.

Date Night

If you live in Utah and you don't know who Matt Townsend is...just watch studio 5 and he will be on there now and again. He is a Relationship Coach. I invited my brother Ben, his wife Jan, pictured on the left, My sister Loni, in the middle, and her husband Rick, to join Russell and I for a night of fun at one of Matt's seminars. He is hilarious. A complete riot! He had us laughing all night. He is so smart and knowledgeable about relationships between husband and wife...or any other relationship. We picked up his book that night and had him sign it for us. Nice guy.
Haven't started reading the book yet, but soon!!
I will let you know how it is ;)



Our first stop was a restaurant in South Jordan called Madeline's Steak House.
I don't recommend it.
It wasn't horrible, but I have had better.
The company was great though.
This picture is of Rick, Ben and Russ.


Me, Jan and Loni who hides from the camera and messes up my pictures!!!

moms day away

Over presidents day weekend, I got to go to Park City by myself.
It was a much needed break.
I Did some school clothes shopping at the outlet stores.
I even sat in a deli in down town P.C. all alone and had a over-priced sandwich and diet coke.
Alone.
I emphasize alone because,...I never am.
It is difficult for me to be alone....
because...
I never am.
But I tried and ultimately succeeded on enjoying every minute of it.

mommas little guy

Jarom is my cuddler.

We are now locking him out of our bedroom at night.

He usually comes in and climbs in bed with me and kicks me all night long.

He just wants mommy all the time.

love him.

my poor babies

Poor Allie was so sick that she fell asleep while waiting for the doctor to come in.

Jarom looks like buck wheat in this picture.

Nice hair!

Doctors...again!

I have had a sore throat for 2 weeks but no other symptoms.

The twins got RSV but kept getting worse, so in to town for throat cultures we go.

I decided to get one just to be sure....

mine and Allie's came back positive for strep.

So they gave us shots in the bum.

hip actually.

I asked for them because then we don't have to take pills for 10 days!

I highly recommend this, although it is painful.

Not horrible, but a little painful.

Totally worth it.

Allie had to take an oral anti-biotic with it because her infection was so bad!

I sure hope we are done with sickness for a very long time.!!

dentist doctor walmart...oh man!

So one of the bad things about living in the desert is that it takes SO long to go to town.

The kids had a dentist appointment for a cleaning and check-up at 2pm.

We have to leave at 1:00 to make it there on time.

Jarom and Allie cried their eyes out 6 months ago when we went.

Yesterday, they were perfect!!

I don't really know why I didn't get a picture of Emma or Allie, I guess I was so concerned about Jarom freaking out that when I saw he was doing okay, I had to have a picture of him.

I didn't think about the girls because they were fine.

He was watching scooby doo.

Allie had a doctors appointment at 3:45 for a physical for dance.

I am thinking about changing doctors because I can't ever get in to see "the doctor" it's always his Physicians Assistant who is ALWAYS running late.

We didn't get out of there until 5 pm. I still had a ton of shopping to do at walmart.

Don't forget the ride home is an hour long.

I had planned on being home by 6:30 for a meeting.

After struggling in walmart with a cart that wouldn't turn and weighed 100 pounds....

and stepping on three kids, the man in the check out behind me offered to push one of my carts to my car.

My hero!

He could tell that I was frustrated and at my wits end.

A very nice man and his two teenage daughters made my night.

Thank you stranger in walmart for helping me a little that meant a lot!!

Half way up the canyon, my phone rang and it was one of the ladies from my meeting...saying that it was starting....

the phone cut out.

I was surprised it rang at all.

usually there is no reception at that point.

I was late for the meeting.

Russell got a call when I was almost home...

"honey, I'm late for my meeting, can you have the truck running so I can jump in and go? Oh, and can you unload the car and put away the groceries? Oh, and Allie was acting like she was going to puke, so watch her. Oh, and there is no lid now on one of the water jugs, because the kids pulled off my jimmy rigged lid while in walmart and I couldn't find the rubber band, so be careful when you carry it in the house! Thanks, love ya babe."

I got to the meeting that lasted 5 minutes.

My young women's president got after me for being upset about something that happened on Sunday.

I am the beehive leader.

I prepare a lesson for Sunday.

On Sunday, the bishopric came in and took all but 3 minutes of my lesson time setting apart girls for presidencies.

I was a little pa-turbed!

It was the second week in a row.

President said, I was snotty and in-appropriate in front of the girls.

I don't remember it that way.

I said something to the leaders.

quietly.

not in front of the girls.

president was feeling guilty because it was her fault that happened.

she apologized.

but still got after me.

made me feel not so much love for her at the moment.

she's young.

maybe I acted like that when I was her age.

not sure.

oh well,

problem resolved with bishopric.

wont happen again.

I realize....

I hang on to things too long,

on the inside.

will things ever be the same between me and president?

not sure.

Oh well,

I will go and do...

How can I be okay with this?

I need to find a way to be okay with my house not being perfect!

It never is, but I am NEVER okay with it!

I like to think of myself as a clean person, however, I am only one.

But I have TWO that are fighting against me.....constantly!

Russ keeps saying, wait for a couple of years, then they wont be so messy!

Ha!

I will believe it when I see it!

I have a plan today to not clean anything until Carter comes home and takes the twins to the park so I can have at least 2 hours of uninterrupted cleaning time.

Last night, while I was helping Carter with his science project....(yes helping, not doing it for him) the twins were in Allie's room emptying out her dresser drawers!

Saturday night, I heard the laundry going and I asked Russell if he started a load in the washer....it took him about 3 seconds before he realized that he heard Jarom over there playing, and possibly starting a load all by himself.

Luckily he was not in with the load!

We have child locks on the washer and dryer for that reason, but apparently we have gotten a little relaxed with that!

So on go the locks!

Well, you might say, "at least Jarom is helping with the laundry!"

However, it was a mixture of blue and white that were in there together.

Along with many other articles of mismatched clothing.

I am surprised I didn't find a toy or two in with the load.

I guess what I am getting at, is that I am at the moment frustrated that I can't keep up.

And sad that I used to be able to, but cannot find a way now.

So I MUST tell myself, to be okay with a little clutter...okay.,, a lot of clutter at times.

Life will go on!

I would just hate to have someone stop by and see my house in utter disarray!

The twins are now sleeping, (unbelievable) so I am off to clean up!

But only as much as I can until their pretty little eyes pop open!

Okay, Russ wants me to....

It looks like I am going to be going private with my blog.
After Russ telling me for a while now that he doesn't like me having a "public blog" I caved.
He's right.
But I hate to admit that it's an awful world out there.
And that any joe shmo could read my blog and that would be creepy.
So,
I guess you have to send me your email addresses so I can add you on if you want to read me.
All 7 of you!

;)

mcepup@yahoo.com

this guy.

Carter, is amazing!

He helps out so much with the kids.

And with chores.

He's so good with the twins.

Emma, on the other hand, he needs to be a little more patient with.

They tend to fight.

(don't mind my bra hanging in the background)

Carter's report card for last term was funny.

He got all A's in the important subjects.

And a B+ in Shop and a B in Home ec.!

I just laughed and said, how on earth do you get a B+ in Shop?

Oh, it's the teachers fault, he said.

He yells.

Nobody knows what he really wants us to do.

By the way, same teacher for both (B) classes....

I just can't believe how fast he is growing.

He just turned 13 in Dec. and look how tall he is already.

I am not short.

I am not super tall, but average.

I am 5'6".

That means Carter is at least 5'8" maybe 5'9" by now.

This picture was taken in Dec.

Today he seemed to tower over me.

And he was clear to point out that he thinks I am shrinking.

His basketball game today was evident of him growing so fast.

He was so flopsy today.

Is that a word?

Every time he shot the ball, he would fall to the floor.

It was like he didn't know how to work his lanky body!

I think He will eventually be taller than Russ.

Russ is the shortest guy in his family at 6'1" and some change.

I love my carter bug.
He's now too "old" to call him Carter Bug in public now....sad face.

3 hours of intense workout!!

Today we went bowling. I was kidding about it being intense, but believe it or not, I will be sore tomorrow. I will just pretend that it was from working out this morning at the gym with Russell.
That is our new hobby together. The past two weeks we have been to the gym together 12 times!! It's fun! We take Sundays off to recuperate and keep the Sabbath day holy ;).
Carter and Emma both had basketball games today. Emma is on a team of 1st and second graders so they don't keep score. She made a basket today!! It is pretty chaotic but fun for them and fun for us to watch.
Carter is one of the tallest on his team. He is super good this year. Big improvement every year. Next year he wants to play on the competitive team in town. He made a lot of great plays today and made a lot of great assists.
Dugway continues to embarrass themselves. (that's us by the way). Last week we drove to Tooele for the games, which is an hour away, and 8 minutes into the game, Carter's coach was complaining to the ref about a bad call and wouldn't stop. Even after a technical called on him. He just couldn't keep his mouth shut and got another technical and the ref called the game and we forfeited. EEEIIIGGGHHHTT minutes into the game!!!!!! Luckily we had driven into town for Emma's game too. But there were a lot of people who drove an hour just for their kids game, for it to end 8 minutes later. We were a little peaved at the coach!! He did a lot better today and hardly yelled at all! improvement.
Today we embarrassed ourselves by not having a working scoreboard. We have a state of the art gym where all of the games were played last year, and this year, people have to drive an hour out here to play in a dinky old gym with no working scoreboard. It was awful watching a game where you couldn't see how much time was on the clock. There were random whistles being blown, the kids were confused. It was a mess!! but they won!! Hopefully we can get our act together and stop embarrassing ourselves. Dugway already has a poor reputation for stuff like this.....we are making it worse. And by we...I mean them. I'm not in charge. And I hope that if I was...I would have things in order a little better.

today...

I got to talk to my dear friend Janette today!!!!!!

She always brightens my day.....Love you Janette, and miss you so much!

Its been over a year since we have seen each other!

I have so many little things I should be doing today that are annoying that will help me get caught up but the little things are sometimes the hardest things to do.

Why is that?

Got all 4 of my bathrooms scrubbed today though.

And laundry is done, now I just need to put it all away....argh!!

Fun Family Activity

We found a hill that wasnt too big but just perfect for our family to go sledding!

It was a ton of fun!!
The funny thing about all of these pictures is it looks like we are sitting still....
but we were flying down the hill.

Allie really loved sledding.

She would just laugh and laugh and climb up the hill and do it all over again.

It was hilarious.

Breakfast with Santa

Santa came to the church to have breakfast with us!
Carter's laughing because Santa was threatening him!
Santa was Carter's baseball coach.
So Carter knew who he was under that beard at the Christmas party at the gym.
Carter decided to pull on his beard and discovered that his beard and mustache were sewn onto his real ones.
So.....while Carter sat on his lap at the church,
you can imagine what Santa was saying into his ear.


Allie is telling him that she wants princess this....and princess that.....and anything and everything that is princess related!

Emma went on and on about stuff I had never even heard of before.

Jarom said that he wanted a train, that's it!

Then he was done and wanted down.

I was impressed that he got on his lap.

He didn't want anything to do with him at the gym!

'tis the season for parties and such

Russ and I at his parents Christmas party.

My super good friend Konea.

We took the youth to the temple for baptisms then to see the lights.

It was great fun.

Russ said we look like two gay chicks posing in front of the temple like people do when they get married.

A very nice passer-by took our picture for us.

Inside the south visitors center.

I just loved this tree!

You can barely see the tree through all the decorations on it.

One of the sister missionaries from Mexico took our picture inside the tabernacle.