September 30, 2012

Life as we know it

I seriously cannot believe it has been alittle over 2 weeks since I posted. I am so sorry. Actually does anyone read this? If you have read this, then please leave a short comment. I have been debating whether or not to say goodbye to the blogging world or if this is something I am going to look back on one day and be so grateful I stuck with it. This year for my christmas present I just want to put all my blogs into a book. I think it is a brillant idea. So I have started to compile all of my of my posts and put them in ink. I can't wait!

Life has been crazy busy.  Where do I begin? You may or may not be bored with my life but this is for me because I feel like if I don't get it all out there I am going to just explode. I will start with my children. My first born Keaton. My oldest, dearest son is 7. Can you believe that? This week I have just stopped sometimes to do whatever it is I am busy doing and just watch him. He is so excited to be baptized next summer.  He is already telling me all about what he wants to do when he is 8. He is seriously so sweet and so mischevious. Is that possible? He is a great helper when he wants to be and trouble when he thinks he can get away with it too.  He is doing great in school. I get to volunteer every Tuesday morning with some reading fluenices. I have really loved getting to see him in a classroom setting and interact with his classmates. He has a fabulous teacher this year and I have just been thrilled with his school. This week they have off for Fall Harvest break. He is really excited about that.  He is playing soccer and flag football. This week I got to go and watch him practice. He is really, really good. I hate to brag, but since he is my son and I love him, I think he was one of the best. He is just a natural and things come that way to him. They always have, and hopefully always will.  I am thinking about putting him piano in the winter. We will see. I think he would love gymnastics as well. I love giving them opportunities and then stepping back to see what they want to do with it. Continue it or ditch it.  This week, I have to share it. I was sitting in my room reading last Wednseday evening and he came in and asked me if he could come and sit by me. So he did and we sat there and talked. Just about random silly things. They were silly things but they were things of importance to him. He really wanted to have a conversation. I put what I was reading down and we just talked. I loved it! In fact when he went back to bed, I just sat there and got teary eyed. When did he grow up? I hope he can always come and talk to me so freely like he did.

Andrew, he is giving me a run for my money.  I look at him and wonder where on earth he came from. Do you have a child like that? I love, love, love him seriously with everything I have but sometimes I look at him and really believe that he is an instrument in the Lord's hands to teach my something valuable. He doesn't obey like we would like him to. We usually have to remind him 1,2,10 times to do something,but he usually does it. I wish it would after the first time he is asked but we are making baby steps.  He is on a soccer team as well. Andrew is a great player. His team is young and they really don't know what they are doing and all I want to do is laugh when I watch him play. Sometimes he is in the zone and focused and then there are other times when he is dozing off, probably thinking about candy or some kind of treat, he has been a great player on the team. He loves, loves, loves to ride the bus home each and every day from school. He has a great group of friends he rides with and we have a great schedule with him. The other day I was waiting for his bus to come. Come to find out it already had and there was no Andrew, neither his little friends that he rides the bus with. So I didn't really panic because I knew they would be together but still, myself along with another mom from our ward started to panic when there was no kids after 10-15 minutes. I am on the phone with the busing system and they can't figure out where they are and in the meantime I get a phone call from Lance telling me that Andrew was home. He had gone through an empty field on the way home and I passed right by them. Just about scared me. That is my Andrew, keeping me on my toes.


I did get to go to his class on Friday and volunteer for Apple Day.  He has a wonderful teacher as well. Keaton and Andrew are not in the same schoo. This year's lottery just didn't do that for us. So they are in seperate schools acrosee the street from each other, but it works and we have a great systerm going on. I have been impressed with both schools. Anways, he has a great teacher and she is like the grandma that just loves, loves her kids. I couldn't be more happier with his teacher. He is learning a lot. Last night was the Women's conference and I went with my good friends and Lance held down the fort. Well while I was gone Andrew was climbing a tree and he fell. The branches weren't as strong as he was heavy and so the tree beat him up all the way down. His face is pretty bruised. Especially his eye. He woke up this morning pretty tramatized by it. It was completely swollen shut. I will watch it for the next day or so and if it hasn't gone back down I will take him in. He got a pretty good cut and I think that is what is causing his eyelid to swell up like that. He doesn't complain of it hurting and he is opening it more and more.


Owen, well he is something else. Whoever said that two was terrible. I disagree, three has been much worse. I hope this is a phase that he is going through. But most days his main goal is to torment Ellie. Poor girl is learning to put up her own with him. She will start to growl and then head butt him and try to bite. We are teaching her that is a no, no. Anyways, Owen has preschool this year. He is starting to like it. It is taking him awhile to adjust. I have to admit something right now. Owen hates the wind.  Back in June we had a pretty good size storm roll through Boise. Well this storm blew everything over, trees, knocked out power and blew alll our paper and eating untensils and just blew them away like crazy. He didn't react too well to that and was terrified from that day on of the wind. Most days he doesn't really notice it but there are those days when the wind is blowing alittle harder and he will stop and look at the trees and run and ask me if a storm is coming. So we have to gently reassure him that there is no storm and that the wind is safe. Poor guy. I hope he gets over it soon. It's a killer. He is trying to keep up with the boys. His vocabulary has just doubled in size over the past few weeks. Talking full sentences and I am understanding it more and more. Love that about him. What I love about Owen is when he wakes up in the morning he will come into our room and come to my side and whisper if he can come sleep by me. I love it when his little face nestles into my neck and he falls back to sleep, most of the time.

Ellie, wow, she has really grown. Just this week she has started to walk like crazy. My baby is growing up. She is just the cutest girl that every walked the planet. Her smile. Her teeth. Her hair. Everything about her I just love and adore. But she is teething right now and she is extra clingy and well, that I could do without but she loves to be held and cuddled so I guess I can do it alittle longer. She is sleeping through the night now. That makes a huge difference. She takes good naps and is a great eater. She loves to play outside. What little kid doesn't it? Just the other day our little neighbor Carly came over and asked if she could take Ellie for a ride in her power wheel. Ellie just loved that. It made her whole day. Then all she wanted to do was sit in and and have someone take her for rides. It was so fun to watch her. She still loves bath time and hates to get dressed. When I change her diapers as well. I literally have to pin her down with my legs. It is something else. If only she would lay still for 5 seconds I could be done, but nope, it takes us a good 5 minutes to do it.
I wish time could freeze for her just awhile longer. She is loved!!!!

Lance is busy in the bishopric and building homes. He loves it! I am happy for him. He loves creating things with is hands and this is the perfect thing for him. He is currently building 4 homes with two others in the works. He constantly amazes me with his faith and determination to do what he wants to do and make a living out of it. Way to go hun!!!!!! Thanks for all the hard work you do.
As for me, well I feel like I am here, there and should be over there most of the time. I live in my car, running kids to and from school and then from scouts and back and then to sports. Life is crazy right now. I also teach every morning some workout classees. That has been a big deal for me. I teach every morning at 6 and we have a great time. I am losing inches and that is good.
I am still training for that marathon in October as well. Just really really busy. But I am happy and loving what I am doing. I will be doing some traveling teaching some oil classes coming up this month. We are headed to Washington and then to Oregon to teach, teach and teach some more. I never thought I would do this but here I am and I am loving it!
Wow, that is enough for now. Thanks for sticking with me. That was a lot.

September 16, 2012

David Osmond at doTERRA Convention

Here he is.  This is the song he sang for us and he was an awesome entertainer.


doTERRA Convention 2012

This was my first year attending the doTERRA Convention.  Can I just say, it was FABULOUS!!!! I can't wait to go back next year.  But next year we will be walking across the stage as Diamond rank. I just know it.!
This year it was in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I got Lance to go with me this year so he could get a feel for what I do and alittle more about the buisness side of things.  I hope he liked it. I think he was more surprised at the medical back grounds that many of the doctor's who spoke to us.
We were fortunate to have the best babysitter in the world stay with all our kids - Grandma! Thanks mom for watching the kids. Now do you understand why my days are crazy, hectic busy? Thanks for all you did! It was great to get away. I had been way too long. It was kind of too short if you ask me. I could have stayed a few more days. Maybe some other time.
Well we got there early Thursday morning. Lance and I woke up early and got there in time.  We met up with our good friends who almost feel like family to us.  They were so much fun to be with. We work alot together and our kids are friends. They have really helped me out with the buisness part of doTERRA. They have also taught me almost all I know so far.
We were at convention from Thursday to Saturday evening. Then we drove back home late last night so Lance could be back to church today.
Convention was amazing! If you have never gone you need to go. It will change your persepective and your attitude on essential oils. If you are reading this and have no idea what I am talking about, give me a call, text or email me. It will change your life like it has mine and the life of my children.  We are happy and healthy.
Thursday doTERRA recognized all the Silver rankings in the company which meant that Lance and I got to walk across stage and meet the advisory.  Now mind you, we are in the Salt Palace and there are 7,000 + people there from all parts of the world. There is loud music, fun lights and music. It was just a huge rush for me to get up there on stage and have our names flash across the stage was so much fun.
I got to meet Dr. David Hill, the chief medical advisor for doTERRA. This man amazes me with his knowledge of the oils. I could listen to him all day long. I got my picture taken with him while we were back stage waiting our turn to go out.

There was so much to learn.  Friday we had breakout sessions all day long. We had a schedule to choose from. There were so many good classes and seminars that I would have loved to attend but due to limited time we hit some of the most favoirtes. We learned a lot from skin care, to infant-toddler care, to how to help grow a buisness. I have a whole notebook full of notes. I wish I could share them with everyone.
Friday night we went out to eat after the last session got out at 5:30 p.m.  We ran across the street to Olive Garden and met up with my brother and all our downline for dinner. It was good eats too! Then we went to hang out with Matt and Anna and we decided to go to Gateway Mall. I have never been there and Matt seemed to know his way around downtown on the bus/train, whatever it is, a tram I think. Well we ended up towards the University and quite aways from where we wanted to be. Now mind you it was 7:30- 8 p.m. when we were doing this. We finally found the right route because a kind lady showed us where to go. Well we got there and the mall was closed. Not too much going on so we headed back and decided to hang out in Matt and Anna's room and see if there was a movie on but nope, there was nothing but Johnny Cash, Walk the Line movie so we all started to watch that until we all started to feel sleepy and around midnight we all called it quits. So much for a free night without kids and what did we do with our time? We still had a fun time with them.  The great thing was, no kids, no time schedule to follow. We were on our time table. It was so nice and so relaxing.
Saturday was the last day. It was full of motivational speakers, musicians and everything else. I really loved it. The first speaker was Kyle Maynard. Ever heard of him? Well he was born without arms and legs. He is a motivational speaker now all over the world sharing his story of sucess and overcoming trials. He recently cliimed Mt. Kimamanjaro to spread a friend's ashes at the top, plays football, is a wrestler, owns his own gym to train disabled people, drives a Taheo and lives a normal life. Talk about an amazing story. I won't go into too much detail, but I walked away amazed with his story and his life.  The DJ for the doTERRA Convention was David Osmond. He was really funny and had a beautiful voice. He wrote a song for the convention and here it is if you want to see a video.....


Nathan Pachenco also sang for us. His first album comes out on Tuesday. The next Josh Groban for sure. I cried while he sang, it was so amazing.
It was hard for me to come home. I was in my element. I was so excited to start up again and get things going. Time to get to work, because next year, we are going Diamond!!!!!!!!

 This is my brother Justin and I outside of City Creek Mall. It was so fun to catch up with him on the evenings. Thanks for a great time Justin!
I have loved all that doTERRA has to offer. It has changed me, my family and I hope there is a lot more down the road for us. It has been a huge blessing for us. Thank you!!!!!!!!

doTERRA Convention 2012 Engage- Nathan Pocheco performs!

This was Nathan Pocheco who performed at the convention. Check him out....... 

September 9, 2012

Is it Sunday again?

I don't know about you but I am not too fond of Sundays.  They used to be my most favorite, most relaxing and most uplifting day of the week.  For the past year or two I have really struggled with this.  Seems even more now so since Lance was put into the bishopric. It is just me, myself and I up against 4 kids alone on one tiny pew. Most Sundays are crazy and I end up in the hallway with all my kids trailing behind me. Some Sundays it is Owen pulling and punching Ellie to the point where she is screaming and then I have to grab Owen's arm and pull the both of them out, leaving Keaton and Andrew by themselves to do who knows what. I only cross my fingers that they will sit still and not fight. Sundays are not so fun. Not that Sundays are suppose to be fun but they are no walk in the park either. It seems like no matter how much I have planned for each Sunday with ideas, new quite books and new things for them to read and activities to do, it never really works. At least for them. Our friends in front and in back of us seem to love my ideas but my kids? No way.
  I know I go because I am suppose to. It is where I want to be. It is something so important to me that I want my children to understand the importance of Sunday, but I am just not feeling it right now.
Lance came up to me and said "First Sunday that you have not had to take a child out of sacrament." Ya, but we were loud, rowdy and kind of annoying to those sitting around us.  Ever since I can remember, there has always been that family in sacrament that has loud, irreverant children, that just make you want to go insane.  Well sad to admit, I am raising one of those families.  How did this happen?  Well it happpened and I am tryign so hard to make it better.  Today the kids did better, yes, but we still have a LONG way to go.  I don't remember what was said in sacrament. I don't remember what was said in sacrament last week or perhaps the week before that, but I am trying to feel. Feel something that will help me with this inner struggle I have.  All the moms who have children all grown up and pay attention in sacrament just look at me and tell me, don't wish it away too fast. There will be days when you will miss it.  I always hear that. I am not sure I will miss it.  Yes, there are a lot of days we have had that I miss already but Sundays, not so much. At least that is my course of thinking right now.
All during Sunday school and Relief society, it took everything I had to try and stay awake. I was and still am so exhausted. I constantly feel tired.  I am getting enough rest, working out every day and eating really well. What is it? I don't know but it is making me grumpy. Ask my husband, ask my children. I am grumpy. 
I am not a grumpy person either. I used to be happy, spunky and just full of energy. Probably just my stage of life right now. Man I need a vacation.
So that is what Lance and I are doing this week.  We are going to Salt Lake on Thursday and coming back on Saturday night.  doTERRA is having their annual conference and this is our first year.  I am super excited to learn as much as I can. Not only about what it can do for me and my children but about buisness as well.  The Lord is starting to bless us from our hard efforts.  I want to take it an extra mile and see where it will go from there.  Super excited to go and have no kids.  Sad to say but I am ready to have a break. The last time I took a break without no kids was almost two years ago when Lance and I went down to Utah for BYU's homecoming weekend. So it is time.
This week I need to wean Ellie from nursing. We are getting there slowly.  I will miss that and I will enjoy the seperation all at the same time. She has been so sweet but I won't miss the bitting.
Life is busy.  Really busy.  I feel like I live in a car.  My day usually starts at 5:50 a.m. I rush out the door to the church where I started teaching workouts to the woman who like to come. We have been getting a great group of gals that have been coming faithfully each and every morning.  It feels so good to be done by 7 and go home to a house that is still sleeping. Nice to have that behind me.  Some days I will stay in my workouts and then go running later in the morning if Lance is home to watch the kids. Did I mention that I am running a half marathon in October. Ya, crazy, because I used to hate running. Now I LOVE it! It has become therapeutic for me. It really has.
Kids are coming and going to school throughout the day. Then we have to pick up kids at bus stops, get to scouts on time, have soccer practice, eat dinner and then it's time for mutual and bed.  Our afternoons are somewhat crazy in our home. But I love routine and we are thriving on that. Just need to figure out how to do it gracefully. Is there such a thing as that?

This weekend Lance and I managed to have a date night two nights in a row.  Well I wouldn't actually call them date nights because they were both birthday parties for some friends of ours. But the big thing was me finding a babysitter for my kids. Anyone who knows me well knows I don't just call up random Young Women from our ward and ask them to babysit. I usually call my mom to do it. I trust her. She knows how to do things around her and she can put my kids to bed.  Well this week I decided not to do that anymore. I need to just let go and trust others with my kids. I am happy to report that we found two fantastic babysitters that will be forever on our list to call. Not only did the kids love them but the girls that watched my kids loved them too. I felt so relieved about that. I had to secretively pat myself on the back for that.

I just finished the book  These is my Words the diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner. It was an excellent book. I would read it again but I have to return it to the library. I highly reccomend it. I LOVED it!

Since it is Sunday I am not sure where I found time to sit down and jot all of this down, but my house is kinda quiet. Ellie is asleep and all my boys are playing quietly in their rooms. It is nice to hear myself think.

September 4, 2012

Andrew lost a tooth

This week Andrew lost his first tooth.  He has a few loose teeth but this week the first one came out. Lance pulled it out right before he was headed for the bath. He was so excited. He has been smiling and sticking his tongue through his teeth.  What made it even better for him was waking up the next morning to find a dollar in the place where his tooth was the night before. Sorry, this picture isn't the greatest. It was taken with the phone camera.