This Past Year

Aunt Devanie saved some emails and this is what she got to help me along with our Christmas newsletter.

September 2, 2005

Amber loves to play piano. In fact she gets in trouble because when she is suppose to be doing chores, she plays piano. She LOVES to play primary songs. Lately she has been playing Pirates of the Caribbean and it is sooo cool! She also has music to The Incredibles. Music is Ambers favorite thing.

Kelsea fought the piano. She had a hard time watching Amber and her teacher was frustrated with her. She started violin and that was great for Kelsea. Then later she started to show interest in the piano again.

Grandma Lay called us when we were in Yellowstone she was coming and planning to stay at our house. We had about a week to prepare for her arrival.

Janika came to visit durring the Summer.

I have pictures taken of Hannah I will send e-mail and snail mail this weekend. School started Monday. I was so worried. I don't like the schedule this year at all. Amber has to be at seminary at 6:30 in the morning. We have to be sure she has a ride to the school at 7:30. Kelsea has to leave the house at 7:25 or 7:30. she overslept once this week. I have to drive the girls to school by 8:30. And pick them up at 3:15.

Durring the summer Amber had Volleyball and Kelsea babysat after school for the family she and Amber worked for all summer. Amber made JV this year for Volleyball. She has been on Varsity for two years. Her shaky thing is causing some issues.

Hannah keeps wanting to go to school. I had her evaluated for a preschool through the school that I wouldn't have to pay for. She wasn't accepted because she is too smart. She is in the 93rd percentile for what she knows at her age. She knows so much more than any of the other girls knew at her age.

I had a massive sewing order that I got on last Thursday. I sewed nonstop for 7 days it seemed. I Sew to make a little extra money on the side. My back gave out from all the hours upright over the sewing machine and my Butt feels like it spreads 10 inches over the course of that many days. I don't know after all that time, along with the kids starting school if the $400 is really worth that. But I just approached the 4th company on sewing for them this week. I think I am crazy!

In September my Washer was leaking lots of water every time I washed clothes. I pulled the washer away from the wall so the water runs straight to the drain in the floor so I can wait a little bit to get it fixed but I want to replace it. I got a new LARGE capacity front loading washer the sewing money helped that cause.

What helped me after Hannah was born was to remind myself that every phaze every day is temporary. Every day the baby will be able to do something new. Every day the house might get a little easier to keep up with and then the baby gets more mobile and into things but that is temporary too. The time that a baby will need a mother is actually very short even though some days feel like forever. The busier your older kids are with activities the faster that time flies by. Remind yourself to enjoy it. You really have to remind yourself.

I remember going to the store for the first time with 3 it freaked me out. But now -upon occasion- I go with 5 so somehow I survived. Even though I still think 5 is too many some days but of course I wouldn't trade any of them.

September 10th 2005
My 3rd pregnancy was hard because it was hot but 4 and 5 put me down for weeks in the end. It was frustrating. Always let your Relief Society president know and you can get meals in and help especially if your Husband is out of town.

Here is something interesting. Autumn has two Sierras in her class. I think being close to the Sierra Nevada mountains makes it a more common name over here along with Hailey because of Hailey Idaho. We drove through Hailey and Ketchum on labor day. We saw Bruce Willis' name on the marquee on a sign there and I think we saw the restaurant he owns too. We went to a really awesome lake over the weekend.

Grandma Lay was here again this week. I didn't see her much I guess. She will be back in two
weeks.

We got Hannah's pictures. Autumn went in this week and her pictures will be back on my birthday-the 30th. I will be getting the other 3 in after our next payday. Kylee is going to be 9 this month!! Holy Cow!

Hurricane Season
My Grandparents were in Houston and my grandmother was too sick to travel so they had to sit and ride out the storm. She is on oxygen so there was a concern if all that happens where they are is that the power goes out. The church tried to make sure that she was taken care of with plenty of oxygen tanks on hand. My grandfather went shopping for supplies and he said the people were terrible!!

The Next Day. . .
My Grandparents, after the whole family making hundreds of phone calls and I put their names in at the temple have some Ok news. They found that the stake center just over a mile from their house had a generator and they were able to take my Grandma so she could be on her oxygen and have her breathing treatments. My Grandpa and Uncle were able to take turns caring for her and the other one stayed at their house and cared for their 4 dogs. And the storm moved a little to the East and was downgraded so that was good news. They were going to leave but traffic was backed up still and people were running out of gas on the freeways. All the gas at the stations were gone. So at this time it looks as if they are in a better situation.

September 27th 2005
I have a Maytag dishwasher. I really like it alot. I found out Cascade Complete does the best job of cleaning the dishes and they are usually spot free without having to use jet dry.

My grandparents fared pretty well. They were in an area that did not suffer from any power outage. They had tree limbs in their yard along with lots of pine cones.

Kylee and Kelli have the same birthday sept 26 and mine is the last day of the month-30th. Yes there are only 30 days in Sept. You know how many people have tried to argue that fact with me? Kind of funny.

I had another large sewing order I had to work on.

November 2nd 2005
I bounced back pretty quick after my last few girls and the pregnancies were awful. It felt so good to be one person again.

Kelsea got braces today. Amber got braces in Aug. And Kelsea also had the skin under her tongue "clipped" That hurts more than the braces right now. Poor thing. We found out she is still tongue tied-we actually didn't know she was until a few months ago. She has never been able to touch her tongue to the roof of her mouth until today-crazy huh? The underside of her tongue looks just awful though. She has had some scares coming home from babysitting and while babysitting lately. She came home one day and she watched this guy in the field at the church get in his car and then the next thing she knew he had pulled up behind her. She thought he was after her and came home hysterical crying. We found out the guy lived in the house that she was in front of at that moment. Then yesterday another guy came to the house she was at and kept knocking on the door and wouldn't leave. She called me crying because he wouldn't go away. By the time I got to the house the guy was gone. He had wanted to look at a van that was for sale in their driveway. She had a rough couple weeks. But she bought a Nintendo DS with her babysitting money so she is happy camper there.

Amber got done with Volleyball and started basketball last week. She has been handling early morning seminary quite well along with 3 accelerated classes. From how it sounds she is one of the smartest math students in her class. My other girls aren't quite up there though. Accept for Hannah I think is above average. Autumn is at grade level. Kylee is a little below grade level in reading. Kelsea is actually right where she should be and doing very well in 7th grade. She has A's and B's so that is great considering how hard she has struggled for years. All in all the girls are doing well.

We are having a bedroom and office put in downstairs. Our neighbor is doing it for us. I am going to get a long storage closet and we are making the furnace room smaller and insulating it big time so we don't hear it every time it comes on. We are having someone else put in windows in mid November I guess. So I am excited.

Lee Joe is working his full time job and all the side work he can handle. I get my sewing orders. I had two really big orders in Sept and Oct. I am waiting for the next one right now though.

I guess Lee Joe is going to baptize Zeona sometime this month and we are planning to go to Washington for Thanksgiving.. I hope be able to do all that!!