Happy Halloween !

My favorite part about Halloween is after I finish getting the girls all dressed up. And this year we were able to wear the same costumes as last year, so we not only saved tons of money, but the costumes even fit them better. Go me! Happy Halloween!

Silly Girl

Since I don't write in a journal, and I don't have the best memory, I needed to write this down before I forgot about it.

Mikayla is silly, for lack of a better word. She has the ability to make others laugh. Today in Sacrament meeting she decided while we were singing "Put your Should to the Wheel" that the song would be better with actions. So she sang and acted out the entire Hymn, which made it difficult for me to keep a straight face while signing. Seriously you need to read the words to that Hymn and just imagine the variety of actions that go along with the song. In fact, during the last verse..

Then work and watch and fight and pray
With all your might and zeal.
Push ev’ry worthy work along;
Put your shoulder to the wheel.

Mikayla inspired me to join in, and I have to say... without any prior practice, we were definitely on to something great.

Don't worry, I'm not a completely terrible parent, I wouldn't let her act out the sacrament hymn.

October 24th 1996

So I thought for Sadie's Birthday I would tell the story of my pregnancy with her and the day she was born. I have had friends tell their stories and I have enjoyed reading them. Hopefully you can forgive all the scalloped edges in my pictures, it was 1996 that's how we did scrapbooking in the old days.
I was really lucky during my pregnancy with Sadie, I remember being tired mostly...as this picture shows. However look at that belt, I was 5 months pregnant and still wearing a belt. Of course it was my first pregnancy. This is my favorite "pregnancy story"...One night Bret and I went out to dinner, and during this pregnancy my morning sickness hit at night...right after dinner. So I was careful and got a chicken sandwich and didn't end up eating to much. After dinner I told Bret we would need to leave because I wasn't feeling very well, once we were on the way home, I knew I wouldn't make it and so I asked Bret to pull over so I could throw up in the field. (as a side note, I don't like to watch people to throw up, and I'm sure no one wanted to watch me throw up, so I chose a dark field). As I was walking through the field I knew I needed to find a spot so I took a few more steps and because it was dark I couldn't see the ditch that ran along the field...yep, I fell in the ditch . And to my humiliation that is where I threw up, laying in a ditch in about 3 inches of water throwing up. When I got back to the truck I thanked Bret for coming to my aid, and he said "I saw you walking and then you just disappeared I figured you found the perfect spot." ...good times.

The day Sadie was born I remember waking up to go to the bathroom about 6am. As I got out of bed my water broke (of course at the time, I though I had an accident and I was so embarrassed, remember this was my first pregnancy) I hurried and cleaned up and changed my clothes and got back into bed. About 5 minutes later I felt like I had to go to the bathroom again, and when I got out of bed, the same thing happened. This time I knew my water broke. I woke Bret and told him I was going to have a baby. I had been told horror stories about getting to the hospital to early, and also about husbands with bad breath, so I made sure to get cleaned up and gather everything we would need for the hospital stay. After we dropped off Kyle at my moms, we went to the store to buy Bret some breath mints (looking back that makes me laugh, however, his breath was minty fresh. I didn't mind him talking to me during labor with minty fresh breath). By the time I got to the hospital, I was dilated to a 4 and 80% effaced, so they gave me an epidural, and honestly, if I could get my hands on the anesthesiologist who gave me that epidural, he would not look pretty. It didn't work, actually it worked really well on my right leg(I couldn't walk by myself for 24 hours), but the rest of my body felt everything, but I can't complain, once I was ready to push it only took me 4 times and Sadie was here.

At about 4:30 in the afternoon Sadie was born. She was such a sweet baby, and she hasn't changed.

My Sadie

I just wanted to make sure and post about Sadie today. She is 12 years old tomorrow! I don't think anyone could be more excited about turning 12 then Sadie. She is most excited to be able to leave primary and come into Young Womens. For weeks she has been asking me if she can come to our activities, she is so excited.

For her Birthday she wants to have a "girls day", so Saturday we are going shopping and to lunch and maybe a movie (No, we're not going to High School Musical 3). As I was looking back through her picture books I decided to post some of my favorite pictures. These had to be scanned onto my computer so they won't be the best quality, but the pictures were so cute I couldn't pass them up.

Sadie was such a beautiful baby girl. She had so much hair, when she was a baby she would grab a handful of her hair and pull then she would start to cry and she would stop pulling her hair, then she would repeat the process all over again. That's one of her favorite stories.

Sadie has always loved to laugh, that is something I love most about her...she can find happiness is everything around her.




Sadie has always loved camping, and thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Olsen, we have a camping trip every year. She has always been so curious. On this camping trip we went fishing and Sadie wanted to see everything we were doing with the fish we caught. She even wanted to jump right in and help me gut the fish. (I guess she got that from me).

Here she is eating pumpking guts...she didn't get that from me. She has always loved Kyle, and always wanted to do everything he would do. They have always been really close.

She has always had a close relationship with her Grandpa, she loved to hear him play his guitar and he's probably the reason why she started playing herself.

Her and Mikayla have always been best friends. Sadie is so good to her little sisters and makes a better "big" sister then I ever did. She is kind to everyone around her and always stands up for what is right. She works so hard in school and always wants to do her best. I'm so proud of the young women she is growing into, she is an example to me always. Love you Sadie.

Astro Turf ?!? Are you Kidding me ?!?!

This picture doesn't do the astro turf justice. But if you click on the picture, you'll be able to see how astro turf sparkles.

We have something new to add to the list of embarrassing things about Eagle Mountain...Are you ready for this...We have Astro Turf at the entrance to the City Center. Yes, you heard me, Astro Turf. From really far down the road, the astro turf looks like real grass, but as you get closer the astro turf get shinier, and really, who do they think they are fooling with that stuff?

Several weeks ago, the city removed all the dying grass, that they don't care to keep alive, out by the Eagle. They added gravel and Bret and I were glad to see that they were going to lay cement so that at the very least, the entrance stayed weed free. Then to my surprise, last week on the way home from a field trip with Kylee's class, they were laying Astro Turf. I really couldn't believe it, I know everyone is really big right now on going green, but this is taking it a little far. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way about astro turf, but I really hope I'm not.

Topaz Mountain

First I have to thank Brenda for the pictures. I kind of stole these off your blog. I realized that I didn't use my camera I used Fay's camera...hence the thievery.

This weekend we took a trip to Topaz Mountain in search of Topaz Crystals. The kids had a great time. We arrived at the base of Topaz Mountain on Friday night about 6 pm, and the kids immediately saw the spot where they would spend ALL of their free time...

Yep, on the top of this mountain. My kids played all day and would have played all night if the thought of them falling to their deaths in the dark was something I could have handled that weekend. So when the sun would set they had to get off the mountain. I climbed up that mountain a couple of times, but I realized that adults (namely me) understand and can imagine the pain of falling, so I was a little nervous about having my kids all over that mountain, so I did what any mother of 5 would do...I couldn't watch when they were on the mountain. Kylee was the only one that had a minor fall (to no ones great surprise) and so we made it through the weekend without any deaths.

This picture we took before we left on our "little" hike to find topaz crystals, which turned out to be a "BIG" hike. The kids turned around about 45 minutes after we started, but not before Bret found a cool snake that all the kids got to touch, and not before Samantha decided to step on an even bigger snake...However, they did turn around before we found any crystals. Thanks to Aunt Elissa, the kids were able to go back to camp and climb their mountain, while the rest of us "die hards" with Norman in the lead continued on our quest. Sadly we hiked only another 50 yards before we found crystals, so the kids could have stayed. But don't feel bad, we spent a total of 6 hours hunting for crystals(it might have been longer), and the kids who went back to camp were able to share all the crystals we found...no one left empty handed.

I love that we get to spend this kind of time with Bret's family, the kids love to play with their cousins and we get to visit with family that we don't see often enough.