Seriously, so blessed...

I got in contact with an old friend of mine today - to catch up on some gossip & stuff...you know - the kind of friend you talk to once a year and still talk like you're best friends for hours on end?

We talked about a myriad of things, and I finally asked her if she had a blog. She then went on to say how NO WAY she doesn't have a blog, she doesn't do cutsie crafts or things with her kids, and she goes to the other blogs and gets puky reading them.

SO, I was like "Well, *I'M* not like that!!" Of course not! (Have you seen this blog?)

Back to my story....

I'm thinking to myself, I don't do anything fun with my kids...in fact, I threaten spanks almost daily - and when I'm not threatening spanking, I'm looking for reasons that they can't watch TV or play with their friends. Or give them ridiculous expectations "Yes, you can go play with Angie as soon as you write a 50 page dissertation on why it's healthy for your soul to take no for an answer."

So I came to the computer to send her an e-mail with my blog address, but first, I wanted to come to my blog to see what she was going to see - as an "outsider."

Certainly I don't brag about my children's accomplishments, or how cute they are or how they have the best haircut you'd ever see on a 9 year old - Or even all the fun places we've been. Ooops, maybe a widdo bit?

So, Tonya, if you happen to be lurking about on my blog...please know, that as perfect as I make myself and my children out to be, you should know a few things I didn't blog about this week.

Like - Howie & Kali were testing the limits of the garage door by putting a wooden oar under it, they broke the spring, and some metal ravelly thingy and the wheels to the guide or runner thingy all came out and half of the garage door fell on the car.

That's not so bad as when I was trying to fix it, I had the hammer on the top of the ladder and it got knocked off and fell off the top of the ladder to the top of Brynn's head busting it open causing blood to spew forth. I took pictures, but really, how lame is it to blog about being imperfect?

You won't find me doing that! So while you may look at my blog and see how, as a family, we played the game of TWISTER, spent wonderful amounts of time together and how envious you might be to see children smiling and getting along...

I won't show you the picture right after this one of when Howie got "Left hand green" and he flung his hand back into Kali's face, which initiated the start of one of the best WWF real life wrestling fights EVER not caught on tape.

You may see a picture of loving siblings in the bath, but won't you won't see is when I ran to get the camera, one of the siblings held the other's face under the water trying to teach her how to swim (no, I'm not going to OUT my child for trying to drown the other, you'll just have to be satisfied knowing it happened, I remain firm in keeping the who's of the event a secret.)

You may see a picture of everyone at Madagascar 2 all smiling and happy,

(There, Jolisa, I DID IT...what? like you don't keep your digital camera in your car at all times?) but you won't hear about the story in the car how Howie got his basketball and football taken away indefinitely, well, until yesterday when he decided he could be human again...

I could put more pictures in here about how great I am in the kitchen - this is the first of a step-by-step photo-journal of how to make creamed honey. Perhaps one day - if it's slow, I'll tell you how to do it, and show you ALL the pictures...

While you will never see a picture of the garage door on top of my car (words can't describe the emotions flowing through me which caused me to forget to take a picture of THAT one.) You'll see the bloody gash left as a result of my incompetence of leaving a hammer on the top of the ladder while moving it and watching it fall in slow motion on top of my little girls head as she played ring around the ladder...

never fear, I blamed that on the children as they were being spanked on the hiney with the oar that was placed under the garage door that started the whole mess!

Nor will you see a picture of the pain killer we use (also part of a photo-journal of 101 uses for Halloween candy)

Wow. That got long. Anyone still here? Bueler? Bueler? Anyone? Hello - lo - lo - lo.

Well, anyway - I'm not as perfect as I let people think I am, and so from now on, I will speak more of the errors of being a member of THIS family.

So as to make you, who are leery of blogging yourself, or wondering how perfect a family with 6 kids can be, I'll put rest to that pool of unspeakable worry, by showing you this:

Chompin at the bit

My baby is growing up too fast. She's starting to crawl. Or maybe she's just into push ups?

Then she really really wants people food. No more of this mush...but poor baby doesn't have teeth. Here, you can get an idea of how much she would love to chew on the apple. But settles for gnawing.

Look, she's starting to stand up in her bed, so we had to take the bassinet part down. It's a sad day for my growing baby - she's doing it too fast!

Apparently I take too many pictures of Coby and not enough of the other girls, so they needed to get in on some action.

And finally, Kiersten was nominated as Student of the month - each teacher picks a student from their grade and then the music/art teachers pick a student from the school...Kiersten was the school pick from the music teacher! She got lunch from Peter Piper Pizza, with dessert from Claim Jumper, and free lunch coupons for Red Robin and Mimi's Cafe. Way to go Kiersten!

Shortly after

I got Kiersten and lived with my in-laws for two months before we moved to Arizona...knowing that my mother-in-law deep fries everything, including carrot sticks, I indulged a little bit and packed it on.

Crysty (who was taking a lot of hormone treatments for IVF) and I were sitting at Ross' 2nd birthday party inside Chuck E. Cheese sucking down pizza before anyone else could eat it all, we looked at our freshly weight-lost sister-in-law and said, "I'd rather eat pizza than look like that" (yah, it made us feel better about inhaling pizza).

And I recently read a friend's blog about addiction, I had a day-dream moment. Why can't I be addicted to eating good and running instead of chocolate and running? And then it occurred to me. Chocolate is good. I am eating good...and running to support my habit.

Finally some Halloween pictures...

This year, Rossi wanted to be a skeleton again (just refer to pictures from Halloween the last two years). I was out of white face paint. So he went as a pain in the neck instead. (refer to any picture I have of him, taken as a pain right in the neck!)
Kiersten wanted to play a vampire and it wasn't until I did up her makeup, hair & eyelashes, she named her vampire "Rosalie" (hotlink is to a picture, Rosalie is the blonde on the right) She made fangs, but you know, beautiful vampires don't have fangs...it's a myth - or so I read once somewhere.

So Howie, as you saw a few posts below, dressed up as a ninja, since they can't wear masks to the Halloween party, he took his mask off, armed himself with a sword, (we mustn't forget the killer skull cape his grandma Covino made for him last year), and decided he'd take the Karate Kid Ninja approach.

Brynn, well, you already knew she was Tinkerbell, but she's such a lady in this picture, eating her sucker, sitting side-saddle on her airplane with her legs crossed like a lady should be.

Kali, well, this one was my favorite one. Last year (I completely forgot about it until I pulled out the Halloween box on Halloween) I bought this clearance white dress - and it fit her fabulously. She decided to be the White Witch from Narnia. She played the part to the "T" and everyone she came in contact with, she threatened to freeze into a statue. But instead of being the white witch, she called herself the Ice Princess. Either way - probably the scariest Halloween costume out there!

And the most adorable pumpkin - this costume has gone through all of my children. I should just find pictures of each of them in it - but that would require some SERIOUS digging. Maybe when they're all grown and out of the house and I'm lonely and have nothing to do, I'll put it on my list of things for which to look.

Quick clarification. (after typing this, I would say, it's not so quick)

It was brought to my attention tonight that my friend, Bedie's name looks (to those who don't know her) like it should be a Utah spelling of the name Betty. Her name is actually pronounced BEAD-EE so as to rhyme with meaty, which, it should also be known that she is not meaty (nor does she look pregnant, not even a few months, not even in her clown outfit). She's just the right size with overflowing personality. She was named after her grandmother, and I LOVE the name, and I wanted to name Coby that, but Ross thought it wasn't really a name...until he got to know her, and he, too, loves the name. I think the super-fantastic bubbly personality, coupled with the fact that she's got a never-ending supply of great hair, and a pile of beautiful children, talent oozing from every pour, and a husband who is a general conference celebrity (yah, not kidding there, kewl, I know) just makes the name that much gooder. She's got such a great personality AND the ability to bite her tongue - unlike ME. So people actually LIKE her, too.

Anyway - I also have another friend - LARRI - who is a female - you can kind of tell from the spelling of her name - no self-respecing man would end his name in an "i" (my apologies, Rossi, but you'll always be my little boy) - so I told them about this absolutely hysterical you tube video - that was posted on my other friend, Denise's, blog that had me absolutely in stitches, mainly because my girls are in syncro. Denise is also an absolutely hysterical friend of mine. So thanks, dearie, for finding this...You crack me up in 8 different ways!

Tink's gone pirate!!

Beware, the Tink's gone ARRRGH! Brynn found Howie's pirate hat from last year (which he wanted to be again this year, but found the ninja and decided to go for sneaky)


We pulled out the costumes last night - Howie found the ninja outfit that Grandma Covino got him - last year - for CHRISTMAS - and it fits wonderfully.

And yesterday was Brynn's preschool Halloween party - she LOVES her sweet teacher normally, but since the sweet teacher decided to dress up like Steven King's IT and freak the kids out- Brynn wasn't sure if she wanted to be at the much-anticipated party. I thought you were cute, Bedie...and I think next year you should go as a zombie corpse, with pretty heart cheeks. ;o)


We'll take more pictures tonight as they get dressed & ready for door to door chocolate begging...I mean - trick or treating. Oh, wait, our ward scheduled a party for tonight - so we get to not trick or treat in order to support our ward party specialist. And Ross is in charge of the spook alley. That should prove to be exciting.

A chop chop here...

Kali has been dying to get her hair cut (unlike Brynn who just cuts her hair by herself) I took her for a cut! This is what she wanted - and oh my GOSH it turned out so cute! I'm thinking I may have to do this for me, too!

Brynn liked it so much - well, she begged & begged, and who am I to go against the queen of mullet-hood? So here's Brynn's mug shot...I had the lady who cut her hair take some pictures...hopefully she'll send them to me! Brynn got her hair washed in the salon! It was so cute!

Look what I noticed...

it's not often that I cut Howie's hair. He has a special attachment to his hair. He likes it long so it can be spikey. When I threaten to cut it he shrinks back and talks about losing his special powers. But when he misbehaves too closely after a threat to cut his hair...I must follow through with it. This time, I accidentally put a shorter clipper attachment on the clippers than I normally do, so I had to go shorter up top...and look what I found...

Coby isn't the only victim of the swirly bangs!!! How funny, right?!

THEN - Kali really wants to be a devil for Halloween. I told her that Halloween was a time to play dress up, not every day living. So I gave her a choice between these three...and she's not a fan of any of them...we have a woodland fairy,

there's (supposed to be) Eowin (from LOTR) - or some other Maid Marian type person

or - this thing - I believe they called it Lucy from Narnia? Or can you think of this being someone else I can talk her into?

And FINALLY (yes I made you all read through the "boring" part of the blog to see the picture of my sweet Australian visitor, Sheldi...

Pictured with Kiersten and Ross, while she's holding Coby (who we had to wake up for church, so she's still kind of groggy!)
Both Anthony and I forgot our cameras at home, but I found a member of my ward with a camera and had her take some pictures in front of the temple...I will post those when I get them!
So a funny story about my trip to the temple. I went through a session while the group of four children (pictured above) hung out around the temple (I can't leave Coby for as long as it takes to get to the temple, through a session, and back again - so these guys watched her for me) Anyway - they went through the visitors center and all around the temple grounds. I finished the session and met back up with them for them to go do baptisms and I wondered around the grounds.

I went into the visitors center and the first person that walked up to me asked if that little baby had been there earlier. Of course she had...the young sister missionary then said, yes, she was with her daddy, right? Uh no, she was with her brother..."Oh, it must have been a different baby, because I'm pretty sure she was with her dad, and they had a cute friend from Australia there, too." Yah, that was my SON! "Uh WOW!! You don't look like you could have a son that old!" I'm so flattered until she says this "So are you the baby's grandmother?" NO! Lost points with me lady...keep your ugly old maid mouth SHUT, would you?

Yah - She still thought Rossi was the baby's father, and if I was Ross' mother, then clearly that would make me the baby's grandmother, right?

But wait, there's more.

I go into the waiting room with Coby at the baptistry and a few ladies walked up and commented on how good she was (yes, she's a good baby - except when I want to sleep) anyway - Rossi finished first and came out and sat next to me and grabbed Coby to play with her. The lady came back out and again commented on what a great baby she was. I told her she knew she had to be good because my infant caring days were coming to a close. She laughed and asked if she was my first. UH NO! Then Ross (think booming voice without volume control here) Laughed and said "No, I'm her first, she's her last!" So the lady then asked how old he was. 14. SHOCK? REALLY? I thought you two were married. Nice, so now I look like a 14 year old? Or worse, my son looks like he could buy a beer without an ID!? So I'm passing this information on to my husband who laughed and said they asked him TWICE while doing baptisms if he was an endowed member so he could help in other ares! WOAH! So FOUR different people - on in the visitors center, on in the baptistry and another two inside by my husband asked if my son was OLDER. I'm not sure I'm ready for this!

What? Mullets are out dated?

What if you're a 3 year old and enjoy the feel of fingernail clippers through your fine blonde locks? What if fingernail clippers aren't enough? What if you find small baby fingernail sissors? What if they feel better when run through your hair than the clippers? Well, I say USE THEM!

I wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here it goes...

Old McSissors had an urge....O*I*C*U*HIDE
and in that urge she had blunt cuts...O*I*C*U*HIDE
With a clip clip here and a clip clip there
Here's some hair, hide it there
Everywhere there's hair hair

Old McSissors had an urge...O*I*C*U*SPANKED.

Here are her mug shots. Left, right, frontal and throughout the head there are very short spikey hairs (these hairs spike up THROUGH any hope of a pony tail comb-over.)

In this picture you can see how cutting hair on the side of the head, to just above the hair - helps qualify this hair cut as a mullet.


Here we see the length of her bangs on the right side vs. the left side...


right here, we have circled her rebellious spike:

A milestone.

I did it. I caved. I fed Coby some human food. Okay - well, BABY food, but not mothers milk - although - mother's milk was mixed in it, so not completely people food, plus, I'm not sure a real person would eat this food, but regardless...she took food from a spoon.

She loved it - she's been "mock chewing" for a few months now, when we eat dinner, she'll open her mouth with us - and phantom chew. So to actually have something solid in her mouth - was SO MUCH FUN for her!

First her daddy tried (hey, I've fed her solo her whole life - time for someone else to take a turn!).

Brynn had to get in on the action. Coby thought it was funny.

But the funny part was watching Brynn try to feed her (bwhahaaa - look at her mouth!) and Coby, of course, gobbled EVERYTHING up! To the LAST scrape of the barrel!


Then we gave her a bath. Which - what baby doesn't like sitting in the bath and splashing until the water turns cold?

She sat and splashed and splashed - and coughed, then splashed some more.


Look at those toes! HAA! Cute little wrinkles! She splashed for a LOOOOONG time!


Meanwhile Kiersten got the jewelry making bug when she saw what I came home with from my girls get away! So she took some of her baby sitting money and bought the stuff - slowly - and waited for the 50% off coupons to get the tools! FINALLY she had enough tools & beads to make something! She did a great job, me thinks! She sold this one to her girlfriend - and thought it was pretty cool - now she's going to start her own business.