Newsletters and Parties

So this past week has been the CRAZIEST week!

Since being called as RS Secretary I decided to change the format of the whole thing. Yep a total revamp so that we could email the newsletter out as well as hand out the paper copies. I am sure there are other wards who already do this as there are so many other talented people out there. I just fiddle around with things keeping my small talents present until I have a chance to really help them grow as my time slowly become more free and I find myself looking for things to do. But that is neither here nor there.. just that I am sure hat I did is nothing too special just a change for our small ward and way for some ladies to keep informed as they lose papers faster than I do at times. I hope this will work out and I am sure there are bugs to be worked out but I thought I would share what I consider my great accomplishment for these past few weeks as it has really kept me busy created everything on it. I blurred the other peoples names and contact info out of respect for them. Also I would like to say Thanks to Food Storage Made Easy for their amazing preparedness plans that will be helping our Relief Society get prepared this year!



I am hoping as I go one with this that is will become less time consuming because it will become natural to me and all preset in a way.

As I was getting this all done these past couple of weeks I was also planning and getting 2 birthday parties together for this past Saturday. Yep Crazy me had Claudia's and Ben's parties planned for the same day. Ben's was suppose to be for the Friday but because he had a ski trip with the school that day as well we couldn't do it before 6pm and they wouldn't book after 4pm so we had to move it the Saturday. The nice thing is that Ben's was held at the local Bubba Baloo's where they have LAZER TAG!! Oh yeah that is the ULTIMATE 12 year old birthday party. LOL Ben was so excited that I agreed to have his birthday there. Well you only turn 12 once and it is such a big thing for a boy to become a young man and a deacon. So Lazer Tag is a small price to pay to celebrate this big event. It was made even better when his long time friend who is almost like another brother to him was able to show up. They haven`t seen each other in almost a year so that made it extra special. Mateo brought his sister along and Ben said she could join in too. So here are some pictures from that fun event.

And as I mentioned Claudia`s party was the same day and that was the party that required some work on my part. Now I have to say a quick thanks to Rhonda Steed for sharing her princess party which helped give me ideas for my first ever princess tea party. After doing 5 2 year old boys parties it was fun doing a little girl but my mind ran wild with ideas so have another party idea plan to use as a base was great. Plus Rhonda is one of the most talented people I know so you know what she does is always great. Can`t believe it has been so long since high school now... anyways back to Cloe`s party. She was so excited to invite some of her little friends especially Annie. Annie is her best friend from Nursery that was born almost exactly 1 month before Claudia. They go back and forth between sharing everything to wanting what the other has. They are both the youngest sister of brothers, Annie has 2 older ones who are Matthews and Tommy's age. Then there was little Kadance. Cloe and her had never met before the party, but I knew her mom Erin and I had met Kadance when I was hanging with Jenn :) Since Jenn was so great as to volunteer her home we couldn't not have these two little ones meet. They had a blast together once Kadance over came being shy. This first picture is of Jenn and Kadance as a thank-you for hosting and coming to our special event :)







If you notice we have homemade tutu's for each of the girls and princess neck wraps for each of the girls and they were so easy to make and so much cheaper that what the exact same things sell for. One of these days I will sit down and post a blog on how to make them. but the tutu's sell for $50 in the stores and I made them for under $7 a piece and the scarves sell for $20 and I made them for less than $1 each. They made for great goody bags to send them all home with and the only candy was a rose sucker that made a great wand. I also went to the local China store and pocked up a mini tea cup set for $2 for 6 and painted each kids name on them so they could also take them home in their goody bags

Hope you enjoyed my fun little party/ brag blog post.. hmmm now what to post next? LOL think I will take a couple days to rest actually and catch back up on the house work that got left behind in my busy weeks.

Birthday Fun and soo much More!

So This past week I turned 33! Wow it doesn't seem like it has really been that long since high school let alone since I got married, started having kids, ect. Life really does pass by so fast. Now I am a Mom of 6 beautiful kids that amaze me everyday. But in terms of this past year I think I have done some growing. I started to really look at myself in a new light. Not that I had a really bad self esteem before because I always knew I was worth more that gold but I never really treated myself that way. I let others kind of talk me down. Not in the sense that I have people around me telling me I am worthless but that they treat me that way. But why would they do any different when I did that to myself. I never placed myself first for anything. I love to learn but never took any courses because the money was always needed for everyone else first. And I thought that was all good until I noticed how much I was not acting like me anymore when I saw the kids dancing and I had no desire to join in. So that has changed. I set some goals this year for myself and so far I go back and forth with my shiny fly lady sink but I haven't given completely up which is what will get me to the end. Plus I have taken a Digital Photography course so that I can start learning more about those things I am passionate in. I may even make a career out it some day. In the meantime while I am learning I am looking for willing victims, uhmm I mean volunteers to photograph. ;) I actually got to go to class on my birthday which I thought was so perfect! It was a great birthday though. My friends started spoiling me early When Jenn took me out to Dinner at Moxies where she gave me the most beautiful amethyst necklace (she works for a jewelery store so only picks out the best) and then treated me to a movie. We saw the Book Of Eli which was surprising good. Not that I expected it to be bad, but it was better than I thought it was going to be. I was thinking Mad Max type of thing... there were elements but way better story line. Sorry no thunder dome ;) Then on Monday which was actually my birthday my VT partner Nalyne came and took me out for a birthday brunch. It was so yummy and I took some photos for my class that night too so it even better. Then my family let me rest that day while they took care of everything and my VT's stopped by to wish me well too with the best of all goodies CHOCOLATE! Then that night I went to my class and topped off a perfect day. Then of course I got sick for the next few days after that but I cam back around. Enjoyed Ben's Basketball games, played more with my camera, sent kids skiing, did my job as RS secretary, and then today I also did our almost end of class field trip to UNBC and had a blast. It was a chance to work with the teacher which was fun and take some really cool shots. Then of all cruelty he made me pick only one of those to send in. You see we have a final class gallery/ contest for some prize (I hope it is free entry into the portraits course). How am I suppose to pick just 1??? Well I posted my favorite 16 on facebook and I will share a few here... but we will see the outcome of what I picked tomorrow. I went more artistic than tech so we will see. Anyways here are more photos to enjoy and see you in the next post (although I am not sure if there is actually anyone reading this blog sometimes)

Cloe's new thing is to cover her mouth when she "fake" giggles

Some pictures from Ben's Basketball games... I am glad he has soo much fun.

One of the pictures I took on my birthday for photography class

Matt is a cuddler in the morning and Sam was his teddy bear. I love how my kids love eachother.. and good to have pictures of it when they start fighting ;)

This is Sam's new thing.. reading the Comics every morning, although he tears the paper apart doing it which drives poor Mike up the wall.

Here are some fun pics I took of the box and necklace that Jennifer gave me for my birthday.

These are some of the photos I took today at UNBC. Big thanks to my sis for the ride. Can't wait to get a vehicle back soon.

Boys

So today was a rough day. Crazy, not nice things between other people going on in the house that required outside help to get rid of and I have a nasty cold! Yep those 2 things made for a bad morning and then Sam had to come home from school early because he had a moment over not being the first one in line for gym ( he was having a rough day too it seems) and then he has to deal with Tommy who is use to having basically sole claim to the Wii while the other kids are at school (Cloe prefers to play with her puppies and watch barbie movies). Yah so I then go out to help my mother get some more of her stuff from out in my Garage and she hands me the book "Sunshine for the Latter-day Saints Woman's Soul". Now I have read this book before, but it has been a few years so I was looking forward to reading it again. As I settled down on the couch for a well deserved 2 minute break after breaking Sam and Tom up again I opened up the book, just to a page in the middle and this is the story that was there and oh did it make me feel better. Hope it brightens your day as well.

Boys
by Kathleen "Casey" Null

"Do you know what it means to have 3 or more sons?" asked sister Evans.
What is this, I thought, a trick question?
Sister Evans, experienced grandmother, has just spent early 2 hours sitting on a pew behind me. She couldn't have helped but notice that I have 3 sons, and a daughter who can hold her own.
"It means"- I decided to give it a try -"going through ten pounds of peanut butter a week."
"Yes, I know, but what else?" Her eyes were lit up with amusement.
"It means... always having grimy switchplates."
She smiled. "Well, granted, but what else?"
"It means learning to co-exist peacefully with a managerie of rats, birds, dogs, rabbits, fish, caterpillars, frogs, worms, and sow bugs."
"Oh..." she rolled her eyes in mock disgust, "I nearly forgot about that. But that's not quite it."
"OK. It means buying a years supply of tube socks every other month and having two sons per morning wail, 'I can't find any socks!"
"Yes I remember," she sighed, "The socks probably got up and walked away. But that's not it."
"Then it means living in a locker room atmosphere."
"Of course," she said. "But that's still not it."
"Then how about having three or more sons means never having to say, 'Help yourselves to seconds... there's plenty, you really should eat more.' "
"Well..." she sighed.
"Wait, I know, I'm probably just guessing at the wrong level. How about this? It means running a workshop to teach boys to deal with life when they go on missions and leave the nest."
"Your getting a little closer," she said impatiently.
"It means, preparing boys to hold the priesthood?"
"Is that a statement or a question?"
She didn't wait for my reply. "I'll tell you what it means. Being the parent of three or more boys means you can rest assured. If you can raise these boys you won't need to be tested any further."
Sounds fair to me.

Ah how that makes me feel better although if your one little girl that you finally had after having five boys is more of a handful than the five boys put together what does that mean then?

Happy 12th Birthday Ben!!

So it was 12 years ago on this day that I woke-up at 7am in the morning and thought *OUCH!* I was 5 days over due thanks to my wonderfully amazing smart talented and at times a little scary when you did something wrong Grandma Derkson (boy do I love her). She had come to me on my due date and put her hand on my lovely pregnant tummy and said in that "I mean business" tone that if my kid was smart he would wait until her birthday to be born. Yep thanks Grandma, my kid took that to heart and waited 5 more days. But that was long enough for him, he didn't want to be an afternoon kid so bright and early, 10 minutes after Mike's alarm went off for getting up for work, labour started. He called into work (Moneys Mushroom factory at the time... he would just smell when he came home, but it was good pay and a job), and my Aunt Mary Lyn (we were renting a room from her at that time) drove us into Calgary hoping that I would not have the baby on the way. We get to the hospital and waited for the doctor. Now about an hour into the labour I felt like I should be pushing but nothing was happening. The doctor I had at the time said that was fine even though I felt sure that something was wrong. I was fully dialated but hey what does a young mom know right.. so about an hour later we are trying to deliver and finally the doctor takes a look because she can feel the baby trying to push it's way out but with no results... guess what oung mom not so dumb after all my water had not completely broke and poor baby was pushing against it for over an hour!!! well she poped it and maybe 5 minutes later out came this beautiful purple skined (bruised from the pushing) white blode haired baby. His bum was as big as his head but he was the most precious thing I had ever seen. Poor Mike had to leave the room because he just can't hndle the sight of blood ( he got over that as we had more kids haha). He was wise from the get go, he proved to everyone, especially my Grandma, how smart he is from that very moment on. He is a generous soul who loves to help look after his siblings and he started this very young. When he was just 14 months old and Josh a couple of weeks we were walking to the store and Josh started to cry. Ben leaned forward (they were in the stroller together) and put his finger in Josh's mouth like a soother. You see hardly any of my kids would take soothers so I stole the idea from Prince Dianna and used my knuckles and fingers. Well he said his fingers were filled with Apple Juice and the funny thing is Josh loved it. We have been so blessed to have this special soul in our family! Here are a few pictures I took of pictures we have around the house of Ben growing up. (sorry I wish there was more but my computer that has most of my family pics is getting fixed and unfortunately my box of photo albums has been moved around to make space while we rearrange the house)

6 months old

1 year old

2 years old

almost 3 years old

6 1/2 years old

8 1/2 years old

9 1/2 years old

Taken today at 12 years old (what a handsome young man eh)
Here are some of the highlights from this past year.

He started out age 11 with continuing to show how smart he is by winning not 1 but 2 earls lunches during the battle of the books the school held.

He had fun playing shadow puppets with Cloe using our Blue curtain as a back drop...
still deep in thought

Josh and Ben joined the intermediate floor hockey teams and have a blast playing after school every wednesday.

He took some more swimming lessons and finally got the hang of floating.. kind of. The problem with being active is you don't have much fat to keep you afloat.

He joined the school relay team with Josh and had a blast showing Cloe and Tommy how to be great spectators as well. He really adores his sister and he's a really great runner as well.

He joined the schools Volleyball team in the fall now that he is a grade 6 and LOVED every minute of it. He has joined the Basketball team this season but as they don't have their first game until thursday, no pics yet to show of that.

He felt the highlight of this past year of being 11 though was watching the Olympic Torch run to our house and exchange runners right here. He hopes one day to be apart of all of this himself.

So there is my new Young Man... it makes me a little sad to say that as I just don't know how the years went by so fast. He has grown well and is an amazing person and I know he will do great in this next stage of his life. Now to end this birthday wish here is a little picture fun. When Ben was 2 He and my cousin Jenny went to have their photos taken together in a photo booth and this is what we got. Happy birthday Sunshine!!!