So Mike and I were playing a game of Scrabble the other day. I drew the letter E and he drew the letter P so I went first. I put down the word burn and got 12 points. Mike put down the word painting. He used all his letters and got 66 points. The game just went downhill for me. During the game vowels were scarce for me and I had both Bs, both Cs, both Fs, and both Vs, and one of the Ys. Mike did have the Z and the Q, but didn't have much of a problem playing them. Guess who won?

Today is Kimi's birthday. One of the things she wanted for her birthday is her own blog. Here is the address -

http://kimsbirthdaypresent.blogspot.com

My Best Mother's Day Ever!

It started off kindof rocky, but turned out fantastic!

We didn't get to bed until after midnight the night before. My cousin Taren came over because she wanted to help us get ready. I was surprised when she ended up cleaning our carpet. It looks great! She has a carpet cleaner and brought it over. I thought she was offering to clean our kitchen floor, but she meant the kitchen floor and then our other floors. What a great lady!

Then I was up for a couple of hours in the night with Andrew and ended up getting less that four hours of sleep the whole night. You can probably tell from how I look in the pictures.

Mike and Ben went to do fast offerings at 9:30am. I still needed to get dressed and ready, I needed to get Aaron and Andrew ready, and I needed to feed Andrew before we could leave for church at 10:30am. Of course the other kids decided to go outside and play in the dirt so they had to get recleaned and changed, and the phone started to ring. While I was on the phone with one person the call waiting would beep letting me know that someone else was calling. I had five phone calls within about eight minutes.

I got a little outfit for Andrew to be blessed in. Nothing too exciting, just a little onesie that looked like a polo shirt (light blue with a cute little teddy bear on it) and a dark blue pair of pants. It was really cute. When Taren was over the night before I was getting all the clothes ready so I wouldn't have to be looking for stuff in the morning. She felt bad that I didn't have a "blessing outfit". She showed up at out house on Sunday morning with the outfit that her boys were blessed in. (Her boys are about 17 and 14 years old I think.) She dug through boxes to find it so Andrew would be able to be dressed in white. Neither one of my other boys were blessed in white, so I was okay with the clothes I had. I tried the outfit on him and it fit, and he looked so cute that I just left him in that outfit. Thanks Taren!

After the blessing everyone came over to our house and we had a little meal. Everyone brought salads or rolls and I cooked a turkey breast and we had some ham. It was really good. We all visited and had a good time. It was great to be able to spend the day with some of my favorite people in the world. The only bad thing about the day was the fact that we were missing some of our family. The only one missing from Mike's side was Sara and Isaac. From my side we were missing- 1. My sister Monique and her family. She had to work. 2. My sister Jolene and her family. They had long ago planned a trip to Disneyland. 3. My brother Brian and his family. I don't know about them. It is entirely possible that they didn't get their announcement. 4. My brother Scott. He was deployed to Afghanistan a few weeks ago, and his wife is still recovering from the birth of their second child. 5. My brother Eric. He is living in Oregon. We really missed all of you!

One of the good things - ALL of the Price grandkids were here. It is not often that they are all together in the same place at the same time. This is the best picture I got. I'm sure one of the other people got a better one.

After everyone left Mike told me to go lie down and rest. I thought I would nap for maybe an hour or so. FOUR HOURS LATER (!!!) I heard Mike call the kids to dinner. I came down and couldn't believe it was so late. I felt so much better!

What a great day!

What a surprise! I answer the door and find a guy holding these and asking me to sign his paper. The card says-

To Belle You're a Fantastic Mom! A Terrific Wife and My Best Friend! Happy Mother's Day! I Love You

The card wasn't signed. Either my husband is a romantic or I have a secret admirer.

Thanks! Love them and you!

So I got all the clothes washed and folded, except what's still in the dryer.

Now...

does anyone want to come help fold the socks?

This is what happens-

when we work hard together. The sprinkling system in the front yard is buried. We just need to get rid of the weeds, level the ground, and then we can have a lawn. Hurray!

when it's an eighty degree day and Aaron discovers he has pockets.

when I get lazy and don't do any laundry for a few days. You can only see about half the pile of dirty clothes (the other part is to the left out of the picture), and I have already done three loads. (The pile is about two and a half feet high, in case you can't tell from the picture.) That's what happens when you have eight people in the family (including a newborn and a six year old that changes clothes three times a day) and you don't do at least two loads a day.

-just to clarify-

In the last post I said I don't like having my kids home. I actually love having my kids home and being with them. What I meant to say is-

I don't like having my kids home when I am planning on having them at school and I have errands to run and things to do. Things that are much easier to do without having them all with me. And besides, sick kids are the worst.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Ryan! We are thinking about you on this special day. Can't wait to see you this weekend!

I don't like it when kids are home from school.

Today everyone is home. Josh, Kim, and Emma are off track for two more weeks (they went on Monday, have just over two weeks off, and go back on a Wednesday-what's up with that?) and Ben called me to come get him. He feels sick. I think it is more a matter of being afraid of the science class than it is being sick. I think the unwillingness to attend class has actually made him physically ill. I guess I've been in that situation too.

All is well with the rest of us. Mike and Dan (my cousin, Taren's husband) have been working hard the last few days to get our sprinkling system in. It has been cold (it is snowing here as I type - May 1, 11:55am) and rainy/yucky for a few days, but they are almost finished, I think. All the pipe has been laid in the trenches except for the drip line in the garden area and along the tree line. They have hooked all the pipe together and now just need to hook up the sprinkler heads, and attach it to the control box. There is probably more to do but, as I understand it, this is basically it. It will be nice to have it done. Thanks for the help, Dan!

On a different note, the bow made from ric-rak on the baby announcement is meant to be un-tied. There is info under the picture. And, whoever I asked to bring cookies to the get-together on Sunday, May 11- please bring a salad instead. Mike was touring the Lofthouse Cookie plant yesterday with a client and they gave him a case of cookies (over 300), so we don't need anyone to bring dessert. Leave me a comment and let me know who I asked to bring the cookies. I think it was Kati.

Have a great day!