This week

In the Poulton house this week:
-H went to a marathon birthday party and made some totally cute flip flops. Yes, made them. I'm not intimidated to throw a party here or anything now.

-T went to day camp for scouts and totally loved it. He came home smelly and dirty, just like you would expect.
-E had picture day and was very excited to wear a new dress for it. (Or new to her. Thankfully she still thinks hand-me-downs are cool.)
-S made some kickin' applesauce at preschool. I got to help in his class that day and it was really fun to see him interacting with his new friends.
-R dumped an entire canister of pepper onto her plate while I was dishing up dinner. I was laughing so hard she probably thinks it's ok to do it again!

-Dad worked very hard in the yard and garage yesterday and the place looks fantastic. He also groaned a lot with football scores, but cheered when UW beat USC. Go Huskies!
-I..... What did I do? Supervised the chaos. Took the dog to get a bath. Washed 15 loads of laundry after the kids decided it was time to get their winter clothes out. Never mind that it's still 90+ degrees outside, they were tickled to be trying on turtlenecks again. Made umpteen meals and did the dishes too many times. Was happy to have my hubby home for the weekend, not just because of how hard he worked yesterday, but because it feels better when he's here. Read 'Austenland' again, and liked it even more the second time. Anything else? Ah yes. Some gory things you don't want to know about. :)
Hope your week was as good and eventful as mine!

Thoughts from a Mom

I always knew I would love my kids, but I had no idea how in love with them I'd be. Does that make sense? I didn't know that a simple smile would melt my heart, or that their laughter could make my heavy heart a little lighter. That an "I love you Mommy" would be all the payment I would need at the end of the day. That spending Saturday night playing Go Fish, being skunked by a four year old, would be such a blast.

How blessed I am to have so much love in my life. There are those that struggle their entire lives to have what I got without even trying. I should know better than to question the Lord and what He has planned for me. He has given me more joy than I knew it was possible to have. More love than I knew one heart could hold. I am going to try and cherish each moment while I have them here. Because in the entire span of their lives, I only get them for a small moment. I'm not trying to say I'm going to be perfect, perish the thought. I am just going to try a little harder to not be in such a hurry to 'get through' this stage of my life.

This is their Easter picture, but I love it, so I posted it again. And the title from my last post was from What About Bob, good job!

Baby-stepping

I haven't been posting lately, but that doesn't mean life hasn't been happening all around me. I've been thinking about my life and contemplating a lot of things. Things I want to change, and know that need to be changed.
Why is change so hard? I hate it. It can be for the better, and yet it is still gut-wrenching. So I'm going to take it one step at a time. That's all I can do. Have patience with me, friends. I'm still here, and so is our family. We're growing and learning and all of that good stuff. I'll keep you posted. :)



P.S. Can anyone tell me where I got my title from?

Cranberryfries rocks my socks

Debbie is having an awesome contest in honor of her 3rd year blogging, go check it out!

http://www.cranberryfries.blogspot.com/

Hailey and Mom head to Vegas

It's been three weeks since out Vegas trip, and here are the details.
Hailey and I headed out around 11 am on Saturday and got to Vegas at 12:30. We parked at Bellagio and explored the gardens and lobby, which are gorgeous. We then walked over to the Forum Shops and oooooed and ahhhhhhed over all of the beautiful things. We especially liked Tiffany's. After lots of walking, talking and fun being had, we headed to Serendipity for dinner. The portions were huge, and the food was divine. It was the best ceasar's salad I've ever had, hands down. We also shared a frozen hot chocolate and were happy to find it lived up to the hype!

Then it was off to the car to change and head to the Mandalay Bay to see her beloved Jonas Brothers in concert. It was complete pandemonium as 12,000 girls and their mom's were trying to get in. I even saw a few dad's there, and told them they were very brave.

I'm going to make a slide show from the actual concert, those boys were awesome. They played for over 2 hours and put on an amazing show. No, I'm not a Jonas Brothers fan, but I will say that I can respect talent, and those guys have it, playing and writing all of their own music. Can their voices mature a little more? Yes, especially Nick's. It's a little whinny at times, I think Joe sings better. (Hailey will kill me for saying that, so it'll stay just between us.)
The main stage was circular, and rotated, and the middle came up and down. At one point they had a trampoline over the opening and the boys were flipping off of it. It looked like they were having fun up there. When they came up the first time, I really thought the roof would come off the place. Have you ever been in a medium sized arena with that many screaming girls? My ears rang for three days afterwards.

I hope Hailey remembers this day forever. I can't describe how happy it made me to see HER that happy. When they came on stage, it was like she was going to come out of her skin. We had great seats, and could see every expression on their faces, which made it even better for her. She kept saying "I can' believe it's really them!". (Her friends have named her OJBF, meaning Obsessed Jo Bros Fan, and is she ever!) She was hoarse by the end of the night, but so happy. She was on a high for the next week and I hope she knows how much I loved sharing that day with her. She is such a blessing in my life and this was an experience I will always treasure.

Love Bug Video

This is Hailey's favorite song by her Jonas Brothers. She asked me to post it to 'try and convert some of your friends to their awesomeness.'

July review

As I called myself a TSM a few weeks ago, I think I'd better live up to it and summarize the month of July for posterity, instead of doing little posts about each one.
It was hot. We baked every time we went outside. We had fun while the cousins were visiting for the 4th. I'll post some pictures from that fun weekend, and anything else from July that I want to remember. Honestly, it's been a hard month and I'm looking forward to the normalcy school will bring in a few weeks.

L to R: Elise and Ali at the carnival, Trent and Seth going down the slide, Elise and Ali on the swing.

At the top of Foremaster hill, to watch the fireworks. L to R, front row: Ali, Elise, Lily, Joseph, Trent, Chase and Seth. Back row: Abby, Ethan, Sabrina and Hailey.

"All the Singles Ladies" has been playing in our house a lot lately, ever since Rachel decided she likes to groove to it. Here are some pictures of dancing in the kitchen. I wish I could have gotten one of her doing 'put your hands up!', because it's her favorite part, but she wouldn't cooperate.

Greg took the boys for a drive to see where they are building the new airport here in St George.

Chase Bank opened a new branch in Santa Clara (northeast of St George) and they had a big opening. The kids got their faces painted, ate too many cookies and got a tour of the firetruck. Elise was going to a tea party afterwards, so she is a little overdressed for the occasion.

Christie Hardy and Cami Young were in town with their families, it was so great to see them! I am very short next to Amazon Woman, as you can see. ;) I don't know why we stood in front of this boring wall and not outside by the brick. Oh yeah, because it was 110 degrees. The kids had fun running around and I loved getting to chat for a little bit.

Kids L to R: front row-Whitney H, Jackson Y and Rachel. Back - Kyle H, Reagan Y, Trent, Nate H, Seth, Ally H, Elise and Hailey.

Before they came over that day, a door at church attacked Elise while she was standing next to it. Here is the result the next day:

There you have it, a sliver of life here the last month.