Sometimes you just HAVE to laugh!

From the day John was born Jamie calls herself "big girl". She has been very consistent, she will answer to Jamie or other terms of endearment but she calls herself "big girl". It is so cute. A couple weeks ago she started feeding her babies at the same time I feed John. She is a very good mommy to her babies.

But yesterday she said she needed to change a poopy diaper on her baby. I didn't take notice of what she said because I was helping Abby with her homework. It was her one minute fluency. She has to read the same thing each night for 4 nights timing it for one minute hopefully getting better each night. I was timing her reading and Jamie was playing. The next thing I know Toby says, "their's diaper cream on the couch." I didn't see the baby at first (it was upside down) I was just trying to get the cream off the couch, when I turned over the baby...

I knew right away what was going through my sweett girls little mind. She was trying to change a diaper and thought that the cream would be a good idea. Incase anyone was wondering, it is NOT easy to get diaper rash cream off of fabric or dolls. I have since explained that it only goes on human bottoms. What a sweet girl!

Announcing John Annand

All of my babies have been late until....John was born. Coming a week early John was born on Tuesday Aug. 18, 2009 at 9:27am. He weighed in at 9lbs 4oz. and 21 1/2 inches long. His cord was wrapped around his neck twice, and he was purple when he came out, but he rallied well and was pink in no time.

The kids have been so excited for their new baby brother to be born. Josh has been asking me everyday if the baby was coming out today. So since today was the day they were really excited. All the kids did so good at holding him and being gentle. Jamie is excited to be a "big girl" now. She is totally giving up the baby title. It is so funny. Josh was "done" with Jamie, he is so glad to have another boy around.

Here he is just a minute old. Such a sweet boy, we love him so much. We couldn't be more blessed.

The Girls were Busy this Sunday

First of all I wish I had taken a before picture, I think that they would make these after pictures more funny. Virtually every Sunday I put Jamie's hair in two little "piggies". Usually she takes them out during her nap, but today they came out on the way home...
but the real kicker is that these tights were brand new 3 1/2 hours earlier. When I got her dressed I opened the package, I was so excited to put them on her because they had the little ruffles on the bottom.

When we got into the car somehow she had snagged them. So she pulled at them, and played with them. We live less than 10 minutes from church, and this is what happened in that time... The older kids thought it was hilarious. Josh was trying to help at the end, I guess it looked like too much fun.

In the meantime Abby has had a loose tooth for quite some time. Actually both of her front teeth are loose one more than the other, I guess she got restless today, during Primary she had managed to wiggle it so much that she needed a napkin for the blood. When we got home she asked me to help her wiggle it more. With one of the other kids I had put baby anbesol to numb the area a little before I yanked it out. Abby asked me for some, and I asked if she wanted me to yank it out. She did, so less than 15 minutes after we got home from church it was out.

I have to say that I am a little sad, I was hoping they would fall out closer to Christmas so we could get her singing, "All I want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth". Oh well, I guess I have 3 other chances for that... what a busy Sunday for these girls.

James Birthday and July 4th

James birthday is so close to the 4th of July, they always get clumped together, so I thought I'd put them on the same post.

Shortly after James left for work on his birthday, one of his seminary students called and asked if today was his birthday. The students wanted to bring a surprise for him. Apparently they all texted him all day long. In the afternoon they brought over cookies and brownies. Some of James favorite sweets!!

I made him a german chocolate cake (one that he loves, but we don't make very often), it doesn't look like much here, but it tasted good.

For the fourth of July, we spent the afternoon swimming, and then came home for a barbeque. For fireworks we went to a local shopping center, we pulled the car up and put all the seats down and watched the show. We idn't see just one show we saw a whole bunch of different shows. It was amazing to see how many different show go on in such a small area. The kids were a little too excited so it was hard to watch with all the screaming, but we got through it.

Piano Recital

Toby and Tyler had their piano recital at the end of June. They both did so well. Aunt Bonnie is their teacher.

They both had their pieces memorized and didn't even bring their music.

Toby went second for the recital, he played the Star Wars theme song, and a song called Dinosaur Blues.

Tyler was later on in the program, he played Pachabel's Cannon and the theme song from Willy Wonka.

I was so proud of them for all the hard work they put into practicing for the recital. They would make their Grammie Inskeep proud. :)

Pancakes for Cub Scouts

I have been the Wolf Den Leader for almost a year now. At first it was out of control, now we are starting to have fun. June's theme is A-Camping we will go. Since we can't go camping, we cooked outside tonight.
We made stoves out of tin cans (#10 cans) and made pancakes! It was a hit. The only problem was that it took a while to cook each one and we only had 3 cans and 5 boys. But that didn't stop them from eating about 4 pancakes a piece!!

I was worried that they wouldn't cook and that it would be a total bust. But, they cooked great, maybe even better than the regular stove. The best part was that the kids loved it and had alot of fun doing it.

I Love to See the Temple 2

Jamie was so excited to see the temple, she kept pointing at it and saying "Temple!" She is so sweet! Jamie, Abby and Tyler in front of a (empty) water fountain.

Josh loves to stand on rocks!!! This is his happy place!

Tyler and Abby look so loving here! I will savor this picture when they are difficult with each other!

I Love to See the Temple

Toby had a birthday party on Saturday, so we thought we would do something fun too. We went to visit the Los Angels Temple, we had such a nice time looking at the flowers and the temple grounds.


Tyler in front of the temple reflecting pond. Such a happy boy! :)

Abby felt like I needed a picture too. So Tyler took this one of me and Jamie.

Abby and Jamie sitting on the rocks! It was more fun than you think it would be.

Josh is a big fan of the rocks too, I think that that was the only way we could get him to look at the camera.

Tyler and Abby sitting by the olive tree that Poppa Roome proposed to Grammie Roome under.

Planting the flags at the Cemetary

Alicia is the Wolf Den Leader for the scout troop at church. For Memorial Day we went Sat. morning and with about 300 other scouts planted flags at Green Hills Cemetary. There are 6,000 vets buried there. Our pack was responsible for finding about 100 of them or so.

Josh couldn't find the graves so well, but he had fun holding the flags and helping hand them out to the scots. If you look in the background you can see the scouts reading each grave looking for the veterans.

We had a great turn out, 11 boys came. They were very dilliegent and worked hard to make sure no veteran's grave got left out.

Not only did we have the scouts there, but we had 7 siblings come too. It is so nice to be a part of a program that encourages not only boys but families to work together. After we planted the flags the boys had soda and hot dogs, it was a great morning!

Father-Son Campout

I think that this is the first year James has been able to take the boys to the father-son campout. He took all three boys, they had such fun. They started the trip with dinner at Carl's Jr. Then they went to Cabrillo beach armed with candy, cookies, soda and lots of flashlights. Toby and Dad set up the tent. Toby set out sleeping bags while Tyler was running from all the Young Men. They walked to the other side of the beach for a campfire, but everyone forgot wood, so they just had an outside meeting. When they got back it was time for treats and then Josh was off to bed. After the little ones went to bed. The rest of the boys played capture the flag till 12:30 in the morning. It was 15 vs. 4! The 4 won. They had such fun and are looking forward to next years campout already.

Spring Break 2009

This will probably take a few posts to get all the way through our trip. We started by driving to Ut and staying with some friends that moved there a few years ago. Then we went to Draper, UT so see a little family history. Josh was named after Joshua Terry so we had to get a picture of him with the grave marker. James mother is a Brown, so here are the kids remembering their roots!

Ebenezer Brown was a founder of Draper, we could only get Tyler and Abby to pose.

After the Cemetary we went to Salt Lake City to visit our first State Capital. This is the back of the capital. The kids loved the murals and the beauty of the building.

After Salt Lake we went to Paul, ID. James Aunt, cousins and Grandma live there. His cousin's horse had a foal the day before we got there s that was a real treat to see the baby. We didn't get close enough to the foal to pet it, but we did pet the other horses. Toby surprised me and actually went up himself and pet it. He usually doesn't touch animals, so this was a surprise to me. Abby was brave too. Josh, Jamie and Tyler did not want to touch the horses.

The kids had so much fun being on the farm. It is soooo different from where we live. More to come...

Too Many Book Fairs Leads to alot of Reading

Earlier this month Abby's school had a Book Fair, I was determined not to spend too much money at it. I had the kids take their recylcling money and buy their own books, so I only had to get Josh a book, but then he wanted two.

Then Abby's class was going so I went to help out, and Toby and Tyler wanted to go help too. So I had already told Abby I would get a book for her and one for her classroom. When all was said and done I bought one for her, one for her classroom, one for Toby, and one for Tyler. The librarian told me she needed help on Thurs, so when I went there I found a book for myself and a computer program for Toby. Needless to say, I did not stay within my budget.

So I was a little suprised to find out that not only a week and a half later CAVA (the boys charter school) was having an open house which also turned out to be a book fair at Barnes an Noble. So we went because the boys work was suposed to be shown there. So I took Tyler, Abby, Josh, and Jamie (Toby stayed home because he had gotten in trouble). When we got there they had a scavenger hunt for the kids to do. Tyler took it all very seriously, he really wanted to get all the answers right, so he took over an hour to answer the 7 questions. Abby and Josh had both picked out books that they could not live without even though I had not told them that I was buying them. Abby picked out two books actually and gave me a choice of which one I was going to buy for her. Josh had two books that he started screaming every time I tried to talk him out of one. So I thought I'd cut my losses and I took Tyler over to the classics and tried to get him to pick out either Jungle Book or Swiss Family Robinson. He decided that he wanted the Phantom of the Opera.

As it turns out only 2 kids got all the answers right. They were going to do a drawing from all the right answers, but since only 2 kids got all the answers right they both got a $10. gift card. So Tyler was one of the two and got the gift card. So we headed back to the classics where he promptly picked up Dracula and declared this is the one. I tried to get him to switch to Dr. Jeykle and Mr. Hyde, but he really wanted Dracula, so with those books in his hands we headed to the check out. When we got home everyone wanted to read their books, so I gave them 20 minutes. Whn he went to bed Tyler was 30 pages into The Phantom of the Opera. I put everyone to bed and at 5:30am I woke up to Tyler...He told me I needed to remind him to buy longer books next time since he had already finished the Phantom of the Opera!!! Turns out he woke up at 4:00am and finished the book by 5:30!!! Later that morning I realized I had accidentally bought the condensed version. Today he told me that he finished Dracula yesterday. So within 24 hours of getting the 2 books they were both done! We finally found some books that have enticed his interest. I think I will stick to the Library as my wallet cannot keep up with Tyler's ability to read.

Josh's Date

We have had so much fun with our Disneyland passes, sadly we only have a month left on them. So we wanted to take each of the kids on a date there. Josh was first since he had been sick all week and needed a pick-me-up. It is so fun to go with just one kid, it's almost like not having kids there. Josh picked all the rides and who he wanted to ride them with...






Dad and Josh on BuzzLightyear


Dad and Josh on the train in Toon Town




Dad and Josh on Roger Rabbit ride



Josh in the car on the way to our date. Playing video games in traffic.

Did you notice a pattern? Mom was apparently chopped liver that night! James was happy because he rarely gets to go with us, so he wanted to ride with him. Although I did hear him try to convince Josh trying to go on a ride with me so he could sleep.

Josh was so much fun, a very good date I might add. We had dinner at James favorite restaurant there, Plaza Inn. James got fried chicken and Josh shared with him. I was amazed by the amount of food my little 3 year old consumed. He had atleast 2 pieces of chicken. 1/2 a biscuit (that was the size of his head) and tons of green beans. Infact he loved the green beans the most. He kept eating them and saying "yum" and eating more and more. It was so cute.

It was a great date!

He Knows Me So Well

When I was pregnant with Toby I was really nauseous and the only think that sounded good to me is turkey sandwiches. I must have eaten them morning, noon and night for 2 1/2 months. One day I just woke up and didn't want sandwiches anymore, it was really weird. What's even weirder is I have not been nauseous for the past 4 pregnancies. Now my 6th pregnancy and I'm nauseous. It's awful, trying to homeschool 2 kids and keep track of 5, being totally tired and now nauseous too. When we found out we were pregnant we both thought it would be fun to have a girl so Jamie could have a little buddy to play with. James wanted to have a family vote on what we would say when people asked us what we wanted to have. Of course the boys won the vote, being that there are more boys than girls in our house and James (even though he wants a girl deep down) voted boy. So now if anyone asks we want a boy, Abby gets tearful when we talk about it she wants a girl so bad. Anyway here we are we have till the end of March till we find out what we are going to have and there is always this debate happening. To make matters worse the only thing that really sounds good to me is turkey sandwiches. This is not helping the we are having a girl theory. It is just adding fuel to the we are having a boy theory.

There is this deli next to James work that has really good rolls for sandwiches. And the other day I was thinking I should ask him to get some of the rolls for me, but I didn't. Then last night he said to me that he was thinking about getting some of the rolls for me. And he wanted to know what kind I wanted. I was shocked, he knew what I wanted without even asking him. I thought it was so sweet that he was thinking about me. Just when I think I have him fooled I find out that he knows me so well.

Christmas Traditional Picture

When James was growing up his parents always took a picture of the kids on the stairs before they started opening up presents (for us before they even see the tree). We do this too, however, this year Jamie was not agreeable this year, every picture we got she was screaming her face off. I know it's late, but I couldn't help but post the tradition that James family had and now our family has.

Sometimes it's just impossible to sleep

Last night as James and I were going to bed I looked at the clock...10:30pm. On New Years eve we went to bed at 12:30, on the first we went to bed at 11:30, and now on the 2nd 10:30. I thought it was funny that we keep going to sleep an hour earlier each night. Now this morning in retrospect I am so thankful we went to bed so early.

Most nights we have a visitor of some sort in our bed. Ususallly it's Abby or Joshua. I am so deep in sleep that I don't even hear or feel them come into bed. But when I do feel them (usually kicking me in the back, or pulling my hair), I kick them out. So when I felt Abby kicking me in the back at 3:00am I told her she had two options...sleep on the couch or go to her bed. She decided that she would sleep on the couch (in my room). That was the last time I really slept last night! About 45 minutes later, she came to me and told me that her blanket was ripped and I needed to sew it right now. I told her I would do it in the morning but not now in the middle of the night. She finally accepted that and went into her room. At 4:15am she brought Jamie into me and told me that Jamie was awake. When I looked down the hall she had her light on in her room and she was playing. I was not prepared to spend the day with a girl that was so crabby because she woke up at 4 in the morning. Let me make a slight side track. Abby is definately a morning person. She is the happiest and the most obedient in the morning, consequently the evenings are terrible. Sometimes I have to send her to bed at 6:30pm because she is so tired. Last night she went to bed at 7:00 so she definately should not be up at 4. Also when we moved into our house the previous owners had the lock turned around so we could lock her in her room (they didn't do it for us, it was just how it was) and because someone had remodled the light switch is outside of her room. So we can lock her in her room and turn off the light and she can't turn it on. When the boys were little we would lock the door just till they fell asleep, but they would turn on the light in their room and play. So we had to take the nob off the light so, but that was not a great idea, because they would watch us and long story short we would loose the knob quite frequently. So when we moved here and the light switch was on the outside it was great. We don't lock the door anymore, but when we did lock her in it was really only for 5 minutes and I would stay upstairs to make sure she didn't need the bathroom and nothing happened to her. But she is really good now about going to sleep, the best one we have actually. So to get back to last night. She would not get into bed at what was it 4 in the morning. So I could not handle it any more, so I turned off her light, locked the door and went to bed, with Jamie, James, and now Josh in it. Jamie was thrashing all over the place. She kept standing up and body slamming me, I couldn't sleep at all. Then at 4:30 I hear Abby say she has to go to the bathroom, so I open the door and stood outside the bathroom. I didn't hear much noise in there so I knew she was just trying to get out of having the door locked. When she came out 5 minutes later she asked me why I was waiting for her. I told her I wanted to tuck her into bed. She would not get in!! She absolutely refused. So I had to lock it again, I really hate locking it, I wish she had self control so I didn't have to, but at that time of the morning I have little patience with kids that don't want to sleep. So I went back to my bed. At 5:15am after quite a few more takles and head butts from a 17 month old baby, I took Jamie back to her crib. I think Abby was asleep so I left the door unlocked. At 5:45 James alarm started going off, so he could get to a 7:30 mtg. I had a chiro appt at 8. So I tried to sleep for a little more, but when I woke up at 7 I woke up to Josh kicking me in the back! Good thing I was going to the chiropractor :) Today I will definately need a nap. It's 9 in the morning and I'm already tired. What a night. Sometimes it's just impossible to sleep.