Happy Birthday Lauren

Today is Lauren's birthday. We celebrated yesterday so Kristy and her family could be there (they left for home at a ridiculous hour this morning). I am posting this video, not so you can hear my lovely singing voice above everyone else, but because the giver of the flip video threatened yesterday to take it back because no one has posted video yet. So thank you daddy, and just remember, I was the very first to post video.

And...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!!

Ode To Joy - Big Rocks First

A few months ago I was feeling very stressed. I had way too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. I was so overwhelmed one day that I just sat down and wondered what I was going to do. Then I remembered a story I had heard once. I immediately got on the computer and googled it. I found the story told by Stephen R. Covey. Here it is:

In the book “First Things First” he describes a story that one of his associates experienced on a seminar. In the middle of the lecture the presenter pulled out a wide-mouth jar and placed it on the table, next to some fist-sized rocks.

After filling the jar to the top with rocks he asked, “Is the jar full?”
People could see that no more rocks would fit, so they replied, “Yes!”

“Not so fast,” he cautioned. He then got some gravel from under the table and added it to the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks. Again, he asked, “Is the jar full?”
This time the students replied “Probably not.”

The presenter then reached for a bucket of sand below the table, and dumped it in the jar, filling the spaces between the rocks and the gravel. Once again he asked “Is the jar full?”
“No!”, the students shouted.

Finally, he grabbed a pitcher of water and filled the jar completely, asking to the public what they could learn from that illustration.

One of the participants answered, “If you work at it, you can always fit more into your life.”

“No,” said the presenter. “The point is, if I hadn't put the big rocks in first. . . I would never have gotten them in.”

This story really helped me when I read it. I was trying to do too many little things. I wasn't making sure my "Big Rocks" made it into the jar first. I remembered this story today, as I was thinking about the new year that will begin in just a few days. I need to sit down and make a list of my big rocks. The things that are the most important to me. I need to schedule my time so that I make sure I get all those things in first, before all the little filler things that sometimes seem to dominate my life. Some of those things are my husband, my children, personal prayer, personal scripture study, temple attendance.

As the new year approaches, take a few minutes to write down your "Big Rocks" and make a plan for your life so that you can make sure they find their way into your jar.

Oh What A Day

Sorry to bore everyone with all the Christmas pictures, but I promised Sam I would post a lot of pictures of everyone together at Christmas. This should about do it now. These are from Christmas day.

Flashback Friday - Birthday In The Wild

Farrah, Allyson, Kristy, Marisa

Our family was camping with our friends, the Heits. I don't know where we were. It was Kristy's Birthday. We had cake.

T'was The Night Before

Steve and Zac got home from St. Louis just in time to celebrate Christmas Eve. That day my dad and my sister Lauren took all 5 of the older grandchildren to see a movie. Unfortunately they were not able to purchase tickets for the intended time, so they got to wait for an hour for the next one and there were so many people there, they had to wait IN LINE. We will see if that type of outing ever happens again. When they arrived home my father and Lauren were both visibly shaken. I would have been like, "Sorry kids. We can't see a movie today. Lets go rent one and watch it at home."

My dear sister Farrah planned a lovely program for Christmas Eve. She even typed it up and had the kids decorate the handouts with drawings. When she had asked the day before if she could plan a program for that night we all thought that sounded like a mighty fine idea. I didn't know that she had a secret meaning in her asking. Meaning that she was going to PLAN the program and DELEGATE all the tasks out. Like putting me in charge of the acting out of the First Christmas/Manger scene. I had 6 kids to work with. Ages 10, 7, 5, 4, 4, and 1 1/2. And none of them wanted to participate. And let me just tell ya. Oh, it was great. Very spiritual. Thank you Farrah for trying.

Bart and Farrah did plan a special surprise. It was a special guest of honor. My brother Sam. All the way from Mexico City in the form of a giant cardboard cut out. The kids loved it. My mother cried, of course. I think Sam will be hanging out for a while. I can just see my mom sitting at the table with his larger than life self, carrying on a conversation.

It was a very fun time. I don't think we have all been together for Christmas before. I think the last time we were was in 1996, the year of the Christmas I have been featuring in my flashback Fridays. Speaking of which-is today Friday???? Wow. When did that happen? I will have to get right on that....

To see the album click here.

Pre-Christmas

I promised my brother I would post pictures for him since he was not able to be here with the rest of the wild crazy bunch this Christmas. He is in Mexico City serving an LDS mission. We were able to talk to him on Christmas day. We miss you Sam!

Both of my sisters that live in select cities across the country came to spend Christmas with us. They also brought their husbands and children. We had so much fun with everyone all together, although it got a "little" WILD at times.


Steve and Zac were not here when we these pictures were taken. They flew to St. Louis for Steve's sisters wedding. They were there for 4 days. Zac had a blast with all of his cousins. They came home on Dec. 23rd. Here is a picture of Zac dancing with his cousin Reagan at the wedding.

Ode To Joy (I haven't done one of these in a while) - Enjoy The Life You Have

So it is almost 10:00 in the morning. Everyone in my house is still in their PJ's. Addison is upstairs crying for me to come get her. I can hear one of the kids banging on the floor right above me. My sister and her family are in town from far far away and they are going to the children's museum today and invited us to go. The thought of getting in my car and driving downtown and parking and then going to sit in a room with 100 wild children is very unappealing to me, but I feel guilty because I would like to spend time with them. My house is mostly cleaned up from our Christmas disaster but there is still a lot that needs to be done and I am expecting a surprise visitor some time in the next few hours. I just asked Zac to get Addison and play with her. He just got out of the bath and got dressed in clean clothes. But the clothes he got dressed in are pajamas. I am stressing out because I said I was going to put my house up for sale right after the first of the year and that is only a week away and I still have an unbelievable amount of work to do before that can happen. We are about to run out of milk and bread so I am going to have to go to the store sometime today. And really right now all I want to do is go get back in my nice comfy bed and stay there for the rest of the day. Just one day off. That is all I want. Just one day to not HAVE to do anything.


So I just went back and read what I just wrote and my goodness! I sound so ungrateful. Oh poor baby, I have such a hard life. I am sure there are plenty of people who wish they had my to do list. I really want to delete the above writing, but I am going to leave it. Because most of you reading this are stay at home mom's like myself and I am sure you feel the same way sometimes. But when you really stand back and look at the big picture, when you think about all the people in the world who struggle everyday of their lives just to have food to feed their children, well....being able to go to the store to buy bread and milk shouldn't be such a burden to me. I am glad I have kids healthy enough to bang on the floor incessantly. I am thankful I have a nice warm safe house to clean. I am thankful it is an option for me to take my kids and go do something fun. Some people don't have that option.

Ok, I feel better. I am all ready to go and do the things that need to be done. I just might get ready and go enjoy my life today.....

The Day After

I came downstairs, turned on the computer (which I haven't done in a while) and realized that it has been a long time since I have posted. I didn't even do my Monday Morning Musings. So I am going to pretend it is Monday, although I have mused on a Wednesday before. Here it goes:

I have eaten way too much junk in the past week.

If I think I have had too much junk.....I don't even want to think about what my children have had to eat....so let's move on....

I am so glad my dear parents decided to watch Oprah's Favorite Things this year because we had our own little favorite things show yesterday. My dad might pretend he hates Oprah, but I think deep down inside he has a little "O" crush.

One of the "favorite things" we all got was a new flip camera about which I am so excited to use. I took it out of the packaging and got it all ready to use but there ain't no way I am taking video and then posting it for the world to see right now. Every room in my house is filled with the day after Christmas disaster. Believe it or not, it was actually clean on Christmas Eve.

I bought my kids way too many presents. Is it too late to take them back?

Why is it that I only have 4 kids, but right now at this very moment I can hear at least 10 different toys/games/music going on in the house?

Poor Steve had to go to work today. I am trying to be OK with it by acknowledging that the more he works, the more house $$$ we have.

I cannot wait to take down all my Christmas decorations.

Does anyone want to come help me clean up my mess? PLEASE!

Flashback Friday - You Say Pajama

Allyson, Farrah, Lauren & Kristy

Steve, Lauren, Kristy, Farrah, Allyson, Sam, Baxter & Toby

I figured since this whole Christmas month I have been doing pictures from Christmas 1996 I would finish it up with these. Christmas Eve 1996 in Dallas Tejas. We are all dressed in our traditional Christmas Eve PJ's. This was also the night Steve and I surprised everyone with some exciting news.

I remember that day so well. We had only been trying to get pregnant for about a month and I thought, if I am pregnant it would be so fun to surprise everyone on Christmas Eve. Steve and I went to the store to buy a pregnancy test. We both went in the bathroom at my parents house and we were so excited. We examined that satiated stick so closely. We didn't think I was pregnant at first, but then we saw this very very faint second pink line and got out the instructions for the test, looked at the line again, looked at the instructions. It said even if the line is faint, you are pregnant. We were so excited. We made a card for my parents to open that night at my grandmothers house. It said to Earl and Kay on the outside and on the inside it said Merry Christmas Grandpa and Grandma Snow. My mom started screaming when she read it (imagine that). That was a fun time.

Preferences

So, let me preference this by saying.....Just kidding. I'm not that dumb 2 days in a row. My alarm went off this morning and I must have been dreaming about how brilliant I was, because I sat straight up in bed and thought, "I used preference instead of preface in my post yesterday!" And then I thought, "No I didn't. There's no way." So I hopped right out of bed and, well, sure enough, there it was. I did have a very active 12 month old crawling all over me when I was trying to type that post. And she was banging on the keyboard and trying to dive over the edge of the chair onto her already skull fractured head. So in the future, just know that I usually have about 10 other things going on as I type, and my full attention is not on the words that are coming out of my fingers.

Now, on to the good stuff. Does anyone else watch "The Next Great American Band"? Well, what is wrong with you? I am so excited because tomorrow is the season finale and I hope The Clark Brothers win because they have been my most fav-O-rite since the beginning. They are brothers (really now!) and they do bluegrass. And they are yummy. I mean that in a strictly musical way. Gosh! I am a very HAPPILY married woman with my own YUMMY husband (in an unmusical way). Here is a song they did last week. Click on it to watch. You're gonna watch it, right?