Still Alive & Breathing

Hello world! I just wanted to pop in and say that we still live. So does this sad, sorry blog that until five minutes ago was still celebrating Christmas!

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My college school load was pretty intense this semester and life has just been...well crazy.

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I have missed blogging though so I am going to try and step it up!

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Tomorrow and Wednesday are my last two finals and then we are preparing to head to the happiest place on earth! Yeah I can't wait. Just wish you all were coming with me :)

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Thanks for checking in! It's good to be back...(well if THIS is back hehe)

Playing Catchup!

I know. I have been the WORST blogger EVER.

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What can I say...it fell to the last spot on the list. We have had a wonderful three months...and I am hoping that in 2012 I will blog again and stay on top of things!

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In a nutshell, here is what we have been up to. I am hoping to complete all my scrappin for 2011 by the end of the week so I will (fingers crossed) post more later this week. Then hopefully by next week I will be caught up on life and ready to start fresh again and stay current!

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Here's to hoping! xoxox Me

You busy?

Today we had an experience that just made me chuckle.

And realize how modernized my kids really are haha!

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Madysen wanted to play with a friend afterschool. I told her to call her friend around the corner and see if they could play together. A few minutes later she came upstairs telling me that our phone is broken.

"WHAT?!?"

 "HOW DID YOU BREAK OUR PHONE?"

(I like to refer to myself as mother of the year in these moments)

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She shrugged her shoulders and said,

"I dunno. I just dialed the numbers and it started going

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.

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Then I realized that was just a sound she had never heard before.

The rest of us just call it the BUSY signal

:)

Crisis averted.

Phone is in tact.

Laughter spilled out of me.

Lesson learned hehe

{ Are You Serious? }

I know. Many of my loyal fans (haha ya know all 4 of you who still read my blog) are going to grumble that I have already decorated my blog for Christmas. Especially since I haven't even talked about Cooper's birthday, Halloween or any of the festivities surrounding them. I just put my Halloween away last night about midnight and I am just moving forward at this point :)

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What can I say...being a college student/full-time domestic engineer/Mormon housewife and all the other roles I play has been a little nuts. Honestly, I didn't really think going back to school would be as stressful or time consuming as it is. Guess I'll blame that on my own delirousness hehe!

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I am almost done with 2 of my classes and in another week or so hope to be done with the last. That way I have a chance at enjoying my favorite favorite favorite time of year! So sorry my wonderful readers hehe ;) but I will just have to make a clean start again in a few days.

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In the meantime, to sum up, Coop had a birthday. He turned seven. We mini golfed at Scary Hill, he got a new bike, a Chicago Cubs scoreboard clock, a football, shin guards and a cake. Ya know..typical stuff hehe!

Halloween was a blast! The kids looked awesome and had a wonderful time. Today they are being given full access to their trick or treat bags just so it stops watching me all day long while they are at school. Ugh. Dieting is the worst in a house FULL of chocolate. It needs to go.

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So, sorry I am a blog loser these days. I will find my balance. It will be my New Year's resolution hehe!

Thankfully that means I have almost 2 months to really start ;)

xoxoxo Amanda

Parenting: The rollercoaster ride

Do you ever feel like being a mother has a few too many moments that make you cry?

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Today has been "one of those" days.

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I took my Juddie to choir today. We walked to the door, hand in hand, and he gave me a sweet kiss goodbye. Fourty five minutes later I picked him up. He skipped to the car overly excited because one of the fellow students brought a Halloween treat bag for each kid. He buckled his carseat and opened the bag. We looked inside and it was a bag of halloween microwave popcorn. He asked if he could have it when we got home. I told him that it was butter popcorn and it was a kind he couldn't have. He melted like a puddle. All his happiness was gone. He didn't scream, yell, pout, argue or throw a fit. In fact he was silent. I looked back a few seconds later to find tears streaming silently down his sweet chubby cheeks. His life can be so unfair.

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As a mother, I would give anything to take this trial away from my boy. I hate that there are so many childhood experiences that he can't do because of his allergies. As a Mom, I would give up everything I have if there was a way to fix this. It isn't going to kill him, and many other mothers have trials to face WAY worse than mine I know. But it is awful to watch your baby silently cry because "all the other kids can" and he just simply can't. It's just so unfair. I certainly hope it is something that will fade away with time and not a life long trial.

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Fast forward to a few hours later.

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We are all in the car taking Madysen and her friend to choir. They request that their current choir practice cd be put it. I put it in and all four of them start belting out Christmas songs. Madysen is such a born performer. She was sitting in the front next to me and just singing her little heart out! A song about the Savior being the real meaning for Christmas comes on and she is belting out every word, just like her own little testimony that she just KNOWS what she is singing is truth. I started bawling again. Thankfully I was wearing sunglasses so everyone didn't notice that I was borderline sobbing underneath them.

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And I think to myself, how did I get so lucky. (And why am I crying so much today?) How is it possible that as a mother you love these little people so very much that nothing else in the whole entire world even makes a difference as long as you have them. And as a happy twist, they love you just as much back.

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Then it all makes sense. Heavenly Father just knows what He is doing. He knows that there is a reason, bigger and unbeknowest to me that Judd has had to battle health issues his entire life. He knows that as a mother I am doing everything in my power to make sure my children know His gospel.So He sends me a simple message through a song to help me to keep pressing forward and know that, despite how it seems some days, I am doing what He would have me do.

 I am making a difference.

Even if it is to no one else but these three little people I call my own :)

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In the end, I suppose this rollercoaster called parenting really is worth it.

Atleast until they're teenagers that is hehe :)

xoxox

Me

Germs

So...

Does anyone else have this terrible disease?

Atleast now I know what's going on.

xoxox

Me

{ Saturday is a special day }

Today I realized what a true nerd I am.

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We started our morning going to soccer game after soccer game. Then we came home and Matt asked me what I'd like to do. I got a big grin on my face and exclamed...

"CLEAN! WINDOWS TOO!"

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To say the least, he wasn't super thrilled (or shocked either hehe). But as the wonderful hubby he is, he got out his walkman (yep he STILL has one of those for am radio purposes) and got to work.

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We scrubbed.

We scoured.

 We washed WINDOWS.

I vaccumed curtains and shelves (oh how I love my vaccum).

Washed fingerprints off of...well EVERYWHERE.

Then I decorated my porch for Halloween. It is now 8:30pm and we just fed the kids, put em to bed and are trying to figure out what WE should eat for dinner.

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My hunger is secondary to my joy of my house sparkling. My salty pretzel candle is filling my house with the yummiest smell ever and I am sitting on the couch basking in the loveliness that is a TRULY super clean house.

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See. Told ya I was a big nerd.

xoxox ME

{Performance Picnic}

Friday was my kids first concert of the season! They were so darling and had a blast!

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Madysen adores her brother Juddie. She asked me before the concert to take the pics of the two of them. So sweet right?!

 Juddie rocked the stage. He is so dang adorable on stage I was getting teary. He is seriously so adorable singing those songs. You'll have to come see at Christmas....haha

 Madysen, as always, rocked the stage. She never misses a beat up there! Her performing has come so far I can't believe it! Her favorite song was "Let's Get Loud!" It was a great night!

We had a great night! Nonna, Papa, Grandma and Grandpa all came to see. The kids have so  much fun performing with an audience they know and love! Course we have to get Judd to stay focused on the show and not waving at us all! Something to shoot for haha!

{Are You Ready For Some Football}

Are you ready for some FLAG football?

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My Cooper started playing flag football a few weeks ago and is having the time of his life! He is actually pretty good at it too. He is fast and agile so its a great fit for him. Plus he doesn't have to cry after each tackle. Everybody wins!

I love his face in this one. It cracks me up. Such intensity! hehe :)

 

Isn't he a cutie!?

QB is his 2nd favorite position. (Running back is first). But in this game, since they are 6 and it is new, they don't throw the ball much, but rather hand it off and run as fast as they can .

This game, they allowed Coop to actually throw it! He made a great pass, but sadly the boy didn't catch it! Oh well....back to hand offs!

I just love the look of pure FUN on his face in this one. I like to make sure he's playing for him, not ME Matt, and this pic proves he's having a blast!

Good job Cooper! We love watching you play buddy!

{ GIving it a Shot }

It is pretty obvious I have been doing this WAY too much this week! I just have that OCD personality that when I have something I need to learn, I go 110 MPH until I have it down. It's a curse really...

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I am pretty happy with most of these. I am not using quit kits, but designing each page on my own so it takes a while but I like it so much better! Then each page is original!

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I started off using free kits I found online and although I like em, the ones you pay for are INFINITELY better. Of course. Nothing in life really is free. Lesson RE learned :)

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I love the one of Matt's Bday with the cupcake and the 2 of Madysen's Room reveal the most. Course those are some of my favorite pics too. Go figure!

What about you guys? Do you have a favorite?!

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Wish me luck. All I have done is canning, homework and scrapbooking since...well the last time I posted pretty much. My house is neglected. Ugh. It shows. So today, I am going to scrub it all down, scrub myself down, and then...well there's probably a pretty good chance I'll be scrapbooking again.

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Feel sorry for Matt.

If he's lucky, we won't have Spaghettios tonight.

Again.

:)

XOXOXOXOXO

Me

{Digital Scrapbooking Take One}

So this weekend was Swiss Days....one of my favorite days of the year!! My Mom and sisters and I went altogether and had a blast! We shopped for nine hours! It was fantastic!

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I bought several things but my most exciting purchase was software.

I know I know that sounds so lame!

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But it was digital scrapbooking software and I have always wanted to learn how to do that! I threw these together in like ten minutes and I have no idea what I am doing! What do ya think...not too shabby right?

It begins...

This past weekend soccer started up for our family again. This year is a little different though...Madysen decided she was done with soccer and Judd is finally old enough to begin.

Both my boys were SOOO excited for Saturday to come...but I think Judd's anticipation was almost over the top. He could hardly sleep Friday night he was just so ready.

Cooper's game was first and it was lots of fun. He is playing U7 now so the field is twice the size as last year, they have 5 players instead of 3 and they have to learn to play positions. It was funny to watch Cooper adjust to this. He enjoyed offense but defense...not so much

Cooper is learning quick what it means to be a team player. I love to watch him play sports and see how much like his Daddy he is. They have the exact same body shop and it looks like Coop is going to be a natural at everything like his Dad. He is very agile and fast which makes a great player!

This was my all-time favorite.

Matt is Cooper's coach and Juddie was just dying to be part of the

 team huddle to discuss strategy.

 It was killing him his game was 2nd! hehe

Finally....Juddie's turn!

His coach is Matt's buddy Seth and they started out with their own huddle discussing how soccer goes. This is each of their very first time playing and it was kinda obvious which kids had been exposed and practicing with Dad/siblings and which hadn't hehe. It was adorable though.

Judd wasted no time jumping into action. Sadly the field was almost all dirt and no having grass to stop the ball madefor a billion and three out of bounds kicks. They got great practice throwing the ball in though :)

It was way fun because one of Judd's buddies from preschool, Porter, was on the opposing team. They would get so busy chatting they would forget to play! Both their coaches kept telling them they could talk later hehe

This was an important moment. Half time=Switch goals.

Always good to make sure the players know that hehe

Judd even was able to score a goal! He was cheering for himself before he even kicked it all the way in! It was pretty hilarious!

This had to be the play of the game for me. This little guy saw Judd coming to "steal" the ball and just hunkered down right on it so Judd couldn't get to it. Thankfully Juddie didn't just kick it anyway and permanently injure the poor kid.

He played hard. He played good. He had sweat dripping from his side burns. But he had SOOO much fun he couldn't have cared less that he was hot. He didn't even notice. It was so fun and I am so glad he is loving it that much!

FINALLY, he feels like he is one of the big kids.

Now if his Mommy could just be ok with that....sigh