10 Years

Today is a special day. No, not because of Thanksgiving, but because 10 years ago today Dave & I were married. It's been a fun, hard, exciting, busy and crazy 10 years! As I think back, it seems so long ago and has gone by so fast all at the same time. So much has happened in our family. Dave has been a perfect fit for me. He is my best friend and the one I always turn to, good or bad. I love our life all that we have. I am more in love with him today than I ever thought possible. He really is my Prince Charming! Dave surprised me last night with a beautiful diamond anniversary ring. It has 10 diamonds for our 10 years and all of the diamonds are princess cut. (He knows me so well!) We had a nice Thanksgiving with his family and then went to show the kids where we got married. Here's us, then & now...

8 is great

8 Shows I like to watch:
1 - Law and Order
2 - Survivor
3 - the news (boring, I know)
4 - Oprah
5 - Good Things Utah
6 - Studio 5
7 - Worst Week
8 - Friends (I REALLY miss them!)

8 Restaurants I like to eat at:
1 - Olive Garden
2 - Black Angus
3 - Cafe Rio
4 - McGrath's
5 - Cheesecake Factory
6 - Chili's
7 - Robintino's
8 - Any place I go with my cute hubby

8 Things that happened today:
1 - Took Tiara to dance
2 - Cut many, many 8 inch pieces of yarn for Spencer's class
3 - Sat at home waiting for FedEx to deliver Dave's anniversary gift
4 - Read to Davis for 45 minutes
5 - Laundry, laundry, laundry
6 - Went to Pack Meeting
7 - Went tanning
8 - Grocery shopping

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1 - Our cruise!!!!!
2 - Christmas morning/watching the kids open their presents
3 - Summer
4 - All the kids out of diapers!
5 - Kids to be old enough so Dave & I can go out and leave them home alone
6 - Having time to go to the gym
7 - Taking the kids to Disneyland
8 - No more child support

8 Things on my wish list:
1 - A clean house (that lasts more than an hour!)
2 - Digital camcorder
3 - A shower that works
4 - New kitchen
5 - Playhouse for the girls (and me!)
6 - Nicer sewing machine & serger
7 - Regular date night
8 - A BMW convertible (and no carseats!)

8 People I'm tagging:
1 - Janine
2 - Melanie
3 - Emery
4 - Wren
5 - Spencer
6 - Aubrey
7 - Shannon
8 - Dave (Oh, wait! You don't have a blog)

Thankful

With Thanksgiving approaching, it's given me the chance to think about all of the things I am thankful for. I really do have a good life. Sometimes I take things for granted and sometimes I complain, but I am so thankful for all I have. I have a nice home, great car, food to eat and clothes to wear. It may not be the newest nicest house, but it's plenty big and I like the small payment. My clothes are just boring "mom" clothes, but they are clean and comfortable. I am healthy and able to do what I need to do for my family. I have great kids that are just the sweetest things ever. They are the light of my life. As hard as it can be some days with so many kids, I am so very glad I have them. (I sometimes have to remind myself of that.) I have a terrific husband that puts up with more than he should have to at times. He is supportive of me and really tries to make our family work, as complicated as it can be at times. He is a great provider and dedicated father. He is the one person in this world that I can always turn to when I'm down or need help. I have the best in-laws in the world. I feel just as much a part of their family as anyone else and it has been that way from the beginning. I have a mom that, until she was gone, I never really appreciated enough. We often butted heads because of our different personalities, but now that she's on the other side of the planet, I miss her terribly. She is the nicest person I know and would do anything for anyone. This used to bug me, but now I see that she is more Christlike than I am and maybe I should try to be more like her. I'm thankful for the time I've been able to spend with my Grandpa the last couple of years. It has been such a blessing to get to see him and talk with him as much as I have. I used to just idolize him and my Grandma when I was younger. They were always so happy and fun to be around. I wanted to be just like them. I am thankful to have the gospel in my life and to know who I am and where I'm going. I can't imagine going through life with all of it's ups and downs and not have some sort of eternal perspective to guide me. I'm thankful for the trials in my life, for they have brought me some of my greatest joys. Having to put myself through college, being single for way longer than I wanted, Jessica, losing that first baby, Davis getting meningitis, 3 babies in 2 1/2 years. All of these things were very, very hard at the time. (Some still are!) But they all helped me to appreciate what I have now. I could probably go on and on but these are the main things I've been thinking about lately. I'm just glad that I have the life I do, good and bad. It's made me who I am and I like me.

We Lost Davis...or...Harry Potter Lives Here

Davis just cracks me up sometimes. There is never a dull moment with him around. So the past week or so, he's been living with Seth's sunglasses on. And when I say living, I mean LIVING! He won't take them off for anything...including sleep! He can't take them off he says, because then he won't be Harry Potter. Now I know many of you are thinking that Harry Potter doesn't wear sunglasses. But he does wear glasses and in this little boy's mind, they are synonymous. Well, being the great mom that I am (humble too) I decided to go on a quest for real Harry Potter glasses. After searching a couple of stores, I ended up at Zurcher's. They are the best! I should have started there to begin with and I would have had a lot less stress. They had some which I promptly bought. But evidently, they don't fit right so he's back to the sunglasses. He no longer answers to "Davis" only "Harry". He even made his "bestest buddy" Hunter call him Harry today which angered Hunter immensely. He, of course, knew that he was Davis and didn't understand the whole Harry thing. So I'm coming back to the car after picking up Tiara from school and Davis, I mean Harry, was in his car seat rubbing his forehead and moaning. I thought something had happened to him while I was getting Tiara. When I asked him what happened he said (with a straight face), "My scar is hurting." Well, I burst out laughing. Sorry Harry, I shouldn't laugh at your pain, but I just couldn't help myself.

How Dads Save Time

Rub-a-dub-dub, how many kids can you fit in a tub? Dave so nicely offered to get all the kids bathed tonight. I wasn't complaining because I was pretty much done-in after homework tonight. Well, because we have 5 kids, bath night can get pretty busy. Dave thought he'd save time by giving baths in our tub...ALL AT ONCE!! This isn't exactly what I had in mind when he said he'd do baths, but I was in no position to question the help. The kids loved it, can you tell?

Family Addition

Guess what? We're adding to our family! It became official tonight and I guess there's not much I can do about it now. I've been ignoring all the begging and fighting with my desire to give in. So I caved. I'm weak. But I've run out of reasons to say no.

So for family night tonight, we made it real. We took the kids to Petco and let them pick out some fish. (HA!! How many of you actually thought I was pregnant again??) We now have an aquarium full of cute little fish and have added 6 new family members. The kids have been begging for a pet and this is the least offensive one I could think of. Now they all have their own fish with one for Daddy, too. Names are still pending, but I think Darth Vader, Spongebob and Dorothy are definites so far. I'll let you know the names of the rest when they decide. The kids are so excited at having a pet (or 6) and were just beaming all night. What a fun FHE activity!

Halloween

With all the craziness of Halloween, I didn't get a chance to post some of our pictures until today. So I'd like to introduce Scream, Jango Fett, Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella and Belle.

The kids had a blast trick-or-treating and came home with way more candy than I'd really like them to have. They all wore their costumes the entire day. We had to say goodbye to Grandpa Herm as he went back home.Then we hurried off to the school to see the parade. Unfortunately, we got there a little late and missed seeing Jackson and Seth. Bummer! This was the first year I've ever missed a kid in the parade, so I was quite disappointed.

Once the kids got home from school, we went to Dave's work for a party and some early trick-or-treating. Then it was home for a quick dinner and the quest for more candy. I got to take the kids this year, which was great because it was so warm. They covered most of our ward before getting tired. Spencer & Tiara were still going strong, so we dropped off Seth & Davis and went out for more. Tia ran most of the way and had so much fun. Spence was the perfect big brother, taking care of his little sister.

And this is what we woke up to this morning...

I've let the kids go crazy with their candy today. My theory is that if the eat so much they get sick, maybe they won't care about the rest of it. Besides that, if they eat everything in one day, I can brush their teeth super good tonight and not to worry about cavities forming because they continually eat candy every day. I don't know if it really works, but it makes me feel better that way.