Picture a day

This is turning out to be harder than I thought it would be...I've managed to take a picture everyday but finding the time to post them has been a challenge. So here I am catching up again.

January 8. Todd and I went out on a date so it was pizza night for the kids. Sophie and Claire are smiling it up...but Luke looks like he was crying. I think he must have just gotten in trouble for something.


January 9. I was back cleaning like I usually do on Saturday morning and when I walked into the kitchen I found this mess. Sophie had gotten into the pantry (someone forgot to shut the door completely) and pulled out a box of instant oatmeal, she had all the packets on the ground and had bitten a hole into one of the packs and dumped it all over. When I got there she was getting ready to start on the 2nd packet. Silly girl.


January 10. It was a big day at church for us today. Sophie's first day of nursery, Claire's first week as a Sunbeam, and Tayson had his baptism fireside today. It was so great to send Sophie to the nursery and she loved it. Not a tear. Claire loves Sunbeams - she keeps singing the song and telling me she needs to do things "because she's a sunbeam". It's very cute. Then at the fireside the lady talking said "When you get baptized you get wet" but Tayson thought she said what instead of wet and he shot his hand into the air and said "the Holy Ghost". It was so dang cute and funny. I can't believe he is getting baptized this year.


January 11. I found Sophie in the pantry again...this time with a box of granola bars. I'm not sure if she is chewing the box to get the granola bars out or just because she's obviously hungry enough to eat cardboard. On a side note: when we went grocery shopping on Saturday she chewed 2 huge holes in boxes - I was laughing so hard when I gave them to the checker. :)





January 12. This is how my Sophie looks the sweetest. She can be such a handful since she has SOOOOOO much energy and obviously loves to chew on stuff. When she goes to bed she has her binky, her bottle, and her new puppy Violet that she got for Christmas. It is a cool dog - we hooked it up to the computer and put her name, favorite animal (dog), picked songs and colors on it. So when she goes to bed I hit the paw that has the moon on it and it says "cuddle up Sophie" then it plays 2 minutes of lullaby's. She loves it.


January 13. Technically this picture was taken really late on the 12th...but I thought it should count for the 13th. Since I was leaving for 5 days for work we decided to go out (on a weeknight). We went up to the imax and saw Avatar in 3D. Here we are after the movie in our sweet 3D glasses taking a self portrait. Man I love that guy!


January 14. For our work meetings we came to Anaheim and are staying at the Disneyland hotel for 5 days. I saw Minnie Mouse in the cafe when I was going from my room to the ballroom where our meetings were so I thought I'd snap a shot for the kids.


January 15. So today I was working and I was helping the girl on the left of the picture when I asked my coworker if he had something I saw Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders) with him and I actually giggled when I saw him because I wasn't expecting to see him. Then after I finished helping the girl I asked him if I could get my picture with him and she wanted hers with him too. ha ha. It was so funny. In case you don't know who he is - he was on a VERY popular TV show when I was in high school and college (Beverly Hills 90210). It was so funny, because I honestly made a total fool out of myself and I'm pretty sure I was acting like I was about 15 years old. Oh well...it made for a great picture of the day.

Random Kid Stories

Yesterday the boys were playing the wii and the batteries went out so Todd told Tayson to go find more batteries in the junk drawer. Tayson knew which drawer we were talking about but then when he opened it and started looking for the batteries he kept pulling things out and saying "is this junk?" each time in a very sarcastic tone showing us things like Claire's hair bow, their small Book of Mormon, or pencils. Then Luke and Claire joined in. We were cracking up because they were so offended that we would call the precious items in the drawer "junk".

On Saturday I had to take the Durango in to get a leak on the back tire fixed so I took Luke and Claire with me to drop it off then over to the mall. On our drive there Luke told me how much cooler the minivan is than the Durango. Claire of course chimed in saying how much she loves the minivan too. When I asked them why Luke said "it's smaller so it goes faster" and "it's just a cool car mom". Claire said "it has lots of movies and I like the doors". So there you have it minivans are cool.

Then on our drive back Luke wanted to turn on the map in the car and he was pointing out the water (Utah Lake) to Claire and showing her how the arrow was the Durango. Then the following conversation happened:

Me: those are parks
Claire: we have a park at our house
Luke: no we have a garage at our house
Claire: oh yea
Luke: the parks have lines you have to stay in
Luke: mom, what happens if you go over the line?
Me: you run into another car

I still laugh when I think of how funny it is that they thought the green was parking lots. Obviously we need spring to come fast so my kids can get outside and play at the park soon.

Part of Tayson's prayer last night.

"thank you for our freedom so we can do what we want. please bless the people in other countries who don't have freedom so they can get it."

Tayson's set new years resolutions in class last week and for his family resolution he said "I want have more fun with my family". When we asked him how we could have more fun he said we just need to do things like go bowling more.

New Year's Resolution

I'm not really one to sit down and set a bunch of New Year's Resolutions. They just don't work for me that way so instead I like to come up with some overarching theme's or goals. Last year my motto was - embrace your crazy.

For the past few weeks I've been thinking about what I want the new year and decade to start with and I've decided that I want to be better about enjoying the small things and documenting them. One of my goals is to take a picture everyday to document what my life is like right now. I also want to try to have 1 of the pictures each week have me and at least 1 of my kids in it. Motherhood is where I am right now and I want my kids to be able to look back at how we are right now. My theme to go along with this is - enjoy the journey.

Here are my pictures so far this year:

January 1: Yes. This is a picture of my bum. The reason I picked this one is because I think it's hilarious that every time Todd gets the camera he takes the most random pictures. When I was looking through our cruise pictures on the day of the 1st I found this picture along with several other people's bums and it cracked me up.

January 2. I love just hanging out with my family. I love that Timmy and Mark have on their Schultz shirts. A few thanksgivings ago we all got shirts made with our family number on them and I love that when ever you catch us together someone is wearing theirs.

January 3. Me sad to be off the cruise and wearing my Schultz shirt with pride. I love my family so much and I am so glad that I got to spend so much time hanging out with 7 of my siblings, my awesome hubby and my rockin' in-laws.

January 4. I love this picture of the boys in their luchador masks. Tayson requested that we buy him an official wrestling outfit to wear with his mask and we told him that all they need to do is wear stretchy pants. He decided that as long as they don't have a shirt on sweats or shorts will do for now.

January 4. I couldn't pick just one for this day since I wanted to get the girls showing off their presents from Mexico too. We got them matching swimsuit cover ups (which they both put on as soon as they got them) and Claire got maracas (or raca's as she calls them) and Sophie got a tambourine. Claire loves to shake the tambourine and hit it on her bum. It's so cute.


January 5. I forgot my phone at home today so Todd brought it to me at work. When I went out to the car to meet him I saw Shadow in the backseat and asked Todd why he was in the car (we never take him anywhere except PetSmart to get his haircut) and Todd said "I thought he'd like a ride". It made me laugh so of course I snapped a picture.

January 6. I realized after everyone was in bed that I hadn't taken a picture yet for the day so I thought I'd get one of the boys and how they are every night. Sitting at their computers playing WoW. They usually sit like this playing until around 2:00 am.

January 7. Today we made another trip to the doctors. We have been there way too much the past 5 weeks. Sophie started with strep 5 weeks ago, then Meggan got it, then I got it, then Claire got it and now Sophie has it again. UGH. When I took this picture Sophie was saying cheese but she was crying at the same time. Such a funny girl.

The end of the cruise

Todd and I got up early on Sunday ... too early on accident so we walked up to the top to watch the boat dock in Long Beach. Then we met everyone for some breakfast before waiting for our deck to be called so we could get off the boat. We had to wait about an hour or so before we could get in line to get off. Once we got there things went smooth and fast and we were back on shore. (I still had sea legs for a few days after we got off).

Off the boat waiting for our taxi drivers (My MIL and her friend)

Goodbye....

It was a sad day when it was over. But we are already talking about when to plan the next vacation when as many siblings as possible can get together for lots of laughs.

The Cruise - Day 7

The last day of the cruise was another day at sea. It was too cold to go outside and soak in any last bit of sunshine so we found other ways to entertain ourselves. We slept in then had "bathrobe breakfast". We were laughing about how people would walk around the ship in their Carnival robes so we decided to have some fun and eat breakfast in our robes. After having breakfast on the Lido deck in our robes I went to the gym with Mark, Danny and Emily. We lifted a little weights, Mark led us in some crazy circuit training that kicked my butt then we rode the bikes for a half hour.


After lunch we decided to play sardines (hide-n-seek where you have to hide with the person when you find them). We set up a few rules (no bathrooms, age restricted areas, no leaving the deck, etc) then started playing. If you couldn't find the person in 10 minutes we had a meeting zone where we would regroup. I was it 2nd and I hid under a table that had t-shirts for sale behind some boxes. Only Sherry, Brandon and Todd found me. Woo Hoo. And I had some fun talking while people were buying shirts.

Then it was time for our last dinner and show. In order to make sure we had good seats for the show we went to the Spectacular theater right after dinner. They were playing battle of the sexes. Guys vs. Girls....and the battle was intense. The guys were beating us when the question was asked "In dungeons and dragons what is the name of the person who holds the secret maps?" I used this is as my chance to have some fun and yelled out "I know my husband (pointing to Todd) plays this and he's the dungeon master!" It was hilarious and the entire row of guys by Todd were laughing so hard. Thank goodness Todd thought it was funny too.

The show was the special "Carnival Legends" show. All week they were doing tryouts at karaoke for different singers. Our very own Trent was singing the part of Elton John. The show was hilarious and so much fun. We were in the front row so we could cheer extra loud.

Trent and his dancer coming on stage

His costume was awesome. He sang "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John.

The whole cast
James Brown, Elton John, Brittany Spears, Madonna,
Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Garth Brooks, Elvis and Frank Sinatra

Our whole party the last night of the cruise

It was so sad to head back to my room and pack after such a fun day.

The Cruise - Day 6

After Cabo we had some good times on the boat. Dinner as usual was crazy and fun. Everyone ordered too much food and we were the last ones out just like every night. Then we went to the show. The singers and dancers on the boat performed several different shows and I really enjoyed the performances. Of course I have always loved dance.

Hanging out on the boat after the show.
Jeannie, Trent
Todd, Kathy
Emily, Danny
Steve, Christine

While we were waiting for the comedy show to start there wasn't anything going on in the El Morocco lounge so we just sat around and talked and laughed and took pictures. We decided to say an emotion and have the person make the face associated with that emotion. Everyone did a few different emotions...but I just picked a few of my favorite ones.

Sad
(I love the puppy dog eyes and his pouty lower lip)

Happy, Sad, Mad
(all of Steve's looked the same)

Mad
(she burst out laughing right after this picture)

Emily laughing at whichever emotion we gave her!

This is Danny's "sexy" look

Mad
(according to Todd this is the exact look I give him when I'm mad at him. He said I always twist my tongue when I'm mad. I've never noticed it before this picture. Funny

Blow fish
(ok it's not an emotion ... but it was funny)

Trent doing the George Costanza pose

Confused

Smelling a stinky one

Finding her kids poopy diaper on the floor

Sherry and Brandon decided to hit the dance club instead of the comedy show. Good call on their part since I had to walk out of the show half way through.

The Cruise - Day 6: Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas was a very short day at port. We had to get up early and were off the boat by 8:30 am and had to be back by 3:00 pm. We took small boats to get to shore. When we got there we decided to do some shopping to get things for the kids so we hit the flea market. Todd and I found some awesome luchador wrestling masks for the boys. Todd wore it through the flea market while we shopped...it was hilarious.


This is the water taxi we took to Lovers Beach. Please notice the writing on it "Than's foor yours tip's". Ha ha!

This was the "Funtastic 4" ship and it really was a funtastic ride.

Our boat. The Carnival Splendor.

Lovers Beach was awesome. From one side you could see the Pacific Ocean and the other side (about 1/4 mile apart at most) was the Sea of Cortez. The only way to get to the beach was via water taxi and when we got there it was very empty. It filled up a few hours later but we had a great spot with sun and shade. It had great snorkeling too. I even went out to see the fish with Danny and Trent (Trent even took some underwater pictures that I need to get copies of).

Here's our group at Lovers Beach.
Steve, Christine, Mark, Emily, Danny, Timmy, Me and Todd

We thought it would be funny to take pictures at the sign. The sign says "To Lovers beach: Here all the beauty is natural, just live your trace on the sand." That isn't a spelling error on my part (live). HA HA HA!

Since it's Lovers Beach we had to do funny pictures too.

Steve & Christine

Danny & Emily

Mark and Steve decided to climb the rocks at the beach. Mark borrowed Christine's pink tennis shoes (so funny) and they took off up the rocks.

This boat cracked me up.
Lovers Veach

Jeannie and Trent got a later start than us so we left them with one of the walkie-talkies but we weren't sure where we were going so we knew it was a long shot. Trent called us from the tender boat and it was just close enough to hear us so they were able to meet up with us at the beach and hang with us the rest of the day.

At the end of the day when we were waiting for the funtastic 4 to pick us up Timmy had a great idea for us to make a wave photo. Here is our attempt to be a wave and Mark is the surfer. I'll be honest I don't think it worked out so well.


After Lovers beach we went to find some lunch. We were trying to find "Cabo Wabo" since there was some hole in the wall taco shop by it and after asking several locals where it was and getting the answer "3 blocks that way" and walking 10+ blocks a few of us gave up and ate at a different spot while others walked 3 more blocks and found it. After eating we did some more shopping and bought t-shirts and vanilla. Then we headed back to the boat and made it in line around 2:45. The line was so long to get back on the boat and our tender boat left around 3:05 (last boat was supposed to leave at 3:00) and there was still a very long line behind us.