Reflection

 
 Reflection.

I don't have a lot of happy things to say right now, but these pictures make me happy. My kids never fail to put a smile on my face. They make me realize how precious life is and how we need to enjoy every moment and just be with them. They are beautiful and smart and just wonderful. I think whenever you loose someone you stop and reflect on how much time you spent with your loved one. It also makes you want to hold everyone you love closer to you. You want to make the most of your life and hope no one ever feels like you didn't just love the heck out of them.
 

Shakespeare in Love

I watched this movie last weekend and I loved it. It was funny, smart, and romantic. I can't believe it took me so many years to watch it. The actors were brillant. I laughed and cried. What a great movie.

Heartbroken

I am heartbroken. My sweet sister-in-law Ruth, passed away yesterday. What an incredible woman she was. Just a beautiful soul. She was smart, lively, and sassy. ( My perfect fit.) She and I would have fun-loving debates about whatever. I could ask her a broad range of questions and she would know the answer, however big or little it was. She and I had many trip to Utah this last year. I grew very attached to her. She was with me for almost every Dr. appointment when I was pregnant with Sara. She was with me for the ultrasound that said Sara was going to be a girl. ( She cried the entire visit.) She and I enjoyed many lunches, and Starbucks stops. We would giggle and enjoy each other. She had a great sense of humor. She teased me about my driving and tell me she was glad she was blind or she might be scared to death or that it was okay my van was messy she couldn't see it anyway. Things like that. I loved they way she had her fiesty, sassy moments also. She also sat through many phone conversations with Lily. ( Lily loves to talk and sing on the phone.) Adam loved Aunt Ruthie, and was always happy to see her and talk to her about Star Wars or whatever was on his mind. Spencer understands people and thought she was a wonderful auntie. Todd is trying to be tough and accept everything, but it's hard.
We are trying to remember her spirit through sadness and keep her alive in our hearts.

We loved her so much. She will be missed.

My 'mommy-type' person is gone and I am heartsick.

Splish Splash, Sara's Takin' A Bath

 Sara and Lily takin' a bath. Sara loves her baths. Especially when Lily is there to show her the way to use a wash cloth, the proper way to get soap in your eyes, and most of all, the most vital bath toys. Lily loves to teach her fun stuff in the tub.
 
I couldn't help but take a picture of Sara's cute little nakeeness.
Notice the adorable rolls on her legs.
 
Sara has piercing blue eyes. She seems to study and take in everything around her.
 
But she also loves to smile and play. She especially loves to play with her piggies. She grabs them as soon as her diaper is off. Which sometimes is difficult to get her diaper and clothes back on, but who cares, we love those piggies too.

Isn't She Lovely

 
My little Sara Bear is 5 months old today.

Adam's Teddy Bear Picnic

 
I spent the afternoon today with Adam at school. He had a Teddy Bear Picnic. It consists of different stations with different activities. I was in charge of chex mix. I rocked. Anyway, it's always fun to be in class with Adam and watched him interact with all his friends and see what a genius he is.

 His teacher is Mrs. Nelson. I can't express how impressed I am with her. She is so good with the kids. She understands them and knows how to help each individual child. She also rocks!!!!

Lily, Lily, Lily

 Ummm... My potty mouth caught up with me tonight. I was on the phone with my brother Pat, and trying to put the kids in bed. Lily was having a MELTDOWN. I put her drink of water in a butterfly cup instead of a princess cup. I tried to let her calm down on her own and kept visiting with Pat. I hear the boys tell Lily to calm and stop screaming. All of a sudden I heard Lily yell. " SON-OF-A-BITCH!!!!!"
I asked Pat to wait for a second and went to talk to her. I asked her what she said and she repeated it. I was trying with all my might not to giggle and told her that wasn't something we say. Unfortunately, that's my go to phrase when I'm really angry. Especially, when I'm driving and having road rage. ( yes, in a town of 1600 I still get road rage.) Pat thought this was hilarious. John would be so proud.
Anyway, I'll have to either learn to control my outbursts or my road rage. Both would be going to far.

Out of the Mouth's of Babes

  Adam said the funniest thing today. Anyone who knows me knows I love being in my nightgown. As soon as I walk in the door, I'm changing from my 'play clothes' into my jammies. Anyone who comes over unexpectedly can expect to see me this way. ( And if you are a close friend, I don't bother changing out of my nightgown.) Anyway, Adam wanted a friend to come over, so he said "Mom, will you keep your clothes on." Now if it was just me and my kids that would've been fine, but he said it in front of my friend Jill. I went bright red and then tried to explain to Jill what he meant. Thank goodness he didn't say that in front of a stranger. I would've had a heart attack. Ya, know what? I came home and put on my jammies.

Random Things

A childhood friend of mine told me I should write 100 things about myself, well that's to many things for me to wrap my brain around so how about 50.

1. I love being 'just a Mom'. Taking care of my family rocks.
2. I am a nurturer. ( My best friend says I attrack the 'crazy's').
3. I am obsessed with my kids looking nice. ( It's a white trash up bringing issue. )
4. Cheesy or not, I am head over hills in love with my husband.
5. I have a quick temper and work on it everyday.
6. I love to write in my blog.
7. I love to read.
8. I read people like a book.
9. I want to be less tense, and more adventurous.
10. I love Barack Obama and anything else dealing with politics.
11. I love living in America but I want to travel to all parts of the earth.
12. I am very instictual.
13. I love having so many brothers. (5)
14. I love seeing my kids' faces when I pick them up from school.
15. I love learning about new religions and cultures.
16. I love Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Oprah.
17. I want a huge family, but I'm worried about the world being over populated and being able to support them all.
18. I have lost all of my 'parental figures'.
19. I am not a jealous person at all.
20. My favorite boys name is Isaac. ( Todd hates it.)
21. I LOVE red.
22. Even though I think I'm a very spiritual person, I'm always searching for inner peace. Not God, but inner peace.
23. I think everyone should be allowed to do and think what makes them happy in life. As long as it doesn't cause harm to anyone else.
24. I got married when I was 17 but I didn't have a baby until I was 22.
25. I love having 2 boys and 2 girls.
26. Babies are like crack to me, I can't get enough.
27. I have a lapband. It hasn't been as successful as most people's, but I have learned SOOOOO much about myself, a journey of self discovery. I wouln't change a thing about it.
28. I used to do daycare, and got FRIED on watching kids.
29. I love to shop at Old Navy and play around on the internet.
30. I tend not to defend myself.
31. I have a hard time with judgemental people, yet I sometimes judge people.
32. I am mostly secure with myself, but sometimes need reassurance.
33. I love where I live. ( I'm done with the snow, though. )
34. I have a ton of friends that are sooo very different, and I love each of their uniqenesses, and what they bring to my life.
35. I STRUGGLE with my mother-in-law, but adore my father-in-law.
36. I have a hard time asking for help.
37. I'm a germaphobe.
38. I tend to be nippy with my husband when he is driving.
40. I have 5 loves of my life, Todd, Spencer, Adam, Lily, and Sara.
41. I love my house to be spotless, but rarely have the 'umpf' to keep it that way.
42. I love Jane Austin movies.
43. I believe in equal rights for everyone.
44. I love romance, but not necessarily cheesy romantic movies.
45. I love electricity, my sister-in-law calls it a push button life. ( sounds silly, I know. )
46. I love all different kinds of music.
47. I am so proud of Pat and all the rest of the Bluemel kids. It wasn't easy. Pat, John, Joey and I turned out okay after a rough childhood.
48. I don't like video games, but my 'boys' do. (Todd included)
49. I love sleeping in.
50. I am a positive person and LOVE life.

Guitar Hero

 Guitar Hero rocks!!! Spencer is really good. My boys (including Todd) love to play. As you can see, Spencer concentrates so hard on each song. He puts his all into everything that he does, why not guitar hero too. My kids are not allowed to play video games on school days. (I think they need to concentrate on homework and family time/responsibilities. ) So on the weekends Spencer will get up at 6:00 am to play his favorite games without Adam bugging him. But guitar hero is a fun game that everyone can have a great time with. And it's fairly easy, so Spencer, Adam, AND Todd can rock out to together. They're so fun.
 
Adam is always striking some funny poses. He is my rock star. He has told me that when he is a grown up, he is moving to New York City and is going to have tatooes head to toe. I told him that was fine as long as I can come with him. He said that was fine with him. What a character he is. He makes me giggle.
 
Sara had a rough night. She is sometimes sensitive to what I eat ( most breastfeeding Mom's have gone through this several times )and fussed off and on all night. Poor Baby. Luckly, Todd was up playing video games, so he helped. She hasn't been her normal happy self today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. She'll be smiling and rolling around again.
 
Lily is been watching Grease and Annie. She loves musicals. O' I forgot to mention a funny thing from yesterday. Lily wouldn't clean her room so her cute little 'Princess' dresses are put away for a while. I thought she would be devastated, but she hasn't even noticed. Today she wanted to put on a summer dress that is 'twirly'. Since we are just hanging out I thought "why not?!?!" We can watch grease in a 'twirly' dress.

Aunt Ruthie

My sweet sister-in-law Ruth is in the hospital in critical condition. She is strggling right now. I love the lady with all my heart. She has the most beautiful smile, and quick wit about her. I lost Mom my when I was young and Ruth has been my 'Mommy type' person when I need advice about cooking, getting a stain out, dealing with my husbands mother, and other 'wisdom' questions.
Todd, Norm, Sara and I went to Salt Lake and spent a few hours with her, her daughters and her husband. She is in CCU so we couldn't be in with her very long. Besides, loosing my Dad just a short time ago has made seeing her like this even harder. Sara was soooo good. She's a very happy baby, and seemed content with whoever was holding her. We stayed until about 6:00 then headed home.
I think I have mentioned before that when ever I go to Walmart, I always get the TMI clerk, well, tonight was no exception, plus she thought Sara was a small- for- her age boy, ( Ya know, with all the pink and everything ) and then agrued with me about it!!!! ( Sara is my forth baby, 5 months old, and about 16 lbs.) I think I know about my baby. I swear, why are these people always my cashier? GRRRRRR!
We love you Aunt Ruthie!!!

McCain 08

This is our Republican chioce 2008

I actually agree with him on a lot of issues, ( and he's a far better choice, in my opinion, than the mannequin Mitt Romney ) but I definately don't agree with him when it comes to the war in Iraq.

Mommy's Valentine's Day

 

Todd, Spencer, Adam, and Lily had cute little Valentine's ready for me when I got up from a much needed nap. Aren't they cute!?!?
Lily and Adam were 'dressing up'. Now this is Lily's normal attire, but Adam is always funny and tries to find everyway to make you giggle.

 

Barack Obama

I know not all of you believe the way I do, but I love this man and believe in him with all my heart. He stands for everything I believe in. He has a powerul, inspiring message. I think he has what it takes to unite democrats and republicans.

OBAMA 2008

Happy Valentine's Day Lily

 
Lily's preschool Valentine's Day party was today. She's hugging Miss. Holly is this picture. Miss Holly & Miss Liz are fabulous with the kids. They all love her. And she loves the kids. Spencer, Adam, & Lily have all had her for their preschool teacher. Anyway, the kids always have a great time and are able to explore so many fun activities in her class. Lily goes to school 2 days a week and today was the PARTY.


Lily decorated her Valentine's sack with foam candy hearts. (She is such a cheeseball and poses for every picture that is taken.) She has so much fun being creative.



She finished decorating her bag for her candy and it turned out adorable. She and the rest of the kids handed out candy and went home with the anticipation of a whole lot of yummy candy.

Freak Out

Yesterday was a trying day. I felt like I struggled all day to maintain composure with my kids. Sara didn't feel great all day, Adam's ears didn't work and Lily colored on my new bedding with a dark blue crayon. DARK blue!









Now, I know there are worse things in life. But it's brand new and a golden color, the dark blue stuck out like a sore thumb. ( And didn't match a thing.) I yelled at her to go to her room and then told the boys to go in their room.
( They weren't in trouble, I just couldn't breathe.) I grabbed the ever wonderful magic eraser and thankfully, the crayon came right off. ( Yeah!!!) Lily has calmed down so much from how busy she once was, but the last few weeks with her are turning my fabulous red hair grey. I swear she knows when I sit down to nurse or someone pops over for a visit that I'm not going to be on top of her. She thinks to herself "Mommy is busy, so what can I get into?"

To top the day off, when Todd got home from work Spencer IMMEDIATELY told him " Mom had a freak out." I was calm by this point, but still felt like a 10 year old explaining to my Daddy what I had done that day. So, yes I had a freak out, but everything is fine today, and Lily is not allowed to have crayons anywhere near my room.

Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert

I absolutely love Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I think they are so funny. Stephen Colbert is the funniest 'dumb' guy I have ever seen. He's a 'republican' and is constantly trying to get his 'political' views across. He is also very into himself. I laugh so hard when he 'interviews' people. He turn's around everything that was said into what he thinks he heard. Jon Stewart says the funniest things and never takes himself serious. He has his serious moments however. He has talked about Blackwater, the wars, ect...But they both make politics hysterical. George Bush is the topic of a lot of their jokes. Stephen Colbert 'loves' George Bush and Jon Stewart thinks George Bush is an idiot. It cracks me up. These two comic geniuses are the way I love to end my night.

Lazy Day

 I love Sundays. We do nothing but lay around. Today I did a little housework (mostly the dreaded laundry), and watch a movie with the girls.
Quintin and Savanna came over to play for a while. There was a lot of xbox and wii gaming going on. Savanna and Lily play really well together. Quintin & Spencer beat a couple levels of Halo and Adam kind of floated in between everyone. He doesn't say in one place long.
 

Lily and Sara stayed in PJ's all day. Everytime I asked Lily to do some thing, she would say " I can't, I'm sick." Which is code for ' I don't want to.' So it was a hanging around the house and not do much of anything kind of day.

I was sooo wrong

I showed Spencer my new blog set up and he saw the pictures from under the bed and said " That's the picture I took." What!?!?! Lily said she did it. Spencer said " Nope, it was me." Wow. I feel like a major dork. Anyway, Spencer did it, not Lily. Next time I'll ask the 9 year old, not the 3 year old.

Lily, our photographer

 
Lily is our photographer. She found my camera and was taking interesting picutes from under her bed. Adam realizes what Lily is doing and gets in on the action. Lily and Adam fight worse that any other combination of kids. They also play better than any other combination of kids with in our family. They are funny together. They can dream up some fun stuff to do.
 Adam and Lily are our artists and they love to figure out how everything works. Cameras, makers, scissors, and anything else they can think of. Life is interesting with so many wonderful personalities floating around.

Snow Day

Today was a snow day. Both the schools in the Valley were closed. Spencer is in 3rd grade and this is the first snow day we've had. It's been crazy windy, blowing snow with nearly white out conditions off and on for what seems like forever. Todd is in Green River for his annual safety classes. The roads, including the interstate, have been closed for a day now, but for some reason, the HP around here will let the 'mine' guys go through.

Arlene, Sala, and my little brother John were over today for lunch because the local highway between Mountain View and Lyman was closed for an accident. So I took some fun pictures of my company.

 Arlene recently lost a crap load of weight and looks b-e-a-utiful. ( of course Sara on her lap only adds to her beauty.) Anyway, I now have a skinny picture of her for my blog. Whoo-Hoo.




  John is checkin' out my new laptop. He and my niece Savanna and nephew Quintin were hanging out while everything calmed down. John cusses like a sailor. And he loves to get my kids to cuss.
( They really don't need any help.) He enjoys watching me squirm and scream when they do. The kids love him though and have a great time when his family is here. All the kids play really well together.

So the snow day that sucked turned into a really fun day.

By the way, my new bed rocks!!!

I am a Queen in a King Size Bed.

We got our new bed. Whoo-Hoo. It's huge. Todd has to take a running jump to get up on it. The kids love it. I think it's BEAUTIFUL. I can't wait to sleep in it. We are turning our room into a place that I don't want to leave. (Todd said he would raise the kids.) We have a new TV. (The first one in 14 years of marriage we've ever bought.) I asked for a 32" TV and Todd came home with a 37". He said they were out and had to go bigger. At first I thought, UUUUUHHHMMMM. But I love it. It will have to do.

Haircuts and Bowling

 

We had a great day today and like a dork I totally forgot to take pictures. I'm working on remembering to take my camera with me. That's going great, but I forget that I have it with me and alas, I don't have any pictures. The picture here today was taken before Lily went to preschool. She and Sara were playing on the floor so nicely.
Anyway, after school today the boys got haircuts. Spencer has my hair, very thick, course hair that needs cut every 4 weeks or so. Or else he looks like a hippie! LOL. Adam's hair grows really fast, but it's not near as thick as Spencer's.( Quick shout out to Lynn for trying to control my family's crazy hair.) After haircuts, we went bowling. Our bowling alley in the Valley SUCKS! It smell like rotten old cigarettes. Nasty. But we had fun. Thankfully the bumpers were up so we all rocked.

Sweet Sara

My sweet little Sara. What a wonderful baby. She is the light of everyone's eyes. Everyone fights for time to hold her, and just to spend time with her. Adam is constantly wanting to hold and kiss her. (These are extremely slobbery kisses.) Lily, my Lily, she wants to be right in her face and touching her. I remember right after I had Sara, Lily held her for the first time, she keep saying "She's alive Mom!" They bonded right at that moment. Todd has fallen in love with this sweet little baby. He gets a big smile on his face when he sees her. Spencer is this baby's second Mom. He is sooo protective of her.
I call Sara 'Mama's Sweetness'. Spencer asked why she couldn't be everyone's sweetness. I told him I gave birth to her so she is my sweetness. I love that our family loves her like that.




Sara has been a pillar of hope and comfort for me. That probably sounds silly, but my Dad passed away 8 days after she was born and she has helped me through a very difficult time. She is a blessing in everyway. Sara is my little sweetness.

Adam's Teeth

 Adam has lost 4 teeth. He lost his top right one tonight. I don't pull teeth at all. My Dad tortured me with plyers and strings when my teeth were loose, and my boy's loose teeth have literally fallen out. Adam will say " Mom LOOK, a tooth". Spencer has done the same thing with his. Anyway 4 down, many more to go.