Another fun date with my baby Summer

4/28- I've decided that the beginning of the school year and the end are BOTH extremely stressful! Every morning since spring break, Summer had been crying to stay with me...it rips my heart out and shreds it! We both needed this night! It is so refreshing to get out with one of the kids and just have fun! The thing I just adore about kids is they make everything exciting, fresh, and fun! I took Summer to the Thanksgiving Point Farm Country and we just giggled the whole time...

Summer weighs the same as 5 newborn lambs (I did NOT get on the scale!)

Summer loves the ponies

Summer loves to climb!

What kind of smile is THAT Summer??

The terrifying goat...Summer screamed every time it came near

and climbed up the wall (and I took a picture instead of getting her down....)

"This is the way we wash the car...wash the car"

so early in the morning! Savannah and Zack, our slaves, I mean kids! It was a joke! :)

It's a new day

Last night after I finished my post about Sydney, I was walking up the stairs and looked up to see Syd just standing there! I freaked out! She scared me. She was scared because it was windy/snowy/rainy (yeah, what spring???!!!) so I laid down with her on her twin bed...next thing I know Summer is telling me it's time to get up, at 7:15! Nice, I guess I felt subconscious guilt and had to be near her!

Summer was fussy all morning and crying that she wanted to come to my school today and held on to me when I dropped her off this morning...

I feel like a great mom....

Impulsive, Creative, Unexpected, Consequences...

Words that come to mind in describing my sweet Sydney. She is IMPULSIVE, she is extremely CREATIVE, she does the UNEXPECTED, and she doesn't think about the CONSEQUENCES...um...nightmare teenager??? I really hope not! She is darling and cuddly and one of my favorite things to do is to lay down with her at night and talk, she also likes me to tickle her neck...

But...I have some stories to tell and most of them involve fiascos while we are out! So I will share a few things even though my blood pressure WILL rise as I recall these events.

COSTCO... I never EVER learn, so I keep taking my kids to the store (maybe because I can't pay a babysitter and my mom lives too far!?) and every time before we leave the car, I talk to them, bribe them etc, so I think "THIS time will be better!" Wrongo! A few months ago... we are in the middle section of Costco where the clothes are, Summer is in the cart and Savannah is next to me...Syd and Zack go around the corner and I assume they are looking at the toys...30 Seconds later I catch a glimpse of something in the corner of my eye, up high, and look over to see Sydney and Zack running on TOP of the mattresses, which are stacked like 6 high, of course I'm there in 1/2 second, glaring at my kids, they didn't even come down right away until a worker started walking over, maybe they could see the fire coming through my eyes! And what can you do with an audience???? Cry! I did call my mom right away and her first response is, "Sally, why do you keep taking them out!?" Apparently she has had many calls like these before... I think Costco must have a board somewhere telling these kinds of stories and I bet half are about my kids! Syd is usually the ring leader! When I ask, "What were you thinking????" She says, "I just thought it would be fun." Can I channel this energy in a good/productive direction? We'll see. Another time, I was returning something at customer service and I hear a worker yell out, "Hey, get off of there!" I could feel time stop as I turned around to see Sydney and Zack climbing ALL over the huge tire display, I am mortified. But really am I surprised? My friend put it great when she said Sydney does the unexpected.. Oh yeah, and I have had several friends and family members say I should get "Super Nanny"! I would love to see her try! Good luck! And this is just the tip of the iceberg ... and I still want more babies! Yep! I just need to never take them to the stores!

Just a quick list of some things Sydney has done...flooded our house making the bathtub into a pool while I was on the treadmill (this one was bad, I cried for HOURS and Tom even came home from work because I was SO upset) ...putting our kitten in the toilet for a bath, closing the lid and flushing...emptying all the bottles of syrup and honey onto the floor...cut her hair and Savannah's...lays on the floor at Walmart to get all the treasures from under the shelves...hides in the clothing racks until I am crying because I can't find her...had a "pee party" at my friends' house in the window well...at the SAME friends' house (sorry Krissy) she, and Breezy, turned on the hose and made mud and then threw a ton of it on her white stucco house (I wish I had pictures because they were covered with mud from head to foot) on the funny side, Krissy hosed them both down...again at Krissy's house- we hear these crashing sounds from the basement and go down to find Sydney, and others, breaking tiles against the concrete floor...also at Krissy's place, Syd, and others, were sliding down the mattresses onto the bed boards on Raegan's bed and broke the frame! (Um, Krissy, I understand if you NEVER want us over again)...hides in the rows at Costco behind the food pallets...opened a huge bag of mini M&M's and threw them ALL over my classroom while I was in a meeting...was taking a shower with Savannah and thought it would be "fun" to dump an entire bottle of shampoo out, Savannah was the one to fall and split her chin open!

Just to name a few.

I do love my Syders but she tries my patience like nothing else! I think her brain is going 100 miles a minute and she is too smart! I may want to forget these stories now but I do hope they will be funny later! Our good times definitely outweigh the bad. And 80% of the bad happen at a store, so I should just avoid those like the plague! Of course the kids are perfect for Tom! So not fair!

I love you Sydney! You definitely put the SPICE in "sugar and spice and everything nice".

Tom

Tom's first day at Omniture was great!! Pretty much trainings all day but he came home with some goodies...a laptop, a blackberry cell phone, and oh yeah, don't forget about the small remote control green Omniture car! (um, where's the real car????) He and Zack had fun chasing the cat! Boys! And even though I also worked a full day today I gave Tom a back, head, and hand massage! I can't help it, he's not a "snuggly" guy so I get close this way. :) In his defense he doesn't like when I snuggle with him because I fall asleep...every time!! And Tommy, thanks for spending ALL day Saturday going through 12 years of papers from our filing cabinet and garage and cupboards! And thanks for not throwing away ALL my stuff! :) He filled up our recycle bin with papers! (Sometimes I need a little help getting rid of stuff!) So, I guess he really deserved those massages...

Some recent activities and not so recent...

Meeting with some wonderful women from the BYU 203rd ward when we lived in Wyview, (memories...on the 3rd floor, we had 3 kids and expecting #4, 675 sq ft apartment, I was the OLDEST lady in the ward, besides Sis. Yalden, and it was unforgettable...even though I want to forget about the inconveniences...driving laundry to my mom's house every week so I wouldn't have to battle the laundry mat with 3 kids, among other things...good times!) I loved everyone I met there and it is fun to keep up with you ladies through the blogs!

Shawna, Dawnelle, Kelli, Sally, Amy


Sisters! Sally, Mary, Hannah

Atlie & Macie's birthday party, I love Summer's face in the background...

Angie used 10 cake mixes! She gave everyone Enormous pieces! (My kids didn't complain!)

A fun FHE by Tom, of course! The kids are blowing fire onto Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednigo (I don't know if I spelled those right...)

I love being a girl and having girls!!!

Savannah and I went on a date Saturday. We got pedicures and Savannah also had a manicure and got a wax dip! She was so cute and excited! I think I just got her addicted to being pampered! Afterwards we went to Petsmart and got 10 neon tetras. Total fish in our tank; 11 guppies(3 are new babies), 10 tetras, and 2 frogs. It's so fun to see everyone enjoying the tank. Savannah has been reading about fish and taking care of tanks, it's so adorable! When we bought the tetras today she said, "Mom, tetras are egg scatterers, guppies are live bearers." I am slightly worried because the kids have named EVERY fish...so when they die I know there will be sadness!!! Like mother, like children...I cried when our first guppy died 12 years ago, it got this horrible fish disease and we couldn't get rid of it...it died slowly, I was sad. No shocker to my family that I cried! The big joke for years has been that I cried when the ant died in "Honey, I shrunk the kids", yep, not just a tear...I CRIED! OK, the REAL funny part is I heard Kate Hudson on Jay Leno say she did the same thing! Ha! I'm just like Kate Hudson! :) yeah...not so much!

getting the pedi...

She picked gold polish for her hands and blue sparkle for her feet.

Spring Break Adventures

I had this whole week planned and in NONE of those included sick kids! Argh! Summer was sick over the weekend but it only lasted 2 days, so when Syd got sick I thought nothing of it. Well, since Monday Sydney has had a fever and laid on the couch 80% of the time and not eaten much. She had brief moments when she wants to eat or play but that's only after the motrin has kicked in. I have been giving her motrin every 6 hours continually! So today she is crying again about her head hurting, she looks puffy, and her eyes are red (and not from crying and not pink eye!), and she's dizzy... So of course in typical Sally fashion, I panic, start thinking worst case scenarios, call Tom, my mom, my sister...all this time Syd is on the couch listening to me...oops! She gets her anxiety from me...sorry Syd-O-Bean! Luckily Tom could come home for lunch and I took Syd to the Dr. Before we left Syd asked Tom for a blessing, so sweet! I think it comforted me more! The Dr. did a neurological test and some other tests and they can't find the cause of pain, except to speculate it may be a migraine (I laughed when the Dr. asked if there was family history of migraines!), or if it doesn't go away we will have to do some scans! So we are playing the waiting game...I hate this game! My gut tells me something isn't right so if I still feel this way tonight I WILL be taking her to the ER. (Can I really trust my gut though????) The picture does not capture the red well.


Today a cute gift package arrived for Tom, from Omniture! Nice! We both had WIDE eyes when we saw it! I said, "You can't open it until I get a picture!" :) Check it out...

Some other fun pics from the week...
Monday-Laura, Shauna, and I went to Thanksgiving Point Farm Country, 3 adults, 13 kids! It was so fun, except Sydney was feeling sick....



Girls night Tuesday-Traci, Jen, Laura, Jenny, and I met at Nicolitalia Pizzeria in Provo. So FUN! We missed those who couldn't come! Finally, pizza that tastes like New York pizza! Nothing beats the Roman Gourmet in Maplewood, NJ though!!!


Pictures/activities I missed out on....Chuck-E-Cheese on Weds and IKEA on Thurs...sniff! I have never been to IKEA!

Great link

My brother Jerry had this on his blog and it is SO funny, you must click on it! :)

http://www.ronalfy.com/2007/02/13/do-you-get-blog-anxiety/


Never mind, you must copy and paste it, I don't know how to make it a link!

Sally's ABC's

A-attached or single: Attached. Very attached.
B-best friend: Tommy of course but talking of girlfriends it would be hard to pick one, I have a few "besties"
C-cake or pie: Dutch apple pie with ice-cream
D-day of choice: Disneyland with my family is my new dream! I have never been!
E-essential items: cellphone, ipod, Diet Pepsi, my computer and internet-to blog of course!
F-favorite color: green
G-gummy bears or worms: definitely worms and I like the sour ones....
H-hometown: Maplewood, New Jersey but we moved SO much when I was growing up.
I-indulgences: I love having nails done and pedicures, Diet Pepsi, itunes, and anything crafty!
J-January or July: hmm, my b-day is in Jan, but I love July 4th, I'm going with both!!
K-kids: Savannah (9), Sydney (8), Zackary (6), Summer (4), and hopefully someday Joshua & Zoe.........
L-life would be incomplete without: The Gospel, family, girlfriends (AKA besties), blogging, music, mountains, and Diet Pepsi with pebbled ice (I have seriously looked into buying a pebbled ice machine!)
M-Marriage date: April 27, 1996 (12 years in a few weeks!!)
N-number of siblings: 4 sisters and 4 brothers can't imagine life without them!! We "get" each other, when no one else does! :)
O-oranges or apples: oranges but I can't/won't peel them
P-phobia or fears: spiders, being alone, the dark, forests (I have watched too many scary movies), airplanes, tornados, drowning...oh my gosh I have A LOT!!!!!! (and I am forcing myself to stop!)
Q-quotes: "Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death." unknown
R- reason to smile: nap time, days off work, babies (and my kids), friends and family who finally start blogging! when Tom comes home, a clean house (notice how that came AFTER "tom comes home"), music...there are many things, I love smiling!
S-season: I love the Fall, I miss the leaves in New Jersey
T-tag 6: Jerry, Tim, Ali, and anyone who hasn't done this yet...if you are reading this that means YOU!
U-unknown fact about me: It took me ALL day to come up with this one (you all know everything)...I cannot swallow pills easily. It takes me a while to get them down. Even in high school my mom asked the doctor to give me the liquid antibiotic, how embarrassing and pathetic!
V-vegetarian or oppressor of animals: sorry Corinne and Ali...I am a carnivore...but I do have salads for lunch everyday!
W-white or wheat: I want white...but I eat wheat.
X-x-ray vision, invisibility or flying as a super power: I like how Heidi said she could use all three, but I have to say flying.
Y-Your favorite food: Italian anything, cheese, chocolate
Z-zodiac sign: Capricorn

Sweet Caroline

I have a sweet memory of our Bapa (Tom's dad) singing and dancing with Savannah when she was 1 yr.old around his living room when we lived with them. I think this is the reason he got his name, Savannah likes to tell everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, that she named her Bapa. During the chorus there are some beats and Bapa would sing, "Sweet Caroline... ba ba ba" I love it! Thanks Bapa!

I added the song to my playlist, just look for it and select it, then enjoy it!

Great News!!!

I can't sleep...so I blog! And it's not entirely due to the fact that I have a nasty bladder/kidney infection which put me in enough pain to start breathing like I'm in labor! I even told Tom I wanted an epidural! I know I am the worlds' biggest wimp...I am happy to say that I gave up on my cranberry juice and finally went to the instacare and got REAL medicine, hooray for doctors! BUT the great news is that tonight at 6:15 Tom got a job offer with Omniture!!! Talk about feeling a weight lifted! Tom said, "I feel as light as a feather." We felt so overjoyed and grateful! Tom's last day at work is this Friday, and he starts his new job on Monday!!! How amazing! We had to thank Heavenly Father right away. We fasted last week and a few of our kids did also. We are so grateful to all our family and friends who offered support and kind words and prayers. We are so lucky to have all of you! This was a minor trial but still hard, and we're SO glad it's over!

Summer Blossom Four Years Old

We are so blessed to have you in our family, Summer. We love you! You are so sweet and fun and silly! We love how you talk and sing ALL the time. How you can find gum anywhere, even when mommy hides it well. We love you Summer Blossom! Thanks for all you bring to our family.

Summer's Favorite Things...

Songs-"Bubbly" by Colbie Callet, "Bad Day" by Alvin and the Chipmunks, "Saint Simon" by the Shins, "Clocks" by Coldplay, "Move it" from Madagascar, "Baby Love Child" by Pizzicato Five...just to name a few.
Color-pink,purple,blue,green,yellow,orange,red..."I like ALL the rainbow colors!"
Activities-play make up, books, polly pockets, littlest pet shop, coloring, singing.
Food-hot chocolate, cake, candy, gum...(Um, is anyone surprised???)
Movie-Madagascar, Barbie Movies, Baby Einsteins

What are you going to be when you grow up? "Big!"
Are you going on a mission? "Yes!"
Where are you going to go? "Ummm....Costco and get some candy!"
Are you going to get married? "No, silly, I'm just a baby." (Yes, I still call her baby!)

Fun with kids

Field Trip Day!

While Summer was screaming/crying on the floor this morning ( "I don't want to go to Janice's!!!") the phone rang, it was Janice (my babysitter), saying that her daughter was really sick...so I got to take Summer to school with me! I was happy, Summer was happy, I love those days! She is a good model for my class and she's so good! My class went on a field trip to Cabellas, a sporting store that has a sweet aquarium and all kinds of animals (stuffed). It was fun AND we didn't lose anyone or have any kind of accident! Success! I love when Summer comes to school with me! What a good way to end the week! And can I just say I am so excited to be a stay at home mom at least for a week, next week during spring break! YAY! I plan on doing LOTS of playing, with my kiddos, with my friends (who I never get to see), I SO need this!!


Summer and "Miss Amy"one of my fabulous aides! Summer loves her!

This is a precious picture of of one of my sweet students. I just adore this picture!

Kids looking at all the animals. Summer said, "I want one of those!"

Summer in the shooting gallery. We had a lot of fun. The skunks actually squirt water at you if you get them!

Cannon Family Craziness...

Last night we had FHE and Sydney gave the cutest lesson (one they did at activity days), Savannah played a song on the piano, Zack was in charge of the game so we played Dinosaur Bingo, and Tom and Summer were in charge of treats, chocolate pudding and cool whip. We're all sitting at the table and Tom is being silly (as usual) and starts a food fight, well luckily it was just between him and Sydney this time! We were ALL laughing hysterically, especially Zack, he has the best laugh! Then Zack shouts out, "I just peed my pants!" We all laughed even harder! Anyway, just wanted to share the funny/crazy things that happen at the Cannon Center!!!

First Digi Pages

I really can't take credit for these because they are quick pages that came with a kit(Golden Girls!). But it is still really fun to scrapbook without having a table covered with materials that my kids get into!!

Fabulous Weekend

Conference was just what we needed! Tom and both felt so overwhelmingly filled! It's hard to put words to the power of seeing a new prophet be sustained and then hear him speak and see the mantle and the change. Truly amazing to be part of a living church, with continuing revelation from our Heavenly Father. Tom and I were talking about how we have heard from President Thomas S. Monson for as long as we can remember and this conference we saw him go from an apostle to the prophet! We are so grateful for our prophet!

Tom and I are really trying hard to be hopeful and faithful but the stress of the looming last day of work is starting to show it's ugly face, through us wanting treats all the time! But I am happy to report that I only gained 0.2 pounds this week instead of the 10 I thought I would!! (Thank goodness Summer's yummy Costco cake is gone...I told Tom he HAD to throw it out because I just can't resist it!) I am recommitted this week to my health goals! I have salads at school mostly and I am getting so sick of eating lettuce! But it's better than eating the other fattening cafeteria food. Did you know the average calories for a child's school lunch is 600! I think that's a lot for a child, and when teachers get school lunch they give us double...that's 1200 calories!!! So I have to bring my own lunch or order salads, my school makes good salads. Speaking of which I better go and get mine since this is my lunch break....

Spiritual Feasts

I love having family close for many reasons but I love when nana and pops watch our kids so we can go to the Temple. Last night we went to the Jordan River Temple. It has been a while since we have gone together, usually we just go separate so we don't have to pay a babysitter. It was such a powerful and emotional experience. The Temple IS a small piece of Heaven. The sweet spirit in that special place is overwhelming at times, last night was one of those times. I can only imagine that people around me must have thought someone had died. My tears were happy, peaceful, tender tears. I thought about the scripture from D&C 38:7 (this is the Savior speaking) "I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and you cannot see me." I felt that is true, He knows us and He is near us, and that powerful feeling just overtook me, especially while I was in His house, the Temple. Another strength came from my sweet Tom. We have been reading in the Book Of Mormon about the people of Alma and their trials and faith and Tom pointed out in Mosiah 23:28 "Therefore they hushed their fears, and began to cry unto the Lord..." which very much applies to our situation right now, we have fears but we can hush them and not focus on them. And of course I cried when I prayed about what we should do about expanding our family, I could feel a baby in my arms. I think Tom was convinced finally for sure, I prayed that he would know!! But all things are done in the Lord's time and in His way so we will wait and see what happens.

Today and tomorrow are General Conference sessions where the Prophet and Apostles and other church leaders speak to the entire church, worldwide. It is a special weekend, a spiritual feast. You can download it all online from the church website. I love having DVR because Tom and I were constantly pausing it and rewinding so we could write down the things that inspired us, which is everything, I guess we need to work on a lot! :) We also paused it to talk about things with the kids.

In between conference sessions we went and got some fish, guppies to be exact. Tom made a deal with Savannah that if she stopped "flapping" her arms every time she was excited, she could get some fish. Well, it took a few weeks but she has broken the habit! Yay! (She is such a little clone of Tom, he was the same way as a kid full of energy and spazy).

Like I need another addiction...

I got Photoshop Elements for my birthday and have only just begun to explore it. I am a freak already with pictures and journaling and scrapbooking and blogging, so combine them all and you get digital scrapbooking which will now cut more into my sleep time. There are a million freebies to download and guess what I have been doing for hours...well at least I'm not eating cake (the stress is starting to kick in). So this is a great distraction for me. Not so much for Tom because I am on the computer WAY more now (and he can't do his writing), we'll just have to get another computer...ha!

Side note, today at school one of my sweet students cracked his head open while he was running toward me, he tripped and hit his head hard on a concrete slab! I grabbed him up, ran to the office and tried not to panic and bawl. I thought we were going to have to call an ambulance because he was starting to lose consciousness, but then he was ok until his mom got to the school. She was mad/upset. I was too. But she said to me, "You're lucky I'm not a black woman!" What was that supposed to mean??!! Was she threatening me? I think she was. I guess I am lucky? So I am a little upset, I'm so worried about my student. I think he only needs stitches but I won't know until tomorrow. I told Tom the story and he said, "I SO want you to come home." Yeah, me too. Even though I LOVE special ed, I want to be home while my kids are little (and I want another baby). :) Am I beginning to sound like a broken record yet? Imagine how Tom feels...every time he asks me, "What are you thinking about?" Guess what the response is..."Baby!" I know, I know, many people are rolling their eyes right now or laughing. I can't help it! Hey, I have been this way forever! (I better have a ton of grandkids!)

My eyes are getting blurry and Tom keeps asking me how late I'm going to stay up...