The countdown is on...

Well the countdown is on & things are getting crazy busy around here. (as if they weren't already). It seems like every day & every evening is packed with either taking care of kids, move details, last minute church stuff (more of that for Bryce than me, although we both are speaking in church in 2 Sunday's) and it's just one thing after another. Ad I am just tired. I swear I feel sleepy just about every day. It seems like we are up late every night chatting About this and that... You know how it is, by time the kids are all finally sleeping, we finally can talk to each other & have real, uninterrupted conversations. So that just makes things worse in the end, I'm just more tired & still have as much to do, lol. Oh well, it is what it is.

Friday night I spent the whole evening folding laundry. Yup, that's right, the whole evening, and I still have 3 more baskets waiting to be folded! Bryce was at a work function so I was at home manning the fort. I spoke to Lindsay for a good chunk of the evening (I love my headset, I can talk & do whatever for a very long time. Money well spent!) Anyways, I spent the whole time folding and chatting, which helped the process along. By the end of my marathon folding session, I just kept thinking, I hate this laundry, it never ends, it only gets worse every week, it's tormenting to keep up with... AND I DID THIS TO MYSELF!! No one twisted my arms to have 5 kids. Sigh. I love having 5 kids, but I'm not going to lie people, the work that is involved is utterly exhausting some days. And I feel like a laundry slave. AND I MAKE MY KIDS FOLD & PUT AWAY THEIR OWN CLOTHES! and I still feel like a laundry slave after all is said and done. Sigh. I'm kinda hoping (but not really expecting) that when we move to the new house with main floor laundry, that I will 'keep up' with it. OK, stop laughing, get yourself up off the floor, I might actually keep up... LOL LOL LOL. I know, I know, it's just going to be in my face & I won't be able to hide it in the basement anymore. Instead people will stop by and see the mountain... Although maybe they'll feel bad for me & grab a basket & fold it, lol. Of course I wouldn't let anyone do that, I'm just kidding, kinda. ;)

So this is my last week of watching kids in Shilo. I'm very very happy to have a break for a bit. I've saved up money like a mad woman, we can float along for awhile without me working if we have too. But I'd rather keep it in savings vs. spending it on groceries. So I'll give myself enough time to unpack & get settled in & spend lots of time with my own kids. I'm looking forward to that. There are so many fun things I can do with the kids in St Albert & in Edmonton, I think it will be a nice break for all of us! And I'm going to take the time to 'rest up' (lol) so I can keep working & maintain feeding these 5 kids ;)

Well I think my blogging window is over. It was nice while it lasted. This is therapeutic to have a laundry rant. It didn't make the 3 baskets fold & put themselves away, but it was a good rant. Night all.

Madi's birthday

Madi's birthday was on May 13th & she turned 4 years old. She was some kind of happy! She told me all month that she was turning 4. (Me typing this comment does absolutely no justice to the comment... it was priceless hearing her say it... I think I'll be the only one (& Bryce too) who will have any effect when reading this... sorry to the rest of you!) Then her birthday actually came & WOW was she ever excited. If she was a puppy, her tail would have been wagging all day long, lol. She cracks me up! Once again, my typing/explanation is doing no justice, lol. (I must be tired, what's new....)

Madi wanted a birthday cake with butterflies on it. So she asks, I make. That was the whole point of me learning to decorate cakes! So I went online to get ideas & showed her a number of pictures & she wanted all of them (of course, what 4 yr old doesn't want every cake they see!) but she choose one that was 2 tiered with butterflies going up the side of the cake. So I made her this cake. I love how well it turned out! Every part is edible too, and I made the butterflies sparkly. (The things I do for my kids... 2 days of my life swamped with daily activities & squeezing in a big old cake)

I was just going to put Madi's birthday pictures but now realize that they are all on Bryce's phone & Bryce's Dad's camera. Sigh. I thought I had it all together. Not quite. Oh well, I'll get them and post them another time!

Long story short, Madi turned 4 and she is happy about it. We had a great day with her & I went down memory lane (of course, I'm too sappy not to go down memory lane... it's my favorite street you know, lol). It was fun to look at pictures of her from last year's party & to remember all the fun things about the last 4 years. I LOVE MADI! She's such a fun child! I love her spunk, her playfulness, her crazy smile, I love it when she asks for "black black black licorice" (not sure why it has to be black x 3, but that's how she asks... and ewww, black licorice, yuck! It's like she's 90 yrs old or something, crazy Madi!), I love watching her play, watching her try to brush her long mane of hair... tucking her in at night... she always wants a really good squeeze for a hug, and she used to always want a kiss, but now she giggles if I try to kiss her. So funny, so many good times with Madi. Love her so much!

And I promise to get my act together and get those pictures. Don't ask me to put a date on it though, lol!

We found a house ☺

We went to Edmonton on the 15th May and spent the week house hunting. Very stressful having 5 days to buy a house. Not for the faint of heart, that's for sure. We went to Edmonton we 3 or 4 houses we were really hoping to see/buy. When we spoke with our realtor on day one, he told us that the homes sold or had pending offers on them, and one had some sort of "disaster" and wouldn't be able to show their home the week we were there. (which by the sounds of "disaster", we no longer were interested in their home!!) So we were literally starting at square one. We saw about 25 homes the first 2 days (I lost track after awhile). On day one, there was only 1 house we would even consider buying, and it was a little on the small side, but we could make it work if we had too. On day 2 we found 2 more homes we really liked alot, both of which had great space and work would very well for our large family. One was in Edmonton and one was in St Albert. We debated which one to put an offer on... the one in Edmonton was awesome (I loved it sooo much) and it was pretty much a turn key home. The only thing it needed was central air conditioning & Bryce's dad told us he would put one in for us (LOVE THAT MAN!!). It was also only a few steps away from the kids school, which was a huge benefit. The one in St Albert was great too. Bryce really loved this one, I did too... Bryce was cute though... after we drove away from that house, he didn't really want to look at any more homes. He even said his heart was with the one in St Albert. (If you know Bryce at all, this is NOT the kind of mushy, gushy, emotional kind of comment one would hear from him. He REALLY likes this house.) Anyways, the perks of the St Albert house are that it's close to my family (like a 2 minute drive), the house has SO much room, so many bedrooms, an office, a bonus room, a great yard backing onto a little forest. In the evening we could hear the frogs and crickets. Very nice to be in. OK, so we had 2 great homes that would work for us & they were in our price range. After a great debate we decided to put an offer on the house in Edmonton. Mostly b/c we wouldn't need to do any work/improvements to the home & it was close to the kids school. Our realtor went to put in our offer and found out that it sold the same day we looked at the house. We were shocked & disappointed but happy and relieved that the house in St Albert was our close 2nd choice. So we put an offer on the house that evening, there was a little negotiating, and by 10:30 (ish) that night, our offer was accepted ☺ Hooray!

We went back to our hotel and were so happy that we didn't have to go through another day of going through peoples homes. I was so excited it was hard to sleep. And then I was freaked out that we had put an offer on a house... a little scary. The housing market in Edmonton is very expensive, I was so anxious about everything that night. I had a horrible sleep. (I'm broken these days... since I've had Dallin, sleep doesn't come easy. I can be totally exhausted and still not sleep. So if I have anything at all on my mind, I may as well kiss sleep good bye, it's not going to happen. It's made for a very long year.) Anyways, we had to wait until Thursday to have the house inspected. I was just praying and crossing my fingers that things would go well. If they didn't, then we would have to start all over again and we were flying out Saturday morning! Not much time for anything! We have 5 kids, it's not like there are a ton of homes that can work well for our family. If we had just as couple or a few, the market would be bigger for us. It is what it is. Thankfully the inspection went very well! We were thrilled and relieved to not have to start all over again. ☺

So things are good. We found a house, it is a nice house with lots of room for our children, there are 3 1/2 bathrooms (we only have one bathroom for 7 people right now... it's brutal, to say the least), we got the house for $80,000 less that what the owner initially tried selling it for, there's nothing wrong with it, Bryce is happy he can hear frogs and crickets whenever he wants (lol), it's in a nice neighborhood, there's a park just a hop skip and a jump away... so many good things.

I am SO glad we have worked our butts off the past couple years. We have scrimped & saved every penny we could so that this could work out. I am very grateful for this opportunity, it is such a blessing for our family. I know most people already have homes, and maybe have been in one forever and a day, but for us, it was a hard one to accomplish. It hasn't been an easy thing for us. Going through school and having baby after baby during school, then getting into the military and having just enough (OK, not even enough) to get by... Bryce has only been a Captain for 2 years... once he hit captain, we finally had enough coming in (combined with me working like mad) to start to pay down the student loans, pay off our van, and save up $$ for a down payment. It has been a long road for us. But boy do we appreciate it. I don't take this for granted at all. About 3 years ago Bryce & I were looking on the MLS and did the mortgage calculator/affordability thing . At that we would have only been pre-approved for a mortgage of about $57000... the only thing we could find on the MLS in that price range was literally a shack. I mean it, it was a shack in the middle of nowhere, Manitoba. I cried and cried and cried... I didn't feel like it would ever happen. A house was so far out of our reach. It makes today a sweeter experience for me. I SO appreciate, and recognize all the blessings that have happened so that we could get into a home. It's overwhelming, I just can't express enough gratitude. It's been a long road, and truthfully, I wouldn't trade it. I am glad that I know the difference (well, soon will know the difference) between not having and having a home with enough room & bathrooms. Simple things make me happy these days. ☺

I've been thinking about this all week, and Bryce and I have been reflecting all week of the events that have led to this. I have wanted all week to have a moment to write this down. Glad I finally have a chance....

So we move from Shilo, Manitoba to St. Albert, Alberta at the end of June. Our PMQ will be packed up on the 28th June, the truck will be loaded on the 29th, and we will hand in our keys on the 30th. July 1st we will start our drive to Alberta.

So excited to leave, but it's kinda hard too. Tonight we took the kids to the park and Dallin was trying to climb on the structures and go down the slide, and he was playing with the pebbles. It was sweet to watch... and then I went down memory lane (no surprise there)... I remembered my little Madi being that age, doing similar things in the same park. This is where my babies discovered their world. It's where I've raised my children, my baby Madi, had a baby (Dallin)... I watched my kids walk down the road to the school many mornings and looked for them at lunch time and after school. This is where my life has been with my family. So many memories here. I am excited to go to a better location with so many more amenities and opportunities for my family... but I know I will cry when we leave. I always find it hard to drive away from our home and know that this chapter is over. It happens every time (we've moved 14 times since 1997). I guess I'm a sentimental fool, haha.

OK, gotta stop going down memory lane. I'm getting teary on myself. Can't cry at night you know, my eyes will be red and puffy in the morning! ;)

Here are a few pictures I took.

This is the park that is at the end of our street. The kids are going to love it ☺

Here is the front of our house.

This is the view of the back of our house (picture taken from the bonus room).

This is the view from our master bedroom. I love this neighborhood! I'm looking forward to all the walks we'll take with the kids. It really is such a great location!☺

Here's our eating area. Pretty hardwood floors & fantastic view. So great!
I hate the pillar thing. Bryce doesn't mind it... he keeps telling me we just need to have a toga party and then I'll love it! Funny, funny man! We're planning on taking it down at some point. I think it's tacky. Maybe it's just me, but I could do with out the pillar. It will be a good joke between me & Bryce though... maybe we should keep it, it's brought us so many laughs already, lol!

Here's our bonus room.

I was going to post more pictures of the bedrooms and such but a room is a room is a room. They never look like much. I'll post pictures again after we move and get settled in.OK, that's it for tonight. Oh wait, I'm adding one more picture...

Our friends Amy & Dave Sopkow watched our kids while we were gone. They took this picture of Madi with their little puppy, Gizmo. Madi LOVES Gizmo! Good thing it's a little dog, Madi could actually hold it! ☺

That's it for tonight. I am done blogging. I'm sure Bryce would like me to resurface again and walk away from the computer. So I will. Night all ☺

Soooo we are moving!!

So it's official... we are moving to Edmonton by the end of June/early July! Woooo! Very excited! Bryce found out this past Thursday that he didn't get into med school, but you know, that's OK. Both moves, to Edmonton or a move to Ontario for school, had their pros and cons. It was bitter sweet hearing that he didn't get in. Disappointing because we really hoped to have the opportunity, but so great in that we get to leave Shilo (yay!) and be closer to family, to a temple, to good friends and to every amenity one could imagine (YAY YAY YAY!) and of course to BUY A HOUSE! That is seriously SO SO SO exciting! We've saved up enough money so we can buy a house and a nice one at that. ☺ I am so so so excited about having more than one bathroom. It almost brings me to tears when I think about having a house with enough room and bathrooms... oh life is good! (although, maybe the fact that I am this excited about bathrooms suggests that I need a life, lol!) So we are planning to go on our house hunting trip May 15th-21st. We've arranged for Amy & Dave to come stay with Noah, Adam & Madi and June is going to stay at Rejeana's house. We are going to bring Dallin because he's still pretty little. It could be a very long week for him and for whoever would be watching him... I don't want to put him or anyone else through that. My opinion is that if Bryce and I cannot handle ONE baby at this point, then we really have issues! Well, everything is falling into place. Now to find a house... I have waited so many years to do this... so happy, so grateful! I'll post pictures once all is said and done. ☺

OK, my whole point of blogging today was to make a record of a funny comment Noah said today. Oh the boy cracks me up, he's funny and doesn't even realize it! OK, today is my friend Janet Olsen's birthday, she plays the piano in primary, at church. Well the primary presidency decided to have her come to the front and have everyone sing happy birthday to her... which meant she wouldn't be anywhere near the piano. So someone commented and said to the kids, "I guess we'll have to sing accapella." Noah heard this and his response was, "But I only know English." Wow, that cracked us up when we heard that... seriously hilarious!! Oh my Noah, sweet, dear Noah... he was so serious about it... and we were sitting behind chuckling. Such a good comment. I never want to forget it... and that's why I am blogging today. ☺

Well, it's Mother's Day today. I'd really like to say that it's a blissfully, easy going day... but getting up at 6:30 in the morning to get all my monkeys ready for church and then to come home and have to feed everyone... it doesn't really feel like any other day of the week. I almost wish it wasn't mothers day (I know, I know, I'm bad for feeling this way)... it gives the illusion of the potential of the day going smoothly, that my children will all dawn their halos and never fight, that the house will be spotless, that all meals will magically appear. Reality is, having 5 kids just takes alot of time and alot of work... and always with nowhere near enough sleep. Sigh. But the good things I like about it is that my kids came home from school on Friday and couldn't wait to give me their Mother's Day gifts that they hand crafted themselves... and I honestly just love their excitement and how their eyes lit up while they tell me about what they made. That is what makes Mother's Day worth it to me. That and watching Dallin try to walk independently of furniture, and the sweet smile I get from him when he sees me. That's what's good about Mother's Day. I guess, now that I think about it, who really cares if the house is clean or if meals magically appear, I have my kids. And for whatever reason, they seem to love me, even though I am so far from perfect. Funny how that is. I am grateful for my family. ☺

Well, I guess I should go see what the rest of the world is doing. It's been a nice few minutes of quiet to sit and blog. I'm guessing that the next month or so will be crazy busy getting ready for the move. Oh and did I mention the best part about not getting into med school? I don't have to pack my house myself, the military pays for it to be done... and unpacked too. So sweet, so great! One less thing to do...

Have a good day all!

Cakes, cakes, cakes

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in my last post, I have been making cakes for people like crazy. Im not advertising at all, it's just been word of mouth. I'm having a GREAT time doing it & happy to make some extra cash. I'm not spending any of the money either, just holding on to it just in case we need it or want to spend it on something. It's mad $$$, I figure I'm not counting on it as income, so if I get extra $$$, I just hold on to it. No point adding it to the family budget, unless we need it of course. I'm anticipating using it to fund our house hunting trip if Bryce gets into med school. We have just about enough to pay for the trip & hotels with the money I've made in the last couple months. Yay! And if we go to Edmonton, the military will pay for the house hunting trip. Then I don't know what we'll use the money for. ??? I haven't thought that far. Either way, it never hurts to have a little extra. (And it's about time we have a smidge extra! It's only taken 13 1/2 years! lol)

Anyways here are the cakes I've made this past year. This month (April) marks the 1 yr anniversary of me taking my first cake decorating course. I've done ALOT this past year! SO FUN! Loving this hobby ☺

My fearless children ☺

Today we took the kids to the Family Day activities that they had on the base. Bryce calls it the "mandatory fun"... they are required to be there. Tonight he's at another mandatory fun thing for work. I think he's going to just make an appearance & head back home. (yay!) Anyways. back to the afternoon activities! (I'm always getting side tracked, lol) We took the kids to the base, and usually the activities are held outside but we are having a blizzard right now. Can you believe it?!!? This place makes me crazy, for real! So all the activities were inside the 2VP building. They had bounce houses, face painting, petting zoos, LAV (light armored vehicle) rides, the kids could climb all over everything, they had a spot where they could lie down on the ground with machine guns (crazy!), a night vision room and a zip line. The kids had a blast! I was glad to get out of the house with them. ☺ You should have seen them all go on the zip line! The guys set up a zip line from one side of the building to the other side... the kids zip-lined (if that's even a word, lol) above all the activities. MADI even did it! And none of them were scared & they all LOVED it! So awesome! Glad my kids like to try new things & weren't scared! Seriously, I thought Madi would back out. Nope. She jumped off and off she went, smiling the whole way & kicking her little 3 yr old legs! Go Madi! I was a proud mom watching my fearless kids!

June was having a saucy day (not sure why, I never really know why... I'm just here for the ride, I guess). Bryce had talked to the kids before going in & went over the rules. You know, like behave yourselves, use you manners, that kind of thing. Then he added in, please don't embarrass me, we are going to be with all my co-workers, soldiers & his bosses. Not a biggy, I thought. When we went in, June started acting up & being super saucy. Sigh. At one point she wanted to do something & when we told her she had to wait a moment, we weren't quite ready. Do you know what she said?!? It was something along the lines of "you better do this or get ready to be embarrassed". Man oh man, Bryce & I both had words with her! Now I'm not saying all this to rip on June... here's the funny thing. When we came home Bryce & I were talking to each other about her remark and we were thinking of ways that we could embarrass her (all totally in a joking manner... not for real... although, maybe we will, lol). I told Bryce next time she makes a comment like that, we should turn and give each other a big hug & kiss in front of her and everyone else. SHE WOULD DIE of embarrassment!! We had a good laugh... gotta find something to laugh about ;)

I'm feeling pretty good about things. Still don't know where we are moving yet. Only a few more days (5 sleeps!!) til we find out if Bryce gets in to med school. But I'm not crying every day like I was a couple weeks ago. Somehow the stress of not knowing feels like it's lifted. I just feel peace. Whatever happens, happens. I know that we, as a family, will go where the Lord wants us to go. I do really hope Bryce gets in, but I trust whatever happens will be what is best for us as a family, as a couple & as individuals. Still praying like mad that it's med school... soon this will all be a memory...

Well Bryce is back from his mandatory fun. Good man he is. Glad he's back. I'm exhausted tonight, so glad to have him here to help with the kids. I'm going to go now. I want to spend some time with him while I can!

Monday, Monday....

Today is going well. The kids are in school today, Bryce has the day off, we went to town to get groceries in the morning, fed everyone lunch & sent them all back to school, babies are napping (Dallin & the other little day home boy), Bryce went to the gym to work out while I went on the elliptical this afternoon. So far, so good. ☺

It's actually warm outside & most of the snow has melted (YAY!) and I am wearing capris for the first time this year! HAPPY DAY ☺ Annnd, the capris I put on, I couldn't fit last summer and I am wearing them comfortably. Ahhh. Baby body is finally going away. Not gone, but at least I'm headed in the right direction. Bryce put an app on my phone called Daily Burn. We both are using it daily to keep track of what we are eating & what we are doing for exercise. It's basically is journaling. Funny, I did it just out of curiosity to see how I was doing calorie/nutrition wise. Now I am doing it every day (except I didn't bother for Easter, too much food & truthfully, I didn't really care!). I have lost a few pounds just by keeping track of what I'm eating. Bryce has been doing it longer than I have and I think he said he's lost 7 or 8 pounds. Not bad. I don't even feel like I'm on a diet, cause I'm not! I still eat what I want * when I want, I'm just more aware of what I'm eating/ I sure feel good. Funny, hey, I feel good when I'm taking care of myself, novel idea, lol!

Well, I think for Family Home Evening we are going to put up the trampoline tonight. There are going to be some happy kids tonight! (not to mention all the kids in the neighborhood who end up over in our yard, they'll be pretty happy too!)

Well, this was another quicky blog entry. I better get going. I need to start making some dinner. Kids will be home from school soon & babies are still sleeping. So I am off!

Oh, and we still don't know anything about med school. I'm biting my nails (not literally, that's gross!) it's just driving me crazy not knowing!!! Oh well, this too shall pass & it will all be a memory soon enough...

Now I'm off!