Catching up.

Well, I've been pretty good about taking the daily pictures... just not the posting part. I've been really busy with a scrapbook project and it's pretty much been consuming most of my time, so that's my picture for today. Some of the 350+ scrapbook pages that I've made in the past two weeks. I know... crazy, huh? But when I give myself deadlines, I can (sometimes) work with them! And, you need to know that they are not all completely different pages. I scrapbook for a family with 7 kids. If all 7 of the kids were somewhere, I recreate the page 7 times. Make sense? So... here ya go...

Time for change.

Ok, so this is my real, official post for yesterday, January 20th, Inauguration Day. So, maybe Obama wasn't my first choice... or my second choice for that matter. I'm still really excited to be around at this time, to see a black person (or... half-black as so many people are saying - does it really matter?) elected to be our president. What an amazing time we are living in!

And really, how AMAZING was that Inauguration ceremony! Me... who doesn't really care for or understand politics! But did you see all those people???? There must have been almost a zillion people there!!! Just amazing!

Now, I just want our housing market to get better, unemployment to get better, economy to get better... everything to get better. Come on Obama, make all your promises so!

It's Cookie Time!

Our house is alive with the selling of Girl Scout cookies! Anyone need some... let me know and I'll hook you up!!! Macy enjoys selling the cookies, and it's great because it pays for overnight horse camp which is lots of fun! Last year she sold 292 boxes, selling the most for her troop. This year, we're not trying so hard, but still having a great time!

More love to go around.

Something else I LOVE??? I LOVE COSTCO!!! Really, who doesn't love Costco? I am there weekly, and think that I might be one of their best customers!!!

Rockin' Out!

I came home the other night to find everyone asleep, except for these two who were "Rockin' Out"! Pretty much a constant in our house. Ya got Rock Band, ya got Guitar Hero... there's bound to be a party. One time I was gone for the evening, and the kids were home with some friends waiting for D to come home. By the time he got home, the kids were still here with their friends, and the friends' dads who had brought pizza, all having a Rock Band party in our basement. Just a "rockin'" good time!

Hotel for Dogs.

Ok, so being on the PTA sometimes "encourages" me to see movies that I might not necessarily see - (anyone remember "Beverly Hills Chihuahua"? I didn't see it, but D took the kids, and I'm really thankful that I didn't go!) Anyways, last night our PTA did a movie night fundraiser to see "Hotel for Dogs", and surprise, surprise, it was really cute! We all really enjoyed it... and our fundraiser did great! The last time our PTA did a movie night, they sold 85 tickets. This time we sold 300!!! And the theatre only holds 340... so almost sold out! Pretty impressive if you ask me!

Boots!

Isn't he cute? I know that he gets the most of our blog... but I do spend A LOT of time with him... and he's really very funny! Luke and I were sitting around playing SkipBo (something we do A LOT!) and Reed was trying on my Uggs. I'd say it's a perfect fit!

Bathing Beuaties

Look at these cute two! Just hanging out in the tub, enjoying some warm water, bath toys and bubbles.

Hugh Hefner look out!

So we got Reed these really cute CARS pajamas after Christmas on sale, and when he wears them, he totally looks like he could be the next Hugh Hefner (minus the cigars and Bunnies!). Just hanging around in his lounge wear all day!

Preschool playgroup.

During playgroup. See all the kids and their cute moms?After playgroup. Not too bad.

We just hosted Reed's playgroup. There's probably about 20 kids, aged 1-5. We had 13 of the kids over with their moms', and they all just hung out and played - this is what we built the basement for. It was a lot of fun, and the wreckage afterwards wasn't too bad either.

The fun part really, is just all the moms' being together getting to chat. Erika, who is mini-Martha-Stewart, even came up and completely rearranged our living room. Only like the 3rd time it's been done in the past week. Thanks Erika for your help with this! Now come back and do the rest of the house (and I'm totally all over painting the banister!).

The Quilt Fairy came.

See what came in our mail the other day? Reed's baby blanket, made by Grandma Paula (shout out to Grandma Paula!). Isn't it cute? Reed loves it... especially that it has cars all over - his favorite besides his blanket and Chad. Thanks Grandma Paula for the quilt and all the rest of the happy mail!!! We love you!

Smells like teen spirit in our house!

Ok, you may call me crazy (if you don't already!), and Chad definately does... but this is the picture and the memory for today. The first deodorant bought for someone in our family other than me and D. We have an almost teenager. Can you believe it? He's 12 1/2 now, and we just thought it might be time for him to start doing "teenage" stuff. Not that he smells or anything (he doesn't... I made D check)... but better to be safe than sorry!

Happy Holidays!

Macy (on the right) and her best friend, Sierra

Oh wait... you say it isn't the holidays any longer? That was like two or three weeks ago??? Well... when school gets cancelled the week before Christmas vacation, and there are no holiday parties held, they need to be held at another time. Macy's teacher took a vote with her class, and they still wanted their holiday party, making gingerbread houses and all (gee... ya think?). So, today we had a gingerbread party in Macy's class. It was a lot of fun... and all the kids went home totally loaded up on sugar! Sugar plums dancing in their heads...

Night of the (non-) living Frogs!

Remember being in 8th grade with Mrs. Smith (I think it was 8th grade)? Remember dissecting frogs? How much fun it was (NOT)? Chad just dissected frogs in 7th grade, so his teacher had an open house tonight where the parents could come in and the kids would show them all the parts of the frog. Lots of fun. The teacher has a sense of humor though (much better than Mrs. Smith). He cut into one frogs' belly, where he had previously implanted an M&M and showed the kids that that frog had been snacking on M&Ms. While dissecting another frog, he put a small piece of cookie on his tray, unbeknownest to his class, and then picked it up to eat it, pretending like it was part of the frog. Lots of fun in 7th grade science class.

I {heart} Ellen.

Ok, so seriously, Ellen Degeneres just makes me laugh. I'm sitting here, checking email and stuff, watching Ellen, laughing so hard, can hardly breathe, tears running down my cheeks. She just makes me laugh. Just wanted to share. I'm a sharing person.

Ya gotta love "homemade" pizza!

So, did you know that you can go into Papa Murphy's and just buy the pizza dough , already in pizza shape on a paper bottom, for only a couple of dollars (I got two large "pizzas" for $3.25!)? Then, you take it home, add some pizza sauce (which you can also buy for about a quarter), cheese, and any toppings you like and have some "homemade" pizza. At Winco (that's our grocery store) they had a bag of 5 mini pizza doughs for $.99... just right for our family. The kids loved it... and it was super yummy and cheap! For less than $10, we had two large pizzas, 5 "personal" pizzas, and a whole lot of fun! Priceless.

Shoe Day part 2

He wouldn't keep his eyes open, but he's still REALLY cute!

Ok, so I am so not a "character-on-the-shoes" type of person, but when we saw these, Reed just had to have them. He LOVES cars... especially CARS cars, and we just couldn't resist some Lightning McQueen boots. How cute are they? They're a bit big on his feet, and he's not quite sure how to walk in them, but he looks awfully cute and that totally counts for something. And besides, he didn't get any shoes on Shoe Day anyway!

They're back...

After a "late start" yesterday morning (due to an unexpected freak snow storm on Sunday night that caused most of us to think that the kids would NEVER be going back to school), the buses are back on track, and the kids actually went to school!!! Yippee! This is my happy site for the day! Want to remember the buses running, even if there is now rain.

It's snowing again.

Yesterday at about 5:00, it started to snow. For no reason. Not on our weather forecast... just felt like it, I guess. Not a ton (like 3 or 4 inches in our front yard), but out city is not set up for snow. No snow plows, no salt machines, and lots of hills. Shuts down our school buses, and pretty much a lot of everything else too. I love it... truly I do, but I was DESPERATE for the kids to go back to school today. Just done having them around 24/7. Love them... but come on. You all know what I'm saying. So... we patiently kept checking the internet to see if the school district put up anything yet, and no luck. This morning, the dreaded phone call at 6:11 am. Luckily, no school closure, just late start which puts them 2 hours late for school. That's not bad, and actually an easier way to start back to school after being off for almost 3 weeks.

So, for day 4, a picture of the totally lop-sided, leaning tower of snowman the kids built me last week. Not yesterday, but the picture doesn't have to be from yesterday, just the memory does. See how this works? Totally accomodating!

Just enjoying.

So, day 3, I was out running some errands and really wanted a milk shake. I headed to Jack in the Box to get an Oreo one and got a teriyaki rice bowl and headed home. Nice mom that I am, I decide to share my rice bowl with Reed. He was really enjoying it, until he got some of the shake and realized that there is something WAY better than chicken and rice... Oreos and Ice Cream! Who would've thought?

Happy 2009!

Always a crowd favorite - the chocolate fountain.

Watching a movie.

Reed enjoying a french fried green bean in some raspberry sherbet. Thanks Aunt Susie!

This is how Reed spent midnight!!! He's just a party animal!

Aunt Susie and Nancy.

Most of the gang.

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a fun, safe evening. We had some friends and family over and had a good time playing games, eating, "Rocking" out, eating, watching movies, oh, did I mention eating?, and just enjoying each other's company. This past year has been a good one for us, and we are excited to see what 2009 brings. Some new changes, but lots of love to go around.

I'm not very good at keeping resolutions, but some things that I would like to work on are (in no particular order... just as I am thinking of them)...

1. Be better about scrapbooking about our life - and not just the people I get paid to scrapbook for. (This includes being a better blogger. I use to be so good at this... but then so many other things - like "life" - got in the way!)


2. Really TRAIN this time for the Hood to Coast relay in August. Last year I didn't train, and I really felt it after walking about 11 miles. I want to be better this year. For my team, as well as for myself. (Liz made this same goal, and she's been really good about walking her 4 miles every day so far this year. Me? Snow, cold, rain... totally keeps me inside. Sorry!)


3. Be better about what I eat. Stop eating so much junk... problem is... I really like it! Bring on the Pepsi and gummi bears!


4. Have much more patience with my kids - especially Macy. She is my tough one. She needs to be entertained ALL the time. She can't be by herself - it's "BORING". I need to know when to drop things, like doing the dishes, and play more games with my kids. I don't want to say "no" too often so that they stop asking, and don't want to be with me when they get older.


5. Really be better about our finances. Pay off any debt, and try really hard not to get back into it! (Isn't this always the case?)

So, that's about it for right now. Happy New Year everyone! Hope that you have a very happy, prosperous, safe, healthy (fill in the blank) 2009!!!

Shoe Day.

Huckvale Family Tradition. Day after Christmas (ok... we're a week late), head out to somewhere cool, buy new shoes for everyone. Family of 7... we end up with 8 pairs of shoes (only 7 in picture, not sure where Derrick's other pair is.). We all got some, except for Luke and Reed. Luke needs some new church shoes, but didn't really care to look for any, and Reed just didn't really care. He LOVES shoes... but he's quite happy with the ones he has. So, D got 2 pair, Macy and I got matching pink Pumas (super cute!), Chad got some new Converse (what he always gets - but this time he went CRAZY and got blue instead of black!), and Haley got 3 (notice one pair is ballet shoes - she needed some real ones for her class - and the other two were cheap, like $10 together, on sale at Old Navy). So, Happy Shoe Day to all! Hope yours was just as good as ours!

Day 1.

Ok, so there was this scrapbook kit going around called Project 365. It went on sale yesterday, and by the second hour it was all sold out. I really wanted it. Something to scrapbook for myself. The idea is, take a picture EVERY DAY of whatever you want, and put down some journaling. Whatever it is. Your favorite color that day, a missing tooth, a holiday, whatever. So, until the kit comes back in stock (which I really hope it does), I'm going to try and keep it current on here, my blog. Let's see how I do. So, with that...

Day 1. Beginning the "un-decorating" of Christmas. I hate this part. And really, the only reason we started is because the Boy Scouts are coming around Saturday morning to pick up the tree. Gotta at least have that part done.

Sunday services.

Notice the red and green ties for Christmas

Ok, so back to my snow for a minute. Due to all the snow, our church services were cancelled this past weekend, so Derrick and Chad donned their white shirts and ties so that we could have Sacrament and our own Testimony meeting. It was really nice... and I am especially grateful that I have these men in my life who can perform these blessings in our house!

This is definately one of my favorite Christmas memories from this holiday season!

Merry Christmakkuh!

Notice the Hanukkah decorations? Really not that easy to find here!


So, those of you that know me, know that I love parties. I love to throw them, and I love to make up holidays. Not really into the cooking thing, but I just love to have people over. So, Sunday night was the first night of Hanukkah, and to celebrate the Jew in all of us, we threw a Christmakkuh dinner. It was great! We had 23 people over (missed you Mom, Owen's family, Evans' family, and everyone else we invited that couldn't make it!), and had a great time! We don't necessarily have enough seats, but that doesn't seem to matter. We had brisket (thanks Tweetie for the "brisket hot line"! - it was super good!), Liz made Latkes (they were YUMMY!), green bean casserole, a VERY creative salad that Susie made up, and Heidi brought some Challah - and then some very yummy desserts. We also had dreidles, chocolate gelt (coins), and blue and white candy canes (that's the "Christma" part of "Christmakkuh"). It was a lot of fun, and we truly appreciate that our friends and family are up for my made up holidays!

Ooohhh... and we just celebrated Mexican Christmas at the Geigenmiller's house. Thanks for making up holidays too! It was sooo, sooo good!!!

Still snowing.

The first day the snow started - like last Tuesday or Wednesday

Eating "snow cream" dad made for us.

Geigenmillers, Browns, Teames, Allens, Neffs and Huckvales (and that's only some of them!)

Taking Reed sledding. He loved it!

All geared up.

Chad and his friend, Charles

Sledding down our hill.The "concession stand" in our basement - that's Ben Teames

Watching the 1:15 screening of Wall-E

Our house today. It took us 40 minutes to get the car out of the driveway yesterday, so now we just park it across the top.

Macy buried on our trampoline.

Sledding in the driveway.

Cooper loves it!

So, a couple of years ago we went to Canada for Christmas. I compared our house today to that time we were in Canada. We've had 24" of snow in our town, more snow than we've had since 1968. Crazy!... and we're still expecting more.

Outside of all the cabine fever, the kids are still loving the snow. At our house, this equals about 17 children who... build tunnels, sled, have snowball fights, eat snow cream, eat TONS of popcorn and show movies in the Huckhood Theatre... I still haven't gotten a good snowman out of them yet though. Gonna be a white Christmas for us... and I'm so excited! It's so magical here right now. Love it!

Snow week.

So, forget the whole "snow day" thing... it's turned into snow week... or maybe "snow-end-of-the-year"... or, as the news is calling it, "Arctic Blast '08"! The kids had school on Tuesday, that's all. It didn't even really start "snowing" until about Thursday, but now it hasn't let up. The wind is howling outside, blowing the snow in every direction. My mom's flight got cancelled coming in from L.A., and now she's staying home for Christmas. Our road is closed, because we live on a steep hill, but it's great for sledding on and is always crowded with lots of kids having fun! (The past couple of days we've had tons of kids at our house while on their sledding breaks.) Our church was cancelled because the roads are too dangerous, and our Christmakkuh party might have to be just for us... and the Geigenmillers (they only live down the street).... and maybe Bob and Susie (they're not too far)... but don't know if the Petrowski's will make it, or any of the other guests. That's ok... I'd rather have them be home, safe, than out driving in this craziness. It's making the whole "Christmas" thing seem kind of odd though. The kids didn't get to have their holiday parties, and we won't get to sing Christmas carols in church tomorrow and see all our friends, so it's making it all kind of strange. Well... what can you do? Love the snow... but the cabin fever is definately setting in. Today we took a very slow drive to the gas station about 5 miles away just to get some soda and bread. Anything to get out of the house for a while.

Snow day.

So on Sunday, it snowed... A LOT. At least for us, a lot. Church only lasted 45 minutes and then everyone was sent home. Not enough for sledding though... but all over the place, hard to drive, hard to see. So yesterday, the kids lucked out with a snow day. No snow though. Most of the snow was gone. Patches of it all over the place, but still no sledding. Chad and Derrick both felt that it was a wasted snow day as there was no sledding to take place. More snow is expected later this week though, and we might possibly have a White Christmas, so keep your fingers crossed (grandma, be prepared!). So, yesterday, I had 12 kids at our house for most of the day looking for things to do. (It was BEAUTIFUL outside, but very COLD. I think the high was like 27*... and it's not gonna be much better today. I've just been leaving Reed in his footy jammies cause it keeps him warm.) So, we played games, decorated a gingerbread house, watched some Christmas movies, and just hung out. It was a nice way to spend a cold day!

Plumbers.

Ok. So the plumber is currently on his way back. He only left about an hour ago. I called my contractor (who hasn't been here since like June), to report to him that our new bathroom was currently flooding for no apparent reason, getting onto the new carpeting, and going down the heating duct. The toilet has filled up before, not sure why, we just took it to fact that it's on a sump pump, and it's "below ground", so maybe it just took longer to flush, but it's never so fully overflowed, so this time I was stressed. Well... I'm happy to report that after the plumber, the contractor and the framer cut a hole in the side of our house in our siding to get below our basement, they discovered that no one actually plugged in the sump pump (duh...), so it's never fully been working and there is water all over the crawl space. At least it's an easy fix.