Picture of the Day

I was walking down the hall today and spotted this on the end of Briar's bed. I don't really know what to tell you about it. I never asked who did it, or what it was exactly. Perhaps she is on life support, or she's rigged to blow. Either way, it doesn't look good for Bri's baby doll.

What's in a Text Message......

Here, is a small glimpse of life in the crazy wonderful. Its one of those moments that stops me and makes me say....I love my life!!

The following is a text message between Tanner and Daniel.

Tanner: I seek they advice oh master, for I am a padawan. Art thou going to be home soon, making it unwise to play thy x box? and, thy other son wishes for a pill....Thy permission is required.

Daniel: Pill granted my student. It is unwise to play more than 20 minutes under pain of death

Tanner: Pain of death?! 20 Minutes?! Curse thee!! I meant to say that thy decisions are wise above all others

Daniel: Thy forked tongue will cost thee lashings. Best to hold thy tongue than suffer

Tanner: Thou art hysterical oh lord, but not as I......

=o) That's all. It made me laugh. I love my family.

Merry Christmas

Confession

So I have this friend, who has a blog, and on her blog she does these "confessions" I love them, not because they are funny (which they are) but because they are real. So much out there is appearances and keeping up with the Jones. Well, I decided to try to free myself, and I'm doing my first confession. Its horrible and I can't believe I'm putting it out there but here goes

Confessions of a bad mom

I'll do 5 today, because that's all I can handle without feeling like I need to give my children to social services because I'm too inadequate to raise them

1. I hung up on my son when he called me on our date
2. It took me three days to drive half a mile to pick up Kobe's prescription from Walgreen's.
3. Emma came crying to me that Corwin hurt her, to which my reply was...Should we go beat him up?
4. I called my 2 year old a "fart knocker" because she took the lids off of my contact case and emptied the contents.
5. .#2 aka Tate, came home from school singing this song....."don't you wish your girlfriend was a FREAK like me.... to which...I laughed. Did I explain kindly that its an inappropriate song? no...I LAUGHED

Rachel Needs

So I was reading Rhonda's blog and she was talking about googling your name (Rachel) with the word (needs) after it, interesting right? So I decided to do it, never heard of it before but when I did the search it made me laugh so here goes...

Rachel Needs

Rachel Needs to get over herself......

OK I'll try, but we all know how fabulous I am....

Rachel Needs netflix friends.....

what is that exactly? Any of my peeps out there have netflix cuz apparently I need ya.....

Rachel Needs guidance and normal supervision.....

as opposed to what, abnormal supervision?

Rachel needs bearded dudes.....

OK...I'm leaving that one alone

Rachel Needs bikinis.....

I don't hate anyone that much

Thats a good place to stop.... its fun try it.

Yummy Gingerbread

Tis the season for gingerbread houses! We had a lot of fun with the kids. Miss Em didn't participate, she was in bed sick =o( and Tanner was out doing fast offerings with Dan but made it back just in time to start the second house.

As soon as the last piece of candy went on the houses, they asked if they could eat them. The houses were demolished within 15 seconds.

Go ahead! Tell me the sugar didn't affect the crazy wonderful kidlets.

Psycho kids high on sweets.

.....good times

~*Domesticity*~

do·mes·tic·i·ty (dm-sts-t)
n. pl. do·mes·tic·i·ties

1. The quality or condition of being domestic.
2. Home life or devotion to it.

Kobe~ we're like chipmunks Mom. Your storing our food for the winter

Tate~ we could be bears

All Caught Up

First....The Man is 3 weeks post op. tomorrow and doing Fabulous!

Thanks to our ward family who brought meals and made sure I wasn't too bogged down the first few days. Thanks to Connie for the awesome waiting room bag full of fun games, magazines and treats. And a special thanks to Jed and Rhonda for being AWESOME! Thanks Rhonda for sitting in the waiting room with me for hours then rushing home just in time to finish up making dinner for your 6 kids and my 7, and Jed for calling and visiting the Man all the way out in Scottsdale. We are so blessed to have such amazing friends. Thanks to everyone else for phone calls, cards and visits.

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Second, we celebrated out 14th Anniversary

We actually celebrated a couple weeks early because of Dan's surgery. Thanks to everyone who took our kids so we could have some alone time. Especially Steph for taking the girls. I had such a hard time leaving Briar. But since she loves Steph so much, it made it easier.

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Third, we had a fun Halloween.

We went out to my brothers house, we took Red Riding Hood and her Gramma, a goofy looking nerd, An Army Man, Count Dracula, Bat Girl and Buzz Light year with us. They had a lot of fun and being with family is always Great.

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We (and by we I mean ME!) have loved the weather cooling off just enough for the kids to play outside.

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Tate had a special Day.

All of the Mesa Elementary Schools participate in a music program every year, where the teachers each pick the top 14 singers and then they get together with all the other schools and put on a big program. I got to be a parent volunteer the day of the program. These guys worked really hard, and did an AMAZING job. Performance day they were in rehearsal for 7 hours. TROOPERS! Then Dan and the kids came for the actual concert that evening. It was GREAT! Good job Son.

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Tanner went on yet another camp out.

He came home yesterday, dirty and tired, but said he had a wonderful time. =o)

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And last but not least....Game Night.



The first of hopefully many! We had so much fun. We played games and ate yummy food. Ahhh Good times. We all realized that Dan and Jed are connected in some unearthly way, like the live on the same brain frequency and all 12 of us now have new appreciation for the words...Boy and Toilet Training. Thanks guys for hanging out. We had a blast!

Why, oh Why?

Is there anyone out there that can answer this question for me? Why oh Why does the silverware organizer always get so DIRTY??? I mean, Seriously! All the silverware I put in it is clean!!

anyone?

Just For Fun

I decided this morning that I wanted to spend the day with the kiddos.

Bad parenting moment I know, but I let them all stay home from school.

We spent a few hours at the park and then did a little grocery shopping and now they are in various rooms of the house playing legos and games.

I'm tempted to keep them out tomorrow too and just have a fun play week since they are already out for October break Thursday and Friday.


Miss Em


I bet you didn't know there were war trenches at the park and guns made out of sticks. Aren't little boys funny?


I know I'm bias, but this is the cutest picture!

Brigg, like his Daddy. Has to pose for every picture

Corn...hittin on the ladies

Bri taking the slide. She says weeeeeeeeeee the entire trip down.

Kobe found these glasses by our van at the grocery store. He kept repeating, in an old Man voice....."I told you kids to get off my grass"

Yes, they came home with us....sigh

I done been tagged! Thanks Leslie!!



Hmmm Random or weird facts. Here goes.

1. I believe that Jello is NOT a dessert. My husband has tried for years to convince me that it is but.... It isn't

2. I watch TV out of the corner of my eye, I never look at it directly. People sitting next to me on the couch think I'm watching them instead of the television. Its a weird inherited thing, all us Oakes do it.

3. I rarely finish a thought. My mind goes to 5 different things while I'm talking and I forget where I was going with it. In other words, I get side tracked easily. Drives Stephanie NUTS

4. I like ketchup on pot roast.

5. I love cleaning my sink and vacuuming.

6. When I was 3 I punched a Doberman Pincher in the nose. He stood between me and the house I was trying to trick or treat at. He whimpered and ran away. Mom said it scared her to death but I'm pretty sure I got my candy. that's how the story goes anyway

7. When I was little, Not sure how young, maybe 4 or 5. My brothers put me in the leg of my moms pantyhose and hung me on the clothes line. True story, I've even seen pictures. Can you believe they were that cruel to me? I think that's why I need therapy.

So there you have it. I enjoy being tagged, unlike some. They always challenge me. I have read SO many blogs where people HATE getting tagged. So I'm leaving it up to you, dear readers. Anyone who feels like it, Please take the tag.

My first Awards Yo!

SO.. Apparently in my lack of paying attention to blogging, I've missed a couple awards. Not just any awards mind you, but my first awards and given to me by our AWESOME friends.

Rhonda gave me this one. Then bless her heart she had to walk me through putting it on my page. Then linking a word, My 13 year old had to show me how to do that. I'm like that computer illiterate, slow person who's little kids have to show her how to work the TV and DVR.

But better late than never right?

Thanks so much Rhonda for this award. It made me feel special (not that kind of special, geeze!)



And thank you Jed for this award.



As for paying these puppies forward here goes. The smile award goes to......Leslie, Allison and Billie. Cuz y'all always make me smile when I read your posts.

And the "Blogging that hits the mark" award goes to..... Diane, Jana and Tanner. Cuz y'all ROCK IT!

A Fun First

I was painting my nails yesterday and Miss Em came to sit by me. After painting Briars I offered to paint hers. She asked if she could do it herself. *sniff* my baby is growing up. It's not a big deal by any means, but still a first for her to paint solo. She did a pretty good job too!

Dear Peeps!

Dear Peeps who sent me text messages reminding me that I needed to update my blog, Thank you for making me feel special.

Dear Mean Peeps who sent Hate Mail because I wasn't keeping up on my blogging...Bite Me!

I KNOW ALREADY, I'm such a BUM!!! Lazy me, I've lost the drive to blog!!!

We stay so busy lately. Dan has been working really long hours and taking on side jobs. Some days last week he went to work at 5am and was gone until after 9. While I'm not a fan of flying solo, I handled it but the kids had a hard time not seeing him at all during the day. Briar kept asking where Daddy was and the boys homework? I know one thing, I'm not smarter than a 5th grader. Seriously, I don't know how I graduated high school.

I'm starting school. I am going to get my RN. I am waiting to hear about financial aid before I start, however I'm getting impatient so I think I'll start next week then hope for reimbursement from the grant.

We've continued to work on the house. Slowly but surely things are coming together.

Dan is having surgery on the 27th of October, and our Anniversary is on the 28th. He's having gastric bypass. We are pretty excited about it and we're praying for positive results for our entire family. We are hoping that it can start some VERY needed changes in our eating habits at home. Weight Watchers here I come!!!

I'm so excited for the cooler weather to come on, My kids need some serious outside play time!

PICTURE OF THE DAY


We need to get our kids out more.

Too Funny!

So I'm sitting in the chair in the front living room and see Tate do this. I couldn't stop laughing and made him do it again so I could get it on tape, er...phone. Its a cell phone so quaility isn't great. I hope y'all enjoy it as much as we did.

I picture in my mind, the boys bathroom, remember....5 BOYS BATHROOM!!!! The bathroom came alive and sucked him in.

Mo Renovations, YW & a Baby Blessing

We're almost done with our Renovations. Ok not really but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Only one more room needs floors layed (Way to go MY MAN!) there's a lot left to paint. We ordered our baseboards from a company in California, so we'll have all of those to put in when they get here, then we start on the bathrooms!

I feel like we've taken "real life" off for the last couple months trying to get this done. Hopefully we will get back to it here soon. I need to make doctor, dentist and vision appointments for all the kids. (I'm such a slacker)

Little shout out to our friends who still put up with us on the weekend for our dates.

extra lil shout out to Steph and Cory, we had fun Friday even though the movie was totally GAY!



K so here are the pictures of the kitchen. Its amazing to me how WT a house can look without baseboards, so try to ignore that part ;o)

BEFORE





AFTER


I did the backsplash all by myself while the man put in the floors. Proud "do it yourself" moment for me.





Little catch up on my week, Wednesday I got a call round 7:30 ish, the YW had a service project scheduled that got canceled last minute, so LeLe (orange shirt) called me to see if they could come "babysit" while Bro. T and I took a little break. I was up to my elbows in paint, so I told them they could come wash my table and mirrors. I SO LOVE THESE GIRLS! and wish I was still in YW with them. It was great to sit and chat with Jamie and Karen their leaders, while they entertained my kiddos. THANKS GUYS!!!







Sunday we blessed Cydney Dawn. It's always awesome getting together with my family. We had lunch after church back and Danny and Shannon's house. Here's a couple pics that I snapped of my sweet Sis and her adorable pink baby!





I also went out during the week and we made little itty bitty bracelets and I pierced her ears. We're having so much fun playing baby girl.

BUH BYE! 80's green carpet!!!

This is why I've been MIA for the last couple weeks. We have been in renovation mode!
FINALLY!!! So we do it one room at a time (by we I mean my sweetheart The Man) empty the furniture then DEMO! My kids LOVED it.

The boys went to town and had the living room base boards and carpet out of the house in about an hour. Unfortunately my office has been the dump sight for all the furniture, books and toys that have been temporarily relocated, I just found my computer again a couple days ago.

BEFORE








Ready for the cutest thing ever? He wore the tool belt to be cool like his grandpa, who gave it to him. What was in it you ask? Tools? NAH...Band aids, in case he cut himself.


My boys ROCKED IT!!!

AFTER

We still have 4 rooms left to do, 7 walls to paint and baseboards to put in trough out the house, BUT we started So that's something....right?