Did you Know??? I am GRATEFUL that I NOW know!!

Gratitude Journal Entry #71

When Junior started out eating we found out long before he started food that he was really allergic to Wheat and Soy. I had the hardest time finding formula without Soy and he was really allergic to soy. So we put him on Goats milk at seven months and that worked so then I thought I was in the clear with the cereal because I knew he could eat oatmeal. Well, I had a "feeling" to read boxes carefully. So I did and discovered that on the Gerber cereal box of oatmeal it read "May have traces of Wheat in it." Now why would they do that to little babies.:( So they had a phone number on the back of the box for you to call so I remember calling to ask and to make sure that there wasn't any soy in it too I also said that my baby is allergic to wheat why would they do this and she said that she would take this information and take it back to the board to talk about it. So we tried it and sure enough he broke out and was miserable. So then I found Beech Nut brand and on the box said is careful with allergies and has no soy in it. So we tried it and sure enough he DIDN'T break out. So...two nights ago we went and bought a box of Gerber oatmeal cereal for our little baby Daniel and he tried it and the next day was SUPER constipated and broke out MAJOR and was super fussy all day long!! So then I had the feeling to call Sloane and have him pick me up a box of Beech Nut oatmeal cereal, and sure enough he DIDN'T brake out and he wasn't constipated!! (So yes this means he's allergic to wheat!) So I read the box of Gerber again to see if it said that and to my surprise they don't say "May contain traces of wheat!" UGHHHHHH! So when I called a year and a half ago they basically did NOTHING and just took that off the boxes! I want to write them a nasty letter, ok I will be nice! No I really want to write them a letter letting them know how serious this could be if some baby was highly allergic to wheat! Again, why would they do this???? They just don't care and they don't care about allergies in babies, so sad for them because I am getting the word out and I am Never buying Gerber again!! Ok, now that I got that out I will calm down now ;)

I am GRATEFUL for Spring Break!!

Gratitude Journal Entry #70

So here's what we are doing....

Monday- we let the kids play with friends, they have been dying to play with friends for a while now.

Tuesday- I am just letting the kids hang out and play the WII because they never ever get to do that, (we are stricked about it plus they always have just too much homework)

Wednesday-Taking the kids to Hobby Lobby! Yes, I know I am crazy:) We have asked Sister Mcurdy (the bishop's wife) to come with us since she loves this place, can't drive and my kids love her. I will encourage her to go off with maybe the older kids so she won't have to listen to my crazy kids screaming ect. Oh, and let the kids pick out a cheap craft to do.

Thursday- Going to the library, because it's FREE!

Friday-Going to the Great Harvest Bread Co. My kids have never been here, I have and I love it. We are going for the treats. I thought it would be a different but fun activity that they've never done before. (It will be torture with me being on this diet and all!)


Next weeks Activities...

Monday- Maybe take the older kids Ice skating. If you still have those passes from the library reading program from the summer, they are still good until June, buy one get one free!

Tuesday- Take the kids to Mcdonalds, it's half priced happy meals.

Wednesday-Make the craft that they got from Hobby Lobby last week.

Thursday- Go to park! Hopefully it's nice weather.

Friday-Go to the Lolli Pop Shop off Eagle Rd. Again my kids have never been to this shop and it's kinda fun going to somewhere new.

That's it for us! Hope you all have a fun Spring Break! and Happy Easter!!

I am GRATEFUL for my Four Month old Baby Boy!

Gratitude Journal Entry#69



I am grateful for my baby. He's not sleeping through the night yet, however he is a joy to have around. I enjoy his little noises that he has started to make, he was so noisy during relief society, I think that's early isn't it? He also will cry if I leave the room, that too is early? He loves to smile and cuddle with you. I love the clicking noise he makes when he's tired at least then I know! He loves his fingers and sucks on them a lot. He will also laugh a lot more too now. We love you our precious baby!

I am GRATEFUL for Perfect Strangers!!

Gratitude Journal Entry # 68

All my life I have had Perfect Strangers come into my life at the Perfect time! It's like Heavenly Father, since he couldn't be there he sends them. This week I was at Wallgreens stocking up on some more diapers and I just needed a few more before the sale went off, so I decided to take the boys with me just real quick (I don't know why I fool myself, it's never EVER just real quick) Anyhow, as I am standing in line I kept the two older boys happy by bribing them with M & M's :) and then I was holding the bottle for the baby realizing that I forgot the blanket in the car to prop the bottle up so I can go pay. While I was thus contemplating on this, a woman, sweet and gentle and very kind came up to me and asked if she could hold his bottle for me so that I could check out. I was surprised by this but felt her sweet spirit and was quickly glad for her offer because I was now next in line. Well, needless to say she held that bottle for atleast ten to fifteen min. and was very happy to do it. The other checkers kept offering her to check her out at their register but she refused by telling them that she has five children of her own and she really wants to help this lady. I am greatful to her for her help, for I really needed it, but I am not very good at excepting help, I will get better at that.
My memory of another Perfect Stranger was when we got into our really bad car accident in December of 1998, we were on our way to our ward Christmas party. It almost took the life of Sloane's half sister. She was twelve and was living with us at the time. An older couple came up and held Dash for me, he was only two months old while I was being checked out by the ambulance guys, because I hit my head on my window and cut my ear, we were hit from the side. Then a women who was a nurse came up and was taking Leandra's (that's Sloane's half sisters name) pulse, she was to play the angel that night in the play. It was amazing how all those people were there. And one last memory....When I found out that I was pregnant with my seventh, I was feeling emotional one day about it and I decided to go to the shoe store to get some comfortable sandals since now I was going to be pregnant through the summer. I was looking through the shoes when a worker lady came up to me and asked if she could help me find anything. I told her I needed something comfy because I am pregnant, and then she stopped me with the question "How many is this for you?" I sheepishly told her "Seven." Her next question kind of shocked me, she asked "Are you happy about this?" and I told her "Yes, yes I am." She then got so excited and then got serious real quick and told me that she was so happy to meet people like me that has children and are happy about it and not the opposite because she was never able to have children of her own and wanted them so badly. I was humbled at that very moment by this Perfect Stranger that shared that most sacred thing about herself and by the fact that at one point I wasn't sure if I was happy about it. But thanks to that Perfect Stranger I realized that I am very Blessed!!

I am GRATEFUL for my Kids' dreams.....I Think?

Gratitude Journal Entry #67

So lately my eleven year old has been acting like a true eleven year old. I have been hoping and praying that somehow he will be jared out of what ever he's going through. So this morning he comes down stairs and right away tells me that he had a dream about me last night. He said it started out great, we were at Bear Lake at our Family Reunion (which we are going to this year) and he said it was a lot of fun. He was wake boarding ect. he said then you (mom) started not feeling very good and we all thought it was your gallbladder acting up again. We went home early and took you to the doctors and found out that you had cancer, he said "It was the fast pace dying kind," I said, "Well did I die?" and he said, "I woke up before you did." Well all morning he was being responsible, doing things that I normally have to remind him TWELVE times or more to do, and I think he said "I love you," five or more times this morning before he left for school. I remember as a kid or teenager having dreams about my parents dying and thinking that I needed to appreciate them more. So if that's what it takes to get him to appreciate me and his dad more, I will Take It!! ( I just hope it doesn't really come true, Yicks!;)

I am GRATEFUL that JR Qualifies!!

Gratitude Journal Entry # 66

The ladies from the infant/Toddler program from the state came today to do an evaluation. They both said that they are required to go back and add up their numbers to see if he qualifies but they both said that they know right now for sure that he qualifies in both areas, cognitive and speech. Which is good! I honestly thought that he would just qualify for just speech. He's about six months or more behind in both and that's how he qualifies. The best part is they come to your house! I felt really strongly that when I was carrying him that he was struggling with the idea of wanting to come and that he was going to have a hard life somehow. When he was born I thought that his life would be hard because of all of his Allergies. When he started eating he could only eat three things, he was allergic to everything else, that's how bad his allergies was. But now I know it won't just be his allergies, but I am glad that he will have the help along the way. He has always been blessed with help along the way. Whenever there was a time that I needed to do something for him, I would receive the inspiration on how to help him. For instance, with his allergies, I had the impression at seven months to stop nursing and take him off all the things that he was allergic to and then when he was about fourteen months I started introducing some of those things back in and then he was fine. When he was a baby he was HARD, this song came to my mind (sung to the tune of Rubber Ducky) "Junior baby, your the one, you make life lots of fun, Junior baby I'm awefully fond of you- to- boo- boo- bee- doo-whee! He loved it and would calm right down and fall asleep or not be so fussy, the kids memorized it too so when he was being fussy they would sing this to him and he would calm right down. I know I was inspired to come up with that song to sing to him, it made life more positive and helped him get through a lot. I still sing that too him and he loves it! And many more things that I was inspired to do to help him along the way. My testimony has grown through this with the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows who we are, he knows what we need and that he will help us if we have the faith in him.

I am GRATEFUL I figured out how to make my very own Mini Greenhouse!!

Gratitude Journal Entry #65


I am so excited, I figured out and made this myself!! I had wire from Home Depot, left over from a project a LONG time ago and almost threw it away but figured I might use it someday. I had left over clear table cloth cover from my table when I lived in Washington. I had the trays from when I was on my wheat grass growing kick! So I decided I wanted to make my own starts this year but didn't want to spend money on anything fancy to put my growing plants in and so I came up with this!

I am GRATEFUL for a good Saranade and Cute Chicks!

Gratitude Journal Entry #64









Johnathan (Sloane's Step Brother) Decided to come to our house and saranade us with his very authentic, straight from Scotland Bagpipes! What is neat to think about is that a year or two ago when he and his mother lived with us for a short time, he started taking lessons it is a really hard instrument to play you have to continuously blow air into the bag while playing the notes, I know I couldn't remember to do both at the same time, and since his lessons he's now REALLY good! My favorite song that he can play is Praise to the Man. You can hear them for miles away and it was drawing the neighbors out and people driving down our street while he was playing, so if you thought you heard bagpipes, YOU DID! The two little boys loved it so much that they to were pretending to play an instrument and dancing around.
Then Grandma Karen told us that she had baby chicks at her house and so we all hoped in the car and went over to see those cute things, the kids loved them and JR couldn't leave the box of them alone! It was a fun Sunday, Thanks Johnny & Grandma Karen!

I am GRATEFUL for Courage!

Gratitude Journal Entry #63

I am going to "TRY" something new that I am NOT good at. I still have my best Friend from high school Brigitte and the words that she would say to me still ringing in my ears when she would say to me, "Smile, look people in the eye and say HI!" I am not good at that, naturally by nature I am super SHY!!! I know I pull it off that I am not sometimes, but I am. So the words of our Stake Pres. is ringing LOUDLY in my ears to "TRY" so from now on I am going to try and look people in the eye more and smile more often, it's going to be tough though. My husband of course is NOT shy at all and I am so grateful for him and his example to me not to be shy and I think I have done better since High school because of him. He too is always encouraging me to smile more, I do not know why I don't I just don't, but I am going to do better from this day forward!!:)

I am GRATEFUL for a shopping day with my sweet daughter!

Gratitude Journal Entry #62

We stuck the boys in Co-op and I made the Hawaiian Princess skip school today so that we could go shopping!! She was the last child I needed to buy summer clothes for and since today Old Navy started there coupon 30% off sale, today was the perfect day to do it! We got everything she needed except a bathing suit so we are still on the hunt for that. We had a great time! It took forever to take this picture, we were laughing so hard trying to "Pose" for this lovely picture! So far my teenager is lots of fun to do fun shopping things with, I am happy about that.

I am GRATEFUL to be goin' GREEN!

Gratitude Journal Entry #61


Today I was up at 5:30 am with all the CRAZIES saving a lot of GREEN!! I went to Albertsons for their crazy Post Cereal sale!! With the coupons I bought on Ebay I paid .50 a box!! And with some of the boxes, because of all the coupons and doubler coupons (I only had a few doublers) I only paid .12 a box, CRAZY!! But fun! Yes, the Leprechaun came to our house this morning and left our milk GREEN and left GREEN Rice Crispy Treats for the kids to take to school for lunch. Later he will leave either Cupcakes or a Cake that's of course GREEN for desert tonight. Happy St. Patties Day!:)

I am GRATEFUL for Motivation!

Gratitude Journal Entry #60

I love it that everytime I go to the gym, as I am walking out carrying a heavy car seat and by now I am tired from working out and trying to keep my other two boys focused on getting through the door (which can be a challenge). I am greeted by the people who work there and they tell me "Good Job on your workout today!" Yes, I know they tell this to everyone who walks out but it does give me a little boast and cheers me up and makes me excited to come back (I think that's why they do that). Oh whatever, it works!! I also love it that I see Jan Edvalson on occasion, she also is so positive and is a nice friendly face to see. What was weird is I went to Target afterwards and I was kinda sad that I didn't see Jan and then as I am pulling in she pulls in to!

I am GRATEFUL for the Stake Pres. Message to us in Relief Society

Gratitude Journal Entry #59

He talked about six things that we need to do to fulfill the mission we have in our lives.

The first thing he talked about was that we needed to pray and ask Heavenly Father what our Mission in our lives is and then over the days and weeks he said try to notice the impressions we get from the spirit letting us know what it is that we are here for.

The second thing is to Read and Ponder our Patriarchal Blessings, he said wouldn't it be nice to have our children's Patriarchal blessing right when they are born so that we would have some Idea of how to raise them, That would be nice!

The third thing was to have the courage to "TRY!" Find our hidden talents! I liked this one because I have a hard time with this one. He said that we all have a place in this life and we are given things to do to fulfill that place to help us to grow. He said that a long time ago he was asked to be the new Sunday school teacher. He was called to teach the fifteen year olds and he said that they were a VERY noisy and rowdy bunch and he really wanted to say no because he just didn't want to do it. He didn't want to deal with trying to calm them down. So he prayed on what he could do. He was inspired to challenge them all to read the scriptures and they had to read everyday or they had to start all over. So, a lot of them did this and they all had to report to him every Sunday and how far they have gotten. He said that for his work at the time, he travelled to China a lot and he promised them that if they finished the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, he would by them all Rolex watches (he said of course he didn't tell them that he got a five thousand dollar watch replica for only five bucks) so they were all motivated and he said that the class started to change and the kids were participating in the lesson more and getting excited to learn and read. He said that for years he had those kids STILL coming up to him long after he was there teacher, reporting to him on how far they are in the scriptures and how their scripture reading was going. He said that if he had said no to that calling than he wouldn't have had that neat experience and he wouldn't have learned what he learned and grown as much as he did.
He also told a story about Sister Sherry Dew. She lived in Kansas City and in high school she played basket ball. He said that she was a good player and she thought she was. When she graduated from high school and went to BYU and she decided that she would try out for the girls basket ball team there. When she walked into the gym for tryouts and to practice, she opened the door and she stood there not moving then, quickly closing the door, she said to herself that she wasn't in "Kansas" anymore and these girls were good. Really good! She walked the halls for three hours trying to decided if she should go in and try out. She then made the decision to not try out and walked home upset at herself for being discouraged and not trying out. Fast forward, years later... She was at a conf. for the BYU athletics and she was speaking to the girls that were her age when she made that discouraging decision to not try out, and she told that story and then this lady that was in charge of the conf. got up and told Sister Dew that she was the coach at that time and that whole year she was always short one player and was looking all year long to fill that position. That struck Sister Dew in the heart knowing that she REALLY should have tried out and not being intimidated by those girls that she thought were better than here.

The fourth thing he said was that we are ALL given a mantle, wether it's in a calling or our callings as mother's. He encouraged us to Pray and Ask our Heavenly Father how we should use this Mantle.

The fifth thing is NOT to get DISTRACTED from what's important in this life. Will all the technology ect. he said that we need to keep focused on our family and things that are important in this life and to not let the things of this world distract us.

The sixth thing was to Live Righteously, So that we can prove worthy and return back to our Heavenly Father!

I love his talk it was very inspiring!

I am GRATEFUL for a great day with the kids and Husband!

Gratitude Journal Entry #58



Yesterday was so fun! I went to lunch with the kids at their school and they had pizza and salad and it was actually GOOD! The boys and I had so much fun, we stayed for all three lunches and got to have lunch with Voilet, Emily(Shell changed her name) and then Dash. EB was so friendly to all the kids that he saw wether he knew them or not he was talking to them ( if you notice in the top picture he's in the background on the right talking to a boy and the boy is looking at him as if to say who are you?), he's so funny. Dash my eleven year old even gave me a hug and a kiss in front of his FRIENDS and thanked me for coming, he's so sweet! The girls were so excited and had all their friends come and see their new baby and little brothers. It was fun! Then after wards the boys and I went to "Mrs. Janet's" to check out her preschool to see if I want the boys going there next fall and I didn't say anything about preschool or anything to EB and as soon as she showed us around EB looked at me and said "This is my new school, I am going here," It shocked me because I didn't mention anything to him about it, he's too smart for his own good! So yes, I signed them up to go there and they were both excited! Jr showed his mad Skills and Did his Power Ranger moves and sounds for Mrs. Janet and she thought it was too cute and funny, he cracks me up he also did that for the lady that came from the state for the infant and toddler program, he's really dramatic when he does it, I will have to record him. Then Sloane and I went to the temple and Grandma Karen watched the baby, thanks Grandma Karen! We ran into the Cleverly's they were in the same session as us, and I was talking to her about the frustration I had with the baby not sleeping well and breaking out and being fussy still all the time, I was at my whit's end yesterday and she told me about baby massages and so last night when I came home I tried it and it worked! He slept better and his face cleared up, amazing!! We also decided to go out to dinner with the Cleverly's to the Cheese Cake Factory (I love that place) it was fun, we haven't seen them in a long time (probably because they are in a whole different BUILDING, ugh!) We don't get to see very many people anymore due to that. It was a great day and I needed to get out and forget all my worries! Then today WE woke up to snowing,Yuck! I am ready for SPRING and SUMMER!! Ok now I am going to go eat my leftover CHEESECAKE!!

I am GRATEFUL that there is help available

Gratitude Journal Entry #57

Today a lady from the state for the Infant and Toddler program came and had a first meeting with us. She will review what we talked about and hopefully do an evaluation on JR and hopefully he will qualify for speech therapy. He's had a hard time communicating with us and is sort of getting better but not a whole lot so we are hoping that we can get him some help. He is super frustrated trying to communicate with all of us and gets mad and cry's a lot, and I feel so bad for him. So I am crossing my fingers that he will qualify.

I am GRATEFUL for the kid's School

Gratitude Journal Entry #56

I LOVE their school, Today Dash was excited to go to school because he got to pretend they were doing a search and rescue from a burning building so that's why his face has make up on it. He was going to bring katchup to school too, such fun boy things! Then on Tuesday the Hawaiian Princess got to take Crepes to school because in spanish class they made up a menu all in spanish and then everyone had to bring one thing on the menu and they had breakfast together, she loved that because everyone loved her crepes that she made. The two little girls love singing the songs that they learn at school in spanish too, they teach the kids spanish from second grade and up and my kids love it!! I love all their projects and things that they get to do, mostly because they do it all in their classroom! So NO mommy projects, which I LOVE!!

I am GRATEFUL for my New Calling!

Gratitude Journal Entry #55





I am the new Activity Day Leader for the Eight year olds! I have been blessed with the sweetest group of girls and I am so excited to be able to work with these fine Young Ladies! I have also been blessed to have a great assistant activity day leader, Hayley Horning and I am so happy I get to work with her she's so on the ball. Yesterday we made Hershey kiss cookies and Thank you Cards for Sister Barr for her Two year service working with these girls. They were all so sweet with there messages on their cards and made them so beautiful! They also had fun making and eating the cookies. Then we drove over together to "Surprise" Sister Barr and she loved it! Thanks girls for being so special!

I am GRATEFUL for Stake Conf., the Scriptures, and a Fun FHE!

Gratitude Journal Entry#54

Last night we had a fun FHE, we already had family home evening the night before at some friends house, However I felt very strongly like we needed just a little bit more. At Stake Conf. We had the Pres. from BYU Idaho come to speak to us on the family and what's important, he said that we should all Memorize the proclamation to the family, so we have been reading it for family home evening and then discussed it last Monday night. He also talked about how families usually sit in two categories...He drew four boxes on the dry erase board, then he said that families usually sit in either Low Love and High Standards or Low Standards and High love, He said we should be in the box that has High love and High Standards(Zion) and we need to work on this area, the fourth box you don't want to be at all it's "Babylon" Low standards and low love. So Sloane and I for family night we spotlighted everyone and everyone got a chance to say something nice about each person in our family and wrote them down on nice paper, then I told them to hang it in there room, I also said that we are all God's children and we are loved by our Heavenly Father very much and we too should love each other just as much. Sloane and I have also been working on being more positive in our home, we told the kids that for every negative they say to each other or just in general than they owe us five positive things to say right away on the spot, it has changed the love in our home and I am so grateful for it. We too are trying to be more positive towards our children when we speak to them and less teasing ect. There was also a speaker at stake conf. Sister Richeal and it was excellent, we like that family, good parents! She spoke on having more faith and reading your scriptures, that struck me, she said we need to be consistent, I have been wanting to be consistent however I haven't been, my excuse is that I want to retain what I read but have a hard time doing so, so it's not motivating to me. So I prayed about how I could retain what I read and the spirit told me that for each chapter that I read, write something down about that chapter that you learned or inspired you. So I have been doing that, and let me tell you I have been getting more out of the scriptures more than ever before! Something that struck both Sloane and I also was what she said about watching movies ect. She told about a story that when she was a young womens advistor and she wanted the girls to feel the spirit more in her class and she prayed about it and the spirit told her that she was doing good at being careful about what she watched for movies ect. however she could take it up a notch and so she did and at the end of the year ALL the girls wrote her a letter thanking her for the spirit that she felt in her class, so Sloane and I have decided to take it up a notch so that the spirit in our home could be even stronger.

I am GRATEFUL for great advise and listening to the spirit!

Gratitude Journal Entry # 53

Ok...So this year has been a crazy expensive year for us. So we decided to take Dave Ramseys advise and Sell Everything that we can and get out of Debt!! So we decided we don't need three cars, kind of silly really, so we put our Suburban up for sell on Craigs list on Wednesday night and Sloane was worried about the price thinking it would take him forever to sell it. Then not even an hour later he got a call and then an hour later after that the Suburban was SOLD!! Crazy but huge blessing and we got what we wanted out of it, then the same night we put my treadmill on craigslist and with in an hour after that it too was SOLD! WOW, we felt like the lord was truly blessing us. Now we want to sell the car and then by an inexpensive minivan so we will have a big van and a little van, why so many vans? Well, Sloane has to have a larger vehicle for hauling his boxes for deliveries at schools for work. By selling the car and the Suburban, we are paying off some debt. Dave Ramsey's advise is to put eveything that you don't need on craigslist and sell, sell, sell, sell so much that your kids think that they are the next thing to be put on craigslist (that won't happen I love them too much!:) Since we decided to do this I have noticed the hand of the lord helping us, I even have noticed that when I need something like diapers ect. they have been on great sells and groceries too, what a blessing when you are trying to do what is right!

I am GRATEFUL for a fun evening at the park!

Gratitude Journal Entry #52







It was windy but fun! We just loved getting out of the house. Yes, my husband Loves to dress like he's in Hawaii, but that's one of the many things I love about him.