The Magnificent Seven

The Cube is Conquered!!

2011-03-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

We got this cube for Christmas maybe four years ago or so, I can't quite remember. Mr. Incredible and his family still lived here and we all spent many hours trying to put it together. Mr. Incredible had so much fun with it that he even got his very own cube because he was so confident that he would be the one to solve it first. So, we kind of had this contest between our families to see who could do it first. It has been so long that I don't even remember what we decided the winner would get. I think maybe it was dinner at Ambrosia for the family that solved it. (Of course I can say that now that I know who won!) Mufasa and myself along with the rest of our family have spent many hours over the years trying to do it. Like all great toys it just keeps coming out of the closet over time. There are over 19,000 solutions and do you think we could find just one??? NO!!!!

After many years the time has come for the cube to be conquered. Guess who conquered the cube?????? Drumroll.............................................

Yes, none other than our own 11 year old Buzz!!!! Like Buzz always says, "To Infinity and Beyond!!"

So, Mr. Incredible. We will accept full payment in June. :)

Missionary Man

2011-03-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, it has been forever since I have updated my blog. But at long last, here is an update on how our missionary is doing. Well, needless to say he is not that fond of the MTC. He hates the food, is struggling with the language, and doesn't like being in one place all the time. But, we have seen progress through the weeks (he has been there in Provo for six weeks now) and he is starting to feel better about things. He is doing better with the language but of course it will be awhile before he has a better grasp on it but at least he is making progress. His companions (he had two) left this week for Brazil and he said that he filed some online visa paperwork about a week in a half after they did so he is hoping that his visa comes through soon. As soon as his visa is processed he will be shipped off to Brazil. Here are some pictures that he sent home last week.

Our Beautiful Daughter

2010-12-01T09:31:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago I took Anastasia out for her senior pictures. We had a great time, just the two of us and the camera. We took the computer with us as well so we could upload after each shoot and decide if we liked them or not. The weather was not real cooperative as it was a little darker than I wanted it to be and it started raining at the end. You can see some of the rain on a couple of them. The rain didn't spoil our party, we had fun. I still can't believe that I have an 18 year old daughter. What a beautiful person she is, inside and out!

Black Saturday!

2010-12-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

Yep, it was that time again. Each year my mom, sister and I go shopping on black Friday. Hollee had to work Friday so they came over from Redmond on Saturday and off we went. Nikki had to work so she couldn't join us, next year though. Hollee's baby Dulcie joined us for the day, she was a great little shopper! We started our shopping experience with lunch to fuel us up for the big afternoon. After that we were off. We shopped all afternoon and just had a fun time. The highlight of our shopping is the caramel apple that we always get and share. I am already looking forward to next year.

Christmas Fun!

2010-12-01T08:49:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, we took Buzz and Mulan to the Festival of Trees. It's a fundraiser and companies decorate Christmas trees and then they auction them off with big trips and other fun things. We didn't go to the auction part we just went to look at all the big trees and admire the creative genius that goes with them. We were once again amazed and the kids really enjoyed looking at all the trees. We took a break and decided to let the kids decorate their own mini-tree and what a fun time we had. Mufasa and I did one as well and we donated ours to a local nursing home. It was a great way to kick off the holiday season!

Stefanie Daley's Hindorf

2010-10-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a video that I put together of Stef's bars at gym. Her coaches are in contact with a college so hopefully something will come of it. The Hindorff move (the one on the top bar) is an extremely difficult move. According to Stefanie's coaches there are not many girls in the country that can do this move. Yes.....she is amazing.........

Good-Bye Jeep

2010-06-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

Well the Jeep that Santa brought Anastasia for Christmas about ten years ago had to go. It has been sitting in the garden for over a year now and it was time to send it to Jeep heaven, aka the recycle center. Anastasia was our neighborhood taxi for many kids and if her brother's were nice to her she might even let them drive it every now and again. The things she could do with her own wheels were endless. The trunk was her main storage and she would carry everything from dolls to rocks in it. She even transported things like snakes and frogs for her brothers. Her friend Alexis had a red jeep and for awhile they forgot how to walk anywhere. If she couldn't take her jeep, she didn't want to go. Why ride two wheels when you can have four, that was her motto for an entire summer. She put countless miles on the jeep and eventually her knees were up to her chest when she would sit in it. When Mulan and Buzz came along we replaced the batteries, wheels and a few other parts to keep it working. They too enjoyed the jeep but all too soon their knees were up to their chests when they would sit in it as well. It was a tired Jeep and no longer in working order. It was time to say Good-Bye.
Buzz and Mulan took the lead in dismantling the Jeep. Mufasa was the overseer on the project providing support and instructions for them. Buzz is very good with a screwdriver and had the most interest as he stayed with the project until almost the end. Mulan was interested at first, but then her soccer ball and squirt gun were calling her. In the end it went the way of all projects. Dad was left to finish and clean up.

Anastasia the Princess

2010-04-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

Prom was this last Saturday and I have to say that Anastasia had to be the most beautiful girl there. I saw some of the kids around town and there are sure a lot of ugly dresses out there. She picked out the kind of dress she wanted and then her dates mother was kind enough to make it for her. She is such a beautiful girl inside and out and I love her so much. I am proud of the young woman she is becoming.

Mufasa did a little shortening of the dress, he's such a great dad!

Sahalie Falls

2010-04-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Reena, Ryan and I headed to Redmond to see my parents. They have been working on their house over there for the last five months. They purchased a foreclosed house and they gutted it and started over. New carpet, cabinets, countertops, molding, and paint. My dad did a ton of work on the place and we wanted to see the finished product. Their place looks great and unfortunately I forgot my camera. My parents have spent countless hours over there and it is worth it.
On our way we stopped at Sahalie Falls, a great half-way spot to stop when Ryan is feeling carsick. We had Gracie with us too and I think she appreciated the stop as well as she also gets carsick. I took these pictures with my cell phone so that's why they are not all that great. Reena and Ryan could have stayed there all day. We walked to the top of the falls and looked all around. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the relaxing beautiful environment. What a great day!

Ryan has been doing a ton of growing!!

Oh, how I will miss him!

2010-03-11T13:16:00.001-08:00

Lightning McQueen will soon be leaving us as he starts to spread his wings and learns to fly. He has been accepted at BYU Idaho and will begin in mid April. Emi-K, if you think it's hard letting her to kindergarten, wait until you send her off to college! I thought it might be easier since he is number two, but it's not.

I have soooo many thoughts running through my mind.

Did I teach him everything he needs to know?
Will he remember to pray and have faith when the world seems to be crashing in around him? Does he know that Heavenly Father loves him and will look out for him if he will trust him?
Did I teach him enough about integrity and honesty?
Will he be respectful of the girls he dates?
Will he make good choices at school and in his life?
Will he continue to make music a big part of his life?

Will he be a responsible citizen?
Will he slow his driving down? I think he's learning this one.
Will he remember to remove his clothes from the dryer? Sometimes.
Will he keep his room tidy? Probably not!
Will he still make runs to McDonalds or Taco Bell at 1am? Yep!
Many, many more questions that go through my mind............

Of course, I hope that we have taught him most of these things. The reality of it is that while he thinks he might know these things, he will have to learn some of them for himself when he is on his own. He will need to rely on his knowledge and faith to help guide him.

Is he ready?? Yes, he is definately ready!!
Will he make mistakes??? Of course, we all do! But like me, he will hopefully learn and grow from them.

Things I will miss most about Lightning:

Hearing his music on a regular basis. I love his violin and will miss hearing it late at night even though I sometimes complain. I will miss his piano playing and hearing him sing and play the guitar. He is gifted and I hope he continues to develop his abilities.

Having him around all the time. When he got laid-off from Monaco, it took him a very long time to land a job and I have gotten used to him always being here. I will really miss his presence.

His presence at dinner. Our dinner table is getting smaller and I'm not convinced I like it.

His willingness to be helpful. He has shown a lot of growth and maturity in the last year and is usually very willing to help me out when I need it.

Hearing Lightning and Anastasia talking late into the night.

Watching him play with Mulan and Buzz.

Watching him play with Parker and Gracie.

The ability to give him a hug when he needs it.

Seeing his smiling face everyday as I have for over the last 19 years.

Things I will not miss about Lightning:

The smell of food cooking after midnight. Popcorn is the worst!

The sound of the video game rumble after midnight.

Toothpaste in the bathroom sink. Yuk!

Hearing him coming home from three miles away because his car is decked out with massive speakers.

I am very proud of the choices that he has made in his life and I know that he will be just fine while he is away. I am happy that he can go to college and learn some new things. But, oh how I will miss him!!!!!!

Better Late than Never!!

2010-02-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving came and went. We had yummy Whiskey Beans along with the rest of the fixin's! In attendance were all five of our kids, my parents and Ariel, my sister Hollee, her husband Chris and Kylie. My Sister Nikki and her fiancee Arne. I'm not sure what happened to Buzz in this picture. Good food and good company, it was great!!

Christmas Fun

This next group of pictures shows a few of the things that we did for fun over the Christmas Holiday. We had our annual Christmas cookie decorating contest, judged by no other than my mom. She does not watch us decorate our cookies so that she can be an impartial judge. The grand prize winner this year was Ariel!!

Of course the kids all think that opening presents is the best! Silly kids, don't they know it's better to give than to receive? Christmas dinner was another yummy event with those Whiskey Beans making another appearance! We had Marty's parents, Samantha, our five kids, my parents and Ariel. It was a fun day!

January brings with it three birthdays in our family. Wall-E turned 21. He was at school so we did call him and wish him a happy birthday! Mufasa also had a birthday as well as Buzz who turned 10! Buzz started wearing contacts in January and loves them! Mulan has been wearing them since last summer. We have said goodbye to glasses!!!

Hospitals are no fun!!

2009-11-16T19:02:00.001-08:00

At the end of October Buzz got appendicitis. After three straight days of visiting the doctor (and a trip to the imaging center for an ultrasound in which they couldn't see the appendix) they finally sent him to the hospital so that a surgeon could look at him. His pain was not in the lower right quadrant of his abdomen where the appendix is located. He was hurting just below and a little to the left of his belly button. The surgeon came in and felt his tummy and told us that she could feel a big huge air bubble in there, but that she didn't think it was appendicitis. She said that kids can be weird with appendicitis so she still wanted to get a CT just to rule it out. After she left, I looked at Mufasa and said, how much is this air bubble going to cost us???? We were all thinking it wasn't appendicitis because that's what they kept telling us. After the CT, the nurse came in and told us that is definately was appendicitis and that they were warming up the operating room. In about 30 minutes, they were ready for him. They let Mufasa and I accompany him to the OR waiting and sit with him until they were ready for him. We took a couple pictures with Mufasa's phone of him waiting for surgery. He was not a happy camper. After surgery, the surgeon said that he was lucky because it had not yet ruptured, but that it was close. He came home from the hospital two days before Halloween. The worst part of the entire ordeal was trick-or-treating. He tried to go and only made it to two houses before he was hurting too bad. He was pretty bummed, but Mulan was nice and shared her take of the candy. I am happy to report that after missing two full weeks of school, and losing five pounds he is finally back to his old self. He is making up for all of the lost meals, eating like a horse!!! We are glad he is back!!

Sisters!!!

2009-11-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

One day not too long ago before church, Anastasia got the idea to do Mulan's hair. Now if you know anything about Mulan, she is no girly girl! She would much rather be in control of a soccer ball or basketball than a curling iron. Anastasia is such a great big sister that she convinced Mulan that it would be a great idea to curl her hair because then they could be twins. Mulan loves her older sister and will do almost anything for her. She has even let Anastasia paint her fingernails, now that's love! I had no idea that Mulan's hair could curl like it did. It was so cute and it just made her look so much older. Mulan is so lucky to have such a great big sister!!!

Homecoming 2009

2009-10-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Anastasia went to homecoming this past Saturday night. Her dress was made by her dates mother. It turned out really cute and she was very happy with it. They had a good time.

Very Cute Hair!!

Mufasa helping out!

Pretty nails and corsage

Anastasia is 17!!

2009-10-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

October is here and my baby girl is 17! Anastasia shares her birthday with her great grandpa on my mom's side and also with my sister, Jaimee. My sister, Hollee had some great thoughts on Stefanie's birthday. She said that our grandpa would have been 100! He passed away about 8 years ago if I remember right. That got me thinking about all of the wonderful memories I have of him. I remember being a kid and having him be funny and take his teeth out for me. My older kids remember that about him as well. I guess when you can take your teeth out, you will be remembered!! He was a great man, obstinate but nonetheless very caring. He had a great sense of humor and would often say, "Damn it to Hell Anyway!" He liked to play the organ and I remember listening to him sitting in their home that was next to my parents house. He and my grandma were snowbirds, and would stay the summers in Bend, and the winters in Yuma, Arizona. I remember how worried I was about them when he was 92 years old and driving a motorhome towing a car from Bend to Yuma. He was stubborn and was not about to let anyone do it for him! I miss him alot but I also know that because of him I'm determined to live my life out at least as long as him and I'll probably be just as stubborn!! When Marty and I are 92, we'll be flitting around the country visiting all of our familiy!!!
Hollee also said that she was 17, when Anastasia was born. Now Hollee is blessed to be having another baby girl and Anastasia will be 17 when she is born. She remembers my mom calling her at school to tell her that Anastasia had been born. Hollee and her friend then went shopping for pink things!! Time just seems to go by so fast. How can Anastasia be 17 and I not feel any older than about 25??? It's an amazing world that we live in!!
We had a surprise birthday party for Anastasia at the Hong Kong Restaurant. This restaurant is owned by the parents of one of her friends from gym. She had about seven of her gym friends at the restauarant when we got there and boy did she jump when they all popped out!! My parents joined us as well as two friends from school so we had a great time. We ate chinese food, had a wonderful cake and had a good time. Anastasia has been pretty sick since last Friday so she made it through the party pale and all. Of course, I forgot my camera so when we got home I took a few pictures of her.

Family Pictures!!

2009-09-10T20:43:00.001-07:00

No easy task! I scheduled it a month before and told everyone to clear their schedules for that evening. I explained that it was expected that all seven of us would be present at the family picture. It is not a request, it is a requirement is what I told one of the kids. Sometimes I dread family pictures because there's always the, "What am I supposed to wear?" conversation. "Do I have to wear that?" I think the biggest problem with the what to wear issue is me for several reasons. First, I don't exactly have a huge wardrobe. Second, I love t-shirts and could live in them. Third, I hate to shop for clothes therefore I only buy things when Mufasa is with me. Needless to say, I have not been shopping in a while. So one night while picking up soccer shoes for Mulan at Fred Meyer, I quickly browsed through the clearance rack (I love great deals, just hate looking for them) and picked out two shirts that I thought might be appropriate picture shirts and bought them. What the heck, 50% percent off the lowest price, they came to about seven bucks each. Didn't try them on, just pluck and go and hope it fits! Hmmm.. I wonder what Mufasa will wear because if he wears his black shirt, than this black one probably won't work. Oh well, that's why I got two. The next day, picture day, I was still worried about my wardrobe so Wall-E and I went to Macys real quick to see if they might have anything. After five minutes in the store I had several items and of course I was forced to try them on, which I despise. I picked out two, which happened to be on the clearance racks and paid for them. I was somewhat relieved knowing that at least I might have something to wear (upon Mufasa's approval). As the evening approached we all piled into the burb and off to Hendricks Park. Every day that week had been sunny and beautiful but of course this day was cloudy and dreary. Normally good for pictures but in the evening the darkness came fast. Brenley took our pictures and they are good. I miss Emily's pictures!! I guess the end of the journal entry could go something like this......"Mission accomplished!"

Mulan's 11th Birthday!!

2009-08-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

Mulan celebrated her 11th birthday on Friday. Here are some of her favorite things. She is still an avid reader and spends at least an hour or two each day reading whatever she can get her hands on. We frequent the library quite often in the summer. She loves basketball and has gone to a couple of basketball day camps this summer. She also likes soccer and is going to a soccer camp this week. She recently got contacts, we thought that would be better than glasses in the rain during soccer! She gave a talk in primary on Sunday and she wrote the talk herself. She even took the time to memorize the scripture of the month for primary and most of her talk was memorized. She was pretty proud of herself for writing her own talk. Needless to say, we were very impressed and it was a great talk! She is such a great girl and we just love her so much. People often tell us how lucky Mulan and Buzz are to have us, but what they don't realize is that WE are the lucky ones. She is truly and incredible girl and a wonderful person!

Once again, Anastasia made the cute cake!!

Mulan, Anastasia and Gracie

Wall-E

Get them all!!!

Four cute kids! Lightning McQueen was in California.

Lightning McQueen's 19th Happy Birthday

2009-08-04T14:31:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Lightning McQueen's 19th birthday on Sunday! Gone are the days when he would get so mad that he would kick holes in the walls. Needless to say, his dad taught him how to patch up those holes. That wall-patching skill will probably come in handy some day when he has kids of his own. Gone are the days when he would tell us that the minute he turns 18, he was moving out! (What happened to that?) . I am happy that he has decided to stick near the home front for now anyway. I would really miss him if he were to leave now. One of my favorite things that I love about Lightning is that while he can seem rough and tough on the outside, deep down he has a very soft heart. He has just turned into a wonderful young man and I love him!!

Love these kids!!

Buzz, Anastasia, and Mulan
Anastasia and Wall-E

Anastasia made the cake, Lightning loved it!!

Lookin' cool in his new shades

Lightning, Anastasia, and Wall-E

Wall-E giving Lightning a little help with the candles

Handsome Mufasa manning the video equipment

Guatemala

2009-07-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Anastasia and I went to Guatemala for a gymnastics meet at the end of May. We traveled with four other gymnasts and their families. It was her first international competition and she placed fourth. There were six other countries there and the competition was all run in Spanish so it was definitely a new experience. Anastasia has studied Spanish the last two years in high school so it was fun to see her put her new language to the test. Her confidence grew as the week went on. By the end of the week Anastasia was very comfortable speaking in Spanish. I was even picking up quite a bit by the end of the week. I came home with a new goal of learning Spanish! I think the highlight of our trip was going to the Mayan ruins in Tikal. The ruins are in the middle of the rain forest and they are so amazing. We saw spider monkeys, howler monkeys, toucans, lots of other kinds of birds, ants, lots of insects and I even held a tarantula that someone found. It was hot!!!! Over 100 degrees and the humidity was probably at least 90%. I don't think that I have ever been so hot in my life. We walked about five or so miles that day (about 5-6 hours) and by the end of the day there were not too many clothes on anymore. We stayed the night in a beautiful hut with palm fronds for a roof in the rain forest. There was a pool so the girls all enjoyed that. No air conditioning and at 10:00pm the electricity goes off so there is not even the luxury of a fan. It was dark, darker than we have ever seen before. We were laying in bed with our eyes open, talking about how we couldn't tell if our eyes were open or not, it was that dark! The rain forest was truly an amazing experience!

We learned just how poor Guatemala is. All of the outlying areas have no running water, just water barrels out front and the agua truck comes around and fills them. They use that water for all of their needs. They live in huts with dirt floors. Most of the people have never seen a dentist so they have missing and/or black teeth. Even the kids' teeth are bad. Dogs run all over in Guatemala. They dig through anything they can find to search for food. They are skinny and none of them are fixed so they are all over. Even in the bigger cities we saw dogs roaming around. The cows and horses are also really thin. The people of Guatemala work hard for everything that they have. The Mayan women and children walk around the streets trying to sell handmade wares. Only the fortunate kids get to go to school, the rest have to work and try and make some money so that they can buy food. They may not have much, but they are happy. They are always smiling and just seemed content with what they have. Anastasia even noticed how happy they were with next to nothing.

Other things we did while we were there. We stayed in the city of Antigua which is surrounded by three volcanoes. We hiked up one of the volcanoes, actually Anastasia hiked, I took a taxi (horse). It was fun. Anastasia and her friend roasted marshmallows over the lava, it was hot! It was pretty cool to see real lava coming out of the earth. We took a walking tour of Antigua and learned about some of the history there. We ate lots of mashed up black beans and corn tortillas. It was an incredible week.

Anastasia and I came home with a new appreciation for our country. We are thankful for the fortunate circumstances that we find ourselves in. Adequate medical and dental care is a true blessing. Running water will no longer be taken for granted. We are truly blessed to live in our little part of the world and now we must do our part and make it better for others.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

2009-07-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

Yes, we did have a celebration! In attendance were: Buzz, Mulan, Lightening McQueen, Anastasia, and of course no party would be compelte without Mufasa! Because Mufasa was leaving for Chicago today (my birthday) we celebrated yesterday. Wall-E is still away at college and we are looking forward to him being home in a few weeks.

Today is......

2009-07-13T11:38:00.000-07:00

My Birthday!!

I love my birthday because it's all about me........kinda. If that includes laundry and going to the grocery store. I don't think it does, but it still has to be done.

EmiK, game on! This is my third and last post. I don't want to bore you.

More Time.......

2009-07-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

I was going to put a picture on my blog but discovered most of my pictures are on my other computer which means that I need to turn on that computer, find the picture I want, put it on a flash drive, plug it into this computer and then upload it onto the blog site. Whew....I guess I could just log onto the other computer and do it from that computer. That would make more sense wouldn't it! The other computer does not have current anti-virus software so I don't think I want to do that. Long story short, the pictures will have to wait.

New to Blogging

2009-07-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

Ok, here it is. The first official post of my blog. This was actually a challenge from my sister-in-law, EmiK. So here it is EmiK, now it's your turn to do your own blog. I think it will take me awhile to figure out how this all works so patience is the word. We did have a great visit with Mr. Incredible and EmiK and miss them already!