Hello, Goodbye

Our ward probably thinks we are inactive.  We haven't been for about a month.  There was Thanksgiving, and then we were sick and then this last Sunday we went home to welcome home my nephew Elder Nathan Ross back from his mission to Germany/Switzerland and say goodbye to my Nephew Elder Hayden Manwaring going on his mission to Des Moines, Iowa.  We got to go through a session in the temple with Hayden and it was really neat (although it made me feel old!) to be there with a lot of the family.  Then on Sunday, we went to two Sacrament meetings, which my kids barely made it through.  It was fun to see Nate again and see how he's grown.  When he left, Owen was just a baby, so he came home to some changes.


Hayden will be a good missionary.  He left today.  Good luck and God Bless Elder! 

Nate and Hayden

Nate with his newest cousin, Miss Reagan.

Now we have two missionaries out.  This is my other nephew Elder Brad Kendall, serving in Uganda, Africa.  What good boys we have, adding to the missionary army.  Love all our missionaries.

P.S.  I totally stole these pics off your facebook page Shan.  Thanks!! 

Christmas Music

I have lots of pictures to post, but am too lazy to upload them, and I'm sick of looking at my Halloween post since it's December, so I am turning in a different direction this post.  I have been listening to Christmas music a lot lately and have decided there are some songs they need to stop playing.  Don't get me wrong, I LOOVE Christmas music.  Some are just horrible.  Here's the rundown in no particular order.

1.  Feliz Navidad.  Seriously?  Nothing against the song, it's just that it's played Every.  Five.  Minutes.  And with a song that only has like 20 words, that gets to be a bit much don'cha think?

2.  Christmas Shoes.  Okay, who wants to hear about  a little boy who's mom is dying and he's buying her some shoes?  That totally brings the Christmas spirit, right?  Also, does she really NEED the shoes?  She's dying, so I think not.  Why buy shoes she's going to wear for just that night?  For that matter, if she's really that sick, what kind of a dad would let his little boy go to the store, all by himself, in the snow and buy shoes for her when his mom is on her deathbed?  Awful song.  Very depressing.

3.  War Is Over/Happy Christmas by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  I think John Lennon was a GENIUS.  I mean, the guy was a Beatle.  I also think Yoko Ono's voice makes my ears bleed.  When she barks out "Let's hope it's a good one without any fear."  It makes my ears want to cry.  There is also the problem of the demonic children's choir at the end.  Kind of freaky.  I don't, however, have a problem with Sarah Mclachlan singing it.  It's a beautiful song.  Yoko Ono ruins it though.

4.  Feed the World by Band Aid.  I don't really have a reason for not liking this song, I just don't like it.    It seems a bit sanctimonious, these rich people singing "Tonight thank God it's them instead of you."  Though, the video is fun to watch because Bono has a suh-weet mullet and Boy George and George Micheal are just lookin' rad.  Ah, 1984.  The memories.

5.  Celebrate Me Home by Kenny Loggins.  Um... Just because the lyrics say Christmas one time, doesn't make it a Christmas song.

6.  My Favorite Things.  Again, why is this a Christmas song?  I like the song, just not for Christmas.

7.  Little St. Nick by the Beach Boys.  Sigh.  Though I do like the song when the Muppets sing it.  Animal screaming Run Run Reindeer is pretty funny.  Does that make me weird? 

8.  Hey Santa by Wendy and Carnie Wilson.  No words.  There are no words.

9.  Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime.  Okay, okay, we get it!  You're simply having a wonderful Christmastime!!!  (With your synthesizer).

10. Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bruce Springsteen.  "Hey!  I've got something to say!  Sanna Claus is commin totooownnnn!!!!!!!!  Woo!!!"  Too.   Much.   Yelling!!!!!

So, what's your vote, agree?   Disagree?  Do you have any you hate?  Let me know.

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween this year.  Liam got to have a little parade where they marched around and sang Halloween songs to the parents.  He was too cool to smile in any of the pictures.  I kept saying smile!!  But he would just get a smirk and look away.  Silly boy.   

 Then on Halloween, we went trick-or-treating.  Thank you to Cameron's mom for watching Reagan while we went.  We went to main street where they had a little trick-or-treating thing with the stores on main street.  Then we came home and went around our block.  As soon as we got finished, it started to rain and rain.  We got done just in time!!

Liam went as the grim reaper this year.

Erin decided on a pirate.

And Owen refused to put on his costume, so he went as himself.  (Sigh)  What did we expect though, really?  That's just Owen.  Silly guy.  Happy Halloween!!

Vernal

We took a trip to see the family in Vernal a couple of weeks ago.  My sister just moved there from Arizona, so it was really fun to get to see them along with all the other Vernal folks.    We got to just sit back and relax and visit and it was one of the most fun trips I've had out there.   I have the best family ever.  Thanks to my nieces and nephews for hanging out with my kids!!

Here's the kids hanging out in the hot tub with the cousins.

This is Uncle Clark...

...and cousin Preston.  Two of the kids' favorite people of all time.  The kids always are asking about Preston and what he's doing and if he is going to be at certain family activities.  Clark and Preston were so nice and took the kids "hunting" this time.  They drove around and looked at the deer and let the kids shoot the gun and even killed a pigeon (which is in my freezer as we type this.  Liam wanted to take it to show and tell at school).

Here are the deer they saw.

The boys waiting to hand their squash to Clark, Preston or Cameron for target practice.

Cameron even got in on the shooting action.

Hanging out with the mules.

Here's the poor dead bird.  Liam wanted me to take it's picture with the bullet casing and the blood.  He thought it was pretty cool.

So did Owen...obviously.

Thanks my family for being so wonderful!!  Love you all.

Pictures

I took the kids' pictures the other day.  I took their pics and my sister's kids' pictures at the same time.  We got some good ones. 

Liam's cheeks are red from running around with all the cousins.

Erin doesn't smile in posed pictures much, so I went with the 'natural' look.

After getting a bunch of this...

...and this...

We finally got a good one of Owen.  Phew!

Reagan didn't cooperate that day, but we did get some cute ones of her later.



Happy Halloween

We made a fun Halloween card.  Go here to see it and Happy Halloween!!

Multiple Personalities

This is a journal/ranting post, so if you need to skip it, skip it. 
Sometimes I feel like I have multiple personalities inside me fighting to get out.  Oh, I don't mean a real mental health MPD, but I guess you could say it's my natural man and my not so natural man duking it out.  I want so much to be a good mom, but I have this other person inside saying "It's so much easier just not to deal with it.  Just let them cry."  Or, on the other hand, "Just give in.  It's not worth the screaming fit that will follow if you stand your ground."  I want to be a good wife, but this other person says "It's not worth talking to him about it again.  Just be happy where you are."  I want to be a good Latter Day Saint, but the other person says "It's too hard to go and teach the 5-6 year olds when you already have four kids 6 and under at home!"  or "You're already trying as hard as you can, and are doing everything you can think of and nothing has happened.  What's the point?"  or "getting 4 kids ready by 9:00 in the morning gets way too crazy.  Maybe you should just stay home."  I want to have patience and not raise my voice and be happy and follow the prophet's council to be happy where you're at, but that other voice inside says "Everyone else has these wonderful things happening to them.  Why not you.  Maybe Heavenly Father just can't be bothered."  I want to be a good friend and have good friends, but the other person says "You moved away from your good friends and you're not going to meet anyone that will be the same in this ward/neighborhood"  or "One of your very best friends moved away.  I guess that means you're alone now."
I know this voice is wrong and I know what I'm supposed to do and why I'm supposed to do it.  I know the grass is always greener...I know all these things and I'll not stop trying and believing and all those things, but sometimes, don't you just want to give in to that other person and just rest?  No more fighting.  No more growing and stretching.  Just nothing.

More updates

 Lots of things have been happening here at our house in the last couple of months.  Erin turned 4 last month.  She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake cake and again awesome Julie came through with an amazing cake.  It was even strawberry flavored.  Yum!

Here's the cute cake.  Erin loved it!

Blowing out the candles.  I have one picture with Cameron covering Owen's mouth so he won't blow the candles out. 

We had a family reunion for the family on Cameron's Dad's side of the family.  We went up to the Valley, a place where Cameron and his family went every year and kind of grew up with.  The kids had a grand time.

They had a three legged race.  Owen and Erin partnered up...

...and Liam and his cousin Jaxon partnered up.  Liam and Jax did pretty well, actually.  They came in second.  Erin and Owen...not so much.

They had a sawdust pile that they put money into and the kids got to go crazy looking for money.

Of course, daddy had to be the horse and pull the kids around in the cart.

Here's Owen being Babe Ruth and calling his shot.

OH!!  Not quite.

With each of the kids, we have taken their picture at each of their month marks with a stuffed animal.  This is Reagan's one month shot with my pound puppy.

I tried to do a little photo shoot with Reagan.  Here's what happens when you have your two year old helping out.  

Just a couple of shots of Miss Reagan.

I will try and keep a little more up to date from now on.

Updates

So I suppose I should be better at this, but I have just now gotten the time to sit down, edit pictures, add them and write a bit.  For posterity's sake, I will tell Reagan's birth story, if you wish to skip, by all means...


I had had the flu for about three days and felt really yucky, so on Sunday, August 22 around 6:45 pm, I was going to lay down on our armchair that we have.  I started to lay down and my water broke.  With three of my four children, my water has broken.  With Owen, my water broke and the contractions started hard right then, so with Reagan, I was a little nervous, being as how we live about 20 minutes away from the hospital and I tend to go really fast.  We just barely made it with Owen.  We made it to the hospital and got all checked in and everything before I felt any of the contractions.  It was kind of nice.  It made it my best labor ever that way.  I am not the go natural kind of girl, so the anesthesiologist came and gave me the epidural.  This is when it became my yuckiest labor ever.  Because I had the flu, I was pretty dehydrated and having the epidural didn't help.  It dropped my blood pressure about 20 points (which is pretty low anyway) and I started feeling pretty floaty.  It got down into the 70/40 range.  The monitors were beeping all over the place.  I truly thought I was going to lose consciousness and die right there on the table.  I have never felt that way before and hope to never feel that way again.  I think I scared my nurse and she sat with me for a while.  Cameron said I was drained of all color and was just white.  I couldn't really lift my hands because it took too much effort.  The nurse finally went to get me some blood pressure boosting medicine and put it in my IV and it went up to about 80/50.  I started feeling better.  It took a while for me to get fully dilated, and then my doctor was at a family party, so he wanted to wait about an hour.  So, around 10:30 he showed up and got all set up.  One push and there was Miss Reagan. 

 I stayed in the hospital for a day and then came home.  The timing wasn't the best, because Liam started school the next day and I felt so sad I didn't get to see him off to 1st grade.  Cameron was a trooper and did a stellar job of taking kids places, keeping the house going, seeing to my needs and keeping it all together.  He got the flu the day I came home from the hospital and still kept going.  He's great!

Here's Liam on the first day of school.  He's loving first grade.  It took a while to get adjusted to going all day long, but he is doing well and really likes his teacher and his class. 
The first week we had Reagan home, I had a headache.  It was one of the worst headaches I have ever had.  It was positional, going away when I laid down, which tipped me off that it was a spinal headache caused by the epidural I had.  We ended up going to the ER to get a blood patch.  It helped a lot, but the headache lingered for about a month.  I am feeling much better now.  We have been weathering the flu and a nasty cold here at our house.  I think we are finally all over it. Cameron got the flu just after Reagan was born, then Erin got it, then Liam, then Owen.  Then we all started in on the cold.  On a side note, my cute neighbor came over to see the baby one day when we were outside playing.  Reagan was inside sleeping, so we went inside and, of course, she was screaming away.  I picked her up to love her and Erin pulls on my shirt saying "Mommy?"  then throws up.  Poor thing.  I lifted her over it, saying "hurry!  go to the toilet to throw up."  She took a few steps and threw up again, took a few steps and threw up AGAIN!!  My neighbor, bless her heart, took Reagan and I started carrying Erin to the bathroom when Owen comes racing into the kitchen, slips in the throw up and lands on his back, bonking his head on the floor and getting covered in vomit.  Hooray!!  What a fun day for us.  Tiffany, my neighbor, said "Have you ever seen Cheaper by the Dozen?"  We both laughed a little at that.  Thanks, Tiffany for coming down when Heavenly Father knew I would need some help. 
It's definitely been an adjustment, but we're getting through.  We'll make it.

Baby Reagan is born!

Cameron here, I'll keep it short and sweet to get the picture on and go to bed. Reagan Williamsen was born Sunday, August 22, 2010 at 10:51 pm. Weight 6 lbs, 13 oz. 19" long and (unlike the first 3) no squished nose. Here's a pic of her proud older brother Owen getting her to smile ever so slightly.

Overheard

Here's what I overheard the kids saying a couple of days ago.

Erin (holding a baby doll):  "Liam, did you want to play Star Wars vs. baby Jesus?"
Liam:  "Nah, baby Jesus would just win anyway."
Erin: "Here, hold baby Jesus while I go get the credit card."

What goes through their heads?

PS- Four more days until school starts and six more days until the baby!!  Eventful week next week...

Happy 50th!!

This is a lots of pictures post.  A couple of weekends ago my family got together to celebrate my Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary.  It was really neat to all get together.  We aren't all able to get together very often as you'll see from the size of the family below.  We were all there except my nephew who is serving a mission and then a week later my other nephew left to go on his mission too.  I expect it will be a while before we all get together again.  My sister Linda found a place with a fun cabin and it had canoeing and kayaking, a volleyball net, fire pit and places to play ball and just let the kids run around.  My other sister Maria was in charge of crafts and she did a great job with a guess who baby picture game, guessing the candy in the jar games, making magnets and whiteboard picture frames, a coloring contest for all different ages and other fun games.  My nephew made a video with pictures of all the brothers and sisters growing up and getting married and it turned out really nice too.  My sister-in-law had a great idea to have everyone sign a quilt block and she's going to sew them together to make a quilt.  It will be really cute.  I was in charge of pictures.  I got to take everyone's picture and it was really fun.  We had a lot of harsh shadows that day, but hopefully everyone likes theirs.

We begin with Mom and Dad, who started this whole thing...

Here are my siblings.  I am #7 of 8 children.

Here is the whole gang.  Sheesh it's hard to get everyone looking at the camera at once.  I wish I would have hidden my pregnant belly behind someone, but what can you do now?

Here are all the grandchildren.  Owen is really tall, don't ya think?

Here are the Grandsons.  Again, Owen, deliriously happy to be there.

And the granddaughters.  We are lacking in this department.  Go girls!!

My oldest brother with his family.  I wish Gio was kneeling up a little farther, but you can still see him.  Cute family.

Here's just the boys of the fam.

My oldest sister and her family, excluding Nathan, who is the one on a mission.

My next sister and her cute family.  They just moved and Brad, her son is the one who just left on his mission to Uganda, Africa.

Next comes my second oldest brother.  They live in far away California, so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like.

Then comes my next in line sista with her fun family. 

My sister just older than me...oh man, I do have a picture with that building cloned out Mur.

Here are some people you know.  My belly is hidden in this one.  Yahoo!

And my youngest brother and his wife. 

I must say my absolute favorite picture though is the next one that my Dad requested.

Aw!!!  Isn't it so cute! 

We had a good time.  I have more pics that I need to post of the kayaking and such, but I thought I'd get these previews up so people could see themselves.  Let me know guys!