Poor little guy

Madden has been cranky and running a low grade fever since Sunday. I attributed it to his bulging gums. Well, today he woke up covered in what looked like chickne pox! I paniced...I'm hosting Thanksgiving for 24 people some of which were coming in a matter or 3 hrs. I ran him into the dr...much to my relief it's not chicken pox (all though the nurse thought it was too). He does have strep throat (which caused the rash), an ear infection and his truly bulging gums. No wonder he's miserable. Let's hope the meds kick in and he's happy for cooking day tomorrow.

Family pics before church

We took some QUICK pics before church on Sunday. Not bad for an impromptu photo session with an ansy 1 yr old. Hopefully with some more editing we can use one...

I love....

The other night I was cuddling with my cute Coleman. I pulled him in for a big hug and said, "I love you Coleman." He gave me a quick kiss and said " I love...TRUCKS!"

Pumpkin patch and corn maze

We go to Ashely's Pumpkin Farm every year. We have so much fun there. The kids love the corn maze and petting zoo...except for Makayla who is jumping away from the goat in the pic below. We all love picking our carving pumpkins out of the field. It wouldn't be fall without our trip to Ashley's.

Halloween 2011

I can't believe another Halloween has come and gone. It went by so fast. We had a great time. Unfortunately, we're still eating our way thru an obscene amount of candy.

A fall hike

Here's some pics from a hike we went on last month. It was such a beautiful evening we decided to throw dinner (chicken tacos) in some tupperware, grab some grapes and water bottles and head to the park. What a great fall night.

Not quite right

The other day (okay week) we were practicing trick or treating with Coleman. We kept going over it, "hold out your bag and say Trick or Treat". We thought he had it until we asked,"Ok you're holding out your bag, what do you say?" He didn't miss a beat saying, "HO, HO, HO."

Butterflies and a prayer

We just had the local news out to our house to do an interview for the new "I am Mormon" campaign. I am so nervous to see the segment on the news this evening. I love this Gospel so much and I just pray they put the church in a positive light. I hope they understood a little more about the church. We just broadcasted to the entire community that we are LDS, in one small interview. Wow. I hope this brings positive experiences for missionary work. Sorry this is a rambling post, just so many thoughts going thru my head right now.

Wyatt's birthday party

We had Wyatt's birthday party Friday night. He had 5 friends over for a Halloween themed evening. It was a lot of fun. I didn't get a lot of pics because we were too busy playing. I did get pics of the doughnut eating game. It was hysterical watching them...

It was freezing out (46 ) and very windy but the kids were great sports. We roasted hot dogs over the fire pit and then did the doughnut game. We divided into teams to find all the bones of a skeleton and the first team to find all of their bones and assemble it won. They had a lot of fun running around with flashlights looking for bones. Then we gathered around the fire to handle the remains of poor Mr Smith. It was gross and so much fun. We had oatmeal for brains, a whole peeled tomato for the heart, cooked lasagna noodles in oil for skin, baby whole pickles for fingers, a laytex glove filled with flour for a hand, pearl onions for eyes, dried apples for ears, dried mango slice for a tongue, and candy corn for teeth. After the game we decided to have a scary story. Looking back, I may have overdone the story...but it sure got a great reaction when Tyson revved up that chain saw from the woods behind us. I have never seen a group of children take off in a dead run so quickly. Chairs were thrown, McCoy was trampled, and the screams were deafning. Those little stinkers got to the house before me ( I stopped to pick up my truely traumatized McCoy) and they locked me out! They really believed there was the ghost of a murder in our back yard and they left McCoy and I out there to face certain death. It was hysterical. Once they let me back in and after Tyson came screaming to the back door, we calmed them all down and convinced them it was all a joke. The story was completely made up. They were sure wound up at that point and refused to ever go into our back yard again. Luckily it was almost time for the parents to get there, so we opened presents and had monster cupcakes and caramel apples to end the night. It really was a lot of fun, even if my 5 year old refused to go to sleep that night :)

Pics of the boy's birthdays

This was the only pic we could get with Madden smiling. He had the stomach flu and was miserable. He was in bed 15 mins after this was taken...the poor little guy. My sweet 9 year old. How can you not love that face?

First day of school

Four of my kids went to school this fall. I can't believe it. Mariah is in 5th grade, Wyatt's in 3rd, Makayla is is 2nd, and McCoy is in kindergarden. The first day was hard for me. Yes, I walked away from the bus crying. Here's my beautiful kiddos as they start another school year. I love the one of them getting on the bus, Wyatt is holding McCoy's hand.

Indiana Lakes

One of the things we loved to do this summer was explore these beautiful Indiana lakes. There's nothing like packing a cooler and heading out after work on a Friday evening. We'd arrive around 6 and stay until dark. We had a great time, every time. Here's some of our favorite pics to remember...

VOMIT

Vomit, oh how I hate thee. I hate that you've taken over my family and run my life this week. I hate how my loved ones helplessly succombed to you...Coleman the first night, McCoy and Madden the second night, and Tyson, Mariah, Wyatt and Makayla the third night. I am sick of waking to the sound of you. I am sick of cleaning up your mess. I am sick of all the loads of dirty laundry you have created. I am sick of you making my little ones cry. You stole my baby's first birthday. How dare you. Please go away and never, ever return.

Happy Birthday Madden!

I absolutely cannot believe my sweet little baby is 1 today. This first year FLEW by. It really seems as though he should still be cuddling up on my chest for naps, not climbing the stairs to destroy his siblings' bedrooms.

Madden, we are totally in love with you. You are such a fun baby. You have such a sunny disposition and the CUTEST smile. Your little curls on the back of your head are so adorable. You melt my heart a dozen times a day. Since you are probably our last baby, I love every moment I get with you.

Right now you love to play with cars and trucks. You even make the sounds as you push them across the floor. You love to empty the dishwasher and kitchen cupboards. You love going up and down the stairs. You get so excited when Daddy gets home and you love to hear yourself "talk". Happy Birthday Mads! We love you!

Birthday highlights: stomach flu. You and McCoy spent the night throwing up and are slow going today. We're hoping you may try your cake tonight.

Birthday dinner: Ham and beans, cornbread, chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream.

Happy Birthday Wyatt!

It's hard to believe my little boy is 9 today. I know I keep saying this, but where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday he was scooting on his bum across my living room floor. Now he's a tall young man with freckles and beautiful copper colored hair.

Wyatt, I love you so much. You are an amazing boy. You have an unshakeable faith in the Gospel. I am always amazed at how sensitive you are to the Spirit. You are always true to who you are. You are a deep thinker and need to understand everything around you. You are a loyal friend and brohter. You're little brothers look up to you so much. I know Heavenly Father has great things in store for you.

Thank you Wyatt for joining our family. You are truley loved by the 7 of us. I hope all of your birthday wishes come true.

Birthday dinner: maple glazed ham, homemade bread, freezer corn and jello. For desseret: pumpkin passion and Moose Tracks ice cream

Birthday highlights: lunch with Dad, doughnuts for an afterschool treat ( I never give them doughnuts), watching Rio, birthday pancakes for breakfast

Not our best Sacrament meeting

Every Sunday is a gamble..how long will it take before Madden takes off under the pews, will the kids be quiet enough for me to hear at least part of a talk, will anything be thrown into our neighboring pews, you get the idea. Well today's action wasn't even on my radar.

My friend had asked if his children could sit with us because he had to speak and his wife was out of town. So against by better judgement, we sat in a middle pew (we always sit in a side pew so I can contain them better and we're in Tyson's line of view).

I was sitting at one end of the pew and the nine kids (my 6 plus the Hurst boys) were lined up all the way down to the other end. About 30 minutes into the meeting I was congratulating myself on how well we were doing when I heard a noise that caused me to look down to the other end. OH. MY. HECK. Coleman was on top of McCoy wrestling him! Seriously. McCoy was laying down with his legs hanging into the aisle and Coleman was laying on him squeezing his head. I "jumped" up but not before they rolled off the pew and hit the floor, all the while never letting go of eachother. At that point everyone noticed them and Wyatt pulled Coleman off. Needless to say the Spirit I was feeling was replaced by the spirit of "I'm going to kill these two."

I could have sworn our stake president said we would be blessed with the Spirit while Tyson served as Bishop. Really? Really?

What in the world?!

McCoy made up a song he loves to sing and dance to. He does it all the time. It begins with, "the size of your armpits are so annoying." Crazy, huh? Well, last night he came down from his shower and tells me he has a new song. He then proceeds to sing me a song that begins with," shaving your armpits is so much fu-un." What? Apparently while showering in my bathroom he decided it would be fun to use my razor and shave his armpits, arms and cheeks. He though he was pretty cool. Obviously he's not quite ready to shower by himself :)

Any minute now...

Just waiting for the police to show up and ticket us for violating the noise ordinance. OH. MY. HECK. My children have turned into raving lunatics.

A day at the park

It has been soooo beautiful over the last 2 weeks. We've loved being outside. The other day the kids and I decided to go for a hike and picnic at the park. We loaded up and headed out to enjoy the day. It really was a gorgeous day. McCoy took this pic. Pretty good.

Be nice about this pic. I didn't do my hair and have no make-up on.

Here's all the kiddos in the slide. They loved doing pile-ups. Of course, Madden was just added for the pic :)

Day at the zoo

We went to the Potawotami Zoo for McCoy's birthday. We had a lot of fun. Coleman especially loved roaring at the lions, that is until they roared back. At that point he was clinging to the back of my legs :) We all liked the new otter exhibit and the train ride. It was a fun morning.

Madden's first haircut

My sweet Madden finally had his first haircut :( I was not looking forward to this. I think my babies always look so much older once their hair is cut. I finally agreed that he really needed a cut.

Here he is before...

and here he is after...

Still totally adorable. Why was I so worried :)

Makayla and McCoy's birthday party

We've never done birthday parites before this year. We finally caved and let each of our kids have a party this year :) It'll quite possibly be their last :) We decided to combine Kayla and Coy's parties since their birthdays are only a week apart. They had so much fun. They each had 5 friends come. Our big hit was "Chris McTwist". He's a dear friend of our's who just started his own balloon twisting company. He graciously offered to come do balloon animals for the kids so he could practice. The kids loved it!

After the balloon animals we did a pinata. Lots of fun. Then we did water relays, a water balloon toss and a massive (250 balloon) water fight. So much fun. We finished with some games, a rice kirspy cake and ice cream sandwhiches. It was a great afternoon.

We love swimming!

Here's some pics I love. Enjoying another beautiful day in the pool. Love these cuties!

Another tooth down.

Makayla has a serious fear of getting her teeth pulled. She will wait for that tooth to fall out for as long as it takes, even if it's barely hanging on. She's had a super loose top right tooth. No matter how much we tried to convince her, she refused to let Tyson pull it. Well, she was in the pool the other day and had the breathing scuba tube in her mouth. Our neighbor girl decided she wanted it and yanked it right out of her mouth, along with her tooth. She was bleeding but incredibly happby. They spent the next 20 mins trying to find that little tooth in the pool :) We finally convinced them that we could write a note to the tooth fairy and it would be fine. So cute!

Way to go Tyson!

I just had to say Congratulations to my sweetie. He was recently promoted to General Manager of System 1. Way to go T! We are so proud of you and love you more than you'll ever know.

"Drive in movie"... Lee style

A couple of weeks ago we did our version of a drive in movie. It was sooo much fun. We hung a sheet from the swing portion of the playset and used Tyson's projector and a laptop to get the movie showing on it. We brought out lots of snacks, popcorn and rootbeer floats, blankets and pillows and enjoyed the show. We watched "Rango".

The older kids started passing out around 11:00.

However when the movie ended about 11:45, this was Coleman...

still running around stealing the kids treats as they drifted off.

It was a great night!!

Happy Birthday McCoy!

Yesterday my little boy turned 5. WOW! It's so unbelievable to me that he's going to be starting school in 3 weeks. I'm going to miss him durring the day, a tad bit jealous that some teacher is going to get so much time with him durring the day.

Coy, I just want you to know how blessed I feel to be your mom. You are such a fun boy. You are so imaginitive and energetic. I so love your smile. You light up a room when you flash that grin. I love how much you love people. You already have such a "spirit" about you that people are drawn to you, young and old alike. You are such a sweetie.

Happy 5th birthday Coy Coy. I love you lots!!!

birthday highlights: zoo, lunch with Dad, swimming, homemade ice cream, watching a late movie.

Happy Birthday Midge!

Today my sweet little girl turns 7. How is that possible? Has it really been 7 years since that fiery little red head joined our family? I am so grateful for that day when I first held her in my arms. I fell in love with that little face and today that love has only mulitplied.

Kayla girl, thank you for joining our family. You've brought such a spunk to our family. I love your strong will, your stubborness when you "know" your right, you're unshakeable determination, and your giggle that is so contagious.

I love all the cards and pictures you constantly make that tell me you love me. I love that you still love to play with your dolls and yet squeal when you watch "Never Say Never" with your sister. I love when you help me bake our treats.

You are such a sweet girl Midge and I'm so grateful you are our's. I love you so much !! Happy Birthday!!

Today's highlights: Lunch date with Dad, mom and all 6 of you went to see "Judy Moody and the not bummer summer", and swimming.

Birthday Dinner: spaghetti, watermelon, brocolli, angel food cake with berries and Moose Tracks ice cream

Is it September yet?

I normally love summer. I really do, but this heat wave is unrelentless. We hit 101 degrees yesterday with 92 % humidity. OH. MY. HECK. I don't even want to breathe when it's that hot. Please summer, bring back the oh so comfortable 80's with a soft breeze. I would love you again.

All wiped out

We were so exhausted when we finally made it home. Two weeks of going nonstop where's a body out. My Coleman is an early riser and goes nonstop everday. Well the day after we got back he didn't wake up. We tried waking him about 10:00 but he just came and went to sleep at the table. We moved him to the couch and he slept until 1:30. He woke up and ate and played for a couple of hours and was back to sleep at 4:50, standing by the couch. He slept until 8:45 pm, woke up and ate dinner and went back to sleep until 8:30 the next morning. Poor little thing was wiped out.

Are you serious?

We pulled into our driveway around 12:30 am after being gone for 2 weeks. As we opened the garage door, my family started gagging. I couldn't smell anything still (hadn't since we left Indiana) and they were swearing something had to be dead in there. Much to our horror we discovered our deep freeze was open about an inch and the smell was from all the rotting meat. Yep. We lost a large freezer full of meat. Not a good welcome home gift. We tried not to think about how much money we were throwing away as we cleaned that puppy out. Made us sick to our stomachs in more way then one.

Also, later that morning I headed to the dr. I got sick the day before we left for Idaho and it had just progressively got worse durring the trip. I know it was my own fault for not resting but let's not point fingers: :) Anyway, the dr told me I had pnuemonia. So lame. Who gets pneumonia in July? She gave me 3 awesome meds to get me feeling better. Sure enough, three days later I could hear, smell and taste again. Finally.

The only thing I liked about this diagnosis... at least it made me feel a little better about the trouble I had on the hike. I was so upset with myself. I was running on an incline on the treadmill everday and I couldn't catch my breath climbing a mountain? Really frustrated that I had to pass Madden off to Lloyd and Lyndsay to pack for me (but grateful they did). My kids were way ahead of me and I was just trying to breathe. So upset with myself on that mountain. I will admitt that Tyson tried to talk me out of the hike but I wouldn't hear of it :) Again, let's not point fingers :)

YUMMY!

On the way back from Idaho we stopped at a Chinese Buffett for dinner. I saw some interesting foods and brought them back to the table for the kids to try. I told them I would give them money to eat what was on the plate if anyone would man up and try it. Once I put the plate on the table the girls immediately shrieked and claimed this was so disgusting. I offered them $5 for the frog leg and $10 for the octopus. My Wyatt manned up and took that octopus by the tentacles. Despite his sister's cries of disgust he got the whole thing down. I'm so proud :) His take on it,"Not bad. Just a little rubbery." Love that kid.

Idaho Trip

We recently made our annual track down I-80 to the great state of Idaho. 30 hours to bond in the suburban :) Actually our kids rocked. They seriously are amazing travelers. They went 4-5 hrs between stops the whole way there and back. They slept great thru the night in their carseats and small spaces between the carseats. We were so happy. Nevertheless, we were thrilled to arrive on Mom and Dad's doorstep the next morning.

We had such a fun 2 weeks. We soooo love getting to spend time with the family and getting back to our mountains. Sigh. Oh, we so miss them.

I forgot my camera at home so the pics are limited to what Mariah took and what I'm stealing off my sisters-in-laws blogs :)

Trip highlights:

Kids: fishing, the great hike to the frozen lake, sleeping on the tramp with Phylicia, Jake, and Reagan at their house, grandma's bedtime stories, spa day with the girl cousins, sleepover at Uncle Russ's house, four wheelers (nonstop), playing in Uncle Lloyd's flooded yard, tubing on the 4th and sleeping in the tent with Hayden, Jake and Jackson

Tyson: spending time with his brothers on motorcycles and fishing, campfire songs with the family, testimony meeting, fishing day with Dad, Randy and the boys.

Me: watching the Bacholorette with my Lee sisters, girls night out getting pedicures and dinner with shopping on the side, watching my hubby and his brothers behave like little boys as they stripped off their shirts to see who could do the longest belly slide in Lloyd's flooded yard, playing Discombobulation, tubing on the 4th, and just spending time with my family.

We are so lucky to be part of such a great family. I so loved watching my little McCoy with his 17 yr old cousin Hayden. He adored him and Hayden took him everywhere. It melted my heart. I loved watching Wyatt and Jake. Two boys lost in a sea of girls :) They were glued to each other the whole time. Mariah and Lanae, Makayla and Raegan and Aliesha and then watching Coleman fight with London :) loved it all. I have the cutest nieces and nephews. I so loved playing with them and watching my kids with all of them.

It was hard to leave this year. We had some tears shed in the back of the suburban and pleads for us to please move back and then the kids got upset too :)

We had a great trip and can't wait to head west again next summer.