I love Christmas. I especially love the reason and the emotions that come with it. This Christmas is so welcome. For the last 4ish years I think I have been asleep. Now. . .awake and doing lots with the kids. The kids are getting tired though. I guess they will have a *fun Christmas no matter what*! lol. But the time with them has been wonderful and it is so easy to see how blessed we are. OR I may be on too much thyroid and my emotions are running high-what ever it is I am still having fun. Bring on Christmas. Bring on the carols. Bring on the candy. Bring on the memories.

This week I have been shadowing Jen as she does her book thing. It has been a great couple of days and watching her work is pretty nearly just like she is. So that was a nice thing to see. She doesn't put on a show for anyone! Sean is chillaxing in St. George now. He has some training meetings so he is having a few quiet days on his own. Well kinda. He is suppose to repo a truck for the district bank. As long as he isnt hurt or whatever. . .I am good with his adventure.

I am excited for Christmas this year. Not for the toys and the gifts but for that I feel good enough to enjoy the time we will have together. I am excited to just hang out with the kids and the hubby. A nice quiet day is what we need just enjoying the spirit of the Christmas meaning. So yep. Glad the lights are still up from last year and glad one tree is already up. Well from last year too. It will make it much easier to get a move on with things! It makes me a little more excited for the snow to fall and the hot chocolate to warm us up while listening to Christmas carols.

Halloween was wet this year. It was as fun as that sounds. Not really. We found some good spots in there with the kids and making those. . . .memories. Maybe this would be a good one to forget. But they got lots of candy and lots of seeing others dressed up in their clothing. It was a good day. The kids were very cute. Patrick of course didnt dress up. He went off to a friends house for a while. Ireland was a goth-well kinda. She is too cute to pull off a goth! Liam and Bennie were both soldiers. As long as they get it out of their blood now I am good. Shea was a mermaid. All pink. After a few hours she was as wet outside as inside. Sean and I were the usual dressed up parents-as parents.


Time to be on another soap box. I went to a friends house to learn to shop with coupons. It was fine. Except if you asked any questions. Which, in this circumstance, every question was a dumb question. I am sure I bit my tounge no less thatn 4 times. The best one was when I mentioned in quiet conversation that cancer thrived on sugar. At which point the consultant blurted out "everything causes cancer" It was truly all I could do to NOT ask her how many times she has had cancer. I have never heard that fruits and vegetables caused cancer-just sayin. Then I decided to lash out with sarcasm the rest of the night. Frazzled her a bit and I kinda liked it. That is my mean streak in partial bloom.

I am so excite for Jen to put the book out there finally! She has waited for so long to get this published that its just about time! She is having a launching party on October 9 in Centerville. It will be so fun. I am hoping that she sells out when the day is done. And then again the next day!!!! Its a really cute book and a book that kinda reminds me of the old books you would get for Little Women. Just a great-solid book!

Me-well still radiated and confined in my moms basement. But that is ok because she is making yummy food. Yesterday I didnt have much to eat and so today I was stoked when we had lemon pepper chicken, onion and pea rice (a red rice) and corn. It was soooo good! But its not all bad. I have access to the tv and the computer. Good thing tomorrow is the last day or i would go crazy because there is only so much time you can spend on a computer.

A few days ago we got invited to a time share with Seans parents. We are excited for a change of scenery for even a few nights. We should be swimming in fun. Or swimming in alot of nothing to do. Either way it will be fun no matter what dang it!!!!! lol

Our little chickens finally hatched from their eggs. We are so excited. I watched and watched for the weeks. They were due to hatch on the 21st which was a Wednesday. I left to can some peaches with my mom Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday about 3 hours before I was due to come home they all hatched. I kinda saw one come out of the egg via ichat but was a little miffed that I missed it all! The kids were able to come home and watch though and that was enough to make me ok with missing their coming into the world. They are ALL black. Some have white or yellow and one with some rust color on his head but they are black- Out of the 7 eggs we bought we got 5. That is pretty good seeing how we were planning on 3-4 at the most. Goes to show you cant count your chickens until they hatch! hehe

They are so cute. Sean loves his little ladies and in all fairness I do too. Its been a fun experience with them and watching how they get out. We could hear them peeping a few days before they actually pecked a hole into the egg. Ben was able to take the egg shells for his cool educational experience this week. I thought it was cool anyway.

Today was a quiet day. I went out to check on the baby and she said "Mom check the mailbox" and I figured that I might as well play along and at least put the flag down. I looked inside and there were two kittens in there. Then in the house she put the table chairs around the house. When I finally put those together I saw in the plaster pumpkins Ihave out for decorations-she has stashed a buffet of cereal. I was wondering how she was munching everywhere at all times! Sigh. Its a good thing she is so stinkin' cute!

Today Sean took a 1/2 day to go to West Valley with me to check out an new endocrinologist. I mention that because he took the day off a week before school starts and that is a big deal. But he went and we met with a new Dr. He was a total geek. I mean all out nerd. The coolest guy we have met in a long time. Well as far as Docs go. But he read every page in my file. Even the pages that were of another patient that got faxed with my file. And I wonder why my old Doctor was clueless~she wasnt even reading my file. Anyway, He spent the first 10 minutes just reading the papers and when he was done he knew all that they had said about me-good or bad. I told my story and he was ontop of all of the information. Well not my age. He said I was 37. Um no. He hooked me to an ultrasound on my neck and gave kudos to the surgeon that did the handy work. I think he did a good job too. But overall it was totally worth the 1 hour 45 minutes it took to drive there. I am optimistic...

The kids are doing great. Shea will get on her princess dresses and ask me to sing a princess song and ask Liam or Ben to dance with her. They grin from ear to ear and begrudgingly do it. Its stinkin' cute. Ireland and Patrick are gearing up for school. This year they are both on the top end of the school. Meaning they are the oldest grade in the school. This should be interesting. Patrick a freshman next year and Ireland heading into 7th grade! I am not old enough to be a mom of kids this old!!! What in the world???

So we also have to mention our animals. I think we are up to all 6 birds laying that we got originally. So the next 2 should be laying by the middle of September. It is fun to go out and get the eggs. Its really like Easter everyday.

SCHOOL??? Still not ready. I love having the kids all to myself and what will Shea do with out her favorite brothers and sisters??? This week we will go ahead and try to make that bag Ireland really wants to make. I am not sure how this will work but I think she is better at sewing than I am.

Well I need to recommit to committing to writing in this! We have had a busy summer but not over the top. We have done baseball and golf. Some did tennis and others just played outside! That one i loved. We did get the chicken coop built and filled it with some great girls. After Sean fell in love with them he became pretty educated on them. He wants all kinds of designs in his chickens. From chocolate looking eggs to olive colored eggs. Its fun to watch. And of course no that they are laying its kinda a get there first to get the eggs that day. Everyone has timed out when they lay now and hit the nesting boxed around noon each day. Its fun for all of the kids.


This last week Ben and Liam spent time with Mimi and so now Patrick and Ireland are chomping at the bit to go. They are ready for some away from the family time I think. Patrick has Youth conference though and so will have to wait until next week to go. Ireland will go today for some fun with the cousins. By the time school starts they will be good. I dread school starting. I love having the kids at home. I like them coming in and out and just playing outside in the dirt. Which we have alot of. But yea! I wish that school was 1/2 the year and 1/2 the day. I would be good with that.

Long time no write! This last month we had our share of things to watch out for. Like car accidents, earaches and appendixes. Well one of each. Sean was in an accident in his Ford Focus. It is no longer working. Now it is being used as extra parts. That's ok it had new tires. I do wish they told you things like its a $25 fee per day for leaving the car on the premises. So, we get him home on Wednesday with a broken rib, some bruising, some internal bleeding as well and some nasty bruises forming on his left side. Ireland woke on Sunday and she had pain in her side. She had a bad appendix. So off we go into the hospital. Its really sad because I had to lay her on the bed and I started doing laundry, dishes, cleaning up the front room and showering! Whatever I could get done before we were in the hospital~meanwhile she is moaning on my bed and trying to get me to hurry!

So our March is gone and with it my high stress level!! Thank heavens for friends that stepped in and made sure none of the kids died of starvation. Sean was not up to get anything made and we had both just decided the kids were going to get a week of cereal...thanks friends for keeping them with more then one food group in their tummys!

April is here and in fact Patricks birthday is tomorrow. I am shocked that i have a 13 year old son. And then on Sunday its our Anniversary of 14 years. And I am shocked that 14 years has flown by so fast. I am sure May will be here and gone before i know it. Hopefully, I wont have any new news to keep me from logging in and keeping up to date.

I am not sure how this day got going but it was not at all what i expected. Last night at about 3-Shea came in and got in bed with me. Then about an hour later Ben came in too. I am sure its because Dad was not home and they wanted some Mom time. Well I like to think that anyway. I woke( because Patrick woke me up) and got Patrick off to school only to come home and not sleep a few more minutes. Not what I wanted at all. But the rest of the kids got off to school and got ready for the day as well as getting Bennie and Shea ready. She decided today was the magical day that the underwear would be most useful. And she has only had one accident so maybe she was right. But now I remember why I dislike potty training. And it only took like 15 seconds to remember. Off- Bennie to school-and me to Walmart and get Patrick's glasses fixed.

Now what? They have to have an exam-to get new glasses. Now I have to backtrack and get the kiddo out of school to get an exam. You would of thought that his eyes changed by the way they were insisting that he needed an exam but nope his eyes are still the exact same vision. So we did that and finally I stopped by the store and back home. Right now I have 2 in piano and just as that finished I have scouts. Well me and Liam. Then home to start dinner. Well if they get dinner tonight then I will start it but if I think they have eaten enough this week I will forego dinner and take a bath instead. Ahhh that actually sounds nice right now. All in all this day did not go at all as planned-You know. . .sleeping.

Our House during the home show-we didnt get pictures of Patricks room but his is a silver tree with blue ornaments and blue lights. It looks more like a space tree. Look hard cause this maybe the only time the whole house is clean at once, including the toilets, until a mission farewell....just sayin

Its been a while and we have been busy. We had Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and a New Year. Its been busy and full of fun. Patrick and Liam are now playing basketball and in both of their first games they scored. We were pumped-They are learning their ball handling skills pretty well and seem to be having fun. Patrick takes the game alittle more seriously and Liam does alot of bouncing around. He has alot of energy. Ben has been reading better and better each week. He is now reading real books on his own. He actually has more energy then Liam. Its like he is a jellybean flea if that is something. Irelands skills in the kitchen have improved. She is getting more and more comfortable making desserts. I guess one day I will have to break down and teach her how to make some other real dinners. Shea is Shea. She is just growing and doing the 2 year old thing. We love watching her learn how to talk and to express her self. We have also noticed that she is still pretty bossy. Can you blame her-she has to hold her own in a family of 4 other siblings. Sean is busy fixing computers as a side job-he is just doing that dad thing. Me? Same as before. Doing the mom thing. Dishes never go away and neither does the dust.

We are getting ready to celebrate Irelands birthday and I think that she wants a Lizard cake! That will be a fun one to make. But will post pictures soon. All is well in the Rawlinson household......