Ruby's Fashion par-tay!

About three months ago Ruby started planning her birthday party. She wanted a "Fashion party" and told me exactly what games and activities she wanted, who she wanted to attend and what time it would start.

So here is how it all went down. As the girls arrived they were all given makeovers (thanks to Cheyenne and Haley). If they did not come dressed up we had a stylist(me) that helped them choose a couture outfit for the party. Many of the girls knew exactly how they wanted to look. One of them said to me "I want to go with a Greek/ Roman theme". Once they were all ready they got to walk the runway to loud music and paparazzi (strobe lights thanks to Eric).

They all got to design their own wallets.

They designed their own necklaces, rings and bracelets with Pop-Arty beads(these are so cool, they sell them at Target).

They opened presents.

(Fyi- Ruby had decorated all the book shelves with fashion Barbies and American girl dolls.)

After opening presents they had to work together as a design team to create the perfect look for Ruby from duct tape, trash bags, toilet paper and any wrappings left from opening the gifts.

I was impressed by the team work and creativity!

They played pass the purse and whoever had the purse when the music stopped got to open the purse and pull out a prize.

We had lunch and cake, but I think I have added plenty of photos already.

For party favors each girl got a metallic crocodile embossed purse (love the $ store) with bracelets, nail polish and candy.

I think everyone had a good time, I know Ruby was in heaven!

Ayah!

We asked Cheyenne to choose a sport or dance class that she would like to do. After watching lots of options, said she wanted to try Karate. Last Tuesday she had her 1st lesson and LOVED it. Her next lesson is not until next Tuesday, but that has not stopped her. She and Haley have been doing forms and sparring until they are dripping with sweat and laughing in delirium. I am so excited for Cheyenne, I really think she is going to excel at karate and love it.

We will NEVER have another hamster!

The weather here has been beautiful, but my life has been having a torrential down pour. It all started with Haley's lice. I realize to some this is no big deal, but it completely freaked me out. Luckily I think my freaking out and extreme measures helped insure the bugs did not spread to anyone else but Haley. I recognize this was a miracle with 5 girls using the same hair brushes.

Shortly after the lice treatments Haley became VERY sick. Eric had to leave town for a week to attend a conference in California. Haley's fever continued at 103 for over a week and it would not break with medicine. She had such bad stomach upset she lived on the toilet. The poor girl was sick as a dog. I took her into our Doctor twice because she was not getting better. I thought it was a reaction to the lice stuff. The second time they took blood and stool samples. A couple of days later I received a call from the Center for disease control informing me that her tests came back positive for salmonella!

During this same week the side of my car was crashed into while parked. While Haley and I were at the Doctor's office she had left a big glass of red Gatorade on the side table at home. The dogs knocked it over and it spilled all over the sofa and carpet. Did I mention this was Cheyenne's 1st week at a new High School? Eric was still out of town, missing all the action at our house, but he didn't miss our anniversary. I did. How could I forget our 16th anniversary!!! I had lost my mind.

AWWWWWWW!

You may ask... how did Haley get salmonella?

Squrtle the turtle is no longer a member of our family.

I have banned all reptiles from our home. Haley loved this turtle and did not want to give him up... I did not want him in our home. So I sold my soul to the devil and Haley now has a black bear hamster. If you are not aware of our adventures with hamsters you can read here.

Never say never.

Happy birthday Ruby!

My little Ruby is 9 today!

Congratulations Haley!

IT'S ORANGE!!!!!

Smothered with affection

Cheyenne seems to be acclimating really well to Oregon and our family. I can't even imagine how scary it must be for her to move to a new state start at a new high school and make all new friends. She has been really optimistic and brave about everything.

Ruby and Lucy are OBSESSED with Cheyenne. They watch her put on make up like they are watching the best movie ever. They constantly want to play with her and Cheyenne seems to enjoy it (for now). We have been a little stir crazy since we have been home bound with lice and sickness. Tonight the three of them put on a play for Haley and I. Haley has been on the sofa since Wed with a 103 fever and stomach upset. Here are a few photos of the play.

They were hilarious and kept asking for pictures of everything. I took some video that is priceless.

One of them (I'm guessing Ruby) has been leaving Cheyenne little love notes everyday.

Fyi- this may look like Cheyenne has a ton of chores, but each of the girls have the same list with the same chores just on different days. Eric came up with this plan a while ago to make all the chores even and it has worked really well. Cheyenne has jumped right in with her chores and is doing great.

A little quilting

I am in a 12 X 12 quilt exchange (12 people each make one block a month for 12 months). January was Barbara's month and she requested that we each make her a beach theme block using only batik fabric. I googled and flickred and could not find anything I was excited about. Then I remembered this awesome photo Eric took of a sea turtle on our trip.

So I quilted it.

I hope she likes it.

You can see the the blocks from the other months here.

That will never happen to us..

You know those things that you see on the news or you hear people talking about and you think "That will never happen to me"...

After avoiding it my entire life and knowing that my kids would never get it because they are blonde, I found lice on Haley's head last night.

I am completely disgusted and freaked out by these bugs in our home. All 4 girls have been using the same hairbrushes. On Sunday morning I lined them all up in my bathroom and used my brush to do their hair for church. I know that that possibility of all 5 of us hosting these critters is probably unavoidable.

I am keeping everyone home tomorrow. Doing the lice treatments and combing, bagging all stuffed animals, washing bedding ect.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to conquer this and keep my sanity, please BRING IT ON!

Cheyenne is in the house!!!!

We have been preparing for a while and today was the day. Our 14 year old niece Cheyenne moved in with us. She flew up from California on an airplane by herself and it was the 1st time she has ever been on an airplane.

Ruby, Lucy and Haley have been counting down the days for her to arrive. Lucy volunteered to give up her room and moved in with Ruby so Cheyenne could have her own room.

Cheyenne brought cute gifts for the girls that they all LOVED. Of course everyone was happy, nice and on their best behavior. I know they will all start fighting like real sisters soon.

It was kinda funny that Cheyenne left California with horrible rainy weather and came to Oregon where it is sunny and beautiful.

One of the Young Women in the ward stopped by to meet Cheyenne. She brought her a really cute dry erase board and magnetic clips to help decorate her room. We have such great youth here, I can't wait for Cheyenne to get sucked up by all the activities and fun things they do. I know this will be a positive experience for her.

One thing that shocked me, Cheyenne has gotten a lot taller then when we moved away in June. She is only 14 years old but at 5 feet 9 inches... she looks down on me!

Chinchilla love

They are so stinking cute I can't stop taking pictures of them.

(and best of all they don't smell)

The greatest bad trip ever

My neighbor Lisa always knows about great places to stay and fun local trips. She found some little cabins at Hyatt Lake in Ashland and asked if we wanted to go up with them for a couple of days. We ended up going with Lisa's family and one other family. It was great because we each had out own little cabin and the 3 cabins were next to each other. The kids (all 12 of them) all got along well and we were loving it.

The "cabin" was soooo much nicer then I expected. It had a fridge with ice and water in the door so I was in heaven!

They allowed pets so Max and Opal learned how to walk on snow.

Each cabin had it's own jacuzzi outside the door. The kids were running back and forth to each others jacuzzis.

I was positive someone was going to get sick, they spent more time out of the Jacuzzi playing then they did in. The kids were having the time of their lives so I just let it go.

When we woke up we headed to a great sledding hill 3 miles from the cabins. We had to bust out the chains to get our 2 wheel drive mini van up the road.

For about 15 min, everyone was having a great time sledding....

Then the world stopped.

We watched our friends little girl Sierra crash and hit her head so hard she was unconscious and having a seizure. I was in complete shock and thought I had just watched a really strong, smart 10 year old girls life change forever.

All three Dads took her to the car on a sled and gave her a priesthood blessing (A blessing given by a Melchizedek Priesthood holder, by the laying on of hands and by inspiration, to one who is sick or otherwise in need of special counsel, comfort, or healing. If the blessing is for the sick, consecrated oil is used (James 5:14-15)

Then the Mom and Dad flew via car down the hill to get her to the hospital. She regained consciousness but had blurry vision, numb hands and was in tons of pain. She has since fully recovered from this accident completely, but has no memory of the accident at all. I know that her complete recovery was in large part do to the blessing she received.

When we got home Ruby and Lucy made cards for Sierra. I loved the honesty of Lucy's card "We are sad".
We were all sooo sad but we are thrilled to have our bearded dragon on her shoulder Sierra back!

The day after

My good friend Melissa Hamblin had one of these when I was a kid and I thought it was the coolest. I have looked at them on line and they run $350 bills! So when I saw one at Tuesday Morning on sale for $150 I decided to check after Christmas to see if it was marked down more. I walked in right as they opened and scored this beauty for $60!

The woods used and carving are absolutely beautiful.

I hope my kids love starring at it as much as I do.

When I got back from the store Eric had already cleaned up the carnage from Christmas and had already started taking down the decorations.

By 12:30 all the ornaments were off the tree and he had his sawzall out to cut it into pieces.

It is always fun to decorate for Christmas and it always feels good to get it all put away!

Christmas Morning

Eric and I had finally cleaned up all the food and dishes from the party and accomplished all the last minute Christmas tasks and gone to bed. We had been quietly laying in bed for about 15 min when we heard Ruby yelling "He came, Santa came" from the balcony overlooking the living room.

It was 12:15 pm so I walked out and told her it was still the middle of the night and she needed to go back to sleep until morning. I went back to bed only for a few minutes before I could hear Ruby and Lucy whispering. They were standing on the balcony with flashlights trying to see what Santa left. I told them to go to bed. About 20 min later Ruby and Haley were jumping on our bed saying "Read this... You are not going to believe this!!!" Eric and I looked at each other and realized there was no way we were stopping this train, so we all got up to open presents.

They were so excited to hear that Santa was giving our friend Anna (who desperately wanted a chinchilla) her own chinchilla... and it was in our laundry room for Haley to take care of until Anna's family got back in town.

Eric and I sat in an exhausted stupor while the kids ripped open the gifts.

Haley was thrilled to finally get the box turtle(now named squirtle) she has been begging for.

At about 1:30 Eric and I finally went back to bed while the girls stayed up playing for hours.

The dog wash

One of those times that as a Mom you say to yourself...

"I can't believe I thought this was a good idea".

Then you get in the car and the kids say

"That was sooo much fun, can we do it again?".

Fyi- the dogs are still alive and we did not have to pay any fee for damages.

Our 1st snow

It may not look like much, and it may not have lasted for long.. but this was very exciting for us!

A great idea

One of the Mom's in Ruby's class had a fabulous idea for their class Christmas party. All the kids made fleece scarves and wrapped them up to donate to the local center for homeless teens.

I was super busy helping them cut the scarves so unfortunately I didn't get any photos of them making them. They were very serious about making the scarves and wrapping look good. When all was said and done we had 38 scarves wrapped and ready to go. The kids really enjoyed making them and I know the recipients will enjoy the extra warmth.

Say WHAT?

12/18/09

"Mom, it doesn't matter if I peed in the bathtub because Ruby and I peed in the bathtub last night." Lucy

"I did not pee in the bathtub." Ruby

"Yes you did." Lucy

"Ok, that is just disgusting. Did you seriously pee in the tub???? That is like trying to take a bath and get clean in a dirty toilet that someone has used. Really, no more baths only showers." Me

"A bath in the toilet???... coool!" Lucy (as if she was day dreaming about it).

12/14/09

Tonight we may have had the worst family home evening I can remember. These are a few of choice examples of how the night went.

"Ruby it's your turn to choose the song, what do you want to sing?" Dad

"Jingle bells" Ruby

" Ok... Mom it's your turn to conduct" Dad

"Dashing through the snow, in a one horse open sleigh" Mom and Dad singing

"NO, NO, NO, NO!!!! I said Jingle bells!!!! Ruby screaming

"This is how it starts, jingle bells is the chorus" Mom, while Dad continues with the song.

"I said Jingle Bells" Ruby throws a screaming tantrum during the entire song while we continue singing.

I googled "Jingle bell lyrics" and read them to her explaining that is how the song starts.

"You guys are totally lying!" Ruby disgusted with us.

We had a lesson on compassion and the importance of helping others and focusing on others more then ourselves. I explained that each of the girls were going to buy a gift that they would like to have, and donate it to a little girl their age that needed help this Christmas. I passed out the tags with the kids ages to each of my girls.

"Why should I give her a gift... she is going to give me NOTHING!" Lucy with a mean looking sassy face.

So much for my lesson.

12/7/09

"OOUCHH!!!, this Christmas tree must be a boy because it just scratched me" Lucy

12/1/09

"My favorite thing about Christmas is remembering and thinking about the birth of Santa"... long pause while I looked at her (Ruby) puzzled.... "I mean Jesus, the birth of Jesus" she said.

11/20/09

On the long flight to Puerto Rico my nephew Jacob was furious and said

"Dad, Ali hit me!"

"That's ok, when we get off the airplane you you can hit her back" Jake's Dad

Jake turned insta-happy with a big smile on his face and said "Really??? OK!"

Then Jakes Dad said "No, not really I was just kidding"

Jack folded his arms and turned insta-angry again.

11/20/09

While standing on the ramp thing waiting to get into the airplane a man standing next to Ruby said "So are you excited to fly on an airplane?"

Ruby casually replied "Not really, flying just not my thing."

Oh dear!

There goes Ruby's career in fashion!

I'm so sad.

I have spent the entire morning looking for a nativity.

It is Christmas so I thought this would be easy, it was not. As I asked sales people if they had any nativity's some did not even know what a nativity was. The salesperson at JC Penny said "No we just have Mickey Mouse christmas stuff". After looking through shelves full of Santas, snowmen and nutcrackers I finally found a nativity on the bottom shelf of Kohls.

I realized today that the world has officially dropped Christ from Christmas.

WARNING: Objects on mountains may be larger then they appear.

We wanted to do Christmas as true Oregonians, so Eric and I went to the Land management office and purchased a permit to cut down our own Tree.

We drove for about 45 min into the mountains, then got out in 19 degree weather and walked and walked all over looking for "our" tree. We both finally agreed on this one.

We had walked a lot farther then I realized so carrying this baby back to the car was not easy.

It was not until we got home and put this tree in our living room that we realized the how huge this tree was. We cut 3 feet off the bottom and it didn't even make a difference!

Haley decided on an angel this year instead of a star. She had to climb so high to put it on it on the top, she was terrified.

We had to move furniture out of the room to make space for this tree. Eric purchased 10 additional boxes of lights and then we put every ornament we own on it (even though it still looks empty).

At 13 ft, I'm sure this will be the largest tree that we will ever have in our home. Eric and I both agree that next year we are going to a tree farm to cut down our own tree.