New Year's Resolution....

Update.... MY BLOG :)

Brrrrrr.....

It's sunny, it's chilly....it's a "neck shirt" day!

Being 5 is the best

Doesn't this face make you want to snuggle up and watch Tom & Jerry with them!

Don't worry I did!

We needed it after a week of crazy moments

including.....

......one precious child missing the bus because they refused to change their underwear......geez it's hard to be a kid ;)

Eeeeekkkk!!! a mystery man, Two princesses, a fairy?, Indiana jones, and a ninja!

What more could you want?

Oh, I know Candy!

Operator ... can you reconnect me?

I'm so grateful for my 3 Beautiful sisters and Mother. I had the blessing to reconnect with them this past weekend!

I learned so many things from them and I hope they know how much I love them and how BEAUTIFUL they are!

Who are these great women you ask?.....Well let me introduce you...Oldest to Youngest of course.....

Toni....She's the oldest, wisest, sweetest...best listener you've ever talked to.....How sweet you ask? when she would babysit us she use to always say "Don't worry you can do that ....I'll take the blame". She is now our very own Stamping queen and always provides us with the best,cutest, crafty projects to do. We couldn't have had a better example in an oldest sister.

Tina ....Funny, Serious, Gorgeous, Spiritual. In the dictionary under the word nice is Tina. She had lots of weird boy stalker's in High School because she was nice to everyone...
She's the best muffin maker in America...When I lived downstairs from her at Ricks College I could always count on her to be awake at 1:00am to talk to...what was she doing at 1am? making muffins of course!

you know me...Dori....I'm Daughter number 3...the middle child...that alone explains a lot!

And my little sister.... Micki...The braces make her look 18 but she's really only 3 years younger than me....She's the best.... she will sew anything for anyone...except pleats...Can you believe that I once pulled her hair so hard that she threw my teddy bear (from Bill) out our second story room window.....She is my kid's favorite because she is SUPER AUNT! and she's available..so all you guys in UT that read my blog.....just call me I'll give you her number! (Oh she's going to kill me for that or throw my teddy bear out the window!)

We were so lucky to be raised by........

well we just call her.....MOM...she's was always able to make

us behave and we are so blessed for that...she's super tough and can do anything she decides she wants to...sewing, pruning, mowing,tilling, baking,cleaning,writing thankyou notes,visiting teaching,teaching, and she usually has it all done by 6 am!!

I've decided that my mom's best parenting skill was being able to live the gospel almost perfectly and let us see the joy in living the gospel.

It was nice to go back in time this weekend and share a room again wth all my SISTERS it was truly like the old days....laying in bed talking and being silly, and mom telling us to go to sleep it's late!!!

What have I been doing, done, been, seen....

Geez I noticed on a friends blog roll that I haven't updated in 2 weeks.....It caused me to reflect on what had I been doing and how times goes really fast.

Well I took a day to think about that and what I should post about. But as I reflected I thought about a talk I heard once about making sure that we are doing the important things...you know the really important things...
.... I know laundry is important...to quote my sister "one more day and I'll be naked! " But there actually are more important things...

So I reflected in the past 2 weeks have I done the real important things....The things I've always meant to do everyday.

After reflecting..... this word popped into my head "discipline" It really is the key...I must discipline myself to do those things... those little things, those things I KNOW that I'm suppose to do. Everyday.

So the things that I knew I should be doing I did this morning. Wow. that took so little time but feels so good.

The words I'm done feel so much better than I'll do it tomorrow.

Monday the day...

1. Your kids Hide under the bed so they won't have to go to school!


2.You try to recover from having an abcessed tooth and emergency ROOT canal on Sunday!


3. You do mounds of laundry.....

4.You try to find something to eat and all you can find is chocolate chips! Which you should make into a great afterschool snack for your kids but ....it's monday so you just eat the chocolate chips!

Dinner conversation....

A friend brought whole wheat rolls for dinner....

Jessi says "Mom, I like your rolls better"

I respond "You don't like wheat? I was going to start trying to make them."

" ew yuck mom, We don't have to be that healthy...I DO P.E.!!"

One of my favorite times of the day...

One of my new favorite things is.....

My new Sunglasses ....and my kids saying

"Mom those are too big...Mom those are huge you shouldn't wear those.."

and yet I wear them anyway and LOVE them.

This Week...which is now over and is not really this week..

We ate Lemon cake.....Why? Because we always eat Lemon cake on September 10th...Bill's Birthday!

this week I couldn't resist this place mat for Macy...because she is our

"Macy Monkey"

What's in the bowl you ask? Tomato soup noodles..or in other words homemade spaghetti O's! (It was friday night and Bill was working late) It was either that or Popcorn for dinner...what would you have choosen?

Where did everybody go?

Well Macy...


Jessi & Ellie got up early and waited for the bus














And Ty waits here a little later

Then Sophie gets ready and waits here half way through the day:




















and the wheels on the bus go round and round...
.

Leaving just Mom and Macy!

Happy First week of School!

One Last day!

This week has been a bit of a whirlwind....but I wanted to finish my count down... I know it's a little late but don't get all riled up about it!

So the Last day of summer: Labor day! That's exactly what we did. Labored. We we went to Corvallis (Home of the Beavers!) and helped my grandparents paint their house. The kids mostly talked to Grandpa & Grandma and played with their toys. Bill helped my dad on the sprayer and I helped touch up paint. They had picked a great color for the house....

After we were done at grandma's there was one question raised...."Can you really visit Corvallis without visiting the Beavers stadium? Well the answer was obvious .....we took off to visit and what did we find? We were so lucky to watch the last few minutes of practice! and then we found an open gate!

The kids are BACK! 2 days to go!

We had a great little staycation. Bill and I did lots of fun stuff, movies, dinner, temple, hike, clean garage,baseball game and our favorite...eating Tillamook Ice Cream!!

Today is Sunday and I was trying to get Ellie to help me clean up the living room...She said "Why? why should I?" So I was explaining if her friend came over what would you say? "Don't mind trippin' over all the stuff?" Which some how led Jessi and Ellie into making a song out of it....Silly girls... while I kept trying to get them to help me clean up they created this dance in their room ...I grabbed the camera and hid it under a sweatshirt and recorded their performance....O my after this performance they went on to create a few more dances named "You can't make us clean up" and something like " No way are we going to clean up".

So as you can tell in this video it really does need to be cleaned up......How many more days of summer?!!?!!

Omy Day nine! How many left?

Well I had a tight schedule yesterday to be able to fit in the fun activity I had planned. Clean up rooms, pack for Aunt Toni's, go on a bike ride, visiting teaching, dinner...go to Aunt Toni's to drop of kids to spend the night. I think the kids heard , blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...go to Aunto Toni's because it took them ALLLL day to pack and they weren't happy until we threw open the door of the van and they planted their feet on Aunt Toni's property!

So we left them... yep all 5 kids at my sisters for 3 nights and 2 full days! They were so excited because as you know a cousins house is just as good as going to DisneyLand!

So you could say our little countdown is on hold... or is it? I don't think so I'm still going to be having fun.

So what am I going to do you ask?

1st: Breathe

2nd: Clean my house and watch it stay clean.

3rd: Enjoy sometime with my Bill.

Our first activity after dropping of the kids....

Day #8 6 days Left :)

What could be better than having great friends. Tuesday we had friends over...Jessi and Ellie's good friends from our old town. We picked them up on the way home from Grandma's and they stayed the night. Fun for the girls... What did they do? Be girls. Up late playing games in their room, be silly, made treats, went on bike rides... Begged to watch TV... can you hear me now "No, your friends are over, do something".

Well Ty had a friend come for a little while and Sophie actually went to a friends house. Which I heard was so fun because they played "Lions". I just love little imaginations.

My Kitchen is still trying to recovery from so many cooks in the kitchen yesterday....

Monday!!! Day #7

If we did nothing else all summer but the activity we did yesterday we could call it good. We packed up and were on the road to a town about 40 minutes away to visit my Grandma and the kids Great Grandma. She now lives in a semi assisted living community and the kids had not seen her since she moved. It was a great visit with Grandma. We picked her up and went to the park and ate our lunch and let the kids play.... I got to sit next to my grandma and visit with her on a park bench. What a perfect moment. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

At one point while we were cleaning up our lunch I was reminded of a memory of my grandma that I shared with my kids. Do you mind if I tell you?

My mom always made homemade ketchup. I detested it. It was like putting tomato sauce on your fries. I was a kid and now knowing how kids can be itprobably wasn't so bad. I guess I made a big deal about how I didn't like it because my grandma knew of my dislike. While at a Christmas party at my Grandparents house my grandma told me she had a special present for me in the fridge and what I found was the perfect gift ever... a brown bag full of the restuarant style ketchup packets! She had been saving them for me every time she went out to eat. Which now that I think about it wasn't alot because they lived at least 20 minutes from town. For months I hoared those packets in our refrigerator as "My Ketchup" .

Soon we will visit my other set of grandparents. How I wish we were closer...but is that really an excuse for such long periods of time between visits?

Jessi, Ellie , Ty with Grandma in her amazing yard before she moved. (Did you know Jessi is named after her?)

Sunday Day #6

Since Sunday is the sabbath I guess we kinda took the day off from having a fun moment...Until I actually got my little girls in bed and had a few extra mintues and thought "I should play a game with my 3 big kids" and since my thought started with I should I jumped on it. It really is my new theme instead of my "I should's" turning into I should've I try to make it happen. So I whipped my big girls in my favorite game ..... Othello.... I'm sorry there's no mercy they need to learn! :) But then I played Ty... since he's 8 I let up a little...I was so wrong to do that because of the few things I let get passed me (on purpose) I couldn't come back....He Killed me!!! It was sad but now I'm glad I have some real competition!!

As a kid we planned tons of board games and I loved to be the best and I've been a little disappointed that my kids don't have the same love of games I do. We'll guess who's fault that is? If I would've actually played with them more then they would love them too. So no longer I'm making Sunday night " Just try to beat mom night"!

What do you want your kids to love?

Saturday--Day #5

We live in a great semi-small town where there are always great activities going on around us and as hopeless as this sounds we never take advantage of it. In fact it's ridiculous there are so many things....Concerts in the park, Saturday market, 3 on 3 Basketball tournament, lots of farm activities, the county fair. but we are always busy doing something...Like yard work or family events (out of town) . SO This weekend I put a stop to our madness and we went to the Largest Dahlia Show in the world! (2 minutes from our house) Well and I don't know if it was the biggest in the world but there were tons of tours buses from every retirement community in the NW! :)

The show had indoor arrangements and then you could check out the fields and fields of beautiful rows of blooming Dahlias... Don't know what Dahlias are? Well I'll show you.

There's Big ones:

And small ones:

And ones with funny names:

I told everyone to pick out there favorite things of the show (meaning flowers) but this is what Bill and Ty picked...sillies!

Day #4

So when deciding what we are going to do each day I have been reaching back into my brain and reading the list of all the things I've meant to do...You know that list we all have. I should.... I should... So yesterday I took one of those I should's and took Ty to the swimming pool for a much needed swimming lesson. (I certified in College as a swimming instructor and have only used it on a few cub scouts and my own kids). That was really nice to have one and one time with Ty and help him. I think he's made some good improvements. I just have to say it does my brain such good to have a break from the house. I hope to go get in the pool more someday. Swimming is one of my favorite things to do.



While Ty and I swam the girls stayed home and watched Spiderwick Chronicles and loved it. When we got home we all decided that we needed a really really really good snack!!!! So we made banana bars! Yum yum yum yum they are definitely one of our favorite treats. If you have never had one.... oh my.



I have to say with my focus on the kids(and me) having as much fun before summer is over it has helped be more willing to do things with them, like let them help me cook...I know you know what I mean.



I wonder if they will think weeding is fun tomorrow? :)

Day#3

Our fun moment started late in the afternoon. Ty, Sophie & Macy went to our friends house, which Ty loves because they have a wii and boys to play with, They also have 2 girls close to the little girls ages. They had a blast there.

Then I took Jessi & Ellie to Middle school registration (Crazy I have 2 kids in Middle School!) We went and got Ellie on a soccer team....and right next door to the house that we were dropping her registration off at was....Grandpa Leder....funny...he had broken down and needed a jump start. So you could say we had a hero moment :) Then we headed out of town to shop til we dropped. Funny we were all wearing pink shirts and had a great time. We hit Old Navy, Kohl's, Target...and the pet store where Jessi adopted a new pudgy goldfish "Noodles".

So again we were successful and had another fun summer moment...except that we were school clothes shopping and that really means summer is coming to an End.

Day #2

Well Day 2 didn't go exactly as planned...My vision was a service day ...we were going to all make Banana bread together than deliver it to the neighbors and friends...all together and have a great fun moment. Well...

It was still a fun day . I made the banana bread, didn't have enough pans to make as much as I wanted. The kids were distracted by other things, good things, playing games together. Macy distroyed one of the 3 loafs we were going to give away and then we ran out of time. So at about 7pm Jessi and Ellie delivered one loaf to the neighbor... I was feeling way to ugly to go with them. :) So what are we going to do on day #3 to top that? Won't take much :)

Summer Count down!

So yesterday we started our 2 week summer countdown. There are so many things I wanted to do with the kids this summer and it seems like it went so fast. So we are going to try to do a fun things everyday until summer is over...

Yesterday was Day #1

We started with a fun trip to the mall. The kids said they wanted to go to the store Claire's and ride the Escalator! So after we did that I treated the kids to their first Icee! I know are they deprived or what :)! They were in heaven!

So stay tuned for our day by day summer fun countdown!!

Metal Mouth Cutie!

Jessi has been counting down the days until She got these:



But after the first night she wished she could take them off. She's had a bit of pain and it's been a little (alot)hard to eat things.... She's had a lot of liquids, which she's getting sick of. Only 24 months and counting..:)

I wish...

Seminary ended and it was wonderful. I couldn't believe I actually had taught every school day for the past 9 months. I learned so much. (That's such a cliche statement isn't it!) I have wanted to write about the ending of seminary but I didn't quite know what to say.
I guess I will write about just a few ways teaching seminary changed me.

So for the past school year I have studied the Old Testament and cross referenced others scriptures I would say on average 15-19 hours a week. I now love actually studying the scriptures, not reading but studying and finding answers that Heavenly Father has put in them.
I now know all scriptures point to the meaning of our life and to Jesus Christ.

I now LOVE to teach. I am so grateful for the talents that I have been blessed with to help others understand what I learned while studying and then I love being taught by them as we discuss and find new treasures of knowledge.

I want to go on a mission. Because I know this is our duty to gather Israel.

I have learned that by understanding and learning the individual principles of the gospel we can understand more of the eternal plan of happiness.

I have been changed by reading the Old Testament. Wow! I cringed when told what I would be teaching this year....But now I am sooo glad, I wouldn't have wanted to teach anything else..and maybe some other time I will get to teach the other great scriptures. (My secrect wish)

I have gained a great respect for all Christians that study the Bible for it's truly from God but I have a greater appreciation for our modern day prophets.

I have always struggled to understand how Heavenly Father (or anyone) could love me. Heavenly Father loved me enough to trust me to do my best and teach his precious children(my students). As I finished the year this was one principle that I felt so strongly...I felt so loved because he trusted me to teach.

I wish that everyone could have this experience. But infact we all do, we all have our challenges that Heavenly Fathers gives us that if we turn to the scriptures and him we can feel his love and guidance.

I will never forget those great students I saw every morning (some just the tops of their heads) They are so strong and Heavenly Father has great things in store for them.

I only wish I could teach forever.. but I cannot. It was a difficult decision for me to come to the conclusion that I wouldn't teach next year. My family sacrificed a lot so that I could teach.


Many people ask me if I'm not teaching again because it was just too hard. I want you all to know... it was hard but "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" (Genesis 18:14)

10 things I've done since I've last blogged....

1. Finished Teaching Seminary...sigh
2. We went to the Zoo!
3. We have spent every Tuesday and Thursday at Ty and Ellie's Baseball and Softball games! So glad we are done!
4. I got a new calling at church...I"m the new Nursery leader! Hopefully I can handle the 2 year olds!
5. We got a Dog! Crazy! She's a Puggle, She's two year old.
6. Sophie had a Bubbles and Balloons Birthday party. and Turned 5! Wow!
7. Macy turned 2 (Her and the dog have a lot in common! Always getting into everything!)

8. Trying get my housework caught up after having other priorities for 9 months.
9. I'm trying to stay sane with all the kids home for the summer!
10. Went crazy atleast once a day since the kids have been home from school.... but alittle alone time and chocolate chips fixes that right Up!

I'm going to do this just because then I don't have to do what's on my list!

I was tagged by Angela!Thanks:) I feel loved!

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Mothering a 2year old and 1 year old girls
2. Managing 70 Apartments...crazy!
3. Supporting Bill while he studied for his Series 7 & 63 license...or had he already passed? I'm not sure.
4. Living Right next to my sister!!!Fun!
5. Driving our first Mini Van!

5 things on my to do list:

1. Put finishing touches on my Jonah vs. Ninevah lesson for the morning.
2. Cut Ty's hair
3. Get Jessi something to wear to the YW/YM formal dinner tomorrow night.
4. Figure out what I'm going to give my Seminary kids for graduating.
5. Shoot! I just remembered I have to vote before 8 tonight!

5 of my favorite snacks/food:
1. Chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven
2. No bake cookies..because you can make them and eat them in under 10 minutes!
3. Steak.
4. Orange juice
5. ANYTHING ANYONE Else makes!

5 things I would do if I was a billionaire:

1. Buy a Hammock
2. Buy a beautiful yard for my hammock
3. Pay for my kids college/Missions.
4. Pay for some of my Seminary kids college...they worry so much!
5. Buy Bill a new Acura!

5 Bad Habits:

1. Blog stalking:)
2. Being inconsistent
3. Not eating a good lunch
4. Not making Bill's lunch
5. Not cleaning the Bathroom.

5 Places I've lived
1.Oregon
2. Oregon
3. Oregon
4. Oregon
5. Oregon

5 People I tag....
ooops no more time..

Kidnapped!

So Can you tell who kidnapped my blog for a post of his own! Bill decided to take over my blog for a moment if you haven't noticed...replacing our family picture for one of his favorite Beaver football moments...funny. Well I do have to say the comedy bits he put on here are our favorites!! even the kids can't pass hot pockets in the store without quoting him! Just for your info 19 more days of Seminary!!!

Do you love Hot Pockets??

You'll never look at Hot Pockets the same way again! This is one of our favorite comedy bits.




Do you love cake?




Got Milk?

Ellie's 11 and in Heaven!

Ellie had her Birthday party on Friday and asked for this Hamburger birthday cake! She loved it and had a great time with her friends. I owe a big Thank you to my friend who made the cake!(Thanks Loriel)
Happy Birthday Ellie!!

Ty Ties for First on his first Try!

Dad and Ty of course made a "OSU Beavers" Pinewood derby car. I can't believe that he got first...well Tied for first! It was so fun!

Friday

Oh where oh where has Dori gone oh where oh where could she be!!
The days seems to just scream by and then again I haven't posted anything. Which I just hate, because I just love to read everyone's blog and wonder where are they when they haven't posted for one day and then here I am not posting for a million years. So after I read Memory's post and she's so busy I knew that I couldn't wait any longer. Well that was 3 days ago :). But now it's Friday! I treasure Fridays so much. It's the only day I don't have to worry about what I'm teaching in the morning. I have to make my seminary lessons first priority during the day or I don't have anytime to do them and then it's just bad! I've learned so much about myself in these past 7 months teaching..At first I use to have a break down..bad breakdown..about once a week.. you know the kind "I have too much to do" cry, cry and cry somemore(how embarrassing but I know you all have them too!). About January I came to the conclusion (with my Heavenly Father help) that my family and seminary lessons where my two priorities.. nothing else.. not the kitchen floor, not laundry, not the bathroom,not babyshowers,parties..those things should never..unless the toilet was clogged...take priority. And when I did that and left it in the Lords hands to help me get everything done it some how has. Not always exactly when I would have preferred it to but it got done... usually on Fridays:).

So today has been great, the sun is shining and it's warm outside, I've cleaned my room, the kitchen, put all food back in the pantry (Longstory..I'll post a picture),cleaned the bathroom,started the laundry. It's still amazing to me how much I've changed though. My list of things to do is still a mile long for the day and I know that I will not get it done but I can some how stay calm inside and just know that someday it all might get done but if it doesn't today there's always next Friday!


Saturday night one of the kids climbed the shelves to reach a bag of chips..and it all came crashing down!

Enjoy Mom's with Minivans everywhere!!

Asleep..awake..asleep..

The Perfect Valentine's dinner?

It is our tradition to have a nice 3 course meal on Valentine's day...including candlelight, a perfectly set table, Mom in a good mood, dessert that Martha Stewart would be proud of...but well...I was tired & completely wornout Valentine's night... So what's a mom to do... I threw on Valentine's fabric for a table cloth (which Sophie thought we should leave on forever) We had everyone's favorite Fettucine Alfredo(easy), our salad was just sliced cucumbers, I did manage to throw together some homemade garlic bread ...luckily one of Bill's clients gave him a homemade loaf of bread:)! and Dessert?....Donut holes leftover from Ellie's school Valentine's party!! Which I didn't eat because I had already eaten 15!:) At first it seemed really disappointing but I think in the end I really did learn a lesson from it....Sometimes we just need to forget our own expectation and do what we can and enjoy it because in the end the kids still thought it was awesome and really the only thing different than every other nights dinner was we had a table cloth! hee hee!

Gotta love the kid sticking food out of her mouth for the nice picture!

Ode to Valentine's day!

10:00am-So I have already eaten a heart shaped cookie, 2 heart shaped brownies, 3 small candy bars and 1/2 of a huge Symphony bar and no breakfast! O it must be Valentine's day! I packed my kids lunches with lots of veggies hoping that will off set the enormous amount of candy they will eat today and forced Ellie to eat breakfast (she never wants to)! I'm such a hypocrite and eat my candy bar instead of breakfast!! ;) Well we of course have Valentine's parties today and Hopefully I will pull it all together and we will have our annual Valentine's candle light dinner!
It also feels so good because tomorrow is Friday!!!! and for me as a Seminary teacher that is HUGE!!! Happy Valentine's Day!

One year later...

Macy's hair is so funny...I saw this old picture of her the other day and just had to post this !

"God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can't if you don't pray, and He can't if you don't dream. In short, He can't if you don't believe." --- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

In Honor..

In Honor of President Hinckley who passed away Sunday night my Seminary class decided to dress up for school today. (Following the example of kids in UT) My class of Seniors spread it to all the other seminary classes, It was so humbling to see all the kids wanting to do something for "their Prophet" President Hinckley. I decided to also spread this to my kids and with very little hesitation Jessi & Ellie wore dresses to school. Sophie decided she would put on a dress this morning too...because she heard what was going on... I thought that was so cute because I never said anything to her directly.

Like so many others I too have been touched by the life and love of the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley. He had a way of making you feel so loved by him without knowing him personally. I am so grateful for the gospel and the way it helps me live my life in the right way. I'm honored to be able to help teach it to the Lord's precious youth.

Lynette, Charlene, Heidi & Julianne !

January...

According to my blog it looks like Christmas was just yesterday! but some how January is actually almost gone now!
The last two days we haven't had seminary due to weather conditions...It feels like Heavenly Father caused it to snow just for me! I needed time to catch up on studying and laundry!! I went to an all day Seminary Training meeting on Saturday and now I'm filled with great ideas and a little more hope. I was starting to get that overwhelmed feeling....Bill would say I get that way every Sunday night but this time it was worse. So the all day training was fabulous and inspiring! Yesterday I think I went to that level of craziness that only Seminary teachers do and made my own cheap version of the ark of the covenant!!

I know really cheap and small version and I didn't have any angels for the top!!!