TO DO LIST

I really love to blog. It is my journal, scrapbook, family history etc..... But with Easter, Conference and a fun Cousin party it felt like more of a to do list item which for some reason never gets done. Maybe I should create a new to do list that says, Check up on my friends blogs, spend two hours on facebook, surf the web for another hour, eat ice cream, complain and maybe I would get "MY important things to do list" done instead of wasting time on the computer. With that said I will be begin my blogging marathon. Just remember I blog for my future posterity so if it gets to lengthy I understand if you stop reading and do the other things on your "Important things to do list". Sister Day. In March for Sister Day we had a scrapbooking day. For some of my sisters they had not scrapbooked since the last time we scrapbooked with my mom which was March 2007. It brought back some great memories of scrapbooking with my mom. Man, I miss her. I miss those fun moments of laughter, joy and stories about the pictures we were scrapbooking, advice given around the table and phone calls to Laralynn who was living in Texas. It was just fun times. Karalee suggested that we scrapbook for Sister Day since she had just recently gotten some pictures of her childhood from the boxes of pictures that were my mom's. We all had a great time together. Allie, Aubrie and Ellee joined us this time. The girls did more of their Disneyland trip until Dad got done with volunteering. I worked on cards. When Justin went back to school, I gave up my scrapbooking table and put everything away in boxes for another season in my life. I get the stuff out every once in a while but it just feels like to much work and it never all gets put away. So I was very happy and content to work on cards. I really loved getting 16 cards made. Sunday after Sister Day, we went over for dinner at Papa and Maama's House to see Livy, Sophie and Aunt Tiff who were visiting from Ohio. This was a such a great day for the kids to play and when I found out that I am going to be an AUNT again. YEAH!!!! We are so excited for Uncle Maph and Aunt Tiff and that we will be getting a little more testosterone in the family. Congratulations! We hope you come back home so we can hold the little guy. When we found out that Livy and Sophie were coming to visit, I talked to Justin about having a Cousin Party for the kids. I caught Justin on a good day and he thought that sounded like a lot of fun and then went into coming up with ideas with me. We decided to have a camp out. We made invitations for the cousins to come over and Sleep under our Stars. We had so much fun together. I don't know if it was as much fun for the kids as it was for me to plan the party. When everyone got there we had them color a picture of a bear and told them we would be going on a bear hunt later and try to find their bear. It also gave me a little time to get organized since I had to work that day. We started off roasting hot dogs. We had originally thought we could do this outside in the fire pit but with March's weather we ended up using our stove. Thank goodness for gas! This was our trail mix that we made and they found on the bear hunt. After dinner we went on a bear hunt. We gave everyone a set up binoculars, a gun and a flashlight and sent them into the tent (Which was made my Justin) I truly love him! especially when he gets creative and goes along with my CRAZY ideas. Oh sorry, got a little distracted!!! He had wanted to make wooden gun with his dad's help but they ended up buying some which worked great too! So I had everyone in the tent and I told them they it was time to go and find their bear's. I told them they had to repeat after me. We're going on a bear hunt! We're going on a bear hunt! We're gonna catch a big one! We're gonna catch a big one! I'm not afraid! I'm not afraid! Are you? Are you? Not me! Not me! First we went through the icky mud. Which were brown paper puddles down the hall made my Allie. It was so much fun. I went first and said Ooh, gross icky mud. The kids laughed and then they did the same. It was hilarious. At the end of the hall was a target that they each got to have some Target practice. Millie standing in the icky mud! Next was the wide river. So they could get clean from the icky mud. Sophie started to undress she wanted a full on tubby we finally let her keep her shirt off so we could at least get one picture before we moved on to the next obstacle. Next we got to the tall tree. Here they had a marshmallow spoon race. Sophie and Xander were the best as they held their marshmallow on their spoon. Millie and Aubrie raced and Livy and Allie raced. No one person Won it was great they just had a ball running around the island. Finally we reached the Tall Mountain where they had to climb over the bean bag and found paper bears taped to the carpet. Here we played Animal, Animal, Bear. (Duck,Duck,Goose) The kids laughed and laughed at what animal they would think of before they would say Bear. I love laughter and enjoyed every single second with them. As the game came to an end I pointed to the hearth and said "What does that say?" They said, "The cave!" I began the end of the song. Shhh, it's a cave. Looks like the kind of cave that B-bears live in " I don't know if I want to go in there You think we oughta go in? There's probably a bear in there All right let's send Uncle Buh in, You stay here, And if he find a bear, he'll come out and get you And we'll go in one at a time Now, quiet, don't make a sound while he's in that cave, Cuz if you wake him up, will be in trouble Bears are awful ornery when they first wake up, you know At this point poor Sophie was scared. I realized that we had to lighted it up. So Uncle Buh went in and said I feel something in there and told Xander to go first and one by one he took them in till they found their bear that they had colored. Inside the bag was a conference coloring book, crayon and trail mix. And then the Bear came out to play and the cave was destroyed as so no one would worry about bears in the night. It was then time for my favorite part. SMORES. We roasted marshmallows. Millie's caught on fire. I don't know if she was just worried but I made a funny noise so she knew it was not a big deal and she laughed and laughed and laughed. She thought it was so funny that her marshmallow was burned. After Smores were made, PJ's were on, Popcorn had been popped we layed down for a Campout Movie. "Arthur goes camping" (The only one that I could find at the Library that would work for all ages) After that it was play time, teeth brushing time, scriptures and prayers... And fun tent time! Morning came to quick..... Xander started helping me with breakfast until Justin could get out of bed. Justin made pancakes with the first letter of their name for each one. We had juice and strawberries with pancakes. Breakfast also included a new wardrobe. I loved every minute with these kiddos. I truly love to be an Aunt. I worry when they are little of bothering their parents but when they are older and their parents need a break from them I truly love to be with them and play with them and laugh with them. Thank you Maph and Tiff, Clint and Tine for letting me spend time with them. And Jared and Digga I hope you get to the point when you need a break and I can spend time with Tiny! Sophie came up to Justin and said "Hold you" every time he would put her down she would again say "Hold you". Justin ate it up!!! When it was all over Justin said to me "We actually did really well, I'm impressed we really could handle six kids." I just laughed...... We'll see how he handles two during finals!