Conference Weekend Surprise!

I had the best surprise Conference weekend when the Bouck's showed up. It was so good to have them. The kids instantly started playing together as if there had never been a seperation. We had such a good time. We went to Ryan Dam on Sunday for a picnic lunch, only to discover that it doesn't open until Mother's Day. We had quite a fine time eating our lunch on the dirt next to the trail that lead to the swinging bridge to Ryan Dam Island. The highlight of their stay was definitly getting to see the septic tank sucker-outer truck come and clean out all the poop that was in our septic tank. I don't think we will ever forget the smell, or the plumber crack that was sported by the guy that came.

We had a hot dog roast in our firepit Monday night. It was really fun. We were all standing around with our hotdogs in the fire, there was no wind at all(that is really unusual) then all of a sudden Lucy got blown over and Caleb's hat went flying up in the air and ashes spewed all over our hotdogs. It was so wierd. Ryan saw the twister come right through the middle of us, and then as suddenly as it started it was over, and there was no more wind. After eating out hotdogs(with Jalapenos on them--Yummy!) the kids roasted marshmellows and made s'mores. It was the perfect evening.

Lucy and Mara were instantly friends, and it was so cute to see them play with the dress-up shoes and dolls. Mara so needed to have a girl to play with, Lucy taught her how to play with the girl toys that she has. They were so adorable together. Mara still asks for Lucy. It is so nice to know that distance cannot stop friendship!

We are officially Montanans

I am so proud of Sam and Noah! They made it a full year without candy and desserts! They had a few struggles, and it was really hard at times, but they set a goal and accomplished it. The $100 incentive was often times all that kept them going, but they did it. They decided to buy airsoft guns with their money. I was totally against it for the longest time, but after much convincing, I finally conceded. They have had the greatest time with them. Last night they found a bunch of aluminum cans in the ditch behind our fence, and set them up for target practice. They had a ball! Ryan was out there with them, and he had as much fun as they did. The weather was perfect last night, and we stayed out until 8:oo. We were out walking in the fields and It felt like I was on vacation somewhere in the mountains. I loved it. It was so peaceful and the kids were playing so well. It was a moment of bliss. It was very needed after the stressful day that Ryan and I both had.

Swimming Scouts!

Last night Noah's activity for scouts was swimming at the La Quinta Inn in Great Falls. They needed parents to stay, so I took Caleb and Max and headed off to the hotel. Ryan had stuff to do in the clerks office at the church, and Sam had scouts at the church, so Ryan took Sam and Mara and Emma and headed to the church. It was quite fun, We each got to spend some three on one time with kids we usually don't have. The boys loved swimming! The cub scout leader was quite worried about Max and Caleb. I was totally watching them, but she kept saying "How long do you let them stay under before you go in after them?" I didn't know what she was talking about at first, but then I realized they were having contests to see who could stay under longer and she was worried they were drowning. What was funny is that I am so used to them doing it in the bathtub that I hadn't even noticed that there was cause for alarm. Max loved the hot tub, and I had to keep sending him to the "cold pool" because his cheeks were bright red. Noah is quite the swimmer, and earned his swimming belt loop.

Max quotes "Nacho Libre" all the time, and he and Caleb were posing at Eskeleto and Nacho in the picture above. Caleb told Max "we always lose because you only believe in science." to which Max replied "we always lose because you are fat." I got quite the chuckle out of that!

Oh, Deer!

Okay so you all know my feelings about meat. Not the biggest fan to say the least! So it was a great surprise to me last night when there was a knock at our garage door and a guy from Ryan's work standing there with a whole deer that he had processed just for us. UGHHHH! what will I do with it. Ryan conviently forgot to tell me he was coming with it. So tonight I am going to Chili's for a girls night out with the relief society, and Sam wanted sheep herder casserole. I usually make it without the meat(I know wierd) but since I was not going to eat it, Ryan told me to make it with the ground deer. Honestly, even knowing that it would not touch my lips, I gagged the entire time I was cooking it. I don't know why it is worse than cow, it's a mental thing I know, but I was so grossed out! I scoured the pan and the spatula that I used to cook it and then disinfected the sink where I washed the pan. My stomach was churning the whole time. It better not spoil my dinner at chili's. I know we live in Montana, and hunting is the only past time for 90% of the population, but I will never get used to it. A guy we know up here that is an avid hunter has already told me I am un-American, and un- Montanan, and I shouldn't take up space here because I don't eat wild game. I guess I will never fit in. I actually hope I don't ever fit in, if that is a requirement to fit in. Disgusting!!!
The older boys ate it all just fine, they even said it was good, but in the middle of the night, Caleb came into my room saying he had a headache, and then he went into the kitchen for a drink of water and came back with a barf bucket. I told him if he needed to throw up he'd better run for the toilet. He did, he ran and just made it before he lurched. All I can say is that if i ever had thought about trying deer meat before, all possibility left when I saw and smelt Caleb's barf.

Wal-Mart Embarrassment

I know that you are all thinking, how can anyone get embarrassed at Wal-mart? After all, it is the hub of wierdos and PWT. Well, I've managed to do it...again. I guess knowing me, you won't be surprised though. Yesterday, I went there to go grocery shopping (I live in Great Falls, there honestly is no where else to go.) When I got there, I let Mara out of her carseat, and then realized that if I didn't want a crying baby all through the store, then I'd better feed Emma before I went in. I shut the van door and went around to the other side to get in because I can't crawl over Emma's car seat. When I got to the other side I realized that I had just locked all the kids in the car. I started tapping on the window to get Mara to come over and unlock the door for me. She thought I was playing a game and started tapping on the window where I was tapping and laughing. I went to the other side to tell Max to try to get out of his carseat. I alternatly was going back and forth between Mara and Max to try to convince them to let me in. I figured that eventually one of them would be able to help me out. Much to my mortification though, the guy who brings in the cart saw me and came over. The most embarassing thing though, was that he was the same guy who just a month ago had to help me jump the car because the battery was dead. I am sure he was thinking what a dumb helpless lady. I hate that. I am very independent and not dumb (even though my actions prove otherwise.) Mara eventually got what I was saying and managed to unlock the door instead of just tap at the window. What's even worse is that when I got home and relayed the story to Ryan he said 'Why didn't you just use the key that is in the magnetic box under the car. I AM AN IDIOT!! I completely forgot about the key. I was so sure that Mara or Max would help me out, and If the cart guy wouldn't have come over, I wouldn't even think twice about it, but I felt like and Idiot. Please tell me that other people do these kinds of things and I am not just loosing my mind.

We had the best surprise last weekend. Kevin and Joy Bouck came up to watch conference with us. I was in the kitchen on Saturday looking in the fridge for something to feed the kids for lunch when the door opened and Joy came in saying 'we just thought we'd come over for lunch.' I just stared at her, my mind couldn't comprehend how she was there. I had no idea that they were coming, Ryan did, and he kept it a secret. He is quite the secret keeper. We had such a great time! Saturday we let Sam and Noah tend and we went to dinner after the priesthood session. Noah called just as I was pulling into the driveway and said that the toilet downstairs was over flowing. I went inside and there was water all over. In the hallway and into Sam and Noah's room. So Kevin and Ryan cleaned up toilet water and pulled up carpet and started a fan to dry the carpet. On Monday when Ryan went to work (he had to go in because all of his seasonal employees were starting, and he had to be there to train them) Kevin ended up spending the day figuring out what was wrong with the toilet. I am sure that is just what he wanted to do on his vacation. It ended up that the septic tank was full and the line was clogged. $300 later, We have a clean line and and empty septic tank. It was so funny because Kevin was out talking to the septic tank sucker outer guy and Joy and I were watching them from inside and the guy bent over and I have never seen a Plumbers crack as big as that guy had. There is no way he could have been wearing underwear. We laughed so hard! On tuesday when they left, we were so sad. Max wanted to go with them so bad. We couldn't stand to stay in the house, so we went to the library and then to the park just to get out of the house. We are so excited to come home in two weeks. I am going to my mom's to teach a class, and I will bring the three youngest and then the next Friday Ryan is going to come down with the older three and we will leave our van down there to see if we can sell it. I am so excited for Summer! Only a month and a half of school left. I can't wait.

~Emma's Blessing Day!~

What a perfect day....Well, as perfect as it could be. We blessed Emma Hope Arkoudas today, March 30,2008. We had a lot of family come, and that meant so much to us. We realized when we decided to move so far away that we would probably not have family at events like this, but we had both of our parents there, and Ryan's grandparents. Ryan's two sisters, Jamie and Tami and their families. Two of my sisters also came, Michele with her family, and Meredith with her new fiance(He actually proposed on his way home from the blessing.) My parents and Jamie flew in on thursday, and it was so cold! The boys were hoping that when Coulsen got here, he could help them get a tree house up in the tree. But by the time that they got here on Friday, it was freezing and there was a major snow storm. One of the only ones we got this year.

Ryan's parents had a heck of a time getting through the passes. Wouldn't you know that the

only weekend that we need it to be good weather it's not. We ended up having both fires going the entire time. It was freezing. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. Michele stayed at a hotel, and Sam and Noah stayed there with them the first night, and then Sam and Caleb stayed there the next night. They thought that was so cool. Caleb loves his aunt Michele. Mara got to play with girls!! She and Sophie and Hallie had a great time playing together and Sophie taught her how to play like a girl. That was so fun. The baby strollers got used and the dolls got carried around.

On sunday, we went to the church and blessed Emma and then came back to our house for dinner. We had BBQ beef sandwiches and the house was full. Ryan's parents and grandparents and sister Tami saw the weather report that it was supposed to snow again and decided it was best that they head for home before the weather got worse, so less than 24 hours after arriving here, they headed for home. We felt bad that they traveled all that way for such a short time, but were so glad that they were here for Emma's special day.

I love this picture of Ryan and Emma! He wore his pink tie just for the occasion, and Emma is looking at him like she knows exactly who he is and Ryan is looking at her like he knows just how special she is. I love it!

By Sunday night everyone had left except Jamie and her girls. Brian flew in that night, and unfortunately for him had to hear Mara cry all night long. She had molars coming in and it was making her ear hurt. I tried everything that I knew. I put garlic in her ear in case it was an ear infection, I tried zoning her, I tried lavender oil to calm her down, I tried peppermint oil on her back to get her fever down. I even tried tylenol. Yes, I figured that would do the trick. It was the first time she has ever had tylenol, but nothing worked. She still cried all night long. I felt bad for her, but I felt even worse for Brian in the next room being kept awake.

I had a neonatal recussitation class the next morning, so I didn't even get to spend the day with Brian and Jamie, but Ryan had the day off, and he got to take care of sick Mara, and try to be entertaining for our company. By monday night everyone had gone home, and Ryan and I sat on the couch and looked at each other and wondered why we had moved so far away from our family that we love so muc. It was kinda depressing. Having everyone there made us realize just how much we miss them, and how much we like having them around. I was thinking that I had a little bit of postpartum depression(something I've never had before), but when everyone went home, I realized that it most likely wasn't postpartum depression, but rather just a homesickness of sorts. I missed having everyone around when I had a baby to help, and to just know that they were there.

We are so grateful to all who came up and sacrificed there time and energy to be there with us on Emma's very special day....Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It meant so very much to us.

St. Patrick's Day

We had a most excellent St.Patrick's day, complete with green scrambled eggs for breakfast and Corned Beef and mashed potates with green jello for dinner. The kids were hoping that a leprechan would come to our house again like he did last year, but he didn't.

Last year Ryan and I were in Hawaii for St. Patrick's Day and Nikki Thomas was tending. She went all out and had a pot of surprises and glitter all over and leprechan foot prints. A leprechan came to Caleb's class at school and messed up the room and left glitter all over. Caleb thought that was pretty cool. He set up a trap for one, but they didn't catch him.

I am not liking that Easter and St.Patrick's Day were on the same week this year.

Last Friday Ryan took Sam, Noah and Caleb skiing for the first time. They absolutely loved it. Noah was very skeptical about going, and I had to pretty much force him to go. He actually told me he would rather stay at school and take his friday spelling, math and reading tests. He wasn't kidding either, I guess it's good that he likes school that much. He had a great time though, they all said it was the best thing they have ever done in their lives. Caleb got really brave and started booking it down the mountain, then caught an edge and biffed it really good. He had on goggles, and the imprint of them is still in the corner of his eyes. Needless to say he was pretty cautious after that and stayed right behind Ryan the rest of the time. I wish I could have seen them.

I stayed home and took Max and Mara to tumbling for the first time. They loved it! Max is a little monkey and he had a grand old time. I actually got to talk to some moms, and that was fun for me too. Max wanted to go skiing really bad, and he would have done awesome, but three was hard enough for Ryan to handle on their first time, so Max can start next year. They are already planning another trip.

Max had his first trip to the Emergency room, he fell off the dog kennel onto the cement floor, and got a concussion. He seemed fine at first, but then he got all listless and kept throwing up. It ended up that he was okay, but you just never know. I can't wait for the bill from that one. Of course Ryan was out of town, but thank goodness Ryan's mom was here to help me. Max slept from 9:30 to 3:00, but when he woke up at three, he was back to his old 'jumping off everything' self.

My sister Meredith is getting married in Nauvoo on June 17th, so we are driving 20 hours to go there. We are going to go through South Dakota, to see Mt. Rushmore, and then through Nebraska to winter quarters and we'll stop at Farr West and Liberty Jail and Adam-ondi-aman. I am really excited, I love road trips. Our only problem is seats in our car. We are one short, so we have to see about getting another car.

We are blessing Emma on Sunday March 30th, and the kids are finished with their no-sugar diet that day. They are doubly excited to see family and to have treats. Sam wants brownies and ice-cream. Noah wants Chocolate eclairs (the frozen ones from Sam's club), and Ryan just wants anything Chocolate. ( He has only been on the no-sugar thing since January) We are so excited to see family and have cousins to play with. We ordered baby chicks from the farm store, they will come in May. I am so excited. I was hoping to have them for Easter, but they don't come in until May. That will give us time to get our chicken coop ready so that no animals can get in to get the chicks.

I am going to take a newborn ressusitation class on March 31st. I have been reading the textbook, and it is so interesting. I am excited to learn. I am hoping to become a birth assistant at the birthing center where I delivered Emma. I am very excited about that.

Almost March

So, life is unfortunately back to full swing. I always liked that little breather that you got from real life after you have a baby. I don't think you get that breather after six. Life still runs away with you, and five other kids still need to be taken care of.

I was so lucky to have my mom here with me for a week. She was such a big help. But I knew that eventually real life would have to set back in, and it did.

Emma is growing so much, but it feels like I have had her forever, so I am surprised that she is still so small.

Saturday, all the kids and Ryan were outside playing and working to clean up our backyard. I just couldn't stay inside, so I went out to help haul old wood and garbage to the fire. I really did feel fine, and was loving being outside on such a beautiful day. I guess I did too much though, because that night when I was trying to feed Emma, I had no milk. It was so frusterating to me. That has never happened to me before. I was so stressed that I didn't know what to do, or how I was going to feed her, which I am sure made it worse. I drank some peppermint tea, because I remembered that leafy greens and herbs are supposed to help. Wrong choice, turns out peppermint and sage dry up your milk. I finally got some stinging nettle and red clover tea, and drank apple juice, and that helped.

I had to talk myself into calming down, because I was such a stress case. I called the midwife who deliverd Emma and she said that I needed to take it easy, that when you do too much that can happen. I hope it is resolved, and I will be fine from now on. Who knew?

Mara is talking up a storm she repeats anything you ask her to say, and has started just saying her own things. Her favorite thing to say is 'YOU FUNNY' She has this great knack of saying it when it is really hillarious. So even though she says it all the time, I still laugh. We acutally get in arguments(friendly ones) about who really is funny.

The other day she was sitting at the counter and said 'The cow says MOOOOOO!' her first complete sentance. It was rather comical to hear that whole thing come out of her tiny mouth. She is alll girl. She loves tights and dresses and make-up and the purse that she got for her birthday.

Girls certainly are a diffrent breed than boys.

I was thinking about coming down to Utah for Spring Break, but we are going to bless Emma the sunday before conference (March 30) so I decided that I'd just stay home and get ready for that--Really her blessing is just an excuse, because when I started to think about driving 8-9 hours with a newborn and 5 other kids, I chickened out. I am turning soft in my old age, something I vowed I would never do. I'll have to make up for it when I get some energy back. Hopefully that will be really soon.

Sam turned 10 in December, and I have been bugging him to finish up his Bear badge, so we have been working on it a lot and really trying to get it all done by pack meeting this month. (January was the pine wood derby so they didn't do awards) We finally got them all done, and then I started reading what was required to get the badge. Turns out that I made him do all 24 of the requirements and he was only suppose to do 12. I know, I should learn to read the instructions.

He most certainly will have a lot of arrow points, and it didn't hurt him to do more, turns out though, he would have had his bear long ago. Sometimes I think i'm surly the biggest idiot. Good thing I can just laugh about it. Ryan and Sam both laughed as well, so all is good.

Can I just say I have three more boys to go through the scouting program. UGHHHH! Well enough of my novel, I have attached some more pictures. It seems like everyday babies change.

Mara Turns {2}

Still Here!

February 7, 2008 Hello everyone! It's been a while since I have written, maybe your glad about that, but I thought that I would fill you in on what has been going on. I went into labor on Sunday January 27th. Because I was way to early, I was put on bed rest. Yeah! That works with 5 kids! But Ryan was so good to help a lot and I had help from the ward, and then on Tuesday, my mom came up to help. It was so good to have her here. I was waiting to reach 36 1/2 weeks and to get my results from the strepB culture. I got those Friday,and because I was so sick of being in bed, I got up. ( I did have quite a few projects that still needed to be done before the baby came) And wouldn't you know. As soon as I got up and started doing things the labor stopped. Of course, It's Caleb all over again. So, on Tuesday I went to the doctor and she said I am only dialated to a 1 and will probably still go another whole week. I am sure I will probably go to my due date now. February 26th. My mom went home yesterday, and when we went to the school to tell the kids good-bye, Caleb was heartbroken. He had big tears rolling down his cheeks that he was trying desperately to wipe away unnoticed. It broke my heart. Poor kid. This morning he woke up and said "Mom last night I thought about grandma again and I couldn't stop the tears." We had such a good time with her. She is probably glad to be back home though so that she can rest. We made curtains for my room and Mara's, we put a continuous bias on a quilt, and did more laundry and ironing than you can possibly imagine and Ryan got the bathroom all painted and put back together. As a result, I feel much more prepared to have a baby. I have even geared myself up for the pain. I am so glad that she could come, but feel bad I didn't have the baby while she was here. She will probably come back up when the baby really does come. Today I am painting bead board that we are going to put up underneath our cabinets in the kitchen. It would be so nice if we could get the kitchen done before the baby comes, but we have to get new windows in the kitchen, and so we are waiting for them to be made and installed before we can finish that wall. We hope we can do the rest of the kitchen though, and I will be so happy to get rid of the baby blue paint and the flourescent lights. I was really hoping that we could get our Bathroom and Kitchen done before everyone comes up for the baby's blessing. We'll see. Well that's the news from Great Falls. We now just play the waiting game. I am fine with that, I like this part of pregnancy where you can feel all the little tiny feet kicking and I usually don't get to do this part very long. I'll keep you posted and of course let you know if it's a boy or a girl as soon as I can. Melly