Pay it Forward...

A friend of mine is doing this and I thought that it sounded like fun.

I will send a handmade gift to the first three (3) people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. You may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. (or just promise to do it somehow). I can't wait to see who I will be giving to.

To join, just cut and paste this on your blog and comment away. So get posting!!

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Maggie, I'm suppose to share 7 things about myself and then tag 7 people. I found this to be more complicated than I thought it would be. I've tried to think of 7 things other than, 1. wife of Jared, 2. Mother of Grayson, 3. Mother of Lydia, 4. Mother of Kate, 5. Cook, 6. Maid, and 7. Punching bag. I don't know if these are much better but here you go:

1. I'm an all or nothin kinda girl. When I do something I either go all the way or don't even bother doing anything. Lately I end up doing nothing a lot, because going all the way sounds like to much trouble. I don't know why but doing something half way drives me crazy. Sometimes I try to not go all the way with something and before I know it I've gone to far. Like a party for example, I think to myself "I'll just have a few friends over and keep things simple." next thing I know I've spent days stressing, cleaning, cooking and have twenty kids and their parents running around our house. Another example is cleaning. You might be thinking, Your house is never clean. This is the problem, I can't do light house cleaning. I put off cleaning because I know it is always going to be more intense than I was planning. Once I start cleaning a room I start to notice everything wrong with the room and it drive me crazy to not to the job right.

2. I LOVE candy. Most of you already know this. If I could survive and not gain a thousand pounds, I would eat candy all day long. In fact I go through periods when I am pregnant, where the thought of eating food makes me sick- but candy doesn't and I will only eat candy. Halloween was always my favorite holiday. I would eat all my candy in three days. I named my first doll Candy. If there is candy in a room all I do is focus on the candy. Someone could be talking to me and all I'm thinking is, "why are we talking when there is candy just sitting over there." It has taken lots of practice to control myself, and I never buy candy. I would go insane having it in my house. My favorites include Swedish Fish, Nibbs, Starburst, Reeses Pieces, Twix, Baby Ruth, Dove Dark Chocolate, and of course my mom's homemade chocolates.

3. When I was in first grade my favorite animal was a turtle. So, for Halloween I begged my dad to make me a turtle costume. This was back in the day when you didn't buy costumes and if you did they were those weird plastic kind. Well, my dad is an all or nothin kinda guy, and went all out and spent many hours making a paper mache shell. The costume was amazing for the time. My dad was so proud that he took me a Jazz game to participate in a costume contest. This how it worked- everyone was suppose to walk around the outside of the court and if they liked your costume they would pull you into the middle where they would chose a winner based off of crowd response. So, I'm walking around and next thing I know they pull me into the middle. Apparently, some guy in the crowd liked my costume(probably because I was the only kid in the middle) and started chanting "Turtle, Turtle..." Next thing I know the whole Salt Palace,(Yes this was at the Salt Palace) was chanting "Turtle, Turtle..." and I won a trip to California.

4. Growing up I lived with extreme paranoia. I was scared of everything, not just the dark or monsters. I had a lot of sleepless nights. I was scared that there would be a fire in the middle of the night and I wouldn't get out, I was scared that if I opened my eyes I would see a ghost. Walking in the middle of the day I would be scared someone would attack me, or there might be a flash flood. Yes, I know I was crazy to be afraid of a flash flood. My sibling loved to play trick on me because they know how scares I was. I spent most of my nights growing up on our couch, so I could fall asleep watching living scripture movies- they were the only thing that could calm me down. I'm over all that for the most part- I only freak out when I spend the night alone when Jared is out of town. (Jared says this is a mild description of my paranoia)

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5.I'm a picky eater. It's not so much that I don't like certain foods, I just like my food to taste good. Jared likes to call me a culinary snob. This doesn't mean I am a good cook either. I have no problem throwing an entire meal away if it is gross. It sounds like pure torture to sit and eat something I don't want to. I was always worried about going on a mission for this reason. I have a really bad gag reflex and honestly would probably throw up if I tried to eat something I didn't want to. I don't like skimping on cream, butter, salt, etc. I don't care if it's healthy as long as it tastes good. Now you all know why I'm so big.

6.If I could change one thing about myself, it would be that I could sing. I am hopeless when it comes to singing. I've honestly had people think I am joking when they hear me sing. The funny thing is, I was in Sunshine Generation when I was younger(I am really embarrassed to admit this). Here is the funny thing, they let me do solos, as you can see in this picture. Maybe none of the other kids could sing either. I've gone through periods where I wouldn't sing hymns in church or sing Happy Birthday at a party because I was to embarrassed, but I'm over that.

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7. My best friend has always been my sister Tami. I hear a lot of sister just fight while growing up. Not me and Tami we have always been really close. She was never to cool for me or at least she didn't act like it, even when she moved on the Jr. High or even High School. Most of my greatest memories include her. Best of all, we married best friends so we could stay as close as possible after we got married. I still talk to her almost everyday, we always call each other to brag about our great deals. We spend the first hour of every visit showing each other all the new clothes we bought or the new decorations in our house, and the best part is we know the other one is just as excited as we are. (Shelly don't be jealous, your my other best friend now that Tami is gone).

TAG your it! I've tagged seven people: Tami, Shelly, Chad, Melanie, Laura, Dirk, and Allison. I had to do husbands, I don't know enough bloggers. Within 7 days, write 7 things about you or you'll be stuck with 7 curses upon your head (that's what I've heard, anyways!). Pass it on! It's fun to read new things about people!

THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!

After visiting Disneyland with the Rays this summer, Jared decided he was going to get his mom to bring the Wright family back for a family trip. I didn't take him seriously, but in no time he had convinced his mom and made all the arrangements. We had so much fun with MaryAnn and the Cox's. I hope Grayson and Lydia will be able to remember (at least for a little while) the amazing experiences we had. It was a perfect time of year to go. The weather was great and the lines were short. Here are some of our Highlights.
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Ariel's Princess Celebration

We received the royal treatment at Ariel's Grotto for lunch. After being welcomed by Ariel we ate a special meal, and had all the princesses visit our table.

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Jedi Training Academy

Grayson had the opportunity to train in the ways of the Jedi. As a young Padawan trainee he took the Jedi oath and learned to wield a lightsaber. Then he used the force to battle against the Dark Side, fighting Darth Vader and Darth Maul. We didn't get any pictures of him fighting Darth Vader but we do have it on video (I'll try and post it later- it takes to much time).We were so proud of our little Jedi.

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The Blue BayouHaving diner at the Blue Bayou (inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride) was a special treat. The food was fabulous and the kids loved being pirates. They had amazing desserts, the one above is a pirate ship.
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Meeting our favorite Characters

Last time the kids were scared of all the characters and would barely even look at them out of fear. Luckily this time they were excited with every new character we saw.

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Thanks Grandma for a Great trip!

I think I'm out of the TWILIGHT ZONE!

The last two weeks have been rough for my family, to say the least. During this time our house was a total disaster, No laundry was done, and I have no idea what anyone ate. It's all kinda of a daze now that I look back. Yes we had the wedding and celebrated Halloween- but if I wasn't required to come out of the twilight zone, I didn't. For those of you that have no idea what I am talking about- I've been reading the twilight series. I finished the third one two days ago. I think that I can finally say I am back. It was a total addiction for me. I read every chance I had and would get really mad every time I had to put it down. I would stay up till one in the morning reading on the floor of our hallway(I didn't want to keep Jared up), just to start reading again 5 hours later when Kate woke me up for her morning feed. I don't normally do this, but what can I say I was addicted. So as soon as I was done reading, instead of jumping up to start cleaning the house or throw a load of laundry in, or even make sure my kids were alive I had to jump online and get more detail from the authors website. I spent the rest of the the day in a total depression(honestly), because the next book wasn't going to be done for like a year. I thought I was going to go crazy (well maybe just more than I already was), because I couldn't keep reading the story. So beware anyone who starts to read the series. Make sure you have access to all three books, that you have plenty of free time and your okay with the next book not coming for another year. Having said that I hope all my friends read them so we can chat. Just because I said I was out of the twilight zone doesn't mean I don't still think about it a lot.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite Holidays, probably because I am a candy addict. This year has been kind of crazy and different. We had a few scheduling conflicts and weren't able to throw our Halloween Party. It was very hard to let go. I'm trying to be more practical these days. We still attended a few carnivals so my kids have had there fair share of fun. They can't wait to go trick or treating. I'm still trying to decide if I'll let them keep their candy this year or take it away while they are sleeping. I don't know why, but the thought of letting my kids have their own little stash of candy sounds insane to me, yet I did at their age(maybe I'll just start blaming my mom for my candy addiction).

Grayson wanted to be a red dragon. He made this very clear months before Halloween. I tried to talk him into being something else, but he wouldn't give up. Every time he talked to anyone about Halloween he would tell them he was going to be a red dragon. So I gave in. I thought about making the costume, but after a short visit to Joanne's I decided that was out of the question. Luckily we found this one.

Lydia wanted to be Snow White. I did make this costume, and I am very proud of it. A lot of Stress, Time, Yelling, Swearing and Love went into it. It may be the last costume I ever make. As you can tell from the pictures she really thinks she is a princess. She performed a Halloween dance with her dance class at a Davis County Carnival- I'll post a video later.
If you can't tell from this picture Kate is suppose to be a pink poodle. Basically Kate got the shaft this year. I was going to put her in Lydia's chicken costume from when she was the same age, but I couldn't find it. So basically I went and bought this costume today out of total guilt. I didn't want Kate looking at her baby book and ask why we didn't dress her up like the other kids. So here she is our adorable pink poodle.

THE WEDDING

This last weekend my big brother Billy tied the knot with Aunika. I am so happy for them. It was such a fun day and everything looked so beautiful. We were all so excited because Molly, Billy's ex, let Wyatt, his son, come out for a couple of days for the wedding. Grayson, Porter and Wyatt wouldn't leave each others side. For this reason, the three of them were in charge of the rings, since Wyatt wouldn't do it alone. But even with three of them caring for the ring, some how they managed to loose Billy's ring. When Wyatt held up the pillow that the rings were suppose to be tied to there was only one ring. We had to stop the ceremony for a couple of minutes while we all searched the grass for the missing ring. The whole time the boys were making comments like "I guess it's gone." Luckily Toby found it and everyone clapped. It was so funny. My other favorite moment of the day was when Tami's tights fell to her knees while dancing. You'll have to read her blog for the full story. We all love Aunika, what a blessing to have her in our family. I can't wait to be neighbors.

Pack's Pumkin Patch

Last night our crazy family decided to go pick some pumpkins. We braved the rain, hail, and freezing temperatures to find the perfect pumpkins. It was the only free time Jared had this week so we went despite the weather. I laughed as we drove up and I realized, "yep we're the only people stupid enough to come out on a night like this." The kids didn't care since they had been waiting weeks to go. In the above picture Jared is pretending to have a good time, but he's not, I think he was really annoyed by the whole thing. But I guess that is what makes him such a great dad, pretending to have fun for the kids. I love picking pumpkins from the fields. There is just something about finding that special pumpkin that speaks to you. I also love that you can get really big pumpkins. When we got home we drank hot chocolate and carved Jack-O-Lanterns. I LOVE Halloween.

I'm a Loser

So, here is a little story about me and what a loser I am. Yesterday morning after running on our treadmill I went to the fridge to get some water. (for those of you that don't know, I am a water snob and only drink bottled water, I'll gag if it's not. I know-lame). Anyways, I open the fridge to find no more water. Dang- I'll have to go out to the car to get some. That's when I realize I already took off my tennis shoes. I'm lazy and just slip on a pair of dress shoes sitting by the front door. I peek outside, is anyone going to see me in my stylin workout clothes (tank top and shorts) and dress shoes. There's only a million people flying down the busy street to the side of our house. Hopefully none of them will notice me. As fast as I can I start running for the van.
On the way I notice one of the construction workers from next door sitting in his car. Crap- he has definitely seen me. I open the back of the van and decide not to just take one bottle of water but the whole case, as I grab it the plastic wrapping rips and water bottles start rolling everywhere. I can't believe this is happening. At this point all I want to do is Abort mission and run back into the house, but that would look even more stupid.
So I'm bending over trying to recover all the bottles when I see the worker walking up to me. Now I'm really stressed, I've just remembered I still have black eyes from my makeup (I usually wash them off after my shower). I look up and try to pretend that, A. I'm not wearing dress shoes with my workout cloths, B. I don't look like a freak with big black eyes, and C. I don't feel like a complete loser chasing bottles around. Then he goes on to ask if he can come over and work on something with our windows. I can't quite concentrate on what he is saying because I'm still thinking about me. He asks when a good time to come over would be, and I tell him, "I'm about to jump in the shower, so give me a half hour but I'll be home all day." I was thinking he wanted to come in and install the hardware on our new windows. Well, a while later he came over and started working outside on one of our back windows. Apparently he was just worried about making to much noise and didn't want to come in. So he was probably wondering why he had to wait for me to take my shower before he could start making noise. I wanted to go explain the whole misunderstanding but decided that would be even weirder. I don't' know if that made any sense but that point is I'm a loser and will probably be a little more careful before my next emergency trip to the van.

Our own little chef?

Lately Lydia has really been into helping in the kitchen. It was really cute at first, but I starting to worry this could get really annoying (I'm a mean mom).If I spend anytime in the kitchen she is right there with me. She pulls out her little stool and asks "What you makin." I just hope it will all pay off and she can start cooking family dinners when she's, like ten. Grayson likes to tease her and say she's not a real baker, cook or chef. It makes her really mad. So far she is showing all kinds of signs that she will be the responsible older sister who thinks she is in charge of everything. Great for me, not so great for future siblings. For now I'll try not to get annoyed and teach her all I know about cooking, which isn't much.

GRAYSON'S SUPER PARTY

Grayson celebrated his 5th Birthday with a superhero party. It was so fun to have all his friends over. We had to import some boys since there aren't any in our area. At the party we trained the kids to be superheros with different activities. Just before having cake and ice cream we told all the kids that a bad guy "The Hungry Hairy Hunter" was coming to try and steal Grayson's cake. We told them they would need to use their new skills to stop the Hairy Hunter, and then armed them with silly string as their weapon. When the Hungry Hunter came half the kids loved attacking him with the string and the other half were scared for their life, it was pretty funny. We didn't mean for it to be so scary. After he left we had him come back without his mask on to show the kids it was just Grayson's uncle chad (who happens to be a very nice guy). They all seamed to be okay once they saw he wasn't really a bad guy. Below is a video of the attack.