I love living close to a zoo!

After living in Shilo, Manitoba for so long... land of nothing but the army base, fields and way too many deer... I am loving living close to amenities.

Things were so busy this summer that I have slowed things down as much as I can (and for cakes, down to a halt... need a break) and I am finding opportunities to do things with my kiddies. I don't want to miss out on actually living life and enjoying some moments with my children. I've watched/felt like too many moments have passed by. So I'm making a point to actually do something so that I don't feel that way as much. This week I took Madi & Dallin & 2 of my dayhome children to the zoo! Love it... only takes 20 min to get there, about an hour and 1/2 there and 20 min back. (In Shilo, it would've been an all day trek to go to the zoo and back.)

 Madi & Dallin sitting on a seal statue.

Madi is posing with an arctic squirrel statue. Can't really tell, but she really wanted me to take a picture of her with it! It turned out to be a really sweet picture of her! Love you Madi!!

Dallin missed his nap to go to the zoo... he fell asleep on the way home. So sweet! I even drove around the block a few times so that he could keep sleeping. My dear little boy, love you Dallin!!

Adam is my runner!

So every fall the kids school has the 'turkey trot' run. This month he has been looking forward to running the race... he wanted SO BADLY to get first place because the prize is a turkey. (The turkey is really one of those little chicken/cornish hens, but to him it's a big bird, lol.) 

Well, the run was on Tuesday... and he came home after school grinning ear to ear! He came in first place!!! *Happy dance* And he had his turkey! And because he placed first, he was entered into the district turkey trot.

So yesterday was the district turkey trot. My dad went to watch him (Bryce couldn't break away from work and I was home with Madi, Dallin & 3 other day home children). Adam was thrilled, he loves it when Grandpa comes to watch him! I love my parents, they are so supportive of the kids and try to come to as many of the kids events/activities as they can (they are in the temple presidency, so they are at the temple for a good chunk of their week, busy people!). 

Adam came home after school and had a ribbon in his hand. He placed 19th... out of 67 runners! Which I thought was great! I was really proud! But then he told me that he would have placed better but one of the kids running fell and hurt himself, so he stopped in the run to help this boy get up and he took the time to make sure that he was ok. He only continued the run when the boy told him that he was fine and that Adam should keep going. *happy tears!!* SOOOO PROUD of my boy!! Who cares how he placed, my son showed great sportsmanship... Just can't express enough my love for my boy!! Great job Adam!!

Dad took a couple pictures for me... thanks Dad!!

it's been a long time since I've posted!!

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted. Having said that, I can believe how long it's been since I've posted. This past year and a bit has been a whirlwind!! 

We moved to St Albert. Love it. It's been great for the kids and for us too. We are really liking living close to my family. The kids see grandma and grandpa Hogg lots and Aunty Lindsay & Liam too.It's been so good for our family to finalllly be in a house. Wow. Who knew it would make such a difference for us? Well, I did, lol. The whole having 1 toilet for 7 people in a teeny tiny bathroom, for 4 years was enough to drive us all crazy. It's funny though, the kids still line up outside one bathroom and get mad at each other bc they want to use the bathroom! I have to remind them that there ARE OTHER toilets to use!! Old habits die hard I guess. And my kids will always find something to fight about/over.

Hmm. What else? I taught cake decorating at Michaels for about 9 months, then I was tired of it... I like teaching but they kept screwing up my pay checks... or not paying me at all & then I'd have to chase down my money. Anyone who knows me knows that I expect to be paid when I am supposed to be paid. Period. Plus it meant that I was gone 2 evenings/week, which doesn't sound like much, but when I factor in going to Young Women's activities on a 3rd evening a week, I realized that I was hardly seeing my older, school aged children. At first it was a nice break not having to do the bed time routine, it was a treat for sure. But it didn't take long for me to miss being able to be the one to rock Dallin and sing to him (poor kid, lol) and have him fall asleep in my arms. So I quit. Glad I did. I don't miss it. I miss my students (some of them) but it's not worth it at this point in my life. Maybe when Dallin goes to school I'll go back and offer classes during the day. Maybe. I think what I'd really rather do though is be home so that if my kids need me, or if they are sick, I can help them at a moments notice. I think I'll just pick up the pace with cakes. I have gotten pretty quick at making cakes... let me clarify that... WHEN MY KIDS ARE NOT AROUND, I can make a cake fairly quick. 

So cakes... I have made sooo many cakes this year. Holy cow, I barely saw the summer this year. I was in the kitchen making cake after cake. I had no dayhome kids this summer so money had to come from somewhere. Thank goodness the heavens opened and I had so many orders that it got to the point I had to turn away customers. But now I am burned out. I'm taking a little cake break. Although, I was going to bake this afternoon... I still have the desire to create and to make cakes... it's an illness ;)

Let's see what else is new? Bryce had another med school interview this spring at the University of Calgary. We didn't expect that he would even get an interview invite. But he did and we were excited! Bryce did not get in... which we are all actually happy about that. I don't think it's the right time. Who knows if he will ever get in, but it's worth trying. What I'm really hoping for is that (if) by time he gets in, that the military will have more funding and that he will be able to keep his job and have them pay for university and that we won't loose our pay check and have to foot the university bill ourselves (and all the costs of living... OUCH... that's a lot to borrow!). We'll see. I trust that God has a plan for our family, and for each of us in our family. I know that we are where we are for a reason. I feel it deep inside, so that helps me find peace through all the craziness in my life/in my families life.

So we got together with Lindsay a couple weeks ago. We thought that we would try to do some family pictures. WOW. Insane thought. Good intentions, but really, kinda crazy!! We did manage to get a few good pictures. We were out a little later in the morning, so the light wasn't right (I knew that going into it) and I never ever know what I'm going to get with my kids. Happiness? Grouchiness? Who knows! Here's how our shoot went...

Here's me with June and Madi (such pretty girls!!) Love my girls!!!

Here I am with my boys!! (Dallin, Adam and Noah on the right) Love my boys!!!

Me and June

OK, so here's where the pics began.... see Dallin starting to squirm?

And see Dallin starting to strip down? Of course clothing is optional in family pictures!! lol

And the final result... Dallin in a diaper. Nice. Classy. lol!!

And here is Bryce and me. I like this picture... Lindsay caught it... I was feeling like this was a crazy idea to even try to take pictures... I had put my head on his shoulder bc I was just happy to be with Bryce. And what you don't see in the picture are all 5 of my children chasing around behind Lindsay!! Funny how we look at pictures and it's easy to think that all is well because everyone looks 'put together'. I look at these pictures now and I'm actually glad that the day was crazy, it made for some funny pictures and now it's a good memory. At the time, not so much, it was a little discouraging and I just felt like we would never have a nice family picture. BUT what I've taken away from this is that things don't have to be perfect and that I will try hard to remember that we should be trying to have fun and that that will make the best pictures... and memories! Lindsay and I at the end decided that it was really good that we didn't pay anyone, lol...

But because I'm a little crazy, I actually will be paying someone to do our photos next week. I made some frosting sheets for a lady last night and she had mentioned that her sister is a photographer. She showed me her site and I really liked the work I saw. And her rates are affordable, so I contacted her and we are all set up to have a session for next week. CROSSING FINGERS again! lol! I'm sure that the picture that will be the best will be the first picture she takes, lol... when everyone is still fresh-ish. (if that's even a word!)

OK, it was really nice to leave the world of kids. Dallin is melting down. Guess it's snack time... should be nap time... I shouldn't get so sidetracked so often. Although, being sidetracked often means I have a little Melissa time. So I take it back, I want to get sidetracked wayyyy more often!

And on that note, time to be a mom and settle my kids down/feed them ;)