My baby

I love that crazy hair and those baby lips...

Where are You?????

Jaylene!?!?!  Christy?!?!?  Susan!??!  Where are you guys?!?!  Don't you think it's a little unfair to just partake of our blogs but put out none of your own??  C, mom, it's EASY and it's fun!  You know you want to........  PLEASE?!?!  I need more blogs on my list so I don't look like such a loser...

Congratulations Jonathan!!!!!!

This is my little brother Jonathan.  Isn't he cute?  I need some better pictures of him.  This picture was taken last summer from our cruise through Beverly Hills in a sweet convertible 12 passenger van.  We had so much fun laughing at ourselves in that polig rig and seeing peoples reactions to it.  Anyway, I'm writing this post to congratulate Jonathan.  So, congratulations Jonathan!!!  He graduated from hair stylist school yesterday.  (I'm gonna have stylin hair the rest of my life).  He did it with(at times) compromised health and while working full time.  I know we'll be seeing him and hearing about him in magazines and on tv.  He's super talented, creative and he's just cool like 'dat!  I love him so much and I'm really happy and excited for him!  I love you Jonathan!!!

John, a good friend and a dandelion

A Poem by Jaylene Wood

Wind rushing past my ears

whispering an unspoken wish,

my arm resting on my good friend, Rocky.  

  Parts of the dandelion wish tumbling gently down, 

down upon my friend, 

my friend laying in the grass. 

 The wind whispers to my friend and he smiles. 

 Time stands still.

With all the strong men around here, we were able to get our hot tub in position at our current house.  That thing is HUGE...

Brandon B. with his clone Michael Angel.  He is the smiliest baby and SO cute!!

Megans Husband, Chris and their baby Neamiah.

My boy, Christopher and Luke Butler.

Summer Fun

So everyone is white water rafting right now.  I didn't go.  I've been several times and I wanted to get some things done.  It's hard for me to get anything done (including simple things like dishes) when I've got company.  I just want to hang out and play.  Megan (Wendys' daughter) Chris, their new baby and Brandon (Wendys son), Celina and their two kids all left last night and this morning.  It was so fun to see them all and see how much little Sean has grown and meet the two new babies.  It's so weird to think that Wendy is a grandma.  She is lovin it though and I can see why.  Megan is such a good new mom.  She's so loving and attentive.  No big surprise there.  She seems really happy and that's good to see.  She has had quite the tramatic last couple of years as has all the Butlers with the lose of Michelle.  So it's good to see them having fun together again.  Last night Wendy, Amanda (my sis in law), Jodie (sis in law) and I all watched P.S. I love you at Robert and Jodies house.  They have an awesome theatre room with the reclining theatre seats and everything.  That movie was a big tear jerker.  It made it more so I think with Michelles death being fresh.  A really good movie though.  I'm not sure what the plans are when everyone gets back.  They should be back pretty soon.  The rafting is in Bend.  The Butlers want to go horseback riding sometime this week.  Maybe friday.  Rocky (wendys husband) and John (mine) are going to go to the coast tomorrow to go golfing.  It's Johns birthday.  Wendy and I might float down the river while the guys are golfing.  I'll keep my blog updated...

waterfalls

Our bike and waterfall day trip with my sister Wendy Butler and my brother Andy Moss' families.

Since we were in Indian country we painted ourselves with warpaint before taking on the natural water slides.

Good times with the Butlers

A few pictures from our weekend with the Butlers here.  Most of the outdoor pictures are from our "Polima Plunge" day trip.  We biked down a mountain stopping and hiking into some water falls along the way.  The water was SOOOO cold.  Straight from the snow melt, not far away.

MOTHER OF THE YEAR!!!

Hold your applause.  There's been an upset!  They've taken Dina Lohans' (lindseys mom) award away and given yours truly the distinguished title of Mother of the year!  How did I finally receive this recognition you ask?  It takes a special kind of woman with a knack for organization: a woman with a meticulous eye for detail;  a woman with a keen ability to sense her childrens needs;  a woman with a huge zit on her check that sucks every brain cell (that she has left) out.  I was in the front running for the award but yesterdays events put me over the top!  

My sweet little Branson worked so hard all year long learning his math,  coloring some awesome shark pictures,  learning his sounds, eventually able to sound out and READ many many words.  He's mastered and experienced the ins and outs of a farm (he's an expert on pig noses).  He's become somewhat of an expert (through much trial and error) on self control (what it means) and he knows exactly what happens when you plant a sunflower seed and water it.  My little Branson deserves much praise and recognition for a job well done!  A special special day with lots of pomp and circumstance.  A day to stand up and sing for his parents; a day to set out his many works of art and writtings to share with all who passes by.  A day where his mom follows his every move ready to forever capture the moment digitally.  A day where his teacher presents him with an official document of graduation from Kindergarten.  Proof you're now a first grader.   My sweet little Branson had most of that day yesterday only with one tiny thing missing.... MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

I THOUGHT IT WAS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

My skills as a mother have out shined Dina Lohans!

Bikini follow up

Emily shared my blog with her friends in computer lab today.   She specifically shared the post about them in their bikinis.   She loves to make me look bad or uncomfortable.   I drove those same friends home from school today.   Good times... Guess I don't need to talk to anybody now...

punishment

This picture is a couple of years old. Sometimes  when Christopher and Emily would fight  I would make them hug until I said they could stop.  I let them stop when they were both laughing.  Christopher enjoyed making his sister feel uncomfortable.

Grandpa Casler

I found My old camera today.  The card in it had never been down loaded.  It's fun to discover old pictures of the kids that you haven't seen before.  This little video is precious.  This is Branson with his great grandpa Casler a couple of months before he passed away.  Grandpa was the most amazing man and I grew to love him very much because of how good he was to my kids.  I've never seen a man play with and take so much interest in any children ever.  He was so full of patience and love.  This was a typical scene in grandpas workshop.  Always thinking of ways to teach and spend time with his grandchildren.  Towards the end of the video he says "this is the best part of being 80".  Our grandpa is truly loved and missed by us.

Bikini Action at the Wileys!

Today was a little crazy.  I guess most saturdays are.  With summer coming shortly, everyday will be.  That's okay.  That's actually something I usually enjoy.  I suppose coming from a family of 9 kids makes the chaos feel like home.  Anyway, Emily (who is 12) had 5 or 6 little girls over most of the day.  They all wanted to go swimming and after several hours at our community pool they all came back to our house.  So I've got all these (nieve) little girls (some NOT so little) running around my house and JUMPING on the trampoline in itty bitty bikinis.  John and I just had to laugh but we were glad that Christopher wasn't home lol.  I told Emily "I can't have all your friends running around here in the summer in bikinis".  She says (with as much teenage angst that she can muster) "why???"  Soooo, I may have to broach the awkward subject with her friends in the future.  Not really wanting to do that but I will if I have to.  I suppose I could casually say "hey guys get your clothes".  What do you guys think?  I remember back (in the day) when Christys'(my sister) friend, Laura would hang out at our house wearing nothing but a bikini with her DD's hangin out. lol  She would spend the day like that.  I remember my mom being annoyed because she had all her sons around lol.  I didn't quite get it then.  I do now...

Espen Lind - Scared Of Heights (Live fra Senkveld)

I figured out how to put the espen lind video from youtube on my blog! Yeahhhhhh!!!!

Blog

Yeah, my blog looks better!  Nothing fancy but I think I like it.  Now I just need a picture of my kids at the beach to replace the one of them on the bench.  It'll have to wait for a trip to Carlsbad!

Six Degrees of Separation

So I'm turning into a bit of a blogging stalker.  I just find it interesting (and addicting) to look at peoples blogs.  The whole blogging thing started for me when I googled an old friends name and found their blog.  So cool!  So then I click on their friends list and their friends friends list and so on...  After a few clicks I find myself on some Moss family blogs.  They end up being distant cousins of mine!  So crazy.  So I continue to click away going through their friends and families list when I see a Mindy and Troy.  No way, could it possibly be Mindy and Troy Mounts?!?  It was!  Mindy is a dear old friend that I have known my entire life.  Mindy, the Moss cousins and the old friend all live in different states and have never met.  I've heard we are all just six people away from eachother.  Well I think if you are lds it's more like 3 or 4 (from other lds people of course).  I wonder who I'll find tomorrow...  

My new favorite song

You can't get the song on ITunes (yet).  So you have to go to his Myspace his name is Espen Lind (he's from Norway) and the song is Scared of heights.  Worth the trouble to listen to.... trust me!

So I haven't posted anything in a while.  My cameras been in Johns car I don't like to write anything without a picture (too boring) yadda yadda yadda...  I really should be in bed right now but it's hard to give up the peaceful quiet in my home at this late hour.  Nothing too exciting going on here.  John and I have been working on putting in a patio in our backyard.  Well, John has actually been doing the "work" part but I have tons of great ideas to contribute!  I'll post pictures soon.  We are moving our hot tub from mom and dads house to our house which I'm really excited about.  I'm sure mom and dad aren't too excited about that.  It will be quite the ordeal to move it.  That's why we haven't done it yet.  It's presently on a second story balcony.  We had it placed there using a crane a few years back when we lived in what is now my parents house.  So we'll have to have a crane lift it over the house again and bring it to our current house.  It'll be worth it.  I got John to finally make the improvements in our yard because Wendy and Rocky are coming in a few weeks.  So we'll need lots of oohs and aaahs from you Butlers when you come.  We are really excited to have the Butlers come.  They haven't been here in quite sometime.  We're gonna do lots of fun stuff.  

Today Branson ran in the house all excited yelling "mom mom look what my friend gave me!!!"  He had a little ziplock bag with a lizard tail in it.  How can you squash that enthusiasm?!  I can't.  He is such a dirty, bike ridin, knockin on all the neighbors doors, climbing on the "mountain", fort building, dad tool stealin, weapon makin, fun lovin boy!!!  He is so funny and so cute.  Tonight he decided for whatever reason to get naked, when I saw him I said to him very seriously "why are you naked, where are your underwear??"  (It was bed time and he usually sleeps in his underwear).  He paused for a minute to think and said "they fell off and they've disappeared"   lol  I continued to press him and he was so insistant that his underwear (whitey tighties) just fell off and disappeared.  He stuck to his story lol.  He's always been a streaker lol.  Lets hope he grows out of that SOON.

This Emily and her friend and team mate Alex Johnson participating in the Pole Peddle Paddle last saturday.  This is Emilys' third year in it.  What is the Pole Peddle Paddle you ask?  Well, it's a race with lots of different legs that people either compete themselves and do the whole thing or people have teams and do different legs of the race.  Emily is on a team so she does the rowing or "paddle" part of the race.  The race starts up at Mount Bachelor.  The first person sprints part way up the mountain wearing ski or snowboarding boots and carrying either skis or their snowboard.  Then they either ski or snowboard down the mountain.  That's the "pole" part.  I might mess the sequence up here a bit but I believe next is the cross country skiing.  Then the next person bikes down the mountain 20+ miles to town.  That would be the "peddle" part.  Next comes the runner.  I believe that's around 5 miles.  Next is Emily and Alex' part.  They row in their boat up stream then down stream then back up stream (maybe a mile or two).  That would be the "paddle" part.  Finally comes the sprint to the finish line and that's about 1/4 of a mile.  It all takes about 2.5 hours.  There are hundreds of teams and/or participants.  Maybe a thousand people.  I could be way off here I'm not sure all I know is there's a lot of people.  Some of teams have a theme that they dress as.  So there's lots of people dressed really crazy while they are participating.  It's pretty funny sometimes.  What's really impressive about Emilys team is that they participate in the adult full race.  On sunday they have a kids version.  They had several articles in the paper about their team last year with some funny quotes from Emily.  It was such a hot day.  A record here.  I think it was about 96 degrees.  So miserably hot for the participants (and the viewers). 

Look what Sophie did today!

This is Branson with his best buddy Gabe.  Branson plays so hard all over the neighborhood.  He has lots of friends and loves to ride his bike and play "on the mountain" behind our house.  As you can see he gets pretty dirty.

around the house

around the house

Mothers Day

Branson informed me yesterday that I have a "pig nose" lol.  I asked him if he's always thought that and he said "no, just since we learned the song piggy oink oink at school".  I had to stop laughing so I could tell him that wasn't nice to say lol.  

Alrighty then.  So I haven't written for a while.  I've been waiting to download my most recent pictures but I can't find the thingy (is it a usb port?)  I'm so computer illiterate.  I can pretty much do what I want to do but I don't know the exact lingo.  The one thing I don't know how to do that I want to know how to do is make this blog cute!  I look at all these blogs and they're like really cute scrapbook pages.  Wish I could figure that out...  Anyway.  Mother day was good.  I think I've finally recovered from a full day of actually doing nothing (domestic).  The house WAS    A    MESS!!   It even started clean on sunday.  The kids were so sweet on Mothers Day.  When I woke up in the morning I could hear someone down stairs in the kitchen furiously working.  I forced myself not to get up because I knew that Emily was downstairs preparing me breakfast in bed.  So I waited, nervous that I'd end up late for church.  I was pleasantly surprised when Christopher brought me breakfast in bed.  He beat Emily to the punch and she was not happy I might add.  He Made pancakes, fruit and scrambled eggs and brought it to me using the highchair tray lol.  He even put a pretty little flower in a little tiny vase on it.  Sitting through sacrament meeting was interesting lol.  Our family has recently graduated to one of the prominent middle seats in the chapel.  Having another baby and the kids just getting bigger has forced us to vacate the more discrete side seats.  So there we were pretty much front and center and I allowed John to give me a mothers day break.  So I sat on the other side of him and the three little ones lol.  After the sacrament the bishop stood up and commented on Johns struggle with Sophies headband lol.  THe boys were out of control.  The people behind us kept laughing and I wasn't sure what exactly was going on on the other side of John.  It couldn't be any worse than the old days when Branson used to scream in church "I have to go poop and it's diarrhea!!!"  He knew how to get me movin.  After church the kids and I took flowers to a couple of nursing homes for the ladies there.  The first nursing home was not very fancy.  Clean but run down.  I was surprised how many women were there in their rooms alone on mothers day.  Their faces sure brightened when Jack or one of the other kids gave them a flower and said "happy mothers day".  The second nursing home was so much different.   The parking lot was full and it was hard to find a place to park.  The facilities were so nice.   The staff directed us to a big room where they were having a special mothers day program.  It was full of families visiting their loved ones.  What a difference.  The kids walked through the room starting in the back working their way to the front handing out a flower to all the "grandmas".  They're faces lit up when one of the kids gave them a flower and wished them a happy mothers day.  I was getting nervous because we were running low on flowers and all these ladies were watching us anticipating their turn.  It was amazing, we had exactly enough.  Not one more flower left and everyone got one.  It was a great experience for the kids and I.  I think I've started a good tradition.  No one can argue with me about doing it because it's mothers day and it's what I want to do lol. 

I'll post an old picture just so this isn't quite so boring.

 So I still have not figured out how to add links to my page.  I'll just have to tell you about this one.  Christopher along with his cousins Jacob and Preston have been making some pretty funny little movies and posting them on you tube.  The latest one they made while we were gone is my favorite.  So to see it go to www.youtube.com  and type in thesonicyes   All one word.  Enjoy!

Bless her heart....

Just a picture I didn't upload while we were in Paris.  This lady stayed at our hotel and one day went on a tour group trip with us to Mont Saint Michel.  REally, the makeup was like nothing I have EEEVVVEEERRR seen before.

We're home!  I'll tell a little about our last day in France (sunday) just so I can have it all recorded.  Sunday we took the train to Versaille.  John had never been and I loved my time there in the past looking and wondering around the huge gardens.  It was a sunny warm day, the first day like that in over a week.  I used my umbrella (that I had been using most days for the rain) as a shade.  There were So many people there.  It seemed like a crazy amount to me.  The first part of the gardens with all the big fountains was for people paying to get in.  We did that.  They piped in classical music all throughout that part.  It was very beautiful and again, surreal.  The flowers weren't overly impressive like they had been when I was there in June.  As we traveled further down the gardens we entered a part of the gardens that was open to the public for free.  That's when the real crowds began.  So many people picnicking, riding bikes, rowing boats in the huge man made pond.  Lots of families which made it interesting but not exactly tranquil.  We walked I think for miles.  I really wanted to see Marie Anntoinettes "cottage"  that she liked to escape the formality of the main house for.  We never found it.  

last night I google earthed it and we were so close!  Just yards away in a garden that expands for miles!  Oh well.  A good day regaurdless.

So today we took the high speed train from Paris to London.  It only takes 2 hours on the train and you go under the English Channel.  I've posted some highlights from our day below.  So much to see in only one day.  We'll just have to go back another trip!

The Tower of London.  Built in 1070!  Very cool.  We went in and toured it for several hours today.  So much fascinating history there.  Anne Boylen was beheaded there along with many others.

How beautiful is that bridge in London?  It's NOT the Tower of London (I thought perhaps it was).

how cute are those lights with the crowns on them?

Big Ben and the house of Parliament.  It's amazing and sureal in person.  We walked across the bridge and got on a boat for a ride down the Thaimes  (sp) River.

this is at Au Lapin Agile (the nimble rabbit)  a very famous and OLD cabaret on Montmartre.  We spent our evening up there and stopped by this famous night spot.  I felt like I was in Les Miserables in the "master house".  Like Paris 150 years ago or so.  Mostly French people in there drinking and having a big sing along.  Quite entertaining.

What a day.  We stayed in Paris and slept in.  We were so tired from our recent excursions.  Today in France was Labor Day.  Probably not the best  day to be in France.  Everything was closed except the restaurants.  When we walked outside of our hotel it was chaos.  People everywhere!  Some pretty scary lookin ones too.  I held onto John tight.  There were all kinds of political groups with their flags, music, dancing, yelling, banners, costumes, food....  Some parts I felt like I was in the middle east somewhere.  We walked all around.  There was actually a very large group calling for the fall of capitalism and viva la communism.  Pretty scary to think that there are so many of them living in a capitalist country fighting for communism.  An interesting walk for sure.  Maybe not the safest place for us to be.  We stood out like crazy, esp me!  After that we got on the metro and went to the eiffel tower.  We figured with everything closed it would be a nice place to walk.   We weren't the only ones with that idea lol.  SOOO many people out today.  We walked for a long time, stopping for lunch along the way.  We ended up on the champs-elysees.  We walked down a really fancy blvd where we saw some amazing cars.  One was a bullet proof Bentley.  We took the metro back to our hotel after our long walk.  So we didn't do a lot today but we saw some interesting things and enjoyed ourselves.  Brenda, I think that you and emily are the only ones reading this lol.  I love your comments! Thanks.

Don't park in his driveway!!!!  btw I did flip this picture, I don't know why when I go to post my pictures it's no longer flipped.

It's really hard to do this place justice with photos.

Once again, I'm awake and John is still sleeping.  I'm not sure what time it is here but it's morning.  I ran out of time last night to post pictures and write about our day yesterday.  I have to pay for our time on the internet at the hotel.  I pay for an hour at a time.  So yesterday we went to Brugge Belgium  We took a bus early in the morning and got back to Paris last night.  All I have to say about Brugge is WOW (okay, so I have more to say about it).  I hate to overuse the word but it's the best word I can think of to describe it.  That word is MAGICAL.  It's like you're at Disneyland but it's all real (and bigger).  Think Mr Toads Wild Ride (yeah, I'm probably way too familiar with Disneyland).  It is called the "Venice of the  north".  It was raining and yucky but we still went on a boat ride through the canals. I loved Brugge so much.  We will definately go there and stay a couple of days on another trip to Europe.  It was so beautiful.