2 new loves

I have found 2 new loves:

First is this cookbook. I have always liked to cook when I was in jr. high I used to try all sorts of different recipes (rubber cookies were a fav. I made up a fat free cookie), I was even the sterling scholar in Home Ec. and worked my way up to Advanced food in high school; however after almost 10 years of marriage and 4 kids I had lost my enjoyment of cooking. Between the moaning about cheese, green things, and spicy things it sort of lost it lustre. I am fortunate enough to have a husband who is willing to eat pretty much anything I make which makes trying new things a lot easier. Well my friend go me a copy of this cookbook and I love it!! I am trying all sorts of new things and making the BEST breads ever!! Dinner planning has become much more enjoyable and I highly recommend getting yourself a copy.

Secondly I hate to admit it I have become a "Savy Shopper" I used to make fun of these ladies, you know the ones with a hundred coupons and a binder at the grocery store....... yugh! Don't get behind them in the check out line well I'm now that lady. I used to dread going to the grocery store; I absolutely hated spending money on food, weird I know. The larger my family has gotten the larger my grocery bill has gotten especially with 2 in diapers, I needed to find a way to cut my grocery bill. Long story short I'm a "savy shopper" I now love going to the store and the finding sweet deals on food. This week was like Christmas for me at Smiths. Here is a list of a few good deals I got.

Playtex rubber gloves (they paid me .50 a pair)

Uncle Bens Rice (Free)

Bumble Bee Albacore tuna (they paid me .06 per pouch)

Halls cough drops (.15)

Dannon 6 pack yogurt (.49)

Danimals 6 pack drinks (.49)

All Laundry soap (1.99)

Snuggle fabric softener (1.99)

Carnations evaporated milk (.24)

Hormel Chili (.12)

Grasshopper cookies (.49)

Tylenol 24 count (.50)

These are just a few of my sweat deals this week. My total savings at smiths with coupons was 256.00, I spent 109.00 this is kind of high because I was able to buy tons of items for my food storage.

So as a stay at home mother of 4 these have become sort of my hobbies...:)

Savannah

I love this picture of Savannah with Grandma's horse Yankee.

Halloween!

We had a fun party with the Mitchell Fam this year. Anthony's brother dressed up as a witch and it was quite frightening the poor kids didn't know what to think. His sister and her husband were 80's punk rockers.....so funny I've got to get a picture of them.

All of us Mitchell "deer hunting widows" got to take a trip of our own this year. We all went to Salt Lake for a few days kid free. We had the best time and went out on the town as witches to Gardiner Village!

Samuel

Samuel turned 7 a few weeks ago and had a really great day. His 1st grade teacher is awesome and she makes a big deal out of their birthdays. Samuel was "king" for the day I brought treats to his class and they all stood up and sang to him. Each of them made him a card too, nothing cuter then a bunch of 1st graders cards..:)

Bath Time

These little girls LOVE bath time. I remember Lisa and I spending hours in the tub making potions, swimming, using the tub as a slide and now my little girls love to do the same thing. They say they are mermaids Savannah is the big mermaid and Kaitlen is the baby mermaid. I love listening to them play.....Pretty cute girls.

Neighborhood Animals

Samuel came home from school on Monday with this "brainstorming" paper he did. Theme "Neighborhood Animals" I love the animals he used, I think most kids would put cat, dog, maybe a rabbit but in our neighborhood you get things like antelope, deer, coyote, jack rabbits and bats. Funny thing is it's true we see all of these things in our neighborhood......except coyotes, we hear them howling at night. :) Anyway it made me laugh.



I can't get the picture to scan!!! Does anyone know how to do this?? It is so cute.

New Pics

I've wanted to have our family pictures taken at Bear Lake forever and we finally did it. Talk about a circus getting everyone ready and over to the Lake. Trying to get 4 kids to look at the camera at the same time was a trick our poor photographer had her work cut out for her. I loved how the pictures captured every ones personalities. The baby loved the rocks and water and we couldn't get her to look up.......but she's there and cute all the same. Thanks Emily for the great pictures!

We're in Training

I've always said that potty training is the all time hardest thing, thus far, for me to do as a parent. Kaitlen is 2 years and 5 months and talking quite well. She is dry when she wakes up in the morning, tells me shes wet, and when she is stinky. So now that the summer of fun is drawing to a close I feel like it is time I taught her how to put all that "junk" in the potty. If only it were an easy thing. I try to compare it to teaching them how to walk it is a totally new concept and takes time to master; walking however does not involve the "junk"

Today was our first real solid effort at it and it did not go well at all... I am pleased to report however that I kept my cool and patience with her and tried to stay positive and up beat about the whole learning processes. I am however asking you, all my friends for any advice that might help this process happen smoother and quickly.......anyone???

Kaitlen loves candy and I cut her supply off unless she goes on the potty which happened a total of 1 time today with 5 accidents (all of which were outside and on kitchen floor yeah for the carpet:). Yikes!! I'm not ready for this.

Whew!

Whoa! I'm glad to see that I'm not the only blogger who is to busy during the summer months to post very often, isn't that how it should be?? I've had a vinyl in my closet forever that says "Live every Moment" we finally got around to putting it up on our kitchen wall and it has kind of been our motto for the summer. One week left of summer and I am utterly exhausted!! Anthony spent the summer working a few days a week in Orem so that meant alot of days away from home for us, fortunetly for us however my mom has an appartment in her basement and was gracious enough to let us crash at her place. Here are a few pictures of the summer highlights.

Kaitlen riding "Captain" up at the cabin

The kids took swimming lessons with their cousins and had a great time.

Savannah turned 5 and had a fun party at the pool with all her cousins.

We visited Mesa Verde, really amazing place.

We spent a week in New Mexico visiting my sister. Here we are "down by the river" Rio Grande.

I love this picture of Savannah and Samuel playing in the water.

We stayed at Bear Lake for a few days with Anthonys family and had a great time, they are such a fun family to hang out with and we always have a lot of fun laughing whenever we are together.


I also was able to spend a lot of time on my bike this summer, which I was grateful for. It gave me time away from the kids to just have time to think.................silence. As a mother of 4 sometimes there is nothing better then just that.

Kaitlen

I have finally got to Kaitlens 2 year old pictures, we took these at my moms strawberry patch and I love how they turned out. We were able to completely capture her spunky little personality.

Grandma Liza has 10 new little kittens at her house and Kaitlen loves them to pieces!

Summer Fun, Lisa and Blessings

We started off the summer with my sister in town which means two weeks of FUN! Camping up the Caynon

My mom has the perfect slip and slide hill behind her house so we tried it out, it was a blast! I havn't laughed that hard forever the kids did it until their little chests were bruised and burned.

We blessed Isabelle this last Sunday my mom made her gorgeous dress. I was so glad that lisa was in town for the blessing. Our babies are only 2 weeks apart and it was so fun to have the two of them together.

More of Isabelle

Here are Isabelles one month pictures that Jill took I am so excited about how they turned out.

2 Weeks

Update

Just wanted to give everyone an update on Isabelle and I, we both went to the doctor on Friday. My doctor gave me the ok to pick up kaitlen, funny how excited that made me. Two weeks of not being able to take care of my 2 year old has been really hard for me. I don't like to be dependant on other people to take care of me and my family. So besides the lack of sleep that I get I am feeling really good. Isabelle is also doing good she now weights 7 lbs 1 oz she's still a little peanut but is gaining. The doctor wants her on O2 at night for two more weeks just to be safe which also gives me peace of mind. Anyway I'm starting to feel like each day my life is getting to be a little more back to normal.

Here she is Isabelle Ann

Here she is the day after her birth

This is the day we got to take her home, Good Day.

Kaitlen loves "baby belle" she always says,"I see belle"

After five long days Isabelle's brother and sisters finally got to hold her they could hardly wait to get her home from the "stinky" hospital. (Samuel hated the smell of that place)

Thank you for everyones love, prayers and well wishes we appreciate it.

We've had a hard time

I'm not sure where to begin,  this has been the hardest and longest week of my life.  Last Friday, April 10th I went to my 37 week appointment and found out that my baby was breech I had a few options first try to turn her, wait and see if she turned on her own, or just schedule a c-section.  The only problem was that I had already been in labor for four days and was dilated all of this made things a little more tricky.  My contractions were coming to fast to just send me home and wait so we decided to try and turn her.  If any of you have had this done you feel my pain rather then call it a "version" they should just tell you that it is worst possible pain and  feels like your in some sort of torture chamber.   Well the turning didn't work and they were hoping that the drug they gave me would slow my contractions down so we could wait to take the baby later.  Unfortunately they didn't stop and got even closer so the next thing I knew we were on our way to the operating room.  

Isabelle Ann was delivered at 8:30 on Friday night she weighted 6 lbs 8 oz and is 19 inches long.  She was still to early and her lungs weren't quite developed so she spent 5 days in the NICU and since I had a c-section I was able to stay with her for 4 of those days.  As you can imagine this week has been an emotional roller coaster I went from a 37 week mom going to have a drug free delivery to a baby in NICU.  I've shed a lot of tears and said a lot prayers.  Funny how an experience like this makes you really appreciate the small things that I'd taken for granted before  like breathing, eating, and just being able to be in the same room as your baby.  After a week little Isabelle is doing really good she is eating and gaining weight.  We are hoping that she will only be on oxygen for one more week.  I am so grateful to have her here and can't even begin to express my thanks to our family who have helped us through this trial.  I know that the Lord does hear our prayers and gives us strength when we think we have none left.  We are going to make the long trip home tomorrow and I will post pictures then.    

April 15th!!

Can April 15th really be just around the corner??? Each tax season begins with mixed emotions on my part. I hate to admit it but I do actually like to work I get a certain sense of accomplishment to see a few paychecks with my name on them, however I typically let it consume me, if there is a tax return waiting to be done on my computer I drop everything to get it done. This year with a six year old, four year old, two year old, and being 8 months pregnant I knew that I could not go about tax season the way I used to. So work waited until 1:00 everyday; kaitlen took a nap and Savannah I went to work I set her up a little desk next to mine and she "worked" ie: art time. Work ended at 3:00 when Kaitlen woke up and I wouldn't work again until 8:00 when the kiddos were in bed. Despite the basketball that I have in my stomach it really has been my best tax season in 10 years! I loved having Savannah sitting next to me working on her projects and I must say she has gotten very good at drawing pictures. While I will much miss my tax season money and sense of accomplishment I am very very very happy that I won't be sitting at my computer for hours each day this babe gets more uncomfortable by the minute...... So until next year no more taxes.... except for any extensions that were filed..... :)

Kaitlens 2!

Kaitlen loved her "Birdy Party"(Birthday Party) and especially her "ba-yoons" (balloons) She even got excited about unwrapping clothes. She is such fun spunky little girl!

Hibernation

Up here in the Northern part of the state I have found that we hibernate for the long winter months. We see each other at church each Sunday and occasionally at a basketball game but for the most part we stay in our houses to keep warm, take care of sick kids, and.........well I haven't exactly figured out what else it is we do all winter? This weeks warm weather has finally melted the snow, brought the birds in from the south and chased away the bitter chill of the north. The streets and yards are once again filled with children's laughter, bike races, sidewalk chalk, and most importantly mothers on their front lawns visiting with friends picking up where they left off the previous Fall. It always amazing me how much the Spring weather and day light savings lift my spirits it seems to give me new life. I find myself cooking, cleaning and even changing diapers with a smile. I try to tell myself that I wouldn't enjoy the spring nearly as much if I hadn't gone through the long and dreary winter months, but to my friends who live in warm sunny places do you appreciate your weather all the time?? or does it just become something you are used to?? As for us up in the North we are happy as can be to be coming out of our long winter Hibernation!

Disappearing toes

7 weeks left to go and the toes are basically gone. Someone asked how the belly is going, well it is growing. I feel pretty good but boy I forgot how miserable sleeping is when you hit your last trimester. When I first got pregnant I thought wow 4 kids this pregnancy can take as long a possible cause 4 sounds a bit overwhelming but now I really am ready to be done being pregnant, I'm up at night anyway with numb ribs, hips, and an occasional Charley horse so why not be up feeding a baby.....

Limbs

This weather reminds me of one of my least favorite childhood jobs, raking limbs. Every year when the snow melted Lisa, Jesse and I knew that the winter rest from our orchard labors was over and we'd be back in the orchards starting off the season with one of our least favorite jobs, raking limbs. My dad would hire people to prune the trees and we were the crew that would go behind them and rake all the limbs out to the middle of the row so the tractor could scoop them up into a big pile to burn.

After we walked home from school we would grab a snack and head out to the big old orchard behind our house and begin. Lisa and I hated this job and tried everything we could to get out of it; it was cold, muddy and often times wet. We found all kinds of things left in the orchards from the long winter; dead mice, rotten apples from the prior years harvest, and sometimes even an old dead orchard cat. My least favorite part was getting whipped in the face or arms by the limbs. Now that I look back at it I feel bad that Jesse always had to be our Foreman keeping us motivated and working.....maybe that is why he is such a great dad now, he had lots of practise with me and Lisa. Funny that at the time I dreaded this job and now more then 15 years latter I look back on those times and smile and would love to be out in our orchard with my brother and sister raking limbs.

Number 9

Today is our 9 year wedding anniversary, really 9 years? I don't feel that old that is until I look at the two kids in this wedding picture and think about all the things we've done over the last 9 years.

We've done a lot of really great things the last 9 years and a few not so great. Over the last 9 years we have lived in 4 different cities, 5 different homes, 1 very very hot apartment, visited 3 different countries, threw up on a Brazilian bus, got lost in Mexico, traveled 11 different states, driven thousands of miles together some joyfully and some not so much, bought 2 new cars, sold one piece of junk truck, finally got a new couch, finished a basement with a few not so pleasant words, painted our kitchen 4 different times, landscaped a yard using my sister and I as the weights on the grader pulled behind the 4 wheeler, watched a lot of basketball games, played 100's of games some of which are now no longer aloud to be played due to our competitive nature, eaten a lot of really great meals and some that end up straight in the garbage, tried tons of new recipes only to find out grilled cheese and tomato soup are still a favorite, and most importantly brought 3 soon to be 4 really great kids into the world.

The best part of all is I still miss Anthony while he is at work and call him at least twice a day not really with anything to say but just to hear his voice. I get excited every time he walks through the door after work. Love falling asleep on his chest while he watches the news. Can have a disagreement and be over it shortly after. I am free to rant and rave while he patiently listens to me. He always eats my sometimes not so great food without complaint. At 3:00am when I give him a nudge to go see why Kaitlen is crying he goes. I love that even though we have 3 very small kids we still make time to be together. I love that he goes to work everyday making a difference in the lives of high school kids and I never hear him talk badly or complain about one of them.....not even the trouble makers. I love that he holds my hand while we are at church or just walking around town. I ask myself everyday how in the world did I find someone so great at the age of 16??

Taste of Spring

We've spent the last week down in southern/central Utah watching Anthony's basketball team play in the state tournament it was so great to get a taste of warm spring weather and watch his team take state for the second year in a row! We had a great time swimming, going to parks, out to dinner, watching games and just spending time with each other.

We went to visit where the Fremont Indians use to live it was pretty cool to see the art on the rocks, the kids loved it, and I just loved being outside!!!

We decided to take a hike to the cave of 100 hands, lets just say it got a little muddy and the farther we went the more we were all sinking in mud. Savannah went to take a step and lost one of her shoes back in the mud, it was so funny all we could do is laugh and head back to the car.

Winter Fun

I definitely think that summer is much more fun than the long winter months but we have been trying to make the most of the snow. Trying to find outdoor activities you can do with a 7 month pregnant wife a 6 year old, 4 year old and an almost 2 year old has its challenges but we have had a lot of fun the last couple of weekends. We are all just so happy to be outside enjoying the sunshine.

Ice Fishing

Four-Wheeler Sleding (our new favorite)