Making Dough and Making Do

The other day I was making rolls for who knows which activity thing I was involved with that day. Olivia loves to help me work with the dough, but because it was for someone else, I wouldn't let her touch the dough. So I gave her some flour to work with on her own. She was covered with it and having the time of her life.

As you can tell from the background of the pictures that our floor is gone and we have been living on sub floor for about the past month. I am so tired of that! But this week they will start installing our new hard wood floor. And yesterday they came and measured for the carpet. We will see if in these tough economic times if there is any way to afford carpet for our upstairs as well. We may use the laminate from the main level (that wasn't ruined of course) to lay it in Luke's room and the hallway. That could help us afford new flooring upstairs and help Luke's allergies by having a hard surface in his room. We'll find out in a few days.

Our friend Kasey invited us to their house for a Valentine's Party. We had so much fun and the kids were able to decorate soap bottles with stickers and ribbon. Olivia wanted a bow tied on her soap bottle, but she made me peel every sticker off of it that we tried to put on. All she wanted was to cut with scissors and color. We also decorated sugar cookies. The mom's ate yummy muffins and were able to talk and catch up a little bit. The kids then traded Valentine's and played. We had so much fun. Thanks Kasey and Stella for opening your house to so many rambunctious children and moms. Thanks for all the fun activities.

Livvy's favorite is cutting with scissors so she was in heaven.
Livvy is busy decorating her paper, and Kaden is looking so cute peering over the edge of the table.

McKenna is proudly displaying her soap bottle she decorated with stickers and ribbon.

Eva looking so cute.

Olivia was supposed to be decorating the sugar cookie, instead she was using the plastic knife as the means to get the frosting to her mouth.

LukeZilla

Luke pulled me into the front room one day to show the city he had built with blocks. Then the show began...

"LukeZilla" came out and started to destroy the town. He pause during the Photo shoot to make sure I was getting the right shots, and capturing the image he was going for. All for the sake of posting it on the blog.

Run for your life, the monster has been unleashed!

Ahhh! The destruction. Cars are being tossed around.

There's nothing but rubble left. Destroyed in a matter of minutes.

"LukeZilla" in his aggressive form.

Luke had so much fun staging the play he did. Thanks Luke for all the action and drama. We look forward to your next production.

What have I done? :)

This is the scene that I found one day. I could hear Olivia giving her baby dolls quite the talking to, so I came to see what was going on. I asked her what had happened and she told me (quite animated) that her babies had been screaming in her ear so she put them in time out. She was then coming to talk to them to let them know that screaming in some one's ear was inappropriate.

Ohhh, what have I done? When Olivia is having a fit, she is invited to the stairs to sit for her time out. We then have a discussion about her choices. And of course, (cough, cough), it is always executed with such a prim and proper demeanor, (again cough, cough).

Well...it is good know her take on time outs.

What do you think?

The news about the Octuplets being born was quite the shock, and it's amazing to see them doing as well as they are. Each and everyone of their lives is precious and a gift from our Heavenly Father. There is no doubt about that at all in my mind, there never will be.
But the big controversy surrounds the mother who gave birth to them, and the doctors who implanted the embryos into her.
I know the desire, that burning desire that filled me with wanting to have children. I know the pain it caused me when I was unable to bring children into this world. I cried and prayed, and worked, and labored for many years to bring my babies to our family. I know that overwhelming love and joy that you feel when children bless your family.
But 14? And she's a single mother? With no income? In a small house? The news now says that she is/was receiving Government assistance to get by before the octuplets were even born. Where was she even finding the money to pay for infertility treatments while she was on disability, and receiving Food Stamps and such?
Who is the doctor that is knowingly implanting this woman with embryos, especially this many when she already has so many children? Is this a negligent act? I kind of think so.
I think about when we first delved into the world of infertility, and how expensive everything was. I mean I was working as a nurse, and Ryan as a Manager, and we really didn't even think we could afford it. But I remember how desperately I still wanted children. Being "poor" doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to have kids, but where do you draw the line? How far is a person allowed to go just to satisfy their want for more children?
Anywho, my thoughts are obviously jumbled all over the board on this current events issue. What do you think?

Technology

I was watching a preview for a movie the other day, I can't remember what the movie was, but it was Drew Barrymore's character. She said something to the effect that she had to check 7 different forms of technology to get rejected on each one. I started laughing, because I check my phone- no messages (non Relief Society related), then I check my email and have usually nothing but junk in there(or just Relief Society related things), then I check my blog- there are no comments from family and a few from friends, then I check face book and no messages there either. I too, jump from source to source looking to see who is posting on their blogs and commenting on mine and communicating with me over the Internet. I would have never thought the Internet could make me so conceited. Here's to all of us out there- I'm thinking of you. Thanks for all your posts and your comments.
Have a great day.

Observations

Do you just have times when your kids are just sooooooo cute that you can't hardly stand it? I do. And how about times that even when they're throwing a fit, they still just melt your heart? I do too.
I guess right now I just feel so lucky that I can be a mother to my children. They are such amazing blessings. There are times, albeit short times, when I can forget that, but I love each and every moment I can spend with them, and love being their mom. I love seeing them experience something new, and love watching when they develop a new skill.
As my kids grow older and become more independent and need me less and less, it is a challenge to learn how to parent them, and what works and what doesn't, and what they need, but it's fun. You know, as soon as you figure out what's going on, they change their game plan.