Hello 2008

Well it is almost here-another year is almost upon us. I can't believe that it is 2008 in just "a little less then half an hour"-movie quote alert-Anybody know what movie?
We have been so blessed this year.
I would have to say that the biggest blessing of this year is the fact that we (my whole family and Calley) are all still here and have all our body parts and all our body parts work. It could have totally been a different story on April 4, 2007 if the Lord and numerous angels had not been with us in that car near Hurricane on I-15. There really is no other reason why we are all here and healthy other than the fact that we are supposed to be and the Lord wanted us to be. I hope that I can remember that when I get frustrated at my kids (which is quite frequently I am ashamed to say) and when I complain about silly things or even complain about not so silly things or take my blessings for granted. I hope that I can remind and teach my kids that the Lord has a plan for each of us and He left us here for a reason. We need to find out what that reason is or if we don't know the reason atleast try hard to do good and be good to show the Lord that we are thankful that He left us here.
We have so much to be grateful for and I hope that this new year above all the usual resolutions (eat less, complain less, lose weight, exercise blah blah blah)that I can try to be a better wife, mother, sister, daughter, aunt, granddaughter, friend, example and child of God.
Happy New Year all my loved ones-I hope that this new year finds and keeps all of you happy and well. Know that you are loved!

Diary of a Crazy White Woman

It is currently 11:06pm MST and I am deciding if I have the desire to stay up for another 54 minutes. All of my kids are still awake as we are at Grandma Penny's house and they really don't have a bed time up here. Today was shop-a-rama! The kids had tons of giftcards to use from lots of family members (thanks family members) so we went to the mall, Barnes and Noble, and Target. That really does not sound like a whole lot put when you drag my whole herd plus Calley through the mall for 2 hours, then to Barnes and Noble and then Target it gets a little tiring. Cayden found the new Disney Store in the University Mall and loved it-(oh my gosh have you seen that floor in there? It's like the ruby red slippers on steroids-you almost need sunglasses just to walk in there!) Cody had giftcards to Aeropostale and Anchor Blue and Mervyn's was having a big sale and I had a 15% "coopen"(that would be a reference to Ron White). Calley and I found a fabulous shoe sale at Forever Young-Buy one get one half off with really good prices-and I am on another purse kick-no I did not buy one but I sure looked hard! After the customary stop at Chic-Fil-A we finished our shopping and then we went to the movies. Funny story-mom and Larry got to the theatres first and the theatre had people lining up down a hall away from the usual theatre entrance because there were so many people for National Treasure. So mom and Larry got in line to wait for us-we had the tickets. When we got there we just rounded the corner and went up into the line where mom had been waiting. From somewhere behind us some woman said "I guess no one has to wait in line! (sarcastically of course) Mom said "I have been waiting in line thank you" Then when we got in to the theatres mom said to me "Why don't you find that girl and kick her butt? I said I was not in the mood to be contested at that moment as I had just drug 4 boys through the mall, Barnes and Noble, and Target for the last 4 1/2 hours and I had had enough of being contested. That woman could try but I think that she would have lost-all of this conversation is taking place while Cayden is fussing about snacks, Connor is mad because he does not want to check his blood sugar and he thought that Cody was bossing him around and we are trying to sit 9 people down for the movie amidst 100 others trying to do the same thing. I love family togetherness and stupid people. We went to the new Cafe Rio of State Street and got takeout for dinner. Yummy!! We are big partiers like always but atleast we are still awake. No pictures for right now since I am not at home to upload them.

Adams Family Christmas

It is Friday December 28 and we should be driving to Provo right now but Cayden is still a very sick boy. He woke up on Christmas morning with a fever of 101 after having croup all night Christmas Eve. We stayed up with him running the treatment machine the whole time. Luckily the croup did not go to his breathing like it usually does because when it does that it means a trip to the hospital. Not a pleasant way to spend Christmas Eve! We kept him in as much as we could Tuesday and then we spent another night with him coughing his brains out Tuesday night. We took him to Dr. Mehta Wednesday afternoon. He has Strep Throat, bronchitis and pink eye. It has been almost 40 hours since we started the antibiotic but he is still running a fever and his cough is horrible. We just can't go to Provo with him so sick-we don't want to make him more miserable or anyone else. We will try and go tomorrow. He has been sitting at his new desk in front of the TV watching Meet the Robinson's over and over again. His coughing was so bad last night that we had Don's dad come over at 11 and help Don give him a blessing. He was so happy and said that now Heavenly Father would help him. He finally fell asleep about midnight and did not cough as much I still had to move him around a lot during the night because he kept sliding off of the pillows that were propping him up. Don slept on the couch because it was easier than moving him around our bed especially when he had settled down some.

On Christmas morning the kids woke up at 6:45am. We told them not to come to our room because they would have to go through the family room. Cody said that when his brothers woke him up he would call the house and that would wake up me an Don. Good plan-although Cody said that he was awake first at 4 and waited until 6:45 to wake his brothers up. Santa was very good to us like always. Cody got a 20" TV/DVD combo, Connor got a Nintendo DS with some games, Caleb got an IPOD and Cayden got a desk with a big box of markers and crayons. Dad gave mom a Panini maker-that we have used for almost every meal since Christmas day
(crunchy peanut butter and honey are the best) , two down vests, a docking station/speaker for her Ipod and some Bath and Body works stuff. Mom gave dad a new carry on piece of luggage-his keep breaking because he uses them so much-2 Sport Coats and a new pair of shoes. Connor was very thoughtful-he drew mom's name and he gave her a travel pillow for her neck. Since the car wreck she has a hard time sleeping in the car-this will help. We had a big breakfast Christmas morning at our house. I made a breakfast casserole with eggs and sausage the night before that we cooked. We also had pancakes, bacon, grits and cocoa. Christmas breakfast at our house has become a tradition for the last few years.
Cayden's new desk-the perfect present for a sick boy who can't go outside.
Cody and his loot. His TV is on the ground next to him.
Caleb's IPOD
Connor and his Nintendo DS.
Daddy building the fire.

We had the big family party on Sunday December 23 because Dena and Chris and the girls went to Palm Springs on Monday to be with Chris' family. We had a huge dinner of Prime Rib, twice baked mashed potatoes, green salad with cranberries, feta and almonds, Grandma Dottie's homemade rolls and pies. Then we played Christmas Bingo-alternating each round with opening the gifts from each of the siblings and all the kids gifts from Aunts and Uncles and cousins. Cayden was very disgruntled because he was not winning the Bingo game. After the 6 round he still had not won and he said to mom-you messed me up! We each made our own Bingo card from a list of Christmas words. Apparently I did it wrong. We had to rig the last game so that he could win-he was so excited. Grandma Dottie has really good wrapped prizes the winners could choose from. I can't even remember what Cayden won-Connor won a big box of peanuts that he traded to Ashley for a stuffed Teddy Bear. Cody won a blanket-it is pictured below somewhere.


Don and Jen December 23 at Dottie's house.


Connor and Aunt Amy at the family party December 23.




Our family went back to Grandma Dottie' house Monday night for Christmas Eve dinner and FHE. Aunt Darbie was there with us too. We did all the present opening the night before so we could focus on having a more spiritual and Christ centered evening. We ate ham and left over potatoes, a yummy spinach salad with clementines, red onion and feta with a balsamic vinegar dressing-mom's favorite new salad. Mom made a Buche for dessert and as a little non-traditional treat with the Buche Grandpa Don had peppermint ice cream. We had a program where we read the Christmas story from the Bible interspersed with Christmas hymns. Cody played the piano and we each took turns reading from the scriptures. It was good and I hope that it helped the kids remember the true meaning of Christmas as we talked about the Savior.Cody playing the piano for our Christmas Eve FHE.
Cody and mom discussing who would play Silent Night-the closing song- mom had practiced, Cody had not-mom won.

Cayden doing his treatment before we went to Grandma Dottie's for Christmas Eve dinner and FHE.

The traditional Christmas Buche De Noel-according to my family the best looking one yet.

Ok here goes

So I am sitting here on a Friday night 4 days before Christmas and I have tons to do but thought that I would try this. I think I have a sinus infection-thank you Cayden- and I am waiting for my medicine to kick in so that I can sleep.
Don and I went to the Mirage last night to the Cirque De Soleil Show called "The Beatles, Love"
The tickets were my birthday present but we could not go until last night even though my birthday was last week. We still don't really enjoy driving home in the dark since the car wreck so we try and avoid it if we can. Don asked his mom if she would watch the kids while we went to the show before he bought the tickets and then later he asked her if she would just spend the night so that we didn't have to drive home so late. She agreed and we were set. We stayed at the Mirage and ate at Caesar's Palace Forum Shops at a place called Joe's Stone Crab-I had steak(not a seafood fan). Don had eaten there before with customers but it was new to me. Caesar's and the Mirage are right next to each other so we could walk back and forth. After dinner we went to the show-way cool! All Beatles music with different theatrical, extreme sports, and tons of different sets moving up and down and around the stage. It is almost too hard to describe because it was constantly changing with each song. My favorite was Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds-lots of little lights flashing around and all over like diamonds in the sky. When I say all over I mean all over not just on the stage. The stage was like a square sort of and there were seats all around not just in the front. That way you looked around at all sorts of screens and different angles and there was always tons of stuff going on at the same time. Alot of flying and swinging and costumes.
We had alot of errands to run yesterday before we left for Vegas. We took a bunch of gifts down to the Family Resource Center here for a family that needed help with Christmas. We do this each year with Don's family-we get a family of 5-one person for each couple in Don's family to buy for and shop for them. I want to help so many people but it is hard because when you spread it out there is not alot that you can do for a bunch of different people. There was a family whose house burned down at the beginning of the month-one of the boys is in Cayden's class, the lady that cleans my house has a dirtbag ex husband and 4 kids and she is not very well off, and then our ward always sends Christmas stockings full of items to a very poor town in Mexico-each family picks a little card or a bunch of cards that have the age range of a boy or a girl and fills a new Christmas stocking with age appropriate things . I want to help all of them and we did but we spread it out so much that I feel like I want to do more for them all. I just can't stand people going with out especially at Christmas and especially when they haven't done anything wrong or deserve to be in those circumstances. We finished our Christmas shopping today -Yippee Don and his dad, Connor and Caleb are going to the BYU Bowl game tomorrow. It is supposed to be really cold-yes cold is relative but cold for us anyway. This is Cayden at his Christmas program at school on Wednesday. He did really good and actually sang the songs-unlike what he did at the Primary Program-but this was really long and you can tell that he is getting bored or tired.