I got to go see Dirty Dancing...and you guys didn't!!!

Okay, sorry for looking all crappy and disheveled in this pic but,, I had to prove that I was there! It was so freaking cool! For my sister-in-law, Trisha's, 21st birthday she wanted to go see Dirty Dancing Live in Chicago. What a freakin awesome idea you say??? That's what I thought! So we left on the train and caught the matinee and were back the same night! It was so much fun! there was a crazy usher lady during the intermission that I have since nicknamed the bathroom ghastappo (I'll check spelling on that later, but, u get the idea).


Debbie and Trisha getting our manicures right before the show.
We had lunch at Petterino's and the waiter knew it was Trisha's birthday without us telling him and brought this yummy dessert out to her! I suspect he overheard us talking about her birthday or something...but, it was really good and it is now my goal to make this dessert at home!

Anyway, I highly recommend the show. The music was great. The actors were great! The girl who played Penny was an amazing dancer and she was flippin hot! And the guy who played Johnny looked as though his body was chiseled from stone...oh my goodness!:)

The Great Nauvoo Pumpkin Walk

Every year in Nauvoo we have a Pumpkin Walk. Hundreds of pumpkins are carved and put on display up and down the sidewalks and there are different concessions, musical entertainment, photo opps, costumes, etc. There's also a pretty cool haunted house that the line is forever long to get into. It's a ton of fun and through the years has grown quite huge! It's not just the locals anymore...it's everyone!!! As I tried to display in this blurry pic I took of part of the street.




This is Tristan (a.k.a. Obi Wan Kenobi) sitting with two of the carved pumpkins in front of the school.
For some reason my camera starts to go all kinda blurry when the battery gets low.
This is a sample of just how cool the pumpkins are. Anybody can help carve too! they do it down at NRI for a few nights beforehand.
How cool is that????

Old News

This is our "crew" waiting for the Grape Festival parade to begin. We passed out coupons, business cards, and candy! It was stinkin hot but a lot of fun! We had these shirts made up for our business, woot-pc! why the heck is all of that underlined???

Zach, Matt, Nick, and Tristan
Matt and Todd
Susan And Nikki
Me and Jeremy... I'm so pregnant! I made it almost the entire parade before I hopped into the cab of the truck....ok, so I didn't hop.

The Time of Tristan's Life!

I have so much to post about...there will a cluster of posts here in the next couple of days, once I get the pictures loaded onto the computer. Here are some of Tristan at his weekly horseback riding lesson. Right now he is taking lessons from Kaylee Menn in Carthage at the Hancock County Saddle Club. He is learning the basics on the western saddle and I think in a year or so, we wil introduce the English saddle as well. I would also like to get back in the saddle...maybe he and I can do it together! After I snapped these pics he was able to go on a trail ride down by the lake and when he came back, you couldn't wipe the smile off his face! He has a blast at his lessons and I am so grateful that we can do this for him! Anyway, here's Tristan!
Stay tuned...

Busy, busy, Busy!

I haven't posted as of late because i have been busy, busy, busy. It has taken me what seems like years to do the seasonal clothes switch for the kids and try to find what baby clothes I had stored. Then of course I have to find new ways of storing everything and rearrange everyones closets and dresser drawers! In between all that, still keep up on all this stinkin(literally) laundry. Whew.
Last weekend, I got to see some of my greatest friends, and some of the funniest friends, in the whole world...the Sever clan! minus Liz but, we'll catch up to her at some point whether she likes it or not! It was good to see you guys and my kids had tons of fun too! I am still laughing...
This weekend I have been in a strange mood and nothing is quite settling right. Yesterday after church, we took the kids to the pumpkin patch with the rest of the Kelley family. I didn't get to go in the corn maze which was apparently pretty hard. I had to feed the baby. This place has outrageously priced pumpkins though which made me think I should go into the pumpkin business! Here's a quote from a halloween mag:
"According to the University of Illinois extension , in colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling. The total U.S. pumpkin production in 2006 was valued at $101.3 million, 90% of them are grown within a 90-mile radius of Peoria, IL"
HA! I'm in the prime location! Anyway, I'm going to put pumpkin in my crusts from now on in some way...because I hate pumpkin pie. Once I took a bite to please someone who had served it to me and I threw up in my mouth! No joke! I literally gagged on the stuff. Then I had to swallow everything so that I didn't appear rude by puking when tasting someones food! Now that is disgusting!
So, I got off track. we went to the pumplin patch then carved some pumpkins. Fun was had by all. I'll post some pics tonight when Jeremy gets home.
Jeremy has been really sick. Yep.
Cullen is a growing boy and I'll put some more pics of him on here soon too. He's just too cute. Most people aren't getting his name right but, what can you do?

Oh for some extra fun around the house try this:

This morning (11am actually) I was doing 14,000 things. Then the baby started to cry because he was a hungry munchkin, but he was leaking poo. so I had got him all undressed and changed when he puked all over for like the second time in his life, and I had to undress him again. All the while I keep hearing this banging from downstairs. The baby is naked and Tristan runs upstairs saying that Asher had locked himself in Jeremy's office and couldn't get out! Great! So I took the half naked, screaming baby downstairs, got a screw driver and went to jeremy's office. Asher was screaming his poor little heart out...it was really sad. I had to lay the baby down and he screamed and screamed...Asher screamed and screamed too...I couldn't open the door. Then I got a bigger screwdriver and tried totake the doorknob off but, it wouldn't come off because the other side was locked! Curse it. Then I remember that Liam was going to be getting off the bus at 11:20 and they won't leave him if they don't see someone. So I told Tristan to go outside and wait for Liam. the bus driver wouldn't accept just Tristan though and I had to tell Tristan to run back out and tell him that I was feeding the baby.
Finally after saying a prayer and banging my head on the wall a few times...the door just fell open. I don't even know how it happened. Asher came out and was dripping in sweat! And finally the poor little Cullen got to eat. wow. It was exciting.

What the???

I don't understand the good majority of people I encounter on a daily basis. So, I will continue to shut my mouth and smile...then rant to my husband later!

Do you ever wonder how people are reading your written words in their own head? With what sort of tone and emotion? I think there needs to be more punctuation marks. Just to make everything that much more complicated!

I can't wait to see my friends from afar this weekend!

And the show goes on...

So having five kids is a trip! And, yep, I bet it will be long and strange! I have to rethink every move I make. sheesh! I knew we would have some adjustments...my old bishop told me that 5 kids in a row is the epitome of chaos and every kid after that is a breeze! To my credit, I haven't freaked out to bad yet. Cullen is actually a really good little baby. I think Heavenly Father knew that I needed an easy baby this time!
So does everyone know where we got his name from? I will fill in for those that don't know. I wanted to name him after my dad. but, my dad's name was Clifford Michael Trapp (he went by Mike.) anyway, I just couldn't name my baby Clifford and Michael didn't really go well with the rest of our names in the fam. So, as I was devouring Breaking Dawn, it occured to me that Cullen would be a great name (after the Vampire family named Cullen) and then the initials would still be CM! YAY! This was the only time we have ever had our child named when he was born! Usually they we are just getting the birth certificate signed as we are leaving the hospital.

I have five kids!!! That's crazy! I keep looking around and counting...I always feel like someone is missing...