Happy.

Found My Camera

Here he is just after he performed. He was so proud of himself!

During the pre-k christmas program....which was awesome by the way because it was only about 10 minutes long. At our old school the entire school did a christmas program which usually lasted about and hour and a half! And you couldn't get your kids and leave after their class performed because you couldn't pick them up until after the show...ugh. It made for a lot of time trying to keep the siblings that aren't in school yet sitting quiet and normal....which never works by the way. Anyway, this was just the pre-k and they were AWESOME! Liam really did a good job. I love seeing him sing and dance!
Asher was being a madman like always and running and screaming all over the place. Cullen was fussy. Tristan stayed home sick. Cedric wanted to run around with his friends. But, again it was only 10 minutes so, while slightly embarrassing, at least it wasn't very long that we had to try to keep the kiddies in one spot. It's a hard thing. For real.

Here is the little Liam-pie again with his cheesy little grin! what a cutie!

There Is Goodness In the World

After the recent actions and works of Laurie and Curtis Peterson, Pam Anderson, David Pearson and others associated with them, I was left with my faith lost in most people. I'm still struggling with the ripples and waves that are still abounding all from their negative works in my life and the whole town of Nauvoo. So, you can imagine my surprise and awe at the story I am going to share.....

This past summer Jeremy and I were in the midst of dealing with problems with the "lovely" people mentioned above. We were living in our home in Nauvoo and I had placed my wedding ring next to our television in our living room one night. That was the last time I saw it. It was probably May or June. I searched everywhere. No luck. Finally the whole house situation came to a head and we decided to not sue the hell out of them because it would have been long and drawn out...and I was at my wits end anyway. The result of that was that we had to move out of our home in a short time....as we were packing, sorting, and moving, I looked again for my ring. We ended up not even being able to do a final check of the house or clean it or anything...in fact they took over our house without so much as a key or anything!!!! They just drove by and thought we were out enough for them to move in and did it! I went back one morning to finish up and get our family cat and they were there cleaning the house and moving their crap in!!! I got out and grabbed my cat and left. I thought that if by chance the ring was still in the house I would never see it again because I was sure if the Peterson's found it, they would pawn it. What else could I think? They had already stolen my home in a hostile takeover.
So for the month of August we lived in vacation condos outside of Nauvoo because we didn't close on our house in Carthage until Aug. 25th. Supposedly, the Peterson's closed on our house in Nauvoo on Aug. 13th but that was a lie too. Last I knew they still hadn't closed. So they made us move with five little boys two times in one month. Yeah.
When we got to our new house in Carthage, I checked all the boxes again as I unpacked but, had pretty much given up hope of finding it. So, fast forward to Wednesday, Nov. 18th. Debbie(MIL), Trisha(SIL), and I drove to Springfield to do some Christmas shopping. We had a great day of spending money and eating yummy food! lol. On the way home, Trisha made a comment about me getting a ring to put on my finger. So we started talking about my ring and what a bummer it was that it was still gone. Then Debbie said that she had seen a notice on the bulletin board at the Nauvoo laundry mat awhile back that had said: Lost Ring, call this number. Now in May my dryer broke and I was using the laundry mat until we got our new dryer. It was worth a chance. Trisha then called up her husband, Josh, and asked him to go to the laundry mat to get the number off the board for me to call (because we were driving home from Springfield.)
Josh drove to the laundry mat and the sign had been taken down. Then Debbie said that she thought that maybe she remembered the phone number and that I should try it anyway. So, I called the number and a lady answered. Turns out that she and her husband had found my ring at the laundry mat and had kept it all that time!!!! I WAS THRILLED! I couldn't get it until the next day but I was so excited. Of course I had Jeremy dig up some pictures of it to show the woman because I forgot about a row of diamonds when she was describing it....it had been awhile, okay!
I am just so grateful to know that there are people out there in the world still that aren't selfish and stupid. John and Debbie Allen had kept the ring all that time....THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! When Debbie Allen took it to give to my MIL, Debbie, she had even put it in a ring box and everything! wow. It makes me wonder if I would have done the same thing....if I didn't know whose it was.....and had made a sign and no one had called.....I think I would have sold it after that long......thank goodness they didn't.
So there is my good news for the day. Also on an unrelated note...I get to go to St. Louis tomorrow to see City of Joseph friends!!!! Ariane Cameron (Hall) is having her first baby and it is a girl so I'm gonna go down to her shower....it should be a BLAST!!!!! I can't wait!

I Lost My Camera In the Move

Many things have happened in the months while I did not blog. It is possible that in the future I may feel the need to discuss certain events. Right now I do not. Right now I feel the need to discuss Facebook and what an addict of it I truly am. I love it. Get over it. Buah hahahaha!

This Is The Best

It is time to return to NORMAL.

Give Mom the Gift that says: I'm Not a Woman Anymore...I'm a Mom!

The Trapp Family Continues to Grow

There is big news in the Trapp Family!! Mark and Karina has their fourth child (and fourth girl) this morning at 12:36am. She weighed in at 7lbs. 14oz. and 20 and 1/2 inches long. They named her Liberty Amelia Trapp! Love it! So this is like number 47 or something in the Trapp grandchildren...I'll have to get an exact account some other time.
In other Trapp baby news........Susan and Todd are expecting again!!! I know, who would have thought!!! Everyone thought they had been "fixed" but, nope. There will be 11 and 1/2 years between Taylor (the youngest) and this baby...talk about an age gap!! I am so excited!!! We're thinking the due date is somewhere in February!
Everyone best watch out because it looks as though babies are in the air......

MMMMMmmmmm!

Yesterday we had to travel to Peoria for a check-up for Cedric. Every time I go to Peoria to the children's hospital I have to stop at Popeye's. Their chicken is good but, what is really good is the mashed potatoes & gravy and the red beans & rice. Devine!
I took Nikki Yu with me and 4 of the five kids. Tristan stayed home with Grandma Trapp and followed her around at work. We went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch and I brought Popeye's home for supper. ASher used all of his tokens at Chuck E. Cheese on a little train that he could ride. he didn't even ride it all the time. sometimes he would jsut put the token in and watch it go! Too funny!

Joanne is a Lifesaver!!

Who knew I only had to switch the darn tab to compose??? Now I also have my fonts and colors back!! And many others!! Thank you Joanne!

Stone Arch Bridge

I'm trying this out to see if this is actually the break in the html for the pictures. for some reason when I upload pictures now, once they are loaded they show up as html until I publish the post. So, it's really hard for me to tell what picture is where and how to comment on it. I do not like it. Anyway, these are some pictures of the boys down at the Stone Arch Bridge. We were playing down there one day and feeding the geese. I didn't get any pics of the geese.






Not entirely sure what was happening here but, it sure is funny! I can't tell if Cedric is biting Liam's ear or kissing him! Liam doesn't seem mad.....

Males

This morning Asher was running around with Jeremy's cell phone saying: "I give da phone to Jeeermy." It was really cute the way he said Jeremy and so I said, "Asher what is daddy's name?" to which he replied, "Jeeermy." And I said, "What is Mommy's name?" He said, "Boob." Seriously, what is wrong with males?

this is a fine little mess he made in his room the other night. He was supposed to be sleeping...but instead he dumped out his hamper and stole my make up bag and dressed up.

Scuba Shower

This is how I found Cedric in the shower a few days ago.

Cedric's 7th Birthday

For Cedric's 7th birthday we decided to take him and Tristan to St. Louis to the zoo for the day. Well, we got a late start, partly due to the crackheads that are stealing our house (and yes, they are really stealing it) showed up and ruined my morning. More on that later. anyway, by the time we got to St. louis people were streaming out of the zoo because apparently it closes at 5pm!!! weird. Anyway, we ran through and saw a hyena and some fish and a cheetah. yay. We felt horrible so I remembered that Laura and Renee had both recently posted something about the city museum on their blogs and it looked really cool. So we went. It was freaking awesome. One of the coolest places I've been. Cedric and Tristan had a blast!! We stayed until about 8or 9pm. But, if we had stayed they tun the lights out at 11pm and let you use flashlights to go through this place!!! I can't even imagine! We could have spent longer there but this was supposed to be a day trip. When we left we went to the Ameristar Casino on the way out of St. Louis to eat. The kids loved the buffet!!!
Crap my pictures loaded backwards. The ones at the bottom are of our short zoo excursion and then the rest are City Museum. It was a great birthday. The next day we went to the wow park in Carthage and had a small party with cake and ice cream and presents and the whole thing.

Liam's Pre-k Graduation (1st year)

Liam graduated from his first year of pre-k at the beginning of May. He went half days this year and next year he will go to all day pre-k. We are so proud of Liam. He really improved a lot this year in his willingness to try new things and talk to other people.

The picture of the girl is our friend's daughter. I couldn't see that it wasn't Liam when I loaded it. Anyway, that is Isabel Cote.

Yuck!

Are you freaking kidding me that Kris Allen beat Adam Lambert in American Idol??!?!?! The wrong person won. I'm annoyed.

These are Pictures

My Cullen, Eating.

This is Cullen's first time eating food. It was organic rice cereal with organic bananas. So, I got a new highchair for Cullen. It's the Precious Planet series from Fisher Price. Notice the little brown monkey on the right hand side of Cullen's head. Late at night when I walk through the kitchen that dang monkey scares the poop right out of me because I think I have forgotten the baby in the seat! Or when I walk through during the day I think there is a short person hiding behind the high chair with their head sticking out! It's a cute chair though and has lots of perks. And it's not Evenflo. I could do a whole blog on the awfulness of the Evenflo brand. It's cheaply made. It's just plain garbage. I'll save the rest of that rant for another day.

I am planting more in my garden this year. And I'm mapping it out this time so I don't have to guess what is going to pop up where.

Also, I have great mother's day stories to tell.