It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Well, it has been a short while since I blogged.  I hate people using the excuse that they are just too busy to do stuff.  You make time for what you want to make time for.  We have been pretty busy lately but all with stuff I chose to add in. But I feel like I have been too busy to blog.   I am doing all the regular mom of 7 kids stuff.  Trying hard to keep up on the house (years ago, I had to come to the realization that my house will never be clean again.  I just had to be happy with not embarrassing.  as long as I wouldn't care if someone stopped by (which noone does when it is clean) then my house is considered clean.) running kids around, all the stuff you know goes along with motherhood.  I am not going to write it all out. I would be here all day.  I also have all the stuff for Carlos.  Visits, appt, court and stuff.  I have now found the excersize I enjoy.  I have been trying for a while to find it.  I tried runnig, yuck, excersize equipment is okay but I really, really like aerobic classes.  I have been going to Zumba, step (I tried mulitstep with 4 steps, that was super hard, i need to wait before I go back to that one) pilates, and on and on.  I haven't seen a difference on the scale and I have been going for a month, but I am feeling stronger.  I have a few health problems that make me tired and this has been fun to have something to go to and try to get more energy.  So that is taking up alot of my time, so has my hobby of scrapbooking.  I am very jealous of my sister whose kids are all in school.  She gets to do it during the day.  Maybe some day I will.  Right now I just do it when the kids are in bed.  Sometimes I am too tired, but I really enjoy doing it. I try not to let stuff for me take over time for the kids.   The kids are envolved with choir, band, dance, basketball and of course playing. I guess I could go on and on, but I think I am rambling and getting boring so here are some pictures of what we have been up to lately.

We have been getting together with some friends and playing games.  The girls were at our house and they got a hold of my camera and took some funny photos. 

Goofy girls

Aunt Faith and Uncle Gary and family came over for dinner.  We played hide and seek.  Gary was the most creative.  Here is his hiding behind the couch but in plain view.  Super funny.

Mia got into more make-up!

Annie is playing basketball at the rec center.  James is also, but I have to take his pictures tonight.  

 

You go girl.

Cassie helped Jason get dressed for chruch . . . backwards.

Front view (yes, he is wearing white socks, but hey at least he has socks on. )

Falling asleep in odd positions.

Gotta love Artic Circle

Cassie went to the District Science Fair.  Here is the kids from her elementary school.  Her friend on the right won 2nd place overall.  We were really happy.  (a little jealous the next day when she got tons of attention, but cassie is wonderful.  She handled it great.) 

The note said to plan on 2 hours, so I packed tons of toys and snacks for the little kids, but we only had to wait 20 mins.  It was fantastic. 

She did a great job answering the judges questions.  I thought she was very brave.

Of course it happened on a tues, my busiest day.  We had to go back that night, so I dropped Becca off at dance early(but after Annies dance) with James who had to wait there until John got off work and Becca had to skip one of her classes so James could make it to his basketball game.  I think it was pictures that night.  Oh what fun balancing a million kids is. 

Sorry for the dark photos.  I was at the back of the dimmly lit room.  Here she is getting her excellent award.  She was a step under superior, the highest.  Not to shabby.  Nicely done Cass.

The weather has been almost nice.  The kids have been playing tons and tons of basetball, poison, and capture the flag.  It is making me excited for summer when we can have more freedoms.

It also means the neighborhood comes over.

Josh came over for Sunday dinner.  It was super fun.  Here is a funny story.  His friend (Danny) is an only child and a non-lds from California.  (So basically totally different than chotic family!!!)  They came over and hung out around Christmas.  We invited Danny also since we had a ton of food.  (note to self, never leave rhodes rolls out of the freezer unless you are planning on feeding an army.) Danny told Josh on the way over that he had an LDS friend that they ate a big ham dinner every Sunday and he asked if all Mormons did that because he doesn't like ham.  Josh told him no, we eat lots of different things.  So they get to my house and guess what we had for dinner. . . .you got it, ham.   I thought that was so funny.  So I promised them that next Sunday I would serve something other than ham. 

This was Mia yesterday.  She is in a huge imagination stage.  She is always playing with her babies.  Here she is outside.  She took my rug and a giant dora outside to play house.

So today, I left the tv on and Mia playing with her kitchen (she is constantly playing with it and making food for her babies. ) and ran downstairs ot change over the laundry.  Well, this is wihat I came up to.  Dora had started and she parked her cute little behind and was watching it.  How cute is that? 

Here is the back view.  Well, that turned out to be a novel of a post.  So sorry.  Thanks for reading.  Hope your day is as great as ours.