Annual Gingerbread/grahm cracker houses

So every year I get together with my hubbys family and we make the BEST grahm cracker houses that you have evr seen! it is sooo much fun and thanks to my sister in law i got some pics cause i forgot my camera! thanks jen! anyway life is also really good i am working m-f 6am-8:30pm every night so hope noone needs to get a hold of me cause you will get my bro! anyway spencer said my kids have been great, they are really teaching him to be a patient dad! he has taken them to the park everyday it is niceoutside and makes huts every day too! spence you are AWESOME!! well hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving!!

still alive

Can I just say that I give soooo much thanks to all that run the church! I can not believe how much people have to do in callings! this new calling is seriously the biggest one I have had,and i got a HUGE reality check that how awesome our church is! if it was not for all the members we would be nothing..Becky you are sooo awesome for all that you do and I am sooo willing to help out in all that I can for you ...i took all my other callings for granted i guess cause they were cake compared to this, someone must be preparing me for a great life up there! anyway i had my first meeting last night with my presidency and it was so much fun to just hang out with REAL women, not children!, it was a bit intimidating but they were super nice. I was really excited to get to know all the names in the primary too! i can not believe how many kids there are! It is going to be really exciting....my LoooooonG days at the good old Discover Card are not too bad thanks to my baby brother that is taking care of my kids! they love him soo much and he plays with them i think more than i do!! he takes them to the park, on walks, makes up games, and CLEANS my house! he is amazing the women that marries him will be soooo LUCKY! anyway i joined the gym at my work so i can work out still and i tell you what it is NOT, I repeat NOT like Golds! how i miss the big screen i get to watch! now i just stare at the wall as i am running on one of three treadmills:) YES it is extremely small..but it will do for the next 2 months. they have really nice showers and provide towels soap, lotion, shampoo, conditioner..and blow dryers,curling irons..so i am set !!! anyway life is great at the Ballard home getting excited for the holidays..missing my sisters and hoping my sweet Sammantha will not get sent to Kindergarten in her jammies:) have a good week!

Fun weekend

yto



This has been a great weekend! I spent the whole day with my 4 beautiful children! we watched rataooie I think that is how you spell it? anyway and we went shopping together and went on a walk...then saturday night i babysat my cute little nephew, Payton..he is such a doll ..he reminds me of my brother Spencer when he was a baby cause he is really tall and his little hands and feet are pretty sweaty so they are kinda sticky! he absolutely LOVES sammy he could not stop grabbing at her and watching her,,it was really cute...then this morning i was making popeye pancakes that i make every sunday and we were OUT of syrup..my kids were devastated soooo i called my mom to ask how to make homemade and she said just add some flavor to some karosyrup cause i did not have any maple ...so i added some strawberry extract and BOY did my kids LOVE it! they had to lick every last drop off their plates.it was sooo stinkin funny!
I also had a wonderful day at church today cause i was called to the primary presidency! WAY fun! i am extremely nervous but sooo excited at the same time..it has not been that long since i have been out of primary so i am still really familiar with the kids. I hear that the ladies i will be with are awesome so i am excited to make some new friendships in the ward and to be with the children again!
well hope every one has a fantastic week!

The poop basket!

OKAY! so what I love about everyone getting SO excited about the holidays is all the yummy CHOCOLATE! I love it! I can not get enough of it.....over at the good old wal-mart they had these small packages of Mrs.Fields dark chocolate orange cream sticks!! can you say HEAVEN!!!! they are so good...me and matt ate them right up in like 5 minutes...he thinks it is pretty funny how much I like chocolate since I hated so bad when we were dating and up until I was prego with parker...That kid did some weird things to my body..my ears are now allergic to most metals so they get really irritated and puffy when i have them in so long...i love chocolate when i use to HATE it...my feet grew 1/2 an inch...and i think some other things i can not think about...has any of your children done some weird things to you or even fixed some crazy problem you used to have? ...anyway the holidays are exciting and i can not wait to put up decorations, it is sooo tempting to put them up now since there are some radio stations playing the good old tunes! but I will withhold:) ...So our renters have moved in and are actually really quite! they are hardly ever home so i do not have to stress too much at keeping the kids quite..I had to go get another garbage can today so that we could still have our 2( why do we need 2? i don't know we just throw alot of stuff away?) anyway so that will be nice for them and the touch ups on the cabinets were done today and our other water heater was put in yesterday by my bro in law..and matt is putting there heater back together so they will have I guess some much needed heat...we keep our house at 65 during the day and 61 at night so i did not think it was a big deal that their heater was not on yet cause it stays between 69 and 72 down there..well i guess cause they are from california they want it at at least 75! I thought that was crazy so they are pretty darn lucky we put 2 systems in or i guess they would be freezing all winter long! I used to need my house at like 74 before i married matt and he quickly got me used to having the temp low cause his parents leave there house at like 50! it is so cold when we go there we have to make sure we bundle up, it is really interesting how your body adjusts to your surrounding temp cause they are used to it and my kids are used to the temp in our house which as a BONUS my heating bills are really low:) anyway it is not as bad as i thought it would be having people in my home and the extra money is REALLY nice....
So my work is offering over time and they need some help around this time of year and give out some awesome incentives to attract us to work them..so i have decided to work four 14 hour daysfor the next 2 months ....yuck...yuck..and yuck! but the money will be nice for the holidays and I am really trying to win a bike and the new kitchen aid! so i will have to let ya all know what i get from all those mad hours...anyhow i wanted to post a picture of haven in her new found basket toilet, but blogger would not let me ..she has to poop in this thing! it is the funniest thing, I have this basket by my front door for shoes and she crawls in it and does her business then gets out and plays! it is really cute..what are some funny places your kids had to go?.. anyway good night! oh i guess now blogger is being nice so you get to see her!

Halloween Party

HAVEN DID NOT LIKE HER COSTUME TOO MUCH!
Here is my beautiful older sister Michelle!
Here is the other father of my kids(he watches my kids for me!)my little brother spencer
I had to throw this one in here cause this is what happens when I try to get on my computer and the aubs is ALONE!
Here is my cute baby sister,Jessica
my two little cinderellas, aubrey and my niece jo-jo( whom were born exactly 2 months apart!)
my beautiful ariel! sammy
My web throwin Parker pants!
had to get at least one cute one of haven
this is great my bro in law (whom did all the plumbing in my basement!)Brandon
my too cute nephew briggs!
oops looks like the old man fell asleep! this outfit I think was the best of all night he had oxygen tubes and a walker and the PANTS! it was awesome
my dear old pirate DAD! ARRRH
BLOOD THIRSTY LITTLE BRO ,JOEL...SOO CUTE!
sam hoffman took these pics I LOVE THEM SOO MUCH! and this cute pose of us all doing funny faces is going right in my living room!

here is sammys tooth that had to be pulled..OUCH
once again the Goddess of the night ..my little bro with my mom as a....MAN!
Hope you have enjoyed these halloween pictures that are a little late to be posted! here is a great big SMOOCH!!!!

The final thing..

Here is some pictures and the video of my basement. It is finally done! Matthew did such a great job! I can not wait till we are able to use it..sorry that it is a bit long but I have never takin video with this camera i just got:)

pics

here is sammy at school and the kids eating chilli and then matt getting ready to take the kids out trick or treating..sorry about the sideways one of aubs i could not figure out how to delete it!

Motherhood Take One

Okay so yesterday I worked all day from 9am to almost 9pm and had no idea about the day my sweet little brother had with my 4 children! I was moved to a new team yesterday and did not have the phone # and was a little occupied to call home, or even call my hubby..so I never got a report back to see how samm got on the bus, how Haven was feeling and if Aubs and Parker are being nice to each other....Today I worked from 6am to 430pm and decided to call my bro after samm was off too school.........YEAH....so I got the story of my life:):) ..my brother was telling me that yesterday Parker was pretty naughty cause he would not listen to him and finally hit my brother in the face! I was not thrilled at that of course but thats my parker and my brother thinks its soo funny,,, then he proceeds to laugh and tell me about sammy from yesterday...
SPENCER: samm go brush your teeth you have 20 minutes before the bus is here and you need to get dressed
SAMM: okay.........
20 minutes later
SPENCER: samm what are you doing you are going to be late
SAMM: I am doing my hair
SPENCER: well, you have to hurry and get your shoes on cause the bus is coming
SAMM: okay!( and puts on these ,I think are hideous, but she loves them ,sparkly black slip on shoes.
SPENCER: wait you are not dressed!
SAMM: ummmmm
SPENCER: there is not time, get your shoes on and lets go , where is your backpack?
SAMM: I don't know?
SPENCER: just take Parkers spiderman one
SAMM: okay
they go running out the door and I guess samm barely makes it on the bus IN HER PAJAMAS AND A SPIDERMAN BACKPACK!!!!!!!!!!!

He told me this morning and I was in a bit of shock, I could not believe my little 5 year old had to go to school in her jammies..that poor thing..I asked her about it tonight and she said she was soo embarrassed so she did not tell anyone and she felt weird all day ..I asked her if her teacher said anything and she said yes, she toLd me hey cute jammies....HAHAHAHA! I am so embarrassed yet it makes me laugh so hard I want to cry!.....the best thing of it all is I sent a note to school with samm for her teacher telling her I was not able to come in to volunteer that day cause i had to work , so hopefully she knows I was not home to dress my child and do her hair.LOL!

anyway my brother is awesome and I love that he takes care of all my kids while I am at work! what does that say about him? well I guess he will be ready for father hood one day and will leave the takin care of the kids to the wife:)

so I did ask him though how today went since I did not see my kids this morning and he said samm was trying to get him to put a ponytail in her hair and he had NO idea how to do that!LOL..I tell ya this has been a FUN week!!!!

Happy Halloween!!

okay so maybe everyone is posting pics right now cause dear ol blogger wont let put up pics so maybe tomorrow.....I hope everyone had a happy Halloween!