TOO BUSY TO BLOG!

I can't believe it has been a month since I've posted. Here is an update of our month.

-Twilight... I loved it! I am easy to please.

-We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for! I love black Friday and had a great time shopping all night. I went with my sisters and brother-in-law. We went to Park City at midnight and then hit Kohl's, Walmart and Target. It was wild and I got some great deals.

-Tom's work Christmas party at Tuscany.

-Made Christmas candy for friends and neighbors.

-Got strep throat - took a week to get back to normal.

-Sent out Christmas cards.

-More shopping.

-Celebrated Cody's 9th Birthday. On Cody's birthday, December 11th, we took a couple of his friends bowling. My sister and her kids came too. We all had a great time! We had a family party that Sunday.

-Family Christmas party - got to see Santa.

-Took my mom to see Niel Diamond for her Christmas present. It was awesome! We had a great time. She was so excited! This was her fourth time seeing him in concert, but she said it had been 20 years and was funner going with me than my dad.

-Went to the movies and saw The Tale of Desperaux. It was a cute movie!

-Another family Christmas party.





Cody and friends



Cody and his cousin Bailey



Cody bowling


I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Excited for a holiday!!!

We have been very busy over the last couple of weeks. That is a huge reason I am excited for the holiday break. Here is a quick recap:

-prepare for Cole's birthday (three parties)
-finish up cub scouts for Cole and Cody so they could earn their awards
-Cody's book report
-Cole's state report
-help Morgan disguise a turkey
-reflections
-take dinner to a friend who just had a baby
-normal life craziness: volunteering at the school, dinner, laundry, homework, exercise, Young Women's, etc.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLE! He turned 11 on November 17th. I can't believe he is that old. Next year will be a big one. I have been staring at him closely lately and I can sometimes catch a glimpse of his two year old self. It makes me laugh when I see it. We watch alot of home videos of Cole when he was younger. They are the only home movies on tape that are easy to watch. All of the kids have them memorized. They are quite hilarious. I need to send some of them in to Funniest Home Videos. The other kids will have to wait years before they see themselves on home video.


We let Cole take a few friends to the movies for his birthday party. They went and saw the "Dark Knight." Parties are alot easier when they get older. They entertain themselves. Tom was wonderful to take them to the movies. Luckily the movie went to the dollar theater on the day we had the party. They all had a great time!


On Sunday we celebrated Cole's birthday with his cousin Reece who's birthday is on the 19th.


On his actual birthday the whole family went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Cole wanted shrimp(spoiled) and Tom suggested Chinese(inexpensive). Cole shares his birthday with his Grandpa Willie(Tom's dad). So we always celebrate them together on the actual day. Our families birthdays turn into weekend long celebrations. It's wonderful to have so much family that live close. Cole got a bit of everything clothes, a video game, movie and money.


Cole, Morgan and Cody all entered the Reflections contest at the school and they all received a medal and some gift cards for entering. We are very proud!


Cole received his Arrow of Light award in cub scouts. Last month he received his Webelos badge. I still can't believe he will be in Young Men's next year. Pack meeting was held on Friday, Nov. 21st and I gave up my ticket to see Twilight so I could see my sons receive their awards. Tom was planning to go to the High School state Football championship game this night also. The things we sacrifice for our kids! Their definitely worth it!


I am a very proud mom! Cub scouts is alot of work for moms.(he,he) We actually have really awesome scout leaders in this ward and I didn't have to help with much. My boys are awesome!


Cody received his wolf badge. Good job Cody!


I made rolls for a family party and they turned out delicious. I let the dough rise longer than needed and this is what I found in the kitchen.


Cody and his friend Gage in the 3rd Grade Thanksgiving program. It was a cute program. Cody had a part in the skit and he was adorable!


Cole is sitting on his desk at school showing his report on Hawaii. He loves it when his mom comes into his class and takes pictures.(ha,ha)

I've been tagged again...

My friend LaNae has tagged me. I enjoyed learning more about her. It's a great way to learn interesting facts and get to know others better. So here goes...

Here are the rules:

1.Post who tagged you with a link to their blog(http://sixcallsthatsall.blogspot.com)
2.Post these rules
3.Write 10 random things about yourself
4.Tag some friends


1. I love, love, love staying up late. I dread, dread, dread getting out of bed in the morning. I enjoy having "quiet" time late at night. Midnight is bedtime for me on average. Sometimes I'll stay up until 1:00 or 2:00am. Some of you might have noticed that is when I am blogging. I usually can't get myself going until noon. It's a vicious cycle. I have really tried to turn it around. It's hard for me to go to bed at 10:00. I always have things I want to do. If I go to bed early, I still can't get out of bed in the morning. So I give that up and enjoy the late hours.

2. Soda pop and hot tamales....love them!!!!

3. I have an all or nothing personality. When I am in the habit of something, I am almost obsesses with it. I exercise faithfully or not at all. I eat healthy or binge.

4. I love organization. I always have 10 projects that need to get done. I am never bored at home. I get lazy but never bored. I drive myself crazy filling every single minute of my day. There is not enough time in the day for me to get everything I want done. I want to be perfect!

5. I am a perfectionist! That is probably why I can't get everything done in a timely manner.

6. I love to scrapbook! Perfectionist's should not scrapbook.

7. I love my digital camera! I never leave home without it. I take pictures of everything and everybody. At the end of the year I make a CD for family members of the years happenings. Some of them count on me having my camera when they have forgotten theirs. I am hoping to get a nicer camera for Christmas!

8. I am only competitive when it comes to my children. I want them to win and be the best! I get mad at Tom for not helping the kids make the winning car at the pinewood derby. His dad always made him the winning car. At sports I want my kids to win. Like I said before, I get obsessed.

9. I love concerts. I mostly listen to country music anymore. Tom hates concerts and he asked me the other day why I like them so much. This is what I told him: I like the excitement, I am fascinated by famous people, and I like to be goofy and carefree.

10. I get really annoyed by flaky people. I can't stand it when others don't follow through with things. I think I get a little obsessive when it comes to following through. Don't say it if you don't mean it.

I thought it would be harder to think of 10 things. Once I started thinking it was quite fun. Anyway, I am going to tag Mikelle L., Susan S., Robin W.

MORE FUN HALLOWEEN PICTURES...

MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY - HALLOWEEN!!!!

Tom might kill me for adding this picture. I love to dress up and the costumes I had planned didn't work out in time for our Halloween parties. I had the mullet wig and so we went with it from there. We have seven family members with birthdays in October. This year we had three Halloween/Birthday parties!

I bought this Power Ranger costume two days before Halloween! This is what he went as trick or treating. It was fairly warm, but not warm enough for a wrestling suit.

Most of my hand-me-down costumes require face painting and Cael wasn't about to let us do that. He said he would be afraid to look at himself in the mirror. I found this old wrestling suit and thought it would go well with Morgan being a cheerleader. He agreed so we went with it.

Morgan is our cheerleader. Go Cavemen! Morgan is taking a tumbling class right now and loves it. She is always asking me to watch her do a front hand spring and other tricks.

Cody was Captain Jack Sparrow - he hated this costume and having his face painted. My sister bought this costume on clearance with Cody in mind. I think he looks great! After the costume parade at school, he took most of his costume off and washed his face make-up.

What a good sport! Cole is willing to do most anything when it comes to dressing up. I think he looks awesome as the Joker! I let him keep his hair long for this costume. Tom always does the make-up. Tom actually went into work late so he could paint the kids faces before school. I think it would put me over the edge. What a good husband!

I absolutely love Halloween. It is my favorite holiday! I love to be scared. I remember begging my mom as a kid to rent me scary movies. My mom let me have parties all the time. When I was twelve I had a Halloween party and begged her to rent the first Friday the 13th movie(it was rated PG-13). What was she thinking? I discovered haunted houses in High School and I can't get enough of them. I just love the thrill of the scare. My mom and I go to a haunted house every year(Like mother, like daughter). After I watch something scaring, it doesn't stay with me. I don't usually get freaked out later. I love finding the perfect costumes for my kids. And of course I like to dress up too. When the kids were younger, we usually had them dress up as Halloween characters(vampire, frankie, mummy, skeleton, etc.). Tom is a great artist with the face paint. Anyway, we had another great year! The kids all got way too much candy. Cody was able to trick or treat with his friend Gage. Then he caught up later with Cole and his friends and they were out until about 9:00pm. They only hit half of Harvest Hills(garbage sack full). Morgan went around with her friend Emily and had a great time. I followed Cael and the kids around until Cael was done. He went strong for about an hour. I was surprised how well he kept up with the big kids. When he was done he wouldn't walk another step. I carried him home. Tom was at JHS football game. He didn't get home until about 8:00. When I went trick or treating with the kids, I left the bowl of candy on the porch. It was fun going around and visiting with all my friends. What a great neighborhood we live in! Some friends invited us over for chili after trick or treating. We had a great night!

Food storage shelves stocked for the winter...

Our own apple tree...

Cael helping pick fruit

Grape juice...

I have been doing alot of canning this year. I am glad to see canning season coming to an end. I love it, but it is alot of work. I hate for any fruit or vegetable to go to waste. Tom's family has a big farm with lots of tomatoes. I did salsa this year for the first time. I must say it turned out great. My parents own an acre of concord(purple) grapes. They planted them when we were young so we could learn to work. We pruned, picked and helped sell them as kids. I love the smell when they are ripe. They make the best grape juice. Cael is addicted to it and his teeth are proof of it(he had alot of dental work last year). Last year we ran out of juice, so this year I bottled 90 quarts. My parents also have fruit trees. They had a good crop of peaches and pears this year. I was really excited about that. I wasn't planning on doing applesauce this year, but my younger sister wanted to learn. We actually had 24 apples on our tiny, "Charley Brown" apple tree. Cael was my little helper this year.

Picture tag!

I just realized I have been picture tagged. I think this is a fun idea! Well the picture just happens to be of my four kids. Imagine that! I honestly cannot remember the reason I took this picture. I am a little bit obsessed with pictures. I never leave the house without my camera and take 45 pictures of every event.lol Maybe the reason was that Morgan's hair was curled that day. It could of been last day of school. It might have been pre-haircut for Cole. We let Cole keep his hair long until school ended. So now I need to tag 4 people... I am going to tag Alison W., Christy J., Shelley D. and Kami G. Have fun! (post 4th file, 4th picture)

FALL SPORTS

Okay, I am wishing things were about to slow down in life. But who am I kidding. Here come the holidays!!! And we have two birthdays coming up. September has been as crazy as May was. It's the sports! I love watching my kids play sports. I never miss a game. But it is always nice to have our Saturday's back. Cole played his 2nd year of tackle football(#92). He loves it... he was made for football! Cody's favorite sport is soccer. He loves defense! He's always more worried that they are going to score a goal. They both did really well this season and improved their skills. Football is a huge time commitment. Cole had practice 3 days a week for 2 hours each. I was really sick of driving him to practice(10min). At least I only had to drive one way. The nice thing about living in Harvest Hills is there is always a neighbor kid on the same team. Besides the boys playing sports, Tom was in a weekly softball league. He was the pitcher. They did really well and ended up taking 4th place this year. Tom loved every minute of it! Fall and Summer are my two favorite seasons, but I secretly love Winter. My reason for it, is that I love the kids being in the house early and things can settle down sooner. I love weekends when we don't have to be anywhere and can cuddle up and watch movies and play games. Don't get me wrong, I love being active and having the kids be outside. But after the Summer we had, I think I'm ready for Winter. I hate the cold! I guess what I'm saying is that I love living in a place with four seasons. Imagine that! Here are some pics of the sports...

Here is a slide show of summer water activities...

EMOTIONALLY EXHAUSTED!!!

Today I went with my parents and 4 siblings down to Fairview to visit my brother who is in a drug addiction rehabilitation center. After years of drug addiction, my brother finally got to the point where he wanted help and decided to check himself into this rehab. We were all thrilled that he finally wanted professional help. He called and invited each one of us to this "family group therapy" day. It is always enjoyable being with the family you grew up with. (Nothing against spouses and kids, but it's nice). Anyway, we were walking into the unknown and I was very nervous and anxious. It was good to see my brother doing well. When we got there we sat in a class for a couple of hours and learned about addictions, relapse, etc. It was very informative. We had lunch and then had group therapy. Talk about scary. I only know what I've seen in the Movies. Anyway, there were four addicts and their families in our group. Of course we were the largest group. (I am the oldest of 7 kids and only 1 sister wasn't there.) We each took a turn telling what emotion we were feeling at the moment. Then each family group took turns having group therapy in a middle circle that we formed. There was a therapist involved in the discussion. We each let my brother know how we felt about him and his addiction and his wrong doings. He then appologized to each of us for different things and situations. Of course there were three big boxes of tissue in the circle with us. It was a very good experience! That may sound crazy, but it was for the situation. I am very glad I was able to go and I wish the best for my brother. But, needless to say I am very exhausted! Both physically and mentally. We were there for 6 hours and travel time was about 3 hours. I should be in bed instead of writing this blog...

HAPPY ANNIVERSAY!!!

Tom and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary on September 16th. Tom said he should of taken the thousand dollars his uncle offered and ran.(ha,ha) I can't believe we have been married this long. We went to dinner at the Roof in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City. It was very romantic and we had a great evening. It was a Tuesday night and we got a great table right by the window and had a great view of Angel Moroni on top of the Salt Lake Temple. The sun set while we were there. It was gorgeous! I started thinking while we were there about some of my favorite things. The things on this list our all from our evening in no particular order.

1-sunset

2-Salt Lake Temple(married)

3-Lion House dinner rolls with honey butter(I had two)

4-spending time with my Tommy

5-romance

6-great music

7-key lime pie
8-chocolate covered strawberries

9-carrot cake

10-eclair's

11-butter dinner mints

I know half the list was related to food, but they have alot of my favorite treats at the Roof. Anyway, we wanted to see a movie after dinner and went to Walmart instead. That's what happens when you've been married for 14 years! We missed the 8:00 show and it was a school/work night and I didn't want to take the kids to Walmart the next day. All in all it was a wonderful evening filled with favorites!

HELP!!

I need help blogging. I want a cute new background and I am inpatient to figure it out. Any tips would be wonderful. All of your blogs look so great! Thank you!!

Well my baby is now four years old and I'm freaking out. Cael's birthday was on August 27th. When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday he said, "a Lightning McQueen bat". At least it was a better answer than "I dunno know". Who knows if there is such a thing. I don't have time to search store after store. I knew he would be happy with anything to do with the Cars movie. I found him a little Lightning McQueen portable computer with fun games and a keyboard that he can learn on. I thought it would be the perfect present for him. He rarely plays with toys and is always asking if he can play a game. He knows how to play Sorry and Yahtzee and will finish a whole game. He loves it. Usually at that age they get sidetracked easily. Anyway the present was a hit and all of his siblings have been fighting over it. I'm sure the novelty of it will wear off soon as with everything. I decided to go with the whole "Cars" theme for his party. It is the first time I have ever bought a specialty cake. I thought what the heck it's my baby. We usually buy the big Costco cakes that are pre-decorated. It turned out really cute with Lightning McQueen (of course). Cael actually got two parties. One for each side of the family. He got new clothes, a "cars" flashlight, motorized cars, candy, ball and a plain black bat. He never said a word about it not being a Lightning McQueen bat. I knew he would be happy with anything. He had a fun birthday celebrating with all his cousins. He got to share one party with his cousin Tanner whose birthday is a few days after his. He really does look and act older. I think there is something about turning four. I'm ready for a new baby!

In August, we went to a cabin with my family and rode fourwheelers. The kids had lots of fun with cousins on this side of the family too. They are lucky to have cousins close to their ages on both sides of the family.

We also went to Bear Lake with Tom's dad, sisters and steps. Bear Lake is such a beautiful lake. The place we stay has minature golfing, a swimming pool/hot tub and a playground. The kids think it is the best. They would almost rather do other things than hang out at the lake all day. They love being pulled on the tube with cousins. It's just not as fun with the siblings as it is with their cousins.

Needless to say, we had the best summer ever!!!! We also squeezed in SevenPeaks and Lagoon. Tom thinks I'm crazy. But I love to travel and play hard. If it were up to him we would of only done 1/3 of what we did. Oh well, I guess it's not up to him. He's voted out 5-1. Thank goodness we got a stimulus check from the government to support our fun.

ONE HECK OF A SUMMER!!!!!

In June, Tom and I went on a cruise to Key West, Cozumel and Belize. We had an awesome time. It was quite the experience. We went scuba diving four times and it was wonderful. I had a couple of panic moments descending into the water, but I worked through my fears and I am glad that I did it. We saw a turtle, lobster, sponges, a barracuda, sting ray and lots of coral and bright colored fish. In Cozumel we were in a 7 man boat and had to flip into the water backwards with all our gear on. I felt like I was in the movies. In Belize we were on a 30 man boat and stepped off the side. Two totally different experiences. The food on the cruise ship was amazing. I wore a motion sickness patch behind my ear. There was only one night that the sea was rough and I noticed. We enjoyed the cruise, but decided that we would rather stay at an all inclusive resort instead of another cruise.

Tom's sister got married on June 21st. She was absolutely gorgeous! It was a perfect day! Everything thing went smooth. Morgan was a flower girl and Cole and Cody helped clear tables. They all had fun dancing.

In July, we went to Starvation Reservoir with friends boating and had an awesome time. Cole might think otherwise. He stepped on a big fish hook and Tom got it out. Cole was very brave letting his Dad get the fish hook out of his foot. Tom broke off the lure, poked another hole and pushed the hook all the way through. What a great Dad!

We also went to Oceanside for a week and stayed in a condo by the beach. We went with Tom's mom and three sisters and their families. On our way down, we stayed at Buffalo Bills and went on the roller coaster. What a blast! We all had alot of fun playing in the Ocean and on the beach. We went to Sea World a couple of days and loved that. Morgan and Cael are at a good age where they show excitement for new things. The older boys had fun, but I don't get the same reaction from them. My favorite thing at sea world was touching the rays and star fish. Cole and Cody loved the Sea Otter show and Morgan and Cael loved Shamu and the dolphins. The kids all loved spending time with cousins. We also were able to go and see the Anaheim Angels play the Indians. It was really fun going to a baseball game. The kids really enjoyed it. I didn't enjoy spending $4.00 for a hot dog. One day we went and saw some tide pools in La Jolla. The kids thought that was neat. The kids had fun building sand castles and waterways in the sand. They loved finding sand crabs and boogie boarding. I wish we could go to the ocean every year.

CRAZY SPRING!

Hello everyone! Tom started this blog 3 months ago and we haven't updated it since. I figured I would give it whirl. We have been so busy these past few months, I figured I better share some of the things that we have been up to.



Tom and I had the opportunity again this year to go to New York with the Jordan High School Drill Team. They did awesome and won Nationals! We had a great time. We went to the Metropolotan Museum and loved it. We only had about 3 hours and were racing through it to see everything. We also saw Hairspray on Broadway. It was very entertaining for me. Tom didn't love it.


We took the family to Disneyland over Spring Break. We had a wonderful time. We spent 3 days in both Disneyland and California Adventure. We still didn't do everything. I can't believe how much stuff their is to do in these theme parks. Cael was only a 1/2 inch too short for most of the big rides. He didn't care though, Splash Mountain scared him. He loved doing the little kid stuff. His favorite was the Winnie the Pooh ride and Disney's Playhouse Live. He also loved meeting Pluto. Morgan loved everything. She has no fear. She went on the Tower of Terror 3 times. She also got to meet Princess Belle and Ariel. Cole and Cody had a great time as well. Their favorites rides were Space Mountain, Screamin and Sourin' over California. Mine was definately the Tower of Terror (awesome)! Tom's favorite was standing in line so he could rest medicine. We were all thoroughly worn out by the end of the 3 days.


Cole and Cody have started baseball and it is keeping us all extremely busy. Four games a week is crazy! They are both doing very well and having fun. Tom and I are taking a scuba diving class which just adds to our busy schedule. We are going on a cruise with some friends in June and want to go diving. I was a little hesitant to do it at first, but love it. Tom's end of the year schedule is busy as ever with Prom, Senior Dinner Dance, etc. I am ready for school to be out for everyone. The homework and schedules(Kindergarten) are tiring. Morgan is loving her dance class. She is on the competition team this year and has done very well. Her team took 3 first places, 2 second and 1 third. They also got a big trophy for 3rd place overall 17 dances. It has been fun for me! Tom has 3 boys.

Hey,

I don't know JACK about Blogging but I'm going to give it a whirl. All of the Sherwood's are alive and well and we are enduring this long cold winter by doing a whole lot of nothing. Once in a while we get out and play in the snow but for the most part it's been TV, movies and video games while Misti tries to keep herself busy scrap-booking or yelling at us for not doing anything but watching TV and playing video games. It's a good life if you can get it.