The big (BIG) President’s Day weekend

My kids have been looking forward to President’s day weekend for months.  Literally.  They asked me every night (especially Noodle) if tomorrow was President’s day weekend.  Why?  Because we had plans to spend it in Mt. Green at their cousins house, and they couldn’t wait for their big sleepover with their cousins!  My s.i.l. Chris and I have had an ongoing trade the past few years for babysitting so we can escape now and again with our husbands.  There have been some hairy moments, but for the most part it works out great because we have the same number of kids and they are roughly the same ages, so they get along great, and it makes for an even switch.

Anyway- this time around it was me & Seth’s turn to babysit while Jer & Chris spent the long weekend in Hawaii (choking back a jealous sob……)

So we left Price Wednesday after school  (the kids had to miss Thurs. but had Friday & Monday off) and headed up North.  Wednesday night Seth realized he had left his laptop at home and really needed it for work, so Thurs. morning he had to drive back to Price to get it, leaving me all alone with TEN kids.  Gulp. 

No, it actually was fine, and strangely enough, I had a lot of fun.  Chris’s kids went to school Thursday so it was just my 5 and her 2 youngest.  A bunch of friends stopped by to visit me because they had heard I would be in town.  It was great to see people.  Jeremy and Chris have a big beautiful brand new house, so it sort of felt like we were playing “house”, or little kids playing dress-up, you know?  Anyway- it was just nice to be in my home community and spend some time outdoors. We had beautiful weather and I made the kids get all bundled up and go outside to play every day.  We took walks to the local park and the kids splashed in mud puddles and I didn’t even yell at them because I was just feeling really happy to be outside. (I think I might have case of winter blues, now that I think about it…….)

I also got to go out for some runs with my girlfriends.  Its so nice to have people to run with!  I have to run alone in Price and I’m trying to train for another marathon which I don’t really think will happen because I can’t manage to get my runs in all alone.  Anyway, I seem to be rambling, but I really want to convey what a fun weekend we had.  I let Sav. & Kenni bake cookies which was hilarious.  They made a ginormous mess, but did a decent job cleaning up.  We went to a family party at Grandma Lesli’s and also one at Grandma ‘Ree’s.  The Harward family was a little shocked when we showed up for dinner with 10 kids in tow, but thankfully, things went really smoothly.

I got my hair done (finally!) late one night at my sister’s salon, and afterwards we met the rest of my sisters for a late night appetizer fest at Applebee’s.

I snuck to a class one morning at my old gym, taught by my favorite zumba instructor, miss Tricia.  It was so much fun to see all the ladies there and enjoy an hour of great exercise, even though I couldn’t walk properly for four days afterwards :)  Seems I’m a little out of shape.

And finally, Monday we somehow mustered up the courage to take the kids skiing!  All except the babies, of course.  Michelle was wonderful enough to offer to keep them for the day in exchange for me taking Haylie skiing with us.  Easy trade if you ask me.  Especially when you factor in that about 2 hours into our ski day, the 4 year olds were pooped, so Grandma Lesli dropped them off at Michelle’s house also.  She definitely got the short end of the trade stick that day.

Trying to arrange 11 kids for a photo.  Not as easy as it sounds…..

This is the only decent photo we have from our ski day, taken on Seth’s phone.  So, we have Jeremy’s four oldest kids, our four oldest kids, Haylie, and my niece Lauren and nephew Garrett.  You see, my parents came up for the day also, and somehow they saw fit to dump two additional kids on us for the day.  (Apparently, we didn’t have enough to look after to begin with…..)

Thank goodness Grandma Lesli skied with us for most of the morning.  She helped out a lot.  Then when she left at lunchtime with the youngest kids, the rest were fine on their own, so Seth and I were actually able to make a run or two with my parents and brothers.  All in all, a great day.

And all in all, a fantastic weekend.  So glad we got to spend it in our favorite place.  Now, its time for Seth and I to start planning our next getaway…….

Its payback time!  BAH ha ha ha ha!

Baby News!

The last month has brought a lot of new baby news to our house.  Being away from our family now, it has been hard to celebrate these moments without everyone, but it has been fun to see photos and hear about the beautiful little bundles and of the joy they are bringing their new parents.

First on the docket: My baby brother Kevin and his wife Michelle.  Truly couldn’t be happier for these two.  (Seeing as how I introduced the happy couple……)  There is something especially great about a first baby.  So much in your life changes!

Welcome Thomas Stephen Harward

My Dad, brother, and little Tommy. I can’t believe I don’t have a picture with Michelle in it.  Totally unfair seeing as how she did all the work!

 

Ok, next baby:

Seth’s brother Ben & wife Megan welcomed their 2nd baby home, a little girl, Malan.  May I just say- the CUTEST name?  I love it!  Ben & Megan are incredibly deserving and have waited a long time for this little family to grow.  We are so happy for them!  Can’t wait till I get to meet the little sweetie in March.

 

Other fun baby news to report:  My cousin Ben and his wife Kristen brought home a baby girl  (their first child).  This was an especially monumentous occasion because the Kofoed bloodline has never before produced a FEMALE!  All my Kofoed cousins are boys, and so far their children have all been boys, also.  I’m sure my Aunt Geri is beside herself with this little pink beauty!  Congrats to them!

 

 

Last, on a sad note, we received the devastating news that Seth’s cousin Jake and his wife Whitney lost their little baby unexpectedly.  She was full-term and things were going great, but the baby had unknowingly gotten the cord wrapped around his neck.  He was delivered stillborn and our heart aches still for their family.  I can’t imagine their loss.  They had a funeral, but Seth and I weren’t able to attend being so far away.

It really makes you realize how precious these little lives are.  Grandma Lesli said it best…. “You need to go hug all your babies right now and realize what a blessing they are in our lives!”

Hope you will take the time to go give yours a huge love.  Whether they are your babies, grandbabies, nieces or nephews- they are truly a blessing to us all.

Visitors

I LOVE having visitors! (HINT- please come see me! Unless you are a weird internet stalker, in that case, please don’t……..)

We were lucky to have the White family come stay with us a few weekends ago, minus Chad.  He was away on mancation- golfing with the fellas. Anyway- no hubby meant it was a perfect weekend for Michelle and I to plan a mini-super-Saturday of our very own.  Our goal for the weekend was to sit around in our jammies eating food, chatting, and crafting it up.  What a delight!  I am proud to say we accomplished just that.  Seth was so disgusted by all the estrogen flying around that he took off and went to Moab to ride his Mtn. bike, leaving us man-free all Saturday.

Here’s a fun photo-recap of our weekend:

These are some of the projects we made.  Michelle is a freaking super-genius and she cut out all those darling frames so we could paint them.  Now I just have to figure out where to hang mine……

We also made spring wreath’s (idea courtesy of Pinterest), and Valentine’s banners.  So fun.

Whilst we crafted away, the kids wanted something fun to do also, so we let them do several valentine’s crafts.  They loved it.

And then they played and played.  (See, this is why I need visitors!  If our friends weren’t here, my kids would have been plopped in front of the T.V. on this fine Saturday afternoon.  Sad, but true.

In fact, they must have played pretty hard because sweet little Jack died of exhaustion right here on my tile floor.  It was so funny!

Oh thank you thank you my sweet sweet Chow.  I love you! Please come see me again soon!

Family & Fruit

In addition to the standard “Dad’s & Doughnuts” day at the kids school, they also do a plethora of other early-morning activities that involve just about everyone, and succeed in making me absolutely bonkers.  This month we had a “moms & muffins”, a “Dads & Doughnuts”, a “Grands & Granola”, and yes, a “Family & Fruit”.  I did manage to make it (in my pajamas, no less) to the moms & muffins day, but from there it went straight downhill.  Seth was out of town for Dads day, and since we don’t have a Grandparent within a 100 mile radius, that one was out.  So, we tried, as a family to redeem ourselves at the last event- Family & Fruit!  Getting the whole family up to the school by 7:30 a.m. was definitely a challenge, and some of us looked less than spectacular, but we did it.  The kids were so happy to have everyone there.  The fruit was just ok, but its the thought that counts, right?

Ever since, the kids have been trying to come up with other various ideas for random people they could bring to school with them and get fed for it.  (As though there weren’t enough opportunities for that already….)

Some of their better ideas were:

Celebrities and Cereal  (see who could get the best local celebrities to show up at their school)

Neighbors and Nuts (bring your favorite neighbor to school day)

Strangers and Smoothies (just grab a random stranger off the street, the weirder the better)

Oh dear- I guess we better quit while we’re ahead.  Thank goodness there are no more early mornings at the school for awhile.  I need to sleep!