happy july

 Well we are still alive, things have been crazy busy. it is amazing how much time a teenager takes up when he has surgery. so I have had no time for blogging. But I have taken a few picutres. This one was just before surgery. This was the father son campout. Grandpa Carroll got to go with brian and the boys, and they had a blast.

 jason teaching Zander how to play the ipod. i guess you can't learn these things too young anymore.

 and he has now found his tounge and loves to stick it out at everyone! this is his 4 month picture.

 Ok so this is the story behind the big jar of whoppers. I first filled it with m n m's and called it our "pay" for when we did something good we got paid. well I was the one enjoying the m n m's the most. so after i with a little help from brian, ate the whole thing full of the yummy little things decided I needed to fill it with something the kids would eat a little better, ( i thought they would eat mnm's who knew) so I bought whoppers, well jason couldn't stop eating them, and the jar lasted only a week or so. It was pretty funny this is him enjoying his "pay" They story continues down below( I couldn't get my pictures in order sorry)

 So this is my poor joey laid up this is what he looked like for the first week after surgery. For those of you who don't know what happened, The beginning of May during gym class they were playing flag football,and joey in his over ambitious way tore his ACL, and miniscus in his knee, He had surgery to fix this on June 19, that is why I have been off the grid, this kid is demanding when he can't do anything!!!! Make me a turkey sandwitch, get me a gatorade, Im bored, what can I do, I need more Ice for my knee, I am telling you a newborn baby is easier to take care of than joey after surgery!! good thing I love the kid ;) so anyway, here he is playing on the computer with his nifty little ice machine on his knee.  

 This is what his knee looks like 4 days after surgery, the jh is the dr's initials and the yes is "yes do surgery on this knee" He has 10 stapels and 4 sutures in his knee.

 joey was only on crutches for about  10 days, then he progressed to a cane which he only used for a few days, he now doesn't have to use anything! He is doing so well, it is frustrating that he can't do anything for another 4 months, no sports at all, nothing more than walking, but he is doing his phisical therapy, and getting stronger everyday! what a champ.

 and this little stinker is eating food, and loving it. here he is eating peas out of my moms garden. He loves food. so far all he has eaten is the peas, and just recently he ate an avacado!!! he loved it!

 WOW, 5 months old, can you believe it, here is his 5 month pic! he is getting way too big.

 yep, it would not be summer without eating a popsicle, grandpa feeding him a popsicle. He loves them.

 4th of july party at gma and gpas we played water balloon pinata, here is jason he went crazy, he popped all of them, what a nut!

 Abby got a little wild with the bat, she was so funny, she missed about 10 times before we showed her exactly where they were, then she hit a couple, but she couldn't hit them hard enough to pop them, so uncle tj snuck up behind her, and popped one over her head. surprised her like crazy.

 Cousin saydees turn, she just wanted to skip the bat, and pop them over her head, it was so hot, she just wanted to get wet as fast as she could. it worked, she got real wet!

Ok, so for the rest of my 'pay" story, after all the whoppers were gone, I thought I would buy some gummy bears, so I filled up this 1/2 gallon jar full of these yummy little squishy gummy bears the kids ate the WHOLE JAR IN ONE DAY! I did get some extra chores done that day, but seriously one day!! wow, now I have to find and inbetweener, something not quite as good as gummy bears but better than whoppers hmmm. what to do....

And then this bottom picture, is brian and abby, (she in the one under the towel) napping while we were at cherry hills, that was our "staycation"this year, I am actually hating that word, because I really want an acutal vacation! anyway for our family reunion we went to cherry hills so we thought that was pretty cool! We had a blast It was 3 days before joeys surgery so he got to enjoy himself, it was fun to catch up with family. me and the zan man didn't get wet but we had fun catching up with everyone. untill............... at the end of the day, after we closed the place down, we were headed home, and alli started complaining she was itchy, they she was having a little hard time breathing, we got home, we were thinking maybe she just had too much chlorine, so we told her to take a shower, that seemed to make her worse, her whole body was covered in hives, I ran her to the ER, and I am telling you, I wish ER's were a lot more like the tv shows, where you show up, they are waiting for you, they diagnose you within 5 min. treat you in 30 seconds, and just like that you are feeling  better, oh yea and your dr. is always good looking. well that didn't happen. we got there, we were walking through the parking lot, alli passed out, I caught  her and carried her through the door, they took us to the registration, REALLY??  ok so we registered, then they got us to a room, she did wake up in that time, but her hive were huge, and she was twitching by now. a nurse came in took her vitals, then about 15 min later a dr came in told us she needed epinephrine, which I kinda figured! so he left, 5 min after that a nurse came back in said they were moving us closer to the nurses station because her heart rate wasn't very stable. so they moved us, I was thinking, just give her the medicine and she will become more stable right? well it took about 15 more min. to give her the meds. and of course they start working immediatly. then they have to moniter her for about an hour and a half. she was doing great by this time. they unhook her and tell us she can go, its about 1 am by this time, we start walking out get to the hallway, and yep, alli pukes all over the hallway! we turn back around and go back to the room. I am feeling like I will never get to go home.   but they just give her antineasua and let us go again when she feels better. wow what a night. we still don't know why it happened, what caused such a bad allergic reation, we may never know. but she made it through, it was scary, and I hope we never have to through that again!!!

just a word of advise...

 So welcome to SUMMER!!! This is what zach wanted to try for summer, we are all trying to get use to it still, he is loving all the double takes he gets :)

 So we had morgan come stay with us for a little bit, not long enough according to the girls, they were having so much fun. they have had a really hard time being separated. Thank goodness for facetime and ipods!!!

 And little miss abby lost her tooth finally! I was wondering if that thing would ever come out, but it finally did,and she is much happier, not to mention a dollar richer!

 And zach has been teaching zander to play football, he is not doing very well at it though, he keeps trying to eat the football, maybe one day he will try harder!

As for me, this is my favorite moments of the day, just cuddling! especially when he smiles like this! As for the title of this post, For the last year I keep saying "is there anything else that can happen??' or "what else can go wrong" well I have learned my lesson QUIT ASKING!! duh! I am a bit of a slow learner. sometimes I have to be hit upside the head to learn something. so I am no longer asking those questions. I have gone back to my southern roots, (I think I have southern roots) I thought about just saying "kiss my grits" but that just wont get me anywhere, and I don't need an attitude, I have a 12 year old daughter with one of those, so I have adopted the other southern phrase "well shut my mouth" yep, that is what I am going to do from now on, no more asking what else can happen, or why me, or serious, from now on, its......well shut my mouth, (and yes, you have to say it with a southern accent)
I am feeling much better from all my issues, (like I had a choice) but joey has torn his ACL and is going in for surgery this next tuesday. brian is having dental issues, he had to have a root canal, (you'd think the man gave birth) but is feeling much better thank goodness, and this week joey, who is not soposssed to be playing sports tackled zach and twisted zachs ankle up, and put zach in an air cast for 2 weeks, so what do I say to all of this............"WELL SHUT MY MOUTH"  ;)  enjoy your summer, I am loving mine!!!( did that sound sarcastic, lol)

The Woodpecker Might have to go!

and just a little humor for your day :0)

here we are

 We got family pics done, here are a couple of them, I love them!!!!  after my last fiasco, I finally had a positive experience.

 joey                            jason

                                                             Abby          and      Alli

                                                          

                                                        Zach         and       Zander

A very successful family photo day! yea!

birthday and end of school year stuff

 My baby girl turned 12!!! wow does time fly! Alli is such an amazing beautiful girl! I love her so much. she is such a helpful and wonderful person to have around. And so much fun. Life is never dull with Alli. she just graduated from primary and into young womens! wow. This little puppy cake is what she chose to eat for breakfast for her big day, a girl after my own heart.

 And this is the cake she picked out, I usually make her cake, but with me just having surgery, she allowed me to buy her cake this year, thank goodness!!

 One of her presents was an ipod boom box, she is so happy :)

 we had to get out of the house the other day so we decided to take a tour of the kennecot mines  it was pretty interesting, and the kids had a blast, ( the adults kinda liked it too)

 just me and my boys!

 the whole group! (minus brian who is taking the pic, he is in the pic below)

 I like how alli is chillin

 don't you love how the kids are measuring themselves on the drawing of the dump truck!

 Jason making himself taller.

 Brian reading the manual for his parents t.v. trying to fix it, we were all upstairs wondering what was taking him so long to fix it! hmmmm, I wonder.

 Alli digging in the money bag, I think she got like 8 bucks!! not too bad for her little hands!

 The elementary had a carnival for the end of school party, the next few pics are of the kids having a BLAST at the carnival.  this one is of abby after getting her face painted.

 Alli and Ari, after the face painting.

 jason after the shark slide

 alli climbing up the rock wall

 daddy and zander chillin at the carnival

Alli graduated from elementary!!!! Yea onto Jr. high, ready or not!

god gave me you

 my oldest and youngest babies :)

 and this little cutie patootie I think he has started praying for help! he keeps folding his precious little hands, and with all the crazieness in our house, he does this a lot. What a sweetheart. I would pray too if I were him.

And I had to get a pic of his eyelashes, they keep growing and growing, I don't know why its the boys that seem to get the good lashes.

 jason is such an awesome big brother, he loves to hold little zan man.

 Abby got to go to a birthday party the other day, she had such a fun time. It has been  a bit difficult letting her go to all the parites that she gets invited to since she can't eat sugar, but this friend's mom called me and we worked out some treats that abby was able to eat that weren't different from the other kids, and she had such a fun time!

 Yesterday when mothers day rolled around the song "god gave me you" came to mind. I feel so lucky that I am doing exactly what I want to be doing. I have always wanted to be a mom. from the time I was a little girl, I always wanted to grow up to be a mom. It is all I ever wanted, and I have been able to to it 6 times over. Ithought we were done having kids after alli, I was a little sad, but thought our family was complete, then Jason surprised us 6 years later, making us so happy! Then only 3 1/2 years later we were able to adopt abby I had always wanted to adopt a child, I just never thought I would have an opportunity. This one came out of the blue, adding #5 to our family. A couple of years later, big surprise #6 came to our lives rounding out our family making it totally perfect. Being a mom makes me so happy. It is who I am. I am so blessed to have the family that God has blessed me with. (and yes the lotion in the above picture is stress relief lotion, lol)

 and after almost 17 years of asking for it, brian listened, I finally got a stove top grill!!! yea for presents!!

and alli got me some way cute earrings and a ring watch, I got pretty spoiled. It was fun. loved my day. We also got some family pics done saturday, and I can't wait to get them back and post them. family pics are always crazy, but I think they went pretty good. and this time I won't have any issues with my family pics like I did  last time if any of you remember what happened we got our pics taken then the lady that took them just up and dissapeared, then weeks later when I found her, she only gave me a couple of pictures, it was crazy, but this time, it will all work out great!! I am so excited :) so happy mothers day to all you awesome moms out there!