Look Ma!

(Rachel is strongly considering crawling!)

Top 10 Things this 6 Month-Old Can Get Away With
(But Just Aren't Socially Acceptable For the Rest of Us!):

10. Drooling all over yourself and others 9. Crying every time you get hungry or tired (Mom would be the biggest crybaby ever!) 8. Not wearing pants (see above picture) 7. Making LOUD lip/tongue smacking sounds in Sacrament on purpose (to make your siblings laugh irreverently). 6. Leaving the house without so much as running a comb through your hair or brushing your teeth! 5. Scratching others in the face with your razor-sharp talons for sport. 4. Wearing pink 99% of the time 3. Shrieking in restaurants, just for the heck of it. 2. Staring and smiling at perfect strangers with mouth open and, inevitably, drooling! 1. Messing your pants.

Rachel Elizabeth, we love you anyway!

Happy Half-Birthday!

From her lips...

Hannah's blessing on the food this morning included this sincere, heartfelt desire:
"...that we won't fight until after breakfast..."
and believe it or not the fighting didn't actually start until "after breakfast". A prayer was answered (sigh). Maybe in tomorrow's blessing we could shoot for closer to lunchtime, or at least mid-morning.

Once Upon a Time...

...I was a "boy mom" for a good many years and, to be honest, I assumed I always would be and that was fine with me. Being a "boy mom" was cool. Plus, I was given all kinds of accolades for being a "boy mom" because people know how much work little boys are - most days it was a bit like trying to manage a group of bear cubs. I was far too busying with my cute little boys to worry too much about those little pink bundles my friends were walking around with. To be honest, they seemed a little mysterious and threatening, until...

I done got me one...

...and ANOTHER!

It's a little bit odd now because when the boys are at school and I go places with Hannah and Rachel, I'm a "girl mom" and that's fine, too. It sure has it's own set of rules, however, one of which is to incorporate all things "princess" into daily living. It started at the Target Portrait Studio about a year ago. The photographer was trying to get Hannah (about 2) to pose for the camera, and Hannah was not being particularly cooperative (gasp). That is, until the photographer said these magical words: "Hannah, can you show me your princess hands?" Hannah instantly understood what her hands should be doing in the picture (?), made them do it, then smiled demurely into the camera. From then on I knew "princess" was my ticket to surviving girldom. Now Hannah will do pretty much anything that a princess would do such as: eat vegetables at dinner, potty in the toilet (with the help of princess panties), fetch diapers for Rachel, and go to bed at 8:00 (with the help of a "Princess Hannah" story, in which the heroine "Princess Hannah" is beautiful and wonderful and obedient (more brainwashing) to her parents, the King and Queen. Works like a charm!!) Here are a few pictures, in honor of "Her Majesty"!

Hannah is actually wearing a flower petal headband here (Target $1Spot), but she thinks it's a crown! I caught her outside singing & twirling on this particular occasion!

No one was more excited than Princess Hannah for Halloween. I even let her wear some of my "lips" and "cheeks" on this day! Her little rhinestone-and-tulle-clad head grew a few sizes while trick-or-treating from all the "oh, well aren't you a beautiful princess!" comments. She still tries to squeeze into this dress from time to time to re-live the magic.



Still, we musn't forget that she has 3 very influential big brothers! Besides, this proves that this little princess is learning how to "mix looks"... how fashion-forward is that!!




Fortunately, she has managed to find other princesses to be ridiculously girly with, like her cousin "Princess Carly" and...

...her little sister, Rachel ("Princess in Training").






For the record, this "boy/girl mom" is enjoying...BOTH!

...More Tag

I've been tagged!!

5 things on my to do list:

• paint the boys' room (not that I don't love the lemon & lime sherbet that was there when we moved in)
• come up with an exercise program that doesn't take time or energy but that will still somehow make me skinny
• buy a new church outfit - folks are getting really sick of the old one!
• call my Arizona peeps...sorry peeps!
• find some Utah peeps...soon!
  

5 jobs I've held:

• Challenger Schools - Preschool and Kindergarten teacher
  

• Salt Lake Country Club - server
  

• Quilted Bear Dip Sampling Chick
  

• Salt Lake Country Club - swimming pool snack bar person
  

• JC Penney - Store Office Support
  

5 places I've lived:

• Mesa, Arizona
• Gilbert, Arizona
• Kaysville, Utah
• Sandy, Utah
• Alberta, Canada
  

5 Favorite snacks:

• microwave popcorn - I eat at LEAST one bag EVERY day...sometimes more (I love it!!)
• cinnamon bears (Sweet's brand, preferably)
  
• chocolate-covered cinnamon bears
• cinnamon lips (Valentines Day)
• cinnamon santas (Christmas)
  

5 Things I'd do if I were a billionaire:

• Clothes shopping (but not until my size is a single digit!)
  

• Take my hubby to Hawaii!
  

• Burn my little black "money" book...DIE!!!
  

• Buy a bum-load of microwave popcorn from Costco for food storage...mmmmm!!
  

• Buy my poor Jason some Pokemon cards
  

I tag: Tiffany, Bekki, Lorena, Lisa, & Erin

Bag Tag

I have been "bag tagged" by my sweet sister Suzanne!! Here are the rules:

1. You have to show your bag

2. Show all the contents in the bag, no cleaning it out!

3. Bag tag 5 more people.

• a very cute "winter white" pseudo-patent-leather purse (Target $23.99)
• my little black book (not THAT kind...it's my financial register/record keeper...boring stuff)
• check book (also very boring)
• wallet
• teeny-tiny calculator
• 3 healthy pens and one injured pen (thanks Hannah)
  
• receipts
  
• straw wrapper (shockingly the only garbage in my whole purse unless you count the injured pen)
  
• cell phone
• keys to my sweet new ride...a Honda Odyssey!
• 2 lipsticks, 2 chapsticks & 1 lip-gloss (I'm a little OCD about that)
• nail file
  
• penicillin for dental issues (thats a whole 'nuther post!)
• 2 Snoopy toys from who knows where
  
• Rachels immunization record and a prescription for her ear infection...you'll never guess where we were today!!
• my Weight Watchers membership book..you'll never guess where I'm going Saturday morning!
  
• a pink bracelet
• a CTR ring...I never leave home without it, you know!
• a DUBBLE BUBBLE tin (for Pokemon cards, of course)
• a barette, a hair pick, and 2 elastic bands for those on-the-go hair emergencies
• some spare change... just enough to cover my caffeine addiction for the next 2 days!
  

WHAT'S IN YOUR BAG??

Tag, you're it!

1. Tiffany Moser
2. Bekki Tolman
3. Lorena Seeley
4. Lisa Haws
5. Erin Anderson-Mestas

Have fun ladies - don't let me down!!

Pokemon Card "Trading" - by Cade

Tyler, Adam and Jason did a little Pokemon card trading today. Here's a play-by-play of the events.

1. Before church, Tyler let's me know that Adam and Jason have given him some Pokemon cards. I'm a little suspicious, but Adam and Jason cheerfully back up Tyler's story. Before today, Adam has had around 100 cards and Jason has had about 30 cards. Previous to today, Tyler has never owned any Pokemon cards - he's been a Yu-Gi-Oh man.

2. The three boys begin to trade cards - everyone is getting along. We head off to church. No tears, no foul.

3. The card trading continues after church. Stacy and I are not really paying attention because no one is crying or running in and telling on anyone else.

4. Around 7:00 pm, Jason verbally reports some unfair trading practices. I go to investigate and find that Jason has 9 cards left and that Tyler now has a mitt full of cards. Jason is crying. Stacy and I question Tyler and he claims that all of the trades have been fair. Apparently, Adam has also been involved in the trading. I ask Tyler why Jason only had 9 cards and why he has 21 cards. Tyler claims that all of the trades have been "fair" and that he has traded Jason a few of his "strong" cards for a bunch of Jason's "weak" cards. Tyler also mentioned something about "hit points", but since Stacy and I don't understand anything about Pokemon cards, we are unable to determine whether the trading has been fair or not.

5. At this point, I once again wonder why the boys don't have baseball cards instead of Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards. A few years ago, when Tyler had first expressed a desire to get into the Yu-Gi-Oh card collecting business, I did what any normal father would do - I bought him some baseball cards instead. He looked at the baseball cards with disgust and again asked for Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Stacy and I gave in and bought him a few packs of the cards he wanted. When Adam wanted Pokemon cards, we just let it happen. Jason is relatively new to the Pokemon cards, but I'm afraid that there are no baseball cards in his future either. If the boys were trading baseball cards instead of Pokemon cards, and Tyler had traded Jason a Dale Berra card (bad) for a Dale Murphy card (good), then I would have known immediately that there was some unfair trading going on. But, I don't have any idea if there has been unfair trading or not. The only real pieces of evidence I have are these three pictures.

Exhibit #1 - Tyler happily displaying his new Pokemon card collection. Remember, he had no Pokemon cards as of this morning.


















Exhibit # 2 - Adam also all smiles. Apparently he is satisfied with today's trading.


















Exhibit #3 - Jason, all teary-eyed, refusing to pose for a picture. In this case a picture really is worth a thousand words.



















6. Well, here's the dilemma. Do we make Tyler and Adam give back all of the cards Jason traded them? Do we just let things go? Stacy and I talked to the boys and tried to make Tyler and Adam feel guilty - because we're sure Jason has been royally ripped off. We also tell Jason that he is a big boy (5 years old) and that he doesn't have to trade them any cards if he doesn't want to. As we told them goodnight and tucked them into bed we told Tyler and Adam that we're sure they will do the right thing. I'm not holding my breath, though.

..And a Happy Valentines Day to You, Too!

We justed wanted to say...

Oh, and...

Happy Valentines Day!

On a slightly different note, I am a self-proclaimed non-"morning person". I am irritable, grouchy and downright TESTY! Since we moved to our house in Kaysville last December, I have seriously tried to be a "morning person," and IT'S NOT EASY! One thing I had to change to help me be more of a "morning person" was to wake up with or before my children (mostly with). The other thing I had to change was to actually make them breakfast and interact with them instead of throwing cold cereal at them. I have done a pretty good job, in all honesty. That being said, I sort of stink at making breakfast. I can make a mean lunch and even dinner, but breakfast is not my thing (being that I haven't been a "morning person" since two months ago). I like EATING a good breakfast, but I hate making it and thus, I'm just not very good at it! Well, for Valentines Day, I decided to go out on a limb and make my kids something for breakfast that my mom always made for us (or at least I envisioned that she did)-- pink, heart shaped pancakes. I know it's not that original, because several of you bloggers out there did the same thing. The thing is, mine look really hideous - take a look:
Kinda grody, huh? I imagined them to be a lot prettier and more appetizing-looking than they turned out to be. Needless to say, they weren't a big hit. These are the leftovers and the recipe only makes 12 (there would be 12 pancakes in the picture if I hadn't threatened to cancel Valentine's Day for my children if they didn't try one). Yes, there was a lot of love at the Seeley's house this morning! Here's them trying to choke them down (Jason's face says it all):

So I guess they've successfully foiled my St. Patty's Day breakfast plans - I had my green food coloring all rearin' to go and everything! Better luck next year!!

Happy Valentines Day, Sweetie!!

I would like to wish my beautiful wife, Stacy a happy Valentines Day.

She was, in my humble opinion, one of the cutest babies born in the 20th century.

























She was also a cute little preschooler.























As you can see, she was an adorable elementary school student.
























She was even cute as a junior high student - and mind you, that's hard to do.
























She was beautiful as a graduate of Alta High School.
























Here she is a few months befor we got married - smokin' hot!

















She was absolutely stunning when we were married. I am still speechless!
























Again - beautiful as a graduate - this time from BYU.


















Check her out when she was 9 months pregnant - with our 5th child! Again, what a babe!



















And here she is a few months ago. More beautiful than ever.















I am still the luckiest guy in the world!

Love,
Cade

Did You Say Five? Man Alive!

I thought I'd take this opportunity to get you better acquainted to our little troop...

This is TYLER. He is 9 years old and in 3rd grade at Columbia Elementary in Kaysville, Utah. He is our oldest and we love that he takes the responsibility of being the oldest very seriously. He's energetic and fun and super smart. His areas of expertise are quite unusual for a 9 year old. He's obsessed with history, mostly Greek and Roman history - oh, and he loves mythology, too. He can't wait to go to college and take classes about his specific interests. Elementary school just isn't "cutting the mustard" for him, I guess. Tyler's other obsession is his baby sister, Rachel. Every day he comes home from school and asks "Where's Rachel?" If she's awake he's usually holding her, even while playing his computer games. When friends come over, he asks them if they want to see his baby sister and proceeds to tell them all about the funny things she does. Strangely enough, they are not nearly as interested in her as he is - they'd rather trade Yu-Gi-Oh cards!
ADAM is our soon-to-be 8-year-old. He's in 2nd grade and loving it. He's our social butterfly. When we started going to our new ward in Kaysville after leaving grandma and grandpa's ward, Adam was escorted to his new Primary class, and as soon as the door opened, the class erupted in cheers, applause, high-5's and every other form of irreverent enthusiasm. His school teacher says that his schoolwork has suffered a bit last term because everyone tries to talk to him during class (I'm sure he's completely blameless!) He fun to be around and nice to everyone! He's big into Pokemon (I still don't understand the draw). He loves to eat, although you'd never know it looking at his bony little frame! He can out-eat any of the other kids. Problem is, there's only a handful of foods he'll actually eat!
Adam is very excited for his upcoming baptism in April and is looking forward to becoming a cub scout like Tyler!
JASON is my little teddy bear. He's the warmest, snuggliest guy ever! Jason is such a gift. He's one of those kids that hardly needs any parenting at all. He wants to be good and almost always makes the right choices (just like his mama(: His dimples make him a real crowd pleaser, too! Jason started Kindergarten last fall and is loving every minute of it. He loves reading the little primers he gets from school and pulls them out the minute he gets home from school. Jason's been a little accident prone this past year. He broke his leg on the day his baby sister was born thanks to a trampoline mishap and was in a full leg cast for about 2 months! Then, right before Christmas, he fell down the stairs while scooting around in Rachel's walker (he says that he really tried to hold on to the rail!) and got knocked unconscious. He's fine now - no worse for wear!
"HANNAH BANANA" as she is affectionately called is all-girl. She's 2 years old. She loves anything princess and if you call her "Princess Hannah" she'll melt like butter! She's a typical female because she acts like she's the boss of everyone, including ALL of her brothers, but she still loves to be babied! Hannah is smart and extremely verbal for her age. She says words like "actually" and "regular" in everyday conversation. Sometimes I wish she would mispronounce more words than she does. Thankfully, she still says "nightdown" (nightgown) and "drawl" (draw). I vow to NEVER correct her. Cade comes home from work every day to a squealing Hannah - "Daddy's home!" Hannah's best friend/mortal enemy is her cousin, Carly. They're either embracing fondly or gouging each other's eyes out - there's no happy medium!
Last, but certainly not least, is RACHEL, born August 27th of 2007. She was born 4 weeks after we moved from Arizona to Utah, so she's officially a Utah baby! She's 5 months old now, which in my opinion, is the best baby age ever! She giggles, coos, laughs and provides non-stop entertainment for her ever-adoring fans. Fortunately, she's not mobile ...YET! She was born with a plush rug on the top of her head. Now she just has a few awkward patches - thank goodness for headbands!! She watches everyone and everything and is taking it all in - kind of a scary thought when you consider our motley crew!! She gets kissed at least a million times a day and is praised for her every accomplishment (most recently, rolling over). Sounds like a pretty good life, eh?

Well, there's the kids in a nutshell! There cute and fun - we love 'em a ton!

Destiny determined at an early age - by Cade

Well, this is my first ever blog post. I recently got a scanner that can scan old slides into digital images. This one on the right is of me next to a Cedarapids 3242 jaw crusher in 1974 or 1975. This is a big jaw crusher - so big that it had to be brought in by the railroad. This jaw crusher was purchased from Kimball Equipment Company by L.A. Young Sons Construction Company. This picture was taken in Salina, Utah when I was 2 or 3 years old. How do I know so much about jaw crushers you may ask? Well, for those of you who don't know, I work for Kimball Equipment Company as their corporate parts manager and Kimball Equipment sells jaw crushers and any other kind of rock crusher you would ever want. As you can see, I was obviously warped at a young age and my future employment was apparently destined at the very moment the picture was taken. My dad also must have drilled the gospel of rock crushing into his other sons because Mike, K.C., Dane and I either work or have worked for Kimball Equipment. Phil may have worked for Kimball at one time, but you'll have to ask him. I am going to have fun over the next several months (or years) scanning in the old slides from my parents' house. I will put the real winners in some of my future blogs and add appropriate (or inappropriate) comments. If anyone is offended - too bad - you can sue me for all I'm worth (which isn't much). There are some serious wardrobe and hair malfunctions in those slides so some of you better watch out (you know who you are). Let me just say one word - WIGLETS!!
So, feast your eyes on this classic to the left. Let me just point out the obvious - check out those pants. I mean really - did Michael Sherrill pick these pants out himself or did Dorrie buy them for him. I can just see them looking through the Sears catalog and thinking "Wow, those are nice pants!" I think the reason he has that look on his face is because they are too tight and he feels a little bit uncomfortable after climbing up on the railroad flatbed car. Or maybe he has that look on his face because he is in Salina and he just ate too much food at Mom's Cafe. Anyway, I am requesting the backstory on those pants from Dorrie (and don't pretend you don't remember ever having them in you house - those pants are unforgettable). Get back to me ASAP. Talk to you later - Cade

Life in the fast lane!!

...that's probably how I would describe life right now for our family. In fact, sometimes life is so fast that we don't even think to take pictures, especially ones with all of us as a family. This is the only other one I could find besides the "dressy" Christmas card photo, of all seven of us. We went bowling for Tyler's 9th birthday which was almost 4 months ago. Don't get me wrong, we're together...a LOT! We just forget to take the time to smell the roses or snap the picture (we're far too busy smelling diapers and snapping fingers!) Maybe blogging will encourage me to take more pictures, if only to illustrate my blog (heaven forbid I should SCRAPBOOK)! At any rate, here we all are: Adam (7), me (30-ish), Hannah (2 1/2), Jason (5) Rachel (5 months), Cade (35-ish), Tyler (9). I have to admit, I'm seeing an amusing pattern in my post-baby pictures. I think I've been subconsciously putting children on my lap when I see a camera coming - it effectively hides most bodily imperfections. I think it's quite brilliant actually, especially for being subconscious. I'd say that Santa was hip to this trick from the get-go, although it really does nothing for his thighs! So for all of my comrades out there trying to lose a few without having to dodge the camera altogether, just grab a couple of kids (any old kids will do) and you're ready! Thank you Adam and Hannah! So until that baby weight is gone, you can plan on seeing a lot more of me...and my kids!

It's about time!!

I know, I know...I'm the only person in the civilized world who hasn't created a stinkin' blog. I could list all the many reasons why I haven't had the time for this new-fangled little past-time, but unfortunately my time-constraints (am I using too many hyphens??) are the same as yours therefore my lame excuses won't draw any sympathy from anyone except myself, so I decided I'd best just jump on in to the wide world of blogging! The worst thing that can happen is that my blog isn't witty or even interesting at all and nobody reads it - I'm not really out anything but a little time, maybe a little self worth, and I'm really okay with that. I thought that instead of listing reasons NOT to blog, which would be a total downer and irrelevant anyway since here I am blogging, I'd list my reasons TO blog, which maybe you can relate to. Here goes:

• I might actually become friends with my PC and technology as a whole and overcome this silly love/mostly hate relationship I have. I'm surprisingly old-fashioned!
• I might actually become reconnected to friends and relatives that I love and adore but have all but ignored while trying to survive a grueling 2007.
• I might actually enjoy journaling again (Cade really hates the word "journaling" so I'm using it), something I have neglected for years - my poor posterity...."Stacy who??"
• I might actually give up the crazy notion that people who blog about their families must love and cherish theirs more than I do mine. I'm surprisingly immature!
• I might actually overcome the peer pressure associated with blogging ("Why don't YOU have a blog?")
• I might actually have a shorter "Things I Don't Do" list than "Things I Do Do" (hee-hee, I just said doo-doo!)
• I might actually stick to my Weight Watchers points by spending more quality time at the computer than peering into my evil pantry!
• I might actually ENJOY blogging - imagine that!
  
• It's about time!
  

...Speaking of which, it's almost midnight and I still have to figure out how the heck I get our family picture on here, since my sister Suz (one of the "peer-pressure" people) set up my blog for me and told me how but of course I'm incompetent. I'll do it anyway!