Ahead of the game!

HEY THERE'S ONLY 359 DAYS LEFT UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!! I JUST SAW IT THERE ON THE SIDE OF MY BLOG TICKING AWAY. I'M SO EXCITED, I'M AHEAD FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. I ALREADY HAVE CHRISTMAS UP AND THERE'S PLENTY OF TIME TO GET MY SHOPPING DONE. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!

Grandma Annie

Well, as most of you know, my mom has a good for nothin' heart valve that's been giving her trouble for years now. The mitral valve to be exact. It's all scarred due to rheumatic fever as a child. Scarring of the mitral valve thickens the tissue and prevents it from opening and closing very well, which makes pushing blood through a little difficult to say the least. Over the past 10 years she's had 2 procedures of a balloon valvoplasty (for stenosis) — In this procedure, a tiny catheter with a balloon at its tip is passed through the narrowed heart valve. The tiny balloon then is inflated and pulled back through the narrowed valve to widen it. This has worked fine for a temporary fix but they can't do it a 3rd time. It got to the point where just walking to the other side of the house was exhausting for her, as her blood couldn't pump to get new oxygen. In October she fell in front of Sams Club just trying to get across the street to hang onto a cart to rest. She got too light headed and busted her ribs. Soooo, it was time for a valve replacement. On Friday, Dec 5th, she went into surgery. Morgan flew out for 2 weeks to help and I was so grateful!!! I couldn't have done it without him. Melissa is a saint for letting him come. Not only was he here during the holiday craze, he missed his daughter's birthday. Manhattan turned 6 while he was gone. Thank you Manhattan for being such a wonderful little girl to let your dad come help me for 2 weeks. To top it all off...Melissa and the kids all got the flu while he was away. Just being a mom myself I know how miserable that is to be by yourself without a break and sick kids. Just saying thank you seems sort of pathetic. Anyway, it was such a relief to have Morgan stay at the hospital with our mom everyday. It was better for him to be there anyway because he could understand what everyone was saying...being the very professional Physicians Assistant that he is. She was in the hospital for a week and then was able to come home. It was a very painful surgery and has been difficult to wait for all the healing. We're hoping that within the next few months all the discomfort will subside and she'll be able to see a difference in her energy level. A good flow of blood with oxygen makes all the difference baby! Thanks for coming Morgan!

Piper's Birthday

Well, Piper is officially 9 years old now. Her birthday was on the 16th of December. Uncle Morgan was here which was a treat. We had a little family celebration and are going to do a party after all the holidays. She got cute pj's from Uncle Morgan & Aunt Melissa, a shirt and pants from Grandma Annie that she wore to school. Aunt Melysah and cousin Kalani gave her a Madame Alexander doll and Grandma Linda gave her an extra outfit for it. We had cheesecake for dessert, it's her favorite!

chucknorrisfacts2.gif - Image - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

chucknorrisfacts2.gif - Image - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

What month are we in??

Hello to the neglected but not forgotten followers of the Tafua blog home page! I just wanted to let all my fans know that I've kept you in my thoughts even though it may have appeared that I'd abandoned you. I appreciate the commitment on your part in not losing faith in me as I've failed to keep you updated on the latest happenings in my day to day existence. Just so you know, I am alive and somewhat well. I only say somewhat because within the past 24 hours I've suddenly realized that I think we're in the month of December....not only that, I think it's a little half over. That means I suddenly have anxiety flowing through my body in lethal amounts due to the fact that I have this overwhelming feeling... like I should be prepared for some major event this month. I can't quite put my finger on it but it's just this nagging in the back of my mind I have that won't go away. Is anyone else experiencing this? It seems like everywhere I go, everyone has this look on their face. You know, the deer in headlights, tunnel vision, extreme concentration on a particular item with an obvious expression of confusion all at the same time. Am I missing something? Huh, well whatever it is that seems to have me all anxious will come to pass whether I get it all figured out in time or not. So I guess we'll see how things go. In January I'll let you know if whatever seems to have my bra feeling 4 sized too small was worth letting it get to me....

Halloween Costumes

So here are all the kids in their costumes for Halloween. They were all so cute and wanted to pose with props for pictures. It only took me almost a week to finally get them up but hey, I did it! Truman was a pirate, Paizlie was Nancy Drew, Phoebe was a vampire, and Piper was a genie. They had a great time and they did a perfect job of getting plenty of candy for me!! Mmmmm

Halloween necessities

 

I LOVE HALLOWEEN! I love the decorations. I just love to decorate anything in general. I just thought I'd share all the decorations we had up fpr halloween before I took tham all down. We had pirate bones and jewels, spiders all over the place, bloody handprints and footprints, huge spider webs out front and much more! It was fun and festive...in a creepy kind of way!

The kids school parade

 

Here are a bunch of pictures from the kids school parade. It was so much fun to see all the kids dressed up. My favorite was a group of 4 kids dressed like Obama, Hillary, McCain, & Secret Service! It was hilarious! Paizlie's teacher was Curious George and led the parade. Phoebe's teacher was Little Bo Peep. Piper's teacher dressed as a teacher - I'm guessing. Truman walked with Pipers class around the school. Auntie Melysah was in the parade, we all terased she was Janet Jackson without the wardrobe malfunction. We cought a picture of cousin Maiya too... It was a lot of fun.

Carving Pumpkins

 

We finally got to carve our pumpkins after school on Halloween. JUST IN TIME!!! Auntie Joy is here visiting us and she helped with the very crazy busy day it ended up being! Everything got done just in the 'nick of time'!

DON'T BE A VICTOM

 

The Diaper Cake

 

So I finally got pictures of the diaper cake I made for Monett's baby shower in August. I had so much fun doing it. I love making crafty things...as you may have noticed. I looked at them on line and they sell for a ton of money. They didn't even have as many goodies to go along with it AND they were smaller. I wonder how much money mine would sell for? Any guesses???

The Pumpkin Farm

 

Well, we made it to Bishops Pumpkin Farm just barley this year. We met Nephi there after he got off work. We got there just 45 min. before it closed and we rushed to have the "All American Fall Festive" experience. We rode the little train, saw the animals, and picked out a pumpkin from the already gathered pumpkins at the entrance. Although it was quick we still had fun. These past few months have just been extremely busy with above normal chaos that seems to always find me. We hope to carve our pumpkins tonight before Halloween tomorrow. We'll have to fit it in sometime between after school, homework, dinner and the girls hula dance class.....hmmm do you think we can do it???

My Fairy Wings

  So these are the fairy wings I've been making. I've sold some and hope to sell more. I also made one tutu for little Manhattan to match her fairy wings. I loved doing it. It's her birthday gift early for Halloween. I only hope it gets there in time!!!

Truman's 4th Birthday October - 24

 

Yes, I actually made the Transformer cake myself and frosted it all freehand. Truman had the nerve to tell me that it was missing the red transformer icon on his chest. It just wasn't good enough I guess...not perfect enough. i think he still had a good time though.

Phoebe's 7th Birthday - October 16

 

Phoebe's birthday was low-key with only family this year because she was the only one who ended up with a party last year. Her list of gifts were very funny. She wanted flowers from her dad, a vampire costume for Halloween, a pair of fairy wings, a necklace, bracelet, and headbands. Pretty simple! It was a good day for her and she was happy! The little and simple things make life enjoyable.

Yeah It's Been Awhile....Let's Catch Up

Ok, so I've been really busy doing a million things over the past month so I'm going to do a quick re-cap of it all. I keep getting nagged about getting a new post up.

1. (9/5/08) Piper brought home a container of walking sticks to babysit over the weekend from her 3rd grade class. They're were fun to look at but I was glad to see them go back to school on Monday.
2. (9/16 - 9/18) Trina the tooth fairy had to make a visit 3 nights in a row. Phoebe lost her other front tooth and then Paizlie lost her first bottom tooth the next night. Then her other bottom tooth fell out the night after that. Piper wanted Trina's e-mail address but the fairy computer network is currently down so she's suppose to get back to us when she's got the network up. She did leave an address for when it comes back into service...it's trinathetoothfairy@gmail.com
3. (9/1 - 9/16) The kids were sick with a nasty fever and cough. They all got it one by one. It was wonderful! I thought it was strep but the Dr. said no...(sound familiar Morgan?)
4. (9/18/08) Paizlie had sharing time in her kindergarten class and she brought our pet turtles. She was very excited and the class loved it.
5. (9/5/08) I got into a major argument with the front office of my doctor, Dr. Kakishiba. A mix up with insurance and not letting me speak directly to the doctor didn't go over very well. They wouldn't listen to what I was trying to tell them . They said I couldn't talk to the Dr. myself and so I asked if they ever gave her messages at all. A few days later I got a letter from her stating that she resented that comment and I got fired as her patient. That was fun!
6. (9/24/08) I started to decorate for Halloween. I made giant spider webs in the front of the house. It's fun. I love Halloween.
7. (all month) I'm making fairy wings and am hoping I can sell them with Halloween coming up. It's fun to do and not too terribly hard. I have pictures of all these things that I still need to upload to the computer sooo... maybe tonight I can get some up.
8. (9/26/08) Uncle Jacob and Aunt Monet had their baby boy - 9lb 4oz. YIKES!

John Candy, Captian of the Titanic

We had a wonderful time this Labor Day! It really was... Grandpa Larry thought it would be fun to rent a house boat for the day and cruise along Englrbrite Lake. We packed up some tasty food along with any accessory we thought we might need. It had a grill so we were able to BBQ some chicken. We had a blast, once we were able to get out of the docking area. It's a pretty tight space pulling in and out of the dock. There's a ton of personal house boats anchored down the center of the narrow lake so there's not much room to maneuver a larger water craft around. There happened to be a pretty good breeze that day which only made it more difficult to direct the boat. So you can just picture the scene. Lots of people, wind, tight space, large boat, and not much experience driving on water. Poor grandpa kept trying to turn the boat around after pulling out, only to get blown by the wind into an even more difficult position to get out of. All eyes on us, Grandpa going back and forth, turning a little here and there, trying careful not to crash into the other ridiculously close house boats. We were almost there, finally turned and heading into a clearing when the boat didn't veer quite as fast to the left as the wheel was turning and CRASH! Right into someone's boat tied to their houseboat. Of course everyone still watching with jaws dropped and hands raised as if flagging us from the shore was going to help. We finally got out of there just after that and after tensions had died down grandpa said, "I feel like John Candy in one of his fun family vacation movies." We all laughed because that's exactly how it played out. At least it didn't ruin the day. We still had a great time and it was fun to be together.

Communication...or the lack thereof!

Communication!!!! It really can work when used properly. Try it sometime! You could be pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Just make sure that in the process you take full responsibility for your own issues, don't put the blame elsewhere. Morgan's medical professor laid down this important law: Call me if you need me, need me if you call me, if you call me it's a sign of weakness.

1st Day Of School!

Well the day arrived whether we were ready or not. Yes, today was the first day of school! The day wasn't as hot as it has been so that was a nice treat. Everyone was up and ready on time. Beds got made, a few morning chores, and I even got a shower in before getting them to school.... we'll see if that happens again. I'm not getting my hopes up too high, but I can at least say that I've done it before.

Here are my three little girls all ready for school. I can't believe how fast their growing up. Next year Truman will be able to go but I'm not sure I'm ready for that! He seems so young still.

Little Piper isn't so little anymore. She started the 3rd grade this year. She has two teachers and one of them taught Nephi when he was in the 3rd grade also. She's reading at a 5ht-6th grade level and has always done so well in school. She's been so fun this past summer as she's getting more of the sarcasm and funny personality. I'm excited to see how she does this year.

Oh my sweet Phoebe. She too is reading very well. I'm so impressed at her vocabulary. She reads the scriptures with very little help. She's in class with some of her good friends so I think that will be good for her. Her teacher seems to be very kind, which is what she needs. She continues to amaze me with all the talent she keeps on discovering. She can pick out harmony in music and stays on pitch very well. I should do something about that I think....

Ok now this is the one I'm most interested in this year. Not only was it her 1st day of Kindergarten but she's been talking non-stop about it for days. She's been so completely excited that just to listen to her got me excited! She would say "Just one more day and then BAM! it's school". When she came home from school she basically gave me a minuet by minuet play of how it all went down today. She sang all the songs they did in class, told me where everyone sat, what her teacher told them. I swear it was like I was there myself. I never got this much information out of the other two girls. I still don't. Paizlie just rambles on about everything from when she had to go to the bathroom to how many drinks of water she had.... very cute!

Well then there's Truman. He was insistent that I take his picture for school too. He was posing like this until I took the picture. He's quite the character. He suddenly become a little terror, or maybe it's just the age. Whatever it is it's driving me nuts. He has a melt down over everything and is telling me 'NO' and is throwing things at everyone if he doesn't get his way. I'm hoping that the time we have together while the other kids in school will give him the attention he needs. I can only take this kind of behavior for so long before I get completely worn out! Over all the day went smooth for getting back into the swing of things. I hope tomorrow goes well too. For those of you that haven't had your kids start school yet-enjoy the last few summer days!

Can't Sleep

So it's 4 in the morning and I can't sleep. Of course that's because I have a million things running through my head. I'm tired but my mind won't relax so....I thought I'd just post a little something instead of lying in my bed listening to Nephi snore. Paizlie gets to go meet her kindergarten teacher today at 1:00. School starts on Monday, August 18th. (What is up with school starting so early??) She's beyond excited. She got to pick out a backpack and she's already got it full of things she thinks she'll need for school. She talks non-stop about whatever random thing comes to her mind. It's pretty cute actually. Piper will be the most difficult to get going in the morning. She's a night owl and can't function very well in the mornings....gee, I wonder where she got that from? I think it's a hereditary dysfunction passed down from my Glamor Gram Eva. This week I've been making the kids go to bed at 9:00 so I could wake them up at 8:00, you know, so it's not a complete shock on Monday. Well yesterday Piper gets up (after staying up late regardless of my 9:00 bed time) at 8:00 but then quickly plays the "I don't feel well" card so she can go back to sleep.... What to do with that girl! Phoebe of course has been on my case for the past 2 weeks about getting everything organized before school starts. She's the only one with a sense of order around here. I'm her worst nightmare... fly by the seat of my pants on everything. She likes to have plans and routine. I'd like to have that too but my ADD world is a bit of a hindering factor. Poor girl gets so frustrated at chaos, and that seems to be what surrounds me at all times. Truman has always been such a darling little stink and recently he's become just more of a stink. He's kind of having a delayed terrible two's episode. He drives the girls nuts, taking their things, blasting through their Barbie set up, etc. The other day the girls were screaming because he got a kitchen knife and was chasing them with it. That would go over well with child protective services. Despite the little devil in him, I can hardly keep a straight face when I'm lecturing him. His little face is so pathetic when he's in trouble. I'll have to post pictures of the diaper cake I made for my sister in law Monett. I'll do that as soon as I get copies. It turned out pretty cute and it was fun to make. Well, I should really see if I can't get back to sleep. I have a lot of organizing to finish up before Monday, for Phoebe's sake of course. I've got 2 hours to try to get some shuteye...

Your Heads Too Big

This is one of my favorite songs by The Ditty Bops entitled 'Your Heads Too Big' I've always thought it to be hilarious but the more I listen to it, the more I realize just how surrounded I am by big floating balloon heads that I'd like to pop. Only to be fair and honest I must admit that there have certainly been times in my life that I've been the one with a floating head....but not this time. Once your balloon head has been completely popped, not just a pin-prick leak, it's much easier to see how silly you've looked floating amongst the crowd, so sure of yourself. So now I just sit back and watch all the colorful heads floating by. Some bigger than others, and even still, there are those so outrageously huge that I can see them 100 miles away . It's no use to grab at the dangling strings in hopes to keep their head on the ground. All that happens is a terrifying ride through the atmosphere. It's pure exhaustion as you cling for dear life to the flimsy thread connecting you to a bunch of hot air. More often than not, the string will break and you fall pretty hard. Sometimes getting broken into a million little pieces. That big floating head just continues to fly, ignorant to the damage it's done. So the lesson is learned, just let it float away. All the big heads tend to group together feeding off of each others air. It's all I can do to keep from bursting in giggles. It's just that the site of it all is so incredibly silly. So I'll just take a seat, relax, kick back. The music I love ringing clear as a bell.The Ditty Bops sing my song to me....and I smile despite hot air wars above

Ok so after being at girls camp and and hearing nothing but in depth discussions of Edward and Bella, I finally caved. I've been hearing a lot about the whole Twilight series for some time. I wasn't all that interested despite all the hype I kept hearing from everyone but now my eyes have been opened. I must admit that I was swept away in the story line... more so than I had expected. I managed to finish all 4 books in one week. I'm very excited for the motion picture due in December. I highly recommend the series to anyone ready for a fresh storyline...

Nature Wonders

Well last week the kids were out playing when they all ran with a beautiful butterfly they had caught in the yard. They were very impressed with this so I just had to take a picture. We don't usually see too many butterflies around here... just those moth things. It was a lot better than the snake they caught last month. I was out doing yard work and Piper decided to help me move some small branches I had cut. So as she bent down to pick up some larger twigs she screamed as if she were trying out for the part of psycho or something. She jumped back so quick it made me jump too, not knowing what was wrong. So I quickly see the snake and was promptly pressured into catching it. Being the awesome mom that I am, I caught it and let the kids watch it for awhile. So there's also a picture of the kids with the beloved snake.

Camping with teenage girls

Ok so camping was a real kicker. First of all it was hotter than, ...well, you get the picture. No shorts and no flip flops so I was near death most of the time. On the 2nd day I had heat exhaustion and had to go cool off in the nurses station with air conditioning. I've never had that before...not much fun. I kept going into the kitchen to stand in the walk in refrigerator. It felt so nice.

Source of Melt Down Drama

Things were alright with the exception of a slight melt down from my co-leader. On Thursday, she broke down and let me know that she was frustrated with me because she didn't feel "connected". I was accused of not letting her know what was going on with the girls and not being involved enough. Well, I asked her every day what I could do and the reply was always "It's just on auto pilot now". At first I tried to be more involved but it seemed like I was stepping on her toes, so I just showed up and helped where I could. I thought things were fine but I guess I was wrong. That was fun!

Hoocy Mama Skit...bad news

There were also a few of the YCL's that were a little umm, experienced. We did a skit and it was suppose to be a West Side Story kind of rival type thing between bad and good and then they would all turn good at the end. Well.... some of the girls on the bad side decided to dress like hoochy mama's and fling their bodies around that resembled a strip club. It was horrible. AND they never turned good in the end. That was a special treat for President Johnson, a counselor in the stake pres. When their number was over it was an awkward silence... notice the blond in the center with tie-dye. We made her put her shirt down. She had it rolled up and tied just under her bra so you could see her tattoo on her lower back. The mama in the front sporting the white tank top needed a LOT more support from her bra...AND you could see her ummm, nips! It was awesome! My decorations were, however, fabulous. Of course nothing less is to be expected. I painted a 6' temple (the SLC temple) and some other signs like 'temple work', 'missionary crossing', 'your body is a temple NOT a visitor center', etc.... I even brought the disco ball to hang as a chandelier for the celestial room.

Temple painting and other masterpieces of art

I also brought Immodest Molly to teach the girls about inappropriate dress but I think some of the leaders had more fun. Some of the 'man' help at camp were also husbands to some of the leaders, soo.... the leaders took Molly and put her in the sleeping bags of their husbands with plastic flowers just before bed. Oh ya, and Molly only had underwear on. She really got around at camp and I must say was VERY immodest with questionable behavior! The YW president asked how Molly was able to pass her interview to come to camp...and that next year she'd have to have pretty in-depth interview before coming. It was fun for the leaders. As prizes for keeping camp clean I made fairy wings that were raffled off. They were a big hit so I think I'll do that again next year.

1) Celestial chandilier 2) Immodest Molly 3) Fairy Wings

So that pretty much sums up the camping experience. It was quite the week, and BOY am I looking forward to next year.