life jobs

I have been busy with my life.
But for the first time, yesterday, I realized for REALS that being a mom is my JOB.

(I say the first time, but really, I think I've had this realization before--but every time and again, I need to realize it again. Yesterday it came on strong.)

Some days when I don't get anything done, I feel completely unproductive--useless--BLAH.
I am embarrassed to say that even though I knew I was a mom, yesterday was the first day that it really SUNK in. I am a mother. That is my job. And I am completely 100% happy with that. I'm even happier in knowing that all that other stuff that I sometimes don't get done, is not my job. Of course I still need to serve others, keep a clean house, cook for my family, read good books, have a little bit of me time, etc., but if I don't get to it, I won't be fired.
No pressure.
My job right now is to be the best mom I can be.
*gulp*
But knowing this makes me feel good. Makes me feel like I can focus better on what I should be doing for my children.
Don't worry Kyle, I will be a wife too:)
(A gosh darn good one too.)
So heres to my life!
My wonderful--full of mothering moments and a lot of laundry life.
I actually chuckle at the thought that I can actually consider playing peek-a-boo, and super secret spies a job.

How much do they make a year?


*****

We have been happy, healthy and Busy doing our jobs.
(one of my sisters just accused me of having the most pictures out of anyone in the world...I'm pretty sure she is wrong, but probably not that wrong. I think maybe I think taking pictures of my kids is part of my job description.)

Ruby has just been busy being adorable.
Luke has been Busy re-decorating.
or
"making things differenter and awesomer and cooler"
Ever since I kicked Ruby out of my room and into her room--with a lot of furniture movement and a tad bit of decorating, Luke has been insisting on making things "differenter." He loves to "decorate" my rooms. I finally told him he had to stop. He was just making piles and piles of all the stuff I had around the room...picture frames, flowers, books etc. I told him he could only decorate his room. Here he is proudly showing off his decorating skills (moving stuff out of closets, replacing socks with with toys, a little pile of nonsense here, a little there).

We have all been busy playing hard.
I have no pictures of our family bike rides yet but we have been enjoying the outdoors and riding our bikes a lot.
We also play patty cake a lot.
and sometimes we play it with our feet.

These are my two look-a-likes.

People that tell me that Ruby looks like Luke, I just smile and nod, ya kinda. But really, Ruby looks so much like Isaac did as a baby. Isaac and Luke might look like brothers now, but when they were babies they looked nothing alike.

Isaac has been busy documenting the growth of our family.

This is his best family portrait yet.
Isaac had a smile face stamp and found it much easier to do our faces with it.
Clever.

Silly Luke felt left out--he thought I was taking pictures of just Isaac, really had no clue that the subject of my photographs was behind his head. He NEVER asks me to take his picture, so I just had to listen to him this time!

:)I love their sun-kissed faces.
None of my kids have really inherited my red head pale skin. Luke gets pale in the winter, but gets pretty dark in the summer. Here are the results of a couple days playing out in the sun.

Kyle has been extremely busy with work.
He is trying out child labor with Ruby even though I've told him there are laws against it.
He only sees the benefits.
A free employee.

And People PLEASE tell my husband that "Ruba-stans" is not an appropriate nick name for such an adorable daughter.

Isaac has been busy with soccer and loving, I mean LOVING every minute of it. At his first game he scored a goal and was the loudest kid on the team. At one point he was running down the field amongst a crowd of ball thirsty preschoolers growling LOUDLY the entire way. I'm pretty sure he was scaring the other kids.

Kids, I promise he is all bark and no bite.

***

FYI-- those of you who have been interested in checking in on me and my R.W. will have to wait until Thursday this week. Tomorrow I'm off to a little bit of me time with my old roommates from college and our monthly recipe exchange dinner. Yum.

*book recommendations:
"I am a Mother"
"Bringing up Boys"

R.W. #4--quesadilla night!

Knock it off and make yourself a Dang Quesadilla!!

(I learned how to spell quesadilla from Nepoleon's Grandmother )

I took a spring break from my Revolutionary Wednesday while I was in AZ but I am back now! This one is an easy one, especially because I cheated and just bought the mango salsa at Costco. I priced the items I would need to make it at home and WOW it was expensive. Plus, I don't know how to pick out a good mango--never bought one before. So, I'll try the homemade mango salsa another time. (fyi--They have a good mango salsa at Baja Fresh.)

BBQ chicken quesadillas with tropical salsa

I decided to go ALL out and make these as well
(Recipe and directions from my sis-in-law--thanks Kari!)
Beef and Cheese Quesadillas

2 lbs. ground beef
1 finely chopped white onion (you can use your food processor)
1 jar (24oz.) salsa. My favorite for this recipe is Sam's choice, Walmart brand, mild southwest blackbean and white corn, but you can use what ever you want.
2 cups shredded colby-jack cheese or cheddar
10-12 flour tortillas.

Brown ground beef with onion. Drain. Mix in salsa and cheese. At this point I put half of it in a freezer bag for another night. I spread my tortillas out on bar. Put an equal amount of meat mixture on edge of each tortilla. (This way I don't run out of meat mixture on the last tortillas) Loosely roll up each tortilla and place seam side down in greased casserole dish. Spray tops with cooking spray to help them brown. Bake 10-15 minutes at 450º or until warmed through. Serve with Mexican sides like salsa, sour cream, lettuce, cheese and/or guacamole. Of course, my kids just squirt ketchup on 'em and eat 'em up. They go well with salad and/or spanish rice.

Kyle and I both enjoyed these yummy quesadillas. Because we like chicken better, we preferred the BBQ chicken ones. The only thing I did differently is cook the meat with big onions for the flavor and then took out the onions since I am not an onion fan. Also, I cooked the beef and chicken quesadillas the same way--loosely wrapped up, sprayed with non-stick, heated in oven at 450--makes them a bit crispy and yummy and EASY because I could prepare everything before dinner time and then throw them in the oven!

Just a few pics so my post isn't so boring...
These are some pictures from our last Ray cousin par-tay!

Ruby has some cute 1st and 2nd cousins!We celebrated Brett Archibalds b-day
We brought some legos to keep Isaac and Luke busy...and apparently this eligible and handsome bachelor as well!
Thanks Brian and Jill for hosting.
We missed those who couldn't make it and hope to see you next time!

Attack of the killer bunny, its demise, and other Easter hoppenings!

Pine, Arizona

April 2009I usually enjoy Pine. My dad has built a really great cabin for us all to enjoy. The air is crisp and I especially enjoy the swaying of the trees in the wind. However, this trip was just not that great. It was our fault for trying a very STUPID thing. We decided around midnight on Thursday that since we weren't sleeping anyways (Luke was sick) that we would jump in the car and start on our trek to AZ. The kids would just sleep in the car.
It would be a peaceful drive.
Or not sleep in the car, which is what they chose to do.
So, 4 sleep deprived individuals (Ruby did sleep) arrived in Pine around 10 am. At first, the kids were very excited to be outdoors on such a beautiful mountain of trees. But eventually, the sleep deprivation got to them and they turned into little monsters. Then mommy turned into a bigger monster and threatened spakings unless both boys jumped into bed and took a nap. They were sound asleep within minutes with their tear streaked faces.

Then we all took naps and woke up happy.

Actually Luke still had a horrible ear infection and we were all still tired. And it was cold. And the fire that Grandpa made for Luke to be warm was a bad idea, according to Luke. He kept saying, "I don't want fire in my eyes, turn it off!" And then, "I just want to go home." why? "Because I'm so cold."
So, we lied and told him after we drove to Grandma's house and said hello we could get back in the car and drive home.
So we drove to Grandma's house and said goodbye to cold Pine.
Luke decided it was warm enough at Grandma's house so he decided that we could stay a while.
And we decided lying to your kids really isn't that bad of a thing.

Happy Pine Pictures before the sleep deprivation took it's toll.

Saturday morning was a different story.
We really were happy.
And OH so warm!
We all got ready to join in the sweet celebration of Easter, beginning with Susanna's baptism..what a cute little red head!
Ruby doesn't have red hair, but she was the center of attention for much of the trip.

After the baptism all the cousins came to Grandma's house and had a delicious lunch and totally radical easter egg hunt--500 colorful, candy filled treasures!
Oh so exciting!

Isaac didn't waste anytime. He was the first one to find all of his eggs and the first one to run inside (it was raining) and check out his loot.Grandma helping Luke.
Look, Candy!
Some of the older grandkids, think Easter Egg hunting is still cool.
Isaac's closest in age boy cousin on the Fillmore side, Tyler!
(Tyler is about one year older and is my brother Benjamin's little boy)
Who are these weird people?
Ruby decided not to hunt this year. Instead she hung out, pleasantly plump, in so many different arms of love.

9 of the 12 Fillmore girly girl cousins
Sadie (far left) was the only girl for many years. The ratio of boys to girls before Susanna was born was 12:1
The girls are catching up!
Ruby especially loved meeting her 2 cousins Charlie (super cool kid who shares a birthday with ME) and Fillmore cousin #32. My sister Lisa is expecting her 7th child on October 1.
We are all so excited!!
We definitely feel the spirit of 7th Heaven around here!

After the egg hunt we played and played and played. Luke was especially popular with the ladies.Luke is showing me his whip.

(a twig)feeling the Annie love.

What a handsome cowboy!

I got a few of these pictures that say,

"Watch your kids around water!"

Clever Luke learned to swing on 2 swings.

My brother Benjamin's cute THREE boys.
Jacob, Tyler, Joshua (curls like Luke)

Mommy is so talented, she can take pictures and run around in circles.
Literally.

Did you ever wonder what life would be like with a crazy mother?

Luke doesn't.

The 6, soon to be 7, Jones Kids.

My brother Jim's kiddos.
These kids are incredibly sweet.

Luke and his twin Betsy (if he had a twin).
After Luke got over the fact that she was a girl, they really played well together.Isaac's new Easter Pet "Rollie"EAT THE CARROT!
The bunny wouldn't listen either.
Meet Hip Hop. He was *disposed of/gifted to my Dad the day before Easter. The kids loved this bunny. Giggles soon filled the air, along with "Eat the carrot! Eat the carrot!" from the delighted grandchildren. However, the bunny would not eat the carrot. The children wanted to pet the sweet bunny so their uncle caught the wild long ears. Hip Hop had no plans to ever be pet. He was released after a few growls of protest. We would try again another day.
Another day, after feeding the rabbit some delicious greens, I reached to stroke the soft white fur and BARK! I was both shocked and scared silly as I watched a bunny jump and pounce forward and warn me with some bunny barks. It was really quite scary!!
Less than one week later, a cat decided he didn't like a barking bunny rabbit either. It was a devil rabbit that dreamt of being a killer with it's killer barks but that cat got him anyhow.

Easter morning came and went.
Right before bedtime the kids found their Easter baskets.
Isaac showed Grandpa the sticky hand that the Easter Bunny brought to him.

Kyle's silly tradition--throwing plastic grass on top of unsuspecting heads.
This years victim: Luke

A few Easter pics because we can.
Roo's favorite position.

me, my mom, and Ruby

Cheese Arizona Style
Kyle didn't realize it was Easter weekend so he brought his most un-like Easter tie he could find--bright red!

This picture was taken before we went to AZ. We went to Hooper to celebrate Easter a little bit early and Kyle's mom had made all these cute outfits for the kiddos. Don't they look nice!
pretty bracelet that my sister Jenny made for Ruby.
It has her name on it but I couldn't get a clear picture with Ruby's wiggly arms.

Easter dress

We really don't make it down to AZ enough. There are way too many people I want to see so the last couple times I've gone down I tell people to come see me. Those that couldn't make it, I missed!

Catching up with old friends at the park.
We met the Millers in UT in the MBA program.
Now they live in AZ!
We miss them so much!!
Isaac, Jacob, Megan and Luke
me and Candice
Best buds!
A trip to AZ couldn't be complete without a Ray cousin get together.
Thanks to my cousin for throwing it together last minute!
Greg and his sweet Goldie Rose.
Me with Ruby Belle.
I hope our kids don't hate us because of their names.
We just couldn't help ourselves.
They were just too cute for the regular old names.

My cousin Melanie and her family--hubby Rob and little boy Clark.

Isaac had some fun with his 2nd cousins.me, Natalie, and Holly with her son Jake

Isaac chased goats most of the night while Luke slept soundly in his stroller.

We did some crazy wild things while we were in AZ.
One of them was ride in the back of a truck.
me and my sister Annie
Feel that WARM AZ wind.Luke and Eliza are the BEST at these stink-eye faces!

They are also both incredibly cute!

Swimming in April?
Only in AZ!!
It was freezing cold water but these kids braved it.
My boat won't go!
That's better!Isaac's two most favorite people in the whole world.
Nathan and Charlie.
His big cousins!
Losing his pants on the first lap!
floaties work as life saving devices and also boxing gloves.We were there so long, a fight was bound to happen!
Isaac's got a mean punch!
Okay, only kidding. These boys were having a blast "play fighting" and that pic of Isaac hitting Charlie looks a lot worse than it was, he really barely touched him and Charlie played along.
Here see--they really do love each other!

Ruby loves a crowd!

Cute matching cousins!
My sister Lisa took some cute pics of these girls.Swimming, Luke style!

Picnic in the tree house.
With lots of healthy food like cheetohs. Another one of those,
"Watch your kids around water"
pictures.

After watching monsters Vs. aliens some of us cooled off in the fountain outside.

And some of us didn't.
Here Luke is trying to get ME wet.
He was unsuccessful.
I am that fast.

We ended our trip with a visit to Freestone Park. We invited my sister's youngest girls, Annie and Betsy, to come along.
We splurged and got the ultimate bracelet so the kiddos could ride all the rides as much as they wanted.
All 4 rides.
The kids had a blast!

I'm pretty sure people at the park thought Kyle and I had two sets of twins plus a little baby--we had a lot of "those" looks.
It was fun to pretend for a few hours that we were that crazy!Life with 5 kids.
What would that be like?

Maybe this post should be renamed,
"Attack of the Killer post"

(even more to come
including a family photo shoot!)