merry christmas!!!

So it's over!!! it was a fun filled day everyone got everything they wanted and more.. and now it's over as quick as it came... tomorrow I will be taking down the tree (which is practically taken down due to the mass amount of needles it is shedding at this moment!) the mantel will no longer house our nativity set and all will be back to normal... I'm kinda ready

So the kids and I have the next week off... We don't have any grand plans we are kinda just getting caught up on laundry and chores around the house..

Some new news, Hunter has been tentatively diagnosed with ADHD, I say tentatively because it's only been through our school psychologist and frankly she's not qualified to actually diagnose she can only let us know he has some indicators.. we have an appt. with our pediatrician from there I think I'm going to ask to be refered to a specialist. I'm not completely against medication BUT I want to be darn sure we aren't just wanting him to be easier to deal with and so zoning him out etc. I'm knee deep in books right now and so far from what I've read he fits the profile kinda right on... it makes me wonder why it's just manifested it's ugly head now in 6th grade but really in hindsight I've seen signs for quite a few years he's just had some AWESOME teachers and low class sizes to be able to manage and get him the one on one help he's needed at times.. Now that he's in a bigger school with more than one teacher things have gotten kinda out of control, but I don't know why I'm surprised, My learning disability wasn't diagnosed until the summer before my 7th grade year and my 6th grade year was kinda a wash as far as learning or grades etc.. BUT my point is we are on top of it.. or at least as on top of it as we can get for now, the lucky part he's brilliant like actually tests off the charts as far as smarts go we just need to be able to teach him the coping skills to be able to get through life or at the very least middle school.
I'm thinking me being at the middle school was no accident... and the fact that I'm actually working in Hunter's cluster (his group of students with the same core of teachers) even more of a blessing... I'm not sure if he would have fallen through the cracks were it not for me being their... it also helps his teachers can tell me when I need to crack the whip etc. etc. it's also helped one particular teacher who was kind of bullying him I could see for myself that allot of what Hunter was complaining about was TRUE!!! (that's an ongoing issue more about that at a later date!)

more fun news Ben and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary yesterday!!! we will be going out to celebrate this weekend (he has to work all week, yuck!) but I can't believe the life we have created together!!! it hasn't always been easy but it has been the most worth while endeavor, the most fun and to do it all with my very best friend, PRICELESS!!! I can't wait to see where the next 15 years takes us.. I love You BEN!!!
anyway that's all for now
ta ta

Found a DEAL!!!

Ok so someone kindly recommended this site ( zennioptical.com ) on a comment on a previous entry THANKS!!! and I just ordered Hunter a spare pair of glasses for $20.90 INCLUDING SHIPPING!!! Hunter and Glasses aren't a good match... our insurance pays for new frame every 2 years and we have NEVER made it through the second year and frankly this is the first time we've ever replaced lenses in the same frame but of coarse less than a month after replacing the lenses he breaks them on the joint of the nose guard the choices were get a whole new frame, pay $120 for the same crappy frames that we HAD to choose with our optical plan that were obviously AWFUL or pay 100 for a basic value pair to creep him through until the end of the year... we actually ended up getting a GREAT discount (65%) on the same crappy frames due to the great optician yelling at our insurance so because he needed the glasses TODAY we did that BUT I don't want to be held hostage by our insurance again so I ordered a spare set online w/ zenni so that if he breaks these frames (and we ALL Know he will!!!) we'll have these... and they were titanium memory ones that are supposedly GREAT!!! we'll see.. I'm sure they are made in China by sweat shop workers but frankly is it bad that I could give a rip!!! being a Mom who wears glasses herself with 2 (probably coming on 3, she has an appt already) kids who wear glasses this is a GREAT FIND!!! I get nothing from these people I just ENJOY passing along a great deal.. I'll let you know when they come if they are as great as they seem but for 20$ it would take ALLOT to be disappointed!!!
ta ta
Oh yea thanks to all who commented on Brad's contact dilemma... I made him an appt and the optometrist thinks he's more than ready so we'll see..

Last Day of Summer

So today was the last day of summer i honestly and truley wanted a day to just exhale.. it seems as though as GREAT as our summer has been we have been running all summer and have had little to no time to just breathe and take it all in.. i suppose going to the lake and stuff but honestly i was always thinking of what ever was the "next" thing i had to prepare for.. But we've had a GREAT summer my only complaint would be that our summer was kind of short BUT i feel good about school starting tomorrow and i'm sure i'll have pic's to share.. the boys have informed me they will be riding the Bus because having your Mom take you on the first day is just SO NOT COOL so i'm trying not to be crushed by this statement and just going with the flow of having older COOL kids.. KayLea has to be taken to school so she doesn't have a choice for me to take and dote and i'm going to do my best not to shed a tear in front of her (mostly because Ben will razz me horrably!)
i'll post pic's tommorow!
ta ta

Wedding Day

So i've taken a bunch of pictures but Ben's laptop won't read my card reader for some reason so i've got to find time to down load them from my camera which doesn't take much more time than the card it's just a matter of finding the cord etc.. so i'm hoping tomorrow i'll have a bunch of pictures to show
Anyway
We have had a great time while here.. thursday we had a Fox family bbq with Budd, Sam (Sam's fiancea Amber couldn't make it) Matt, Shannon their 2 adorable boys and Trish and her husband Theron... we swam we ate what else could you ask for... But Thursday night we had a girls night out with all the Sister's in law (and the actual sister trish) took the new to be sister in law out for appetisers and dessert it was fun and yummy and we got to know Amber (and i think scare her a little hah!)...
Yesterday we help set up the reception it think it looks pretty good... The boys went fishing with the excuse (by Ben) to stay out of the way and hair of the decorating crew... they had a good time they rented a boat on Lake Irvine but other than catching a pretty aweful sun burn (all of them) they didn't catch anything.. (i'm not so upset) but they seem to be fairing ok...
so I got KayLea's dress fixed (we took out the elastic out of one of the arms at Ashley's wedding) Shannon's Mom was more than nice to offer to do it for me but i procrastinated (and actually forgot) and just got the stuff last night at walmart to do it by hand...

so i think your all caught up now... this trip for being a sort of long one has just zoomed by I think the kids are having fun

so i thought i'd post some pic's

so i havn't been so good at the e-mailing myself pic's from my camera on my cell phone mostly because the thing is always in my car which means its ALWAYS dead unless i'm actually driving (it rarley come off the charging cord).. so i actually had some battery life and took some pic's of the kids eating their "happy ending" sundae's at Friendly's yes that infamous day i wanted to strangle them all at the end.. see it didn't start so bad..

the last one is of KayLea on the merry-go-round a the mall a week or so ago..

i almost forgot...

Baseball for Brad and KayLea is OVER!!! YIPPEE!!! and we have a week off of games (no weekday game) for Hunter.. DOUBLE YIPPEE>..so Hunter has his first playoff game on Saturday to a team that beat us the previous 2 times we played them.. but not by much so it might be a close game.. (anything other than a loss will be too close for me!) so there MIGHT be some light at the end of the tunnel but really with only one out of 3 kids to get around to everything it's going to seem like a vacation...
I already know Brad won't do baseball next year.. he's pretty discusted with the whole thing right now and I have to say KayLea didn't have the best time so we'll see.. i'm not going to really coax any of them to do it next year.. i'd be happy if only Hunter did it...
anyway there's my almost last baseball rant... hopefully i'll be doing a happy rant that it's all over by Sat...
ta ta

pictures

we are at the library this morning, so it's time to catch up on some pictures..
Ok just so it proves i'm not totally anti baseball.. i have taken pic's of the kids..
above: brad batting below Hunter catching...

above: Hunter getting batting tips from his coach.. he's all wet because it was the hottest day of the year so far (around 90) and the field we were at turned on the hose for the boys to cool off.. i wasn't too sure about this idea but in the end it was probably the best thing that could have happened..

above; here's KayLea batting and then her on first base.. below: she always holds her helmet because it almsot falls off everytime she runs..

So yesterday was a wash

Yesterday i was pretty much useless.. Once a month i'm incapicated for 2 days (hopefully it's not too much info brothers!) anyway Yesterday was the 2 days rolled into one (Yes, mom i know i need to make an appt with the Dr.. after yesterday i'm looking online to find one today)..and Thankfully Ben was home all day because Night before last we went to a Fischer Cat's game it's a minor league baseball team we have locally it's always fun, it's a rather small stadium and we got Free tickets because the boys participated in a reading challenge they had, we actually had to pay for one ticket but it was only 5 bucks so that barley counts.. i don't think we've EVER paid for fischer cats tickets.. Ben usually gets a few each season and i think if you can't find some free ones somewhere it's probaby not worth going because once your there you've got to spend a minimum of 40-50 bucks on drinks and snacks alone.. we always eat before we go but somehow we can't escape with out our token to the baseball gods.. and we had finally hit our financial limit when the boys claimed they were thirsty i sent them together and told them to find a water fountain and fill up the empty rootbeer bottle.. they came back and said they coudn't find one and they even asked someone who worked there and they said there wern't any.. so i (standing firm on not giving in to more money) told them to go fill it up in the bathroom faucet.. they griped and said "TAP WATER?" i asked them what they thought a water fountain was??? anyway they came back looking discusted but with their bottle filled.. Hunter came back handed me the bottle and said "feel that?" and i realized the water bottle was filled with pretty much HOT water.. they don't have hot and cold handles it's just a button that shoots out warm/hot water to wash your hands.. what happened to the days of no hot water in public restrooms.. anyway i gave in and got them a $3.75 bottle of COLD water but they had to share..

Ahhh what a night..

today Brad gets his retainer.. i'm hoping they won't have to re-fit him he's lost, no lie, 5-6 teeth since they fit him... i called and left a message asking if this was going to be a problem and no one ever called me back so i'm guessing it's fine... we are hoping the retainer route will fix his cross bite so that if he does need braces it will be very minor experience... funny thing.. Brad's baby teeth are actually larger than his adult teeth.. this is actually a VERY good thing which is why we can do the retainer route and not just b-line to braces..

wish us luck

ta ta

paying the piper!

Ok so we didn't get home until 1:45am this morning.. we immediately headed to bed which meant everyone was sawing logs around 2:15-2:30am.. i decided, i thought very brilliantly, that i would let the kids sleep until they woke up.. we had fairly tight schedules all week and since today was a school holiday anyway they should catch up on all the sleep they had been deprived of and just sleep.. Brad woke up around 8am.. Hunter woke up around 11:30 and KayLea held out until 12:45... well I'm paying the piper now.. it's 9:15 PM (their bedtime is a very strict 8pm) and she is saying she isn't tired.. Hunter and Brad both have school tomorrow and it's just been the past few minutes i haven't heard them bickering or laughing so URGGG!!! i have a feeling tomorrow morning isn't going to be much fun and we'll be rushing to catch the bus!!! I just gave in and feel like the horrible mom KayLea asked if she could play her game boy in bed.. i caved.. I'm exhausted... just in.. boys not asleep.. they are arguing why does KayLea get to play game boy and not them.. I'm a glutton for punishment.. to top it off I'm terrified of what tomorrow's make up homework brings...

I'll report back tomorrow

Meeting Baby Will

Well, the kids got to meet Will today for the first time poor little boy got a little overwhelmed but seemed like he got to like Hunter KayLea and Brad... he's sure a cute boy!

above: Hunter, KayLea and Will getting to know eachother.. Below.. Will helping daddy roll up the air mattress Grandpa Jack slept on last night

Fishing Derby

one town over; Bradford had a fishing derby last weekend.. we woke up early got eaten by every bug known to man and caught our limit.. we didn't win any prizes but it was a fun time.. they had the NH fish and game stock about 200 fish and there were prizes for first fish, first 3 fish's and largest fish (they knew they stocked a 16 inch trout).. we stayed until a little girl caught the 16 incher and then we had enough fish and untangling lines (because so many kids were fishing in such a small area there was ALLOT of that!

Here's the kids fishing away.. KayLea was a little cold

Brad fishing and Ben untangeling another line...

Ben and KayLea taking a little juice box break... KayLea decided she was done after catching one fish...
all 3 with their bounty...

catching up on pictures

So we are here in Salt Lake no worse for ware, we ended up leaving last night and coming all the way to Salt Lake rather than spending the night in chicago... so i'm enjoying the high speed wireless internet.. so i'm going to load some pic's of Hunter's Birthday and his friend party... happy belated 10th Birthday Hunter!!! So here's Hunter at our Family celebration.. he requested Cheese Cake.. pretty much all of us request cheese cake for birthday cakes these days so i have pretty much mastered the recipe.. i probably should post that sometime later but it's the recipe that has sour cream along with cream cheese yummy and of coarsae gram cracker crust.. i have to admit reluctantly i do love the homemade crust better than the store baught and even though Ben says i cheat buying the already crummed cracker crumbs it's still yummy

This was Hunter's brain child.. anyone who knows me knows that i love cheese cake but i LOVE it un-topped.. i will gladly provide any topping anyone wants to put on AFTER it is cut but i refuse to spoil the whole thing Hunter requested chocolate and peanut butter topping... so i whipped up some peanut butter sauce from peanut butter chips and some butter and oil... it turned out very tasty but i must not have added enough fat because it hardened pretty much right away.. the chocolate was milk chocolate chips with a little butter and oil.. that stayed saus-ie much longer but i assume the milk chocolate had allot more fat already.. it was yummy and Hunter has declared this his favorite birthday cake...
For Hunter's friend party he wanted a brownie cake.. i compromised and did a brownie and put the same peanut butter and chocolate sauce all over it then we had brownie sundae's they were a hit!

the main event (event even though it was un intended..) fishing in the creek!

pic's from Ben and Jerry's

we Had so much fun

spring break

Last week all of the kids in our ward except us had spring break.. it was a beautiful week sunny and warm.. Because all of our friends had last week off we took the boys out of school and we and another family went to Vermont to the Ben and Jerry's factory tour.. it was SOOOO much fun... it was a long drive (about an hour and a half) but it was worth it even though there really wasn't anything else to see just there but the Ice Cream was SOOOO good! they were making Mint Chocolate Cookie and Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream we got a free sample of the mint and i have to admit (reluctantly) but the FRESH ice cream is AWESOME!!! of coarse when we were done with the tour we had to stop at the scoop counter and all the kids got to get another cone... this was soo good and the kids were raving to Ben so much that Ben got us an Ice Cream maker.. I'm afraid we'll all be 500 pounds in the not to distant future but we made Apple Pie ice cream (from a mix) and it was pretty good I'm going to make Strawberry lemonade sorbet today we'll see how that turns out..

well this week is our spring break and the weather is suppose to be not so good rainy and today I'm almost tempted to turn the heat back on (but I'm resisting.. i need to put on a sweater like I've told the kids to do) so I'll post pic's of our ice cream adventure on Wednesday..
that's all for now sorry about the scattered post..

Oh yea almost forgot Hunter and KayLea are fighting a stomach bug.. Hunter's came on during sacrament meeting yesterday and we had to drive him home then I had to come back because brad had a Scout court of Honor.. so needless to say i burned almost a whole tank of gas on that little excursion.. they both seem to be doing OK today but we are just taking it a little easy...
that's all for now
ta ta

Fox Family Naked DAY!!!

So in my PERFECT world i could declare a Fox Family NAKED day when i get every stitch of laundry done and the only things dirty are what everyone is wearing right NOW, whats a mom to do.. i am so freaking ecstatic that I've gotten it all done but i know it will only last a few more hours until they all get up and fill the hampers again!.. i suppose a more publicly kind thing would be to just insist that my family wear the same thing for the next week so i could relax and pop bon-bon's but really if there were a way i could release my family out to the wild with out the scoffs and scorns of anyone who would see a perfectly good family going around naked i would TOTALLY do it!!! Hmmm could this mean that i am sympathetic to the Nudists?? could that be the movement.. a fear of laundry rather than a hippie attitude towards modesty... Hmmm things to ponder.. no worry for anyone the Fox's won't be naked anytime soon. it's TOO DANG COLD!! haha!. frankly the sight of me would distract from the others anyway (and NOT in a good way!)
ta ta for now

Trauma or Drama??

Well yesterday after homework was done the kids wanted to play outside (i guess our promptings to go explore saturday were fruitful afterall!) they get all their gear on (with out complaint i might add!) and the 3 of them go out... we don't hear anything for a bit and i'm taking glance outside periodically to see if i can see where they are etc.. then i see Hunter and Bradley together with out KayLea going off into the woods.. i'm looking around and KayLea is heading for the house except there is kind of a high snow bank she has to climb up to get to the back door (where she is aiming to go) i watch her to make sure she makes it up ok and she is kind of stopped and then we see the crying... she got stuck... SHE IS FINE!!! but the issue was what if we didn't actually SEE the boys take off with out KayLea she would have been stuck in the snow crying (we didn't actually hear her crying we saw her distressed look etc.) so the boys got a good "talking to" ok there was yelling involved, but they finally realized what could have happened they apologized to KayLea and us etc. etc.. KayLea milked it the boys felt they were justified because she said she was going to the house.. they now know they have to walk her INTO the house etc.. but it was quite the drama for a short time...
so thats the story for yesterday...
we are suppose to get snow tonight and then again through friday URGGG!!! we really can't have another snow day!!! the kids are already going to school until June 20th because of all the snow days and we havn't even hit flood season where we get at least a few more days because the busses can pass flooded streets etc... they already postponed Scout camp to the week of July 4th because some wards in the stake have already gone to the last week of the month (when Scout Camp was origionally scheduled) and we are very close to having to go that week as well!
i was told on Sunday we are about 3 weeks away from no snow.. frankley I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!! but i'll be ever the optomist! ya right!
tats it for now
the frozen Fox's