Bountiful Baskets

OK, the coolest thing is available in our area. At bountifulbaskets.org you can register to buy a basket of fresh fruits and vegetables. They are delivered once a week to a pick up site you choose (mine was at our local high school, 1/2 mile from my house) and you can buy a basket every week, every other week, once a month, whatever.

Here's the cool thing: the baskets are only $15 for conventional or $25 for organic and you know what I got in mine? (I got conventional by the way but I might go organic next week) OK, I got a cauliflower, a bunch of asparagus, 8 cucumbers (pickling size), 8 sweet potatoes, 2 bunches red-leaf lettuce, 2 zucchini, 7 apples, 8 oranges, a pound of strawberries, a pineapple, a cantaloupe, and a large bunch of bananas. All for $15! I started adding it up and the best I can tell, shopping at WalMart which would be one of the cheapest places around here, all this stuff would add up to over $30. Pretty awesome, huh? I don't know if the organic selection gets as much so I'll check it out next week. Anyway, the food is totally fresh because it's being delivered straight to me so it will last a lot longer than food from the grocery store as well. So, so cool!

By the way, family, I noticed they delivered to Washington so I looked at their site pick ups and they're Snohomish, Arlington and Spokane.

Just an Ordinary Day

I'm going to try to do better at blogging more, just like my sisters! Not much to report, I thought I'd show you how my days go:

7:00- Wake up and get the girls up and ready for school
7:45- Girls leave for school, lately they've been riding with Jer (he loves to take them)
7:45-9:00- Eat breakfast, then clean kitchen, make beds (yes, I still make the girls' beds, I know I need to start making them do it themselves!), pick up rooms
9:00-10:00- Get ready for the day (for the last 2 hours Jillie and Jax get to watch cartoons but they mostly play)
10:00-11:30- Run errands or deep clean or play with Jillie & Jax
11:30- Kamrin gets home from kindergarten
11:30-12:00- Lunch
12:00-2:30- Jax lays down for a nap, Kamrin does homework, then I play a boardgame or puzzle or memory or go fish or whatever with Kam and Jillie, or we play outside
2:45- Nan gets home from school, we have a snack, then the girls play or watch TV for 1/2 hour
3:30- Jaxon's awake (usually sometime between 2:30 and 3:00), so Kamrin practices piano while Nan does homework
4:30- Nan finishes homework and starts piano
5:00- I start dinner, kids play or Nan reads to everyone or they watch Ruff Ruffman
6:30- Jer gets home from work, we have dinner
7:00-7:30- clean up kitchen, pick up around house
7:30-8:00- Hang out as a family, usually playing monsters (OK, I'll admit it, I watch most of the time on this one!)
8:00- Get kids ready for bed
8:30- Lights out for kids, Jer and I usually watch a movie or play Mario Kart Wii
10:30-11:00 Somewhere in this time frame Jer and I go to bed

OK, that is my typical day. Very seldom do we deviate from it, but come summer time obviously this will change; that will be nice and also not so good, it's nice to have a set routine. Today, however, Jer got off work several hours early so we went to the park as a family. He leaves tomorrow morning and will be gone for a couple of days so he wanted to come spend some time with the kids and I. Alright, we rented New Moon and it's getting late so I'm going...hope everyone had a great day!

Fun Pics

Last summer when we were at the Melaleuca picnic, the line to get faces painted was over an hour wait in the hot sun so Jer and I vetoed it. The girls were pretty disappointed so I had them pick out the picture of how they wanted their faces painted, I took a picture of them on my camera, then when we got home I painted their faces myself. This was Savannah's pick!

Just a cute pic of Nan and the dogs after we first got Macy. Nan's the first one of my kids to love up to the dogs, she loves animals and wants to be a vet when she grows up.

When we got home from our cruise, we of course brought the kids gifts. All the girls got a new swimsuit cover (the dresses, very popular in Mexico), bracelets, necklaces, and flutes.

This is what Kamrin picked for her face to be painted like.

Every summer our neighborhood has a party at the park. They had cupcakes, waterslides, a little train the kids could ride in that ran around the park and other games and food. The kids had a blast!

Just a fun pic of Kam! She loves to ham it up for the camera!

Kamrin in her cruise garb!

I love this picture of Jillie from Halloween.

Notice the bruise on Jillie's forehead? 5 days before Halloween Jillie was climbing a tall, heavy dresser to get something off the top when it fell over on her and seriously bruised her head. It was extremely scary but luckily she recovered fine!

Jillie in her cruise get up!

I can hardly get a picture of Jillie where she's not posing, this is one of her favorites!

Just like any kid, Jaxon had to experiment walking around in Daddy's shoes.

This is a picture of Jaxon feeding himself for the first time. Look at how excited he is!

Jax's first haircut, he was such a good boy!

Playing peek-a-boo with Daddy's hat.

Cruisin' Down the River, on a Sunday Afternoon...

In January, Jer and I were privileged to go on a cruise through the Caribbean. Jer, along with several other employees, won this trip through Melaleuca and it was so awesome...I wanted to be sure and get it documented in my blog! The ship we sailed on was called the Westerdam and it was truly incredible, as you can see!

This is a picture of our stateroom. The workers who cleaned the staterooms kept it looking pretty much exactly like this. It seemed like any time we left the room for anything we'd come back to the room looking perfect. In fact, there's a joke on the ship that if you get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, you'd come back to a made bed!

Off of our state room was a private veranda, and since we were on the back of the ship this was our view. It was so beautiful, Jer and I loved to go out here and enjoy the weather and smell of the ocean.

On our veranda were lawn chairs, so a lot of the time I'd take a book out there and just read to my heart's content!

We sailed from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and our first stop was at Grand Turk. This is a picture of the beach there. Jer learned to snorkel in those waters, he says it was unbelievable! Tina and I mostly sunbathed in the lawn chairs and read our books...boring? Absolutely not, I never get to just sit and read when I'm at home!

Our next stop was at the Grand Cayman Islands. This is a view of the streets there.

Chris and I enjoying Grand Cayman. We had just finished snorkeling and I actually went! One of my biggest fears is the ocean because I hate the idea of so much water around and under me with no idea of what is in it. It took me a little while to stop hyperventilating into my snorkel but I kept reminding myself that sharks smell fear so I needed to calm down. After awhile, I totally forgot my fears and truly enjoyed myself. The coolest thing Jer and I saw while we were snorkeling together was a stingray that had to span 5-6 feet across. It was swimming along the bottom of the ocean and we followed it for awhile.

After the Cayman Islands our last stop was in Cazumel, Mexico. The beach was pretty crowded there so we spent our time at the Mayan ruins. They were so amazing, it was hard to believe that thousands of years ago the people lived here and so much of it is still standing today. So much of their architecture has symbolism attached but I can't remember it all.

This was a hole in the ground that supplied their underground irrigation system.

Out of our group, the tour guide chose Jer to jump down in the hole and check it out

Jer in the hole!

This is the view Jer was looking at. He said that our camera couldn't pick it up but there were tunnels going all different directions from the hole. As the rain came down it would filter to the hole and from there the water would run through the different tunnels to supply water throughout parts of the village.

Chris, Tina, Jer and I at the Mayan ruins in Cazumel.

Mayan Ruins

The vegetation throughout the ruins were so beautiful.

An ancient archway...amazing, huh?

One of the gathering places for the villagers. I feel so blessed to have gone on this cruise, I saw and experienced so many things that I never thought I would. It was so relaxing and I loved knowing the kids were with someone who loves them and would take good care of them (thanks Ashlee, I love you!). It was wonderful for Jer and I to have that time together, and I'm so glad Chris and Tina had the chance to go also. It was definitely a vacation I'll never forget!

Poopy Kudos to Me

The weather has been warming up recently, melting the snow and giving us all spring fever. However, with the snow melting it was leaving a problem in our backyard, revealing all the lovely deposits our two dogs have been making all winter long. I actually went out several times through the winter season to scoop what I could, but most of the time everything was so frozen into the snow and ground it didn't do much good. So here we are, with the sun shining and the kids wanting to play outside, but the whole time having to avoid bombs all over the yard.

Jer and I had planned to work on the yard on Saturday, but Tuesday it cooled back down and Wednesday stayed cold, freezing everything back up without having it stuck in snow. I knew that starting Thursday the weather was supposed to warm back up and so I had but a small window of time to get the work done that needed to be done. So, armed with WalMart sacks and latex gloves, I spent a solid hour picking up poop and filling sacks. Then, to make matters worse, we didn't get a chance to rake our leaves last year because they fell so late in the season and it snowed so early they just got trapped. So after I was done cleaning what I could, I then spent the next hour and half raking and bagging leaves.

Here are the fruits of my labor:

The WalMart sacks are all full of dog doo and the black sacks are the leaves. I can't tell you how nice it is to have this done, and now Jer and I can actually do something fun with the kids tomorrow! Anyway, I know I'm tooting my own horn a little here but I felt like I deserve it :)

Primary Talent Show

On Saturday our ward held a Primary Talent Show for the kids in our church from ages 3-11. Talk about great free entertainment, heck, I would've PAID to watch this stuff! I haven't laughed so hard in awhile (quietly though, of course). The kids were just so cute and very, very talented; but sometimes the way they chose to show their talents had me almost falling off my seat with laughter. I tell you, if you ever get a chance to attend a Primary Talent Show, go for it; it will be an experience you'll never forget!

Although Jillian's not quite old enough, I had all three girls do a song. They performed "A Frog Went A Courtin'" and they were so blasted cute. Savannah was the frog, Kamrin was Miss Mousey, and Jillian was Uncle Rat. We dressed them up with things I found around the house; final product:

I've attached the video of them singing but it's kind of hard to understand the words so here they are so you can follow along:

A frog went a courtin' and he did ride uh huh, uh huh

A frog went a courtin' and he did ride uh huh, uh huh

A frog went a courtin' and he did ride,

a sword and a pistol by his side uh huh, uh huh, uh huh

Miss Mousey will you marry me uh huh, uh huh

Miss Mousey will you marry me uh huh, uh huh

Miss Mousey will you marry me?

Yes, if my uncle rat agrees uh huh, uh huh, uh huh

Uncle Rat he laughed and shook his fat sides uh huh, uh huh

Uncle Rat he laughed and shook his fat sides uh huh, uh huh

Uncle Rat he laughed and shook his fat sides,

to think Miss Mousey would be a bride uh huh, uh huh, uh huh

Alright, here's the show:

As you can see, they had a blast. Now what to do next year...

Life is good

Today I'm getting together with some dear friends for lunch. We're just gathering for soup and muffins, a little girl time, and for the kids to get a break from every day life. I'm so excited, I didn't have many girl friends growing up and for the first time in my life, I have a group of good friends outside my family that I can count on for anything.

Also some exciting news: Jeremiah got a promotion on Monday in his job at Melaleuca. Talk about a great company, we truly feel blessed that Jer has found his career path so early in life and that he loves it and is so good at it. Luckily, Melaleuca seems to love him too and I'm so proud of him for working so hard and doing so well.

Life really has its ups and downs and I'm just so happy that all I have to do is look at my kids and realize that most of the time life is up. I'm thankful to Heavenly Father for blessing our lives so richly.

The Christmas Holiday

"It's the most wonderful time of the year;" have any other song lyrics ever had it so exactly right? The Christmas season seemed to have zoomed up and on by this year, just a whirlwind of Christmas cookies, bows, ornaments and candy canes. Still, this season was such a great one for our family. For the first time this year, we decided to buy a gingerbread house kit. I've always had an irrational prejudice against gingerbread house kits; I would picture buying it and finding all the pieces in shambles and it just didn't seem worth it. However, after reading on my sister Kelly's blog about her kids loving to do the kits every year I decided to give it a try. What a great invention! I'm telling you, I've tried making a homemade gingerbread house with kids running around and helpfully messing everything up and it was a nightmare. But this was so easy, it was fun for everyone! Finished product:

On December 22nd we headed out for the 13 hour drive to the coast of Washington where we spent the holidays with my parents on their farm. This is such a fun tradition for our family, we're so thankful to our family there and the love they always show us. Everyone truly opens their schedules up the most they can to spend as much time with us as possible and it makes for a great time for all. Our big Seaberg family Christmas party is held on Christmas Eve, when everyone gathers together at Mom and Dad's house to eat, play games, eat, open presents, eat, and...well, eat! This is a picture of the Seaberg cousins: from left to right there's Miley (Carson's), Jillie (mine), Kelsi (Kelly's), Canon (Carson's) holding Zane (Whitney's), Savannah (mine) holding Tyler (Whitney's), Brodi (Kelly's), Cason (Carson's), and Kamrin (mine). We're getting to be such a big group and we're actually missing Kayley (Carson's), Colton (Kelly's) and Jaxon (mine).
Also on Christmas Eve is the big Valentine family party (my mom's family). We went over there for awhile to say hi to everyone and took this very traditional picture. For as long as I can remember, whenever we had a get together at Grandma and Grandpa Valentine's house (which was at least once a month), we would gather all of us kids on the stairs and withstand a 2 minute photo session. It's so much fun to see this new generation of children following the same tradition! I would name everybody but that would take forever, just know that the Jenny and Annie's kids are also in this picture. Of course, we're missing Laura's kids and loads of great-grandchildren but I promise you, the stairs wouldn't be even close to long enough if everyone was there!

After we got back to my parent's house from my grandparent's house, it was time to get down to serious business. The kids got to open their first Christmas present: new pajamas. Everyone took time to change, then Mom read the Christmas story while the grandchildren held up visual aids at the appropriate times. Afterward, we sang Christmas carols for about 5 minutes when who should arrive at the door but Santa Claus! The kids were so excited, what a great surprise! Santa gave each child a present, then we got to take pictures of our kids with him.

After Santa left, the kids exchanged cousin gifts, then we all opened the crazy amount of presents Mom and Dad got everyone. All the kids got some great toys, but what was really cool was each family got some survival gear, including tents, sleeping bags, a cooler, an emergency radio, and so much more that I can't even think of! Thanks Mom and Dad! After everyone left and we went to bed, Santa must have returned because the next morning when we woke up there were filled stockings for the kids and these huge stuffed animals for the girls!

They love them and keep them on their beds to cuddle with. Jaxon got 2 big trucks that he pushes all over the house and then the stockings were filled with just random fun things.

Christmas day was very relaxing. After the stockings and presents for our own little family, we had a nice breakfast and then another tradition: a tractor ride with Grandpa. My dad hooks a trailor to his tractor and everyone piles in, then he drives all over the farm. It's so fun, the kids have a blast, although at one point Jillie and Jax both fell asleep :)

A couple days after Christmas we got to go to church with my family. The kids got the cutest Christmas outfits from their Grandma and Grandpa Nelson so of course I couldn't resist snapping a couple of shots:

This vacation was the longest one we've ever spent in Washington since Jer and I have been married, and part of the reason why is because I wanted to spend my birthday with my family there. My birthday happens to fall on New Year's Eve and this year I turned the big 30 (I know, crazy huh?) so we had a birthday/New Year's party for me. First, Jer and I went out to breakfast with our kids, then we headed back over to Grandma and Grandpa Valentine's house. Annie and Jenny were there with their kids and Grandma had made a wonderful birthday cake for me, which I still need to get the recipe for. I love spending time at my grandparent's house, it was so much fun and really takes me back to when I was growing up. Afterwards, we went back to my parent's house where we again ate and partied! Kelly and her kids joined us, and Whitney and her boys were there so it was again a loving houseful. Jeremiah and the girls actually made me another birthday cake, with 30 candles and all! Thanks guys, I loved it!




Finally, it was time to toast the new year in. The kids did it early so they could go to bed, but boy did they feel grown up when Grandma let them use her nice goblets and they got to drink sparkling cider!

What a great vacation, thank you to everyone for such a good time...I miss you all already!