Happy Halloween!

So my SIL and MIL--stayed up until 2am doing this....enjoy!
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/lwOHc4OrcFAlBmxG

IT'S A...

Birthday Bliss!

As you get older and become a mom, birthdays can just become another day...

Dan was gone from 6:30am- 6:30pm, My sister Cara was SICK and did not leave her house, my other sister moved to Mesa, and my own parents were too sick to get anything off-so I had allot of time with the kids. BUT it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. It was a "quiet" kind of birthday with little fanfare!

HOWEVER-these are some of the things that MADE THE DAY!

Dan HI-JACKING my BLOG (Yes, I cried AND yes, I am in love),

Facebook (you never knew you could have so many people wish you a happy birthday...who needs parties, when you can visit with everyone on facebook),

Kids at Home (even though I could have felt very alone I still had someone to visit and take to lunch with me),

Beautiful Flowers delivered to my door (Dan did as much as he could while at work),

Good Friends (Julie "Betty Crocker" Hoggard~who willingly helped to make my birthday a FUN surprise by making the cake telling us what we sex of baby we were having and general excitement from spectators)

Phone Calls and Texts (no one is ever far away~ I even heard from a brother I NEVER hear from on b-days!)

and

THAT "IT'S A BOY!!!!!"
(this was a for real surprise as I had been feeling like it was a girl since the beginning hormonal complications. I have been in girl mode, so its time to go back to my roots and go BIG BLUE! We know and LOVE boys.I have always felt like there was one more boy in our family... I guess its its time to start gaining a testimony of the scouting program and start a SERIOUS mission savings account!)

Thanks for all those who took time out of their lives to touch mine today. My life is good and I am full of good friends and family in it!

Happy 34th Birthday to ME!!!!

Happy BDay Super Woman!

Well, as anyone who knows me already knows, I'm not much for many words, but I thought that if anyone deserves a tribute on this blog, it's my wonderful wife! So I'm giving this a try--Alicia, don't laugh too hard!

Alicia is truly the "Modern Renaissance Woman". She is so well known for all of the things she does for others, but what she's really wonderful at is all the "behind the scenes" stuff. She has always been very quick to laugh (and cry), and always ready to lift someone who's feeling down. She is talented in sports, music (though I don't think she knows it), art, and teaching. And if you ever want someone to just listen to you, she is one of the best!

Some people today would say that the true "woman" is someone who looks like the model on the cover a magazine, has a great career, and is self-sufficient. But I would have to disagree with that. I think the true woman is the mom who sleeps with her sick girl to comfort her, whose body shows a little "wear and tear" from years of late nights and early mornings; someone who is willing to catch her kid's vomit in her hand, or drive to school just to take the lunch her kid forgot. . . again. Someone who can have a really hard day, and then at the end of it just listen and smile while her husband vents about how tough his day was. She knows how to soothe with a touch or encourage with a laugh. She understands that the "bad" little things aren't that important, and the "good" little things are probably more important than anything else. She knows that her family is what really matters in the end, and she's willing to make any sacrifice for them. Well, I think anyone who knows Alicia would agree that she fits all these descriptions. I love you Alicia, and hope your birthday is as great as you deserve!

Love, Your hubby

The rest of our Fall Break

Even though it felt like our ENTIRE fall break was toilet training.... When I realized it was not "taking" as anticipated. I gave in and we went out and did a few things...

ESPECIALLY since Daddy was gone the end of the week and weekend from 4:30am- 7:30pm Elk hunting with his Dad and brother(Yes, Dan got drawn again...and NO he did NOT get anything)

BUT when the kids returned to school STERLING's Teacher had them write about fall break

Here is Sterling' most favorite activity of the week! (read his pumpkins above and below)

Fall Break according to Sterling

Our tree turned yellow early this year as the weather began cold at the beginning of October and then heated up, it leads for mild leaf colors!BUT that did not stop the kids from playing in them!

While holding a garage sale at my sisters house that weekend (where we sold MUCH more than our last garage sale)
Dacie went to a princess birthday party while

Sterling went and made a graveyard cake with one of his great buds Riley Bliss

while Colton and Ryland went to a local private schools fall festival on our way to getting Colton's hair cut!

*This dog came over and sat right on Ryland's feet so he could not go anywhere! ha ha ha

Ryland thought it was awesome

SO I guess our FALL BREAK wasn't an entire bust...

HAPPY FALL!!!!

It's been 9 YEARS!!!

On October 21, 2000

I FINALLY had decided who I was going to marry

and I was sealed to Daniel Ray Sorensen

for Time and All Eternity in the Washington DC (LDS) temple

It was as perfect a day as I could have imagined.

It was during my favorite season, but the weather was unseasonably warm..so we could wear short sleeves and be comfortable.

Some of the leaves had changed.

as many of you who know me are aware, I have left a piece of my heart back East~ and the four seasons (especially fall) is why. It was all my favorites in one day!

Dan, Fall, Maryland, DC temple, both our families...aaah!

Sooo to help celebrate our Anniversary today..here is some of our favorite pictures from our wedding!

ENJOY!

So, we celebrated TRUE marriage and having-a-family-together style,

and I slept with Dacie in her room while she tried to throw up all night..

THEN last night we had kids sleeping in our bathroom on mattresses, and waking us all hours of the night....aaah, that is what real love is

"Not gazing in each others eyes but looking outward in the same direction"

Rolling up our sleeves and getting to work... together

Boy, I am tired!

Dan and I's wedding invitation picture

9 years later!~ You see any differences?

The grey hairs are appearing, our backs, knees and joints are starting to hurt, AND we are a little slower getting out of bed in the mornings

BUT this is always what we wanted. We are growing old together

Happy 9 Year Anniversary Danny!!!

I LOVE you!

OUR FALL BREAK!

So all who have wondered what fun plans we had for our fall break...we have POTTY TRAINED!!!

*My apologies to the other toilet trained siblings, as they have had to entertain themselves...and have sorely complained about it!

I typically hit the potty training road HARD (charts, videos, books, prizes, practice)--and that usually means that we go nowhere and have no one over because we usually are not dressed for a majority of the day.

How's it going?

Beginning of the week: GREAT

End of the week: BAD (throwing her prize winning princess underwear in the trash b/c she knew she would be in trouble and insisted on diapers for a morning)

I was dry-heaving at my sisters today as we peeled poop filled underwear off of Dacie

Are girls easier? NO

Are girls ready earlier? NO

Are we going to have time to train her before the new baby comes? NO

Potty training is ranked right up there with vomit when it comes to THE WORST jobs of parenthood!

~

(Even though there are ALLOT more GOOD jobs of parenthood!!)

Happy Birthday Grandma ATCHINGS!!!!!

HAPPY HaPpY BIRTHDAY CraZy GRANDMA DEAR....

~

to our grandma that wears a crazy hat with huge bugs all over it, sings silly songs, makes funny faces, uses funny voices when reading, dances, goes crazy on holidays, buys us Halloween costumes, wants us to visit all the time...and that we LoVe!!!

Soooo...Here is our present over the miles and miles

(Enjoy our cousins!!!)

HaPpY BiRtHdaY AunT KeRRi De La FuENtE!!!!

AND here is the TRIBUTE Videos... Sorensen Style!!!!

Weekly wrap-ups are BACK!!!

(oops forgot this picture-Blogger does not let me move them anymore...why? Look on Wednesday and Thursday for Cub Scout info!!)

~

The weekly wrap-ups are back...for how long, I don't know!

But my mom has mourned their loss and this week so many post worthy items appeared I thought I might just fit it into one. SO kick back, grab a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy!Saturday/Sunday October 3/4~ Was Aunt Mara's Birthday. October is Birthday MONTH!!! Between Dan and I's family we celebrate 7 birthdays (including my own) and our anniversary~ we can hardly keep up with them. That is something I have always enjoyed doing is keeping up on birthdays- BUT my family keeps marrying people, or having babies to add to our busy month-so we just do the best that we can!

We really enjoyed general conference this weekend as well. As always, we were inspired-and enjoyed clearing our calendar and just staying home and listening. We got our Halloween costumes out and decided what we were going to be, as well as, decorated for Halloween this weekend.

While Cara had an all day date with her hubby, Amberlyn and I got together to make dinner (while the men went to priesthood) and made Cara a rice flour cake as Cara has ciliac disease.

We sang, opened presents, and played games LATE into the night!

Monday October 5~ Was Uncle John's Birthday. Dacie had preschool in the morning, and worked on finding leaves and the letter L. She LOVES school and socializing, she MUCH anticipates school and friends, and often asks for them throughout the week. I have never started preschool this early with any of the other kids, so I was not sure how it would go. But it is just right for me and her.

That frees up some time for Ryland to have me all to himself. At first, he did not like it much asking for friends and where we were going. We have started adjusting and I feel like Ryland much needs this alone time with me. He is a lover one-on-one.He has been able to meet up with his old preschool friend Makena on some of those days, as Makena's sister does Dacie's preschool with her-so we swap the 2 at home... in fact, some days I have NO KIDS for 2hours!!! What?!! I know!

After Dacie's preschool Cara and John wanted to go bowling. I couldn't because I was answering phones that day and the phones were busy, I did not much feel like going anyways. Cara and John love my kids as their own...so they still wanted to go and take Ryland and Dacie. Again kid-less?!! Don't ask me what I do--I don't have much to show for those times, BUT I know I am running the whole time!

We realized today that the oil we had found on the driveway and in the garage was NOT Cara and john's car, in fact, it was our good ol' brand new mini-van. Oh heck! I took the car in to get an oil change, that was due, and had them look at it. The o-ring had been pinched (we did not know it at the time) and the oil had splattered all over our engine. So I had to take the car back to the place that had done it previously (which was different then the place I was getting the oil change at) and request a re-do and cleaning of the engine. We set up the appointment for tomorrow.

~

Tuesday October 6~ Mornings are hectic. Dan is gone from 6am-6:30pm everyday. So I get the wake-up, lunch making, getting dressed, breakfast making, reffing, time manager, drop the kids off duty. All of Cottonwood has seen me in my pj's!! I hope I do not get in an accident in those. The chaos has settled by 8:45am and Colton, Sterling, and Ryland are all at their respective schools, with a packed lunch, coats, shoes, clothes and a kissing hand for good measure...phew! Can I take a nap now?

Dacie and I sprinted home and got ready, so we could meet Amberlyn at the car place and head over to a doctors appointment. My morning sickness is gone and my appetite is BACK! So I feared the worse on the scales and was grateful to have only gained 2 pds. (the only 2 this pregnancy!!! I am not holding my breathe). Dacie got to hear the heart beat and she LOVES to pray about the baby daily...now it includes the thank thee for the baby's "heartbeep". She is going to be a great 2nd mommy! I was relieved the doctor found the heart beat so quickly and it sounded strong and good. I can rest peacefully for another month. With my early complications and serious cramping this entire pregnancy I am still so nervous...you would think by your 5th? huh?

While we were waiting for my car to be finished, so Amberlyn to take me there... she used our computer for her classes, and I went coupon shopping. Typically Dan does the shopping. I know that is one reason I stay married to him (ha ha just kidding). But I figured I would knock one store out of the way and go do the bigger store AND list of shopping. It took me over an hour and a half. I had to match every item and sale with the coupons and numbers of items, we had clipped. But once again, we saved more then we spent!

The car was finished later that day.

Wednesday October 7~ So while I was dropping the kids off at school today in the drop-off line, the car would not go out of park. Cars were honking and I was sweating that I would have to get out in pj's. I finally knocked it out of park, and it flew into reverse before going into drive, where I had it--I almost hit the car behind me. The people who were behind me were pretty stressed out and had undecidedly given me the worst driver hands down....if I only!!! I thought that maybe I was doing something funky and did not have my foot on the brake or something.

Dacie, Ryland and I rushed home to get ready for playgroup. We were doing "Cottonwood's got Talent"-and having a talent show for all the kiddo's. Dacie and Ryland had decided to do a puppet show. We went home and wrote itout- all about a princess mouse and a snake (thanks grandmas camp craft). We practiced a few times, threw on some clothes, and got in the car. Low and behold it would NOT start for the love....the kids were pretty disappointed that they would not be able to perform what we had just spent time doing and ACTUALLY getting dressed for. So I tried calling local friends to hitch a ride to the rec center where we hold playgroup, and they had all been on time (not me). However, sweet Cami (my closest friend in proximity to our house) drove all the way back to come and get me and the kids there. That is true friendship, and we missed all the other acts besides our own kids by the time we got there.

While we were waiting for Cami to come the car started rolling out of the garage, even though it was in park. Then it got stuck in the garage door-so I could not shut the garage. It would no longer roll either way, BUT it started. I got it out of the garage and then it would not go into park. I finally got it into park, and it would not come out. I shut off the car and called the dealership. They told me to bring it in that very afternoon.

The kids did great. It was such a well-planned playgroup. They ate star shaped sugar cookies, because they were all stars.... and played with balloons after their acts.

I called Aunt Cara for emergency babysitting for the boys when they got home from school, as I would be in Prescott with the car. She told me to leave Dacie and Ryland too...so I did.

I made it to the dealership with no accidents..but once I got there, the car got stuck in the service department, and they had to call the head mechanic to get it out of park, even though it was reversing. It took some emergency brake'age and time for the mechanic to finally get it into the shop. Luckily it was NOT a transmission problem and just a loose cable in the shaft! It could have gotten knocked loose while cleaning the car engine. There was oil splattered EVERYWHERE again and the o-ring was once again pinched. We had to call the old car place, get reimbursed, and then have KIA do the oil change and clean the car engine, once again!

I got home from Prescott at 4:30pm-- I was ready for the day to be done!

I did find a dresser for the boys room that day on craigslist and called and bought it. It was a church friend of ours ,ironically, and they delivered it to us that evening, nice.

Luckily, a friend came and got Colton so he could sell popcorn in fornt of Walgreens with his cub scout troop for over 2 hrs. this afternoon.

Thursday October 8~ It was a re-group kinda day at home. After the boys were at school Dacie and I did laundry dishes, and re-organized the entire boys room and their clothes. Our house was such a mansion when we moved in, but adding 3 more bodies to it since then has started to make things a little squishy. Some days I feel trapped and bursting at the seams.I am getting creative in my placement of kids, toys and clothing. Our house has seen allot of action on the market, but no offers. We are beginning to prepare to stay in our home. After re-organizing the room and buying some baskets and plastic dividers...I began to see the "light at the end of the tunnel" to make 5 kids work in our home. There is going to have to be a screened-in porch and storage shed involved to make it happen. But, I also realize that so many live with less and that is not a necessity for us to m0ve. Besides,we have been really strapped for funds since my little side jobs have disappeared or slowed down. So even these little things like dressers add extra pressure to our tight budget.

Colton went and sold more popcorn with his troop at Fry's (a local grocery store) for another 2 almost 3 hours this afternoon!!! He looks so dang cute in his uniform standing there. I have to giggle when I drive past and see my son in his little scout uniform!
I L-O-V-E having a GIRL!! Playing with Dacie's hair and faces in the mirror.


Friday October 9~ The morning was pretty busy getting ready for me to leave for a day. There was laundry to fold, a suitcase to pack, lists to make, babysitters to manage, checks to deposit, lunches to get ready. The kids were fighting over the Halloween cat that arrived in the mail that morning from Grandma Hutchings for a majority of the errands in the car. My ears were tired. I finally let them take a break and go look around the pet store for fun.

Can I tell you that the weather has been nearly PERFECT lately. Especially today!! It feels like fall without getting too cold. It dips down in the evenings to make our house cold in the mornings. We have enjoyed screen doors and windows open, the smell of leaves, fires, and fall wafting through the air. I LOVE IT! Our electricity bill will love it too since our air conditioning unit has been going "A-wall" and our electric bill has added a good $100 to it.

Around 4:30pm my sisters and I were headed down to Phoenix to attend "Time Out for Women". I have missed this event for a year or 2, but I really 'dig' these kind of things. This year it was a 2-day one, and it was a bit pricier then in the past.But we got to see some of the greatest- Brad Wilcox, John Bytheway, Kenneth Cope...and so on. It was great. Now, if I could only put into practice all those things I felt prompted about as I was listening.

(My sisters and I at Time out For Women-recognize the maternity shirt Sister Ha? THANKS!!!)



Saturday October 10~We stayed at Dan's Parents house Friday night. I stayed up late talking with his mom. The next day was as good as Friday at TOFW and the time really did fly by, my bummy did get a little restless after all those hours of sitting. We made it back up to Cottonwood in record time as my sis had a 7 hour paper project to do for school online. I came home before Dan got home from "scouting" for elk with the boys. Dan got drawn for the elk hunt starting next weekend and he took the boys out to one of his favorite spots to check it out. I took the babysitter home and he got home about the same time. We had an evening of baths and dinner, and Dan and I ended the evening enjoying each others company while watching a movie.

My stinkin' "lucky" sister who just won a drawing for a free hardcovers published journal net worth about $300-with 1800 women in attendance!!! the sad thing is she does not journal or blog...I hope she has me for x-mas...then I can publish my blog -HUGE WISH LIST!!

Sunday October 11~ We have been pretty lucky with sickness so far, a mild something here and there (besides me). It was no surprise when Ryland woke up all night complaining of a sore throat. Finally at 6am we gave him some medicine and he was fine until half way through church where they came and pulled me out of class. I took him home and he had 102 fever. He was practicing for his primary program part and did to want to miss it. SO I bundled him in a blanket, medicine and a sippy cup of OJ and took him to the last half hour of church...where he got to say his part!

He has seemed to get worse into the night. But now with ibuprofen and Tylenol in him, he is showing signs of happiness. We had Aunt Amberlyn over for dinner and she played some games of 'war' and made Halloween sugar cookies with the kids this evening, while Dan was at a priesthood. Dacie fell asleep early on her bed after a few meltdowns. I guess her new wake up time of 6:30 am and NO NAP, are not a good combo!



Bet you wish you had our GRANDPARENTS!!!!

We got these 2 Halloween care packages from both sides! They know we LOVE holidays, and YES we are spoiled!!

Grandma H's black Cat and Halloween book, and Grandma S's Halloween bowl of surprises!!!!

Until we blog again!!!