Chris & Britt Kelly Family Blog

2011

2011-12-31T07:34:00.057-07:00

Happy New Year from the Kelly's: Raymond (12), Britt, Hannah(1), Chris, Natalie(14), Lydia(10), Kalani(15), Abigail(4), Ben(8), Susan(6) and Rebecca(6).

My 40th birthday trip to San Diego was fabulous! I loved having uninterrupted time with my parents and sister and brothers.

Susan being her sweet self

Natalie being her creative self

Lydia being her playful self

Ben was baptized in November!

Our Christmas eve pjs are evidence of Lydia's help, my time sewing, and Natalie's creativity with our dragon shirts.

Natalie's first stake dance continued our family tradition of Dad being her first dance. This involves some embarassment on the part of the daughter in question.

Susan and Rebecca enjoying a twin moment

Britt, Raymond, Susan and Hannah listening to Chris read Christmas stories

Raymond on top of things as usual

Abi rocking her mask

Abi enjoying her very first trip to the gulf

Ben, Kalani, Natalie and Abi demonstrating the ever so slight difference between brothers and sisters

Kalani helping out a blacksmith

Chris and Britt on our 17th anniversary

Kalani enjoying the princess dress she made...and unsurprisingly reading a book

Rebecca and Abi jumping in puddles

Abi, Becca and toothless Ben greeting me at the door

Hannah, on our trip to Lake Hugo with the Hamson's, was a darling little water seeking missile.

Rebecca and Abi enjoy kissable Hannah.

Lydia demonstrates an appreciation for the flexibility of homeschool.

Abi, Susan, Rebecca, and Ben enjoy the first day of homeschool.

And this is how Hannah filled her time and emptied our cupboards while we learned.

Ben and Raymond have to stick together.

We're going to assume this is chocolate on Hannah. We're also going to assume she looked about like this at least once a week and that this picutre covers for the time she dumped out the cocoa, climbed on the piano and the bar, emptied out some food storage, and destroyed various and assundry items.

Good thing she's cute.

Let's see...we didn't move. We didn't have a baby. Chris stayed at the same school. Huh. All of that stability opened up a whole world of opportunities for the Kelly's. This is how some of us remember the year:

Raymond - Hannah became a big monster that's trying to destroy the world and I got the priesthood.

Kalani - received her personal progress award for YW.

Natalie - wrote in her book every, single, day, and we're hoping she learned the value of SAVING documents.

Lydia - remembers swimming with grandma and grandpa.

me - 40th birthday in San Diego

2011 kelly kids

2011-01-31T16:15:00.022-07:00

1-3 While playing Apples to Apples, Kalani gets tongue tied trying to discuss a certain ear accoutrement and calls them "earlings"

1-16 Becca(5) has an old aunt moment as she asks Natalie (13) "So when did you grow up?...I mean wake up?"

1-31 Surely younger siblings have different experiences than older siblings... Raymond(11) is waiting patiently for his computer turn. He is walking around the house swinging his stuffed dog. He sees Hannah and says "I know what I'll do, I'll show Hannah what mock super space wars look like!" Of course! That's what I myself would have done!

4-22 Ben(7) sitting in traffic on the way to a dentist appointment "So did we come here to just stop or what?"

5-1 Susie(5)...that girl sure travels in her brain. She and Abi(3) are helping me make pancakes. They are up on chairs. I come up behind them and give them a kiss and a hug, because I can't get close to the batter or pan or pancakes anyway. Susan says " It's good to hug standing on chairs, BUT NOT ON A CLIFF!"

6-10 We're at the lake with the Hamsons. I follow Becca and Susie(5) into the room to change out of my swimsuit. Susie looks up at me strangely, so I say "Can I come in with you and change?" Susy responds "Ya, it's alright, I promise not to laugh". thanks Sue.

6-18 In the rules you thought you'd never have to make as a mother section: "We don't build things on kitties" said to Becca (5) as she builds a lego contraption on a sleeping kitty.

6-20 For Family Home Evening, we were taking a quiz to check ourselves and how we are doing...before taking a section of the quiz called "humility", Lydia(9) says emphatically to Raymond "I'm going to do better on this part than you!"

7-17 Over dinner we're talking about what we learned in church. Lydia (9) says 'we talked about the parody of the sheep and the goats"

8-11 Natalie(13) while explaining her sense of humor to a friend, "You'd have to be mean to understand that!" "wait...I mean ME! You'd have to be me!"

8-14 Natalie (13) finds Susan's (5) shoes in our attempt to get ready for church. I inform Susan, "don't you have a great sister!" Susan replies "well, she's not THAT great."

8-14 1yo Hannah climbs onto the couch and starts unpacking Natalie's bag. As Natalie picks Hannah up I say "I'm sure glad she's cute" Natalie agrees "Ya people might not like her if she wasn't" To which Raymond responds "I'd hate her if she wasn't cute." Upon seeing our faces he says "What? She's a handful!"

8-25 Becca (5) struggles to carry a gallon of milk and says "Moms weigh more than a gallon of milk". "Yep" I agree. Susan (5) comes in saying "WAY more! No one can pick them up........except Jesus". The good news is her faith exceeds her concept of my weight.

9-18 We're at church and a kind lady has gotten up to bear her testimony with ferver. She says "LDS ROCKS!" about 5 times. After the last time Becca(6) leans over and asks "LDS frogs?" then adds ribbit...and the rest of the meeting there were frog noises from that side of the bench and Abi quickly adjusted to taking care of her little pet frog.

9-18 I love my ward. To sing Hello to visitors we get to choose what language to sing it in. I'm not sure what the die landed on but the lyrics were "Was'up was'up, was'up. was'up..."

10-18 Abi, Raymond and Hannah are off in the van going somewhere. I don't remember what Hannah had just done-something exciting to be sure. Raymond says "Hannah is going to destroy the world". "No she's not, I say" Abi (3) pipes up "Yes mom, she is. She's like superman only with poop!"

11-12-11 A view inside my twisted mind. I catch my daughter with weed . This makes me giggle because it's Hannah the 1yo and it's dilly weed, but yes it was all over the place.

11-16 Raymond reminding me that everyone is different in their view of what's fun... talking about his new rubber band gun "Sometimes I like to shoot myself in the head at point blank range for fun"

11-30 You know that great feeling after you exercise? Sometimes it goes away faster than other times...for example. After a run in the crisp morning air I come home and lay down to do some sit ups. Of course Hannah jumps on me. Next Abi comes and puts her very cold wet hands on my face. "Why are your hands wet?" I ask. "I washed them in your bathroom because of the peanut butter" "Is there peanut butter in my bathroom?" "Yes...because when I had the peanut butter by the computer Hannah would scream" ah. well then. good feeling gone and I'm off to check the computer.

12-24 We come home from Christmas caroling our neighbors. Kalani says 'That was fun!" and Susan adds, "Even though I thought some of them were Aliens." !!

2010 funnies

2011-01-01T03:39:00.000-07:00

1/08 We've had a stomach bug in our house, so when Ben woke up holding his stomach I asked him how his stomach was feeling. He replied, "It's feeling like if you don't feed it, it will die!"

1/13 Susan informs me that both Han Solo AND Luke Skywalker are my husbands(the action figure sized guys). She asks me to keep them in their plastic containers and keep them safe - one wonders at her concept of husband and how to keep one.

1/14 I take Natalie purse shopping and she cringes at the thought of leather..she's fine eating animals, just not wearing one...until we find THE perfect purse which is snake skin. So really if an animal skin looks good enough you can go ahead and wear it...especially if the animal wasn't all that snuggly in the first place. I will talk to PETA - perhaps along with calling fish "sea kittens" we need to rename snakes.

1/15 We're talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the "I Have a Dream" speech. As I'm explaining his vision Natalie says, "We already have that! He was right!" I wonder, how much should I tell her? I wish everyone saw through her eyes. We have come a long way...how young is too young to know just how many stupid and ugly people there still are?

1/17 Ben, age 6, has a substitute for Sunday school. The teacher is talking about how we are different and how we have similarities. We have different eye color, different hair color...but we are all children of God. Ben, listening intently and wanting to contribute: "I have a penis and you don't." Can't argue with that now, can you? Please also note that this particular teacher STILL as an adult NEVER uses ANY proper names for ANY slightly sensitive body part.

1/24 Ben relaying his version of Article of Faith 2: "...men will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam's transmission." (Is this a common little child assumption?)

2/19 Watching olympics with the children and Susan (4) says, "Let's go back to Dad's on Ice!" (We assume she meant men's figure skating - unless she intended to carbon freeze her own father.)

2/22 So last night in the middle of Family Home Evening (Monday night - our church sets apart as a time for families to be together - talk about the gospel, sing, play, have a treat...that kind of thing) Susan is sitting on my lap. She turns to me and touches my belly and asks with her darling little voice and fluttering eyelashes...

"What man put that baby in your belly?"

"Dad!" I say, somewhat shocked.

"Really?" she asks again.

"Yes, really, it was Dad" I say.

"Oh, good" she says... conversation over, leaving me completely incredulous! Kalani heard it and was laughing, but Chris missed it entirely.

3/2 Every morning Abi wakes up happy and ready to snuggle. It's a wonderful morning routine. After a few minutes she generally asks for a "na" (banana) or a "bapple" (apple). Sometimes the request shifts to a "dink o' yilk". The last two mornings, however, the first part of the morning has continued but her request has shifted...she requested "chocklit."

3/19 We're watching BYU play basketball against Florida. I hadn't seen the BYU coach in a while and commented on his hair color: "Didn't he used to be black?" I say. Chris explained that during the course of his cancer treatment he'd gone white. Raymond, listening to all of this - or perhaps only half of it - says, "He used to be a black guy?"

4/28 I'm resting and reading a book. Susan comes up and colors me a cake. She divides it up with her pen and proceeds to pretend to serve it to me. After a few pieces I tell her I'm full. She says, "Mom, I want you to eat it all and get really big so our baby will get really big and be ready to come out today!"

5/5 We're off to the hardware store to buy a few miscelaneous things for bikes and scooters and various things. At the last moment Natalie had asked for a bolt for her bike. So I was saying on the way to the store "nuts and bolts, nuts and bolts..." Kalani, after hearing me for a little while said, "Mom, we don't need both; we just need the butt." Um...

6/7 Raymond gets me a glass of water just how I like it, and very politely. I thank him and he replies, "No problem. I'll help you anytime mom... at least until the baby's a few months old." I knew there was a catch.

6/12 I'm discussing chores with Kalani, and she's not in the mood to do them all. She's trying to think of some reward and says, "Can we have the baby when we're done then?" ...Sure!

6/15 Hannah Julia is born into her father's arms at our home...what a darling daughter!

7/4 We visit a new ward to meet a friend, Brother Goolsby, from Pampa. Afterwards, Rebecca says, "Was that Brother Frisby?"

7/8 Susan is kissing and patting Hannah and I ask, "Are you glad you have a sister?" Susan replies, "Yes! Soon we'll be hobbits!" "Hobbits?" I ask. "Yes," she says, "you know, now we are twins and soon there will be three of us." "OH! Triplets!" "Yes," she said.

7/14 Ben: "It's a miracle! It's a miracle!!" What prompts this wonder and excitement? Mom has moved the couch and found a treasure trove of cars and shapes (as well as the long lost library book)...IN THE COUCH!

8/16 We drove around looking for various craft stores to buy the appropriate whatevers for the older two to make their friend a birthday present. We found everything and only made two u-turns in the process--so not that bad. Natalie says, "That's another reason I like living in the country; you don't get lost...because you don't have anywhere to go."

8/20 While unpacking I'm sure I put our swimming floaties in a very safe place...so safe we couldn't find them. I remember distinctly holding them and deciding where they should go... After looking for a while we got in the van to go swimming-without the floaties. While lamenting my sorry memory I say "If any of you find my brain please let me know." Natalie says "I'd rather find the floaties!"

8/23 First day of school...Raymond brings me his math and sits down beside me and says "you know you're a homeschooler if your teacher is nursing during the lesson"

8/23 Ben comes up to Hannah and I and says "I think Hannah was born with cuteness" He then sings "Hooray for babies" with his own words..including "you're the stinkiest person here" He then sings the cupey cake song.

9/12 Susan comes flying into the kitchen flapping her wings around me. The evidence of her older siblings upon my dear 5yo is obvious as she says "Mom look at me! I'm a phonics!"

9/30 Susan makes Hannah smile then looks up at me and says " I can haz cheezburger? isn't that cute mom?"

10/6 over heard cleaning up for dinner...Ben (6) to Susan (5) as they clean the table "If I could just get mom out of the way I'd be the BEST!" (at wiping the table!) So if you hear of my early demise in the next little while...you know what to do.

10/11 Over dinner we are discussing Chris' birthday and it is discovered he has to WORK on his birthday. Commenting on this major injustice Ben says, "We'll have to cancel Dad's birthday?!" Chris responds "Does that mean I don't turn 40?" Raymond comments, "But he'll still be over the hill!" "No" I interject, "He's not cloose to the hill" Raymond says "I thought it was 40?"

11/07 We get home from church at 2:30, quickly try to prepare something to eat which means we are eating about 3:30 (which feels like 4:30 because of the time change). Rebecca picks up her hot dog and says "My precious!" Ben, while eating his hamburger says "This is good! I like Chinese food!"

11/10 Boys have to be creative when they have lots of sisters. Ben (7) is mastering the art. He comes around the corner dressed as spider man and holding his deadly ball of yarn. At his side, his faithful friend Becca, AKA "spider cat"!

11/11 Waiting in the optomitrist office with Becca, while watching Finding Nemo. Dori says "There's nothing in my noggin", and Becca had a funny look on her face, so I asked "Becca, What's a noggin?" She says "I don't know...a backpack maybe?"

11/13 Homeschool history teaching fail: Raymond preparing for 11yo scouts is looking through a box of Chris' stuff for a scout shirt. He comes out of the room and asks "Mom, there are a lot of weird CDs in that box that are black...what are they?" ummm "They are records son."

11/29 Becca is frustrated that we have to drive all the way home from the doctor's appointment. She asks if I know any short cuts. While talking about how long it took us to get there (why yes I did make a wrong turn and was slightly lost), she says "On the way here I saw lots of 'lost' signs. I don't want to go to lost again. If you see any lost signs don't go there." I ask her what the word lost is and she says "When you don't see any trains?...um...I don't know. What is it?"

11/30 We were talking about King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Ben, 7, who is walking around us pauses and asks, "Marie Internet?"

12/3 Ben is thrilled for the weekend and is trying to convince me it's time to watch some tv, so he says "I've got space in my head, let's watch some Pokemon to fill it up!"

12/23 Raymond and I are doing a little light, early morning reading on the fourth dimension and the theory of relativity. One internet link lead us to something beyond my comprehension. He had just started reading as I was trying to change the page, so I explained, "That's not really English...I mean it's English but.." "I know" he interupts, "it's geek speak." The next link loads and up comes Einstein in his native tongue..."Wow!" says Raymond, "that's super Geek speak!" "Son" I say, "that's German."

12/28 It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.... Ben "My mom's an awesome cook!" Raymond "Excpet when she cooks like she normally does!"

2010-09-11T19:43:00.003-06:00

We finally finished reading the Psalms. We started because we had recently read the Hiding Place, and I was inspired by the comfort Corrie's family found in their Dad's faith and the constant reading of the Psalms. This is what the children remember most:

Lydia :lots of themes and repititon in chapters (perfect for her as a new reader-and rewarding to read the short verses)

Raymond-the poetry and music of it (appropriate since he frequently tried to sing his verses and present them very dramatically-but not necessarily drama or voice related to the words )

Natalie :"And His mercy Endureth forever"-everyone joined in to say this oft repeated phrase and that really was the highlight for me of the celebration-having all of my children praise the Lord for His mercy. That really is what the psalms are about.

Kalani Psalms 119-the Hebrew letters and the Psalm that never ends!

We enjoyed the celebration. We had banana splits (most of the children loved the idea of it but didn't want the banana ) After I scoop the ice cream nicely out and drizzly sugar on the sugar, then put sugar on top :P they stirred it all together! of course-I remember doing the same.

Hannah Julia

2010-06-17T18:00:00.027-06:00

As you may know last week I was sick. I spent a few hours every day last week laying on my bed doing relaxation techniques to attempt to calm down my very irritated stomach and uterus. I felt crampy often and had a few times with contractions as close as 3 minutes for up to 2 hours. I was finally feeling better...it was a new week.

Monday I had gone househunting with my husband. After my midwife appointment we had decided to look at neighborhoods and commutes. It can be hard to tell what traffic is really like and what neighborhoods feel like without driving around.

So Tuesday when I woke up I was ready to clean up the kitchen, but my stomach wasn't. I felt really crampy and was very worried I was returning to last week's adventures. I knew I was having contractions but they weren't very strong and I figured my back pain was too much time spent in the car the day before (don't I sound clueless...how many signs did I need?). We had agreed to go with the missionaries at 10:30 to talk with a woman and her friend who have recently decided to come back to church and look for a closer relationship with Christ. By 10 I decided we should just go and maybe the distraction would be good..Ashley just lives 5 minutes away.

As we bounced down the driveway I remember thinking UGH I don't like being in the car during contractions-wondering again if I would have to deal with contractions and cramps all day, if they would go away or if this was labor. The time at Ashley's was wonderful. I did have a few hard contractions...but really not that many. I remember thinking how glad I was that I came and how glad that this didn't look like this was labor or was continuing.

The missionaries had asked me to translate (ASL) for a 1:00pm appointment and Chris had offered to make them sandwiches (it was noon). I wanted to go lay down and Chris ran to the store quickly to grab some bread. From the minute we got back in the car after the appointment my "cramps" came back. They seemed pretty close to me, so when Chris came home I called him in to discuss...he took one look at my face and said "Are you timing these "cramps"? No I said sheepishly...though I had been using relaxation techniques and reciting my hymn to myself (When faith endures-thanks Becca, it is the perfect hymn for a laboring woman!). I timed the next two contractions-2 minutes apart and more than 1 minute long...um closer than I thought. Chris called the midwife (at 12:41pm) to tell her she better come, Kalani got the children ready (they walked around the block to a friend's and the missionaries were left to finish eating and leave (one left his scriptures!). Oh. in the getting the children ready time, Ben (age 6) walked into my room and said "congratulations on having your baby today, Mommy!" "Thanks, Son," I said trying to smile.

For the next fifteen minutes I needed Chris through contractions-to do counter pressure, sing until he got my music going; while he still needed to make the bed up, get things ready and reread his "what to do if the baby comes before the midwife" paper. He was running around like crazy...with me calling him back every other minute to help me through a contraction. He called Diana (the midwife) back at 1:01pm to see where she was...she said she was about 15 minutes away. At that point Chris felt he would be delivering the baby. I was thinking..okay at most 10 more contractions until diana's here. I intended to count contractions, but was too preoccupied. Chris could see the baby coming down and my water broke at 1:03. Chris could see the baby's head. I was dying at this point (especially my back). Chris reminded me to pant not push, and he prepared for delivery. I didn't realize what he was doing and didn't think I was that close, even though I did want to push. As I was panting the baby descended and with a few smaller pushes and Chris' well placed hands to slow her arrival a bit Hannah came out right into her daddy's hands. "It's a girl!" he said as I rolled over in shock. It was so hard to wrap my mind around her being there! She was covered with vernex and very healthy looking-her feet and hands were purply, but other than that she looked great.

Chris called diana...who was about 7 minutes away. We wrapped the baby up, suctioned her mouth a bit...she cried a teency bit and well, but was really rather calm.

Now that is the delivery but the after delivery was SO markedly different from a hospital birth...just amazing. Diana came, checked everyone over (no tearing or ripping of any kind thanks to Chris's hands and reminders to pant!). Diana cut the cord and once the placenta was ready we delivered that easily-there was no hurry about either event. Diana's assistant Cindy started cleaning everything up, got me water (I had been SO thirsty, but couldn't imagine actually drinking) and started an herb bath. I nursed the baby-for my first delivery I wasn't shaking cold after birth-I was completely comfortable. That bath was fabulous! I felt so clean afterward (a feeling I never have in the hospital), and it was so relaxing to clean the baby myself-with Diana's help. The vernix didn't need to be cleaned up, it soaked right into her skin!-I never knew that-normally they scrub the baby clean.

We all went back to my nice clean bed and weighed the baby-

I was completely shocked at her weight (10#5oz and 23 inches long). Diana thought she was big, but I just hadn't felt that much of a difference-pain is pain and it's not like she was slow to push out. I dressed her and snuggled in.

Chris called the children home (they had been gone only 2 hours!) Natalie and Raymond RAN home and were so excited to see the baby. They loved her up, then handed her off as more children came home. Abi was more concerned about her new coloring book than the baby (she has since decided otherwise and calls the baby "nannah"). After short turns everyone was sent out so mommy and Hannah could rest and we reminded everyone that the first little while was mommy's babymoon.

Later Ben came back in and said "When are we going to have more kids?" "WHAT?" I ask incredulously "I mean more boy kids to play with!" he says....oh...I see. Yikes! Here's hoping our new neighborhood has lots of little boys!

Sorry so long for such a short story!

funnies 2009

2009-12-31T08:11:00.003-07:00

1-16 Chris engages Raymond in battleship and Raymond says "Let's see how skilled you are at guessing."

1-18 In our house bananas are pronounce "bee-nana" and pajamas are "pea jamas" except for Becca's nightgown with a certain silly old bear, which is now "pooh jamas"

1-23 We go on an adventure to Amarillo and have a great time. On the ride back Ben and Lydia discuss if it takes longer to drive to Amarillo or to Utah. Lydia decides it's not longer to Utah and says "Not if we take the short cut!" They talk back and forth and apparently they think we drove an extra 14 hours just for the scenery to get here...The older children were breaking their eyes with all the eye rolling.

2-14 Raymond declares that kissing is alright...as long as he doesn't have to do the kissing and isn't being kissed.

2-19 For whatever reason I say "2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate?" then I turn to Ben and ask him who we appreciate to which he immediately replies, "Fat chickens!"

3-1 Becca and I were about to read a book we have about a Penguin's little brother hatching. There is a great CRACK sound and apparently it made an impression on Becca. She calls the baby the "crack baby", and the book is the crack baby book.

5-16 Listening to Becca, Ben and Susan imaginitive play "she has dangerous slippers" (Becca) "Beware oh squashed one" (Ben) "You came to the diamond castle with your teddy bear" (Ben) " You saw a kitty" (Susan-followed by meow, meow...)

6-3 Becca and Susan are eating corn on the cob. They must be in a hurry because they are trying to swallow without chewing. I remind them to chew at which point Becca says "Achoo, achoo"

6-6 Ben learns to ride a bike without training wheels in record time. Literally less than 5 minutes to full fledged pedaling and stopping with the pedals. With a drunk happy smile on his face he says "I'm so glad I'm a learner!"

6-7 Chris after spilling his dinner all over says "I've been fasting so long, I've forgotten how to eat!"

7-5 Ben's sunday school teacher asked him if he forgives his brother Raymond. Ben responded "I do but it's getting harder all the time!"

7-6-09 Raymond comes up to talk with me and reads over my shoulder about Michael Jackson. "Who's that?" he asks. "I told you about him, remember the.." I begin. He interupts with "Is that the guy with all the faces?" ...um, yeah.

7-8-09 Raymond and I were talking about funny tasting stuff and he confesses "I used to eat sand when I was younger, and it tastes a lot better than it looks!"

7-15-09 Natalie and I were discussing Chris' crazy schedule for the next few days and I said something about him being in a pickle..natalie summed up the conversation with "We don't want Dad stuck in pickles of time"

7-16-09 I was cleaning up the kitchen and when I finished Ben walks in and says "Wow mom! That kitchen is cleaner than.... a dog's paw!" Thanks son.

7-20-09 On our tour of Texas we saw cartoons previously unseen...and at night when there wasn't much on for children Becca would say, "I want the split pants guy!" She had discovered spongebob.

8-1-09 Friends were sealed in the Lubbock temple. Susan said "You oughtta get married mama!" Good plan Susan; we'll consider that.

8-1-09 On the 3 hour drive home from Lubbock that took 5 hours Lydia said "Are we going to get home today?!"

8-26-09 As we were all sewing eye patches (What? You don't hang out with your children sewing eye patches?) Raymond says, "The best thing about stabbing yourself..." at which point Liz (my VT) and I cracked up. He finally continued "the best thing about stabbing yourself with a needle, is that they are small and don't make a very big hole."

10-06-09 We are at friends visiting their goats because it's "g" week. Ben comes in from the humid heat and says "I'm hotter than a red cow!"

10-09-09 Ben runs into the pipe swing and earns himself 5 stitches. As he's talking with the doctor and they're discussing how he can keep from injuring himself, he says, "I just have to remember to duck."

10/16/09 As we're sitting in church, Susie says, "Raymond's always going to be a boy, isn't he Momma?" "Yes," I say, "and what are you?" "CUTE!" She beams.

10/18/09 Raymond, while taking about his newest lego inventions, "I have ideas and I know they are good!"

10-21-09 Susan was having a bad morning..the bowl wasn't the right color, her spoon wasn't quite right. Ben tried to encourage her using his still developing complimenting skills. "Try some honey, Susie, it's so so sweet like you." Susan cheers up and sits calmly down. Then Ben says, "You're not as cute as Abi though; she's cuter than a monkey's face."

11-15-09 We watched "The Incredibles" today. Afterwards Raymond comes up and says "Mom, I know why Syndrome couldn't use the abbreviation BS for Baby Sitter on his shirt." "Oh?" I say. "Boy Scouts-they're already using it." He replies in all seriousness.

12-6-09 During primary each of the characters in the nativity story are being discussed. Joseph is mentioned. "Who is Joseph?" the primary president asks...Ben responds (without raising his hand or waiting) "That guy who believed Mary!"

12-21-09 Raymond and I are talking about the ladies who want to rent our house. " Are these the people with the chimichanga?" "HUH?" me. "The chimichanga, you know the 6 pound chimichanga!" "Do you mean the 6 pound chihuahua?" "Yes""...No this isn't them."

12-28-09 Abigail has been chasing after Becca and Susie for a while, trying to get in on their games. Today it was as if a lightbulb turned on...she knelt down and started to meow...she was pretending to be a kitten. What four year old girl could resist that? I felt like I was watching the birth of her imagination.

12-31-09 We're taking down Christmas decorations and I ask Raymond to take off the hope ornament-the last ornament on the tree. It's a hand painted ornament with a lovely dove and fancy writing. He hands it to Ben. Ben sits there holding the ornament...then says "I thought it said poop."

Worst camping trip

2009-07-20T06:50:00.001-06:00

It says in the scriptures that in the last days the hearts of men will fail them. Perhaps that is because the last days will involve a lot of camping. Anyone who has been camping much at all will agree. Up until now our worst camping trip was the doomed Alpine trip of 06. It ended up with a ride on a tow truck, a train and a few buses. The children look back at the trip with childlike wonder, which always has Chris and I smiling and rolling our eyes. We remember Chris’ long hike to find a cell phone friendly place, the long wait for the truck, and of course the nightmare trip home with Chris in the tow truck and me with 7 little children (and an angel cousin Michelle). I don’t suggest attempting to catch trains or buses with little children. Nursing twins on public transportation is it’s own unique experience. We did have lots of help along the way; kind people lifting our double stroller, racing ahead to hold the bus and coming to pick us up on the last leg to avoid a long wait and another bus. That camping trip was bad but fun to look back on. That camping trip was a pleasure cruise compared to this.

We had planned to drive about 6 hours to meet Chris near his job interview and scout out the area. We had chosen a more urban campsite with wifi and a pool. It is called Midessa Oil Patch. That should have been our first clue. Who names a campground after an oil patch? That’s not exactly inviting. We arrive at our oil patch after a benign 8 hour journey and start to set up our tents. Well first we pay for another campsite because although the internet said 10 people per site what they really meant was 5. The guy cuts us a deal and we head to the site. There he explains that the proximity to the bathroom is good at these sites (100 ft), but it is a lower part of the campground and if it were to rain that could be bad. I jokingly asked how badly they needed rain…if they need it badly we’ll camp here and bring it on. The higher ground tent sites are about 200 yards from the bathroom and in the middle of the night with 3year olds? That’s not reasonable. We gamble and take the low sites offered. Next he asks if we stake our tents…um yes I say, wondering how else one sets up a tent. He goes on to show me all the areas which have utilities close to the ground and cannot be staked…which leaves us one of three tent spots available for staking. What’s going to happen? I wonder to myself. Our tents aren’t exactly going to blow away with us in them. Kalani wanted to bring Grandma’s A frame tent, so that gets the “staking” plot and we set things up. I set the doesn’tfitourfamily tent under the shade thing provided because it’s rain fly is missing and the shade thing should cover us as long as the rain isn’t seriously sideways right?
At this point the thoughtful reader knows what will actually happen. You’ve all seen dumb comedies staring chevy chase and goldie hawn. You know all these comments are not logical thinking but foreshadowing of future events. Now that you know what will happen you hope it plays out in an entertaining fashion and there are a few interesting twists. But this is our life so we aren’t expecting the comedy gods to take some sort of Truman show like interest in us, so we go blissfully on our way.
Chris arrives and we all change in to swimsuits and enjoy a fabulous swim. The water was perfect. The pool had a great shallow end which Ben particularly enjoyed. He’s more of a runner than a swimmer, because swimming involved actually getting your face….wet. Abi loves water. She is also an independent little soul who doesn’t really want help. She climbs down the steps into the water and is then frustrated when you attempt to hold her before she takes the final leap. I’m not sure what her plan is, but ours is that she NOT drown. Anyway swimming. Fun.
Next we eat, again, and break out the glow sticks. Swirling, light saber fights racing around and general glowing fun is had by all. [Calm before the storm, introduce the family, and set up the action…everything right on schedule comedy gods.]
We settle everyone down and after much shushing and singing we finally get the littles to sleep. GREAT! It’s 11 and we need to talk. We sit in his car and plug in the computer. How was his interview? What does he think about this job or the other one? Frogville or near big blast off? We began pros and cons and salary and compensation and etc. We had a lot to talk about but after just a few minutes we noticed the lightening. No problem. It’ll be a thunderstorm and the chance of rain is only 20 percent. We had bigger problems like how to get the wifi working when we don’t have a contact number for the oil people.

Then the front of the storm hit. It was a doozy. Texas does do everything bigger and that whole wind sweeping down the plains thing? It’s not just for Oklahoma. Over my shoulder Chris sees the “family” tent starting to take off. It only has the three little girls in it, so he hops out and runs over to climb in and hold the tent. Over his shoulder I see the wind whipping the A frame and I know it’s going to collapse because that is what A frame tents do best. It collapsed before I got there. The wind is picking up and the rain that looked so minor on the windshield is pelting. I quickly realize I can’t fix the tent until the storm dies down so I decide to look in on the girls to see how they are doing. As I unzip it occurs to me that the material that tents are made of and the material of parachuts are very similar. With the tent open, it catches the wind and clearly my three oldest girls don’t weigh enough. I try to close it up, hold it down and am meanwhile pelted with hail now. Seriously comedy gods? Hail? Hail hurts. “Forget this” I say, we’re getting into the van. I splash back to the family tent (at least 3 inch deep puddles by now) and ask for my keys. Chris hands me becca’s glasses and I say no put those back where they’ll be safe in the tent pocket (wave goodbye to glasses audience). The older girls run to the tent, dodging hail and I fold up the A frame and stick it on the picnic table.

Chris had been planning to ride the storm out in the tent, hoping the three sleeping girls would stay quiet, we’re campers, we can do it. I inform him of lake oilpatch so we begin to formulate an evacuation plan. I carry the younger girls to the car in the hail. We take a few bags and such out of the family tent and plan again. The hail is stopped but the rain is relentless. Now that the incredible shrieking girls (none of whom was louder than me) are in the van, we are calm. You can only get so wet. Once your eyelashes are dripping and everything on you is soaked , that’s really as wet as you can get.
We get the boys. They were just hanging out in their tent enjoying the show. They stumble into the van. Now what? We decide to fold up the tents, stuff and all and just cram them into the back of the van. We have enough adrenaline that we may get a head start on our long drive. It is about this time that we realize two things. First of all playing in the rain is fun once the children are all snuggly in the van, and secondly we have key trouble. Somehow during all of the carrying of children and smushing of tents one key has fallen off the key ring I’m holding. I didn’t put my keys in my pockets because I’m wearing pajamas and it is well documented that pajamas don’t need pockets. Which of my keys has fallen off? The van key. Chris only has the keys to the rental car (because I lost his keys last week-Hello my name is britt I can’t keep track of keys-but hey, normally I don’t lose them WHILE I’m holding them). Oh and where are Chris’ keys? He had put them down in the tent when he was holding it. Apparently neither of us can keep track of keys. His keys are now stuffed in the van with the wet, muddy tents. Of course we put that tent in first so that would mean it’s on the bottom. Oh and Becca’s glasses are also in the tent.

So much for singing in the rain. Into the tent muck I go. After a good thirty minutes of searching I found the keys. HURRAH! But Becca’s glasses are still missing. Who leaves $300 dollars just lying in the tent…then again I have frequently wondered who in their right mind would hand their 3 year old $300, but what do you do, we do want her to see things.
We had called AAA and they will be able to replace the Van key in the morning. We shuffle around in the muck hoping for a sight of silver, picking up whatever has blown around in the scramble, then give up. We change into “dry clothes”.

We shuttle everyone to a hotel and collapse on the bed. The children are full of adrenaline and not at all willing to sleep. Finally at 3am we settle down.
We get up and get ready to go to breakfast. There is a morning after realization that what you think you need at 3am (nothing but a hot shower and a bed) and what you actually want when you wake up the next day (at least dry shoes!) are different. Not even one third of us had shoes and only one pair of shoes were dry (Hi Natalie! Good thinking!) Most of us were stuck in pajamas
Just for the record leather clogs chafe when they are soaking wet. After breakfast we all feel a bit better and the children and I check out the KID DOME! (exclamation mark their’s I only felt much excitement for SLEEP! Or BED!)
There was a play structure (like a McDonalds thing), miniature golf, ping pong and a pool. This kept us busy and happy (aside from the great Abi diaper escape).

Meanwhile back at the campground Chris was surveying the damage, airing things out to dry and looking for the van key. Much of the water was gone but the key was still not to be found. Wonderful AAA guy came and brought us a replacement key. We hurriedly checked out of the hotel, packed up the semi dry stuff and took off on an eight hour drive-which really was quite a pleasure compared to the camping trip.
Looking back we can be grateful for a few things. We did not fall face first in the muck (ha take that comedy gods). We have eight wonderful children who both complicate things and greatly increase the joy. Chris found the glasses the next morning as he was airing out the tents. The comedy gods left us alone for the drive.

The greatest casualty was most likely Kalani’s scriptures. She had left them in the van and we nicely placed mucky tents practically on top of them. Grandma’s A frame tent also died. Somewhere in the wind or hefting it ripped in quite a few places. That’s okay though because A frames require stakes and really who stakes their tents anyway?

As we drove away we asked the children if this was a sign that everything was happening so we would be stuck here, or everything was happening to drive us away…what do you think?

A day of rest

2009-03-22T20:28:00.004-06:00

Sunday...A day of rest

6:30 Get up, shower and finish my lesson preparations. I get distracted and read conference talks.

7:30 Chris is gone for his meetings. Kalani is next in the shower.

8-8:30 Natalie in the shower...feed everyone -make sure susie's food is not too hot or too cold, is blown the right amount and she has the right spoon. becca needs the white bowl...gently encourage raymond to consider showering.

8:30-9:30 dress, comb, brush, wash hair, gather YW stuff, don't forget the books kalani borrowed or the wheat grinder,change a diaper, feed the baby and wish I had time to nurse her...

wait for chris to come home and finish looking for shoes-give up and put the 5yo in his sneakers. Remember to brush my teeth and hurriedly finish my hair

10-1 church relaxing right?
enjoy listening to raymond singing
ben and rebecca fight over paper and the second rebecca is out of sacrament meeting she says calmly, "can we go home and play ponies?"

my sunday school class today consisted of one 15yo boy...we decide to combine classes and I sit in on sunbeams with Becca and Sue. For the first time this year they have an actual teacher and she is there the whole time. It is a pleasure. Trees and plants are a blessing.

After church we hurriedly gather people, discuss family dinner plans, and go home. After lunch the missionaries show up. Many are called but few are frozen.

Next comes sil to start cooking... chris has another meeting, did he mention he invited brother G to dinner? Becca screams unless I hold her AND her basket of ponies. She'd prefer to be in the rocking chair.

catfish, potatoes and salad with ginger snaps

tami and mom do the dishes

bishopric comes over -it is now after 9 and some people are starting to leave, but others are filling their places.

the piece de resistance? 5yo comes racing down the hall announcing loudly "Susie went POOP in the toilet!" which is good considering the option her twin took.

finally bedtime. chris can start preparing his lessons as a lame duck teacher.

Why are mondays so very mondayish?

chicken pox

2009-01-26T06:57:00.006-07:00

Here are the pictures I have of our chicken pox experience. I can't say it was our funnest christmas, but we were very grateful that everyone did well, with no complications. We had a chicken poxy party (in place of the ward christmas party), we had poxy potion (blueberry shake that helped any throats that were sore and in general was yummy), went for distraction with a christmas video day with all of the old christmas videos (thank Elizabeth). WE did lots of christmas crafts and Natalie went to the library for them with huge lists of books. Becca was the only one with a fever. Normally there were a few chicken pox on day one, around twenty on day two then on day three they didn't feel great and it either exploded to the Becca, Kalani pattern, or slowed down. The longest was Becca with 7 days...with Susan being the shortest case with 5.

Becca is a bit dramatic. She would scream that she hated chicken poxies. She had MANY baths with oatmeal, lots of calamine lotion a mild fever and in general made sure everyone knew she had chicken pox and wasn't happy about it. She had the most poxies, I stopped counting at 50...with a belly full of them.
Abigail on the other hand needed lots of love and snuggles and in general...a good deal of attention. She did appretiate baths and calamine lotion. She probably had about 20 pox..plenty for her little body..and one I didn't like, near her eye that we watched like a hawk.

Susan also was a sleeper. She was also in denial. She refused to accept that she had chicken pox and would correct anyone who told her so. This made it so that she refused calamine lotion...baths were still good, but NO oatmeal, so I did baking soda to still coat the poxies. She probably had around 30 poxies, not a bad case.

Ben was a great chicken poxy...he slept. Anywhere, anytime, he slept. He did take baths and wasn't always happy, but generally...sleep. Ben was in the 40 range with poxies. It slowed him down for a day or two, then he was back to action. He appretiated that mom didn't care if he spent the day in his jamas.

Kalani hibernated in her room, refused pictures and watched jane austin movies(thanks Jennie!)...Kalani had around 100...obviously I didn't count them all, but did help with calamine lotion.

Lydia only had 7 poxies despite all of her searching.

Raymond just never got them...not that we know of. It is possible they were hidden under layers of dirt or just where he wasn't going to ever let me see...

amarillo children's museum

2009-01-24T12:58:00.003-07:00

We all had a blast on our adventure yesterday. We found ourselves more times than we got lost. We asked directions at a drive through pharmacy, in a book store and from a taxi driver. We bought goggles and toys using birthday money. We also spent 3+ hours in the Amarillo children's museum.

funnies for 2008

2008-12-28T21:46:00.006-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR! This has been a big year for us. Chris' dad died in June and we sold our house and moved to Texas so Chris could teach and coach. The only way we could enjoy such a year is to keep our Kelly sense of humor. Please enjoy some of the Kelly pictures, funnies, quotes, and "deep" thoughts from 2008.

1-07 Ben, after praying that he could be a daddy when he grows up, asked in a voice of extreme suffering: "Why is it taking SO long for me to be a dad?!"

1-10 Lydia comes up with yet another nickname for Abigail. We have already done Abi, Abigalillian, Abijillian, and now she goes for simple with Aba...only I hear ABBA.

1-13 Ben asks if Christmas is for daddy..upon further questioning he says, "Yeah, Christmas celebrates Chris!"

1-21 Ben decides that Dad is the "meanest guy in the world." This is decided based on Dad finishing the rest of the black beans. Dad challenges him to think of anyone meaner than him...Lydia comes up with giants and Ben comes up with robots. For your information, according to Lydia giants mainly hide (the little ones behind trees and the adults sit behind mountains), which is why you may not have seen them.

1-22 Kalani joins in on a discussion about the numbers of vowels in our names. "I have two vowels in my name," she says. Lost in illogical "I have failed as a homeschool mom" land, I say "WHAT? You have three!" We go back and forth a few times before I remember to ask "What do you mean?" I only have 'a' and 'i' in my name -- two different vowels." AHHHH, communication at it's best.

2-02 Ben and I are holding little Abi. He looks at all of our fingers and comments on how fingers grow; then he says, "When my ring grows (CTR ring from primary) it will be a watch!"

2-03 Abi is blessed. Over a foot of snow keeps some relatives from getting out of their driveways. A few more may have helped since Abi almost rolls right off the hands of the men holding her.

2-04 Abi wakes up early with a stuffy nose. While Mom is using that baby voice - you swear you'll never use before you have children - and calling her a darling little snuffalufagus, she smiles! Raymond also enjoyed the smile which led to a long string of smiles and coos and snuffaluffaguses and giggles (all from Mom and Raymond, for Abi was smiled out.)

1-23 Kalani interrupts my book reading with the comment, "Natalie and Raymond look colored." My brain goes into panic mode wondering where she could have heard that word, what she could possibly mean and wondering what associations she has with that word...but I learned from the vowels so I ask, "What do you mean?" "Dad's laptop is sideways and they look blue, black, and yellowish, you know like someone colored them." How long can I preserve that definition of colored and avoid the antiquated one?

1-25 We put the children to bed. Lydia goes upstairs for the umpteenth time to do whatever she can to procrastinate bedtime. She comes back downstairs with Becca. "She was stuck in her crib," says Lydia. Ummm, we put her to bed...it's bedtime..AGGHH. She had gotten both girls out of bed. Susan went right back to sleep.... on the kitchen floor?! Rebecca had come downstairs hoping to stay up with us. How very sweet of Lydia to save her sister from the horrible fate of sleep.

1-26 On our way to a great "toga party," I realize that we will be playing Twister so I review right and left with Lydia and Ben. Both of them are right handed so I tell them that their right hand is the one they write with. Ben promptly raises his left hand, "And this is the one I hit with!"

1-27 Ben stops abruptly during his prayer to ask, "Where is God?" After a brief discussion of God and how we can go to Him as our Father in Heaven and how He listens to prayers, Ben says, "I really want to be a dad!" (President Hinckley died today and my mom went into the hospial with a heart attack.)

2-08 Ben says out of the blue, "I wish I had Jesus in my pocket then we could pray together!"

3-07 As we are driving to choir Natalie notices the Spanish Fork sign that reads, "Pride and Progress". Having just read some Jane Austin, she comments: "That should read Pride and Prejudice"...hmmm.

3-11 Raymond says out of the blue..."I think baptism is like this life. Before we go in the water it's like before we are born, then we are alive, and then when we are out of the water it is like after we die."

3-12 Ben says, "Mommy we need to get another baby in your tummy, we need some more boys around here!"

3-14 Kalani asks "What's the melillian?" Natalie says, "Do you mean the millennium?" "Yeah, that."

3-15 Abi giggles for the first time! I LOVE baby giggles.

4-3 I'm reading the DK Star Wars book. On one page is General Grievous, then on the next page is him with his shoulders disjointed so he has the four arm thing going. I say his name on the first page, then turn the page and Ben interrupts saying, "General Conference!"

4-18 Ben climbs up on my lap, snuggles in and says, "I want to play gentle 'I love me' games!"

5-24 Abi is 5 months old, can now roll in both directions, gets up on all fours, and does a baby downward facing dog.

6-03 Becca is saying the morning family prayer and in light of her daddy's job hunt says, "bless daddy to get a new bob." Daddy promptly emails his brother, Bob, to release him fom his duties, so Chris is now searching for a new Bob.

6-08 Ben came home from church today declaring he is the Bishop. What does he do as Bishop? "Opens doors and gives out candy! What else?"

6-15 Kalani can't decide whether to ask Mom or Dad, so it came out, "Dam." Then NONE of the children know that is a swear word and don't get why Dad, Mom and Michelle Kelly are laughing.

6/27 Chris' dad, Robert Coffin Kelly died. We will miss him terribly but are so grateful for his life and now his freedom from pain and health struggles here.

7/12 Ben says to his cousin Michelle Kelly, "you can't go to BYU - you are a girl!" After further questioning we discover that "going to BYU" really means playing football or men's basketball in Ben's world.

7/21 Britt makes a fatal mistake mentioning that none of her chilren have broken any bones yet...the next day Ben jumps form one couch to another and slips off onto the unfinished basement floor at Grandma's house. (I saw it and honestly it looked like one of those injuries you see on tv when you KNOW it's not good). Ben had a greenstick and buckle fracture on his elbow.

Chris decides to go back to teaching and coaching and gets a job in Pampa, Texas. It is inconceivable to leave our friends and Grandma Kelly, yet off we go.

8/21 We are driving to Pampa, TX. We cross over the Colorado-New Mexico border and I welcome the children to New Mexico, to which Ben (4) replies -"This isn't NEW Mexico - there's nothing new here. There's NOTHING here. This is Old Mexico (insert heavy pout)." We discover that New Mexico isn't good for playing I spy (I spy something green-a tree) and difficult for the alphabet game as well - there do have to be signs to play!

8/24 Becca informs us that we are NOT in Texas. We ask her where Texas is..."Outside," she replies.

8/26 Ben gets his cast off. X-rays - no problem. Big saw and loud vacuum right next to his skin - no problem. Offer to wash up his arm? "NO!" he says jerking his arm away with its newly revealed dirt collection.

8/28 Ryan Kelly opens his mission call to "feet" Lauderdale, FL.

8/28 Chris, upon discovering that the TV remote is still packed: "How can I be a coach without a remote?"

9/22 Raymond randomly walks in the family room and asks Natalie,"Do you think you could eat a piece of chicken the size of Star (our chubby kitten)?" "YUM," says Natalie." The chicken - not Star," says Raymond.

10/08 Benjamin says he hopes no one in our family will go to the USA. I ask him why and he says, "Well maybe Moms and Dads can go." I probe more and discover he's worried about his brothers and sisters and there is water and surfing in the USA (guess what Beach Boys song I was doing dishes to this morning?) I think it's time I hang up the maps again.

Matthew Kelly receives his mission call to Ontario, Canada.

Jacob Kelly is finally, officially adopted and sealed to the Kelly family.

Kevin Kelly receives his mission call to Atlanta, Georgia.

12/14 Susan continues to deny the existence of her chicken pox...only once during all her time covered with pox did she admit it....and then it was "cheekn pox"-apparently she got the tex mex version of the disease.

12/28 Raymond leads the chicken pox army fighting the Huns. In a unique combination of Star Wars and Chinese he claims the role of Qui-Gon Chin.

volleyball

2008-11-05T04:10:00.005-07:00

So I'm playing community "volleyball". This is not your best volleyball, it's the kind where the most exercise is abdominal from laughing. The people are all nice though, and I am playing.

As we're playing, Buddy (real name used because it's awesome) hit the ball in a great spot for a point. After which he said "When you're fat, it's all about ball placement!"

Kelly family

2008-11-02T16:07:00.001-07:00

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

2008-10-12T16:53:00.004-06:00

My mother and I both have eight children. In a twist of biology she had six boys and two girls, while I have six girls and two boys. Much of my daily routine must be somewhat familiar to her, even if she doesn't remember. When I've asked my mother advice a basic issue of motherhood, sleeplessness, she says she doesn't remmeber having major problems. This is ironic because I remember BEING a major problem! I have been told that I made my dad jump around chasing away flying monkeys from that still to scary to be seen movie, the wizard of Oz. I remember sleeping in between them on a camping trip and I know I woke up quite early as a child. There are other simple things I know we share, like wondering if 4 bunches of bananas will survive the weekend, being told "I'm hungry" while still clearing the table from the previous meal, and mountains of laundry.

I had occaission to wonder recently about playtime. In my family some afternoons look like this

All we need for a fabulous afternoon is the nucracker and dancing clothes, even just scarves will do. I know from experience that this isn't as fascinating to boys. For whatever reason boys and music at my house tend towards wrestling.

I know boys and girls play differently. Just ask my son what happens when he asks a sister to play risk. They always refuse. When he first got he game and they agreed to play it they would come to me crying within minutes, "he's talking over my country!" Not only do they like different kinds of games. But even given the very same toy they play differently This is clearly seen with dinosaurs at our house. Ben and Raymond opt for major carnivorous battles. They also spend a lot of time lining them up preparing for said battle. The girls put all the dinosaurs in a pile, pick out families, assign mommies and daddies and children, and play a rousing game of house. No one gets eaten. When we play castle the girls think of the beautiful dresses and dancing, the boys think of dragons.

Parental fear factor

2008-10-02T16:51:00.004-06:00

I've long declared that the show Fear Factor is a farce. It really should be called stupid factor. Eating weird animal parts and jumping from moving trucks for money are definitely not fears to overcome.

The real fear factor is life. Yesterday my dear little three year old said those words every parent fears "I don't wanna wear diapers, I want underwears!"

Now don't get me wrong, I do want my children to be potty trained. It's just that I go by the very practical council given by a wise cousin "diapers are cheaper than therapy!" All summer long I've been procrastinating potty training. At one point I even bribed this same toddler NOT to go to attempt potty training. Something about our summer makes that reasonable.

I know what potty training means. It means life interupted, TONS of bathroom trips, laundry, closer prximity to poop and carpet cleaning galore. This particular potty training adventure involves two little girls. Potty training twins...

Despite my experience, is that resume material?, I have already made mistakes this go round...

Mistake number one: the moivational panty shopping trip should be IN THE MORNING! Last night after a day of fair success at potty training we loaded up to pick up the motivational panties. The goal is to buy the potty training child underwear SO darling they won't want to get them messy. As I was driving it occured to me why this doesn't work for boys. My boys normally opt for superhero or racecar underwear. Perhaps logic tells them that If batman can handle the joker, he should be able to handle other toxic messes without blinking. How super can spiderman be if he can't handle an ccaissional flood? Cars are obviously impervious to mess. Now luckily that didn't apply to this situaion. My girls picked out princesses and beautiful flowers. They fawned over their panties, flashed each their panties as they ran through the house, carried them around lovingly. The motivation is definitely there...Cinderella does not DO floods and we won't even discuss any other thing she may have to face.

The problem this particular time is the timing of the shopping trip. I had just increased my children's desire to wear panties RIGHT BEFORE BED! Am I insane? It took a great deal of bribery and discussion to encourage the less ready child to put on a pullup for night time. Children aren't dumb. You can call pullups whatever you want...they are really glorified diapers. Who cares what happens to the little pictures on the front, it is obviously made to be USED. We survived the first mistake...

SECOND MISTAKE! That's right it's only been two days...but here it is. Today I had planned a homeschool girls book group at my house. I was inviting 6 young ladies over (ages 8-1), discussing the secret garden and doing a craft together. Prepraing for that, and hosting that is NOT condusive to interuptions every few minutes of nature calls, or worse nature miscues. We avoided those problems the old fashioned way...I told the girls if they had two accidents this morning they were back in pullups...so we ended up in pullups for the meeting.

Here we are at only day two...I will just repeat the refrain..."they'll be potty trained before college, they WILL be potty trained before college."

Forget fear fator, maybe I should go for wifeswap...I do like the husband though, maybe it should be toddler swap

a real writer

2008-09-02T17:13:00.003-06:00

Everyone says you are not a real writer until you receive your first rejection notice. When I sent my story in last January I knew that could happen. I just assumed that this could be different. time passed. Some friends reminded me that the longer they keep it the better. It means they like it enough to put time into it. AFter six and a half months I gently inquired and this is what I got back...

Dear Ms. Kelly,

Thank you for submitting Miracle of the Gulls and for being so patient
with us. After careful consideration, we have come to the conclusion
that it is not something that fits our publishing needs. We apologize
for how long it has been, but we wanted to give the manuscript every
possible chance.

We appreciate the skills, effort, and time that have gone into preparing
your manuscript.

Best wishes in your future writing endeavors.

Sincerely,

The Editors
Covenant Communications, Inc.

I'm officially a writer...and looking for a new publishing company.

2008-08-30T20:32:00.002-06:00

The last post doesn't exactly suffice for the last two months! Although this slideshow is long, it doesn't have everything...Don and Cindy had a wonderful visit with many hikes with natalie, kalani went to girls camp for the first time, Raymond had a fabulous time at cub scout day camp, Chris visited Texas and found a job and took MANY pictures of houses for me...Even to our last day in utah with David working hard to pack our truck in a way only my father could duplicate, kathy cleaning mom's house and helping to get us out the door and the Leavitts providing a sanctuary for us...and so very many more people than that... some day we may unpack the camera cable and post the pictures of my parents visit. For now these "few" may suffice.

top 10

2008-08-30T20:08:00.003-06:00

We are frequently asked WHY we moved HERE. That is a bit worrying when the person asking has lived here a bulk of their life! These aren't specifically for our area reasons...We

Top 10 reasons why we may or may not have moved to Texas...

10. We got a letter threatening us with a visit from the CPS and we knew the Texas CPS were already busy.

9. We got tired of always having our view blocked by mountains.

8. We wanted MORE comments about the size of our family and figured we'd need to move out of utah for that.

7. We were bored and had moved the furniture around IN our home in as many variations as possible...

6. Because our house sold to the very FIRST person who walked through.

5. We felt the Kelly family needed a tougher image, so we moved to the "don't mess with us" state.

4. Our skin was cracking in the utah dryness so we decided to try for some humidity...in August

3. fire ants, bigger spiders, more snakes, larger everything creepy crawly...oh this is supposed to be a reason you say? hmm we're studying biology this year in our homeschool.

2 KITTENS...we wanted a home of our own to bring our kittens to

1. There is that little thing about Chris getting a history teaching and coaching job here...and we do really like being WITH him.

We have read in the scriptures about some of the travels of God's people. My first thought with the Exodus, considering our situation was gratitude that we didn't have 40 years between homes but I'm still looking for milk and honey sources.

Robert Coffin Kelly

2008-06-27T23:30:00.007-06:00

My dear father-in-law died this evening. It has been a long struggle for him and we are so glad he is free. We will miss him so much. This will be a huge transition for mom from full time caregiver to mom and grandma and...herself.

Dad was a newspaper salesman as a boy; he met mom at BYU on a bus trip to SLC to the geneology library. They had seven children including Susan Grace who died shortly after her birth. Dad served a mission in the southwest and learned Spanish. He continued to use his Spanish as a stake missionary for decades.

He taught chemistry for many years at Ventura College, then served another mission with mom to Michigan. He LOVED to travel. He visited Europe many times to see his daughter and her family. He also loved traveling through the United States in their Winnebago.

Dad loved geneology. He loved the mystery of it and the stories and lessons learned from his ancestors.

Dad loved to read. He studied chemistry, politics, the scriptures, history and many other subjects.

Dad loved his computer. It was a wonderful tool for him in geneology.

He also loved to play games. He had a wonderful mind and a competitive spirit.

The last years have been hard on Dad. He was already dealing with Parkinson's and cancer when he fell and broke his neck. He bravely faced the loss of full use of his legs, but the loss of his hands was a struggle. Last year when an infection turned particularly bad and Dad was told he had "heart goobers" (the dr's description). He was given hours, days, or weeks to live. Dad's competitive spirit supported him through another 16 months. He died on the 164th anniversary of the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. Tami, Chris and Mom were with Dad when he died.

I love my father-in-law.

I know this is already long...this morning I read in "Tramp for the Lord," by Corrie Ten Boom, about her experience when her good friend Connie died. She talked about the 23rd Psalm "yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..." In the 91st Psalm it talks about being in the Lord's shadow...at death we are so close to the Lord we are in His shadow. That is such a wonderful comfort and a beautiful image. This afternoon Mom and Tami asked Dad to blink if he had seen his parents..he blinked. He blinked that he had seen Mom's parents and Susan Grace. What a wonderful celebration that must be...Dad can hug again.

30 years ago

2008-06-09T07:32:00.005-06:00

Thirty years ago, Spencer W. Kimball was prophet. There was an official declaration allowing all worth men to have the priesthood. What a wonderful, wonderful day. I don't pretend to understand how it felt before that time, or the difference that one declaration. I do remember a talk by Darius Grey relating the Parable of the Laborers in Matthew 20 to the LONG wait to receive the Priesthood.

I didn't have to wait. I was blessed to be born a member so I didn't have to find the truth, just become converted to it.

Yesterday as I was thinking about that wonderful day I was reminded of how long that day had been prayed for. I have had the experience of praying long for something. I guess there againlong is relative and that is what I have been thinking about. How am I changed when I have to pray and continue to pray for something? How are some blessings contingent on prayer? How amazingly powerful is prayer. How can I better pray and live so that when blessings come I am grateful.

This video is long, but I highly recommend it. http://www.mormonstories.org/blacksandtheldspriesthood/

"And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; neverthless, I do not know the meaning of all things."

We're moving

2008-06-05T08:38:00.004-06:00

Abi's is moving anyway. The rest of us will wait until it feels more real and the whole under contract thing is a bit more final. Well at least Abi is ready to move! Here she is grabbing her toes. I love when they do that!

Then shazaam she's up on all fours, in downward dog and attempting to crawl!

the impossible

2008-05-12T17:47:00.002-06:00

For a while I thought Becca was crossing her eyes, or perhaps had lazy eye, so we took her in to get her vision checked. I was starting to wonder if I was crazy but, she is farsighted. She was straining to see so much she would cross her eyes hoping that would help. Her left eye also has a stigmatism, which basically means it is more football shaped than basketball shaped. So she gets glasses. We are hoping the glasses do the trick, and that she somehow keeps them on, because otherwise it is surgery and then still glasses! She was a pro through her first appointment, even the dilating the pupil part. Susan was wondering why Becca was getting all of this attention.

Finally last Friday her glasses were in. Now glasses take some getting used to. In the first twenty four hours we put them on her about one hundred times. We hoped she was finally getting used to them when...she broke them.

Any little "please keep your glasses on and intact" vibes would be readily accepted.

Abi's got skills

2008-05-04T09:48:00.003-06:00

Our baby has some serious skills. This is her new thing for the week... First she does this

then she kicks the legs over and twists...

then over she goes..

next she stabilizes and get's up on all fours, or her hands and toes...

and pushes herself backwards!

We are understandably thrilled and sad! How can our baby be growing up so fast?

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-05-04T08:51:00.002-06:00

Kalani's brithday party was a blast. We did a scavenger hunt, going to different houses and getting clues (After performing a task), to lead them to the next house. We made our own pizza's then had cake, ice cream and presents, then headed back outside for flashlight tag.

shields

2008-04-20T20:29:00.003-06:00

While studying about knights we decided to make shields. A friend cut them out, we painted them and then we had to figure out how to hold them. That took a while. We ended up with the waist band of old jeans and some screws. We haven't done swords yet so they quickly improvised with race car track. This is the most common use for race car track in our home...

Notice there are no still shots, apparently shields and swords and children don't combine for stillness.

breads...Merry Christmas

2008-04-20T20:22:00.006-06:00

WHAT? It's only April? So is this early or late? To truly appreciate this you need to hear the background. We just finish surviving church. Our family was helping to clean up the building and take the trash out and stuff. By the time that is over my children are all starving! Chris says, "get every one to the van. I just need to talk to the Bishop (leader of our congregation) for a minute. Okay...30 minutes later, I have sung "Bear Went Over the Mountain"; there are only 78 bottles of root beer left on the wall and I have started making up "Trixie the Pixie"stories to tell the children. Luckily Susan and Rebecca have fallen asleep and I am nursing Abi...Chris finally comes out. If I had known it would be that long we could have just stayed in the church, but since we had already rounded everyone up...

Church has now been over for 1.5 hours and the children (and parents) are really starving. As we drive home, dh says, "I forgot to tell you I need to go visit the Lawrences right now." Okay so he goes and I try to make dinner. Becca and Susan were grumpy from waking up. The baby wanted to be held..okay I bribe many a munchkin to help the other munchkins and get soup started. I make the bread stick dough and switch places with the Abi holder so she can make the bread sticks while I calm the masses.

Had I wanted breaksticks in a hurry I should have asked a less artistic child. We had braids and swirls, of course the first letter of everyone's name and this...

So do you just eat baby Jesus? Now granted this is different than the time Raymond made a bunch a breadsticks of Jesus on the cross, I had a tough time eating those.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

A terrible. horrible no good, very bad day

2008-04-06T08:31:00.003-06:00

Friday was the first full day having Kalani and Natalie back. YEA! They had a fabulous time with their cousins and Grandparents. But WE missed them! The plan for the day was playgroup and park day. Our complicating factor was the van. Apparently a belt had unbelted itself because some spinnning thing had broken and wasn't spinning. Chris replaced the belt and the broken spinning thing on Saturday and the van is happy now, but Friday was before that. If you want to know details you can ask Chris, if you want me to sound intelligent, DO NOT talk to me about cars-try shakespeare or something.

The playgroup and park are both within a half mile. No problem! We can walk that! We go to play group, have a marvelous time, clean up, and head to the park for picnic and more friends. We get to the park, eat and start playing. The older children are playing flag tag and having a great time. The younger children are racing around the playground and Abi and I are sitting around talking...Abi is technically just being held.

Then Susan lingers too long at the bottom of a tube slide and a bigger child comes roaring down. I am a second too late and am left with a little darling with a bloody lip and nose. She is really upset and resorts to sneezing and spitting everywhere. A friend holds Abi while we try to calm susan. She doesn't want to be cleaned, and would rather go back to playing, but I decide to take her home. I load up the stroller, Abi decides NOW is the time to nurse, a friend offers to watch the older four because they are VERY happily playing.

On the walk home, ben is thirsty. The only complicating factor there is that the only thing that calmed susan down was putting carrot sticks in the water bottle. Now Ben is slightly grumpy and decides the best way to handle that is to make a trail of water from the park to our home. We race snails home, but are at least making progress.

We get home. Susan let's me clean her up a little and starts sucking on frozen peas. I turn on a movie and nurse the baby. Abi falls asleep. Susan's lip is looking better...of course Ben and Becca also needed frozen peas.

Just when things are calming down, April comes with my other four children. Raymond has stepped on a bee. Never mind that it snowed last sunday, there is somehow a bee at the park and it HAD to be under a child's foot! Raymond handles it well - baking soda, cold cloth, then a gauze pad and athletic tape later and he is fine.

Susan's lip is looking MUCH better thanks to the magic of frozen peas. Next comes dinner. Even though I have fed ALL of these children a couple times and included snacking they still seem to want to eat dinner...we go for something quick and easy.

Bedtime with the girls back is a slight adjustment..finally things are settling down until Ben comes up sleepily walking and crying...he fell off his bed and has a bloody nose. We get him calmed down and are finally in bed after 11!

It's still early but I'm calling this one already...this has got to be the WDOM (worst day of the month)

Abi's first bath

2008-04-06T08:21:00.004-06:00

Abi is three months old and is just now having her first bath...why is that do you ask? Well mostly because my preferred way of cleaning a baby includes handing a messy baby in to Dad in the shower, and for whatever reason I don't take pictures of that process.

Here is Abi's first bath. Ben was a great help. Susan was thrilled with the whole process. Abi was a little nervous, but never really cried. A clean baby without tears is absolute success. We'll hope for smiles next bath.

Easter Sunday

2008-04-06T08:19:00.002-06:00

This is the Kelly's Easter Sunday.

2008-04-06T07:42:00.003-06:00

We had a homeschool children's version of a Seder dinner. We started Christian fashioin carrying palm leaves from Israel. We marched, said hosanna, and tried to keep the children from whipping each other. Here is Raymond. He waited until everyone had a few palm leaves and had started walking...the handing out guy gave him the rest.

Here is Ben avoiding the sun.

Here is Kalani helping the prepare the entry of the hall for Christ.

Becca and Susan are hesitant even though it's grape juice they're being offered. Could that be because we just let them try bitter herbs?
This was an introduction to the passover for children. So when we discussed the plagues in Egypt, we handed out plastic frogs and the children hopped them everywhere. When we talked about the Israelites making bricks we built with packing peanuts and toothpicks. We skipped the extended sitting still part in favor of trying the different foods, talking about the symbolism and lots of activities. It was wonderful at the end to see Elijah's place setting with a picture of the Kirtland temple and remembering that elijah came to the temple on April 6th-passover.

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-03-26T08:12:00.001-06:00

spring day slide show

2008-03-26T07:49:00.003-06:00

We had a great time coloring our eggs and hunting at grandma and grandpa kelly's. We had a wonderful dinner! We found coloring eggs a fulltime job, so we didn't get pictures of that. It is possible we were diverted by the bbasketball games. Next came the hunt. Michelle and chris hid the eggs then we sent them out in age groups. Becca and Susan were very different in their approaches. Becca opted for the traditional approach of grab as many as you can. Susan sauntered through the backyard pointing out the pretty eggs...it took encouraging for her to pick them up and put them in the basket. All the older children had the idea and Kalani was especially understanding as many of hte eggs she found she gave to Susan. Rest assured there was plenty of candy for everyone!

who can resist?

2008-03-14T19:33:00.002-06:00

A friend sent me this darling, very soft blankie for Abi. I love her taste! The second picture is our BEST smilie picture so far...

Why my house didn't get tidied today..

2008-03-05T17:40:00.003-07:00

This is why my house didn't get cleaned up this afternoon. Dinner was already made, so I just sat and held them both. Becca had insisted on holding the baby, and stirred any time I tried to move the baby.

1st cousin once removed in law

2008-03-02T20:40:00.004-07:00

We had a visit from my first cousin once removed inlaw....Fiona and her wonderful family. It was so great to see them. The children had a wonderful time. It was obvious everyone was healthy (tons of running and noise!).

Becca loved Marc. He had her giggling like crazy...here he is plaing his guitar.
Here is Fiona and me with our darlings. Baby Daniel and Abi are the same size, though Daniel is one month younger. He is a real cutie! Beautiful Lydia is alays ready for a picture.

I asked Chris to squash Raymond or calm him down...he went for squashing him down...with help! Two dads on the floor is twice the fun.

my baby is longer than your baby!

2008-02-25T19:09:00.003-07:00

My baby is longer than your baby! I have the longest two month old on record at the doctor's office. Here is how it happened:

Yesterday was Abi's mirthday and today was her doctor's appointment. She weighs 11 pounds and 2.5 ounces. The nurse enters 11 pounds into the computer. HUH. She is measured. I don't pay all that much attention here but somehow 39 inches is what is entered into the computer. That is a rather miraculous jump of 19 inches from her birth length!

In other news she is darling! Here she is smiling with her mirthday bear. Lydia is in the corner making her smile...

visiting grandma and grandpa 2-18-08

2008-02-17T20:19:00.002-07:00

We had a wonderful dinner and visit with Grandma and Grandpa Kelly.

Abi's blessing

2008-02-04T05:45:00.000-07:00

Abi was blessed yesterday. We were sad that Chris' parents couldn't come, but they had so much snow it was literally impossible. We are SO used to dealing with snow, but there was enough that church was canceled in some places. The blessing was wonderful. Our little Abi was so wiggly she tried to roll right off their hands. I was blissfully unaware of that until I overheard something in the halls.

All in all it was a beautiful day.

Did I want a better picture? OH YES! Did I lose that battle...actually I retreated, figuring I was up against impossible odds. Ben (4) had already taken his pants off and was only in the picture because dad was holding him. Someone had given becca candy at church ..who gives a 2yo candy without talking to the mother? Raymond needed to be wrestled by his dad (and fed). Kalani would have sat there all day holding Abi, but the baby needed mom...so yep I retreated!

It is done

2008-01-31T22:44:00.000-07:00

For the last three years I have had one story always in the back of my mind. I have read so many Church Histories, John Ray Young's memoirs, science books, talked to various people-including some very helpful BYU students working at the Bean Museum...all to research this one story.

I have learned the difference between crickets and katydids,struggled to understand the challenges of polygamy, felt John Ray Young's loneliness and helplessness as he crossed the plains, and learned about wheat. I studied houses built by early pioneers, read recipes involving ox hide and sego lillies and sorrowed for the first pioneer baby born and burried in the valley.

I have developed a thicker skin when faced with criticism of my own work. I have developed a story telling style, then thrashed it out ten more times. I have learned who will criticize my work and who will say "oh that's nice", and for whatever reason gone back to those with red pencils. I have become VERY grateful for spellcheck, computers and email. My last version was called "Screech the cricket" because I was running out of different ways to say the title and was tired of Miracle1, Miracle2...

I have learned about publishing companies,and researched them. I chose a company and found as many of their children's books as I could, to read and study them. I learned how to type with just one space after the period.

I have had obstacles. We have welcomed three little girls to our family since I started this story. There have been all sorts of family life. My parents have returned form their first mission, gone and come from a second and had various health issues. My husbands parents have struggled through Dad's partial paralysis. There were always a thousand other things clamoring for my time and attention.

For the last fifteen minutes I have had an email drafted and waiting to be sent. It was the manuscript of Miracle of the Gulls. My last three years of sporadic effort all encapsulated into one email. This was my husbands advice "You'll never get a rejection letter if you don't send it!" Off it went. 10 little pages, and the cover letter, author questionaire and plot summary (HOW can a plot summary for a ten page story be so difficult?). How could it take so much effort to write one simple little story? I remember thinking three years ago, that it really couldn't be THAT hard!

Tomorrow I'm going to the library to research Utahraptor and Henry Knox.

I'm not waiting for the rejection letter. I am a writer.

the great marshmellow attack

2008-01-27T07:51:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful time at the homeschool toga party. We wrestled like Romans (that would be twister), we wore togas-with little bears on them, long jumped and of course catapulted. I learned that togas are wonderful to nurse discreetly in. Who knew? I don't know how that knowledge will help me in my daily life, but I appretiated it for the night.

There is nothing so heartwarming as seeing your darlings shooting marshmellows at each other.

Abigail's mirthday!

2008-01-24T21:00:00.000-07:00

Time goes so fast! Our darling little girl is one month old! I am really enjoying Abigail. Here are a few pictures we HAD to take...

The last picture is a train game we played celebrating that Raymond read the Pearl of great Price.

no small feat

2008-01-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

The other morning I couldn't resist getting all the little piggies closer together and taking these pictures...

and this

Deep thought of the day...at what point do feet become..not so cute? How about noses and ears? On Abigail EVERYTHING is cute. I do think somewhere around age 12 noses lose their cuteness. I think feet seem to lose their cuteness earlier. I had argued that feet are no longer cute by age 8, but all the feet in the first picture still look cute to me.

BIAM

2008-01-13T19:31:00.000-07:00

Some of you may know I'm writing a children's book. The whole process started three years ago. In our homeschool we were studying the state of Utah. In our local library, with out wonderful librarian I was searching out books to read with my children. One of the first stories I thought of for my younger children was the miracle of the gulls. I figured surely there would be a children's book or thirty, and I love the story. The librarian told me there wasn't a book about it and challenged me to write one.

The entire ride home I thought of the millions of reasons i didn't have time to write a book. I was pregnant with the twins at the time, and had five children, a husband and a home that all demanded my attention. No matter how many excuses I came up with, the idea kept coming back...so I started to write.

I discovered that I really enjoyed writing. I enjoyed doing something that stayed done...assuming you don't mind ten or twenty rewrites. I don't mind people commenting or criticizing my story and I really enjoy having a focus for what I am studying. I loved doing the research, though I was surprised at how much research a simple picture book required! The story is still the same simple story I knew as a child, but the form has taken a thousand different shapes. Through the rewriting process I have found a few people who have given me great advice, and I am close to sending this in to a publisher. My goal was to send it in before I had Abi. I always go late, so that would be the middle of January...except Abi came early and here we are.

I stumbled across this blog and decided to join up and get the book sent to a first publisher this month. I'm really close to sending it in, so this really is possible. After all I only had one baby this time! I also figure writing this little blurb will get me going. After all everyone will want to know when I get my first rejection notice right?! Then I will be able to say I really am a writer

Grandma Hamson's birthday

2008-01-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Grandma's plenty ninth birthday at David and Tresa's. We had a great time.

hug o war

2008-01-03T05:56:00.000-07:00

Who can resist this invitation for a hug? Rebecca is a great hugger!

Susie obviously loves being hugged! I love to see my Becca and Susie hugging, especially now that they are balanced enough to not fall down!

Check out my Slide Show!

2007-12-30T20:12:00.001-07:00

A Merry Christmas Eve

2007-12-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

The first word most commonly used in reaction to our Christmas Eve experience is:

WOW!

It's an understatement. Britt woke us up sometime between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. and said "we're having a baby on Christmas Eve - my water just broke." Well, since we thought we had two more weeks and certainly nothing was going to happen before Christmas, we were unprepared - except for past experience. We had not packed a bag for the quick getaway, nor had we arranged anything for the kids. Hmmm, do we call Grace at 2:00 a.m. and ask her to forego whatever her Christmas Eve plans were to watch the Kelly kids? Then we'd have to get the kids up and in the van and drop them off. There must be a better way.

It soon became apparent that there had to be a better way because we needed to get to the hospital right away. We awoke Kalani to the news and arranged to have her sleep with Becca in our bed. We put Susan in her crib to go back to sleep and Britt got in the car bare foot and pregnant, but not for long. We got as far as the next door neighbors and realized the cell phone could die anytime so took a couple of more minutes to turn around and get the charger.

We zoomed past our UHP neighbor and then up Main St. in Spanish with hopes the police had something better to do on Christmas Eve than to ecsort us to American Fork, but we weren't going that fast yet. We accidently called Grandma Kelly - who answered the phone like she was up anyway - and told her not to worry. Too late. Then we called Brother David in Lindon and left a message because he was not in Lindon, but he was in Idaho. It's a good thing Kalani has been practicing some short babysitting stints recently.

Eighty miles per hour up to the s-surve in Provo soon gave way to acceleration with every contraction. It was ninety-seven as we approached the PG-AF exit. Flashers were on so any officer would know I wasn't stopping unless he or she wanted to deliver the baby. We looked for the sign at AF Hospital that said "Labor and Deliver." There wasn't one. We've been delivering at Orem Community for the last six years, so we went to same-day surgery. Uh, that's not it anymore. Over at the Main Hospital entrance there was a sign that said the magic words on it.

We walked in and I told the security guard "we're having a baby right now!" "Do you want a wheelchair?" he asked. Britt didn't. She was thinking of just laying on the little two-seater couch. Rarely has she told her husband, "don't touch me," but this was one of those times. She placed herself in the wheelchair and we made a charge for the elevator, dragging bags along. Third floor?!!! the security man had told us. Door closes and he hears yells of HELP, HELP!

It was a crowning moment, if you know what I mean. Hospital elevators are slow, but Abigail wasn't. Bags no longer in tow, head now peeking out, thoughts of futility like "wait, wait wait" came to mind, but before proper catching position could be made, Abi took a flying leap on to the sterile elevator floor. Okay, not sterile, but it seemed pretty clean, for an elevator. Dad picked up the ball of cheese and slapped her on the backside as the elevator doors opened. Handing the baby off to Mommy the three nurses now rushing to the double security doors heard cries of "We just had a baby in this elevator!"

Yes, this one, at about 2:30 a.m. Through the double doors and in the hallway Dad's asked if he wants to cut the chord. Are you kidding me?! Just get 'er done! Mother, with clear head wants a picture already in the hallway, so you get what you ask for. Now separated they are headed to Room #1, which considering the 9 other babies seen in the nursery later it was a surprise to have #1 available. In the meantime Dad retrieves the bags and is locked out of the double doors, temporarily.

Now to the labor and delivery room...or was that the car and the elevator? Well, the mid-wife came and delivered the placenta in the placenta delivering room while Daddy escorted the now cutest baby in the world down to the nursery to be de-cheesified. Nurse Sheree kindly cleaned Abi up and put the all-important bow on her curly-haired head while Dad picked out an AF Hospital Christmas stocking.

Back at the placenta farm, Mommy is stitched back up - some way of saying "wait, wait, wait" without actually saying that may have helped in that area - and she's reunited with Lil' Abi, all 8 lbs. 3 oz. of her. A bit surreal how quickly this all happened. Now we're ready to tell the world, but it's 3:00 a.m. We moved down to the corner-office recovery room on the 2nd floor down the hall from the nursery. Sheree escorted Daddy and Abi back there to get feet prints and the baby pictures someone will try to sell us. Other tests and measurements are interupted by the first diaper change, properly performed in the middle of the action by Sheree.

Nursing doesn't seem to be any problem for Abi and has the proper yet painful effects on Mommy. At about 5:30 we realized Kalani might need some help, so Daddy went back to rescue her. Becca was awake with Kalani and Raymond was already playing a computer game by the 6:00 arrival time. Britt called home several times and the kids kept wondering when they could see Abigail. We arranged to for Chris to take Kalani to the hospital to surprise Britt at about 4:25 p.m. Chris went back home in time to save the impromptu baysitters - arranged by Kalani - but found out the Kester's were saving us by delivering dinner as they picked up their two daughers. Thanks for the cheesy, hammy potatoes.

We were able to pick Britt and Abi and the big sister up during the 8:00 hour while next-door-neighbor Amanda watched the kids. Our Christmas Eve baby came home to eighteen loving arms. We feel tremendously blessed and needed no other gift this Christmas - but thanks for other gifts too. We spent Christmas morning at home, just the ten of us. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Kelly's for Christmas dinner.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Kelly's speak out 2007 warning sensitive material...

2007-12-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

Kelly's speak out in 2007...here is a window into our daily life in the form of unique people speak. Some sensitive matters are addressed in children fashion...

4-01 From Benjamin 3 while potty training...he starts singing "Come out come out wherever you are poopies..."

4-03 Last night Raymond 7, came out of the bathroom and said "Mom someday people are going to think I'm a fish, but I still won't have any gills."

4-04 This morning Benjamin 3 sat on my lap and wrapped his arms around me and said,"Mom, you are my smooching thing!" and then kissed my nose.

5-01 We hoped we might get pregnant in April, and after experiencing and not appretiating negative pregnancy tests, I had promised myself to wait until May 2nd...except I couldn't wait and we found out we were pregnant today!!

5-03 Chris and I went out tonight. We went to dinner, to the Temple, then finished birthday shopping. At the checkout I am thinking about my family and how great my husband is and just feeling grateful. I look over at Chris in his suit and tie, cleancut haircut...and he turns to me and says..

"If I were a rapper..." I never did hear the rest because I bust out laughing.

6-09 This was part of my darling 7yo boys prayer before dinner...

"please bless that Ben (the 3yo) will stop saying he doesn't like things that he really does...

please bless that we will somehow be able to eat this without any problems..."(it was baked potatoes!)

6-11 We have goats milk at our house because Becca tolerates it better. This has led to all sorts of conversations about cow's milk, why my children say we don't drink horse milk-doesn't that sound grosser than cows milk ...so this morning Ben comes up and says "mom, I want people milk"

6-13 After my first OB appointment, I was measuring long (for the 7th time!) and they said it may be twins maybe we should schedule an ultrasound in July or so...I said how about tomorrow? We found out that we are having ONE darling little baby. We told our children today and there was MUCH discussion among Kalani and Natalie as how they were going to share ONE baby!

6-25 Some of you may know that we call our little girl (Susan) "Zanna"
Today we were HOT and eating frozen bananas for a treat.
I called them frozanas.
My Benjamin (3) came up to me later and said "Momma, can I have a cold Susan?"

6-25 At dinner my Raymond (7) serves himself up a big dish of peas and corn..."Look Mom! PORN!"

7-21 My darling Benjamin (I can say that now that he is asleep) has been praying for the last week that he will be a dad when he grows up . Tonight he started normally "bless me to be a daa...bless me to be batman when I grow up".

With everything else going on, I figure our Father in Heaven probably needs children's prayers like this for the sheer stress relief of them!

7-31 Ben-3-His first reaction to the water? He loved the warm water, splashed and played, then suddenly started screaming and crying. Two skim boarders right next to him were baffled. I asked him what was wrong and he said "The water MOVES!!"

8-22 Our wonderful Ultrasound of sweet little baby. As we discover she is a girl, the first name that comes to mind is Abigail...a name we have never discussed, but both love! She is wonderful, 14 oz and has all the right parts in the right places.

9-23 In the midst of a great BYU volleyball reunion under cougar stadium there was a fire drill...we all left the building, it stopped and we went back in...it started again. This was all during the speech of the present head coach, who proceeded to shout his remarks over each onslaught of alarm. When it was time for a few words from the previous head coach the fire alarm shenanigans stopped immediately!

10-11 Raymond's critique of dinner..."Mom this chicken was awesome, it had kinda a yummy taste, unusual for chicken" (it was barbequed chicken)

10-12 So I'm feeding the little girls lunch. They do not want left overs of the highly touted bbq chicken...well Susan does. Rebecca however only wants ONE thing. Only one thing in the whole entire house could possibly be her lunch...what is that thing you ask?

Yellow squash...RAW! After offering her everything I could think of, I finally relented and sliced a thin slice of peeled yellow squash...

10-17 So the other day i was trying to reach my shoes which had been pushed under my bed. I ask Benjamin (now 4) to help.
"Why can't you bend do you have an owie on your toe?" he asks.

"No, my big belly makes it difficult to bend over" I say.

He pauses and stares at my belly, then says "my little belly doesn't want to!" and waltzes out of the room.

10-23 A neighbor of ours, who has given us venison in the past, this year showed up with the entire deer! Does he know we are from California? The children had a few thoughts..."Mom I don't eat deer, I just eat meat!" Said by my 5yo Lydia as she eats venison.

My little Benjamin, 4yo, was trying to figure out what we do eat. I mean if we eat deer, is anything okay? He kept asking us if we eat monkey, alligator and other various obscure animals.

10-28 Susan and Becca take their first happy bath together!! Susan has always loved baths but Becca has screamed...we end up throwing her in the shower just to get her cleaned and shorten the torture. She now instantly LOVES baths?!

11-23 My Natalie 9, Raymond 8 and I were playing life the other day. Natalie was getting grumpier and grumpier as the game progressed and I couldn't quite identify why. When I asked her what is wrong she said "I have no children!" She was SO frustrated when she passed the last opportunity to have a child..and said.."can't I adopt at least one child?"

11-21 Benjamin announces he is grateful for watermelon!

11-25 I have a few friends who have had babies lately and the subject of nursing has come up again. Susie nurses her dolls, and apparently it's been on the mind of Lydia. She asked me the other day..."What do mommies with one baby do with their other breast?"

12-01 Benjamin is 4 and now finally potty trained...remember this started in April, with many sanity breaks for mom.

12-10 We have been listening to Christmas music a lot lately and it is obviously sinking into the children's minds. After a rousing rendition of "I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus" Natalie (9) says "We are NOT having ANY mistletoe in our house!"

Cinnamon applesauce ornaments

2007-12-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

We love making these deliciously smelling, and slightly messy ornaments.

Here is the whole gang...
Becca dressed for Christmas in Hawaii...
Lydia could not resist the smell...
Susan and her hands...

Cinnamon applesauce ornaments

1c cinnamon
3/4 c applesauce
1T allspice
1T cloves
1T ginger

the allspice, cloves and ginger are purely for smell, so feel free to replace them with cinnamon, double up on your favorite, substitute or whatever...

Mix together well. If necessary use more cinnamon (or flour) to make the dough not quite so sticky. Roll them (about 1/4 in thick) out and cut them, don't forget to use a straw or pencil to make a whole for a ribbon to go through (if you do forget hot glue guns can also attach ribbon to hang them ). You can dry them on the pan, but they smell REALLY good if you bake them at 200 for about 1.5 hours (depending on how thick they are).

it continues...

2007-12-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

We had a great evening at Temple Square, but we don't have any pictures of the girls singing. We also don't have pictures of the girls' two orchestra performances at Good Shepherd Lutheran in Sandy. I think the Orchestra director would have stared me down had I taken a picture. We had one performance Friday night (I drove) and another Saturday night (With the carpool)...Sunday December 2nd the older girls' choir performed at the Assembly Hall. We had a wonderful (yet cold) walk through the lights and the snow. The performance was amazing. They snag vivaldi's christmas cantata. Natalie thought it was great. Raymond thought it was awesome that they could sing in Latin.

Here are some pictures of the lights

Raymond's Baptism

2007-12-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

December 1st was Raymond's Baptism day! We started the day with a good bit of snow. Raymond was in a mood. He still had a thousand questions to ask, and would choose the most innopportune times to ask them. I just checked with him, and he did finally get satisfactory answers to all of his questions! We were sad that Mom and Dad Kelly couldn't come today. We were happy to have my parents there and the Rexes, David and Tresa Hamsons, Michelle Kelly and numerous friends. We enjoyed Grandma Hamson's talk. Raymond said he felt the spirit most after he left the Relief Society room. He said it felt warm and like hot air just came right down inside him...

Here is a family picture. We were obviously very done with sitting still and not at all in the mood to smile...

Here are my parents, Chris and I and the guy himself in his sparkling choir gear, to look extra handsome...

Festival of Trees

2007-12-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

November 30th.

The four oldest children had a choir performance at the festival of trees. They sang beautifully. Raymond thought it was tiring, but he did a fabulous job with all the actions and singing. Natalie thought it was nice and fun.
Lydia in this picture is second from the left in the front row..amazingly she is singing (she coudln't help it she knew the songs so well!) most of the time she was also twirling her tie on her skirt or twirling her hair....

Natalie is in the top left corner...

Here is an amazing gingerbread creation of a dragon!

Just to allow me a new motherhood experience, as we were walking away from the stage to go meet the older children, Ben took off pushing the stroller at a run. I (35 weeks pregnant) grabbed both little girls and tried to chase him...that didn't work. I waited and walked after him, but he didn't come back. I sent out the other choir mommies and went to get security to report my "run away". He was found at the very far end of the expo center happily running with the stroller. He was not aware he was lost, to busy enjoying the freedom of having no one say "Ben please push the stroller carefully!" After that I had to recover...yikes that isn't good for the heart.

November

2007-12-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

November!
Raymond is 8!!
Thanksgiving with the Gooches and Kellys

October

2007-12-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

October!We made bricks like the Hebrews in Egypt.
Soccer!!

Ben is four!!

September

2007-12-02T08:59:00.001-07:00

September!
We had a wonderful month.
We made our own clay and pots.

I went to a volleyball reunion

Rebecca and Susan are 2!!

2007-11-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

August 31, 2007 We had a great time with the girls on their birthday!

Independence Day

2007-11-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

We had a great time signing the Declaration of Independence, meeting a Pocahontas descendant and seeing a james town village reinactment. We also enjoyed the balloon festival and celebrated at grandma and grandpa kelly's house with barbeque and fireworks.

Here are some extra pictures, if it isn't already playing, push play in the botom left corner of the box.

Beach reunion

2007-11-23T22:37:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful Hamson family reunion camping at the beach.

Kalani's 11th Birthday

2007-05-06T22:08:00.000-06:00

What a challenge it was, even for an eleven year old, to wait all day to open presents at Grandma's house.

Gruncle Earl and Great Aunt Vereni were on hand at Grandma and Grandpa's along with cousin Nick.

Rebecca found the perfect lap...Raymond's.

Meanwhile, Grandpa rested to "Barbie's Magic Rainbow."

Kalani is becoming quite a young lady.

She doesn't need help blowing out the candles.

She does need help eating the cake and ice cream.

Ben was willing to show his appreciation for the celebration.

Lydia was just happy she could help Kalani with the cake and ice cream.

2006 a year in review

2007-01-07T18:46:00.000-07:00

We wanted to record some of the many highlights in 2006.

January brought cousins and sledding. We went to Thanksgiving Point. Most memorable for me was a visit with my Grandma. It was her first time to see the twins and the last time we saw her alive. Lisa's girls and my older girls performed a play for her. Grandma held babies, smiled and laughed, though we knew she couldn't hear much. What a wonderful lady.

February brought Grandma's funeral. We are so glad she could die peacefully at Aunt Lou's home-I feel very grateful for Aunt Lou's care. All of my brothers and my sister came to the funeral and we crammed as much visiting as we could in one day. We shared wonderful memories of that Dutch-wife-of-a-colonel. David shared about our last trip with Grandma to see Mom and Dad home from their first mission, to Nigeria, and our time on Coronado walking Grandma out to the beach. We missed mom terribly.

March brought trips to the Dinosaur museum. Raymond was our official tour guide, making sure we hit the important sites. He even checked their literature to see if they had made any mistakes...he hasn't found any yet.

April brought a unique summer plan...a camping trip every month with reservations all made...This is one of the zillions of reaons I'm glad I'm married. I NEVER would have dreamed this many camping trips with this many little ones was possible (or desirable). I can now say I was mostly wrong.

May brought a restful mothers day and gardening galore. We love being outside. Kalani is now 10---double digits--how did that happen? It seems like just yesterday when we were enjoying that Angels game. May also brought our first camping trip...what a great first trip. Diamond Fork was just around the corner and beautiful. A great road around our campsite for biking, a little group of short trees for playing in, and a hidden path up to a small hill. Our secret weapon was Chris' niece Michelle, who is invaluable.

June brought a quick trip to California. Chris' brother was made a Bishop. We enjoyed the time with family and the beach. The drive was better than anticipated, and the family time made the drive worth it.

July started out with Chris' sister Cindy and her husband Don taking us on a memorable hike with Dad and Mom Kelly up by Bridal Veil. July also brought the biggest adventure of the summer. And a highlight, or lowlight-depending on who you are.
After a beautiful camping trip up in Alpine, we discovered our van was not starting. Chris hiked, and hitched a ride to where he was able to call a tow truck. We rode on the back of the tow truck down the mountain, which according to the children was like a ride at Disneyland-Dad said it was almost as expensive! Once we got off the mountain the towtruck driver said he chouldn't take us home riding on the back of the truck. Chris stayed with the truck and van, and the rest of us...including Super Michelle, rode by TRAX and bus to BYU. At BYU we called home and Chris had arranged rides for us. It took us many hours to get home, and we had MANY helpers along the way to figure out the route, make connections with seven little ones and Michelle's bags (she had an EFY session to get to!). All of the children consider this to be one of their favorite adventure of the year! The parents find it more fun from a distance...the larger the distance the better.

August brought Flaming Gorgeous.
What a beautiful place to camp. We enjoyed caping in one place longer and going on hikes...even an incredibly long hike to see dinosaur footprints. We enjoyed the dinosaur museum. Susan polished up on her walking skills at Flaming Gorge.
Our little Susan and Rebecca turned one!
It is amazing how fast time flies when your half-consious.
September brought Arches.

This was another highlight of the year. After months of hiking, the children were ready for some pretty challenging hikes to see some incredible arches. Although the hike to Delicate Arch scared Mom silly-we did get to see it at sunset (and hike back in the dark!!). We all want to go back and climb more rocks, play in the beautiful sand and make more friends!

October brought soccer. Raymond especially enjoyed playing, while Kalani and Natalie enjoyed being with friends and having a ball roll past. We attended a great homeschool harvest festival with our homeschool friends.
Benjamin is now 3! That makes him old enough to play with all the 3+ toys his rule-abiding brother has been holding back from him...YIPPEE! Chris is old enough to be a father of 7! Rebecca is finally a walker!

November brought Thanksgiving.
We spent more time with Chris' sister Tami and Jeremy and their children Jessica and Jacob. They are expecting their third child, a little boy. Cousins and grandma make a for a wonderful thanksgiving. Raymond is now 7! We tried not to be sick, shared our disease generously with each other, and then were sick again. We are grateful it was all minor...though the laundry and sleep deprivation were major.
December brought beautiful Christmas.

The present of the year was a kitty named fuzzy. We all love her so. Lydia is now 5 and starting to learn to read. Natalie is 9! We ended the year with a bang...sledding with cousins. It literally resulted in a bang for Kalani. She ended up with her first black eye.

What an amazing year! In the quick highlights we miss Chris' countless hours of work, and Britt's many hours in sleeplessness! It is also difficult to explain the little learning moments and wonderful ways we have been blessed. For me, this was a year of many miracles. It is a miracle we survived the van, tow-truck, TRAX, bus trip home from a camping trip. It is a miracle how I survive some days on SO little sleep. It is a miracle that we made it downfrom Delicate Arch. All of these little daily mriacles remind us of how much our Savior loves us and is mindful of us.

2006-11-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Four times this past summer, we took our seven children - ages ten and under - camping. The culminating event was four days and three nights at Arches National Park at the end of September. We met some new friends there from Holland, die familie Soeten (http://soeten.blogspot.com/).
Though we can't really read Dutch, we are impressed by their travel log and wish we had done likewise to record the tales of our Kelly Family adventures. As you can imagine, every day is an adventure with such numerous progeny. We look forward to sharing the voyage with you, our friends and family. Maybe together we will discover what God is trying to teach us through our challenging, precious, and unforgettable experiences. Perhaps the learning comes as we ponder and record life's journey.