I'm terrible at this!

I am really bad at this whole blogging thing. I am lucky if I blog maybe once every couple of months. So, since it has been awhile alot has been going on, and I think it will take way to long to write about all of it, so, I decided that I would just post a whole bunch of pictures of some of the fun things that we have been up to.

This picture was actually taken this morning. I forgot that Easter was over conference, so I was planning on giving these dresses to the girls from the Easter Bunny, but oh well. Nevermind the fact that McKinzley is all red-faced because she had just thrown a fit like a 2 year old, Oaklee looks like she has to go to the bathroom, and Brexlyn eyes are closed. I guess it is just real life :)

These next few pictures are just some random pictures:





For McKinzley's birthday we were going to go to Pirate's Island, but it didn't turn out to be what we thought it was. So we headed on over to Chucky Cheese and had a blast!












For Oaklee's birthday she decided that she wanted to go to the dinosaur museum. They had SO much fun playing in the water/sand and digging for the dinosaur bones. If it wasn't so expensive, I might think about getting a year pass. That place can entertain them for hours!

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. I would like to say that I will update my blog more often, but then I would be lying :)

SURPRISE!!!!!!

Everyone knows how life gets crazy sometimes, and for the past year that is all that mine and Chad's life has been, CRAZY!! So I decided that I wanted to do something special for Chad. I started planning about 5 months ago to take him on a trip to San Diego. There wasn't any specific reason why I chose San Diego, I was just thinking that it was close enough, but far enough away, warm, and had lots of fun things that we could do. So I started planning. First, I found out when my girls and my mom would be off track and asked her to watch my girls. Then as the months went by I slowly took a little money out of each pay check so that I could pay for the trip without Chad noticing anything (it helps that I am the one that does the finances :) ). I got the hotel, flight, car rental and everything set up. So, it was mostly a waiting game for me, which was UNBELIEVABLY hard!! My biggest thing was that I wanted it to be a surprise for Chad, so I didn't tell hardly anyone about it because I didn't want it to get back to him. I also had to set up the story so that I could make my plan work. My mom has to write down things in her planner or she will plan stuff over it, which makes sense. The only problem was that she keeps her planner out on the counter where everyone can see it so we know what is going on. Obviously this wouldn't work if there was a whole weekend where it said she was watching my kids. So, I had her put that my dad was going on a business trip that weekend. This actually helped me out because our suitcase was in storage, so I had my dad ask us, when Chad was around, if he could borrow one of our suitcases. Perfect! So I was able to go down and get the suitcase without any questions being asked. I cleared everything through Chad's boss, and then I just waited.

The night before we left I told Chad that I had cleared it through his boss, and that we were taking the next day and spending the whole day together. I told him that we just had to drop my dad off at the airport so that we could take my parents car so that my mom could have our van just in case she needed to go somewhere. I said that we had from 6:00am until midnight to do whatever we wanted to. He was pretty excited. The whole time I was just laughing inside. ha ha ha. So, the next morning we got up early to take my dad to the airport. ( I had packed our suitcase the day before and put it up in my parents room. I bought all new shampoo, toothbrushes, deoderant etc. so that he wouldn't notice that anything was missing). So we get to the airport and my dad pulls up to the curb and gets out, and I get out and Chad gets out. Chad pulls the suitcase out of the trunk and my dad says "Well, you guys have a fun time!" And gets back in the car and starts to drive away. At this point Chad is like "What??" And he looks over at me and I am like "Come on, we are going on a trip!!!" He was SO confused!! It was probably one of the best parts of the trip for me. All of my planning had paid off and he was COMPLETELY surprised! The next half hour he just kept laughing. He couldn't believe it :) Unfortunately for him since I had been holding all of this information in for 5 months he had to listen to me blabber about everything that had got us to that point :) One exciting thing that happened at the airport, I went through the full body scanner, and they thought that I was hiding something in my pants pocket, so I had to step aside and have someone come and frisk me and ask me questions like "Whats in your pocket?" I told them it was nothing, just my pocket, but they didn't seem to believe me. So I had to turn my pockets inside-out to show them. I felt like a criminal.

So, we got to San Diego at about 9:30am and we decided to go to the San Diego Zoo. I had decided before we went that I wasn't going to plan anything specific and we would just do whatever we felt like. We ended up going to the zoo, Sea World, Wild Animal Park, the beach, a bunch of little shops and much, much more. It was SO much fun to be together and forget our worries for a couple of days. I definitely feel rejuventated!

So as a recap, my plan worked and we had an AMAZING time!!! I love my husband!!!

A Goal I Want To Stick With

Even though it is February now, I have been thinking about goals that I not only want to accomplish this year, but goals that I want to make a part of me. I want them to become habits for me. The most important one to me can be summed up in the following words to this song:

"Have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need? Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad? If not, I have failed indeed. Has anyone's burden been lighter today because I was willing to share? Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way? When they needed my help was I there?"

I would really like to be able to say "YES!" to all of the questions in this song. And that is my goal for the year. I have heard of people that pray every day to know one person that they can help that day, and then they do it. I really want to try this, and I am hoping that it will make me a better person, and improve the relationships that I have in my life with friends and family.

The New Year

I tend to not make New Years resolutions, but this year I decided that I wanted to. One of the goals that I set for myself was to be more organized and to not procrastinate things. Well, we are half-way through January and I still haven't blogged about Christmas. I'm off to a GREAT start!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!!

P.S. If you want to see our pictures of Christmas, I put them on Facebook. It is just so much easier and faster then putting them on here :)

I Want To Be A Whale

Recently, in a large city, a poster featuring a young, thin and tan woman appeared in the window of a gym. It said, "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A middle-aged woman, whose physical characteristics did not match those of the woman on the poster, responded publicly to the question posed by the gym.

To Whom It May Concern,

Whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, sea lions, curious humans). They have an active sex life, get pregnant and have adorable baby whales. They have a wonderful time with dolphins and stuff themselves with shrimp. They play and swim in the seas, seeing wonderful places like Patagonia, the Bering Sea and the coral reefs of Polynesia. Whales are wonderful singers and have even recorded CDs. They are incredible creatures and virtually have no predators other than humans. They are loved, protected and admired by almost everyone in the world.

Mermaids don't exist. If they did exist, they would be lining up outside the offices of Argentinean psychoanalysts due to identity crisis. Fish or human? They don't have a sex life because they kill men who get close to them, not to mention how could they have sex? Just look at them ...where is IT? Therefore, they don't have kids either. Not to mention, who wants to get close to a girl who smells like a fish store? The choice is perfectly clear to me; I want to be a whale.

P.S. We are in an age when media puts into our heads the idea that
Only skinny people are beautiful, but I prefer to enjoy an ice cream with my kids, a good dinner with a man who makes me shiver and a piece of chocolate with my friends…

Living Life

Life is not a race-but indeed a journey.  Be honest.  Work hard.  Be choosy.  Say "thank you", "I love you", and "great job" to someone each day.  Go to church, take time for prayer.  The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh.  Let your handshake mean more than a pen and paper.  Love your life and what you've been given; it is not accidental-search for your purpose and do it as best you can.  Dreaming does matter.  It allows you to become that which you aspire to be.  Laugh often.  Appreciate the little things in life and enjoy them.  Some of the best things really are free.  Do not worry, less wrinkles are more becoming.  Forgive, it frees the soul.  Take time for yourself-plan for longevity.  Recognize the special people you've been blessed to know.  Live for today, enjoy the moment.

-Bonnie Mohr

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

POOP-TASTROPHY

A couple of nights ago one of my girls, we will call her Sally, came into our room and climbed in bed with us.  This was at about 2:00 am, but not unusual.  The unusual thing was the smell that came with her.  It smelled like poop, gross!  I said:

Me: "Sally?  Did you just go potty?

Sally: "Ya"

Me: "Did you wash your hands?"

Sally: "Oops, I forgot, *giggle, giggle*"

Me:  "Gross Sally, go and wash your hands!"

Sally: "Ok"

So, Sally goes and washes her hands, but she is out there puttering around for quite a while.  When she comes back, she still smells bad.  At this point, the smell must be bad enough because it woke up Chad.  So, he decides to go and investigate the smell.  It is quiet for about 5 seconds and then I hear "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!"  I am thinking, maybe she just got some poop on the toilet seat or something.  So, I go to help with the investigation.  WARNING: This next part is gross....

We go into the girls room, and for those of you that don't know, all 5 of our girls sleep in the same room.  Needless to say, there is a VERY small pathway that goes between the beds.  But between  2 of the beds there is no space, they are right next to each other.  Unfortunately, our  "pooper" was in the bed closest to the wall.  

Back to the gross part......Sally had diarrea all over her bed, then she got up and climbed over her sisters bed, spreading the surprise, then she stopped in front of her dresser, took her poop covered panties off and left them on the floor, then she grabbed the two closest blankets and tried to wipe herself off, then put them on the floor.  Then she opened her dresser to get new panties, but at this point she has poop on her hands, so now there is poop on the dresser.  She then walks out into the front room (all the way making a poop trail) and decides to SIT on the couch to put her panties on!  So, now there is poop all over the couch.  And I am not kidding you, there was SOOOO much poop.  After she gets her panties on she goes into the bathroom and takes off her pajamas (covered in poop) and puts them on the floor.  Then she comes and climbs in bed with us getting poop on all of our blankets, on the wall, and on my pillow.  Needless to say, I could literally say that there was poop EVERYWHERE!  Its one of those situations where you see all of this mess everywhere, and your kid is standing there covered in this mess too (Sally had it smeared all over her), and you have no idea where to start.  

While I bathed Sally, Chad got all of the poopy clothes together and put them in the laundry room.  After I had bathed Sally, I had the wonderful job of following her every footstep cleaning, disinfecting, and carpet cleaning everything.  Not to mention wiping down the dressers, doors, bed posts and everything else that had been tainted by this poo expedition that she had.  It took me 2 and a half hours to clean it all up! I think that it was one of the most disgusting things that I have had to do as a mom.  It definitely is in the top 5.  

After finally finishing cleaning up and getting back to bed, I had to wake up about 3 hours later.  Only to discover that in the dark I had missed some poop spots, so I was once again cleaning up poop.  Then to top off that day  I had to change 8 poopy diapers!  I only have 2 kids in diapers, and they pooped that much!  I am so sick of poop that it is not even funny, AND I think that the smell is permanently in my nose!!!

I love all of my girls to death!  And I really felt bad for Sally because she felt SO bad.  I just hope that if this ever happens again (crossing fingers that it won't), that she will yell for us to come and help her instead of trying to be so independent.

Oh My.....

Since it has been FOREVER since I last updated my blog, I have decided that I am not really going to catch you up with pictures and stuff.  I will just try to be a little better about actually updating more often.  What is going on with us right now?

-I am going to school Monday-Friday at nights

-McKinzley started First Grade

-Taylin started Kindergarten

-Oaklee is starting Pre-School next week

-Brexlyn has an attitude

-Pemberlynn is crawing and walking along the edges of things.  Oh, and likes to eat leaves.

-Chad is working really hard and then watching the girls while I am at school.  He is such an AMAZING husband!

-The girls start dance lessons on Tuesday

Well, that is about all that is going on right now.  I will try to be better at updating, but I can't guarantee anything :)

Till next time..........

How would it be?

How would it be to be able to fall asleep whenever, wherever?  Just ask Brexlyn.  Lately, when she decides she is tired, it doesn't matter where she is, she just goes to sleep.  The other day I noticed that she was being awfully quiet so I went to investigate.  This is what I found.....

Can you believe it!!!????  She is just hanging over the edge of the walker, which by the way is Pemberlynn's.  I had to make sure she was breathing because it was just such an odd sight.  I do know that when Chad was little that he once fell asleep standing up in their car leaning against the window.  So Brexlyn must have inherited his sleeping gene.

Over the past couple of weeks she has just been laying down in random places and taking a nap.

Here she is sleeping on the bathroom floor. (Before you say "GROSS", don't worry, I clean my bathroom floor often.)

Maybe some of you guys remember these.  But, this is a playpen for Cabbage Patch Dolls.  I guess she just thought that it looked comfy.  I don't know why.  She obviously is squished :)
And this is just a cute one of her curled up in the middle of the floor.
If only we could take a nap whenever we wanted..........

Our Current Project

My Aunt and Uncle are building a home next to my Grandma's cabin up in Provo Canyon.  Right now they are up in Jackson Hole for the summer so they asked Chad to general the outside of the home.  So, basically the "shell" of the house.  That way, when they get back at the end of the summer they can spend the winter finishing the inside.  It has been really fun for us to do this!  Here are a few pictures of the progress.  We started at the first of the month, and the framing should be starting next week.......

These are before pictures...(I went a little crazy with the orange spray paint :)  )

This is after the excavator came........

These are after the footings were poured and they are getting ready to pour the foundation..

What's been going on with the Hoyt's?

It seems like life has gotten so busy the last little while.  I don't know where the time has gone!!  Here are a few things that have happened in that last little while..............

A couple of days ago I was able to go out to dinner with some of my friends from High School.  We had such a blast!!  Our poor waitress, we were talking for like 4 HOURS!  Thanks ladies!  I had so much fun!!

For Memorial Day we spent the first part of the day up at my Grandma's cabin in Provo Canyon, and then in the evening, we had a BBQ at Chad's Dads house.  It was a really fun day!!  And it was really nice to be able to see all of our family.


This is at my Grandma's cabin, and I love this picture because it has me, my mom, my grandma, and all of my girls in it, 4 generations!!
In the middle of May Taylin graduated from Pre-School.  She went to the same pre-school that I did when I was her age, which I thought was really neat.  It is an AMAZING school!!  She learned so much and had a great time every time she went.  At her graduation they asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said "a diver".  I guess we better get her in some swim lessons!!!
A couple of weeks ago McKinzley lost her first tooth!!  It really doesn't seem like it was 6 years ago that I had her, but now her teeth are falling out!!!  She was so excited to put her tooth under her pillow so that the Tooth Fairy could come and visit her.  I told Chad that I wished that one of our kids lost a tooth every day because they went to bed so quiet and fast :)
And last, but not least, one day that Chad didn't have to work we headed up to the zoo.  Even though it was raining on and off  it was perfect!  There weren't any people there and the animals were really active.  It was really nice to spend time togethter.

Glad to be a Burnette again :)Blonde

Blonde just wasn't me, so I am glad to be a burnette again :)