payton turned 12!!!!!

Payton turned the big 12 on Thursday. He was soooo excited. He has been wanting this birthday to come so that he could pass the sacrament. I don't think he really understands the importance of passing, but I think in time, like all young men they start to understand the reverence and importance of it.
On my kids birthdays they get to go out to lunch with mom. I am glad that they still think it's a treat to eat lunch with mom. Payton picked Filibertos. It's a mexican food restaurant here that it sooooooo yummy! He loves steak, and he loves tacos. So what better combination than to add the two together and have carne asada tacos!!! He was in heaven. He also got to pick dinner that night which was spaghetti. We also had nonni and poppi, Aunt Jodi, and Grandpa Jeffers come to our house for dinner on Sunday. They went to church to be there to see Payton receive the priesthood and then afterwards came back home and had dinner and cake. This year Payton picked to have a giant Chocolate Chip cookie for his cake. We also have these skillets called, Skookie skillets. You put the cookie dough in these skillets and cook them. We like to put vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of fudge sauce on top as soon as they come out of the oven. It's quite a treat to have.
Payton got to go on his first campout this past weekend. Because he now get's to go on all the campouts, we sorta thought it would be a good idea to get him a backpack for his birthdays. He was quite excited to get his own. Anthony went with him on his first campout which was a snow campout. It's the campout that all the boys look forward to. They went to strawberry and camped in the snow. Now for me that doesn't exactly sound fun, but for Payton it was a blast. They went sledding the next morning and just had a lot of "boy" fun!!! He was quite a happy boy.
I am thankful for Payton. He has brought laughter and happiness to our family. Everyday is something new with him. I am glad that I get to be his mom. We are both learning a lot about each other. I love him lots and I am thankful that he chose to come to our family.
Love you payt! Happy Birthday little buddy!!

New Years

We had a great New Years with some good friends of ours, the Hewards. Cameron and their son Jarren are actually the ones who started the "family being friends" thing. Great family! They have 3 boys the same ages as our 3 oldest. We had them over for dinner, games and fun! We had decided that it would be fun to have a game of dodgeball out at the tennis courts. We happen to live a few steps away from the courts. It was perfect for dodgeball. I bought the balls and I am so glad that the balls I bought were nerf type. Otherwise there would have been a few of us walking away with some serious bruising. I have to say that my team won!!! We played 4 games, and might I add it was quite cold! Anyways, we split the teams up evenly and went for it. My team won the last game. It was me and Camerons friend Deaven left. He and I were hucking balls at each other and I won by barely hitting the bottom of his shoe. It was so much fun. I paid for it later, but it was fun and well worth it. We came in and played nerts and ate more. Then at that certain hour we went outside and started lighting the firworks! That was fun!!! Although me, Rachel and Mady only made it about 5 minutes and had to come in, but it was great. It was quite the boy thing!!!
Such a great time with good friends! Thankyou Hewards for a great New Years Eve!!!
Kyle took pictures and I will have to post them when I get them. He got a video of me falling and Cameron dragging me off the court. NOT FUNNY!!! I will probably not post that. There is also another one of me stuffing the balls up my shirt. Hey a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!!! I couldn't let them get the balls and most of my teammates were out! Had to put them somewhere.

What a fantastic christmas

This Christmas was such a fantastic, great Christmas. We went to California for 8 days and it was great! We were supposed to leave Monday morning but changed our plans and left Sunday evening. We got there about 11:00 at night. By the way it was raining like crazy for the last 2 hours of the drive. There were accidents all along the highway. Since I was the driver, I was praying that I would not get into one as well. It was crazy driving! Anyways. My brother and his wonderful wife Sassafrass (cassie) had already been there and so I was quite anxious to get there and be with them. They live in Washington state and we don't get to see them that much. The fun part about leaving Sunday night is that nobody was expecting us. So I made a couple random calls just to make sure they were still up, so that we didn't have to get anybody out of bed upon our arrival. We did lots of hanging out and relaxing. The cousins had a blast. And the best part was that they all got along and there was no fighting, and we, the adults didn't hear any of them the entire week. Grma and Grpa did an amazing addition onto their house. They now have this huge room upstairs for about 20 people to sleep in. It was great! All the kids and Sass and Aaron (my brother) slept in that room. They were good sports to do that. It didn't sound fun to me sleeping with 10 kids, but they did it! Friday my parents and sister cocoa (jodi) arrived for the weekend. That was great also. Nonni and poppy were there and Great Grma and Grpa. It was such a great time. Christmas was wonderful. Although it took forever to open presents. Our family tradition is to let the youngest open a present first and then we go to oldest. We keep doing this until everyone is done unwrapping presents. So you could imagine with 20 people how long it took. Christmas morning was eventful with Cocoa stabbing herself in the leg with my Aaron's new knife. She was trying to help Cody open a present (you know the wrapping that nobody can get through!) and the knife slipped and made a clean slit through her leg. I might add it was the leg that she had recently had knee surgery on and grueling physical therapy. My dad took her to the emergency room while the rest of us opened presents. We had quite a busy house but such a fun one! Twenty people and I thought it would be crazy, but it wasn't at all. It was an absolutely wonderful christmas that I will remember and my children for a very long time.
I don't have pictures yet. When I get them loaded I will put them on here.

Mady makes me laugh

AAron got new glasses and so yesterday we had to go pick them up. The whole time we were at the eye Dr.'s Mady is trying sooooo hard to convince me that she needs glasses. Of course I kept telling her she doesn't need them. The girl has perfect vision! So this morning as I am telling Aaron he looks so cute in his glasses, mady comes over to tell a story. She starts by using her hands and all of her body to describe this. This is her "Mom, I think that I need glasses, I'm serious! At school I closed my eye like this and I couldn't see out of it. Then I did the other eye and the same thing. Serious mom! I couldn't see of that one either! I need glasses mom. I am being so serious!" I looked at her like, ARE YOU SERIOUS GIRLFRIEND! Then I started laughing my head off. She didn't like that too much. I let her know again that she was NOT getting glasses! I wonder what story she will come home with today! Guaranteed it will make me laugh!!!!

California Dreamin!

For fall break this year my parents invited us to the beach. My kids were so excited especially after I told them they could invite a friend to go with us. They decided it would be fun if the Hewards went with us. So we invited Jarren, Dallin, and Brentton. These boys are all my boys ages so it was perfect! we headed out on Monday and it was a long trip due to a boy, I won't name names, who kept stinking up the air quality in the car! A couple of times I found myself dry heaving as the stinky culprit sat laughing!!! Anyways we finally arrived 6 hours later at the camp ground we have been going to for the last 20 years!San Alejo campground. We got beach front, which means you get to camp right on the edge. When you look over there is the ocean. It's pretty cool. And speaking of cool it was a little chilly. I sat on the beach with a blanket on the whole time, yes I DID. Me the one who is hot ALL the time! What can I say, it was chilly! Anyways. We popped up the tent trailer and as soon as it was up the boys, all 7 headed down to the water. They grabbed their boogie boards and off they went. I fogot to mention at this beach when you go down to the water you gotta climb down 150 steps to get to the beach. It seriously makes you think if you REALLY need to go to the bathroom or can you hold it! Trust me I had that thought a couple of times.
The boys had fun. Cameron and Jarren's favorite was the kyack that nonni and poppy brought. They went pretty far. As i sat on the beach, I told my mom if something happens I'm not swimming out there. I don't like the ocean or anything that lives in it! They tried getting the dolphins that we were all in amazement at (on shore of course).Spencer and Dallin stayed closer to the shore. They boogie boarded most of the week and built sand castles. Brentton, Payton and aaron did wave jumping and played on the kyack (on shore). They had a blast being with each other.
My cousin Janelle came with her kids and Mady and her little girl Corrin played the whole week. So everyone had a buddy and everyone was happy! It was a great week.
We made 3 trips to the grocery store. With 7 boys you can only imagine the amount of food they ate. Everytime I turned around one of them was hungry. The first day we were down on the beach they ate all my snacks that I thought would last the entire week! We made a run to smart and final that night and stocked up!
We all slept in the tent trailer. It fit all of us. There was only one night that I had to kick out the Mr. Farty pants (2 boys). The rest of the time it was nice and cozy. Everybody got a long. I was amazed. And I also thought, "I am taking the heward boys more often on trips!"
Thank you mom and dad for inviting us. We had tons of fun!!!!

Hide and go Seek

Alright so I had to blog this little story about Payton. He is quite a funny guy and with all that he does I would like this down on paper so in 20 years when he has a child just like him I can pull out my published blog and show him.
Last saturday for General conference, the priesthood session,Anthony,Cameron,Spencer,Poppy and 2 friends, Jarren and Dallin went to the priesthood session. Their brother Brentton stayed here with me and the 3 youngers. Payton and Aaron were so stinkin excited to have a friend over. They pulled out all of their favorite toys, like their toy guns (that are usually hidden)! They started playing cops and robbers.... so I think that is what they were playing. I wasn't really paying attention because I was on the computer listening to music. So, they were running through the house and getting very loud if I may say so. I asked them to please keep it down just a touch! So Payton suggested they play hide and go seek with the guns. Aaron at this point thought, if we can't be loud I am just going to sit by mom and suck my thumb. Brentton and payton started playing. Brentton was up first to hide. He came downstairs and hid by the stairs and crouched down so Payton couldn't see the top of his head when and if he started to head downstairs. 5 minutes later I asked Brentton what he was doing, he said "Shhhhhh I am hiding sister Jeffers from Payton." I said "O.K.". 10 minutes later I turned around to see Brentton still crouched down waiting for the illusive Payton. I turned around again and said "Brentton are you still hiding?" He said "Yes". I asked Aaron to go upstairs to see what Payton was doing. He yelled down a few seconds later "MOM, Payton is asleep in bed with the covers over his head!" I started laughing! Brentton didn't think it was so funny. He said "What the heck, I have been hiding all that time!" I told him that Payton falls asleep quite fast and if he smells his bed or sits down on his bed he starts closing his eyes. Apparently he was tired and forgot that he was playing a game of hide and go seek. Perhaps he thought it was his turn to hide and fell asleep while hiding! I DOUBT IT!!!! That's little Payton for ya!

First day of school! Yahoooo

Sweet freedom! School has started and I don't know who is more excited my kids or me. This is the first year that I don't have kids at home. It has been lovely if I do say so myself! A couple weeks before spencer, payton, aaron and mady started, cameron started high school. I think i was more nervous than he was. He wouldn't let me walk him into high school. I would have loved to walk him to his first class and give him a smoochy, but he didn't go for that. I got the "I love you mama!" And it was very quietly whispered as he got out of the car! 2 Weeks later the other 4 started. When I asked them if they needed me to walk them to the back they all said "no mom we are good!" I was shocked. I was a stark difference from when aaron started kindergarten. He refused to go to school. As flag ceremony started his kindergarten teacher pryed his hands off my leg and I took off running for the car. I laugh about it now, but seriously at the time it was most annoying to have the only child screaming his head off yelling for me. I jumped in the car dukes of hazzard style and took off. I wanted to yell out the window "Bye sucker", but that may have been too much and maybe a little dramatic! Nontheless this year was a lot better than that. Mady didn't even want me to take her to her line. I was a proud mom watching my kids walk off by themselves. It is great to see my kids having the confidence to do things on their own. Not needing me to hold their hand every step of the way. It was a great first day of school!!!