What Summer??

It doesn't feel much like summer, we haven't done anything fun!

I am now pregnant with our 4th little boy. Unfortunately this pregnancy is not going as well as we had hoped. (Does it ever?)

We'd hoped to take a few trips, but my body isn't cooperating. At Labor and Delivery they told me that I have an "irritable uterus," I don't think that's a very nice thing to say! My body decided it was done being pregnant, but the baby isn't done "baking" yet.

I've been taking a drug called Nifedipine, it relaxes your blood vessels and decreases your blood pressure. Since I already have low blood pressure it's made me very sick. I get nauseated, dizzy, and have bad headaches, it's no fun!

Even taking the yucky medicine, every 8 hours, I was still having contractions all day. I was told however, that since there were still no changes in my cervix that the medicine was doing it's job. So I was sick and I was in pain! For some reason enduring contractions that aren't actually doing anything seems even worse!

A little over a week ago I had a really bad day. My contractions got down to 3-5 minutes apart, they were longer and stronger and were getting difficult to cope with, not many breaks in between. Ryan took me in to the hospital.

We found out that I wasn't effaced or dilated, yet, BUT that my cervix was soft and "mushy" so it was "ripening" which is BAD at only 30 weeks. They upped my Nifedipine intake to every 6 hours and put me on strict bed rest. They want me to come in this week to determine whether or not it is necessary to do the IV treatments with the Antenatal steroids to mature the baby's lungs, just in case.

It was a week ago yesterday that we sent our kids away. That makes me sad, and I miss them. Canton spent Saturday through Wednesday night her in town with my Aunt and came by to see me nearly every day for about an hour, he gets homesick. Their family left on a trip on Thursday so Canton spend Wednesday night and Thursday morning with Ryan and I before Ryan drove him down to Preston to spend time with his brothers and my parents.

That's where the three of them are now. I don't know how long they will be gone or just how we plan to get them back. But it IS much easier to be on bed rest without them here.

BUT my boys have had a chance to get out and do some fun things, while with Grandma and Grandpa that they wouldn't have been able to if they had stayed here: like being in a parade and throwing candy, watching fireworks, playing with cousins, going hiking, and playing at the park.

So I guess it's all working out for the best.
I hope the rest of you are filling your summer days with fun and adventure, and not laying on the couch like me.

Just Another Day

I haven't much to say and have no pictures to make what I do say more entertaining, so I'll apologize in advance.

We are living in our new place, it is a better environment for all of us. But we have not yet sold our home. We haven't even moved all of our belonging over and there are still many projects to be done there.

It is fun to have a back yard for the boys to play in. We are slowly getting used to our new ward and it's different dynamics. Even the bishop stated while talking with us, "We are starved for young people." It is very true.

We miss our friends, but hope to makes some new ones soon close to where we are.

My pregnancy is going well. I am now 23 weeks into this adventure. We found out at our ultrasound that we are expecting our fourth BOY! So no pink or Disney Princesses for us, but he's healthy and growing well.

Ryan is working in Idaho Falls managing the Fred Meyer Jewelers store while their current manager is on maternity leave. Ryan really likes managing, it's been a fun and empowering experience for him. He likes being in charge and having some control over his schedule and environment.

Ryan has been working in jewelry for 10 years and has much knowledge and experience to share. It is hard for us to have him gone so much. As a manager he has to work 6 days a week, 10 hour shifts (with an hour lunch) add the 2 hours of drive time and he's gone for 12 hours every day. I just keep telling myself that it's temporary and I can do anything for a few months.

That's all that is going on with us.

A Fun Family Outing

We had a neat weekend; we drove to Burley, ID last Friday and stayed at the Fairfield Marriott hotel.

Saturday we got up at 6:00am, went down to breakfast and then had to meet in the lobby at 7:45 all dressed in our fancy clothes, ready for family pictures. We all dressed in brown, blue and green so we could match!
Ryan took some pictures while we waited for our turn with the photographer (for individual family pictures.)

We took pictures in the park next to Shoshone Falls. I'll be excited to see how they turn out.



We went to the Twin Falls temple to watch Ryan's brother and his wife be sealed to their 2 adopted sons. So many people were there to support Eric and Bonnie. Ryan's Aunts and Uncles from the Green side and the Stavast side. Grandpa Green (Don) was there and so was Grandma Stavast. Lots form Bonnie's family, family friends and even the foster family that had, had Bill and Austin before Eric and Bonnie got them.

We were in the biggest sealing room I had ever seen! It was beautiful! I was quite emotional. It was a wonderful ceremony, and it was so neat that Eric and Bonnie finally have children of their own to keep forever and ever!! It was neat to watch them interact with the boys in the temple and to see those little boys... Bill and Austin are the same ages as Tate and Canton so it was extra near and dear to my heart.

After some pictures we went back to the church and had a very nice lunch. Once we got back to the hotel we were all very tired and took a nap - then we all played in the swimming pool! Lots of little cousins and Grandma too! Oran was so cute and very comfortable in the pool; kicking his legs and flapping his arms on his back or his front. He kept going from person to person, Uncle Neil, Uncle Eric, Grandma, Mom or Dad. But Tate was very clingy and panicky! He's never liked being in the water, but I was hoping he would get better. Canton was doing really well until he got a little too fearless and got into some trouble. I swam over and rescued him, but after that he was content to sit on the stairs and kept saying "I couldn't see, and I couldn't breathe, and I couldn't talk! It was too deep and I was sinking!!" But before we left the pool area he was getting a little braver and walking around in the 3 foot section.

It was a fun time! I always love spending time with family adn the hotel stay made it extra fun and special.

Best Discovery Yet

For years I've been trying to find ways to make money online, from home, in what little time I can find in between being a Mom, wife, housekeeper, cook, hair stylist, conflict manager and random other jobs that different situations require. I've spent hours upon hours on sites like inboxdollars, memolink, mypoints, creationsrewards, rewardport, and filling our hundreds of online surveys to watch the money slowly trickle in. It's been great using that money for Christmases and on other "Me" items over the past 6 years, but it's been a lot of work and very slow in adding up. BUT, thanks to my good buddy Callie I am now a proud member of the swagbucks community.

I have found a new love! Swagbucks.com - I don't know if any of you already swag, but I thought I'd spread the love. I've been a member for a couple of weeks now and have already earned over 1000 Swagbucks - it's awesome to watch them grow so fast!

If you've spent as much time trying to earn points online as I have you know how long it can take to build them up. So I'm excited. It's a free program that pays you "digital dollars" when you search the web. It only happens occasionally, but those dollars add up and you can redeem them for prizes (I've already redeemed two $5 Amazon gift certificates, because they have so many things at Amazon. That's 450 swagbucks each.) But you can use it for other gift certificates or prizes, like an Xbox, Wii, Iphone, CDs, DVDs, Health and Beauty products (so many choices!) Or if you wait until you have 700 swagbucks you can redeem for $5 paid through Paypal. Every once in a while they'll have a code that you can find to get some more swags, it's like a treasure hunt!

It's completely free to do. If you do online shopping, you can go through them to get more swags as well. If you want to sign up, go to http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Annarac if you have any questions, just ask me and I can see if I can help you out. I like getting stuff for free or discounted. It's not a whole lot of money, but if you're going to be on the web anyway, it's worth a shot!

(I downloaded the toolbar and use it for all my internet searches, instead of google, like I used to, and that's how I've earned most of my SBs it's super easy. Plus you earn swagbuck every 24 hours just for having and using the toolbar!!)

You probably think I'm a dork, but I'm hooked!! I can't wait to buy all the things I've put on my Amazon Baby registry from gift cards earned through Swagbucks!

I hope some of you sign up, 'cause it's a blast, and if you're going to be searching the web you might as well be getting a little something for it!

Moving mingled with Tears

We are planning to move from our house very soon. We've had our house on the market for a few weeks and we have signed a 12 month lease on a new apartment. It all seems to be happening so fast and I have a lot of mixed feelings.

Our house has been one headache after another - in need of constant maintainence and repair. If there is one thing I have learned from owning this house it is that my husband IS NOT a "fix-it man" or much of a "Do-It-Yourselfer." But I have grown to love this house. We have put so much work and love into this house that it has really grown on me.

For Sale ">

Our house feels like home, and as I wander from room to room I see our personality oozing through the walls. I made and hung the curtains myself, I picked out all of the paint colors, and tile, and I worked alongside my family to make this "fixer-upper" a home.

Our house has been a challenge, and I've never liked the neighborhood but it is going to be hard to leave it and all of the friends we have made in this ward. We are only moving across town, but it might as well be a lot farther. I've learned from past experience that if you don't see people at least once a week you have a
way of loosing contact pretty quickly.

I am overwhelmed with all that needs to be done. Ryan is working and going to school, I am taking care of our three little boys and growing a fourth. I can barely keep dishes clean, my kids fed and clean clothes in our drawers and I'm trying to pack our belongings and repair all that needs fixed. Being pregnant makes me so tired!

But after much prayer and many tears I think that we are doing the right thing. this move will be good for our family. Our living expenses will be lower, and our little boys will have a yard to play in that is SAFE!

We will be moving into an apartment with a main floor and a basement, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a fenced backyard. We will be living close to friends who will help us if we need it, and without having to pour so much of our income into a house that needs help we'll be able to start paying down our debt and saving a little too.

Celebrating Easter

For some reason I've found this holiday a little depressing this year. With all of the stress and work that comes with selling a house and moving, I have over looked it a bit and I have let it sneak up on me. Tomorrow is Easter and I'm not feeling at all prepared.

I feel like our Easter Celebrations have been so, empty, frivolous, and silly. As Janet Hales put it:

"For years I felt that our family's Easter celebration was as hollow as the chocolate bunnies we devoured on Easter morning. All my life I had been told that the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the most sacred and significant events in all creation. If that is true, I reasoned, then shouldn't Easter, the commemoration of those events, be the highlight of our year?"

My children have been excitedly chattering about the Easter bunny all day. If I had thought ahead I would have prepared the egg hunt and baskets for today and have it be a strictly Saturday activity, but it's too late for that. It might be too late for just about everything. In my determination to get repairs made on our house, pack a few boxes and have the house clean enough to show to perspective buyers there has been no time for shopping or playing "Easter Bunny." I have bought a single egg, blade of grass or piece of candy - But it is expected.

Ryan is still at work so I asked him to get a few things (I hope he doesn't go over board.)

I think what I will do is stick a slip of paper in each egg, with the candy (so there is no revolting), that has either a scripture reference or a song we could sing. That way we can bring Christ back into our celebration.

I thought we could also watch a video about the resurrection either before conference starts or in between sessions.

I hope that is all goes well and that I feel a little better about the whole thing tomorrow.

So, So, Tired

We've been working on our house non-stop since Monday and I'm exhausted!

Gail Bishard, a Realtor and a good friend of ours, came on Monday morning and looked through our house. We sat down and talked, signed papers and before she left she pounded a "For Sale by Gail" sign into our front yard.

There is only one month left on the home buyer tax credit so we are crossing our fingers and hoping to find a buyer planning to take advantage of that credit.

We bought this house as a major fixer-upper and had to do a conventional loan to get it. But Gail told us that Conventional loans are so hard to get right now: high interest rates, high credit scores, and large down payments, so she wants our house to be approved for VA and FHA loans which means more work for us.

We were hoping to be able to sell the house as is: lots on improvements but still some things to fix - but I guess it's not working out that way.

In our paper work we agreed to have the garage painted, the porches painted, the front bathroom in fully functional condition, a working heat source in every room, and all the wood work finished. So we've been working like crazy, but still have a long way to go.

Ryan was hoping to work on the front porch today, but then it rained, followed by snow!

I think I'm too tired to paint any more just yet, perhaps if I go lay down for a while I'll be able to get more done later... Here's hoping.

If anyone wants to volunteer some service hours we would love a little help!

Money Woes and Lots of Stress

Things have now reached the point where we can no longer ignore them. It's been nearly a year since Ryan's pay at Fred Meyer was cut by 4% and his hours were cut back to part time. He went back to school to keep student loans at bay (which will be $800 a month when we DO have to start paying them back.)
We have come to the conclusion that we need to sell our house, and find somewhere to rent that doesn't cost more than our current mortgage and has lower utility costs. I will miss our ward and I don't know where we will go (we have yet to find somewhere that meets our needs and is within our price range.)
There are things that still need to be done on our house, but I don't feel like I can do most of them myself and Ryan doesn't have the time or motivation to finish them off. So I think the best thing to do is to do my best to get it clean (with the help of my kids :P) and get it on the market right away; then we'll just have to see what happens.
I need to put my trust in the Lord, exercise a little faith, and trust that things will work out for the best.

A Rude Awakening

This morning, at 5:45am, we were jarred awake by the sound of our fire alarms throughout the house blaring their repetitive "BEEP, beep, BEEP, beep, BEEP, beep..." Ryan bolted out of bed and ran to check on the boys, I on the other hand took a minute to figure out what was happening and then helped Ryan investigate.
We didn't find any fire and didn't smell anything burning. Ryan went down and flipped the breaker switch in the basement (to make the beeping stop) but we never figure out what caused the alarms to go off.
I decided that it is nice to have the alarms hard wired throughout the house so if one goes off they all go off, but it also means you can't tell which alarm triggered the reaction. However, I vaguely remember hearing it somewhere in the rear of the house before the one in our bedroom went off.
Tate, for some reason, was asleep on the couch and didn't wake up. I was standing in the kitchen when I heard Canton in a hesitant voice say, "Oran, go get Mom." Oran came out and said, "Mom, I heard a loud noise!" I scooped him up, assured him everything was alright and put him back to bed. Before I left the room Canton whispered, "Was there a fire Mommy?"
We never found anything, but it was pretty weird.
I decided that it was not my favorite way to wake up - once the excitement was over we all went back to sleep for a couple of hours.

Playing Catch Up

Life has been so busy, and it feels like it's finally slowing to a pace that I can cope with!

I haven't been a very good blogger lately and am feeling repentant!

In November the boys and I rode with my Mom and Dad to St. George for Thanksgiving. We spent the holiday with Brady and Anna in their lovely home in St. George. My parents, Brady's family, the Boys and I, My sister's family and my cousin Debi were all in attendance.

Ryan had to work late on Wednesday and early on Friday so he couldn't be with us, but he got to spend the holiday with his grandparents and many of his Aunts and Uncles in Chubbuck.
We ate lots of good food, played games, and enjoyed one another's company.
Thursday evening my Dad, Brady and I took the kids to the park to get out some of their wiggles, they all had a great time.

Zander and Tate were good buddies, it's so nice to have a cousin so close to your age!

Oran, my little monster.

Canton spinning round and round until he was too dizzy to stand.

"Mom, look how high we are!"

On Friday morning all of us girls got up at 4:00am and went out CRAZY black Friday shopping, it was my first experience standing in line and being there when the doors opened. It was very exciting!

After we got home from shopping and go a little nap we packed a lunch and headed to Pioneer Park from some exploring. It was way cool!

My brother-in-law Brandon helping Oran and Ady climb the rocks.

Oran walking on the rocks, gee, he's getting big!

Canton in a cave! While we were exploring the Red Rocks at Pioneer Park Grandpa kept saying things like, "...When I used to live here..." meaning in St. George, Canton found this cave and asked, Did Grandpa used to live in THIS cave or was it another one?

Cute Cousins sitting on a rock - we tried, unsuccessfully, to get them to all hold still long enough to have their picture taken - this is as good as it gets!



My Mom and Dad were there too.

Before everyone left we got a picture of Me, My sister and My brother with all of our kids throwing the fall leaves, how festive!
I'm so glad that we were able to go, it's always fun to spend the holidays with people you love!

I busied myself all of December making homemade gifts - which I really enjoyed. I made 2 dresses, 7 crocheted stuffed animals, hats, scarfs, a crocheted table runner, 4 fabric covered notebooks/journals, and popcorn heating pads. I loved having a new sewing machine to work with this year! (I got it for my birthday, THANKS AGAIN RY!)
Our Christmas was the best one yet! It was so fun to see our children so excited about everything. They all understood the Santa Claus thing, and since they saw me making so many gifts they all wanted to make gifts for their friends and for each other (it was cute.)

We wrote letters to Santa Claus and took them to the post office to put them in the special Santa mail box, and because we used the magic mail box Santa wrote back to us!

Our Christmas Eve and Daddy's Birthday dinner.

Canton took a picture of Ryan and I so we could be in a picture too.

On Christmas morning each of our kids were so excited about everything! With each present it was "WOW, look what I got!" or "...Just what I wanted!" It was a very good Christmas.

All of our kids got gloves a hat and snow pants. (We were hoping to be able to play in the snow, but we haven't seen much yet!)

Oh look, I got a new journal! Always love those!

The bat lair was a big hit with all of the boys, I knew it would be, and so did Santa ;)

On Christmas day we went to Preston and spent some time with my Mom and Dad and My Aunt, Uncle and cousins. It was a fun day!

We had great fun ringing in the New Year! This year we planned a little better - Ryan didn't work so we played all day and kept our kids up - They took a nap from 5:00 - 7:00pm and then we went out for some fun.

First we went to our stake New Years Eve -party. This was the second year so it worked a little better than last year. They started earlier and had the "count down" at 9:30 with confetti and balloons. They also had pizza, root beer floats, board games, Karaoke, and dancing.

We all got party hats and noise makers!

Then we went to the first annual New Years Eve cast party at the Mystique; for anyone who was in a play at the Mystique for the entire year of 2009. That party was from 9:30 - 12:30. They had LOTS of food set up buffet style. There was chicken, prime rib, baked potatoes, lasagna, penne, and linguine, with choice of Alfredo or meat sauce, cooked carrots, chips with either 7 layer bean dip, or spinach artichoke dip, and for dessert: pumpkin roll, cheese cake, cream puffs, toffee and chocolate chunk cookies or brownies.

Lisa, the director, and Debbie, the costume lady, gave out silly awards. They had painted colored circles on the stage and set up a huge Twister board, so everyone played Twister. They also had a big blow up dinosaur bouncer that our kids had fun jumping in.

We had a "dance off" where we performed numbers from plays throughout the year. From Millie we did the opening number, "Not for the Life of Me" and the speak easy number, "Nutty Cracker Suite." It was way fun to watch the numbers from Grease, Footloose, Aladdin and White Christmas.

Two of the magicians were there, Farrell Dillon and Jon Armstrong, they did a couple of shows in the Chamber room. My kids thought the magic was cool. Oran thought it was extra neat that Jon was wearing a white shirt, tie and a gray sweater vest - he pointed and shouted, "It's Harry Potter!" Jon didn't seem to think that it was very funny, but I did, and there was definitely a resemblance between his outfit and the Hogwarts school uniforms.

Tate got to help with a card trick.

Farrel was holding something in his hand and he tapped it with his wand - as he did so Canton shouted, "Abracadabra!" everyone in the room laughed, it WAS pretty funny.

We all had sparkling cider, cranberry juice or grape juice in fancy glasses - there was a countdown and we all drank our "fizzy drinks." Ryan and I kissed in the New Year, as is tradition. Then we all danced on the stage. Canton is quite the little dancer. He was picking up on the line dances and danced with all the pretty girls (we thought it was funny.)

Oran had fun dancing too, but the poor little guy kept getting scooped up, danced with and thrown around by all the other cast members - I guess that's the price you pay for being the only 2 year old in a room full of single people.


Tate did some "break dancing" rolling around on the floor and such, but he seemed to enjoy sitting and conversing more. He'd go sit by anyone who was sitting down and start a conversation with them, I'm not sure what all he talked about.


We got home about 10 to 1:00. It was so nice to have kids that were so happy. They were happy to have had a fun time, happy to be home and ready to go to bed. They weren't overly tired, they just seemed content. It was a great way to end 2009, and begin 2010.

I'm so glad that I got the chance to be part of the "Mystique Family." It was awesome!!

Since then my sister came for a visit, we've made a few resolutions, that I'm hoping we'll have more success with in the future than we have in the past 20 days. And We're trying to get back in a routine with Ryan starting a new semester, with a different class schedule, and Tate going to kindergarten.