Father's Day!!!

On Tuesday my kids and I went to Michael's to get the supplies to work on a present for Dan. We had decided to work on an apron for him, since he spends a lot of time grilling for his family :) We already gave him a grill as a present but we wanted to do something else for him, he also got a short Robin Hood sword and a barbarian weapon. Anyways, the kids saw these cool frames they had on display and decided to do that instead. The frames were cheap so I thought "OK we can do this", then we needed the paint, then we needed some decorations for it and that is when it all started to add up. They picked some cool stickers and I kept begging them to pick something cheaper, but it didn't work. They were so excited about the whole thing that I just had to say yes and by the time we got to the register and it was time to pay I regretted saying yes to all the stuff. The plan was to work on the project that same day but I was really tired so we decided to wait one more day. Since I got sick we had to do it on Friday and took advantage of some quiet time to work on the frames, when the cousins and their parents went to the NASA Space Museum. They all did a great job painting and picking a pattern for their frame even Aaron, he mixed the brown and the blue together but he got a nice shade of gray and it still looked good. We waited for a couple of hours and then they put theirs stickers on. Shayna had frogs since she loves frogs and she also picked a motorcycle because Dan loves them. Victor picked a barbecue/picnic table because he loves it when Dan grills stuff for him, he also had guitar stickers because his dad loves to play Rock Band. Tristan had Trains because he wants his Dad to think of him when he looks at them and he also has 4th of July stickers because he thought they were cool. Aaron picked Basketball and Football stickers because he is a sporty guy and that is something Dan is proud of :) They were so careful in placing the stickers and
made sure it was just perfect. In the end I didn't care about how much money I spent on this stickers, the end result was priceless and I was sure Dan was going to love them. We couldn't wait and gave him his presents as soon as he got home and he was very impressed with how much work they put into them. I think he wanted to cry :) He kept telling me all weekend how much he loves his kids and how cool they are. I didn't go to church today for obvious reasons and sadly I didn't feel like getting the kids ready for church so he went by himself and I felt awful about it, when he got home we gave him his Father's day cards and he also loved those. I know he deserves more than what he got today, but we all know that if I hadn't been sick things had been better around here. I just hope he knows how much we love him and appreciate everything he does for us.

I am sitting in my closet in the middle of the night trying to get sleepy but it is not working. I think the medication I am taking is making me have sleepless nights and I hate it. It has been horrible for me the last 5 days, I might seem like I am doing better to everybody around me but I feel awful. The worst part is that I had family visiting and I don't think I was a lot of fun for them to be around. I didn't mean to get grouchy and stuff, but I can't hear anything. I don't know why moms can't get some kind of vaccine to prevent them from getting sick, it is so not fear. Everything started Tuesday night, what seemed to be a normal cold, got worse by the minute, literally. Wednesday morning I had to take Shayna to the doctor to get the cast removed from her arm and we had been planning a big celebration (going to the pool two days in a row just her and me). I woke up really sick, with a lot of pressure between the eyes and a big headache. My mom was in San Antonio with my brother and family so my kind visiting teacher babysat all three boys for me (for 4 hours). Shayna got her cast off, Dr said she seemed fine and to come back in 4 weeks to check on her arm, she is supposed to take it easy for 2 weeks... we'll see :) By the time we got home I was dead, my right ear started hurting and I knew that it was an ear infection. I simply laid on the couch while the kids watched some TV and waited for some grown up to come rescue me. When they all got back from San Antonio I knew my mom would be my hero and take over for me, which she did and I am for ever grateful. Thinks didn't get any better, the next morning my left ear was hurting and I was in tears, so I made an appointment and left an hour later. The doctor told me that my case was rare and he had no idea how in the world I ended up with double ear infections on both ears. The best news were yet to come, he gave the prescription and said that I was not going to feel better right away and that this kind of infection takes up to 3 weeks to heal, the symptoms last that long and it was not going to be fun. Was he right about that, it has been painful and annoying. I am 80% deaf I think, and I rather not to talk to people because I can not hear them. I am taking two kind of antibiotics and the most annoying one is the ear drops, I have to do those every 6 hours and 4 drops on each ear, they burn and after that I really can't hear anything. I had a fever for 3 days I think and got hot flashes all day long, did I mention that it has been horrible? Sadly my family leaves tomorrow and I don't think the last four days were that much fun because of me, but we tried. We went to Kemah and San Jacinto on Saturday, it was really hot but we did get lots of pictures and enjoyed some time together. The cousins had lots of fun playing and having a sleeping over every night. My brother Nefi, his wife Megan, my mom and I had a fun night last night making jokes and watching pictures and videos of their vacation. We laughed so hard I almost peed in my pants :) In the midst of all this craziness Dan was working on his finals and so far we know he did great on the math test, he is still waiting on the other one. So my brother's vacation comes to an end and we already said goodbye, we hope to see them again and hope that they had a nice

visit in Houston, we will miss them but are happy that they had the chance to come see us and our "Humble" home :)

Zoo and the beach with my family.

My brother and family came to visit us from Utah last Thursday and it has been fun. The cousins just got together playing like they had been away for a few weeks. Interestingly enough the last time we saw them was exactly a year ago. We went to the Zoo the next day and then to the beach on Saturday and it was all fun until the jellyfish started stinging everybody and then we lost my niece which made me feel super bad because I was watching all the kids at the moment. It happened so fast and we just didn't even know were to look for her, my worst fear was that she had been swept away by the waves, we talked to the lifeguard on duty and a lot of people started helping us looking for her, her mom finally found her and we just broke in tears. It was a very scary situation for a lot of reasons but we are so glad she was safe. My kids immediately started praying for her which was kind of comforting for me. And so this is why I don't like going anywhere without Dan and lots of kids, it gets crazy and it is hard to keep track of them. Oh yeah Shayna also got bitten by a crab on her toe and it would not let go until I yanked it from her toe. Funny :)
Here are some pictures.

Here are the pictures (see post below)

Here is the bathroom, I love the brown colors :)
The guest bedroom new bedding.
Our new entertainment center.
The freshly painted stools :)

Did I mention that I have a crazy life?

Yes I do but it is this way because I want to. I love staying busy and doing something rather than sitting on the couch (which is something that happens a lot). I don't want my kids thinking that they have a lazy mom and by me staying home I just gotta teach those kids to be productive. So what am I talking about?
I am having my brother come visit us with his family tomorrow, as soon as I knew they were coming the idea of getting the house ready for visitors popped in my head but it never really happened until a week ago. Actually I have been trying to paint the stupid kitchen stools for over 2 months now... long story short I had to buy a new sander and now they are all painted (kind of, I still need to do one more coat on two of them but they look OK). So for the last week I have been busy getting stuff out of boxes that have been sitting in the study and master bedroom for the last 11 months and they were becoming very annoying. We don't have a whole lot of storage space so my closet was the place were all the plastic containers ended up. I still need to sort some of them but at least I can't see them anymore. I decided that if I can go through one box a week or every other week that would be just fine.
Second issue: guest bathroom, I had it all set up for the kids as a fun bathroom (under the sea theme), but little by little they destroyed the decorations by braking the soap container, then the nice cup to drink water from, and lastly the trash can. It was all made out of porcelain and Victor was trying to put stuff int the trash can when it just exploded and he injured his poor little toe, he was fine. So the next day I decided to get everything off and put in a new shower curtain and from there the inspiration started. I got a couple of cute pictures to put up on the wall, I made a flower arrangement to put on top of the toilet tank, got new soap container and toothbrush holder, a couple of new rugs and all under $20.00 not too bad. The bathroom colors are brown and beige and it looks really good.
Third issue: My guest bedroom, I had this nice brown curtains up and I wanted bedding to go with them, otherwise it would have been more expensive to get a whole new bedroom set. The bedding was from Walmart and it had everything in there, the colors are brown and blue stripes with beige and white. It looks really really good. (I had a yard sale last Saturday so I made enough money to cover all these extra expenses :)
Third issue: Shayna's room, she has a desk attached to her bed but it is not big enough for the gigantic computer monitor so I went and bought a little desk to free up the space so she can paint and do crafts again on her desk, it worked and she loves it now because everyone can enjoy the movies she has been making on the computer, how did she learn to do that? I don't know, but she is pretty smart.
Fourth issue: The carpet, we have been living here for almost a year and the carpet was brand new when we moved it, but having 4 kids... it shows how worn out it is and we had like 100 stains on it already. I went and rented the Rug Doctor carpet cleaner and spent the whole afternoon and part of the night cleaning the entire house. The carpet is drying now and it looks lovely.
Fifth issue: The study, it was in our plans to get that study set up for the computer and have it full of book cases so we could have Dan's book collection on display and also all his medieval decorations on the wall and book cases, well it ended up as a dumping ground for all my stuff, crafts, sewing material, painting brushes, you name it, it was all there. After working really hard on it, it is all clear and it looks so cool (except for the messy computer desk). Dan was very impressed and he wants to go buy more book cases and more books of course :)
Sixth issue: We recently purchased a beautiful entertainment center, we had to get rid of the old IKEA one and we are still happy that we found a good home for it. The plan was to buy one as soon as we got here, but months later we still didn't have one. About a week ago we went to IKEA looking for our dream entertainment center and we could not find something we liked, which was really weird because we usually find everything there. We did find a very cool looking one, but it was white and that is just not our style, so we went home and on the way there we stopped at this overpriced place just for fun and to our amazement we found the perfect EC. It was big, wide and elegant looking. It had all the space Dan was looking for and it had the look I always wanted. The lady gave us a huge discount because we were the only customers of the day and even offered free delivery and they put it together for free. It was awesome.
So you see, it has been very busy around here and I am glad that I am done, for the most part. I still need to clean bathrooms and put laundry away, do dishes, clean the fridge, mow the lawn, put the living room back together, OK give me another week and I'll have it all done :)
Sorry for the long post but I just need to write this all down so I wont forget how crazy I get sometimes with my cleaning and organizing around the house. Just so you know I did play with the kids yesterday in our little pool in the backyard and the day before Dan and I jumped with the kids on the trampoline and today a friend invited us to go swimming in her neighborhood pool, so they have not been ignored this whole time.
LIFE IS CRAZY BUT LIFE IS GOOD. Pics tomorrow.