at a loss......

I FINALLY finished the 4th book of the Twilight (Vampire) Saga.....now I feel at a loss of what to do with myself. I am so sad its finally over. Its been a part of my life for so long now....I was always thinking about Edward and Bella through the day and what was going on with them and the Voltori, and Renesmee, if Charley was ever really going to find out EVERYTHING, how Jake was doing.......now I have all my answers. Its over. I'm just at a loss. A very very small part of me wants to start them all over.....but if I want to still have a husband, I'm pretty sure Sean would leave me.........I better not. I'll settle for the movie in three weeks.

October Madness

Crazy week!!! It started on Friday with Seans whole family who came up from Wasco (Baks area) and stayed with us through Monday. We had such a great weekend with all of them! Seans mom and dad, 2 sisters, and all their kids. Crazy house with 12 people, but if you know me, you know I LOVE the CHAOS!!! We threw Caleb his 3rd birthday party (birthday was Monday). We made a whole day of it and he loved it, of course, what kid wouldn't kill for a WHOLE day of birthday presents (KTM presents), cake, candy, and cousins???.....So the Gafner clan all left Monday, I cleaned to prep the house for Mom Group, which was at our house Tuesday morning. Again, tons of fun, Love the craziness.....16 moms, 25 ish kids (couldn't get a good count with all them running a hundred miles), candy hunt, carmel apples, apple cider, fun times. So thats done with and Tuesday I spend cleaning once again (good thing I love to clean), carving pumpkins with Sean and the kids, and then Wed, I go clean my grandmas house, watch the Lance kids (who are in the middle of moving) and then get ready for Life Group at our house, clean, wake up this morning and watch my brother and sisters kids all morning......*sigh*....needless to say, I am supposed to meet with some gals on Thursdays, but I called and canceled.....I am staying home and letting the kids rule the roost for the evening and NOT getting out of my pjs. Skylar said "Mom, why are you still in your pajamas??" so baffled that I didn't get dressed for the day (NEVER happens!), and I told her "cause we are CHILLIN today!". So as much as I SUPER LOVE having people over and doing things.....PLEASE don't call me to do anything! I am welcoming the rain with open arms and CLOSED doors!

Captivated

Skylar comes up to me the other day and says, "Mom! Guess what?!! " and I respond accordingly, "What honey?" Sky- "I AM GOING ON A DATE WITH DAD!! NO you NO Caleb and NO Ryder. JUST me and dad! A SPECIAL date". I was so stunned by the sweetness of her excitement, the thoughfulness and sweetness of my husband who is romancing our daughter. How sweet though. The look on her face was sooo stinkin sweet, she IS being pursued, and she FEELS it. She knows she is LOVED and she thrives in that. Sean is the best dad. Our Daughter is so blessed to see what a Man of God lookes like who loves his family and treasures his Daughter. I couldn't be happier.

So last night they went on thier "Date". Skylar got all dressed up in a beautiful dress and a big white bow. Sean got dressed up (way hot). And he knocked on the door and gave her a flower. He opened the truck door for her and away they went. Toy Store, Red Robin, Movie......she was glowing when they got home......she will remember this forever, thank you Babe for being that Dad to take the time to romance our daughter. We are so blessed by you.

Yep, October Fireworks....wierd....

18th of October.
Redding Fire Works..best year in the 23 years I have gone (one year we were in Boston, and 2 years I was in Sac). Crazy though, they really are amazing fireworks. They go on for like half and hour, all synched to the music....the fireworks going off at just the right beats. When the song is slow or quieter, the fireworks are slow and less intense and as the song revs up so do the fireworks.....I've always wondered how in the world they time it all just right. Practice? Do they have a dry run through when Redding is sleeping with the extra millions we have sitting around? Is it the same guys back there shooting the guns that were doing it 30 years ago? Do they have training for these types of things? Firework classes? hmmm...
anyway, outside of the great display, I don't think I've ever laughed so much. There was this lady sitting next to Dan....halarious. She literally "Praised Jesus" and "God Bless America" and had a whole dialogue going non-stop the entire time......we were dying. She was way into it.
And then there was the whole absolute -LOVING -through -my- kids thing. They are both at such a perfect age to watch them, they were in total awe the whole time. It was so awesome. I love my family, I love the lady that sat next to Dan, I love all the awesome people who came and hung out, I love seeing us be family together, I love that it was actually cold and we were able to all bundle up, I loved drinking a hot cup of coffee......I did NOT love the screaming goth band that got up there and scared all the kids.

Obsession

I have this obsession. I can't seem to get enough....the mix of the crazy saltiness and sweetness at the same time is amazing in my mouth. I buy it in bulk at Winco and go through it so fast. I love it.....its probably the reason the scale keeps asceding.....but I can't seem to stop...Trail Mix. Don't mess with me and my mix.....

Just....

..some cute pics of the fam....

First Fire

Yep. We had our first fire in our house last night during Life Group. I am standing in the kitchen serving everyone pumpkin and apple pie when I hear Rachel yell "We need a Fire Extinguisher!!" and then someone else was like, "Glass of water, we need water in the bathroom, FIRE!". I am so slow that I just stand there while everyone jumps up and I slowly get a cup....by then 10 other people had already gotten the cup and water and had it all taken care of.....Fire out. Everyones fine. My bathroom is up in smoke. No, it really wasn' that bad.....I am just an idiot. Back up to 1 hour before Life Group. I am going around decorating fall around the house. Ya know, pumpkins and fall leaves and candles and cute scarecrows, and yes, cinnamon pinecones. Not thinking, I put a bunch of leaves in a glass bowl/candle holder and put the candle in on top of it. It looked really pretty. SO fast forward 1/2 an hour and I am lighting all the candles I just placed around the house.....while talking on the phone. Light the candle in with all the leaves. Fast forward another 2 hours and there is a huge shattering noise. I didn't hear it though. Rachel and Dan go looking in on all the kids wondering where the noise came from and then last place, they look in the bathroom and huge flames.........Yes yes yes, the stinkin candle caught the leaves on fire which made the glass explode.....my freshly painted bathroom is now black....and my toilet is now black and there are little burn spots all over the floor. Ay yi yi. I take it in stride. Ya gotta. What is getting all upset going to do about it? It doesn't change anything....there will still be black on my wall, and toilet and burn spots on the floor.....All I can do is re-paint, cover up the floor and somehow work on the toilet......oh yah, and never put a candle in with a bunch of pretty leaves.........

Pinecones

I bought some Cinnamon Pinecones today. You know the ones they sell every fall. I've ALWAYS wanted to buy them. Never have....until now. I've always told myself "I'll just get those next year" and every year passes. Until now. I'm so excited. My house is going to smell of those pinecones. And Pumpkin Candles. And fresh baked (from scratch--and when I say scratch i mean from the actual pumpkin) pupkin pie. I freakin love fall. I am wearing a scarf....i think i'm pushing it too much cause i'm burning up.....

9 kids + 6 parents = being outnumbered

Edwardsons, Lances, Gafners......absloute craziness. We threw around the idea of either locking the kids in the house and us having a quite ralaxful dinner on the patio, locking the kids outside and us having a nice quite dinner in the house, but there was the whole Pool issue, Seans idea was my favorite, padding the whole toy room, throwing the kids in there and locking the door.....you may be thinking "Really, Rebecca? thats a little cruel".......in which case I would say, come on over and experience if for yourself....we'd have no argument.

No really, fun night. Here's some pics I snagged. Once again, you may be thinking "Oh how cute the kids are standing there with a cute little stuffed snake". Not standing. Running around the house pulling each other along. And running. And running. It took me like 15 tries to get a picture that wasn't all blurry...I should have turned it to action on my camera....anyway, after Caleb taking an insane header (note the second head protruding from his forehead), Sophia getting stampeded about 10 times (poor thing, had a rough night), Caleb taking another header, Adia taking a face plant, Caleb, again with the header (he's hard core), we decided to call it a night. Fun times. Thanks guys. Until next time.....(hopefully by then we'll have a fence around the pool, however I still got my bets on Zeke).....

Renovation

The Fun begins....(If I only knew what we were getting ourselves into!)






Sean spraying the accoustic and Dan scraping














Me and my dad taped down the entire house














Primer....everything!!!














My brother Scott and Sean ripping out the bathroom





This picture explains the 20 hour days.....













So its now a liveable home, and we LOVE it!! The crazy sleep deprived days are now behind us, we are unpacked and settling in. I think we made some kind of world record.....

A HUGE thanks to Dan, who was our HGTV man....seriously wouldn't know where our house would be without him :) thanks Dan, and Alyssa for loaning him out. Thanks Mom and Dad, Aaron Hayes. my brother Scott, TJ, Jamie Hartley, who by the way, is amazing. She ended up organizing her whole Life Group to meet at our Apt. Tuesday night and completely move us!! I was totally blown away! But seriously, thats what our Life Group and Church SHOULD look like....I am so stinkin blessed by our family!! Anyway, Brams, Hayes, Hartleys, Pericia and Eric, Amy, Julie Reed, Erica.....shoot, I hope I'm not missing anyone....

Stay tuned for a huge Appreciation dinner for ALL of you that helped :0) We'll party it up....can't wait.

Boys will be boys

I took Skylar to school this morning and come home to this in my driveway.....

I was gonna use these boxes to finish packing today......

It was pretty cute though....Sean and Caleb were totally into building their "Castle". I came home and was doing just random stuff around the house and Sean comes in and is like "Well? are you going to come see THE Castle?" and I'm like, "Uhhh, yah, I'll be right out"....I come out to Sean and Caleb crawling through the tunels killing dragons......Sean is such a good dad.

Now I have to go find some more boxes......

Thermos love

As most of you know, I have a 4 mo. old....but what you may not know is that I am no longer breastfeeding....I stopped about 2 mo. ago due to chronic Mastitis. So now my days and nights are filled with bottles, and formula (which secretely I like SO much better...but don't tell my mom).....so I have this routine every night before I go to bed....I get a bottle, fill it with the right amount of formula, get our thermos, fill it with warm water, get the whole can of formula (in case he wakes up more than once). I put all these things within arms reach of my pillow.

So last night I am mid bedtime routine, I get the thermos from its usual spot by my bed, and go to the bathroom to dump out the old remaining water and refill it with new warm water.....THE WATER IN IT IS STILL WARM!!!!! 24 hours!!! I was amazed. I have so much love for this thermos now.