Guess who's back?

So maybe, just maybe I'm going to start blogging again. I am always up for adding a few more things to my plate. All is well in the Frehner household. Kids are fabulous. Dominic is in first grade and is super smart. He recently received an award for most "AR" points in first grade. We love, love, love his sweet teacher, Miss Mcdermott. She challenges him and is so good to him. I hope he will continue to have awesome teachers!
Jade is a spunky and sassy five year old. She is in gymnastics and pre school. She is our social butterfly. She loves to listen and dance to music and loves all things girly. I think we might be in trouble with her cuteness:) She is kind and helpful. We like to stick together in this house full of boys!
Hudson is my wild child. He love to play outside in his underwear and bare feet. He loves to water the rocks if he has to go potty;) He is so difficult and stubborn in some ways, and so loving and adorable almost always. He has a real sweet spot in my heart:)
Lincoln has got to be the world's most easy-going baby. He is so good. He eats well, sleeps well and is just a happy kid. I can't believe he will be 1 in a couple of weeks. Love that kid! Wish he would stay little. He thinks he should be walking. He climbs up on furniture like he is  so big. He makes it to the top of the stairs and nearly gives grandma Wendy a heart attack!
Me…I am keeping busy doing my little photography thing and serving in the RS presidency. Brad recently started a new job at an accounting firm. He is super busy right now, but we are hoping that slows down a bit soon. We miss our Daddy!

I'm often up at 2:30 a.m.

Why? I'm not really sure. Lots of nights I work on pictures, sometimes (not often enough) I clean, other times I think I just enjoy having a little quiet time to do pretty much nothing. I'm kind of an insomniac. Tonight, my two youngest were sharing in my sleeplessness. I had the opportunity to volunteer for four hours tonight at the Cub Scout Day Camp (and yes, I realize all blessing from doing so are now cancelled because I'm announcing it to the world instead of serving quietly…working on that…see a few posts below…) Anywho…kids were at my mom's until Brad picked them up. Then they fell asleep on the way home, then they proceeded to take a three hour power nap at 6 p.m. Which means they were wide awake at 9:00 til little Roonie finally fell asleep at 1:06. Did I mention I herded cub scouts around and took pictures of 400 of them tonight?

Okay, no more griping. I have be insanely busy with pictures. Which is awesome! Love, love, love being able to get out of the house, have a little spending money and meet very cool people.

As for all the happenings of summer…we are enjoying it. I took two trips to Utah with the kids (by myself…) not because Brad doesn't enjoy "vacationing" in the fabulous state of Utah with his hot wife and 3 toddlers, but because he just got a new job. He is working at Station Casinos again.

Okay, here's the good part… some pictures.

Crap. I hate that I can't tell when I'm uploading pictures. Dominic loved participating in Sawyer's pack meeting while we were in Utah. He wanted to know when he was going to get to be in scouts. I'm sure the 50 foot slip 'n slide had NOTHING to do with it.
Me and the babes waiting to ride TRAX after going to Temple Square. Either Lori and I are the blondest people to to and figure out that dang thing, or it's not very user friendly…don't answer that.
Family reunion in Cedar! We loved swimming at the pool. By we, I mean Brad and the kids. Not sure how my suit didn't get packed. Brad wore them out in the pool, then I drove them to PG to hang with Lori and co. for a few days.
Thought with all the pictures I take of other people, I should try to squeeze in a few of my own kiddos. Love them. Seriously, looking at these guys makes me want to be a better person.
This stinker turn 2 in July! He cracks me up and when he doesn't have his dang "saaassy" in his mouth, the boy can carry on quite the conversation. My favorite thing as of late, is when he wants something from JAde or D and yells at them and says, "SHARE." Clear as a bell. Pretty darn funny.

5, Really?

Dominic turned 5 today. Last night he had a "Mario and Luigi" party…yeah, no decorations for those. Nintendo apparently is pretty darn stingy with their copyrights…so I had to improvise. I just wish that I didn't have quite so many irons in the fire, as usual, and perhaps my improvisation skills would have been better!

However, he's 5, and although he loved his party, the tiny details that I get a little OCD about, mean little to D…he was just thrilled to pieces that his cousins and friends were there!

We ate pizza, had a "Yoshi Egg Hunt" and smacked the crap out of a piñata! And then had cake…yes, the cake.

I'm a little embarrassed to even blog about my stupidity of the Mario cake. Every other year I make a cake (6 hours making Elmo on his second birthday…check) or cupcakes (4 dozen worm cupcakes on his 3rd bday…check) (oh wait, those got obliterated by the cooler and I had to by nasty, greasy Food 4 Less ones…)

Anyway, I couldn't for the life of me find any Mario anything cake. I knew my time was super limited before the party…so I wanted to purchase his cake. Finally, after scouring the internet for ideas and going to every grocery store…a nice lady at Smith's came to my rescue. She could make a Mario cake. Done. All I had to do was buy the little figurines to go on top. She assured me I could find them at Toys 'R Us. Okay, no problem. The cake came to $25…not $3.00, like homemade cupcakes, but I'll take it.

So, Brad goes to get the little Mario guys to go on the cake…I knew they would be pricey. In my head I had $15 for some reason…$26.99! WTH!!!! I want stock in these plastic guys that couldn't cost more than 5 cents to make. (I think I might be the only one crazy/dumb enough to purchase them.)

So long story short…these five little plastic figurines cost more than a sheet cake that fed 50 people!

Other than that small oopsie, it was a great party…great day…for a great kid.

Tonight we celebrated by going to the park as a family and having some McDonald's. (DD requested spaghetti, but I had no sauce and was too beat to go to the store and then make dinner…Mom of the year right here.)

Brad showing the kids how to roll down the hill. I thought it was the coolest thing…so did the kids. Good thing they have one fun parent, right!

DD got a camera from Grandma and Grandpa Sheila (as he calls them). Makes my little heart happy to see him snapping away all day long.

A beautiful day

Playing duck, duck…goose!

Serious snacking going on…

My boy needs a haircut…bad.

I remember when my sister's kids that are 15 months apart went through this phase where people thought they were twins. Hudson always seemed soo much smaller than my other kids…but he is catching up big time.

I have the kids do "races" every time we go to the park. It tires them out very nicely:) I join in on some of them too, but since I had my big camera today I sat out.

Trying to get five kids under five to get in the same picture is darn near impossible.

Cute girl in piggies:)

Roonie doing his "excited face." Pretty darn cute in person…the face and the kid:)

I love this picture:)

I know that in just a few short months doing anything outside will be completely unbearable. So when the temperature is PERFECT, like it was today, I try to take full advantage. Plus, I'm a firm believer in taking my kids out in the sunshine. It's good for them. It's good for me. I'm less cranky when I get an hour of pure detox time in it. Today, we went to Hailey Hendricks park by my mom and dad's house. No swings (plus for me because Dominic can't try to wedge his huge self into baby swings) but plenty of toddler play! We were the only ones there too!

On the way home we rocked the mini-van out to Taylor Swift. All five kids were be-bopping to the music. Then Dominic wanted to "rock out" to his primary music. So I turned on and Lukey and Dominic were belting out the words…so cute!

The perfect Saturday…

I always have lofty visions of the perfect Saturday. It consists of perfect weather (we had it), going on an outing (yeah for the carousel!), getting pictures (got some!) and going out to eat (check!)

Love my little kiddos and their sweetness. Jade was scared to ride the carousel so Dominic held her hand the entire time. Such a good big brother. Poor Hudson crashed right before we got there. He has a nice nap while on the carousel. Then we went to eat at a little chicken place. We ate outside. It was a perfect day for me. :)

Getting my Martha on:)

I've been in the crafty mood lately. I made these little goodies for Dominic's teachers for Valentine's day. He has two teacher and two assistants. Hope they enjoy the shabby-chic-homemade-look:)

They were super easy and cheap! The little blocks are left over from my Dad cutting me a billion at Christmas to make some ornaments for my Mom…the picture frames were on clearance at Target for $1.74 or something. I got the vinyl but still have a ton of that left.

Maybe someday I'll decorate my own house instead of just giving away everything cute I make!

All about me:)

I am kind of digging this updating my blog thing. It's so much more substantial than facebook. Tonight I am going to write a little bit about myself. I went to an Enrichment meeting tonight and a very dear Sister gave a "fireside" type lesson. It was pretty cool…probably mostly because it counted as some alone time for me. (Love that my hubby knows that is an important thing and never gripes when I need it!)

Anyway…she is a marriage and family therapist. She is just interesting. She taught us this technique that gets both sides of your brain working together to cope, deal, etc. with situations. So, I struggle with Dominic in the morning, and I am going to try it to see if it helps.

It was also on self-esteem and self-worth, so I've decide to post about myself tonight:)

Okay, on to some ramblings about myself…

1. I love food. I just ate some red peppers and dip and it was just about the best thing I every put into my mouth. I enjoy cooking when I have a clean kitchen and hope to one day have a bigger kitchen with more counter space. But mostly, I love food. All types, everything. I love home cooked meals as well as eating out. Lately, I like to only go to dine sans children. Not that my kids are bad, just too much money and anxiety with the whole family.

I like healthy food and unhealthy food…I don't discriminate:) I would rather run ten miles than deny myself food or whole food groups for that matter. I don't think I would be a successful dieter. EVER. I try to develop the mantra of making better food choices…

2. I joke around about having adult ADD, but seriously, I think I have it. I like to bounce from project to project and keep things new and fresh. I start something and sometimes never finish, or finish right away. It's kind of a problem:)

3. I am perfectly happy being a wife and mother. I think it took working really hard for what seemed like many years to fully appreciate my divine role in life. I think if I would have gotten married and had kids first, before working full time I might have had a grass is greener attitude, but when I worked, my job was stressful to me. It was in sales. My "bosses" wanted to see performance and money. I worked with many wonderful people, but I also worked with people that were pretty slimy. There is not a day goes by that I don't sincerely thank Heavenly Father for being able to stay home with my kids. I still have dreams and border-line panic attacks about working.

4. I am fiercely loyal. I don't do well when people speak ill or find fault with people or ideas that I hold dear. That can be an admirable quality, but it's also caused me to get myself worked up over things that I should let go of. The closer the person or idea, the greater it affects me:)

(Speaking of fiercely loyal and work, today I was helping in DD's classroom and some girl comes in to take his yearbook make-up picture. I immediately was on edge because I knew they weren't printing their yearbook through the company I used to work for. I wanted to join the PTA just so I could take over and make a good looking yearbook and print it with Herff Jones… I've got problems, I know!)

5. I'm not a fan of negative people. I sometimes get physically ill because of contentious people.

6. I am not a morning person. My kids are all really good sleepers. I am so grateful for that.

7. I try to keep an eternal perspective on things. I am not always great at it, but I try.

8. Brad and I have a very different sense of humor. He has one, and I don't:)

9. I think Brad has character. I admire that so much in him. I used to be an avid listener to Dr. Laura. I really liked her show. At first I thought she was super harsh and almost rude to people. But the more I listened, the more I understood whet she was saying. She wanted people to develop character. Brad has that. It's being who you are no matter who is watching. It is not being worried about other people, but doing right because it's right and having those conviction no matter what. I love that Brad helps people because it's his personality. And he does so quietly. He is kind even if people are a little annoying. I'm pretty sure that's why he's my hubby, because I have a lot to learn in that department. He is calm, and I need that.

10. I like to shop. I could spend hours at Ross, Marshall's, Home Goods, Kohls, anywhere. Just looking. It's so relaxing to me. I love looking at things. I love it even more when I am with my sister(s) and/or sister-in-law(s). I don't even really have to buy stuff. I just love to shop.

11. I really wish I had someone I could call up during the day and hang out or be crazy with me and drag all our kids to Target to shop, or go to the park, or library or come over and craft, etc. I have friends, but I get too nervous to call people up to do dumb things spontaneously. I loved when my sister lived here and would call me to go to Kohls at 8:00 p.m. It is one of my fondest memories!

12. I used to and might still do have a little complex about being okay at a lot of things but not being really good and a few things…dumb and confusing, I know. I don't feel like elaborating right now…

13. I am trying to enjoy little moments more. Today, my sweet little Jade told me she wanted to be a mommy when she grows up. She wants five babies and to push them in a stroller…love it! Today Dominic and I were playing Super Mario Brothers, I kept overreacting and getting all ticked (jokingly) when I died…I think he was getting a kick out of it. And Hudson, love his cute little way he bobs his head to music and dances.

Okay…wrote enough about myself for a few years:) I'm sure many of my thoughts are pretty universal to mothers/women/sisters/girls. :)

Okay, to have my face this big scared me a little, so I moved the pic to the bottom of the post:)