Ben has his very first chair test tomorrow. 

Wish him luck!!

The "Perks" of Motherhood

Warning: Before reading you must know that the following list was written with complete and total sarcasm.

1) Cleaning pee out of the couch cushions.

2) Having to answer questions like "What are you doing in there?" while using the bathroom.

3) Being woken up by someone physically opening your eyelids.

4) Cleaning up puke in the morning when one of your children decides to wake up in the middle of the night and explode in the bathroom and not wake you.

5) Having to physically hold down your ten year old to get them to brush their teeth.

6) Trying to scrape cemented cereal out of a bowl that was put in the sink without rinsing it first.

7) Finding underwear in the middle of the laundry hamper that someone had an accident in and didn't inform you about.

8) Potty training! (see number 1)

9) Getting a Dora or Yo Gabba Gabba or Sesame Street or any other children's show song stuck in your head for hours.

10) Stepping on Legos left on the floor.

11) Whining in any way, shape, or form.

12) Temper tantrums. The End!

These are just to name a few. If I don't laugh about it, I will go crazy.

Mounds Stuffed Crescent Rolls

Don't let this simple exterior fool you.

Okay, so I have been sucked into the Pinterest website. During my daily perusing of the site I have found some great links to fun/yummy/sinful recipes and recipe blogs. One of which was for Reese's Stuffed Crescent Rolls. The name is pretty self explanatory, but basically it is half of a Reese's cup wrapped in a crescent roll, seal up the ends and bake as directed on the crescent roll packaging. Then, top with powdered sugar. Needless to say, they are wonderful! But, as soon as we tasted these delightful little treats, my mind started spinning about all the other candy bars you could wrap in a crescent roll. Snickers, Milky Way, Almond Joy, etc.... So, we went and bought some bags of the bite size candy bars and some packages of crescent rolls. The first one we tried was a yummy dark chocolate and coconut Mounds bar. I can honestly say that the consensus was that these tasted better than the Reese's. 

Be sure to seal up the ends really well so the goodness doesn't flow out while baking.

Ooey, gooey and hot fresh from the oven.

You have to try out this extremely simple, extremely yummy recipe. Let me know how you like it and what other fillings you want to try. Next on my list is Snickers. YUM!!

Grandma's Visit

Grandma Bickerstaff came to visit us for Hyrum's baptism and to spend time with the kiddos while I went to Girls Camp. I am very grateful her giving of her time to be here with the kids while I was gone and Michael was working. The kids really enjoyed their time with her. This was the first time that Angela had met her, and the first time the boys have seen her since Levi's blessing in January of 2007. Hopefully, it wont be so long until they get to spend time with her again.

Hyrum's Baptism

On June 5th, 2011, Hyrum was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is now the fourth member of our family. Which gives us more baptized members than non-baptized members of our family. I am so proud of him for making the decision to not only be baptized, but also to have the desire to be taught by the missionaries before being baptized. He was baptized by his father and confirmed by Elder Robison. Hyrum was the first confirmation that Elder Robison had ever done.

Spring has sprung!

And so has baseball season. We are very active in our local baseball organization this year with 3 of our boys playing. Adam is playing T-ball, Hyrum is playing machine pitch and Ben is playing his 2nd year of PeeWees. We have been crazy busy with practices every week night except Wednesday, and last week was the first week of league games.
Hyrum started out with a coach pitch tournament in Ringling. His team won their first game on Friday night, and had two really close games on Saturday afternoon.

Hyrum's first time at bat. He didn't get a hit, but he did get hit with the ball.

He got to play the pitcher position when fielding even though he didn't pitch.

Adam's first game was on Tuesday. I didn't get any good pictures, because we were facing the sun. Adam had another game on Thursday. Not only did Adam's team win this game, but Adam got his very first run.

Adam up to bat. 

Running to 1st base. This is the first time he made it to 1st without getting tagged.

Waiting at 1st for the next batter to hit.

Woohoo! He made it to 2nd base.

Rounding the corner at 3rd base to run home.

Crossing home plate.

Ben played his first game on Tuesday too, but I didn't get any pictures from his game for some reason. Thats what you get for trying to watch three different game on the same night, and because I was cheering so loud. Ben's team scored two runs, and he was one of the runs. Way to go, Ben! Ben's team had another game on Thursday, but Ben got sick during Field Day at school and couldn't participate in the game. He was there to cheer on his team mates though.

Hyrum had his first league game on Tuesday. This was also the first time to bat with the machine pitching which makes the pitches more accurate. 

He didn't get a hit, but he was so close.

Tonight starts week 2 of baseball games galore. Thursday the boys all play at the same time on different fields, so I will be running like a mad woman around the ballpark trying to catch a little of each game. It should be interesting.

I know it has been way too long since I last posted on here. There hasn't been much going on here in Oklahoma for us lately except baseball practices galore. The boys have there first official league games tonight, and I will be posting pictures. Other than that, I have been trying to prepare for Girl's Camp in June and Youth Conference in July. Also, Hyrum is going to be taking the discussions with the missionaries starting this Saturday. I love that he has expressed interest in doing this before he is baptized. It's hard for me to believe that he is going to be 8 in just a couple of weeks, and then he will be getting baptized the first weekend in June while Michael's mom is here. They grow up way too fast. So, stay tuned for some good posts coming up soon.

This is the reason why mother's worry about whats going on at home when they are away. Thanks goodness this didn't occur in my home. But, if it ever did, I would hope that Michael would video it too, because this is just too funny. (Sorry about the lame movie trailer at the beginning.)

Somewhere over the...

Our family tradition, since we are of Irish descent, is to have an authentic Irish dinner for St. Patrick's Day every year. My house was filled with the scent of corned beef, potatoes and cabbage this afternoon. YUM!! We also bought some Dubliner cheese imported from Ireland. Some liked its robust flavor (Michael, Ben and Hyrum) and some did not.

And, while our oh so yummy corned beef was on the stove I was painstakingly coloring and layering rainbow cupcakes for dessert. I don't know that I will ever try to make them again, but they did turn out beautiful, if I do say so myself. I definitely didn't hear any complaints when it came to eating them.

After all is said and done, a merry St. Paddy's Day was had by the Bickerstaff family.

10 years, 7 months, 2 weeks and 1 day ago I married my sweetheart. 

June 30th, 2000

He was literally heaven sent. No, he wasn't perfect and he still isn't, but he tries. He can make me so angry, and he can make me laugh out loud. He makes me feel beautiful even when I'm bloated, cranky and still in my jammies when he gets home from work. He understands me even when I don't quite understand me. And, he always says he loves me before going to sleep at night even if we aren't happy with each other at the time. We are like 2 puzzles pieces that fit together so perfectly, and along with our 5 other puzzle pieces, we are complete.

I love you, Michael, on Valentine's Day and every other day too!!

SNOW!!

Finally something to show for the freezing cold weather.

The view of the fresh morning snow from the front door.

With 11 degree weather with a -10 wind chill and 23 mph winds what do the kids want to do? Go play in the snow, of course! It took at least 30 minutes to get all the boys (Dad included) bundled up for outside play.

Adam lost interest is getting the picture taken before it was done.

They only lasted outside for maybe 10 minutes, but they had loads of fun before they started crying that their hands were frozen.

Levi didn't want to have a snowball fight so he just watched the craziness.

Michael was as excited as the boys, if not more, to get the fight on.

You can't tell from all the layers, but Levi is smiling for the camera.

Angela was less than happy that I wouldn't let her go out too. Maybe when the winds aren't blowing so hard.

"Mommy, I want to go out and freeze with the boys."

Even more Confessions of a Crazy Mommy Person!!

Here I go again!!

1~ I love my kids, but they get under my skin sometimes a lot. My home is so much happier when I just have my two little ones home. The older boys really love to push my buttons and torment their younger siblings. On regular school days my house is quiet and Levi and Angela get along so well. (You can tell we have had a rough MLK morning, so far.)

2~ I love Wednesday evenings! It is the only time I ever get to go anywhere without my kiddos. And, I get to hang out with the best youth ever!!

3~ I prefer hand washing dishes. Granted, we don't have a dishwasher, but it seems like the dishes get done better and more often now that I have to wash them by hand. It also is kinda relaxing to stand at the sink and look out the window while scrubbing away.

4~ I wish I could hire someone to potty train Angela, and have it magically be done. I have potty trained 4 out of 5 of my kiddos and it is one of my least favorite things to do.

5~ I am kinda, maybe starting to find Oklahoma somewhat bearable a little. ( Shhhhhh!! Don't tell anyone!!)

6~ I wish I could stay in my pajamas every day. They are the perfect clothing. They are comfy and warm, and they don't care if you are bloated or irritable.

7~ I am reading Twilight...again, and this isn't just my second time reading it. The whole Twilight series has become my old standby when there is nothing else for me to read. I really thought that it would get easier every time I read it, but it is still almost impossible to put down.

8~ Michael and I have lists of 5 famous people that we would have permission to cheat on the other person with if we ever met them and the possibility arose. Both of our lists change with the times, but Johnny Depp is and always will be my #1. I have loved him ever since Edward Scissorhands. Mmmmmm

These are my super, sweet, awesome Young Women that I have the greatest opportunity to serve in our ward. They teach me so much about how I should be, and how to love unconditionally. They truly are the best examples of daughters of our Heavenly Father. I am so excited to be able to go to Girl's Camp with them in June.  

Clockwise from the top: Lydia, Sidnye, Jessica, Emilie, Daphne & Stormy

I really, really, really LOVE being in Young Women, and they are the reason why!!

Sock hands

Angela is still pulling out her hair, but now only on the right side of her head. I don't know which was worse. All over or just on one side. I seriously thought she would stop after her ear tubes were put in May, and then after we shaved her head in the summer. But, alas, no deal. I think it has become a comfort technique that goes along with sucking her left index finger. Thus the pulling only on her right side. Now she is lopsided. Her hair has grown back nicely on the left side and top of her head but the right side is picked clean. I finally am on my last idea and that is having her wear socks on her hands. We started with just a sock on her right hand, but she was starting to try to pull with her left hand. So, both hands it is. We even have to put tape around the cuff of the sock so she can't take them off when she is sleeping. The only time they come off is while she is eating and in the bath. I can survive the funny looks from people as long is this will work. I don't want to sound superficial, but I want to have my only girl have long beautiful hair that I can do all kinds of fun things with. She is very beautiful and has a great personality, but I need her to have hair. Please, keep your fingers crossed that this will work eventually. I know I am.

Angela a year ago on Christmas before she started pulling out her hair. You can see that she had a lot of hair with enough for a pony tail on top and pig tails too.

Angela before her surgery to have tubes put in her ears. You can see how much hair she had pulled out between Christmas 2009 and May 2010.

Angela at the end of June 2010 right after I shaved her head to get her to stop pulling her hair out, and start over new with even hair or so I had hoped.

Angela a few days ago with her lopsided hair. You can see that her hair has grown back on the left side, but the right side is bald.

Things to look forward to in 2011

1) Angela will be potty trained and we will have no more kids in diapers!!

2) Levi will start pre-kindergarten in the fall.

3) Adam will improve on his reading skills, and continue to amaze us with his intellect.

4) Hyrum turns eight in May, can be baptized, and starts Cub Scouts.

5) Ben will earn his bear rank in Cub Scouts and start Webelos when he turns 10. (Am I even old enough to have a 10 year old?)

6) Michael will be starting nursing school.

7) I get to go to GIRLS CAMP!!! WooHoo!!!

8) We will celebrate our 1oth anniversary as an eternal family in June.

This is just the beginning of the list of great things that will be happening throughout this year.

A very Bickerstaff Christmas

Though we would have liked to have seen our extended families during the holiday season,  we enjoyed a very blessed Christmas at home this year. Most of us stayed in our jammies all day and relaxed. Which was just what we needed. We were very thankful that Daddy had the day off of work so he could play all day with the kids. Fun was had by all. We hope your Christmas was blessed and wish you the best in the year to come.

The Blessings of Personal Progress

The following is the talk I gave at church this morning:

I was asked to speak by Bishop Ferrin about a month ago, and I have been putting up a good fight because public speaking is my least favorite thing to do. It terrifies me even more than spiders. But the subject that I have been asked to speak about has become near and dear to my heart over the last year.

As most of you probably already know, I am a convert to the church. I joined the church in April of 2000 just a few weeks before my 21st birthday. Since I joined as an adult I never had the opportunity to be in Primary as a child or Young Women as a teenager. I also have never had a calling in Young Women until I moved here. So serving in the Young Women program has been a very new experience for me, and I absolutely love working with the Youth in this ward especially the Young Women.

Over the last year I have been introduced to Personal Progress. This is the program that the leaders of the church have developed for the young women of the church between the ages of 12 and 18.

The Young Women Theme says:
We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us ,and we love Him.
We will “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places” as we strive to live the Young Women values, which are:
Faith* Divine Nature* Individual Worth* Knowledge* Choice & Accountability* Good Works* Integrity and Virtue
We believe as we come to accept and act upon these values, we will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation.

Through Personal Progress the Young Women are able to strengthen their faith in and testimony of Jesus Christ by learning His teachings and regularly applying them to their lives. It helps to strengthen both their present families and future families. It helps to prepare them to make and keep sacred covenants and receive the ordinances of the temple. And it will prepare them to be faithful, contributing members of the church.

The Personal Progress program uses the eight Young Women values to help these young girls more fully understand who they are, why they are here on Earth and what they should be doing as a daughter of God to prepare for the day they go to the temple to make sacred covenants. It will also help them prepare for their future roles as faithful women, wives, mothers, and leaders in God’s kingdom. It teaches them to make commitments, carry them out and report their progress to a parent or leader. They will establish personal daily habits such as prayer, scripture study, service and journal keeping as they work on Personal Progress. These habits will help them learn and improve throughout theirs lives as they increase their testimonies.

In order for a Young Women to complete her Personal Progress she will need to:
● Regularly attend sacrament meeting.
● Live the standards in For the Strength of Youth.
● Keep a personal journal.
● Attend seminary or participate in independent study.
● Read the Book of Mormon regularly.
● Record her testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ.
● Complete the value experiences and value project for each of the eight values.

Each of the values except virtue has three required value experiences that they must complete. They also have three additional value experiences to complete that can be selected from the options in their book or they can write up to two of their own experiences that must be approved by a parent or leader. The virtue value has four required value experiences. Each of the values also has a value project that must take at least ten hour to complete. Virtue has a required project of reading the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. While reading they must regularly record their thoughts in their journals, and then, after completion, record their testimony.

Now I am going to touch on each of the individual values and the blessings that they will receive from them.

The first value is faith. In Alma 32:21 it says: “Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” By completing the experiences and project for faith they will know that they are a daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves them. They will have faith in His eternal plan which centers on the Savior Jesus Christ.

The second value is divine nature. 2 Peter 1:4-7 states: “Be partakers of the divine nature...Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” By completing the experiences and project for divine nature they will know that they inherited divine qualities and strive to develop them.

The third value is individual worth. By completing the experiences and project for individual worth they will know of their infinite worth with their own divine mission to fulfill. In Doctrine and Covenants chapter 18 verse 10 it says: “Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God”

Fourth we have the value of knowledge. It says in Doctrine and Covenants 88:118: “Seek learning, even by study and also by faith” Through completing the value experiences and project for knowledge they will continually seek opportunities for learning and growth.

Choice & accountability is the fifth value. Upon completion of the experiences and project for choice & accountability they will be able to choose good over evil and accept responsibility for their decisions. Joshua 24:15 states: “Choose you this day whom ye will serve;. . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”

The next value is good works. “Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven” 3 Nephi 12:16. By completing the experiences and project for knowledge they will help others and build the kingdom through righteous service.

The seventh value is integrity. In Job chapter 27 verse 5 is says: “Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me” They will have the moral courage to make their actions consistent with their knowledge of right and wrong when they complete the value experiences and project for integrity.

The final and newest value is virtue. Upon completion of the experiences and project for virtue the Young Women will prepare to enter the temple and remain pure and worthy. Their thoughts and actions will be based on high moral standards. In Proverbs 31:10 it says: “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies”

My Young Womanhood Medallion earned December 19, 2010

After completing all the value experiences and projects for the eight Young Women values she will have an interview with the bishop and be able to receive her Young Womanhood Recognition certificate and medallion. But even more important, she will have received the habits, knowledge and skills to help her throughout her mortal and eternal life.

President Ezra Taft Benson in “To the Young Women of the Church” said, “Give me a young woman who loves home and family, who reads and ponders the scriptures daily, who has a burning testimony of the Book of Mormon. Give me a young woman who faithfully attends her church meetings, who is a seminary graduate, who has earned her Young Womanhood Recognition Award and wears it with pride! Give me a young woman who is virtuous and who has maintained her personal purity, who will not settle for less than a temple marriage, and I will give you a young woman who will perform miracles for the Lord now and throughout eternity.”

I know that Personal Progress is a divine program that was developed to prepare Young Women for their eternal roles. That by completing this program they “will be prepared to strengthen home and family, make and keep sacred covenants, receive the ordinances of the temple, and enjoy the blessings of exaltation”. I leave this with you in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Have a "Rockin" Christmas!!

More confessions of a crazy mommy person!!

1~ I LOVE steaming hot showers. So hot that the water scalds a bit when it touches your skin,  the whole bathroom fills with steam, and everyone in the house gripes that you stole all the hot water. Hehehe
2~I don't hate Christmas, but I could live without Christmas music except at church on Sundays in December and on Christmas day. I think I used up all my Christmas music tolerance in 2001 when they started playing it after 9/11.
3~ Christmas is one of my least favorite holidays. It has gotten WAY too commercial. The stores seem to bring out the Christmas garb earlier and earlier every year. I want my kids to know the REAL meaning of Christmas and not worry about what a fat man in a red suit is going to leave under the tree for them on Christmas morning.
4~ I cannot stand calling people on the phone! It scares me to death. Don't get me wrong, I like talking on the phone just not the act of calling someone. I LOVE it when people call me though. As long as it isn't someone asking me to talk at church.
5~ I like Facebook a little too much. Okay, WAY too much! Having recently (within the last year) moved away from all my friends it is one of the only ways of keeping in contact with them, because I don't have long distance and probably wouldn't call them anyways. (See number 4)
6~ I am incredibly impatient!! I want what I want and I want it NOW!! It probably could be connected to the fact that I NEVER get what I want. Sometimes it causes me to throw a grown up temper tantrum. And, I actually wonder where my kids get it from. Hmmmm
7~ I get nervous really easily. All I have to do is think about something and I get butterflies in my tummy and my heart starts beating faster. Its probably a good thing I have never done anything that would cause me to have to be given a lie detector test, because I would SO fail just because I get so nervous. I especially get nervous if I have to call someone that I am not used to talking to on the phone (See number 4) or if I have to go somewhere and see people I have never met before.
8~ I am a reader!! I will totally neglect everything I have to do if I am reading an awesome book that I cannot put down. I don't happen to find these books very often, but when it does happen, you better just count me out of doing anything productive.
9~ I almost always have a song in my head. I go to sleep with one and wake up with one. Sometimes there are many different ones or the same one for days on end. What I can't figure out is how you can get a song in your head that you haven't heard in years. Makes ya think!
10~ I only like even numbers or things in groups of five. I can't eat three of something. I have to either eat two or four, and if its cookies it will definitely be four or maybe even five. And, even worse than odd numbers are prime numbers, and it really drives me nuts that we have seven people in our family.

Confessions of a crazy mommy person!!

First of all, I want to thank Suzy for giving me this idea because I totally stole it from her. Second, I am titling this confessions of a crazy mommy person, because I am more than just unbalanced and my identity has become that of the mommy. So, in this post and maybe some more posts in the future, I will confess some of the things that I always want to tell people but never have the guts to share.

1~ I am not afraid of becoming my mother as I grow older, but I am terrified of becoming my mother-in-law. My mother is an awesome, strong person and I would love to be that person too. My mother-in-law is....(Katy, if you are reading this, you know what I mean).
2~ I have had 5 kids naturally and because of this I have a very weak bladder. Especially when jumping on the trampoline and doing certain things in TaeKwonDo. So, I have to completely empty my bladder before doing these things and usually wear a pantyliner for just in case I spring a leak.
3~ I wish I was 17/18 again, but with the knowledge that I have now. I think about the "what ifs" way too much lately, and want to go back and make different choices. I also think that juniors clothing is way better than grown up clothing.
4~ I worry way too much about what other people think of me. It doesn't really matter what they think and I know that, but I have the natural need to please people and be liked.
5~ I say "seriously" and "crap" all the time. I am working on cutting this down to a bare minimum, but the outlook doesn't look good.
6~ I am a daddy's girl through and through. I am more like him than my mom, and we have always had a very special bond.
7~ I am selfish. I don't like to share and I think about myself and what I want more than I should.
8~ I don't want Angela to be a daddy's girl. I want her to prefer me over anyone else. (See number 7.)
9~ Everyone thinks I am skinny, but I look in the mirror and see that I could lose a fews pounds. I want my jeans to be a little bit loose and have to buy a smaller size.
10~ I HATE talking about politics! I have very strong political views, but cannot stand when people talk about politics all the time. Michael is included in this. He could talk about politics all day long and he loves to listen to political radios shows. BORING!! I don't want to hear about it.