Welcome's and Goodbye's

Last Thursday I made a quick trip up north to welcome my new niece and to watch my only sis open her mission call. I'm the only one out of my sisters and brothers now who hasn't gone on a mission. My brother Justin's baby, Taylor Ann, was born at the exact same time that my sister opened her mission call...lots of fun! I am loving that new baby's keep coming to our family, I've been the only one with kids for long enough. She is a cute little thing and it's fun and a bit weird to watch my brothers turn into Dad's. It kinda makes me feel old.

Kara is going to the Cleveland OH mission with a special emphasis on the church historical sites (Kirtland, OH). I am so proud of her and her willingness to serve. She will be an awesome missionary. She has always been such a great example to me even though she is my younger sister. My kids are going to miss their "Aunt Kara"!

Gripes or Gratitude

Okay so funny thing is that I started this post to gripe about how much I HATE LAUNDRY... then instead I was washed over with extreme gratitude. I have been caught many times complaining about the piles of laundry that I have to wash, dry, fold, iron, hang, and put away. I seriously have piles of laundry all over my house that even if it's clean, I never seem to put away. So instead I am going to make a list of the things about laundry that I'm grateful for...

1. I love the smell of clean laundry.

2. Warm socks, or sweatshirts right out of the dryer.

3. The fact that we are so blessed to have a variety of nice clothes. More than one pair of pants, socks, underwear etc... others ain't that lucky.

4. I am extra lucky to have 2 washers and dryers. One set upstairs one down. This is super nice and I know that I am blessed to have great appliances. I'm just grateful that I'm not outin some river rubbing my clothes up against a rock.

5. The fact that I have so many clothes proves that each one of my little people are here. I wouldn't sacrafice anybody in my ever growing family to have less laundry. They are worth every minute of work.

I'm not sure why I am so blessed, but I was grateful today to take one minute to thank my heavenly father for turning my gripes into gratitude.

I think I would like to turn this into a tag. November is a good month to remember what we are grateful for soooo....find one thing that you gripe about and turn it into something you're grateful for. I tag Kendra, Amy M., Natalie J., Shannon C., Jobi, Lisa F., and Jenni with an I!

Three busy weeks One long post!

I am trying to sum up the last three weeks in one post so be warned that this may be LONG!

We have had some fun events;

1.Stu's big hunt! (This didn't happen in the last three weeks, but he would be mad if I didn't make some sort of reference to his MAN trip, plus I do get those fun girly butterflies in my stomach when I think that Stu is tough enough to kill me some dinner!) You'll have to ask Stu for the whole story, but what I do know is that he had a blast with his nephew Nate, and Shad (Nate's cousin). I don't really understand hunting, and I guess I never will, but it's a great stress release for Stu and so he is welcome to go...as long as it is only once or twice a year. Watch the video below to hear it from Stu's mouth!

2.Wirig Family Annual Halloween Bash. This years family halloween party was soooo fun. We couldn't get up there until after Stu's work so we drove north while I got each child and myself dressed in their costumes. Let me remind you that I am doing this in the car. When we finally got there we were surprised by the AWESOME decorations, and super fun costumes. Justin and Sarah were in charge of games and they had some fun ones. Hit the bat with the eyeball, bobbing for apples, and a fun prize auction. We also did a dessert competition and a costume competition. Here's some pics from the fun!Camden the NINJA

Tooth Fairy and Tooth! Ha ha

My kids favorite treat!
Bobbin' for apples! Dead Bride and Groom! Mom and Dad!
Meet the Flintstones...Check out baby pebbles bone bow!
Papa Smurf aka Kimball He won the costume contest!
Paige and Mike in their 70's threads!

Tooth fairy Kara, Mini witch Joss, and dead bride Betty(mom)

That's my mom's real wedding dress...She still fits in it!

This is the only picture I have of my three boys...Jack the Pumpkin king, Pirate Mitch, and Ninja Ahoy it's pirate Danielle and the giant tooth Adam(Kara's friend)!
White Trash Stu...he took this picture himself!
St. Louis Cardinal player or fans???Aunt Lois and Uncle Scott!
Grandma and Grandpa in their "this is what we will look like if Obama wins the presidency" outfits! ha ha! The Sound of Music family! Steve Natalie and baby Grant!

We are only missing a picture of Cute Cowboy couple Justin and Sarah, but they were tooo busy running the party to get pictures sooooo.... Thanks guys for the good time!

Soooo when I opened my camera today I realized that somehow the SD card wasn't all the way in the slot and so my pictures from Michaels Farewell, Camdens 4th birthday, Trunk or treat, Braden and Mitchells school parade and Halloween are NOT THERE! I'm just sick about it.

3.My brother Michaels talk in church before his mission and Blessing baby Emmy!

So Mike is off to the MTC and we enjoyed listening to him speak in sacrament meeting about "lost sheep"! He is such a great kid and the sad thing is he won't come home a kid! I'm so proud of his strong testimony, personal sacrafice and all the efforts he has made to go on a mission. I know that his Heavenly Father is proud of his decision. I'm super grateful for his example to my boys. 8 weeks in the MTC then he is off to Denmark!

Also we were present for the blessing of Katie and BJ's cute baby Emma Lin Wirig. She is so cute and BJ did a great job with his first of many baby blessings!

4.Camdens 4th birthday!

Yep he's 4 folks...I just wanted to spend a few lines dedicated to my funny little stubborn 4 year old. He has a great imagination! He never never forgets to give us a hug and kiss before we leave. He LOVES to dress up! Here he is in tights yes tights and Bradens baseball hat...trying to be peter pan. He remembers everything and won't let you forget some things. Unfortunately,He isn't afraid of anyone, but he brings a lot of smiles! He is a little bit OCD; he has to sit in the middle chair, eat from the middle bowl, and all the cereal has to be underneath the milk. We love him sooo much he is a great part of the mix that is the Squires!

5.Halloween was fun this year...We went to the ward trunk or treat, the school parade, and went trick or treating. Josslyn was so fun this time, she couldn't say trick or treat, but she did say thank you or "danch jew"as she really pronounces it. The boys get sooo excited and I love that about them. They are "into" whatever we do and it makes it so fun! I took sooo many cute pictures of everything that weren't saved, but I did take this one of the cheerleader and dragon on my phone soooo....

6.Stake Conference. Our stake conference was this last weekend, and it was really so good. I always struggle to get myself to go to big, long things like this because it is so hard with the kids, and a bit of a sacrafice to give up my Saturday night with Stu, but it ended up so great and actually fun. The messages were about family roles and I loved every single one. I also got to sing in the stake choir which is one of my favorite things. You can always feel the spirit sooo strong when you are singing. I didn't get to sit by Stu, but we went out to dinner after and our friends showed up so we really enjoyed that time together. Sunday was a bit harder with all the kids, but they did okay. The only problem was that the last song I had to go up and sing with the choir and Stu had taken Josslyn out soooo during How firm a foundation, Camden came running up on the stage and down off the stage TWICE. How embarassing in front of the whole stake. I just hope it didn't take away from the spirit. Overall it was some great meetings and I'm glad we made the effort to go!

8.Presidential Election and Prop 8. So I have expressed my opinions a number of times in previous posts about this subject but now that it's all over I just wanted to pull it all together for myself mostly, So bear with me! On Monday Stu and I joined with others in fasting to pass the Prop 8 ammendment in CA. We were so happy to learn that it passed since we feel so strongly about the definition of marriage and the right for us as parents to teach our own children what we believe the definition of Marriage is. I know many of you may be wondering why I even care since this was a California issue...well after much research I learned that those kind of decisions eventually effect many aspects of my personal life...ie education, and religion to name a few. I really believe that God has defined marriage and I'm grateful to again see God's hand in preserving it!

Speaking of Historic...I want to talk about Pres elect Obama for a sec too. I am not pleased with the choice that this country has made for president, and I am sure that we are going to have some unpleasant changes coming our way, but I am expressing my support for him and this blessed nation. I hope and pray that he will earn the respect of those who disagree with his policies, and that he will do his best to preserve the freedom of this Nation. I am pleased to take a step forward by electing a black president and I do realize that this is a historic time and I'm glad to be part of it...even though I didn't vote for him!

WHEW!!! THE END OF THE WORLDS LONGEST POST!

Don't forget to...

VOTE!!!!!

Yep folks it's time to wait in the lines and do what we gotta do! I don't care what your decision is just make an educated one!