Mama Monday!

My mom has to sit in a chair most of the time. She gets up to go from point A to point B, but other than that she is sitting in her chair. You might say that her chair is her world. I love this picture because she is so happy listening to her grand kids sing to her. She gets this happy when anyone comes to visit her.

Most of my childhood memories with my mom are of her taking care of people. It all began with her eight children. Making sure they were all where they needed to be. Scrubbing office floors, so her girls could all take dance, and piano. When I was two, my brother passed away from Cancer, he was 18. My mom took care of him. When I was 7 my grandma, her mother, came to live with us. She was getting ready to die, and my mom took care of her until she died. Then my great-aunt came to live with us. She had fallen and broken her hip and could not be left alone, so my mom took care of her for years until she died. She also took care of her father for many months until he passed away. My mom did laundry for an older man for years. She took care of him before he passed away. I look back and just remember her always helping someone.

Now she has slowed down. She can't take care of others physical needs like she once did. However, even with her debilitating disease, she still has a way of helping others. Whether it is a smile, or a big hug (she gives the best hugs) she is still helping others. She helps me by always listening to me, and encouraging me to be my best self. She believes in me, and makes me feel like I could do anything. I am so thankful that I have been honored to have her as my mom! She has set such an example of service and Christ like love that I can only hope to obtain someday.

I love you mom!

p.s. if any of you are near where my mom lives, go give her a hug for me! You won't regret it! She gives great hugs!

Go Earth, Go Earth, It's your day! Get Green!

In honor of earth day today, I have decided to post a few things we can all do right now to help take care of this precious earth that we have been given!

The first thing is to get...

A Cup of Your Own
Every year Americans throw away 25 billion polystyrene cups and 25 billion individual water bottles, most of which end up in landfills. Instead buy a reusable to-go mug and a bottle that you can refill with filtered tap water. Bring your own (to a coffee shop, a meeting), and you cut down on Styrofoam.

I learned today it takes over 100 years for a water bottle to decompose.



Want a Lick?
A cone beats a cup. Why? "You're eating your silverware instead of using plastic," says Matthew Modine, a passionate promoter of earth-friendly policies. "It's all about consuming less, using fewer of the resources needed to make products and packaging."



Clean Without Chemicals
Natural cleansers like vinegar and baking soda do a great job without harming the planet. "And," Matthew says, "a little vegetable oil and lemon juice makes a great wood polish."



Bag It
Get reusable cloth bags for the grocery store and the dry cleaner. More than 100 billion plastic bags are thrown away every year.



Stop Junk Mail
Every year 100 million trees are chopped down for junk mail sent to American homes. Contact the direct marketing association at dmachoice.org/mps to remove your name from mailing lists of their members.



De-Lint the Dryer
Lint builds up after every dryer cycle, reducing the machine's efficiency. Removing it does a lot to decrease its usually massive energy use.



Shut Down
The average computer left on all day uses nearly 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, producing more than a ton of carbon emissions. So turn off your computer anytime you're not on it, and eliminate the screen saver function, which uses more energy than the sleep mode.

From What You Can Do Right Now to Help Save Your Planet in the February 2008 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

Lets all try to incorporate at least one of these things this week! I think we could all empty the lint after each dryer load! :)

Mama Monday!

My niece Rach posted this picture on their family blog. This is a picture of my mom, holding Cristian, one of her precious great grand-babies. I love this picture and love my mom so much. I think Mondays should be dedicated to moms. I know that not everyone is a mother yet, but we have all been influenced by so many women, and by our mothers.

My mom is an example of enduring well to the end. She has had Parkinson's Disease (google this if you don't know what it is) for 29 years. She has suffered so much, and is in constant pain, but she still serves, and makes people happy. When we go to church with them, there is a line of people that wait to give her a hug and a kiss and feel of her powerful spirit. There is a young lady in that ward that has Cystic Fibrosis, she wrote an essay on people who inspire her, and my mom was one that she paid tribute too. My mom has such an incredible ability to give love to all! She is one of my heros! I want to try and work on enduring well this week. I know that there are people in our lives that inspire us to be better. I want to challenge you all to think about those examples in your life and think about how we can all endure well.

I will try to not complain, and to reach out to someone else this week who is in need.

What will you do this week to endure well?

What do you think of this?

"Queenie Kachow Moreau"

A big thanks to all who gave such cute suggestions! We are compiling a list of all of our favorites and will take that list with us to the hospital. When we see the little lassie, we will then determine her name! Feel free to continue to make suggestions. We really do appreciate it!

What's in a name?

Dave and I have been thinking heavily on what in the world we are going to name this bambino! We have gone back to the original list of unused girl names that we have had since Lauren, thinking and thinking of which will be the right one. Naming a child is such a heavy and huge responsibility and we don't take it lightly. I mean this is what you call your kid for the rest of her life! This is serious stuff! We really like family names. Lauren is the name of one of my Aunt's. David, well that is obvious, Kathren is the name of a great great grandmother, and Thomas West is the name of each of our grandfathers. The only family name that we can agree on is Lillian. That is the name of my great grandmother, and also my sister. We also have the whole EN thing going on with the girls. I don't know if we need to continue this, will the poor girl feel left out if she is the only female in the family without the EN sound at the end of her name? I don't know! And frankly, I can't handle the pressure! So I am calling on all my blogger friends! Help us name this baby! If we choose your name, we will be sending you a lovely prize as a thank you for aiding us in this heavy responsibility!
Some of our favorites....

Dave likes-
Lillian aka Lils

Karen likes-
Lilyan
Maren

Lauren likes-
Lily

David likes-
Annie

Kathren likes-
Violet
Flower

West likes-
Cars
Kachow

Please write what you like, help us name the baby!

sWiMin'

West loves to swim, he asks everyday if he can go swimmin! We love in door pools! Rain or shine, we can swim, swim, swim!

Kathren giving her big cheezy grin! I love her little swim suit, we got it at Target! It is red and white gingham, the top layer of the suit, looks like an adorable little sundress! Super cute!

David near the end of the two hour swim. Check out his red, RED, eyes! Chlorine is a marvelous thing!

Lauren was out swimming the entire time with her friend Shaylin. This is the first time I saw her, she was so tired from swimming. I love it when they get so tired from all their swimming fun!

SwEEt SlEdding

When we had our friends from San Diego come and stay with us, they all really wanted to go and play in the snow. Well this was after Easter, and we had had some really nice weather, so snow was really hard to come by. We drove up Provo Canyon and just started looking. We found some at Soldiers Hollow, but we did not want to pay for three adults, and eight kids to sled. So we all got back in the car and headed to Park City. On the way there we saw Jordanelle. We pulled over and found the best hill for sledding! The park ranger at the visitor center came out and we thought we were busted, but all he said was when we got tired and cold to come inside and have some hot chocolate! This was such a great place to play. They had a ton of snow, and we had access to a restroom! What could be better!







This last photo sequence was of David. He yelled for me to watch. So I watched as he slid down the hill and ran right into a tree! Oh the joy!

Where the HECK have I been?

The title of this blog post has been a reoccurring question that has been on almost everyone's mind. So I thought it only fair that I inform everyone where the Heck I have been!

Explanation #1
When I was a blog-o-holic, I had me a lap top that I could sit on my comfy couch and blog the night a way. Since that computer is no longer, our new desktop is on a small table, and I have to sit on a super uncomfortable chair and frankly being fat and pregnant it just is not very appealing!

Explanation #2
For a week, we ripped up our dining room carpet, and installed hard wood. Yes you read that right, we had carpet under our dining table--YUCK!!! I lived with this for two years, and frankly, could not handle it any longer! I felt like my house was NEVER clean! So our house was in complete chaos for that week, and now we have a lovely floor that makes me so happy!

Explanation #3
For the next two weeks we have had a house full of company! The first guests are our friends from San Diego. The Fagerwold family of five. Two parents, and three children. We had a lot of fun, and will post pictures of some of the highlights! Our next group of company was my nephew Ricky Hartpence, his lovely wife Troy, and their adorable baby boy Hayden. It was so fun for us to have them in our home, and to get to know them and their baby even better!

Explanation #4
I have been a dancing fool! Yes you read that right! It is now dance competition time! All the Moreau ladies are taking dance from Diva's dance studios! We are having so much fun! Last Saturday at UVSC we had a competition that the Mama Diva's were participants in. I had so much fun performing our dance, such a rush, and so fun to hear the crowd scream for you! I even did the splits 7 months pregnant! That was a huge crowd pleaser! Afterwards, people came up to me and said that they thought we were all young girls, and that I was a teen mom :) From far away, I guess we looked young, but when they got up close to us they realized that we were really and truly all mama's! So funny!

I am still alive, barely! I am just plugging away! Thanks to all who have told me that they miss me on this blogging world! I will try to come up with some cute posts to keep all you loyal readers happy and interested!

I wAnt cAndy!

The Moreau Children have started a small candy store! They want to earn money for missions, and what not. They will have regular hours during the summer, but if you are in the neighborhood, and want some candy, chips, or soda, feel free to knock on the door, and we will gladly accommodate the junk food junkie in you!