Don't sit on the baby

Yes, I WILL run (at least for a few minutes) for chocolate!

2012-01-17T15:53:00.003-05:00

I promised ages ago that I would write down some of my experiences from the past few months and I find myself wanting to avoid housework for a few minutes (don't worry, I have made my small slaves clean up a ton before I took a break!) so I thought it would be a good opportunity to document how my race occurred. Be warned, this is a very long story. Here is how it all started...

In early September, I was called as Girl's Camp Director for my Ward. Camp is going to be on a Ward level, so that means the planning and details all fall on me. This includes the hikes. I love camp but the hikes have never been a strength for me. So, I decided to walk and get into shape. I decided to walk around the track at the elementary school during soccer practices. We had practice there 4 days a week for an hour each, so I thought it was a good plan. Then this set of emails followed between me and the coach's wife of Spencer's team...

from	Allred
to		Courtney
date		Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 7:31 PM
subject		Re: Snack for soccer

Missed seeing you at the game tonight but glad to see that Dave is in town!
We would be glad to cover snack on Oct 1 and will let them know.

Thanks for being such a great team mgr!

Emily

from

Courtney

to		Allred
date		Tue, Sep 20, 2011 at 10:07 PM
subject		Re: Snack for soccer

Frankly, I would have rather been at the game and not at Carter's practice but we had to divide and conquer tonight and Dave wanted to go to the game (the person who went to the game didn't have to take any little girls with them). Practice did, however, allow me the opportunity to get my walking in around the track. I figure with girl's camp next summer, I really have to get serious about getting into shape. I am at the track 4 days a week and started walking last week with adding 1 lap every time I go around. I did my 6 laps today and I was thrilled to find out that although this track is short, it's very wide and still is .25 miles each time around. So, today I went 1.5 miles. By Thursday's practice, I will be up to 2 miles. I plan on walking every time I can and see how much I can do by the end of the season. I think winter will be rough, but in the Spring I can walk again and I will start where I left off.

You are welcome to join me any time!! :)

--Courtney

from	Allred
to		Courtney
date		Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 7:54 AM
subject		Re: Snack for soccer

Good for you! Wow, that's great that you'll be up to 2 miles!

I have an idea if you're willing. Let's sign up for a 5k (3.1 miles) late this fall. There are usually quite a few for thanksgiving. That will help give the extra motivation to keep going (at least that's how it works for me :)

What do you think?

Emily

from	Courtney
to		Allred
date		Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 9:48 AM
subject		Re: Snack for soccer

This is really funny. I had some feelings I couldn't come to grips with when I read your email, so here's the breakdown of my thought process. Remember that I am always light hearted about stuff and the following is not intended to make race-runners feel bad. It's all said with a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eye. So here goes...

How I normally feel:

I am and always have been fundamentally opposed to people signing up for torture. Running is something people do in an emergency like to save a child from the middle of the road or to get away from someone shooting at you. Running is not EVER for fun. It's just not natural. :)

Now, before you tell me it's okay to walk in a race... people who start out walking in a race kind of defeats the purpose of a "race." Race means that you are trying to get there first and the person who starts out walking has no intention of getting there first, right?? :)

The feelings I didn't understand:

You said we should do it and I immediately thought, "Sure! It sounds like fun. I can totally do that!!" a 1/2 second later, "Wait! What!?! A 5K, that's like a race and people do it for fun... Hmmm..."

Unfortunately, my excitement and enthusiasm was short lived and followed by my remembering that I am scheduled for surgery in November and will not be doing much of anything for a few weeks. But... I should be good by Christmas so keep an eye out for one of those Christmas ones ;)

It was a good idea and probably could have been easily talked into it. Thanks... keep the ideas coming!!! :)

--Courtney

from	Emily

to		Courtney
date		Wed, Sep 21, 2011 at 10:06 AM
subject		Re: Snack for soccer

You are so funny. I'm going to keep after you though because I am one of those apparently rare people that sign up for races not to win but to #1 - just finish, #2 - get a cool shirt, #3 - motivate me to stay off my butt and keep running!!!

There is a 5K at National Harbor that I've been thinking about. It's called running for Hot Chocolate!! http://www.hotchocolate15k.com/dc/ I'll be on the look out for more!!!

You said to "keep the ideas coming" :-)

Emily

I forgot to add to #1 -despite the pace (there is no shame I'm walking. That's what I tell myself. Most important is that I'm actually participating!)

;)

from	Courtney
to		Allred
date		Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 8:47 PM
subject		Re: Snack for soccer

Okay, how is it that you just talked a severely overweight, completely out of shape, person who hates the idea of racing, into doing a 5K with you?? No, seriously, this is the craziest thing on Earth.

I'm in - as long as you walk me through the process. What do I wear, what do I do, etc. I need step by step instructions - ahhh, I'm so nervous.

I know that I will be dead last, that strangers will be cheering for me as I crawl over the line. I can hear the whispers now - "did you see that fat lady at the very back of the line? What was she thinking? Wow, she must have a very persuasive friend."

Honestly, the fact that you could talk me into this is saying a lot. I'm thinking you could talk anyone into anything. Have you considered being a salesperson somewhere. Oh! You should be one of those people that sells time shares...

Let me know when you are all signed up. I want you to sign up first... :)

--Courtney

Further proof that misery loves company, I'm thinking about asking my sister to sign up too! More fun at the post-race party, right??

...and so that's how it all started. Somehow she talked me into it. Somehow I signed up for it. Somehow. I did better than I have ever done before on sticking to an exercise program. I had surgery 3 weeks before the race. After all my "misery loves company" campaigning there were 7 of us total from my Ward and then my sister, Jaclyn. When I asked Jaclyn, I actually started to chicken out on asking her to do it with me and presented more as coming to support me and just being there at the finish line. She called me back and said, "I've been thinking about it and I'm going to do it with you." It was crazy, not only did I have someone from my family coming to support me, but I actually had someone from my family doing it with me. Then, over the next few weeks, one by one the other ladies joined in.

The night before the race the ladies from my ward all got hotel rooms and went out to dinner together at the National Harbor in Oxen Hill Maryland which is where our race was going to be. It was a blast. I don't ever do "ladies night out" type things and it was fun just being with friends. It was actually like being back in high school or college except that our conversations turned to our actual kids and husbands versus our future kids and husbands. Those ladies are all fun and little crazy and it was nice to just get out. Favorites from the evening were hanging out in Charming Charlie's and the Peeps store.

The next morning I woke up at 4:30. I was nervous about the race and couldn't sleep AND I also wanted to give my body some time to wake up. Jaclyn met us at the hotel at 5:30 and my friends we all went together to the race at 6:00 (except for 2 of the ladies that were doing the 15K and left about 20 minutes after us). We waited in traffic to get into the parking lot and then waited again for the race to start. It was supposed to start at 7:15 but didn't start until long after 8. Apparently, there were some accidents on the Beltway - big surprise! The race had a slow start, which was good for me because we were all frozen and it was hard to walk, let alone jog. J and I started jogging down the hill and I had to stop because I had no control over my body and felt as if I was going to trip and go rolling down the hill. I just kept walking, trying to walk faster down hills, trying to jog occasionally (not much), and then just walking at a steady pace. I was probably walking about 3.5 miles an hour, which is pretty fast for a fat lady. Then, about a mile from the finish line, I saw a man on the side of the road cheering for people. He didn't know any of us but he was giving encouragement nonetheless. I became very emotional. I knew how far the finish line was. I saw that man and began to get teary-eyed. I then saw a family reunite on the route, the mom was so happy to see her little girl again. I, again, had tears well up inside. I finished that straight part and turned for the final half mile of the race, it was up a large hill. I was tired, that hill seemed impossible. I could see the finish line, I knew it wasn't very far, but it seemed so far away. I made it up the hill and you had to make a left turn to go to the finish line. I was exhausted and ready to be done. As I neared the turn, my dear friend, Emily, came out running up to me cheering me on. I burst into tears. I was so grateful to see a familiar face and so overwhelmed by my experience. Then, behind her comes Shauna Ploeger, also cheering me on. Then, to my left, Anne McDonough. Then, behind her, Stephanie Whetten. All of them came to run across the finish line with me. All of them were there to support ME. Just as we turned the corner to get to the finish line, I hear the announcer say, "Courtney, put your hands in the air, show everyone where you are!" Me? How on Earth did he know it was me?? Then, from the announcer's stand, comes Jaclyn. My sister. She had him do the shout out to me. She came out to greet me. Having her there meant everything to me. I was sooo happy to see her. We all starting jogging and ran across the finish line together. I have amazing friends and an amazing sister! I was so emotional, at this point, tears were streaming down my face. I don't often feel a sense of accomplishment, it's one of my many personality flaws. The overwhelming sense of accomplishment as I crossed the finish line is indescribable and overwhelming. After the race was over, the sponsors of the race, Ghirardelli Chocolate, had chocolate fondue and hot chocolate for all of the racers. It was super delicious and totally worth the 3 mile walk! :) Within 30 minutes, I had an analogy for life of my entire race experience.

Our lives are often compared to a race. We are often told to endure to the end. I did that, I endured to the end. I didn't have to do it alone. Along the way, we have a prophet and other church leaders cheering us on. They, likely, don't know us personally, but they want us to succeed. (the man I saw first along the way cheering me on) Others, finish before us and get to reunite with their families on the other side. (the lady seeing her daughter and husband after her race was finished) Finally, when we are in the hardest parts of our life, when we need it the most, our friends coming running out to support us, our families are there to build us up and celebrate our achievements, and all of them help us finish strong. When we are done, we will know that we accomplished something that seemed impossible but in the end, was totally worth it.

I got home that afternoon and immediately started looking for another race to enter. We signed the whole family up for a 1K (we went with the small one so the little girls could participate) the very next day. It was a walk for Make A Wish Foundation. That race is another story.

My 2 year old's potty mouth

2012-01-17T11:07:00.002-05:00

Having a child with a speech delay or other issue is usually no laughing matter. I will say, however, that as much as I dislike the idea of swearing, I still find it absolutely hilarious when she says certain words - to the point that I actually ask her to repeat things, just so I can chuckle a second time. My favorites are the work drawer and apple. I won't repeat what apple sounds like, if you're not sure, hold your tongue with fingers and say the word, it's very similar to how she pronounces it. My all time favorite is drawer. She often will ask me to get her a spoon from the "hoe-wer" (pronounced like whore) or put my keys away or whatever. I always have to stop and see who she's calling that. Okay, my kids would tell me that this post was not appropriate, so I'm moving on. :)

camp "ad"

2012-01-09T23:14:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, I just can't help myself... I sooo love jib jab

2011-12-18T18:56:00.001-05:00

My personal life... finally, an update!!! (the summary, see future posts for specifics)

2011-12-07T12:54:00.003-05:00

For those of you who don't Facebook with me, sorry, but that's where I post most of my life happenings. So... here's a quick update on me and my adorable family.

First of all, I have had a crazy past few months and things just keep popping up. In August, my side of the family had a reunion but we couldn't afford to send all of us, so my sweet husband sent me by myself and he stayed home and watched the kids for 5 days on his own. It was the longest he'd been alone with all 4 kids and he did great! I was impressed with all that he got done AND he kept the children alive! I had a wonderful time and really appreciate his willingness to make it a reality for me. Thanks, Dave!!

In late August, I was called to be the Girl's Camp Director for our ward. This will be a post unto itself because of the magnitude of it all.

Next, soccer and school started that began the craziness of running everyone everywhere. I found out very quickly that soccer for my 2 boys was going to be on 4 different nights at 2 different locations. I was disappointed as I realized that this meant dragging all 4 kids out every night to go up to the school. Within 1 week, Spencer's practice location was changed (but not the day) to the same field as Carter's practice, inside the track at the field. I thought this to be a sign that it was time for me to start walking again. Since being called as camp director, I had determined that I would need to start walking because on hike day, I didn't want to be left behind. Oh, if I had known what that would have started, I might not have done it, but now that all is said and done, I will forever be grateful to Emily Allred for her bold and brave question to me. Again, this is full story for another post but suffice it to say that Emily asked me to do a 5K with her. So, I signed up and started training.

In October, I turned 35... it's bad and not so bad. I feel a bit weird because I know that I am not very young, but I'm not very old either. It was made worse when a lady on Survivor said, "It's hard being the oldest one out here. Being 40 I am so much older than the rest of them." 40?? That's only 5 more years... when did that get to be old?? Also, for me, 35 was a turning point. I am no longer a "young adult." I'm not old either so I say that I am now, officially, an adult. No modifiers, just plain and simple. This scares me because I do think that it means that I now have to grow up. No youthful considerations for my actions. :( Blah, who wants to grow up?? Not I!

In November, I had surgery. A very long awaited rectal surgery. I have had hemorrhoids since I was pregnant with Carter (he's almost 8) and I have had an anal fissure for at least 2 years. These problems were quite painful for me and I was at my wit's end with them all. It was time to get them fixed. The surgery went well but I had some trouble coming out of the anesthesia. I couldn't keep myself lucid for more than a minute or 2 and I kept falling asleep. My dad came to pick me up and the nurse told him that I needed to stay upright for the rest of the day because I wasn't getting enough oxygen lying down. She also told him that I needed to have a sleep study done because they were quite sure that I have sleep apnea. This is something I have suspected for some time so I wasn't surprised. As for the post-surgery, it was fairly awful. Anyone with hemorrhoids should make sure they are bleeding and unbearably painful before opting for this surgery. Think of ripping open a burning, stinging, painful cut every time you poop and then do it multiple times a day. It's really, really, really painful so you should make sure you absolutely need the surgery before you do it. I did need and I'm glad I did it, but it didn't make the first 2 weeks very easy. I can't describe how horrible the pain is. It took me about 3 weeks post-op to feel like I was finally able to sit normally and to feel like I was starting to heal.

For Thanksgiving, we went to the Poconos with my in-laws. It was a wonderful, relaxing time. We hiked to some waterfalls, went to the Crayola Factory, went to an indoor water park, went bowling, played at a game room, dipped caramel apples, went shopping, did some archery, and stopped at Hershey Park's Chocolate World on our way home. I had plenty of time for recuperating from surgery and everyone seemed to have a good time. I braved my first Black Friday shopping trip and came out very shaken. I had a hard time falling asleep because of the horribleness of it all. I can't see doing it again anytime soon.

December came faster than I had hoped. Although I love the holiday season, for me December meant doing my 5K. Again, you'll have to see the post on that because this post is already WAY TOO LONG!!

I promise this blog won't become a couponing blog... but... I saved a ton!

2011-10-18T12:37:00.002-04:00

So, I've been disappointed in the sad number of super double coupon events, and I had promised to boycott the other grocery store for the whole month because of a decision they made so that left me one choice for this month. Buy in bulk at Costco and fill in with my favorite grocery store even though it doesn't always have the best deals.

What would you pay for 4 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of pop tarts, 12 bags of fun size candy (for Halloween), 3 Yoplait smoothie mixes, 2 microwave personal meals (Healthy Choice, for my lunches), 1 bag pizza rolls, 3 apples, 1 bag grapes, guacamole, sliced apples in individual servings (for lunches)? Retail price tells me I should pay $114.17 for it, after coupons and store promotions, I paid $45.77.

In a second order, I bought milk, 2 frozen pizzas, 3 bags pizza rolls, 3 microwave meals, a small frozen cake, and 3 individual M&Ms packs (I owed Carter). I was supposed to pay $48.62 but only paid $22.26.

I know, everyone always wants to know how, well here it is: Promotion - buy 4 boxes of cereal get an instant $4 off of order PLUS a coupon for free milk to use in the future. Used 2 coupons, 1 for 75¢ off 1 box (which doubled to $1.50 off) and the other coupon was for $1 off of 3 boxes. Buy 5 bags of candy for $10 (instead of $12.50), I did this twice and added 2 extra bags of candy at $2.50 each, making my total $25 for candy. I then used 4 coupons: $1.50 off of 3, $1 off of 3, $1 off of 3, and Buy 2 Get 1 free - I got credited the $2.50 off of one of the extra bags. That's $19/12 = $1.58 each bag instead of regular price at $3.49, yes, it was awesome! In the frozen food section they had several items marked that if you bought ANY 6 items, you would get an instant $5 off your order. My 6 items rung up at $16.50 (those were the sale prices). I used a coupon for every item ($1 off 1, $1 off 1, 75¢ off 1 - doubled to $1.50, 75¢ off - doubled to $1.50, 75¢ off - doubled to $1.50, and 35¢ doubled to .70) This is $16.50 - 5.70 = $10.80 PLUS the instant $5 off = all of that for $5.80!! That makes each item less than that $1. I then had coupons for the guacamole and pop tarts AND the grapes and apples were on sale. I then paid with a $10 off of total order I got from doing a deal last week. This brought my out of pocket order down to $45.77 and I got my coupon for a free milk. Which brings me to the 2nd order.

I got the milk for free, which we technically didn't need but it freezes and it was free. I then got the 2 pizzas, normally $6.85 each, I got them on sale for $5.50 and used 2 coupons for $2 off of each, bringing my total to $7 for those PLUS it printed a coupon for me for $1 off of my next order. I then did the same freezer deal as last time but with 3 bags of pizza rolls and 3 microwave meals. I used 2 coupons totaling $1.50 off and I had another coupon for $1 off but I messed up on the meals and couldn't use the coupon. So that was a little more than it could have been, but it triggered the $5 off. The chocolate cake was on sale and it WAS my birthday last week so I got it, it was only $2.50. Finally, I owed Carter some M&Ms and he was going to share with Spencer so I bought 2 bags and then saw the sign that it was Buy 2 Get 1 free, so I grabbed a third bag because it was free. My out of pocket for this order was $22.26.

Today's totals: $114.17 + $48.62 = $162.79 Original Price, $68.03 Paid out of pocket, $94.76 Total Savings. It just makes me smile!!!

I promise to update on my life and family soon!!

More savings!

2011-07-16T09:09:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday, I went to Bloom and a quick trip into Rite Aid.

At Bloom, I had $106 order that I paid $40 for. Also, I walked out of there with 2 coupons for $15 off of future order. So I paid $40 and get $30 worth of free groceries in the future. Not bad.

At Rite Aid, I bought 3 boxes of cereal (each retail at 4.99) and a tube of toothpaste (retails at 3.99). I paid a total of 67¢ for all of it out of pocket. And the store is going to mail me a check for $2.69. That means over all, they are paying me $2.02 to buy cereal and toothpaste. Not a bad deal.

You want to know how, right? Here goes. The cereal was marked down to 2/$5. Which meant that when I bought 3 it was $7.50 total. I then had a coupon for $1 off of 3 boxes. So, I only paid $6.50. The toothpaste was marked down to $2.69 with a rebate check for the full price - $2.69. So I paid for it now, but they're going to mail me the check. I had a coupon for 75¢ off of the toothpaste. Finally, I had 2 in-store coupons. 1 was for $3 off any order of $15 or more (calculated before discounts and coupons) that I got by doing a quick survey at home after many last shopping trip and the other was from their loyalty program where I bought certain products that triggered a coupon of $5 towards a future order. That means that with the 2 store coupons I had $8 off and then I had the 2 manufacturers coupons for totaling $1.75. I paid only .67 for items that would normally cost a total of $19.19 and don't forget that they are sending me that check for $2.69. It does feel awesome!

Measuring the kids...

2011-06-26T18:21:00.002-04:00

S is 9 years, 5 months old: 54 inches, 105.4 lbs.

C is 7 years, 2 months old: 47.5 inches, 50.4 lbs.

M is 4 years, 2 months old: 39 inches, 34.8 lbs.

T is 2 years, 3 months old: 33 inches, 25.8 lbs

Note: the weight was done with clothes on, so subtract for jeans, shirts, etc.

Heights were done on carpet and not everyone was perfectly straight.

Couponing trip 6/21

2011-06-21T21:19:00.003-04:00

I was pretty nervous about taking all of the kids to the grocery store tonight. It's something that I normally avoid. I had to share how it went, though, and I'm pretty excited about some of the deals I got.

First of all, I had kids in the store with me, so I had to be fast, also we had to be somewhere in an hour, and it was 30 min. away, so we really had to hurry.

Here's what I bought: Colgate toothpaste, 2 Pine-sol, 2 Clorox clean-up spray, 1 Herbal Essences Shampoo, 1 A-1 steak sauce, 4 Kellogg's Pop Tarts, 2 Kellogg's strawberry mini-wheats, 2 Kellogg's fruit snacks, and 1 409.

First, the Colgate. It was on sale for 1.50. I had a coupon for $1 off. Toothpaste for .50 is not bad, but it gets better. Today was super doubles (they will double your bigger coupons up to a coupon worth $1.98), so my coupon doubled to $2 off, it was on sale for $1.5o which means they paid me .50 to buy the item... pretty cool, right?

Then there is a deal running in the store that if you buy any 10 items (from a huge list) you get $5 instantly off your order (it also says if you buy 20 you get $10 off and if you buy 30 you get $15 off). I bought 10 items: 2 pine-sol each for $2.59 and each with a $1 off coupon that doubled to $2 off, so I paid $.59 for each one. 2 Clorox sprays, each on sale for $2.50 and each with a coupon for $1 off which doubled to $2 off of 2.50 making them $.50 each. 1 A-1 steak sauce, cost $3 with a $1 off coupon doubled, so I paid only $1 for it. 1 Herbal Essence Shampoo which was on sale for $3, with my coupon it was only $1 for me. Finally, I bought 4 boxes of pop tarts, normally $2.59 but on sale for $2.29 - not a huge savings, but this is a staple at our house. I paid a total of $13.34 for the 10 items, got my $5 off of the order, bringing that total down to $8.34. Which is not bad (it essentially means that I only paid about $1 for each of the boxes of poptarts!)

Kellogg's - I bought 2 cereal, each at $3, which isn't a great deal, but I needed a change of scenery with my cereal choices so I bought some. So $6 total for that but I had a $1 off of 2 coupon, which doubled brought that down to $4 total. I then got fruit snacks (because the kids were pretty good and they asked nicely) which were on sale but I didn't have a coupon for, I paid $2.29 a box instead of $2.99, so $4.58 total. What I didn't know, is that if you buy 5 Kellogg's products, (which they counted the pop tarts too, but I won't count in my total here because I counted it above) Kellogg's would give you $3 off your order! So, my total in Kellogg's products here was $8.58, minus the $3, and I paid a total of $5.58 for it.

I bought the 409 because I needed it. It cost $2.50. I also donated a $1 to Children's Miracle Network - something I try to do when I feel like I am saving money. My total before savings was: $52.70, with tax and everything, I paid $19.27. I know I could have saved even more money if I'd had a coupon for pop-tarts, fruit snacks, and 409, but overall, I feel like it was a fairly successful trip!

Summer schedule

2011-06-16T17:43:00.003-04:00

As today was the last day of school, I thought it was time to work on our daily summer schedule. Here's how I have it so far:

6:00am – Boys get girls breakfast and everyone plays quietly while mommy sleeps

10am – mommy finally wakes up and takes leisurely shower

11am – mom begins preparing lunch while children clean the house

11:30 – lunch

12:00 – girls go down for nap time, boys go out to play, mommy takes nap

4:00pm – mommy and girls wake up

4:30pm – we order dinner, children clean the house

5:30pm – we eat dinner

6:00pm – family scripture study and prayer

6:30pm – pjs and teeth brushing

7:00pm – bed time for all children

Okay, so it might need a LITTLE work, but it was a nice thought, right?!?

And the award goes to...

2011-05-24T11:12:00.004-04:00

I had a wonderful week last week with small moments that make me smile. It was a normal everyday week, but there was just something about being able to enjoy small moments.

Proudest Mommy Moment: The professional trainer telling me that Carter is really good at soccer. He said, "Some kids have it and some don't. We call it soccer IQ and Carter's got talent. He needs to try out for travel league. If you lived in Europe, he would have already been recruited." I smiled, thanked him, and then told him that if they didn't play games on Sunday, we'd be there. Carter enjoys being one of the best ones on the team and I'm afraid he'd get too frustrated when everyone else is as good or better. I promised the trainer that I wouldn't let his talent go to waste, but that we'd have to find an appropriate time/place to do it.

Favorite cuddle moment: Sitting in the rocking chair, cuddling my 2 year old. She's usually very wiggly, but for a few minutes, she sat there, smiling at me and giggling. I am afraid that it was one the last times I will ever have one of my babies wrapped in my arms, cuddling and cooing and giggling. It was so out of the ordinary that I don't know that it will happen again anytime soon. It is a moment that I will not soon forget.

Favorite daily activity: Having conversations with Miana. She is fun to talk to. Her insights to life are so simple and innocent. It's wonderful to have a fresh perspective on all of our daily activities. I just love her and I'm grateful for the smiles she brings to me through out the day.

Favorite over all moment: Shooting baskets with my 9 year old. He had pinkeye and was no longer contagious but his eye was still red so I thought I should wait a day before sending him back to school. We were at the scripture study class at the church and I couldn't let him go play with the other kids in the nursery so he was sitting out on the couch reading a book. I had to go to the bathroom and I went to check on him. He was bored and wanted to shoot some baskets. I went in with him for a few minutes and was amazed at how well he handled the ball (I'm quite sure I couldn't even get the ball up to the basket when I was 9, let alone, actually make baskets.) Basketball isn't a sport that we have tried yet, so now I'm convinced that we need to get him started in it. This was my favorite moment of the week because I just enjoyed my time with my son. Neither of us was in a hurry, neither one was thinking about something else, and it was just the 2 of us. This never happens. I have had very little alone time with my oldest since his brother was born! It's something that I definitely want to start making more time to do.

It was an ordinary week with some extraordinary moments. I hope every week is like that!

"You are my fire at night when I'm cold...

2011-05-17T15:06:00.003-04:00

You are the only one I want to hold. Baby, I love you..." When we were growing up, my mom had a tape that we used to listen to in the car all the time. I think it was Michael McLean, but maybe one of you could tell me who it was. The words to this song popped into my head today as I walked down the stairs and into the family this afternoon.

So, it's allergy season. I've been hit hard the last couple of days and I am really worn down. I'm tired, I keep coughing, and it hurts to breathe. It took some convincing to get me to go to the doctor, but I went - just to make sure it hadn't moved into my lungs. He basically told me to go home and take some over the counter stuff and wait out the season. Um, thanks? I really needed some rest so I carefully planned everything so I could get some. I set out everything the boys would need for their homework, I got them a snack, and I wrote them 3 notes. The first note went on the door, instructing them to go straight to the kitchen table. The second note said where I was and what I needed them to do - basically, I'm upstairs resting, please do your homework and chores quickly and quietly, everything you need to do is listed on your list. The third note was a list of homework and chores for each child to complete before going out to play. I then went upstairs to rest.

I heard the boys come in. 3-4 minutes later, Spencer was at my bedside.

"Mom, I'm sorry to bother you, but I think you should punish me."

"Punish you, what for?"

"I started a fire."

"At school?!?!?"

"No," (half chuckling at my question) "at home"

"Right now?"

"Yes, but I'm not really a professional, so I got 2 tall cups of water ready just in case."

Sure enough, fire was going in the fire place. He had already used one of the glasses of water to put out part of the log because he heard a strange, crackling noise and it made him nervous. What does this teach me about my children? They are too independent for me to leave them alone, even for 5 minutes. It was cold and the boys were wet from their walk home in the rain and Spencer was just trying to help. Needless to say, we have once again gone over the list of activities that require adult participation. It's amazing that my children are still alive.

Going, going, gone...

2011-04-11T16:59:00.002-04:00

Today, I took Miana to school, stopped to pay tuition on the way out, made it home by 9:15. The speech therapist was coming to see Tayla at 9:30 so I quickly cleared the family room floor, sprinkled carpet powder on it, put in a load of laundry (I forgot to start it, but we'll get to that later), and started to sweep the kitchen floor when the doorbell rang, she was early! I quickly swept my pile of dirt into a corner and put the garbage can on top of it. I then went and answered the door, went upstairs to get Tayla and then apologized that I hadn't been able to finish cleaning before she got there. She was kind enough to wait in the hallway talking to Tayla while I vacuumed the powder off the floor. Therapy was okay today, but Tayla refused to talk. I think she said 10 words the whole time. Normally, that would mean a shorter session, but today was her 6 month review of goals, so I had to do some paperwork. The therapist left at 10:30. I sighed, time to get back in the car. Back to get Miana from school and head off to her 4 year old visit and Tayla's 2 year old visit.

At the doctor's office, the girls were loud, active, and BORED - not a good combination. Usually, the exam rooms have books in them, but ours only had a few pamphlets. I tried singing with them, Tayla was interested for 10 seconds, Miana made it through 2 songs. Miana kept trying to jump from the exam table to the spinning chair (how to explain to a 4 year old that in NO WAY is that going to end well. I kept blocking her jumps, knocking her back to the table. Meanwhile, Tayla kept sliding off the table and running to the door, opening it and trying to run down the hallway. I was exhausted, then the doctor came in. Everyone looked good, time for shots. Miana needed 4 of them, Tayla 1. Miana went first and was very shaken by the whole ordeal - to the point that she was even crying because she didn't want them to hurt Tayla the way that they had hurt her. We went down the hall to check out, she was still very upset. We got our stickers and Miana laid down on the floor, crying because she couldn't get her stickers off of their backings. She will often refuse to move as show of protest, I assumed this was one of those times. I got her up and we moved to the waiting room. I sat her down in a chair, got her stickers off, and we headed to the door. At the door she said, "Mom, I can't stand up." I said, "The shots shouldn't bother you that much" and I marched her out to the elevator. She immediately laid down on the floor of the elevator, I was both annoyed with her and starting to get worried that something was really wrong. I stood her up, we left the building. I took her hand to cross the parking lot-she was cold and clammy, I looked down at her face and saw that the color was gone. I now knew she was in shock and needed to lay down. If I tried to take her back into the office and up the elevator, it would take too long. If I laid her down there on the grass, I would have no way to contain the baby in that parking lot. I then walked her briskly to the van and I laid her down, elevated her feet, and then strapped Tayla into her car seat. I ran back around to the other side, said a prayer with Miana and did a quick look up of treating for shock on my phone. I looked down at her just in time to see Miana go ghost white and start to close her eyes. I told her it was okay to rest. She was out immediately and I wasn't sure what happened. I called the triage nurse at the office to tell them what happened, she and 2 other nurses came down and then a doctor came down a minute later. They monitored her oxygen levels and her blood pressure until she was okay and that was it. They said to get her food and that sometimes, kids react that way to getting shots. She was back to normal for a while, then for the rest of the afternoon she was very sore and very cranky.

I was so shaken from the experience that all way home I felt like I was going to pass out myself! I'm exhausted and ready for a good night's sleep... too bad we had 2 soccer practices first and a house to clean!

So proud of my angels!

2011-04-05T17:50:00.003-04:00

You may be wondering what this is...

We have to back up to one Monday night in January. We were gathered around the kitchen table, each person with a paper cup and this bottle of root beer. We were having Family Home Evening. For those not familiar with it, it's where we gather the whole family once a week and spend some time together. Among other things, it usually has a lesson. We tend to lean towards things our kids need to work on, I think for the last 8 years the lessons are primarily "How to be reverent in church" and "Praying 101." This particular night the lesson fell on Dave. He opened the root beer (a family favorite) and made sure everyone had a cup. He began asking us questions and every time you answered a questioned correctly, he'd pour root beer into your cup - more or less it was drinking game, only we opted for the non-alcoholic version! He asked several different types of questions, but mostly he focussed on ways that we could serve others. We continued to play the game until the root beer was gone. He then asked the kids if they liked getting presents at Christmas. They all nodded and he told them that there were many children whose parents could not buy them gifts. He then challenge the kids to fill the root beer bottle during the year with spare change so that we could use the money at the end of the year to help a family in need. The kids excitedly agreed to help any way they could.

This brings us to yesterday. The weather was beautiful and boys decided to have a lemonade stand. I agreed to supply the lemonade and cups (although they had to agree to pay me 75¢ for the lemonade and 10¢ for the cups after they had earned some money). With all their supplies they walked up to the corner. About 30 minutes later, they came home with lemonade gone and money in their pockets. By this point there were now 2 other boys that had helped out so we they needed a little help figuring out how much each got. I first took out the money that was mine and then helped them divide up the rest. When all was said and done each had earned 51¢ for 30 min. worth of work. I reminded them to pay their tithing and walked out of the room. Within 5 minutes, Carter had given all of his money to his sister. "Why did you do that?" I asked. "Mom, she doesn't ever get a chance to earn her own money." I was very proud. A couple minutes after that, Spencer came into the kitchen and started dropping money into the root beer bottle. I smiled and said, "that's nice of you." He said, "I just want to help poor people have what they need." I was VERY, VERY proud. I am a lucky mom!

Catch up post: Valentine's Day

2011-03-31T13:01:00.004-04:00

Okay, so I'm a month and a half behind on this, but I wanted to share. For Valentine's Day, I decided to do a special dinner. The food had to be red, pink, or heart shaped. Here's what I came up with:

Heart-shaped crescent dogs (before cooking)

after cooking:

red, heart-shaped jell-o jigglers:

we also had red delicious apples, but I didn't get a picture of that. Finally, we had heart-shaped chocolate chip bar cookies:

The kids had fun - I hope! :) We'll see if I am more creative next year!

2011-03-21T13:14:00.005-04:00

I had a really bad night. I just couldn't sleep. I woke up at 3:15am and then had to go to the bathroom. I found that we were out of toilet paper in our bathroom so downstairs I went. By the time I finished I was wide awake. I could not sleep. The last time I looked at the clock it was 5am, but I think it took me another good 1/2 hour to fall asleep. My 1 child who obsesses about weather came in at 6 and got in bed with me. He kicked, tossed, and turned. Finally, at 6:30, it was time for me to get out of bed. He declared that he couldn't go to school today because there was a horrible thunder storm outside. I never did see any sign of lightning and thunder, just moderate rain and some wind. I drove the boys to school, got some breakfast and started my day. Dave took Miana to school. Tayla and I stayed home so she could see the speech therapist.

Fast forward to 10am. Therapy done, I'm ready to shop. In an effort to be more frugal, I have started clipping coupons. I have dreams of one day being able to spend less than $20/week on groceries. Other people do it, why can't I?? So, we subscribed to the Sunday only newspaper and got our coupons for the first time yesterday. I dutifully clipped coupons and looked over the ads. I identified which stores I was going to shop in, I made a game plan, wrote my shopping list on 2 envelops (one for each store), and put the coupons into each envelop. I was ready! Tayla and I were off by 10:20 and went to the first store. This particular store has a loyalty rewards card that offers different deals each week that not only save you money, but give you money back towards your next purchase. They had many Buy One Get One (BOGO) free or 1/2 off today. Some deals were BOGO and then you also got some money back towards a next purchase. I also had several manufacturer and store coupons to use. I strategically broke my list into 2 parts, putting all of the stuff that gave me money towards a future order into my first list/order and all the rest of the items in the next order/list. Last night, only a few of the items had a price listed in the insert, so I had to guess on prices. I guessed that the items I wanted would add up to around $40-50 in the first order and give me $19 back towards the next order. The second order seemed to be between $20-25 or so, but I could use the $19 towards that order, so I should only pay around $1-6 total for the second order. The problem was that I was wrong on many of the prices. My first total was around $100 (after my $25 savings in deals and coupons). I also got $22 back in money towards the 2nd order. I was starting to feel sick. We were at our weekly budget for groceries and I still had a 2nd order to go and the regular grocery store after that. The 2nd order was impressive, but I over spent on that one too. It was an impressive order, but I still spent too much! I spent $25, had $35 savings from deals and coupons and then I spent the $22 from the money back.

I then picked up Miana from school. Tayla had already been shopping with me for the last hour and was DONE. Miana was all over the place. We went to the grocery store, also armed with coupons and deals. The girls were good and entertained in the car-cart for the first 10 minutes. I did try to go fast, but trying to find the exact products that were on sale or that I had a coupon for was exhausting and time consuming. What happened next about sent me over the edge...

First of all, despite the fact grocery stores have carts that look like cars, offer free cookies in the bakery, check-out lanes that are tabloid and candy free, and offer free lollypops at customer service desk - grocery stores are not ACTUALLY child-friendly. If they were child-friendly (or rather adult-with-child-friendly) they would offer free juice boxes laced with valium at every entrance and provide carts that look like cars that are surrounded in sound-proof glass with doors that actually lock from the outside. With that said, picture my 2 little girls, fighting, yelling, clawing at each other and both trying to escape from different openings from the car cart. I hear, "Mom, Tayla just bit me on my nose. KISS me on my nose!" After a quick kiss on the nose, we went about half an aisle down and an older man jokingly says, in a very loud voice, while ramming my cart, "oh no, watch out! Women drivers!" He then chuckles to himself, tries to get my girls to smile at him while he continues, "I had one of THEM (referencing women drivers with disdain) cut me off on the beltway this morning, I was in an Expedition, didn't she know that I could crush her? I yelled, 'what? do you want me to park in your backseat?" Interesting story... did you not notice that I am... a woman?? After being mildly offended, I tried smiling and nodding as I helped him find the product he was looking for to get him on is way. I then checked my daughters over for any injuries they may have sustained from their little "collision." We finished up our shopping, seeing this man several more times and me finding it harder and harder to smile every time I passed him.

On to the checkout lane. I got in a lane that only had 1 person ahead of me and they were close to being finished. The lane was very narrow, so I had to stand in front of my cart to get the stuff out. Tayla climbed out of the cart, I put her in the child seat at the back of the cart, she climbed down onto the food and starting jumping on it, meanwhile, Miana climbed out of the cart started climbing on top of the car part of it. I finally got them under control by putting them in the now empty basket part of the cart. I got behind the cart to push it through the lane. I then had to dive onto the cart to reach over and grab my 2 year old who was getting ready to slide head first down the roof of the car. I'm not very tall so to reach her, I literally had to put part of my body on the cart. As I'm stretching over to get her, my 4 year old begins to climb out of the cart. I grab her with the other hand and I sit, in suspended animation, for what seems like an eternity, holding my baby with the right hand over top of the cart, and holding my 4 yr. old up with my left hand off the side of the cart. I finally get them both in the cart. In a desperate act to keep their attention, I hand Miana their coats and say, "I need you to stay here and watch these coats." She stops moving for the first time in the last 30 min. and stares at me. "Why? They don't have legs!" I was too tired to find the humor that was there, but she's right, the coats weren't going anywhere.

I finished the order, gave the checker the coupons and my rewards card. She scanned the card, handed it back to me and scanned the coupons. I went to put the card away, and asked, "you got this, right?" She glanced at the screen and nodded. I put it away, paid for my food and she handed me the receipt. "Wait a minute, it doesn't look like I got your card!" Apparently, it hadn't scanned, but some of the food showed up as discounted anyway. I then had to take my 2 girls to customer service desk to have the amount credited to my card (they are doing a gas rewards program) and wait for her to process my $16 in additional savings that I was due which she had to pay me in cash. At this point the girls are screaming, fighting, scratching, etc. and the lady offers them a free lollypop when we're all done with the transaction. - Thanks, lady, for rewarding their bad behavior and giving them sticking candy before getting in the car on our way home for lunch.

Long story short - I'm not cut out for couponing and my husband will be happy to know that although I will continue to look for manufacturer coupons in the Sunday paper and peruse the inserts for the best deals that fit our family, I will only buy food we are eating that week anyway and we are NOT going to 2 different stores anymore. It was too expensive, too long, and too exhausting.

Cure for boredom: Leggo my Lego

2011-03-17T20:35:00.002-04:00

This morning I had a somewhat hectic morning that required the coordination of many "moving pieces." I had to get the boys off to school, get the girls up, dressed, and fed, and leave the house by 8:45 with all of the required paperwork. I then drove Miana to church building to meet up with Nana at 9:15 so that Nana could babysit Miana and attend the scripture study class (Miana got to play in the nursery.) I then went to the grocery store for a quick trip in to get a few things and then I took Tayla to her 10:00am evaluation meeting for Speech & Language therapy through the county. The meeting went well and we went back to the church to get M and thank Nana. Then home for laundry, lunch, and nap time by 1pm. I took a deep breath - I had all of my laundry folded, the dishes were all done, the house was clean and I had already checked Facebook and email. I was starting to feel... bored. Sometimes it happens when I've had something stressful that is overwith (in this case, the evaluation.) The boys came home from school, we got homework done, had a snack and that feeling of boredom persisted.

Fast forward past making dinner, eating dinner, and doing nightly clean up. I was getting the kids ready for bed when Miana says, very casually, "Oh, I forgot to tell Spencer - I have one of his Legos stuck in my nose." She then runs up the stairs to tell him. I run up after her and start asking all of the questions: How did it get there? When did it get there? Why on Earth?

After getting the other kids in bed, I commenced what can only be described as a life-size version of the game "Operation." Armed with the only pair of tweezers I could find, I tried holding her down on the bed, while tilting her head back, and carefully trying to remove the Lego without jabbing her or scraping the inside of her nose. She was trying as hard as a not-quite-4-yr.-old could to stay still, but let's face it - when someone is coming at your nose with something, it's hard to fight the instinct to thrash about. After many failed attempts and the worry that I was going to injure her (or worse, push it further in) I came to the conclusion that I needed professional help with the removal. Not sure if I should call for an archeologist or a plumber, I finally decided on a quick trip to InstaCare. It took 2 nurses and her mom to hold her down while her nose was cleared by a doctor in a matter of seconds. Phew! After a 5 minute dr. appt., (likely) $200 for the visit, and a nice lecture about how this particular size of Lego is inappropriate and dangerous for 3 yr. olds, I can honestly say, I am no longer feeling bored!

Spotlight

2011-03-15T18:56:00.004-04:00

I had 2 conversations with 2 different kids in the past 2 days - both about the same topic. I wanted to write them down so I would not forget. Neither 1 is hysterically funny, both just made me chuckle a bit.

Background: at church, the Primary (children's organization) leaders choose 1 child each week to "spotlight." The parents fill out a questionnaire sometime beforehand and then the leaders give some of the answers and the kids all try to guess who it is. A few weeks ago, one of the leaders stopped me in the hall and said that they didn't have a questionnaire filled out for 2 of my kids. I quickly tried to fill them out the best I could and gave them back to her. There were a few things I was sure of for each kid (i.e. Carter loves corn dogs, his favorite color is green and has been from the time he was very little. Miana likes the color purple and loves the song, Popcorn Popping.) Fast Forward to this past Sunday. Carter was the spotlighted child. I mentioned it in the car on the way home.

Me: Someone in this car was the spotlight kid today, I saw him leading the song up front.

Carter: I was, but at first I didn't know it was me. They said the person's favorite color was green, so I knew for sure it wasn't me.

Me: Green has been your favorite color for a very long time so I didn't know you had changed it. What's your favorite color?

C (sounding a little annoyed): Aqua, duh.

Then today, we sang Popcorn Popping and I asked Miana if that was her favorite song.

M: No, my favorite song is the horse one.

Me: Which horse one?

M: The one that says (now singing) "The horse runs down the road and runs because he doesn't know that he's on the road and getting hit by a car."

Oh, that horse one...

Dear Mom, I know you wonder what I do with my time...

2011-03-02T18:32:00.002-05:00

5:00pm: Send very sick husband (chills/fever) downstairs to get on a conference call.

5:10pm: Get Tayla from upstairs (she snuck up there to play in the kids' bathroom) shut all doors so she won't get into any rooms she's not supposed to.

5:15pm: Call you (Mom) to set up a babysitting for tomorrow (Thank You!) so I can take Spencer to his dr. appt.

5:20pm: Go back upstairs to get Tayla, AGAIN. (the doors just don't stay shut!) As we come down the stairs Miana wakes up. It was getting late anyway, so glad she's awake, but now I have to be twice as vigilant.

5:25pm: Start getting out a few things for dinner, remember that I promised Spencer I would update his job chart online. Sit down at the computer.

5:27pm: Console a very upset Carter who waited for a long time to get a turn on the neighbor's trampoline, when it was his turn, he started to get on and the mom came out to tell everyone it was time for them all to get off. I made him a good deal, he could have some chocolate if he took the clothes out of the dryer. He went to do that.

5:30pm: I get up from the computer to go get dinner started, but first I go to check on Carter's progress on the clothes. I head into the living room, Tayla follows me, climbs onto the chair and all of a sudden I hear, "GO!" One of her only words she says clearly. She then jumps off the chair and hits the table - immediate blood dripping EVERYWHERE - I have never seen it come out so quickly. I grab her and put her back on the chair, grabbing her chin and start yelling for Carter to bring me some toilet paper. He brings me a whole roll. I sit on the floor, holding her body with my leg, her head with 1 hand and the toilet paper on her lip with the other. I have Carter bring us a baggie of ice. We sit on the floor for a few more minutes until she's done bleeding. She'll have a fat lip for a few days.

5:37pm: I get up from the floor, head into the kitchen to throw away the bloody toilet paper and wash my hands. I am about to start (FINALLY) making dinner when I decide I should go to the bathroom first. I went into the bathroom to see that the TP was gone and remember that I had left it on the floor in the other room. I go to get it and discover it's gone. I go into the kitchen to see if I left it there. I then go back to the bathroom and still can't see it anywhere. I call to Miana who is now upstairs. She comes downstairs to tell me that the TP is "out" in the boy's room. I think she may mean "up." I ask her to bring it to me. She comes down the stairs with an armful of unraveled TP. Oh, I see, she meant "unrolled."

5:45pm: I discover that the girls have toilet-papered the boys' bedroom.

5:47pm: I finally start dinner while listening to the girls playing upstairs in the play room. I run in to switch the laundry over.

5:52pm: I am cutting chicken while I hear the girls move into the boys' room.

5:55pm: I suddenly notice that the sounds I'm hearing upstairs are NOT coming from the boys' room, they are now coming from the bathtub in my bathroom. I wash my hands and run upstairs to get 2 half naked girls out of the bathtub and take them downstairs.

6:00pm: I go back to making dinner and wonder, what EXACTLY happened in the last hour??

Mom, when you come over tomorrow, PLEASE don't ask me why I didn't get my house totally cleaned up today. I just don't think I can handle it.

For those wondering how I knew the times, every time I walked back into the kitchen I looked at the clock and thought, "this hour is dragging on and on and on!" I'm exhausted and I'm ready to for bed! - It's only 8:10pm.

Quote of the evening: Carter on the Founding Fathers

2011-02-16T23:10:00.002-05:00

Spencer and Carter are both working on famous american projects at school. They got to talking about everyone they were learning about. Here is a piece of that conversation.

Spencer: We were talking about George Washington, but for this project we have to pick an African American. [February is Black History Month] I chose Rosa Parks. Is anyone in your class studying Rosa Parks?

Carter: Yah, we have a Rosa Parks. We also have George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and someone is also going to be Thomas S. Monson.

Spencer: Do you mean Thomas Jefferson?

Carter: Oh, yah, it's Thomas Jefferson.

For a minute, I was impressed that the school was including American church leaders. Oh, well, maybe Carter will make sure he is included! :)

Spencer's Family Trip

2011-02-12T09:18:00.004-05:00

Spencer is working on the Family Travel Belt Loop and Pin for cub scouts. He has to do a journal entry about his trip and I thought it would be fun for him to do it online. Here it is:
It was fun when we left the house. It was really hard to pack our stuff. On the 2nd day we went skiing. It was fun. I felt wobbly at first because I didn't know how to steer. I learned how to steer. I went night skiing. I went on a green circle run 2 times with my dad. On the 3rd day, I went in the hot tub and sauna. I loved every activity. Stay tuned...

That's all we've gotten to today, we think there might be more fun later this afternoon! :)

Over scheduling kids OR an over scheduled mom

2011-01-17T11:28:00.005-05:00

Being faced with a decision this week that is starting to stress me out. Spencer has asked me forever if he can do karate. Karate has seldom been offered by the community center and is far to expensive and intense to do through a martial arts school. In the last year, a karate school has begun offering introduction, just for fun classes at the community center. It's $50 for 4 classes (1 per week). Comparatively, it's not that expensive and may be just what he's looking for. It's for 6-9 yr. olds so Carter could go too. But that becomes a quick $100 out the door, but I'm seriously considering it. It's not the money so much, even though that is definitely a huge factor, as it is that if they like it, we'd have to keep going. Spencer is a kid that just can't have too much scheduled. He is in cub scouts right now which meets once a week and that's enough for him. I like the idea of him having something active also, but is it too much for a boy who can't handle it when his homework takes longer than 3:30 because it means he only has 1.5 hours to play with friends? He really is a 1-thing-at-a-time kid. The other problem is that he also has asked me if he can play soccer in the Spring. That will mean 2 practices a week and a Saturday game PLUS cub scouts. Carter really wants to play soccer in the Spring which means the same for him. Miana also wants to play which means Saturdays for 45 min. only, which isn't too bad, but what if the other 2 kids have games somewhere else? That starts to make for an overscheduled mom dragging 4 kids to 4 practices and 3 games every week... I don't know if I'm up for that. Dave should be available on Saturdays, but what about during the week? I may have to JUST DO IT.

I have often been annoyed by the parents (and this is totally my own opinion and pet peeve) that put sports before church activities. Spencer does cubs because it is sponsored by church. He loves it and has gotten really into it. There are kids that have sports games during the week and late at night. I'm totally against this. I will be annoyed if I sign Spencer up for soccer and then find out that they want him at a game when he's supposed to be at church (or worse) in bed. Children NEED a regular schedule, one that isn't full of surprises. They need to know that when they get home from school, they get a snack, do HW, then get to go outside to play. Not that on this day they have such and such and on that day they have something else. They just need consistency. I am also against playing 2 sports at once or 2 instruments at a time. It's too much! 1 sport and 1 additional activity(church, art, music). Now, playing 2 sports at once is probably fine for kids that don't go out to play in the neighborhood with kids and therefor don't get interaction with other kids. They probably need some extra kid time (other than their own siblings). But for kids that live in a regular neighborhood, have good friends that are their own age, it's okay to just let them be kids. Let them have a day when they just build something with Legos, let them have a day where they just run around the backyard and see whose paper airplane goes the furthest, or let them just build a fort in the basement. No need for a child to have to worry about if they have soccer today or if it's piano lessons or violin or basketball or karate. Their biggest worry should be whether or not their block tower will withstand the forces of their little sister!

How to survive High School

2011-01-16T10:53:00.002-05:00

I have absolutely no idea why this was on my mind this morning. I just felt like it was one of those things from my past that I wanted to write down and have for my own memories. This isn't written to anyone in particular.

Here it is, my guidelines for surviving high school and making it both a place you never want to leave and one that the teachers are proud to say they taught you.

#1 - choose friends that have similar goals and bring out the best in you. These are people who want you to get good grades, never want to see you in trouble, want you to succeed in life, and love you even if you make dumb mistakes, because no matter what, you will make dumb mistakes.

#2 - learn some basic sign language. Every classroom I was ever in had the same rule, no talking when someone else is talking. Just about every person I've met that had a friend in a class had the same problem - something to tell that friend that just couldn't wait. Writing notes can get the most information across without making noise, but you risk having someone else be able to get ahold of that information and share it with the wrong people. Sign language is a quick and easy way to communicate across the room with very few people knowing what you are saying. The teacher can't complain because you didn't talk - although if she says no communicating, then I think you should probably keep it at a minimum. This is not to EVER be done during a quiz or test, you could easily be punished for cheating, even if you didn't actually cheat.

#3 - don't ever cheat or let someone cheat off of you. Not EVER! Not even once. Your friends are wonderful people, you want to see them succeed, make them do their own work. Trust me, you never, ever want to feel the feeling you get when you cheat. I cheated once. On a spelling test in 4th grade. I didn't even realize I was cheating. If I had realized that I was cheating, I would have never done it. Once I realized that it was cheating, I had the most awful feeling inside, I felt sick to my stomach. It was soooo not worth trying to get a better grade.

#4 - peer pressure is going to happen. Make sure yours is to be the best person you can be (both the pressure you receive and the pressure you give) Note: see #1.

#5 - find teachers that you enjoy and thank them for their efforts. Not kidding, this will change your whole school experience. No need to be fake, just thank them, even if it's just a quick "thanks" as you leave the room. Teachers don't get enough thanks for all they do. They put hours into planning a lesson that takes them only an hour to teach. Sincerity goes a long way and they will remember that you are nice person when your grade is on the border of "A" and "B" and can go either way. That little every day "thanks" can mean the better grade.

#6 - Be friendly, not fake, with teachers. Remembering that teachers are real people, being comfortable and confident around them, and letting them share a little of your life does not make you a kiss up, it makes you a good person and a smart person. If you do it the right way, you can end up making a life long friend and you may end up with additional privileges at school.

#7 - take extra classes from the teachers that also sponsor the clubs you are in, teachers that like you, and ones that you have cultivated a good relationship with.

#8 - Be an office aid or teacher's assistant (to the teachers from #7). You will learn to interact better with adults, develop some leadership skills, and get a lot of time to do homework so you don't have to do it after school.

#9 - get good grades. Do whatever it takes, work your hardest. You will never regret hard work.

#10 - when you think something nice, say it out loud, when you think something mean, keep it to yourself. Doesn't matter who it's about.Being nice to everyone is a sure way to be popular, even if you're not friends with the "popular" people. You will have a more people on your side than they do, more people who remember you and like you, and never have to worry about who to sit with at lunch.

Everyone is awkward and insecure in highschool, those that succeed are also those that go in confidently, knowing that everyone is just as insecure as they are. Using some or all of these guidelines, my senior year was one that I didn't need a hall pass from a teacher, I had a laminated one. Teachers didn't care that I was late for class, they knew I had a good reason. My friends were awesome! I got to play around in art with absolutely no talent whatsoever. I got an "A" in an aerobics class that I was actually signed up for but the teacher announced to the other students that my friend and I were her classroom aids. We took attendance for her, sometimes did aerobics, but most of the time we got to just talk to each other while doing a few other things. I got to the point where I no longer needed to call home to get permission to leave school grounds, the grade level secretary just handed me the pass when I came in. When I was dating this one boy who worked at a bagel shop, I got to leave for lunch so that I could go see him several times a week (we weren't allowed to leave campus without permission).

My mom will have to correct me on the details of this story, but it's one of my favorites! My brother was so good at high school that one time he was failing a class and when my mom called to ask the teacher what was going on, the teacher defending my brother and told my mom not to worry and not to be too hard on him. What?? That's right, the school loved him.

I would love to know what got you through high school... any comments??

2010 Update

2011-01-06T00:25:00.005-05:00

Halloween

2011-01-04T13:47:00.005-05:00

I wanted to have a Halloween post but I didn't have any good pictures. Spencer was going to be a mummy, I spent $20 on rolls of gauze and last minute he decided he didn't want to do it, so he didn't actually goes as anything, Carter made his own costume out of a white garbage bag - he ripped 2 eye holes and was a ghost, and the 2 girls were hula dancers. It wasn't a good year for Halloween - it started with Dave with Strep Throat and ended with me getting a very severe case of it. There's always next year??

Utah-Idaho-Utah Thanksgiving 2010

2011-01-04T13:47:00.004-05:00

For Thanksgiving 2010, we decided that it was most important for us to spend some time with Dave's grandparents. They are the last of our kids Great-grandparents and I love that my kids are old enough to have memories of their time together. Although Great- Grandparents were the main reason for going to visit, we still added in some of our favorite stops! First stop: Blackfoot, ID the home of "the other cousins" also known as "the second cousins." Blackfoot always feels so comfortable to me, I am quite sure it's because of the wonderful people we get to see! Dave's aunt always makes us feel at home and we love getting to see everyone. The kids always cry when it's time to leave because they love playing with the other cousins. During this trip up there, it was particularly fun to see how fascinated my kids were with the mounted animal heads in Carol's basement. My favorite comment was "but they're not really REAL,right Mom?" Ummm....

The next stop was back downto SLC to visit Dave's aunt, 2 cousins, and the new baby. I say new baby but he was old enough to be almost walking, we had just never seen him before... but sooooo cute! We had a nice, but brief visit with them.

Next it was on to Highland to visit with my sister, Paige and her family. Paige is... well... the best sister anyone could ask for! She is the kind of person that is really reserved until you get to know her, but once you know her, she has a way of making everyone feel that they are her very best friend. She has a way of always making feel that I am loved and understood, it's pretty awesome. (My other 2 sisters are awesome, too, I just didn't get to see them on this particular trip, so I'm not talking about them!) That night we were able to also visit with my dear friend Trisha and her family. Trisha is one of those people that makes everyone near her feel loved, appreciated, and just plain alive.Oh, I miss having her here, in my very own neighborhood! The next stop was in Payson, on our way down to St. George. We went to see Shane and Stacy, another one of our favorite families. Shane was Dave's roommate and is a ton of fun. Stacy is A-MA-ZING. We only stayed for a couple of hours, but it was a very inspirational visit for me. They reminded me where true happiness comes from in a time when I was feeling a little down. All of our visits on Sunday and Monday were brief, but those 2 days made me wish even more that we lived closer to my lovely friends (yes, Paige, you are also my friend).

St. George was colder than I had hoped. That's all, everything else was as wonderful as I had imagined. We got to spend some time (and Thanksgiving) with Dave's grandparents, parents, and sister. We also got to see his parents' new home. It is just perfect and has an amazing view. I took some pictures from their deck, but when I was putting the collagetogether, I couldn't find them, so I will have to post those some other time. We had a great time and it was sad to leave Grandma and Grandpa Young. They are really wonderful people. On our way out of St. George, we stopped by to see my aunt. I looked up her address the day before we left and found out that she lived across the street from our hotel! Ifelt a little dumb that I hadn't stopped by to see her sooner!! When we got back to Provo, the view and sky were beautiful from my parents' place (investment property-where we were staying) I couldn't help but take some pictures. It was a fantastic trip, took all of our savings and then some, but totally worth it!!

Cruise: Final Days

2011-01-01T17:01:00.002-05:00

The last full day of the cruise was spent at sea on very rough waters (we were running away from a storm). We had a relaxing last day getting a couples massage and spending the rest of the morning up on the deck. We had lunch, took our daily nap and enjoyed a show that night. The next morning, we disembarked and while we waited for our shuttle, we enjoyed the most beautiful sky, it had a rainbow the the North and the most beautiful pink, purple, orange, yellow, and blue sky to the south. We went to the airport, caught an earlier flight home and I ran through the front door to hug my babies that I had missed terribly. In the next few days we were asked repeatedly what our favorite part of the cruise was and both of us replied that it was being able to take naps daily! Our least favorite part (but also one of the better parts) was being away from the kids. I was glad to be home, but sure do miss not having to cook and being able to take naps whenever I wanted! 10 more years and maybe we'll get to do it again!

Day 5: Isla Roatan, Honduras, Day 6: Costa Maya, Mexico

2011-01-01T14:01:00.006-05:00

In Honduras, we opted not to go on any excursions. We walked around shops and played a round of minigolf in the extreme heat, which Dave won. We then watched the sun set as we left the bay, the sky was beautiful and it was made even better having my husband by my side. Weplayed scramble on my phone while waiting for the boat to set sail from Honduras.

In Costa Maya, we woke up early and watched the sunrise. After breakfast, we went to the Chacchoben Ruins. Ever since High School Spanish class, I have always wanted to visit ruins in Mexico and this was a fulfillment of that dream. I still hope to go to Chichen Itza some day and see the snake, but for now, my desire to see some ruins is satisfied. They were very cool!

Cruise Day 4: Belize

2011-01-01T13:21:00.003-05:00

Belize was beautiful. We went snorkeling in Goff's Cay, a small island (about an acre or so) surrounded by corral reef. Belize has the 2nd largest coral reef in the world (Australia has the largest). We were not allowed to dock at Belize City (the coast you see in one of the pictures) so we took tenders (the taxi of boats) to Goff's Cay. Please note the curly hair picture of me, that's for Jaclyn, she calls it my "George Washington" hair. We also saw and awesome rainbow. It was a lovely place with very kind people. :)

Cruise Day 3: Cozumel

2011-01-01T11:44:00.003-05:00

2 words - Atlantis Submarine!

We docked in Cozumel, Mexico and boarded the Atlantis Submarine which took us 120 ft. down. It was fun to go on a submarine, but I forgot that I am claustrophobic, which caused a bit of anxiety for me. Quite the experience!

Cruise Days 1 and 2: Port Canaveral - Day at Sea

2011-01-01T11:21:00.003-05:00

I know I already started talking about our cruise, but it was so long ago I thought I should start over. Here are pictures from the first 2 days, September 18 - 19.

Halloween fun

2010-10-28T08:23:00.000-04:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

What do I do all day?

2010-10-25T13:56:00.001-04:00

People ask me this a lot. Here's the answer.

The Cruise, Part 1 - The Carnival Dream

2010-09-29T17:51:00.003-04:00

Dave and I were able to go on a cruise for our (in chronological order) Honeymoon, 1o year anniversary, Mother's Day 2010, my 34th Birthday, and our 11 year Anniversary. :) That's a lot to cover, but it was worth it. We went for 7 days to the Western Caribbean. We went on the Carnival Dream to Cozumel, Mexico, Belize City, Belize, Isla Roatan, Honduras, and Costa Maya, Mexico.
It was a lot harder for me to go on the cruise than I thought, but it was well worth it and I loved, loved, LOVED the quiet time alone with my husband!

www.ScrapWalls.com/view?v=102727 (click to see some of the first pictures!)

One final mom post, then on to the cruise!

2010-09-29T17:31:00.002-04:00

One last thing then I'm probably done. I wanted to mention that I have several friends who have struggled to have children. They have been through unimaginable heart-ache. It makes me angry and frustrated when other people treat their ability to bring children into this world as a right or just something to cross off their "to-do" list. My opinion is that you should cherish a child. Not just be those people who say they love their children, but be those people who truly DO love that they were able to have children. I'm not saying that I'm always as patient as I should be, but I definately appreciate the fact that I have them. Being a parent is not a responsibility that I take lightly. I look at my children daily and wonder how it was possible that God gave ME such an amazing gift and responsibility. To all of my amazing and deserving friends who's life has not allowed them this joy - remember that God is just and merciful - your time will come! To those who have children - be grateful for the crayon on your walls and the handprints on your windows!

Stay At Mom - part 2 - from a less emotional view

2010-09-13T12:58:00.006-04:00

I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to add a few additional comments. First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for the support comments. I know there are tons of women who stay home with their kids and many are super moms, someday I hope to be more like all of you! I wanted to take a minute and add somethings that I have been thinking of since I posted this post. My point was not that I, personally, want recognition for what I do, but more that I want society to recognize the importance of it. I know that women go to work for a lot of reasons. I know that some need to feel the fulfillment of a career, others do it out of necessity to care for their families. I'm not saying that many don't have legitimate reasons for doing it. I have my reasons for staying home. I will share a few of those but I wanted to add that all reasons aside, we live in a society where we are told to be accepting of everyone no matter what - so why does that NOT apply to people trying to do what they think is right?
I said in my last post that staying home with my kids is the "right thing to do." In a world where the line between right and wrong is so blurred you may wonder what I mean by it being "right." So, here are my reasons... My number one reason for staying home is that a prophet of God said, "Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. 'Children are an heritage of the Lord' (Psalms 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, to teach them to love and serve one another, to observe the commandments of God and to be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives-mothers and fathers - will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations. The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded on the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activiites. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred reponsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or tother circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed." That's it. A prophet of God told me that it is my responsibility to care for the children, to nurture them. I can't think of a way to do that except to be WITH them.
I have a degree in psychology. It doesn't mean much, except for the fact that I took a bunch of classes in college and I focussed a lot of them on children and development. One of the things I learned there is that children attach themselves to their primary caregiver. This is the strongest bond created that allows the child to feel safe and secure and aids in proper development. There is a bond that is between parent and child, no matter the daily routine, but the greater bond is between child and primary caregiver. I imagine that if you send your child off to a daycare center, where there are several providers who switch off, the child will fail to attach to anyone and this can have developmental consequences because their physical needs are met, but not many of their emotional needs. If you send the child to someone's home, where there is one provider but lots of children, the child will bond to that provider but not necessarily have all of their emotional needs met. If you have a babysitter, nanny, au pair, etc. come into your home, this is ideal because the child will bond to the provider and usually have more of his or her emotional needs met. In this case, parents will be seen as an authority figure, but not a secure bond, like when I send my kids off to school, they have a similar bond with their teacher. Now what happens to a child who forms this bond with a caregiver and then the provider goes to a different daycare center, the nanny leaves for college, or the parents find a cheaper option? The child will morn a loss, because it's like having a parent die. Then they attach to the next caregiver and it all happens again. I don't think it's fair to the child and not something that they should be put through. My point is that when I say I'm doing the right thing, I mean it's the best choice for my children - or any children. No one can argue that a day care center is AS GOOD AS having a parent stay home. My biggest pet peeve is that people have children with no intention of raising them. It is not the job of a babysitter or the school to teach personal morality. I had an experience this last Spring that I think speaks volumes and makes my point perfectly. I was at the playground with my kids and talking with a friend. At the same park there were 2 nannies who had come to talk while the kids they watched played. One of the boys had brought his bike to ride around the track. This boy, probably around 5 or 6, brought his bike over near me and rode very slowly towards me, he ran into my leg with his bike. I thought maybe he had done it on accident so I ignored him. He then backed his bike up and ran into me again. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the nanny was looking in my general direction but was still talking to her friend. I was annoyed. I softly asked the boy not to run into me again. I watched as the boy backed up and came right towards me again. I was now angry. I leaned down, grabbed his bike and firmly said, "Stop! It is rude and inappropriate to run into people with your bike. You need to stop NOW. Do not do it again." I felt like putting him in timeout, but knew that would never work, I then turned around and saw that the nanny wasn't even watching - it made me angry. I was about to find out who he was and knock on his door to talk to his parents, but he didn't run into me again, so I let it go. If the mom had been there, I am confident that I would not have needed to discipline him. It's late and I need to go to bed so I will leave with this: I agree that there are some women that it would not be better for them to be around their children all day long - it's certainly not easy and not for everyone - those are the families that should consider having a stay at home dad.

My thoughts on being a stay at home mom

2010-09-09T18:46:00.002-04:00

I was recently visiting this website and thought that her opening comments echoed my own thoughts. Then, I began thinking about what exactly ARE my thoughts about motherhood and staying at home. I am disappointed when people immediately look down on me because I don't have a job. Apparently, you can't have respect in our society without a career (or a job at McDonalds, both get better responses than being a stay at home mom). I have a job, in fact, I have several. All of them more important that working at McDonalds AND than having a high-income job. The difference is that I don't get paid. A year ago December, I was talking to 2 women who worked at the elementary school. One was expecting her first grandchild and the other her first child. I, too, was expecting - our 4th. The turned to the topic of when the one was going to come back from maternity leave. She said it would be the 3 months offered by the school. I smiled and said, "unless you take one look at that sweet baby and decide you can't ever leave his side, you may never come back." She turned and in a tone that I will never forget but can not be portrayed properly in writing said, "I would never do THAT." The tone was filled with disdain, as if she was saying, "why would I ever lower myself to do THAT kind of thing." I felt attacked, even a little embarrassed and completely not sure what to say. Without trying to sound hurt, I simply said, "Well, I can't imagine letting anyone else see my children take their first steps, say their first words, or any of the other magical moments in their lives." The older one then said, "Oh, well, we working moms tell the babysitters not to tell us when they do those things, just to let us discover it for ourselves so we think it's the first time." Conversation was over and I left feeling a little lost, even a bit defeated. I'm right here, I know I am, so why am I the one that feels bad or wrong? It's the same with everything else in our society, it's backwards (that's another long topic altogether). Well, I'm tired of feeling old fashioned and being told that somehow I'm inferior because I choose to take care of my own children and don't get paid for it. I'm not out to be the most spectacular homemaker in the world (like Stacy) or my kids' coach for every sport on the planet (likeLauren) or a fantastic gourmet cook (like Alexia) or a SuperMom (like Anne) or a perfect house keeper (like just about ALL the other moms I know). My kids will likely have fond memories of me being stressed out because our house was too messy, them not being able to find clothes because the clean ones were piled high on the couch, not yet folded and put away, and that dinner consisted of veggie pasta with cheese dumped on it quickly. They will likely have lots of memories of me at the computer, sending emails, doing church assignments, and checking facebook :) . I know they will remember me getting angry and yelling at them to the point that I have to put myself in time out. I know that their memories won't always be fond ones, but they will ALL have me in them. I will be here when they leave for school, I will be here when they get back. My kids will not always have a clean house but they will always know that I love them. Which brings me to my jobs. What is a mother for? My job is to make sure that I produce moral productive members of society. There's no advanced training, other than a briefing in the hospital of how to keep the baby alive and clean. In my case, I have received on the job training which has included how to take apart and put back together just about everything in the house and I believe I can now withstand any sort of torture known to mankind. I have learned a great many useful things such as: no home should be without duct tape and spackle, no one in their right mind should ever buy Sharpies or crayons, any important document can become scratch paper in a matter of seconds, some things are REALLY easy to flush down the toilet, other things aren't so easy to flush, and most of all, that life just isn't fair, but it is fairly just. Why do I choose to stay home with my kids? Because it's the right thing to do, and because I get paid in hugs and kisses - who can beat that?

Marissa, don't be shy!

2010-08-18T13:27:00.002-04:00

Sometimes, people read blogs and don't leave comments. That's fine if you don't have anything to say, but if you do want to comment, then go ahead. As a note: Even though, I am having issues with spammed comments, I am still keeping my blog and comments public. I love comments and hope that you will feel comfortable leaving them. I have gone to comment moderation, so I will have to approve your comments, but please don't be shy!! I like knowing who is stopping by for a peek. I'm sorry I haven't been publishing lately, but I do still have 4 kids, 2 callings, 1 house, and 1 husband. I'm a little tired and a little busy!! Hope to hear from you soon!!

Worry Ghost

2010-08-18T08:37:00.003-04:00

I still need to blog about the lake and I promise to do that soon. I wanted to write about the Worry Ghost before I forgot. It all started a week and a half ago at Family Home Evening. Dave taught a lesson about keeping certain things out of our house. He was talking specifically about what they watch on TV and why Mommy and Daddy have rules about it. He told the kids that we want to keep our house free from bad things so the Holy Ghost can come into our home. He mentioned keeping the house clean as another way to invite the Spirit. This week at FHE, Dave was out of town and I taught the lesson about how the Holy Ghost can help us to feel happy, but He can't come into our home if it is really messy and dirty. Being messy distracts us and makes it hard for us to feel the Spirit and it makes Mommy feel anxious and that isn't happy for anyone. Last night, we were getting ready to go pick Jaclyn up from the airport and I told the kids we needed to clean up to get ready for her to come. They picked up the toys in the family room (mostly) and went in the other room to get my shoes on so we could leave. Miana followed me.

M: Mom, the Worry Ghost is coming.
Me: The Worry Ghost?
M: Yes, he is coming.
Me: Do you mean the Holy Ghost?
M: Yes, the Holy Ghost. He is coming to our house.
Me: What is He going to do here?
M: He is going to break stuff.
Me: Miana, the Holy Ghost is nice, he's not going to break anything. He comes here to help us be safe and feel happy.
M: Mom... I so sorry, but the Worry Ghost is not coming here, he is with his family.
Me: He's with his family?
M: Yes, he's with his family and is not coming here.
Me: Oh, I see.

That was pretty much the end of the conversation. She was really cute and I loved seeing how her brain works. Apparently, she was really worried about this ghost coming here. That night, when we got home she looked around the house and said, "He didn't come. Mom, the Worry Ghost was not here." This morning, when she woke up, I opened the door to her room and she said, "The Worry Ghost is coming to help us clean up." :) I just smiled. At least she's not afraid of him any more!

New Calling

2010-07-18T17:58:00.002-04:00

Today I was sustained (and set apart) as the Young Women's Secretary in my ward. I'm excited to work with the other leaders and get to know all of the young women. This will be my third time serving in a YW's organization. In January or February of 2000, when I was newly married, I was called as the Ward Girl's Camp Director. In March or April, they decided to call me as the First Counselor in YWs. I held both callings until after camp at the end of June. We moved out of that ward in December. In the next ward, I was called into YWs in late 2004 as the Personal Progress Specialist. The ward boundaries changed soon after and I was in a newly created ward. I was immediately called as the Beehive Advisor. In August of 2005, we moved out of that ward.
Today, while being set apart, I was blessed that I would be able to share the experiences that I had while in the Herndon Ward as a Young Woman and the other experiences I have had in my other YW callings to make a difference in the lives of these Young Women. This hit me hard! I felt so strongly that I do have something to share from my own experiences. I also remember that he said that I would be blessed to love and appreciate the wonderful YW that I will work with. I am so excited to get started and be a part of this wonderful organization!!
--PS-- I am keeping my other calling until they can find someone to replace me but I am having a hard time thinking about giving it up! I am the Cub Scout Committee Chair and I LOVE cub scouts!! I need to dedicate my time to the YWs program so I can't do both. I believe very strongly that if you are in a Presidency, that needs to be your only calling, so I know it's time to let go, but I am really sad about it. --

Hard day and worth every second

2010-07-06T19:50:00.005-04:00

In describing my experience at the store this morning I said, "I had to pinch her to make her cry, because crying in pain was better than having her do what she was doing before." Yup. It's true. First Miana refused to sit in the cart and with 2 other kids in the cart, I allowed her to walk. She did fine for the first 2 aisles where she stood on the front of the cart. Then she decided to actually walk (or rather run). She started climbing on boxes (it was shelf restocking day) and I told her that if she ran off again or climbed on anything, she would have to ride in the cart. We went to the next aisle and there was big dolly/cart thing that had a couple boxes on it, she ran to it and climbed on. I picked her up and put her in the cart and she immediately started screaming. Finally, she started yelling actual words. "I can't sit down, it doesn't fit for me!" Fit for me is her way of saying she doesn't fit somewhere or something doesn't fit her. Anyway, I cleared a space for her and showed her how to sit down in it, she refused and stood there screaming for 2 more aisles. Then she yelled, "it's falling on me, it's all falling on me!" for the next 3-4 aisles. She then got angry and pushed all of the food into a big pile in the cart with the salad and bananas at the bottom and sat down on top of them. We went to check out and she was still yelling and screaming and whining. I sat her down and the cart and pinched her leg so that she would stop. She sat down and quietly cried and rubbed her leg. I didn't really hurt her, I barely even pinched, it was just enough to get her to stop yelling. I finally got out of the store just to have Miana yell and scream in the parking lot and cry all of the way home - why? Because her shoe fell off. Yes, her shoe fell off so we should yell and scream for 10 minutes. I got home, put her shoe back on because she wouldn't get out of the car with it off. The next 5 minutes went like this: I took Tayla into the house, opened the back of the van, Tayla came out of the house and was running down the driveway, I chased her, put her back in the house, tried to give a bag of groceries to Miana who dropped them on the ground yelling, "it's too heavy!", then I chased Tayla down the driveway again, put her back in the house (at this point we still have not gotten any groceries into the house), I then gave a bag to Carter who started into the house but couldn't get past Miana who was just standing in front of the stairs to the house, I then took the last 6 bags of groceries out, loaded them on my arms, and told her to move, Carter then pushed past her and although he didn't hurt her or knock her down, she fell to the ground crying and wouldn't move, I about dropped the groceries, went out of the garage and through the front of the house so that I could get inside and get the first of the groceries in. I still don't know if all of the bags ever made it into the house. I went out to the garage and shut the door so Miana could only come into the house or stay there. When she saw that I wasn't going to get her, she stopped crying and simply walked into the house. All of this was made worse by the fact that Dave is in Cincinnatti so I knew I wouldn't get any help at all. I was done being a parent by 10am. At 11am my mom stopped by, she couldn't stay long but just having another adult made it so I could make it to nap time and feel like I could be a good mom again. It was a long day, but as hard as it felt at the time, it ended with my oldest child leaving the house for a few minutes and saying, "Don't worry, Mom. I will be back soon to hug you!" He is a good boy and really helps me make it through the tough times! Miana and I are once again friends. I have gotten over the morning stress and moved on. I love my kids and hate when it all feels too hard to handle. I'm grateful for little moments that make everything better!!!

Spencer's lesson

2010-06-29T13:34:00.003-04:00

I hesitate to post this on such a public place, but as I do use this as my personal journal and record of what goes on in our lives, I feel it was necessary. Although it was personal for him, it is a moment that has brought me great joy as a mother and I wanted to share my joy and not just focus on the funny or unfortunate things that happen to us.
A week ago Spencer and I were working on his Faith In God book. Faith in God is a program at church for 8-12 year olds. There is a book with goals/assignments that help children learn and grow spiritually. The 8-11yr. old boys can use some of the items in the book to earn their Religious Emblem for cub scouts. Spencer and I work on these items on Sunday afternoons. One of the items was to tell the Joseph Smith story in your own words and talk about prayer. Spencer decided that he would teach Family Home Evening the following day and teach about J.S. On Monday night, he told the story and it went very well. Afterwards, he came up to me and said, "Mom, ever since I taught about Joseph Smith, I just feel so good! I want to do good things, I want to help people, I want to be nice." I explained that what he was feeling was the Holy Ghost and that it was trying to tell him that what he had talked about was a good thing and was true. After we spoke, he was so excited that he ran over to Dave in the other room to tell him that he was feeling the Spirit. He was on cloud 9 for several days and after a few days he came to me and said, "Mom, I just can't wait until I get to give a talk again because I want to feel the Spirit again!" I told him that he could teach FHE again the next Monday, which he did last night. He is growing to be such a wonderful young man and I feel that he will do great things in his life. I am lucky to have him and honored to be his mom!

Homework Fun - don't read if you're easily offended or have "sensitive" eyes

2010-06-17T08:09:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is the last day of school. The boys are excited for summer to come so they can play and play and play and play. At our school on weeks like this that tend to have lots of parties, they stagger parties so that there aren't 1000 parents trying to park at once. We don't have a lot of parking and there are usually only about 10 extra parking places on any given day, so having class parties all on the last day of school, when you then have 20 cars per class 3-5 classes per grade, just isn't an option. Spencer's party was on Tuesday from 12-1pm and Carter's party was the same day, 12:15 - 1pm. Their classrooms are across the hall from each other, so that works out nicely. The girls and I went to Spencer's class for pizza and then went across the hall to Carter's class for ice cream. It was perfect!

While we were in Spencer's classroom, the teacher and I were talking about how well Spencer is doing and what nice young man he is becoming. She chuckled and said, "I have something to show you. You can have it, as long as you promise to keep it forever, for the rest of his life." I agreed and she handed me a piece of paper off of her desk. It was a copy of Spencer's very last homework assignment from June 4th. The assignment was to say what you thought you were going to do for July 4th and draw a picture. When Spencer doesn't want to do his homework, he actually will take a lot longer to do it, try to spell everything right, and put some effort into it (he does this because he's trying to prove to me that it takes too long to do.) When he just does his homework to get done quickly and be able to go out to play, he doesn't try to spell things right and doesn't put ANY effort into his drawings. June 4th was a day that he just wanted to get it done and go out to play, it was also a day that I just glanced at the book to see if he had written something and saw that there was a picture. I didn't take the time to read it... a mistake I will not make again...

It says, "Independence Day is on July 4. We are going to shoot fire works."

The teacher told me that she had made copies and was passing them out to everyone at the school (teachers, not students) She said it was the highlight of the year. Then she told me that the best thing about Spencer was that he didn't even know it was a bad word - I wonder how long that will last!

FHE - Carter Style

2010-06-09T21:51:00.002-04:00

Transcript from Monday night:
(As we gathered in the family room)
Me: Time for Family Home Evening!
Carter: I want to give the lesson... I have something to talk about.
Me: Oh. Okay. Carter's giving the lesson today.
(we sang and had an opening prayer)
Me: Okay, Carter, we turn the time over to you for the lesson.
Carter: I want to talk about vehicles.
Me: Okay... ??? What do you want to tell us about vehicles.
Carter: Um... They have engines and use gas to go.
Me: How does this help us?
Carter: Um... because an airplane is also a kind of vehicle and they are faster than cars.
Me: How does this help us in our lives?
Carter: I don't know.

It was a good Family Home Evening!

Hooray, hooray! We're off to Luray!!

2010-06-06T18:29:00.004-04:00

On Memorial Day weekend, late on Saturday night, Dave says to me, "I think we should take the kids to Luray Caverns."

My initial reaction is, "What!?! I have been with them all week, I want a day to relax, do nothing, and not stress out!" So, I started doing some research ready to tell him that it was just too far away, too expensive, and too much of a hassle to deal with it. I did some research and found that admition to the caverns, a museum (actually 2 museums but we really only wanted to do 1), and an outdoor maze would only cost us $90 for our family of 6 - not bad for this area where it costs $8 for a kid to get into a matinee movie, more than that to go to a tiny petting zoo, etc. So... not too expensive. Then I found out how far away it was... 2.5, 3, 4 hours away? Nope. 1.5 hours from here... not too far. Too much of a hassle, probably, but it might be worth it if the kids liked it. So, with 2 out of 3 in his favor, I agreed. It was time to make plans. I immediately thought of cub scouts and remembered that there was a belt loop and pin about geology and wondered what we needed to do to help Spencer earn that. One of the requirements for the pin is to visit a place of geological importance - hmm... Luray definately counts!

Once I sorted out what needed to be done there, I was able to start getting excited about this trip. We woke up on Monday morning, packed up lunch, water, snacks, and juice boxes, packed an extra change of clothes for each of the girls, and packed everyone into the car. We left at 7:40 and arrived in the parking lot in Luray at 9:05. There were very few people there and we were able to get a good spot. Dave bought tickets and we went in. Dave, the boys, and I were all given head sets for the tour.

It was pretty nifty. As you walk through the caverns

there are signs with numbers on them. Each sign has a number 101-119 for the adults and a corresponding 200 level number for the kids tour. [For example, sign 101 also had the number 201, sign 102 also said 202, etc.] You see a sign and type that number into your head set and it plays the part of the tour for that area. It was great and the kids were able to do it on their own (more or less).

They don't give headsets to children under the age of 5 (both because they don't listen to the whole tour and they are more likely to ruin it) so Miana was fairly disappointed and Dave and I spent a lot of time with our ear phones on Miana's ears.

After the caverns, we stopped by the car for a quick drink and off to the outdoor maze. It was just hard enough that no one was bored, but easy enough that no one was in tears ready to quit. They had four goal markers for you to find and a stamper for you to stamp a card each time you got to one. It was very well done and lots of fun. After the maze, we went into the car and carriage museum. The boys liked looking at all of the old cars and seeing what is the same and what was different.

Dave then took the girls out to the car to change diapers, and get them in their car seats while I let the boys each pick out 4 crystals (one for each kid) as souveniours. We also bought a rock identification kit (has 15 rocks 5 each of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary) - another part of Spencer's geology belt loop and pin. We then went to a park, had lunch, and headed home.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip and worth every second of it!!!

Basement update as of Friday, Painting is done!

2010-05-23T22:10:00.005-04:00

Coming down the stairs

The rec room (sorry it's so dark)

The bathroom shelves (just to show the color)

The bedroom - the same color as the bathroom

The media room is gray with a touch of blue, which is different from the rest of the basement which is blue with a touch of gray(notice that dave installed the in-wall and in-ceiling speakers)

Basement In Pictures

2010-05-20T19:49:00.005-04:00

It has been a long 2 months for me. I have constantly had to deal with loud noises, banging, weird smells, stuff everywhere, and if that weren't enough, I also had guys downstairs in the basement doing similar stuff. We started towards the end of March and this week they finished the painting. It's exciting to see it all coming together. Next week they are doing the tile work, then it will be 1 week of finishing touches and carpet. Here are pictures of the basement up to Monday of this week.

Step 1: Framing
a) half media room/half bedroom b) hallway/media room/bedroom/bathroom c)bedroom d)rec room

Step 2: French Door and Big Window
a) rec room b)bedroom window

Step 2.5: (plumbing, electrical, wiring, and insulation)
a) bathroom plumbing

Step 3: Dry wall
a) rec room towards stairs b) rec room towards door

Step 4: Shelves and Priming
a) media room shelves b) bedroom c) rec room towards stairs d) bathroom looking at shelves and door to bedroom e) closet in bedroom

If you ask me if I have mustard, I just might slap you...

2010-05-18T14:40:00.003-04:00

I hate mustard. Growing up, I never liked it on sandwiches, hot dogs, or hamburgers. I don't like the way it tastes by itself at all. As a teenager, I found that I did like just a hint of it to make the perfect potato salad. When I went to college, they had a perfect blend of mayo and mustard that they called sandwich spread. It was amazing. The mustard was barely detectable but it gave the sandwich that little something extra. Just after my mission, I was at my grandma's house and I heard my aunt say, "Dad used to always say that to make the perfect sandwich the mustard needs to be touching the meat." I was intrigued by that statement and wondered if it really mattered where you put the mustard in the sandwich. I started craving a hint of mustard on sandwiches when I was pregnant with Miana. I still don't like the way it tastes by itself, but I usually like just a hint of it on sandwiches. I do think the sandwich tastes better when there is a little mustard next to the meat, I don't know if that's a fact or if that's because I think of my grandpa every time I am putting it on my sandwich. No matter the reason, I choose to have mustard in my house. Some days I wish I didn't.

Miana got a brand new bottle of mustard out of the pantry, opened it, took the foil seal off the inside, and dumped the entire bottle on the carpet in the dining room. (Those of you wondering where I was, I was playing with Carter in the next room. Miana often plays quietly with her dolls in the dining room. She was in with me just a few minutes before this was discovered.) Here is the carpet after scraping off globs of mustard, cleaning it with the Bissel spotlifter, using 2 different kinds of carpet cleaner, a Hoover steam cleaner, Wink laundry stain cleaner, RIT tough stain remover, oxy clean, and pouring Clorox 2 directly on the carpet. I think I went over it about 30 times with the steam cleaner. This is the current (and permanent) state of our dining room carpet.

Paige asked me if we could buy a rug to cover the stain. I said, "You mean like the one already in the room that we bought to cover the big blue stain in the center of the room that Spencer did when he was Miana's age?" Yes, I've been here before. I will likely be here again.

It may not matter where you put the mustard in a sandwich, but it does matter where you put it in the pantry.

PokeMom (and PokeNana)

2010-05-04T08:21:00.002-04:00

While waiting for my mom to meet us to run some errands yesterday, my children were in the back seat talking. At one point I had to jump in the conversation for some clarification.

Spencer: TyPhlosion isn't here yet.
Carter: I hope TyPhlosion comes soon.
Me: Who's Ty Frozen?
Carter: Nana.
Spencer: It's Ty-Phlo-sion
Me: Nana is TyPhlosion?
Spencer: Yes. TyPhlosion is a Pokemon.
Me: Who am I?
Spencer: Onix.
Me: Onyx? That sounds cool.
Spencer: Well, maybe you should be Vulpix.
Carter: Yes, you should be Vulpix.
Me: Onyx sounds cooler than Vulpicks.
Spencer: Onix is a boy.
Me: Could I be Onyxa?
Carter: Onix is a rock guy.
Me: I don't want to be a rock guy.
Spencer: Vulpix is a cat... and a girl.
Me: I guess I am Vulpicks.

Yes, I am now a cat-like, female, Pokemon named Vulpix. Hmmm....

A morning out

2010-04-27T10:57:00.002-04:00

Today we had to take Tayla to a quick doctor's appt. When we were leaving, the doctor asked Miana to give her five. Miana wasn't paying much attention and instead of giving the doctor a "high five" she smacked her in the face. That was great.
Then we were off to the store. Tomorrow is Carter's birthday so I let him pick out a few things for dessert this week. He got cookies to take to school tomorrow, a chocolate mint pie for dessert tomorrow, and a cake mix and frosting for me to make him a cake for Saturday when we have some family over. While we were doing self check out ( the only lane with no one in it) I asked Carter to bag the groceries while I scanned them. Miana climbed out of the cart and decided to "help." After she pulled off (and pulled apart) an entire group of plastic bags, I finally got her back into the cart. We finished up and left as quickly as we could.
In the car, Carter started doing math problems. Lately, he has been showing off by challenging himself to harder problems. After figuring out what 102 + 103 was, he decided to ask me a question...

Carter: What's donkey + donkey?
Me: 2 donkeys
Carter: Wrong. Double donkey. (he chuckles) What's donkey + donkey + donkey + 4?
Me: That depends, does the 4 mean 4 more donkeys or is it just the number 4?
Carter: 4 more donkeys.
Me: Then the answer is 7 donkeys.
Carter: No, it's 4 donkeys and 1 squirrel. You were wrong.
Me: Oh, I didn't know that there was a squirrel.
Carter: Well, there was a squirrel.

I now know that 3 individual donkeys equal 1 squirrel and can not be combined with the 4 additional donkeys to equal 2 squirrels and 1 donkey, that would be incorrect. Also, 4 donkeys do not equal 2 double donkeys, that is also incorrect. Good to know.

Tonight's Homework Assignment: Probability

2010-04-08T19:37:00.002-04:00

For Spencer's homework, tonight's assignment read: What is probability? Write down something that is "certain," something that is "possible," and something that is "impossible."

I wanted to make sure he understood the concepts so I thought of an example. I said, "Let's pretend that you have a bag of M&Ms. It only has blue ones and green ones. If you reach into the bag and pull something out, what is certain that you will get?

Let's take a break and explain what I was looking for... I am looking for "it is certain that you will get M&Ms, it is certain that you will get a blue or a green, etc." When I ask about possible the answers should be "green" or "blue." For impossible, I am looking for an answer like, "a red one, a yellow one, etc." Now back to my question:

Let's pretend that you have a bag of M&Ms. It only has blue ones and green ones. If you reach into the bag and pull something out, what is CERTAIN that you will get?

Spencer looks up at me and with all seriousness replies, "You will get fat."

Headaches, Hassles, and Hammers: Beginning the Basement

2010-04-07T13:41:00.002-04:00

Sometime near the end of February, Dave said to me: I think we should refinance our house and take out money to finish the basement. We did a little research and it appeared as if we might actually be able to do it if the price was right. We guessed (and really, it was a guess) that it would cost around $25,000-30,000 to finish it. We set up appointments with 3 contractors. We liked the first one (Thursday night visit), loved the second one (Friday night visit), and third canceled because his daughter was in the hospital (Saturday morning visit.) On Monday morning, we got our first estimate back $47,000 but he would take off $2000 if we wanted to do the painting ourselves. Um... Wow! The next day we got the next estimate back, it was under $35,000 for everything we could possibly want including some custom built-in shelves. This was from the contractor we liked better anyway! We called several references and each time we were told, "We had to hire him to fix what another guy messed up, we wish we had just hired him from the beginning." One lady invited us to her home to show us what he had done for her. His attention to detail and creativity were astounding. We decided to go with him. We were told by several people afterwards that we could probably finish our basement for less. We told them that we know, but we are paying for peace of mind, quality of work, and Dave not needing to do any of the work (his time is much too valuable to me.) So, he put together a contract and set March 15th as the start date. We called the bank to find out if they would refinance us - nope, they need our loan to be only 75% of the worth of our home (we didn't know exactly the percentage, but knew it was more than that.) We called the financial division of our insurance company - nope, they had a maximum of 80%. We knew we would be between 80-85% so that wasn't flexible enough for us and both of these companies wanted $9000 in closing costs, something we just didn't have. Finally, I remembered a comercial I had heard years back about a company that did no closing cost loans. Basically, they give you a slightly higher rate on the loan so that they don't have to charge an origination fee. But, that's not what the comercial claimed nor is that what their website says. Both say, "No Closing Costs." I spoke with the broker assigned to us and asked very specifically about the closing costs. I was told that there were no closing costs. When my husband got home from work, we spoke with him again, this time we asked about the closing costs and were told that our only out of pocket expense would be the appraisal fee of $400, that everything else would be rolled into the loan. Everything else? The next day, I spoke with him again, asking for clarification I was told that there are some fees that are standard and can't be helped, he quoted those to me and said that they just don't charge an origination fee. Feeling like he had adequately answered my questions and that his closing costs were significantly lower than the other companies, we quickly proceeded to gather the required documentation. On Friday, we received some paperwork in the mail. The numbers just didn't add up. Also, there was a $1800 origination fee listed. When I questioned him about it, he said he would look into it and let me know. I felt uneasy the entire weekend. I felt like he was trying to pull one over on us. I just couldn't shake the feeling. Late Sunday night, Dave and I said we would contact a couple more brokers on Monday to see what they could do for us as a back up. Monday was 2 weeks before our expected start date on the basement, I was getting nervous. We found a broker that had worked with my dad and he was very responsive to us and promised that we could close, "within 2 weeks." Feeling more at ease with the situation, we called and canceled the other broker. He called back the next day to find out why we had cancelled. I wasn't home at the time and when I got home, I quickly sent him an email, explaining that although he was very pleasant and easy to work with we were uncomfortable with the claim of "no closing costs" that somehow included thousands of dollars worth of closing costs and that simply rolling them into the loan was not the same thing as not charging them to us. I asked him if he would please submit the refund for the appraisal that we had paid for but had not been done. He sent me a very hateful email telling me that it was not his fault if I didn't understand the difference between a "no points loan" and "no closing costs" and that he had only ever claimed that we not going to pay points on our loan. What?? That email was the first step in a 4 week nightmare. Although he agreed in his email to refund our $400, he did not do it. I had to email him 2 more times before he finally did it. Our new mortgage broker did not request our appraisal to be done as a rush, so, even though we got our information to him on Tuesday, we did not hear from the appraiser until Friday to set up and appointment, he was not able to come until the following Tuesday and would not get his report turned in until Thursday or Friday. That Friday, we did not hear from the appraiser but we did receive a letter from Title Company saying that our closing was scheduled for March 25th in Woodbridge (2 hours away.) I frantically called to find out why we weren't closing as close to March 15th as possible and why we were closing at a location 2 hours away. I was told that it was a form letter and that they would work towards having us close closer to home and closing sooner. The whole thing still had me very nervous. On Tuesday morning (the day after we were supposed to start work on the basement,) we finally heard back from the appraiser. Good news! The house appraised high enough so we could do a conventional loan and cover all of our closing costs, phew! Finally some good news. I was assured that the loan would be passed onto underwriting and that we could close by the end of the week so we should go ahead and sign the contract. We signed a contract with the contractor and paid him his down payment with the promise of being able to afford the basement by the end of the week. He required a sizeable payment on the first day of work. He set his start date as March 25. More good news. We would be able to close this week, get the money in the account, and then have him start. On Wednesday afternoon, I still hadn't heard anything on a close date and time so I called the broker. He said he would call me back. I found out on Thursday that the loan still hadn't gone through to underwriting. I was told to call his manager if I had any questions. The manager told me that Friday was going to be our broker's last day with that company and that he (the manager) would be taking over our loan. I was frustrated and angry. After several more phone calls I was told that we would close until Wednesday at the latest and that the money would not be available to us until 3 full business days after our closing. On Monday, I still hadn't heard anything on being able to close. I called our new broker and he said he was sorry for the delays and would give us a lower interest rate to say sorry. On Tuesday afternoon (we are now 3+ after contacting this company who assured us we could close "within 2 weeks") I received a phone call from the processer telling me that she had just barely submitted my loan to underwriting and that we should hear something by Friday. WHAT!?!?! We were promised just last week that we would be closing NO LATER THAN Wednesday. I called our new broker. He assured me that this was not the first time the loan had been submitted and that this was a resubmit and that he could have the loan papers to the title company within 20 minutes after approval and be all set for closing anytime after that. I told him that was not what she had indicated and he said he would call me back. An hour or so later, I got a phone call... this was the first time it had been submitted. It had sat for an entire week without anyone doing anything on it. That's not an exageration. Tuesday to Tuesday. No one can account for any work that was done on it during that time. He again appologized, gave me the new loan rate and said he would try to get it through underwriting quickly. It was approved Wednesday afternoon and ready to go. I immediately contacted the Title company to set up our appointment to close. She said she needed to contact the closing agent to set it up and asked for my schedule on Thursday and Friday. I told her Thursday was much better because Friday was a really crazy day, with me being busy from 12:30pm-3pm and absolutely could not change that. Thursday morning, she finally emailed me to tell me that she was about to call the closing agent. Late that afternoon, she called me to tell me that he was ONLY available on Friday afternoon and wanted to know if we could close at 1pm on Friday. What?!? Why did you ask for my schedule if you were going to totally disregard it. I had a doctor's appt. for 2 of my kids that day and would not be able to change them. She finally said that he could come at 4pm. On Friday, at 1pm, I got a call on my cell phone asking if we could move the close time to 2pm. Um, no, the soonest I can be home is 3pm, as I stated in my email. He said, "great, I will be there at 3pm." Um, okay. I will rush home. I walked into my house literally 3 minutes before he pulled into the driveway. I didn't have time to tidy the house or anything! We closed on Friday at 3pm. That's Friday, March 26th. Nearly 4 weeks after first contacting a company that said they could close within 2 weeks. We didn't get our money into our account until the following Wednesday. It's sooo frustrating. But now we have our money, the basement has been started, and we have paid off our van. It's sooo nice! Yay! It's all over!!

Don't let the unnawears catch you unawares

2010-03-23T08:14:00.003-04:00

Miana calls underwear "unnawear." I never know what to expect when I open the door to her room in the morning or after a nap. Usually she has every piece of clothing she owns out on the floor and she is wearing something unexpected. One Sunday morning, she came out with her swimming suit on and informed me that she was going swimming with Papa. I love the fact that she always has a plan.

Underwear and potty training don't necessarily go together in her mind. We spent 2 full days wearing underwear and only sitting on the potty once, but just to try it out, not to actually use it. In those 2 days she went through every pair of underwear we own, twice! My favorite is when she came out of her room wearing a plastic diaper cover with nothing under it and told me that she found more underwear.

This morning, I opened the door to let her out of her room and found her standing there in some clean underwear with another pair in her hand. "This is for Tayla," she announced and would not let up until I promised to put them on her. So... here is our underwear morning:

Pass the peas, please

2010-03-22T22:43:00.002-04:00

Last night we had peas with dinner. I had a few left over so I put them in the fridge. Tonight, I gave the baby a few of the cold leftovers with her dinner. Miana saw them on Tayla's tray and wanted some. I told her they were just cold ones, but she didn't seem to care and ate few off of the tray. Then Carter came over and saw the peas and asked for some. We had just finished dinner and I was trying to clean up and didn't want to go through the trouble of heating them up. I told him that he could have some tomorrow at lunch. He started to cry. He wanted peas NOW! Miana tried to console him, "They just cold, Carter." He got over his tantrum quickly, I went on cleaning up after dinner. I finished up, turned around to see Carter and Miana huddled over the bag of cold (but not frozen) peas. They were grabbing them out by the handful and stuffing their faces as fast as they could... It reminded me of the last time we had M&Ms at our house. Next time you are at my house, don't be surprised if you hear things like, "If you clean up your room you can have a handful of peas."
I really love my kids!!

I don't even know where to start...

2010-03-08T20:28:00.003-05:00

We are trying to refinance the house and I have been horribly stressed out in the last 3 weeks. We had a horrible experience from one lender and had to switch last minute to another. Why does this matter? Because it is a major reason why I need a vacation. Today, I had the overwhelming task of trying to get the house ready for the appraiser to come tomorrow. I've been really busy and had things for each child to do. The boys got home from school and Spencer started crying because I informed him that after homework was finished, he would have to do 2 clean-up jobs. Then, we could go out to play and come in and do 2 more. Apparently, at school they did speed cup stacking and he didn't get a gold medal. He didn't want to tell me that, I was supposed to figure out that's why he was really crying. So, homework took about an hour because he had "had a really hard day." Then, while he was cleaning up, Carter and I finished his homework and he went out to play. I needed to find some paint and while I was in the basement looking for it, Carter (almost 6 years old) came back downstairs to ask me if he could go to the park with some friends. Here's the conversation:
Me: Is an adult going?
C: Yes, Mr. B-- is coming
Me: Really? So it's okay if I call them and check?
He got the look which tells me he is lying and and I asked if he had lied to me, he admitted it, I told him that he could not go out to play at all and that he needed to go upstairs and wait for me to come up so we could discuss punishment. I was downstairs about 3-4 more minutes, came up and the phone started to ring.
Man on Phone: Ma'am, this is Deputy Randolph. Everything is fine, I just have your little one here and he said he had your permission to come up to the park by himself.
Me: No, actually, he just got in trouble and was told not to leave the house. He is absolutely not allowed to go to the park by himself.
Deputy: Oh, well, he was walking very quickly. Do you want to come and get him?
Me: Yes, I'll be right there.
Luckily, Denise had just stopped by to check in on me and agreed to stay with the girls. I threw on my sandals and ran up the street to the park. There I saw 2 police cars, one with it's lights going, parked on the side of the road.
I wasn't sure what to do or say. I got down on Carter's eye level. Asked him all of the "are you allowed" questions, made sure he knew all the right answers, and then turned and thanked the 2 deputies. Deputy Randolph explained that they were sitting in the parking lot and saw this small boy come walking as fast as he could up the street and cross it all by himself. Carter really is petite and doesn't really look like he is 6 (almost). The deputy looked at Carter and told him that he is too little to be able to see all the cars coming and that he really needs to have a grown up help him cross the street. I had Carter say thank you and shake hands with the 2 deputies and I thanked them and we left. As we walked home, I talked to Carter about crossing the street, I talked to him about being obedient, and we talked about consequences. He was not happy that lying, disobeying, and getting stopped by the police all carried punishments. He has pretty much cried and whined all afternoon about not being able to go outside to play. I told him that he shouldn't choose the first day in the 50s to be the day he gets in trouble. Too bad for him, tomorrow is supposed to be in the 60s... he'll be inside doing extra chores!
I really need a vacation... alone... well, maybe Dave can come...

The final week of January

2010-02-02T11:11:00.002-05:00

The first grade share show: First graders get to do a musical presentation for their families. This was Spencer's second year getting to participate, next year we get to watch Carter do it, that's 3 years in a row of getting to watch!

The Girl in the Plastic mask: On Tuesday (Jan. 26) Tayla wasn't feeling well so I decided to take her to the doctor the next day. On Wednesday morning, Miana woke up with her cough being a bit worse and she said she didn't feel good. So I decided to take her in as well. Turns out that Tayla was just congested with a slight start of an ear infection. Miana, on the other hand, was diagnosed with RAD (reactive airway disease) which acts like asthma, but in this case, was caused by a virus. She had to be on nebulizer treatments for 2 days. She was a good sport about it and it went very quickly, but it brought back memories of Spencer in his dragon/dinosaur mask.

Spencer's very first Pinewood Derby: (January 30, 2010) He even won his first few races!

Overall, we had a pretty good week last week!

January 23, 2010 - "I don't know if there is a record for this, but if there is, I think we came close"

2010-01-31T11:38:00.006-05:00

We thought of everything... Printed the programs, set up the chairs, had nice pictures around, verified that everyone would be there, brought a change of clothes, and even remembered the dry underwear. It was all going to go smoothly, right?

Papa preformed the Baptism. The picture on the right is my favorite!

I have to document this or we may forget details, although I doubt it will be soon forgotten. The following account is from my own perspective and it may have been different for someone else. If you were there and want to comment to share your perspective on the events, that would be great, thanks!

Spencer got into the font and as my dad said the baptismal prayer he said, "... of the Father, and (he took a breath in) the Son, and of the Holy Ghost..." I did not know if he had said "of" where he took the breath or not. He put Spencer under the water and EVERYTHING was covered. They got out of the font and pulled the plug and went into the bathroom and started to change. As everyone filed back into the other room, my Brother-in-law says, "isn't it 'of the Son'?" Yes, it is. So he hadn't actually said it right. I took most of guests back into the other room and they were going to get Spencer and Papa back into the font to do it again without everyone watching. The problem was this... the water drains very quickly. It takes 2+ hours to fill the font, but only about 10 minutes to drain it completely. By the time they got back into the font and put the plug back in, there was only about 1.5 feet of water in the bottom. Dad said the prayer and tried to baptize him but he couldn't make it all the way under. So they tried 3 or 4 more times with no luck. They added more water to the font. By this time, almost all of the guests were back in the hallway watching - talk about pressure! They tried 3 or 4 more times with no luck and again added some water. At this point Spencer had a foot come up twice, a leg once, a forehead, an arm, and I'm sure I'm missing a few. I was watching from the side and saw my oldest son's face. He looked exhausted and frustrated. He looked up and I thought he was going to cry. He said, "We'll try one more time and then stop..." At this point, I thought, "oh, no! He's giving up!!" Boy was I wrong... He continued... "and then stop and add more water so we can try again." I have never been more proud of my little man. He handled the whole situation with a maturity I had never seen in an 8 year old before! I can't remember if there was only 1 time more or not, just that he was eventually baptized properly. It was a good opportunity to explain to our friends and neighbors who are not members of the church of the importance of performing ordinances perfectly and with exactness. It was a baptism that none of us will soon forget! (Note: No one actually counted, I thought there were at least 8 times, many others thought it was around 8, so we decided it was 8 times total. The counselor from the Bishopric that was in attendance thought it was much more than that, possibly 10-12 times. As BD said, "that's a lot of sins...")

Here are the family members that were in attendance.

Just for a record, Grandma Tarbet gave the opening prayer, Nana Peterson gave the first talk on Baptism, a musical number - "A Child's Prayer" was sung by Trisha Snow (the Primary Chorister, my Visiting Teacher, and Spencer's former tutor) and Jill Barnes (Spencer's Primary teacher), Papa Peterson baptized Spencer, Dave and Grandpa Tarbet were witnesses, Grandpa Tarbet gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, and Dave confirmed Spencer, and then we had welcomes from Emily Allred (Primary President) and Randy Christensen (from the Bishopric), Jaclyn Peterson gave the closing prayer. The music was led by Heather Ure (Spencer's Primary teacher) and Brother and Sister Allred took turns playing the piano. The opening song was "I am a Child of God" and the closing song was "If the Savior Stood Beside Me." It was a nice service and we are grateful to all who came and all who participated!

Here are some pictures of Spencer in his new suit. No, they aren't great, he was not in a smiling mood when I took them. I had to bribe him to smile in the last picture.

"Happy Martin Luther King Day!" AND Sleepy Girl AND The Party

2010-01-31T10:34:00.006-05:00

On Monday, January 18, 2010 I woke up to find that the boys were awake downstairs doing something. They heard me get up and ran upstairs to tell me that I couldn't come down yet. I told them I would take a shower and first and they seemed happy with that. Later, when I came out of the bathroom, I found this:

and these cute boys yelled, "Happy Martin Luther King Day!!!!"

I came downstairs and found that in addition to making the cinnamon toast for me they had also cleaned up the family room and vacuumed it! As I thanked them for their great surprise Spencer said, "We only clean up on Birthdays and Holidays, that's why we don't clean up any other day."
Later that week, Tayla fell asleep in her high chair for the first time. Since this is one of my favorite kid occurrences (falling asleep anywhere, anytime) I took a picture and included it here:

Spencer was not feeling well and had a plethora of symptoms during the week leading up to his 8th Birthday. He started exactly 1 week before feeling nauseous and being very tired. Then the next day he woke up with a terrible cough, then the next day he seemed fine but still had a lessor version of his cough. Then the on Tuesday, just when I thought he would go to school, he woke up at 4:30am with diarrhea. Couldn't send him to school. Tuesday night, he had a slight fever, so not allowed to go to school. Wednesday he woke up fever free and I called the school and said, "he should be there tomorrow." Wednesday afternoon the fever came back, but worse. Thursday I took him to the doctor to find out that he had pneumonia but that he was not at all contagious. I had him rest all day Thursday and Friday I sent him to school with a note to not let him go outside and not to let him run around at all. I figured he could sit in a chair here all day or sit in a chair there all day. I also came into the school at about 11am to check on him to make sure he was not too tired. He was doing fine and seemed happy to be back at school. Friday after school we headed strait to Pump It Up for his Birthday party. He had personal rules about not running around, not working up a sweat and not breathing heavily. He did pretty good at taking breaks and taking it easy. He seemed to have fun and I am glad we decided to do it.
This is Spencer in the white shirt, they gave him one with his name on the back.

They even had some soft blocks for Tayla to play with - she loved it!!

The whole group of kids, so glad I didn't have this group at my house that day:

Spencer in his throne:

The cake: I wasn't paying attention and bought trick candles, normally not a problem, but to a boy with pneumonia, it made it almost impossible for him to blow them out in the first place, but to have them relight was very frustrating! I'm soooo sorry!!

Overall, I think it was a fun week. The weekend was just as amazing! (see next post)

December...

2010-01-25T18:13:00.002-05:00

Kid fun, getting a tree, big snow storms, and CHRISTMAS!!!! Woohoo!!!

November...

2010-01-24T22:17:00.009-05:00

Nothing really exciting happened in November...
Let's see... Paige and Matt got sealed to their adopted daughter, Andrea got married, and we went to Disney World. That's all.

Seeing Paige be sealed to A.N. made me sooo happy, it was truly a sweet experience for me! I feel completely blessed to have witnessed it.

ANDREA GOT MARRIED!!! I will never forget how absolutely incredible she looked that day. We are excited to have B as part of the family!! (they have asked that I blur their faces)

I'm not sure who I stole these pictures from, they came from 1 of the following places: Jac's Blog, Paige's Blog, Briette's Blog, or from one of those people's facebook albums. Sorry, I stole them so long ago I don't remember.

We also went to Orlando with all of Dave's family. What a great time! We had some interesting things happen like losing Carter on Monday, leaving Spencer locked in the van in the parking lot at the hotel on Tuesday, having Miana leave the hotel room at 4 in the morning by herself and having her returned by hotel security at 4:45 and the police coming a 1/2 hour after that.

I promise that my children are well cared for. With Carter, we were trying to find a place to get a family picture at Disney's Animal Kingdom. He stopped to look at a kangeroo and we all kept walking. He turned around and we were gone. He went looking for us and when he couldn't find us, he went to a park worker and described me, giving my name and EXACTLY what I was wearing. He was very calm and we found him in a matter of minutes. The park worker praised him and said that they get lost kids all the time and they either don't talk or can't describe their parents at all. She said he was great. After I was done being worried out of my mind and after I was done being angry at him for not listening, I eventually was proud of him.

With Spencer, we all got out of the car, I thought one door was open on the other side, he stayed in the van writing in his journal. took the baby and went to the elevator, Dave was close behind and he hit the lock on the van. As the elevator closed, we heard the alarm go off on the van. We got up to our floor and noticed that Spencer wasn't with us (please keep in mind that we had at least 12 people in the elevator.) He came up on the next elevator and was mad at us for leaving him. As soon as I was done be worried and as soon as I was done being angry at him for not listening, I was proud that he was smart enough and observant enough to know which floor we were on.

With Miana, we were in a 3 bedroom unit (1 bedroom connected to a 2 bedroom suite, with an entry way connecting the 2 sides). We tried being on the 1 bedroom side and having the baby in with us but we kept waking her up and she was too loud and kept waking the kids up. We tried different configurations and finally, the only way to have the baby in a room by herself, have us hear her but not have the kids hear her in the middle of the night was for us to be on the 2 bedroom side and but the 3 older kids together on the 1 bedroom side, with the doors unlocked and open between us. We locked the outside door but it didn't have a top lock, just the bottom hotel lock that unlocks as soon as you twist it. When Miana fell asleep that night, she said she wanted to see Grandma, we told her she could see Grandma in the morning. Apparently, she woke up sometime around 4am and left to go down to Grandma's door. Grandma's door was locked (of course) and she didn't know what to do. She was outside in her PJs crying, walking up and down the walkway. Another guest heard her and brought her into their room and called hotel security to help find her parents. Of course, we were totally asleep and did not hear the front door open when Miana left. The hotel security lady said that she just had a feeling that she should knock on Vivian's door. She did and we got Miana back safe and sound. After that, we all slept on the same side of the unit with the inside door shut, with the top locked, and we would put 2 heavy chairs in front of the door, so that not even Dave and I could get out without waking everyone up. It was a scary experience!!

Here is the slide show of pictures from the trip:

October

2010-01-24T20:58:00.007-05:00

October 9th we let the kids skip school to go to the Maryland Science Museum in Baltimore's inner harbor. The kids had a blast because everything was "hands on!"
Dinosaurs, excavating, and making dinosaur tracks...

Marble track, astronauts, and playing with water...

Carter walking on the moon and the kids sitting on a giant anchor at the Inner Harbor...

October 12 was a day off of school, Dave was out of town, AND it was my Birthday. I celebrated by having cake, pie, & cake. Spencer gave me a card, made dinner for everyone, cleaned up the family room, and took parts (wires, antennas, etc.) from several different toys, taped them together in an attempt to receive signals from satelites. Here are some pictures of his creation:

This day Miana just looked so cute taking Carter to the bus stop, I had to grab my camera and take pictures of her...

Carter and Miana decided to play in the dryer one day, don't worry, they were not in danger - I was there and they were only in there for a minute or so before I made them get out - I was worried they would break it.

Halloween came and the kids were super heroes, we had Bumble Bee and Optimus Prime, Wonder Woman, and a Tootsie Roll (yes, a super hero - saving the world from hunger)...

October was a great month for us!!

Slide show of Tayla (and a few Miana and Carter) - September

2010-01-24T20:50:00.005-05:00

It's still January, I'm still doing one post a month, right? Blame Facebook.

2010-01-24T20:40:00.003-05:00

I have recently been reminded that I suck. It's true (that I've been reminded, not that I suck - that is actually in debate.) My husband has been reminding me, frequently, that I am not good at housework, cooking, or focussing. He does most of the reminding in a teasing form, but occassionally it comes out in a serious comment. I spoke to my Brother-in-law this week on the phone and told him that I would post pictures of Spencer's baptism (which was yesterday) here on my blog. He said, "so we can expect to see the pictures in June?" hmmm... he has a point, I was once again reminded that I have been less then fantastic at remembering to post things here - I blame Facebook. I have limited time to spend on the computer (contrary to popular belief, I do not actually sit here all day long) so I usually spend that time checking email, posting a quick status update to FB and then my final few minutes are spent playing a silly, but highly addictive game of Farmville. I have some time now, my crops are doing well, and so I am here ready to post. Let's see where did I leave off...

September

2009-12-16T07:44:00.006-05:00

I hate catching up this way, I wished I had done more to keep up way back when, but I will do my best here!!

School started. Spencer is repeating first grade, we decided to call it his bonus year. In the pictures, it might look like he is trying to scare off vampires, but really, he is making a plus sign to show what grade he is in. I didn't want to just do a "1" again, as that might be confusing when looking back at pictures. Carter started Kindergarten. I didn't have him hold up his fingers.

Even though Carter doesn't go to school until 11:30, he came out in the morning with Spencer to get some pictures with the neighbor kids.

Miana didn't start school, but she really wanted to be in a picture with the boys. We had her signed up for a preschool class (only once a week for 2-2.5 year olds) but opted to take a year off of paying tuition as we have paid it continuously for the previous 5 school years. Note: I'm not sure why Carter was pulling on Spencer's shirt.

Towards the end of September, I took tons of pictures of Tayla. Until I have time to insert a slide show here, this will have to keep it's place. I just love this little girl!!

Photo Credits... because I'm a stealer of things...

2009-12-16T07:37:00.004-05:00

In my last few posts, I used many pictures that I did not take myself and have been asked to give photo credits... The picture of my whole family is a picture by Emilie Campbell (a photographer in Utah), I got the picture off Paige's blog. Several pictures from the lake house are from Jaclyn, including the one of Miana close up. The pictures of Paige's kids are from Paige's blog, either taken by her or Matt. The one of Rockstin was presumably taken by Briette, as I stole it from her blog. The soccer pictures are either from Dave or me, I can't remember without looking at them...

It's December, let's talk about August...

2009-12-02T20:02:00.008-05:00

In August, the kids and I went to the lake house with Jane and her kids, Jaclyn, and my parents. The kids had a great time with all their cousins and on Papa's new boat.

We came home and spent lots of time at the pool. Then, at the end of August, some wonderful things happened to my family. August 28 started it all...

That morning, my Dad and brother-in-law, Matt flew to Ethiopia to pick up Matt and Paige's new daughter. Anke is a beautiful little girl and just about the easiest baby I have ever met. She is a joy, which is great because Paige got her a little sooner than expected, giving her 4 kids under the age of 4. You can read about it here.

Then at about 1pm or so that same day, my Sister-in-law's water broke. In a matter of minutes, my brother delivered his new son all by himself. Rockstin is a cutie and also a great baby. Congrats to Brett and Briette!!

That afternoon, I started feeling like I was a getting a UTI which wasn't really a UTI, but I will go into more detail in a second.

Also, on Friday night, August 28, Andrea got engaged to an amazing man named BD. Sooo excited for them! They got married on Nov. 7, so look forward to more about that to come...

Back to my UTI... I dealt with it with OTC meds and planned on going to the doc on Monday. On Sunday, Dave left to fly to Detroit and about the same time his plane took off, I had a horrible intense pain hit. It was the 2nd worst pain I had ever had (my gallstone was worse). I left the kids with a neighbor while waiting for my Mother-in-law to come to the house. My sister-in-law met me at the ER (yes, I drove myself). I was in intense pain in the waiting room, but it began to subside as we went back to check in. I described the pain and was sent to get a CT scan. The scan revealed that I had a 5mm Kidney stone traveling from my kidney to my bladder and was currently hanging out in my ureter just outside the bladder. For those that don't know, 5 mm is considered sizeable. The best part was when we were getting my discharge instructions, the nurse tells me that they also found a 9 mm stone in my OTHER kidney. Sounds great. On Monday, I went to the urologist and got an appointment to get the 5mm stone removed in an out patient procedure the next day. (total luck that they had an opening, usually they schedule it a week out, they 9mm stone is a totally different procedure and is scheduled a month in advance, I have to wait for that one.) Tuesday was a horrible day, I was in intense pain and had a horrible, horrible headache. That night Spencer started soccer.

Carter started on Thursday night, which is the night Dave came home from Detroit.

(Carter throwing his ball into the air)

My pain continued until the following Monday. It's good it stopped because the boys started school on Tuesday, which is also the day Dave went back to Detroit. That's coming in the next post... :) That's all for now!

Actually catching up...

2009-11-12T09:48:00.004-05:00

I've put it off long enough! I am finally going to write about our trip to Utah in July (it's Nov. if you didn't notice...)

We flew in late on Sunday night. Monday we went to the outlet mall and spent the whole day with family. We then had dinner with most of my siblings. On Tuesday, we got up early and drove up to Idaho to spend some time with Dave's family. That was, of course, fun as always. Here is a picture of the kids with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Young. We got there at lunch time, had lunch at their house with cousins, aunts, and uncles. Then we took the kids to play in the water at Aunt Carol's house, she flooded her lawn with canal water. The kids had fun with their second cousins! We then had dinner and got in the car to drive back to Utah, it was a crazy, but fun, day! Wednesday we went to Jordanelle Resevior to play on their "beach" with my mom's side of the family. Some people went boating, skiing, and road the jet skis. We left just after lunch to get the kids home for a nap, which was totally necessary. Thursday was family pictures, I've been trying to get a copy of one but never did, so I copied this picture off of Paige's blog. That night we had dinner with my mom's family at Sugarhouse Park. It was very nice to see all of the cousins and aunt's and uncles. Friday it was time for my dad's family to have their reunion. We went to Seven Peaks Water Park and then dinner at Kent's house. Saturday was again dinner at Kent's house. Sunday morning Dave, Trent, Jaclyn, Connor, and Annika all left for VA (Dave flew, the others drove together). The rest of us went to church with Paige and then had dinner at her house. On Monday, Andrea, Jane, Quinn, and Corinne all flew back to VA and Brett and Briette went back to CA. Between Monday and Friday, we got lots of quality time in with Paige's family. 2 of the days the kids went to a 3 hour camp at MyGym. It was really fun and they loved it! We also spent one evening at Dave's aunt's house. It's always fun to see Valda, Jennifer, and Christopher! The kids did a lot of swimming and having fun at the Condo while we tried staying out of Nana and Papa's way. Friday was Pioneer Day in UT and we watched a parade on TV, went to a little amusement park and then went to a park near Paige's house for dinner. We went to Paige's house afterwards, briefly, so we could check in to our flight. Saturday we flew home to VA. It was nice to be home, but I miss being able to see Paige every day. Someday...

Halloween Fun

2009-10-16T17:46:00.004-04:00

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Taking a break...

2009-10-14T07:39:00.002-04:00

We take a break from our regularly scheduled "catch-up post" to share some breaking news. Okay, okay, so we were ALREADY taking a break because I am VERY far behind on catching up. I am now to the point where I have to do catch ups on my catch ups. Before I get to any of that, I want to share a few conversations I have either participated in or overheard in the last few days.

Monday, Oct. 12:
-I see Spencer pick up an antenna and a broken remote control car.-
Me: That's broken, we're going to throw it away. You can play with something else.
S: No. I know it's broken, that's why I need it. With this antenna, I am going to make it connect to the satellites.
-Goes outside, comes back a few minutes later.-
S: I need tape. (he starts digging around in the cupboard so I ask him to stop and offer to help)
Me: Tell me what you need it for so I know what kind of tape to get you.
S: I need to connect 3 wires together.
Me: Oh, I see. (Of course. Normally, we would use electrical tape, but I couldn't find any so brown packing tape it was)
S: (after I handed him 1 piece) Mom... I think I will need more than that. I have to connect 3 wires and fix some broken parts AND connect the antenna.
Me: Okay. (3 more pieces of tape) Start with those and come back for more later.
-he went outside for about 5 minutes, normally he would have run off, losing interest in that long of time, but he came back in asking for more tape.-
Me, as I was cutting off the tape: What's this piece for?
S: I need to put the tiny battery back on, so make it a very small piece of tape.
-The tape I gave him was apparently really big, he ran out to get the battery, it WAS very tiny. He needed one more piece of tape to attach the spring to the end of the antenna.-

My sweet boy spent a good 20 minutes on this project, much longer than he normally devotes to a project. It was fun to watch him experiment. I am sure that if he had ANY knowledge of electronics that he could probably have made it work.

The next conversation happened on the same day, same child.
Me: When are you going to give me my birthday present? (I was teasing him because he had already told me he really wanted to buy me a diamond ring for birthday)
S: I don't have any money so I can't give you a present.
Me: You don't have to buy anything to give a gift. I would really like to have someone pick up the toys in the family room, and (muttering under my breath) I would really like it if I didn't have to make dinner.
S: I could make dinner! You will have to teach me to use the oven... hmmm... do you have to know how to read to use the oven?

I explained that I would help with the oven parts and we decided on something that he could make for dinner, he then went out to play. Later, in the evening, he did make dinner, cresent dogs, accompanied by potato & ham soup provided by Denise. It was a great birthday dinner. The boys also worked together to clean up the family room and then they let Miana vacuum when they were done! It was fantastic!!

Remember that day...

2009-09-30T17:11:00.003-04:00

Do you remember that day when I said I was going to post something every day until I caught up? Well, apparently, sometimes I lie.

Also, I tried to find pictures of the baby's blessing, but I guess we didn't take any. I knew we didn't have any group shots (too crazy of a day with family coming in and out) but apparently, I didn't take any of the baby in her blessing dress either. So... no pictures of that, but here's the story.

Remember that on July 4th, my parents came home from their mission? Well, that weekend, Dave's brother, Don also came in that weekend for a visit. In fact, he babysat our kids so we could go see a movie! It was awefully generous of him and we really appreciate the chance to go on a date. We went that night and also picked up my sister, Jaclyn, from the airport. On Saturday, (July 4th) we had lunch with the Tarbets so we could spend some time with Don before going to pick up my parents. Jaclyn came with us because we were going straight to the airport afterwards. Then we picked up my parents which you already read about. Then, on July 5th, we blessed Tayla. It was wonderful to have Dave's brother there to participate as well as having my parents home to see it/participate in it. After Sacrament Meeting, I took the baby home and Dave stayed with the other 3 kids so they could go to their classes. My parents, Dave's parents, Danielle, Jaclyn, Andrea, Baylor, and I all had lunch. My parents went back to their ward, Dave's family stayed awhile then left to get Don to the airport, Jane and her family flew in, my parents picked them up, they came out here and had something to eat, then all went home and to bed. It was a crazy day but a fun memory!! I am grateful for so much family support.

Quotes of the day - both from Carter!!

2009-09-17T10:01:00.003-04:00

Me to baby: Are you slobbering on me?
Carter, walking by: that's her super power.
Me to C: Her super power is slobber power?
C: Yes, she also has pee power and poop power.

I see. I hope she is on my team... don't want to come up against THAT in a fight...

Later this morning:

C: Mom, you have to move the couch. CAN you move the couch?
Me: Yes, I think so.
C: I think you can do it if you do not have so much fat. Let me see... (looks at my stomach). Yes, your fats are going down, you can probably move the couch.

I'm not positive, but I think that was his way of saying that I am looking skinnier today... Umm... thanks for the compliment?

This was all before 9:45am! Can't wait to see what the rest of the day brings!

Conversation with a 2 year old

2009-09-11T16:16:00.003-04:00

We take a break from our regularly scheduled update to bring you breaking news... okay, it's not news at all. It is just a little peek into my life.

Today, I had another 2 year old, named Jakob, here. I put Miana and Jakob both down for naps at the same time and then J's mom came to pick him up before M woke up. Here is the conversation after she woke up.

Me: Hi! Did you have a good nap?
M: Yah. Where Jakob go?
Me: He went home, his mommy wanted him home.
M: Jakob go home? Jakob go home mommy. I wear this (now pointing to a rain coat she had on earlier, she then put it on). I (mumbles something) this. Jakob home.

She then walked around for about 10 seconds with the rain coat on and then went into the hallway.

M: Jacob have this (pointing to the jacket Jakob borrowed when we went outside). I have this. Jakob home. Mommy Jakob home. I have drink. This Jakob cup. Where Miana cup?
Me: Here's your cup, do you want water?
M: Yah. Miana have water. (takes a drink, then a quiet pause) Where Jakob go?

I love 2 year olds! This all happened in about a 3 minute time period. She was talking fast.

Yah.

My parents came home!

2009-09-10T21:50:00.003-04:00

We have had such a busy summer! School got out the end of June and just 2 weeks later my parents came home on July 4th! It was amazing to see them and have them back in "my world." I had truly missed being able to just call my mom up on the phone and talk. I think I called her every day that next week just because I could! To prepare for their arrival I had the kids do a 3 day project during HW time. Day 1 assignment was to figure out what they wanted to say on the sign and write (or trace) the words onto the sign in pencil and go over it with paint. Day 2 assignment was to draw a picture on the front but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was supposed to be of. I remember that on Spencer's he was supposed to look up on the computer and draw pictures of the 3 flags from my parents mission and 1 flag for the US and draw them on the poster, but I can't remember what Carter's assignment was... somehow both posters ended up with lots of suns drawn on them. Day 3 assignment was to turn the posters over and draw what they thought Nana and Papa would as soon as they got home. Carter predicted that they would walk all over their house and look at everything, Spencer predicted that Papa would go on a 4-wheeler ride and go all around his property. (I thought they would eat dinner and go straight to bed). Here is a picture of us at the airport:

Spencer's sign is the best, it says, "I love you... I like you" After the airport, we stopped and picked up pizza and went out to their house for pizza and some dessert. The first thing my dad did was go inside and start wandering around the house (good prediction, Carter!) We then had dinner and the boys had to explain their signs to Nana and Papa (oral presentation) as part of homework. We didn't want to stay too long with them being so tired, so we had dessert and packed up the kids. I found out that right after we left, my dad got on the 4-wheeler and went out to look all around his property (Spencer's prediction!) My kids really know their Nana and Papa!

Once again, I am WAY behind!

2009-09-09T16:18:00.002-04:00

I find myself being months behind in my blogging. I have never posted about my parents coming home from their mission, Tayla's blessing, our trip to Utah, the trip to the lake, my sister's new daughter, my brother's new son, my other sister's engagement, my precious stones, soccer starting, treating shock, AND finally, school starting! I am going to try to cover at least 1 thing everyday until I get caught up... starting tomorrow... :)

Clean up negotiation

2009-08-04T20:22:00.002-04:00

The kids have been playing in the basement for the last 3 days. I have been avoiding going down there to see the mess. Today, I asked the boys if there was a mess down there and they said yes. I told them that I was coming down to check in 10 minutes and that they should go clean up. Spencer starts down the stairs and turns to say, "Okay, we'll clean up, but you have to pay us for it." So I turned to him and said, "Fine, I will pay you for cleaning up the messes, but you have to pay me for every mess you make." He agreed and went down to clean up. They came up when they were tired and Spencer demanded his money. I said, "okay, get your money box." They both ran to find their money and came back. I told Spencer that he needed to pay me for making the mess first. It was a $5 mess. He paid me $5. I then said, "well, you didn't clean up EVERYTHING, so you did a $3 clean up job. He seemed disappointed that I didn't pay him $4, but took the money. Carter paid me $2 and I paid him $1 for his work.
Overall, I got $3 and they did some work without crying. The rule is, if you clean up without getting paid, you don't get charged for the mess. Eventually, they will clean up everything and we will break even OR they will clean up without asking for money, either way I win!

Indiana Jones and the... Enfamil Lipil of Doom!

2009-07-30T10:44:00.004-04:00

In case you can't tell, that's Lego Indiana Jones in the formula container. I found Miana sitting on the counter next to this and I said, "what happened?" She said, "bad guy in there," proudly pointing at the container. She calls all of the boys' action figures/lego people "bad guys" because the boys are always talking about fighting the bad guys when they play with them. Apparently, this is part of the next Indiana Jones adventure. He will be stuck trying to climb out of the sand-like substance in a giant container. He will be nearly to the top when someone will add water and the whole thing turns to liquid. It will be a box office smash!

"The best day of my life"

2009-07-27T12:31:00.001-04:00

On Thursday morning we drove to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to go through an open house. You can find out more about it here. We were able to take the kids and it was a really good opportunity to teach them about these wonderful buildings and the things that happen there. We were inbetween rooms and my mom leans forward and says to Spencer, “maybe after this is over, we should go get a donut.” Spencer is looking around and nods. He says, “yes, this Temple is SOOOO beautiful, it makes me want to eat a donut.” Then at the end of the tour, they invited us to a reception area for cookies. Mom said, “Spencer, did you hear that? They have cookies, we won’t need to eat a donut.” Spencer said, “I think we should have cookies AND a donut.”
On the way out of the Temple, Carter leans over and says, “Mom, THAT Temple was AWESOME”
We then went to the distribution center and let the kids each get their own copy of the Book of Mormon and pick out a case for it. Spencer was super excited.
After lunch, we changed clothes and the boys went to MyGym for summer camp. They love this camp. Spencer said, “This is the best day of my life. We got to go to the Temple AND go to summer camp.”

Beany Babies

2009-07-22T19:42:00.003-04:00

S: MOM!! Guess what!?! Little Teeny Baby Beanies are coming back.
(I start to wonder what he is talking about, but I don't have to wait long for an explanation)
S: Remember? You used to play with them when you were little. (actually, I never had any, but they were around - my siblings had them)
S: They are coming back in McDonalds Happy Meals. You will be so excited because they used to be retarded and they are bring them back.
(it only took me a second to realize that he actually meant "retired" not retarded.)
S: They won't be retarded anymore and we can get some in McDonald's happy meals, right, Mom?
Me: (trying not to laugh) that's right, they won't be retarded anymore, nor will they be retired. Maybe in a couple of weeks you can get a happy meal with one in it.

He left with a big smile on his face... came back a few minutes later...
S: Mom, Carter wants to know what a bing-y baggy thing is.

Never a truer statement...

2009-06-30T12:17:00.002-04:00

Carter: Guess What? Chicken butt.
Me: We don't say that.
Carter: Daddy says that.
Me: Sometimes Daddy is naughty.
Carter: And you have to pay for it.

That's right. I have to pay for it.

Thank you, TV!

2009-06-27T09:55:00.002-04:00

For all the arguments that people's lives (children's lives) are better when there is limited TV watched at home, there is that one moment that PROVES that carefully selected shows are an enrichment to children.

When Spencer was 3 or 4, he could explain that the world was made up of molecules, that microbes are what change a cucumber to a pickle, and that friction and gravity are necessary. Thank you, Magic School Bus!

This morning, Carter was playing a game of pretend. I hear him say, "Stay away Big Jet, don't hurt me, YOU ARE MY NEMESIS!!" I hadn't ever heard the word nemesis until I was in college (seriously). I just wanted to say, Thank you Little Einsteins and a HUGE Thank You to Phineas and Ferb!!

Dave and I decided not to actively teach our children Spanish because of Spencer's speech delay. Both boys pick up on Spanish quite quickly now having watched Dora and the ladies on PBS that come on between shows. They will be in great shape when they get in high school/college Spanish. Thank you, TV!!

A quote, before I forget it...

2009-06-25T15:39:00.002-04:00

"Mom, Jesus doesn't want us to butter our corn with our feet, He wants us to use our hands."

We were talking about Curious George. There is an episode where he gets in trouble for buttering his corn with his feet, until he builds himself a tree house... the rule there is that you HAVE TO butter your corn with your feet. This intrigued him, thus giving us the quote above.

Finally, my slide show

2009-06-23T12:04:00.001-04:00

These pictures were taken on Saturday, May 23. The baby smiles a lot more now, but I really wanted to get pictures done before life got crazy in the summer. Enjoy!

Our summer schedule

2009-06-22T11:45:00.002-04:00

There were so many reasons for creating this, but here is our summer schedule. We put it together for FHE one night. The kids helped me work on it... I can be flexible on most of it, but somethings are required, regardless of what time they are. Enjoy!

8:00 am – You can ask Mom or Dad for help getting Breakfast or Snack
8:30 am – Homework time
· 8:30 Spencer has computer time/ Carter works with Mom
· 9:00 Carter has computer time/ Spencer works with Mom
9:30 am – Family fitness time (can include pool time)
10:00 am – Playtime (outdoor allowed, TV allowed on rainy days)
11:30 am – Lunch
12:00 pm – Quiet time/ nap time (all boys quiet time, all girls nap time)
1:00 pm – Boys excused for outdoor playtime (rainy days, puzzles, games, toys allowed)
(4:30 pm – Mom starts thinking about and getting ready for dinner)
5:30 pm – Family Clean-up (can choose off list or just pick up toys/ stuff off of ground)
6:00 pm – Dinner
6:30 pm – Playtime (Mondays this is FHE)
7:30 pm – Get ready for bed/ family scripture reading/ family prayer
8:00 pm – Bedtime!!

Updates... way behind again. Sorry!

2009-06-11T20:12:00.002-04:00

We went a few weeks ago and got some family pictures taken. I was going to make a slide show but haven't had time so I haven't posted anything! We have Carter's graduation to post, Spencer's class presentation, the picture slide show, and some other random stuff. Look for those to come as I have time. For now, here are some funny quotes.

Spencer was upset that we didn't have a lot of kids in the neighborhood to play with there was only one kid this afternoon that was available to play he said, "There is no one to play with except for ONE DORPY KID!" He was frustrated and upset but it was really hard not to laugh at the word "dorpy" which I am quite sure he meant "dorky."

Milestones

2009-05-21T13:56:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was quite the day for milestones. First and foremost was the moment that my sweet baby smiled at me. She has been smiling since about 3-4 weeks old, but never looking at anyone. Then, she smiled at my Mother-in-law and then at my Sister-in-law, and then one day at my friend. I have tried and tried and tried to get her to look at me and smile, but she wouldn't. I was starting to think that she didn't like me. Yesterday, she looked at me and smiled BIG! I loved it. I grabbed my camera while she was in the same mood and tried taking pictures of her, but no more smiles. Sorry.

Less importantly, but perhaps just as exciting: yesterday my boys had twinkie for the first time. Actually I was quite proud that Spencer was 7 and only now had his first bite of a Twinkie. Before I get comments from Mom about that not being healthy... They now come in a 100-calorie pack. There are 3 mini cakes in the pack. I had one, Spencer had one, and Carter had one. So, we each had about 33 calories a piece... not the end of the world.

Quote of the day: So sweet

2009-05-18T00:08:00.002-04:00

On Sunday afternoon, I was talking to Spencer about a friend of mine who passed away this last week. That night, in his prayer before bed Spencer said, "and please bless mommy's friend who died that he is good in heaven."

What a great kid to want to make sure that people we know are happy, no matter where they are... I love him!

Current photo fun... my sweet children!

2009-05-15T23:33:00.002-04:00

Disclaimer: I need to add a bit about one of the photos. There is a photo entitled "Laundry Day" and is an artistic representation of a day in the life of a 4th baby... Mom didn't like that I included it - Sorry.

Quote of the day: Issues, Sir

2009-05-12T14:19:00.002-04:00

Carter: I don't feel good today. I had issues at school today.
Me: Issues?
Carter: Yes, EVERYONE in OUR family has issues, right Mom?
Me: That's for sure!

Also, I don't want to forget this but the other day when I was on the phone with Paige, her 3 year old said to her, "Please, SIR, I need a kleenex!" It was the cutest thing I've ever heard.

Final catch up post!

2009-05-06T17:59:00.005-04:00

Dave's last week home, after I had the baby, was Spring Break. We tried to do fun things with the kids everyday. On Monday, we took them to a really fun playground with a huge slide.I can't remember what we did the other days. But I know there was kite flying one day. On Friday, Dave took the oldest 3 kids to Harper's Ferry. They seemed to have fun!Friday night, we celebrated Miana's birthday with ice cream sundaes. I can't believe she is 2!

Sunday was Easter, here are their baskets. The next Saturday, the boys started soccer. Carter was too sick to play (fever) so he had to wait until the next week to play. Here are some pictures of both boys...

Catching up!

2009-05-05T18:20:00.003-04:00

So much happened after bringing #4 home from the hospital, it has been hard to find time to blog. I use my blog as a journal for myself so there are many things I want to document that might be boring for everyone else. Sorry, but here goes.

Tayla had some trouble gaining weight the first few weeks so we took her to the doctor for weight checks every 2-3 days. At the 2nd one, she hadn't had enough poopy diapers and was still very yellow, so the doctor sent her to the hospital to check her bilirubin levels. Everything came back normal and I continued nursing and supplementing with formula. Finally, at 4 weeks old she was back up to her birth weight... yay!

On Monday, April 6, I fell asleep on the couch. I woke up with a strange pain on my right side. I went up to bed and woke up in the night needing to use the bathroom. When I stood up I felt a huge gush. I went into the bathroom I found that my underwear was completely covered with blood. When I stood up, there was so much blood in the water I could not see the bottom of toilet. It was scary. I thought I should wait an hour and see if the bleeding continued before I called the doctor. When I next got up, there was much less blood. I was still bleeding but it had tapered off, I was also passing large clots (golf ball sized). In the morning, I called the doctor and was told to come in immediately. We found someone to watch the boys (it was Spring Break) and Dave drove me and the 2 girls to the doctor's office next to the hospital. I was still bleeding, but not nearly as much. After a quick exam, the doctor drew some blood (to check my iron levels) and sent me for a sonogram to see if there was any placenta left inside (the usual cause of bleeding and clotting). I then went home. I heard nothing until 2 days later at my already scheduled incision check on Thursday. Blood work and sonogram were normal. I had to wait about a week for the bleeding to stop. 2 different doctors gave me various theories about what it was (including a period.) The one that fit the best and that I tend to believe is that it was the internal scar from incision. It forms a scab to stop the bleeding and sometimes that scab comes off before the wound has healed. This causes you to bleed and pass clots... but who knows for sure? I am fine and have not had any bleeding since.
Dave eventually had to go back to work. I dreaded that, but am adjusting. I miss being able to take naps during the day. I miss having the house clean (he's so good at that!) I miss HIM! He hasn't had to travel since the baby was born, but that is quickly coming to an end. Reality will hit big time in mid-May. He has a one night stay (May 14-15) in Detroit and then home for the weekend. Then, back to Detroit forever (I think it's 6 weeks, coming home on the weekends). I really REALLY don't want him to go. I am not ready for 4 kids alone. I know I'm not.
I think that is all I wanted to talk about here... I will post about the kids starting soccer at another time. Thanks for reading!

Grocery Store today

2009-05-04T12:34:00.002-04:00

Taking kids to the grocery store is my least favorite activity of all. To me, the grocery store represents order. I know my life with little kids will be in constant chaos, but the grocery store has everything in rows. The rows have a category and everything in the row is organized with like items. It is order and organization in my chaotic world. Introduce children into that environment and all of a sudden bliss becomes hell. Not always, but with me and my children, it is more likely to be a horrible experience than a pleasant one.

Today, Miana first started by throwing all of the food out of the cart. Then, I got her to stop and Tayla started screaming. It was time to check out so I headed to the front. While standing in line, Miana kept standing up and trying to jump out of the cart. I had to do self-checkout because all of the lanes had several people in them and Tayla was screaming so I wanted to get out quick. The lady next to me kept trying to talk to Miana, which made her try to jump out more. Finally, I get through the process and am ready to leave. The lady heard the baby screaming the whole time and kept commenting to her clerk (they opened a new lane next to me right after I started checking out) about the baby and the toddler. She was an elderly lady (I estimate late 70s). Finally, she turned to me and said, "Is there anything I can do to help you?" I smiled and assured her that it was all easy from that point on. We left the store and I thought to myself:

You know it's been a bad day at the store when the 80 year old offers to help YOU out to your car!

Carter's Birthday Party

2009-05-03T18:23:00.007-04:00

I hate posting out of order (chronological) but I need to post about Carter's party which was 2 days ago... I promised I would put pictures up!

All Carter wanted was a moonbounce party. I looked into several local places that have indoor moonbounce parties, although they were very fun, they ran $300-$400 for the party. Not quite what I was hoping for. I was willing to spend some money as this is Carter's biggest party that he will ever have (we do a big first party at age 5, then a smaller party at 8, one at 12, and a final party at 16, they get no other birthday parties maybe 1-2 friends allowed to do something with the family). So, I looked into renting a moonbounce, I found a reasonably priced one and reserved it. I sent out invitations to 18 kids ages 4-5 years. All week long, Carter asked if it was Friday yet. Finally, Friday morning came. At 6am, Carter came into my room, woke me up, and asked if it was time for his party yet. The party was to start at 1pm, we had a long time to go. I busily cleaned the house all morning, stopping only to feed the baby and get things for Miana and Carter. Miana worked AGAINST me the whole morning, the worst being opening a package of Ritz crackers, dumping them all over the kitchen floor, and then stomping on them. Also, I was stressing over the weather. It was supposed to rain off and on all day. It started raining at noon. Here was the radar at 10 min. to 1pm. The hand in the middle of the picture is where we live...

All day, Carter asked if it was time yet, just about every 15 minutes. At the moment I was checking radar, this happened...

He did not wake up until there were 6-7 kids here and one of the moms started singing "Happy Birthday" to him. Here is what the moonbounce looked like for the first hour...

(Yes, those are puddles of water) Finally, the sun came out and one of the moms dried it off (I'm still technically in recovery from a c-section and didn't want to rip anything)... She was a life saver!! Here are some kids jumping.

I think everyone had fun and Carter seemed to like it. I am pleased with how everything turned out in the end and I am VERY glad it is over.

Happy Birthday Carter!

2009-04-28T07:47:00.001-04:00

Today is Carter's birthday (and Andrea's - Happy Birthday, Aunt Andrea!) In honor of Carter's Birthday, I have quote from him, from this very morning.

C: "Mom, do you know why we can't put our fingers in Tayla's nose?"
Me: "Ummm... why?"
C: "Because they don't fit, see?"

He then demonstrated that his fingers were too large to fit in the baby's nose...

Good to know...

Quote of the day: Diaper fun!

2009-04-23T17:32:00.004-04:00

Miana has a doll that she got for Christmas. I did this in preparation for the new baby coming, I wanted her to be able to take care of her doll while I was taking care of the baby. A couple of weeks ago, I gave her one of the baby's newborn diapers to put on her doll. She thought this was great and has left it on for all this time, but has never said anything about it, well nothing more than "baby, diaper." So today, she laid the baby down on the couch(where I change diapers) and opened her baby's diaper. This is what I heard:

Tayla at home: Week 1

2009-04-20T14:03:00.001-04:00

What did your husband get you for having a baby?

2009-04-20T13:18:00.002-04:00

Mine got me this fancy new microwave. We used to have one on the counter. He even installed it all by himself! Way to go, Dave!

Slide Show 1: At the hospital

2009-04-20T13:11:00.001-04:00

A quick quote for today

2009-04-20T08:43:00.001-04:00

It's time to take Carter to school, but I had to share this quote. I just got Miana dressed in some new jeans and new shirt from her birthday...

Carter: Wow! Miana, you look goooood in those new clothes. I could hardly recognize you!

I haven't forgotten about you, dear Blog readers...

2009-04-15T19:50:00.002-04:00

Give me a break, I have 4 kids, yes, that's right, 4. My oldest is 7. That means that I am expected to do most things in the house myself, until Dave comes home late at night. That's right, last night he got home at 9:15pm. Yes, I am looking for sympathy. It is hard to blog when I am either asleep, cleaning something, driving somewhere, holding the baby, feeding the baby, or getting things for/helping the other 3 kids... (those are in order from least amount of time spent to most)

One quick quote from today: I asked Carter to check outside and see if Spencer was watching Miana play. Carter opens the front door and yells: "Spencer, you had better be watching Miana or you will be in so much trouble!"

Look for these posts to follow: Pictures of Tayla at 1 week, a million other pictures of Tayla, My bleeding scare, Tayla's lack of weight gain, Lack of sleep, Easter, Hi Ho Hi Ho It's back to work he goes, New calling, My first days alone, and Soccer...

I am way behind on posts...

Reality Check

2009-04-03T07:55:00.002-04:00

Yes, I want to go back on my little "vacation." While I was in the hospital, Spencer had a fever (actually, so did I, but I will get to that when I finally write down the birth story - I'm not ready to relive that yet). Anyway, Spencer was sick most of the time I was gone. We never let him hold the baby in the hospital, which was a little sad for him but he was very grown up and understanding about the whole situation. On Friday night, Dave called me and said that Spencer was complaining about his ear and wanted to know about getting him into the doctor on Saturday. They went and it was determined that Spencer had an ear infection and possibly strep throat (although she didn't test for it). He was given antibiotics and sent on his way. The baby and I came home from the hospital on Sunday. Monday, we took the baby in for a quick check up at her pediatrician and her weight was a little low. Tuesday morning, Dave started to not feel well, but had tons of errands to run. At lunch time, he left the 2 little girls with me while he picked up Carter from school and did all the stuff he needed to do. I survived the 2 hardest kids (of course, both were asleep most of the time he was gone). That night he had pack meeting and left me with ALL 4 kids for 2.5 hours. Again, I survived. Wednesday morning, Dave woke up with a horrible sore throat and again left me with the 2 little ones so he could pick up Carter and go to the doctor. The doctor did not check him for strep but gave him antibiotics just in case (our doctor is like that...) Thursday, Dave was not feeling well at all, but we had to take Tayla in for a weight check at the doctor. She was down another ounce, and was looking very yellow. We were told to supplement more often with more formula. Also, we were told to take her to the hospital to have them check her bilirubin levels. Dave did NOT want to do this, he was tired and achy and just needed to sleep. He dropped the baby and I off at the hospital and he took Miana to run errands. In the afternoon, he picked up Carter from a birthday party and he did Spencer's homework with him, all while I slept. Then he fell asleep, but only for about an hour. Last night, the baby decided to have her most horrible night ever. She was up from 8pm to 3:30am off and on, waking up anytime someone put her down. Dave took the 11:30 to 1:30 shift, she finally seemed to be asleep, so he took some Nyquil and was out. Of course, she woke up as soon as he put her in the bassinet, so I took the 1:30 to 3:30 shift. She then slept until 5:30. So I got up with her, fed her, and fell asleep in the chair with her downstairs. I woke up at 6:50, just in time to get Spencer's stuff packed up ready for school. I got him some clothes and got him off. (Dave woke up about this time and I sent him back to bed). Tayla woke up and wanted to eat. I am wondering if she will ever sleep. The other kids have needed what they needed this morning, which seems to be a lot when you are tired. Dave is awake, but looks so sick and is very tired. I don't know how much longer I will last and today is our day with the 3 little ones home all day. It doesn't help that it has been cold and rainy all week and that EVERYONE has runny noses. It just might be a day for reinforcements... we'll see.