April 30, 2012

Potty training. That is what we have been doing today. And probably will still be doing tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that and the day after that....

April 29, 2012

I came in the kitchen to get him a drink. Then I got distracted by something else (story of my life!) and left the room. When I came back in the kitchen this is what he was doing. Luckily this kid is resourceful and self reliant.( And lucky for me the milk in the carton was pretty much gone before he got a hold of it or we could have had a major mess to clean up.)

April 28, 2012

I got a  new phone. Yesterday during all of the afternoon craziness I was in the store looking at new phones and I dropped my old cell phone and the battery went one way and the rest of the phone went another way. I took that as a sign that I should definitely purchase a new phone. :) Now I am not one to get excited about "things" but this phone has an awesome camera on it. And now I have just one more way to take an exorbitant* amount of photos that will eventually fill all available hard drive space on my computer. 


*Exorbitant--Adj.-- greatly exceeding bounds of reason or moderation. This word pretty much sums up my photo-taking habit.

April 27, 2012

I had high hopes for today; I was going to accomplish a lot. But, like so many other days, things just didn’t go the way I hoped they would. I wasn’t home to get the call that my oldest daughter missed the bus home from school. So 15 minutes after she should have been home I was frantically calling around trying to find out where she was.  I was late taking the kids to dance class (38 minutes late…the class is only 55 minutes long). I yelled at my son because when I was stuck in traffic for 20 minutes he kept yelling from the back seat “green light means go mom!” I was late to every place I was supposed to be this afternoon. The baby screamed and squirmed in his car seat the whole time we were in the car. I hung up on my husband when he called me because I was frustrated with everything else I was trying to do. I was too unorganized to plan dinner and ended up getting fast food, which makes me feel guilty (yet makes my kids feel happy.) I put my youngest two kids to bed early, way too early, when I should have just played with them for a while. I half-listened to every story or funny thing my girls tried to tell me about today instead of just stopping and listening to them. I am on the computer right now, when I should be tucking my older kids in bed but instead they are watching TV. These are the days that I am glad when night comes and I can just go to bed and hope that I can be better tomorrow than I was today. 

April 26, 2012

She got to go on a field trip today for preschool to see how donuts are made. She's been counting down the days until today and was so happy to go. She loves her preschool class and especially her teacher Miss Vicki.

April 25, 2012

Instead of checking out a book for herself at the school library, she checked out her younger sister's favorite book. She read it to her this morning before she had to leave for the bus stop. And today at the school book exchange she exchanged one of her books to get a Thomas the Tank Engine book for her little brother. She was so excited to give it to him when she got home from school. My kids have their fair share of arguments (and all out fights) but they also have a lot of these little moments where I can see that they really do love each other.

April 24, 2012

Such nice weather this evening. It felt good to be outside and just let the kids run around and get rid of all their energy before bed time. Evenings are usually pretty rough around here. By about 5pm I am out of patience the kids are usually wound up and crazy and the baby is usually clingy and crying. But being outside tonight was a good change of scenery.

April 23, 2012

My oldest girl wearing sparkly nail polish picking out the notes of a song on our out-of-tune piano. Listening to her today made me happy. 

April 22, 2012

Sunday at Poppa and Grandma's house.

April 21, 2012

Ladybugs. My mom brought the kids a little mesh bag filled with ladybugs that they could release into their yard. We let the lady bugs out this morning in the backyard. The kids let them crawl on their hands and up their arms. There were even lady bugs in their hair. The kids loved it. (As much as I loved watching the kids with the bugs I thought it was slightly creepy and all day I've felt like I have bugs crawling on me.) 

April 20, 2012

This arrived in the mail today. If everything works out as planned, I will be taking a little vacation sometime soon and leaving the parenting duties to my husband for a few days. :)

April 19, 2012

I love this picture. The kids got to go play at their cousins' house today and the first thing she wanted to do was to drive their pink princess car. She acts so confident behind the wheel while her sweet little cousin has to hang on for dear life. (Watching them was so funny, especially when she decided to put in reverse.)

April 18, 2012

I watched my younger sister give birth to a beautiful baby boy this evening. (Completely natural, no pain meds at all, no anesthesia, nothing! My sister is amazingly brave and strong.) It was so beautiful and emotional and that baby is so perfect. Seeing him makes me realize just how big my kids are getting. It was such a good reminder of how awesome it is to be a mom.

April 17, 2012

He had a lot of fun with this "race car" (or as he pronounces it "wace caw"). He chased the baby with it until he got in trouble and I threatened to take it away. Then he chased his big sister with it. We heard high pitched squeals of laughter every time he ran it into the wall. And then he would yell "Cwash!"

April 16, 2012

A dandelion bouquet from my daughter. (She gathered them on her way home from the bus stop and gave them to me with a big smile. She knew I would love them.)

April 15, 2012

Many Sunday evenings at Grandma's house have been spent doing puzzles at the kitchen table. 

April 14, 2012

 This is the chair I sit in when I rock him to sleep every night (and rock him back to sleep multiple times a night..the boy does not sleep well). Lately I have been finding him on the chair with his blanket rocking himself. (I try to ignore the fact that he wipes his face all over the white fabric when he climbs up and that he hits the wall really hard with the chair when he rocks). I just think he is so sweet holding his blanket and rocking in his chair.

April 13, 2012

I took the girls to try out a dance class tonight. It was an interesting experience, my younger girl was very nervous and ended up hiding from the teacher for a few minutes. The teacher gathered the class and noticed she was missing and sort of looked at me as if to say, "I lost your kid". I pointed out that she was hiding under a big foam block across the room. Her very patient teacher picked her up and carried her over to the rest of the class. Things went much better from there. My older girl, did well, and seemed happy to be there but when she was done her comment to me was "Mom, all we did was....dance." I am not sure what she was expecting but it was obviously a disappointment when all they did at dance class was dance.  I think we will try it out another week before we commit to anything.

April 12, 2012

We had some pretty intense games of Candy Land going on tonight before bed. (It was the Dora the Explorer version of course.)  There were a few tears shed by the losers and at some point in the game Boots the Monkey was kidnapped by a fast handed baby boy. (Also, I think there were a couple games where someone stacked the cards in their favor.) But, we had a good time and eventually everyone got a chance to win.

April 11, 2012

Energy, she has a lot of it. (She picked out her own clothes today and came upstairs to show me, she said "Mom, do I look like a new girl?" She thinks that if she changes her clothes or the way she does her hair she looks like a different person. She is always sure that her friends or cousins or even her grandma won't even recognize her when they see her. It makes me laugh every time she says it.)

April 10, 2012

Playing a game on the computer today. I love listening to their conversations while they play. The person who isn't playing always thinks they have all the answers about how to play. I love that the younger sister is not shy about giving advice and opinions about her big sisters computer game skills even though  she has never played the game herself. 

April 9, 2012

She was sad when she woke up to find her big sister had already left for school. She spent the day asking if it was time for her to come home yet. 3:30 took a long time to get here. She waited on the deck until she saw the bus, then ran out to the front yard to greet her.

April 8, 2012

Easter morning. (With kids who don't particularly want their picture taken and a baby who wants to run away and has a mouthful and a handful of banana.) And the fun continued at church where the baby cried A LOT and had to be taken out. The neighbors kindly sat with my other kids while I spent most of the time in the hall.

April 7, 2012

We had a day filled with family, fun, and a lot of candy. We celebrated "Bunny Day" at Grandma and Poppa's house, the kids got bags full of candy and the adults got to hunt for eggs filled with dollar bills. Later in the afternoon we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Z's house for lunch and an Easter Egg Hunt. 

April 6, 2012

Spring Break day 5. Coloring eggs for Easter. (Bonus: We colored all the eggs without spilling any dye on any one's clothes this time!)

April 5, 2012

Spring break day 4. I took the girls to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. It had been on our to-do list since last summer. I will just say, some of us had an enjoyable time seeing the art and displays, and for one of us the highlight of the day was riding the elevator. Most common phrases while we there, "Please don't touch that" "Remember you aren't supposed to touch" "If you touch that again you are going to go sit in the car." (I am the master of empty threats.) Overall we did have a good time and the girls got to make a beaded bracelet and do a puppet show.

April 4, 2012

Spring Break Day 3. We went to the Dinosaur Park. We had such a good time (even I had a good time and I think dinosaurs are kind of boring.) The weather was beautiful and we had 9 of our cousins, 2 aunts, 1 uncle and 1 Grandma to keep us company. A very fun family outing.

April 3, 2012

Day 2 of Spring Break. We had cousins over this morning, we ate pancakes and made play dough. (A few of the younger kids ate both the pancakes and the play dough.) I am not usually a messy projects kind of mom unless I can be sure that the fun outweighs the mess. The colorful, fruity scented play dough did not disappoint. 

Play dough recipe found here.

April 2, 2012

First day of Spring Break! I took the kids up to the pathway to ride their bikes. Once we got up there we had the great idea to ride to the park. The park is about 1.5 miles away from our house. The first 1.5 miles was fun and wonderful. The kids played on the swings at the park and the weather was beautiful. But the 1.5 miles back home included a cold wind blowing in our faces, a lot of crying,  some whining about being hungry, a flat stroller tire, a training wheel that kept coming loose and a very tired, very slow tricycle rider. 2.5 hours later we finally got back home.

April 1, 2012

 I loved the talks from General Conference this weekend. Such great words about children and family and being thankful to God for all we have been given. I needed to hear those things, and to be reminded of how blessed our family has been lately with safety and health and peace of mind. Our family may not have the ideal living situation right now but we are very blessed in so many ways.