Oct 30, 2013

Some pictures I took of Bethany today.  I am going to be doing some indoor shoots in the winter months and thought I might practice, try out some things with my camera today.  Bethany was the perfect model of course.
I felt like these two in particular really capture her right now.  The top picture she was trying to eat her toes, and jabbering on about something.  The bottom one is her huge grin and also she is up on her toes.  She does this a lot, then gets to her knees and crawls forward a bit.  She even got a big blister on her toe from doing it so much.   Jake and I were joking last night about where her hair could be.  The other girls had so much more hair it seems by now.
I think she is beautiful.  Just so beautiful.  She has such a sweet personality too.  Easy and happy.  I put her to bed every night wondering why I didn't spend the entire day making her laugh and cuddling together.

She is not the only one growing up around here.  Marianne talks like a college grad now.  Saying things like "owww mommy you hurt me mommy"  every single time I do her hair. "I don't want that one mommy"  "I'm going to be a elephant for halloween mommy"  She says "mommy" a lot.  I love her for it.  I love that everything is still the best to her. She finds joy in everything often and it makes us all find joy in daily things.

Samuel is very excited because tomorrow is his Halloween program at school.  He has been counting down the days.  And has learned the songs all very well and been singing them around the house.  He is still the one at my side when nobody else is-  while Kate is at school and the little girls nap.  Yesterday I had bills to pay and a bunch of Relief Society things to mail out.  He was my "mailman" and put stamps on everything then helped carry it to the mail box and put it all in.  I raced him on the way back home from the mail box.  I planned on letting him win, but do you know that he almost did  win without me letting him  He is a fast guy.  Which is funny because just last week I had a dream about him winning a marathon and me trying to watch but not being able to run fast enough to keep up with him.  I told him about the dream and he liked it very much.

Kate is doing so well in school.  At her parent teacher conference a few weeks ago her teacher told me what level of reading she was on "E". And that there were three or four kids reading better than her in the class on level "H" .  It was mostly her response to me when I told her I thought Kate was doing great and wasn't really worried about anything academically in school.  She thought I should be pushing Kate more, I kind of resented her thoughts, but in the end I'm glad we talked about it.  I know that Kate is a great reader, and we set a goal to be on lever "H" by Christmas. Well last week  Kate already completed her goal and tested in to level "H".   With a goal in mind and a little encouragement she made up so much ground and is now in the elite reading group in first grade where she really belonged all along, we just weren't practicing for the tests at home.  I'm proud of her.  In fact when I went to her class to help yesterday I saw her name in the best reader board and was super proud of her and told her so.  She has been really into American Girl Dolls latley and saved all of her money and bought a somewhat less expensive  generic version all on her own- which was still like $38 which is a lot of money for a 6 year old to save and be patient enough to not spend even when her brother already bought 3 or 4 things every month or so from his extra chore money because he bought cheap things that didn't cost so much.  She has been so pleased with it and never complains it is not the real thing.  Which is great, except that I bought her the real thing for Christmas so I kind of want her to think it is awesome.  Which is why when an American Girl Doll catalog came in the mail this week, I gave it to her to look at- which did just the trick.  She came home from the bus where she had been looking at the catalog with friends and told me he had circled some of the things she liked.  There were three doll circled.... and hooray... one of the ones circled is the one I got.  Boy am I a sneaky parent or what!

Life seems to be flying by, busily,   I feel like we are just seconds from an emergency or crisis most the time just because we are barely holding things together... but things are a good world wind.  How that is said side by side I think is just parenting really.

I've been meaning to write an experience I had a few weeks ago.  Jake had been camping with the scouts for all of UEA  It was towards the end of this weekend where anyone who has four kids and has been a single parent for a few days can tell you.  There was .yelling that day, and bedtime at 7:30pm and even though I was exhausted I couldn't tell you one single thing that got done.  You know.  The kids were alive and had been fed (likely pizza) but that was it and somehow it was still too much.
The kids were all in bed (whew) and me and Bethy were sitting on the couch together.
Down on myself for the kind of parent I had been that day. For yelling.  For not playing. For not teaching. When a spirit spoke to me.  Normally when I have spiritually promptings I would say "The Spirit" meaning the Holy Ghost, but this was a bit different.  It may have been the Holy Ghost, but it felt different- it seemed more like Bethany.  Her spirit.  Her spirit speaking to my spirit.  Saying "we choose you because we knew you would love us so much"  in a way saying they knew I wouldn't be perfect, but that they knew my capacity for love and choose me for it.  I'm not even sure I believed in  the "kids choosing their parents" saying that goes around before this- or that it is the case in all parent child relationships, but it was a special moment between me and her, and me and all my children her speaking for them.  It (temporarily) changed the way I felt about myself and myself as a mother.  or permanently as long as I remember it.
I relayed this story to Jake when he came home the next day.  He correctly responded that it is why he choose me too.

Feeling like one lucky mom, with a house of adorable children I couldn't possibly love one ounce more.  until tomorrow when I find I do.

Oct 20, 2013

We painted our pumpkins Sunday.  Most of our pumpkins came from our garden this year.  We picked up a few at the pumpkin patch last week too.
We paint our pumpkins.  I still flat out refuse to carve pumpkins.  I mean four small children fighting over knives, it just makes me wonder who the crazy parent was that came up with this tradition.
Paint.  Glitter, Puff Paint.  I bring out piles of fun craft supplies and give them the option.  And I say "who wants to use all mom's paint and glitter and paint a pumpkin.... or I guess you could carve it if you want?"  They always all choose painting.
They all did a great job. Sam copied a skeleton picture almost perfectly- then covered the whole pumpkin in red paint for blood and you couldn't see the skeleton anymore.  I helped Mari do that sweet minnie mouse.  Kate painted two pumpkins because she had one from a feild trip- she just painted scary faces.    I painted an eye ball.  Jake painted his to look like a baseball.  It looked pretty legit- in the pictures anyways. The kids stay entertained for a long time.  We have placed our painted pumpkins on the porch.  Happy Halloween.

Oct 26, 2013

We went hiking in the Uinta's today.
To the fairy forest.
Have you heard of it?
It is about an hour drive form Heber, Up by mirror lake.
Our kids love hiking.  And I use to hate hiking but they are loving it so much this summer they are converting me.  I think we may just be a serious hiking family next year.
It is hard to beat being out on a beautiful fall day in the Utah mountains.  Perfectly sunny and 60 degrees.
We bundled up- and although we saw some snow, it was really warm and our coats were mostly unwarranted.  We parked at the trail head and followed some pretty scetchy directions I found online.I was about 50 % sure we wouldn't find the fairy forest and have sad kids, and 30% sure we were going to get lost in the woods and have to spend the night, and 20% hoping it would all work out.
"Come to my fairy forest, in the woods, were there is no cell phone reception, and no real trail...." on the internet- sounds like  a murders invitation to me. Whatever.
Good thing I wore rain boots because we crossed a small river, and I could carry children across without concern.  Although the hike was short it was over the river and through the woods.... Jake and I each carrying a child, and a backpack and a camera, and a fairy house.
Oh before going we whipped up a little fairy house-  You can see it above- it has Ariel, Cinderella and superman in a little scene.   We brought it to put out for the fairies.
We made it to the forest in the end pretty quickly.
There were hundreds of little scenes, painted rocks, chimes hung in  the trees.  A little path to wonder along and discover more and more things
The kids loved finding new things and discovering all the different places.
I'm not sure our fairy home with last the winter- next time we will prepare something more durable then what I can round up in a few minutes.
We hiked back to the car and drove to a campground around the corner, and stopped for a little picnic.
Then we headed home.
Sometimes I plan adventures and they don't go perfectly, we get lost, the kids are in bad moods, etc.
But this one worked out wonderfully.
I love when we decide to forget about chores or our to-do lists and go on adventures with our kids.

Oct 18, 2013

A certain Darling is 6 months old.

Bethany, Bethy, Angel, Darling, Beth-a-roo, my little fox (because of her red hair), our little turtle.(because of how she looks when she crawls)
I also always sing to her "Doe a Deer a female deer, Ray, drop of golden sun"  So I would also say I call her my deer or dear, and ray (which perfectly enough is her father's middle name and the maiden name of the Grandmother for which Bethany is  named)

She is pleasant if you couldn't tell.
Here are her stats.
Height 26 in- 58%
Weight 16lbs 3 oz- 52%
Head 43 cm 65%

She is shrinking- which is no surprise, well only a little since she was born our largest girl and is on track to be the smallest.

She is developing faster than our physcian believes... he always thinks I'm lying.
When I reply she crawls- to questions about her movement
and when I reply she says "mamama" to does she make age appropriate goos and gaas.
I think she says "mama" anyways as she seems to only say it when she is hungry.  Meaning she doesn't know I'm called mama, but she knows mama is the one with the food and if she says it, I will bring her food.    I'm counting it.  FIRST WORD: MAMA.  (Which side note means that all of the kids except Kate have had it be their first word.  I was Kate's third word after Dada and Dog.)

What is she up to?
-Crawling.  rolling, scooting, and getting herself stuck under furniture and constantly under watch so she doesn't get down the stairs.
-Sucking her thumb- when you falls asleep and generally.  Sometimes when she is tired she will suck her thumb and lean he head on my chest.
-Eating- a few things- so far squash, prunes, and pears. and rice cereal
-Sleeping- through the night at least 2 nights a week. Otherwise waking up at around 4am and cuddling and sleeping with me in bed until it is time to get up.
-Bathing in the real bathtub not just the sink.  Only twice so far.
-Laughing.  All the tie, at everything and anything.  Another delightful happy baby, with rarely a cry or whine.  I am so blessed.  She fills our house with happiness and giggles.
-Going to the Dr.  Of course it wouldn't be one of our kids if they didn't have some kind of medical mystery illness.  Third time today in under a week for some bladder and kidney problems. We had hoped she just had a bad UTI but it was not the case as some labs came back today.  Hopefully they will be sorted out quickly and our little girl can be healthy again.  In the mean time she is on some medicine that makes her tummy grumble louder than anything I've ever heard from a baby.
-Not growing hair, She also has very little hair still.  It is still a little red, but mostly turning to a brown blonde.
-Being loved by everyone- of course.  Who doesn't love a happy sweet baby.  And even though her stats don't prove it, she has a few rolls we like to pinch.

I always say it but I really mean it.
I can't believe how fast time goes by and how fast my babies grow up.  Just six months ago she was not born, and now she moves, interacts and is very observant and watchful and playful.
We love our Bethany. Seriously, how did I get so blessed.  My heart is bursting with gratitude for this little girl of mine.

Oct 12, 2013

Halloween costume preview

We got to try out our costumes today for Aunt Lisa's Halloween party!
Do you know about my love for Halloween.
And how I have possibly been looking forward to creating Halloween costumes for my own children for at least 7 years before I actually had any children.
This year they mostly picked store bought costumes- or ones we already had- robbing me of my long awaited desitre- so last minute we made a queen crown, and a queen robe with royal fur, a captian amercia sheild from a plate, and added an extra layer of skirt to the already owned minnie mouse.

as you can see we have
Kate the Queen
Sam as Captian America
Marianne as Minnie Mouse- though she may be an elephant on actual Halloween
Bethany as a lady bug.

My love for Halloween as only grown with these kids and how into their costumes they get... if only they would go along with my family theme ideas still....

Oct 10, 2013

Thursday of Fall Break went like this.

Wake up and do a few chores
Grocery Store
Play with Noah and Miles and Ella
Play with Dima
Cousins sleepover- with Kaylie, Audrey and Joshua. .... and Amy who brought pizza, treats, and halloween crafts to do.  Somehow the sleepover with 7 kids 6 and under didn't go as easy as we imagined... imagine that.  But we did stay up way to late together.

Friday of Fall Break
Breakfast with cousins.
Have Grace and Rocco over
Crafts and lunch with Grace and Rocco
Watch two movies
Play outside on our bikes with the culda sac kids

Saturday of Fall Break
Get out every lego and block and make them for hours in the living room
finish up our halloween costumes.
Big kid party for Halloween at Aunt Lisas.


And breath.
Our kids were literally playing with other kids for the past three days straight.  We didn't do anything super spectacular for fall break- but pumpkin patch as a family then three days of cousins parties, friends parties and halloween parties with treats and games galore seems pretty great to me.

Oct 09, 2013

We have had a very full UEA fall break.
Our first adventure- Hee Haw pumpkin patch on Wed night.

1. As we walked in Sam exclaimed something to the effect of " I can't believe this, i've never seen all these pumpkins in my life!"

All the kids had a similar attitude.  I love it when we go somewhere fun and it is actually fun- and it meets my expectations of the fun family adventure we might have.

2. First up- Kate found a teepee made of corn stalks- and lead the children in a rain dance?  where does she get this stuff.

3. Me and my foxy baby!  What a trooper she is- and oh the life of the fourth child.  It was freezing, she missed naps and was a bit starving but never a whine or a whimper.

4. Next up the big slide on burlap sacs.  Dad and Mari together, and Kate all by herself.  Sam was too fearful.  But looks pretty awesome standing on the hill.  When did he grow up?  Because he is suddenly looking like a little man instead of a kid.

5. Pony rides for all.  It was short but the kids got a kick out of it.  Especially Mari- who went last and waited patiently and said "my turn?" so sweetly with excitment when Kate and Sam had gone.

6.  Little kid train.  Kate sat with Mari since Jake and I didn't think we could fit in. I guess Mari screamed the entire time- she wasn't a fan.  But it was Sam's favorite thing.

7.  Now it was time to ride the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch where you could pick your own pumpkin off the vine.  I have been looking for years for a patch where you actually pick the pumpkin off the vine- not just off a hay bale or a pile.  And guess what.... it wasn't that awesome.  Because all the good pumpkins were picked and put out in the store on the hay bales.  So our kids picked small, slanted and green pumpkins off the vine.... and then traded them out when we got to the store front for better pumpkins.  Kate was so confident about her small slanted green pumpkin and kept saying she liked it even though it wasn't perfect... until a perfect one came along of course.  The ride was super windy and the rain was starting to fall.  Kate was also pretty ticked that the tractor driver left us out in the feild to go get another family.  While we waited the kids jumped off the loading dock to Jake's arms and it was a good distraction.  Also if you can't tell Sam is infatuated with the new racoon sweatshirt I bought him. He always wears the hood and pretends to eat things... like his sister the fox.  He talks about it all the time too. I think it makes him feel confident and I like that.

8.  Last up- tire swings.  Mom was trying to rush everyone as she was freezing and Bethy was hungry.  It was a great time though.  Finished up with Chinese dinner.