my boys

I may or may not have had a bad day at church yesterday. Between the return of vertigo and the loss of baby's morning naps things were not going well. My Big Kid is pretty amazing though and just as I was about to pack us all back home he convinced baby brother to read a book. They are so darn sweet.

So I was taking pictures during church. At least I ended up staying. I love these boys.

1st Day of School

Up until a little over a year ago when I thought of this day, I thought of peace and quiet and a trip to the bathroom by myself. I looked forward to not having to share my drink and having the living room stay clean for more than 3 minutes. That all changed with the wonderful surprise that is our 3rd child. I wouldn't trade him for anything, even if potty time on my own is still a few years away.

Big Kid started 6th grade today in a STEM school a few miles away from home. It was a little chaotic today, but hopefully things will settle in soon and he will find his stride. He's going places and I hope this is a great year for him to build a great foundation on. He was less than thrilled with me for making him stand still for a few photos, even asking how old he had to be to not participate any more. My answer was that I would still want first day of school pictures when he was in grad school. Mom is always going to be Mom.

Meg was so excited she couldn't hold still. She loves her backpack, her lunchbox, taking a snack and hanging out with friends from pre-school, and planning her fashion statement for the next day. She was worried at first about a teacher who spoke English and Spanish, but decided it would be ok as long as she didn't get in trouble for not understanding instructions. Her first day of school must not have gone exactly as she hoped either though because when I asked how her day was, she told me "That was not as fun as I had planned." Ever the planner. Like her mother. Now that she has adjusted her expectations, she will probably be fine.

Baby Brother was a little lost today. He's never been on his own for the whole day without a brother or sister to entertain him. He was thrilled when we picked up Meg and reached for her. Too bad he's 1/2 her body weight now and she can't really tote him around anymore. Both the big kids were pretty self entertaining. Hopefully this one will settle down that way too, but I am not counting on it. Everything about him is different.

Here's to a great school year full of adventures and learning!

A new look

 

This morning I had finally had it. The crying, screaming and hiding the hair brush had to end. I have a total of 6 hairbrushes in this house and all of them were in hiding because my darling daughter hates to get her hair brushed. She wants it to be long and beautiful and down to the middle of her back, but can't stand the brushing. I can't stand the brushing either.

So, we talked about it and decided it was time for a cut, a new style, something different and fun. We searched the internet for some pictures of something she might like to try and she picked out the above picture. She loves the colors and the lipstick. {Ummm. you are 5. Not going to happen. Even when you are 15, NOT going to happen.} We kept looking. She didn't like most of what she saw. When I asked her what it was she wanted, she chose a short wedge style. That was a little shorter than I wanted to go, so we compromised. Not quite to the ear, higher than the chin with some layering in the back to give it some style.

It turned out really cute but I still wasn't prepared for the change, even though I wanted it. She went from little girl to big girl in just a few snips. Kindergarten, here we come!

Random conversations with a 4 year old

A little background here... the neighbor boy next door who is about 9 got into a motorcycle accident while on with his dad a few weeks back. The cast just came off and we were talking about that earlier in the day.

While in the backseat of the car, Meg notices a Guy and Girl riding a motorcycle. He was driving, she was on back, both wearing helmets. The converstation went like this...

Meg: Mom, when am I old enough to ride a motorcycle?
Me: (trying not revealing my motorcycle phobia) Ummm.... never.
Meg: Well, when am I old enough to ride a motorcycle with a boy on the front and me in the back? When we wear our helmets?
Me: A long time from never.
Meg: What about when I am a helicopter pilot? Then can I ride a motorcycle?
Me: Let's talk about it when you are a pilot.
Meg: When I get married and have a husband are you still the boss of me?
Me: I'm your mom. I'm the boss of you forever.
Meg: I have to think about that.

Monster Fun

We had a 5 year old birthday party to attend last week for a couple of twin friends. I usually make a black apple doll for the little girl birthday parties we attend, but that go-to gift wasn't going to work out this time. I searched Pinterest and found these adorable bags from a fun blog called Hideous!Dreadful!Stinky! I loved the idea and more importantly, had all of the supplies on hand. (I love the Etsy shop from that blog too. Made me laugh.)
   Meg helped me pick out colors and details and this is what we came up with:

 

I put a couple holiday coloring books inside and made some cute tags to go with them. Notice the girl bag has a bow? Meg was trying hard to get me to use a button, but I wasn't sure how well that would hold up. These kids spend a lot of travel time in the back of Mom's van and I thought this might be something fun to do while traveling that doesn't involve electronic devices. My kids liked them so much they put in requests for monsters with certain features. Bug wants freckles and Meg wants a Princess crown. We will see if all of that works out for them. I need to finish up the Christmas sewing so that I can get things shipped off this week. It's the shipping that gets to me every time.

  By the way, my Pinterest is freaking out. It only updates about 3 of my friends and takes a couple of days at a time to update anymore. Anyone know what's up with that? Do I have a setting wonky or something? It just changed all of the sudden and I don't like it. On the plus side, I am not spending anywhere near the time on there that I was, so maybe I shouldn't complain about it. 

   Good luck with your Christmas stuff. I can't wait to post about all of my projects. Some of them are really fun.

Turkey time

A few days ago Meg came and climbed on my lap and asked to look at the ultra sound pictures of the baby again. We went through the pictures and came to this one:









We got into a discussion about what it was she was looking at. We talked about the difference between boys and girls. "Oh," she says. "that's his penis." Yes, that's how we know it's a boy. "Ok." she said and climbed down and walked off.
 
Today I picked her up at Pre-school and went to collect her craft. I look down the table at the other children's crafts of puppet turkeys with feathers on their heads. On the way home I asked her how come her turkey only had one feather. "That's not a feather, Mom. That's his penis. That's how we know he's a boy turkey."

















Of course it is. Facts of life, kids. There's no getting around them.

When I grow up

Meg has been pretty consistent in her choices of occupations for when she grows up. For over a year now she's decided that when she grows up she's going to be a mommy and a helicopter pilot. Ballerina, baker, or landscaper were never even an option. Today, while we were in the car running errands, she surprised me with a new twist on her carefully planned out future.
  "Mom," she said, "When I grow up I am going to be a mommy first, then a doctor and then a helicopter pilot. I am going to be a doctor over where Grandpa lives so that I can help him get better."
   Grandpa is fighting a hard battle with lung cancer. It's newly diagnosed and it's been difficult for all of us to wrap our heads around. She's been mailing him pictures and talking to him via video chat too. She's concerned about him getting better and has been remembering him in her prayers, mostly at dinner time.
  Maybe it's the pregnancy, maybe it's a mom thing, but I teared up a little. I hope health for him too. And I hope her future is as amazing as her 4 year old heart can dream it to be.

This is My Life

Yeserday was a busy day. I had reports for church due that evening and was struggling to get all of the needed information together so that I could finish them. Laundry was mounting again and dishes remained undone in the kitchen. We are getting ready for a little weekend trip and I had gathering things together on my list of the "to-do's".  To keep Meg occupied while I was compiling data, I gave her a pre-school book to color in. She wasn't content to just sit and color, she wanted to write her letters. She needed my help.

Within a few minutes, she was on my lap tracing letters and sounding out words. I stopped for a minute a looked around. Dishes still on the table from breakfast. Glue sticks from the book report worked on this morning. Pens and pencils of all kinds. My VT papers stacked here and there. A sweater from this morning's walk and a magazine I had intended to read. Sitting on top of all of it was my daughter's preschool workbook. I could see how happy she was to have some attention, some love and caring and well deserved praise for learning something new. She tried to write an M but had done it upside down. I told her it looked like a W and she turned the book upside down, telling me "Look now. It's an M now, Mom."

I thought "This is my life." Dishes undone, laundry to fold, a table to clear away, reports still to do, but happy, smart, trusting children to make it all worthwhile. Maybe I don't live a glamorous lifestyle, or even an upper-middle class lifestyle, but I live the life I want to live and the one that will teach me the most and test my limits, just the way it's supposed to be. I am thankful for that.

I love this quote from a recent conference I saw. It says it all about my life right now:

"I know that each of us has a vital and essential role as a daughter of God. He has bestowed upon His daughters divine attributes for the purpose of forwarding His work. God has entrusted women with the sacred work of bearing and rearing children. No other work is more important. It is a holy calling. The noblest office for a woman is the sacred work of building eternal families, ideally in partnership with her husband."  Steadfast and Immovable, Silvia H. Allred

Family campout

We took our kids on a camping adventure this weekend. They had a blast. Bug was deemed old enough and responsible enough (with supervision) to light the camp fire and keep it going. He was thrilled. Meg was just thrilled to play in the dirt. That's her favorite thing. She's going to grow up to be one heck of a gardener.  Some highlights were sleeping without the rain fly on to watch the stars. What an amazing place for an observatory. We even saw some shooting stars. A little fox visited us in camp both nights. Brave little thing. He was probably used to scavenging for leftover food from careless campers. We did not feed him, or get pictures of him. He was quick. Meg has been pretending to be quick like a fox. The boys too hikes and found giant pine cones while the girls hung around and played in the dirt and watched the ants.

The only bad thing about the entire weekend was the BUGS. Big, giant, relentless bugs. We ended up with two kinds of bug spray, on with deet and one "natural" and neither one worked. They didn't work in combination with each other either. Almost a week later Meg still looks like it's possible she might have chicken pox. It was brutal. I am not sure how to be more prepared for that in the future, but I will do some research before we go on another adventure. Enjoy our camping pictures.

These were some tuckered out kids by the time we left.

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for Spring!!!

It's about time, isn't it? For a glorious spring day? Time to play outside in the sunshine, to enjoy the blooming spring flowers and shrug off cabin fever? That's what we did today and it was, as Meg says so well now, Awesome.

We went to Leavenworth with Grandma for the day and walked the shops and read all of the signs.

e packed a pic-nic lunch but all we ate was pretzels, a cheese stick, a few carrots and fresh chocolate chip cookies, so we could save room for ice-cream.

Meg progressed from a huge chocolate ice-cream cone, to using a spoon, to having ice-cream in a cup. She enjoyed every chocolate bite of it.

Adam enjoyed every last drop of his cotton candy flavored ice-cream too. It showed all over his face.

What a glorious spring day. And that was good ice-cream.

The cutest red boots ever

I found these really cute red boots at a thrift shop a few days ago. Our little Meg has decided she's never taking them off. She hates it when I take them off to put on her jammies and at nap time today when she finally did drift off, I go in to find her sleeping with them (should have taken a photo of that). Reminds me of sweet Tomato and her pink boots.

So what do you do when it's rained outside and you have on the most perfect red boots in the world? Play in the puddles of course.

I can do it by myself

We found this cute little slide at a yard sale a few weeks back. I had to clean it up and find a place for it. I set it outside last week for Meg to play on and she was so excited. I was trying to get something done inside and she kept coming in and grabbing my hand to take me outside to help her slide down. After 10 minutes and 47 trips, I decided that whatever I was doing was not as important as teaching my daughter a new skill. So, for the next hour or so we sat on the porch in the sun and learned to slid down the slide. Climbing up wasn't a problem. There was a bit of a problem trying to sit down right once she got up there. That's when the real problem started. She wanted to come down, she knew it was fun, but she didn't want to do it on her own. That first push is hard. She was afraid to do it on her own. After many, many tries, and a few gentle pushes, she decided she could do it on her own. She was so proud of herself.

(Sorry the video is sideways.)

Later that night I was thinking back on my day. I see this in my own life all of the time. I see something new, fun, or intriguing and I really want to do it. Sometimes I don't want to take the time to learn how to do it by myself though. I can see my Father in Heaven taking the time to hold my hand while I learn the new skill. I can see His encouragement in my life and sometimes feel His gentle push. It sometimes takes a long time, but eventually I get it and I am happy He took the time to teach me.

Meg's new favorite thing

A couple of weeks ago we found a bike seat that would work for the back of dad's bike. When Bug was small and we lived in the land of sunshine, it was his favorite thing to go for rides with dad. We decided to let Meg have a go at it. Something you should know about her personality is that she's always on the go. Higher, faster, more is her personal motto. If it moves, swings, bounces or even looks remotely fun, she wants to be in or on it. She's a thrill seeker. We didn't think she would have a problem with the bike, and she didn't. She LOVES it. She gets excited every time we put her in the seat, until the helmet comes out. Usually she forgets about it pretty quickly as she speeds down the hill with dad, screeching with glee. I wish my camera video capture mode had sound. You will just have to imagine.

Lesson Learned from Snowman's Demise

I really believe something good comes from everything bad. that "all things shall be for our good", even the hard things. I also wonder at the things God uses to teach us our lessons. How amazing is it that he caters to each and every one of us, in ways only we can learn and provides lessons meant only for us. We truly are His children. This is about Bug's lesson today.

Bug had a goal this "snow season". He wanted to build a Snow Family. Since we rarely get enough snow in our yard to do more than one snowperson at a time, he was building our family bit by bit. First was Snow Sister. She was short and cute. A few days later was Snow Brother. Taller and with longer arms and a bigger head. A few weeks later, Snow Mom. She ended up being a 4 humped snowperson, because on that day he learned that if he was going to do it all himself, he needed lighter snowballs. Today was Snow Dad's turn to be built.

School was 2 hours late and so after eating a leisurely breakfast, Bug suits up and heads out to build a Snow Dad. The snow is really wet and it's warming up quickly outside. We only had about 1 1/2 inches to begin with. His first attempt fell quickly. That's okay, he decided he would recycle some of that snow and start again. He spends a lot of time rolling and shaping the snowballs so they would fit together. Finally, he has all of the pieces together, but it's leaning drastically to one side. It's almost time to get ready for school, so he hurries to find arms, eyes and other materials to put Snow Dad together. As he is sticking in the second arm, tragedy strikes again. The Snow Dad topples over and crumbles into a heap on the ground.

Oh, the sorrow, the upset, the pain the frustration. He really wants to get this done and frantically tries putting it back together. But the get-ready-for-school timer has gone off and he can't finish today. "I wasted all of that time!", he cries. "I could have been playing or sledding or something funner!"

Here's where the lessons start, son:

1. Time is never wasted in pursuit of a goal. You are always learning and trying and growing. If one way doesn't work, try something else. Failure is a big part of success.

2. Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth do not help you accomplish your goal, nor do they make you feel any better. Pick yourself up, dust off the snow and make a better plan for next time around.

3. Be prepared. Have all of your materials ready, have things handy and your process goes a lot faster.

4. Goals are wonderful and we become better people for accomplishing them. Don't give up just because of one setback. There's always a way. Perseverance is a good thing.

5. When you need help, ask for it. Don't expect someone to do your work for you, but you can ask for a little assist now and then to get you back on your way.

6. A good cup of hot chocolate makes a lot of things better.