Projects

Thank heaven for Uncle Reid, Seth, and my mom!  They've been helping Jer and I get caught up on all our summer projects that have been waiting for us...

Reid stripped and painted the front door, killed 3 honets nests, mowed our lawn, killed our tree stump, killed our willow bush and chopped it up and hauled it off, etc...
Seth tied back our roses and helped weed our front flowers.
Mom watched kids while I ran around trying to get everything done.
I weed whipped, weeded, did the dishes, the laundry, vaccuumed, three bathrooms, decluttered, labeled all our kids clothes storage boxes, made food, etc...

All in all I feel very productive.  But really only done my regular chores while everyone else has done everything else!  Thanks guys!

Mostly Sammy

So a couple of favorite current Sammy sayings:
"Oh... Yeah!"
"Thank you much!"
"I did it!"

And Ada's one for this morning:
"Mommy I can't stand here for a long time." (She'd been standing at the sink for a grand total of about 5 seconds while I was starting to comb her hair.  Obviously she had more important things to do.)

And Evelyn's new accomplishment:
She has very strong legs.  Not only does she LOVE to stand and see what's going on, but she can scoot herself a couple feet at a time from either her back or her tummy.  She just hasn't developed the whole hold my face off the floor using my arms so I don't rub my face into the carpet thing.  I call it snow plowing.

I think

that the SLC Children's Discovery Museum has to be the awesomest place ever....

This was funny!  Seth acted like he got hit by the helicopter and Ada said,

"Hey Seth! Get off my plane!"

Not just for kids

Now... this picture just says it all... doesn't it?

You know...

You know that your babysitter hasn't had much experience when:
You come home and your 3 month old hasn't been changed
You come home and your kids are in bed, but your 3 year old doesn't have the pull-up on that you had set out with her jammies and you're pretty sure that they didn't have her go potty before being put to bed
You come home and your 2 year old is wearing your 3 month olds diaper
You come home and your son's shirt has chocolate milk all down it because they forgot to put the stopper in the sippy cup
You find your sons expensive-non allergy fruit snacks in the disposal
When your son cries about being put to sleep when he normally doesn't
And when they've spent more time getting toys cleaned up than cleaning up the kids hands and faces

We had a fun date last night.  We went to The Quarry to go rock climbing.  So fun!  And though I am still a wimp, I'm proud of myself... I was afraid that after 6 years of absence from the sport and 3 babies later I wouldn't be able to climb at all... but I was able to get off the floor several times... Jer did AMAZING!  Maybe if we go again soon I'll be even better than this time.  Jer even tried bouldering, and I was a little afraid of going without the harness. The last two times that I've fallen from 10 feet or more I broke my arms... both times.  So I'll stick with the rock walls with the harness.  Besides, half the fun is repelling afterwards.

Checklist

-Get Ada to the bathroom while she's saying she doesn't have to go (after sleeping for 9 hours? Sure you don't have to go...) ..... Check
-Change diapers, Evelyn willing, Sammy less so .....  Check
-Get three kids dressed, reminded that I have to put away all the laundry that I folded downstairs ..... Check
-Get kids breakfast..... Check
-Feed the baby...... Check
-Get me breakfast..... Check
-Check email, nothing too important but way excited to see that the thing we ordered on Amazon had shipped ...... Check
-Write in blog, Love this part but it takes 5 times as long because Sammy's standing between me and the computer saying,"Game.  Zombies." ..... Check
-Help kids with puzzles. Try to keep the pieces from getting thrown around the room and wondering where I put the alphabet one.  That's the one that would help Ada right now... not the Carebears one ..... Check
-Read books with kids...... Check
-Practice the piano while kids jump on couch..... Check
-Rescue Evelyn who'd gotten scared with kids jumping next to her ..... Check
-Have kids clean up puzzles (More like Ada standing on the puzzles so Sammy can't dump them over again) ..... Check
-Get kids lunch ("Mommy, I want fish crackers for lunch." "How about sandwiches" "No.  How about cereal?") ...... Check
-Get Baby fed ..... Check
-Feed me. Not cereal ..... Check
-Clean up kids and lunch (I swear I just swept the floor and washed the table) ...... Check
-Break up a fight over the puzzles ...... Check
-Get Ada to the bathroom ....... Check
-Get 2 poopy diapers changed ...... Check
-Get kids in bed ("But, I'm not tired." "Can I have toys in bed?" "Can I have a drink?" "Is Sammy going to wear pajamas?") ....... Check
-Rock baby for a while and put her in bed ...... Check
-Change the laundry and wonder why we have so many clothes ..... Check
-Realize that I'm still in my nightgown and have yet to shower today ..... Check
-Hesitate showering because I need to clean the bathroom ..... Check
-Decide that I'll clean the bathroom tomorrow and go check my email again ...... Check

kids update

I've been so busy on blogging about things that we've DONE lately that I haven't blogged about how we ARE. 

My busy and energengic 3 year old Ada has started learning to write and recognize the ABC's... she likes to "put words" in Evelyn's mouth.  She tells me what Evelyn is saying at random moments throughout the day.  She likes to help me clean and is very good at orgainizing the toys and books in her room.  She's enjoying her fencing lessons... and is actually pretty coordinated for an almost 4 year old...course I could be biased.  She enjoys setting up all her My Little Ponies and letting each of them get captured in turn and rescueing them with the other ponies.  She pretends to be afraid of Lucy, but once she's out the door she throws her ball, and runs around with her like there wasn't any problems.  Her new favorite hairstyle is to ask for "Curly"... which we rarely have time for, but she loves when we do.  I can see myself in a lot of what she does.  She still has her daddy wrapped around her finger... I'm pretty sure they'll always be best buds.  She loves to play and tease her Aunts Sharon and Janelle... and try to sneak up and surprise Uncle Seth.  (Course she doesn't get the idea of sneaking yet... she just walks up and says that she scared him.)  She likes to play rough with dad, and likes to reserve mom for pretend play and reading books... I'm up for that!  Likes to make up and tell me random stories.  She always tells me when the story begins and when it's over so that I can tell her what a good job she did.

Sammy is silently stubborn most of the time.  He knows what he wants and he'll get it even if it means doing it all by himself and when you're not looking.  Though... he is obedient when you've told him no several times.  It just takes a few repeats.  He's started bringing me food off the floor at other people's houses that he knows he can't have and says, "Here go mommy." And even asks me if he can eat certain things.  (Good boy!) He loves games... if you say the word "game" he comes running up and saying, "Game?" Doesn't matter what kind... as long as it's a game.  His favorites are Wii Sports Resort, Plants vs Zombies, Fate, and Peggle.  He can play three of them without help... and doesn't care whether he wins or loses as long as he plays.  His vocabulary is slowly expanding and he loves to be around any of his extended family.  He loves grandma's kitties and cries if he can't reach them.  He's learned how to act out words he doesn't know... (for example:  Him and Ada saw two big slugs on grandma's porch... neither knew the word for it, so Ada said, "And mommy it's moving!" and Sammy lay down on the ground like a slug and said, "Like that!")  Loves to rough house and likes to eat constantly. Still loves trains and balls... and LOVES bubbles which is why I think he likes Nursery so much now.  Started to like to read books on his own but still struggles when I try to read to him.  He can count to 10 and pretends to count to 20 but doesn't get anything in order after 10.  He can sing the alphabet and loves to sing songs with actions. 

Evelyn recognizes peoples voices that she knows.  If my sister walk into the room she perks up and looks around.  She LOVES to "talk" with Uncle Seth... just picking her up and saying hi makes her start talking to him.  She likes to try to hit things with her hands, and has started bubbling at the mouth.  She likes to swing in the hammock while we are out in the back yard, and is great smiler!  She likes Ada's "Yellow Blankie"... and has yet to find a favorite among her own. She LOVES to cuddle, and her plugged tear ducts look like they're slowly getting better.  She smiles when you sing to her, and doesn't like when the baby swing is actually swinging.  She's pleasant all the time... even when she's hungry... she gives you a little upset "whaaa." then she waits for a little while before she actually cries.  Sammy likes to hold her and lay on her.  I think they'll be good friends.

They all love to go places and do different things.  They love to swim, hike, run, swing, slide, blow bubbles, and generally keep us busy.  I love it even when I'm tired! I love you guys!

Fam Pictures

So... we got our yeatly family pictures taken by our wonderful sister-in-law Becca.  They're marvelous and I wanted to share!

LOVE this one

Thanks Becca! You were awesome and sorry we were so uncooperative!

Ada's sayings

Here are Ada sayings for the day...

"I'm hicing up..."  She had the hiccups
"Where are ya boy?"  She was playing peek a boo with Evelyn

Doing things

So, in my recent bloggings I haven't mentioned a lot of the things that we've been doing.  I've been a little busy doing them instead of writing them... but here are some:  Going to Aida (the musical, not the opera) with  Jer and my family.  Going to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum with Janelle and Seth.  Going out for Sushi with Jay before he leaves for Arizona.  Watching my friends' kids all day... twice in the last week.  (One day I had 5 kids 5 and under from 7am til 6pm... another day I had 6 kids 6 and under from 7am til 5pm).  Had our family pictures taken.  Went to my cousin David's missionary farewell... he'll be perfect for Japan!  Had dinner and games with my good friend from years ago, Elizabeth Cason Stott.  That's all in the last week.  And today I'm starting Ada and my fencing classes....

ALL of it was SO FUN!  Thanks all!  Now I'm going to shower and clean the house... right after I post random pictures from our activities!

The girls sunning themselves after running around at the splash pad.

You couldn't have two more different boys both in looks and personality... but somehow they are just both so cute! 

I LOVE this picture.... look at that face!

Seth helped Ada find the coolest thing at the museum.  It was a spinning metal plate and you could get things spinning around on it... it was pretty neat.

Too busy playing to look at the camera.

And this one.... Not amazing, but I wanted to show off her cute chubbins

Family pictures

Thanks Becca for taking our family pictures again!  Sorry that Sam was a pill... he was so pleasant and happy all day long... even though I had 6 kids today... until the moment that he saw that camera.  Dang it!  Then as soon as you left... he was fine again.  What is it with toddlers and pictures... not just toddlers but specifically boys.  Grrr.  Can't wait to see how they turned out though! Love ya!