Monday, April 20, 2009

Twitter

I guess this is what twitter is for but I don't need another bad habit. I was listening to Logan talk to Jackson. Rubbing Jackson's forehead using baby talk Logan said "Is your little brain not working?"

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Funny stories for the day

I am sure my funny stories are not funny for any one else but for memories sake they are going into the "blogosphere".

As I was getting out of my shower this morning I get bombarded by Haylie and Hannah. FYI when you have 6 young kids there is no such thing as privacy. As I am inside the shower still Haylie comes around the corner crying. Between sobs she says "I was running down the hall and I tripped and hit my head." And from the tone of her voice Hannah probably had her hand on her hip wagging her finger at her beloved mirror image and said firmly with no sympathy "well you know you are not supposed to be running in the house" then with a sweeter know-it-all voice she says "right Mom?" Yes she did actually use "supposed." Hannah is coming into her own and following in Miranda's foot steps as the next little mom.

Later that day...I was holding Jackson after feeding him. He was a happy little camper and then he gassed. From experience he makes his gas heard, but when he creates home made poop it is typically silent and your nose hairs are the first to betray his wicked but necessary deed. Then he ripped another one, this I could feel, but was not too worried. Then came the big one. As I was holding him appreciating the beauty of him pooping, this may sound weird so I interrupt this sentence to explain. My cute nephew has had problems keeping "regular" and poop was typically a painful, once every 10 day, experience. So for some it would be a blessing to have loose regular bowels. Moving on...then there was another noise. Then I think I am so lucky to be a mother I should blog about how grateful I am for poop! (I am not making this up I really thought that!) Then I felt an uncomfortable warmth on my leg. "Weird" I thought, it had only been less than 1 minute since the first "noise." The warmth was too real and too close, so I moved my arm and it was wet so I look down on my cute white linen skirt and there was the markings of motherhood. Jackson's outfit which had been on him for 2.367 seconds before his interruption (that I am making up it was more like 5 minutes) was completely soiled. So let me summarize the story. I am sitting admiring that my son can poop and it quickly turned in to moist poop on my arm and skirt. He is so thoughtful. I am sure he was mentally communicating and thought "Mom if you like it so much I will give you some to hold and some to wear" I am absolutely positively sure that is what he was thinking. Then I cleaned him all up and he giggled at me. Aren't they precious?

While planting flowers, that will probably die in four days time, Miranda was my most avid helper. She was helping me pull weeds and get the bigger rocks out of the dirt. She turns to me and says "this is the worst day ever!" Considering that she had a great time today I asked her to clarify and she said "pulling weeds!" So if this is her worst day ever then I think we are doing something good. Let me remind you she is a SHE which typically equates to dramatic exaggeration!

Just so Logan doesn't feel left out he's his funny story. We have given the kids a time limit for Wii time. They get 15 minutes each. While I try to keep on it, it sometimes slides. So today he went to a friends house and played Wii, and knowing Logan it was for a good share of the time. Later that day he came up to me and asked if he could play Wii, I asked "how long did you play for today?" he said I don't know. So I questioned him further by saying was it a long time or short time. After thinking for one minute with his finger on his chin he said with all seriousness "I played for one minute so I have fourteen minutes left!" Well then I had to call him on lying to me. So he put himself on his bed where I found him 20 minutes later. I told him that I didn't send him there. To which he kindly said "well this is where you tell us to go when you are mad at us."

Lastly, today I had a weird experience. The three girls went to a day camp and Logan went to a buddies house. I had three hours of having Jackson and Lauren alone. She was a completely different kiddo. She was quiet and restful and sweet and cute and lovable and cute. Well she is always cute and mostly sweet I am sure the chocoholic in her helps with that part though. As I was packing the two kids in the car I realized Lauren is really no different from the rest of my kids she is just rambunctious because she has 5 other siblings. She is a little almost two year old trying to keep up with her older siblings. It doesn't convert well! Anyways, I came to a new appreciation of her and who she is. She doesn't want to be lost in the mix, she wants to be known and being...I'm not sure what the correct word(s) is/are: creative, energetic, busy, loud, opinionated, is definitely a way for us to remember her and appreciate all those qualities. Which I do. I love that little girl to pieces. She is, simply put, adorable and the best part is she is MINE!

I have chosen a path that includes these 6 precious kids, all of them bring something to my family and I truly appreciate them all, even if i get mad and send them to their beds sometimes!

Silence...

Tonight I went to a Yoga class. I learned a lot about myself. One I am so not flexible. Two a lot of "me" gets in the way of stretching, and three I am not a fan of silence.

This may seem weird since I am surrounded by children and I am telling them to shhhh all day long. When I am in the presence of others I need noise and conversation. Not deep conversation but something to talk about. So I am sure I do a lot of mindless chattering. What I realized is that while in the presence of others silence makes me uncomfortable, when I am alone, like in the car, I don't need the radio on. In act I find myself being content to drive in silence. Is that weird?

I can handle silence while my hubby and I are reading a book or in a theater, but that is normal. As we were laying there on our nice mats breathing, the silence was starting to drive me crazy not chattering away. After we were all done I think I started talking immediately. Then I thought of my dear friend next to me who doesn't mind silent and is typically known for her quietness. I was thinking I am not naturally suited for yoga while my friend on the other hand it is probably the perfect thing for her. Don't get me wrong I am going to work on it and try to stretch my self and get comfortable with silence.

I guess it also means that I am perfectly equipped to be the mom to several never silent children except when sleeping.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

A visit from Grandma Nel

My mom flew out to be a part of Miranda's special weekend. We had lots of fun hanging around the house and simply enjoying each other's company. It was fun having her get to know the kids in a relaxing way. We don't get to see each other often so they get to build their relationship from the short visits they do get. Luckily this summer we get to go out and visit them in Ohio and spend a little bit longer visiting. Watching the kids, especially Logan enjoy the country side is fun.

My mom is known best for her sewing. She has made all the kids a blanket and they are all treasured. Miranda is now almost too big for her blanket so she is moving on to the next step. A Cape. She sewed it while she was here and my little darlings were most interested in helping. They enjoyed the task of pin pulling as necessary.The child was interchangeable but usually some one was looking over her shoulder watching closely. We got to watch movies together. Grandma even played a game or two and read some books. When the kids went to bed we did have some grown up conversations so it wasn't ALL about the kids!





Thanks for coming Grandma Nel, we'll see you in two months. Love you, Mom thanks for coming and being apart of this special time!

It's Official...




Miranda is an official member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Miranda was baptized on Saturday March 28th, by her Dad. It was a great moment. I am so proud of her, not only for making the decision but showing her understanding.

We had lots of friends and family who came to show there support. It didn't matter that they may believe differently they still came. That means the world to me. I am so grateful for our Savior who can bridge the gap between religious differences. This day was all about Miranda, I got to give a short talk about baptism. Then Jeremy did the honors of baptizing her with her Uncle Chris as a witness as well as President Score. He was her Bishop for most of her life but got called into the Stake Presidency in January.

When Miranda, and anyone gets baptized they make the following two way promise or covenant with the Lord. She promises to:
1. To take upon you the name of Christ (D&C 18:21-25)
2. To bear one another’s burdens that they might be light (Mosiah 18:8)
3. To stand as a witness of God at all times, in all things, and in all places even until death. (Mosiah 18:9)
4. To obey the commandments of God and to serve him (Mosiah 18:10)

Heavenly Father promises:
1. To accept you as a member of his Church
2. To forgive your sins if you repent
3. To give you the gift of the Holy Ghost
4. To bring you into the kingdom of God in heaven if you remain obedient for all your earthly life.

We then did her confirmation. Jeremy gave her a beautiful blessing as well as the gift of the Holy Ghost, who will be a constant companion as well as a comforter in times of trial when the feeling of peace is needed. She will have the guidance of her loving Heavenly Father with her always as long as she Chooses The Right (CTR). In the circle where many people who are dear to our family and have watched Miranda grow from a little girl to a blossoming young lady. For records sake there was: President Score, Bishop Lopez, Uncle Chris, Chris Rossi, Matt Cook and Todd Porter (who has a son getting baptized this Saturday Wa-hoo!)

While I am proud of Miranda, it was neat watching Jeremy do the honors. I couldn't help but get teary eyed knowing that Jeremy is worthy to hold the priesthood and feel honored to do so. I had two people to be proud of, awesome!

Friday, April 03, 2009

Lauren, Lauren, Lauren...


Our little girl is so different from the rest of our kiddos. She has so much spunk, energy, personality, ingenuity, she is one of a kind and I sure do love her! It is fun to guess what she will do next. Before I was a parent I used to look down my nose at two year olds who could manage the DVD player by them selves. Seriously who lets their kids do that, it is a sign that your child watches too much t.v.. Now that I am a tried and true parent through and through I say phew, now I can read while they are entertained. While I still try to not allow the kids to do such things all the time, I do rely on the older ones to help out in this situation.

Lauren has surpassed all records. She not only knows how to load and start a DVD, she knows how to put a CD in our 5 disk changer. As well as manage the remote for the aforementioned device. Now she also knows the difference between our Wii games and the DVDs. Yes, she ejects the Wii games. Surprisingly her favorite Wii game is Disney Princess Enchanted Journey.

She is obsessed with DVDs, she loves getting into them and putting them in the players. At first she just wanted to play with them. Now she knows which ones she likes and doesn't like. Barbie and the Diamond Castle is still her favorite. With our other kiddos, we laid a baby gate in front of our DVD book case and it was enough of a deterrent that they quite playing with them after a month or so, not our Lauren. She moves then gate then sits on it to make sure she can comfortably look through our selection. I am just hoping it is not too comfortable behind bars!!! We now have the baby gate rigged between our fire place and the wall, for once I am grateful for the 70's style brick wall in our family room! Needless to say our little rascal is stinkin' adorable and completely precious in our eyes. She keeps us young and on our toes. For that I am absolutely 100% grateful.
Just one more little Lauren antic while I am trying to fill space. She now likes to pull out her pony tails. So if you see me with 6 kids in tow and the youngest little girl has hair that looks like this picture to the left, I do love her and care for her, she is just trying to sabotage my efforts! Her hair is at that weird stage where it is too long to leave down when runny noses are involved, but too short to leave down since the crazy body wave makes it go every which way. The other thing that she loves to do right now is take off her shoes and socks in the car. I have learned that we just leave her shoes in the car so when I get to our destination I put her shoes on when she gets out of the car, then when we get home she has already disrobed her feet, viola, she did my job for me.
Lauren in 25 years when you read this, thanks for everything. You are precious and I love you. Thanks for keeping things interesting and unpredictable.

St. Paddy...

Well I am not sure why we celebrate, although I remember looking it up last year about a guy who saved Ireland from snakes I think. Look it up if you are curious! What ever it was it definitely wasn't memorable!

We had our own St. Patrick's day feast. We thank St. Patrick for giving us a reason to create a yummy meal. We had our traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage as well as a new dish called Colcannon.
While no serious craziness happened at our house, Logan shared that he punched a Leprechaun in the face : ( We were later visited by three extremely cute Leprechauns.

Who did a dance for us:

Remember Valentines Day?

Jeremy and I went out on Friday the 13th for our date night. We've decided going out on the actual date of valentine's is over rated. We met two other couples and went to Buckhorn Grill (most popular for it's tri-tip sandwiches YUMM-O!) then went and saw the movie push...and some where in between had Coldstone Ice cream.

We spent the actual holiday with our kids it was fun. We started out with breakfast. Some call it Toad-in-a-hole, or hot house eggs. Creatively I cut it out in a heart.

We got a surprise package from my mom in Ohio.

It only took a month but we finally had our silly string fight. Pictures with its post to follow!

We then went to a friend's house and had home made pizzas. Followed by Fondue with heart shaped brownies and chocolate chip cookies, as well as the fruity goodness that goes great with chocolate! Just in case you thought that was all we ended the night by playing Wii into the "Wii" ours of the night. It was fun watching Jeremy play rockband and finally attempt Dance Dance Revolution for the first time. I did post a video of him playing for real here. It was a great day and we really enjoyed each other as well as sharing some time with great friends.

Quoting Haylie

As we were driving the very short distance to pick up Logan for school Haylie looked at the clock and stated "We're late." I kind of ignored her, then Hannah asked "Mommy, are we late?" I responded "Nope were actually on time!" To which Haylie says "Yep, we're late!"

Jeremy is trying to teach me that 15 minutes early is on time, on time is late, and late is rude. My habit is that "as long as you show up reasonably close to the time you committed to be there you are doing good." It is an task that is quite large, but I am learning and am about 50% successful.

I just never realized that my running through the house like a chicken with my head cut off yelling "Hurry up we're late" was having an effect on my kids. It is amazing how much they understand. So here's to making a conscious effort to not be rude and to be on time which is really early.

On the same note, when you are invited to a party or play date etc. is showing up a couple minutes early bad? Or is it better to show up a couple minutes late so your host has those last few minutes to prepare??? Or by showing up late are you setting a precedent for the host to not be ready on time? See the conundrum?

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