White Stuff

                                                  

This is the view of the eastern mountains as I was driving out of my neighborhood on Thursday.  Stunning.

The weather was so nice on Friday, we just had to take a walk.  Not that I didn't know it before, but the mountains in Utah are amazing.  I had to take a picture of the view from my house looking to the west...

... and to the east.  Too bad it was garbage day.  

*****

This is what we had for dessert tonight.  For your viewing pleasure.  Yes, my husband is amazing.

FHE: Fun, Happy, Exasperating

Family Night Basketball

Let me set the stage for you...

The time:  

Monday night, 7:30 on a school night.  February 2009.

The place:  

My unfinished basement.  The concrete feels like ice on your bare feet.  The ceilings are low. The lights are dim, because of a couple missing, or burned out light bulbs.  There could be anything creeping around in the shadows.  Spiders, crickets, MONSTERS!

The cast:  

Dad - Responsible for this activity.  Trying to explain a game to the rest of the cast.  Desperate to make it fun for everyone, despite the craziness.  

Mom - Keeping the baby from trouble, fetching balls, taking pictures.

7 year old - Unequivocally independent.  Refuses to listen to a better way to shoot the ball. Will continue to do it her own way despite efforts by the parents to teach her.  Makes a few baskets.  Finally tries it the right way and does much better.

6 year old - Thoroughly enjoying herself, listens to instructions, shares balls, and makes lots of baskets.

5 year old - Doesn't listen to the rules of the game, and doesn't even try to play.  Insists on making the basket higher.  Sits out until we raise the hoop.  Runs around like she has a screw lose, steals balls, and makes even more baskets.  Almost all of them.

2 year old - Steals everyone's balls, gets in the way, doesn't follow the rules, and makes a quite a few baskets, some of which seemed almost accidental.

1 year old - Just feeling happy that he is finally allowed to go downstairs.  Throwing balls, and playing with toys he has never seen before.

The game didn't last long.  Nate and I gave up on trying, and ended up passing a soccer ball to each other and heading it into a goal.  Even though these things never go as planned, those kids like it more than LDS women like sparkly vampires. 

Pinkalicious

So, it really felt like Valentine's Day was on Friday.  It really confused me.  I even went to buy candy and balloons on Friday and expected them all to be half price.  I looked at the cashier like she was crazy before I told myself for the 96th time that it wasn't until Saturday.  I think my confusion was due to the fact that the school girls celebrated at school on Friday.  On Thursday, we put together 101 homemade valentines in 1.75 hours.  And the boxes had to be created of course.  Then they came on Friday with looks on their faces that you can only get from partying all day.  And lots of candy.  Of course it felt like Valentine's Day.  But we made pink cupcakes on Saturday anyway.  Even though I felt like the excitement was dwindling.  I think it might be one of the girls' favorite holidays.  Hopefully it is because of the candy, not because of the dumb boys. 

Why did I only take pictures of him, you ask?  Because he is the cutest, and he is my favorite.

Nothing Else

The gap.

Running around the coffee table.  I am always amused when my kids run for fun.

Notice the leotard?

Rhon reading to her younger siblings.  She is always willing to read to them.  Check out Dare's lipstick job.

I thought she was so cute sitting there, eating grapes, and reading a magazine.

From forever, Mads has sucked on his tongue.  I don't know how else to describe it.  He still does, so it ends up hanging out when he falls asleep.

Menace

An Evening In The Life

of Bub

I haven't known as much trouble as this child.  Did I forget?  Maybe, but I don't think so.  He is like a combination of all the naughtiness of Dare and Mads.  Dare's agility and fearlessness, and Mads' bad judgement.  The worst time of the day is when he wakes up from his nap.  I am distracted with cleaning up, and dinner.  I can't prevent his messes, or follow him around making sure he doesn't climb to the roof.

  

He walks around finding all the things he shouldn't do.  His first stop is always the book shelf.  Every book within reach is thrown to the floor.  If someone is watching TV or playing video games, he will without fail push the power buttons on all the electronics.  He notices a stray crayon on the floor.  After he bites the tip off and happily crunches that up, he proceeds to write on whatever is handy.  This usually includes the books on the floor, or his own belly.  He takes the trek to my bedroom where he goes straight to the bathroom.  He doesn't have to think about what he wants to do next.  The cabinets are opened and emptied before I even know he is gone.  His new joy is to empty the cotton ball bag and eat lotion.  When I find him, I walk him back out to the living room.  He'll stop at one of the stools and climb on it.  He'll reach on the counter to see if there is a drink he can spill or a stack of papers he can fling all over the floor.  If the stool doesn't tip over, he is doing pretty good and wants to take more chances.  He'll climb on the couch and head straight for the end table.  He loves to stand on it.  He likes the one close to the fireplace.  If he fell, he would fall onto tile, and he likes the extra hazard that provides.  And he doesn't just stand, he dances and bounces.  I remove him from his current danger and he squeals.  That is also a new trick.  A nasty shriek that he makes whenever I take something from him or redirect him.  He is feeling like he needs to take more risks.  So he finds something else to climb on.  The stove.  He climbs on my stove.  Why not?  It can start on fire, so it is the perfect thing to climb on.  When I calm myself from my mini heart attack, I pick him up and set him down carefully.  He runs away happily to the other bathroom.  Lucky for him, the door is open, so he lifts the lid to the toilet and gives his hands a cool refreshing bath.  Is there a better way to treat your hands after touching a hot stove?  I pick him up to wash his hands.  As I tell him no, he smiles at me.  Smiles.  He knows.  He knows exactly what he is doing. 

Darey Lou Retton

How do I keep my windows clean?  Like all the time?  I noticed this a half hour after I cleaned it.  No time to retrain my kids.

*****

Dare LOVES wearing leotards.  She will ask me every day if she can put one on.  And then she will wear it all day.  She practices her handstands and cartwheels.  She runs around, jumps and leaps.

She looks adorable in them.  She is so strong and muscular.  She looks like she has been doing gymnastics for years.

*****

Last night my family was having a conversation about adjectives.  Yes, we are all a bunch of dorks who talk about words in our free time.  Anyway, Rhon was having fun describing all the objects in the house.  This is what she said...

"G is... CUTE.  The couch is... GREEN.  Dare is... BOUNCY.  Mads is... SMART.  Rock Band is... FUN.  The television is... MAGICAL!"

At that point we were all laughing.  All the adjectives were said in her high pitched, dreamy, six year old voice.  

Red Door

Confessions...

There have been times when I pretend not to see my kids doing bad things just so I don't have to discipline them.

Sometimes I play Dr. Mario for a couple hours in the middle of the day.

Sometimes I play Rock Band for an hour or so in the middle of the day.

I bought a chocolate cake from Costco today even though I still need to lose weight.  I will probably eat half of it.  It was on sale though.  $5 off!

When I was eating said cake, I didn't even wait to cut a piece.  I just grabbed a fork and dug in.

Sometimes G needs a new diaper for a LONG time before I change it.

I am teaching Relief Society on Sunday, and I haven't even started planning it.  I don't even know the topic yet.

I hate cleaning.  When all my kids are in school, I would rather get a job than to stay at home and clean.  I will pay someone to do it, even if I break even.

I never go to sleep before midnight, and I'm usually up past 1 am.

Extra

Mads says, "I did" about everything.  Put your shoes away.  I did.  Wash your hands.  I did.  Eat your dinner.  I did.  He says this when the job was obviously NOT done.  My favorite was last night when I told him to go to sleep.  Mads - "I did."

I pulled B.A.'s other top tooth out.  I am so awesome!  Didn't even flinch.

B.A. has no front teeth.  We love to hear her talk.  Cinderella, sincerely, and Mississippi are among our favorite words to have her say.

I love the Chinese market.  It is a family tradition to shop there.  It deserves a blog post of its own, but I had to share this label.  Always a good laugh.

Dare cries when she needs to go pee when we are not at home.  Cries and cries and cries until we find a toilet.

It is way too cold out.

We are so happy that a Rubios went up close to our house.  The fish tacos are only $1.25 on Tuesdays.

My house is up for sale.

G is intent on remaking any messes I manage to clean up.  He follows me around undoing everything I do.

Trigger

More climbing.  More falling.  More chucking of my bathroom items.

*****

I'm really not bragging here, but I have to say G has some mad skills!  We were eating muffins for breakfast this morning, and we all know how G loves to grab food.  So he takes Mads' muffin from the coffee table before anyone had time for a second glance.  He had it in his hand and he was waving his arm all around to keep it away from Mads, who was trying to grab it back.  I was enjoying the scene because G is really good at playing keep-away.  Then I thought before long he is going to squish the thing and get it everywhere.  I stepped in because I didn't want to have to clean banana chocolate chip muffin out of my carpet.  I grabbed the arm with the muffin filled hand, and I told Mads to grab it while I held him steady.  Without even thinking, G lets go of the muffin and catches it with his other hand!  Then he starts the waving thing over with the other arm.  I was immensely impressed. 

Of course, the whole time he is grinning his trouble-making grin.

Me?

                              

"No.  You're the man"

Peepers

I liked the hand picture.  It was fun to see if the kids knew which hand was theirs, and if they knew whose hands the others were.  So I decided to try it with eyes.  They all have such different eyes.  All gorgeous.

Once when Nate and I were dating, I took a bunch of pictures of the two of us and cut them up into parts.  Some of the time it was hard to  tell whose eyes or nose I was looking at.  Mouth was easy because of Nate's massive lips.  Just kidding Nate.  When you take out hair we look really similar.  I wonder if it would be that way with our kids.  Can you tell who is who?

35

There are some days when having kids is super awesome.  I'll be honest, I don't feel like that everyday, but today was one of them.  We went to the public library down town.  Even though they were bummed we didn't take any books home, they were still happy to be doing and seeing things out of the ordinary.  We took a ride in the glass elevators.  When we walked outside to go to the car, there was a flight of concrete stairs.  They asked if they could run up the stairs.  What?  Seriously?  I said yes, and they all ran off with such joy.  I was happy I said yes when my first thought was to say no because I didn't understand why.  It made me realize how young they are, and how such simple things make them happy.

It's fun to think about all the differences between the 5 of them, and what I love about them.

     

G

I love that when he walks away from me, he always looks back to make sure I am still there.  

I love his smile, and how he holds nothing back.  It is 100% sincere.

I love how he will still lay his head down on my shoulder, even if it's just for a second.

Mads

I love that he tells me he loves me 350 times a day (average).

I love that his face is so expressive.  He can do amazing things with those eyebrows.

I love that he makes sound effects while playing.  It makes me smile.  

Dare

I love how bouncy she is.

I love how she makes people laugh, and laughs at herself.

I love that she likes to play.  It never matters with who, or what they are playing.  She just likes to play. 

Rhon

I love it that she is so cool.

I love her thoughtful, and quizzical nature.

I love her ability to make everyone she is around happy.

B.A.

I love how she knows what she wants, and isn't afraid to let everyone know about it.

I love how she can't pass up a book, and how she finishes 15 library books in 2 days.

I love her emotions, and how her love is so strong.

Angels?

Twinners.

This was the first day back to school after Christmas break.  They did everything the same, down to the barrette they wore in their hair.  I left the demon eyes on the picture because I thought it was funny.  Twin demon eyes.

<<<          >>>

Oooo, fun.  Check out G's new trick.  He doesn't have the best track record for knowing how to get down from things.  This should be interesting.  

I swear this kid wears clothes most of the time.  I don't know how I manage to take his picture with only a diaper on all the time.  Oh well, at least it looks like a clean one.  I feel good about that.

Letters

Dear 2008,

I don't have much to say to you.  You went by really fast.  Your beginning had me taking care of a newborn.  Which takes up a lot of time.  We took a trip to Arizona in your spring.  Your summer kept us busy with lots of bike riding, and riding our scooters.  We had a 2nd grader and a 1st grader start school.  And our Uncle Jut got married.  Because of that super awesome event, we took another trip to Arizona.  You were a good year.  

Dear 2009,

Did you read 2008's letter?  We want you to be good just like he was.  Will there be change?  If so, make it the good kind.  I feel excited, anxious, and hopeful.  Okay, and a bit worried.  I will be a mom to an 8 year old, you know.  My resolutions?  Naw, don't have any.  I just want to keep doing what I am doing, and get better at it.  Be good to us.  

Did you hear that?

Stay up late tonic.

Homemade pizza.

Stuff that makes loud noises.  Girls and metal spoons on metal pan lids.

That was our New Year's Eve.  This was the first one I even attempted to let the kids stay up late, and the girls made it to midnight.  I was pleasantly surprised.