Names to call the guards

This morning I went to PWOC (protestant women of the chapel), they provide free childcare for Caleb at the chapel, and I get to sing worship songs, and do bible study with other christian women.  It is definitely an interesting experience, but is enjoyable, and helps bring me closer to Christ.  There is also lunch provided at the end as well.  It was a nice day, so Caleb and I rode my bike there and back.  After school was again filled with homework.  Joseph had a swimming lesson, and scouts.  On our way home from scouts, Caleb threw up in the car.  It was so sad.  Also Samuel told the guard at the gate coming into post, that he was handsome.  It is a vast improvement on what Samuel normally calls the guards. (poopy pants, Mrs. Lady(it's a man), and whatever else comes to his mind).  I guess my talk with him about being nice to the guards finally paid off. There didn't seem to be too many sheep cards laying around today, but hopefully with a little reminder the kids will remember to do more secret acts of service tomorrow.

"Sheep"ret Service agents

This morning Joseph was being really slow about getting ready for school.  So I finally had to drive him, because he was late.  I told him that he owed me a dollar, since I had to drive him to school.  So hopefully he will now be more motivated to get to school on his own.  Caleb and I went visiting teaching today, and I watched her two boys while she went to her doctors appointment.  Caleb loved having other boys to play with, I really need to set up some play dates for him.  He is really sweet playing with other kids, he is very good about sharing, and is so happy and excited to play with them.  I'm sure that won't last, since he'll be turning two in Feb., but I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.  Caleb helped me with the laundry and the dishes, and even with the crockpot meal for dinner.  He is a very good climber.  He wanted to help me with putting things in the crockpot, so he pushed a bucket over to the counter, and climbed on top of that, then he stuck his foot again the front of a drawer and pulled himself onto the counter.  That boy is going to be an excellent rock climber.  The other kids got home from school, and we were busy with homework.  Austin and Samuel did an excellent job getting there homework on time.  Austin was happy that she aced a social studies test, and the rest of her class got C's or lower.  Betsy has been struggling to complete her homework and turn it back in.  She is plenty smart, and never needs any help doing it, she has just wanted to play lately and not do it.  I tried all afternoon and evening to get Joseph to do his homework, but he never did it, so I was very frustrated with him.  Betsy finished her work and did a great job.  One of the kids started talking about Daddy, and Caleb heard them, and thought that Daddy was home, and he ran all excited to the front door, yelling "daddy, daddy" all the way there, and pounding on the door to open it.  It was so sad, when I told him he wasn't there, and opened the door to show no one there.  I was able to console him by turning on a DVD of Travis reading the kids stories from when he was deployed to Iraq.  We ate our dinner and had family home evening.  We talked about the story of Ammon and how he was good at serving others (especially king lamoni) and made sheep cards for everyone, and decided we were going to be "sheep"ret service agents and go around doing secret acts of kindness and leaving our sheep cards behind every time we do.  The kids seemed pretty excited about it, which was nice.  Then we got out our hand bells, and practiced some Christmas songs.  We we asked to play some Christmas songs at the ward Christmas party coming up in December, so we started practicing.  It's amazing what one year can do to their ability, they are all much better at playing their parts this year, I'm very excited.  When I came upstairs after putting the kids to bed, I found my bed made, and a sheep card on my pillow. 

Joseph goes to church in socks

I didn't sleep too well last night, Caleb woke up at 3:30 and did not go back to sleep for an hour and a half. We had church starting at 8:30 in the morning, so as soon as everyone woke up, they had to get dressed for church and eat breakfast. Joseph couldn't find his church shoes, so he grabbed Travis' dress uniform shoes. I didn't realize that was what he had done, until we were in the car on our way to church, so I made him wear his socks. I told him that those shoes were part of Daddy's uniform and he wasn't allowed to wear them. We made it to church just barely on time. We got through the sacrament just fine, but then Caleb wouldn't be good, so I sent Austin out in the hallway with him. Samuel yelled once, and threw a stuffed puppy across the room, and Joseph punched Samuel once and Austin once, but other than that it went fine. We're practicing for the primary program so it was a lot of figuring out where everyone would sit. Then the pianist was a "no show" so I played the piano for the songs. Our Home Teachers came over this afternoon and it wasn't too bad, until the end, when Samuel and Joseph wouldn't stop jumping all over them. We played games, and read books. I made apple nut Brussels sprouts and rice for dinner, and half the kids ate it really well. Caleb took a late nap, so he probably won't go to bed really early. I'm really tired today, and one of my primary children asked me if under my eyes was purple because I was tired, or if it was a bruise. I told him it was from lack of sleep. He told me to get more sleep, and I told him I would try. I got my kindle working again today, so I'm happy that I can use it again. I miss my husband, and miss talking to him.

Trunk or Treat

Today was chore day around our house, and as usual at least one child had to make things really difficult.  Joseph was the magic child today.  He whined and complained about doing his chore every few minutes, or had to go to the bathroom, or get a drink...or some other random excuse for not doing his chore.  The others kids all got their chores done my lunch time, except Joseph.  He still got to go swimming with his "big brother" since I'm not allowed to use that as a punishment.  His "big brother's" name is Sean, and this was their first outing together.  They had a good time.  While Caleb took his nap today, the girls and I made Carmel, and then carmeled apples dipped in chocolate.  We used the honeycrisp apples we picked up with our bountiful basket this morning.  They turned out beautifully and delicious, the ladies I visit teach should be happy.  Then I made black bean soup and cornbread to take to our Fall Festival/trunk or treat that I signed up to bring.  I was actually trying to make some cornbread waffles, I got the idea on a website.  You put your chili and shredded cheddar cheese on top of the cornbread waffle.  I thought that looked really fun, and they were cooking fine in my waffle iron for the first few waffles, but then they started sticking really bad, and were getting really messy, so I gave up and used my muffin top pan and mini muffin pans to cook the rest of the batter.  We got everyone changed into their costumes, (sorry didn't take pictures this time) and drove to the church.  We were late, so most everyone was already eating when we got there.  The kids and I put our food on the tables, and got in line.  But all my cornbread muffins were all gone, by the time we got to the table, so I didn't even get to try them, but Joseph was able to grab one, and told me they were delicious.  Samuel had a bit of drama, because all the muffins were gone (I made them gluten free) and he didn't want any soup, and the only thing left for him to eat was salad.  I was finally able to calm him down, and get everyone soup.  I grabbed some of my black bean soup, I love it.  Although I forgot how much Caleb loves it.  He hogged my spoon and the entire bowl of soup, he would barely share any with me at all, and kept spilling it on him.  Fortunately Betsy was wonderful about grabbing me more napkins, and an extra spoon, and I was able to grab a second helping of soup.  After the dinner we did the trunk of treat.  All the kids loved going around and getting candy, and Caleb got so excited ( I never give him candy) that he dove into his bucket, as soon as he realized that it was candy that people were putting in there, and shoved a sucker in his mouth, wrapper and all.  He would not let me pull the wrapper off, so I figured it wouldn't hurt anything.  Well apparently you can eat a sucker without taking off the wrapper, because when we were done getting candy, I was finally able to pull the stick out of Caleb's mouth, and there was nothing left on the stick, except the wrapper.  Once we got to the car, I had all the kids pass their candy buckets to the front, and then when we got home, they sorted their chocolate candy from the non-chocolate.  I paid them 5 cents for each chocolate candy(I stick it in the freezer, and use it in baking), and told them we'd sell the rest to a dentist somewhere.  My kindle fire died on me this morning.  It won't turn on, and I can't figure out why not.  It's annoying, because I read my scriptures on there, as well as other things.  I hope I can figure out how to get it to turn on again. 

Class Halloween parties



Austin in her Gyspy costume



Samuel in his alien costume



Betsy in her little red riding hood costume

Caleb happily sitting in my bed

Joseph, Austin, and Samuel all had their Halloween parties at school today.  So we got up early this morning and got them ready in their costumes.  I finished Austin's Gypsy costume last night, so everything was ready.  They had a great time at school, and had really fun parties.  I was especially excited that Samuel came home with Halloween trinkets instead of candy, and he was happy about it.  Caleb and I went to Wal-mart and Costco today while the kids were at school.  I couldn't return a car DVD player system that I bought for our trip to Utah, but didn't end up needing, because it wasn't within 15 days.  Apparently they changed their return policy to 15 days about 2 years ago, but I didn't realize it.  So I guess we get to keep the DVD system, or I could try to sell it online.  We went to get some all-weather tires from Costco, but they don't carry our tires.  So my errands didn't go the way I wanted them too, but I did purchase some items that I needed, so it wasn't a complete bust.  We had 1-2 inches of snow on the ground this morning, but the roads were fine, so I was happy.  I'm not excited about winter driving.  It is definitely cold outside, whenever we go outside, Caleb says "Brrrrrrrr" and snuggles into me.  The kids and I have been playing "Just Dance 3" on the Wii a lot, since it's too cold to play outside for very long.  Samuel has volunteered to rinse  off all the dishes every night while Daddy is gone.   So far, he has done it, except for tonight, he said he was too tired.  Betsy did her dishes, and Austin and I played card games, while Sam went to be early, and Joseph played the dancing game.

no communication

So, Travis will be in the "box" for the next couple of weeks, and they take away everyone's cell phones during this time.  So, not only is my husband gone, but I can't talk to him everyday too.  : (  
It must be what it was like, before cell phone's came around, and husband's were gone.  I don't know how those wives did it, but I love being able to talk to my sweetheart on the phone, and telling him about my day, and hearing about his.  So I decided to put everything in my blog, so that way when I finally talk to him again, I won't forget everything that has happened.  I'm going to try to write a little in my blog every day, and then he can read it, once he is out of the "box".  Yesterday the kids and I went swimming at the indoor pool Halloween party.  It was fun.  They had the kids diving for pumpkins, and there were body parts floating all around the pool (I didn't really like that part, and Caleb was a little freaked out by the bloody mannequin sitting on the side of the pool) But everyone had a really good time and it was free, so it was awesome.  When we got out of the pool, it was suddenly very cold and windy, so we ran to the car and came home.  I've been spending a lot of time working on Austin's gypsy costume, but I have to finish it today, because the kid's have their Halloween parties at school tomorrow.  Samuel had his first OT (Occupational Therapy) appointment this morning.  He loved it, they have a big play room/gym with a ball pit, climbing wall, foam pit, trampoline, swing, and slid with a scooter.  He was having such fun, he didn't even mess with Caleb at all.  He is going to be going every Thursday and will miss the first hour of school, but it is good for him.  Austin found someone's ipod touch on the side of the road on the way to school, and I helped her find the owner, and when she came to pick it up, she gave Austin $20 as a reward!  She was so excited!!!

Garden of the Gods FHE outing

Austin "fixed" Caleb's hair in the car, and when I took the picture, I thought the look on his face, perfectly matched his hair

This is my favorite one with all of us in it together

We went to the Garden of the Gods for FHE on monday night.  We had a great time, the kids loved all the rock formations, and it had a lot of stuff they could climb on and look at.  We wished we had more time to spend there, so we plan on going back on another nice day, when the weather isn't too bad.

On my own again

Caleb doing his "daddy dog" dance

Joseph climbing a tree

Joseph's "stern" face

Samuel being, well Samuel

One of the rides at IT'Z, Austin and Betsy are "flying"

Our family picture

Daddy and Caleb

Betsy and Caleb going down the slide

Joseph climbing the rock wall at the park

Austin climbing on the slide

 

Betsy taking Caleb down the slide

I'm helping the girls clean their room

Caleb hugging his "daddy dog"

I've been working all week on making Betsy this cape for her little red riding hood costume.  I bought really soft warm fleece for the inside of the cape, so she can wear it all winter.

So Travis left this week for NTC (National Training Center) in California.  He will only be gone for a month this time, but I don't feel very ready.  We haven't been here long enough to have a support system in place, and I don't have anyone nearby that I feel comfortable calling if I need help.  So, nothing is allowed to go wrong...that's going to work...right?  Anyway, so far things are going just fine.  Before Travis left, we took all the kids to the Build-A-Bear workshop at the mall, and got them all new voice messages from Travis put into their bears we got them from the last deployment.  Caleb got to pick one out, he picked a dog, and we put the voice box message from Travis in the tail, so Caleb carries around his "daddy dog" and squeezes the tail to hear his message from Travis.  Caleb has gone from asking where daddy is to demanding to see daddy, he tells me "daddy, now" in his firmest little voice.  He loves to talk to Daddy on the phone, and plays with his "daddy dog".  Samuel has been a bit "mopey", but seems to be doing fine.  Both Samuel and Betsy love cuddling with our "daddy blanket".  Betsy always beats Sam to it though, anytime she is home, you will find her cuddled up in it.  Caleb has taken a liking to the blanket as well.  Last night, while Samuel was sitting on the "daddy blanket" while watching T.V., Caleb came over to him and pushed him off the blanket and said "mine", and Samuel started crying, so I had to cuddle him.  Last night, Betsy was really missing daddy, and after putting the kids to bed, Austin came down after a while and told me Betsy was crying, and wouldn't stop pushing the button on her "daddy bear", so she couldn't sleep.  I finished what I was doing, and came up to comfort Betsy, and found her asleep, with tears still on her cheeks while clutching her "daddy bear".  Austin and Joseph seemed to have adjusted the best, they have both been trying to be a bit more responsible and helpful, although sometimes it just seems more bossy.  Before Travis left we also went to a family fun center called IT'Z, that has a buffet for dinner, and lots of games to play, we all had a really good time together.    Friday night, we went to a potluck dinner with some of the other wives in Travis' squadron and their kids, and had a really good time.  I brought some pumpkin chocolate bread shaped like bugs (butterflies, ladybugs, dragonflies, not the gross kind of bugs), and the kids really liked them.  The kids had a great time jumping on their trampoline, and playing with the other kids.  Yesterday we went to pick up our Bountiful Basket (a produce basket I order every week) and it was going to be an hour late, so we drove to a park, and played for a while, we had a good time.  Parks are the best free activity!  Today we had stake conference, and everybody was good for the first hour, but then Samuel kept running away and hiding, so we ended up needing to leave early. 

SLC trip

Caleb loves the camera

Caleb loves his new monkey sock hat

Caleb loved the fountains at temple square

Caleb in front of a fountain, and the SLC temple

Caleb loved picking and smelling flowers all around temple square

Travis and Caleb

Travis, Caleb, and I by the statue of Brigham Young, and some beautiful flowers

Travis, Caleb, and I by the SLC temple

Travis, Caleb, and I at the roof restaurant, overlooking the SLC temple

Caleb loved this big, soft chair in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Caleb loved playing at this dinosaur playland at the City Creek Mall in SLC, UT, right next to temple square

Caleb loved sitting in these dinosaur eggs

This is what happens when you have five kids and not enough sleep

It has been an eventful couple of weeks.  The biggest things, is that Travis, Caleb, and I went to the Chaplain Conference in SLC for five days, over general conference.  We were originally trying to find someone to watch the kids, so I could attend the spouse conference with him, and bring the kids to SLC with us.  We couldn't get the childcare worked out, so we invited our babysitter here, to come on vacation with us and then watch the kids while I attended the conference, than the night before it was time to leave, he said he would rather stay at the house with the kids, while Travis and I were gone, and of course we needed to take Caleb with us, since I'm still breastfeeding him.  So, just like that, Travis and I got a vacation to ourselves, with Caleb.  On Friday, we drove the nine hours to Salt Lake City, and arrived at our hotel just in time to change, and go to the Chaplain's banquet at the Church Office Building in SLC.  Caleb did really well, on the drive up, we stopped every couple of hours, and it worked out just fine.  The banquet was fun, even though Travis and I took turns following Caleb around, because he would not sit still,  or be quiet.  At one point, Caleb was transfixed by the special musical number by a chaplain, with a wonderful singing voice, singing "the impossible dream" opera style.  When he finished the musical number, Caleb tried to imitate his singing with incredible accuracy, and I had to quickly take him from the room.  On Saturday, Travis went to all three General Conference Sessions, and Caleb and I watched from the hotel room.  I had the most wonderful spiritual time watching conference.  It has been many years, since I have been able to watch conference, without a bunch of children running around.  Caleb slept almost all of the first session, and played in the hotel room during most of the second.  When Pres. Monson made the announcement about the change in missionary age, I felt an overwhelming testimony that is was from God.  It also made me realize, that I now have one year less to prepare Joseph for his mission, and that I could have two missionaries out at a time, for several years, with the closeness in age that my first three children are.  In-between the morning and afternoon sessions.  We walked to Paradise Bakery for lunch, it is super yummy, I love their turkey/cranberry sand which and strawberry poppyseed salad, and their scrumptious cookies.  It took a long time to walk there, but it was good exercise for us.  After the afternoon sessions, we had dinner at the macaroni grill, and then we walked Travis to the priesthood session, and then Caleb and I decided to walk over to Deseret Book for the ladies night sale.  There was a bunch of ladies lined up outside, to get a free gift.  But inside the store wasn't too busy, so since Caleb was asleep in the stroller, we went inside to start shopping.   We found lots of good books, but unfortunately as soon as 6pm hit, the store was swamped and it was almost impossible to move through the store with the stroller.  Apparently after 6pm everything in the store was 20% off.  It took Caleb and I an hour to find the check out line, and check out.  Then I followed Caleb around the rest of the City Creek Mall until the priesthood session was over.  I needed to go to the bathroom so we found a family restroom, and it had a tiny toilet for toddlers, and as soon I sat down, Caleb ran over to the little toilet, stuck his hand in the toilet bowl, and then stuck it in his mouth. EEEEWWW!!    I went inside Macy's to find a warm jacket to buy, because it was cold out, and I didn't have one.  Caleb enjoyed going up and down the escalators and playing peek-a-boo in the clothes racks.  When I was buying a jacket, Caleb grabbed a chocolate bar, and bit through the foil wrapper, and into the chocolate, so I ended up having to buy that too.   We walked over and found Travis after the priesthood session and walked home.  We drove over to Wal-mart and bought some cheese and crackers to have for lunch on Sunday, so we didn't have to go out to eat.  The Walm-mart in SLC, had a parking garage, and and escalator, it was so weird to see that in a walmart.  Sunday, Travis again went to both sessions at the conference center, and Caleb and I stayed at the hotel.  This time, we just ate some cheese and crackers in our hotel room for lunch.  After the last session of conference, we drove over to Travis's Aunt Nora, and Uncle Nick's house, and had a delicious dinner, and got to visit with them, and his Grandma.  Travis' sister Maia, and her family came over at the end, on their way home, and we got to say "hi" to them for a few minutes.  Caleb was showing off, and singing, and being really cute.  Unfortunately he also grabbed onto a display tower, and even though I caught the tower before it fell on Caleb, some of the items fell off and broke.  We felt really bad about that.  Anyway, we went back to our hotel room, and decided to soak in the hot tub.  My legs were really sore, from all the walking I'd been doing.  We went down to the hotel hot tub, and Travis ended up talking to a lot of people for a long time about Chaplain/gospel stuff, while I chased Caleb around, so we finally got the hotel key from Travis and went back up to the room.  I'm learning that as a Chaplain, Travis is going to be counseling people no matter where we go.  Monday was the The Chaplain and spouse conference, and my parents were actually going through town and were able to watch Caleb, while I went to the conference for most of the day.  It was a really great conference, and I learned about balancing my duties as a chaplain wife, and mother and all my responsibilities, and about relying on the spirit.  The rest of the afternoon, Caleb and I wandered around the mall and temple square, until Travis was done.  Then we walked around the mall for a while and then went to the roof restaurant on top of the Joseph Smith Building to eat dinner, to celebrate our anniversary (Travis was gone in SC during our anniversary and we hadn't had a chance to celebrate it yet) and Travis' birthday.  When we got up there, Travis went to the bathroom, and the waitress seated Caleb and I, and she took us to the Table 2 feet away from where Elder Holland, and his wife and another couple were sitting.  I got all nervous, but as soon as Travis got back from the bathroom, he introduced us to Elder Holland and his wife, and we chatted with them, several times throughout the night.  Elder Holland was quite taken with Caleb (most people are) and talked to him several times throughout the night, always calling him by name.  Caleb was on my lap, and eating a lot of my food, so Elder Holland commented that Caleb was eating more food than I was.  And when Travis took Caleb with him to get more food from the buffet, he told me that I better eat quick before Caleb got back.  It was a wonderful night, with great food, and great company.  Tuesday, I had Caleb, and we had to check out of our hotel, so Travis went to the conference, while Caleb and I packed up and checked out of the hotel, and then walked around temple square and played at the mall play place until Elder Nelson was speaking and the conference, and then I hung out in the mother's lounge with Caleb and listened to Elder Nelson.  Then we drove another nine hours home arriving just before 2am.  The kids were all in one piece, and the house looked like it had been lived in for 5 days with no cleaning, and no dishes being done.  So we spent the next several days cleaning the house up, and I made Travis' traditional  6 layer cake.  Travis and I went to Fondue restaurant for his birthday, which was really delicious and really fun, then we came home and sang happy birthday to him, and ate cake.  I gave him a massage mat that you put on a chair, I think he likes it.