Another week down, only 1 1/2 to go until school starts

Monday- we went on our walk.  Samuel started space camp, and I got the kids registered with CYS.  watched friends kids the rest of the afternoon.  The day of spills and messes.  Smoothie spilled and splattered all over the kitchen.  Samuel got out my bucket of coconut flakes to stand on to do dishes, and knocked it over and spilled it all over the wet floor (it was wet, because Samuel gets water everywhere whenever he does the dishes.  Samuel knocked over the bowl of rice I had on top of the counter for dinner, and it flung rice and quinoa everywhere.  After cleaning up the other messes, Samuel didn't put the lid back on the bucket of coconut and Caleb got into it, spreading coconut everywhere.  He also filled up a cup with granola and then dumped it on the back porch to "feed the ants".  I wanted to scream.  I've been trying so hard to sweep the entire downstairs every night to get rid of the ants, and Samuel is trying to feed them.  GGGRRRRRRR.....  But we finally made it through to the end of the day.  For family home evening we talked about serving others, and took some food to a family in need for a secret service.  Then stopped and got a frozen yogurt for a treat. 

Tuesday-went on our walk.  Cleaned the house since pest control is coming tomorrow, to spray for spiders and ants.  Took Samuel to space camp, then dropped of Caleb at childcare, and Betsy and I went to our chiropractor appointment.  Then picked up boys went home, Caleb fell asleep, then we went to the outdoor swimming pool.  Caleb stuck to me like glue, until the last 1/2 hour we were there, and finally was happy and playful.  I also had run out of swim diapers, so I just had him go potty before we went in the pool, and he did fine, until we were getting ready to leave, he stood there and peed on the pool deck.  I guess I need to go buy more swim diapers. 

Wednesday-we spent the morning cleaning, getting ready for pest control, they were supposed to come between 8am and 4pm.  I finally got the kids to help me clean the garage, and as soon as we were finishing up about 11am, the pest control guy showed up, good timing.  Right after he started spraying, our friends showed up, because we were making chicken noodle soup, for freezer meals.  I should have known everyone would show up at the same time.  So we had to take everyone to the backyard, my five kids, and her four, and keep them outside for about 45 minutes, until the spray had dried.  Then we made our chicken noodle soup, Samuel left for space camp, and Austin watched the younger kids, while the moms cooked.  I got my new camera in the mail today, I'm excited to start using it, so be prepared for lots of pictures and videos.  I finally finished the laundry, and then made a loaded baked potato salad for for the relief society activity.  Caleb fell asleep about 15 minutes before we left, and slept in the car until we got there.  The kids ran inside while I grabbed the salad.  Austin was being mean, and was pushing on the door, not letting Samuel inside the church, I yelled for her to stop, but she couldn't hear me, and Samuel was freaking out, banging on the door, yelling and screaming and pulling on it as hard as he could.  Caleb, who was on the inside with Austin told Austin to stop it, and let Samuel in, and then tried to help Samuel get the door open, so his fingers got smashed pretty good.  I was really mad at Austin, but I know she didn't mean for Caleb to get hurt, and she felt really bad about it, and tried to make him happy the rest of the evening.  I put band-aids on each of his hurt fingers, (they weren't bleeding, but it made him feel better), and kissed them better.  Today they are still bruised, but he is using his hand just fine.  After we got home from the RS activity, Betsy stayed up with Caleb, and watched cartoons with him, while I relaxed and soaked in a bath.

Thursday-After dropping Samuel off at space camp, Caleb, Betsy, and I went to run errands.  First we had a yummy lunch at panera bread, while I held a sleeping Caleb, then we went to a farmer's market, and Costco.  We go through so much produce at our house, the kids are always snacking on fruits and vegetables.  I tried taking the kids to a dinner and movie event they had going on, but it was so crowded and the line was so long, we turned around and went home.  Then watched our own movie and made popcorn.

Friday-We got Samuel off to space camp at 8am today, because it was his field trip day, and he was gone until 5 pm.  We went on our walk, and had two visiting teaching appointments, a haircut, and I taught piano lessons.  At my visiting teaching appointments their were parks right in front of their houses, so the kids played at the park, while I visit taught.  Worked out well, until they started throwing rocks at each other.  After that we came home for lunch, then left to drive to Castle Rock to return the clothes that I bought their last week, that needed to be returned or exchanged.  It is a 45 minute drive that took an hour and 15 minutes due to traffic.  But we made it, and the kids helped me carry bags, and make returns and exchanges at 3 different stores, and helped follow Caleb around.  After our shopping was done, we drove home which took us 1 hour and 45 minutes.  I was so frustrated with the traffic, it was stop and go for the longest time.  Luckily the kids were pretty good, and several of them ended up napping.  But we ran out of time to finish our other errands, and had to go straight home and get Samuel from space camp.  I made dinner for a family in our ward dropped it off, then came home and made our dinner.  I asked all the kids before I made the dinner if they would eat it (lately they won't eat what I fix), and told them they would get some of the chocolate chip cookie ice cream I made if they ate everything I put on their plate.  They all eagerly said they would, but guess what, only Austin ate her food, and she told me it was all gross, but that she would eat it to get ice cream.  That's okay, it leaves more ice cream for me.  I need to be more creative with dinners so I can get my kids to eat it.

Saturday-We picked up our bountiful basket in the morning, and our friends were waiting in line with us.  I had to take the car in to get some maintenance done on it as soon as we were done, and my friend offered to take Samuel swimming with them.  Luckily Samuel still had his swimming bag in the car, so he grabbed it and went swimming.  Joseph stayed home, he wasn't feeling that well due to some allergies.  So, Austin, Betsy, Caleb and I took the car in, and then walked over to the mall while we waited.  When we walked into the mall, Caleb looked all around, and then hugged Betsy and said "it's so beautiful", he did this several times, it was so cute.  We went and got pretzels and smoothies, then I got some nursing bras.  While I was trying them on (the kids were with me in the dressing room), a newborn baby started crying in the stall next to us, and all the kids looked at my belly, and Austin said "is that coming from your belly", and laughed and told them their was a newborn baby in the changing room next to ours.  Caleb loves playing hide-n-go-seek, and kept the girls and I on our toes keeping track of him.  His squeaky shoes stopped working, so we couldn't hear him, wherever we went.  That little guy can hide in the smallest space.  We were at the mall for two hours before the car was finished.  So we walked back, and drove home and got Samuel from his friends house.  We hadn't done our chores yet, so we worked on those for the rest of the afternoon.

Austin taught Caleb to say "And Scene" when taking a video

Fun activity, where I throw or push the kids into the crash pad

Today-I made crepes for breakfast, yummy!  Caleb fell asleep in the car on the way to church, and slept on me until the end of the sacrament part of sacrament meeting.  It was nice that he was quite and still for a little while.  Not too long after him waking up, Austin took him out and followed him around for the rest of the meeting.  I was so hot in sacrament meeting, and my feet and ankles got really swollen again, I was so glad that the nursery room was cooler.  Today is supposed to be my last day in nursery, and it went really well, we only had five kids, and they were all pretty quiet and good.

Caleb eating toast

Caleb going down the slide

Caleb sleeping in the car, after playing at 3 parks

Austin took a picture of me driving

Caleb trying on Austin's sunglasses

Caleb watching "Dora" on my kindle

37 weeks pregnant and new haircut

Same as above

He doesn't know why he is wearing pink sunglasses in the house

The first week

Well, we survived the first week of Travis being gone.  Monday was an emotional day for me, the boys especially were acting out a lot, and that was the day that the reality of Travis being gone sunk in, and I had several crying sessions.  I took the kids to the focus on the family bookstore and indoor play area.  They had a good time, and got some energy out.  We also got the car an alignment at the shop near our house, and walked home while they did it.  We came back and got it when they were done.  Samuel throwing fits and temper tantrums, and causing a scene in the office.  But, we survived and drove back home.  I paid Austin to clean and organize Caleb's room,  and she did a great job.  We had gone through all the craft stuff, and had the kids go through and find what they could use for school supplies.  It was a great activity, but left the room a mess.  
Tuesday I had Dr. appointments for all five kids, all in a row.  I need to re-register them with CYS (child youth services) so I can use the free hourly care I get while Travis is gone, and they all need new physicals.  The first two appointments were for Caleb and Samuel, and took forever, so we were 20 minutes late to the next appointments at the clinic across the street for the older kids.  Caleb now weighs 23 pounds and is in the 5th percentile for his age, so he is slowly growing.  After arriving at the next clinic the kids were not too happy to be at more dr. appointments, and there were the six of us, plus 3 other adults (dr. and nurses) in one tiny little room.  It wasn't a very pleasant experience, the kids were hungry and grumpy.  After they finally finished all the physicals, they told me Joseph and Caleb both needed shots. (they missed it at Caleb's appointment).  Samuel was driving me crazy, he kept tripping Caleb, and hurting him, squeezing or grabbing his head or neck, and pushing him.  I really wanted to put Samuel in a straight jacket and duct tape his mouth shut.  So finally we had to go get shots.  Caleb did not like getting poked, but the good thing, was that once Samuel saw Caleb get him poked, he was soft and gentle with him and tried to help him feel better.  I guess it's the "no one can hurt him but me" mentality.  Anyway once Caleb calmed down, he kept repeating  "No more pokes" over and over again, it was really cute.  That evening we took Joseph to YMs, and I went a little early and picked up some food for dinner at Panera Bread to go. I was too exhausted from all the dr. appointments to make dinner.  Well Caleb fell asleep as soon as we left, and stayed asleep while we ran errands, and then picked up Joseph.  At one point I drove through a yellow light, and the police car behind me pulled me over and said it was red.  But he must have had pity on my pregnant self, and five children in the car, because he ended up just giving me a verbal warning.  So we finally made it home, and I put the kids to bed, except Caleb.  He had way too much energy since he took an evening nap and ended up staying up until midnight, before I could get him to sleep.
Wed, we went for our morning walk, then made taco soup freezer meals with our friends.  Betsy and I had our chiropractor appointments, while my friend watched the rest of the kids.   After we had lunch I took Caleb, Samuel, and Betsy and dropped them off at childcare, left Austin home, and sent Joseph to the YS(youth center), and went to my OB appointment.  I had to go fill out all my pre-admission paperwork and got my parking permit, but everything for the appointment went fine.  When I got back to pick up the kids from childcare, Caleb was crying, and was quite upset.  Apparently during the last 10-15 minutes, Caleb saw Samuel and Betsy playing outside with their age group, and once he saw them, he wouldn't stop crying, until I came and got him.  We went home and made some chocolate scotcharoos for the Big Brother/Big Sister picnic we were going to, then we left to go.  Only Betsy's "Big" was able to come, but we had a great time.  The kids got free toys and books, dinner, and had fun and games.  I followed Caleb around, while everyone else played, but it was fun.  The kids all ended up getting their faces painted, and Caleb thought that was pretty fun.  During dinner, Caleb grabbed this huge piece of watermelon, and was just devouring it, another lady at our table, couldn't get over how cute he was, and kept taking pictures of him.  I still don't have a new camera yet, so once again Austin is the photographer for this blog.  She took lots of pictures, but most of them come out pretty fuzzy, so I only posted a couple.
Thursday, I was just so exhausted, and we had been gone so much, that we didn't do too much.  We did have Samuel's OT appointment in the morning, and his Psychologist appointment in the late morning.  Both went okay, but Samuel did not like having everybody coming to his appointments, he likes it when it's just me and Caleb with him.  At home I did some cleaning, and put together the bassinet for the new baby.  Caleb kept asking me what I was doing, and I would tell him it's for the new baby.  He would say "for me?"  I would say "no, for your new baby brother".  he asked if the baby was coming soon, and I told him that when I went to the hospital, the baby would come out, and I would bring him home with me.  Caleb asked if he could come to the hospital with me, and I said no, and he asked if I would be right back.  Poor little guy, I told him I would be back as soon as I could.  He wasn't very satisfied with that answer.  
Friday, we went to a strong bonds event for spouses of deployed soldiers, it was at IT'Z (family fun center) and the kids had a great time, and I learned about resiliency and the 5 love languages.  Joseph didn't like being in the childcare, and he wouldn't leave Austin alone, and kept hurting her.  So I let him stay out.  He ended up watching cartoons in one of the t.v. rooms, sipping on blue icees for two hours.  Once my training portion was done, the kids and I had fun playing all the games.  The kids said it was the best day ever, since we were there from 9am-5:30pm.  We could have stayed longer, but Joseph had a campout, so we had to get back and drop him off.  When we left IT'Z it was in a torrential downpour and lightening storm, so we got soaked just getting to the car, then I had to drive super slow, because I could barely see, and there was tons of water on the road.  At one intersection, a cross street was all flooding onto the street I was on, and there was at least a foot of water on the road, but other cars in front of me were going, so I went too.  A big truck on the side of me passed me, while I was going through, and completely flooded our car with water.  I couldn't see anything at all, so much water was being dumped on me for about 3 seconds, and the car started stalling.  I yelled for the kids to pray, and our prayers were answered, the car kept going, and I could see a little bit again.  We finally made it to where we needed to drop off Joseph, and it wasn't raining as bad, but Joseph still put on his poncho before getting out of the car.  I guess where they went camping wasn't too bad, but I sure was worried about him staying dry.  After dropping of Joseph, Caleb asked me if Joseph was at an appointment.  I was pretty impressed, that my little two year old, knew that word.  But I guess we've had a lot of appointments this week.  Joseph had a good time fishing on his campout, and enjoyed it.
Saturday, we worked on chores, and then went to a chapel on post to get some free school supplies.  We had to wait in line for about a half an hour, and I was standing in the sun the whole time, but we made it through, and got some school supplies.  Then we picked up Joseph from his campout, and went home, and worked on chores some more.  Joseph promptly fell asleep, and then I dropped Caleb, Samuel, and Austin off at a friends house, and took Betsy with me to go to Costco.  I hadn't been to the store since before Travis left, so we were in desperate need of some groceries.  Since Joseph was asleep when we left, I took my big dry erase board and wrote him a message in big letters telling him where we were, and giving him instructions, and placed it four feet in front of his face, so he would see it as soon as he woke up.  So Betsy and I completed our shopping and picked up the other kids and came home.  Joseph woke up when we got home, and started wandering around, and asked me where all the groceries came from.  I couldn't believe he didn't see the sign I left for him, so I took him back to where he had been asleep and showed him the huge sign in front of his face.  He sheepishly said "oh, I didn't see that".  Next time I'm taping it to his forehead. That evening I had a babysitter come over, and my friend and I went back to school shopping with no kids.  It was fun, and we found some great deals.  It was fun to go shopping without kids, I hardly ever get to do that.
Today we made it through another church without Travis, even though Austin was in the hallways with Caleb most of the time.  Caleb took off, right when sacrament meeting ended, and I sent Austin after him, but he was too fast and she couldn't find him.  It took us several  minutes, but we did finally find him, and he was crying and upset.  He asked where I went, and I told him I was looking for him, and he said he was looking for me.  Well we found each other and went to nursery.  Austin and Betsy made dinner tonight, and did a good job.  The cut up apples, and set them up to look like flowers with peanut butter in-between and berries on top.  The sliced cucumbers and stacked them with carrot pieces on top, and whip cream on the sides and top.  They made a smoothie, and pretzel buns with cheese in them.  They worked very hard on it, and it was yummy.

Caleb playing in the big blue bin

Caleb sleeping on me at the picnic

Betsy with her "Big" Naphi

Caleb eating his big piece of watermelon

Betsy with her face painted

Austin with her butterfly

Caleb with the spider on his cheek

Caleb hiding under the kitchen table

Caleb wearing my shoes around the house

Caleb found a cheerio

Caleb spilled his smoothie, and is licking it off the table

Another adventure begins

The last couple weeks have just flown by, and the big deployment day arrived.  Yesterday, Travis left for Kuwait.  It was pretty uneventful.  My camera decided that morning that it was going to break, so Austin took all the pictures with her new camera she bought with the rest of her birthday money.  We went with Travis to drop his bags off.  He has two large 70lb duffel bags, and two bags that weigh about 45 lb each.  I told him it was hazardous to his health to carry that much weight all at once.  I tried to get him to take stuff out, and let me mail it to him, but he said he could handle it.  When we got there, he was told he would have to put one of his 45 lb bags into one of his 70 lb bags.  It took another solider standing and jumping up and down on his bag, and Travis wrestling to shut it, to finally get it closed, dripping with sweat.  I feel bad for everything in that bag, hopefully nothing was ruined.  Anyway we got to hang out with Travis for another hour or so, and then he walked us to our car, we said our goodbyes, and I watched out the rear view mirror as he walked away, my heart breaking.  I pulled it together, and took the kids home for lunch, then we went to a free event at the ice skating rink.  Joseph and Samuel loved ice skating, the girls enjoyed for a little while, but didn't want to do it anymore, because their feet hurt, and Caleb put skates on, but didn't actually go on the ice, and I wasn't going to skate, so Caleb and I watched everyone skate for a while.  They also had a dunk tank, and both Joseph and Samuel dunked the girl in the tank, they thought it was awesome.  After the ice skating, we went to another free event at the space foundation.  It wasn't nearly as fun, since the only thing they could touch was a bouncy house for little kids, so we didn't stay there very long.  But between those two events, I wore the kids out enough that it was time to go home for dinner. 
The last few weeks were full of preparations for the deployment.  We've done lots of cleaning and organizing, and here are some things that I remember happening. 
We had some friends over, and they pulled everything out of our shed in the backyard, and made a huge mess of the backyard.  It was our night to water the grass, and we needed to clean everything up, so I tried to get the kids to help me clean up the yard, but they wouldn't help, so I did it all by myself.  When Travis finally got home (he was helping somebody move in) I told him about how unhelpful the children were.  He gathered them all up, and talked to them about how much harder it is for me to pick things up and clean up after them while being this pregnant (nice way of saying I'm huge).  He got out some weights and told each of the kids they would have to carry around 1/4 of their body weight, while doing a chore or job to understand what it's like for me.  After warning them not to drop the weights on their toes, he had them do there jobs.  Samuel had one 5 lb weight and one 8 lb weight.  After carrying them for a minute, yelled "this is too hard" and threw the 5 lb weight right on his big toe.  Poor guy, his toe is still completely black, and I'm just waiting for the toe nail to fall off.  The kids have tried to be more helpful though, and Samuel's toe hasn't slowed him down one bit.
 Betsy has been going to a chiropractor every week since her accident, there were several vertebrae out of place in her neck and upper back.  I decided to start getting adjusted too, for my neck, and my hips (feel out of alignment with pregnancy).  I think she enjoys our weekly visits to the chiropractor.  A friend has been watching the other kids for me, since after the first visit, I realized it was not a "kid friendly" atmosphere.
Joseph got a pair of glasses, they are for when he needs to see things 8 ft. away or more clearly, so mostly for school.  But, after two days, lost them on our morning walk (he had them in his pocket).  So now, he has to earn enough money to buy new ones before school starts.  I warned him before hand that I would buy the first pair, but if he lost or broke them, he would need to earn the money for new ones.
Betsy and Samuel finished up there swimming lessons.  One day while walking home, the sirens went off for a severe lightening warning, and started raining.  We started walking as fast as we could, and the rain was just pouring down, and drenching us in seconds.  We kept walking as fast as we could.  The girls and Samuel remembered they had towels from swimming lessons, and held them over there heads.  Caleb who was asleep, slept through the whole thing in his stroller.  He was a little confused as to why he was all wet, when he woke up after we got home.
We went to IT'Z for some family fun before Travis leaves, and had a great time.  Travis even won the jackpot on one of the games, earning over 1600 tickets, it took forever for all those tickets to come out of the machine.  All the kids were super excited for Travis, and of course, he was really excited too.
While cleaning out the garage, Travis decided to fill up our pool in the garage with our water storage, since it was time to rotate it anyway.(we can't use our pool outside, due to water restrictions on post)  So the kids had a blast playing in the swimming pool in the garage.  He also put up a swing in the garage, so the kids have been spending lots of time out there.
Caleb jumped into the crash pad and hurt his arm (elbow), he cradled his arm, and would not let anyone touch it, and wouldn't move it.  After it not improving after a couple of hours, I remembered a similar thing happening to my nephew Dillan, while he was at my parents house.  I called up my mom, and she told me to look up "nursemaid's elbow" and that to fix it was really simple.  So I looked it up, and it said it was a dislocation of the elbow and very common in toddlers and preschoolers.  I read that to fix it you hold there arm bent at the side, and then turn hold their hand and turn it to face upwards, and that should pop the bone back in place.  So, I did that for Caleb, and he cried when I did it, but I felt the bone pop back in place, and within a few minutes he was happy and playing like nothing had ever happened.  Then a few days later, Austin pulled on his arm kinda hard to stop him from doing something and he cried and cradled his arm again, so I quickly did the procedure, felt the bone go back in place again,  and after another minute or two he was just fine again.  So we're all being careful not to pull on his right arm.  I'm very grateful that I was able to learn from my nephew's experience, and be able to fix Caleb myself.  It would have been very traumatic for him to go to the hospital.
Travis and I had a date, where we went to the hospital, to take a tour of where I will give birth.  It made me sad to think about him not being there, but I'm glad we were able to take the tour together.  Then we went and cleaned his office together for a couple of hours.  Austin that it was really lame, that our last date together involved cleaning Travis' office, and going to the hospital.  I just told her, that it didn't matter what we did, just that we had some time together without the kids.  But, I'm definitely going to plan a more romantic date for when he gets back.
I gave Caleb and Samuel haircuts, and Travis helped me by getting out the vacuum, and sucking the hair right off their heads, as I cut it.  The boys thought that was pretty fun.
The night before he left, Travis gave all the kids their back to school blessings, and Caleb and I blessings.  I felt very comforted and peaceful, and know that heavenly father will help us while Travis is gone.

This picture is from the storm several weeks ago, where we were stuck underneath a pavilion during a terrible storm, and Joseph pulled a poncho out of his pocket, and as many of us as could fit, would go under it.  

Here is a picture of Caleb and Travis waiting for all the tickets to come out of the game where Travis won the jackpot

Here is the game Travis won the jackpot from

Caleb trying on Betsy's hair clip

The pool in the garage

 We've been trying to get Caleb to start sleeping in the girl's room, in preparation for Grandma's coming to visit.  He didn't like the trundle bed I made for him, so Travis blew up the big air mattress and put it in their room, this is Caleb getting ready to sleep on it.  I still had to lay down with him to get him to fall asleep, but then he slept all night.

Caleb helping Travis take his bags out to the car

Caleb playing in a bucket

Caleb climbing into the bucket

Travis and Caleb at the "waiting" area before he leaves

All of us spending just a little more time with Travis, while waiting for his bus

Samuel and Daddy saying goodbye

Betsy and Daddy saying goodbye

Caleb and me

Austin and Daddy saying goodbye

Joseph and Daddy saying goodbye

Mommy and Daddy saying goodbye