Austin's toe and speeding ticket

The kids have been asking me when they get to build snowmen, so I decided we would go on a rock hunt, and then paint the rocks white and build snowmen with them. The kids were really excited, so we found some big rocks and brought them back home. While everyone was inside the house, Austin went outside in her bare feet, and was trying to put the big rocks on top of each other. I guess she got all three rocks on top of each other, but then the one on top fell off and landed on her big toe. Poor girl, she was soooo sad, I don't know if she broke it or not, but her toe nail is black and a little bloody, and she can't walk on it. So she spent the rest of the day in my bad watching movies, with ice on her toe. I'm hoping she will feel better by tommorow, but if not, I'll tape her toe, and carry her around at church tommorow.
Now on to the speeding ticket. I was going to pick up Joseph from Super Saturday and the road right before you get there is 15 mph because it is military housing, and it is downhill. So I know when I turned onto the road I was going 15 mph, but as we started going down the hill the girls were talking to me, and I forgot to slow down, so about 1/2 way down, I looked down and saw I was going 21 mph so I immediatly slowed down to 15 mph, but it was too late, there was a cop hiding at the bottom, and he pulled me over. Both Betsy and Austin were pretty distraught (Samuel was asleep) They both told me they would give me all of their money, but I assured them that I could pay for the ticket later. So the whole way home, all of the kids were asking me(about every 30 seconds) if I was going the speed limit.

Austin

Last night Austin had a performance at her school. I really wanted to get it on tape, so before we left I grabbed my video camera and made sure it was fully charged and their was a tape in it, and I even grabbed my digital camera just in case. Well we got there, and dropped Austin off where she needed to be, and went and sat down with the kids and waited for the performance to start. Austin's class was the first one up on stage, so I had Joseph turn on the video camera and showed him how to use it, becuase Samuel was being a bit difficult. Joseph said he couldn't find Austin, so I helped him find Austin and as soon as I had found her the camera said "tape end" I couldn't believe I had forgotton to check to make sure the tape had space on it before we left. So I grabbed my digital camera and turned it on, ready to record Austin's performance before it was over, and the camera said"low battery" and turned off....uuggggghh....so much for my back up plan. So anyway Austin did an absolute amazing job, she was the best singer/dancer out there.(of course I may be just a bit biased) Joseph and Betsy were very good, and Samuel was causing enough trouble for everbody, but I didn't lose anybody..yeah! When we got home I found a new tape, and recorded austin doing her song again, although she had trouble remembering all the words without her class, but she still did a good job.

life

I don't know about anyone else, but every once in a while, maybe once or twice a year everything just seems to build up until finally the dam breaks and I have a really good cry, and then everything is all right with the world again, and I move forward once again through life. Well today was one of those days. Sunday's are always the hardest day to get through when Travis is gone, I'm not sure exactly why that is, but that just seems to be the case. Anyway, the kids, especially Joseph gave me a difficult time getting ready for church, but we did make it on time. I had a talk with the kids on the way to church about being reverent and helping mommy since daddy wasn't there. Well, shortly after sitting down at church I realized I was in trouble. Samuel would not hold still, and Joseph wouldn't stop bugging everyone around him. I was really struggling as the meeting started to get my kids to hold still and be quiet, and then the couple sitting behind me got up and went and sat on the hard seats in the back. While I was stopping Joseph from picking on Austin, Samuel climbed under the seat, and as I reached down to get him the strap of my dress snapped. Oh great! I had had enough I told each of my children that we were leaving and to follow me. They all managed to follow except for Betsy who was engrossed in her coloring(poor girl, she was being really good for me). Anyway after we exited I told Austin to go back in and retrieve Betsy, and then a sister in the ward came out and asked me if the kids could sit with her. I knew Betsy would be good, so I told her the she could sit with betsy(later betsy told me "that grandma was really nice, she came and got me and let me color the whole time) then I took the rest of the kids downstairs to the YW room, becuase I could turn on the intercom and listen to sacrament meeting while keeping them contained. They built forts with table clothes, chairs, and hymn books while samuel knocked them down. I was getting pretty sad that I couldn't handle the kids and that I was looking for over a year's worth of sunday's just like this when Travis leaves next year. Then in primary, my class would not listen to me, making everything worse, then when we got out, I was told austin was whining and crying about every little thing not going her way, and Joseph was being....well Joseph, and that was it, for the rest of primary I struggled to keep from crying and actually had to go to the bathroom for a few minutes and cry a little bit, but I managed to keep the dam from breaking completly until we got home. Then I let loose, and my sweet little children they gathered around me hugging me and patting my back and telling me sorry, and that it was okay. When I was able to calm down, they proceeded to bring me things and try to make me feel better, they brought me water, and Joseph warmed up some chicken noodle soup, and samuel and betsy brought me pillows and blankets and Joseph turned on a church movie and we sat and watched it together. After that I talked to some friends and family, and then the kids and I played games outside for a couple of hours and had a lot of fun, we even had neighbor kids peeking over their fences watching us have our fun. I'm back to normal and ready to take on the world again! I think that every once in a while it is good for kids to see their mother cry, I remember vividly one time my mother cried because my brothers and I were fighting all the time, and how horrible I felt, and how I resolved to be good, so as not to make my mother cry again. It is interesting to see it from both sides. Does this kind of thing ever happen to you?

Samuel's birthday!

Daddy, Samuel, and Carriane(I think she wants some cake)

Samuel's Caterpillar cake!

Samuel and Jacob playing!

Betsy and Joseph making (mostly eating) candy bugs and Samuel's party

More candy bugs

and more candy bugs
Samuel had a wonderful birthday, filled with candy bugs, a bug hunt, a caterpillar cake, and playing with his little buddies.

Visiting Daddy

Well it's been a little bit of a crazy week. Travis left on Thursday to go out in the field for training exercises and he will be gone until Thanksgiving. The kids didn't seem to notice too much when they had school, because they don't see Daddy too much during the week, but they noticed on the weekend. We actually ended up taking a 45 minute bus ride with his company to go see him for 2 hours on Saturday, they had a family day. The kids really enjoyed it, they got to explore tanks, and operate cranes, and other army equipment. They didn't really like the fact that when it was time to go, Daddy didn't get on the bus with us to go home. Samuel made the bus ride a bit difficult with his kicking and screaming because he wanted to get down and run around, and I wouldn't let him, but we all survived the trip. Travis' favorite part of the trip was when it was time to go back to the bus the kids started singing "do do do do..lets get on the bus" and samuel started trying to sing it to "do do do do.......bus" it was really cute.

Joseph's first fight

Well, Joseph got into trouble last night. We took him to Super Saturday, which is a place he can go to on Saturday night to play with other kids, and he really likes it. Well when I went in to get him, he was sitting in a chair with two adults and another boy, and he was holding ice to his eye. They informed me, that Joseph had punched the other boy in the stomach, and then that boy punched Joseph in the eye. Well, Joseph looked understandably upset, he was very subdued and looked like he had been crying. Although this is not the first time Joseph has hit another person, it is the first time that person has thrown and good punch back, and hurt Joseph. Well the boys apolagized to each other, and the adult in charge filled out an incident report form, and let Joseph come home with me. His eye was pretty red, and had some swelling, but thankfully he did not end up with a black eye, although if the boy had been a year or two older it probably would have been. I'm hoping that Joseph will finally learn his lesson about hitting others, now that he has encountered someone who fights back hard.

Samuel

Samuel fell asleep in the rocking chair, and slept for 3 hours. I couldn't believe it, normally he only sleeps one hour.

Samuel doing his "fishy face"