Adventures of the day

This is Austin helping to take care of the baby

Caleb likes the baby swing

The kids on one of our morning walks

Austin, Betsy, Caleb, and their cousin Hazel

Joseph displaying the melted plate and burnt cinnamon roll

This morning at the end of our morning devotional we saw smoke rolling out of the kitchen.  It turns out Samuel put a leftover cinnamon roll into the microwave for 60 minutes.  It ended up cooking for 15 minutes.  It melted a hole through the plate where the cinnamon roll was, and scorched the cinnamon roll.  The house smelled so horrible that we left and went to the library for a while.  Then we went to the park and as we got out, I went to throw some garbage away, and when I came back to the car, Samuel and locked the car and gotten out and shut the door.  So my keys, phone, purse were all locked in the car, Thankfully I had already gotten the baby out.  So it took us over an hour to walk home and get Travis' set of car keys, and then I had a friend watch the kids and I rode my bike back to where the car was, and drove it home. 

Caleb almost 5 months

Caleb and I had a little photo shoot this morning, he was just being so cute.  I love my little baby, he is so happy.  He will be five months old tommorow, and he is rolling over like crazy, he love to roll from his back to his front, and then push him self around a little bit, and chew on his hands, and then he will push himself onto his back and kick for a little while, and then start over again.  He is very happy and patient, and he is loved by everyone in the house.  There is someone always  willing to hold him.  Unfortunatly Caleb has been getting sores on his leg, from a staph infection he picked up at the hospital when he was born, and has been fighting it ever since.  He is on medicine, and will hopefully be better very soon. 

Caleb Video

In this video Daddy is playing with Caleb and helping him "fly" by Samuel.  They are pretty cute together.

Joseph's Birthday

Samuel bought this panda bear for Joseph with his own money from a garage sale, he was very excited to have bought his older brother a present he likes!!

Austin bought Joseph these figurines for Joseph from a game store, she also helped to get him a game called forbidden island, she is such a sweet, giving girl.  Joseph loved his presents from his siblings, and Joseph and I have had fun playing the game he got!

The birthday boy and his balloon

At Joseph's birthday party, we played "minute to win it" games.  This one was where you had to stack baby blocks on a plate on your head, and get this to stay stacked for three seconds, and you have 1 minute to accomplish it.  This is Joseph and his friend Josh trying to complete it.

Austin is trying the game, she was pretty good at it. 

In this game you have to take a spaghetti noodle and put it in your mouth and use it to pick up 5 penne noodles without using your hands in one minute. 

This is Joseph's cousin Jamen, he is doing the game where you have to seperate the M&Ms by color into each bowl before a minute runs out

Betsy is  doing the stacking cups game, you start with one blue cup on the top of 40 red cups, and then you alternate hands taking a cup off the top and moving it to the bottom, the goal is to get the blue cup back to the top position before the minute is up.

Joseph is swinging the bat at the pinata

This is Joseph's Reeses Peanut Butter Ice cream cake that I made for him, it was delicious

Caleb got a fun ride from his daddy

Here is Joseph, Austin, Betsy, Samuel, and Caleb with their cousins from Tooele, UT Bradyn and Aleah.  Their Grandma Kathy brought them down for a suprise visit, it was sure fun to see their Grandma and cousins!

Joseph had a really fun birthday.  I love Joseph so much, I can't believe my little boy is 10 years old already.  I still remember the day I gave birth to this scrawy little 4 lb. 11oz baby.  I remember how even though he was the tiniest baby in the nursery, he had the loudest cry.  I remember he had jaundice, and we had to stick him under the billirubin lights and we had to cover up his eyes, and put him under them in just a diaper, and just let him lay there, soaking up the light, while he cried.  I remember we had to feed him through a tube and our fingers, becuase he was too little to eat very well.  Then he started growing like crazy, tripling his weight before he was 2 months old.  As he got older, I remember how much he loved to go outside, and play at parks, and play with cars, and build towers, and of course was still the loudest screamer around.  I remember how frustrated he would get when he couldn't talk and use words to communicate with us, and how excited he was to go to his special pre-school to help him talk better.  I remember what a happy little boy he was and how his laughter was infectious.  I remember how when it was time to take the training wheels off of his bike, he took off on his bike before I could even try to teach him how to ride it, and he did just great!  I remember one Sunday he sat down and colored an entire coloring book for hours, and how he loves to sing and dance, Hip Hop is his favorite.  I remember how friendly Joseph was, and how he would go up to anyone and start talking to them.  I remember he was an escape artist, and could get out of any place he was put.  I will never forget how Joseph compared repentence and sin to boogers, and the analogy he gave me.  I am so proud of how Joseph is growing and learning to be a better person, he is always moving forward, and growing to be a better person.  He still has a long way to go, but he is getting there, and I love him with all my heart.

Happy Mother's Day

I have had a wonderful Mother's Day.  My day started out with being able to sleep in until almost 8am, that was awesome.  Then Travis brought me a plate of strawberries, apples, mangos, and pomagranite chocolates.  Yummy!  Then he gave me a massage, and then I soaked in a scented bath, with sweet-smelling soaps.  Afterwards, I sat in my bed, reading while Austin brought me yummy french toast and juice, that she helped Travis make.  Betsy brought me a darling book that she made for me, complete with pictures and coupons of things she will do for me.  Austin brought me a card she made for me, and I just relaxed most of the morning.  We got ready and went to church.  Travis bought me a rose corsage to wear to church.  After church I relaxed some more, and Travis made some chicken, rice, beans, and lettuce, in a tortilla for dinner.  Then our Home Teacher came and gave us a lesson, and then we put the kids to bed, and played a game with Joseph.  It was a great day. 

Daddy and Caleb ready to play ping pong

He's a cute happy baby

Samuel and his winning Easter Egg for the Easter Egg Roll, it was a raw egg too

Travis cracking one of our raw eggs from the Easter Egg roll into a bowl

 

Betsy and Sam doing the Easter Egg Roll

Austin and Sam doing the Easter Egg Roll

Joseph and Sam doing the Easter Egg Roll

He's Still cute

Things learned in the past month

1.  If you don't let kids watch T.V., some of the following things may happen. 

• Betsy and Samuel find a pair of scissors and give each other a hair cut
• Samuel will draw all over the wall, table, and refrigerator with a pencil
• Samuel finds the baby's medicine, and dumps it out in the sink
• Samuel decides it is fun to throw plates and cups on the kitchen floor to see which ones will break, and which ones are "good quality"

2.  If a really old organ falls off of the back of a truck on it's way to D.I.  and Travis stops to help them, you may end up with a really old organ that despite it's fall, still works (at least mostly)
3.  If I let Travis help lots of people move, we end up with a new "old" hide-a-bed.
4.  If the neighbors leave their scooters out in their front lawn, Joseph may "borrow" them to get to and from school faster, and may or may not remember to return them.
5.  It is no fun having a sick baby and taking him to the hospital to get all his mucous sucked out through a tube in his nose. 
6.  When you boil eggs for an Easter egg roll, make sure you mark which eggs are hard-boiled and which ones are raw, because you may end up dying some raw eggs, and having a messy Easter egg roll, in which Samuel wins with a raw egg. 
7.  If you sign kids up for swimming lessons, and make everyone walk to and from the swimming lessons, it is possible for them to run out of energy and fall asleep as soon as we get home, and even sleep through dinner. 
8.  Utah springs are crazy, with one day having sunny 70 degree weather, and than the next day it snows. 
9.  I have a wonderful husband who lets me writes my frustrations on the white board in the kitchen, and he takes care of them, so I don't have to be frustrated anymore. 
10.  Travis can slack off in his studies, study a lot at the end,  and turn stuff in late, and still end up with a 4.0, while I study more than he does, have less classes, and end up with a B+ and an A. 
11.  Travis can take Joseph and Samuel on a trip to Wyoming for his Dad's wedding, and the girls and baby and I can have a fun weekend together walking to places we want to go, and eating at the Olive Garden, and going out to get ice cream, and playing games.
12.  The kids love it when I make a fun dinner for April Fools.  This year I made "cheeseburgers"  with PB cookies that my mom sent in a package for the "buns", brownies for the "meat", and flattened starbursts for the "cheese", french toast strips for "french fries", a little bowl of maple syrup for the "ketchup", a scoop of mashed potatoes and gravy for "ice cream and chocolate fudge" and jello in a cup with a straw for "juice".It was quite fun watching the kids try to drink their "juice".
13.  It helps relieve stress to have friends over to play games, it also helps me get the house clean.  Our new favorite game is called "quelf" and I'm even working on making a "Mormon" version of it for our family to play.
14.  It has been way to long since I've had to do any "real" math, and I'm stressing about taking Trigonometry this term. 
15.  It is good motivation to have a workout partner, Travis and I are doing a slim in 6 program, for the next 6 weeks, tomorrow we start week two.
16.  When Travis is gone all day Saturday for either work, or going to the temple and helping people move, it is really stressful for me to get the kids to do all their chores.
17.  If Joseph doesn't get his chores done before lunch time on Saturday, and I make him stay in his room until dinner time as a punishment, when I go to get him for dinner, he won't come out, because he is too busy making spaceships with legos. 
18.  Betsy does not like to get in the swimming pool unless Austin is right with her.
19.  If we suction the babies nose with a bulb syringe he smiles at us.
20.  When the baby sees his medicine bottle he opens his mouth and starts sticking out his tongue.
21.  Austin loves that her teacher got married, and we went to her wedding reception and Austin caught the flower bouquet and helped decorate her car. 
22.  We're not very good at pine wood derby's yet.  Joseph's car was the slowest, and kept falling apart, and barely made it over the finish line.  But, we still had fun.
23.  I love General Conference, I learned my kids are "bedlamites"
24.  Samuel uses way too much toilet paper, and floods the bathroom, but at least he has learned to run and tell me when tah happens instead of playing in it.

                                                       Caleb loves his Daddy

                                            Joseph at the pine wood derby

He is so cute!

                                          The girls and I on our walk by the provo river

Bad guy and a laundry basket?

So two things happened tonight that caused opposite emotions to emerge inside me, one was frustration, and one caused laughter.  The frustration was due to Samuel.  I had helped him clean up his room, and had put all the trash in the little garbage in his room.  He puts his pull-ups in there every morning when he gets dressed.  I came into his room and he had thrown all of the garbage all over his room, because according to him only his pull-ups are allowed in his garbage.  He had also taken Joseph's dirty clothes out of his dirty laundry basket, and thrown them on the floor, because only his dirty clothes are allowed in his basket.  So needless to say, I was a bit frustrated.  Now the funny part.  I was in Samuel and Joseph's room, organizing my files, when Joseph comes into the room with holding a laundry basket over his head with a determined look on his face, and when he saw that it was me in the room, he looked shocked and lowered the laundry basket.  He said he heard footsteps in his room and thought it was a bad guy, and was planning to knock the bad guy out by hitting him over the head with the plastic laundry basket.  I couldn't help it, I started laughing, just the idea that he was going to try and knock someone out with a laundry basket seemed too funny.  After I managed to calm down, I explained to Joseph that if he did suspect a bad guy, he needed to tell me or Dad, and that a laundry basket wasn't  a very good weapon.