M&M's birthday!

M&M turned 10 yesterday! It was definitely a roller coaster of a day for her. She started out the day with being able to open one gift which was new clothes which she wore that day. The rest of her gifts she had to wait until her dad got home from work. We didn't really have anything planned for the day because she will be having a party on Saturday with friends. Just that morning I found a link through another blog for a recipe for making donuts. It turns out to be a pretty easy recipe and we had all of the ingredients on hand (it even uses mashed potatoes!) so I showed it to M&M and asked her if she would like to help make some that day. So after lunch we tried out the recipe - this was my first time ever making homemade donuts. It made a great mess of the kitchen but we had a lot of fun. :) DH got home from work when we were in the middle of the frying part and he helped get out some powdered sugar for the kids to dip the donuts in. Everyone loved them and made a great mess with the sugar. :) (Next time I need to find some better sizes of circles to cut them out with - they ended up being funny sizes & shapes.)
After the donuts M&M opened her gifts from the family. Unfortunately she knew what a couple of them were because I had her pick them out and then another gift Kitty told her what is was because she saw it being wrapped & was so excited about the gift - we've got to work on keeping secrets in this family. Next we opened up the bike and DH and I started putting it together. It took quite a while to figure everything out and we ended up needing to go to the hardware store to buy a new hex wrench to adjust the brakes on the handlebars. We also discovered that the front tire had a whole in it and we needed a new tube for it. Poor M&M! By this time it was almost 7 p.m. and we still hadn't eaten dinner.
So we ran to a sporting goods store to buy a new tire tube and then we went to McDonald's for dinner (M&M's choice). While we were eating there M&M's stomach started hurting and she wasn't feeling well at all. After the younger kids finished eating and played a little on the playground, M&M was ready to leave. We stopped at the hardware store on the way home to buy a hex wrench & M&M started feeling better (we think it is partly stress that caused it).
We got home around 9 p.m. and DH finished up the bike while M&M opened the gifts from DH's parents on the front porch. Then she was finally able to try out her bike!! Thankfully the day ended on a good note! The bike is definitely a big step up from her old bike (which she got on her 4th birthday). It has handlebar brakes and 18 gears. It is just slightly too big but once she can get on and get it started she can reach the pedals and everything just fine. She rode it this evening after dinner & just kept telling me how much she loves it!

By this time it was close to 10 p.m. We got the kids in pajamas and sent the younger ones to bed. We let M&M stay up and watch Anne of Green Gables - she just finished the book recently. It was fun watching the movie with her.

My parents came over today and gave M&M their gifts. Some of the things she got were Apples to Apples Junior, Croc shoes, new dress, comforter set for her bed, candy, Cinderella polly pocket doll with prince & carriage, balloon kit for making balloon animals and some books.

Tiring day!

On Tuesday I dropped the kids off at my parents' house and then went to the Dry Pack Cannery in Sandy. It has been a while since I've been there so I did quite a bit of canning: 36 - #10 cans plus 2 for my parents. We are trying to get a year's supply stored and trying to rotate as well. I did quite a bit of wheat since they have had limited supplies recently and I don't know if they will have any the next time I go. Thankfully Baby K was great for my parents and didn't cry at all!

After I got back from canning I ate some lunch at my parents' and fed Baby K and then my dad and I took the 4 older kids to the swimming pool. We had a lot of fun and I am a little bit sunburned today (not too bad). This was our first trip to the pool this summer. It's just too hard (or impossible) for me to go by myself with the 5 kids. I wanted to take them before Saturday because M&M is having a birthday party Saturday with some friends and we are going to the pool, so I wanted the kids to get a little bit of practice in before the party. M&M and Luke are getting to be pretty good swimmers. It's nice to not have to be watching them every second they're in the water. I taught M&M how to do underwater somersaults and we worked a little on breathing to the side while doing the front crawl. I took my camera but completely forgot to take any pictures. We'll be sure to take some Saturday though. Baby K slept the whole time we were at the pool. :) She's such a good baby!

After we got home I made dinner and M&M, Baby K and I went to Toys-R-Us. I was pretty exhausted at this point in the day but there was one more thing I needed to do before M&M's birthday the next day. I have been looking for a new bike to buy M&M for her birthday and have been having a very hard time finding one that isn't too girly for her. Unfortunately she is right in-between two sizes of bikes and we finally decided to buy the bigger size, hoping that she will grow over the next year that she will fit it better next summer. We finally decided on one at the store and took the little item tag up to the cash register and they only had that model preassembled - which is 10 extra dollars. So I decided that I didn't want it and we left the store.

Well, M&M was quite upset because she really wanted that bike and it had taken us a long time to finally decide on one. We had a couple of options on what to do next and we finally decided to try another Toys-R-Us in the valley. I was trying to remember exactly where it was since I didn't have the address with me and luckily I found it right away. We went into the store and walked to the back where the bikes are and they had the same model there. We took the ticket up to the front and within 5 minutes they were bringing the box out to the car for me. At this point it was getting close to 9 p.m. and Baby K had had enough. She cried almost the whole drive home and was very upset when we finally got there. Poor baby! :'-(

Kiddie pool

The kids kept begging me to set up the kiddie pool that Baby K was born in so they could play in it in the backyard. I think they remember it being bigger than it actually is...
It was definitely a tight fit for all 4 kids...

Art day

I actually let the kids do an art project one day last week! It all started with Blondie bugging me all day with asking if she could play the Game Cube. Sometimes I have days where I just don't want them to play at all - I would rather they actually play with toys and have to use their imagination a little. Finally when I had just about had enough I told her to call her dad and ask him. Well, she thought that was a great idea because she loves calling him at work and so she kept bugging me to call her dad so she could ask him. So I called DH at work and told him that one of his daughters wanted to ask him something. He was busy at the time and said that he would call back in about 10 minutes. In the meantime I decided to try and find something else for Blondie to do so she would lose interest in the Game Cube. So I asked Blondie if she wanted to paint. Of course she immediately said "Yes" because I hardly ever let the kids paint.

We started out with a little paint book and water colors that Blondie got for Christmas (I think). Then I decided to be a little more daring and brought out blank paper and some more paints so that Kitty could paint as well. Once the older kids saw what Blondie and Kitty were doing they wanted to join in too. Eventually we ended up having erasable markers, foam stickers, water paints, and some squeezable paint brushes for the kids to use all out on the table. The kids ended up having a lot of fun and I enjoyed watching them be creative.

Well, when Dad called back to talk to Blondie, she had completely forgotten what she was going to ask him and started talking to him about what she was painting. DH was a little confused on why she had called so I had to explain everything to him. It was funny because when the kids were finishing up their paintings and I started cleaning everything up Blondie realized that she had forgotten to ask her dad about the Game Cube... :) Mission accomplished!

Pioneer day

July 24-
We spent Pioneer Day by watching the Days of '47 parade on T.V in the morning and then I got the pool out for the kids to play in in the afternoon. My parents and M & Rog came over for a BBQ dinner. After dinner Rog showed us how to make paper boats and then we colored them and sailed them in our pool. We ended the day with our own fireworks show and root beer floats. My dad was a great help with Baby K and ended up holding her for most of the evening. She did just great with the fireworks and hardly cried at all the whole day!

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Starfish Acres:

Rules

Each player answers the questions themselves. At the end of the post the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know that they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answers.

Ten years ago…

1. M&M was born! (baby #1)
2. My DH and I had just graduated from BYU with bachelor's degrees in Computer Science.
3. I was working for IBM's educational software division (which no longer exists).
4. We had just moved from a one bedroom apartment to a two bedroom!
5. Our car was a 1981 Datsun 210 with no air conditioning!

Five things on today’s “to do” list…

1. blog
2. wrap birthday gifts for M&M
3. celebrate M&M's birthday!
4. pay bills
5. clean up house for visiting teachers

Five snacks I enjoy…

1. ice cream
2. circus peanuts
3. granola bar
4. root beer float
5. honey wheat Wheatables crackers

Five things I would do if I was a millionaire…

1. Move to a bigger house with a garden and nice big yard (with lots of trees)
2. Travel
3. Hire a maid/housekeeper
4. Buy a new car for DH
5. Pay lots in fast offerings :)

Five places I have lived…

1. Virginia (lived in same house from birth to age 18)
2. student housing at Ricks College
3. small one bedroom apartment in Provo
4. a little bit bigger two bedroom apartment in Provo
5. Salt Lake Valley

Blogs I’m tagging…

- Dan & Kami's Crib
- The Docket
- Nielson Notes

Confessions...

During Family Home Evening on Monday my husband was teaching the lesson and was asking the kids to describe things like what the color green looks like, what does it feel like when you have a cut on your foot, what does salt taste like, when M&M confessed that when she was about 7 or 8 she thought that salt would taste really good so she hid in the pantry and poured herself a handful of salt to eat. She quickly discovered that it does not taste as good as she thought...

Sleeping through the night??

The last 4 nights Baby K has slept 7-8 hours straight! She has been going to sleep around 10-11:00 and not waking up until 6 or 7 in the morning! I have never had any of my babies sleep through the night regularly before they turned one! We'll see if it lasts...

I really don't have any problems getting up in the middle of the night to feed my babies because I typically wake up anyways even when I'm not pregnant or nursing and I don't have any problems going back to sleep afterwards...

Rolling again!

On Monday I laid Baby K down on the floor so that I could help Kitty get dressed and we saw her roll over! She was laying on her side with one arm stuck under her for a minute or two and then she went all the way to her tummy. Kitty & I both clapped and cheered for her when she did it. Now we just need her to do it more consistently...

Radio

We have a radio/CD player in our kitchen that I will occasionally turn on when I am working in the kitchen. Blondie just recently learned how to change the station on the radio and thinks that it is fun to sit at the counter and keep changing stations. On Friday I turned on the radio while I was cooking dinner and Kitty was sitting at the counter cutting up some paper. When she heard the song that was playing she recognized it and said, "I like this song." Then Blondie came over and tried to persuade Kitty to let her change the station to a girl song. (Blondie has something against songs that are sung by boys and prefers songs that girls sing.) So, Blondie kept asking Kitty if she could change the station and Kitty kept telling her no. Then finally when Blondie asked her one more time Kitty said, "Just stop it Blondie! I like this song."

Backwards day

This morning we were getting ready to leave for an orthodontist appointment when I looked at Luke and thought that it looked like his shirt was on backwards. So I asked him to check and sure enough the tag was in the front. So he changed it around and then we got in the car and left. While waiting in the waiting room at the orthodontist office, M&M noticed that Blondie's pants (leggings) were on backwards. I told her that she could switch them around when we got back out to the car. Then when we piled back into the car after the appointment Luke says to me that his shorts are on backwards as well. At first I thought that he was just joking but then he shows me the tag at the front. So I let him change his shorts around once we stopped at a store and all of the girls had piled out of the car. What is going on at our house?? I think all the kids need to learn how to dress themselves again...

Blondie & her dad

Two weeks ago in Primary Blondie was given the assignment to give the prayer at the end of closing exercises for the following Sunday. She does not like to get up in front of the Primary and never volunteers for anything. She won't even participate if she is called on. So we talked that week about her giving the prayer in Primary and I said that I would be right there to help out since I play the piano for Primary. Blondie said that she wanted her dad to help her and so we talked about DH coming in at the end of Primary to help her out.

Before church last week I reminded her that she was going to be giving the prayer and she again requested that her dad come and help her with it. I said that we would need to remind him about it so that he didn't forget. Well, unfortunately we forgot to remind him because it is always such a rush trying to get everyone ready for 9 a.m. church.

During senior Primary DH looked into the primary room during sharing time and I went back to remind him that Blondie wanted him to come and help out with the prayer and what time he needed to be there. When junior primary came into the room Blondie was called up to the front because she was having a birthday that week and she actually went up to the front so the primary could sing to her. Then when it was time for closing exercises they asked her to come sit up front and she went once again. When it was time for the prayer her dad came forward and she stood up at the microphone and spoke loud and clear for everyone to hear her. I was so proud of her!

Afterwards she came over to me at the piano and I told her what a good job she had done on the prayer. Blondie then said to me, "I didn't think Dad would come." She was so glad that her dad had remembered and came to help her! It was really sweet. (And DH got a little misty eyed when I related the conversation to him.)

I wish...

Last night I was brushing Blondie's hair after her bath and she said, "I wish I was a mom."

Me - "Why?"

Blondie - "Because moms like to have their hair brushed."

Blondie always has lots of knots in her hair and usually ends up crying whenever it gets brushed. I'm not sure if it's because her head is really sensitive or just that her hair is so straight and fine that it gets knots in it easily.

Rolling over?

M&M claims that Baby K rolled over from her back to her stomach on Friday. I was doing some laundry and M&M was holding Baby K. She put her down on her back on the floor to let her play with her play gym. Then M&M turned her head to watch some T.V. and when she looked back at Baby K she was laying on her tummy! She hasn't done it again since then but she does turn over to her side quite often so she can kick at some of the toys on her play gym. It probably won't be much longer until she starts doing it consistently.

We also got out our exersaucer the other day for Baby K to play with. She is holding her head up much better and her legs are getting much stronger. Here is a picture of Baby K in the exersaucer and smiling at Kitty who was talking to her off to the side.

Pictures, take 2

I have always taken our babies in for pictures when they turn 3 months old. I love this age because this is when they start to really respond to people and smile. So the day after Baby K turned 3 months old I had an appointment set up at J.C. Penneys portrait studios for her pictures. I was just in the week before with Kitty to have her 3 year pictures taken and I liked the studio so I decided to take Baby K there as well. I usually take the kids to Target lately to get pictures taken, but it's about a 20 minute drive to get there. J.C. Penneys just opened about a year ago out here and they are much closer and have pretty much the same coupon deals as Target now. Kitty's photo shoot wasn't too great because she was doing a weird smile in them where her top lip was curled up under. There were a couple that turned out cute, but she's kind of at a difficult age where it's hard to get her to cooperate sometimes.

The problem with the 3 month pictures is trying to schedule them at a time when the baby will be awake and happy. So I decided to pick 11:20 for Baby K's pictures since she usually takes a good morning nap and then I feed her and she's awake for a little bit after that. So the morning of her pictures Baby K took a nap and then after she woke up I changed her into her clothes for the picture. Then I fed her and we left for the photo studio. Once we got there we took her back into the camera room for the pictures and she did not cooperate very well for us. I had her dressed in a really cute Laura Ashley dress that someone in the ward gave us (see the picture above). The problem with the dress was that it has a light, sheer layer over a cotton layer. She's at a really grabby stage and she just kept grabbing at the sheer layer of her dress and pulling it up to her face and she just wasn't in the mood to smile. We tried several different poses including some on her stomach and all she wanted to do was suck on her arm. The photographer took a bunch of pictures and said that she got some cute ones so we decided to call it a day.

While I was waiting for the photographer to upload the pictures and organize them Baby K fell asleep in my arms - so apparently she was still tired... When we looked at the pictures on the computer she wasn't smiling in a single one of them! There were a couple of cute ones but she is such a smiley baby that I didn't want to settle on one where she's not smiling. I ended up getting a free 8x10 because of a coupon I had and I bought one more sheet at $3.99 but I also set up another appointment for the following day to try again. I wasn't too excited to have to go back again because it's a pain hauling all 5 kids there and trying to concentrate on getting good pictures. Thankfully this studio has a T.V. out in the waiting area where they play kids movies so that kept the other kids entertained some.

This time I set up the appointment for early afternoon right after lunch. Baby K usually sleeps during that time but I was thinking that pictures might turn out better if we wake her up to take them - she is usually very smiley right when she wakes up. So after the family ate lunch the next day I changed Baby K into a different dress (even though I really liked the Laura Ashley dress, I didn't want to fight with her the whole time with trying to keep the dress down) and then I fed her. I loaded her up into her car seat and we left for the photo studio. Baby K feel asleep in the car and slept until we got up to the studio. When we took her back for the pictures she was all smiles! I had a burp cloth with me to wipe away her drool between pictures and whenever I rubbed the cloth under her chin she would give a huge grin and the photographer would snap a picture. The only position that didn't turn out too well with her was the tummy one again because she loves to suck on her arms & fists. We didn't have any issues with the dress this time and she did just great! I had a hard time picking pictures to buy because they were all so cute! And she fell back asleep on the way home! The pictures will be ready for pickup on Tuesday.

Poor Luke!

Luke is having a rough go of things yesterday and today. We went to the orthodontist yesterday and he had an expander put in. He had a hard time falling asleep last night because his mouth was hurting him and then today he has been having a hard time eating. He kept getting food caught on the wires at lunchtime and he ended up gagging and throwing up a couple of times. Hopefully he will adjust quickly and be back to normal in the next day or two.

Cute kids!

A rare occasion when I can get all 5 kids looking at the camera at the same time and looking normal for the most part. This picture started with me just taking one of M&M holding Baby K because they looked really cute and comfortable together and Baby K looked like she was about to doze off. Then the other girls wanted to be in the picture too and then I included Luke since he was right there as well. I think it turned out pretty cute after only a couple of tries.

Big move

I've been a little behind in my blogs lately because we have been making some big moves in our house the last week and a half. Two Sundays ago I was putting Baby K down for a nap and was thinking how nice it would be to be able to put her in a crib in a separate room from my bedroom so I can just shut the door and not have anyone disturb her. Baby K is still sleeping in our room and I still want her nearby at night but during the day it would be nice to have another room to put her in. A couple hours later my husband was coming down the stairs from the bedrooms and commented that maybe it's about time to move some of the kids down to the basement. Sometimes it's funny how a married couple can come to the same conclusions without any discussion. I mentioned to DH that I had come to that same conclusion earlier that day and so we decided to move forward with our big move that week.

We had been thinking about moving some of the kids downstairs since we were expecting Baby K. At the time the kids were squished two to a room upstairs and the bedrooms are tiny (this has been one of our biggest complaints about this house). There's been a lot of discussion about who we would move and where we would move them to. Ideally I think that Blondie & Kitty would do well sharing a room since they're so close in age and have a lot of the same interests, but they're a little too young to move down by themselves. So we decided to move M&M and Blondie downstairs with their bunk beds and then Kitty would move out of Luke's room and into the room that Blondie & M&M had been sharing upstairs. Then Kitty will be moved out of the crib and into the toddler size bed that we have so that Kitty & Baby K will share a room. DH's concern has been in giving Luke his own room, but we can't really avoid it with an odd number of kids and Luke being the only boy.

It has been a lot of work and we still don't have everything where I want it to be yet. When we were cleaning out the girls room upstairs I came across a hidden art project on the wall behind some shelves that Blondie did in dark blue marker. We weren't able to get it off completely and there is some patching that needs to be done on that same wall so DH wants to patch the wall and then repaint the whole room. Because of this we haven't gotten the toddler bed out yet and we don't have much in the room so that it will be easier to paint (hopefully this will be done tomorrow).

We moved the bunk beds last Thursday and M&M and Blondie have been enjoying sleeping downstairs. The basement is probably 5-10 degrees cooler than the upstairs so we had to put some more blankets on the beds down there. On Friday we picked up a dresser & chest of drawers set from my parents that they don't need and that went down to the girls bedroom as well. DH has been excited to see the room down there being used for a bedroom instead of a toy room that was never kept clean.

Our big problem lately has been trying to figure out where to put the toys and how best to organize everything in the bedrooms. The only room that is almost completely organized the way I want it is Luke's room. Right now the toys are all piled into my sewing/project room and it's getting messier in there everyday!

I bought some really cute area rugs to put into each of the bedrooms and when I was opening the one for Luke's room I noticed that it says on the packaging that they are not to be used on carpet because the color may transfer. Well this totally bummed me out because our house has wall to wall carpeting that is a very light color and DH would kill me if the carpets got ruined. So my only option now is to try and find some rug pads that can be put under the rugs to protect the carpet. If I can't find any at a reasonable price I will have to just return them. I was hoping to use them to add some color to the rooms and to make them look a little more put together. So, if anyone knows of a store where I can buy rug pads that are made to be used over carpet, please let me know...

I will post pictures once we're done with organizing & finding a place for everything.

Summer baseball

There are lots of different sports programs out here in our area and towards the end of the school year the kids brought home a flier from school for a summer baseball program that would just be about a month long, 2 games a week. I have been wanting to give Luke the experience of playing baseball on a team to learn some of the basics and this seemed like a good program for us since he was involved with soccer in the fall and spring. When the deadline for the registration got closer I thought about asking M&M if she would be interested in playing as well. The league is coed and the age group that Luke would be in was ages 7-9 and M&M is still 9 until the end of this month. So I asked her if she wanted to play and be on the same team as Luke and to my surprise she said "sure". So I signed them both up and requested on the registration forms that they be placed on the same team.

The games were geared more towards just learning the basics of hitting, throwing, catching, positions and running the bases. They played with no outs and everyone got to bat each inning with no strikeouts. The coach pitched the ball to the kids and if they didn't hit it after several tries it was placed on the T for them to hit. They only had one practice at the beginning of the season and then there were games 2 evenings a week for a total of 8 games.

Their coach turned out to be the dad of one of Luke's friends from 1st grade. He was super nice and patient and did a great job coaching the kids. I tried to help out when I could but I could only do so much with my 3 younger girls with me. Unfortunately all but the first game were at 5:30 in the evening and went until 6:30 so DH couldn't make it to too many of them. My parents were able to come to quite a few of the games though so they helped out with girls when Baby K didn't need to be fed so I could help out the team. I never played baseball of softball on a team growing up but I know the basics enough to be able to help out somewhat.

M&M was one of two girls on their 10-player team. Most of the kids were closer to Luke's age but there were one or two that were M&M's age. They both learned a lot about the sport (but by no means everything) and they both improved greatly over the season with batting, throwing & catching. M&M has told me that she would like to play again. (I'm glad the season is over so that we can get back to a normal dinner & bedtime routine again. 5:30 games twice a week were just killing me...)

Some highlights of the season:
- M&M hitting a grand slam
- Luke trying to bat with his batting helmet on backwards - this was the second to last game too! He didn't realize it was on wrong until the coach said something to him. (Luckily DH was there and got a picture of it! ;)
- M&M running the bases and passing another runner on 2nd base. She just kept going until she made it home (the other runner woke up and started running after she passed him and made it home after her ;)

Check out that form (and the tongue)...

Marbles

The other day Kitty found a marble in the house and said to me, "Look Mom! I found an eyeball!" She then held it up to her eye to show me.

Blondie is 5!

Blondie had her 5th birthday yesterday! We just had a family party this year for her. My parents came over in the afternoon to watch the kids while I did some last minute shopping and then when DH came home we let Blondie open her presents. After that M&M and Luke had their last baseball game so we all went and watched the game. My sister, Auntie M and her husband Rog met us at the game and we all went back to our house for dinner and cake and ice cream afterwards (except my dad who had to go to a meeting).

I can't believe that Blondie is 5 already and will start kindergarten in a few short weeks! She was only 2 1/2 weeks old when we moved into this house!

The castle cake I made her was one of the easier cakes that I have made. I found it in one of the cake books that I have. It is just made with a basic 2-layer round cake and the spires on top are regular & sugar cones stacked on top of one another.This was probably her favorite present (and M&M and Kitty love it too). It is a Polly Pocket size Sleeping Beauty doll that includes Prince Philip and a horse and carriage - very cute.

Modeling some of the clothes she received
(with Kitty always by her side).The other favorite kid toy that Blondie received. This is a little toy laptop that has lots of games and activities with counting, the alphabet and other basic concepts. Surprisingly, all of the kids have been fighting over this toy since Blondie opened it.

Baby Girls

I have finally figured out with girl #4 that if I want people to know that she is a girl, I need to have some type of bow on her head. Regardless of how much bright pink or lace the baby is wearing, people for some reason almost always will guess that the baby is a boy - hence this shirt that my husband's aunt gave us. I am not a huge fan of the baby headbows because they always seem to get pulled down over the eyes or mouth or fall off, but now whenever I am going to be out in public with the baby I will put a headbow on her. So, if you look back over the pictures of Baby K, you can almost always tell where the picture was taken by whether or not she is wearing something on her head... (This cute headbow was made by my brother's wife, Kami.) :-D

Three months old!

Baby K is 3 months old today!
She is such a fun and happy baby lately! Today at church one of my Visiting Teachers watched her for the first hour because my husband was teaching Elder's Quorum and I am in Primary and she did great! She fell asleep halfway through the meeting for her. She still will not take a pacifier but is trying very hard to get anything else in her mouth that she can get her hands on. Lately whenever she has a blanket on her or if she can get ahold of her dress or shirt she will grab onto it in a death grip with both fists and bring it up to her mouth. Then she will either stick the blanket or clothes in her mouth or try and get her fists in...
She also drools more than any of our other kids. Notice the huge wet spot around her neckline...
And here is a picture of my husband's kind of "babysitting":

Happy Birthday America!

The kids participated in our annual 4th of July neighborhood parade again this year followed by a pancake breakfast in the church parking lot. This was one of the coolest days we've had for the parade because it was overcast all morning - it's amazing how big of a temperature difference that can make here in Utah. Afterwards I set up our pool in the backyard and the kids played in it in the afternoon. My parents came over for a barbecue dinner and my flag cake that I make every year.

This year we tried out the fireworks show at West Jordan's city park. Auntie M & Uncle Rog met us there and brought their wedding pictures that they had just picked up. There was a rodeo going on at a stadium on the park grounds so we were a little unsure where they would shoot the fireworks off from. We started out in one location and then after my husband scouted out the place we moved to a different area. The newspaper had said that the fireworks show would start around 10:20 and we ended up waiting and waiting and waiting. The rodeo didn't end until after 10:30 and we were still waiting for the fireworks show. At one point (before the rodeo ended) they shot off a few fireworks not too far from where we were sitting but then nothing... One funny thing about the Salt Lake Valley is that we could see fireworks shows going off all across the valley - and the one we were at still wasn't starting...

Finally, at about 10 minutes to 11:00 the show started! It was a really good show and the location was great - nice, soft, green grass and it wasn't very crowded - if only it could have started a little earlier. By the time the show started Kitty was asleep and ended up sleeping through most of it. At one point she woke up and watched a few of the fireworks and then she laid back down and went back to sleep. After watching the fireworks for a good portion of the show, Blondie also laid down and fell asleep - she said it was too loud and too bright so I told her that next time we need to bring ear plugs and sunglasses for her. Baby K slept through about half of it and then woke up wanting to eat so I fed her and she went back to sleep - which was nice for me. So, other than the show starting VERY, VERY, VERY LATE, it was great!

Cleaning??

When M&M and I were finishing up in the kitchen after all of our baking I made the comment that we were going to spend most of the day on Thursday cleaning the house. M&M turned to me and asked, "Why? Who's coming to our house?"

Apparently the kids think we only need to clean when we are expecting company...

Baking Day

Wednesday I spent most of the day in the kitchen baking. I decided to try my husband's grandmother's recipe for Monster Cookies and I wanted to make some banana bread with my overripe bananas. I only made half of the cookie recipe and it still made a ton of cookies! M&M was a great helper with the cooking and with Baby K. We gave away several dozen of the cookies as well as some of the banana bread to neighbors. I also helped provide dinner to a family in the ward on the same day!

Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try it:

Monster Cookies
1 pound butter
4 cups brown sugar
4 cups granulated sugar
12 large eggs
6 cups peanut butter
8 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla
12 cups quick oats
1 large package M&Ms
1 package chocolate chips

Cream together butter, sugar, eggs and peanut butter. Next add the baking soda, corn syrup, vanilla and oats. Cream together. Fold in the chocolate chips and M&Ms. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes.

Just as a word of caution - half of this recipe was almost too much for one of the largest bowls I have in my kitchen...

Hooked again...

For the last couple of weeks I have gotten hooked on Internet Indexing again! I thought that I would do a lot of it when I was pregnant with Baby K, but I think that since I was so tired all the time for the first two trimesters, I just never had the energy to want to sit down at the computer and index. Well, a couple of weeks ago I was sitting at the computer and didn't have anything to blog about at the moment so I tried to launch the Internet Indexing program on my computer. Unfortunately since I haven't done it in a while the program was really far behind in the updates so it just gave me an error. After spending some time trying to figure out how to get it working again I was successful! There are quite a few different projects going on right now than when I last did it so I had to do some reading up on them and then got right into it. I have indexed a few of the projects but most of my time I am spending arbitrating. So, one reason I haven't been blogging as much lately is because I am hooked once again - and loving it!!

Reunion Recap

Friday, June 20 we had a family reunion for DH's side of the family. It took place at a campground in Heber Valley. This was the first reunion since I've been in the family that hasn't taken place at the grandfather's house in Perry. With the passing of DH's grandfather a year and a half ago and the house up for sale a change had to be made this year in format and location. It was decided to try out a campground here in Utah that has tent sites, cabins & RV hookups as well. My husband is not a fan of camping and neither are many of his family members so this format was definitely more of a challenge for them. Some of DH's cousins & aunts & uncles are much more equipped for the whole camping thing and seem to enjoy it a lot more.

Anyways, because of M&M's tumbling performance on Friday evening we decided that DH would go to the campsite with the 3 middle kids and get the tent and sleeping bags setup while I attended the tumbling performance with M&M and Baby K. My parents were going to be at the tumbling performance as well so they could help out with Baby K while I videotaped the routine.

The family left much later than we had been planning on to get to the campground so my husband was still setting up camp when I got there around 9 p.m. - which unfortunately caused the family to miss some of the events scheduled for that evening. It was a lot of work for my husband to setup the tent by himself and the kids tried to help but there is only so much that a 7 year old, 4 year old & 3 year old can help out with.

M&M's performance went well and my car load left as soon as her group was finished with their routine so we could try and make it to the campsite before dark. We didn't have any time to eat dinner before the performance so we stopped at Arby's before we hit the road and got something to eat. I was surprised at how short of a drive it was to get there - just over an hour! Luckily Baby K was good in the car and slept for most of the drive.

After we got to the campsite and helped finish setting up we got long pants & jackets on all of the kids and then headed over to the family campfire to roast marshmallows and make s'mores - YUM! We also had glowsticks for the kids to use and play with. The exciting part at the campfire was when we saw a skunk that was hanging out under the pavilion (probably scavenging for food)... :-D

After s'mores we headed back to our tent to settle down for the night. The kids did pretty good and after the initial excitement of the tent & sleeping bags went to sleep fairly quickly. Our biggest concern for the night was that it was getting very cold very quickly. We ended up bringing Baby K's car seat into the tent so she could sleep in it and I wouldn't have to worry about her being stepped on in the night. The only thing that I wish I had brought was a hat for Baby K. I kept waking up to check on her and to make sure she was warm enough. Finally partway through the night I picked her up out of the car seat and brought her in the sleeping bag with me so I could keep her warmer. She did great though and only woke up once to eat at around 5 in the morning. Kitty and M&M woke up at around 6 for some reason and were wide awake. I tried to get them to go back to sleep and M&M convinced Kitty to get into the sleeping bag with her and then she ended up sleeping for quite a while longer.

On Saturday we had breakfast and the kids played on the playground for a while with their cousins. We went for a hike in a marshy area near the Provo River. The hike ended up being longer than we thought and it was getting really hot. There were not many shade trees there in the swampy area. Luckily on the way back we were able to hitch a ride with one of DH's aunts who was driving back from town at the same time. :D



Next came lunch and then the Unbirthday Party started. Luke, M&M and DH had a lot of fun with that and then we were all given water guns which ended up in a huge water "fight" with the whole extended family.

After the water fight we had some much needed down time to get dried off and to get out of the sun for a little while. Next came dinner and then some game time followed by more s'mores at the campfire. We left that night because of 9:00 church the next morning. (We all took naps after church with the exception of Luke...)

(The shirt that Baby K is wearing was given to my by an aunt...)

All in all we had a good time at the reunion. Luckily the skunk didn't spray while we were there and no one in my family got sunburned, but we each (with the exception of Baby K) came away with a couple of mosquito bites even though we used bug repellent. The kids' favorite parts were playing with their first cousins, the water fight and sleeping in the tent. It was a lot of work for me with packing for a family of seven and especially with having a newborn. I was pretty limited on how much I could help out with the various events and meals, but thankfully my husband helped out a lot and the kids all did great. It's nice that the older ones are getting old enough to be able to do more on their own now. We unfortunately weren't there for the planning meeting on Sunday but they are talking about holding the reunion at the same location next year. It will be a little easier to plan for now that we know what the facilities are like and what is available for the family to do there.