Happy 30th Birthday!

I just had to wish my beautiful, sweet, baby sister a Happy 30th Birthday!

I feel blessed to have a sister that is also my best friend. My relationship with my sister is the reason we decided to have a 4th baby - I wanted so badly for Bella to have a sister. I hope Bella and Jenna will someday have a close friendship like Trina and I do.

Love ya Sis!

Fun Happenings

There have been lots of fun things going on the past week or so.

Chuck and the boys went on the father and sons campout. They all had a wonderful time even though Samuel returned home with a pretty good burn on his leg from touching a hot dutch oven and had a scrapped up nose from a little incident with another boy and a stick.

While the boys were gone, Bella, Jenna and I had a marvelous time together. I could not believe how calm and quiet the house was with the boys gone. There were no crazy boys running around the house screaming battle cries, endless light saber fights or wrestling matches. I didn't realize how extremely LOUD the boys are until they were gone for a night. We just did whatever Bella wanted and that night when she said her prayers she thanked Heavenly Father that the boys could go to fathers and sons and repeatedly said how much she loved her mommy and asked that I never die - it was really sweet.

Samuel started t-ball. We have karate just before t-ball so it's a mad rush to get changed, everyone loaded and unloaded etc. which may explain this funny story, at least that's my excuse.

For the first game, Chuck got home just in time to jump in the van as we were already loaded and ready to go. As we all piled out of the van, Chuck took one look at Samuel and asked, "Why are you wearing your soccer shin guards?" I was totally puzzled since I had told Samuel to run upstairs and get the black "t-ball things" out of his closet and then I helped him get them on. Have I mentioned I'm not an athlete - just checking :)! Yeah I'd totally got the kid dressed for the wrong sport!

While Samuel played ball, Jenna ate rocks.

Samuel and Bella had their Let's Play Music recital. They both did a great job singing and Samuel played the bells. Notice how the two of them are not standing together. Those two when their together tend to cause trouble. Bella has started to learn that she can't do anything even remotely wrong when Samuel's around because he is quick to inform mom with all the details.

Samuel had his Kindergarten Graduation. I can't believe how fast this school year has flown. I have a sinking feeling that is going to be the norm from here on out - the years just quickly passing by. I have loved Samuel's teacher and while it was fun to watch their little program I was a bit sad thinking how he was going to be gone all day next year. I have loved being able to volunteer in Samuel's classroom this year by reading with the kids (Thanks Kristen for taking the other 3 so that was possible!). It was also fun that my mom just happened to be in town for my nieces birthday and so she was able to stay at our house for a few days and see the graduation and the music recital.

We also had a swimming party for Bella's 2nd year Joy School Graduation. I have loved teaching her little Joy School group again this year. What a group of sweet girls!

So many fun things to experience as a mother!

Who's that Guy

Today after lunch I was quickly going through some old photos I had scanned a few years ago. I had such a good laugh with my 80's hair picture I wanted to see what other crazy pictures I had on my computer. Isaac was sitting next to me and when I opened up the file he took one look at this picture of me with my dad and said, "Oh, that's Jesus." I thought you'd get a good laugh out of that dad! I guess the long hair and mustache threw him off!

And speaking of Isaac he actually picked out his own clothes and got himself dressed this morning without me even asking! I came out of my room and he was pleased as could be to show me what he had done now that he's 3 and big. Amazing!

Problem Solved

So late last night Chuck found the cause of our overflowing toilet. He went to Home Depot to get some Drain O because we assumed it was just a lot of toilet paper which had been flushed down. Sometimes kids go a little wild with toilet paper around here. The guy said a wad of toilet paper would harden up like cement and Drain O wouldn't touch it. He suggested we call a plumber.

Well Chuck is a pretty handy fix it yourself type so he decided he would just remove the whole toilet and investigate the problem himself. I decided it was best to just stay clear of the area, I'm sure you can imagine why! At one point during this process he called me in and said to bring the camera he was getting ready to discover the cause of the clog. So I made my way into the bathroom and it was not a pleasant sight or a pleasant smell. With pliers in hand he removed the cause of this lovely problem .... a giant plastic packaging wrapper from some athletic tape I had opened a few days ago. I was sorely disappointed! I mean if you're going to have to remove your whole toilet why not find something more exciting like a stuffed animal or missing favorite toy. Not garbage!

Well, I took a nice picture of the whole episode, but I won't be airing our dirty sewer picture - sorry!

I figure Jenna must have been the culprit in digging the packaging out of the garbage and depositing it in the toilet. She is fascinated with both the garbage and the toilet. When I told Samuel about it this morning he said, "Oh yeah, I saw that in the bottom of the toilet." My question to him, "Were you the one to flush it down." His response, "I'm just to excited about my t-ball game tonight to remember." We had a nice discussion about what we should do in the future if we see a strange object in the toilet.

A Good Laugh

So imagine my shock when I see this photo posted on my friends blog. I literally could not stop laughing! We were quite the stylish pair in 8th grade. Really, teenage years in the late 80's and early 90's was not a glamorous time, but it provides for some hilarious memories. My hair was actually looking pretty tame in this picture, relatively speaking of course. I actually got "better" at styling and it got a lot bigger! And the clothes - were my jeans really up past my belly button - I think so!

Maybe There's Hope!

We were all gathered around the table eating dinner last night when I had the overwhelming feeling I was failing as a mother. It was a noisy chaotic scene playing out before my eyes. Bella was literally standing on her head on the chair trying to eat her food upside down. Isaac was actually eating, but was making a huge mess. It looked like more food was scattered around the table then could have possible made it into his mouth. Samuel was talking loudly, demanding someone get him a drink and dropping pieces of food on the ground because he didn’t want to eat them. Jenna was having her usual fit in the high chair and had thrown all her food to the ground and was screaming with anger. I couldn’t help but wonder where I had gone wrong.

Then I remembered one of our family rules posted big for all to see right there in the kitchen was to be Polite.

I instantly declared that for family night we were having a discussion on one of our family rules. We talked about how to be polite we need to have manners and it’s not okay to act uncivilized at the table. The kids came up with lots of great rules about what we should and should not do at the table. Most of them were fairly obvious and I’m not sure why we need to have a rule to sit on our pockets instead of standing on our head, but I guess part of being a parent is teaching again and again what seems so obvious! As we ate our dessert we practiced proper behavior and the kids actually thought this was a great activity.

Then today was another typical day where you shake your head a wonder where it all went wrong. Our guest bathroom toilet was having a bit of an issue and Chuck wasn’t home to address the problem. For some reason, Samuel didn’t think twice about using the toilet even though the water was already nearly overflowing and then flushing it. Yes, it overflowed and created a huge mess I had to clean up. Not fun!


Then we discovered that one of the kids had ripped the towel hook in their bathroom off the wall leaving a big hole. At least Samuel was honest when questioned about it. The kid has been begging us to build a vine in the house so he can be Indiana Jones and swing across the stairs. I guess he thought if we weren’t going to get him a vine he’d just substitute and swing from the towel hook.



Then something really amazing happened and made me realize that yes life is often crazy and chaotic, but there are many sweet moments that make me stop and know I’m not really failing at being mom. I was cooking dinner and Bella without being asked got the table all prepared for us to eat. She loves being helpful and is so good at seeing needs. She often tells me she can’t wait to be a mom and lists all of the things she will be able to do when she is a mom and how fun it will be. We all sat down at the dinner table and with only a few reminders everyone was much better behaved. Granted Jenna was still screaming mad and at one point Samuel shut his toe in the door and was crying, but overall it was much improved. Maybe there’s hope for all of us yet!

A Wonderful Day

So many things I could write about today, but for now I'll just say I'm blessed to have these sweet little ones call me Mom.