There's an alligator in the building?

I took the kids visiting teaching today. Although I love visiting, I was anxious to leave today because the person I visit teach is dogsitting in an apartment full of breakables and nicknacks and the kids wouldn't sit still. There was also a candy dish on the coffee table full of candy but not offered so the kids' repeated whispers asking for candy were getting on my nerves. However, there was a candy dish with M&Ms by the elevator for everyone to take so I promised Caitlin I would get her some candy when we left the apartment and went to the elevator. After a little while, Caitlin asked, "Mommy, can I tell you a secret?" I said "Sure," expecting the usual sweet "I love you." Instead she said, "Mommy, I want to go to the alligator." I looked around thinking there was an alligator figurine or stuffed alligator in the apartment but didn't see anything. After a moment of being puzzled, I realized she meant the elevator. I had to laugh! 3-year-olds pronounce a lot of things in a cute way. Our Bishop hands out lollipops after church and the girls always want to get "Paulipops." I tell them "Paul already is your pops" but they don't get my little joke. . . oh well. At least, Rachel is catching on to my punniness! Only three more kids to get thinking of "pun"ch lines.

Cute and silly kids!

I caught Caitlin climbing on my piano and when I got her down, she argued that it wasn't just a piano, it was also a slide!

Courtney, our love bug!

A Weekend of Fun!

Thursday started my weekend of fun! First, I went with some friends out to dinner to say goodbye to my friend, Sandra, who is moving. Friday we had soccer. On Saturday, Rachel and I had a mommy-daughter date. She's trying to get into aerobic shape for swim team which starts in a couple of weeks so we took a seven mile bike ride on the bike path right by our house. It was perfect weather and the path is beautiful this time of year--it's a wooded path bordered by sweet-smelling honeysuckle, woods, and wildflowers. After we pedaled up our final hill, we went out to lunch and grocery shopping/short shopping. (a.k.a. Walmart) Then we got lots of flowers at Lowe's and planted my flowerpots for the deck and front porch. It always makes me so happy to have flowers on the deck! I love being out there now.

Yesterday we had church as usual. The choir sang and did a nice job. Choir practice was worse than usual--we had no men and I had no accompanist for the third week in a row! Oh well. . . the women sounded good. After church, we had an open house at our home for Sandra and her family. There were a ton of people here and we had a great evening with hanging out with our ward family. The kids all had someone to play with and I enjoyed visiting with friends. The weather was gorgeous so we could be inside and out in the backyard as well. I love having things at my house! Even though it's a little stressful before it starts, it's fun doing it!

Today, Paul spent all morning and some of the afternoon mulching while I pushed kids on swings and occasionally shoveled a little mulch here and there. Then we took the kids to the pool (for our early FHE). This is the first time in years that I didn't have to get in the pool with the kids! It was really fun sitting on the side watching them and chatting with my neighbors. The pool is freezing today but Paul did venture in at Spencer's urging. What a good dad! Tonight, Paul has arranged to have a babysitter so we can go on a date so I'd better get ready!

Do Over Day!

Do you ever feel like you do things over and over and over again? Today was one of those days. First, I did several loads of laundry so I did feel like I was in repeat mode--turn on washer, throw in the soap, put clothes in washer, transfer to dryer, lug upstairs, fold clothes, put clothes away, repeat 5 more times. I did rent a movie and watched it while I was folding laundry off and on--it took me all day to watch the movie but it motivated me to get through the piles of dirty clothes and sheets today.

I am also finding that I repeat the same statements over and over to the kids: "Get out of bed, get dressed, get your shoes on, brush your teeth, eat your breakfast, don't hit your sister, stop fighting over it or I'll have to take it away, do your homework, practice your piano, get into your car seat, ask me nicely, use nice words, etc."

For some reason, having to re-clean and re-repair the same area multiple times got to me today and I started crying for no real reason except exhaustion and frustration. First off, the twins got out an entire bag of finely shredded Mexican cheese and dumped it all over the kitchen counter and floor.

While I was cleaning up the sticky cheese, Spencer came in carrying the towel bar from the powder room which he intentionally broke off the wall to make a "golden sword." I had just fixed it yesterday so I had to take it away from him (accompanied by great drama, crying and accusations of being the meanest mommy in the world because he NEEDED a golden sword) and put it up again. Those of you who know me well know that this type of repair (well, actually any type of repair) is quite a daunting task as I am the least handy person in the world. After several attempts, I got it on the wall but needed to screw it on tight. When I couldn't find a small enough screwdriver, I did what we women do: used my ingenuity and began tightening the screw with my fingernail. I thought I was being so clever until it broke.

While looking at my broken nail and wondering what other kitchen utensil might work as a make-shift tiny screwdriver, I heard a glass-breaking crash in the kitchen and ran to discover that the dog had jumped onto the table and knocked a glass full of water off of it while trying to drink from it (the kids forgot to water the dog today). While I was picking up the glass, humming the tune to "When you hear the crash, think of Jones Paint and Glass" and drying off the floor and table, Caitlin came out of the bathroom with the towel rack which I hadn't completely finished screwing on and said, "It broke again!"

To make things worse, while I was repairing the towel bar yet again, the twins filled up a large Tupperware container full of water and somehow it mysteriously ended up spilled all over the table and floor. Then while I was emptying the dishwasher I accidentally knocked down two mugs and had to clean up their broken shards that were all over the place. That's when the tears began to fall.

Silly me! I feel much better now. Sometimes I am irrational and too easily upset. But one thing's for sure. . .it definitely was a do-over and over day!

A Busy Night

Lauren and Rachel after their chorus concert

The pre-school graduate!

I'm ready for Kindergarten

I'm so excited about all the food here at the after-party

Tonight was Spencer's nursery school graduation. At the same time, it was also Rachel's Chorus Concert so Paul and I had to divide and conquer. The only problem was that they closed two lanes of the interstate for an accident and Paul ended up being late so I had to find someone to give Rachel a ride to the concert (she had to get there early.) He did make in time for her concert because it was 20 minutes later than Spencer's program so it all worked out after the last minute stress of trying to make alternate arrangements--the story of my life. . .

Anyway, I went to Spencer's program and Paul went to Rachel's concert. Spencer was really cute and I loved every minute of it, especially the part when he and his friend Brady started sword fighting with their diplomas and playing catch with them. Luckily it was right at the end as they were about to file off the stage. It's been a long year of school but Spencer's improved in every area this year and I'm pleased with the end results.

Spencer and I made it to the Rachel's concert just in time to take these pictures as everyone was leaving. They were taken with the camcorder so they're not very good pics but am putting them on the blog anyway! Afterwards, we went with our friends the DiRenzos to Friendly's for ice cream. It was a fun night!

Friday Fun

Spencer, my creative genius took two vacuum hoses, duct tape and blue painter's tape and made himself a light saber today! Pretty brilliant if you ask me!


There's my Caitlin--she can't seem to give me a genuine smile for a picture. She always fake smiles every time no matter how many pictures I take but she's still adorable!

Rachel, relaxing on the hard wood floor (Is that possible? It's called hard wood for a reason!) Actually this was her idea of a great picture pose!

Courtney with her dying front tooth--it makes me so sad but the dentist says there's nothing we can do about it. We don't know how it was injured (most likely from a fall, a common occurence) because she never complained that it hurt but suddenly it started turning gray so I took her to the dentist to be told it's dying. Bummer! She has the sweetest smile. We may have to pull it if it starts to bother her but so far she doesn't mind it. She loved going to the dentist's office, by the way. She calls it "the up and down place" because she got to go up and down on the chair when she was there the last time.

It's very cold and pouring today and I feel a little lazy. I had to force myself to get rolling today but I did accomplish quite a bit despite feeling like doing nothing. Something about a rainy day makes me want to curl up in a blanket next to a fire and read the day away. However, the children require me to get up and move. Paul just arrived home to take Spencer on an overnight outing. It's the Father's and Son's Outing but I don't think he wants to go because of the cold and rain so he might just take him to a hotel tonight and fishing tomorrow (supposed to get sunny.) Either way, we'll have a girl's night tonight!

It's a Great Week!

So far it's been a great week. Today I had two of my scrapbooking friends over for a day of chatting and scrapping. Unfortunately, my kids weren't cooperating and I didn't accomplish much (only four pages) but I still had a great time visiting in between the kids' whining, screaming and demands.

Yesterday, I took the kids to story time. The theme was grouchiness. The first story was Eric Carle's Grouchy Ladybug (I think that's the title.) The second story was darling. . .I would recommend it to every parent of young children. . .The Pout Pout Fish. The fish always pouts but eventually turns into the kissy fish. I'm definitely buying it because it's a keeper. Afterwards, the kids made sea animals with model magic and pipe cleaners. After making a fish, Spencer then fashioned his model magic into a jellyfish with pipe cleaner tentacles which all the other kids copied. He really is a very creative kid.

Tuesday, my visiting teachers came and the twins got to play with Bethany, one of their friends from nursery. They call her "my Bethany." One of my visiting teachers is moving so this was probably her last visit. I'll miss her! She has been very faithful and always gives great lessons.

Monday night, Rachel gave a cute family home evening lesson. I told her to look in The Friend for a story to share and she found the last one about a 10-year-old girl with two younger sisters and a younger brother who make messes and ruin her things. Rachel could definitely relate! She loved reading the story to the kids and gave a great synopsis at the end encouraging the kids to clean up their messes and included the remarks, "When we clean up our things and we help each other clean then we will have the spirit in our home." She also asked that we sing "When We're Helping We're Happy" as our closing song. I noticed yesterday that this lesson actually had an impact when Spencer said to me, "Look Mommy, I'm cleaning up my Legos before you even ask me." Sometimes a lesson from a sibling is much more effective than my million requests for them to clean up after themselves. Family Home Evening really is a blessing even though I often wonder if the kids are getting anything out of it at all.

One thing that is really exciting me at the moment is how many people are looking at my preparedness blog. They are from all over the U.S. and really all over the world! It's so fun for me to see how many people viewed it, how long they looked at it and where they are from. I created the blog for my ward so I could disseminate massive amounts of information without incurring any copying costs. But since then, it has blossomed and now it has been viewed more than 4,000 times with over than 10,000 pages viewed. This may not seem like a lot in the realm of typical internet traffic but considering that this was just meant to be a ward preparedness site, it's amazing to me. I even received a note from someone who isn't LDS thanking me for the site because she wanted to start a food storage program and appreciated the information she found there. That made my day. Just today, I had people viewing it from Utah, Washington, Ohio, Oklahoma, Arizona, Washington, California, Texas, Idaho, Missouri, Louisiana, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Jersey, Georgia, Australia, Kansas and Arkansas! The internet is an amazing thing. I hope this doesn't sound like bragging. I am just so grateful that something I have done (and it wasn't hard at all) may help others to follow the counsel of our prophets.

Finally, I end with the last blessing I have to chronicle today and that's the garden. The garden has peas growing in it! I haven't been paying attention to it and only planted a few pea seeds before I got distracted and quit because the kids were ripping open seed packets, dumping out the entire packets in one spot, dropping seeds into the grass, etc. but I noticed yesterday that every one I planted is growing! I also have peppers and broccoli growing beautifully. My asparagus is about four feet tall. I can't wait to have my first harvest next year. It's a vegetable worth waiting for. Saturday, I will have to plant the rest of the garden if the weather permits. I love this time of year! Okay. . .that's it for now!