Can we go now please?

Everyone,

This is what Butterfly asked me today when we finally got the car packed. We're on our way soon and hopefully everything will be fine. I will try to update on the road if I can. If not, see you on the other side!

Safire

Ugh.

Everyone,

Things are half packed. My dad and brother are here for the evening. (My brother has a business trip out here this week...fun to see him!)

It's hot, it's sticky, we've turned the boys around in the car so they are facing forward.

Off to bed...trip tomorrow!

Safire

3rd Times the Charm

Everyone,

Today was full of packing, organizing, folding, bags, bags, and more bags. It's amazing how much STUFF kids take up. Since we don't have to worry about a weight limit (well, not as strict as 50 lbs) we seem to be bringing a lot more this time. Of course, it's 6 days of travel instead of 6 hours. My head hurt by mid morning so I figured a trip to the park was in order.

BFF Vinny and Lala came along. We did a nice walk up to the town next to ours and enjoyed the park and the mud. This park still has all the old playground equipment that I remember playing on. Teeter totters, metal horse swings, tall metal slides, etc. I would show you pictures but Lala and I were have so much fun playing on the teeter totters that there was no time for picture taking.

On our way home we decided to do some treasure hunting in the form of geocaching. Either I am bad at it or new at it or my GPS does not get exact coordinates for me to just walk right up to the caches. I suppose that's part of the fun of geocaching...the thrill of the search. We couldn't find it and decided to go home before the gathering clouds rained down on us.

In the process of going home, I pushed 4 kids and BOB (what an amazing stroller) through the quagmire and ended up in mud up to my ankles. But still BOB went forward. (I think all those late nights making fun of belly dancing for fitness with Lala helped too.) We all got eaten by bugs and just barely made it home in time for naps and an impressive thunderstorm.

Juice came home early so we headed out to run some last minute errands for the trip. Tomorrow I am busy with other things so I needed to be prepared today to go. I drug everyone over to the spot where the cache was again and made Juice help me look. With the kids. In the rain. Because of course, it started raining when we got there. Juice didn't get his master cartographer title in his game for nothing. He finally found it. It was a good cache and we got some good prizes.

I am almost done packing. We have a super busy day tomorrow with a birthday party, my dad and brother coming into town, and finalizing our trip.

Juice and I collapsed in front of the tv tonight and watched Newsies. Boy it brought up memories of sleep overs with my friends as a teenager. Juice and I sang all the songs, because we know all the words. :) It's fun to be geeks together.

Now, off to bed.

Safire

For Those Who Asked...

Everyone,

I've had several people ask me what the title of the book that my MIL sent me. It's called "A Mother's Book of Secrets" by Linda Eyre and Shawni Eyre Pothier. The subtitle (which I've just now read) is- Keys to Making Motherhood Memorable, Meaningful, and Magnificent. It's a collection of essays from a grandma and a mom. I've only read the first 2 or 3, but one has stuck with me for a few days. It's called Trenches Don't Last. It's all about being in the moment and enjoying whatever moment you are in. Whether it be the baby moment, the teenage moment, anything.

They quote another essay by Anna Quindlen, "The biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make...I did not live in the moment enough. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and getting it done a little less." I've thought a lot about this today. About how I am always rushing Butterfly to get to the next thing when all she wants to do is talk to me or be with me or play with me. I thought about it as I picked up Pirate for the 100th time today after he just asked to be put down. I thought about it when Professor crawled into my lap and gave me his killer smile and lightly pointed at my nose and said, "Oooo." (We've been working on body parts. Nooose.)

I do feel like I am in a big rush to get to the next thing. I do feel like there are a lot responsibilities that need to get done. But I think that laundry and cleaning and food prep/clean up are small things. They will always be there. But my responsibility as a mother to these cute cute kids, should be my priority in my mind. I feel like the days go better when I get into what Butterfly is doing that day, or have 15 minutes of ball passing with Pirate, or push cooking lids around the kitchen with Professor (his new favorite thing).

This essay was a good reminder of the important things. Because all too soon they will no longer be pushing pan lids around my house or pretending to be dogs in Soot's kennel. It also reminded me I ought to take more videos of them because then they can see what it was like right now.

So expect some videos in the near future, and also some stories from Butterfly. I'd like to document what they are doing a little more on here.

Safire

PS- Pictures by Lolli, of course. (Well, not the one of Butterfly.) It's so much fun having a friend who loves to take pictures. :)

Amazing!

Everyone,

Tonight was recognition night for the 8-11 year old girls at my church. I am the co-leader and every 2nd and 4th Wednesday, we have activities. The idea is to prepare the girls to be righteous young women in our church. It's fun, we do a lot of cool little things.

Anyway, tonight we asked the girls to bring something that showed who they were and asked them to prepare a short presentation (basically telling us what they brought). Kind of like a big show and tell. Let me tell you, these girls are amazing! We had several play instruments (piano, recorder, violin, and clarinet) and several show off some other talents (drawing, gymnastics, etc.) I am just in awe at the broad range of talents we have! And the desire to show them off...it's not something I would have ever been happy to do (play my violin in front of people) but they all did it with a smile on their face and just wowed me.

The coolest one was one of our 8 year olds. She is so quiet, soft spoken, and can break 2 boards in half with her fist. She has a trophy that is taller than me (and I'm 6 feet!) and a whole bunch of metals from breaking boards. I have learned so much about these girls I'm teaching. They are so incredible.

In other news, we only have a few days left before we leave and things are not getting done. It's mostly my fault they are not getting done, only because I hate dragging all 3 kids out to run errands so I wait till Juice gets home. But then I'm too tired to do anything that nothing gets done. I've got to buckle down and do several things and errands tomorrow, 3 kids or not. Wish me luck.

Speaking of kids, Professor is crying so I'm off!

Safire

PS- Thanks to my MIL who sent me a wonderful book on motherhood. It had me in tears all afternoon.

Up, Up and Away

Everyone,



No children or Daddies were harmed in the taking of these pictures. Mommies...maybe. ;)

Safire

What a Difference Sleep Makes

Everyone,

Juice is doing MUCH better, thanks to a good night's sleep. I am no longer coughing and the boys noses are just slightly running. Butterfly is still unscathed. I feel like we bounced back from this one pretty quick but Juice thinks otherwise.

Today was yet another fun BBQ with our church this time. It was great! There was tons of food, a bounce house and a playground for the kids, and good friends to talk to. Of course, it rained on us. Hard. Didn't seem to bother anyone too much, though. Butterfly had a pretty good time (although she kept saying no one would play with her...BFF Vinny was too excited to be in the bounce house to come out and do anything else) and came home wet and cross. She napped. The boys did not. ARG! They were DONE by 5pm and have been quiet ever since. (Well, except for the time that Professor got his binkie stuck between inside his sleep sack. He couldn't find it and was pretty unhappy!)

I was hoping to do some geocaching today. You know, that fun treasure hunting thing I've gotten hooked on. But it rained off and on all day and there was no nap to be had from the boys. So, my goal is to go tomorrow, after I do my errands and have friends over in the morning. Juice says I've become obsessed with it. I wouldn't go that far but it's a lot of fun. And free! And there is exercise and fresh air involved! All good things!

6 days till launch!

Safire

Movie Day...What does that mean?

Everyone,

We are sick. AGAIN. I swear we are just passing the same cold around and around the house. This time Juice is knocked down with it. No sleep for him (even with Nyquil, lucky guy to actually be able to use it) and running around a lot yesterday at the BBQ did him in. He was so miserable this morning. I made him stay home from church and left all of the kids with him. Hehe...not much of a rest for him I'm sure but I had a class to teach.

Both boys still have runny noses. I am slowly getting over my cold. I'd say it was about 10 days in coming but I feel about 90%. Butterfly seems to be the only one who has not caught it this time and I'm hoping it stays that way.

T-minus ONE WEEK till we leave on our Ultimate Road Trip. I am just praying that everyone is better by then (my dad included because he is sick as well). I am also stressing about it a little bit. My teeth get really sensitive when I'm stressed. Probably because I grind them while sleep. If I can get to sleep at all. I hate a racing mind.

This week is going to be full of getting ready to go, packing, and getting the house ready to be without me for 6 whole weeks. Tomorrow we are resting up to get people well (and I think I'm taking the kids to a church BBQ without Juice). I'd like to go geocaching tomorrow to find a travel bug (little dog tag that has a serial number on it and you can track it's movements around the world) so I can take one from here to Utah. I plan on taking one from Utah back to here when we come back in July. I need to finish getting summer clothes for Butterfly. I need to get a kennel in Southern Utah for Soot for the few days we are staying there.

So much to do, so little time. I just keep telling myself, one task, then the next. And my one task right now is sleep!

Safire

Annual Memorial Day BBQ

Everyone,

Also known as the day we met our ex-neighbors. Have I ever told this story? I don't think so. We were just getting home from church. We had been in our (then) new house for about 6 weeks. Putter was standing underneath the tree in our front "yard" (it's all common ground, we don't own it). I think he was smoking.

Putter has a very scruffy look. Long hair, baggy clothes, etc. We had no idea who this guy was. And he basically bellowed out to us. "Hey! Do you live here?"

"Um, yes." I think I stepped behind Juice. Putter walked right up to Juice, stuck out his hand and introduced himself. "I'm Putter. Do you like BBQs?"

"Um, yes."

"Come on then." We followed him around our house to his house behind ours. We met his mom, Lavender, his wife, Jewel, and others. We ended up being really good friends with them. They moved away to the country shortly after Butterfly turned one. We still get together, and every year we make sure we have a BBQ!

Today was no exception. We had a great time. So great, in fact, that I am pooped. There were kids to chase, dogs to play with, standing to be learned (by both of my boys!), sunscreen to be reapplied, food to be eaten, new friends to meet, an AMAZING fish tank to admire, and views to be admired.

We had a great time! Pictures later!

Safire

Fun with Friends

Everyone,

We went to another birthday party today. This time it's for my good friend AJ (Lolli's last baby). She and I actually became friends because of these two little kids. We were pregnant at the same time and had our babies 8 days apart. (Yes Splats, his birthday is Strong Bear's birthday too.) We spent a lot of time talking in the nursing lounge at church. I was a brand new mom and looked up to her to see what she was doing with #5.

Now I still look up to her and Butterfly and AJ play well together. Probably because they have been playing together from very early on. Either way, I hope these two stay friends. (PS- This picture is of them over a year ago...they have grown up so much!)

Since it was AJ's birthday this week, we had a party. Lolli invited 3 other kids AJ's same age (Butterfly being the only girl, didn't stop her!) and of course, my boys and another younger sibling of one of the boys (I think she is almost the same age as the boys) and an older sister (much older, 11 I think...she is home schooled). We went to the park by their house and the kids played so much! We had cupcakes and little snacks and opened presents and swung on swings and ran and ran and ran. Butterfly had a ball.

Thanks Lolli for another fun day together!

After the party, Juice was home and I went grocery shopping. And then I came home to the house in chaos. The boys were screaming for me, Juice was feeling ill (stomach thing) and Butterfly was cross. I got everyone fed, changed (not Juice), soothed and back in order. Guess I'm doing okay at this mommy thing so far. Once the boys were in bed, Butterfly and I went off to buy more birthday presents for our last party next week.

We also stopped by the mall because the camera store there is closing and I wanted to see what they had (next to nothing). We got some milk shakes and came home. It was nice just to have some time with Butterfly and not have to worry about who else to take care of.

It was a great day but I am beat!

Safire

Weird...just weird.

Everyone,

It's 4:33pm and my house is silent except for the clicking of my computer and some kid crying. That kid is not mine. It's coming from the open living room window. My children are all in their beds. Sleeping. Since 1pm.

Yes they are still breathing.

Yes they really are just asleep and not playing some odd trick on me.

Yes they have been sleeping for over 4 hours. 4 hours!

I'm at a loss as to what to do with myself. I have done all the necessary things (tidy up, cleaned the downstairs bathroom, etc.) and I have done all the fun things too. I finished both my netflix movies (BBC mini series about 2 sisters in the 1920s trying to become dress makers, interesting but not 5 star material...although I think Minnie Driver was in one!) and have read all of my blogs for the day. Dinner is bubbling and Juice will be home in about half an hour. What to do...what to do...

Safire

Swimming

Everyone,

Tonight was Butterfly's very last swim lesson. The one that they encourage the parents to come and watch (they kick us out otherwise...important I think). So Juice came home from work early and we packed up the boys and our sweet Butterfly to swim lessons.

Guess what I forgot to pack? MY CAMERA.

I was annoyed. And a little sad. I could have taken video of her jumping up and down on the side of the wall! I could have shown you that she is by far the biggest kid in the class. I could have shown you how utterly fearless she is in the water. Instead, you'll have to use your imagination.

So one of the things that her teacher has them do is jump while holding onto the wall. She jumps as high as she can and makes an impressive splash coming down. The poor tiny kids next to her have no chance. She is completely oblivious to them though and just was to jump "the highest biggest fastest that I can!" (Someone let her see the Incredibles and now she wants to be Dash. Sigh.)

They play ring around the rosy and have the kids blow bubbles at the end or put their face in the water. Butterfly dunks herself every time instead. She comes up sputtering water and looking a little shocked but happy. She even put her face in the water and walked 2 or 3 steps to her teacher today. It was truly amazing.

Juice leaned over and asked if I was hiding some kind of mermaid genes because she suddenly turned into a fish. She really did. She passed everything on her report card (except for 2 things related to floating on backs...I don't think they even went over that.) and she is cleared to advance to the next class: strokers! We aren't putting her in that class this summer because I think we are going to try and get her into swim lessons at my mom's pool. It would give us something to do and it runs every week we are there. She'll do strokers maybe in the fall or next spring.

She even jumped into the pool without her teachers help and came right back up to the surface. I'm so proud of her. And I can't wait to go swimming with her!

Safire

One Awesome Sleep Day

Everyone,

Today has been oddly relaxing. The past few days I have actually been getting up with the boys when they wake up in the morning, between 6:30am and 6:45am. Not fun for me, but I think better. Why? Because I used to doze while the boys played until at least 7:30 or 8am. And then they were not napping for their first nap. But if I actually get up when they wake up, they are ready to nap by 8:45 am. So I've been doing this for the past few days and they have been napping well in the mornings.

This morning, they slept from 8:30-11am. We met my friend Lolli for lunch, ran a few errands, and then came back home around 2pm. I put everyone down right when we got home and everyone slept until 4:30pm. Almost 3 hours. It was bliss!

Pirate has a fever on and off all day. He hasn't wanted to be put down and I ended up tying him on me for the entire time he was awake. After he woke up from his second nap, he seemed a little better and actually played. His fever was almost gone when he went to bed and I'm hoping that he'll be fine in the morning.

Tonight is my book club so I expect to be tired tomorrow. I can't wait. :)

Safire

Treasure Hunting

Everyone,

One thing that Butterfly insisted on doing for her birthday was a treasure hunt. I made up this cute little story about Soot hiding some toys and needing the kids help to find them before they are lost forever. I took pictures of the places I hid them, and Butterfly led the guests around the house looking for them. They all had a ball.

One thing I was able to get for this road trip is a GPS unit. The last time we drove across the country, we got lost in Nowhere, North Dakota. There was construction along our printed route, and the detour suddenly stopped with no direction on where to go. There was a lot of searching the map and we stumbled our way back on our route. I really don't want to do that on this trip. It was bad enough with 6 of us shoved in a camper towing my blue car behind us. At least we were adults and knew what was going on. I don't want to get lost with the kids in the car.

So I went researching GPS units. Some were hand held, some only for the car, some were cross overs that could do walking or car. I was leaning towards getting one of those (for when we go downtown it might be nice to be able to set it on walking mode and have it tell us where to go instead of me blundering around eventually finding where to go). While I was researching, I came across this thing called geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing). Apparently, it's a search for a specific set of coordinates with a little box or treasure at the end.

This is totally treasure hunting for adults. And when I found a car GPS that also does geocaching, I purchased it on the spot. I've used it twice for geocaching and once in the car so far. It gets me close, but not exactly on the spot. Kind of fun for geocaching (more searching) but not so fun in the car.

Our first geocaching trip took us to a tiny town nearby. I love this town. I want to live there but it's horribly expensive. They have a lake they offer swimming lessons in and everything. Seriously, an ideal spot for us. But since we can't live there, we go walking there. We found our first geocache with toy lizards in it. Butterfly was thrilled. I was too. It was fun! (This is a picture of Juice with our first find.)

Until I came home to log the find on the geocaching website and found out the little one we found was a decoy. There's another box out there just waiting to be found! I must go get it. Since Pirate and I have been sick, I haven't had any energy to get out and walk over there. But I'm hoping to soon.

There is another cache nearby that has a traveling bug in it. Yes, it's a little traveler that you can pick up a dog tag with a bug and a number imprinted on it. The purpose of these things is to go traveling. I'm thinking about going to pick up the little bug and take it to Utah and another cache. Would be fun!

I am totally hooked. Probably because it gives my walks some kind of purpose. Maybe it's the searching. I'm not sure. You'll hear about it some more!

Safire

Sunday and Sickness

Everyone,

Yep, you read the title right. We are sick here. AGAIN. I don't know why we get sick so much. But it just seems we have days in between sicknesses here. This time I am sick along with Pirate. He has a fever (101) and cries because his mouth hurts. It could be teeth (I saw a molar the other day!) but a runny nose doesn't really go along with that. Either way, I know my cold is not teething so I imagine this week will be full of runny noses and clingy babies.

Today during the last hour of church the boys fell asleep on me. It was so incredibly cute and fun to hold both of them and snuggle. It's so much fun to have them jolt a little in their sleep, sigh and snuggle back down into me. Bliss. :)

Everyone also took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. (And I mean everyone, me included.) Everyone also went to bed early so that's where I'm off to. Hope your Sunday was just as good!

Safire

Best Adult Date Ever

Everyone,

Juice and I apparently went on the best adult date ever according to our 15 year old babysitter. What did we do? Well first, we went to a tiny Mexican restaurant for dinner. We've been talking about going to this place for awhile. Only because on the front window it states: We Speak English. I don't know why that made me laugh every time so we thought we'd try it out.

Saturday nights are apparently karaoke nights at this little restaurant. It was LOUD. Not crowded, but very loud. And all in Spanish. And not really sung well. Not the nice quiet reconnection I was hoping to have with my hubby. Still the food was good, the price was reasonable, and we went away laughing at our adventure.

After Mexican Karaoke, we decided to go to the local kid arcade place and play some skee ball. Why in the world did we do that? Well, when we were dating and first married, we were at BYU going to college. They have a game room on campus with 4 lanes of skee ball. When we had a free moment and a free dollar, we would go in and play a few games just for fun. We ended up saving up a bunch of tickets from that and getting something...a pair of BYU socks I think. Anyway, we look back at that time as a lot of fun. So we thought we'd go play skee ball again.

This was good in theory. It was almost 9pm. The place doesn't close until 11pm. I figured it wouldn't be swarming with kids when we got there. Boy was I wrong. Tiny tiny kids running everywhere. Parent just sitting around at tables looking bored or doing something with their cell phone. I just couldn't help wonder why these kids aren't in bed!!

We made our way right over to the skee ball lanes (all but two were broken, and even then there were only 4 balls between them) and proceeded to start our games. The coins went in, the balls came down, and every toddler in the place bee lined for us. They climbed up onto the ball lanes, stole our balls, and ran off with them. Seriously, I counted 6 little tiny kids all fighting over a ball at one point. There we are, standing there watching in horror as the games we were trying to play were being thwarted. No parents came. One big sister came and pulled a little girl off the lane only to have her climb right back up there. The sister shrugged her shoulders, and left. ARG!

We abandoned the skee ball and went to play other arcade games, half of which were broken. Seriously, this place is getting more ghetto as the night goes on. We stayed for an hour and saw most of the families go home. Yay! We played about 10 games of skee ball, turned in our tickets for a little rocket launcher for Buttterfly, and left.

While it wasn't the best date for us, it was a lot of fun.

Safire

One Nap?

Everyone,

The past three days the boys have had weird sleeping schedules. As in, they won't go to sleep right as I put them down for their morning nap but if I get them up, they are all yawns and red rimmed eyes. Then they crash at 11am, sleep through lunch, up at 1pm which is when Butterfly has her quiet time.

This also means I don't get any quiet time. And since Mommy does not get a nap every day (I tried making it a rule, Butterfly didn't go for it. Dang.) I need quiet time.

This also means that the boys are bears by 4pm. I could technically feed them dinner then and put them to bed (in which they will sleep through the night until 7am) but then Juice never sees them. So I keep them up. We've had a bad case of the "witching hour" here lately.

Honestly if they are not going to sleep for their morning nap, I'd like to move them to an afternoon nap starting at 1pm like Butterfly. But I don't think they are going to last that long. I could put Butterfly to bed early, like at around noon but then I have a VERY long afternoon with the kids who are cranky. Hmm...

Maybe this is just a phase. Maybe they will go back to doing two 2 hour naps a day. I'd like that. Maybe Pirate will stop stealing Professor's binkie and throwing it on the floor. Yeah, that'd be a nice one too.

Safire

Birthday Party!

Everyone,

When Butterfly was first born, I was kind of desperate to have friends. Now that I would no longer be working, I needed someone else to talk to. Our birth class instructor suggested I join the hospital class for new mothers when I wrote to tell her about Butterfly being born. It stuck in my head and I joined the class at the last second. Boy am I glad I did! There are about 6 of us that are still getting together on a fairly regular basis. We all had babies around the same time.

Actually, between the 6 of us, only one had a baby out of the month of May. So what does that mean come birthday time? BIRTHDAY TIME. In the past we have done a big combined birthday but this year, everyone is doing their own thing.

Tonight we went to one of our friend's party at a place called "Bounce-U". It's basically 2 huge rooms filled with inflatable bounce houses. The first room had a huge slide, an obstacle course, and something else I can't remember. Why can't I remember? Because Butterfly spent the entire time going up and down that slide. It was funny to watch the terror on her face turn to happiness at the end. So funny.

The second room had a regular bounce house, a ball bounce house, a tee ball area, and a really tall climbing thing with a slide at the end. Guess who wanted to do the climbing thing? And guess who had to go up and get her when she got stuck? I see why Butterfly got stuck though. That thing was hard to climb up in! The slide at the end was fun though. She ran and ran and ran and screamed and ran and played with her friends. She had them all going at one time pretending there was water somewhere and they had to go to a different area to get away from something. That girl and her imagination....

After making them worn out, we went into their party room and had pizza and cake and watched our friend open presents. It was really a fun party! So thanks friend for inviting us!

Safire

Butterfly 4 Year Old Stats

Everyone,

Two days ago I realized I should probably get Butterfly into the doctor so she can have her 4 year old well child check. When I called, they asked if I wanted to come in that afternoon. Uh, no. That was the day I didn't get out of my pajamas until 6pm, after I put the boys to bed. So I picked two days ahead and we were there at 9am. Semi-sharpish. Okay, so we had to run through the parking lot, up the stairs, and down the hall (full tilt) to make it there by around 9:05am. We at least made it.

They had her take off her shoes and stand next to the measuring wall. It was hard to get her to stand up and not lean against the wall, but we finally got it. Then we had to walk down the hall to the "weight room" and she was weighed. She chatted up the nurse the whole time and he was really funny. He took her blood pressure and she didn't even flinch with that. (I think it was 70/40 or some insanely low number. Heart rate around 100 but I think she was nervous.)

She insisted on getting undressed her self which would explain why she was still undressing when the doctor came in. Butterfly went shy and wouldn't look the doctor in the eyes until I shook the doctor's hand and got her name and her favorite color. It was blue (how cool is that?) and Butterfly perked right up. She had her eyes, ears, mouth, throat, and reflexes checked while sitting on my lap. Then the doctor wanted her to do some tricks. We ended up having to pretend she was a puppy in order to get her to do all these things. She had to walk on her toes, on her heals, jump on each foot, tell the doctor 5 colors out of a book and show her the first letter to her name. She then went on to spell out her entire name (first and last) for the doctor and the doctor mentioned that she does extremely well with the letters. She also had Butterfly count to 10.

The doctor and I talked about how Butterfly writes with her right hand and still eats with her left. She said she may be ambidextrous and to just wait it out and see how things go. She also said that Butterfly mumbles quite a bit (not at home, she is too loud at home!) but didn't say anything beyond that. She was glad Butterfly was taking swimming lessons and told me at least 4 times that Butterfly will need sunscreen every day in the summer time, even if we're just walking out to the car because she has very fair skin.

She also asked me how tall I was and how tall Juice was because she is totally off the charts for height and weight. Somewhere in the 125%. She also looked pretty seriously at her growth pattern from a baby and remarked at how she's always been big and tall. Yep. That's our family. The land of the lily white giants.

Butterfly had to get 4 shots today. 4! I was not expecting 2 of the shots. Apparently, because of the area we live in, she has to get a TB test every year. (That's where they put the bubble of liquid under the skin and I have to go back on Friday and have it looked at.) There have been several measles outbreaks in the area (including at the hospital across the street from the doctor's office) so she strongly suggested we get that MMR booster. I asked if she'd have to get another before she starts school and the doctor said no. You can get your 2nd MMR anytime one month after you get the first one and you should be fine. They just typically give it to kids right before school because they are going to be in close quarters with a lot of kids. But since the measles seems to be traveling through the area, it makes sense to have the booster now. She'll have to have another one before 7th grade I think. She also got her last polio vaccine, and her second to last DTaP (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus). She cried hard but perked up when I suggested a fruity drink. She got a blueberry smoothie and I got a peach one. I like it when she gets shots!

She is 52 lbs. 52! Did you know that she meets the weight requirement for sitting in the regular car without a booster in some states?! Holy cow. We are lucky that we bought the car seat that goes up to 80 lbs because she would have had to get a new seat within a year if we didn't. I suppose she could move into a booster seat and be just fine, but her current car seat is working. She knows no different and hopefully won't until she is 80 lbs. Or too tall for it (53 inches). She is 45 1/8th inches tall. She grew around 4 and a half inches in a year. If she keeps this growth up, we should be good with the car seat for at least another 2 years. :)

Other things she mentioned: go to the dentist every 6 months (check) and make sure we either have city water with fluoride in it or put fluoride in her drinks every day. We have city water. She should be drinking 2-3 glasses of milk a day (skim is fine at this point) and 2-3 glasses of water a day, especially through the summer. She needs to have a bike helmet (check) and needs to understand cars and the dangers of the road. She also needs to be introduced to the fact that strangers are dangerous (already do that a little) and she should move at least 30-45 minutes every day. Walking, riding bikes, play at the playground, dancing to music, etc.

All of her boxes are checked off and we're clear to see the doctor again in year for her 5 year old before school check up. As in she's going to be going to school in a year and 3 months. Crazy!

4 is turning out to be a little better than 3. I think having 2 new baby brothers was a huge adjustment or the fact that she is all about the RULES right now makes things easier. She accepts whatever I have to say if I say, "Because that's the rules." Can there be some rules about Mommy getting a nap? I think Butterfly might enforce it for about 2 minutes. Is that long enough for a power nap?

Safire

Birthday Parties

Everyone,

Now that all birthdays are done until next year (except my own, but that's low key) I thought I'd talk about the parties.

Let's start with the boys'. It was a great party, although stressful at the beginning. (There was a food issue. As in, the lady who took my food order forgot about it. It all worked out though and there was too much food!Yay for leftovers!) Because of the food problem, we didn't get started until later than I wanted. The weather was perfect and we had so much fun visiting with friends. Thanks to my good friendLolli for taking these pictures so that I could enjoy their party. The boys each got their own 1 year old shirt to wear (Butterfly had one for her birthday too). Pirate's was blue. It says, "I think it's been a good year. But I don't have anything to compare it to." And Professor's was yellow. It says, "Put down the cake. This is my first one and it looks like you've had plenty."

They each had their very own cake to smash compliments of my good friend Lavender. Pirate's was blue and Professor's was yellow. Professor dug right into it. Pirate took his own sweet time. But in the end, they got cake all over themselves like they were supposed to. I had everyone sing happy birthday to each of the boys individually. Pirate first, and then Professor. It was somewhat emotional for me to see these boys sitting up so big in their chairs getting sung to.
After everyone ate sandwiches and had cake (it was really good cake! I recommend Safeway bakery.) we moved inside for presents. They boys were very spoiled and got some great gifts! It was also really fun to haveLolli's kids help me open all the toys and take out all the little twisty ties, etc.

We got them the little people pirate ship (for Pirate, of course) and Noah's ark (for Professor). Both were a big hit, especially with Butterfly. She asked to sleep with them the 3 weeksin between her birthday and theirs. They also got some crayola stuff from Lolli's family, a tug boat and a train and cups from my parents, cars from Grandma and Grandpa, a fish bowl and a drum from Butterfly, a shape sorter fromLala and her family, dump trucks from Anie and her family, $20 each from Nana and Papa Great (which went into their college fund), trucks from Uncle MusicMan and Aunt Angel.

We had a great time and I can't believe they are 1 year old!

Butterfly's party was fun. I made a bunch of pizza crusts in small baking pans and had all sorts of toppings on the table. The kids were able to make their own pizzas with their own toppings. Butterfly put a ton of cheese on and some pineapples. One of our friends put a bunch of mushrooms on (which she then picked off). Each one was really unique. We played a few games (freeze dance andSimon says) while the pizzas were cooking. Mostly everyone wanted to play with Butterfly's toys and go down our indoor slide. That slide was a huge hit. At one point, there were 3 on the slide and 4 waiting to go down.

Once we had lunch (pizzas and fruit salad) we had Butterfly's ice cream cake. She wanted Cinderella on it because Cinderella is blue. After cake, we played a very fun treasure hunt game where I hid little toys around the house and took pictures where I put them. This was fun except Butterfly INSISTED on getting all the blue stuff (see a theme here?) and that caused all her friends to want blue stuff too. I had 7 little things and I think it was a little too many. Or I would just take the blue stuff out of the pile and then there wouldn't be a problem.

We opened presents next and she got some really fun things! She got 2 horses, an I Spy game, Little Miss Giggles book, and a princess magnet booklet thing.

On her actual birthday, we had fruit tart (which we sang and blew out candles again), and she opened all the presents from her family. From us she got an electronic work book, from Pirate a singing dog, from Professor a little people van and twin boys, from Nana and Grandpa a little people camping set, birthday motorcycle set, and a cup, from Grandma and Grandpa a magnetic fish puzzle, from Uncle MusicMan and Aunt Angel a sing along book, from Lavender a princess towel, a pink piggy bank, and a princess car toy tote. (My personal favorite present...thanks Lavender!)

4 years old is turning out to be great! Easier than 3.

All in all, I think the birthdays were a hit. Butterfly has been sleeping with ALL her presents for the past few days. She is very entertained and I've been able to get some emailing done. But for now, I'm glad I have one whole year to enjoy these kids and plan the next parties. :)

Safire

Crisis to Crisis

Everyone,

Today has been one of those days. I went from screaming kid to screaming kid. At least they all took turns screaming. Let's see...Butterfly screamed because she said it wasn't time to wake up this morning. And it also wasn't time to wake up at nap time. I don't know why she is so cross when she gets up but she is. Oh, wait. I think I know. She stays up playing with her toys and then is really tired when she gets up. Or it could just be that today is Monday and Mondays are always really hard.

Pirate cried today every time I moved more than 2 feet away from him. He is big into being right next to me all the time lately. It's nice, but he's also learned to bite because he is frustrated. So when I put my computer somewhere where he can't touch it, he bites me. Then I put him down. And he bites me. This is a not so cool development into frustration.

Professor takes the cake today though. He cried because he got stuck. He got his legs stuck in the crib slats today during his second nap. Poor boy! When I went up to get him (I was on the phone several times and couldn't make it up there right away), I expected Pirate to be sleeping too. Nope. Professor was very unhappy and when I didn't pick Pirate up too, he was also screaming. So after I got them calmed down, they were awake. Needless to say they didn't have their second nap today.

When I went to go wake up Butterfly (who had a nap...a 2 and a half hour long one), Professor pulled the vent cover off the vent in her room. He went from looking at the the vent cover to climbing into the vent in about 2 seconds. I was busy waking Butterfly up and didn't see him. When he started to scream because he was stuck, I think I freaked out a little bit. His clothes were caught on something and it took me a minute to get him unstuck. He is grabbing onto me with all his might and screaming. Butterfly has rolled off her bed and is trying to lay down on my back and crying because "it's NOT time to wake up!" And Pirate is really interested in what I'm doing with his brother and is trying to back into the vent too.

Needless to say, I needed a little bit of space this evening.

Safire

Butterfly is 4 Years Old!

Everyone,

My sweet baby girl is 4 years old today.  She is a master staller and will say, "Wait, I haven't finished!" for everything.  Eating, playing or pottying...she hasn't finished!  This is espeically true when we are going to bed.  She hasn't finished doing whatever it is she wanted to do before we send her to bed. 

She is all about the "most" right now.  Like Vinny is her bestest bestest friend or "I have been waiting for this my WHOLE LIFE."  That's what she said about most of her presents she opened today.  "This is my WHOLE LIFE!"  It's really very funny.

She is very cuddly.  She loves to give hugs and be as close to anyone as possible.  Something that gets her in trouble with everyone sometimes, but espiecally her friends.  They do not always appriciate her need to be next to a living person at all times.  In addition to her being so cuddly, she can't do anything by herself.  As in, you have to be in the room with her or she's upset.  She won't eat alone, won't pee alone, etc.  While it's very nice to have a shadow, I don't want to be that shadow.  She does still take a nap alone (although we call it quiet play time in bed since she sleeps maybe one day a week).  Her brothers do not count as people yet.

Speaking of her baby brothers, she plays with them sometimes.  She bullies them sometimes (they don't know it...they just look at her and smile because she is amazing!) and she loves them sometimes.  She really really wants to play with whatever the boys are playing with, and sometimes snatches it out of their hands.  They cry, she gets in trouble, and she cries.  She tries to hide her toys from them by only playing with them on the couch (we have this big sectional couch and often you can't sit down for all the toys on it) but that doesn't always work since Professor can now climb up on the couch.  She does love to play with them when they are in good moods and lately has watned to feed them and eat exactly what they are eating.  I keep having to remind her to use her utensiles because she is a big girl.

She builds these big elaborate "sets" with her toys.  Mostly her little people or her ponies.  They have to be set up a specific way and she gets upset when a baby crashes through them.  Sometimes she screams, "Oh no!  Giant baby!  Ahhh!" and helps the boys push over everything.  She'll then sigh and say, "Well.  Looks like we'll have to rebuild,"  and gets to work.  It's so adorable.

She is loving stories and loving reading still.  She wants to talk about her stories all the time, which are mostly princess stories.  She loves to watch her movies while the boys are taking their first naps and will act out her current movie of the day, week, or month.  Yes, she has watched the same movie every day for a month.  That was Chicken Run.  I finally made her pick a new movie and we watched Pocahontas for close to a month.  When I asked her to pick a different one, she asked me if she could watch Chicken Run again "Because it's been a LONG time since I've watched that one.  And it's my bestest bestest movie of all!"  Uh, no.  We watched something else.  We still don't let her watch anything PG and she only wants to watch cartoons.  She is not at all itnerested in live action stuff.

Her current favorite color is blue because she wants to be just like Mommy.  This little fact got her in trouble at her birthday party because she only wanted the blue toys and didn't get a blue straw and threw a fit.  She only wants the blue cup (we only have one so that's a problem) and cries whenever the boys or I are wearing something blue and she is not.  I got her pink sandles for the summer and she cried so hard that they were not blue I sent them back and got her blue ones. 

She is loving her swim lessons.  I think mostly she loves them because she gets to be with her bestest bestest friend Vinny before and after the lessons.  She is by far the biggest kid in her class and I imagine that will not change for most of her life.  She is the biggest kid in my moms group too.  So tall!  Yesterday we went to a party and everyone kept asking what grade she was in.  No grade, just 4 years old.

Speaking of grades, we have decided not to send her to preschool in the fall.  Honestly, I think she would love it and do great with it.  But the logistics/money aspect of it really just wasn't worth the hassle.  I am toying with a few different ideas (doing preschool with a few moms from church, doing a home school type approach) and trying to find things to keep her busy in the fall.  I may continue swim lessons through the winter.  I may sign her up to start violin lessons sooner than  I thought.  I'm just not sure how to keep her sharp mind occupied.  Although she takes care of that herself.

Wow does she have an imaginiation.  I often hear her adding, "she said" or "she cried" or "the end" to all of her play.  She talks like she's living in a book.  It's very funny.

She recognizes all the letters and can write them all.  (Although they aren't always in a line and range from being huge to being tiny.)  She can count to 30 and to 100 by 10s.  She is ALL about the rules and directions right now.  She got a bunch of new toys for her birthday and she had to read the direction sheet first to find out "how best to play with them mommy."  She can dress herself, do buttons by herself, put her shoes on (no ties, just velcros), and get her coat on and zipped up all by herself.  She can set the table, clear her dishes, and pick up her toys at night.  I think now that she is 4 I'm going to give her a specific cleaning job beyond her toys but I'm not sure what yet.

She is sweet, sassy, bossy, moody, lovable, and oh so vibrant.  I just love her so much.  Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Safire 

One Picture

Everyone,

One busy day followed by a frustrating night has given me an enormous headache.  So bad that I am having a hard time focusing and my stomach is a little upset.  Gah...I need sleep.

So, one picture of Butterfly at her party and a nice long post about her tomorrow for her actual birthday.  Promise.

Safire

Birthday in the House!

Everyone,

Wrapping up our birthday months is Butterfly's birthday on Sunday. Today was her party. 7 little kids, 4 babies, 6 moms, 1 dad: party fun.

There was pizzas to be made. Toys to be played with. Slides to slide down. Candles to blow out. Cinderella to eat. Toys to be found. We had a ball.

But I'm seriously beat. More information tomorrow!

Safire

Things I've Done Today

Everyone,

Things I have done today in list form because that's all the brain power I have.

• baked 9 small round pizza crusts and one full pan for the party tomorrow
• went to the resource center and let the kids play...felt like a good mom
• went out to lunch, had a great time
• talked to my BFF Mink for 2 hours while everyone napped
• wrapped presents while talking to her
• cleaned some (not a lot) while talking to her...current topic: what to do when our parents are old and need 24 hour care (random I know but seriously, we talk about strange things and love it which is why she is my BFF)
• made broccoli salad for the first time for a church function tonight
• had 2 people ask me for the recipe which I amazingly remembered but still can't finish a sentence if I wanted to
• went to the store for party food stuffs and our week's worth of groceries
• picked up Butterfly' birthday cake for tomorrow and a fruit tart for her actual birthday on Sunday
• enjoyed previously mentioned church function and didn't learn a thing...which is good. I'm on the right track I think.
• lost my camera battery charger and went digging through the whole house for it
• Juice found it under my camera bag, after tearing up the whole house for it
• he ran into a moldy banana in the diaper bag and was TOTALLY grossed out for touching it...oops, I forgot that was in there
• tried to clean some tonight and gave up
• reminded myself that Juice has the day off tomorrow and can help me clean before the party in the afternoon
• going to bed later than I wanted to
• charging my camera battery! Yay pictures

Safire

A Blank Slate

Everyone,

I think I've been thinking too hard lately.  I seriously can't finish a sentance lately.  All that is going through my head are lists of things that need to be done, and writing those lists down is not helping.  Of course, when the lists go the fastest is when I'm trying to go to sleep. 

And because my mind has been racing when I go to sleep, it continues to race as I sleep.  I've had big epic dreams that leave me just as tired in the morning as I was at night.  Dreams of being locked in a dungon, driving race cars, being lost in airports, etc.  If my brain actually worked, I could write some funny post about my dreams, but I'm exhausted.  Off to bed!

Safire

Out and About

Everyone,

Today I was able to go visit a good friend without Butterfly. I took the boys along and it was SO easy. Who knew that I would say that having twins out of the house was easy. But one less kid seems to be a lot less work. Lala and I went running errands after, and even had a very nice lunch with the 3 babies (remember, her baby Mimi is about 6 weeks older than my boys) and just enjoyed some time without the older two.

Butterfly and Vinny had a grand old time with Vinny's dad (who works second shift and is nice enough to watch the older kids during the day for us if we want to go out) and Butterfly cried when we had to leave. Poor kid.

Pirate is doing MUCH better. He actually ate something today, kept it down, and asked for more! Tonight after dinner his stomach was so tight and round it was so full. I swear, I get the most stress from these boys and their eating than anything else.

I took Butterfly out before dinner once Juice got home from work so we could pick out some fun things for her birthday party on Friday. This is my very first time hosting any kind of friend birthday party for my kids and I'm a little nervous. I'm hoping the weather will be okay enough for some play time outside but I think it's going to rain. Again. We'll have to see what we can do inside. I have a few games in mind and a treasure hunt to do so hopefully it will go okay.

After dinner, we put the kids down and I went back over to Lala's and exercised with her tonight. We end up laughing too hard to do the moves sometimes. I don't know how much we actual exercise happens, but we are at least trying. And I can tell my endurance is up. I'm hoping to be able to do some serious hiking in Moab when we go with my parents. Well, about as serious as you can get with a 4 year old and a huge stroller with babies (I guess they are toddlers now huh?!) inside. Either way, I don't want to feel horribly out of shape so I go and laugh and try to get the "drop, deep drop" thing down.

Now that I'm finally home for the evening (10 pm or so) I'm off to bed. I think I'll sleep well tonight!

Safire

More Excitement

Everyone,

Today Pirate has moved on from huge exploding diapers to actually throwing up pretty much everything he eats. Great. Now I'm starting to think that this is not just the antibiotics taking their toll. This may be the flu. Not the swine flu, although that is in our area. Just stupid old flu. He is at least still nursing and keeping some of that down. And I made strawberry smoothies today and he seems to have kept that down too!

But now I'm waiting for it to hit the rest of my family. Two days, maybe three? Just in time for Butterfly's 4th birthday party too. Ugh.

I am feeling slightly queasy this evening so I'm off to bed early.

This is one of those times I miss living close to my Mom. Because nothing says love like spreading germs to extended family. ;)

Safire

Diapers, Diapers, Diapers

Everyone,

I spilled a lot of Pirate's antibiotics yesterday. As in I have one more dose left and he should have 7. Oops. I'll call the doctor tomorrow and see what I should do.

The antibiotics have been wrecking havoc on poor little Pirate's tummy. He has had huge enormous blow out diapers at least 3 times a day. Today's were right after he got up, on the way home from church, and right before dinner. I'm talking filling the diaper front to back and having it squirt out the sides and run down his legs kind of diapers. That one on the way home from church (at least it wasn't IN church that would have been bad) also filled his car seat. There was actual soup left when I picked him up to take him inside.

Really really gross.

I spent all afternoon cleaning it up and worrying for the state of his poor little tummy. I've started them on some probiotics at the doctor's recommendation (I didn't get them until last night, should have gotten them as soon as we got the amoxicillin) and hopefully that will help. I've also noticed that Pirate's appetite has gone way down. I've been pumping him full of juice and nursing him round the clock. Hopefully that will actually keep him hydrated.

Professor is not bothered by any gastrointestinal issues at all. Sunshine boy. That kid seriously sparkles when he smiles.

We are one week away from Butterfly's 4th birthday!! Can you believe that she will be 4 soon? I can't.

Safire

Help A Sister Out

Everyone,

It's late posting this and I meant to get it out earlier but with Pirate and Professor having huge blow out diapers every two hours (thank you antibiotics), Butterfly plugging up the toilet on the second floor with paper until it was actually raining in the bathroom on the first floor (yeah.) and life in general, it didn't happen. Until now.

Remember my post a few months back about my little niece Seraph? Remember her heart condition and how the doctors sent her home with no other options? Remember that they didn't expect her to live much longer?

Right now she is thriving. She is really surprising her doctors and everyone with her growth. She is gaining weight, starting to roll over (and rolling onto her scar so it can't hurt that much!), and her skin is soft and smooth. She went from not really wanting to be touched to playing with everyone, especially her twin sister Angel.

I keep coming back to a Christmas story. I know, it's May (I just typed April and had to correct myself...where is the time going?!) but this story just keeps popping in my head. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. Not to say that my niece is a Grinch at all! Just these few little lines have been running through my head:

And what happened then...? Well...in Who-ville they say That the Grinch's small heart Grew three sizes that day!

And the minute his heart didn't feel quite so tight, He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast!

I just can't help thinking that Seraph's heart has grown 3 sizes since she's been home. She's been basking in the love of her family (it is immense and tangible from thousands of miles away) and she is thriving.

We need your help. This week (May 8th) Seraph has some tests to determine what to do next. My sister in law Splats explains it all very well so go on over there to see what is going to happen.

She is asking us for prayer and fasting on behalf of Seraph tomorrow to prepare for her testing. (Fasting is typically giving up 2 meals for the day.) We need her doctors to know what to do for her that is best.

Please, if you can, join us for this little girl. I for one want to see what she brings when her heart is not so tight.

Safire

Best Shot of the Week!

Everyone,

Uh, looks like I haven't taken any pictures all week long.  I don't know why.  No, I do know why.  My camera battery is dead and I just need to take the time to recharge it.  It's just a simple thing, but it obviously isn't getting done.  That can be my goal today.

Anyway, last Sunday after church it was so hot.  The kids were cranky, Pirate had a fever, and Butterfly was bouncing off the walls.  I made Juice pile everyone into the stroller and we took a walk to the park to get some energy out of Butterfly.  Juice was cranky because of the heat.  Butterfly ranged from running all over to laying on the blanket red faced and panting.  Pirate learned how to crawl on his hands and feet because he hated to touch the grass.  And Professor was just content to be sitting and sucking on his pacifier since I rarely let him have it out of his bed.

While Juice threw the ball for Soot, I got busy taking pictures of everyone.  This is my favorite shot of Pirate.  Enjoy! 

Safire