Foray in Photography

I was feeling rather guilty because there was no picture of any temple in our home. I went to Seagull Book and Deseret Book to look at their temple pictures. Unfortunately, I had some sticker shock when I looked at the price tag of the pictures I liked. I then thought I would take a try at photographing my own picture of the temple. About a month ago we made a trip to Salt Lake City and I took a few pictures of the temple. I picked one I liked, enlarged it and framed it. This is how it turned out: Now I don't have to feel guilty about not having a picture of the temple in my home anymore. As always Matthew loves any photo op, too.

The Bikers

Josh and Matthew finally have learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels. YAY!! We thought it was time after we couldn't find a bike to fit Matthew without training wheels. Josh is great, but Matthew is still quite cautious. He still needs to practice a lot more. Daniel attempted riding his bike without training wheels, but he only made it about a foot until he cried to get them put back on. Now Aaron and I need to get some bikes so we can go on family bike rides after we find a bike trailer to put the youngest two in. My family did this growing up and it was so much fun. I can't wait to have my own family go on bike rides.

What's Grosser than Gross?

Yesterday we were at Walmart looking at some things. Daniel suddenly said he needed to go to the bathroom. Saturday we made the mistake of telling Daniel to hold it while we were shopping. That was a BIG mistake because he ended up having a #2 accident while at the store. So when he said he needed to go to the bathroom yesterday we took him seriously. I grabbed his hand and took him into the women's restroom. When I walked in I headed for the handicapped stall because it is bigger so both Daniel and I could fit inside. When I opened the stall door the toilet was clogged and there was water all over the floor. The only other open stall was the one next to the handicapped stall, but there was still water all over the floor--YUCK. I am thoroughly grossed out at this point. I already have issues with public restrooms anyway and this didn't help. Walking into the stall Daniel saw the water on the floor and started stomping and splashed overflowed toilet water all over me and himself. When I got him to stop, he immediately pulled his shorts down right into the overflowed toilet water getting them all wet. Well he finished doing what he came to do in the bathroom and when we found Aaron again we had to leave immediately to come home so I could sanitize my whole body and Daniel's too. YUCK!!! I never used public restroom unless it was an emergency until I had kids. They love trying out a new bathroom any time they can. I hope they outgrow this soon because public restrooms are disgusting!!

Weekend Wrap Up

This weekend went by entirely too fast. Friday we had water day at my neighbor's house. She had a kiddie pool out and Sarah loved it. I put her in it and she stayed and played for about an hour before she decided to get herself out. While trying to climb over the side of the pool she landed on the concrete with her face. The other boys had a lots of fun as well. You can't have a water day without the swimsuit bum crack picture--this one's courtesy of Daniel.Saturday morning we attended the Sunset city parade. That is one small city! The kids loaded up on candy so they were pretty happy. Matthew got to the point with every parade vehicle that passed he would run up to them and ask for candy. He got quite a few handfuls that way, but it was pretty embarrassing. They did have a few fire trucks with firemen dressed in Star Wars gear. Josh and Daniel thought that was pretty neat. Our local ambulance was even in the parade and I could point to the boys and say, "I've ridden in that!" I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I can say they were impressed.

Unfortunate Incident

Yesterday was haircut day for our family. I started with the boys and finished up with Aaron. I must say that as Aaron ages his eyebrows are becoming more unruly. It has come to the point I have to trim those along with his hair when he gets a haircut. Unfortunately yesterday as I was trimming them I didn't realized how short I had trimmed one side. It didn't come to my attention until Aaron looked in the mirror and yelled my name. I went to look and I accidentally shaved off half of one eyebrow. Oops :P. In my defense it was a very hot day and I was trying to keep an eye on four kids as I was cutting his hair. That still doesn't make him any happier, but hey it will grow back soon...I hope. He now refers to himself as the "Half-Brow Freak". If you happen to notice, don't point and laugh where he can see you, please.

Budding Artists

I have found some more artistic works around my house and even in the car this time. They just happen to be drawn with pen on the leather recliner and my arm rest in the van. I have my suspicions (DANIEL), but no one is admitting to them so it must have been the "Not Me" Ghost. Hey, I am trying to look on the bright side--maybe one of my kids will be a famous artist someday and these precious works of art might be worth something...I know it's pretty wishful thinking. Also if that wasn't enough mischief Josh has decided doing Sarah's hair when I am not around is a fun thing to do. Here is a picture of Sarah's latest do thanks to Josh. At least he made sure to complete the work with a bow even though it is on the very back part of her head. You can't see it in the picture, but the whole front of her hair is sticking straight up.

I Stand All Alone

Sarah stood without holding on to anything or without any help this morning. I know walking is inevitable, but it seems to be coming sooner rather than later. I now will have four children that can run away from me at the grocery store. I can't wait... She's growing up way too fast!

Sarah the Grump

Today Sarah has been fussy and whiny all day. That is not like her. She has had a fever for the last few days, but she woke up without one this morning. The only thing is she is so fussy. I was trying to figure out why when I looked in her mouth and saw some new top teeth just starting to come in. Ouch! I have a little more sympathy now I think I know the problem. I tried to get a picture of the new teeth, but she was quite uncooperative. Oh well I guess I will have a while to look at them unless she knocks them out like Matthew did when he was two years old.

Aunt Jill (Aaron's sister) is in visiting for a few days. She has been the one to teach all of my children how to drink from a straw so she thought she would try with Sarah. Sarah was not too cooperative. She loved the Diet Coke, but only if you poured it into her mouth from the straw. She would cry unless you poured it into her mouth. She can be pretty stubborn. Must get that from her dad because I know it wouldn't come from me at all ;).

Too Quiet

This morning I was up getting ready and it was way too quiet. I came downstairs to see what was going on and this is what I saw: Both Sarah and Daniel were fast asleep. Daniel didn't get to bed last night until 10pm and he was awakened by Josh this morning sometime around 5am to watch cartoons. Knowing he had little sleep last night I let him sleep because I didn't want to deal with a cranky 3 year old any more than I had to today. Now I don't know what to do with myself since Matthew and Josh are at Kids in the Park and the other two are asleep. I better go find me a good book.

Dental Floss?

Last night I asked Daniel to run upstairs to my bathroom and grab me some dental floss. This is what he came back with:

Not exactly what I wanted, but he gets an "A" for effort. I would like to see how someone would floss with that...

Keepin' Busy

We have stayed pretty busy the last few days so I haven't blogged for a while. I got some free movie tickets a while back so we decided to use them for movie night Friday. We decided it would all around be better for everyone to take the kids to a matinee than a night movie--there are usually less people and they are more understanding of some noisier kids. We went to see the movie "Up". The kids did pretty good. We did have to leave as soon as it was over because for some reason the credits at the end UPSET Matthew--and that's putting it mildly. I have no idea why, but the credits have always bothered him. He gets pretty upset as soon as the credits come on the screen and yells and screams, hits and kicks until we get out of the theater. Other than that everything went pretty smoothly. We already know about that so we usually plan accordingly.

This week was our city's celebration week. They have had different activities all week long. Saturday they had a parade and Matthew and Josh got to be in it just by participating in Kids in the Park. They got to throw candy and frisbees from the float. It was fun to see them in the parade. Daniel even got some candy thrown right to him because Josh saw him. They were both pretty excited. Matthew walked the whole parade with his leader and got to throw frisbees. My camera battery died before I could get a picture of him and he passed by before Aaron could get his camera phone turned on :(. Matthew threw one right to us, but the people sitting next to us snatched it up while we were reaching down to pick it up. I guess all's fair in love and war--or parade goodies. The kids were one of the earlier entries so after they finished Matthew and Josh got to come sit with us and help Daniel catch some more candy. After the parade we headed to the quilt show and booth set up. There was a charity dunking booth. Josh volunteered to be the dunkee and we got to throw balls at the target until we dunked him. Daniel saw and wanted to try being the dunkee. He was fine until he got put on the platform and he quickly changed his mind and demanded to be taken off. Matthew did the same thing so just Josh got dunked. You can see he really got wet, but he loved it. It was super hot yesterday so we didn't stay outside for too long since Josh doesn't sweat. We did have a pretty good weekend.

Special Kids Rodeo

Yesterday afternoon was the Special Kids Rodeo up in Ogden. This is a program that is part of the Ogden Pioneer Days Festival. The Special Kids Rodeo is an opportunity for kids with special needs to ride a horse with the Freedom Riders, see Sundance the dancing horse, and participate in other fun rodeo events with the Miss Ogden Royalty. We have done this with Matthew for four years and he loves it. Unfortunately this year Josh had Karate at the same time so Aaron and I had to divide and conquer. Aaron took Sarah and Josh and I took Matthew and Daniel. Daniel got to do most of the activities with Matthew and they both loved it. Matthew started out with riding the horse then we went over and did the stick horse barrel racing. Next they each rode the buckin' bull and practiced their roping skills. Matthew didn't quite get that one. He just threw the whole rope (lasso and all) at the cow and then ran away. Then Matthew got his face painted. He got to pick anything he wanted and he picked a butterfly. Since Aaron wasn't there, he couldn't say too much when we got home. Matthew was pretty proud of it though. Then we stopped and saw Sundance the dancing horse. After that we picked up Matthew's trophy and came home. It was pretty fun.

Night Owl or Early, Early Bird?

In the very wee hours of this morning I was awakened by Josh. He walked all the way from the basement, upstairs to use the bathroom for some reason. I don't know why because he has a bathroom downstairs he could have used. And of course he couldn't see so he turned on the hall light which woke me, Aaron and Sarah up. Sarah then thought it was time to cry and eat. After feeding her I was awake enough to be somewhat coherent and I looked at the clock. It said 12:49 am. I then hear the TV turn on. When I went to see what was going on, I saw Josh relaxing on the couch watching TV. Josh thought it was morning so when I tried to send him back to bed he got upset because he KNEW it was morning. I finally shooed him back to bed and told him not to get up until morning--until he saw the sun come up. Then everyone else went back to sleep or so I thought. The only bad thing was when Aaron got up for work this morning at 5 am Josh was back watching TV and no one knows for how long he had been watching. I believe I am going to be dealing with a very tired and cranky boy this afternoon. We'll just call him "Chuckles" since he will be so much fun to be around. I can't wait...

Operation: Wear the Kids Out

We decided to pack the weekend full of fun. We started out Friday by taking the kids swimming. They stayed at the pool for 2 hours. When we got out Daniel said his hands were "wiggly". I corrected him and said they were pruny, but I learned it is best not to argue with a 3 year old. Lately, Matthew has been obsessing about trains especially the Frontrunner so we decided to take a ride on the train down to Salt Lake Saturday morning. When we got down there we grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to the Church History Museum. Unfortunately, Aaron is not in the mode of taking children to museums. He was stuck back reading about the first display when the rest of us were half way through the museum. We had to go back and round him up and explain that children and serious adult museums really don't mix too well. That meant at each exhibit you had roughly 2.5 seconds of the kid's attention before it was time to move on and if you stayed longer mass chaos ensued. Sarah entertained herself at the museum by using our museum guide as her second lunch. I tried to take a picture of the bite marks in the corner of the guide. The also had a mock pulpit the kids like standing behind. They took turns assigning each one prayers. They thought it was hilarious. There also was a children's place inside the museum where you could dress up in shepherd, angel and wise men clothes. The kids seemed to like that. After going through the museum at record pace we headed over to Temple Square to see "the castle" aka the temple. Josh still asks when me and Dad will get married. I tell him someday Aaron will make an honest woman out of me. Just joking, Josh doesn't get that you only need to get married once and that's it. After walking around Temple Square we headed over to the Gateway to let the kids play in the fountains. Josh and Daniel thought it was great. Matthew had mixed reviews. Sarah just hung out in the stroller. While getting soaked Daniel would run back and drip all over Sarah to let her get wet too. After Daniel got thoroughly soaked he started whining about how cold he was even though it was a 94 degree day. Once Daniel started whining Josh started, too. After we had had enough whineyness we finally gave in and bought some clearance shirts at Old Navy. By that time all of us were ready to head home. Josh crashed on the way home. Falling in a deep enough sleep his eyes were half way open. The picture doesn't even do it justice. Poor kid gets that from me. I sleep with my eyes half open. The first time Aaron saw me sleep like that he woke me up because he wanted to make sure I wasn't dead. Anyway we had a lot of fun.

Someone's Food Always Looks Better

Every Friday night we have movie night with our family. We check out old Disney movies from the Library and watch them along with some popcorn and drinks. Ever since Sarah has been mobile she has been after the boys' popcorn. To try and stop the popcorn bowl dumping by Sarah, she got her very own bowl of popcorn along with her own sippy cup tonight. Of course she didn't think her popcorn and drink were very good so she went after everyone else's popcorn bowl and dumped all of them out while eating her fair share. To try and stop her Daniel even tried feeding her pieces of popcorn which didn't work either. The boys didn't like their popcorn dumped out very much, but they were the ones that kept their bowls within her reach even after multiple warnings to keep them away. I stopped cleaning up the mess after two spilled bowls and just waited until the movie was over to finish because she was too fast. As I am writing this Aaron is vacuuming up the rest. Crazy kids!!