Keepin' Up With the Kids is Hard To Do!!

Yesterday morning while I was trying to read the newspaper Josh and Daniel decided to write a book. The titled it "the hall of Beds"-- by Josh and illistreded by Daneil--this is their spelling as well. They decided to write it because they brought up all their blankets and put them across the floor to be funny. They wanted to hang their book up on the wall because they wanted everyone to see their creation. However, when they looked around they couldn't find the tape. Instead of tape they decided to use about a quarter bottle of glue to stick it up on the wall with. Glue, really guys--not cool!! They used so much glue than when I pulled it off the wall the glue was actually dripping down the wall. Luckily they used so much glue it wasn't anywhere close to drying. That means I caught it before it dried and actually stuck the whole book to the wall which would have been an even bigger mess.

Later that morning after Josh and Matthew were off at school I thought I would get myself a treat--a Sonic drink. However, Sarah thinks all drinks should be hers. When we got home I undid Sarah's seat belt to have her hop out of her car seat. However she stayed just out of my reach so she could drink her fill of my drink. She would move just out of my reach every time I tried to grab for her. That way she could drink as much as she wanted until I had to crawl inside the car to get her out. Not fair since I just had to clean up a huge gluey mess earlier that morning!! The little stinker!!We were on the go-go-go yesterday. Right after school Josh had a basketball game. Aaron was working so I had to take all five kids plus Josh's teammate to the game all by myself. Trying to keep track of all six kids at one time--let's just say that cured me of ever wanting six kids!! Anyway, when we got to the game I was looking at Sarah and discovered at some point during the day she had gotten a hold of an orange marker and went to town on her hand. She also went to town on her legs and neck, but you can't see those areas in the picture.It got worse. When I looked at Noah and it looks like Sarah went to town with the orange marker in him, too. You can only see his orange hand, but it was other places, too. That girl is very quiet, mischievous and FAST I tell you!! In the few moments I had between keeping four of my five kids in line and trying to get Matthew's homework done, I got to watch Josh play basketball. When I got out the camera to snap an action picture, Josh, always up for a good photo op, posed for my picture during his game while he was supposed to be playing. I am sure his teammates loved that!!

After the basketball game we had to drop Josh's teammate off and run directly over to Pack Meeting for Matthew. I was dreading taking all five kids to Pack Meeting alone, so, before we went inside I threatened all the kids that if they were bad, there would be consequences. They actually listened to me for once and were all relatively good. Whew!! Matthew loves to volunteer for a prayer--opening, closing or both. If you ever need a prayer, Matthew is your man. That's the first thing out of his mouth when we get into Pack Meeting, "Can I say the prayer?" Of course they always let him--thank goodness. However, for this prayer Matthew insisted on using the microphone. They tried to tell him it wasn't working, but he didn't fall for it. He had given a talk in primary the Sunday before and had watched them hook up the microphone so he knew how to do everything. He got the microphone cord and plugged it in, hooked it up, turned it on and pulled out the stool in front of the podium before he could begin his prayer about 1 cm away from the microphone. There was no one asleep after that for sure!! I am happy to say that his prayer was quite appropriate even if it was quite loud. Love that Matthew!!

All the kids LOVE Noah. They are always trying to play with him, snuggle him, kiss him, trying to make him laugh, etc. I think it is quite sweet. I caught Josh doing that very thing this morning with him. Noah has some good siblings if you don't take into account Sarah scribbling on him with the orange marker!! Sarah likes to try and get her fair share of hugs and kisses from Noah, too. We keep all our kids' magnets on the front door to free up space on the front of the fridge for all the important artwork the kids bring home from school. Some of the magnets were out of reach for Sarah this morning, so, being the super independent child she is, she went and got the stool so she could reach all the ones she wanted. During this fun exercise she also discovered she could reach the light switches as well. Nice. Since she is such a climber, I am thankful we haven't had any falling injuries from her. However, I think Daniel makes up for any and all injuries for our household. Because of injury boy (aka Daniel), I am hoping Sarah won't ever have a falling accident. However, if she does I will be ready since I just completed my continuing education and renewed my registered nursing license for another 2 years. Too bad they couldn't count all my family's medical craziness this past year for my continuing education!! Anyway, let's just hope she never falls and gets hurt!!

Sunday we had to take Aaron to the airport after church. I guess during primary Matthew kept obsessing over when we needed to leave to take him. His primary teachers were concerned since he kept talking about it over and over so they decided to come and talk to me about it during the Sunday School lesson. When they got to the Sunday school doors, Matthew beat them to the punch. Matthew threw open the doors, ran inside the classroom and yelled, "Mom, when are we taking Dad to the airport?" Matthew looked like the character Kramer from the show Seinfeld when he opened and shuffled in the room. We were right in the middle of the lesson. All the adults were taken by surprise including myself by Matthew's outburst. I didn't hurry fast enough and he repeated the question just as loudly. I grabbed Noah and ran out into the hall pushing Matthew out with me. That's when I told him we would taking Dad to the airport after church and not to worry about it. I appreciate that his teachers were concerned, but hopefully next time they will hold on to Matthew so he doesn't run into the room again if they need to talk to me about anything!!

When we got back from dropping Aaron off at the airport Sunday afternoon I came inside and sat down on the couch. All the kids followed me in and started doing this:

You just have to take a deep breath and keep telling myself, I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids...and then put them to bed early :).

During the cryfest above, after she had gotten the rest of the kids crying, whining and fighting, Sarah was able to sneak away up to my bathroom during all the chaos. That's where she found the new pump bottle of face wash I just had bought sitting on the bathroom counter. By the time I discovered she was "missing" she had gone to town with the pump bottle. She had also played in the sink with the faucet. Needless to say I will need to be getting some more new face wash thanks to her--she nearly emptied the bottle. I will also need to do laundry sooner than later, DOH!! At least her clothes and hands smell nice. When I caught her red handed (or soap handed) she started to cry. I was too busy trying to clean up her mess to give her loves. That's when she sought out someone else to comfort her. Her favorites are Josh and Matthew.