SOLD, GPS, Baby Gate Fail and Toughening Up

Wow, what a week!!! Last week Aaron and I were starting to talk about just taking the house off the market and just staying put. Of course that's when we get four showings within 5 days of each other. One of the showings the couple loved the house and came back for a second look. Two days later we got an offer. We haggled back and forth and finally came to an agreed price. That now means we have to be moved out of our house by August 25 and we have NO backup plans of where we are going to because we were about ready just to take the house off the market--wow, talk about STRESS!!! Did I mention school starts August 22nd, too?! Even more stress!! Aaron and I are going out to look and go inside some pre-existing houses on Wednesday so maybe we can line something up. In the meantime I am so stressed out I am not sleeping which is making me extra emotional. Poor Aaron--not only is he dealing with us moving, but he has to also deal with an overly emotional, irrational wife! Anyway, if we don't find anything on Wednesday we will be looking at building. Building will take anywhere from 3-5 months so we need to find somewhere to live in the interim. Ugh--two moves does not sound like fun AT ALL, but that's what we might need to do. We did get a storage unit last week. Saturday we went by to take a look at it. When we went to open it a bunch of spiders crawled out of the corners. Ewww!! When the kids saw it that's where they thought we were moving to. Of course Aaron and I had to play it up. If you can't tease your kids who can you tease?! The kids were not happy about living in the storage unit. They complained it would be too dark. We told them we could open the door during the day to let in some light. Aren't we mean parents? We never did tell them we weren't going to LIVE there so that's where they think we will be living--crazy kids.

Anyway, all we have been doing this past week is going out and driving by potential houses we could possibly move in to. The kids just groan every time we load them into the car and tell them we are going to look at houses. Josh asked why we have to look at houses again. I told him we have to move and if we don't find a house we will have to live on the streets. Josh said he didn't want to live on the streets--he would rather sleep on the grass. I don't think he quite gets what living on the street means--what do you think?

Even though I am stressed out the kids have been going on with life just as if nothing was different--I am quite jealous of that! I wish I could be so ignorant and care free!! Anyway, since the three oldest boys have been at Kids in the Park in the mornings Sarah just has Noah to play with. He isn't much of a playmate since all he can do is climb stairs, cry, eat, poop, and walk along furniture. That doesn't stop Sarah, though. Here's what she tries to do with him:

Noah doesn't particularly care for the cross body slams, but he doesn't have a choice in the matter since he isn't bigger. He will be one tough little guy thanks to Sarah.

Noah has loved going up stairs. We had a baby gate at one point, but everyone kept tripping over it and falling. Instead of an actual baby gate we tried using the ottoman with the ever present tub of clean laundry to block the stairs. That worked for a bit until Sarah got Noah to climb over the top of the ottoman. That is our baby gate FAIL! Oh well, it did work for a bit. Now we will have to figure something else out. DOH!!

Lately Matthew has decided he likes watching Dora the Explorer. Josh and Daniel don't like it so much, but yet, they will watch anything that is on TV so they have been watching it, too. When the Map song came on, Josh got a thoughtful look on his face. He then asked Aaron, "Why does Dora use a map? Why doesn't she use a GPS?" That's what we get for having modern age kids, right?! I do have to admit that was a pretty good question, though.

Noah uttered his first words/phrase. No--it was not momma or daddy, but "Stop it!" I think he may have heard that a time or three thousand. He can even use it purposefully, too. If we do something he doesn't like he will tell us, "Stop it!" I am hoping that he will learn Momma or Daddy sometime soon, though. That would be more pleasant to hear than "Stop it!"

Anyway please say a little prayer for us because we have a whole lotta change going on in our lives in the next few months. Have I mentioned we are way STRESSED OUT?? Times like this I wish I practiced meditation to try and calm myself down!! Maybe I should get Sarah to toughen me up since she is so good at that kind of thing...just ask Noah.

OUCH!, Expensive Stickers, Clogged, Feeling BLACK

Yesterday after I dropped the kids off at Kids in the Park I came home and did a few chores. After that I got in the shower. I was only in the shower for about 10 minutes when Sarah comes upstairs with black stuff smeared all over her and I mean ALL over her. Once I saw how black she was I jumped out of the shower and went on a hunt to find out what Sarah had gotten into. My worst fears came true when I followed the black marks all the way down the stairs and to the pantry. Here's the marks from Sarah going upstairs to the shower to show me her BLACK masterpiece all over her body and clothes:Don't you love the full BLACK hand print and the other huge black spot on the CARPET?When I got to the pantry I discovered where the mess came from. I think as soon as I got in the shower, Sarah grabbed the bar stool, scooted it over to the pantry and found the messiest thing she could--the whole bottle of BLACK food coloring. She opened it up and poured out the whole bottle which as almost full. Then she did some finger painting and smeared it everywhere. It was the biggest mess. Food coloring stains so bad and it's even worse when it's black. Did I mention she got it everywhere? The whole inside of the pantry floor and walls were splattered with the black food coloring. She smeared it all over the bar stool and poured it all over the garbage can. She then smeared it all over body. My favorite is the angry eyebrows she painted on her forehead. What a mess!! I just shook my head and didn't even know where to start in cleaning it up.After I took the picture I took Sarah upstairs, undressed her and threw her in the shower. I then came downstairs and got to work trying to clean up the huge mess. I had to hurry because I had to pick the boys up from Kids in the Park in 30 minutes. The mess on the garbage can and bar stool was too bad so I had to throw both things in the sink and just wash them off. I wiped as much of the black off of the walls and floor as I could. After that I had to use Magic Eraser to get as much of the rest of it off. I still have some stained black marks, but there is nothing else I could do. I had to throw her clothes away because there was no way to get the black off of them. I went back upstairs and I scrubbed Sarah down as much as I could, but she was stained all over. Unfortunately, in taking her up to the shower she got to me as well. She touched me on my face, arms and legs which ended up staining me as well. Thanks Sarah! I thought I would try the Magic Eraser on my arm since it did so well on the walls. Big mistake!! It ended up giving me a chemical burn on my arm--OUCH!! I did get everything cleaned up and Sarah showered and was only 2 minutes late in picking up the boys from Kids in the Park. However, in my haste to clean up I didn't have time to find clothes for myself or comb my wet hair so I just threw on my old PJs and let my messy hair air dry. I just figured I was just picking the kids up and I wouldn't have to get out of the car--or so I thought. When I pulled up to pick up the kids, Josh came over to the car barefoot. I asked him to get his shoes on and that's when he told me he had lost them. I told him to go find them. He went and looked, but to no avail. At this time I had to get out of the car with my completely wet hair, stained arms, legs and face and my wrinkled Pjs to help him look for his shoes. It wouldn't have been so bad except all his Kids in the Park leaders were still there and they then joined us in the search. Luckily we found them, but not after everyone had seen my messed up state. Don't you just love kids?!

To try and avoid Sarah getting into mischief while I got into the shower this morning, I put her and Noah in the shower with me. That didn't work out too well either. Noah tried to stand himself up on the shower door when his feet slipped and he fell hitting his lip on the floor. When I picked him up there was blood everywhere. When I cleaned off his lip I saw his teeth had actually pierced his lip in two places--meaning the tooth punctured a hole all the way through his lip from the inside to the outside in two different places. The pictures don't even do his poor lip/mouth justice!!Ouch!! Poor kid!! It was a mess. It took a while for him to calm down and even longer to get it to stop bleeding. It was still oozing blood a few hours later!! I can't keep the kids trouble free even if I try!! Geez!!

Yesterday after picking the boys up from Kids in the Park Daniel came in and took off his shoes leaving the biggest pile of sand on the carpet. What was even more surprising was the amount of sand still in his shoes after dumping half of it out on carpet already:
Thank goodness for vacuums!

As in other mischievous doings, the kids found my book of stamps I keep out in the car and went to town. They decorated the moving boxes sitting out in the garage with the stamps. Those are some expensive "stickers", but at least the boxes are ready to be mailed to who knows where.

The last week we have been having some issues with the toilet. The boys all share a bathroom in the basement and sometimes that can be a good thing and sometimes a bad thing! It was a good thing in a crazy mixed up way this last week, though! Let me tell you about Daniel...He is one clean boy when it comes to cleaning up after he goes #2. I am glad that he is a good cleaner upper, however, the toilet can't handle the amount of toilet paper it takes for him to be a good cleaner upper in one flush. The result last week was two rounds of a totally clogged toilet. That in itself is not too bad of a thing, but the boys don't know how to fix a clogged toilet. Their way of fixing a clogged toilet is to keep flushing it to see if everything will finally go down. Instead of unclogging itself using that particular method, it, instead, sends a tidal wave of nasty water all over the bathroom floor. That in itself is not good, but it can be fixed only if someone tells us there is a problem. That's where sharing a bathroom is a good thing because Matthew is the only one who will tell us if the "toilet is not working". Twice last week Daniel took care of business and flushed and flushed. When he realized things were not going down, but overflowing, instead of coming to get Mom or Dad for help, he flushed it again and walked away leaving the mess for Matthew to find later. YUCK!!!! That not only happened just once, but TWICE last week. We have also been having personal hygiene issues lately. I have noticed that from the lack of used underwear I have been seeing in the laundry--meaning someone or all three boys are not changing their underwear every day or even worse they are re-wearing their dirty underwear. I am trying to decide which situation is worse and came to the conclusion both are pretty bad. So for Family Home Evening this week we had a lesson on PERSONAL HYGIENE--always a good lesson with so many boys in the family. Aaron and I gave a joint lesson on the ABCs of personal hygiene from what and how to wash in the shower, how long we need to wash our hands after using the bathroom, how often we need to change our underwear, what we should do if the toilet isn't working, etc. We explained to the boys why we need to wipe really well after going #2. I know not all of them are good cleaner uppers like Daniel. I know so because I do the laundry and... well...see the result of not so good cleaner uppers. We told them if they don't wipe well, they will end up with sore bums that stink; and if they stink no one will want to be around them. That's when Daniel chimed in with his words of wisdom. He said in his most serious voice, "But if it's chocolate on our bums we should tell people it's just chocolate. Right?" Aaron and I just busted up laughing. Oh, kids keep things exciting don't they?! Anyway, let's hope this FHE lesson sinks in--and I will know if it did or not the next time I do laundry or hear Matthew running up the stairs screaming, "THE TOILET ISN'T WORKING!!!!"

Look Who's Walking, 5K and Wet Paint!

Noah started walking this past week. He is quite pleased with himself, too. I can't believe my baby is now walking!!


Friday Matthew and Josh had cub scout day camp. They were so excited to go. I think they look handsome in their uniforms.They had to bring their own lunches and Josh decided to make his own lunch without my help. I peeked in his bag to see what he made only to find a handful of chips and a soda can. Nice. I did make him take along a sandwich and some fruit to try and make things a little more healthy. Who knows how much of that other stuff got eaten--hey at least I tried!They had lots of fun. Aaron and I also enjoyed the day since we only had three kids to take care of--piece of cake!!

Last year Aaron ran the Clinton City 5K. Ever since then Josh has said he wanted to run it the following year. Aaron, even though he wasn't in too good of shape, he went and signed Josh and himself up to run it. When he got home from signing up Josh informed him that he wanted to run with Mom instead of Dad. Aaron was more than happy to give into Josh's request. I, however, was not in the best of shape, but how can I say no to Josh. Saturday morning we were at the race bright and early--check in was at 6 am!! I am proud to say we ran the race and finished and we weren't even in last place--which is awesome!! I am proud that Josh did so well!! Aaron was awesome and got all the kids up and ready to go at 6 am so they could be there to cheer us on at the end. It was so nice to see them at the end! While they were all waiting for us to finish they got to watch a bunch of people cross the finish line. During this time one man was running all alone and was about to cross the finish line when Daniel yelled, "COME ON, YOU CAN RUN FASTER THAN THAT!!" Aaron was a little embarrassed, well a lot embarrassed, but what can you do? One more thing it is good we only have one girl because Aaron is very afraid to comb her hair. Saturday morning he didn't even want to try and comb it so poor Sarah had bed head until I was able to comb her hair after the race. Good thing she doesn't care. Here's the nice bed head:Afterward we went to the parade. Our candy stock was getting dangerously low so of course we had to go. Good thing we have four almost five (since Noah is almost mobile, but not quite yet) really good candy gatherers! I love the small town parades!! Matthew kind of sticks out with his quirkiness in everything he does. However, in doing so a lot of people get to know him. During the parade I can't tell you how many people yelled, "Hi Matthew!!" That made my day. Matthew, of course, didn't respond back, but it still gave me warm fuzzies even if Matthew seemed like he didn't care.Of course I have to take a picture of the ambulance Sarah and I had the nice opportunity to ride in almost three years ago. I am sure the EMT got to see a lot more of me than they ever wanted to after accidentally birthing Sarah at home.About half way through the parade Sarah was done gathering candy. She sat down on the curb and decided to eat the candy instead of pick it up. I couldn't get her back up again, either. Crazy stubborn girl!In keeping things exciting later on that Saturday we found that a whole gallon of white paint got smashed open and spilled on the garage floor. We didn't discover the wet paint until Aaron had picked up the package of bottled water and put it inside the car. He then wiped his hands on his shorts and noticed he had wiped a big smear of wet white paint on his shorts, too. He went and looked in the back of the car to find the bottom of the bottled water was saturated in wet paint and had smeared onto the inside of the car, DOH!! We went back to find 2 forty pound bags of salt had been put on top of the paint can which smashed it and caused it to leak all the paint on everything around it. What a mess!! We cleaned up the worst of it and are waiting for the rest of it to dry before we can clean up any more. Dang!!This week was our city's annual celebration. We love it and participated in what we could. Thursday night we had a house showing so after cleaning we headed down to look at the classic car show with all the kids. After looking at all the classic restored cars we went to sit down on the park bench because the people weren't done looking at our house, yet. That's when Josh asked me when the cars were going to start crashing in to each other. I was confused and told him they aren't going to crash into each other. He said he thought we were going to a car show. I finally understood that he thought we were going to another demolition derby. He was sorely disappointed to find we were only here to look at the classic cars and not to see them crash into each other. Funny kid!

Holy Nuggets Batman, Horrible Day and Passing Down Skills

Boy, I worry about our food bill when the boys become teenagers!! The other night we had a fix it yourself night for dinner because I never got around to cooking anything. Daniel, of course, had nuggets. Let me rephrase that he had LOTS of nuggets as you can see. He actually ate all of them except for the two I made him give to Noah. Where does the little guy put it all--a hollow leg?! Geez!!We took advantage of the 7/11 Free Slurpee day. I took the kids down to 7-11 after Kids in the Park and everyone got to get their own free Slurpee. Of course Matthew and Josh didn't wait for me to help them so they got "Slurped". They turned the machine on too fast and sprayed Slurpee everywhere. Oh well. After we got our Slurpees I made them eat them all outside the store because they were all pretty sticky and I didn't want it spilled in the car. They didn't mind. I let Noah have a taste of mine and after that he wouldn't let me take the straw out of his mouth. He ended up eating the majority of mine--the little stinker!!Aaron had a super important meeting at work Tuesday morning he had to play a big part in. To get ready for it he got out his Grandpa Claude's shoe shine kit to shine his shoes with. Just like his grandpa taught his dad and his dad taught him, Aaron passed down the skills and taught our kids how to shine shoes and they all thought it was pretty fascinating. After they were done and had washed their hands, Daniel came to show me how shiny and polished his hands were after using the shoe polish--what a goofball! Aaron even let the kids practice--Sarah included.




Tuesday proved to be a rough day in my adventure of momdom. It started out at 3 am when Noah decided he was done sleeping. He gave me an ultimatum which was, "Either hold me or I SCREAM!!" He needed to be entertained until he finally fell back asleep again at 6 am. Unfortunately, that's when the other kids start coming alive. (To prove my point--lately Josh and Daniel have decided that 5:30 am is an excellent time for a shower every morning.) Anyway that meant there was no more rest for the weary (me). Tuesday morning for Kids in the Park they were having a kid talent show that any Kid in the Park kid could participate in. They also sent home a flyer saying parents were welcome, too, if they wanted to come. In the past years none of the kids have cared if I was there or not so I never went. That all changed this year when Josh BEGGED and pleaded with me to come to watch. Unfortunately, Josh doesn't quite understand that a talent show is a place where you can SHOWCASE your perfected talent not a place to attempt something you have never done before or sing a song you really don't know the words to. Josh had decided to sing the song Praise to the Man karaoke style and maybe do a dance along while he was singing his song. When he first told me I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. I tried to get him to change his mind, but he absolutely wouldn't. I just had to smile and nod and hope things went ok. Josh had also talked Daniel into singing Book of Mormon Stories and possibly do a dance along with that, too. Again...another smile and nod because what else could I do? They had already made up their minds. Matthew said he wasn't going to do anything for the talent show. Anyway even though I was exhausted and bleary eyed from Noah's early morning ultimatum, I got the kids all up breakfasted, medicated and dressed (no small fete). I then had to get myself showered and dressed, too. I then had to pack the diaper bag and make sure we had Josh and Daniel's primary CD with the two songs they had chosen to perform. I must admit we were 20 minutes late, but better late than never, right?! When we got to the park the three boys ran off while I was trying to put Noah into the stroller and make sure Sarah didn't wander away. When we got to the pavilion they were just starting the talent show. About this time Josh changed his mind and told me he wanted to play the piano instead of sing. He wanted me to run all the way home and get his sheet music so he could play. It was all I could do just to get to the park and I didn't want to go all the way back home so I told him no. He was not very happy with me, but that's the way it goes. About this time as well Matthew decided he wanted to participate in the talent show. He came over to me and was really angry at me because I didn't bring his CDs with me. Well if I knew he wanted to do something I would have brought the CDs!! Anyway, he wanted me to go back home so he could get his CDs so he could sing. I tried to talk him into the playing the piano since he has a few numbers memorized, but he had already made his mind up that he wanted to SING and that was that. He kept pulling me towards the car and hitting me when I wouldn't go. During this time as well Noah and Sarah had started screaming--who knows why. Maybe they were celebrating the new holiday Everyone Scream at Mom day and no one told me about it. Finally one of the Kids in the Park leaders saw that Matthew was pretty upset and took Matthew over to her car to see if she had any CDs he would like to use. A few minutes later I finally talked Josh and Daniel into singing something off my phone since I had it with me. Thankfully they agreed. To be honest, I really didn't want to see someone sing and Dance to Praise the Man or Book of Mormon Stories. Josh and Daniel performed and did great. Matthew finally found a CD he could use and performed his number. It is hard to hear, but he did sing. I didn't record Josh and Daniel because they were using my phone to play their karaoke music. And yes that is Noah starting to scream and cry yet again in the background **sigh**:




The whole time while they were performing I had to stand up with Noah because he would only scream if I tried to sit down. Unfortunately, when I had to stand Sarah couldn't see me and came unglued and started screaming herself. One of the other leaders had to hold her to calm her down because I wasn't strong enough to hold her and Noah at the same time while standing. I didn't have proper manners and stay until the end of the talent show because I was plain worn out. I ended up leaving after all the boys had performed because I was done with screaming kids!! Later on I came back and picked the boys up after Kids in the Park got over only to find Josh had gotten into trouble with one of the leaders after the talent show. I won't go into detail, but he really got in trouble!! After a quick lunch we headed over to do some bowling, but since Josh had gotten in trouble he wouldn't be able to bowl. He just had to sit and watch everyone else bowl. Well we got through about a game and a half when Sarah started getting restless. She ended up wandering down the lane and playing in the gutter. I tried to get her to come back, but short of me walking down the lane to get her I couldn't get her to mind. Once Sarah had finally gotten out of the gutter the bowling center employee came over and basically told me I needed to control my kids. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. We ended up leaving the bowling center mid game and coming home because my kids were having a really rough day indeed. I came home and made everyone have quiet time while I had a bath and cried. I guess we have days like this so we can really appreciate the days the kids are well behaved or at least moderately good! This is when the quote from Mary Anne Radmacher truly comes into play, "Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.'"

I try to take my kids to do fun things, but days like this make me question if I am crazy. Why do I do this to myself day after day only to have the kids misbehave and be rotten? I am totally outnumbered 5:1 and the kids really like to play the odds. I only have two eyes and two arms in which to keep track of everyone and that doesn't always work very well. I keep telling myself they will appreciate it when they are older, but that just doesn't make me feel better after I have all my kids screaming at me at once in public!!! I guess I will just have to pull up my big girl pants, take some deep breaths and tell myself...I can try again tomorrow. However, it is hard to stay mad and upset when the kids come later and tell you they love you or when they play with you.








Here's to hoping for a better day today and tomorrow!!

Keeping Things Exciting

Sarah decided it was time to get dressed this morning and couldn't wait for me to help her. She picked out her own ensemble can you tell? I think the Daniel shirt (put on backwards) along with Noah's flip flops and the nice bed head really looks well together. What do you think?As for other happenings...about a month ago we all went to a children's health fair. Josh and Matthew were lucky enough to win some free swimming passes. Ever since then Josh has been asking every day if we could go swimming. We finally decided to go last Friday. Aaron had to work so we couldn't go until he got off work around 3 pm. I made sure the kids were dressed and all the swimming gear was together so we could leave as soon as Aaron got home. Now as a side note Sarah has been really into locking doors lately. She loves to watch her brothers go outside and then run over and lock the door behind them. Her brothers HATE that, but that just seems to make Sarah want to do it that much more. Well back to swimming...as soon as Aaron got home from work we were getting the kids into the car in the garage when Aaron needed some things from inside the house. He went to go and open the house door inside the garage to find it locked. Now all the kids had actually obeyed me and were all inside the suburban so that left no one inside the house to unlock the door I presume Sarah had locked. Doh!! Now I usually have house keys on my key chain, but we had gotten the locks fixed in the suburban a week ago and I had taken off all the keys off my key ring except for the suburban key. I am paranoid about giving my house keys to strangers so I had taken the house keys off my chain. Unfortunately I hadn't put the house keys back on my key chain, yet. Aaron had used his spare set of house keys to put in the realtor's lock box on the front door knob--so that left us with no spare house keys to unlock the door with. Awesome--we had no way of getting into our house short of calling a locksmith. Aaron and I did walk around the house hoping to find an unlocked window or anything so we could get back inside. We didn't find anything much to our chagrin. Insert a couple big deep breaths and a few, "I love my children, I love my children, I love my children..." thoughts. At this time I remembered my friend's husband was pretty adept at breaking and entering--a skill he had somehow acquired while on his mission in Boston. He had learned it from being in a not so great area and learning this skill from his fellow apartment dwellers. Anyway, we decided to ask him if he could give it a try. Unfortunately, both Aaron and my cell phones were locked inside our house so we actually had to drive over to my friend's house to ask her. Her husband happened to still be at work and wouldn't be getting home for at least three more hours. At that point we decided to go ahead and go swimming to kill the time until we could hopefully get into our house without calling a locksmith. We had lots of fun swimming. Josh even was able to jump off the diving board and swim to the side numerous times. He thought he was pretty awesome. Everyone had a great time. As we were on our way home we swung by my friend's house and her husband was home. He followed us over to our house and had our locked door opened in milliseconds. It was amazing and also a little scary how fast he got the door opened!! Good thing he is a good upstanding citizen and not into breaking and entering for a career!! I glad to say that I now have my house keys on my key ring and am planning on making house key copies to hide around in case we ever have this happen again. I should say when it happens again because Sarah is pretty persistent and still loves locking the doors!! Good thing I love my kids!

Aaron's Failed Attempt at Being a Demolition Derby Driver

Alas Noah has reached the Go Go Gadget Arms phase of babyhood. Do you remember Inspector Gadget when he would say, "Go Go Gadget Arms!" and his arms would extend really far? Noah has now perfected the Go Go Gadget Arms move. Any mealtime he eats with our family you have to make sure nothing is anywhere near him or else he will grab it and spill it. You can see half the table at lunchtime was free and clear of anything Noah could reach--and let me tell you he has quite a reach radius, too!!:Go Go Gadget Arms!!

Alas, I have been working on losing the last 20 pounds of baby weight for over a year now. During the middle of my pregnancy with Noah I couldn't wear my wedding rings anymore because they didn't fit. Unfortunately, after I had Noah they still didn't fit and they still don't fit right now--Dang baby weight!! I didn't want to get my rings re sized because, dangit, I will lose the baby weight...eventually. It bothered Aaron that I couldn't wear my rings, so, until I can fit into my real rings again I decided to buy a cheap, fake replacement to wear.Too bad it TURNED MY FINGER GREEN!!! Stupid Bling rings! I guess that gives me even more incentive to lose those extra 20 pounds since I don't like having green fingers.Sarah is turning into a fashionista. She has discovered she can get herself dressed and, boy, what clothes combinations she picks out. Tuesday I laid her down for nap time and as I left her room I told her, "Night, Night." She must have took me literally because when I picked her up from her nap she had changed into some mismatched pajamas. Yesterday during nap time she took off all her clothes and tried to put on two shirts. She got really upset when she couldn't get them to go quite right. I didn't know what look she was going for so I couldn't help her either. She was pretty mad.She got so frustrated that no one could help her fix her outfit she knelt down by the ottoman and put her head in her hands. It's tough being 2 years old!Yesterday I told the boys to clean up the family room before they went to bed. After they were in bed I noticed the ottoman was out of place. I thought to myself, "What an odd place to put the ottoman--right in front of the toy kitchen?!"I moved it back to it's usual place and noticed it was put in that odd place for a reason. There was a huge pile of sand underneath it. Someone had emptied the sand out of their shoes onto the carpet and tried to hide it by putting the ottoman over it. Nice try boys--like I wouldn't see that huge pile of sand!Geez, my kids bring home more sand in their shoes every time we go to the park. I wonder how much they have to refill the sand at the playground since so much of it gets TRACKED INTO MY HOUSE!! Thank goodness for vacuums!!

And last but not least I got a call this morning at 6:30 am. Never a good sign to get a call so early in the morning. I woke right up and answered the phone. That's when Aaron sheepishly tells me that in trying to back out of the driveway, he tried to maneuver the truck around the garbage cans and ended up running into the HUGE electrical box which moved it off it's base. AWESOME!! Who knows maybe Aaron was inspired by our 4th of July events and has a secret desire to really become a demolition derby driver. He was calling to make sure we still had power to our house and that he hadn't taken out the power to the neighborhood. He sighed with relief when I answered the phone which showed him we still had power. As for the electrical box, Rocky Mountain Power came out later and pushed it back into place. Now we get to wait and see if they will charge us for a service visit. Don't you hate it when really big inanimate objects jump right out in front of you while you are driving?! At least there was only a small dent in that tank of a truck. I told him next time it would be easier just to get out of the truck and MOVE the garbage cans instead of trying to do some fancy demolition driving to get out of the driveway. I am sure the neighborhood would agree since I don't think they would like their power taken out by some demolition derby driver trying to get out of his driveway!!

Hot Rockin' 4th and the Public Potty Party!!

We got back from the cabin Sunday afternoon. Even though we had lots of fun at the cabin all of us were exhausted especially the kids. We put the kids to bed Sunday night and waited for it to get dark. When it finally was dark enough, we woke the kids up and brought them outside so we could set off our own fireworks. Sarah was still afraid of them this year, too. She would only stay and watch the fireworks if someone was holding her--which was me. Matthew wasn't too fond of them either, but he stayed outside--even if he would only watch them from inside the garage. Josh and Daniel LOVED them.After we set off all fireworks we got out the sparklers. Matthew and Sarah ran inside the house at this point and refused to come back outside. For some reason the sparklers really scared them. Josh and Daniel didn't mind because it meant more sparklers for them to play with. They loved those, too!

The next morning we got up early and headed over to the Clearfield parade all decked out in our 4th of July gear.Noah was happy and contentedly drinking his bottle until the parade started with the fireman, police and ambulance sirens. The loud noises scared him silly and he just went into hysterical screaming. He had to get loves during and after they passed by us--poor guy.The kids were up and ready for all the candy to be thrown from the floats. Aaron and I, of course, had to take our percentage of the gathered candy much to the kids chagrin ;). It was a short parade route so there was candy aplenty. Even if Sarah didn't gather much of it since she was so busy eating each piece she picked--up one at a time.Sarah didn't quite have the candy gathering skills down. She would pick up one piece of candy, walk to the curb, sit down, unwrap it and eat it. About the middle of the parade she finally realized she could get more candy if she waited to eat it later. She also had help from Daniel in filling her candy bag. Daniel would gather up as much candy as he could, sort it out giving Sarah all the candy he couldn't eat because of his allergies--which ended up being a lot. That was really sweet of Daniel!After Noah recovered from the loud sirens he watched the parade from Dad's shoulders and was pretty happy.During the parade all the kids got free kids' meals coupons from Famous Daves restaurant. Well guess where we went for lunch?! Wahoo--we only had to pay for Aaron and my meals plus a basket of fries for Noah. That's the first time I had been there and it was pretty good. However, there is no way we could afford to go there again without any more free kids' meal's coupons though!! When we first got there the kids were starving and a little rambunctious (aka EXTREMELY LOUD). By the time our lunch was brought out to us we noticed all the tables around our family were very empty. Do we know how to clear out a place or what!?! I don't blame anyone I wouldn't want to sit by a family with five screaming, wandering, watching-you-eat children either!! However, by the time they brought our food out it was silence from our end because our kids were ravenously eating their food. To watch them eat you would think they never got fed at home!! Geez!

After lunch we went for a drive up to see the progress of the new Brigham City temple. It is really coming along. Then we headed down to see what work they have done in redoing the Ogden temple. In the picture you can't see it, but they have torn down part of the outside of the temple and are redoing it.After that we headed over to the Hot Rockin' 4th celebration in Ogden. The main event was a demolition derby, but before that started they had a whole park full of activities for the kids to do. They had a bunch of bounce houses any kid could do for free. My kids jumped at the chance to go down the big slide. Of course they are crazy boys and jumped down from the top and bounced all the way down the slide. Sarah was afraid and wouldn't get out of the stroller to participate. Then the real fun began with the demolition derby. Wow, not to be judgemental, but holy cow was that ever a redneck event!!!! Good thing we fit right in ;). I have never seen so much beer and real live Billy Bob teeth in my life!! It makes me thankful I have a dental plan and can see a dentist regularly!! I do believe we were the only people there without Daisy Duke cut off jeans and tank tops on! Anyway, the derby was extremely loud, but Matthew LOVED it!! He is on the sensitive side of loud sounds, but he loved it so much he didn't even plug his ears the whole event. Somehow Noah was so tired he was able to sleep through part of the show despite the loudness of it.Poor Aaron didn't get to see as much of the derby as he would have liked. It was pretty hot so we got everyone a snow cone at the beginning of the derby. To pick them up Aaron took the three oldest boys with him to help while I stayed to save the seats with the two youngest kids. Aaron let the boys put their own syrup in the their snow cones. Josh made the most of it. He poured so much syrup in his snow cone it sloshed out of the cup all over his arms and hands and ran down his legs dripping all over his feet with each step he took. What a sticky mess! Daniel and Matthew made a mess, but it wasn't as bad as Josh's!! We had to compliment Josh on his superhuman ability of getting the most amount of syrup per cubic millimeter of snowcone!! That is one amazing talent!! Anyway, in the middle of the demolition derby the potty calls began, but not at the same time. Josh was doing the potty dance so Aaron took him to the potty. Now there was only a few choices of bathroom places at this event. There was a whole row of port-a-potties or a bathroom with three stalls and a sink but no soap. YUCK!! Good thing I had brought a bottle of hanitizer (hand sanitizer)! After Aaron got back with Josh Daniel insisted he had to go. Aaron got back from taking Daniel and Matthew had to go. Aaron got back from taking Matthew when Daniel insisted he had to go poo. I just cringed. Aaron made him wait to make sure he really needed to go, but he kept doing to poo dance so Aaron took him. Aaron got back from taking Daniel who got stage fright and couldn't actually go poo once Aaron had searched and finally found a somewhat decent toilet. When he got back from taking Daniel for the failed poo attempt, Matthew insisted he HAD to go poop, too. Aaron just rolled his eyes and then took him. While he was gone taking Matthew, Daniel came over to me telling me he had to go poop. I told him he had his chance and didn't take it so he would have to hold it. About five minutes later Daniel came back over to me to tell me he had an accident in his underwear. Aaron was still gone taking Matthew poo. I told Daniel he would have to wait for Dad to get back. Aaron got back and checked and Daniel had indeed had a small accident in his pants so Aaron turned and took Daniel back to the potty to go poop. Daniel didn't have stage fright at that point, thank goodness! Anyway, while all this was going on I rest assured that Aaron had the bottle of hanitizer. Later I was horrified to find out that Aaron had lost the bottle of hanitizer after the first bathroom visit and no one had been able to wash their hands with more than water during all these bathroom visits--DOUBLE YUCK!!! What's even worse was as the later the show went on, Aaron told me the state of the bathrooms got worse and worse. EWWWWWW!!! I tried not to think about how disgusting that was and tried to enjoy the fireworks show after the demolition derby ended.

However, by the time we got home and had noticed how filthy dirty the kids were--despite the late hour (11pm)--we made everyone take a shower before they got into bed. Josh had to really scrub off the snow cone syrup streaks down his legs and arms that were currently covered with dirt. I didn't even want to think of what type of germs were crawling all over their bodies from all those bathroom visits without soap and water or hanitizer. We did have fun for the most part being together as a family and celebrating the 4th--minus all the bathroom visits. Times like that make me glad we have so many boys because Aaron has to do bathroom duty. I can't take them since they are too old to use the women's restroom. Hey, it is his fault that we do have so many boys since men decide the sex of the child, right?!? Despite all germs we survived the event and now can officially be called redneck since all of us have been to a demolition derby. Let the redneckedness overfloweth!! Oh ya--Happy 4th of July!!

Cabin Weekend

We headed out to the cabin this weekend for some fun. We super cleaned the house before we left Friday morning so we didn't leave the house until that afternoon. Everyone must have been worn out by the super cleaning of the house because they all slept all the way up to the cabin except Matthew of course. He never sleeps in the car--EVER!! He had to keep an eye out for trains so he could tell us when he saw them. He takes his self appointed train watching job very seriously!!When we got up there Aaron got the BB gun out and had target practice with the boys. They used old soda cans that are hanging on some string for their targets. Surprisingly enough, they actually hit a few of them.Sarah found the old cookie monster puppet and ate the pretend cookies G&G T fed him.Sarah also discovered the fun rope string. She actually went on it all by herself. I was nervous when I saw Aaron putting her on it, but she held on, didn't fall off and had a good time.We also roasted marshmallows. Everyone loves that part.Marshmallows always taste better on G&G laps!More target practice. Aaron has a hard time with Josh since he is left handed.Grandma brought a patriotic door hanging craft for the kids to do. Sarah thought it was a "pretty pretty" (aka bracelet) and would only wear it around her wrist.The kids wore themselves out. Especially Sarah. She kicked off her flip flops, laid down in the floor for a few minutes and was out cold. She has slept with her hands behind her head from birth and she still does it--funny girl.Noah discovered rocks this trip. He was content just to sit on the gravel and throw rocks around. That is until he discovered that for some reason he thought they tasted pretty good. MMMMM yummy dirty rocks. What better cuisine for a boy?!