The New Ice Cream Man, Passing Time in the Car and Our Rental House Deposit Refund Will Be Questionable...

Our air conditioner has not been working these last few weeks.  I keep thinking the weather will cool off and our house won't be so hot.  Until the weather does cool off we are opening all the windows and using the fan to keep us cool.  The other day, however, I went to turn on the fan only to be greeted with a horrible grinding noise.  I turned the fan off quickly to see what the problem was.  I was annoyed to find someone had stuff some crayons through the holes in the fan and when the fan got turned on it ground up the crayons--thus the horrible grinding noise.  Nice.  This has happened a few times this week and I finally found out who the culprit was this afternoon--the little stinker:

Luckily, I caught him before he put the spoon inside the fan.  However, if you look in his other hand he has a crayon all ready to go.  Let's hope he isn't as mischievous as Sarah--I already have too many gray hairs from her I don't need even more from him--that's for sure!!

Today I went to pay our rent.  While we were there the secretary asked if the kids could have some candy.  It wouldn't have mattered what I would have said because as soon as Sarah heard the "C" word it was all over.  Sarah hadn't listened to a word I had said all morning, but as soon as the secretary whispered the word candy Sarah gave her her whole undivided attention.  The secretary gave Sarah a candy lipstick and you thought Sarah had died and gone to heaven.  Sarah didn't know what it was at first until I told her it was some pretty pretty lipstick.  The rest of the morning she kept applying it over and over again.  Then she would look at me and say, "Oh, so pretty!!"  Even though it was candy Sarah pretended like it was the real thing and loved it.  After a few hours she had applied the lipstick so much she had a candy mustache all around her lips.  What a funny girl.  I now know what to get Sarah for Christmas--a whole box full of candy lipsticks!!  She would be in heaven!!  Here's Sarah applying her pretty pretty:

 

Here's Sarah telling me, "Oh, so pretty!"

 The latest and greatest info from the experts is to keep a baby rear facing until they are at least two years old.  Noah's car seat can be rear facing and forward facing, but for now he is rear facing.  However, he has found a great way to pass the travel time in the car--pulling off his socks.  He has gone all summer without socks and now that I am trying to put them on him, he is not liking them.  As soon as I buckle him in he immediately reaches for his socks and yanks them right off.  As you can see we are collecting quite the pile of socks in the car.  Hopefully he will eventually leave them on since winter will be here soon.  If not he will have some cold, bare piggies--that's for sure!  

 Yesterday was play group at the park.  It happens to fall during lunch time so we bring a sack lunch and visit while the kiddos play.  Yesterday Daniel wanted nuggets to eat for lunch--shocker I know.  He eats nuggets 99% of the time for lunch.  This kid isn't one for variety.  Anyway, since I was fixing nuggets for him I fixed them for Noah and Sarah as well just to keep things easy.  When we got to the park, Daniel had two nuggets and went to play.  Sarah and Noah made short work of the rest of them.  When Daniel decided to come back to eat, he was pretty upset there were no nuggets left for him.  I had to tell him you snooze you lose buddy.  Anyway, while Noah was eating the nuggets he also liked to wander around.  He had a nugget for each hand and was toddling around.  I was keeping an eye on him and noticed a few bees flying around, but didn't pay too much attention.  A few minutes later Noah walked back to me and collapsed in my lap and started screaming like he was hurt in some way--you know that horrible baby scream.  I picked him up and saw a smashed bee on his shirt and then I looked at his lip and it was swelling fast.  The poor guy got stung.  From what I could guess I think the bee landed on his nugget and Noah then took a bite causing the bee to sting his lip or inside his mouth.  Ouch--poor guy.  I gave him loves for a while until he wanted to go play again.  However, during the rest of play group his lip was quite swollen.  By the time I laid him down for his nap the swelling had gone down a bit.  I did sneak in during his nap and took a picture of his bee stung fat lip--poor guy: 

Yesterday morning was pretty hectic.  In trying to get all three boys showered, dressed, breakfasted, pack their backpacks while cleaning up the breakfast mess things can get pretty crazy.  So by the time the three oldest had all left on the bus I was ready for a break.  It was just me and the two youngest at home.  I sat down to look at the computer for a few minutes.  I hadn't been sitting for too long when I heard splish splash.  Now I ran through my head where the two youngest could have access to water when it popped into my mind--THE TOILET.  I ran upstairs and sure enough they were in my bathroom having a toilet party.  By the time I caught them they were both soaken wet and flushing Q-tips down the toilet.  Who knows what else they had flushed down the toilet.  So much for a relaxing break.  They both got thrown into the shower to scrub the toilet nastiness off them.  YUCK!!  I also have to sigh because I can slowly hear our rent deposit getting taken away.  We have lived in this rent house for almost a month and the kids have been quite hard on it.  Not only have they flushed foreign objects down the toilet, they have put a few gouges in the linoleum floor, colored on the walls and floor with crayon, and put a few dozen dents and dings in the wall.  Originally moving the furniture in of course there were a few dings put in the wall--that's just to be expected when you are moving furniture in and out of a house.  However, after living here a few days Sarah was helping me clean by washing the walls with a baby wipe.  When she got to the ding she wiped it and wiped it I guess she was trying to wash it off.  In all her wiping she soaked the drywall quite a bit.  She then went to town digging out the wet drywall with her fingers.  She ended up making a small dent into a large one with the wet drywall and her finger carving. 

Again I can hear our rental deposit slowly cha-ching away with lots of "help" from the kids.  Why do kids have to be so hard on a house?!  Who needs that deposit back anyway?!  

However, Sarah is not the only one to blame.  I found the beautiful example of penmanship on the train table today.  I am going out on a limb here, but I think it came from DANIEL since it is in orange crayon spelling out  l-e-i-n-a-D which is Daniel spelled backwards.  **SIGH** I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids.... 

 Yesterday was Sarah's first dance class.  After her nice shower that morning to scrub off the toilet nastiness I tried to get her dressed in her dance clothes.  To say that was a struggle was an understatement.  Those were NOT the clothes Sarah wanted to wear and she fought me getting her dressed in them every step of the way.  Even after I finally got her dressed when I turned my back she took everything back off.  Grrrrrr.  I finally had to bribe her to get her dressed in them and to stay dressed in them.  I am sad to say I am not above bribery if it works to benefit me ;)!  Anyway, here she is in her dance clothes and ballerina shoes (don't let her innocent smile fool you--she had screamed all morning long until she was bribed to stay dressed in her dance clothes!) 

 She was a little nervous when I went to leave her at the dance studio, but when the teacher brought out the candy...her attitude immediately changed to: forget mom, this lady has CANDY!!  When I went to pick her up she did well and it seems she would want to go back next week.  I guess time will tell.  Hopefully I can get her dressed in her dance clothes a little easier next week.  I am keeping my fingers crossed!!

Sarah has really been asserting her independence lately.  She only wants to wear the clothes she picks out and heaven help you if you try to change them.  Take for example what happened on Sunday...I got Sarah dressed in a dress she absolutely did not want to wear.  She screamed about it all the rest of the morning.  She screamed about it all the way to church:

 All the way walking inside the church.  She also refused to keep her shoes on, too because they were not the ones she wanted to wear either.  She ended up walking into church without shoes on because she refused to keep them on.  Aaron went to drop her off in nursery and she was still spitfire mad.  When Aaron put her down in nursery she ran over to the nearest kid and tackled her to the ground.  Poor innocent bystander Molly!  She, unfortunately, got to experience the full wrath of Sarah.  Anyway, Aaron tried to stay and calm her down, but it wasn't working.  He just had to walk out and wish the nursery teachers luck.  Finally after a while she stopped crying, but all of nursery she sat unmoving and pouted in the corner.  When Aaron went to pick her up from nursery she ran away from him and wouldn't let him touch her.  Since Aaron had his hands full with Noah, he decided to let me pick her up from nursery.  When I went in to get her she wrapped her legs around her chair and tried her hardest not to let me pick her up.  I finally wrestled her out of her chair and carried her kicking and screaming out of nursery.  I walked into the chapel with her still kicking and screaming hoping that by the time I sat down she would stop.  When I found Aaron and sat down on the bench I put her down.  She then ran away from me to the back of the chapel still screaming.  And this was no quiet screaming, this was blood curdling screaming.  I jumped up to grab her only to have her run to the opposite side of the chapel screaming the whole way.  By this time we had everyone's attention in the chapel.  When I went to grab her she ran to the other side screaming the whole way.  The whole time I had my fake, everything is great smile on, but inside I was thinking, "Wait until I get a  hold of you!!!!!"  I finally grabbed her and took her out into the foyer.  She then started screaming she wanted color.  I deduced she wanted a crayon.  To try and appease her I took her to the nursery room to get a crayon.  I got her one, but she ended up grabbing the whole bucket of crayons.  I wouldn't let her have the whole bucket so she threw herself to the ground just screaming.  It was so loud Aaron could hear her screams all the way in the chapel.  At this point I had given up on any hope of staying for sacrament meeting since I couldn't get my daughter to stop screaming.  Aaron came to the same conclusion so by the time I had walked out of the nursery room he was out in the foyer with the rest of the kids ready to go home.  We drove home amid her continued screaming.  By the time we got her home we didn't even get her out of her dress and just put her in her room.  Within 15 minutes she was fast asleep and we were just glad to hear her NOT screaming.  What a day.  I have learned my lesson, though.  Next week I don't care however, crazy her outfit may seem I am going to let her wear what she wants.  I just don't have the energy to fight her!!

Sarah keeps things interesting around here!!  The other day as soon as she heard me get in the shower she got busy getting into trouble.  She scooted the barstool all the way over to the top cupboard where I keep the gum.  She proceeded to empty my almost full pack of gum into her mouth and chew away.  Luckily enough for me, she still doesn't know that you don't EAT gum, but just chew it.  Phew!!  She ended up just eating my whole pack of gum.  I didn't need that gum anyway.

The other day it was $0.50 hamburger and corndog night at the local fast food place by our house.  I hadn't made dinner by the time Aaron had gotten home so we decided we would have hamburgers and corndogs for dinner.  They did have a limit of 15 burgers so we got 15 burgers and 4 corndogs and brought them home.  They didn't last longer than 3 minutes within walking through the front door.  I was even afraid I was going to lose some fingers when the box was set down.  Geez you'd think my kids never got fed!!  The box and food wrappers were completely empty within a few minutes.  They better watch out for the Mancil family the next $0.50 hamburger and corndog night!!

In the craziness of this morning Noah got into the pantry unnoticed and grabbed the container of oatmeal and started playing with it.  He ended up working off the lid and poured oatmeal all over the floor.  Daniel saw it before I did and tried to clean it up.  When he got most of it cleaned up he came and told me.  I came and swept up the rest of it.  When I went to throw the dust pan contents into the trash I didn't see any oatmeal in the garbage.  I asked Daniel where he'd put the oatmeal he'd cleaned up.  He informed me he put it back inside the oatmeal container.  YUMMY!!  Hey what's a few extra crumbs, dirt and hair in your oatmeal?!  It's my secret ingredient ;).  Just kidding I threw out the oatmeal container even though it was still half full.  I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids....

One last funny thing in this long post...Aaron drove home from work the other day in the truck.  After he'd parked, turned off the engine and was getting out of the truck a little girl walked over to him.  She stopped and asked Aaron if he had any ice cream in the back of his truck.  Aaron was confused and said, "Uh.... no."  He then figured out what she was talking about.  I guess when you drive an old, bright  turquoise blue truck with a shell on the back kids are bound to think you are the ice cream man. 

Hey, maybe we could start a side business.  We already have the vehicle we just need to add some loud, cheesy music, a creepy driver and some ice cream in the back.  Sweet!  I don't think Aaron looks at all creepy enough to be an ice cream truck driver...soo does anyone want to volunteer to be the creepy driver?  :)  Anyway, now whenever I see the blue truck I laugh and ask Aaron if he has any ice cream in the back.

Zucchini Bread, Know What, Craziness, a Dreaded Call From the Bus Driver

The other day we were watching a friend's daughter who is the same age as Sarah.  When Beth came over she liked playing with the kids, however, she couldn't quite pronounce Noah's name correctly.  She kept calling him, "Know what".  She would say, "Know what [Noah], come here!" and "Know what, don't do that!"  It was pretty funny to hear her talk to 'Know what'. 

I got the world's biggest zucchini the other day from a friend.  When I brought that home the kids were so excited because that meant I could make zucchini bread.  Since I am the only one who would eat any form of zucchini outside of zucchini bread I decided to make the whole zucchini into zucchini bread.  We ended up making three different batches ending up with a total of 10 loaves of bread.  Unfortunately, that seemed to take a toll on my Kitchenaid mixer because on the last batch my mixer died :(.  I am trying to find a place to repair it because I really use it a lot.  Good thing we have 10 loaves of zucchini bread to last us until I can get it fixed.

The other day I was at playgroup at the park with my three youngest kids.  Playgroup happens to be during lunch so I brought lunch for everyone.  Since the only thing for lunch Daniel likes is nuggets and Sarah can't eat anything different than Daniel for lunch she had to have nuggets, too.  I packed the nuggets into baggies for each kid.  While we were there I got busy chasing Noah down when Sarah wandered away with her nugget baggy.  By the time I caught her, her nugget baggy was full of sand and leftover nuggets.  Yummy!  However, I had to keep the baggy away from Noah because he thinks rocks are a delicacy and eats them every chance he gets.  The sand didn't seem to bother Sarah either.  Yuck! I've given up on asking why you would want to eat that I just have to shrug my shoulders and think my kids are so weird!!

Daniel can say some pretty funny things.  The other day he was watching Spider Man when he casually commented to Aaron saying, "Being a Super Hero is going to be so easy for me!"  Josh overheard him and asked him in a teasing way what would come easy to him--hitting people or kicking people.  Daniel got embarrassed at this point and didn't say anything else.  Maybe his super power is kicking, hitting and screaming--if that's true, all my kids have super hero powers in my book!  What a funny kid!

Yesterday was Breakfast with Grandparent's Day at Josh and Daniel's elementary school.  Grandma T was nice enough to come up and have breakfast with Josh and Daniel.  Josh and Daniel rode with Grandma to school. Before they left I tried to explain to Grandma how to drive to their school, but she just figured Josh and Daniel could tell her the way.  I just shrugged my shoulders and said ok.  It wasn't fifteen minutes later when I got a call from Grandma telling me she was lost after following Josh and Daniel's stellar directions to their school.  I told her how to get there and they got to breakfast in enough time to for Josh to grab and eat 3 donuts and juice.  Daniel brought his trusty poptart along and grandma grabbed something to eat there too.  The kids had fun showing off their grandma to their friends after they finally made it to the school by NOT following Josh and Daniel's directions.

This morning I got a call from Matthew's bus driver.  I always cringe to see any number from the school on the caller ID.  However, it wasn't a bad thing.  His bus driver is a really nice lady with two special needs kids herself so she can understand what it's like.  She was calling me because Matthew insisted that she needed to call me to let me know that he needed to wear his jacket tomorrow.  She then told me that she thinks Matthew is such a fun boy.  That made me feel good that she enjoys having him on the bus.  I will also be sure to have Matthew's jacket ready for him to wear tomorrow, though because if I don't I am sure I will be getting another call from the bus driver at the insistance of Matthew.

As for our house plans they finally got signed off by the engineer and passed on to the city for approval.  This means they should start digging our house in the next week.  I am so excited!!  This week we also got to get the process of picking everything out for the house (outside colors, inside colors, flooring, appliances, etc.)  Unfortunately, we had to take the kids along for those things.  It didn't turn out so well.  We have a return appointment to finish up all the choices for the inside of the house.  Last night we had to take all five kids to pick out appliances.  It got pretty ugly because it took us about two hours and by the end the kids' had had enough and were picking on each other and screaming.  I am sure the store was more than ready to have us leave by the end!!  Noah got the worst of it, unfortunately.  He was strapped in the stroller for containment purposes and didn't like being contained at all and was letting us know by the loudness of his screaming.  I told Matthew to go walk around with him in the stroller to try and keep him quiet.  Matthew, ever the button pusher, collapsed the stroller down while Noah was sitting in it.  The worst part was in trying to straighten out the stroller Noah stuck his finger in the hinge and it pinched off part of his fingerprint and left a huge blood blister on the tip of his finger.  Poor kid!!  It took him a while to calm down after that one.  Good thing that happened on the way out of the store!  Next time I think we will try to finish everything up while most of the kids are in school because we are way too outnumbered to try to concentrate and do serious things while trying to keep track of what five energetic, screaming kids are doing at any one time!  I still had a headache this morning from all the screaming last night!!

Here are Daniel's soccer team pictures:  What a ham.  I can't get blogger to cooperate so the pictures are turned sideways and upside down.  Just tilt your head!

 Sarah still thinks naptime is dress up time.  After laying her down for nap today and hearing her scream I ran into her room to see what was wrong.  She had put on a shirt and couldn't get it off--that's why she was screaming.  She couldn't possibly be stuck wearing only the first choice of shirt of course!!  Anyway, after about an hour of multiple rescues, I gave up on her nap and let her come out.  This was the latest naptime outfit for today:  

My personal favorite is the backwards tank top with the tutu tucked in her diaper.  She thought she looked fabulous and I guess that's all that matters.

 In our rental house we share a backyard with some horses.  We went out and fed them some carrots today and the kids loved it.  Daniel mostly liked watching the horses eat the carrots from me and Sarah rather than feeding them himself.  That kid is afraid of anything four legged and furry--I swear!  I did coax him into feeding the horse once, though.  Baby steps-baby steps--maybe by the time he turns 20 he might be able to touch a four legged furry animal!

While I was getting dressed this morning Sarah helped herself to the bread.  No, one slice would not do if you can have a small hunk of every piece of bread in the loaf.  Nice. 

 Someone got a hold of my phone this morning because I have a ton of pictures of the garbage truck on it.  It's just what I want is a ton of pictures of the garbage truck.  Awesome.  Good thing there is a delete button!

Occasionally I look at the freebie aps and I found this one:

It's called Larry the Talking Bird.  This little bird will repeat back anything sound you make or say.  It was fun for about the first minute and ever since then it hasn't been as fun.  I get to hear any screaming or crying not only the first time, but a second time from the stupid bird.  However, I can't delete it because it is Sarah's favorite.  She can play with this little bird for hours if I could stand it.  I must say as annoying as it is, it sure has come in handy at the grocery store to keep her occupied while sitting in the cart!!

As for Noah as you can see from the video he is one of six main reasons why my house does not stay clean for very long--the other five being Aaron, Matthew, Josh, Daniel and Sarah.  Whenever we clean up all the toy food gets put in the toy kitchen sink.  As soon as Noah sees the toys sitting in the sink he goes to town picking them up and throwing them out on to the floor.  He has developed a pretty good arm.  He may have a future in baseball if he keeps this up.  And magically all the toys end up back inside the sink for him to do it all over again.  The kids get pretty frustrated when I tell them to clean up because they aren't the ones who made the biggest mess.  Noah just gets excited to see the kids clean up because that means he has a sink full of toys to throw again.  The stinker pants!!

Bobcat, Bear, Toilet Water Makeover, Air Force Museum, Pranks and Waterproof Phones

This week was Pack Meeting for scouts.  This week they had a bike rodeo along with a guest speaker from the local police station.  The scouts learned proper hand signals and bike safety tips among other things.  Matthew and Josh had lots of fun riding through the bike rodeo set up.

 At the end of scouts they handed out the awards.  Matthew got his Bear award while Josh got his Bobcat award along with all the awards they got from going to scout day camp.  The Bobcat and Bear awards require both parents with the kids so we had to somewhat divide and conquer.  Aaron and I went up to stand with Josh and Matthew while Sarah and Noah were left to their own devices in the crowd.  Sarah, once she noticed we were gone she ran up to stand next to me.  Noah didn't care where we were and continued to play.

 Here's Josh getting his Bobcat award--even though you can't tell by looking at his face he was excited to get his Bobcat:

 Here's Matthew getting his Bear award:

While we were both up with Matthew and Josh, Sarah and Noah didn't have too much supervision (Daniel wasn't with us because he had a soccer game).  While we were up with them getting their awards Noah came up missing.  During the middle of the awards ceremony I looked over and asked Aaron if he knew where Noah was.  Aaron said no and we both started really looking around with our eyes.  When neither one of us could spot him I actually had to step down to go find him.  He ended up being behind a pillar by the church doors trying to get into the cookie containers that were meant for the after Pack Meeting treat.  He knows what's good!  After I found him, luckily, someone offered to watch him during the rest of the awards ceremony so he couldn't wander off again.  I am sure everyone was glad, too, because that meant the cookies would stay safe until everyone else got a chance to eat them.  The little toot!!  Also during the bike rodeo while Aaron and I were visiting with a few people, Noah crawled/walked down into the middle of the parking lot right in the middle of the bike rodeo path, stopped and sat down.  Luckily, he just happened to stop right in front of Matthew who was riding his bike.  Matthew screamed at Noah to move.  That caught Aaron's attention so he ran down and scooped him up.  He is really enjoying his new found mobility!!  You can tell he was crawling around the black top parking lot because his legs and feet are filthy!!  These kiddos keep us busy and that's an UNDERSTATEMENT!!

 One funny thing I have to add is, a few months ago Aaron was putting Josh's bike away into the garage when he noticed all these blue scribbles all over Josh's bike.  Aaron asked Josh why he scribbled all over his new bike with blue marker like that.  Josh insisted he didn't do it.  Aaron just left it at that, but we figured out Josh was telling the truth when we were at the store and saw the same model of bike and it actually came like that.  The blue scribble look was actually the way it came from the factory.  We had to laugh because we really thought Josh had scribbled all over his bike with blue marker.  Poor Josh at least he was vindicated.

Yesterday was cockpit day at Hill Air Force Base Museum.  If you brought canned food for the food bank you got to crawl up and look inside the cockpits of all the planes.  It was really neat.  When we got to the museum there was a ton of people so we had to park way far away.  However, we did get to ride a bus up to the front of the museum so we didn't have to walk that far.  Sarah was excited to ride the bus:

We got to see an actual old Air Force One airplane up close.  It was pretty neat:

We also got to crawl inside a few military vehicles as well.  They are a lot bigger up close than you think.  They let the kids crawl in the back and sit in the driver's seat.  That wasn't the best thing.  Matthew got his turn to sit in the driver's seat of a Humvee and actually figured out how to turn the vehicle on.  The guard came running over and quickly turned it off before Matthew could do anything else.  We had to keep a lot closer eye on Matthew or aka Houdini after that!!  Matthew and his buttons--he loves them!

 The kids loved seeing everything so up close!

 Aaron took his time checking out the F-16 fighter jet since that is what the main part of his new job entails. 

 The boys liked pretending they were actually flying the planes:

 Aaron wanted to check out this plane since it is the one he rode all the way to Greenland and back about 8 years ago for a business trip.  Doesn't look like it was a very comfortable ride.  The sides do have mesh seating, but again it doesn't look like it would be a comfortable 9 hours!

 Here's Matthew peeking out of a plane window:

Noah spent most the time in the stroller and was happy for the most part until I would walk by him.  He would stick out his arms wanting me to pick him up.  If I didn't pick him up he would cry, but other than that he was a pretty happy guy.

 It was a fun day up until we realized we had been driving around with a U of U license plate cover.  During the night someone had taken off our BYU license plate cover and replaced it with the U of U one in honor of the rivalry game that would take place that night.  We had no idea who had done it.  The bad thing was all of Aaron's tools are packed into the garage somewhere never to find again until we move.  He searched around and finally found a coin to undo the screws with and took it off. 

 While watching the rivalry game that night a friend came over and brought us a half time treat of brownies.  We had a little bit, but it wasn't until we had some more this morning that we found our missing license plate cover: 

That was a good prank.  Good thing we have a year to think of some payback for next year!!  Too bad BYU lost so badly last night.  Because of that we won't be putting the license plate cover back on for a few days!!

Sarah as always keeps us on our toes!  The bad thing is, is she is teaching Noah all her tricks.  Aaron found these two playing in the toilet with my makeup brush.  AWESOME!!  They quickly got thrown in the shower and washed down with some antibacterial soap while my brushes got thrown in the trash.  I had to get me some new makeup brushes, too.  YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!!  I hope I won't have two mischievous stinkers!!  Sarah is more than enough for our family!!

 Speaking of little stinkers, Sarah has become very particular in her wants.  For breakfast she will only drink from one cup and if you try to get her any other one be prepared for a monumental tantrum.  The other day I had the gall to give her a different cup and started a huge tantrum where she threw the cup full of water I had given her all over the counter.  The phone happened to be sitting on the counter and got flooded by the spilled cup of water.  I dried it off the best I could, but it was pretty touch and go from then.  Occasionally the phone would work, but it was questionable.  I thought we could limp by and try to make it last, but that didn't work.  Yesterday we got a bill that was questionable so Aaron called to ask about it.  He was put on eternal hold and when he finally got through...the phone died.  Aaron was mad.  He went out and bought a new phone system so that wouldn't happen again.  As a bonus the phone system came with a waterproof phone.  Wahoo!  That means that Sarah can throw a tantrum and it won't destroy the phone.  Yay!!  Hopefully it really is waterproof!  However, I am sure we will test it out at some point thanks to Sarah...



Helpers, Bad News, Hot, Playing in the Garbage, Allergy Test Results

Daniel got his blood taken for the semi annual allergy tests last week.  I called yesterday to find out the results and unfortunately, nothing has changed.  He is still quite allergic to eggs, milk, peanuts and tree nuts.  **Sigh**  The allergist wasn't too helpful either.  She told me at the visit she was pretty confident he could be back eating eggs within the year.  That would be nice if I hadn't heard the same thing for the past three years!!!!  That is what is frustrating!!  **Double sigh**  Oh well, until then we are enjoying our almost vegan lifestyle!  If I keep telling myself that then I almost believe it....:)

Aaron has finished his first two weeks of his new job.  However, the first week didn't count because he had to take a class that lasted all day long for five days so he didn't really see what things were like until last week.  He is still quite overwhelmed as anyone is with starting a new job, but he likes what he sees so far.  Hopefully, things continue to get better as he gets to know what he's doing a little more.

We had to buy a new garbage can with a lid that solidly closes.  We had to do that because our old garbage can didn't have a lid and Noah figured out how to toss his toys in the garbage can when no one was looking.  The toys were safe until he, unfortunately, has figured out how to push the button and open the lid to the new garbage can yesterday.  Bye, bye toys!  I guess if I were looking on the bright side, having him throw the toys away there would be less to clean up....hmmm maybe that's not such a bad thing.  Just kidding--I don't think Sarah would appreciate that.  Here he is looking all innocent after opening the garbage can up.  He's not as innocent as he looks!! 

 Noah also loves helping the kids practice the piano.  As soon as Noah hears someone sit down to practice, he hurries over, climbs on the train table and pushes the high notes for some accompaniment.  The kids HATE it.  I think it's funny.

Sarah has become an expert helper as well.  She has discovered a love of coloring.  However, she usually doesn't have papers to color on unless the boys leave their homework unattended.  Sarah got a hold of Daniel's writing practice paper.  Daniel wasn't too happy about it.

The other morning we were waiting for Matthew's bus to come when Matthew called out that he saw a squirrel.  I came to take a peek and found a bunny hopping around in our front yard.  Once all the kids came over to look that's when the questions about getting a pet started.  However, I have a good excuse.  Last weekend Matthew and Josh were playing with the neighbors dog through the fence.  It is such a friendly and sweet dog.  However, by the time they came back inside the house both their eyes were about swollen shut.  Hmmmm there goes any hope of getting a dog since the three oldest kids are so dang allergic to them and cats, too.  I don't want any reptiles or rodents as pets because they stink so if we do ever get a pet it will probably be a fish.  I told the kids that, but they didn't think a fish was too exciting of a pet.  That's fine with me because the way I see things I already have 6 pets (5 kids and a husband)!!  

Sarah was hungry the other day for lunch.  I was too slow in fixing lunch so she took matters into her own hands.  She got herself a bagel and some butter--uh let me rephrase that....she got herself a slab of butter with a side of bagel--YUM!! 

Sarah has become Miss Independent even more.  Whenever we tell the boys to go and get their pajamas on she will run to her room to find her own pajamas.  This usually doesn't turn out so well.  Take for example what she came out wearing a night last week--she found some tights for some pajama pants.  She had a hard time pulling them on especially since they were a couple sizes too small.  After hearing her scream and cry in frustration over trying to pull the stubborn tights on, Daniel came over to help her pull up her pajama pants.  Also she got a little upset when we went up and actually found some pajamas for her and made her change clothes.  What a crazy girl.

Speaking of clothes, Sarah has decided nap time is for the birds--insert quiet sobbing from me.  However, I still make her have some quiet time in my vain hope that she will take a nap.  Most the time she doesn't fall asleep.  She makes her own fun by trying on all kinds of clothes from her drawers.  It is always so pleasant to have to clean up her room after every nap/quiet time.  It is also interesting to see what clothes combo she will be wearing when she come out of her room.  The best one yet happened a few weeks ago.  I laid Noah and Sarah down for their naps a little later than usual.  Quiet time wasn't over by the time I had to take Daniel to soccer so I left Aaron at home and in charge.  He called me during the soccer game to ask me why in the world I took Sarah's diaper off and put panties on her.  I told him I did no such thing and that he needs to fix it ASAP unless he wants to clean up any impending mess.  He didn't get to her before she peed all over.  She always keeps things exciting.  Good thing it is a rent house and we don't have to stay here for too long!! It's always exciting to see what she will walk out wearing every day.  Today she chose her skirt on inside out with a shirt on inside out and backwards.  Good thing I love that little girly-girl!

Today our air conditioner stopped working.  Luckily, in our spelunking of our mass of boxes in the garage we came across our fan.  When we brought it in and turned it on Noah loved it.  He just stood in front of it playing around.  What a funny kid!

One last thing I had another "I wish my kids came with mute" experience.  We were visiting a model home on Saturday when some random guy who was alone walked by wearing a nice white shirt and some shorts.  Matthew yelled across the street to him, "HELLO MISSIONARY!!"  Now he was NOT a missionairy (judging by the fact he was alone and wearing shorts with no name tag) and he looked at us pretty strangely after he heard Matthew's comment.  Aren't kids just awesome!!  Good thing I love them!

Allergist Visit, Emergency Dentist Visit, Labor Day Cabin Visit

What a crazy week we have had!!  Thursday I took Daniel to soccer while Aaron was at home with everyone else.  During the middle of Daniel's soccer game Aaron called me to say Sarah had been jumping on her bed and fell face first into Noah's crib.  She had a horrible bloody nose, a mouth full of blood and her two front teeth were now loose.  Awesome!  Luckily, at our rent house our neighbor happens to be the pediatric dental hygienist at our kids' dental office.  We took Sarah over to her to see what she had to say.  She took a peek and said her teeth weren't too bad, but we definitely would need to take her in for X-rays in the morning to make sure.  Here is what poor Sarah looked like when I got home from soccer:

 

She was curled up in Aaron's arms getting lubs (loves) with her baby and blanket--poor girl!  I must add the picture doesn't do her huge fat lip justice!!  In my looking around I also saw she had tore that skin flappy thing that connects your top lip to your gums.  Ouch!!  The next morning the pediatric dentist squoze us in.  Sarah had to get X-rays and then get checked out by the dentist. 

The dentist didn't find anything too bad, but we have a follow up appointment in two weeks.  Now we just sit and wait to see if the teeth will turn brown and die.  If they don't that's wonderful, if they do she will have to get them pulled.  I am keeping my fingers crossed she will be able to keep her teeth!!  No more monkeys jumping on the bed--that's for sure!!

Thursday morning was one of Daniel's semi annual visits to the allergist.  During the spring visit is when he gets the skin prick test on his back for his allergies.  During the fall visit is when he has to get his blood drawn for a test called the Immunocap which is another test to see how allergic he is to different foods.  We are waiting to hear back on the test results, but everything else looked great with his growth and lung function.  Yay!!  I am glad to finally get his asthma under control and keep it under control!!  Daniel, as like anyone else, HATES getting his blood drawn.  However, the lab rewarded him nicely with quite a few stickers and suckers.  You can see all the stickers all over his shirt.  He even got to pick what color of bandage he got to wear over his owie which was light blue.  When Sarah saw all of Daniel's loot she screamed until she got her own stash of suckers and stickers, too.  What a crazy (but smart) kid!!  Noah was just happy to be along for the ride.

To celebrate our last summer hurrah we headed up to the cabin for Labor Day weekend.  We had lots of fun roasting marshmallows.  The kids had even more fun seeing how far they could spread the sticky roasted marshmallows which ended up on shirts, shorts, blankets, hair, face and ears.  Of course my kids don't have the patience to roast a good marshmallow and so a few of them caught on fire and burned.  We did have to help them a few times to get the perfect roasted marshmallow.  Here's Aaron helping Matthew out:

Here is Daniel enjoying his sticky treat:

 Sarah didn't want to roast the marshmallows.  She just wanted to walk around with a few on the end of her stick.  When you tried to help her she would just scream and run away.  She also would only eat her marshmallows right off her stick.  Heaven help you if you tried to take her marshmallows off her stick!!  That girl has one good set of lungs on her is all I can say!!

 While we were up there Noah was quite the opportunist!!  Noah would go around and stand right next to anyone who was eating anything.  He would sit and give them his puppy dog eyes until he got a taste of whatever they were eating.  He earned the title of Chief Moocher with good reason!  Once the food was gone so was Noah.  Here Noah was helping Grandpa T out with his morning cereal:

 The boys were way excited to ride on the four wheeler.   Once Sarah saw all of them get their turns she went over to make sure she got a turn, too.  She doesn't like loud noises, but I guess she figured if it was good enough for her brothers it was good enough for her and crawled right on the four wheeler.  She looks so small sitting on top of it!

Daniel was a slave driver and made Grandma T go outside to pull weeds.  Daniel helped a little bit, but after a few minutes he assumed the position of manager and liked to point out all weeds to Grandma T that needed to be pulled.  What a big help that was--thanks Daniel--and yes I am being sarcastic!

We had a fun visit to the cabin.  While we were there we made numerous visits to Dairy Keen in Heber.  It is a fast food place that basically serves heart attacks on a bun.  They are delicious, but it will take me a few weeks to work off the few pounds that only took a few days to put on.  Funny how that works isn't it?!  Doh!!  I can't believe summer is waning so fast!  The temperature is certainly cooling off!!  One morning at about 10am  it was only 48 degrees.  Brrrrrrrr!!  However, I am not too terribly upset since I love the cool fall weather and the big bulky warm clothes that come with it!!

Noah has mastered the art of walking for the most part.  Just look past the bruises on his head from all the headers he has done into the walls and furniture.  It's hard being a toddler!  Anyway, he is also turning into quite the climber!  He can climb onto the couch, ottoman and train/toy table.  He likes to crawl on top of the train table and look out the window:

 

Much to the boys' chagrin he also likes to crawl on top of the toy table while they are practicing the piano and push the piano keys, too.  The boys hate it, but Noah loves it.  What do you do?!  What a crazy boy!! 

Since we don't have a walk in pantry anymore there is no place to close up the garbage can.  Noah has had a field day with this too.  Whenever the trash can gets full enough he wanders over and starts pulling the trash out and spreading it everywhere.  His favorite things to find are the empty soda cans.  He pulls those out and sucks on them trying to get every last tiny drop out of the cans.  Here he is with a can.  Don't let his innocent look fool you!!  He knows that is a no no, but he feigns innocence and ignorance--the stinker!! 

I spend most of my days trying to keep the house clean, but with kids like him it is nearly impossible to keep it picked up!!   He also likes to feed himself.  He doesn't like you to feed him anymore.  I gave him a slice of pizza the other day for dinner and judging from the picture do you think he liked it?  I would say YES!!  What a mess!  He didn't understand why I wouldn't pick him up from his high chair before I cleaned him off.  Boy was he mad as I wiped him down before I got him out of his high chair!! 

 The other day Daniel was carrying Noah around with him.  That's when I noticed how much they look alike!!  It is crazy!

Not only has Noah mastered walking he has also figured out how to do stairs for the most part.  He has taken a few tumbles, but he is doing good for the most part.  Now when I tell the kids to go out and get in the car he is right behind them sliding down the stairs.  He is getting so big!

Lastly Sarah has learned playing the "Give me Five" game.  Her favorite part is when you break the pickle as you can tell by her giggles.  She is so cute if I do say so myself!!  I love my kiddos!