Mud Pies, Tantrums, Rehearsals, Air Show

Last Thursday Sarah had her dress rehearsal for her dance recital.  She had me paint her fingernails and toenails and was more than excited to have me put some makeup on her.  It is so funny and cute to watch the three year olds dance.  They basically watch each other and occasionally the dance teacher to try and figure out what dance move to do next.

Last week Noah was extremely cranky and whiny a lot of the week.  During one of his many crying spells while his mouth was wide open I happened to look inside.  That's when I saw his two year old molars trying to come through with a huge bloody gum surrounding them on both sides.  OUCH!!  I would be grumpy if I was teething causing me to have swollen bloody gums, too!  I tried to get a picture while he was screaming, but it is blurry.  You can see the dark spot in the back of his gums though and trust me it looked owie!

 Matthew thinks it is pretty funny to pick up my phone any time he sees it laying around and take a candid picture of himself.  I have a bazillion pictures like this on my phone at any given time.  He just laughs that mischievous laugh every time he does it so as soon as I hear that laugh I know I need to find my phone ASAP!

 Last Friday I decided to go to the library.  I came very unprepared because I didn't have a stroller, but I thought I could still run in and check out a few books without too much of a problem because I only had Sarah, Noah and Daniel.  Boy was I WRONG!!!  As soon as I walked in Noah took off running.  Sarah followed him to play hide and go seek (aka chase me while I scream and run away in the aisles).  It seems like a very fun game for toddlers, but not so much for me and Daniel who are trying to catch them.  I finally caught up to Sarah and told her to stop and stay with me.  That went over like a lead balloon.  She took off running and screaming again.  I caught her a second time and immediately put her in seat away (time out).  That is where she immediately turned into tantrum mode with the kicking and the 'I am angry' screaming and the tears as you can see:

 When she finally calmed down I thought it was ironic that she is wearing this particular shirt that says, "TANTRUMS are so LAST YEAR!"  Obviously her shirt is out of fashion because according to Sarah, tantrums are still very en vogue.

Don't let the innocent looks on Sarah and Noah's faces fool you--Even after seat away (time out) Sarah and Noah still played the scream through the aisles game so I only was able to grab a few books and check out because I am sure everyone wanted us to leave the quiet library as soon as we stepped through the doors.  We were only there for a total of about 15 minutes, too!

For Memorial Day weekend the Air Force Base was having an air show.  We had planned on attending and invited G&G T to come up for a BBQ and then head over to the show.  Unfortunately, it started raining Saturday morning and it got worse as the day went on.  Aaron was nice enough to still BBQ for us even in the rain.  We had yummy hot dogs and hamburgers with the baked beans and potato salad--YUM!  After lunch it was still just down pouring.  We decided to get in the car and drive over by the air show to see if you could even see anything happening.  When we got there we couldn't even see the mountains because the clouds were so low and there was nothing going on at the air show.  We decided to head over and play a few bowling games instead.  We signed everyone up to play except Noah.  We figured he was too little to play or to even care about what was going on.  I was wrong again.  Every time he broke free of someone's lap or grip he booked it over to the lanes.  At one point he escaped and ran all the way down a lane almost to the pins.  It happened so fast we were all frozen in surprise and didn't know what to do.  Were we supposed to run down the lane to get him or wait for him to wander back to our group?  Well our decision was made for us when the bowling employee saw Noah standing at the end of the lane and came running and yelling--and I mean running and yelling.  The employee ran down the lane and grabbed Noah and brought him back to us and then scolded us for not watching him better.  It was a little on the embarrassing side, but what can you do?!  Other than that our bowling time was pretty uneventful. Here's Sarah trying to decide which ball to use next while Matthew and Grandma are bowling at the same time.

 Here's Noah hanging out for the few seconds he actually sat still the whole game:

 After we finished bowling the weather had cleared up a little bit and we decided to take our chances at the air show.  We got on base, parked and boarded a bus to take us over to the air show.  Sarah was fascinated by being on a bus.

 After we got off the bus we walked through the air show area where they had planes sitting out you could look at.  Grandpa spied this plane and then told us this was the type of plane (C-130) he used to jump from when he was a Green Beret in the National Guard.

 We finally found a good place to sit.  As soon as we sat down Noah and Sarah played the hide and go scream game, but at the air show it was so loud no one could hear them.  That was awesome!!

 We made it in time to see the Thunderbird jets perform and they were amazing!!

However, the longer we were there the colder it got.  The boys kept snuggling and wallering whoever would let them to get warmer--at this point it was G&G.

 I do think we made it for the best part of the show!!  Have I mentioned that we thought the Thunderbirds were amazing?!

 They were quite loud, though.  Sarah and Matthew had their ears plugged for a lot of the show.

 When the Air Show finished G&G T decided to head back home.  We invited some friends over for dinner and then played games the rest of the evening.  We finally got everyone to bed about 11 pm.  The next morning we had 9 am church and it was hard getting everyone up and ready.  Everyone was ornery to put it mildly.  Let me just say Sarah is one who needs her sleep!!!  She was quite cross all during church!!  During Sacrament meeting I guess she had a wedgie.  She kept trying to lift up her skirt to fix it and I kept pulling her hands away.  She finally got so frustrated with me she yelled, "I NEED TO FIX MY UNDERWEARS!!!"  She then stepped just out of my reach, hiked her skirt all the way and pulled out her wedgie right in the middle of the meeting.  I am sure anyone sitting around us now knew what she was doing because she was not quiet about it.  It didn't get much better in primary.  She did ok during class time, but during Sharing time it was a different story.  She was tired and kept trying to crawl into my lap.  I was trying to keep everyone else sitting quietly so I wouldn't let her sit in my lap.  She kept trying and I kept putting her back into her seat.  She finally got so frustrated she wouldn't take no for an answer.  She forced her way onto my lap and in the process kicked the little Sunbeam girl sitting next to me right in the head.  The little girl she had kicked looked like she was about to cry so I hugged her (the best I could with Sarah sitting in my lap) and tried to smooth things over.  That wouldn't have been so bad except the little sunbeam that got kicked her mother was sitting in the back and I think she saw everything.  Oops!  I was glad when we finally came home and was able to put everyone in quiet time/nap time!

Daniel has a loose tooth.  He keeps telling us about it, but won't let anyone come close to see how loose it really is.  He is quite dramatic so every time you even get near him and want to see his loose tooth he will run away screaming because he doesn't want you to touch it.  However, he did hear that if you bite into an apple sometimes it will pull the tooth out for you.  Daniel decided to try it, but, he wouldn't bite into the apple with his loose tooth--he just bit into the apple using his side teeth because he didn't want to hurt his loose tooth. 

Needless to say the biting into the apple thing didn't work out for Daniel because he still has that loose tooth.  Who knows when it will fall out because Daniel won't work with it because he is too afraid it will hurt.  What a crazy guy!

Monday, Memorial Day, we had a family day.  It started out bright and early at the lab.  Aaron and Matthew had to get their blood drawn.  For Matthew's test he was getting a fasting blood sugar so he had to get it drawn before he ate breakfast.  Seeing as this kids leaves and breathes by mealtimes, he had to get taken as soon as he got up in the morning or else he would have turned from Dr.Jekyl to Mr. Hyde within seconds!  Since Aaron had to get some labs done as well it was Father Son bonding time at the hospital lab.  Awesome!  When they got home headed to the park to play.  We played some baseball.  As we played It became quite apparent that we all need to work on our skills! 

 Here's Matthew playing 3rd base, but he got confused every time someone would hit the ball.  He would immediately start running to home plate to score even though he was supposed to be fielding 3rd base.

 Josh always wanted to strike a pose in the field and Noah just wanted to play in the dirt...or...

 grab the ball and run away with it.

We also had to explain that we were playing baseball and not dodge ball.  There were a few times that instead of tagging the runner with the ball, the kids would throw the ball as hard as they could at the runner actually hitting the runner a few times.  Ouch!  After we tried baseball for a while and it wasn't getting any better we switched to Frisbee.  We need to all practice our throwing skills, but it was fun.

 We need to practice our catching skills as well seeing as Matthew and Daniel are clear on the other side of the field.  I know Aaron can throw a Frisbee, but he can't throw it THAT FAR!!

 Of course while our attention was on the Frisbee game, Noah went and found THE ONLY mud puddle in the entire park and played in it.

 He was quite pleased with himself when he got caught--the stinker!!

 The whole backside of his clothes were very muddy and soaking wet.  Aaron took off his shirt and made him walk back to the car.

 To try and dry out his clothes we rolled them up on the outside of the window.  The kids all thought that was funny.

 Everyone was parched after playing all day in the park and it happened to be Happy Hour at Sonic so we splurged and got everyone a slush.  Noah was excited to get his very own!

 It was very pleasant because everyone was so busy drinking/sipping that we had some silence in the car for a time.  It was a welcomed change to the usual arguing/yelling/or just plain talking too loudly in a small enclosed space.  Silence is golden!

 After a picnic we headed down the trail by our house to do some geocaching.  We tried to gather up all the scooters so all the kids could have one, but, alas, we have gone from having 4 scooters to only two.  Who knows where the other two have disappeared to?!  With only two scooters all the kids had to take turns.  While Josh and Matthew were off riding the scooters Daniel was a sweet older brother and held Sarah's hand while we walked on the trail.

We found two of the three geocaches so I felt like it was a success.  It was a fun day for sure!!  No one had a hard time falling asleep that night!

Wart Boy, Awesome Possum and Dancing Queen

Tuesday Sarah had her dance pictures taken.  I took this picture before we left for pictures just in case she didn't look as presentable at the picture venue.  I had that happen to me once.  It was picture day for me in kindergarten.  My mom spent a lot of time doing my hair and getting me dressed so I would look nice.  That all flew out the window when I decided to run all the way to school.  In my picture my hair is a mess.  I was hoping to avoid that with Sarah, but you never know what she is going to do!  Anyway, Noah heard me say I was going to take Sarah's picture and he came a running over.  When I said, "Cheese!" he sure hammed it up for the camera.  I am proud to say we made it to pictures pretty unscathed with no running aloud ;).  

Daniel has started T-ball.  He was so excited because I finally bought him some baseball pants so he looks 'professional' now.  Aaron even volunteered to team coach with another dad after our experience with soccer.  Daniel's last soccer team the poor coach had never ever played, watched, or had anything to do with soccer and it showed.  On the very first day of practice she turned to all the kids' parents and said and I quote, "I hope my kid doesn't ever get into soccer because I think it is a stupid sport."  What a great thing to say to a bunch of parents that just paid money to learn how to play soccer...Well seeing as we had not volunteered to coach a team we couldn't grumble too much about her lack of coaching ability.  That is why Aaron and another dad decided to coach T-ball so we could grumble about the coaches if we wanted to :).  However, it has been good so far. 

Josh for whatever reason has turned into the wart boy.  He had nine warts on the back of his legs that were driving me crazy.  To make an appointment  with the dermatologist to get them frozen off would have cost us $150.00 in a copay so needless to say we never made an appointment.  However, we did discover an over the counter wart freezer can and decided to try that instead.  Heck $11.00 sure beats $150.00 any day!!  Here's what they looked like right after I 'froze' the warts off:

A few days later they turned into blisters.  Josh swears that he didn't pick them, but I have my doubts because they now look horrible.  The blisters popped on their own (or so Josh said) and, again, they look horrible!!  I went out and bought some bandaids and some Neosporin with analgesic in it to help with the pain and liberally applied it all over the back of his bean pole legs.  Hopefully they will heal up soon because they look very ouchy and gross.

 We have a bird that has claimed our garden as it's own.  Every time we would go out to the garden we would be met with this charade:

My brother told me the name of the bird is a Killdeer.  I went home and looked it up and found out that if you get by its nest it acts lame or wounded and squawks really loud to lead you away from its eggs.  Sure enough I went outside and looked more carefully in the garden and found its very camoflauged nest with four eggs in it.  Now that I know it's nest is there I have noticed the bird patiently sitting on them day in day out until it has to act lame again.

The eggs gestation is only about 29 1/2 days so we are waiting and watching and hoping to see the baby birds before they leave.  However, it gets a little annoying to be squawked at every time I try to go and see how my garden is doing.  I guess it's a good excuse not to have to pull weeds for the next few weeks?!

Noah can be easily persuaded to do things by his siblings.  Noah had a sucker and Daniel begged to have a taste.  Noah obliged even telling me about his sucker while he was letting Daniel have a taste.  Boy it's no wonder why my kids get sick so often!!  I am all for sharing things, but I draw the line at suckers!  By the way don't pay attention to Sarah's horrible tantrum screams in the background.  That's just the norm around here, unfortunately.

Noah speech has really taken off.  He says quite a bit.  Most people can't understand him, but at least he is talking.  He even tattled on Daniel yesterday--I don't know if I should be glad about that though.  He thinks he is pretty 'awesome possum' as you can see: 

Last Friday we were able to get together for dinner with Aaron's friend Brad from Texas.  We had a good time seeing them and meeting their cute little girl.  Aaron was excited when he found out they were going to be in Utah for a week.  It was a fun night.  The kids especially enjoyed it since they all got to stay up until 10pm.  They sure weren't fun the next day though!!  Can we say ONERY!!??  However, I got to escape for a few hours to have lunch with some friends one of which is moving very soon to Arizona.  It seems like everyone from our old neighborhood is moving and it is sad to see them go.  I know we moved, too, but we are still somewhat close by.  I guess that's life, but I never have done well with change...

Last week we were invited to friend's house to have a water party.  I dressed everyone in their swimming suits and we headed over.  We hadn't been there but a few minutes when Sarah came running by me soaken wet.  That's when I noticed the brown water running down her legs.  **SIGH**.  Yep she had taken care of business in her swimming suit--GROSS!!  Someday I hope this girl will get potty training (especially #2) down.  I had to grab her, strip her down wash her off and wash out her swimming suit.  It was little on the embarrassing side for sure!!  That wouldn't have been that bad, however, she did the exact same thing again on Tuesday.  However, that time I made her wear a swim diaper, but that poor diaper can only hold so much and yes she started leaking brown water down her legs again.  I love my little girl, I love my little girl, I love my little girl....I guess we will just wait and see if we ever get invited over ever again.  She really keeps life interesting that's for sure!!

In keeping things interesting...The topic of deodorant came up at dinner and we even debunked a few myths about it. #1-No, deodorant does not make all your armpit hair fall out.    I would be really excited if that really happened, but that's because I am a girl.  I guess armpit hair is a desirable trait in boys/men and the boys were hesitant to use it just in case.  Also how can any armpit hair fall out if you don't have any to begin with?!  Anyway, #2-No, deodorant does not inhibit your ability to make armpit farting noises. Aaron even demonstrated this last fact (much to my dismay.). Don't you love our classy dinner conversations?! I guess that's what you get when you have 4 boys plus 1 husband. Sarah and I are sorely outnumbered!!!!  Hopefully now we have debunked a few deodorant myths we won't have anymore stinky boys (with armpit hair if it ever comes in) at our house.

Garden x2, Mother's Day, Painting, Mute Button Please!!!!

While Aaron was out of town two weeks ago I thought I would paint and surprise him for when he got back home.  Typical male....he didn't notice anything when he walked inside.  I had to finally point out to him what was different.  Oh well.  Here's Sarah's very pink room:

 I painted an accent room in the master bedroom:

 I painted the dining nook:

 I also painted Matthew and Josh and Daniel's rooms as well in the basement.  For whatever reason I don't have a picture of them.  Oh well.  Daniel was my little helper and stayed up with me to 'help' me paint Monday evening. 

On morning Noah came walking over to me just covered with blue nastiness all over his face.  I tried to figure out where it came from and eventually I did.  I found a very old petrified Peep that he had sucked off the head and put the rest in my bathtub.  I don't know where it came from or how old it was, but judging by Noah's face he thoroughly enjoyed it!!

 Daniel keeps Noah and Sarah entertained when he gets home from school in the afternoons.  They are always excited when it's time to pick up Daniel from school.

 Last Thursday between Relief Society, soccer and Elder's Quorum. Aaron and I weren't going to see each other all night long.  We had also been busy all week so we decided to have lunch together Thursday.  Daniel was on a field trip and wasn't going to get back until 1 pm so we could go to any Daniel unfriendly place we wanted since he wasn't going to be with us. We decided on Cafe Rio. It was a nice break and really yummy.  Yes Cafe Rio is really THAT good!--just ask Noah he licked his plate clean:

 As for Mother's Day we had a yummy lunch for my side of the family at my brother Bryan's house.  The kids were so excited to play outside on grass!!  Our grass is finally coming in, but it sure is taking FOREVER!!!  Saturday evening we had some friends over and so none of the kids got to bed before 11pm--except Matthew who pooped out and put himself to bed about 9pm.  The next morning Aaron got up and started cooking my breakfast figuring that the kids would wake up to come help him.  It was 6:30 am because we have 9 am church.   He fixed everything and still no sign of anyone.  He had to go and wake everyone up so they could bring me my breakfast in bed and all their home made gifts.  It took a while for the kids to get on the happy side after being woken up that morning, but they finally made it. Of course everyone had breakfast in my bed with me--gotta love all the toast crumbs in the sheets ;).  Anyway, Matthew gave me an awesome apron he made at school for me.  Josh gave me a homemade picture frame with his picture in it.  Daniel gave me a book he made with his hand prints and footprints in it.  I LOVE the sweet home made gifts the kids give me!!  That's the best part of Mother's Day!!  Josh also made sure Aaron took him to the store Saturday morning so he and Daniel could spend the money they had been saving up on a zucchini plant for me.  That way I could be sure to make them zucchini bread.  They are funny kids!  Here's everyone having breakfast in my bed:

 Looking at the presents:

At church we got giant candy bars and all the primary kids sang to us.  When we sent the kids up to the stand to sing Aaron gave Josh explicit instructions NOT to stand by the microphone.  Josh, of course, pretended he didn't hear and during both songs he inched closer and closer to the microphone.  He got close enough that by the end of the second song you could hear him loud and clear through all of the chapel.  It was so weird to only have Noah sitting with us during both songs!! 

We had a yummy dinner of hamburgers that I didn't have to cook for dinner.  I also got a break on getting the kids ready for bed.  It was an awesome day thanks to Aaron and the kids!!  Mother's day should be every day ;)!!!

Saturday morning I got to replant our garden.  Things had been so warm last month that we planted our garden early.  A few days later it got cold enough and froze our plants and killed them--DOH!!!  We decided to wait until around Mother's Day to replant.  That's what I spent my Saturday morning doing was replanting our garden.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we don't have to replant again.  I did try to replace the plants that had died only to find that when I went to pull them up to replace them, some weren't all the way dead yet.  That leaves me with a bunch of tomatoes, and zucchini plants that I have a ton of.  I even got to add to my zucchini plants since that is what Josh and Daniel gave me for Mother's Day.  I have a total of 6 zucchini plants right now.  I do believe I will have zucchini coming out of my ears this year.  Hope they really enjoy zucchini bread!!!

A few weeks ago I noticed we were running dangerously low on Sarah underwear.  If she has an accident in one and it's a bad one I just throw the underwear away.  As I said we were running dangerously low on underwear since for whatever reason refuses to put her stinky in the potty most times, and I needed to get some more.  Kohl's was having a sale on some so I bought a huge pack of them.  Sarah was so excited.  When we got home she opened the package and tried on each pair of underwear.  She was probably trying to decide which pair would be the first pair she would ruin :P.  Someday she will be fully potty trained--at least that is my dream.  Do they teach that in kindergarten ;)?!

After we got our yard put in Aaron wanted to get the garden set up.  The landscapers gave us the name of a plumbing store over in Ogden.  We went over there to get our garden stuff set up.  I stayed in the car with the kids while Aaron ran inside.  He came back outside shortly after with one of Matthew's old preschool teachers.  Her and her husband work at the store.  As soon as Aaron walked through the doors she asked him right away if he had a son named Matthew.  It took Aaron a few seconds to place her and then he figured out it was one of Matthew's old preschool teachers.  She came out to see Matthew in the car.  We were visiting and she asked Josh if he remembered her.  He told her no.  We went on talking and then Josh piped up in the back and said, "Oh ya I remember you!!  You look so old now, though!!"  I was at a loss for words.  Gotta love kids and their lack of mute buttons!!  I tried to smooth over the comment, but there was not a good way to do it.  **SIGH**  She didn't get to offended because her husband gave us all the garden parts at contractor pricing--WAHOO!!  Later we had a talk about appropriate things to say, but we have had these conversations a few times and he still will say stuff like that.  Gotta love kids!!

Aaron and I are getting our cow herding groove on.  The cows behind us escape pretty often.  We are getting pretty good at rounding them up and herding them back in their field.  I think Aaron has their owners phone number memorized since we have to call them so often to let them know their cows are out AGAIN.  Luckily he reinforced the fence this last week so we haven't had as many escape attempts this week.  We will see if that holds up.

We got to pick up flip flops for everyone this week.  We had to get them sooner because Josh wore his old ones to school.  And Josh just being Josh was goofing off on the way to school.  He was kicking his feet and kicked off his flip flop and it landed in our neighbor's yard.  This neighbor's dogs are quite vicious so Josh ran back home to get shoes on rather than try to get his flip flop back.  Now everyone has their own flip flops and I have told Josh if he loses another one in the same way he was going to be in BIG trouble!! 

This morning was typical Monday fashion.  I sent the kids off to school and a few minutes later I hear the door bell ring.  I am still in my pajamas with some spectacular bed head as well as Noah, Sarah and Daniel.  Daniel his home because there is kindergarten testing all this week so no school for him.  I was embarrassed to find the Early Intervention person standing at the door.  We had a scheduled visit that I had completely forgotten about.  When she saw me (I think the bed head scared her) she said we could reschedule.  I figured I would probably forget that visit to so why doesn't she come on in this time.  Luckily she is a pretty laid back person and didn't care.  I will write down the next visit on my calendar though and pray I don't forget that one!!

Josh goes to art and brings home his art work to show us what he's done.  Here's the latest.  It is an abstract picture of a cow.  What I find interesting is where the udders are...I showed Aaron and we had a little chuckle about that.

And you wonder how kids get so dirty at dinner time.  Here's Noah playing with his food by putting a noodle on his head and trying to drop it into his bowl.  When he gets tired of that he ends up putting into his water cup.  Gotta love trying to clean up that mess after dinner!

Single Parenthood, Yummy Sand, My Horrible Monday!!

This week has been pretty crazy.  Aaron left on a business trip early Monday morning and I have been single parenting it the rest of the week.  We took Aaron to the airport at 6 am and when we got back the chaotic morning routine began.  In this routine I had to sign a paper from Matthew's teacher saying I saw his behavior summary from the week before.  However, in the notes of the paper she said something to the effect of how we need to meet and talk about where Matthew will be going to school next year.  **Sigh** why did I have to deal with this as soon as Aaron left?!  Anyway I signed the paper and told the teacher to call anytime.  As the day went on all three older kids got off to school and I decided to get out of the house while I only had two kids with me instead of five.  I wanted to pick up a few things at Hobby Lobby so that's where we went.  I went inside and grabbed a cart and put Noah in the baby part of the cart.  Sarah kept trying to ride on the side of the cart, but I had to keep telling her to get off because the cart was so off balance it would tip over.  She of course wouldn't listen to me so I had to keep telling her over and over again to get off the cart each time a little more forceful.  I thought she finally listened to me until I stopped to look at something.  When my attention was turned she jumped up on the side of the cart and tipped the whole thing over on top of herself.  Yes, Noah was still in the baby seat as well and he went down with the cart hitting his head on the customer service booth.  It was utter chaos.  Both kids were just howling.  Luckily, this nice lady stopped and helped me get the cart off Sarah.  I picked up Noah to give him loves and she picked up Sarah to give her loves.  They cried for a LONG time.  Finally Noah stopped enough to let me put him back in the cart.  In this whole process Sarah's shoes had come off and she's pretty obsessive when it comes to her shoes.  The nice lady picked up Sarah's shoes and put them inside the cart instead of putting them on Sarah's feet.  Well that started a whole new round of screaming on Sarah's part.  The poor lady didn't know what to do so I took over thanking her for her help.  I quickly put Sarah's shoes back on and the crying instantly stopped.  As I was pushing the cart away a 'helpful' Hobby Lobby employee came over and lectured me on how I shouldn't let my daughter ride on the cart like that...blah, blah, blah.  I wanted to say how I was trying to not have her do that in the first place.  Even if I didn't know riding on the cart sideways wasn't a good idea before the accident I certainly had figured it out after the whole cart had tipped over, but I just smiled and nodded acting like I was thankful for the 'oh so helpful' advice.  As we went on shopping around the store I got a call from Aaron on my cell phone.  Since he was on a business trip I didn't know when I would get a chance to talk to him so I answered the call.  As I was talking to Aaron Sarah took another moment of my lack of attention on her and climbed up on a chair that was sitting on top of a shelf.  Of course it tipped over and Sarah fell on the ground cutting her head.  A whole new round of wailing began all over again.  I quickly got off the phone and picked her up and gave her loves.  About this time I had had enough of Hobby Lobby and we left.  It was about time to pick up Daniel from school anyway.  We came home and picked up Daniel on the way.  When we got home I was not fast enough in getting lunch ready.  Noah spied an open package of crackers on the counter and pulled them off to eat them spilling them all over the floor.  You can only see about half the crackers that he'd pulled off because the other half is not in the picture.  He was pretty pleased with himself.

While I was cleaning up the cracker mess I noticed that Sarah had gone missing.  I then noticed Noah had gone missing as well.  That is never a good sign!  I called their names and neither one answered--another REALLY BAD sign.  Noah finally came running out of my bedroom crying and was all wet with splotches of white all over his clothes.  As I went in to see why he was in such a state I found Sarah trying to flush a horribly clogged toilet watching the water with tons of small bits of toilet paper floating around in it.  From what I could surmise by then looking at the newly replaced toilet paper roll (that morning even) that was now empty, she (and Noah) had attempted to flush a whole roll of toilet paper down the toilet and it didn't make it.  The whole toilet bowl was filled to the brim with water and toilet paper floaties.  Every time she had flushed it had spilled over the top and all over the bathroom floor.  It was a mess!!!  I didn't know where to start the clean up.  I finally decided to throw Sarah and Noah in the shower to start with.  While they were showering I tried to tackle the clogged toilet.  I plunged, and plunged, and plunged and plunged and plunged some more and it did not move.  With each plunge it sent more toilet paper water splashing over the side of the toilet.  Ewwww!!!  However, I plunged and plunged some more and it still didn't move.  At this point I didn't quite know what to do.  As much as I didn't want to, I had to make sure there wasn't a toy lodged in it.  I had to reach my arm down into the toilet paper water to feel to make sure there was no toy(s).  YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!  There was no toy that I could feel (I had to do it by feel since there was so much toilet paper in the water I couldn't see anything).  I then tried calling Aaron to see what he thought I should try next since I have never encountered a toilet clog of this proportion.  He, thankfully, answered.  I explained the problem to him and it took him a long time to stop laughing.  He finally did stop laughing and told me to wait a little while to see if the toilet paper would disintegrate enough so it could be unclogged.  If that didn't work I would have to call my brother to see if I could borrow his pipe snake to clear the pipe.  I then got off the phone and tried to bide my time by cleaning up the toilet paper water mess all over the floor. After I got the mess somewhat contained I washed the kids in the shower and got them out and dressed.  However, they made their own fun in the shower by making bum prints on the shower wall.  They thought it was hilarious and just giggled when they saw them:

I then went back in to try to plunge the toilet again.  Thankfully after five minutes of straight plunging it finally unclogged.  However, it left me with a whole new toilet paper water mess all over the floor to clean up.  Why does all this happen when I suddenly find myself a single parent for the whole week?!  However, it all wasn't bad--Matthew's teacher did call me that afternoon to talk.  She gave me a few more options of what to do with Matthew for next year.  As we talked she went on to share some personal experiences that she has had with raising her autistic son who is now in his 20s.  That gave me some hope and confidence that I can choose what would be best for him.
The next day, Tuesday, things were pretty quiet until that afternoon.  That's when there was scouts and soccer.  I dropped Josh and Matthew off at scouts.  This was Matthew's first scouts visit in this ward so I wanted to stay and talk to the scout leader for a minute to tell him a little about Matthew.  Luckily, his new cub scout leaders sound like they are pretty go with the flow kind of people which will work out great for Matthew.  Josh is having fun in his new Bear class.  Right after cub scouts Daniel had soccer.  I, of course, had to take everyone with me since Aaron is gone. Luckily Daniel played on the field right next to the playground.  As I was trying to watch Daniel play and keep an eye on the other four kids on the playground Josh came half way over to me.  He then yelled, "MOM, MOM!!  SARAH JUST POOPED HER PANTS!!!"  Not only I heard that, but every other parent at the game.  I tried to nonchalantly ask Josh to bring Sarah to me.  He ran off to find her.  He came half way back a few minutes later and then yelled, "MOM, MOM!  SHE DIDN'T POOP HER PANTS SHE JUST PEED HER PANTS AND SAND IS STICKING TO IT!!!"  Well the soccer game was almost over and I didn't have a spare change of clothes for her so we decided to just tough it out.  In the last few minutes Josh came back and yelled, "MOM, MOM!!!  NOAH'S EATING AND THROWING SAND!!"  Sure enough I looked over to see Noah picking up handfuls of sand and throwing them and he ate a few of them.  He even got a handful of sand and walked over to Sarah who was bending over playing in the sand he put it down her pants.  Thankfully by then it was time to go, however, my kids were all huge sandy messes.  When we got home I was out of energy and decided to shower the kids the next morning.  Everyone went straight to bed.  The next morning Josh let Sarah and Noah out and they came and climbed in to bed with me.  I was fine with that until I noticed how much sand was now in my bed after they had crawled in it--DOH!!!  The next morning I got the three oldest kids off to school and went to clean up breakfast.  That's when Noah snuck off to dirty his diaper.  He came wandering back to where I could smell him and it was bad.  I went to go change him and his diaper was full of sand amongst other things...I went to clean him off and there was sand everywhere.  Let's just say his bum got really exfoliated from the sand scrub that's for sure!!! Later on that day we went to playgroup at the park.  At the end of playgroup Noah decided to fall off a tower on to the sand.  He hit pretty hard, too.  Luckily he cried and didn't pass out, but just to be safe I made him stay awake at least until 9:30 pm just to keep an eye on him.  Luckily he didn't have any problems so I laid him down for bed.  At 3 am I couldn't sleep so I went to peek on him to make sure he was ok.  Unfortunately, he heard me open the door and started crying.  He didn't stop until I picked him up and held him for over an hour.  He finally fell back asleep and I tried to as well.  That afternoon was soccer again.  I took everyone with me.  Luckily Matthew's old school teacher was there trying to watch her son play.  I say trying to watch her son play because Matthew talked her hind leg off the whole game.  Luckily we didn't have any other issues than Noah eating sand, but that's not out of the ordinary--unfortunately.  A little pica never hurt anyone, right?! I was exhausted by bedtime that night.  I went in to get ready for bed and found this sweet note on my pillow:

That makes all the craziness of taking care of five kids (6 if you include Aaron) worth it.  It made my day--that's for sure!!

Last night my sister took pity on me and came over to watch the kids for a few hours so I could get away.  It was so nice to be kid free for a few hours.  Thanks, Johanna!!  Aaron comes back Sunday evening and we can't wait!  Hopefully nothing too crazy will happen between now and then.  Keeping my fingers crossed.
 Aaron was playing with Noah the other day and he was just giggling every time Aaron would throw him up.  He's getting so big I don't know how much longer he will be able to be thrown up in the air.

Sarah got a hold of a crayon and went to town on my ceramic tile:



 However, it is quite fitting for our family.  We are not perfect, but at least we are eternal!!

Here's a case of brotherly love:

 Josh has a huge black bruise on his cheek.  I asked him what happened and he told me that Daniel had kicked him.  He must have deserved it because he didn't tell me about it when it happened.  It is now turning a sickly shade of green.  How's that for some brotherly love?! 

Have I mentioned I can't wait until Aaron comes home tomorrow?!?