Micah dancing

Passeys in Action

Here are a few videos that I am mainly posting because it seems like the best way to show them to Travis. It's Micah's first attempt to walk in hard soled shoes (he thinks it's hilarious, like most things in life seem to be), and then when Ava was staying with us last week, she and Kaden were playing like she was the princess and and he was saving her from the dragon. I thought it was adorable and I really hope her mom will forgive me to posting it despite her dress flying up a bit?...

Impish Grins

This doesn't catch it perfectly but it's sort of the example of the proud half smile Micah gets when he is feeling satisfied or proud of himself (namely, when he gets away with something he thought he wouldn't). The past couple of days when I open the fridge or freezer he races over and when I won't let him play with everything inside, he resorts to just sitting on the bottom and staring cutely up at me.

Rainbows

It seems like I have not seen a rainbow for so long! I went to take the garbage out to the curb the other nights and there was a beautiful full rainbow. Normally I would run and get Travis to come out and see it (and he would be just as captivated as me and so glad I got him, wouldn't you? )--but this time it wasn't possible so I actually went and got Noah out of bed since he wasn't asleep yet and brought him down to see it with me. I love rainbows. Why is it that beauty is so much better when shared with others? I would have been so happy to have seen it, yet disappointed if I couldn't have found someone to share it with.

So Cool

A real watermelon! Growing in our garden! How cute is that? It is nerdy to say, but I am so in love with this thing. I posted this picture first because it's so impressive, but the last picture shows the size more with my hand next to it. It's still very small, and very very cute.

Angelic you say?...

I am going crazy here with this very adorable and maddening child. Let me give a few highlights from his day. Mind you these are highlights and there are plenty of crazy details missing.

Wake up at 6:00, bright eyed and bushy tailed. Lots of smiling. Come into room with mom, empty diaper bag, take bites from the 3 apples in there. Go into mom's bathroom, come out with razor mom thought she hid. Grab mom's phone. Unravel roll of toilet paper. Wave to daddy on the webcam. Get very angry when food is mentioned, must eat NOW. Yell until I get food. Smile a lot again. Notice the door didn't get closed to the garage, escape into garage and dump cup of milk out there. Come inside when Mom drags me. Empty out the kitchen cupboards. Dump out box of cheerios. Look innocent. Ooooh, someone left the bathroom door open again. Go in but get caught before making too much trouble. Climb onto coffee table and fall onto couch from it over and over. Laugh a lot. Find daddy's phone. Run away from Mommy when she sees it. Lose mommy's phone. Empty diaper bag again. Dump box of grapenuts onto floor. Laugh lots more. Dump cup of water that was close enough to the edge of the table that I could reach it. Look innocent. Take a nap, but make sure to wake up earlier than normal. I'm afraid Mommy might get something done. Chase vacuum around and grab cord. Go to the pool and try to drown myself multiple times. Show Mommy the tick in my hair and see what she does. Come home and cry for food. Laugh when I get it. Eat lots. Grab the corningware dish that's on the table and bring it smashing to the floor so that nobody will have to eat the squash. Look more innocent. Why is it in lots of little pieces now? That's kind of cool. Turn TV on and off while my brothers try to watch a movie. That always get a good reaction. Empty cupboards again. If I could just get the fridge open...Jump up and down on couch and tackle Ammon. Laugh and smile when mommy says it's time for bed. Fall exhausted into bed, asleep within 3 seconds. I can't wait for tomorrow....

Garden progress

This tomato plant was had the misfortune of being close to the mudpit the kids all played in last week. It hasn't been so happy since...

A couple of these tomato plants are taller than me. We just ate our first 3 grape tomatoes today. Very yummy.

Not flourishing, but some things are growing, and there even a couple of zucchinis starting to form that look healthy enough.

Okay, this watermelon plant just keeps growing. I wish I knew what was making it so happy, so I could spread the joy.

Our New Toy

We have been wanting to get a trampoline for a long time and meant to get one for this last Christmas. But we didn't for some reason. Anyway I finally gave up on the idea for awhile, and suddenly we are blessed by wonderful giving friends who are moving away and decided to give us their trampoline. I am so excited (and the kids are a little, too). Now I just have to establish some strict rules, and start off strong with those rules. Four boys and a trampoline could be a recipe for disaster. But what a great way to burn energy!

Long week

So I guess the first 2 weeks without Travis sped by and it was time for a hard one this last week. On Wednesday, Kaden had a tummy ache. My friend's husband was out of town for a few days and the air conditioning in their house is not working, so they were coming to spend the day with us, possibly longer if it didn't get fixed. Kaden threw up. I called Nikki and told her she was totally still welcome, but that he had thrown up. She came anyway, and he was great the rest of the day. Then they ended up staying the night. Thursday Ammon had a tummy ache. He threw up 4 times throughout the day. They stayed again that night. Friday I didn't feel well at all and her little 10 mth old daughter was throwing up and mid day Nikki started throwing up. Then in the evening it was Noah, and just after being put to bed, her 2 year old Paul. Let me tell you, it's been great fun. Nikki's husband, Ryan got back Friday night and they stayed here that night and Saturday night. We love to have visitors and distractions, yet it's nice to have a more peaceful house now when you feel awful, and not worry so much about taking care of everyone. That sounds bad. On top of it all, the camera broke that I got for Mother's Day. At least it's having issues and it's very sad.

On a happy note we all went to church today, because it had been a good 36 hours since any active sickness. In sacrament meeting Noah wrote a couple of notes to me. He's becoming a regular poet I would say. On Thursday night, Nikki and I watched a movie while she dyed my hair. Anyone who hadn't seen me for awhile would say it no different because it's the way it used to be, but it's been getting so dark and dirty looking. Anyway, it's my first true hair dying experience, and my kids didn't notice until yesterday as they were brushing my hair....Kaden suddenly said "Hey we are brushing it so much it's getting lighter!" And Noah "Yeah, your right, kind of more golden, let's check underneath, yep it's getting lighter" Anyway, that explains part of his note...
Isn't that funny? I thought so, anyway.

I also got called into the Primary Presidency today. I don't really know anything about the primary and feel pretty inadequate to be as much help as I want to be, especially with crazy psycho Micah boy in tow. I know I will learn so much and be a better person and mom for it and I am excited, but as I sat in there today and hardly even knew any of the kids names, and looked through the binder, I realized there will have to be a huge baptism by fire learning curve.

What to do what to do

Dear little Ammon. So he is more than 3 1/2 years old now. He always been our cuddlebug which was very nice. He also was pretty needy whenever I was around from 6 mths to a year and a half, then had a better year, then turned a little cranky just before Micah was born. I give all this history trying to come up with some diagnoses or clue that will help me with him right now. It could just be a 3 year old thing. Noah was a difficult 3 year old. But in a different way. Ammon wakes up whining and crying, throws crying fits regularly all day every day, and lately has been even throwing blocks at his brothers and friends when he gets frustrated. (Not anymore, because I took all of the blocks away). He decided on his own to potty train while we were in Florida on our way to Virginia. I hadn't planned on it, because we were totally in transition but I went along and he was a champion! He was so easy compared to Noah and Kaden and it was awesome. He has stayed dry during the night from the beginning and has very rare accidents. But this morning he woke up wet, and has had 4 more accidents throughout the day. Trav made some comment a little while ago, "It's like he's starved for attention or something" and I am wondering if I am somehow not giving him what he needs. I am not sure what to do with him. We have had a lot of chaos around here for the past weeks or so. Maybe that's it. Maybe he's confused about his dad not being here and missing him? He doesn't really talk to him on the webcam usually. Maybe he's totally neglected. Or maybe he needs a lot more sleep. I'm pretty sure he should be taking naps but just doesn't sleep at quiet time, and he wakes up pretty early. I think I should be putting him down an hour or so earlier than everyone else's 7:30 bedtime. I wish I knew what to do...

A Girl? Here?

As my friend dropped off her kids here yesterday and started telling me things I need to know. Then she pulled out all the hair stuff. I hadn't thought about doing someone's hair. Our boys have short enough of hair that I don't even comb it! Very bad habit. So Ava and I are going to have a blast. I told her about when I would braid letters into my sisters' hair and their friends, so she wanted an "A" but I talked her into a "P" instead.

What you need to know before tellilng the kids to play in the dirt...

I spend too much telling my kids not to make messes and get messy....We have 2 little visitors for the weekend, and it's been rainy and stormy outside. So it was either keep them inside all day, tell them to play outside and not to get dirty, then be stressed, or just tell them to go and get muddy. So that's what I did. Micah was napping and I got a little done inside and then went outside to weed and supervise for awhile.Ava and Kaden are 2 days apart in age.

So they made a mud puddle and got dirty the way I intended. Ava's clothese were in a bag labeled "playclothes", but I still winced a little as they got muddier and muddier--We had gone to Kaden's soccer game already earlier, and they were splashing through puddles there and they were already super dirty--I hope I am not fired...

Then it was so fun they started to get more and more muddy than I had originally intended...My funny Noah. He doesn't like to get dirty. When he was in preschool he would politely decline any activity like fingerpainting or things that made ooey-gooey messes. I wonder if it is somehow my fault and I don't want his childhood to be missing things like the mud pies I loved to make as a child. So as he wandered around and looked at his brothers and friends like they were crazy, I told him it was fine to get really dirty when I said so. But at first he said he would rather weed with me. So I let him and kept mentioning how much fun they were having and he should go and get in the mud just a little.

Look at these dirty hands. I think he's starting to like it.

And I already know Kaden likes it...

Here is Ava...

Anderson puts everyone to shame, making sure he is the very dirtiest.

I love this picture. Especially Noah.

And then with lots of encouragement....

Noah has finally let go of all restraints! I'm so proud of him.

So this was all while Micah was napping. Being the only adult supervisor, I didn't really plan the clean up route before letting this happen. So I went out and asked Ammon if he was ready to go in and take a bath and suddenly they all wanted to clean up and go in. What to do now? I could have used a few extra adults to get them all hosed down and stripped and carried into the bath/shower/tub and cleaned. But we managed somehow--it wasn't very warm today so they didn't enjoy the hosing down and standing and waiting their turns before making it to warm water somewhere. But they were all great sports, and we don't have mud on our carpets. So all in all a great day!

As I got lunch for everyone afterwards, our wonderful neighbor came over to mow the lawn. He has insisted that I just let him mow the lawn every Friday. At first I just felt bad. I can totally mow the lawn. But even as I did it the first couple of times it is tricky with all the kids. Has to be during naps, finding some activity for the other kids and there are so many other things to be doing. So when he came over one day and begged me not to do it again, I felt a big weight lift off of my shoulders. It was such a strong feeling that I felt liking crying for a couple of hours afterwards. There are so many truly good people in the world. That always makes me happy. Anyway, my whole point is that he didn't come yesterday and it didn't occur to me he would show up on a Saturday afternoon. So I had been cleaning kids and getting them fed and hadn't cleaned up the mess outside, when I saw him in the back yard, picking up toys and moving them to mow the lawn. So I ran out there and he said he noticed someone had been having lots of fun. He was very amused. I waited for him to finish before trying to spray everything down. I rinsed all the clothes a few times outside, and ran them through the washer. One the THIRD time through the water was still really muddy. I think it took 5 times through the wash to feel like they were fairly clean. Should have done swimsuits! Next time (in a couple of years)....

How to make your week speed by.

I have a friend who's air conditioning has not been working in their apartment. It was in the high 90s this week and their house was over 100 degrees (with 3 little kiddos). So we got their company for a couple of nights. My kids are getting spoiled by one giant sleepover. So here is Nikki trying to get a sticky toy thingamajig down with another sticky toy thingamajig.

Breakfast

Everyone loves popsicles.

Harper and Kaden so proud of their lincoln log creations.

Blossoms

Oh, and our pretty watermelon that I had no hopes for planting in front of the house, is so pretty and getting it's first blossom. I knew this one wouldn't survive and made sure to plant the other in the garden where of course vegetable would all do better. So that shows how much I know what plants really like...

Our garden and my black thumbs

I obviously don't post pics to brag--since this garden is anything but beautiful. But I am excited to be TRYING to grow things and thought pictures would be a fun documentation of the process. I have never been good at keeping plants alive. But I want to be. This was a few weeks ago

Our pots--I seem to have a little better luck in the pots. Sometimes. Let's see what happens. In the meantime, I try not to get too attached, but it's harder because it's so exciting when you actually see things starting to grow.Here's the garden a couple of weeks ago. Yes, it really needed a good weeding, but if I waited for that I may never get a good pictures. So of the 2 row of beans plants, 2 PLANTs came up, a few cucumber plants never made it out of the ground, but 3 transplants did. The zucchini is growing the best (everyone says that's because you can't kill it, but I certainly CAN and HAVE killed zucchini both times I have tried. So I am very excited). There are some jalepeno plants that haven't died but aren't growing much, and the squash doesn't seem to be growing either. The watermelon finally started to grow a little, but I just am not holding out a lot of hope. Oh, and the pumpkin plant behind the zucchini.

I get too excited about tomatoes and this year didn't factor in that Travis wouldn't even be here to help us eat them. Hopefully we'll have more than we can handle. We also did cucumbers, peppers, and basil in the pots.

My first time trying lettuce and I think it's so beautiful. Nevermind that we tasted it and it is very bitter so we may never eat it. I still love it.

Little grape tomatoes starting to grow...

See the little jalepenos? I LOVE seeing the actual vegetables one day appear!

Noah's swim

Kaden's soccer

Obviously half time oranges and end of game snacks are the main reason my kids want to play sports so far. Trav has actually been the one to watch most of Kaden's games while I watch Noah swim since they are at the same time. But last Saturday I got to watch Kaden, too. He gets to be on the same team as his buddy Chance and has had such a good time.

Candie, hope you don't mind me stealing your great pictures. . . I really dropped the camera ball, so it's good to have friends as a back up.

I was lucky enough, however to catch Kaden scoring on camera. He was so proud of himself.



This is his "second goal, the one with my hands"...