Footloose and Fancy Free

This has been a crazy week for us. We went swimming on Monday at the Redwood Pool and the kids loved it. What fun. We spent some time at the park playing, and as I mentioned before, the kids started school.

We also had cub scout pack meeting and Bryce received his Wolf badge and five arrow points after a lot of good hard work. He was also able to participate in his first ever pinewood derby. We spent a lot of time working together on his car, Fire Shot #99883. He did great, and ended up taking second place (way to go James Daley who took first after learning that his awesome tank car went much faster backward than forward). Most of all, we were thrilled that Bryce was a good sport through the entire event.


Also this week, a cute young woman in our ward, Whitney, completed her personal progress project which would normally not have anything to do with me now that I am out of young women, but, her project was to organize and teach a group of girls some dances and then have them perform. Aubrey was lucky enough to be one of the girls. They have had practices for the past six weeks and performed this week. They did a wonderful job! Cute dances, cute costumes, and lots of fun. We are so grateful for the time and effort that Whitney and others put in to organizing such a fabulous event for our little princess. Thanks so much you guys, you made it a fabulous experience for the girls that they won't soon forget.

Sunrise, Sunset

I love "The Fiddler on the Roof." I will concede that it is pretty lengthy, but I still just love it. In one song, Tevia (is that how to spell his name??...he's the dad) is thinking about his daughters and how they have grown, remembering when they were small and wondering where the time has gone. Today, that is how I feel.

Today was the first day of school (did I mention I hate year round school). We will have three children in school this year, but only two started back today. They have been really excited the last few days about the new adventure of their upcoming advance in grade. Last night, as we were prepping everything and doing school blessings and the like, I asked the kids if they wanted Mom or Dad to take them to school in the morning to find their classes and stuff. The two oldest looked at each other and then looked at me in a sad sort of "Oh, poor Mom" way and informed me that they were very much old enough to walk to school on their own and find their own classrooms. My son reminded me that they know the rooms in the school better than I do. He is right.

A bit of me is heartbroken. Suddenly, they don't need me any more (for that). I feel small and a bit sad and nostalgic (insert pathetic sigh here), but at the same time so proud of them and how they are growing and the amazing people they are growing into. I guess growing pains aren't just for kids, I seem to be experiencing some of my own as well.

Teaching DeMoux Children Not to Drown

As I mentioned last post, the kids have been in swimming lessons. Like the story of the three bears, we have three different levels of bravery when it comes to our swimmers (hot, cold, just right???). We decided to show that off a bit.


This is the "regular" version of jumping off the diving board...what you would expect. Good job, buddy. Great swimming!


This is the extreme version, five year old jumping off the high dive (less extreme since he has done it every year since age 2...Really, what kind of parents let a 2 year old jump off the high dive??)

(Here he is at two years old jumping off the high dive).

Then we have our little princess...ok, her video just won't upload so pretend you see a little girl walking to the end of the board and then crying and wailing until the teacher comes on the board and lowers her gently down into the water to another teacher. Her performance is completely unique, and not quite what we hoped for. She has managed to jump off the diving board in the past, and even enjoyed it. Guess you can never really count on what you will get from kids.
Children definitely keep life interesting. We'll see how it goes with a half dozen of them, we're looking forward to the adventure.

Summer Fun!!!

Because our children are in year round school (not our favorite thing) they really only have a three week summer vacation, so we try really hard to make it a fun time for them. Here are some of the exciting adventures we have explored the last couple of weeks!

The fourth of July we spent with cousins and Josh's parents and then did fireworks at our house. We didn't have anyone this year who was scared of the fireworks, so I got to stay outside instead of watching the show from the front window.

The three oldest kids have been in swimming lessons the past couple of weeks. They are all doing really well. Bryce and Aubrey are finally to the point that I think they could get to the side of the pool before drowning, even though it wouldn't be pretty. I wish we could take them swimming more often to get them more practice, but it is a little on the expensive side for us. There is no picture of Aubrey on the diving board because once she got out to the edge she panicked (never mind that she has been on the diving board countless times) and it took all her dad's coaxing and a nudge from a teacher to get her to actually go in the water.

This week, Gavin kept asking when we were going camping in our tent. We decided that a camp out in the backyard would be perfect. The kids helped me set up the tent, their favorite part was using the hammers to pound in the stakes. We pulled out our sleeping bags and I pumped up the air mattress (7 month pregnant women don't sleep on the ground...actually I don't sleep much at all anyway, so I guess it wouldn't have mattered...but if I am going to toss and turn all night I am going to do it in maximum comfort). We got the kids all settled, and did our bedtime routine. Josh and I went inside for a bit to finish up some chores, when suddenly our youngest appeared at the door with his two older brothers. As we all went back out to go to bed we found that in order to get out of the tent the three and five year old had split the zipper and mangled it to the point that it was completely ruined. With no way to contain the nearly two year old to the tent and no way to keep out bugs and stray cats, not to mention the skunks that frequent the yard in the summer (boy does our dog go crazy when they stop by), we opted to head back inside. It was an exciting 90 minute camp out and we did get to play in the tent all day, but the kids and I were disappointed with the ending (I think Josh was just relieved).

So, the first half of our "summer vacation" has been fabulous. We'll see what the second half holds. Should be fun!!

The Benefits of Nesting

Ok, I am kind of a clean freak in general. I have relaxed somewhat over the years because with so many little people running around making messes on purpose just to teach you patience (or that's what it feels like) I have had to let go of some things. I no long mop the floor 3-5 times a day trying to keep it spotless.

Anyway, when I am pregnant, my organization/cleaning mode kicks up a notch and my poor husband is often the recipient of the whining about things that need to be done around the house. Every time I am pregnant, Josh ends up with some big project that I want done before the baby is born. Last time around he made me a lovely patio in the backyard with 2ftX 2ft cement blocks (30 tiles weighing 50 lbs each...good thing he is pretty tough). He literally finished it the day that I went into labor (what timing). I have loved the patio ever since and been grateful for his work.

This time around, I could not get past the horribleness of my living room. All I could see as I sat in there or walked by was nicked walls, nasty paneling (on one wall), broken baseboards, and stained, scraped linoleum. I hated it (I have hated it since we moved in, but the cost to repair it all has always been out of our reach). As I whined and fussed and cleaned the rest of the house until it shone (shined?), Josh took pity on me and decided to repaint the room (thanks to a gift card he got from some work he did we could afford it). So, almost two weeks later (thanks to "help" from our children) it is done and I LOOOOOOVE it!!! Josh did a much better job than I could ever have hoped for, and I am grateful for his time and effort. All I did was sit around growing baby ears or something (and I painted the trim...I know I know, no painting when you're pregnant...we opened all the windows...I couldn't just sit there doing nothing). Same furniture and all, and no pictures up yet, but I am so pleased! It finally feels like living room I can relax in instead of feeling like something constantly needs to be cleaned.

Thanks honey, you are amazing...and you're totally hot too!!!