One Singular Sensation

This week my littlest sweet princess will be a year old.  How crazy is that!
I'm not sure what to say about this that I didn't already say a few months ago (reference Nostalgia post).

I am excited to celebrate the first year of life of my little bug of a girl. 

 I love that she reaches out excitedly to be picked up when I go into her room every morning (always with just one arm, mind you).  I love that she thinks she is old enough to play Wii with the other kids, and has to have a controller to hold.  I love that she has no intentions of walking until she feels like it, which isn't any time soon...and anyone who tries to convince her otherwise will get an earful!  I love everything (ok, almost everything) that there is about this tiny teacup baby.  I am grateful that she was born, and grateful that God sent her to our family, we wouldn't be right without her.

Love you, little one.

Humbled

Yesterday afternoon I needed to set up our recently inherited, ultra huge tent.  I had to clean it out and be sure I knew how it went together before Bryce's family scout camping trip tonight.

Just to let you know, I have set up a LOT of tents in my day and don't usually have trouble doing it on my own (FYI I'm ultra stubborn).

Well, this tent is really big, and not so much meant to be put up by one person.  Also, it was pretty windy at our house yesterday afternoon and the fabric of the tent acted like a gigantic kite.  

Still, I was determined.
I just kept at it.

Then it got really hard.

And I started to get really frustrated.

Parker was helping me put the poles together, hold the corners down and little things like that.  

I'm embarrased to admit that the more frustrated I got, the closer I got to using more colorful language (I really am not a swearer mostly, but once in a while...), so rather than have Parker be forced watch (and hear) me throw a tantrum, I sent him in the house. 

He could tell I was not at my best, so he didn't argue,listened quickly and scuttled into the house.

I stuck with it (no way I was going to let the tent win), and things eventually started to come together. 

Finally, Ha Ha, success.

That is when Parker came back outside.

He smiled when he saw that the tent was taking shape and that I was not as upset.

"Mom, I know you were having a hard time so when I went in the house I said  a prayer for you that Heavenly Father would help you get the tent done."

Oh....

While I was outside on the verge of a profanity laced fit, Parker was inside handling things in a much more adult and much more inspired way.

What a humbling moment.

I gave Parker a huge hug and apologized for nearly losing it.  Then he happily helped me clean out the tent, take it all down and pack it back in it's bag.

I am so grateful for these small ones that I have been blessed with.

I learn so much from these incredible little people.

Growing Pains

Aubrey is growing up...and she knows it.

Sometimes she sort of forgets that she is not an adult yet.

She is VERY independent (I wonder where she got that).

 

Last night this little princess was sent to take a shower.  She often likes to rush through washing her hair and doesn't bother to take barrettes or rubber bands out of her hair (or have us help her with that since sometimes they get a bit stuck...you know hair).  Sometimes this means she comes out with suds embedded in her tresses, and if we don't notice right away she is an itchy flaky mess by morning. 

Thankfully,

last night she remembered.

Hooray!

Except, the rubber bands were a bit stuck...so she cut them out.

So, this morning when I was helping her brush and style her hair, I found big clumps of hair coming out in the pick.  There was a lot of hair.  I showed it to Aubery.

She cried...until I started laughing.  Then we laughed together.

I guess now she has a little more layering than she had before.

I asked her not to cut the rubber bands out of Ellie's hair.

It will be harder to hide trouble there.

She just looked at me sideways and said, "Mooooooom."

Guess maybe Aubs still has a few things to learn...

...and so do I.

Education Schmeducation

So, my three oldest kids started school in July.

They were in school for a whopping three weeks....then they went off track.

Yuck.

Have I ever told you that I really really dislike year round school.

Sigh.

Oh well, we've been having fun this past week and a half anyway. 

Mostly, Gavin is THRILLED to have his older siblings home again.  He has never really had to figure out how to entertain himself before, so he loves having people around to come up with the ideas for him.  Poor little guy is lost without a leader.  I guess this will be a year of growth for him as he gets used to being the oldest kid at home. 

I am really grateful for school.  I am glad my kids can attend and I am thankful for good teachers who put an awful lot of time and effort into helping me educate my little brood.

My poor little angels don't even get a break when they're off track.  I still make them do homework every day.

That's right, meanest mom on the planet, right here.

Also, I make them eat vegetables.

Hooray for school!!

Great Friends

This past ten days has been full of fabulous friends for us.

It has been nice to spend time with people we love, and some people we haven't seen in a while and it was great to get to spend some actual face time with them.

My friend, Kathy, I get to see a few times a year, but it is always fun to spend time with her.  We have known each other since high school, and she always has hilarious stories to share with us when she comes by.  My kids love her and she is a lot of fun.  I am grateful for her friendship...and her persistence because she is almost always the one who takes the time to come and see us, it is almost never the other way.

I hadn't actually seen my friend, Roxanne, in over seven years.  She lives in California and much of our interaction comes through our blogs.  She has an ADORABLE family and it was really fun to get to meet her kids in person.  She spent an afternoon with us and it was super good to talk to her after so long.  I am grateful for her friendship, even long distance.  She is an amazing person.

Josh and I have also had the opportunity to spend some time with some great local friends that will be moving soon.  The Aiellos are some of our best friends in the ward and we will miss them a lot when they go.  There aren't too many people in the world that really understand Josh's humor, and there are even fewer people that I feel comfortable opening up to, so it will be sad for us to have them leave, but it has been great to get to see so much of them and their kids as they prep to trek to Florida.

And, last but not least, last night we had dinner with my friend Andrea and her sweet husband Torrey.  I haven't seen her in about five years, and had never met her wonderful husband.  Their daughter Aniston (don't you just love that name!) was really sweet to let our large brood invade all of her toys.  Andrea is a particularly important friend in my life because she is the one who introduced Josh and I by setting us up on our first date (which didn't go well, but has worked out since).  I will forever be indebted to Andrea for that, but on top of that she is a great friend and it was really fun to spend time with her and her family. (Also, it makes me feel pathetic that I never blogged about our 11th anniversary this past week...however, "we spent the evening at home with a Redbox movie" doesn't really make an exciting post...oh well, it was fun for us).

I am grateful for the incredible friends that I have in my life and the good influence they are on me (and boy do I need a good influence!).  I am especially grateful because I get absorbed in my family's life and adventures and I am not the best at arranging time to spend with other people (reference hermit post).

It is nice to still be friends with people, even when you haven't seen them in a while.

Friendship it a beautiful thing.

Love you all.

RiBit!

Logan: "Mom, Ellie is sitting like a frog."

Gavin: "I want to be a frog too."

Logan: "Me too."

Ellie: "Uh da da da."

A Whirlwind Weekend

What a weekend!

There has been so much happening.  We have been refinishing the doors in our upstairs (which has been a terrible job...I do NOT recommend it, just save up and buy new ones instead).  And so, the little ones have not had as much attention as they ought to have had and this was one of our resultant messes.  Such innocent little sprites.  At least the doors look better (at least to me).

  

I also got to visit some garage sales with my mom  and dad and my sister in law.  I was actually looking for treasures to save until Christmas for my little ones, but I accidentally stumbled on some things for me as well (this is why I don't usually go to yard sales).

But I got away with some incredible deals (for the adults and the children) and spent less than $20 so I guess it was alright to fudge a little just this one time.

And as an added bonus,

Ellie has four teeth coming in, so she is a grump.

This one is for my parents who do not believe that our little Ellie is anything but an angel.

She is incredibly sweet and amazingly adorable,

however, she has a temper.  A really, really, volcanic temper.  Enough so that she arches out of our arms if we try to hold her, and we have to watch her anger run its course from the sidelines.  

This is one of her more minor tantrums since the camera tends to diminish her fits.

Finally, we had a leak develop in our plumbing.  It started as a quiet, almost friendly, drip.  But while Josh was at the hardware store to buy parts, the leak amplified into a much bigger problem. The tiny hole sprayed water all over the laundry room in our basement.  What a mess!  We finally got the water stopped and excess water all mopped up, and now things are nice and dry again.  Hooray.

Doggy Paddle

(Piper and Charlie in the dog run)

The other night the kids and I were in the backyard playing when suddenly, one of the dogs started barking uncontrollably from the dog run. We all looked, and found Charlie yapping like crazy at Piper...why you may ask? We have a five gallon bucket in the dog run to hold water for the puppies (they manage to tip over everything else) and Piper had put her chin and one front leg into the bucket and was paddling with that one leg trying to swim. It was hilarious (Charlie didn't think so..."Hey, what they heck, you are getting hair and girl cooties in the water!!!") Piper just calmly sat paddling until she had splashed out too much of the water and couldn't "swim" anymore. We filled it up, and she did it again. We laughed and laughed and she looked at us like we were crazy (well, we weren't trying to swim in a water dish). Unfortunately, she is camera shy so we haven't gotten that on video yet, but here's hoping. What a nutty mutt!