Burke is Six!

Happy Birthday Burke! We had a great time celebrating Burke's big day today and took some of his friends to a place called "Sky High Pizza" where they have inflatable things to bounce on and lots of slides. Burke is off-track right now (year-round school) and so the timing was perfect! We had the entire place to ourselves and the kids had a blast. Burke received two Star Wars Lego sets that were identical; later when I asked if he wanted to return one (I had purchased one of them) to get something else, his response was, "No. I want to keep it so that Hewitt can have one of them." Just one of the many evidences that my little boy is growing up. Tonight in Burke's personal prayer he said, "...I'm thankful that I will still be six tomorrow..." What a sweetheart. I love you Burke.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you women out there; especially to my own mother and mother-in-law. In preparation for Mother's Day this year, I couldn't help but recall my experience from just one year ago and take steps to avoid a repeat...

Allow me to paint the following picture: One year ago today I was about 38 1/2 weeks pregnant. I had gained about 50 pounds during Tosh's pregnancy and was very much at that 'always uncomfortable and not sleeping well' stage. Burke's (5th) birthday fell right on Mother's Day last year and so the night before I had stayed up past midnight decorating his birthday cake, wrapping presents, etc. I did some dishes, but didn't finish them and ended up going to bed with a fairly messy kitchen. Our church began at 1:00pm and although Rob was usually in meetings, he was actually home for most of the morning because of Mother's Day (he was just supposed to be at the church about an hour before it started). So Mother's Day morning came and we were up early (as always) and started off the morning with breakfast and then let Burke open his birthday presents. After the presents were opened I began to clean up the kitchen and was told by my husband, "Go back to bed...I'll take care of this." I happily went back to bed. I took a lovely nap and then took my time showering, doing my hair and getting ready for church thinking all the while, "this is turning out to be a nice Mother's Day." About 15 minutes before Rob was to head out the door, he ran upstairs to shower and then took off for his meetings. I came downstairs to find that absolutely nothing had changed downstairs--with the exception of additional dishes waiting to be done and wrapping paper and bows all over the floor. What I didn't realize was that when Rob said, "I'll take care of this," he must of meant that he would take care of helping Burke build the entire LEGO fire station that he had just received for his birthday. So, I now had about an hour before church was going to start to:
1. Feed the kids lunch
2. Find/prepare all the church clothes
3. Get the kids dressed for church (this is dreadful as my kids hate and fight this)
4. Get the church bag ready
5. Clean up the dishes
6. Make the salad that Rob was assigned to bring to his mother's house for a family dinner immediately following church
7. Get the kids hair combed, teeth brushed and loaded into the van

Now, on a good day, a very good day, I may have been able to do all of this in an hour. This was not that day. No one would eat their lunch, the boys were having fits over getting dressed, and I spent about 10 minutes alone looking for Burke's church shoes (I finally found them under some laundry that Rob had put on the floor). I started to grow more and more upset with my husband as if everything that was going wrong was his direct fault. When we were ready to head out the door it was about 12:55 and I knew that I was going to be late. Late for 1:00 church, just great. We headed out the door walking past the very full trash can (I had purposely set it there thinking that Rob would see and empty it on his way out) and discovered that the car seats were not in the van (they too were right in front of the door so that Rob would see to do it). So in my very pregnant body, I installed the car seats which involves literally sitting in the car seat to make it as tight/safe as possible. I finally was ready to load the boys (now 1:00pm) into the van and as soon I went to put Hewitt in his seat I realized that he needed his diaper changed. I took him back into the house, changed his diaper, and then loaded him into the van. I went back inside to put the diaper in the trash can and when I bent down to pull out the trash bag, the bag was so full that it spilled onto the floor--and it was one of those messy garbage spills. So there I was standing in my kitchen about 5 minutes past 1:00 with garbage all over the floor and now I was mad. I think I actually kicked the trash can and started yelling (my kids were already buckled in the van and couldn't see/hear me). I was tempted to just leave the mess, but of course couldn't, so I bent down to begin picking up all of the garbage (picking things off of the floor is the absolute worst when nine months pregnant) and then, RrrrrrrIP! My dress literally split right up the back (clear up to my bottom)! Now, I was officially at the point of having to wear "tent dresses" as my button-down maternity shirts would no longer fit over my big belly and I had no other easy clothes option (the only other tent dress would have to be ironed). So, I took the garbage out, washed my hands, grabbed my sewing machine, pulled off my dress and proceeded to sew up my dress while my children sat buckled in their car seats. I threw the dress back on and we drove to church. When we finally arrived (I can't even remember now if we missed the actual passing of the sacrament or not) Rob looked very confused as to why we were so late but seemed genuinely worried. I didn't dare say a word but just sat there. A friend sitting behind me leaned over the pew, put her arm around me and said, "How are you doing?" It was then that I burst into tears. I sat and had a good cry and then was able to laugh about it all shortly after...

Needless to say, I did a few things differently this year: On Saturday night I had every little sock and shoe in its place, the Sunday clothes were ironed, the church bag was packed and ready, I made sure the car seats were installed, and most importantly I clearly communicated with my husband, "Just so the expectations are clear, I don't want breakfast in bed (big breakfast = messy kitchen in my mind) but would really like you to feed the kids breakfast and get them in their church clothes before you leave for your meetings." This seemed to work well and the boys and I were actually sitting in our pew about 8 minutes before the church meetings started. More importantly though, I've had some time to reflect this weekend on how grateful I am for my mother and how grateful I am to be a mother! I wouldn't trade even my most crazy and challenging "mom" experiences for anything in the world. I love my boys so much and am humbled at the opportunity to be their mom.

Green Shoes

I just finished mowing the lawn. I believe that this is the first time that I have mowed the lawn since Jr. High school. I grew up on a busy street and the day after mowing the lawn I would get several "Hey, I saw you outside mowing your grass last night" comments at school. It was then that I started to negotiate chore duties: "Please Mom/Dad don't make me do it, I will do anything except mow the lawn." From then on I became the bathroom lady. Cleaning toilets was fine by me--I could talk on the phone at the same time so it was a win-win for all.

Last week I caught myself criticizing the way my husband had mowed the lawn. Now, I learned very early on in our marriage to be careful of such criticisms. When our oldest son was a baby I would leave the bathroom when my husband was bathing him because I realized that if I corrected his method or criticized the way he was doing it then he probably wouldn't be interested in bathing our kids anymore. Well, today I actually cringed when I heard myself say, "You need to mow the lawn and I really would like you to do it my way." Nice one 'T'--very effective people skills. So, I got on an old pair of sneakers, picked up the edger for the first time in the my life and edged and mowed the lawn. It looks decent. I decapitated a couple of tulips in the process (sorry my darlings) but it looks OK although not quite the way I was envisioning (no perfect lines, the edging is very rough and lots of grass ended up in the bark). Maybe now I'll be more forgiving the next time Rob gives it a go...assuming he's still willing.

I've Been Tagged (round two)

How To Play This Game of Tag: Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog (thanks Loni)!


3 Joys:
1. my four boys (this can count as one, right?)
2. yummy food
3. microphone in my hand, spotlight on my face

3 Fears:
1. swimming in open water (I did this once in a triathlon and it felt like I had conquered the world although I'm in no hurry to do it again).
2. all the evil in the world--yikes
3. snakes (I don't know if this is a real fear, but a very big dislike)


3 goals:
1. get back in shape
2. do a good deed daily
3. teach my children to know and love the Lord


3 current obsessions/collections:
1. blogging and reading your blog
2. yard work/landscaping (at least we're spending a lot of time and money on it anyway)
3. I collect Berenstain Bear books (as well as dust...)


3 random surprising facts about me:
1. I have a real interest in names. As a kid I would try to memorize first and middle names of everyone: extended family, friends, the entire ward directory (no joke). I also kept notebook upon notebook (I must have had at least a dozen) of fictional families that I named and created. Using these made-up families, I would play "house" with my dolls and actually pretend to be the "mom" getting up to introduce each family member in part of her sacrament meeting talk. How funny/weird is that? I also collected and still have many baby name books. Rob and I must discuss "baby names" more than any other couple on the planet. No seriously, even on our recent trip to California, if Rob was getting tired at the wheel then we would discuss what we would want to name our next boy (not an announcement btw)...

2. Some of you may not know that I used to sing and dance (in my "former life" as I call it). In thinking about this just now I've concluded that I've performed (meaning have sung a vocal solo in front of an audience) in over 20 states, 5 countries (not counting the US) and one territory (Guam). Sometimes I really miss the stage...and singing in church does not count (although I do love singing with Rob).

3. I went to a Vanilla Ice/MC Hammer concert and loved it!

I tag Sherry, Lindsay, Brigitte, Jana and Jalyn.

Rain, Rain, Come Again

Today was one of those days where my "plan A" didn't happen, my "plan B" didn't happen and then I gave up trying to plan my day by the hour. I did end up accomplishing many of the things on my list, and there is always tomorrow for the other things, right? Today was mostly gray and rainy. Hewitt and I spent some time outside this afternoon while Burke played at a friend's house and Tosh napped. I sat on my porch watching Hewitt play in the rain and reflected on my childhood and how much I loved walking/playing in the rain. I would dance around on my driveway and sing "I love to walk in the rain" (one of my favorite songs off of a Shirley Temple record) and "Singing in the Rain" (still one of my favorite musicals of all time). I'm now regretting that I didn't run out and join him. What was I, afraid of melting? You see, I was multitasking: reading material for an upcoming lesson, keeping an eye on Hewitt, visiting with my sister on the phone for some of the time... I think that sometimes as a mom I am so focused on the daily "things I need to do" and bothered by the things I'm not getting done that I can forget to just simply enjoy! Maybe my "plan A" for tomorrow will include playing in the rain/dirt/mud with Hewitt as this is something he does daily and it seems to be working for him (look at that smile). If his clothes can come clean in the laundry then mine should too.

Weekend Funnies

Yesterday was Hewitt's very first soccer game. Three is a fairly young age for soccer; the uniform fit more like a dress and Hewitt and his buddies were more interested in rolling in the grass and wrestling with each other than chasing the ball. He had a good time and got some energy out at least.


When Rob went up to check on the boys after they had gone to bed last night, Hewitt's door was shut with the light on. He opened the door expecting to catch him playing with toys but found him sound asleep in the middle of the floor surrounded by his toys (I would love to watch this process on hidden camera. There was a car in his hand, so I can only imagine that he was busy playing and then thought, "Man, I'm tired, I think I'll just rest on the floor here for just a minute...").

I got laughing very hard on my way into church this morning. We were slightly late (Tosh seems to know exactly when I am heading out the door likes to poo at that very moment) and as we entered the chapel I noticed that Hewitt was carrying the turkey baster. OK then. He got a few things stuck inside it during the meeting and at one point the bulb end went flying off during a hymn (no worries though, it only made contact with the floor and of course Hewitt went crawling under the pews to retrieve it).

Tosh was so exhausted from entertaining the masses during Sunday School and Relief Society that when we got home he fell asleep in his high chair while I was feeding him butternut squash.



Burke approached me this afternoon and said, "Mom, I really need you to do a huge favor for me; I need you to do the laundry because the laundry pile is three feet tall." I'll get on that one tomorrow (not really three feet just for the record).

We all got a big laugh this evening when we were standing in the kitchen and Tosh suddenly walked from our family room couch to the desk in our kitchen (about 10-12 steps). It was just so sudden and unexpected!

Wanted: Idiot's Guide To Color

So after talking to my sis-in-law on the phone this morning I decided to play around with the colors on my blog... Maybe having color on the page does make the photos "pop" after all. I'm pretty clueless about color, but thought, why not add a little where it won't hurt anyone? Maybe if I can add color to the blog then someday I'll add a little to my walls at home.

I attended Enrichment last night where we learned about gardening. Yet another area of life that I am pretty clueless about. I talked the sweet sister who gave the presentation on square foot gardening (see squarefootgardening.com if you want to learn too) into coming over to "consult" me on my garden space. I'm pretty excited about starting our garden and ever grateful for the hand-holding others are willing to provide...