The Calm Before the Storm

This week started off normally, piano lessons, preschool and playing. On Wednesday, my dad arrived in town for some business meetings, and as usual we enjoyed having him stay with us. Amazingly my dad seems to always have business trips to Colorado around the same time that I have concerts, so he was here for my Friday night concert.

The girls brought their first ceramic art projects this week. They were so excited by them! Anna's "Pinch Pot" was made to look like a Christmas Tree with a star and ornaments. Eileen's "Coil Pot" is a perfect sized dish for her little nick nacks.


The girls are very excited to be on spring break now and are eagerly looking forward to a week of sleeping in to 7am and doing TONS of stuff - we will see just how much of their desired activities I have energy for.... Either way, I'm sure we will all be totally exhausted by the time the girls go back to school!

The weather this Saturday was just WONDERFUL - mid 70's and sunny - we enjoyed spending most of the afternoon outside working in the yard and riding bikes. (well the kids rode - I walked to keep pace with Evie) The kids just had a blast and have been talking about getting to go outside and ride bikes all during spring break!


Haha - well James is sleeping and as Dan says - I'm wasting sleep time - so I'm heading to bed - I'm sure next week will be sufficiently long to make up for the shortness of this one!

Whether the weather....

The weather here has been mostly beautiful. It's been windy too - but also sunny and warm. As a result we have been able to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the weather.

Eileen decided this week that she was ready and wanted to learn how to ride her bike with out training wheels on. She spent most of the week riding around the back yard - Dan and I figure she wanted to practice on something softer and more forgiving than concrete. When she sets her mind to something she works hard to accomplish it - and this was no different - she worked hard and is now a two wheel bike rider - She is still a bit shaky on the steering, but she is getting there!



Evie has been sick for some of this week - with a fever and runny nose, the fever made her rather snuggly - which I thoroughly enjoyed when I wasn't feeding James - hopefully James won't get sick from all the times Evie coughed on him when she needed to cuddle while I was holding James too. She seems to be doing a lot better now. Fever is mostly gone and nose is dripping less - now we just need the cough to go away.

Saturday, the kids spent most of the day cleaning (the girls room was a disaster zone) and riding bikes - Dan took each of them for rides around the block - they loved it!

Since Evie was sick and I was teaching a lesson at church today, Dan took Evie and James home after Sacrament Meeting. Since it was a beautiful day, the kids and I walked home after church. The kids didn't much like the wind, but it was a nice walk. Aaron pooped in his pants about half way home - I could tell - not just be the smell being blown back to me, but by Aaron beginning to use what I now refer to as the "poopy walk"




I had concerts this weekend - I tried to make sure that Dan had some milk for James, then I left poor Dan with 5 cranky kids - for two nights in a row. Thankfully he is an angel and never complains about it. I think that the bottle might have caused some problems though. For the last 2 nights James has woken up every 2 hours. The problem was that he didn't want to eat and go back to sleep, in fact he didn't really seem to want to eat or be awake - I would nurse him back to sleep, but it wouldn't last long. We finally figured out the problem today - serious gas. After an afternoon of almost constant unexplained fussing and refusing to eat - he spent 5 minutes passing gas and filling his diaper - after which he felt MUCH better. - go figure - LOL - for those of you who really didn't need/want all that info... sorry. :)

Gaps

It's been a bit of a crazy week - Dan was out of town most of the week, but we still found plenty to do. Anna lost her first tooth on Wednesday - she now has a cute little gap on the bottom row and says it's harder to eat apples. :)


We kept busy with our usual grocery shopping, piano lessons, preschool, choir, and play dates. My visiting teacher was sweet enough to take the kids for a morning so that I could get some rest...too bad James had other plans.... :)

Thursday night I had a Relief Society activity - I dragged all four kids there since they had the nursery set up, and had a great time. The kids were great - but were all rather tired the next day.

We were grateful to welcome Dan home on Friday just in time to rescue the house before it fell into total ruin. Between the total lack of sleep (I rarely got more than 5 hours of sleep in a night between feeding James and getting the girls to school) and a rather crazy schedule (James doesn't like to give me time to eat....) I was starting to come down with a cold - so Dan sent me to bed (once again James didn't want to cooperate....) and here it is 3 days later and I'm still trying to recover on sleep.

The weather has been beautiful recently, so Saturday for lunch, we packed a picnic and headed out to the park. The kids all rode their bikes there (with me walking behind and ensuring safe road crossings) and we met some friends there and had fun enjoying the beautiful spring-like weather.

Saturday night was Stake Conference - the young women in our ward were doing a babysitting fundraiser to help pay for girls camp, so we took our kids there and went to the adult session together (one of the very few times we have been able to go together since we have been married) I was singing as part of the special musical number and the talks were wonderful. Wonderful reminders about having faith and hope, even when life gets tough.


Sunday Dan and I dragged ourselves out of bed and got our 4 cranky kids to the general session of Stake Conference. (They had been kept up nearly 2 hours past their bed times) The speakers were wonderful (and once again I was singing with the choir) I just wish I had been able to hear more of them, 5 attention demanding cranky kids can distract...

The girls have tomorrow off school and Dan has the day off work after his trip, so we are looking forward to having the whole day together. Well actually, mommy is looking forward to being able to run some errands with out 5 kids in tow. :)

Life Happens.....

The week started out normal enough - school, piano lessons, family home evening, homework, chores, etc. Dan, Aaron and I had dentist visits this week, not fun - but nothing too miserable.


As we approached Dan's first - post baby - trip, we were grateful to find James sleeping more at night. We have been getting stretches for as long as 5-6 hours at night. My biggest concern now is trying to fit feeding in around our regularly scheduled life. I am also grateful that with all the laundry to be done tomorrow that we have the new washer and dryer.

Dan left for LA last night and has been enjoying Japanese food out there. Life has now gotten insane for me, thankfully we have friends who are sooo helpful.



This morning, between the insanity of trying to get myself plus 5 kids ready for church (all of whom still need some help - even if it's just hair) trying to feed James and getting the stuff necessary for going over to Stuart and Rebecca's house right after church, I managed to get to church with out Evie. I had gotten everyone else in the car and then out her coat on her and sent her out to the car, then went about collecting stuff - then got in the car, not having seen her anywhere else I assumed she had gotten in the car and got in and drove to church. I was rather confused when we got to church and I couldn't find her after we had all gotten out (especially since my kids all said that she was in the car!!) I finally drove home (while a kind Sister from church kept James and the two older girls while Aaron and I went home for Evie. I found her there covered in make up and holding her blanket and crying having just realized i was gone. She had been with me while I was getting ready for church - I had done her hair then out a bit of eyeshadow on her for fun (after which she said "now I'm pretty!!!!") I guess she decided she needed a bit more. *Sigh* I feel like a bad mom.... but at least it wans't for long - our church building is only a 2 minute drive away. I got back just as church was starting, and the girls stayed sitting with their friends (who set very good examples for them of sitting reverently) and so I had a relatively non-stressful church meeting.

After we headed over to Stuart and Rebecca's to celebrate the March birthdays. The kids just LOVE hanging out with their cousins, and they loved eating crackers and cake for their lunch. We headed home for dinner (which included a rather messy blowout from James and a bath for him while I was trying to cook) then baths for everyone else and scripture reading and bed. As Dan says.... "One day down" and too many more to go!!!

Evie loves James and loves to hold him - this week while she was holding him she told me "I need to burp baby James.... but first I need to feed him" Then she lifted up her shirt and kinda looked at herself and looked at James for a minute then put her shirt back don and informed me that she was done.