Double Trouble!

Aaron and Evie started off the week much the same way they ended the last one.  Since I had told them that they couldn't do this to their clothes or the toys, they did it to the books.....  I couldn't even reach the book shelf to put the books back on - I had to start at the perimeter and stack the books up and work my way in!

 

The kids all got together after Dan left and thought up ways that they could be helpful while daddy was out of town, then drew pictures of those things and Eileen helped them write them down.  This is Eileen's - it says "Dear Mom  I will hold James.  I will get James Drest evre moing.  I will chagh James is Dipers"  My kids are so sweet!!!!  Anna's said that she would keep her room clean and Evie said "Princess"  Not sure if that meant her princess panties or that she would be a princess....

Eileen loves to hold James and is so helpful with him while I try and get dinner ready.  She will hold him and read to him and he just loves it.  It's so cute to watch her reading to her little brother.  

 

The weather this week has been mostly beautiful - though we had a couple stormy nights - the days have been sunny and warm.  I took the kids to the park and met with some ladies from our old ward.  The kids had a blast and I really enjoyed getting out and just chatting with friends.  We took a picnic lunch and had a great time! 

This afternoon, after church we went to a park to celebrate my Great Aunt Joan's birthday.  The kids had fun playing with cousins and eating cupcakes.  Plus they always love seeing their aunts and uncles and Grandpa Francone and Great Aunt Joan.  It was a nice little get together and even James behaved himself well - smiling and charming all the ladies there.   The kids loved playing with Grandpa Francone!

While there Anna discovered jumping off the swings (well she may have learned this at school, but this is the first time I've seen her do it.)  I managed to catch this fun in-air shot (while nervously hoping she didn't get hurt!!) 

We are eagerly looking forward to Dan getting home tomorrow - though since he is flying in from Spain, he is probably going to be seriously jet lagged and not much fun.  :)  We all miss him a lot when he is gone!!!

Let the Madness Begin

We've had a rather crazy week!  This handsome boy has been sleeping really well and I'm very much hoping that his sweet temper and his sleeping well will make the next few months bearable - he has been sleeping very well and when he's awake (and not tired) he is just full of these adorable smiles!!!  He has the cutest dimples when he smiles, but for some reason I have had a hard time catching his dimples on the camera - sadly enough, this slightly blurry picture was the best example of his dimple - but if he doesn't smile well for the camera - he bestows these charming smiles on me all the time!  He has also started to get on a bit of a schedule (as much as the craziness of of life with 4 older siblings can allow) which has been nice!

 

We have had the husband of Dan's cousin visiting with us for the past week.  A very nice man - the kids just loved him!  Every night when they knew that Dan would be coming home from work with him they would start asking if he was coming.  Evie asked every night "Where's Mari-ah"  (His name is Marion) and she was so sweet.  They continued to ask about him and miss him until Dan left today and those questions were replaced by the question "where's Daddy?" which has been asked at least 10 times today.  

Thursday was nearly the undoing of Mommy.  I woke up that morning and found that Aaron and Evie had done this to their room.....  If that weren't bad enough, after making them clean it up (and threatening them with punishments should they ever do it again) I went downstairs to find something and discovered that they had done the same thing to their sisters room and the play room.  I was beside myself - I couldn't figure out if I was more angry or more upset.  I tried to make them clean their sisters room and was so upset that I couldn't do it.  I shut them up in their room, curled up on the couch and after venting to Dan, he came home and let me run my errands with out kids that I could scarcely look at with out getting upset all over again.  They completed their day of destruction by creating mud pies and then smearing them all over every toy and chair in the back yard.  Dan and I found ourselves hosing them all down, feeding the kids and putting Aaron and Evie to bed early. 

  

Friday, we went to the library after school with the kids.  It was so cute to watch them pick out their books (one each so we don't lose them all again...) and then sit down in the kids sized chair and read.  They all had fun picking out a book and then chatting with the librarian while I picked out a couple books too.  

That evening Dan and I had a date.  We got one of the Johnson twins to baby sit.  The girls LOVE them and the kids were all VERY excited to have Emma come baby sit for them - so excited that when I returned with her, after picking her up, the kids were all excitedly waiting around the door.  Dan took me to Red Lobster and surprised me when we got there by meeting up with Newell and Becky!  The boys had decided to surprise us!  We had a very fun evening together and enjoyed talking about and planning our anniversary cruise!

Saturday we had a friend of Dan's from work come over with his family for dinner and fun.  We made some home made ice cream and chicken salad sandwiches - it was a wonderful light, spring dinner.  Then Dan blew up a bunch of balloons, and made balloon swords for them and let the kids beat each other up with balloons.  We turned on a movie to distract the kids for us while the adults played Settlers of Catan.  It's been awhile since Dan and I have been able to play and we had a great time.  I was soundly beaten despite having started with great spots, but I seem unable to win that game anymore - maybe I'm just too nice.... that must be it. 

Dan left early this morning for Barcelona, Spain.  Church went well - The older girls sat with the Johnson's most of the time while I spent much of Sacrament meeting in the mothers lounge feeding James with Aaron and Evie bouncing off the walls with me.  We all spent the afternoon playing Skip-Bo together and then went for a walk before having cereal for dinner. I told the kids that if they got things done in time enough, that I would read a couple chapters of a book to them.  The kids got ready for bed, we read scriptures and said prayers, then I sat down with them and we read a couple chapters of one of my mom's old Nancy Drew books.  I think Eileen is enjoying it the most, though the others mostly listened :)  It was fun reading it with her and being able to answer questions she had about words and ideas that she didn't understand. The chapters were numbered with Roman Numerals, and the girls and I had a fun little discussions about how they work - Anna really picked it up right away.

Now we just need to survive the next week.....

Good Times, Good Times....

This has been a fairly normal week. Busy but normal. We had choir, piano lessons, preschool, school, work and play. The weather has been mostly nice, but here and there it has been a bit windy and a bit drizzly - we even had a day with tornado warnings going off all over the place - but we never saw anything of it.

I usually feed the kids lunch, then send them to the backyard or downstairs to play so I can eat in peace and quiet. On Wednesday, while I was eating lunch, Aaron and Evie decided that the nasty dirty water in their old plastic pool in the back yard was a good place to go swimming. After I finished lunch, I found them running around the back yard naked - totally naked. I told them to go put their clothes on and followed them and found this - them trying to put on totally soaking wet clothes - I changed my mind and sent them inside for dry clothes....


Saturday we spent most of the day cleaning up for a guest. Dan's cousin's husband is going to be working with Dan and so their family will be moving out here soon. He came out this week to check out the job and look at houses. It's been fun having him here so far and he will be here all next week too. The kids really like him and he's great with them. The spent half of Sacrament meeting climbing on him and making him draw pictures for them.

James has decided to start sleeping through the night. He will go to sleep around 9 and sleep until 7 or 8 the next morning. It has been wonderful and I really hope this continues through Dan's traveling - it would make my life much easier!

Evie has been wanting to hold and carry James - she saw Eileen doing it and thinks she can too - the only problem is that James is half her size and much more floppy than she thinks. She was trying to pick him up to bring him over to me earlier today and couldn't budge him - Dan who was going to get him helped her and they ended up carrying him to me like this.....


Eileen has been reading a lot of Magic Tree House books. She recently read one about the civil war and how the main characters met one of their ancestors who was in the civil war. She asked Dan if she had any ancestors who had fought in the civil war, so Dan called his mom who told her a bit about one, then set a letter to Eileen with some copies of letters he wrote and his journal along with a pedigree chart so she could see how she was related to him. She has been fascinated by this - she has had a hard time reading the old writing, but she loves looking at them and at the pedigree chart. It is so fun to watch her learn and get excited about history and about her genealogy.

Newell and Becky and family came over for dinner tonight. It was so much fun to have them over. The kids love playing with them and we enjoy their company. It was a fun evening of good food and better company!

Well one more week - then I will be losing my husband for the better part of the next 3 months... sigh... well at least we have some fun things planned too - so hopefully I won't go totally nuts.... :)

Happy Easter

This week has been nice and normal. Not too much stress, not too much going on. The weather has been beautiful so we have been spending as much time as we can out of doors. We have been riding bikes, and playing in the back yard.

Aaron and Evie are doing well with potty training - I actually think it's safe to say that I have only 1 kid in diapers now!!! LOL - that's been a rare thing over the last 7 years. And new baby diapers aren't nearly as bad as 2 and 4 year old diapers are.....

James had his 2 month check up this week - he weighed in at 12 lb 11 oz - which is big for our kids - he was in the 75th percentile! He is generally a healthy and happy baby and we are so glad he is part of our family!!!

We went over to Frank and Tina's for Easter dinner - we had a yummy dinner together with Frank and Tina, Stuart and Rebecca and Grandpa (and of course all the kids that go with them) We all had a blast and I was very proud of the cupcakes that I made.


On this special holiday, I am so thankful for my Savior and what he has done for me. I am grateful that he has provided a way to be with these amazing people that I call family for eternity. I can't even fathom the incredible thing that Christ did for me, but I am grateful for it daily and hope that I can continue to become more like him - more loving, more patient, more giving and more selfless.

Spring Break!!

Well this week has been insanity!! We started out with an early morning doctor's appointment for Aaron who had been complaining about his ear hurting. After the expected diagnosis of an ear infection, we went to the grocery store to get his prescription, did the laundry and took James to get pictures taken.

Tuesday began with Becky and the kids coming over to play in the morning. We always enjoy having them come play, and it had the added bonus of being an incentive for the girls to get their rooms clean. After, we went to piano lessons for the girls, and that evening, Morgan came over to spend the night. The girls had a blast - so much so that they didn't go to sleep until after 1 am.

Well as you can imagine, after getting so little sleep, they were rather tired the next day. They still had fun playing together and we spent part of the morning at the park. After watching Eileen lay down on a bench at the park, I took them home for lunch. :) They played together happily the rest of the day, and Eileen was sad to see her go.

Thursday, was the day we planned to leave for the cabin. The kids were very excited about packing their Trunkies (a Christmas Gift from Grandma and Grandpa Cox) They did all the cleaning and piano playing that I asked them to do, and then they were allowed to pack. They loved it and before lunch, they had them packed and lined up by the back door - all ready to go.

Unfortunately, even the best plans can be ruined. After lunch, Anna started complaining about her ear hurting. James had been very cranky and fussy for a couple days, so I called the doctor and got them appointments for that afternoon. So instead of leaving for the cabin after Dan got home at 3, we took the kids for a doctors appointment - where we found two more kids with ear infections - then to the pharmacy to get the medication for Anna and James. Finally around 6:30 we got on the road. We arrived at the cabin - much later than planned, and laid the kids down to sleep and started getting the cabin turned on after the winter. After following all the start up procedures, we found that we still had no water. We finally decided that there must be a pipe frozen somewhere between the creek and the house. Newell and Becky arrived and we spent the night, figuring that we would decided what to do the next day.

Friday, we decided to hang around until lunch, then head home. The kids weren't happy, but they understood and to make it up to them, we set up a tent in the back yard and let them camp out back there. Becky and Newell stayed with all the kids while Dan and I went to see "The Hunger Games" James was nice and slept the whole time for them.

Even though we were looking forward to the cabin, we were glad to be back to watch General Conference, instead of just trying to listen on a radio. Dan and I enjoyed all sessions, and the kids even sat down and watched a fair amount of it.

Saturday during priesthood session, the kids and I went to the Haight's for an Ice Cream party. The kids had a blast running amok in their basement and the grown-ups enjoyed conversation and games. Evie refused to leave my lap until the ice cream was passed out - at which point she went outside to eat - only to find herself being sprayed with the hose. She came back in and wouldn't leave my lap again. Between sessions, Eileen proved to Dan that she could ride her 2-wheeler all by herself all the way to the park, so Dan took her to get a new bike. When he brought it home, he informed Anna that she could get a new one too, once she could go all the way to the park on the old 2-wheeler. She has been practicing ever since. For the rest of that day, she came down and would tell us "I rode it this far with pedaling!!!" And hold her hands about a foot apart. The next time, her hands might be 2 feet apart. Dan and I assumed that was really the distance she was going on her own... boy were we wrong.

We took the kids to the parking lot of the church building to let them ride around - and Anna was all over the place! Dan and I could hardly believe our eyes!! The kids all had a blast - Evie was so cute on her tricycle. Aaron kept saying every time he went past me "I'm going ALLL OVER THE PLACE!!!!" Evie would stick her tongue out of the corner of her mouth whenever she was really concentrating.



Here are the two girls on their big girl bikes!!


And Aaron with his new haircut! Dan told him that he should get his hair cut, so that he could be sexy too - Aaron promptly told him "I don't want to be sexy"