Sleeping Babies

They are so easy to love when they are sleeping.

First Day of School

Everything was going smoothly this morning. We woke up early, the boys practiced piano, I made breakfast and packed lunches. We were ready to load up in the car and head off to the first day of school with 10 minutes to spare, until I couldn't find my keys. Luckily I found them and Cody and Davey were only a few minutes late, but it was very stressful for me.

Cody started 3rd grade. He said his teacher was "so fun." Davey started 1st grade. I asked Davey if he waited to be called on, and didn't speak out of turn. He smiled and said, "I'll have to work on that." He just thinks everyone wants to hear what he says all the time, why should he have to wait to be called on?

Whole Grain Pancakes with Yogurt

I made these pancakes into bunnies for Cody and David. Usually my kids dislike whole wheat pancakes. I don't know whether the bunnies or the recipe was the secret. But here was the outcome . . .

I thought the pancakes were delicious. So here's the recipe if you want to try them.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oat bran
2 T sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2-1 cup milk
2 T oil
1 egg

Stir all of the dry ingredients together. Then add yogurt, 1/2 cup milk and oil. Mix well, continue adding milk to desired consistency, I used almost a 1/2 cup more of milk. Cook over medium heat.

On Time

Today I went to church early for a meeting. That meant Jeromy had to get all four kids ready for church by himself. He's usually very good at this. I sat down in Sacrament Meeting at 8:55 am expecting Jeromy to walk in any second. By 9:10 am I was thinking, "Wow, he must've had a hard morning. I hope the kids weren't too difficult." By 9:25 am I started to get a little worried. At 9:40 am I wondered what happened. I started to imagine Jeromy in a car accident with my four little kids. I imagined Indy screaming because it had been over 3 hours since I'd last fed him. I picked up my purse and walked out of church. I called home first, but no one answered. Then I called Jeromy's cell phone. It rang and rang and rang I started to think I'd get in the car and drive towards home to find them. Then Jeromy picked up. I said, "Hi where are you?" He answered, "I'm on my way to church." I asked "Are you all okay?" He answered, "We're fine, we'll see you in a minute." I thought he was a little brief with me, I expected some kind of explanation, but I figured he'd fill me in when I saw him. So I went back in and sat down. At 9:55 am Jeromy walked in with the kids. The kids filed in and then he sat down and leaned over to me and said, "I thought we were 5 minutes early. I didn't realize we were so late until we walked in, I was wondering why you called me." Later he went on to tell me what an easy morning it was, he got the kids ready, made them breakfast and he was still early for church. No wonder it was so easy he had an extra hour.

Indy

Indy found his feet today. Early this morning he caught one of his feet in his little hand, where did that come from he wondered? Ever since that moment he's been playing with his feet. Even though he's my fourth baby I cease to be amazed at every little milestone. It is fascinating how babies learn to use their hands. These two little hands start out as uncontrollable appendages. As time passed Indy has discovered how to manipulate these hands to his advantage. First he mastered getting them into his mouth to suck on them. Then he learned how to use them to put objects into his mouth to suck on. His favorite thing to suck on is a burp cloth, but he will taste any object that you put into his hands. And now, all of a sudden, he's found not only does he have hands he can control, but he has feet too! I wonder how long it will be before he manages to get those into his mouth. I'm betting he'll have that mastered by tomorrow!

California Princess

This is how Noelle dressed tonight when we went to our friends house. I used to think Noelle might be a Tom Boy with 2 crazy older brothers, but I don't think so anymore.

The Salt Flats

Last time we stopped at the salt flats, David said to Jeromy, "I'll race you to that mountain." Jeromy said "Okay." They started running. They ran for about 30 seconds and David realized those mountains weren't getting any closer and he said, "Never mind."

Zip Line

Davey was the only one of my kids brave enough to try the zip line. He's gotten to be quite a little dare devil.

My little cowgirl

Noelle loved riding the horses. She told me about all the princesses who rode away with their princes on horseback. So I guess she wanted to get all the practicing in she could.

I was born to be a cowgirl

I roped my first ox on my 3rd try. Not bad for a city girl.

Roping Cattle

Cody winding up,

releasing


and he caught it!

Hats, Hats, Hats

Grandma bought everyone in the family Boston Red Sox hats. Noelle and Paige loved their pink hats. Alex (in the back) is sporting his navy hat. The moms got red hats and even baby Indy got a powder blue hat.

Best Buddies

On our big vacation we stopped by and visited our friends the Uries. Cody is still trying to get us to move to St. George so he can be closer to Thom. We may not move there, but after staying in their casita we've decided it's a great vacation spot. The accomadations beat a 5 star hotel.

A Classic

Star Wars is a classic. It's the only movie Jeromy will watch again and again. There's something for everyone . . . Action for the boys a princess for Noelle and lights and sound for Indy.

Why am I so tired?

Last week I decided that I was tired of neutral. Our whole house is various shades of brown from cream to dark brown and I wanted some color. In the top picture you can see one of the test colors that I tried, but it was too pastel so I decided to go for a little more pizazz. It was a fun project, but half way through I thought I might never finish it. I was just soo tired. I was talking to Brenda and I said, "I can't figure out why I'm so tired." Brenda said, "I don't know maybe it's because you're kids are out of school and you have a new baby and you're painting a room." Hmm that could be it. I had a second wind of motivation when I realized that I was having a baby shower here for Sara Baddley. The shower was today and the room looked great.

The lighting in the pictures isn't very good, but you get the idea. I love it, it's sort of a dark turquoise, or according to Behr, Bayview.

My favorite part

My favorite feature of Indy is the roll of chub on his wrist. You know you're a chubber if you're wrists have rolls. Every day I look at this little roll and it makes me smile. I love my chubby baby.

Kitten for Sale

My kids were so excited last Thursday night. They caught a stray kitten in our backyard. They thought it was so cute, it was cute. They begged and begged and begged us to let them keep it. Please just one night, please, they begged. Jeromy and I are very united on our anti-pet sentiment and we didn't budge. The next morning I opened the back door to see the kitten had spent the night waiting for someone to come out. I have to admit I was excited to see the kitten again. I knew that my kids would be happy to have him to play with some more. And it would give them a taste of owning a pet. They played with the kitten all day. And the next day and the next day. I started to realize the kitten was not going to move on, she'd found her home. The kids had borrowed some cat food from Aunt Courtney and the kitten tolerated being dragged around by the neck all day. I decided I needed to help the kitten escape, so I left the side gate open to no avail. I started to talk to the kids about talking it to the animal shelter. I told Cody that we needed to take it to the shelter while it was still cute and little so it could be adopted easily. They were okay with this, they just didn't want it to be today. They started bargaining, how about next Thursday or Sunday? I delayed until Wednsday when the kitten scratched Noelle. That afternoon we made the trip to the Animal Shelter. When we arrived at the Shelter Noelle and Indy were asleep in the car. I sent David and Cody inside to drop the kitten off. After a few minutes Cody came out and said that I needed to come in. I debated leaving the stray kitten on their doorstep, but I figured, we'd come this far; so I woke up Noelle and Indy and headed in. We waited 10 minutes before someone could help us. I was feeling a little frustrated trying to bounce Indy's car seat to keep him from crying. Finally when it was our turn the lady behind the desk asked us where we found the kitten and what my name was. I was a little irritated, I thought surely she could have asked Cody these 2 questions. And then she asked us if we wanted to keep the kitten. I thought, "Uh, no that's why we're here." And my kids answered, "Yes, but our mom won't let us." I just smiled and said, "I already have my hands full." The lady behind me in line said, "I would say you're busy enough." I was grateful for her support. The same lady then thanked my kids for being responsible and bringing the kitten to the animal shelter. Then they took that little kitten from Cody and put him in a cute box that looked similar to a build a bear box. Adieu kitten. (photo courtesy of Cody and David)

Backyard Beach Party

For Cody and Davey's last day of school we decided to have a beach party minus the sand. There was plenty of water to go around and lots of kids.

Indy loved the party. He was held the whole time. He didn't go to the neglect-o-matic (aka baby swing) even once.

Do grasshoppers eat bumblebees, do bumblebees eat grasshoppers? This was a little science experiment to find out. Regretfully, the bottle was dropped and broken before any conclusive evidence was taken.

A drain in our backyard became blocked so all the kids dove into the mud to help Jeromy find the drain and unblock it.

Chloe watched the kids play for a long time before she decided to join the fun. Once she warmed up she was in the mud with the big kids.

Hats off to Ms. Scott

Davey's kindergarten put on a play this week. I was so impressed. They sang about thirty songs and each kindergartener had a part and a costume, amazing! Davey knew all the words to all of the songs along with actions. Here they are singing "The ants go marching." Davey was originally a pig with a curly tail, but he did a last minute substitution, which was okay since he knows all of the songs and actions. If 120 kindergarteners can learn 30 songs it should be a piece of cake to teach 40 primary children 8 songs, right? For some reason the math doesn't seem to be in my favor.

A Beautiful Day

Today is a rare day for me. Noelle and Indy are simultaneously napping. I think this has happened 2 other times in the history of Indy's life. So what do I do? I check my email (for the first time in 4 days) and check out blogs.

Have you ever noticed that having children causes you to work so much more than the regular maintenance of child raising. For this reason I do not like to add "projects" to my day. By projects I am referring to crafty or other activities which take 5 minutes to set up, entertain the child for 4-6 minutes and require 10 minutes of clean up time. That's twice as much work for me than entertainment for my child, a bad ration if you're asking me. Well yesterday I decided to take a risk and do a "project" with Noelle. I got out the shaving cream and filled a cookie sheet with it. Noelle and I proceeded to play in the shaving cream. I heard that if you have your child draw circles and lines it is one of the most effective ways to introduce your child to writing. So Noelle and I drew circles and lines and it turns out that's pretty much all it takes to write Noelle's name. She got the N and o and l down, but the e was a little bit trickier. After she got tired of writing we just fooled around trying to make a shaving cream snowman, singing "Once there was a snowman" and squishing him flat at the end. Long story short, we both had so much fun. And guess what, it cleaned up in a zippy. So to all of you clean freak moms out there, try shaving cream, it's fun and wipes up easy.

This picture just makes me laugh. Doesn't he look happy? We took him to the doctor 2 weeks ago and he was 14 lbs-just look at that big Buddha belly.