Keeping it simple

Listening to General Conference was just what we needed around here. How about you? It is has been a really great week in our house,  no real special reason.  We've just been getting out in the yard,  getting things ready for our garden,  spring cleaning, going on walks with the kids, kids playing until they are so tired they just fall into bed at night. There are plenty of exhausting days any other week,  but this week  it  has made me grateful for our simple life together.  I love my little family. 

She's walking.

And not just walking,  I mean really it was just a couple weeks ago that she started taking her first solo steps and here she is today.  She is on the move, she wants to keep up with big brother and sister and she gets her boogie on to any music, even my singing ;)

Peek-a-boo

This little girl is hilarious,  we just love her.  But can you believe that this was at midnight one night cause she wouldn't sleep. Either way - so cute! 

This morning Handsome came into my room and said "let's get dressed."  Around his head was a springy sweater vest and he had his pants on halfway, but upside down.  I love when kids are learning to dress themselves - it's so entertaining.

Catch me if you can

That is how I feel about Handsome lately.  When I can catch him,  I love the giggly minute we have together and then he is off again.  The other night after bathtime I literally couldn't catch him, he was all over the house, so I took pictures instead - this is why:

Just a little off the comb-over.

Cupcake was looking a little shaggy and mullet-ish with a slight comb-over and as much as I know some people frown upon giving a baby a haircut, it had to be done and it is just hair and it is already in her baby book. Here is the before:

 

 And After - see, still adorable and mullet/comb-over less.  Love, love, love this baby girl!

And,  we love cookies, and learned how to say uh-oh!  It's really cute!

Preschool

This was Miss Peanut's first day of Preschool.  Such a gorgeous girl and such a goofball - I can't believe she is growing up on me.  Luckily, I get to be part of the co-op preschool and help teach once a month or so.  She loves that she is practicing writing her name more and after the first day of preschool she came home and wrote cat a hundred time because she had learned how to write it.  I'm so glad that it is coming pretty easily to her to read/ learn even some math.  I hope that continues as she gets into gradeschool.

a little of this and that.

I made these last weekend.  They were for my Dad's birthday.  It's always hard to decided what to do for the person who could get whatever he wants,  so I made homemade old-fashioned doughnuts,  one of his favorites.  I had to make extras of course and they were fantastic!  I found the recipe on Pinterest - gotta love it. I also made a turkey dinner and that was fantastic also.  My favorite part has been making leftover turkey sandwiches all all week. 

 There is something eerily familiar about these two photos,  and it's not the date they were taken.  Sadly we have been having a lot of jammie days.  We had weeks of sickness before Christmas and now seems to be round two.  Officer had it a couple weeks ago and is on the end of it, but last night was a long night for the kids.  All of them had fevers, yucky!  I hate when they are sick like that and there isn't much you can do.  So we snuggled, most of the night and all morning today. I'm so tired.

 This little princess has had a rough week.  She got her front top teeth last week and just like the bottom chompers she started biting again when I nurse her, I tried offering a bottle and she took to it pretty well, and has only nursed like once a day. Last night she was so yucky sick,  she had a fever of 102, forever it felt like, even after medicine and getting her out of her jammies.  You know how they get big and snuggling just doesn't happen as much.  She was so tired and so sick and she just wanted to lay in my arms so sleepy and finally wanted to nurse again and not bite me, so maybe we'll hang in there a little longer.  I'm realizing I will miss it.  She is doing a little better today, but still has that I feel yucky look in her eyes and she is so tired.   This was a funny thing about nursing,  just fyi - I think she is hilarious.

 This little boy has been just as snuggly with being sick too. Some days there really should be more of me.  How cute is he!?  And as I write this I realize that this is the last time I've seen that toothbrush...we have others but in the meantime I've been looking for this because it is Lightning McQueen.  Speaking of racing. Usually we watch "the letter show" (wheel of fortune) while I'm getting them out of the tub, but on Saturday - no letter show - what is a mother to do?!  I switched the channel and he saw race cars - NASCAR,  I could be wrong, I don't really know the lingo and I think I will have to know the lingo cause this little guy loves it.  He was glued to the screen, wrecks and everything, and the he cried when I turned it off. 

We have been to the library lots this year,  they have a little preschool storytime and activities, so every week we bring home new books to read.  Miss Peanut loves to read them to Handsome and Cupcake.  I'm amazed at how much they can memorize the stories.  It's been fun to read each night before bed. She is getting ready to start a little Preschool next week. I know I'm a little behind, but with her birthday and having to wait one more year till kindergarten I have put it off.  I know she is bright and will do well in school,  I'm just a little nervous about being her teacher every so often.  We'll see how it goes and we may keep it up in the fall. 

I'm hoping for a little sleep tonight.  I hope writing this doesn't jinx it.  Officer bought me this fun little toy kind of for Valentines,  kind of cause I hinted at it for the last month or so.  My sister got one last fall and now most of my family has purchased them.  Anywho - it tracks all sort of things, but one is sleep.  I know I have been sleep deprived, but once I started using this to track it I realized how bad it has been, especially this week with sick kids. It kind of makes me want to cry or discover some way to freeze time so I can catch somehow.  Anywho.  Officer and I are rarely on the same schedule. It's kind of stinky, but we are looking forward to celebrating his Birthday tomorrow. He'll be the big 32. 

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE!    

Wishing we could go someplace like here to celebrate, but I'll have to keep wishing.

Kid Comedy.

Today while driving home from the park Officer asked Peanut if she wanted to drive,  she said "no."  He asked "ever?" She still said "no." He asked Handsome the same question.  His reply,  yes,  and when Officer asked what he wanted to drive he said "a motorcycle."  He is SO his father's son; we are in for an adventure with him.


The other day I was getting dinner ready and I often put a show on for the kids to watch so that they aren't at my feet while I'm cooking.  When dinner was ready I told Miss Peanut that is was time to turn off the show and she said "Okay mom,  I will freeze it with the stripes."  Say What??  She learned that the button with two stripes (pause button) will "freeze" the show until later.  Okay,  that works for me.

Happy Valentine's Day!

We started our day with pink pancakes,  they started off as hearts but turned into who can make the biggest pancake and flip it.  Officers family makes ginormous pancakes and I just don't ever get them flipped without half the batter slopping over my kitchen.  We ran out of batter quickly,  this was the biggest pancake I've ever flipped - its so perty and it was yummy too.    The rest of the morning we delievered "balentimes" to our friends and in the afternoon when Officer took peanut to her dance class I set to work on dinner. 

Really dinner had been cooking for a few hours already,  but I was able to keep it all a surprise from Officer.  I decided to celebrate with dinner at home this year rather than getting a babysitter and going out.  It ended up being a really fun night and Officer was really surprised.  I didn't get a picture of the table all set, but you get the idea.  I made BBQ ribs, cornbread with cinnamon-honey butter,  garlic mashed potatoes,  etc.  and cobbler for dessert. It was the first time I'd ever attempted ribs and everything was from scratch, except for the bubbly. It was scrumptious and delicious. I can't imagine trying to make it all fancy like that every day and serve courses but it was fun to surprise my Valentines.    

Family Night

We get a little cabin fever this time of year and we've bee trying to get out and go on walk more and Monday we went and played at the park and then went to dinner at this little dinner called Big Judds.  We shared this Burger - the kids were in awe - really can't you tell?  It was the biggest burger they had ever seen;  really they were too busy eating fries.

Here are some of the videos,  from his phone,  Officer took at the park, gotta love technology!

 

Once there was a snowman.

It snowed this morning.  It wasn't much, but the kids loved being able to play in it for a little while,  we have not had enough of the white stuff this year.  It is getting closer to spring though and they are itching to get outside.  It was a blistering 48 degrees the other day and we bundled everyone up and headed to the park.  The kids were in heaven!
We haven't be doing a lot of exciting things lately,  just hanging at home.  I think Officers schedule really is going to be great for now and we're finally getting adjusted.  It's been nice to be able to have friends over or go to family dinners now that Officer is home on Sundays.  We are going to  try out a little Popcorn Preschool with a few kids from the ward.  Miss Peanut will have to wait one more year before she can start kindergarten so if this goes well we might do this again in the fall for preschool.  Handsome will be the same way, so we may be doing this a lot.  The kids have loved going to the library story times and each week we bring home several books for bedtime.  I love having all my kids snuggle and read with me before bed.    I'll post some video hopefully soon,  I have lots of them to share.

More Cupcake!

Can you blame me? And she is my first baby to keep her blue eyes!  She has this funny way of getting into things.  Miss Peanut and Handsome were climbers,  Cupcake does this over/under thing.  She is often found high centered over the rungs under our kitchen chairs or barstools. The craziest is when I start hearing her squak and I go to find her and she has crawled under a bed on several ocassions.  She love to eat table foods now and loves to read books.  She loves chasing big brother and sister all over the house and looks like a little bug when she tries to crawl fast.  She is standing  too and I'm sure she will be walking by her birthday.  She is just so fun, with the exception still wanting to nurse in middle of the night,  which I thinking mostly because she is teething - she got her two front top teeth last week and more are not far behind.  I've tried crying it out a few times when I know she has been fed,  medicine for teeth etc, but it's hard when I am the only adult in an otherwise quiet house in the middle of the night.  Now that she is just about 10 months I'm thinking about starting to wean her?  My goal has been a year and we're almost there; I kind of have mixed feelings about it.  I really do love nursing my babies and I'm glad that I have been able to.  At the same time I feel selfish because I want to drop the last of this baby weight, which has never happened for me while nursing and her brand new chompers aren't exactly nursing friendly.      

Super Bowl Party

This is the first time in years that Officer didn't have to work on Sunday,  and more specifically Superbowl Sunday, so you can better believe that we had to throw ourselves a little party.  That afternoon we threw together some snacks.  Miss Peanut made little smokies in a blanket with pretty minimal supervision - it was fun to see her in the kitchen. As we were watching the game Handsome kept saying "they fall down."  We tried to explain that was called a tackle, so then he would say "they tackle fall down."  Because it was a last minute plan, we thought it was just going to be us,  but some friends and my dad dropped by and it turned out to be a pretty fun night. 

Cupcake: 9 Months

How that happened already - I can't believe.  She is weighing in at a whopping 17 lbs 8 oz.  And as far as percentiles, 25th across the board.  She is happy and healthy and so much fun.  I love watching her figure things out,  those little gears working away in there, so cute!  I could do without the teething - I didn't miss that since Handsome.  Here's a cute video of her!

Catching up.

So to catch you up on life around here look how darling these three are!  Cupcake is now crawling and cruising around everything and ocassionally standing.  I know really - I'm just now posting Christmas...

 Cupcake loved the wrapping paper, Handsome loves cars,  that is all he got for Christmas,  Miss Peanut got dance lessons and Little Pet shop stuff,  officer got another gun,  I got kitchen/canning stuff :)  Officer worked most of Christmas day/weekend so we decided to get out of town to the cabin for some snow and quiet during the week after Christmas. 

We had fun, played in the snow, drank lots of hot cocoa, napped lots, and Uncle David came up with some friends for a day and it was fun to spend time with them. 

Inspired by my sister in law we started having a new years party with our kids (4 years now) where we come up with a few simple resolutions as a family and celebrate with some bubbly. Many of the goals stay the same each year, a few change. We all sign it and it hangs in a frame in our living room and we talk about them often at prayer or family home evening. Forgive the pictures - I realized once we got them in the frame that I hadn't changed the year - we have since.

Miss Peanut started dance lessons and I have to admit I was one of those gushing parents who just couldn't get over how stinkin cute her little girl it dancing.  Officer taught Miss Peanut how to use scissors and left her unattended for a couple minutes because she was doing so good...that is like the cardinal rule about kids and scissors - inevitably she cut her hair...I took a video I'll have to post.  She cried when I asked her if she wanted to cut it like Rapunzel,  gratefully it blended in okay without having to chop her hair.   Around the house,  we are finally replacing the slider door that the one window pane shattered in November.  For whatever reason it was not a standard size door and we've had to order it and send it back 2 times because they keep giving us the wrong size and no one stocks it.  Hopefully it will be finished this week.  We also built shelves in our coat closet where the kids will sleep,  just kidding.  It did give us lots of room though for keeping board games and DVDs out of reach.  And...we met with a builder about building a house...don't get all excited.  It's probably not going to happen for a little while, but we have been looking for property.  We have for a long time,  but we found one property that we really liked and unfortunately someone bought it while we were doing some serious number crunching to see if we could actually build there because of the expenses to build a well and septic, etc.  So,  we are disappointed,  I'm a little relieved though too,  but we at least have a floorplan we really like and can keep dreaming about. 

Juggling

Officer learned how to juggle on his mission, I'm not even novice when it comes to juggling. Today I read a few things in this. Not from January, but the new one that came in the mail today. There is always something in there, without fail, that I needed to read. One article in particular was called "Finding Harmony as we Struggle to Juggle." That seems like the story of my life, and really the story for most of us. I would not trade my challenges for anyone elses,' I know mine are probably laughable to most, yet they are a challenge for me. Coming down from the busy-ness of the Holidays and just keeping up with our usual, add to it my new years resolution to get back into regular exercise, family resolutions, etc Officer's scheduled changed and it threw us for a loop. We have a stable job, I can stay home, and I'm so grateful that for the first time in 4 years he has Sunday evenings off. But in exchange his is working a later swing shift and sorry if this is TMI - I miss sleeping in the same bed as my hubby! For all you ladies out there that have hubbies that work swings or grave shifts, you are my heros! It has been nearly 3 years now that Officer has worked nights and it just seems that we are literally passing in the night/wee hours of the morning sometimes/most times. I've said it before, we are both exhausted most of the time and I don't care how you say it, it is HARD on family life!  This time around has kicked me in the hindside! Then add all the normal things you do outside the wall of your home and I don't know where to cut things out and say no. What I wouldn't give for a few nights of normal uninterrupted sleep right now...I know that would help my current perspective and I know I can't have it all, but I am constantly feeling like I put myself on the back burner because that is pretty much my only option and I'm burnt out. I remember an old friend saying that she wasn't sure she could have anymore kids because she was just too selfish. It's true though, motherhood is probably the most selfless thing we'll do in our life. BUT I still have to take care of myself (for me that is sleep and exercise mostly) so I can handle the rest. I had to laugh a little at the article in the Ensign because it suggested taking a walk and talking with your spouse to multitask basically, but whose watching the kids? I have a hard time finding someone who has time willingly to come hang out with my 3 kids just so that I can go walk/talk with my hubby - it would be nice though - someday when my kids are in school or something. Seriously what do you mommies do? You know Pinterest, who doesn't, well this was on there:

 

Now I didn't love this so much that I hung it on my wall or anything, but it does a decent job of summing up my feelings somedays. I love my kids and I love spending my time with my little family, but I constantly feel like I have to forgive myself for doing it all wrong again and again. I'm sure that therapy will probably be mandatory for my children to recover from their childhood. I read thisthe other day too and I felt like she was real about motherhood and moments you just plain didn't bargin for. My mom chuckled "paybacks." And I think "I wasn't that challenging was I?" I'm sure I probably was. Anyway, despite the not so pretty moments, there are a million moments that I look at my children and just adore them, they are so wonderfully exhausting. I just hope they forgive me for my constant mistakes in raising them. I say: try again, a lot right now to Miss Peanut and Handsome...and for myself too, what can I say - I'm a piece of work in progress -  sometimes the progress is really slow.  Sorry that you get to be my sounding board lately,  the hubby and I have been passing in the night way too much lately so much that he'll probably read it here before we actually have time catch up. Wowza - not what you bargined for when you came to my blog today...and thanks for listening. (to the one person who might actually read through it :)

Forgive me, I'm slacking.

I don't even have a pic/video to post to hold you over in the meantime; I still haven't uploaded anything to my computer.  I have great hopes to post something soon.

blah blah blah...

I'm still counting my blessings I promise;  I know I have lots of them, but seriously, the last few weeks I feel absolutely blah.  What is this funk about; it hit its peak today, I think.  My night last night - kids in bed 7:30-ish.  Did a handful of pick up chores, then...nearly every half hour until 3:44am someone was up.  Now if it was just once in a while,  I wouldn't be so frazzled.  The past several weeks have been like this often, like almost everynight, with sick kids, nightmares,  potty breaks,  clingy, crankiness,  etc.  Officer works nights, if you didn't already know, and so I HAVE to get up, so that he can sleep in the mornings because kids don't just sleep in on nights like that. Why is that?  Gratefully he has helped out more the last few nights that have been like this, but he's exhausted as well.  The last several mornings I have been up by about 5:30am.  I love my children, they are darling, but lack of sleep is really GETTING TO ME!  I have run out of steam...I'm feeling depressed, couped up,  blah.  Exercise would help - but I currently have zilch for energy with no sleep and it's freezing outside, so running is not so fun right now.  I've been trying to do more service,  but in some ways it has backfired because my own home remains a mess and my regular to do list unfinished. Tried to pick up a book - but there is someone constantly wanting my attention.  I feel like I barely get dressed and barely do more than the absolute minimum.  I keep trying to tell myself it will get better...and I know it will.  As I sit here my 8 month old refuses to go to sleep - I even resorted to crying it out for a few minutes (her, not me, yet.)  Usually I can nurse and her she'll be right back to sleep, but she has been biting me for a month now since she got 2 teeth (I've tried a lot of things and nothing is sticking)and frankly I've just about had it.  I need a break to find me again or at least some regular sleep - before I break!  DEEP,  deep breath...okay I'm done, thank you for letting me vent.  I'm okay, but come New Years,  I'm ready for some resolutions.

So long Movember

In "Movember"  (I guess that's what they call it, to help raise awarness about prostate cancer, etc.)Officer decided to grow a moostache(yes I know I spelled it wrong, for emphasis).  The cause is great, but it's kind of a funny thing and because he gets picked on a little at work because it's not exactly what an Officer would hope to grow as a stache.  I'm not such a fan of the facial hair, so I was glad to say goodbye to "movember." Also in November,  I made and awesome apple pie  for Thanksgiving and Miss Peanut celebrated her 4th birthday.  She got a Dollhouse and has not stopped playing with it since! 

 

This month we had a fun night up at our family cabin with some friends from our ward. The kids had a great time playing, and it was fun for the adults to play some games and chat (Thanks to Jalaine for taking pictures that I stole from her blog.) It's so beautiful and quiet up there,  I wish there had been more snow to play in, but we had a great time. 

After that - kids have just had one virus after another it seems like.  Cupcake had ear infections and this week it's been coughs and runny noses.  Yuck - I'm hoping we're healthy by Christmas.  We've been doing a lot of hanging out at home.  Officer and I did get out for his fancy work Christmas party.  My poor sister babysat for us and I'm not sure she wants to do that again anytime soon - my kids were rough on her - kind of like a substitute teacher at school...I celebrated my birthday last weekend and it was a very quiet day - so nice.  We had family over for cake that night - love the cute pictures of the babies playing with Grandma Pattie. Cupcake loves the tree - I was hoping she wouldn't learn to crawl while it was up - but she has managed to get herself there to play, alot. 

 I visited my grandmother at the nursing home and realized I hadn't given them pictures in a long time, so I made this into a big poster to give to her for Christmas. 

 I made these for my kids to hang in their rooms, kinda cute, thought I would share.

Robins and Worms

So that is what the doctor compared taking out my veins to....Robins pulling worms from the ground.  yuck!  I had to put Lidocane on the majority of my leg prior to the procedure and take this anti anxiety med of some kind.  Now, I don't often take medicine.  I haven't taken much Ibuprofen in like 5 years because of having babies, nursing, etc.  So whatever it was that I had, it made me way loopy,  Officer just kept laughing at me, because I felt so bizarre.  I was awake  for the procedure so I watched some of what they were doing, but some of it was a little painful because I wasn't very numb in a couple places, I think I cut off the circulation to Officers had for at least a good 5 minutes at one point.  I actually feel pretty good with how quickly things are coming a long after having this done.  Walking around on my trip was good,  sitting was harder because my leg was stiff and I couldn't bend it with the bulky wrap they put on it.  I felt a little stiff after taking off the big bulky wrap last night.  And not having as much compression on my leg now is making it a little more painful,  but I think most of the pain is from the bruising.  That big bruise you see - that was the 5 minutes loss of circulation to officers hand.  That was the biggest problem vein in my leg.  Anyway enjoy the photos - sorry if you get a little queasy.