Almost Over!

Well, the week without Ben is almost over! He will be coming home tonight about 7:00. YAY! Really, though, we have a had a very fun week! I think that too often I am just in a rut, going about my daily life. I don't make many plans unless they are thrust upon me. This week, though, I knew I would go crazy if I was stuck in the house all with with 4 kids and no relief in the evenings. I figured that if I could get out during the day, I could handle the evenings.

Tuesday turned out great. My helper did come. She kept the girls occupied during Buster's nap so I could prepare for my real estate appointment. After Buster woke up, we headed out to the laundromat to wash the smoky sleeping bags and kitty-pooped blankets. Buster was an angel. Unfortunately, the girls fought some more and gave the sitter a hard time for at least part of it! I came home and left Buster, too, while I headed off to my meeting. It went well, but they're still deciding if they will hire me or another agent.

Wednesday I called my friend, Karen, and suggested we get together. She felt more like having people over than getting her kids in the car, so we headed up to Bountiful. While there, I realized that it was July 23, the day of big Pioneer Day festivities in Bountiful. We played with friends, went to dinner at Arctic Circle, watched part of the parade, and went to my parents' house for fireworks. Phew! I wish I had been more prepared for the all-day nature of the adventure, but we had a great time!!!

Thursday morning we got up and got ready to leave. I had promised the kids we would sleep over with my parents that night. We had fun playing at their house with the Wii and my 11-year-old nephew who was visiting. We even went to the park after dinner. I think the kids had fun being out in the dark! Friday was also spent at my parents' house. My dad got free tickets to the Salt Lake Bees game, so we went to about 3 innings of that. We didn't see a whole lot of the game, but the experience was fun. The kids said they wouldn't mind going again, and that, to me, is a successful outing. We were very tired by the time we came home, but eventually everyone was in bed. The house got pretty messy this week with all the coming and going, so I stayed up till 2am doing some cleaning. We got some more done today, but it's still not perfect!

This morning our ward had the annual Pioneer Day Breakfast and Primary Bike Parade. We had to get up earlier than we have been to get there, but we made it and had lots of fun!!! I did succeed in staying busy enough that I didn't mope around. I have missed Ben, but I haven't been depressed over it, which is good. I am VERY excited for him to come home, though!!!!!

Some days are better than others

Have you ever had a day where the kids seem determined to get into trouble? This morning I helped Sunny wash her hands after breakfast, and she protested when I tried to turn off the water. I figured I could let her play for a couple of minutes. Next thing I knew, Missy and Sunny had filled up the sink with soapy water and were swimming their toothbrushes in it. I was planning on buying new toothbrushes today anyway, so I didn't stop them. After changing Buster's diaper, I hear someone complaining about suds in their hair. Sure enough, they had gotten bored with the toothbrushes and were smearing suds up their arms and in their hair. Bath time! Now it's one argument after another in the play room. They just can't agree on the rules of play today.

Some hard days I wonder if it's my exhaustion or some other factor that results in a faster loss of patience. This was definitely out of the ordinary. And why can they play happily together one day, and the next is a series of fights?

Yesterday actually went quite well even though Ben is gone. The girls all pitched in to do their Saturday work and played happily while I worked. I'm glad I have help coming today to deal with all their petty arguments while I actually accomplish something. Speaking of which, I should wrap this up.

One more thing, though... Every night we ask the kids what their favorite part of the day was. Kandy is usually decisive, Missy takes time to ponder the day, and Sunny is pretty random. Last night as I was tucking them in, skunk smell started to come in through the cooler. When I asked Sunny what her favorite part of the day was, she said, "Smelling the skunk!" with a huge grin on her face. What a comedienne!!!

Buster and Sunny both ended up in bed with me this morning.

Quotable Quotes II, Kendrick Camping, and other thoughts

**Disclaimer: I just finished reading a Junie B. Jones book. So I apologize if this just sounds too much like her.**

Quote

I asked Sunny which VeggieTales movie she wanted to watch. "Jonah," she replied, "but I'm pro'ly gonna cry."

"Why?"

"'Cuz you're pro'ly gonna put on the wrong one."

I don't know where she got that idea...I was putting Jonah in the player.

---

Camping

We had an AWESOME Kendrick camp at Strawberry Reservoir this past weekend!!! We got up there Friday for dinner and left Saturday after dinner. It was great to spend time with family, and Ben and the girls had fun fishing. Unfortunately, they didn't catch anything. There was a water balloon fight, a treasure hunt, good food, games, and conversation. I'm glad we only slept there one night, though, because all the air went out of our air mattress. My hip is still sore!

We bought a huge new tent big enough for our whole family. Missy and Kandy got to sleep in Grandma and Grandpa's trailer, but we kept Sunny and Buster with us across the way so they wouldn't disturb anyone. This tent sleeps 8 people and divides into 3 rooms. I highly doubt we will ever need to buy another one. I don't think we'll have more than 8 people in our family, and it is in more danger of getting lost than wearing out.

---

Other Thoughts

A few weeks ago my friend was complaining about having her husband gone on business. Although my husband hasn't traveled much in our marriage, I knew he was going to be leaving soon. Soon as in this week! He left this afternoon. We went to Sacrament Meeting, and then I had to drive him to the airport. The kids begged us to let them stay at Church and go to Primary. Oh, twist my arm! We asked their teachers and the Primary President if that was okay, and they said it was. We took Sunny and Buster with us, of course. Ben will be gone until Saturday night. I find it kind of funny that in the 9 years we have been married, we had never been apart for more than 3 nights, I think. This summer the kids and I went to Montana for a whole week in June, and now he is going away for a whole week! And my parents are out of town until Tuesday...

Thank goodness for neighbors! We have a wonderful girl in our ward who has agreed to come help me some this week. I am very grateful because tomorrow I will have an enormous to-do list. See, we went camping on Friday night and arrived back late Saturday. (I'm getting to that in a moment.) And Ben was leaving on business today. So Thursday and Friday were spent in preparation for the trips. Packing, shopping, and keeping the kids out of my hair by letting them make a mess of certain parts of the house. Once the blessed toy room was so full they couldn't walk in there, they started carting toys to other rooms (against the rules...).

Also, while we were camping, our nice neighbor across the street fed our cat. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell her that our cat does not have a litter box (we can't count on him to use it if he does), so he does his business outside. This means that if you feed him, you have to wait until he is done and let him back out. We can't feed him outside because all the strays will steal his food. Anyway, she must have locked him in because he left us several "packages" in the living room. On blankets behind the couch. Now I have to wash blankets and deodorize the carpet. I'm mostly mad at myself for not telling her this vital bit of information. I mean, who can blame the cat when he has nowhere else to go? He can't hold it all day...

To top it off, I have an appointment with some prospective real estate clients in the evening. I need to finish preparing the presentation and find a babysitter. (The aforementioned neighbor girl has to work in the evenings, and we had to leave church before I could ask her sister.)

I am dreading this week and hoping I can be more patient than part of me wants to be. Like my friend, part of me wants to be mopey, but I know that will only make the week go slower.

Quotable Quotes

A few days ago, Ben and the kids were waiting for me outside Smith's while I grabbed a few things. Missy saw the pay phones and said: "Those are for the people who forgot their cell phones."


This morning Kandy asked if she could get something out of the car, and I said no. "Why?" she asked.

"Because you're not dressed," I replied.

As she ran up the stairs to fix that, I heard her say, "Well, that's a reasonable reason." I'm glad she thought so!

Breakfast, anyone?

I recently read a totally awesome book, The Parenting Breakthrough by Merrilee Browne Boyack. I was introduced to it by my sister-in-law in Montana. Another sister-in-law has talked about it in her blog, too, and she has really implemented it! Well, the main point is that we are raising independent adults. This means that we need to teach and train them on how to do "adult" things little by little. Well, I've talked to my kids about the end goal of being independent, and we are just starting to implement The Plan at our house. It has made a difference in their attitudes about doing things for themselves, by themselves. Mine, too!

This morning I got to sleep in a little. (Buster didn't sleep through the night, but I decided to treat his 5:30 feeding as a middle-of-the-night feeding.) When I did wake up and leave my room, Kandy had set the table and was making toast for everyone. "I'm tired of having cold cereal for breakfast," she said, "and I wanted something different. Then I thought, 'I'm going to be independent and surprise mom and make breakfast for her!' " So she did. She even kept making breakfast for her sisters when Buster woke up and I had to feed him. "I'm Mrs. Busy!" she commented. Missy also started to help.

Is the kitchen a little messier than usual? Sure. Did you know you can go through 1/4 cup of butter in one breakfast for 4 people? Yes, if a 5-year-old puts half of it on her toast sandwich with honey and jam. Personally, though, I think it's great. The mess will clean up, and we can buy more butter. Next on the list? Learning to make their beds every morning!

Lagoon! July 9, 2008

We had a great time at Lagoon last Wednesday! Ben and Kandy did get all-day passes, so they took FrontRunner up about noon and had lots of fun on the rides. Kandy begged Ben to play a game, so they played Ring Toss. He got a bucket of 12 rings for $2, and they both tossed them. The last one actually fell around a bottle, so they won a giant pink unicorn.

The younger kids and I arrived just in time for dinner. It took an hour to get from Salt Lake to Farmington! Boy, I'm glad Ben doesn't have that commute every day. Legacy Highway is overdue!

Dinner was fun. After dinner, we took the younger kids on the kiddie rides. Ben and Kandy got to do a few more rides, too. I got to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl and the carousel. We went home around 10:00, very tired and happy. I'm very glad we went, and I'm also glad that we only do it once a year!

---

Buster playing with part of the unicorn.

---

Missy and Sunny in the boats

---

Sunny, Me, Missy, and Kandy in the Tilt-A-Whirl.

---

Ben and Kandy ready to blast off!

More Lagoon Pictures

Too tall!

Today the girls were fighting over the one ballet costume we had in the house. I decided to get some of my old dance costumes out of storage. I was also thrilled to find the dress I wore to my baptismal service. I was so excited as I handed it to Kandy to try on. Her birthday isn't until March, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. I was quite disappointed, however, to see that it hardly fits her now. She will definitely not look good in it by March! Maybe Missy can wear it now, but I doubt she'll fit it when she's eight.


After changing Buster's diaper, I was going to wash my hand. Holding him in the left arm, I turned on the water. After getting my right hand wet, I realized I really should wash them both. There was a convenient basket of clean laundry in the hall, so I set him down there. He liked it so much he stayed there for most of lunch.

Happy Independence Day!

We had a great holiday! We worked a lot, and we played a lot.

We finished moving rooms around. I decided on Wednesday that maybe my stress level would be lower if the kids actually had a play room. With Buster napping in their room, the living room was overtaxed in its multi-purpose role. The toys were driving me bonkers. When Ben came home very early on Thursday, we started moving around. Now our old room is the play room, and despite what I said earlier, our bed is now in the office. It's a more efficient use of space, though. The office mostly had computers around the wall and toys and random stuff in the middle. I do have a hard time keeping the office clean, and kids' toys scattered across the traffic pattern did not help. Anyway, so far so good. The play room is a disaster, but looking at it brings a smile to my face because at least the toys aren't in the living room!

As for the fun, we lit off a bunch of fireworks on July 3rd. We bought sparklers for the kids, but as Ben warned them to be careful, I guess he did too good of a job! They were terrified. Ben and I had fun with them, though! We finally convinced Kandy to try it, but she still seemed like she was scared of it more than she enjoyed it.

After we finished moving stuff around on Friday, it was time to take the canoe down the Jordan! Buster and I dropped everyone else off at 1700 South and picked them up again at 400 South. They had a great time.

The real excitement happened that evening. We went to the fireworks set off from Jordan Park. As usual, we went to a little grassy area just north of there where it is much less crowded. The south winds were quite strong, and the fireworks were almost over us! We kept feeling ash drift down and saw a few hot coals drop nearby. One of the hot coals landed across the river in some dry brush and ignited a grass fire! Luckily, there were no people or structures nearby. We called 911 and the firemen came. It took them awhile to figure out how to get to the blaze, but they did finally get it out. Ben and I thought it was exciting, but Missy kept saying, "That fire was horrible!" Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera with us, so we didn't get any pictures of the fire.

Click on July 4th Album to see some great pictures from the weekend!

Water fun!

With all the hot weather, the kids have been having fun with water. On Tuesday night, they put on their swimsuits and helped Ben wash the car. After the car was clean, we let them play with the hose for a while. We have a swimming pool, but honestly, I think they had more fun with the hose.
Last night Ben picked picked up the canoe from my parents' house. It was kind of dirty from hanging out under their garage, so while I went walking with my friends, they hosed it down.

I have been walking with friends two nights a week. Last night I was kind of grumpy, so I wasn't going to go. They walked over to my house to pick me up! Wasn't that nice of them? How could I refuse? I went, and it helped me be less grumpy, of course.

Buster is growing

Our house has 3 bedrooms. When we moved in, we had one for computers, one for us, and one for the girls. Upon Buster's arrival, his clothes were in the office and his bed was in our room. He is outgrowing the bassinet now. If he would stay in the correct position, it would be fine. However he has started rotating, so he generally wakes up at a 90 degree angle from where I put him down. This means he barely has room from his head to his tush to fit in there. One time he managed to rotate a full 180 degrees. We have been trying to decide on new room arrangements. I have really not wanted to move our beds and the computers into the same room again. I'm not the tidiest person in the world, but the office is worse than my bedroom. Putting the two together is a recipe for disaster, and I hate sleeping in a disaster. Buster can't sleep in the office because we want to work in here in the evenings and during naptime. We decided that we would see how he does sleeping in the same room with his sisters, so today we moved his bed up there. If it works out, we will put the large crib up there.

I have some mixed feelings as we always do with children growing up. I am relieved to not have to share my bedroom with the baby and excited to have my bedroom back in the evenings, but moving him out is one more sign that he is not my little newborn anymore. (At 16 pounds, he is not nearly as little as he was--nearly twice his birth weight!) It gives me a little queer ache to see his bed upstairs. The girls were terribly excited about the whole thing, of course. We'll see how it goes.

Here are some 4-month-old pictures of Buster:

He looks just a little bit like his sisters, doesn't he? Here is Sunny at 4 months:

Want more proof? Here is Missy:


Kandy was an infant before we had a digital camera, and I don't have all our pictures scanned in. No wonder most people say our kids look alike. As the nurse said today, "You do have a mold, don't you?"

In other news, Sunny had some more tests today, and they came back great! She received a blessing yesterday, and it has helped immensely. She had more energy today and was a lot less pitiful. The rash is almost completely gone. She even got out of bed twice this evening, which, while annoying, is a very good sign that she is getting back to normal. Thank goodness for the priesthood.