A Bunch of Randoms

If Cardon falls asleep on the way home from something we are all in big trouble.  Jer seems to have the biggest success...but I use the term success loosely. As I have mentioned before, Cardon falls asleep fast and hard.  And the problem comes when we look back when we pull into the garage and both groan because we know we are in for a long drawn out meltdown to get him to go to the bathroom before bed.  We beg, plead, bribe, baby, yell, and then eventually leave to cool down and come up with a different approach.  

On this particular Sunday, Cardon insisted on walking Grandma out all by himself.  He can be very much the gentleman when he wants to be.  It's almost like both the little boys sense that Grandma and Grandpa are older and they need to be there best because they are always so sweet to them.  And shockingly gentle and not at all like the crazy boys they are the rest of their lives.

Took a picture of this note so I would remember how my stressed out behavior affects the kids.  Sometimes I forget how much my mood and actions affect the kids.  Tacy especially seems really in tune with my moods and feeling and left this cute note to make me feel better.  It made my night and made me feel incredibly guilty because I had put them to bed without being as kind as I should of.  I went back in their rooms to say goodnight and to let them know I loved them and once again resolved to be better.

The kids entered a coloring contest and Cardon won first place for his age and Truman got runner up.  I was so excited to take them after school to use their free passes they won to Jumpin Jacks and be the best mom.  And then they proceeded to fight, tease, and be bored until I finally took them home!

Took the boys to the library for science time Friday afternoon.  Tacy was at a friends's house.  They learned all about magnets.

Tacy had been begging to have Chambers sleep with her for a while.  She gets lonely sleeping by herself, so one night she had him all set up in her bed when I went to tuck her in.  I couldn't say no and figured he would be out in a minute.  Surprisingly he fell asleep and stayed the whole night.  Couldn't resist a picture of this chubby, rosy-cheeked  boy, all tucked into his girly quilt.

 I guess I shouldn't be surprised when he takes he pants off before he gets to the bathroom at preschool with no shame, when it seems like he doesn't have clothes on half the time at home either.  Today he did a little naked banana muffin baking.

Truman so desperate to play Monopoly,  he tries to teach the 4 year old.

Our weekly Sunday piano concert for Grandpa and Grandma.   Even Chambers decided to sit in on this one.

L'Deane gave Truman such a cool birthday gift.  He had an audience for a while as the little boys watched in awe.  And then he even managed to entertain Tacy and Kelly as well.

This kendama from Grandma Linda has also been entertaining them for a long time.  I even tried it and it's a lot harder than it looks.  I love that it's such a simple toy but they have so much fun with it.

And yes...Tacy's "owie" deserved a spot in the blog as well.  I got a phone call from the secretary at school saying the she had skinned her knee pretty well.  She had doctored her all up and just wanted me to be aware.  I was so impressed that she would call and she seemed so concerned for her.  When she got home we got the full version.  Little did I know the scrape would plague us for days to come.  It affected her sleep, hindered her moves at soccer and dance, and made it so no one could get within a foot of her for fear we would bump it.  To her credit, it did look pretty bad and would split open when she would bend her knee.  Little kids get so many scrapes and bruises.

The teacher in me has definitely come out lately.  I got Cardon a book to do his "writing" in and he has taken it so seriously.  He does it basically everyday.  Chambers even gets up and colors and chants random letters he has heard us talk about while we work.  That is if we haven't gotten sick of him and put him down for his nap.  

Double Digits

I can't believe he is 10 already.  I remember those first few depression filled months after having him.  When I was still recovering from a c-section, desperately trying to figure out the whole nursing thing, and wondering if the sleepless nights would ever end.  I distinctly remember foolishly wishing those hard days away.  Thinking things would be easier once he grew up a little.  I'm not proud of it, but if I could steal some of those moments back and cherish them just a little more I wouldn't hesitate.  Now it's 10 years later and I'm wondering how it all happened so fast and sometimes dreaming about having those hard days back.  Every mother warns you how fast it will go, but I guess it's something you have to experience to truly understand.  Sometimes I feel a little sorry for Truman being the oldest.  There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to kids and unfortunately for Truman it seems as though he is often the one I am learning from.  Trying to better my parenting and enjoy each new experience more than I did before.  Sometimes it seems like I'm still figuring it out every day.  You would think I would have it down pat by now!  Anyway, while I'm still working at this whole parenting thing, I hope I show Truman how much I love and appreciate him.  He has always been such a happy kid.  He has the most genuine smile, truly the most caring heart.  He is kindhearted and playful.  He is always up for a game or anything with the family.  Especially if it involves the computer or a movie.  He loves to create things and think outside the box.  He is a gifted pianist.  He enjoys learning and always has a new fact or piece of trivia to tell you about.  He is always there for the underdog and wants everyone to do what is right.  I hope he holds on to these great qualities and continues to strive to be his best and above all know that we love and appreciate him.  That no matter what happens in what can sometimes be a hard life, he always has us to lean on.

Now on to the festivities for the day.  I don't do birthday parties until the kids are old enough to ask and I only do friend parties every other year.  I'm just now a big party planner and it kind of stresses me out.  Plus it can get kind of expensive!  Well this was Truman's year for a party and it couldn't of gone better.  I shouldn't have been surprised that Truman would have well behaved and respectful friends.  He wrote the invitations, didn't care what cake he had, and wanted to go to Fiesta Fun.  Luckily it was early out on the Monday of his birthday so we could do it right on that day.  

We started with some minature golf and then laser tag. They were all pretty fun to watch.  Prentice had my sister, mom, and I laughing hysterically after she broke her sandal and half flopped, half marched the rest of time.  We could watch her through the glass while she was playing laser tag as she "flopped" after Truman.  She was like his little marching shadow.

We finished off the party with pizza, cake, and presents.  I was a little stressed about how it would all go but it went very smoothly and was a lot of fun for everyone.

We went home for a few hours, had dinner and then headed over to my parents and grandparents to have another mini party.  He opened family gifts and we reused the cake and candles.  The kids did a little freezing cold swimming and we headed home exhausted but happy.

Jer trying out the guitar Truman got for his birthday.  He even had it tuned before we got home.


We have had a slew of birthdays, but we have a bit of a break for a couple months until Tacy.  So grateful to be a mother to this boy...even if I did end up with staples to get him here!!  He has a lot of responsibility being the oldest son, and I have no doubt he will live up  to it.  Love you so much Truman and hope you have a wonderful year.

Truman's Birthday Interview

Favorite

Color:  Red
Food:  Tacos
Friend:  Bryce Cowley
Sport:  Soccer
Subject in School:  Reading
Place to Go:  Salt Lake
Place to Visit:  Grandma's house
Toy:  kedama
Game:  Monopoly
Movie:  Avengers
Song:  Russian Sailor Dance
Thing to do at home:  Read
Thing to do outside:  Hide and Seek
Book:  All the Lovely Bad Ones
Author:  Mary Downing Hahn


What do you want to be when you grow up:  Police Officer
What are you excited about:  When I become an adult
What is your least favorite chore:  Cleaning my room (he loves to stuff things)!
What are you excited to do this summer:  Go swimming
What is the best thing that happened when you were 9:  Being in 4th grade
What is good about being 10:  Closer to being confirmed a member of the chuch
What are you good at:  Playing the piano
What can you do better at:  Doing my jobs

35 Never Felt so Good

A day later, and I'm still thinking about how amazing my birthday was.  I couldn't of imagined it going any better.  I was pretty adamant to Jer that I wanted to get away and do something memorable.  Even forgo the obligatory gift and just do something special.  It's always a struggle to pull it altogether with 4 kids, but somehow we managed.  We had 2 soccer games and then we headed to Vegas for a short get away.  We had talked about going to a show and Jer had gotten us tickets to a Cirque de Sole show, "Ka."  

 We went to our favorite Mexican food restaurant which I can never remember the name of and couldn't pronounce it even if I could.  The trip to Vegas is worth it just for this place.  I always plan to over eat and I never regret it.

Our table was so full we honestly couldn't fit anything else on it.  We were in heaven.  I got up at 6:30 that morning just to make sure I fit in a workout so I wouldn't have to feel as guilty about all the calories I probably consumed. 

The show was unbelievable.  It was different from anything I had seen before.  Vegas shows never seem to disappoint.  The costumes, makeup, and acrobatics were so well done.   We have committed to do more things like this in the future.  We'll see if we follow through.  We spent the night after the show and headed home the next morning.  It was a short but fun trip.  I'm so glad we did something out of the ordinary and celebrated my getting old a little different.  Now I just need to convince Jer we need to go to the Michael Jackson show.

The next day was my actual birthday which was Sunday and we mostly just took it easy.  Or tried to now that we were back to life with 4 kids.  I do have to give props to Jer for making the perfect cake for me.  He made a chocolate strawberry cake completely from scratch.  It even had a layer of nutella and 2 layers of whip cream.   I'm not usually much of a cake person and I even told him that I didn't care if he made me one, but after eating that I told him that's what I want every year.

I felt so spoiled and grateful for my life.  This weekend made me reflect on how crazy life can get, but in the end it's about making memories with the people I love.

Our 3rd

We participated in our 3rd annual 5K as a family.  Truman chose to do the 5K instead of his soccer game and Tacy had just enough time after the race to rush to her first of 2 soccer games, back to back.  I started to feel a little sorry for how tired she must be feeling.  Quite a bit of exercise for a kid.  I ran with her for most of the run and Truman ran ahead on his own.  Jer took it slow with the 2 little boys.  Tacy took quite a bit of  prodding I must say, but we made the whole race with running almost he whole time.  Its funny to me that last year during this same race I even struggled a little.  It's amazing what a year of exercise can do because this year it felt great.  In fact later that afternoon I got a trail run in for about 6 miles.  It had reached 90 degrees that day, so by the end of my run I think I was tired and maybe a little dehydrated and had a tough time finishing!

Luckily my friend snapped a few pictures of us at the finish line.  Truman even won some gift certificates to Carl's Jr. at the raffle drawing.

Getting Old!

I'll start off just by saying that Jer's birthday didn't go the way I had it planned in my head.  But luckily Jer made it clear that things didn't always have to go according to plan and that he would have a great birthday as long as I was happy.  Aw.  So I had no choice but to let it go and just be happy it was his birthday.  I had wanted Jer to take the day off and for us to go on a short overnight trip to celebrate.  That didn't end up happening so we went with another plan.

Jer brought me the best breakfast bagel on his birthday.  So good.  Who brings someone else breakfast on their birthday?

Truman helped me bake his favorite cake.  Luckily I don't have to even think about his cake because he always wants the same kind.  So easy.  Chambers kept occupied by eating the batter off the spoon and bowl.

Jer really wanted to take the family to dinner at our favorite restaurant, "Peppers."  I was hesitant because I knew it would be hard and I was honestly a little scared to take them all.  Cardon has been especially difficult the last few days and he had been trying my patience that day.  I suggested maybe taking the easy route and having my family watch the little boys while we took the two older kids to dinner with us.  What kind of mother wants to leave her two kids home for the family birthday dinner?  Jer talked me out of it and agreed that it could be pretty rough but decided he wanted to have everyone there.  So we ventured out after a dance class, group piano class, and a soccer practice.  We were seriously so fortunate to get the best most secluded big booth in the restaurant.  Things were looking good so far!  I forgot how much my kids loved salsa.  Which is great for the first half of dinner.  Then they happily filled up on four baskets of chips.  So the problem starts when dinner comes and they are all full on chips and lemonade and start to get restless when Jer and I are actually trying to enjoy our meal.  Let's just say we ate fast and the big kids were good to do stickers and phone games with the little boys while Jer and I finished.  It was a success and Truman and Prentice especially were really grateful they got to go out.  In the end I'm glad we all got to be together to celebrate.

When we got back from dinner we got the kids in the tub and then started on presents.  The kids have gotten so good at coming up with creative, homemade, thoughtful cards.  They gave those to Jer and then I gave him the "University of Utah" shirt.  I struggled so much on what to get him so I just kept it pretty simple.

Finished off the night with a birthday song and cake.

Happy birthday to my hubby.  We are lucky to have him.  So grateful for all he provides for us and for the influence he is in our life.  He is also getting so good at figuring me out and being able to calm me down.  Sometimes I take out my frustrations and stresses on him because that's what wives do right?  Luckily he knows I love him and I know he loves me.  I'm glad the day turned out so well and we all got to celebrate Jer getting one year older together as a family!