Again, if you ever wonder why sometimes I don't post very often...

This is what Levi was doing while I felt guilty about Caeden's bad hair day...


I guess he was feeling a little "artistic" with watercolors being the medium. And this is why we have only washable paints in our home.


Oh, what I wouldn't do for a clean house and a mess free day!















(Or, on second thought - how grateful I am for these little men and their messes that make my life so interesting. Now I'm off to get Levi out of the tub before he floods the bathroom...)

Confessions

of a mom who's trying hard, and thinks she's doing the right thing, but still feels guilty...
Today I sent Caeden out the door with uncombed hair (believe me, it wasn't pretty) and no breakfast. I'm trying to let the boys experience some of the consequences of standing around staring at me with those "deer in the headlights" eyes for half the morning instead of getting ready for school. Caeden actually sat on a chair for 5 or 10 minutes this morning in his pajamas holding a lunchbox. And, even though I knew it meant "Ok, mom, I'm up and ready for breakfast, will you please fix me a bowl of instant oatmeal - 2 packets consisting of one strawberry flavor and one banana flavor - with a cup of milk, and maybe a piece of toast - I'd like both honey and cinnamon/sugar, but I know that you won't let me have both, so maybe just honey - and while you're at it, I'd really appreciate if you could fix a cold lunch for me because Zach has one and I love my brother Zach and want to be just like him, but I don't want ham and cheese like Zach, I want pb&j (actually 2 of them) and a soda, but I'm afraid to ask for that because I know how you feel about soda for lunch, but I'd really like it, too, and a granola bar, and by the way I have no idea where my shoes are...," I am trying to get him to vocalize it. Because some mornings I don't always know, and I'm getting tired of my sons getting mad at me because I haven't read their minds. So I ask, "Caeden, do you want some help?" And he answers with a grunt and tosses the lunchbox my way. I remind him of what needs to be done, and even send reminders down the stairs to hurry him along the way. But he still just couldn't get his body moving. By the time he got dressed and found his shoes, I had his lunch ready. And I looked at the clock, and it was time to run. We heard the bus pulling away, and if he ran, he could just make it. No breakfast, no combed hair, but he made the bus. I love my kids, but I hate being an "on-demand" taxi driver, and when you're out of bed an 45 minutes before the bus comes, there's really no excuse. But maybe I should have pinned a note to his shirt saying "Please excuse my appearance, but my mom is trying to teach me a lesson today."

Caeden is Eight!

Wow, this little man is growing up so fast! I have heard so much about the middle child syndrome, and I sometimes worry about my Caeden. (I worry about all my kids on a daily basis, not because there's something to worry about, but because I am the mom. It's what we do.) After all, no one wants to be the one that everyone forgot... But I think Caeden has the problem solved. The boy makes sure that we know he's here. From the very beginning, he has been the tease of the family. (I tell him he gets it from his grandma rigtrup.) He was teasing his older brothers from the time he started to walk, and any time we hear Jacob crying/yelling/generally being annoyed, we know Caeden is within arm's length. He plays so very well with his big brothers, knows all the pokemon lingo and such, and can probably "out-goalie" them easily. And yet, he is perfectly comfortable spending time with his younger brothers, too. The thing I love the most about Caeden is the way he loves. He genuinely hugs and loves and belongs. He will be the first to rub feet (of course, we pay him for it...) or get a drink for mom. He is such a good helper and I can trust him to do what I ask him to. And when he doesn't, he's honest about it. Love that! Loving, honest, hard-working... What more could a mom ask for?

For his birthday, we did his favorite meal (spaghetti and meatballs) for dinner and let him open his presents:

(These are the only pictures with Caeden actually in them - it's what happens when you let the boys be in charge of the camera :-0.)
He got a scooter, some "moon sand" (I've decided that this is in the same league as Play-doh, only worse...), and some games for the playstation. It was a very happy night, spent playing "Crash Tag Team Racing" or something like that.
For his birthday party, we invited friends to a skating rink/play jungle/bounce house place and just let them run wild for almost 5 hours. Oh, they slept well that night.
And the highlight was his baptism at the end of the month:

We were so thankful for all the family that made it! He was able to share the day with grandma and grandpas, lots of aunts and uncles and cousins, and then afterwards we came back to our house and had chicken tacos for everyone! What a fun day, and hopefully one he'll remember forever.
I sure do love my Caeden, and I am so glad that he is a part of our crazy family!

Chef Zach

Yesterday, Zachary decided to make breakfast. Blueberry muffins to be exact. I was getting out of the shower when he knocked on the door. "Mom? I made breakfast."
"Really? What did you make?"
"Blueberry muffins."
"Do you need some help?"
"Nope."
"Do you need me to turn the oven on for you?"
"Nope, they're all done."
"Well good for you! I'll be out in a second and we'll eat!"
"Guess what, mom..."
"What...?"
"I found some mint extract in the cabinet and put in the muffins. That's why it smells minty in the kitchen."
"Uhhh, really?"
"Yup, I think you'll like 'em."
"Oooooh, 'K, bud. I'll be right there..."
Long story short, everyone had some, (although some ate a little more tentatively than others) and at the end of the day, the general consensus was that they were ok, and the best part of eating blueberry mint muffins is that the minty feeling made their burps feel clean. Leave it to my boys to point that out.

ps - Don't tell Zach, but I don't recommend the mint flavoring...

Levi's so proud of himself!

Yes, I know it's snowing outside and he's wearing shorts. Yes, I know that the boots are 5 sizes too big. But let's look at the positive. The blue and yellow in the shirt match the blue and yellow bugs in the shorts(yes, bugs - it's a boy thing, and being the mother of 5 boys has taught me to get over the squeamishness of letting my boys wear them all over their bodies). Everything is facing the right way, and is the right side out. And best of all, he did it himself! Wow, this little man is getting so big!

Today I started thinking

about how fast my kids are growing up. This morning Levi started to ask for his blanket, which usually echos around the house as "I wann my bankeeeeeee!!!" But today as he looked around for it, he said "I wan my ban-KET." NOOOOOO!!! I'm not ready for my baby to stop his baby-talk!

Jacob has decided to become a force for bullies to reckon with. As we spoke with the kids about bullies at school and how to deal with them, Jacob said, "Mom, I want to be an evil cat and eat up all those bullies." Yes, an evil cat. That will scare them.

Caeden needs to stop growing for a minute. Seeing him hold hands with a girl kind of freaks me out. (Nothing against the girl. She's a wonderful girl. And in 15 years or so, it will be a beautiful thing. But I'm not ready to see my boy hold hands with a girl.)

Zachary is using deoderant because HE NEEDS IT.

Jordan is in middle school. WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!? He is in a school play. He has 8 classes. (He got a 4.0 last term.) He cries for no reason. His voice cracks when he sings the "Dora the Explorer" theme song. (If that doesn't show true straddling of the child/adolesence line, I don't know what does.)

Aaron is a big wig at work and has a belly. (But don't tell him that. He just thinks that maybe he should start running again.)

I AM 40 YEARS OLD!

Didn't I just get married yesterday? Wow. Time really moves on.

Too often I think that I need to update my blog, then I sit down to the computer and think of everything that has happened and tell myself that I'll catch everything up when I have a huge block of time. Then I proceed to play computer games for an hour. (Don't judge. I bet you've done it too.) Meanwhile, my kids grow, do fun things that I want to remember, and time keeps going. So I'm resolving to do better. I'm changing my background so that it's no longer valentine's-ish, and one day I'll figure out how to fix this banner thing, (yes I see that big white gap and I know the picture is fuzzy...) and I'll start recording those things I want to remember. Because my kids are pretty awesome, and I want to remember that these busy, sleep deprived days are really some of the happiest times in my life.

Life is good. I need to take a minute or so every now and then to remember that!

Basketball season ends...

I love it when my boys play on teams. I love it when they learn new skills. I love it when they get their hands on the ball and shoot and feel happy and we get to take them out for a treat. I love that there's something to do on cold wintery January days when no one wants to leave the house. I actually like the smell of gymnasiums. Guess it brings back good memories of the old gymnastics days. But most of all, I love it when it's OVER! YAY! I HAVE MY SATURDAYS BACK! (another reason that I'm a bad mom...)

Speaking of basketball, once in a while Aaron will score a few Jazz tickets from subcontractors. Of course, it is intended to "express appreciation to the Okland management staff" or something like that, but let's get real. It's big time "schmoozing." These are good seats. Last time Aaron got tickets, he took Zach with him to the game. Zach was duly impressed with the concierge service. Nothing like lobster legs and free refills of sprite brought to you by a kind and personal attendant. The view was pretty good, too. I hope they enjoyed it, because I don't think I could ever bring myself to pay what these tickets were worth:
Do you see that? That's $1200 PER TICKET! $2400!!! Oh, the silly things men do to impress each other. On the plus side, Zach and Aaron really did enjoy themselves. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, we love the perks!

Am I a bad mom...

because I let my Levi have mac n cheese for breakfast?

Don't you love it when brothers love each other?

Levi has decided (now that he has a "big boy bed" that is easy to get in and out of) that he loves to sleep with his brother. More often than not, when I go in their bedroom to check on them, Levi has climbed in with his brother Jacob. The practical side of me thinks "Pick Levi up and put him back in his bed, they will both sleep better..." But the tender heart side of me is just so happy that they are happy to be close to each other. And when they share a bed, no one comes in to get me up in the middle of the night because they've had a bad dream.

Oh, by the way, ignore their red faces... Levi had a fight with his dump truck (he face-planted into the metal truck while pushing it at high speeds down the hallway) and Jacob has a dry-skin rash. He won't stop licking his lips!!! Just feel the love!

Christie vs. the smoke detector

I know it's been a while since I last posted anything here on my blog. It is so discouraging when I know there is so much that I want to document and I start feeling like there is too much and I don't have enough time, so then I just get further behind, and it becomes a vicious cycle... I have decided to just get back on the wagon, and start posting again... And eventually I will post about last summer in Nauvoo, or our camping trip to Goblin Valley, and maybe even Christmas! But as a warm up, here's my story about our smoke detector adventure...



The smoke detector and I had somewhat of a disagreement last night. You see, I went to bed, really tired and ready for a good night's sleep, but my feet were cold. Being tired, I thought "I'll just lay here, surely I'll warm up..." Of course, that didn't happen, and I lay there cold wishing my feet would get warm for about an hour. It is a good lesson as to why one should never make important decisions when they're tired. I think of it this morning, and go "Duh, stupid, get up and put some warm socks on..." But when I'm tired, all rational thinking goes out the window. Finally, I go to sleep, and have happy dreams about baking bread in the crock pot (it was a dream, it doesn't have to make sense.) In my dream, the timer to the crock pot goes off. "Chirp Chirp." I get open the crock pot and start spooning out the bread (once again, it's a dream...) and the timer goes off again. "Chirp Chirp." I start to get mad at my crock pot, when the timer goes off again. "Chirp Chirp." I open my eyes, and the timer goes off again. "Chirp Chirp." I realize that it's the low battery warning in our smoke detector, so I nudge Aaron and ask, "Do you hear that?" "Chirp Chirp." He mumbles yes, and I assume that means "Never fear, love of my life. I will save the day and stop the chirping." I was obviously mistaken in my assumption, for mere moments later, my sweet bedmate is snoring. "Chirp Chirp." "Chirp Chirp." "Chirp Chirp." "Chirp Chirp." The same rationale that made me lay in bed for over an hour with cold feet took over. "If I face away from the sound, it will go away." "Chirp Chirp." "If I pull the blankets over my ears, I will be able to go back to sleep." "Chirp Chirp." "If I just think happy thoughts, all will be well." "Chirp Chirp." "If I wait long enough, Aaron will fix this..." "Chirp Chirp." Finally at 3:30 am, I jump out of bed growling at the stupid "Chirp Chirp." I go to the laundry room, find a new battery, start a new batch of laundry (after all, it wouldn't be mothering if I weren't multitasking), grab the step stool, and go stand under the smoke detector to listen for the "Chirp Chirp." The offending detector is located in the hallway. "Chirp Chirp." I climb up the stool and remove the old battery. "Chirp Chirp." I try to install the new battery and realize that I am blind, so I go back to find my glasses. "Chirp Chirp." I can now see where the positive and negative go an click the battery in. "Chirp Chirp." What the Crap!?!? I push the reset button. "Chirp Chirp." I push the "hush" button. "Chirp Chirp." I push the test button. "Chirp Chirp." I yell at the detector. Aaron, now roused by my cursing at the detector, asks if I need help. "Seriously? I needed help 3 hours ago when this all started!!!!" "Chirp Chirp." Aaron comes out in his underwear and asks me if I have the battery in correctly. "Chirp Chirp." "Yes, do you think I'm stupid?" (I'll admit, patience was gone at this point.) "Chirp Chirp." Aaron takes the battery out, re-installs it, and is rewarded by a "Chirp Chirp." He pushes all the buttons I have pushed, only to hear "Chirp Chirp" coming in 10 second increments, instead of the 30 second "Chirp Chirps" we've been hearing all night. So he takes it off the ceiling to look at the hard-wiring. "Chirp Chirp." Yup, still connected. "Chirp Chirp." Sadly, the connecting plate has also come off of the ceiling, so I go out into the garage to get screwdrivers to reconnect the thing to the ceiling. "Chirp Chirp." We get it all put back together, reinstalled, and it won't stop chirping!!! So finally Aaron decides to disconnect the whole thing. He takes it off of the ceiling again, and uses the screwdriver to disconnect the wiring. "Chirp Chirp." Thoroughly annoyed, he turns it over and takes the battery out and hands it to me, smiling because that should solve the problem. "Chirp Chirp." "Chirp Chirp." REALLY??? THE THING HAS NO POWER SOURCE!!!! "Chirp Chirp." At this point I don't know whether to laugh or cry, so I do a little of both. We decide that it is possessed, toss it into the garage, and go back to bed. For all I know, it's still chirping happily out there.

So there. That's the most interesting that's happened to me recently. How about you all?