Is my baby teething?

No, she isn't, but when we put her in the swing the other day she just couldn't resist using it as a chew toy.  Good thing it is our backyard swing set or the germ factor alone would have driven me crazy.  Because I know it is her personal swing I just snapped a picture and thought it was cute.

We had to shove a pillow in the front of the swing to get her to stop leaning forward and chewing on it.  The boys thought it was hilarious, but they think most of the things she does are, and so do I.

Family Picture St. Patties Day

I'm going to try and be better with the picture thing.  With morning church it has been difficult to get everyone together before church, but I managed to catch everyone after church and before they changed this past Sunday.  So here we are:

Still haven't taken the time to figure out the time function, but it hasn't yet slipped off my to do list.  So, it might happen in the next year or two ;)

Happy Birthday 3!

St. Patrick's day has come and gone, and with it a milestone birthday.  3 turned eight!  It was hard having his birthday on a Sunday, because all he really wanted to do was play wii with his dad.  He didn't get to but he was able to sneak in some play time on the new swing set with his siblings while I was away at choir practice. Grandma and Grandpa came in to town and we had dinner with both sets of Grandparents. We topped the meal off with homemade mint oreos, which I put candles in for him to blow out.  The best part of the day for me was his excitement over his big kid scriptures.  It made me happy to see his anticipation over them.  I took him to pick them out Saturday, he could hardly wait to get them Sunday morning.  It has been so much fun to watch him at family scripture study this week with his scriptures, he has been much more interested and involved with the process.  The funniest thing has been watching 4.  She has never been one to be outdone by her big brother.  She has stepped up her effort to follow along and read too, and I have to admit that for a kindergartner she is doing awesome!

Past 24

The past 24 have been a whirlwind filled with lots of deep thoughts and probably too much insight (a common side effect of sleep deprivation.)  Thankfully I'm too tired and still too busy to share, but I don't want you to feel out of the loop dear so I'll try to quickly give you the rundown of what we've been doing here.
             1.  Made St. Patrick's Day Skirt for church Sunday.
             2.  Finished towel project (took most of last night and early morning.)
             3. Got another load of dirt from the dump.
             4. Got said dirt into the flower beds.
             5. Practiced with Sis. Wilson for Relief Society.
             6. Planted bulbs in the flower garden.
             7. Went and bought flowers and trees for garden.
             8. Learned that the baby is too little for otter pops.
             9. Learned to hold screaming baby while catching blue vomit in crook of arm with out getting             it all over the house.
             10. Got trees planted.
             11. Sang at relief Society birthday dinner.
             12. Got kids to clean up after themselves in the house :)
             13. Planted strawberry pot and mint pot.
             14. Practiced for Sunday the 24th and band.
             15. Said prayer with the kids.
             16. finished yesterdays birthday post.
             17.  Might get to bed before midnight.
As you can see it has been a good 24 hours, busy but good.  I had a lot of help or all this stuff wouldn't have gotten done (Dirt and trees were dads doing, and mom and dad both helped with the bulbs).  Hopefully the next 24 will be just as productive, just not as exhausting.
           

Happy Birthday!

Well, today 4 turned 6.  It is hard to believe that she could possibly be that old, because that means I'm getting old and frankly I still feel like I should be in my early 20's.  It was a good day, and fun to remember what I was doing and feeling 6 years ago.  I was excited and surprised when she really was a girl, and oh so happy.  We started the morning with pop-up pancakes, and then got ready to have lunch with some of the cousins and the grandparents.

Getting 11 kids all looking the same way and smiling proved to be impossible, but here they are anyway.

 We had a BBQ, and then let her open presents.

She got a bead set from the cousins, and a animal top toy from Grandma and Grandpa.

And from mom and dad and Grammy and Papa the thing she has been wanting for more than a year ... an American Girl Doll that looks just like her, with matching PJ's.  She is a bit possessive of it, but we have made her wait a year to prove she was big enough to care for it and keep it nice, and have told her it will be the last big ticket item she gets if it doesn't stay in pristine condition.  All in all it was a very good day.

Sick Baby

So, the baby has been really sick.  Her temperature hovered around 104 all last night.  It is currently 101.9, which means that most of my day consists of caring for sick baby.  Nursing a lot to try and keep her hydrated, monitoring temperature so I know when to give her Tylenol, and generally just being with her so she isn't so miserable.  Luckily she is pretty happy as long as her temp is below 102.5.  Right now she is singing.

Anyway her being sick is the main reason our spring break trip has been canceled.  That and the fact that our van is currently in the shop and undrivable, and I couldn't bring myself to choose which kids got to go to Sea World and which had to stay home so that we could go in my parents truck.  Hopefully we can go another time this summer so that the tickets I pre-purchased don't completely go to waste, and hopefully my brother and his family that we are standing up will be available to go with us then too.  But I digress.  I am supposed to be remembering what I am thankful for not what makes me want to cry.
This morning I needed to get some stuff done and the baby was still at 104 and not happy.  I asked 3 if he would just lay down with her and cuddle her so she could sleep.  I came back up into my room and found this.

Super cute, I know.  It made me remember the conversation I had with him last Sunday as we were walking to church so he could have his bishops interview for his baptism.  I asked him why he wanted to be baptized.  He said, "So I can go to the temple.  You have to be baptized to go in there."
I asked him why he wanted to go to the temple.  He said, "Because I want to be sealed to my family.  I love them and want to be with them forever."
I explained to him that because mom and dad had been married in the temple we were already sealed together and could be together forever.  He then told me he already knew that, he meant the family he would have as a dad. I told him that was a great plan.  I love him so much he is so cute, and much of the time I'm not sure exactly what he is getting from all of the stuff we are trying to pour into him.  Then he'll spout off something profound and I realize that he is getting much more than I give him credit for.  I guess it is teaching me to never stop pouring.  So much love from such a little boy.  I think he will be a great dad.

Neighborhood Park

Well, it's official we have now become the neighborhood park.  Dad, Wes, and the neighbor spent all morning putting together the play set, and it looks great.

 I'm glad we went with the big one, because it really does fit a lot of kids.  Ours had fun on it all day.  They went out in shifts and all together throughout the day.  I finally had to call the last of them in for family home evening after dark.  Consequently three of them fell asleep during FHE.  It was the quietest we have ever ended family home evening.
Notice that the landscaping still isn't done.  It will be soon, hopefully.  The water system in the flower beds is finished, and since my big spring break trip has been canceled I might as well do my best to get it done. Silver lining thing right, then why does it feel like such  sliver lining?

Say no to naps!

The baby has decided in the past two days that she will no longer nap.  This is probably due to the fact that I sent her to be with her Grammy unless she needed to be fed last week while we were working on the wall.  But, because she is not quite 5 months old she still needs to nap.  This conundrum means that she suddenly falls into a deep sleep for about five to ten minuets periodically throughout the day no matter where she may be. Today she was playing with 3 on the floor when she suddenly dropped her head and was out. He thought it was totally funny and cute.

It only lasted for about ten minuets and she woke up with carpet fiber indentations on the side of her face that had been smashed into the carpet.  Thank goodness for the binky or she might have smothered herself.  If she keeps this up we will need to start calling her Sleeping Beauty.  Anyway, it was cute. Note to self, spend more time with the baby so she will nap. She needs her sleep.

Fun in disFUNctional

Ok, so I finally got new batteries for the camera. That means I can upload our weekly family picture from 2 weeks ago.  Remember how I said that my family doesn't photograph well.  This picture proves it.  We definitely look like we are putting the fun in disFUNctional.

As you can see I still haven't figured out how to use the timer function on the camera, and I think I've now lost the manuel. Oh well, we'll just keep letting the good times roll.

Radio Static

We haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  We have been working on a surprise for our dad.  It was all consuming, filling every daylight hour with back breaking labor, and it was a secret. So, I couldn't write about it and since it took all of my time for the past eight days, there was really nothing that important to write about.  Not to mention the fact that I fell into bed around eight every night completely dead and  only marginally woke during the night to feed the baby, and here is the completed (mostly) project.  Drum roll please....... A brick retaining wall!!!

 I know, I know, exciting stuff right? Well believe me it was a whole lot of work.  Involving the removal of the old wood plank wall, about a ton of lava rock, and lots of digging, cementing, and stacking of bricks that weighed 25 lbs each. (My dad weighed them, the wall has about 200 not counting the capstones.)  But I think it was all totally worth it, not only because it makes the back patio look so much better, but because I can finally have a flower garden again, Yay!  This is the longest I have ever lived in a house without a flower garden, and it has been killing me.  We put in the vegetable garden last year, but because I was pregnant that was all I could manage.  Now I not only have space for flowers, but an herb garden and I hope 2 dwarf fruit trees.
It would not have been possible with out the help of my dad and my boys.  I told them at the beginning of the job they would have to work like men, and they did to the best of their abilities.  Because of the half day schedule for SEP's they spent from about 2pm till dusk everyday last week working on the wall. (Except for Thursday, I sent them skiing with Papa and Wes.)  I decided that if I really wanted to get a flat tummy after kids all I needed to do was shovel lava rock for a couple of hours a day, boy does that ever work those abs and obliques.  Anyway, the boys worked.  I wanted them to know how good it feels to work hard at something.  I think it worked, because on Wed 2 said to me, "You know mom we don't have school all summer. Could we do more projects like this then?"
I wanted to remind him that this summer it will be 120 degrees outside, and that my body was killing me, and that I wasn't sure our budget could handle many more projects like this, but I just smiled and said I'd see what I could come up with, and that I was glad he could see the value of hard work.
It wasn't completely finished when our dad got home, but enough that I think he was pleasantly surprised. So, now you know the reason for the radio static.  This coming week I need to sew the Easter dresses and help my dad put in a sliding door from the dinning room to the backyard.  All in preparation for the play set coming on Saturday.  So dear, if you don't hear from me much just know I'm busy trying to make things awesome here at home for you.