Family Pictures

A few weeks ago we had our family pictures taken at the Int'l Peace Gardens in SLC.  This is the first time in a LONG time that I hired a professional to take them.  She was super affordable though and I am pleased with how they turned out.  The kids weren't super happy, but we have quite a few shots that worked great!  I love pictures and I am so grateful we were able to have them done.  Preston was 6 months old when we had them done last time, so it was time!  Here are most of them!  Enjoy!

Field trip to the Art Museum

This morning, Alivia had a field trip for her preschool.  But before we went, we had a busy morning.  I got up early to run, and since it is so dark at 6 AM, I have been getting a lot of use out of my reflective vest I have been wearing.  Kaylee and Carson were headed out on their bikes when we realized Kaylee's bike had a flat tire.  Luckily, Dave was willing to give them a ride to school so I could finish getting the other kids ready to go.  Cassandra (the PTA president, friend, and mother of Oliver who is in Kaylee's class) and I decided to take donuts to Mrs. Thompson's class since it was her birthday earlier this week.  I went to Smith's to pick them up and then headed to the school.  On the way to the school I got a vox from Cassandra telling me that Mrs. Thompson wasn't there that day because her husband had been hit head on by a suburban last night as they were biking.  He is okay, but is in the hospital.  I felt so bad for her!!  We decided to still bring the donuts, and dropped them off to Mrs. Foster who was substituting for Mrs. Thompson.  Kaylee thought that was fun since she was her Kindergarten teacher last year.   I had to do some pta stuff before leaving to Farmington to meet up with the preschool group at the Davis County Art Museum at the Farmington Courthouse.   They took them on a tour and gave each child clip board with an "I Spy" paper to use.  Preston was so excited to be part of it and get his own clipboard.  

 After the tour, they got to make their own art.  Both kids loved it!!!

After the fieldtrip, Dave was nice enough to take Livy with him so I could stop at Walmart and do some grocery shopping with just Preston.  He actually offered to take Preston too, which I should have let him, but I didn't think it would be too bad.  It wasn't bad, it was horrible!!!  He screamed almost the whole time we were in the store.  He screams so loud I am sure the whole store could hear him.  I was doing all I could to not start crying myself.  I got home and fed him lunch and put him down for a nap.  He is so cute and smart, yet is so exhausting, demanding, and can be downright mean.  It is hard to have patience with him sometimes.  I had to wake him up to take Alivia to choir, then we went to the school to do some more pta stuff until we picked up the kids, since they didn't ride their bikes.  Then we took the older kids to choir and the younger kids and I played at the park down the street.  We came home and started on homework while I made dinner.   Nick got home right as we started dinner and we spent the rest of the night helping Carson with his math homework.  He does a pretty good job and knows how to do it, but can be a little sloppy with his work, so we have been working hard trying to get him to do good work.  By the time we were done it was time to get ready for bed.  It just makes it a crazy long day and we get to do it all again tomorrow.  Like I said in my previous post, it has been a rough few weeks for me as a mom and I really don't like how it makes me feel and so I am trying to figure out if there are things I can cut out to make life a little less chaotic.  So wish me luck in trying to be a better mom and try to simplify my life!

Fun times, even when it is hard.

This has proved to be another busy and crazy week.  Monday full of laundry, pta stuff at the school, piano lessons, pizza for dinner that Nick was nice enough to pick for us.  I had a dentist appointment that evening at 6:45 to get a cavity filled.  Our new dentist has late hours which is nice.  Tuesday was another busy day with more pta stuff, preschool, and then talking time.  Alivia gets excited when I tell her we are going to Talking Time. 

 Yesterday, was a bit of a rough one.  I was scheduled to help in Kaylee's class from 8:45 to 10, so I got up early to get myself ready and all the kids ready too.  It was just a rough morning getting all the kids up and moving.  At one point, while trying to do Alivia's hair, Preston came in and opened up the toothbrush drawer and ended up pulling it completely out of the cupboard and all over the floor.  Then as I was putting on Alivia's shoes, a whole cup of sand dumped all over the floor.  It was just a mess.  We finally made it out of the house and I was able to help in Kaylee's class after Livy went to Preschool and dropping Preston off at Jen's house while I volunteered.  I picked up Preston after I was done, and was enjoying a quick chat with Jen while Preston played in the van.  Before I knew it he closed the sliding door and when I went to open it back up I realized it was locked.  I just about lost it (Okay...maybe I did) but Jen let me take her van to my house to grab my second set of keys and come back and get the van unlocked.  This was just in time to leave to pick up preschool carpool.  I then headed to the school to finish some PTA stuff.  I can't wait until we are finally done taking money for fundraiser and tshirts.  This will make it so I don't have to be at the school EVERY day!  After I got home I did some cleaning and got ready for piano lessons.  Carson had a dentist appointment at the same time Kaylee had tumbling, so once they got home we rushed to get them out the door so Nick could drop Kaylee of early and make in time for Carson's appt.  But right after they left I got a message that the power was out at tumbling so they cancelled Kaylee's class.  So I quickly relayed the message to Nick before piano started.  After piano, we had a quick dinner of pesto chicken.  Nick and Carson started mowing the lawn and I took off with Kaylee to do a costco run.  As we left the neighborhood I realized the ward's preparedness fair was going on so we stopped by for a bit to see what was going on.  It had a lot of fun things for the kids to do and for the adults to learn so I voxed Nick and had him bring over the rest of the kids.  I eventually left to go to costco and Nick stayed with the kids and we made it back home about the same time.  It was a rough night getting all the kids to bed, but we finally did it.  I have been so exhausted dragging the kids back and forth to the school and all over town running errands and taking kids places that it has made me a very grumpy mom.  I have some great friends though that are so supportive and are there to give me encouragement and advice and I am hoping I can make it through this rough patch and figure out how to simplify my life and try and enjoy my kids more.

When I blog it is easier for me to focus more on the fun things of my days and the cute things my kids do, like when I walked in on Livy the other night going to the bathroom and reading my Ensign Magazine while on the toilet.  It was so funny I had to grab my phone and take a picture.  I have to overlook the crying during dinnertime, the mess of toys and puzzles, the tantrums at the store and the constant screaming and fighting.  I need to remember they are just kids and I need to be a better example to them on how to treat other people.  I don't think I realized being a mom would be so hard and everything I keep thinking to myself "when does it get fun?".   Maybe it doesn't get fun until I look back and realize that it was fun, because I want to remember the good things and not dwell on the hard things.  But until then, I need to figure out a way to make it through my days better and keep chuckling at the pictures of Livy on the potty!

Ogden Temple Dedication

Sunday was a wonderful day, even though I had to get up really early!  I had a QPR training that was presented from our Stake to Ward Council members and their presidencies.  It is a Suicide Prevention training and it was very good.  Since it was the Ogden Temple Dedication that day it was at 7:30 AM so we could be done in time for the dedication.  I got home and picked up Carson and Nick so we could go to the 10:00 session.  Our good friends, Rachel and Dan offered to watch our younger kids so we could all go together.  It was wonderful and I really enjoyed the talks that were given.  Carson got a little restless, but still really enjoyed it, especially the Hosanna Shout.  We got to sit by his good friend Kalie and her Dad and Step Mom.  They are the nicest people.  I was glad to see them there!   

We got home and got lunch and then the kids spent the next several hours just playing.  It is such a luxury to have the rest of a Sunday to just enjoy.  We ended up having Rachel and Dan's two oldest kids over while they went to the dedication, because they wanted to play with our kids rather than going to grandma's.  We were more than happy to have them over.  They are cute kids!  The girls spent most of the day playing with their new barbie dolls we bought from a neighbor girl for just a few dollars.  She is trying to earn money to go on a field trip with her school.  It was a good deal for both of us!    

 I really wanted to take a nap, but between trying to catch up on blogging, making cookies, and making soup and scones for dinner it didn't happen.  I tried to put Preston down for nap in his crib like normal, but he wasn't happy about that.  So I let him watch a show and after just a little bit I looked over to find him like this.  What a silly kid!

We had our friends Dawn and Tyson Tanner from the ward over for dinner.  They have a little girl, Emily, who is Preston's age, and then a newborn named Ryan.  I am on a team with her that is going to be running the redrock relay in a few weeks and after dinner she helped me put together a tutu for it.  Our team name is TuTu Fast.  Get it?  We are going to wear tutus while we run.  I am excited for it!  To get ready, I had run 3 miles Saturday morning and then did another 4 mile run Saturday night (with my friend Rachel who is also on our team).  I think I can totally do it and have fun and feel really good about my runs.  

 Today was a typical busy school day.  I went on a 3 mile run at 6 AM, then got the kids off to school before getting me and the babies ready.  We went to the school for over an hour to get money counted and some PTA stuff done.  Then home for lunch.  Alivia put herself down for a nap so it gave me a chance to work on the computer and fold some laundry that I had been doing all morning.  While doing laundry today I found quite the collection from pockets.  One kazoo, a bug, a ring, a magnifying glass, and a whole pocketful of pebbles that I ended up vacuuming out of the washing machine.

The kids worked on homework while I taught piano lessons.  Nick did a costco run for me with a list I had made, which included sandwich bags since I used the last one this morning packing Kaylee's lunch.  Good thing Carson wanted school lunch because I don't know what I would have put his lunch in.  Nick brought home a costco pizza for dinner since we had tons of potato soup for leftovers the next few days for lunch.  After dinner I headed to a dentist appointment for a filling.  The ONE thing I do like about this new dentist is that they offer a few evening appointments.  I would rather have dinner and then be numb and go to bed and wake up with a normal mouth rather than dealing with it all day long!  I hate the feeling of a numb mouth.  I got home in time to help get the kids into bed after Nick read with them.  This is how I found Livy and Preston after I came up from saying goodnight to the older kids.  Preston probably sat there for 10 minutes just looking at the book.  

Since both babies each ended up having a 3 hour nap today, they weren't ready to go to bed too early, so I finally just got them to bed.  I think I may have to limit their nap lengths.  I would rather be able to put them to bed early!  So now that I am caught up for the day, I will go to bed now too!

Hot Dog Social!

I got up early Saturday and got in a three mile run before Nick took off to a wrecking yard up north with Dave G.  He has been driving a 1990 Toyota Corolla (aka "Cherry Bomb") and it has run pretty good until the past few months.  He has been keeping it running but it finally died for real about two weeks ago.  He decided to just take it to the scrap yard and sell it.  When he took it up there last Tuesday, he found out he couldn't sell it since his name wasn't on the title, even though he bought it from our neighbor Dave and had the title.  So he had to make a trip up there with Dave so he could get it sold.  When he got back we spent most of the day running errands, working on the basement, and doing things around the house.  I took a picture of the girls from that morning because I loved Alivia's crazy hair and Kaylee had some awesome teeth to show off!

We got all the trim up in the basement (we had added another trim piece to the current trim to make it look nicer and just had to get it painted).  It looks good now with a fresh coat of a lighter paint and new trim.  We also built a closet and so now it looks like it has always been there.  I will try and take pictures of it tomorrow.  After we got the trim painted we loaded up the kids and headed down to Mills Park for the annual Stake Hot Dog Social.  Yum!

The weather was perfect!  It was fun to see friends from our ward and stake.  We sat with the Youngbergs and Neumanns.  I love living here and can't imagine being anywhere else!  After the hot dog social, Nick and I got the kids into bed and enjoyed a movie night watching "Mom's Night Out".  It was a cute show!   It had a great message that I really needed to hear.  I highly recommend it to my friends.  The kids watched it the next morning while I was at a meeting and Carson thought it was hilarious.  I may just have to own that one!

Fall Festival 2014

The PTA held the Fall Festival on Friday, the 19th.  It was a huge success!  The kids loved the free bounce houses (and so did the parents).  We also had hotdogs, nachos, drinks, and cotton candy for very cheap!  Nick was asked to run the grill and did a great job the whole night.  I got a neighbor girl, Jessica, to help watch the kids for the first two hours while I helped take money and food orders.  Then I was able to spend a little bit of time with them on the bounce houses.  They also had activities like face painting and hair coloring and games.  

It is always a lot of work planning events like this, but it was so much fun and I was so happy to see the weather be so perfect.  It was supposed to have an 80% chance of rain so we were a bit nervous!  But by Friday it was forecast to be sunny!  I hope we are able to have a fun one just like this again next year.