Why a Spoon??

So I was sitting at my computer reveling in how nice it's been to give up the blogging life, willing to accept that I just have nothing left to say to the world when I looked over and saw a spoon in my pen bucket.  At first I thought nothing of it . . . sad, huh?  Suddenly it struck me as odd.  Why would there be a spoon in my pen bucket?  The mystery was definitely more exciting than impending housework, so I decided to try out my detective skills.  

Here are possible answers I can imagine:

1.  Blake (my 18 month old) picked up the spoon off the floor or out of the clean dishwasher and put it in the pen bucket.

But this couldn't possibly be the case; if the pen bucket was anywhere within Blake's reach, it would be scattered on the floor and not still sitting on the desk.

2.  Maybe one of my kids, while cleaning up their after school snack and immediately preparing to start homework, accidentally dropped the spoon into the pen bucket in the excitement of grabbing a pencil.

Um . . . no. First of all, the kids cleaning up their snack? Yeah. And starting the homework right away, let alone the excitement needed to drop a spoon? Let's just say this one didn't take long to rule out.

3.  Last night, while I was at a meeting, my husband rallied the kids to clean up dinner and in all the cleaning frenzy, Ashton (my almost 4 year old) put the spoon away in the wrong spot.

Although my husband is pretty good at getting the kids moving, I am sad to say this one could not be true.  You see, we had frozen burritos for dinner (hang head in shame) and the kids that did bother with an utensil, preferred forks over spoons.

4.  After trying to come up with different ideas for a  probable real answer, I decided to face the facts.  It's plain and simple:  I am losing my mind.  I knew it would happen eventually, but wasn't aware that I would be so aware of it happening.  I must have put the spoon there while cleaning.  It is the only thing that makes any sense.  

UNLESS . . .

Before I woke up this morning . . .

Trevor (almost 11) was feeding Blake some cold cereal for breakfast when he realized he needed a new diaper.  Because he was all ready for school, he decided to change the diaper himself. He kindly asked Kaylee (9 year old) to clean up the bowl and spoon for him.  She, of course, said it would be no problem. As she started to clear the dishes, she heard Nathan lamenting that he hadn't written in his journal yet this morning and needed a pen.  In her rush to bring him a pen, the spoon slipped out of her hand and into the pen bucket.  No one the wiser . . .

yeah . . .

the more I think about it the more convinced I am that I figured it out!  How exciting.  I should hide spoons all over the house for more adventures tomorrow!

Here's to a Healthy New Year

Some people (including my wonderful Husband) think that New Year Resolutions are somewhat of a waste of time. Not that goals are a bad thing, just setting a bunch at the beginning of the year, only to stop doing them in a couple days or weeks. I on the other hand believe that any time something motivates you to get going on a goal it is worth while. But because I am lazy didn't want to look to geeky, I waited to start my goals until half way into January. I also decided that I was going to be really original in my goals and think of something that no one else would do. What are my new goals?? Simply put.....To be able to wear a swim suit in public this summer.

I know that goals take planning and hard work to accomplish so I set out chatting with all my friends about losing weight. This didn't help me lose anything, but along the way one of them suggested that weight loss is mostly in your head. I grabbed on to this with both hands and meditated every day about losing weight. How did I remember to meditate about it?? It was easy, it's amazing how getting in the shower can remind a person of their weight loss goals. Unfortunately simple meditation didn't do much either (I did lose a couple of pounds which I think was a direct result of the meditation, but might have had to do with retaining water.....) So at last I was forced to fall back on good old diet and exercise. Here is a little update on how it is going.

Part 1: Eat Healthy and Drink Lots of Water

I bought tons of fruits and vegetables at the store so that I could have stuff on hand that was more healthy to eat. I also switched to as many whole wheat products as I could. I have stuck to this now for a couple of days. But I am not a hard core "I will never eat sweets again" type of person so I would allow myself lets say one gold fish cracker. Unfortunately the urge to eat my one gold fish cracker came as I was taking my 9 month old out of the van. You see he had been eating said fishy crackers and I don't know what came over me but I reached down, grabbed one off his lap and tossed it in my mouth. It wasn't until I was chewing that it occurred to me that the fishy cracker may have been sucked on by the baby and spit out again. Oh well, live and learn right?

Part 2: Get limber and keep moving:

Exercising has been going well also. I have been going to a dance aerobics class at the gym. At first I felt awkward and uncoordinated but as the weeks passed I started to feel better about my performance. I purposely positioned myself in front of a door instead of the mirrors that line the class room so that I would not have to watch myself "dance." I even worked up enough confidence to try out a Zumba class. This strategy worked until today. My sister came with me and she stood in the spot in front of the door!! "No big deal" I thought. I will just not look in the mirror. I didn't work. I looked. I saw myself. It was not pretty. The moves that I thought I was doing right, I was most definitely doing WRONG. I looked like a spastic fish out of water. I don't even want to think about what I looked like doing the Latin moves in Zumba! My nice "child bearing" hips just don't move like they used too. (truth be told they never moved very well to begin with) Oh well, live and learn right?

Part 3: Get plenty of rest:

Part 3 is not a problem. Sleeping sounds good all of the time. Lived. Learned.

I intend to keep up on all these goals, and yes even continue to go to the dance classes. If you happen to see me there though, please don't let me know that you saw me.

Ho Hum

So another year is starting out and things have gotten quietly loud around here. I am glad that my life has slowed down to a fast pace and that my kids have gotten calmly rowdy. I have several goals for the new year such as to sit around and lose weight, keep my house messily clean, and only whisper when I yell at my kids.

Because it has been a while I will do a quick update on the kids:

Blake:

Blake is now 9 months old and has decided that life is only worth living if he is eating the crumbs out of my garbage pile when I sweep. I tried just not sweeping for a while thinking that this would solve the problem, but he turned to his second passion which is to eat all the crumbs that have not been swept up. He also eats a steady diet of baby wipes, candy wrappers and remote controls. (the baby wipes actually bother me the most, I understand the crumbs...at least they were once food, but a baby wipe?? Doesn't it taste nasty?? Maybe it doesn't, I have not actually tried one so I guess I shouldn't judge)

Blake is such a joy to have around. He smiles a lot and keeps us going, but he also sleeps through the night and eats well, so no real complaints.

Ashton:

Ashton turned 3 this year but is still under the impression that he is 18 and should be able to run his own life. Ashton enjoys a variety of activities (anything with a flat screen or controller usually works) and doesn't understand why he can't have his own iphone. He has recently decided that clothes are ok to wear for longer than 10 minutes and that there is more to eat than just cold cereal. Ok, fine, that is a lie, he still only wants to eat cereal for every meal, but he only gets away with it when he is tired and grumpy, or if he throws a big enough fit. (there is nothing wrong with giving into fits....right?)

Ashton loves the movie How to Train Your Dragon (I do too, the scene with Toothless and Hiccup learning how to fly together makes me cry every time....not sure why, I don't cry at many movies, in fact the only other one I can think of is Brother Bear)

Nathan:

Nathan is loving Kindergarten and has learned to read several words. He has published 2 books. (I debated weather to put that fact in the blog, you see I have a friend who just signed a deal to publish her first book and I didn't want to make her feel bad being so far behind my genius children and all, but I went for it anyway) Nathan has decided to keep his room clean and to do everything that I ask him to do. (no joke) I am pretty sure it is my parenting skills and not just his personality that has brought this about....the other kids?? We will just blame their messy rooms on their father.

Nathan just had his 6th birthday and had a small party at Chuck-E-Cheese with a SUPER fantastic cake that was made by my friend (it was actually the same friend that is publishing a book....maybe I should take out that first reference to her to say thanks....nah) Nathan has quite a collection of Mario characters and enjoys playing with them.

Kaylee:

Kaylee is 8 years old and is becoming quite a young lady. She is funny and fun and smart and shy all at the same time. (the split personality comes from me...or maybe it comes from me....hard to tell which) She has decided to join a Destination Imagination team this year and has really enjoyed working with her group. She is keeping up with her piano and I like to hear her practice. I wasn't able to post video of her winter recital because her piano teacher had a baby the day before the recital so we had to cancel, otherwise I would have posted the videos......yes I would have.....I am a blogging maniac.

I am thankful every day that I was blessed with a sweet little girl to call my own.

Trevor:

Trevor is still my oldest child, even though he thinks his opinion should be counted as an equal to his parents. Unfortunately the other kids agree with Trevor. If they have to choose to obey us or Trevor they almost always choose him. It drives me nuts. Here is one example: Ashton was going to say the dinner prayer the other night and I was going to help him...apparently Trevor was planning on helping him too and we both said "Dear Heavenly Father" at the same time. Silly me thought that Trevor would realize that I was going to help him and therefor stop talking, but no, I said "thank you for our day" as Trevor said "please bless the food" and as Ashton quickly repeated "please bless this food" I realized that my fate was sealed. Oh well, at least he has taught Nathan to keep his room clean.

Trevor is also doing Destination Imagination again this year and auditioned for and was accepted to participate in the school talent show for playing the piano. He is really a good kid and tries hard in everything he does.

I know you were expecting a "short" update, and this was kind of long, but when you have had as many kids as I have it takes a while to update on everyone.....either that or it makes you go crazy and you tend to ramble on and on and forget that you said it would be a short update in the first place.

Brenda

Brenda truly is an amazing person, and I am very lucky that she is my wife and best friend.

These pictures remind me of all the good times we have had these last 12+ years and just how beautiful she is.

(P.S. the video has music but you have to un-mute it along the bottom)

Love,

Bryan

Brenda - flash slideshow maker

First Day of School

I know most of you were wondering if I started to home school my kids because you had not seen back to school pictures posted here. Well I am super mom, but I have decided to support our local school system and send my kids there....you know to boost their numbers.

Trevor is starting 4th grade and it blows me away that the oldest kids at the school are only 1 year older than him. He is still in the spectrum program (advanced placement class) and doing great.

Kaylee is starting 3rd grade and loves her new class. She has been starting lots of new books and has been super dedicated to getting her homework done and papers signed as soon as she gets home (a big improvement from last year)

Nathan is starting Kindergarten and is in the PM class. He LOVES it. After trying a few backpacks we finally found a winner with a Mario backpack. Nathan is doing well and he is learning the rules of school quickly.

Ashton and Blake are alas still at home (only 5 more years....not that I'm counting down) They keep me REALLY busy (sometimes they actually nap at the same time and I am amazed at what I can accomplish) Ashton still thinks that he is one of the big kids and tries to do everything himself. Blake has decided that he too would like to be a big kid and has started to crawl (mostly scooting around with his head on the floor and his legs kicking behind him) I will try to get video soon.

I LOVE the fall weather that has started to creep in and hope to catch up on all things bloggy soon.

Successes and Failures

I had quite an interesting day today with several ups and downs. As I prepare for bed I was thinking about them all and thought I would share:

Success: I got Ashton to eat his dinner without yelling at him or force feeding him

Failure: I did not do the dinner dishes....last night or tonight

Success: I completed all of my grocery shopping with all 5 kids and bought a large clock I have had my eyes on for a couple of years.

Failure: I was "that lady" at Wal-mart with my kids, they were screaming and fighting and running up and down the isles, and I was about at the end of my rope, and I am pretty sure it showed.

Success: I got all the kids fed and out the door and made it to Cub Scout pack meeting before the opening prayer.

Failure: Blake was covered in spit-up and stunk (I am pretty sure some of the other kids stunk, but I don't want to embarrass them by putting it on the blog)

Success: I got Ashton to bed without yelling at him (for those not around Ashton a lot, I will let you know that he is trying to make the most out of the term "terrible twos" before he reaches the age of 3.

Failure: It is past bed time and I have still not put away the non perishable groceries.

Success: I wrote a blog post

Failure: No pictures of my new clock and newly painted front room.

There you go, a day of ups and downs. Overall I feel pleased with my day and look forward to the new day I have in front of me tomorrow.

You Know It's Summer When.......

Around here there are some key things that tell us that summer has arrived. I will share just a few.

You know it's summer when you see me making one of these for a cute little girl:

You know it's summer when you have to add sunscreen to your shopping list so that your kids don't end up looking like this:

And finally, you know it's summer when Bryan starts to bring these sweet things home from work:

Gotta love summer!

Summer Fun

First day of Summer Break?

Bring it ON!

My house may be a mess, my laundry might all be dirty, the lawn might need mowed, dinner might need to be started.........

BUT

My kids all have happy smiling faces!

(except for Blake who got his 2 month shots today)

No Cat and No Hat

The sun did not shine, it was too wet to play

So we went to IKEA on that cold cold wet day

I shopped there with Bryan and all our kids too,

and I said "I'll take this one and that one... gimme two!"

So Today....

It's too wet to go out and too cold to play ball

So I'll sit in the house and assemble it all

BEFORE

AFTER

But that is not all OH NO that is not all.....

Lets just say that I am hoping for rain all the week long!

How to Successfully Catch Up a Blog in 10 Easy Steps

Step 1: Choose a day when you will have extra kids, like cousins, at your house. (if it is too easy to write a blog post you might do it more often, and then you would not need a handy dandy post telling you step by step how to catch up on your blog.)

Step 2: Got to bed late the night before the post (see you don't want too much energy in the morning or you might be tempted to do housework, run errands, or other things that have been neglected just as long as your blog)

Step 3: Get kids off to school (not only does this get them out of your hair for the day but it gives them opportunities to do cool things like placing 1st in a regional Destination Imagination competition, or even placing 3rd in a state wide Destination Imagination competition, thus providing great material to blog about.

Step 4: Get a nice nutritious breakfast

Step 5: Try to make baby stop crying and go to sleep by feeding him

Step 6: Try to make baby stop crying and go to sleep by changing his diaper

Step 7: Try to make baby stop crying and go to sleep by holding him on your lap precariously so that you can still use both hands to type.

Step 8: Once baby is asleep carefully take him to bed (watch out your leg might be asleep because of how you were holding him).....(you may find these steps unnecessary, but they do provide ample opportunity to post cute pictures of baby)

Step 9: Think of all the fun things you have done in the last few days months that you have not blogged about (don't get too depressed)

Step 10: Find lots of pictures of said fun activities, write, and publish your post.

Now that wasn't so hard was it?

A GIANT thanks goes out to my sister Charlotte who redesigned my blog for me. You should check her out HERE at http://latermom.blogspot.com

Vacuum Woes

My kids love to look back at past blog posts and remember the good old days. They especially like to see posts where they are mentioned or shown in pictures. I would venture to guess that if I didn't post about them for a while, they would be come sad and depressed. Maybe they would hide in their rooms and refuse to eat. But would they stop working all together? I don't have the answers to these intriguing questions because I am a good mother who blogs about each of her kids.......

HOWEVER

I have not blogged about my vacuum in some time now, and alas.....it has become quite depressed and decided that dirt is not worth sucking up any more. So I decided that maybe a good blog post about a great vacuum would do the trick. (when your desperate, your desperate, what can I say) Here it is. I would like to call it......

If You Give a Brenda a Vacuum

If you give a Brenda a vacuum, she will be super happy and vacuum her whole house.

If she vacuums her whole house and realizes that she got an entire canister full of dirt in one day she will realize that she should be vacuuming more often.

If she realizes that she should be vacuuming more often, she probably will (yes I would, stop thinking such negative things)

If she starts to vacuum more often she will start having to replace filters and belts more.

If she starts having to change filters and belts more, she will get lazy and try to make them last as long as possible before changing them.

If she starts waiting as long as she can before changing them, the vacuum will start to clog more often.

If the vacuum starts to clog more often she will get frustrated and try to convince her husband to buy her a new vacuum.

If she tries to convince her husband to buy a new vacuum, he will try to do a lot of research online and find the best vacuum for the best price, so she will probably just skip asking him and buy one the next time she is at the store.

If she buys one the next time she is at the store (hopefully today!) She will get really excited and vacuum her whole house.

AND.....

If she vacuums her whole house......

She will realize that she got an entire canister of dirt in one day and realize that she needs to start vacuuming more often.

A Whole Heap'n of Stuff

So I know I fell of the blogging planet a while back and accidentally missed a bunch of birthdays and holidays. So I thought I would play a little catch up....

WAIT!!

Don't skip this post just because I am including Thanksgiving through New Years!

I know you are thinking what I would be thinking...TONS of pictures, but really there are not that many. You see, I didn't take many pictures 1st because I suck at taking a lot of great pictures at these things because I am too busy worrying about other little non important things like baking, wrapping, and handling my kids. And 2nd because I thought my camera was broken. I put in 3 sets of "new" batteries and my camera would still not turn on. It was then that I realized that my kids were putting old used batteries back into the battery bucket. So YEA! my camera is not broken, and AH DARN! I didn't get many pictures of the holidays.

We start with Thanksgiving, which was also Trevor's birthday.

When asked what kind of cake Trevor wanted for his birthday, he said he wanted a "Math" cake (what can I say, the kid takes after his nerdy mother) so we made cupcakes that could be arranged into math problems where the answers were always 9.....clever...I know.....like I said he takes after me.

Because it was a holiday also, we let him open a present every few hours instead of all at once. I only got my camera out for the first one, which was a pogo stick.

Did I mention we were at my parents house for Thanksgiving? We were. Here is the one picture I took. (you might notice the absence of my pregnant "little" belly in all these pictures, just know that was completely on purpose)

Now on to Christmas, for which my parents came to my house. Here we are at our Christmas Eve dinner, which was FANTASTIC and will be a tradition now for sure.

After dinner we had a talent show, here is a little peak at the fun we had.

OK that wasn't part of the talent show, that was just a bonus performance. Here is the real thing:

Christmas PJ's (the first year I did not make them, and probably the last, I kind of missed it)

About to break down the paper wall with their cousins and grandparents. (this is where the pictures stop on Christmas Day......I am always way to excited to watch the kids open their presents that I don't take any pictures. Oh well.)

And last but not least.....Nathan's birthday.

Nathan did not want a math cake, but his cake fits his personality just as well with a Yoshi cake (he wanted Bowser, but I said NO)

And that about does it. I didn't take any pictures of New Years at my Brothers house, so you get off free with that one. Now I am caught up and can move forward. Hope everyone had a great holiday season!

Being a Truly Authentic Mom

Alright.....

So a month ago recently a friend of mine tagged me in a really fun post about being a true authentic mom. I was surprised to see that she tagged me as someone she thought was a true authentic mom and here is what she wrote about me:

Brenda D.- Brenda is expecting her fifth child (another boy!) and does such a great job with the four she already has. She is the most laid back, easy-going mom I know. She doesn't get upset or worked up about the little things that don't matter, shrugging or laughing them off. She has raised her kids strong in the gospel and makes sure they are surrounded by good influences.

So in order to maintain our good relationship as friends I thought I had better hurry and reply to this tag so that she doesn't realize that I am just a big slacker. I am supposed to pick 5 things about myself that make me a true authentic mom so here it is.

1. I always notice the little things.

You know like are their nails clipped, are they wearing the same clothes as yesterday, do they have white socks on with their Sunday shoes, is their church dress zipped up in the back, or how often are they changing their under ware.

Unfortunately........

I usually notice them a little to late. I don't notice the nails until AFTER piano lessons where their teacher just looked directly at their hands for 30 minutes. I don't notice that they have been wearing the same clothes until at least the 3rd day in a row. The white socks and zipped up church dress I don't notice until we are walking into the chapel (luckily my friend caught Kaylee right before she walked in and zipped her up for me) and I don't catch the under ware until laundry day when they have a weeks worth of laundry and 1-2 pair of under ware. But at least I notice right? (that was a picture of Ashton, I had told him he couldn't go outside until he was dressed, and this is how he came back)

2. I am willing to take them all with me where ever I need to go.

This might sound like a strange one to you (any of you who have fewer kids than me anyway) But I really get strange looks and comments when I have all my kids around me. I don't think of my family being that big, but just the other day Bryan noticed that most of our friends (at least the ones who sent Christmas cards) only have 2 kids. Which made me look around and I realized that when I am at Walmart (true authentic moms shop there by the way), or any store, or McDonalds (not that a true authentic mom would let their kids eat there), I am almost always the only person there with more than 2 kids. I am lucky that I have pretty good kids and I enjoy taking them with me places. My older ones are starting to get old enough to help out with the younger ones and the younger ones (with the exception of Ashton who screamed all night at pack meeting last night "NO I don't want to be quiet!") are fairly well behaved.

3. I am teaching my kids the value of hard work.

I wish I could say that I was doing this for the benefit of the kids, but truth be told it is SO much easier to clean my house if I can just scoot around on the floor and say "here pick this up" or "go put this away" Otherwise I would have to walk around and pick things up myself, and trust me it is not pretty to watch my pregnant self try to bend over and pick stuff up off the floor.

4. I have mad cooking skills.

Don't get me wrong, some people I know have some mad cooking skills and can whip up an extremely fancy meal in no time that tastes delicious and is healthy for you. My mad cooking skills are more like.....I get mad when I cook. For some reason meal time is a grumpy time for me. My kids run around the house with an unlimited amount of energy which is tolerable until one of them gets hurt and thinks it was intentional, even though the one that hurt them insists that it was an accident, and then the one that hurt them apologises but the one that got hurt doesn't really think they are sorry (and I can't blame them after hearing the way that the other one said they were sorry) and so I tell them to go do their homework or practice the piano but then they both want to sit in the same spot to do their homework and can't believe that the other person wont move and on and on and on. And keep in mind, this is only the pre-dinner theatrics, the real show usually doesn't come until half way through dinner when all the kids think it is

really funny to get Ashton to throw his food across the room. But to my defence, my kids always usually sometimes occasionally get 3 square meals a day.

5. I do actually try my hardest.

I understand that being a mother is the most important thing I can do right now. I pray all the time that I will be a good mom, and that my kids will grow up with an understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that our home can be a refuge from the world. I do my best to keep evil out of the door and the spirit inside. I am far from perfect, but I believe that if I am trying to do my best that the Savior will fill in the rest.

As I sat and tried to figure out my goals for the new year I was coming up empty until we were reading as a family in the Book of Mormon in Alma 7: 23-24 which reads:

23 And now I would that ye should be humble and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

24 And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

I knew that this would be my goal for this year. I think it is harder than keeping a clean house or losing weight or even staying on a good budget. But the rewards are greater than I can fully realize. I am grateful that I have been blessed with 4 wonderful kids and one more on the way and that I have the chance to be a mother.

Thanks for tagging me, it is nice to hear sometimes that people think you are doing a good job. I am supposed to tag 5 people and say why they are true authentic moms so here you go.

My older sister Charlotte: She has 6 kids.....enough said. But if I had to go on, I would mention that she does more traditions with her kids than anyone I know and is willing to give up things that she wants in order to make her kids happy.

My younger sister Kim: She has 2 super cute boys that are growing up to be true gentlemen. She can saves tons of money every year by cutting coupons and working the ads and as far as I know keeps a spotless house, not to mention she is the primary president in her ward.

My youngest sister Tami:(private blog) She is expecting baby number 3 right now and is willing to do what the Lord wants even when it is not easy. She gives up hours of her day to take her daughter to a special preschool for the hearing impaired and always looks like she is having fun playing with her kids.

My SIL Andrea:(private blog) She is truly amazing. Her kids always smell so nice. This blows me away because no matter how hard I try my kids never smell nice. She is also very patient and loving towards her kids and is teaching them to be respectful and sweet.

My Mother: (private blog that hasn't been more neglected than my little blog) How else did I learn any of the few motherly skills that I do have if I didn't have one of the best examples in the world. My mom always gave the most of herself to her kids, and still does. She has always been there when I needed her and has taught me how to trust the Lord no matter the circumstances. Thanks Mom.

Well there you go. That's it.