Rain gutter Regatta

Its the boat version of the pinewood derby!

 Seth had an awesome time! 

He painted his own boat and stuck on all the vinyl that I cut out for him. Not incredibly fancy, but it did the job. 

He got 5th place overall, which I though was pretty awesome considering there were a lot of kids who raced!

Seth absolutely loves scouts. In fact just the other day he had the opportunity to go to McDonalds for dinner but he would have missed scouts. He chose to stay with a friend and have them take him to scouts. I was very proud of him for honoring his commitments. 

Good job buddy! 

First day of school 2012

All the kids are back in school! Im pretty excited. I know a lot of moms who are so sad when their kids leave for school, but I really like it. It gives me a little needed break and I think its good for them to have their days filled with more structure again. 

Seth started 3rd grade with Mrs. Clark:

Eden started 1st grade with Mrs Mills:

and Lyla started her first year of preschool with Miss Claudine! She was sooooo excited and definitely ready to go.

Im so proud of all my babies. They are getting so big and time is flying by. Its kind of strange to be home with just Ezra for a good part of the day. I had forgotten what it was like to just have to take care of one! :) They all love their teachers and have made some good friends already. Lylas preschool is a developmental school. She is considered to peer a pear leader. The class is a mix of typical children and children with developmental disabilities. She loves it! Next year is kindergarten. I can't believe it!

Pinewood derby

Since The Boy is 8 years old he gets to go to scouts and he has loved every minute of it, especially because The Man has been his pack leader for most of the time he has been in. Its a great way for them to have some bonding time. 

This April was The Boys first official Pinewood derby. 

He was really excited. 

He drew out what he wanted his car to look like on the wood block and his dad cut it out the best he could with the limited wood tools we have! 

The Boy sanded and painted it himself and I used my new cameo to cut out some vinyl decals that he put on as well. 

Since The Man has been really busy studying for all his classes, it was pretty much all up to The Boy to get it done and I think he did an awesome job. 

We were kind of blown away when we got to the derby by all the other cars that were seriously cool looking. You could tell that they had probably had a lot more "help" from their dads in their creation. We also overheard a few of them talking about all their secret tips they had found to help them go faster. :) The Boy was pretty worried that his car wouldn't be fast enough. You can see in the pictures that he was biting on his fingers, which is a sign that he is nervous. 

But, he ended up taking first place  in his age group and second place in the whole derby overall! We were so proud of him for his hard work and following the rules, and he was pretty excited too. Im sure it didn't hurt that our car was the "choose the right" one, we must have had a little divine help.  ha ha!

Love this boy.

Mothers day interview

I saw this on a friends blog and thought it was cute, so I interviewed the kids at separate times to see what they had to say about their mom. 

It turned out pretty funny:

The boy is 8

Little girl is 6

Baby Girl is 3

1. What is something that mom always says to you:

TB: Clean your room

LG: I love you

BG: I love you

2. What makes mom happy?

TB: a clean house

LG: having me as her daughter

BG: When I say I love you

3. What makes mom sad?

TB: when I'm rude to my sisters

LG: if someone stole baby Z

BG: doing wrong stuff

4. what does your mom do to make you laugh?

TB: I don't know (apparently Im not very funny..) :)

LG: tickles me

BG: I don't know, when she says funny things

5. What was your mom like as a child?

TB: ummmm, happy?

LG: I don't know

BG: 3 years old

6. How old is your mom?

TB: 20 something...29?

LG: 13

BG: 3

7. How tall is your mom?

TB: I don't know ( sooooo interested in taking this survey...)

LG: 14 ft

BG: 6 ft.

8. What is her favorite thing to do?

TB: watch Biggest loser

LG: go shopping

BG: clean

9. What does your mom do when you are not around?

TB: clean

LG: goes shopping with baby girl..and gets her treats and it makes me mad!

BG: be sad!

10. If your mom ever becomes famous, what will it be for?

TB: cleaning 

LG: making movies

BG: fashion things

11. What is your mom really good at?

TB: cleaning 

( I really actually don't clean very much at all... all those chores he's forced to do must be taking a toll on his mind..) :)

LG: I give up

BG: cleaning (really!? ha ha)

12. Whats your mom not very good at?

TB: paying video games

LG: hair

BG: sewing

13. what does your mom do for her job?

TB: watch us

LG: I don't even know your job...

BG: clean her room

14. What is your moms favorite food?

TB: I don't know

LG: soup...yuck!

BG: avocado

15. what makes you proud of your mom?

TB: she's a good person

LG: when she buys me a treat

BG: when she takes me to preschool

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

TB: Olive oil, because she is a girl and she cleans and she loves someone...

LG: a juggling clown with a funny red nose

BG: a fake mommy

17. What do you and your mom do together?

TB: play board games

LG: go shopping and buy treats

BG: clean and say I love you over and over and over, and play

18. How are you and your mom the same?

TB: we both don't like shopping ( we are getting some contradicting stories here...) :)

LG: we are both girls

BG: we have the same eyelashes

19. How are you and your mom different?

TB: Mom only has one eye

LG: we don't have the same color eyes

BG: we are wearing different clothes

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

TB: because she always makes me good food, sometimes...

LG: because I'm your little girl

BG: because she says it

21. Where is your moms favorite place to go?

TB: Wal-Mart

LG: the store

BG: Ice cream place

I have some pretty funny, pretty cute little babes for sure. 

funny things I heard this month...

Baby Girl, while shopping with mom at costco (in a clearly frustrated voice):

"why hasn't ANYONE come up to tell me I'm cute!?"

Little girl after being sick with the flu for a whole week!:

(sad, sad voice) "Its sooooo hard being sick! It takes a lot of courage..." 

One more year...

The Man had his 32nd birthday this month. 

I thought I would break out of our usual, lame "stay home and do nothing" celebration routine and actually invite some people over. We had a barbecue with his all time favorite food group:

Steak

We have a fun group of friends that we have met here in dental school. Including a family who I like to call our twin family! They have the same amount of kids as us, very close to the same ages. We both had baby boys right about the same time and they have the same religious background as we do. They also decided to become dentists just like us and are first year students as well.

So funny. :)

We also have met a couple who's kids are older and out of the house who decided to change their lives as well and come to dental school. They are both so sweet and funny and we love them.

And we can't forget the friends we have had for FOR-EV-Er (think sandlot)!

The Mans old mission companion and his wife and their kids. I think we have followed each other around the country for the last 8 years. ha ha! Im going to be sad when we move way from each other.

Everyone was so nice to make the looooooong drive out to our house. Im so excited to move in closer to the school in a few months!

One of The Man's favorite kinds of cakes is The All American from Costco. 

Its huge! 

And so rich and chocolatey you only need a few bites. 

It goes perfectly with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream! 

                                  

Not too long after this picture was taken I got attacked by this very large tub of Ice Cream. Our friend Preston was scooping for us and my cheap scooper broke mid-scoop and sent the whole thing flying into my leg. 

It was hilarious!

Im glad The Man and his friends were able to take a little bit of a break. School has been pretty crazy these last few weeks and I know they are all stressed. It was nice to sit around and just relax and laugh for a while with people we love. 

His new snazzy Navy hat. 

Have I mentioned we're in the Navy? I don't think I have....

But thats a whole different post. :)

We love our dad so much and think he is the best!

 I can't believe we have spent almost 10 years together. It feels like it has just flown by. We have moved more times that the years we have been married, we've been students pretty much that whole time and we have been through a lot and had many adventures. It has been so fun and all definitely worth it. 

Happy Birthday babe!

Deadlines

I knew that if I gave my self a deadline, like when I said "tomorrow", I would eat my own words. Ha ha. I can never say I will do something at a certain time. Once I do I feel all sorts of pressure. I panic and I just end up disappointing myself and everyone else who is waiting for me. Its a weakness I have that I really hate.  But I miss blogging and I need to get back into the groove. When I miss posts I miss out on having my life and my families' life documented for the future. I get all flustered and and frustrated and feel like I can't go back and post about all the things that have happened since its already come and gone. 

I need to get over that. 

Do you realize I haven't even blogged about my sons baptism...and that was almost a year ago? 

yeah, bad mommy. 

How does everyone else do it? Stay so organized in their lives? 

I feel like I can barely keep my head above water these days, with everything piling up and then tumbling over on top of me. When this happens I tend to retreat from my life and just stay in bed, which makes things worse of course. I thought though, today that if I could just get writing again I could let it all out here and maybe then I could somehow find the heart to get up and get moving.

So the next few posts might be extremely personal, a little sad and might not sound like my normal self. I am a human though, I do have things happen in my life that aren't perfect. I think thats a huge part of why most of us feel this way sometimes. We see such a small part of others lives that make it look to us as though they have it all together and we suck in comparison. But I don't think they do really. I think everyone is just the same, with days they don't feel like cleaning, or cooking or doing anything. Days where they don't want to get out of bed. 

And I say thats ok.

Im sure I have written about this before, but I know its good to keep reminding myself. This is meant to be a journal and all though its public, I still want to write about all the personal things that are a big part of my life, along with all the funny and exciting things as well. I need to write about being sad. Its where I am right now. I shouldn't lock these days away deep down somewhere and forget them just so I can put on a happy face front.

It would be detrimental. 

And it wouldn't be real.

And thats what Ive always strived to be here in this space... is real.

Thanks for sticking around.

So we do not forget...

I must write down the story of baby Z's entrance into this world, as I know I will soon forget all the intricate details due to mommy brain and the passing of time. 

The thought of a time when I will have look back on this story and read it to remind myself of its happening is sort of sad, in a way. 

I wish I could remember all the beautiful things that happen to me, the happy things, the sad things, the ugly things I learn from. 

I wish I could remember all the things my children say, the way they look, the way they sound and smell and feel.

I wish I could remember all of the things that my husband does, that I do both wrong and right. 

The things that we promise to do, or promise not to do.

 The things that I beg myself to not forget.

But alas, our humans minds are incapable.

As time moves on, our memories fade.

I remember when I had my second baby, my Little Girl, and I when I came home from the hospital I looked at my son who came first and realized he was all of the sudden bigger. He looked so much older and I knew he would never be little again. He would just keep growing and growing and in doing so he would change until he was no longer a baby. 

He would become a child, a boy, a teenager and too soon, a man. 

I then locked myself in the bathroom and cried. 

That was a really hard time for me. 

Now I look back on that memory with fondness, as it is one that will forever be ingrained in my mind, at least one moment I will never forget. The realization that all things change and nothing stays the same. No matter how hard we all try, we can't keep our babies as babies forever, we can't freeze time and we can't have a perfect recollection of all things. 

So we try to enjoy each and every moment we have, striving to memorizing them as time quickly fleets by until all we have are the bit and pieces of our lives that we strain to remember. 

Unless of course, we write down our stories. 

We write our stories to give us vivid, detailed recollections of all the times we have spent. 

To prove to ourselves that we were here, that it happened! 

We cried, we laughed, we loved, 

we lived.

We write them so we do not forget. 

************************

Tomorrow comes the birth story of my fourth child, my second son, my last baby.

So I do not forget.

Mother of four

Here I am. I'm still alive! Things have been crazy and super hectic the last few weeks. But what else did I expect?  A new baby can do that to you.

Speaking of baby, here are some pics! 

These technically are old..they were taking at 1 week. Z is 6 weeks already! I can't believe it. But he is still just as cute! (and a whole lot fatter...hee hee)

Becoming a mother of four sure has been a different experience than I thought it would be. 

Its not as hard as I thought: 

My two oldest are in school during the day, so that helps a lot when its just me, Z and baby girl at home. I can still catch a few winks during the day while Z naps and baby girl watches a movie. Also, since they two oldest are...well....older, they help me out a ton and I rely on them a lot. They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their new baby brother and are constantly asking to hold him, so that gives me at least a few minutes to pick up something off the floor and put it away. ha ha!

He is such a good baby and hardly ever cries. He sleeps really good through the night and if I could just get myself to bed earlier, that would be a benefit to me!

I think he is going to be like his older bro and be a mellow yellow kind of a guy, which I gladly accept. 

Its waaaaay harder than I thought: 

I know, how can it be both? But it is. 

I think I was really spoiled in the fact that before I had Z, baby girl was 3 and VERY independent and my other two as well. I could do anything I wanted, leave when I wanted. The Man could stay home with the kids and I could go out with friends without anything needing my boobs two hours later. I could sit down at night and craft away, or blog, or whatever else with two hands instead of one...or none. I don't think I realized how much I enjoyed that freedom and independence. Its been a huge adjustment, one that has come with many tears and lots of anxiety. In fact, I just went out yesterday by myself with all FOUR of my babies to get some errands done. I tried soooo hard to be nice, and they tried soooo hard to be good. I still wanted to rip my hair out by the time we were done. It probably didn't help that I kept getting comments from total strangers on how many kids I had. "are they ALL yours!?" " you need to get your tv fixed!" (because we can't find anything better to do than make babies, obvi!) " Your sure do look like you've got your hands full!"   Yes, I do. Thank you and shut up.

(though, the tv comment was kind of funny when I really thought about it later!) :) 

I know in this time, having more than one or two is considered out of the norm, but I wouldn't change the decision we made to bring all of our babies into this world for anything. I have a very strong believe in the importance of families. 

Although its been easy and hard all at once, we are loving every single minute. I can't even really imagine my life now without little Z. He has brought so much joy and reminded me of why I love having babies. :)

Here are his stats from birth until now (birth story to follow this post...hopefully):

Birth: 

weight- 7lbs 1oz

Length: 19.25 inches

10 days:

weight-7lbs 8oz

length- 19.25 inches

1 month:

weight- 10lbs 11 oz

length- 20.25 inches

He is a chubby muffin!