Saturday

Last weekend was a special one for our family. Kylie was baptized and confirmed. Since she is our oldest, this was a first for us. And it brought about a lot of tender feelings. We have been having family home evening lessons on baptism for the past 4 months, trying to make sure Kylie understood what she was promising her Heavenly Father. And we wanted to make sure that this was her choice- something she wanted- not just what Daniel and I wanted. 

She was kind of nervous about a month before, but her cute friend happened to be baptized the beginning of September, and we were fortunate enough to be able to attend. While Kylie has been to baptisms before, she saw this one a little differently since she was going to be baptized a few weeks later, and I think it helped ease some of the anxiety she was feeling from not knowing how it would all go.

We were lucky to have one of my brothers, my sister and her family and my parents come down to the wicked heat to support Kylie. And we were lucky to have Daniels favorite aunt and uncle, his cousin, and his parents all come down as well. 

My brother Travis gave the talk on baptism, and it was awesome- like everything that guy does. My mom gave a sweet and heartfelt talk/testimony on the Holy Ghost.  And then Daniel took our baby girl and baptized her. My heart was so full in that moment I thought it would burst. 

While she was drying off and getting into her white dress, my youngest brother had made a little video of Kylie set to a few of her favorite primary songs. We (Kylie and I) caught the last minute of that, and I was brought to tears. (We have watched it a few times since and it is just so sweet. Something we will treasure always! Thanks Johnny!) Then she was confirmed and given a powerful blessing by her daddy.

Then we visited with our friends/family that came, and after cleaning up, headed over to our house for a little feast.

My only regret is that I didnt get pictures after the baptism. And the only one I have of Kylie and Daniel before the baptism is blurry and cuts Kylie off, so I barely get to see her head. Darn it all. But she looked beautiful, the talks were wonderful, and we felt the wonderful blessing of the spirit with us that day.

    

Seven

Toast had his 7th birthday yesterday. He was one excited kid. He started his day with breakfast of  his choice- donuts, got to have a little lunch date with his daddy to the infamous Mr G's, had cupcakes with his class-(thank heavens he wasnt picky about those) and got to choose his favorite dinner as well- McD's--(kill me now!) After which he finally got to open his presents, and then ended with his Mario world birthday cake. (that cake was an adventure in and of itself starting with the baking process which turned disastrous due to my own stupidity, but considering that it actually turned out to be somewhat similar to what I was trying to do, the disastrous part was soon forgotten.) SO yeah, Tyler had a very nutritious birthday. (Note the sarcasm) But at least he was happy for the entire day!

So in honor of my Toast here are 7 things we love about this kid:

1- Toast is so imaginative. He gets in his own world of Mario or Star Wars and it is a very creative world. Sure George Lucas started the star wars world- but Ty has taken it to a new level.

2-Toast is smart smart smart. When he applies himself there is no stopping him.

3- Ty gives some of the best spontaneous hugs!

4- Toast has a funny sense of humor. He also understands humor- like in books or movies and it always makes me laugh when he laughs cuz he understands why a particular thing is funny.

5-Ty usually isnt afraid to try new things.

6- Ty is usually a really good brother to his younger brothers. I love that he will include them in his mario or star wars adventures and all three of them will go off pretending to smash goombas or saving princess peach.

7-Toast continues to teach me about patience, and unconditional love and forgiveness. Its true that my Toast is my most puzzling kid for me to figure out sometimes, and there are so many nights when I plead with my Heavenly Father to help me understand him so that I can help him be the best he can be- and there are still lots of days when I fail to understand and instead just react to his not so good behavior- but at the end of the day Tyler will always give me one of his great big hugs and will tell me he loves me and tells me that I'm the best mom ever, and I think- how can he say that when I totally overreacted and didnt understand why he was doing what he was doing- but I am learning that it all comes down to love- (cliche but true) Ty just wants to love and wants to be loved. And I love that about him.

Drinking

Around 2:30 this morning I was rudely awakened by a loud WHAM, WHAM sound. I freaked out, shook Daniel- who also heard the noise but hadnt jumped like I had, and brilliantly asked him-"what was that?" I dont know what I expected him to say as he obviously would have no idea what that was either as he was sleeping just as I was, but apparently at 2:30 in the morning I ask ridiculous questions. Anyway he got up, checked on the kids, checked out the house and came back to bed, told me he didnt see anything out of the ordinary and quickly fell back asleep. I tossed and turned and tried to calm myself back down, but I heard a few more weird noises that kinda sounded to me like someone was trying to break into our house. Now, on both sides of us, our neighbors have dogs. Lots and lots of dogs. They bark ALL the time. Drives me crazy. (not as crazy as the dog crap on our lawn that happens everyday without any kind of an apology, and without the neighbor cleaning up after his dogs, but that gripe is not for this story. Although let me just say- if I sent my kids to crap on his lawn dontcha think it would be considered extremely rude especially if I sent them there every day, never ever cleaned up after them and never ever apologized!?! Whats wrong with the world today! Have some decency people! ) SO back to my story. The dogs bark - a lot! So I finally convinced myself that since the always barking dogs were for once not barking- there really must not have been an intruder and my own imagination was making up the weird sounds I was hearing- except the big WHAM, WHAM which woke me up in the first place, but I finally convinced myself that it must have been a  big bird that hit the door at an alarming speed a couple of times in the middle of the night, and finally fell back asleep. I apparently dont think very clearly in the middle of the night.
Daniel got up to go running a little before 5 am. I slept right through his alarm and didnt hear him leave, but had asked him before we went to bed to wake me up when he got back so that I could get up and do my yoga without having to be doggypiled on by my hooligans James and Ben. So he does, but usually if I ask Daniel to wake me up, he does it very gently so that half the time I fall back to sleep as soon as he gets into the shower. This time he was all super excited to wake me up cuz he had something to tell me. Still wanting to sleep, but wondering why he was so excited so early in the morning, I finally opened my eyes to hear his story.
So Daniel went running with his buddy, had a good run, came back, and was gonna lay down on the trampoline to chill for a minute before coming in and showering, but upon opening the back door he happened to see some unfamiliar shoes, and a few feet to the right, sprawled in the grass was a young woman snoring away. Puzzled, curious, and slightly apprehensive he went and poked the sleeping woman-(age 20 or so by his guess) but got not a response. So he pokes her again- saying "hello? who are you?" The lady with her eyes still closed replies "drinking." Daniel pokes her again a few more times and says "what are you doing here?" She replies "live here," and is snoring half a second later. Daniel pokes her again and says "I dont think so. Do you know where you are?" She sleepily says "live here" again and is back asleep in a split second yet again. Daniel pokes her some more and says "if you live here, what are the ages of the kids? She says "huh? what?" and finally opens her eyes, looks up at the house and was like "huh? oh!" Nothing like the threat of being responsible for a bunch of little ones to wake someone up I guess. So Daniel hands her her shoes, and after getting orientated enough to stand up, she walks past him, goes into our house through the backdoor, finds her way to the front door and walks out. Why she felt it was ok to walk through a strangers house instead of using the side gate, I dont know but I have a sneaking suspicion one doesnt think clearly when drunk. So Daniel quickly locks both doors, and then comes up to me laughing to tell the tale.
We figure the loud whams was her trying to get into the front door, and the other noises I heard was her probably trying to get into the back door, but after failing in her attempts, she must have passed out, drunk as a skunk, to sleep in the grass for a few hours.
So 2 questions- why didnt the stupid dogs bark when someone was noisily trying to get into our house in the middle of the night? What good is it to have those yappy dogs if they dont yap when there is something amiss, yet yap all the time when nothing is amiss? I would think that by putting up with all their "crap" they should at least do me the favor of barking when they are suppose to. Question 2- why do people drink? Honestly- I really wanna know.  From the smell of alcohol I cant imagine it being very tasty, and since it seems to turn seemingly normal people into looney tunes I dont get the reason of why people do it. I mean really- who wants to spend the night in someones pokey grass, covered with ants and spiders and crickets just cuz you are too drunk to even realize its not your own home? To me that doesnt sound like fun, nor does it sound cool. Sure it makes a good story for Daniel to tell, but for the poor drunk girl- I bet she has a nasty headache today, mixed with a few nasty bug bites.
So morale of the story kids-- I really dont think alcohol is your friend.

8

Eight years ago, yesterday, I became a mother. I held my tiny precious daughter in my arms and I fell in love immediately.

Earlier that day, when Daniel and i woke up, we lay in bed discussing us and the future and how our life was gonna change completely. I was scheduled to be induced that following day, and so we were gonna spend that day preparing for the next. But as we got up and ready for the day my back felt like it was on fire. I was pretty sure I wasnt contracting cuz it was my back that was killing me, and as far as I knew, contractions were more towards the front. So with each contraction I was doubled over trying to ease some of pain while telling Daniel I wasnt going into labor, and that I was gonna be fine, just give me a few minutes. After the 8th time of the same scene repeating itself Daniel called up my mother, who then told me it sounded like I was in labor and I should go to the hospital-(my mom has been working at an ob/gyn office for years and years and years and in my opinion she is the expert on all things pregnancy related) and since she wouldnt tell me to go if I was just being a wimp about the pain, she was able to convince me that indeed we should go to the hospital. So we, meaning Daniel, packed up a few things into my backpack, grabbed his homework and a book or two to read, grabbed our camera and right before we were off, Daniel gave me a blessing. What peace that sweet prayer brought to me. I was scared about how everything would go and if Kylie was gonna be ok and healthy and was kinda thinking I was gonna die cuz I was in such pain- but with that blessing
I felt a warmth and a calm and knew everything was gonna be ok. So we went to the hospital, and after checking to make sure I was really in labor, they admitted us and soon hooked me up with the happy-dural. Needles freak me out like no other- especially one that size and especially when its going into my vertebrae, but I closed my eyes as tight as I could and tried thinking happy thoughts and then before too long I couldnt really feel the horrid pain I was feeling before. Daniel thought it was funny that I dozed off a time or 2 in the next few hours, mostly because any movie you see with a birth scene  the mother is screaming at the top of her lungs, cussing the father of the baby, sweating and looking like a maniac, but I was just dozing off in between the nurses coming in and out. And then a little bit later my baby girl came into the world.
What a miracle she was. With her ten little fingers, her 10 little toes, her perfect little mouth, her cute little nose, and her eyes- oh heavens her eyes- Kylies eyes were wide open just taking everything in. Granted I know its fuzzy and black and white for babies, but she was so alert and anytime she was awake- her eyes were wide open, and she always had this look like she knew everything that was going on.

So 8 years have flown by and in that time my love for Kylie has continued to grow. I am really so proud of my daughter. She is an amazing 8 year old. Since she is the oldest of our kids, she has had more responsibilities and has had more expected of her than the others and for the most part, she just takes it all in stride. Kylie has been blessed with the gift of learning. She seriously learns so quickly- always has. I wish I was more like that- I think I was more of a daydreamer  when I was her age, but she is focused and attentive and responsible and really loves to learn. Kylie is artistic and creative. she is fun and helpful and quirky in her own ways. She is shy with most everyone but her family, she is sassy at times, a bit spoiled, and goofy, and she has the attitude of a teenager at times and it cracks me up when she rolls her eyes like she is so embarrassed by her parents, as if we do anything remotely embarrassing.  But she has a kind and loving heart. She is an amazing sister to her brothers, an awesome daughter and just a delightful individual.  Oh my heart almost breaks when I think about how much I love this girl!
Yesterday Kylie wanted to bring cupcakes to her class, and not just any cupcakes, but the cupcake pops- you know the kind that bakerella makes. Curse that bakerella for making something look so easy. Holy buckets I was working on those silly things ALL day long- and they still didnt turn out remotely as cute as bakerellas. I am an amateur to the extreme. And another thing- holy freaking mess- my kitchen looked like a war zone!

so I take them over to the school- now Kylie has around 35 kids her in class, so I made 40 just to be sure there were a few extra in case some of them fell from the stick. By the time we got to her class, not only had they started to melt-(blasted freaking desert heat- its September- why cant we cool down yet?) but over half of them fell off their sticks. after all my hard work-- they were dropping like flies. I was irritated. But the kids didnt seem to mind and  thought they were cool and her teacher was acting like she was in heaven while eating one, so either she was a really good actress or they tasted fine just the same. While eating the cupcakes, her class gets to ask her questions. Her teacher asked her if she could have any gift in the world for her birthday, what would she like. Her answer: a baby sister. We are trying Kylie girl. We are trying.
After her little school celebration we came home and I tried to clean the kitchen up, but before I could finish, had to take the birthday girl to gymnastics, after which we had her birthday dinner, and her presents, and finally her cake. Kylie is all into monkeys right now. She has monkey pillows, monkey blankets, monkey pajamas, monkey crafts, monkey backpack, monkey lunchbox. The girl likes monkeys. So she wanted a monkey cake. My kids seem to think I know how to make cakes- ummm- yeah,  I am lousy lousy lousy at decorating anything- cakes, food, houses, anything really--(except my Christmas tree- I take great pride in that sucker! ) But I attempted it anyway. It was kinda funny how cake wrecked it looked, but my Kylie girl loved it and told me it was her most favorite cake ever. She knows how to butter me up I guess.

Anyway I am very grateful that I have been blessed with this beautiful girl of mine. She is a sweetheart and I  couldnt love her more.

Official

Its official! We are done with diapers! For the 1st time in 8 years! I feel the need to celebrate. Only problem is Ben still hates wearing any clothes now. He continues to strip himself as soon as I get him dressed and runs around naked all day long. Its driving me crazy. But on the bright side- its a little less laundry to wash and fold and put away. The missionaries came over for a little missionary correlation meeting and my little Bennie boy was streaking through the house. I felt my face turn red as I apologized for his nudity.  What to do with that kid.

James was asked to give a talk in Primary last week, and I had a short little poem for him to recite, but as soon as it was his turn, he froze. As soon as he was done with church he told me he was so proud of himself. I'm trying to figure that out. Is he proud that he got out of giving his talk cuz he refused to do so? Oh the mind of that child.

So the citys parks and rec have been having registration for soccer and baseball and a bunch of other little kid sports and classes. I thought Toast might actually like to do it this year- but when I asked him he said he has no interest . Daniel was quite happy about that cuz it means we dont have to spend our  Saturdays watching a bunch of kids trying to kick a ball from one end of the field to the other. And I wonder why my boys have no interest in sports. I am finally getting that it stems from their daddy's bad attitude.

Kylie started back up with piano. She stopped playing once her previous teacher moved and we searched high and low and finally found a teacher with an opening. Its all coming back to her rather quickly and that makes me happy. I love watching her develop her talents.

Daniel has been working long hours (12-14 hour days)- which drives me bonkers cuz I dont like doing the single mom thing all day/week long, but his company has been moving into another office and he has had to be there for all the different hookups and setups and all the moving and organizing. He's rather excited about the little move cuz its gonna save them a ton on rent each month. So I guess it will be worth it. Although if I have to deal with the kiddies all by myself for much longer we might all be headed to the asylum for a very long time.

Nudity

*****WARNING-- This post may contain some mild nudity.***********

So we are trying to potty-train the Bennie-boo. I hate potty training. I like the end result, but hate the process of getting to it. So we bought him his underwear and have made the switch. He has yet to make it to the potty. He knows when he has to go- he tells me- and we run to the bathroom- and he sits, for a minute- then tells me he is done and not 3 minutes later I am cleaning up after him- and not in the bathroom.  I think he is afraid to  actually do it where he is suppose to do it. If we are outside playing, then he has no problem peeing on the rocks, but since we cant being outside for longer than 30 minutes without melting, that doesnt really help much.
Yesterday Ben decided he doesnt like his underwear now, and after I put it on him, he takes it right off. Along with his shirt. I try wrestling him back into his underwear and his shirt but it has become exhausting cuz he takes it right off again and again and again and again. So I gave up.  now he has been running around like this:

"He's out there Jerry. And lovin every minute of it!"