Amazing how much can happen in less than five minutes in a home with small children.
Today featured me chasing a naked J around. He had taken off his diaper (thankfully a clean one) and was trying to convince me he didn't need any clothes at all. (With his severely limited language skills.) While I was getting him dressed I found Robert playing with his cars IN the toilet water. One car went straight to the trash. No way to get it clean enough to be trustworthy.
No pictures of this...
P.S. RM can shred toilet paper lightening fast!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Crazy
This picture was taken right after RM's first birthday. Keep in mind he could only take about two or three steps at a time. I heard him complaining, and when I turned around, this is how I found him. Luckily he thought posing for the camera was fun. (It's blurry because I was trying to be fast. Don't judge me too harshly.)
Here's a little video of some more of his antics...
December 11, 2011
December 11, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been a crazy week, but we have still managed to
survive somehow. Monday was our most
normal day. I did the grocery shopping,
etc. For FHE we had a lesson on
Christmas.
Tuesday I decided to take J to the doctor. He’d had a runny nose for quite a while and
it had now developed into a fever. I
decided not to risk it. Turns out he had
a sinus infection and a double ear infection.
Glad I took him. We got his
medicine and then had a quiet day at home.
 |
| B-man reading on what will be J's bed. As soon as he decides he wants to get out of his crib. |
Wednesday RM woke up with a fever and runny nose. He was pretty irritable all day. Then just as I was getting ready to put J
down for a nap the school called to say that B-man had thrown up “a lot” and I
needed to come get him. I hurried and
piled the kids in the car, and then we all filed into the school to get
him. He did a good job of staying in his
room the rest of the day and reading. I
don’t actually think he had stomach flu because he wasn’t acting sick, but who
knows.
 |
| Notice anything about B-man? He pulled out his front tooth on Friday night. |
Thursday B-man was home from school still (they told me to
keep him home) and RM had a higher fever and was more irritable. I kept my expectations very low for the day
and that helped me not be so panicked.
Also M got home a little earlier than he normally does, he was a welcome
sight coming through that door. That night
M and I watched a few episodes of the last season of “24” before bed.
 |
| The boys watching intently while our home teacher showed them the Star Wars pop-up book. |
Friday M was home from work.
I took advantage of having an extra set of hands and had a little
breakfast with two of the women that I visit teach. The breakfast went really well and we were
done by ten o’clock. Around lunch I
discovered RM had an even higher temp (102.7!) and so I decided to take him
in. They almost didn’t have a spot for
him, but they basically double booked a time so I could come in. They did all sorts of tests, and even drew
blood and did a urinalysis. But
basically they don’t know what he has.
Poor guy! We just got
instructions to keep giving him ibuprofen and lots of fluids. That evening M went to the temple with the
youth from our ward. I got pizza for us
and the boys and then we watched an old Christmas movie. The boys all wanted to
watch Pink Panther but I thought we should branch out. That night I worked on RM’s stocking. I got it done, but now I am debating if I
should redo the sewing portion. I hate
when I try to rush and then want to redo everything. Remind me not to rush, to just wait a day
until I have more time to do it properly, instead of just trying to get it done
while the sewing machine is out.
Saturday was a slower day.
RM was still sick. We mostly
stayed pretty close to home. M made
pancakes in the morning and then had to go to a two hour planning meeting for a
Youth Celebration for next year. While J
was napping M put up the new chandelier in the dining room. It went pretty smoothly for the most
party. I made a chocolate tart in between
helping him. Once the boys were awake I
took RM and ran a few errands while M took J and B-man on an errand. They got to ride in a truck making it extra
fun. We then went to Home Depot to get a
few items before heading home for dinner.
That night after the boys were in
bed we had some friends come over for dessert and to play games. We ended up playing Rook and M and I won! We
had a great time and stayed up too late chatting with our friends.
 |
| J really wanted some of that "pie." |
Sunday was pretty normal.
RM’s fever was finally gone, making him a much happier guy. M had a meeting in the morning early, and
then he had one at our house with some of the young men to plan the high
adventure trip this year. Only B-man and
I went to church since RM was sick. It
was nice to be able to sit and listen to the talks. Primary was crazy but went
well over all. We came home and M had made
biscuits and diced and roasted sweet potatoes to go with our crock pot
dinner. It was delicious! After dinner our home teachers came over and
then we put the boys to bed. The boys
loved looking at a Star Wars pop-up book that our Home Teacher brought over.
We love you all!
The C Crew
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Some Days
Today RM has a fever and is feeling sick. J went to the doctor yesterday for his ears and a sinus infection. Then right as I was getting ready to put J down for a nap, the school nurse called to report that B-man had thrown up "a lot" and I needed to come get him.
Some days are like this. I had a cup of hot chocolate to help me take on the rest of the day.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
New House
I know it's been months... but here are some pictures of the new house.
Pictures of the upstairs to come...
 |
| Entry way and living room. |
 |
| Living room from the front door. |
 |
| Dining room. We just got this table in time for Thanksgiving. |
 | |
| Living room |
 |
| Family room ahead, kitchen to the left, study to the right. |
 |
| View from kitchen looking towards the family room. |
 |
| Kitchen with some cute boys. |
 |
| Study |
 | |||
| Looking from the family back towards the living/dining room. |
Monday, November 7, 2011
Birthday Boy!
This little guy turned one. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. One year ago M was out of the country and this guy decided he just couldn't wait to get here. We all love him so much!
He loves food. Really any food except cottage cheese. And he knows when he is missing out on a treat.
He can really throw a hilarious tantrum. He lays down on his stomach and cries. Luckily they don't last long.
We all get some seriously good hugs and snuggles from him.
 |
| This was taken on his birthday, he likes to attack the camera. |
He can wrestle with the big boys.
Says "hi, bye, dad" and makes a dog sound.
Did I mention he loves dogs?
Woke up on his birthday and decided to stand on his own like a professional. Started taking his first steps a week later.
Charms everyone with his enormous smile.
Has a kind of low gravely voice.
Love to point out balloons, lights, etc.
Really enjoyed his birthday cupcake.
Halloween
Here they are in all their glory. I hope you can figure out what they all are...
 |
| Black Ninja (B-man explained the leader ninja wears the cape.) He would sometimes also say he was Zorro. Hot air balloon, and a Ferrari race car driver. |
We thought about this costume for a minute, but we didn't think it would work well with the cold weather. Do you get it?
October 30, 2011
October 30, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been a great week.
Lots of fun things to do and celebrate.
The week started out pretty slow.
J and RM were still sick, and seemed a little worse. I had an internal debate about whether I
should take them into the doctor. I
decided not to since they didn’t have fevers.
I also knew I had a “well-child” visit for both of them that week, and I
really just wanted to wait for that if I could.
Monday night M took the boys to soccer and I went with a woman that I
visit teach to a school board meeting about changing school boundaries. They are building a new school in the area,
and it will be affecting a lot of the schools in our town. We just wanted to go and make sure that nothing
crazy was going to happen. Mostly it was
people from the town commenting. We still have no idea what they are thinking
or planning.
Tuesday was a quiet day.
Not a lot going on. The boys were
sick still. Wednesday was RM’s
birthday. It was such a great day. First of all he woke up seeming to feel a
little better and was in a much better/less clingy mood. Then he spent a lot of his time practicing
standing up by himself. It was like he
decided that he needed to learn a new trick… and fast! It was adorable. Sadly we were pretty busy that day, so not a
lot of celebrating happened for the birthday boy outside of family singing to
him. He did get to video chat with both
grandparents which made for an even better day.
That night I took B-man to soccer.
Then M got the boys ready for bed and I met him with the little boys at
the church for mutual. Then M stayed for
mutual and we all drove home and the boys went to bed.
Thursday morning I took the boys for their one year old and
two year old checkups. Turns out that RM
has an ear infection, a pretty bad one.
No wonder he was so cranky. He
really didn’t have a fever, so I felt very bad that I had missed it. No shots for RM since he was sick, but J got
a few. He wasn’t that happy about it,
but he cheered up quickly when I brought out the gum. We spent the rest of the morning at Costco to
get the medicine and then home for naps.
Friday M was home from work.
It was great to have him around.
We worked on some things around the house, and ran some errands, and
then in the middle of the day I watched the children of a woman I visit teach
while she went to the doctor. RM and J
were excited to have some friends over to play with. Mostly J missed it while he
took a nap. The rest of the day was a
big fat party. When B-man got home we
carved pumpkins, and then we celebrated RM’s birthday. We had calzones for dinner and then opened
presents up. RM had a lot of helpers
from J and B-man. He would get really
into figuring out his new toy and be totally unaware of the other packages
until his brothers started to open them for him. J is convinced that most of RM’s new toys are
really his. After presents we had “cake.” Since he doesn’t have an opinion yet I
decided to make pumpkin muffins and frost them with some chocolate frosting I
had made recently. RM really went to
town on his cupcake. J loved blowing out
the candles when we did our wishes. It was
a great party. Once the boys were in bed
and the kitchen clean M and I watched an episode of “Foyle’s War” and then went
to bed.
 |
| Our snowy jack-o-lanterns. |
Saturday we woke up to snow!!! It had been fore casted so we
weren’t too surprised, but it was still a shock to the system to see snow in
October. It was very wet slushy snow,
but it stuck around all day, and continued to snow all day. Believe it or not we still found a few garage
sales to go to despite the weather. The
boys got a huge bin of new random cars, trucks, animals, etc to play with. M meticulously went through all of the woman’s
toys to pick out the best ones that we would take home with us. We ran a few errands in the afternoon and
then came back home to finish preparations for our ward party. Before the ward party our neighborhood was
also having a party. We wanted to try
and make it to both of the parties if we could.
M dropped us off at our neighborhood party and after running home for
something and coming back he realized that I needed a lot of help. It was really too cold to be outside on the
bouncy slides and things they had rented, and doing the food for the boys by
myself was a bit of a logistical nightmare.
He decided to stay and we hurried to eat so we could get him to the
church to help with the set-up. We
dropped him off at the church and then I ran home to get the rest of our
costume things. Then we went back to the
church and got everyone dressed and ready to go. The party was a lot of fun. B-man loved roaming around with his friends,
and J thought he was in heaven being able to walk around and find candy and
snacks at his level. He didn’t
appreciate a father that was dressed as Darth Maul, it really freaked him
out. But other than that it was a great
night. We were just happy he kept his
costume on. Three hours before we weren’t
even sure if he would put it on, let alone keep it on! After games and things we had the trunk or
treat. It was moved inside because of
the foul weather, but people still had a good time. We then booked it out of there to get
home. Once home we hurried to get people
ready for bed. I then went and picked up
the babysitter for a party that we were going to that night. We had a pretty quick turn around, and made
it to the party at a decent time. M and
I had fairly easy costumes that didn’t require a lot of make-up. The party was
very fun, especially the games that the teams played together. It’s amazing how fun very simple games can be
when people are willing to try. After a
fun night we made it home and were happy to go to bed after such a fun full
day.
Today has been a great day.
M had no meetings and it made for a nice leisurely morning. Church is getting crazier with J and RM, but
we made it through somehow. During the
second and third hours M filled in for a nursery teacher that was gone, and the
whole Primary was together singing and practicing for the program. It was crazy, but we made it through. We then came home for pot roast dinner, ran
some errands to return items to friends, and then got our very tired boys in
bed. To be honest I am excited to go to
bed myself.
We love you all!
The C Crew
October 23, 2011
October 23, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
Monday was our normal routine. We did shopping on Monday and then for FHE
we took all the kids to soccer practice.
We try to sing primary songs or talk about something gospel related to
make it a little more like a real FHE.
The rest of the week is kind of a blur. We have had a lot of things looming over our
heads. We were prepping for talks,
trying to get other projects done around the house, and then the usual home
things. J and RM started getting sick
towards the end of the week.
 |
| J did this to the bread. I am trying to figure out if he was hungry or frustrated. Maybe both? |
 |
| I love seeing all four of these heads together. I'm sure B-man would have been on M's lap if he could too. |
Today has been a busy day.
We spent the morning finishing our talks, and I was also working on a
jumbo singing time. Next week we begin
practicing in the chapel for our Primary Program. M also had two meetings to go to. Once at church we got really nervous. Neither one of us was very excited to wrangle
the boys alone while the other was speaking, but we also weren’t that excited
to speak. It was a no win
situation. I’m not going to lie, it
wasn’t pretty but we made it through somehow.
I’m just grateful that I can usually count on B-man to be reverent
without much effort. After church we
came home and started working on dinner.
We ate and then went for a post dinner walk. When we got home we had some friends there
that dropped off their daughter so they could go speak at a fireside. The boys had a great time having her
over. B-man had a little impromptu
Sunday school with her. He read her a
chapter in the Book of Mormon, and then made her say various phrases like “I
love God.” And “I’m grateful Jesus made
the Earth.” It was really
hilarious. We chatted with them for a
while once they came back and then were grateful for the end of the week! We are so happy to be done with the talks…
We love you all!
The C Crew
October 16, 2011
October 16, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
Monday was Columbus Day.
B-man was out of school, and so we celebrated by meeting a friend and
her kids at a children’s museum in Winchester.
It was a beautiful drive and the museum was in a very quaint historic
part of the town. The museum itself was
pretty small, but it had things that all ages loved to do. We stayed for two hours (all that the parking
meter would allow) and then headed back to the car for a picnic. Our picnic was basically on the street. I sat in the car with the van door open and
fed the younger boys in the stroller while B-man paced the sidewalk with his
food. The boys didn’t seem to mind our
lack of convention. The rest of the day
was fairly quiet. That night after
dinner I took B-man to soccer. The
practice went well and the two younger boys were happily and easily
entertained. Once home we started
getting ready for bed. We had some
friends that were going to stay with us that night, and so I had to do a bit of
shuffling as well. RM ended up back in
our closet. It felt just like the good
old days. Right after everyone was in
bed, and I had managed to pick up the house a little the Mannewitz’ arrived. I showed them their rooms and then they got
their kids in bed. We chatted for a few
minutes once everyone was asleep before heading to bed early ourselves.
The next morning it was great to have someone around to chat
with. It was fun to see their new baby
and hear about their life since moving a few hours away. Too soon they had to leave. I did some grocery shopping that day and we
had a quiet night.
Wednesday it was raining which meant no soccer for B-man. I am not going to lie… it simplified my life
quite a bit. That morning though I took RM
to the eye doctor. They were doing a
follow up exam. I’m not sure it was
really necessary, but they said to come back in six months so I did… RM was an excellent patient and spent most of
the time charming the women in the office.
He was doing a pretty good job.
It is strange to think that it was six months ago that we were there
getting him checked the first time. Time
really goes by so quickly. That night I
was up late doing a bunch of baking. I
baked a batch of bread and then a pumpkin cake for book club.
Thursday I spent most of the day trying to get the house
cleaned and ready for company. A friend
invited me over for dinner which was very helpful because I didn’t have to
clean up a dinner mess. Once everyone
was in bed I rushed around getting everything ready. I made a pumpkin layer cake, and it was the
first time I had made the cake, plus I was changing the recipe. (Swapping out
cool whip with whipping cream.) I was a
little nervous, but it was easier to assemble than I thought and turned out
delicious! For book club we discussed Battle
Hymn of the Tiger Mother and had a lively discussion. It was a very interesting book to read. I highly recommend it to anyone. M and many of the other husbands also read
the book. After most of the women had
left I got to chat with one of my friends for about an hour before we realized
that we had to go to bed or we would be toast the next day.
Friday was a good day. I love Fridays. We ran a few errands in the morning, and
again in the afternoon. We got pizza for
dinner, and everyone was excited. I love
pizza night when M is gone, it is so easy.
That night for our family dinner we watched some old school episodes of
“The Pink Panther.” They were a hit with
B-man and J. J currently loves pink so
he was very happy with the selection.
Saturday we were all excited that M was coming home. We all went garage sale hunting in the
morning before and after B-man’s soccer games.
He really wanted a nerf gun, and my friend called me during his soccer
game to tell me where one was. We rushed
to the house after the game and sure enough they still had one. We went home for lunch and naps. After naps we went to pick up M from the
airport. We were all so excited to see
him. We ran a few errands on the way
home. The rest of the day was pretty
quiet.
Today was ward conference.
M was also sustained as Young Men’s President. Church went reasonably well for us, and our
new callings. I really love working in
the Primary. We came home for dinner
and our home teachers came over after.
We love you all!
The C Crew
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Hair Cut
At the beginning of October J finally had a hair cut. Nobody really wanted to do it, but it was WAY past time. That blond hair was so hard to chop off.
October 9, 2011
October 9, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been a really fun week. It has been great having Sho here. Monday she was at her sisters and in route
back to our house. We spent the day
doing our normal routine. The weather
has been beautiful and we all went to soccer practice and then came home to get
ready for bed. Later that night Sho made
it back in town.
 |
| RM actually climbed inside the cupboard and shut the door on himself. He was happily playing in the empty space. |
Thursday M took another late morning. I wish it was his normal schedule. It is so nice to have him around! We did another fun breakfast and then he was
off. We were all pretty tired and so we
had a pretty quiet day around the house.
I hung some pictures and made Sho follow me around the house. That afternoon we made a run to get some pie
from a famous local shop. It was
raspberry peach and it was delicious! We
ate it that night when the kids were asleep.
Saturday morning I went out to some garage sales. Our neighborhood was having some and I found
some fun things for Christmas and filled some gaps in the boys’ wardrobes. I quit early getting home so that we could go
to B-man’s soccer game. This was only
his second game so far because of all the rain.
He ran and ran. He’s a really
fast runner. We are working on the other
stuff. He did have some great defensive
plays in the second half. J and RM loved
being at the game and were so happy to be outside. The weather was so beautiful that B-man
basically played outside most of the day.
He was so happy to be able to ride his bike and play with the
neighborhood kids. M ran an errand with a
friend that took most of the afternoon. Very
last minute we went over to a friend’s house to play volleyball. I fed the kids early, and then as soon as M
got home he changed and we headed over.
We started with three on three (boys v. girls) and although the girls
had some highlight worthy plays the boys were able to win both games. Once another couple arrived we played four on
four. The match went to three games and
we lost in the end. Mostly because I was
holding RM so he wouldn’t scream. The
kids did really well until the last five minutes and then they were just
done. Even the Cheerios we set out weren’t
keeping them happy. We headed home and
put everyone to bed. Then M’ friend
Jared (from Tortola) came over. We had
more delicious pie and some great conversation.
I was SO tired. I can’t remember
the last time I have had that hard of a time staying awake while people are
talking. It wasn’t even late! It was almost rude how asleep I was. I hope I didn’t offend him. I was so happy to finally go to bed.
Today has been a good day.
Nice quiet morning. M let me
sleep in a little and then have a cat nap in the morning. I wasn’t feeling all
that hot, but after the nap I was restored and ready to go. We met with the bishop right before
church. M has a new calling. After Sacrament meeting I went to Primary and
had my first experience leading the music.
I was a little nervous, but I think it went okay. I have a lot of learning of words to do. It is so obvious when the leader doesn’t know
the words. After church we made a quick
stop at home for M to pick up his suitcase and then we went to the
airport. M is off to Germany for an
enormous book fair. I am trying not to
be jealous. We said our goodbyes and
then came home for dinner and a quiet night.
We love you all!
The C Crew
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
