A Mothers Diary....

I am just going to document last night and this morning, so that I will never forget what it was like when the kids were ALL mine and ALL home- I know one day I will forget:

5:00pm Monday February 8 "THE WITCHING HOUR"-

~IT is time to get the boys inside so they can start their long drawn out process of getting ready for basketball practice.

~ I realize they have put Binka's big basket I cleaned and left to dry outside (to hold all his blankets) into the basketball hoop and are using it as a basket. I tell them to put it away where they found it.

~I am trying to get dinner done for them before-so that they are not eating at 7:30pm and then we are trying to have Family Home Evening after.
~My shift for answering phones has just ended and I need to re-write my sloppy notes and fax them into the office ASAP so they can make tickets for the next day.

~We are out of most foods..Dan is going shopping after FHE.

~I plop in some spaghetti noodles and start to peel and cut carrots to steam. Remembering to fax the stuff-I stop half way through and get that done.

~All the while Dacie comes in telling me she has wiped her own bum (after pooping). I am grateful for her definite passion for independence (she could pass some of that along to some of her brothers), but with that independence comes a whole other slew of clean up awaiting me, I am not ready to go see the bathroom, or her clothes yet. I have to get the carrots on or they won;t be done...and please just give me one minute to FAX!

~I send her to the bathroom to await my "help".

~ALL the while Sterling comes in crying covered in mud. OF COURSE. Colton had thrown the basketball into the mud puddle in our front road (which reminds me I really need to take up the fight to get the rest of road paved with the county since we are not in the city limits). OF COURSE Sterling tripped trying to get it and he is covered. I send him to the laundry room to strip and clean off his new tennis shoes and OBVIOUSLY his basketball shoes he needs to have on in a few minutes.

~Dacie is crying for me on the toilet.

~I run in after stirring the noodles and am relieved to find Dacie's damage at bay.

~Wash my hands, dump the noodles into a strainer-the boys have 5-10 minutes until their carpool ride arrives.

~They will miss the carrots-they are not done.

~Ryland is FHE treats tonight-we don't have much variety BUT have a ton of pears we will not all eat--we start cutting them to make a pear cobbler.

~I pull out the spaghetti sauce from the fridge only to find it covered in sticky purple stuff-what? what has been purple and sticky in my fridge? I look in and realize I am going to have to clean the fridge before the new groceries arrive this evening.

~The b-ball boys scarf down a bowl or two as all my good eating kids do of spaghetti...only to run off faces covered in pasta.

~I get them yelled into washing their faces just as their ride arrives.

~Ryland Dacie and I finish cutting pears and prepping the crust on top-we have FHE dessert in the oven.

~Dan comes home a few minutes later. He grabs Ryland and heads off to one of the 2 stores he is going to that evening (coupon shoppers understand the 2 store thing). I think I have seen and talked with Dan for 5 minutes today since my kiss at 6am as he is leaving for seminary (He is too busy with paperwork or late dawdling patients, at lunch to talk most days). He will grab the boys from practice after he is done

~ The boys did NOT put binka's basket back where it was drying and Dan ran right over it in the car... I could kill-aaargh!

~I feed Dacie and I-we enjoy the steamed carrots with added honey and butter..yummy!

~Then we do all the dishes, clean up from the witching hour chaos, and save dinner for Ryland and Daddy in the fridge.

~Then Dacie and I clean the fridge, draw the FHE lesson diagram, and lay out all the decorating goods for our activity of Valentines bags

~All the boys in the household return at 7:30..they quickly finish off the spaghetti and carrots and we are sitting down to FHE at 7:45

~We have a review of our testimony lesson from a few weeks ago and teach them a way to help them remember what they should be gaining a testimony about with our hands

~We make our v-day bags (the most fun I have had all day)

~We have FHE finished and desserts in their tummies by 8:40-bedtime is 9:00

Only Dacie got up a few times tonight, the other boys had basketball and no naps

~Whew! I crash in the rocking chair because my SI joint is killing (it has been giving me problems since I did a big activity for Young Women's over a month ago)

~ Dan leaves for grocery store #2

~He comes home around 10:45 and I help him unpack the groceries

~Our pantry is full, the kids are asleep...and I am exhausted

~I hope tonight will be a more restful night of sleep with my cough

~Its not.

~I feel it in the morning as I am dozing off to sleep after my long night- I hear the boys punching each others backs

~7:00am Tell the kids to give themselves check marks

~Only 2 more fights ensue

~Ryland starts crying because he is too tired for preschool and does not want to get dressed

~I am trying to make 3 boys lunches and drop the yogurt out of the fridge on the floor...now I have to mop as strawberry yogurt goes flying everywhere.

~I make the boys do their own lunches while I clean only to find out they have dumped MOST of the newly purchased goldfish into bags for their lunch-they are planning on living on goldfish alone!

~I start doing the boys hair when i hear a loud, sickening thud...and I can hear some moaning before the screams start.

~I find Ryland on the floor, not breathing (he got the wind knocked out of him) and writhing in pain.

~Dacie had just kicked him off the tall bar stool chair they were using to get to the goldfish in the pantry.He landed flat on the tiles.

~Dacie to her room, Ryland to my bed to assess.

~Ryland got a good knock, bruises on his hips.

~I am going to be late taking the other boys to school.

~I leave Dacie in time out & Ryland recovering on my bed while I take the other kids to school (sorry CPS, school is less then 5 minutes away I promise)

~I come home to find Ryland and Dacie playing in her room and pulling out the toys we had just cleaned up last night.

~I hurry and get Ryland ready and drop him off at preschool.

~Now I am ready to go back to bed...BUT NO!

~Dishes in the sink, counter covered in milk

~Laundry floor covered in that same mysterious purple sticky crud to be mopped

~Playgroup plans to finalize, since I am in charge tommorow

~My bed to be made.

~The NEW washer is making a weird noise as I load in the last batch of baby clothes (batch #4)

~Dark batch to fold and put in drawers, find the nicely folded drawers full of NOT NICE folded laundry.

~Dacie wants me to cut her toenails, get her dressed, take her to a friends house and talk all day

~It is time for lunch.

~Then to drop Dacie off with Cara so I can go get Ryland and Colton out of school early to take Colton to an orthodontist appointment.

~Better go get dressed

~Did I mention I feel tired today? I have been blessed with energy the last week or so with this sickness but right now I am ready to cut out my itchy throat and sleep!

...and we are having one more!

When THE MOM gets Sick...

The past 2 weeks we have been battling pink eye (Ryland, Dacie and Sterling) and serious amounts of tissues & drainage.

I got some of that and it was at its worst during our marathon date 2 weekends ago.I could not breathe and my ears kept getting plugged all the way to and from Phoenix.

But alas, things started to dissipate and we prepared for the end... (so this is the mask they made me wear in the waiting room at the drs.! ha ha)

~

THEN I came home from ward conferences and I started to not feel so hot.

After an unbelievably sleepless night (at no account of the baby inutero...go figure!)

I woke up the next morning with my throat on fire and the chills, by that evening I was dragging myself into bed and it became my friend (sort of)

Everything reminded of when I had strep throat.

(where I pretty much lived for 2 days!)

~

By Tuesday I was super grateful I had a regular OB check up. Things had only gotten worse, and I knew I needed help.

There is NO TIME or HELP for sick moms.

It took everything I had to get showered and dressed (as well as Dacie) and get us to that appointment.

BUT I did IT! and I came away with a prescription of antibiotics... and was excited to start eating again.
By evening I knew things were headed up.

Dan really stepped up. He came back from seminary in the mornings (which I NEVER get-he goes straight to work) and helped get the boys dressed, lunches made, and drove them all to school (including preschool)-then he took his lunch break to go and pick up Ryland from preschool, so I would not have too.

That day of complete rest really helped!

One of the afternoons while I was in and out of "consciousness" (the kids had early releases and parent teacher conferences all this week too-yeah, I know! No sick moms allowed) the kids were NOT fighting and I could hear giggles and contentment. At times Dan and I really wonder if our family does anything more then fight. In my sick state I was worried something bad was happening because of this.

I went outside and found them all just having the time of their lives on the tramp with their bouncy balls (thanks grandma H). They played there for quite sometime, and then only came in to play happily with one another again!
It was a "tender mercy" for me that afternoon.
I mean, who can walk out of their room super sick only to find their children reading to each other.
My heart was so happy!

AND although the next day they flooded the garage with the hose and threw Dacie's Barbie on the roof....

I still considered that one afternoon a blessing!

~

My sore throat eventually dissipated and it has been replaced with the most ANNOYING cough and random drainage.
Now by a cough I mean, non-stop tickling in your throat and a constant rough cough-particularly at night

So... I think I have gotten more then 3 hours of sleep one night this week (after Dan gave me a blessing)

The rest of the nights have been full of the bathroom, transferring from the bed to the rocking chair and back, and watching the sun rise!

There is no naps for mommies either, that is not an option when the elementary kids get out at 2:20

Now I know sickness is a way of life and is to be expected.

BUT for moms that are expecting I believe it can be a cruel joke at times.

In our not to distant future we will be getting only 3 hours of sleep for LONG periods of time (we need sleep now!!! not an hour to to lose)

Pregnant women are already going to the bathroom in the night, BUT with a rough cough try doubling that number and having "accidents" (sick I know)

IF the prego mom was not uncomfortable with her 8 month prego belly (I was doing pretty good) try shaking it like a bowl full of jelly all night...and then it is

NOT TO MENTION what it is doing to the once "peaceful" kid (which mine had been) inside!

Many "soon-to-be" moms already have a mile long list of extras to get ready, BUT when you are sick the everyday stuff just piles up, forget the extras!

SO while the bins of baby clothes to go through, inventory and wash--stack up AND the baby equipment makes it way from the attic to piles on my floor...

the everyday laundry piles in my room and we eat lots of cereal for meals!

~

I am ready to BE DONE being sick, NOT PREGNANT as most people are at this point, just SICK of being SICK (it has been about 4 weeks of just not feeling well).

BUT until then...tender mercies will have to do!!!

(did I mention that I passed some of it on to my hubby?- he has a super sexy voice right now!)

What Happens When....

What Happens to You at our house when you fall asleep during

Family Scripture Study!
You become the ideal "model" for preschool clown masks!

... compliments of Ryland

Our Birthday Girl

Dacie Ann's

BIG DAY FINALLY dawned Monday January 25th

...she is now officially 3

ONE of her most favorite things to tell people about her birthday is:

"that she gets to share it with Beth's Baby"

(Beth would be her aunt, and the baby is her new boy cousin Azure!)

Baby Azure was due a little over a month before our Binka

BUT because of placenta previa complications he came at 37 weeks on Dacie's Birthday

Cousin PARTAY!

It was an ODD birthday year..so it was a family party year (no friend party)

our theme was ANYTHING:

Barbie

Princess

Pink
I got a good idea from my ol' mission comp (sister Harvey) for the cake, but ran out of time and icing

so the end result was: a "ghetto Barbie cake with a little bit of v-day southwestern flare" ha ha ha

Dacie also got:

GAME TIME with the brothers
EXTRA MOMMY TIME (with a little extra patience in my mind)

THE DECORATIONS

THE PARTY

THE PRESENTS

*The morning after, the presents even look GRANDER (thanks Gma/Gpa Hutch)

and THE CAKE AND ICE CREAM

(The Ghetto cake that is...)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

cha cha cha

SHE is ThREE and is FrEE!

OUR PRINCESS turned 3!

~

And a MUST DO on the list for her birthday agenda was to move everything out of the way, turn on the music AND watch HER dance
...so I pulled out the trusty camera and had a BLAST watching my little lady dance up a storm

Oh! and did she pull out the works...she even recruited a willing prince to "marry her" during the performance.

AND I even wonder why I am NOT thinner?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR SWEET DACIE ANN!!!!

May you always dance as if no one is watching....

Our MARATHON DATE!

So this past Saturday Dan and I used our time "wisely" to go on a marathon date (as those will come farther in between when this binka arrives)

~

The morning started out with a primary activity day and basketball game

Then Grandma Sorensen arrived from PHX to watch the kiddos until late evening when we hired a babysitter so she could get back home at a decent hour.

Dan and I took off at about 12:30pm and drove straight to the temple

It was SOOO BUSY--we had to wait 45 minutes to get into a session

Despite the time line we were crunching-we still absolutely enjoyed our time there

Time holds still and all is well while you are in the temple...

We enjoyed the quiet pondering time before we even started!

Getting out of the temple later then anticipated--we stopped by my sisters house (amberlyn) who has moved abt. 5 minutes from the temple and went and picked up some "goods" from the my folk back home in California!

BUT we had to hurry (no time to eat out)...so we would NOT miss
THE SUNS GAME
Dan's Dad had some tickets he hooked us up with that evening

(I love Steve Nash's pose in this one)
I am not gonna lie...Basketball is my FAVORITE sport to watch

Maybe because I am more invested in it

But tonight was NO EXCEPTION and we were on the 12th row to boot!
Basketball games have a little "nicer" crowd too, since they typically cater to the

"higher income".

I had FUN making up nicknames for some of the players

So I had to play around with my camera's new settings and get pictures of them

The 2 above are:

MONKEY MAN (Lopez)

and VAMPIRE (he has some Danish name...or something like it, I forgot)

Oooh this guy was THE GORILLA (why these players have such excessive facial and HEAD hair is a mystery to me, isn't less more when you are getting so sweaty?)

and this "small" guy above (he only looked small compared to the 7 footers) is JUNO

I kept this picture in because I was trying to get Gorilla and I got Steve Nash in a funny pose on the sideline while he was trying to keep warm- ha ha

VAMPIRE vs. GORILLA

and to make the date even better...Dan caught one of those super cool t-shirts they throw into the crowds!!

Not Gonna Lie...I am a SUNS fan

~

We finally arrived back home 2 hours later at midnight (I had 6 hours of church to go to the next day for ward conferences)...we slept GOOD that night!

Fruits of Art Class

Our school district got a small grant to hold a free after school art class for 1st and 2nd grade for one week

OF COURSE...we capitalized on it for Sterling

FREE..hello!

Their main emphasis was drawing portraits and human bodies all week. They went through all the anatomy..particularly faces.

Each day they had small assignments to complete BUT their final project was to pick two people

and draw them in a portrait together.

My kids have always been huge fans of the only cousins close to their ages.

SO the portrait was no exception for Sterling and he chose his 2 cousins Boston and Kayden (who are brothers, and just moved into their own room together)

Now I am not making any claims towards my children's art talents...I would be clueless in that knowledge. BUT when Sterling brought home his final project at the end of the week, all matted I couldn't help but be touched by his thought he put towards his cousins. They were expecting a new brother, so we thought it might be fun for them to have a gift to go into their newly decorated and moved into bedroom as they have been making room for their other brothers. Now granted, we take a risk by doing this... as my brother is an artist and definitely has a critique'ing eye. BUT Sterling so LOVED the class and was so EXCITED to give it to them..I could not pass up the opportunity.

So we framed the picture and sent it to Utah..but not before we got a few pictures.

Happy Portrait drawing to you!

We LOVE you cool boy cousins Kayden & Boston (of course McCoy and Azure too)