Fashionista

My sweet baby boy kept bringing me articles of clothing to help him get on. This is the outfit he came up with: Baseball t-shirt, black belt, black undies, black and tan socks, blue spiderman sandals. Very stylish, son! ( somehow we always miss the pants at our house )

Happy Thanksgiving

Saturday night was BECU night at Costco where they offered free pictures with Santa. I dressed the kids in their matching sweaters (even Halea) and prepared by taking some practice pictures of all four kids on our couch ~ that didn't turn out very well. No big surprise there.

We packed the kids in the van and drove to Costco. Parker got in a bad mood in the van and since he's a little grudge holder, he was still in a bad mood as we headed in to Costco. He maintained the bad mood as we got in line for pictures. He was angry and howling about who know's what. Ryan decided to take all three boys for a walk while I waited in line. He came back twenty minutes later ~ and I may have moved five feet. He took the boys away again. In the next ten minutes, the line moved at lightening speed. I found myself at the front of the line with my beautiful little girl who was wearing a boy sweater and NO ONE to match her. She got santa pictures by herself.

I was irritated at first. Irritated that there are so many cheap people who want free santa pictures. Irritated that my four year old has the impeccable timing he does, and decides to get in one of "his moods" at the worst times. Irritated that my sweet, supportive, dad-of-the-year husband didn't come back to check on me. Irritated that my phone drown in my purse that morning when my water bottle dumped so I couldn't call my sweetheart and tell him to come back. And irritated that my baby girl had to wear a boy sweater for solo santa pictures ~I would have dressed her in something pink and frilly if I had know she would have been alone.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, and as my irritation has subsided I realized how grateful I am that Costco does this each year and I can't blame anyone for taking advantage of it the way we try to. I'm also grateful for Parker's strong spirit, even if it gets in the way of my plans sometimes. Blessed that I have my husband and best friend wrapped in to one amazing person that I get to share my life with. Still looking for the silver lining of my phone dying, but I'm sure I'll find it. And I feel blessed to have a beautiful daughter who can look adorable in whatever she's wearing. I do recognize that I have an awesome life and I'm grateful for it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gobble Gobble!

I like to think of things from the turkey's perspective. I don't think the turkey likes Thanksgiving as much as we all do. Poor turkey.

Bryce very much enjoys helping prepare the turkey ~ complete with putting his hand where the turkey's bottom hole was and pulling out all the groddies from inside. Again, poor turkey.

I've made a huge mistake...

I took all three little ones to Costco this morning. We have been using knock off brand diapers and it was either buy another pack of leaky diapers or brave the trip to Costco to get our normal Huggies. While we were there, I noticed that they had all the Christmas stuff out, including the toys. In the past I've waited until after Thanksgiving to buy my kid's Christmas presents and they are totally sold out at Costco by that time. So I bought most of the kids presents today ~ while they were watching. Apollo didn't realize what was going on, but Parker totally did. He fell asleep in the car, so I was hoping maybe he would think he had a great dream where mom bought the whole toy isle at Costco ~ but no such luck. Since he woke up he's been asking where all the toys are, and he knows what each of them are specifically. I hope he doesn't blow it by telling Bryce what he's getting. Crap.

On the road to healing

Apollo is the happiest when he's surrounded by stuffed animals. He brings them to me throughout the day so I can squeeze them while rubbing my face on them and saying "cozy". In these photos he managed to stack all the pillows and gather a few of his favorite stuffed animal friends "Elephant" and "Puppy" ~ as he has named them. The good news is that he and all of his siblings are getting better. Ryan is better, too. It's been tough, but I think it was a blessing. It made me slow down and spend time at home focusing on what really matters.

Moving Day

Yesterday was moving day for Halea ~ and Bryce. I've had a hard time sleeping with Halea in our room and I finally had enough. Having all the kids being sick, sleep has been harder to come by with my children playing musical beds. SO ~ we moved Bryce's bed into Parker and Apollo's room, but left his dresser and other "stuff" in his old room, and moved Halea into Bryce's old room. The boys are thrilled to all be together and Halea isn't seeming to mind her new room. It's a win~ win for everyone (especially me).

Life is still hard right now....

I was so looking forward to teaching my class this morning. I've gone a week without good sleep and I've been dealing with our family's illnesses ~ my class is an instant mood elevator and a break from my "right now crappy life" (because it's not always crappy, just right now). I went out to warm up the van and it wouldn't start. Instead all the lights, door locks, hazard lights, radio, turned on, so I don't think it's a low battery. I had to call and cancel my class. I'm feeling very wo is me "ish" right now. I know this is a time when I should reflect upon how blessed I am, but I'm just feeling so down. I need a good night's sleep.

Lil' Update

So I had a glorious morning with just Apollo and Halea. I cleaned and read books to them. It was wonderful. Than I got the call from Bryce's school that he had a temp of 100.3 ~ and that I needed to come get him. The attitude I got from the office ladies!!! Don't judge me! Bryce told them the whole story of his temp being 99.9 this morning, so I guess I deserved it. His temp is 98.7 right now. Maybe I should take him back to school.

Life is hard right now....

Life is hard for me right now. Three of my kids are sick, and last night Ryan came down with whatever they have. It's not swine flu, but I almost think that's worse because they have to suffer through without antiviral meds like tamiflu.

Bryce is driving me nuts! He's sick and whiney, but sassy at the same time. It's like he's torn between two worlds ~ being a baby and being a man ~ but he's sick and whiney, too. He's returning to school today. The school nurse said he needs to have a temp below 100 for 24 hours before he can return to school ~ his temp is 99.9 right now, so he's returning to school. If I get a call later today to pick him up, I'm ok with that.

Apollo is so needy when he's sick, but that's so out of the norm for him that I'm enjoying it. It's hard to balance meeting his needs with Halea's because she's extra needy right now with her first ear infection. Apollo dumped all of her antibiotics onto the carpet yesterday.

Parker is my low maintenance child right now ~ what a blessing! I know this time will pass, but it really sucks right now.

Update

If you read my haunted house post, you know that I have a hard time with getting old ~ and usually I try to laugh my way through things that make me uncomfortable. I figured that I could do my comedy bit today during my class. However, the senior's class instructor did not show up today and there was a sea of elderly people greeting me this morning wanting to take my class. I think Heavenly Father is trying to get me to face the reality that I will get old, but I can choose whether or not to take care of myself and determine how I live out my elderly years. There was a super cute old lady in class today. She couldn't do the exercises with high weight or do full range of motion, but she tried, and she smiled through the whole class. That's the kind of old lady I want to be.

Parker Too

When we were trick-or-treating we went to a house where there lived a little dog named Parker. We explained to our Parker that the little dog's name is Parker, too. Ever since we left that house, Parker has been talking about Parker too. How much he wants Parker too to live with us. He thinks the dog's name is Parker too, just like we told him it was.