IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE!! NO SERIOUSLY

I haven't blogged in awhile, mostly because ALL of my kids have been sick and it's been a little rough to put it lightly. I wasn't going to blog tonight but I was just checking my email and one of my wonderful sister-in-laws sent me a great message that made me think about how much I love my kids. They make me crazy, they are 100% all boy and non stop action and goofy and rough and tumble. They also amaze me. They take care of each other. They look out for each other. They care about others. They are caring and loving and FUNNY and I absolutely love them. There are no words to express just how much I love them and I'm so proud of them. Even Levi when AJ is hurt or upset will stroke AJ's hair, the same way I do, to calm him. AJ, if any baby is crying will take him/her a toy to calm them down. Jake loves to show off his brothers and carry them around and teach them things and play with them. Caleb is often taking them around and playing with them, talking with them. They take time away from their games and what have you. I love my kids!!! I was talking to a friend from High School the other day and he asked me what I was up to. I had no exciting answer just 4 kids and a husband. He hit the nail on the head when he said, you wouldn't trade it for the world would you? He was right, not ever.

Only in our house

So I walk into the kitchen and sitting on my counter is Jake's cup. Now this isn't a drinking cup. This is his cup for his jock strap from football. I could only laugh and shake my head. If I had daughters I'm sure I wouldn't find bras on the kitchen counter. What is it about boys? They are so disgusting but dang it if they aren't funny.

I love Sundays

Well I haven't mentioned that last week during Jake's birthday party our second counselor called and asked if my husband was home... He came over after the party and called us BOTH to be in the middle nursery. Ryan said, "I warned you if you sub'ed for them this would happen. I think he was surprised he got called in with me though. Anyway, our ward has a HUGE primary, there are 2 of many classes and 3 nurseries. We are very blessed. I admit at first I was not as happy about the call as I should have been, I was looking forward to going to relief society. I changed my attitude and I'm enjoying my calling and I'm enjoying having Ryan in there with me. He is great with those kiddos! He knows all of them by name and plays with them and can calm down the criers easily. He is phenomenal. I love him so much and I admire him. I am enjoying watching him with all of these little angels. Today was a great Sunday, although it started out a bit rough. Getting 4 boys ready for 8 am church takes a great degree of organization and preparation. I wasn't as prepared as I usually am simply because of the baptism yesterday. I didn't have time to rewash and iron the boys white shirts so they had to wear short sleeved ones instead. Also I overslept which wouldn't have been an issue except I had to dress more than myself. Thankfully Jake and Caleb are older and immensely helpful. AJ wants so much to be like them that he does his best also. Levi has at least 4 teeth coming in, those are the ones I can see, so needless to say he was crabby but after church we all took naps and that was delightful. The evening, post nap, went happily. Jake made dinner, it's for his Faith In God award. He was so proud and cute with his mac and cheese and peas on the table that he even set. I LOVE MY FAMILY!!! I can't even attempt to count my blessings, my basket is overflowing.

The tooth fairy came to visit

Jake has had these loose teeth right in the front for at least a month. He babied them and wouldn't let me push on them or wiggle them at all. I tried to get him to let me pull them but he wouldn't hear of it. Finally on Tuesday night he was opening a water bottle with his teeth of all things and sent the first one flying accross the room. The second one came out this morning in my bed when he came in to lay with me before our day started. He started wiggling it, now the fear is gone, and out it came. Ya gotta love the toothless grin.

Happy Birthday Jake!!!

I fell asleep with Levi last night, I was REALLY tired, anyway, I meant to post this yesterday but...Jake had a pretty good birthday as far as birthdays go. He had a small party on Saturday for his friends and had fun with that. I made ice cream cone cupcakes, thank you Mel for the instructions, the kids loved them. Today we went to Walmart with his birthday money. He always takes forever doing that because he doesn't rush into any decisions. He has always been like that, never one to jump into anything he always waited until Caleb did it and survived before he did anything. Jake turned 8 this year and started scouts and gets baptized in 2 1/2 weeks. Time sure flies! I remember when I found out I was pregnant. He is so fun and so awesome and funny. I love my Jake, like I always tell him, he's my favorite Jake in the whole world!

Veggies and a dirt bike

AJ wants so badly to be bigger and do all of the things his bigger brothers do. I feel so bad for saying it so often but sometimes the only reason he can't do thing is because he just isn't big enough or old enough yet. He often says, "I ride sheep, I bigger, like brothers." That's almost a daily thing. Another favorite is, "I ride quad" now it's I ride dirtbike I bigger." Tonight we were eating dinner and he hates green beans, no offense but who can blame him? I don't know any kid that likes them, I always hated them. Anyway, we had green beans and mashed potatoes with dinner tonight, he's not real fond of mashed pots either, go figure. Tonight he didn't even put up a fight. He simply said, " I get bigger green beans?" I answered that they would help him get bigger and he ate all of his food in record time. He is so darn cute!!! I love my kids, have I mentioned that before?

SOME GOOD DIRTY FUN

Today I was trying to clean up and get some stuff done so when AJ and Levi went outside to play in the sandbox I was content. That lasted for about 2 minutes until I heard the water come on. I quick ran outside but it was too late, AJ had the hose in the sandbox and was "making mud". I decided that it was too late to stop the damage so I let them play and planned to hose them off when they were done, thankfully it was a warmish day. I did make him put his underwear back on since he being AJ, was naked again and jumping into the mud hole. I remember when I was little, playing in the mud with my brother and it was good fun so who was I to rob them of the fun?

ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE

On Saturday I decided the boys and I should get out so that Ryan could sleep after a long night of work. Besides I knew that he had homework to do and wouldn't be able to get it done with 4 boys running around and climbing on him. They are so excited when he is home and want to tell him everything they have been doing and climb on him and wrestle and he wouldn't be able to get anything done. Anyhow, we went out early. First we went to the Young Women's fund raiser yard sale for girls camp. I got some great bargains and the boys had fun, they love yard sales too. When we left it was still early so I called my BFF Melanie and she was planning a picnic at the park so we decided that sounded fun and thankfully, she didn't mind us tagging along. We had so much fun, they boys played non stop and ate a little. I got to talk to Mel and Lyle and soak up the perfect weather. Before we left we went to feed the chickens and peacocks. We ended up feeding more pigeons than anything else, big surprise there. The boys, mine and Mel's had fun and I'm glad I thought to bring my stale hot dog buns. Levi had a great time chasing the pigeons and if a face could really freeze, his and AJ's would have the biggest smiles ever from that day. Jake and Caleb and I used to do that often but AJ and Levi hadn't done it before, I guess I slacked off. They had so much fun and it was free!!! Definitely won't forget to do that again in the near future. Jake got an assignment from Scouts. He is supposed to write about his favorite place. He picked Saguaro Ranch Park. Isn't that funny, we've been to Greer, Flagstaff, Jerome, The Tetons, Yellowstone and camping countless places not to mention the ocean and Utah, you get the idea. So many far away places and he picks a park that we can do in a day trip. There's a lesson I need to learn. Far away and expensive, no better than close and free!!! Aren't kids great for keeping us humble and teaching us the really important things in life? Have I mentioned I really LOVE MY KIDS!!! By the way, the extra kid in the pic belongs to my BFF Melanie, her middle boy, Jared. He looks like he could be one of mine ehh?

Another day in the life of a blessed mom

Today started out fair, got rough in the middle and then miraculously ended wonderfully. Some days I am so tired that I can't wait for bedtime but that isn't why today ended wonderfully. Today I dragged myself out of bed exhausted again, I haven't really slept in almost 8 years but it's not really that bad. Anyhow I rolled out of bed and got the day started with my favorite boys, all but the oldest. They got off to school and the little ones and I came home to start the rest of my day. I got a little exercising done but Levi and AJ both were clingy and crabby so it was obvious that it was going to be a nonproductive day. AJ told me there was something in his ear. I have an otoscope and so I looked. He was right. It's draining pus from his tubes. I have to take him in to see Dr. B again. Levi's ears looked good, just more teeth coming in. Nothing I did made them happy except holding them. I have come to realize it does no good to fight it or stress about all of the things being left undone while I sit and hold them so I don't. Anyhow about noon my dear visiting teacher came to visit. I had forgotten. I was still in my pj's and my house was a wreck. HOW EMBARASSING!!!! She said "you look different." One of those minutes I wish I could freeze time and clean up quickly. At least my teeth were brushed. That's pretty well how my afternoon went. But later she called me and said she remembered what it was like to have sick kids and she was bringing me dinner and already had it in the oven. She is so wonderful and it was so nice to be able to take care of the kids instead of worrying about what to fix for dinner. Jake and Caleb are great helpers too and took the babies to play so that I could sew the patches on Jake's scout shirt for scouts tonight. I took Jake to scouts and the babies fell asleep on the way home so when I got home Caleb and I had some one on one time. We don't get that very often and I'm so glad we did tonight. We played basketball and 2 square. We laughed and just enjoyed each other. I actually felt like a good mom. The babies woke up of course and didn't want to go to bed on time, imagine that. I don't care, it was worth it. I love my kids so much and I have so much fun with them. I am so grateful for them and the lessons they teach me. Sometimes I have to remind myself of a favorite quote, "cleaning the house while children are growing is like shoveling the walk while it's still snowing." Phyllis Diller. I can't expect it to stay clean for more than a few minutes.

THE CARDINALS ROCK!!!

I know the Cards lost the Super Bowl but come on... no one expected them to even make it let alone make it a good game and I think it was the best Super Bowl I have ever watched. It was a heart breaker but they are awesome and I'm still proud of them. It was fun to see the whole city come together to support them. My favorite was the free Chipotle on Saturday for wearing Cardinals Red!! It was soooo good! I think it's awesome that so many fans still support them and so many showed up to welcome them home on Monday. I wish we could have but 4 kids in the airport is close to my worst nightmare. Still, The Cards Rock!!!

What a life!

I have a great life!!! It's not perfect but what is? I have an awesome husband, a fab family, great friends and more blessings than I could name. Ryan is frickin' awesome. He works so hard to take care of us and he never quits. He is back in school again and pushing himself so hard that I get upset with him and wish he would slow down and take less classes. He won't and I finally can see it from his perspective so I am more understanding. He just wants to get it done so he can make more money and be home more and work less. Sounds like a no brainer but it wasn't for me. A few weeks ago we had ward conference. Both speakers spoke on keeping the sabbath holy. One thing mentioned and was that if you need to work on Sunday the Lord understands but if you don't... Another was a hint about not watching sports on TV on the Sabbath and how it drives the spirit away. I thought it was funny that every wife in the congregation looked at her husband. To me it was simple to obey but I certainly wasn't going to force Ryan or argue about it. We left the church that day and Ryan said he was going to miss the game that day, it was the NFC championship game, the Cardinals won!!! I was so proud of him. He never wavered even though we all wanted to watch the game. We also wanted to watch the Super Bowl but we knew it wasn't as important as keeping the commandment to honor the Sabbath. I recorded it and we watched it first thing this morning. Everytime someone called Ryan answered with, "don't talk about the game, we haven't seen it yet." We took the boys out of school early today so we could watch it and have our own superbowl party complete with pizza, chips and dips and brats and soda and cupcakes. WHAT A GAME!!!! But that's another post altogether. Anyway, Ryan is always trying to be the best he can be. He is never satisfied with a half effort from himself or anyone else and is constantly pushing and helping others to be their best. He is also so generous. I have to admit, sometimes I worry that he is too generous especially when we are barely making our bills but somehow, me do make them and we are better people for sharing our blessings. He sets such a good example for our sons and they love him so much. They are so wonderful too. They make me laugh and we have so much fun. I don't know if the constant activity of having 4 sons is keeping me young or wearing me out and making me old sooner but it's still fun and I wouldn't trade it for all the money or time or sleep in the world. Like I said WHAT A LIFE!!! I love it and I'm grateful for everyday I get to live it and share it with the people I love.