Malia's crazy birth and a bad game of Scrabble

   No one listens to me. It is a talent that I have always had. I can be standing talking face to face with someone and they will turn and walk away while I am talking and they don't even realize it.  When I go to get my hair done I say brown and I get red. This same pattern seems to follow me to the hospital.
   When Grant was born I reminded my doctor that I have super fast births. He nodded and assured me he wouldn't be born for hours. It was less than two. He seemed surprised but I wasn't.  With Malia I had a new doctor and I told him how fast they have all been. He scheduled to induce me and I was happy he listened.
   March 12 we went into the hospital. At 8:00 the doctor broke my water and started a small amount of pitocin. He told us it would be sometime in the afternoon before she would be born. I was skeptical but he was sure I wasn't ready to go anytime soon so he and the anesthesiologist were off to do a c-section. The nurse said not to worry because he is fast at c-sections and he would be back in plenty of time.
   Some time later the anesthesiologist came in and gave me an epidural. I told him I was too slow getting my epidural last time and then it didn't work so he made sure it worked. And it did. Really well. I was impressed. It is so nice to go from pain to nothing.
   Tom and I started playing Scrabble on my phone. It was a horrible game. I was losing by a ton. I had to pause occasionally because my hip started hurting but I mostly ignored it. At about 10:33 I handed Tom the phone for his turn. I thought I felt something touch my leg. I moved the blanket and there was Malia's head. I panicked and possibly screamed, I don't really remember. Tom jumped up and ran into the hall. I don't know what he said but before he came back Malia was out on the bed. She started screaming, which comforted me, and then suddenly the room was full of people. There was the anesthesiologist, his student, tons of nurses, and possibly a janitor. The anesthesiologist took control until the doctor came a minute later. He had been called over to deliver the baby next door.
   The nurse felt bad because she hadn't been paying enough attention. She said next time they would listen. Aside from scaring me near to death it was actually the easiest birth ever. I actually really liked the hospital and everyone there. They were all really nice even if they didn't give us a discount for Malia delivering herself. She is a beautiful little thing and we are happy and blessed to have her. Tom said it was a really dramatic way for me to get out of a bad game of Scrabble.

Project garden

Have you ever read the Madeline books? In Madeline and the Bad Hat Miss Clavel says that the boy next door needs an outlet for his energy and so she buys him a chest of tools.  The boy goes straight to work and builds a guillotine and chops off all of the chickens heads. This doesn't seem surprising because every time I try to find an outlet for my kids something messy or annoying happens. It is summer and that means everyone is bored. We have no lawn, no swing set, and a broken double stroller. . I couldn't come up with any ideas and so Tom decided we should let the kids plant a garden. Since it was Tom's idea and not mine everyone cooperated. 

 Xander was the most enthused. He dug a huge hole that was way to big to plant anything in.

 Xander planted the corn. It is a little late in the year to be starting this but the internet told us it was okay. The internet knows everything.

 Brevan wanted to plant pickles. He settled for cucumbers.

 Grant was happy to have a plastic shovel and play in the dirt. He also sucked on some rocks.

Isabelle planted the carrots. This was all about two weeks ago. I would post a picture of what it looks like now but I would rather you imagine that everything is growing nicely. There is some corn and one cucumber poking out of the ground. It is a good thing we are not farmers relying on our crop. The important thing is happy kids that are tired and ready for bed when night comes along.

Frozen, Crunchy Goodness

When my kids woke up this morning they were very excited to see a little sprinkle of snow on the grass. Everyone went looking for boots. Of course being the Mom I had to ruin all of the fun by reminding them that it is a school day and we need to get ready to take Xander to kindergarten. After driving to the school, back home to retrieve the forgotten backpack, and back to school again, I decided to let them go play in the backyard. I do not like the cold but being a parent means sacrificing your own comfort sometimes. (Isabelle just wet on the back of my pants as I wrote this to remind me that this is true.) Grant was napping peacefully so we needed to move fast. Isabelle couldn't remember snow. I imagined them running out there picking up the little bits of snow and trying to make a snowman, which probably would not be possible with what was out there. Brevan ran right out and started feeding the bunny and chicken frozen grapes. 

 Both Isabelle and Brevan ignored the snow completely and started crunching down on the frozen grapes. The vines were up higher this year because the bunny had eaten them back before he was confined to his cage for unruly behavior. We have some hideous cement blocks that we can't seem to get rid of. We even tried hitting them with a sledge hammer. They are here to stay. We are deeding them to the next people who buy our house. Isabelle thought climbing up on top of one would be the best way to reach the grapes. I didn't think this was such a great idea because the fence is old with nails and slivers poking out all over the place.

 It wasn't hard to get them back in the house. I just gave them both a handful of grapes and they came happily in.  Isabelle is still ignorant to the joys of snow.  I am happy. I don't even have to clean up a wet mess. All I have to clean up is two happy, stained, purple faces.

ABE's

My kids are a little obsessed with letters. By a little I mean a lot. Isabelle could sing the ABC's when she was   just 19 months because Xander and Brevan were always singing it. When Brevan was that age he would sit in the cart at the store and sing, "Apple, apple, a a a."    I really don't know where they get it.  The other day Xander decided they needed to make the alphabet with their bodies. 

 "A" was pretty easy because it was first. Isabelle was laughing too much to go straight. They were all very happy with themselves.

 "B" gave us some trouble as you can see. Brevan couldn't seem to keep his top leg in place and Isabelle thought Xander was trying to tickle her. C and D were fine. Nothing too exciting.

"E" is where we lost any cooperation from Belle. Oh! And look. We had a baby since our last post and it is a good thing. If we hadn't we never could have managed E.  Grant was very helpful. He stays where he is placed and doesn't complain. That makes Xander very happy since he is the self appointed boss.

The Potty Train

Brevan has not been a fun kid to potty train. We decided he needed a bribe. He saw this bouncy Thomas and he really wanted it. It was $20 so we thought that was reasonable. We told him that he could have it as soon as he was potty trained. As soon a we thought he was at a good place we looked online and the thing had gone up to $39! We couldn't back out and so we bought it.

It came in the mail and oh my. I don't know why it is called a bouncy Thomas. It is nothing more than a blow up toy. It only bounces if the kid can hold on to it and jump at the same time. Lame. It was seriously worth $2. Maybe. Brevan "bounced" on it for while.
Isabelle was much more impressed. She spent more time on it than Brevan did.
Everyone had a lot more fun with the box that it came in. Three days later the thing was popped beyond repair. I made sure I went and wrote a nasty review on Amazon. Tom threw the thing away when no one was looking. I don't think anyone cared much. Next time I am going to think harder before I bribe anyone!

Outlets

"Said Miss Clevel it seems to me, he needs an outlet for his energy. A chest of tools might be attractive, for a little boy who is very active."

-Ludwig Bemelmans

My kids are always in need of a way to get out their energy. They all have different ways that I find work the best for them.

I haven't found Isabelle's yet. When she is upset or doesn't want to cooperate she throws a tantrum and falls on the floor. She doesn't care how hard the floor is or what is going on around her. In this picture she is at the airport protesting the unfairness of not being able to run where she wants. I need a trick to dealing with her but so far I am losing. She was so mellow until she learned to walk a few months ago that this all came as a surprise.
When Xander and Brevan are cooped up for too long things are not pretty. Recently they got some chalk from their Oma for memorizing the first two Articles of Faith. It was really too cold outside for this, but after 15 minutes they were tired and cold and happy.

When Xander starts to get grumpy he needs to work. If he is given some odd job to do he works hard and has a great time. This is him sanding the walls in the new room. He did such a great job there wasn't any putty left in some places and it had to be redone. It started out as a punishment but he thought it was the best thing since Riding the Front Runner to Ogden.
One day everyone was fighting so I gave them all clorox wipes and had them scrub things. I thought they would be upset but they thought it was fun. It did stop the fighting though and I guess that was the point. They were all happy and playing together afterwards. Isabelle even helped. Another time I had them scrub parts of the floor. I think I might have discovered something wonderful. Less work for me and happy kids!

I scream, you scream!

Ice cream is one of those things that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love to eat it, and I hate to clean it off of kids. My kids all go through a head-napkin stage where they think that their head is a napkin. They get their hands as messy as possible and smear it all over in their hair. Sometimes I think it is done deliberately to try and get a bath. The worst is noodles, especially in red sauce, followed by ice cream. Luckily the boys are out of the hair-napkin stage and Isabelle only does it occasionally now. That doesn't mean that they always find their mouth though.

I understand that eating ice cream can make a mess around a person's mouth, but on their forehead? Xander is very talented.
When you want a cone and don't believe in actually eating the cone it takes a lot of skill to get every last bit of ice cream out with your tongue. Brevan has mastered it. There is no way to have a clean face if this is your method.
With babies we usually give them an empty cone and avoid the mess all together. It usually takes them quit some time to realize that they are being completely ripped off. This is the day Isabelle made that discovery and so we reluctantly gave her some ice cream. Some messes are worth a smile like that.

Packing peanut fun

I got a package in the mail the other say. It was HUGE! Once it was open it was mostly packing peanuts. The kids had a great time throwing them around and making a huge mess. We cleaned it up but we didn't throw them away. Today they wanted to play in them again. I wasn't in the mood to clean that up again so I had a great idea! We could make pictures out of the messy little things. I got out some paper and had all of the kids sit down. I quickly glued on a Christmas tree. Xander said that it didn't look like a Christmas tree, it looked like a crazy thing.

Ah, well, I have never been artistic. I got over it. The kids then set about putting my art to shame.

This all took a lot more work than I had anticipated. An art project with two two year olds and a four year old would have been hard enough. It was the two one year olds that made it more interesting with their interest in the project. That picture is at the top. I am not very good at technology and I can't make the picture go where I want it. Anyhow, the kids showed me up with their pictures. It took a long time and a lot of glue but I think they are all happy. Next we made a Christmas chain. It was pink and green because that was what we had. I thought everyone would be impressed. No. Xander could make a better one by himself. So he did.

His is better because it only has one pink link. I'm not sure how one even got on there.

It is also better because it only has 9 links so Christmas will come faster. I was impressed that he did it all by himself. He even used the scissors for the first time, at least the first time he was allowed to. It wasn't easy being left handed, but he managed. When everyone was finished they needed pictures. Xander loves to take pictures so he wanted to take one of me. I held my picture and got sparkle glue all over my pants. It's okay though because I have another pair that fits. Now that we have Christmas out of the way we can do a Thanksgiving craft. We celebrate holidays in whatever order makes us happy at our house.

Brotherly Love

When we left my Mom's house the other day Brevan wanted to prove that he is indeed a two year old. He screamed at the top of his lungs, "I want to go to Grandma's house!" He kept screaming that until we got on the freeway. After that he just screamed a high pitch, earsplitting scream. I kept telling him to stop but that only made him kick my chair. Isabelle started to cry and I thought my head might burst. For the first time ever I pulled the, "Do you want me to stop the car and make you walk home?" Well, it seems that is exactly what he wanted. Now the screaming was "Stop the car and I walk!"

Sometimes I am a calm person. I tried but failed. At the exit we stopped for the light and I turned to him and said, "Fine get out!" he said, "Okay." He tried to get out. Then I told him, "Don't you unbuckle that seat belt!" Well, suddenly a loud sobbing came from the back seat. Xander was very upset and cried, "Brevan is little and he doesn't know how to get home. There are lots of cars and I would miss him!" I told him I would never make Brevan walk and then I started to cry.

Lots of crying went on for the rest of the ride. Crying and still the screams of, "Let me walk!" When we got home home I gave Xander a hug and he cried more and said, "I love Brevan and I would miss him! Don't you ever say that to anyone again." I told him I wouldn't and then I kept randomly crying the rest of the day. Why was I crying? Three reasons.

1. I scared Xander and I felt bad.

2. I'm pregnant

3. MY KIDS LOVE EACH OTHER!

Ladybug birthday bash

This year we decided to have a cousin birthday party. Rylee, Ellie, and Isabelle were all born with in a couple of weeks of each other so we thought it would be fun...

Well, maybe the fun will come next year. Happy birthday babies!

The horrible thing in the kitchen

When we first moved into our house there were millions of things that needed to be changed or replaced. Millions is probably an exaggeration, but not by much. There were two things that stood out to me as the most horrible and I thought they should be first on the list of things to go. The first were the huge ugly trees growing out of the middle of the wall and over the roof, and the second was the hideously ugly oven. When I started to use the oven it became more apparent that the monstrosity had to go. If a cake said to bake for 35 minutes, in this oven it was burned on the bottom in 15. Even if it wasn't defective the thing is so ugly!

Fast forward to four years later and our house looks completely different. We redid most of the inside and outside, spending countless hours and money on home repairs. Oddly enough the only things managing to survive our renovation were the grotesque trees and the oven!

Our siding started bulging this year and so we had Sears fix it. It was crazy expensive but didn't come without benefits. They gave us a gift card and so we finally were able to get rid of the avocado nightmare and replace it with this.
Not only does it cook according to the instructions on recipes, it also has a clear window and a light!
Now we can have evenly cooked food and entertainment too! Who doesn't want to sit in front of their oven and watch their food cook? Now we can get rid of the television!
It also came in a way awesome box so now when our eyes get tired from sitting in front of the oven we have a fort to play in. This has just been a winning experience for the entire family.
Maybe someday the trees will go as well...

The mystery of the missing braid

I found Isabelle's doll and it was missing a braid. I asked Xander and Brevan if the knew what happened to it. Xander got upset and said "We need to solve a mystery! The doll is the first clue!" We spent the next hour trying to solve the "mystery".

Clue #1

Clue #2

Xander quickly found a squashed spider on the wall and ran to get his para scope. He seemed to think the dead spider was in some way related to the doll's braid. "This is clue #2!" In reality the spider was ran over by a small Lightning McQueen with a little help from me. The third clue was that the left button on the mouse wasn't working.

We finally found the braid in the toy box. Xander said that this was a super big problem. Xander came up with a theory.

A monster that doesn't like to bug people must have come in and chewed it off.

I myself think it was a case of jealousy.

4th of July morning

Ants are fascinating things.

Beautiful Anna

Erin, Xander, and Jim

Brevan

West Point parade