Some Stuff

Life has gotten pretty exciting around here so I thought I'd do a quick update (it's all I've got time for!) Mostly about the kids.

Sarah has developed chunky thighs, and tends to get stuck in her Bumbo seat. She went after baby food with relish for a week, then changed her mind and stopped eating. And she got her first tooth. Today! I can't believe how fast she's growing. She'll be 6 months in a few weeks, so this is the earliest any of my kids got teeth, by far.

Willard has learned to use the potty! I was very nervous about training him but decided to give it a whirl last weekend, and when he asked me to put a diaper on him and THEN peed his pants- we knew he could do it. He did fantastic after just one day with wetting, and after this ONE week, he seems to have the concept of telling mom and putting icky's in the potty too. Wow, I'm a lucky momma.

Harvey got to register for Kindergarten this week! He was so excited. I found it quite funny to hear how he answered questions- 'No I can't write my name- but I can SING it!' His counting is usually funny- 1, 2, 7, 10. And his shapes, oh my. We have some work to do before school starts. I really thought he knew them. But his enthusiasm was unmistakable and I'm glad he's excited. I can't really believe he's 5.

Abby is a Girl Scout and has had a successful run of selling cookies, which are now finally all delivered and money collected, and just plain done with. She's doing well in school, and loves to help me out. We had a new family move in 2 doors down and they have a little boy in first grade. She's so excited to have someone her size to play with, and he comes over almost every day to ask if she can. I'm trying to find a balance with all that I think she should be doing and letting her be a kid.

I'm a Bear Den Leader now, and still haven't figured that out. I feel like I'm kind of sort of starting to get the new swing of things with 4 kids. I teach Harvey's preschool group about once month or so, and try to volunteer in Abby's class on Thursday mornings. The spring bug has bit me hard, but I'm so busy I honestly think I'm going to miss Spring entirely. Jeff has got some exciting things going on at work- which are keeping him even busier too. So if I sometimes look like I've lost my mind- hopefully it's temporary!

Oh me, oh my I haven't blogged in a while...

It's been two and a half months since I blogged! I realized this when I went to upload a picture from the camera to show you- of Abby's new gappy grin. And saw that I took a bunch of pictures at the end of May/beginning of June, and hadn't done a thing with them.

First- our trip to Taylor, AZ. We went to attend a cousins wedding. Which was doubly good as an excuse to show the kids where Daddy grew up, since it was in the same area. We took a few scenic pictures on the way down, then left the camera in the car. If any of my beloved extended family has pictures of my kids, will you email them to me? Thanks. It was a delightful trip, because spending time with my extended family, and meeting a cousin IRL that I'd become friends with online is one definition of Heaven.

Then came the end of school, and with it the Dance Festival. I give you- The Tooty Ta-Ta.

Tonsillectomies. For both Abby and Harvey. That was quite a week, and I was really glad to see it end, thank you very much. At least now it's done. Neither child was sick but they both had HUGE tonsils. It's much harder to see the back of their throats now.

Once the kids had recovered from surgery we were busy with PTA movies, swimming lessons, picnics, library and book mobile visits, and other stuff. So busy we decided to do nothing for the 4th of July- we stayed home and did stuff we needed to do. I did my best not to get discouraged about missing a family reunion that weekend. I succeeded reasonably well. We were going to go camping but were just too behind on everything. Being busy was a good thing- we were tired, but the summer was flying by. Once swimming lessons were done we started in on the boredom, and I slipped into a funk. So I'd been too busy to blog the fun stuff then it got dull, oh well.

On July 1st (I think) Abby lost her first tooth while eating a bread stick at the park. I only know the date by looking at the menu for the lunches they were serving. A week or so later out came the other bottom tooth. Then yesterday, July 31st, a top tooth dropped out. Since then she has been walking around with this grin frozen on her face so she can show EVERYBODY. It is pretty cute. Cute enough that we finally got out the camera to take a picture- I missed the first lost tooth picture, shame on me. She's 3 dollars richer but spent one at the dollar store on a chalkboard. I think the tooth value goes down after number 4.

So I leave you with the Gappy Grin

Facing the Daily Grind

I know my blog is supposed to be about finding simple pleasures. But, lest someone deludes themselves into thinking that anyone can have an ideal life, I'm going to go ahead and vent. I am so sick of the daily routine. Just the morning routine has me ready to pull out my hair. Every morning I make my bed, read my scriptures, get dressed, say my prayers, go downstairs to feed the kids, have them help me clan up breakfast, go back upstairs and help the kids with beds, clothes, hair, shoes, teeth. If I'm lucky, we'll finish by 9:30. 2 hours, this routine usually takes 2 whole flippin' hours. And yesterday, it was a quarter til 10 before we were done with breakfast. After the wind kept me up all night I slept in, then showered, so wow were we late.

It's made all the worst because it wasn't all that long ago that the routine felt like it was going so well, and I was getting on top of things. When I found out I was pregnant, I rejoiced. I am so happy to have another baby. And while I know four kids is going to be challenging, I looked at the 9 months in front of me as an opportunity to improve in my role as wife and mother so that I would be better prepared for having another little one around. And I was doing it too. I had developed a routine that got most of the daily tasks done, I was vacuuming at least once a week, working up to twice for downstairs, I was even planing on stripping the sheets in one bedroom every week and keeping up on clean beds that way! For some people, this may seem laughable, but I have always been the first one to say that I am a BAD housekeeper. It doesn't come naturally to me, some people rejoice in cleaning their houses, and I am not one of them. But I was trying to be. Then I stumbled.

I don't know if I got sick, stressed, tired, busy, or just in a funk. Probably a nice little combination of all of them, but I dropped the ball on my newly forming habits, and now I am having a hard time picking up the pieces. I'm sick of the mess, but catching up is intimidating. Especially when I'm just sick of trying to keep up with stuff like getting ready in the morning. School is out for summer vacation in less than 3 weeks. It would be nice if not having to worry about school would let me set my own schedule. But not having school looming over us is likely to have the opposite effect. I could do much if I would just get up a little earlier, and that was looking easy until Jeff stopped turning on an alarm clock. Yeah, we just have the one, I'll be moving it back to my side of the bed soon. Argh, we, ok I, do better when a routine is in place and getting stuff done just happens. I need to get back to that place. Where's my motivation? What helps motivate you? Really, I'd appreciate it.

Boys Will Be Boys!

Well the month of February has been one to really enjoy my boys. Harvey turned 4 years old on President's Day. And Willie turned 18 months on Valentine's. He hasn't gone to Jr Nursery yet, he's come with me to Sr. Nursery, and been sick. Here's some of what they've been up to:

Harvey getting ready to blow out his birthday candles. What a precious boy he is. He carefully blew out each candle, one at a time.

The rug was a present from my younger brothers and sister, as soon as it was spread out he got his fingers running over the road saying vroom, vroom. Who needs cars? Not Harvey.

Willie is growing so fast, he is always hungry. I need to feed the boy every 2 hours at least, often more. He's rapidly turning into a toddler, but keeping his sweet disposition too.

Harvey was tired. We took Abby to school, he came home and fell asleep without even taking off his jacket. Polly was happy to have someone to lie down by.

What fun these brothers are having. I'm so glad that Willie came along, right now Harvey doesn't fully appreciate it, he's not even sure he likes Willie yet, but I can see the brotherly bond forming. They are going to be great friends.

Harvey wanted to show my Aunt his Super-Harvey Costume, so he put it on for her

Then Willie decided he needed a cape and helmet too. I absolutely adore how Willie looks up to his big brother (sister too). He is really a uniting presence in our house, freely sharing his love with all of us.

Between the two of them I don't think any mother has ever been more loved. They both love to cuddle. Sometimes it is frustrating when great-big-four-year-old-Harvey insists that he not be put down. But mostly it's incredible. This morning Willie wanted to lie on my lap and Harvey hung on my back, alternately sticking his face over each of my shoulders and saying PeekABoo, silly boy. Willie loves to give hugs, and if for any reason I need him to come to me (diaper change being one) I just open my arms wide and say HUUUG!! And he'll come running right into them.

Harvey's imagination is sometimes just downright funny. Currently he has some (imaginary friend??) spiders that are actually having a birthday today. The spiders? They are his hands. They feed him, but sometimes they'd rather play in the food, or feed themselves. With Abby in school half the day, Harvey is sometimes frustrated and bored. He doesn't think that Willie is fun to play with, I'm trying to show him that Willie can play now too. If we get out the wooden blocks, Harvey will build something creative and Willie will stack a tower to knock down. They both love to play with cars and kitchen toys. Whatever Harvey is doing, Willie wants to try too. If I can just teach him to let Willie follow him around, I think we will have great success.

Willie, oh he's growing. He's not a little baby anymore, but a curious toddler. His vocabulary is growing rather inconsistently, but growing. He recently learned the sign for food, and the word. So I hear a lot of Bfoo Peeese. His favorite new term seems to be ME. Which functions well as Mine, Pick Me Up, and more. He is learning to make animal noises, although the only one that is easily recognized is Mooo. Even it comes out Booo. He makes a cute little squeaky noise for a kitten. And can growl and grunt pretty well too. He's also learning to respect boundaries, if I teach him. He really likes to pull all the movies off the shelf, and I was getting aggravated with always putting them back on. Then one day Jeff told him 'No, leave that alone' and he did! Why didn't I think of that? Sometimes I have the most obvious DUH moments as a mom. I forget the simple things, lol. But as long as I remember to love and enjoy my children, I think we'll be ok.

My Darling Husband

I love my husband. Oh. So. Much. Really I do. We often think the same thoughts at the same time, which is fun. His attitudes, insights, and approaches to things have really helped me balance a lot of my crazy. He is absolutely the yin to my yang.

I have always been a lazy procrastinator. My deadly sin of choice is idleness, always has been. Jeff? Has an incredible work ethic. When I met his old employer and long-time friend Norm, he told me the story of Jeff's first day. Norm told Jeff to go get something. Jeff dropped off the ladder, ran to get it, and zipped back up the ladder. Norm just knew that would last for a day, maybe a week. "But," he told me "he's been doing it ever since. " He then proceeded to tell me that Jeff would be an excellent provider. He has been. In fact when he got a call just the other night from an entrepreneur friend he told him straight up that he would not be able to help him build his website. He'd consult but he wasn't going to sacrifice his families security to start chasing a million dollar idea. Since I like the security myself and have no desire to shake things up, I was grinning from ear to ear while listening to his end of the conversation. I'd probably have hemmed and hawed and have had a much harder time saying no. (It always takes me longer to think of the reason why I shouldn't do something)

I have a tendency to worry myself to pieces about how I will ever get something done. Jeff's attitude? Just DO it. It's rubbing off some, and today I got my entire upstairs vacuumed. That has not ever happened before, definitely not all at once. The upstairs hasn't looked this decent since we moved in. That is definitely embarrassing to admit. But it happened because I took it in baby steps, got a little help, and just did it. I'm especially impressed with myself because what would usually feel like a 'big job' to me, that would have to wait until Jeff was home to help, wasn't. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that my kids are getting to the point that they help. I mentioned that I wanted to vacuum the whole upstairs today and Abby picked up her room so I could. Jeff and I had already tackled the very intimidating months and months of clutter in our room, so that was easy. The hardest part was keeping Harvey on task to put away his toys. It would be easier to do it myself. Easier, not smarter. Didn't hurt any that Willie likes the vacuum now and I don't have to hold him the whole time. Back to Jeff

Jeff is very insightful. Over the years he has observed that if I (or Abby, or any Stewart), is having a break down chances are excellent we need dinner and maybe a nap. Yes, food actually makes it better. It's amazing how much brighter the sky seems when one's blood sugar levels are normal. More recently he noted that the women in my immediate family HAVE to be heard. We don't really care if you agree with us or not, just shut up and listen for 2 minutes. This can be problematic when my sister, my mother, and I, all feel the need to be heard at once. It's not that we shout over the top of each other, rather we get terribly upset that we aren't being listened to, and all end up in tears and angry. He thinks we should just take turns, and remember to listen in our turn. Isn't he smart?? Thanks to his insights I feel a lot more prepared to cope with my own crazies. He knows me, he knows me better than I know my own self. My wonderful darling husband. Whatever would I do without him? (That is entirely a rhetorical question because I don't want to think about it, much less answer it!)

Reflections and Looking Forward to 2010

It's a New Year again. A good time to look at our lives and see what we want to change. I've looked back at 2009 some, and I think it was an amazing year. I made progress on many resolutions, both typical and personal. I'm 30 pounds lighter than I was a year ago. I speak more softly more often to my children. I finally gave a Book of Mormon to a friend (I've wanted to do it for 8 years). I have drawn closer to my Savior and am trying to be like Him. Really, I don't have any big changes I'd like to make. Lots of improving in lots of areas, but no huge changes. I do have one Wish for 2010 for myself, but even if that doesn't happen, then I have plenty to do to keep me occupied. This year all I really want to do is grow, improve, strengthen. My home, my family, and myself. For Home I need to better use my time. Less Facebook, less blog following, less dinking around. There are many things I can improve on but I'm going to be focusing on managing my time better. For Family I want to continue to soften my tone, and to cheer up more often too. I scold and worry too much. For Myself- Strength training. My back is hurting me again after missing so much gym time, and it is high time for the Saggy Baggy Elephant Skin to disappear, or at least shrink a little. Do I'd like to become more constructive, more tempered, and stronger. Written down like that it seems a lot harder than it feels inside myself. I'm not going to be tackling all of this with a renewed vengeance this month. Rather these are things I've already been working on, and am just going to keep on working on. There are myriad other little things that I'm working on too, and don't plan on stopping. Life is a work in progress.

Called

Today has given me much opportunity to reflect on what it means to be Called of God. Called to Serve. We had a missionary farewell in church today, the oldest son of a friend and fellow blogger will be entering the Missionary Training Center this Wednesday. We also had a special fast in our ward, for a very recently returned missionary. He has just been diagnosed with bone cancer. The Bishop had forgotten to return his missionary plaque earlier, and so did it today. Two missionaries, two callings. One is just getting ready to go, another has served faithfully for 2 years, and now faces the biggest trial in his life. I know Heavenly Father has a purpose for both of them, and will continue watching over this young man in his great trial, he is not forgotten. In addition to the missionary calls, I am reflecting on the call I've been given. I am the visiting teacher to the mother of the young man with cancer. How can I serve her?? What can I do?? It isn't often that a special need in the ward falls under my personal responsibility. But in this case it does. I've been asked to be one of the people that she can call on, that will step in and help her when needed. This isn't a random assignment, it comes from Heavenly Father. I have been a bit intimidated by being called to serve her already, she has much more experience than I do. Now, it is really time for me to step up, get out of my comfort zone, and stretch my abilities. I know that I will have help from the Spirit when I do. Meanwhile, I'll be praying, and listening. If you have a moment, will you please pray for both of these young men and their mothers??

Ode to October 2009 (so far)

Crisp Fall Air

Beautiful colors

Apple and Pumpkin; Apple and Pumpkin!

Birthday Shopping!!

Size 10 pants?? Yes, really.

Conference and Inspiration

Baby Steps, walking baby.

Hopes, dreams, aspirations, goals

St.George Marathon by 2012

Dissapointments and tears

Baby Elephant at Hogle Zoo

Homemade Costumes

Cousins playing

Full nights sleep

Children playing in the wind

Mother staying busy- but a good busy

Our Cups Runneth Over

Well has it really been just a week since I posted that email because I had nothing to blog about? Ha ha the laughs on me. I considered titling this, 'Biting Off More Than We Can Chew', but decided to stay optimistic about all of our blessings. After a mad mad mad month of not being home on weekends, we had a Saturday at home, oh YEAH! In just one day at home my cup began to fill up, and quickly started running over. Our day started with an easy breakfast and then clearing out our old garden spot, a new spot for a strawberry patch, and measuring off the fence for grapes. We went over to LadyBug Nursery and got 4 grape plants, 6 new strawberry plants, a six pack of Rainbow Peppers, a six pack of grape tomatoes, a 6 pack of pear tomatoes, a 6 pack of sugar snap peas, and a packet of wild flower seeds for Abby. We will start the zucchini from seeds.
My cup is Full. I'm not planting a garden with any aspirations of bottling, no sir. This garden is all about the joy of eating, and being healthy. I'll work up to bottling some day. After arriving home with all of our lovely plants we know we need to hunt down some mulch, at a hopefully better price than the nursery had. So during lunch I called up my good friend Tia and ask where the stuff they put in their garden. Walmart, of course. Willie was worn out so Jeff and Harvey went to Walmart while Abby and I stayed home to clean up and clear out a patch for her flowers, I also started digging the holes for the grapes. Jeff calls and asks if he can get ---- I am not so sure but I don't like to tell my husband NO, I'm not his boss. So I tell him so, I don't really think so but whatever. What does Jeff come home with? Peat moss, soil conditioner, manure, potting soil, stepping stones, landscape edging stones, and a puppy.
Yes a PUPPY. Overflow. Really life is just too perfect in it's way right now. Jeff got the grapes and strawberries planted (oh happiness). Yesterday my sister and new brother in law stopped on their way home from Vegas, we had Jeff's mom over to teach us a little about dog behavior and training. Our garden is shaping up to be beautiful, the kids are thrilled about the puppy, and I'm just grateful for such simple pleasures that God has blessed us with. I'm also really intimidated and overwhelmed. But when I focus on the blessings, it seems like I'll get through it.