Don't let the smile fool you

We have a ritual at our house on Sunday afternoons.

We call it our sacred Sunday nap.

The youngest ones usually don't even make it home from church before they are off to dreamland.

This ritual comes with some rules though.

1. If the babies wake up before Mom & Dad, the older kids are to take care of the babies.

2. Don't let Mom & Dad sleep past 5:00.

3. Keep the noise down because if you wake up the babies..... refer to #1.

One Sunday when I got up, the older kids didn't know where Hannah was. The light was on in

the pantry but the door was shut.

When I opened the door this is what I found......

Hannah had found a bag of powdered sugar and decided to help

herself.

She had the stuff everywhere.

Hannah has this really mischievious streak in her.

She's gotten into my purse and found my makeup bag and been

caught red-handed with mascara on her face.

She unwinds the toilet paper off the roll if the bathroom door isn't kept shut.

She puts her hand on Spencer's carseat in the car just to hear him squeal and scream.

She will hit or scratch Spencer and then smile about it. But if Spencer happens to retaliate...

she's the first one to cry.

She's probably the most mischievious child I've had. I wonder what she'll find to do next?

What kept me busy all summer

This year I took on the job of swim team manager for our neighborhood swim team. I spent literally hours at the pool.

Too bad the only good tan I got this summer was a flip-flop tan on my feet.

One funny story.....

On the first day of practice I went down to the pool to help set up lane ropes and make sure that everything was ready for the first day. Our meet manager was also there to help. We decided to get the lane ropes in the water. We rolled out the big spool that holds the ropes.

We got the first and second lanes in without any incident.

The meet manager headed down to the far end of the pool with the last lane rope. She didn't hear me when I yelled to stop (too much noise from the swimmers), since the last lane rope was attached to the spool and needed to be unclipped so the whole big thing didn't end up in the water.

It didn't end up in the water.

I did.

Fully clothed.

When she didn't stop and kept pulling, the spool shifted and pushed me into the pool.

It was a great way to start the season.

All four of the oldest swam again this year. I realize there isn't a picture of Janelle. She has a great talent for evading the camera. She would rather be behind it.

Russell turned 8

A week ago our Russell turned 8!!

This was his year to have a friends party and after some thought he decided he wanted an Indiana Jones party.

So I started to surf the web for some ideas.

I found out how to make "treasure rocks", Indiana Jones pouches, and what to hide in a pile of sand for an archeological dig.

I put Todd in charge of an Indiana type obstacle course. He does much better thinking outside the box than I do and he turned out a winner for the 12 boys at the party.

We gave each boy a Holy Grail journal with an alphabet code and some messages to decode. There was also some Indy trivia to answer while they waited for everyone.

Todd's obstacle course included swinging water tubes (the swinging swords from "The Last Crusade"), a swing over a snake pit, a pass over a bridge of faith ("Last Crusade"), natives armed with ammunition in the form of small plastic balls ("Temple of Doom"), and a dig for treasure in a huge pile of sand.




















The boys decoded a secret message to find The Lost Ark with it's hidden treasure and had punch in coconut cups with lunch with funny names.

It was great that Russell got to have his party on his actual birthday. I don't think that has ever happened in our history of parties.

He is such a sweet boy. I can't believe that he is now 8.

He will be getting baptized in a week. We are expecting his grandparents this week and look forward to spending some time with all of them.

Besides all the gifts from friends, a new DS game, and scriptures with a scripture bag (from Mom & Dad) Russell got his summer buzz cut for his birthday.

Don't you think he looks handsome?


Some things that make Russell who he is:

*his laugh. No matter what I'm doing, if I hear Russell laugh it makes me smile (I'm smiling just thinking about it)

*his love of video games. Right now he's all into his Nintendo DS that he purchased with his own money.

*his love for music. He plays the piano and actually is enjoying it now. He also loves to sing. His favorite church song is " I Believe in Christ"

*his drive. Russell played baseball this spring and is now on the neighborhood swim team. He loves to improve himself.

*his smile. Russell has a deep set of dimples and when he smiles, he lights up the room.

*his sweetness. He always makes sure he gives me a kiss after family prayer (he also makes sure he gets one in return.)

It makes me a little sad to think my boy is growing up but I can't wait to see what he becomes.

When Russell was younger he loved to have me sing "Puff the Magic Dragon" to him at bedtime. The phrase "Dragons live forever, but not so little boys. Painted wings and giant things make way for other toys" always choked me up when I sang it to him.

It does even now as I think of how Russell's growing up and moving on to "other things". That song will always hold a special place in my heart and I will always associate it with my Russell.

Happy (late) Birthday sweetheart!!

Previous Post

Sorry about the layout of the Memorial Day post.

I could not get it right for some reason.

Hope you can still read it.

Memorial Day Campout

Before we moved to Tennessee we would make at least one pilgrimage to the great outdoors every year.

Since we moved to Tennessee we have yet to spend a single night together as a family with Mother Nature. The oldest girls have gone to church camp. I've gone to church camp as a leader, and Todd's taken Russell & Christian on the Fathers and Sons campout every year but we've never gone as a family.

So for Memorial Day when our neighbors invited us to join them for a weekend camping trip, we accepted.

Here is where the fun begins.

When we would go on our previous camping trips, we only had 2-4 children. Now we have 7! Add Todd & I into the picture and we had to figure out where to put bedding, bags, food, chairs, and other miscellaneous camping stuff for 9 people to get it to our camp site in North Carolina.

This was not an easy task.

We ended up borrowing a travel topper for our car from some other friends. That was after we had tried to purchase one from Amazon but because it was so big, they couldn't get it to us in time for the weekend trip. So we put all the bedding and the 2 tents (oh, minus the pillows-everyone had to hold their pillows for the 2 and a half hour drive.)into the borrowed travel topper. We stuffed the back of our vehicle to the point that we couldn't have seen out the back of it had we wanted to. And we still had to send a card table and our camp chairs with our friends in their trailer.

Now you are probably thinking, "Why didn't they send more things with the neighbors if they had a trailer." The answer to that would be because they had planned to stay until Monday and we were coming home Sunday afternoon.

Upon arrival we found out that the 2 campsites that had appeared to be side by side on the website were in fact separated by another campsite and the public restrooms. (Yeah for flushable toilets!!) We also discovered that we were only allowed to set up our tents on the gravel. We had a 7 man and a 3 man tent to try and squeeze into that spot since it also had to be parking for our suburban, the firepit, as well as the dining area.

We made it work.

On Saturday, we packed everyone into the cars and drove to this place called "sliding rock". It's a place on the river that is like a waterfall but it falls down over the rocks and creates a waterslide of sorts. The pool at the bottom in some places is 8 feet deep. So people come to slide down the rocks.

The water is FREEZING!! (Not that I know that from experience. I opted to be the keeper of the little kids.)

Todd told the big kids that if they went down he would give them each a quarter.

He still has to pay up.

But the surprise of the day was when Spencer announced that he wanted to "go down with Dad". We put a lifepreserver

suit on him and Todd took him to the top of the rocks. He put Spencer's feet in the water before the top so he could see how cold it was but Spencer still wanted to go down. What a daredevil we have in that boy. He did it and not once did he cry or whine. Even when they got to the bottom and he got wet.

I woke up around 4:30 Sunday morning to the sound of rain. By 6:00 it was really coming down and we had our whole family in our 7 man tent by 8:00. That's where our friend, Ms. Rachel, found us when she came with rain ponchos for everyone and to tell us that breakfast was almost ready at their "place".

We broke camp in the rain and we all ended up leaving late Sunday morning as it was suppose to rain all day that day.

It's not very fun to camp in the rain.

We found out on this trip that we forgot a lot of things about camping and so we made a list of things to purchase for our next trip and things to not forget. We also found that Spencer likes to roast the marshmallows for S'mores but he doesn't like to eat them. The kids love to play games. Chess was a favorite on this trip. Afternoon naps are still a good thing and even if it does take a little bit longer than normal to make the food, for some reason it always tastes good.

My Mother's Day

So maybe if I get my Mother's Day post in before the end of the month does that still count??

I realize that it's past Mother's Day and I'm just now writing my post about it. I've put some thought into this and what I wanted to write.

Here's what I came up with....

"The Ways my Children Show Me They Love Me"

Janelle: She folded 2 loads of laundry, made sure the house was picked up, and had the dishwasher running one night while Todd and I were out late. I was so surprised it literally took my breathe away.

Rachel: By sharing her musical talent. She loves to sing, play the piano and occasionally will practice the violin where I can hear it.

Julie: She takes the younger kids outside and plays with them after she gets home from school so that I can start on dinner, clean up the house, or just relax for a bit.

Russell: His love/hate relationship with reading. He'll sit down and read if he's asked to but he doesn't like to do it without being reminded. He surprised me when I showed up at his class's Mother's Day program. The class was reciting a poem about the school year when I got there. Russell and a girl from his class later took turns narrating the book "I'll Love You, Forever". There is one part toward the end when the mother calls her son to come and see her because she's getting old and she starts to sing the song to him that she's sung to him his whole life. "I'll love you for always, I'll love you forever". Russell did a solo here and finished the story. He loved reading that day. What a sweet young man I have!

Christian: He plays my favorite game (Ticket to Ride) with me while the babies take a nap. Out of the 2 games a day we play, he beats me at 1 out of those 2 games. He's such a smarty-pants. The game says for ages 8 and up and he figured out how to play it.

Hannah: Her request for kisses and hugs before I leave the house. She also likes to hand me clean clothes out of the laundry basket to fold. Sometimes faster than I can fold.

Spencer: He shared his favorite snuggly blanket with me. One day I was taking a nap after the kids got home from school. One of those, I have a headache and just need to lie down for a few minutes nap. Spencer came to find me shortly into my nap. When I asked him what he was doing, he asked me if I was going "nigh-nigh" and then handed me his favorite blanket to sleep with. Breaks your heart doesn't it?

My Mother's Day wasn't filled with gifts and goodies.
It was filled with LOVE.

When "no" means "yes"

Question: When does "no" really mean "yes"? Or vice versa??

Spencer was the first one to use the words "yes" and "no". In fact, I think he used "yes" before he used "no". He would nod his head when in agreement. It was the cutest thing.

Then one day he suddenly stopped nodding and everything became "no". We then had to determine if he really meant "no" or if he meant "yes" by the way he said it or if he smiled when he said it.

Hannah on the other hand started with "no". And not just any "no". There were times when she was pretty forceful when using that word. And if she didn't say "no" when asked something that was her way of saying "yes".

But now Hannah & Spencer are getting to the point where they are communicating with their words (a lot of words). Sometimes they even come out in full sentences. But there are those times that what they say comes out more like gibberish than actual understood English. And when they aren't understood or are told "no" that's when the temper tantrum happens.

When the temper tantrum occurs I try to explain why. You're probably thinking, "yeah, right, reason with a 2 year old. Don't make me laugh.". But it does happen sometimes that I can get them thinking about something else and the temper tantrum dies down and they stop. This happened just yesterday.

Sunday afternoons at our house are quiet time. Everyone under the age of 8 are to nap while the 3 older kids have the option. But if they don't nap they have the responsibility of getting the babies up when they wake up so that Mom & Dad can take a nap.

So yesterday afternoon, I had woken up before Todd and was trying to get Spencer to leave Daddy alone so he could rest some more. Todd had gone to a midnight showing with "the boys" on Thursday night and then we went to Nashville on Friday night and got home around 12:30am. He needed the naptime a little more than me. Anyway, Spencer was NOT budging by the bedside. He was even trying to pull the covers off his Dad so Todd would get up.

This is where my tactic comes into play. I ask Spencer if he wants some cookie dough. (It's almost a ritual at our house that during naptime the older girls make cookie dough that we later bake for an after dinner treat.)

Spencer didn't respond.

I then ask if he wants a cookie.

He turns to me and yells "YES!!" so I think I've got him. Then I tell him he needs to come downstairs with me to get his cookie.

He looks at me with his face all scrunched up and yells, "NO!!"

Did he really want the cookie?? You bet he did. He just didn't want to leave Daddy to get it.
So the answer to my question would be: When you're dealing with toddlers.



PS: I DID get Spencer to come down and get a cookie. He even got a spoonful of cookie dough while he waited for the cookie to bake.