Goooooo Tigard!

Remember that little heat wave we had toward the end of April?  It was so wonderful.  We packed up the kids one night and headed over to watch one of Lucy's Lacrosse games.  It was so pleasant, like a warm summer night.  To top it off we brought some 5 Guys burgers to eat.  It was a heavenly evening after months of dreary weather. 

Dallin and Eden started running around the track and went around 10 times! 

Oh this scrappy little girl! She is all tom boy, yet has such a feminine face.  But oh, that curly, wild hair is a beast to tame. 



Lucy was awesome to watch.  She has come a long way since we watched her before.  She was rocking the field!



Go number 23! We love you!
Sweet, proud auntie.

Glimpses

Sewing is awesome, I miss it.  But it brings out this terrible mother in me. So when I am done with this project, I will go back to keeping my focus where it is needed. Funny how I am doing this to be a good mom, but in the process, being a not so good mom.

I had two toddlers poop on the floor in their respective corners simultaneously the other day.  They were truly poop buddies. Thank heavens for hard wood.

About one minute after discovering aforementioned situation, with toddlers in the shower, I discovered the baby had the kind of blowout that only happens in your worst nightmares.  The kind where you have to roll up the onsie before removing it so it doesn't get all over the little guy, only for him to be wiggly and it coming unrolled and before you know it, poop all over his back and head (shudder).

Then, (I hadn't even had the chance to clean the floor yet) I quickly bathe the baby and roll him up in a towel.  I go to set him in his crib so that I can deal with all that is happening.  As I lower him down, I am caught off guard by a sneeze.  A girl with many children must be prepared for these things.  So then I have peed myself a little bit and needed to take care of myself. 

I swear these events happened in less than 5 minutes! It was an out of body experience that must only be looked back upon with humor.

"Birthday Season" as I call it, is still fully underway.  We have one down, two to go so I am excitedly planning all sorts of fun things and surprises.  It almost feels like preparing for Christmas. But I love how individual my children are and having their birthday really brings out their uniqueness.  Its all them and each birthday is celebrated totally differently.

I am done nursing and it is feeling pretty dang glorious.  Its like my body is saying, "Ahhhhh...much better." There are obviously wonderful things about it, but in reality nursing and I will never be friends.

I am not turning out to be the best scouting mom.  It is all so new for me and a little daunting.  Only to realize that procrastinating the Wolf badge was silly because it is really not a big deal.  With Dallin's birthday only 3 days away we are finally there, and he is finally really into earning his badges and I am finally getting with the program.  Thankfully, lesson learned and we can quickly move through the Bear book.

One of my children hates school and it breaks my heart to send them each day when they truly do not want to be there.  I cannot wait for this school year to be over for this one.

I am having the strong urge to simplify life again. You know, when you sorta want to throw away 90% of your belongings, get rid of Internet (again), and delete your Pinterest and  FB accounts.  I just want to be a mommy and not let anything else matter. I want life to slow down so I can take it all in.

Even with all the chaos of life, I am so happy.  The things that really don't matter in the long run are easier to brush aside as the demand to be everything my family needs grows.  There is no way to describe the feeling of your heart changing.  I love how this family of mine has given me so much to feel and change.

There is a realization in me that what matters more than anything is that I am there for my kids on all levels. I am so far from perfect I go crazy when I get down on myself for the things that I may not be doing right because of my own weakness.  But I am loving them to bits, shaping them, teaching them the gospel, and giving them all that I am, imperfections included.  And I am starting to feel that that is enough.  Doing the best I can is enough.  I have my strengths too and they will love me for those. I Know I love my mom for hers. 

The favorite joke at our house right now is "It's under there".....and I reply, "Uderwear?"

Dallin want so badly to be tall.  He is eating as healthy as he can so that he can reach his potential.  We have had to break it to him that his gene pool doesn't give him a lot to hope for, although good nutrition will help maximize it.

Lily is talking so well.  She is so expressive, and sounds a lot like....Carter. She really looks up to him.

Luke is now pulling to standing with no effort at all.  He also loves his solids. 

I am pretty sure Eden is like the easiest kid ever.  So sweet and good natured.

I have not done many Scholastic book orders, but made a pretty large order for our summer reading.  I keep resisting the urge to email Dallin's teacher every day saying, "Is it there yet? Is it there yet?"

I am a little calmer about the idea of summer break now.  I have our routine figured out somewhat, so that helped ease my fears a little.

I think a lot.  Things like this go through my head all day long.  That is all for now.

Guess What

We are whipping up something fun over here...

Can you guess what it is and what for?

Journal - Scrambled Eggs

My brain feels like scrambled eggs lately.  I can't seem to think straight.  I start to do something and then quickly get distracted with the 153,649 things I NEED to do.  If I don't write it on my calendar, I forget and even then sometimes I still forget.  If you could look inside my head you would see a pinball machine in there I swear.  Life is overwhelming and I can't seem to get things under control in any facet of it.  Hmmmm....I probably sound like a mom with lots of little kids.  Yes, that's it.  I suppose this is what I signed up for so I should get used to it.

Although life is crazy there are a few insanity inducing fun things coming up.  Birthday season is upon us where 3 of our boys have birthdays in a row.   I am also making costumes for the Starlight run.  All in between there I am trying to figure out our summer plans, because I am scared to death about that.  I have lots of ideas, but it is going to be intense to have all six kidlets home all the time and I want it to be amazing.

Blogging and keeping records of my family has never been hard for me.  I enjoy it, and I feel that it is important and good.  But lately, my scrambled egg brain has been too overwhelmed to get to it as much. I have sat down to write a journal and not been able to get my thoughts together several times.  I don't want blogging to feel like a chore or a to-do that adds stress.  The idea is that it actually helps my sanity usually.  I don't know why it has changed for me lately, but I don't appreciate it.  Come back blog love affair, I need you!  When I sat down and did a post last night I had a great time.  Maybe I am back....I hope so.

So if I seem a bit incoherent or choppy in my posts, just know I am trying.  I like to let this blog just be whatever comes out.  If my style changes, fine.  If I am long winded, fine.  If I don't like narrowing down pictures, fine.  If I go through different photo editing phases, fine.  If I post daily or monthly, fine. I like not having deadlines, or formats, or obligations. I have no apologies, for this is my little corner and and it has to be organically ME. A place where I can come to count my blessings, see the joys  life, and have a positive, beautiful space among the chaos that I find myself in. It is a place where I don't have to think about dirty floors or piles of laundry or being needed for something every 2 minutes. I know that one day I will be grateful to have this time of life preserved.  I love my life, even though it is bananas.

I am grateful to anyone who reads my stuff here and supports me.  It means a lot to me when I get a comment or if someone mentions something I post about.  When a friend tells me they enjoy reading my blog, it is so nice to hear.  Please know that the intentions of my heart are to simply to realize and create something beautiful that I can keep forever. I never want to come off boastful.  It helps me in so many ways to write about life.  So thanks to anyone out there for taking the time to stop by. I don't know who all reads or how many follow along.  Perhaps you can let me know...hint hint.

Tulip Festival

We went to the tulip festival on a chilly Tuesday, which was kinda fun since there were no crowds.  That makes a big difference for me as I try to keep track of our little people.  So I checked the kids out early from school and met my sisters and my dad for a great afternoon.  We walked around, bounced, played on the slides and with the water.  The kids had a great time with their cousins.

This kid would not smile for me this day at all.  I don't get it, he usually loves to ham it up.



This right here was worth the price of admission.  This kept everyone entertained for a long time.















This bouncy thing was awesome.  Since there was no line, the kids got plenty of time.  They were full of giggles.  Especially Tanner, he kept yelling, "I am jumping higher than Andy!"(Peter's brother).















Arrrrrr!

It was so good to see my dad.  I hadn't seen him for months since my parents moved away and just anticipating his big hug made me choke up as I was on the way.  I even missed my turn because I was so anxious to see him that I was distracted.



Some days, I just can't get enough of one of my kids.  This day it was Eden.  Her outfit choice was so sweet and her hair was everywhere in the wind.  She is such a sweet, fun girl.  I am so lucky to be her mama. 

Love this baby too.  He is such a little buddy.

Wahoo, I am in a picture.

Cousin BFFs

Sisters Weekend

A couple of weeks ago, I headed to the beach for a little getaway with my sisters.  My little sis's in-laws have a great little cabin in Rockaway.  We had great intentions of bringing projects to work on, sites to see and restaurants to try.  But after all was said and done, we found that we mostly wanted to sleep and hibernate.  We only ventured out to the local shops and the beach.  It was heavenly!  Laurel called it a "recovery" weekend since we are all busy mommies.  The only bad thing was my little sis getting food poisoning and being sick most of the time.  Such a bummer.

This one was for my kids.   We came across this on a walk:

I enjoyed taking a nice long run along the beach with my iPod.  The ocean is so awe inspiring. I feel close to my Heavenly Father when I see the grandness of His creations.  I ran and walked and prayed. It was quite a rejuvenating weekend. There were lots of pebbles so I picked out a unique one for each of my kids along with some salt water taffy.  They loved them both.

(we didn't get a group shot, so here's one from the tulip festival)There is nothing like being with my sisters.  I love you guys so much my heart hurts.