Our House. . .

. . . the day after our Thanksgiving Day festivities.

Oh, Ashlynn

Ashlynn, pointing to the dirty clothes she is ramming into her drawer: OK. Here's the trick. Anything that is inside-out in here. . . is dirty. - or if it has crusties on it.

Thank you for that insight that will make my job as washer-woman much easier.
(can you see me holding up my sarcasm sign?)

Day 11

Three brown-eyed boys.

"Yee-haw!"

Playing in mud puddles.

"No, Ty. Don't turn the water on."
"But Why?"

Brothers playing in the rain. It took quite a bit of convincing for Davis, until he gave the gutters a good splash!

Day 9 & 10

• 2 hours of classroom volunteering.
• 2 class parties.
• 2 babysitters.
• 1 kindergartner who is apparently kissing multiple girls in his class. . . on the lips.
• 1 nephew who picked up 2 bad habits from his cousin - hitting and spitting (joy).
• 1 nephew who wants me to drive to his house in St. George so that we can borrow his play -dough, cause we don't have any.
• 2 rainy days ahead of us.
• 5 children who can't go outside to play because of the rain.
• 1 whole day tomorrow with all 5 kids and no Brian.

Equals...

• 1 tired Mom/Auntie/Wife/Housekeeper/Cook/Part-time classroom volunteer/Woman (who, despite it all, wouldn't change places with anyone).
  

Day 7 & 8

I haven't updated for a while, but things are going well. Loud, but well. Yesterday was the Primary Program. All three of the older kids did great. It was so nice that they provided a part for Caleb - he was happy that he got to sit on the stand with his cousins! I was happy that I just had the two little ones sitting with me for the bulk of sacrament. A friend offered to help but I pridefully said that just having the two of them would be "cake' (yes, that was a direct quote). Wel... it wasn't cake. They are two! But it wasn't bad either. Just like normal sacrament with kids! Afterwards, I had to make sure that the primary was aware of Caleb's peanut allergies because they had brought treats for the kids.
The kids seem to be getting used to the fact that the ship has to be run a little bit tighter around here in order to keep chaos from breaking out. I would like to know what drug or super power Caleb was blessed with that requires him to survive on almost no sleep at all. The other night he came into our room in the wee hours and asked to take a shower.
On another note, with Brian coming home early last week, he was able to get our food storage and garage organized a little bit better. We have a large closet under our stairs which I affectionately call "the Harry Potter closet". We turned this into our food closet. He put together these great shelves that make me oh-so-happy! Now when I cook I just have to say, "Kids, please get me some pineapples and a can of cream of Mushroom soup!" and voila! Thanks, Brian.

Brea fires

Pictures of Brian's High School, Brea Olinda. It burned all around the campus and the continuation school, Brea Canyon, that shared the campus, as well. Pretty scary. This is only a few miles from his parents house.

Day 5 & 6

I think I finally hit my stride on Thursday (although I've been a little too tired to blog every night!). Ty, on the other hand, is digressing. His turf is being invaded and he's mad! I can't even count the number of time-outs he has had for hitting (two just since I have been working on this post). He is going to have to learn now before he starts school, so this is good for him. The pictures are from the Children's Museum. Davis was not impressed, Caleb had a blast, and Ty pooped on the floor (how did I not catch that he had taken his diaper off before we left the house?!) There is also a cute one of Ty feeding Davis.

Day 4

K: Caleb, what is your favorite thing to do with your mommy?
C: (mumbles something incoherently because he has food in his mouth)
K: What?
C: Clean.
K: What's your favorite thing to do with your Daddy?
C: Cook.
K: Why do you love your mommy?
C: Because I do (tone indicating "duh!")! And I love my daddy, too. I help my mom make cookies. Can I have some more Ketchup for my rice?
K: Of course you can.

Caleb with a band aid on his forehead (just because) and Davis having clothing issues.

What the boys did this evening.

Sleeping beauty, always ready for her close-up.

Day 3

Having a school day was nice today because it took 2 kids out of the mix. I was able to take the 3 younger kids to the park to blow off some steam. Naptime went well (which is a huge bonus for Mommy) homework time was postponed until Daddy got home (I didn't dare brave it by myself) and the neighbors gave us an open invitation to use the big trampoline during the day!I must be starving the kids because they all chowed down on their corn casserole for dinner. We almost served cookies for FHE but noticed at the last minute that some of the cookies were peanut butter cookies-phew! Catasrophe avoided! They got frozen Gogurts instead.
Cute quote: Caleb was stalling bedtime and noticed a picture of our family Ashlynn has on the wall by her bed. He looked at it intently and said, "Aw. What a beautiful family!" (Yes Caleb. Now get in bed! Auntie Kate is tired! tee-hee!)
Best news of the day: Brian is going to come home everyday at 3:00 for the rest of the week! (Auntie Kate is doing her happy dance right now. It looks like the dance Snoopy does.)

Handsome boy

Sleeping in the closet

Day 2

We made it through church today thanks to friends who sat with me and helped divide and conquer. I believe one of the exchanges went something like this, "I'll corral the 2 year olds out here if you wouldn't mind keeping an eye on the 4 year olds."
Caleb was a little reluctant to go to Primary because they were practicing the Primary program for next week. However, they won him over and he walked away with a part in our Primary program! That means next week I will only have the 2 year olds to myself! Cake!
When I arrived home from church (solo- Brian had to stay to do tithing) I was changing the kids into play clothes when Davis started pitching a fit. This is very unusual for him. He is a happy easy going kid. But he was not happy about changing his diaper and putting clothes on him. I suddenly remembered his penchant for potting training in the buff from Lisa's blog. I stripped him down, his brown eyes started to sparkle and he streaked off to the bathroom where he proceeded to use the facilities! He was the happiest little naked guy for the rest of the night. My neighbors did look at me a little funny when I took both 2 year olds, one clothed, one a-la-natural, to retrieve yesterday's mail from the neighborhood mailbox. Oh well! He's using the toilet!
I hope that my blogging this experience does not come off like I am complaining. I hope I am not making you, Lisa and John, feel bad. I really feel like this is a unique experience for our family that I am taking as a life teaching challenge and want to preserve these memories for the future. Some of the interaction between the kids have been so precious, I would hate to ever forget them. Like tonight when I went in to tell Briggs and Caleb for the last time to be quiet and go to bed. Instead I found Caleb peering over the bunk bed, looking down at Briggs who was holding a flashlight and a Dr. Seuss book, reading out loud to his cousin.
Precious.
Until tomorrow.

Day 1 of Project "Five Kids"!

Brian and I are so excited because for the next two weeks, we get to take care of all five of these cuties! (Yes- Three of them are ours and we don't have any choice but to watch them. . .) But the other two are Brian's sister who is on bed rest. So we volunteered to take her two kids off of her hands so she can concentrate on keeping baby #3 safe in her tummy! Our kids adore their cousins so we are actually excited to have built in playmates. I'm looking forward to seeing how some of my friends with 5 or more kids actually do it. Hopefully I'll have enough energy to blog it all so you can keep up with the craziness along with me!All of the kids ages: 7, 5, 4.5, and two that are 2.5. Let the good times roll!
So far, so good. The noise level in the house is a little louder (sorry to the neighbors. It's in the 80's and all of the windows have to be open or we'll bake.) But the kids are having a blast with each other. Caleb likes to drive his parents crazy by refusing to eat dinner, but I managed to starve them all afternoon and they ate their chicken nuggets, crescent rolls and cantelope like it was their last meal. (Note: I'm sure this phenomenon was not due in any part to any skill I pocess, but rather due to the fact that kids act different for other people just to mess with their parents' heads.) Davis has been out of bed two times so far, but hopefully that's it for the night (Lisa and John are chuckling right now at Brian and my inexperience with kids who refuse to go to bed.)
Wish me luck tomorrow. It's Brian's first day in the bishopric and I get to sit with 5 kids all by myself!
(Really, truly, I'm looking forward to this time with the nephews. They are cute, great kids.)

Little Friends

Our ward Primary is in this Month's Friend magazine. Ash and Briggs are front and center. This picture is actually a year and a half old. Check it out here. (Click on Friends in the news on the left hand side, then scroll down one page. The San Luis Obispo primary is at the bottom of the page).

Never Mind

Never Mind about taking some time off to rest. Brian just got called to be the 2nd councilor in the Bishopric today. (That was silly of me to want a break!) I am actually excited to have him back in our ward, even if he isn't sitting with us. But that's what I get for marrying such an awesome guy!

New Day!

We have a couple of days of relative calm after a really busy week/month, and I'm trying to gear up for more busyness to come. I'm exhausted today after 2 straight days of constant chaos, going from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next. . . so I'm planning on taking it easy today (aside from going to the post office, picking up kids and doing piano lessons). Hopefully this little feeling in my throat isn't a cold coming on.
One thing I am very excited about: Since I have really made up my mind to cut back on expenses and be more conscientious with my spending we have cut back on our monthly expenses by 75%! That's huge! And that is even after doing some Christmas shopping. I'm very proud of myself, because, heaven knows, I'm the one who gets a little out of control with spending. I'm on a roll and plan to stay that way all through the holiday season.

My heart hurts

My heart hurts today because of the recent attack on the church via a slanderous and dishonest ad from those who oppose traditional marriage. I'm not sure that I can say more without getting too upset and remembering that Christ wants us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek. While it hurts and is completely unjust, I'm not surprised. We have been hunted under an extermination order in the past because of our beliefs, so I believe we can stand up to this without wavering.
Tolerance goes both ways. Truth will prevail.
(Now I will step down off of my soapbox and become meek and naive housewife.)

More, please!

Dear People who invented daylight savings time,
Thank you so much for the extra hour. Could I please have a few more. . . please?