Update

Quick update on everyone: 

Logan took a couple tests in May and as a result is skipping two years of math. I am proud of him and terrified for us both. He likes to work out and is supposed to be training for a 100 mile Appalachian Trail hike he is going on this summer. 

Madi will be playing the oboe next year in band. She loves to take pictures and she is getting pretty good at editing them. She is beginning to play the piano in her spare time, without me nagging her. She is my artistic, creative child.

Grant is officially starting piano this summer. I have been teaching him lessons off and on, but he's ready for some consistency. He and Madi both have a talent for music. (Logan takes piano as well, and is doing well, but it is a little harder for him, which is ok--he needs to know what it's like to have to work for something because everything else comes so easily to him.) 

Ammon and I are working hard on reading this summer. The first little bit is almost as frustrating as potty-training. He guesses more at the words than my other kids did. He's going to get it, though. He is probably our most athletic child--another thing I can't really help them with. 

Auggie is still content to crawl, although he has started to do the crab walk and will walk on his knees. He has become a fantastic sleeper, and I'm greatful. I'm pretty sure he says, "yes," "this," "that," "mom," and "da." He can shake his head. I have no idea how intentional any of it is. He loves vegetables (especially beans, peas, broccoli, tomatoes, and corn) and all fruits. He usually likes meats and cheeses. He does not like to eat pasta or breads. I suppose that is healthy. He loves to play balls and roll cars. He can point to his belly-button and nose and spits when you ask him where his tongue is. He has 8 teeth....and I'm pretty sure right now he is getting 8 more all at the same time! 

ready or not, here we summer!

Last week Auggie and I spent a few days in Idaho for my baby brother's wedding. It was fun to see everyone, but boy were we tired and ready to come home! Auggie was a champ, and also very adorable. Joe and the other four kids didn't come because it was the last week of school. The last few years I have set up parties for the kids to celebrate, so it was honestly a little bit sad to be missing the most exciting and fun day of the year...also I missed Madi's fifth grade graduation and Ammon's preschool graduation. Everyone survived, so I guess we will move on to summer.

I woke up on Sunday morning to kids shoving granola bars and toast in their mouths. I grouchily declared it was Fast Sunday, and I kid you not--it was like turning the light on and bugs scattering out of sight. The kids ran up stairs and disappeared. I decided we might as well go ahead and eat breakfast, and over breakfast I informed the kids of our summer schedule.

*No coming downstairs until 6:30. (WHAAAT? WHHYYYY?)

*AND your bed has to be made, bedrooms and bathrooms tidy, and dressed for the day. (NOOOOO!)

*Freetime until 7:30, when we will be eating breakfast. (BUT MOM!!!!! Don't YOU want to sleep in?)

*Also, each day a different child will be in charge of making all the meals and cleaning up after those meals. (No one seemed too upset about this.)

I won't bore you with the rest of our (very horrible and unreasonable) routine, but the best comment of the morning was Madison's, "We might as well go back to school."

Second place came from Logan, "Why can't we just have free time all day?"

HAHAHAHA! 

We are only on day 2, and so far so good. Logan's orange chicken was so delicious that last night Auggie literally licked his plate clean! We have gone swimming with friends, read and read, visited the library, and tomorrow we will run errands. Oh, and I made a list of jobs for the kids and told them they got to CHOOSE which three they wanted to do every day. Who knew that they would be in such a hurry to pick and complete theirs first--before anyone else could claim the "easy" ones.  I highly recommend this chore system.

Sooo tired on the airplane. 

Auggie played at the kids' table during the reception.

Picnic at Twin Falls.


He loved Aunt Ame's glasses!

hello sunshine!

It's been a long 19 hours. So long it took me about 30 seconds to figure out how many hours it's been since: the ceiling started leaking at 8:00 pm last night. Like--water pouring out of a light in the kitchen! This could be a really long story, but no one wants to hear that, and I'm certainly tired of thinking about it. So long story as short as possible:

The ceiling started leaking while Grant was showering last night, but it took a while (and several people) to discover what the cause of leak was because it was not under the bathroom, but under the air conditioning units, which have already been working hard because it's April in Texas. I called a water-damage specialist this morning to get an assessment, and he estimated $3,000-$4,000 worth of damage.

Now, in the long run, there are a lot worse things. I kept telling myself that it was like going to the emergency room (with our insurance, anyway), and reminded myself that money is replaceable. However, it's not really how I want to spend money.....

Our builders (contractors) came out to help solve the problem (because the first guy said he thought it was behind the wall). It is the builder's job to help fix anything that is their fault, and when they found out that everything was working right (except for my kids taking showers) they could have just walked away.

But they didn't. They listened to the first guy tell them about all the stuff we would have to do to dry out and repair the ceiling. And then when everyone was gone, our builder, Alex, called me and asked if I would like him to come assess everything and tell me his opinion. Yes, please.

He cut a hole in my ceiling and discovered that other than about a 1"x12" section, everything was dry (thanks to all that water that poured out of the light instead of pooling on the sheetrock)! He pulled up the carpet in the boys' closet, determined that the pad was only damp, and instructed me on how to care for and return it to its spot in a week, after everything has had time to dry out. He also said he would take care of the hole in the wall they had cut and that the only thing I would need to cover was the hole in the ceiling (which his people will do when they repair the other hole). Tops cost: $100, and probably closer to half that.

Lessons I'm learning:

1. Bad things always happen when Joe is out of town.
2. It must be so that I can become confident in knowing that whatever happens, I've got this.
3. Come what may and love it (Joseph B. Wirthlin).
4. Everything is going to be O.K. This ended up not being a big deal, and like I said, even if it had been a bigger deal, there are worse things in life. I know that in the end, it will be O.K. There is simply no other choice, and life goes on.
5. We need to have a family home evening lesson on how to take showers without getting water on the floor. (swimming suits everyone?)
6. If you decide to build, go with a good builder. I highly recommend Horizon/Highland Homes.

a history of tables

Our Chinese teacher at BYU-Idaho gave us our first table when Joe and I got married--almost 15 years ago. It was a heavy-duty, blond, round library table. It was also pre-digital camera, so I don't have a picture of it. It was plenty big enough for our little family of two, and we even had room to invite friends and coworkers over for dinner somewhat frequently. 

Three years and one child later we moved to a (maybe) 500 square foot cinder block apartment at BYU-Provo. We hauled that table up 3 flights of stairs and quickly realized it would not fit into our tiny, tiny kitchen space, so we took it to a thrift store and then went straight to Walmart to buy a $40 card table. That was a lot of money for us! Then we added Madison, and as you can see, it was a little tight. 

In 2007 we moved to Cleveland, Ohio to start life out of college. Our first real furniture purchase ever (and we waited until we knew Joe had passed the bar) was to buy a real table! We spent something like $800. We loved it, and we loved all the space we had for our growing family (Grant came right after). We moved that table across the country to Texas, and then moved it to two more homes (a total of four homes) and added two more kids (Ammon and August). We celebrated birthdays, made food, colored eggs, carved pumpkins, painted pictures, assembled puzzles, and created pinewood derby cars at that table. We now officially had more people than seats, and finding room for friends and family became a little tricky. 

  

We started to look for a new table, and sales clerks would laugh when I told them I needed a tough table--one that would allow fork gouges and permanent marker stains to add character. I usually start all our furniture purchases off with, "I have five kids." Eventually, I learned about this kind of table called a "farmhouse" table. As it turns out there are quite a few do-it-yourself plans online, but if you know us at all, you know that our do-it-yourself skills are pretty lame. Anyway, long story short, there is a guy about three streets away who is always making tables in his garage and on his driveway. We told him what we needed and he delivered it to our house this week. I pretty much had no idea what it would look like, and to make it even more exciting and suspenseful, I asked him to combine two different colors of stain, and this is what he came up with. 

It has taken me a few days to get used to the new look in our dining area. It seems like it's twice the size of our last table, and we are going to have to teach our kids to pass plates and food because it's too big to reach across. Someday I would like to find better matching chairs, but for now our old ones will do. 

The table isn't perfect, and there are already dings and marks in it. It is heavy duty, will last forever (hopefully!), and forks and permanent markers will only add to the beauty of the table. The bench is sturdy and can fit a lot of little bottoms on it. In fact, we can easily fit everyone at the table, and we can fit you, too!

Tonight as everyone was cleaning up after dinner (and Grant was sweeping the floor), I felt a little warm fuzzy as I realized that this is a place where we will make thousands of new memories. Food made and eaten. Hours and hours of math homework cursed at and completed. Games played. Birthdays celebrated. Friendships made. Good and hard conversations had. We will laugh and cry and pray and learn at this table. 

So anyway, make your reservations and get in on the memories.

separate identities

Yes, yes; it's been a while. I'm so far behind on the blogging that I don't think I will even try to catch up. The truth is that I'm too tired and too busy to use Auggie's nap time to blog. However, the last few days I have been made extra-aware that my children are growing up, and the memories deserve more than a facebook post.

1. Two of my wonderful, sweet babies kids have informed me that my van music (country) stinks. "Please turn it off, " they say. "It's giving me a headache." I turn it up louder so I can sing louder, but they just get louder, too.

2. This week Logan was personally invited to be in an after-school club. I am so happy. It feels like he's sort of finding his niche, and I think it's a safe one. Which club, you ask? The calculator club.

3. Auggie is nine months old. Gulp. It is happening way too quickly. Diaper-changing has turned into a battle over who can out-smart and over-power the other person. Sleep has gotten a little more consistent, so that part I'm ready for.

Well, that about takes up the 10 minutes I allotted to blogging. Back to the grind.

all things Auggie

I LOVE this age! Every day I find myself consciously trying to memorize the imprint of his body in my arms. I kiss his chubby cheeks and tickle his feet and I squish his fluffy thighs. He is happy and content and curious and fun, fun, fun. 

His first tooth is growing in nicely, and a second tooth is about to pop through. 

We started giving him solids at dinner time, and it makes him so happy!! Seriously, he physically jumps up and down in the high chair and moves his wide-open mouth to the spoon. The baby cereal says to start with a tablespoon, and I think we are giving him almost a quarter cup! He is sleeping through the night better, too, so that tale about solids and sleeping must be true. 

Auggie has been rolling over for about a month, but in the last week or so he has discovered that rolling can get him places, and he can get from one side of the room to the other more quickly than I am ready for him to move! I fear that soon he will be crawling, which means we will have to get a baby gate for the stairs and keep the floor free of Legos and beads. He is sitting up pretty well, and we've started letting him sit in the grocery cart, which makes life so much easier.

Auggie loves to read; he paws at the books and turns pages, and apprently they taste great. He is figuring out how to play (pound on) the piano, which makes my heart go pitter-patter. He loves to drop toys on the floor. He likes to play with his toes. He loves to go on walks in the stroller. 

Auggie spends a lot of time admiring his hands and fingers, and I love to watch him as he places them in front of his face and twists and turns and bends them. I wonder what he thinks about his amazing body as he discovers the things he is capable of doing. A few days ago we were playing with feet and I showed him mine and wiggled my toes. He smiled big and wiggled his toes back for me, and then laughed when I praised him. 

We are working on taking longer naps. I think because our schedule is not super consistent (with running back and forth to school, play groups, and grocery shopping), he has gotten into the habit of taking several 20-30 minute naps during the day--usually in the car. I would really like him to take a shorter nap in the morning and evening and one long nap between 12:00-3:00 in the afternoon. 

Auggie is wearing 6-9 month clothes and some 12 month clothes. He's my tall, giant baby, and we all love him. 

Every time I try to take a picture of him admiring his hands I end up distracting him. This is the best I could get. 

August in September

Better late than never? Also, maybe someday I will come up with more creative titles.

At 4 months Auggie:

• weighs 16 lbs 1 oz
• is 26" long
• can roll from front to back
• has rolled from back to front a few times
• likes to blow bubbles
• likes to make spitting noises
• likes to sleep in his crib 
• falls asleep on his own
• is not sleeping through the night very often (insert very sad face)
• is a happy baby
• likes to suck on his bottom lip
• puts everything in his mouth

 Auggie at 4ish months

And just because it's fun, we were looking at old pictures last night to see who August looks the most like. Wow! Time flies! I love the different backgrounds, too, as they remind me of the many different places we were in life as each child was added to our family. 

Logan 4ish months in Rexburg, Idaho. Joe and I were both finishing our undergrad degrees.

 Madi 4ish months (Logan 2 and Joe 25) in Provo, Utah (Wymount!) for law school.

Grant 4ish months in South Euclid, Ohio. Joe was working for Roetzel and Andress.

Another Grant at 4ish months (Madi 2 and Logan 4). I had to include this one because Ammon was playing doctor with Auggie this morning using this same doctor set. Love!  

Ammon 4ish months with his great-grandma. Picture taken at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Pennsylvania. Joe had recently started his own law practice and we had just moved to a rental home in North Dallas.

Sooo.... who do you think he looks like? 

balls and babies

Our 8 yr-old computer is slower than slow and my phone freezes every 3 seconds, so basically my communication with the outside world is nonexistent right now, which is ok, I guess. I can focus on the important things. Like the notes I find on Madison's door. (I'm sure going to miss this stage in life where my kids leave the funniest writings scattered all over the house.)

You see, a few days ago Madison and Ammon were play-fighting with an orange hopper ball. You know--those balls with a handle that you can hop on. Anyway, Madison kicked it right on top of Auggie's face. Joe and I were right there and we both kind of gasped. Auggie did, too, and then he smiled this big smile like, "Hey, I think I just felt something!" We still had to reprimand the offenders, and Madison may have shed a few tears because she knew that she had just kicked a BALL on her baby brother's face. 

We spent the rest of the day teasing her about balls and babies, which apparently she did not appreciate. 

I will say this, though. Life is a lot more fun when you can have a good sense of humor. 

excitement

Auggie slept through the night for a few weeks and is back to waking up at least once. I found these skeleton jammies at Walmart for $5, and I'm glad I got them because they glow in the dark and make waking up in the middle of the night a little more fun. So fun, in fact, that at 3 a.m. this morning Joe and I were laughing together as we watched his skeleton body kick and squirm. Even though I do wish he would sleep more than 7 hours straight (or maybe I just need to go to bed earlier), he is a joy to be around. He is happy during the day and takes two long, consistent naps. 

Oh my gosh, he's cute! 

Ammon started preschool today! He is very excited that it is finally his turn to go to school. I asked him if he missed me and he politely told me, "No, not at all." I guess that is a good thing.

So what did Auggie and I do with our 4 hours alone? We took a walk and played together for a few minutes. We whipped up dinner and made two extras to take to other families. We visited a friend who just had adorable twin girls. I can't imagine! Next time I will find someone to watch Auggie first so I can help her hold and feed her babies without him getting jealous halfway through. We visited another friend whose baby is one week younger than Auggie. We got the babies together and they just smiled and smiled at each other. Then we came home, ate lunch, and picked up Ammon.

I have grand plans for our two days a week alone. Volunteer at school, clean, eat lunch with Dad, serve others in our community, go shopping, go visiting teaching, maybe even go back to bed. I'm not sure how to prioritize because they all sound so wonderful!

Logan, Madi, and Grant are all doing well at school as well. I am especially excited about Madison's teachers because she's excited about school. It sounds like they are making learning a lot of fun by using music and videos to teach language arts and science. 

In all, today has been a really rewarding day. I know not everyone desires to be a stay-at-home mom, and not everyone has the opportunity to be a SAHM, but I am grateful for the choice, and I am happy with what I have chosen. I am grateful that Joe is happy with our choices as well, and thankful that he has the ability to support us. 

Speaking of Joe (this might embarrass him a little bit), but I think he's amazing. Sometimes we get so caught up on making it through the day by fulfilling our role, whatever that may be, that by the end of the day we are both exhausted, and when that becomes a habit I think that it is easy to take each other for granted instead of acknowledging and appreciating what the other person does. Sometimes, if you are like me, you don't even know that is happening until something changes. The last few weeks Joe has broken that cycle in our family by being extra helpful and loving to everyone, but especially to me. I've noticed that as he makes more effort to help me that I want to make more effort to help him, and by the end of the day we might still be exhausted, but it is a happy and fulfilling exhaustion. Anyway, I won't get too mushy, but it has been a great experience and lesson to me about how love and kindness motivates and changes people, and if you feel a desire to break the exhaustion cycle in your home this might be a good experiment for you to try, too.

Finally, this is the recipe I made today. I don't know if it will be any good, but if it is, it's a keeper because it looks fancy, will hopefully taste great, and is easy, easy, easy! (Isn't it funny that we always try new recipes when we give our food away? Scary!)

second day of school

I don't have time to write because for the second day in a row the boys are taking naps at the same time and I want to take a nap, too! So of course I decided to paint a dresser and read a book and now I'm running out of time... but first...

This is what my kids looked like on the first day of school. They look pretty cute, if I do say so myself. You would never guess (maybe) that I had to beg and plead with most of them to wear something nice. I was told more than once, by more than one child, that he or she was old enough to choose his or her own clothing. I promised that after the first day of school I wouldn't be so controlling. I just needed a picture, that's all. They complied.

Day 2. Sadly, I have no picture. But Grant came downstairs wearing some gray athletic shorts and a stretched out, wrinkled Spiderman t-shirt. I shared my opinion ("It looks like you are wearing jammies, Grant." "Mom, this is comfortable!") and then I let it go. After all, a promise is a promise.

As we were waiting for the bus he looks at me with some alarm and says, "Mom, I forgot to change my shirt!" Whoa, what? "Yeah, I slept in this last night!"

I did not say, "I told you so." I did not panic. And the boy went to school wearing the same shirt he slept in.

I suppose this is what happens when you have 5 kids.

sacred moments

There is a sacredness that comes with the last few days of summer vacation. The mornings stay dark a little longer and the sun goes down a little earlier. Sometimes, if you are lucky, the days will begin to be a little cooler. There are resolutions to hug your babies and big kids more often; there are moments that you swear under your breath, and the first day of school can't come quickly enough.

Last night was back to school night. This is a hectic hour where you drag around 100 pounds of school supplies, race from room to room, and you pray like crazy that your kids will make friends and learn much.

I will miss the sleeping in. I will miss the help with Auggie. I will miss the outings. I will miss my kids. 

Today was practice day. I got up at 6:00 a.m. to shower and get ready for the day. It helped that Auggie slept 11 hours last night!!! The kids got up and dressed and we left the house at 7:25 to get donuts. We brought milk, cheese sticks, and grapes and had a picnic breakfast at the elementary school playground. Then we played. 

One last summer outing.

From there we took Logan to the middle school for a 6th grade orientation. He received a locker, we picked up his gym clothes, and he learned about being a 6th grader.

The counselor (the one I posted about a few weeks ago) talked to us for a bit and explained that 6th grade would be the last year where parents would be the most influential person in our child's life. 

Terrifying! Scary! No! No, I'm not crying right now.....

The counselor also said that studies show that this generation has a better relationship with their parents than any other generation. 

Logan is so ready for this. He showed me how to open his locker. They ran out of the adult small shirts so we bought him a medium--and it doesn't even look that big! I look at him and he looks so tall, mature, handsome. 

Look at her long, long legs! Won't be long before she is as tall as I am.

I love these pictures. They are all in different places, and Logan is taking off. I am so in love with them, and grateful for the meaning they have brought to my life. 

One more year with this boy before he leaves me all day. 

Madi selfie. I love my boys, but I'm so glad I have my girl!

on my mind

Last week we took a quick day trip to see Joe's parents who live about 3 hours away. We told the kids that when we got there that there would be no screen time; they would have to be creative about what they would do while we were there, especially since playing outside in August in Texas is pretty much a no-go. About 30 minutes into our visit there was some whispering about ipods and ipads and a comment like, " Mooom, what can I doooo?" I advised this child to talk to Lola (Joe's mom). "Talk about what?" "Well... Lola didn't have ipods and ipads, ask her what she did when she was your age during the summer."

I was lucky enough to be part of the conversation, and what I heard got me thinking. It turns out that Lola got up early and worked all day picking cotton. In the heat. I'm not sure why I was surprised; we have summer vacation precisely so that kids can help on the farm.

I know some of you live in the country and the summer really is a busy time full of hard work, but most of the people I know (including us) live in the city, and somewhere along the way summer has become our opportunity to:

sleep in
go swimming
stay up late
go to the movies
play with friends
take vacations
visit museums
make as many memories as possible
fun!fun!fun!

I have had a whole week to think about this, and I've come to the conclusion that we--I, my family--need to have a summer readjustment (I guess for next year, since summer is basically over). All of these things are fun, and even good, but I feel like what I am teaching my kids is that our life goal is to focus on ourselves, and to have fun instead of the goal of working hard and becoming productive human beings who make the world a better place.

I'm not sure what to do about this, because the truth is that I like to have fun and working hard is, well, hard. I can teach my kids to sweep and mop and cook and clean, and that is all good (and I am attempting to do these things), but I feel an increased desire and urgency to change our goals to something other than "having fun." I think we can make even better memories by working hard together and serving others.

I just have to figure out how to do that (hopefully indoor).