Dinner with the kids

Yesterday work ended up being absolutely crazy. The only thing I had time to eat was a yogurt so when I got home I was too famished to even think about finding something to fix for dinner. Luckily Tayson had a good day at school and got 4 +'s and no -'s. He wanted to celebrate by going to his favorite place Brick Oven. Since Todd is on HCG right now he couldn't come with us and Timmy ended up working late so I braved it alone. Me and 4 kids under 8.

Tayson promised to be a big helper since Todd couldn't come and he didn't disappoint. He was great the whole time and was such a good helper. Since it was Brick Oven we had to order the pasta and salad bar so I had to leave the kids at the table a few times. The first time was to get Tayson and Claire their pasta, then again for my salad and then one last time for my pasta. The people at the table next to me said "wow I can't believe you're here with 4 kids by yourself" but then when we left they were impressed at how good they were.

We tried to take a self portrait and only
Claire, Tayson, Myself and Luke's hand (peace fingers) made it in.

Maybe I really can do spring break by myself with all 4 kids. I mean really what's the difference between 1 hour at a restaurant and 2 days in the car?

Shorts in March?

The last week at Nu Skin has been shorts week to celebrate the trip to Hawaii that our top leaders are on. March in Utah is not optimal shorts weather but I thought that since it's supposed to hit 60 today and it's the last day....why not?

Reminders

Todd told Tayson that if he doesn't get any bad marks at school today he will take him on a train ride (trax) to Salt Lake to see an awesome 3D movie about fish (the new Sea one from the Planet Earth creators). Tayson was so excited that this morning at breakfast he asked me if I would put a fish on one hand and a small train on the other hand to remind him to be good. Then Sophie wanted me to draw on her hand so I put a smiley face on her hand then Luke wanted a heart on his hand to remind him that I loved him and an even bigger heart on the other hand and Claire wanted a geal (girl) on her hand. Not that I usually draw on my kids but this seemed like a good cause. We'll do anything to help Tayson behave at school. There wasn't much time so you can't even really see their hands...but they almost missed the bus so this will have to do.


I really need some art lessons. I suck at small stick figure drawings!

Church

Sundays are a funny day for me. They are the best and the worst most weeks. It is the only day I get to sleep in the whole week. Todd leaves for meetings early and the kids like to just sit around and play so I usually get to sleep until almost 9. Heaven. Then the kids and I always have a fun breakfast, usually it consists of waffles, strawberries and/or bananas and whip cream. If they eat all their waffles they even get one more squirt directly in their mouth. They LOVE that.

Then we rush to all get dressed, get hair fixed, snack bags put together, backpacks checked, shoes on and we're off to church. I like to be 10 minutes early for church (we make it about 90% of the time). Not bad for a mom and 4 kids, who has a hubby at meetings most of the time. However, more often that not in order to make it there early I end up getting frustrated because one of the kids is taking too long to put on their shoes or they are dawdling on their way into church.

Then church starts.....UGH! My kids are all so little and have so much energy trapped in their bodies that sacrament is just so hard. Luke and Claire can sit and color the whole meeting without making a sound. But if you put either of them by Tayson or Sophie then it doesn't work. We can usually separate Tayson from the other kids and he'll stay in one spot. He has a really hard time sitting still and I have to have something different for him to do every 20 minutes or so (snacks, mazes, drawing, cars, etc). He's a bit old for this...but I have to pick my battles. And then there is Sophie. She canNOT be contained. She drives everyone crazy by taking their stuff, coloring on their pages, stepping on them, pulling their hair, etc.

Yesterday I brought some new dress up dolls for Claire. I knew she would sit and play with these the whole time from after the sacrament until the end. I even thought that if there were 2 dolls Sophie would play a little. Silly me. In a split second Sophie grabbed the small open baggie of shoes and hats and while trying to steal them flung the entire bag up in the air. It was like a small explosion. Small magnetic wooden shoes and hats went flying way up in the air and then landed all over people in the pews around me. I heard bursts of giggles from kids and adults in all the pews behind me. I was so embarrassed. People came up to me for the next 2 hours of church telling me how funny their kids thought it was. Sophie single-handedly disrupted the entire meeting. Timmy took her out in the foyer and then Claire and Luke quietly played dress up with the dolls. Luckily we only lost 2 of the shoes.



After church is always a little stressful too. I usually get out of YW a little late so my kids are almost always the last ones in their classes. I have to check on their behavior and dread what Tayson's teacher is going to tell me. Then we rush home at 2:00 pm fix the kids lunch as fast as I can and put Sophie down for a long overdue nap. She either sleeps for 30 minutes and is horrible the rest of the night or sleeps until it's time to go to my parent's house for dinner and then isn't tired when it's bedtime.

Sunday dinner is great. It's fun to all get together and hang out and have a nice big meal that I don't have to fix by myself. We stay there until it's time for bed. Which means hurrying to get everyone in bed which usually leads to yelling or fighting. I would really rather not end my Sabbath day like that ... but it just seems to always end like that.

Maybe when my kids get older Sunday will be a day of peace and reflection and rest. Maybe....

Fry Sauce

The kids cleaned, organized and vacuumed the playroom so as a treat we went to Carl's Jr. for lunch so they could eat and play at the play land. So worth it for them to do as much work as they did cleaning. Child labor at home is a great thing.

While we were there Sophie was dipping her fries and chicken stars in the fry sauce, licking it off, dipping them again, and occasionally taking a bite of the actual food. Then I look over at her and rather than spend time dipping she was just sucking the fry sauce right out of the cups. So gross and so funny. She loved it. I hurried and took the other 3 full cups away so that she wouldn't eat those too. Such a silly girl.


While we were there she didn't really want to play in the toddler area so either Tayson or Todd would help her get up the big kid area then she would run around up top and come down the slide. I knew where she was most of the time because of her Indian battle cry. She was so excited and had so much fun.

Makeover time

Claire got a fancy new makeup set at Chuck E. Cheese today. So after dinner we decided to have a makeover party.

Claire doing her kissy face

Sophie doing her kissy face (hilarious)

Now the girls are all set up to make me BEAutiful

I'm not going to lie....she pushed so hard it hurt my eye.

As soon as we were done showing off how beautiful we all looked to the boys in the house I hurried and put the girls in the bath and washed it off my face. Even after washing their faces with a washcloth they both still had rosy cheeks for the rest of the night. Oh how I love my girls!

My teenager

funny things about this picture:

• her diaper is hanging out the bottom of her miniskirt
• her nails are painted
• she looked like she was texting when I saw her on the phone

Lions Pride

Everyday Tayson comes home with a note from his teacher on his behavior that day. If he gets a + he gets to stay up late a - and he has to go to bed earlier. Luke on the other hand just goes to bed at the same time every night. I realize this isn't fair for him. It doesn't matter if he is good or not his bedtime is at 8:00. But let's be honestly you just can't parent each child the same. When I was a kid I found this horrible (Danny had totally different rules than I did cause he was a trouble maker...just ask him). Now as a parent I realize it is the only way to teach your children. You have to be willing to mix it up and find what works for each one. Simply put Luke is an easier kid so I don't have to be as creative with him. Hopefully someday my kids will understand this.

Anyway...every night when Luke says his prayers he always prays that Tayson will get all pluses and no minuses and that he will get a Lion's pride note (this is something his school does for something exceptional...so it's not an everyday thing). He came home with a Lion's pride note today and he was so happy. We even let him stay up until 9:15. Hopefully that will last the rest of the year for him.

Another funny thing Luke does is that he is always praying for somebody. Most nights it depends on who he sees when he peeks during his prayers.

A few funny ones he's said lately are:
*please bless Sophie that she won't be messy when she grows up
*please bless Sophie that she will behave better when she grows up
*please bless Amy to have her baby and everyone else who is having a baby too

Belgian Waffles

A few weeks ago for YW we decided to work on our relationships with a family member. We made a list of their traits that made them special and made them coupon books of things we could do for them. I made books for Tayson and Luke and one of the coupons was for belgian waffles. Yesterday Tayson decided to cash it in for this morning. This is not our usual before school breakfast of cold cereal but it was fun for them to eat and I am enjoying doing special things for the boys and working on our relationship. Plus it's one experience closer to getting my personal progress finished. We set a goal as leaders to do the program with the girls this year.

Such a big girl

Sophie doesn't realize she's a little bitty 18 month old. She honestly thinks she can do anything her brothers and sister can do. She thinks that she can hold the top rail and walk up the stairs. This stresses me out since she's too short to hold it on most stairs and ends up walking upstairs on her tip toes. She is also trying to potty train. She won't sit on the little potty though only on the big one like the other kids do.

**Since we had Monday off work and school for President's Day we took the kids to the mall for lunch, to play and to buy new shoes.

Sunday Morning

I was SO TIRED Sunday morning that I stayed in bed while Todd was off to church meetings early in the morning. I managed to help the girls get dressed then finally got myself in the shower. The kids had quite a bit of time unattended and were great. Right towards the end I heard them and walked out front to see a huge barricade. Then I asked them what they were doing and they said they were blocking Sophie out. Sophie was currently shut in her room while they moved all the furniture around. I got there just in time for the show. Luke ran back to let Sophie out and they all went to the kitchen side of the barricade. It took Sophie about 2 minutes total to scale the couches and chairs and get to them on the other side. I'm pretty sure she didn't realize it was a "keep Sophie out" game. I cracked up at how sad they were that they didn't keep her out, then I hurried and grabbed a camera. They didn't even complain after church when I made them clean it all up on their own.

Home at last

Todd was awesome to come pick me up from the airport with all 4 kids. When I got in the car they were going CRAZY! Sophie wanted so badly to get out of her car seat so to entertain her I handed her my neck pillow and she loved it. It cracked me up that she knew exactly what to do with it. She is so dang cute!

Brussels Airport

A few awesome things at the airport in Brussels.

A coke machine with the "boy peeing" coke.

vacuum hand dryers (awesome)

Belgian Waffles

This is pretty much the BEST food I've ever eaten in my life. I opted for the one covered in real whip cream and chocolate. YUMMY!!! I didn't care one bit that I had chocolate all over my hands and face by the time I was done or the fact that I was cruising around the cobblestone of downtown Brussels in high heels freezing my butt off. It was soooooo worth it!

Driving in the snow

Apparently it doesn't snow a lot in Brussels. This picture was out of the back window of the hotel shuttle taking us to the Nu Skin office. It was about 3 miles away and it took us about 25 minutes. Most of the time was spent trying to get up this "hill" and over a speed bump. I'll tell you what our driver never got frustrated - it was impressive. I would have the passengers out pushing. Most of the office staff had trouble getting to the office and a trip that is usually under 30 minutes was taking about 2 hours that morning.


If you ask me it wasn't a lot of snow.

Sleeping on cots

The hotel I was booked at apparently didn't have any king beds available so I was given a room with 2 twins. European twins are NOT the same size as American twin beds. These beds were more like cots. I barely fit on the bed and slept horribly the first night so the next night I put the phone under my bed, moved the end table and pushed them together. It worked much better.

Brussels

I made it. The hotel left me these yummy chocolates.

Goodbye America

I'm headed back to Europe for the week. So this is my last fountain drink for a week. Sad.

Superbowl Sunday

I had no idea who was playing but we had a nacho bar at my house for dinner (yummy) and watched the whole game. It was a good game and great food. Go Saints!

Saturday Mornings

Saturday is the only day Todd gets to sleep in and he usually gets up with the kids so I can go running so when I get home I try to let him go back to sleep for a few hours. This happens to be prime grocery shopping time in my schedule so I usually take 2-4 kids with me so he can sleep. Some weeks I question my sanity, some weeks I get really mad at the kids, other weeks we do just fine. This week the kids were being fine (they weren't sitting still or anything) but they were being good.

The seat belt in the car didn't work so I couldn't keep Sophie in the seat. She kept climbing out either while I was looking for items to buy or while I was cruising down the isle. At one point a nice lady saw her and grabbed her before she dove out.

The part that sucked was that some older lady stopped me to let me know that Luke had stepped on her foot and "nearly knocked her over". WHAT? Seriously - how could a kid that size do that much damage if he wasn't running (and he wasn't). He was doing me a favor and grabbing something from the other side of produce (banana's I think) when the foot stomping occurred. The lady was so rude and rather than get mad I just apologized and had Luke say sorry to her. But honestly it was ridiculous.

Then I decided to take care of business so I ordered balloons for YW new beginnings for the following Wednesday. Then later that day realized that I was 3 weeks off. WOW! I had a really bad day at the store to be that off.

Claire and Luke in the cart

I finally found a place where Sophie didn't cause trouble. She loved getting into my purse.