The First

This year we sent Hyrum off to second grade.  He has been really excited about school starting.  So far he's been doing very well in his new class. He has some friends from the neighborhood in his class.  His teacher is from Hawaii, so he was excited to tell her that he went there this summer.  We hope it will be a great year for him.  

 Noah has been pretty anxious about going to school.  The last couple of months have been filled with questions about what Kindergarten is like.  He was worried about having friends, not getting recess time, being able to find a bathroom, etc.  When his first day finally came he had the biggest smile on his face when he woke up.  He got all ready for the day as fast as he could, did some jumping jacks, danced, and ran all the way to the bus stop.  His anxiousness turned into joyful excitement, and we were so glad.  Even when I picked him up, he was still filled with joy and couldn't wait to tell me about his day.  Several hours after he got home he asked me when he got to go to school again.  He was so excited when I told him that he got to go every day just like Hyrum.  It's going to be a great year! 

A week after school started Owen started Joyschool.  He has been SOOO excited to go to school like his big brothers.  It's a fun relaxed Joyschool with lots of his buddies. (You can tell by the lighting in the picture that his brothers leave early before the sun is on our porch.)

The Zoo

A week before school started we went with a couple of friends to the Hoggle Zoo.  I really love summer.  I'll miss being able to do these fun things with them when they are at school and having to worry about homework and studying.  This was a great last big activity to fit in, and the kids had so much fun seeing the animals and playing together. With three moms and twelve kids, we felt like we brought the zoo with us.  :)

Blessings

Today is Sunday.  The boys were fighting this morning and it ended with Noah punching Hyrum in the face and what I thought was going to be a black eye (luckily it ended up being a small bruise under his eye).  I had a nice long talk with both of them, privileges were taken away, and apologies were given.  I had a good talk with Noah about what we use our hands for and on each of his fingers I wrote one of their uses; eating, playing, helping, hi-5's, and praying.  I hope it sunk in.  Sprinkles and a bowl of cereal were dumped on the floor.  I didn't have a chance to finish fixing my hair.  When we got to church I was happy to see each of my boys with scripture bags in hand, hair combed, and all their clothes on.  We sat on a side bench in front of another family with young boys.  The boys sat nicely and did very well for the first twenty minutes of Sacrament Meeting.  They each had pre-packed activities, coloring books, sticker books, etc.  Owen started to get pretty antsy after the sacrament and his snack.  After several failed attempts to keep him busy, he ran out of the pews and headed for Brett on the stand.  I had Emmett on my lap and so I quickly tried to clear a space in the pew for me to get through to the exit without making too much noise.  Owen ran back to me and I grabbed him and headed for the hall with the two babies.  A few people in the foyer were trying to help me, but my two boys only wanted me and all of my attention.  After I had calmed them both down and Owen promised to sit still and be reverent, we went back on our bench.  Shortly after we sat down he went running for Brett again, before I could grab him.  He sat with Brett and after he started to get squirmy Brett whispered to him that he could fold his arms and quietly walk back to me.  His arms stayed folded and he nicely walked until he got to the bottom of the stairs of the stand, then he was off  like a cheetah to the back of the chapel and on to the back of the cultural hall.  Many arms reached out trying to help out and grab him as I tried to catch up to him, with Emmett in arm.  I handed Emmett to a nice sister who has offered to help and I caught up to Owen.  Welcome to the Partridge circus!  Once I finally grabbed him I quickly made it to the hall with a tight jacket grasp on our little runner.  Meanwhile, Emmett began crying immediately after I handed him off, so he came out and met us in the foyer. Both boys were crying at this point and both boys wanted me to hold them.  For about 10 minutes we went back and forth between a few kind people in the foyer who wanted to help.  I would try and calm one child down long enough to put him down so I could calm the other one down.  During Relief Society Emmett had fallen asleep and I could feel his warm body resting on mine.  I stared at him and teared up a little as I looked back on the day and felt overwhelming blessings.  I feel so blessed to have my four amazing boys.  I love their energy, their excitement for life, their humor, their passion, their example.  I love knowing that each of my boys are healthy and strong and can run and play without difficulty.  I love that each of my boys are so smart and constantly coming up with new ideas and inventions.  I feel blessed to be loved so much by these boys that my two youngest only want Mom and Dad, because they know that we will give them love in return.  Had this been a few months ago I think I would have felt very overwhelmed and frustrated by the day, but I know the Lord has blessed us with Brett's new calling in the Bishopric.   When Brett accepted his calling I was hoping the Lord would bless us with well behaved children, but I am even more grateful that the Lord blessed me with perspecticles to see my boys the way He sees them.  My boys are not perfect, but neither am I.  We are at the Lords House on Sunday to please the Lord and worship him.  I am reminded that Jesus told the little children to come unto Him and that they should not be dismissed.  I know he was not just talking about the well-behaved quiet children, but he was also talking about the ones that have running legs, loud voices, and mischievous ideas.  We will do our best to be reverent and allow for others around us to receive revelation and feel the spirit, but sometimes our best needs help.  I am so grateful for all of the helping hands around me who try and grab my running child or hold my crying baby.  I am blessed.

The Other Woman

Dear Boys,

     On this blog I record the moments and experiences in our lives that I want to remember forever.  Most of what you see is our happy mormon life.  Our life is wonderful and blessed, but I often choose to not remember the harder times and the struggles, because I know they will pass.  These tough moments are not often recorded, but I don't want you to look back at this 'perfect life' and have false ideas of your future.  I know you will not be reading this for many years, but I wanted to write this while my memory is still somewhat fresh.  Someday you will become madly in love with a sweet young woman who may seem perfect.  I'll talk to you about precautions you should take while wearing 'love goggles' later, but for now lets talk about after you're married and the honeymoon is over.  This is not always the same for every woman, and your experience will be unique, but what I share will still be useful for you to be aware of.  When Emmett was six months old it dawned on me that of the 8 years that your Dad and I had been married, six of those years combined were spent pregnant or nursing.  Why is this relevant, you may ask?  This is relevant because something changes in a woman during this time.  No, I'm not talking about the obvious development and nourishment of a baby.  I know that someday I will forget about how I was while pregnant, but I feel it is important to record my experiences so that it might help you in your marriage someday.  I told you about my post-pardum depression HERE, but that is not all of it.   Here is a glimpse into a few things that I hope you can learn from and be aware of so that it does not catch you off guard.  

Sleep Depravation:
When I was pregnant with Hyrum we would joke with our friends about how we should sleep all we can now, because once we have kids the sleeping would stop.  Believe it or not, I used to sleep ten hours every night.  I LOVED sleeping in until nine or ten in the morning. You may think it's not a big deal to loose a little sleep.  There is a reason that you will find prisoners of war who are tortured with sleep depravation.  TORTURED!  Prolonged sleep depravation was a way to brain wash people and mess with their memories and recall. This is real!  We were under the false assumption that babies slept through the night when they were a few months old.  Hyrum was up about every two hours until he was 6 months old and then he would wake up two to three times a night after that until he was about 3 years old.  While he was teething, he would sometimes be up for several hours during the night screaming and crying.  Meanwhile, we had Noah when Hyrum was just 19 months old.  Noah was up every two to three hours until he was 10 months old and also didn't fully sleep through the night until he was almost 3.   Sleep is the reason why there is a bigger break in ages between Noah and Owen.  During that time life was REALLY hard!  Brett and I both suffered the effects of no sleep.  I would frequently forget things.  They call it 'Mommy brain," I call it survival mode.  You just do what needs to get done to survive each day.  I frequently would fall asleep in the middle of reading a book to you, literally slurring out words on the page until the book would fall in my lap and my eyes would shut.  You boys learned quickly to yell at me and tell me to wake up and finish the book.  Sometimes during the night when I was nursing you, I worried that I would accidentally dose off and drop you.   I never did, but I was close many times.  A successful day was one where I was able to take a nap and shower.  Forget about anything else.  Many days would go by in a blurr.  We loved the blessing of your company.  The days were filled with love and laughter, but they were also VERY hard.  You can see now why I call Emmett our Angel Baby.  He was our first baby to sleep all night long by five months old.  Owen was better than Hyrum and Noah, but he still struggled to get a good nights sleep before two years old.  It is probably because of years of sleep depravation, but currently if I sleep for six hours uninterrupted I am well rested.  I never would have imagined that six hours would be enough before we had kids, but sleep depravation changes you.  

Pregnancy Hormones:
If a woman can suddenly change her entire appetite and food palette while pregnant, just imagine the change that happens with her emotions, temperament, etc.  We joke about how suddenly pregnant women want to eat strange foods at a moments notice, but we often overlook what happens to their emotions.  Yes, crying happens a lot when pregnant, sometimes for no reason at all.  These hormones that are released when pregnant can put a woman's emotions in a heightened state.  What does that mean?  Let's say everyday when you get home from work/school you walk in and give your wife a kiss then take your shoes off and go on with the day.  Sometimes, unknowingly, you track dirt in the house with your shoes when you go to give your wife a kiss.  She doesn't mind though, because she loves you and knows you're oblivious to the dirt.  Let's say this routine has been going on for a few years. Now your wife is pregnant.  You come home and go to give her a kiss, except this time she is crying uncontrollably because she just swept the floor.  She is completely exhausted, because growing a baby is basically equivalent to climbing a mountain with heels on, and she managed to grow a baby AND sweep the floors that day and you just brought dirt in the house.  Get it?  Be prepared and extra courteous.  Looking back at things that I went crazy about while pregnant, now seem funny, but at the time it was far from funny.  Unfortunately,  there's no pregnancy sensor to the emotional vomit that gets spewed on everyone in sight.  Feelings will get hurt, tempers may rise, and patience will be at an all time low.   The worst part is after the moment has passed, the Momma will feel horrible for whatever actions she made, and the crying will begin again.  I can honestly say that EVERY NIGHT before I fell asleep I prayed to Heavenly Father that my children (YOU) would forget the person I was while pregnant and forgive me for who I was that day.  There were many days where I was a very bad mom.  I would yell at you for no good reason.  I would have a hard time getting out of bed before noon a lot of days.  You watched a lot of TV when I was pregnant.  I am not proud of the Mom I was when pregnant.  I am so grateful to your Dad for seeing the real me and knowing that 'pregnant me' was not permanent.  The best thing you can do for your wife during this time (aside from sweeping and dishes) is reminding her that you still see her as the amazing person that you married.  She will wonder, like I did, if the happy person she sees in pictures of herself from years back will ever come back. 

How trials change you:
The sleep depravation and mood swings were hard on your dad and I individually, and also as a couple.  These are not the greatest trials in our lives, but they are trials and every trial changes you.  Having children changed us and we will never be the same people we were when we first got married, because we have become better people.  We have become happier people too.  Trials stretch and push you out of the realm of comfort and ease, and it's somewhere there on the edge of sanity and breaking down where we find our greatest strength.  It's at that pivotal point just before you are about to fall down where you find that you have the will, power, and ability to fight through it and come out on top. I am grateful for the struggles that we faced early in our marriage.  Looking back, they don't seem like much anymore, because when you slay a giant, it looks much smaller and insignificant lying on it's back behind you.  Remember that ALL trials are to help you find your own strength.  Having children has given me confidence in my own power, it has given me confidence in Heavenly Father and His power, it has strengthened my understanding of the Priesthood and the Plan of Salvation, and it has given me four of the greatest things I have been privileged to learn from and grow with.  I really do hope that you don't remember the woman I was when I was pregnant, but I also hope you will know that our life is not perfect and that it is the hard times that make us who we are. 

I love you!
~Mom

Hike

Last summer I remember being excited for school to start so the kids could get back into a routine and back with friends.  This summer I've been following my summer school curriculum with daily lessons, activities, science experiments, etc.  Because of this, I feel that this summer has flown by faster than I can blink.  I'm a little sad to send them to school, because we've had so much fun together.  I hope that every summer is this fun.  We hiked up to a waterfall last week.  These boys were born to be dirty:)

Hyrum and Noah did a great job on the hike, but Owen struggled on the way back down.  I ended up carrying Emmett and Owen for a big chunk of the hike back.  I was pretty tired when we got home, but it was great exercise. 

 Owen is the dirties little boy and he loves it!  He almost always refuses to wear shoes outside, which means his feet are almost permanently black on the bottom.  I love his dirty little body. 

Bubbles

We went to the Lehi Foam Day on Pioneer Day this year.  The boys had so much foamy fun.  I did not want to bring my camera to this mess, but luckily I caught these moments on my phone.  Noah liked to hang out close by the baby and I, but Hyrum wanted to run all over the place, so I have a lot more pictures of Noah.

Phone Dump Part 2

Owen is such a sweet funny little man.  I asked him to get dressed after a bath and he came to me with a Knights helmet and a superman cape.  It didn't even phase him as being odd.  I teased him and told him he was supposed to get his PJ's on and he just said, "Me is dressed!"

 I was so happy to see so much family during the Clyde Rushton Reunion.  I miss my sisters a lot, so it was nice having Mic and her family stay with us.

 While Mic was here we went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity with Grandma too.  The cousins had a blast together!

 Emmett is just starting to walk, but earlier in the summer he was always coming in with scratched and sometimes bloody knees.  I put knee pads on him, hoping it would help, but they drove him crazy.

 Hyrum went to Robotics Camp this summer.  He has been looking forward to this for months, and it did not disappoint. 

Phone Dump

It's time again to free up some storage space on my phone.  I absolutely love looking back and seeing the fun candid moments that I caught on my phone.  I have a LOT of pictures, so this will take a few posts.  

I LOVE our neighborhood.  This is a 'little' movie night we had earlier this summer:).

 These boys are so sweet.  They have so much love for each other.

 On our way to the airport for the Hawaii trip this boy zonked out.  We didn't realize it at first because he was hiding behind his upside-down sunglasses.

 no need to explain these next few pictures.  Life is good when you're near a beach.

 We love living so close to the American Fork Canyon.  We frequently go up for little hikes and tree climbing adventures.  When you don't have much of a yard, it's great to live so close to so much space.

 Best Buddies with their Legos and matching fedoras. 

 Here are a few more pictures of Hyrum and Emmett's birthday treats and party.

 I am in love with this picture and this sweet boys face.  For Hyrum and Emmett's birthday dinner we ate at Texas Roadhouse.  He was so excited to sit on the saddle and have all the attention.

Camping-esque

The boys have been really looking forward to going camping this summer.  They've been earning different activities that we told them we would do during our trip like shooting bows and arrows, going on our boat, making s'mores, etc.  We spent a lot of time prepping for the trip and packing.  The boys and I loaded in the car early in the afternoon to get a good spot.  After a two and half hour drive stopping at every campsite we had to accept the fact that there were no camping sites available.  It was  sad for the boys, but we let them know that we would still be able to do all the activities that they earned.  The weekend still ended up to be a lot of fun.  We had planned the trip with friends, so we went to their house that night for grilling and roasting marshmallows.  In the morning we went to a nearby lake and had a blast feeding the ducks, swimming, and riding in the boat.  The boys had SO much fun!  We can't wait to go out again.