Summer schedule

I'm feeling like this baby will be coming very soon, so I wanted to update the blog in case I don't have a chance to later.  I'll be honest, I have not been very active since the boys have been out of school.  I usually love to go on walks with the boys and race them around, and I feel bad that I spend most of my time sitting on my camping chair on the front lawn and just watch them.  Maybe by the end of summer I'll be back to myself again.  I love feeling this little man inside of me kicking away.  We can't wait to meet him.  He's going to be very loved and likely smothered with kisses, zerberts, and snuggles from his brothers.  Here's a few things we've been doing while we wait for Mystery Baby (or the boys often call him Fishy).   

Summer School has been very successful so far.  The boys love earning tickets.  I've tried to make it all about the rewards of working and time spent rather than merely what was accomplished.  Hyrum has actually worked harder at summer school than he usually did with his kindergarten homework.  I think he does a lot better when he doesn't feel as much pressure.  Everyday for summer school we set aside about 30 minutes. During that time they each have a bin of learning activities and flashcards that they can choose to do.  They get one ticket for working on those for 15 minutes.  Hyrum can also choose to write a story with a picture for a ticket.  Then we read together for 15-20 minutes, which they earn a ticket for.  If they read a book to me they get another ticket.  

We haven't gone to a lot of parks this summer yet, but this week we did drive to this really nice one a mile or two away.  The boys had a blast.  

In case you can't tell Owen has no problem climbing in and on everything.  I was pretty impressed that he just climbed up this big toy with out any problems or hesitations.  He's quite the daredevil.  

With the baby coming and Owen starting to swing himself out of his crib, we've moved him into a big boy bed.  It's been a little bit of a struggle for him, but it's starting to get better.  We're hoping all will be well with his sleep schedule by the time Mystery Baby gets here.  Brett has been great to get up with him every night/morning.  Owen is such a Daddy's boy and I love how much he loves him.   

In other big news, Noah decided that he wanted to ride on two wheels like Hyrum.  He was determined and kept practicing.  Now he's a big boy just like Hyrum.  It's fun watching the two boys ride up and down the sidewalks and race.   

Near the Day

This week I am officially 36 weeks along!  Woohoo!  The pregnancy has been hard on my body, but I think it's more the fact that I am constantly chasing after my three other cute little men that makes me pretty tired.  I am VERY grateful for an amazing chiropractor who really helps with my comfort level.  I'm pretty big now and do a great prego waddle. My neighbors have been amazing and many have volunteered to help us out if I go into labor before my mom gets here in two weeks.  Let's hope this little man will stay cooking just a little longer!  

With all that has been going on we've stayed pretty busy and have been having a lot of fun with the arrival of summer.  Hyrum graduated Kindergarten.  He had the cutest end of school program and fun activities with his class.  He also finished off the T-Ball season.  The first few games were a little rough, and we learned that he's not a big fan of the sport.  After several games he started to warm up to it a little.  It was so cute seing him in his Giants uniform and oversized helmet when he was at bat.  My biggest regret is not getting any pictures.  I was planning on taking pictures at his last game, but he ended up catching the stomach flu and didn't make it.  

Noah finished off his year of Joyschool.  We had a field trip up to the canyon on the last day and celebrated their exploratory minds and reviewed the things we had learned over the past year.  Noah also finished off his soccer season.  I can't say he really picked up on how the game works exactly, but he had fun running back and forth on the field with his friends. He scored a couple of goals and loved it.  Unfortunately, the day I brought my camera to take pictures ended up being the day he threw up all over the carseat on the way there.  Yep, we all caught the stomach bug and it was NOT fun.  

On the last day of school we celebrated with some cupcakes and a trip to Arizona for Brett, Hyrum, and Noah.  They were SO excited leading up to the trip and the vacation did not disappoint.  They had so much fun swimming and seeing family.  They are now obsessed with swimming and are insisting we have a pool in our backyard.:)     

Just before the last day of school I was loading Hyrum's bike into the van and I tripped on a hole in the concrete.  There was a very awkward landing with a bike over my head, my prego belly hanging below my shirt, and my ankle/foot underneath the weight of my huge body landing on top of it.  Yes, my first reaction was to look around, hoping no one saw.  It was pretty embarrassing.  Then I finished loading the bike in the van, got the boys loaded in, and headed home.  It wasn't until we got home that I realized how much pain I was in.  My foot started to swell up and I couldn't put weight on it for a few days.  Now, a week later it still hurts but is MUCH better.  The picture is not great, and it reminds me how much I want to get a pedicure, but you can see some of the bruising settling near my toes and heal.      I was pretty glad that Brett had the older boys in AZ during my worst pain, because it would have been really hard keeping up with them.  Owen and I had some good bonding time and I dragged myself around enough to get some good cleaning done and painting the baseboards on our main floor.  My nesting list is almost done.  Yay!

Sun

I love the end of winter.  I love the flowers blooming and the kids playing outside more then they are inside.  I love the excitement the boys find in worms and bugs.  I really love when the garden starts to bloom.  I love the colorful blossoms and getting my hands dirty in the soil.  

This summer we got a pass to the canyon and the boys love being in nature to explore, skip rocks in the river, and climb trees.  I think we will spend many days up there this summer when school's out.

One of the most exciting things that has happened since the snow has melted is Hyrum's new love of his bike, minus training wheels!  After a couple of Saturdays of Brett working with him, he was off. Now we have a hard time getting him to stop riding his bike.  He is becoming such an independent little man.

Funny things the boys say:

Hyrum:  While we were eating lunch one day Hyrum asked if I was extra smart because I had two brains.  I was kind of confused, obviously.  I told him I only had one brain.  His response: "No, mom you have two brains in your body because you have one in your head and one in the baby that's in your tummy.  So does that mean you're extra smart?"  This boys brain is ALWAYS going.  His thought process and deductions blows me away sometimes.

Noah:  While I was pouring Noah some cereal he said he would get the milk.  I watched as he pulled the full gallon of milk from the fridge with difficulty.  It was heavy and he carried it to me with both hands and said, "I. . . WILL. . . NOT. . . LET. . . THIS. . . MILK. . . DEFEAT. . . ME!"

Owen:  This little man has added some new words to his vocabulary.  "No" has really opened up understanding between us.  Now it's so much easier to find out what he wants to eat by pointing to things.  His cutest new word is "ME!"  When we ask a question like 'who wants to. . . ' He raises both hands over his head and yells "ME!"  It is SO cute! Mostly, he does it when we ask who wants to say the prayer.  He is just so cute!

Happy Mothers Day

Mother's Day in Utah means it is now finally a safe time of year to work in the garden with out fear of snowfall. . . or at least we hope.  This week I've been working on our front garden.  Pulling weeds.  Planting flowers.  Laying out dirt and mulch.  Pulling more weeds.  Then today was the big day for the family backyard overhaul.  The plan: edge, mow, weed, place new compost and dirt.  Our plan changed a little.  We've spent four summers debating what to do with a huge rock/boulder that inhabited the center of our garden space.  It has made planning for this space almost impossible. Once Brett got working on weeding out 'the jungle', he decided once again to attempt to defeat the rock of all rocks.  After a few hours of sweat and dirt, he cleared enough space around the rock so that it could move back and forth with a lot of muscle.  There was no going back now.  After many attempts at moving it he took a trip to the hardware store and got some heavy machinery to help with the rock eviction.  He had fun drilling and pounding into the granite, breaking off several pieces to make it more manageable.  The boys got to try out "Thors Hammer" - as Noah called it.  During this process we had the dirt/compost delivered to us by some young men earning money for scout camp.  They unloaded the dirt around where Brett was working and the scout leader worked with Brett to move the rock to the side of the garden so it can be used as seating.  It's amazing what a difference it makes to have all that space cleared up.  The backyard is looking so much better.  I'll post some after pictures later this week once we get the lawn mowed.  

I'm amazed the boys could pick the hammer up it was heavy and hard to swing. 

This picture is a little deceiving.  He is NOT drilling into his foot. 

The drill was really loud, so the boys sat with their ears covered most of the time.  They had to be far enough away that they wouldn't have rock pieces flinging on them.  

I had the best Mother's Day this year, thanks to the men in my life:).  Hyrum and Noah were really excited about the 'Mom Party' and couldn't wait to give me breakfast.  They kept coming into our room way to early asking Brett (loudly)  if it was time to sneak downstairs and get me breakfast.  Once it was a decent hour to wake up, Brett went down with the boys and got me my cereal of choice. Noah ran up a few minutes before Brett and the other boys, threw a present on me, and then ran away.  I pretended to still be asleep:).  Once everyone was in the room I acted really surprised to see everyone.  I sat up and fed Owen my cereal that he was begging for before I opened presents.  The gifts were perfect and much needed/wanted.  I'm so glad Brett took what I told him I wanted and ran with it:).  In Kindergarten class Hyrum made a special card for me with a paper that talked about how great Mom's are.  I loved them, but I had to laugh at the checklist that had two attributes unmarked.  I don't think he actually read what they said, but it was pretty funny.:)  It was a great day and I am so grateful to be a Mom to such cute/wonderful/happy/smart/funny boys. 

Sick and tired

It's been a tough week.  Okay, a really tough week.  Owen started to get really cranky.  At first we blamed it on his 18 month shots he had the week before.  By Tuesday morning (really early morning) we decided it was time we took him in to see the Pediatrician.  He had been up for a few hours during the night and was given the infamous label of Mr. Crankypants. We found out he had 2 ear infections and pink eye.  Yuck!  Poor guy was miserable.  I am amazed and happy to announce that this is actually his first (and second) ear infection.  My other boys had them all the time and I thought he might just be immune, but I'll take 18 months without.  I was pretty happy to find that there was a reason for his behavior rather then we had spawned a night time demon.  He's still not sleeping fully through the night, which makes life complicated and not fun, but let's hope it will get better soon.  My throat started hurting really bad last Sunday. Brett's throat started hurting on Monday. By Wednesday early morning I couldn't sleep because my throat was killing me and I felt feverish.  I got an appointment that day and found out I had strep throat.  Brett went in the next day and found out he had strep throat.  By the way, at this point, Owen is still Mr. Crankypants, except now it's night and day.  So, with his misery added to two miserable parents, this week was pretty much miserable.  With all the meds we've all been taking I thought it would ware off by now.  We're all still struggling.  The last time I had strep I was a teenager, but I don't remember it being so awful.  It's not just a sore throat; it's headaches, earaches, uncontrollable painful night time coughing, etc.  I really feel sorry for Hyrum and Noah, who have had to patiently survive a week in a house of Crankypants'.  We've had cereal or peanut butter and jam sandwiches for more meals than I will admit.  They've been good sports and I hope they stay well and don't get our yuckiness too.  Let's hope we can get through this!

I thought I would give a little update on our little man too. This little man reminds me a lot Noah at this age. In fact I'm pretty sure I have a picture almost identical to this one of Noah when he was two (except Noah had been painting on the mirror with toothpaste).  During Family Home Evening last Monday Owen disappeared upstairs (not uncommon), then he started screaming like he wanted something (also not uncommon).  I was in the middle of the lesson, so I decided to just finish the story before I went up to get him.  After the lesson was done I went upstairs and found him on the bathroom counter, screaming because he couldn't get back down.  I couldn't figure out how he got up there.  Since then I've found him on the counter a few times, luckily it's not a daily occurrence.  Well, I finally caught him in the act of climbing up.  He climbs on top of the toilet, reaches over to the toilet paper and manages to get one foot over the paper roll, and then proceeds to pull himself on top of the counter.  I'm amazed he can reach his leg that far and I'm amazed he frequently does it with something in one of his hands too.  He's a pretty determined little man.  This week he also managed to pull the pantry door off it's track, luckily I was close and caught the door before it landed on him.  (Remember Noah pulling the door off our bookcase?)  He's constantly making messes.  I usually sweep somewhere between 2-4 times a day, and it's all because of this little man.  If there is a sticky hand print somewhere, a broken something left out, a puddle of water on the carpet, or a smear of snot on a newly cleaned shirt, we all know it's Owen.  As crazy as he makes us all sometimes, we love him SO much.  He is the sweetest boy in the world.  He still loves reading books.  I love that if I sit on the floor cross-legged he will walk backwards into my lap and plop down with  a book.  He listens and points.  He is starting to make animal noises too.  He can mooo like a cow and pant like a dog.  He's working on the baaa of a sheep and ooh-oooh-aaaah-aaaah of a monkey.  He says 'Uh-oh' in the cutest little voice in the world!  I love how his little lips form the words and his eyes light up, knowing that we understand him.  He loves zerberts and kisses, even with his brothers.  He LOVES his Dad.  I wish there were a bigger way I could express how much he loves his Dad.  There is no doubt who his favorite parent is.  The moment he sees his Dad coming he starts yelling. 'Dad! Dad! Dad!' and runs to him.  He always wants to snuggle with Brett and be held by him.  He follows Brett around all over the house when he's home.  Owen is his little shadow.  He loves his brothers too. He loves chasing them around, wrestling with them, and dance parties.  I feel so blessed to be the Mother of such a cute little man.

Happy Easter

Our neighbors up the hill from us put together a nice little egg hunt for the little people on Saturday.  Our boys had fun finding eggs and spending time with friends. 

 On Sunday morning we started with a little egg hunt in the house.  Brett and I made a maze for the little O man to climb around in and find eggs, while Hyrum and Noah ran around and found all the others.

 And, of course it wouldn't be a holiday without some family pictures:)  Ironically, the best pictures to turn out were our funny ones. I love my crazy family.

Lucky Day

These cute boys were so excited about their green attire.  At school Hyrum has been very indoctrinated with Leprechauns and gold at the end of the rainbow, so we had fun with it this year.  We did a few Leprechaun things for them while they slept, (green milk, Leprechaun trail, etc.) but the best part was all of the things the boys assumed were done by the little green man.  Whenever they saw anything slightly out of place in the house or odd, they would laugh and talk about how the Leprechaun was so sneaky and mischievous.  It was a fun day:).