She couldn't wait till she was 8 and now she's been baptized you see!!

WOW, what a special day!!! I never knew it would feel like this! I feel like I can't stop smiling. Charity was SO excited and SO nervous and SO excited. She asked me what time it was and how long until she could get dressed in the jumpsuit (apparently that was the first exciting thing so we counted down till that moment first....). She kept telling me how she couldn't sleep and that it was like Christmas Eve for her all night. She was anxious to help me out with the food we were preparing for the thing afterward. At one point I decided to try to help her use her time better and told her to read "Preach My Gospel" in the sections that talk about Baptism and Recognizing the Spirit.... she did that, stopping every few sentences to ask me what time it was and how much longer she had. We discussed a lot of things that she read, and that was a neat time for me. We have filled this little girl's head with SO MUCH information about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost and I am so impressed with how much she knows and has retained. Even with all the excitement. So anyway, she finally showered and got ready to go. When I was doing her hair she expressed some feelings of anxiety about her hair possibly floating up and having to get baptized twice. She did NOT want to have to do that. We decided that a bun in her hair would be best. She looked GORGEOUS in her white jumpsuit :) I couldn't help but think about doing baptisms in the temple and picturing her in the temple with me someday.... This was all just so exciting for me. The Spirit was with me all morning.... so strongly. I loved it. It made it so much easier to get ready. Unfortunately things got a little stressful when we got to the church WAY later than we had planned, but my goal to keep myself nonstressy was pretty much met. I feel like I was able to keep my cool about the messups at least. It was so neat to sit there with Charity on the front row with my arm around Nate, his around her. Listening to Becky's talk and watching her listen and get into it. I'm so glad that Becky challenged her to read about Jesus' baptism.... we will have to do that as a family for FHE I think. I wish we had thought of that. I could just FEEL her excitement and anxiousness. I got to walk her into the font area and watch Nate help her down into the water from a special spot I like to call "back stage". I realized early on that if I helped her to the font I wouldn't get a very good spot to see it all and decided this was best for me. Then I could cry/clap/get all giddy in a place where no one else would see :) The look on her face when she came up out of the water was PRICELESS. I hope I never forget that. And to see Nate hold her to give her a hug. This was his first baptism in a LONG time and he did awesome!! Didn't forget a thing. I was nervous for him, but he did great. When Charity got out of the water she was SO sweet. It was a reverent giddiness (not sure how to describe it), she kept talking about how good she felt. She was excited to use her new towel that had her name on it and we remembered how the Bishop had wrapped a blanket around her to represent the comforter (Holy Ghost) and how her towel was doing that too. I love that she thinks of that stuff! She was surprised at how fast it was over :) She just let me hold her for a while there in the dressing room, all wet, in her towel, and I just SAVORED it. It was so special for me!!! What a neat position I have as her mom. I love that. And what a neat experience for her. To become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So special. We got her dressed pretty quickly then went back into the room for her confirmation. She was really cute during Brent's talk. She seemed to be listening so intently and yet I could tell she was anxious to get confirmed too. Brent did a cute talk using her Name to spell out things we get from the baptism and Holy Ghost. I'm gonna have to get a copy of the words for her to keep. Heidi and Sarah sang a song while I tried to accompany them. They did great! It was fun to have the program that Charity planned out. I loved that she got to pick who she wanted to do what. It was fun to have her call everyone and ask them to do prayers and music and stuff. I loved who she chose. Nate did a really nice job with her confirmation blessing. I need to write down all the things we remember from it. It was so sweet and so loving. I am so glad that Nate holds the Priesthood and can perform these ordinances for our children. I feel very lucky to have him. She got up from the chair and gave all the men hugs (except for Bro. Oaks our home teacher :) but that's understandable, she shook his hand). We had a nice little dinner afterward right there at the Stake Center (can you believe the miraculousness of them not having the YW conference broadcast to the Stake Center this year because they had tickets!! WOW, talk about a tender mercy! We were able to do our food thing there and that meant a LOT to me) I think everything went really well. I hope everyone else enjoyed themselves, but most of all, I hope Charity knows how much I love her and how important it was to me to make this day one she'll remember.

Charity is such an amazing little girl. I know that she will do big things in her life and I know that this day will always be a precious one to her. I'm glad we were able to make it special. I hope I can carry out all the traditions with all of our children. I want them all to feel the way she does today. And I just can't help but look forward to them all EVEN MORE now that I know how amazing it feels. I loved the feeling of this day, loved being able to feel the Spirit so strongly, and I LOVED watching my daughter move on to this stage in her life. The church is SO true. How could it not be.


(oh my camera.... what was it thinking.... didn't it know how important this day is and how much I needed these pictures to be fabulous?? oh well. Maybe someone has some better ones. )

It was difficult to get any other pictures. I'm sure you can imagine the running around that went on... thankfully Brother Morrison let us stop to take a few pictures with Nate in his whites.... and lucky for us, my Dad was taking pictures the ENTIRE time at the baptism. Hopefully we can get some of those too :) minus the ones of Chris saying the blessing over the food.... my Dad is SO irreverent!! :) HA!

When they said "if she seems ready for it" I had no idea it meant this!

The introduction of solid food. Such an interesting stage of life. The "rules" for when to start have changed with all of my kids (or our different pediatricians' interpretations of the rules were different anyway). This time, with Erika, Dr. Fruin said to start her anytime around 4-6 months of age. (funny too because the paper she gave me said "not to introduce solids until 6 months", but whatever) But then she added that I could start her "when she seemed ready". I've seen "ready" before. And Erika..... well, she was REAAAAAADY! For the last week or so I've been kind of putting it off (I hate starting too soon, it just bumbs me out) and frankly after about the first week or so, the fun-ness of it being something new has completely worn off and it's just a big mess (as much as I hate to admit it, the solid-food-feeding-before-they-learn-to-feed-themselves stage, is not my favorite stage. I've been known to say that I hate it, but "hate" sounds like such a strong word right now. It's just so time consuming and messy!- love my kids- hate sitting there shoving mush in their mouths only to have it come back out and then have to clean it all up- please don't think less of me)
WELL! This morning, as I was holding Erika in one hand and putting a small cookie in my mouth with the other, rather than just reaching for the cookie like she has been doing lately, she completely DOVE IN for it, while letting out this really high-pitched screech!!! And THEN, this is the crazy part, she CRIED when I popped it into my mouth! She is not even 5 months old yet!!!!
She really has been SO into food. At mealtime she just sits there and gawks at all the food on the table and everyone stuffing their faces. She almost looks jealous. And she grabs at everything and watches every bite of the person who's holding her..... she's just been really ready to move onto that stage. I couldn't help but laugh about the cookie thing, but never in a million years would I have thought a baby this young could be THAT ready. And just as a side note (I know I've said this before, but) this little girl is growing up WAY TOO FAST!!! Faster than normal! Reminds me of how Charity was, maybe it's just a girl thing (although, I don't think Kelly was like this.... she was actually very comfortable being a BABY... hmmmmm)... so anyway. I realized that I was not doing much of anything else and I was just getting ready to sit down and nurse her so I decided to just give in and make her some rice cereal. Rice cereal has been NOBODY'S favorite in our house, but for some reason I feel the need to follow the advice to start with that even if I know they most likely won't like it. Luke was the only one who really did okay with it. And I think that was because I mixed it with juice (we were on WIC, it was all free to me- he kind of HAD to like it). But none of my kids have been that thrilled with it. UNTIL NOW!! Erika ate it up!! I've never seen a kid so anxious to get that disgusting stuff in her mouth! She was practically shaking with excitement. Reaching for my hand to help guide it in! She was all for something new- apparently it didn't matter what! She ate quite a bit of it too. I did have to rescoop a few times, because her tongue had pushed it out, but it wasn't the same pushing it out all the other kids have done. She was wide-eyed, interested, rarely a grimace, and trying so hard to eat it the right way. I was in awe. This mom still hadn't seen it all!
I had Brad standing by taking pictures for me since I had wanted Nate to enjoy it, but I just didn't want to put it off any longer. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well she did! Granted she's only had one serving, I know I shouldn't get my hopes up or think this is how it will be, but for now, I'm impressed! I'm guessing (based on my track record) that I will get sick of it before she does.... and move on to the really yummy stuff, but until then!

(looks like I need to teach Brad how to hold teh camera without covering up the flash.... but at least we have pictures right!)

This bib is hilarious, thanks Debe :) (Nate's best friend Scott's wife gave us this in a bag of hand-me-downs.... I think it's funny :) but not really true.)

This week's TOP TEN

I'm going to start a new thing instead of "Friday's Fabulous Five" since it's really just turned into this anyway- and call it This weeks Top Ten. I've loved how easy it's been to do my book with the FFF all compiled and nice and neat, so I wanted to still do that, but I want this to not just the Fabulous things, but ANY things that happen during the week , good or bad, that we just want to have documented. I'm such a journaling freak now, I have to have every moment documented :).... my blog books are getting longer, but I just LOVE it!! I love all the memories that the dorky little details trigger when I read them. Whether my kids will like it is questionable, but hey, if I ever lose my memory for some reason, it won't all be gone! (too much Notebook and 50 First Dates for me I'm guessing) So anyway- here it is:




10- On Friday I got to go out with my sister Heidi. Just she and I (well, and Erika). I don't know how long it's been since we did anything like that. We went and saw Blind Side and since we were late had to sit on the very front row (not my favorite). It turned out to be the perfect seat for Erika though, she LOVED the movie and sat there perfectly content the ENTIRE movie.... talked a little, ate a little, held Heidi's hand a little, but no crying whatsoever! Then we went to Bajios for some Shrimp Tacos which I have never had before, but Heidi convinced me I would like it.... it was AWESOME!!!! I'm already craving another one!! Then we went back to Heidi's place and watched the movie Love Happens. Cute show. Made me more grateful for my man and that he's alive. Good feeling movie though. And then I had to go home. I really had a great time though. That needs to happen way more often than it has. I'm glad I have songs on my phone though, I listened to my music files all the way home to keep me awake.... I"m not used to driving at 1:00 in the morning!



9- This really AWESOME (I can only assume she's awesome) lady at Bajio (yes, I went there twice in 2 days. I had to show Nate how yummy the tacos were.) came up and complimented us on our well-behaved children and explained that she had 8 kids and that when her oldest was 8 she was pregnant with her 7th kid..... someone after our own kind :) She shared that she was always happy to see big families. We totally had that connection and it was fun that she came over and said something. It's always nice to get a nice comment. And I feel guilty for all the times that I complain about the bad comments if I don't recognize the good ones as well :) She was nice.





8- My Dad started this Scrabble game with Steve, Nate and I on Facebook. We've all had fun nagging each other to take our turns and rubbing our really good ones in each other's faces :) I've started a few more with everyone.... fun stuff.




7- We let Charity walk to her friend Hayley's house for the first time here. I'm not sure why I was so nervous about it, it's really not that far, but for some reason I was, so she took Nate's phone with her. She left and about 5 minutes later I get a text from her that said this:

Dear Mom,
What is Hayley's address?

LOL!!! She's so funny.
I then texted her with a reminder of which house it was, and she immediately texted me back:

never mind.

Gotta love her.
Hayley wasn't home, so she came right back. But you could just feel the sense of freedom oozing from her when she got home :) She loved it.



6- I haven't put Luke's shoes on him for 3 days!!! This is miraculous.



5- Erika has slept through the night 8 out of the last 10 nights!!! Ever since Daylight Savings really. It's been SO nice, yet I feel somewhat unrested when I have to get up the first time I wake up! I miss my 3 hour snoozes :)..... jk. really. I love it!



4- This nice lady at the park was more than friendly, she thanked us for "bringing the sun" with us (she was setting up for a birthday party on a very cloudy day), then offered my boys a little goodie sack!! Ya don't meet nice people like that everywhere.... I liked it




3- I got to go visit Steve on Friday.
My poor little brother found himself in jail this week. I'm really not sure of all the details, but he is supposed to be out on Monday.... we're crossing our fingers (and fasting and praying) that he will be out then and be able to make things right for himself here at home. Please say a little prayer for him....



2- It's Friday night and I am not stressing about the baptism tomorrow because I have most things all ready! yay for me!



1- In the Gym after Charity's baptism, Luke taught Noah how to run and then slide on his knees on the "awesome!" slippuwy floor! It was delightful watching them enjoy this new trick.

making mommy smile

I looked over and here was Kelly sharing a book with Erika :) I just loved that you could only see Erika's feet in this picture :).... I canNOT get over how fun it is to see my kids loving each other and wanting to spend time with each other. Cute Kelly saw Charity do this with Erika yesterday so she wanted to do the same thing.



I just LOVE these ones of my girls together!!





And once I got out the camera, they all started joining in!!

(is it weird that seeing Luke's little hand, pulling Erika's head close to him makes my heart skip a beat?!!! OH! I just love it!!! So fun to be a mom!)

We love Noah too, but he was in a bad mood at the moment, so we didn't get a complete shot of my half-dozen.

Before my luck ran out....

I had a big long post about the crappy part of St. Patrick's Day, now it's time for the good stuff :)



I completely slept in on St. Patrick's Day. I wasn't able to do any of my plans to have green pancakes, or any of the other green stuff I had thought of for Breakfast. That bummed me out a little, but I'm always happy for the chance to sleep in. The girls were on time to school, wearing their green. We had lots of pinching since everyone was wearing green and someone had informed us (unfortunately for me) that if you get pinched when you ARE wearing green, you get to pinch back TEN TIMES! I was the only one not wearing green (my only green shirt had spit up on it....). But we got ready and headed out to take steve to get his Driver's License. It's always fun to hang out with Steve, as I have mentioned many times in the past. We had a long wait in the Driver's License Division, but it was shortened with a run in with Michelle Schmidt from the ward. She was there with her daughter getting her learner's. Her daughter shared her green nail polish with me :). Then we found out we had about an hour to kill while Steve waited on some paper work so we went and found a Dairy Queen to have some lunch. It was a really nice time!! I forget how nice it is to eat out with the kids when they are in and out to a playground the entire time!! They actually ate everything!! We went back and got Steve's license!!! Then we went to Walmart where I found some green shirts for Nate and I to wear to the game that night. I am still just so happy to have a St. Patrick's Day shirt :) I'm not sure why, but whatever, they were cheap. So then we took steve home and headed on down to the GREEN park!! We decided Rocket Park was very fitting for the holiday :) And as I look at this picture, it pains me to think that I didn't get a picture of ALL my kids together!!!! In their green!! I have done that for about 3 or 4 years in a row now, and totally missed it this year!!! I'll totally ahve to recreate it, just for me, but yes, I am very bummed. And disappointed with myself. It was all because of swimming lessons. Which I happened to get a few of the girls.....

Here's one of Kelly swimming.... she's doing so well!! She really loves it. Charity too.... I just didn't get one of her swimming. This picture reminds me of how after their first couple of lessons, they came to Nate to ask him why their boy teachers have hair on their armpits!!! So funny.

After Swimming lessons, we came home to our lovely pizza dinner and a cute little Leprechaun treasure hunt that Nate had prepared for the kids (we have the best daddy!!!). This is a little tradition of ours, the treasure hunt to the pot of gold from the leprechaun. The kids really look forward to it :) It's cute! And this year I started a new one (or maybe it was just for this year :) we'll see), but I made these cute little boxes, the night before, with each kid's initial on a little tag.... I guess I should have gotten a picture of them before they got destroyed... they were way cute though! And I had modpodged some green paper to them (they were white from the wedding section at the dollar store) and filled them with candy, so it was a fun little surprise to leave on their pillows for them to find and enjoy while we were gone to the Jazz game. Thankfully Sarah was up for watching our kids for the second wednesday in a row. She's so nice!! I totally hadn't thought of it until Charity said something, but she was just floored that we would choose to be away from them on a holiday!!!! Shows how much we've built this one up :)!!! Heidi gave us the tickets for Christmas and we had such a great time! Thanks Heidi!!! I have been loving all these dates with my sweetheart lately!! We got lots of fun tickets for Christmas that we've been enjoying. We just have one more left, to Rodizio, so we'll have to beg someone to watch our kids again for that :).... but anyway. It was a fun day/night.....

Erika LOVES the Jazz games!! Hardly makes a fuss!

Again with our awesome Aunt!!

My sister-in-law Sarah offered to take pictures of Charity for her baptism. I can't tell you how grateful I am that she had this idea!!! I'm really slow when it comes to thinking of this stuff and I probably would have thought of it when it was too late, but thanks to Sarah we had some beautiful invitations to send out, and now some perfect photos of Charity in her white dress to remember this time forever! I really can't thank Sarah enough :)

It was such a beautiful sunny day last Tuesday, so we had to take advantage of that! Charity was so adorable the whole time. Being her goofy self, pretending to not like having her picture taken :) Trying to be modest and humble, but not quite succeeding :). I LOVE Charity's fun personality in these situations. Sarah mentioned that we will have to engrave this memory of that day in our minds so we can compare it with how she is when she is getting her Bridals done :) I personally think she will be exactly the same :) We'll see. I loved letting her be in the spotlight though, and I think she did too. I'm really pleased with how much Charity has been looking forward to this time and how much meaning is has to her right now. I hope she really can cherish this experience.
Here are some of my favorites from the many Sarah took. I would probably put more on here if I didn't think it would make it harder to pick which ones to put in my book later :) I have to really limit myself. Sarah always does such an amazing job!









I felt so bad that I bought shoes that were a size too big, but taking them off made some really cute pictures I think!

I cannot get over how cute her face is in this one!!

and of course her HAIR!!! Maybe I'm weird for loving this one so much, but her hair has always been so much her trade mark.... I thought this was perfect!!!

I love her face in this one too....

At the end, as we were walking back to the car, Charity started dancing around, and I am just SO glad Sarah whipped out her camera and started snapping pictures of her then!! Look how cute they are!!!! Sometimes I like the candid ones more than the posed.... but they all turned out so incredible!

I'll never forget Charity moving around, different poses, pretending she doesn't want Sarah to take a picture, then staying in the posed position after Sarah puts the camera down and then barking at her to hurry and take a picture!!!! LOL!!! The girl is hilarious!!

As we were getting out of the car at the temple she says to me, "Am I going to have to like pose and stuff??" I smiled and said, "yes" and then she grunted :) I think she ended up having a good time :)

Here's her blog if you're interested!

History CAN be fun!

On Monday (3-15-10) we took the kids to the Panda restaurant (not Panda Express). This is the place my Dad used to take me to when he let me skip school. It's the best!! And I always loved how they cook your food right in front of you. My dad taught me the technique of squishing as much food into your bowl as possible (to get your money's worth).... so I taught my kids :).... They actually really loved the food. I doubt we'll be back there with everyone anytime soon though, it turned out being WAY more than I remember it. (the cost that is) Even with my coupon which was the whole reason we went, it was more than we bargained for. It was fun though.... good times.
After Panda, we all went to the Church Museum of History and Art for FHE. It was Kelly's turn to do the lesson and after a little info from me about it, she was in. We found out later that she had absolutely no clue what I had been talking about, but that this was even better! We walked around a little on the main floor and saw some of the Easter displays. The kids were really getting into it all listening to the sweet tour guide explaining everything. They loved wowing her with their indepth knowledge of certain things. They really just kind of bounced around from display to display, asking questions, pointing out which parts they liked best.... it was actually really surprising to me that they were that interested. Well then we moved on to the section where they talk about the Church History. The kids went quiet, and couldn't seem to take in ENOUGH information! Questions were flying, information was flying.... it was intense!! We all learned so many knew things! Everytime Bradley saw a new gun, he asked if it still worked! HA! What a crack up! I see hunting in his future :)... jk. But we got to see so many cool things, understanding just a little more what the pioneers went through. All the while Kelly was planning in her head some questions (she thought this activity could only be beneficial if it involved a quiz at the end.... so she had to pay extra special attention, being the woman in charge and all....). Luke and Noah were even really interested and well-behaved up until this point. It was then that they started to get just a little distracted, Luke started running around, and Noah was getting restless. So we decided to head on upstairs. This is where the kids area was. They LOVED this part!! (although I do have to say, I think Charity, Kelly and Brad could have learned about church history for another hour or so before they would have maxxed out!!) Kelly helped Noah with the dolls..... they are both just a little obsessed- ADORABLE- but obsessed. Kelly knows just how to make things perfect for Noah though, and he lives it up.


Bradley spent most of his time doing the CTR rubbings. He even made a Spanish one for Grandma Hatch (since she's always teaching him new words in Spanish) and a Chinese one for Simon (since he's chinese). (he's actually wearing one of Noah's many coats because he had left his at home and this was the only one in the car.... at least he wasn't freezing.... but it did look rediculous)



Here he is.... the cutest little daddy ever :)




Kelly's assisting him

Luke liked buiwding a tempo! (building a temple with the blocks) He also spent some time with the bean bag toss... he has such a good arm.

Charity's masterpiece. Most of the things upstairs seemed "childish" to her... but she is good at bearing with us when we do things for the little ones. It's weird to have our kids on different levels these days.... kind of tough to please everyone.

I was overall VERY impressed with how much the kids enjoyed this activity!! I had no idea. Even Erika was tolerant. We will definitely go back to see the stuff we missed. And I'm happy to say we all did VERY well with Kelly's quiz in the car on the way home :). I was really impressed with how indepth her questions were, and the fact that she was able to retain some of it for so long.... I personally cannot remember much of it a week later.... so good job Kelly :)

The Circus

Sorry if you thought this post was going to be us on an outing to the Circus. It's not. We don't need to GO to the circus, sometimes we ARE a circus. At least that's how I feel. We had a few circus-y moments this week, and I feel the need to blog about one of them for some reason. They happen a lot more often than I would ever say, but sometimes it's just too much to retell.....

Wednesday was an okay day overall... I felt good, I was getting lots done, Steve came with the boys and I on all our errands and we helped Steve run a few as well.... we were hanging out, so it was just fun for the first half of the day. We even went to the park!! Then all of a sudden my phone alarm went off and it occurred to me that it was 3:00!!!! How could it be 3??? I hadn't even thought about getting the kids ready for our 4:00 swim lesson and it was almost time to pick up the girls!!! I started to scramble. I had to wake up Noah from his dead asleep nap (apparently I didn't realize how late I had put him down for it). I needed to get the boys ready for their lessons (they are first so we get them in their suits before we go and then the girls just get ready there) and I couldn't even find their suits. Took me about 10 minutes to realize we hadn't even gotten them out of the wet wrapped up towels that were still in the back of the car (yes, I do realize how gross that is, and I'm really not sure why I'm admitting it) so I dug those all out.... waved the suits around a little to make myself feel better about the dampness.... and hussled the shoeless boys and my unfed Erika out to the car. Ran back in to get the shoes and the swimming gear all the while hearing Erika scream out in the car (poor thing). We got to the school a little early, but not early enough for me to feed Erika, so she cried the entire time we did that (she doesn't love the motionlessness of picking up the girls for some reason). Charity and Kelly had both forgotten about swimming and made plans with friends that they thought they would be able to hang out with and were then disappointed when I told them no.
So we were really off to a "great start" with all the kids at this point. My blood pressure was starting to get up there.... but I recognized this and gave the kids a little pep talk, got things under control as much as I could with a crying baby, and it felt like things were going to get better. Well, I was wrong.
As we were unloading everyone and everything (and we had a LOT of stuff!! 4 towels, 4 swimsuits, shampoo, clean underwears in a big bag; the girls' backpacks because we were going to do their homework while the boys had their lesson; and the diaper bag all piled on the handlebars of my little umbrella stroller AND I was carrying Erika in her carseat) Kelly and Bradley started fighting over who could push the stroller. He was trying to sit on it, she moved it away, he got some scratches, she got pinched.... crying.... whining..... you know the drill I'm sure. And then it was all downhill from there. Noah had fallen asleep in the car so he was crying when I got him out to sit in the stroller, Erika was still crying- hungry still, go figure- And now Luke was refusing to unbuckle himself, he wanted me to do it. During all this I noticed a man across the aisle in the parking lot who just couldn't help but watch us. I thought of the million things he could be thinking at that moment, wondering if I was helping or hurting these children and why they were crying, why there were so many of them.... who knows what he was thinking. He couldn't take his eyes off us though. I tried SOOOOO hard not to let it bother me. I have been doing so much better at not letting the stares get to me and just being in touch with the reality that we are different, but even with all the tongue-biting, I just couldn't help myself and I said, "WHAT??" to him. He tried to look away and pretend like he hadn't been staring, but I kid you not, it was at least 3 minutes there where he did not even turn his head from our direction.... just stood there gawking! I felt bad after that. I hate it when I am rude. I just get SO sick of that. And it was quite the show I'm sure, but come on! So we slowly made our way into the building, and down to the hall with the TWO (NOT ENOUGH) family dressing rooms that we constantly have to fight for. Of course, since I had a crying baby, crying 2 year old, unhappy 5 and 6 year olds with me, of course we would have to wait. Well, we were going to be late. Out of frustration I just dragged them all down the hall into the girls locker room. The crying echoed. The girls went into the stall and started getting ready (they really were overall very helpful during this whole thing... I have to give them some credit). Then I realized Brad was missing. I found him just around the corner of the entrance, feeling very embarrassed that he was in the girls locker room. And why wouldn't he, there was a completely naked elderly lady sitting in the middle of the room!! So I covered his eyes and quickly walked him through to the other stall in the section that we were in. I threw him his suit and then tossed Luke in there as well for them to get ready. And I should mention that this was when Erika started her really high pitched SCREAMy cry where she sounds like someone is ripping off her fingernails one at a time.... she'll never get kidnapped, but it is SOOOOOO loud!!!! So I hurried to get her out of her carseat and feed her but realized she had completely blown out her diaper!!! It was EVERYWHERE!!! Luckily I had a change of clothes. But we all had to listen to her screaming, WITH the echo, the ENTIRE time that it took me to change her. All the while with ladies staring, Luke's shoes flying all over the place, clothes being dumped wherever, then Luke bouncing and running from here to there completely naked saying, "I need to go potty, I need to go potty!!" That was actually one of the times that I couldn't help but smile.... he's just so funny sometimes.... I made him get his swimsuit on first and then he was able to go potty. Erika was finally changed. still screaming, but changed. The kids were all ready to go, the girls had helped compile all the clothing back into the bag, and we were ready to head on down to the pool. I thought the madness was over, but of course this was the ONE time (out of like 20) that they wanted the kids to shower first before entering the pool (I get that it's a rule, and I'm glad it's there, I've just never seen ANYONE follow it, so I never felt the need, and then just forgot about it).... so it was back down the hall and into the locker room to shower. Sounds simple on paper, but with a stroller, baby, carseat, sweat dripping down my face, my bad attitude and 4 other kids..... well..... it wasn't. And the little voice inside my head was whining the entire time. Well, we finally made it to the pool. The excitement really ends here, but for me it still felt like it hadn't. The boys got in for their lesson and since we were in a different pool, Brad "almost drowned" thinking he could touch. we realized we didn't have a pen or pencil to do the girls' homework that hadn't even been touched for three days. I realized I didn't even have my phone and had no idea where I may have left it. And Nate still wasn't there. During the girls' lesson Charity lost her bracelet *sad*. Found it *happy*. Kelly "almost drowned" a few times *sad*. And the boys just couldn't sit still *restless*. I had all the lifeguards mad at me for letting them wander around, most of the men in the room were bugged at me for nursing my baby, and well, I was pretty ticked off at myself for being all worked up!!! Not to mention I was starting to worry that something had happened with Nate and he couldn't reach me because I had no idea where my cell phone was and couldn't leave to go find it. Well, lessons ended, we went out to the family dressing rooms and they were full- OF COURSE!- I ran out to the car to see if my phone was in there.... came back in to ask if it'd been turned in at the lost and found.... and then desperately rummaged through the diaper bag again.... luckily I got a text right then, so I could hear it go off as I was digging.... it had been in the diaper bag all along. Nice. Nate had forgotten about lessons (but in his defense was at home making dinner and getting things all nice and ready for us to go on our Jazz Game date- thank goodness I was getting a break!). The dressing room was still occupied so I finally just dragged us all out to the car to shower at home. Barefeet, swimsuits and all..... lots of looks too (needless to say I'm sure). And then it was over.
I really can't tell you how frustrated and worn out I was at the end of this. These kinds of things always make me wonder what the heck I am doing. Luckily it's not always like this, and I'm sure there are MILLIONS of things I could have done differently to remedy MOST of the problems, but you know how it goes.... sometimes you just have to learn the hard way. I think I'll feed Erika and just be late for lessons.... the crying is a HUGE factor, and having the boys ready beforehand..... priceless. Better luck next week :) (and I actually took a few pictures of the girls in their class- got the boys last session- but I'm sitting here with a sleeping Charlie (SO CUTE!!) on my lap, so I'll get the camera later to post them)

That night Nate and I got to go to the Jazz Game while Sarah watched our kids again. It was a fun game. I needed more suspense, but it's always fun to be there. Erika wore her cute little Jazz Tee :) This date was nice little refreshment after that grouling 2 hours (was it really only 2 hours!!!?? That's nuts)

Day of Rest

We got to the family meeting early so we goofed around a little before everyone got there.....

just taking pictures.....

It's crazy to see the pictures of her wearing this flower when she was first born compared to now!!! She's so much bigger!!! I'm still in denial of course.... I hate how fast they grow! (kids, not flowers :))

hugging......

playing with Daddy's phone......

and spinning :)........

and some more hugging- isn't this such a cute picture!!! It was blurry so I had to improvise a bit.