Spring Break: Day 5

Friday morning, we woke up to the biggest surprise (and let down, in my opinion), about a half a foot of snow outside!!!  I couldn't believe it and my heart seriously sank thinking of having 10 kids, stuck at home, with no snow gear..... I started to get worried about my day!!
We managed to have a little fun though, I think.  I mean how could it not be fun when you have four cousins to play with all day.  The girls did some necklaces, played with the Easy Bake Oven, tried to sell some things outside, which I think was INSANE!  The boys mostly played the wii until I forced them to do something else.  They did go outside a LITTLE.  But with limited supplies, it was not something everyone could do together.  I helped the little ones with some foam paint and that fun lasted for a little while.  And then the preparations for coloring Easter Eggs began.  I wasn't prepared to color them with so many kids, I hadn't really decided we would do that while the cousins were here, but with not much else to do..... So my Mom agreed to buy 5 dozen more eggs, and came over to help manage things.  Steve was also invited to color eggs.  He secretly loves doing it.
We had about 17 different colors (well, 14 after some mishaps ;) ), and about 8 dozen eggs, and a LOT of fun!!  I was surprised at how well things went.  There's so much that can go wrong, and so little did, so I was glad.  I think we even had fun while we were doing it ;).  We had started a little before my Mom came with the other eggs, and so we took a little break to play with the little bunny toys she brought for all the kids, and then only about half of them were back in for round 2 of the coloring :).  We added a few more colors and put some oil in them so that they would do the marbley effect.  Kelly and Sierra got a lot of entertainment out of that.  I was pleased.  We really did come up with some cool looking eggs.

After that, the kids disappeared and I spent a while cleaning up the mess.  I'm not really sure what everyone was doing, but there was a lot of fighting and Erika was screaming at me to rock her, it's all just a blur.   I think the kids were all getting a little sick of each other :).  Noah went and put himself down for a nap, I put Erika down for a nap, and we started trying to locate all of the Taylors' socks, shoes, and various other clothes and things that had made their way all through the house.  I really need to be better at organizing those things... not letting them get dressed in any room of the house and keeping their things localized.  I've never been good at that.  We did have two casualty socks, which I am sure will show up someday.

After that, Chris came and got their kids, then Andrea came and we played with her kids and visited, and then Nate and I got ready for our date.  We finally got to go on a double with Andrea and John.  We went to the Cheesecake Factory and had a lot of fun walking around the mall and visiting.  It was really nice.  A much needed break after a long (and fun of course!) week.

Charity, Kelly and Bradley all tended for us.  They did a pretty good job, though we're completely out of any and all snacks that existed in our home.  And frankly anything that even resembled a snack!  Seriously, there was a bag of powdered sugar on the counter, and all over Noah, so I'm guessing that was enjoyed thoroughly.  They watched a bunch of movies, and ate popcorn.  They do a good job when we're gone, and I'm grateful that they were willing to do that.  It was funny to come home to the two oldest completely zonked out on the couch and the two youngest doing somersaults off the beanbag :).  Fun stuff.

Spring Break: DAY 4

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day.... for me.... I told the kids they could do what they wanted, so there were a lot of different random things going on.  The girls did a sale, played with Buddy, the boys got plenty of fun in on the wii.... I still regret not going to do something really fun, but I guess I need to just accept that they can make fun here at home, and that that's good enough sometimes.  We did manage to go out for ice cream, and for that Lukey said, "You're the best, Mom!"  That was fun :).  But we were kind of trying to keep ourselves free because we weren't sure when the Taylors were coming over!  I did spend an extensive amount of time locating a shirt for Erika to announce that we are having a baby so that we could hurry and tell my parents and family.  I decided I needed to do something fun since they tend to bring the fun down a notch once I tell them.  (I shouldn't say "they" it's not my WHOLE family, just certain members)  They tend to dwell on the fact that it has taken me too long to tell them, or that I've told someone else before them.  Happens every time, so we should ALL be used to it by now, but for some reason.... Anyway, I finally found a shirt at the Hospital gift shop.  It was actually relatively cheap too, compared to the ones I had looked at online.  Glad I shopped around ;).  We took a picture with the kids holding up their little signs, and it was done.  I broke the news to my Mom, then later on in the evening we went up to my Dad's to tell him and my brother.  I was surprised they all saw the shirt, fairly quickly, AND caught on, so good stuff.
We raced home after that and met the Taylors here at home.  And the party started!!! The kids were SO thrilled to have them sleeping over!!  They all played in the backyard for a couple hours, then we had some pizza and watched Hugo, then it was time for bed.  We had all kinds of plans for the next day!  Walks, picnics, selling stuff on the curb, LOTS of fun.

The Maynes family is happy to announce.....

Pregnancy Journal

4-5-12

We went and had our ultrasound yesterday, he is a BOY!!!  We're surprised for the most part, but VERY excited!  I really was starting to feel like this was a girl just because of how sick I've been, but looks like I might just be getting older!  

I get so anxious to meet the little guy now!  I was talking to the younger kids in the car today, since I finally found my "big sister" shirt that I was looking for, and figured they could know now, and I said something about me having a baby and Luke and Noah both came back with a quick, "I KNOW!"  I was curious how they "knew" and Luke said, "Because we always have a baby, you had Erika and now a second one!"  Good logic there, bud.  Makes sense.  Wish everyone could think that way :).  Makes me laugh that he calls this baby the "second baby".  And for Luke to have caught onto that one is just hilarious.  He's pretty much the most unobservant person I've ever met.  So anyway.  Funny kid, seems unphased by the whole thing.  I had hoped he would be more excited, but we'll take indifferent over disappointed any day.  

The big kids were very excited, and started helping us think of names.  My favorites so far from their suggestions are Carlos, Elmo, Abinadi, and Duke.  They're so creative :).  Boy names are not our specialty.  We'll see if he ends up with one.  We do have a good 5 months to think of it, so we'll see.  

I was tearing up when I was talking to Noah about what he will get to do with his new little brother someday.  Teaching him how to be a superhero, flying, shooting things, and of course burping :).  He smiled at most of them, and actually looked like he might be excited, and that was fun for me.  I hope he embraces his new role as big brother when he gets here.

Spring Break: Day 3

Wednesday was an exciting day.  In the morning, we dropped the little three off at my Mom's, and took the older three with us to a "special place".  I wanted to break the news to them on the way to the Doctor's office so that they would be excited and want to see what our baby is.  So, as we were driving away from my Mom's, the kids asked, "So where are we going?" I wasn't sure how to announce it, so I just casually said, "Well, we're going to have a baby.  And today we are headed to the Dr. to get an ultrasound and find out if it is a girl or a boy."  Kelly's first reaction was, "No we're not."  She didn't believe me!!  Charity was squealing with excitement until she considered the idea that I might be joking.  Bradley also started to question.  I laughed because I really had made it sound like a joke, unintentionally of course.  So I made up a few other ideas of where we could be going, and spouted those out, but they didn't buy those either.  So we decided we'd just wait and see where we were going then.  My doctor has moved to the IMC hospital, so it was a different location than with Erika, so I'm sure that threw them off a little, but I don't think Kelly was on board and believing us until we were actually in the doctor's office.  Funny girl.  I'm not sure if this was the right way to do it, but they seemed really excited once they found out for sure what we were doing.

In the ultrasound, Dr. Thackeray was really fun to show the kids everything and point it all out for them.  Nate and I are total pros at the ultrasound now, so we don't need any pointing out ;) (I'm only partly kidding, we both could see our baby's gender before he actually settled on the picture and told us.... how cool are we!)

We had made a bet, if it was a girl, the girls get to choose where we go for lunch, if it's a boy, the boys do.  Lots of fun.

So after stopping at the Sprint store, to drop off Nate's phone, we picked up the littles, and went to lunch.  We got Carl's Jr. and took it to the park.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon.  

When we got home, we crashed.  I'm not sure why we were all so tired, but everyone was.  Nate left for work and the rest of the evening was spent doing exactly what we wanted :).  Charity and Kelly did a lemonade stand, the boys played computer and wii, Noah and Erika just wandered around aimlessly doing whatever they pleased.  Everyone took a little time to play with Buddy.  It was a lot of fun.  Could have been more fun if people would learn to clean their rooms the first time, but anyway ;).

That night, we met up with Julie and her kids, Lacie and Tony and their kids, grabbed some DQ and headed out to the park!  It was SUCH a fun evening with them.  I honestly feel like it's therapeutic for me to hang out with them.  It's so relaxing.  I don't feel more comfortable around anyone else.  It's so nice.  We had a lot of time to talk, the kids all ran around with no supervision :) who doesn't love that :).  At one point Erika and Noah were playing in the Volleyball pit ("the sand") and started screaming over to me and when I answered, they yelled back, "COME TAKE A PICTURE OF US!"  Like Julie said, the interpretation, "We're doing something cute, come capture it!"  So hilarious.  I told Kelly to go ahead and get the camera.  She usually does so much better, I think she just forgot to let it focus before pushing the button.  But I don't care, I like having these pictures of some of our Goddard and Clemens family friends.

Tony, her future boyfriends thank you for this picture!  

The boogers alone!!!.....

Tony totally gave in to Erika a bit later, and got some really great ones of Erika's tantrum from me telling her no ;).  It was fun to laugh at which tree Lukey chose to pee on, and see his cute little moon from across the park.... then to later find out that there wass a port-a-potty in the parking lot!  HA!  The story of my life :).  Good times though.  I'm so bummed that Julie's not moving back to Utah, but how sweet that I got to hang out with them, sneak in on their family time with Lacie and Tony, AND get to see the Goddards as well :).  It made my week.  I wish I could do that every week.  I'd be more mentally healthy, I just know it :).

After dinner, I had promised the kids they could use their money to buy themselves some ice cream, so we went back over to DQ.  I like it when we can do spontaneous things that the kids think is so amazing and they all say thank you when we're done.  They did that night and I was pleased :).  

On the way home, we stopped at Brent and Sarah's to get the CD of the kids' school pictures that I kept forgetting about, and I ended up talking to them forever. It was nice.  I love being able to talk, kid-free, sometimes.  I love my kids, we all know that, but uninterrupted conversation is priceless.  I thought it was the perfect time to tell them our news.  They were fun to tell.  I like it when people are fun to tell :).  Keeps it fun.  

When we got home, we hurried into jammies and went to bed (HA! yeah right.)  So sugared up, it took a while to get kids in bed, but it was actually okay for some reason.  I didn't feel as stressed out.  It was nice.  

I had the chance to talk to Debe which was extremely overwhelming and hopefully we'll be able to help her and things will work out for them.  I can't help but feel grateful for the life that I have.  My problems are so minimal compared to a lot of people around me, and I just think I would be a jerk to not say that I am grateful.  Grateful for my trials and not someone else's.