Memorial Day 2011

Andy here:

Monday, of course, was Memorial Day, and that usually means going to my folks' house in the mountains. Here's me, my dad, my mom, and Elizabeth. Also pictured are three of the main things we do up here: pop, food, and guns.There were quite a few people up there. My friend Nathan's mom and dad, who live in Shelley, Idaho, were in town for a few days, and they came up. Uncle Scooter came up. He spends most of the time tied up because he's a naughty little dog and if he got loose, he wouldn't come back, and eventually a cougar or a coyote would eat him. He's not totally safe being tied up either. Last year a deer came by and tried to stomp on him. Aunt Nancy came up the mountain. Her son Kurt came too. We can't decide if that's Kurt's foot there.

This was Abigail's first time up here. She had a pretty good time.
My sister Sara, and her family came up. Here she is with Daphne. (Sorry Sara. Andy picked out the pictures.)

Here's Sara's other daughter, Sami, with my mommy.

Reason #3 that digital cameras are awesome: you can send a five-year-old out to take pictures, and she can take as many pictures as she wants, and if 90% of them stink, so what? Olivia took about twenty pictures of Scooter, and one or two funny ones like this.

See those nice bangs? Then Sunday she got gum stuck in her hair.

We assume Olivia also took this picture of Elizabeth.

I brought up my .22 pistol, and a box of bullets, but I forgot to bring ear-plugs, so instead we shot BB guns. Here I am setting up some targets. I managed to hit my share of the cans. Elizabeth got a few (she said she got five good shots), so she's doing pretty good at being a novice marksman.

Here's Vincent about to take the 4-wheeler out for a spin. Don't worry, it was the small 4-wheeler. Just kidding, we won't let him drive the 4-wheeler until he's at least five. He did take a few spins in the trailer. Apparently, he was enjoying having his face right by the exhaust. I've never heard of anyone being killed by carbon monoxide while they were outside, so he'll probably be OK.

I doubt that any of those guys who stormed Omaha Beach, or climbed Mt. Suribachi, did it so a guy could take a day off, and shoot pop cans while wearing a tie-dyed American flag T-shirt, but they did it for freedom, and we're grateful.

I don't know if Vincent was just making a face, or if he was 'funned' out by the time this picture was taken.

Anyway, we all had a good time up at the mountain, and got home safe and sound.

Abby's Cereal

Abigail tried some cereal after her doctor appointment the other day. She seemed to like taking bites, but not what she was eating. Who can blame her? Soggy rice dust. Yum.

After she took just a few bites, she was done and then she spit it all up. Yuck. I haven't fed her more yet. I think it was just her gag reflex. She doesn't spit up brownie crumbs though, so maybe she just has good taste. =)
Andy picked this picture as one of those pictures they show when you graduate.
It's hard to take pictures left-handed.....but probably just because I'm right-handed. I'm going to assume it's the opposite for left-handers. =)
I know this picture is blurry, but I love her little half grin here.

We'll have to try cereal out again soon.

More pictures

Abigail went to the doctor on Thursday and she is now 11 pounds, 8 ounces at four months. Yes, she is just a little girl. She is growing and is in the tenth percentile. We were all worried about Olivia when she was little because of the percentile thing (Elizabeth was in the 90th percentile-huge!) Then, I compared their records and they were just a few ounces different, so I don't really care about percentiles, but that's where Abigail's at.
We dropped Elizabeth off at her musical theater class after school and went to get Abby's pictures taken at the mall with a great coupon and gift certificate (when we had Elizabeth's baptism pictures taken, the photographer wanted to add them to her portfolio and gave us a $4 off certificate) which made them less than five dollars because I have to be strong and just get the package. It's not like I don't have pictures of my kids. I am sure you wish I had less pictures...
Abby wore this cute outfit from Andy's sister Suzie. I just went through her clothes again and found all the cute new stuff that she gets to wear soon and couldn't wait to put her in this. I guess this picture doesn't show the adorable pants....They have sparkly buttons on the bottom of the jeans. If you want to see them, you can go to see them on the JCPenney Portrait site.We had a little time before the photo session, so we went to play at the little playplace there for twenty minutes or so. Vincent and Olivia liked this car, but ended up at the rocket further from Abigail and I most of the time. They made a few friends and ran around crazy. Sorry their eyes are all crazy in the car. Olivia wanted her picture taken on the baseball. She cut her bangs again too. Time to put those kid scissors away for a while again.
Friday the kids didn't have school (it was a scheduled make up snow day that we didn't use) and I told them a few days ago that if the weather was nice, we could go to a new splash park while Kennewick and Pasco kids were still at school. It's just too crazy to go new places with everyone out of school. The weather was lousy though. Only 65 degrees and a chance of rain, so I had to nix that idea. We stayed home all day. That might sound boring to you (and Elizabeth), but I thought it was great to not have to drive anywhere and load kids into the car and run around. We all still got dressed and Vincent even keep underwear dry ALL DAY!!! Even for his nap he kept his diaper dry. Awesome. We've been using pull ups because he still doesn't tell us when he needs to go and for a while I was remembering to tell him to go right after he had gone. Annoying.
We did go to the store after dinner for our week's shopping. I didn't feel like taking the kids by myself this time. It gets a little crazy with all four of them (three mobile) in the store. I usually have Vincent sit in the cart and Olivia hang on to a side (not hanging, just holding on) and Elizabeth helps me with the list or sometimes she's still at school when we go. Andy doesn't like Vincent and Olivia to hang on to the cart because it bugs him, (Andy says: when I was a kid, it would be my job to push the cart, but my dad would hold onto the front of the cart and steer it, and it annoyed me, and I refused to push the cart anymore because if I was big enough to push the cart I was also big enough to steer it, and ever since, I don't like anyone to hold onto the cart when I'm pushing it) so they were just kind of running around crazy (but not too crazy wild). We had a lot to get and I had a ton of coupons in my envelope to see if they were a good enough deal to use and my grocery checklist that Elizabeth added x's to a bunch of things that I don't buy, like TV dinners, so I was all over the place too. We managed to get all the things we needed and several things we didn't, but I used twenty coupons and saved more than $35. It was great! I had I had several coupons for free things (Zyrtec, formula) and I had some buy something, get something else free too. My total was more than it would have been with just me because we added in pop and chips, gifts for graduates, a shirt for Elizabeth's Musical Theater recital (and Olivia's recital Friday, June 10th 5pm in Columbia Park). I love couponing. It's fun. I like watching the total go back down after getting so big. I also think it's kind of fun to go with Andy so he can appreciate that I normally go with the kids alone and so he can see the difference coupons make and why I work so hard to use them. It's not really super hard, but I have to stay on top of it, just like everything else. Anyway, pretty successful trip.

Oh, one funny little story from the store: Elizabeth was trying (kind of) to hold Vincent's hand, but by the end (even the beginning) it wasn't working very well, and when we were almost done, he ran straight into a lady's parked cart. It didn't even phase him, but she was all apologetic like it was her fault and she thought he was hurt (his head is SOOOO hard, he was just acting shy). She did tell us that our kids are all adorable and paid special attention to them and didn't yell at us to quit letting our kids run wild through the store. I like nice people. Don't you?

Seriously?!

There are so many ways to use this word: Seriously.

It's Elizabeth's new favorite thing to say.

1. She can use it when I tell her something she hasn't heard before that surprises her as a question.

Me: That's because blah-blah-blah...

E: Seriously???

2. Or she can use it in the exasperated way when she discovers that a certain brother got into her things (that she didn't put away).

Vincent: Do, do, do, do (the sound of trouble brewing...)

E: Ser-i-ous-ly!!!!!????? Followed by grunting, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

It's awfully hard to come back from this one.

3. When used as an add-on to a sentence lying to me that "my teacher told her that she doesn't need to study her spelling words, seriously." Even though it's written on her homework page. I know when she adds the seriously word, that she's trying to convince herself that what she's saying is true so she can do something fun instead. Or when she's telling the truth, "Abby is seriously the cutest baby ever." Obviously true. =)

4. Sometimes it's used as a tattling end: Vincent was doing x, y, z, seriously!

When she doesn't know what else to say, seriously fills in well. Almost too well. I do like it better than her past favorite response of "Come on!" In her defense, she does learn from the best (me probably), but most of the time I use 'come on' in the "come on, let's go" way and not the "come on, man, why'd you do that???!!!" way.

One of our game night friends packed a one-two punch Wednesday night with a, "Seriously??? Come on!!!" in response to something on American Idol. I thought it was funny. The kids were in bed by then, so I don't think that Elizabeth gets it from her.

But, seriously, who else is annoyed by certain words when used repeatedly like that? Seriously?

Keep on Moving

Abby is now a officially a roller and squirmer (I guess that not that new because she did that while she was inside me still, but now everyone can see how much she wiggles.) She flips onto her tummy from her back now, but usually can't flip back until she cries for a few minutes in frustration. I think our other kids usually figure out how to go tummy to back first instead. Her little arms just get in the way.

She is now four months. Yea! We are all smitten by her. We are taking her to the doctor later today (I'm up taking care of her now) and we'll find out how much weight she's gained.

I wish my wardrobe changed every three months like Abby's, although I guess if I had to grow to do it, it just wouldn't be cute. I'll have to settle for a new shirt once in a while instead. Maybe I'll just get new things as I shrink. I need to work on that. She has some really cute clothes to wear!

The older kids are loving the out-of-doors now that it's warmed up a bit (and even today when it was a little rainy. It's hardly ever too rainy to be outside where we live and if it is, then wait 5-10 minutes and it's usually over.) They love to scooter, ride trikes, and run down our sidewalk since we are at the top of a little hill (very little, but they like it a lot!) They just stay on our side and go down to the corner seven houses down and then come back. They also like to play with leaves and grass and, well, here's proof:

No, not that Elizabeth is out of control, or that her hair is crazy. Keep looking....There. Olivia has iris leaves in her shirt. I can't remember what they said they were making it now, but they are fanned out. Elizabeth 'made' it for her.

You can tell by their hair that they were having fun!

Note: Elizabeth's hair was contained shortly after this picture was taken and NOW you know why she usually has a ponytail. Her hair gets crazy super fast!

Vincent is busy doing his normal playing in the mornings and is now FINALLY starting to eat our regular dinners after a very long time of offering it to him. For a while, we'd just get him crackers, ham, and raisins or something else we know he liked, but now he gets what we eat and he actually eats it. That is one fabulous milestone!

He now eats:

-pasta (it tastes better than if we just call them noodles)

-corn

-green beans

-hot dogs

-mac and cheese

-apples (well half of them and then leaves them somewhere)

-carrots, dipped in ranch (carrots, carrots, dip, dip, dip.-they like to sing this with ketchup replacing carrots too.)

-broccoli

-tacos (which is great since we eat them almost weekly)

-peanut butter sandwiches

-and pretty much whatever else we feed him....after a while. A very long while. Sometimes it takes him a half hour to even start his dinner while the rest of us eat and clear the table. He likes to be a showoff at dinner and mess around instead.

I'm worried about when he gets to school. He'll be that obnoxious one who is adorable, but oh, so annoying to the teacher! We are working on it, I promise!

He just doesn't understand 'if you do this, then you can have that' or 'after you do this, you can do that' or 'if you do that, you get a time out'. I think my kids are behaving like teenagers already!

And time to go back to bed since she's asleep. =)

Nearly four months

Abigail will be four months old this week. I had to get her picture taken in this cute outfit that Uncle Doug and Aunt Suzie gave to Olivia when she was born. It is a size three months and still fits, but it won't fit for long! She's a little girl. I think I'm almost done putting away newborn clothes that don't fit her now. The longer she wears the clothes, the more chances I have to take her picture in them. She'll get to all the other clothes eventually. =) She is growing, just slower than Elizabeth did, but Elizabeth started out bigger than newborn size.

One of my friends made this headband for Abby. Another friend made the quilt she's laying on.

She was yawning in this picture.

My former visiting teaching partner made these puffy booties when Olivia was born. They match the orangy peach color in the dress better than in the picture. She likes to stick her fingers in her mouth a lot these days.

I love her! She is so wiggly and cuddly and happy. She is still spitting up some, but we are used to protecting ourselves from that. I'll find out in a few days how much she's grown. No teeth yet, but I know they are coming.

Cheney Road Trip

We put a trip to Cheney/Spokane on our calendar a few weeks ago because it was the only open Saturday this month and then we found out about the father-son campout and decided to go anyway after Andy and Vincent got home. We wanted to go and visit Andy's sister Sara and her family since they moved up there a few months ago and we wanted to go to Riverfront park up there that has a huge wagon slide and see the pretty river runs through the park, so we did.

Before I start my review, let me say here that right after church Andy checked my blog here to see if I had written about our trip yesterday. Sometimes I do, I guess, but he was all disappointed that I hadn't done it yet. The pictures were uploaded though. Someone's used to me being quicker I guess. Instead after we got home and the kids took a shower (bath for Abby) and Andy read to them and went to bed, I put away the rest of the camping gear and food stuff and things we took on our trip, reloaded the diaper bag, took care of Abby, started the laundry, loaded the dishwasher, finished some of my fun scissors to sell to a friend who wants to give them to her kids' teachers, and worked on a cross-stitch. Yeah, I went to bed very early this morning. But I'm blogging now.

We drove on some backroads to get up there because Andy likes to drive and see new places. There were a few places where the sign "pavement ends" were seen. The roads beyond that weren't too bad though. We've seen worse (and those were when I was pregnant with Olivia in the summertime and in our Jeep.) We made it to Cheney about 1:30pm and then fed Abby, looked around Sara's place, and then drove over to Spokane with cousin Sami in our car for fun.

They were setting up for a parade by where we were parking and it was crazy with their one-way roads and people walking all over the place, and we finally just parked in a place we had to pay a bit, but that's the way it goes in these towns with parking you have to pay for. Sara and David parked on the opposite side of the park for cheaper. I love that we don't have to do that here! A lady asked me if all five kids were mine. The weather was perfect and we didn't even need jackets. The kids loved the slide. My battery was dying because it didn't charge fully before we left, so I didn't take a ton of pictures. I was lucky to get what I have. This picture is just about perfect with all three of my older kids in the picture.

Andy held Abby in the shade. She was a great baby on our trip. Elizabeth helped her be happy and if she was hungry, Elizabeth fed her a bottle in the car (still strapped in her carseat).

Olivia and Sami at the top of the slide. Sami was catching some air in this picture.

This is by the calmer part of the falls. There was so much water! Sami and Daphne are the extra girls in the picture. Andy didn't trust Elizabeth to hold Abby with that low wall just over the river. Do you blame him? (Andy says: I barely trusted myself. I was afraid I'd trip or something and drop her over the side.)

Major water gushing all over. Vincent is sad because I had to keep pulling him back from the quasifence that was on the bridge. His whole head fit through!
Partway over this bridge, a girl was standing next to the railing completely soaked. We soon discovered that it was more than just mist as we walked further on and a pocket of water splashed us too. Elizabeth and Andy walked back across for fun because Elizabeth didn't get splashed enough.

It was a beautiful day. We also went to a store and out to dinner with Sara, David, Sami, and Daphne. It was great to see them.

On the way home (we drive the fast way home) we asked the girls what their favorite part of the day was. They liked the kittens they pet at the park and finishing "Little House in the Big Woods" best. Really? We could have done those things closer to home. Weird kids.

Boy's/Girl's Night

Friday night was the annual ward father-son campout and Andy took Vincent for his third time, so the girls and I were able to have a fun night too. The girls have been looking forward to using their sleeping bags like Vincent did on his campout and they decided to sleep in a fort in the house too. I told them that they couldn't build the fort until after the boys left, so when Andy got home, they were in a huge rush to get them all packed up and out the door.

Andy decided he didn't want to set up our big tent, so he took two tarps and some straps to make his own little fort. He also took our air mattress that every time we use it we say we are going to patch the holes so we don't end up on the ground in the morning. They had a fun time and Andy reported that this year he didn't even have to tie Vincent to a tree to keep track of him. He had to tie him to a tree last year so he could set up the tent without Vincent running off and the year before Vincent hung out in the stroller most of the time. The year before that Vincent was just 3 1/2 months old so he was too little to go.

Vincent had fun too. How could he not? He loves being outside and Andy said he went to sleep pretty well too. Vincent by the "tent".
After the boys left, the girls and I went to the fabric store for some crafting supplies for another time and to Sonic for dinner and then came home to watch Cheaper By the Dozen 1 & 2 and do some crafting. Our crafting is a secret for another month or so. It was fun to hang out with my girls. The girls built a fort for our movie watching and then I built them a fort in the living room where they slept for the night. I think by the time I took this picture, their fort had fallen. Abby was hanging out with them too while I cleaned up the craftiness. They are eating fruity licorice.

Here's the fort I built in the living room. They told me it was perfect.
Olivia lasted a few hours and then woke up and moved to her bed with her sleeping bag. I was still up crafting and taking care of Abby.What a fun night we had!

Some good news

So, I'm just happy that I got a little email about my grandpa who has congestive heart failure and kidney disease that there is another treatment that he might be able to do for his heart without wreaking his kidneys even more. We'll see how that goes, but yea for second opinions and medical technology! The doctor he went to see told him that he could maybe live another 10-15 years. Great!

As for me, it's a fun, busy day over here. I'm making a bunch of dinners for friends with new babies (because I want to and I can). I figure that if I do them all at once I won't forget anyone and I won't have to worry about it anymore. I actually started last night with the main dish and jello. Today I'm making some cookies and French bread. And then I'm not going to cook the rest of the week at my house!

An Outing

I am going to try and post a little (for me) every day instead of mega posts that go on and on and on. I know I ramble and write way too much. I just like it and I won't remember the stories until the scrapbooks are done and sometimes not even until I write my post, so if you skip over stories, I guess I can live with that. I'll still post pictures so you can scan for those. Unfortunately, there aren't any pictures to go with this post because I packed light this afternoon for our little outing and I included our camera, went to take a picture, and the battery was dead. I only took Abby and her blanket, pacifier, and burp cloth, my license, keys, phone, and camera. I had diapers and pull ups in the car, but left everything else at home. Oh well. I was busy enough without pictures.

Elizabeth went to her activity day after school and wouldn't be done until Andy picked her up at 5pm and Olivia's dance class didn't start until 4pm, so we decided to go to a free event in Pasco. I packed up Olivia, Vincent, and Abigail after feeding Abigail and Vincent (not the same way!) and Olivia got herself a snack lunch and we were off about 12:30. It may seem crazy to some of you that I take three little kids out in public by myself. Maybe it is. Sometimes I even take four. I think that if you expect great things out of kids, they will show you great things. Most of the time that works. I don't think I've had a kid with a huge meltdown in public. They save those for when we are at home. Anyway, I put Abby in the front carrier because I didn't want to have to maneuver a stroller around and Vincent held one of my hands and Olivia hung on to the blanket that I tucked into the front carrier-at least that's how it worked for the parking lot. After that, Olivia and Vincent just stayed close to me and picked up bags of free pencils, pens, mini flashlights, bags, coloring books, crayons, candy-lots of it, paper hats, blinky lights, and other random things that I used to get at the fair when the fair still gave out stuff and wasn't all just vendors hounding you to buy things. I love free stuff. I signed up for several giveaways and one of the ladies at the massage place gave me her card and wrote her name on it and told me that she'd give me a free massage because I need one. I guess I probably do. I've never had one before. I've also never had a professional manicure or pedicure, but I don't think I really want those anyway. A massage, on the other hand, sounds fabulous. I'm keeping that card and calling her next week!

They had vendor booths, but the people there weren't trying to sell us on a product so much as just trying to get their name out there. This was an expo for Hanford safety, so it was mostly just an excuse for Hanford employees to go to something fun and be paid for it (at least that's usually why Andy goes and they have to sign in at a few random places to prove they went.) They had booths with science experiments and wheel of fortune type games where they ask a question before they give you a prize and little bean bag games. One of the booths had a bunch of markers and crayons to color with and while Olivia did that for ten minutes, the booth right next to hers had a vibrating foot massaging thing that I sat down at and relaxed. The workers there even brought a back massaging thing and started on my back, which was fabulous, but Abby started waking up and didn't like it. The kids love these things, so we ended up being there for three whole hours wandering around until it was time for Olivia's ballet class. We never had to take a bathroom break, but we did stop for Culligan water. Abby slept through the whole thing or just looked around before falling back asleep. I couldn't ask for better behaved kids today. And as a bonus, several people told me it looked like I had my hands full, but no one seemed annoyed by me, so I guess that's good. As I walked through the parking lot afterwards, one lady even said to a guy as we walked past that I can handle three kids, so he should be able to do it too (or something like that). I just had to chime in that I could even handle four! Fun stuff.

By the time we got to the ballet studio, Olivia changed, Vincent still had a dry pull up when we went potty, and Abigail was ready to eat, but not too upset yet. Seriously, if I ever try this again, it would be so much worse, because the only thing that didn't happen was that I couldn't take pictures. And it could get better if I win some of those giveaways! This stuff is going to keep my kids busy for a few afternoons at least too. We picked up some extra stuff for Elizabeth.

I almost forgot this little thing that Olivia told Andy after we walked in with our bags of stuff after he asked her where we got it all (he knew where we were). She said, "From the store." He asked which one and she told him "From the store where everything is FREE!" I guess she is my daughter after all.

And SORRY. That didn't end up being very short, but it's the story.

Lost and found

Olivia came home with one of those dreaded notes from the library at the school Friday that she had a book overdue and I didn't know where it was.

We were going to the public library anyway, so we checked there, but it wasn't there.

I've turned in school books there about three times in the last few months-so much that Elizabeth decided not to check out school books for a little while and just get the public library books instead. They just have them on a shelf behind the checkout desk with the name of the school on it. I'm a little distracted lately. We stack all of the library books on the front of the piano before we read them and on the top end of the piano after we read them and sometimes the school books just get mixed in.

The girls straightened up the bookshelf behind the reading couch that holds our own books and stuffed animals to look for this missing book. No book.

We tidy up all the toys in the family room and vacuum under couches in there often and we have a no books in the family room rule (food, crayons, markers are all good reasons to keep books separate), so I didn't look in there very hard, except going through the coloring books. No book.

I kept the paper to remind myself to look for the book in my little (sometimes it's big) pile of things I need to do and started looking again Sunday night after the kids went to bed.

I checked in our cabinet that holds our books out of rotation. No book. I looked under the couches again. No book.

I even pulled out our big bookcase behind the reading couch to check. I found books that slipped down, but not the book I was looking for.

Finally, I thought to check on top of the piano again, looking under Elizabeth's school library books and the Barnes and Noble summer reading forms and there was Olivia's book just sitting there flat because we never did read it. I slipped it into her bag with the note and zipped it in and sighed a huge sigh of relief.

I was planning on checking the city library's shelf where it belonged, just in case, but didn't have to after all. School's almost out, so now I won't have to worry about mixing up the books.

Wise man-Foolish Man

The wise man built his house upon the rock,
And the rains came tumbling down.

The rains came down, and the floods came up,
And the house on the rock stood still.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand,
And the rains came tumbling down.

The rains came down, and the floods came up,
And the house on the sand washed away.

I was reminded of this simple Children's Songbook hymn this morning when I walked outside to see our wire shelf tipped over due to the massive amount of rain we had last night. It was kind of a weird freak storm and it just poured for an hour or so with lightning and thunder and then went back to our normal dripping rain.

The foundation under our wire shelf was too sandy to hold up the pots that were balanced on it when the floods came which is making me think about if the pots I'm holding are balanced enough with a solid foundation or if a rain storm comes, if I will drop everything and break and it will take a lot of effort to get me back to solid ground.

It got all mushy and it just tipped right over. You can see that I didn't bury my iris bulb very deep there either.

Now, obviously, I'm not going to be putting concrete in there where my shelf was because this is just a strange freak storm and it's not a big deal, but it is a big deal if I myself don't have a solid foundation. I need to work on that more. I need to be better prepared for stormy weather in my own life.

Party on

This weekend was so full of fun meetings, parties, and activities. Although, not quite as full as a few of my friends who also had soccer, kid's concerts, and kid birthday parties all at the same time as the parties we were at together.

Monday I did my best to hang out at home. We cleaned up the flower beds a little until the yard garbage can was getting too full and watered the garden.

Tuesday one of my friend's had a baby boy I got to go and meet. She didn't know whether she was having a boy or a girl, which made it extra fun. He is her fifth baby and looks just like one of her twin sons (they are not identical.) Olivia had ballet and then Andy went straight from work to a church meeting, so the kids and I hung out all evening. (Code for trying really hard to not be crazy!)Our lilacs are blooming. I love them. I just wish that I'd known about reblooming ones before I planted these ones that, although beautiful, only bloom for a few weeks a year.

Early in the week, I asked Olivia if she was ready for school as we were going out the door and she said, "I just had to get my bracelet, my headband, and my necklace. I need them."

I need to go over our emergency essentials with her, I think. Needs versus being alive and safe. We weren't late, I was just asking her if she was ready.

Wednesday I fed the missionaries before Andy got home and then we had game night with some friends.

Thursday morning I was scheduled for two appointments: Eye doctor yearly check (my third eye check ever, but I had one last year) and an appointment with the dentist for two fillings. Dang cavities! I dropped Vincent and Abigail off at Andy's aunt's house to watch them for a few hours. Abby drank her bottle and did great. I'm sad they are moving in a few weeks to Utah. We are going to have to have their two youngest boys over to play while they pack. We'll miss them.

Thursday night was a Relief Society dinner and meeting on organization. I enjoyed it, but still have to figure out which tips I should use, if any. I am pretty organized already. We talked a lot about laundry (one of my very favorite things is having all the laundry done and put away before there's any new dirty laundry to clean. The best time to do it is when the kids are going to sleep and I usually do it all twice a week. I'm a little bit obsessed.) I do need to go through the clothes and get rid of some of them. The drawers are way too full and Olivia wears the same dress three times a week sometimes because I'm so awesome at laundry. Maybe that's not so good. Her drawers are stuffed!

We also talked about paper stuff. Bills and kid papers and magazines. Bills go in a stack for Andy to look at and pay. Kid papers are looked at and thrown away unless they want to save them in their special boxes. I put the magazines in a stack to read and give away or recycle them when I'm done. When the kid's boxes get too full, they have to decide what they want to throw away. Last year, Elizabeth's teacher found some of her school work in the trash at the school because she was trying to save a step. I do look at it, but they know that we don't need to keep it forever, unless it's an extra special thing and I have a folder for each school kid for those or they go in the stack of paper things that I save to go with our scrapbooking stuff. I save invitations and information about things there too so I have them when I need to scrapbook and I can remember what they did if there are pictures that go along with it. Kids were in bed asleep when I got home. Yea!

We just started a new chart for them going to bed better. They have to go to bed well for 15 times to earn a toy I bought cheap (Kohl's Barbies were on sale for less than $4 and a semi truck Hot Wheels), but they are all excited about. Everytime I have to go in and remind Vincent to be quiet or he's out of his bed flipping the light, I take away his stuffed animals, blankets, and pillow. I give back the blanket after he's asleep. He's getting better. The girls have 13 stickers and he has 7.

Friday was fun. I went to the school for a volunteer breakfast that the teachers and staff at the school put on. Then we had a few friends over after Olivia was done with school. They ate lunch with us and some banana muffins too. I took the four kids grocery shopping with me. This time we tried a new set up. Olivia and Vincent were in the big part of a cart with Abby in the baby part in her car seat and Elizabeth followed behind me with her own cart. It worked out pretty well. I didn't have to walk around my cart to put stuff in. I could just put it in right behind me. I liked it, although the big cart was apparently cramped for Olivia and Vincent and they were not being nice, so they had time outs when we got home.

Andy took the bigger kids to McDonald's for dinner and gave them bathes when they got home and put them to bed. He doesn't normally do bathes on his own because they like to splash and it's annoying, so there was a story. Vincent came out of the play place wet and it wasn't his pullup, so they assumed that it was gross pee in the play place. Eww.

I went to a friend's college graduation party and then another friend's party for her baby. Since it's her sixth baby and fourth son, she just wanted a get-together. She is going to donate the gifts that we brought to a local pregnancy center. Nice. We ate a delicious dinner, made some cute appliqued onsies with ties for her and our other friend who just had her son this week, and played Just Dance on the Wii. We also played pass around baby Abby. =) We were going to go to a silly movie together, but they weren't playing it at the time they said last week, so we just chatted and played. I liked not spending that movie money anyway for a silly movie. I have awesome friends. I left the party at 11pm and finished my grocery shopping at the second store I needed to go to getting home after midnight.

Saturday I went to a baby shower for a lady in our ward who used to be one of my MiaMaids when I served as the MiaMaid Assistant 9 1/2 years ago until after Elizabeth was born.

Following the baby shower was a Family Primary Activity Day at the Columbia River Temple with a picnic following. It was raining just before and after we were there and a little overcast, but beautiful! They split up in a few groups to go around the Temple and talk about symbols on the outside and what a special place it is. President Naef came out and talked to them too. He was my Stake President growing up in Pasco Stake, so it was pretty special to me.

While President Naef was talking, Vincent was listening super carefully. See?
I took him for a walk to take his picture by the fountain.
Beautiful.

I took a bunch of pictures at the Temple because we haven't taken our kids there very much.

Aren't they adorable? I need to frame this one! I took individual pictures of the three older kids in front of the Temple too, so I'm going to do something fun with those.

Someone from Andy's ward growing up offered to take a family picture of us just before our kid picture was taken. I love my family.
Another busy week in the books. I keep telling myself that the next week won't be as busy and it always seems to get that way. Oh well, that's what makes life fun! We love parties and things to do.

I guess being so busy makes Sunday an even better "day of rest".

Mother's Day Weekend

For starters, this weekend was SOOOOO much better than it was last year when I wrote a poem about what a terrible day Mother's Day was.

Saturday Olivia had a birthday party to go to for one if her classmates and Andy took her, then worked on his mom's computer, and picked her up again. I took Elizabeth, Vincent, and Abby with me to the library and then a Safe Kids Expo by the hospital. We got there when it was almost over, but we still had time to do most of the stuff. It was super windy, so some of the booths were putting their stuff away early, but we still left with plenty of free coloring books, pencils, stickers, and magnets, as well as a bunch of pamphlets for me to read through about an emergency plan, summer camps, and one about health insurance.

Vincent trying out the fire hose. They were all impressed with his fire truck rescue shirt that he picked for himself that morning.

If you don't care about our health insurance, skip this paragraph.

I made a call on the health insurance one Monday morning to see if we qualify. It's the State program, but right now we are paying for private insurance out of Andy's paycheck because it costs way too much for small businesses to pay for their employee's insurance (even more than what we currently pay). I'd tell you how much it is, but it's so high, you'd faint or something. Just know that it's an outrageous amount of our paycheck and we still have a pretty high deductible. I talked with someone on the phone because the website was not updated at all it showed the nearest doctor in Yakima, which is an hour and a half away and when I asked on the phone, there were 16 just in our town, including our current pediatrician. So, if we do switch over at least we can keep our same doctor. Yea! If we qualify, the most we would have to pay is $60 a month for all four kids. Andy and I would still need our own insurance, but the one for the kids would cover dental and eye care, which we don't have for them right now. I think that's a savings of about 90 percent! I told you we pay way too much and every few months, we get a letter that tells us the rates are going up and not covering as much. Lousy. Anyway, having that amount not go towards medical expenses would really help us pay off some debt and fix up this house so maybe one day we can move to a house with more room or build a second bathroom! There are so many uses for it. I'm excited. A half hour phone call to possibly save hundreds a month. Awesome. We still have to figure out how much it will cost for our own health insurance and do a little research. I really don't want State insurance, but if we qualify, I guess it's not too bad to take advantage (without really taking advantage) of it.

After the short windy stay at the safe kids expo, we took Vincent over to a friend's birthday party.

It was a bounce house party and the mom planned for three of her four kids to have their parties on the same day so it would be cheaper. Great idea. The little boys had a fun time and Elizabeth was my helper.

Sunday was Mother's Day of course and I had some pretty roses that Andy and the kids picked out for me on Friday at the store and the kids gave me cute little things from their classes at school. A clay ladybug from Olivia and a skinny vase from Elizabeth along with little cards and the things they made at the library when I took them last week (those were *super* surprising when I opened them since I was the one who took them to make them.) I really just wanted kids to not be fighting on Mother's Day and they did pretty good. Andy didn't have his early meetings at church because the Bishop's missionary son was calling right then, so he helped get the kids ready. Somehow we were still late to church, but we all got to drive in one car, which was nice. Church was good. They handed out bags of chocolate after Sacrament meeting to the women of the ward. Olivia told me that it was a lot of candy for me and that she would help me eat it if I needed help. Ha!

After church I fed Abby and took a nice long nap. Andy fed her a bottle while I napped longer. I love that she will take a bottle so I can rest. He made some dinner and then we went to Torrie's house for some birthday cake because it was her birthday on Saturday. Yum.

Her in-laws brought this beanbag game over. It was a lot harder than it looks, but there are two wooden targets propped up and four big beanbags to try to throw into the hole from 50 feet away. Our kids liked running around their backyard. It was a nice night to be outside, even though it was a little chilly.
Elizabeth and Olivia cheering Torrie on.

Elizabeth trying to pick Torrie up. She could and did pick her up like a piggy back ride, but she couldn't hold her for long. It was a bit obnoxious. Sorry Torrie. She was a good sport. Elizabeth is pretty strong for an eight year old girl.It was a pretty nice weekend. Now back to the regular daily stuff. The weather is nice and cool and I've been trying to get some gardening stuff done slowly. It's planted now. We'll see what grows and if I can keep up with the weeds.