Sleeping Sisters

This morning it was raining. So that meant no morning walk for exercise, and that's ok. I've loved to hear the birds on my morning walks, but I was in the mood for blasting some Killers songs, so to the treadmill I went. The moment had come for me to put my kids true sleeping ability to the test!  Last time I was exercising in the basement several weeks ago, I didn't have two little kids sleeping down here. Lily moved herself down here a few weeks ago, and then she talked Natalie into joining her. I'm not sure what happened last night, but when I turned on the basement light, this is what I saw.

I saw Natalie's face, but she was in Lily's bed... I believe there's another body hidden somewhere beneath the huge stuffed dog and blankets. I did one round of my exercises, came over to see they had shuffled themselves a bit. Yes, it appears Lily is there! And now Natalie's face is hidden behind Bunky Bunky.

I'm wondering how comfortable the two of them were in such a small bed the whole night. Another circuit round, and I smile at them again. They both slept right through it. I woke up Lily to get ready for school and Natalie kept sleeping.

Last night Natalie was a little sad when she sat on her brother's suit coat, which was on the couch. She meant not harm but he pulled her rather abruptly off of it. I comforted Natalie first, and then Natalie went to Lily who was being a very affectionate big sister, even though she still seems pretty little for a big sister! Lily took Natalie to bed, and so it appears she comforted her the whole night.

Thoughts of these two little girls were in my head when I saw this Raised Good article in my inbox today. I read it and wished I had read it years ago when my older kids were little, but I'm lucky to still have little ones at home. I liked these thoughts:

The tenderness of motherhood doesn’t diminish when the sun goes down. These quiet sleepy moments where my baby sought comfort and nourishment are now the moments our trust reaches new depths and he knows, by my actions, that I will strive to meet his needs, no matter how challenging. 

I will be tough. 
I’ll be tough so my son can be soft. 
I’ll be tough so that he doesn’t go without comfort when he needs it. 
I’ll be tough so that my baby doesn’t go without nursing when his belly is empty. 
I’ll be tough so that my toddler isn’t forced to fake a maturity beyond his years. 
I’ll be tough so that my child doesn’t need to fear monsters under the bed alone. 
I’ll be tough so that he has a solid foundation from which to grow into a confident and independent little boy. 
I’ll be tough so that my son learns that vulnerability is welcome, that his needs matter and expressing his emotions is safe. 
I’ll be tough and continue to listen to my son, to his soft whispers in his sleep, to his breathing and to my own heart speaking. 

I’ve learned that night time parenting is about so much more than sleep. We have everything to gain by leaning in, by having the courage to surrender to the unknown and trusting our instincts. It is a rite of passage our modern culture has sadly disregarded but those of us who choose to follow ancient wisdom and our inner voices know the rewards. I’m not saying that it’s easy, but I choose to accept that discomfort is the price of admission to a meaningful motherhood. So, I will slow dance through my relationship with my son, day and night. I will lay with him to fall asleep for as long as he needs it because I know, that one day without warning he won’t need me to lay with him anymore. He’ll sleep in his own bed and my husband and I won’t believe how fast the nights of shared sleep passed. But, with gratitude, that day isn’t today.

Human tetris isn't that much fun, but if there's just one little person, that's kinda fun. I remember falling to sleep once up at our friends cabin - I remember being in the bed with two kids - it might have been Dec 2014 when Natalie was sick. Or the year before when she was my infant. I can't remember if it was Natalie or Owen, but I'm pretty sure it was Natalie. I remember laying taking care of the baby and Sophi being there in the bed with me, positioned in a spot where she saw my hand and reached out and grabbed it and didn't let go, and it was so sweet to lay there with her just reaching out for reassurance in the quiet night. Daniel doesn't wake up that much anymore, but he did last night (he had a bit of a fever) and I was more than happy to bring him into bed and snuggle him. If he's not quiet I'll get him a bottle and put him back in his crib, but last night I kept him with us and it's just heaven. People ask me if I'm done or if I want more kids. I'd be more than happy to have another, but it's not gonna happen this year. So we'll see, and in case my little guy Daniel is my last baby, I'll enjoy every moment of it and might snuggle him to sleep a little bit more.

Sunday Blossoms

Oh, the flowers on the walk to church are in full bloom, so pretty! Love love. Good for the heart on the Sabbath. More pics of these beauties my Glorious Earth blog.

Happy Birthday and Senior Prom

Today is my happy birthday. I went to the Draper temple early this morning.

Heavenly Father gave me a beautiful almost full moon for my birthday! It was just setting in the west when I arrived at the temple, so pretty, thank you Heavenly Father!

This picture doesn't do it justice, but did help to preserve the memory/moment for me.

The one thing I wanted for my birthday was for ALL of us to go to the Jordan River Temple Open House together. Today was the last day of the open house, so I thought it would probably be busy, but I wanted to make it happen. I loved being in the temple with my kids earlier this month, they were especially sweet and reverent in the Celestial room. I wanted to go again and have Corey and all of them there. But it was a busy day - Joseph has senior prom today, so he was busy all morning with an activity. His window of availability to fulfill my birthday wish was 2-5. I was trying to make it work, but instead, for some weird reason this Saturday happened to be a productive one! Go figure, so we ended up cleaning out the garage instead and Corey was giving out lot of tasks, he told a few of the kids to get working on the garage. I knew it would be a big job. Corey admitted it was bigger than he anticipated when he assigned it. Joseph washed the Fiesta to have it ready for prom, then we decided to wash Corey's car too.

The kids got in a water fight as we washed the car. They were all wet.

We got out some b-day ice cream, but the dripping kids were not allowed inside the house. Owen kept guard for me.

My car was a mess from cleaning up stuff from the ice rink that didn't happen this past winter. When Joseph left at 3 to get my car washed at 3, which ended up being a nice present to me from his friend that works at the car wash, thanks Scotty! Not many of my kids' friends get me birthday presents. But, when Joseph left to do that at 3, that was when I had a feeling the family temple trip was probably not going to happen. Any other Saturday, I would have been thrilled with the family work time, but I was a little bummed today. Oh well.

So, Joseph's Senior Prom of his Senior year! I haven't blogged most of his dances - I usually don't have the pictures, but this year he shared the google drive link with me, yay!

This dance gets to be documented and remembered. His date was a lovely girl named Emma (Joseph and Emma, funny)

I don't know where they got these taken, but I think it looks lovely! 

There were more pictures than this, obviously, but I think these few make a good representation.

And the big group photo

One more of just the guys -

Joseph and Emma had a great time. The main thing I heard that was a big success was his last minute idea to take the van (cause it was clean) which allowed him to bring our small couch from the front room. I helped him put the love seat in it. After the dance, they went to watch a movie at a park. Everyone else brought bean bags or something, but the love seat couch was a great idea - they were warmer with the bonus that they had back and neck support! They spilled a little bit of Lucky Charms onto the cushion, but that's okay. The couches need a good cleaning anyway. I'm glad you had a good time Joseph. I'm grateful that he's had such a good group of friends during high school. They're almost done! Graduation is just a month away!

Messy, Sad, and Tired

A few pictures of morning time around here. This is messy - what Natalie looks like when she goes to bed with damp hair after an evening bath. These pics from a week ago on April 20th.

That is a major bed head that could rival Anna's on Frozen when she wakes up on coronation day.

Cute Natalie, I still love her curls (referring to the last 3 pics of that post, not the goofy kid in the first 4). Daniel this morning - he woke up in a sad bad mood. I tried to fix it with Nutella.

He tried to stop his tears, but that little lower lip can't hide that he's still feeling sad.

What's wrong, little guy? We know you're usually a happy kid. It's okay to wake up on the wrong side of the bed sometimes. Later this evening, Daniel and Owen watching Woody Buzz. Little boys with their stuffed animals.

Owen starting to doze off.  Tired little guy, but it's not time for bed yet, let's turn this off and get you two moving, dinner is ready now.

I know I take a lot of pictures of them in this chair. They probably watch too much Disney. 

Sand & Dirt

Today we went over to our neighbor's yard again. It's the boys new favorite place. Playing in the swing, on the slide, and jumping on the trampoline...

But nothing can compete with the plain, raw, SAND & DIRT they discovered today

This was near the end of our afternoon in the neighbors yard, when it was time to come back home so I could try to prepare something for dinner. Yes, that was when the dirt in the construction area caught his attention.

Daniel couldn't think about food at a time like this, I mean look at this stuff! It's amazing!

You hold it, but you can't hold it, it falls through your fingers. You let it go, but it's still stuck on your hand! What is this magic? What can I get you distracted with so you'll get away from the dirt. I had an apple on hand, and Daniel ate that.

Owen wasn't coming either, so I called home to ask Abi to come and help me. Yay, here comes the cavalry.

Then I was able to leave Abi with them, go home and get dinner started. I left my phone with Abi so she could call me for help. Yay, now that mom was out of the way, they could get back to playing with the dirt! There was another pile of nice dirt away from the house construction and in the shade of the tree. They are definitely little boys.

Boy on a Swing

This little guy helped me slow down and be present today. It was fun and fulfilling to push him on the neighbor's swing.

Cute little guy, I love my kids. 

The weather was beautiful today, the temperature was perfect, my heart was full with gratitude for beautiful springtime and this beautiful world and my beautiful kids. Life is good. I'm grateful for days when I feel this way.

Self Entertaining

The weather is so nice right now, hooray that spring is here. Daniel and Owen love going outside. Daniel created a good game today that kept him entertained. He was jumping on the trampoline with a toy car and would squeal and giggle as it bounced up after him. It was really fun to watch him. And when he wasn't jumping, he would push the car for it to drive away, only to have it roll right back to him!

 

Amazing! How does it do that?

Here's a video of his fun.

I love it. I'm loving spending time outside with these little boys. Pushing them on the swing or watching them jump, it's really fun. After he had enough cardio jumping, Daniel got in a little upper body resistance training as he worked on his pull up hangs -

Good idea, get some abdominal strength going too, nice!

I'm going to take credit for this. I think Daniel is doing these hangs cause he sees me working on my pull ups 10 times a day three days a week. I'm still in "letdown" mode, not so much pull ups. I can hold myself in the up position, last week and this week I've been working on holding a wide grip, I think I'm getting stronger. Little by little... isn't that right, Daniel?

One outside activity that the boys really like that I do NOT find fun, is when they let the guinea pigs loose. Luckily the guinea pigs just want to hide, and there are just  so they don't run away and it's not a chore to locate them, but I can't leave the four of them alone outside. Daniel was also mad at me today when I was repainting the bar stools. He really really wanted the black spray paint. Sorry buddy, it doesn't matter now much you freak out about it, this one is a non-negotiable. No spray paint for toddlers. He stopped freaking out when I gave him the spray bottle of water that I had brought out to wash the stools with. He is working on his fine motor skills too, he's just learning how to use his body every chance he gets.

He's pretty good with the spraybottle. He's got it down solid. He can hit most anything he wants if it's on the ground. Off to the playset with the waterbottle, to see what new targets he can find.

He also likes to twist the cap and take it off. Which kinda makes the spray bottle not spray, thus defeating the purpose of it's existence. So I have to keep a close eye on him here too, so I can find the little cap.

 

Cute little Daniel.

After a good afternoon of playing, Daniel came back inside and was cheering that he found his brother Owen "Owen!!" and they hugged and hugged. Sometimes they're so sweet. Happy for those times.

Elves Quest

The kids continued the creativity from their game yesterday, this time Wesley played too. The little girls love it when their older siblings play with them. Especially cause Wesley is really good at making crowns.

The "bad guys" took their crowns, and they had to go on a quest to find them and would fight bad guys along the way. Owen and Daniel didn't really participate in the quest, but Owen thought he was part of it. But Wes said the toddlers would just follow them around until they got tired of it.

Lily, Sophi, and Natalie were sisters, Abi was the mom that died, and Wes was the bad guy who became a good buy. And Natalie is just being weird for the camera.

Fun Sunday night with the kids playing together.

Elves, a Pirate, and a Witch

Some neighbor girls came over today to play with their little friends. Abi was nice and joined them, leading out in a fun game with her as the pirate

Abi was the evil Pirate, and Sophi was her assistant. Abi and Sophi tried to steal their crowns. And she kidnapped them and put them in a prison (aka the coat closet). The elves had fun playing with the bad guys. 

Although this witch kept switching sides - half the time she was helping Abi capture the elves, and the other half of the time she was saving the elves and guarding their crowns. Pick a side, Sophi! Sheesh!

It's so hard to get reliable evil help these days, huh Pirate Abi? Abi tried to turn to stuffed animals to help her after Sophi was wishy-washy. They had to try out for the part. This was done in the form of  a play where Abi (who was controlling the puppet chicken and other toys) had them bomb the audience to see how bad they were. Sophi ended up resuming her place - I guess inconsistent evil help from a witch is better than evil help from a puppet.

I like it when they play creative games like this. They had a fun time.