Ready for Halloween

It was a usual busy morning with exercise and running carprool, with the added fun this morning of helping kids get ready for the Halloween parade. Wesley was the only older kid that got dressed up. He found my old SBO sweater from Wasatch Jr. High, which just so happens to be Churchill's rival. So he was a Wasatch Student Body Officer. There can't be anything much scarier than that for Chruchill kids to see wandering their hallways! Back at home, here's the elementary kids heading out to the bus (with a few neighbor kids. I do not have 7 kids in elementary school...) -

My little girls are all so responsible... they woke up on their own and were already mostly ready by the time I got back from carpool. I helped with the finishing touches - Natalie's Elsa wig -

And makeup for the Sophi witch -

And Jack Sparrow eye liner for Pirate Lily -

Two weeks ago I forgot about the parade and scheduled an OB appointment for this morning at 9:30, so I told them I wouldn't be able to make it to the school. When I first started to tell Abi she gasped with worry, but turns out it was just cause she thought I wouldn't be here to help with her hair. But no, I said I had to leave after they will have left, so I'll be here to help, I just can't come see you. Oh, good. As long as you can help us get ready. I thought they'd be sad about me not coming but they didn't care. Sweet! (Maybe I can get out of the parade next year? j/k, kinda, haha.... years and years of halloween parades and I'm still a halloween scrooge) So for this year, I'll just watch the parade video from 2017 and imagine Sophi in the witch costume and Lily in the pirate one Abi wore last year... And Abi's been wearing the blue dress around the house enough the past three days that I've got a clear picture of her in my mind's eye too. This is a dress my sister in law made, she's an amazing seamstress. Abi loved having a poofy dress like this. She said George Washington's wife

 And they're off to school -

Corey was going to work from home and watch the kids for me but then said he needed to go in, so I hurried and woke up Daniel, Owen was already up, got them dressed, and we hurried out to the dr - I had to be there on time to get my blood drawn "exactly one hour" from finishing my glucose drink for the pregnancy diabetes test thing. All these tests. Oh, and we just got the bill this week for the panorama test thing... $3900 dollars! Luckily insurance took it down to just $750, still made me shake my head. I thought it was $300 for us to pay, $400 tops, just ridiculous. I told Corey to help me remember how much it costs so we don't do it "next time" I said with a wink (...just if there is a next time, sweetie, haha...)

Will post tomorrow or maybe update here later with the trick or treating fun tonight. 

Yet Another Family Chore Chart

On many a Saturday, I am asked a question that for some reason totally rubs me the wrong way: "Do you have a list of chores for the kids to do?" I'm usually asked that by my sweetheart. And I guess it frustrates me cause I think that he and the kids should all freakin' know by now what tasks and chores need to be done around here to make our home livable. Do I really need to spell it out everyday/every weekend? Ugh. So I'll sometimes make a list, but usually I don't and I just verbally remind or ask them to do their jobs, and surprise surprise, I'm often frustrated that the kids don't do any chores or seem to have done anything to help around here. Hey Tiff, maybe they do need a list. Apparently it isn't clear what expectations are, sigh. I've had chore lists going up the stairs before, and had their chores on clipboards in their room, which worked with the younger half of the kids, the ones who bought into the system. That one left me frustrated with the three older kids, although Joseph would always make his bed. That small attempt at something was enough to fill my cup. Kids, just do something for crying out loud - you know what it is! Bed, Bedroom, Clothes! Can we just start with that? I've always thought it was clear, but I guess the fact that chores are not done and I'm frustrated means that we still haven't found a solution that works. So, today, I found a big posterboard size sheet of construction paper in the basement. On a whim, I wrote out KIDS CHORES and wrote down the chores that I've talked with them about before and that they all know they need to do.

When Corey came home, he saw the huge yellow chore chart on the pantry door. "WELL! I can see that! That's hard to miss! I like it!" It's all just scribbled on there and looks ugly, but I guess that's not a big deal since it is just up for a week anyway? Part of the reason I haven't gone this route was since I am looking for a permanent chore solution/system, I haven't found a good place to permanently hang a white board or whatever in the kitchen area. And I didn't want any ugly stuff on the wall in the kitchen, but a temporary paper on a pantry door... I guess that is a do-able thing. Maybe we'll keep it. I guess this might work. I listed the chores. Then Corey asked for a daily check off under each kid, so I scribbled that on and checked them off when they were done. Now we have a visible paper for weekly accountability ready to be referred to by myself or Corey (without having to ask me how the kids did on their chores) when they start to come on Friday night asking if they can hang out with friends.

Also, I've had a family calendar on the fridge since last October, and another 4 weeks just ended on Sunday. I took of the 4 weeks that were there yesterday and made the next 4 weeks - so now October is almost all gone and Christmas is on the fridge, AND also... that very last Monday square is January 14th!

Which will be when I'm 39 weeks! Which means that might be the day this pregnancy comes to an end, yahoo! Baby day approaching, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel once again. Although it still looks far away, 11 weeks. But we all know how quickly those top 4 weeks of the calendar go by and get checked off, so maybe the baby will be here before we know it, hallelujah.

I had a good day today. The win I'm most excited about - I cleaned the dirty carpets in the study, front room, and on the stairs! Another win is that six of the kids did their chore yesterday (EHWALS) and another five tonight (HWLSN) and the house looks awesome right now. 3rd big win - we've had 3 sit down dinners in a row. On the list: the basement. That place needs work, but little by little, I think things are coming together.

Carving Pumpkins

Today the elementary girls didn't have school, I'm not sure why. But it was nice to have them home. They wanted to carve the pumpkins, so I told them they could after they did their jobs. They worked quickly, then carved them while I took a little nap (sounds like a win-win, don't you think?)

I think they should be okay and not dry out too much as we wait the two days until trick or treating time. We're looking forward to an evening with neighbors on Wednesday. A few Halloween memories of years past - 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and one of our most memorable - in Costa Rica in 2010

Nap for Mom, and they did the pumpkins by themselves and they turned out great. I took a nap as I tried to get Daniel to take a nap, as he woke up very early this morning. 6:30 is super early for him. I was out on my walk and Wes got him out of his crib cause he was crying. He liked spending a little bit of the morning with Wes and was saw when Wes got out of the car for school. "Come?" he begged... Sorry buddy, you can't come with me! Wes gave him a hug...

 And Daniel worked his frown to try and get Wesley to change his mind.

Look at that lower lip... so very sad! Pretty good Daniel, you're good at breaking our hearts. 

Speaking of my little Daniel, yesterday I finished the scrapbook binders for Owen and Daniel - go me! 

They all look so cute and colorful up on the shelf now, it makes me happy.

There's my group of kids. Looks like I could call them "J'Meh Wal Snod" for short. Not that that is very short.

I even started on the new baby's binder, although I didn't get far, being as we don't know his name or initial. But it's good that I have a place to put his ultrasound pictures and things from the hospital when that day comes in January. "Just 11" more weeks, yay. Hmm, what should the next initial be? I'm thinking it will a B, G, K, or R and if we were using all their initials together as the deciding factor, I think R would sound the best - "J'Meh Wal Snod'r" We'll see.

A Saturday

"Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday." We wash our hair and clip our nails... After the toddlers took a bath, I made them sit down to trim the nails on their fingers and toes, and then Daniel wanted a turn...

I was a little nervous, but he didn't hurt me. He's so cute, so observant and trying to learn everything. My feet and ankles are not swollen at all right now, yay, though my toes do look extra stubby in the pic below.

Today Corey and Wes spent the morning and much of the afternoon at a "Leadership Conference" for the SBOs at the jr. high. Corey spoke for part of it. It took most of the day, so Corey was anxious to catch up on hours after he got home. But instead he started to teach Lily how to pay the saxophone and do things like that with the kids. Around 6 he started trying to get work done, but was being followed by all his little friends. I think they've been trained to know that if they follow him around and bug him, eventually he'll take them out somewhere fun. Sure enough... "Who wants to go to a movie!?" He said he'd take them to the dollar theater. They hadn't done jack around the house though, so they cleaned for 5 minutes and then hurried to the car. I intervened. He was going nuts at home cause he couldn't work, but going to a theater isn't going to let him get any work done, so I said I'd take them so he could stay home and work. But they hadn't done anything to earn going to a theater. But I thought it would be good for them to go to my parent's house. Cause we never go there. I called my mom and gave a heads up, and we went over there and watched a movie. We got a redbox movie, by my parent's dvd player didn't work, so we watched an old vcr movie - Aladdin. They'd never seen it, even though they all know who Jasmine is. So it's nice that they now know the Jasmine story, (nevermind that the story is about a boy - we all know that it's really all about the princesses!)

It was fun to go over there, I told them maybe we'll come over again, so my kids know a little bit about the home where I grew up. Back at home, I said we could turn on the redbox we'd ordered. Hotel Transylvania 3. I knew it would be bad and couldn't watch it and didn't - I went to work a bit more on the scrapbook binders. I made Ethiopian cabbage for dinner again tonight - Daniel took a bowl of it and parked himself on the couch to eat. He looked super cute even if he is breaking the rules by eating out of the kitchen (not that hardly anyone else obeys that rule).

Hard to get mad at a kid that eats his vegetables. I picked him up and moved his cute self to the table. They turned on the movie. They all watched it, and kinda hated themselves for doing so. Then it was late and time for bed. I'm staying up to for Ethan to come home from Monster Mash. He's supposed to be home by 12:30, I might nap on the couch. And that was our Saturday.

Crazy Hair Day and Chili Cook Off

I stayed up a little longer than I wanted last nigth to put curlers in the girls hair (Abi, Sophi, and Natalie). Today was Crazy Hair Day, and Abi wanted to go for the crazy Amelia Earhart hair that Lily had going on last year for the wax museum. I did Abi, then Sophi wanted curlers, then Natalie. This morning I wasn't able to help Abi and Sophi do their hair cause I had an orthodontist appointment at 8, so I was out the door before they were. Luckily the older kids were home to help (they didn't have school today cause the term ended yesterday), so I woke up Melodie and asked her to get them ready and out the door, and she did. But she didn't take a pictures, so I don't have a picture of their crazy hair or the cup Mel put in Lily's hair, but I did get this picture of Natalie before she left for afternoon kindergarten.

Out at the bus stop - a little Shirley Temple!

Her friend Grant had Legos in his hair. Crazy hair day is always a bit trickier for the boys with short hair.

So that will just have to do for our family crazy hair representation at school this year - you get the idea. This afternoon I went to the temple to do sealings. I've made it to the temple every Friday since President Nelson's conference invitation to the sisters, yay, I think Friday afternoons are a good time since its' early out day and I can sneak away for an hour while Owen and Daniel are napping.

Tonight we had a "chili cook-off" and soup dinner at our church with neighbors. I brought two things, cause I just got excited cooking - Ethiopian cabbage recipe which is just a lovely fall looking dish, and I also discovered and made this Curried Carrot sweet potato and ginger soup - Oh my goodness, I thought that soup was so delicious! I loved it. I ate it at home, then ate 3 servings of it there at the church. The kids didn't have much of any of the soups or chili's - Daniel eating a Costco chocolate chip cookie - 

Owen eating a cookie...

Natalie's "chili" - a cookie with shredded cheese...

How's your dinner, Natalie? 

Oh these kids, what are we going to do?  I didn't even bother trying to enforce food standards there at the church, but it was another example to me of why we can't have any desserts in our house if we want our kids to eat actual nutritious and filling foods/meals.

Natalie's Scrapbook

Today I took care of another goal priority. I got Natalie's scrapbook done! Not a huge important thing to me, but it looks from the smile on this little girls face that it is pretty important to her -

Two down, two to go...

I think I'll try to do Owen's and Daniel's while I've got it on my mind and while I have all the papers and supplies out to do it. Even though they aren't nagging for it and don't feel slighted at the moment. Natalie got the glittery paper for her cover initial too.

Some other great things I've gotten done the past 24 hours - showing some of things I get done on a good day... I continue to get up at 6 to exercise (and stretch!) everyday. I've been keeping on top of tracking our family finances, doing pretty good at keeping the blog updated here this month and last month. (...yes, I've still got posts to catch up on over the summer... I think the worst behind I am is June) Yesterday I: raked pine needles in the backyard and filled up both garbages and got them out before the garbage truck came. Yesterday I saw the full moon set, lovely. I fixed Wesley's costume at 5:30 am before he hand to leave for school, then exercised. I cleaned off a black desk downstairs so Natalie has a place to draw while I clean down there. I also mopped the kitchen. It's been a good week. With my EJC group, one of the ladies shared that she's been tracking her WINS since January, and I thought that was something I could do, so I'm focusing on that this week.

I go back and forth between feeling like I'm super on top of it - to feeling like our family is crazy and we have no structure. Holly has a saying "Either you run the day or the day runs you..." I think I could change that to "Either you run your family or your family runs you..." I've gotten good at managing myself, but not so good at managing all my unwilling family members. This evening was kinda nuts - my day was good enough through just before the kids' coming home - Owen and Daniel were taking a nap, I picked up Sophi from school and then Corey picked her up for her violin lesson, then Wesley had a halloween dance concert tonight and Corey stayed out there to bring him home after it was done - around 8:30. I knew Corey's car didn't have enough room for everyone that had stayed after school. So I ran out there to pick up some of the kids. I brought home Melodie, Sophi adn Hyrum. Melodie had wanted to go to a friends house, but forgot once she got in the car, and didn't remember til I'd brought her all the way home "Can you take me back out to Skyline?" (cause we only had one car at home, the van)  I wasn't willing to, cause that was stupid, we just came from there! Lucky for her Ethan got home just then from his sax lesson in Orem. ...which said lesson he slept though - he was tired after driving down there, got there early at 4 (lesson was at 4:30) so he left the car on with the air on "cause it was hot" as he took a 20 min nap (that's a big no no, isn't it?) but he ended up sleeping through the lesson cause his phone died cause it wasn't charged so his alarm didn't go off... he woke up 90 minutes later at 5:30 - the car in idle that whole freaking time, ran in for a minute to get 10 min of instruction, and then came home. So that was a waste of money for his lesson and gas, and the car said "0 miles until empty" on the meter when he woke up cause it was almost on empty anyway... luckily it died as he pulled into the gas station and he was able to coast to the gas meter. And I'm hearing all this and shaking my head at all the easy things they could have done to plan or be ready ...charge your phone... fill up the car before it gets that empty... It's like living with the foolish virgins all the time who are scrambling around panicked last minute cause they're out of oil and didn't think to prepare until the moment of... And then Corey ended up taking a trip home to set up chairs at the church for the Chili cook off tomorrow- which if I had known/ about, could have saved me having to take a trip out there, saving time and gas money. And since I was gone taking that trip, when I got back the house was in chaos with a mess in the kitchen and stuff - shoes, jackets, backpacks everywhere on the floor. But I had a stake meeting to go to at 7 and so I begged Abi to be the mother while I was gone and create some order in the mess I was leaving behind with her. Sophi was her helper, and they did create order, the house looked great when I got home, they are angels. So, when I got back it felt calm again, thus why I was able to sit and finish Natalie's scrapbook. I don't know if that all made any sense, but lesson of the evening is: if we want life to look and feel less crazy, we need to plan, coordinate, and check in with each other.

Sophi's Scrapbook

Tonight I did something that I've been meaning to do for years. I finally made Sophi's scrapbook. I made scrapbooks for all the kids some years ago - just found by searching on the blog here that it was apparently in October 2014, so a solid 4 years ago. I have all the scrapbooks on a shelf downstairs. This is just a little place where I keep momentos from their young years.

On shelf above the scrapbooks I have the kids' favorite stuffed animals - on the left are the 5 toys from Brazil in 2007, and on the right are 6 Webkinz from when we went to Costa Rica and Chile (Joseph didn't have one that time, as he was too old to need a stuffed animal that adventure). You'll notice that underneath the stuffed animals are eleven binders, one binder for each child. You'll also notice that the first 7 binders are nicely labeled with the child's initial, while the last 4 have no initial. Those blank binders have been reminders to me that I'm kinda not giving the younger kids the same attention as I have the older kids in their young years (granted, the older kid's lives were not blogged daily). But back to the binders... If you zoom in, you'll see that the 8th binder, Sophi's binder, actually is labeled... it is labeled with a little white "S" made from pen and paper. Sophi made that S herself and put it in there. She also decorated the front of her binder.

I think it's so cute, yet also sad, that she had to do it herself, I'm guessing it was about a year ago that she did it. She asked me "what about mine" enough and I didn't help, so she gave up on me doing it. ...although I did help her find scraps of paper I was willing to let her use. But that was it - I didn't have the patience at the moment to give her the time to do this thing that was important to her...until tonight! It took me a little over an hour. Corey took all the kids Wes and younger to look for Halloween costumes (brave man...) and so I had some time in a quiet house and decided it was time. This little 7 year old has been old enough to tell for a few years that she's been shorted her proper treatment. Tonight you get to join the ranks of the kids that have a binder! We even made the big initial on the front of her book out of pink glittery paper! She was very happy and felt very special. Yay, I finally delivered!

I hope it was worth the wait, Soph! Thanks for your patience. You are important to me. Natalie said "What about mine?!?!" Yes, I'm going to make your binder before the week is over, and I'll have yours be sparkly too, cause you've also been so patient with me. I was almost done with Sophi's when the crew came home from costume shopping. Thankfully I was able to finish it with the kids around. Wesley needed a Mario costume cause all the SBOs are being Nintendo people together. So I ordered one online and paid extra for shipping to get it here before Halloween. Then Wes says he needs it by this Wednesday cause he needs it for the school fun run. Blah, I told him too bad, I already spent money on you, deal with it, but Corey was kind and took them out. The store they went to only had a size 6 or a size Adult XL. Wes got the XL. So now I need to hem up the legs for him so he can run in it tomorrow. I told him I don't want to do it tonight, I'll wake up at 5:30

So I better go to bed so I can get up and do it, goodnight!

Couch Flip

Last Tuesday, one of the things that made that night's dinner closer to our ideal was that I put the toddlers at a different table.

And that worked because 1) it makes more room for the rest of the family at the big table (we need a new table) and because #2) it was helpful to have the small busy bodies out of the way of us calm and mature folk as we dined. (...although the older kids often have their fair share of being restless and noisy. Hooray for date night)

Anyway, I cleaned all the little kids paint and marker and art work off of the little table, and I repainted it, and I've been bringing that table in for our sit down dinners this past week. Tonight reminded me that it is good to have them at a different table, cause they were getting up and down over and over again. If they were at the big table doing that, it would just make things more crazy. It was crazy enough tonight, but it was better to watch it from a semi-safe distance and not have them climbing up and down from the table where we were trying to sit and eat. Tonight Owen and Daniel were doing flips over the couch. I think Lily started it before she sat down to eat, and then Owen and Daniel took it from there. Up on the stool, lean over the back of the couch...

and flip! Down the chute he goes.

It was noisy but funny to watch. Their fun made Lily want to rejoin, so like I said, it's hard enough having the big kids sit down and hold still without trying to keep the toddlers seated too. Someday we'll have dinners like normal families? And we've gotten there some times, but those times took a lot more work. This is probably consistent with how our regular school night dinners look.

Corey commented "Dinner and a show..." Daniel's turn, showing that he can keep up with the big kids...

Daniel struggled to get over the couch, but once he was almost there, he'd pause and look or Corey "Dad! A dis! (Watch this)" "I'm watching!" and over he'd go, flip!

They were calling Corey's name the whole time. "I see you! I saw you! Ok! That's pretty cool..." "Dad! Dad! Watch this! DAD! Watch!" over and over. Corey commented as he was attempting to put his bowl in the sink "I wish I had another set of eyes on the side of my face..." so that he could look at them but also not have to keep looking at them, lol. These are the days, childhood comes with an expiration date. We'll try to enjoy childhood while it's here.

Clean Office

Corey and I came home last night with Owen and Daniel. They just sleep better here at home, and then we're all happier. Daniel woke up this morning being super adorable, as usual. Hugging his "baby" bear.

Daniel! Are you so sweet and cute?!? Yes, and you know you are...

Do you remember your toe? You got an owie! He looked at his toe with great concern. Yes, it looks like something serious happened to that toe. Are you okay?

Yeah, he's ok. He jumped right up and started being cute. I like Daniel. Corey says that he usually doesn't get to know the youngest kid until a baby comes along. So another few months and Daniel and Corey will get to spend quality time together. I'm excited for Corey to get to know D, he's a good little kid.

So, we stayed home. I had been in a real cleaning groove yesterday as I helped the kids clean. I was a little bummed to stop and go to Park City, cause we had been making such great progress. But even without the kids here today, I was able to get back in the zone. Corey used to have thousands of movies in his office. I moved them out to the garage in lettuce boxes. Then the kids found them out there and there were piles of dvds tossed to the side as they look for one to watch, and I'm just so sick of movies everywhere!!! So NOW they are in green office boxes and have been put up really high in the garage, so high that I could hardly put them up.

I'm trusting the kids will not be able to get them down now, ha. We moved the 9 black ikea dvd shelves into the basement for the time being, just to get them out of Corey's office. And - I don't have a before, but check out Corey's office now!

I worked on it quite a bit over the past few weeks moving out movies, then Wes helped me a lot yesterday, Abi, Lily, and Sophi all being tied for the next best helpers, and then the work I did today. Corey hadn't seen the phase 1 work after yesterday's effort, which would have impressed him, so to see the finished project today - he was pretty amazed. Today is was mostly going through papers. A lot of them were just shoved in the filing cabinet, which was already crammed full (and not organized from what I could decipher). My suggestion to him, which I haven't given him yet, is that he sort through the papers in the cabinet for 10 min a day, or an hour on the weekend. I think most of it can be tossed or recycled. We'll see. Corey headed back up to PC tonight with Owen, they will all be back in the morning, I'm here with Mel and Daniel. I'm hoping to be in the zone one more day tomorrow and get more done in the basement. Hooray for 4 day weekends!

Park City for UEA

I took the kids up to the Summit Watch in Park City tonight. Corey's parent's and siblings are all up here for the fall break and invited us to join in the fun. The kids worked hard cleaning all day and one by one earned the right to go and spend the night. I did the things I usually do in Park City: watch kids as they wander the halls and watch kids swim. These EXIT signs were really fun to Owen and Daniel to practice their ABCs on - and there were a lot of them... they'd run from one to another - Owen would touch each letter, then Daniel would say "My turn!" and he'd do it too. They were cute to watch.

Daniel hurt his toe as it got caught under the metal door to the room, he got a few good scratches and was bleeding pretty bad. We turned on the tv as we waited for him to calm down. We watched the Titanic sink and I think that gave him some proper perspective for problems in life. So he calmed down and then I took these kids swimming.

Lily didn't come tonight, but Wes eventually joined us. They were cute swimming.

I didn't bring a swimsuit, don't have a pregnant one at the time being, so I just watched. Abi was a great helper.

Daniel was cute, Owen was cute, they all swam away the evening.

Sophi and Natalie had a fun time falling back and jumping forward into the pool 

Daniel ready to try his hand at jumping in?

Corey brought up Ethan and Hyrum later this evening, they got her around 9:30. Corey took Owen and Daniel back to the room, then Abi and Wes followed. I stayed and watched Sophi and Natalie until 10:15. When we got back to the room, I saw Daniel had fallen asleep on Wes. But D still had his swim diaper on, so he woke up as I changed him. I might have stayed if I thought he would fall back asleep and sleep through the night, but I had visions of being awake at 1 and 2 am, so Corey and I headed home. D's asleep in his crib, as he should be, and I know I'll have an uninterrupted night by him. Owen usually wakes me up once or twice looking for his binky or something, but it's still good to have them sleep here at home. The rest of the kids stayed up in PC for a sleepover with their grandparents and cousins. Either Corey or I will head back up there tomorrow. Goodnight.