A Bad Bonk

Melodie and Sophi were playing with the guinea pigs in the back yard yesterday, and then Melodie went to put the pigs away and left Sophia on the hammock, and then Sophia fell off the hammock and hit her eye on the metal frame of it, and it must have hit in just the right spot on her cheek bone cause boy, it got swollen up right away.  She would not let me put ice on it, but the swelling went down during the evening.  However, this morning when her little sleepy face greeted us, it about broke my heart!  Look at that little eye!

 Well, once she stopped goofing off and making silly faces

There it is - look at that poor little eye, oh Sophi Baby!!!

Are you okay?  I took her to the mirror and she seemed a little disturbed by her reflection.  After I took these pictures I showed them to her on the camera and she just said "Baba!"  Yes, look at that cute baba.  You are a cutie Sophi, an I'll kiss your little eye all day and try to make it better.

Little Helpers

I think the favorite job of most of my kids is emptying the dishwasher.  Loading it about makes them want to die, it's "so disgusting".  But unloading - now that's nice, all clean dishes.  They especially love it if Sophi helps.

Sophi's usually the first one to start unloading, then they all rush in to be the first to help her.  The rest of the kids were at school on Monday, Abi didn't have competition and was able to help Sophi and have Sophi help her.

She was laughing everytime Sophi handed her a utensil, and so was I.  Super cute.

Then Sophia even ventured to put them in the silverware drawer herself.

So fun.  Love these little helpers, and trying to teach them so they still want to help when they are older.

Nap Time

I often put Sophia down for her afternoon nap like this:

which turned into this last Saturday

(LOVE that little ankle crossed over on her knee!!)   And then finally ended in this - ah, nap time.  

 I was happy to lay on the bed and join her.

She really is just the cutest little bookworm in the world.

And look at those lashes, such a lucky girl.  Glad that one of my girls got them from Corey, cause it just wouldn't be fair for the boys to be getting them all.

Policy

Corey has had my computer at work ~ he's "nuking" it again for me, cause it's got bugs.  He's had it since Friday.  I'm up in the morning right now using his computer before he takes it to work.  Hopefully my computer will be done today, but then again, wow - it's amazing at how productive I've been around the house without it.  Last night I came here to his computer to try and check my email (all junk mail messages) and Sophi kinda freaked out.  Is that another sign that I am sitting in front of this little machine too much?  I'm thinking this experience is good for me.  I should probably spend less time at the comptuer.  Think of all that I could accomplish!  Although I had to modify dinner last night cause I couldn't google the side dish that was in my brain, and Mel and I didn't finish an easter craft that I'd seen on pinterest, and Hyrum wasn't able to do Khan Academy during homeschool yesterday, but the pros have been pretty obvious: I cleaned all day yesterday and the house is amazingly clean, and not just rooms, we're talking drawers and closets too, Abi and I read together, I made a great dinner, and I feel really fulfilled and satisfied.  Very interesting.  Yes, I belive my computer being gone has been a blessing in disguise, and now I get to choose what I do with this new knowledge.  I'm thinking maybe I'll only sit down at the computer when kids are in bed maybe.  Or maybe limit my computer time to a certain hour of the day?  Or to once or twice a week?   Exploring that topic...

Another topic I explored over the past month and a half was whether I like not knowing the gender of our baby.  Of course, I did find out the gender when I had my ultrasound in February and told Corey the gender, but I was exploring whether it was fun for the kids not to know, and thus vicariously see if I liked not knowing.  And I've decided I don't.  For me, there's already so much of excitement in even having a baby when they are born, finding out the gender is a way to make the excitement and anticipation last longer.  So Sunday we told them and it's nice to have them not nagging and going crazy with curiosity.  I've wanted to tell the kids and relatives for a few weeks, but Corey said I couldn't set policy and then just go change it just because.  I protested that I wasn't officially setting policy, I was just exploring the topic and trying it out for size, a very Venitian thing to go.  He was being a very focused Maritan.  But, thankfully his mother's birthday helped break him, cause if there's anything she really wanted that we could give her, it was to know if it was a boy or a girl.

And it's a girl. 

4 little girls in a row!  We are gonna have such the house of teenaged drama in 13+ years.  I have 4 sisters though, so I'm thinking I can handle it.  A few years ago when we were a family of 5 kids, 4 boys and just 1 girl, I was thinking I had gotten myself into something that I didn't know how to deal with.  But the girls have come from behind to take the lead, 5-4.  We were all sure it was a boy, cause we just haven't had a boy baby for so long, and Wes was hoping he could have a little brother, so... there might just be one more... (again, not setting policy here, just exploring the topic) - Corey and I don't know how many kids we want.  If you were to ask Corey, he answers "Three.  ... but we can keep the ones we have."  My thought is that we just take these kids one at a time, so I'll see how I'm feeling later this year.   (And I'm betting that day 1 after seeing this angels face that my pregnancy amnesia will have already started to set in...)

My Favorite Career

I'm on week 2 of my new life system of planning and cleaning and being on top of it, and it is good.  I totally loved Stephanie Nielsen's post today - Motherhood really is a great job.  It's my favorite and I love that I'm learning how to do it better.  (Here's a link to the things I've started so far with my new system, it's going great!)

I also totally laughed inside as I saw all the faces of her kids when they were younger, so cute, all those little chubby faces.  Made me smile, so I thought I'd copy cat her and share my crew from their chubby face days of yester-year:

Starting off - the two cutest babies in the world (Irish twins too!) Joseph and Melodie

Joseph - inquisitive, humble, always learning.
Melodie - you're cuter than your baby guinea pigs.  A nurturing little mother in the making.
Ethan - a little curious monkey, ready to tease and play at any moment.  That face spells trouble right there I tell ya.

Hyrum (dressed as pirate Smee for Halloween) - humble, quiet, watchful, and as stubborn as his dad.

Wesley joined the crew - what a happy baby!

He is pure boyhood - dirt and sweets and imagination.

Then Abi - there's a little girl that was ready to keep up with Ethan's mischief - always busy wanting to go and do and see

that hair is just so cute on Abi - what a little face

 Lily - she is meek and mild, and likes to draw on everything.

And lastly our current perfect angel, Sophia.  Oh she's such a pretty baby, I could just kiss her!

I love being a mom. 

Fondant-ing

Ethan's Birthday was on Friday.  My mom had some fondant frosting left over from a cake she made a week before, so she decided to make Ethan's cake.  Since Mel is our aspiring baker, she and I went over to learn a little bit about making a fondant cake from my mom. 

It was fun and good to spend some time over there.  My parents both work and their office is at home, so not a lot of places for kids to play, so my mom usually always comes over to our house to visit.  As we pulled up Melodie said "I haven't been here for so long!" ~ I think since before we went to Costa Rica in 2010.  (That is long.)

Melodie was cute kneading the fondant. 

and she's such a shorty we gave her a step stool. 

We finished decorating a small cake and she took it to school to give to Ethan during his lunch time as a surprise.  She's a great sister and a wonderful daughter.  They don't get better than Mel.

Bookworm

I always love to see Sophia looking through books, it warms my heart. 

If she wants my attention, I'm usually able to distract her for a few minutes by giving her a book.  It looked especially cute and precious this time cause Hyrum had dressed her up in his scout uniform the other day, it was a little scout dress on her.  She went out into the backyard to earn her "wilderness explorer" patch, making sure to bring along her silver purse carefully held in the fold of her arm.

She's just a bundle of joy.  I had to pay a 9 months of pregnancy price to have her and enjoy her everyday, which has almost been 18 months of joy so far, seems like I got a good deal.  It's totally worth it.

A Baker

This week is spring break and I love having the kids home.  We've kinda taken it easy today ~ the kids have been playing "Store" and "Go For It" while I spent the day updating my budget binder (that one is my own system and I really like it, I'll share that soon).

Mel and I are taking advantage of this week to practice some baking skills.  I sat here at the computer budgeting today and told her to make banana bread muffins and just do her best.  I checked on her a few times and helped get the muffin tins ready and pour the batter into cups, and as I did I thought it looked kinda runny, but I didn't say anything and figured we'll see how it turns out.  And... they looked like craters. 

As I asked about what she did for each step and each of the ingredients, then it was revealed that she only put in 1/3 cup flour instead of the 1 2/3 cups flour the recipe called for.  I guess it might be hard to read from how it's typed on the recipe page? 

Anyway, I said "Well, that would explain it." and I'll let her try again tomorrow (but with honey wheat muffins next time.)  I love having this free time for them to practice, experience, and learn for themselves. 

And my home management system is going great!!  I even got my desk in order on Saturday, things are coming together, this is my year to do!

Boating in the Backyard

Hyrum is an awesome big brother.  He pushed Sophia around the backyard for like 10 minutes today, which is a lot cause in my opinion, cause he didn't have snow boots on.  His ankles and socks got cold and wet in the snow.  

 And he did it all cause he loves this little face as much as I do - look at that smile.

He was pleased with now much easier it is to push the boat on the snow vs. the grass (which he does in the summer time). 

It was fun, there were little boat tracks all over the back yard from her boat, like a life sized train track or something. And all cause of those big and beautiful brown eyes.

 Love that little face.

Safety Kids

Mel and her friend Aria took their little siblings on a spring walk around the neighborhood over the weekend.  It's so nice for the kids to get out side in the sunshine and non-freezing air.  And although there is snow on the ground this morning, I'm still very grateful winter was officially over as of yesterday! 

Corey was working at the table and saw the kids out the window on their way out and said "Tiff, you gotta get a picture of this..."  The one year olds all safetied-up in bike helmets was an especially cute touch. 

 Gotta love these nurturing big sisters.

Easter Egg Hunt

We went to a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt today after school.  The older kids each helped a younger kid, but I got to hang with Sophi, and I just loved it cause I knew exactly what she'd do ~ she'd find one egg and be done.  She'd sit down with her one egg, no caring that there is more out there, she's just enjoy her simple treat, no need to hunt for more more.  Toddlers live in the now, and since she had one now, she was content.

Luckily it had lots of little sixlet chocolate malt balls in it, so she was able to enjoy them for a while.  Abi came back with her 10 eggs, I'd send her off to find more for Sophi so we were ready with more treats when she did eventually finish her first orange egg.

Abi presented her with a sparkly pink egg.  It was cute. Love little kids. 

Mel is so nice too, she helped Lily and a neighbor girl and then played with them coloring with chalk and helping them open their eggs.  It was a pretty day, so glad spring is in the air!

Confident Kids

I've been working all weekend on my Home Management Book, and I still have a lot to do, but oh boy am I'm full of energy from what I've done so far!  I stayed up later last night than I should have, but I still hit the ground running this morning.  I'm going to be documenting all the amazing steps of how to make a Home Management Binder on my Homemaker blog and will probably link over to there quite a bit over the next few weeks.  Just posted about the Job Wheel I made last night.  But anyway, if you are a mother who feels over your head with it all, keep checking over there cause I think Amy's system is gonna be working miracles for me, maybe it can help you too.  

Today I did my scheduling and goals with each kid individually, it was so fun!  Mel went first, so hers was the longest session as I was still figuring it out and trying to find my lists and papers and stuff.  I'll be posting on the homemaker blog all the lists of things to go through for that, but it was just fun and great to have all the things that are jumbled up in my brain typed up and cleared out - it's like I'm cleaning out my brain and getting it all in a book, so my frazzled head is going to be so clear and free of all the things that have made it a mess!  Exciting!  And tonight after prayer the kids all said they liked and appreciated having time to talk with me and have us both set up our plans for the week - they know my expectations and were cool with it all, and I was able to find out from them (and write down!) the things they need help with.  As Amy said "Informed kids are confident kids."  This system is going to empower them and me.

On a normal silly note, these two smurfs got into the red peppers yesterday as I stepped away from making a dinner salad to do planning.  Lily and Sophi think Red peppers are apples. 

We were all laughing at them.  Such healthy kids!

Ethan dressed up Sophi for St. Patricks day.  She had green pants under that 10/12 size shirt of Mel's that he stole from her drawer, just to make sure Soph was extra safe from any leprechaun pinching.  :)