Cute now...we're in for it later

Only good thing - we aren't going in multiple times a night to replace her paci, like we had to for the boys. Once that thumb gets in her mouth she sleeps a looooong time.

I can't seem to multi-task as well anymore

I was filling out baby shower invitations this afternoon on one end of the kitchen table while the boys were playing play-doh. After needing to look up my own phone number for the RSVP line, needing to call a friend to remind me who's shower it was, and then looking up my own address for where the shower will be held I finally admitted this wasn't a task I could do with 3 kids awake. I'll try again when everyone is in bed.

Flight Museum

The first Thursday of every month is free admission (from 5pm-9pm) at the Museum of Flight, a trip that would otherwise cost our family $38. It was really fun, and would have been worth $38. Only thing we would do different is to remember Heidi's stroller or a front pack. We especially loved watching planes land and take off from the runway across from the entrance. This is an outing we highly recommend to others in the area.

Let's play a game

Let's play a little game called "have you ever..."
Have you ever had your kids mad at you because you won't paint your house purple? That's me on the drive home from target today.
Have you ever forgotten to feed your kids lunch? Then at 2:00 you realize it better be a light lunch since dinner is just around the corner?
Have you ever called one of those bank numbers where they want you to speak your selections? While your kids, despite being told you are on the phone, try to carry on a conversation with you - at the top of their lungs? And the annoyingly patient voice on the other end is saying "I'm sorry, I didn't get that." And you are thinking "that's because what I was yelling at my kids wasn't a choice." So you try to enter your account number -again-but the background noise keeps resetting it. So you lock yourself in the bathroom only to forget why you were calling the bank in the first place.
Have you ever fed your kids popcorn for dinner? I just might. Do I sound more responsible if I promise to serve apples too? And milk? good.

Happy 6th Birthday Colt!

We hid Colt's presents and gave him a series of clues that eventaully led him to where they were hidden. I was amazed that he could read the clues - and all of his birthday cards! This was a Batman birthday, with lots of presents from grandparents and the Batcave with several villans and of course Batman and Robin from us. Tom took the boys to Jetty Island for the main part of the day. It's a 2 mile sandy beach in Everett, you take a walk-on ferry across. It was opening day and the Pirates were there to celebrate, they had buried "treasure" (pencils, stickers, etc.) in the sand for the kids to dig up. They had a great time and thankfully left the island before it caught on fire. It really did, and it was evacuated - that would've been a bad ending to a fun time.

Not my most creative of cakes but easy. (That's a batman with a city scape behind him on there.) After dinner, cake, and ice cream Colt and I went on a birthday walk - just the two of us. It was great and gave Skyler some time to check out Colt's new toys without them fighting. Colt kept saying it was the best batman birthday ever.

End of June

Colt had his last day of Kindergarten - I can't believe he'll be in 1st grade in a few months. This growing up thing is happening to fast.

Skyler had his last day of preschool, it was at our house and they mostly played outside together the entire time. He's sooooo excited to go to a big preschool in the fall and to play on a soccer team, life for Skyler will be great in a matter of months.

Heidi just gets more and more fun. She coos and smiles, and loves the fish that dangle down from above this swing. And she is so so excited to meet her 2 little girl cousins who are coming to visit from Utah in a few weeks! They are just several months older then her and just might bring some cute clothes to borrow - what a lucky girl.

Heidi's many faces

I pulled apart some of the headbands that were to frilly for my taste and made some new ones. Here's the first one I did - while my sink sat full of dishes and the laundry spilled over.

One smiling baby picture is never enough

My sister called today asking me to post a new picture of Heidi....I didn't have any so I took some this afternoon and lucked out with our first full smiling pictures - how nice of Heidi to cooperate!

Sleep Talking

While I was up with Heidi around 3am this morning I heard talking in the boys room. After getting her back down I went in there - both boys were fast asleep, but then Skyler said (still asleep), clear as day, "Don't step on my food! OK Colt? Say sorry!" It was pretty funny.

Summer Berries

We moved here last August - the berry patch looked wonderful when we found the house but when we moved in it was done producing. I was excited for this year - and am not dissapointed!

Dot Art

Colt found this book at the library - it inspired a simple art idea which we tried this morning. This book is called "Ten Black Dots" and is by Donald Crews. It's a great book for kids coming out of Kindergarten to read by themselves!

Here's one of the pages - so now it's time to get creative!

Here we have little books I stapled together, markers, and lots and lots of dots.

Skyler especially liked turning the dots into faces and balloons. Colt had planets and spaceships in his. Hopefully they will enjoy this throughout the summer and get more and more creative.

T-Ball, Heidi's Blessing, and the Middle Child

Colt has loved playing T-ball. Before every game he asks "what team are we playing with today?" He doesn't seem to get that it's a competitive sport and that the other team shows up to try and beat his team. Of course they don't keep score at this level but when he gets on base after hitting he strikes up a conversation with opponents. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them have been invited over to play. You may notice the towel on the ground - this is where the kids are to toss the bat after hitting. It's a league rule, in hopes to teach safety from the very beginning. That was one of our bath towels.

Sunday was Heidi's baby blessing. We are so grateful for all the family who came, this little lady was blessed by her Dad and had 7 Uncles, 2 Grandpas, 1 great-uncle, and her home teacher in the circle.

And here's the middle child, Skyler. He keeps the younger siblings of Colt's teammates entertained during the T-ball games, helps me cook and clean during the day, and still thinks Heidi is "so cute." I'm glad we have another year together before Kindergarten.

1 Month Old

Heidi is 1 month old today and she pretty much eats, sleeps, and poops. She's such a good baby, she gets up only once during the night and goes right back to sleep after nursing. She naps through the loudness of her brothers and will take a paci best from Colt. She doesn't like being buckled in her carseat but seems to like baths. She's finally been gaining weight these past 2 weeks and is now a pro nurser - I never thought that day would come. She sneezes and hiccups alot - very cute. She has smiled at Mom 4 times and at Skyler once. We love this little girl!

Just a sleeping baby picture, but I love this sleep sac! It's just right for these warm nights, a cotton, sleeveless blanket that zips. I wish we'd had one for Colt since he was born in July - but Heidi's will last all summer. She's such a good baby, except for on Sunday... Tom was holding her during Sacrament meeting, holding her just the wrong way because she pooped a big one. Newborns poop what looks like mustard for those of you who don't know. It went all over Tom's church pants and ran into the church bag where his lesson books were for primary. I had no idea what had happened but when I looked over he had a panicked look on his face and mouthed "I've got to go!" I thought, can't he hold it until church is over, but then he mouthed "She pooped all over me!" So I took her and cleaned her up and changed her, raced back to sit with the boys so Tom could run home to change before needing to teach. Then, during sharing time a little girl peed all over the chair in front of Tom - he helped clean that mess up while the women took care of her. So all in all it was a bodily fluid day for Tom at church. Poor guy. I let him relax for a few hours once we got home, just glad it wasn't me.

What shall we call this post?

Several ideas came to mind: "Thank goodness for Super Glue," "A bad ending to a pretty good day," "What can go wrong while giving a baby a bath," "blood, blood, and more blood," "What happens when 2 brothers are unsupervised for 5 minutes," "There goes the family picture for a few months," the ideas are endless. Skyler's eye brow was split open - very deep - so we headed to get stiches. Thankfully the doctor at the walk-in used special glue instead, I don't think I could have handled watching them stich Sklyer up. This should also leave less of a scar. The events are shady, but apparently Colt swung him into the train table. The doctor kept Sklyer laughing by telling the nurses he got hit by a train. And yes, Colt got in big trouble.

When they grow up

I would consider my life pretty typical for the average stay-at-home mom. My kids get along and they fight. My house can be clean, it can be a disaster. My laundry is sometimes all caught-up and other times there's piles and piles of dirty clothes. I make dinner from scratch and buy McDonald's. But if you ask my kids what they want to be when they grow up you will not get the typical answers. You all know by now that Skyler, my 4 year old, refuses to grow up - and has been adamant about not growing up since he was 2 1/2. So we won't even go there - no fireman, builder, Daddy, nothing. Now, Colt on the other hand is often upset that Skyler doesn't want to grow up - but that's another post. So if you ask Colt what he wants to be, well - when he was 3 and 4 years old he wanted to be a conductor. Not a train conductor, a symphony conductor. This past year he's been confident that he'll be a great author and artist when he grows up.... so we'll see! It'll be interesting to see in a few years if Heidi aspires to be a ballerina or princess - or surprises me like her brothers have.

Zoo trip

Friday Tom took off work, Colt played hookie from school and we all went to the zoo. The new penguin exhibit was open and the boys loved it. Heidi slept pretty much the whole trip so that made things easier. It was nice being out as a family doing something fun again!

A few pictures

Sklyer frequently begs to hold Heidi - if I don't comply he will most likely try picking her up when I'm not looking - a 4 year old picking up a newborn looks like this: he wraps his arms around her middle and quickly lifts, with no regard to the floppy head. So I usually let him hold her when he asks.

Colt loves to read to Heidi - he's always careful to make sure she can see the pictures, even if it means yelling for his brother to move over.

Having a sister is fun....so far

My Happy Mother's Day