We love our sisters!

The kids were begging for their pictures to be taken with the girls on their beds at bedtime the other night.  They sure love the camera their new sisters!  Its so fun (and, let's be honest, often hectic!) having 4 kids so close in age!  Eloise and Pearl are 8 weeks old!

To Be A Mother

I've been thinking lately how strange it is that I almost have as many kids as my own mom has.  It's a weird feeling.  You can never truly appreciate what a mother or parent does until you have kids of your own.  I often ask my mom how she did it and she looks at me and says, "I don't know.  I think I've blocked it from my memory!"  Maybe it's the same thing that happens after you have a baby.  Eventually you forget the pain and misery and only remember holding that newborn baby in your arms.  Nature has a strange way of making you go through it all again!

I can't say enough good things about my mom.  She has truly been a rock in my life.  I always know I can go to her with my problems and she'll know just what to say to make it better.  I hope I can be like that for my kids.  She's my best friend (along with my sister and most of all, my Honey...I guess you could say my whole family are my best friends!). 

I think I have the greatest job in all the world.  I relish being a mommy.  My kids bring me more joy than anything else in life.  It's both trying and ever-so rewarding.  Each night after we put the kids to bed, Jon and I relate the day's experiences to each other and it's usually all to do with the kids and the funny things they said or did.  I'm happy to say that all frustration melts when I open their bedroom doors after they've fallen asleep and I see them lying there peacefully.  Sometimes I wish I could climb right in with them and snuggle them to my heart's content!

Motherhood is also wonderful because I get to be a mother with the best father around.  Jon is the best partner to have in raising my kids.  Sundays are a difficult day to provide any pampering but he gave it his best even when he was feeling miserable himself!!  He truly sacrifices so much for me and the kids.  I love him.

Last night, just before the kids got in bed, I got the best Mother's Day card ever made:

Hey look, it's Spring!

We had a few beautiful days last week to go to the park and play.  I took the camera along for one of them.

An Artist Emerges

I've always tried to encourage my children to develop and explore their artistic sides.  I consider myself more of a right-brained person and enjoy expressing creativity (however poorly its done) so I'm always pleased when one of my kids shows me a project they've been working on.

Yesterday was just a normal day and as the afternoon wore on, Sophie woke up from her nap around the usual time.  We've pretty much completed the day-time potty training so when I heard her at her door saying, "I went potty!" I figured she'd done so in her diaper and didn't worry about it.  We haven't quite reached the nap and sleep time training.

When I opened the door, it was as if someone had thrown a ton of bricks constructed completely of POOP right at my face.  I looked down to see a naked Sophie with poop-crusted hands up to the wrists.  All I could say was, "Go get in the bath, now!" to which she responded happily, "OK!"  I found the soiled diaper on the floor, along with a nice giant poop streak on the floor. 

I began gathering up the dirty sheets and blankets nearby and looked up to find another little surprise on one of the twin beds.

I was pretty mad at this point and made sure to get back in the bathroom to tell her how mad I was and how naughty she was.  She responded by asking for more bubbles.

I grabbed some towels and headed back to the room to begin cleanup duty when my eyes lifted from the carpet and up to the walls.  Cave paintings.  Poop smeared everywhere.  Poop on the wicker chair where she stood to reach the walls; poop on the twin bed's comforter; poop flakes on the floor in a visible trail around the bed; poop on the wall on the other side of the bed.

At this point I decided to go back in to the bathroom in another attempt to make her feel guilty (an impossible feat) and soon gave up and decided to growl and groan and mutter under my breath, hoping someone in the cosmos would be listening and understanding my pain.

It took approximately 1 hour, 5 towels, 2 washcloths, 3 paper towels, a good dose of Oxy-Clean, 3 loads of laundry, and finally a sweep over the soiled carpet with the carpet cleaner to remove the putrid smell and remnants of Sophie's artwork.

Proud?  I say, Let's try another medium...maybe crayons on some good, old-fashioned paper.  Shoot, draw me a few nondescript scribbles and I'll secure the means for your very own exhibition and gallery.

The magic word is not always magic.

On Valentine's, I was quite the domestique.  I dipped strawberries in chocolate, made about a thousand heart-shaped sugar cookies, and cooked a salmon dinner for my family.

I picked Jon up from school and even though he'd probably would have preferred to relax at home after an exhausting day at school, he humored our little guy and took Jonah for a walk around the neighborhood while I cooked dinner.

Sophie saw the chocolate covered strawberries lying on the counter to dry and immediately started begging for one.  I told her they weren't ready yet and she would have to wait until after dinner.  With them gone and me left with Sophie, I turned on some cartoons for her and ran out to the superfluous fridge in the garage for some supplies.  Upon my return, I turned to say something to Sophie and there she stood, strawberry in hand, chocolate covering her face.  I'm pretty sure I was only gone for about 20 seconds.  I said, "Sophie, I said no strawberries!  What are you doing? (I'm not mad, I'm more surprised at her ability to reach up and cleanly swipe a strawberry off a counter that's a good foot taller than she)" and her reply was, "Mom, I said please!"  I couldn't help but laugh.  There was no evidence of a chair being moved or a struggle involved in reaching the biggest strawberry of the batch.

Some of our other Valentine's activities included making cards for Grandpa & Mimi Green and eating pink, heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast!

Happy Halloween!

This year we got to trick-or-treat with Buzz Lightyear and our very own giraffe! Jonah adores his Buzz costume that Mimi and Grandpa got him. I had to limit the times he wore it before Halloween just so we could make sure it wasn't ruined by then. 

Sophie wore Jonah's giraffe ("raff") costume this year and it makes me crack up every time I see her walk in it. It has a nice padded rear end so it looks like she has humongous hips!

We went to a Halloween party at my father-in-law's student ward and the kids had so much fun. Jon and I just thanked our lucky stars that we were in that single's scene anymore. It was also a dance, so I got to observe the awkward behavior from the side of the dance floor. We didn't dance but Jon did bust out a few of his old dance moves that lured me so long ago.  No one does a better body roll than Jon Bush.

On Sunday, we had our usual family gathering for dinner and all the cousins came in their costumes so Mamou and Grandpa could see them all.  They even trick-or-treated in some of the rooms in the house.

I dressed as a garden gnome this year and made my pointy had with some felt I purchased at our very own and brand new Hobby Lobby (love).

I love this!! LOL..."Mom, do I have to???"

Trusting the Tripod

A student's budget doesn't support a lot of extras.  So in lieu of having our pictures taken by someone else, I gathered the family and we headed up to South Fork to admire the fall foliage and to attempt a family picture.  I knew this would be difficult and it gave me some anxiety but we did mange to get one picture that turned out alright.  Then I coaxed the kids into a few pictures.

Jonah was pretty grouchy the entire time, hence the face.

Dolly came with us on the hike.  Sophie is a good mommy.

Someday I'll be able to pay for family pictures, until then, we'll make due!

Evening Activities

We've really enjoyed the cool evenings lately and have been spending them outside while the kids play and ride bikes.  We also love our evening walks--pulling Sophie in the wagon while Jonah rides his bike or scooter along side us.

Jonah is a master at riding a bike.

Riding with Daddy. It looks so uncomfortable but she loves it!

Nice. Why can't kids give a real smile when you tell them to smile?

Bundled for our walk in the chilly, fall weather.

Last Days of Summer

Just playing at the park.

A day at the park

Last week on Jonah's birthday we took the kidlets to the park for some play time.  I brought my camera along with so I could get some cute pictures of them while they played.

Hopefully we'll be getting some family pictures taken in the next couple of weeks.  I just need to finish Sophie's Easter outfit and we'll be set!