Poor Thing...

I've never been much of a cat lover (being allergic does that to you), but I have to admit I felt very sorry for this poor cat. Max wasn't being mean to him, but Max's version of love isn't always gentle, soft or wanted! He is so darn happy with that cat!!! I couldn't stop laughing as he hauled this cat around. He would lose his grip and drop it, then pick it back up, for about fifteen minutes they did this...poor thing.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from Clay the Lacrosse Player, Quin the Skeleton, Ali the Snow White Princess, Jack the Batman Superhero, Max the Bat and Heidi the Cow...momentarily not a mad cow.

Hope yours was as good as ours!!

Every Year...

It seems like the beginning of each new school year always brings along some outbreak or pandemic of illness.

Seriously, you have perfectly healthy kids all summer long and as soon as you send them off to hang out for 7+ hours of the day in close quarters with hundreds of other children, they all of a sudden get sick...it never fails!

And this year is no exception. Clay woke up around 4am Saturday morning barfing his brains out all over our family room. He is usually pretty good about making it to the toilet, but there wasn't enough time, it hit him fast and hard. He spent a good half hour in the shower throwing up and crying - long enough for Joe and I to clean everything up and throw in a load of dirty laundry.

Clay was feeling poorly most of Saturday, but seemed to have recovered fully by Sunday morning. We sort of hoped he had just eaten something bad and that was the end of it...not so.

Max woke up and got in bed with me Monday at 12:30am. I had just washed all of my bedding and was worried he might get a bloody nose, so I brought him back to his own crib. A few minutes later he started to cry and yell for daddy. I went in his room and he had vomited all over in his bed. Yum. I had Joe bring him in and shower him off while I cleaned up his bed and threw in a load of laundry. I made him a little bed on our floor and we all went back to bed...until 1:30am, 3am and again at 4:30am. He threw up four times that night, I did four loads of laundry that night and no one got a whole lot of sleep.

Max seemed just fine today, although he had another bloody nose last night and, of course, he came and got into my bed around 4am...Joe and I stripped the bed and I did ANOTHER load of laundry. I am telling you, I have done WAY too much laundry over the past three days. Unacceptable.

The worst part though, Joe and I are both feeling very queezy and have terrible headaches...ya! It looks like the school year has most definitely begun!

This One's For You Mom...

Let's see...

Our baby was safely delivered on June 13th. She is a dream and we are so happy to have her here. We had some issues coming up with a name we could agree on and for the first three months she was known as Zoe. The day of her baby blessing we changed it to Heidi. We are both happy with the new name, although the kids seem to be having a hard time remembering it's been changed...oops.

We spent some time in Bear Lake with my dad's family, which was a lot of fun. The kids loved the beach and sunshine, I enjoyed it a lot as well! We had a lot going on in August: Joe's parents returned home from their mission and were able to spend several weeks out here in Utah.

Joe's little sister Liz got married in the Salt Lake Temple, which was great fun and we are very happy for her and her new husband. He is a great guy and we wish them both the best.

Joe's older sister was sealed in the Temple which was a wonderful event and it was great to be there with them for that.

We had our baby Heidi's blessing which was great fun and our annual Worcester Ward Party here at our home which was a great time as well!

It is always nice to have reasons to get together with our family and friends. We have enjoyed having them in our home and being able to spend time with everyone.

The kids started school and are happy to be back in a good routine. Clay has started 5th grade, Quin is in 3rd, Ali is in 1st and Jack is attending preschool four days a week. Although I am sure Max misses all of his older siblings doting on his every need, I sure love the couple of hours each day when we get to take a nap and enjoy the peace and quiet...so blissful!

This is Max after eating a small handful of cherries...imagine what he could do with a whole bowl...the possibilities are endless!!!

Max has a need for speed!

Max had his adenoids out the end of August. The Dr decided not to take his tonsils out yet, they are big, but not too big. We will wait and watch them, most likely he will have to get them out at some point in the future. Does it seem odd to anyone else that of my six kids, ALL FOUR boys have now had their adenoids out? Ali never had a problem, we will see if Heidi has problems, but so far all the boys have shown distinct problems by age two. Clay had his adenoids and tonsils out at age 4. Quin, Jack and Max were 2. I suppose it must be a hereditary thing...we have massive adenoids and tonsils. Who knew?! Max has recovered well though and is starting to sound less raspy. His airway was 85% blocked by his adenoids, so I am hoping that the massive increase in oxygen will help him hit a growth spurt (if nothing else, however, I just hope he is feeling better)!

Is that chubby kid trying to ride that little purple Barbie bike????

Poor bike...

Clay and his friends decided to put their firecrackers to good use this July...Joe may, or may not, have helped them blow up Arial Barbie...

Clay is doing Lacrosse again this fall and he has really been improving. He loves the game and it has been fun to watch him play. His team won their first game this season 7 to 3 and we are looking forward to seeing how they do tomorrow.

Joe's company finally moved out of the old house (we are renting that out to a great family now) and he has purchased a building that is providing them with a great deal more space, which they sorely needed. He has had a lot on his plate lately, which has kept him very busy...we miss him when he is away, but are happy to see him growing.

Max turned 2 this summer...he looks positively lethal with that bat. It was fun watching him try and hit his pinata and he was SUPER happy about all the candy it contained! Joe had a birthday (not sure he wants me to announce his age...I will be discrete) and I had my 31st birthday this week. I am so grateful for good friends who took me out for some much needed 'girl time', and I am even more grateful for a wonderful husband who was willing to watch six kids so I could get out. I am one lucky girl.

Max is wearing Ali's church shoe, watching cartoons on the lap top and has his arm around his little sister. Man I love that kid. He is too funny! It's almost as though you can see him thinking 'this is the life...suckers'. I'm a little jealous...

Have you ever had one of those moments when you see your life and just feel so at peace and so grateful for where you are? I had one of those moments the other day. Heidi and I were dancing in the bedroom and I just had this overwhelming feeling of gratitude and love for all that I have been blessed with. My life is very good and I couldn't be happier about that.

Names...

So Joe and I have not yet been able to agree on any baby names. It has become the one subject we really just avoid talking about, but something everyone else asks about.

The kids and I were hanging out in the toy room yesterday and Clay put in a Barbie movie for the kids (and himself) to watch. As the commercials were playing before the show, one came up about Barbie Mariposa. Clay commented that it was a really dumb name...we all agreed. This brought up the subject of what we should name the new baby.

I suggested we name the baby Mariposa, there was a resounding BOO from the kids. So, I said maybe we should just name the baby Barbie. The boys thought I was funny, Ali broke down into tears and cried, "But mom, then the baby will have a prettier name than me!"

I had to try really hard not to laugh out loud. I mean, seriously?!?! She actually brought it up later when I was combing her hair. She asked if I was really going to name the baby Barbie. I asked why not and she again started crying and told me that then everyone would have a prettier name than her.

I tried really hard to let her know her name was just as beautiful as mine and everyone elses, I just can't seem to comprehend the way the wheels turn in her little head. Apparently, however, Ali is very invested in this little girls name - and it must not outshine her own.

So, for those of you wondering what we are going to name this baby, I don't know. I do know, however, that we will not be naming her Barbie...it would begin a fued in this family that I think Joe and I would like to avoid.

P.S. Little girls are a lot of drama. It has occured to me that we are preparing to double the drama...oh boy.

So Done...

I am really done being pregnant. I hurt...everywhere. How is it possible to forget how uncomfortable being pregnant is? It's not like I'm getting into something I know nothing about...I've already done this to myself FIVE times, why exactly have I done it again? I have come to the realization that I simply CAN NOT do this again. This little girl must be the end...the last...the grand finale. Anyhow, it is to that end I am writing this post.

Self, you hate being pregnant. After the initial shock, joy and happiness you experience when you discover you are pregnant, you are overcome with the looming doom of what the following 9 months have in store for you. You are sick and can't eat for three months. The smell of food makes you want to vomit...and you do, frequently. Your once clean house, beautiful children and loving husband are neglected because you feel no desire to leave your bed or get off the couch. Cooking and cleaning are no longer important and you just feel gross. Once the nausea has abated, and you once again notice the needs of your home and family, you get so big your clothes no longer fit. People, very politely, call you fat. You look very similar to a potato on toothpicks. This upsets you only because you know that every pound you gain you will have to lose again once the baby comes. No one can do that for you, you will have to get up early, hit the pavement and do lots of situps (or attempt to do them because, lets face it, you have no stomach muscles left - they have been sacrificed for the opportunity to bring children in to this world...they will probably never come back) in a vain attempt to regain what you had, even though you know you will never quite look, or feel the same again. By seven months you are done being pregnant. This is rather unfortunate because you still have the two longest months ahead of you. You don't sleep because your back hurts and when you move your legs it feels like someone beat you with a bat. You can no longer touch your toes and when you attempt to shave your legs you miss large sections because you can't see over your stomach. Your youngest child still insists that you carry him around, even though his gurth rivals your own. Babies in utero do not appreciate having older, and much bigger, siblings jump on them. Your internal organs do not appreciate this either. Your bladder has now been squished so small you are required to visit the restroom every hour, even if you are not home and are required to use the most nasty public toilets - it will not wait. Your stomach has become someone's personal jungle gym and the constant poking and kicking, although reassuring, feels like someone stuck a popcorn popper in your stomach and turned it on 'high'. Walking up stairs makes you breathless and starts contractions (not the good ones, the ones that hurt but don't seem to do anything else), which you may want to keep in mind because you climb the stairs no less than 50 times a day. Your feet hurt really bad when you have to stand for more than five minutes, which is any time you cook a meal or clean or fold laundry, this causes the pain in your back to flare, just an FYI. Oh, and you may want to take a look at those super sexy stretch marks, those are all pregnancy related. After all of this, you still have the delivery to look forward to, which I may remind you is going to really hurt. Your kids have very large heads. You know what that means. Oh, and forget about getting the epidural, you know you don't HAVE to have it and it costs extra. Your deductible for the last kid was $7,500...just think of what it might have gone up to now. All of this is what you get if everything goes RIGHT and there is always a chance things won't go this well...

So, self, if you are even considering the prospect of procreating again, you may want to take this under advisement. You have been blessed with five beautiful children, and in a few short weeks you will have a sixth. That's more than the lion's share. Be grateful for each one of those blessings, and be even more grateful that you don't have to endure another pregnancy. You're done!

The Highlights...

Here are the highlights of the past few months:

Jack had his 4th birthday...hard to believe he's that old already. He requested a chocolate cake with white frosting. It was very delicious...sort of a texas sheet cake with vanilla frosting. Jack is enjoying preschool, everyone is still his friend and life is generally rosy and wonderful for Jack.

Clay and Quin had another piano recital. They both did really well. They had their songs memorized and played really well. I am really proud of their hard work and practice. They are good kids.

Quin had his 'Great to Be Baptized' program, where his class got to go to the stake center and see the font and learn about baptism. The primary counselor over baptism is also President Uchtdorf's daughter and he came, I believe, because he'd never participated in one before. He spoke to the kids and then asked if he could have his picture taken with the baptismal candidates...very cool stuff. He is an excellent speaker and Quin was pretty excited to go into the font and 'practice'.

Quin on his baptism day. It was one of those days that you are so grateful to have done because everything that can go wrong - WILL go wrong. We had a toilet flood over and flood down into another bathroom, oh and also into my china cabinet. Quin lost his glasses that I had just spent a small fortune to have fixed. A bottle of grape juice was spilt all over the kitchen while we tried to prepare food for our family and friends and it decided to DUMP snow on all of us...all day. Even with all of the extra chaos and trouble, it was so nice to listen to my dad and Joe's parents speak to Quin about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. It was really great to be with our family and friends and feel of the sweet spirit that was there that day. Afterwards we enjoyed great food and great company, which made all of the craziness before hand completely worth it. We are so proud of Quin and the decision he made to be baptized. He is a great boy and we are very lucky to have him in our family.

Clay has turned 10, joined Webelos and begun a new sport - Lacrosse! He is loving his team and his coaches are excellent. He will be having his first game soon, but he is practicing hard and although he worries he isn't ready, I think he will do just fine. I know he is getting some really great training so that if he chooses to continue to play lacrosse as he gets older, he will have mastered the skills necessary to play really well.

Ali is still dancing her little heart out. She is practicing to be a pumpking in the upcoming performance of Cinderella...could be interesting! She is such a girly girl and is very impatiently counting down the days when she will no longer be 'boy trapped', as she puts it. She can't wait for a new little sister (and quite frankly, neither can I).

Joe is still busy with work, not much new there. He is playing a lot more ping pong, which he really enjoys.

I am so very tired of being pregnant and can't wait to be done! She is getting big, and so am I...people are already asking if I am having more than one baby. So sad. The kids are great though and we are about as ready as we can be for the new one to arrive. Life is good. I am a terrible blogger. Here's hoping I get better not worse!!!