Signs of growing up

Today Emily wanted me to play Strawberry Shortcake dolls with her, but I was eating lunch and then I wanted to put away some laundry, so I told her no. Then she asked Zoe, but Zoe was busy eating lunch. Emily asked us several times and she kept getting the same answer. Zoe held up 4 fingers and asked Emily how many fingers she was holding up, and Emily said 4. Then Zoe came back with, "Good, we know you can see, so that means you can SEE that we are eating, so we're not going to play with you right now."

Emily lost her first tooth this afternoon. She was freaking out a bit before it came out when it started bleeding, but she was very happy when it fell out.

Baby Talk

Zach and I had our first conversation this morning. It went like this:
Me: "Hi!"
Zach: "Hi!"
Me: "How are you?"
Zach: "Good."

Zach is starting to love getting his picture taken. When he sees the camera, he smiles with a scrunched up face and says, "cheeeeeeeeeese". It's very cute.

Thinking about school

Zoe and Emily have had several toys go into timeout lately, so this afternoon Eleanor brings her Dora backpack out into the kitchen and puts it on the counter as she asks me if her backpack can go into timeout with Zoe and Emily's toys. She was very delighted when I told her she could. I guess she was tired of feeling left out.

The school shopping has officially begun. Zoe and Emily start school on September 5th. My mom and I took Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor shopping. We wanted to bring Eleanor because she gets so upset when she gets left behind, we figured she would be good, but we both banned her from our next shopping trip.

Emily had her last immunization shot this morning. We thought she was getting two, but she only needed one, so that was good news. Emily of course would have preferred no shots at all.
I brought some paperwork and her immunization record to her school to give to the receptionist. We were talking for a minute when a man that works at the school came into the office. He looked at the kids and then asked Eleanor if she was starting kindergarten. I thought he was joking around, we laughed. He asked Eleanor if she knew who her teacher was yet and Eleanor told him that mommy was her teacher. Then he looked at Emily and wondered if she was going into the 1st grade. The receptionist told him that Emily was going into kindergarten and the man couldn't believe it. He told Emily that she was very tall and most of the kindergarteners are Eleanor's size. I think they're bigger than Eleanor, but this just reminds us that Emily is going to be a tall girl. We should find out who Emily's teacher is going to be next week. Emily is very excited to start school!

After I read the kids a bedtime story this evening, Eleanor and Zach got out books of their own to read. It was cute when they were both reading to us.

Getting to know you

Last night at Enrichment meeting (our ladies' meeting at church) we had a getting to know you night. There were items placed on a table, we had to pick an item and talk about a memory from our childhood or life that the item reminded us of. I picked a jump rope (which I knew my girls would love to use) and talked about loving to be outside as a kid, jump roping, playing hopscotch, playing tag and hide and seek. It also reminded me of a few accidents I had outside as a kid. Like when I was crawling behind my sister when she was ice skating and her blade hit me above the eye and cut my eyebrow, where I have a scar. And when I was running cross-country in 5th grade and I broke an extra bone in my foot, that it took my parents about 6 months to believe that something MIGHT be wrong and they FINALLY took me to the doctor.
It was fun to hear everyone's stories and to talk with other women after the activity. My mom and I stopped at Friendly's before going home for an evening snack. Yes, we had refreshments at the activity, but we couldn't end our night out too soon :-)

I received an e-mail from a friend the other day and instead of sending my responses back to her via e-mail, I'm going to post them here...

1. First Name? Joey
2. Were you named after anyone? No, but my middle name was inspired by one of my uncle's middle name.
3. When did you last cry? This afternoon
4. Do you like your handwriting? No
5. What is your favorite lunchmeat? Turkey
6. Kids? 4 plus 1 on the way
7. If you were another person would you be friends with you? Yes
8. Do you have a journal? Yes
9. Do you use sarcasm a lot? No
10. Do you still have your tonsils? No
11. Would you bungee jump? No
12. What is your favorite cereal? Raisin Bran, but it makes me sick if I eat it during the first trimester of pregnancy.
13. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? No
14. Do you think you are strong? No
15. What is your favorite ice cream? Gifford's chocolate
16. Red or pink? Red
17. What is the least favorite thing about yourself? Lazy
18. Who do you miss the most? My sister
19. Last thing you ate? cheesestick
20. What are you listening to right now? the air conditioner
21. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? navy blue
22. Favorite smell? smells of Christmas...Christmas tree, goodies baking
23. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? Matt
24. The first thing you notice about people you are attracted to? handsome face
25. Favorite drink? Uno colada at Pizzeria Uno
26. Favorite sport? Softball
27. Eyes? Yes, I have two...they are brown
28. Hat size? Um...that's a good question
29. Do you wear contacts? No
30. Favorite food? Lobster
31. Scary movies or Happy Ending? Happy ending
32. Last movie you watched at the movies? TopGun
33. What color shirt are you wearing? green
34. Summer or Winter? Summer
35. Hugs or kisses? Hugs
36. Favorite dessert? strawberry cheesecake
37. What books are you reading? Book of Mormon
38. What did you watch on tv last night? Nothing
39. Favorite sounds? silence, children laughing and singing
40. Rolling Stone or Beatles? Beatles
41. The furthest you've been from home? Washington

What a day...

Zoe has had a rough time on Monday mornings for the past two Mondays. Last Monday was understandable since Emily was going to spend the night at my parents' house, so Zoe was jealous, but I don't know what the reason was this morning. By late morning, Zoe had disowned me. She said I wasn't her mother anymore, I was Emily's brat mother. She threatened to run away, which had Emily concerned, but I told her she would be missed and I continued on with the laundry. By early afternoon, Zoe was back to her happy, I love my family self, but what a challenging morning it was!

I love telling Eleanor it's Family Home Evening night because she gets VERY excited. Today she exclaimed, "yummy!" when I told her. To her, Family Home Evening = treat. Emily picked cupcakes for the treat. I wanted to feed Zach his cupcake, but he was having none of that! So, here he is feeding himself like the rest of us, but getting it everywhere except in his mouth, unlike the rest of us.

Well, Eleanor got it in her mouth, but not much got past her lips and teeth.

After we eat, the kids are banned from the kitchen until the floor is cleaned.

Zach needed to be entertained while the kitchen floor was being cleaned.

(sigh)Another successful Family Home evening accomplished.

Getting back into the swing of things

I'm feeling better these days, so I made up a new chore chart at the beginning of the week for Zoe and Emily. It is much easier to get them to do dishes and clean up toys when they know they are working for ice cream. So today they got their ice cream after we went for a swim at the pool.

Matt is fixing the seats in his canoe, so he took one out of the canoe today. Zach thought it was the perfect sized ladder for him...

Sports fan

Matt and I went out to dinner this evening. The restaurant we went to was very crowded, so we ended up sitting in the bar area. The Red Sox were playing on the tvs around us. Matt was watching the big screen tv behind me and started talking about how the players look on the bigger screen. He was watching the game, but the tv I could see was really too far away to watch. Would you have been annoyed that your husband was paying more attention to the tv than to you? Not me...I moved beside him to enjoy the game with him. I'm actually more of a sports fan than Matt is. I was watching a group of people talking at a table near us and I thought, I would much rather sit and watch a baseball game than talk with a bunch of people. I had a very enjoyable evening sitting next to Matt, watching a game, and eating delicious food. We left at the bottom of the 6th inning, but I would have been very content to stay there until the end of the game.

Forgetting something?

It's much more helpful to me when I make macaroni and cheese for there to be a cheese packet included in the box.
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A fun day at a local fair was had by our kids the other day. The day went better than I had expected, which was nice. The rides are always the best part of the fair.





Zach was very good about sitting in his stroller.

Zach and Eleanor were exhausted when we got home!

Trying to talk

Zach has been trying to talk lately. He's starting to repeat words that we say to him or that he hears. Last week he was watching "Dora the Explorer" on the computer with Eleanor when Dora said to say "Map" and Zach said "Ma", then Dora said to say "backpack" and Zach said "bapa". It's fun to listen to him.
He used to secretly get out the door at times to go outside, but now he says "ba ba" (bye bye) before he heads out the door so now I can catch him before he escapes. He's very proud of his talking.

Festival time

It's our town's festival day, so we went to the parade this morning. Of course Eleanor had to go potty during the middle of the parade. She ALWAYS has to go potty when we're in public. She has no problem going pee in her pullup at home, but it must NOT be done in public. I should be grateful that she has no problem using a public toilet, since Emily has issues with public toilets and usually waits until her back teeth are floating before she'll use one, but when I notice Eleanor's pullup is wet from peeing in it earlier, I get a little annoyed. After Eleanor and I missed the end of the parade, the girls bounced in the bounce house a couple of times, after waiting in line in the hot, hot sun, and then we came home, after walking a looong way to our car in the hot, hot sun. Matt (he's home, yay!) is out dropping off a canoe and getting his canoe that were used on his trip. My mom is coming over around 5pm to watch the kids while Matt and I go see "TopGun" at our local theater, which is celebrating it's 90th birthday, so we get to see the movie for 90 cents each. The theater is showing "TopGun" because it was the first movie shown when the theater reopened in 1999 after closing in 1956. I've never seen this movie on the big screen, so I'm excited! Plus, it's a night out with Matt, which I always enjoy.

Missing one

Zoe and Emily are home again :-) They had a fun time with their friend, but I think they're glad to be back home. Here's a picture of the shirts they painted at their friend's house. I think they did a great job on them. Emily's is on the left, and Zoe's is on the right.


We went to McDonald's for dinner with my parents, and then we went downtown to see a Navy ship arrive for our town festival this weekend. They usually have a ship to tour during the festival, but we've never gone on one. It may be a few years yet before we do because there is always a long line for the tour and the image I get of waiting with little ones is not pretty. I wanted to take pictures of the ship coming in, but of course I forgot my camera. That seems to be the story of my life this summer!

According to Eleanor, daddy is never coming home again. I do hope she's wrong! I'm anxious to see him tomorrow.

A penny here, a penny there

I spent a lot of time today putting our coins in rolls. So far we have $56.50. I recently read a tip in a financial guidebook to only spend dollar bills and to save the change. At the end of each month, you add up your change, put it in the bank, and put that money toward a debt. We have a lot of change kicking around, so I decided to add it up and put it to good use. It looks like I'm going to be able to pay off a doctor bill for Zach with our change :-)

It's pretty quiet around here with half of our family gone. It's a nice break for me taking care of 2 instead of 4, but I'll be glad when we're all together again.

Happy Pioneer Day

I was very happy to discover today that we can get BYU-TV through the internet. I stumbled across this on LDS.org. I had it on all afternoon while I folded laundry and the kids played "dino-world" that they created during craft time. For Family Home Evening tonight we watched some of the Pioneer commemoration broadcast. I'm excited we have BYU-TV to watch when we want to. I like how we can pick a day, current or in the past, and watch a program that was shown, or watch it live. I'm excited!

Matt is getting ready for his canoe trip with the young men, "Zion's Camp". He leaves tomorrow and he'll be back on Friday. Zoe and Emily are going to stay with a friend tomorrow and they'll be back on Thursday, so it will be me, Eleanor, and Zach for a few days. I can handle that.

I'm feeling pretty good during the day now, but I still feel sick at night. I feel like I'm improving, so I won't complain too much. I am looking forward to feeling good ALL the time, though.

Another artist in the making

Lately, Eleanor spends most of her time drawing. She draws people and then she wants me to cut them out for her, like she wants me to do right now. Here is a video of her drawing in her usual spot at the table. At the beginning of the video, she realizes I have the camera and says, "Can I see?" She loves to see the pictures on our camera after I take them.


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Here is one of Eleanor's creations. I love how her girl has eyebrows. She is showing signs of having her dad's artistic abilities.


Emily had her 5 year doctor's appointment yesterday. She is healthy, tall, and thin. She had 2 shots, which she did not like at all, but who does? She fought getting the shots and she cried for awhile when it was over. But she was feeling a lot better when we went to get ice cream. Emily was all done her ice cream when I got out the camera, but here's Eleanor and Zoe enjoying their treat.






Zoe finished her basketball camp this morning and then Zoe and Emily finished their first session of swim lessons. Zoe will repeat her class again. She needs to improve on her head bobs and doing the crawl stroke with rhythmic breathing without a kickboard before she passes onto the next level. Emily passed her class so she will be in Beginner 2 for the next session. She is very proud of her achievement.

Keeping busy

I was driving in the car with the kids the other day when Zoe spotted a house for sale (it was for rent, but she saw a sign and figured it was for sale). She got excited and asked if we could buy it. I told her I wanted a new house not an old house, and she replied, but it would be new to us. True I said, but I want a new new house, not a new old house. She agreed that sounded like a good idea and then her and Emily talked about what the house would look like. Zoe wanted it painted yellow, but Emily thought it should be pink...but then she changed her mind to white. They would have their own rooms of course, the house will have stairs. Zoe wanted a brown roof, Emily thought white would be nice...I think they decided on brown. They thought of men at church that could come over to help their daddy build the house. They got excited every time they thought of someone new because the more men, the quicker it will get done. Then they thought of the ultimate plan...daddy will take a day off from work, we'll invite all the men over, Zoe and Emily will go to school, and when they get home...the men will be done and Zoe and Emily will be able to see our beautiful new house. Sounds like a great plan to me!

The girls participated in a water carnival today at our town pool. Eleanor went first in the 3-4 age group. There were only 3 other girls in Eleanor's group. Eleanor came in first in the alligator race. She had to walk on her hands in the water with her legs behind her as she laid on her stomach. Emily did great doing the same type of race, but she had to push a ball with her nose as well. Zoe had fun running in the water with a ball between her legs. There were a lot of kids in her group. They all came home with a bunch of ribbons. They got a ribbon for each game they played, whether they placed in the top 3 or not. I tried to keep Zach entertained since he couldn't get in the water. I was ready to leave when Zoe was done and it was time to go!

I have the car this week to take Zoe to her basketball skills camp at her school. Basketball seems to be her sport. She really likes it and I think she's going to be a good player. I'm glad there are only 2 more days of this camp though because the other kids and I have to kill an hour and a half while she's there. Today we actually stayed in the gym the entire time to watch Zoe, but Eleanor and Zach were getting restless toward the end.

Having fun

Zach's new fun thing to do this morning was to climb into the bathtub with his clothes on and turn the water on. When I banned him from the bathroom, he went into the kitchen, climbed up on the table, and played with the bowl of cherries...taking bites out of them and making a mess of course!

We had a family day at the beach today and we had a lot of fun. It was hot, hot, hot. Perfect beach weather. I remembered to bring everything, except my camera. Emily made a friend and she played with her friend the entire 3 hours we were there. Everyone was happy and enjoyed the water. It was very delightful.

The pictures we've been waiting for

Being pregnant always seems more real after I've seen the baby. I'll have another ultrasound at 20 weeks. Part of me wanted to wait until the baby was born to find out the sex of the baby, but since the doctor wants to do another ultrasound, we'll find out the sex of the baby in September. We're all hoping for another boy. Zoe and Emily were disappointed when I didn't know the sex of the baby today. They are anxious to know!

Still waiting

The doctor's office called me again today to let me know that my doctor was at the hospital again for a c-section, so now my appointment is tomorrow afternoon. My doctor is on vacation next week, so the office claims that he will HAVE to see me tomorrow...we shall see. Since I don't have an ultrasound picture to show you, I'll show you some pictures and videos of Zoe and Emily swimming during their lessons today...



Zoe worked hard treading water, then she had to do a back float when her instructor told her to, then she treaded water again, and then she had to do the dead man's float on her stomach, then tread water again. She was pretty tired when the exercise was over.


Zoe's instructor tells her that she is an excellent diver. She does very well. On the video, someone jumps into the water and then Zoe does her dive by the lifeguard chair.

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Here's Emily swimming with her kickboard and doing the backfloat.




Emily is very proud of herself that she can jump into the deep end of the pool all by herself.

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Going to swimming lessons is one of the highlights of summer.

Ready for structure

I was going to post an ultrasound picture of our new baby this evening from my appointment I was so supposed to have this afternoon, but my appointment got rescheduled until tomorrow. I didn't find this out until I got to the doctor's office with Matt and 4 children in tow. The office had called me to let me know about rescheduling my appointment, but they called right after I had left for my appointment. So...stay tuned for a picture of magnus.

We are surviving here. I'm getting a little tired of just surviving, so the girls and I came up with a daily schedule to keep us busy throughout the day. Today was our first day with the schedule and we were gone most of the day, so we have yet to actually complete the schedule, but I'm glad that we have it for the days we are home all day. Here's a look at our schedule...

7:00 - 9:00am ~ Get ready for the day and cleanup (making beds, putting away pj's and any toys that are out)

9:00 - 10:30am ~ Computer time (Each girl gets a half hour to play...this gives me extra time to get ready and then recooperate from getting ready)

10:30 - 11:00am ~ Storytime

11:00 - 11:30am ~ Chore time (Not favored, but necessary)

11:30 - 12:00pm ~ Puzzle time

12:00 - 1:00pm ~ Lunch time

1:00 - 2:30pm ~ Movie time (gives me time to cleanup from lunch, rest, and/or get on the computer)

2:30 - 3:00pm ~ Craft time

3:00 - 3:30pm ~ Music time

3:30 - 4:00pm ~ Snack time

4:00 - 4:30pm ~ Outside time

4:30 - 5:00pm ~ Coloring time

5:00 - 5:30pm ~ Cleanup time

When I suggested making a schedule to Zoe and Emily they got VERY excited! I think they're tired of not having a routine, too.

sick, sick, sick

I am sick of feeling sick, and my children have been sick...and I don't think it's over yet. Eleanor woke up from her nap on Wednesday with a fever. She had no energy and she threw up in Zoe's bed when she woke up from another nap later on in the afternoon. She was back to her healthy self again on Friday, but Emily came down with a fever and had a bad headache Friday evening. She slept a lot last evening and today, her throat hurt today, but she seems to be on the mend. This evening Zoe said she felt like she was going to throw up, but she didn't. Then she complained of a headache, so it could be her turn. She's in bed now so we'll see how she feels in the morning. At least with Zoe, she is old enough to know when she is going to throw up and she'll go into the bathroom to do it, whereas Eleanor and Zach will just throw up on the spot...with no warning. I hate that! I hope Zach doesn't catch whatever is going around.

Here's Matt's way of dealing with the sick people around him...ignore them and build motors...no really he has been very patient and helpful. This is his new hobby when the children are asleep.



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