Brycen's 7th birthday--first friend party

Brycen's birthday was last Saturday, but we were at a family reunion... So we held his birthday party today. When I sat him down to write his list of friends he wanted to invite, the first three people he listed were all girls. Then he decided on some boys to invite. We made the invites and passed them out. I laugh that he first wanted to invite girls because when we talked about what he wanted to do at his party, he said he wanted to do an "army theme". We ended up with 4 girls and 9 boys.
  Well, I talked him into having a "marshmallow war". I bought a stick of 1/2" PVC and Ryan cut it into 12" lengths for me. Then I measured about 3/4 C. of mini marshmallows for each kid and put them in a bag. I placed a dozen marshmallow blowguns and a dozen bags of "ammo" into a box. I wrapped it to play "pass the parcel"... When wrapping I lost count of how many times I wrapped it-- I ended up wrapping it 15 times. :P I had 13 kids come, including Tucker and Eliza. We played "pop the balloon" and I used balloons that had been blown up for a week... It was awesome! The kids had a hard time popping most of them. Some of the boys did full body dives trying to pop the balloons. After that we played "pin the deer". The kids had fun telling each other whether they were hot or cold as they got closer to the deer. Then, we watched Brycen open his presents, had cup cakes in an ice cream cone with ice cream on top. It was a nice easy clean up!
After cake, we passed the present and everyone got to unwrap a layer, including grandma Nay, and Brycen got to do 2 layers. During this time, Eliza got stung by a huge black bumble bee on the back of her neck. It was very crazy and unexpected, but she survived! Once the package was open all the kids got their shooter and ammo. They spread out all over our homemade backyard "war zone" and they shot marshmallows for probably 40 minutes. We had two casualties. Grace Chamberlain got hit in the eye, and Sariah Heaton was attacked by too many people at one time. Thankfully the tears did not last too long, and injuries were not severe.

All in all, Brycen seemed to have a wonderful first birthday party with friends. :)

Happy Halloween 2012

The kids and I dressed up as some of "The Avengers, Earths Mightiest Heros". I should have taken a picture this morning... Brycen was Hawkeye (He's missing his mask.) :( Tucker was The Hulk, Eliza was The Wasp (...with a broken arm...), and I was the Black Widow.

  I think we had a great turn out at our church building Trunk or Treat. We had a LOT of kids come through, and we ran out of chilli. :) I took about 80 pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, 36 apples, 60 small bags of cheetos, and had a huge bag of candy that someone else asked me to give away for them. There were a few times tonight when my entire tail gait was surrounded with indecisive children. Alas, I did give every last scrap of treats away to children. I ran out of cheetos first, then cookies, then apples, and candy was the last thing I ran out of... I think it is so interesting to see which item kids pick first. Some of my primary kids came back three and four times. I stated making them do a trick for each additional treat they wanted after they had received two. . ..
Overall, I think my children had a lot of fun today! Hope everyone else did too! Happy Halloween everyone!

A two year old's discovery

I have been. . . kind of potty training my two year old. Yesterday he was sitting on the toilet to go to the bathroom. He started feeling his bottom, then he gasped and said;

"Mom! There is a hole in my bum!"

I took a few minutes to explain a little bit about digestion and human anatomy. . . with a smile. He is still pretty amazed that he has a hole in his bottom.

Who needs a mop?

Who needs a mop?
I know that I don't.

I tell my children to stop,
They're sassy and say, "I won't".
On my hands and knees I scrub my floors daily.
Should I actually throw my mop away?--Maybe.

Sometimes I feel like I am going crazy.
I spend all my days cleaning.
No longer do I ever feel lazy.
So exhausted, I find myself leaning,
Against walls to hold me up.
Do I love motherhood? most of the time--Yup!

This poem is so silly!
I am exhausted today.
Eliza has been so sick, Really!
I do all this work without getting paid.
Even when I am so tired,
My kids are still totally wired. . .

It's a good thing I love them!

Perhaps I should have entitled this,
"The exhausted mother with sick kids and a messy house". . .
no, that is too long.

I hope everyone else is feeling and doing well!
Have a great day.

Uhm, I love having a little girl

Whenever I am frustrated with my little boys and all the messes they make, I just talk to this little munchkin.
Isn't she cute! Ryan and I sure love her. (We love our boys too, they just make bigger messes and break things more often.--I am sure Eliza's time will come.) We went out for Valentine's day last week so we can spend tonight with all of our little heart throbs.

They are our greatest joys on this earth.


Happy Valentine's day everyone!

May you all have a wonderful day celebrating someone you love!

Playing in the Snow

On New Year's Day we drove as far as we could on Kolob Mountain, then we played in the snow. Mostly just the boys played.
Brycen made a snow angel, and had a snowball fight with Ryan and Tucker. I guess I need to find some more kid sunglasses. Tucker is squinting in every picture we took of him. Does anyone have a suggestion on where to find a great deal on sunglasses that fit a child's face?
Eliza fell asleep on the way up, so I ended up mostly staying in the warm car with her. When Brycen and Tucker were done, I warmed them up. It was fun. Maybe we should start a new tradition!

First Walk

The boys and I took Eliza for her first walk outside today. (our first walk since before I went to the hospital). I did not think to take a picture until we were back home and unloaded. Tucker and Eliza both fell asleep. I only snapped a picture of Eliza. . .
I love the fact that she fell asleep with Binky in grasp. Our walk was fun, I can't wait to go for another one! It's funny what simple things we can take for granted until the privilege is taken away (only for a small time, thankfully, in my case). I am even getting better at one handed typing. I think I will wait to type the whole story until my pins are removed (hopefully in three weeks or so).

Happy Halloween! Hopefully I remember to snap a picture of my kidlins costumes. Then I'll post them. :)