Happy Birthday to Me!

Tuesday was my 34th birthday. My day started with me getting to wash Aaron's bedding because he'd thrown up in the night. But, it just got better from there. Scott was wonderful and took the whole day off of work. We loaded up all three kids in strollers and went for a nice long walk together. During the day, two of my good friends (actually, they are my only two friends) Amy and Melanie each came to wish me a happy birthday and brought me chocolate. After the older two kids got home from school, we headed off to go bowling as a family. Unfortunately, Tuesday is league night with no open lanes, so we changed our plans and went black light miniature golfing instead. Josh had gone there for a friend's birthday party last week, so we decided to give it a try. The kids loved it. On the way home, we picked up Happy Meals for the kids, Pizza Hut pizza for Scott and me, and an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. We ate, then opened presents. I got everything I wanted and more--a new frying pan, slotted spoon, salad spinner, headphones for running with my IPOD, a sonicare toothbrush, and an electric pencil sharpener. It was a great day!

This Weekend

This weekend was a bit more calm than last weekend was, but was still plenty busy. Josh and Savannah both had friend birthday parties that they went to. We all attended a cartwheel-a-thon at The Little Gym Friday after school. It was a fundraiser for Make-a-Wish. After all 5 of the kids had played (and cartwheeled) their little hearts out, we went to dinner as a family. We went to Primo's (all you can eat pizza). It was insanely busy, and the kids weren't well behaved at all. It will probably be a while before we try that again. I went for a long run on Saturday. 12 miles in 2 hours 13 minutes, which for me is a really good pace. I felt good the whole run and really enjoyed it. Melanie and I have upped our mileage in the mornings to 4 miles (3 days a week), and it's really starting to pay off in my Saturday runs. It's nice to be able to add miles each Saturday and shed seconds off my pace. Saturday night Scott and I went on a date. We grabbed sandwiches at Subway and then went to see "The Blind Side". It's a great movie, I highly recommend it. We ended with a brownie blast at Fudruckers (I figured my 12 mile run had earned me dessert).

I'll end with some pictures of Nate showing off his personality. He continues to try my patience daily, but he's so darn cute that I have to just love him.

Last Weekend

Here I am, waiting till a week later to update. Better late than never!

Last weekend was a great one. The kids were out of school on Friday (Teacher Inservice) and Monday (President's Day). My parents came Thursday night and stayed through Monday. It's always a party when Grandma and Grandpa are here--no bedtimes, no chores, just playing. Friday night one of my good friends from high school, Bobby Jo, came with her three kids (Justina 13, Seth 10, Joycee 6). They live in Blackfoot and wanted to attend a jump rope competition (the best of the bests) here in Boise. We loved having them here. Seth and Savannah really hit it off and Sara and Joycee were two little peas in a pod. On Saturday Bobby took Seth and Justina to the jump rope competition and let Joycee stay with us to play. I snuck in a run (just 6 miles), then we all got ready to go out. We went to the Eagle Customer Appreciation Days. We went to the first one two years ago and Sara won an XBox360 and Rock Band, so now we go every year--just in case. Businesses from Eagle all set up booths for advertising, and give out pencils, notepads, key chains, etc with their logo on it. Most booths also give out candy. My kids love it--getting all those things for FREE! And they do drawings for door prizes. This year the event was a little smaller (bad economy), but my kids still came away with each a bag of goodies (from chapstick to coloring books and everything in between). After we finished up there, we headed home. It was such a nice day, we decided to take carrots to the horses. Bobby, Seth and Justina made it home just in time to walk to the horses with us. They stayed for about half an hour, then decided they wanted to go back to see the awards ceremony. Seth decided he'd rather stay with us, so just Bobby and Justina went back. I decided the day was nice enough to merit a visit to the park. So, we left Grandma home with Nate so they could both nap (my mom was sick with a sinus infection), and the rest of us (Scott, my Dad, Me and 6 kids) loaded up into our 9 passenger suburban and went to the park. About half way to the park, my mom called Scott's cell phone to say that the Eagle Chamber of Commerce had just called to let us know that Aaron had won an IPOD. So, we swung back by Customer Appreciation Days to pick up Aaron's prize. What are the odds? Two out of three years our family wins a major door prize! We finally made it to the park and the kids played for about an hour before it started to cool off for the evening, then we headed home. We ended the day with the kids having a movie night/sleepover in the bonus room.

Sunday morning Bobby Jo and her kids left around 9. Our church isn't till 2:30, so we got lots of Grandma and Grandpa play time in before heading off to church.

Monday my parents babysat the kids while Scott took me on a date. He took me shopping for some much needed new clothes and to lunch. My parents ended up leaving around 5 Monday evening. We spent the next week trying to get back on a schedule--especially Nate. He was in a panic all weekend with so many people here, he was always afraid I was going to run off and leave him. He's become such a Mommy's Boy these days.

And a funny story from Saturday night. This gives you a glimpse into how crazy things always are around here. We sat down for dinner and asked Josh to say the prayer. He didn't want to. Scott told him he could say the prayer, or go to his room. He still didn't want to say it, so Scott took him up to spend a little time in his room thinking about his choice. Then we commenced eating (keep in mind, we had 6 extra people with us). As dinner finished up, Scott decided to run get a red box for us to watch, and I went to work on the dishes. The kids all headed upstairs to play. Aaron came into the kitchen with wet pants. He was wearing jeans and couldn't get the button undone in time to use the toilet. So, I stripped him down and put him in my tub. Then I went back to the dishes. About that time, my mom said, "It's too bad Josh is missing out on all of this." Josh! I had completely forgotten about Josh. I left my mom with Nate, and I went up to Josh's room. He was sound asleep. I tried to wake him up so he could come have dinner and play with the kids, but he wouldn't rouse. So, I gave up and headed back down stairs. I was met by a naked and wet Aaron, who announced, "Nobody dried me off!" Then I heard Nate crying. I followed the cry to find him in my bathroom. Nate had climbed into the tub with Aaron, fully clothed. Then Aaron had pulled the plug, got himself out of the bath, turned off the bathroom light, and left. So Nate was sitting in a dark room, in an empty tub, in soaking wet clothes. Apparently Grandma hadn't believed me when I had said (a hundred times that weekend) that you can't let Nate out of your site for even a second. She'd needed to use the bathroom and figured Nate would be fine for a few minutes. That kid is so mischievous these days and loves to get into trouble all the time. I know I said this with Sara and then again with Aaron, but I really don't know how I'm going to survive him!

A Little Bit of Everything (aka Catching Up)

It's been quite a while since I reported on our goings on here. So, I'll try to do it very succinctly. Two weeks ago Scott spent two days in Texas, this week he spent one day in Spokane. I ran 10 miles yesterday. I've started running at 6 am with a friend M/W/F. We go three miles. I'm loving it. Last Saturday Scott took the older 4 kids to see "The Tooth Fairy" at the movie theater. He even let them get popcorn and candy. They loved it. I stayed home with Nate and he napped and I cleaned the house. Yesterday Scott and I got a babysitter and went to dinner with his parents and siblings and their spouses. It was a lot of fun to visit without kids. Today we all are home from church with colds. Savannah and Josh both were in spelling bees this last week (they just competed against their own grades). Josh made it into the top 14 from his grade and Savannah was in the top 10. Nate continues to get into EVERYTHING. All four older kids are loving their gymnastics classes (Savannah's class is Thursday 4:15-5:15, Josh's is Thursday 5:15-6:15, and Sara and Aaron's class is Friday 11:15-12:15). I've been feeling the itch to declutter and decorate. I made a new bigger magnet board. We had outgrown the older one (too many little artists in the family). The new one is about three times the size of the old one. I've amassed a huge pile of things to give to DI in all my decluttering, and I'm waiting for Scott to take it all away before the kids discover it. Two weeks ago Josh got in his first punching fight at school during recess. It was over football. We had a talk. The weather has been nice here and we've done some playing outside. I thought it was spring, then we had a big snowstorm, then it all melted, and now I think it's spring again. A week and a half ago I took a day and baked bread to replenish our supply in the freezer--30 loaves of homemade whole wheat bread (yum!). The kids eat it like crazy (which is a good thing), so I have to make it in large quantities. The kids got their report cards. Josh is now reading on a 2.6 grade level (6 months into the 2nd grade). He's an awesome little reader. Savannah continues to glide through school with minimal effort and looks forward to Mondays each week when she gets to go to Challenge. I've started teaching Sara to read, and she thinks she's pretty awesome at it. My marathon plans got changed. I tried to register for the Ogden marathon, but it was already full. I needed another race around the same time, to fit into my training schedule. The great potato marathon here in Boise is the same day as the Ogden, so I'm going to run that and save myself all the traveling.

And that's it--short and to the point. Next time I won't wait as long to update. Here's a picture of the new magnet board.

Helper

Nate is quite the helper these days. He loves to help, even when I don't need his help. He helps by emptying the dishwasher (even if I'm in the process of loading it with dirty dishes). He helps by bringing me boxes or cans of food off the pantry shelves (even if it's not time to be cooking). He helps by bringing me diapers off his changing table (even if it's not time for a diaper change). He helps by getting a toothbrush out of the bathroom and brushing his teeth (even though it's someone else's toothbrush and he always leaves it somewhere in the house where we can never find it). He helps by pushing buttons on the dishwasher (even if it's not ready to run yet). He helps me vacuum, he helps me with the laundry, he helps me with just about anything he can--just sometimes a bit too much.

I can hardly believe that he will be 18 months tomorrow. He is growing so fast. His favorite word is "Go" and will start asking to go the minute he gets out of his crib. If anyone mentions the word throughout the day (ie "I'm going to go upstairs" or "I need to go to the bathroom"), Nate starts yelling "GO! GO!" and runs to the door. If you don't come to let him out, he'll go get his shoes from his bedroom, then sit in the hall yelling "Shoes! GO!!!". Nate loves getting out of this house. We've had a few nice days the past few weeks, where we've been able to go outside for walks and playing. When it's time to come in, Nate screams and cries like it's the end of the world. I can't wait till summer when we can get outside on a regular basis. I think it will do us all a lot of good.