Saturday, June 23, 2012

The Story of Our Summer (or the Summer I Worked as a Housecleaner & Taxi Driver)

This summer is definitely going to go down in the books as one of THE MOST crazy (and annoying) ever!  Here’s a picture of our week (in words…sorry, no actual pictures):

Monday: House showing at 4 p.m., Josh’s baseball practice/game at 4:15 p.m.  I spent the morning cleaning and getting the house ready.  The kids probably watched a movie all morning.  In order to keep the house clean, we hit the splash pad after lunch, and were happy to see Darcy and her kids with the same idea!  Daniel hated the water, the rest of my kids loved it.  We left with enough time to run home, get the kids changed (I made them change in the garage!), do a quick vacuuming job, and run to Josh’s baseball game.  Because of the timing of the showing, we had to eat out…again.  It’s getting old.

Tuesday: Jared and I got up early to go to the temple while the kids were still asleep.  Thought we’d hit the 6:30 a.m. session.  Turns out the sessions don’t start until 7 a.m.!!  So we got some extra time to just sit.  It was also Lagoon Day for Jared’s work.  Yea!!!  A day off from the ordinary!  Since we hadn’t been home much the prior day, the house was still pretty clean, so we spiffed it up a bit, hoping we’d have a showing while we were gone.  Lagoon was a lot of fun, and we lasted much longer than I had anticipated.  Daniel was a trooper and did really well.  We hung out with Josh’s baseball coach and his family, which helped with keeping everyone happy.  Another night of eating out…bleh!  Emily missed her softball game because of how long we stayed (but she was totally fine with missing it to be at Lagoon).  No house showings, but when we got home, there was a message to schedule one for Wednesday afternoon.

Wednesday: Daniel had an audiologist appointment first thing in the morning (which went really well), and we had a showing scheduled for right after lunch.  I got the house ready (pretty quick and easy since we hadn’t been home much since Monday morning), and we hit a park during the showing.  When we got home, it was very obvious that NO ONE HAD BEEN HERE!!!!  Let me just say that I was one ticked off lady!  Josh had a baseball game, Emily had softball practice, and Jared needed to go to ward temple night (he was the only bishopric member who was available to attend).  I dropped Josh off at his game, came home and made dinner to feed to everyone else, ran to pick up Josh (we were three minutes late and he was pretty annoyed), dropped off Emily at her practice, took the rest of the crew home, fed Josh, bathed the three littles, had Josh shower, and ran back to pick up Emily from her practice.  Whew!!  No wonder I was feeling a little grumpy!  When Jared got home from the temple, we were talking and he told me he got a message from our realtor who said that the scheduled showing refused to even come in the house because she didn’t like the street our house is on.  SERIOUSLY??!?!?  That made me so stinking mad!  I don’t think that person can comprehend what a pain in the neck it is to get a house ready with 5 kids, keep it clean, and get out of the house so she can come see what we have to offer.  Thank you (NOT!!!) for wasting my time!

Thursday: A day off from showings!  But kids who were grumpy because their routine has been messed with all week long.  I tried to do a little sewing for our youth’s pioneer trek, and broke 2 needles before giving up.  Emily had a softball game (are you seeing the pattern?) at 4:30, so I soloed with the 5 kids.  It was a great game, and she even got a really great hit!  We came home, had pancakes for dinner, and vegged with a movie while Jared was home teaching.

Friday: Another day off from showings!  I took Daniel to gymnastics in the morning, which ended with me crying most of the way home.  He has suddenly stopped wanting to walk while we hold his hands.  He doesn’t want to crawl much either. He’s just content to roll around on the floor or sit up with his thumb in his mouth for a few seconds before laying back down. Most of the time was spent with me carrying him through all the activities.  Way more work for me than for him!  On the bright side, though, he has started pulling up to pretty much everything.  I guess he only wants to work on one skill at a time!  We were supposed to have a therapy appointment in the afternoon.  I was overjoyed when the therapist cancelled because of illness.  After dinner we hit the movie theater for a 3-D showing of Brave, the new Pixar movie.  It was a really fun movie, and even Daniel handled it pretty well.

Saturday: We had a showing scheduled for 11 a.m. We rushed around and left with 15 minutes to spare.  We rewarded our hard work with Slurpees and Subways for lunch.  After a little shopping, we returned home to find great big piles of crumbs around the feet of the oven!  The people who were looking obviously pulled out the oven!  I was MORTIFIED!!!  I never thought anyone would look there, at least not on a first showing!  And why were they looking there anyway?!?!?

And that brings us up to speed.  Way too much for one week, eh?!?  We get to start it all over again on Monday with another showing bright and early at 10:30 a.m.!!  Baseball ends this coming week, softball ends in the middle of July, swimming lessons start after the 4th, Girls’ Camp is the first week in August…and I suspect we’re ALL going to be happy to have school start again!  There goes the summer!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Preschool Graduate and a Haircut

My sweet Rachel went and got herself graduated from preschool!

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We enjoyed her graduation program and ceremony last week.  It was a HOT day, but she did a super job singing the songs they had worked on for the program.

She even got a diploma and got to throw her cap!

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We will miss Miss Patty and Miss Maggie!  They are fun teachers and Rachel really enjoyed getting to spend time with them this past year.  I  still can’t believe she is five and ready to go to Kindergarten!!  Sniffle, sniffle, sob, sob, sob!!  What happened to my baby?!?!

In other news…I finally gave Daniel his first haircut!!  It was so long-overdue.  Those first haircuts are so much fun, but so sad at the same time.  It’s amazing how a few snips with the scissors can make my baby look like a little boy!

I put him in the tub with a sucker to get the job done.

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He was pretty squirmy but enjoyed his first sucker and didn’t seem to mind the haircut.

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This is the only time in my life I wish I was Edward Scissorhands.

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I knew it was time to stop when we had rinsed the sucker a few times and he started going for clumps of hair!  Gonna have to be good enough!

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My grown-up boy!  Such a little heart breaker!

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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Caleb is Four!

Holy cow!  This CRAZY kid…

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…is four years old today!!  Now that he’s four he has amazing new skills, AND he’s gonna be in preschool!

He got to open the world’s tiniest gift from Emily…and he loved every second of it.

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He loves the swords.  I’m predicting major parental regret!

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Just one of his many new 4-year-old skills…waiting patiently for the next present.

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He pulled his 4-year-old card at the store today, when he reminded me that I said he could walk (instead of riding in a cart) when he’s four.  Man, I’m in TROUBLE with this one!

But how could I ever say “NO” to this face??

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I’d say the Captain America gear was a big win!  (The shield even doubles as a frisbee!)

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I think he is enjoying himself, because he’s four, you know!

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Man, oh man, we love this kid!  He is one laugh after another, which is a good balance to all the injuries he gets.  He is sweet and spunky and smart and so stinking funny.  And he’s a major heartbreaker with his gigantic smile and dimpled right cheek.

Happy birthday Caleb!  We love you to the moon and back!