fun night

Ashley has been complaining of an upset stomach since Monday afternoon.   I wanted to be sympathetic, but I had a feeling she wasn't really sick.  By Tuesday I knew it was just a nervous stomach.   The 2nd graders had this their big program today and she had BEGGED for a speaking part, (and worked a deal out with her teacher because she has had the same teacher for two years and didn't get a part last year).  Anyway, she was so excited until she really started thinking about it and realized the memorization involved (what lines go after which lines, when to go up and sit back down again, then go back up.. you get the idea) and then she was freaking out.  Tonight was the performance.  She said she felt like her stomach was cramping up right when she got up to the mike, but she did AWESOME.    I was honestly a little concerned yesterday when she saw me at the school and immediately started crying, that she was going to either puke or have massive stage fright and not say anything, but her hard work paid off, and she totally nailed it.    

Meanwhile, Robie was with Brooke's team at their volleyball playoff tournament (we met them for their second game).  Her team started the year pretty rocky (as in, only two of the girls had ever played volleyball before).  At the first practice, there was a lot of "the ball hurt my arms" and flinching, or even fully dodging away from the ball.  They went into the tournament ranked 5th out of 6 and after an exciting game last night and two games tonight - they won the TOURNAMENT.  And with only 5 girls (all the other teams had 6 or more) - I'm calling them our Dream Team.  Best of all, they (and their parents) all had fun!

Afterwards we went for ice cream, and it was funny because Ashley was like, "we're just going to celebrate for volleyball" (insert grumpy tone).  I had to reassure her that we were also going to celebrate her achievement - she's so weird that way! 

matching

I still can't run very far with my knee, so the other night I was just going a couple of miles and I asked Brooke if she wanted to go with me.  She jumped at the chance, but said she needed to change really quick into her shorts (makes sense).  I was just putting my shoes on, and when I look up, I see she is wearing her matching soccer shirt - both from the same soccer park, same color, different sizes.  Hilarious.  I even called her on it and she just got a little bashful look on her face and laughed.  I guess it's cool to match your mom for running (and yes, since I do have matching issues, it was still hard for me to go running with her with matching shirts on, but that shows you a mother's love - ha).

8 years - seriously how does it go so fast.

Ashley's favorite part of her birthday: it's all about HER!   Being a child that likes a lot of positive attention, having two days of parties and conversation about her birthday is what makes it her favorite time of year.    Since her birthday is today (Sunday), we went to get her ears pierced yesterday.   She started acting like she wasn't nervous at all, but when push came to shove, she was really nervous.  It has been about 36 hours, and if you have seen her and she hasn't shown them to you, you should feel badly because I'm pretty sure she has shown everyone within a 5 foot radius of her ears. 

Her art party with her friends was next.  Some words to describe said party:  giggles, painting, clay, creation, giggles, presents, cake, new bike, oh, and more giggles.

For her actual birthday day, she got to speak in church (yes, she really was excited about it).  Of course, the day wouldn't have been complete if Ashley wasn't a little disappointed in the quantity of her presents, the color of the frosting on the cake and the amount of attention she was receiving at dinner from her cousins.  When she started complaining I really wanted to let her know that I was up until 2:30 in the morning working on the cake, making cupcakes, and looking for bikes on craigslist Friday night, but for her birthday I kept my mouth shut!   

My favorite things about Ashley:

- She's brave:  she will go faster on her bike or ice skates than Brooke and she is usually the first one to try sometihng new.

- She loves hugs and sitting close.  Ok, admittedly I"m not a huge hug-gy person, but I love it when she gets all ready for bed, then climbs on my bed and cuddles up to me so we can read her book together.

- She tries her hardest at whatever she does.   Sometimes we have to really talk her into getting out there to work on something (sports, piano, dance), but once she is there, she tries so hard she is actually disappointed if she isn't totally worn out.  I have been working with her on doing what I call "track".  Basically I have just been having her run around the block.  Sometimes when she is done, she is disappointed if her face isn't red enough, because it shows she might not have been trying hard enough (she got the horrible "working out hard gives you red face" syndrome from me.. :))

Can't wait until her baptism in a couple of weeks!

denim

I just go an email from Target about a new product on the market:

I think they are ridiculously lame.  Robie thinks they're kind of cute.  seriously, if your baby is hanging around in just a diaper (which has happened more than once around here), does it really make it better if the diaper looks like denim?

spaghetti

Ashley was home sick today, Fox has a fever, Brooke only went to school to watch a movie, then came home and Lauren fell asleep at 5:00.  and actually I didn't mind it - I cancelled all appointments, got some laundry and cleaning done, and had the older girls home to play with Fox.  Ashley was a little bored in the evening, so she wanted to write a "story", which was basically just a summary of how she viewed the evening as follows:
"One Monday night when I was walking down the stairs my mom started laughing.  I asked her what she was laughing about.  She told me that my sister was laughing in her sleep [Lauren fell asleep on the living room floor under her blanket and randomly rolled over, laughed hard for like 10 seconds, then rolled back over - hilarious].  I thoght (sic) she was laghing (sic) at my hair but she wasn't [she had done her own hair after her bath into a sweet side pony and apparently she was having some serious concerns about it].  So I just kept walking down stairs.  Then I ate dinner.  We had spaggeti, my sister's favorite [Lauren had made a special request].  My sister woke up.  My mom threw it away [In my defense, I thought she was going to sleep all night and it was kind of overcooked already] and when she did wake up she wanted some and she was mad.  When she was not looking, my mom took some out of the trash and put Parmesan cheese on it and she did not eat [seriously it was still on the top and there was tons of it, so the stuff on the top was totally clean, right?!] it so my mom told her to go up stairs and brush her teeth and get a book.  My mom will read to her and then she had to go to bed and she did." '
 it's true.  all of it.   What? you're above getting food out of the trash?  I guess when you say it like that it doesn't seem like that great of an idea but Lauren didn't have to scream at me about it.  I mean, geez, i was trying to be nice :)

It's a tooth!

Fox finally has his first tooth!   We've been watching his bottom two teeth that have been on the brink of erupting for what feels like forever and they STILL aren't in.  It was one of his top teeth that popped through.  Taking a picture is extremely tricky, though, since his lips cover his tooth even when he is smiling.  So I had to wait until he was in a food coma today.   I guess we were actually all a little groggy this afternoon - everyone in the entire house took crazy long naps - it was awesome.  Unfortunately, I think it was because everyone is sick, but still. I was hoping it was just allergies rearing their ugly head, but after the nap situation, I'm thinking it might be something more (but I still enjoyed my nap).

I starting running again this week.  I still don't want to say that I love running, but it definitely felt good to be back out there working hard.  My knee still hurts and is popping a little, but the running hasn't made it worse, so hopefully it will actually help as I strengthen the muscles, etc.  We'll see.  After I got back from my run yesterday, Robie called me outside to see Fox riding his bike.  Fox really liked the bike riding - not so much on the helmet.  As long as we kept the bike moving we were ok.   

Just after that, Fox and Lauren got to help Robie fix the sprinklers.  They are crazy - you can see Lauren on the trampoline and Fox kept chasing after the water across the grass - the water was cold!~

monkeying around..

Lauren has been a little high maintenance lately.  I think she's just tired, or maybe she's growing, or maybe she is just an irritating little (@#@( .  Ha ha ha, but of course, I jest (or do I?).  Anyway, I was hoping to keep her spirits up today by finding something fun for just a mommy/Lauren (and Fox) day.  I suggested the zoo, which she thought was a ridiculously lame idea, since she only wanted to go with her sisters.   Then she said she "was thinking about it and changed her mind."  So we went.  I let her pick what she wanted to see, which considering that I have certain things I like to do was quite magnanimous of me.   She chose her "favorite animal, the koala." to see first,

and was insistent that we watch the bird show again (would you believe that it had some of the same things as last time - ok, ALL of the same things, but still she was impressed).  She even ate her pbj sandwich, and I bought her cotton candy, which I don't think i've done in 3 years.  Then she just kept adding more and more animals and of course was devastated when her horrible mother insisted it was time to leave.  So much for my "keeping her happy" theory. 

She did leave without throwing a tantrum, which is more than I can say for our trip to Border's last week, so I guess I will call it a success. 

Beach afternoon

You know those times when you have a huge to-do list and you just don't feel like doing it. Yesterday was one of those days (ok, there are a lot of those days around here, which is why we have such a huge to-do list, but still..).  We did convert our backyard jungle back into a regular backyard first, and Robie helped with the ward service project (which did not allow under 12 year old kids to participate, so the rest of us got off the hook), but then we just couldn't work anymore - so we were off to the beach!

It was seriously such a beautiful day.   We took surfboards, boogie boards, soccer ball, and our big sand shovels - awesome!   Good thing we have enough kids carry all the supplies.  Brooke and Ashley were totally pumped to be out surfing with eir dad again - its been a while since he had a broken collarbone last summer.  I wasn't that surprised that the older kids enjoyed the water, but I was totally shocked that this kid was not intimidated by the waves or the cold of the water at all.   He started in the little puddle where he was enjoying dipping his cookie in the salt then eating it. 

Then we were out watching Ashley boogie board, and Fox really wanted to get down, so I figured I would let him get down and then he would immediately jump back into my arms so I could save him from the scary cold water.  Nope.  Instead he was absolutely loving it.  As the water came in he would sit there totally frozen and then as soon as it started moving out he started crawling to try to keep up with its' retreat.  He's crazy!   When it was getting a little too deep I just had to pick him up by the back of his shirt and drag him up the beach.  After playing in the water for a good 20 minutes, I dragged him up to the chairs and sat down - a few minutes later he ate a little and fell asleep - napping on the beach - he, Robie, Mark and Gary were definitely living the dream on that front :).  I must not have been working too hard, since I got a sunburn on just my one knee and arm from sitting in the same spot for so long - can you say lazy afternoon?

That is really all I wanted for Mother's Day - a relaxing afternoon having fun at the beach.  Too bad the camera broke before I got pictures of the sand soccer, the surfing, blah, blah. 

Happy Mother's Day Mom - you are the Best!

the real deal

so the nitty gritty of the weekend:

we stayed in a hotel for one night - I knew the kids would love it because they really wanted to go swimming and they just love the novelty of sleeping in a hotel.  I, on the other hand, would prefer not to be sleeping in the same room as all of my children.  Fox loved this mirror - he kept climbing up it and standing next it so I put the pack 'n' play in front so he would stop trying to pull the mirror off the wall.

We did get lucky and they swam in the only 2 hours that it was warm enough while we were at the  hotel - whew! 

the girls stayed up very late almost very night.  This led Lauren to be REALLY cranky after about 3 pm on race day, which basically means that when she didn't get her way (primarily when I wouldn't let her eat yet another piece of candy or bag of chips), she totally lost it.  At some point, I did tell her that she wasn't allowed on the race course if she was going to be crying (compelling argument, but she did not care at all).  Yet, given the choice to go back to the house we were staying at or stay and hang out with their dad after the race, all 3 chose hanging out with their dad

I lost both my keys and my cell phone within 3 days of each other.    Both were found and turned in, so I got the phone back quickly.  Unfortunately, the keys were not located until we were already on our way back home and those keys had the roof rack key on them, SO all 4 of our "carry on" size bags had to fit inside the car.  Lauren had 1 bag under her feet and 2 on the side of her - we basically had things stuffed into every cranny in the car and the girls were not happy.    Don't worry, though, they are mailing me back my keys.  Of course, our only mail key is on that key ring - um, oops. 

Nothing a pair of matching jammies can't make better.

A Rocky day.

This weekend was a busy, fun one for the whole family. Robie was competing in the first St. George Ironman. After breaking his collarbone last year and missing both Florida and Vineman, he was feeling excited, nervous and scared. I think he felt like he had done the training, but he was terrified of the weather - he was prepared for the cold and thought it would be raining, but when we got there, he was actually more worried it was going to be really windy - I mean, REALLY windy. In fact, on Friday, we drove out on the biking section of the course, and some of the "road closed" signs (the big diamond shaped ones) had completely blown over. We went out to the swim course as well, which was beautiful!The racers had to get up early (2:30 am - for the record, I couldn't even do a 5k after getting up at that hour, but that's just me), so he stayed with our friend, Tom, who was also doing the race. I was so nervous for him on Friday night - maybe because my mom reminded me of the last Ironman they had in Utah and how someone had died on the swim. I was just really hoping he would survive (plus if he was going to go die, the irony of working in the swim industry and dying on the swim would have just been too much).

Saturday morning, I watched online as the athletes started the swim. When I figured he was almost to the section we were going to watch him at, we all loaded up in the cars and headed over. Race day was a long day for all of us. If I could sum up the day for the kids in one word, I would say, "rocks." It seemed like everywhere we went, they found ways to play in rocks. Even though he came by on the bike right around the time when we expected him, there is still always a lot of waiting since you want to get there before you think he will come, just in case he is going faster than you expect, blah, blah. Anyway, Lauren entertained herself by using these big rocks that were on the side of the road to build a "rock fire" which is basically a bunch of rocks all piled up while Fox kept happy trying to eat the little pebbles (safety first, after all). When we saw Robie, he was about 1/2 way through the bike and was still smiling, which in Robie language means he was feeling pretty good (as most people know, he doesn't fake emotions, so when he is feeling crappy you know it). Sad that most of the course is covered with gorgeous scenery and this is what we took a picture of... oh well.

After that spot, we had to drive some of the course to get to the transition areas. I was really hoping we would catch up to him on the drive and get some cool pictures and let the kids cheer out the window, but the speed limit for cars was 35 and all the racers were going between 35 and 40 miles an hour because that section was almost completely downhill, so we never caught up to him again until we saw him at the end of the bike. Robie had secured some VIP passes through his work, which made it easy for us to come and go from the finish line/transition area because it not only provided food throughout the day, but also a special parking area close to the race. Close to the finish line (technically I guess the finish line was close to this, since I'm sure this is there all the time), anyway, they had this fun rock section with water where the kids could run around and jump in the water (it was warm in the sun, but the breeze was quite cool). Anyway, we had a while before he was going to finish the bike, so this worked great to keep everyone happy. As we moved over to the bike/run transition area, the kids found these landscaping rocks. As I'm standing there trying to get Fox to take a nap (miraculously I did get him to sleep for a few minutes), I hear the girls banging the rocks together. When I asked what they were doing, Brooke said they were trying to make a bowl, you know, like the Indians used to do. Hey, whatever keeps them happy, right? Robie had a white top on with white arm warmers. I swear at least 20 people had some sort of similar look going and I can not tell you how many times, I turned around to the kids with the frantic, "here he is - he's coming" and after they jump up and come running over I realize it is in fact someone that doesn't even really look that much like him. sort of funny, also sort of annoying to the kids, oops. As he came in on the bike, I tried to run down and see him coming out of the transition area, but that created a little confusion, because he saw me but was looking for everyone else, so I was yelling at him to just keep going and they were down farther. Thanks to the VIP parking, we could come and go fairly easy, so we waited for a while and then headed out to the turnaround of the run loop. They had to finish the same loop twice on the run (which was seriously the hardest marathon humanly possible (is it possible that they were running uphill both directions?) , so we saw him at each side of the loop. At miles 6.8 and 13 - the first 2 times we saw him - it was all excitement, but at mile 19-ish, we waited and waited and waited. 25 minutes after we thought he would come by he came up and his stomach was done. I guess 10 hours of squirting liquid nutrition and one peanut butter sandwich just wasn't cutting it! He finished in 12 hours and 51 seconds. It was really fun for me to have most of my family there to watch him finish. My sister, Kath and her husband Darrell were there, and I was totally surprised that my little brother, Mike even came down with my parents and Emily, Dan and Sam. After the rest of my family left, we thought we were waiting for our friend, Tom, to finish, so the girls played in their favorite rock section while we watched the video screen to see him come in. Unfortunately 30 minutes later we realized that Tom had actually already finished 40 minutes prior and we had totally missed him. At around 10:30, we thought we were ready to head back to the house we were staying at, but right before we left town, Robie's stomach was bugging him even more at which point I figured he better go back to the medical tent, since the house we were staying at is about 30 minutes outside of St. George. He had visited the tent after the Vineman (same distance of a race), but in that medical tent, they just had him lay there and suck it up. In St. George, they gave him some sort of anti-nausea medicine and he was feeling so much better only 30 minutes later! We made it back to the house we were staying at around 12:15 am - and all the kids but Fox were still awake - eek!