Random Thoughts

I was going through my church bag and trying to clean it out. There were papers from back when I was in the primary presidency in there, which was almost 9 months ago! As I was pulling and sorting things it made me grateful for several things. 1) I am so thankful for all the teachers my boys have had over the years they are all wonderful and think up so many great ideas of things to do in class, weather it's a craft, a drawing, a handout. We are lucky to have them. 2) I don't know when my church bag will be this empty again. With Levi and Max we have not had to carry too much because we ditched the toys, snacks and other such church distractions long ago. Now for them I only carry some blank pieces of paper and colored pencils (which I just spent far too long sharpening). Soon it will be filled up again with snacks and toys for Mr. Davie. I'm sure all 3 (yes, I'm also referring to Jason) other boys will be trying to steal his snacks the first chance they get.

I always feel like I'm pretty much behind on everything. Seriously. Blogging? At LEAST a week or more. Printing off those blog books? Years. Laundry is usually a week behind schedule minimum. And while I get the household laundry taken care of, I have been living out of my own laundry basket for almost a month. My jewelry stuff, I have orders to take care of from a week ago (though I like to tell people to give me 1-2 weeks, so not too bad). My house is a complete disaster and while I am definitely not any sort of neat freak it can stress me out. I feel like I'm working so hard at everything non-stop, from keeping the house in order, family fed, homework/reading taken care of, bills and money stuff put in order, business things done to everything else and in between. But then many times at the end of the day like I didn't really accomplish that much, that my list of things to do is still so freaking long. Eh. Motherhood.

At the same time there are things I think I'm doing pretty dang well in my opinion:

I am doing really good at making sure a good 'family meal' gets made almost every night (ok, at least more nights than not) and we all sit down together a majority of the time. I never had this as a kid and am trying my best to do sit down meals with everyone.

We have been doing FHE consistently pretty much ever since Davis was born with each person taking a turn to be in charge of it and it is working pretty well I think. Both boys know when it is and really look forward to it.

Reading with the boys. I have been doing my best to make sure I get some good time reading with them because they love it, it calms them down before bedtime and it helps them become good readers.

Doing random acts of kindness to people. While I am a terrible visiting teacher (meaning go, sit down, chat, share a message), I think I am doing pretty good at making sure my ladies are thought about and served along with numerous other people in my ward. I try to do little thoughtful things for others whenever I can.

I think I'm doing a good job business wise. I try especially hard to remember why I do what I do and stay focused on my goals. So far, month for month, in the past 5 I have made more money than I did last year but I have had to work less (less all nighters, less overall stress). So I'm working smarter, not harder. Also I have a huge goal to try and get our van paid off within the next 15 months or so. I really think I can do it! Then we will be 100% debt free, with our new van paid for, collage loans paid off, baby and hospital paid off (I got that big bill taken care of a couple months ago, thank you holiday shoppers!) With everything taken care of we can hopefully begin to add a lot each month to our fund for whenever we end up buying a house so we'll have a nice down down payment.

Chicken Legs and Lake Merwin

It was the beginning of the week so I was getting the kitchen cleaned after a lazy Sunday and very little cleanup. It is crazy how messy things get so fast, it is a never ending chore. This time Max decided to help in his own way by telling stories while I mopped and cleaned things off.

I was also prepping for 'his' dinner that night. In an effort to not have everyone hate every single thing I cook for dinner, which happens far too often, I let the boys have some imput when it comes to the menu. They each get to pick 1 meal for the 2 week period I plan and shop for. Also as part of the rules it has to be a real meal, meaning not hot dogs or macaroni and cheese along with having a fruit and a vegtable. I think letting them in on a little bit of the planning has helped ease some of the dinner time battles. To be honest I have more than once wanted to throw in the towel with cooking dinner which every seems to hate (I have had more than once a kid throw up on their plate beceause something was 'so gross'!) and that can go for the adults in the house as well. I totally understand why my mom gave up cooking dinners when I was a kid.

Anyways, this week Max really really wanted chicken legs because whenever we get a full roasted chicken (thank you Costco!) him and Levi love the chicken legs. As I was prepping it he got very specific about how he wanted it prepared and even showed me. He wanted it with salt and NOT pepper. All and all it turned out really well and the boys all had a couple of legs each along with cornbread muffins which he also insisted on. Dinner win.

We have actually had some nice days out so I kicked the boys out. They always seem to protest but when I tell them they can either go out or play or clean the house with me, they usually go with play. I love how Levi always pairs a long sleeved shirt with shorts. Silly kid. Jason has also been working on doing some water storage tanks stands partly for food storage, but mostly because he is working on a new salt water fish tank and it needs some sort of special water so that where he's storing it.

I took Davie out for a moment and tried my hardest to get him to look at the camera but it didn't work no matter how hard I tried. He just wanted to see what his big bros were doing down below.

The boys (ahem, Max, cough, cough) have become very picky with their breakfast and normally want one thing. Mini Spooners. I knew we didn't have any upstairs and was planning on doing something different like oatmeal, yogurt or something I found someone had gone down to food storage and found another bag of them. I decided not to fight it.

When I was at the grocery store I couldn't help buying these Danimals MAX for obvious reasons. I knew Max would freak out about it. And he did and gave me a kiss.

Mr. Man and his sleep sack. I love his face when he's sleeping. Cute chubby cheeks. And he is completely obsessed with those feet of his.

  

 

 

 

In Levi's class they have been reading The Borrowers and for part of their project they are supposed to build a room for the Borrowers house so we went around and started gathering supplies. Max wanted to keep some of the treasures he found.

And we got lucky two weekends in a row and my dad and step mom took the big boys for two days and went off to Lake Merwin. I got this picture of them with grandpa. Lucky boys. Also I am proud of Max because last summer he was so scared to be in a boat. He's getting braver.
And I am not sure what this picture is for....but I got it from Levi's teacher.  I love getting these and being able to see how he is doing and to know what's going on.

Uncle Jared and No Chuckin' in the Truck

I have been working hard to try and get more posts up but my phone has been weird. I upload all my pictures from my phone and then save it and then later type things out at home. And it just hasn't gotten done. Oh well.

Max got into Jason's side of the closet which has this massive nurf gun. We haven't had it out in a while and most of the bullets have disappear but that didn't stop Max from trying to get me. Which he didn't.

Levi has been working on Geranimo Stilton series (I forgot the name of the series within the series). Oh well. He devoured it in 2 days. I still can't believe this kid is only 6 1/2 sometimes.

This was our family night. I believe it was my night. Right now when it is my week to plan it I try to keep it pretty simple. A lesson from The Friend or something I feel we need to talk about then for the activity I have kind of decided to do games, because Max totally needs some practice taking turns and losing gracefully which he does not do at all, and then soon hopefully get started with activities outside like going for walks, playing outdoor games and such. It's simple but gets the job done.









Mr. Davis is growing and growing and the bassinet was getting much too small for him so I crossed my fingers when I was about to put the pack and play into the bathroom. Ghetto I know but I'm not quite ready for him to be in with the other boys, Jason says no way for the office (that and the fact that it is a disaster which is all me), Davis has also been waking a bit in the middle of the night thanks to teething and being sick so I have to have more awake feeding time with him so keeping him in the bathroom just seemed to make sense. It's quiet, out of the way during the day so he can get some good naps in and he's still close to me at night. We'll see how long he ends up staying in there. Also I haven't posted bathroom pictures yet but you can see the floors and some of the rest of it. It is seriously my favorite room in the house, so pretty in my opinion. Only one or two more finishing touches then it's all done!

I think Max has been going through a growth spurt lately, he's been doing a lot of napping or when he doesn't has been needing a nap more than usual.

One day it was taking me a minute to get to Davis after he had woken up from his nap and I found Levi in there singing him a song to help calm him down. "5 brown buns in the bakery shop, big brown buns with the sugar on the top. Along came a man with a penny to pay and he bought that bun and he took it away." My grandma taught it to him. It's so cute to watch.


I know this may be TMI but I love breastfeeding. It can be a huge inconvenience sometimes and you can never be too far away for very long but it's is some nice mommy baby time. Right now he has been very into his feet, even when he's eating. It's quite hilarious.

Levi wanted to read to his little brother.

Work has been going well I think. Things have slowed down a little bit but I don't mind for the most part, though I do have $ goals I try and meet. I really really want to pay off the van as quick as I can.

We have been pretty good at going to the library every week and this time both boys made a beeline for the Star Wars, Lego and Super Hero books. They know exactly where they are and this time they cleared out almost all of them.

Davey loving his Jumparoo. He's been getting very into it lately.

Brooke and company were going to be moving so I offered to take her kids so she sent Cameron and KJ over to play for the day. The boys quickly got into the costumes and played outside. Ok, I threw them out there. KJ would have nothing to do with it so she stayed in and colored.







Then after playing a bit at our house I took everyone to McDonalds to play. They loved it, of course. Though I did had to ban them from this dome area. It was the old ball pit area but now has a mat. Anyways, all their fights seemed to happen there so I banned them from it. That solved the problem pretty fast.














Me with Davie. I have been loving the carrier and use it to get him to sleep when I know we won't be home for nap time, works like a charm.To smile or not to smile........

Then while we were there I got a text from a friend of mine (a mom to a friend of Max) who wanted to go to Pump it Up Jr. with him so to kill some time we went to Krispy Kreams right accross the street. I don't get to be around my neices or nephews much so sometimes I just spoil these guys.

And sprinkle ones for my guys (of course), a filled one for Cam and pink one for KJ (of course). Then after they were sugared up I gave them back to their mom.

Max found one of the first flowers that bloomed and wanted to give it to me. He showed me how it twirled and how it could fly.

After Levi finished book one in his series I reserved book 2 which came in so I made a special trip just with him where we could spend some more time looking at books. We got a lot and he could put them down.

Davis and his chew toy.

A couple of weeks ago my brother asked me when he could have the boys over for a sleep over and we arranged a Sunday night and decided Max would just miss school. They were very excited as they should be. They ate pizza, hot dogs, went to the park, got to watch crazy amounts of Power Rangers, got to sleep with Barkley (his dog), went to an arcade.

Here they were right before heading off to Portland (where he lives)

Jared is a fun uncle, he'll make a great dad one day. One thing they still keep saying that they learned from him "No chuckin' in the truck!" He has a huge truck and Max won num chucks at the arcade and then started whirling it around hitting him so now they love to say it. 

 

A picture he sent me while they were playing at the park with son of a friend of his. He also sent me some sweet videos of them on his mixer (he's a dj) playing records and dancing.

 Then while they were gone Davie got some quality time with Nese. She's a good snuggler.