A Blanket of Snow

 When we woke up this morning the ground and rooftops were covered in white fluffy stuff. The kids were excited and ooh-ed and ahh-ed with glee as we peered through the window at the snow sparkling under the streetlights before dawn. The boys were begging to go out before one ray of sunshine even made it's way over the horizon. They settled on walking Camilla to the bus and flew out the door to explore this newfound Winter wonderland. 

 Finley slept a solid hour and a half longer than everyone else and was still waking up when it was time to take Camilla to the bus. He surveyed his surroundings contently from my arms. 

 After a wonderful morning nap we headed outside to play in the snow until lunch. The snow was perfectly fluffy and sticky all at once. The boys made snowballs and snow angels and rolled around with glee. It was so fun to watch!

 

 And when some more flakes started to fall we caught a few on our tongues and then I took those rosy cheeked boys into the house to warm up and roll out the bread.

While the bread baked, the little boys napped and Hyrum and I mixed and rolled cookies. After a good amount of time Joseph came walking into the kitchen sniffing, "Mom, I smell cookies." I smiled at his crazy bed head of hair as he stood on his tippy toes and grabbed a warm cookie off the counter. 

 

Once the cookies were finished baking, Joseph and I mixed up some quinoa double chocolate muffins. The boys demolished a couple of those and I froze the rest down for school lunches. The house was warm and full of the wonderful aroma of baked goods. After a busy few months there's a part of me that welcomes Winter and the way it brings out the hermit in me.

Still, Still, Still

My day starts nice and early (like it always does) when Joseph appears at my bedside. It is still dark and quiet outside and I am surprised when I look at the glowing clock on my nighstand reading 6:30am. This time change has been a doozy and after a week of waking up well before 6:00 in the morning to tantrums and cranky, sick kiddos I am okay with getting out of bed to start the day now. The two of us make our way downstairs for a morning play date. I dim the lights and we whisper together until the rest of the house wakes up.

The requests for pancakes immediately start and I muster up the strength to move my body off the floor and up the stairs to make breakfast. Camilla goes up ahead of me and measures out the flour in the mixing bowl to make my job a little easier. When it comes time to pour the milk it comes out in big chunks. I check the expiry date and am baffled because I thought we still had a week to go until it went bad. Mr. Stannix does some googling and discovers that our fridge wasn't set at a low enough temperature while I dig through the freezer in search of a loaf of bread. I luck out and find a spare loaf near the bottom. Joseph then requests french toast to which Camilla replies, "Mom, don't we use milk for that?" I knew we could get away with out it and then remembered the tiny bit of cream that I had left in the fridge. That'll do perfectly. By now the children are ravenous and starting to push each other's buttons. My patience thins as I whisk the eggs. "Stop poking him!" I order. The boys then argue about wether we are having pancakes or french toast and neither will listen to me unless I shout. Joseph is whining at my feet, "I want my french toast mommy. My tummy is STARVIN'!" Finley is squealing from his highchair and I am working as fast as I can. Soon enough the first set of french toast comes off the grill and order is restored. They fill their bellies with breakfast and orange juice and then it's time to get ready for church.

The older two dress themselves with quite a few reminders to keep them on task and then they get free time to color or play. Joseph has been running around all morning in just a new pullup so I eventually get him to his room to dress, but can't find a pair of socks for him if my life depended on it. We finally come across a pair left in the hallway and dirty or not they will have to do. Finley is next, his little body wiggles and squirms while I change his morning diaper and wriggle him into his clothes. He laughs and screeches at himself in the mirror while I button his shirt and then shrieks with excitement when I finally let him go. Joseph and Finley crawl around from room to room laughing when I finally have a few minutes to get myself ready. Despite being up early, the last few minutes are always chaotic.

Daddy gathers the kids up to get their shoes and jackets on while I finish curling my hair. I listen to the chaos from the bathroom and shout out helps like, "They're in the closet!" "Just wear the running shoes!" "His coat's still downstairs!" I slip Finley's arms into his jacket mid crawl and scoop him up. I buckle him into the van and then go back inside to collect the last few things and put on some shoes. My mental checklist runs through my head the entire time I dart around the house. Bottle, gum, water, pencil, blanket.... And then we're off.

When we arrive I unbuckle Finley and can't help but sigh at the fact that he STILL has purple marker on his forehead since I forgot to bathe him this morning. Hyrum makes his way out the other side of the van with some awesome bed head and Joseph is wearing no tie and his spider-man shoes. The children hang up their jackets and then we take everyone to get a drink and go pee so we don't have a repeat of last week. While Joseph waits on the older two I wet his hair down and comb it with my fingers so it only looks slightly crazy. Joseph and Camilla head to the chapel hand in hand while I wait on Hyrum. Finley starts screeching as soon as we sit down. Mr. Stannix and I roll our eyes and he takes the little man out to the foyer to get him to go for his morning nap.

I keep the other three sitting as reverently as possible but Joe quickly tires of drawing and prefers dropping his pencil through the crack in the bench so he can crawl under and retrieve it. After the third time I take the pencil away which results in a fit so I scoop Joe up, crawl over Daddy who has Finley sleeping on his shoulder and find an empty room to practice reverence. While we are waiting an older boy walks by with his arms folded and Joseph points out how reverent he is. Then a younger boy whizzes by with his arms swinging and Joseph points out how not reverent he is. I chuckle inside and it comforts me to know that at least he knows the difference even if he finds it hard to control his tiny body, at least he's learning. When he's finally ready, we fold our arms and walk to the chapel (as close to a run as he can possibly get without being irreverent while a mischievous smirk forms on his lips). I guide his head gently when we make it to our bench to keep him from running all the way to the front of the chapel. It doesn't last long before he's asking for a drink and begging to leave again, but luckily it's time for the closing song and we convince him to wait. 

The children skip off to primary together, Daddy takes Joe to nursery and I take over our screeching baby for the next two blocks and settle into my new calling teaching a sunbeam class full of four year olds with another mom. Thankfully it passes quickly and before I know it I am walking around gathering children and guiding them to the van to buckle up. Then it's home for lunch, snacking, and family time.

At the end of my day I reassure myself that it won't be like this forever. One day we will be like that family with older children sitting still in the third row from the front and these chaotic days will be a distant memory. One day my children will sit quietly through church and learn things (if they aren't already) and Sundays will be filled with love and joy instead of lost shoes, demanding toddlers, and screeching babies. Despite the craziness I still come home with an overwhelming love for my children. The chaos doesn't necessarily come because they are "bad", it's more of an age thing. I still count myself blessed for the minimal challenges we really do have, but it's nice to document the crazy for later so that I can look back and smile at the things we've learned and overcome. Even though Sundays are tough, I believe that they are worth it and will pay off in the long run!

Grampy's Tacos

This week has been a doozy. It started out with Hyrum puking all over the livingroom floor. Thankfully, I was already in the middle of mopping so we hardly missed a beat until the entire upstairs toilet got covered, followed by the downstairs toilet a few hours later. Camilla made her way home from the bus on her own (it stops two doors down, but this was a first for her). She came in while I was cleaning up Finley's barf mess. The following day Joseph gulped down a whole bowl of tomato soup and then proceeded to barf it back up right into the bowl it came from. He really wanted to eat it again, and it truly looked perfectly fine, but I convinced him otherwise (yuck). He slept it off most of the day. Neither of the boys had much of an appetite for the rest of the week. On Thursday night I went to bed feeling yucky and ended up running to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Friday wasn't a very happy (or productive) day and I was grateful for premade meals, Curious George, and the dozen yellow roses Mr. Stannix brought home for me.

Today has definitely been an improvement. The weather was so warm for this time of year and the older two spent the entire day at the park playing with some kids in the neighborhood. Joseph ran errands with Daddy all morning while Finley napped. I enjoyed the quiet time and organized a little bit more. Mr. Stannix oiled all the door hinges (nothing more annoying than a squeaky door on the baby's room), and helped me hang pictures and decorate a bit. It's finally starting to feel like home, and it's nice. 

We ended our happy day with a dance party and Grampy's tacos. This family recipe has been passed down all the way from Mike's great Grampy Finley Gardiner. They take a long time to make, so it's only a meal we enjoy on special occasions and we figured that everyone being healthy and pictures being hung was special enough. I love having everyone in the kitchen while Daddy fry's the tacos and uses his mad skills to flip them in mid air. I get to fill them after they've cooled while my filling portion gets critiqued by Mike. There's always lots of laughs and maybe a little bit of spinning, dipping, and smooching in the kitchen. I've been craving these twice fried tacos for quite a while and my craving was definitely satisfied!

Recent Art Work

The First Snow

 Today we woke bright and early for Daddy's first day of work at his new job. Daddy was the first one awake and by the time Finley woke up the rest of the children made their way into the baby's room rubbing the sleep from their eyes. Everybody then got themselves ready for the day while I made breakfast. I put out Joseph's clothes for him, and after running out naked three times to wave bye to Daddy he finally got himself dressed. We ate breakfast together, had scriptures and prayers at the table and had some time to spare. We all walked Camilla across to the bus and I listened to the boys' silly fake cries the whole way home as they told me how much they'd miss her today. 

While I was tidying up the bedrooms I happened to glance out the window to see giant flakes slowly drifting to the ground. The first snowfall of the season always gets me excited! I called to the boys and they ran to the window in the kitchen to watch the snow. It seems so magical to me. Perhaps it's the thought of Christmas being right around the corner, or homemade cookies to warm up the kitchen, or cozy evenings in front of the fire crocheting.

 Finley was mesmerized by the giant flakes and kept trying to reach out and grab them. The only thing better than the first snowfall of the season is watching my baby experience the wonder of snow for his first time.

 The boys stood there and watched for a good five minutes as the flakes began covering rooftops. Then they begged me to let them outside to experience it first hand. They headed out into the backyard to catch snowflakes on their tongue and tug the sled across the yard. When their hands were too cold to play any longer they came inside to a warm heatbag and cozied up to a movie while I finished putting away the laundry. I can't wait for Camilla to come home from school and share her excitement of the snow!

Time Change

I'm not sure who's genius idea it was to put the time change the same weekend as Halloween and a full moon. Today was a bit of a gong show. The children woke up at 5:00am (which wouldn't be so bad in normal time) and I was not ready to start my day. Luckily I had anticipated the early morning and glued a smile on my face while we played and got ready for church. The older two sat amazing during sacrament meeting while Finley napped in my arms. Joseph was practically vibrating the whole time (it might have had something to do with the six suckers he tried to eat at once after breakfast). They all enjoyed their classes while I paced the halls with Fin who was far to screechy to attend any classes for any length of time. It's hard to accept that this is how Sundays will roll for a little while, but I know it won't last forever. After church I rounded up the kiddos while Mr. Stannix took care of some duties with the young men. Hyrum ran everywhere despite my pleas for walking feet and his ears tuned out my voice. Camilla chatted my ear off all the way to the doors and Joseph tried desperately to get away from me and run out into the parking lot. I stood at the doors directing the older two with my words while Finley twisted and turned in my arms and Joseph limp noodled and swung around to escape my hold on his hand. If Mr. Stannix hadn't arrived when he did I probably would have burst into tears. 

We made it home and I fed hungry bellies and then cleaned the kitchen to get rid of my angry feelings. Mr. Stannix read stories and kept the kids downstairs so that I could take a breather. Before I knew it dinner time had rolled around. I sliced the roast, Mr. Stannix mashed the potatoes and I drained the carrots in the pot. When we all sat down to eat Finley began screeching impatiently for food and Joseph started crying because he had dumped half of the salt shaker into the mashed potatoes. The noise level was almost unbearable. Mr. Stannix dealt with Joseph, coaxing him to eat and stop crying, while I tried to feed Finley quick enough to suppress his impatient, ear piercing screams. It didn't take long for the tears to fall. Once Finley's bowl was finished, I couldn't take his screeching any longer so off to the bath we went. When Mr. Stannix finished his dinner he watched the baby while I dished up and ate my dinner. 

After Mr. Stannix cleaned the kitchen we declared it an early bed time and began the routine of jammies, teeth, scriptures and prayers. Daddy took up Joe while the older two helped me do a quick tidy in the basement. Finley crawled around in the playroom until it was all clean and then I turned out the lights and turned on the hall light by the bedrooms. After Hyrum's backrub and a quick chat I said goodnight and went to Camilla's room. I then noticed that the playroom light was on again, so I walked around and turned it off. When I got back the hall light was off and I told the kids to quite playing with the lights. I flicked the switch by the bathroom to turn on the hall light and then went in to tuck in Camilla. When I came back out the playroom light was on again, so I walked around to turn it off. When I came back the hall light was off again and I shook my head as I realized that the lightswitch by the bathroom turns on both the hall light AND the playroom light. So when I was walking around to turn out the playroom light I also turned off the hall light without even noticing. I laughed at my stupidity and apologized to the children for scolding them. Luckily they have a sense of humor and also laughed at my mistake. Extra hugs and kisses were given and then I went upstairs to put Finley to bed.

Once the house was all quiet Mr. Stannix lit the fire downstairs, put on his listening ears and helped dry my tears from an overwhelming couple of weeks. He helped quiet my fears and hush the thoughts of inadequacy that had crept into my head over the week. I am super grateful for the priesthood and a loving husband who can give me blessings of comfort from my Father in heaven when I need them most! It was good to end on a positive note.

Halloweeny

Today was a busy day. We started out with a scrumptious breakfast of homemade waffles topped with ice cream, strawberries, bananas and warm syrup. We organized the garage, cleaned the basement, baked some bread, ate some treats from last night and then carved pumpkins with the kids! It was a busy day, but so fun. I loved watching Finley expreience his first pumpkin carve. It always takes a little bit to get the kids into it and Joseph wasn't really up for touching any pumpkin guts at all. I am glad that my kiddos are okay with simple, because it was a very simple Halloween.  Our poor little pumpkin ended up looking kind of sad. The costumes weren't crazy creative but the kids were excited anyways!

Happy Halloween from our crew to yours!!

Trunk or Treat

My Mamma and my sister both spent the night last night. We had a nice slow morning with the kids as Camilla had a day off school. I slipped out before lunch to run a few errands with Hyrum and my Mom made me take a nap when I got home. I've been pretty exhausted lately and secretly welcomed the opportunity to rest. 

Daddy arrived home in the early afternoon and is back for good! He starts his new job in the City on Monday and I am so looking forward to seeing him before and after work.

Finley had an early dinner but joined us at the table while we ate anyways. He hammed it up the whole time and had us all giggling. Shortly after dinner we got all dressed up and headed out the trunk or treat at the church.

Mr. Stannix dressed up as Jonah in the belly of a whale.  It was pretty awesome!

Camilla decided she just wanted to be Elsa tonight.

Sir Joseph made a pretty awesome knight.

Hyrum and I found this super hero costume on sale today and he begged me with stars in his eyes. He's been wearing his old old 18 month sized superman costume forever insisting it still fits even though it goes up to his knees. He was quite pleased with this one and had a pretty good laughing fit over the "undies".

Elsa took off on her own for the trunk or treat which left me to hang out with these two cuties.

Our last trunk was Daddy and then we went inside to dance and eat treats.

Finley hung out in the carrier snoozing most of the night and I dressed up as a moon. Together we were the cow that jumped over the moon. Not my best idea, but I tried!

These two shook their booties as soon as the music came on. They were adorbs. After a lot of dancing and fun and meeting new people we took off to put our littles to bed.