Getting in your zone

Today I had the pleasure of taking my four wonderful children on a major shopping trip to Walmart. Walmart trips are much better than normal grocery shopping trips because not only do you have your groceries to buy, but you also have all the other random things throughout the store to buy.

I was fortunate enough to get a cart with the two seats on the back to "contain" three of my children. These carts allow the child to hang on the side with their head sticking out so that no other cart can pass you by. It creates bonding with the children inside: "She's touching me!" "He hit me!" "She's stepping on me!" It allows them to chant - "We want chocolate, we want chocolate!"

By the time you get to the grocery side of the store you have already said about a hundred times "Please keep your head/feet/arms inside the cart." "Please don't hit each other." "Please stay in your seat." "No, you can't have that." You begin to enter the zone. If you don't know what I am talking about, then let me explain. The zone is like your happy place. It is survival. It is easy to recognize. The far off distant look on a mother's face as children are screaming. She is silent. To the trained eye a look of sympathy and a smile of encouragement. To the untrained eye they look at her thinking: "Does she not hear her child screaming?" I would like to tell all the untrained eyes - "Yes, yes we do hear them, but there is nothing we can do." You can't get mad at them, because then the looks of you are an abusive mother, how dare you scold that child in public like that. You can try bribing - but that doesn't work. I heard that today - "Looks like ___ isn't going to get his ice cream cone today." First of all, you know you are still going to give it to him in the end. Second of all, as soon as you threaten to take it away, it results in more screaming or a major tantrum. All you can do is pick up your pace and get through it with as little damage to the store as possible.

Things that bug - "Wow, you have your hands full!" "Aren't you brave!" "Look at all your little helpers!" When you have finally finished, you get to the check out, it is now lunch time and nap time and the helpful young man says "How is your day today?" I just want to reach over and smack him on the side of the head and say "Look at me, how do you think my day is going today?" But instead I give a weak smile and continue to unload my cart. The cashier then proceeds to do the worlds slowest job of checking you out. Carefully bagging each time so as not to disturb anything. I want to say to him - "Can you not hear my child screaming? Just smash the dang bread and get me the heck out of here!"

Now, not all of these things happened to me today (most of them) - I am summarizing several bad experiences. I just happened to take notice as I was shopping today of all the women in my same situation. Seems how it is summer time and all of our children are home and there is no other option than to take them with you. I saw a lot of the distant looks on women's faces. I saw a lot of frustrated mom's trying to contain their kids to no avail. While I saw a lot of unsympathetic looks from people, not just to me, but to other mom's. I also know that I am not alone. I don't think I could move anywhere because we would stick out like a sore thumb. Here, we just blend in with the rest of them. Serenity now.

Vail

For my birthday this year the one thing that I wanted and needed was a trip with just my husband. The last time we went on a vacation together was about a year after we were married.

We got both set of grandparents lined up to stay with the kids. Our only problem was finding some place to go. After several days of searching and searching on the Internet we settled on Vail, Colorado. (Being in the mountains sounded better than sitting on a beach. Maybe when we lose weight we will do the beach thing.) It is about a 6 1/2 hour drive. We figured if we drove then we could save the money from airfare and rental car and get a nicer hotel. (We will always be cheap, no matter how much money we make!)

The rain got in the way of a lot of our plans, but we had fun anyway. There was a river that ran behind the resort and had a walking trail along side of it. We walked the mile and a half up to the village and wandered around a lot. We stumbled upon an ice skating rink and decided to go ice skating. That pretty much prevented us from walking very well the rest of the trip.

The rain would come out of nowhere. We got trapped on a covered bridge for about 20 minutes while we waited out a sudden down pour and very loud thunder storm.

It was so nice to be able to be spontaneous. We found a movie theater and decided to go watch a movie. I loved being able to talk to Aaron - uninterrupted! When plans changed because of the rain - no one cried. I don't think I heard someone cry for three days straight!

I really missed my kids. They had a great time with their grandparents (thank you again!) It was good for me to miss Grant. He drives me to the point of insanity, so it is good to remember how much I love the little devil. He wouldn't look at me or come to me on Sunday when we got back. It broke my heart. He has never spent much time away from me. He spent the day yesterday pretty much crying the whole time. It is good to be home, even though reality hits you in the face like a tons of bricks the second you walk in the door.

Temple Open House

Draper Temple Open House.
We were so excited to take our children to see the new Draper Temple. What a rare opportunity it is to have two temples open within the same year right by us. This was supposed to be such a great way to teach our children and to feel of the spirit there. We also invited a couple and their young daughter from our ward that are not active so that they too could experience this. I will only briefly summarize our nightmare because I don't know if I really want to ever remember it. Our tickets were at 3:30pm. We got back into our car at 6:30pm. 3 hours of standing in lines, crammed on a shuttle bus, Grant screaming, our friends bailing before they even entered the temple because it was just too horrible, Grant screaming, our kids tired and hungry. It was a joke. The only thing my kids would say after is, "Why do you have to stand and wait so much at the temple?" "When you go to the temple do you have to stand and walk so much?"

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House
My kids were not as excited to go again. This time, it was so much better. We got the experience that we were hoping for at the previous temple. We were back in our car within an hour. We were actually able to discuss with our kids the great things that they saw at the temple. My kids walked away with a desire to attend the temple someday.

The point of me posting about the temple open houses was really because I wanted to write about the funniest thing that happened. When we were at the reception at the end Aaron and the kids were sitting on a couch eating their cookies. As I was approaching them, a sister missionary from Guatemala came over and said to Aaron: "Oh, are you here with your grand kids today?" Then I went and sat down (trying really hard not to bust up laughing) and we talked to her for a while. It took about 5 minutes for her to realize that he was their Dad and not their Grandpa. Hee hee hee hee Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. I'm still laughing about this and it was over a week ago.

What's missing?

Cassidy lost her first tooth last night. She was so excited. It doesn't feel like she is old enough yet to be losing teeth. They sure grow up fast.

Preschool Graduation

Cassidy and Lindsey both recently had preschool graduations. Lindsey still has another year of preschool. Cassidy is on her way to Kindergarten next year. A couple of pictures of our graduates . . .

I'm a big kid now

Last night Grant did what I have been dreading. He almost climbed out of his crib. I walked into his room as he was about to go over the side. I knew it was only a matter of time. My monkey boy isn't the type to just stay put. I figured he would get completely out within the week.

Today I was out running some errands and decided to drive by a few of the garage sales that were going on. I found this so cute fireman toddler bed. I had to get it. I probably wouldn't have moved him quite yet, but it was too fun to just stick in storage for a few weeks until we were ready.

Look at the cute innocent boy pretending to sleep. At least I can put the gate up and when he wakes up at 6:15am tomorrow like he has been doing, he can just stay in his room and play until I'm ready to get him out. So - here's to no sleep tonight. Wish us luck.

UPDATE * * * Grant has slept in his bed 3 times - 2 nights and 1 nap. We haven't had him get out of bed once. It is so fantastic! In the morning or after his nap he will get up and start knocking on the door. It is so cute. He has always been really good at going to bed. The kid plays hard and then crashes.

It is very sad to put my crib away knowing I will never use it again. My girls were all this same age when we put them in a big bed, but it was usually because we had to make way for another kid. Very weird feeling to be closing doors to that part of my life.

Happy #2 Grant

My first post on my blog was Grant's 1st birthday. Here we are a year later, amazing how time flies. I didn't think when I started that I would get into it, but I was wrong. I just printed my first year of blogs, it was 137 pages long. I am so grateful for all that history that is now recorded for my family.

Anyway on to the birthday boy. Grant is in heaven with all his new stuff. He just keeps moving from one thing to another. I've never seen him so happy.

When Grant opened his new car, Cassidy's response was "Now we have a car just like everybody else." Which is true. It is a classic. He has played in one of these at several people's houses and has absolutely loved it. He doesn't like to share his car very much, but his sisters are having a good time pushing him around in it.

This was our first experiment with using fondant instead of frosting. It was fun to play with and see what you can do. I'm excited for another kid's birthday so we can try again. It took about as long as the traditional piping method, but not nearly as frustrating. It is a fun tradition we have created, staying up to midnight the night before their birthday frosting a cake. I know it is a lot of work, but I think my kids are worth it. It is something they look forward to all year.

Grant is a big fan of his Grandpa. He usually goes running to him first thing.

Happy Birthday Grant - we love you!

Oh what fun it is when Aunt Kiki comes to town

Aunt Kiki came to town last month and we had tons of fun with her. We went to the zoo, we went out to lunch a few times, we went swimming, they came to our house and played, and we made hairbows. Here are a few pictures of some of the things we did.

We miss you Kiki & Kiara!

I never thought I would see the day

If you notice in this picture there are two things that are out of place . . . Whitney touching a dog, and Whitney smiling by a dog. This picture is with her cousin's dog, Hannah. (Maybe it was just the name. She does love all things Hannah!) The girls were actually playing with her most of the night. We are finally coming around to the idea that dogs are not evil. Whitney is starting to overcome her fear, finally. Cassidy hasn't been afraid for awhile now. She is very much of the mind set that she wants to be different that everyone else. So if they are afraid of dogs, she won't be. Lindsey is coming around slowly, but she is trying.

My Mother's Day present . . . .

As part of my Mother's Day present, my husband and kids made me this video.