The Last Box

Because my baby can now stand alone (at least for a short tiny bit) and is thoroughly enjoying playing with and eating toilet paper, it must mean that his first birthday is on the way. We still have a little over a month to go, but compared to the last 10+ months it is going to fly by!

And contrary to how it appears in this post, I do typically dress my children. (Although there is something quite cute about a squishy baby in dipes!) Anyways, with the fast approaching first birthday and a trip in the plans to Chicago for Jake and I minus the five littlies, the Sunnie Dairy is weeks from being closed down. Today I opened what will probably be my last box of nursing pads for quite some time. And it has me thinking about a few things. First off, these really are the best kind. Five kids tried and true.

Secondly, door locks. You see, Jake and I aren't above bribery and we're certainly not above using bedroom door locks to our benefit. It is much harder to chase children out of a room when you need it calm then it is to just keep them out in the first place. Hence the need for door locks. Eli is one who is very easily distracted. More so than any of the others. The older he got, if I wanted him to eat, it had to be quiet, and we needed to be alone. Insert door lock. And the beauty of it is that if needed, you can also turn these handles around with a nice little screwdriver to lock small, disobedient children in. Would like to say we've never had to use that form of punishment but that would be far from the truth.

Lastly, one of the best things that Jake ever did for me was move this comfy old hand-me-down-from-Gma-P. recliner into the babe's room. Prior to this with my other children, I would just sit on the floor at night or naptime and nurse the babies to sleep. We have a wood rocking chair but it just isn't the right size for nursing and a little too hard for baby snuggling. The moving of the recliner has been the absolute most wonderful thing. I don't know why it took me five children to figure out that this is what was missing in my life! No more late night trips back and forth with the baby for feedings and no more sore back from sitting on the ground! Combine that with the awesome invention of the IPhone and I honestly could stay locked away in that baby's room for hours! Sadly for Jake, he oftentimes finds himself alone on bedtime duty because it just happens to be time to feed the baby and put him to sleep. And can I just tell you that might be the best 30+ minutes of my day! Oh how I will miss that special time! (Jake on the other hand is probably counting down the days until he has me back to help)...

So although nursing a baby can really be a big sacrifice and takes a ton of time, I think I really have made the best of it. When you have lots of kids, you are busy. Really busy. Like you might not sit down at home all day type of busy. Nursing forces you to take a break. To sit, relax, and snuggle with your baby (all while checking emails, facebook, blogger, and reading- moms... multitaskers to the end!)

 Besides working on closing up the milk shop, we have been ultra busy with school and all the fun extras outside of school. Soccer x 2 and dance, to name a few...

 And the boys keep me busy during the school day. I love this next picture...

 Hmmm... and these next two are pretty great also...

 

 

Halloween, anyone?!

TOFW

 

Nothing like sitting around listening to speakers whose lives have been filled with hardships to make you so grateful for what you have! I mean, I am not blind nor was my family killed violently in an African war. I have five, healthy, happy, beautiful children, a great husband with a good job and a roof over my head. I am not sharing my toothpaste with tons of other women or sleeping on the floor or battling cancer. I have not an ounce to complain about in this big old world.

For those a bit confused, Time Out For Women is a two day event sponsored by Deseret Book for women. They have motivational speakers and music on both days, and you get to go and sit and listen and learn and be uplifted. It really was a great weekend and I came home and wrote pages about all my thoughts and notes in my journal. It really did give me cause to reflect on my own life and realize how we are never alone and we have a Heavenly Father watching out for us every step of the way. Passages like "middle moments" and "meantime" took on a new meaning for me, as I feel like that is what I have been living for the last little while. It was just really good to be reminded that we can be guided and led at all stages of our lives by a Father in Heaven who loves us and is shaping and molding us every step of the way. We just have to have enough faith to trust that He knows what He is doing and truly is orchestrating every step along the way.

So fun to spend the weekend in good company with some great friends. I would go every year if I could!

And contrary to popular belief, the green matchy-matchy outfits were not on purpose!

Moving on...Our fall schedule is in full swing around here with two soccer schedules, dance, homework, school choir, student council, piano, etc. Due to the wet fields, Mya's practice location got changed to a local high school yesterday. The kids had a great time playing on the bleachers and racing cars down the hill.

Love that last pic of Eli! And I had to just get over the fact that the babe would be filthy from crawling around on the cement. I wasn't about to force him to stay in the stroller for over an hour. It was all good fun until he face planted it down the cement hill!

The baby loves to race cars around. Probably his favorite thing to do besides unplug nightlights and kick his feet like a crazy man in the tub. He and Cole race cars all over the house, making the most of our hard flooring.

Jada started up dance class last week with her BFF Whitney...

Teal...JJ's new fave color...

The three year old is becoming more and more independent each day. Dressing himself is one of his newer skills. Still needs a little refining...

Yep they are upside down with his waist through one of the leg holes. Quite often we find him with his underwear or shorts on backwards or his shirt partially tucked in. The best was the night I discovered he just bypassed the undies all together. Love his independent spirit!

And after feeling like an utter and complete failure sending Jada off to kindergarten unable to read, I have vowed to do better with Coley. First step, learning your name. My children should thank me for giving them short, easy to write names. You're welcome, children. We still have a little ways to go, but it's a start for the boy.

Had school spirit night at a restaurant the other night and afterwards got to check out a fire truck in the parking lot. The kids thought that was pretty great!

And I got some really cute Halloween decor at the Target dollar spot. Jake should have fear because now that I have sent more than half my kids off to school, shopping has become a lot more enjoyable. (If you just mentally block out that one time the other day when Cole shoplifted and knocked over a manikin all in about an hour- we'll just go ahead and forget that ever happened...) I also am coming to realize that life kind of is what you make of it. If you want your house cute, you have to do something about it. I've been living in a baby fog for the last almost year and finally feel myself emerging. Like I said, Jake should be very afraid! Can't wait to put up some fun things in October!

Just a shot of my parade of kiddies on a walk...

Oh and that super cute baby looking so grown up!

During Elle's soccer practice we hit up the parks and discovered that Eli loves the swing. I mean, what baby doesn't, right, but it is still so fun to watch them so happy about something so simple! These pictures just make my day!

And just so you know, according to Cole, "Spiderman does this all the time"...

Seals and School

Oh Summer of Seals... I love it and I hate it all at the same time! This was my second year participating, and at the end of the day, I can definitely say I am glad I did it. I did enter with a bit of hesitation- finding time to work out for 30 minutes, 4 times a week in the summer while you are traveling or while you have all 5 kids home can be a bit of a challenge. Not to mention the fact that you are supposed to be watching what you eat while on all these said vacations, and you have to find a place to practice your swimming. And for a non-gym-goer, swim time presents a bit of a problem. And I have five kids. Luckily for us, a new member of G.I. Janes happens to be our kids swim coach and has access to an awesome pool that she let us use (albeit at the crack of dawn). Four of the five G.I. Janes...

A highlight for Jake this year (who, along with his friend, Deven, pretty much ran the show and coordinated the event) was getting to bring home an awesome truck for the "Ford Pull-Up" station to our house the night before.

He only wishes it was his!

We missed having Stacy on our team this year but were so happy she came down from Chicago to cheer us on!

The five kids kind of had to fend for themselves while I competed. The girls were under strict babysitting orders and because of the nature of the competition, Jake and I were able to check in with them quite a bit. Cole had a ton of fun with Trent...

Jake was glad to have it over. It is a ton of work to pull off an event such as this. I think this summer we had over 170 competitors. These things don't just come together on their own- they take a lot of time and effort and volunteers, and I'm proud of Jake for being involved. Kind of a fun thing to run, if you ask me!

G.I. Jane's came in 3rd this year, and we are so grateful for our last minute team stand-in. I did okay overall. Not quite as good as my first year, but hey- I did have a fifth child in the off time so I think that counts as an excuse. My 500 meter swim time was somewhere in the 12:30's, I did 50 push-ups, 2 pull-ups, 75 sit-ups, and ran the 1.5 miles around 11:16 or so. I also completed all my workouts for the summer and lost over 9 lbs. Not too bad!

I came in 3rd for my age group and took home two medals, a bruise on my arm, and luckily no bruise on my head from my head-on collision in the pool during the swim. Plain old wore that baby out...

The girls and their swim coach, Coach Jenn...

Until next year, Seals! After the competition, we celebrated my friend Ashley's 30th birthday by going out to lunch and getting pedicures. I am all about capitalizing on people's big birthdays and making the most out of it and doing awesome things. This was so fun and the perfect treat after the hard morning workout!

That night we went to dinner with friends. We sure do miss the Kirkhams!

And onto school...

We ended summer with some ice cream and some swimming...

And a little trip to the school to meet the teachers...

And then it was the big day!

A Kindergartner, a second grader, and a fourth grader! That sure was a lot of forms to fill out that night!

Love that JJ and Mya were matching! Elle earned enough to get her TOMS and wore them the first day. We kind of had a black and pink theme going on...

I think Jada's backpack is almost as big as she is!

Both older girls ended up in classes with tons of friends which makes for a fun year.

And Little J ended up with the same Kindy teacher that Elle had. It is fun to have a teacher that already knows and likes your family. Makes things a little easier. Jada was okay on day one until I was about to leave and then she got a bit clingy. They had another helper in the room that day who kindly took charge of Jada and away we went. She has had a great time so far with no complaints so I guess she was made for Kindergarten after all!

And with all three girlies at school all day, I am left home with the boys...

Me and the boys... after over 9 years of life with girls it is now just me and these little trouble makers! Such a fun change!

I do love this baby. Such a fun time! We are down to three feedings a day, he's crawling super fast and pulling himself up all the time. He loves giving me big open mouth kisses and trying to copy what you do. He says "bye" (although I'm pretty sure he has no idea what it means) and is getting into lots of things. He loves to play with and push around cars, although his favorite toys these days have to be doorstops and nightlights. He's eating mostly table food and loves the dishwasher and the vacuum. I really do love this cutie!

And this little 3 year old can be so cute and says some really funny things but can also be quite demanding and a handful. As can be seen below...

A tub of sprinkles, dumped in his bedroom. At least he thought enough to try and clean it up!

 

My dad had a moment in the spotlight last week when he was shown on the NBC Rock Center special about Mormons. I bet he was loving it!





 

And the arrival of hurricane Isaac in New Orleans changed our Labor Day plans. Poor Levi and Shelby had to cancel their wedding open house and evacuate to Houston. I'm sure they never envisioned spending their second week of marriage sleeping on their brother and sister-in-law's couch! We were glad to spend time with them this week but bummed to miss out on our trip. We made the most of it though and spent a good deal of our last soccer-free Saturday (for awhile) getting stuff done around the house, as well as getting some errands done. It was a good, hard working day. The highlight for the kids was getting to play in the rain. Jake had been cleaning out the garage and had left a lot of stuff out when down came the rain. The kids and I had to hurry and throw the stuff into the garage as quickly as possible, getting soaked in the process. They thought it was pretty great and had a good time with it. They definitely made the most of Saturday's storm!



And let's end the post with a few more pics from a pretty little place I like to call Canada, eh!