On her knees!

Ashlyn is now 6 months old, and has now started getting up on her knees-how fun! She still mainly gets around with the whole 'army crawl' thing, but has started getting up and rocking on her knees. The kids just think this is the best thing ever! It's perfect timing too, because back when she was first born Duncan kept asking when she would crawl. I told him he would be 4 years old before she would crawl. The past month he's been saying things like "In a few weeks I will be 4, then you will crawl Ashlyn!" I explained that it wouldn't happen the DAY that he turned four, but it would be sometime that he was four. Well, it looks like she has given him a special birthday gift, he's so excited to see her move about!

Happy Birthday Duncan!!

Today is Duncan's 4th Birthday! What a big boy he is!
On Sunday evening we had a small family party for Duncan with Aunt Missy. We opened presents, played the money game (where one dollar for each year you are is hid and you have to go on a treasure hunt to find them), and had cake and ice cream.
He asked on Sunday if he was 4, and I thought for simplicity I would just say yes, even though his birthday wasn't for another 3 days, what's 3 days anyway, right?! Well, if I was looking for simplicity I went about it all the wrong way! Morgan informed him that he wasn't REALLY 4 years old yet, because it wasn't his REAL birthday yet (aren't sisters great)! Well, today we had a small party during the day with a few of his friends, and I told him on the day that he say his friends he would be 4. So Monday we went Visiting Teaching, to his best friends house
"Am I 4 today Mama"
"No Duncan, not yet."
Then yesterday I babysat two of his friends:
"Now I'm 4 Mom?"
"Almost buddy, one more day."
This morning when he woke up I gave him a big hug and said "Happy birthday to my 4 year old boy!"
"For real Mama? Your not tricking? I'm really 4 today?"
"Yes Duncan, your really four today!"
"No more 3, are you sure this time Mama?"
Poor guy, now he's not sure if he can trust me since I told him he was for 3 days ago! So, after we decided that he was REALLY 4 toady, he ran around the room to show me how FAST he was now that he is 4 years old!

Here are some of my favorite things about Duncan:
*He has the biggest smile ever!
*He is so sweet with his little sister
*He LOVES Star Wars
*His favorite restaurant is Indian food!
*He loves to have me read to him
*I love to hear him say "I wove you mama"
*He is a whiz with puzzles
*He is a great snuggler, I love to cuddle up with him and a movie!
*He has a GREAT imagination
*He sings his 'theme' song while working (Star Wars that is)
*He loves to make tents, houses, or anything out of pillow and blankets
*He is always my hero when we play Star Wars together
I LOVE YOU DUNCAN!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Don't cry over spilt milk!

Murphy's Law hit here again this morning! I mopped the floor first thing this morning (due to the ice cream that had landed on it the night before), and I was so happy with it, and it felt good to start the day off with such a clean floor. We were just getting shoes on to run out the door, when Ronan accidentally knocked over a cup of chocolate milk that went flying across the floor and splattered everywhere! I just laughed and thought to myself "Of course, why would I of thought that the floor would actually stay clean for more than and hour!" Ronan was great and cleaned it all up for me, only to have Duncan spill apple juice on it at lunch time! This is why I don't mop as often anymore, it's as though by mopping I am begging for something to be spilt on it! Oh well! I have a magnet on my fridge that I love, it reads:
"Cleaning the house while the kids are growing,
is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing."
How true is that!

Empty Cradle

So for those of you who know me, you know that I'm having an espcially hard time dealing with the fact that my little baby is growing too quickly! Well, we have reached two more milestones that are both exciting (because she's so fun to watch), and sad (because it means she is getting bigger). The past two nights Ashlyn has slept in her crib in her room, and NOT in the cradle in our room. I finally concluded that she is too big for the cradle (after she kept waking up with her head smashed at the top of the cradle), and needs the space that the crib will give her. She slept wonderfully in her crib both nights (10 hours straight), but it is hard for me to go to sleep without taking one last glance at her from my bed. Boo hoo.:( Morgan however is rejoicing in the fact that I have FINALLY given her a sleep buddy and LOVES to be able to share her room with Ashlyn.
Second milestone is that she has begun the 'army crawl' and is getting around rather well. It is so cute to watch, but I guess this means I should get out the gate now! She will be 6 months next week, and it's hard to believe that half a year has already gone by since she was born, wasn't that just yesterday?

Short Week

This past week was short for the kids with regards to school, they only went 3 days. Tuesday they had off due to the Primary elctions. Brian had asked if I wanted to go vote in the morning before he went to work, or in the evening once he came home so he could stay with the kids. After the recent political discussions that have gone on in our home with Hayden, and talking to Ronan about why we should vote, I decided to go during the day WITH the kids and make a field trip of it! We all loaded up in the van and drove to the local High School to vote, and everyone was so excited! It was funny, because everyone there kept making comments on how impressed they were that we ALL came out to vote! One guy said "I don't think I've ever seen 6 people around one poll before." The kids were excited, and I let them push some of the buttons on the screen for me. They all got 'I Voted' stickers, and away we went. Ronan said as we were leaving "I thought voting was going to be more exciting mom, that was kind of boring." Hayden led us all in a verse of the 'Star Spangled Banner' on the way home, and we felt very patriotic on our voting day!
Wednesday school was cancled due to an 'Ice storm' we had the night before. It was very pretty to look at out the window in the morning, but I'm glad we didn't have to go out in it. I thought to take some pictures of it just as it was begining to melt, but I ran out and got what I could. Here are the photos of the trees in our yard. If you notice, there were buds on the trees already, because it's been such a warm winter, until the ice of course!


Thurs. was Valentines Day, and the kids had a blast in their class parties at school. Brian had flowers sent to the house for me, but they didn't come until almost 6:00pm. So, I was kind of upset with him thinking that he got me NOTHING for Valentines Day, and had to eat some humble pie then! He got me 24 beautiful roses-not that I need roses to know that I'm loved, but it sure is nice to get!
Friday was our ward talent show, and our 3 oldest all performed. Hayden played a peice on the piano, Ronan 'danced' to 'Life is a Highway', and Morgan played hopscotch. It was fun. That night they all slept in tents in the basement. They had a blast! I don't think they were asleep until 11:00pm, but they had fun!

A Week in Review

Wow, this has felt like a really long week with lots to report! Here goes!

First off I wanted to tell a funny story about my little politically inclined 9 year old. Hayden has been very aware of the Primary race that is going on, and has been asking a lot of questions about the canidates, the political parties, and who Brian and I will be voting for. He's been reading up on it from the newpaper, and even had to turn in a current events report in school recently. Well, one of the questions was what is 'Pro-Life', and 'Pro-Choice'? So, I explained abortion to him, and he was very appalled at how anyone could be 'Pro-Choice'. He then asked which canidates were 'Pro-Life'. I told him that I haden't researched ALL the canidates stand on that issue, but that 'generally' Democrates were 'Pro-Choice', and Republicans 'Pro-Life', but it's not always a hard and fast rule, each individual might be different. He then tells me "Well mom, I'M A REPUBLICAN!", and that he 'hates' Democrates. We then had a lesson on not 'hating' people for their beliefs. I explained that we don't hate people for the color of their skin, their religion, or their political party! We can always disagree with someone on something, but we don't ever let it dictate whether or not we will like them. Then this past week we had a playdate with one of Ronan's friends, and his mother came over as well. While sitting at the table for lunch after all the kids but Hayden had gone off to play, she brought up politics. As soon as it was apparent that she was a Democrate, Hayden started kicking my leg under the table and getting a look on his face that seemed to say to me "Mom! We have a DEMOCRATE at our table!"

I gave him a "calm down-it's totally fine" look, but he was quite stirred. When she asked who I would be voting for in next weeks Primary, Obama or Clinton?,

Hayden blurted out "We are REPUBLICAN in this house!"

I kind of chuckled, and said "Yes, I'll be voting in the Republican primary's".

She then asked who I would be voting for, and I replied that I'd like to vote for Romney, but had just heard that he was suspending his campaign, and wasn't sure if he would be on the ballott or not.

Hayden quickly said, "He's MORMON you know!"

Her reply: "Yes, I heard that."

Hayden: "WE are Mormon too you know!"

Her reply: "Yes, I know."

I then changed the subject to something completely different. And spoke with Hayden after she left about how we can have a conversation with someone about something we disagree on and still stay calm about it. I think I need to keep him out of political conversations right now, since he's not able to do that quite yet. Of course, my dad who is a DIE HARD Republican, just LOVED this story! And visions of my Grandpa Baker were dancing in my head while talking to Hayden!

Anyway, on to the rest of the week! Tuesday morning I got to go volunteer in Ronan's class, which I always enjoy doing. I also hung around just outside of the cafeteria while they went to lunch to listen to the 1st grade aid in the lunch room. I realized last week when I had lunch with him how much she yells and nags at them to be quiet during lunch! It totally stressed ME out while having lunch, I couldn't believe that she was such a nag at LUNCH time-the time that they should be alowed to talk to each other! So, I went to the school the following day to at lunch time and sat outside the cafateria to listen. She was better that day, and I thought maybe the first time I just caught her on a bad day, but have decided to go periodicly to 'check-up' on it. I plan on talking to the principal if I find that she is doing this on a frequent basis. I also got to have lunch with Brian that day, which was a nice treat, while my friend Fronica watched the kids. We've been 'swapping' every Wed. to give each other some time to do 'whatever', but due to the kids having a half day on Wed. we moved it to Tues. This Tues. was also the first Tues. that we have NOT had piano lessons! This is a small celebration for me because I was begining to get very stressed at how our lessons were going. Hayden and Ronan both take lessons, and they LOVED their teacher, BUT she was 30 min. away, and the 3 younger kids and I would have to sit in the car for their hour lesson, and with the 30 min. there and 30 min. ride back home it meant 2 hours spent in the car for Morgan, Duncan, Ashlyn and I! In the summer time we would just go play at a park near her house, and it worked fine, but the winter was miserable! So, I finanlly found a teacher closer, and we start lessons there next week!

On Wednesday I took the kids to the mall to get their pictures taken, because I had a coupon for a free 8X10, and I am a sucker for the word FREE! I wasn't too happy with how they turned out, the girl didn't quite know what to do with 5 kids I think, and I kept thinking 'Jeri could do SO much better!'. But, it was free, and I now at least have a photo with ALL my children in it. Several people have mentioned to me that I don't have a photo of all the kids together on my wall, and it's been almost 6 months since Ashlyn was born! Well, now I do, and need to call Jeri to schedual something for the summer! Here are the photos:

Ashlyn 5 months old

On Thursday was the Pine Wood Derby for Hayden's scout pack! He was so excited this year, and very hopeful for a victory! Unfortunately he came in 3rd in every race! He took it all in stride though, with a 'Next year will be the year attitude', I was very proud of him. But I also felt bad, the poor guy was last last year as well! I praised him for making the car himself again though, as you could tell many of the other cars were made by the parents, so good job Hayden!!

Here's some cute photos of Ashlyn getting washed up after dinner Friday night!

Speaking of Friday, I spent the whole day cleaning, because the appraiser was supposed to come 9:00am Sat. morning for our refinance stuff. I had the house spotless! So, how did the appraisal go you ask? She NEVER showed! All day Sat. I waited, called her and left messages, and she never came! I was so upset! It's not easy to get a house full of 5 kids clean and KEEP it clean! Brian took the older kids on a bike ride yesterday afternoon. They had planned on riding down to my sister's house (about 10 miles away), but made it about 2-3 miles and stopped at a park to play. They had a good time though!

So, that brings us to today, Sunday. This is will go down as the worst Sunday ever for me! It started last night when my poor sick Ashlyn woke up 1 hour after I went to bed coughing and unable to breath due to the congestion. I was up for about 3 hours with her, and literally as I laid my head on my pillow, Duncan came in crying that his tummy hurt! I remembered that he didn't really eat much at dinner, and took him downstairs for a snack, which helped. He then wanted to watch T.V., but I told him not now (it was 3:30am), in the morning he could. He was unhappy with that answer, and began to throw a fit about it, one of those overexaughsted tired 3 year old fits! I was able to calm him down and got him back into bed by scratching his back. When I tried to sneak off to my bed however he woke up again! Anyway, I finally laid my head back down at 5:00am, only to be awoken by Brian's alarm at 6:00am. He was exaughsted as well, but had a 7:00am meeting with the stake at the church, followed by his normal set of meetings until 10:00am. So, I got up to take care of the kids and was doing suprisingly well with only 2 hours of sleep (that was short lived). When Brian got home we got everyone ready and set off for chuch in our tired cranky mood. But, Brian was substituting Hayden's class, and I had responsibilites in the Primary, so we HAD to go! Sacrament meeting did NOT go well! Brian and I were both very short tempered, and both Ronan and Duncan ended up in the mother's lounge with me while I fed Ashlyn, while Brian ended up in the car to try and catch 30 min. of sleep before teaching a group of 9 year old boys! My sister Missy came into the mother's lounge and took Ashlyn for me after I fed her so I could take the boys back into the chapel. Luckily Morgan and Hayden were doing fine in there on their own. Once in the chapel again, Ronan and Duncan couldn't keep from bugging each other, or bugging me, and it became VERY apparent that I could NO longer survive on 2 hours of sleep! I took everyone out of the chapel, found the primary pres. and let her know that I was going home to sleep! Brian ended up being ok after his quick nap, so stayed to teach the class along with Hayden and Morgan. While I took Ronan, Duncan, and Ashlyn home for a nap! Brian and I were talking about it tonight, and realized that we let our 'Responsabilities' outside of the home take priority over our own welfare and that of our family! If we ever have a night like that again we will forgo the meetings and such, and get ourselves back into a proper state of energy first! What a day!

Sorry for the length of this post-I'm looking forward to a much 'shorter' week next week!

Day of Pampering!

Yesterday was my day of pampering, and I enjoyed it very much! I love my sweet husband for doing this for me. He gave both my sister and I a 'Day at the Spa' package for Christmas, so that we could go and have some 'girl' time. Origonally we were supposed to go 2 weeks ago, but that was the day that Brian got the flu, and I ended up spending the afternoon at the hospital with him. Anyway, this was my day:
Woke up early to feed Ashlyn, and then went downstairs to have a nice egg & muffin breakfast (cooked by my husband). Then I snuck back upstairs for a quick morning nap while Ashlyn was down again (that was a treat in and of itself). Missy picked me up at 11:30, and we went to the spa. We had 1 hour massages, 1 hour facials, and then pedicures and manicures done. This was my first facial I've ever had, and OUCH! I am not a fan of those! I told the woman to stop the 'pore extraction', and just had more massage time instead, then it was fine. The time spent there was very nice and relaxing, and it was fun to hang out with my sister. I called to check on Ashlyn when we left the spa, and she was doing fine, so we went to get something to eat and chat for a bit more. I came home to find that Brian had raked the whole yard (we get these anoying sweet gum balls that drop throughout the winter, and I HATE raking them), and cleaned out the garage so my van could fit back in it (The Pinewood Derby is this week, and the garage had turned into 'the shop' while buiding the cars). The house was clean, the kids were fed, and I was a very happy wife and mommy! That night we snuggled on the couch and watched a movie together-it was a great day! A very perfect Christmas gift from Brian-I loved it!

Thumbs and Toes

Ashlyn has recently discovered her toes, and it's been so fun! She loves to have them in her mouth now. I love that now matter how many babies we have, each new step is so much fun with all of them! Brian teases that we still act like first time parents with our excitement to her new abilities but I think that's a good thing! I don't want to ever NOT be completly in love with my baby! They are so fun!
Now, dealing with something that was so cute when she was a baby.......Morgan's thumb sucking. We are trying out the 'Thumb Gaurd" right now to help her stop sucking her thumb. I got one for Duncan as well, but he refuses to put it on, maybe later.

RAIN Delay???

Today I experienced a first, my kids had a 'rain delay' at school today. They were delayed two hours due to 'incliment weather'. All it did was rain all day long! Hayden and I were laughing on the way to school about how if this happend at his school in England, they would never of gone to school on time! We have always gotten off school here for small amounts of snow 1-3 in., but never before for rain-I thought that was so funny! Of course the kids loved having the extra play time this morning!

Fast From the World

For those of you who are not in my ward, I will give a small explination. Every month our Bishop issues an 'Invitation' to the ward to do something that will help increase our spirirtuallity, and streatch us a bit. I really enjoy this, and always look forward to what the new 'Invitation' will be. Well, every January since he has been Bishop, the invitation has been the same, to 'Fast from the world'. Which means that we don't watch television, movies, play computer/video games, read worldly magazines/books (basicly we live like missionaries with regards to the media for a month). Every year our family starts out really well with the best intentions to make it the whole month, but usually last about a week MAYBE two. I am proud to say that we did very well this year! Idid let the kids watch movies while Brian & I were both sick with the flu at the same time for about 2-3 days (that was a preventative measure to ensure that the house didn't get caught on fire), but other than that we did it! I actually even called and had the cable turned off! I feel so liberated! It's funny how I THOUGHT that the TV wasn't really on much anyway, my kids love to read, and are very active, but came to see how they had grown to just automaticly gravitate towards it! This past month I have LOVED NOT having to set the timer for each childs computer time, NOT having to handle arguments about what show they will watch, and NOT having to have someone BEG to turn on cartoons before school if they were all ready! So much so, that we now have a new rule in the house-NO TV ON SCHOOL DAYS. Ronan was of course not pleased with this, because since we already had the rule of no TV on Sundays, this left only Saturday to watch television, so I added Friday nights as a TV night as well. I reminded them that this is MUCH more television than they've had this past month, and would feel like a lot-we'll see! Frankly I don't want to phase back in computer time at all. The kids have been much more creative this past month, and have played so well togther. I have told myself in the past that the games were 'educational', or they needed some 'down time', but I have realized this past month that there are so many other great 'educational' things they can do, so I'll have to wait and see if I vito computer games or not! All in all this has been a great month, and I'm thankful for our Bishop's Inviation, I invite any of you to try it sometime -it was great!

On a totally different note:
The past week or so my sweet husband has been sleeping on the couch to insure that Ashlyn and I can sleep well. He still has a bad cough, and it kept waking both Ashlyn and I up in the night, so he offered to go downstairs. At first I told him not to, that it wasn't that bad (I don't like to sleep with out him), but I have been thankful for this jesture, as I've been sleeping much better without hearing his coughing. Anyway, so Ronan came into my room the other day, and Brian was in our bed (he had just come upstairs a few minutes before then), and Ronan was SO happy. He said: "Dad, I'm glad that you are sleeping with mom again, that's not good to be away for so long." How sweet he is! I didn't even know that he knew that Brian was on the couch at night, as we go to bed well after he is asleep! So, Brian tried to sleep with me again last night, but kept coughing the whole night still! If anyone has any secret ways to help a cough, please let me know, I would LOVE to have my husband back in bed AND sleep at night!