Back to Church

After taking a six week leave from church with our newborn, it was finally time to bite the bullet and return to church...with all four kids...and just me (Shayne's in the bishopric, so he has meetings in the morning, not there to help us get ready, and he doesn't sit with us at church). I had everything set out the night before, it was going to be a SMOOTH morning. IT TOTALLY WAS! Until about 20 minutes before we had to leave. Everyone but the baby was ready, even me! Collin needed a quick bath to get rid of his neck scuz. As I was bathing him, he decided to try out his pee-aim and GOT ME! ALL OVER MY OUTFIT FOR CHURCH! and across the kitchen floor. Finished the bath, wiped up the floor and the cupboards that he hit, got him dressed for church, and went and changed my outfit. Quinten then had a total meltdown about not wanting to go to church, had to physically put him into his seat and buckle him. We were 15 minutes late to church. It was during the sacrament (which we completely missed) when we arrived, and as soon as we got into the foyer, 3 of the 4 kids needed to poop! We all trekked it into the bathroom, where everyone took care of business for another 10 minutes or so. By now, Sacrament Meeting is at least 1/2 done, and we walk into the chapel and find some open seats. The kids get out their coloring books to work on during the talks, and Collin decides that he NEEDS TO EAT...NOW! Baby is screaming, and I'm trying to tell the kids that I'm going to go feed him and they should stay in the pew...not going to happen. Quinten starts crying, "I want to come with Y...O...U!", so I grab his hand. Izzy starts crying, "I don't want to stay here!!" So I whisper/scream, "FINE! EVERYONE COME WITH ME!" I leave all of our bags/stuff and try to get out of the chapel, and my little ducklings walking behind are crying. Izzy somehow missed the memo to leave her stuff, because she is desperately trying to hold onto an armload of scriptures, coloring books, and random crayons, crying LOUDLY, "MOM! WAIT! I'M DROPPING EVERYTHING!!" We get out to the foyer, and I'm ready to go home! We all walk to the Mother's Room, and I make them sit along the wall (that room is not large) while I nurse. Someone from in the chapel follows me out with her 3 kids and into the mother's room. One of the other kids pooped their pants, and she doesn't have any wipes or pull-ups. I send Olivia out to the van to get a pull-up out of our "go" bag, and give all the wipes that I had to this other mom. She takes the poopy kid to another bathroom, so now I am sitting in the Mother's room nursing with 5 other kids in that tiny room. After I finish nursing, Collin spits up his ENTIRE meal all over himself and totally needs an outfit change. Sacrament Meeting is completely over, so I send all 5 kids in the room with me off to Primary...

Do I have to go back to church next week?

Daddy Daughter Dance

Girls Scouts had a Daddy Daughter Dance titled "Hero & Me" and the dresscode was "Denim & Diamonds". The girls were so excited for a special date with Daddy and Uncle Thomas!

I love that my girls first "prom" pics are done with their daddy!

They even introduced the girls to the LIMBO! Neither of the girls had ever heard of or seen this crazy dance activity, but LOVED IT!!

Daddy's got some MOVES!!

Princess Dress Up

Daddy finally put his foot down! Izzy is NOT to put her brothers into any more princess clothes and make up! Well, she figured out a way to circumvent his rules and continue to dress up her poor unsuspecting little brothers as beautiful princesses...

Nothing like a special photo princess app at the fingertips of a six year old.

Bubba looks quite beautiful in blue!

Everyone always says our kids have rosy red lips. Now it is true for Squish too!

 Even unsuspecting Daddy couldn't come through unscathed....

Enchanted Island

For Spring Break, we had Stacey in town and decided to do a little "staycation", so we went somewhere we've never went before, Enchanted Island. The kids LOVED it! We had a picnic lunch, rode ride after ride after ride, stayed until the park closed, and slept all the way home!

 Bumper Boat Queen!

 Future Pilot

 Loving Flight

 Who's Kids Are These?

 Going up?

Weeeeeee!

Tummy Time!

Spring Training

Every year, we HAVE to go to at least one spring training game. Where else can you have FABULOUS weather at the very beginning of March, sit on the grass fields and watch baseball? LOVE IT!

 Our kids LOVE the free carousel that our ballpark offers. I think they rode it 6 times...

  

 It was actually almost TOO HOT! We all got a little burned and a little sweaty.

 There was even a homerun ball hit right to our lawn seats!! The group next to us caught it, but gave it to the kids (you can tell that Bubba had had enough of the game by then).

Collin's First Photo Shoot

I had a girlfriend who is working on becoming a professional photographer, so she wanted to come and practice on a newborn, which of course, I gladly agreed! Sadly, Collin did not cooperate very well at all, and was AWAKE THE ENTIRE TIME!! Here's a few of my favorites that she took.

I just can't kiss that baby soft skin enough!!

Getting His Swing On

Scary Eyes

During Dr. Seuss week at preschool, we read a book: I Can Read With My Eyes Shut, and so we all got some crazy glasses while we read the book. Those glasses were a HUGE hit, and the kids wore them ALL WEEK LONG!!

They even made poor Collin get in on the freakiness...

Snapshots of Spirit Week

 I forgot to take pictures of all the days at spirit week this year, but here were the two I captured...

 Silly Socks

Polka Dot and Stripes

Collin's Blessing

 Our little Squish was blessed on March 3rd. It was a wonderful blessing given by Shayne, and we were so glad that both sides of our family could come to it! 

 What a precious little guy!

Just Relaxin'

Life is so rough being me!!

Izzy's First School Field Trip

Izzy got to go to Safety Town this past week on a FANTASTIC field trip with her Kindergarten class. I wasn't even invited!! She wanted to be in her teachers' group, and me to stay home and take care of Collin. She learned what to do in a fire, if someone is drowning, what to do around strangers, plus so much more! She had such a BLAST!!

Oh no! Chicken Pox!

I cannot go to school today said little Olivia, I've got the measles and the mumps, a gash, a rash, and purple bumps...and chicken pox! What? you say today is Saturday? Goodbye, I'm going out to play!

Happy Birthday Uncle Thomas!

Since Uncle Thomas moved down to Arizona, we've gotten to spend a lot of time with him, which makes everyone SO HAPPY!! He just had a birthday, and we got to celebrate with some yummy tenpura and chocolate cake! We LOVE having you out here Thomas!

Angry Birds

Quinten LOVES playing Angry Birds on any electronic device. When he is not playing the game, he has created his own version of angry birds. He builds a tower out of duplo blocks, puts the animals up as the piggies, and then knocks them down with the angry birds (balls). He can play this game for HOURS!!

Hearbeats

Collin LOVES to hear heartbeats. From the moment he came out of my belly, he HAD to be near a heartbeat. If you were holding him, he's move around and around until he was in a good spot to listen to your heartbeat and then he would be the most contented little guy. Even when he went to be circumcised, the doctor always plays white noise for the babies, and she said she's never had a baby that preferred the heartbeat sound, and as soon as he heard it, he calmed right down. Even after, when he was really ticked off, as soon as I picked him up, he found my heartbeat and calmed right down. It was the most precious moment.

Attack of the Fat People

So often when I was a kid, my siblings and I would put pillows in our nightshirts and run into each other. I was so happy to see my kids carrying on the tradition without any prompting of my own...

Dividing up Jobs

 I'm going to need a lot of help with having 4 kids, so I told the kids we were going to divide up the baby duties. They all JUMPED at the job of being the bottle feeder (he gets 1 bottle every day), but I couldn't get any takers for the poopy diaper changer...