Fall Part 1

I had big plans for catching up on posts before the New Year. I'll consider myself successful if I catch up by the end of January. The kids really, really need to go back to school. 

Right after school started, the boys and Allan had Fathers and Sons. I can't even describe the anticipation filling our home in the days leading up. Make that years--because we didn't have it last year. When we got a new bishop in the summer, Jack said, "I hope his first order of business is to schedule Fathers and Sons!"

They drove up the mountain and hour and a half into the Sequoias and somehow managed to survive. Jack got to go rappelling with some of the other boys, and of course there were plenty of nature walks/hikes for all ages. They came home dirty, happy, and tired. 

I started refinishing the office desk while they were gone. Totally productive and got very little sleep.

Astrid developed one of her more annoying habits of climbing on the table. Initially, I thought it was cute (because just look how proud she is!). Then it just got dangerous--and spread to other people's homes. Finally I had to move all the chairs out to the back patio during non-eating hours.

For some reason this evening I was feeling very permissive and let them take a bath together. They practically flooded the bathroom. Never again. (But again, cute picture)

We celebrated Natey's 3rd birthday in September. His birthdays never sneak up on me.  I always feel like he should have had a birthday about 6 months prior.  I think that's what the 21-month gap between him and Astrid has done to me.  Plus he talks so dang much.  I rarely do themes, but this year was a no-brainer.  Nathan lives and breathes Thomas.  Every single morning he hops out of bed and goes straight to his train tracks.  Except for preschool, meals, and the occasional show, that is where he remains all day.

I rarely give Astrid sweets. Because once they're gone, we have to deal with this. It goes on and on and on...

Natey's best friend in the entire world is "ELI!!!!". They LOVE each other. They are also extremely good at making giant messes that they can't possibly clean up by themselves. One afternoon they took out our biggest bin of Legos and sorted every tiny piece they could from the bigger pieces and threw them all over the room. It took me nearly an hour to clean that dumb mess up. I was growling the whole time.

I laughed and laughed when this year's school pics came back. My smile coaching didn't make much of a difference apparently. You can tell that Micah is thinking so hard in this picture, "Is this what Mom wanted?" Jack is resorting to smiling like Allan always did as a teen. 

Astrid loves to be outside. I still don't trust her unless she's heavily supervised. I love this picture--a dog was barking in the distance and it totally stopped her in her tracks.

This is one of those rare moments where Micah and Nathan stopped squabbling and started loving each other. Good thing I had my phone in hand.

When I pulled the pictures off of my phone, I was amused and surprised to see so many of Nathan sleeping in, well, not his crib. This was the time where he refused to nap. I have so many of these shots that I could put together an exhibit. 

Late Summer 2015

We spent a lovely week in Utah with both the Bailey and Vandagriff families. It was the first time all the Bailey siblings have been together since 2009. Way too long! With 19 grandchildren, Carl and Claudia were brave to host this brood. Because of their mission responsibilities, we saw them primarily in the evenings. The kids were never without a buddy (and often, a dog), and I was grateful for my parents and their willingness to let us stay at their house. Sharing two bathrooms with six people is a lot easier than sharing two bathrooms with 20+ people! The week went by quickly. Then we got to return to consistently triple digit temperatures. Which, strangely enough, I have now grown accustomed to and don't mind. 

Moms and kids went to Avila Beach right before school started. The water is never really warm there--a fact I still don't like and can't get used to, but the kids (and moms) still had ample fun. Jack and Jalen Manivanh spend the entire time day out in the water (the reason I don't have pics of them), and the youngers played on the shore or in the sand. 

Astrid ate so much sand, I started to worry. However, I had never seen her so happy in her thirteen months of life.

Nathan was terrified of the water, excited about the sand, and ecstatic about the snacks.

Micah would get in the water every so often (and get a mouthful of sand). For the week after, he constantly talked about building his house in "San Luis Pobipso". 

 Nathan, Micah, Tatum, Emma, Quinn, Decker, and Carter: 

Allan was finally able to compete in that Half Marathon he's been training (by running thirteen miles every Saturday) for nearly TWO YEARS. Now he's got an official time under his belt. This race is appropriately named "Hell of a Half Marathon" because it takes place on August 15th with a rather late start time. It also involves running up Mt. Doom (or something like that). We arrived at the perfect time to cheer him across the finish line. 

He was sweaty.

The finishers' swag included some pretty decadent breakfast burritos. Allan graciously shared, and half of our children were devastated when it was gone. It was that good.

There is an ice cream shop about 45 minutes away that pretty much blows away any ice cream shop that you've ever been to. Allan read about it in, of all places, The New York Times. We got two single scoop bowls. This is one of them:

This is after. We were slightly concerned that Nathan seemed unphased by the massive amount of ice cream he had just consumed.

I continued what has to be the one of the more easily maintained traditions in our house: The Back to School Feast. More often than not, it involves spaghetti and meatballs and caramel apple cake. This year I got to make three crowns for three students.

"Look intelligent, Micah." Jack struck the exact same pose the night before his first day of kindergarten. 
 

 

Their first day of school. This was a bigger first day than usual. Not only was Micah starting K, but both of them were at a brand new school (to us), in a brand new district (again, to us). There were a lot of unknowns for these children and their parents. Thankfully, it went off without a hitch. Other than the fact that four months later, Micah still thinks that the school day is way too long, things have gone well. (I still strongly dislike the two different release times, but what can I do about it?)

 

I choose this as my final image of summer--the constant struggle to  try and keep Nathan out of the peaches.

June 2015 Wrap-up

Well, that was a long break. Blogging got away from me. With school back in session I am finding myself with more breathing room in which to turn on  my computer and getting something done. I had better get these memories up before they vanish.

June brought the end of school, Micah's birthday, attempting to run errands with all four kids in tow (ugh, just ugh....), daily water polo practice for Jack, and lots and lots of swim meets. In fact, swimming pretty much takes over our lives in June. Last year I was fully pregnant and Allan wasn't as busy, so he did all the meets. However, this year things were different. All the kids came to the away meets, and we usually stayed until 7:30 or 8 when Allan would come to take over as the proud parent. With a crawler and two active, easily bored little boys, this was no walk in the park. But it was fun. The hassle of it all is fading in my memory, and now I'm primarily remembering the Jimmy John sandwiches, walking around "looking for wildlife" (Micah's idea), and celebrating a lot of really good results for Jack. Of course, he never wanted to hang out with us.....

One thing of note: several people indicated that Jack would sleep a lot more given he was doing water polo during the day and swimming at night. Not so. Not so. 

Here are some highlights (or at least moments where I had my phone):

I begged Micah to "ask" for this cake. Martha Stewart chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. Oh my. Mmmmm. We really should have given half of it away....

Swim meet. Watching fire ants devour a cheddar bunny. Who needs electronics?

Waiting for water polo to be done. $1 icees at Burger King=Cool Mom.

Looking for wildlife during a swim meet (I don't have pictures of Jack swimming because when we were near the pool I was too busy corralling the little ones to pull out my phone and get a shot). As a side note: This is what the drought looks like. 

These two are the cutest--especially together. Whenever Natey sees Eli, he always exclaims in his loudest, most enthusiastic voice "Eeeeliiiiii!" (even when it's across the chapel during the passing of the sacrament)

If the McBride's ever move my boys will die. I will die. Chrissy and I each get a lot of quiet moments during the day because of our largely open house policy. The boys go back and forth between houses. Her older boys have also been great babysitters.

One day I dragged all the kids to the Pottery Barn Outlet to check out some bedding. I am crazy. I don't think the employees exhaled the entire time we were in the building. I didn't find bedding I loved. But we did find the Puma Outlet (which Jack loves). Then we went to Black Bear Diner. 

Shocking confession: Jack rarely washes his hair in the summer. Because swimming counts, right? 

This is one of Micah's many subversive poses.

"I'm full. See my tummy?" Black Bear Diner will do that to you.

May (According to my iPhone)

This spring FLASHED before my eyes. March and April were dreary months for me personally, but things perked up in May. Then before I knew it, May was gone. Another month in the history books. That makes me weepy if I think too hard about it. 

FHE Hack: Take your kids to ice cream at McDonald's. (Or "Old McDonalds" as Micah calls it--I can't bring myself to correct him. It's just too endearing.)

I bought two adirondack chairs at Lowe's. Here is Natey lounging in one, eating his morning oatmeal (messy morning oatmeal, I might add) at 6:30 AM in the backyard. Best purchase in a while--except that the kids constantly fought over who got to sit in them. So Allan bought me four more for Mother's Day.

After slimy oatmeal, it's perfectly natural to then go snail hunting.

Micah and I spent a lot of time in the doctor's office. He has an ear infection that won't go away. Waiting room selfie courtesy of a really bored Micah (our pediatrician doesn't have the best waiting room management skills).

Baseball season! Allan took Jack to another Dodger's game with friends. This will most certainly become an annual tradition.

"Here comes Trouble," is an oft-uttered phrase in our house. AC cannot be trusted. Potted plants, toilets, electric cables, Legos, dishwashers, etc. She's obviously very proud of this, and the fact I'm often half smiling as I give a firm-ish "no" probably reinforces her naughtiness.

Astrid and I had a harrowing Costco experience the day before Mother's Day. Here she is observing just how long the checkout line is.

We were sick in May too. So from the beginning of February through May someone, usually multiple someones, always had something. This was AC and Micah's combined regimen for a few days. I had to write everything down and post it on the fridge because it got very complicated.

Jack had a zoo animal report. This portion of his presentation made me giggle. I didn't realize that my son is Napoleon Dynamite.

Here we are enjoying my birthday dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. Eaten outside. It was tricky, but worth it.

Micah and Nathan broke out into a light saber battle with their ice cream pops.

Owl presentation. Dressed as an owl, naturally.

Astrid came to support Jack during his presentation. So did Nathan's shoe (the rest of him was there too).

Jack planted a cabbage starter in March for extra credit. Then we forgot about it. Then the snails ate it. But it still got really big, and he still got extra credit (though he didn't tell his teacher he did absolutely nothing to keep it alive).

Another zoo trip. This time with Katie's boys. Note the stair steps. And Micah's short shorts. He grew out of them last year but WILL NOT let me pass them down to Nathan. To make matters worse, there are two pairs. So he looks like John Stockton at least two days a week. (Note that he has Allan's legs....)

During "Giants of the Deep" week at preschool (Micah is always extremely careful to refer to the week's theme by its formal name, instead of "ocean week" or "sharks and whales") Micah made this intimidating shark headpiece. I think he looks like a scary pope.

This charming picture was taken at the beginning of what would wind up being the most disastrous restaurant visit ever in the history of our family. There are so many cringe-worthy moments to recount, but these two highlights say it all: Jack plowing into a lady and spilling her Coke all down her front and me stepping in the product of AC's overflowing diaper on the way to helping out the poor Coke-soaked lady. Hopefully the poor patrons of In-n-Out were blinded by their cuteness and not their rambunctiousness..........No?

Another trip to see the horses. This time without pants. Though I didn't realize it until he hopped out of the stroller (stains courtesy of a berry delicious bowl of oatmeal).