Choo choo!

Nathan loves lining up chairs, bins, and baskets to make a train lately. It is so adorable. And it's perfect for the babies because they love sitting in any kind of bin, basket, or tote lol.

All aboard!

Cheese!

Peek-a-boo!

Commercials

I really don't watch much TV anymore. Usually when I do it's just because Hubby has it on watching reruns of Friends or Office or America's Funniest Videos or something. And there are commercials because it's on regular broadcast TV, instead of Netflix like I'm used to. I always get surprised by commercials since I'm not used to seeing them. And they never really change much lol. There's the commercials for car dealerships, toronto lawyers for car accidents, fast food, and of course all the "as seen on tv" products. The kids obviously aren't used to them either. Once they see something they are like, "We need that!" I've had to start telling them we don't need everything they show on TV lol.

4th of July

For the 4th of July we joined my family for a picnic at the park and fireworks. I didn't get too many pictures because keeping track of all the kids in a very busy park is pretty time consuming, but here's a few.

The babies enjoying a games of throw the sippy off the chair and see how many times we can get people to pick it up.

Ice blocking! (Sliding down the big hill on blocks of ice, a family tradition)

Watching fireworks

And then a few nights later, we did some fireworks at home. Here's the boys watching daddy light them off.

Flower power

I can never figure out what older people would want for their birthday, like grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc. By that point in life they have most of what they want or need. A Facebook friend recently asked for advice on what to give a grandparent for her birthday and somebody suggested plants for 60th birthday. I thought that's a pretty good idea. Some nice live flowers or plants that do well indoors. Or a beautiful fresh cut bouquet of colorful flowers is always appreciated. I know I love having some fresh flowers brightening up my kitchen. I'm not so good with live houseplants and flowers, they get killed pretty quick, but a fresh bouquet is nice for adding some beauty to a home.

Lagoon

Last month we went to Lagoon with Hubby's employer. They had their company Lagoon day like every year. It was so much fun.

Bumper cars, the boys' favorite

Lunch time

A few rides

Exhausted babies

Train ride

Completely soaked after Rattlesnake Rapids

Playing in the fountain at the end of the day

My little boy band

When people find out I have 5 boys I get the funniest comments. Stuff like "your own basketball team!" (not with our short genes lol!) or "almost enough for a baseball team" and many other team related comments. A few months ago I got a new one, "they could be a boy band!" I thought that was funny. Sure, that would be cute, but probably not very likely. I started thinking about who would sing and who would play what instruments. Let's put Nathan on the keyboard, Jason on lead guitar, Caleb on bass guitar, Isaac gets the gretsch drums, and Jakey as lead singer. Perfect! LOL Though that would require them all learning and practicing those instruments, and I can't imagine the noise that would create in my house, especially drums! Kind of funny how people think having a group of kids means they should all end up doing some team or group thing together, they are still individuals. :)

Like shoveling snow during a blizzard

This is what happens when I leave my children alone for a few minutes. This is why my house is never clean. For every mess I clean up there are 2 more being made. A few weeks ago when I was cleaning out our office to make room for my mom staying with us, the babies decided to trash the kitchen for me. They got on the table and threw everything around, knocked stuff over, and pulled stuff off the counters and desk. And then while I was busy cleaning up that mess they went into a bathroom and started making a mess with everything they could reach in there. The only time any of my cleaning gets really done is while they nap lol.

Xbox

Jason's birthday is coming up in a few months and one thing he has asked for is an Xbox 360. Now, normally something that expensive is never even considered. But... Hubby kind of wants an Xbox too lol. So he made a deal with the boys- if they do certain jobs every day they can each earn a dollar a day towards an Xbox. Jason's job is to clean the playroom and Jacob's is the living room and family room. So far it's going ok. Many days they whine and complain but still get it done eventually. They've only missed a few days so far. It has decreased some of the stress of getting them to clean, those some days I still end up so frustrated I feel like I'll need a holter monitor to track my heartrate so I don't give myself a heart attack. Getting kids to clean can be frustrating.

I think the main reason they want the Xbox is because when we were at Bear Lake, one of the condos had one and they played Monopoly on it a ton. Monopoly is now one of their new favorite games. So if we do get the Xbox I think we're going to have to find the Monopoly game to go with it.

Distinguished Cub Awards

For some reason Blogger does not want me to put these pictures in the correct way. It keeps flipping them sideways lol. So, I guess you can tilt your head to get a better view. :)

Anyway, here's my boys receiving their Distinguished Cub Awards at the end of last school year. They earn these by completing academic goals throughout the year.

Giving the perfect gift

This time of year I always have a hard time thinking of gifts for Father's Day then our Anniversary then Hubby's birthday, all within about 6 weeks of each other. I sometimes read those gift giving guides for men, but most of the stuff doesn't seem useful for my Hubby. Like those shaving kids that have shaving brushes, straight razors, sharpener, etc. Supposedly those give a really good shave, but I cannot imagine my Hubby using it lol. Power tools are always recommended, and a pretty good choice for my Hubby because he likes tools like most guys, but we have most of the tools we need and don't really use what we already have very often. I have an idea for his birthday next week, just have to see if it'll work out.

Sew cute

One of the things I've sewn for my sister's baby girl is this adorable car seat canopy. She picked out the fabrics (which look even cuter in real life) and had me put it together for her. Adding the bows on the straps and front really completed it. The inside is nice soft minky fabric.

Kids activities

It's about time I start getting Jason and Jakey involved in some kind of sport or music lesson or something. They did soccer last spring, but they didn't really get into it. They may like it more now that they are a little older though. I would love to get them both in piano lessons. I think that's a valuable talent for anyone to have. I need to check with some local ladies who teach it to see how much it would cost. I don't want to get them into something that's going to end up costing a bundle if they continue it, like sports that need a lot of specialized gear like HJC RPS-10 helmets, or dangerous sports like football (my tiny kids would get squashed!). I think soccer or baseball would be good since size doesn't make as much difference in those sports. I need to check the local rec center for more info on those. Or, I know Jason would love some type of art class. He loves art and is always saying he wants to be an artist when he grows up. I wonder if the rec center has something like that?

More Bear Lake

I realized I missed pictures from out 2nd time up there. I actually preferred the smaller condo that time because it was much easier to keep track of Nathan lol.

At the lake again

Ice Cream

Inside the condo

Playground

Wagon ride

A girl... but not for me lol

Another exciting thing that happened a few months ago was my little sister finding out she's having a baby girl. She has a little boy who is 6 months younger than Nathan and now a little girl. I'm so excited for her! I've been making a few little dresses and things for her since I never get to make cute stuff like that with all my boys lol. And since she needs girl stuff I am throwing her a baby shower next week. I need to figure out food and stuff for that. I'm sure she'll get lots of cute stuff like dresses, baby phat coat, blankets, headbands and bows. Now I just need to hopefully have a girl next time I get preggo to give her a little girl cousin to play with. :)

Bear Lake 2012

This year we got lucky and got to go up to the Bear Lake condos twice. We had it reserved Mon-Fri one week and then a spot opened up the following weekend Fri-Mon and Nate got it. It was really great. The boys had a great time playing in the lake a little, going to the pool, playing mini golf, and playing video games. And I love the pool there because it's heated a little so it's not freezing. Nate's mom came with us and it was nice having extra hands to help with the kids, especially when every 5 minutes we were going, "Where's Nathan?!" That little stinker snuck out every chance he could get, and with no childproof doorways and 4 exits, it was a bit scary. He got most of the way to the lake a couple times. Hopefully by next year he will have outgrown his sneaking out. Here are some pics of our time up there.

At the beach

At the playground

Being cute

At the pool

Twinners holding hands on the way home, so cute!

No news is good news

Most days I really hate seeing the news. There are just so many sad and terrible things that happen and it makes me scared to ever let my kids out of my sight. Like the terrible tragedy at the theater in Colorado last weekend. There was also a story last week about a 2-year old boy who was visiting his grandparents and accidentally shot himself and died because he found a gun that wasn't locked up in a gun safe. I especially hate the stories when bad things happen to little kids, makes my heart break. And yet I keep hearing or reading these things because I feel like I have to know what's going on out in the world so I know what to protect my kids against.

Jakey's 6th birthday

I'm always behind on posting about stuff like birthdays and holidays. I haven't done many big updates since May, so I'm going to look over my pics from the last few months and see what I need to post about. First off I'll start with Jakey's 6th birthday. His birthday was June 1 and we had his party the weekend before.

His big present, a new bike!

Opening gifts

The birthday cake

Story time

I like staying up late to read after the kids are in bed. Even though I know that I should go to bed earlier because I'm exhausted, it's just so nice having time alone when it's all quiet and I don't have to worry what the kids are up to. It would be really helpful to have an overbed table to use though, so I could sit up with my book and a snack and drink on it and not worry about getting crumbs in bed. And if I ever miraculously got breakfast in bed it would be good to have one lol.

18 Months!

The twins are 18 months old now. How did that happen?! I can't believe how quickly they went from babies to toddlers. Caleb is only now starting to take a few steps occasionally, he's still afraid and unsure of his balance. He is trying to talk more but still only saying a few words, and Isaac only says uh-oh. They both have a meeting with a speech therapist for an evaluation next month. I'm not really worried about Caleb since he's trying to talk more, but Isaac never really tries saying anything but uh-oh. And since Nathan has a speech delay I'd prefer to catch any delays as early as possible to get working on them. They had an appointment last week and Isaac was 31.5" and 23 lb 12oz. Caleb was 31" and 23 lb 5.5oz but has a bigger head than Isaac. So their growth is great. They are still such a joy, making me smile and keeping me busy. Love my baby boys so much!

My little garden

I have a teeny tiny garden. It's about 2'x12'. Barely big enough to grow much, and definitely not big enough to fit any garden gnomes in, but it's enough for me. Mostly because I'm a horrible gardener. I'm always surprised when I get anything from it, but I keep trying every year. The cherry tomato plants are doing pretty good, we've already eaten a few handfuls. And I've got lots of juliet tomatoes growing. But all the larger tomato varieties are just not producing anything. I have one black krim ripening but no other fruit on it, and the other two plants have had tons of flowers but not a single fruit. I think next year I'll just stick to the small varieties like cherry and roma. My yellow squash and zucchini plants are getting huge, and lots of flowers on the zucchini, but still nothing growing. While my neighbors have been getting enough to give away I still haven't gotten a single one. I must have planted a little late. The peas, which normally do ok, did awful this year. It just got too hot too fast with too little rain. I only got maybe 5 pea pods. And the beans are only just barely starting to get a few flowers and are very small, so I'm not expecting much there either. Hopefully next years garden does better.

Jakey's first day of 1st grade

Little Jakey is now in school full-time. I gotta say, it's kind of nice have 2/5 kids gone most of the day. Quiet and messes don't get made as quickly. And when the babies nap and it's just me and Nathan, wow! Anyway, so far Jaey is enjoying school. His teacher was Jason's teacher last year and I already warned her about his sensitiveness and stubborness, so hopefully she will be able to handle him. :) Here's my little cutie ready to go yesterday.

He was a lot more excited than he looks in this picture lol, it was just hard to catch his smile.

Feeling the heat

This summer has been soooo hot! And extremely dry as well. We've had so many days in the 90s, though luckily recently we've gotten a few thunderstorms. Our air conditioner is definitely being run more often this summer than last summer. We also have ceiling fans with lights in most rooms and have those on most of the day to keep the air moving. I feel bad for the twins, because their bedroom is the hottest room in the house during the summer (and the coldest in winter), and we can't find the remote that turns on the fan in there. They've been waking up more because they get so warm. I've told Hubby that he needs to get that fan rewired so we don't need the remote, but he hasn't yet. Maybe one day I'll get tired of it and try to do it myself.

Fireworks

Although I love fireworks on the 4th of July and the 24th (state holiday here in UT) I am ready to not hear them anymore. Sitting here at 10:30pm I am still hearing some pretty noisy fireworks going off. Don't people realize that there are people who work or have little kids in bed that don't want to be hearing that late into the night?! Whenever we do fireworks at home we do them as soon as the sun sets, around 9pm, so we aren't waking anyone up. They aren't supposed to do them after 11pm, and only allowed to a few more days, but they always do them longer and later than they are supposed to. And since I'm a light sleeper it's hard to fall asleep with little bangs going off all night. So I am really glad this month is almost over so I don't have to listen to any more fireworks until next year.

I need a housekeeper

I've really been slacking on housework lately. Been doing the bare minimum to keep things running- a load of dishes a day, some laundry when it starts piling up too high, mopping when we start sticking to the floor, etc. Things are getting unorganized which is annoying. The cupboard above the desk is getting cluttered with tools, utility knives, flashlights, and things that normally go in the garage but just haven't made it back out there. And the babies' room, one of the least used rooms in the house, is even a mess. Hopefully with the kids back to school and not making as much mess all day I will find some energy to get things back in shape.

My 2nd Grader

Well, it's the start of another school year. We are on a year-round school schedule so they got a short summer break and are back to it already. Jason started 2nd grade today. He was so excited because he gets the teacher he had for Kindergarten because she switched to 2nd grade last year. He came home from school today and said it was awesome. I hope he keeps up his enthusiasm for school. That reminds me that I forgot to have him do his homework reading minutes today, oops! I need to start having them do homework as soon as they get home from school so we don't forget. Here's a picture of Jason heading off to his first day.

Jakey doesn't start until tomorrow since they gave the 1st graders a day to come meet the teacher and see the classroom today. He's very excited. :)

A smallish update

Once again I'm getting behind on posting pics and updating about life. Life is seriously just busy busy and I have no idea where the time goes. I think of coming and updating my blog, but then I get sucked into Pinterest with all the pictures of Alfred Angelo dresses, crafts made from burlap and a hot glue gun, delicious looking recipes that make me drool, and house ideas that will never get used. When my brain is tired and overworked I'd just rather waste time with things that don't require any effort than go to the effort to find pictures and post a good update.

One update I do want to share is about my mom. She was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and had a mastectomy. She is staying with us for a few weeks while she recovers. Unfortunately she will not be able to work for a while, which means she will have no income to pay for medical and living expenses. We've set up a fundraising site for her, so if any of my wonderful readers are willing to pass it on and donate even a little bit if possible, I'd really appreciate it.

Fundraising Ideas

Bad back

Ugh, my back has been killing me lately. I haven't been to my chiropractor in over 2 years. I do have a massage gift certificate I need to use soon; hopefully that will help. I'm sure most of the problem is having two 1.5yr old babies to pick up all the time. I'm not sure how heavy they are, my scale isn't as accurate mettler balance scales, but I think they are both around 23.5 lbs. That's almost 50 lbs of toddler to carry around! It was much easier when they were newborns lol. Hubby also needs to go see the chiropractor, both of us need an adjustment really bad.

Knock on wood

I really don't know how kids don't get hurt seriously more often. It's amazing that our oldest is almost 8 and we hadn't had a broken bone or stitches until the last few months. Jason broke his arm on the playground at school 2 weeks ago. Luckily it was a minor break and he just needs to wear a brace for 4 weeks. And Jakey got stitches a couple months ago falling at a playground. Playgrounds are dangerous! I think my kids just need to wear motorcycle helmets anytime they are on one. Just kidding, lol. Hopefully that's the extent of our injuries this year, knock on wood.