Where have you been?

That is what people should be asking me.  No posts for almost 3 months, and when I had been doing so well too.  Ok I hadn't been doing well for several months, but at least there were some posts.

This cute little guy is the reason.  

Indie keeping me busy, and up late at night, which should mean that I could write posts, but I discovered Amazon Prime Instant Videos and so I watch "Poirot" episodes instead.  

Here are some updates...

Rez became a Star Scout and finally finished his Law merit badge.  He has awesome hair at the moment and can do 15 pull ups in a row.  He is almost as tall as me.

Ocean decided to go back to blond.  I had to bleach all the red out and then tone it to the right color.  (Every time I look at his hair I think what a great hairdresser I am and then I remember that I don't do it alone.  Then, I think how grateful I am to God for his help in getting the right colors and having it all turn out good.  I wouldn't be as great of a hairdresser without him.  He is my secret weapon in all that I do.) 

He will be getting his braces off soon.  He is excited to be able to whistle again.

Daphne is growing up and getting more gorgeous.  She is sick at the moment with a fever, headache and sore throat.  She is learning to play the trumpet and the piano.  

Zelda, where do we start with her.  Her hair is much curlier than this, I had straightened the front this day.  It normally is in cute ringlets with frizz in the back.  She has decided that she doesn't like to be in a wet or dirty diaper and takes it off as soon as she does anything in it.  She got training pants for Christmas and wore them for the first time today.  We had several times of sitting on the potty with nothing happening followed by little puddles on the floor.  She is learning though.  She loves Indie and can often be seen leaning over him making him smile and occasionally  cry.

Mo, how can you not love that face?  There are some things I learned about him a long time ago.  He thinks of something and does it.  He cannot not talk.  He speaks really fast, and it is hard to understand him.  He doesn't sit still for very long.  He plays really well with younger kids.  But recently I have learned that those things add up to ADHD.  And that helped us learn some other things about him.  Like, he is paying attention when he is moving.  And his mind is moving so fast it can't be bothered with little details like how to spell correctly or write all of his numbers the right direction.

I have been trying to get our life back in some semblance of order after having a baby and Thanksgiving, Christmas, new year and having everyone out of school and Trip home for the holidays. I am still trying to get the Christmas tree down, find homes for new things and recently we had dining room benches delivered that I have to find time to finish.

Harvey is loving school.  It turns out that he is thriving with the structure and schedule of school life, not to mention he is very smart.

Julius.  He is my little buddy at home every day.  He and I play Uno together.  He will do yoga with me and loves to play computer games when I have a client.   And in the afternoons, he will watch a "move-move" and take a nap on the couch.

Trip is busy at work, home and church.  He switched to the research department last year and loves it.  Work is much less stressful when you can't accidentally loose millions of dollars.  He is working with the young men at church, which is great since we have 2 of them.  And he is the #1 kid putter to bedder.  While I am sitting nursing the baby in the evenings, he is reading stories and singing songs and leading by example:)

Happy Father's Day!

I am married to the most wonderful man and father.  

Father's Day morning the kids wanted to make him breakfast in bed.  It took us a while to get it all together, but here was the finished product.  Crepes and juice and 7 smiling kids.

And one happy daddy!

Rez said it best when he said, "He is doing a good job of being the father that kids always wish they had.  I don't have to wish."  

He did take his 5 boys plus 2 of Rez's friends to the father and sons camp out by himself this year!

Happy Mother's Day

Rez gave a talk in church today.  It was of course on Mothers...

Here is what he prepared.

"Hi, some of you know me but for those who don’t my name is_____________.  Last Sunday brother Lear gave me a talk.  He said that it could be about anything that had to do with mothers but it had to relate to mothers.  My mother has always been a good example to me.  When I did a report in third grade I chose to research komodo dragons.  Komodo dragons are not good mothers.  After they lay their eggs they leave them and live life like before.  Not only that but when the babies hatch they must climb up trees so that the adult komodo dragons (including their mothers) don’t eat them. 

In the Family-A Proclamation to the World it states that, “HUSBAND AND WIFE have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children.” This means that you must set an example and love and care for them. 

They look up to you mothers.  The Proclamation also says “Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.” 

On the other hand parents should still have fun.  They should not be so serious that they never enjoy themselves or fulfill their other obligations such as visiting the temple.  One of the many times that my mother showed her ability to have fun was on April Fools Day when she put paper in the pancakes that she gladly volunteered to make us and made just a few for herself with no paper.  We couldn’t figure out what was wrong with the pancakes until we dissected one of them and discovered the paper.  Then we dissected mom’s pancakes and there was nothing there.  I bear you my testimony that…(he said something about mothers loving us and then said that his is always right.  I am going to have to remember that.) in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

It was a very sweet talk.  Later, Trip was asking him about his classes and he told us about one teacher that was asking him what his mother did for him.  As he was thinking the teacher prompted, "Does she do the dishes?"  

"No," replied Rez, "my dad does those."   

"Does she clean the house?"

"No, my dad does."  

Then the teacher said, "Don't tell my wife this."

I have a great husband!

Rez did come up with things that I do.  And for the record, I do do dishes and clean, but Trip does them much more, and more often when the kids are home.  I do them more when they are gone and when they are home, I have them do it.  

The kids had been wanting to make me crepes for breakfast in bed.  I got them about 9 pm complete with flowers in a vase on the tray.  Daphne had told me something like, "Why don't you go lay down for a while,  we will take care of things here."  

I love my kids.  Mo gave me some flower plants he had gotten at Cub Day.  They were in a cool wooden box with a handle he had made there, but he informed me that the box wasn't for me, well, we could share it.

Julius and Harvey gave me dish cloths that had their hand print turned into a fish on them they made at preschool  and Harvey gave me a tile with his hand print on it he also had made at preschool.  

Daphne gave me a card she had made at school with jobs on flowers that I could pick for her to do this week.  And she made me an omelet for breakfast.

Rez kept telling me what a good mom I was and how he was glad I was his mom.

Ocean made his own omelet for breakfast.  

Trip made dinner and got a cheesecake for us.

I LOVE my family!

Scouts, Scouts Everywhere.

I think it is inevitable, when you have boys and are a member of the LDS church,  you will be involved in scouting.  Scouting takes up a lot or our lives.
Rez was a cub scout and is now a boy scout.
Ocean was a cub scout and is now a boy scout.
Mo is anxiously awaiting his 8th birthday, so he can become a cub scout.
Trip was a Cub Scout Den leader and is now on the scout committee, plus he is an Eagle scout.
Even Lily could not avoid it forever.  She is now the Cub Scout Committee Chairman as part of her calling in the Stake Primary.
We send (or take) our boys on camping trips and plan our summers around scout camp.  Right now we are preparing for the Klondike Derby next in a week and Rez and Trip going snow camping on Mt Rainer at the end of the month.  Lots of cold weather gear needed.

Even more amazing are all the people who have been involved in scouting through their lives and how they still support it.

The Chief Seattle Council and Seattle Mariners had a Friends of Scouting fundraiser luncheon today.  They wanted to have some actual scouts there sitting at each table, so Rez got to leave school for most of the day and go.

Some of the baseball players from the Mariners were helping to put it on, and from what I could glean from Rez, they were auctioning off tickets, they must have been really nice ticket and some other nice things because they raised $275,000

Here they are saying Thanks.

Chief Seattle Council's Facebook paige.

I want to add my thanks to all the community for supporting our boys in scouting.