Lists

I've resorted to lists of what we're up to. It's easier. And the battery died in my camera. Right on my first attempt of a picture at field day. Now it is charging. And I will post pictures. So, here I go:

1. Ashley lost her tooth! She's only 5. Her permanent (Katelyn says peruven) tooth is almost in. The tooth fairy came. She left a nice note and a dollar. A whole dollar! Wow. Not sure the tooth fairy can keep that kind of donation up. Hans is offering to help Ashley run a business where he brings teeth home from work and they leave them for money. Luckily, Ashley is too honest for this.

2. Mia got her two bottom teeth! She's a big girl! She started rolling all over the place keeping her siblings entertained. She even rolled under the couch at the Conleys. She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth. Any day now. She is terribly sick today. Sounds like croup. Why does it always happen on the weekends?!

3. Ashley also has been sick and missed her first two days of school this week of the entire year. I wanted to send her just to keep her perfect record. But she couldn't speak. And she had a headache and was really tired. She even napped. That's a sure sign of illness around our house.

4. I LOVE my bike. I even have a picture of it on my camera with the intent of doing a post on it. I'm in love. I rode with Hans on tuesday night. Jeff let him borrow his bike. We had a great time. I rode with Jeff last Saturday and we're planning on riding as much as possible together. It's great. I feel pushed. He's too competetive to let a girl beat him. Although I beat him in Moab. And plan on beating him home next ride.

5. It's nice weather!! The kids are playing outside and we're taking walks to the park and all over the place. There are ducks living in our water feature when you enter Wolf Ranch. We've taken several trips down there to feed them bread. Ashley is searching diligently for a nest for eggs. Ducks lay eggs, right? I'm not much of an animal expert. I know nothing. She asks me stuff like - where do ducks live? what do they eat? where do they go in the winter? how do they sleep? No idea on any. I couldn't even identify a cow (unless it looked like book pictures of cows for pre-schoolers) when Hans and I got married. And I married a self-proclaimed farmer. Oh well.

6. I am sorting through children's clothing. Mia could wear a different item of clothing for the entire summer. I seriously have that much stuff. I have filled Hans' trunk with Goodwill items. I organized my closet, Justin's closet, and am in the process of Mias. She has a LOT of clothes. It's slightly ridiculous. My craze in organization was jump started by my friend Jen. She's some sort of organizational guru. Stuff that seems so obvious after she tells me how to do it. I didn't realize that Melanie was neater then me either, but yesterday she informed me while she helped me sort my closet that she used to put masking tape down the middle of our room. I thought this was for territorial reasons, but she says it's because I was messy. Me? Really? We weren't the best communicators, I guess. I always thought I was fairly neat. Now my closets are getting there.

7. I am painting Mia's room purple. And Hans is putting up crown moulding and wainscoating. Yea! Mia is 7 months old and will finally have a room. If only I can get Hans to work out and get strong enough to move the treadmill down to the basement.

8. Hans is building shelves in the basement. They are huge! And awesome. No wonder his friends in Maryland called him handyman. Now we get to go on a date to Walmart and purchase food storage supplies. I plan on doing it all in one gigantic trip. Over and done with. Check. Check. Get it off my list.

9. Justin is a nighttime wanderer. Not sure what to do. He goes to bed at 8:30-9. Meaning we put him in his room. They he comes out and wanders. He knows better then to come downstairs now so I get some peace for a few minutes before going to bed. One early morning this week I couldn't find him in his bed and panicked. Turns out he was sleeping in my white ikea chair by the computer. He's a crazy kid. Melanie said, "Wow, it sure is peaceful in your house when Justin is napping." He can't stop talking.

10. Last Wednesday we hear the doorbell in the evening. Hans is at work. It's Warren. Uh, Hans is at work. He's here to see Justin he says. He has his dirt bike. Justin is in heaven. He talked about that for days. He still does. Warren is like some sort of mythical superhero in Justin's eyes.

11. Field Day. For Ashley. Kind of crazy. Haven't quite figured out how to do a sick 7 month old and a demanding 2 year old. We survived somehow. Mia found a blueberry nutrigrain bar while I was tending to Justin and ate half of it. Her very first real food. And last for awhile. She likes to scoot and roll to peices of carpet lint and eat them. I just finished vacuuming. Again.

12. We took a trip to Garden of the Gods and hiked. Love that.

13. Elder Holland came to speak last Saturday night and Sunday for Stake Conference. I didn't make it Sunday (it was at 2:00 and I have 2 babies) but Saturday night was great. He talked for over an hour on hard times. It was great to hear an Apostle in person. He seemed more real to me. He emphasized that we should imagine him talking to us in our living rooms. I felt like he was speaking just to me. He talked about the struggles of mortality. That we all need to remember that mortality was meant to be a test. That we are going to have hard times. That everyone does. To not feel like we are the only ones with problems. He quoted Abraham Lincoln who said something to the effect of - God must love the common man because he sure made a lot of commen men. He said that God does love the broken hearted. That He is here to help us. That we need a broken heart and a contrite spirt in order to really know God. He used a lot of analogies from the scriptures. It was great. I felt the Spirit. The Stake presidency also spoke. President Porter spoke on feeling the love of the Lord. And how he's felt it. Specifically in an experience with Elder Holland. It was great. It was interesting for me to think that a stake president might have issues feeling the Lord's love. It made me realize that we are all in the same situation trying to be the best that we can. The Denver Temple president ( I can't remember his name) spoke. I felt the importance of service and of attending the temple more regularly. Sister Fotheringham (the mission president's wife) gave a great testimony on how easy it is to share the Gospel. I felt how easy it was. I need to be better. My heart was definately pricked. I have so many great neighbors that I have great relationships with. I need to be more open with the Gospel.

14. Hans is busy at the office. He makes enough money to pay our mortgage now. Yea!

15. We planted our Garden. Zuchini (1 n or 2) and green beans. We planted Ashley's sunflower by the trampoline. I mowed the lawn. I love mowing the lawn.

16. I've been running outside while listening to conference talks. I love the early morning run. I feel like I can do anything after a run and feeling inspired by conference talks. And then it hits 2:00 and I crash I'm so exhausted.

17. I might be turning into a Whole Foods snob. I'm not sure. But I like going there.

18. Gymnastics ended. And then I signed the girls up again for the summer. They get to go "competetive" in the fall.

19. We are going to see Indiana Jones tonight. Anyone seen it yet?

20. I got a really bad haircut. My worst yet. It's going to be a summer of ponytails.

21. I think I'm done, although I am certain I could sit here and type forever.

Computer

The Computer is having some issues again, but we are back in business. Luckily it didn't crash until I had the chance to order some cute shorts and capris and shoes online. Love the online shopping. It's worth every penny of shipping to not have to drag everyone (although they are behaved and willing) to the store to shop for and try on clothes. Since last summer I was pregnant and the summer before I'd just had Justin, I am lacking in presentable summer clothing. The kids are taken care of thanks to Whitney, Jen, and my sisters. Love the hand-me downs. I miss Cher's cast offs for me in Maryland. I haven't found anyone here to give me their clothes yet. I have missed blogging about my family. We are well. Can't really remember what we did while the computer was down, but we were happy and busy. And for the most part healthy. Justin has some sort of intestinal virus that just keeps on giving. I bought him a new mattress and mattress pad since I couldn't stand to look at the other one. If you ask him what he did today he'll say, "I threw up on my boy bed. It was yucky. I'm filthy." He hates being filthy. He is funny. He talks NON STOP. He seriously doesn't stop. He talks to everyone and anyone about everything. This includes the daycare ladies at the Y, anyone he can find at church, and mostly me. He likes to pull my hair and then ask me if it hurt. "That hurt, mama? You okay?" Then he'll kiss me. Mostly he still talks about bikes and such. Katelyn and Ashley are doing well with May craziness. We have field days, zoo trips, school programs, gymnastics, and now I'm dragging them out to ride bikes around so I can get outside. They are nice to do it for me. They are great riders. Katelyn rode about 5 miles one day this week. Ashley was at school and got out of it. She didn't even complain. They LOVE gymnastics and their teachers, especially for Katelyn, are either appealing to my ego, or actually think my children have talent. Katelyn is moving up to the "competetive class." They have reserved a spot for her in the class for fall. They talk to me about keeping her in. Ashley is more graceful, but more fearful. She gets to move with the older kids pretty soon. I'm surviving. I feel grateful to be able to stay home with my kids. What a blessing. They are great and I wouldn't be anywhere else. I'm still running and riding. I did 7 miles in 48 minutes yesterday. Brag, Brag, Brag. I wonder why I do it sometimes, but I realize for the most part it is to do something on my own and the pounding of my body somehow releases stress for me. Justin is climbing on my lap now begging to watch you tube.

Eating...Finally!

Ashley took these pictures. There was a lot going on for Mia's first feeding. Hans had the video camera, Justin was trying to hug me the whole time, and Ashley and Katelyn were giggling over taking pictures with my camera. They did a great job. Somehow Mia was able to focus and she ate her cereal. Yum! She wasn't as thrilled as I thought she would be, but she likes it more and more everyday. Hard to believe my baby is 7 months old.

Star of the Week

Being Star of the Week means she got to do all of the jobs. She led the class in the months, pledge, numbers (counting by 2s, 5s and 10s), seasons, and some other stuff. She did a great job. It was fun to be there. Katelyn and Justin enjoyed it too and her classmates loved Mia. So do her teachers. I got to read the class her favorite book and talk about her. We made a poster board display of pictures and brought in her soccer medal, gymnastics skill cards, and her favorite stuffed animals. It was fun to be there and for her to feel so special. Kindergarten is almost over! She has learned so much. How to read, write, and spell. Seems like she learned all the important stuff. She is reading really well and actually likes to do it now. She is a great gal:)

Justin got a haircut. Because of the fruit string he got stuck in his hair while napping with it. Oops. So we said goodbye to the long locks and now he has a nice military buzz. I think he can pull it off. It makes his hair look so much blonder too. He HATES getting his haircut so the fruit string stayed in his hair for a few days. He screams. He kept telling me that his hair was already cut. So I didn't have to do it.

Mia is 7 months old now! She can sit well. She still has really large, inquisitive eyes. She wants only me to be holding her now. She screams when I leave her at the Y. But she is SO cute. She babbles and giggles and does all the right things. I started feeding her oatmeal cereal at bedtime. She loves it. And she is sleeping better. Last night she was up only at 11, 4, and 7 for the day. Not bad.


Katelyn loves reading books.