Yes - we are still alive!

I dropped off the face of the planet for a while there - spring was pretty hectic with soccer, Easter, piano recital, another birthday, and most importantly, packing and moving because we actually sold our house!!! And it only took 19 months. We are so very glad that chapter of our life is over, forever, because Scott says his next move will be to a casket, and I completely agree. Someone would have to offer to do everything buying and selling for us, pack us, and quadruple Scott's salary for me to even possibly consider going through that again. We were a real estate disaster and the only thing that got us through was our realtor who is truly a gift from God and went above and beyond so many ways. We're all settled into our new house now, the kids can't get enough of living on a cul-de-sac and spend all their free time out on their bikes or scooters playing with the one other little girl in our neighborhood. There is one empty house on our street, and we all have our fingers crossed that they'll have some kids to add to the mix!

Cakes and Silly played soccer this spring. We knew Silly would love it, but we were nervous about Cakes because last time she played soccer (granted, she was three) was a disaster; lots of screaming, crying and refusing to participate, even though she talked about playing and looked forward to it all week. Not so this time! We've never seen her competitive side before; personally, I was glad to see she has one.

She lucked out with good weather, not too hot and usually cloudy, for almost every game, which was good because the teams all shrunk a good deal at some point in the season which meant just about everyone played the entire game.

Silly had a blast, as usual. I think it was his last game that I pointed out to Scott that the coaches were saying Silly's name far more often than anyone else, because he was always right there at the ball no matter what. He's a speedy little guy.



I took the kids up to Richmond for part of Easter weekend because one of my sisters was visiting. The dads and big kids went to Busch Gardens and all the little kids went on an egg hunt at a local nursery, except that we got there a whole 4 minutes late and all the eggs were already gone. We'd promised the kids an egg hunt though, so we went to the store and bought lots of eggs and candy, filled them all up and had our own egg hunt in Mamie's yard then let the kids eat candy pretty much all day long. (I was looking through these pictures feeling bad that I didn't have Cakes in any of them, and then remembered that she was at Busch Gardens. Duh.)

And then real Easter at our own house, immediately after which the in-laws came and took the kids back to Richmond for a few days (thus the suitcase on that chair in the living room that doesn't actually belong to me).

 

 

 Those are not fabulous pictures, but I put them on up so you can see my "staged" house. Looks weird, huh? It worked though. Our house was under contract in less than three weeks (after being on the market from October 2010 to December 2011, taking it off the market, taking a break, then starting all over with a new realtor). Then we went out and found a new house in two days and things got even crazier. When life is already crazy, adding in a little more doesn't make a whole lot of difference, so we made the decision to have Silly's birthday party a little early rather than late and after the move (a choice I now know was very wise!) which meant we had Cake's piano recital Saturday morning at 10:00...



Cakes with her piano teacher and fellow piano students

Lesson learned from last year - the picture taking makes her more nervous. I told her we were going to want to take pictures, but she had a choice of before or after, she chose after. Lesson learned this year - MAKE her practice introducing her piece. She hates it, but I made her practice a lot last year and she didn't get too worked up speaking in front of the group. This year I gave her a choice based on what she thought would make her less nervous, she chose no practicing out loud. As you can see from the beginning of the video, she was pretty worked up. I think practicing helped her get some of that anxiety out, so next year we'll practice the speaking part!

After the recital it was off to soccer games for Cakes and Silly at 1:30, followed by a birthday party at 4:00. Why not?

Silly's one request was a cake from Sam's Club. I am not exaggerating when I say every time he has ever gone to Sam's Club with me he has asked if we could get one of their cakes for someone's birthday, whichever birthday happens to be up next. Up till now I have made all of my kids' birthday cakes (which makes 16 cakes if you're interested) but knowing what this particular Saturday looked like, I figured I oughta grant his birthday wish and make my day just the tiniest bit less crazy.

So, that was life before the move. I'll get to all the moving and unpacking and adjusting another day.

Lots of numbers

I haven't posted in a million years because I was waiting for a really exciting, extra special something to happen so I would have something spectacular to write about for my 100th post, but instead of one really spectacular event, there have been lots of pretty cool things happening.

First, my dad turned 70! Can you believe that? My youngest sister's father-in-law is a photographer, a really handy guy to have around for family gatherings. Our three west coast siblings are missing, but 6/9 ain't bad.



My younger sister somehow managed to get a piece of marble from the Detroit Temple (we lived in Michigan for about 9 years) during construction and she'd been hanging on to it, planning to give it to Dad, but waiting for a good time and a great idea. We decided this was the right occasion.

That's the "What great kids" look.




That part about his mother was from something she used to tell us as kids. When she'd come visit we'd ask if she brought any presents (because that's what grandmas do, right?) and she would say, "My gift to you is your father." Dad told everyone else at the party that another one of her favorite things to say, about him and his brother when they were two little neighborhood terrors, was, "They never do anything I tell them not to do, I just never know what they'll think of next," and she sure had a lot of stories to go along with that!

And in more number news, there are FOUR pregnant people in my family right now! There will be two summer babies and two September babies. How fun and exciting is that!?! So far we know one couple is having a boy. I've been emptying out my attic giving away all my maternity clothes and baby stuff because I don't need it anymore; I'm happy to be happy for the other people having babies.

The final number of the day is 3, because my sweet little Bubba turned three yesterday. How can that be? I decided quite some time ago that I was going to make him a space shuttle birthday cake, which would have been really easy, but a week or two ago he announces that he wants a motorcycle cake. I have no idea where he got the idea, but he stuck to it, and brought it up everyday. Who told him he's allowed to have an opinion? He wanted chocolate cake with a motorcycle and candles on it, balloons and water so that's what he got. When we went grocery shopping this week I let him pick out party plates and such.

I didn't hear any complaints, so I guess I met all of his demands. We sang to him, he blew out his candles, ate some cake, and then we spent the next several hours doing yard work. He helped spread mulch.

Once we fixed up the yard (the rain held off for the most part) we all cleaned ourselves up then let him open his presents.

I got him a little guitar. A friend of his has one and that's all he plays with when we visit, so I figured he needed his own. It is pretty cool. I haven't tuned it yet, but it can be done. It even came with a pitch pipe, which he likes quite a bit and it isn't driving me crazy yet. He seems pretty happy; he's strumming away in the kitchen as I type.

Camo Kid

For quite some time now I've been meaning to get all of Silly's clothes washed at once so I can spread out all his various camouflage articles and take a picture of the assortment. The boy loves camo. He loves all things military, he's starting to be curious about hunting. He makes a distinction between "army camouflage" and "hunting camouflage." Don't ask me how he knows the difference but he does. For years now whenever we go to the library he wants to find "army books." Today I realized we've never found any hunting books at the library. Guess we'll have to fix that.

The assortment - not shown, his hunting camouflage jacket that's being repaired

For Christmas the one thing he consistently asked for was camouflage socks, which were rather hard to find, since socks don't really need to be camouflage. Santa delivered though.

At the time, he claimed that was the only article of clothing he did not have in camouflage. He also has a camouflage watch, toothbrush, flashlight, and Nerf gun bullets. Now he realizes he doesn't have camouflage sweatshirt either. Next quest, I guess.

He also told me over Christmas, after seeing all our hunting relatives come and go, "Mom I decided I don't want to be an army guy any more. I want to be a hunter, because then I don't have to get a job." I had to explain that it doesn't really work that way. He thinks that's all my brother does (because he sees him coming or going from hunting or fishing everytime we're visiting). I had to explain that he's in college right now and he can only hunt when school is out, then when he's done with school he'll have to get a real job and he can only hunt when he's not working. I don't think I convinced him. Scott was already feeling a little guilty that he has no interest in hunting, so maybe Silly would be missing out on something. If it's something he really wants to do someday, he has plenty of relatives who'd be willing to take him along.

In other news, Scott bought me this cooler backpack for Christmas. I wanted something I could use for day trips with the kids without bringing more than one bag. I used it for the first time today and it is great! It looks small, but it is actually pretty roomy. I had two big icepacks and twelve juiceboxes in the cooler; it didn't feel any heavier than anything else I carry around. There's plenty of room in the top for whatever our adventures will require - hats, jackets, sunscreen, bugspray, etc. Bubba is still in diapers, but I don't need to carry around a whole lotta gear for him anymore, just a couple diapers and some wipes. There are two little pockets for phone, wallet and camera (if you know me well, you know I like bags with lots of pockets). It's perfect!


Next post will be 100 so something really cool needs to happen soon...

The Long and the Short

The Short

The kids and I went down to North Carolina to spend New Year's with our favorite people. We weren't even out of Chesapeake yet when Cakes suddenly yelled that Silly's tooth fell out!

...while he was eating an apple.

...and he swallowed it!

I didn't even know that tooth was loose, and I don't think he did either. He'd certainly never wiggled it. I was a little afraid that he'd never eat a whole apple again, but he went right back to it.

Kinda disappointing for a first lost tooth, since there isn't anything to put under his pillow, but I told him we could write a note of explanation to the tooth fairy (I've got a few notes to the tooth fairy myself, my mom saved them and gave them back to me recently). He doesn't seem all that broken up about it.

We had a great time with our friends - as much fun as you can have with 7 children. They also happened to be dog-sitting for a neighbor. Their two year old was completely in love with that dog, in true mauling, loving it to death, two year old fashion. We don't think the dog was too upset about going back home this morning.

This was our third New Year's Eve together. The kids decorate, which involves lots of tape...



My decorators

 we have dinner, cake and ice cream...

Waiting for cake

play a fun game or two and then celebrate on the hour, any hour, and send the kids to bed.

 

We're both surprised that the older girls haven't yet realized they're getting jipped by not staying up anywhere close to midnight.

They also had some fireworks going off somewhere in the neighborhood, so most of the kids were out on the back porch, yelling on the count of three, "Please set off another firework! We're your neighbors!" They were sure it was working, because the fireworks kept coming.

 

And best of all, the kids went to sleep without much fuss after that, certainly not the case for years 1 and 2.

 

Sunday we went to church together, saw the temple next door, and ran into my former Young Women president, who is now my friend's visiting teacher. I just love those little connections.

 

And now...

 

The Long

 

Cakes has had a loose tooth for somewhere around a year - and a half. No exaggeration. The kids have dentist appointments this month, and I know I mentioned it at their last checkup, saying it had already been loose a year. Inspired by Silly's sudden loss, and a little positive pressure from her two friends (which entailed nearly an hour in the bathroom this morning, using lots of tissues and lots of offers of "do you want me to do it for you?) she finally, finally got rid of that tooth! Thank goodness! I was tired of looking at that snaggly little thing. Have you ever heard of someone having a loose tooth for that long? Craziness. I never would have let a tooth stick around that long myself.

 

The tooth fairy will be busy at our house tonight.

 

This morning we were on the road heading for home, and it's back to real life tomorrow; school, laundry, things to sort and organize to start the new year off right, stuff to make the kids get rid of to make room for their new stuff, and all the other regular life stuff I do around here.