Saying Goodbye

As the last day of school approached, I donated all of the boys uniforms to the uniform swap at school. I'll admit, I felt a little sad. It is saying goodbye to a time in our lives. We have loved the boys school and I feel a little anxious about what is next for them, and not having uniforms at their new school. Funnily enough, so does Sam. He hated me giving these away. "What if I WANT to wear them to school there, mom?" "You won't" I say. "But what if I really WANT to?" he says. "Well, then you can. We're taking a couple pieces for church anyway."

Even he's attached. I'm beginning to worry about the move and the kids. When a kid is this concerned about not wearing a uniform, he may have other issues as well. Yikes. This is only the first of many, many goodbyes and a whole lot of change. But for now, we had our last day of school in the United States and are looking ahead to time over seas. I still can't believe this is really going to happen...

Last Day Of School

Like last year, the last day of school meant running through the sprinklers and water balloons! The kids love this. I did not, however, put my suit on and join them. Running on low fuel, I felt pretty good about this happening at all this year. Many things have been put on the back burner right now.



Chugs LOVED doing this! He had a fantastic time.

The boys had "free dress" the last two days of school. So Samuel chose to wear his dad's old Army t-shirt. It says "tennis" in the front, and is like 25 years old. Sam thought it was the coolest.

While playing around in the water, they found a little snake. Eeek! I don't like snakes. They asked to keep it, but first - I've taught them well! - they had to put gloves on. Nice. I know. By the end of this event, they were bare handed, but did wear them for a while.

They named him "Freddy McJr Tennis" and if you don't believe me, Simon made him a birth certificate. Of course Simon made him a birth certificate, what else would he do? They kept him for a day or two - then let him go. Yikes. I prefer to pretend that these things are not in my yard...

While You Were Sleeping

Okay.

This post is a little embarrassing. Just remember that I am a single mom of five. (for the time being, anyway) With a newborn on my hands, as well. I don't get to hand off any of the kids when my husband walks through the door, because he doesn't walk through the door these days.

That said, during the day, I try to get a little nap in. Samuel is put in charge and I remind the kids of this: "Please don't come and get me unless there is an emergency. An Emergency may be one of these: you are on fire, bleeding, have a broken limb, the house is on fire, there's a stranger at the door, or someone is pinned under a heavy object."

And even then, it better be good.

I have been known to go through the list when my door cracks open, I see a small child's eyeball and hear, "Mom, are you awake?" I say, "Are you ...(one of the above listed items...) ?" "No", they say. "Then what is the emergency?" I ask. (not very friendly, I might add) "It's not an emergency, I was just wondering if I can have some gum." OR some other minor issue. I respond with something like, "You did not just ask me for gum, did you?" And they slink away. I know, it's not very nice. But really, I am just trying to get a cumulative amount of sleep - 8 hours broken up in at least three pieces isn't too much to ask. Is it? If I don't get this, by 5 pm, I am not a force to be reckoned with. Believe me.

I don't really care what they do during this time. They can have snacks, watch TV, go into the back yard. All I ask is that they're safe and remotely enjoying themselves. I understand that I can't ask for more than this.

So I thought I'd share with you what I typically find:



Yep. That's full on sharpie.

Yes, his older brother, the "creative" one - Simon, left it on the counter after one of his many projects.

Yes. That is a pink doll stroller in my kitchen drawer.

Yep. The entire bag of Cheetos's gone. I think it may have been licked clean. Yep. Orange EVERYWHERE. (What was I thinking buying them anyway. I HATE their orange mess!)

And yes, every shoe thrown from the shoe basket. Thanks Chach!

This doesn't even show the TV room. Which usually has every pillow and couch cushion strewn across the room. Fruit snack wrappers all over the place. The back yard covered in otter pop wrappers. Yeah. It's nice. They do have to help pick up, but I do the majority of it.

I realize that I can't expect them to be angels while I am sleeping. I am just hoping for all them to be alive. So far. So good.

Sassy Graduation

Remember when you were cute and sassy and could dance like this and no one cared?

Those times were wonderful, weren't they? This is Ruby's graduation. She was so cute. I hate seeing her grow up. I just love this sweet girl of mine, she's a pistol!



Lady Liberty!



"We're going on a lion hunt, and I'm not afraid..."



I will miss this time in her life. I see other little girls, much younger than her, and I miss her already. I have so many little boys, it seems like the time with them is lasting much longer. But each day of her life, is one less of my daughter. It just slips through my fingers, and I don't like it.

But I sure like her.

Day of the Dino Dig

One cool thing about living in Utah is that there are LOTS of dinosaurs. Or shall I say, WERE lots of dinosaurs. We have amazing museums, and lots of neat things to see. But a dinosaur dig open to the public is very rare. So when we heard one was available for people to come and see, we jumped at the chance. (The picture above is a rib of an Alasourous (sp?) being worked on while we were there)

Si, the collector, kept very busy at the middle of nowhere, stop on the side of the road. He could barely carry everything he wanted to bring home. I think he wittled it down to one or two in the end. Thank heavens. While Sam and Peter were talking with the paleontologist for a half hour, Si was outta there! He had to get straight to work looking for his own dinosaur bones. He searched long and hard, and found A LOT of rocks! (BTW, the paleontologist let Samuel hold the tip of the tooth, about six inches of it. This was so cool for him. Who gets to hold an actual fossil at a dig site? Most everything you see on display are replicas of fossils, so to get to hold a real tooth was very cool.)

Roo dug in the dirt the entire time. Well, it was a Dino Dig, after all.

The site was about three and a half hours from our house. With a two week old and four other young children,...lets just say it was a long trip. Although fun, and we were all glad we went.

About thirty minutes from home, there was a rollover accident that closed the freeway. We sat in the car for an hour and a half. Good thing we had enough gas, a mom full of milk for the baby, and Jim Gaffigan / Brian Reagan on the ipod. It was a LONG wait, and everyone was very good. We laughed a lot!

Home Sweet Home

I've decided that if Peter were home for a month, no work AT ALL, after each baby - things would have been much easier. This experience was SO much better than those past. Really. It was so nice to just BE. Be together as a family. To spend time with the kids. I got to nap whenever I wanted. He held the baby so much for me. And his undivided attention for the other children was magical for both he and the kids. I don't think they've ever spent so much time together.

Chugs and Daddy spent SOOO much time together. I think their separation was harder than the other kids. He was daddy's little buddy for four weeks straight.

I did Roo's hair in curlers for the first time ever. She liked getting primped, but didn't love how she looked in the curlers themselves. I think she looked cute though. And after...

Adorable.

Chugs and Roo officially have to share a room, and a bed now. Baby got the crib and I shipped most of our beds. (half of us are sleeping in borrowed beds) But overall, the transition has been just fine. As long as Roo has her thumb and Chugs has is bappy (passy) - there is peace in the valley. They're not attached or anything...

Samuel got his Bear in Scouts while Peter was home. He got to put the pin on me, and was so sweet about it. I was thinking that I will have many years and many pins more to look forward to, with four sons. But then I realized I may not. They do have a scouting program where we're going, but I am guessing it's not as robust as it is here. Oh well. We've sure enjoyed it here. We have had fantastic scout leaders and will miss the program very much. Good thing their dad is a built in Scoutmaster where ever he goes!

We blessed Gideon before Peter left. A breakfast before church of scones, fruit, and bacon was enjoyed by our in-town family. I wish everyone could have been here, but we had a great time with those that could attend.

GIRL cousins. None of these girls has a sister, but they do have cousins!

Simon is loaded up! Please notice his bag; filled with who knows what. Candy, junk, pens, paper, rubber bands, sticks, rocks, and whatever else he can find - I'm sure. But whatever it is, it's with him at all times.

Our family after the blessing. The Gregsons, McDermaids, Hansons, and Tennis'.

Here he is in his blessing outfit. It was so cute. Grandma Gregson bought it for him. It's white linen with a little bit of brown plaid on the pocket and collar. He seriously never cries. But of course, cried through the whole blessing. Silly baby. I couldn't get any good pictures of him in his outfit either, and it barely fit the day of the blessing. So this is it.

See what I'm sayin'?

But then there are shots like this, and it makes it alright that he was fussy. Don't you just love little hands? Oh, I do. He actually was very sweet while I was holding him, but when I'd put down to try to get a good shot - he didn't like that.

And that's a little glimpse of what we did while Daddy was home.

We had a baby.

Me and My Lorna Doones

I'm chubby, you know. No really. It's not just "big bones" (really BIG bones), or "you're just pregnant." I'm a full fledged biggie at this point. So why, I ask you, must they put me in the room directly across from the room labeled "Nutrition Room." Because if you don't know, in the Labor and Delivery section of the hospital, this is code for OPEN SNACK BAR, 24/7!

Hence, the Lorna Doone trouble. Every time the nurse would ask if she could get me anything, I'd politely say "no thank you" - then when she'd leave I'd head across the hall for my dear Lorna, sweet little thing that she is. I seriously can't count how many little packs I ate. We'll just leave it at A LOT. I may have snuck a few in my bag coming home as well. Ooops.

Really though, you should have seen what they had stocked in there. Every cookie you could want, juice by the gallons, more diet coke than one could drink in a life time (okay, in Utah - it could be done. "Breastfeed your baby honey, and have another diet coke dear.") Frozen pizzas, burritos, popsicles, pudding, jello, rice pudding (yum), popcorn, crackers, etc. Let me just say, I was impressed by the stash. This may be why I came home from the hospital a whopping F-O-U-R pounds less than when I went. Uh, hello? What happened to the 8 pound 10 ounce baby weight - FOR STARTERS!!!! (I may be near tears as we speak...)

Anywho. Moving on.

It's been almost six weeks, so I won't put you to sleep with my birthing story. Let's just cut to the chase. I had planned on a nice peaceful morning with Peter, my ipod and a good game of solitaire. What I got was a WHOLE lot of crying, screaming, heavy breathing, me yelling "I AM NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN" and TWO epidurals. (Three if you count him having to start totally over during round one...did I mention I HATE getting epidurals? They scare me to DEATH!) Yep. One that didn't work at all, and one that kicked in seconds before the baby (for real) and left me numb for four hours and fifteen minutes; AFTER the birth. Seriously. Not even kidding.

You try being on pitosin, a giant catheter inserted, your doctor being up to his elbows, making it all the way to a ten and ready to push - with no pain killers. Believe me, it was the pits. (which I have since decided is why they call pitosin, PIT) Oh sure, if I had even thought for a minute I was going to go natural, I might have done some planning. You know, like practicing some kind of breathing. Talked things over with Peter. (do's and don'ts in labor - I did have to ask him nicely to put some gum in. Hey, I thought the fact that I was nice about it was pretty good...considering the circumstances.) At least my half a push was pain free. That was nice.

But of course, the gift at the end is always worth it. I just love my little newborns. They're so beautiful. The gift of life is so miraculous. Each time, I can't believe how blessed I am. How so many things can go wrong bringing a life to earth, and how perfect these spirits are upon arrival.

So in the end, Lorna and I were quite pleased with the whole thing.

And how are things now, you ask? Wonderful. (minus the missing father again, but we only have six weeks left - hooray!!) The baby is a dream. He sleeps great and is a very sweet baby. I truly am blessed.