Cleod's 6th birthday

Last week, my biggest boy turned six. Honestly, it feels a little weird to have a 6 year old...but then I think about the fact that I have a 6 year old, a 4 year old and a 2 year old, not to mention one coming in about 5 weeks. It sort of makes me tired just thinking about it. ;)

Anyway, Cleod's birthday was a crazy day. Mom, Dad, Deni and Landon (sister and nephew) came from Vegas that morning. My bff, Deruchette threw a baby shower for me that morning, which was SUPER fun. I need to get photos from my mom.

Got home from the shower and finished getting stuff ready for Cleod's party. Before his party though, I went for a short while to a friend's baby shower.

Then to the party for the birthday boy! We invited 6 friends for his party. Early in the week I made aprons for all of them and we cut out sugar cookies, decorated cookies and cupcakes and ate cake. It was a lot of fun and it was fun watching the different kids and the way they decorated their things. The boys were almost more picky about it than the girls. Love it!
Here are the boys mixing the food coloring into their icing.

Decorating...

Excited about Astro Boy...(sorry about the red eye. ;))

Happy b-day boy...

Overall, it was a fun day and not too stressful. ;)

Last few weeks

25th- Grant's 2nd birthday...he was throwing up all morning. Cleod was sick a few days before, and poor Grant had to be sick on his b-day. So, no cake and no party. But we did have present time just before bed when he was feelings a little better.

The 28th was Uncle Ryan's birthday, so Ryan, Grant and I went to the cemetery to put some pretty fall "flowers" on his grave. It's been 3 1/2 years since he's been gone and sometimes it's still hard. Especially when this happens:

[Morning of the 28th when driving past the cemetery on the way to take Silas to work.]
Me: Oh, it's Uncle Ryan's birthday so we can't forget to take him flowers.
Ryan: [very excited voice] Uncle Ryan came out of heaven!?!?!

Oops.

So Silas very nicely talked to Ryan about how we would see him someday after Christ came. It was really cute, but sad too.


That night we also carved pumpkins. We usually go to a local pumpkin patch, but because of our sickness and all the rain we had in the middle of the month, we just did the grocery store thing. Doesn't Cleod look old in this photo?
Silas got into the whole pumpkin carving thing. We even tried using the drill, although it wasn't as useful as we hoped.
Here's Silas's masterpiece!

The boys with their pumpkins (in pjs).

29th- Since Halloween was on Sunday this year, we celebrated early. Friday we went to Silas's work to Trick-or-Treat to a few ladies at the bank that bring candy. Saturday we went to our friend's Trunk-or-Treat, which is really the way to go. We were in one parking lot for an hour and they had a ton of candy. No knocking on doors this year! (Ryan=skunk, Grant=Elmo, Cleod=Mario.)
Other stuff...Cleod is doing really good in kindergarten, which is great. I help in his class every Friday for 30 minutes and it's awesome. He's getting so old. He'll be 6 in two weeks. Crazy.

Ryan is fun! He is really stubborn, but usually just fun. He's happy almost constantly. Lately he says, "You're the best mom/dad/brother in the whole world." He talks about the baby all the time and tells me that she's beautiful.

Grant is talking a lot, which is a big deal because he waited until he was about 18 months before he said much of anything. He points out every bus and semi-truck around when we're in the car.

I'm 32 weeks prego today. 8 weeks to go! Baby moves around a lot, which is great because I am still super paranoid. Today at church there was a baby blessing and I wanted to be holding my baby so bad it hurt. Just 8 more weeks.

Silas's arthiritis is not the greatest, but he's a trooper. He's still in shock some days that he's out of school. It's nice that he comes home from work and is just home. One of his dreams is coming true. He's been wanting a red, Mr. Rogers sweater for a few years now and finally found a co-worker at the Richfield branch who can knit really well and is making it for him. He is ridiculously excited about it.

I guess that's what's going on here. It's going to get crazy in the next few weeks. With Cleod's b-day on the 20th, Thanksgiving the next week, our 7th anniversary two weeks later, then Christmas, my b-day and the baby in basically the same week.

Can't wait!

What keeps me sane...

I've am mostly crazy, but there are a few things that I do that keep me from going crazy.

I have something that I do Monday thru Friday so I don't get overwhelmed with housework. Monday is laundry. Tuesday is bathrooms. Wednesday is vacuuming the upstairs. (I have carpet on the main level including the dining room so I vacuum that level about every other day.) Thursday is meal planning day. I plan lunches and dinners for two weeks at a time. It really helps me to not go crazy trying to figure out every night what to make. Friday is laundry again and budgeting. If I don't get one done on that day, I try not to sweat it and sometimes when I am feeling extra ambitious I do the next day's thing so I have less to do later.

Another thing that keeps me sane is Quiet Time. My mother-in-law told me about how she would have all of the kids stay in their room for a certain amount of time every day even if they didn't nap anymore. When we started this, the boys would fight me about it, but now that we've been doing it for a while it's no big deal. After lunch, every day (well, weekday) we go to their room and read until Grant falls asleep. After that I leave for some silence and the big boys stay in there for just a few minutes. I used to read to the boys for up to 30 mintues, which was great but now Cleod likes to read so I sometimes get a little nap too. I love Quiet Time!

Job time! The boys have to do a certain amount of jobs for things like TV, computer or treats. It usually works out great because they help clean up the house and then they have a break on the computer or TV and I have a break to do some extra cleaning or reading.

Also, I rinse my dishes after almost every meal and usually load them into the dishwasher right away. I LOVE an empty sink, but I will even deal with a sink of rinsed dishes. I have trained my children to put their dirty dishes in the right side only so the rinsed and unrinsed dishes don't mix. (Wow, I sound a little crazy, don't I?)

Bedtime rountine: Baths done by 7:30pm. Read scriptures, brush teeth, say prayers and let the boys read in bed until about 8pm. Then, lights out! (OK, I am a lot more flexible about the timing than it sounds, but I try.) I think that when the time changes next week I will start 30 minutes earlier. We'll see.

I have alarms on my phone for everything: pick Cleod up, start making dinner, boy's bedtime and even my bedtime, although I usually ignore that one. Silas hates that my phone is ringing all the time, but it helps me a lot.

Date night! We try to trade with our friends, Brett and Deruchette so that every other week we get to go out without paying a babysitter. I love this because we can go to the temple and not have to pay a babysitter a fortune. The last date we had, we each went and got the food we wanted (which were from different places) and came home and ate while watching a movie from Redbox. It was awesome.

I also plan my meals for at least two weeks at a time. I love looking at my list in the afternoon and knowing exactly what to make that night.

Anyway, these are some of my crazy quirks that help me to feel not-so-crazy.

What's a nerd?

Cleod: Mom, what's a nerd again?
Mom: (thinking of what to say)
Cleod: Someone who's smart?
Mom: Yeah.
Cleod: And someone who reads a lot?
Mom: Sure.
Cleod: (thinking for a second, and then smiles) I'm a nerd!

My reader

Cleod will be 6 in a little over a month. He's been reading for about a year now. Just before his 5th birthday he became really interested in reading. He was sounding out words and asking me what things said. It just exploded from there. He seriously has a gift for reading, which I have told him several times. The last few months he has been reading the Magic Tree House books, some really, cute, little chapter books. Today he finished number 6, which is rated at a second grade level of reading. He also has been reading his own verse at scripture time every night us for several months now.

I'm not trying to brag. Like I said, he has a gift. But I know that there were a few things that we did to help him.

NUMBER 1 - We have had tons of book since Cleod was a baby. I get books a thrift stores mostly, so they are cheap and I don't stress out about them much. Also, we get them as gifts a lot too, especially from my mom because she's obsessed with kids books like me.

Here's Cleod "reading," January 2006 at 14 months.


NUMBER 2 - We take books wherever we go!

Cleod, 18 months old in California.


NUMBER 3 - When I see that the kids are interested in a book or an author, I buy them or check them out. For example, when Cleod started showing interest, I checked out a Dick and Jane book from the library. Because it repeats so many of the same words over and over, he felt confident and loved to read them. Also, the Mo Willems, Elephant and Piggie books are so adorable and Cleod reads them with such emotion, it's hilarious. (Cleod is reading a Pigeon book in the first photo...also a Mo Willems series.)

Here he is (3 1/2) reading a "Who's Your Hero? Book of Mormon Stories Applied to You" book. THEY ARE AWESOME!


NUMBER 4 - Library time!

NUMBER 5 - Reading to the boys at night and at nap time.

NUMBER 6 - Reading in front of the kids so they know you love it too.

I could probably go on forever, and these are totally basic things, but I think they work. I will have to see how the other boys do. They all love books so I think we are going to be a family of nerdy readers, but that's fine with me.

Grant's cuteness

For a few years now, we have been reading scriptures as a family pretty regularly. We each read one verse, including the children. Cleod can read his own but for Ryan we just read a few words at a time and he repeats it. I think it helps them to learn different words and the intonation used when reading.

Since Grant was born, Silas and I have read the extra verse for him, but just recently he was been able to "read" his own. It's so cute, especially considering that he refused to take until a few months ago. (By the way, he's 22 months old.)


Grant is also learning how to count apparently. When he got in trouble one day I told him to sit on the stairs *time-out* and this is what he did.


I love toddlers!

Peaches and Skirts

On Labor Day we picked some peaches from a relative's house in Parowan. Here they are, washed and ready. (Ryan helped me wash most of them while Cleod was at school.)

SEVEN hours later, we have 27 quarts of yummy peaches. Boy was I tired, but it is so worth it.

My first sewing project for Cora is a simple skirt. My friend Melissa got me this shirt and I used some of my bridesmaid skirt material. I even made a bow.