Halloween Preview

Our kids had a Trunk or Treat event at church last Saturday, so I already have pictures of how they will all look this evening. Tristin is some sort of ghoul (the make-up was all his own design), and will be handing out candy tonight, rather than trick-or-treating.

Brandon is Ron Weasley. He's done this one before, but that was the only costume that interested him this year in our stockpile of costumes.

William was a bit obsessed with finding something to be dressed in black. He started out saying he was a robber, but after people started calling him a ninja at the church event, he decided that he'd just be a ninja.

Benjamin lost one of his front teeth last Saturday, so being a pirate really suited him. What is even more fun is that the tooth on the other side of his front adult tooth came out this week, so Ben will look like he's been in a real brawl tonight! I will try to remember to get a picture of him with his mouth open.
Dallin was really excited to finally fit into the Superman costume. The yellow belt has disappeared, but he doesn't really care. He has been battling bad guys for us already (see the shot with William).

Aidan has got to be the cutest pumpkin ever! He stays nice and warm in this fuzzy costume.

I finally got to buy a princess costume. Katie loved dressing up all pretty, although she really hates keeping the felt crown on her head. Isn't she lovely?

Katie's Cruising

Yesterday, Katie stood up in the middle of the room. Several times. Should I love this or be dismayed by it?

You know, with my first couple of kids, I was anxious for them to walk. With the next couple, I dreaded it. With Aidan and Katie, I would probably dread it, but for one thing: Lifetime Fitness. I haven't been very much in the past year (nor did I make it much after Aidan was born for the first year), and that is because I have to have an appointment for Katie in the childcare center, as she isn't a year old and walking yet. Once she is a year old, which is in a week and a day, I still will need an appointment if she isn't walking. So, we are practicing.

This video shows Katie using the cool walker/scooter toy Grammie gave her last Christmas. She is very stable now, and I expect her to be walking soon. Especially when you consider that her brothers don't even phase her while she cruises with them down the hallway. What do you think?

You know, the fact that she has been doing stairs for the past month and a half is probably another reason that I'm okay with this. None of my other boys thought twice about going headfirst down a flight of stairs until they were much older than this. But Katie knows that if she doesn't turn around and go down feet first, she'll fall, and she is really quite coordinated at sliding down them on her belly, so I am not really afraid of her forgetting and trying to walk down them. We'll have to see how it goes.

Our Zoo Trip

Last week was MEA weekend, and Amy was in town with her kids. After realizing that Merle's zoo membership, which gets all of her grandchildren in for free, was going to expire at the end of October, and the price has gone up $100 higher than last year, we decided to have one last zoo trip with the whole crew. So, Amy and her 5 kids, Jessica and her 4 kids, Merle, my 7 kids, our friend Carrie (who used to live with Merle and Reo during college), and her two kids and I all met at the zoo. This is us, lining nearly the entire snow monkey exhibit wall.

It was a fun day. I enjoyed watching Katie see all of the animals for the first time. She had seen some at the Carver County Fair this summer, but the fish were completely new for her, and she really seemed to enjoy watching them, as did most of my kids. I think we always spend the most time in the aquarium exhibit.

Timmy crashed our stroller for a while. He was tuckered out, and enjoyed the fish, as well. Then, he fell asleep for a nice nap.

Tristin was really helpful. He kept Jessica's kids from escaping the aquarium exhibit, and helped push strollers. He also tried to help Brandon return to his natural habitat (ha-ha-ha).

I'm thinking that we may all still be able to get to the zoo with Merle and Reo once in a while, even without their membership. Through the library system, once each month we can check out passes to the zoo, as long as there are some available. If there aren't enough available at our library when we want to go, we can always pick some up from one of the other locations in Carver County, or Merle and Reo could try the Dakota system, as well. It will require a little advance planning, but it can be done for free. Each library card holder can check out two passes. Aaron and I, plus our older three or four kids, have library cards, so we can get quite a few. This works with many of the museums in the Twin Cities, as well. I recommend The Works. It is a hands-on physics museum for kids in Edina. We went there last winter, and our kids loved it. We practically had to drag them away after three hours.

Starting Over

After a great week of getting my house in better shape, and keeping the kitchen sink shiny, I had a setback. I woke up on Saturday morning with a mastitis (milk duct infection). Not only did I have the pain at the point of infection, but whole-body aches, as well. I got on the phone with the clinic and got a prescription called in to my pharmacy, and Aaron picked it up for me.

After a few doses I felt better, and Aaron and I decided to go ahead and go out to dinner with our friends, as planned. That was probably a mistake, because overnight I got feverish and my ducts were even more swollen than they had been on Saturday morning. At 3am Katie woke up, I nursed her, and couldn't fall back asleep because of the body aches, cramps (yes, this would all happen at that time), and a bad headache. So, I decided to do the dishes at 4am. I had noticed some bowls in the sink before I went to bed on Saturday night, and remembered the dishwasher had been running when I went to bed, and thought if I got the sink clean, it would give the family motivation to keep it clean while I stayed in bed on Sunday. Boy, was I wrong.

I got up on Sunday morning, as Aaron was in church meetings, and helped Katie, Aidan and Dallin get ready for church. I went into the kitchen to find that nobody had bothered emptying the dishwasher, and cereal bowls were sitting in the sink.

At 8:45am I realized that we were supposed to bring the nursery snack. Crackers would have been a good option, but we have a crazy nursery leader right now, and she specifically asked me not to bring crackers, because that's what people have brought for the past month, and she thought the kids would appreciate something on the list she had in the treat container (yes, she thought that asking the lady with seven kids to be the one to put work into the snack would be a good idea). Her list asked for a variety of foods, such as meat, cheese, muffins, whole-wheat bread and butter, bananas, etc. I didn't have enough bread in the house to send, so I decided to make muffins, and send some slices of cheese and some bananas for them to cut up. There are 17 kids in nursery right now, so I had to double the muffin recipe.

The muffins were coming out of the pans when Aaron came home to get the kids. They left, and I went back to bed. Yes, I left the dishes in the sink. I was sweating buckets from the fever, had a case of the shakes and really bad cramps, and couldn't stay up anymore.

I mostly stayed in bed the rest of the day. The kitchen continued to get worse. I came down for dinner, and things looked pretty bad. Aaron assigned Will and Brandon to get the dishes done and clear the table, but at about 9pm I still heard voices on the main floor (Aaron had gone to sleep already). I went down to the kitchen, and the boys were trying to figure out what to do with the dishes that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher. I told them to go to bed.

So, Aaron woke up early (early to bed, early to rise, I guess), and saw the mess in the kitchen, and woke up Brandon and William at 5:40am. He told them to do the dishes. I'm not sure what all they did, but here's what I woke up to this morning:

The dishwasher was just finishing up, and the chile pot was soaking in one side of the sink. There were cereal bowls, flatware, and cups in the other side of the sink, as well as the cookie cooling rack. The dishwasher was only about 2/3 full, and half of what was in it wasn't clean. There were kidney beans all over, the bowls that had had chile in them were still covered in chile, there was a cookie sheet taking up half of the bottom rack, and the swirly thing above the bottom rack was touching it, so I don't think it was able to do its job very well. There were cups facing upward in the top rack, full of dirty water (they hadn't been placed over a peg, so they had flipped), and a medicine spoon had been put in the silverware tray right-side up, so it was full. There were wooden spoons on the top rack, embedded in each other, so the one that had been covered in chile when it went in was still covered in chile when it came out.

The counters and stove were completely covered with yuck. There was hardened jell-o splattered on the counter, and chile all over the stove. The butcher block counter had an open bag of powdered sugar on it, a rolling pin covered in powdered sugar, a plastic mat covered in sugar and dough, and there was a dirty mixing bowl in the Kitchenaid. The entire counter was covered in flour, powdered sugar, and clumps of sugar-cookie dough. Every remaining square inch of it was covered in something that didn't belong there, such as the recipe binder, papers, and a calculator.

To top it all off, the recycling bag under the sink was coated in chile and tomato sauce, and none of the cans that were in it were cleaned out. There were also two empty milk jugs, one dirty chile can, and two can lids on the countertop.

I tell you, I wanted to give up. Even my note next to the sink that said to put dishes in the dishwasher and wipe out the sink had been soaked by water from the grill baster, which was rubbing up against it - don't ask me why that was even out, because I don't have a clue. I'll need to make a new sign, as it was too wet to keep.

So far, I have nursed Katie, showered, wiped my bathroom countertop, ran the washer twice and the dryer once, emptied and scrubbed out the crusty dishes that came out of the dishwasher, filled and ran it, cleaned the sink and my vinyl countertops, removed the dishes from the butcher block counter and put away the sugar, ate breakfast and drank some water. Oh, and I've vented to all of you. Thanks for listening!

Flylady and Popsicle sticks

I haven't had such a clean house without company coming in quite some time.

During my pregnancy with either Dallin or Aidan, Amy told me once that when you are either pregnant or nursing, you are tired all the time. I had realized that I was tired during most of my pregnancies, and even the first few months after having babies, but it never really occurred to me that it went beyond when you start sleeping through the night again, until then.

With Katie nursing only a little bit a few times a day now, I am starting to get some energy. I had really let the housework go over the past couple of years, and allowed lots of things to excuse this, like the poem, "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait 'till tomorrow, for babies grow old, we learn to our sorrow, so quiet down, cobwebs, dust - go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep," or a friend's advice, "A busy mom is a lazy mom" - which, she explained, meant that you teach the kids how to do all the chores and not do it over for them, and just let the house not be perfect, because that's how they will learn.

Now that I have some energy back, I beg to differ. No, you can't do it all when you have a new baby. Yes, you have to teach your kids to work. But if everyone gets used to living in a dump, they will never learn to keep it clean.

Jessica mentioned http://www.flylady.net/ on her blog recently, and I thought I'd take a peek and see what it was all about, as I was ready for an overhaul of my cleaning routine. I like it. I had gotten to the point where when I was ready to clean something, I would not know where to start, and I would get only things taken care of that were really unsustainable, and then I wouldn't want to do them again the next day because I knew it was futile. Using Flylady's method, you work on the clutter for a few months, while also putting into practise some habits over the first month that will make so much of the cleaning you used to get overwhelmed by sustainable.

Take the first habit - Shine the kitchen sink. It sounds easy, but consider that I had a dishwasher full of clean dishes and a pile of dirty dishes in the sink that first morning. I had a bit to do to get to a shiny sink. When I was done with the dishes, I didn't stop there, as I sometimes do, but I washed the sink, per her instructions, then shined it with a little olive oil. I then placed a towel next to it, along with a note to remind myself, as well as my family, to put dishes directly into the dishwasher, and to wipe down the sink after each use. Now, Flylady never said anything about not putting dishes in the sink, but in order for it to be wiped down after each use, I figure you can't really have dishes in there, can you? So, I also figured I'd better time the dishwasher so that I can empty it right away whenever it finishes running so that people can put their dishes into it, rather than the sink, every time. Of course, when I felt so pleased at the shiny sink, I wiped down all the countertops. Then, I wiped the sink dry again, since I had to rinse out my cloth. You can imagine that I have a lot of wet dish towels to wash every day. But that's okay, my lights loads are never full enough, anyway, and the kids never seem to have enough socks, so this will actually help matters.

Amazing the changes one simple thing can produce! That's not all - I made sure after every meal and snack that everyone cleared their own place at the table right away and put their own dishes in the dishwasher, because I knew if I didn't, I would have to do it myself, or else the dishwasher would run without them all in there. And guess what? Right now, the dishwasher is running, there are no dishes on the table or in the sink, and I didn't do it. The magic dish fairy turned it on, because it was full (okay, I think it was Brandon, because he put the food away after dinner because he was the last one done). And my sink is still shiny.

If you get into Flylady's Yahoo! Group, you will get bombarded with emails, unless you set the preferences to only send them to you once a day, or never. However, I like them. They have all sorts of reminders and tasks in some of them. Her philosophy is to get all of the cleaning done year-around so that you won't have to do a mega-spring-cleaning each year. So, besides the baby steps that create habits the first 31 days (and I will say that I ignored the advice to take them a day at a time and implemented nearly all of them at once, as I wasn't in quite the dire straights she was gearing this to), there are tasks like cleaning out the bathroom cupboards and drawers, tackling a hot spot (her term for a place where you tend to pile things up - in my house my first one was the printer/scanner on my desk - which has now been empty for two days, other than to house my planner during the day, but it could be your bedroom chair where you throw your clothes, or your dresser). She throws things at you like taking 15 minutes to do as much as you can to clear off your end table and any flat surfaces in your bedroom off. And then there's the fling boogie, where you get rid of stuff by collecting up 27 things to put away, throw away, or give away - sometimes one of those at a time, sometimes all of them. Today, she wanted me to go through each room of the house and find 27 things to throw away or give away, one thing per room, and repeat the rooms until I had them, and then suggested doing it every hour. Kind of cool, but I didn't get to it more than once. I was busy defying her advice to just stick to the baby list and not go on to the chores.

It's not like I had to tackle them all by myself, anyway. I used popsicle sticks (another of Jessica's blog hints - although I guess Amy told her about Flylady and popsicle sticks to begin with, so I'll credit her with them) to assign chores to the kids. I had them all color their own sticks, and they have to do their own each day. They all have piano, homework, put away backpack & gear, and scriptures. When they are done, they have to take three popsicle sticks that I put in the To Do jar and do them, too. This way, daily tasks get done first, and then they start helping out with cleaning the house by doing some of the small tasks I have been assigned by Flylady.

It's really cool that most of her tasks don't prerequisite any other task being done in order to do them. I have tried having each kid on a different room of the main floor, and they always got frustrated by the ominousness of the chore, and it never got done well. I have also tried having one on everything related to dishes, like clearing the table, loading the dishwasher, emptying the dishwasher, and setting the table, one on sweeping, one on vacuuming, one on cleaning up the floors, and one on wiping all surfaces, but this didn't work well, because undoubtedly the person who had wipe surfaces would wipe them after the person who was supposed to sweep had already swept, and when the person who wanted to vacuum was ready to do his job, the person who had to pick up the floor was dropping toys into the containers at a rate of one toy every 10 seconds, and there were fights.

What the kids aren't noticing is that they are getting more work done then before, but so much of it is done right at the time the mess is made, like clearing their place and putting dishes in the dishwasher, and wiping the sink, that they feel like they don't have many chores.

Aaron noticed right away that things were improved. He is pleased. I know the mess has been bothering him, but he hasn't been too hard on me about it. I suppose last Sunday night, when he started doing the dishes, I felt bad, and didn't want it to be such a mess anymore. Although, maybe having him do the dishes once in a while shouldn't make me feel bad. Hmm.... I hadn't thought of it that way. But, considering the fact that on weekdays he gets up at 5:30am, studies, goes to work, works out at the gym, works some more, then comes home and either has (Mon.)FHE, (Tues.)piano lessons for other people's kids, (Wed.)Greek class and church assignments during Scouts, (Thurs.)piano lessons for our own kids, or (Fri.)date night with me, I don't know when he'd get time to do any housework. Saturdays he's good for yard work or activities with the kids and making dinner, and Sundays we can normally count on him making bread or cookies after he spends from 7am-3pm at the church (that's his idea of a relaxing afternoon, not mine), as well as some home teaching visits once or twice a month. No, I don't think housework fits into his schedule. I'll let seeing him doing the dishes make me feel bad. If the mess is so bad that he actually does the dishes, things have to change. And I'd say they just did.

Katie loves spaghetti.

What more can I say? I'm not sure how she ended up eating without a bib, but not to worry, it all came out, thanks to Shout.

Nauvoo

We went on a family vacation to Nauvoo, IL last week. We took the kids out of school for Thursday and Friday (although Friday was only a half-day, so I don't think they missed much). We left at 9:30am and arrived there a little after 6pm. We had some gas/potty/nursing breaks, plus a long wait at a drawbridge to cross the Mississippi river into IL from IA.

When we got settled in, we ate dinner at the hotel buffet, then took the kids swimming. They really enjoyed it, as we had the pool mostly to ourselves. I think the older four boys tried to dunk their dad for over an hour. Katie loves the water, and although I haven't taken her swimming in over a month, she seemed to remember it and like it just as much as always. She lets me lay her back in the water and float her around, and loves to splash her brothers. Aaron tossed her in the air a few times, and she thought that was great, although I though it was scary. She was clearing his head with her feet by quite a bit.

That night I got little sleep. Katie was cutting teeth and not comfortable in the pack 'n' play. She spent much of the night rolling around on my bed, whimpering.

First thing after our cereal and milk breakfast in the hotel room, we took the wagon tour through Old Nauvoo. We learned about the various houses and buildings, their owners from the days of Joseph Smith, and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Katie fussed for a couple of minutes at first, as it was already her nap time, but she fell asleep and allowed the rest of us to enjoy our hour-long tour. Afterward, she woke up and the kids all petted the horses, named Tom and Jerry.

After that, we went back to the hotel for our lunch - peanut butter and honey sandwiches, grapes, V-8 Fusion, and cheese sticks. Then, I had the kids each pick a place they heard about on the tour that they would like to explore for the afternoon.

William picked the Family Living Center, where we first took some photos in a nicely landscaped yard, then we learned about life in the mid-1840s. We just went to the kids' favorite parts, the rope-making demonstration, and the candle-making spiel (the kids were really disappointed that they didn't get to make candles, as they had in the past). Katie and Aidan played with some wooden toys, Katie tried to join some baby dolls in a rocking bassinet, and a few of them sat on a sheep by the spinning wheel demonstration.

Dallin chose the Browning Home and Gunsmith Shop. There, we learned how the father of the founder of the Browning Arms Company made guns. There is a pretty neat demonstration, as well as a beautiful home to look at. Aidan wouldn't sit still, and kept going to the other side of the velvet rope that was supposed to keep people out of the sitting room, but we made it through. I liked the trap door in the floor of the kitchen that led to the cellar. I suggested to Aaron that it would be a lot faster than my current system of going all the way through the basement to get to my food storage area, but he didn't go for that.

Next, we went to the Brickyard, which was Brandon's choice. We watched the brick-making demonstration, and came out with a souvenir brick (that's our third, as it is the third time we have been to Nauvoo). Katie played in the wood chips that surrounded the equipment (she honestly looked like a cat, digging in them the way she did), and then I took Aidan out, as he wouldn't keep quiet, and there were other people in that demonstration than just our family.

After that, we were tired of keeping Aidan and Katie in line, so I kept them in the grass while Aaron took the others to the School House. What's funny about that is that Aidan had wanted to go to Brigham Young's home, but he didn't really get that - he thought it sounded like Bubble Gum, and Aaron didn't want to go there because he said it bored the living daylights out of him, and so we explained that it wasn't a bubble gum house, and I convinced him to go to the school, because I wanted to go there. So then Aaron took the older kids there, and I missed it, and so did Aidan. How did I let that happen?

From there, we went to the Blacksmith's shop, which was Tristin's choice. Or maybe I should say Tristin and Brandon went to the Blacksmith's shop. I nursed Katie in the van, Aaron played soccer with Will and Ben in the field across the road, and Dallin and Aidan collected Black Walnuts. I have a nice stash in the door compartment in my van now. I'll have to remember to remove them and let them dry elsewhere. Tristin and Brandon came out with souvenir nail rings.

Following that, we went to do Ben's choice - see the Joseph Smith home. We saw signs that tours started in the Community of Christ Visitor's Center, so we went there, and found out that they charge a $2 preservation fee per person to take their tour. The sites the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints maintains are free of charge, and we didn't realize there was a cost to that one. Besides that, we would have to sit through their video, and the tour was an hour long. We didn't think Aidan would make it through without a meltdown, and Katie wasn't in the mood to sit through a video, so Aaron and I decided to pass. They did allow us to look through their "museum," which is about a 20'x10' room. There are plaques all over that say that there is no photography allowed inside their building, which was quite strange. It makes you wonder what they are hiding from. Anyway, there were some interesting letters written by Emma Smith in there, and some beautiful paintings. To appease Ben, who was being gypped at this point, we went to the cemetery next to Joseph Smith's house, which is open to everyone, whether or not they take the tour, and he and Aaron got out and walked around for a minute and saw Joseph, Emma and Hyrum's grave site. Ben was happy with this, and we went to town for ice cream.

Unfortunately, ice cream is not easy to come by at 3:30pm on a Friday afternoon in Nauvoo. This place has turned into a bit of a ghost town. Maybe it's just that it isn't summer, like it normally is when we go, but the ice cream place across from the Mill Deli and Bakery is vacant, and most of the stores - even diners - were either closed for the day, or closed prior to 2:30pm. Wierd!!!!! The Mill was open, but only had soft-serve ice cream. We made do with that, but I don't recommend the new flavors. They are a flavoring that is like a top-coat swirl on the outside of the vanilla ice cream, and it tastes tinny. At least the peach does, which is what I had. The kids seemed to like it pretty well. We got some cookies and a small loaf of wheat sourdough bread, and went back to the hotel from there, where Aaron and I collapsed while the kids watched T.V.

After a while, Aaron went to Casey's to pick up a pizza (no, there aren't any pizza delivery places in Nauvoo), and we ate, then he and the boys went to the pool, while I nursed Katie and put her to bed. I read a book after that. When they got back, Aaron turned on the T.V., and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was on. It was about halfway through, but the kids were all interested, and we watched the remainder of it. Then we had scripture & prayer, and they went to bed. Aaron and I stayed up for Stargate Atlantis, which we haven't watched in quite a while, but Daniel was in the episode, and we liked him in SG-1, so it was somewhat interesting to us.

Then, we went to bed. Unfortunately, Katie was now not only teething, but had some diarrhea, as well, and woke up soon thereafter. She tossed around worse than she had the night before, and after a while I remembered that I had some Tylenol in the diaper bag, and a half an hour after I gave it to her she finally calmed down, and I put her in her pack 'n' play, and she whined for only a moment, and then fell asleep!!!

I woke up a little before 8am to Aaron telling me that he was going to try to make the 8am endowment session, and Katie woke up, too. I nursed her, and felt some promptings that I should get to the temple, too. We were supposed to check out of the hotel at 11am, so that was no small feat, I realized. I decided to make it work. I got up and packed everyone up, showered, got everyone to eat some cereal, found that some of the kids had failed to do their homework, got them started, and pulled myself together enough to go to the temple. I wrote Aaron a note with instructions regarding the 11am check-out, and left at 9:26am to walk to the temple. This was not fun in my sandle-style heels. It was just under a mile walk, and I had to get there in time to rent clothes and change, and I wasn't sure I would even get in, as I forgot to call ahead for a reservation. Along the way, I skipped by an older lady - probably a sister missionary - who encouraged me with a "you'll make it!" And I smiled back and told her I hoped so! I made it there at about 9:38am, and was handed the last available women's ticket to the session.

I cut my time in the celestial room short in order to get back to Aaron and the kids - they were by this time playing at a park, having had to check out of the hotel at 11am, and I didn't want to stick Aaron with all seven of them alone like that for long, especially seeing as I had gone to the temple without Aaron knowing I was going until he returned to find Tristin babysitting at 10:30am. I expected him back sooner, but Tristin is a capable babysitter, especially with Katie napping, so it was fine.

Well, that's our Nauvoo trip. I recommend it. I think I'd rather go in the summertime and fight crowds a little, though. Maybe during the week, like we did last time, when the crowds aren't too bad, but things are still open. I missed Sunset at the Mississippi, the shows done by the summertime youth missionaries, and the Pioneer Playtime exhibit, where kids get to dress up and play pioneer games. We'll have to remember that for the next time we go, and we'll have something new for the younger kids to look forward to.

Melt-downs over!

Lately our three-year-old has been getting a little crazy (meltdowns in the evenings regularly), and Aaron suggested I do four things with him the next day after his brother went to kindergarten for the afternoon and his sister went down for a nap; read a book, do a chore, bake something (where he can mix the ingredients), and play a game. After doing this once with good results, I decided to keep it going the rest of the week, and I discovered two things. 1) afternoons go by really fast. 2) I really enjoy Aidan again.

Now, don't expect me to get much housework done with this system. It may not be feasible to do it every day, because before last week the afternoons were my time to throw on a video for Aidan while I got something done, and the house doesn't take care of itself, but Aaron says not to worry about housework too much. He says my first responsibility is to my kids, and that's something I can agree with.

Great-Grandkids with Nana

Aren't frequent flyer miles great? I used mine to fly my fabulous grandmother here from Maine last month. For years we kept saying we were going to go out to visit her with the kids, but the drive is so far and gas so expensive and Aaron's vacations so short that we had to cancel on her again this year. Then the idea arose - why not bring her to us?

She stayed with my parents while she was here, and came to visit on two different days. I would have loved to put her up here, but with all of the stairs (not to mention no guest bedroom), it wouldn't have worked well. Besides, staying with my parents allowed her to be more centralized to the whole family. On her second visit here, we had my sister's family and my cousin's family over, as well as my parents. We had a photo shoot, of course, and you can see all of the great-grandkids with her on the left. And these are only the ones in our state!

I really enjoyed our time together - especially the day she and Mom came and spent the afternoon with Aidan, Katie and me. We got to chat a lot, and I got to get to know her better. She is a very loving woman. I am glad I got the opportunity to see her. She's the only grandparent I have left, and with her so far away, I just haven't had many opportunities to visit with her in my lifetime.

My Eight Sweethearts

I have eight sweethearts. Their names are Aaron, Tristin, Brandon, William, Benjamin, Dallin, Aidan and Katherine. Yes, I just listed seven males and one female. The first one, Aaron, is my husband. The rest are my children. Six boys and one girl.

Aaron is my best friend and eternal companion. I love him with every part of my being. I would rather spend time with him than do anything else. He works hard to provide for our large family. He magnifies his calling in our ward. If he sets out to accomplish something, watch out, because it will happen, no matter what obstacles are in his way.

Last month we became parents of a teenager, as the thirteenth birthday of our oldest son commenced. Tristin is very responsible. He is an "A" student, a great babysitter, and is the only child we have so far that we can count on to get all of his chores done most of the time. He has a soft spot for his baby sister that is very cute to watch. He takes piano lessons from his dad, and percussion lessons from a professional percussionist in town, and is becoming really good at them. He is a Star rank in Boy scouts, and really enjoys camping. Especially anything having to do with fire or knives. He is also very creative. He can make motorized cars, if given spare computer parts and a bucket of Legos, and left to himself in the garage, he may come out with an air gun.

Brandon is our second-oldest. At ten years of age, Brandon has just started 5th grade at the middle school. I am quickly seeing him gain responsibility. He is very bright, although a little distractable, but he seems to be growing out of that. He also takes piano lessons from his dad (he's getting pretty good), and started learning the saxophone in school this year. He is very good with children, and makes up all kinds of games that younger kids enjoy playing with him.

William comes next in line. He turned nine last month. Willibug is our little socialite. He can gab for hours on end, nonstop. He is very smart, and likes everyone to know it. He doesn't care much for chores or homework, and avoids them at all costs. Currently, he is on a program where if the kitchen is not clean, he is grounded. This is in response to months of chore avoidance. It may seem harsh, but I do keep up the kitchen during the day. This doesn't always make for the cleanest kitchen, but we are hoping that it will make for a more dedicated William. William is also taking piano lessons from Dad, although so far getting him to practise is a chore in and of itself.

Benjamin is next. Benny-Bunny is seven. I'm sure eventually he'll tell me to quit calling him that. Ben is very sweet, and very bright. He is also a worrier. He was the only one of our boys who watched the Sunday afternoon session of General Conference with Aaron and me last weekend, and this by choice. He sat and took notes the whole time. I'm not sure he wanted to watch it just to learn. It could have been for the extra points he would get toward Dad's reward (something we do each conference to encourage the kids to pay attention). But that tells a little about his character, that he was dedicated to an outcome and was willing to follow it through. He is also surpassing William on the piano already, due to actually practising, and also due to some natural talent, in my opinion.

Dallin is our youngest in school. He started Kindergarten this year, and is our first to be reading before entering school. The others all had it by month two, but Dallin had a little extra help from Tad (the little boy frog from the LeapFrog videos) early on, and I saw his potential and helped him along. His teacher calls us every couple of weeks and tells us he is working on following directions. I guess he's testing the limits in his class. I'm sure he'll catch on soon.

Aidan is my buddy. He stays home with Katie and me while the brothers go to school. He's three and a half now, and still potty training. I had him out of pull-ups a couple of weeks ago, but he just doesn't see the need to to #2 in the toilet, so after frustrating Dad and Tristin when I wasn't home a couple of times, and a little begging from Aidan, we went back to the pull-ups. He stays dry, even overnight, but won't use the toilet for #2. A couple of days ago he started singing a song that went kind of like, "Mommy wants me to poop in the potty." I guess he gets it - he's just not ready. Aidan knows his letters and their sounds, and loves to draw pictures. He enjoys reading stories, and helping me mix ingredients when baking.

Katherine is my daughter. We don't call her Katherine much. Normally it is Katie or Kay-Kay. I had never thought of calling her Kay, but she started calling herself Kay-Kay at about 9 months, so it might just stick. She is a very happy baby, and sleeps well. I love dressing her up. She wears dresses a lot, and I think she likes to dress prettily just as much as I like dressing her that way. Katie was rolling at three weeks, rolling across rooms to get to toys on the other side at three months, and crawling before six months. She pulled to standing by seven months, and is still content to just walk along furniture. At ten months, she figured out heights. First, she got down off our bed by turning sideways and holding onto the comforter, then she swung her legs over and landed on both feet. I've never seen anything like it from a baby that young. The next time she went by stairs after that, I just watched her closely to see if she could do it. She had figured out that she needed to turn around and back down them, and she has only fallen down them once (she wasn't hurt), and she was being distracted by Dallin at the time. He felt bad, and now everyone makes sure to be careful when she's on the stairs. She's currently cutting her 7th & 8th teeth. She is still nursing, but bites a lot, and I have mixed feelings about weaning her, as I am planning on it this month, as she closes in on 12 months of age. I love my nursing time with her, and at the same time it signals a bit of freedom for me. As she is my last baby (barring any acts of God) it is bound to be an emotionally difficult experience for me.