While You Were Sleeping... I mean Working

You remember the movie? I've always liked it but it doesn't have much to do with my post...except for the fact that a lot has happened while Todd's been gone working. Here's the jest of it;

We bought a van. Todd got to test drive it before he left so he knew we were getting it, but I had to deal with getting the $ from the bank, paying the couple we bought it from, and registering at the DMV with THREE kids! Needless to say, I am LOVING the van. It's the nicest vehicle we've ever purchased (and most expensive--but worth it...so far). I hope the kids will help in keeping it looking nice. So far, so good. Check that off the list of things to do before we can go on a family vacation in California.

 

Payton had his last baseball game. He's had a good season and their team did pretty well. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to the minor leagues next year. Machine pitch is nice because all the pitches are generally in the right area...most of the time. He had a good coach and enjoyed the season. That's what matters, right?
 

Jess took her first steps. I still have yet to catch it on film but I do have a couple pictures of her standing by herself. Her first steps happened while I was talking on the phone to Kandice. She was hanging on to my legs and took two steps to get to the wall. Shocked me! She's really not that steady, but apparently she's steady enough.

I took the kids to church TWICE by myself. This is huge. I could have easily stayed home but what would that have proven to the kids (and to myself and the Lord). Luckily Todd will be home this weekend so I don't have to go-it-alone. I'm not sure how those military wives do it for so long. {no picture to show you but just imagine what I might have looked like}


Porter graduated from Kindergarten. It was a tricky transition to move in the middle of the school year but we all survived. Porter went from an all day kindergarten in La Verkin to afternoon kindergarten at Horizon Elementary. I'm so glad we got Mrs. Key because she was so easy to work with and Porter loved her as a teacher. He even got a little embarrassed when I read the comment on his report card that said, "Porter is so cute." He's so excited to be big enough for 1st grade!

 
I sold our car. When we first bought the van I was sad about selling the car because I loved it so much. The gas mileage was great, parking wasn't a problem, and after we fixed the transmission it was a great little cruiser. The more I drive the van, though, the more I was ok with saying goodbye. The best part is that I was able to sell it for $500 more than I expected. $4500.00 later I watched it pull out of the drive way for the last time.

We had a visitor. It's weird how this one happened, and it's really not that big of a deal, but I had a cute picture to post with this one. We were on our way to put our 'car money' in the bank when I saw a car that looked like Todd's G-pa Roy. It turned around behind us and followed us to the main road and then turned back around up the street. I decided I better turn around too, just in case it really was G-pa Roy and he was looking for us. It's a good thing I did because it was him. He's never been to our house and he was lost. He was just bringing me a history of his Grandfather that I had asked about a few weeks ago. He's such a good guy! I had to help lead him out because he was a little turned around but it was fun to have him visit for a minute.

Busy week and a half...kinda...not really...but I tried to make it sound like I did A TON of things without the man of the house around. We'll be so happy to have our dad home again! 

Foot Napkin

Just a quick one tonight: PAYTON {he thinks he's so funny}

The other night we had eaten pasta for dinner. Of course we can't seem to keep things on our plates and at least some of it has to {JUST HAS TO!} hit the floor--and it's not just Jess that has this habit. Payton got up from the table and walked past the high chair when he hit a noodle with his foot. Instead of picking up his foot and wiping it off, he had to DRAG his foot across the floor-smearing it everywhere his foot went. I couldn't let it go. I had to get after him. He then walked over to the kitchen rug and continued wiping off his foot. That was almost worse! His excuse? "What? I thought the rug was like a foot napkin!" Son, son, son. Since when do we use ANY kind of napkins around this house?!

Maybe someday, somehow, someone will teach this boy some manners...Maybe!

Happy Mother's Day

Some years I don't really enjoy Mother's Day because I have to 'share' my {birthday} with my day to celebrate being a {mom}. Not this year! I enjoyed Saturday night in Vegas for one of my niece's baptism. I took Porter, Julia and Jess with me and left Payton home with daddy. Todd called me while we were there and let me know he had been called out on a fire and he'd be leaving at 4 in the morning. We didn't leave Vegas until really late so we weren't home until about 1am. I honestly don't remember Todd leaving that morning but I know he kissed me goodbye.

Sunday morning was not much different than I expected. I had four tired kids, two of which were very whiney (can you guess which ones?--yup, the ones who had been up too late with me the night before). Payton was complaining about his legs being too itchy {he got swimmers itch from his fishing extravaganza with his dad the day before} AND his pants {that we just bought less than six months ago} are too tight. Hmmm. Imagine that! I still remember walking out the door to get something out of the car and hearing my kids crying in the house. I literally laughed out loud because it always seems funnier when it's Mother's Day. It was tricky getting everyone ready for church and out the door on time but we made it close to the right time. It made me feel better when three other families had to stand in the foyer until the opening prayer ended.

This was our first Mother's Day in this ward and I loved it! They made preparations for all {Yes! ALL} the sisters to be in Relief Society. The men had to step in and teach Primary and Young Women lessons. Then when we were all in the Relief Society room we got to munch on cream puffs covered in chocolate sauce, fresh strawberries, grapes and pineapple, and topped it off with a cucumber sprite drink. We ate, visited, and then listened to a refreshing, honest, and inspiring lesson given by the R.S. President. It was awesome!

We had dinner with Todd's family so at least I didn't have to cook my own mother's day meal. We missed having our dad around but we're glad he made it safely to his destination in Mesa.

I still don't know how long Todd will be gone. There are times when I'm completely overwhelmed and can't wait for the kids to shut their yappers and get into bed. But for the most part, we're getting along ok. I haven't 'cooked' a meal for my family for a week and a half now. I might get used to that. Or I might just have to change my bad habits when Todd gets home and he doesn't feel like eating frozen burritos, chicken nuggets or hot dogs. Imagine that.

Sucking all the fun - Birthday Week

This last week has been a good, crazy, fun week. I celebrated another birthday on the 9th and I feel like I got spoiled for more than just that day. My sisters, Tiffani and Kandice, took me out to lunch at the water park on main street. Of course we had to go to a kid friendly place because we all had to bring a couple along. It was a delicious salad from wingers and the kids got pizza. After playing for a while it was time to get home because I had two boys coming home from school. The boys beat me home and were a little upset that I wasn't home when they got there. They were even more upset that we had gone and done something FUN without them!

That night Todd took us all to dinner which was perfect! I get tired of cooking and then cleaning it all up everyday. After the kids were in bed Todd and I watched "The Vow" ...well at least I watched it. Todd struggled staying awake but it was a good birthday!

The next day I had kept Kandice's kids for the morning while she was working. I met her over at my mom's that afternoon with the kids and hung out until it was time for the boys to be home from school again. Well, no surprise when I came home and the boys were already there...again. They let me know that it was two days in a row now that they were home before me. I tried to use, "I had to take care of Kandice's kids" as an excuse but I could tell I was not making it on the 'perfect mom' list.

Friday was Tiff's birthday so I got to go to Hurricane for her birthday lunch. It was fun to see girls that I used to see when I lived over there. Of course I wanted to stay and visit longer but the kids got out early on Friday and I knew I was going to be late...again. When I walked in the door Porter turned on the water works and said, "This is THREE days in a row that you've left us!!" Then Payton piped in, "You are always leaving us and going and having fun while we're in school!!" I should have been more sympathetic but I wasn't.

Later that afternoon Todd and I went and test drove a van and Tiff offered to take the kids to my mom's for a bit. We LOVED the van...and have since made the purchase (post to come) but rushed back to my mom's to get the kids and take them to G-ma Julie's so Todd and I could go out on a date--alone--with each other--ahhh! (see how spoiled I've been). While Tiff had my kids in the car they vented to her about their mom always being gone. Payton said, "My mom is just sucking all the fun out of everything" (or something like that). Tiff tried to defend me by saying it was my B-day week and I should get spoiled but I don't think Payton took that as an excuse.

I loved sucking all the fun out of the week. Makes getting older not so bad!

Easter 2012

We had an enjoyable Easter this year. I guess that could be contributed to the fact that we had family around us all the time! Trudi and Cheri were able to bring their families up a few days before Easter so we had fun playing together...and so did the cousins. We were able to take the kids on a little hike in Snow Canyon and then we played in the same sand dunes that we played in when we were kids. My mom was nice enough to keep Jess so I could play with my kids in the sand. The highlight of this trip is learning that I can do a back handspring. Tiffani was watching a couple of Trudi's kids do them and then she said, "I've always wanted to be able to do that! I'm almost 35 years old and I'm going to learn how to do that!" Of course I couldn't let her show me up so I was in too! I guess it was a good thing that we were on a slant and doing them down hill or I might not have been able to do it. I guess it just made me feel 'young' to think I could still do something like that. Thankfully we had some good spotters and coaches to talk us through the mental battle we were having.

When we got home from the hike we took the kids back to g-ma and g-pa Turek's for a bite to eat and then we were off to the park to play some baseball. Honestly, I'm surprised no one got hurt because we were playing with kids as young as five and as old as...well, I shouldn't disclose any ages, and we were playing with a real softball, bats, gloves, the works. It was fun though...and that's probably because no one got hurt.

When we got done with that we went back to home base (g-ma and g-pa's again) and had dinner--PIZZA!!
I let my kids play until it got dark and then called it a day before the night games got started. I figured it was better that my kids didn't know what they were missing out on. I think I slept really well that night, and so did the kiddos.

Saturday evening we went out to the sand dunes in Warner Valley and had hamburgers and hot dogs. The kids had an easter egg hunt and loved riding around on the 4-wheelers and climbing the rocks.

 Sunday we went to Todd's G-ma Wittwer's and had the annual Easter Egg hunt. She's so cute because she dresses up like the Easter Bunny and litters the ground with toys and prizes for the little kids (7 and under) and then she has eggs filled with candy and $$ for the kids to find. There is a $5 egg and the golden egg has $10 in it. Finding the golden egg has major bragging rights, which the Calico family has yet to gain. One funny thing that happened Sunday morning is when the kids found their Eater baskets from the Easter Bunny that comes to our house, Porter said, "I like the Easter Bunny that is Grandma Wittwer better. She gives us cooler stuff." I wasn't sure if I should laugh or kick his patooti for being such a spoiled little stink.

 On the way home we stopped by the cemetery in Santa Clara to see the headstone of Todd's dad and little brother, Trent. We hardly ever get out there but I justify it because Todd says he's closer to his dad when he's in the mountains or hunting and fishing than when he's at the cemetery. It's still good for the kids to remember their Grandpa Calico (or at least the stories that people share about him with us).

I worry that we're failing in teaching our children the true meaning of Easter. I know they know, but we seem to have a lot of the 'other stuff' that can distract. I can only hope that it's just because of their age and the older they get the more they might realize how awesome Easter is in the spiritual aspect.

  This was the best shot I got all the kids together. Sad. Uncooperative kids at the end of the day full of sugar and sun. Not prime conditions for pictures.