Dino Dig

Last night we went to the Science Fair at the High School. We walked around and saw some booths and some interesting demos, like tasting different foods and putting stickers on a giant tongue on where you tasted the food on your own tongue. One of the kids' favorites things was the "Dino Dig".

All four of mine!

Abby is on the left (with her head turned) and Hyrum is in the navy jacket.

This morning Annette is going to the temple. The three toddlers and I will play here at home. After we pick up kids at school we'll do chores/homework, play and then put on a movie while I teach two piano lessons back-to-back. We're having Amy's Hawaiian Teriyaki Chicken dish for dinner and get everyone ready for bed early. I've got one more lesson at 7pm, we'll try out a little X-box and then it will be time for bed.

Cosmic Jump

Annette and Hyrum arrived here yesterday at about 11:30am. The kids played, I put away the rest of the laundry I was doing, we had lunch and then quiet time. After I picked up Allen and Abby from school we headed to the Ark, where we got really close parking spaces. Why? Because there was a rainstorm coming and people were afraid of hail (and they warned us about it to.) There was lots of rain, but no hail.

After it closed we came home and I taught one piano lesson. We had manicotti, green beans, and cornbread for dinner and oatmeal cookies for dessert. Then we headed over to Cosmic Jump (a trampoline/bounce house) center to let everyone (but me) just around for an hour. All kids came home and went right to sleep.

This morning we are going to go to story time at the library. It's colder today -- 40s instead of 60s. Not sure if the kids will want to do the park or not.

Phone Pictures and Worms

Some recent photos from Ross's phone --

Mavericks and OK Thunder game on Jan 18th

Abby eating birthday cake at Jacob's party on Jan 19th

Allen loved this slide at the Aquatic Center on Jan 19th.  He told me he went down it 19 times.
He wants to go there for his birthday party now.

Allen sitting by Nate, the birthday boy.

He says Nate is one of his best friends in his class.

After the birthday party Allen climbed to the top of the tower at Kid Country.

 Other Tidbits:

• Finding the container quick oats contaminated with worms (probably 40 just on the top) was the scariest thing yesterday morning! The next scariest thing is coming back a few hours later and seeing the garbage can lid covered with about 10 of the worms.
• Took the girls shopping with me yesterday in the late morning. They don't ride in the cart anymore so I can to constantly make sure they are by me. It's so much better to shop early in the morning when the stores are more empty. We get plenty of looks, smiles and comments.
• Ross taught Family Home Evening last night on baptism. He showed pictures, explained more and tried a practice with Allen. He's just got a few months before he turns 8 years old.
• It's pretty cute to see Jane and Emma play the Balloon Game (where you stand in a circle close together, holding hands and everyone blows and you spread out and out until the balloon pops and everyone falls down)and Ring-Around-the-Rosie. They get so excited by those two activities.
• I asked Ross to wipe down the top shelf in the cupboard and check for any other worms. Turns out he found not only worms, but their webbing and cocoons in the holes up and down both sides of the cupboard. We also found them in the bread crumb container. Ross had to take everything out and then he spent about an hour poking out worms and all their debris. While he did that I worked on the other side of the kitchen making cookies, brownies, cornbread and manicotti. Between all the cooking and emptying the big cupboard there was really no counter space.

Ready for Company

Today's household goals will be vacuuming every room in the house, meal preparation, and grocery shopping for the week. I have most ingredients, but need to get some milk and produce. My sister Annette and her son Hyrum will be coming to visit us for a few days (while Caleb is out of town presenting at BYU-Idaho) and I want to make sure I have everything here and ready so we don't have to do any runs to the store.

It's just past 7:30am, Ross and the kids left for school, and two little girls are still sleeping... ahhh! I think I'll go read while it's quiet here.

TT DRU

We all wore white today (shirts and dresses), but Allen, who wore a light blue polo shirt. Our family took a morning walk and delivered Ross Bars to our new ward neighbors down the street. Since the little girls were up at 6:30am and others were up soon after, and all kids went to bed after 9pm last night we had many morning meltdowns and a major one after church. Church was good. I taught the 4th verse of "I Am a Child of God" in primary and the kids really got into my "Jack 'n the Box" game (see more details here). We had a yummy dinner of beef stroganoff (sauce from the crock pot), peas, salad, bread, cottage cheese and mandarin oranges. Catherine, who got a new calling as a Relief Society counselor today, brought over a chocolate cream pie for dessert. Before bed all the kids were to report to two main rooms and help straighten things up. To make it more fun Ross and I called this clean-up crew the Tucker Tornado Disaster Recovery Unit (TT DRU). Not sure if the kids really got into the name of it, but it sure helped them settle down for bed. It's a good thing when halfway through cleaning they say, "I can't do anymore. I'm just so tired." Once we finished up they hopped in bed and never got out again.

Morn, Noon, Night

Morning: errands -- post office, Jabo's Ace hardware (free popcorn!), drug store, library... and kids sneaking chocolate for breakfast.
Afternoon: two different birthday parties for Allen and Abby to attend and fighting Emma for over an hour at nap time.
Night: law clerk dinner (with smoked turkey, smoked macaroni and cheese, bow-tie pasta, spinach salad and Ross bars we brought) that we took the whole family to. Luckily the "Tucker Tornado" left their gorgeous home in one piece.

Early Shopping

With everyone up early today we'll get some early shopping done at Target. I'm looking for one thing in particular and I know the girls will not want to ride in the cart. They will want to walk freely. A morning visit is probably the best because there is less people to dodge around the store. Later we might go on a walk down the street. After school the kids and I need to start working on our Valentines. It's my turn for date night tonight and I'm stumped. Hopefully an idea will come to me sometime today. Did you know that you could give musical notes a double letter name? My piano student was being silly last night and doing just that.

Big Baby

Cinco is measuring about 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule. She's a big baby (4 lbs, 14 oz), measuring in the 90-97th percentile, and I've got about 7 more weeks to go. I can just blame it on the diabetes, right? Good thing she'll be a c-section delivery. (Or is that a good thing?) Abby tells me she does not want to grow up because then she has to have babies and she doesn't want to get cut open, even though I tell her that lots of women do not get cut open. Too bad she's only five and already worrying about what's ahead.

Today I've had two interesting discussions about diabetes. First, the sonogram technician said she had been having some weird symptoms and that her doctor started testing her for diabetes. When she saw my name on her schedule today she was eager to talk to me. Second, when I picked up the girls at the Carters' house, Tiffany mentioned they were doing some lab work to check if their toddler might have diabetes. We started talking about symptoms again and how to treat it. Whenever I explain to people what I do to manage my diabetes (i.e. insert the pump site, set the pump, prick fingers, carb count and increase dose for the next several hours to include high fatty foods, adjust pump settings according to activity level so I don't drop low, insert sensor after being charged, keep all supplies up to date and ordered, correct for highs, keep extra sugar with me at all times...) it really sounds tricky.And it is. I've done it for 12 years and still try to tweak it and figure things out so my blood glucose levels are good. I'm hoping neither person today I talked to have to do anything like that permanently.

Jane and Emma are sleeping (hooray!) so I have about 30 more minutes of quiet time to myself. Then it's off to pick up the other two, play on the school playground to burn some energy, come home to teach two piano lessons and put on a movie for the four kids, dish up dinner, get everyone ready for bed and then teach another piano lesson this evening. Glad I did all my errands this morning and tonight's dinner (rice dish, peas, and peasant bread) is in the fridge.

Beach Ball Mommy

Ross gave me a hug this morning on his way out the door and called me "Beach Ball Mommy." He's right. For some reason I am carrying this single baby higher than the first two, but I'm doing well. Here is me at 30.5 weeks.

***
Yesterday we went and saw Catherine at her place, as she is still recovering from surgery last week, and we brought along some yummy salads from Wendy's for lunch. Near the end of our visit Emma and Jane put their heads down on some pillows and covered themselves with blankets.This is what Catherine emailed us and her family later:

So my girls have really figured out this whole 'sick day' concept. :) *** I love the quote yesterday I found in my inbox: "So much in life depends on our attitude. The way we choose to see things and respond to others makes all the difference. To do the best we can and then to choose to be happy about our circumstances, whatever they may be, can bring peace and contentment." - Pres. Thomas S. Monson

Pancakes and Eggs

I heard Jane's door open and close at 6:15am this morning. Then I waited, anticipating her frequent request,  but she never came in my room. It was about 5 minutes later that I heard girls giggling in the other room. Yes, she went in her older kids' room, climbed in Abby's bed and now the two of them were playing. Hope she does that every school morning. It's a great way to get the kids up. They much prefer Jane's friendly "alarm" than than their parents' abrupt one.

Since we were up earlier than normal on a school day I made scrambled eggs and pancakes, which made everyone even happier. Ross and the kids left out the door a few minutes earlier than normal departure time.

While the kitchen was already used and messy from breakfast I finished frying up all the pancake batter (I'll freeze those pancakes and pull them out for quicker breakfasts), then I started dinner preparations, browning sausage and vegetables for Tuesday's rice dish. And after I finished cleaning that up I thought I'd do a really good job with the kitchen and sweep. Heck, after that I decided to mop. Now the floor is drying and I'll be pulling out the vacuum to use in the rest of the house and rotate the books in our book basket. My day has kind of become one of those If you Give a Mouse a Cookie book because one thing has led to another, but in a good way, and I've found my sleepy self completely productive. It's awesome.

In a little while the girls and I will go visit Catherine, maybe take her some lunch, and when the older kids get home from school we'll do their weekly piano lesson. Both also need haircuts and I've got another piano student coming late in the afternoon.

Perot Museum

Jane repeated her Sunday morning routine this morning too, coming to the side of my bed saying, "rock, please." Luckily this time it was 6am (instead of 5am) and I grabbed a fleece blanket to cover us. Not only did I have squirmy Jane at my left side but squirmy Cinco favoring my inner right side. With the two moving about I didn't really get much sleep after that.

On the way to the museum we had our Family Home Evening lesson in the car. We talked about how we are all children of Heavenly Father. We sang all three verses of "I Am a Child of God" (and I made to sure to notice if Allen and Abby remembered the words I taught them that last two Sundays in primary). I introduced the new scripture mastery that would hanging in the kitchen this week (D&C 8:2-3) and shared a story about when the Holy Ghost prompted me when to leave the playground with all four kids to avoid a major rainstorm. Then I talked about the day's holiday and read Martin's Big Words. We talked about how Heavenly Father is so creative that he made people of all different colors, shapes, sizes and ages, but we are all his children and he loves us all, and we need to treat all of His children nicely.

We spent the day at the Perot Science and Nature Museum. We started at the top floor (the 4th) and worked our way down to the lower level which was where the Children's Museum was. We learned about space / dinosaurs / birds (4th floor), earth / minerals / gems (3rd floor), life / Texas climate zones / engineering and innovation (2nd floor), and sports hall / children's museum (Lower Level).

We took a lunch break after the 3rd floor, going all the way down to the first floor and then finally going outside because the cafe was completely full. We sat on some steps around other people and were a little distant to a little stream / giant frog decor in the front. After the kids ate they slowly wandered along the creek, throwing rocks in and watching the water. Jane was the furthest away, but I could see everyone from a distance. Soon I couldn't see Jane. I was just about to get up and look for her when Abby came up and said that Jane got wet. I stood up and saw Jane completely soaked (even her hair), holding the hands of a stranger who was looking for her parents and walking toward the museum entrance. Whoops! Poor thing was bawling. I asked Ross if the bathrooms had a air dryers and he replied, "Yes, they are Dyson (air blade)." Off went Jane's shirt and on went her jacket. We went back inside, found the bathroom, and took turns going in and using the restroom and drying clothes/socks/shoes in the power dryer. We got most of the water blown off (those machines are powerful, but you'd almost have to stand there for as long as a dryer cycle), but poor Jane had to wear damp pants, socks and shoes for the rest of the trip. It didn't seem to bother her though and before too long she was asleep in the stroller and we saw the second floor with Emma buckled in the stroller too.

We ended our museum experience at the Children's Museum, and ironically, all the four kids ended at the water zone and all left the museum with partially wet clothes, joining Jane's club. Overall the museum was good. It's hard to not compare it to others we've been to around the country (and we were the most disappointed because the children's museum part was about 3x as big and 10x cooler in the old building they just moved out of -- you'd think they would make the brand-new museum better, right?), but we liked it. It's a place that's not too far from Ross's office and somewhere we can go if we are in the downtown area. There were loads of people today so it will be nice to go on a regular day when there aren't so many lines for all interactive stuff. My favorite museum of all time is still the Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry and we went there plenty of times.

Here is us in front of the Woolly Mammoth

The kids are building dinosaurs with magnetic pieces.
Abby is laughing at Allen about something when this was taken.

Here is a giant drill in the gem/mineral area.
I love how Jane is giving her teddy bear a piggie back ride.

Allen is working the remote-control car and is trying to move blocks around.

Abby's silhouette causes these blocks to flip to show her shape.  

Emma is driving the Farmer's Market truck.

Allen spent most of the time trying different things to fill up the entire lock.

Emma spent a lot of time in the water too filling up different toys.

I loved seeing her in a little apron.

Abby came down the slide in the city building area.

She has on a construction outfit as she poses by Reunion Tower.

The kids loved this steep bridge.
Here is Jane going over it with her Farmer's Market bag.

At one point the four kids had the water zone to themselves and were working together.
(Emma is right behind Abby's arm.)

Abby and Jane started working together a few minutes before it was time to leave.

On the way home Ross ordered some street tacos for him and I at our favorite place -- Fuel City. I'm sure going to miss those juicy babies once we move. It's our favorite thing to get when we're near his office. Emma fell asleep on the way home and once we arrived home I dressed the girls in dry and warm footie pajamas. We played a little bit of X-box and the kids gobbled down a box of macaroni between the four of them. Everyone got to bed a little on the early side (they should since they get me up early, right?), I stopped by to visit Catherine and we watched one episode of Chuck, leaving us just two left of the whole show. Now it's time to get ready for bed because I'm going to have an early visitor come right up to my sleepy face about 6am and say, "Rock, please?"

Jane, the Early Riser

Jane came into our room at about 5am wide awake. She wanted me to rock her. So out we went on the rocking chair. I finally reclined it, in hopes that she would fall asleep. She squirmed a lot, dropped a washcloth that was almost out of reach for me with this pregnant body and I was prepared for her to pop out of my arms at any minute to go find something else in the darkness that interested her. It took a while but she did fall asleep. It wasn't the most comfortable (since I sleep slightly on my side now) and I wish I would have grabbed a blanket to put over us, but it was nice to rest longer.

I heard Allen and Abby with LOUD voices at about 7am because they were excited to start playing with Abby's play dough candy shop and make shakes for "future customers". Of course, it woke up Emma, who is in the room next door and woke up Jane who was on my lap. All the kids gathered near the dough toys and I climbed back in bed. It wasn't long and then Jane and Emma came over a few times wanting to climb in bed but not really wanting to stay long. Ross finally left to go help resolve some crying and arguing among the group, shut the door and let me sleep longer. I ended up sleeping until almost 9am. Yes, I was tired.

The kids had baths/showers this morning and everyone is ready (except for Abby's hair) to go to church. Jane and Emma are wearing cute ponytails with bows. Allen is wearing his handsome new vest/pant outfit he got for Christmas and Abby is wearing her new sparkly black dress which she says makes her "feel like a rock star". All the kids are watching a bible video while Mommy and Daddy work on their computers, responding to church emails or updating the blogs.

We have church in about 2 hours. The girls are excited about nursery and I'm all ready for primary. Click here to see today's lesson plan, teaching sign language to "I Am Like a Star" and the 3rd verse of "I Am a Child of God.".

Tonight's dinner is brought to us by Ross's work. An intern brought tamales from his family's restaurant (Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth as seen on the TV show the DayTripper -- go to 19.41 for the Joe T. Garcia slot) to a potluck event at work, and there was plenty leftover, which Ross brought home. So we'll have tamales, salad, black beans and chips. Tomorrow in honor of Martin Luther King Day, with a day off work and school, we'll be using our new museum pass to the Perot Science Museum downtown. It should be fun.

Early Birthday Activity

• The Chicago pizza was yummy last night and the basketball game (part of Ross's early birthday present) was exciting. A Dallas player hit a 3-pointer right at the end of the game to tie it and go into overtime, which made us get home even later than planned. Dallas ended up losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but we saw one player make 50+ points. In the word's of Ross's Facebook status: Got to see Kevin Durant drop 52 points on the Mavericks tonight. That guy and Russell Westbrook can get their shots off on anyone at any time. 
• Ross mowed the lawn this morning and took Allen and Abby out to do errands during the girls' nap time. Luckily I got a little nap too. Some of the things they bought include new shoes, treats for Allie (who tended last night) to go with their cards, a birthday present for Allen's party next week and some groceries. 
• It was a very low-key Saturday with nothing on the calendar but getting things done around the house and crossed off the to-do list.
• All four kids watched a few old episodes of Scooby-Doo (which they really like) today and the older two earned some computer time.
• With the nicer weather today in the 60's we walked down to the park (Jane and Emma pushed their animals in their strollers and Allen rode his scooter), played on the toys, tried out our new parachute guys by launching them off the high bridge on the playground, fed the ducks, and walked back. It was a perfect activity near the end of the day.
• Ross is going out for a long 2+ hour run and I hope to finish lots of things (like writing in journals, a batch of indexing, washing my hair, some sewing, some reading) while he's gone. His next marathon is in April.

Two Visits from the Cheese Monsters

This morning the girls and I went on our last visiting teaching appointment this week (and this month since we've done all three now). Anna, a new sister added to our visiting teaching list, has a girl in their nursery class so Jane and Emma had fun playing with their toys while we visited. She also had a son in Allen's primary class, a son in Abby's primary class and Anna is the teacher of Abby's class too. So we have lots of connections to this fairly new family to the ward. I loved seeing their home with the open layout and the loft balcony that reminded me of the Sound of Music. Makes me wonder what kind of home we'll end up renting for two years in California. I have to admit I kind of like the change every few years of a new place to live in. There are always things I miss from other homes and things that I really like about the new place we live. You'd think with all the housing options we've had over the last 9 years I could build myself the perfect home with the best of everything, right? Maybe when we decide where we'll be permanently settling, which we are in no hurry to do. Until then we'll just keep being vagabonds.

After we left our visiting teaching appointment, I called Catherine and we stopped over at her place. She was released from the hospital last night and her sister is there to help her. We had a good visit and Jane and Emma enjoyed all the Saltines, leaving crumbs around and stuffed animals scattered about. Good thing "Aunt Catherine" and Emily and Baby Andrew don't mind at all.

On the way home I talked to my sister Annette on the phone. They were having grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, which inspired me for our lunch. I had machine out and the cheese slicer out with the block of cheese and left the room for a minute to check my email. When I got back the girls had pulled the block of cheese down and were taking turns gnawing off the top. Turns out they filled up on enough cheese that they only needed a few slices of clementine and a glass of milk for lunch. I ended up eating all the grilled cheese sandwiches we made.

***
Other Tidbits:

• Tonight Ross and I are going to see the Mavericks play the Oklahoma City Thunder as an early birthday present for Ross. We are going out for pizza before the game. This is the first time while living in Texas that a teenager would be babysitting. Catherine was planning on doing it until her episode in the hospital this week. In her condition she was nice enough to arrange a sitter for us, asking one of her former Beehives.
• Abby told me a funny thing yesterday. "Mom, girls rule and boys drool... except Daddy ... because I like him."
• I took the kids to the Ark yesterday after school. They did so well helping each other we'll go back next week.
• Allen and Abby have done great this week with their chores. They have been doing three a day all week. And they have earned some computer time with good behavior during school.
• No matter if I have paper out or not Jane still manages to get marker all over her hands and fingers. But I'm glad she didn't get any on her shirt, face and arms though. During one of our hospital visits she used the black whiteboard marker and gave herself some "clown make-up". Even after wiping it off she had a smudge under one eye, looking like smeared mascara on a two year old.
• Emma really like putting socks on her hands like little mittens. I finally gave her an extra pair just for her hands so she wouldn't have to take her shoes off and use those socks. We'll by doing that she just takes off her shoes and tried to put the extra pair of socks over the ones on her feet.
• Last night I woke up at 1am with a blood sugar of 42. The night before I woke up at 4:30am with a blood sugar of 50. To avoid this again I will have to force myself with a bedtime snack even if I don't want to. But in the meantime it's getting my body ready to handle a newborn again.
• Ross is reading Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger to Allen and Abby at night before bed. Once he leaves it's funny the conversations they have in their room about the strange and silly characters in the book.

Kind of Funny

• It's funny to hear Jane call Abby "Abby Sue". She calls her that more than I do. When they left for school I heard, "Bye-bye Abby Sue."
• Last night when Abby lost a charm off her fairy wand she became pretty upset. Ross told her that it was okay because then a cockroach would be happy to find it and play with it. We'd see a cockroach scurrying around with the jewel. That made her and me laugh. Then about a minute later, she found the gem. Ross said there was going to be a disappointed cockroach somewhere.
• This morning when Ross asked Allen what he wanted for breakfast he asked, "what do we have?" Ross started listing every item and condiment in the fridge. That made Allen laugh. (He lost a tooth yesterday at drama club).
• Jane was really upset with something this morning (I think she tripped and bumped her head) and Emma went and brought her a washcloth which always calms her right down. Now that's just cute.
• I'm going to pick up Catherine's sister at the airport. She asked to borrow an infant car seat and pack 'n play. I told her she was in luck because we just got down the infant car seat out of the attic, adding it to our pile as we prepare for baby, and we have two extra pack 'n plays (when I told Ross to grab the navy one instead of the pastel one, I got an eye-roll, which made me laugh. I said since it would be a baby boy using it we might as well give them the navy.) How many people even have a color choice on which pack 'n play they loan? It's kind of funny owning three pack 'n plays (Jane sleeps in one of them), but that's what you get when you are at a yard sale and they are selling two matching pastel ones in great condition for $3 a piece.

Hospitals

This morning I started laundry loads early. I'm washing the 4th load now and the ironing is all done. The girls and I are having a snack (I'm really eating breakfast -- I never want to eat early, plus I had to wait for my medication to kick in) and then we are going to go visit Catherine in the hospital. Seeing her in the hospital yesterday gives me a reminder glimpse of what I am in for in about 9 weeks. Whenever I'm in the hospital after a baby I feel kind of like I'm in jail -- trapped in my room, in my bed with all kind of cords, I'm at the mercy of my nurses for pain meds on time and keeping my blood sugar in control (I really hate how they don't let me monitor it myself in the hospital. No offense, but I've got 12 years experience. They don't know very much and I'm in their care?? Please. My doctor last time said we had to get me out of there because the food and the nurses were ruining my blood sugar levels. Yep!) Plus, with all those annoying, beeping machines and the frequent nurses coming to poke me at all hours, I really can't sleep. Oh, the joys of having a baby. Good thing after such a horrible few days in the hospital, I get a cute little bundle to take home and raise. It's worth it. I'd do it again and again and again, if my body was up for it.

Off we go to get in the car...

ER and Snow

I took Catherine to the ER last night for severe abdominal pain. Turns out she is in the early stages of a appendicitis and will be having surgery this morning to have her appendix removed. I'm glad she had the courage to call me at 2am. I stayed with her in the ER about 2 hours and got home about 5am and started seeing teeny flecks of snow falling. I slept until the kids needed to leave for school and I could hear their excited voices. Abby was really excited by the snow she saw outside. There is about an inch and schools are on with no delays today. Jane and Emma are excited by it too. In fact, Emma is staring out the window now at it. She's been there for a while. We've been reading lots of winter books lately so I think they find it fun to see "white" outside just like in the books.

Monday Tasks

It was a good weekend and it's the start of another week. Lunches are packed, kids are getting dressed and I'm thinking what tasks I need to do today -- rotate the toys in the toy room, organize my closet a little better and pick up some ice cream at the store so we can have Root Beer floats for Abby's Family Home Evening night. Yesterday I helped her picked the topic (the 2nd gospel standard on the primary list -- "I will remember my baptismal covenant and listen to the Holy Ghost") and Ross helped her plan out a whole lesson to teach. I always find it so cute to see little kids conduct a meeting and announce the order.

All on Daddy

Yesterday while I finished up dinner preparations for Sunday (yes, Sunday because I already had Saturday's ready for cooking and while I'm already in the kitchen, making a mess cooking and dirtying dishes, I try to do more than one meal to save me hassle later), Ross read winter books to the kids. All four of them wanted to sit on his lap. It's kind of a struggle to hold the book with all those little bodies. Allen finally stayed where he was on the arm of the recliner) but he was reading his own book. The kids love their dad!

Today is the 2nd church meeting this year with the 12:30pm time. I actually don't mind it at all. I can get more done before church because it's pushed back a little. 11am seems right in the middle of the morning so I would be half-done with tasks I wanted to do. Tonight's dinner is chicken stir-fry (a new recipe I am trying) and I told the kids that on Sundays I want to start playing games. Games, as in card or board. We have lots of them and it seems we don't play them enough. We almost need a designated time to play them. Sundays seem like a good day for me and a fun tradition to start.

Taking Care of the Leaves

This morning the whole family helped remove leaves from our front yard and curb. Ross used the leaf blower, I used a big broom and all the kids used shovels or any kid garden tools they could find to help push leaves around and played in the yard a little too. We filled four big bags, luckily, the garbage truck came right by and took them away. Then Ross mowed the lawn until it started pouring rain outside.

Right now Ross and the older two are getting the oil changed on the van. He took the DVD player for them to use while they wait at the car place. The younger two and I are having quiet time. Later we will all help clean the inside of the house and introduce the kids to the Xbox Kinnect (where you use your body instead of a controller). Ross and I had fun doing it last night and know the kids will love it!

Spontaneous Errands

I had to go back to the OB office today. They forgot to give me my RhoGam shot (because of my negative blood type) when I was there on Wednesday, but my doctor really wanted it done this week. So the girls and I made a stop there late in the morning, followed by Aldi, Burger King (to get me two Jr. Whoppers), Walgreens, and the library. It only took about 6 minutes for both of them to fall asleep for naps. Our errands must have worn them out. I just finished labeling, sorting and putting food items away. Since the sun is shining today (and drying out all the rain), a walk to the school to pick up the kids might be in order. I'm excited for my date tonight with Ross -- dinner from Applebee's and opening the X-box, that is, if Ross approves.

Little Alarm Clock

Jane has become the "alarm clock" for the older two kids that last few mornings. She has been the first kid up (before 7am) and since she can climb out of her bed, she'll come right into her parents' room while they are getting ready, shutting her door on her way for sleeping Emma (thoughtful, isn't she?). She's pretty happy in the morning to hang out while we get ready. Then one of us will say, "let's go wake up Allen and Abby," and she does a great job. It's hard to keep sleeping through jumping Jane (as she did on Allen's bed this morning) or when she comes right up to sister's sleeping face with a repetitive "Hi Abby! Hi, hi!" and climb into her bed.

Today Emma has practiced over and over taking her socks and shoes off, putting her socks on her hands (like mittens) and then trying to put her sock and shoes back on her feet. With all her practice she is getting pretty good.

Something I need to note for tomorrow -- stay away from the rocking chair early in the morning (even if Jane requests to rock) because it will put me right back to sleep and then I'll have two active two-year-olds  without a mommy on her toes to play, help, protect the house, and distract.

Over 28 weeks

I am over 28 weeks along now. I went to the OB today for a sonogram and visit. Cinco is measuring nicely, about 3 lbs and has a head slightly on the big side, but with a c-section is shouldn't matter. My delivery is most likely going to be the 3rd week of March. Probably March 18th. That's one nice thing about a c-section. You can pick the day, right? Of course, this is my 4th c-section and I never really got to pick the date with the others. Allen was a failed induction and he came the following day. Abby had a set date, the amniocentesis said her lungs weren't quite ready so they waited three more days and then it ended up being two days instead because they were fully booked with surgeries. Then the twins came on their own. They must have decided they wanted to party with me on my 30th birthday and came the next day in time to wear pumpkin hats in the nicu on Halloween. So I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't get to pick the exact date this time either.

The little girls have been getting up early in the morning, but that means they will take about a 2 hour nap. We always read some stories and then I lay them down. I stay in the room with them, rubbing their back and singing to them until they fall asleep, which takes about 20-30 minutes. I used to just put them down and leave but now they can climb out of beds, open doors, undress themselves... it's just not worth it. A half an hour to wait and then I get two hours of complete peace (and peace of mind) to either nap (like I did yesterday for 2 hours!) or iron, which is what I am going to do right now. Luckily, it's drama club day for the older two so we get an extra hour and half until it's time to go pick them up. I also have two rescheduled piano lessons once we get home from pick-up.

This Morning

Abby went to the doctor this morning for the last follow-up on her arm. Everything looks great with the x-ray and Abby couldn't even remember which arm broke. She can now resume all activities at school (P.E. and recess). The little girls and I dropped her at school after the appointment and went to Kroger to pick up a few other items. Once we got home we read winter stories in the rocking chair (which put Mommy to sleep for about 10 minutes), followed by girls in the toy room playing with dominoes, dice, cards (Emma has been lining all of those things up) and Little People sets, and soon we'll have lunch and quiet time.

Back From Winter Break

It's back to school for the older two. The whole family dropped them off at the school and then Ross, the little girls and I stopped at the dentist office. Ross had a cleaning and I needed my crown cemented back on. Jane and Emma did awesome in the stroller, watching a movie in the office and eating from their cereal cups. After the visit Ross went to work and the girls and I did some shopping at Kroger and went to the post office to mail a package to my parents in the Dominican Republic. Apparently with the new year there is a new computer customs program regarding international packages. The first clerk couldn't figure it out and got a supervisor. When they both typed it all kinds of information, it ended up not saving and they had to start over. Then they went to get a higher supervisor to complete the process and print out the postage. So about 20 minutes later we left the post office. Good thing there was no line when we got there, but our package created a little line.

Here are some recent pictures --

Emma played "Caps For Sale" after church stacking all the kids'  winter hats on her head.

I just put up our winter decorations.
Lots of snowmen, giant snowflakes, penguins and a pile of winter books on the ride side.

Abby has become quite the writer lately. She is trying to sound-spell everything. I found this note  from her taped on my desk. It says, "No, Mom. This is not your desk. This is my desk."
She does like to draw and color at my desk and I frequently ask her to move to the kitchen table. I guess she finally decided to write a little note and leave for it for me to find later.

Then Abby left me a Valentine. I taped it up on the wall and when Jane saw it a little later she stopped, pointed and said, "heart!!" When Abby saw it on the wall she got mad and told me it was a card that was supposed to be folded and not taped up like that. When I told her that Jane really liked her artwork and saw it and said, "heart!" then Abby was okay with it up on the wall. She didn't say another word about it.

12:30 Church

• Church today was at 12:30pm. We missed our ward's meeting for two weeks, but three weeks ago they announced it would be at 1pm. However, on Friday night after sealings in the temple, the sealer (a man in our Stake) asked when we had church. When we told him 1pm, he said that they added another ward to our building and the times were moved up a half hour. Good to know since we didn't get a reminder from the ward until just last night. 
• All the kids had a bath this morning before church. And I got all the journals written in.
• In primary we reviewed all 13 Articles of Faith songs. More details here.
• Tonight for dinner we'll have leftovers because we have a fridge full of them.
• Right now Ross is helping Allen with his Family Home Evening lesson tomorrow. Jane is playing the piano and turning pages of the books on the stand. Emma and Abby are playing together in the toy room.

Six Flags Day

A common phrase you hear at the end of a Six Flags ride (after they tell you which way to exit) is "... and have a Six Flags Day." Today we did just that. We got up early, packed up food, put on warm clothes and went to Six Flags Over Texas, the original Six Flags park. This weekend was the last one of the season so we decided to use our season passes one more time.

We got there at rope drop and circled the park, hitting every ride anyone was interested in. Allen tried the Texas Giant with Ross for the first time and before bed he said it was his favorite one today. The girls like the Merry-Go-Round and other kiddie rides throughout the park. I couldn't ride much, just tame things like Yosemite Sam's Gold Mine, antique car ride, train, and the ferris wheel. Other than that I kept little people happy distributing lunch/snacks/treats, constantly had to keep my eyes on two toddlers who refused to ride in the stroller most of the day, and read about 10 pages of Les Misérables on my Kindle, a free book I downloaded two days ago.

Now Ross and I are watching one of his Christmas presents, The Dark Knight Rises (the 3rd Batman movie), and I'm downloading our pictures from today's adventures. Here are several --

The whole family on the Yosemite Sam boat ride together.

Ross with three kids (Jane fell asleep in the stroller) on the Cloud Bouncer.

Flight of St. Louie
Jane and Emma loved this!!
Allen and Abby rode in a plane together too.

Lake Caddo Barge
Ross and three girls in one row and Allen on one of the back rows.

Sylvester and Tweety's Fair-is Wheel
All of us fit in one car.

Jane sat by Allen. She loved this!

I got to sit by Emma.

The girls really liked the swing ride.
Allen and Abby rode back a few swings. You can see them in the background.

Abby and Ross on the Boot Scootin' ride.
Ross is doing a "wa-hoo" on the right side.

Jane loved the carousel

I'm standing by Jane.

Ross stood by Emma. The girls took turns wearing Abby's winter hat.

Abby moved a few horses up to get one that went up and down.

The girls rode it one more time. Ross got all three in one shot.

We all went on this ride. Jane had a fit when it stopped. She loved "driving" in her car. Every car had a steering wheels.

This is the tree by the entrance. We took this right before we left.

Goodbye Six Flags! We had many fun times there while living in Texas.

Merry Christmas to our Van

Ross took the minivan to work yesterday and got the whole car cleaned, inside and out. I'm sure that vehicle appreciate that Christmas gift. That's what we did last year and we'll keep doing it every year. Now our van is sparkling clean! While the car seats were out Ross tried different arrangements of how we'll seat the kids when Cimco joins us in March. Today we tried an sitting arrangement of one little one big in the back and one little and one big in the middle. Allen and Abby did awesome at helping buckle babies in, but they both wanted to ride in the back. I think we'll try to squeezing them both back there for now. Climbing back to buckle them won't be fun, but hearing them both squeal with delight (instead of just one and the other one crying) might just be worth it.

Since we've stayed indoors all week cleaning and settling back for our trip, I thought today would be a perfect way to reward the kids for their help in getting our house back to normal. I took them to the Ark, a huge, free, indoor play area just minutes from our house. We haven't been to the Ark for months because of behavior issues from the last time we went there. Before we got there I reminded them the rules/expectations. Once we got inside the room I noticed that about every inch of free space was covered with kids or adults. It was the busiest I have ever seen it. Even though it was packed full of people Allen and Abby were great helpers, helping their younger sisters climb up high to the main slide and letting them ride down in front of them and helping me keep eyes on them and each other. We were there about an hour and the kids did better than I ever dreamed. I told them we can plan a trip to go next week after school.

She-ra Toys

Putting Christmas stuff away and just had to take a break for a minute (that artificial tree's branches sure scraped up my arm) to check email and write something on the blog for today.

All kids got dressed this morning racing each other. Then we had oatmeal for breakfast (Allen opted for toast instead, but Jane and Abby really liked the oatmeal). Dishes got loaded while the kids played and read. All three girls were fussing over Abby's ponies and castle set-up so I pulled down my She-ra castle, furniture pieces, and dolls and Rose Petal dolls too. I sat on the floor and put all the pieces together and showed them how things worked. Jane was the most captivated by it. She stayed there the longest moving the dolls around and she even wanted me to put a cape (a small accessory in the box) on one of the dolls. So cute how much older these two younger girls are and how much they like my old toys.

Off to go work more on packing Christmas away. I'm sorting a few things and trying to decide what we really want to haul with us to Sacramento. All the kids are watching The Rescuers so I can finish this project with fewer interruptions.

The Phone Call

Today while I called about a ridiculous extra dentist bill the twins colored with Abby and drew with smelly markers all over themselves and their shirts. While I took their shirts, sprayed them, and soaked them in the sink, the two girls took off their pants and diapers and started playing in Jane's poop. Yes, it's been that kind of day. And to top it off, the dentist office wouldn't do anything to help me, and thanks to pregnant hormones, I ended the call in tears. Two things I've learned -- 1) call in the same room as the girls, even if I can't hear very well or focus entirely to the person on the other end... it will give me many less messes to clean up afterward, 2) the specific word "provider" can save you hundreds of dollars in future root canals.

On a brighter note, with all the kids' help, the kitchen and both bathrooms have been mopped, half of the Christmas stuff has been taken down and ready for packing, my new Shark vacuum is awesome! and both girls are finally asleep for naps. Next tasks for today include cleaning all three bedrooms (taking out all extra toys and vacuuming) and straightening the toy room. It was nice to go grocery shopping last night so the next few dinner meals aren't such a challenge to put together. Tonight once Christmas is completely put away Ross and I have a puzzle to finish, and thanks to little hands' help, we have a whole border section on the bottom to re-do.

(Note: Referring to the title -- too bad this blog post isn't about the old church movie about the funny guy with the bassoon. That would add some great soundtrack to today.)

Video to Remember 2012

I'm happy I finished our year's scrapbook video and already ordered my blog book for 2012! Other than that, it's been a lazy holiday -- playing, movies, naps and Super Nintendo. Ross finished his race in about 5 hours and got home about 2:30pm. He brought home lots of extra food and hurt his I.T. band (a big thigh muscle) at about mile 15. He said he walked and jogged as much as he could after that. He was just happy he finished. He'll have to use a foam roller and condition that muscle again like he did a few years ago when we lived in D.C. This was Ross's 4th marathon.