***to save you from confusion, this email was written a week before I posted it!:)
I just emailed a friend, telling her that I felt like I was living in one of those "life comes at you fast" commercials! I think between all the traveling last month, and all the stuff coming at us this month, (3 birthdays, an anniversary a baptism, and more) I'm running faster that I have strength! This week is no exception. Monday morning my Mom watched Sophia while I ran a million errands, which included me hauling 2 huge pots for my front patio into a Sams cart! Luckily they had a nice man there to help me load them in the car. He was a sweet worker with a terribly bad stutter, and it took him about 30 seconds to tell me I had a nice smile. That made my day! Of course. I had to buy flowers and dirt for the pots, and since we live in Phoenix, I had to plant them immediately! Ethan helped me and had a lot of fun doing it! It was a great Mommy/ Son time! Aubrie had dance as usual, and we had a nice steak (from Sunday night) fajita dinner and FHE to follow. Boston read the lesson and the kids behaved themselves! Yeah!
Yesterday included a trip to the Church Book Store. I got Aubrie's scriptures (all the kids will get their own engraved set when they are baptized), some gift cards, and a new parenting book. I'm always a sucker for parenting books. It's called "Have a New Kid by Friday". I like a lot of it's principals, and I have already started implementing them. It seems to be working!:) I really don't believe that one particular program is a cure all, but I feel that you can gather many positive things from many sources to aid the parenting process along! Tuesday night I totally spaced a girls camp meeting, while we all went hiking up on the mountain trails by our house. It was a beautiful evening, nice and breezy! The kids did well, until Ethan fell right on a cactus. The poor kid had it all in his hand, and didn't cry at all while I was pulling them all out. A few minutes later he started to whimper, and by the end of the hike he said, "my hand is all better now"! We are just thankful he didn't land head first! When we got home we watched American Idol (Aubrie was surprised that she couldn't watch it since she didn't finish her chores....credit to the new book). I never saw her get them done so fast! She ended up catching the last 15 minutes. After the kids were in bed, I ran over to Erin's so she could help me with Aubrie's baptism announcement. My computer crashed, and Ben's is giving me some problems! I think I might be ready for a Macbook!
Today started early, and is still going! Here is the quick rundown. I had a nice wake up call from Sophia at 6:15. I then laid in bed for another 10 minutes and then got up and showered. I left the house at 7:40, to go to the temple. It was a girls trip, (Erin, Trina, Karolyn, Amy, Marji, Jen Sharp, and I). It was fun chatting there and back. We stopped at Cafe Rio...very yummy, and a ribbon store (where I amazingly bought NOTHING! ). Landed back in Peoria at 2:15, took Erin home, picked up the kids from school, took them to piano, picked up Ethan from the Walters, came home and laid down for 10 minutes, got up to make dinner, met up with the YW to celebrate another YW's birthday, came home and put the kids to bed, ran a gift to a friend, came home and got some hugs and squeezes from Sophia (totally loving it!), worked on Aubrie's announcement and now I am here...WHEW!!! I need to go to bed! Did I mention Ben was out of town?
Amongst all the running around today, I was totally noticing and appreciating all the kids special personality traits and couldn't help to smile because of them.
When I told Ethan to go brush his teeth, for bedtime, I found him in the bathroom SERIOUSLY combing his hair! That's his newest thing these days...making his hair just so! I was thinking "come on kid your about to go to bed, I told you to brush your teeth", and then I took a moment to just enjoy the comedic moment!Aubrie came out of her bathroom with Sophia in her arms, and Sophia's hair was all wet and made into a mohawk! It was the funniest thing and I couldn't stop smiling inside! I really think that Aubrie thinks that Sophia is her life size doll!
I tell the boys that if they go right to bed, and don't' get out, they get to put a quarter in the "Disneyland" jar. Tonight, after putting them to bed, I heard some commotion upstairs and walked into their room finding things moved around. I told them they lost their quarters and walked away. Boston called for me and I told him I didn't want to hear it, and after insisting I said "Fine, what?" He said, "Mom, I just want you to know that it was me who got up not Ethan, and I don't' want you to take away his quarter". I felt so bad, but then his honesty made me smile!
Sophia took a long evening nap ( I had to wake her up at 7:15). She was up after the kids went to bed. Having that alone time and being able to focus on JUST HER made me smile!
