Back Again

 As always, Monday has found us again and with it all the children filed out the door to school. (They were pretty bummed because they had forgotten that they had to go back. Sometimes it is harder to take a break than it is to stay in the groove.) They had fun talking to their friends and learning from their teachers. They had finished their library books so they needed to go back anyway.

Anchor and I chilled for the morning, exercised, well I exercised, Anchor climbed over, under, and around me all the while telling me that it was his turn and trying to push me over or off the yoga mat. That really helps build muscle strength and balance so I guess it was helpful?

The kids wanted to get the Christmas stuff out so I figured, might as well. We turned on the Christmas music and pulled everything out. We are only about 1/2 done but we are on our way to decking the halls. I think we are all a little ready for some Christmas peace. 

We read the whole book of Mother Goose nursery rhymes tonight. William was appalled at how morbid some of them are. He cannot figure out why all kids lullabies and stories are so awful. I can't either but I think it must have something to do with the fact that little kids don't understand and the adults want to be entertained. People are so self focused. 

Ben is working late because he took most of last week off. I don't think if we added up his hours over they year that he would be getting as much vacation time as it looks like. He enjoys it though so that's good for him. I've accepted it so that's good for me.

The best news of the day is that Anchor peed IN THE POTTY today!!!! I am super pumped about that. We are slowly working into potty training. I am just not sure I have the mental capacity to facilitate that completely right now so I am just nudging him along until we get there.

Here's to sleep!

Happy Thanksgiving and the Weekend

We had a good holiday week. We tried to keep it low key and relaxed. Were were originally planning a trip to Washington but since Covid did not cooperate we thought we would exchange that for 4 days of movie marathons and pajama wearing. 

In the end, we had a comfy Thanksgiving in Rexburg with yummy food, stretchy pants and a chill environment.  Sallee showed her domestic side in helping with food prep and even making pies. She has come such a long way.

We skidded our way home and spent the other days working on some things around the house. (None of which I can remember at this time,) 

Black Friday came a long and Ben and opted to get a little date time in and a bit of shopping. The stores are never all that busy in the afternoons and it always makes you feel better when you save double what you spent.

We lunched at Olive Garden away from all the busy.

The waitress kept Ben in coke the whole time.

He drank all of it.

Ben has also taken up a new hobby, he is trying his had at painting. I think he is awesome for trying something good and doing such a great job. 

These are his paintings #2 and 3.  I love the sunflowers

It is also nice for him to have a project he can work on that is on a small scale and inside where it is warm. I told him I wanted to try it with him but I ordered a paint by number because I know that I will need all of the help I can get. 

Anchor spent some time working on target practice with his nerf gun. Emmerlyn was NOT impressed that he sacrificed her panda on the altar of aim.

He only had 1 accidental discharge and naturally it hit me.

 

Hey Mom,

 "Hey Mom, is my baby book done yet?" Knowing the answer Brevick asks anyway.

"Well, do you think you can work on it after you put Anchor to bed?" 

Looking into his imploring eyes, my heart squeezes just a bit at the guilt I feel. He's only 6 right? "Yes Brevick, I will get back to work on that, I'm sorry it's been so long buddy."

After I laid Anchor down Brevick sat on the arm of the chair while I opened it up. As I began to work he offered a couple suggestions (which I have incorporated) and then asked how long this was going to take. 

Hours. So. Many. Hours.

"Yeah, I think I will go play and then see it when it is done."

That sounds like a good idea, next time I'm gonna do that too. It took me 2 hours to do 4 pages and the back cover (owing in part to the slow chromebook that I was using. The process sped up when I switched to newer technology.) I have 11 out of 20 pages done so I am more than halfway. I will have to hit it hard tomorrow. Then I have to do Anchor's because I have a deal that I can get a discount on 2 so they are both going to have to be finished for me to order them.... Poor Brevick. I might have to get him something special to go with it.

In other news...

Anchor and I played and played and watched some Mickey Mouse while everybody headed down to Utah. Ben and William went golfing with Hyrum and Grandpa while the other kids spent the afternoon with Grandma getting lunch and looking at rockets. They had such a great time and were excited to fill me in on what I had missed. 

William now wants to go out for golf next year (yeah, you read that right, he will be in high school playing high school sports in less than a year). He is hoping to get some good practice in between now and then and is taking any tips and instructions.

Ben is too sore to move.

They said the weather was pretty nice down there. 

It snowed while they were gone here. 

Anchor also figured out that he could reach the light switch standing on the bench in the living room so they came home to a pitch black house because really what's the point.

We are excited to have a laid back Thanksgiving tomorrow...everybody washed their pajamas yesterday so they will be fresh for the holiday.

Fit in where you can

 I think that this little title could apply to many things but today it applied to the run for milk. Sometimes it gets a little squishy when you go to Costco.

But, even though the car was full and the floor of the font seat held 6 gallons of milk, there was still a way for me to sit in there. You can fit in where you want to fit sometimes you just have to find out how you fit.

Today was the kids last day of school for the week. They are super pumped for Thanksgiving Break. I hope it isn't a let down that we really don't have anything planned. We are hoping to just chill in our pajamas this week. Sallee even bought new pajamas for just this occasion. 

Ben spent some time today putting up a shelf and listening to Hamilton. He also is constructing a docking station for his drill and impact driver. He really has his life together. 

Now that the day is almost done, I am very grateful that the kids ate their dinner. It was the first night in a long time that nobody said they hated it or refused to eat it. Sometimes you just need those days.

Today was a Monday

 As I am sure your know. We got through though because we know that we only have 2 days of school so we can survive. Emmerlyn was pushing through looking forward to gymnastics tomorrow only to be informed that there is no gymnastics this week because of Thanksgiving. 

She was livid.

The kids did some reading and listening to books after school this afternoon. That was kind of nice because Anchor fell asleep in the car this morning for 30 minutes so he never went down again. That was wild. He was delirious with exhaustion and wild all afternoon.

Side note, I finally bit the real bullet and got a new phone on Friday. That was rough. The case won't be here until Wednesday so I am afraid to touch it. I literally have been keeping it in the box and only touching it if somebody texts or calls. 

Good thing Monday went fast!

Like Any Good Work Day

In the name of this turkey that Emmerlyn made with it's tiny stubby legs, I somehow deleted the whole post that was supposed to be here.

That sucks.

 I will not be as detailed now.

Like any good work day, it is best done with good drinks,

Anchor approved.

We spent Saturday morning cleaning and organizing the upstairs garage into our new work shop and tool holder in addition to overflow pantry and refrigeration. 

In order to make this happen we had to take apart our keyboard holder/empty piano. It just takes up so much space and we don't use it anymore.

Ben obviously did the most work on this. It took him a few tries but he was finally able to pull out all the pins that wind the strings.

The wood is so beautiful and the creative options are starting to run through our heads, we will see what this wood could become.

We spent the evening playing games.

And watching movies that are pushing an agenda.

None other than the potty training movie. Yeah, Anchor, you better watch out our diaper days are numbered. I hope.

They were all pretty enthralled though, even the ones that are already potty trained.....

Rough Start

The night was rough. Anchor struggled without his binkie.

The girls slept downstairs.

Brevick woke up in the night thinking he heard voices so he went into the dressing room and turned on the lights blinding the sleeping girls. (he forgot they were in there)

Sallee only made it this far before she had to take a nap.

This guy was tired and he didn't want a bath. He ended up taking a 30 minute soak and watching a show. He also wanted to go play in the garage. I said no. 

After a 60 min nap he was up and running. Literally. He dashed around the house all afternoon and evening, bugging people and getting into things.

 While waiting for dinner the kids were playing in the garage and he was with him but when they all decided to come inside he did not want to follow. William carried him in screaming. I told them to just leave the door open so he could come and go as he wanted which worked well. Except when anyone wanted to go downstairs. If he heard you coming he ran to the bottom of the stairs and started screaming at you like a mean little troll. (He was assuming you were coming to get him.) We finally got him to peacefully come up when we told him we were having pizza for dinner.

He loves pizza.

He went to bed pretty well so hopefully he stays in there. 

Bring your kid to work day!!!

It actually wasn't but Ben was just doing CPE in the morning and William had a dermatologist appointment so Anchor got to hang out with Ben for a bit.

He had a bag packed with his most important things. A sippy of milk and 2 airplanes. Other less essential items included a tablet for his distance learning, a coloring book and colored pencils, a reading book, and a snack just incase.

The bag was a little heavy and almost sent him over. But he survived.

When we got home Anchor spent some time counting out the reusable ice cubes from the freezer. After he was done I got to was them all with soap and water so that was fun.

Then we made a cake to celebrate the fact that Ben has hired a new office manager and now has a fully functioning staff. He is thrilled. We also had Beef Cake for dinner. AKA meatloaf.

Anchor had to dip a finger in and taste the batter 5 times before he deemed it good.

Then he kept stealing the crushed oreos from the bag. Who taught him to open a zip-loc bag?

As the evening progressed he wanted to play in the water at the sink. Since it was pretty much bedtime and we had already wasted 100 gallons of water today I said no. He went to find the weakest link to get what he wanted.

Sallee.

Sad for him, she had heard me and therefore also told him no.

This resulted in screaming tears because he is so exhausted. 

He slept well last night without his binkie until 0500. So I think he did great. He only took a 1 hour nap though so he is still running behind.

And so am I.

Important announcement!!! Today was William's last day with Accutane. He is super pumped to have that behind him!

 

Finished it

A long, long time ago. A small boy ruined his tablet by shoving the charging cord in it and tossing it around in fits of passion one too many times. Because of his actions he was left using his old outdated, slow running tablet.

He did not love it.

We came up with a way to earn it back and he had to read this entire book, to me, out loud. *that's harder than it looks, this is a 5 in 1 book. He started working on it but it took him months, not because he couldn't read (he is actually a good little reader. He says he can't though) but because he spent his time pouting and grumbling so I wouldn't read with him. 

Well, he finally finished it today.

I am super proud of him. That was a big goal and hard work but in the end he was able to do it. AAAANNNNDD he earned a replacement tablet. (I also invested in those magnetic charging chord that you leave the little stub plugged in all the time and then it doesn't go in and out. It works much better for him and solves that issue going forward.) 

(Please excuse the wonkie hair. It's been a long day.)

In other news, Emmerlyn has leveled up in her gymnastics class and is doing a great job working hard on her back-hand-spring. I am a little sad because with the new covid restrictions I can't go in an watch her. Hopefully those loosen up soon. I am super proud of all of her hard work and how much she is growing.

And finally, tragedy has befallen us. Anchor chewed a hole in his last binkie. So tonight is his first night going solo. He is at this time counting and using up all his shape identification skills. Drawing Emmerlyn in with him. I have a feeling that it is going to be an horrendous night.... 

 

Friday Through Monday.

 I'm going to have to group these because uploading pictures has become a pain. For the weekend we worked on hanging curtains and putting down a rubber seal under the garage door. I also learned the entertainment value of spray foam insulation. I think it is my new favorite. The kids had fun playing in there. Sunday was church day and we were glad that we are still able to meet as a ward. 

Anchor sorted through the rest of the Halloween candy today while all the kids were at school. He picked out all of his favorite candy, starbursts. He had 4 packages of them. He didn't get to eat them all at that time but he had them ready to go as soon as he had permission to have one. 

Ben and William had William's last end of season dinner with his football team. It was bittersweet for the boys because they will split out and go to different high schools after this year. They decided that they would keep the facebook page live so they can stay in touch and celebrate their successes as they go one. 

Ben got this cute shirt. It really is true. He is quite a guy and works hard in so many directions. He is home tonight (surprise!!) eating peanuts and watching football.

This guy developed a new love for his hated halloween costume head piece. It looks so cute on him. 

He is also working on his trumpeting skills. 

With a marshmallow gun.

What a fun dude. He really makes everyone smile. Except when he is saying mom constantly. I am truly losing my mind.

The kids started  a new trimester today. The boys are pretty excited for their classes and I am hoping that it stays that way. We are going to try some different things this tri so I hope it goes better. Ready or not, here it comes.

Emmmerlyn and Brevick didn't really have any big changes other than there is a new student in Emmerlyn's class. Emmerlyn was too shy to say hi today but has high hopes for later this week.!

A Picture.

 That's really all I have for you today. Thursdays seem to be blissfully congested. Which is nice. 

He was willing to let me take his picture but old enough to request that I do not put it on facebook. My how time flies.

Also it is super inconvenient to get the pictures from my phone to the blog now so that's going to be an 

issue. 

As for the rest of the day we just kind of chilled. Anchor did some reading from William's book.

Which he has misplaced the bookmark now...

He also pulled out all of our old addition flashcards crinkled them up and dumped water on them. They are taking a trip to the garbage. Apparently he was having a go at recycling.

Tomorrow is Friday. 

We are all looking forward to that day.

Ben, is, at work.

No Pictures

 Today I had to get a new phone. I still don't want to fork over the cash so I switched it to Ben's phone from about 4 years ago. It is working better than my other one but still not great. I will use it until I kill it too. Needless to say I was not really feelin' the desire to take pictures or even use it. My next phone option will be Allyn's old iphone, they have it on the charger for me so it is at the ready.

William is feeling his braces today. His mouth was pretty achy. Poor guy. I think he should start feeling better soon. 

Emmerlyn and Brevick had to brave the bitter wind and head to school this morning. Then had fun and worked hard.

William and Charley had remote school today and they had the sad realization that tomorrow is the last day of the trimester that they can turn in their work so needless to say they were scrambling to get it done. I hope they learned a valuable lesson from this experience. I know I did. 

Anchor and I had to go to Walmart. He touched every item within his reach. If he hasn't already had Covid, he has certainly increased his exposure exponentially. What a kid.

Emmerlyn worked hard at gymnastics and is proud that she can now do two back-walk-overs in a row. Go her.

Ben didn't have to work late. That's different.

Today We Did

Well, I was going to show you but...my phone right before my eyes deleted the picture and then shut down.

I really need a new phone. I am going to have to get Ben and Allyn on that because they are in charge of household communications. 

I will have to get another photo tomorrow.

But since I have your attention and nobody wants to wait until tomorrow. 

Today we got William some BRACES!!!! He looks darling. And a little older. I feel a little older. *however, since the appointment was going to take awhile I was going to leave and then come back but William asked me to stay so I felt a little better that he still wanted me around.*

We were just going in for the consult but they happened to have room today and I was like well since we're here lets just go for it.

We are now going to be broke. Forever. Braces are expensive.

While we were there Charley texted me and said that Brevick had gotten hurt and he was crying. Then immediately sent another text saying "he is still crying, WHAT DO I DO?" I called him to see what had happened. He had apparently hit his head on the wall. I asked if he was running and ran into the wall? "uh, he was more like power walking. He power walked into the wall there is no bleeding." With that clarification I figured he would probably be ok. I had Charley get him an ice pack and settled down to watch a show. He was still chillin' when we got home.

William and I stopped at the store to grab milk and since I had sprung braces on him, William requested ice cream with dinner. It was on sale so we had to by 10 cartons. He picked out all of the flavors. Including peanut butter and jelly, which I am afraid to try. He also pushed the cart and ran it into the back of my heels and zoomed all over the store. I then remembered why I never take him shopping. He is worse than Anchor.

Other than that liveliness we just did some laundry, some school work, and some gymnastics and put everyone to bed.

Pinched

 I seem to have pinched a nerve in my neck so my neck and left arm are aching. Even just typing this is killing me. I guess I have turned a corner into the elderly phase of life. Ben has been giving me all the tips to deal with the pain because he is a professional. I have been following them religiously. Because of this Anchor and I spent the day relaxing on the couch. We let our new and best pet ever roam the living room to clean it up. Our pet's name is Flippers, the roomba. We love him so much. This is the pet for us. Anchor actually gets pretty worried when he is out and about and runs away. Poor guy, he will adapt.

The kids snuggled in front of the fireplace when they got home after their first taste of winter this year. Emmerlyn was disappointed because she couldn't build anything with the snow. (It is just fluffy powder.) Don't worry sweetheart. More will come.

Skipped Friday...and the Weekend

 Saturday turned out nicer than expected so we decided to hurry and take some family pictures. It's only been 4 years. 

There were a couple that turned out, a lot of complaining, some sun-in-the-eyes shots. I will call it a success. 

We took the garage a little further that afternoon. We put down some rugs, moved a couch out there and set up the foosball table. It turned out pretty nice. The curtains came today along with a rubber seal to put under the garage door to help maintain the temps in there. I think the kids will love it. They really had fun playing in there on Saturday night. I'm glad we did it. 

Sunday was church day which people were excited to wear their new church clothes and they looked pretty spiffy. Masks are now required in ALL indoor church meetings in our stake so we will continue to wear ours. 

The rest of the day was a blur and I don't really remember anything else. Yesterday was just too long ago. 

 

Just Regular Thursday

 We didn't really do anything that special today. Anchor and I worked on the the garages again. Well, I worked, Anchor played, rode the skateboard, scooped dirt out of the flower pots onto the sidewalk. Drove the remote control car. Hammered in some screws. Pulled all of the basketballs out of the bucket. Twice. He might have been busier than I was. 

All of the stuff is back into the garages now. Somebody is going to have to organize the upstairs garage. I don't know if that somebody is going to be me. 

Here is a snapshot of the garage pre-setup.

We are excited to insulate the end of it, move the couches and Foosball table out and have a good little hangout for the older kids. They are pretty pumped too. (that is not a gap under the garage door, it is just open a bit so the floor could dry.) Side note, I love the instant gratification that came with painting that floor. It was SO easy and looks so nice.

That's it. That's the whole day.

Hopefully tomorrow is equally uneventful.

Matchy Matchy

 Really, I think the most exciting thing that happened today was that Emmerlyn realized that her new leotard that she earned for getting her back-walk-over matched her water bottle. 

You know you have your life together when you can pull this off. 

Emmerlyn and Brevick had school and they both had a lot of fun playing at recess. William and Charley both had remote school. Both of them are missing assignments in their classes. Both of them are going to wish they had made different choices. 

Anchor helped me get everything out of the garage for the 10th and hopefully the LAST time. Then we swept it all up. I painted the floor tonight after dinner so our garage walls, ceiling, and floor are now the color of your favorite pair of khakis. Because those are the colors that I could find in the mis-tint section of Home Depot. It looks nice and fresh though and I am excited for the concrete epoxy to cure so we can move the things back in and get it all set up. I think it is going to be a great addition to our house. William is already planning what he will do when he can invite his friends over. 

We had pizza for dinner so Anchor was one happy guy. Turns out that the favorite pizza was BBQ chicken instead of the usually cheese and pepperoni.

Ben is once again...

working.

He is pretty amazing and puts in so much effort for our family. We are lucky to have him.

No School

  The kids didn't have school today so they spent their time running wild in the backyard and getting all the bikes back out of the shed. 

It was such a nice day.

We also painted the walls and the ceiling in the downstairs garage. It looks so much better. We are hoping to do the floors tomorrow so that will be interesting. 

Emmerlyn's little friend scaled the fence to come play which was fun for them. The had a good time jumping on the tramp. It was also nice because when it was time for her to go her mom could call her from the back porch and she could just leave.

Anchor was a cranky bear today. I'm not sure what his deal was. He is still working on going to sleep. Hopefully he gets that figured out. 

Ben is working.

Ben is always working.

Now, just to finish the laundry and wash the paint out of my hair...

I will go back

 I know that we are missing a week in blogging. Hopefully I will catch back up later.... It was a rough week with Anchor and I being sick. Today we had school and tried to get back on top of our messy house. 

Emmerlyn and Brevick were assigned to clean the basement. I think they picked up 30 things and disappeared into the backyard. Repeatedly. They will revisit that job tomorrow. 

Anchor and I had to run to Costco and make some returns to TJ Maxx and Ross. Naturally I attempted to return the TJ Maxx stuff at Ross so that was super awkward. At Costco Anchor wanted to push the cart and then he wanted to ride in the cart so he could sit on the boxes of cereal. Then he wanted to walk up them like stairs in the cart. I strapped him in the seat of the cart at that time. 

William and Charley both have a whole pile of missing English assignments. They both spent some time at the kitchen table working through some of those. 

Brevick wanted to watch Jurassic World before bedtime. I said no. Anchor decided to clean up his toys before going to bed which was great. After he got done he dumped them out again so he could keep staying up. He went to bed anyway. Poor guy.