Growing Up Is Hard to Do

Before Nash's birthday party and special date with me rolled around, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go through with the advancement in age.

iPhoneography: River Rafting

We did take one day off from the beach to go river rafting on the Pere Marquette River. We held family reunions at this mid-Michigan river every year when I was little, so it holds lots of memories for me.

There was no way I was going to bring my nice camera on a raft that might tip over, so my low quality phone photos will have to suffice (I know, first world problems).

We convinced Troy to come with us and he was skeptical about the event being enjoyable. But even he was pleasantly surprised by how much fun the adventure turned out to be, which is saying a lot.

I think my favorite part was being in thick Michigan nature all day long and letting our boys soak up the great outdoors. They were grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

The passengers of our only mode of transportation for several hours included my two aunts, our two older boys, my brother, Troy and myself. We had a knack for steering into shrubs and bushes, knocking one of my aunts into the freezing water a couple of times.

We made a lunch stop at the lodge where we held family reunions all throughout my childhood; the one and only Hook 'n Horn. When I was young, I dreaded staying at the run down hunting lodge with bunk beds tucked into every nook and cranny, patched together carpet squares in the great room, and one bathroom for 30+ people. 

But even though Hook 'n Horn isn't exactly a five star hotel, I have fond memories of spending a weekend there with cousins every summer. I think the last time we reunioned there was about nine years ago, before my grandpa who held the lodge membership passed away.

It was surprisingly charming to bring our own children there, showing them the oddities of the "Tree of Lost Soles," the wrap around porch where countless mass meals were served, and the paths in the woods that led to stunning views of the river.

Troy and my brother struck up a game of horseshoes while we were at our pit stop (there was no one around, thankfully).

The boys were more than happy to carry on the tradition of eating Caramel Apple Suckers (or CAS's for short) while rowing on the river. They took turns hopping out of our blue raft into Grandpa's unsinkable boat.

At one point, Troy jokingly announced, "Everyone who thinks Nash should be thrown into the river, raise your hand." Of course, everyone raised their hands, including Nash. Not knowing that the water was barely 55°, all of a sudden he launched himself off the back of the boat. The pure panic that washed over him when he resurfaced and realized how cold it was is a look I'll never forget. My brother quickly pulled him in with his paddle and we expected Nash to start sobbing. Instead, a huge smile spread across his face. He was so proud of his little stunt.

We wrapped him up in a towel even though he was still giggling. 

One of the best parts about being on the river is making pit stops at the "Prime Perchin' Spots" that have been carefully sought out and explored through the years.

Before calling it a day, we hiked high up on a ledge overlooking the river. In true fashion, my brother constructed an elaborate teepee out of fallen branches.

You can probably guess who else was in construction heaven.

This video pretty much sums up our carefree, adventurous day on the river. Nash thoroughly embraced becoming one with nature.

Snapshot 2013

I'm cutting it close for squeezing in our annual fall snapshot, but the week of Thanksgiving still counts as fall, right?

Without further ado, here is our 2013 snapshot in words (and a few pictures), capturing the here and now.

The most prominent change in our lives is Troy's work schedule. He transferred to Foreign Exchange (or FX) in September when his previous function was moved back to the New York office. The new role has subsequently resulted in drastically longer hours and more stress. For both of us. Troy used to be home for dinner in the evenings (after working 11 hour days), and now he works 13-14 hour days and is lucky to see the boys at all.

Add in being in the Bishopric at church and we really never see him.

While Troy peacefully sits on the stand at church each Sunday, the 70 minutes that I sit on the bench alone with three restless boys are the hardest of my week. The three year old is especially challenging. I had an older widow come up to me a few weeks ago and tell me, "You struggle with those boys every single week." I didn't quite know what to make of that observation. She was right, of course, but it made me feel worse that people were noticing the chaos.

I'm always relieved to send the boys off to Primary after the Sacrament meeting battle. I call it a success on the weeks that I don't bolt into the mother's room with tears streaming down my cheeks.

I am entering my fourth year as the Primary secretary.

I still really love my job. Working on designs and coding them for the web is what I love to do most in my spare time. But spare time is becoming less and less, which means I often stay up very late to work when the house is finally quiet. And I usually fall asleep on the couch with my laptop.

Troy was diagnosed with whooping cough a few weeks ago. He has literally had a cough for 6 weeks straight. We're thankful the rest of us are immunized.

Troy is addicted to buying Groupons. Sometimes this hobby lands us fun things like bounce houses or his jet pack trip, but a lot of times we end up with with restaurant Groupons that expire before we get to using them. I wish had a nickel for every time Troy shouted from the next room, "Hey, I found this Groupon..."

I procrastinate grocery shopping to no end. And the dinner hour. Especially now that Troy is rarely home, there's no point to make anything fancy.

Because of my total dismay for meal planning, Troy signed us up for an eMeals membership (thanks to a Groupon). We chose a meal plan based on our eating style and favorite grocery store. A new meal plan is emailed to us every week with seven dinner recipes. The coordinating app includes an itemized shopping list that I can check off when I go to the store. It has been working pretty well, except I usually omit anything that includes seafood or mayonnaise. Some meals have been great and some just so-so.

Troy often buys me flowers for no reason. It is very sweet.

Cuff links in dress shirts are Troy's kryptonite. He is acquiring quite the collection.

Troy also loves his Kindle. I have observed him turning the pages by tapping his nose to the screen on several occasions. This is hilarious to me.

Troy subscribes to two magazines; ESPN and Forbes. He says he will continue these subscriptions for the rest of his life.

Troy is a wealth of random information. For example:

• Why are there two free throw lines on the basketball court? Ask Troy.
• What was WWI all about again? Ask Troy.
• When are the various hunting seasons? Ask Troy (who has never hunted in his life).
• How much did we pay for a certain piece of furniture 5 years ago? Ask Troy. He never forgets how much we spent on things.
• What is going on in politics? Ask Troy.
• What is going on in sports? Ask Troy. He knows all about even the obscure sports.
• Where did the term "knock on wood" come from? Ask Troy.

A highlight of each month for me is going to book club. The book discussion usually lasts about 10 minutes and the other 5 or 6 hours are spent laughing and discussing every topic imaginable. A friend of mine that recently hosted ended her invitation email by joking, "I'll have more details (such as time, food, wardrobe assignments, playlists to listen to on the drive over, synchronized parking, who will be performing which talent, etc.) as it gets closer." Oh man I love these gals.

Anytime I see something rustle or move out of the corner of my eye, I immediately assume it's a mouse. I spent an entire drive home from dropping off our sitter thinking there was a mouse on the passenger seat floor of my car. I was freaking out, curled up on my side of the car. It turned out to be a water bottle rolling around. I can't help it though. My default explanation for unusual movement is always; "mouse."

I only get the mail once a week. Or less. I can't stand the cluttered mess it brings in, so I prefer to leave it in our locked mailbox until it becomes absolutely necessary to sort through. The only exception is during the month of December, when I love walking to the mailbox every day to see what Christmas cards await.

Speaking of December approaching, I'm trying to figure out how to boycott the whole "Elf on the Shelf" craze. I don't know what I was thinking starting that up last year. Blake asked me if our elf was coming back this year and I responded, "No, I don't think so." The problem is, all of the boys' friends have elves that visit their houses. And they hear all about the funny and mischievous things those elves do.

I have a serious sweet tooth. No meal is complete without a little treat at the end. I try to hide my treats so the boys won't find them, but they always do. Even when I hide them in the battery box on the very top shelf.

People ask me all. the. time. if we're going to try to have a girl. My response is, "We did. Three times."

My weekly chore routine consists of 5-6 loads of laundry on Monday, grocery shopping on Tuesday while the older boys are at school, and cleaning on Friday. It's actually harder to stick to than it sounds with everything else swirling around. But the weeks run much smoother when I stay on schedule.

I have to sweep the floor every single day. And I probably should sweep multiple times a day. For some reason, this really surprises me.

We switched over to mostly digital formats of movies. We rarely buy DVDs anymore. Oh how I love technology that eliminates clutter.

Blake is thriving in Kindergarten. Helping him learn to read is kind of magical.

Blake has two best buddies that he asked to be his friends from the beginning. We get together with the boys and their moms every few weeks. They both happen to have a three year old younger brother and were born the same week as Blake. Now those are some friendships that were meant to be. Except celebrating birthdays during the first week of December just got a little crazier.

Blake and I have "Mommy time" every day when Nash goes down for a nap. We usually read together, but sometimes we throw in other activities like building machines, playing board games, building with LEGO bricks and playing "Don't Eat Pete" with sight words. Blake also discovered that if he offers to play with my hair (which usually includes an interesting assortment of headbands and hair clips), Mommy time can be very prolonged.

His first question on the ride home from school each day is, "What are we going to do for Mommy time today?" This child of mine sure craves one-on-one attention, and even though I usually have a thousand other things that need to get done, I'm really glad that he holds me to having Mommy time everyday.

Blake's favorite thing to do is still to build intricate machines out of anything and everything. He has recently added life-size maze building to his repertoire.

Blake also still wants to be an elf when he grows up. His reasoning is that elves build machines. Our Bishop asked him at tithing settlement if he was going to go on a mission when he grew up. He responded, "Yes. And then I'm going to move to the North Pole to be an elf."

Blake will not drink juice or soda. Nash, however, begs for Sprite everywhere we go.

When I go through the clothes from Blake's closet that are getting too small, I move them right into Nash's closet. There is no longer a need for packing the clothes away in an interim bin until Nash grows into them.

Nash started naming his beloved stuffed animals. He now lovingly refers to his nie-night as "Angwood," and his Pluto as "Woofie."

Nash is all boy. My vow to never have any sort of play weapons in the house backfired when he turned every toy imaginable into a gun or a sword. I finally gave in to his puppy-dog eyes at Disneyland when he wanted to spend his hard earned Disney Dollars on a toy gun. It is, by far, his favorite toy.

(Yes, his pants are on backwards.)

Nash literally runs through the house all day making shooting and fighting noises. "Pssshhh, pssshhh..." is all I hear from him. I really don't know what to do with boys, ha!

Nash tries to "fight" any big kid he comes across. It doesn't matter where we are - the school carnival, in line at Disneyland, Troy's Halloween work party... If he sees boys that are twice his size, he immediately assumes they want to fight and starts swinging his arms.

For how rough Nash is inclined to be, he is also my biggest cuddler.

Nash is a serious hoarder. I find random collections of things in every receptacle I come across. He must not have my minimalist genes.

We had our first run-in with a time out at preschool. Nash felt terrible about not listening to his teacher after the fact. He wrote her an apology note.

The boys have aversions to anything "girly." They won't come near dolls, barbies, fairies, or anything that is pink in general. Troy is happy that they came to this conclusion by themselves.

Recently, as I tucked Nash into bed, we talked about the friends he was going to play with in the upcoming days. He responded in a perplexed voice, "Mom, Bella's a girl but I don't want to marry her. I just want to marry you." Then, a minute later, he asked, "Wait, are you already married?"

Potty training continues to be a touchy subject in our home. We finally took Blake to a urologist after 3+ years of multiple accidents a day. He started a medication that will help his bladder regulate. I also have to remind him to use the bathroom every hour and a half for twelve months. Yes, that's right. I have an alarm that is set to go off on my phone all day, every day, for the next year. Since Nash is now in the dreaded potty training phase too - we all take a bathroom break every hour and a half. Oh, the joys.

And then there's our sweet baby Crew. I finally started leaving him with sitters now that he is more on a schedule. It is fun for Troy and I to go on dates alone, but not as fun for me to have to sit in the car and pump while we're out.

Blake and Nash just adore Crew. They are his biggest cheerleaders when he learns new skills.

My challenge with Crew, if I can even consider this a challenge, is keeping him awake in the car while I'm driving the older boys back and forth from school. If he catnaps in the car instead of deep sleeping in his crib, our whole day is thrown off. My attempts to put Crew on a regimented schedule like I did with the other two are constantly thwarted. Such is life with school aged children and a baby.

Crew has three favorite things. First is his binky. He'll only take the type they give newborns at the hospital. The pacifier thing is a whole new ballgame for us since we're accustomed to thumb suckers.

Next is cords. He has an obsession with and radar for any type of cord. I'm convinced he learned to scoot around just so he could acquire cords.

And finally, Crew loves his exersaucer. I don't know how many times he's been in there for extended periods of time while we eat, cook, clean, do homework, clean some more, etc. He remains happy as can be in his confined corner of the kitchen while the chaos of the rest of us swirls around him.

And that is life in 2013 in a nutshell. We certainly have our challenges, but we are reminded of how blessed we are. As we head into Thanksgiving and the end of 2013, we are grateful most of all for our health, stability and family. And for all the little moments that bring us joy each and every day.

First Day of School Fancy Dinner

I've seen lots of back-to-school ideas and I knew I wanted to start a tradition in our family with the launch of the new school year.

We had a fancy first day of school dinner party to commemorate the big event.

As I sat the table in the dining room instead of our normal kitchen table, the boys asked who we were having over for dinner. When I answered that it was a special back-to-school dinner, they got all sorts of excited.

Blake exclaimed, "We're having a party just for us?!"

The boys squealed with delight when we revealed fancy glasses (theirs were plastic) and showed them how to put cloth napkins in their laps. They kept saying that it was just like a restaurant.

I thought the chalkboard napkin rings that my friend gave me were appropriate for the first day of school.

The purpose of the special dinner wasn't just about fancier-than-normal food and surroundings, but also to present our family school year theme.

We settled on "Respect". Our boys are still young, but we thought this was something they could grasp and improve on.

I was shocked at the riveting discussion we ended up having.

Not only did the boys stay in their chairs the whole time (a rarity at our house) and actually eat the dinner I made, but they actively participated in our conversation about showing respect. We talked about all sorts of scenarios where they could show more respect; school, church, friends' houses, stores, and with their parents and each other.

Blake caught on and asked Nash, "How could you respect your teacher at school?"

Nash responded, in the sweetest voice ever, "I'm not really sure, Blake. That's a good question."

What? Did that polite response really come from my child? Troy and I looked at each other, dumbfounded. We were pleasantly surprised that by creating an atmosphere that was special and different, our boys acted differently; more mature and ready to participate in the discussion we had.

Now, implementing the value of respect will be a whole different ballgame. We're obviously focusing on it because there has been a real lack of respect lately. We're hoping to dedicate one family night a month to focus on this theme and remind the boys what we're working on as a family.

The sign I made is now hanging by our back door so we all can continually be reminded. (And since the word "respect" is phonetic, Blake can actually read it.)

I think I'd call our little candlelight dinner a success.

After dinner, Blake asked, "Can we eat dinner in here every night?"

Freezing Time

A slight panic washed over me this week.

I was listening to Nash happily singing every song he knows in the backseat with his own variations when it dawned on me. 

He will never be this age again.

His smile will change. His cute lisp will subside. His voice will deepen. One day, he won't run to me anymore when he can't stop his tears.

I'm sure the panic has something to do with Nash turning three later this week. Every once and awhile amidst the craziness of getting through each day, it dawns on me that our children are gradually changing and molding into newer versions of themselves.

Whenever I start to feel panic about them growing up, it makes me want to do something that will freeze time and make the moments stay with me longer.

So, I hurried and whipped out my video camera so I could "freeze time," at least for today. I captured Nash in his element, reciting a nursery rhyme with his adorable voice and expressions. I know all too well that even a few months from now, he won't give it quite the same vigor. 

It helps me to relax a little bit when I have records of moments that I never want to forget. I need to remember to take more videos, because there's so much that can't really be captured in a photo.

Jam-Packed Disney - Part Two

The adventures continued at Disneyland for a second and third day.

One of the best parts of our trip was spending it with our good friends Nathan and Alisa from Denver. We were expecting this vacation to be chock-full of late night games after putting the kids to bed, but we were all too exhausted from kid-full Disneyland to do anything but crash. Keeping up with four children ages 4, 3, 2, and 3 months wiped us all out.

Blake had a blast with Carly and asks me every day when we get to see her again. They got into plenty of mischief together.

We were especially smitten with Nathan and Alisa's new baby because they named him Tanner; only the coolest name ever. And, Tanner was born on Nash's birthday, which makes him twice as awesome. He was seriously the best baby being carted around Disneyland day after day.

The boys were at the perfect ages to be equally as excited about the characters as they were about the rides.

We checked out Mickey and Minnie's houses in Toontown.

Blake steered Goofy's ship.

And then Goofy taught him how to make sharp turns.

Nash would have moved into Goofy's backyard if we let him.

Troy was once again the master entertainer/distracter.

We hit about every child-friendly ride that existed (except the new Little Mermaid ride that was closed for refurbishment - still bummed about that). Some of the longest lines were for the classics, but we never had to wait more than 20 minutes. It was a good time of year to go - after spring break but before the end of the school year.

Blake was tall enough this time to go on some of the bigger rides. We finally talked him into the roller coaster in Toontown after several failed attempts. He loved it of course. His favorite ride was Soarin' Over California, a simulated hang-glider flight over California. He took the entire ride so literally. He thought we were really outside flying over mountains and oceans. When the screen got dark he asked me if it was night time. And, at the end when we "flew" over Disneyland, he squinted his eyes in search for his dad (who was waiting outside with Nash). So cute.

One of the biggest highlights was watching Mickey's Soundsational Parade. We staked out the best seats in the house early, and while we were waiting for the parade to begin, Nash absorbed high amounts of sugar.

That made him extra exuberant about the floats and dancing characters.

Probably our favorite moment of Disneyland was during the parade, when Troy asked Nash if he liked Mickey Mouse. He clenched his fists and entire body and screamed in the most ear-piercing pitch, "I LOOOOOOVE MICKEY MOUSE!" I tried to get it on video after the fact, but it didn't do justice to the first time he professed his love.

We cut our trip a day short to get back home in time for Troy's cousin's wedding. We were surprised to find a package waiting for us at our front door after driving all day.

We have wonderful, thoughtful friends. I mean relatives of Mickey Mouse.

Blake spent every spare moment scouring over the park guides. I think he has memorized just about every detail by now because he hasn't let the maps out of his sight since our return home.

Well, folks, in three days we had about as much fun as we could take. Till next time...