For Mother's Day...

Kate tried to give me a heart attack... again. We had my family all over for a BBQ at our house, which was so fun and relaxing. The men were enjoying a game of dunk ball while we were watching and the kids were playing in the yard. I realized I hadn't seen Kate in the madness. She frequently disappears so I roamed the house and found the swimsuit she was wearing and had obviously changed out of. I looked in the cars (she likes to get in unsuspecting peoples cars to eat all of their gum) and no Kate. Checked with my sweet neighbor. No Kate. At this point, I'd been looking for 10-15 minutes and was starting to feel my heart in my throat. All 40 of my family members were looking down canal banks, inside neighbors shops, etc. and no Kate. Mark thought he'd call his Mom real quick. BY HERSELF, she walked down the side of the road, and down over a 1/2 mile ditch bank (with a huge canal on the side of it) and mosied into my in-laws house, where she told them with a giggle and a smile on her face that she had sneaked away from her Mom. All by herself. She is a whopping three years old. Mark was trying to call them as they were calling him. The worst part, you can't even punish her. She is 100% oblivious. I've tried multiple times to have serious conversations about it. She can't focus for more than 30 seconds before she's onto another subject. Two months ago, we were discussing the before mentioned canal and how soon there was going to be water in it,and what she should do when there's water in the canal. She told me, "um.... swim!" We talked about strangers telling her if she'll get in the car she can have candy. What should you say? Her response, "Yay!! Candy!" So we have Kate with not an ounce of caution in her bones (I blame Mark. He pulled similar shenanigans). Then, there's Launa. She told me the duties for morning recess have been showing up late and did I know that since they weren't there when they were supposed to be someone could just pull up and steal her?! She is EXTRA cautious! I'm looking forward to summer when she can be an extra set of eyes and ears for her sisters!! Besides that little incident, however, mother's day was lovely. Launa gave me a sweet gift and kind words (the best gift from her really), Mark spoke in church and I taught our relief society lesson on "Becoming Joyful". It was good for me to prepare that lesson because it made me think about the joy that I really do experience in my life. My children do bring me so many spurts of absolute joy every single day. Our take home handout said "choose joy", and I felt like the first step to doing that was gratitude. There will always be struggles and frustrations, but even in the midst of those, I still have so many reasons to be joyful.

Kids are Messy!!!

Kids are messy. It's just the way it is. I don't know why I'm STILL surprised when they make huge messes. Meg has turned into a tyrant. Mark had to dig a bar of soap out of the toilet that Meg had flushed (Kate didn't know it wasn't working and pooped in it. SO glad I was gone for that one -- yuck!!). I dug my missing shoes out of the garbage can where Meg threw them. I've washed a couple shoes and other miscellaneous items she threw in the washer when I was gathering items to start it. She for some reason, likes to try to eat markers (an improvement from Kate's dirt eating fetish I think). She can now get up the swing set ladder no problem and tries to go face first down the slide, which is quite steep. Still... after all this, not even close to the worst mess of the week. Launa got ahold of food coloring, yes, food coloring!! She for some reason packed it up in her craft bag to take to play with her cousins at Mark's parents. At one point, she wanted something and was lassoing the bag around her head. The food coloring evidently leaked and a half hour later we were trying to figure out what the "specks" on the floor were. While trying to clean them the "specks" turned into multi colored spots all over my mother-in-laws new $40/yard light beige carpet (not like two spots, like 30). An investigation turned up the food coloring and Launa hid outside in their shed for two hours and snuck into the car to go home. Roughly four hours of scrubbing and 18 products later, the spots are still there. It's very 80s. I am working on replacing it so at least it can be fixed. I realize there are much worse problems, but it wasn't a highlight of the week. Kate also thinks she's "Kitty Kate" and paints whiskers and a cat nose on her face every chance she gets. I just leave it. She'll only be three for a little while I suppose. Yesterday, she put the same face on Meg. She was her "sister kitty". I'm sure one day I'll be glad I record this stuff, right?

She's a Wild One!!

Sweet Meg is quickly turning into Wild Meg, but she sure is irresistible. Every time she sees her cousin Boone, she wants to wrestle him to the ground. She literally knocks him down, get on his back and mauls him for whatever item he has in his hands. I hope he learns how to defend himself soon, poor kid! She has recently discovered the great outdoors. I'm too afraid to let her roam the grass since our last episode where we had to chase 3000 sheep off. They left lamb poop all over and I'm too worried she'll try to eat it. So since she is resigned to the concrete she is already starting to work the scooter and is loving every opportunity to play with Dad. I love the picture of him holding her up to the basket. It is lowered (he's tall but not THAT tall)!!

Bikes & More Bikes

Two weekends ago we were all going to Tony and Alli's and I was going to walk with the kids and Mark was going to drive to pick us up there. Mark gets in his truck, backs up, and crunch, runs over a scooter. A few swear words, he pulls forward and to the other side of the driveway, backs up and crunch, runs over Kate's bike. More swear words. Incidently, Kate has really never gotten a bike of her own and the hand-me-down that was a mess was ready to be retired. Mark took her to Walmart with just her to get her her very own bike. She was one happy little girl!! Launa's comments: "I am leaving my bike behind Dad's truck so he can run mine over next!" I informed her that would only get her no bike for the entire summer.

Launa's 6 Year Old Stats

Launa Virtue is growing up. Today she weighed in at 43 pounds and was 44.5" tall. She is approximately in the 35th percentile so kind of little. I think I was even smaller than she was. She has come so far this year in her learning. She writes the cutest notes where she sounds out the letters (my highlights include one telling me I was the best mom ever and another one telling me she wasn't going to church because I was mean). She counts all the time and is an absolute nazi about her homework and schoolwork. It has to all be done on Monday when it's assigned. She has also mastered jumping rope (which was quite a feat), hula hooping, she's a pro at bike riding and is now mastering her electric scooter. She has so much energy and actually likes to work. She continues to amaze me with her logic for such a young age. There is nothing better than when Launa decides to be sweet. She gives eskimo kisses, writes sweet notes, does little favors and wraps little gifts. I hope she continues to develop that really sweet side to her personality. She definitely always keeps me on my toes.

More Launa Schenanigans

Launas latest craze has been figuring out my iphone. Her older cousins show her how to do things that I don't ever spend the time to learn. One Sunday, she got irritated at me and so she changed my password, and I was locked out of my phone. I don't have a home phone so I had to go into her elementary school, get her out of class and ask her what the password to my phone was. The secretaries watched in disbelief as she (with a smug little look on her face) told me the password. Sure enough, it worked!! Then I watched her through the window go back to class and she was laughing the entire way. What a piece of work. Fast forward two days. I told her to ride the bus and she told me she didn't want to. I told her she was riding the bus. She decided not to get on the bus and the office had to call Mark. Mark decided to teach her a lesson and not go get her (and then I found out and told him the secretaries have to leave!!) so I called his Mom to see if she could grab her (I was babysitting a bunch of kids and had no way to transport us all in). You would think she'd be scared and crying. Oh no, she was having the time of her life, giggling with Kyla at the stunt they'd pulled. And, she has since tried it again since. She is gutsy, I will give her that. Once again, pray for me to have patience!!!

Kate & Meg Stats

I took the girls in for a group "well-child check", which never exactly turns out that way. This is where they were at: Meg: Weight: 21 lbs Height: 29 " Pretty impressive considering she was like 12 pounds at six months. She is actually my only baby to be over 20 pounds at a year I think. At 1, she is the sweetest little thing ever still. She sleeps from 7 to 7 almost every night, can say "mama, dada, and baba" although Launa insists she can say her name too. Her favorite thing to do is to get pushed around in her car she got for Christmas (and she likes it high speed screeching around the corners - we chase the other girls and she laughs so hard she can't catch her breath. It's awesome). She is extremely independent and into everything. She loves to go in rooms and shut the doors so she can get into stuff. When I come in to get her she scampers off and laughs. Her favorite food is meat, pretty much any kind. She always prefers that over anything else. The first year of her life she has been such a joy that it makes me sad it's already over!! Kate: Weight: 37 pounds Height: 41 inches She was actually a champion at the doctor considering she was screaming when she heard me schedule the appointment. I'm pretty sure she is going to be taller than me by the time she is in the 4th grade, but she sure is a sweetheart. Last night, she had a bad fever after getting her flu shot. At 3:30 in the morning when she was delirious and coughing and miserable, she came and got me and said "do you know I love you mama." She is so affectionate and just really, the sweetest little thing.