Yo-Yo Parenting

I often feel like my parenting is what I would imagine yo-yo- dieting would be like. Because we have a few different levels of comprehension going on with the wee ones, I have to frequently adapt the same technique with every single child.

There comes a time though where I fall off the bandwagon of good parenting and dive into less effective methods of parenting for brief periods of time, only to start the less bumpy ride up again. It is comforting to know though that with each falling off I gain more insights in how to do better the next time around. Parenting is like a ride on a wagon. Sometimes the trail is smooth and sometimes you do all you can to stay on. If you have fallen off and are not able to get back on that wagon on your own, then you need to hail to the driver of the wagon for some help to get back on.

I was talking with a friend the other day about, how I feel as though I am not so much of a kneel down and pray person at this time in my life, only because if I were I would always be on my knees. Point- I am constantly praying!

I am thankful for the constant guidance I receive through my answered and not answered prayers. Prayer is the balm for the wounds inflicted through this journey we call parenting.

Life is Goooood! Really good!!

Back in July, Jared had the "privileged" of going on the high adventure with the Young Men of our ward. He needs to do these type of trips, since he is surrounded by a bunch of ladies. A good dose of testosterone was definitely in order.

He got back from this trip having heard the movie "Nacho Libre" several times while he drove. One of the first things on his agenda was actually watching this movie.

A side note, any who have ever watched a movie with him will know that you will end up laughing. Mostly because he thinks it is funny and he will literally laugh until he turns a light shade of purple and makes this little high pitch wheezing noise (as if it is his last breath of air) You really can not help but laugh yourself. It is very contagious to say the least. I digress

He was in charge of date night the following week after he returned from the trip. He planned for us to watch this movie. He has not stopped quoting it since. At first I found it to be annoying. But then it grew on me, and now I find myself quoting this ridiculous movie.

I get those silly songs stuck in my head and will blurt them out Oh ingnacioooooo doodlooloooloo! and then I laugh so hard I cry. I even attempt to try to make that throaty sound the way Nacho does. I may need some sort of medication for this syndrome.

Well as strange as this post may be it is not as strange as that this movie has brought a whole other level of joy to our lives. This ridiculous movie makes our whole family laugh just a little bit more.

Here's to Nachoooooooooooooooooooooo!

Answered Prayers

I love how this girl has the talent of timing!


Last night as I was praying (no pleading) for some help with frustrating feelings, this little lady came up to me within seconds of the end of my silent plea, and with her beautiful big brown eyes looked into mine and said "Hey Mom can we play?"

Play we did! All of us! We were wrestling and squealing and laughing so hard we drooled.
We didn't stop playing until the lights went out. I am so grateful for answered prayers, especially when they help me be a better Mother. I sure loves these ladies!

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I THINK MY BRAINS ARE GOING TO EXPLODE!



BLAGAMAGAFLOOGY TOOGY WHOMKMNFDSHJFDSJLFDNSKL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!




LITTLE PEOPLES ARE YOU SERIOUS?



TOMORROW WILL BE BETTER RIGHT!?!?!

It is done!

Here are the before pictures. Now these pre demo ones were taken back in August of 2005 pre renters.







Here begins the demo project January 2009

























Here begins the putting back together phase.












The heavenly choirs are singing because the bathroom remodel is complete as of Wednesday. HALLELUJAH!














I am so happy to have the bathroom done and functioning properly too. Our next project will be the upstairs bathroom. It has had card board boxes around the toilet since January. We will gut this one too. The list is to long to name all that is wrong with it.

How do kids grow?

I look at our children's plates when they are "done" and often think, "how are they growing, no thriving with such little consumption of food?"

I do not cater to our children when it comes to food. What I make is what there is to eat(.)

If they sit and make scrunched up faces without even trying it and say they do not like it, I simply say to them "I guess you will be hungry!"

There is no science to it.

I suppose, if they get hungry enough they will eat it and if they don't then they will go to bed hungry and in the morning have several bowls of cereal to make up for the lost calories.

It does upset me at times though. I never remember being whiny or complain about the food that was placed in front of me. I wish I knew the secret my Saint of a Mother had.

There is a high probability that one day I will just slop food right there on the table in front of them with no utensils or plates or anything and declare that "The first one to lick their spot clean will get an extra scoop of ice cream for dessert!"

Do you think it will work?

I sooooo want one of these!

I hope I can win this! The chances are slim but I will try.
Go there now and learn more!
Happy Tuesday

Choco-holic

This girl loves chocolate. She's lightening fast at swiping it too.

Giggles

Eliza is giggling now. I love it! Jared helped me last night by recording her. She is so much fun! Eliza will be 2 1/2 months on Tuesday.




People keep on asking me how I am able to do everything with 5 kids. I think I have come to the conclusion that really the more kids you have and the older they get the more fun it is and dare I say easier. I think back when I had just one or two kids and it was a lot more demanding on me. But now, I have some awesome helpers. I would take having 5 kids over one or two any day, well except on those days when I am grumpy and need to be in time out. Our summer has been going great! I have some fun pictures from our trip to Utah back in June that may be posted some day.

One of the fun things I started this summer was having the girls take turns alternating Sundays with helping plan the meal for dinner and then they get to pick who we have over for our guests. 5 years ago I would have thought it impossible to be able to let my children help me prepare food. It was too much work for me and my immature brain to let them get food all over the place(not on purpose mind you). But I just tell myself now "In a few more hours they will be in bed and then you can make the home clean again....they are only this age once and you are teaching them valuable skills." Sometimes I have to scream this to myself when the other voices of wanting my home to stay clean get in the way. Sometime I purposely make a mess right along with them just for the sakes of it. It is fun.

July was filled with Jared being gone a lot, on business trips and church stuff. The girls and I had some adventures. One week I made pioneer week. SO on Monday night they took baths the old fashion way, outside. In fact the whole week they bathed outside(in their bathing suits of course). One night they were whiny. SO I said, "After dinner we are going on a mini pioneer trek!" They all seemed eager and thought that because I was excited about it they should be. Well we started on our journey. After the first 1/4 mile the murmuring began. "I am tired...my feeeet huuuurrrttt......caaaaaaannnnn we reeeessst etc.!" They soon started hearing stories from me about what the pioneers endured and how blessed we are to be living in this time of day when we have so many conveniences, yada yada yada!

We did a little more than a mile, and everyone was exhausted and hot. When we got back to the house, I ordered them all to go out to the back and that we were going to do something super fun. We all got back there where I then proceeded to spray them down with the hose, while they all had their clothes on. At first they were all screaming saying they couldn't get their clothes wet, but I assured them this was fun and in no time we were all laughing and sopping wet. side note: If you ever need to get rid of frustrating feelings, seriously take your kids outside and hose them down, they will think it is fun as long as you do it with a smile on your face. In the winter time I have some really soft like air balls for the inside that the girls and I play dodge ball with. I always win :)

The best part is that playing with your kids is fun and it really is a huge stress reliever. I have learned that when a situation gets frustrating, things get resolved so much quicker when I am willing to get right down there on the ground with them and play, or throw a tantrum with them, or what ever the case may be.

I have days where I feel like all I tell the kids is "leave me alone, I am in time out!" In the moment it is not so funny, but in retrospect I laugh at myself. I am so blessed to be married to a man who makes me laugh at myself and at the frustrating situations that come my way daily.

Take time to giggle this week. It heals the soul and brightens your face. Heaven knows brightened faces are fading quickly in our society. Be a beacon of hope and joy to those around you, it really is a lot of fun!

Happy Full moon today!

Courtesy of Kady!

Answered Prayers

It had been a long Sunday. The girls all seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed and were at each other from the get go. This is not the way any Mom wants to start her day. I felt like their incessant attacks at each other were beginning to chip at my determined pleasant demeanor, and it was only 8:45 in the morning. We had gotten to Church, and did the potty thing before we took our place in the pew. I reminded the girls how we act during Sacrament meeting and the reasons why. Despite my best efforts the girls continued to be disruptive.



Because my husband is the Bishop of the congregation I can't easily send him out with the kids. Needless to say we spent a lot of time outside of the Chapel in a room to practice being still and quiet. I shed a few tears of frustration and was starting to have not so good feelings toward the disorderly guilty party. I got into my thoughts to figure out if I had been the culprit to their behavior, and realized that for today it seemed as though how they were going to act was predetermined before the world was formed. It was not a reflection of how I Mothered them or taught them. They simply were having a bad day. I could handle that. At least for the moment.

The day just continued in the same pattern. We only have a few of these kind of days a month, but they sure seem to be intense. It really does bring any nice person to the brink of insanity.


By dinner time I had reached my saturation point and snapped several times at the girls. Blah! I excused myself to be in time out and summoned myself to a quiet place. As I was praying (no pleading) for some help with frustrating feelings, this little lady came up to me within seconds of the end of my silent plea, and with her beautiful big brown eyes looked into mine and said "Hey Mom can we play?"


Play we did! All of us! We were wrestling and squealing and laughing so hard we drooled.
We didn't stop playing until the lights went out. I am so grateful for answered prayers, especially when they help me be a better Mother. I sure loves these ladies!

Here it goes!

Eliza was born last Tuesday June 2nd at 11:33 a.m. She weighed in at 8 pounds 10 oz. She is such a delight. The girls love having a new sister. Life has been great! My in-laws got into town Thursday evening and I feel so pampered. I have not done dishes for a little less than a week. My Mother-in-law thinks that doing the dishes doesn't constitute for being much of help but for me it really does. Anyway. The birth was wonderful. We got to the hospital around 7:15 and got up to labor and delivery around 7:30 ish and I was a 7. I got myself all situated and got in my zone of hypnobirthing and I was good to go. Around 9:30 I had the doctor break my water and about 2 hours later Eliza popped right out.

I am so blessed to have such a wonderfully competent husband who took over all of my work load. And as always did it cheerfully. It is annoying sometimes that he can handle so much and seem like it doesn't phase him. I get a little irritable when too much is put on my plate sometimes. Maybe he just kept on thinking "only 2 more days till my parents come and then I get to go back to work and enjoy some peace and quiet!" :)

So here is a truck load of pictures. Enjoy!
Here is Eliza about 1 hour old. She was quite content after having "nursed" for 20 minutes on each side.

Here she is about 1 in a half hours old.

Her first bath. She loved getting her head washed.

Jared brought the girls to the hospital. I think I only lasted about 15 minutes before it was time for them to go. It was the perfect amount of time.




I only stayed at the hospital one day. Just enough time for me to get several yummy meals that I didn't need to cook and clean up after. The week before I had Eliza our bathroom had begun the final stages of getting done. The day she was born was the day the people were going to grout the tile and put the sink and toilet back in. Luckily though we had a few extra days so because I am super woman I decided to paint in the areas around where the sink and toilet were going so the finished product would look much better. Jared thought it was necessary to capture me being super woman. The bathroom is so exquistit to me. I love the almost finished product.

Grandma Palmer holding Eliza, which made her rocky flights very much worth it.

This picture was taken last night. Jared and Lucy were reading together and Jared looked down and noticed Eliza sitting this way. We call this picture "What have I gotten myself into!"

On Saturday night we went to our friends wedding reception. For some silly reason we thought we could try to get the girls to cooperate and get a family picture. Silly only because they were all a little crazy from the full moon. Or at least I blame it on that.
The 3 older ones plotting out beforehand how they could make this process a true adventure. The vote was unanimous that Sera would take on the crazy role.

Here is Sera starting to fulfill her duty. And Jared attempting to persuade her to act differently, but then was side tracked because he needed to go and get Kady before she became road kill. I was pretty much stuck in that postion I am in so I was of no help in rounding up the children.

Here is me attempting to persuade Sera to be respectful and to look in my eyes. I was not successful. Oh well!

Our first shot. You can tell from Jareds face that his expectations for getting a family photo were way to high.

Then we all realized why should we act any differently in our family photo so we decided to have fun!


And then here is me trying to figure out how I am going to get up from being wedged into the crook of the tree. I also love Kady's face as she is wisked away, and how Sera is still gripping onto the tree.


This final picture if the essence of how Kady treats her new sister. She loves kissing her and being very gentle with her. For this I am truly grateful since I was very unsure how Kady would take being a big sister.