Fire Engines and Mom Party

At Thanksgiving time I got a free turkey at Winco and hadn't cooked it yet. I was going to cook it for Easter but I decided I was too tired to worry about dealing with a turkey on Easter. I ended up cooking it Monday night. I slow cooked it in my oven all night long. At 7:00 in the morning our carbon monoxide alarm went off. We figured that since the gas stove was on all night that indeed maybe we had carbon monoxide in our house which was a scary thought. Scott opened all the doors and windows. Meanwhile I looked up what we should do on our phone and it said you should never ignore when your alarm goes off and you should call 911. So we got all our kids up and stood outside underneath our tiny front porch and waited in the rain for the fire department to come. I'm sure we were quite the sight standing in our jammies in the rain at 7:00 in the morning.
The firemen checked our blood to see if we had any carbon monoxide in our blood which we did not. The firemen checked everything in our house and the highest reading they got was a 3. He felt that we were safe and told us we probably just needed to get a new detector. They may not have gotten much of a reading because we had aired the house out before they got there. I went to Walmart and felt safe when our new detector didn't go off again. Phew. That was kind of crazy. We  should have gotten a picture of the fire engine in front of our house that doesn't happen everyday.

Ryan has been kind of crazy lately and waking up sometimes twice a night to eat. I don't know if he's going through some crazy growth spurt or what. I went ahead and started him on solids this week since he seems to be ready for more food. I'm also going to have to hunker down and get more strict about his nap times because he's becoming a poor napper and waking up at night. This week baby Ryan is about to go to sleep boot camp again.

This weekend all the women in the family except for 2 sister in laws all met at my mom's house for a mom's weekend. We did this last year to throw my sister a secret baby shower and had so much fun we decided we should do it again. I was planning on taking Ryan but last minute I decided that I would much rather leave him home and relax in Arco. Luckily I had a big bag of breast milk in the freezer already so I packed my pump and was off. Best decision ever! Ha. I surely missed him and the rest of my family but I really enjoyed the vacation. We visited, watched movies, hit the Family Dollar, and looked at photo albums. Kelsey and I went for a run and everyone except for me did a coloring packet for a humanitarian project. I wasn't feeling it. Ha.

Scott was great to take all four kids for the weekend! They worked in the garden and watched Spiderman. (Gabby loves Spiderman 2 because she has a wedding dress of course). Corbin had a fun run with his school Saturday morning. My visiting teacher was kind enough to watch the other kids while Scott took Corbin to his run. Corbin did great and finished his race of one mile all by himself. Scott took him to get a treat afterward.

Kid Quotes:
Corbin: talking about Elsa on Frozen, "mom, just so you know when she turned herself beautiful I saw her...she was bare feet." Ha. That's a relief.

Gabby: "Can you do it right now so I won't have to ask again?" Wow that is so Gabby, and I have to say she has a bit of a point.
Aunt Mandy sent Easter presents to the kids and one was a blow up flamingo. Gabby kept calling it a clamango. me: "Flamingo" Gabby: "Cla-flamango"
Gabby talking to Scott about her Disney Princesses, "I love Aurora, and Cinderellla, and even Snow White. But I don't like the girl with black hair (Pocahontas). I don't love her because she doesn't have a beautiful princess dress."

Corbin getting some plants for his science project

Oh princess Gabby

Corbin's Fun Run

Spiderman Party

Rice cereal for the first time

Gabby's Aurora dress was on the floor and Ryan rolled himself into a bit of trouble.

Aunt Mandy presents. She bought my kids slippers, they are adorable!

Ha. An old picture of my mom camping. It must have been raining. Classic!

An old picture of my mom spot sun bathing for my brother's wedding 20 years ago. Ha!

You know you are on the farm when you see that the dog has dragged our neighbor's dead carcass on our lawn.

Happy Easter

Scott was gone to Texas Monday and Tuesday. It's surprising how you adjust to those things. I remember in the beginning that was really hard for me. I don't like it when he's gone but I handle it much better now. Corbin had his spring concert on Tuesday night. I had a friend watch the girls so I could attend his concert more easily. It was cute but it wasn't as good as the Christmas concert. For one thing they had all the K-2 grades up there the entire time. They would just have the other kids stand there silently while the different grades sang. I can see why they did it to cut down on time and chaos but it was MUCH cuter at Christmas when they only had the Kindergartners up on the stage to sing their songs. For one thing they actually fit on the bleachers and you could see them and they were so, so cute. Afterwards I took Corbin to Sonic to get a slushy for doing a great job. He loved it!

On Wednesday Corbin didn't have school so I took all four kids to the library to story time. It went pretty well but for the most part I have been able to avoid taking all four of my kids by myself anywhere that wasn't a park. It's kind of embarrassing and it's stressful. I feel bad saying that but it is. People stare at you like you're a freak show. It's nerve wracking. I feel like everyone is staring at me so if my kids aren't completely perfect it's even more embarrassing. Don't get me wrong I'm proud to be a mom and I love my kids but people stare and they say things, that's all I'm saying.

After the library Anna had called and wanted to meet at Burger King since her kids were out of school too. We got some lunch and the kids played for a bit but it was super crowded so we packed up and went to a park.

On Thursday the kids and I picked up Corbin and we had a picnic lunch at the park. It was pretty windy that day but it's so nice to be outside.

Scott was super busy all week and wasn't around hardly at all. I was pretty tired and burned out so I asked him to please take the kids out for a bit Friday night. He willingly obliged and they went to a wetlands park and had an adventure playing games in the grass. Ryan was kind of a crabby pants but he was happy being held. So we watched some White Collar together for a bit. After a while I was able to put him to bed and do a sewing project. I haven't done that in a long time.

On Saturday the Easter bunny came. The kids found their baskets and proceeded to eat candy the rest of the day. Gross! (I mean I love candy but still). At 10:00 we headed over to the Albertson's store for their annual Easter egg hunt. We love going there because it's right by our house, there's always parking, you don't have to worry about the weather, it doesn't take a lot of time, and you can win prizes. It's great! Corbin won a Broncos t-shirt and a case of orange soda (his favorite). When we got home we found a package from Nana and Papa with more Easter treasure.  Later in the day the kids dyed Easter eggs. The Easter bunny brought the movie Frozen so we've watched that a bunch of times since then. In between Easter festivities I was busy cleaning and doing yard work all day. It was a busy, full day.

Today we got a last minute invite to join my friend Jen's family for Easter dinner. It was fun. We brought over our dinner and we had a lot of delicious food. It was fun. It was nice to get together with some friends.

Kids:
Corbin: "I can't believe a baby can make that sound." (Ha! He said that after Ryan let out a big burp).
"Gabby, you think you know everything but you don't."
Me: "Corbin after this I'm going to go run 2 miles." Corbin:"Oh, you're not very lucky."

Gabby:
Talking about the movie Frozen, "they said butt, that's not appropriate."

Piper:
"I love this shirt. It's so beautiful." (This is more funny when you actually hear the way Piper says things, oh well!).

Cute Ryan. He loves to sleep with the blanket up in his face.

Gabby: This is her after she got up with her crazy bed head and sleeping in her 2 year old backward ballet costume.

My sewing project. The girl I visit teach just had her first girl so I made this.

Corbin set up a fort of sorts in the corner with his popcorn and slushy.

Our picnic lunch. 

The girls at the picnic.

The wetland adventure.

Cute!

Ha!

Love this picture!

Gabby did this with baby headbands. Pretty cool.

Trying to take a good picture with four kids in a hurry: not a good idea.

The kids like to roll down the "hill" at the park.

Update

The weather has been so beautiful this week. It makes me excited for summer although I actually wish the weather would stay like this for a few months rather than weeks. I think it’s perfect when it’s in the 70’s. Not too hot, not too cold. I still had some Christmas money so on Monday I took off and hit a million stores. I was on the hunt for a new swimming suit, Sunday outfit, and Easter outfits for my kids. I found everything except for a Sunday outfit. Seriously I have been looking for something since October. I always like to have a brand new outfit when we bless a baby (because let’s face it I earned that). Anyway I never found one, so then I wanted to find an Easter outfit and I haven’t found one. Oh well!

On Tuesday I did a ton of yard work. I had a lot of weeding and raking.I love yard work though so I like it when I have work to do out there. I’m not very good at growing things but I can keep my yard weeded and well groomed.

On Friday I went to Corbin’s class and then I came home and fed Ryan and went to the temple. There are some serious perks to Scott’s job. What other mom of 4 little kids can do that? Friday night I went to my friend’s house and chatted with her while she sewed me a swimming suit skirt and an insert into the top of my swimsuit. She’s got some mad skills. I’m so glad I have a new cute modest swimsuit now. I mean it’s March but if you try to get a swimming suit in the summer you can’t find one.

On Saturday Scott and I both worked like crazy. Scott cleaned out our garage, like pulled everything out and swept and mopped the floor clean. I spent three days organizing my kids’ clothes and finally finished last night. That is the worst job. At 11:00 in the morning yesterday it was 50 degrees and my kids were outside in their swimming suits playing in the hose. They had to take a hot bath after that one!

Kids:

Corbin: (I overheard this one) “Gabby you can ask mom, she might say yes, she might say no, so good luck.” Ha!

Gabby: “Hi gross baby, cute one.” (He is a gross, cute baby. He’s adorable but he’s always wet with barf and drool. It’s disgusting, but he’s the cutest).

Piper: “Can you take a picture of me?”

“Mommy, you know what? Daddy’s birthday's coming up.”

“Uh oh mommy, it’s a ghost. We better get out of here.”

Ryan: He cut his first tooth this week. He’s pretty low maintenance in the morning but by afternoon evening he wants to be held all the time. Last night I was weeding with one hand and holding Ryan in the other hand. I was hauling him around like a sack of potatoes and he was loving every minute. I had to rock him to sleep tonight but I don’t even care. He may or may not be my last one (I’m 100% undecided on that one) and I am going to soak up every last minute with my cute, gross baby.

I took this picture after I finished taking a nap with him. Love him!

This is when Piper wanted me to take her picture. Don't mind her mismatched outfit.

Crazy kids!

Brrr!

Daddy cuddles.

I'm laughing in this picture because I could see that Scott was taking our picture. I'm not sure if the picture gives justice to how much all 4 of my kids wanted my attention at the same time. Ha!

Every week the primary has 2 kids be up front and be a "reverent child" during the beginning of primary. This week Corbin and Gabby both got picked. We thought it was too cute!!!

General Conference

I've had lots of social gatherings this week which is always fun. On Tuesday I had a play date at a friend's house. That night we had a girls night and talked and played a game. Most of us left by 1:00 but a few of them stayed until 3:00. Seriously! On Friday I spent the day cleaning and cooking. I fed the missionaries homemade Cafe Rio Pork salads and I also made cinnamon rolls that day for conference. Tradition!

After dinner Friday night we went to some friends in the ward and had milk shakes and partied with them late into the night (for kids). Our kids didn't get to bed until almost 10:45. It was a lot of fun we just chatted in the sun room while the kids ran around like wild animals until they later zoned while watching a movie.

Saturday morning we had to go and clean the church which seems a little pointless to me since there wasn't church this week. Right? Oh well. I hadn't gone to the store to buy our special treats yet for conference and the kids were freaking out the first session. I had cinnamon rolls already. Come on! Anyway Scott took the 3 big kids to the store in between sessions and bought some conference treats and snack foods. The kids were so excited. On the way Piper said, "Daddy do you like treats?" Scott: "Yes, but you know who really, really likes treats? Mommy." Corbin: "I really, really like treats too! I'm a sugar addict."

During the priesthood session I went to another friend's house and we had pizza and the kids ran around and watched Frozen and we somehow managed to talk a bit. Between the two of us there were 9 kids.

Today we ate a lot of junk food all day and watched conference. I have to say it was sure nice to not have to get myself and 4 kids in our Sunday best and go battle during Sacrament meeting. Isn't General Conference the best?

Kid Quotes
Corbin: "Gabby, are you 100% crazy?"

Gabby: "I knew I know everything. Mommy, did you know I know everything?"
G: "Mom my laughing is kind of rusty."
G: "Mom, is Ryan's General Conference treat milk? Hahaha."

Piper: "Phew, that was a close one."
I was reading an alphabet book to Piper and she didn't want me to help. "Do it mine own selp. Ga ga house."

Late night movie party.

I practiced some girl hairdo's during conference.

Cute girl!

Gabby was trying to get Ryan to laugh which is a hard thing to do. He's just learning to laugh. He is very generous with his smiles but not with his laughs.