Brewer Bunch

seize the sleep!

2012-01-22T08:09:00.000-06:00

the sweet, silent sleepy times of mommyhood!

hellloooooo!

2012-01-18T19:38:00.000-06:00

Hey world - yes, we are alive and kicking...

Here's a snippet of what we have been up to in our neck of the woods...

We've been hangin out,

skiing

school lunch eating...

3D pajama wearing...

Christmas prelude playing...

Disney World trip anticipating...

Snuggi-ing...

Ear piercing...

Park Playing...

Wait, What??! PARK playing?? In Minnesota?? In JANUARY??!!

Yep...

We have had quite the random winter around these parts... not a lick of snow until just a few days ago. In fact, just last Monday we were outside, in short sleeves, playing at the park! Jerry is so sad that he hasn't had his normal snow-blowing bonding time. I have even found myself with a little wistful snow longing myself... but mine is for purely selfish reason - I just want a big blizzard to be able to have a snow day and snuggle up inside with some hot chocolate and a good book :)

If you envision it...

2011-10-19T20:25:00.002-05:00

and then scout it out on craigslist to get a smokin deal

and rent a uhaul to get it yourself,

and then finally bite the bullet and pay someone to actually assemble it for you

So you can watch the progression

and try to ward off the kids

who are chomping at the bit and can hardly stand to watch it go 'so slow!'

and get a little antsy yourself...

Then the kids will come

and stay...

and play!!

ahh the sights of fall...

2011-09-05T23:24:00.002-05:00

but I'm a little too lazy to re-write it, so here's the link :)

http://all-diets-work.com/ahh-the-sites-of-fall/

Slurping the last tastes of summer...

2011-08-27T12:38:00.000-05:00

Driving down our beautiful green-tree lined streets the other day, I caught myself getting a little excited for the fabulous fall colored leaves...

and then had to catch myself

and remind myself that right behind that

came the freezing tundra land that is minnesota ALL WINTER LONG.

So, we have decided to use this last week before schools starts as our

completely-seize-the-sun-moments-before-we-have-to-say-goodbye-to-the-great-outdoors

week.

Elizabeth was all over that philosophy!

... yes, she is still in a not-match-shoes-on-purpose-phase. priceless!

Joshy decided water guns are best served in re-hydrating oneself...

sprinkler tramp-jumping... a summer tradition :)

And what would summer be like without the age-old slip-n-slide??!

yep... just another day of soaking it all in
... except for the parts that get blocked out from the sunscreen
(gotta keep Mr. Derm happy :) ).

Oh what do you do in the summer time, when all the world is...

2011-07-22T13:27:00.000-05:00

WET??

Do you jump on the tramp?

... or make bombs out of bags...

Or lay in the stream going by??

Is that what you do??

So do I......

... or bike...

... or maybe even shoot some hoops :)

Yes, we had a spell where it was absolutely pouring rain around these parts for a few days in a row. Not to be ones to sit by the window and wait for it to pass, the kiddos donned their 'gear' (layers of soon-to-be-soaking clothes) and rushed into the torrents with gleeful shouts of joy.

Nope, no summer storm is gonna get us down :)

And they went "bleck bleck bleck" all the way home

2011-07-10T20:32:00.000-05:00

Note to self:
   Do not fly across the country, then drive back. Somehow that drive back will seem like it takes fooorrreeevvveeerrr.

Let me back up a bit...

Normally when we do the cross country trips, we load all the kiddos up, pack enough food for an army, hop in the car and a short 2 day jaunt later, we come crawling into one of our relatives houses. It's the routine, we know it, we deal with it.

This time, since we got to 'borrow' my parents suburban while they skip the country for the next three years, we came up with the *brilliant* plan to fly out to Utah, then drive the Suburban back.

Again, the first time we have done the full family cross country flight. We were all pretty much in awe at the fact that we got on the plane at breakfast time, and by lunch we had landed in Utah. It was amazing!!

... fast forward 2 1/2 weeks (and a bundle of mini-road trips between Utah and Idaho) (pictures to come... when I can get my act together, that is!), we loaded up the troops, and started the journey home. By lunch time we were... well... not very far along.

   Add to that 2 throw up sessions on day one, and two more on day two, and the car ride seemed infinitely longer.

  We did make it home, kinda sorta in one peace.
... and even made it before midnight (10:46 to be exact)!
... about which, after unloaded everything, Jerry took the kids out to 'celebrate' by lighting a few fireworks.
... did I mention it was just before midnight?!
... and all of our neighbors were asleep?!
... yep, we threw ourselves our own 'welcome home' shebang...
Don't you wish you lived next door to us now??

The Waiting game...

2011-06-06T21:43:00.002-05:00

http://foodmoodmotherhood.wordpress.com/

... because I'm just too lazy to write it all over again :)

Random Family Shots

2011-05-18T21:48:00.000-05:00

Ruba Dub Dub...

2011-05-17T21:54:00.000-05:00

Little Lizzy

Really...

REALLY...

Loves the Tubby

Love this girl...

2011-05-10T17:04:00.000-05:00

and am completely in awe of her determination

You GO girl!!

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-09T00:40:00.000-05:00

This is a post I have been struggling with all day.
How do you sum up the woman who epitomizes Motherhood
In just one blog post?

I attempted it once:
http://jerryandjen.blogspot.com/2010/10/hand-me-down-mommy.html

But even that doesn't do justice to this wonderful woman

Who found this amazing man:

tied the knot (almost 50 years ago!):

and not only gave me life,
but taught me how to live it.

Mom, I love you!

Happy Mothers Day!

Called to Serve...

2011-05-04T09:22:00.001-05:00

and serve...
and serve...
and serve...

That about sums up my mom and dad. Here is a synopsis of their latest adventure:

Walter R. and Eileen M. Petersen

Walter Ray Petersen, 77, Burley 3rd Ward, Burley Idaho Stake, called as president of the new San Salvador El Salvador Temple. President Petersen's wife, Eileen Marie Albertson Petersen, will serve as temple matron. Currently serving as a sealer in the Twin Falls Idaho Temple, he previously served as president of the Mexico Mérida Mission, stake president, patriarch, bishop, temple ordinance worker and Central America Area medical advisor senior missionary couple. A retired family physician and surgeon, he was born in Wendell, Idaho, to Raymond Orlinzo and Jane Maria Prescott Petersen.

Sister Petersen currently serves as an institute teacher and temple ordinance worker. She previously served with her husband as he presided over the Mexico Mérida Mission and as a senior couple missionary. She has also served as a ward Young Women president, ward Primary president, and gospel doctrine teacher. She was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, to Arnold George and Verna Beth Huffaker Albertson.

... I am so excited and happy for them. But would be lying if I didn't say that part of me wants to sneak into their house and glue their feet to the floor.

Sure will miss you mom and dad! But I know you will do great!!

My new little experiment

2011-04-30T17:25:00.000-05:00

So, in an effort to get things ready with my book and education week presentations, I am entering the 20th century and getting a web site. Along with that web site, I am starting yet another blog... dedicated to the specific topics of food, mood, and motherhood.

I haven't launched anything official yet, but here are some of the first posts...

http://foodmoodmotherhood.blogspot.com/

Tender Mercies

2011-04-14T19:43:00.000-05:00

Yes, you saw that right.
A street sweeper.
My Today Tender Mercy.

Let me explain...

A few days ago I was on my way home from an early morning workout, and it was still dark as I was driving up the hill to our house. Suddenly, something jumped out in front of me, and before I could even react, I felt the stomach dropping thump-bump, thump-bump. Of the tires over some poor, unsuspecting animal.

As soon as Jerry woke up, my first words were, "Honey, I hit an animal! I don't know if it was someone's sweet life-long pet cat, or some sweet baby bunnies' mother! I don't know if it died, or is now maimed for life!"

Okay... now many of you are thinking how cheesy this is, but hey, it's me - and my middle name could just have easily been 'guilty'. If there is something to feel guilty about - I will find it and relish it until a myriad of ulcers come to complete fruition :).

... and it didn't help much that a few minutes after Jerry left for work, I received this picture via text:

with the caption, "The Easter Bunny!!"
... ummm, not really helping, honey!

so for the next few days, every time I drove down and up the hill, I was faced with the stark reminder of my mistake.
wondering if I should go out and scoop it up?
should I get some bunny food and go scour the woods for hungry little baby bunnies waiting for their mom to return with breakfast??
or just see it and feel guilty all over again.

... then it happened.
in the afternoon, I happened to be looking out my window, and saw a street sweeper emerge on top of the hill.
and just like that,
It was gone.
Clean.
Removed forever.

Again, I know super cheesy example, but for whatever reason I felt so incredibly grateful for street sweepers.
who swoop in and clean up my messes.
and make my driving path whole again.

Tender Mercies come in all shapes and sizes.
and today, mine came with a swooshing brush.

I WANT to share pictures...

2011-04-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

Really, I do...

I mean, I took about a bazillion.
And then took a few more.

And that was just of Iguasu Falls...

And each time I took my eyes off the incredibly breathtaking scenery
To glance at the technologically engineered rendition of the view,
I found myself extremely disappointed and frustrated.

So I finally stopped trying to capture it on film.
And tried to stare as long as possible
To just capture it in my mind.

And hopefully never forget how majestic it was
And how incredibly small I felt
And how in awe I became.
And couldn't even put it into words...
I would just have to look at it,
and then look at my husband
and pinch myself to remember that I was actually fully awake and alert
And standing in this part of heaven on earth
Next to my best friend in the world
And life was about as complete as it could be
(minus our 5 kids who happened to be a continent away at the moment...
and who would have probably caused me many heart attacks
as they wandered a little too far out on the many 'not quite up to U.S. codes' board walks
...that went literally out to the very drop off point at the top of the waterfall
Or in the boat at the bottom,
where the driver drove right under the waterfall, so I was sitting literally at the exact base of the waterfall...
getting my own 'little' Iguasu waterfall shower)

Yep.
Breathtaking
Amazing
Indescribably
Uncapturable
Inspirational

Iguasu Falls.
Worth every minute of 5 different plane rides to behold.

My Grass Half Full Guy...

2011-03-18T22:22:00.001-05:00

One day, when we were walking into the Y
In the frigid cold
While the rest of the world was blossoming
And I was cursing our tundra land still well covered in snow
Ben ran ahead and turned around with a huge smile on his face,
and exclaimed, "Mom, Look! Grass!!"
and he was standing in the one strip in all of minnesota that actually had unearthed some real ground.

and that pretty much describes my boy -

always looking on the bright side of life

very quiet, but very positive.

I know that he was sent to earth specifically for me...

to help me see the bright side of life

when I tend to get down in the dumps

Sure do love this guy!

(no, this is not trick photography,

and no, the girl next to him is not a midget... she is actually a 'normal' sized kindergartner...

he really is that tall.)

And to celebrate his recent birthday, he got not one...

but TWO ultra cool-super-fancy super hero cakes.

(this is a light saber, for those of you who are still trying to determine what the second one is.
He requested a star wars cake...
and I thought - darth vador... not happening
storm trooper... not happening
light saber - straight lines... I can do that :).

Happy Birthday Ben!!

(now please stop growing up so fast!!)

I DO so like green eggs and ham...

2011-03-17T21:19:00.000-05:00

... I DO, I like them Sam I Am...

Especially on Saint Patrick's Day!!

As appropriate for the holiday, Ben picked one of his favorite books, Green Eggs and Ham...
and following gramma missions tradition for as long as I can remember,
The kids came to a breakfast of, yes, green eggs and ham :)

... and this is about the only way you will see me drink a green smoothy...

which is really our latest passion (dream cycle smoothy)...

with a bit of green food coloring :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

What's wrong with this picture??!

2011-03-13T11:05:00.000-05:00

In an effort to usher in spring, I broke out the eater decor... and it just seems wrong that there is a fire in the fireplace with all of the fun spring colors surrounding it.

To borrow a phrase from one of my friends here: I feel like I'm becoming the weather... bitter and cold!!

Please, Please... send in the heat lamps... I'm afraid I've forgotten what the color green looks like!

Baby Steps...

2011-03-06T21:58:00.001-06:00

I was raised on the teachings of "food storage for a year"

Seriously, I think I heard it from the womb...

Not a general conference goes by

that we don't hear something about food storage.

And I have found plenty of excuses in my adult life

to not exactly heed the calling:

... I was a poor collage student

(besides, didn't BYU have some deep reserve for students stashed away in some mountain vault anyway?? I felt pretty secure there..."

... then we were poor medical students

and planning on moving soon anyway

who wants to move thousands of pounds of wheat every few years??!

... then we were poor residents

and were struggling to eat day to day, let alone plan out a year in advance

(in my defense, I did try to store up some here and there...

even tried to get a big chunk once with some extra income,

to which hubby laid claim to some new dermatology books...

... to which I replied that I wouldn't hesitate to burn as fuel for food in 'the famine')

... then we made it to 'consultant status'

... and student loans started knocking on the doors.

... well, you get the idea -

But it has always been there

deep in the recesses of my brain

nagging, tugging, warning:

GET THE FOOD STORAGE

As I plugged in our numbers to the 'super duper food storage calculator'

on our church's web site,

I was a wee bit overwhelmed to see that we would need

2100 pounds of wheat for our family

2100 pounds??! Isn't that over a TON??!

and that was just in the wheat category.

... there are many more categories.

enter: overwhelmed theme music...

This year, I finally decided I needed to do something...

so I decided I would go for the blizzard storage...

as in: when a blizzard is forecast I don't want to have to leave my house for anything

(since our last one was such a fiasco... see earlier blog post...)

So I got all excited,

got couponing,

got a bunch of stuff.

Set up shelves to organize it,

having visions of standing back to a hallelujah chorus of angels...

only to realize how little we really did have.

(cue music: whuaa, whuaa, whuaa)

Seriously, folks...

not a whole lot to speak of...

... so in a vast effort to keep the enthusiasm, I told myself, "well, this is a great time for a 'before' picture!"

and I decided to document our climb into the food storage world,

one grain at a time...

And so begins our baby steps to food storage project...

adding in a new shelf...

And watching it grow bit

by bit...

even starting to fill these...

with these...

yes, that middle shelf is holding 50 pounds of black beans.

... I feel a canning party coming on!

baby steps, folks. baby steps.

I'll get to the 2 TON mark.

one grain at a time :)

They may have the same birthday...

2011-03-02T21:34:00.000-06:00

But that's about all they have in common...

It has been a very interesting experience to raise twins

Especially some as different in every aspect as our boy and girl.

They have all of the classic differences:

one completely outgoing

one who I had to literally carry to the stage kicking and screaming for his first violin recital

... one who loves reading

... and one who loves math

... one who picks up on things very quickly

... and one who needs plenty of repetition and practice to master some things

Yep, same birthday,

Different everything else.

This years Valentine's Day mailboxes are no exception to the rule:

Seth's box

(finished in about 10 min)

Sarah's box

(which took well into the night,

and then some more 'touch ups' in the morning to complete)

Love my twins!!

Weather Channel, Minnesota Style...

2011-02-27T15:34:00.000-06:00

When it hits negative 20 with windchill,

Minnesotans finally don the gloves...

... and fire up the boot warmers (Julie - aren't you jealous??! Yes, they DO work, and yes, we DO love them!!)

... and put the gloves in the fridge to warm up...

... and still beg to go outback on the porch and play... with a smile on our face :)

When it hits zero...

the "why do we have to wear our coats, it's WARM outside" whines begin...

... and capes become the cover of choice...

When it actually breaks 32,

We can finally chip off enough snow to build the annual mammoth snow man

And in the rare instance that it actually reads 50 degrees,

Shoes suddenly become 'optional equipment'
And shorts actually make their yearly debut...

Illustrations for Dave

2011-02-26T16:19:00.000-06:00

... These will make absolutely no sense to anyone,

That is until you see them in my book :)

... yep, still working

and working

On the book.

sheesh - no wonder they say it's like another child - this book thing is harder than gestating!

Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

Cinnabean muffins

(Cinnamon Bean Muffins)

Chip Dip with a plus

(fiber, that is!)

Fun and fancy fruit dip

It's the little things...

2011-02-14T21:26:00.002-06:00

That made me fall in love with this amazing man.

All of my life, I was waiting for the fan fair,

the fire works

the neon sign

that this was THE ONE.

And then I met Jerry...

... on my first Sunday home from my mission, to be exact.

He was my brothers roommate, and I went to church with my brother.

And sat in between my brother and Jerry

And about passed out with the fact that I was sitting within 'arms length' of an unrelated male.

Totally freaked me out

In fact, I think I about jumped into my brothers lap through the course of the Sacrament meeting. (A fact that Jerry has since taunted me with...).

All of that was 3 years before we even thought about dating.

Yep, that right. THREE YEARS.

We lived right across a little walkway from each other.

Seriously, you could look out my window and look right into his window.

3 Years.

In fact, we sat in Early morning meetings together almost every Sunday.

... and I spent many of those meetings setting him up with all of the RS women who just had to go out with Jerry Brewer.

And then, suddenly, it happened.

... but then again, not so suddenly.

more like little by little it snuck up on me, until one morning (after being told the "L" word by him the previous night), I realized that Love had come.

I loved him all along.

And I hadn't even realized.

I had loved him from the beginning.

Only it was so simple and sweet that I almost missed it entirely (I could go into all sorts of sordid details about break-ups and freak-outs and such, but this post is long enough as it is!).

I realized that it was the little things that one by one

Made this guy wholly and completely my knight in shining armor, without a shadow of doubt.

And I fell.

Hard.

Over my head, 100 percent, in complete unabashed loved with this man. (And then there was a little bit of freak out on his end... but again, a post for another day... )

Fast forward 11 Valentine's Days spent together, and 5 children added to the pack

And it's still the little things

That he does

Day in and day out

Most of which he probably doesn't even realize

(because they are such an ingrained part of him)

That keep me standing in awe of this man that I am lucky enough to call mine.

Yep, the little things...

-- like reading the bedtime story to the kids every night, and tucking them in

-- and taking each child on special daddy/child dates, and infuses service into each one (creates a special service project for them to do together, and then go to dinner of their choice, followed by a trip to toys R us for a 'special' present)

-- or even the way he is so meticulous in every facet of what he does...

... even down to specifically placing each and every stamp on our wedding announcements in the exact right spot on the envelop, completely straight and everything (something that I have kind of sort of mocked him for through the years... i mean, c'mon, who looks at the stamps on envelops that they get in the mail? Well, if you looked at our wedding announcements, the stamps were perfect! ... at least on jerry's pile...)

-- and the quiet way in which he simply does what needs to be done

... like turning the pancakes over when I get pre-occupied with something else in the kitchen while cooking breakfast

-- and stays up late making special Valentines cards for each of the kids so it's the first thing each child sees on Valentine's Day morning (we're talking designing, printing, and even laminated personal cards for each of them!)

-- and the way that he is so simply sentimental - and thinks of all of the tiny things that make my heart melt - all with no fan fare whatsoever on his part

... like the fact that during each pregnancy he wore the same tie to church every single week, and for the baby blessing, and then for the baptism, for each father's blessing, and then plans on giving the tie to each boy when they leave on their mission (how cool is that?!).

... or the single rose that he gave me on our first anniversary with a card that simply said, "one rose for one year" (... and yes, we are now up to 11 roses ;) ).

... and the way that he is so rock solid in his goals.

... he is a great finisher.

(which is good for me, because I'm a great starter...)

Seriously, when he sets a goal, there is not a shadow of doubt that he will get the goal.

... like reading the Book of Mormon in different languages, which I have seen him do every single day for the entire 11 years that we have been married.

... or when he decides he needs to keep a journal a few months after we got married, I haven't seen a Sunday go by that he hasn't written (which is so much more than I can say for my own sketchy record of keeping records...)

Yes, I am truly amazed by this man.

By the little things.

Day in and day out.

That truly light up the fireworks, flash the neon signs, and play the fan fare in my life.

Thanks, honey,

for taking the family leap with me

Happy Valentine's Day.

Here's to Eternity!

Seeing R.E.D.

2011-02-01T11:25:00.000-06:00

Since our kids daily scripture reading is a wee bit shy of stellar (read: nonexistent!), I decided to blatantly copy an idea from one of the primaries that we visited in the stake:

We are officially declaring February our R.E.D. Scripture Month:

Read

Every

Day

We had our kickoff during family home evening last night, complete with letting the kids choose the reward at the end of the month if everyone gets all of their days filled in.

(They chose Chuck-E-Cheese... .sigh... I knew when it opened here last month that it was only a matter of time before they wore us down enough to get us there...)

We even had some red(ish) treats to help usher in our Fabulous February

Okay, so these weren't quite as elaborate as our last years Valentine's Day treat...

but c'mon, those things took forever... and then they were gone in 2 minutes flat! At least with rice krispie treats, the proportion of making to eating is a bit more homogenous :)

Here's to a Fabulous February (and GOODBYE January!!!)

Gutter's log: Day One

2011-01-28T18:03:00.000-06:00

Operation Gut the House is well underway.

Kitchen- DONE!!

Remember this?

Well, I finally found my counter!!

In fact, I discovered a whole new kitchen underneath all the clutter!

Even my pantry helps me breath a sigh of contentment.

(I had to take the picture quick, because there's no telling what all of these areas will look like tomorrow!)

I was so proud that I made my poor 8 year old open every cupboard to show her how organized everything is. (after about the 4th one, her 'oohs and ahhs were a bit forced, but she patiently indulged me the whole tour :) ).

Wahoo!
Now to go find out if my kids have starved to death yet...

The Party's over...

2011-01-28T10:03:00.000-06:00

my personal pity party, that is.
Enough.
I'm done.
It takes too much effort to be depressed, and I'm just too lazy to go on any longer.

So today starts operation: GUT THE HOUSE!!
(It always sounds better with a fun title)

Projects:
-- Clear out Pantry
-- Weed out office
-- Transform basement library/storage/'just put the box here until we find something to do with it' room that now houses all of our 'junk' that we haven't found use for yet (seriously, if we haven't used it in almost a year... I think the next stop for it is Goodwill!), and turn it into the craft/sewing nook (maybe I will actually unpack my sewing machine that I got brand new last January... that has yet to see the light of day!)
-- Organize Storage room and make it into a real live food storage room (so my 36 boxes of brownies are not scattered hap-hazardly around the room. and yes, there are 36 boxes of brownies. We will not be wanting for chocolate in the famine, that's for sure!)
-- Find a home for everything, complete with labels and everything
-- Clear out a 'prepare for Education Week' nook to prepare my nine presentations for BYU-I education week.

Wish me luck.
If you don't hear back from me, you will find me buried somewhere in the catacombs of clutter.

Just another gray day in paradise...

2011-01-25T18:02:00.001-06:00

please, someone, remind me why we live here??

I have been feeling very 'melan cally' (to quote my latest favorite cartoon, Mastermind) lately.

As in, pretty unmotivated to do much of anything.
Okay, REALLY unmotivated to do much of anything.

... except each chocolate.
Lots and lots of chocolate.

And then write in my book about how not to eat lots and lots of chocolate...

And drive through the sandy/muddy-colored-snow filled streets
and try to envision that there really is some semblance of green buried somewhere underneath the 3 feet of snow on our lawn.

And walk outside only to have my lungs burn and nostrils freeze together and feel my baby's whole body go rigid and her tears freeze.

And try to get creative with the kids and do a Valentines Day craft...
... which bombed...
Really.
They looked NOTHING like the magazine picture!
... including the happy smiling child - I guess that's why they only had one child working in the picture... trying to do it with 5 became a battle of "she took my spot!" "He just shoved me!" "Hey, I wanted that piece of yarn!" "eewww, this is too goopy! mom, you do it!"
(at least I tried??!)

And having the spewing forth of germs make their rounds again and again through the family.
(I don't think I can change one more 'spewy' diaper (and clothes, and blankets) without losing it, folks!)

I am really, really, REALLY, missing my family right now.
I miss fun weekend trips
And late night talks
And laughing so hard our cheeks hurt
And introducing new 'legendary' stories that make me laugh just by thinking about them
(thop waffing at me, I'm sthill weely mad at woo!... Honk, bonk, and toot... oh the list goes on!)
And just plain being surrounded by people that know me in and out
And still love me anyway.
... even when they send us off with the ROOSTER!!
(we really did almost turn around when we found it!!)

Is it bad that I am just plain sick of trying to make new friends in this revolving door city,
especially when I know so many will be leaving so quickly

And we'll still be here, chipping away at the snow and ice
And spending every cent of extra money on trips back home to see family...
and actually making that happen usually takes planning of epic proportions (and months of advanced vacation day-counting-and-submitting-for-approval groveling)

Nope, I'm not bitter.
not bitter at all.
Just a wee bit chilly
And a wee bit melan cally

but other than that..

It's just another gray day in paradise :)

Juggling...

2011-01-19T10:46:00.003-06:00

... has never been something that I have been good at.
I have been amazed when I can see people juggling all sorts of crazy objects, all with a huge smile, and all without breaking a sweat.
Amazing.

Lately, however, I have been feeling like everywhere I turn, I have been picking up more things than I can hold, and have therefore resorted to juggling to try to keep them all afloat.

Like my house:
I would post pictures... but it's just plain embarrassing.
I don't think there's a single area that is actually clean and organized.
I keep thinking that deep down inside me there is a meticulously organized, minimalist person...
but right now she's buried underneath loads of clutter.

And not very good and juggling.

And then the kids
I know in some circles 5 kiddos is just getting started.
But in my circle, it's all I can do to keep up with them...
Keeping then fed and clothed is an added bonus.
When I actually get them to different destinations on time, it's a hallelujah moment.

Juggling gets a bit more comical when all 5 personalities come shining through...

like when we sign up 3 kids for ski lessons,
and my 5 year old (who really is amazonian-like in largeness) decides to turn into a spaghetti noodle, slipping through my arms multiple times as he whines 'I don't wanna go, I don't wanna go...' about 5 minutes after I had explained to the instructor that he was the best one out of the 3...

Or when I'm dragging all 5 kiddos out of bed to make it across town to 7 AM violin lessons.
Really?! Where was my brain when that scheduling idea came through my juggling arms.
(Is it bad that I almost started crying with joy when the teacher cancelled all lessons this week??)

Then there's my book...
I know I know, I've talked about it so much, you're sick of hearing about it.
Each day as the sands of time slip through my fingers, I vow to plow through the last bits of it when the kids go down.
and then something happens when the kids go down...
My brain suddenly melts into mush,
My Body suddenly reminds me how much I have tormented it at the gym,
And I generally turn into a zombie, not really able to juggle anything else besides the TV remote.

Or the invention...
Yea, that's still in the juggling mix right now also.
Although I'm barely hanging on to that one by my fingernails...
Plugging away... at about a snails pace on that one.

Just enough to keep it in the juggling arena... and on my guilty conscience.

Not to even mention the additives, like friendships and relationships, calling stewardships... and all other types of -ships.

Those, well, have pretty much been getting all mangled in the juggle.

Sorry if you are one of those and have been feeling a bit - neglected- lately. It's not that I don't think about you and want to revive the -ships...
Right now I just plain don't have enough arms to keep everything afloat.

And I think we have established the fact that I don't really know how to juggle.

So, please forgive me as I set down the juggling pins and just hibernate for a while and dig out of the avalanche of 'stuff' that has suddenly collapsed all around me.

... and maybe sign up for some juggling lessons

My kitchen counter...

2011-01-06T22:18:00.000-06:00

pretty much describes my life right now...
everything kind of crazy
mixed up
disorderly
and all meshed together
a bunch of things, all having relevance and a place to be,
but nothing actually in it's place, and creating general
havoc in life.

And so goes my life lately...
everything kind of crazy
mixed up
disorderly
and all meshed together
I have a bunch of things on my plate, and everything that I have chosen to include in my life right now has direct relevance,
but I can't seem to find a specific place in time to accomplish everything I would like in an orderly manner,
and it's creating general havoc in my world.
Crazy.
... and I only seem to be moving at half speed to get it all in order.

It could be that I am still trying to re-enter real life after living in our car throughout the whole holiday season

and criss crossing the country to surprise various relatives

and having not one,

but two Christmases :)

(at least a few of us got in some naps along the way...)

and teaching not 2,

but four kiddos how to ski

(... which could not have been even half accomplished without the HUGE help of the Fisher Clan... Again, THANK YOU so much for giving up your ski days to help our kiddos
climb out of tree banks,
stop tormenting each other on the lift,
re-snapping their ski boots after each fall
picking up the face-planted bodies
and generally taking on the monumental task of introducing a bunch of newbies to the ski hill!)

Having a ton of fun on the sledding hill

(and bribing Joshy into leaving early with me, even after his much protesting "I JUST WANT TO GO SLEDDING!")

and then spending way...

way...

WAY too many hours in the car on the way home...

Don't get me wrong, the trip was amazing - and SO worth it!!

I'm just having a few re-entry issues...

at least that's what I'm blaming it on this week.

or maybe I can eek that excuse out for the rest of the month...

Our Version...

2010-12-22T21:40:00.000-06:00

Of the answers to the Christmas letter :)
** if you didn't get the original you-fill-in-the-blanks-card, that means we don't have your address, or I am just plain brainless :) (If you do want one, shoot me your address and I can still pop it in the mail!)

Merry Christmas 2010!!

It has been quite an eventful year in the Brewer household. We moved to a new house and put down roots in Rochester. We've done much working, playing, and general frolicking.

We didn't add any new members to the family, but our children keep growing faster and faster every day!

Seth, our oldest by a whopping 3 minutes, turned 8, got Baptized, and is in 3rd grade. He loves spies, ninjas, and anything to do with light sabers, especially those from Star Wars.

Sarah, also 8, like Seth got baptized at our family reunion in Wyoming. She is a very talented artist and loves to play with her friends. She and Seth play the violin, although they don't like to practice.

Ben, age 5, just started kindergarten and has discovered a whole new world now that he can read. He recently started playing the cello.

Joshua age 3, is extremely active, and keeps mom on her toes with his various antics.

Elizabeth just turned 1, started walking, can scream like a pterodactyl, and loves to snuggle with her blanket in mom or dads arms.

Jerry has been working at Mayo Clinic for over a year, and is loving it! He cuts out skin cancer, and has been known to slice off a mole or two on the side.

Jen is still teaching aerobics, writing a book, and most of all tending to her kiddos.

As this Holiday Season approaches, we are most importantly grateful for the Gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and hope that this Christmas Season finds you all healthy and happy!

Happy Holidays!

The Brewer Bunch

We have never been accused...

2010-12-11T23:48:00.002-06:00

... of doing things the easy way.

And Today was no exception.
Well, let's back up a bit first:
-- We have been in the house since April
-- With a 3 car driveway, we have said probably every month, "we should really get a snow blower before winter"
-- After our first storm last week and shoveling aforementioned driveway, again statement of, "ya know, we should really get a snow blower"

Fast forward to today:
-- Blizzard warning turns into a full fledged blizzard
-- we decide it's a great day for making some deliveries
-- only get stuck twice - one of those in front of our own house trying to get back into our (already shoveled twice and now showing no signs of shoveling) driveway

-- dig out, get the car in to have hubby say he is going to go finish up some more errands
-- me ask if he can just stay and do the errands on Monday (this statement did come back to haunt him)
-- me offer to help take the seats out of the van so he can get a snowblower (hint hint ;) ).
-- hubby still unsure that we need one, says he's going to take the smaller car
-- me say probably not such a good idea, it's lower than the van and can get stuck easier

-- a few minutes later I look out the window to see hubby... in his car... right by our driveway... stuck

-- walk out to shovel out again and say, "the thing I want more than anything in the world for our anniversary is a snow blower"
-- we get the car unstuck and he's on his way
-- get a call a while later and hear, "I think I should have brought the van, this car is too low and gets stuck easy..."
-- starts getting dark - learned that all snowplows for the county have been called off due to the wind and blizzard
-- get another call: hubby stuck at the base of hill
(side note: our house is at the top of quite a big hill - 2 ways to get here - both have quite a steep incline... so I guess you could say it really is "uphill both ways"... )
--- the good news is that he has a snowblower!
--- bad news - there is no way that the truck he got from home depot to bring it home is going to make it up the hill.
--- he tries the other hill. Nothing.
--- we deliberate and decide to have me walk down the hill, walk the snow blower home while he takes the truck back to get his car.

--- tell kids I'm heading down the hill and will be right back.
--- walking down hill and into the wind and freezing snow gives me a whole new respect for the pioneers.
--- get to the truck to have both of us realize there is no way either one of us can lug the 100+ pound snow blower up the hill. load it back in the truck, Jerry heads back to home depot.
--- I walk back up hill to home, only to find that within the time frame I stepped out, Joshy has clogged the toilet and water has flooded the bathroom, hallway, and halfway into the kitchen. (seriously??! Enough with the water issues already!!!)
--- clean up water (and kind of sort of lose it with the kids, who all just stood there watching the water getting spread farther and farther without putting down a single towel), get another call...
--- hubby tried a different plan (other than the one discussed about parking at gas station at bottom of hill and walking up, because the car wouldn't make it over the drifts, which now reached about knee height in the middle of the road)... and was stuck half way up hill.
--- after trying for quite a while, finally unloaded the groceries he had in the car, and walked the rest of the way - kids all bundled up and run out to meet him and help carry bags.
--- we all head back to car (yes, even 3 yo and baby are bundled up.
--- all kids in stuck car, us trying to shovel, push, rock and move car any which way.
--- sweet soul with snowblower comes and blows us a tire path up rest of the hill - we make it to the entrance of cul de sac.
--- get stuck. again.
--- shovel. again. thinking, 'wow, this would go so much faster with a snow blower... which we now own... that at one point in time was oh so close to our house... but is now sitting back at the store...'
--- another sweet neighbor takes pity and comes out with another shovel in hand to help dig path through the road and into driveway... then helps us push and shove and maneuver the car sliding and slipping
--- finally getting it into our driveway and garage
--- backwards and crooked
--- but in.

Nope - never accused of the simple, logical way of doing things.

...P.S. as I got in, defrosted, and opened the mail, this picture pours out of one of the envelopes...

Yep, true story. Irony at it's best. (Doncha just miss Minnesota like crazy, Marissa??!)

The Law of Natural Consequences...

2010-12-03T12:31:00.000-06:00

... are beautiful when it helps to teach the children a lesson...

... like this morning, for instance, when I sent the boys up to shower

(after Seth whined about having to take once, since 'we took one yesterday!')

... and they asked if they could take a tubo tub

... and I relented (something I would live to regret)

... and as I sat emailing friends trying to work out a babysitting swap to volunteer in the kids classrooms

(see?! that's what I get for trying to volunteer!)

... Sarah brought down Elizabeth, who was sopping from head to toe in her pj's after just walking by the bathroom

... apparently from the 'tidal wave' that was coming from the bathtub of the boys...

... and I walked up to find not simply a turbo tub... but a whole bathroom sized swimming pool

(are you feeling a little de ja vou-ish about now... wasn't my last post about something to do with waters and bathrooms??!!)

... instead of ranting and raving, this time I simply had the boys get towels and clean up their own mess, every nook and cranny of their mess

(okay, so I still ranted and raved a smidge while they were cleaning up their own mess... )

... but that's not the law that really sunk in with Seth.

... nope, the beauty of it came back in the way that because of the extra clean up time, we were late getting to school (okay, true confession, I took my time a wee bit getting the little ones ready to make sure that we would be a little late, just to drive home the lesson... hey, I never said the law of natural consequences couldn't use a little help every now and then!!)

... and this child HATES to be late, especially to school.

... as in, he would rather stay in the car and hide all day then have to walk in late to school

(... those of you know know me, know for sure that this trait came straight from his dad!!!)

So as we pulled up late to school, I simply said, "well, the extra clean up time made us late for school... I guess you'll think twice about making such a big mess in the tub next time."

Judging from the look of horror on his face as he made the walk of shame to the school door, I think for once he maybe kinda sorta learned the lesson :).

Child mess: a little inconvenient

Motherhood moment of triumph: priceless!

There is a special spot in Heaven...

2010-11-16T14:56:00.000-06:00

... just waiting for me if I can get through this day and not inflict bodily harm on my child...
... who asked if he could watch more TV (after watching far more than he should have already, mind you...)
... and was told, "No, too much TV will turn your brain to mush"... (a comment that once had Sarah in a fit, asking me every 3 minutes if her brain was getting mushy yet...)
... so went to entertain himself while mom experimented with a soup that she is supposed to take to a leadership training meeting on Saturday
... and somehow got upstairs without mom knowing (where baby was napping), and effectively turned the upstairs bathroom into his own personal splash park
... which gushed through the living room ceiling speakers and fell steadily onto the floor (which mom thought was just him washing his hands in the downstairs bathroom, so didn't think a whole lot about it while in the middle of attempting a roue for the soup, and without checking, simply hollered, "okay, Joshy, that's enough, you can turn the water off now"... only to hear his little voice a bit too far away to be in the next room...)
... and effectively formed a wading pool on the living room floor, and also into the bathroom
... which leaked through the fire alarm into the basement
... and could only be classified as Rochester's finest 3 story waterfall...
... and then said child went in to 'comfort' now awake and screaming baby sister
... with a balloon (you know, the type that if a baby pops and swallows will effectively cut of all air circulation, making even mouth to mouth resuscitation impossible...)
... while mom ran around like a crazy person trying to figure out which 'fall' to dam first
... and telling said mom ever so proudly, "I did that!!" as he squishes through the wet carpet leading out of the bathroom.
... then strips down, grabs a sprite can, and when mom (not quite so gently) yells his name, jumps and drops said can, which then pops open, spraying sugary liquid all over the kitchen floor.

... yep, a special spot in Heaven

Has My name on it.

In Gold.

Inspiration...

2010-11-14T22:26:00.000-06:00

True Dedication at it's finest. Robin, you are amazing!!

http://darrenandrobin.blogspot.com/2010/10/im-ready.html

Happy Birthday Little Lizzy :)

2010-11-04T14:43:00.000-05:00

I can't believe that just one year ago I was trying to convince hubby that I was really in labor...

and then an hour later trying to convince the nursing staff that I was in labor...

and then an hour later hearing someone say, "Call Dr. Angstman, and tell him to RUN!!"

and as he and hubby were getting suited up for the delivery, the nurse and I were 'gently' yelling at them to hurry because this baby was coming NOW, with or without their gowns and gloves on...

and come she did...

right into our lives, our home, our hearts.

... and now, one year later, she is more full of life than I could have every imagined!

... she took up walking by storm about a month ago and has been a pro ever since,

finding a whole new world at her reach...

(much to mom's chagrin!)

She was just a little freaked out by the sounds coming from the 'noisy' wrapping paper,

until she realized it was a doll... one that didn't care at all when she pulled it's hair and poked it in the eyes, and even giggled at motion... what more could a girl ask for ?

(... and mom has only been freaked out a couple of times when getting up in the middle of the night only to walk by and 'activate' the baby giggles...)

Her favorite present of all, however, was a little grocery store find - her own 'talking' cell phone! She has even relinquished her constant quest to find mom's cell phone and do funky things to it. Wahoo!!

How can you have a first birthday post without the smooshy-cake picture?!

...it only took her about .5 seconds to get the gist of the grab and go eating style that is offered on this day only... and boy did she dig in!

Happy Birthday Little Lizzy - sure do love ya!!

Let the festiviting begin!!

2010-10-31T20:03:00.001-05:00

... or not...

On the way to the first trunk or treat, Josh and Liz both zonked out...

... but the others didn't let any afternoon tiredness overtake their candy-gathering efforts.

... and Josh was not too happy to learn that he had missed all of the action

... but never fear! The beauty of having lived in 2 different wards in the same town is that we claim the right to double dip anytime fun activities come about...
like another trunk or treat that just happened to be scheduled a few hours later

(after the twins violin recital... how crazy is that?! ... At least they got to dress up for the recital!)
...

... and liz discovered pretty quickly that it was much easier to just stay in our trunk and go for the goods there than make the trek to the other cars...

... and Josh got his trick or treating fix in...

... and even met up with his preschool buddy/batman twin for some fun treat tasting...

... and his sweet tooth lived happily ever after :)

My ensign moment...

2010-10-29T21:35:00.000-05:00

All through my mission, when I would read the things that ubber creative moms did with their families, I would pull out the pages of their stories and began painting this utopia picture of my future husband and myself surrounded by our little perfectly-dressed-not-a-hair-out-of-place children as the Heavenly Angels sang in the background and we participated in all of the cutesy little enriching family activities.

... Fast forward 5 kids and 8 years of still trying to get my footing in the whole family/home/church/social/work/cooking/cleaning/teaching/crying/laughing/and just plain surviving...

... and, well, those 'ensign' moments kinds of flew by the wayside.

This year, I finally decided to take a little step and in the spirit of Thanksgiving, we had a Family Home Evening Lesson on being thankful, and started a thankful jar:

... along with 100 strips of paper that we get to write what we are thankful for each day, with a goal to fill in all 100 strips before thanksgiving. (with a reward of a family outing once all 100 are filled...c'mon you know that I'm not above a little bribery :) ).

... and I did have to laugh at the way that the kiddos dove right in... thankful for everything from family, to Santa, to the TV...

I realize that for most of you, this is old news and you probably have huge elaborate activities that you do with your kiddos, but just this once, give me my ensign moment... a little late in the making, but here nonetheless :).

Hand-me-down mommy

2010-10-24T23:44:00.004-05:00

I recently dug this fun sweatshirt out of our hand-me-down box...

For it's newest owner, Joshua. As I was rolling the sleeves up to fit his still-too-tiny-arms and assuring him that it would be fine, "you'll grow into it" and then watched how he looked at it in awe and told me about all of the parts of the firetruck (that he had learned from his two older fire-truck-loving brothers), I couldn't help but think about something else that has been brewing in my mind for the past little while...

**Waring, random ramblings about to erupt... feel free to exit the blog at any time... :)**

There, consider yourself warned...

I have been thinking lately, ya know, in all of my 8 years of mommy-hood experience ;), that I can feel myself slowly 'growing into' the mommy role.

-- I find myself more content with little things.

-- Less flustered over the bazzilion schedule changes during the course of a 24 hour day.

-- Less likely to be mortified at the site of some of the outfit choices of the kiddos (and even secretly glad that they chose a certain outfit *insert purple wizard costume* and that they don't really care about molding to the general regular-clothes-wearing population)

-- Not quite so anal about scheduling every minute of every day

-- Able to choose my battles a bit more (or less, as the case may be)

-- And in general just loving being around my children.

Are things perfect? Not by a long shot. But they are better. Not because the kids have changed, but because I find myself changing... morphing... molding... into this thing called "Mommy". More importantly, I find myself loving the role, and finding the fit to be bit by bit more comfortable as the years go by.

As I have thought about this little inner discovery, I started to think back to how I have come to be where I am now on the mommyhood journey, and where I have learned the many (unpublished) mommyhood lessons from the (undocumented) mommyhood manual.

And I have realized that I am, in fact, a hand-me-down mommy.

So many lessons that I have applied, and am now trying to apply in my little mommyhood universe have been taught to me by so many incredible mothers that I have been surrounded by my entire life. So many of you out there have handed me down so many mothering moments, and I thank you for that. There have been so many of you that have helped me on my path to mommyhood (and continue to help me on my path) that I don't even know how to begin to thank you all and let you know some of the gratitude that I feel for the teeny-tiny lessons that you have taught me.

A few that for some reason have been hitting me a little harder lately come from those of you in my own family.

... *Warning, cheese factor about to get turned up a notch... go on at your own risk!*

I have, hands down, the most incredible examples of womanhood and motherhood in my immediate family. I am the youngest of 7 kids, with 2 older sisters and 4 older sister-in-laws (Chelle - you count as older because you just morphed into Brians age category when you got married!). Plus a mother in law, and two more incredible sister-in-laws on my hubby's side.

We are one of those cheesy families who actually like getting together. A lot.

And when we get together. I watch. and I learn.

First of all, my mom.

What can I say about her? She is the epitome of motherhood.

There is not a day that goes by where I find myself thinking, 'what would my mom do?' I think it's safe to say that her kids are her life, and she did so many thousands of tiny things day in and day out to make our lives wonderful - things that at the time I had no idea how inconvenient it was for her. She just did them because, well, she was the mom.

Like the time I moved suddenly from dorm room living to apartment living, and called her crying because I was having a hard time adjusting, and within 24 hours she was knocking on the door with a box full of pots and pans to help in my transition.

Or the countless games of various sports that I could look up and see her being my #1 cheerleader in the stand. Home. Away. Hot. Cold. Early. Late. She was there. (I have to admit, this thought was about the only thing that kept me in my chair on the sidelines of my own child's first freezing cold soccer game cheering away...). I think deep down, she doesn't even really like sports (though she would never admit it openly to our sports-obsessed family!). That act alone has built at least one floor in her mansion in heaven, I'm sure of it!

And then my sisters. The best. Ever. (Well, I can say that now that I am no longer subjected to 'prickly pear cactus legs' or the pinch of death, or forced to sleep on the 'dracula' side of the bed!)

Each of my sisters is an absolutely amazing mother. Seriously. As in, the type that when I visit, I take a step back at each of their houses and think, "when I grow up, I want to be a mom like that!" (and then I remember, oh no, I'm already a mom! I'm already behind!)

Janie - I won't even talk about the fact that I'm a wee bit jealous that you could give birth to 7 children (yes, that's right, folks, SEVEN), and still be the skinniest one of the bunch! But I also stand in complete awe at your ability to organize all of the children, serve as Relief Society President, And run a bazzilion ballroom programs, simultaneously. I get dizzy just thinking about that schedule!

-- with all of your many accomplishments, however, I do have to say one of the absolute most impressive to me is when I get to visit and see the day to day interaction of the kids. These kids (remember the SEVEN kids?!). All get along (and the majority of them are in the thick of the pre-teen to young adult age span - yes, the age span where most siblings hate each other). Not only do they get along, but they genuinely like and care for one another.

-- case in point: this last visit, I got the chance to stay up into the wee hours of the morning talking to a couple of the kids - ages 19 and 16. I loved talking to them, but more importantly, I loved watching how they would talk with one another. As we discussed different boys and girls, they would tell each other, "oh, I don't like him for you" or "yes, you should go out with her, she's great." Or even, "No, you shouldn't go out with her, she's mean to me"... and he would truly listen to her and take the insight to heart. Amazing!

-- to me, that speaks volumes to mommyhood - and that is one hand-me-down that I would love to grow into as my kids reach those points in life.

And then there is Julie... the family firecracker. (Seriously folks, if you have a party and she's not on the guest list, you may as well just cancel the party! She's awesome!) Just being around her makes me smile. I secretly stock her blog just to copy some of the incredibly cute things that she does with her kiddos and make-believe that I am as creative and talented as she is :). (C'mon, anyone who would orchestrate her husband into making real-not-cheap-plasticky bows and arrows as party gifts for their son's 'robin hood' birthday party is up there for mother (and father!) of the year award!).

... but the thing that impresses me the most is hard to put into words. Julie is the essence of motherhood. Whenever I see her with her kids, I have the thought, "wow, I want to be a mom like that." You can tell that she truly lives motherhood as she puts her kids needs above anything else in life and is really there for her kids, both physically, but also mentally and emotionally.

Case in point: Julie is a phenomenal ballroom dancer (as in touring the world in college type of dancer!). She gave that all up in the pursuit of mommyhood. When her oldest got into elementary school, she started a childrens ballroom program. Not for her own benefit, or to further her own ballroom career, but to have a team for her daughter to learn the skills that she loves so much.
But that case in point doesn't even truly describe what I'm trying to explain - she just oozes motherly love, from being there at every moment that her kids need her physically, to giving her kids the comforts of life, not only temporal, but also emotional, even at her own sacrifice in so many ways.

That is a hand-me-down that I am trying to do more of... invest not in just physically being a mom, but capturing the essence and spirit of mommyhood.

There are so many more examples I could give - from sister-in-laws, to dear friends, to casual acquaintances, of little lessons in mommyhood that have helped me to grow into this role that hopefully someday, will fit me just perfectly.

For now, I will continue to mold and morph, roll up the sleeves when they get a bit too long

And continue to watch and learn and grow

from all of you.

Thank you so much for your hand-me-down ways of mommyhood :)

Humpty Pumpky...

2010-10-20T12:27:00.000-05:00

Sat on a wall

Humpty Pumky

Had a great fall...

All the moms toothpicks, and all the mom's hands...

tried to put pumpky together again...

The Active days of Activity Days...

2010-10-19T23:19:00.000-05:00

What a fun night of Activity Days. We had a Daddy Daughter Date night, which we dubbed: Father's Fall Foose Ball Festival. Oh yea.. you can never get enough F's in one sentence! (or enough of blatantly stealing great ideas from ubber-creative cousins! Thanks, Sarah, for the inspiration from your own Activity Day's activity!)

We had the girls carve pumpkins with their dads and then bring them to the activity for part of the decorations, then did a hay-stack dinner, took daddy-daughter pictures by a little fall backdrop, played some human foose ball (hilarious!), and decorated pumpkin sugar cookies. All of this in (just a teensy bit over) an hour... whew!

This slide show is for you mom's out there who couldn't open the link that I sent - it also has pictures of some of our other activities - a flair for hair night, and water kick ball (... so sad to see the summer-running-through-the-sprinkler days are now a thing of the past!)...

I love my activity days girls!!

The pumpkin patch...

2010-10-16T22:17:00.000-05:00

The nice days are getting to be fewer and father between...

... and the blue skies are about to give way to the gray days of winter...

... and beautiful, warm sunshine

... is about to become a faint memory...

... we have to suck the marrow out of each fleeting day of fall...

... so today we made our way to the fun pumpkin patch at Sekaaps orchard for our annual pumpkin outing of the season...

... and took our annual still shots in the middle of all of the pumpkins...

... and this was about as still as I could get Joshy to be at any given point in time...

... and this about the only way I could get Liz to stay in one place for more than .2 seconds...

... I love Fall!!

Gentlemen, Start your engines!!

2010-10-12T22:13:00.000-05:00

... Well, first, you better cut, sand, and paint your engine...

... then molten the lead for the engine...

... and add the weight pellets to the engine...

... then line the cars up and listen to the last minute talk about sportsmanship and an "it doesn't matter who wins..." and secretly pray that your sons car at least won't come in last...

... and as you watch your little one's face, the anticipation about kills you...

... and your heart melts at the way your daughter turns class A-1 cheerleader...

... and then get to see this face...

... as the 'big blue' car wins again...

... and again...

... and get to have your son take home this... and can hardly keep the smile off his face...

... which can hardly keep the smile off his mama's face :)

... that is until we got home and realized that with three boys, each spaced just under 3 years apart means we will be re-creating this moment again...

and again...

for the next decade.

wish us luck.

Ta Da!!!

2010-10-05T14:39:00.000-05:00

If any of you have had any type of conversation with me in the past couple of years, you know I have a huge thing about giving people "Ta Da's" (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, give me a call, it's obviously been too long since we have last talked!... or just tell me to explain myself and I'll write a whole post about it... yes, I feel that strongly about the Ta Da factor!)

... anyway, when Ben came home from his 3rd day of school with his first art project and walked around with me to find the 'perfect spot' to hang it up, I thought, "He needs his Ta Da moment"

... and as we were walking around, I suddenly noticed how barren this wall looked:

... and how much it was just screaming for a little spice in life.
... and then I thought, "hey how about a Ta Da WALL??! (with 5 kids, we've got to think global here, folks... no piddly pin up board is going to hold all of the masterpieces that grace the threshold of our household!)

... So after a bit of research, and a great big deep breath, I dove in and started...

and quickly got a little scared to see the BLACK magnetic paint all over our once beautifully neutral walls, and suddenly panicked, thinking this may be one of my (many*ahem*) hair brained schemes that looks a lot better in my brain than it does in real life...

... but we forged ahead... through all the layers, spills, and smells...

to give birth to the "Official Ta Da" dwelling in our home.

... so if any of you are needing a little recognition, pat on the back, or any other form of Ta Da... send it here... we'll put it up in your honor :)

You would think

2010-10-03T17:16:00.000-05:00

that our kids have never seen this stuff before...

because early this morning we woke up to shouts of glee as the kids bursted into the room

saying "it's white all over the ground, mom!"

and quickly got on some snow gear and headed outside to play

... which only lasted a few minutes, as the sun quickly burned off the early frost...

(much to moms relief... who is so not ready for another long stint of being buried in this...

Long live green grass and family bike rides!!

Home...

2010-10-03T16:39:00.000-05:00

used to be full of walls like this...

... that turned into my general conference project...

... and slowly...

Turned into walls that looked like this...

Ta Da!

... okay, so this is just the first draft of the frame arrangement... It will probably go through about 5 morphs before it finally becomes that "ahhh, that's it" arrangement.

But at least it's not bare anymore, right??!

When Friends give you apples...

2010-09-21T22:12:00.000-05:00

Lots and lots of apples :)

(gotta love a fun apple picking day with the kiddos...

... gotta love it even more when it's FREE!)

... You make applesauce...

Lots...

... and lots of applesauce.

ahh, I love the smells of fall canning season ;)

(except the canning of beans...

... yea, that one stinks pretty bad...

... it's worth it, but it does stink.)

First Day Pics

2010-09-16T22:44:00.000-05:00

The whole school-aged gang... from 3rd down to pre-school.

How did Time zoom so fast??

I love that this is Sarah's favorite jacket...

and I love that I got it at a 50% off sale at the good will store! (can you say $1.99??!)

This was as good as I could get from Seth...

And even this took many threats of bodily harm to get him to stand for the 'first day' shot

Don't worry, Ben hasn't worn this cape every day to kindergarten...

He has alternated with the "Jedi" robe...

(Hey, I'm just grateful he's finally 'lost' this...

... which he has sported the majority of days since last HALLOWEEN!)

This picture truly captures the essence of Joshy and all of his "TA DA" glory.

Look out Aldrich, Joshy has entered the building!

These 'jumbo' cookies where waiting for the kiddos on their return from their first day :)

... yes, even dietitians feed their kids giant chocolate chip cookies!!
... made with applesauce...
... and a little whole wheat flour...
... and just one egg yolk to two egg whites...

Guatemalan bicycle caravans have nothen on us!!

2010-09-12T11:55:00.000-05:00

Meet:

The Brewer Bicycle Caravan...

Yes, that is Jerry...
Carting Ben...
Who is carting Josh and Liz...

Rochester is a land of many trails
Most of which have gone unexplored by us in our 5+ years of living here.
So for date night last night, we decided to explore one.
Jerry was instantly hooked
(I've been hooked for a few years and dying to get some bikes for us so we could go on rides with the kiddos)

So after our little walk and yummy Panera dinner (another first for us... I know, I know we are WAY behind on the 'hip' soup and sandwich shops!),
We saw that we still had about 45 minutes to spare, so we decided to do a quick 'browsing of bikes'...

... which lasted about 1 1/2 hours...
... and had us walking out of the store with not one, but TWO bikes, a bike trailer, a bike pump, and some bike water bottles (ya know, for our extra long bike trips we are sure to take...).

... THANK GOODNESS for end of summer clearance sales!! (seriously cheap, folks!)

We were so giddy, we put everything together right when we got home last night, and could hardly wait to show the kiddos (in fact, Jerry had them out in the garage at 6:30 in the morning showing them!).

... and we spent most of the morning

going on ride

after ride

Now, if someone could just order a little extra side of summer, we would much appreciate it, thanks!

Bye Bye Ben...

2010-09-09T13:39:00.000-05:00

is what we told this big guy...

(yes, the cape is still in tact under the coat... I'm choosing my battles, folks, choosing my battles...)

... when this turned the corner...

And though he couldn't wipe the smile off his face

and didn't get a bit scared, even when sitting on the bus...

... I felt a huge lump rise out of nowhere and engulf my energetic wave as I watched this...

... so I wandered back home,

and did what any self-respecting, laid back, go with the flow, non-helicopter parent would do...

... I jumped in my car and stalked the bus all the way to the school...

... just to make sure my precious cargo arrived in tact and un-scathed.

... Wow, this whole 'letting go' part of motherhood is hard.

Back Then...

2010-09-04T15:24:00.000-05:00

Ya know, back in the Olden Days...
... like when I was on my mission
... a whopping 16 years ago...

I have now reached the age of 'stone age' living in my child's eyes.
Here was the line pulled from our dinner conversation last night as we were telling mission stories to the kids...
Seth, "Mom, back then, there was no electricity, right?!"
Me: Completely dumbfounded as I turn to my hubby, who is about to fall off his chair from laughter...
"I just got 'Back Then-ed'!!!"
Hubby: Still rolling with laughter... until I remind him that his back then was even backer-thenner then my back then!

... and I was instantly transformed to a moment in time from my childhood, when upon my mom telling me about some things from her childhood, I asked, "Mom, back in the olden days, did you feel bad that you were living in the olden days?"

I have now officially eaten my words.
... and they taste... well... pretty old.

This weeks calgon moment brought to you by...

2010-08-30T18:34:00.002-05:00

... shirts, which were (unsuccessfully) flushed down the toilet (by a certain unnamed recently turned 3 year old...)
... plunger which (unsuccessfully) tried to get shirt to go down the toilet (manned by a certain unnamed recently turned 3 year old...)
... children, who upon screams of orders from mom to run and gather up towels, return with, "this is all we found, mom..." and hand over a couple of wash cloths
... towels, which (unsuccessfully) tried to mop up overflow from toilet before great gushes of water made its way down the crack in the doorway and seep into basement fire-alarm hole
... basement fire alarm, which upon getting wet, sets off ear-splitting shriek
... rest of house alarms, which like to play follow the leader and also set off ear splitting shrieks
... battery, which even though fire alarm has been yanked out of socked, still continues to power fire alarm-wetted shriek
... baby, who wants in on the action and crawls right into the scene

... and a mom who was frazzled already from a day of:

... up at crack of dawn to willingly submit to torture class (aka, cable class at the gym)
... loading all kids up on Joshy's maiden voyage out of the house in "big boy underwear"
... get to the gym, have joshy go potty (for which he gets buck naked. every time.)
... prepare for nutrition consult with someone who wants a 2 week menu of a diet that fits the following parameters:
-- no white flour
-- no sugar of any kind
-- no sweets or junk food of any kind
(the first and last I can handle, but absolutely no sugar??! You try to find some recipes to meet that criteria for 2 weeks!)
... sit through 1/2 hour consult, which stretches into 1 hr and 15 minute consult
... return to kids gym and find that Joshy has again missed the potty mark
... reload clothes
... grab kids and run to friends for peach canning party (sorry we were late, Sarah!)
... got to friends house to realize that Joshy had yet again missed the potty mark (what, a whole 5 minutes in the car?! Now that is some sort of talent!)
...taught friend mom's secret recipe for super yummy canned peaches with extra thick syrup (yes, it entails a LOT of sugar!! ... and you wonder why I had a hard time finding sugar-less recipes??!)
... forgot to take over some supplies
... run back home, get supplies
... back to friends at 1:55, remember that I have to be across town to visit teach at 2:00.
... load up kids, run across town
... arrive late, stay late for the visit, (probably from spending time corralling all five kids and repeating, no you cannot lock her son out of his own room!) (Kalee, aren't you so excited for next months visit??!)
... staying late for first visit makes us late for the next visit
... spend most of next visit trying to keep Elizabeth from clutching the life out of their sweet dog and talk over her teridactal screams

So, if anybody needs me, I'll be
in the corner
in fetal position
rocking back and forth
mumbling incoherently...

Who pushed fast forward??

2010-08-29T22:05:00.001-05:00

For some reason, this summer zoomed by more quickly then most

Remember my big post about white space??

Well, I found it.

I found it in a lack of ANY scheduled activity for the kiddos

(except for one swimming lesson session, which about killed us after so much fun-unstructured time)

I found it in mornings spent lounging around the house reading books and playing games

I found it in crazy swimming pool afternoons

I found it in listening to the squeals and giggle from the yard as the sprinklers found their targets

I found it in late night family movies, complete with popcorn and snuggling

I found it in mini-getaways to the dells, parks, and libraries.

This summer was like one big Ahhhh.

And now, we are on our way back to the books

Back to the schedules

Back to early bed times

And early violin lessons

And crazy drop off and pick up routines

And homework assignments

And test stress-studying

And new friend finding...

But we did get to take one last moment,

thanks to super-uber talented friend (that would be YOU, Jolene!)

To relish in the final mix of summer and school...

Yes, she did lug this fun desk out into the beautiful green field

to get some back to school shots of the kiddos.

And when I got the disk, I almost had to do a double take at how old my little ones have become.

... Where was I when they suddenly zoomed from toddling twos

to fun fashionistas??

Seriously, folks, who stole my little boy Ben...

... and replaced him with this suddenly too-grown-up-look-alike??

Joshy has been doing the pre-school-potty chant for a month now...

as in, "I want to go to preschool, so I go potty in my potty!"
... yes, this mama has resorted to threats ("Joshy, if you want to go to school like a big boy, you HAVE to go pee in the potty!!"), and treats (hey, in this household, three treats before breakfast is a GOOD thing... it means less mess for mom to clean up in places other than the toilet!)

And little Lizzy?...

... well, at the rate she's going, I wouldn't be surprised to see her follow

the kiddos right into their classrooms come the first day of school!

As they gear up for the fun adventure of a brand new school year, I find myself already choked up a wee bit at the prospect of seeing this barrage of backpacks work its way out of our front door.

... so c'mon, fess up... which one of you ordered the super speedy summer to go this year??!

Melt my heart moments...

2010-08-20T08:24:00.000-05:00

Most of the posts about Joshy usually contain some sort of picture like this...

... or like this

But every single morning, I get to look at the top of the stairs and see this...

... and when he sees me, his face turns to this...

... and joshy then makes his grand entrance into the day.

... and a little bit deeper into my heart.

Love this little guy!!

(... even when I wish he had come with his own personal maid service... :) ).

On your Mark...

2010-08-15T22:59:00.001-05:00

... since moving into the new house,
... which has barely beige walls,
... painted in flat paint
... I have had many opportunities to clean these...

(okay, quite honestly, the only times I have really cleaned them are times when company is coming, and I suddenly look around and see all of the little 'handy' work of the kiddos on the walls)

... and I oftentimes chant to myself something my mom has told me before, "you will miss this when they are all gone... you will miss this when they are all gone..."

On one particular wall-wiping occasion, which took a bit longer than usual, thanks in part to our lovely Joshy, who by the looks of the walls was afraid he would forget how to find his way back up from the basement, so made himself a little chocolate hand trail to follow... I started thinking about 'leaving your mark on the world' and began a thought process that I will attempt to recreate here...

WARNING: kind of weird, deep-thoughtish-not-completely-put-together thoughts coming through...
There. Consider yourself warned...

I started thinking about the role of motherhood (which started out with something like, "really? REALLY?! Will I REALLY miss this when they are all gone?!)...

And I started thinking about how in today's society the actual role of mother is so knocked down. Sure, people give it the 'lip service' like saying, 'oh, motherhood is the hardest job of all'... or, 'every mother is a working woman'...

But, unless one has truly been in the trenches, day in and day out, reorganizing your schedule for the 97th time because you suddenly find yourself cleaning the completely dumped out bottle of sunscreen all over the floor, or fabric softener filling your purse, or get all the kids loaded into the car only to find the last one has had a major diaper blow-out, I don't think those lip service phrases mean anything. There really is no way you can describe the role of a mother with any cliche or catchy phrase.

Mother hood is...
... simply indescribable.

In both good and bad ways. It's tough. It's awesome. It's sweet. It's stinky. It's fun. It's depressing. It's enchanting. It's lonely. It's pretty much every emotion, every day, every minute showing one extreme change with some sort of emergency or fire to stamp out in some aspect.

... and then there are the moments of 'ahhh' when you can find an eye of the storm to just sit and be.
... but then you feel too guilty for simply be-ing.
... so you get up and get busy doing something
... because, c'mon, at the end of the day, you have to have something to show for all of your work.
... and dishes don't seem to count, you did those yesterday.
... and laundry, also a ditto from yesterday (although you would never know it as clothes have come from nowhere to build a replica of mt. everest in the laundry room).
... and vacuuming, well, you did it this morning, but no one could possibly tell because not one single vacuum line remains in tact.
... and the glistening toilets just hours before are now smoldering pots of sewage left by recently potty-trained-yet-not-expert-aiming users.
... and all the poopy diapers you changed during the day... well, those are just better left in the garbage.

... so what exactly is it that you have to show that you have actually made your mark on the world?

... I am so not an expert in this arena by any means, nor do I propose to have all of the answers.

... but in this particular moment of time (of wiping down Joshy's chocolate trail home), somehow, somewhere, I found great satisfaction in knowing that I was (hopefully) making my mark in the hearts of 5 little souls that Heavenly Father has gingerly placed in my care. Though I couldn't put any tangible name to the mark, I became acutely aware of just how important the 'Mother's Mark' is on the heart of every child who enters this world.
... I have felt my own mother's mark every moment of every day, in ways that I'm sure she will never be aware of. Tiny things that as I look back on my own little lessons in life that I learned at her side, and that I now call back upon as I go through my own moments of wondering what in the world I should do at this particular juncture and can easily answer with a simple question, "what did my mom do in this type of situation?"
... more often then not, the answer is, "she always, always put the needs of her children first, made sure they were comfortable, fed, clothed, kissed, hugged, changed, etc etc before she took one thought for her own comfort or her 'alone' time"
... that is a mark that can never be erased in the soul of a child who learned the love of a Heavenly Father through the role of a mother.
... that is a mark that I will work everyday to re-create in the hearts of my own children
... will I be able to create the 'mother's mark' in my own children?
... I may never know in this lifetime...
... but one thing I do know - they have left marks in my heart that will last much, much longer than a chocolate handprint on the wall.

... and yes, I think I will miss those tiny prints guiding my kids back from their basement adventures once their adventures lead them outside the walls of my home and the grasp of my arms.
... so for now, I will be content to wipe off the wall marks, and try to etch in my own marks on their tiny precious hearts.

The End.

Waiting for the whistle...

2010-08-14T11:29:00.000-05:00

... yes we have been sucking the marrow out of each and every summer day around these parts

(we have now been here long enough to know that they are truly fleeting)

this summer that has included about 234 trips to the pool...

... where there is a 'break' every hour on the hour

(don't ask me why they do it... pretty much for the lifeguards to take a break and flirt with each other is about the most I can gather that is happening during this time...)

... and as the '5' minute (which usually turns into 10... but I'm not bitter at all!!) draws to a close,

the kiddos get so excited, they can hardly stand the anticipation of the beloved beckon to re-enter the cool pool...

... I think they hit the water before the whistle finishes blowing!

... and this year they discovered that the pool had a concession stand...

(I made it almost to the end of the summer before this 'great' discovery...)

... but for .75, a 'super cook' slushy sickle seems to hit the spot, without breaking the bank :)

... and now we are off to our LAST day of the summer 2010 pool extravaganza before they close our super fun silver lake pool ...

When life gives you zucchini...

2010-08-09T22:08:00.000-05:00

You make super yummy zucchini bread!!

Since our garden was non-existent this year, and our poor tomatoes that we tried to grow on the porch still look like mini granny apples, I thought our plentiful produce dining would be also non-existent.

Enter sweet friend, who also happens to be ultra green thumb, and our counters are suddenly overflowing with zany zucchini, sweet squash, and cool cucumbers.

And when I see zucchini, I pretty much turn into pavlovs salivating dog as I think about scrumptious zucchini bread fresh from the oven.

The dietitian in me always cringes at the sight of the recipe of such scrumptious bread, which usually includes about a bottle of oil and a carton of eggs...

So, after researching a few recipes and experimenting with many mushy/soggy/too-dry/too-wet/too-heavy/too-light versions...

I proudly present the yummy-not-kill-your-arteries-version of yummy zucchini bread:

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or white flour, or 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 white... you get the picture)
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 or 1 tsp salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 -1/4 tsp all spice
1 cup sugar
1 egg plus enough milk to make 3/4 cup
1 1/2 cup grated zucchini
1 tsp lemon extract (optional - can use vanilla here)

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees spray one loaf pan (or 4 mini loaf pans - my preference...)
2. Mix milk, egg, and sugar together for 7-10 minutes, add zucchini and lemon extract (or vanilla), mix.
3. mix dry ingredients all together in separate bowl, then add and mix just until blended
4. Pour into loaf pan(s) and bake 1 hour for regular loaf pan or 25-30 minutes for mini loaf pans
5. Take out, flip onto cooling rack, wait as long as you can stand (hopefully cool enough so it doesn't burn your mouth), and dig in!!

I scream, you scream...

2010-08-01T20:48:00.000-05:00

But nobody screams quite as loud as the Folwell Friends when the big yellow truck comes around the corner...

... ahhh yes, that unmistakable jingle that comes rolling along the road

... I've never seen anything that can stop a kid in his tracks so instantaneously as that little jingle

... and with all of our neighborhood kiddos,

the ice cream truck hit the motherload on this particular summer afternoon...

Love that popcycle pucker...

... and even the fudge cycle slide...

...ahhh, love me some summer fun!!!

Busy Lizzy

2010-07-26T23:47:00.000-05:00

Yep, she's everywhere, and wanting so much to be part of the gang.
I am convinced that she has that disease that makes you age super duper fast.
I swear just yesterday I was holding her in the hospital, fresh and new
and now, she is trying desperately to take her first solo steps in this wide open world.

It's so interesting to me how I pushed the twins to always get to the 'next phase' in their earlier years, pushing them to sit up, roll over, crawl, walk.
Now?
I'm over it.
Please somebody,
tell me where the pause button is.
Life is moving way too fast.

Somewhere along the way,
when I happened to blink,
my little twins grew up

and have taken their siblings right along with them.

And this mom isn't quite ready for that.

So please, Busy Lizzy,

Stop.

Come back

Be my little snuggle bug forever.

We LOVE gramma and grampa time!!

2010-07-26T23:26:00.001-05:00

I don't know how time does it...

the week gramma and grampa were here literally felt like a day.

We had such a blast with them!

Joshy loved his snuggle time

Sarah loved the trip time

(Nauvoo trip - viewing the site where the saints crossed the river on that cold February day)

Seth loved challenging grampa to a game of 'guitar hero'

(and Ben 'helping' grampa through "The Eye of the Tiger")

Lizzy Really,

REALLY

Loved cookie time

(which with Grampa, was plentiful!)

Jerry loved the building time

(we put Grampa to work! Three projects in three days...

He's going to need a vacation from his vacation!

Thank you so much Grampa!!

We now have:

Steps to the trampoline,

Shelves in the basement (that were filled up about 5 minutes after completion... when did you say you were coming back out?!)

and a ski rack in the garage...

(now we just need 'Santa' to fill the ski rack this Christmas...)

One of the Nauvoo highlights was definitely the horse ride by Gramma and Grampa's friend, President Hill. He kept us spell bound for the entire hour as we toured less-known sectors of Nauvoo.

Our trip to Carthage - this one is the one that gets

me the most on the Nauvoo trip... the feeling there

can't really be described in mere words...

Grampa showing some of his 'magic' for the family home evening activity - the kids were in awe!!

What a rare treat to be able to go to the Newly restored Nauvoo temple.
Mom and dad did a session, then graciously watched the kiddos so we could do a session together
It was amazing!!

A whole lotta nothin...

2010-07-22T08:47:00.004-05:00

... well, let me rephrase that...

a whole lotta:

summer playin

pool goin

bbqin

sprinkler-tramp jumpin

flower waterin

fun frolickin

kids gym playin

summer squealin

friends play datin

impromptu picnickin

silly gigglin

sleepin innin
rain dancin
late night movie watchin

pajama dayin

rice crispy treat makin

chocolate overloadin

ice cream truck chasin

ice cream sandwich gobblin

fireworks festin

road trip takin

gramma and grampa visitin

wood projects buildin

... but nothing on the schedulin summer!

... and I'm lovin it!!!

Month of Momentous Milestones

2010-07-07T16:09:00.002-05:00

As our whirl wind spring slowed into a sunny summer, I sat back and one day realized that this extra time with the kiddos has been amazing. Usually I am climbing the walls trying to find ways to entertain the kids as I crabbily countdown the days until school resumes.

This summer has been completely different. I have loved having the kids home. I love waking up and having a whole day to be all together and to just let the day unfold as we go on whatever little adventures suit our fancy.

All in all it has been a perfect change from our usually run-around-all-day-and-come-home-tired-and-crabby modes.

A few days ago, I was thinking about each of the children, and I realized that they are each in such a great mode right now. One that I could so easily overlook as I busied ourself to death over the past 6 months.

We are doing a little reading course with Ben, and as I was watching him discover a whole new world of words, I went through each of the children in my mind and discovered that within the past month, each one of them has gone through a huge phase of milestones...

Elizabeth... well, I have decided that she lives life in hyperdrive. She crawled at 6 months (starting out right in the middle of our move... great timing??!)

And is now so wanting to enter the walking world...

She gets so excited when she pulls herself up, and then tries so hard to take some steps out. So far nothing close to success, but I have no doubt she will be running laps around me in the near future!She has also decided that baby food is, well, not for all babies. She will only take a bit of the 'smooshy' stuff, and then she dives for the real food. Her look of triumph when she get a piece of 'big people's' food is priceless :).

I wish I could have gotten a picture of Ben's face when he read his first story - it was the cutest thing ever. Every single dimple made an appearance. He was so proud of himself! It's so fun to see him starting to come into his own instead of live in the wake of Seth and Sarah's activity schedule.

Joshy has entered the world of potties... *Shudder*. I have to admit - there are many aspects of motherhood that I cherish. Potty training is not one of those aspects. Every time it shows up on the horizon, I tend to first push it off as long as possible (I can come up with some great excuses to push it off just a 'little bit' longer...), and then gripe, complain, and outright scream as we wind our way through the path to potty hood. Wish me luck on this one!!

Seth and Sarah... well, I need to write a whole post about this one, but last month they turned the magical age of 8. In our church, this is where they get to be baptized and start a whole new path in life. Needless to say, it was a day full of amazing emotions. I was trying so hard to make it memorable for them, and try to take time to capture the spirit and wonderment of it all in my own mind. All in all, it was an incredible day filled with family, love, and a huge dose of the spirit. Definitely one of those moments that as a parent gives me a tiny glimpse into the eyes of Heavenly Father as he looks down upon us, wanting us so much to do the right things and rejoicing when we take even the tiniest of baby steps back home to Him.

who needs a dog...

2010-07-07T15:43:00.001-05:00

The one redeeming quality that I have missed with a dog is the 'automatic vacuum' that they offer. Seriously, I never realized how much food we drop on the floor in any given day until we didn't have a dog to lap it all up... that is until Elizabeth became mobile...

yes, yes, I know... mother of the year award right here, folks!!!

(in my defense, I had just mopped the day before, and this was dry cereal that had spilled... does that lessen the shutter of all of the germaphobes out there??!)

More on the 4th...

2010-07-07T15:34:00.000-05:00

We had an inaugural bbq to kick off the summer season. I think 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays to do fun food creations. It's right up there with Christmas. And Halloween. And Valentine's Day... and Easter... okay so pretty much every holiday is my favorite to have fun with food... :)

Seriously, I think it's against the law to hold a July BBQ without the traditional "flag cake"...

Daddy and Elizabeth at the 2nd ward 4th of July Breakfast

What, we aren't in 2nd ward, you say??

Well, they did say we could come back anytime we wanted...

and they were serving yummy breakfast in the morning...

How could we refuse??!

In all reality, this was one of Sarah's concerns about moving out of the ward... that we wouldn't be able to go to the 'parade'. After breakfast, there is always a parade by the primary, and she made sure that attendance in the parade was part of the 'moving clause,' so we did make the trek back to let her shine :)

Here is Elizabeth doing her "I will not actually snuggle to let you know I'm sleepy... I'm merely 'resting my eyes' " stance...

and this was how excited Seth was to be in the 'parade'... refusing to decorate a bike, or even bring one for that matter, and as I was snapping this picture, he is in the process of turning away... truly they are twins by birth only... :)

Keep it in English please :)

2010-07-07T08:20:00.000-05:00

I have one small request to make... I really enjoy reading comments that people make on the blog... but could you please keep it in English? I don't want to have to make the blog private, but I have thoughts of some super-secret terrorist organization communicating via the comments section and I can just picture homeland security knocking down my door for housing some big terrorist plot... (me, the drama queen?? Julie, I don't know where you get that thought at all!!)

... so please, for my benefit, lets keep it all in this mama's language :)

oh... crap!

2010-07-06T22:30:00.002-05:00

... is a bad habit I have been trying to break.
I've transitioned myself into word choices such as
oh man!
dangarama!
oh mylanta! (this one I heard Josh repeating in exasperation when baby Elizabeth was trying to un-build his lego creation)
and just plain aaagggg!

... but today,
there simply was no substitute.

you see, we are neck deep into potty training mode around these parts.

... so far we have been hit and miss...
... some good days
... some .. not so good days,
(you see where this is going... those with weaker stomachs are invited to exit the blog now...)

but none have been quite like today...

Mom, "Hey Josh, do you want to wear you big boy underwear today?"
Josh (with all the gusto his two year old body could expound), "YES!!!"
Mom, "So, when you need to go pee, where are you going to go?"
Josh, "In my potty!!"
Mom, "awesome! When you need to go poop, where are you going to go??"
Josh, "In my potty!!"
Mom, "awesome!"
...and then I proceed to do the 5 minute 'checks' i.e. "Hey, Joshy, do you need to go potty?"

issue #1 - I walk into the kitchen to find him squatting on the ground, playing with leggos, doing his 'potty grunt'
mom, "Hey, Joshy, do you need to go potty?"
Josh, "jus a minute, mommy, I not done going poopy..."
mom quickly picks him up, and takes to bathroom to finish the job.
Set Joshy on potty, rinse out undies, go put them in laundry room.
Come back to bathroom to find Joshy on the FLOOR in the middle of not one, not two, but THREE available potty choices (two of his training potties are currently in that bathroom)... on the floor, squatting to 'finish the job'
mom, "What are you doing??!"
Pick him up, place back on one of his potties. Clean up mess #2. walk upstairs to get another pair of undies. Come back down to find him once again on the FLOOR finishing the job, and had tried to wipe some of it up with tp, which smeared it everywhere, then steps in it and slightly slips...
... at which time I scoop him up, and b-line it to the shower.
... all clean and before getting into big boy undies again, I find him squatting by the chairs on the CARPET. Pick him up and step in something oddly oozy and wet...
... and take him directly to the diaper station.

yep, some days, no other word will do.

Happy...

2010-07-04T20:26:00.002-05:00

Fourth of July...???

Yep - in typical Minnesota Fashion, we went from sweltering humid heat yesterday,

To Freezing cold rain today.

Go figure

At Least we got some of our fireworks lit last night

Yes, It was July 3rd.

If you know my hubby,

and you know me,

the following SAT-type sentence will make perfect sense:

Jerry is to July 4th Fireworks As Jen is to Christmas Music

As in...

I have been known to break out the Christmas music as early as September

(okay, there was one year that it has been heard around our general vicinity in July... but I'll stick to the 5th on that one...)

And Jerry,

Well, fireworks have been heard around our general vicinity as early as January.

So last night was more like a '4th of July Eve' for Jerry...

ya know... like getting to open a present (or two) on Christmas Eve

He got to light off a firework (or two... or twenty...) on 4th of July Eve.

And for my benefit, He did start out pretty tame

But pretty soon, it was onto the "Wyoming Specials"

the kids loved it

Including Elizabeth, who made her firework watching debut...

and me? Well, I only screamed a few times...

... except for the one shriek...

when the launcher tipped over and shot a launching firework directly at our neighbors house,

then turned and launched one right at our mailbox

then turned and would have launched one right into the garage, but it ran out of ammunition

(it was a pretty long shriek)

Yep, 4th of July

Never a dull moment around these parts.

HAPPY 4TH of JULY!!!

Now you see it...

2010-06-23T14:49:00.006-05:00

... now you don't...

... now you see it...

err, kind of...

... in pieces...

at our neighbors house...
... Yep, during our vacation, it seems our trampoline also decided to take a vacation...

... helped out by the tornado that swept through minnesota while we were gone.

... we got a call from one neighbor telling us that our trampoline was no more... getting demolished in the huge storm.

... some other sweet neighbors gathered all the pieces and had them sitting on their back porch, and when we came back, we found every piece except for one spring...

can you believe it?

yea, me neither!

Some pieces had been put through the ringer, and we scouted out a welding guy who did a little magic melding and put some of the pieces back together,

... and after a lotta gathering and jerry-rigging (literally!)...

... and self proclaimed 'parents of the year' awarding...

The tramp is BACK in action!!!

much to the joy of the children.

and the parents.

So honey, what did you do all day?...

2010-06-11T23:49:00.003-05:00

... oh, you know, the usual -

a little gardening...

(I wish this was chocolate spread all through her mouth... it's not... she got a little 'too' into the gardening and decided to test the tomato plant soil...)
... fed the kids
... packed for the trip...

... yep, pretty much run of the mill day around these parts...

WOmans best friend...

2010-06-11T23:40:00.002-05:00

Yes, this is a roomba...

Yes, you've seen those dorky infomercials

Yes, it does sound a bit corny...

Yes, I did, in fact, dive in to the roomba family...

Yes I did get an amazing deal (c'mon, you know me, I don't buy anything unless it's an amazing deal!)

and YES, I love, love, LOVE my roomba!!!

I mean, really, what's not to love??

... it cleans up after you

... you can push it's buttons without any repercussions

... you can leave it alone for hours on end and your house will actually be cleaner when you come back

... it even puts ITSELF away (I think it may be the only thing that actually gets put away around here lately!)

yep... woman's best friend.

The squeals of summer...

2010-06-07T23:36:00.006-05:00

... are some of my favorite sounds in the world.

I love to have the doors and windows open and hear the kids outside.

especially when they are running through the sprinklers...

... yes, they ARE running through the sprinklers... in my jackets...

(before we learned how to turn on our sprinklers on demand, they were programmed to come on at 6:00 in the morning.)

... the kiddos really wanted to run through the sprinklers...

... once we learned how to turn them on, the kids have been going at it nonstop in the afternoons :)

... jumping on the tramp...

... yes it is dark in this picture - we set up the tramp after fhe one night, and they couldn't wait to test it out...

... and then within 24 hours one of them poked a hole in it with his action figures...

... so it got sent into the shop for the whole next week...

... which to the kiddos seemed like the longest week in the world (even though I reminded them that they had successfully lived their entire lives up to this point without a trampoline...)

... and even some of both...

... which is the latest top activity on the kiddos list.

ahhhh...

Bring on the squeals!!

This weeks mommy meltdown moment brought to you by...

2010-05-28T08:12:00.002-05:00

Lovely, sweet smelling liquid fabric softener...

... in a trial size

... that Joshy found in my (newly purchased) purse...

... and opened... in my purse...

... and dumped... in my purse...

... all over the contents... in my purse...

... including my cell phone... in my purse...

pretty much the only thing that kept me out of the loony bin is that I had enough foresight a few months ago (remember the 'breaking of the digital camera story??) to purchase a 'tasmanian devilish 2 year old proof' cell phone cover, which also happens to be water (and come to find out, fabric softener) resistant.

... You may now return to your regularly scheduled lives :).

Buried Alive...

2010-05-23T21:52:00.002-05:00

... in boxes, that is.

Well, not so much boxes, as box contents...

... compliments of my own personal box-dumper-boys

... especially loved it when they made it to our 'nuts and bolts' box... yep, dumped. right in the middle of the office room. with shag carpet.

My whole zen-like attitude of white space is right now feeling more like a white blizzard, and I'm sucked in the middle, trying desperately to make it to some sort of quiet shelter to just breath.

This house (is great) but is about to do me in. I have in my mind a huge grid of organization for each room. I have yet to have a single room resemble my minds plan. Maybe it's because I spend 1/2 of the day in the car, and the other 1/2 feeding, changing, cleaning, cooking, laundering, and generally helping these little souls to survive to see another day. I swear when I finally have the kiddos down for the night, there is some sort of mommy melt down that occurs, and the only functioning bone in my body is the remote control-finger for the tv.

I truly hate soccer season. Especially when it involves 3 separate kids, on four nights out of the week and most of the day on Saturday. I sat at the games on Saturday literally too exhausted to cheer. I had to reach WAY down into my latent cheerleader genes to get the 'raw raw' to sound genuine, and even with lurching into my reserves, still found myself at times too exhausted to even do a 'go team'...

... or maybe that's because I was dealing with 4 other hungry, tired, and cranky kiddos on the sideline. Yep, nursing one child while grabbing another off the soccer field (who wanted desperately to be with daddy who was coaching/reffing on field), and holding the 'baby-hugger' boy at bay was enough to throw me over the edge.

Mom and dad, once again I am in awe at your patience and cheerleading capabilities. I truly had no idea how tedious and repetitious the hours upon hours that you spend supporting 7 kids through countless sporting events was for you. I get it now. Oh boy, do I get it now. And I am still 2 kids shy of you. Wow. You are amazing!

Anyway, back to my whining...

so I feel like from the moment the eyes open in the morning, (usually open to a small human pulling/tugging/poking somewhere on my face) it is either running to something, or getting back home to reload and run somewhere else.

All the while, I look around my house at the utter chaos that envelops every room. When I do have a moment to tackle a task, it seems like there is suddenly some urgent need with the kiddos to attend to.

Inside of me there is an organized, calm human being just waiting to emerge...

... but right now she is buried alive in constant chaos and nuts and bolts embedded in shaggy carpet.

Conversations...

2010-05-20T21:03:00.002-05:00

around our house never cease to amuse me,

touch me,

at times frustrate me,

and at times make me laugh right out loud as I realize the innocence of youth all wrapped into the utter desire to serve and love this human that they call mommy.

Here is an excerpt from this week:

We had taken our van into the shop (yet again...), and got the call that it was ready...

Me, "Okay, boys let's go, it's time to pick up the car."

Ben, (eyes huge)... "pick up the car?!"...

Then starts walking toward the garage, pulling up his sleeves, "that's going to be hard!"

..."do we have to pick it all the way off the ground?"

And just like that, I am suddenly laughing out loud at his literal interpretation

... and humbled at his exact obedience and desire to pitch in and do all he could in the "Picking up of the car" activity.

I love my kids!

White Space...

2010-05-16T21:09:00.011-05:00

... is my new mantra for life.

In the past few months, our crazy schedule has really gotten to me.

Throw in a move and now making our crazy schedule plus extra driving time, (since we haven't finished up all of the activities we started on the complete opposite end of town) and I have about gone over the edge a few times. Okay, so I have gone over the edge a few times (just ask my kids, they'll tell you!). At times I really have become the "mean mom miss Hannigan" from Anne (as one of my children ever-so-bluntly puts it when I tend to get a bit "edgy")

... But in my defense, this was one of our days: up and out the door - yes with all FIVE dressed and ready at 6:45 AM to get to 7:00 violin lessons (again, don't ask me where my brain was when I thought that would be a good time to schedule lessons way back when!), during which I got to try to feed a baby, wrangle a 2 year old, and keep a 5 year old quiet for an hour while trying to listen and take notes during the lesson to know what to practice the next week...), to drive back home, reload for 15 min, take off again across town to get the kids to school, then to the gym to teach 2 classes, then home to get Ben changed and get him to preschool, and attend their annual 'family picnic' (read: trying to feed baby again, while wrangling 2 year old and put on my happy face for Ben to show off his school), back home, then back to school (which is now across town) to pick up kiddos, to come back home and start dinner, to then load everyone up again and take Sarah to soccer (AGAIN, clear across town), run to old house to clean, to pick up Sarah, head back home, finish dinner, put kids down, and crash. C'mon - even Polyanna would struggle singing a happy tune at the end of that one, right?!

Part of it is just getting through things, but part of it I have realized is my inability to say "no" to volunteering, or added things at (my supposedly very part time) work. Since I wear two hats at the gym (the aerobics instructing and the dietician), things can get very hairy just in that arena if I'm not careful. And in the past few months, I haven't been very careful.

I had a little epiphany when I was flying home from a quick weekend to attend my parents mission report. As I was holding Elizabeth and reading (not really being able to believe that I could actually travel and READ, instead of trying to man a plethora of children), I came across an article in one of the dietetic journals about a dietitian who lost her job, and then realized how busy she had been and how much she really needed the 'white space' that this job loss had created for her. (as in, not over-filling the 'page' with words - letting the 'white space' highlight the few words on a page...)

The light bulb suddenly popped. (and it wasn't just seat belt light...)

That's it!

White space.

That's what my life has been missing.

That's what my life needs.

That's what the mother of my children need.

Space.

White Space.

Time.

Free time.

To just BE.

To be able to be a mom.

To be able to be a mom IN THE MOMENT.

Not just the taxi driver, nurse, judge and jury, policeman, maid, cook, homework monitor, laundress, crazy, fly-off -the-handle stressed out woman that they have become accustomed to.

I need time to not have anything on the calender, but my children, myself, and some goals.

Time to be able to say "Okay!" instead of "In a minute," "not right now," "Not today," "No, we don't have time," "Hurry, we have to leave now!"

Time.

Not only to be a mom,

And a wife,

But to find Jen again.

Ahhh, white space.

Not blank space (if you know me well, you know I would go completely crazy without something on the agenda)

Just less chaotic space.

This theme has been running around inside my head ever since that plane ride back.

Partly wondering if I could do it

Partly wondering if I really wanted to do it (would clearing out too much business make me go crazy in other ways?!)

Partly wondering if I could really make my lips form together to say the word, "No."

I started by putting on a shirt my dear friend gave me:

ahhh, Sue, you know me too well :).

Then I started practicing: "Nnnnn..." "N..." "Oooooo..." "Nnnnnoooooo" "Nnnnoooo," "Nnnoo," "No."

Wow.

I did it.

"No"

That wasn't so bad!

... now all I had to do was actually say it to someone when asked to do something that I knew would cause me great amounts of grief (and therefore cause my children great amounts of grief).

Could I do it?

A few days later I got our summer schedule for the gym.

When I looked it over, I knew the time had come.

I was on the schedule about 6 times just for aerobics (coming in every day m-th), plus the two nutrition classes (16 week courses) I am currently doing, plus the other 16 week course they want me to start (in spanish...). (All very flattering... but not conducive to my new mantra)

Which meant I would be loading my kiddos in the car for trips to the gym 2 times a day, 3 days a week.

That was the straw.

The back was officially broken.

I knew I had to actually say my new-found vocabulary to someone other than my mirror.

I admit, I balked a bit.

I tried to reason, "well, it wouldn't be too bad, I could probably make it work..."

and then sat at the computer and repeated my mantra:

"White space"

White space does not include a carload of kids heading back and forth to the gym everyday.

So I did it.

I picked up the phone.

I got the answering machine

Phew! I didn't have to actually say my new word to another human... just a machine!

Then I followed it up with an email, just to be sure.

And then the magic happened.

She responded.

And said they could work it out.

My 6 classes suddenly got cut back to two - back to back, on the same day, which meant 4-5 days of mandatory gym time suddenly got cut back to 2 (with the nutrition classes).

And Spanish nutrition class - we will hold off until at least next fall.

And just like that

My summer suddenly transformed from cramped calendar to wide open white space.

I think my heart rate even went down a few notches!

My summer suddenly has become a blank canvas.

My kids get to wake up and play in their pajamas!

Swimming time

Down time

Hang out and read time

Picnic in the backyard time

Get back into studying the scriptures time

Reading the ensign time

Tiring the kids out so I can finally finish my book time!

Family space

Mommy space

Hubby space

Jen space

White space.

My space.

And that is my "deep thought" for the day :).

Mother's Day Musings...

2010-05-09T10:46:00.006-05:00

Hubby and I were talking yesterday and he was telling me about a program he had heard on NPR about happiness of people, and the program was stating some statistics about how couples who never had children were happier than those who did have children.

Whoever measured the happiness scale on those studies was WAY off.

WAY, WAY off.

Motherhood is hard

Motherhood is repetitive (don't sit on the baby. I said don't sit on the baby. I SAID DON'T sit on the baby... don't hit him. I said don't hit him. I SAID don't hit him!!... you get the idea)

Motherhood is dirty (how many bodily fluids can a human being possibly be covered in during the course of 24 hours?! Only a mother could answer that without kicking in the gag reflexes... and with a perfectly straight face... and be completely unfazed by the astronomical number).

Motherhood is slow (come to the car. Please come to the car. I said come to the car. COME TO THE CAR RIGHT NOW... ) (Did I mention repetitive?!)

Motherhood is fast (just incase the scream really IS for real this time...)

Motherhood is painful (nursing a newborn infant. Need I say more??!)

Motherhood is squishy (why is it that when you sit down to nurse, 4 other kiddos suddenly want to snuggle with you?!)

Motherhood is tiring, no fatiguing, no exhausting (3 am feedings, 4 am "I'm scared" snugglings, 6 am "Is it morning yet?" breakfastings)

Motherhood is gutwrenching (try holding a 6 month old down for shots, look into her pain-filled-what-are-you-doing-to-me-eyes and not want to cry yourself! Or watching your little ones skip off to school for the first time and try to keep your own tears from falling)

Motherhood is... well... pretty much indescribable.

I don't think I've ever felt so many emotions during the course of a single day. Or a Single Hour. Or even a single minute.

But one thing is at the base of it all: and that is Happiness. Yes. Pure undefiled Joy and Happiness at the thought of seeing my children all around me.

At the end of the day, with all of the ups and downs,

Yes, Motherhood is HAPPINESS

Especially when you can see yourself for a moment through they eyes of your sweet daughter...

and you really like what you see:

Okay, you really have to enlarge this one and look at the blue line...

Yep, I LOVE motherhood.

NPR studies got it wrong.

And that's all I have to say about that.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!

Happiness is...

2010-05-08T10:11:00.002-05:00

Having your 'not-so-vocal-about-his-feelings-son' practice his cursive writing by giving you this note:

Happy Pre-Mother's Day to all of you moms out there :)

Oh Fudge!

2010-05-05T22:13:00.006-05:00

Yep, we love us some fudge around these parts.

Though we usually limit it to the holiday season,

There are some rare occasions in which brownies just don't cut the chocolate craving.

Sunday was one of those days.

Jerry was in the middle of his second trip in 2 weeks time

We were in the middle of moving

Had just started soccer season for 2 kids,

And had picture day for said soccer kids

And watched two soccer games in the bitter cold freezing wind

And still having car issues

Yep, come Sunday, it was a 'we need more than chocolate' chocolate days.

It was a fudge day

I must have felt the premonition coming on, because throughout the week, I made sure that we had the ingredients on hand for our "better than brother-in-law's-fudge" (yes, John I said it, and yes, it really is :) ).

If you've ever entered the realm of homemade fudge making, you have learned that fudge tastes the absolute best right after it's mixed, (yes, we have had a few burned tongues in our house over not being able to wait even 60 seconds longer for this deliciously delectable moment)

the kids have at times come to near blows over who gets which mixing tool to lick clean

It is not beneath them to find a little hide out to indulge in the spoils in solitude

(which I only charge them a few licks in order to keep my silence about their hideout - hey when it comes to fresh fudge, even I will sink to new lows :) ).

And some will even try to sneak snatches of the motherload before it's yet set

Joshy got a bit perplexed when he went for his 3rd snatching, and it had been moved...

... and soon discovered the new hiding place...

Yep... gotta love fudge.

Have you had your fudge fix today?

Reason 457 why I love the house...

2010-05-04T14:19:00.003-05:00

Yes, this is a toilet.

More specifically, it's MY toilet.

As opposed to the EVERYONE'S toilet (aka little boys with fire hose power toilet).

It takes a few extra steps to find it,

But it is SOO worth the the extra steps to not have that 'ewwww something is wet on my legs and I have a suspicion that it's not water' sensation. (c'mon, you can't tell me this has never happened to you if you live with a houseful of boys!).

Yep, I love MY toilet :)

... It's the little things, folks.

If you have your kids help you move...

2010-05-02T23:13:00.003-05:00

... and you don't have boxes labeled really well

... and have them just grab whatever they can load and unload

... and they happen to look in some of the boxes

... they may just find the "presents to give" box

... and the action figures that were on the docket for the next winterland holiday

... have suddenly become "movingland holiday" presents...

Hey, it kept them busy while I got some of the boxes unpacked - it's all good :)

Your Cell Phone...

2010-05-02T22:42:00.005-05:00

Don't leave home without it!

Seriously, Don't. Stop. Turn around. Be late. Just don't leave without it.

The day you actually think, "oh, it's okay, I'll just be a couple of hours at the gym and then come back..." is the day that you will come out from the meeting at the gym...

Load the kiddos in the car...

Thinking you have the (very busy) day planned out to the T...

and find that you have a flat tire...

so you tote all kiddos back into the gym

and try to remember some numbers (that are all stored in your cell phone)

to re-arrange the preschool car pool

and get a ride from fellow instructor home

(on which drive, also find out how un-childproof the car is when Joshy opens the back door enroute...)

to call and join AAA, to then schedule some car help...

only to be told, "Oh, your membership won't show up for 3 days..."

then grab a ride with the re-arranged preschool car pool (Thanks Marissa!!) back to the gym to try to change tire yourself...

only to realize after getting there (and having the rain start)

that you don't have any way to get the lug nuts off...

so you call AAA back, and get a different (more customer friendly) helper, who tells you she can help you (rain clouds suddenly get a silver lining)...

... and 25 minutes later, tells you she can, indeed have someone come out to help you...

... you just have to wait for them to come when they can...

... and when they do come to get enough air to get to the tire place, you are told that they are completely booked and can't get to the car for quite some time...

... so you get to once again re-arrange car pool home from school (Thanks AGAIN Marissa, and Sarah!)...

... all while hubby is out of town...

Yep - The cell phone.

Don't leave home without it.

Consider yourself warned...

Moving is...

2010-04-28T16:57:00.004-05:00

... proving to be very difficult with a 5 month old...

... and pretty much IMPOSSIBLE with a 2 3/4 year old.

Well, I take that back, moving wasn't really the issue, I could keep the kiddos corralled in the car while I just stuffed around them... (literally:)

(yes, this is really how we drove over with one load... this picture is our own version of "where's waldo - in our case Ben... can you find him??!)

...but once we got everything here

and I busied myself carting boxes from the garage to the various locations in the house,

Joshua busied himself with finding every door leading to the outside (aka freedom!).

... and with no fence or high bolts/locks/any other child proofing devices on the doors, he was quite successful...

... like the day I tried to put the boys clothes together in their upstairs room, and realized things were a bit too quiet on the main floor....

... I walked down, to find an open door,

... and walked out to find our across the street neighbor's husband walking Josh down his driveway, smiling in a 'trying not to be annoyed' way, and saying (in a trying not to be annoyed-nice voice), "hi, I found him in our van..."

... or the next day when I was carting in boxes from the garage and had a good view of him on his tricycle outside, only to find on one load that said tricycle had been abandoned...

... and after searching around and finally went around to the back of the house to see him on the porch of our back yard neighbor chatting it up. The neighbor said he had been sitting in the kitchen when little joshy showed up at the back door, knocking and smiling ever so sweetly...

... I'm sure the "welcome to the neighborhood" banners are set to go up any minute now...

... along with my mother of the year award :)

... so mom and dad, if you open your door to see a child sized box with air holes punched in it, don't be too surprised...

... don't worry, we can come and pick him up when we come out for the reunion :)

Panini Palooza!

2010-04-14T21:17:00.003-05:00

... so a couple of weeks ago, hubby and I were watching a food network show that was featuring paninis and we both instantly got the craving to expand our culinary cuisine to include this delectable sandwich.

... but since we are about to sign over our life for a new house, it had to go on the wish list.

... enter freecycle mormon style - aka mormon mom networking at it's finest (we have a listserve here where different members post different thoughts, questions, or things they want to give away).

... not even 5 days after our little panini craving, one woman listed that she was giving away her panini maker

... I called

... I got it!

... when I picked it up, I found that it had never even been taken out of the box!!

How's that for frugality?!

And I couldn't wait to try it out...

... even ventured with ALL FIVE kiddos (5 hungry and tired kiddos!) to the store to get the ingredients while Jerry was at meetings at the church.

And Jerry made it home in time to help make the inaugural panini press

yummm... pesto chicken panini
superyummy was the declaration by the kiddos at dinner :)

panini party, anyone??!

the end of an era...

2010-04-13T08:28:00.005-05:00

Bailey Brewer...

What can I say?

If you are relatively new to the Brewer Bunch, you may not know the extent of this epic adventure that has been our life with a dog. Here is it in a nutshell:

We bought a house the 2nd year of med school. Since we had fertility issues (5 kids later you would never have known that little tid-bit, would ya?!), we thought it would be quite a while before we actually had any kids, so I thought, "hey, we can get a dog, and it can be our little family until we have kids..."

So I got a dog for Jerry... in October

and got pregnant with twins... in November

And after the first few chewed up poopy diapers (among many other chewed up things), I pretty much have been at my wits end with Bailey ever since...

And so began our love/hate relationship with Bailey (Jerry loved him, I, well... hate is a strong word... let's just say I had other emotions towards our dog...).

After way too many incidents to re-iterate on the blog, I have been trying to find a new home for our very canine dog.

But Jerry has resisted

...Until we decided to upgrade our housing situation

...To a beautiful NEW house (read: CLEAN house- not 50 years of grime built up everywhere!!)

... with white carpet...

... and no fenced back yard...

... and a sprinkler system (which makes it hard to put in an underground fence for dogs)

... and after a last ditch effort to make it work (getting a bark collar for Bailey, and a new 'walking collar' and suddenly becoming very interested on taking Bailey for walks every day...)

... Jerry came to the sad realization that it was probably best to find Bailey a new home...

... and he put many stipulations on such a new home (which I thought would be downright impossible to meet...)

Until I met Susan Perkins aka our fairy dog-mother...

Who called me up out of the blue after receiving an email about Bailey's plight to find a new home.

She came to meet him, and they hit it off smashingly.

Took him out to meet her two dogs, and Bailey actually liked them as well.

And suddenly Bailey found himself a new home, with TONS of room to run around free, and get to be, well, a dog!

We even get full visitation rights, whenever we want (one of Jerry's stipulations...)
We have already been out to visit twice at his new home, and I have to admit, he looks so HAPPY - there is just a content look on his face at getting to have a whole new lease on life in a fun, new place that is VERY conducive to extremely active, somewhat ADD dogs :).

... and the kids? Well, they get the best of both worlds...

They get to visit Bailey, but even more exciting for them, they get to see all of the other animals on the farm...

... and help feed all the other animals on the farm...

(I actually think they are more excited about being with the other animals then actually visiting Bailey...)

And Jerry gets to still have his beloved Canine in his life...

... just not on his new white carpet... ;)

And thus ends the era of the Dog.

... and me? Well, I would be lying if I said I wasn't overjoyed at finding a new home for Bailey.

... But I do have to say, It does seem a bit quiet around here without the boisterous Bailey -

... and I do find myself missing him a bunch (did I actually say that??!) (shh!!! don't tell my husband!!)