Replay!

If you know our family at all you know that a LOT of sports get watched around here. Especially in the form of hockey and basketball. And having 3 little boys means a LOT of sports action happens around here, primarily in my hallway. Countless numbers of hockey and basketball games have taken place in this long, skinny arena and frequently I hear these words, "Let's watch the replay on that..." and then they proceed to re-enact the sequence of game play that just took place. I'm not kidding. I'm often invited to witness these replays and must express my admiration or occasionally a ruling before the game can continue. It's very intense. And it CRACKS me up! Really, could kids be any cuter?

Also, Zane has recently informed me that he thinks he could "take" me in a game of basketball. And then continues with "have you ever even played basketball mom?" Apparently he is starting to pick up on my sport ineptness. In this same conversation he also stated that if we were to play hockey against each other he would definitely win because he has some serious skills. And I'm left shaking my head and wondering why it's all of a sudden a need to prove that he's better than mom at things. Should I just concede now and admit that he's better at sports than I am....or try to give him some competition?

NO kidlets

for a couple of days was great! Thanks again to Rebecca and Jazz for taking them so we could go!

We escaped to Fairmont for a couple of days and this is what we did: movies, one round of golf, driving range, hot springs and sleep. It was great. We didn't have to hurry anything, we didn't watch the clock and we just enjoyed ourselves.

And we discovered that me and mountain travelling don't mix no matter where I am in the vehicle. I HATE motion sickness and poor Rhett shares my plight. Thank goodness for gravol. Unfortunately it makes me a very poor conversationalist for hours at a time. Poor Cliff. Good thing he loves me. Oh, and we also learned to make sure you take grown-up music with you just in case you can't find a radio signal in the mountains for oh, over an hour! The only thing I had that wasn't fisher price was Josh Groban or the yearly primary CD. Cliff finally succumbed to the silence after 1/2 an hour and put Josh Groban in. I quite enjoyed it but he was suffering. Hee Hee Hee.

And although we had a great time...the next vacation we take is going to be non-mountainous. I'm thinking warm and beaches and oceans. And longer. The kids will be older so we can leave them longer than we did this time!

Back to regular life...wrapping up piano lessons, planning for next fall's lessons, soccer starting and one more month of seminary! Yeah!!!!!

Planning and Organizing

So I am currently working on trying to plan and organize two things. The first is our trip to Fairmont without kids and the second is piano for the fall.
Going without the kids is great but I'm stressing about packing because they aren't going to be here so I have to pack them and us separately. I'm good at packing all of us but the bags usually tend to overlap. Could be a little interesting. Also trying to foresee and think of anything that they might need and things to write down for Rebecca...it's a good thing that we spend so much time together. She already knows my kids so well already and over the past couple of weeks I've thought of random things she should know and have told her and she called today with a list of questions...definitely leaving them in good hands. And I know that we will come back...but just in case we don't the kids are going to Kinsey.

And piano....this year I started out with 11 students and I'm down to 8 because one family pulled out. This fall my goal is to teach 25. I will have most if not all of my current kids and I'm working on filling in the other spots. I've worked out pricing, hired a babysitter to be here while I teach and am thinking and planning to make this work. I called my former teacher and picked her brain on how she did it while raising her kids - especially while they were small. And her two tips were to be super organized and get a babysitter. I can do that! I'm excited and feel good about this decision and am very grateful that I have this skill that I can use to make some income for our family. What a blessing.

Randomness....

So we are home once again in our own little 4 walls. We were starting to think it might not happen - one of Jas and Bec's connecting flights was delayed by 4 hours and at one point they were told they wouldn't be able to come home until Wednesday! Fortunately, things worked out and they were home Monday evening....but it was a little stressful for awhile rearranging a few things and getting three kids off to school!
It's nice to be home. And quiet...mostly.

The days passed very quickly with our little adventure at the Payne's and I can't believe it's already the middle of the month!

I also can't believe that we are all STILL sick! The kids are all coughing...Cliff is still coughing...and I can feel it trying to get a hold on me again. Ugh. Doctor appointments have been made but we can't get in until Friday...and he'll probably just tell me it's viral....

I'm feeling rather random today....might be the cold drugs....might be the exhaustion. But I am also feeling very grateful as well that we didn't get the snow storm that my family and friends did in southern Alberta. Tons of heavy wet snow has knocked out the power in Raymond and Lethbridge...not sure about Taber...haven't heard from anyone there yet. And very thankful for cell phones so family members can call even when there is no power.

And to complete the randomness...here are some pics from Easter and our time with the Paynes!

Our very own Easter bunny! He really wasn't impressed that I put these on him...but I just couldn't resist when I saw them!We dyed Easter eggs....quite the experience with 6....I thought they'd spend a good chunk of time at it....but I think it took them all of 10 minutes and then they were gone again! Ha Ha! But they did turn out pretty nice I think.The kids loved that I put their eggs on display and would take them out and look at them...That crazy Easter bunny hid 18 eggs per kid! Saturday night we gave each kid one colored plastic egg and left the rest for the bunny to fill. In the morning they had to find the eggs that were their color - it worked great and they had a blast finding their eggs and dumping the candy into the bowl. Everyone shared the loot!

Our crew showing off their spoils with Cliff! Left to Right: Jonny, Brock, Cliff, Rhett, Jake, Zane and Mia in the back!

I forgot to add that Zane caught the Easter bunny filling the eggs...I thought everyone was asleep! He just had this "oops!" Look on his face - but then he said "Don't worry mom...I won't tell anyone!" And that's the only reaction he's had. It didn't seem to dampen his enjoyment the next morning...but it does put us into a new stage of life. Sigh.

A Trial and a Blessing

So here we are on day 7 with 6 kids.....
I think there has been one moment every single day that I think - this is the worst it has been - and then it gets better. The kids have adjusted to each other amazingly well and now that they've been together for so long they don't feel the need to constantly be together and so have started scattering themselves around the house and yard - which makes it easier but harder as well. For the most part though things have gone smoothly.

And then yesterday the kiddos started dropping like flies. Our family has been fighting a cold bug for almost the past two weeks and I was just soooo delighted (insert big sarcasm here) to be hit with it 2 days before we started this journey. Zane has had a bit of a cough but nothing serious....and then it spread. At one point yesterday between the "my head hurts", "my stomach hurts", "my throat hurts", "cough - cough - hack", I looked heaven ward and thought "This wasn't hard enough? Now I have to do it with sick kids?"

But, it's been a blessing as well because it's really mellowed out some of the kidlets. We had a really lazy day around here today and for the most part I think it's been our best so far for fights and tantrums. I am so grateful for the Priesthood in our home. Cliff and Trent Allred gave Zane, Jonny and Brock all blessings last night and if things keep going the way they are the other three might need one as well. However, it was a wonderful thing to witness all the kids reverent and listening to the healing blessings that were promised to the kids who needed them. A great moment. And those three have improved a small bit.

Tomorrow is Jonny's birthday. We haven't solidified how we are going to celebrate because we're not sure on the health status yet. We're thinking maybe bowling or movie....we'll see. His parents threw a great party for him before they left so we can just do something small and call it good. Maybe an ice cream cake from DQ....hmmmm.....ice cream.

So, I'm still here. Still alive. And yes, I would do this again.

And I'm really looking forward to our 4 days away in 2 more weeks.

Thoughts so far....

On mothering 6 kids.

I've learned that planning ahead is ESSENTIAL! If I have a plan of what I'm feeding them it's much better than asking what the want to eat.

I've learned to ignore a lot of squabbling.

I've learned that tattling gets OLD really really fast!

I've learned that it's not as hard as I thought it would be...but I'm glad that only 3 of them are really mine.

I've learned that it's a lot easier if I consider them all mine for now.

Things I've done all by myself with 6 kids:

Prepared, served, and cleaned up 10 meals.

Gone to the park twice.

Gone to the grocery store...yep...you read that right.

Done about 10 loads of laundry.

Filled 18x6 plastic eggs full of Easter candy. Cliff helped me hide them all.


I am enjoying myself...there are moments that are hard, but for the most part we're doing great. The kids are getting along like siblings...some squabbles...some bickering...but it's all good. We're working on the sleep deprivation thing - our kids have been staying up a little later than they usually do and that's taking a toll. And I'm learning that with 6 from 11 to 1 years old you don't have any time to yourself until they are all in bed! But, it's only till Sunday.

Off to an Adventure

So tomorrow morning we are adopting 3 kids.


Yes, it's true.


But it's only for 10 days! And then we're giving them back. Our dear friends Jas and Rebecca Payne are going on a cruise and we're moving in with their kids - their house is much better for 6 kids than ours is! So we will have an 11 year old, 7 1/2, 7, 4 1/2, almost 4 and 1. It's going to be chaos. I realize this. But it's also going to be a lot of fun. Our kids adore each other. They get along like cousins and have all been counting down sleeps for this adventure to begin. We're going to dye Easter eggs, have the Easter bunny come, watch conference, play basketball, hopefully play at the park, have a pizza and movie night....and hopefully all be sane when Jas and Rebecca get home.


And then 10 days later Cliff and I are leaving for 4 days and 3 nights and our kids are moving back in with Paynes. It feels like April is already gone!

So, not sure if I'll be posting much in the next week and a half or not....

Wish me luck!