Blog Hopping

I have been spending my girls nap time doing absolutely nothing on my to do list (dishes, laundry, piano practice, clean up, spend time with older kids - what about it? Its all still there waiting). Instead I have been blog hopping for some much needed down time.

Here are some interesting blogs I found today that I will check back with in the future:

Mormon Mommy Blog - I love the "Post of the Week" idea where mom's can MckLinky a post about whatever they want.

Asking Jane - Jane is wonderfully soothing for the harried mom

Knock Off Wood - post "Journal: One Day at a Time"

And some old/new favorites for me -

Chocoloate on my Cranium - this past week she answered questions from her readers. It was fun to get a glimpse into their lives.

The Common Room - I originally started reading this 7 years ago for homeschool/political info, and now she is doing a new series with a few of her friends called 4 Moms, 35 Kids: How the Moms of Many Manage - doesn't the mere idea of it sound daunting? Well, according to world standards I am a mom of many and I can use all the helpful ideas and self-deprecating humor I can get.

Beautiful Day

Ready for milk-Building a temple-
And what's that on her face? Carpet burn. We were at the dinosaur museum and she was running down a ramp and totally biffed it onto her face and slid.

Playing house on the kitchen table

Austin has a cold and requested chicken noodle soup for dinner. Well, I made it for lunch since I had ambition in the morning.

Everyone ate some without complaining about not liking this or that. Hallelujah!

After lunch we headed outside. I made Austin come too for some sunshine.

We snacked on candy from yesterday's Easter egg hunt.

Everyone played in the sand box, even Austin still in his pj's.

Dade soaking up some sunshine

The girls had lots of fun playing with each other.

Austin took a picture of me

and snuggled with the dog a whole lot

Jolie decided to snuggle with them, though I don't know why she wanted to lay in the sand instead of the grass.

Running off to visit neighbor kids

Queen of the plastic pirate ship?

Easter Egg Hunt

Yesterday our neighborhod did an Easter Egg Hunts. It was split into 3 age groups: 0-3 at one house, 4-7 at another and our house hosted the 8-12 year olds. All kids had a lot of fun.

Nyah's age group waiting to start.

I put this video of Nyah's age group starting because it is the only shot we have of Austin (besides the back of his head in the top picture). By the time his age group started I had headed inside with Olivia and Jolie, and Kurt had to lay down the ground rules for the older kids.

The girls playing with their Dad later.

This week's fun

I have finally passed on "horsie" duty to my older kids. I can't tell you how nice it is to NOT be the pregnant horse who isn't going fast enough.Rub-a-dub-dub

Three (girls) in a tub,

And how do you think they got there?

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker,

They all jumped out of a rotten potato,

'Twas enough to make a fish stare.

I read this nursery rhyme for the first time in a long time and couldn't help thinking "A rotten potato? Really? Is that how is supposed to end? I can't remember." I'm sure it is - I was reading from the same book I read to Austin & Nyah from years ago, but for some reason I just don't remember the rotten potato.

Going for a train ride - its always fun when the 4 of them are playing and working things out together.
Now everyone needs a bed-

Future blackmail picture - toddlers are so adorable!!

After tolerating the play of his sisters for a time, Austin needed to return to more boyish pursuits. He's such a sweetheart with his sisters most of the time.

Ponyo Loves Sosuke!!

Just a quick plug for Hayao Miyazaki's latest film to be released in the U.S.

Our family loves it!! (And many of his other movies too)

Watch PONYO!!

Post #303

I am amazed I have done over 300 posts! I meant to do something special for #300, but it passed me by.

So, here are some pictures of my adorable kids:

If you sit down in our house be prepared to be bombarded with requests to read. Jolie and Olivia have become fascinated with books, which is a wonderful thing!

We are listening to A Little Princess for school, and while we listen Austin and Nyah keep themselves busy - Nyah is cross-stitching and Austin is playing with his bionicles.
Olivia and Jolie found the container of chlorox wipes and decided to clean the cupboards.

Today is a beautiful spring day so I decided to do some yard clean up and move a few plants around. After much talking and cajoling and threatening and rolling my eyes I finally convinced Austin and Nyah to come in the back yard with us (they wanted to go in the front and rollerblade). Well, they ended up having a fabulous time together and spent a couple hours happily playing.

Oy! Kids!

Me: "Olivia, its time to comb your hair"

Olivia: "I'm busy Mom."

Me: "Olivia, its time to brush your teeth."

Olivia: "I'm busy Mom."

Me: "Olivia, please come to the bathroom!"

Olivia: "I'm busy Mom!"

Me: "Olivia! Come here!"

Olivia: "I'm busy Mom!!"


Well, you get the picture. If I wasn't busy helping Jolie with her hair and teeth I'm sure I could have been much more effective.

Who on earth could have taught Olivia this? Oh, likely me.

The Magic Flute

Today we went to the Mini Magic Flute put on by the Utah Symphony. So Kurt and I could also enjoy the experience, we left Olivia and Jolie home with a fabulous babysitter. Prior to the performance there was an Instrument Petting Zoo in the lobby - I went with Nyah so she could try out some instruments.

The best company:

We really enjoyed the performance!! It was only about an hour long and there was lots of laughing, clapping, and bouncing on seats. Then we raced across town to their ice skating lessons before heading home.

From this week -

Austin and Dade - snuggling :) Dade will only tolerate this kind of treatment from Austin.

On this day Nyah and I had our usual morning battle of whether or not she had brushed her hair (she hadn't), how did I know she hadn't brushed her hair (she had major bed head), and whether or not she was going to do it or let me do it (I ended up brushing it). So when I was taking this picture she said "Look at my hair now Mom!" and laughed at me.

Austin & Nyah talked me into buying them Bionicles, but I think I got the better part of the deal - 2 bathrooms cleaned and 3 loads of laundry washed, folded, and put away. And I let them direct me in taking this picture from just the right angle so the sun was shining through the eyes, and promised to post it on the blog for everyone to see.
I have our playpen set up because I'm watching a friend's 2 year old son today (who is currently crying in the playpen instead of going to sleep), but Jolie snuck away during the morning and I couldn't find her for a while. When I did she and her baby were pretending to take a nap.

And which of my sweet girls woke me up at 5am? The one who is peacefully taking a nap now. I wish my body wasn't stuck on pre-Daylight savings time.

Scooters

The girls are already experts on these scooters we found at the thrift store today! They are also possesive, which means the older two are out of luck!!

Kids

We went to the park this morning to finish up our nature study and to spend some time outside! It is sloooowly getting to be nice weather.

Austin retreated to the car

To the untrained person (that would be me) these are NOT bottles of bubbles (and how dare I think so), but babies. Because we don't have enough babies as it is.