My baby is One Year Old!

On Tuesday, Alex turned one year old. It is hard to believe he is already that old. He is such a cute little guy. We are so glad he's part of our family.

I think he was quite oblivious that it was his birthday. He played with his new toys, and got into the cupboards like usual. He enjoyed his birthday cake. He kept trying to grab the candle when we were singing to him.

It seems kind of sad when a baby turns into a toddler. They don't snuggle much anymore.

When I took Alex to his 1 year old checkup, he weighed 22 pounds, and was 31 1/2 inches tall. He has grown over a foot in one year. The doctor said that we needed a padded room for Alex. That's how active he is. He is into everything and only stops when he is sleeping. Its a good thing that he still takes naps, or I might just go crazy.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

At least my kids think so. It snowed on Saturday night and Sunday. We got about half an inch. By the time we got home from church it was all melted. Rachel was disappointed. She was hoping to play in in it.
On Sunday morning after breakfast, I sent Caleb downstairs to his room to get ready for church. A little while later, I came down to see if he was ready. I found him and Anna huddled together under a blanket with "Jingle Bells" blasting from his CD player. I laughed. It is not even Halloween yet. I didn't even know he had a CD with Christmas music on it.
On the way to school today, the kids were asking how long until Christmas. Oh man, don't start asking that already. I told them I didn't know because we were still counting down to Halloween.
It seems like just a week ago, we had our AC blasting. Now its the furnace. This was sure a wild temperature swing.

Anna Turns 3...and more

Anna with her cake at the Rowley family birthday party.

Anna with her new dolls

On Monday Anna turned 3 years old. We celebrated her birthday with the Rowley family on Sunday. As you might notice from the cake picture, she had 2 of the 3 candles blown out before we had even finished singing "Happy Birthday".

On Monday, my parents and sister Leslie came over for the celebration.

Anna woke up really grouchy on her birthday. She is usually really grouchy in the morning. She threw a giant fit because she realized that she had fallen asleep and slept all night in her clothes. So, I quickly gave her the present that was her new princess pajamas. That cheered her right up, and then she was excited about her birthday.

Anna saw a picture of a barbie cake I had made for Rachel several years ago, and wanted a barbie cake for her birthday. She helped me make and decorate it. It looked pretty good until I let her get out the sparkly frosting gels. But she loved the cake anyways. And it tasted way better than store cake.

Anna had a fun day.

Anna is getting older now, and is enjoying creative play. She has played for hours with the "Peek a Boo Barbie" dolls she got for her birthday.

Alex's birthday is in just a few more days. He is actually starting to talk a bit. The other morning, he woke up first (like usual). We were laying in bed wishing we could sleep a little longer. He started to call "Mom". Then he moved on to "Dad". Pretty soon he started saying "Rachel, Caleb, Anna". I didn't know he knew how to say the other kids' names. I guess he was tired of waiting for me to get him out.

When I changed his diaper the other day, I said "Poo Poo", and he also said that. Yep, I guess I am already teaching him potty talk.

Blog Update

Alex, the little climber.
Alex picking the flowers.
Rachel at her awards assembly.

Well, I haven't been so good at updating my blog lately. So here's what has been going on with us.

Last Friday, we took our kids to the Corn Belly's corn maze at Thanksgiving Point. I had a coupon for 93 cent admission. I was quite pleased, because it only costed us $4 to get in. The person in front of me paid $10.50 a person. (Ok, that's enough of the "I love coupons" for today)The kids had a blast. They didn't love the actual corn maze. After a while they got tired of going in circles and getting to dead ends. We did make it out of there fine. What they really loved was the carnival games. There was so much to do. Jumping things, slides, games etc. We stayed for a few hours. They were completely content after a good dose of sugar from the cotton candy.

On Saturday, I got up and went running with Mom and Les. We ran from Leslie's house to Mom's house. I didn't stick around for breakfast this week.

After showering, I headed off to swimming lessons. Swimming lessons for me. I am hoping to do a Triathlon in the spring. However, I need to learn to swim properly so I don't drown and so I won't be last place. I actually had fun swimming. I've been able to sort of swim since I was a kid. The thing I am working on is proper form and breathing. I had fun at swimming lessons. I haven't taken lessons for myself for something for a long time.

On Saturday evening, we went to a restaurant called the Bambara with Dan's company. It was nice. The food was strange and fancy. And someone choked and spit their wine on me. But all in all, we had a good time. People didn't get too drunk, which was good. Really drunk people are annoying. There was one other couple that didn't drink as well. I loved the dessert, Creme Brulee.

On Tuesday, we went to awards at Rachel's school. She was student of the month for her class. We are really proud of her. She is such a good girl. Her teacher adores her.

The rest of my week has been quite busy.

Alex is getting to be quite a climber. I just finished loading the dishwasher. He unloaded the bottom rack. Then he climbed on the door to unload the top rack.

I gotta go be the taxi mom, so that's all for now.

Just a quick picture

I learned how to use the macro lens on my digital camera. This is a picture of a tiny yellow flower I saw in the mountains during our family campout.
I was going to go outside this morning and take some pictures of our roses, but the batteries in my digital camera were dead. So, I'll have to wait until they are charged.
I love this time of year. The leaves are changing colors. I love to look at all the leaves when I am running. One of these weekends I hope to go to the mountains to take some pics of the leaves.

I just can't seem to get ahead

My day today hasn't been bad. It is just the end of the day, and I still have so much to do.
I got up, showered, and got the kids breakfast. While the older kids eat, I feed Alex. The little neighbor girl comes over in the morning, because I watch her before school. I usually end up eating breakfast with her.
Then, its time to run around and get everyone ready for school. I managed to get everyone out the door, with lunches packed, on time. Alex and Anna ended up wearing their pajamas for the car ride since I didn't have time to get them dressed.
When we got home, I threw a batch of laundry in the dryer and another batch in the wash. Then I worked hard to get the house clean. I got Anna and Alex dresssed, and played with them while we were doing things.
Then, I dropped the kids off at a neighbor's house. She watched them while I volunteered in Caleb's classroom. My kids are always happy when I help out at their school. In trade, I watch the neighbor's child on Thursday while she takes her special needs child to physical therapy.
After that, it was home again. I got the kids lunch, and they ate it while I cleaned up the living room. The kids had pulled leaves off the plant, and spread piano books, papers, and reading books all over the floor. My visiting teacher from church was coming, so I didn't want it to be a disaster.
After the VT came, Alex was asleep and napping. So, I cooked a frozen meal for lunch. I turned on Caillou for Anna, and ate my lunch while I was working online. I work for a virtual call center doing Quality Assurance. I download the phone calls that have already taken place, and provide feedback. (No, they aren't hiring for this position currently.) I worked for just over and hour, (two episodes of Caillou on demand) and then Alex woke back up.
Then we folded laundry. I folded about 8 batches. Then I played ball with Anna and Alex and read books to them. Then it was time to get Rachel and Caleb from school.
After school, I got the kids cookies and milk. We talked about their day, and they showed me what they had brought home. I read Caleb's reading book, and reading words with him. I found him a book to read.
After that, I taught a piano lesson to a girl named Faith. Caleb did his entire days reading during the lesson, while Anna and Rachel either played or watched TV. Alex gets to sit in the baby saucer next to me while I teach.
After Faith, it was Caleb's turn for piano lessons. I send Rachel to Faith's mom for piano lessons. But I have found Caleb does better with me. It had been a while since Caleb had a lesson, so he was eager.
By this time, it was nearly time for dinner. I made Rachel come in from the corn field (her favorite place on earth) and practice piano while I made dinner.
Dan called to say he wasn't going to be home on time, so we ate dinner without him. I feed Alex while everyone else eats, then I eat.
Then, we were out the door to go to Grandma Challis's house to pick pears. Dan said he would meet me there since he hadn't left work yet.
When we got to Grandma's house, there wasn't much left to pick. So, I called Dan and told him he could just go straight home.
Alex hadn't gotten enough napping in today, and Anna hadn't taken a nap at all. So they were both screaming as we left. It was quite a chorus.
When we got home, I decided that I need to cut and peel some of the peaches that we had gotten since they were almost over-ripe. It was mostly a waste of time and energy. I got two jars of peaches, and it made even more mess in the kitchen. Dan helped some with the peaches. The pears aren't ripe enough, so I can procrastinate doing anything with them for a little while.
After that, it was Family Home Evening. We read scriptures and sang songs. Then it was teeth brushing and bed time. I thought Dan had tucked Rachel and Caleb in. So, then I cleaned the kitchen. I hadn't gotten that done after dinner.
Then, I came down to work. To my surprise, Rachel and Caleb hadn't gone to bed. I yelled at them because they were watching Cartoon Network. Caleb cried and I felt bad and cried too. I guess they were waiting for me to tuck them in, and I didn't know it. I tucked them in and spent extra time with Caleb.
So, here it is, almost ten o'clock. I have more laundry to put in the wash and the dryer. I still have about 6 batches to fold. I still need to study my Gospel Doctrine lesson for Sunday. And I only got one hour of QA work done today. I can't seem to get ahead. I'm tired.
I'm not writing this for pity. I'm mostly writing this to relieve stress. I probably should have done something productive instead. My life is good. I just don't seem to have enough time in my day to get everything done.

Camping with the family

We went to the Heber Valley campground with the Marchant family. Everyone in the entire family came. So that's my parents, 8 grown-up kids, 5 spouses, and 22 grandchildren. That totals up to 37 people in our family. It was fun to get together with everyone. Dan was a bit peeved that it interfered with the BYU football game, but he came anyway.
I just finished reading my sister Leslie's blog about it. So, if you want more details, you can click on her blog link on my blog. Yes, I must be lazy. Or it might be that I am tired. Or possibly that I don't want to spend too much time on the computer since Alex has been puking today.