St. Louis

The minute Joseph finished his last final for the Winter Semester we hopped in the car and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house to drop the kiddos off for the weekend. We headed to St. Louis for a kid-free weekend getaway. We really needed this time together. We have been stretched to the max on quality time and we were definitely feeling it. We were constantly nit picking at each other and every small annoyance was intensified 110%. It's a surprise we didn't kill each other. So, we were in heaven when we had the whole weekend just to ourselves without any distractions. As I have mentioned before, Joseph has been working, going to school and doing his calling in the Bishopric. And when we are all home together it's focused on keeping the boys from killing each other and trying to keep the chaos to a minimum. This trip was perfect for us to recharge and come back refreshed because life hasn't really become all that less intense.

Joe planned this entire trip and I was really impressed. Our hotel was right in downtown St. Louis. We had an amazing view of the Arch from our hotel room. It was so cool to go to sleep at night with the curtains open and the arch lit up. So Beautiful. He found an amazing deal from Restaurant.com gift cards so we ate all weekend at these amazing restaurants in downtown for super cheap. We went to the City Museum which is beyond awesome and we climbed up 10 stories and took a spiral slide all the way down. We didn't get any pictures while there because it was so packed full of fun things to climbs and slide down. It was sooo much fun!!! If you have the chance to go . . . GO!!! We went to this awesome movie theater in downtown. Every seat is so comfy and each has it's own tablet so you just swipe your card and they bring you what you order from the tablet. Very snazzy!! We watched Iron Man 3 in 3D and they let us go and watch a second movie for free afterward just because. Sweet!! It was also Cinco De Mayo weekend so there were lots of drunk people which can be quite amusing to watch.

The Wax Museum

 We took this because Anderson loves to watch the shows. Trying to snag some bonus points with the kid.

 Joseph's favorite president. Ronald Reagan

 Joseph's favorite Superhero . . . the hulk.

 Spidey

 Shrek himself!!

 Michael Jackson

 Whatever his name is . . . Doby?? I can never tell the difference between the Harry Potter little dude and the Lord of the Rings "My precious" guy. Don't judge, it's just not my thing.

 Sorry for the grossness. This was just as we were leaving our hotel to check out. Proof that we really do like each other. :)

 The Arch ride to the TOP!!!

 I took this standing at the base of the arch.

 My heart was racing!!!! That is really high up there!!!

 These are pictures we took from the top of the Arch looking down. 630ft up!!!!!

 

That is the arch out our hotel window. 

On the way to and from St. Louis we stopped in Sikeston, MO at our FAVORITE restaurant, Lambert's!!

Celebration of life

Today is the day, the day we remember our precious Temperance. May 13th was when we planned to have her via c-section. I love that I can still think back to being pregnant with her. She was my 4th pregnancy and wow did I start showing fast. I loved my little baby bump. I have this distinct memory of standing at the stove in the kitchen of our 2 bedroom apartment at Peterson Pointe in Rexburg. I remember looking down and thinking of her and picturing her. She was such a wonderful surprise. It's amazing how you can fall so incredibly in love with something, you can't see or hold, the moment the test turns positive. I'll always cherish the moments I had carrying her, even if it ended too soon and so sadly. I remember feeling a distinct twinge and memories of those same twinges came flooding back from when I had been pregnant with the boys. You never really forget that feeling but it's so hard to put it into exact words.

Today we celebrate our love for her. We celebrate her beginning. We are celebrating such a wonderful gift from our Heavenly Father. We are grateful for the time that we were given.

I've been told by people that I need to get over it. That it was for the best. Honestly? She was created with love and she was ours. I don't know how things will turn out after this life, when it comes to our lost babies, but I believe that the Lord knows our sadness and the intensity of our love and he will make it right and all will work out. I hold onto this with a strong faith.

First time for everything

Joseph has been studying, err more like cramming, for his finals that are this week. He's been studying around the clock except for when he has to go to work. So, as soon as he walked in the door last night it was a given he wasn't going to get much done with the kids here so I got the kids ready and out the door and we drove to Chic-fil-a.

I've never actually been inside a Chic-fil-a before. I've been through their drive thru once. I called to see if they had a play place for kids and they did. So, me and my three unruly children walk into this restaurant and within the first 10 seconds Emmett hits Anderson in the eye so Anderson does the only reasonable thing . . . He punches Emmett and gives him a bloody nose. Ugh!!! As I'm holding a napkin up to Emmett's nose, I begin to order. The guy is so cool. He takes our order, helps us to our table and brings us all the extra stuff like napkins, sauces, etc. Awesome, guy!! The boys sit down to eat for a half a second and then proceed to jump up and down on the bench and laugh and scream and well, they are just too loud. I threaten everything, but there's a large part of me that just doesn't care anymore. I've maxed out on my limit of caring and as long as they aren't being destructive or trying to kill themselves or others, I'm good. I assist Tatum in whatever it is that she's doing, eating, pressing her face up against the window, babbling loudly at the big silver balloons across the dining area and making friends with everyone in the restaurant. I ate my food and it was heavenly. I was shaking so bad by the time we arrived at the restaurant because it had been a long few too many hours since I had last eaten anything. As always, with every dinner we have, Anderson spent the whole time commenting on how he needed to poop. It's not only embarrassing, it's annoying. EVERY TIME WE EAT DINNER! EVERY NIGHT! Well, once we were done eating, at least I was done. (When are kids ever done eating?) We gathered our stuff and made our way as a group to the bathroom so the boys could go potty. After that fiasco, we played for a bit in the play area. Then we went back to the bathroom because I had to go potty . . . and yes, I did ask myself if I had to go while we were in there earlier but, I guess, my body lied. Any who, there wasn't a place to put Tatum so I sat her on a step stool and told Anderson to make sure she didn't touch the ground. "But, why, Mom?" As he began to play in the sink and "wash" his hands. "Because there are poop and pee bug germs on the floor" (it was the best I could come up with at that moment.) "Oh, okay." Tatum sat still and only cried while I disappeared behind the stall door while Emmett kneeled down and peeked at me from under the other stall. We talked about privacy. After the bathroom, we went back into the play place and . . . played. What-do-ya-know. We couldn't return home until Joe was done submitting his work online so we hung out as long as possible and on the way out the door we ordered food for Joe. The guy at the counter said what I hear A LOT, "You sure have your hands full." Ya think! He even offered to help us out to the car. Another awesome guy. Anyways, after driving around town just getting lost for fun to pass the time we finally made our way back home.

All in all, I'm really proud of myself. I don't think I have ever taken my kids out to eat with just me. I'm going to enjoy this moment of pride. I have no plans on repeating it anytime soon but I feel accomplished!!!

P.S. If you ever are looking for a great place to eat with your kids, go to Chic-fil-a. It's amazing!!!

My hubby

It's not often I get time to myself to think, or at least to think clearly. Today, there was less chaos and drama with the kids so I've been pondering on how wonderful my husband is. I want to go on the record that I HATE when people write about the awesomeness of their other half, but here I go.

I don't know how Joseph does it. He works at a bank, attends school fulltime for his Master's degree and is the Ward Clerk at church. And that's on top of being a husband to a woman with mental health issues and three kids, one of which has autism. I don't know how he has the energy to get out of bed in the mornings, especially on only a few hours of sleep at times.

It's finals week. He's finishing up his first semester at this new school. He struggles but you wouldn't really notice if you asked him how things are going. He's tough.

He's been studying non stop. He did take a break last night and watch a couple of our shows with me. He does things like that because he knows how much I miss him throughout the day and that's our "us" time.

Today, he woke up at 6:30am and got Anderson dressed and on the bus. He studied until he had to leave for his 9am test. He came home about 11:20ish from his final, changed his clothes and left for work. He didn't even stop to eat something because he was already running late because of his test and things have been tense at work so he just wanted to get there as soon as possible. He will work an 8 hr shift and then head to the campus library and study until he takes his next final which is scheduled for tonight. His test will last until almost 10pm, when he will then come home and take on the role of husband to his needy wife and probably help me do the dishes that are stacked up in the sink.

I'm really grateful for him and his strength. I know I'm a struggle for him at times and I frustrate him and visa versa, but I think we are great together because of his awesomeness.

Surviving Spring Break and other fun things!!

A few weeks ago we had spring break for all 3 boys. It was definitely no where near a break for me. All 3 kids 24/7 and a husband that took on extra shifts at work, made for a very disgruntled stay-at-home mommy. We only had one working car and at one point during the week there was a winter storm warning which resulted in a few inches of snow. We were at home A LOT! 

I took to Facebook and Pinterest for ideas on how to handle the madness. One friend from church gave us the idea of using masking tape to tape off a city on the living room floor. Great idea. We also used noodles to spell out the kids names for artwork and made Easter egg shapes using coffee filters, markers and a spray bottle of water. I did get a little desperate while trying to do a science experiment showing clouds and how it rains, that it turned into a shaving cream party. I searched Pinterest for ideas and in the end used a lot of food coloring and random stuff from the cupboards and around the house.

 This is my reality

We had a fun filled Easter Sunday with baskets and presents and an egg hunt with about 120 eggs. Joe and I filled 105 plastic eggs Saturday night and I made sure to count them all. A friend at church was without her hubby on Easter so we got together at the last minute at her house (since ours is so cramped) and her son and the boys all ran around searching for the hidden eggs. Tatum mostly just looked cute and got in the boys way. We had a lot of fun hanging out there and when we were done we went home and fed the sister missionaries for Easter dinner. We tried to have as little to no candy kind of Easter. The kids Easter baskets had one egg in them that was filled with stickers and a couple jolly ranchers. The eggs for the hunt were filled with mini marshmallows, teddy grahams, fruit snacks, stickers and jolly ranchers. Between those and candy from church they were well wired and had plenty of sugar induced meltdowns each.

 Tatum suffered her first sunburn. I felt horrible. You would think I would know a thing or two about preventing sunburns, since I'm a redhead and all. She was mostly in the shade and it was partly cloudy but still we both were burned. She was really over heated and wouldn't take any fluids so we took her into the ER. They told us to use benadryl and how to treat the burn. The next day she woke up with a fever of 104.7, I tried medicine but it only dropped to 104.1 so in we went, again. This time they realized she had a double ear infection. Poor girl.

 We found this beautiful lost dog. We took it in to see if it had a chip, it's didn't. So it spent the night with us and we were able to find it's owner the next day. It made me want another dog. Definitely a big size difference between this dog and ours. The kids loved it.

 Pinterest failed me again. I read about how you can use a 'get along' shirt until they learn to be nice. Terrible idea. Anderson almost choked Emmett to death, dragging him around the house like this.

 Brave man!

 Sunday Best

 When not at work Joe is usually doing this . . . studying business, economics, law, finances or our finances or lack thereof. With 3 exams in one week, I had to step up my game and take over for Joe with cooking and cleaning dishes. For those who know me, those are not my forte. Dirty dishes make me ill, all the germs and bacteria and icky grossness. And cooking and I don't mix. BUT, I've been trying to stretch myself and I've cooked the majority of the past 3weeks; Including using my birthday gift card to treat the family to Dominos, that counts as something in my book.

 

I found time to get creative with Tatum's hair and to get frustrated with it also. I tried pigtails . . . check. She can even rock a ponytail . . .  at 1yr! But those bangs didn't stand a chance, they had to go! She looked so . . . wild, with her hair always in her face and she would put her sticky fingers in her hair and things would get nasty. I sat her down and cut them. I'd been wanting to do this for a long while but people kept telling me not to cut her hair, including Joe. As I was getting her ready for her new do, Joe said, "I just want to go on the record, that this will not end well." Thanks for the vote of confidence.  I think I cut off about an inch and a half or so, just for the bangs. I think she looks great! For the next couple of days, every time I looked at her, I couldn't help but smile. I didn't have to search for her under the mess of hair, there she was with her beautiful eyes looking at me. I love it! No regrets. So, just like the boys, she made it until age 1 to get her first haircut. 

 

Speaking of Tatum, she decided to take her first step . . . just one. She would stand up and plop back down and maybe if we coxed her enough she'd slide her foot a little and then plop back down. We'd cheer and clap and she'd smile and then wait a few days to decide to do it again. Well, on the 3rd, she decided to take a second step forward for her daddy, just as I had stepped into the kitchen for 0.2 seconds to get something. I was so ticked. I may or may not have scolded Joe for encouraging such a thing since I'm the one who sits at home with her day after day, waiting to witness moments just like this . . . or something like that. Thankfully we were able to get her to do it again so I felt validated in my efforts as a mother, because I'm sure that's what she cares about, right? :-) So, with that, I predict that she'll be walking in about 2 or so months, but definitely by the age of 2yrs. That's a reasonable goal? 

For April Fool's day I tricked Joe into thinking I was pregnant. I totally had him going until he decided to announce it to the kids and I had to stop it right there in it's tracks. Anderson's response, "Another one?!" Well played, Joe.

April 2nd, was National Autism Awareness day. We celebrated by buying a blue light bulb at Home Depot and swapping out our outside light with it, along with changing our facebook profile picture and status to accommodate such a celebration. Joe referred to it as Anderson's holiday. Cute.

 

 

 We bought the boys this awesome swivel chair from IKEA and it took forever to get here, but alas it arrived! Joe immediately put it together just in time for them to fight over it as soon as school got out. It looks like a giant egg. I found it online and it was recommended for kids with sensory issues to it's a win win. It's cool because of the canopy on it comes down and covers the opening completely so it's a cool little hideout. A nice place to go for some quiet wind-down time, playing the tablet. Big hit!