its over, sigh

i walked into my spooky front entry, turned off my battery powered candles in my candelabras and looked at all of my halloweened house. the pumpkin glowing, the crow watching the children eat their candy, the skulls looking on so ghoulishly, the orange candles and black spiders sitting on my grandmother's buffet. oh, how i love a good halloween and yes, my friends, this was a good one. yummy homemade soups. so many friends and great family. yummy treats. perfect temperature for a sweatshirt and flip flops. dancing tinkerbell. sleepy owl. crazy ninja. and the contentment of having pulled off another fiesta without a hitch. too bad we have to wait so long for halloween. have a spooky night.

overwhelmed? understatement!

usually i feel behind in tasks around the house. i tend to concentrate on the more important things like kissing dylan, watching georgia "do" stuff and running andrew all over town to soccer and basketball. and, i let things fall by the wayside. lets just say i usually feel like i'm treading water for an analogy. my head's above the water but at any time i could go under! then came september, october, four birthdays and now a baptism. i haven't seen the floor in my closet for some time now, due to laundry. i call our spare bedroom my "hoarding" room because it is the place where i put things so i can "do it later." and, guess what. it's later. i am overwhelmed and now i've plunged under the water and i'm not sure where to start or when i'm going to get another breath. granted, we did have the carpets cleaned and that would explain the dora kitchen in my bathtub and the toy baskets in my closet but really, the problem is much deeper than that! so this weekend i'm taking on the insurmountable task of the hoarding room, the toy baskets and, gulp, the laundry. good thing soccer and bball have been cancelled saturday and, thank heaven for eric who entertained the children while i folded my closet floor worth of laundry! only 3 more loads! oh, wait, i am starting to feel that breath of air. hopefully, if my laundry doesn't kill me, i'll be back in the familiar treading water stage of my life soon enough.

is it fall?

i am finding myself day dreaming about fall. cool, crisp mornings, trips up the canyon to eat apple raisin and walnut oatmeal, crunching leaves underfoot and sitting in the warm sun watching leaves trickle down from the trees. big billowing clouds with afternoon showers and the faint smell of fireplace smoke in the air. i have a new pair of boots i have been needing to wear. sweaters that are begging to be dusted off and worn and scarves aching to get out. but alas, my body is sore from a workout yesterday morning where i proceeded to sweat like a man in a tank top and shorts. and it was 7am. not conducive to my day dreaming.

happy birthday baby d!

a year ago i was in a hospital bed so very very tired, listening to beeps and chatter from the hallway and the breathing of a new baby boy. i remember that night so clearly as if it was last night. i laid in bed alone with my sweet boy next to me. i remember the tears coming and not being able to control them. overwhelmed with joy, relief, exhaustion, hormones and missing my other two. i promised myself that i would be a better mom, that i would look after my family better. i told my father in heaven i was thankful for my life, for my blessings and for the sweet babies he has sent me. i snuggled that little person as much as i could and held him so close, those hours are so fleeting and i needed to soak in every second. i still feel that way, that i need to soak in every second with my dylan. he is so amazing. he is calm, content and an absolute joy to have around. the kids love him and i just want to eat him up all the time! i wanted to do something special for him on his special day but i couldn't decide what "special" meant to a one year old. what we ended up doing kind of just fell into my lap and it was "special." i decided on a walk around the loop. he loves to be outside and to recline in his stroller. he sucks his binki and loves on his soft blankie and every now and then looks up at me through the small window in the stroller shade and gives me his big goofy toothy grin. i was about half way into my walk when i heard my name. my trainer was running with some other people we train with and they had recognized me. we ran to the park together and they invited me to join a yoga class they were doing. i looked down at my sleeping boy and decided to join in. a little while into the warm up, d woke up and decided he wanted to practice his down dog as well. i rolled out a mat next to mine, handed him my phone and car keys and we had a great time. he would roll under me when i was up and then coming down on top of him he would giggle and laugh. he ate some grass and got a little wet from the ground but all in all it was a fantastic time. his favorite moment was when i was in childs pose and he "got" me. full grabbing of my hair and loving on my face. the world was in perfect alignment, once again, and i felt so much peace and love and recognition of my blessings. this little boy has been such a blessing. and as georgia would say, i love him too much! (instead of so much!) and once again i find myself promising to be a better mom, cherishing the time i have with my children and thanking my heavenly father for my blessings. thank you dylan for sharing today with me, for accepting me as your mother and for blessing our family with you! you are a special boy and i can't wait to see what this next year brings!

lemonade, cookies and shoes

im in love with my kids. well, at least at this moment! they are tucked in bed, breathing deeply, safe under their light weight blankets. each of them brings such a different personality to our family. crazy, crazier and just plain edible. and probably in that order. i took them all to the mall yesterday. i know, who's the crazy one? well, they come by it honestly, i guess. but, anyway, as you can imagine things only went swimmingly for about five minutes and then all you fill in the blank broke loose and i had strollers being pushed into displays, necklaces being tried on and a baby who was crying because his teeth decided to come in this week. needless to say i was stressed! but, i needed my kids there. i tried to buy them shoes to no avail and then don't get me on the pants i tried to buy. these kids have had major growth spurts this summer and i've got my sizes all wrong. so, after the shoe department, pants trying on and a salesperson who was a little confused about what she was doing, i finally looked at andrew (who was riding the stroller into the cashiers station at this point) and exasperatedly stated you're giving me hives! apparently this was hilarious and started andrew in a giggle. georgia heard the commotion and had to stop trying on hair bows to come see what was so funny and couldn't figure out what hives were but still started giggling and then at that minute i realized it was going to be ok and started giggling too. baby crying and all. so we walked over to the cafe for lunch where we indulged in the yummiest cookies and lemonade which pleased the punch out of my little ones! as we were wrapping it up, a woman from the table next to me caught my eye and was clearly holding in a chuckle. yes, just what i needed, more people to watch my small circus. she commented on my kids and shared with me that her third put her over the edge. i was a little taken aback by her comment. it was made with such an understanding, i've been there tone, i couldn't have taken offense to it but, it made me think. here i was, braving the insanity of shopping with children, trying to get them to try on shoes, eat and stop goofing around all the while i forgot to breathe, to take it in and realize what a funny time we were having. im sure the woman at the next table had a story to tell that evening to her dinner partner about the crazy stressed out young mother with three kids, a stroller, seven shopping bags, a diaper bag the size of texas and two helium balloons hermetically sealed to the handle of said stroller. well, all's well that ends well! and with the remains of chocolate chips on our lips we headed towards the elevator just like a parade, balloons and all. so, how do you end such a lovely outing? well you stop by dads office where you pillage his change collection and buy orange fanta because, apparently, lemonade and cookies were not quite enough to fill the sugar quota for the day!

it seems when there is so much going on there is nothing to write about. my creative side has fallen asleep. or melted. whatever would be happening in 111 degree weather. seriously. we were gone for the whole month of june, literally. i spent some quality time in so cal on the beach, i watched my kids play on the beach and remembered how my sister fed me sand when i was dylans age and how no one needs to help him, i celebrated eric's birthday and hit nordstrom with him, i watched jealously has the husband ran the wasatch back, i looked on helpless as a helicopter flew my father in law to safety, i loved on my babies as much as i could, i got thrown up on, i took a stay cation to lake las vegas, i caught a nasty summer cold, and then i finally came home to basketball camp, swim lessons, ballet and tap classes, basketball team practices and spanish camp. whoever said summer was relaxing? i remember being sooo bored during summer vacation. so far we haven't had a spare minute to be bored! i guess things could be worse... i could be somewhere very very cold. oh, and andrew got a mohawk from his hairdresser today. got to take a picture, it reminds me of his 'do when he was a baby!

sand in my ears

today i took andrew to a follow up appointment at the ent doctor. andrew indeed has a broken nose, his septum is crooked but nothing to worry about and apparently he has gravel in his ears. hmm. maybe that's why he doesn't hear me until i am yelling? probably not. he gained his gravel this passed weekend at the beach. poor kid took a rough spill in the surf. funny though, he kept telling me there was sand in his ears. maybe i should have listened? maybe i have gravel in my ears too?! anyway, we had a good laugh about him having his ears full of sand and then he looked at me and quite worried asked me how it was going to come out. the good doctor stepped in and reminded him that it would work its way out eventually and to not stick anything in his ears to fish it out. thanks doctor, with this kid you don't know what would happen! random story, i know, i just got a kick out of it!