Me

So it's 9:12pm and the day is at its end.  It's been a full day.  Full of the following:  a morning run (yay for Ben having to go in work later!), story-time with the girls, Jonas' friend spending the afternoon here (sooo easy as the boys just play and play), dishes washed and loaded and washed and loaded and so on, meals and snacks prepared, "school" with Emmy, Girls on the Run, fast dinner (prepared by Ben), Jonas' soccer game, bedtime books to kids, kitchen cleaned, floor swept, more miscellaneous picking up, chatting with Miles post Cub-Scouts, tons of receipts entered, desk cleared, and whatever else I missed.  Now I want to enjoy my guilty-pleasure of Modern Family (I don't feel guilty about it, except that Ben doesn't approve. . . :) and a popsicle before bed.

Good night.

A Child's Prayer and more. . .

The scene:  we had gotten a jar of kalamata olives.  The kids were pretty excited about trying them out.  Jonas was asked (or asked?) to say the prayer and this is what he said near the end:

"Heavenly Father please bless that no one will like the olives so that I can eat them all."
Ha!  I totally busted up right then and there.

Ben and I were coming up with a few "getting to know you questions" for an up-coming ward activity/fundraiser.  One question we have is, "If you had to choose your last meal, what would it be?"
Miles had come down and we were chatting with him and reading him some of the questions.  His answer to the above question:
"A food that would make me not die."
Nice.

The Tongue

I also could have called this post, "Jonas' first soccer game."  But I liked The Tongue better.

P.S.  If you click and enlarge the photos, you can see why I thus named my post.  And there were plenty more shots just like them!

Barf-head

So barf-head is kind of like bed-head, but is compounded by the fact that there has been barfing and dry-heaving going on throughout the nite.  (Yes, poor baby!)  (P.S.  Ben did hold her/sleep with her in our bed for more than 1/2 the nite.  I also did clean her face and tried to comb out her hair at one point. . . Apparently, not enough. . .)

(P.P.S.  No, she doesn't sleep with her water-bottle.  It was just her first request when I went in and got her in the morning.)

Love her and hoping for a speedy recovery!

Easter Sunday

Craziest photo-shoot ever.  The girls were so above and beyond crazy!  Emmy started it by her wailing and gnashing of teeth and then Lucy would take a turn (while Emmy stopped) and then Emmy would start again (while Lucy stopped).  It was insane.  Luckily the boys were darling.  :)

 I love this candid shot.

 Darling brothers.

 Yes, a cry baby.  But an extremely cute one.  :)

 She was still crying, but apparently did something mean to Emmy (like pinch her hand?)

 because this is what happened next.  It was Emmy's turn to cry apparently.

 Emmy was still crying and so Lucy was a little perplexed at what she should be doing.  She did find the pockets on her skirt.

 Cute sisters.  Sugar and spice - both of them!

Despite all their wildness I sure do love them.

Easter Sunday was good.  We spoke a lot about the Resurrection. The kids liked the eggs and scripture story.  The resurrection rolls were fun.  The videos were hard to watch (Emmy was scared when they depicted Christ being nailed to a cross), but gave a wonderful message.  And at precisely 2:12 I was done with my talk in church and so life was a little bit easier after that.  :)

I love the hope that this day gives to me.

Easter Saturday

So I think I use the title every year, Easter Saturday.  Oh well.  But just in case you forgot, the Maxwells do an Easter Saturday and an Easter Sunday.  On Saturday the eggs are hidden in the backyard and the baskets inside.  We get our sugar-highs out of the way for church on Sunday.  Sunday includes an inside egg-hunt for 12 eggs that have scriptures and items relevant to the scripture in each egg.  The scriptures tell the story of the crucifixion and resurrection.  The last egg has a scripture but has no "item," thus is empty. . .  We also make resurrection rolls as a family and watch some Easter-story videos.

Here is Saturday:

 Cute 'n cold.  It was a cool morning looking for eggs!  The kids had to wait until I got back from my much-need long run (remember how I just did spring break???).  The had scoured through all sorts of windows searching out the eggs.  The probably had located about half by the time I got home.  Cute.

 Lucy found this one all by herself - tucked inside the watering tin.  I thought it would be hard - but Ben aaid she was at the perfect height coming down the stairs.  Yay.

 The boys look so serious in their hunt.

 Not so serious here.  What a silly cutie!

 The boys had "accidentally" found Emmy's basket early in the morning.  But they didn't tell her, luckily.  It was in the hamper upstairs.  Fun!

 Lucy's basket was in the shower.  And she wasted about zero time to start eating those sweets - grass and all!

 Miles happily surrounded by found-baskets and goodies.

 Here they are having some fun with silly-string.

 Indeed, so silly!

 Just pure sweetness here.

 The boys got rubber-band-powered airplanes.  They are great fun. . . for one day. . . since that is all they last.  Poor Ben spent half his day putting them together and then repairing them and fixing them.  :)

Ben took the kids in the afternoon to the church to fly them there - a good break from the slight breeze and the surrounding trees and houses that tend to get in the way at times.  They had a lot of fun - but I think both came home with severely wounded airplanes.  :)

Spring Break 2012

This spring break I was doing it solo - Ben was left at home to work, and my folks are, of course, on their mission in Japan.  Nonetheless I still went to my parent's home for a little change of scenery.  There were moments of pure "What on earth was I thinking!?" to "Ahhh, this is really great and nice."  I'm totally glad I went, but I am still wishing for the "break" part of Spring Break.  :)

I'll give a boring synopsis of our trip - just because.  I headed out after the morning session of conference on Sunday.  I got to drive in 2 hours of crazy, high winds ("Don't blow over on us you big, tall truck!" I kept thinking), and then another couple of hours in blowing snow.  Lovely.  Not.  But we got there in good time, the kids ran around for a bit, then Lucy went to bed.  Then I read The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane.

On Monday I had decided to not do much since we just arrived and we didn't want to much hanging out in the car.  So we spent the morning just playing and what-not.  We did a couple errands ("I wish dad were here so we wouldn't have to come!"  Me, too, Jonas, me, too.) to the fabric store and grocery store.  Finally by late afternoon I thought we should get out - though it was quite cool and incredibly windy.  We rode bikes (or I pushed Lucy in a stroller) down to the park and the kids didn't even seem to notice the blasted wind - though there was the time where Lucy couldn't walk up-hill due to the force of wind, as well as Emmy couldn't ride her bike back because of the head-wind.  She just stood still.  Crazy.)  We had a 1-minute lesson for FHE and then had FHE treats, of course.  :)

Lucy off to bed.  Read more of Edward Toulane.  Then the rest to bed.  Or almost.  I was busying sewing away and Emmy was busy crying for no coherent reason.  Crying for 3 hours.  If I hadn't had made plans for Tuesday with a friend, we would have been high-tailing it home early Tuesday morning. . .

Tuesday I met a friend and her son Isaac at Wheeler Farm.  They have a new park there and the kids totally loved that.  Then we walked around the farm and enjoyed the animals - except the birds.  Ha.  Turns out my friend Rach hates birds, too!  Afterwards we went over to Rach and Isaac's home - which used to be my grandmother's house.  So that was really great being there again.  I had a good time chatting with Rach and the kids loved playing outside, inside, and in the crawl-space - of course!  Good times, but unfortunately no pictures.  Bummer.  But here is a cute picture and video (the kids adored playing with this toy each and every day!)

We got home that night, got dinner ready, ate, and got Lucy to bed.  Then we finished reading Edward.  Though Miles had gone that morning and read the last page - that boy!  (He might have gotten that from me. Though I might have done that on only a few occasions. . . )

On Wednesday we hung out in the morning making a lot of those bead creations that you iron to fuse the beads all together.  The boys went crazy with them!  In a good way.  In the late morning we headed out to a different park in town.  It was a lovely day - warm with a slight breeze.  Practically perfect.  After we got home and had lunch, I put Lucy down for a nap.  While she was napping I let the boys go frolicking about on their own (as I have mentioned in a previous post.).  It was such the perfect opportunity to let them do it and I was really excited for them to be on their own.

After I got Lucy up we headed to the Discovery Gardens at Thanksgiving Point.  We met up with one of my great college friends, Aubrey.  She and her family were down from Washington, visiting Aubrey's family.  It was really great to see her again - it had been awhile!  There was a lot of chasing after kids, making sure I knew where 1, 2, 3, 4 of them were, dealing with Lucy-fits, etc., but it was still a great time and I know the kids loved it all.

Chilling on a giant tire eating some snack.

Playing on the logs and eating snack!

The giant spider-web thing.  Very cool and very fun.

We didn't leave until about 6.  Which means we got back home a little after 7.  I had told the kids I would stop and get them some McDonalds.  But that failed since I only saw one and there was no way I was going to get off crazy constructed I-15.  Miles was a little perturbed, but settled down once I put in a book on CD.  Lucy fell asleep.  When we got home I got everyone a bagel and some LIFE cereal.  Then to bed.  Most nights (all nights?) I sewed while watching TV and read some books.  I always went to bed very late.  Zzzzzz.

Thursday was a hang-out-close-to-home type of day.  We did more bead things in the morning.  The couple that will be staying in my parent's place for a little while came over to look at some things.  Then we went to McDonalds - since they had missed out the night before.  It was horrible.  Lucy crying and screaming for who knows why.  Emmy crying because she dumped her water all over her.  Miles screaming so loudly while playing - thus making all the others scream.  Me warning them that if that noise were to happen again, we would be leaving.  We left shortly thereafter.  I was none-too-happy.  Their punishment?  No milk.  What I meant by this was that there was no way I was going to the store (which, ironically is called The Store) with 4 such unruly children and so 1.  they would not get the pudding they had wanted for snack - not enough milk at home, 2.  they would not get milk before bed - not enough milk at home, and 3.  in the morning the only option for breakfast would be oatmeal since. . . not enough milk at home.  So there!  :)  I did still get them a movie to watch while Lucy slept and they all enjoyed (though at times Emmy was scared) Happy Feet 2.  It did look pretty cute.

We went out for another bike ride to the park and the kids had a good time.  The boys went off a little bit exploring on the path and enjoying the "slimy snakes" they found (just water slime stuff).  When we got back my parents' good friend John took the 3 older kids on a ride on my dad's "machine."  A mix between a jeep and a dune-buggy?  I'm sure there is a technical term for it, but I don't know what at the moment.  Lucy had been very hard to deal with on this trip - extremely clingy, apt to cry at any moment - especially when unable to do what she wanted, etc., etc.  So her punishment for all this was this:

Ha - I made her watch TV!  How horrible is that!?  :)  But I was ready for a little break and a chance to get dinner together, pick up a bit, etc.  So I turned on the TV and it kept her entertained for maybe 15 minutes - impressive.  The older kids got back from their ride - which they thoroughly enjoyed - and we ate dinner and then went to bed.

Friday we got up and the kids got to watch Little Rascals while I cleaned and packed.  Then we headed out, stopping at IKEA first.  I dropped the kids off at the playplace (free!) and took Lucy around with me.  The kids can only stay for an hour and so I felt a little rushed.  But it was probably good because I probably would have just spent more money.  So after the hour I got the other kids (and they absolutely loved playing there!) and we had a little lunch there and then headed home.  Two hours of driving in wet conditions, more blowing snow, and such thick fog that I could only see about 100 feet ahead of me.  Luckily it did clear and it was smooth sailing.  Truly, my kids are wonderful travelers and I am so very thankful for that.

So a good time!  The end.

Some Spring Break Quotes

On our drive here (my parent's place), Emmy said,
"It's great that Grandma's house doesn't have a chore dice."

(Ha!  We roll a little dice every week to determine what daily chore each kid has. . .)

Jonas to Miles this morning:
"What!?  That is how big your underwear is!?"
(Ha, how great is that.  I found some new underwear here  - size 6T - for Miles.  Tho' he's 8.  They do look huge though.  But that's probably because they are not the 3T or 4T that they usually have on!)

The boys got to go off on their own this afternoon.  Lucy is napping and I thought this would be a great place and chance to let the boys go off by themselves.  My parent's place has this wonderful path by a clubhouse - the path goes by some water (shallow, of course!), some sports-courts, volleyball place (fun to play in the sand there) and a little park.  They left at 12:10 and were to come back by 1pm.  While they were gone and Emmy was sweetly playing with her doll, I said to Emmy,
"Isn't it nice to have the boys gone for a little bit so you can just play quietly and nicely?"
Emmy replied, "No!  I like the boys!"
Wonderful response.

P.S.  The boys came back promptly at 1pm.  So proud.  Tho' not so proud when I saw Miles riding back up the street and NOT looking both ways when he crossed - how can I get him to always do that!?!?  They had a great time.  So great, in fact, that they wanted to go back out - this time with Emmy.  So I let them all go out for a half-hour.  Is that crazy?  I mean, I can't lawfully leave an 8-year old and a 6-year old home alone, watching my other 4-year old - but, yet, I think this is okay.  Give me 20 more minutes ('til it's 1:30) and we'll see.

{warning: Bragging going on here}

So I'm going to brag for my boy Miles.

He was such a wonderful big brother yesterday.  So. . . in the morning it can get a little crazy getting everyone ready.  But having simple rules helps things run smoothly.  The rules I have are simple:  be dressed and have your shoes on before you eat.  Well somehow it slipped by me that Emmy was eating her breakfast without shoes on.  Gasp!  So when it came time to start heading out the door I told her she needed shoes asap.  I offered to help her get on some that were right out the back door.  She declined.  So the 4 of us are out the back gate and waiting for Emmy.  And waiting.  Okay, it was probably only 3-4 minutes, but when you need to go, that can be forever!  So I ran in and told her we were leaving now and that she just had to wear whatever she had on.  She had nothing on (what on earth was she doing those 3-4 minutes!?).  So she had to walk barefoot.  But Miles, what did Miles do?  He offered at every alley-way and every street to carry Emmy across.  Emmy readily accepted.  I wish I had had my camera.  So sweet.  Emmy painted a bird picture for Miles as a thank-you.  Sweet.

Then. . .later on in the day, after dinner I think, Miles helped Lucy by making a slide for her.  Lucy loves slides and I had wanted to rig up something with some old slide that we have (we only have the slide part - nothing going up to it - make sense?).  But it just would not have been safe, so the slide just hangs around our backyard on the ground or on the stairs.  But Miles propped it up with boards, leaves, etc., and even created steps for Lucy to climb up and then slide down.  Lucy loved it.  It was so sweet and thoughtful.

Finally. . . we just finished up a month-long (or close to it) read-a-thon.  We donated for each page our children read.  There were also prizes for the top 20 kids, the top classes in each grade, etc.  Miles' class was the top class in the 2nd grade (and Jonas' class would have been the top, I think, if they included Kindergarten.  Which they were totally included in the read-a-thon but apparently the principal just skipped them at the assembly???).  Anyways, the top-20 kids were divided in to the top 10 from 1st and 2nd grades and the top 10 from 3rd-5th.  Miles was in the top 10 in his group, and would have been in the top 5 of the whole school.  He read 3,490 pages.  Jonas was none too shabby either - reading 1,407 pages.  Yay, go readers!

My 33rd Birthday. . .

So it was pretty much a normal day, but sprinkled here and there with sweet birthday-ness.

Ben asked a couple of weeks ago what on earth he could do for my birthday.  So I did give him one idea:  schedule it with your work to go in later so I could go on a morning run.  He did and I did.  Loved it.

A bunch of handmade items were given to me throughout the day (plus cadbury mini-egg secretly hidden throughout the house. . .).  Items like cards, backyard flower bouquets, necklaces and the like.  It was all very sweet.

Here are some pictures:

 A handmade pipe-cleaner and bead bouquet from Miles.  So love.

 One of the many bouquets from all my kiddos.

 Sweet card from Jonas.  Each card from my kids came with "coupons."  Miles' coupon was for a bouquet of flowers.  Jonas had 2:  a 1/2 hour bike ride with him and a 1-hour bike ride with him.  And Emmy's was to make my bed.  Awesome.

 Here we are with my strawberry rice krispie cake.  YUM.  (Made by mine truly, Ben.)

And the classic blow-out the candles picture.

That nite Ben and I watched some old Cary Grant movie, "Holiday."  It was great fun!

And there you have it.  My 33rd birthday.

P.S.  Jonas and I did finish a 300-piece puzzle.  That was fun because Jonas was so, so, so excited!

P.P.S.  A cute video of a cutie: