Mothering Six

On Monday my cute friend Jenn went into the hospital to have her twins, which meant we got to keep her 3 sweet girls for a few days while she recuperated. The experience was one super sleepover play date for the girls, and one whirlwind Mommy bootcamp training for me. If I'm going to be the mother of Taber's basketball team sized dream family, I got my work cut out for me! (kind of kidding, but kind of not on that one ; ) Coincidentally I would also like to give a shout out to two of my Mommy idols, Joanne and Alida who both have 6 kids and are AMAZING Mommies. I honestly thought of you two all week and really came to appreciate how much you do for your sweet families. You ladies rock!

So yeah, the last few days have been busy. From about 5:30am when the girls would wake up (little rascals!) Till 11 pm when I would crash, I was going non stop. Jenn's girls were super easy, it's just that getting 5 little girls ready in the morning, fed 3 times a day, and transitioning smoothly through all their activities keeps one very busy, especially with little Tootie boy to look after too. It was so much fun though and actually a big confidence booster to me when I saw how much I could pull off with 6 kids to look after. Maybe Taber will get his dream size family after all ; )

Brinley and Eliza are just a few weeks apart, so they were pretty psyched to get to sleep together. (Pay no attention to the bottle in her mouth, she has promised to give it up next month when she turns three. Three year olds are good for their word right?)

 The older girls pretending they're asleep

  

But really they were just beginning their nightly giggle fest : )

Meal times were always fun. I kind of cheated to make it easy and fed them total kid foods like sugar cereals, pizza, hot dogs, mac and cheese and even McDonald's one day. (Sorry Jenn! I promise they ate lots of fruits and veggies for snacks!)

 This particular night Taber had to work late and I still managed to bathe them all before dinner. I was feeling pretty awesome after that : )

 Happy Meals! (and yes, that is my new organization calendar system in the background, told you I was cleaning up my act!)

My proudest moment is when I took all six out to the backyard to swim. It was quite the production getting everyone in swimsuits and lathered up in sunscreen. At least we only had to walk out to the backyard. It was also quite the production getting them dried off, bathed and dressed afterwards. Still, totally worth it to see them having so much fun. 

 Pool time!

Bed time routine also took intense focus and diligence on mine and Taber's part to get everyone dressed, brush all their little teeth, get them to go potty and read them their stories. Glad I had back up for that.

After 4 fun days their parents came to pick them up and we got to meet these little angels, Ari and Ephraim.

Now my week of mothering 6 has ended and Jenn's life of mothering 5 begins! I think that earns her a spot on my Mommy idol list too : )

I hope we're ready!

"I had a major panic attack yesterday when I looked at the forecast and saw that today and tomorrow were going to be in the high 90's!!  

Flashbacks of me and the kids with flushed cheeks and sweaty faces, melting in our house with no AC starting playing in my head. I started hyperventilating at the thought of about being stuck in the torture chamber sauna again.

Last year we took some steps to alleviate some of the pain, mainly buying a few window AC units. They help a little, but even with those our house would still push into the high 80's on a hot day. 

When it's that hot, no one can sleep, the kids are lethargic, and Mommy is cranky! I don't want to cook, clean, or do anything productive, just eat popsicles and sit in a cold bath in my swimsuit all day. It ain't pretty.

So that's it. I'm scared. I see a forecast like that and it terrifies me. Enough so that even after a long exhausting day of chasing around 6 kids, (My cute friend just had twins so we have her 3 girls for a few days,) I still went on a late night run to Target after they were all in bed to get another window AC unit for Cam's room.  Then I made Taber stay up late with me to get it all set up and installed. (Don't worry, we didn't drop it out of the window this time ; )

I also was out in the backyard at 6am this morning, dumping out our pool, cleaning it and getting it ready to refill after an unfortunate potty accident that left me unable to stomach the thought of the girls swimming in that water again. Ah life with kids : )

Here are some cute pool pics I took of them before the "accident." Cute aren't they?

So that's it, I've got 3 window units going upstairs, windows are all closed to keep out the humidity, blinds are closed, pool is filling up, freezer is stocked with popsicles and swimsuits are washed and ready to go. I think I've done all I can.  Hopefully it's enough to beat the heat!

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p.s. Thank you so much for all the great organization tips!! I've been working on cleaning up my act and things are looking so much better. I'll have to post an update once I'm completely "rehabilitated." : )

Intervention!!!

I need help. 

Serious help.

I seem to have a bit of an organization problem, as in, I am freakishly unorganized.

This is embarrassing, but for interventions sake I'm going to publicly reveal my weakness in hope that somebody out there can give me some ideas to help me get my life in order!

So here it goes:

I get appointment cards from the doctor or dentist and lose them.

 Sometimes I just forget about the appointments altogether until the office calls me the day before to remind me.  

Then I have to scramble to rearrange my whole schedule to fit in an appointment I forgot about.

This goes for car appointments, hair appointments, visiting teaching appointments, kindergarten registration appointments, you name it, I forget it.

Another huge problem: I have no laid out system for the mail.

 I just grab it at random times and either leave it in the car or drop it on the table of chaos (pictured below) where it gets lost, buried, turned into scrap paper or forgotten. 

This has resulted in many failing moments that I'm not proud of, such as the time when Taber's mom sent him a birthday card with birthday money, making a special effort to get it here on time and I lost it in the pile of chaos. I found it a month later but I felt pretty bad when his mom was trying to figure out how it got lost in the mail. Not lost in the mail, lost in the hands of captain chaos, (a.k.a. me!)

Or the time when I got a notice saying we needed to send in a check to renew our car registration by a certain date or our registration would expire. Yeah, um, found that one a month late too. fail.

I have honest intentions but without a good system of organization in place everything just gets jumbled together and I can't seem to stay on top of it. 

The big wake up moment happened on Wednesday. 

I was rushing Teya to preschool and when I got there I noticed that all the other kids were unloading bikes and helmets at the drop off.  When I pulled up Teya's teacher asked if I had gotten the paper work about the Roll-a-thon and if Teya was going to participate. 

I had no idea what she was talking about. I'm sure Teya did bring home the paperwork and my guess is it was buried somewhere on the table of doom.

Teya asked where her bike was. 

I told her mommy forgot it and maybe we should just skip preschool that day.

Tears welled up in her eyes.

The mommy guilt was crushing.

My cheeks were burning red with embarrassment and disappointment in myself.

I was that mom, the mom that forgot. The mom that's not organized, and it didn't feel good.

I had to be at a Dr. appointment for Cam in 30 minutes but I hoped it was enough time to remedy the situation. I parked the car, ran inside the school and filled out all the permission slips. Then I ran home, grabbed Teya's bike and helmet, labeled them, and rushed them back to the school. Then I ran to the Dr. appointment, got Cam's vaccinations, and sped back to the school to watch Teya and her classmates roll on in the roll-a thon.

I'm glad I was able to salvage the situation but it could've been avoided.

I need to get organized.

Somebody, anybody, please help me! 

What do you to to stay on top of appointments, paperwork, bills, callings, and kid's schedules? Now that I have 4 other people's lives to coordinate I need to be on my A game. If you have ideas, even if you don't think they're great, I'm sure they're better than my junk table system so please send them my way. Please oh please! Thanks!

Baby at the Beach

When Taber suggested a beach trip for Memorial Day I had my reservations. Any mom knows that a fun beach day for the kids means an astronomical amount of prep work and labor for the grown ups. Not to mention I was pretty nervous about taking a 4 month old baby to the beach. How would he nap? How would I nurse him? How would I keep him cool? How would we be able to relax and enjoy the beach? I wan't sure how it was all going to work out but I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try.

 What do you pack for baby at the beach? Well we brought a tent to keep him shaded, a baby swing because I didn't want him sitting in the sand, a spray bottle to keep him cool, diapers, wipes, change of clothes and my nursing cover. Add that to the sand toys, beach towels, beach chairs, beach blankets, sunscreen, sunglasses, change of clothes, snacks, lunch, and drinks for everyone else and it felt like we had enough stuff to take a 10 day road trip across the country!

It was a lot to lug out there but it ended up being worth all the work. Cam was as cute as a button and loved the new sights and smells of the ocean.  

When he got tired we sprayed him down with the squirt bottle and let him take a nap in his swing. He looked pretty happy and relaxed in his little beach hut.

He loved being held by mommy

And Daddy

But not so much by big sister ; )

Mostly he just wanted to watch the waves and suck his thumb.

I'm glad we decided to go because the girls had so much fun. We were there for over 4 hours and they never got bored. 

The water was super cold (51 degrees!) But my girls are pretty fearless and had no problem jumping right in. 

Teya was the leader, running in and out of the waves, and Brinley was right there following her every move.

If my feet were numb from stepping in the water I can only imagine she had a frozen fanny after this stunt. 

I Love this picture so much. It captures Teya and her endless energy so well.

Jumping for joy

Happy Brinsie splashing like big sister.

In Summary: lots of work: lots of fun. Going anywhere takes more effort now that we're a family of 5 but it's always worth it to see the kids get so excited and have such a good time : )

Each Day is a Gift

My friend posted this on her blog this morning. I read it and sobbed and sobbed. I honestly haven't cried that hard in a long time. I didn't know Wendy or her husband but his words and emotions are so real and such an incredible reminder to be grateful for every minute we have on this earth with our loved ones. Here is the link:

Our Sweet Wendy

Reading this has changed my outlook today. I will be grateful for every minute on this earth, even the hard ones, and try to live each day to the fullest with no regrets. Life is too short to worry about things that don't matter. It's too short to hold grudges or be angry. It's too short to waste it wishing for things we don't have instead of enjoying the things we do. And it's too short to be stingy with praise, compliments, kisses and hugs. I know I'll be giving out a lot more of those after reading this.

Keeping Cool

Well our rental contract is up next month but the house hasn't sold, nor does it seem to be close to selling, so it looks like we will be in it for another summer. I'm thrilled that we don't have to move right now, but having a little anxiety over the thought of facing another summer with no air conditioning! Luckily we have a few tips from last year to help us keep cool.

1) Window units for the bedrooms. We'll have to get one more for Cam's room but we already have one cranking in our room and will be setting one up shortly for the girls.

2) Popsicles. I buy freeze pops in bulk from Costco and let the girls eat them to their hearts content when it's hot out.

3) Swimsuits, trampoline and sprinkler. They literally did this 5 out of 7 days last week.

Even Taber got into it. : )

Hopefully it won't be as hot as last year, and hopefully I'll be a better sport about it since I'm not pregnant this time around. Crossing my fingers anyway!

Back in my Running Shoes

Now that Cam is 4 months old I'm finally getting back into my running groove. I ran my first 5K last Saturday (You can read my race report on my running blog HERE) and Taber and I signed up for a half marathon in October. Luckily I still have 5 months to train for that because I'm still getting back up to speed and also trying to figure out how to squeeze in time to run with 3 kids.

My friend gave me a double jogger I could use while Teya is at preschool but pushing 100 lbs of kids and stroller over the serious hills on my running route sounds like torture. So for now I've just been relying on the treadmill but hopefully I can find a running buddy to do swaps with to get a little practice running outside. Anyway, looking forward to ramping up the mileage this summer and turning my legs into hill climbing machines for the hilly course we're running this fall!

Brinley's First Dentist Visit

Brinsie Boo had her first dentist appointment last week and was a star patient.

She hopped right up in the chair, put on her glasses and opened her mouth wide for the dentist. She has gone to every one of Teya's appointments so I think she was super excited that it was finally her turn to sit in the chair.

They cleaned her teeth with Mr. Bumpy and Mr. Thirsty Straw. She giggled but kept her mouth open and got sticker for having no cavities! Yay Brinley!

Teya had an appointment at the same time and we discovered that she has a cavity on one of her molars. It's on the edge, almost between her teeth. The dentist said she got it from not flossing. Oops! We got a good little lecture about flossing and are rededicated to making it happen. She goes in next week to get it filled.

The girls did great and I'm glad Brinley has Teya as such a good example in the dental patient and tooth hygiene department. Here they are after the appointment. Brinley was pretty excited about showing off those beautiful pearly whites.

Happy Birthday Grammy "Carrot"

Today is Grandma Karen's (or Grammy "Carrot" as Brinley calls her) Birthday! Here are 10 things we love about Mama Rigg:

1) She is the most hands on Grandma and so amazing with kids. She always brings books, toys, and learning games and engages the kids in hours of fun when she's here.

2) She makes her family a priority. Whenever she has time off work, she uses it to see her children and grandchildren. She doesn't need to travel to exotic places and or take amazing trips, what makes her happy is being with family.
3) She is a great example of healthy living and always introduces great recipes and eating ideas to me. She has been a great example to me on staying fit and healthy and active.

4) She is so thoughtful and always sends cards on birthday's, mother's days, father's day, Anniversaries, etc... That is something I admire so much and hope to someday be organized and on the ball enough to do as well!

5) She is a great listener and lets me talk her ears off whenever she comes to visit.

6) She is very very generous and has helped us out countless times and in countless ways since we've been married.

7) She comes to every important event, which is not easy when we live so far away from each other. But every babies birth and blessing, she has been there for.

8) She is smart, talented and organized. She can go into any school and whip it into shape with her amazing administrative skills.

9) She takes the kids for horsie rides which they both have told me repeatedly is the highlight of their trips to Grand Junction. Riding horsies with Grammy : )

10) She is kind, easy going, easy to get along with and knows how to make everyone feel loved and special.

Happy Birthday Grandma "Carrot!" We love you so much!