Last night I cried a river of tears....

Maybe it was the time of year- I love fall but the end of summer is always sad. Maybe it was the fact that today my little baby is one month away from being a year old!. Maybe it was because my second baby started kindergarten last week. Maybe it was a result of reading all the blogs this past week about first days of school, growing up, memories of the past 10 years etc. Maybe it the fact that in a few months my oldest will turn eight and be baptized. Maybe it was packing up my three year old for a week vaction without her parents. But, whatever the cause last night I cried. It all started by trying to have a conversation with my husband. I was lamenting the fact that Jacob was getting so grown-up and wondering whether I really wanted a fifth kid or whether I was just sad the baby wouldn't be a baby forever. My husband was trying to watch the BYU/Utah football game from last year on his new mountain west channel. I never have understood why men feel the need to watch an old game over and over and over again. You already know who won- the cougars in this case. I can understand having it on in the background, but you don't need to give it your undivided attention. When I was asked him if he was paying attention to me, he responded by asking if I was paying attention to the game. Here is a part of the conversation that followed. Jared-"The BYU player just plowed into the Utah guy! That was great!" Me- I'm trying to talk to you, this is important" Jared- "I don't understand why you aren't watching the game, what can be better than watching a Utah guy get pounded?" At this point the foundation of my tear flood gate cracked. And despite my gallant efforts I found myself minutes later holding my sleeping baby and crying. Jared was flabbergasted. He didn't have any idea his comments were going to cause a flood of tears and in his defense I had no idea either. I was unaware of how close my emotions were to spilling over the top. Being the great guy that he is he turned down the volume (he didn't turn it off, but c'mon he his a guy so lets just give him props for lowering the volume) and we talked. After awhile we finally got to the root of the problem. I'm not dying to have a fifth kid, but rather lamenting how quickly each of my children have grown, and wishing I could rewind back into their little lives and hold each one a little longer each night, give one extra hug and kiss each day, nurse each child a little longer, and hold their hand a little longer as we walked along. Although I can't go back, I'll try harder as we go forward. I will try to savor each little moment a little longer as we move through this busy life. And if, in a few years, my Heavenly Father blesses me with another child I hope I'll remember to savor the precious moments while he/she is little. If my family is complete with four, I hope to do better at savoring the moments still to come and remember that the chore will never be completely done, but eventually the children will be grown and out on their own. There will be time enough for dusting and mopping then.

Blackberry jam, Bicycle rides, and Baby babbles

Thursday I finally got around to making jam with the blackberries we had picked. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I made 7 halfpint jars. I even substituted half of the sugar with splenda so I don't have to feel quite as quilty when I eat it. I had promised Bella a bicycle ride so when the jars came out of the canner, we loaded up and left.

People here are serious bikers. I mean really honest to goodness crazy bicycling people. The Bishop came to visit us when we first moved here. He casually mentioned he was going on a short bike ride the next day, only 50 miles! FIFTY MILES- thats not a short ride by my definitions. Thats a shoot me now, its not worth the pain, I'd rather eat liver, or swim with crocodiles bike ride. But, the plus side of their fascination with biking is that there are bike trails EVERYWHERE. We entered one of the trails right across from our neighborhood. As we started I was pleasantly surprised with how well I felt. We went and went and went and I still felt okay. Finally I decided to turn back just in case I got tired on the way back so we'd make it home in time to meet the girls' bus. When I turned I immediately noticed two things. 1) There was now a brisk breeze blowing at me, not with me and 2) I had been going slighly downhill the last three miles which meant I now needed to go slightly uphill. Well, we eventually made it home with 15 minutes to spare before the arrival of the bus and 5 minutes before a torrential downpour which almost flooded the street. Bella and Jacob were sound asleep and my legs felt like the jelly I had made early in the day. I had planned on going to the gym when Jared got home, but as you can guess that definately did not happen. I had enough of a work-out for one day. P.S.The kids started with helmets on, but pulled them off somewhere along the way.

Jared recorded Jacob talking on the phone with Grandma & Grandpa Reed tonight. He loves to talk on the phone. Jared claims its because thats all Jacob sees his mom do. I'd be insulted but its probably not far from the truth. The girls wouldn't leave him along today. Its a lot cuter when they're all in bed and he calls my parents and babbles on and on.

Oh, the last picture is for Loni's benefit. We all do it! He took his whole nap in the high chair.

I just noticed I've now published over 100 posts. Hope its been enjoyable...

Drumroll please.....

I've finally done it. Several people have asked to see pictures of the house, but the walls were looking pretty sparse. We finally got around to hanging some of the decorations on the walls so I took some pictures. Enjoy.....

Kindergarten in the News

Alexandra's kindergarten class was on the news today. Alexandra is on the opposite side of the class than the camera. You can catch a couple glimpses of her if you start watching carefully around the 1:25 minute remaining mark. (Notice that the principal is even wearing my dress!)

Friday Fiasco

Last Friday, I made dinner for a new family who moved into our ward. The family had four kids about the same ages as our kids so I suggested that Jared and the kids came with me to deliver our meal. My intentions were good. I figured it would help them (especially their children) feel more comfortable at church if they recognized some faces. Jared was not particularly keen on loading up our rugrats just to make a delivery. After using some of my best begging skills (pouting lips and batting of the eyes) he reluctantly agreed to come. We loaded up the lasagna, salad, rolls, and homeade peach pie. As Jared took Jacob out to the car I glanced back at the stove. My mouth watered when I saw the other lasagna and peach pie that would be awaiting our quick return. I locked the door leading to the garage and closed it behind me. What I didn't know was that Jared had not grabbed any of his keys, BUT I had my purse so we were all set right? Wrong, I had car keys but no house keys. Again I was not worried, I hadn't locked the front door so it should be open and earlier in the day it was so pleasant I had opened all the windows, surely Katy had forgotten to lock at least one when she closed them. Wrong... and wrong again. One of the kids had flipped the dead bolt on the front door and Katy did an excellent job of closing and locking all the doors. (Why couldn't she have messed up just a little!) Oh well, we'll just call the landlord as we're dropping of the dinner and pick up the keys on the way home. When the landlord didn't answer, we left her a message and went to Walmart to pick up a few school supplies we hadn't purchased yet. While at the check-out my phone rang, it was the landlord informing us she was out of town and we'd have to call a locksmith.
Now, remember my husband had wanted to stay home from the beginning so you can imagine how thrilled he is with my by now especially since he is going to have to pay a locksmith! Since our neighbors we also out of town we headed to the house of another family in the ward to borrow a phone book. By this time it was after six on a Friday night. After calling numerous locksmiths with no answer (give me a break, shouldn't they all be 24/7? People don't just get locked out during week day business hours!) someone finally answered. Their only on-call tech had just crossed the river into St. Louis to do 2 other calls and wouldn't be back until 10. Jared and I left the kids with the Lindays and went back to the house to double check the windows one last time. On our way back we picked up some Little Ceasars pizza. I was not excited to eat the pizza, my mind was still on the lasagna and peach pie! The Lindsays were gracious and let us bombard their house. The kids played and we watched the Olympics and Michael Phelps. Five hours, four pizzas, and a $75 locksmith later we finally were back inside. I was never so excited to see my door open.

Moral of this story: I should have let Jared stay home to begin with. When we delivered the dinner the husband and kids weren't home so we didn't even get to meet them! But hey, here's to a fun story to laugh at in years to come.

Fruit picking

Last week we went peach and blackberry picking with some friends. They have twins Xandra's age. Bella thinks Camden is so funny, and Xandra and Shannon get along great. We picked tons of fruit and the freezer is well stocked with yummy treats. I made a peach pie on Friday which tasted heavenly even if I had to wait to eat it until Sunday (but thats a whole different story!). I am going to attempt to can some blackberry jam and peach jam now that the girls are back in school and our trips to the pool will decrease. We also made homeade icecream. There is nothing better than homeade icecream topped with fresh peaches and berries! Thanks for the suggestion Natalie! Soon, it will be time for apple picking! Yeah!!

First day of School

Today I sent my second baby off to her first day of Kindergarten. She was a little aprehensive at times but 95% of the morning she was beaming with excitement. The bus stop was moved to right across from our house (beats walking 8 houses down like our neighbors had to last year). Alexandra was excited to be boarding the bus with her sister and attending the same school. They would've been at different schools in Avon. Bella is excited to be the big sister at home now. She had a whole list of things she was going to do today. The list included things like rocking Jacob to sleep and playing preschool with mommy. The biggest accomplishment of the morning was that I didn't cry. Nope, not one tear, not even close. I know thats hard to believe since I can't even watch Disney movies without a tiny tear or two escaping, but I kid you not. Maybe there's hope for me afterall.

Poor Bella had to put her plans on hold when Jacob swallowed a mystery item this morning. I still can't figure out what it was. The floors were uncharacteristically clean except for a few fruit loops dropped at breakfast. I don't know if a fruit loop got lodged in his throat or if he found a non-food item to eat. I spent the last hour and a half holding him while he rotated between sleeping and gagging/vomiting mucus all over me. It has now been fifteen minutes or more since his last gagging episode. Bet you can imagine how wonderful I smell about now. I'm hoping it has dislodged and he is fine now. Otherwise when the girls get home (it's only a 1/2 day today) we'll all be taking a field trip to the hospital. Every mother's dream on the first day of school, right?

Fun times at Old Nauvoo Part I

Two weeks ago we went to Nauvoo. We left Thursday evening after Jared got home from work and made it to Nauvoo around 8:00. We had told the girls we were going but had not told them Uncle Alex would be there. I still had the itinerary for the youth, so we knew they would be playing pioneer games on the green and watching Pageant Thursday evening. We got out of the car and walked around the perimeter hoping to spot Alex before he accidently found us. Meanwhile, he had gone to the bookstore with a chaperone and youth, all the while complaining that he missed his nephew and nieces soo bad and wished we had come up since it was only a few hours away. The chaperone, who knew we were coming ,could barely keep a straight face. We finally met up and continued to play games with Alex until the start of pageant. We stayed and watched pageant before heading back to sleep. Thanks to the wonderful generosity of the Lichfield family we stayed in a house on the other side of the river in Montrose Iowa. There were beautiful views of the temple from the back windows. I was torn between wanting to cram as much as possible in Nuavoo, and relaxing with the beautiful view of the river and temple.

The next day, we headed to carthage to tour with the youth. Honestly, I was a little disappointed at first with Carthage. I thought I would be overcome with a sober, depressing feeling to know I was standing in the room where The Prophet and his brother were killed. I was surprised when those feelings weren't there. I guess since we know it was all a part of God's plan and his salvation is definately not in question, we don't need to be overcome with grief. After the girls and Alex said a tearful good-bye we were headed back to Nauvoo to catch a showing of Plain Anna Amanda. The girls thought it was great but Jared and I could've done without it. The rest of the day we spent touring the Scovil Bakery(free cookies made this a great stop in the kids mind), Brigham Young House, The Brickyard(a souvenir brick for all the kids), The Pendelton School House (Katy loved writing on the slates), The Webb Brothers Blacksmith Shop (another plus for the girls- a prairie diamond ring. Jacob won the demo horseshoe for having the closest B-day in the tour, and it was 2 months away!), Sarah Granger Kimball Home, the Temple Stone Quarry. We stopped to eat a snack on a picnic table along side the road. As I was sitting there, stuffing my face, I looked up and who did I see walking down the sidewalk? A large portion of the Storm clan! It was great to see Jon and his family, Tom and his family, and Mike. I hadn't seen some of them in so long. Brought back some funny memories of high school and college. We finished our afternoon by walking around the Temple Grounds. It was so hot on Friday that some of the events in Nauvoo closed down due to the high heat index. The kids were real troopers.

At one point in the afternoon, when the little two were fussy and we were all roasting I wondered what we were doing there which such young kids. I was ready to load back in the car and come home. The next place we stopped was the Brickyard. We were the only ones there for the next tour- or rather the only people crazy to be out in the peak of the afternoon. The older missionary elder through inspiration took us into the air-conditioned building instead of the demo tent. He began the tour by thanking us for bringing our children to such a scared town. He proceeded to explain that visiting Nauvoo would leave a big impression on children even at such a young age. He went on to tell us about a Stake President who asked his youth as they left for missions, BYU, etc what youth activity had been most instrumental in helping them grow testimonies and hold to the rod. Most of them said the youth conferences to Nuavoo. He then continued to thank-us and tell us that even though we were hot, tired and frustrated we were doing a wonderful thing for our family. I was really touched by his perceptiveness. We had gone in with smiles hoping to hide our frustrations. He really touched my heart with his words.
We spent the evening play more pioneer games and went to Rendez-vous in Old Nauvoo performed by the senior missionaries. It was fantastic and even better- Bella and Jacob fell asleep. We even had front row seats. We were one of the last people to enter the building and were uncertain if we'd even get seats together. The front row had been reserved for children and since ours were the only children there, the whole family was ushered to the front row!
Here are some pics from the first 2 days. The camera died after day 2 and I had forgotte the charger. The rest of the pictures were taken on my phone, and as soon as I figure out how to download them I'll finish our trip.

The Little Black Dress part 2

I took Alexandra to a breakfast sponsored by the school's PTO to familiarize the incoming Kindergarten parents with the PTO and the school staff. I had to laugh as I walked in the door and noticed the prinicipal- who looks younger than me but thats a whole different story- was wearing the very same dress. Of course hers was probably and XXXXS but hey she probably doesn't have 4 kids trailing behind her either.

A worthwhile Freebie

Few things in this society are actually free. I'm usually pretty wary of the "free things". Usually it means one of two things. Either the item is worthless junk that serves no real purpose and should just be thrown away to declutter life... OR.. there's a catch. Get a free item with the purchase of 4 items. Now why do I need five of the same item? Or the Kirby seller who came to the door the other day. "Ma'am, can I come in and clean your carpet for free?" No way, I quickly burst his bubble and shut the door in his face. Once many years ago I fell for that scam and had to sit through a several hour demonstration until they finally realized that I had told the truth from the beginning and was not going to purchase anything. Even the Living Scriptures are not above this scam. The position themselves ever so carefully in places such as Nauvoo, Palmyra and even malls. "Hey, how about a free movie?" the ask to lure you to their cave. And then they try to convince you as to why no child should be without these "wonderful learning tools".
But I am here to tell you that there is at least one worthwhile truely free item out there. Its my favorite magazine and comes several times a year. It is the Kraft Foods Magazine. The day it arrives in my mailbox is truely and exciting day at my house. It comes packed full of good, easy recipes that the whole family enjoys. The edition that came several week before I delivered Jacob was one of my favorites. It had a week's worth of recipes with a complete shopping list. As it got closer to my due date I handed Jared the magazine as he left to grocery shop and said this is all I need. Now, why would Kraft send this free magazine? Cause its lots of "free" (there's that word again) advertising for them. But as long as you don't really believe that you have to buy the Kraft cheddar cheese- generic brands work just fine- you're no worse for the wear. Let them stuff the magazine full of their own ads, just keep sending me those recipes.
On second thought they are largely responsible for my inability to lose weight. We've tried several extremely delicious yet fattening desserts out of the summer edition. Oh well, Happy eating! (You can sign up at kraftsfoods.com if I've convinced you that you can't live another day without this magazine!)