Psycho in real life!!

So, a few days a week I go to the church and workout with some other ladies while our kids all play in the gym and on the stage. It's great, we have fun and our kids do too. There are about 10 little girls that come with their mom's and they are all 2-5 years old. This last week once I got to the church which is about .5 miles from our house I realized I forgot Lucy's pacifier which is crucial to being able to workout the whole time. So I called Klave to see if he could drop it off on his way out. He said yeah but he was about to get in the shower so it wouldn't be right away. After about 30 seconds I realized I couldn't wait so I just decided to run home and grab it before we started. I got inside our house and heard the shower running and my dark side took over. I could not resist the temptation to pretend attack my unsuspecting hubby. I stealthily tiptoed to the bathroom, (he didn't even close the door!!) postitioned myself just right and snatched open the shower curtain.
Poor, poor Klave had soap all over his face and was swinging blindly at his assailant. I was laughing hysterically and almost crying. Partly because I felt so badly for scaring the living daylights out of him. That really made my day, all throughout the day I would think about what happened and start cracking up all over again. At the end of the day is when the terror set in. Klave came home from work and said, "I've been thinking all day about how I'm going to get you back." Not fair, I get scared way more easily than he does!

My girls

Just a few things about my girls. I've noticed that everything is considered "fair", no matter the outcome as long as it's determined by eenie meenie miney mo. Their favorite car is "the one that Daddy gave you, Mommy" it's a '91 Subaru Loyale. It's a real beaut. But they would rather ride in there than in Klave's work car, a 2007 Honda Pilot. I think it's because it is really loud, we have to roll down the windows because the a/c isn't that great and because one of them has to ride in the front seat so we all fit. (Don't worry there are no air bags.) Whenever we arrive somewhere they yell, "Don't open the door, I'm going out the window!" Nadine loves to dig for worms it's just that she usually stretches them so far that they break, then she has to find a new one. The other day she was just playing with one and I was watching her as she stretched it out and not really thinking almost put it in her mouth!! AAAAAAHHHHHHH luckily I stopped her before it made contact! She must get that from Klave. Naomi loves to stash stuff under her desk, like her clothes, even though she has to walk past the dresser to get to the desk. I always find a pile of things I've asked her to put away right there under the desk. Nora wasn't really talking yet or saying any words which kind of worried me, because she's almost 22 months old, but she has the greatest expressions. I would try to work with her to say some words and she'd try for a while and then shake her head and try to cover my mouth. Actually the last few weeks I've been making it a real focus and praying alot for her to be able to learn and she had been trying so much more. You still can't understand most of what she says, but she's saying things and tries to copy us. She's such a sweetie.
Lucy is starting to smile alot more and laugh a little too. I can't wait till she can defend herself from all of her overadmiring sisters.

Another story about Nadine, a while ago she came and sat on the couch across from me and says, "Remember when Naomi got sick at church...." and on and on for probably 5 minutes relating every detail about what she was wearing and everything that happened that day. At the end of the story she's like, "Do remember that mom?" "Yeah I do" I said. Then she says, "Oh, I don't."

It seems like I write down alot of the crazy things they do, but they really surprise me often at the profound things they say. This morning we were reading in our scriptures about the Nephites preparing for the Gadianton robbers to come down to fight them and how they made armor to protect themselves. I was explaining to them what armor was and then Naomi asks, "So, how can we protect our bodies?" I was impressed at how thoughtful that was and they had a lot of good answers to it too. I sure love these kids.

The Winnecook Ranch

Over the last weekend we took a trip to the church ranch where Klave did his internship in Harlowton, Montana. You probably have never heard of it because only a few people live there Well not really but it's far enough out there that our phone didn't get any kind of coverage until we'd left and been driving for an hour. Some of the highlights of the trip were throwing stuff off the bridge, trying to catch the bunnies that were everywhere, seeing horses, cows, antelope, jack rabbits galore, deer, elk, and our favorite an otter. The otter was the best, we saw him swimming through the river so what do you do? Throw rocks, right? It was cool because wherever we would throw a rock in the water he would swim to that place, so we ran him around for a long time and got him to come really close to us.
This is where we would get our water if we decide to homestead there.

We also went exploring for fossils and went to the buffalo run that is there on the ranch. A buffalo run is where the indians would herd the buffalo up and over a hill but on the back side of a hill is a cliff where they would break their legs and then the indians could eat them. That sounds pretty morbid but it was interesting to see it. There also was a wall of rocks shaped in a "v" and the buffalo would run through the point of it and the indians would hide behind the rocks to scare them through it. (Erin I hope you are not totally disgusted by this post, sorry!)
That's the buffalo run behind the girls.

The drive took about 8 and 1/5 hours but it was really beautiful and it was so fun for Klave to go back and see old friends and reminisce.
.The Jacobson's, our friends we stayed with.

(Travis, Bekah, Emmett, and Seth)

On the way home I was really excited because we could stop in Spokane and go to a store that's not Walmart. Wahoo, I planned to stop at least at Old Navy and get some clothes for this in between stage of pregnant and not pregnant body. I was searching the racks and talking with but not watching my girls when the alarms start blaring! Nadine had opened the emergency exit door. "ok girls, that's alright, just touch the clothes and nothing else ok?" A few minutes later the maniquin next to me starts losing limbs, and an arm comes crashing to the ground. Nadine and Naomi just stood there wide-eyed. That's as far as the shopping trip went. I just can't shop under pressure. We tried a fabric store also for just a few minutes and then headed for Wingers. At first I was kind of bugged that I didn't get to buy anything that it seemed I'd been waiting forever to buy, but quickly enough I realized it really didn't matter. We had such an awesome trip not because we went to an extremely cool place but because we had so much fun together as a family. The whole time I just felt like I was on cloud 9. Everyone was happy for the whole trip (with 5 girls that is not always the case) and I totally could never ask for a better time. I love my family sooooooo much!

Nadine's excited to hold Lucy and get her picture taken.

Springfest!

This weekend was Springfest here. There were so many fun things to do which is good except then all the babysitters in town are out having fun too. So we did what we could with the girls and that was fun. We watched all the dance and the gymnastic groups in town perform and we went to the carnival. Nadine and Naomi were so anxious to go on the rides. First they saw the YoYo, you know the one with the swings that goes around and around. They really wanted to go on that one, "Do you think you could go on that one?" I asked. Oh, yeah, it's for little kids they assured me. I told them that I didn't know if I would even go on it. Naomi looks at me like I'm crazy and says, "Mom you can't go on that, you'd break it!" So apparently I'm a little larger than I realized.

"Cheese!" This is the expression Nora gets when she's ready to have her picture taken.

We really had a great time but Klave and I both never realized how many weird people there are in Moses Lake, I guess a carnival just brings them all out of the woodwork. Seeing all those Jr high kids also makes me really nervous about my girls growing up. Kids that age get so confused about what's cool. Recently someone told me that psycologically 3 is the same as 15 as far as attitudes go. That was a little scary for me to hear but way motivating to work extra hard now so that when 15 rolls around things can go more smoothly.

Sammamish again

The first part of this week the girls and I spent in Sammamish again while Klave went on up to Bellingham for a training meeting. We had a great time as usual playing with cousins and I get to visit with my sister in law Grace. They are such a great family and she is one of those super moms that I'm always trying to learn from. This time we went to the children's museum in Seattle. Besides having to park like a half mile away and carry the kids through the rain to the museum (my arms were so sore the next day, so at least I got a work out) we had a really fun time. First there is an art room with paints and clay and collage stuff and they just go to town with it and it doesn't matter if they make a mess! It was wonderful for all of us. Then there is a room with ping pong balls that's kind of hard to explain but really cool, a story telling room, a fake restaurant, a fake grocery store and so many fun things. I'm sure we'll be back, next time with a stroller.

So here's a funny story about Naomi this weekend. She asked me if she could color and I said, "After dinner because we are about to eat." So she asks Grace if she can color and I say, "Naomi, is Grace your mom or am I your mom?" Like, you need to listen to me. The next day Grace was talking on the phone and asked Naomi to stop playing the drums so she could hear. She just kept on playing so I go in and say, "If Grace asks you to stop playing the drums, then you need to stop." She looks at me and says, "But Grace isn't my mom." It took me a minute to sort that one out in my mind. How to explain when to listen to others and when not to. Kids are so smart.

Still alive.

Yes, we are still alive. We have been so busy! It's crazy that something that sleeps so much can take so much of your time.
As some evidence of how busy we've been... I made chicken noodle soup last night and when I was doing the dishes I found the cut up chicken that was supposed to go in the soup. I didn't even notice it was missing when I was eating it. Klave didn't mention it either, bless his heart.

Klave's parents have a sheep ranch, so each year we go down for lambing season. This year about 500 sheep will lamb within a months time. We went down to "help" for a few days and then we blessed Lucy there on sunday. Weiser is about half way to our house from where my family lives, so they all came too. That was my Dad, Mom, 3 brothers, 3 sisters, 4 spouses, and 8 kids. Klave's parents were so nice to put them all up. We all had a blast. Here are a few pictures,

Nadine and Naomi and cousin Mason on the tractor with Grandpa Chandler

Amanda taking the kids for a ride
Klave's getting ready to feed the sheep. He really did the most work of all of us. This is what he really wants to be doing for a living, doesn't it just look natural to him?

Friday night we had a weiner roast it was best to keep us all out of the house, we were all so filthy

I was surprised at the courage of my siblings. My city slicker brother, Dan a lawyer from Seattle jumped in and helped with castrating 8 of their horses. Liz a return lamber of 3 years now helped pull a lamb out of the ewe and drove the tractor! My nephew Brayden 8yrs old milked a sheep and drank it's milk! Everybody was out there helping grab the lambs as soon as they dropped to the ground. It is so much fun but you do get really dirty. It's like the Weiser version of Fear Factor. Dan taking the new baby lamb to the shed.
Aunt Maycee and Nora
Brayden drinking the fresh squeezed sheeps milk.
Dan living up to Brayden's example.Nora checking the sheep with Grandpa Chandler. Aunt Liz and Carter feeding the lambs.

The day we got back from Weiser it was Cinco de Mayo. I had been planning for like two weeks to make paper mache pinatas with the girls and then have some friends over for tacos and family home evening and pinata fun. The time just crept away and things didn't go quite as planned. We ended up grabbing some food from Taco Bell. Here are some pictures of our pinata fun...

Ok it wasn't really a pinata, just a brown bag from Safeway, still it worked pretty good and since it was their first pinata the girls didn't know the difference. I wonder if they ever use brown bags for pinata's in Mexico?

Now here are some random things.
Thank goodness for blogs, having one really reminds me to take pictures. I got the camera out the other sunday to get some pics of the girls and Nadine wanted to help me, here's one she took, not bad for a three yr old. She also loves to take pictures of her dolls, but I usually delete those ones.

These girls are so much fun. Everyday they just make me smile so much. Even though somedays I think I'm going to go crazy keeping up with them, I just can't help but smile at all the funny things they do. Each night even though I could probably fall asleep standing up by the time it's time for sleep, I crawl into bed but I really don't fall asleep for quite a while because I just think about how much I love them and what I can do better and I almost always feel guilty that I haven't shown them enough love.

Every family home evening Nadine and Naomi want to sing the princess song for both the opening and closing songs. The princess song is just randomly singing the names of all the princesses and pretty girls they know. We got the last go round on video....







Nora has a real love/hate relationship with animals that I don't understand but it is so funny to watch. She loves to touch them but once she does she freaks out. Here's a video...










I also keep forgetting to write down all the funny things they say, but one that I remember at the moment was around Easter time when I had a bunch of those Robin egg malt ball candies. I found one that was really tiny and I said, "Look Nadine a little baby one." She took it and looked at it for a minute and said, "She wants her mommy!" Pretty clever huh?

We love Lucy!

So on wednesday the 2nd I was supposed to be induced but they called and said they were too busy, but maybe tomorrow...on thursday they called and were too busy again, but maybe tomorrow...then on friday they told me to come right in! Then I started to panic, was I really ready? Ready or not, it was time. We got to the hospital at about 11:00am. After five tries they got the IV started and then we waited and waited there was really almost no progress until 8:00pm and then things got going and she was born at 12:53 the next morning!

(This is us waiting. We played Farkle and Klave rocked my world!)
Here's our little ray of sunshine- Lucy

She was 19.25 inches and 8lbs. 5oz.

It took us forever to decide on a name, and then we finally settled on Lucy after we came home from the hospital. All the nurses were so helpful and each time they came in they had more suggestions for names. I think they get extra worried sending a baby home without a name.
It's so much fun having a new baby around. Nadine, Naomi and Nora really love her. Today Nadine told me that she didn't know it was going to be a real baby. I've had my mom here for a little over a week and she spoils me so much, she just comes and works her little heart out taking care of me and the girls and Klave. Dan and Grace and their kids came over from Seattle too and that was great to have someone to play with Nadine, Naomi and Nora while I was at the hospital with Lucy. I'm so thankful to have such a supportive and helpful family!