Crappy Mom?

I posted the broccoli pop April Fool's Day college on my business Facebook page yesterday and a new commenter called me a crappy mom. 

The commenter is right in that I tricked 4 little kids, recorded me making the baby cry, then gave them candy with breakfast. Now I need to do something to be an awesome mom to counter it. (I was thinking playing LDS General Conference bingo with candy and craisins. Hm. I might rethink this...) 

Now, I am nursing my almost 2 year old

and checked my email and saw this article. 

http://ldsmobileapps.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=de3900042736b1cfae60723ff&id=14ce27554c&e=7b33f14373

I had my 3 other kids come in so we could read it together. It was Eiring's home teaching message for the month. It prepped us to focus on doing homework and studying and finding our to do lists from this weekend's conference talks. Better-than-crappy-mom even though we slept in until 8:30 when Steven had been up helping his brother move. He later dropped off a car seat to his cousin. I did zero service for others today. I did clean the living room, Tyler/Julia's room, and the pool

as well as made some bracelets for the Young Women.

Steven went shopping for us AND got a card and gift for his nephew's birthday tomorrow. Then he sat with us and our whole family was calm for both general conferences today. (We did end up doing conference bingo with candy and Craisins.) Steven had of course but those for me also.

Tyler and Julia did projects. 

Then Steven took the boys to the Rowdies Den for dinner and to a Rowdies game with all of the crews.

He is awesome so maybe our kids will be all right despite their crappy mom. :) 

(Is it sad that I feel accomplished because I read books with Julia and let her watch her Nemo and Diego a little bit and played Ring Sround the Rosies until I was literally dizzy and had to lay down and then let her play on my feet and gave her a bath and her medicine and brushed and floss her teeth and even used my scaler on her before getting her in bed by nine? Because I do :)

Easter Baskets

My parents always got us a book in our baskets. This year, since conference is on Easter, I got the kids activity books from Usborne. I was going to trade taking maternity photos then stay for that person's baby shower, but my friend said that the girl's husband had already scheduled some maternity photos for her. BUT they would still like if I could stay for the baby shower to take photos. She said she'd give me a big book credit since she sells books. Woo hoo! Easter is completed! (I had already found the David and Goliath book on clearance.) 

We usually do "Easter Saturday," and keep the bunny and the resurrection separate, but Steven worked today, so we are doing it on Sunday. Since we had church today (and will tomorrow), the two days are blended anyway already. 

Steven got the kids some extra things. Tyler's little lawn mower broke and he uses it so much, we were itching for a reason to replace it. Steven wants to see Tyler's face squished into that shark mask, bought the kids big eggs, and got Julia some new pacifiers since we keep loosing them and honestly love that she's a paci baby and aren't going to wean her from them any time soon. 

AND if you want to celebrate this high holiday by going to church but do not regularly attend one OR even if you do, you can "go" to mine too! It is streaming live! (2x/yr we have a world wide weekend conference.) The last two sessions are at noon and 4pm (2 hrs each) on BYUtv on cable (I have Brighthouse), online at www.LDS.org and on youtube right after. It is translated to lotsa languages too. It is relaxing, motivating, uplifting, clarifying, and even if you catch a part of one speaker or listen to one song by the #mormonTabernacleChoir, it will be worth your time. #iKnowThatMySaviorLives #easterbaskets#usbornebooks #ldsconf

Dylan's Primary Talk

I gave Dylan two choices of conference talk topics. He chose missionary work. I had him re-watch Neil A. Anderson's most recent talk, It's A Miracle, and take notes. I used those notes and wrote an outline.

He did well, was not nervous, but needed a microphone. 

Here is his talk later that evening. 

I did not prompt him. 

He talked about how conference is where we listen to prophets who teach us about the gospel and Jesus. One talk he liked was about Neil A. Anderson who is one of the 12 apostles. Then Dylan mentioned some things from his notes including the fact that the speaker told us that everybody can be a missionary by "doing what they can do." He talked about one thing that his uncle can do - break dancing, and how his uncle used that skill to do missionary work. Cute little talk:)

Here're some other pictures. Tyler was READY for the day! 

 But I made him wait, for others to get shoes on.
Which reminded him that he wanted his "ooh oohs," blanket, wa-tuh cup, and a granola bar.
And he got sleepy, he has a cold.

 Oh aren't my boys so cute. Dylan is helping Isaac with his tie. Isaac lost his suit coat in the car, it was on when he walked out of the house. His shirt is tucked in though!

Then I cleaned our pool while Tyler looked for june bugs. And Steven washed that sicky blanket of Tyler's. Yuck! Oh, Rose Ann Benson visited our ward today! And one of my young women advisers from when I was like 16 came to visit church too! 

General Conference April 2013

I'm listening to church right now, I love it, I can multi-task in PJs or work out clothes. The kids ate waffles this morning. (Steven put them in the toaster for them.) We cleaned and played some in the morning, had green smoothies w/ blueberries (and two carrots, an apple, a whole bag of spinach, a scoop of Isagenix powder, some frozen broccoli stalk pieces, two strawberries, some mango and pineapple pieces form the other day that I froze, a little juice, water, and organic cane sugar, a lot of that to make it edible.) 

 The kids still didn't like it, so they only got to play conference bingo w/ raisens 'til they finished the smoothies, towards the end of the first session. And who told Tyler how to say cheese for pictures? Cute the first time.
Have you read the book Harrold and the Purple Crayon? Well, here's my version. WHYYYYYY did I tape these papers to the wall? Tyler mostly stayed on the wall, but not all the way; thank goodness for a magic eraser. (And Dylan's old Rays shorts must not have that much elastic in them, or maybe Dylan stretched them out b/c he wore them 'til past the time he outgrew them.

 Dylan colored the right way while listening.

 But Isaac made himself some peanut butter and honey. Guess which honey he used? I actually saw his little hand place the lid-free honey on the other side of the sink and laughed "oh no." Dylan was sitting on my lap while we watched President Monson's talk. Dylan asked "what?" And I told him I knew what a piece of bread must look like on the other (hidden) side of the sink. Sure enough, Isaac said "Um Mom, come look." Delicious!

 After conference, I went for a run. I listened to the first 45 minutes of the Saturday morning session. I just jogged and enjoyed the beautiful day, I went the long way then kept going around another block. I was jealous of Tyler's hammoc-like experience but I had a lot of sleep last night so I took off my shirt and leafed the bottom of the pool while Dylan and Isaac caught a million grass hoppers, well probably more like 75 which is still a lot!

 The couch is still in the garage from Thanksgiving, so Dylan and Isaac are taking full advantage with their hotwheels set. I love their laughs!

 Tyler tried on his big brothers' shoes. He's good at messing up the shoes.

 Skittles and M&Ms this time!

 We found a 9' piece of bamboo when cleaning the island entrance to our neighborhood. The kids teeter tottered with it, they love that thing.

 Steven cooked veggie burgers and burned the twigs we raked up from our front yard in the fire pit.

 Tyler loves the "wah-2" (water).

And this was last night, I like the soccer ball head shot:) 

Conferences and Family and sleepy babies

Thursday night, I went to a continuing education course presented by Pharmacy students on common drugs and their potential dental complications. Then I got my hair cut and highlighted and toned at a real salon! By a 9 month pregnant friend at 9pm. We're going to trade services and I'll take her newborn portraits. On Friday, I stressfully did Halloween messes crafts with a bunch of my kids then went in the car lines for 2 hours. We went to my friend's daughter's 3rd birthday party about an hour away. We were late and I didn't even get out my camera even though she's the cutest little princess and my boys had such a good time taking impromptu karate lessons from a fellow party guest. The next morning, Tyler and I went for a jog while Steven did yard work and the other boys cleaned their play room. Then we drove to our Sea World hotel! Tyler was more than ready for his morning nap by the time we left at lunch time. I sat next to him so I could help Dylan with next week's homework. Maybe I should have those straps tighter:) 

 Isaac found a snail when I lost one of my Tiffany & Co ear rings. An even trade I guess. (If only I had the faith to call my brother who helped us find Barbie's ring. I lifted Isaac up on my shoulder to see a band and felt him scrape my ear. We were by bushes and in a high traffic area and who knows if I lost it then or sometime before that. Sad.)

 The first thing we did was go to The Count's Countdown to Halloween musical Sessame Street show. Tyler had to get out of the stroller to wait in line. He is really loving being big like his big brothers.

 He ate snacks since he slept through lunch.

 We sang along to the spooky tunes like the Purple People Eater, and a Halloween "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes."

 The kids got to go trick-or-treating as we walked along, so they pulled on their trusty every day costumes.

 We found some good photo ops along the way.

 The kids LOVED watching these 3 silly guys clean out their gross yucky pumpkins.

 Dylan said they're like the 3 Stooges. He's right.

 Tyler, Isaac and I watched these musician/dancers while Steven and Dylan waited in line for a high flying tea cups-type ride.

 Then, just in time, Isaac cut in line to be brave and go up with them.

 Tyler found some acorns and enjoyed the break from his stroller.

 Steven got reprimanded by the kid running it b/c he unbelted them by himself or something. All I saw was Steven's huge smile until I heard it again. They couldn't ride that ride again until the shift change :)

 It's fun having a little walker to walk next to me.

 and in front of me!

 and towards me.

  and all over the place!!

 Dylan's favorite part of Sea World was running up and down to and from the big pirate ship.

 Isaac was brave on the cargo nets.

 Dylan could go way ahead of us.

 Tyler, Isaac, and I found some things to do while Dylan and Steven went on a big roller coaster.

 Then Isaac went on it! Sheer terror. Steven said Isaac said "My eyes got wet, but I was not crying." He later told me, "no I was not crying, I had a smile the whole time."

 The sky was beautiful. Maybe some day I'll go to a theme park with a bigger camera. But for now, the memories that come out of the shock proof pocket cam will do just fine.

 Tyler walked into the splash pad real quickly. That's why he has no shoes on here.

 On our way out, Steven obliged to let us take character pictures. I know, I should have put Tyler's wet shoes back on him.

 He fell asleep soon after. We didn't even notice until one of the characters passing out candy said "Shhhh, baby is sleeping!" I was thinking, who'd baby, I wanna see a cute baby!

 So I took another picture of my sleeping baby.

 And Dylan started walking so fast that I had to run to be able to still hold his hand in the parking lot back to our hotel. Then Steven decided to race us. We beat them, but then we waited in the lobby so they beat us to the room by sneaking in the side door and using the other elevators. What a fun family time.

 We all love this hotel.

 I woke up early and went to my FDHA convention to earn 4 CE credits (a total of 5 for the week!) The convention was at the airport hotel.

Steven stayed and took the kids to the delicious buffet breakfast. One of the waitresses remembered Tyler from our July 21st visit. At the pool, where they planned on staying all morning, the water was cold so Isaac and Tyler stayed with Steven while Dylan played longer.

 Then they (in the clothes they picked out by themselves meant only for the ride home) annoyed the security personnel at the hotel by running up and down the stairs.

 Once I finally came back to pick them up, Tyler was asleep in the stroller. He slept all the way home. We came home in time to read on facebook that one of my cousins is going to go on a mission, she's a girl and the prophet said that girls can now go at age 19 and that men can go at age 18! I haven't heard it first hand yet, I'll go back to listen. But we did play conference bingo with cheerios for the 4pm session. They got to trade in cheerios for their Sea World candy. Conference is ending right now as we speak, so this has been a beautiful weekend!