Twas the Night Before...

...school starts and all through the house four kids were excited and jumped on the couch. 

Take a bath said the mother, and wash your hair then pick out some new clothes to wear. 

Well, the kids are all in bed early tonight because IT'S A SCHOOL NIGHT!!! 
I have mixed feelings about school starting.  I'm not really ready for it yet, I feel like we didn't really have much of a summer and I have actually been enjoying having my older boys around.  Hayden has FOR SURE been enjoying them and I am feeling really bad that he will be without his "bruders" for so many hours of the day.  Colby and Cameron are so good to Hayden, they really look out for him and include him and Hayden LOVES them so much.  But Hayden is really sweet to Clara and I guess it will be nice to have a few quiet hours in the day!  Maybe Hayden and Clara can actually get in a nap or two!
We went to back to school night last night and met the boys teachers, I had never met either one of them so I was a little nervous but I really liked them and I think both boys will have a great school year.
This morning when I asked my boys what they wanted to do on their last day of summer they both said "we want to go to Target!"
Well I'll admit that was music to my ears.  What woman turns down a trip to Target?  The boys only had one reason for wanting to go to Target and that was the $10 skateboard that Target had to offer.  They both had some money that was burning a hole in their pocket and Skateboards are the toy of the week thanks to my friends daughter whom they have been watching on the Disney Channel show NEXTX. She is 9 and is an awesome skateboarder and a girl!  It has bothered the boys that a girl is better than them!!  So I loaded them all up and headed down the canyon really hoping that Target had some $10 skateboards.  On the way there though the boys were sure to let me know that they only wanted to get the skateboards and then go right home so they could practice and play with their friends.  They weren't too happy to hear that I was going to stay in Target as long as I wanted...which isn't actually very long when I take four kids!  Hayden even had a dollar and was looking forward to buying a skateboard.
Target ended up only having two skateboards $10 and at first Hayden was very upset that he didn't get one but Colby was sweet and let Hayden carry his board around the store and that and some Target popcorn was enough to appease Hayden! 
Finally after stretching the kids patience as far as I could we headed home to learn to ride and enjoy the last day of summer and the GORGEOUS weather. 

This is how I found them sleeping the other night! I LOVE these boys!

Cam and Hayden learning some new skills!  Colby took off before I could get a picture of him, but he says he is already really good at skateboarding!   And Hayden was happy with his scooter as long as he had a helmet like Cameron.

Back to school surprises!  I really am going to miss these boys I could use a couple more weeks of summer just to hang out with them. 

Hayden & Jaden

My blog would not be complete without a post about these two boys, Hayden & Jaden.
They are 6 months apart in age, Jaden being 6 months older but Hayden being 6x bigger!
Jaden is Kent & Lisa's son and we hadn't seen him in over a year so these two boys didn't remember each other at all.  But they wasted no time in getting to know each other and getting into trouble at Grandma's house!!  They seriously were so darn entertaining it was great.  They fought about everything.  Jaden would ask Hayden where his house was and when Hayden would say Utah, Jaden would say "no it's not." Then Hayden would say "yes it is."  and back & forth like that about anything and everything...the mountains, their grandma, their baby sisters, the toys, the flip flops etc...
I have known quite a few kids in my life but I don't think I have ever known one who asks more questions than Jaden.  It was amazing!  I don't think you could count the number of questions he asks in a day.  He was also the busiest kid I know.  His mom says that at home he is not so bad, but at grandma's house he was busy and usually you couldn't help but laugh at the trouble he got into.  I will list a few of the things that we caught Jaden or Jaden and Hayden doing. 
-Grandma found them in her bathroom with the door shut, Jaden's head was wet and water was dripping down his forehead.  Hayden's head was in the toilet when Gma walked in. They were giving themselves swirly's!!
-Jaden knew where Gpa's candy stash was and would sneak and eat as much as he could leaving wrappers in his wake!

-Jaden also knew where the candy drawer was at Nana's house and would sneak over there and get candy as well.  One day I found him in the laundry room laying in the corner being really sneaky.  He was unwrapping and eating candy as fast as he could.  He had hidden some behind the box of detergent.  (there are pictures of this below!)

-Another time Gma found them in her room eating candy and getting into stuff and a little while later Jaden was spitting in the toilet and said that the medicine he ate from Gma's room was HOT.  So Gma gets worried and has Jaden show her what medicine he ate and it ended up being some Altoids!! 

I know there are lots more instances that I have forgotten about I knew I should've written them down sooner. 
I'm so glad that these two boys go to know each other so well and I really hope that it's not a whole year until we seem them again. 
If I could have snuck Jaden home with me I would have.  He stole my heart and I would love to add another little boy to our craziness!  Even if he is the spittin' image of his dad!

Jaden hiding his candy.  In the bottom picture you can see some wrappers by his hand. 

In this picture he had sneezed and has tootsie roll snot coming out his nose! 
I love this kid!

. 

This kid though stole my heart almost 3 years ago and he still gets me.  He is so stinkin' cute.

Jaden could not be kept out of the mud at the Heap Reunion while Hayden didn't hardly get muddy at all!

Beating the Heat in AZ

Yeah so I am still trying to catch up posting about our AZ vacation.  We were there for almost a month so at my slow blogging pace it may take me a while, please be patient! 

It seems like I always end up being in the Valley of the Sun during the hottest weeks of the year.  AHHH!!!
At least this year we were able to stay at my brothers new house in Gilbert and HALLELUJAH they have a pool in their back yard. 
THANK YOU BRANT & KACY for getting a house with a pool.  My kids loved it and wanted to swim pretty much all day. 

Hayden was a little scared of the water so this baby pool was perfect for him, he loved it.  He even thought he was pretty big sittin' in the little boat in the little pool!  Can he stay two forever?

Colby was pretty close to growing gills.  He got quite a bit of swimming time in while he was in St. Johns so he was quite a good swimmer by the time we got to Gilbert. 

Cameron on the other hand was quite cautious and wouldn't go in without the life jacket!  And the goggles were a requirement as well!  He does look darn cute though!

Hayden was very interested in the cactus and before we left the desert I stopped to let him take this picture!  His cheese face is super cool!!

The Beach

Day two of our CRAZY San Diego trip was THE BEACH!

After gorging ourselves on the motel breakfast (that's a joke! all they had was a few muffins!) we headed over to Mission Beach. 
My children had never been to the beach or even seen the ocean, except for Colby when he was two so that doesn't really count.  Needless to say they were all very excited to see the ocean.  We got there by about 9:00am so it wasn't too crowded yet so we were able to get a great spot to set up camp.  The only problem was that it was pretty breezy and the water was SOOOO COLD!
The boys however were not to be deterred from their first ocean experience and they braved the frigid water for quite awhile.  Cameron and Hayden finally gave up on the cold water and played in the sand but Colby was loving it and stayed out in the waves for an hour or more. 
Our two cute baby girls were all bundled up but were pretty happy sittin in their bumbo seats just watching everything. 
Kacy got in a little nap and some sun but not I! 

I was pretty out numbered by my kids so I pretty much felt like a ping-pong ball. 
No nap or tanning for me!
I did love the beach though and even if our "few hours" was only about 90 minutes it was still fun to be there and it gave me the itch to bug Mark until he gives in and takes us back to the beach.
Side note:Mark hates California and getting him to go there will not be easy but I am going to do my best, the beach is calling my name again!  If you know my Mark at all you won't be surprised that he doesn't like CA.  If you don't know him I'll just say that Mark and the City, any City, don't mix well.  He is a country boy through and through.  And really so am I, I guess that's one of the things I really love about him.  But who doesn't love the beach enough to deal with the city every once in a while right?  Well, Mark doesn't but I will still try!!

We really only stayed there for 90 minutes until it was just to cold to really enjoy it.  So we packed our chaos back into my van and headed back to AZ.  The drive home was LONG but really the kids did pretty good.  Unless of course I count Clara crying for the last hour and a half, or Colby and Cameron fighting and getting grounded for 24 hours.  Parker was an angel though and really after the long two days we had had they were all pretty good.  And I got to know Kacy better which I think was great.  Her and I kinda have to stick together because neither one of us has a biological sister so we kinda get to be that for each other.  At least I hope she feels that way about me!!  Love ya Kacy!!  And if you don't want to see my kids for at least a year I totally understand.  And to my brother, I'm sorry if Kacy doesn't want anymore kids after seeing the Craziness that is four kids!!   

It really was a crazy trip and I really think that I am just now starting to regain a little of my sanity but it was a memory making trip and that's what I loved about it.  In 20 years my boys will still talk about that trip to San Diego with Aunt Kacy and Parker and I love that about it.

Thanks Kacy!  Lets plan next year but lets invite Lisa and Jodi and Grandma.  Why not add six more kids to the craziness?

 

You can call me CRAZY

I'm pretty sure that somewhere on the road between Heber, UT & Gilbert, AZ I totally lost any brain cells that I had left.  Which wasn't very many after having four kids but I did have a some. Not now, they are all gone! 
We arrived at my brother Brant's house on a Friday night.  We were so excited to get there and see our Colby whom we hadn't seen in two weeks.  The boys were also overly excited to swim in Brant's pool.  Even though it was 8pm it's Phoenix and it's still so hot at 8pm that swimming is a great relief from the heat! 
Saturday morning my sis-in-law Kacy says to me "Hey, why don't we take your kids to Sea World on Monday?" 
I say "really?, ok, that would be really fun. I will talk to Mark about it."
Now when Kacy said "WE" she meant ME and HER take my four kids and her one kid.  Our husbands would not be going with us.  Brant was working and Mark was flying back to Utah on Sunday. 
Here's what I mean about not having much brain function, I asked Mark and he said "Sure, sounds like fun, just be careful."  And somehow I really thought that I could make the trip, I was actually excited about it.  

Kacy and I headed to Wal-Mart to pick up some snacks and things we would need, we bought our tickets and our hotel room online and sure enough we really were going to San Diego. 
At 5:00am on Monday morning we woke up the kids and put them in the car.  We had decided not to tell them we were going so they were very curious as to where we were going.  We told them that we were going to the Arizona Aquarium in Tucson.  Thank goodness they didn't know that there is no such thing and they didn't know that Tucson isn't six hours from Gilbert.  I really thought that Colby would start reading the road signs and figure out that we were in California but he didn't.  Even with all the random Border Patrol stops he still didn't figure it out.  He kept thinking we were in Mexico!
The drive took longer than the five hours is was supposed to, but what trip with FIVE kids doesn't take longer than it's supposed to?
Colby didn't figure out where we were until we were actually pulling into the Sea World parking lot.  And then when he realizes we are in San Diego all he has to say is, "Can we go see the Chargers Stadium?"
So we arrived at Sea World at noon and it didn't close until 10pm so we had a pretty good amount of time to spend there.  The first thing the kids wanted to see was the Shark encounter so thats where we headed.  

After that we just kinda wandered around until the Shamu show started. 
Hayden kept calling Shamu a dolphin it was really cute. 
The boys of course wanted to sit in the "Soak Zone" at Shamu but I didn't want to sit there with the baby and Hayden, but I ended up giving in and letting them sit at the very top part of the "soak zone" hoping that we wouldn't get wet that far up.  Lucky for me, but much to Colby & Cam's dismay we didn't get wet. 
By the time the show was over Hayden and Clara were not to happy and we were all hot, tired and hungry. 

We hung around until the last showing of the Sea Lion show which was our favorite but by this time Hayden had pretty much had it and was wanting to be held not ride in the stroller.  Let me just say that it was just sheer will power for me to not lay down on a bench and cry right along with Hayden. 
The kids made sure that we hit every gift shop until they had spent every penny of their allotted souvenir budget!  And we ended up staying in the park until about 9:45.  I could not believe we made it that long.  

We headed for our hotel which thankfully was only a couple of miles away and we found it fairly easily. 
I didn't take pictures of the hotel room but I should have.  I hadn't been remodeled since it was built sometime in the the 60's, it was great!  All that mattered to me at that point was just getting some sleep.  Thankfully all of the kids feel promptly asleep, even the two babies. Hurray for the end of a VERY LONG DAY! 

Stay tuned for Chapter Two of
You Can Call Me Crazy,
"The Beach"

Colby and Cameron finally did get wet on this river ride.  They LOVED it and wanted to do it again and again!  But it was getting dark and a little cold so I had to say no to more water rides. 

6 months

Baby Sister is already 6 months and 2 weeks old! 
She loved going swimming in Aunt Kacy's pool in Gilbert.  It was so fun for me to put her swim suit on her and see how cute she looked!  It was one of those "I REALLY DO HAVE A GIRL" moments. 

Some things about baby sister at 6 months

-she sits up by herself pretty good

-she has just started eating baby food and so far she loves it (i hope this lasts!)

-her hand eye skills get better everyday and she grabs everything!

-she loves her brothers and lights up when they come around

-she has the best laugh, like an old smoker man!

-she takes after big brother Colby with her not so great sleeping habits (i'm hoping this gets better)

-she can spot her mama from a mile away and gets so excited

-she looks so cute dressed up for church

-she's pretty spoiled but did I really expect her not to be?!!

-on Friday I will know how much she weighs, but lets just say she is a chub with awesomely squishy thighs.

8-9-10

I was clued into the date today by my friend posting it on her blog. 

But really I think it is kinda cool.  The date will never be 8-9-10 again!

Oh and we've been back from AZ for a week now and once I get myself dug out of all the messes and things to do around here I just might post about our fun/stressful/hot/rainy/great time in AZ with my family!