The roller coaster day, baby showers, and greyhounds

thursday morning dawned bright and early at 5:40am, like it does every morning. i always wake up and see everybody off to seminary/work/school. c doesn't leave until 6:45, so every morning we watch cnn, discuss current events, and then he'll says "okay, can we pray?" and then he leaves. such a good boy, he is.

by 8:15 i had everything packed up for preschool, little girls already buckled in their carseats, c's ss project that he had left behind all ready to be dropped off, when amanda called and said preschool was cancelled cause her kiddos were sick. i have to admit that i was pretty relieved. i love all our preschool kids but i've been feeling kinda run down lately. we went ahead and dropped off c's project at school and came back home.

it was fortuitous ($.50 word for the day, cha ching!) that preschool was cancelled, because matt and i had both forgotten about the group baby shower that was being held at his work that day and delaney was the guest of honor!

(none of the other 3 babies have been born yet:))

the baby shower was fun, the food was yummy, and his co-workers were so generous.

frankie had fallen asleep on the way to the shower and addie looked like this on the way home. this only lasted about 5 minutes once we got home, so that meant we were going on day 2 of no naps and mama's patience was wearing thin.

so. my day started off stressful (getting ready to get anywhere, especially a place that involves multiple drop-offs and pick-ups like preschool), then super good (we got a nice refund check for an overage in our escrow account), then good again (bigger income tax refund than anticipated), then good again (fun baby shower), then stressful again (short car naps = crabby little girls), then stressful again (big kids don't want to do chores), then good again (reading BoM with 15-year-old), then stressful again (13-year-old pulls massive attitude), then stressful again (2-year-old messes up bath water), then stressful again (2-year-old screams through shower, wakes up 2-month-old), then good again (3-year-old cuddles and kisses at story time), then good again (33-year-old goes for run with 2-month-old snuggled nicely in jogging stroller), then good again (42-year-old finally gets home (at 9:30!) and lets 33-year-old vent and cry out all her frustrations). 

i'm just feeling a major lack of time lately. i know it won't always be like this and i'm finding myself looking so forward to when delaney won't be breastfeeding all day, when addie goes off to school, and when lexi leaves for college. and i don't like it. these are such good times! all my 5 little children are home with me and i want to enjoy it and appreciate it and love it. and right now i'm so caught up in the logistics of life that i'm finding it hard to enjoy the family because there are always a million other things needing to be done.

i know, it's the plight of mothers everywhere, that horrendous and wonderful balance thing. balancing the right amount of time for cleaning (which i know isn't the most important thing but makes me feel so much happier when it's done), time with kiddies (which i know is the most important thing but is so hard when there are so many other things screaming to be done), and everything else (church callings, school, hobbies, time alone, etc). every time life changes, a new balance must be found and with a beautiful miss delaney and matt starting school, we're just needing to find that new balance. we're working on it though, so all is well.

and now i'm done venting. :)

i was determined to make friday a better day. i got up a few minutes earlier than normal, prayed (amazing what a difference forgetting to do that makes!), got kiddos to seminary nice and early, cleaned and organized for the day, spent quality time with the little girls with no tv (!) (we've fallen into some bad habits lately and now we're working our way out of them), discussed all of life's mysteries with my sister (and solved most of them;), made the girlies a nice lunch and actually sat down with them to eat it (more bad habits i've gotten into! makes such a difference when i actually sit down with them!), made a list of tasks to do during naps and completed them, even though i really wanted to sleep, and kept calm and collected all day long.

(as i type this i'm seeing all these little things that i've been doing to cause a lot of the little problems we so often have. see, blogging can really be so therapeutic, even if i'm the only one that ever reads this super long biography!)

anyway, big kids got home from school and we finished packing them up, dropped off little girls at aina's, and then headed to baltimore. we had a really nice drive, we talked, ate, laughed, it was just fun and relaxed. i was even able to sneak in some little snippets of wisdom and life lessons here and there for them. ;) and we made it up to the greyhound station with an hour and a half to spare, which was fortuitous (cha ching!) because i had forgotten to print out their tickets which caused major drama. to make a long story short (ha!) - very rude and unhelpful employee refuses to let us pay the $5 to print our tickets, she and i exchange words, we drive to holiday inn, super nice and helpful employee allows us to print our tickets, he and i exchange nice words, i call unhelpful greyhound employees manager and give him a very nice piece of my mind.

(to those that might think i make too big a deal about disrespectful employees even lex and chris couldn't believe how we were treated. after we left greyhound, lex was all like "i was about to tell her, you talk to my mom like that one more time..." it's good to know she's got my back! ;) i just don't see any reason to be so rude and unhelpful. she would have had us completely miss our bus. i worked retail and restaurants for many years and you just don't treat people that way. and seriosuly, greyhound should think about joining the 21st century. even movie theaters let you print out your tickets at the theater!)

now i digress.

finally it was time for their bus to leave, so tickets in hand, i sent my babies off for a week in new york with this chick.

so excited for them and can't wait to hear about all their adventures!

and right now i'm super grateful (and amazed) at the small miracle of getting all 3 little ladies down for naps in time to sit down with some cadbury mini eggs, my pen with a plume (thank you, fancy nancy!), and general conference.

mama needed it.

the last of frankies birthday celebration

after school on tuesday we all piled in the car for a super fast trip into town. we stopped at kohls (couplon), dicks (return), and the commissary (spring break food).
addie loves having her picture taken with mannequins. she asks every time we go to kohls or dicks. this isn't her best shot, she usually poses like the mannequin.

matt met us at kohls and took the 2 little girls. we hustled through the commissary, no small feat for me, and went straight to dorsey park for christian's baseball practice. he's a yankee this year. :)

mccombs came over after dinner and we went easter caroling. needless to say, the kids loved it and are begging to go again next week. ;) we came back to our house and ate some copycat applebees maple walnut blondies. delish!

on wednesday we had a playgroup party for frankie. our playgroup numbers have seriously dwindled, but we had a nice time visiting.

she loved blowing out the candles and getting sung to.

little sickie-poo with the red nose.

the party. :)

she ate the frosting and a bite or two of cupcake and was done.

franks hadn't slept well tuesday night and subsequently neither did i. while i was laying on the couch feeding delaney, she climbed up to lay on my legs (they do that often) and all of a sudden she got very still. sweet girl had fallen asleep.

both my little girls were so sleepy that i even managed to get off the couch without waking either up.

now those are some sleepy kids!

we took a few pics of these besties, but it didn't go too well.

the big sisters wanted in on that action, and that didn't go too well either.

we'll try, try again.

that night addie opted to stay home with me, so we sent frankie to cubs with matt.

addie and i spent some quality time playing candlyland. :)

2 whole months - by delaney

frankie told me that all the cool kids write their monthly posts a day late.

i'm a late kinda gal, so i like that mentality.
so, onto my month!

i love sleeping in my car seat. i've slept the longest stretches of time in there, 6 hours one time and 7 hours another. i don't even mind driving in the car, as long as we're moving. once the car stops, i pretty much hate it. traffic is a bad, bad thing when i'm around.

and while we're talking about seats, i get put in this one an awful lot too. i'm usually good in this seat for anywhere from 15-45 minutes. after that i lose my cool.

(ps - this is a relaxing way to lay, you should try it sometime)

my mom says i've got the giant cheeks. i say i'm storing up for the winter.

next winter. 

huge cheeks exhibit b:

and from another angle, exhibit c:

also, a milk coma.

if you thought i used to smile a lot, you should see me now!

morning smile...

after bath smile...

all dressed up and ready for a garden party smile...

all dressed up and ready for a cotillion smile...

you get the picture(s).

it is super exhausting being me. just trying to survive my big sisters and brother keeps me pretty pooped.

so here are some of my fav sleep positions.

flexing my muscles...

sleeping in a delicate pink haze... ;)

contemplating  lifes mysteries...

keeping track of ma food...

and finally, my favorite,

touchdown!

i'm learning to live with my siblings though.

and you know what, sometimes they're pretty okay.

my mom says i've got 2 cute chins.

she always smiles when she talks about my chins though, so it's gotta be good, right?

i celebrated my first st. patricks day.

see?

and sneezed a little.

must have been all those kisses.

(my shirt said "kiss me, i'm adoreable," and they did. oh they did.)

i miss my long luxiorious haired cousin quinn.

or tin, if you're frankie.

i've long outgrown all of my newborn outfits. this has been hard on my mom.

on this day she kept saying "but it's so cute and if you just keep it tucked in it fits just fine!"

who does she think she's fooling?

i got to wear this cute blankie suit when it snowed. this was after my mom scrubbed my face.

it's tough being me, but i'm trying to find the joy.

to that end, i've taken up singing as a hobby.

♫ r-e-s-p-e-c-t, find out what it means to me... ♪

alright, that is all.

i've got some dr. evil'ish things to get into.

see you next month!

probably another day late.

love,

delaney

Fhe

these little girls (and actually, the big girl too, come to think of it) are terrible eaters. they are getting better about not getting down from the table, but they like to be fed. (i know, i know! but it helps them eat, and eat just a little bit faster than they would on their own!) yesterday, delaney wanted to be fed at the same time as frankie, so since addie was done i asked her to feed franks. such a good helper!
(don't mind her leotard and hair or frankie's slip)

the other day while i was taking a shower i came up with a great fhe idea. so i called up laura and we were set!

delaney was getting some love from maggie. :)

laura made a delicous chicken with apple and watercress (which i have never had before) salad. here's part of the gang after dinner.

(jj came to join in the fun. ha and the girl he's sitting next to may or may not like eachother as more than friends. ifyouknowwhatimean.)

the rest of the crew burned off their dinner on the trampoline.

christian's the red splash of color down there.

(isn't their backyard fun?)

after dinner and visiting and trampoline-ing, i gave the lesson on easter. i had hidden some eggs and let everyone find them. each egg had an item and a scripture that related to it, all related to easter. each person took a turn opening their egg, showing the group what was inside, and then reading the scripture. then we were going to go easter caroling to sing one of my faves He is Risen, but we had visited and played so long that we decided to postpone that for another night. for our treat we ate leftover birthday cupcakes.

today is a laaaazy day. the little girls have runny noses, it's cold outside, and i am feeling blah. like someday maybe i'll catch up on my life. i'm sure most of it has to do with the weather and the fact that i've eaten junk all day and am still in my jams. that's okay. mama said there'd be days like this. ;) and as soon as the big kids get home from school we're heading into town to get them ready for their fun spring break trip to new york.

off to get dressed!

cupcakes and presents

because i couldn't get my act together (in my defense, i did just have a baby) we decided not to have a birthday party for frankie. she's only 2 and she really doesn't care, but of course i feel bad about it.
we also didn't go too crazy with the presents because she's gonna get a big girl bed when she moves into addie's room, which will be soon. sooo not ready for that, but since she climbs out of her crib a few times every day, it's probably time.

so here's our family party.

she loved the candles!

she wanted to touch them and hold the cupcake. :)

singing to her...

then after about 5 tries to blow out the candles, success!

and onto presents!

tea set from auntie henna birthday twin! she loves it!

alexis picked out this lion for her and she loved it!

so happy!

after she opened the lion she didn't want to put him down!

she's finally showing some interest in opening presents. it's amazing what 3 months can do, because she coudln't care less about unwrapping at christmas.

she had a great, easy, low-key birthday.

and now we have a 2-year-old. ;)