Passing the buck!

Last night we had dinner at my mom's house, with my grandpa.  My mom does dinner every Wednesday night, and we try to join as often as possible.  After dinner, I went down to the basement to round up my children, and saw, that, in the toys section, that the toys had pretty much exploded into a giant ball of mess.

I asked for some help as I was on my hands and knees.  Of the four children in the basement I had no takers.

Then I saw the Lego's.  There were teeny tiny Lego's everywhere.  It was a mess, to say the least.

"Elliott", I exclaimed!  "Help me clean up these Lego's!"

"Molly did it!" and he ran up the stairs.

"Wyatt, will you help me clean up these Lego's?" I asked.

"I don't want to.  Molly did it!"  He told me.

"I'll give you a dollar...." I replied.

"Okay, but Molly did it.  I saw her dump them out." he told me back.

"Molly, get over here and help me clean up these Lego's," I yelled to her across the room.

She walked over, casually dropped the toy she was carrying in front of me and looked me in the eye.

"Jack did it!" she declared.....

and walked away.

It was just me and Wyatt.

And he got two dollars.

Family Picture Time!

In 2009, when Wyatt was 2 months old, the famdamily headed to a portrait studio for a family photo session.  None of us like to get our pictures taken and so we knew that those pictures would last us for a while.

Well, I guess a while came.  There are three more kids in the family and my baby brother will be leaving in a few months to live in Lithuania for 2 years.  No time like the present to get some new family photos taken.

Initially, we tried to do the pictures in February and Molly got sick on the way to the studio.  We waited again until the summer, and after several scheduled sessions, discovered conflicts, and rescheduled sessions, we finally got the pictures done on Friday night.  At 7:15.  Which was too late for a couple of the kiddos to be on their best behavior.  So, poor, tired, teething Quinner will be marked in his one year old family photos as a bit of a cry baby.  But, he tried hard to be a good boy and crashed out immediately in the car on the way home.  Molly and Jack had their moments, Molly being our ever loving family drama queen, but Elliott and Wyatt were gems....they've got this family photo stuff down.

Maybe it's because I take their pictures all the time!

Anyway, the pictures, even with Quinn crying, turned out great and I'm glad that we've got them to last us at least another two or hopefully another four years.

Called to serve...the people of Lithuania!

 

We've all been nervous for a week.

The phone call on Wednesday was to tell me that the letter did not come.

When the phone call came on Thursday, I had everything crossed.

Me: So?

Willie: It came!

Me:  Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh I'm so excited.  Wyatt come here!

Wyatt:  Willie, did your missionary papers come?

Willie: Yes!

Wyatt:  Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

Elliott:  I just got out of the bathroom, Willie, did your missionary papers come?

Willie: Yes!

Elliott:  Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

Quinn:  Tooka tooka tooka!

We were the last to arrive at my parents house at 8:00 pm last night.  There was a huge crowd of family and Willie's friends.  My mom made him sit on a folding chair in the middle of the room like when he was a little kid on his birthday.  He opened the letter and read it to himself.  His eyes bugged out of his head a little, he fanned his face (Probably a little veklempt) and then he started to giggle a bit.  Once he gained his composure, he read us the first paragraph, that he has been called to serve in the Baltic Mission, specifically Lithuania!

Holy Freaking Cow, batman!

Now, we all of course made guesses and surprisingly, the majority of our guesses were in Europe.  But not Eastern Europe.  That was really quite a shock for everyone.  I was nervous all day yesterday, but when I talked to my mom on the phone yesterday afternoon I told her that I just really wanted him to go to Europe.

I got my wish.

I wonder how long it takes for the mail to get to Lithuania?

This morning, driving to school, all the boys wanted to talk about was Uncle Willie's mission.  Elliott wanted to know if we can skype him and draw him pictures and how many months and days he'll be gone.  Wyatt?  He was in the back just telling us he was picking his nose and farting.

Willie said he wanted his mission to be an adventure.  Well, an adventure is coming!  He reports to the MTC on February 26, 2014.  It's going to be crazy.

 

Quinner :: 12 month stats

Yesterday, my hunka hunka burnin' love went to the doctor.  He got 5 shots.  He has at least 2 molars trying to break through in his mouth.  He is not a happy camper.

He does however weight 28.6 pounds and is 32 inches tall.  I haven't looked at the other boys baby books yet, but I think that officially makes him the biggest monkey of them all.

Happy Birthday to my Grandma P.

If I have my math correct, my Grandma P. celebrated her 70th birthday the year I got married.  That means that if she were alive today, she'd be 80!  It's funny that both my grandma's have birthday's within 5 days of each other in September.  I think they must have planned it up in heaven so that once they left us on earth, we'd make sure to always remember them.

My Grandma P. was a remarkably classy and awesome lady.  Every year at Easter, she would make us chocolate peanut butter eggs.  I lived for those eggs.  She was so talented in so many ways and now that I'm older, I wish that I would have concentrated more when she tried to teach me to sew, to crochet, to cook.  If only I would have known....

But, now that I've taken up sewing as a bit of a hobby, I think about my grandma every day.  Each time I finish a project, I know that she would be proud of me.  I may not have paid attention when I was a kid, but I'm trying to make up for it now.

When Elliott was born, he was the first great-grandchild for my grandma and she was smitten.  She died a few months before Wyatt was born.  In fact, I hadn't told anyone but my parent about being pregnant with Wyatt prior to my grandma's passing.  Ross and Elliott and I were on our way home from Lake Tahoe the night my dad called to tell me that she was slipping away and probably wouldn't make it through the night.  I was so sad that I wasn't close enough to say goodbye, but I asked my dad to whisper in her ear that another baby was going to be joining us. 

At least she got to meet the crazy chick in heaven.

And now, from that one great grandchild, there are so many more.  10 in fact.  And I know that she is in heaven and couldn't be prouder of all of us kids and our kids.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Today would have been my Grandma Huber's 83 birthday.  It's been almost three years since she passed away on January 22, 2011.  She died the day before Elliott's birthday and forever and ever, the day of his birth with be closely associated with the day of my Grandma's passing.

I posted probably my most favorite picture of my Grandma on Instagram today and got lots of really nice comments.

This photo is quintessentially my grandma!  We will never know what she was talking to these little farts about (she called these three the triplets, all being born within months of each other), but I know it was important.  Probably about the candy in her purse.  Or threatening them to be good for the picture.  Or a really neat story about the temple.

I think about her every day.  I talk to her every day.  Not every day, but a lot of days, I get teary thinking about her.  So much of who I am, how I talk and carry myself, how I dress, how I raise my kids is influenced by this awesome lady.  I just hope she is looking down on me from heaven, telling me that I'm doing a good job, because I'm trying really hard to do a good job.

To celebrate my Grandma, my Grandpa wanted all those who could make it to meet at the cemetery at 6:30 tonight.  We all showed up, on time, and he said a few words and then offered a family prayer.  Today was an interesting day because it rained cats and dogs most of the day and was blustery and dreary.  But, when it was time to gather and remember, the clouds parted, the blue sky came out, and the rays of heaven shown down on us.

My grandma definitely has some weight to throw around in heaven.

There was a good chunk of the family missing tonight (15 or so members) but we were all there ready to celebrate.  And, like all of our family parties, food became our primary focus.  My grandma loved to go out for a burger and so that's what we all did....grandpa's treat!  All 40 or so of us rained down on Crown Burgers like a hurricane and, being super crowded anyway, swept over the place.  They ran out of ice, soda, and fry sauce. 

Happy Birthday Grandma.

I will love you forever and always!

Quinn's first birthday celebration

So, for the first time in maybe forever, I totally dropped the ball on the birthday front.  My sweet little baby is the third kid.  The third first birthday.  Maybe I realized that a first birthday isn't that big of a deal.  Maybe I am just lazy and forgot.  Regardless, the day after his birthday the boys and I went to toys r us to take Quinn shopping.  They turned on every single toy on the baby aisle and he reached out and grabbed the one he thought was the best.  And he ate the cardboard as we continued through the store throwing other crap into our cart.

On Wednesday night, we had a little party with my immediate family and Grandpa Huber.  It was our regular Wednesday night dinner and we just had a barbecue at our house.  We got treats from Schmidt's - cookies for the guests and a little cake for the birthday boy.

My mom couldn't believe that I just let that little fart, on the carpet no less, destroy a beautiful Schmidt's cake but we did.  He was the first of my one year old's to even be willing to touch a cake let alone completely annihilate it and start eating the cardboard.

Hmmmm.  Cardboard.  Perhaps there is a theme?

Anyway, the kid had a great party with lots of presents and lots of present helpers.  What more could a cute and squishy one year old ask for.

Maybe to walk, but he's working on that.

And, to add insult to my lack of party planning injury, my camera is broken.  The birthday boy himself pulled my fancy SLR off the counter and now it doesn't work.  So, there are only a few lousy cell phone pictures to document the big day.

Sorry kiddo.

We still love you lots!

Another Griswald Adventure!

We realized that with a possible four day weekend in front of us, and a kid who is off track from school, and that it was the last week of summer, we should probably DO something.  So, my husband planned a nice little "stay cation" for us over Labor Day.

We stayed at a nice little resort near Jordanelle Reservoir called Stillwater.  Our unit was three connected rooms.  A room with a king bed, a room with a kitchen, and a room with bunk beds for the boys.  Even though Quinn was a caged tiger and a super pain in the but getting into everything, emptying cupboards, turning on the gas range, and shoving towels into the bathtubs and turning on the water, we had a lot of fun.

On Saturday, we drove into the nether regions of Pleasant Grove to find the Waffle Love waffle truck.  To get a waffle.  It was absolute heaven.  My was smeared with nutella and strawberries and whip cream and it was worth the drive.  Then, we drove up to Heber City and rode the Heber Creeper through Soldier Hollow, got lost in the mess that was the end of Swiss Days in Midway and had a dinner snafu at a pizza place in Park City.  The pizza was good.  Our children were not.  But, finding a couple of deals at the outlet mall made up for it.

On Sunday,  the big boys rode the chair lift at Sundance while Quinn and I looked for Robert Redford (he wasn't there) and bough a very expensive rice krispie treat and chocolate chip cookie.   We drove from Heber to Sundance to....Lehi for lunch.  There is so little open in Utah County on a Sunday that our options were terribly limited so Culver's it was.  Sunday was by far one of the worst food days in the history of any traveling I've ever done, by the way.  It just wasn't in the cards to eat a good meal.

We took the boys fishing at Vivian Park in Provo Canyon and they had a ton of fun learning how to fish for a real fish instead of casting to the grass in the backyard.  I was really proud of their patience with the whole thing and had a wonderful (15 minute) nap on a blanket in the grass while Quinn slept in his stroller.

On Sunday night, we came back to our condo, watched a little duck dynasty and then headed out for dinner when, low and behold, most stuff in Park City was closed on a Sunday, too.  So, without going into any detail, we ended up at the Arby's in Kimball Junction.  EPIC FOOD FAIL!  And, as has happened every other time we've taken him to Arby's...Wyatt threw up.

And to add salt to the wound, we went into a Wal-Mart in the pouring rain to get some things for breakfast and as all trips to Wal-Mart end up, it was bad.  Really, really bad.

On Monday, it was of course Quinner Quinner Chicken Dinner's birthday so we sang to him a hundred times.   After the celebration was under way we got packed, went to Ross' favorite Mexican food place in all of Utah, El Chubasco and headed home for a long Monday full of lots of grumpiness.  I mean, that's what holiday's are for, right?

Regardless, it was a great little weekend.  I love my boys and they make me laugh.  Quinn totally loved the Heber Creeper and hung his whole body out the window waving to the trees and the grass as we drove by.  Elliott and Wyatt were really good and had so much fun.  My good husband planned a whole weekend just for us, his little family.  He took charge of every detail.  I LOVE it when he does that.  He even talked to me in the car instead of just listening to his headphones.  I love that even more.

Quinner: O N E Y E A R O L D !

 

Oh me oh my!  Today my baby you are ONE YEAR OLD!  I am so excited I can hardly stand it.  In our family, on your birthday you get to pick a birthday activity and a place to go to dinner.  But, since you're not quite at that stage, mom and dad picked for you.  Instead of a birthday activity, you got a mini vacation full of loads of fun with your family.  Yee Ha!

Little buddy of  mine, I love you so much.  I don't know what we did without you and I can hardly believe how quickly the last year has blown by.  You were a puzzle piece in our little family and filled a huge gap.  You are smart as a whip, crazy funny, and almost always happy to be wherever we are.  Yes, you'd like to be outside more, but little boys who eat bugs don't get to spend as much time outside as they would like.

Your little personality is starting to shine, and I can hardly wait to see what it brings.  You laugh and snort like a pig.  You can do the animal sound for a fish and a snake and a dog.  You can almost whistle and can go up the stairs standing, using the railing for balance.

I'm not sure if you are ever going to walk because it's pretty much impossible to learn to walk on your tip toes, but you are a great dancer so that must count for something.

You say, mom and dad when you want us and if we're outside when dad gets home from work, you crawl to his truck at lightning speed and say, "Hi dad!" a couple of times until he picks you up. 

You love to eat and drink and in the last little while you've had diet coke, coke zero, and a milkshake from chick-fil-a.  Oh, and smoothies - you love smoothies.  There isn't anything you've tried yet that grossed you out although watching you eat a few things, like pasta and mandarin oranges grosses me out to the max.

There are times I forget that you are such a big boy and wish that I had my little squisher back but there are others that you seem so grown up - that the world just feels right.  It's maybe the times you are playing in the toilet and shoving countless treasures from the floor into your mouth that I wish you weren't mobile, but most of the time, it's okay.

Your brothers and I are teaching you itsy bitsy spider.  You love it.  When we finish, you grab my hands and put them in the air so we can start again.  You actually grab hands for lots of things - anything that you need that you need us to do for you.  You are pretty smart about stuff like that and impress me all the time.

Oh my boy!  Everyone loves you.  But me, your mama?  I love you the most.

Happy "I survived my first year" day.