Up and Down

I have had my sister Christie's baby Kate for about three days this week. She is just three months younger than Ali. Having two busy one year olds keeps me going, but they are so cute. They have spent hours practicing going up and down the stairs.


Ali still isn't walking or talking at almost 17 months. She is at least showing some interest in walking by pulling herself to her feet. And occasional walking along furniture. I would be surprised if she takes off any time soon. All of this crawling has made for a very dirty summer. She will have no cloths to hand-me-down to a future sister or cousin because she has ruined everything she has. She does do a bumb scoot as well so her cloths are really tattered. It is sad. She loves to crawl into small spaces and and climb things, but no walking!


She does love her nightly bath and it is a good thing because she never gets to miss it.


Speaking of ups and downs - the major down of the summer has been getting Caleb to play piano or do any chore for that matter. You would think that I am trying to kill him by asking him to practice 3 songs 5 times each on the piano. There are days that he chooses to be grounded from friends, computer and video games rather than practice the piano which literally takes him less than 15 minutes. He has told me a million times, "I don't like to do anything hard. I just want to play." This is becoming a battle of wills and we are both very strong willed. It isn't that he just doesn't like piano. He doesn't like anything that requires effort. What is a mom to do??!!


Cara has her last day of preschool speech next week. She has been in speech therapy since she was 20 months old. (At the rate Ali is going she is on about the same track. Ali has said oh-oh a few times and da or dad in context, and she does a lot more babbling than I remember Cara doing. Cara didn't get her tubes until she was 19 months and Ali got hers at 12 so hopefully Ali will catch up faster. The ENT said that the most critical time to hear for speech development is 9-18 months.) Cara has been going to speech with Miss Wendy Cardon at the school district 3 times a week since she turned 3, 2.5 years ago. We will both miss Wendy. Cara really loves her! Cara is saying all of the age appropriate sounds but she will continue to have speech once a week after school through Kindergarden as long as she is "actionable" for the older sounds.


Andy is officially potty trained. After about six weeks of pooping in his under-ware 100% of the time and only going potty when he was taken there I decided to go to extreme measures. Of course there was positive reinforcement all of the time, but he didn't really care about the treats or the presents. So I needed a negative consequence. He didn't care one bit about wearing wet or poppy cloths, but I cared. It may sound like abuse (at least I wasn't hitting him, yelling at him or calling him names) I gave him cold showers. He "needed to get clean." I would only put him in for a few seconds and he would scream "this isn't funny" over and over. It would make him so mad! After just a few days he started telling me every time he needed to go potty without me even asking and after a few more days he started going poop in the potty too. It is great to have that done.


Now that Andy is potty trained he is practically perfect again. He loves to play outside and is very content with whatever we are doing. We got a kit and hatched a "fish" a few weeks ago. It is growing like crazy and it has been fun for all of the neighborhood kids to watch. (The gunk on the tank was part of the kit. That is what the eggs came in.) I know, this is very much like a pet. I hope that nature takes its course and it dies soon. I am avoiding becoming attached.

Swimming Lessons

Caleb and Cara just finished a week of swimming lessons at a neighbors pool. Their teacher was Liz Hadfield. She has been teaching swimming forever and is SO GOOD at it. Six or so inches of Cara's hair is VERY green. She thinks it is cool to have green hair. The kids loved swimming and made an amazing amount of progress for just a week!

Just another day in July

The kids have just been hanging out in the cul-de-sac today. I took the camera out to document "just another day in July." The older kids weren't too excited about getting their picture. Caleb is the youngest of the older boys (and London). They "have nothing to do." They are often found playing a game of soccer or basket ball, but tonight they were hanging on the Benson's porch.


The girls were just hanging out too. They love to do art and pretend. They spend a lot of time in garages where it is shady. Just being together can be fun too. Today they ate over 100 cream and fruit pops from our outside freezer. I am not a fan of the sticky mess so I figure the sooner they are gone the better off we are.


It was an exciting moment when the bigger kids saw that there was something to do - jump in the girls picture. This was all followed by a water fight and begging to have a "camp fire" in the fire pit we built in the empty lot next to our house.


Andy was racing trikes with two little boys his age. (There are 4 boys in 6 houses closest to us that will all be in Andy's grade in school.) They were so darn cute! I took this little photo story.








On just another evening in July the neighborhood kids caught three large snakes within just a few minutes. To say the kids were excited is a huge understatement. Here are the girls showing off one of the snakes.

$20 well spent

If you know Caleb you know that he is obsessed with sports! He is particularly fond of football. He has been looking forward to being old enough to play tackle football this fall. I am the type of parent that wants my children to try the things that they are interested in even if it is something that I am not personally thrilled about. That is where I stand with football. It really isn't my thing, but I am willing to let him give it a try. In the spring I learned that it costs $200+ to play, that there is practice every night, and that games are not just in Cache Valley. Despite the time and financial commitment I was willing to let him play.

At the beginning of the summer I set him up on a hefty allowance schedule so that he could earn $50 to contribute to football. I wanted him to sacrifice a little in order to play. This week he received his first $22 installment of allowance. For a moment he was excited about using it for football, but when the reality set in that he could spend the money on anything he wanted all of a sudden football didn't seem as attractive. Within a few minutes he decided that he would rather have some battle blades (a popular toy) than play football. I was very clear with him that if he spent his money he wouldn't be able to play football. He told me "it's just a game." My jaw hit the floor.

We took the trip to the store on Tuesday and he spent his money. Last spring he didn't want to play soccer because all he could think about was football. I told him that since he isn't going to be playing football this fall he can play soccer and I will pay for it since it costs less. He said, "yah, I'll play soccer. It's a lot safer." A reply I though I would never hear from Caleb. He is loving his toy, and I am SO GLAD we learned his commitment level before the first week of football.

Lots of FUN with NO Pictures to Prove It

We are having a crazy fun, busy month, but ironically I have no pictures to document it. The crazy thing is that we have a new really nice camera. Since it is so nice I don't want to throw it in my purse and carry it around and it no longer occupies a place on my desk like our old camera. It is safely tucked away in a camera bag. Without the camera right in front of me I don't think of taking pictures, and taking pictures isn't something that comes naturally to me anyway. (We did take the camera to St. George and to take pictures on campus so if you scroll down you can see some awesome pictures we have taken with it.) I guess I had better get the old one out and start carrying it with me or at least put it in it's old home on the desk so that I take an occasional picture.

I have to tell you about our new camera. If you believe in the law of attraction this is a great story. If you don't believe in the law of attraction then we are just lucky and it is still a good story. When we went to Disneyland in the spring we stayed with a friend of mine, Angela, in Vegas. Angela and I have never known each other well, but I follow her blog and admire her immensely. I knew she would welcome my family in her home because she is just that kind of person. We were trying to do the trip as economically as possible which is what gave me the courage to intrude and ask her. Angela and her husband Mike were extremely hospitable and we enjoyed our time with them. At one point in the evening Josh noticed a camera. He picked it up and began admiring it. Josh loves cameras! He told Ang that was the camera he had been wanting and asked how she liked it. She told him that it was dropped a year earlier and had been sitting there because she couldn't bare to throw it out. She had considered getting it fixed but was quoted 100's of dollars so she decided to get a new one. SHE GAVE THE CAMERA TO JOSH. She gave him the receipt, the box, the warranty, everything! Josh was obsessed with getting it fixed while we were at Disneyland. One morning he took a trip to Fri's Electronics and got a few things and was ready to take it apart and fix it himself. I am not sure of the details but he started working on it, and it ended up being rather simple to fix. He has been so excited about this camera. He obsessed for a couple of months and got a portrait lens for it rationalizing that he NEEDED it to take my sister Connie's engagement pictures. Thanks Ang and Mike! It has been fun to have a great camera. I just worry about braking it myself.

I don't think my kids have been to bed before 10PM this month. We kicked of the month by having all four Low boys at our house for three full days. Dave and Erica were being session directors at an EFY session so I had the boys from about 8:30 AM to about 10:00 PM each day. It was a nonstop party around here with 8 kids 7 and younger. The kids had a great time and I did good too. I didn't expect to get anything done except caring for the kids, and that is exactly what I did. We even ventured out a few times. We spent four hours one day at the splash pad at the park. It was play group and I didn't want to miss. We also went to the city aquatic center. That was a little crazy, but I put the six non swimmers in life jackets and parked myself in the wading pool with the majority. Josh, Connie and Colby were also there to help. The hardest part was getting them all showered and in dry cloths. I will admit that was mass chaos. The great thing is that the Lows took my kids this Friday and Saturday while Josh and went to Park City for a little retreat to celebrate our 9th anniversary. Tending is also easier when I know I am going to get my turn. Of course I love the Lows as if they were my nephews.

Friday, after having the extra kids for three days, we went to the Red Neck Water Slide in Wellsville. Imagine a hard core slip and slide going down a steep mountain with 100+ yards of flat landing at the bottom. We also enjoyed fantastic friends while we were there. We are so bless to be around such inspiring people. Friday night was the fireworks at USU. We got to see them from a special spot on top of a building. It was AWESOME!

The partying didn't stop on Saturday with Dawson's (one of the Low boys) birthday party and a huge bounce house/water park. It was great fun for the kids. Sunday we had a few friends over for homemade doughnuts. I was introduced to homemade maple bars on the 4th of July last year so I thought doughnuts might be a good 4th tradition. There were fireworks going off all over the neighborhood which kept us up late on Sunday. Then Monday was Independence Day. The weather has been beautiful this week and wasn't too hot of the parade on Monday. If you measure how good a parade is by the amount of candy a kid gets then the Hyrum 4th of July Parade is as good as it gets. The kids never sat down! We had an amazing barbecue at the Lows on Monday night and watched all of the neighbors fireworks. When Caleb asked Josh if he would buy some fire works Josh said, "I would get more excited about watching money burn." Josh is usually a party animal, but obviously he doesn't get into spending money on fireworks, but our neighbors do so we benefitted.

One highlight so far this summer is the fire pit that Josh and the neighborhood boys put in the empty lot next to our house. We are friends with the lot owner and they are really cool about letting us use the property while they are working in China. The only problem with the fire pit is that the kids would like to roast marshmallows every night. Josh has big plans for that lot. He would like to move the dirt a little and make a bike track around it. (Actually that was my idea. He would like to scrape the lot and put turf down or fill it with sand for volleyball.) We did get a basket ball hoop from my parents house and there have been some good evening basketball games in our driveway. Life is good!

Josh and I enjoyed our anniversary trip to Park City. The highlight was dinner. We had some of the best food I have ever tasted at a Italian restaurant in Deer Valley. Dinner was part of the hotel/dining package I got through travel zoo. We stayed at the Chateaux at Silver Lake and ate at the resort restaurant, Cena Ristorante. My mouth waters just thinking about it. The bad part of the trip is that Josh's back is acting up again. I can't stand it when he is crippled with back pain. It makes me mad at him, as if it is his fault. Thank goodness going to the chiropractor seems to help. After a weekend of hardly being able to move he seems to be doing better today after an adjustment. Oh the adventures of life!

Connie's Wedding

My baby sister Connie and Colby Law were married on June 18th in the Logan Temple. It was a perfect day, with a beautiful and happy bride and a handsome groom.

Potty Training and Other Daily Events

While it was raining outside, the last week of May, I suddenly decided it was time to potty train Andy. At that time we had nothing planned for June (except Connie's wedding) and it seemed like perfect timing. Andy will be three in September and I have decided to do Joy School with him. I am a huge fan of the neighborhood coop preschool. First, is is the right price. Second, I don't have to drive far, and third, I enjoy being involved with my children's preschool education. Since he will be in preschool in the fall he has to be potty trained. Sadly it is NOT GOING WELL.

I would like to use the excuse that he was in under-ware for four days and then we took a brake for five days while we were in St. George. We went right back to under-ware for eleven days and then another four day brake while were were in Powell. Unfortunately I don't think it is the vacations that is the problem. In the combined total of 18 days of training he has not pooped in the potty even once, and he has only ever told me he needed to go twice. If I set an alarm and take him every 1.5-2 hours he does fine, but he will not initiate going on his own. He doesn't seem motivated by rewards, and I haven't tried punishments because I don't really believe in that. I have tried the natural consequence of hanging out in wet cloths and he doesn't seem to care a bit!

I think every child is different when it comes to potty training. The way I remember it Cara trained in a day with an occasional accident at age 20 months. Caleb didn't train until he was 3.5. It was not easy, but he got it. Andy has been my golden child in every other way, but I think this might throw me over the edge. You might say he is too young, but I need to have him trained by September so I can't use that excuse. He does understand what he is supposed to do. Any ideas? Andy has been so easy that I guess I was due for him to throw something hard at me.

Here is a picture of the little potty boy after he got a marker. He had it all over, even on his tung.


Cara is loving being in dance and tumbling. I know that I am prejudice, but she seems so natural. She is really strong and has great balance. We are getting a killer deal on her lessons. She goes to two dance lessons a week for 30 minutes and a tumbling lesson for 1 hour 15 minutes for only $30/mo. I know! There is only one other little girl that goes to dance so she is taking semi-private lessons. There are no costumes and no performances, but I think it is a wonderful way to introduce her to these arts and see if she is interested.

One of the gals in the neighborhood had a dance class to raise money for Youth Conference. I like this picture of Cara even though she is facing back. They were doing some freestyle ballet. You can see that Cara has really good form for a five year old.


Here she is with the group of little girls from the neighborhood.


Cara is always busy. Sometimes I wonder if I am training her to be on the go. She has summer camp twice a week this summer with many of her friends, and she also has speech twice a week. She also has a demanding social schedule with Korrinne and Taylor. She was almost ready for bed the night I took this picture. Korrinne was learning to ride her bike without training wheels and Cara had to get right out there and learn too even in her PJ's and flip-flops.


I have to take advantage of every minute I am with her. I have been working on the piano with her in the morning and teaching her to read so that she feels smart when she starts school.

Ali is 15.5 months and still showing NO INTEREST in walking. It is killing me. I have never had a baby that crawled in the summer. Is is so filthy! I am pushing walking as much as I can. I guess she has made some progress. She pulls herself to her feet every once in a while and she will occasionally walk (not just scream) when I am holding her hands encouraging her. She is not cruising at all!

She does find trouble. This was Caleb's sunflower he had planted in a cup. She was more than happy to dump it out for him. I love it when she smiles and laughs. She is a serous gal, and we don't see enough smiles from her. It takes a real pro to get her laughing.


I think her tubes are helping her, and I hope we got them early enough that she will start talking soon! She was really sick early this month. She had a 103 fever for 5+ days. Her ears drained (she had an infection) and she was so sick with a cold in her eyes that it turned to infection in them. Poor Ali has a rough time, and she loves to give people a run for their money. She knows what she wants and she is going to get it.

Caleb is having a fun summer. He thinks he has the worlds meanest mom because I make him play the piano, read, and practice math before he can play with friends. He can make 10 minutes of piano, a little reading and five minutes of math last all day long! He is a master staler. Today was the first day he got up and did his jobs without too much complaining. I won't hold my breath, but maybe he is catching on that the staling and fits aren't doing much good. In fact, last week he told me that he would find a new family by the time he turns 8 because in our family the kids all have to learn the piano. Being the mean mom I am I told him to go ahead.

Caleb almost always has a ball in his hands. We got a hoop in our driveway this month and he loves to shoot hoops and he has been spending a lot of time with the tennis ball and racket. He plays soccer with the kids in the cul-de-sac, and for about a month this spring he was totally obsessed over baseball. He would continually beg Josh to go to the park and pitch for him. His main sports obsession continues to be "tackle" football. He CAN'T WAIT to play in the fall. He isn't even complaining that he has to save $50 to contribute to the expense of being on a team. After a few months of lessons he is over marshal arts so I guess we can check that off the list.

I was really worried about having him "full-time" this summer. He is totally exhausting. He is mostly good, he just never stops talking and begging. I am convinced that if I gave him the moon he would ask for the sun. I have realized that I don't really have him full-time because he is also obsessed with playing with his BFF Isaac. I understand that he is really good for Isaac's mom, Erica, he wouldn't dare be bad or he would have to go home. Oh no, not that!

What a week!

We have been having a really fun summer, and this past week will certainly be a highlight. When my sister Cathie and her four kids come to town we always have so much fun with them. The cousins love to be together. Saturday was the annual Romer Reunion, and it was awesome. I love my cousins and aunts so much! I am so proud of them and love it when we get together. I hope that reunion continues forever!

At the reunion Cathie mentioned that she wished we could go to Lake Powell with her and her mother and father in law Sunday-Wednesday since none of the Coombs' cousins were going to make it. I said that we would be willing to drop everything and go if her in laws, Craig and Rita, were up for it. (They were providing the beautiful house boat, the top of the line ski boat, and the food.) She didn't dare ask them so when she got to their home on Sunday afternoon to leave my nephew Colter asked. Apparently they were looking for another family to join them. Cathie called and said we could go around 5:00 Sunday evening and we were on the road by 6:00. It was awesome!

This was a get away that we would have never been able to afford on our own right now. We are so grateful to the Coombs' for their generosity. We keep the ski boat running all of the time. Of course the tube was a huge hit. Josh and I love tubing, and the kids did too. Craig is the most awesome and experienced boat driver I have ever known and he made tubing a great experience.







There was also a toy called a ski trainer. It is basically a tube that the kids ride and they can stand up and hold a rope as if they were skiing. Cara was almost never out without her thumb up begging for speed. She loved every moment, even the two times that the tube filled with water while she was on it. She even tried skiing. She didn't get up her first try and we weren't pushing it so she didn't try again.


Caleb took his water sports very seriously. He had to warm up to the idea of each thing, but once he did it, he loved it.


Josh and I both loved surfing on the wake of the boat.





One of the highlights of the trip was going to the "canyons" and seeing the beauty of lake Powell. Craig spends one week a month at Powell so he know just where to go. We swam in the beautiful water. Josh, Cathie, Colter, and Cara did a little cliff jumping. (Of course Cara only jumped from a couple of feet, but she loves a thrill.) Riding on the boat was great. Andy was just happy to be there.


He would sit at the back of the boat and watch everyone take their turns. He is so easy going. I kept his life jacket on ALL of the time except when he was in his pack-and-play sleeping. He isn't a big water guy.


He was happy to just stick his toes in the water on occasion, and he loved feeding the ducks and carp.


Six kids, five adults, wonderful toys, what an opportunity! Luckily for us Josh's brother Gabe's girlfriend took Ali making the trip even more enjoyable.


We got back from Powell in time to get ready for Connie's wedding, which I will save for another post when we get pictures back from the photographer. It was an awesome week!

Spontaneous

One of the hallmark traits of Josh and I is that we can be extremely spontaneous. I love to plan, and I do plan a lot. But when the opportunity to be spontaneous presents itself I can often leave my plans and jump on board. Memorial weekend was no different. Wednesday evening a client of Josh's in St. George mentioned that he would like to meet sometime soon. Josh emailed him and said, "how about Friday?" Giving us an excuse to get out of the cold weather for the long weekend. Thursday morning I was super busy at about 2:00 Josh emailed me and said, "it's a go." We were in the car headed to St. George within two hours. We stayed for four nights and enjoyed the beautiful weather and sunshine. It was even better because we were missing snow and miserable weather in Cache Valley.

Our hotel had two pools (one indoor and one outdoor) and two hot tubs. It had a park and a soft play with a ball pit as well. It was heaven for the kids. We spent a lot of time at the pool. It was crazy for me to have the four kids at the pool alone while Josh worked, but it was fun!

Ali is a little water baby. She loves swimming! She did take a dive in by herself once. I have to include that it was while Josh was watching her. Caleb is quite independent in the pool and made friends with anyone who would play pass with him.


Cara loves the water too, but she is very careful about wearing her life jacket. She wanted me to help her "learn to swim" but she wouldn't swim more than a few inches from the edge of the pool without her jacket.


Andy made it easier by spending his time in the 2 foot wading pool. He has no interest in really swimming.


We did spend time at the awesome St. George parks where my girls especially loved the water.





The highlight for me was Sunday. The we had a peaceful morning at church and the temple. We captured a few sweet moments.

















We also went to Snow Canyon. We love it there! We went to one of the very small lava flow caves. These pictures tell a great story. The kids were very excited about going in. (We met a young man who had done it and was willing to show them the tricks.)


They all headed in.


Caleb promptly hit his head and came right back out - he wasn't really even in. I think the hit head gave him an excuse not to do it.


Cara emerged from the other end all smiles.


Another hike we did was to see the pioneer names. The kids love climbing the steep rocks. Andy really got into it this time too. You can see where Caleb stopped. That was high enough for him. Andy and Cara have no fear of rock climbing.


We had a great time being together.




We weren't even 30 minutes into the trip when Cara declared how she was already missing her friends. Sometimes it is good for the kids to get away and just be together. With six of us in a hotel room how could we not bond!