D.C.

 (LOTS of pictures :) )

 We took the 3 oldest children on a trip to Washington D.C. March 16th -21. (Sanders played with Nana and Evan ---and his parents and little brother Graham. Thank you! Thank you!) Kevin has been traveling to D.C. for four years now and the kids have come to view it as this magical fairyland...it MUST be because sometimes Dad stay there for 3 weeks at a time!

 Beckham had not flown on a plane since he was 9months. Karaia was 2 the last time and this was Tennyson's first time. He kept saying, "This is my FIRST time on a plane!" It was darling

The fun part about this trip is Grandpa Jim let us use some extra air line tickets and Grandma Candace let us share her snug, but beautiful, hotel room. It made the trip possible. Thank you SO much Grandma and Grandpa!!!!

In front of the White House

 Beckham kept "causally" calling out, "Barack Obama," in every day conversation. I think he thought if he said it enough the President would appear.

Yes, there are a million of the same pose because my children seem to like to see just how many different combinations of NOT looking at the camera they can get. :)

There was a protest in front of the White House too. It became a good education opportunity for the kids.

In the back of the White House. We were there on St. Patrick's day, hence the green shirts, and they had dyed the fountain water green!

Washington Monument. It was closed because just a few months (?) earlier there had been an earthquake making it unsafe to tour the inside.

 The next pictures are of the natural history museum. This is always such a fun place. The kids loved it.

 Beckham HAD to take a picture of the Hope Diamond.

 We walked next door to the American History museum. Most of us agreed that we preferred this museum. The one thing we didn't get to see were the Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz. They were renovating that section.

 We took lots of pictures by the trains to show Sanders.
We missed him, but knew he was having a lot more fun staying at home.

 Karaia's favorite thing to do was mimic the statues we found. She got really good at it.

My favorite one!

Beckham had to get in on the fun too ;)

Notice the statue in the background

I love this one of Beckham

This was one of the highlights of  the whole trip for my kids. Our own personal room for dinner! They couldn't wait for the waiter to be done serving us so we could close the curtains. Hilarious! Grandma Candace treated us to our favorite meal of the year, corned beef and cabbage....in "our personal room!" I'm pretty sure Tennyson talked about that room  the rest of the trip!! Thank you Grandma!

 This ice cream was bigger than Tennyson. Cinnamon ice cream YUM!

 Later that night we walked around the monuments all lit up. It's pretty magical.

Beckham wanted me to take a picture that looked like he was climbing the Washington Monument....night pictures aren't really my thing...

 We figured out that NOT including all the walking we did in the museums we walked just over 6 miles this first day!!! Karaia and Beckham walked it all and the only complaint we heard was when we were about a half mile away from the hotel when we realized that Beckham had  just about worn through the heals of his shoe!

 The next day we headed to Arlington Cemetery. It was beautiful. I am always struck by the uniformity of the head stones and the beautiful contrast of the white and green.

 We had a chance to watch The Changing of the Guard.

 This tree was gorgeous! The pictures don't come close to capturing it.

Beckham's face cracks me up in this one!

Next it was on to the Air and Space museum.

 Grandpa Jim is in Iraq at the moment making sure these Predator plans can communicate with the pilots. The kids LOVED see what Grandpa works on!

Totally caught Beckham right in the middle of a sneeze! Ha! See how happy Tennyson is? He loves his Grandpa Jim!

This is the picture Tennyson took of, "Grandpa's plane"

The next day, we headed out to Jefferson Memorial. We were a week away from the Cherry Blossom festival, but you would never know! This was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

There is nothing better than a canopy of blossoms to walk under!

Gorgeous!

Some of the branches almost touched the water.

The Tidal Basin is HUGE. Look at how many trees in bloom there are!

Jefferson in the background

Karaia's poses were so funny this trip :) Tennyson could not understand WHY I was asking him to look at the sun for a picture.

"Hey, Beckham...we don't bite!"

Much better!

We tried "climbing" Washington Monument during the day...at least you can see BOTH Beckham and the monument at the same time!

Standing next to a million dollars at the treasury

We thought this squirrel was so funny hanging upside down eating the acorn. 

In front of the Capital

 Our last full day we decided to go to the National Zoo. Neither Kevin or had been before. It was fun to experience something new as a family.

We loved this exhibit where the animals intermingled with the humans. So fun!

Eating at the Hard Rock Cafe!

 If was nice to meet up with Grandma Candace at the end of the day. She had been working all week and the kids always wondered when she would get to play with them again. Thank you for dinner!!

If you didn't know this was our last day of a fully packed trip...just look at Tennyson's face. I think we nearly killed him. He loved it, but it was a lot for such a little kid.

Tennyson loved everything we did, but we could always tell when he a)needed a snack b) needed a change of view because he would close his eyes and moan, "I want to go back to the hotel!" but as soon as we took care of either a or b he was good to go for another round.

Heading for the airport on the train

Happy but tired!

We had a WONDERFUL trip! It was everything we had hoped for.

I for one am SO glad I finally got it documented!!! WAHOO!

Did you know?

Hello?

Anyone still here?

I'm lame with the blog writing this year. I think about it every day, but I don't even sweep my kitchen floor everyday (don't judge) let alone keep up with journaling my life. It should be a priority however.

Right now I am struggling defining the proper priorities. OBVIOUSLY.

What? You're not surprised?

I have a revelation the other day in the shower. That is seriously the only alone thinking time I get. Or at 1:00 am...hence the post. I feel the reason I haven't been posting as much is because I am such an open person. Hang with me. It will all make sense in a second. See, there are a LOT of really, really exciting things happening in my life. But many of them I can't talk about here because they are business related and therefore should not be broadcast publicly until they actually come to fruition. That makes blogging really, really, REALLY hard for me!

Of course I hear your objections, "Just blog without mentioning all the business-y stuff!"

The answer? That's hard! It effects so much. And I hate...HATE doing teaser blogs about some mysterious thing happening because I want to document the day it actually happened but I can't really spill the beans because nothing has actually happened yet. WHEW! I've done it before and I just don't like it. I'll share it with you in person...I just can't on the ol' blog.

But then there are the things that I do with my cute kids. Did you know that we took three family trips in a 6 week period recently. No? Well we did. And we had amazing times in D.C., Colorado, and Disneyland.

Did you know that if you ask Sanders if he loves you he will say, "Yeah...a lil' bit."

No? Well he does and it's darling.

Did you know that when Tennyson plays soccer he extends his arms to the side and flaps them up and down like a bird...completely forgetting he should be chasing a ball? OR on the rare occasion that he remembers he has an actual goal he will take those extended arms and extend them to the back to give him an extra boost of speed like a super hero cape?

No? Well it's hilarious and frustrating all wrapped up in one.

Did you know that out of the blue an amazing company contacted Kevin and offered him an amazing job?  It's true. It happened. Still feels like a dream.

Did you know that Beckham played a piece in his piano recital that his piano teacher confided in me was more challenging than her older students can play and that people would be shocked to learn he is only 7? There were many tears learning that piece, but come performance time he ROCKED it! I swear that was the most nerve wracking 4 and a half minutes of my life!!!

Did you that Karaia told me that lime green finger nail polish was a perfectly acceptable color for a mother to wear on her fingers nails? I took her advice and sported some killer nails to church :)She's very honest so I know I can trust her. She pointed out that I have a bit of bump on the bridge of my nose yesterday. I told her thanks for letting me know and that that was a very impolite observation so try and keep such comments to only me. I can take it :) she may be a bit too honest *wink*

See, it's all those things and more that I am missing out on documenting because I feel like I can't share my WHOLE life. That's messed up right there is what that is!

Missing out on your own life. Isn't that the saddest thing you've ever heard?

Something inside me has to change. Maybe it already has....

Strange math

Tennyson: "Mom, Do boys and girls get married so their numbers can change?"

Luckily we had just been talking about birthdays or I, like you right about now, would have been completely lost.

Me: "Do you mean, do they get married so that they will be a different age when they have a birthday?"

T: "Yes."

M: " No. Your age changes when you have a birthday and you're not married."

T: "Oh. Right."

It's so fun to hear what a four year old thinks about. 

In a nut shell

Our friend, whom we haven't seen in awhile, asked about our kids. This is the email I sent. And I realized that while this is not a complete description, as there is also more good and more of the challenges that could be added, it was a pretty good nut shell of our family dynamics for the moment. Enjoy :)

The kids are mostly good. I'm sure I will miss this time shortly, but some days....I just want to sell one, or all of them, until someone else fixes their issues, but then of course I'd like them back immediately when they are perfect thank you very much! Luckily, most days are not like that.

Let's focus on mostly the good, while still keeping it real, shall we. Agreed.

Karaia: She is 9!!! It's nearly impossible to wrap my brain around that fact. She is gorgeous and has started worrying about what her teeth look like (poor thing. There is NO question she will need braces). She is a good student if she is not distracted by her friends. Her giggle is infectious. She is sweet and loving and never lets her or any parent leave the house without at LEAST two kisses and a hug. Sometimes two hugs if she starts heading her way and feels the first won't last until we are reunited. She will run back and remedy the situation and then happily return to her way. She also has started to have an attitude of the teenage variety....just to keep me highly aware of the law of oppositions. Sigh. She loves soccer and wants to be a cheer leader and a mom...not at the same time, heaven help us. But those are the long term goals. She is super tall and it will not be many more years before she passes my height. She is an invaluable helper when it comes to her little brothers and has improved a TON in her reliability this past year.

Beckham:  (7) Oh Beckham! This one is full of extremes. He can be SO funny, but he fancies himself the class/family clown...not everyone is quite on the same page with that self diagnosis. We try not to crush any spirits per say, but there are times when the same joke after the 20th time is just no longer funny...or was not funny the first time it was told. He has a temper that we are working on. He must run around the house 10 times or a half a mile if his temper gets the better of him. This has resulted in many loud, verbal, public shouts of how awesome we are as parents and what a grand time he is having under our care as he is performing the task he has earned...it's fantastic *eye roll* HOWEVER, every time he finally completes the physical activity he has earned he comes back very penitent and introspective AND willing to have the hard conversations and look at how HIS behaviors contributed to the situation without flying off the handle. It's hard, but I can see it working and if I can save his future wife from having to train the temper out of him it is worth it. He is also my most spiritually in tune child at this time. He recognizes and feels the Holy Ghost strongly and recognizes his error quickly. He longs to understand perfectly and asks many of the important questions. He wears his heart on his sleeve. It's never hard to tell what Beckham is feeling, good and challenging. See, I told you. Extreme. He's a fun one to watch learn because it often doesn't take long. Family is important to him. He has started baseball and is loving it along with playing soccer. Super busy.

Both Karaia and Beckham play the piano and have started to really, really bloom into very developed players. This is the fun part. This makes all the practice fights worth it! They will have been playing for 4 years this July.

Tennyson: He is 4 and will be 5 in June. Tennyson is stubborn. Period. He has this twinkle in his eye that melts anyone's heart, but especially mine. He is also my child that gets me the most frustrated the quickest. He is STILL working on keeping his underwear dry ( see we are true friends...I'm sure you care nothing for the bathroom habits of my 4 year old, but you asked about my kids and frankly, THIS is what we talk about most when we talk about Mr. T as of late). I can't seem to find his pay off when it comes to this subject. He has an excellent talent of being able to take whatever life hands him and find joy. This makes any punishment nearly ineffective as he just copes with his newly restricted situation. It will serve him well later in life, but right now I wish he would just WALLOW for half a second about his hard life that he chose because of his actions. Then maybe he'd decide it was a much better plan to make the effort to make it to the restroom. As it is, his mantra seems to be when he's had a privileged taken away, "That's ok. No big deal!" But not in a sassy way. But in a find joy in the journey kind of a way. It's extremely frustrating and tiring. And then he starts to giggle and it's all I can do to remember it doesn't do anyone any good to let him get away without a consequence. When he is choosing the right he is very good company and one of those people that just makes you believe you are amazing. He is very quick to forgive and truly believes all people have good intentions...all the time.There is so much unconditional love in that little body. He nearly shines. It's an incredible characteristic in one so young.

Sanders: (3) Is a big bully right now. He thinks he is on the same level as Kevin and I and tries to direct and coerce the others into the same line of thinking. He wants everyone to share with him and wants NOTHING to do with sharing with anyone else. He loves to play with you one on one and if you can convince him sharing is fun, is so, so fun to be around. His imagination is incredible and is often found lost in a world of fantasy he has created ready to invite you in if he catches your eye. He loves playing with the big kids. Don't you dare call him little. He'll have something to say about it if you do. He is completely potty trained!!! YAY! And rarely, if ever,has any accidents. (you can see now why we are so focused on Tennyson reaching the same goal) He is my music dancer whenever a song in the car strikes him as awesome. He can be very sweet and loves a good cuddle and a good book, but prefers if you don't sing. He likes to tattle on everyone and be vaguely naughty just to tell you what he's doing right. For example: He opened his door one night after I'd put him to bed to tell me, "Mom! I'm not slamming the doooooooor!" Shortly after that he opened the door again to inform me, "Mom! I'm not getting out of my room at night! Just out of my bed!" He doesn't like to be told what to do, but he does like to please you when he feels like it's been his idea. He is actually my most obedient child and gets a good joke.

So there you have it. My children in a nut shell. They make me work for the motherhood title, but I'm not sure I would change that if given the option. They are turning into wonderful little people and everyday there is more enjoyment as opposed to endurance.

Still here

Man! I am boring lately!

I still need to document our D.C. trip and Sanders' friend birthday party. Ack! But I am getting ready for a few different events at the moment, a trip,making a scripture bag, maybe buying a digital textile printer (I know! Fun!), and trying, and failing, to keep any sort of pretend atmosphere of cleanliness in my house. GROSS!

 But I am here! I have amazing friends who are so, so good to me. They keep taking my boys for long play dates and it has been SO helpful! Thank you Nicki, Jo'elle and Jaime!!

And my mom. Oh my mom. How would I even make my crazy schedule work without her? It's simple. I would not. She's so willing to come and play mom for me when I just can't be in two places at once. Thank you mom!

Thinking

I'm feeling very under accomplished today.  It's spring break for the kiddos and we've just been hanging out. Not that that's bad, I  mean we are going to Colorado AND Disney this month so we really have to be wise with our money. Still, I can't help but thinking that I'm not going to have these weeks forever and I should be making more memories.

Or doing more or being more.

I don't know. I just need to be....more....for them.

Which probably starts, as it always seems to start, with getting my home organized.

Why?

Because then I won't be wasting time avoiding getting the stuff I need to get done by doing lame things and I will spend it being a fun, good mom.

Doesn't make sense to you? Me either when I type it, but you should hear how it sounds in my brain. Golden. :)

Mostly excited

Today we spilled the beans to the kids.

We are taking them to Disneyland later this month!! I had high hopes, as always, of witnessing jumps of joy, and honestly maybe a few tears of happiness shed, when we told them the news.

What I got was still good, but I do set the bar high in my mind.

Today is April Fools day, we didn't do anything for it, but I decided in the afternoon to see if I could tie the trip and the day together. The kids have known for awhile that sometime this year we will be going to Disneyland because Sanders in now 3 and that has been the plan for awhile.

I gathered the kids together and said, "You know how we were planning on going to Disneyland sometime this year? Well, it looks like that won't be able to happen."

Beckham got concerned, but Karaia just started laughing because my timing was horrible and my statement was recently preceded by a conversation about the nature of the day. She saw right through my ruse.

Eventually I got around to saying, "April Fools! We are going (I'll leave the details of the dates out---it's a public blog after all *wink*)!

The joy was there it was just restrained. Karaia silently raised her fits in the air and started pumping them. Beckham turned to see what Karaia's reaction would be. Sanders was building legos and couldn't be bothered to try and decipher such adult conversation and Tennyson was similarly occupied.

The payoff came when Kevin repeated the news to Tennyson who said, "WHAT?!?!?!? I DIDN'T KNOW THAT! We are going to Disneyland TODAY!!!" He didn't let the correction that we weren't actually going today distract from his excitement as he turned to relay the news to Sanders. Sanders got very excited and then quickly went back to some serious lego building.

So all in all we are all very excited and now I don't have to worry about keeping the surprise!

Let the Disney preparations begin!!!