Who needs to buy a gift?

Here are the kids playing nice together. Yes, ALL six kids are playing nice together!

Another miracle for our day! We got these blinds for the patio door put up a few weeks ago. The kids have not broken them yet! Miracle number two for the day. These car ramps are the packaging for the slats. They are perfect for cars! No expensive toys needed around here. (Miracle number three.) Although, I hear it is common during Christmas time for the kids to play more with boxes, I didn't think it went to these old ages. And here is another picture of the kids playing. Evan is on the chair, Marek is behind Stephen who is holding Dallas. It should be easy to know which one is Lily. Brenden can't be seen in this pic. Sorry.






And now, it's time to gather Dallas from his first day of kindergarten! He was more than happy to see me leave and be at school. We got a new backpack for him this morning. (He is in afternoon kindergarten)
We have a crazy schedule. I am not sure how it will work, but so far the kids are cooperating, and my mom was able to tend them this morning while I took Stephen and Dallas to their classes. So, here is what is in store for our future.

Daily, Stephen's school starts at 9am. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday starting in September Dallas has Waterford starting at 9 AM. We have a carpool set up that I think will work for those mornings. This research group has classes for one hour from September through April. Dallas was in the class last year and loved it. Then, Dallas has kindergarten from 11:30 to 2:35 every day. We get Stephen from school at 3:45. Some how dinner should get made and lunch should be eaten. Next week, my school starts! I will have classes starting at 5pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays!!! Wednesdays the boys will also have piano lessons, and there is scouts for Steve. If that wasn't enough, the kids have all decided they want to go on the potty. UGH! They just want a treat really, but whoever told them they could?!?!?! This of course takes TIME!!!!

It was super funny when Evan had his first "success" on the potty. I will have to write more about that later. Time for Dallas to be brought home. Why didn't I just put them in the same school and let them be "normal"? Oh yeah, they are not normal. Hmm.

I must be crazy! (miracle number four for the day?)

Me, Myself, and I

Today Me, Myself, and I were able to enjoy a sunrise together with a cup of warm cocoa. (Note to self: 30 seconds in the microwave does not make it warm enough.) I was up "on time" which is before the chaos begins with everyone else being awake. I exercised, showered, dressed myself, and went to the deck with my cup. As a mother of five boys and one girl, the oldest almost 7, a 5 year old, and almost 3 year old quadruplets, I must say

MIRACLES DO HAPPEN!

And, it's all thanks to Dallas for being sick in the early morning. Of course, I was not able to get back to sleep so I was ready for the day today. Thanks Dallas! I tried to take a picture of what I saw, but I think I was a little late for the best part. I didn't think of it until after my cocoa was gone, but here it is. We have a great view from our deck!!!

In other news, today is the last day of free lunch at the park. I plan to be there early today and stay late. We have really, really enjoyed making new friends and playing there. I will miss visiting with adults on a regular basis, although, we have arranged a probable carpool or sorts with one family. There is potential for real talking still.

Let's not forget that I will also be starting my classes again in September! In these cases though, I tend not to talk about my life too much. It is generally a big distraction from the class topic.

Yesterday I completed a homework assignment that I started in March. HOORAY! Yes, it took me 5 months to do. Good thing it is a class over the internet and I have a year to finish the class! Yay me!

As for the kids and how they are doing? Dallas and Stephen are getting excited for school to start. The four have no idea what is about to happen to their "schedule". And, everyone is still asleep!

Good morning!

Today I was so excited to have the blinds up in the front room windows! Thinking of the cut in cost for air conditioning tickled me pink. The late afternoon sun comes through the front room straight onto the thermometer. Now, our new blinds are not only light filtering, they are dark, heat absorbing, and light blocking. I could tell early in the morning what a difference it was going to make. Little did I know what would come to pass later on.

The kids found a new "light switch" that turns on the fireplace. Hmm. There go all the happy thoughts from this morning! The A/C did not get a break. Oh well. Brayten was here to be tended today. Marek learned many new things from him today, like that switch that he never noticed before and every one wants a turn on the potty. Talk about time requirements!!! Brayten is their cousin and basically the same age as our four. He is already potty trained.

Yes, I am completely crazy. I had five (5!) two, almost three year olds all day, starting at 5:30AM, until about 4:40-ish. We have fun though. We went to the park for lunch again. Stephen and Dallas are such good helpers! They really make my work lighter, even if I did push three kids in the stroller up hill on the way home.

I should be seeing these pounds come off more than they are....go figure. Maybe it's because I don't get enough sleep? Goodnight!

another little miracle

Today we have blinds to hang in our windows!!! Finally, after nearly two years since the remodel we are going to hang blinds. Of course, this will take more than one day, maybe more than a week. Hopefully not longer than that! We have waited this long, what's one more day? ha ha ha! Our security system will be gone now though. Brandi was the first to term the sheets in the windows as our security system. You know, the rif raf that might want to break in and do some damage will see the sheets and think, "Hmmm... reminds me of home. They probably don't have anything here that I would like to take."

You might be wondering why we took so long to get something in our windows. Well, we wanted to paint before we hung them and time just didn't work well with us. Then, when we painted - silly me- I thought you just go get the blinds from the store and hang them. That is not how it works. You have to measure, in our case we had to special order, and then it takes weeks to actually get them! So, we have had nothing at all in some of the windows because we didn't want to make extra holes in our wonderfully painted walls. Of course, as time proves, cars being thrown, crayons with out paper, kids in general made plenty of their own holes and marks on my beautiful wall. I should have put the sheet back while we waited. Oh well.

Now Steve is out buying a drill from Wal-mart because we can't find our pieces in our garage, which has also suffered from the remodel procrastination.
We started to put them up with a normal, hand-held screwdriver. Yeah. He went to buy a drill.

In other news, I took a final today! Hooray! No more school.... for two weeks. We have decided to get the required on campus classes out of the way. This should get me back on track to complete everything in time to graduate in 2010. Nothing like good old procrastination everywhere I look! But, hey. My kids are happy and we have fun. So what if the laundry doesn't get done every day. We have clothes to wear, and we wash them when we run out of clean ones, usually.

Well, Steve's back with the drill. I better get back to work! I will post pictures of our blinds when they are up. :)

Chocolate days

Here area few pictures of the kids and our activities.

A day at the parade. I wish I had better luck with this picture, or had more of them. The bright orange shirts say "E=mc2 I'm the smart one" I thought this was too funny since they are all the smart one. LOL!





Later that same day we went to a picnic at the church park. Brenden was able to reach the dessert table. I was worn out and chose not to argue or fight with the brilliant tike. His dinner therefore consisted of chocolate cookie, chocolate cookie, and chocolate cookie! He was offered other things, but who would choose anything else when there is a cookie within reach?!?!




Chocolate is as chocolate does!







Steve DID win the pie eating contest!!! Although the tough competition was mildly interested, Steve was very serious about winning. There was one man that Steve talked into playing and the rest of the eaters were young-uns, under the age of 12. BUT HE WON!!!














A day at the zoo was free courtesy of our friend's yearly pass having extra space for a few of us, and the fact that kids under three are free!!! Hooray for free!!! Hooray for generous, kind friends!!!

Here is Dallas feeding the geese at Liberty park. It was hilarious when he threw a piece of bread on the backside of one goose, causing his "bum to get bit".


Of course we spend time at the park on a regular basis. Here are the swings.Our sweet boys like to help each other. Aawwww! Right after Marek pushed Brenden for this picture, Brenden came back and knocked Marek over.
Aren't they just too cute for words?!?!

Summer stuff

Wow! I can't believe how busy we have been lately. As I am studying for my finals this week I noticed we have a ton of pictures from this summer! We were going through some to send to Steve's mom for her birthday gift. There are over 500 that we took since I last posted!!! Needless to say, they will be posted, in part, this week! We have been to the zoo, a birthday party for a friend, the ward picnic/water party, we were in the parade, found a giant butterfly in our yard, played in the rain, played at the park, went to grandmas, Wheeler Farm, Westfest, aerospace museum, and the dinosaur museum. We forgot the camera for the dinosaurs though. We also saw the Riverton Days parade at Grandma Bell's. Whew!


This is the only picture I have of Lily with her hair actually "done". This is at Hunter Park near our home.
Here are the four on a ride at Westfest, with another boy we have no idea who is.
This is the butterfly that was in our front yard. We have had lots of new creatures in our yard including butterflies and hummingbirds.

Another funny thing; I noticed that all the outfits seem to be the same in all the pictures. I guess I wanted to be able to spot our lot easily in a crowd. I unknowingly dressed them in their brightest orange shirts each time we "went out". I knew I was dressing them bright, but I didn't realize it was the same bright shirts every time! Ha ha ha ha. I will have to label them well. This will be another day.

Until next time!