The crazy that is here.

I often let the boys take pictures with my camera.

They have learned t be careful with it and to take care.... mostly.

And the pictures I get back are usually really funny.

 Tommy and his Pokemon binder.

 Tim..... This boy has great hair!

 Benji and his crazy hair. It is really sad to me that after we had to cut it because of the razor and scissor incident that his curls are gone. He's got a great wave in it but no curl.

I have no words.

Really.... no words.

I love these crazy kids that I have been blessed with.

My day in a rather large nutshell

Steve is out of town this week, he is in Utah interviewing for a job.

So I'm flying solo.

It's really not to bad. I've done it before.... but at night looking back at my day, I just laugh.

Seriously I have days that would be perfect for TV!

Sometime between 2am and 6am I got a visitor to my bed. {I don't normally let the boys sleep with me but when dad's gone they sneak in... I don't mind.}

6am - Benji is shaking the baby gate... trying to get out, he can't so he is quiet in his room for a little longer, at this point he usually starts singing quietly getting progressively louder.

6:30am - Benji.... "Mom! I awake! I awake Mom." "Out.... Please out!"

6:35am - Person who is laying next to me "Mom, if I rub your back for a minute, can I go watch TV?" "Um... sure"

6:36am - "There... it's been a minute" Me: "please let Benji out and get him some juice"

6:37am -Stomping all the way into my room "MOM!! I awake!!" At which point my darling toddler starts going though all my things, crawling into bed and like a worm wiggles his way down to the bottom of the sheets. He runs over and is now playing with my door and then takes off down stairs to be with his brothers. He goes down on his stomach feet first squealing all the way down.

6:43am - Benji brings to me {in bed} his sippy cup -with all the parts- and the juice.

7:00am - All the boys {except Swim} are awake and down stairs. They are quietly watching TV it doesn't sound like cartoons so I go down to make sure it's appropriate for them to watch... It was some history on dinosaurs something... It was ok. I walk into the kitchen area to get a bottle for Swim and take it back upstairs for when he wakes up.

I see half of the bag of cherrios all over the table because Benji tried to pour, he managed to get it everywhere except the bowl that was sitting out, {thankfully he hasn't tried with milk yet!} and Benji was sitting on the floor sharing a bagel with the dog.

7:15am - Swim wakes up. I feed him, and while he is having a bottle I am reading my scriptures. I play with him for a bit and then decide I'm going to take a shower.

7:20am - I take Swim down stairs and let the boys know I will be taking a shower and give them instructions for Swim.

7:25 am -I am in the shower ready to practice my debut song for The Voice when I hear the door open. Standing there is a naked toddler "I take shower mama" as he steps in. {note to self....remember to shut door all the way, and to clothe the toddler completely making it harder for him to strip down}

7:50 am - both Benji and I are clean and dressed.

8:00-9:30 am - We pick up the house and do a few chores... We find where socks like to hide... under the couch as there were 7 socks that were found. We also are able to practice pushing Swim in the little swing in a way that doesn't eject him from the seat. We find Benji's hiding spot for a block of nibbled on cheese... thankful it was still cold so it had to have only been out of the fridge for a little while.... {note to self... check the rest of the cupboard for more food that Benji might have nibbled on} We learned that there is a proper way to use the vacuum, and that holding it up to your nose does do a better job than having to blow, but it is not recommended. Also when mom says the vacuum will suck up everything... she is right. {the little lego man didn't stand a chance}

9:37 am - I declare that we are leaving the house! We are going to go for a hike up at Latta Plantation, and that everyone needs to be dressed and ready.

~let the chaos commence~

9:40-10:30am - One child had be reminded no less than 6 time to get dressed as he kept getting distracted. We only had one shoe for Benji. Someone was positive that it was under the couch, or in the bathroom.... it was found in the cupboard. We had to do another clean up of the play room because in the excitement of getting ready to leave all the toys needed to be poured out and played with. Benji decided to change outfits 3 times. And Swim fell asleep, and then had to be woken up to be changed and then put into his carseat, which some great helper clipped it all together in a knot. So I had to take the baby out and fix the problem.

10:32am - I go to my room to get my shoes. I find that my door is locked. Remember how Benji was playing with my door earlier.... well... he locked it and shut it. I found a bobby pin and unlocked to door.

10:40am -FINALLY all 12 kids.... ok, only 5 but sometimes it really does seem like 12 were in the car. We back out and then the plea of taking Captain with us comes from the back. -This actually seems like a good idea because then we can't go into the Nature Center... which we like but then it's hard to pull a certain little one away from all the aquariums to tap on. So in jumps the dog.

11:10 am - Make our way to Latta, and yeah, one last parking spot. I get everyone out, the dog leashed up the baby in the front carrier and Benji.... Benji.... hum... He took himself down the trial. Tommy runs to catch up with him.

11:20-12:30pm - the Hike....
Remember how I said bringing the dog was a good idea. That was until I had a hold of the dog in one hand and carrying Benji, and having Swim in my front.... why you ask??? well because there was mud. I didn't want to deal with a muddy Benji, and dog... I thought the other boys would be ok... false hope.

We did see a frog... that Benji tried to get to jump into his hand
and a snake... the boys were sure it was a black racer and while those snakes are not poisonous, the boys have been know to be wrong before.
and we smelt a skunk... and Captain stuck his head into every bush that smelled like the skunk... I'm pretty sure we were close.

We hiked until we came to the road. We decided to walk along the road back to the car rather than wind our way back through the woods. That took longer than going up and down the hills! The only reason Benji kept walking was because I had his cup in the car for him, other wise I'm pretty sure he would have just sat down in the road.

1.5 miles later... we made it back alive. The boys were pretty shocked that we were alive... they kept complaining that they were going to die.

12:30pm - all are back in the car. And crap... I forgot that Tommy had piano lessons that day. We rush home to be there for his lessons.

1:00pm - make it home just in time for lessons.

1:00-1:30pm -Get the screaming baby out of the car seat to be fed, Get the screaming toddler out of the car and feed him. Get the tired boys out of the car and get them fed. Tommy's pour teacher walk into screaming chaos!

Piano teacher comes early and Tommy plays away.

At some point everyone was fed because the remains of lunch were left about.

2:30pm - Benji starts yelling at everybody and putting them in time out. I put him down for a nap.

2:30-4:00pm - Things are relatively quiet, I think things are safe.... when will I learn. The boys' closet has been transformed into some sort of space vehicle and the contents of the closet are all over the bedroom. I guess there needed to be room for more rocket boosters.

4:00-5:00pm -clean up happens... again.

5:00pm -Crap.... all these little people want to eat again.

5:15pm - neighbor kids are outside so the boys take off to play a little before it gets dark. Benji, who has changed outfits again is trying to go outside too....

5:17pm - I bribe Benji to stay in the house with Raisets..... He's a runner ....and Swim was up.... and I didn't feel like chasing him down the street.

7:30pm..... Ooooo it's getting close

8:00pm - Bedtime craziness ensues! The stinkest people get showered, we nearly have to hog tie Benji from stripping down to get into the shower again. Towels, underwear, and random socks go flying... at which point I notice that Swim has fallen asleep. {really!!}

8:42pm - Scriptures are read... prayers are said... and all the kids are in the proper room.

8:47pm - Tim is crying because Benji bit him - He goes in the room with Tommy and James to sleep in peace.

8:52pm -Swim wakes up from his power nap and is hungry.... I get him fed than he is happy to just hang out with me.

10:04pm - Benji's wall banging has finally stopped and his singing is now at a whisper. Swim is still happy and we are still awake.

11:58pm.... Swim is finally tired, and not so cute any more. He is fed one last time and put to bed.

12:00am - The house is finally quiet!! Dishes are done quickly and the dog is let out one last time.

12:30am - Finally!! I get to get into bed, I walk into my room and I find one little person in my bed asleep. I slide into our KING size bed and the little body scoots over to be nearly on top of me, heaves one last sigh and is sleeping deeply.

I love being a mom... but some days are more exhausting than others, and usually those are the days that get laughed at!

The good, than the crazy

Ok, so today was James' last day of school. It was a water day and all the kids had so much fun playing in the little pools and in the hose. It was fun watching them. Mrs. Tyra was his teacher and did such a good job. Here are some things about James.... when he started school he was 40.5 pounds and was 42.5 inches tall. At the end of school he was 44.5 pounds and 44.5 inches tall. He grew quite a bit. And he was asked some question as the year ended, here are some of James' answers...

*What is your favorite thing to do? Playing with my dad and my friends.

*What animal would you want to be? No... I don't want to be an animal.

*Favorite food? Pasta

*Favorite junk food? Coco Chums (a made up food in a Bernstein Bear's book)

*What do you want to be when you grow up? A soldier.

James is pretty funny. I love you James, don't grow up too fast.

No for the crazy.....

So we are getting family pictures taken on Friday. Steve would really like us all to be in Sunday dress. Not a hard thing you would think -huh-. Well WRONG!! The boys do have Sunday dress its just not all matching (like we would like for pictures) So I thought ok. I'll just go pick up some black slacks for Tommy and Tim, and a white button shirt for Tim. Can I tell you the goose chase I went on just to find this!!! Apparently people really don't go to church other than Easter and Christmas here in Sierra Vista I went to EVERY place here looking for slacks and white shirt. Yeah right, you're thinking. Well there are only 7 places here to buy clothes, and I visited them all. I found stuff for James' size but nothing for toddlers. Why is that? So today Steve and I drove to Tucson to try to find something. We had success at Old Navy finding a shirt for Tim, but no black slacks. Well after 5 more stores we finally had what we needed for all the boys. My heavens! Seriously.... Anyways that my crazy. I was ok just doing white shirts and jeans but Steve really wanted to be in Sunday dress. These pictures better be REALLY good, for all the drama it took to get clothes for them. On a good note.... we took all three kids and Tommy only fell down the escalator once and no displays were knocked down!

{Please check to see if you name is on the next post and you haven't sent me your email yet...Thanks}

What did I learn today??

Boy today was one of those days that I wanted to box up the boys and send them off.... So here are some of the things that I learned about....

Tommy decided that he wanted to "drink" the syrup. He is really good at figuring things out and how to get things open and stuff I just didn't realize that he was tall enough to reach things off the counter.

Also... did you know that you can dry cucumber? Well you can especially if it gets left on the floor. I'm going to have to get a knife to scrape this one off.

Oh, and here's one.... apparently you can make great rainbows with salt!! I asked James what he was doing and he said "making rainbows" so ok, what ever. I come down stairs and Tommy had a half cup of salt in one hand and the salt in the other, and indeed James was making rainbows with the salt that Tommy poured onto the table.

I also learned that Tim is tall enough to get things out of the garbage when it's only half full. (man, they grow fast, don't they)

So here we are.... Tommy is looking for something???
He has pulled most of the toys out looking for what ever it is that he wants.I see Tommy run out of the play room giggling and playing with the other boys. I walk by the playroom and this is what I saw....

Not sure if he found what he was looking for or if he just gave up. Now the crazy thing about this is that the table was in the closet under the stairs. So Tommy got the table out and opened it up, and then started stacking things.

Moral of the story.... Children are taller than you think, but still short (and smart) enough to want to stack things.