Garden of the Gods

It was an overcast drizzle-y day. Steve was home and I was just feeling down. Steve made us all get dressed and put us in the car and drove us to Garden of the Gods.

Honestly I didn't really want t go. I wanted to curl up in a blanket and just be left alone. But Steve knows me well. Once I was outside I could feel myself feeling better.

My soul craves to be outside

The mountains sticking out of the ground were beautiful.

We had to sty on the trail most of the way but there was a place that we could climb around on the rocks. And Swim... he wanted to climb in and out of the stroller.... 

Little Miss all wrapped up {have I told you how much I love having a little girl??!!}

 A selfie of Tommy. He's not one for selfies... so a close up that is good is rare.

 I think this will be come a regular place for me.

bYu

While we were in Utah we were visiting with Steve's sister Kim and her son CJ. I had wanted to climb the "Y". Up in the Provo mountains is a painted Y for BYU. You can see it from the freeway. It's about  mile up. It was harder than I thought it was going to be, but it was totally worth it.

That day we left Benji, Swim, and Charlotte with Kim and Steve and I took James, Tommy, Tim, and nephews CJ, Jared, and Max.

James had a rough time going up, but he made it! I was so proud of him!

Tommy, Tim, and CJ pretty much ran the whole mile up the hill.  {Gotta love the competition}

Do you see that??? That is Provo! The view was amazing!

{a picture looking down}

That is what we did!! We climbed that!

Looking Back

Good Heavens!!! My how time flies!

I have been busy with some things and other times I am not busy but I am tired and to have to get the computer out and think of what to say is just to much.

I have a quiet moment right now, Steve is at a meeting and all the kids are in bed, so I thought why not dust off the old blog and write again.

{but we are NOT going to talk about the dishes in the sink, or the laundry n the bed..... or the really messy boys' bathroom, or the disaster area {that should be taped off} play room}

Things here have been moving along. The practice is slowly picking up. To slowly for me but all in good time right?? The boys are busy with school. They are enjoying it and enjoying the friends that they are making, but by the time that they get home and finish with homework it doesn't leave a whole lot left in the day for play or even family time. I always look forward to the breaks that they get.

Benji is keeping me busy. He is my little shadow all day. It's weird just having two at home, it makes for some quiet afternoons. There is one thing about winter that I am enjoying. While the weather is cooking down there is almost this unspoken rule that a big blanket needs to be taken out and snuggled under. So while Swim naps Benji and I snuggle.

Speaking of Swim... Holy Moly!!!! That kid is on the move! he has decided that there is need for walking. He is 9 months. He's really cute about it. He'll stand up and take a few steps and then start giggling and fall. Then he gets up and does it again. Oh... and he snorts when he laughs!

Time goes by all to quickly!

For Halloween this year the boys were going to be lego men.... the concept seemed good in my head but the actual conception.... yeah... it didn't work out so well. So we pulled out the old fall back costume that every mother knows of... homeless men, or as what I called them.... hobos.

Have you ever seen Studio C???? It's a clean version or Saturday Night Live. There is a character that is a shoulder angel.... so since Benji likes to ride on Steve's shoulder.... he was the shoulder angel.

Life has taken a quiet turn for the the past couple months. Sometimes it makes me wonder what is coming? But I am trying to enjoy the time that we are at.




{The picture at the top was one that I took while we went hiking. We hiked Stuart Falls up by Sun Dance Ski Resort. I carried Swim in my wrap for all 4 mile and gave him to Steve as we were walking t the car because I was so tired and sore. I thought it was so cute to see him looking over Steve's shoulder looking for me...... The three big boys.... they ran the whole 4 miles and waited for us at the bottom. I love seeing the energy that their bodies have!}

Top of the Mountain

I really have missed hiking the mountains around Utah. Now some people think of hiking as forging a new trail... when I say hiking I mean something that the boys can do without to much help.

Ensign Peak is one of those hikes. It's about a mile hike up to the top and a pretty easy walk too. Even Benji walked the whole way.

We got to the top and we were fortunate to see some people up there that were able to take a picute of all of us..... even better, he was a professional photographer. He was really nice and was happy to talk our picture. {Nice man... if you remember taking a picture of a crazy woman and her 5 boys let me know so I can shout you out for others}

{every now an the I get a really good picture of James. And when they are good, they are really good.}

 Benji... and the city of Salt Lake. Benji now tells everyone that he went to the top of the mountain, and points to the closest mountain he can see.... there are many here and most are way bigger than what we hiked.

It was a good day hike! I am so happy that the boys are game for what ever I want them to tag along with.


{help me get to the top 25!!}

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!

On the trail

Steve was off one day so we decided to toss our schoolbooks to the side and go outside instead. It was a beautiful fall day and the colors were just starting to turn. One thing that I have missed is being able to walk the trails. In Florida it's just... HOT and unwelcoming to be outside most of the year. And there really aren't any trails around that are not going to take you through swampy areas... at least I didn't find any. I don't think I was outside long enough to find any though.

We drove a measly 4.5 miles up to a little area that had some great paths. And because Steve was with us we decided to take him on his first GeoCaching adventure. {and because it was one that was more difficult and I didn't know how to program my phone's GPS to what it needed to do}

Along the way we saw this spider that was spinning a huge web. We stopped to watch how carefully and quickly it worked.

Here are my excited treasure hunters out looking for the next box. If you have never tried GeoCaching you should! It's free and so fun! It's like looking for buried treasure. They are all over the US... they are all over the world!!

You can kinda see them here. They are off the trail following the clues and the GPS for the next box. I didn't want to go stomping through all the brush and trees here, and neither did Benji, so we hung back and climb the little hills and rocks instead. I do have to say that James is really good at finding the caches. This one was a multiply cache so each box lead you to the next one, and of the 4 that were there James found 3 of them!

Look at the falling leaves! Watching the leaves make there way to the ground is so memorizing.  

Our little trail that we walked. Total it was about 2 mile, and the boys did great! 

Each person is different and prefers different settings. The beach was nice and was beautiful in it's own way, but I love the desert and the forest. I more at home here than I have since leaving Arizona. I love the beauty of the trees and the smell of the air.

More shots of the beauty that is here in North Carolina

 I love this picture... although I'm not sure who is taking who for a walk. Captain has been the best dog. He drives me crazy most of the time and the hair that is all over my house is insane, but he is so good with the boys. When I walk him he does really well, but if he sees something he will try to run after it. When Benji or Tim try to walk him he doesn't pull away. He doesn't chase anything and he is so patience with them as they are both tangled in the leash.

On last shot of the beauty that we found on our day out. 

Fall is my favorite time of year, but I look forward to seeing the blooming of spring.

{this post is dedicated to my friend Whitney from The King and I..... she likes North Carolina}

Itsy, Bitsy, Spider

The boys and I caught up with a friend and had an afternoon together. I left Benji sleeping with her husband and we took the big boys to the park.

We ate lunch and the boys played on the playground, and then we went for a walk. The boys had a blast and even found a really big tree to climb! This tree was awesome!

 The only bad thing about this little nature walk was the spider webs. It had just rained so all the spiders were out re-making their webs. Tim walked right into one and instantly turned into a Ninja! After he recovered we were on our way.

Then Kelly did the same thing, I have to say her Ninja skills weren't quite as good as Tim's.... But we all had a scare as we looked and saw a HUGE spider in her hair!! Me, being the calm one in the group, lead the screaming and flapping of arms to what was going one. Let me tell you how great of a help I was!!! You are all thinking that you want to take me on your next hiking trip huh!!

But really.... what would you have done???

Yeah... I'm pretty sure you would have done the same thing I did.

Beautiful Sunny Day

So today down in southern Arizona it was BEAUTIFUL!!!

My sister Eliza came down to visit me (thankfully leaving the snowy cold weather of Utah back home)so we decided to take the boys on a hike. I had the boys put on long sleeved shirts because I thought it would be cooler than it was, but they were soon rolled up.Eliza has been fun to have around. She came in on Saturday and we took the boys to Chuck E Cheese. It was a lot of fun and James totally made out with the tickets on a game that he could even see what he was doing. I think he was just so excited to see the tickets coming out that he kept playing.

I've been wanting to do this hike in the Coronado National Park that can take you up two different ways. On way you go you get to a peak and can see where the boarder is between Mexico and the US, and the other takes you right to the border. It's about 3 miles one way. I guess I was a little to ambitious.

Here is Eliza showing the boys a bug. (I think we were walking for about 45 minutes and made it a whole .4 miles.)

A little less than a half mile we stopped for a break and granola bars which made every one happy.

Needless to say we didn't make it to the peak or to the boarder. we got to .7 of a mile and we were all done. But of course we have to go back. So the boys did a little more than a mile hike that was a good incline. We had some bumps and bruises but all in all came out ok. I think this hike will be saved for at least another year before we try it again. I may do it with out the boys....any volunteers? Probably many wanting to get away from the snow huh-

We will be doing the apple orchard and pumpkin patch tomorrow, we'll see how this goes down.