So much time and so little to do-Scratch that and turn it around :)

We have been enjoying the OLD Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory-The Oompa Loompas are a family favorite these days.

Life is fortunately TOO full as opposed to empty and there is so much going on in the lives of everyone that I remind myself every time I see the computer that I need to document it. Today has been smooth sailing so I have the opportunity to blog out all the things on my mind.

Michael is the sanity in this insane household. Somehow he seems to be able to keep his head when I have lost mine and everyone elses since everyones moods seem to reflect mine. I was griping in my mind the other night about how much I wished when they put together the female body they could have included some stable hormones instead of a monthly cannon explosion. Michael is one of those rare Men who comes home and immediately starts helping out without me having to ask and always is trying to make my life easier. I wonder frequently what I did to deserve such an awesome husband.

My life has picked up and is running along much more manageable then it was a few weeks ago. In a nut-shell this is what I have been up to:
1) Exercising. I have been working to reclaim my old body. My mom has told me and I remind myself often that my body is my trophy-and what does it say about me? Right now it hopefully says that I sacrificed myself to bring children into the world, and that all the smears and food shows that I have little children that love being around their mommy. It was worth the sacrifice but along with that I also want it to show my hard work.
2) Trying to pick up the fragments of being a homemaker. My housekeeping skills have been pretty non-existent since baby 3 made his debut, but now that things have calmed down I am trying to pick that stick up again. Also in the same category I have been trying to cook again. I love to cook and bake and it is a hobby as well as a stress reliever for me.
3) Finally (And most importantly) I have really been trying to figure out how to enjoy these years of messes, toddlers and poopy diapers and have finally realized that everyone has been right. I have to let some things go. I get so wound up in the daily living- that I forget to enjoy the moments. So after this semester goodbye preschool-well at least the kind of preschool I am doing now. Goodbye scheduled activities and hello pure free time with me and my children. I asked myself what I wanted my children to take away from their childhood and the answer was that I wanted them to remember how much I loved them. Not how many activities they did or how much they learned for school, but that their mother valued spending her time with them.

MD has taken leaps and bounds and somehow still cannot count to 10. I think it is hilarious that it is something he just simply doesn't care about. He knows his colors, shapes and can pick up a song after listening to it a few times. The truth is I love this about him. It seems that all around me there is so much pressure for our children to be able to do as much as I can now before they are in middle school and I love that MD still is relaxed and carefree. He looks at numbers as a game and says them all-just in the order he thinks they should be in. He is also THAT child. The one who screams and pitches huge fits in primary because he wants to have me there with him, or he wants back in nursery. Another thing that oddly enough makes me smile. He has calmed down quite a bit but those first couple of weeks were pretty exciting. We solved the problem by letting him pack a backpack before church and letting him bring it with him to primary. He is the only one in his class that does that and I think it is comforting for him to have something to hold onto that is familiar. He is my buddy and my pal who believes he is my contemporary and not my child. He is sweet and obedient but as soon as I make a decision that he doesn't agree with and have the gall to enforce it without discussing it with him and he is furious.Somehow he sees us as a team and TOGETHER we make decisions for the other kids.

Hyrum loves life. He however, does not love me getting involved in his. He still has toddler PMS and will be my best friend one minute and then hate me the next. Luckily for me it doesn't happen near as often as it used to. He loves to play and has started making up games for him and MD. This morning I heard the boys stomping around in the hall outside my room. In a growl Hyrum and MD started discussing being dinosaurs. MD Said "Lets go find mommy and eat her up!" Hyrum luckily said "No! We don't eat mommy!" " Well lets go find Seth and eat him up!" "No we don't eat Seth!" MD was quiet for a moment then asked "Well what do we eat?" Hyrum looked around for a moment then said "We eat the toilet!!!" Hyrum then proceeded to make happy eating noises while MD looked at him disgustedly and decided he was done playing. This Kid is also opinionated about everything and often looks like he is playing Devils advocate just to be disagreeable. There are many conversations I overhear between MD and Hyrum with MD screaming at Hyrum to say something specific and Hyrum just bellowing back whatever he knows annoys MD the most. It ends with either me getting frustrated and coming in their room to tell them to knock it off, or with MD in tears coming to tell me that "Hyrum won't say Yes Sir" or something similar.

Seth is a growing machine. It looks like someone stuck a bicycle pump in his mouth and just started pumping away. At about 2 1/2 months he was weighing about 15 pounds and is a round little roly poly. His moods seemed to have tempered somewhat and there is some major bonding going on between him and the rest of the family. The boys always seem to be hovering around him when he is awake and alternate between giving him hugs or squeezing some arm or leg. Seth doesn't seem to mind them circling and I have thought more then once how glad I was to have those two around to distract Seth for me. He has started giggling and you can usually coax a good one out of him just after he is finished eating-That is when he is the happiest. He is wearing 9 month clothes and though the arms are too long- the waist is too tight...Like I said-he is a little round roly poly...Or a Volleyball as my parents think of him.

A few moments in front of the computer camera-Great fun for ALMOST the whole family...Michael always seems to be gone when I pull it out :)

So life is good, great and wonderful :)