Yard Sale Score

I have some very patient friends who find treasures at yard sales all of the time. I am not so patient and never stop to look. But today I got LUCKY. I was doing some visiting teaching at my friend Heather's house and she was getting some tables ready for her yard sale tomorrow. Look what she was selling for only $3. The kids think that this is the coolest foot soaker ever. I agree. What a bargain!! I can't wait to take my turn later when they are in bed and I can relax with some peppermint tea.

A Day in May

It has been over three weeks since I have updated this blog. We have been busy. I lost my camera, then found it, then bought a new one. I am excited to practice and hopefully improve my picture taking. These are some of my first with the new one. Look how green the grass is here. We have to mow twice a week and still can't keep up with the neighbors. Crazy. Sophie LOVES watermelon. She would have eaten the whole thing if I'd let her. If you look closely in the last picture, you can see Audrey's cute little first tooth.

Schwinn

It has been a long, cold winter and I think that we have all put on a few pounds sitting on our behinds, trying to keep warm in the house. But Spring is finally here and we are excited to get out and play. The boys love to go for bike rides with Vince, but the girls and I have been left-out because my $5 thrift-store bike wasn't the deal that I thought it was and doesn't work. So, I just ordered new bikes for Vince and me and a trailer for the girls to ride behind. These are comfort bikes with memory foam in the seats, made for a nice leisurely ride. Sweet.

My bike

Vince's bike with the trailer

Our long driveway- perfect for the kids to ride their bikes and scooters.

And behind Vince, our "Big Ash Tree". It took a beating during the ice-storm that hit here in December and left us without power for a week. But it is still beautiful.

Inhale. Exhale.

This morning, I joined the Pilates Class at our local gym. I have been going to this gym for over a year, using the treadmills and weight machines, but this morning was my first class experience. I was a little nervous getting ready. What should I wear? We live in a college town with perfect bodied little co-eds jogging by our house regularly. I was so pleased that none of them were in this class. This class was full of kind, middle-aged women in sweats and t-shirts. It felt so good to stretch and breathe. And Audrey didn't cry in the gym childcare! The sweetest older lady runs the childcare center. So, hopefully I will become a regular in Pilates Class and tomorrow I am going to try Yoga. Yeah!!

This is a picture of Will and Sophie planting some seeds in the garden last night. Can you believe how green it is here already? I am still amazed that things can be so green without any sprinklers here in the Midwest.


This is another picture from Milwaukee. I love Sophie's pouty lips and her hat that she just had to have at the mall there. Since it was on sale for $2, I agreed.

This last picture is of Audrey and her boyfriend Oren. He is in our Branch and I am telling you that when these two are together they just laugh and coo and squeal and flirt non-stop. It is adorable.

Cruel World

Baby number four is adorable and we feel blessed to have her. But she is demanding in the daytime and likes to kick and party in the wee hours of the night. She is over six months old now and I don't remember what it is like to feel anything besides pure exhaustion. The last few weeks have been particularly busy, with a family trip to Utah for Spring Break and then to Chicago and Milwaukee while Vince attended a conference. Fun times, but tiring too. So, I haven't felt well and decided yesterday that baby Audrey needs to sleep in her crib and I need to experience at least five hours of continuous sleep. All of our kids have been co-sleepers for their first year, but I am getting older and we have hauled this crib around through about 6 moves, and it has hardly been used.

So, we do the nighttime routine - give her a little rice cereal, a nice warm bath, nurse her, rock her to sleep and put her in the crib at about 8pm. She wakes up and cries a few times and Vince walks with her, lulls her with the bathroom fan that she loves, and puts her back in her crib. I take the 1 am. cry. I feed her and put her back in her crib sound asleep which lasts a whole 5 minutes. Then Vince takes over again, puts Sophie in our bed and gets in Sophie's bed, near Audrey's crib, so he can close the door and have the room quiet and dark (Sophie likes the door open with the hall light on). So, from here Audrey sleeps until 7:30am.! This could have been magical.

But no, Landon comes into my room at around 2am. He had a nightmare. He wants to get in between Sophie and me. This never happens. I let him in, forgetting that he is a wild sleeper and a terrible bed hog. I spend the rest of the night with my usual six inches of our queen-sized bed. Then I notice at about 4:30 that William has slipped in at the foot of the bed at some point. Waaah.

But I am hopeful that Audrey slept 6 hours in her crib last night and maybe just maybe, before the month in through, I will greet the morning after a long and greedy six hours myself. I get giddy just thinking about it.


Stinker McStinkerbutt herself, getting ready to hit the motel pool in Milwaukee.


Outside The Art Institute of Chicago. It was fabulous.