Today

Today Koda was being extra needy for some reason.  I was sitting on the couch and Koda came and sat by me.  I was tickling Megan and blowing on her tummy and Koda was getting all worked up about it.  I am not really sure why, but maybe he was protecting Megan...or didn't like the sound?
After I stopped and Megan got down Koda was still acting funny, so I told him to come to me and he laid down right in my lap.  Then of course Megan wanted back up and Josh decided to use Koda as a pillow.  I thought it would make a fun photo so I asked Tyler to get the camera and take our picture.  Tyler did a pretty good job and he really liked taking pictures with my camera.
Tony has been working at the BCS (Bishop Central Storehouse) this week.  It is part of the training they want him to have before they make him an assistant manager at the Cannery.  Today he went out with a driver and they drove up to Idaho to make some deliveries and pick up some beans.  Tomorrow he gets to work with the international shipping department.  Should be interesting.  He also gets to go Denver in May and maybe Chicago in June, we are very glad that we are seeing progress towards him becoming a manager.  Good things come to those who wait.

All in a Day

Sometimes as a stay-at-home mom you think that your days are boring and that you have nothing to blog or journal about.  I have felt like that off and on throughout my blogging days.  Today just worked out that I had lots of things to take pictures of.  My kids are super adorable and did lots of cute things for me to document.
It all started this morning when Megan climbed into Koda's crate while I was getting dressed.  I am surprised that my dog still fits in his crate.  He's very bendy I guess.  I don't think that Koda thought she was terribly amusing, but I thought it was adorable.  She loves her Doggie and Koda has been such a good dog with our kids.  Megan can pretty much do whatever she wants to him and he is pretty chill about the whole thing.  We are lucky to have such a good dog.

It started out really cold this morning, but the sun was shinning and warmed up nicely this afternoon.  So the kids and I went in the back yard to play.  Megan figured out how to climb up into the clubhouse today and loved every minutes.  She was so proud of herself and was so happy to be playing where the big kids play.

Tyler wanted to take Megan down the slide with him a couple of times.  She seemed to like it well enough.  But she did figure out how to go down by herself.  It took her a little while to figure out where to sit down to go down the slide.  I would tell her that she needed to sit down and she would end up being in the middle of the clubhouse, not too helpful when you want to go down a slide.  I am still very happy with the purchase of the clubhouse.  My kids still really like playing on it and all their friends like it too.  It's super fun to see Megan be such an explorer, never a dull moment with her.
Tyler mainly likes to play on top of the club house.  He wanted me to take a picture of him jumping off.  This was the best one that I got.  He is so funny.  Really all my kids are pretty silly.  Josh is definitely our comedian.  It has been a lot of fun being able to understand Josh better.  His speech is improving daily.  We hope that he will be where he should be by kindergarten.   

While I was putting the pictures that I had taken earlier on the computer Megan went under the side desk table and climbed into the box of paper that we keep under there.  Good thing I had my camera because it was super cute and silly.  She keeps me so busy and is always getting into things she shouldn't.  But she also makes me laugh so hard and has such love for all of us.  You can feel it in her hugs and in her smiley eyes.  All my kids have eyes that smile, it is awesome!

Trip to See Baby Gavin

Last Monday my brothers wife, Betsy had their baby, Gavin William Clark.  Tony and I were able to go up to Logan on Friday to go see our newest nephew.  We were very thankful that Margie could watch the kids so that we could go see the baby in Logan without the kids.
After we dropped off the kids we went over to my moms house to pick up some food that she had bought for them.  She wasn't able to go and visit them because my dad had hip replacement surgery just a couple days before.  So she bought them some food and we took it up with us.  What better way to say Happy Baby then with some food!
Tony and I were just going to pick up some food to eat on the way up, but Tony's mom said we didn't have to rush so Tony suggested that we eat at Maddox.  We had never been there before but have heard good things about it.
It was really big and busy.  They had really yummy rolls and corn bread to start.  Then Tony liked his soup and I liked my salad, but then neither of us really cared for our main dish.  It was a little disappointing.  Maybe we should have had the stake.
After lunch we went to Logan and saw our cute nephew.  He was sleeping, but we woke him anyway.  He was so little and cute.  He looks a lot like his sister.  This is my brother's first baby and it was fun to see him talk about him and how he was changing with the new baby.  We didn't get to chat too long with my brother because he had to work.  So we talked with Betsy for a couple hours and then decided to stop by the cookie shop.  Tony and I both thought that the factory was right out of town, but it was more like 20 minutes from my brother's house.  After we got the cookies we dropped some to Kevin and Betsy's family and that is when Kevin got home from work.
We had already been gone much longer then we had planned so we headed back for home after only talking with him for about 15 minutes.  We felt bad that we took so long and wanted to get back to the kids.  We had a good time and we were glad that we were able to see the baby and visit with family.

Playing at the Park

Today was a pretty fun but crazy day.  The kids had fun and they drove me crazy. Really their was no reason for me to be so impatient today, but I was.  I guess the getting up with Megan multiple times last night and the hour that she was wide awake in the early morning hour might be why my patience was thin today.  I think that she is getting some more teeth, but also she has had some gas problems since switching to whole milk.  We still do some formula with the whole milk but it still seems to bother her every now and then.  It seems like it is mostly at night when she is sleeping that she seems to have the gas problems.  I don't notice any problems with it during the day.  We were hoping that her milk protein issues would have been totally gone by now since she was doing so well on regular formula.  She is doing much better then she was.  She hasn't experience any diarrhea with the switch to whole milk, so that is really good.  We hope that her body will figure it all out soon.  Tony and I need some decent sleep!

This morning while dropping Tyler off at school I let Megan out of the stroller to walk around.  Josh was playing at the playground with my friend Bronny's son, Cole.  Megan was climbing on the cement steps and lost her footing and bashed her head into the next step.  It made an indentation in her forehead.  I had never seen that before so bad.  She cried for a long time and I ended up just carrying her home.  I gave her some Advil and milk and she seemed to feel much better.  Now it is just a round bruise on her head, it matches the other side where she hit her head a couple weeks ago.

Megan is definitely in the phase where she fights going down for a nap.  She fights it and then takes a late morning nap so then she is fussy in the evenings because she's tired, but it's too late for a nap and too early for bed time.  So today after Megan finally took her nap, we all went to the park.  Some of the ward ladies were going with their kids, so I thought it would be fun.  The weather was nice and sunny, but a bit chilly.  The boys loved playing on the play ground with all the other kids and riding their bike and scooter.

Tyler got brave this trip and learned how to jump onto the big circle spin thing all by himself.  He had me help him the first time, but with me showing him that he could just jump and grab the bar he quickly learned he could do it all him self.  He even got a couple other boys around him age to do it too.  Then they would all do it together and make the bar move.  It was fun to see them work together and make new friends.  

Megan liked climbing up and down on the things and getting into things she shouldn't.  She would get into the rhino toy and then stand up to ride him.  She didn't want to just sit there and ride, no she had to stand up.  It seems like she isn't happy unless she is in danger.  She took a liking to Josh's helmet so I let her play with it.  I put it on her head and she thought that was so much fun.  She would put it on and then walk around all funny.  It was pretty cute stuff. 

Too Much Fun

Tyler told me on Tuesday morning that his mouth hurt.  So I was worried that he had strep again.  I decided to wait and see how it felt later that day before I took him into the doctors.  We went up to the Cannery to visit Tony at work and see the new machines.  Tony's mom came with us and we had a really good time.  We all really liked seeing the machines and how they make chicken noodle soup.  We also enjoyed the special grandma time.

Later that day Tyler told me his mouth still hurt so I made an appointment for when Tony got home from work so I wouldn't have to take all the kids.  Turned out Tyler did have strep, again.  He just had it three weeks ago.  The doctor guessed he just had bad luck.  So he went from never have had it, to having it twice in a month time.  So then I was super worried that the rest of us would get, but so far no problems.  I kept asking Josh if him mouth hurt and he said no.  We are very lucky, because we are always sharing food and drinks.  You would think that we would have learned our lesson when we all got the flu...guess not.
We were enjoying the dry weather yesterday afternoon after a morning of rain by playing in the back yard.  Lucky for us Tony got off work a couple of hours early so we were all able to play together.
Megan has become a pro at going down the slide all by her self.  She is also really good at climbing up the slide without any help.  She does however need help to go from climbing to sitting without falling off the slide.  She likes to stand up on the top, so Tony and I make sure that we are by her to help her sit down on the top.  Then she pushes herself and slides down all by her self.  She generally ends up on her bum or her face.  She is tough and gets right back up.  She is pretty impressive. 

Josh was riding around on one of the scooters and he must have hit a rock because the scooter stopped, but he didn't.  Josh's face fell right into the side of the handle bar on the scooter and left a pretty cool half circle right under his eye.  He cried for quite a while, so it must have really hurt.  He quickly felt better once he got a cup of fruit punch.  I am surprised it didn't give him a black eye.  We are lucky it hit him below the eye and not right on it. 

Earlier yesterday Tyler told me that he wanted some pillow thing that holds an ipad or tablet.  I told him that we didn't have an ipad, so we didn't need that pillow.  Tyler then said we should buy an ipad.  I told him that they cost lots of money and then asked him if he had lots of money.  Josh then joined the conversation and said that "Nana has money...Nana give Josh money."  I agreed that Nana gave him some money (four quarters for helping pick up the branches) and it was in his bank.  Then Josh went and got his Mickey bank and showed me all his money.
Josh has a really good memory and it is so fun to hear how he thinks.  Just a couple days before this Josh told me how much he likes Nana..."Nana nice."  Then Tyler and Josh started fighting over who liked Nana more.  I guess if they are going to fight, that's a good thing to fight about.  We all love Nana.
Tony gave Tyler and Megan a horse back ride this morning.  It was Megan's first one.  Tony had Tyler hold on tight and then they went for a ride.  Tyler did really good holding on to her and Megan loved riding on Daddy.  What a fun family I have.

Megan Loves To Play Outside!

It started with a little help.

 And quickly became something should could do on her own.

Happy Easter

We had a pretty good Easter.  It started out this morning with fun Spring clothes to wear to church.  The weather was beautiful and perfect so the boys were able to wear their shorts today.  We got a couple of pictures of Megan and Josh before church, super cuties.  Tyler wasn't happy with his shoes, so he didn't get a before church picture.

Church was good.  The Primary sang a really pretty song called Gethsemane.  Tyler really likes that song, so he sang it out happily.  It was such a nice song it brought me to tears. Josh went up with the other kids, but didn't know the songs. He just stood up there hanging out.  I was just happy he was being well behaved on the stand.

After church we took a couple more pictures of the kids before the Easter Bunny came.  While the kids were in the front yard the Easter Bunny visited the back yard and left lots of eggs for the kids to find.  
I gave them their buckets and they all went wild finding the eggs.  Megan was pretty slow on finding the eggs.  She was more interesting in what might be in them, then gathering lots of eggs.  She was pretty darn cute in her pink dress and her little bucket.
Later we went over to Tony's parents for dinner.  Tony's mom had some eggs filled and ready to be hidden for all the grand kids.  Tony and I hid the eggs and then when the others arrived all the kids went and collected their eggs.  Grandma later divided up the treats for all the kids.

Grandma made a yummy ham for dinner.   After eating the kids all played while the adults hung out chatting.  Then grandma spoiled the kids some more with some new clothes.  Those that needed them got church clothes, the others got play clothes...plus all the yummy treats.

We enjoyed strawberry short cake for dessert and then played some baseball in the back yard.  We all loved the warm sunny weather.  It has been such a nice Easter.  It couldn't have been better.

On Thursday I took Tyler and Megan into the doctors for their well-child visits.  The doctor says that they both are looking and doing really good.

Megan weighed in at about 17 lbs 11 ounces.  Keeping her in the 5th percentile.  Her height is 28 1/2 inches (5 %) and head size is 43 1/2 cm (15?), so she is growing at about the same rate as she has been...slowly.  He says we can start her on regular milk (wahoo!) and she can pretty much eat anything.  Always good things to hear.  The poor thing had to get six shots, but was a tough girl and only cried for a minute.

Tyler was lucky and didn't need any shots (and I believe he wont need any for a long time).  He was 44 1/4 inches tall (25%) and weighed 45 pounds even (40 %) .  Also his blood pressure was good and so was his vision.  Tyler doesn't have to go back until he is eight and Megan at 15 months.  For kicks I got Josh's stats also.  He is 40 inches tall and weighs 35 pounds.  It is good to know that the kids are healthy and strong.  We love them all so much!

Megan's First Birthday

Megan turned one year old today.  I really can't believe that it has been a whole year.  I know I say this all the time, but time goes by so fast.  It seems like I was just pregnant and that we just had Megan.  Maybe it's partly because she is still so small and just doesn't look like a one year old.

I would say that Megan is a lot more active and physical then any average one year old.  She is all over the place all the time.  She is a good climber and is doing pretty good at getting of things without totally falling off and hurting her self.   Instead of going down backwards she likes to just sit on her bum and then scoot forward until she comes of the step, fireplace, or couch.

She is a master at opening all drawers and cupboards.  It is pretty much driving me totally crazy.  I am always picking up all the stuff she is dragging out of the drawers.  Her new favorite is getting the boy's underwear and pulling it out of their drawers.  It is kind of funny.  I don't want to put child locks on all the drawers, so I am going to just have to deal with it until she grows out of it.  I do have looks on all the kitchen drawers and cupboards - must be safe.
She is a super good talker.  She says Ma, Da, Ba, La, Ya...I am sure that she says more but that is all I can think of now.

She has five teeth.  She has the two fangs, and then three teeth on the bottom (who needs front teeth?).  She isn't really into baby food at all.  She will eat a couple bites and then want to just eat food herself.  She is good at feeding herself and loves to do it.  For only having five teeth, she eats "regular" food really well. 
We took her out to Texas Roadhouse tonight for her big day.  She had a good time and so did the rest of us.  Megan and Tyler have their well-child doctor visits on Thursday.  It is always fun to see how the kids are growing and if they are where they should be developmentally.
We all love our Megan and can't get enough of her.  She is just like our boys and loves to get down and climb all over them.  We are all so lucky to have this cutie in our family!

Party, Party, Party

Today was the day that we celebrated Tyler and Megan's birthdays with the extended families.  The day started out a little crazy when we lost our power about 8:30 am and when Tony called the power company they said they expected it back on about 12:30 pm.  So we hung out at home most the morning and then decided to do some shopping.  We hadn't gotten Megan's present so we had to go out before the party.  We started at Big Lots, found nothing.  Then ended up at WalMart and found her a cute seat for her to sit in.  Then we ate at McDonald's and let the kids play on the play land. 

After we got home we were happy to see that the power was back on and we were able to finish getting the house ready for the party.  Mainly the cake still needed to be made, so I totally needed power for that.

People came about two and we chatted for a while before Tyler said, "Let's get this party started" and then pointed to the presents.  It was pretty funny.  So we handed out the presents to Tyler and Megan and Tyler was very nice to let Megan go first.  Megan took her sweet time opening her presents, so after the first one I told Tyler that he could just start opening his gifts.  He really liked all the nice things that he received.  He was so happy to have the things that he asked for plus more.

Megan liked opening her presents.  She got some really cute things and fun toys.  She seemed to really like the little chair we got her and was really cute sitting in her chair opening gifts.  Then it was cake and ice cream time.  Megan did really good with her cake.  She started picking at the frosting right away.  After a couple minutes she started smashing up pretty good and just ended up being a mess.  She seemed to have a good time with it.

Later I met up with the other girls in my family to go to dinner for Betsy's baby shower.  We went to Chili's.  It was really fun to be out with the girls and have a good meal.  After we ate we went back to my parents so she could open her gifts.  Then we all chatted a while longer before I headed home.  It was a busy day, but a really fun one.  Megan's actual birthday is on Tuesday.  Can't believe our baby is almost one.  Oh how time flies.

Respect

As a mother I don't seem to get much respect.  My kids lately have not been very respectful to me.  They talk back, they have attitudes, they tell me that they don't like me, they don't listen...I could go on and on.  I feel like I address this disrespect when it happens with the appropriate time out or privileges taken away, but sometime I just feel like it is not getter any better.
I feel like I am just the "mom" which means that I am the cook, housekeeper, maid, nanny, etc, but not someone who is to be treated as anything better then a servant.  Unfortunately sometimes even Tony makes me feel this way, disrespected.  I don't make the money, therefore I am not as valued as he is.  I just stay home with the kids...any loser could do that.  I feel like Tony gets to go off to work 12 hours a day where he has people tell him all the time how great of worker he is and how happy they are to have him there.  He gets lots of validations for all his hard work.  I don't get anything for all the hard work that I do.  No one is giving me any compliments on how well I do laundry or clean the kitchen.  No one is giving me a high five for bathing my children and brushing their teeth.  I don't get a raise at the end of year for all my hard work.  Now I don't need a medal or a big parade, but what I do need is respect.  Respect from my family.  Respect for being a stay-at-home mom and doing the best job I can to raise my kids and keep my house.  Respect for how I want my house and support to keep it that way.
Don't get me wrong, I like being a stay-at-home mom.  I like that I can raise my children and be here for them no matter what.  I love that I get to see them learn and discover the world.  I love my children and think that they are amazing and brilliant.  But where is the respect?  I would love it if my family would tell me that they thought that I was doing a good job.  That they liked how I kept the house clean and organized.  Hey, even a thank you for working so hard would be great.  I think that is all part of respect.  I don't think that I am asking for too much.