What We Love

i was telling my sis in law the other day that having 4 little kids under seven (her's are all under 4!!) is just a recipe for being busy and maybe crazy a little bit and definitely loud and lots of fun too.  but i was saying, you know the more kids i have, the more i expect to it to be busy and crazy.  i don't know what i was thinking before...that i could control the craziness level or something, but i really couldn't and it would stress me out.  not so much anymore.  not that i'm not crazy, just that this is what i expect to do each day.  it's what i want to do each day, for the most part.  it is what i feel i am supposed to be doing.  it is part of who i am now.  we listened to some great talks about this at our stake women's and reg. conference.  i even heard a few words at the broadcast as well that seemed to have a lot to do with being a parent and what we do in our homes (while i was being a parent...swinging ellee in her seat, changing a diaper, potty, drinks, sit still, look at your book quietly, etc, etc. :)  a sister from the other ward offered to take ellee.  i always feel bad in taking people up on their offers of help, so i told her that's ok.  but, this week, i have decided i need to quit doing that!  it is so against everything in me, but then i thought, they really want to help.  they are not put out or hopefully not just offering out of duty.  i feel good when i have helped someone, so i should afford them the same!!!  i'll see how it goes, if i have anymore offers of help :)...

i thought we'd document the things that we love right now.  ben went on an overnight trip to jackson, mn to watch some of our new tractors being put together in the plant and to drive one off the line.  he loves hesston and massey ferguson machinery.  good bye green.

me, i love when i get to sleep most of the night.  i love my first, chubby baby with big rolly thighs!  she rolled completely over, front and back, for the first time today.  i love a clean bathroom...that's her sitting in front of the mirror after it's clean.  bathrooms are rough.  i want my kids to be independent and learn to take care of themselves and be clean but that means a lot of wipe up and clean up for me!

bentley has been loving school more.  he can read so well now and has not gotten in trouble for over 2 weeks now!  he loved dressing up for isat week.  his favorite was pajama day!  he and bridon love the new tractor ben brought back from his trip.  they will play forever hauling stuff and making messes for hours with it...most recent was hauling blossoms from the trees all over the house:).  bentley sleeps downstairs now and although he does not totally love this arrangement, he has been such a good sport about it!

bridon, oh bridon. he is a collector.  a lover of many things!  last week he came home with a collection of cat bones he found down in the pond.  he put them on his pillow.  i told him he needed to find a box.  foul!  he loves scissors.  after kindergarten registration, i let him have his safety scissors to cut apart flashcards.  he cut a huge patch in his hair, so he had to get buzzed again.  we told him his 'syndrome' costume was going down the road if he did it again.  seemed to put some fear in him because he does love a good costume.  he also loves electrical tape.  i may give him a case of it for his birthday!

emerson loves the popcorn popping!!  she loves to sing it and the wise man and nephi's courage.  she has taken over as the bandaid lover in our family and has to have one almost every day.  she loved the little hike we went on last nite with gpa and the scouts to put up the flag on liberty butte.  she did great and only fell once!  she loves having a drink of water at nite after you put her to bed.  she's sleeping in bentley's bed right now until we figure out how to put her back with ellee...

and finally, our chickens.  i abandoned them after i had ellee and they went downhill.  apparently i am their caretaker (one of the reasons i am against ben and the kids getting hogs).  so, bentley and emerson and i got busy and cleaned the coop after aunt natalie's mission call...paraguay!!  all the old refuse, poop..new straw.  lot's of new straw!  they doubled their egg production that day!! their bums must have been hurting:).