Crate has been sleeping through the night for the last two weeks but the last two nights he has been waking up, it's amazing how fast your body adjusts to a full nights sleep and how two nights in a row can through off your routine. But I wouldn't change it for the world. I'm thankful to have this little guy at my side and I'm grateful he's slowly getting better, I'll continue to wake up as many times as he needs me to comfort him. I can't say enough how blessed I am for having these three boys on loan to me from Heavenly Father.

I love to see Boss' excitement about preschool. He has been using great manners lately and when I asked him where he learned to be so nice (hoping he'd say he learned it from me) he said he learned it from Ms. Becky. I was not 100% convinced that preschool was the best decision for Boss but I stand corrected. I now am 100% convinced and so glad I signed him up.

Buster had a half day today. I was hoping to take the boys out for some fun...you know you haven't ventured far from your home when you haven't filled up the gas tank in the van for 16 days and it's still not on empty...we all needed to get out and do something but it didn't quite happen like I hoped. However, the boys and I played games, I read to them for about 45 minutes, Buster read to us, we played with Crate and really just hung out on the family room floor for about an hour in a half laughing and having a good time. We really enjoyed each others company. I had lots of fun with them.

I thought I was over something. I keep telling myself I am. Seriously, I need to let go...it really is no big deal...it's no big deal...it's no big deal...

Looking forward to another half day tomorrow. Hopefully we can do something fun!

Oh, and this afternoon I saw a mess of popcorn in the corner of the floor and when I went to pick it up this was my conversation with Buster:

me: talking to myself "who left all this popcorn here?"
Buster: "oh yeah, I saw that a little while ago."
me: "why didn't you clean it up?"
Buster: "cause I'm not the maid."
me: "and I am?"
Buster, completely serious: "well, yes."
me: "no, I'm not the maid, I'm the mother."
Buster: "whatever, mother's or maids, they're the same thing and they do the same kind of work."

Wow...have I done a great injustice for myself. I thought I was a pretty strict mother who passed off a lot of responsibility to my young children.(They do their own laundry, clean their bathroom, clean the playroom, clean their own bedroom, dust, vacuum, empty the dishwasher, pull weeds, empty garbage's and do whatever else I ask of them) There will be some major talks over the next few days. I can't ever have them grow up to think their wife is the maid.

Sometimes I think about taking this Blog private. Wondering if I should.

There is a yellow stain on the white shower curtain in the guest bathroom. Can't imagine where that came from. Luckily, I can wash it tomorrow.

Poor Crate woke up at 2am last night and was burning up with a fever but his little body was shaking like he was so cold. I held him while Pops gave him a blessing. Once again I'm not sure what I would do without the Priesthood in my home. I fed the little guy and he went back to sleep for the night. He seemed better today but then again at dinner tonight he threw up. Unfortunately Pops wasn't here this time to help out and it was a mutual night. Needless to say Buster missed soccer practice because I needed to stay and bathe Crate and clean up the nasty mess and get dinner cleaned up before mutual started. Hopefully his little body will sleep off the infection.

I went to parent/teacher conference tonight. Buster is in the category of "exceeding/above grade level" in all areas according to his testing scores. I'm not sure what is considered grade level but I was impressed to see him do so well. Now the question is do I push for him to be challenged or do I let him continue to think 2nd grade is sooo easy, as he puts it. If only his first grade teacher could have moved up with him for this year. She was good a providing a challenge.

We had a scrap booking night for YW's tonight. Defiantly not my cup of tea but the girls seemed to enjoy it. They each are working on a scrap book of their young women years to keep for the rest of their lives. It was fun looking at the pictures that we printed up, we've had a fun year together.

One year ago today was my due date for Crate...he made us wait 8 long days before he made his appearance. I'm so thankful he's apart of our family. I feel blessed to count my blessings everyday of my three healthy boys. Sometimes the gratitude is overwhelming.

I did something tonight I have never done before. I know it's stupid but it was big for me...I navigated on the computer and made files to take care of some pictures for YW and get them ready to be printed for tomorrows activity all without Pops help. Stupid, I know. But creating the files and transferring the pictures from previous files is not something I do everyday so I was glad to be able to do it on my own.

Anyhow, on to real life.

Soccer practice is interesting. I pretty much make them run a lot and kick the ball a lot. I think we'll wait to work on strategy until they are a little older. We're still working on not touching the ball during playing time.

Everyone was awake before 6am. Not normal around here and it kind of messed with my morning workout. However I did let the boys watch a movie in the playroom while I finished my workout and they were more than excited to watch something before school. By 8:30am I was showered and out the door with three kids. We went grocery shopping, dropped Boss of at preschool, came home babies went down for naps, I made dinner for dinner swap, cleaned the kitchen, Boss came home from preschool, he and I had lunch, we swapped dinners, ran a few errands, picked up Buster from school, realized his monthly reading log was due in two days and he had only read one book. So we read and read and read to finish the log. Crate went down for his second nap (not normal but I didn't think to much of it) and I cleaned the bathrooms while the boys played. Then the three of us cleaned up the playroom and we rushed out the door for soccer. Crate did alright but I could tell he wasn't feeling well. We came home, got dinner started and right after I was done feeding Crate he puked. Not just spit up but full on puke. I think this is his first time for doing that. Luckily for Pops he had just walked in the door and was the fortunate one to take Crate to the bath. I stayed behind and cleaned up his high chair and the floor. Thank goodness for tile kitchens. Crate defiantly has a little bug...all he wants to do is lay on our shoulders. It's really sweet. We read scriptures and the boys were off to bed. I took care of my YW stuff and now I'm getting ready to do my own scripture reading. I'm tired and worn out but all-in-all it was a productive day. I went to bed at a descent hour last night...it's amazing what a good nights rest can do.

As I was making lunch today I was thinking about how General Conference and tomatoes and spinach all have something in common to me. I was making a salad with a bed of spinach topped with left over chicken from last nights dinner, a Roma tomato, little mozzarella cheese and poppy seed dressing...delicious by the way. Anyhow, growing up I hated spinach and I also hated tomatoes and lets be honest, I hated general conference weekend. I thought it was the most boring weekend on the face of the planet. It felt like we watched a billion hours of talks in two days. Man, have times changed. Now I LOVE general conference weekend. I can't wait for it to come. I love the talks, I love the inspiration received, I love to hear new temples announced, the list goes on and on. About the same time I started liking general conference I started liking spinach and tomatoes. I'm not sure what the change was but I'm thankful my tastes have matured for all three of those things. Today at the grocery store I bought 15 tomatoes and I know I'll use them all before they can even think about going bad. I know next month I'll get a written copy of the general conference messages and read them until the magazine is in shreds from all the times it will be stuffed in my diaper bag with juice spilled on it, cheerios stuck to it and probably a few boogers also. But like my tomatoes it will get used before it goes bad. Now if I can really focus on applying all the great talks to my personal life, I could be a good person. I will try. That will be my new goal.

This was a long post.

Ahhh...thanks to a great visiting teacher I got a surprise treat...just enough chocolate to make me smile. I totally appreciated her dropping that by. There was at least one extra child here today for twelve hours solid. It was a much needed day for chocolate.

Crate is almost choosing to walk rather than crawl. He's standing up on his own (without having help from a brother or the couch to pull him up)I'm excited for him to walk and at the same time I know it'll start a whole new phases.

I've been doing a lot better about keeping up on the laundry, a few loads a day really is much better than a huge pile one day a week.

Family home evening about Temples tonight. The boys sat perfectly and now have a complete understanding of why we have temples and the importance of them...NOT. I don't know how many times Pops or I had to tell Boss to "sit on your rear, we don't hang up-side-down on the couch during FHE, please stop making noises, leave your brother alone, sit on your bum, close your mouth...the list goes on and on. Sometimes I seriously wonder if this is doing any good. Meanwhile Crate was pretty much using his screaming voice the entire time. It was a lovely night. I planned to clean the bathrooms tonight after everyone went to bed but I think I'm not in the mood any longer, sleep would be much more beneficial for everyone.

Another glorious Sunday. Got to the church at 8am with the three boys by myself for BYC just to find out that none of the youth could make it. Oh well...I don't mind getting up at 5am on Sunday morning. (That was sarcastic) Then Pops wasn't done with his early morning meetings until after sacrament meeting which meant that the boys sat on the bench by themselves for most of the meeting while I was out with Crate since he's in his screaming phase. It's embarrassing. He is SOOOO loud. I think I sat in the chapel for a combined total of 7 minutes. Oh well, everyone with children goes through this stage. Again, it was my choice to have children and it's my choice to take them to church so no room for complaints.

I was the "guest lesson giver" in RS today. It's much more nerve racking to teach in RS than teaching the YW, any way the time went by so fast and I didn't get to this quote but it's probably one of my favorites that I found when researching the topic of the scriptures.
"If we're not reading the scriptures daily, our testimonies are growing thinner and our spirituality isn't increasing in depth." President Harold B. Lee

That is a good reminder of the importance of daily scripture study. Speaking of which... I gotta go read.

Who doesn't like a date with their spouse? Last night it all worked out, we were able to go out for a few hours and it was bliss...we even kissed. :) I wonder if my boys will still be grossed out in 20 years when they see us kiss like they are grossed out now....Probably. Huge thanks to Marie for providing the babysitting and getting Crate to sleep without me there to nurse him. He's almost a year, do you think it's time to stop nursing? If it's up to Crate I think his answer would be a big, fat NO.

3+ hours of soccer in 100+ degree heat, no shade, ran out of water, my team lost (who keeps track anyway though, right? It's 4yr olds...it was cute) no Pops to help, sunburn on Crate, itchy bodies from the grass, lets just say it was a blissful morning! We were gonna head down to the Stake center to watch Pops play in the championship game but none of us were in the mood. Our ward did win though! When I asked him "what" they won his answer was "bragging rights, and a candy bar" a perfect combo for a man.

Looking forward to the Relief Society broadcast tonight. It's probably my favorite session of General Conference.

If I'm lucky, I might get a date tonight with just Pops. Sometimes it feels like the stars have to align just right...(aka Pops gets home from the office before I'm ready to fall asleep and we have a babysitter to handle the monkeys)

I feel like this has been an extra long week and I am very excited for the weekend. Nothing special is planned but it will be nice to just have the boys here at home with me. I'm thinking we might all be able to lie down for a family afternoon nap tomorrow...doesn't that sound blissful? Hopefully soccer will were them out in the morning.

Now the question is...what's for dinner???