Perfectionist? Who Knew

I love Family Home Evenings. My kids love it and it is a great time to be together and talk about everything from manners to Jesus. This week being close to Christmas we had a lesson on giving a gift to Jesus by being nice to others. We decided to draw names and try extra hard to be nice to that family member. It is a secret and then we will tell who we had next week. Odd thing is I ended up with Marcus. As I started to think on what I could do I was actually really puzzled. I fold his clothes cook dinner etc. and am a fabulous wife ;o). I was thinking if I got one of the kids I could help them with chores more, cleaning rooms making beds and the other things that they are in charge of doing. But with Marcus I am practically in charge of running this house. If I need help with something he is always willing but it seems that it is my job to keep us up and going.

As I was thinking about it I was surprised to relalize that I have already given my family all of me. I do the cooking the cleaning, get the homework done, the chores policed, volunteer every Friday in both of the classrooms, all the shopping, groceries and christmas, and birthdays, get up at night with the baby, feed her rock her, wipe boogers and tears and bums, make homemade bread, pay the bills, and anything else that needs to get done. When I need a break and time to myself Marcus is always willing to pick up the pieces and keep us moving. He is there for me when I fall apart, when I need extra arms, more sleep and a listening ear. It takes both of us to take care of this family.

I have always had a philosophy in life that I have always wanted to live with no regrets. I wanted to look back on my life and know that I did the best that I had with the circumstances I was given. If something was wrong in my life or my child's it wasn't from the lack of effort on my part. In school I always wanted A's. I suppose I want the same in life knowing I gave it my 100 and 10 percent. I never thought I was a perfectionist. I am a fast cleaner, really only caring if it looks clean to me. Many times just doing things and being done because it was good enough. I remember growing up and cleaning the way mom told you to. She was the perfectionist. And as an adult doing it different. I don't get on my hands and knees to mop. The bathroom isn't scrubbed down with ajax every week. But I suppose I must be a perfectionist when I look at my approach to life. I want the 850 credit score someday, being in the 800's isn't enough. I want the right cash reserves the debts gone, and a happy balanced life.

But I suppose I shall come back down to my life and for this week give Marcus a back rub, knowing I have given my family everything else I have.

I'm a Stinker

How's my mascara look?



Peek A BOO



Tannen is a little stink pot. Everywhere I turn he is into something. I used to think that he wasn't as bad as Landon, but now I don't think so. He is constant and persistent. He will use anything and everything to try and climb onto my kitchen counters. We can't keep him off the table, and he is constantly trying to steal the kids' food. But we love our little stink pots, they make life interesting.

Tumbling

We put the kids in tumbling again this year. They had fun again, and looked forward to their Wednesday's so they could go in the evening. This is the last day when they get to show us everything they learned.


Landon balancing


Kylie balancing


Tannen kept trying to get on the mats.


Not sure what is going on but Kylie is laying down


Showing off their hand stands. Kylie and Landon are on the ends.

Pictures

I haven't been the best blogger so I am trying to catch up. He are some of our randomness from the last month.


Kids being silly after putting up Christmas


Feed Me Daddy


Tannen loves being a big brother


Landon Getting Ready


And Throw


Sweet sisters


Smile from Aria - she is almost 3 months here


Landon and Tannen having a great time on bikes. Landon discovered he could give him a bike ride. Before the snow flew they had a great time together.

Happy Halloween

Landon's mask fell off


Darth Vader in Action


Our cute little cowboy


Little Miss Tinkerbell

Our Halloween was fun. We got to have a pizza the shape of a pumpkin, and we made homemade rootbeer with the kids. They thought it was awesome. Marcus took the kids out trick or treating. It was raining a ton. Good thing they had umbrellas. Tannen was even able to ride on Marcus' shoulders and got to pick out some treats. They made a haul and were only gone for about 20 minutes. Marcus said that they got a small handful everywhere they went and living in town homes makes it go by fast. I stayed home with Aria while she slept. They got to watch a Simpsons Halloween, and called it a day. Between a Halloween costume birthday party, a school carnival, and dressing up for school they got good use out of their costumes this year. I was able to go and help out in Kylie's class for her Halloween party. It was lots of fun this year.

Chatting with Kids

So last night I sent Landon to bed. I don't know why it hit me as funny but he told me. "mom it smells like poo in here." I told him "it probably is poo." Poor guy has live with the changing table in his room.

I was snuggling up Kylie yesterday while Marcus, Tannen, and Aria took naps. Landon was on the computer. I was having a conversation with her that went about like this.

Wendi: Kylie I love having you. You are going to be my girl forever.
Kylie: Not forever, pretty soon I am going to get big and leave.
Wendi: But you will still be my girl.
Kylie: Well I am going to get big and have my own girl.
Wendi: Can I hold her when you have her.
Kylie: Yes, but it might be a boy.
Wendi: That's okay, I love boys too.
Kylie: Ya, my boys are going to be little stinkers and get into everything
Wendi: What if you have a little girl and she sneaks and write all over herself in markers.
Kylie: Oh, I will keep a close eye on her.

Can you tell what goes on over here? Tannen really is into everything. We are constantly locking up rooms. I just wish that I could lock him up sometimes in a padded room and let him go crazy with nothing to climb up on and stick anything into.

Aria is being such a better behaved little girl. She has really slowed down on the crying. I found a little tickle spot under her chin last night. And she is starting to reach and grab and things. So exciting.

Giggles and Falls

So Aria just giggled at us for the first time today. She is so adorable. I love it and it was my favorite part of the day.

On to other news. My life wouldn't be complete without each child of mine to fall and need x-rays. So last Tuesday Kylie and Tannen were in the boys room playing. I was in the front room with Aria pacing because yes you guessed it she was crying. I heard Kylie say Mom I need your help. So I went in. I saw Tannen on the floor trying to stand up to me and crying when I walked in. I panicked and picked him up. After getting the story from Kylie with both my babies crying I found out he climbed up the changing table and crawled onto the dresser and jumped off. I had Kylie run over to two neighbors houses but they didn't answer the door. I called the doctors office and they told me they could get me in in five minutes. I called Marcus and asked him to meet me at the pediatricians office. I knew I couldn't take care of three of the kids by myself, and I needed emotional support.

We got there and right in. Our Dr. came in and joking asked who was in charge of these kids. I was so torn between wanting to cry, and just going along and joking with him. So I joked with him. It really reminded me of my mom when she would use humor growing up to help in a hard situation. I still remember when I was nine and fell on a pipe while sledding, and had to get nine stitches in my leg. My mom was with me and while they were giving me shots in and around the cut she was making faces at me making me laugh and cry at the same time. So thanks mom for letting me see the humor in life. He felt both of Tannen's legs and said that he would need to have x-rays on both of them. We went to Radiology and waited. Marcus went in with him and I hung out with the girls. They took tons of pictures and I could hear him cry the whole time.

While I was sitting there it took me back to Kylie. When she was 20 months old she fell off one of our chairs climbing up to Marcus. The metal chair landed on her finger and ended up shattering the tip of it and ripping off her nail. I was told she could end up losing the whole tip of her finger. It was tramatizing for me. But with a blessing and a good surgeon her finger and nail are fine now. (It is just slightly pointed and the nail looks like it it missing just a small part.) Then I remembered when Landon was about 4 and he fell off the counter/refrigerator and smashed he teeth in and the roots punctured his gum's and we had to hurry into the dentist.

Anyways after the radiologist we went back to the doctor. He said on his right foot right by his large toe a bone looked like it could be slightly off and bowed up. And on the left leg on his long bone there was a dark line in the scan. But he couldn't tell for sure if they were broken or not. But the treatment would be the same. Shoes on all the time he walked, and Tylenol and Motrin. So that is what we have been doing. He cried all day and wouldn't walk. I think half the time he cried because he couldn't walk. Then by that evening he limped around. He is still limping around, and a little more grouchy but who can blame him. He did come home and take a three hour nap after. We got Kylie to school late and I took a nap too. I was just so emotionally wiped out. And no it hasn't done anything for his taste for climbing up stuff. He still does. So now I guess I will just wait and see what Aria has in store for me.

Island Park and Yellowstone Vacation

In October we were able to take the family up to Island Park and Yellowstone. Last year over Christmas and pretty much through December and January Marcus had a HUGE project and work and work and we didn't get much of him. To say thank you they gave him a two night stay at a bed and breakfast in Island Park. So we finally decided to go and take the kids when they had their fall break from school. Landon and Kylie both really wanted to see Old Faithful, so we thought we better take them to Yellowstone while we were so close. It was a great, fun, crazy vacation. The first one with all six of us together.

We left after tumbling got over on Wednesday to spend the night at my parents house. We thought taking two hours off our drive up to Island Park would help. It was fun. We got there and put the kids to bed and got to chat with my dad. We got up pretty early, because Tannen is a morning bug. It was October 14th, and Marcus and mine 10 year anniversary. Love you baby!! We got ready and left. Since Aria is so little we decided to wander our way up to Island Park. We were not in any hurry, and knew we would have to make lots of stops for feeding and such.

We drove up and found Yellowstone's Bear World over by Rexburg and decided to take a stop and play there for a couple of hours. It was around 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning. We had a great time there.


What is Bear World without bears? It was really neat, they let you in gates and you get to slowly drive around and look out in the fields where the animals were. They had elk, deer, wolves and of course bears.


Having a snack


I knew I had wild animals for kids.


More bears


They also had small carnival rides that you could play on that were part of the ticket price to get in. Since it was a Thursday and in the morning there weren't a lot of people there. My kids didn't wait in line and pretty much took the operators and told them which ride they wanted to go on next.


Tannen enjoyed the train ride.


But his favorite was the car rides.


Here we all are at Bear World. They had a petting zoo also. The kids got to feed ducks, pigs, goats, and got to pet them also. Tannen like to chase the animals around. And the pig liked to follow us around after we feed him hoping for more food. I did buy fudge there and it was delicious.

We stopped off in Rexburg for lunch, and got to drive by the new Temple. It was very beautiful, and another good break for the kids. We made it up to Island park probably around 4:00. We checked in and let the kids play around on the grounds at the bed and breakfast. Then we decided to go our for dinner. After that we made our way back and put the kids to bed and hung out. Aria wasn't a good sleeper and she cried really late into the night.

We woke up once again pretty early and set out on Friday for Yellowstone. We left probably before 8:30. The kids were very excited because they really wanted to see Old Faithful. They thought it was pretty neat to drive through three states in one day.


Right when we got into the park we hadn't driven very far and there was a huge pile of cars pulled of to the side. We decided to follow the crowd and see what was going on. There was a large herd of Elk that everyone was stopping to look at. They were just peacefully grazing, and we were able to get out of our car and get some pictures. What is Yellowstone without the animals?



Landon and Kylie standing close to the elk.


We didn't get too far and I was able to see some bison. Marcus pulled over and we got a picture, but we were not interested in getting out of the car. We were chatting in the car with the kids and Kylie asked if it was a boy or girl bison. We said it was a boy. Looking later she spotted another bison and informed us that it was a girl one. We asked her why and she said "You can see it boobs." We chuckled as it was another male, but as you can see they really are pretty top heavy.


Firehole Falls

Bison on the road. It actually kind of freaked me out because they started jumping and bumping into each other and I didn't want them to kill our Yukon. They were very close to us.


Fountain Paint Pots. They were very fun to look at. But the kids did notice how much they stunk. They would hold there breath when the steam would blow over by us. And of course there was much discussion on farting and such. We also had great snacks, as you can tell by Landon they liked their tongues changing colors.

We were able to go on small detours in the car and not get out. We took the Firehole Lake Drive and I was able to nurse Aria in the car. The kids enjoyed looking at the geyers, but we didn't see any erupt on that drive.


We made it to Old Faithful!!! The kids had such a long wait to see Old Faithful. After which Kylie informed us that it sucked. The wait was so long and the geyser didn't go off for very long.


They built a new visitor center at Old Faithful. We were able to walk around and read. They also had interactive stuff for the kids to play with. We stopped off for lunch here and stayed for a little bit. The kids were able to pick out a small souvenir. Landon was able to get a small pocket knife. Marcus was in charge of deciding that it was allowed. And Kylie picked out some twisty up crayons to color in the back seat. She was given a coloring book to help her stay entertained on the drive at the beginning. Landon got a really neat 3D book on animals.


More bison by the road. There was big grassy fields and large herds of animals out grazing.


Walking Walking Walking, we did a lot of walking. On our way to the Artists Paintpots.


Wendi and Aria, I think she is asleep at the Artist Paintpots


I this was a mud paint pot. This area was really neat. There was a long walk to get to it, and then you hiked up the stair way to look over the area. But when you were at the top there was a variety of pots and colors and it did look like an Artists Paint board.


Landon loved loved loved Yellowstone. He loved being in a huge volcano, and learning about it. During the walks and trip he decided to be a scientist, because he thinks like one. He kept spouting off information that he made up about geysers and such. We had to tell him to preface everything he said with his own hypothesis. But that he was free to make any assumptions that he wanted.


Tannen cute as ever.


Our last stop was the Norris Geyser Basin. They had tons of geysers to look at. What seemed amazing to me was being able to walk and just a few feet away there was another one that seemed totally different. The day was really nice, just jacket weather, but by the last stop it started to sprinkle and rain. We were worn out and exhausted from all our adventures. It was 6:00 by the time we left Norris.


Cutie patutie


Family picture taken by Landon.


On the way home there was a huge herd of Elk again, except this time they were on the move on the side and crossing the road. Tons of people were pulled over and trying to walk up close to get pictures. Marcus the brilliant person that he is just drove stopped in the middle of the road real quick (it was stop and go anyways) and snapped a picture of the male. Then he was watching all the female where they were heading and drove up where no one was and pulled over and waited for the male to come. We got a pretty cool video of him running up into the trees. Then we drove off, and tons of cars behind us went off chasing the male.

We stopped in West Yellowstone for dinner and headed off to Island Park. We got back late and put the kids to bed. Aria was a stinker again, but I gave her to Marcus instead.

We got up again early, but really hung out in the morning not in any hurry. After we had us all packed and loaded we headed on out to make a nice long wandering way home. We stopped off at Big Springs in Island Park and the lady at the bed and breakfast gave us some bread to feed the trout. It was a rainy day so I took Landon and Kylie and Tannen out in the rain to feed the fish. The trout were huge and would almost jump up in the water to get the bread after it had fallen. If the fish didn't get it the the ducks waiting behind the fish would. I thought it was interesting that the ducks didn't get any closer to the trout. Marcus thought it was because the trout might nibble their feet to fight them off. I had Tannen on my shoulders and would give him pieces of bread to throw in. After a few pieces of being dropped in they stopped coming down and he started eating them.


Then we stopped off in Mesa Falls. It was gorgeous. But it did make me nervous of the height.


Had to sneak in a picture of Marcus because he always seemed behind the camera.


Cheese!


Landon really likes his pocket knife, can you tell?


We continued on our adventure and decided to stop in Idaho Falls and show the kids the Temple and Falls. Landon and Kylie best buds aren't they cute!!


The Girls

We then decided to eat in Blackfoot since Rochelle and Brendon always talked about Rupes. We got directions from them and ate their. And it was delicious. We then stopped off in Pocatello at Rochelle's and looked at Halloween costumes. Marcus filled up on gas and stayed in the car because Tannen had fallen asleep. Then we journeyed on down to McCammon and stopped by because it was Marilyn's birthday. We hung out and had cake. Then we finally made it home. It was late but the kids had a wonderful time.