I Am Not a Super-Mom

Sigh, yes it is true. Is it terrible that I'm okay with that?

-I lose patience with my kids on a multiple-times-daily basis.
-I find myself guilty of doing things I've told my kids not to do.
-I make up nicknames for my kids that highlight some of their more obnoxious attributes, such as Demandy-Dany, Cont-Rory, and Finnicky.
-I rarely make them a hot breakfast before school.
-Our Valentines are never homemade. Same goes for Halloween costumes.
-Compliments don't always flow generously from my lips to their ears.
-Did I mention the patience thing?
-I hate Playdoh
-I really don't like cooking with my kids; I know it's supposed to be great to teach them alongside you, but it's hard for me to be "patient" when I know I can do it faster. Anyone sensing a theme here?

But the thing is, I really do LOVE my children. I read to them, and play with them. I try really hard to give them balanced meals, and teach them to make good food choices when they're on their own. I've sung to them since they were little, and I do my best to encourage their creativity. I squeeze them tight, and kneel down to pray with them, and I open my eyes and smile at Teag when something they say in said prayers touches my heart. I volunteer crazy amounts of hours at their school, and rearrange my days for play dates. I worry about them constantly. Are they safe? Are they happy? Are they growing up right, or am I seriously damaging them in some unrealized way?

I find myself very often going, "I can't believe these are my kids", it seems like such an awesome responsibility to be a parent. And yet I chose it. Four times. Because I wanted it of course. I never thought I would be perfect at it, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit I thought I'd be pretty great. Then reality hit, and with it the big realization that parenting is hard. Soul-crushingly hard. Their little lives are so dependent on you, for every tiny little thing. And then suddenly they aren't and you find yourself dealing with that. It's a roller-coaster ride of constantly changing norms. I've felt some of my highest highs with my kids, and some of my lowest lows with them as well. It's been amazing, hysterical, exhilarating and scary. And I know it's fleeting, so I'm trying not to wish away the harder parts.

I know I'm not a super-mom. I won't always have my kids hair combed and faces washed. I may never coordinate one of their birthday party decorations beyond what matching supplies I can get at Walmart. And I may never be the mom who can look calmly on while her kids knock over a giant glass of juice because they were too busy dancing at the table instead of eating. But hopefully they'll know that their mom loves them no matter what, even when their screw-ups reach epic proportions. They'll know they can talk to me when their friends hurt them, or their emotions are in a tailspin. Because I'll be there.

That's the kind of mom I am.

Red Butte Botanical Gardens

Today we visited the Red Butte Botanical Gardens as an afternoon family activity. Neither Teag or I have ever been there and thought it might make for a different but interesting way to spend some time together. First up, we passed through the Herb, Medicinal, and Fragrance Gardens.

Hibiscus as large as Rory's head

Water Celery

The kids seemed interested in reading the descriptive tags at first, but the heat and the curiosity got to them, and they just started wandering from thing to thing without really studying any of them. I was amazed at how many bugs we saw; crazy amounts of bees hovering all over every bright flower.

Really not sure what this thing is.

Their attention was more riveted when we got to the Children's Garden. There were all kinds of cool arrangements for them to play with and explore in, including little arbored paths in the shape of a snake.

Moose Bush

Leapin' Lizards

Hurray!

It also include the snake fountain, which Finn had a lot of fun playing in.

After that we made our way to the pond, where we saw the biggest Koi I've ever seen. They're quite obviously used to being fed from the nearby dispenser, and made their way over to us the second we arrived.

See all those open mouths?

I bought the girls each a handful, and they had a blast trying to get the food to the fish instead of the ducks.

It was a rather hot afternoon, and once we were done we had to make a Slurpee run, but I thought it was a kind of cool, atypical way for us to spend the afternoon.

It's not free to the public, but I recommend taking your family if you're looking for a different kind of activity to share.

Farewell, First Tooth!

Dany lost her first tooth yesterday! It's been loose for quite some time, but she was following in her older sisters footsteps as far as bravery went, and took some major coaxing. The stunned look on her face when it finally came out was priceless :).

Unfortunately, the Tooth Fairy must have had a pretty full schedule last night, as she seemed to have missed our house. We think it's because Dany waited until bedtime to let me pull it. Yeah, that's why. So hopefully we will see evidence of her visit tomorrow morning instead.

1st Day of School!

Today was the older girls first day of school. Maisie is starting 4th grade with Ms. Stevens, and Dany will be in 1st Grade with Ms. Call.

I can't believe how big they look, and I really can't believe just how fast the summer flew by. I don't feel like we did a bunch of the things we'd planned to do, due to heat, crazy schedules, and our fence debacle (more on that later). It wasn't a terrible summer by any means, but it does feel like there is an air of incompleteness about it. Maybe we can make up for some of it before Rory starts in a few weeks :). Good luck this year girls! Make us proud!

Rory Turns 4!

We celebrated Rory's 4th birthday yesterday, a day that she has been looking forward to for months. She's the last birthday in our family for the year, and at her age, it's sheer torture to come so long after her siblings. We made her pumpkin muffins for breakfast, and then hurried and packed up so we could go head out and play some more with the NY Bayly's. After pizza and a park, we came home and the girls watched Epic, though Rory didn't seem to like it much. After that, it was time for her chosen dinner of, can you guess? With Rory the answer is always chicken nuggets. Then Grandma Rogers came over and it was present time!

 Rory got Play-doh, a Leapster game, books, a Little People house, Hello Kitty school supplies, clothes and a Dora watch, which she's had on her person ever since it was opened.

 She was excited about every single thing she opened, which is always gratifying as a parent. After presents were opened, it was time for cake. Rory had requested a "Pinkalicious" cake, and so I did my best.

The cake has a crown on it, which matches the one on her head :). It was great fun to celebrate with her, and in just a few weeks our big four year old will be starting Pre-K. Happy Birthday Rory, we love you to pieces!

Hangin' With the NY Baylys

Trajan and Lauren and all their girls are here visiting from New York, and we got to spend some time with them on Monday and Tuesday. Our kids are pretty evenly matched age-wise, so each of them had someone to play with. The younger girls decided to paint with spin art, and Teag gave them all some of his shirts to protect their clothes. They looked adorable wearing his giant shirts.

 

Maisie and Maddie disappeared downstairs together, and we rarely saw them, doing whatever girls that age do together.

Little Summer was such a fun little baby. She and Finn are exactly a month apart.

Speaking of Finn, he had fun playing with Uncle Trajan while they were here, and kept suckering him into picking him up.

We had a great time hanging out with them, and will hopefully get to see them at least once more before they leave to go back home. Thanks Baylys!

Girls Camp

Back in May, I was called to be a part of the Stake Girls Camp Committee. So the day after I got home from the Bayly camp out, I was up early in the morning and heading up to Heber Valley Girls Camp. My mom is actually a counselor in the Stake YW Pres. and so she spent the week up there with me, which was a lot of fun.

I was put in charge of a myriad of different things, like skits, a craft, gratitude boxes, spiritual thoughts, tuck in treats, and roll call cheers, to name a few.

AND taking pictures of everyone and everything. I spent tons of time just wandering around to different places trying to catch the girls in their element. Our theme this year was I STAND the movie, and as such, each ward chose a different movie to represent them.

It was great fun to see how they incorporated their theme into everything they did. My ward chose The Wizard of Oz, and put this little gem outside their cabin.

Seriously awesome. The Stake chose to do The Princess Bride, and I wrote the skit for our big "Movie Night". I'd post it here, but the video is very long, and I doubt any of you would think it was as funny as I do. Suffice it to say that I played Westley, aka the Man in Black, and that every time anyone saw me after that they greeted me with "As you wish!". It became quite the camp joke after awhile. That and another largely pregnant lady playing Fezzik the Giant :).

We even had a red carpet, where the girls could get their pictures taken, like at a premiere.

On Thursday, my mom and I taught a cooking workshop, where we instructed the girls how to make homemade spaghetti sauce, and how to use zucchini, carrots, and squash as noodles. It seemed to go over really well, even for the kids who didn't like veggies!

I was also in charge of teaching the "Cup Song" to the girls to perform for all the Priesthood who came up on Thursday night. It was pretty amazing to see all the cups in action at once! I'll never look a red Solo cup the same again! Here's a brief, seven second clip of how it looks.

We saw all kinds of wildlife up there, and it's pretty clear that they don't have much fear of people. Big groups of deer would get within ten feet of you and just hang out.

By the time camp was over, I was completely and utterly exhausted, but I had such a great time, and it was probably, hands down, the best calling I've ever had. I loved it up there with the girls. I'm not sure if my new calling will prohibit me from participating on the Stake level again, but I hope I can make it work somehow. It was a fabulous experience.

The Bayly's Meet the Propiddy

So after we'd talked up the property to Teag's side of the family, the Bayly's decided to give it a whirl in the first part of August. And from all appearances, it was a hit! It met most of the needs/desires of different family members, and it seemed that everyone had a pretty good time.

Like our camp out in June, shooting was a big draw. This time, Tom even brought his AR-15, which both Teag and I were big fans of :).

Aaron was quite the sharpshooter. I think his fluorescent yellow shirt gave him super powers.

See the smoke from his shot?

 

Kris also brought his 4 wheeler and took kids out on rides.

There were games, and crafts, and cousins...

And creatures...

Megan found a horny toad

And a bat

We saw tons of hummingbirds gathered around this feeder

We also checked out the Desert Wave in Price, and had a great time swimming there.

Coleman modeling the latest in swimwear... for ladies

There was also tons of food, and having the bowery made for a much more convenient set up for meal sharing. I think Finn was a fan of this, as it also meant there was always food within arms reach.

 

Though we caught Rory helping herself a time or two as well.

It's quite interesting to see how Finn handles being up there, out of his usual surroundings. He hated being trapped in his pod, or in the swing, so we'd often just put him down and let him play with rocks, or sort of meander. I thought it would hurt his knees to crawl, but he didn't seem to mind. He really buddied up to Uncle Treg, and was always raising his arms to him to get picked up, it was pretty cute.

The Bayly's all had a good time, and were eager to help out by splitting and stacking a bunch of wood, which I'm sure my dad will appreciate :). I think it's likely we'll be up there again next summer!