Ode to Lola

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You were a good little car.

You served so many, so well.

 You got beat up, scarred, and seemed to be falling apart.

But you were strong. Solid under the hood.

You were the scene for so many of my high school memories. And kept those stories to yourself.

You survived a teenage boy driver. 

You brought home 2 of my babies. 

And you will continue to serve someone else. 

We sold little Lola the Corolla last week. She got snatched up really fast, so fast I almost didn't want to let her go. She seemed to be nothing special, but she got me through high school, and then the last four years of our marriage. with joe leaving, and then going to school and training we just don't need another car, and so we parted ways with her. All the kids in my family drove her for a little bit at some point. I talk about her like a person, and no I'm not THAT attatched, but I was a little sentimental thinking about all the things that happened in that car. All the boys I drove around, friends who carpooled with me, all the nights I drove solo for 45 minutes each way to see friends. The times I locked my keys in the trunk, more than once. So many good times.

She better be treated well!

1 AM

its after 1 am.

ive been changing up the look of the blog for 2.5 hours. and i still dont like it.

i dont ever stay up this late. ever. but joe is not home, he is off having adventures with bubba-boy back east/down south/whatever-northcarolia-is and his family. i miss them so. although, my house has stayed significantly cleaner, and stays that way. AND less laundry has to be done. AND less food eaten. AND its been real quiet. maybe........ JUST KIDDING those boys better be back in my arms no later than next tuesday.

its been too quiet, actually. i woke up at 330 last night and couldnt stop my mind from turning. i have had a little too much quiet, and once the mind gets going, its incredibly hard to stop, no matter how exhausted. i have really gotten to think some things through lately, make some goals, and accomplish a few things (like making a dent in the laundry. and moving furniture, because i cant. stop. moving. furniture. this is my of expressing my need to move somewhere. its been happening more and more frequently, and i cant stop.) but right now i cant stop clicking, dragging, moving, adjusting, blah blah blah.

this is the reason why i either read or watch a movie until i fall asleep every night. they require little thinking.

sooooooo. i will turn on some pointless something or other on netflix, and call it a night. and maybe the blog will look better in the morning?

yeah right. i seriously lack blog design skillz.

A reunion of sorts

See all those kiddos?

My 3 on the left, the other three belong to my 'cousin' Brooke.

Brooke and I have birthdays months apart, got married weeks apart, and each of our kids are just months apart.

We think it's been about 10 years (at least, maybe more!) since seeing each other, and like my parents, we are leaving just as they are going to be moving here. Boo! Her kids are adorable, and their crazy boy stuff is hilarious. 

Her brother getting married brought them out for a visit, and it was too short. Love her, love them!

Gramps.

My dad, he's totally awesome.

He has always had a soft spot for the grand kids.

But, he worked really hard at his job, and hasn't always had lots of time to spend with them.

Until now. 

Grandpa is retired! And lives not too far from us!

And, let me tell you, watching him get really into being grandpa awesome.

Taking Evie, playing with her, taking the kiddos for rides in the jeep, and buying books to read with them is the best! 

And it breaks my heart to think we have to leave him (and the rest of my family) in a few months. 

Love my dad.

Bubsaloo

Just a bubba update.

He is allllll boy. Except when Claire gets her nails painted- he loves getting in on that action.

He is finally talking lots and lots. Tons of new words everyday. My fave right now is when he tries to say chocolate. So funny.

He has recently reverted to baby mode- wants a binky, to be carried, wants to be held and rocked, wants me to feed him a bottle. I am totally aware that this is normal. My mom loves to remind me that I was potty trained completely before my brother was born, and then went backwards when he arrived. I was expecting him to, just five months ago! His binky thing is driving me crazy, he had no problems 9 months ago giving it up. Trying some things this week, hopefully it's not a problem much longer!

He always has bruises everywhere. He is so rough and tumble, but always just gets up and keeps going. Sometimes needs a quick kiss from mom, but then just keeps going. 

I think he was born with the knowledge of how to make everything a sword. Everything gets pointed like a sword. 

He wants to grow up so bad. Just to play with big sis, and ride a real bike. Long torso and short limbs does not help him reach the pedals, sadly. 

He thinks he is so funny, and is so happy most of the the time. Super ticklish, and has the most infectious laugh. The biggest open mouth grin, and bright eyes that go squinty when he smiles.

Such his father's child. Knows how to do puppy eyes better than his father even.

Boy do I love him. Crazy, silly, happy bubba. 

Kidlets

These babies. These little loves of mine. 

Oh, how happy they make me.

How crazy they are. 

Munchkins, stay little? 

Stay my chubby cherubs.

Sweet, sticky kisses, and big bear hugs. 

Snuggles, kisses for a boo boo.

I can't get enough. 

Tucking in for bed. Bubbles for the bath.

Extra blankets, extra juice, extra loves, always room for more. 

Kidelts, stay mine. Because I love you beyond the moon and back.

End of a season.

 It's been a whirlwind of a summer. Everyday went faster and faster. Playing outside, pretty much all day. Swimming. Water park. Farmers market. Bike rides. Grilling. Parties. Weddings. Late nights. Open windows. Such a wonderful time for our family.

It's also been one of anticipation. Joe worked so, so hard to be able to join the Navy, and after so many prayers, work, questions, changes, and then more changes, anxiety, papers to sign, more questions, meetings, more phone calls, disappointment, and then huge, huge relief. Of course, I am still biting my nails until he's on the plane, and I won't believe its happening til we are gone

My kids are getting way too big. Bubba is talking like crazy. He also took his binky back, and has to have it to sleep. It is making it easier for him to go down, but it's driving me nuts.

My parents are officially Utah residents, and are loving retirement life so far. Almost as much as Claire is loving be able to have sleepovers with them. So fun to have family dinners, and seeing my dad so relaxed. It's a whole new him!

Anyways, a few pics of life this summer.

story time.

I was looking back through the blog the other day and noticed how I used to write about really funny things that happened, but since having lots of kids it's been rather dull. So! A story for you.

I was conducting in relief society yesterday, and as our teacher was wrapping up her lesson, Eleanor hall started raising her hand.

Now, let me pause and tell you about Eleanor hall. She is OLD. She wears her frizzy, flyaway hair in a very TALL beehive, and has some of the biggest, thick glasses covering half her face. And her comments are always well-intentioned but  off the wall a bit.

So, the teacher tried to ignore her, she was trying to leave time for testimonies. But as she moved to sit down Eleanor started talking anyways. And she started talking about little Yosh, her 'dear friend,' and how it was her birthday, so we really needed to sing to her. What?!?!  The teacher calmly tried to assuage her by saying no, we'll share testimonies first, and perhaps we could all just go make sure to say happy birthday on own.

Crisis almost averted.

I got up after testimonies and announced the closing hymn, and promptly got interrupted by Eleanor, practically yelling (we have RS in the chapel, by the way) saying no, we will sing 'happy birthday' because it would only take two seconds. Ah!

Fine. We sang the least enthusiastic version I have ever heard, closing hymn, and done.

I cant count the number of people who came up and said, 'you should have seen your face!' Yeah, I'm sure that was hilarious. But they all also said there was nothing else that could have been done.

Oh those old people in our ward. They are one funny bunch. I need to say there are a few who I will dearly, dearly miss. One being Cynthia Scott. She is teeny tiny, wears Fifties cat glasses, and her stark white hair in a bob. She has really horrible memory, it took her maybe three years to finally remember my name.  But she always tries so hard to remember, is really so kind, and has the sweetest testimony that she is so willing to share.

I need to also say, I will miss our ward in general. It's a really, really big ward, but it's also really transient, you can meet someone new every week.

Anyways. This is Claire after her dance class recital this summer. So fun!

Long live summertime!

We are having too much fun right now to post much. Dance class, pool, sprinklers, outside play, doggies, parties, friends, visitors, it's all just making time fly. These two fight as hard as they love each other, so that's fun. Summer is slipping through my fingers like sand, and I can't get it back. I'm sorta obsessed with watching the Olympics as much as possible, and it's driving my kids bonkers I think. Anyone else?

And that binky..... Oh man he hasn't had it since January, but found it last week and he insists sometimes. Yikes!

Whiplash

It keeps happening. Time speeds up and slows down, and makes no sense at all.

Evie is four months? But I don't remember life without her anymore.

My dad retired today. (no more wakes-ups!) never thought that day would come for him. So deserved. So proud of him.

As I've mentioned, some days seem long, and bed time seems forever away. Each day slowly melts away. My seeeeester is staying with me right now, so luckily I have an adult to converse with whenever needed.

Caleb turns two in three weeks. When did he get so old?

I moved to Provo 6 years ago. How has it been 6 years??? But only six years? That's 1/4 of my life, so sometimes it seems longer. This is the longest I've lived anywhere dice elementary school. I'm feeling itchy about that.

It's speeding up and slowing down every time I blink. I can hardly keep track of the days of the week.

And my claire girl, she seems like a teenager already. Whaaaaat? All her friends will be in preschool this year. I can't bring myself to do it. She won't be in kindergarten for two more years anyways, and right now I am having so much fun teaching her about things. Her imagination is exploding, and she soaks up everything we learn about. I don't want to think of anyone else teaching my baby about the world right now. She is being molded and shaped at every turn, and I want to be part of it all. Claire got into a bit of a cat fight with a neighbor girl the other day, and the other girl came out of it with a bloody lip..... It was a strange moment where I was MORTIFIED she would retaliate enough to hurt someone (we had a loooong chat after) but also a tiny bit proud she stood up for herself (it was determined the other girl started it after trying to exclude some girls from playing and claire tried to tell her everyone could play.) I definitely don't condone the hitting back, EVER, but just being strong willed enough to defend her friends made me smile on the inside. She has always been my little miss independent, who cares deeply for her friends. And I love that about her.

She is doing a little dance class with her friends again this summer, and has improved by leaps and bounds (haha) from last summer, in pretty much every way. She is also rocking at swimming- when she is in the mood. She is almost swimming all by herself regularly. Loves diving for rings and being underwater as much as possible.

I can't figure out when she got so big! I started imagining what she might be like as a teenager, and as difficult as it might be, I hope her sassy-ness never changes.

Someone stop this back and forth? And can someone stop it from being August next week? I'm thoroughly enjoying as much of summer as I can. And staying tan easily, since we're outside pretty much every day, and the water park almost weekly. And we're downing peaches like there's no tomorrow, because peach season never seems to last long enough.


Blah blah blah.... Olympics! Are you watching? Pretty sure it'll be on 24/7 at our house.

Now how adorable is Claire?

Fears, yuckiness, and generally unwanted

Lately, I've been doing things I don't really want to do.

Claire's hair has always been a little out of control. It's super thin, and it stick straight on the sides and crazy curly in the back. No matter what I do, or don't do, she wakes up with a messy for in the morning. Sick of the mess and tears trying to keep it groomed, we said good bye to her locks.

She likes it! I dream of her having long, pretty locks, but it's just not meant to be right now. Sad.

Yesterday, Lindsay practically shoved me down a humongous water slide face-first. I thought I was gonna die. I try and avoid heights at all costs. Oh, you remember me jumping out of a plane five years ago? Yeah, this was pretty close to that. Dizzy, shaking, screamed the whole way down.

Cleaning up dog pooh. Yep, doing that too. Must be love.

But, even all that, among other things, is forgotten after seeing the beautiful quilt my mother-in-law made for sweet Evie. She is SO blessed, and I am so lucky to have her in our lives. And that's all for now.

My littles are literally bouncing off the walls in anticipation. My parents are on their way here with half their house in a moving truck, and Lucy and Lizzy, the doggies. And papa is coming so soon too! It'll be a very full house for a while, and I'm stoked. We like it crazy around here :)

So if things are quiet on the blog, I'll be back soon. And if it's a really long time, it's because a couple doggies ate something they shouldn't have.

And because I'm so excited, a cute picture of my parents with bubba on his blessing day. Let the crazy begin!

memory lane

luckily, there are few things in my family that any of us siblings would fight over who gets to inherit. there are definitely a few, but some of those few are random, kinda funny things. do you have those?

one of the first "major" furniture purchases that my parents made (the first?) was a set of solid wood bunk beds, that my older siblings slept in. as years passed, we have all slept on the top and bottom, and all of us left our marks on it. from the dents and scratches, to the gum that has become like cement on the corner knobs, there is a little of each of us somewhere. 

the beds were not being used anymore, and since im the one with kids, they got passed on, and claire and bubba now sleep on them. and i always have a laugh when i lay down on the bottom bunk and look up and see the slats, because i remember being there as a child, and drawing on the underside. all of us did it at some point, writing messages, coming up with things to stir things up with another sibling. im sure it drove my mother crazy, but im so grateful for those now.

the huge wood boards were replaced, sadly, but those little 2x4s are around, and i love it. and i really, really hate that my kids are in a "color on everything i can get me hands on" phase, but i really hope they will sneak away and write things on the underside when they are older. memories of childhood friends and sibling rivalry to be saved forever on those boards. 

im going through a "memory" phase right now.... can you tell? just feeling that need to get it all down and saved. 

Thoughts on Saturday night.

This picture cracks me up. This girl cracks me up. Lindsay cracks me up. (its lindsays hair.) I wonder if this is what Evie will look like? Claire with brown hair? Will evie's hair stay darker? Fun to think about....

Time is moving faster, and slower. It went so slow before joes mom came to visit, she came and I blinked and she was gone. Now it's two ish weeks til my parents come, and I can't wait any longer, it's taking too long. But wait, Evie had her two month check up.... And she is not a new born anymore! I'm being jerked around every second, I feel whip lashed some days.

I love books. I haven't been reading as much for myself lately, but I have always wanted to have children that love, love to read. Claire likes books, and loves to read with me. But sweet Caleb, that boy has never wanted to read, at least with me. Every time I have tried, he rips the book away, slams pages and starts whining. And my hopes of him loving books have been shattering little by little. Until tonight. Claire fell asleep early so I had some precious one-on-one with him, and he didn't want to get in bed til we sat on the floor with him in my lap and a stack of books and read book after book. That boy. Oh how he melts me.

Its been a rough week. A good week, but rough. I was SO spoiled by my mother in law, I could hardly handle the kids not being occupied while I nursed, pumped, or fed baby girl. I forgot in that short span what my kids do unsupervised. Oh well. We are back in it, and getting better at sticking to a schedule I can manage. Maybe. (ive been out of bed before 730 every day. This is a big deal people.) I lost it, completely broke down after listening to kids whine, pick up and clean thing after thing. And my sweet husband listened, helped me laugh it off, and helped make the bed. I luf him. So much.

And I can't stop eating ice cream. It is not helping me reach my goal of skinny jeans. Not in the slightest. It's an addiction. Hopefully admitting this will be my first step of breaking the habit....

It's Sunday tomorrow. I am so excited. I don't know why, but I am. I get my husband home all day I guess. And I already have our sacrament meeting quiet entertainment bag packed. And it includes felt dress up dolls. We did felt Velcro dolls instead of paper dolls growing up. Oh yes. And I have inherited them for Claire to play with. I'm probably more excited about it than she is!

Now to finish Saturday chores. And crash in bed, waiting for husband to come home. Nighty night!

Where did it go?

Little miss is four weeks old. Where did those last weeks go? The days have escaped me. But they have been oh so happy ones.

She looks like me. A child that looks like me! I didnt know it was possible for the brewer genes to be beat. Not that I don't love those brewer genes, but being outnumbered was getting old.

Her toes though.... Linds loves to make fun of my second toe, because it shorter than the big toe. I am just fine with my feet, thankyouverymuch. But all my kids and joe have longer second toes. And Evie girl's second toe is no different. So, an outcast, non-royal, short-second-toed girl, I will remain. (I heard once that long second toes mean you are of royal descent. True or not, it used to make me feel less-than Linds, who loves her long second toe. :) so silly of me, I know)

Anyways, it's been hard to put little girl down. She loves a good snuggle, and her current state of still being absolute perfection makes her simply irresistible. She tries to get right up under your chin, like that is the safest place to be. Oh that newborn phase. I'm realizing not every baby is quite this wonderful, and some really struggle with the sleepless nights and a baby who just won't get comfortable and relax. Evie's only struggles are the awful hiccups, just like Claire and Caleb. We are so blessed.


Btw, that pretty quilt she is laying on, was 10 plus years in the making. Linds started it, I worked on it for a while a few years ago after mom pulled it out, and then last week my dad brought it with him after finally being finished by mom. way to get it done Mamacita!

2 sleeps

When we count down around here, we count in sleeps. It just makes things easier. 2 sleeps til baby girl, 1 til Grammy comes!

I haven't put anything up for a while, not for lack of post worthiness, but laziness. We've been outside soaking up sunshine and sunburns, and enjoying the time with two kiddos before figuring out how to do three will work.

We had a relaxing weekend watching conference, cuddling, eating out and getting ice cream, and the best was being a little rebellious and getting pedicures during the first session. A 'little' guilt, but not much. It did this momma good, it was much needed. Claire joined Lindsay and me, and she was really shy about the whole thing at first, but ended up loving her gold sparkly fingers by the end.

Joe took work off and actually went to the priesthood session, so Linds and I took the kids out, and after eating ended up spending the next 1 1/2 hours laughing and giggling our way up the canyon. We rolled windows down, they all ran around and rolled in the grass, wore themselves out chasing each other.

Sunday, completely uneventful, but wonderful. Again, I feel a little guilt for missing a few talks while I napped, but it was obviously much needed since I didn't wake up with a headache like usual.

Sigh. A great weekend, leading up to a great week, I'm sure. :) I've been dreaming about meeting this little one coming soon for a long time. I have quite the list to accomplish in the next two days, we'll see how much gets done while the sunshine outside calls to us.

she is the same, yesterday and today

and probably tomorrow.

yesterday was closet switching day. i moved all the kids clothes to their room. while doing so, a gem fell off a hanger, and as i picked it up, i smiled inside, remembering the sweater my mom added to so many years ago. (she saved some of her favorites for each of her kids, and i have a few hanging in the closet waiting for claire to fit into them)

a few hours later, claire and i opened a surprise package from grammy. a new sweater! can you guess what it looked like?

pink crew neck sweatshirt, cut up the middle, and flower appliques along the bottom with buttons in the middle. 

and claire absolutely loves it. and i love it. and i love that my mom's tastes stay exactly the same. makes things really easy :) thanks mom!

She doesn't either

But cute.


Baby is here in less than three weeks! Panic is starting to set in. Lots of things i want to do. We are getting a nice blast of spring before some more snow, and i can air out the house which feels fantastic. AND. We bought a chest freezer last night and I feel like I can breathe now that my inside freezer doesn't explode every time I open it. This is huge people, my inside freezer is rather large to begin with, but I don't feel right if it isn't completely full at all times.

Enough freezer talk. I am aware that baby brain is making me want to paint all the walls this weekend.... But the rational brain tucked away in there tells me joe would not appreciate it. I'm learning how to be rational through the whole nesting thing. It's not easy!

Today will be fantastic. Doctor will tell me I have been in pain for naught, as I won't have progressed. That's okay. As long as it doesn't end in a syrup explosion in the back of my car, like last night, I'll call it a success!

Glasses

Doesnt need them, but kinda wish he did. How cute is he???

Wail, whale, and well

Wail: so done with winter..... That should be obvious.

Whale: or "measuring ahead" as doc so nicely put it. This pregnancy is 100% exactly the same as the last 2- don't bother looking preggers for a long time, explode at the end. Makes for awesome stretch marks, waddling, and squishy baby. And her head, it's realllly low. Once again, don't judge a baby's size before she's born.

Well: it's birthday week around here. 24 doesn't sound much older, but those wrinkles are making appearances. Awesome. The kids might be getting better... We'll see.

Less than 5 weeks! Celebrations!