You know you're smart when you are 3 and know EVERYTHING!

I finally took Abram to a REAL doctor last week. Every since February of this year, he has been coughing every night, all. night. long.  Then he starts wheezing like crazy and has a hard time breathing.  The wheezing has always started on a weekend or a holiday, so we have taken him to community care.  They generally give him a steroid shot, and prescribe an allergy medicine - last time they prescribed breathing treatments and we had to buy a nebulizer, but they never really get to the bottom of the problem, and the coughing has continued.  And Abram has seemed worn out every day. 

The REAL doctor has give him some medicines for asthma and allergies, and Abram is all fixed up!

I liked this conversation that Abe had with the doctor:
Doctor:  How old are you?
Abram: Three...But I will turn four in a few more months!
Doctor: When's your birthday?
Abram tells him.
Doctor: Wow!  You're smart!!
Abram: (looking smug) I know...I know everything.
Doctor: (chuckling) So why are you so smart?
Abram:  Because the kids (meaning his siblings) read to me!

We've got spirit, yes we do!

It was homecoming week last week!
Caden's school did a crazy hair/pajama day, Kami's school did pajama day- she wore some of Suzette's old pj's and got all sorts of compliments:)

Nice night cap!

Kami for "clash day" Caden for "duck dynasty" day:

i know- i can never get pics to rotate, but wanted the full deal :)

"Spirit Day" - Caden with red hair and eyebrows, Kami with another great outfit found at Grandma Gee's:

Blooming beautiful!

Our yard is coming right along - I always get a lot of enjoyment from my yard.  The family has had to do most of the up-keep on it this year - they are sick to death of it, and  I have missed it.  Saturday one of the jobs on their list was to do some weeding.  Everyone groaned. So I said, "would you rather babysit, or weed?"  They all picked baby sitting, and I did all the weeding.  A win-win situation!!:)

A new (temporary) schedule

 I learn something new with every baby - maybe it's because the dynamics of our family is always evolving and changing and I have to adjust to meet its needs. It's tricky and sometimes down-right frustrating to be up with a baby most of the night and then have him wake up for the last time one half an hour (5:30) before I have to get everyone else up for the day, (at 6:00) and then take care of the family scripture time and get everyone ready and out the door in half an hour (bus by 7:30).  That is five lunches to fix, breakfast to make, and a couple of heads of hair to fix.  Add a baby that is still fussing into the mix -and therefore no hands to take care of everything  with - and it's a MIRACLE to accomplish all this in half an hour!  I couldn't do it if the kids weren't helpful with Pace during that time.  When Shawn is here, I don't have to worry - everything runs really smoothly.  But for the last couple of weeks he has had to be gone. All.week.long.....Sigh.

This week Pace has decided to wake up for the day at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, so what I have learned is that this is a great time to get ready for the day!  Not quite sure why I've finally figured this out with this baby? Rather than try for hours on end to get him back to sleep, I clean the house, do laundry and make the lunches.  The hours fly by, and before I know it the kids are up.  My idea is, that once Pace finally naps, all of the house work will be done and I can nap, too. That idea hasn't quite panned out, though, because he has a way of FINALLY falling asleep when I can't - while I'm making dinner, etc. But aside from not sleeping, much, I am a lot less hassled -feeling.

I think Pace is so used to the hustle and bustle of our household that he has a hard time sleeping when it's quiet!  I have never had a baby that will sleep through noise, but he thrives on it. His best nap-time is while I am making dinner and the older kids are all taking turns practicing piano, interspersed with the yelling, whooping stampedes that pass regularly through our house.

I have really been enjoying the absolute beauty of the night as I hold my little guy in the dark, looking out onto the yard. The last three nights the moon has been so brilliantly bright, and the night-scape is so peaceful.  And then I can watch the whole process of the sun coming up:

 

 

SO breathtaking.  The mornings have been more chill and the water temperature is still pretty warm - thus the steam rising from it.  In fact, when I commented on it, Maddie and Caden were quick to inform me that the water temperature is, indeed, very warm. They said that last night when they were out swinging across the water, their feet were cold so they kept dipping them into the water because it was so much warmer:)

mini me

Having a baby with older kids is a whole different story than having one with all little kids, for sure.  I have a lot of great help this time around!  Sunday I went to another ward's sacrament meeting and was able to leave Pace home with Kami and Caden -because we don't want to expose him to all the germs yet.  (Although, ironically enough, soon after I got home Nolan informed me that he was feeling really sick and then proved the point by lying down on the couch and sleeping for an hour or two.  He was burning up with a fever.  So the germs were really here at home already...)

But I digress...I was stating that this time around I have more help.  But I need to also admit that from one party in this house I sometimes receive TOO MUCH help!  Isabelle has always been a mother.  It just comes naturally to her to take care of kids and run a household! Someday she is going to be quite the on-the-ball mother/ household runner!! Last week she decided to clean out the little boy's closet and chest of drawers.  Every article of their clothing came down to the laundry room.  She said that she thought that all of them needed to be washed, and since they were now mixed up with all the dirty ones, wash them I did.  Sigh. Since she had also cleaned out their closet, this also included out-grown and still-to-be -grown- into clothes. I don't have enough laundry to do the way it is, you know!

Sunday when I got back from church I went into the laundry room to see if the little boys needed their clothes ironed for church and found a big mound of their bedding on the floor.  As I started a load of one set of bedding I asked, "Did the little boys wet the bed last night?" Because usually if Nolan wets the bed he brings all of his bedding downstairs, but this time Abe's was there as well.  Isabelle piped up, "No.  I just thought that it was time to wash their blankets because it's probably been awhile."  Um...yes...a couple of days... since that was the last time that one of them wet the bed!

 And i rolled my eyes because she had done the easy part- bringing everything down. I had to remember to get it through the wash-on a day i usually don't have to worry about such things (because remember I am already committed as I just stuck half of it in the wash) and get it back on the beds before bedtime. After the first load of bedding made it through, I told her that she could go put it on one of the beds.  She looked puzzled and said, "ME???"  I said, "you bet!" ... And to her credit she did it without complaining:)

Also to her credit- she IS the one kid that I have that could care less about the mood Pace is in when she holds him. She happily holds him whether he is happy or crying out loud - at which point the other kids usually look for me and hand him over - and seems to have a sense of just what to do to get him happy.

And look at this picture:

She is feeding a bottle to Pace and reading to Abram at the same time.  I heard her tell Abram, "I will say "beep" when it's time for you to turn the page."  What a capable little girl.  I just maybe need to have a talk with her about how some jobs are just for the REAL mom to worry about!!

labor day

Harvesting the garden is never an activity that I look forward to, but it always ends up being such an enjoyable family time to me! In fact I think everyone in the family enjoys it.  This year, it was raining, so everyone ( but Pace and I who watched from the porch) gathered the corn as quickly as possible:

and brought it to the shelter of the front porch to husk it...

and to sample some raw corn, in Nolan's case:

We had an enjoyable time just working and talking:

and then when the husking got monotonous the races began:

even Abram worked to the finish:)

 and then we went in and set up an assembly line to wash, cook, cut and bag the corn.

We told the kids when we started that we would hurry and get it done and then the rest of the day we would watch movies - because that's the kind of day that it felt like with the rain and all.  Turns out that it took almost the whole day and we only got one movie in...just before bed-time...perfect:)

Just in time!

Kami got her license!! I know - she's only 15 - but that's how it works here in Idaho.  You take driver's ed when your 14 and get your license at 15.  Kami was actually eligible to get it in March, but she was in no hurry...I am the one that got in the hurry to have her get it once I had Pace.  It is so nice to have her run all the quick little errands that would take me twice as long to do with a baby.  She got her license just in time. She is doing great and loves driving Shawn's car to school whenever possible!

This is Kami driving the bus to church on Sunday because Shawn and i decided that i probably ought to keep Pace home one more week.  I just noticed Caden's "terrified" faces in the background - haha:)

I just noticed Caden's "terrified" faces in the background - ha ha:)