dentures and hair

There will be no more of these "I've lost my dentures" expressions around here:

Pace finally has two teeth - which makes him the Gee child that has taken the very longest to get them!  Kami got her first tooth at four months and everyone else had at least one by five months, but our little Pace-man has taken his sweet time!

Evidently he has been putting all of his growing energy into his hair! I've usually got bald babies at his age! The above picture was taken a couple of months ago, and his hair has grown a lot since then.  Yesterday I got him out of the bath and suddenly I just had to give him a little trim - about an inch or so off the length in the back.  I like his shorter hair, but now I have a dilemma because I CANNOT get myself to throw away his trimmings and they are still sitting on my bathroom counter:

I know...hair is kind-of gross when it is no longer on people's heads...but this wispy baby hair is so sweet to me.  Now that I have a picture of it, maybe I can store it away in an envelope or something.

It's my second post of the night because

It's been an eventful weekend!  I am sitting here at the computer on the tail end of a fabulous Mother's Day.

I have been pampered from the time I woke up, by Shawn, who didn't have to be at the church until 8:30!  He had me stay in bed a little longer while he made waffles with fruit toppings and whipped cream. Delicious!! Then he helped get the troops ready for church and it wasn't nearly the scramble that it usually is.

I got the kids out into the car just in time to arrive at church on time.  I grabbed a few more things for the diaper bag and followed them out the door, but just as I got to the car, an enraged Abram came charging OUT of the car, proclaiming loudly through his tears that he "was not going to go to church!!" I tried to cajole and convince him to come as I followed him from the garage out the door to the front yard. After several attempts, it was obvious that his mind was made up, soooo... I told him we would miss him very much, and got into the car and backed out of the garage.  Where we stopped and picked him up again because it was evident that he had changed his mind.  Don't you love how the reverse psychology works on that age?

Then the little kids kept bickering in the back seat because someone was putting their shoes on someone else and who knows what all.  They were worse-behaved than usual, and sacrament meeting wasn't looking like it was going to be a very enjoyable experience. Until I thought of a really fun game!

I knew that Shawn had asked 6 teenagers to speak, and therefore the talks would be shorter and would hopefully cater to shorter attention spans. I told the kids that I was going to give a quiz after church to see who could answer the most questions, and even told them that for each question answered correctly, they would get a candy (bribe left-overs from Easter). The kids took notes all through the meeting - and wonder of wonders, Pace slept through the whole thing, so I took notes too, so that I would know what to ask! Sacrament meeting was saved (whew!!)

And that quiz after church was so much fun, I think we will do this every week.

After church, Shawn made lunch and dinner. This was dinner - I know I don't know how to make it look super appetizing:

But it was!! Have I ever mentioned that my husband is a super-fabulous cook?  I was impressed - he had just about every vegetable imaginable in this stir fry, and I LOVE a good stir-fry!  The kids may not have been as excited about it.  Shawn told them, "Don't worry.  For Father's Day, I am going to request Papa Murphey's."

I received touching letters from my children and husband.  I love that my kids can appreciate more than "that I keep the house clean" as they get older! Because I certainly try hard in more that just that area!

I wrote letters to the two greatest mothers in my life.  And cried over both letters and had to go blow my nose quite a few times. They are both so amazing, and I count it as one of my greatest blessings that I can think about what they would do in any situation and know that by following their example I am on the right course.  I don't have to learn some life lessons or even parenting lessons for myself: I am so blessed that I can build on what I already have learned from them.

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there!

prom 2014

Yesterday was prom...for I think every school around here!  Kami went with Sam Lauritsen and a group of 11 other couples. They went on a day date to the zoo, went to someone's house and played games, went to dinner, and then she came home to get ready for the dance.  

Her date picked her up in about an hour:

She got the boutonniere on without any assistance:

Posed for some pictures for her mom:

And away they went! Kami had a great time.

There are some new girls in town

....and I think I am going to like them a lot!! Two boxes of Italian honeybees!  Talk about something exciting to receive in the mail!!

We go through so much honey around here that  I wondered about the possibilities of raising our own and read a book about it a couple of years ago.  That got me REALLY excited about the whole idea.  Then Caden got really excited about it with me! And THEN I was finally able to get my handy man husband on board!  Here he is getting the foundation ready for the hives:

 

  

Shawn had to leave for some bishopric visits and missed out on the exciting part of installing all the bees in their hives:( 

We really didn't know what to expect, never having done it before, but I was a little bit worried, because some of our bee clothes never had arrived.  We were supposed to have two veils so that Caden and I could both work the bees, but only one came.  SOooo, we dressed in some really light colors, having read that bees are upset by dark ones.  And I opted to be the installer since I have no problem with stings, and Caden tends to be a little bit allergic to them. Noln spraying them with sugar syrup to calm them before installation:

Getting ready to remove the queen bee:

 Turns out that there was no need to worry - they were completely harmless and before long everyone was right up where they could see and help. I didn't even need that bee veil - and actually didn't use it for the second hive.  Which was nice because it helped Isabelle, who was feeling a little wary, to get close up and see the whole process. 

The bee installation helpers - Kami videoed the whole thing:

We aren't supposed to peek at them for a week while they get everything set up and accept the queen bee.  I hope they all survive!

i love it

First of all this little Dr. Seuss-looking character:

The younger kids had just arrived home from school as Pace woke up from his nap.  Isabelle claimed the privilege of getting him out of his bed - no one could get enough of him!

What a lucky little boy!

old

Some things around here are getting old.  Like the fact that I have been sick for almost two weeks, had massive pressure in my head, feel like I can't hear, sore throat, cough and WAY too much congestion: so any sleep is a miracle. I am beginning to feel a little better (I think) but even at that I only managed to sleep for four hours last night. Four. This is getting old.

And, for better or worse, I also see signs that I am getting old as well. After lying down for days on end, I stood up one afternoon and realized that somehow I had pulled a muscle in my calf ...without even doing anything.  Soooo, I have been trying to hobble around like an elderly person so that it can heal, but since I just barely turned "old" I have a hard time remembering this.  I step down off of chairs after trying to get something out of a very high cupboard, or I try to explain to Maddie something about soccer (as though I even know anything) and try to take a running step without thinking.  My muscle feels like it rips and tears some more.

ARG!!! I think to myself.  I haven't gotten to exercise in TWO WEEKS!!! When will I get to exercise again?!

Confessional:
* As a side-note, I am sick of these two old things (being sick and having a hurt leg) but I must acknowledge that they are entirely my own fault.  I needed to learn a lesson. You see, I am so selfish and unsympathetic whenever Shawn is sick, and last week when he hurt his leg, I immediately thought, "Oh great.  Now even though he is home, I will still be on my own, doing everything myself!" So you see, those are my true colors, and I needed to get good and sick, and then my leg got hurt so that I would really get the picture of how horrible I was about Shawn's hurt leg last week. Sooo, I have literally taken notes -from my sweet husband- on how to be more sympathetic to sick people. My list includes novel ideas like: Ask how they are feeling several times a day.  Don't ask or expect them to do ANYTHING.  Ask if there is anything that would make them feel better. I vow to humbly refer to this list the very next time he is under the weather.

While I have been sick I have lost five pounds.  I was anticipating all of the things that I could eat (and over-eat) on as soon as food sounded good again.  I was going to have a really great time gaining that weight back!  While I was at Maddie's soccer game last night, my appetite suddenly and over-whelmingly returned.  I was starving!!  I didn't know if I could wait for the game to finish!  It ended after 7:00 and since I had taken kids to piano lessons right after school and went straight from there to the soccer game, there was no food ready at home. And I knew I wouldn't be able to wait to prepare something.

As a side note, I have been patting myself on the back because I haven't bought any of these for 8 months:

But that is exactly what I did last night.  Then I crammed as much of it into my body as it could handle.  Then I ate another piece.

And this is more evidence that I am getting old:  I gained all of my weight back in one night.  I guess I won't get to enjoy complete gluttony for as long as I thought:(

My last evidence that I am getting old is that I am entertaining the thought of sporting this hairstyle:

(If I thought that I could look as sweet and cute as this lady, I'd do it in a heartbeat)

But really - If your hair fell out and then grew in like this all over your head after every baby, what would you do?

Some people might be able to get away with a cute pixie hair-cut - like you, Heidi.  But from the the looks of above picture, I'm pretty sure that a pixie would give my face the length of a horse's.

This is like a whole other set of bangs!!

I think I have found the best option for my hair to grow in evenly.

imagining

I can always tell when my kids get into the Harry Potter books. Nolan just finished the first book in the series.

Today he ran in the door from school, and instead of starting right into his homework, as he normally does, he went sprinting up to his room.
Yes, he is a perfect child at getting his homework done first thing....nowadays. We worked on the skill for a couple of months this year, - there may or may not have been some bribery involved - because for awhile there he was "remembering" that he had homework as he was heading back out the door TO school!)

He noticed I was taking pictures of him:)

Anyway, he found a pencil he had been saving in one of his drawers, sharpened it, and immediately began casting "spells" and telling me what each one did. He wishes that he had a broom and could play quidich.(sp?) He says there is a girl in his class that is mean to him and he likes to imagine saying "eat slugs!" to her and seeing her regurgitate...slugs. Who would ever think that such thoughts were going on behind this sweet little face?!: