Meanwhile, Back at the Farm...

Okay, going to buck up and get blogging again.  It really does get pretty daunting when you haven't blogged for a while and can think of so many posts that you'd like to put up and just haven't had the time and things are starting to fog over in the brain...

So, I figured I would start with what the kids and I did while James was gone at the ranch last weekend.  Seems fitting, as he was the last one to post and that's what he posted about.

He took off with his brother, Jon, and Uncle Paul around 6:30 on Wednesday night.  Tessa had come over to say goodbye to Jon for the weekend and Bridgette was over for a movie night.  It's always so nice to have her over around bedtime when I'm all by myself!

Thursday was a long day, but most impressive on the kids' part.  I had another ob appointment at 9:15 in the morning.  I had debated dropping them off with a friend to babysit but, really, there was a slim chance of me being able to drop them off somewhere at 8:30 and still make it to the appointment on time so they all went with me.

It was a pretty quick appointment.  Dr. Maciulla was on time so we were out of there by 10:00.  So I decided to run a couple of errands on the way home.  We stopped at Safeway because milk was on sale.  I promised the kids we could get a watermelon if they were all good in the store.  Trevy threw a fit on the way in because she wanted to ride in the shopping cart.  I really didn't care, but Landon did.  He wanted to make sure we had room for the food.  Of course, this battle began right in the middle of the street/aisle that runs in front of the store so I had to drag them all - including the shopping cart with Timmy and his chicken head in the front - over to the sidewalk in front of the store to sort things out.

(What's a chicken head? you ask.  A Dr. Maciulla special.

He makes them for all the kids who come with their moms.  Truly, I think he likes playing with the kids more than checking on babies!)

I finally determined that Trevy could ride in the cart until we needed room for the watermelon.  The security guard, who was only about five feet away, got a good chuckle out of the whole thing.  Which actually made me smile because I would rather have someone just get a good laugh and think "glad that's not me" than get irritated that kids are arguing.

It was a relatively uneventful trip through the store.  Landon and Callie were both eager to help get milk and it was hard to explain the concept of a "2 item limit", but they went along with me.  We snagged a couple of boxes of Cocoa Puffs on sale for $1.49 (I know!!!  Screaming deal!  And always worth having on hand as bribery) and proceeded to produce.  It was the cutest thing to watch them all copy me thumping on watermelons.  I'm not sure why I bother.  I don't seem to pick the best watermelons regardless of what method I try.  But we did luck out with a good one that day!

By the time we checked out, it was about 11:00.  One more errand.  We stopped by Target to get a new waterproof mattress pad for the twins' bed and a few other items that had been on my list for a while.  Normally, I try not to have to take everyone to Target with me.  However, we got one of the ride-on shopping carts this time and that seemed to appease the masses.  Not to mention speeding things up, as I didn't have to wait on little feet.



We arrived home around noon and unloaded.  I had the kids put on their swimsuits while I threw together a picnic lunch of burritos, Capri Suns and sliced watermelon.  Also remembered to grab a stack of papers I was supposed to give our pediatrician at least six months ago and we headed out the door.

I have now lost track of how many times we've been to the splash park, but I think this was our second time.  As we pulled into the parking lot, I saw a school bus.  Never a good sign.  That means a lot of kids to watch out for in the water area and search among to keep counting your own kids.  But my kids were ready to go so we unloaded anyway and, glory be, as we did so, I saw the school kids starting to load up.  It was beautiful!  We were almost the only ones in the splash park!

We actually picked a good watermelon!

Lunch first, then water!

I was surprised - the kids ran right in.  (Except Timmy.)

The water was a little chilly, but they loved it!

 Timmy slowly warmed up to the idea.

Fortunately, he's still content with the sprinklers and avoiding dumping buckets.

When you're done, you're done.

Or not!

Landon is not peeing on a sprinkler.  Just standing there.

He talked Timmy how to back in.  =)

Again, the kids did a great job of listening to me.  I figured we needed to leave the water by 1:20 to be loaded into the car by 1:30 and off to the pediatrician's for Timmy's 2:00 appointment.  It took significantly longer for all the kids to put on dry clothes than I thought and, in spite of leaving the water at 1:20, we didn't pull out of the parking lot until about 1:42.  It's a 20-minute drive across town.  We pulled in right at 2:00, signed in and just had time for the kids to rediscover the fish in the waiting room aquarium when we were called back.

Timmy is now a whopping 22 pounds 12 ounces.  Still not quite on the chart there or for height, 30.9 inches, but in the 50th percentile for head circumference. I'm telling you, if head size and intelligence are directly related, we have a houseful of little geniuses!  =)

I truly love our pediatrician.  Dr. Peterson is just amazing.  She's also really fun to talk to.  She has three kids of her own and she understands rough days, temper tantrums, late mornings...  And it was fun to surprise her when I got up to help Timmy and she got to see her next Brimhall patient for the first time.  Until then, I hadn't told her that I was expecting again but she sees us often enough to know that the bump in the front is definitely #5 on the way!

The kids were still doing well, although getting a little more touchy with each other, but they still were good enough to earn stickers.  And yet one more errand with mom.  We were back in the car at 3pm.  Since we were already on the East side, I really wanted to make one more stop.  I knew I was pushing it by that point.  But we did it anyway.

I have been wanting to put plants in the flower beds I created in my front yard three years ago.  For three years I have looked off and on online and in random books to see if I could figure out which plants would grow and look best there.  Our house is North-facing so the flower beds are constantly shaded.  But we also live in the desert and the summers are HOT, to say the least, and I really wanted something that would be pretty and drought-tolerant.  Something like lantana, but not smell like lantana.  So I finally decided to do what we women do - ask.

I love Mesquite Valley Growers.  Just walking in is like walking into a little desert paradise.  There are flowers surrounding the entrance.  Beautiful, healthy plants of all colors.  There are fountains and veggie aisles.  Makes you just want to move in!

The regular design attendants were busy elsewhere so another lady helped me.  She was great!  Her house faces north too so she knows the challenge of finding hardy pretty plants.  I ended up getting three dwarf nandinas to try one in each bed, one plumbago to try in the center for color, a hanging pot of petunias and a pot of purple princess lilies to put by my front door.

The rest of the evening is a blur at this point.

Friday was another busy day, although we didn't go out as much.  Landon helped me get the plants in the ground in the morning.  It took most of the morning to get the holes dug and the plants put in the ground.





At 3:30, we met the Porters at the splash park.  You would think that two days in a row would be a bit much but I haven't had any trouble talking the kids into going to play in the water yet!  Especially when they know that friends are going to be there.

Poor Maddie wasn't feeling so well.

Around 4:30 I received a text message that the above-ground pool James had ordered about a week prior had finally arrived at the store and was ready for pick-up.  Melissa had been calling daily to see if we had heard anything.  Believe me, we were watching the tracking on the order and I was a little disappointed that it was taking so long.  So, in my excitement to have the pool in, I decided we would just pick up the pool on the way home from the splash park and surprise Melissa.  It wasn't until I arrived at the store and was unloading kids that I started to think about how big the box was going to be.  I knew it was going to be big...and heavy...but I didn't realize just how long the box would be until the two gentlemen got it out to my car and we were all scratching our heads trying to figure out if I was certifiably insane or should have minored in engineering.

At one point, I debated just sending it back into the store with them and asking Melissa to pick it up later.  But we were already in the parking lot!  The box was just too long to wedge into the passenger seat.  And too tall to stand or lay in the doorway next to Timmy.  So this is what we finally came up with.  You don't look much more ghetto than this!

At least Trevy was proud!  =)

Are those...? 

Yes, jumper cables can be used in place of bungee cords in a pinch.

(If I was driving any further than around the block, I would never have put Timmy in the front seat.)  I had to turn very slowly to make sure my jumper cables kept the stroller on top of the car.

We got home just as our neighbor, Scott, was pulling in and he was nice enough to get the pool out of the car and load it onto a dolly to take next door.

And then I treated the kids and myself to getting dinner at Wendy's and having a movie night at home.  We didn't quite make it through Follow That Bird, but it was such a fun way to end the day with the kids.

Saturday was spent setting up the pool and trying to get the house ready for the post-baby blessing luncheon at our house on Sunday.








Landon got his first splinter ever and boy was a it a whopper!  The thing spanned the entire width of his ring finger!

Hmmm...he never did let me take it out...

By the time James got home around 8, I was wiped out.  I had even given the kids a bath, trying to have very little left to do when James got home but, bless him, I still needed to run to the store and he went and did the shopping while I tucked the kids in.  Another great weekend had by all!