A few happenings of the past few week or so.

Everyone but me got a short flu this week. Luckily it was more of a 12-24 hour deal for each of them, and they were not miserable the whole time. It is times like this that I am reminded how blessed I am that I have a strong stomach. I rarely do get sick and so I was able to clean up all the lovely puke messes and puke buckets with out to much trouble. Jared can't even handle being anywhere near a sick mess with out getting sick himself. I am so glad that I am usually spared whatever hits the rest of my family- I don't take being sick very well. I get so mad and frustrated about being laid up that I get pretty mean.

This past week James turned 7 months has learned to pull himself up to standing on furniture! Which means I now have to lower his crib and make sure everything is stable and clear. I am so proud of the little boy. He is so eagar and ready to catch up to his big brother and sister! Joey was walking at 9 months, I am thinking James will be pretty similar. This little boy is so hungry! Baby food is a new concept to me. Joey and Jeanie were just so tiny and were not really interested in eating when they were infants. When I would try to feed them a jar of baby food they would have just a few spoonfuls and be done, James eats 3+ jars a day. James laughs with delight when he sees his jar and eats so greedily! I just giggle thinking how different he is physically then his brother. Joey was a little bean with his dark hair and wore 3 month old clothes forever, James fits most of the 12 month old cloths we have James is already filling in clothes that never fit Joey, or that Joey wore at 18 months! James stocky little body, blond hair and blue eyes is just so different. I love it. Except he is a handful to carry around, to huge for my weak little arms!

So, we are pretty proud of ourselves- we are pretty much done with the kids Christmas gifts last week and had them mostly wrapped. We had them in a bin with a towel over them in the corner of the family room and it has been there for a week with out being detected! We had a few more gifts that we needed to wrap and add before taking it over to storage. Unfortunatly I heard Joey a few minutes exclaim, "I have been VERY NICE!" opps! At least they were wrapped! Surprisingly he didn't put a fight when I ran them to my room. He just told me we need to put the tree up!

Anywho- here are a few more random pictures!

Always partners in crime! :)

This picture is actually a few months old. We went to the store around nap time.... defiantly made shopping a lot easier- although we looked pretty goofy!

Laundry Day!

On top of the fact that I have 3 messy kids, I have homework, a constantly outfit changing 2 year old and a million other issues I fell so FAR behind on laundry that I finally decided I need to just go to a laundry mat and get it done and over with. Since, we daily produce a load or two a day and I usually only get a load or two done a day, I pretty much wasn't making any progress on it. We went to a nice laundry mat in West Jordan that is open 24 hours. The kids were being goofy for these pictures. They pretty much thought it was the coolest place ever. They thought it was pretty cool to be the one to put in all the coins and then watch their clothes go round and round. Please excuse the ragamuffin appearance, We plucked them straight from bed to get their early, we sent them outside to eat their morning muffins.

Very very rare touching loving moment with the kids! Love it!

The kids kept commenting on the "Big Laundry" which caused snickering from Jared and I. You have to watch Phineas and Ferb to understand the "Big Laundry" bit.

Babysitting Anyone?

Lately I have been a little frustrated in finding a babysitter. Jared asks me if we can go on a date and I have a hard time thinking of someone to watch our kids. First, I know I need to think and plan on a date and find the babysitter in advance- I always start thinking Friday afternoon about it, and obviously have already lost my chance in securing a babysitter. My biggest hangups in finding a babysitter is I can rarely even get myself to dare even ask someone to watch my brood. My kids are a handful- busy busy busy, and now that James is old enough to be left behind, he doesn't much care for being separated from his Mom. I also have a very small pool of babysitters to choose from. Most all of our siblings have several kids and babies of their own and to add 3 to what they have seems just cruel and most of our siblings live just far enough that I am not sure it is worth all the trouble of getting to their places. I only feel right about asking the Grandmas occasionally because with how many Grand kids they have, they get called on a lot. :) We still don't know our ward very well and most of the members are older. I don't really know any teenage girls around here- but even if I did, we really can't afford the additional $15+ it would cost to pay them.

For awhile I really didn't mind so much, but lately I have gotten rather frustrated. We realized the other day when we went to my brother Sean's play that it was our first date in months, and first date with out the baby. When we do secure a babysitter I spend the whole time we are out on the date or errand noting the time, nervously checking for text messages and often cutting the date short and/or making Jared rush us back as soon as our activity is over. I only partly do this for the kids (besides James- James doesn't really know how to take a bottles much so I do fret over that IF we do leave him) but I more so do it for the babysitter-fearing that they are probably to the point of pulling their hair out with our kids shenanigans or fits.

So, I write all of this wondering if I can find someone else in the same boat? Wondering if I can find someone willing to do a babysitting exchange? Maybe someone else with a pack of kids? We really would enjoy watching a bunch of kids for another couple if they would be willing to do the same for us?

I am thinking if we found someone that we can have set dates that these dates/babysitting would happen- because like I said, I never ever plan ahead of time for a babysitter so if I had a set date that would be good.

So, is thier anyone brave enough to be willing to do this with me? Even it was on a bi-monthly basis? Anything beats our 1 date in six months. :)

My kids really aren't that crazy..... :)