Fall Break

It's a love/hate with fall break, spring break, summer break. Let's get the BAD out of the way:

-4 kids home all day
-everyone bails on vacation and leaves us
-vehicle was in the shop getting brakes fixed...so 2 days without vehicle, and needed some things for dinner club from grocery store

GOOD:
-no one had to get dressed, showered or be fed at specific times (except the babe) - in fact no one had to do those things at all!
-the few stragglers that stayed behind went with us to the skate park and we had a good time
-fed everyone left overs 3 nights in a row and didn't do dishes (BAD - husband complained about smell and left doors open on his way to work)
-warm enough to leave doors open in the morning :)
-put a backpack on my kids and made them walk to the grocery store and haul groceries home with me :) (indy would say this should go in the BAD category)
-finally cleaned my house and went with my husband to see a movie withOUT a baby



Took McLaren to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class the week before. We had a great time...and some of my friends even let me take their picture (TRUE they didn't give me permission to post them....but hey! what can they do about it now??)

Oh how I DESPISE soccer socks

Or any other athletic sock. In fact I really don't care for uniforms in general, unless they come in double. My parents gave Indy his Cub Scout uniform for his birthday and it came with 2 of everything...I never have stress on Cub Scout day because I know we won't be turning the house upside down looking for ONE sock.
Soccer on the other hand - we had one game...that was it...one game where we had a complete uniform. I have no idea what happened between the field and the laundry, but only ONE sock made it out. Talk about a nightmare. AND of course we can't just have all the kids in black socks...no we had to get bright yellow. So I combed the city to buy every pair of bright yellow soccer socks - I found 2. Then I bought some black ones. I can rest better at night.

Indy got to play against his buddy Justin's team...Justin's team was really really good.
We'd like to forget that this particular match ever happened...but the shot I got of the both of them showed Indy working hard...and then of course he needed some powerade.

Babies and licorice DO NOT mix.

Roll Over

There were 4 in the bed and the little one said "roll over...roll over".

And she did.

Then her brothers thought she needed some coaxing with fuzzy hand puppets.

NUT Doctor.

I can't get the chipmunks song "witch doctor" out of my head...you know the one that goes "oo-ee-oo-ah-ah..."...anyway we sing a lot of songs around here and the "nut doctor" song is just one of them. Mac knows that he has to get his nuts checked and because of that he's not allowed to wrestle with his brother lest he burst a teste - (this threat has yet to work.)

While we were in the waiting room of the pediatric urologist at Phoenix Childrens, McLaren shouted, at the top of his lungs, "MOM - when do I get to see the NUT DOCTOR?" Be careful what you tell your children...be real careful.

So I debated about posting a drawing of Mac's predicament - a very simple drawing showing a lopsided "W", but was frowned at by my chaste (hmmmm) husband. Then my cousin suggested just posting the "squirrel" picture (DAVID - he said you'd know exactly what he was referring to) but Matt said no. So I'm just posting to post - to remember, without a visual, of our most hopeful desire to help carry on the holdsworth name...to make sure that the possibility of grandchildren is still present. And to remind us that Mac is not as "well-endowed" as we have all thought :) Surgery will be at the end of this month.

Year of the Mother - Part 9

No. I didn't forget...I started to get nervous as I reviewed the past months events...
Indy - soccer game?? Laina - hair clips?? Mac-??
So I decided to save myself on the last week of the month. I made a little picnic dinner and told my family to get off the couch and get in the car. We drove for 4 minutes to one of 2 lakes that we live near - its sad that we live amongst such beauty and rarely get out to appreciate it. But on Sunday we ran and jumped and played and ate...and I took pictures. LOTS of pictures - because it makes me happy. Really really really happy to take pictures.
When we were finished and getting in the car Laina said "See mom, now you have some pictures of YOUR kids" This is all part of my reverse-psychology parenting :) Most photographers kids groan and scream and cry when they pull out the camera...but not my attention-deprived children...no - no they pose and hog every second of camera time possible! Not that they don't make weird faces though...cause they do....which I let them, and then delete them.

Phew. That was a LOT of images...I'd just like to add that EVERYONE had a wonderful time and thank'd their mom for lighting a fire under their rears.

JOY Juice.

During a recent women's conference I listened to a speaker talk about "joy" juice. I loved the talk and found it to be a bit hilarious, but it has stuck with me. My joy juice meter was at an all time low this past week...in face it was negative and cracking in some parts. That has all changed.

I filled up my stores of joy juice and can happily say that they are back to overflowing.

I met up with my aunts and cousins and my mom and sister. I scarfed down some really good Chinese food and laughed with the women in my family. I wore pink (even when I didn't know I was supposed to! seriously guys...how badly out of touch am I?). I got my toes painted (and Laina and my husband noticed within 30 seconds of seeing me - were they really that bad?) I ate some Rubio's tacos and smiled at my baby. My husband put a big smile on his face and took the 3 oldest kids to a movie and to pizza and to a soccer game in the hot sun AND put them to bed before I got home.

I can last another 14 weeks of sleepless nights if need be (NOT saying that I'd LIKE to, just saying I could). I'm already planning the next "joy juice refill station" weekend :) It will be longer next time.

My sister and I should NOT be allowed to take a camera with us...we start to lose control of our actions - if there happens to be a good photo op (the crazier the dare the better...we had to wait for the salesperson to turn the other way so we could jump in and take a picture with his "wares").

This one was WAY clever eh?

Yeah...yeah...I know...gorgeous...whatever...could we spread the beauty genes out a little please?

My mom and her sisters...I love them ALL.

Now WHO thought this would be funny? Sure stick the small girl with the tall girl. (there's about a 15 year difference here :)