Helpers

Coming from a large family and having such a large family myself I understand that there are lots of opportunities for work to happen. The other day we had some shingles blow off the roof and Gabe was able to fix them.....but he had lots of "helpers".  I have lots of "helpers" everyday as I try and do my daily chores. But this picture really touched my heart. I didn't get the exact shot that I wanted, only because I was too slow in getting the camera out there. There was a point when they were helping daddy that they were all faced away from me and that was the shot I wanted.....instead this is the one that I got:

And let's face it....once they know that you are taking pictures it is hard to get that perfect shot as they start posing and the spontenity is lost. I think that I love just capturing those moments the best....you know, when no one knows you have the camera and us just take the picture.

The kids LOVE helping daddy and they always want to go with him to do things. They think that he is the greatest on earth (I do too). It really melts my heart as their mother when I see him taking them under his wing and showing them how to do these things that I have never done.

Baskets

James is my busy body/helper. Sometimes I don't know if he is helping or just being busy. I have to watch him closer than I did my other kids as he finds things to do that maybe he really shouldn't do. He is my thinker. He sees a stool and doesn't just climb up and sit on it, he thinks to himself...."what can I do with this? Where can I take it and what can I get by using this?" From the time he started to walk, he started to crawl up onto things and get into stuff. Nothing in my kitchen is safe from this man if he has a stool. So what he did the other day doesn't surprise me. I just don't know how he got the job done.
So let me set the stage. I have a seperate laundry room in my house. And since I am the mean mom and make my kids fold their own laundry, I have a ton of baskets. Each of the 5 older children (for those that have forgotten it would be: Amanda, Wyatt, Bethany, Mariah and Jacob) have their own basket. As I am folding laundry, if I come across anything that is their I put it, unfolded, into their basket. As part of their chores they are to fold and put away their laundry. Now as fate would have it, on the day that this happened, we had just had a mass putting away of laundry and so everyones baskets were empty. The kids also have a basket in their rooms to put dirty laundry.  I also have 2 baskets that I put downstairs in the kitchen and bathrooms for the dirty stuff and 2 that I use for holding laundry until it is taken care of that stay in the laundry room.....so if you are keeping track that is 9 baskets.

So on Wednesday (the 19th) I was doing some work on the computer and James was playing in the laundry room with the baskets. I remember seeing him take the pink and purple ones (they usually do downstairs) out of the laundry room. I thought to myself, that he was just going to take those back downstairs. He really likes to have things in the place where he thinks they should be. The next thing I know we are getting ready to leave for somewhere (I don't even remember) and we needed his crocs.....see the previous post for the story about those. So up to his room we go to get them and when I walk in this is what I see:

He had taken every basket from my laundry room and even found an empty one somewhere else and taken them to his room. I am not sure what he was thinking, or what possessed him to do this, but he did. I was shocked and glad that it wasn't something more than just moving the baskets around. No harm, no foul right? I guess I am going to have to get better at watching what he does, as I didn't realize that he had all the baskets, I thought he only had the pink and purple ones.

Shoes

Shoes seem to be something that I must not have gotten the good genes on. I own 5 types of shoes.....my tennis shoes, church shoes, sandels, a pair of loafer type shoes and my hunting boots. I know and have heard of women who say that they have a closet full of shoes and still don't have something to wear....Really?? For me shoes are necessary. I can't go outside without having shoes on or I hurt my feet. Although I do love to walk around on grass barefoot. I am not one of those people who can walk on any surface barefooted, if you know what I mean. James is a boy after my own heart. He also has very few shoes to choose from, but I will tell you he has his favorite pair. And when I say favorite, I mean he doesn't take these things off willingly. This little man sleeps with these shoes on.

We were given this pair of shoes by his Aunt Heather. She said take them and I thought well this will be fun because I could already tell that they wouldn't stay on his feet for very long....I mean think about it 2 years old and they aren't able to be tied so therefore they will come off. But James has surprised me in many ways. The first is that he can actually put these on himself. That is a bonus at this point, as I can't even bend down to put my own shoes on, how am I supposed to be able to help him? Then since he can put them on himself, for some reason he has grown really attached to them. He won't go anywhere without his crocs. He has to wear them to church and all over the house. I tried the other day to put his tennis shoes on.....he threw a fit because he wanted his crocs. I am mildly surprised that they are on the right feet in this picture as generally (since he puts them on himself) they are not. He has always had a thing for shoes....putting any pair on that he can get his hands on, but since these came into his life, that has all but stopped. I am not sure what I am going to do when he goes out of these, or they wear out......and I am probably not doing him any good by letting him wear them to bed, but he loves them and for right now I don't see how having his favorite pair of shoes with him could hurt.

Playing at the park

 Last Saturday I had a rare treat in that I only had 4 of my 7 children home with me. Amanda went to the University Of Wyoming football game that day with the band as it was their "Band Day". Gabe took Wyatt and Bethany to help his grandmother with a new roof. So I had Mariah, Jacob, Katherine and James and what did we do? We shirked our chores and went to the park for a while. While we were there I took a few pictures as the smiles on their faces were priceless. Of course it helped a ton that we basically had the park to ourselves for the first 45 minutes.

Dominoes

 We don't play with dominoes as normal people do. We like to play with them like this:

(Line them up on the ledge of the railing on the stairs)

(Push them off)

Hopefully someone is at the bottom to catch them all.....go down, get them and repeat!

County Fair

I am not going to bore you with all the pictures of the floats and the animals. We just have fun and this face says it all:

Forts

This is how we do a fort at our house:

We have 2 bedroom doors that exactly opposite of each other in the hall. They will take the blankets and shut them in the doors and make their fort. I usually don't mind until someone gets their fingers pinched and then they have to put it away.

SHHH.......they are sleeping!

 Last night I went to check on the kids before I went to bed. I was mainly checking on James as he is having a hard time staying in his bed. It was so precious that I had to snap pictures of all the kids. I think that sometimes as a mom, this is my favorite time of day (depending on the type of day we had).
This is Bethany:

This is my favorite and the one that sparked the whole spree of pictures (Wyatt and James):

Jacob:

Mariah:

Katherine...notice the shoes on her pillow. Aunt Heather was having a garage sale and she found these. Didn't want to let them out of her sight long enough for bed.

Now for those of you who are counting, yes there is one missing. I will post next on why she is missing in action.

Summer fun

What would summer be without a run through the sprinklers or a water ballon fight? We had both and the kids had fun. Here is Bethany trying to fill up some balloons.

James was having problems with his suit.....I think that the elastic in the waistband is shot in these and it is time to get him a new suit....what do you think?

My little helper

I have lots of help around the house. I wonder sometimes why I can't get anything done or why things don't stay done. If you are a mom and are wondering the same thing....here is why: we have to many "helpers". They mean well, but lets face it sometimes they can't get to the middle, or they are too short to run the broom. But why do we continue to ask them to help....so they will learn and begin to do it for themselves. (eventually we won't have to go back and wipe down the table after they have, or refold the towels before putting them in the closet.)

I was unloading the dishwasher. I turned around to put something away in the cupboard and then when I turned around this is what I saw:. I know that he was only trying to help. I also think he was fascinated by the wheels. After this picture was taken, he got the rack all the way on the floor and was pushing it around like a big match box car. Thanks for the help James!

I thought that maybe this video would go the way of all those other videos....you know the ones that you have taken on your cell phone and don't know how to get off of there. Thanks to a good friend, it no longer has to be like that. I put this video on my phone because it was the only thing that I had handy while he was doing this and I also texted it to a couple of family members. Now the rest blogland can share in James' cuteness as he just learned how to blow kisses. To me the act of blowing the kiss is cute as is the sounds that he makes while doing it. Of course as his mother I am partial to his cuteness and think that he is THE most cutest thing in the world. I think that is a mother's job to think that of her own child isn't it? I am going to have to try this trick to see if it works for my pictures that I have on my phone. I hope you enjoy!

My kids

As the years roll by, it is going to get harder and harder to get pictures like these. This is one of all 7 of my kids together. We were at a family reunion for Gabe's side of the family. When we do those, I really like to have all my kids in the same clothes because then I can pick them out of the crowd and if someone says which ones are yours I can say "the ones in the Mt. Rushmore shirts". As you can see from the photo, we are going to have to go something different next time, because James doesn't have a Mt. Rushmore shirt. This one is my favorite. But now that Amanda is old enough to work during the summer, we may not have many more of these. Enjoy.

Pool Party

I finally got some pictures of the kids playing in the pool. We finally had a day that was worthy of getting in and cooling off. The kids had a lot of fun and we had invited the neighbor children over. I know that this pool will give them hours of enjoyment throughout the rest of the summer....it already has so far.
This is Jacob. Just trying to see what I was doing.

Bethany has been pouting a lot lately. This is her pouting on the tramp because something wasn't going how she wanted it too.

Katherine, just looking cute in her suit.

James even joined us for a minute. He didn't get into the water as it was WAY too cold for him and I.
Amanda just being silly in the water.

Oreos

I know that every child somewhere has a picture of their very first Oreo. This is James'. I totally love his little smile that he has. It says to me " Ha, you can't be mad at me for this mess". And since a picture says a thousand words. I will let the picture tell you how much he enjoyed it:

Summer toys

My children are living the high life this summer. Thanks to hand-me down toys from our friends we have things that we normally wouldn't have had. One of our friends gave us a small pool, a wading pool that is about 12 feet in diameter, but a pool none the less. The kids have enjoyed it even though it has been still pretty cold to be swimming. I have tried to keep them out when it is too cold, but sometimes you just have to let them learn their lessons. I sadly don't have pictures of them swimming yet, but I probably will have a ton by the end of the summer. I just know that their first time of swimming the wind was blowing and it was cold out that I could see their lips turning blue and they were shivering and I finally had to pull a parental override and call them out after about 10 minutes as I didn't want to have any hypothermic children.

The other fun toy was a trampoline. Another friend gave us the frame and springs, but we discovered the jumping mat wasn't good. We looked online and found one for the right price and had it shipped. We put it together this weekend and the kids have been outside on it most of the time. We are going to have to replace the sliding glass door to the back yard with a revolving door because they are in and out of it so much. It has been a constant come in and tell me they want me to come and see what they can do, or come in and see how much time someone has left. As a safety thing we have told the kids that they can only jump 2 at a time and we have even had to go so far as say who they can and can't jump with (there is just too much size difference in some of my kids to have them jumping with younger siblings and still be safe). We have also put a time limit so that everyone gets fair amount of time on the tramp. I took this picture right after the tramp was fixed....we let them jump all at once just to see how it would go. I think that the look on their faces tells the whole story. They have never had a tramp and have always had to go to a friend's house to jump. Now we are going to have some fun in our own backyard.

Look at me now!

James is getting so big and it has been hard to keep up with him sometimes. He is crawling all over the place and still loves to play with things other than his own toys. I don't remember why we got all them in the first place when I should have remembered that the favorites are always the old box. His new thing is the stairs. He loves to jet out of the family room at any possible chance and he will head straight for them. I really don't have a problem with that, other than the fact that he hasn't yet figured out that there is another way down other than falling.

He is finally getting teeth and now has 3 teeth. He is starting to get them fast as the 4th one is on its' way. He loves to eat and he is trying to eat anything that he can get his hands on. This is going to be one of my favorites:

He was given his first oreo cookie and by the looks of it he loved it. I love the grin on his face. It is priceless.

Cute boy

I just thought that I would group these pictures together as there really isn't a reason behind them, I just took them and they are of one cute boy. The first is one of James having some floor time. I got down right in front of him and actually started to get frustrated because everytime I would get ready to snap a picture....he would roll over! Then later that night I tried to tell Gabe that he could and show him......James wouldn't do it. The drool coming out of his mouth is a nice touch, but it was the best of all the ones that I took.

These next pictures are too cute. Gabe and I were cutting up the rest of our deer one night and the rest of the kids were in bed. James had been hanging out with us in his bouncy seat. I happened to look over at him and saw this:

I thought it was cute the way that he had his fingers in his mouth. And in all honesty, he is asleep, but doesn't look like it with his one eye open. I was very grateful that the camera was close......as right after I took these shots, James took his fingers out and closed his eyes.

Kisses

I don't know what it is about a new baby that makes you do it, but I think that we are all guilty of it a lot (I know that I am)....and that is kissing the baby. I know that I have found myself kissing other people's infants (especially the newer they are) and not just my own. James will just have to get used to the fact that everyone wants to kiss him, and not just once or twice.....but as in the cases of Katherine and Jacob---often, the more the better. Jacob however, has been very specific when he gives James a kiss. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, he has a purpose for every kiss that he gives James. Sometimes it is frustrating for me, as he wants to give James a kiss before I feed him (his Feeding Kisses) or wants to give him a kiss just as he is falling asleep (his Resttime Kiss). But they are so cute. He will usually give the kiss and then tell me what it was for, or sometimes he will ask me if he can give James a ______(fill in the blank) Kiss. But it just isn't Jacob that gives James kisses. I am beginning to have to tell the kids that James has had enough kisses and that they need to leave him alone for a minute (otherwise they would constantly be giving him kisses). I think that they love this new brother. What do you think?

My boys

I have been so busy these last few weeks that I haven't even thought of taking a picture like this until the opportunity presented it this morning. I was in my room getting James dressed and Wyatt was there anxious to help as well as Jacob. After I got him dressed Jacob wanted to hold him, so I gave in. Then Wyatt was right there too helping. I didn't have the camera. I actually had to send Wyatt to the car to get the camera. Luckily by the time he got back James was still pretty content and I got these pictures. These boys are so in love with their little brother. Every morning the first time that they see me they say the same thing....."Where's James?". Not Good morning mom, or anything like that but "Where's James?". They always want to hold him. Wyatt is wanting to change diapers and I have let him a couple of times. Jacob is always giving kisses....but they aren't just normal kisses. He will say, let me give James his nap kiss or his right before eating kiss. I have found Jacob several times standing (or sitting) next to James and singing him a song so he can go to sleep. I am sure that eventually the novetly of James will wear off, but for now, I love seeing these three together. I hope that they will always be great friends and help each other out.

Speechless....

I really don't know what to say, other than Jacob did it. I was busy feeding James and it got too quiet. I sent Amanda to check and this is what she found. We were very fortunate that Gabe's Aunt June was still at her beauty salon to help us fix it. Other than that I will let the pictures speak for themselves.