Meet Evel and Knievel

Our babies have no fear.  I think they wanted to be born so early for the adrenaline rush. I thought that being fragile and newborn and in the NICU for 2 months would be the scariest thing they would do.  Apparently I wasn't prepared for their toddler years.  And I have a sneaking suspicion that this is just the tip of the iceberg for their teenage years.

Heaven help us all.

Poop on Repeat

I thought that we had our lives pretty much under control and that we had a good routine going.  I was getting cocky and smug about how good I was at juggling 4 little boys. I should have known better.  Every time I get cocky, the crap hits the fan. And in this case...that might have been better.

Jay has early meetings on Sundays.  Church starts at 9:30, so that means I am on my own to get myself and the kids ready. Most Sundays it goes off without a hitch. I have really fabulous, cooperative kids. However, a few weeks ago, everything went wrong.

The babies decided to smear their breakfast from head to toe.  I had 30 minutes before we needed to be out the door, which meant I had plenty of time to give them a bath, and get everyone dressed. I asked Jack and Luke to get themselves dressed while I bathed the babies. I had lain their clothes out the night before, all clean and folded and ready to go. Yay me! I put the babies in the bath to play while I went into their room to get their clothes.  That's when the bomb dropped.  And by bomb, I mean poop. I walked into the bathroom and the babies were splashing around in a totally brown bathtub.  In my almost 6 years as a mother, no one has ever pooped in the tub.  I freaked. I grabbed Charlie and ran him from the kids' bathroom, to my bathroom.  I started to fill the clean tub.  I ran back and grabbed Tripp, hoping that too much poo water wasn't dripping on my carpet as I held him out as far as I could reach. I got them rinsed off and a new tub filled.  While they played, I went to clean out the bathtub.  I scooped, I scrubbed, I disinfected.  I walked back into my bathroom to clean the babies, and again, the water was totally brown. I couldn't believe it!  How could they fill a tub twice with that much poop!?!  

Jack walked in and asked for help to tie his tie, saw the poop and started gagging. I told him to go wait in his room and I would help him in a minute.

Again, I took one baby at a time and ran them dripping and stinky to the clean bathtub. (Thank goodness for two bathtubs, right?!) I got them rinsed off and playing in clean water again.  I went to drain the other tub and get it cleaned up, when I realized the cleaner was still in the kids' bathroom.  I walked back in to grab the cleaner, and once again, the water was completely brown.  They were sitting in so much crap, splashing and playing. 

What the heck?! Was it Groundhog's Day? How did this keep happening? I thought I was dreaming.  No way could this happen three times.  And how on earth did they have that much poop in them?! Had they not pooped since Christmas? Then I realized they had little buckets in with them, and they were drinking the poop water!!! Oh. My. Crap.

I couldn't take them to the other bathtub, because it wasn't clean yet! I couldn't leave them there because they are absolutely, horrifyingly, disgusting children who drink their own poo! What could I do?!

I took the buckets away, ran to the other bathroom to scoop poop out of the bathtub, ran them to the semi-clean tub, and started to rinse them off.

At that point, we only had about 3 minutes before we needed to leave. I yelled to Jack and Luke to check their status of readiness when Luke ran into the bathroom yelling, "Look at me!  I'm ready for church and I'm awesome!!"  I looked up and he was wearing a basketball jersey, basketball shorts, and reptile puppets on his hands and feet. Poor kid.  He didn't know he was walking into the lions den.  I  tried to be calm.  I really did.  But after that much poop, and running, I was a little heated.

I didn't even bother to fill the tub.  I rinsed the babies and scrubbed them clean.  I got them diapered and dressed as fast as I could. (Although, at that point, it didn't matter.  They had pooped enough to last until April.  I'm sure there wasn't anything left.)

I got Luke dressed in proper church attire.  I raced into my own room to change out of my poop-splashed clothing and we were finally ready to go.  Jay walked in from his meeting just in time to help us out to the car.  He asked what happened and I couldn't even talk. All I wanted to do was hand him the older kids, put the babies down for a nap, and crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head for a week. But, I didn't.  I had Sharing Time in Primary and had to be there. 

I calmed down on our drive and by the time we were sitting in Sacrament meeting, I was feeling like I did it!  That's when I realized that I left everything for my lesson at home, next to the front door. I raced home, ran across our icy sidewalk in a dress with shoes in hand, grabbed my bag and headed back to church.

I'm pretty sure my neighbors wonder if I'm all there.  Crazy woman running barefoot through the snow.

Whatever. Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don't.  That day was a don't.

Winter Wonderland

Maryland has pleasantly surprised us this year with quite a bit of snow! I love how Colorado-y it makes it feel here. Plus, even a dusting of snow cancels school for Jack and work for Jay, so we have had plenty of sledding/hot chocolate/snowman/movie days.

However, December and January also brought sick days.  Everyone got sick. Even Jay who could lick a doctor's office chair and not get sick, had a day or two of under the weather.

We spent Christmas Eve at the doctor.  Tripp, Charlie, and Luke had RSV and ear infections.  All three were on antibiotics.  Tripp had two rounds of antibiotics because he ended up with a lung infection.  Poor kids lived on the nebulizer and Tylenol.

However, we still found time to celebrate Christmas!  I almost thought Santa was going to skip our house because Luke was up until midnight coughing and wheezing, while I spent time on the phone with the on-call nurse.  Jay and I stayed up quite late after that trying to get presents wrapped and stockings stuffed.  I mean...we stayed up late helping Santa do all of those things ;)

This picture makes me go into fits of laughter.  This is Luke's new picture face.  I am dying!!!  And Jack pretty much always looks frightened in pictures.  Ha! 

 I decided during a lull in the sicknesses, that I would make 12 meals to put in the freezer for days when everyone would be sick again and I wouldn't have time to make food.  It was a great idea, but it really kicked my butt.  My arms were so tired from chopping! I am out of shape!

On top of the sick, we have had quite an accident prone month.  Charlie fell and knocked one of his front teeth in, cracked it, and chipped it.  Luke tried to measure Tripp's head with calipers and sliced up his cheek. Luke threw a toy and it hit Tripp's eyeball giving it a nice cut. Charlie pulled a fork off the table, put it in his mouth and fell, and the fork stabbed under his tongue. And Jack and Luke were jumping on an air mattress when Luke fell and Jack stepped on his neck...giving him a pretty sweet burn/scrape.

I'm keeping my house really clean so when CPS shows up, we are ready.  Haha!

Sad game for the Broncos, but we still wore our blue and orange!

Jack's outfit for school.  I love that he wants to pick out his own clothes.  He wore shorts over his pants for days.  I suppose it's better than when I was in Kindergarten and wore a swimsuit over my clothes. 

 We got about a foot of snow last week.  The piles it made were so fun!  I think Jay had more fun than the kids. He spent hours outside with them making sled runs, and jumps. 

 Here is our first school project! Jack did lots of research on tigers.  He did a great job on his diorama! I need to work on letting him do more of it next time.  Haha!  It is really hard for me to relax enough to let a 5 year old do the work.  I'm hoping by the time the twins start school, I won't be such a control freak.

December, Deschmember

I am behind in pretty much every aspect of my life. Blog included.  December isn't really a great month to do catch up either.  I think that is why January was invented. 

Our sweetie Luke turned 3 at the beginning of December!  He is such a sweet boy.  He is our caring and compassionate child.  He will be the one to take care of us when we are old.  We moved to Utah during his 1st birthday, and his 2nd birthday we were up at the hospital with the babies, so we really wanted to make his 3rd birthday a big deal.  He is very much the middle child.  He often fends for himself and sometimes gets the least attention because the other kids are a little more needy.  He is so laid back and patient.  He was so happy to have a night focused on him.  We are so lucky to have him in our family!

He doesn't really understand presents yet.  He would open one gift and walk off to play with it.  He was confused when we told him he had more presents. 

The babies...oh, the babies.  They are trouble!  They are into everything!  I have lost 5 pounds in the past 3 months just because I can't take my eyes off of them for a minute.  Even to eat.

Charlie climbs whatever he can find.  And then smiles when he gets caught.  He is a little imp.

Tripp somehow snuck a candy cane.  I have no idea how he got it.  But I found him giggly and sticky.  He was so pleased to have his first candy.  He was really mad when I took it away.

The schools and Jay's work closed for snow a few weeks ago, so we had Jack and Jay home.  They cancelled everything before there were even any snowflakes.  

Luke was so excited about his new boots that he couldn't muster putting pants on over them.  We finally convinced him that it would hurt to sled without pants on.  Too bad.  He looked so cute!

Later that snow day we got our Christmas tree!  The boys helped Jay bring it in.  I can just see 10 years from now, all my big boys doing all the heavy lifting for us :)  It is going to be awesome.

Tripp and Charlie tried to help with the Christmas stuff, but mostly just caused mischief.

I'm not sure why we even got a tree.  We have to close it off, otherwise, I would have monkeys climbing it all day. Charlie still manages to get an arm through the gate and shake most of the ornaments off. 

The primary kids performed the Nativity at our ward Christmas party.  Jack was the shepherd and did an excellent job!  We were so proud of his loud, clear, speaking part :)  What a stud.

I Should Be Amish

 My parents came mid-November to visit.  It was so fun to have them here, and of course I didn't take any pictures.  I need a photographer to be around all day to take pictures for me. When Jay strikes it rich, or when he dies and I cash in our insurance policy, I think I'll hire a full time picture taker :)

My mom has wanted to visit Amish country since we first moved to the east coast.  Four years later, we finally did it!  Jay took the day off to stay home with the kids and my mom and I got to go up there all alone!  It was so fun! I love my kids, but car trips and sightseeing with them is probably my least favorite thing to do.

I love churches.  Especially little, old, beautiful ones.  Isn't this one amazing?! It has nothing to do with Amish country.  It's just one of the two pictures I actually took on that trip :)

Here is a darling covered bridge surrounded by Amish farms.  I love the peace and the quiet out there!  Only a few cars and lots of hooves clip-clopping on the pavement.  I think I would like to be Amish.  They eat yummy food.  They work really hard.  They don't fuss about worldly things that don't matter. They live close to their families. They have church at home twice a month. I'm all for it.  I wonder if you can be Mormon/Amish?

Everyday when Jay walks in the door after work, all four boys pounce on him.  They scream, they giggle, they yell dad....Sometimes I am a little jealous of his homecomings :)  When I walk in they say, "Oh man...mom's home."  I sound super fun.  

Even the babies get in on wrestling :)

We have had awful/dangerous folding chairs at our table for years.  I really wanted new chairs.  Jay went around all of the thrift stores searching for something for me.  He came home with these.  Not bad, right?  

I decided that I really wanted pink chairs.  Jay was not on board right away, but he quickly realized I was giving him a project...and he LOVES projects.  It was a win for both of us:) I spent almost three hours at one fabric store trying to find the perfect fabric.  I did.

Jay got the chairs done just in time for Thanksgiving!  Jay's brother and family came all the way from Illinois for the week!  We had a great time! My brother and his family came up from VA for dinner.  I love having a house full of people at Thanksgiving!  It is so boring when it isn't a big production :)

Before the food started we had the 1st annual Durrant Turkey Bowl.  It lasted for about 3 minutes before the kids decided they just wanted to run around and dig in the dirt. Plus, it was really, really cold.

Why is it that one of my kids always looks like Sloth from the Goonies when we take pictures?

The kids helped make rolls and that was it.  Since I am a control freak in my kitchen, that's all I could handle. 

We love having family to visit!  We need to move closer to them. It's getting lonely out here.

It's Autumn Time

Since we have lived on the east coast, fall has quickly become my favorite season. The leaves!  Oh my, I love the colors!  Plus the humidity dies a little and the temperatures are somewhat bearable.  I do have to say that I like to shovel snow more than I like raking leaves.  No critters jump out of snow when you shovel.  But, when you rake leaves, you just never know what is going to spring on you.  Gross.

We have a great back yard and we put the boys to work :)

I LOVE going to the pumpkin patch every year!  It really brings out the country girl in me and helps me get back to my roots :) Hayrides and pumpkins and apple cider doughnuts..what could be better?!

The boys wanted really big pumpkins to carve.  Jack did his entirely on his own.  It is fun to see how capable a five year old is...and a little scary when his capabilities involve a tiny little saw.

Jack and Luke insisted that we all dress up as super heroes this year.  I was a little bummed.  I really wanted to be Mary Poppins and make all the boys be chimney sweeps.  Cute, huh?  I think my days of choosing all the costumes are over.  They have opinions now.  Sigh.

Could the babies be any cuter with these little capes!?

I love all my super heroes. Glad I'm well protected :)