Pie Face Game

Becky has a game called Pie Face. You spin to see how many times you have to turn the crank, and the goal is to not get whipped cream thrown in your face. Or at least, that's the goal the game tells you to have. Katie and Tommy had other ideas, and I'll admit that I wanted to get messy, too.

You get to eat the whipped cream afterwards, right?

Brandon tried not to get creamed, but he failed.

Despite actually wanting to get smashed with whipped cream, the anticipation was awful.

Dancy didn't want to play, but still wanted to eat whipped cream.

Take a Picture of This!

More of Colorado: We went to visit Sharley and Jonah Huntsman! I finally got to meet Elias, two years old. We spent almost the whole day there. 

Thora got a little restless, bu loves taking pictures and seeing her face.

And eating her fingers.

Back at Becky's house... "Can we take silly pictures?"

And little Diva again.

"Mom, I have a big bow tie!"

A month and a half later, I have no idea why half of these pictures are here. But this kid is cute.

We went to see my friend Robyn Bailey! Finally got to get our kids together to play. Robyn has this cool, awesome toilet seat that has a kid seat that pulls down from the lid. Dancy was sooooo excited to use this and wanted me to take a picture of her. Nevermind that we have the same toilet seat at home and she won't use it. This time she was thrilled to sit on a kid seat on big toilet.

And we had nachos for lunch! Or at least, some of us had nachos. Thora may have just eaten the 4 lb Costco tub of sour cream.

Lori wanted to take an emoji picture while we were at Walmart.

Katie loving on her cat cousin, Pirate.

Colorado Trip

My brain can hardly think of what to write right now. This is why I should blog sooner after things, rather than a month and a half later, but it just hasn't worked out for me.

So...some time ago I went to Colorado with the kids. Me and 5 kids. For a week. Seems like the story of my summer this year. That's how it is right now (okay, Pris is helping me while Shad is gone and it's wonderful and I couldn't imagine if she weren't here, but still just not the same) and maybe that's why I feel so unenthusiastic about writing right now. I did want to write until I actually started doing it! Anyway, I stayed at Becky's house and she was a great help to me with my 5 humans when she was around. Lisa was also there for a few days and Thora adopted her as a buddy.

On Monday, Tommy went to my brother Jake's place to play video games with him and my nephews Erik and Bode. Lisa took Katie and Dancy for a girls' date. Katie reported that they went to "the nearest green store" (aka Walgreen's) to buy glitter eye shadow and lipstick. They did makeovers with their new makeup and Lisa's nail polish, then went off to see Finding Dory. Becky and I went thrift shopping with Thora and Samson. Thora loves realizing that she's the only kid running around with me. She had a blast. Samson looked studly in the fedora Becky found for him. But I did not buy it.

Then we went to Panera to meet Mr. McKinney for lunch. He was my high school math teacher for pre-calculus and calculus. I think Becky had him for pre-calc. It was fun catching up with him. Babies look good on him, but he doesn't have grandbabies yet.

All of my siblings came over to Becky's house that night. Lori and Tommy wanted to take pictures for Ruth.

Then we went to Jumpoline down the street. Tommy and Katie look forward to this at every Colorado visit. Dancy is starting to remember it. Thora got to experience it for the first time and loved it. Lori and Jen weren't jumping, so I let them have Samson duty and got to jump myself. At the end I tried jumping with him and he loved it.

Note the colored steps on the side. Thora climbed herself to the top, was so proud of herself, and then lost balance and toppled to the bottom. She wasn't too happy after that.

Katie cleaned Becky's house every morning after she left. Sweeping, vacuuming, wiping down the counters, dusting the window seat, wiping the blinds. 

Becky commented that she didn't think her house was that dirty. I told her it's not--this is just what Katie does. We got these scripture books called Who's Your Hero, and most recently a girls' edition. So it features women from scriptures (Eve, Rebekah, Esther, Sariah, Abish, etc.) and then after telling their stories it discusses how YOU can be like them. All of Katie's new cleaning motivation comes from wanting to be like Rebekah--she served happily and went beyond what was asked of her. Tommy and Katie also excitedly connected that to Teancum, who goes beyond expectations.

Recall that I said Thora buddied up with Lisa. Thora hardly ever let me touch her hair, but readily ran to Lisa for brushing and styling.

My girls are still working on remembering Lisa's name. She's the forgotten aunt. They love her, love hanging out with her, love the princess underwear she gives them, but for the life of them, they can't remember her name.

They call me Help!

They call me Stacey

They call me Her

They call me Jane

That's not my name

That's not my name

That's not my name

That's not my name

Eye of the Storm

I had two weeks home in between my Utah and Colorado trips, mostly just long enough to recover from one and prepare for the next.

Dancy learned how to do hand stands from Addie when she and Josh visited.

Samson grew out of the swaddle stage and now just likes to roll himself in the muslin blankets and eat them. He eats all fabric: shirt shoulders if we hold him front to front; his own shirt if it's not a onesie and he can pull it up; and the swaddle blankets.

I never get tired of this kid.

Dancy got some new orange-ish shirts in Utah. We like to pick those up whenever we can. It's rough being a girl whose favorite color is orange. There aren't many orange things.

When she's bored, she likes to lick the fridge.

"Mom, look at me! I'm a pirate!" Cutest. Pirate. Ever.

"Mom, look at us! We're old!" Hahahaha!

Oh, and we also had our roof re-done; Dan visited the weekend before I left for Colorado--we both left Sunday (Father's Day) morning; Father's Day; Shad planned a church barbeque. I think that's all...

Temple Square

Thursday in Utah. This one was rough. Shad and I woke up Thursday morning with no plans. We could have a relaxing day, or go see what entertainment we could find in civilization. But then Shad got a call that they (his mom and brothers) were finally ready to go through Grandma's house and clean everything out. Which meant that I'd be driving him up to Salt Lake City and then be on my own with 5 kids. Excuse me while I drag my feet all morning...

After convincing the kids that they would enjoy Temple Square, I set the navigation system. I figured Temple Square would be a safe choice for me--as in, it would be free, have enclosed kid entertainment (vital when I have to breastfeed Samson), bathrooms, etc. Things started out okay. I found free parking quickly in a garage across the street from Temple Square. It was under City Creek Mall (I think that was the name), and when we came up the elevator, there were water fountains to play in! Check that off the kids Utah wishlist: throw pennies in a water fountain. This one went beyond and was a mini splash pad!

And there was orchestral music playing, so Katie practiced her Lindsay Sterling skills.

Throwing pennies.

Or gently setting them down. Who does that, Tom?

And then the "fun" started for me. Now that my kids were soaking wet, I figured I'd walk them around outside and dry off a bit first before going inside to the kid play areas. Samson had plans otherwise. Scenario: I'm here without my double stroller, so I had a single stroller borrowed from Suzanne, and my baby carrier. Samson in the carrier, Thora in the stroller, three kids walking. I personally think it's a lot easier to manage a screaming, inconsolable baby if that baby isn't wiggling and crying in a carrier on my body. I'd prefer him to be in the stroller for that. It took us 10-15 minutes to walk from the splash pad to a building on Temple Square to find a bathroom. In downtown SLC, with lots of staring eyes. Thanks to the man who looked at me and told me I was brave. *sarcasm*

So we get into the bathroom in the Joseph Smith Memorial building and Samson had a HUGE poop that almost blew out. Thankful for that blessing. I took care of that, and half a pack of wipes later, I was able to check Thora and change her diaper, too. Tom and Katie took care of themselves (so glad some of them can!), and I sat Dancy on a toilet to go to the bathroom. Dancy is potty trained, but sometimes stubborn. Like, she'll sit on the toilet, but she won't release those muscles. Oh no, she's not gonna do it. And that's what she did to me there. Meanwhile, Samson is still screaming because now he's hungry. So we gotta go. Went to the Family History Center across the hall. There's toys down there. But...stairs and I've got a stroller and baby carrier. So they led me through the back rooms with a ramp so I could get down there. I settled the kids in the toy area (Thora was cranky and didn't want out of the stroller, fine), and sat down to feed Samson. Two minutes later, I kid you not: "Mom, is there a bathroom here?" Yes, there bloody well is and your butt was on that toilet not 5 minutes ago, but I can't do anything about it now so you better keep your underwear clean! Sundance. Well, guess who forgot about that need for the toilet after Samson finished eating? Me. And Dancy was distracted playing. (This will become significant later.) We hung out in there for a little bit longer, then left to go see stuff outside.

Katie wanted to take pictures with all the statues.

Tommy wanted very specific people arrangements for these temple pictures: Tom and Katie together so we can print that picture for their room; Dancy and Thora together so we can print that picture for their room; then all the kids together so we can print that one for me. Samson was finally asleep in the baby carrier, so he got left out of the photo session.

"Did you get Moroni in the picture too?" Nope, little bit difficult this close, but I'll try squatting with a baby strapped to my body.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! It's Peter, James and John!" This statue depicts the restoration of the Melchizedek Priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

And John the Baptist! This statue depicts the restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. Dancy is pouting because Katie took her Jesus. Sorry kid, this isn't the Jesus statue, so your fit is moot.

So then we had to go see the Christus statue and wait a few minutes for the Mandarin Chinese tour to finish in that room before we could take pictures.

Then we made it back to the parking garage, fought with the electronic ticket reader to pay a small fee for the extra time after the free 2 hours, checked maps to see if there were any nearby fast food places with drive thrus...fail. So I set the navigation to take us to Shad's cousin Keith's house. The plan was that his wife Michelle and Aimme's (Shad's cousin) daughter Allyson would watch my kids while Aimme and I went to Costco to buy food for the family barbeque. Just after I got off the highway exit for Michelle's house, the van navigation system shut down. It said it could no longer read the disc. Great. Good thing I just switched to a smart phone and could still get us there as long as I didn't kill us while trying to do so. I decided to skip the fast food lunch and do PB&J at Michelle's. I got there right at 2, the time I was supposed to meet Aimme. Luckily, Aimme was running late. I got all the sandwiches made, even one for me because moms are allowed to eat occasionally, then set to work on diapers and bathrooms. Dancy had pooped in her underwear. I don't know when and I don't know where. But suddenly I had perfect recall to the moment when she asked if there was a bathroom and I forgot after I fed Samson. Joy. So I cleaned that up and borrowed a pair of underwear from Michelle. Finally sat down to feed Samson again so I could be all ready to go. This was when I started contemplating driving 12 hours home by myself with 5 kids and letting Shad figure out a way to get home because I sure as hell wasn't going to have another day like this. I only stayed for Aimme because I had promised her I'd help. Aimme and Allyson arrived and I made sure that Dancy knew to tell Allyson when she needed to go to the bathroom. Yet, when I returned from Costco, Dancy had pooped in the borrowed underwear as well. This time I just put her in a diaper. We were running late for getting to the park to start grilling. And that brings us up to speed with the other post of the pictures at the park.

Few final moments:

We went mini golfing!

Spilled Goldfish and crazy Katie hair.

We met Sister Draney's mom to pick up a package. Sister Draney is a missionary for our church in our area.