What do you know about this?

Ok, I know this is a weird post, but ever since May 9th I have been really bugged by something.

Yes May 9th, the day we were supposed to received a deposit of our stimulus check. We did not get however. Why you ask? Your guess is as good as mine!

I have gone through every possible scenario and every sign points to us getting it. Next year probably not, but this year yes. We had big plans with the money. Like paying for our fence, which has cost a fortune.

So anyway, most people I talk to have all received it who are supposed to and I always here different reasons as to why we couldn't have gotten it- like today I heard if you were a student you do not get it, although I know students who did, so now what?

Anyway if you have any ideas or suggestions we would love to know them. Please!

An apology...

I have to apologize to all of our friends in Chicago we were so excited to get to see this weekend because we are no longer coming. I guess I should really apologize to Jenn and Francis for not being able to attend your wedding considering you probably payed 60 per person for our plates. I am so sorry.

The problem just came up where our babysitter who was going to go with us to watch the children at the hotel during the no children allowed wedding reception, decided she couldn't go. My mom is out of town on business so she couldn't help us out either, so here we are sad as can be to not be able to go back "home". Oh well. I really hope to get up there sometime this summer though.

Here's to a weekend of laundry, yard work and watching a fence go up.

ahhhhh,

Now this is more like it. The nesting has begun. It has been a long 21 weeks of doing nothing yet feeling so very tired, wore out, sick and oh did I mention tired?

Welcome lovely side effect of pregnancy. Thanks to you I have done more this last week than the first 20!

Now the question is, will Andy like it or not? He has been the sole man around here as far as getting important things done. Now he will have help, but I think in the last two days I have already drove him mad with my mad ocd skills! Andy if you are reading this I am sorry...for then and now:)!

thoughts...

i cannot believe american idol is over, although i remember back in january thinking, this this is going to go on to the end of may!

i have mixed emotions about the results. to tell you the truth, i was completely liked both davids. from the beginning i thought david a. was such a sweet kid with an amazing voice. david c. certainly grew on me, probably billy jean week. he really is good.

i really thought without a doubt that david a. would win. i thought for sure! when they read david cooks name i seriously thought he said the wrong name by accident.

i wanted david a. to win mostly because he is younger and his style music will be harder to market at this moment than david cooks. i thought david cook either way would be fine and being older i thought he would take it better. for both of their careers i felt it would be better for david a to win. he could ride the american idol train and sell millions to all those teeny boppers and david cook would probably do better on his own than be buckled down to the american idol train...kwim?

anyway, another american idol season done and over with. it was a long, really good season i think. here's to next season, now i am getting ready for so you think you can dance. this is the only time during the year i can appreciate my 52 in flat screen. the only other times it is truly appreciated in the house is during yo gabba gabba, conference and an occasional byu game oh and oprah when i have time. so thank you nigel, for allowing me to get some use out of my free tv.

oh and one more thing. i was telling my sil while she has been over here for an american idol0-athon, how i really think america totally got it right this time with the top two. they are both really talented and seem to be super genuine and kind and humble. at least it seems to me. they both were so gracious. i loved david cooks comment on about how at this point, the bottom two, it is no longer a competition they are both happy for each other. i loved that. and i was telling michelle perhaps we should look into doing our presidential races like this. the government gets it down to 24, 12 repubs and 12 demos and we hear them speak and do little bits and get to vote each week. at the end of it all there would be about the same amount of voters, 97.5 million and we would have a president we felt like we knew, heck he might even sing well...

One guess as to what we had for dinner last night?

What's in a name?

Many of you have asked if there was any meaning behind the names we like. The answer is yes, well sort of.

At the end of my pregnancy with Maddox I really loved the name Paxton. But being so close to having him I didn't want the name to be my son kind of on a whim, so we didn't go with it. And it always seems like I have too many names to choose from that I like, I certainly did not need to add another one.

In all honesty it will probably be Paxton, but you never really know with me. I am the lady that the birth certificate lady keeps coming back to for days asking, "you gotta name yet?" kind of like saying how long have you had to decided and you still can't.

I always said my last little boys name would be Dallin if he were a little blond haired boy. So if he comes out being a little blond haired boy, there is a good chance that he will in fact be named Dallin. I do love Paxton and we kind of have been calling him that since we found out he is a little boy. But, don't think the name poll is all in vain because I really love the names Sawyer and Porter too, so who really knows...Paige I know you are loving this!

I said I knew for sure that if she were a girl it would have been Avery Kathlene. I have had an attachment to the name Avery since 2001 after we had Bennett. I have to say though my all time favorite girl name has got to be Elle. Andy is not a fan though, so that is why Jadeyn is Jadeyn. Maybe someday if I have a girl Andy will give in, but we will see. Kathlene would be after our two mothers for the middle name.

All of our children's middle names have some sort of significance. I am having the hardest time with this boys middle name. I could use one of the other names that we love with whatever we chose for this boys first name, but every other child's middle name was after someone really special, so I cannot really do that. Although, I cannot come up with anything!

Bennett has a first initial to his name which is R. I know it is weird and people have had a problem with it. The reason he has this is because all four of our grandfathers who have been amazing wonderful people and examples names start with an R. So instead of choosing one of them, we decided to incorporate all of them. Plus their names are Richard, Rodney, Robert and Ralph, none that we particularly loved either by the way. And Bennett's middle name is Michael after Andy.

Jadeyn's middle name is Caroline. I wanted Kathlene for this one, but it just wasn't right so we went with Caroline which is my best friends names from high school. IT fits her perfectly and the two names just flow really well together. And both Andy and I have Caroline's on both sides of our families.

Cortland's name we knew early on that we loved. When we were living in Utah wanting desperately to be pregnant, we went to a little art show on campus and there was a painting that was so breathtaking and moving. His name was Cortland Kimball and for some reason I knew that we would have a son with that name. It was reassuring because we had been tyring for all of 6 months, but wanted a baby so bad, so this was exciting to us. Kimball is Andy's moms maiden name and his brother Jake middle name is Kimball as well and Cortland was born on his birthday so it was meant to be.

Maddox's middle name is Lee. My middle name is Lee and so is my dad's middle name. I was going back and forth between Phillip and Lee and Lee just sounded right. I was kind of sad, because Lee was supposed to be Elle's middle name. I went back and forth with this for days and when Andy called home to tell his parents the name I still felt like maybe it wasn't right, but needless to say now it is perfection, just like him.

So we come to this baby. I've got nothing! I mean nothing. First off nothing seems to go with Paxton or Dallin, or Sawyer or Porter for that fact, so I just don't know. I would use my maiden name, but it is not one of those maiden names that can really be used so I am lost. Help would be nice. Andy thinks Phildon would be great which is Phillip and Don combined. No thanks hon. And he thinks he is rather clever and always suggesting the names; Readon, Writton, Bad, Old, Broken or Speakon. If you know our last name you can see why he thinks he is so funny. Don't think so big guy.

And one more thing. The good thing is since I have not repeated any letter for the starting letter of my children's names, I cannot start now. This is a good thing, because it would add so many other options that frankly I do not need.
Beckett
Madden
Cooper
Jonah
Jackson
Carter
Cameron
Caleb
Chase
See what I mean, I like too many names. This is a problem. In order for me to use all my names I seriously would have to have 215 children I think. Oh well, I guess in 119 days the mystery will be over and I will know his name.

What's the Difference?

I have decided that with each pregnancy there has been major differences. It is kind of weird to me. I am the same person, only getting older each time, with a baby, which, btw, I have always had a boy in tow, so I simply do not know what makes the difference. (Wow that was quite the sentence!) The individual baby, I suppose.

Baby #1...So Bennett, was my first. I really loved being pregnant. A lot. Looking back I had a lot of weird things going on with me during his pregnancy, but I still loved it. The worst side effect, was the carpal tunnel. By the 7 month I was wearing borrowed hand guards for rollerblading, because I was too cheap to purchase the proper wrist guards I needed. I could not even bend my wrists and sleeping was so painful especially when I would wake up and had bent my wrist unknowingly. Ouch! I couldn't even hold Andy's hand. Another weird thing was that my teeth went down the tubes. I was 23 and had never ever had a cavity in my life. I went in for a cleaning and was told I had 9 serious cavities to fill. Looking back Andy and I think he was eager to make a few extra dollars and it probably wasn't as bad as he had said, he was a little sketchy anyway, but none the less, I had 9 cavities filled. NOT a fun day, mind you. Last but not least, I had gotten about 150 planters warts on my feet. I know. It is gross. Very gross and not fun either. I had to have them burned off with out any pain meds. Oh the fun times. I didn't feel very well in the beginning of the pregnancy either. I also didn't start showing really till late in the pregnancy considering when I do now. Although at the time I felt I was huge. Oh and not to mention I went three weeks over and had an 11 pound baby, I was HUGE in the end. And to think I loved being pregnant and when he was two weeks old I wanted another one already. When we were on the way to see my new niece in the hospital I told Andy I wanted another baby and he simply said YOU HAVE A BABY!

Baby #2 & #3...J and C. Not only was I shocked with the pregnancy, I still don't believe it sometimes, I was sick, but more exhausted and hungry. The day we had the ultrasound to confirm the multiples pregnancy, I felt so weak and exhausted. It was hard. I could not go more than 20 minutes without drinking or eating. I visited Costco a lot. The things I loved, were fruits and veggies and lots of them and Rotisserie Chickens with tons of hot sauce. Weird, I know. I probably had about 10 of them in my first trimester. The good thing was that although I was sick, I could eat, so that was a bonus. I was also in the hospital quite a few times for dehydration, which was not surprising because I could not eat and drink enough. It was weird. I didn't have other weird side effect though like the first time around. I also had lots of doc appointments and non stress tests. Those were lots of fun. I really felt like I lived at my doctors office.

Baby#4...Sweet Maddox. He was pretty easy. Yes I was sick. I was pretty sick with this one, but the good thing was I was so preoccupied with newborn twins that it really didn't phase me or I didn't have a lot of time to think about not feeling well. He was just as sweet inutero as out. He barely gave me any problems. I am thankful for that. Another thing that was nice is I wasn't too eager to get him out like the other 3. I liked being pregnant with him and the longer he was in the easier life would be. So the time of course went super fast. Way faster than the first two pregnancies.

Baby#5...I have to say that although I do not have any weird problems like I did with Bennett, this has been the worst, BY FAR! I have never in my life have been so sick. It was a horrible first 16 weeks. I am so thankful that I am feeling so much better. I have sure learned even more to be grateful for my health. I was in maternity clothes by 10 weeks, which isn't fun either because when people ask you how far along you are you only wish you could say longer than you are and when you say how far along you are people looked shocked or have nice comments like are you sure there is only one. Thanks people, I get it, I am huge! This pregnancy I am wanting to take as long as possible. As much fun as they are when you have them and you get this tiny baby to hold and love, the truth is they are much easier inside, so he is welcome to stay as long as needed. All my other pregnancies have completely consumed my life. Every thought was centered around the baby I was carrying, but honestly this time I have to remind myself or convince myself that I am indeed pregnant. I like it this way. Although the other day when I was running up the stairs holding Jadeyn and Cortland I realized I need to make a better effort to remember not to lift, I am pregnant here. Note taken, and I will not be doing that anymore. One last thing with this baby is I lost about 14 pounds in the first month of pregnancy, because I was so sick, and I have gained almost 2 pounds since. So I am technically still down 12 pounds. I gained a quarter of a pound from last month to this month and my doctor says, "Oh did I not mention that you are supposed to eat when you are pregnant?" Then asked me if I liked Oreo's and ice cream and eat them even if I don't. This pregnacny nothing sounds good, I gag with everything I see or smell, I just do not eat and I really try. Well the baby is 10 ounces right on track so apparently he doesn't mind and as long as he doesn't I am quite happy with it.

Anyway, I think it is weird, that my pregnancies have been so weird and different. Even with all the "fun" little things that I have dealt with I still love every time I am pregnant and love the end result. Good thing, right?

More Pictures...

Two beds to choose from and this...
There are two beds in Cortland's room right now. He loves his toddler bed, but the crib is still in there and occasionally he loves to sleep in there, but this night he decided under the crib was the best option. Who am I to judge?


A long day
This is how we found Bennett after his party. After we put the babies down he wanted to play with all his toys, but when we came down this is how we found him. It was a long day for this big guy, new toys or not, he was tired.


Look what I can do
Jadeyn is our little artist and book reader. You can find her all day long either reading a book or coloring. She loves both so much. She is always so pleased with her art work too.

Cortland, are you close enough?
My kids do not watch tv. The just don't. Not because won't let them, because believe me it would be nice once in a while to let them watch while I get things done. They will, however, watch a few minutes of Yo Gabba Gabba. One night before our bedtime routine started, Cortland pulled up a chair and just sat there for like 15 minutes. It was so funny. He had his chair about as close as he could get. Funny boy.

Bad Mom Alert... ok, not only did I put my little BOY to sleep in GIRL pj's, he also slept on his be like this. Well until I came in to check on him before I went to bed. He managed to pull his mattress off his toddler bed and proceeded to lay on the bed slats. He was actually asleep like this. Luckily I went in to check on him, we put his bed back together and he laid by me for awhile until he stopped saying "ouchie, kiss it". Poor little guy.

Visits from GrandmaMy Grandma comes and brings us lunch once a month. We have done this since we have lived here and it has been such a fun little tradition. The kids love it and I am grateful for the time we get to do this together.



Bath time Fun These two love taking baths. The have so much fun in there. All three of them do. I love watching them splash around and having such a good time.



I love it I love love LOVE when babies sleep like this. It looks so cozy and SO DARN CUTE and then top it all off with being Maddox! be still my heart. I love this boy!



Princess JOh this girl is a riot. She got a new princess dress up and although she was twirling around, and acting all "princess like" she still wanting to wear Cortland light up Elmo tennies. Funny little girl.


Sunday Best One Sunday amongst the hustle and bustle of getting everyone out of the house, I looked at the twins and just noticed how darling they looked. So precious. I just love these two!

Cherise goes to prom

She looked so pretty. Her dress was beautiful. She was just so beautiful.

Seven things I love about Bennett...

#7. He is such a great helper. In the past 2 years since his life has basically changed drastically I have never once heard him complain and do anything unwilling when asked. That is a great blessing.

#6. He is so smart. I am happy about this because school is not a struggle for us. I can't imagine how much harder it would be if it were. At the beginning of the school year they did the standardized tests and he scored as high as possible, middle of third grade year. One thing I really love about him being so smart is, he has really no clue he is so smart. He is humble. I love that. On his report cards he has always gotten straight A's and they have all been 100% as well except one, one time.

#5. He loves me. I love that he is a boy and loves to snuggle, hold my hand, and kisses me every time he comes home. I hope this lasts forever.

#4. He is so kind. Everyone is a friend and he goes out of his way to make sure everyone is included.

#3. He shows gratitude for the blessings he has. He is always saying how grateful he is his grandparents live here, that he has brothers and sisters, or that he loves Andy and I.

#2. He knows who he is. He knows what is important and why we do things we do and why we don't do the things we do not do.

#1. He is mine! I love that he is my son. He is such a big part of our family and I am so grateful for that!

PS... I only did 7 because he is 7, I could go on to 100 and beyond!

Bennett through the years...

I really need to scan some photos in. The days before digital cameras are long gone and I am so happy about that. Now I need to find time to scan them in so they will be safe. I only have the past several years of his parties. His first birthday was celebrated in Provo. It was so fun to have a our first child's, first birthday. It was so fun. We had some family and friends and neighbors over. We kind of had a sports theme. It was fun. I remember those days fondly.

His second birthday was celebrated in Utah as well right before we left. We had TONS of people and tons of food made by one of the best cooks of all time, Lucila. It was an Elmo theme. He seemed so old to us, and now looking back he was just a little baby still.

His third birthday was in Chicago and we did a Blues Clues theme and it was so fun and many people came to celebrate and it was so fun.

His fourth birthday party was Buzz lightyear and that was fun too. He looks so young!

His fifth birthday party was Spiderman.

His sixth was Scooby Doo.

His seventh was Laser tag.

Looking back at all those photos he looked so young and at the time he looked so old to us. I guess this time next year I will look back at these photos of his seventh birthday party and think he looks so young too. A great lesson in enjoying every moment with these little ones. They grow way to fast!

Bennett's Bash

For Bennett's birthday this year we did several things that made it so special for him. On Bennett's actual birthday the 25th of April we, Andy and I, went to Bennett's school and had lunch with him. We even brought him McDonald's. He loved it. We brought Maddox with us and his whole class loved that we were all there. Then we headed off to the playground for a little recess with the kids. It was a lot of fun. I am so thankful we were able to do that.

That night we went to Chuck E Cheese with Michelle her girls and Cami. We had pizza and played games. They had so much fun, but it wore me out. Then that evening Grandma and Grandpa E. came over for a little birthday get together. I forgot my camera both times to his school and to chuck e cheese, I am getting very forgetful these days.

The next day was his Spring Fling at school and then we had his family party here with family. We celebrated Bennett, my and my grandpas birthday because we have birthdays all three days apart from each other. It was fun. He got so many fun things. He got a scooter, a roboraptor, clothes, baseball tickets, baseball bat, chalks and many more fun things. We had a great time. I just love celebrating birthdays.

A week later we had his friends party. It was really fun too. Every year up to this point I have had his party at our house. I love doing parties. I would love to be a party planner someday. Love it, but this year, being so tired and pregnant I decided let's try a party somewhere else. He wasn't very excited about it at first, but once we got him excited about it he was fine. He chose a laser tag place. It was great. They played games, like at Chuck E Cheese, then they played Laser tag, then had pizza, played more games, ate cupcakes and opened presents. The whole time was fun and the kids loved it. And honestly it was much cheaper and obviously a lot easier for us. He loved it. I am glad we came up with that great idea.

Where did my pictures go?

I was looking at my blog and noticed that for like the past 5 blogs or so I do not have any pictures! So I decided to go through my files and found a lot that I need to update so here we go...

Bennetts school picinic which was so fun! My mom went with us thankfully. It was so much more fun than the ones my school used to have. They had some rides and several of the bounce around things and tons of fun carnival games. The kids just loved it all so much. They played games all day and had so much fun. We came home with several bags of prizes and lucky for me the prizes were not all junk either. They also had a cake walk and all four of the kiddos did it and won. Their cake they all picked was a bucket instead of a cake, filled with lots of yummy things like hostess snacks and chips. And now they all have buckets to play with out back. They also had hotdogs, pizza, nachos, pretzels and pickles. A total carnival type of foods too! It was a fun day. Here are pictures to prove it.

Maddox loved just running around the cafeteria where he had open range. They were doing the cake walk in there and the music was loud and he had such a great time just dancing away. Once I decided to get the camera out he was a little worn out, but still cute. He is a dancing machine. Oh and yes I know his pants are about to fall off his non existent bottom, but he is just so dang skinny there is nothing I can do about it! ***blogger still will not let me upload photos so I guess you won't get to see him

Yes, I know this was Bennett's picnic, but he would not stand still long enough to get any pictures of him. It is safe to say he had a really fun day.

PICTURES TO COME...

Bennett's birthday paties!

Just one princess in our home...for now

Today was the day that I found out I will be having my fourth boy. It was so fun watching this little baby boy moving around like crazy in there. His little legs and little arms were just so precious. I loved watching him. Still every time I am having an ultrasound I just can't hold back the tears. I feel honored to be "housing" this little one. I am grateful for his desire to come to our family. I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to raise him and to teach him and love him to pieces.

I was totally prepared for a boy. Totally. I did however, really think it was a girl for so long. I would call her and refer to her as Avery. So would the kids. They would all refer to her as baby sister. I guess we need to nip that in the bud soon. Even though I was wishful it was a girl so Jadeyn would not be the lone solider around here, I could not imagine it any other way. I do however really feel very strongly that there will be another girl in our family so let's just hope that I can quickly forget how miserable this pregnancy has been so I am game for another one.:)

I am excited to meet my sweet little baby boy number 4 and hold him and stare into his eyes and thank him over and over and over for being my son. I have more love for him already than I ever though was possible and I am so grateful for that.

Chi-town

I am so excited we are going on a mini trip to Chicago. We are going to a wedding there and I cannot wait to see that beautiful city again and all the wonderful people that live there. To my friends in Chicago, please keep a minute or two free so I can see you the last weekend in May.

CF

May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness month.

Our dear friends Maddie and Max will someday be CF free!

Go here for more info.

What was I thinking you ask

This weekend is so busy that for now I am choosing not to even think about it. Seriously.

A, Bennett and Cortland are going on a camp out, (should be really fun. I am sad to miss Cortland's first camping outing. He will be on cloud nine.) weare getting our fence, bennett has a baseball game, Mothers Day and for some crazy reason I have decided that I should do a yard sale at my moms annual neighborhood yard sale. See, what WAS I thinking allowing my schedule to get so packed?

Yard sales alone are a lot of work, but this is crazy. When we moved in we moved all our storage stuff that had been in my parents basement for 4 years through dental school into our basement. In early January I decided okay I have 5 months lets start going through EVERYTHING in our basement and get it ready for our yard sale. Sounds good until morning sickness, well all day everyday and night sickness hit, and everything has been sprawled out on the ground of our basement since. So LAST NIGHT mind you we started going through it all.

I am so excited to be doing it and getting rid of it all. It feels so good. I am the opposite of a pack rat. I have to have order in my home and no clutter. I do not work well with any sort of clutter. So the past four months just knowing what it looked like down their drove me nuts. Anyway, we were up till one in the morning. That is not good for me. I need sleep. Especially these days. One in the morning did not always seem that late to me, now I am asleep most nights by 9 or at least want to be.

We did get a lot of it sorted through and put away. I really wish I knew what I was having because I could get rid of more baby clothes. But I don't so I have bins upon bins of baby clothes. I could probably clothe a small county. No kidding.

Today I need to get back down there. I really can't do a whole lot by myself because I am determined not to be put on bed rest this time. So I do very minimal by myself. But I only have 2 days now to get the show ready.

Writing this right now I am realizing all this for what? 26.50?

So this weekend, will be packed full. I am kind of excited to get it over. The kids will have a fenced in area that they can run around in till their little hearts content. This will be a lifesaver to me. And next weekend we will be busy planting all weekend. I am looking forward to a day of yard work. Sounds better than sorting through junk anyway.

One of THOSE days

Do you ever have one of those days where you really start to wonder if you are cut out for the "job" you have? Today is one of those days for me. I have actually had quite a few of them lately.



Three little ones at this stage of the game can be quite hard at times. I can say most times are great, then there are a few where I seriously think, can I handle this?



I tell ya my hardest time is around 4:00 in the afternoon. It can get tricky. This is the time where the three little ones are getting up from their nap, Bennett is getting home from school and I have realized how neglected my house has been till that point and panic to get it back in order. THEN the dinner question hits. I love to cook. I love it. But there is a whole new aspect to dinnertime when it needs to be done before Andy gets here and their are four little "helpers" that need me at all times apparently. It can be draining at times.



I think one of the things that is really hard for me right now is always knowing when times are tough that, soon there will be another little one around to occupy my time and when or how will it be possible for me to get anything done? This is a question that boggles my mind often.



I have decided in my perfect world, I would have a "helper" at my house from 4-6 Monday-Thursday to literally help me out. Unfortunately this does not fit into my budget at the moment, but if it did I would be there and I honestly think my stress level would go WAY down.



I am learning a lot from this though. I have learned that my world is not and cannot be perfect. The house can not be perfectly clean, a yummy organic tasty meal will not always be made, my children at times will be seen in just a diaper and a shirt, the noise level will not always be at the point I would like and although my life is NOT perfect I sure do think that the five people I am currently living with are. I am a lucky lady. I recognise this and I am grateful for this, but I think I am allowed to scream "Calgon take me away" once in a while. Right?

I Feel Old

This morning I sort of slept in. I love that Andy is off some Fridays. It really helps with my sanity. I slept in until the concrete guy came to convince us we needed to go with him. Don't think so buddy. Sleeping in to me is seriously one of the biggest gifts I could ever be given. Andy even got to sleep in a little bit because it was storming in the morning and the kids all slept past 9 because it was so dark. So we both got a little treat.

I got up and got myself ready and decided to hit the mall and a few other places I had been wanting to go to for a while. It was Jadeyn's special day out. We had a great time. She got a cookie and two pairs of flip flops and a cute little dress. She had a fun time. It is weird because it isn't until my kids are by themselves that I can see how big they are getting and how old they are. She was acting like a big 2 or possibly 3 year old. It is surreal to me. I love when I get some personal time with each of my children. I love it. I love the interaction that takes place that sadly doesn't happen as much when we are all together. I love that little girl. She is so fun and so sweet and keeps me on my toes. There is not one thing I would change about her. Even if she has potty trained herself when I didn't want to have to deal with it yet. It could be worse right. I got to cross a lot of things of my list to buy and I even got mothers day gifts out of the way.

After a few hours at the mall we went to Kohl's. We walked around there for a while too. We had a great time. She scored a few fun things there too and even thought of her brothers as well. After Kohl's I needed to run to Babies R US and Sam's and I just couldn't imagine making it there. I was so beat.

Now I remember when Bennett was at this age and younger when we lived in Utah and I could run literally 15 places in one day and not be tired or winded at all. Now flash forward 6 years and yikes, I feel like I have less stamina than my grandma does at 80. Could it really be all about age? I mean I know I am pregnant and just wore out running around after these little ones and still recovering and gaining up strength since my rough 15 weeks, but come on. I am a wimp.

After we got home we all played outside. All the neighbors were out and we all had a good time. Bennett and the kids are in Heaven having a yard and neighbor kids to play with. It is great watching them all have a great time.

After playtime we all went to Sam's and then I hit babies r us. It has been such a day I tell ya. I wish I had the energy of a 24 year old, or at least the energy I had as a 24 year old. But I guess those days are gone, long gone. I AM old.