Growing Babies

As I'm getting ready to type this blog I noticed I didn't take any pictures of anything or anyone today. So I just had the idea I would post a few pictures of Landon's school work to show how well he's doing. The first picture shows how his reading ability is coming. I didn't help him at all. He had to read the word and then draw a picture which he drew completely by himself as well. The mug is my favorite. I love how he drew steam coming out of the top.

Next is a couple math papers that show how well he is writing all of his numbers, again he did this all on his own.
I'm very proud of him if you hadn't noticed. I can see now they are somewhat hard to see on here but I think you can get sort of an idea of how well he's doing. After taking these pictures I decided I did have one model still awake. Inara somehow talks me into letting her stay up late every night. I enjoy my extra time with her so it's more like mommy's idea and will be for as long as I can get away with calling her a newborn. That title is quickly fleeting from her and I feel a little sad about how fast all my babies grow up. I was reminded of that this afternoon. I had been cleaning, working on school with Landon and various other tasks and sat down to change Ronan before nap. I was talking to Xander about something and Ronan snuggled up to me. I was getting ready to tell everyone to head up for nap time when I looked down and saw Ronan already asleep with his head nestled on my chest.

I gently stroked his hair and just watched him for a minute. I've had countless amounts of these moments but I hold each one as precious and way too short. I thought about how one day the little boy in my arms would grow too big to be held this way. I will miss the spilt milk, the fights over lego towers, the finger print smudges and most of all I'll miss the moments when I held my babies close and they were so small they fit just perfect in my arms. I will miss the times when there was nothing more they wanted then for mommy to hold them and make them feel loved. Babies grow too quickly. I'm all too aware of that. That's why I try to hold onto each hug, treasure each kiss and in the midst of never ending chaos stop to breathe and realize how much of a gift the time with my children is.

With all that here are the last minute pictures of my already four month old.

The Making of Cow's Milk.

Isaac and I went grocery shopping and as we were checking out Isaac started loading the milks back into the cart after they'd been scanned. "Wow seven gallons! Can you imagine how many cows they had to kill just for us to get these seven gallons." Isaac said this with a smirk on his face. The check out clerk jerked her head up and starred at Isaac as though he had a purple elephant tap dancing on top of his head.

The expression on her face turned very serious and her voice took on a lecturing tone." Sir we don't get cow's milk by killing poor cows that is how we get beef. You know like hamburger and steak. That's why milk is better than beef because we don't have to kill a cow. How would you figure we could get milk by killing a cow? You should look into it." As we walked away with a full cart I saw her shake her head a little. We headed out the exit and I whispered to Isaac "She completely thought you were serious!" and with that we both burst into laughter.

Isaac got all the kid's canvas paintings put up today. The walls in their room are beautiful and we look like we have our own little art gallery now. The kids were so excited to see how important we thought their art work is. I didn't get pictures before bed but I think I will tomorrow and I think I'm going to make little title cards to go under the painting with the name they gave each painting. For Xander we have "Continent", "The Colorfulness of Australia" and "World. Landon's are "Nature Falls" and "Lonely Red Tree". For Jadzia there is "Bunny" "Princess" and "Pink". They named them all themselves and I love their creativity.
I think I'm going to go watch a movie with Isaac and then I'm going to bed. Ronan had a rough asthma night last night so I think an early bed time is in order.

Escape to the Landon Hotel

Today I was studying for my math midterm pretty much all morning and I found out I can have two pieces of paper front and back with whatever I want written on them. Plus my instructor put together three additional pages of formulas. I'm hoping I will do ok on it now and plan on going in tomorrow to take it. I did have some great entertainment this afternoon. Landon decided he was going to start his own tv channel called the LLF channel (Landon Lee Fullmer). He started off with a cooking show where he made fire truck soup. He warned all his viewers to stir carefully so they don't make their mother's kitchen a mess.

What I thought was the best part was when he went to a commercial and this is exactly how he stated his commercial "Are you tired of your baby crying all the time, do you dishes and laundry really stink, are your kids making you tired because they make you chase them all day? Come to the Landon hotel where we ensure you leave your baby at home. You can relax in the pool, have a massage, sleep or stay on Facebook all day. If you order room service we even bring the food right to your door! So come to the Landon hotel built by Daddy and Grandpa Fullmer!"

I have to say I was pretty surprised and couldn't stop laughing through his entire advertisement. He's convinced me. Mama should go on vacation to the Landon hotel! Next He returned to his cooking show then the next show was dancing with God. It was where he danced around the room and prayed at the same time. In case you are wondering yes he is wearing the same shirt he wore in Saturday's and Sunday's blog. No, he has not worn a dirty shirt for four days. It has been washed each day and I put it back in his closet each morning. If you haven't guessed by now it's his favorite shirt and because I let the boys choose their clothes (within reason) he has picked that shirt everyday for the last four days. I just washed and dried it tonight so it will be back in his closet tomorrow and most likely he will be wearing it tomorrow as well.

I went through some old books today and I came across a book that helped me to greatly understand my husband. We have never had the absolute perfect marriage, we fight, we annoy each other and sometimes we don't even want to be in the same room with each other. This was even more so when we were first married and I was 19 and still very immature. I had no clue how to be a wife. We even had the classic which way the toilet paper should point fight. About a year into our marriage I found a book called "The Five Love Languages".

Through this book it tells that everyone has a love language and chances are your spouse's is completely different than yours. If you do not learn your spouses love language then their love bank starts to empty but if you learn to speak their language then it fills back up. The five love languages are: Words of affirmation, quality time, Acts of service, gifts and physical touch. I have two and they are words of affirmation and quality time. This is why I would whine he never says this or that to me. He never wants to spend time with me. He would say you never do this or that for me. After reading this book I took the quiz in the back and discovered my husband was hands down acts of service. I had not been speaking his love language. I'd been telling him how awesome he was and how much I loved him but it did not fill up his love bank. He wanted me to show him that I loved him by what I did for him. This does not mean he wanted a slave it merely meant me keeping the house clean, making him a sandwich or bringing him a glass of milk was how he felt I loved him.

Once I learned this about him he made a lot more sense to me and I was able to learn how to show my husband love in a way he would realize it and appreciate me for it. Just as I get sad if he doesn't say certain things or spend time with me that's how it felt for him when I didn't want to do something he really wanted me to. As I said before this doesn't mean I'm supposed to be his slave it just means once in awhile if I can do a little extra something for my husband I'm speaking his love language. On my end I have also learned that as I thought words of affirmation were how I should show him love he thinks gifts is how he should show love to me. By learning this about him I've been able to appreciate him more even when he gets my love language wrong because I know how he is truly trying to make me feel loved.

I just thought I'd share a book that really helped me in my marriage and by no means do we have it all figured out. I'm positive we will still have our ups and downs but I'm glad I gained insight into why my husband does what he does. It's like in the movie "Fireproof" they said "Fireproofing doesn't mean the fire won't come it just means that when it does come you'll be able to withstand it." I pray daily Isaac and I will continue to fireproof our marriage.

Official Family Sock Sorter

Amongst all the cleaning, laundry and organizing I've been doing lately today I found myself with a minature helper. Ronan designated himself to be my sock sorter. As I was folding laundry he would climb up on the basket look in and then pick up a sock, play with it a little and then place it on the ground and move onto the next sock. He was only partial to the socks though and would push other articles of clothing out of the way in search of a much prized sock. He finally got to the point when he was done with a sock he would hand it to me before choosing another one almost as though he was trying to help me with my folding task.
Today would have been PT day but since Ronan was still sick I had to cancel. Early Access has a rule that if your child or other family member is sick you are obligated to cancel so they do not spread illness to other homes. I'm glad they have this policy because it also helps keep my kids more healthy but it can also be difficult in the winter because it seems like we are constantly canceling then you have the snow days on top of that and it can be weeks between visits. I try to focus on everything they do with him every week so I can work with Ronan between visits.
Inara is starting to have a mommy preference. This may be because I nurse her or it could be because I spend the most time with her but she has begun to cry when someone other than me holds her. I was thinking she is a little young to be doing this but maybe not. You'd think with five kids I'd remember when babies are supposed to do exactly what but I find myself looking at development sites and my other children's baby books to see when they each did something.

Now is the start of my midterms so most of my days are spent studying, cleaning, teaching the kids and spending time with the kids and Isaac so today was uneventful just busy. Speaking of Isaac we're getting ready to watch Hachi a Dog's Tale. We've never seen this movie before but the dog in it is the kind of dog Isaac desperately wants. It is a red Akita and they are pretty pricey so it'll be awhile before we get one but he even has a picture of one as the background for his computer. So that's all for now.

A Box By Surprise

Right now my brain is mush so please bear with me tonight. I have been studying and completing mathematical equations, statistics and probability for the last three hours in hopes I will pass my math midterm on Tuesday. On top of that I have been on the go since around 6:00 this morning. I'm tired so this will probably be brief and incoherent. Here we go.

Jadzia and Ronan woke up sick so no church for them today. Jadzia stayed in her pjs and watched a little tv and played with her dolls on the couch. Meanwhile I got to work on the house but since I've been maintaining it was a lot easier. I'm finding that while the laundry does not pile up the sound of the washer and dryer are a near constant background noise now. When the others got back from church Landon came around front instead of going around the back. He hollered "Mom there's a package for you on the porch." I was confused seeing as it was a Sunday there should be no deliveries but taking him at his word I popped my head out on the front porch. Sure enough there was a box. We had been on the porch yesterday evening so this must have been a really late Saturday night delivery.
I at first assumed it was one of Isaac's ebay items but was surprised to see it was for the three big kids from Grandma Fullmer. She hadn't even informed me it was coming so it was a nice surprise for everyone. The kids could barely contain themselves as I removed the brown wrapping revealing a shoe box. "She got us a pair of shoes!" Landon yelled excitedly. "I wonder which of us can wear them." Xander stated enthusiastically. "Shoes! I want the shoes!" Jadzia chimed in.

"Hold on I don't think it's shoes I opened the box to reveal a stack of various books, stickers and construction paper. The kids went nuts. "Barbie! Barbie!" Jadzia screamed as she spotted the Barbie sticker book. Xander saw a dinosaur book, grabbed it, hopped down and started rummaging through it. Landon scanned everything intently. "Mom, construction paper! Can I draw right now?"

I took everything out of the box and they all agreed on who would get what. They were content the rest of the day playing with their brand new gifts. This evening there was an event Xander has been waiting for for weeks now ever since they first revealed it would premiere. He was overwhelmed with excitement as I told him tonight was the night Dino Dan was premiering on Nick Jr. As he watched the first 15 minutes he exclaimed. "I wish I could watch this forever!"
Now I'm off I have a feeling it's going to be a long night. Ronan has started wheezing so I have to keep an eye on him close tonight and give him breathing treatments. Poor baby, his asthma gets bad sometimes. I know it's the time of year and I'm trying not to think of winter this year. I'm hoping for less ER visits and hospital stays than last year. I thought I'd end tonight's blog with a cute picture of construction paper love.

First Park visit

Today was the first time Inara in her whole four months of life in the outside world had been to a park. The day was beautiful, weather in the 70s and no ominous clouds in sight. My parents came along to help me which made the idea of park day much more feasible. We actually have a park right across the street from our house but have only been there twice in the two years we've lived here. The reason for this is Isaac doesn't trust the park enough for me to take the kids alone. He only wants me to go if I have someone else to go with me. Normally I end up driving to another park if I want to take them alone.

My mom swung with Ronan then Inara on the swings. There are no baby swings at this park but it's not like Inara could have managed those yet anyway. She fell asleep mid swing and that was end of first park day for her. The other kids had fun running around and Xander thought it would be funny for me to get pictures of him coming down the slide with weird looks on his face.

We came home and I got to work on Jadzia's pumpkin. She had changed her mind and wanted an owl instead of a cat. She kept yelling "Hoo, hoo!" The entire time I was carving but I couldn't complain because she was not critiquing my technique.

Lunch time rolled around and then nap followed. I knew I had to keep up the challenge after all I couldn't fail the first day in. Big task today was cleaning out the porch fridge. After today I now realize that all fruit must be put in the inside fridge or it will be forgotten and left for dead in the porch fridge. I took all the shelves and drawers out and scrubbed them. I threw out all the outdated food. I even tackled the freezer and got all the Popsicle sticky up. I always wonder how we always get Popsicle sticky when all Popsicles are completely sealed. The only thing I can figure is it somehow seeps through the paper.

Isaac came down to grab something out in the porch fridge and was very pleased to see the results of my efforts. I'm starting to see a bonus to deep cleaning everyday. A happier husband. I'm lucky enough to have a husband that notices the detail I do. Speaking of my husband it's time for Isaac and I to have our weekly date so off I go. Here's Ronan blowing mommy a kiss.

Husband's Challenge

Jadzia woke up today with her braids still intact and no hair knots! I'm hoping this means we've found the long term solution and I will not have to have a bald daughter. We did the usual school and then I got a call from Isaac saying we might be having company. I can't have people over especially people who have never been over to my house before and have it not look perfect. As I posted before I have to have the house at least pretend to be presentable even when the weekly therapists come over even though I've gotten comfortable with having them over.

Minutes of hanging up the phone I made a mad dash to do a deep clean of my house. I find that it's always the initial motivation of starting the deep clean but as soon as I get going I kind of go crazy and start scrubbing places only microscopic people would ever be able to see. Finally I was happy to have a fresh smelling, deeply cleaned house. Turns out the company never came over. I was ok with it because it had given me the motivation I needed to have.

I'll explain Isaac for a minute. We are pretty much polar opposites and that is how we function. He is brutally honest and I try to make sure everyone feels happy and ok with what I've said to them (well unless you say something bad about one of my babies then you get Mama bear). Isaac also has a phobia of germs and is completely organized and let's just say organization has never been my forte. I've had to learn with five small children that organization and schedules are the best practices I can assume but it comes far from natural to me.

This brings us to today. I accomplish the basics and when I have time I try to go further but there is still often times there are toys here and there or paperwork that needs filed but after my deep clean the house looked museum quality. Isaac came home from work very happy with how it looked. Then he started " I bet the house couldn't stay this way always." "Probably not." I acknowledged and added "But I try to give it a good go. "

"I want to try an experiment." "uh-oh.." I knew how his experiments went. "I challenge you to keep the house this clean until the end of the year and if you can do it I'll have the most amazing surprise for you." I was immediately skeptical "You realize we have five small children right? Three of which are old enough to have mini tornadoes following behind them causing destruction zones every few feet?" "I just mean after they go for naps and then bed you make sure it is back to this condition every single day. I'll even throw in a clause for if you come down with the flu, that if you experience that you can be excused for the day." "Wow thank you for permission not to clean if I experience a high fever and the non-ability to keep food down." "Sure, anything for my girl!"

"ok fine I'll give it a try and see if I can keep our house a super human looking house until January but if I do it better be the best surprise ever!" I realized after agreeing to this there is a good chance I will fail at least one day so I'm trying not get my hopes up for the surprise but on the other hand I really want that surprise and to be able to say I defeated Isaac's challenge. So here it is can I manage five small children, home school, go to college and keep a spotless, perfect house until January? This isn't just a maintained house or one that is decent and seen as clean and manageable. We are talking spotless and deep cleaned on a daily basis (My husband's Utopia). I'm doubting myself but I'm also very stubborn so we'll see how it goes. I decided I'd post it on here because now it is not just a spoken challenge but a challenge etched into blogger history. I want that surprise!

For the evening I went to work on Xander's pumpkin and instead of hearing about my carving skills I heard about my pumpkin cleaning skills. Xander begged for most of the day for me to get to his pumpkin and was pleased when I got out the carving equipment after supper. About a third of the way through cleaning it he popped his head in my way and peered into the pumpkin. "Eww mom, that's really gross! How can you do that?" "Because I love you and you wanted a carved pumpkin." "oh... Well don't touch me until you take a shower!" I was half way tempted to get up and chase him around the house without washing the pumpkin goo from my hands but time indicated I remain focused on my task.

I carved out the bat he had chosen and he was happy even though I kind of diced one of the bats ears a little too much. But Xander's satisfaction was all that mattered. And here it is:
Here are the two boys' together:
Tomorrow I tackle Jadzia's and I need to search and find a cat pumpkin template which is what she wanted.