Buyers Remorse

Have you ever been shopping online and after clicking "complete purchase", immediately felt buyers remorse?  Well, have I got a story for you!  First a little background: we have no pets at our house for many reasons, a few of which are most of us are afraid of animals, and we are messy enough ourselves that we just can't bare the thought of adding to the chaos.  Well, Zac caught a frog about a week ago and was happier than a lark about it...until he "had" to give it CPR.  Needless to say, the frog is no longer our pet.  Zac was devistated and Steve said he could buy a frog at the pet store.  So, I took him to the pet store and we looked at frogs, but they all were poisonous and they were jumping like crazy. I started getting cold feet.  Finally, I convinced him that we should just keep looking for the perfect frog.  To my surprise, he said, "okay, let's get out of here".  So we went home and out of motherly duty, I found myself on the internet site turtleshack.com.  Have you ever been to that website?  Neither had I. Without thinking twice, I added three baby "red eared sliders" into my "shopping cart".  Credit Card?  "You got it!"  Overnight shipping?  "You got it!"  What was I thinking!?  So today, Zac woke up and went straight out to the porch to wait for the turtles to arrive, while I did a little "all too late" research on our new pets.  Phrases like, "not good for children", "time consuming", "banned as pets by the government in the 70's due to salmonella"....were not really what I was hoping to find out....but from here on out, we're just going to accentuate the positive.  I have been needing a new hobby to tell the truth. Turtle breeding isn't really what I would have picked, but here we go!

Waiting for the turtles to arrive:

Update:  I just got back from taking all five kids to the pet store for some turtle supplies.  The situation has gotten much worse....and to top it all off I just learned that turtles can live for 40 years!!!!   What have I done!?  Somebody in the family needs to buy a house with a pond so I can stock it with turtles for them in a few years. Don't laugh....I'm really sad about this situation that I find myself in.  I need to scroll back up and look at those happy faces before I cry.

Trevor

Trevor's smile is like a ray of sunshine, and it isn't just reserved for those he knows and loves.  He beams at anyone from the checkout lady at the grocery store, to the toothless, almost homeless door to door salesman.  

Trevor on his first birthday: February 16th, 2012

Sometimes the smallest works the hardest!

 And sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.

These cheeks get kissed by a lot of people, a lot of times, everyday. Sometimes when he's had enough he makes a face like this:

 And then we kiss him even more.

Look at the way the food chain works at our house.  Don't worry Trevor, you won't always have to be a "bottom feeder".  No pun intended.

CaLeB

When Caleb was just two years old, I babysat two little girls, one of which had hip dysplasia, and walked with a slow limp.  On one particular afternoon, we had gone to Caleb's favorite park in Pocatello.  He was so excited when we pulled up, and normally when I got him out of the car he would run as fast as he could towards the playground without looking back.  After getting everyone out of the car, I ran to the playground with the youngest little girl.  When I turned around, I saw something that epitomizes Caleb's sweet and loving personality.  He was back by the car, walking ever so slowly, even for a two year old, with Ashley as she limped her way over to the park, smiling up at her the entire time.  There is so much for me to learn from a child.  Here are some other fun facts about Caleb:

He LOVES school.  He is on the 5th Harry Potter book and usually reads two chapter books a day.  He recently was on the UIL spelling team and his school won first place!

Caleb has an eye for beauty.  He wanted me to take this picture of my "gold" at the end of the rainbow!

He loves sports and is training me and the younger kids in our sports abilities.

For the most part, he is very sweet to his one and only sister.  On her first day of kindergarten, I walked them to school, but couldn't fit my double wide stroller in the doors with the mobs of parents and kids going in and out, so I asked Caleb quickly if he could walk her to her seat for me.  I shed a few tears on the way home, which is normal, but when I got home, I checked my messages (I know.....shocker) and a lady from the school had called to tell me how she had seen Caleb holding Sierra's hand all the way to her desk, and it had touched her that he would do that being the big second grader that he was : ).  Moments like that make the toys scattered all over the floor, dishes piled up and yes, even the occasional underwear hanging from the ceiling fan fade from existence, and everything seems right in our little world.  Thank goodness for moments like that!

Caleb is good about playing with his siblings, even when his friends are around.

Caleb has an appreciation for good food. He makes me want to cook like Paula Dean, so sometimes I start to talk like her, and get all dewy eyed when I see my boys devouring dinner in seconds.  Not really, but cooking is definitely fun when people love your food!

 He has an awesome, slow smile.

 Caleb is a great example.

He often begins sentences with, "When I'm in the NBA..."  I smile and think we should all think that way a little more often! : )

Sierra

Sierra recently told me, "having four brothers is a heavy load, but I like it."  She shows she likes it by being a second mother to all of them.  She is a GREAT helper.  Here are some things she loves to do:

 Sierra loves to cook and bake.  One time, when I made a recipe that flopped and she could tell that I felt bad about it, she asked me for the recipe to make me feel like she liked it.  She is always aware of other peoples feelings. Awhile ago, Steve's work was having a chili cook off with a cash prize.  We both looked at each other when we found out and said, "Dresses".  That was what we were going to buy when we won.  So that night at 10pm, we started our first batch of chili.  She wasn't in school so I thought it would be okay to let her stay up. We chopped, and chopped and cooked  two batches of exotic chili's, all the while, having the best conversations about babies, the future, girl stuff and our family.  We lost track of the time we were having so much fun.  When Sierra is a teenager and I want her to talk to me...I'm going to make her cook chili with me in the middle of the night again.  She told me everything on her mind that night, and said the sweetest things, including that she was glad I was her Mom.  At 2am we both fell asleep on the couch with chili on our pajamas...sure we would win.  Well, it turns out we DID NOT win....and I suspect nepotism in the workplace!  Just kidding....we didn't even get a participation ribbon or anything.....we never got those dresses but boy what a memory we made that night.  I never eat chili without thinking of it!

Sierra and "her boys".

Sierra loves school, especially math and spelling.  I love watching her skip off down the sidewalk when she walks there in the mornings.  She almost always has a spring in her step.

Although she is only 7, she thinks and sometimes acts like she is ten years older.  This makes me sad....I want her to stay little and play barbies and watch princess movies.  We have a lot of fun together though.  Some of her interests are clothes, jewelry, scarfs, hairstyles and crafting.  She puts on mascara better than I do...but gets in trouble when she does.

Sierra loves to be daring.  If the boys do it, so will she.  She loves to be girly, but she'll have fun with the boys any day.

She is crazy about babies!  I cannot remember a single time that she has complained about helping me with Trevor.  She can do it all...diapers, rocking, feeding.....she can even pose while holding a baby on her hip with one hand!

Sierra is a good sport!  Sometimes, I sign her up for things she doesn't really want to do, and she just takes a deep breath, goes up to her closet and tries to find an outfit to match the occasion.  If she can put something together, she goes with a smile.  Somehow, hot pink lip gloss was what got her to go to basketball camp.  She didn't want to look "too boyish".  Tennis camp was acceptable because a skirt was involved.  We love our Sierra!

Zac

Judging by the size of my laundry pile and the fact that tonight's dinner dishes still await me downstairs, I should not be blogging....but, if you always do what you've always done, you're always going to get what you've already got....so I'm going to blog...daily, and it may just be therapeutic!  For the next several  posts I am going to pick random pictures of one of the kids and tell a little about their personalities/interests.  Let's start in the middle with Zac.

For every birthday present he opened this year, he had a different  happy/excited/elated facial expression.  Let's hope the expressions stay positive through the teenage years!

This is the face I get whenever I try to be a disciplinarian.

Zac's energy has no end.  That is not a yawn!

He will not leave the house without his hair sticking up in the front.  He calls it his "Archuleta hair".  He spends a lot of time in the bathroom making it just right.  It takes me back in time to a certain brother of mine who I love and respect....so I just smile and wait for him to finish!

Working on our "happy to be at church" face!

THE SMOLDER!

Never knew that preschool snack day could bring such joy!

Yesterday, Zac said, " I used to think I would not want to kiss girls, but now I think, when I am big, I will kiss them a little bit.  I laughed, and then....I began to sweat. 

Zac loves music and make up his own words to familiar tunes. Whatever words come to mind, he uses in the song.   A few of my favorites are "Pray to the Mantis" (Praise to the Man), and "On the first day of Christmas, my Nina was a Jew." The more random the better, I suppose!   

Zac loves to lead his two younger brothers in "Dennis the Menace" type behaviors.  They obey his every command. They thrive on mischief and naughtiness.  But when they are good...they are very, very good!     

New years eve 2011.  Zac wanted Sierra to have a fun party on her birthday, so he gave her an hour with a "sister".  Looking at the pictures, I'd call it "girls gone wild".   She was thrilled, Steve was...worried, Caleb was speechless and I was given the shock of my life when I saw the little "foreign exchange student" dancing around in Sierra's bedroom.  Looking at the pictures now, I see it as nothing but sweet brotherly love.  He will regret it someday, but she will remember it forever!