Mish-Mosh

We have been lucky enough to have Uncle Pete here visiting us from Florida. He brought over a special project for the kids that he calls "mish-mosh." The kids were counting down the days until he came to do the project!

Prep work, cleaning out the molds.

Uncle Pete pouring the mish? Or is it the mosh?

How scary is it to mix cement with 3 children? Apparently not at all for Uncle Pete. I was hands off with this project, it all seemed overwhelming to me, I was in charge of taking pics. Ellie and Dani were in charge of pouring/spraying the water and B and P mixed the cement.

Yes, it is a little bit dirty.....

Dani and Ellie thought watering the neighbor's weeds may be a better/easier job.

Brayden stuck it out though. He is such a good worker and his stepping stone turned out amazing!

These are the stepping stones all set up to dry. Uncle Pete came back two days later to help take them out. There is a lot of special technique to this. I am pretty sure I would have cracked them, or there would have been lots of air bubbles!

B tapping his palm tree out.

YAY, you can't really tell how cool it is. B was thrilled!

Ellie tapping hers out.

Dani showing where her hand fits in hers!

Thanks Uncle Pete for such a memorable, fun project! We will treasure these forever!

8 years and counting.....

Happy anniversary Kent! Thank you for an exciting, memorable eight years, with lots more to come! I love you!

Manic Monday

Sadly, I have no pics. to represent this story, but you'll understand why. The day started off with swim lessons starting at 9am. Not a big deal, I had all my kids fed, dressed and loaded in the car and at my SIL doorstep at 8:30am. The plan was for me to take all 6 children to the YMCA. The oldest 5 children are taking lessons at 9 and 9:30. I was going to take little O's to the "Y school" (day care), take Brayden, Ally, Ellie and Dani into their lesson at 9, have Keegan read, or draw while I swam laps until his 9:30 lesson started. Good plan huh? I knew it would all work out because the kids LOVE the Y and they LOVE swimming lessons.

I jammed all 6 into the van (Phillips Bus), and we rolled into the YMCA. As I was unbuckling everyone and trying to gather 6 swim bags, purse, Y cards etc.... I got out of the van to walk to the other side to grab more stuff when Ellie slammed the door shut. Not a big deal... except the keys, my phone, 3 bags and the Y cards were LOCKED IN the van.

So....here I have 6 children standing in the grass, me with no phone, or Y cards or keys. (Luckily the kids were wearing their suits. I calmly (which I am so proud of myself) walked everyone inside, where EVERYONE STARES at us. I'm thinking it's not because we're so cute, it may be because I am alone with SIX kids: two 5 year olds, one 4 year old, two 3 year olds and a 2 year old. :)

Luckily all of the nice ladies at the desk see us almost everyday and they were able to let us use the phone, check us in, give us towels and lots of nice, encouraging smiles. I immediately called Sarah and asked her to bring Kent's spare key to us, no answer. I figured she was in the shower because she had just finished her workout. I called their house phone (Kelly had the day off), no answer. I called Kent to get Kelly's cell phone number, no answer. Sweet!

I calmly left several messages, hung up and figured if nothing else, we would be at the Y for a few extra hours, but I couldn't check the kids into the daycare without their cards. All seven us walked/ran/skipped/hopped and some of us even stripped while entering the pool area.

I just have to mention that in the mornings there are two water exercise classes that take place and ALL the old people grin and smile at us when we walk in (it's very sweet), but today all of their mouths fell open and they laughed out loud when we all traipsed through.

Brayden and Ally immediately took their places on the side of the pool. Dani and Ellie sat in their spots and were ready to go, until they realized they were going to have a BOY teacher. Uh-oh......they did not put more than their toes into the water the ENTIRE 30 minutes. I didn't get angry, I enjoy spending $60 for them to be observers....Keegan even tried to coax them in and Ally told them, "You don't have to be scaredy cats because it's a boy! That's silly!" Hopefully they will at least SIT on the steps tomorrow, or maybe even put their face in.

I sat with Owen on my lap (who was a perfect angel) and talked to Keegan while the first lessons were taking place. When they were done I sent Keegan to his spot and went to get the 4 children changed and dressed and into the Y school. By the time all of this was done, I had 15 minutes to do some laps, better than nothing, I guess.

After Keegan's class ended we changed and I realized I didn't pack my tennis shoes, I just had flip flops to work out in. Perfect.

I was in no hurry to get all those kids back into the van. (I failed to mention, Sarah saved the day and dropped the keys off by 9:15, so I could put everyone in the daycare)!

I decided I would do some weights and then head out. So I was doing the circuit and the YMCA man comes over, looks at me with a disgusted look and says, "Don't you have any other shoes?"
I bit my tongue, didn't tell him what I had been through in the last hour and just said, 'I forgot them. I will be out of here in 5 minutes. I am just going to do a couple more machines, I'm not doing any free weights.'

He says, "Yeah, well you can still get hurt." I wanted to be angry, but then I thought, the way things are going I probably will somehow break my toe on one of these machines.....then I was on my way to pick up all of our angels.....

As we were all finally heading out the door my darling son turns to me in the middle of the lobby, where everything echoes (especially when he talks) and screamed, "Mom you are such a LIAR! You just lied to me!!!" He was super angry and I tried not to die from embarrassment, beat my son and/or laugh out loud. Apparently he was a little ticked off because I had told Keegan that he could sit in the front seat (because all of the other seats were full and it's legal when there's no more room). B thought since he is the oldest (by a whole 3 months) he should be the only one allowed this privilege. He continued to scream and rant all the way to the car, yes he is almost six years old and VERY loud. Needless to say he spent a good portion of the afternoon in time out.....as did I. :)


If you're still reading I know this was super long and tiresome, but it is such good therapy for me and it seems to me, I haven't had a session in quite a while. Next post....happy thoughts....

Summer Fun

Last weekend the WHOLE crew went and watched Toy Story 3! Brayden has been talking about this movie for MONTHS. Can you believe how much merchandise is out there for this flick? I was actually very excited to see this one. We caught up and watched Toy Story 1 and 2 before we went. I have to say, they've grown on me over the years. B just thinks they're
hil-ar-i-ous! We were all impressed with the 3rd one too. Sandy, Kent, Kelly, Sarah, Owen, Uncle Pete, Ally, Ellie, Dani, Keegan and Brayden.

After the movie we got to party with Ally to celebrate her 4th B-day! SUPER ALLY!

Ellie and Dani waiting and waiting for their piece of cake!

Water slide and chocolate cake, can it get any better than this?

It's all over.....

My MIL retired! Tomorrow is her last day at her school and she's free! Yay, I am so excited for her! Uncle Pete, Sandy's big-bro all the way from FL!

Van Hees family: Noah, Hunter, Scott and Shelby

Auntie Jan and my mom

YAY Sandy!

Bubble mania

And a Happy Father's Day to Kent!

Swimming lessons

We started Summer vacation with a bang! It has been a fun, whirlwind of a week! I have a new work schedule and the kids are ALL doing swimming lessons! The girls go at 9am and Brayden goes at 4pm. Not the best schedule, but it's what would work. Brayden is going to VBS (vacation bible school) next week in the mornings, so we had to do afternoon swimming. I think it's a little ridiculous how busy a five year old can be. :) This is his only thing for the summer (that I know of). Anyway, it has worked out well, between me, Auntie Sarah and Auntie Helen everyone has made it to swimming class! Ready and waiting! The first day Danielle sat and watched for the first half, then she just jumped right in and joined her sister. (It's only the two of them, you can't beat a private lesson!) They both LOVE the water, which is a huge relief. They both love it so much in fact, they have no fear, which is really scary for me, considering they don't know the dangers of the water......

Ellie floating on her back.

Dani kicking away.
At the end of the lesson they get to jump into the pool and the teacher catches them! On the third day, Dani was feeling quite confident apparently. Ellie jumped in first and the teacher caught her, and then Dani just went for it. She jumped in without any hesitation. The problem was the teacher wasn't ready, and didn't quite know what to do.....she put Ellie back up on the side and then grabbed Dani, who was sinking fast! In that split second where she hesitated, I was up off the bench heading over. It was weird (and scary) that she decided to put Ellie back before she reached down for Dani (who was right next to her). I don't know, maybe it's my motherly instincts, but I would have gone right for her......I know they know what they're doing and I do trust the teachers, but on the other hand, they are all high schoolers....kind of scary when you really think about it.

Brayden and cousin Ally listening intently to their teacher. Don't they look great? Hopefully this behavior will last through next week! I couldn't get a good pic. of them, they were in a weird spot in the pool. :(

Funny story about Brayden though.....while they were in their afternoon class, I decided I would swim too. The big pool is right next to the pool they have lessons in. I was swimming my laps IN the water, and I could still hear my son answering the teacher's questions. ;) For those of you who have been around us, you know how loud Brayden talks! Well, in the pool area EVERYTHING echos! I could also hear the teacher saying, "SSHHH!" I thought, 'good luck, I've been trying that for years!" :)

Random Picture

Dan Dan being the little mommy. She got inside the baby cradle and rocked her baby.

***Err, I forgot the best part about Dani's story.....after the teacher saved her from drowning, she came up to the surface as proud as can be, with a HUGE grin and yelled, "I did it MOMMY!"

Work & Play

We have been quite busy lately, here is a quick update, with more to come! A few weeks ago Kent underwent the task of sanding and staining the whole front porch. Not so fun, I didn't even pretend to help. ;) However, Brayden was right next to Kent the whole time sanding away. He lasted a LOT longer than I expected. He loves to help and be a busy bee.


I didn't get a pic. of the finished product, but it looks great!

Keegan, Owen,Dani, Ally, Ellie and Brayden

All the chillin's checking out Auntie and Uncle's hot tub. They were all lined up so nicely, I thought I would get a quick pic. of all their cute bums, but I wasn't fast enough!

Last week we had quite the adventure! Brayden went to a play with Grandma Phillips and Ally. Kent and the girls and I went on a bike ride with some friends. These friends are wonderful.....they make our lives seem so easy. They have a six year old daughter and girl triplets who are 4! They pulled up to our house and unloaded all of their gear for our ride. I just laughed out loud! I chatted with Shannon (the mom) while Chris (the dad) was getting everything set up. Suddenly I realized, 'you have 4 kids, how are you all going to ride? Lindsey is too big for the trailer. Have no fear, they had it all situated.......

My load that I haul around. ;) 70+ pounds.

This pic. does NOT do them justice. Chris had Lindsey on a tandem bike behind him, then a trailer behind her! Shannon had ONE girl (the smallest one) behind her! :) We were a full on circus cruising down the road! PLUS I bit it hard in a major intersection. SURPRISE!

I finally got a new bike for my sprint race, and I got the fancy clip in shoes (which I love), and it was the second time I had ridden with them....long story short, I couldn't get my feet out in time before I slowly fell to the side, while screaming, "OOHHHH SHHIIITTT!" (Did I mention one of these girls in the trailer is a client of mine)? Impressive, I know. I had a few black marks up and down my legs, but I was good to go after I regained any composure that I had left. Needless to say, this little bike ride turned into an all night event! ;)

Let me introduce you to....... The SUPER PHILLIPS KIDS~ Ever since my friend, Meghan, made a cape for her son, I have been on the look out for some "super capes." It just so happens that my neighbor that lives three houses down, makes these! You can choose your own color and letter (of course). They are too adorable, Brayden and Dani LOVE them, Ellie not so much yet. B wears his EVERYWHERE!

Flying around the yard!