Just hangin' around this town

As Craig would say, "Oh my Holy Night."
I can't believe it's only October. I feel like our family has aged about ten years in the last month. Pretty soon Chloe will be getting married, Linus will be going on a mission, Odell will be dating boys, and I'll have 8 more babies clamoring for my attention.
Just kidding. We're only having 7 more babies. HAH.
Well September was chock full. Chloe learned how to ride her bike finally! I was a little nervous. Typically she meets something she has a hard time with, she digs her heels in and folds her pretty little arms. I was afraid that the first time she fell over, that would be it. No learning how to ride a two wheeler. However, we started with Grandma's small bike and literally the first time Craig let go of the bike she had it down. She's maybe fallen down like twice and got back up, brushed herself off, then proudly announced, "I'M FINE MOM!" Two weeks later we switched to her big bike and she got off without a hitch. Now she's a biking maniac and LOVES riding around and around the cul-de-sac. WHEW!

 

We also had school picture day in September. I got a packet in the mail asking me which canned portrait photo package I wanted to buy, the cheapest one staring at $20. HAH. I threw it out. I told Chloe she could dress up at school and as soon as she got home, we went out back and had our own photo shoot. I like mine better. 

 

  

Odell wanted in on the action too. 

 Linus has had fun being Linus in Chloe's absence. Doing all things boy and exploring a world without a bossy older sister making up games for him to play all the time.

 

 Odell misses her sister when she's at school. But she stays occupied being her sweet self and puts up with Mommy when I forget to do her hair in the morning. Also she has new boots. And asks to wear them every day. 

 And lastly, our favorite neighborhood Uncle got called on a mission! Called to the Czech Republic and Slovakia mission (!!!!!).  He's leaving in November, so Craig and I were able to join the family in going to the temple with him for the first time. We were able to be the witness couple during the ceremony, so that was neat. Here you can see my amazing photshop skillz making sure all of us were in the photo in front of the temple. I blame it on Craig, who took the picture of us without him at a different angle than I took of the family without me, making it impossible to photoshop him in naturally. But we all know he's not much of a natural anyway, so the best we could do is this. :-)

And now for something completely different

Tuesday in the house it was hot. Craig reminded me of this several times after dinner and I felt it while I was doing my exercise in the living room in the evening. Shew.
Yesterday I wore a sweatshirt around the house it was so chilly all day and today I wore one until I started putting together a shelf for the girls' room and then when I had two babies and a four year old climbing all over me while I was trying to hammer and screw things together, I finally took it off, but anyway, point being it officially hit below 60 outside and so I guess now I can officially say that our summer is over.
Yellow leaves litter our lawn minutes after Craig mows it, that's a tell-tale sign that Fall is coming. Obviously school has been in full swing for almost a month, I saw my breath when I was running (in the rain) the other morning, and when I went outside to check the mail today I was hit full on in the face with the enchanting smell of autumn. Summer may not be officially over for another week, but it's checked out of the hotel for the year. I DO really love fall, but it's always also mixed with a fair amount of melancholy as summer waves goodbye. Routine. Structure. Regret at everything you had planned on getting done and didn't. But also satisfaction with all the good memories that took their place and the anticipation of all the fun things October, November, and December have to offer.
I realize I didn't blog about half of what we did this summer, and unfortunately I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do, but I did just enjoy the moment a lot more. Living in real life is better than pictures.
We didn't travel a lot except for an amazing trip to Montana for an Ellingson family reunion. Craig's aunt and uncle have a farm near Great Falls- we all camped in the backyard, rode horses, sang songs, spent the day at a mountain lake fishing, boating, and swimming, and made pots! Craig's uncle is an incredible artist and has spent his life teaching and making beautiful works of pottery. He showed us all how to throw a pot from the wheel to the kiln- we made some fun ones and we use them for oatmeal some mornings now just for fun.
Here's a couple of pictures from the trip:

 We had a hoe-down in the barn- the kids had fun dancing and the Ellingson elders had fun singing all the "real" lyrics to "Clementine". That was entertaining.

 Making pots! Uncle A had fun helping the kids make their own pots.

 The girl's and I started a craft club while we were there. Here we are making friendship bracelets. :-)

 Fun at the beautiful lake!!

 I love this girl!

 Thumbs up.

 Linus spent almost two hours out on the lake with Cousin C: thankfully they caught something, I was afraid Linus would get out there and then throw a huge fit if they didn't (he had sort of a hard time the whole trip...well, really the whole summer, but being away from a regular routine and in a new place with lots of things to get into trouble, it was rough). We asked C how he did out there because Linus's attention span gets about 15 min. max, so two hours was a long time to be occupied in a boat. He kind of looked at us and then said, "Well...he asked a lot of questions." Yes, yes he does ask a lot of questions. Guess talking your ear off is better than screaming fits, right?

 

 Yeah, I'm married to that. 

 Paintball wars. They set up a whole getup in the field behind the barn and basically sat behind barricades for about ten minutes at a time, then everyone would get up and run around the field and shoot each other all at once, then come back and reload. Repeated several times.

 Watching him from Uncle A's large authentic WWII German truck in front of the field at a safe distance.

 Playing Nazi soldiers in the car.

 So after you throw a pot, as it is called, on the wheel, then you have to let it sit for a couple of days to dry. When it is done drying, then you paint it, then you let it sit in the kiln for half an hour, then you throw it in a closed container with dry kindling to start a fire, then immediately pull it out and douse it in water. This creates a metallic, oxidized look to the pain on the outside of the pot- it was really cool to go through the whole process.

 Can't have camping without archery. Chloe LOVED it.

 And someone invited the Three Amigos along for the ride.

 It really was a beautiful spot of land and we saw some spectacular sunsets in the evenings.

It was a really fun trip and it was fun to get to meet some of the Ellingson family I haven't interacted with a whole lot. Plus cousins. The kids LOVE playing with their cousins. Linus still tells me all the time that Cousin J is his best friend.
The rest of the summer we spent just gearing up for the start of school. August 8th Linus had surgery on his magical bump!! It was finally time to get rid of what we thought was a cyst above his left eyebrow. Actually, it wasn't really a cyst- it's called a dermoid, about 1 in a 100 kids is born with it, just a pocket of leftover skin cells from when his skull bones were growing together in embryo. And no, they didn't find teeth and hair in there. :-) 
Here is a last shot of the "unicorn" before we went in.

 Doin' good, Mom. Don't bother me, I'm breathing here.

 Also Chloe and I had the opportunity to have a Mommy/Daughter date. My step-dad invited me and Chloe to come to a family excursion to go see Oklahoma at the Central City Opera House in Central City with he and my mom and his sisters during their family reunion. It was so much fun and afterwards Chloe and I went out to eat together and then went shopping at Target for some new school clothes. This was the only shot we got, but we had fun!

 On our last "summer" excursion to Grandma in Denber's house, we spent the day in the pool having fun. Actually, we're hoping we can do one more pool day before September is over, but it keeps getting chillier every day and I'm wondering if that's going to happen. Craig had fun being a goon-bucket, as usual....

And now I'm mostly all caught up.

Slowy Chloe

I've had to use this name a lot with my first born lately.
Her waking up before seminary bright eyed, bushy tailed, and ready for school has slowly come to an end already (did I mention I'm teaching early morning seminary? LOVE IT!). She, like the long line of matriarchs before her, enjoys her sleep. Not even her excitement for school has carried her past a few weeks! Some mornings she comes out and when I've got the other two ready for the day and she's still eating her breakfast, I have to ask Ms. Slowy Choe why she told the real Chloe to go away and how to get her back. Any tips for how to speed a child through morning routines before school in a timely manner without bringing the said Kindergartner to tears before school each time she goes would be appreicated.:-)

But she does LOVE school. Immensely. That's a bit of a relief for me, sometimes Chloe gets apprehensive about things she has not yet experienced and adopts a refusal to participate. I work her through it, but now I have to give the reigns to someone else and that's a little hard sometimes. She has totally surprised me and gone above and beyond what is required of her for schoolwork every day and seems very enthusiastic about learning. I'm really glad we got to spend the year doing at-home preschool together, but I think letting her go out and experience this school thing on her own has been really good for her.
At least while she's at school anyway. I have noticed that since her half time schedule includes two full days of school and one half day, after those full days are over, she's pretty pooped. And since she loves me more than anyone in the whole world, I get to experience her lovely temper tantrums the whole way home some days.
"WHAT?!!! You WALKED today? MOM! I don't wanna walk home!!!"
"Chloe, you were excited to walk to school this morning, why are you upset?"
"I just decided that I hate walking!"- followed by the return of Slowy Chloe with every step home and frequent sniffles and sobs the entire 10 minutes it takes to walk back.
"MOM! MOM! Guess what?!!!"
"What honey?"
"My friend invited me to her birthday party on September 23rd!! Can I go? Please please please?!?!"
"Yes, well....so, Chloe, September 23rd is a Sunday (because we are Mormons, we keep our Sabbath Day as a day of rest and don't do any work or recreation)- what do you think the right thing to do would be?"
Her face falls. "GO TO CHURCH!!!!" she wails, and then cries through the entire three errands I have to run after school that day.

I kind of have to be on my guard when I pick her up from school on the long days, I'm never quite sure which Chloe is going to make her appearance.
BUT, we did get her to learn how to ride her bike with no training wheels on the first try yesterday! She cried the whole way getting on to the bike...until she figured it out very quickly and now can't stay off her bike. She also learned how to tie her shoes the first time

However, all is not tears and wails. Despite my hectic schedule this year, I've been able to sneak away for an hour each week (thanks to my Mother in law for watching the kids!) to help volunteer in her classroom and we LOVE it. I get to walk to school with her, just Chloe and me, and spend some time helping her teacher (whom we also LOVE) and then help manage a station for literacy groups. I also get to watch her learn more words that we haven't got to yet (she knows about maybe 10 star words and is learning more each week).
She's been very helpful with some of our diet changes in choosing healthy things to eat and never complains at our dinner selection. In fact some nights she's the only one to tell me she loved what we had. :-) We talked about our bodies and where our food goes (and also where it comes out- hard to keep a straight face while talking about that scientifically with a five year old and a four year old) and how some foods we eat help us to be happy and have lots of energy and other foods, while they are good to eat sometimes, make us tired and lazy if we eat it all the time and then we have no energy to do things like run and jump and ride bikes.
She LOVES to help me "babysit" when I have to do quick things outside of the house like take the trash out or check the mail- she happily volunteers to play with the babies (I watch two babies during the day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and/or with Odell and by my five minute babysitter. She's actually very helpful with this and I should start hiring her for longer while I'm working on things in the house because she knows how to entertain them better than I can. :-)
All in all she, as always, has been one of my best friends. She reminds me so much of myself sometimes it's scary, but also reminds me that there is a reason we were put together as mother and daughter on this earth and I look forward to the friendship we'll share as we get older. And as far as that goes, Slowy Chloe can stick around as long as she likes as long as it means she stays little forever. :-)

Beached Whale

Hey there-
I know I'm supposed to blog about Chloe next, but she's starting school on Friday and I wanted to wait until I could get some first day of school pics. That's my excuse.
And I have a few other summer events to discuss, but we'll get to that later.
But first, I wanted to show you this picture. 

No, let's make it bigger, get the full effect.

 

I'm so....*sigh*....SO glad I gave the camera to my sister to take this picture of me in Hawaii. Please lather the previous sentence with a heavy heaping of sarcasm. I'm not sure what I was going for in this shot. Maybe this?

Shoulda just stuck some posts in the sand and roped me off so tourists could come take pictures.
Now I have a story to tell. Once upon a time, I went to Hawaii. On that trip, my brother and sister decided to take a 13 mile hike to a secluded beach on Kauai, and my mom and I decided not to go, but instead, the day after they left, we went on the first part of the trail to a waterfall about four miles from the trail head. I made it up there no problem. The waterfall was beautiful (as pictured in this post HERE). The way back was a different story. Halfway back I ran out of water and as we started an uphill climb in the hot Hawaiin sun, I started to die, basically. A slow, agonizingly difficult death. I stopped. A lot. My mother, who is a little less than twice my age, was patient and pretended that she had to pause after a particularly difficult stretch a few times to take pictures of the same view she took pictures of 20 yards down because this point was better. She let me have some of her water. She made friends with the tourists hiking by while I gasped and trudged slowly behind her, not bothering to haste and catch up because surely she would know by now that there were precious moments left of my life, no rush hurrying them. But soon a miracle happened, the trail became shaded again and started a quick descent back to the parking lot and I made it home without my mother having to bury me in the sand and push on alone.
We made it back to the condo, I drank some water, then took a filthy two hour nap on the nice white feather comforter on my bed without showering. I barely had the energy to take off my shoes before I hit the pillow. That evening my brother and sister made it home in one piece and we all went out to dinner to celebrate our triumphant returns, mine the most triumphant of all of, course, because let's face it, I almost died. No, really. Dead. I bravely recounted how I slipped a few times on the steep rocks coming down from the waterfall and how when the sun hit and the water ran out, the temperature increased about ten thousand degrees and I bravely placed one foot in front of the other until we made it home and hey, it was no big deal, in fact, it was easy even though, you know, death was a knocking.
Later, while I was talking to my sister, I admitted, as sisters do with one another, how hard it was for me to finish that hike. I paused and turned to her and said, "I'm 26...", realizing for a moment that I am by no means too old to handle such exertion. Instead of consoling me, she nodded solemnly and replied, "The prime of life!". The prime of life. I was envious of her and Addison's trip down the Kalalau trail, because I would have LOVED to go camping with them out on a remote beach in Hawaii, and the only reason I said no was because I knew I was in no physical shape to go. And I should be.
Fast forward to today. It's taken quite a bit of work and consistency and failed attempts, but I am turning over a new leaf in life. And I am enjoying it thoroughly. I hesitate to post this yet, because I was going to wait until I meet my weight goal completely before I talk about this, but since it's become such a big part of my daily life (because really it's been a life changing decision, somehow I thought it wouldn't work that way, but of course it had to be) and I love hearing others' stories and successes, I decided to share some of my progress.

(Sorry for the weird smile) I tried to wear the same clothes, and this is (obviously) just from my phone, but there's some improvement there. 20 lbs of improvement, actually. 50lbs is my goal, and I'm still rolling, but I feel much better, much stronger, and TONS more energy. At the beginning of the summer I was starting to worry that something was wrong with me because I felt like I had to take a nap every afternoon. I don't feel that way anymore. I can take care of things around the house without feeling like I ran a marathon at the end of the day. And I enjoy dressing myself in the morning, that's a big thing for me. Before I hated just about every piece of clothing I had, but my wardrobe and me are friends again. 

Some things that are helping me: 

• My Fitness Pal app on my phone: I can track my calories every day and add in the exercise I've done as well. 
• Track-o-meter from runningmap.com (another app): I start it when I start my run and it tells me how far I've gone and how long it took me to do it. I can also see a map tracking where it was that I ran in case I forget. :-) 
• My stationary bike from Schwinn. LOVE it. Also tells me how far I biked, how long it took me to do it, at what average speed, and how many calories I burned. 
• My brand new Mizuno running shoes. I was in denial about getting a new pair of shoes, but it makes SUCH a difference, and in the end I decided a new pair of shoes was less money than paying for an injury. 
• My dearest friend Alli Howe for being an inspiration to me and showing me that eating healthy really does make a difference. Check out her blog here, we are making all kinds of changes as a family and this has totally helped spur some ideas for adjusting a piece at a time in getting out of the "crap trap". Don't Panic Mom!

My easy-going schedule is pretty much going to flop on itself next week as I start teaching seminary (YIKES!), Chloe starts school, and we welcome two adorable babies into our home to help out some working mom friends. I have a tentative schedule for workouts and running, and I'm hoping it will work out, but I supposed we shall see how it all goes.
Anyway, I have some hungry kids here waiting patiently for a snack, so I better get going. I'd love to hear tips and stories from anyone who wants to share!