Prairie Mama

Today, Jeremy came home and he and the kids went crab fishing.  Seth and Amelia (I’m using real names now…I was getting too confused!) had set up blankets on the floor to be the land, and everything else was the water.  So, of course, what do you do the second you walk in the door from work?  Roll up your pants and go fishing for crabs (with your crab poles of course) to have a crab fest!  I love that man, he rocks.

Seth has been very concerned lately about who he is going to marry.  Here is a conversation that we had the other day -
Seth: Mom, when I grow up, I want to marry you.
Me: (thinking, OH! I love this boy!) Baby, you can’t marry me, I’m already married to Daddy.
Seth: Then, I’ll marry Libby (L).
Me:  But sweetie, she’s your sister, just like Amelia.  You can’t marry your sister, remember?
Seth:  But WHO will I marry???
Me:  I don’t know, but I bet she’ll be pretty great
Seth: Oh, ok.

He is cracking me up!  Today he came into the kitchen and said, “Mom, when I’m a Dad, if my Wife has 74 kids, I will have to take care of all of them.”  I replied, “yes, you will”.  Jeremy quickly jumped in and said, “74 kids is a lot!”.  Seth then said, “I’ll have as many as Uncle Chip then (he has 8).”.  He wants lots of kids, so he can play with them all day.  The boy never ceases to make me laugh!

Oh, and what’s a day without some baby love?  Here is Miss Libby yesterday, she is just SO stinking CUTE!

This is just a part of why I am so very lucky.  Photos from the last few days tell it all.

Yes, I am very lucky, very lucky indeed.

I’m starting something new.  Every Sunday, I will post 7 things I am grateful for, one for each day of the week.  Sometimes it will be words, sometimes pictures, but always things I am grateful for.  Join me, won’t you?

1. Tomatoes that are finally ripening on the vine and the promise of homemade tomato sauce.

2. Healthy children — L failed her hearing test and had to go to the ENT this week.  It was confirmed that she doesn’t have hearing loss, just fluid behind her little ear drum.  Thank heavens.

3. A husband that willingly cooks, cleans, changes diapers, plays with the kids, and doesn’t complain about it.  I am so lucky.

4. Going to the apple orchard with my family and watching my children’s excitement.  Then, making applesauce with them and watching them eat it right out of the bowl as we’re grinding it.  No sugar needed, they’re sweet enough already!

5. Going to General Relief Society Meeting last night.  My well was filled.

6. Knitting matching slippers for my girls.

7. The quiet of my home this morning.  J and the two older kids are at church, and L and I are just snuggling as I read blogs.  It’s a nice morning.

What are you grateful for?

Yesterday, we went to Paradise, UT to pick apples!  It was such a beautiful day, the kids had a ton of fun, and we came away with 2 bushels of apples, and 5 pumpkins!  I have a lot of pictures from this adventure, so please, enjoy this slide show!

After picking apples, we went home, had some YUMMY Veggie Lasagna (thanks Mom!) and had family game night.  S got to pick the game, so UNO it was.  It is his new favorite.  My favorite part is that he lays all of his cards down in front of him, that way I can help him (I always help, J likes to use this to his advantage though and cheats a little…bad Daddy!)   We played 3 times, I won, J won, and S won.

On Friday, I made some pumpkin chocolate chip bread.  The kids were so excited, because I made them each their own little loaf.  I knew I’d have enough batter to do it and hey, who doesn’t want to be the cool Mom?  So…they had fun devouring their breads, but not before I could get a few photos of them.

They loved it and had fun eating it.

Now for the baby…she is SO sweet and SO much fun.  She had her 2 week appointment this week and is doing great.  Not quite back at her birthweight yet, but she was only a few ounces short, so we’re not worrying about it.  Emma was like that too.  She reminds me a lot of Em, that scares me a little, but at the same time, it is so fun.  Here are some cutie photos of my baby!

In this picture, A is pretending to be Monster from the book No Such Thing.  This is a great book about a boy and a monster who live in the same room.  Both of their Moms tell them there is no such thing as the other, and then they find out differently.  A really cute book, great for Halloween, or maybe for that child who is afraid of going to bed because of Monster’s under the bed!

Tonight L and I are going to our Church’s Women’s Meeting.  Every 6 months we have General Conference, and the weekend before, is a special meeting for the women.  I am really excited to go and be edified.

Oh, and as far as that 2 bushels of apples?  I’m making applesauce…with a 4, 2 and 2 week old baby.  It will be fun!  I just need to find more quart (or pint) jars.  Anyone have some they want to get rid of?

I have really been touched this week by reading about Nie Nie.  I am sure that many of you know about her, but if you don’t, go to her site and her sister’s site, and learn more about her.  She not only is a Mother, but really enjoys it.  After spending most of my day yesterday, snuggling my baby, playing with my older babies, and reading her blog…I have decided that i really need to turn over a new leaf.  I need to be better.  If something happened to me, what would my children remember?  Would they remember the Mom that played with them, laughed with them, and was kind?  Or would they remember the Mom that yelled, and was mean?  I really don’t want them to remember the latter…so I am changing how I do things around here.

I am not going to spend as much time on the computer, more time with my babies.  I am going to play more, go on more nature walks, do more with my children that allow them to be just that, children.  Take slower walks where we can stop and look at everything in our path, sing more silly songs, make up more silly games, and just play a lot more.

Here are some pictures from this last week.  Yeah, there are a lot of them…but hey, I love my kiddos and we’ve had fun this week!  Oh, the picture of the doll?  That’s A’s new DeeDee doll.  I made her from the pattern for Kit found at Wee Wonderfuls.  Excellent pattern, fun to do and didn’t take me too terribly long

L’s first outing…to the Market of course!  4 days old

Sunbathing…the best way to help that Jaundice along.

Playing soccer with Meemaw…S was SO excited to play with his Meems and had SO much fun!

Nicole asked where to find the video that I showed the trailer for.  It will be released in early 2009, but you can get more information about it here or here.

I have done lots of knitting and baby loving lately…I’ll have pictures soon, promise!