Life with 4 kids.

Well I am still here, and still kickin'. (on the days when I have enough energy to kick... heh heh). Everyday I feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants. No plan, no organization, nothin'. Just pure instinctual survival. Outlive, Outlast...what's that Survivor motto?

I've also been itching for a new project. My right side of the brain has been feeling neglected lately, and I've needed a creative outlet. What to do, what to do. My good friend Amie gave me the idea of keeping a blog 365 days of the year. Each day I take a picture and blog about it. I started that, and I'm finding that I'm enjoying it quite a bit. It has been fun getting my "photography" self out again, and actually "thinking" about my photo's. If you're wondering where this blog is, here's the link:

http://www.onesmallglimpse.blogspot.com/

I have listed it in my blog's on the side of THIS blog too if ya want to check it out. I am finding it a nice outlet for journaling and photography. Nice.

Well this month has been pretty eventful. Not only have I tried to balance 4 kids, I'm trying to find my sanity as I am by myself for 2 weeks while Chance is gone hunting. Baaaaaaah! It's been interesting to say the least. Here are some photo's of our month.

Here's a picture of what I do best ... and that is to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Is that considered some sort of talent? I sure think it is. I mean, who else can fall asleep in 5 seconds flat?

Here's another one of me holding my little boy - I have to apologize for the blur - I mess with the settings on our camera all the time, and as a result - Chance doesn't know how to change them back. I turned the flash off for some reason. Anywho, that's why it's blurry. I had to laugh at Gage because he was looking at me and his face seemed to say, "who is this crazy woman holding me? Is she REALLY my Mom?"

Now this is the other end of the spectrum. Chance gets all the smiles and giggles. Well not really giggles yet, but all the smiles are his. This next picture just melted me. I love the fact that Chance's face has just as big of a smile on it as Gages does. My cute boys.

After I took that last picture, Grace wanted in on the action, so I handed her my camera, she pointed it at Chance, and this is the picture that she got. Lovely.

Ahh little miss Morgan. She started first grade this month, and she has absolutely LOVED it. Her teacher is very nice, her name is Mrs. Hagen, and her very good friend, Breauna, is in her class. This is her picture on her very first day.

One night after putting Grace to bed, she came running downstairs saying, "rainbow Dad!" So Chance looks out the window and says, "Lets go see!" This rainbow was huge, and right over our house. This picture really doesn't do it justice, but pictures never do.

This is the only action our treadmill has seen recently, sad but true. Grace was just entranced with her cartoon watching this day. Her favorite thing to do is climb up here, and balance for a second, and then climb down. She just kinda got stuck up there one day. Crazy girl.

I felt ambitious yesterday (now today was a completely DIFFERENT story...you can read about it in my other blog listed above) and took the 3 youngest kids to the park after dropping Morgan off to school. It was BEAUTIFUL weather, and it was a lot of fun for all of us. Gage did great, and it felt nice to get out and get fresh air. Here's cute Grace gallivanting around the bigtoy.

Right after having Gage our cute neighbor girl volunteered to babysit for me 2 times for free. Her name is Elizabeth, and my kids absolutely LOVE her. This is the day that she came to OUR house for a few hours and just played with the kids while I got stuff done. Elizabeth, we sure appreciate and love you! And P.S. - Crede's silly face is pretty impressive dont' you think?

Here is my cute little boy playing at the park. I am not sure that I'm biased - I really doubt that I am, but Crede is the CUTEST little boy around. Oh wait - I'll now have to say that he is the cutest TWO YEAR OLD around. Love you little boy.

Now for the cutest NEWBORN boy around... Gage. He went to church for the first time this last Sunday, and he looked sharp if I do say so myself. I had to take his picture right before. Too cute.


Well that sums up my month for the most part - We're just barely gettin' by and loving every minute of it.

Morgan's first day of 1st Grade

Here's my big Morgan starting her first day of 1st Grade. This is a picture of Alaina, Morgan and Mason. They have been friends since they were born. I love that Morgan has good friends to spend time with. I hope that they stay friends their whole lives. Cute kids.

Aaaand here's Morgan waiting patiently in line for school to begin. What a cute girl we have.

Randomness

I find myself thinking about blogging quite often. What can I ramble on about that people will actually care to read? What can I say that is of huge importance? My answer to both of these questions is...... not a whole heck of a lot. Is that going to stop me? I'm sorry to say, it's not.

Let us......**deep breath**.......BEGIN.

Last night I was so excited to see that the "MATRIX REVOLUTION" movie was on TV. When I watched the first "Matrix" movie, I was in awe at how "cool" it was. I talked about that movie to everyone and anyone that would listen. Well as I tried to better myself, I banned all rated "R" movies from my life. It was pretty crappy at first, as the "Matrix" #2 and #3 came out. Did I give in to temptation? I am proud to say....yep! No just kidding....I didn't. Well last night I thought "Wah hoo. Now I FINALLY get to watch this Matrix sequel."

Hmmmm....lets just say, Keanu Reaves really should be called Keanooooooooooooo! My favorite line in that movie? Let's set the scene. Keanooooooo (oops I mean Neo.....or NOOOOOO for you non-fans) just battled Mr Smith in his ship just before Him and Trinity took off to battle those darn machines when he was horrifically blinded. Okay first off....both his eyes were magically scabbed over right off the bat and....wait! He could still see Mr Smith! Oh hooray. So he pummels Mr Smith in the head, finds Trinity again and you know what his line was? You know what it was? "You're going to have to drive." Yes folks......***shaking head***......"You're going to have to drive." But you have to say it like Keanooooo. Very breathy and you need to think "duhhhhh" as you say it.

The ending of that show bothered me as well. I won't go into THAT as it might be a tad long. But thinking of crappy lines, I got to thinking of the book "Angels and Demons". Anyone read that? You'll have to forgive me because it's been so long since I've read it, but the main character and his woman sidekick are trying to get into a secured room when they look down and see an eyeball. Yes, **gasp** a human eyeball that had been cut out of someones head. Guess what the next line was. Something like "she would recognize that color of hazel anywhere." COME ON!!!

Okay that will now end my rant. I was just bothered that I invested my time and attention to that lovely movie last night. Aw well. I will now know not to watch the other Matrix movie that I haven't seen yet. I will stand by my first statement though - the first Matrix movie is still cool.


What else.....



So my mind has been wandering lately. Maybe it's sleep deprivation, maybe it's just that I have a busy head. Regardless of the reason, as I drag my tired behind through my day I think of things that I used to take for granted. Things like.....


1. a skinny "pre-marriage, pre-children, high school" body.


We read a book in our book club that is called "I feel bad about my neck". The author says that if she would have realized at age 20 what her body would look like at age 40, she would have worn a bikini every day of her life. **sigh** I'm not 40 yet, but I long for the days of tight abs and being able to jog without feeling my body behind me struggling to keep up!


2. driving.


When I first got my license I thought to myself, "man, I am NEVER going to get tired of driving a car." The windows down, the music loud, my long, silky hair blowing in the wind... oh wait - I didn't have long hair. Scratch that last one. My car was my pride. It was clean. It was a 1986 Toyota Corolla stick shift. Maroon. Aaahh the memories. What happened you ask? 15 years, and 4 kids later.....driving stinks! I have 4, yes 4 carseats in my car. It takes military precision to get all 4 kids in the car at once, making sure that one of them is not running AROUND the car instead of jumping inside it. Sometimes in the grocery store parking lot I am aware of stares around me. I can hear their brains thinking, "man, that is a lot of kids."


Let's progress to the actual act of driving. On a single trip I can guarantee either: a) a total meltdown from ONE or MORE of the children, or b) a total meltdown from me. What triggers these said meltdowns you ask? Well Grace will lose a flip flop. I will then hear, "Mom, my flip flop fell off!" I will then begin to repeat over and over and over again, "Grace we'll get it when we get there." Does that help? The ear piercing scream in the backseat says no. Crede will drop his matchbox car and the same scenario will begin. I really would like to get a partition installed in my Explorer...you know...like limo drivers have. I can just roll up the partition and....**ahh** total silence. The only evidence that there is a problem in the back? Their beat red faces screaming at the top of their lungs. I can then turn my "cool" music loud, roll my window down and let my long silky hair blow in the wind....er...my mid-length, color damaged, gray tinged hair blow in the wind.


3. fashion.

When did happen that I can't figure out how to dress? Could it be that I've turned into a bargain betty? Is it because I don't just go to the mall to "walk around" anymore? Is it because I do 90% of my shopping online now?

Here's my fear. Okay all you early 1990 fans out there, do you remember those sunglasses that were "cool" around this time? They were black, a soft plastic, and the ear stems were any shade of fluorescent. If you were lucky one stem would be...say...pink, and the other side would be green. NICE. Don't forget the all-important "fanny pack" either. Now. Will I be one of "those" that sports the fluorescent sunglasses and fanny pack at age 65 thinking this is a "good choice"?

Well that's about it for the moment. I will now try to enjoy the times in life that I am taking for granted. My little kids with easy problems to fix (usually with a band-aid and a kiss), my comfy home that's not huge but fits my family just right, and all of my family's health to name a few. We'll catch ya' again soon.

Hospitals are so much FUN!

Here are some photo's of my little kiddo's at the hospital last night. I don't know what I was thinking, but somehow in my head the visit went a whole lot "smoother" than it did in real life.

Here is how it went in my head:

me: "Kids! I am so happy to see you! Come in and sit right here. That's right....sit right there. Good! Now here's your new brother!"

At this time, I'd let each child hold him verrrrry carefully. I would listen to how much they all missed me, and we would all talk in soothing, calming voices. My kids would then all say:

Kids: "Mom, we Loooooove him!"

During this time Gage is calm as can be, I am skinny as can be, and we're all a happy, smiling family.

Hmmm.....so this is how it REALLY went. My kids RUN into the room, forgetting to put on the hand sanitizer (which they had to walk back out and put on immediately), they handed me some treats in a Smiths bag, a balloon and then proceeded to hunt around the room for their new little brother. Grace was climbing up the side of the bassinet, Crede was running around the room laughing, and Morgan was knocking on the clear plastic of the bassinet like Gage was a little fish.

My kids were bouncing off the walls, touching all the fun buttons, and I think they called the nurse in about 4 different times. There were shoes thrown everywhere on the floor, Grace wanted to go "potty" constantly because it was so cool looking, and Morgan kept "suggesting" baby names for us. She apparently really likes the names Marcos, Carlos, I think she even suggested Willie.

I am pretty sure that my neighbors in the rooms next door were thinking, "holy cow what is all that racket?!"

So by the time my family left, I was left pondering what the heck I am doing?!!!!! Am I really going to be able to handle these little people all at once? I hope that by the time I get home I will be able to handle my kids a little better than I did yesterday. **sigh**

On the plus side, Our baby now officially has a name. He is now named Gage Chance Bailey. Yay for having a name!! He was born July 28, 2009 and weighed in at 7lbs even. He was 20 1/2 inches long, and he's just the cutest newborn out there, frankly. :)


Here's Morgan holding Gage. She is the ONLY one that got to hold him, by the way.


Grace just wanted to jump on the couch thing. I can't get over how much she's aged in this picture. She looks like a 6 year old. Pretty little girl.

Aaaand here's Crede caught in a moment as he was running around laughing. Little Stink.

This is my verrry cute husband. I really think that he is so dang handsome. Woot Woo! Love you Chance!

Alrighty then. We'll catch up with you again soon. Enjoy your day, and keep us in your thoughts...hopefully then we'll be okay inside our house of craziness.

Our new little BOY!

Here he is. Our loooonnnng awaited little baby BOY. Oh man he's cute. He looks EXACTLY like Grace did when she was born. My labor didn't go as easily as Crede's, but I can't complain because I have a healthy baby and I didn't have to have any emergency procedures. YAY! Here are his very first debut pictures.

I'm going to try to take some fun ones tonight. My other 3 cuties will be joining me at the hospital to see their new baby brother. They weren't able to come to the hospital last night because...oh lets see.... 3 nights ago Morgan AND Grace woke up puking all OVER the place. It lasted 24 hours, and I didn't want any of those fun germs making their way to me or the baby. They've been better for a little while now so they'll be able to come visit.

This little blog entry is going to be super short because my eyelids want to do nothing but close. I am very sleepy so I will try to rest a bit before heading home to my house of havoc. OH and I will keep you posted on our name. He doesn't officially have one yet. To be continued...........

At least it's blue....

I know, I know...I'm supposed to be "done" blogging until our bundle of joy arrives. Too bad Crede decided to play dress-ups with the girls this afternoon. He's played before, just not to this degree. Oh well - at least the dress he chose was a blue one. Crede, this is what you get when you live in a house-full of girls.



P.S. - only 4 more days!

Our final update...

Well this will officially be my final update before our new "arrival" in a little over 2 weeks. CRAZY!! This post will have a LOT of pictures, but that's what you get when you have a busy month with lots of fun things to talk about. So sit tight, and get that visine out. It's a long one.

Alrighty then. Let's begin.


ME


First a disclaimer: My basement family room was in DESPERATE need of a face lift. We haven't TOUCHED this room since moving into our house 7 years ago, so that should tell you a little story. Our furniture down there was all given to us, and was put into VERY good use, but alas, that furniture needed to be updated BADLY. It all began with a couch: we bought one. I couldn't let that new couch be put into a room that wasn't updated as well, so our remodeling began. Here are some BEFORE and AFTER pictures.


Notice the beautiful wallpaper border (mother-of-pearl colored even!) around the top.


aaaaand the after picture. FYI...I am going to re-finish that entertainment center and paint it black. It'll look a LOT better.

Yep...it just keeps on getting better. No need to elaborate.

and the after.

That scrapbooking table is now outta there, along with my HUGE collection of supplies. That made a big difference.

And after.

So that was my big project this last month, and let me just say I am SOOOOOO glad that it's done. I do need to find things to decorate with, but that can come a little at a time. Whew! My pregnant self will not be taking on any other projects for awhile now.

Lets see....anything else? Well we went on 2 camping trips in the last 2 weeks, but I'll talk about THOSE down further. Hmmm. Our baby will most likely arrive the week of July 28th (yay!) and I am pretty much terrified at this point. Yes...terrified. I am happy to finally get my body back to myself, and I am happy that I will finally be able to bend over to pick something up, and I am happy to have a lap where my kids can sit, but I am scared that I have no idea what I am doing! You'd think that feeling would go away with child #4. Maybe it does for some - but for me, not so much.

Oooooh, I did forget one thing to mention. I fell yet again. I know, I know...

You want to know what happened? Pretty much the EXACT same thing as before - I was carrying Crede, I tripped, and I fell, and I dropped Crede. During my fall, I hear Morgan in the background yelling, "Mom! You're doing it AGAIN!" This time it wasn't in the church parking lot though - it was in the parking lot at Tinsletown movie theatre's in Layton. Oh joy. My legs are all bruised, scratched up, and gross looking now - (not to mention swelled up to the size of tree-trunks, thank you water-retention) but Crede is okay, and that is all that matters. I dropped him right on the back of his head, poor kid! He had a little scab and goose egg, but that's about it. He still loves his Mom, and if HE can forgive me, I suppose that is all I need.

Alright let's move on to Chance.

CHANCE

Does the song from West side Story come to mind? I feel pretty, oh so pretty.........

Chance is the BEST Dad ever. He let Morgan go to town on his hair one day. She obviously put a lot of thought into her motif. Verrrrry nice.

THIS picture was taken during our camping trip #1 up to Idaho. These meadow's were COVERED in flowers because of all the rain up there. The pictures really don't do it justice. Chance is on the 4-wheeler on the left, Morgan and her cousin Aspen are in the middle, and Chance's sister Token is on the 4-wheeler on the right.

As a little side-note, our camping trips seem to always have some sort of calamity associated with them, so when we go on trips, we make sure to pray extra hard about our Truck running well, etc. THIS trip we were pulling our camping trailer AND a 3rd trailer behind that with our 4-wheelers loaded on. It was a heavy load. Well on the way home, in Roy, we went to stop at a red light, and our brakes totally gave out. We honked our way through the intersection, and luckily, didn't hit anyone. Afterwards Chance and I were talking, and we KNOW that we were watched over that day. Those brakes could have given out in Logan canyon, Sardine canyon, anywhere else...and it would have been a HUGELY worse situation. I know our prayers were heard and answered that day. We were shown that our brakes needed to be fixed, but in a way that our family was not put in harms way. Anyway...

Here's our 2nd camping trip, up to Heber Reservoir. Every year we have a camping trip planned with 4 other families/friends of ours and it ends up being so much fun. This first picture is what Chance always ends up doing when he's around water with his "guys". That is play football...well sorta. chance is on the small tube on the right.

Now THIS camping trip I know we were being watched over because of the fact that our campsite was RIGHT next to the water, and it was a pretty big drop-off into that water. Crede and Grace ALWAYS wanted to go play in it, and as a parent, I was TOTALLY freaked out that they would fall in and drown. The last day we were at camp, Chance glanced over and sees Crede walking back towards camp from the water. By himself. Chance is thinking..."wait a minute, was he just down there by himself?" Well as Crede walks by I notice his socks are all wet. I am just glad that he didn't fall completely in, and I am reaaalllly trying not to think of "what if". I just know that my little family is watched over more than I realize.

Chance is also such an important part of our family. He makes sure that our family is taken care of at all times, and he balances my OCD behavior out quite nicely. He is an AWESOME Dad as well. Love you Chance!

Now heeeeere's MORGAN:

Morgan is my Queen Crafter. If she thinks of something to make, she'll grab the paper, scissors, glue stick, and anything else she can think of to make this said item. This day she wanted to make a mask. She did it completely by herself, got some string to go around back and stapled it to the front. Pretty good for a 6 year old, 'eh? (P.S. - she even got the eye-holes in the right spot! Genius!)

Here are Morgan and Grace doing what they love. No, not play together, but ride bikes. This day they happened to be getting along really well and so Morgan volunteered to drive Grace around. They had a blast. oh, and another thing - their helmets were put on the minute this picture was taken (for all you concerned parents out there.)

Before school was officially out, Morgan received the "Principal Award" at her school. Their teacher was able to pick one boy and one girl from that class who did really well throughout the year and Morgan was picked. **sniff** yeah - just a chip off the ol' block. This was her receiving the award. Cute cute.

The last day of school Morgan had a little "graduation" ceremony in her Kindergarten class. Pretty much it was them singing a couple of songs and a slideshow of their year. Here's Morgan with her teacher, Mrs. Johnson. We really enjoyed her as a teacher.

The official start of summer has lead Morgan into an entraprenuer-type of attitude. Her items to sell? Rocks. Not just any rocks I might add...these are premium, one of a kind, unpolished garden rocks. See that sign behind Morgan? It says, "Rocks for Sale: 100 dollars." Yep she should be raking in the dough by now.

Morgan also had her final ballet recital. Her class danced as "Bryce Canyon". Pretty much their dance lasted about 30 seconds, but Morgan had a BLAST performing. Here's our little Morgan the night of her performance.

Here's the video I was "legal" to take during their dress rehersal. Morgan is on the far left of the stage the whole time, and she's the shortest one in her class - so you should be able to keep track of where she's at.



OK. Now on our first camping trip, we brought up Morgan's 4-wheeler. She had a blast riding around on it. This picture was too cute because the flowers came up to the top of her 4-wheeler. Aspen is riding on the back. What you DON'T know is right after this picture was taken, WE were overtaken by mosquito's. I'm not talkin' 20 or so, I'm talkin' HUNDREDS of blood-thirsty mosquito's. I was riding around like a mad-woman trying to shake them. I'd look down and there'd be another 50 on my leg. (I'm not that much of a nature-lover as you can tell, and bugs don't sit well with me.) Grrrrooooosssssssss! Anywho, this was a pretty cool picture.


Now for camping trip #2. This was up in Heber, and Morgan had a BLAST playing in the water. Here is Morgan, Samantha and Grace sitting on our big innertube that we brought.

Morgan is growing up to be such a fun big girl. She had so much fun on this camping trip. She hung out with all her girlfriends and they made up dance routines and talked about boys, and painted their fingernails and toenails. (Crede even got in on the fingernail polish action). They hunted for "crystals" and "fairy wings" and it made me wish I was little once again. We love you Morgan

GRACE?!?!

what about Grace?

Now who got ahold of my camera and started shooting photo's? Not Grace....nosireee.... wait a minute, who's toes are those? Hmm....they look like....GRACE!! That little booger.

Grace has basically been up to her mischevious ways, as always. She is just so stinkin' cute, but she is veeeeeerry.................. creative. We'll just leave it at that.

Here is Grace on our 2nd camping trip to Heber. I don't even need to say anything about these next 2.

aaaand the close-up:

Here is Grace chowing down on her otter pop, keeping Morgan company with her rock-selling business. She's JUST figuring out how to eat the elusive otter pop. She either turns it upside down and then can't figure out why she's turning blue, or she'll just sit and bite the wrapper and get ticked off. She's catching on though.

Grace in our backyard after the ENTIRE day of swimming. Oh how I love tired kids after a full day in the sun. **sigh**

Grace, we love you little girl. We're so happy that you've had a fun summer and I'm so glad to have you in our family and we love you very very much.

CREDER:

Oh crud - I forgot to turn this photo the right way before uploading it. I love blogging and all, but don't you hate the fact that if you are waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down on a post it is a PAIN IN THE BEHIND to add a photo? Ooooookay. so just PRETEND that this picture is turned the right way, alrighty?

On our trip to Heber, Crede's favorite thing to do was to find food. Didn't matter if it was ours - if it was left out on the table, Crede found it and finished it for you. Here, he's finishing off a capri sun. (not ours). It was a joy when he figured out that coolers contained all sorts of goodies, and that he was able to open these coolers. Little bugger.

Here's our little boy playing in the sand. He looooooves rocks, so this kept him busy for HOURS.

Yep, this is our little boy after a FULL day in the sun out in the backyard. That car he's holding? That is his "lellow" car (even though we correct him everytime to let him know it's blue.) This car is his alltime favorite, and he carries it around EVERYWHERE he goes. Cute kid.

Crede has had a fun summer (as you can see) and is talking sooooooooo well these days. He's the cutest little boy around, and I'm just so proud that he's mine. Love you little boy.

Well that's our family in the last month. Whew! I'm just tired reading about it. We've had a fun time, and I'm so glad that we've had the opportunity to do all the fun things we've done. We'll update again just as soon as this baby comes, and just as soon as my "cankles" subside.