This is what happens when you have a little girl as the oldest child in a family of boys. My three little boys decided they wanted a "tea party" yesterday. I dunno how many little boys want to play tea party, but I know mine do. I buttered the bread for them and opened the pudding but they got out everything and arranged everything else on their own. Quite a selection, I thought. Grapes, fruit snacks, pudding, licorice, popsicles, water for their "tea," and bread with butter. It's amazing what these kids come up with.

I just have a couple of really cute quotes from my kids that I need to post so I don't forget them. Yesterday after the Homecoming parade, we are all walking down the school hallway back to Scott's classroom. "Did you guys have fun?" I ask. "It was the best day of my whole life!!" shouts Zachie. Say what you will about my kids, they know how to be enthusiastic. From Erin: "Ya, it was fun. Was it better than going down to Texas to visit Mema? No." She's not quite 8 and cracking jokes with this dry sense of humor that got Scott and me both laughing all the way down the hall.

Ok, last quote. This is from Wally, my little 3-year-old. Friday afternoon he comes tromping up the stairs. "Mom," he says to me, "I'm all done with my show." He has been watching Land Before Time #15 or so. Here he arrives at the top of the stairs and leans on the banister. "And it was" pause "beautiful." How I love this little guy. His whole personality is beautiful. I am so lucky to be a mom.

Wally, Richie, and I always walk outside and sit on the front porch steps as Erin and Zach get on the bus every morning and drive away. The bus stop is only about a half a block away and a straight shot from our house. They love screaming "BYE!!!" at the top of their lungs. The mean mom that I am, I don't allow them to full out scream very often without getting in trouble. So this morning we went out to watch the older two run to the bus. Zach, however, got distracted about halfway there. We watched him discover this giant branch at least twice the size he is, and he promptly went over, picked it up, and began carrying it to the bus stop. I yell across the road, "Zachie! Zachie!!!" He finally looks over and I make big arm movements. "Put that stick down!!" He doesn't. Next, I can hear Erin yelling at him from the bus stop to put the stick down and run to catch the bus. Then Wally and Richie join in. After all, it is their favorite activity. Richie keeps screaming, "DOWN! DOWN!" Wally is yelling at Zach to put the stick down over and over. They continue even after he throws it down and runs to the bus stop. I start to think about how we look as a family out there screaming in the early morning hours and finally start to get embarrassed. My kids are growing up exactly like me.

Last night just as I was falling asleep to "Numbers," which Scott and I were watching together downstairs, I hear crying. It was the beginning of the end. What a long night. My poor little Wally had thrown up all over himself and his bed, also waking up Richie in the process. Zach slept the whole night like a log. Lucky kid. So Scott took Richie downstairs as I proceeded to put Wally in the bathtub, begin stripping his bed and putting everything -- comforter, pillow, etc. into the laundry room for washing the next day. Then I bathed him and put new sheets and blankets on his bed and put him back to bed. About an hour later, the door opens to our room and a crying Wally has thrown up again. At least this time it is significantly less in quantity as his stomach empties. Poor little guy. This time I just do a modified clean-up, wiping up his throw-up with rags and putting towels over the wet spots so he can lay back down. I changed his clothes and just washed his arms, legs, and face from the sink instead of in the tub, but he did not want to go back to bed. He wants to come to bed with me, which I just cannot do. Scott is exhausted and I didn't want to keep him up, but more than that, I do not want my room smelling like throw-up if he happens to vomit again. Ugh. So I took him downstairs and rocked him for half hour or so until he threw up again in my prepared bucket. I was ready, but it still got on the blanket I had wrapped around him and on my shirt, which I just added to my growing laundry pile. Then I moved him to lay on the couch, because it is just so uncomfortable trying to rock in a chair with my wiggly 3-year-old while I am 35 weeks pregnant. Then I went upstairs for my pillow and lay on the ground beside him for perhaps another 45 min until I was pretty sure he wasn't going to throw up again for awhile. I carried him back to his bed, at which point I was finally able to go back to my bed. 4 AM and I was finally able to lay down in my bed. About 5 AM, Wally comes in again and wants to sleep by me, which I allow from sheer exhaustion. That, unfortunately, only lasts about 15 min before he is so insistent that I give him something to eat that we go into the kitchen and I proceed to make him toast and get him a drink of water. He drinks all the water and eats a tiny bite of toast. At a quarter to seven, it is time to wake up Erin and get her going, which I do. Then Zach gets up soon after, only to throw up in the sink. I mean... seriously? sigh... So that was the beginning of my day. Please remember me in your prayers. :)

I read an interesting article on DesertNews.com which talked about this thing called the "five facet review" that they do in their family for their children. The link to the blog entry for the woman who talks about how it works in her family is: http://www.71toes.com/search?q=5+facet. I really like the idea. I'm going to talk to Scott and see if he is up for the idea... He just told me he wouldn't be, but I rarely take him seriously, so we will give it a try. ha ha... So the five "facets" are 1)emotionally 2)spiritually 3)physically 4)socially 5)emotionally. I just really like this idea. Scott and I are going to watch a show now so I am going to go... But I will keep you updated on this new idea and its progression in my household.

We just had fresh corn on the cob for lunch!! Fantastic!! Richie sucks on the eaten cob until he sucks out every last ounce of juice. I think he likes it too. Then I came over and pulled up my blog only to have music start to play. My kids love to dance. Anything with a relatively decent beat and they all start dancing. It's our favorite way to clean. I turn on Pandora downstairs on our Roku player and we all dance/clean our way to the end. It's one of my favorite memories as a child. It's one thing I am happy to see I have passed on to my children as well. I'm not saying we're talented dancers or anything, but we're sure expressive. haha.... Last night we went to Deseret Peak Swimming Pool and as soon as my boys finished eating their dinner, they found an empty table, climbed up and began dancing. All three of them. I wish I would have had my camera. Am I really raising table dancers? Maybe I should try to tone them back just a little...

I was changing Richie's diaper and getting him dressed this morning, and he kept interrupting me with requests for his favorite songs. He would make fists and spread his fingers back and forth while saying, "Pop," which is his request for "Popcorn Popping." We sang that; he loves to do the actions. I don't understand most of the words, but the ones he knows he sings loud and proud, like "eyes." Then before I could get his shirt on, he would quickly move to his next favorite where he rolls his fists around saying, "Roll," which means "Do As I'm Doing." I start to sing it, so he jumps up, rolling his arms and jumping around in a circle, thrilled to be singing. He sounds like this, "Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, MEEE!!" He is so adorable. I just love being around him. He loves to sing. At Sacrament meeting every week, his favorite part is when we get to sing the hymns. He sings loudly during the whole song (and sometimes continues even after it's over). Luckily I think the people around us seem to enjoy it almost as much as he does. I love being a mother.