Happy Birthday!

I'm a little slow, but a big Happy Birthday!!! to my favorite person, Jeremy. He is finally 32 (I say finally because I've been 33 for about 3 weeks now). Our birthdays weren't very exciting this year, but especially so for him since it was on Sunday. He had a bunch of meetings, plus couldn't go get free meals anywhere. We celebrated some on Saturday though, with a date (we did sealings and got some In 'N Out french fries), ice cream, and decor. Everything was pretty low-key. But my appreciation for this guy that I have known for nearly 14 years now is not low-key. He is so great, and tries so hard to make sure things are good for us. On his birthday somehow he ended up cleaning up after dinner (which he does often), and yesterday he made me write a to-do list (because I was freaking out just a little bit about having so many things to figure into the day) and then had half of it crossed off himself by the time I got back from the store. We just love him so much and are so grateful he keeps coming home to all our craziness!

Just How Hot is It?

Heat advisory yesterday through Sunday. Which means that it's getting up to 115º and hotter at some point each day, I think. Which means it was still 108º last night when I got home from the gym at like 9:00.  Yesterday and today the kids' lunch recess was shortened and afternoon recess was held inside.  Yesterday I was on empty, but I could only put $20 in the car because I couldn't really let Shawn and Katy sit in it any longer without the a/c running. My kids aren't allowed to play outside in the afternoon/evening for more than 5-10 minutes and they think I'm mean. So now I have a house full of kids instead (which is fine - I had two extras all day while they were in school. Why stop now?). There is no way I'm cooking anything for dinner. Smoothies for dinner. We were going to go to a really cool pool tomorrow, but I think that's out. It's too hot to swim. Seriously, Arizona? I saw the news about a possibly huge El Nino storm season this winter and I was just like, "Please? Bring it on." (I know lots of things can be damaged in those storms, and they're a big deal, but in AZ we pretty much get thrilled about any "weather" that isn't over 100º)
It's kind of funny, because it's only 5-10 degrees or so hotter than what it's been most of the last 3 months, but you can feel that difference. Whatever you're used to, 5-10º feels way too hot to handle. I remember as a kid, coming down here in the summer for Sunsplash or school shopping or something, and we couldn't believe how hot it was. Like we thought we were going to die. And now I live here, and you really do adjust. Yes, it's nasty and hot. But I know I'm not going to die. And when we go to the Gila Valley I think, "huh. Not so bad." It's all about perspective and what you're used to or expect. But I've also lived in Iowa for several years, so in the "winter" when it's 59º at the bus stop and the kids are all wearing coats and complaining about how cold it is, I just shake my head and am so glad that it's not August.

Go on, touch it. I dare you.

My car is prone to exaggeration.

"outside" play time

More inside play

Doing what they can to destroy the living room.

In other news from the last week (the last week before school started!): We tried to take the kids on mostly individual dates with each of us on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Jeremy took Katy to the Gilbert temple, and they were going to walk around San Tan Mall, but I had forgotten about a singing practice she had, and they had to hurry back. I took Jaina and we split two treats: frozen yogurt at Zoyo and an oreo cheesecake donut at Dunkin Donut. They are conveniently right next to each other. Haha. Both were delicious! Then I took her grocery shopping with me. She was pretty unimpressed with that part, but I really needed to make it happen! We had a good trip (except where the part where I lost her for like 10 minutes in Fry's and was starting to panic) and she got to pick out a big thing of bubble soap. Then Jeremy switched me Jaina for Reilly (he was running errands with the other 3) and Reilly wanted to go to Dairy Queen. He wanted blueberry flavoring on his ice cream, and finally picked a sundae over a Blizzard. He also insisted that he wanted the largest size. That was basically his dream. But I completely refused, and only let him get a medium. (If we ever get ice cream, it's usually a baby cone or one scoop of something) Guess who couldn't finish his ice cream for the first time? He said that next time he'll believe me. We'll see. After that we walked around Bookman's for a while and he chose a Ninjago book to bring home.

Friday after Jeremy got home I took Katy on our date, and we went to Bookman's again to spend the $10 gift certificate they had sent for her birthday. She eventually picked out a Hello Kitty DVD set and a Phineas & Ferb DVD. Then she super-de-duper wanted to go to Dairy Queen, and thankfully it was raining, so we just did the drive through, so she couldn't see all the options they had. I got us both baby cones, and had them put sprinkles on hers so she would be impressed. She had never seen one like that, and was very excited. :) Then we ran a few errands and Wal-mart before we rushed home to make some dinner. We finished up our dates Saturday afternoon when Jeremy took Reilly and Jaina to see "Minions" (Katy gets a little overwhelmed in the theater still if it's intense). I think he took some pictures, but they're on his phone.

After all that sugar I was ready to start a healthy eating challenge. A lady in my ward was starting one Monday, but I knew it wasn't going to be quite enough for me to get the results I wanted, so I looked up Whole 30 and randomly decided I was ready to try it. Jeremy's always thought I should do something like that, but it's hard, and you definitely have to want to do it yourself. It is pretty strict, but after helping Jeremy eat the autoimmune protocol diet for something like 4 months, it didn't seem that bad. At least not in the planning department. I do so much better with things that I -can- and -can't- have rather than trying to do moderation and picking more healthy food than unhealthy food. I won't eat this way forever, but I hope to eat this way 75% of the time maybe, eliminating a lot of the processed, unhealthy junk in my diet most of the time. I am actually really enjoying it. It's really nice not counting calories either, which I've been doing a lot of the last year. Just -knowing- I'm not going to eat certain things takes a lot of the need for self-control and decision-making out of my day, and I really appreciate that. And I still get to eat some super yummy things like this:

We wanted to do one more fun thing with the kids before school started this last Wednesday (the 12th) so we looked at our POGO passes and found something we could squeeze into Jeremy's busy day that didn't cost much. A round of glow golf at Fat Cat's was completely free, and took like 30 minutes or less, the way our kids play. It's good that it didn't last long, because Shawn was starting to run a fever, poor kid.

FINALLY. It was here! The first day of school! Katy was super excited, and the other two were happy. We got them all to their classes, on time, and even managed to take pictures. What more can you ask on a first day of school? :) They have been enjoying it so far, like their teachers, and hopefully are ready for the real homework to start on Monday. Shawn is not so excited about this school-thing, and has been missing his siblings, even though Katy comes home by 11:30 every day. He has been whinier than usual, and making lots of interesting messes. :)

Why I Don't Cook

As I write this, someone is on their bed throwing a massive fit. There were many things that escalated it to this point, but the real problem was the absolute refusal to finish the last of 3 bites of meatloaf. I haven't cooked much lately, and I felt like I really should, and even wanted to tonight. So I did meatloaf (a very tasty one), mashed potatoes, and salad. Two of my four children will not eat mashed potatoes anyway, but I figured that they could at least try the meatloaf. Two of them whined and made faces, but ate it, and survived with no injuries. We might as well have been trying to kill the third. (Shawn still eats most things) I get so tired of the fight that happens when I stray outside the "easy" foods that include pasta of some sort, tacos/burros, and breakfast foods. It's seriously ridiculous. I'm so over it.

In happier news, we've had a good week. We went to Riverview's splash pad on Monday. The kids always enjoy that, and play happily for quite a while. Katy got her haircut (that I gave her a few months ago) fixed, thanks to Andrea. It was her first non-mom/non-grandma hair cut. :) It doesn't look much different, but I feel so much better knowing I'm not going to keep seeing uneven spots anymore. Who sends their kid to school for the first time like that? Haha.

Shawn and Katy had doctor's appointments. I have issues with making appointments and not having something go wrong right before them, so it's been about 10 months since Shawn was in...) and at 19 months he is 32.5 inches (43%) and just over 26 lbs (50%). It was a double appt with Katy's 5-year well-check (she's 40th percentile for both and passed her sight and hearing - all ready for kindergarten!) and even though she had a low fever (see, something always tries to derail my plans) it was a great visit and everything went smoothly. We love Dr. Noel and the whole office at Agave Pediatrics South! So worth the drive to Scottsdale. Thankfully, Sophie watched the older kids then, too, so we weren't chaos in a cup. 

 My birthday was last week, and I got flowers, my gym membership, and some hours to myself (including a work out first thing, which made me enjoy the cheesecake Jeremy made me later much more). All very much appreciated! Sophie watched our kids and Jeremy and I went to Joe's Farm Grill and got dinner, accompanied by a few friends. It was laid back and nice, for the most part.

Thursday I took them all swimming for several hours in the morning, and Friday morning we went to the AZ Science Center, just for a few hours. It's a bit of a drive, and since it doesn't open until 10, and Shawn really needs to nap by 12, there isn't a lot of morning time we can spend there. It was still fun, though, and thankfully not nearly as crowded as when we went Saturday afternoons the last few times. I was a little nervous about crowd control with my four without Jeremy, but we were fine.

Friday night we attempted some family pictures at our friend's house. It was kind of a fail (mostly because her camera suddenly refused to work with the light on hand all of a sudden) but we did end up with some cute ones. Pictures are so stressful for me. Trying to get clothes all together that go together and get everyone looking cute and not-messed up all at the very same time and ALSO getting everyone to cooperate? Oh my goodness, no. Here are some outtakes:

Saturday morning I watched a friend's toddler for several hours while she and her husband went to Sunsplash. Reilly was also at Sunsplash with a birthday friend, and Jeremy was mostly working. Shawn is at a very territorial stage, and was a tiny bit difficult about me holding this other baby, but thankfully she's enough smaller than him that he mostly played pretty nicely with her and didn't see her as an adversary. That afternoon my parents dropped by to visit since they were in town, and somehow we ended up sending the girls home with them overnight since they had been wanting to do that, and since Jeremy's sister was coming back the next evening and had room to bring them home. By the time Reilly got home from Sunsplash they were gone, but he wasn't upset. He felt that it was fair that they got to go, since he got to play at the water park all day. And he is always kind of happy for a break from his sisters. We celebrated by using Jeremy's free-burger coupon at Red Robin that evening. Shawn is getting harder and harder to dine out with right now. Not a big deal, since we don't do it often, but he can be so impatient!

Nursery isn't going that great yet either. He won't let us leave him in there for more than a few minutes without melting down. I guess it's good that I teach Relief Society once a month right now, or I would never get to go. But we've done this before, and eventually it works out and we get to go to all our own classes. After church was so calm and nice with only two kids. I even got a little nap, which I've done more in the last year than I did in the last 10 years, I think. Guess I'm getting old. :) Reilly was excited because we played Monopoly with him (which he is always begging for) and Jeremy also got out some of his old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and other toys. Both boys enjoyed that. The girls got home pretty late that night (for them - about 9) but had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.

Monday was the big day they had been looking forward to for a while. Sunsplash day! We had one visit to Sunsplash on our POGO passes, and were able to coordinate with Ashley and Chloe to go together before school starts and it closes for the season soon. The kids had a blast. Jaina was pretty scared of some of the slides, but anything we made/convinced her to go on, she ended up loving. Chloe even went on a few slides, as did Katy, in a double tube. They loved the lazy river, the wave pool, and the kids' areas. We left Shawn with Sophie (thank you!!) so we could do slides and stuff, and so he could nap, then picked him up a couple hours before close. He probably would have been fine not going at all, but he seemed to enjoy parts of it. They played and played all day long, and Katy threw a fit when it was time to leave after 6 hours (because the park was closing, and because we just missed a last ride on the lazy river). We managed to avoid most sunburn (just a little on some cheeks/noses and Jeremy's feet). I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened for me, except I finally found a swim shirt my size (that wasn't too expensive) and wore that 90% of the time we were there. The kids all wore swim shirts too, and we stopped halfway through to eat, dry off, and apply more sunscreen. They've all been asking when we get to go back, but I think we're going to try Mesquite Grove Aquatic Center (a smaller, much cheaper version) in the next few weeks instead.

After all that sun, and climbing, and hauling tubes, I was pretty worn out. We did a whole lot of nothing on Tuesday, which was nice, since Shawn decided to sleep in until 8:45 (he's usually up about 6:45) and then took a 3.5 hour nap (usual is 2-2.5 hrs). He wasn't feeling good when he was awake, and was sad about his mouth, it seemed. I suspect 2-year molars already.
This week it was also Reilly and Jaina's turn for well-child checks, and thankfully they also went smoothly. Reilly is 48 inches and like 57 lbs (4th and 30th percentile) and Jaina is 49 (yes, taller) inches and 52 lbs. (right in the 40th percentile). They were a little concerned about Reilly's height, but mostly because at his last appt there (2 years ago) they had mistakenly written down that he was 48 inches already, so it looked like he hadn't grown at all. He is growing on his normal curve though, and hopefully he'll have a height spurt at some point!