Car Selfies

For Christmas Jason got me a cradle to hold my phone that mounts onto the windshield.  It is fantastic!  Don't worry.  I do not use or look at my phone while driving, except to hit answer and speaker phone.  

I spend A LOT of time in my car with my little boys.  We drive the older kids back and forth and all over all day long it seems.  Someone always needs to be somewhere.  I miss the days when I was bored at home with just two little kids, and nowhere to go!  Oh how I miss it! 

As I was going through my pictures to blog I found a lot of car "selfies".  My little boys are cute, even in the car, and often my mom or sisters will text me to ask what I'm doing.  So when I am stopped at the grocery store, or I'm waiting in front of the school I will send them a car selfie.  

As I was going through my pictures to blog I found a lot of car "selfies".  My little boys are cute, even in the car, and often my mom or sisters will text me to ask what I'm doing.  So when I am stopped at the grocery store, or I'm waiting in front of the school I will send them a car selfie.  

The older kids are not so sure this is cool to do.

And when everyone is in the car we have to lean in a bit, and take several to make sure I got everyone's eyes are seen!

On our way to Tillamook for some cheese and ice cream on Spring Break.

Other times the older kids are totally in on it with me.  We are cool.  I promise.

Often after I take a "car selfie"  I look more closely at the picture, and see at least one hilarious expression on someones face!  

In this one Bennett made me laugh.

And in this one Harrison's angry and annoyed face surprised me into laughter!

And yes, even Jason and I occasionally snap a selfie of just the two of us.

Am I the only one who does this, or are all these car pictures just proof of all the quality time we spend in the car together?

It is not just selfie's, but I also found a lot of pictures just taken in the car!

Like these taken after arriving home from church on Sunday.

The only one really asleep was Theo.  Harrison always rips his tie, shirt and suit coat off before we get home.  Lily told Bennett to pretend he was sleeping.  He just couldn't do it for quite all of the pictures.  

Conversations with Harrison

One of the best parts of my life is getting to hang out with Harrison.  All of my older kids went through a very fun stage at about this age too.  At that age they are old enough to understand things better, but not always completely.  It makes for some very funny conversations.  

Harrison turned SIX in November so this post is dedicated to him, and some of the funniest things he has said recently.

When he noticed Egg Nog at Costco in October he was so ecstatic!  He MADE me buy some, and even requested that I take a picture of him with it.  This all happened just a week after Kylie left, whom also is obsessed with Egg Nog.  I posted the picture, and tagged her in it.  She, of course, loved it.  Harrison and Egg Nog, her two most favorite things!  A month later when I was in Denver with most of my sisters and my mom, I ended up being with Kylie in Costco late one night just before closing.  We couldn't resist a copy.

 Another time when I was driving to Costco with Harrison (we drive to Costco a lot) Harrison asked me if we could visit Grandma.  I asked him which one.  He said, "The one with white hair."  I said, "Grandma Mott?"  (My mother's mom, the only one white hair.)  He said, "No, the other one in Utah.  The one with white hair, and all the kids."  OH!  He meant Jason's mom.  She lives next door to Jason's oldest brother who has TEN kids!  HAHAHA!  By the way, she does not have white hair!  Please don't tell her that he said that! 

On the same trip he asked me if we could go visit the Army guy base again.  Every time he starts a conversation it takes a while before I know what he's talking about.  After going back and forth a few more times I figured out that he was referring to Fort Steven's in the Astoria area.  We went there last Spring right before I had Theo.

The conversation continued and he asked me if the any of the army guys got killed there.  I explained that no battles happened there.  I told him that the Japanese never attacked, even though we thought that they might.  Then, he said, in a confident voice, "Ohhhh... The Japanese are bad guys."  Wow, I am a horrible mother.  That is just great!  I laughed and said, "NO NO NO!!!  They are NOT bad guys!"  It took a lot of explaining, but I think he gets it now.

Harrison LOVES to make up new songs, especially for Theodore.  He never ever calls him Theo, like the rest of us.  I often hear Harrison singing a new song to Theodore, usually sung to a familiar tune.  Recently I heard him singing new words to the song "Called to Serve" which is a hymn from our church.  It has a nice marching kind of beat.  He was marching in a circle around Theodore while singing, "Theodore!  Happy Theodore, is a cu-ute little baby!  Theodore!  Happy Theodore.  Mom has boobs to give him milk!"  Etc... I might always be suppressing a giggle now every time we sing it in church.


I was in the bathroom helping the little boys go through their bedtime routine - brushing teeth, going potty etc. He looked up and said, "I am so sad that the bad guys killed "......".  Huh?  I had NO idea how or what he said.  After he repeated it several times, and gave me a few more clues I realized he was talking about Martin Luther King Jr.  Apparently that is a hard name for a six year old to say.  Anyways, he knew SO much about him.  I even asked, "Did he get mad, and want to fight?"  Harrison said, "Oh no no no!  He only wanted to be nice and show love!"  Wow!  I was impressed that he understood Dr. King's life so well!  I finally asked him, "Where did you learn all this?  At school?"  He rolled his eyes and said, "DUH!"  Well, I did get 'duhhed' at, but I am still very happy and grateful that his teacher did such a great job talking about Martin Luther King Jr. at school.

June-July Glimpses

My life has been crazy as of late.  I have many friends who love the Summer months, having their kids home, and no schedules.  I do not love it.  I love my children dearly, but I much prefer to have a schedule, some down time, cooler weather etc.

Lately my brain has been on overload.  I have had several moments when I can't seem to get the right words out.  It's frustrating.  One example of this happening was when I was driving and Theo was crying.  I asked Max to STRIKE his face.  I had to try about 6 times before I got the right word out.  Finally I said, "Please, STROKE his face, so he knows you are there for him."  It's amazing the difference ONE letter can make!

Lunch time.  He likes to throw noodles... because it is fun.

 We went to a really fun "School" themed birthday party for Amelia. 

Harrison about to go at the Apple Pinata that Alyssa and Kevin made.

Amelia and Harrison

Bennett is always "sharing" with Theo.
I find Theo in his chair holding Bennett's sippie cup....

Asleep in his carseat holding his chipmunk Eleanor, which makes sense because
Theodore and Eleanor go together.

This one here is proof of how much Bennett loves Theo.  I heard Theo crying in his carseat as we were trying to get out the door to church.  When I came to check on him he was asleep... with Bennett's most beloved stuffed animal - the horse that Aunt Paige gave him when we were in Denver.

Harrison has been making up songs to sing to Theo.  One day while I was making dinner I heard Harrison singing this, "Do you wanna see my body?  Do you wanna see my body?"  I was about to stop him because I thought he was going to be inappropriate.  He went on to sing, "Do you wanna see my ears, my eyes, my arms?  Do you wanna see my Bee Bo (belly button) and my eyebrows?"  As he sang each body part he would gently poke Theo in that place.  Theo was squealing with laughter.  Harrison continued singing, "Do you wanna see my itty bitty little Penis?"  I gave him a stern look, and he gave me a mischievous smile.  At least he did not poke Theo there, and luckily the song was over!  

Theo loved it.

Raising Boys is just fun.  Girls would never sing a song like that.

After his 'body' song he told me his next song was called, "I Love Food."  I thought that sounded safe.

It went something like this, "I love fruit, and I love cookies.  I love brownies, and I love pie."  

I love to drink, but I do NOT love alcohol, but I DO love cocoa!!!"

Theo was squealing again.

I was laughing too.

These two pictures were taken about 1 minute apart.  His mood can change quickly.

 I left Theo with Jason to get my hair done.  On my way home I got this picture texted to my phone.
Yeah, I laughed out loud when I saw it.  There was no message, just this picture.
A picture can say a thousand words.  I think my milk came in just seeing this picture.

Harrison in his new glasses posing with daddy.

Bennett enjoying his blackberry jam at dinner.  The jam is so yummy that if I put bread or rolls on the table with jam, then it is considered dessert.  It works as a good motivation for the little boys to eat their dinner.

I was trying to get Harrison into bed, and he started to tell me about a scary dream he's been having lately.  He described it like this, "A scary doll with red hair and big black eyes comes alive and drags him under the bed when he is a girl in his dreams."  Lily overheard this and angrily asked him, "Are you talking about my Raggedy Ann?"  He said, "Yes."  She was so upset and yelled, "Well, if you weren't such a jerk to her, then maybe she would be nice to you!"  Harrison yelled back, "I can't help it!  She is just so creepy looking!"  Lily was furious and stormed off.  I was laughing so hard at this point.  First of all, Harrison is a girl in this nightmare!  Secondly, Lily was seriously upset about the way he treats her doll, and believes that his treatment of the doll is the reason for the bad dreams!!!  My children might be insane... but still funny.

I have really enjoyed the slow mornings during Summertime.  This is how I spend most of my mornings - Cuddled up in bed with Theo and a book.

I love that I caught him yawning.  I was trying to catch him smiling by telling him about his Aunt Kylie, whom he has not met yet.  I guess he thinks she is boring.

I really love his little, squishy body!

This was Family Home Evening - something we try to do every Monday night.  Bennett was cranky and in bed.  This is what it looks like when a mother of many tries to read a story.

We've been getting some sun here, which we are not used to.

Muscle man Max.  He even spoke with an accent, and created a whole new
character around this mustache.

Bennett and Lily having fun

We were watching the Olympics with the kids one night when an Australian swimmer won Gold, and a USA swimmer won Bronze.  I said, "Oh, I guess Mick is getting a foot massage tonight."  My sister and her Australian husband have a deal that whenever USA gets a Gold, she gets a foot rub.  When Australia wins a Gold he gets the foot rub.  I explained this to my family.  They thought it was funny.  Jason added, "When Brazil wins Gold I get a foot rub!"  That makes sense because he lived there for 2 years when he was serving a mission there.  Then, Glenn said, "When Germany wins a Gold, I get a foot rub!"  I just started laughing so hard, and he asked why.  I told him it was because he was funny, and it didn't make any sense.  He said, "Well, I like Germany."
Yeah, OK, well I love all the countries in the whole world, so I should get a foot rub every time anyone wins a Gold Medal!!! 

I have still been dealing with bad skin issues.  Every week it is something new... rash and welts on my lips, hive, swollen eyes, welts on my neck etc.  On the drive home from Utah I noticed a little itch between two of my fingers.  It slowly got worse and worse and developed into a horendous, disgusting, itchy rash.  It was SO itchy, and covered in blisters.  I started to soak my hands in a salt water solution with essential oils.  I went to the dermatologist the day after I started soaking them.  When I woke up that morning the rash was covered in a disgusting, yellow crustiness.  The Dermatologist diagnosed it as Excema, which I've NEVER had before, with a staph infection on top of it!  He prescribed a steroid cream, and oral antibiotics.

In the past I've had bad issues with yeast on my skin after giving birth, so I was nervous about taking the antibiotics.  On my way home from the Dr.  I started picking at the rash, and crustiness. (Sorry this is getting gross, but I think this is amazing so I have to share.)  Where ever the yellow stuff was, it peeled right off and my skin was beautiful underneath!  I continued to do the soak, and use the cream.  Over a few days the whole rash peeled right off of me!  I really believe it was the oils that killed whatever infection had been there, and cleared up the rash.  I don't think I ever had a staph infection.  It just looked like I did because of what the oils had done to the rash.

My friend decided to set up a weekly playgroup.  Each week we meet at a different park for a picnic lunch and playtime.  My kids have been loving it.

One day my friend invited all of us to her house.  They have an awesome, huge yard.  Harrison and her son "H" are good buddies.  They were running around shirtless in these hats.  Harrison told us that they were being "naked pioneers".  I wonder if the Naked Cowboy in NYC has heard of them.

These two boys both have names that start with "H", have many brothers and one sister each, wear glasses, and make crazy faces!

On a Saturday night Harrison asked, "Is tomorrow Church day?"  I dread that question, because if I answer in the affirmative he will throw a fit.  It is so annoying, and I am just waiting for him to mature beyond it!
I said, "Yes."  Then, he screamed, "NOOOO!!!!!"  Like so many times before I tried to have a rational conversation with him about why we go to church, and why it is a good and important thing to do etc.
I asked, "Harrison, why do we go to church."  He was still crying and screaming.  He stopped, and asked me back, "Because of Satan?"  His response stunned me.  I had lots of answers in mind, and that was not one of them.

Bennett on a "church day" eating Nachos for lunch.

Lily, Glenn and Theo had a dance party to "Thriller" by Micheal Jackson one afternoon.  

Theo really enjoyed it.

 

So other than school getting out, going on vacation and the boys going to camp, this is what we did to pass the time through June and July.

Conversations with a Five Year Old

Harrison with his pet rock he made at school.  It's a lady bug named Elizabeth.

I know that I write about Harrison on this blog often.  He is at a really fun age.  He says and does the funniest things.  Jason and I agree that he tends to be our funniest child.  All of our children say and do hilarious things, but Harrison tends to bust us up the most often.  He speaks and understands fluently now, and has tons of questions along with a unique perspective.  We have great conversations with him.  All these things come with being five years old.  I have really enjoyed all of my children at this age.  

Harrison has two days of Preschool left.  After his graduation next Thursday he is officially on Summer Break.  Next Fall he starts Kindergarten.  One night, as I was putting him to bed, he and I were talking about what he is grateful for before he said his prayers.  I suggested that maybe he could thank Heavenly Father for good friends.  He said, "Mom, I don't want any new friends.  I already have enough of them."  Harry has said this to me a few times now.  I giggle every time.  I realized that this very outgoing, friendly boy is nervous about kindergarten and meeting new friends.

One day Jason and I were driving, with the three little boys, past the Troutdale water tower.  Harrison asked what it was.  I explained that it was a water tower.  He asked, "Why?"  I then explained that it stores water for emergencies.  I explained what a drought is, and that we might need that emergency water from the tower.  Harrison then exclaimed, "I want POP in an emergency!  I want a POP TOWER!"  

On the same car ride he launched into one of his favorite topics, beautiful girls.  (Someday he's going to hate that I made all of this public knowledge.)  He has discovered that we own a lot of really fun little girl type movies from Lily's childhood.  He loves all the Barbie movies.  He also love Alladin because it has a good mix of action/adventure plus Jasmine is considered "A dream girl" in his words.  He also loves Thumbelina for the same reasons - good action and Thumbelina is "a dream girl".  In the car he started to go on about how beautiful the name Jasmine is.  Also, he thinks that the same girl who does Jasmines' voice does Thumbelina's voice too.  This is how he worded it, "Mom, I think that Jasmine does Thumbelina's voice."  Jason and I just sat in the front listening to him go on about it.  We couldn't stop giggling.

Just to be clear, he thinks ALL girls are dream girls.  He really likes all females, and thinks that they are all beautiful and special.  He has even been known to tell the check out lady at the grocery store, "You're my dream girl."  This, of course, made her day.  I just didn't tell her that he says that to all girls. 

Harrison's preschool teachers told me one morning that he is the biggest flirt they've ever had.  They said he's going to be a real ladies man someday.  I totally already knew that, but OK.  One day in class they were talking about germs and washing hands etc.  Harrison interrupted the lesson and exclaimed, "NO one kiss me OK?  I'm sick!"  

Tonight at dinner Harrison said something about "A Dream Girl" and Glenn said, "Harrison, you need to knock that kind of talk off before Kindergarten or all the other kids are going to think you are really weird.  Harrison said, "No way!  They all like it."  I told Glenn not to worry until he's starting middle school and still talking like that, then we have a problem.

Jason found him one day like this.  He could not help but take pictures.  When I saw the pictures I laughed so hard that I could not help putting them on the blog.

 After our movie tonight, I was helping Harrison to stay focused in the bathroom.  If I just tell him to brush his teeth and go potty it will take 10 plus minutes.  If I am in there with him it takes less than 5 minutes.  Amazing how that works!  When he pulled down his undies to go to the bathroom he started singing the word underwear over and over.  I realized that he was singing a very specific tune.  He then started to do sound affects to add in the instrumental part.  When it clicked in my brain what song it was I was DYING with laughter!  Jason and I sing in the Portland Ensign Choir and Orchestra.  There is a movie themed concert coming up in a few weeks.  One of the songs is a Russian piece from The Hunt for Red October.  Jason has been playing it over and over to help him get the Russian down (he has it memorized now).  Of course, Harrison does not have the Russian down, but he does love that tune.  His solution is to sing the word underwear over and over to the tune.  Hysterical.  It was impressive.

Tonight when I was tucking Harrison in bed I asked him, "Do you know how much Jesus loves you?"  He spread his arms wide and said, "This much!"  After we talked a bit more about that he serisously looked at me and said, "Beware of Satan."  It was hard to not laugh.  I said, "OK."  He then asked, "What does beware mean?"  Obviously he heard this satement in Sunday School or something, and had no clue what it meant.  We then had a pretty serious conversation on the topic of the reality of Satan.  The whole time I was thinking, "I can't believe this goof ball is asking me such serious thought provoking questions!"    

Benland

One morning I woke up with Harrison in my face.  He was wide eyed and excited to tell me all about a new place he had visited while asleep.

Lily had babysat for us the night before, and put the little boys to bed for us.  Instead of reading books to Harrison she TOLD him a story about a magical place called Benland. (Pronounced Ben-Lund)

Harrison has woken up every morning since excited to tell me about his adventures in Benland from the previous night.  This has been happening for over a week now!  He is always excited about it, and Lily is always creatively adding more dimensions to Benland for him to imagine and dream about.  

There is no way I can remember every detail that I have learned about Benland, and I have never been there myself.  If I had known from the beginning how epic this was going to be I would've started taking notes.

Benland

~When you go to sleep and start dreaming, open your eyes, and that is how to get to Benland!

~There are beautiful dancing girls.

~There is a marshmallow river.

~There are animal friends.

~There are vines in the trees to swing from, and friends swing down to greet you.  The friends are twin brothers named Hangy and Swingy.

~There is a lava princess.

~There is an amusement park inside a volcano!

~There is a silver princess in the silver castle made out of ice with diamonds on top.

~There is a chocolate princess that lives in a beautiful candy castle.  She does not know anyone else, but she does know Harrison!

~The land is made out of cookies, and there are banana sundae floats in the marshmallow river.

~There is a jungle and a sleep island made out of pillows and books.

Mr. Napkin Head

Have you ever seen the movie The Holiday?  There is a scene in which Jude Law's Character, Graham plays the part of Mr. Napkin Head for his daughters.

Well, the first time I saw this I laughed pretty hard.  It just caught me off guard.  It was so cute and sweet and funny.

A few months ago Mr. Napkin Head made an appearance at a Sunday family dinner.  A dinner with our immediate family and a lot of extended family.  He just appeared out of NO where!  Again, I was caught completely off guard and laughed even harder this time.

So now Mr. Napkin Head comes to our table often.  Once every few weeks he just shows up.  He came last Sunday and I finally caught him on film!

The Eighth Dwarf

I wanted to share this hilarious story that makes almost no sense with you.  Glenn is very creative.  I love this about him.  Is working hard to write something good enough to get published.  Good luck Glenn!

Side Note - This was an assignment for his 5th grade class, and when my sister Kylie read it she said it was like being on an Acid Trip!

The Eighth Dwarf

By Glenn Ritz

Writing Prompt – Use your imagination to create and tell about the unknown eighth dwarf. Use quotations in your story.

You know Bashful and Sneezy and Doc and Grumpy, Happy and Dopey and Sleepy too. But do you recall the most famous dwarf of all?

Nasty was as Nasty as nothing you’ve seen. He was stout with a pout and extra mean. He only went to school once and before noon and, also too soon, he was suspended and sent away with nothing else to say.

So, after he got home he listened as a song bird sang as plain as rain, a song but not very long. As beautiful as it was, it made him think.

Twas when does a bird sing a song like that for it was like nothing he’d ever heard, especially from a bird. He had to find the source of this course of melody and all the other grand music terms he just didn’t understand.

So there he stood and decided to head for the wood. He ran through the brush in a determined rush. He discovered the voice came from a fair maiden who was as beautiful as her song which turned out to be long.

And as she sang it rang in his head, “Come on how can someone as dirty, nasty, ugly and ghastly deserve to meet her whom is most likely to get married to a prince?”

After an extremely disappointing walk back, before Doc could offer, Nasty announced, “I’ve lost my appetite.” And after what he said he climbed the stairs and up to bed.

The next morning when Nasty was walking through the wood, he walked into something. Thump! “OW!!”

“Whoa! Are you OK there sonny boy? That’s why you gotta watch where you go, but not me, I’m a tree!”

“A Grandfather Tree?”

“No, I’m the grandmother tree of the forest, and I’m here to tell you that you will be there to rescue the songbird from the hawk.” Then, the tree vanished!

What did it mean to rescue the smaller bird from the hawk? When he came home he saw his brothers gathered around the fair maiden whom was in a glass container as though in an invisible coffin. He fled the sad scene.

About a few sad years passed and she didn’t change, just as if she was in a deep deep deep deep sleep. One day a pixie who was called Trixie came to Nasty and said, “Tis time. Your wish is granted. You shall become a prince and rescue the songbird. The prophecy is complete.” And then he became a prince and well you know the rest and, in the end they lived happily ever after.

Glimpses

My life is full of excitement.  Rasing four little boys and a little girl leads to some very fun times!
A few days ago I was in Target with Harrison and Bennett.  I was doing my best to hurry.  I was looking on the shelf for the right razor cartridges, all my attention was focused on that.  I finally turned and saw that Bennett's top of his head was soaked.  Foamy liquid was dripping down his face.  It was saliva... Harrison's saliva!  Harrison was SO pleased to see my horrified face.  I was SO upset.  I wonder how many times Harrison had to spit on his head to get it that wet!

It reminded me of the time when Harrison was about 18 months old and fresh out of the bath.  Maxwell, who was four at the time, peed all over Harrison, from the top bunk.  Nice target practice.  So do I get upset with Max for teaching Harrison to do those sorts of things?  Or is Harrison to blame?  Really. 

Later that day, Harrison came into the kitchen where I was making dinner.  He was wearing my slippers and carrying my new purse over his shoulder.  He asked, "Do I look Stupid?"  I assured him he didn't then asked for my slippers and told him to put my purse away.  I am still wondering if he was implying that I look stupid. 

Right after Harrison left the kitchen Glenn, my 11 year old, came in and asked me to help him with his spelling words.  So, I was calling them out, using them in sentences etc.  and he would spell them back.  We got to his challenge words.  Those are two words that he gets to choose on his own to add to his spelling list each week.  This week he chose 'strategies' and 'neuter.'  I asked him why he chose the word 'neuter.'  He said he saw it in the dictionary and thought it was a cool word and good one for him to know how to spell.  In his own words, "Afterall, I am going to be a vet, it would be good for me to know how to spell 'neuter.'"  Then, I told him to use the two challenge words, strategies and neuter in one sentence together.  His sentence was, "I thought of many strategies to calm the dog down before I neutered him." 

Those are the glimpses into my life for now.  More to come.