5 months old today!

My baby Benno is 5 months old today! Here he demonstrates his bouncing ability with commentary by Anthony. (Please disregard the overturned laundry basket in the background.)

GO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-OAL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaron scored his very first goal of the soccer season, and amazingly, I had the camera running when it happened. The video ends abruptly after he scored so that I could wave my arms and scream with joy. You'll notice too that they're a little lax on the rules--they are way out of bounds on the next team's field (yellow team) when Aaron gets ahold of the ball, but who needs boundaries? Something finally clicked for Aaron last night and he was on fire out there...little guy was amazing!

After the game, Aaron shared another deep thought with me--he had been looking thoughtfully at the setting sun, and said, "The earth's spinning makes the sun dizzy and so it goes down."

Imagine my joy...

...when these friends showed up in the mail yesterday:

Back in April, Aaron received an Art Farm Kit for his birthday...I was so excited about it that I put it on the shelf, hoping Aaron might forget about it. Not only did he NOT forget about it, but he was begging me every day to order his ants. I was able to put it off for the summer--my excuse was that we might move & didn't want the ants to arrive after we left--well, we didn't move and so I finally gave in and ordered the ants and promptly forgot about it.
When we got home yesterday and found a package on the doorstep labeled "Uncle Milton's Ant Farm," the horrible realization of what awaited inside all came back to me. Aaron was so excited about it though that I put my brave face on and we went to work putting the ants in their new home.
The directions say to put the ants (which arrive in a tiny vial) in the refrigerator to "stun" them to make it easier to dump them into the farm. Let me tell you that that was a harrowing experience. The ants may have been stunned, but the vial opening is wider than the opening into the farm, and of course the ants don't come marching out one by one...no, they come tumbling in one giant mass, crawling every which way except IN the farm. I was trying SO hard to be the big, brave Mama but I couldn't help let loose a few panicked squeals and shrieks.
The ants are now all safely contained within their farm. The boys are fascinated. I'm still pretty creeped out by it all...and cursing my friend who purchased the whole thing as a gift. (Only partially kidding on that one...I love my friend, I do...)

And they call this "fashion"

This looks like me when I've rolled out of bed, thrown on an apron and rubber gloves to clean that grimy bathroom...ok, so maybe she's a little bit taller and a tad bit skinnier...but really, am I missing something? Is this what passes for "glamour" these days? Or are fashion designers turning to housewives for inspiration at last?

Whatever it is, it's good for a laugh. : )

No more whining!

Just wanted to share a great bit I heard in church today:

"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it won't make it worse." Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

There's been entirely too much whining going on in my life as of late as evidenced by my recent posts, and I apologize.
I'm feeling SO much better, by the way!!!


Just for fun...this is one of my all-time favorite pics of Anthony...can't believe this was over 4 years ago already! This is just before his 3rd birthday--crazy that Christopher is that age NOW!

Ughhhh...sick Mama.

Ok, so Benno's fine and doing well...but me, I'm miserable. I seem to have caught a different bug than Benno--no fever or runny nose for me, no...no, instead, I've spent most of today and all of last night running for the toilet.

Here's hoping I recover soon because life must go on, especially when one is the Mama of 4 busy boys, who I might add--aside from the littlest one--have had free reign in the kitchen and all over the house while I lay wiped out on my bed (unless I happen to be in the bathroom)...so you can imagine what the state of the house is. What was I complaining about before? Ha, that was nothin!

And as for the silver lining to this situation, hmmm...help me out. The only positive I see at this moment is that the boys are well...we're not all fighting over the toilet at least--wouldn't that be fun?!

Sick baby...

My little Benno's caught his first bug--he's had a runny nose for a couple days now and the fever struck today. Hopefully that's the extent of it, and with any luck the rest of us will stay well (though I won't hold my breath...) And while I don't like my babies to be sick, I'm thankful for the reason to take it easy for a little while. George gets to handle the soccer run-around tonight!



I watched 2 of my friend's 4 (soon to be 5!) kids the other day. While her daughter is about 10-1/2 months older than Benno, she's not much bigger since Benno is big and she's tiny. She thought he made a good seat, and he didn't seem to mind.

A silver lining?

Ok, maybe I'm just so sleep-deprived that I'm just crazy, but I do like to look for the silver lining in any situation... Last night, or early this morning, I should say, Aaron threw up 3 times in bed. Would you like to guess what my first thought was when I discovered the mess? I thought, yes! I can stay home from church! which means I turn off my alarm! : )

I enjoyed my quiet morning at home with Aaron & Benno, though as a rule I don't enjoy missing church... Aaron's ok by the way. Must've been a bout of food poisoning (he was the only one who ate a hot dog at the BBQ...evil hot dogs).

An Aaron-ism

Aaron asked a deep question at dinner, "How do we live again after we die?"

So after my profound and spiritually inspiring answer about Jesus having made it possible for us to be resurrected and live again with perfect bodies, he replies, "Oh so then we'll be meaty again."

Worn out.

I am one very wiped out Mama. It's been building gradually over the last couple weeks but today it's just hit me like a truck--a giant Tonka truck loaded with dirty gravel from our walkways...gravel which is beginning to destroy our vacuum cleaner because every time I run the thing I manage to suck up another rock which I didn't see and was tracked in by boys who think it's fun to stuff their clothes full of rocks. But that's a story for another day. 

Right now I'm just tired. My house needs attention in a terrible way but I simply am too tired to do much about it.  We were up at the crack of dawn again today because both Anthony & Aaron had soccer photos--Anthony's at 8am and Aaron's at 8:30, and we were supposed to be there 15 min early for each. Anthony had a game at some random park (Oregon, more specifically Portland, is filled with random parks...they pride themselves on having the most parks per capita than anywhere else in the nation--but here's how they do that: they take unwanted places like the land under powerlines or around drainage ditches, add a path and a play structure, and voila: it's a park.) And poor Anthony got hit in the head with the ball and knocked clear off his feet during the game. Tough guy got back up and kept playing. 

Then we're off to clean the church because it's our week to help (all the families in the ward are assigned a week to go vacuum, take out trash, & clean windows). Meanwhile my own house is still screaming, "Hey, what about me???"  I'm thinking about assigning all the families in the ward a week to come clean my house.  : )  But I digress...so then we're home again and despite my home's pleas for attention, there are monstrous weeds threatening to take over in the backyard and I can't ignore them any longer...I weed and weed and weed. I only stop because our friends are finally home & ready for us to come over & BBQ with them.  We eat, come home and I finally get Benno to nap...I look at my house thinking I need to work on it but my body is not cooperating.  I crashed on the couch.  And crash is no exaggeration.  

It's been a busy couple of weeks with school, soccer, gymnastics, and more. I can't remember ever feeling this wiped out before in all my life.  I think the main culprit in all this is Benno.  Any normal non-sleep-deprived adult could manage my hectic schedule well enough--perhaps they'd suffer a little stress but it'd be manageable stress--but add to it all that I'm just not sleeping well at night, and it's a recipe for wiped-outed-ness.  

Anyway, I'm afraid my house is going to suffer quite a bit until things normalize a bit around here.  I apologize to anyone unfortunate enough to have to see my house (particularly my little family who lives here).  I'm doing the best I can and striving for that eat-off-the-floor standard of living, and someday we will be there again.  I promise you that, my dear yellow house.

Christopher

I've neglected to mention Christopher in my recent posts so I needed to share some funny tidbits from his life this past week.

Here he shows off the MONSTROUS zucchini we harvested from the garden after returning from our trip.  We have tomatoes growing like mad too...anyone have a good recipe for making your own pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes???

Yesterday, I was changing his big stinky diaper (yes he's still NOT potty trained...we're working on that now) when I burped (shame on me...it was more of a long drawn-out belch to be accurate...so unladylike. And honestly, I don't usually do that.)

Christopher looked directly at me and said, "Mama, don't say, 'U-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-g-h'!" 

He was perfectly serious about it and when I burst out laughing, he yelled at me again.

Our cul-de-sac had their annual Bluegrass Festival last weekend (really it's turned into this really big fun event...not your average block party!) and I put this shirt on Christopher.  He looked down at it for a moment contemplatively and with a smile said, "Look like Granddaddy!"

And here he is, stomping around--he's "T-Rex."  He makes stomping sound effects and roars while running after all the neighborhood kids.

A serious case of baby bed head...

At least someone around here is sleeping because it sure isn't me.

Thanks to Benno's newfound talent for rolling over, he's waking himself up more often in the night--I counted 3 times last night, and 4 the previous one. Lucky, lucky me.

He has slept through the night a handful of times, so I know he's capable of it...I tried to convince him that he could go back to sleep himself last night but he noisily protested, and the last thing I need is for the whole lot of boys to be up in the middle of the night.  By the way, I discovered a couple years ago that my definition of "sleeping through the night" is a lot more strict than others'. I heard that some people consider sleeping 5 hours at a time "sleeping through the night."  Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no...for him to be sleeping through the night, I have to be sleeping soundly for 8 hours straight uninterrupted.  At this point it feels as though I'll never get that uninterrupted sleep again but I know from prior experience that that day will return eventually...  It's just rough right now when I have to be up at the crack of dawn each day to get some older brothers to school or soccer or church.  

Sleep? What's that?

Benno Update

Benno's had a busy week too.  I took him in for his 4 month check-up at the beginning of last week.  He continues to grow like a Xanthos and achieve like a Shelley (not meant as an insult to my dear Xanthos's...they are great achievers too but I have to claim some part of him!) He is 26.5 inches long, 15 lbs 14 oz, and his head is 42 cm around--so he falls in the 95th percentile for height (my tallest boy yet!), 75th for weight, and 50th for his head.

So now for the great achievements:

On his back...
He grabs his toes & leans to one side...
And over he goes!  He can now officially roll over BOTH directions--tummy to back to tummy again!  He's scooting better and better too...still faceplants most of the time when he scoots but he's starting to figure it out.
And he had his very FIRST taste of solid foods, specifically rice cereal. He has been watching us eat like a hawk and smacking his lips--it was evident this kid was ready to start so start we did. And so far so good!  I'm going to take it slow and probably will just stick with the cereals for these first few weeks.

Yay, Benno!  Love you sweet guy!!!

Soccer, what else?

So I mentioned our trip, school and it was inevitable I'd get to soccer! I really didn't understand the meaning of "soccer mom" until this year. Aaron's soccer practice & game is every Tues/Thurs 5:30-6:30pm. Anthony's soccer practice is every Tues/Thurs 6-7pm (see a problem there???) and he has a game every Sat morning. If the boys didn't love playing so much, I'd have given up already because this schedule STINKS! (Especially when you know that Monday afternoons are filled with Kindermusik, Wed & Fri with gymnastics...we don't get a break ALL week!) I've got a countdown going though, and as long as we continue to move steadily toward the end of soccer season, I can manage one day at a time. Just 7 more weeks of total insanity 'til Aaron's ends...and 1 more week beyond that to the end of Anthony's.
I do enjoy watching the boys play, and being the camera-happy person that I am, of course I have photos:


This isn't in focus, but this shot of Aaron perfectly illustrates the way he plays...the sappy grin and the arms floating out by his sides while he runs absentmindedly around the field.  He's such a cutie.
Boys together in front of their elementary school after practice one day. I love these little soccer players.
Anthony loves throwing in the ball and managed to throw it in every time it went out during his first game--I don't know if he just insisted on it or none of the other kids wanted to do it.

School!

So we returned from a full week and a half of fun in AZ & UT to jump right into school & soccer season! Anthony is in 2nd grade this year, and his teacher from 1st grade Mrs. Cartmill moved up to 2nd grade with him so that's pretty cool! He's an old pro at this school thing now that he's in 2nd grade. Aaron is a brand-new Kindergartner & he is in Mrs. Brackett's class--the same teacher Anthony had and we LOVED her!

Photos from the first day of school:

Back & busier than ever!

Nothing like coming home from a week-and-a-half long trip to rise bright and early for the first day of school and start in full speed ahead on soccer season, aside from ongoing music lessons & gymnastics classes...it all translates to one HUMONGOUS little word: BUSY!!!

So about our trip...we left early on August 24th, bound ultimately for Phoenix with an overnight pit stop in Alpine, UT. At one of our gas station stops along the way, we pulled up alongside a big old truck with a monster truck loaded on the trailer...you can only imagine the thrill that was for 3 little boys... Upon arriving in Alpine that evening, the whole family was there with cake & decor & party fun for Anthony's birthday. They even bought a pinata that the kids had fun whacking with tennis racket--it took one of the adults to finally get the thing to burst open though.
Here's my favorite shot of Aaron whacking the pinata:

Next morning we headed down I-15 on our way to AZ. When we stopped for gas, we saw signs for Cove Fort at the same exit & decided to check it out. What a treat that was to explore! Grandma Xanthos had packed a lunch for us so we sat & ate that in the grass under a tree. Then a kindly missionary couple gave us a tour through the fort. It was beautifully & very thoroughly restored. You definitely get a real sense of what life was like there. While we were viewing the barn, an elderly gentleman walked in and told stories about some of the items hanging in the barn--turns out he grew up just a little ways away and those things belonged to him! We spent longer than we'd intended there at the fort but it was definitely worth it. Later on we drove through Hoover Dam--they're building a new highway across the dam and it's so extremely high! Driving over that is going to be frightening! When we finally pulled up in front of my sister Katie's house in Laveen, it was about 9:30pm.
Benno & I went to church with Katie Sunday morning while George & the 3 boys slept in. Katie attends a Singles' Ward in Mesa. I felt quite out of place there with my noisy baby--sacrament meeting was SO silent that every little sound Benno made reverberated around the room. It was fun to be with Katie though and interesting to get a little glimpse into her life there. After church, we ate a little lunch and watched the movie about Arthur "Killer" Kane: "New York Doll" before we drove to Glendale to stay with Granddaddy.
We had just a little time there before I needed to run George to the airport to fly home to OR--we all swam in the pool & enjoyed hot dogs hot off the grill with baked beans & chips.
The boys & I spent pretty much all of Monday lounging by and playing in the pool (thank goodness for sunscreeen). We called my sister Maury & she came over with her 2 boys Connor & Cash to swim with us. Granddaddy treated us to dinner at McDonald's that evening.
Boys in the pool:

Tuesday we drove out to Desert Ridge Shopping Center to meet Maury, Connor & Cash again where we shopped for school clothes & then ate lunch & played in the fountains until the boys had all had their fill of fountain fun. We returned home and jumped in the pool again! : ) Granddaddy took us all out to Red Robin that night...yum!
On Wednesday, we spent the morning--guess where--yep, you guessed: playing in the pool! We dried off, ate lunch, then drove to Sun City to visit Grandmom & Granddad Quinn, where we jumped in their pool too! : ) We had fun visiting with them that afternoon & hurried back to Granddaddy's where the boys hung out while I went out for a girls' night out with Katie, Maury, & Lacy (my sister-in-law). I had my very first pedicure! I felt bad since I was late getting there and the place was approaching closing time...and of course I have the worst, nastiest feet ever so the poor lady who worked on me really had her work cut out for her. I can't believe how soft my feet are now though...I may need to make this a habit. We ate at a yummy little Mexican restaurant afterward & planned a girl trip for November (everyone's coming up to Portland, yay!)
Thursday was a big day. The boys & I all got up bright and early to go flying with Granddaddy in his little airplane! We were only in the air for about 15 minutes because it was already hot & the plane has no A/C so we were roasting inside, but we flew out toward Lake Pleasant and saw Granddaddy's house from the air. Immediately afterward, we went to meet Maury & Lacy & all their boys at Pump-it-Up to play before getting McD's for lunch and playing again at their PlayPlace. You'd think we'd have been thoroughly worn out after all of that but yet again we hit the pool.
Boys in the plane:

Friday morning I packed up our things before we drove to Scottsdale to spend the afternoon with Grandma Shelley. Grandma treated us to Wendy's for lunch and we swam in her pool. Her pool was extra fun for the boys in that it has a deep end with a diving board--Anthony & Aaron perfected their cannonball technique. Before we left, my cousin Scott & his wife Heavenly & their cute kids Brooklynn & Jake came over. From there we drove to the airport where we found George fresh off a plane from Portland. : ) Granddaddy gave us his 4 season tickets to go enjoy a Diamondbacks game that night. Once we found the parking garage, we couldn't believe how easy it was to get parked and walk right in to our seats. As we were sitting down, one of the Diamondbacks was signing autographs so I sent the boys off to get their gloves signed. I have no clue who it was since his signature is illegible...if I saw him again I'd recognize him. He's a Polynesian-looking guy who walked off toward the bullpen afterward so he must be a pitcher. Anyway...the game was exciting and the stadium was so big & fabulous. We were sitting there enjoying ourselves when we glanced up at the big screen above the scoreboard and lo & behold, there we were! That was pretty exciting to be featured on the big screen!!! The boys were reaching their baseball limit though in the middle of the 7th inning, so we left and happily avoided the crowds heading home. George & I put the boys to bed & hung out with Katie, who drove up from Laveen, in the pool before crashing for the night ourselves.
Baseball fun:

Granddaddy & Grandma Darlene departed Saturday morning ahead of us on their way to that fabulous well-known resort city of Pioche, NV (kidding...very small town but with BIG fun for the Labor Day weekend...Darlene grew up near there.) We cleaned up & loaded up the car and departed as well to head back to Utah. We wanted to take the more direct, scenic route up 89 through AZ into UT and apparently a lot of other people were headed that way as well as we hit more traffic than we've ever seen before on those lonely desert highways. Just before we reached the turnoff for 89A in northern AZ, traffic came to a complete standstill. Bub spotted a helicopter & soon we realized there'd been a huge accident as the helicopter landed a few hundred yards in front of us. Before too long the traffic did start to move again as they sent us off on this little dirt road around the accident. Off-roading in the Odyssey, yeah! We made a couple other little stops soon afterward--once at Glen Canyon, and once more at the view-point overlooking the Vermillion Cliffs and Glen Canyon. It was late when we finally drove up to the house in Alpine and wearily climbed out of the car.
We slept in (and it's doubtful we'd have been able to stay awake through church even if we'd tried to go...their ward meets at 8AM!!!) and enjoyed our day there with the family. George's grandmother from Brazil flew into town that day and we decided to stay and visit with her and all the family though it meant arriving home a day later than planned. Everyone was there--Papu & Grandma, Ellen, Stelios, Catherine, Vinny (who's moving back to UT from Chicago, yay! Nikki & Kiara were on their way), Terry, Jenny, Karlie, Theo & Adrian, and Cecilia & Ron drove up from Orem. We were glad we could be there.
At long last it was Monday morning (Labor Day) and it was time to head home. Fortunately it was an event-less trip home and we made it in 12 hours flat. Of course when we drove up to the driveway and noticed George's car was gone, we realized we needed to head back to pick up George's car from Nike...but once that was taken care of, we climbed out of the car & straight into bed!!!

It's good to be home, but we've hardly had a chance to stop and just breathe since getting home...but that will have to be another post! It was a very fun & eventful trip & we're so glad we were able to go and see everybody we saw!!! See our website: carolandgeorge.com for lots of photos (Summer Trip...I added a page for Anthony's birthday too. Enjoy!)