1st Vs. 7th

I have been thinking for a few months now how much different AJ rules were when he was 2 then Miley. AJ was a only child and the center of my universe (as he should have been). Each one of his actions was carefully evaluated as to how I should react to be that "perfect" parent. Miley shares attention with 7 other kids and two businesses. However, I think I enjoy parenting her more. Not because she is cuter, easier, more fun, etc. I am not sure she is more that than any of my other kids, but I have relaxed on the parenting front and been able to enjoy her for her. I don't carefully analyze and calculate my parenting actions as I once did. Today I realized maybe I need to analyze more.

Miley got into the pantry (less than an hour after breakfast) and made her own concoction of pretzel M & M's with a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter. She had a spoon and a bib and was ready to dig in when I found her. If it were my first child, I would have taken away the food, given a 2 minute timeout, followed by a lecture of asking before getting into the pantry. Cut to today, when I asked what she was doing and then told her if she was going to eat it she needed to sit at the kitchen table. How life changes?

I have always said that the hard part of being a mom is everything you do either gets undone in less than a day (i.e.cleaning the kitchen) or takes 20 years to find out if you did it right or not. Hopefully, 20 years from now I will be glad that Miley had PB/Pretzel M & M's for breakfast today.

Reality TV

Over the past several years, we have heard "You should have a TV show" more than a couple of times. On Wednesday we got a taste of what reality TV would be like. A film crew showed up at our house at 7:30 AM and stayed all day. It was all part of making a short documentary (2.5 minutes) on Al & I for Mormon.org. If all goes well, at the beginning on summer you will get to see Al & I trying to convince the world that we are normal people.

We were miked all day and had a camera within in 5 feet of each of us almost the whole day. They filmed our life while asking us why we were the way we were. While you shortly forget the cameras are there, everyone around you doesn't. I didn't think it was possible to get stranger looks than we get when I take all 7 kids somewhere. Having a camera man does add to the looks.

It really hit me that night about how far I had come in 10 years. 10 years ago if we had someone coming over to our house, it would be cleaned top to bottom, outfits coordinated, and the house filled with the aroma of homemade yumminess and that was for some friends stopping by, not a film crew. Cut to this week, where my house was filmed with beds unmade, kids with dirty faces, and dinner out.

I realized several times throughout that day, I could worry about portraying the perfect family, or we could just be us. Yes, I wish that the house was perfect, kids looked perfect, and I was the perfect homemaker. Sometimes though I have to remind myself to be easy on myself and remember there is only so much I can do.

Kate + 8 and the Duggars can stay in the spotlight and we will happily go back to regular life.

"7" The Prime Number

In September, we added a 7th kid to our family, Lindy. Lindy is as cute as a bug, the sweetest girl ever, and Abby's full biological sister. Hopefully this spring, the adoption will finalize and she will be a permanent part of our family. While we have felt blessed to have her in our home, we have discovered that 7 is an odd number. I don't think I quite believed Mr. Barlow, my weird middle school math teacher, about how unique the number 7 really is. It doesn't divide into equal parts no matter what you do with it.

* Our "beverage buddies" have come to a screeching halt. When there is one person that gets their own drink, everyone else complains.

* Everything seems to come in packages of 4, 6, 8, or 10- which was so easy to divide in our family (4= 2 packages and everyone gets one, 6 = kids only, 8 = everyone gets one, 10 = everyone gets one now plus 2 for parents later). Now we always seem to have extras to fight over.

* I used to count to 6, 100's of times a day to make sure I had everyone with me. Counting to 7 doesn't have the same melody (try it 1.2.3.4.5.6.1.2.3.4.5.6.1.2.3.4.5.6.. vs. 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.1.2.3.4.5.6.7.1.2.3.4.5.6.7.). You always feel like you are off count. I have resorted to counting 6 + AJ.

* Our van seems off balance. It used to be 2 in the front, 2 in the first seat, 2 in the middle seat, and 2 in the back. We seem to be constantly rearranging the kids to figure out which bench should have 3 to have the proper feng shei.

* 7 kids + 2 adults has put us into the "large party" dinning whenever we go out to dinner. There are always tables for 8, but 9 is where the "special" tables break out.

If adding just 1 more to make it an even 8 wouldn't be so much work, it would be the simple fix. But Al & I both agree, it is much easier to just adjust to 7.




Here is a video of Lindy from our Christmas Video. It starts with the first time that Abby, Aly, and I meet Lindy in Nebraska in September.

Spring Break 2011

Top 15 of Spring Break 2010

#1 "The Bounder": The RV that we rented to take the kids on a five day, four night tour of the Texas Hill Country. The Bounder was 37 feet long with 3 sleeping areas and more TV's than our house.

#2 For the 437th time, yes all six kids are ours and before you say it yes our hands are full.

#3 "It just takes a minute to get used to." We used this phrase several times to coax our kids into Texas Spring water temperatures. Truth is, you never did get use to it, but it was fun. We did cliff jumping, river tubing, natural spring swimming with waterfalls and our kids favorite, the heated pool.

#4 After our camping reservation in Fredricksburg was a dud, Lisa was cooked dinner in the far end of the parking lot of HEB of while Al frantically searching on the Ipad for a place to park the Bounder overnight.

#5 Careening over the railroad track at 50 mph and launching the 3 bikes strapped to the back of the Bounder into oncoming traffic. Followed by Al sprinting a block back to the tracks to recover the bikes while the rest of family enjoyed the current movie selection. Sadly, only one bike survived.

#6 Bedtime Movie Night. Rudy, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Stars Wars 1, and Star Wars 2. Surprisingly the only nightmares were about "The Cheese Touch."

#7 After learning the hard way the proper steps to emptying the Bounder's sewage system, Al was a little crazy about only #1's in the Bounder. The only curse word uttered on the trip was Al just explaining what he was standing in.

#8 Lisa spending most of the trip wondering if she was actually riding on a cruise vessel in the open ocean. Unfortunately there was no railing to puke over the side. She learned that while traveling it was best to get a movie turned on for the kids and load them up with licorice and other treats so she didn't have to walk around on the Bounder.

#9 AJ managed to sneak almost all of the $15 of firewood into the campfire the first night. It did make great roasting for the larger than life marshmallows that Al bought.

#10 Due to the lack of personal space, Aly discovered the closet in the bedroom of the Bounder was the best place to be alone and get a good scream in.

#11 Caleb listened to his brother instead of common sense and reached into the hot coals left from the morning campfire to get out a prized rock. He paid dearly for it and spent the next two hours keeping his 2nd degree burned fingers in ice water.

#12 Abby the child that can open anything, managed to sneak open the packaged of licorice nibs and eat and distribute 3/4 of the package before we realized why everyone was being so secretive.

#13 The trip was full of proud moments for Jake. He walked by a dog without going berserk (a first for him), was the best at spotting squirrels and had a special language to talk to them, and dared to swim across the frigid spring to the waterfall with Al.

#14 Miley's bed hopping tour. The poor girl could never make up her mind where she wanted to sleep and instead took turns tormenting all of us one night at a time. Of course, no one wanted sleep with the little dirt ball. Babies only take about 2 minutes to be covered in dirt when camping.

#15 Upon arriving home realizing that we still hadn't adjusted our schedule to daylight savings time and Monday morning was going to be brutal.

Spring Break Picture Slideshow

Spring Break Slideshow

I made this video of our trip for the kids and thought that our families might like it. It is lengthly (4 1/2 min or so). There is nothing clean about camping and eating cheese puffs!

The Snowman Club

Since Caleb could walk, we have countless stories of his noctural behavior. Lately, he has recruited Jake in his late night and early morning escapades.

Last week, I noticed a strange glow coming from the boys bedroom right before we were headed to bed. That's when I discovered "The Snowman Club". Jake and Caleb had made nests of blankets in the corner of their room and found the porch snowman from Christmas and plugged him in for light. I broke up the club and stuck the snowman back in the closet, vowing the next day to put it in the attic where it belonged.

I forgot to tell Al about the club or put the snowman away.

The next night, it was Al that discovered the hottest club in the Burns' house, which apparently had gotten so hot that shirts were optional and chocolate chips were mandatory. Fortunatley, there were still only two members. Al shut the party down, put the snowman in the closet, and thus ended The Snowman Club.

I am sure there are more clubs running underground. It is just a matter of time before we discover them.

The 5th Child

Apparently when you are the 5th child you learn a little about fending for yourself. Jake was tired of my telling him that he looked like a monkey and we needed to get his haircut. On Friday, he grabbed the scissors and cut anything that was sticking up. You can't really blame the kid. It did force us to get him a real haircut the next day.