Fun

Before I had Claire, EVERYONE kept telling me how hard having 3 kids was going to be. After she was born I figured I was super mom because the first few months weren't that bad. Things seemed to flow well and we were all getting along and happy. Well, the month of September wasn't that way at all. Maybe it's because I have been potty training Will, but something happened and I've been way more stressed out, and consequently I've been a horrible mother.

I don't want to be a bad mom, I want to be a fun, happy mom. So the past few days we've done everything that the kids have wanted to do. Yesterday we went to a park we've never been to, looked at toys at Walmart (also got some groceries), bought a toy for each kid at the dollar store, played chalk, read books, went to another park that friends happened to be at as well, and had tacos for dinner!

Today we haven't done quite as many things but we did go to a fun park we rarely go to that has an awesome walking trail surrounded by trees and tons of rocks and boulders. The kids got to do lots of exploring and rock climbing, and Claire was apparently having fun too! And we had a picnic.

Updates

First, I applied to be on the game show they're making of the app Draw Something, this is the picture I used to apply. Fingers crossed! Before Brad and I started playing this game, he didn't know I could draw, haha!

I wanted to use this picture because I think it is good, but it's too hard to figure out what it's suppose to be. (slowjam, whatever that is)

When I showed Brad this drawing he asked if I drew it, he still doesn't believe I can draw!

 Cute pic of Will

Don't know why they did this, but Ruth made Will a bed in one of the toy buckets and then read stories to him.

Fancy new church clothes

Claire has become a very talkative girl. She loves to jibber jabber. She also LOVES her jumperoo. And she finds it comfy enough to nap in too!

Also, I have to record a funny story while I'm thinking of it. For a while Ruth was really obsessed with traffic lights. If it was red she would want me to stop even if we weren't to the line yet. And the second the light turned green she would shout, "Green, Go! Green, Go! Green, Go!" At first I couldn't figure out where she learned the word gringo, then I figured out what she was getting at.

Labor Day Weekend

We had Brad's and my parents in town over the weekend so we could bless Claire at church. We had lots of fun all together watching the kids show off and playing games once they were in bed. Claire's blessing was really nice, some of the highlights include:
-being filled with light, having light follower her
-being an example to her family, especially her siblings
-having a firm testimony and faith
-being creative in spiritual and temporal pursuits, especially in helping others

The other major thing is that we changed her name to Claire FIONA Laws. While we love having "Clarinet" as a nickname, we felt goofy when we told people her name was Claire Reinette.

Here are a few pics of the big morning:

 Here are pics of the other fun stuff we did.

Bird Center in Boise

Feeding giraffe's at the zoo, look at that tongue!

Yes, we actually slept at the Red Lion

 Brad and I on a camel ride

Everybody but Claire on the camel:

Will's favorite part of the zoo was the kimodo dragon, they had a real one that he stared at for 10 minutes.

My favorite part of the day was eating at Leku Ona (a Basque restaurant), thanks Tia for the suggestion. YUM.

Kid Stuff

The other day at the library there were two guys in a crane fixing the street lamp (or something) on the corner. As we walked by Ruth asked what they were doing. I said I didn't know. She responded, "They're fixing the sky!"

Will is in a singing phase. He's doing that two-year-old, sing about anything and everything deal. It's so cute. On our walk home from the park he sang the whole way, "No, not nice. No, not nice," over and over. Last night before bed he was singing about everything he saw on the floor of our messy living room, while simultaneously doing his robot poses and punches and running in circles.

What inspired this post was the fact that I heard Ruth and Will talking to each other (during quiet time) as I was bringing laundry up from the basement. I went to Ruth's room to tell Buddy to get back in his bed...but what I saw was Ruth laying on the floor, talking into the floor vent. I TOTALLY remember doing this as a kid, and it just made me laugh how kid-like my kids are....which sounds dumb, I just mean that they're not babies anymore.

And Claire? She'll be 3 months on Saturday and has completely outgrown her 3 month clothes already. Also, her gut has developed more so I can finally eat dairy without her spitting up everything she eats. HOORAY for ice cream! However, I will be sad to not have a decent excuse to buy almond milk anymore. That stuff is yummy, but half a gallon is more expensive than a whole gallon of normal milk  :`[

Some Pictures

We went back to Vineyard Lake with our friends the Stouts. Their 12 year old, Taylor, babysits for us.

Brad's maternal grandparents stopped by on their way home from Oregon. We went to Buffalo Cafe in the morning. 

Ruth can draw people! That's a big developmental milestone!

This little turkey has grown so much! She has discovered her thumb and loves to suck on it if she loses her binky.

Ruth LOVES "helping mom," here she is doing dishes.

My little guy is getting more brave, he loves climbing now.

Of course they found the mud...and luckily all that mud came out of their clothes quite nicely.

Cute Pics

Business Trip Day 4

 We finished our Olympics today with Nerf target shooting.

Will got the best shot, you can sort of see the target on the window

We went to lunch at Daisy's, cleaned like crazy, watched mountain biking on the real Olympics and played in the sprinklers.

Mostly, we're all happy daddy is coming home soon!

Business Trip Day 3

Day 3 has been a lot more chill. I sort of ran out of activities to do. This morning we got a car wash, which Ruth loved, Will hated and Claire slept through. Then we went to vacuum a pregnant gal's house (which was the only house work I've done since Brad left). The kids had fun playing for a few minutes while I helped her out. Then we went to the store and spent more money that I wanted on fancy food for Brad's homecoming meal tomorrow afternoon. After putting the groceries away we had lunch at the park and played for a while. We haven't been to lunch at the park very many times this summer so this was a treat for the kids. 

 After lunch we had a photo-shoot (the above pictures), made some cookies (store bought dough, I'm not doing any more dishes than absolutely necessary), then had quiet time. I watched Biggest Loser season 8 (this is an amazing season, really connecting with Abby the gal who lost her two kids and husband in a car crash), and the kids slept. Ruth only spends an hour to an hour and a half in her room, then she gets special mommy time. This is what she did:

 I love my sleeping babies. Probably because they don't require anything of me. They aren't screaming, crying, or whining about anything. Just peaceful and sweet.

Not that my kids aren't ever sweet, but peaceful is not how I would currently describe our family life. My kids are sweet and kind, but quiet peaceful moments really only occur when they are sleeping. We are a busy, active, loud family so I truly cherish quiet time when we all get a break to relax.

We will spend the rest of the day, when Will finally wakes up, watching Toy Story 3 and Madagascar, maybe going to the library and eating chicken nuggets and more popcorn and candy. I hope that next week my kids realize that all this movie watching was only because daddy was gone and not the new norm!

Business Trip Day 2

We started the day by going to the school to play. We took the dog with us too so she could run around and burn off some energy. Ruth really got swinging!

We went home to feed Claire. Then we stopped at the Dollar Store (to get new buckets) before going to McDonald's for lunch. The kids played there for about an hour. Poor Buddy got stuck at the top of the play structure so I had to climb up there to get him. When I got him out he was super sweaty, poor guy. After lunch we headed to the lake. It was so cool and wonderful. We played in the water for nearly 2 hours.

Buddy doing the bear walk in the water, it was really funny to watch

We came home and had some quiet time. Then we ate TV dinners (followed by popcorn and candy) and watched Toy Story 2. The kids loved it!

Then we went to church so I could go to a canning class for Relief Society and thankfully they had a nursery for the kids to go play! This is Claire right before going to church, she wasn't very happy. But all the grandma's at church who wanted to hold her put her right to sleep!