Catching up...

I didn't get a chance to post these videos at the time they were taken, but now that school has started I have more time to catch up on my blogging.

Celebrating Tucker's birthday with the 'Burt' cousins

A baby and some bikes

All in All

Yesterday, we went up to Bridal Veil Falls with some friends to enjoy some cooler weather. It is one of our favorite places to go together because it has a paved hiking trail and the kids can climb up the rocks and play in the water. Hayden and Gabe were the only ones that hiked up to the base of the falls, I prefer to keep my feet on solid (non-slimy and mossy) ground. I would have enjoyed dangling my feet in the water, but Mason was up to his usual antics, i.e. trying to escape down the steep and rocky mountain side to throw rocks into the fast and dangerous river; lying tummy down in the middle of the path to the inconvenience of joggers, bikers and skate boarders; and attempting to take a running leap off of the roof of a cement bunker which overlooked the Provo river. Thankfully my friend Shauna noticed his plight and sprinted in time to grab him. I didn't realize what was happening until I saw her abandoned jogger stroller rolling backwards down the path towards me. Luckily none of her kids were in the stroller, so despite nearly having a heart attack, no one was harmed.

All in all it was a fun excursion, even when a few of the kids lost their balance and fell in the water getting entirely wet. Their despair was quickly eased when I told them that whoever got completely wet won a prize. Brianna was quick to ask what the prize was, I could tell she was deliberating whether it would be worth jumping all the way in. I reassured her that she could have a prize too without drenching herself in the icy cold water.

Thunder Storm
August 18 2010

Burt Sibling Reunion 2010

My kids had a blast visiting with their cousins for a whole week. Even the grownups managed to have a little fun : ) David and Nathaniel's families arrived on Sunday evening, August 1st and Sara and Allie's families joined us on Wednesday. It was a little crowded with 27 people in the house, but everyone was a good sport. We went to a lot of parks, ate a lot of food and changed a lot of diapers. Mason still asks every day to play with his "dozins" (cousins).

Gage (5 1/2 months) and Kaitlyn (4 months) enjoying some tummy time

Joshua, Jonas, Cody, Brianna and Hayden on the couch watching the Backyardagains

Mason and Gage hanging with Mommy while the older kids jump and play at "Jumping Jacks"

Gabe making the grownups smores with his blowtorch while we played cards at the table.
No matter what their age, boys will always be fascinated with fire.

Playing at the Library park, which is also close to a shave ice shack, so we brought all of our quarters from our yard sale jar and enjoyed a cool treat.

(Mason, Cody and Jesse)
The boys had a lot of fun getting their feet wet, trying to feed the the over stuffed ducks and geese bread, fishing, and rafting at the Salem Duck Pond.

(Mason, Cody and Joshua)

Mason finally got a turn in the raft with Uncle Nathaniel and Jesse, but that still didn't stop him from dragging the raft down the hill by himself and trying to go again. Luckily there was a barrier post he couldn't get past before his attempts were successful.

Logan and Gage got to spend most of their time in the stroller at the Duck Pond.

The Mom's enjoyed some "down time" while the kids stayed occupied eating pizza and playing on the wooden structures at the Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove.

Mason's 3rd birthday

Mason's birthday was on July 23rd, but of course it has taken me nearly a month to post evidence of that fact. Mason really enjoyed being the center of attention and didn't mind that his cake was just cupcakes in the shape of a three. Watching him blow out his candles was a riot, I'm just disappointed the lighting was really poor because it was a hoot to watch. I made him a reversible "super cape" superman/batman, but I replaced the "S" for an "M". To my surprise he really like it.

I might just use cupcakes all the time now when designing my kids birthday cakes, they're so versatile. Versatile is code for: I had no time to be creative and make a "cool" cake, but I really do love you and since you're only 3 you hear the words 'cake' and 'ice cream' and you think you have it made.

The "Super Mason" cape

He's so happy he's getting his very own pirate ship, now he can play along with his older brothers and not be stuck with the little dingy.

All the kids had fun playing with his activity bus

So happy to be in the middle of everything


Super Mason!!! Everyone get out of his way

How many puffs does it take to blow out 3 candles?

Gage enjoyed some fun daddy time during the party

Mason

Elizabeth Gosney took this picture of Mason, she did a really good job of capturing his sweet disposition which is often overpowered by his mischievous counterpart

Yes, I'm still here

It's been over two months since I last blogged and I really don't know where to start. It's 11:15 pm right now, so I can spend 10 minutes updating everyone on our lives...
Last week we hosted a Burt sibling reunion and had all of my siblings and their families staying at our house for a week. It was crazy, fun, tiring, worthwhile and chaotic. I will hopefully get some pictures and videos posted soon.
This summer has been quite the learning lesson for me, trying to find a balance between having a routine and summer jobs for the kids and letting them, and me, just kick back and focus on doing fun activities together despite the fact that my counters are covered in clutter, the carpet no longer remembers the feel of a vacuum and dinner is once again a "Hot and ready pizza" from Little Caesars because I haven't been able to make it to the grocery store for over a week.
I am looking forward to the start of a new school year, and perhaps this Fall I will be able to "get things together" with 3 kids in school full time, providing I do get a wall harness for Mason as he is still proficient in escaping. Well, I have used up my 10 minutes and am going to let the 3 loads of dirty laundry wait yet another day because I would rather sleep.

Where to Start...

Do you ever sit down to blog and then just stare at the screen wondering where to start, or try to figure out what's "worthy" of mentioning? I don't want my posts to just be about how I struggle day to day trying to stay sane, or describing how much work my kids are, but honestly that's my life so I don't have a lot of material to draw from. I feel like I waste a lot of time trying to phrase things eloquently, and I do a lot of revising after words, so I'm just going to type things out as they come to my mind and hopefully it won't sound too jumbled.

Last week Gabe drove to California for his Grandpa Roberts funeral and I got to experience being a single parent for 4 days. I kept it simple, doing frozen pizza for dinner, cereal for snacks, neglecting house work and letting the kids stay up late. During this time I was also prepping for a yard sale I was doing with a neighbor, so our living room and garage were full of boxes so I could organize everything. I'm surprised my kids didn't ask me if we were moving. I of course stayed up way too late the night before the yard sale doing last minute things and then decided to bake cookies and brownies for the kids to sell. They are earning money so we can go visit Grandma and Grandpa in Texas. I did get everything done, but only got 2 hours of sleep, so the next day was an adventure. Gabe was still out of town, so I had to stay in our garage or in the kitchen with our garage door open so I'd be available to be cashier when people were ready to pay. It made nursing a little awkward and timing my bathroom breaks a little tricky. My kids survived mainly on cookies and brownies from the bake sale and Mason was running around the block in his pajamas and a soggy diaper for the first few hours. Our garage is still in mayhem, but our living room is almost back to normal.

Last Sunday I was asked to meet with the bishop after church, so I knew a new calling was most likely going to be extended to me. Either that or I was going to be asked not to bring my boys to church anymore because they were too much of a distraction (I wonder if that has ever happened before?) My bishop told me I had been requested to be a R.S. teacher and then tentatively asked if I thought I would be able to handle accepting the calling. I was very tempted to decline because honestly I don't have a lot of spare time and it will be difficult for me to make the time to prepare my lessons because I have to read over them 10-20 times in order to counter my nervousness and bad memory. I knew my bishop would understand if I declined, and I have plenty of good excuses to not accept, but I knew in my heart that I would be able to handle it. (Now I just have to figure out how).

In the meantime I have been struggling with a lot of back and shoulder pain from some of my ribs being out of place. My chiropractor asked me if I was nursing because that can put a lot of stress on your back and neck. I guess after 5 kids my body is having a hard time keeping up. I know if I started exercising again it would help, but that is something all of us women "know" but knowing and doing are two very different things. Right now sleep is more of a priority because if I don't exercise before my kids wake up, then I never get around to it. I always start my day with good intentions, I'll stay in my pajamas and I'll keep putting off taking a shower because I tell myself I'll get the chance at some point... 2 days later I still haven't exercised and I'm past due for a shower : ) Embarrassing as that is, I know I'm not the only one.

One-On-One With Gage

It was a little tricky holding a baby and a camera at the same time, but I didn't drop either one, so I don't think I did too bad.

Luau Party

This year is our kids year to have a friend birthday party. Brianna wanted to have a Luau themed party, and lucky for us the Dollar Store was a great resource for decorations. She had fun greeting all of her friends at the door and putting a lei around their necks. I made her a brownie cake, because in my opinion brownies are much better than regular chocolate cake, and I made a yummy peanut butter frosting to go with it. She and her friends had a lot of fun playing limbo and the candy bar game. The candy bar game is also great for a family night activity, so I will explain how to play at the end of this post for those who are interested.

Tiki Brownie Cake

Brianna and her friends

Of course a typical day at our house always includes a few mishaps, a.k.a. "things that make Mommy upset". The two "mishaps" that I will mention both include Tucker. First, he and his friend "Little Hayden" thought it would be fun to rip holes in our trampoline net enclosure. I don't know what they were thinking or why they did it, but Tucker's explanation was "I don't know, we just did it". He and Little Hayden are now grounded from the trampoline, and I am going to attempt to repair the rips in the netting with nylon thread. The second mishap involving Tucker came about when I gave him gum. Of course before hand I went over the rules, 1. The gum stays in your mouth 2. You don't play with it with your fingers 3. You spit it in the trash when you are done, and he assured me he would comply. Big mistake! A half an hour later it was stuck all over his face. I had Gabe rub peanut butter on his face and let is soak in a bit so it would be easier to remove. Tucker is now grounded from gum.

"The Peanut butter solution"

The Candy Bar Game:
You need a large Hershey's chocolate bar, an 8x8 metal pan, a clean Phillips head screwdriver, a dice, a winter hat, a scarf and gloves or mittens. You put the unwrapped chocolate bar in the metal pan and place it in the middle of the table along with the screw driver and winter items. Everyone sits around the table, taking turns rolling the dice, trying to get a six. When someone rolls a six, they quickly put on the winter items, then they use the screwdriver to break small pieces off of the chocolate bar and then eat them. Our rule is that you can only eat one piece at a time and the first piece has to be completely gone before you can pop another one in. In the mean time all of the other players quickly continue rolling the dice trying to get a six. As soon as another six is rolled the first person has to stop immediately and quickly remove all the winter items so the next person can get started. For older kids you can use over-sized gloves or mittens to make it harder. We tell our kids that if someone has the misfortune of not getting to eat any chocolate, they will get a piece at the end.

Bitter Sweet

There is something about a baby's laughter and smiles that is so contagious. Gage is all smiles and dimples right after he has been fed. Of course that starts me laughing and he in turn starts laughing and cooing, then the hiccups follow. All of my boys have been really "good" babies but Gage is the only one that has had a naturally happy disposition. I didn't know babies good be so responsive and aware of their surroundings at such a young age. My other kids usually slept and ate for the first 3-4 months of their lives. It has been a bitter, sweet experience with Gage in that he is such a blessing in our lives and brings a happy spirit into our home. But at the same time it's a little sad knowing this is the last time we'll get to experience all the fun baby stages for ourselves. So I am just trying to enjoy every moment and am in no rush to have him grow up.