red bib and emergency drills

he was so excited to be 

in a red bib today at ski school.

warmest most beautiful day in the mountains.

i could have stayed up there all day.

which worked out to be super convenient to be feeling that way

because little cottonwood canyon emergency services 

was doing an evacuation drill right as we were going home.

so we rolled the windows down in the car

and sat in traffic for half an hour in the middle of the mountains

with the sun on our arms

coming in through the windows.

and i sat there thinking about how great it was to just sit in the middle of the road,

looking all around, with nowhere else to go.

big brother is watching you. {ROY G. BIV}

day 5 of no tee-vee.

their job is to work on their leprechaun trap until i wake up.

glue,

water colors,

and

ROY G. BIV color organized spreadsheet and marker line up.

let's just say it's 8am.

and let's just say i'm still all nestled in my bed,

warm and cozy,

with a baby snug in his crib happily sucking on his "B",

and two happily sharing crafting children at the kitchen table.

and then let's just say,

"this is funny" in the words of doc holliday.

because everyone knows there AIN'T NO WAY that's gonna happen.

my guess is that max will be screaming at brennan for stealing her paint brush,

and brennan will be arguing with max over who got the better water color set,

and they both will be pulling the aluminum foil covered 

kodiak pancake box back and forth like the baby story in the bible,

except when it breaks in half, 

brennan will cry, and max will just be happy she got half.

at which point i will submit to taking my ear plugs out, 

and chase will be woken up from WWIII that has erupted from the kitchen table.

yes, that's more like it.

maybe i should just be more positive?

oh but reality is just so much more hilarious.

7 days without tv feels almost impossible when saturday and sunday morning come on days 5 and 6.

thank goodness my children have no sense of what 7 days feels like,

and no idea what day we are on,

because if it's 6am that this all goes down at,

i can tell brennan the great news that grounding from tv is over on this fine saturday,

and go back to sleep.

i will keep you posted.

maybe i'd better just tell them the leprechaun is watching on the secret video cameras...

afternoons lately {secret hideout to chicken coop}

i've had a sunburn on my face two days in a row.

the second time i put sunscreen on.

it was in vain.

no help-oh.

the next three months are some of the best months of utah weather all year.

we will have winter, spring, and summer weather all in one day.

in the morning it's 36*.

by 5pm chances are it's been 65*, snowed, rained, and gone back to 55* by bedtime.

you never know what you're gonna get.

someone almost always changes clothes halfway through day, including myself.

i love it!

my kids have been riding bikes from lunch to dinner time.

yesterday i sat in my driveway with a pitcher of pink lemonade 

and watched a pack of 7 boys on bikes and scooters 

{with two little sisters trailing behind} 

go from their "secret hideout" at the house behind ours, 

to the chicken coop around the opposite corner across from "little justin's house"

about 20 times.

every fifteen minutes or so, they'd all swoop around the corner at our house,

smiling, laughing, and yelling forward and backwards to each other in the pack.

it gets me so excited for summer.

this has happened 3 days in a row.

it reminds me of the sandlot, and makes me want to go to home depot,

load up my van with wood and nails,

and build a tree house out of wood with sean {because we don't have any trees},

so that the boys can spend the summer in a place all their own.

playing cards and potty talking with no one to tell them not to.

i bought a few plants instead and let them soak up the sun next to the lemonade.

by the end of the day brennan stinks like boy, and everyone is covered in chalk,

dirt, and eyes that look so tired they will fall asleep standing up.

spring,

we're glad you're here:)

letters to Beth {sister murphey's blog, peeing in parking lots, & bike rides}

dear beth,
i want to hear you speak about smith sometime! other than just our life chats. i want to be in the room with a group of people that you are lighting up like you do. you are amazing. absolutely positively amazing.

i love sister murphey's blog. her sweet treats tantalize my eyes. TANTALIZE. i'm still dreaming about a chocolate peanut butter cake, filled with peanut butter m&m's and peanut butter frosting. does she make those? that's what i was thinking about when i was looking at all of her creative confections. chase would probably get in fights with bear over her 200 cars. he is pure 3rd child defend your stuff until  you die kind of kid. it is so cute, and i would have never allowed such behavior from my other kids, but with chase i just laugh because it is really so so cute.

yesterday we didn't let brennan watch tv all day. or play computer. or use phones. he slept the best 12 hours he's ever slept. i woke up before him feeling refreshed and knew right away there was no way he was going to be on time to school and also i asked sean how many days did he think he we could go without watching tv or playing on phones? he was out of control yesterday and so that's why he lost all of his screens. let me list the things he did BEFORE noon: threw his rain boot at max's head in the car, kicked chase from behind, jumped on his friend cade and punched him in the back seat, yelled, screamed, potty talked like nobody's business, and wouldn't listen to a dang thing. and like i said, that was all before noon. finally i told him to get out of the car, locked the doors, and left him on the sidewalk on our street believing that we were going to the waffle truck without him. then i drove off and around the corner, and back around to watch him from down the street. he just needed a good shite scaring. he sat in susie's driveway crying for 5 minutes with no coat and no boots. then i drove up to him from behind and asked him if he was ready to get back in the car and made him explain how he was going to act if we let him back in. he stopped crying, told me his plans, and had to make apologies to everyone in the car. it worked. then we drove to the waffle truck, and got chocolate filled, biscoff, whipped cream, raspberry topped waffles in the snow from the waffle love truck {b/c it was snowing and windy like crazy at this point}. was it around when you were living in provo? they have their shop down there, and now they send their trucks all around the greater salt lake every day. i follow them on instagram because they tell you where their trucks are going to be for the next day the night before. so anyway, they were right down the street yesterday and we went. and cade peed in a puddle right in front of the truck, and we all laughed, and i'm pretty sure it made the college boy's in the trucks day, and then a truck almost ran over all four kids while we were trying to take their picture in front of the waffle love truck. i'm sure that the waffle love truck people were shaking their heads and telling their girlfriends last night about the kid that peed in the puddle in front of the truck, and about the two moms with the crazy kids. POSITIVE:) oh the shame!!!! not really;) but the waffles are amazing amazing. melted in my mouth, and even tasted amazing hours later once they cooled down. the chocolate had hardened on the waffle and the cream was all eaten off, but the waffles with the hard chocolate still was just as good. it totally reminded me of when we would have waffle parties at my apartment before 3pm student ward church in chico, and i would put peanut butter, and ice cream, and chocolate sauce, and whipped cream on waffles for everyone and they all thought i was CRAZY, but i didn't care because it tasted so amazing:) good good memories.

other things brennan did the rest of the day: strangled chase, body slammed chase, chased max around the house while she screamed and cried, picked his nose, read books for an hour with me, drew pictures of rainbows and wrote letters to the st patrick's day leprechaun, screamed at chase, drew chalk on the sidewalk with his friends, went to his secret hide out around the corner on bikes with his friends, threw his ninja turtle truck across the patio, put a hole through his new shirt with his pencil during homework, banged the trampoline ladder onto the bbq, and broke the lightening mcqueen parking garage. it was a day. so i put him to bed at 7:15 and read books to the other kids until 8. brennan was screaming at me from his bed, telling me i was the meanest mom on the block, he didn't like anyone, not his friends, not me, not dad, not max, no chase, "NOOOBOOOODY!!!!" and then he got really quiet, and i thought he was asleep, but when i went to put the other two kids to bed half an hour later i walked by his room and i heard this sweet little quiet smiling voice say, "i'm glad you're up here mommy. i love you." and right then i knew that putting limits on him was what he needed right now. and it wasn't fun, and it made me feel not nice, but it was the right thing to do. then i kissed all of my babies, gave them all hugs, and sang a song to max and brennan in each of their beds, and left them all to their drooping eyes. then sean got home, and i told him about everything and we laughed and talked serious about if what we were doing was the right thing for him, and finally decided that he's just not allowed to hurt the other kids in the family and destroy his stuff, and if no tv and a little tough love for a week is what we feel we need to try, then that's what we're going to try and we would reassess how it goes in a week. so that's the plan. this parenting stuff is a hard business. i know you know.

our favorite thing to do right now is ride bikes. after 4 days of sick kids over the weekend we just couldn't watch CARS one more time, and so i strapped chase to my back and we rode off on what was going to be an amazing bike riding outting! except for all three kids cried the entire time, and we only made it a block, and i ended up turning around and peddling chase home to get him out of his misery and the other two kids were literally screaming and crying all the way back. it was not awesome. except for these two pictures i took. they were really awesome and made me happy:)

i'm so sad to hear you are sick.
there's nothing worse than a sick mom.
when the mom is down, the house is down.
i hope bryce is making you tea with lemon at night,
or waffles with nutella, biscof, and cream with raspberries on top.
or something else really germany great that you love.
the trees are all budding right now.
even our peach tree.
i can't wait for all of the spring blossoms to open up.
sending hugs and vitamin C your way.
love,
em

letters to Emily {rain, defiant bear, & perfection smith}

Dearest Emiline Gibson,

That is hilarious and horrible at the same time.  I know how UNfunny things can be at the moment, and afterwards it is so funny you want to pee your pants!  Like you playing a good softball catcher and catching Max's barf in the Ikea plate.  Beautiful.  Just beautiful.  And daylight saving doesn't happen here till the end of the month.  And it is full on Spring here.  And I love it.  But traditionally in April around here there is A LOT of  rain.  And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the rain.  I also love the sunshine, so I can't decide what I love more, but I do love hearing the pitter patter of drops on the roof tops and watching Bear splash in puddles and feeling like the earth is getting a big drink of water.  It get's thirsty too ya know!  Things around here have been great....the only weak link around here these days is Me.  Yep, I have been hit hard with sickness and my kids are doing great.  Strange.  But I am  feeling better than I felt yesterday and that is just fine with me.  I am loving everything Bear is doing lately.  I love hearing his dialogue while he plays with his cars, I love that he is SO defiant (not really), but Bryce and I just can't get enough of him, or Smith for that matter.  After we said prayers and read scriptures one night (which Bear refused to do on that particular night  I just looked at little Smith and realized he will always be there for prayers and scriptures.  He is perfect.  It's nice to have a little piece of perfection around all the time.  I gave a presentation today to about 20 special education students visiting here for a week long study abroad, about life in europe with a special needs child.  I loved it.  It was great.  They asked reallly great questions and I could talk about Smith all day long.  I took Bear and SMith to the park which Bear ended up throwing sand at my face and at most of the kids around him, so he landed himself a time out on my lap.  It worked.   We'll see.   I don't know if you have seen some of Sister Murphy's creations but you really should visit her blog.  She lives here in Heidelberg and bakes everyday!!!  We have Sister. Murphy day every week.  We go to her house about 10 and she has like 200 little cars for Bear to play with, and she has allergy free snacks for him ready and usually a cupcake for me!  It is so fun!  

http://thesugaryshrink.blogspot.com

I really really really am wishing your kids get OVER all the illness soon.  I hate it when family is sick, and when it rains, it POORS.  You should know that.   I wish we were cooking something magical today and spending the day with our shoes off, the warm grass tickling our feet while our kids play in the water, oh the joys of summer.  But it's spring and spring is my favorite.  So let us raise our juice glasses to a wonderful Spring!  Love you Emiline!

love

Beth

letters to Beth {day light SAVIN' and horse manure}

dear beth,

hello dear friend!!!

it's day light SAVIN' time over here today.

spring forward.

usually my least favorite day of the entire year,

except this year,

because i have sick kids.

and so it hasn't been so bad.

see,

max had a fever all last week,

then an ear infection,

and then the boys both woke up with fevers this morning,

and then max barfed after dinner.

10 minutes after i gave her the antibiotic for her ears and such.

it was terrific!

no really, it was.

i caught all three barfs right in her dinner plate.

those new ikea plates with the lip around the edge are amazing.

no puke on me,

no puke on her,

and most importantly,

no puke on the carpet:)

i've never been so happy about puke ever.

but like i was saying,

the best part of having sick kids on the day light savin' time switch 

is that they are all begging to go to bed right on time.

except really it's an hour ahead of time.

and sean was all,

"what time it is really?"

and i was like,

"it's 6:30"

and he was all,

"you're letting him go to bed at 6:30?"

and i said,

"well it's actually 7:30."

and i could tell that neither of us were really sure what time it really was anyway.

mostly because half of the clocks in our house are one time,

and the other half are another.

and it was still light outside.

but like i said,

they all went to bed right on time.

or an hour early.

whichever.

anyway,

we were up in the middle of the night with brennan and his fever,

and we didn't actually remember it was day light savin' time,

b/c if we did we wouldn't have stayed up until 1am watching captain phillips.

must see.

wowza.

so by some miracle sean woke up on time and made it to his sunday morning meetings by 8am,

and somewhere in there brennan woke up and wandered downstairs to get my phone,

and then max came in and turned on the tv in my room to watch the movie that's always playing on it 

{right now it happens to be mater's tall tales.}

and then i heard chase crying,

which is when i went in to get him and i could see fever in his eyes.

so then he came into bed with us and his sippy cup full of milk,

and we all laid there in a trance for half an hour.

then we staggered downstairs and i made breakfast that no one ate.

and we watched movies for the rest of the day.

i made us all go out for a walk around the block instead of eating lunch 

b/c no one wanted to eat still.

fever life. it has it's perks.

less food prep and less clean up.

and then we came back and somewhere around 5pm sean and i fell asleep in the big room,

because our bodies thought it was 4pm, and i usually get drozy around 4,

and also we were up all night,

and the clocks did their savin' thing.

except someone should tell those savin' people 

that "SAVING" is actually when you keep it,

not lose it.

like an hour of sleep.

or 3 if you were up with a kid and a fever.

the sun was warming our backs and legs,

and it was just sooooooo lovely that i couldn't help but fall asleep listening to sean read Aesop's Fables to brennan, and then when i woke up, sean was asleep and brennan was gone,

and then later i saw that

max took about 42 pictures of us asleep.

note the sticker she also stuck on my back. 

this one of sean's ankle below is pretty sweet.

or maybe it's the arch of his foot?

arc?

whichever.

future photographer.

max gibson.

we are so proud.

especially of that last artsy one of my feet in the shadows.

wow.

everything's cool as long as i don't get this fever they've all got.

winter just wasn't going to let us get off scotch free.

wait, i think it's scott free.

and right when it got warm.

what the heck?

i'm so glad we made it this far through winter.

wait, i think we were sick at christmas.

barfing.

i'm vaguely remembering lots of barfing.

OCEANS.

that's right.

well anyway, i've obviously forgotten about it 

and thought that this is our first real sickness, so let's just go with that.

and it really worked out great that it was on day light savin' time.

how are you?

your boys look so grown up in your pictures.

what is spring like in Heidelberg?

is anything blossoming yet?

we put down all of our horse manure mulch yesterday.

the lilac bush and the peach tree all have little buds on them.

i can hardly wait for the garden this summer!

note: christmas lights still up.

we've got our priorities straight:)

here's to another year with a WEED FREE yard!

tell me everything that's going on with you?

are you growing anything in your house?

how is smith's wheelchair?

i loved watching bear push him around your flat.

is bear saying "no" to everything?

chase is.

it's still cute.

for now.

love,

emiline

...

p.s.

i usually spend the first week of day light savin' time thinking about how it's really supposed to be an hour back, and how i've been so cheated to now have to go to bed an hour early when i could have stayed up an hour more. have you ever heard of something so silly as that? good grief, it's not like i've lost any more time after the first day, AND it's not dark until 8pm, and that's got to count for something! the neighborhood is really starting to come alive, and i LOVE it.

happy ALMOST spring:)