Monday, Monday...

One of my best friends from my mission, Lacy, happened to be in town visiting her family and she found time Monday morning to stop by my house for a short visit.  She brought along with her, her son Riley.  I'm not completely convinced that Riley enjoyed the visit (I think my four ROWDY boys kinda overwhelmed him) but I enjoyed chatting with Lacy nevertheless. It's a shame we live so far from each other! Why did she have to move to TEXAS?!

After she left, I decided to take all the boys to Thanksgiving Point for a walk through the gardens.  The Tulip Festival is going on there right now.  I love visiting the gardens with the boys because they can run along the paths freely and roll down the hills.  I get to enjoy looking at the flowers and something about visiting the waterfall there is so refreshing! It's also been nice getting out and breathing the fresh air and absorbing some Vitamin D; our pale complexions need some color after a long winter cooped up inside the house.

Just before heading out to the gardens, I was packing all the boys into the car from home.  Going any where with my four boys is quite a task.  On a good day, it normally takes at least 15 minutes to get all of them buckled into their car seats; that's only after I've made sure they all have their shoes on (I'm thankful it's not jacket weather outside any longer because that usually adds an additional 5 minutes to my trip) and I've changed the 3 younger ones diapers.  Once they're all seated in their car seats, I have to put the double stroller in the car, make sure the diaper bag has all the right number of essentials in it (i.e. 6 diapers and LOTS wipes); I grab a few snacks and drinks; prepare two baby bottles... yep, that's what it normally takes to get "on the road" with my traveling circus!  Yesterday I had 3 of the 4 boys buckled into their car seats, I still needed to go upstairs and wake Cohen from his nap.  Just as I left the car and went back inside the house to get Cohen I heard the baby, Bentley, crying and choking!  I ran back out to the car to see what had happened and that's when my four year old, Noah, told me that Ian, my two year old who was sitting right next to Bentley, found a penny and put it in Bentley's mouth! By this time, Bentley had quit gagging/choking, he'd vomited a little on himself and he was babbling again, happy as can be!  Just to make sure that nothing really was still in  Bentley's mouth, I made a hook with my finger and fished around in his mouth and the back of his throat looking for a penny or anything for that matter that shouldn't have been in it.  NOTHING turned up.  I yelled at both the boys for playing with Spencer's pocket change and told them NEVER to let Bentley have it or put anything in his mouth, then I grabbed Bentley and took him inside so I could call the doctor.  I was half worried that the doctor would tell me to take Bentley immediately into the E.R. for an x-ray; that wasn't how I pictured spending my afternoon, not to mention, the idea of lugging all four boys into the E.R. didn't excite me either.  I explained the situation to the nurse over the phone and told her my four year old said Bentley swallowed a penny but I wasn't SURE whether that was really true or not (we're still working on teaching Noah the difference between "truth" and "fabrication").  The nurse reassured me that as long as Bentley didn't seem to have any trouble breathing he should be fine and there was no need to bring him in.  She also added that the penny should pass through his system with out a problem and suggested that I be on "poop patrol", implying that I dig through his next poop to look for the penny (I think I'll hand that job over to Spencer). I was relieved to hear that I wouldn't have to take Bentley into the E.R. for x-rays but still troubled to think that if he really did swallow a penny, matters could have been MUCH worse! (b.t.w. as I'm writing this my one year old walked in and gave Bentley a fruit snack, which he gladly accepted and tried to eat! My children are trying to unintentionally end my baby's life! It's a good thing I was right next to him and scooped it out of his mouth!)

I buckled Bentley back into his car seat, lectured the boys again for a second time in regards to playing with money and putting things in the baby's mouth, then I ran up stairs and got Cohen.  My normal 15-20  minute routine of getting the boys packed into the car became an hour long ordeal!  

We did finally make it to the gardens.  They were a bit more crowded than we are used to because of the on going Tulip Festival.  This is my FAVORITE time of year at the gardens because I LOVE tulips!  I'm not sure who the guests at the gardens paid more attention to: the tulips or my boys.  I'm beginning to learn it must not be very often that you see a mom on her own out in public with 4 little boys and I've learned that even though it may not be true, it's easier to tell strangers who assume my two oldest are twins, that YES, they are indeed! I've decided let strangers usually just think the two oldest boys are twins because it's easier than trying to explain all the age differences between all of the boys... that and because I hate getting sympathy looks like I must had been crazy when I had them.

The boys had a good time at the gardens.  They were all half asleep by the time we returned home.  I love it when they're already half asleep in the car; it makes it easy putting them all to bed for nap time when they don't put up a fight.

We all took LONG naps yesterday, (actually I just vegged during nap time in front of the television and watched a Lifetime movie) but woke up just long enough to have water gun fights out back with Spencer and barbecue hamburgers before bedtime.  I LOVE barbecues! I guess it's time I learn how to turn the thing on and use it! We're LOVING this warm weather- sadly though it's not going to last long before the next storm comes through.  We're okay with it though; we could use some rainy weather today since we're all stuck inside.  All the boys woke up sick!  Runny noses, coughing, diarrhea, upset stomachs and Noah had croup again last night (thankfully he got better after I had him use the nebulizer, no costly midnight E.R. trips). I pray the sickness doesn't last long!

Funny side note: As I was writing this post, I wrongly assumed the boys were behaving themselves. I couldn't hear any of them screaming or fighting with one another... BOY was I wrong! I walked into my bedroom to grab something and found cereal spilled all over my bed, then I went into one bathroom to find that Ian had stuck the plunger in the toilet (GROSS!); I found Cohen (my one year old) in another bathroom with his hands in the toilet bowl; he threw the entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet and meanwhile, DOWNSTAIRS... Noah found a pair of scissors and cut open about 7 pediapops that weren't frozen.  The sticky liquids spilled ALL OVER my nice clean tile I just mopped this weekend! And as for my favorite find this morning... I went to change Ian's poopy diaper and when I pulled down his pants, out fell a pack of GUM from his diaper! (YuCk!) I'm glad I caught him with the stash BEFORE things really could have gotten sticky!

I SWEAR I have to watch those boys like a HAWK!  

Maybe I can learn a lesson or two about tending after your young from this mother owl.

She's been sitting in the same place

(the rocks by the waterfall at Thanksgiving Point) 

watching her eggs now for at least 2 weeks that I know of!

Below the boys are rolling down the giant hill.

Noah and Ian have mastered the art of rolling successfully downhill

but Cohen's roll could still stand to use some improvement. 

Instead of doing an actual roll, he catapults himself head first down the hill and just sort of tumbles!

This little man is such a good natured baby.

He'll go along for any ride, never a complaint.

He's a good sport and sits in the back of the stroller so that his older brothers can have the seat with the view.

Bentley's my chubbiest baby yet so far.

I LOVE every thing about him! 

Chubby legs, chubby arms, rolls on his wrists, rolls on his knees,

chubby neck, chubby cheeks and chubby little fingers!

Oh and just in case you wanted to see some of the tulips (Mom),

here you go!

I wasn't able to take many photos of the flowers since I had to keep my eyes on the boys!