Mechanic

Cars comes inside the other day to use the restroom. When he is done, he comes to me and says, "I just figured out for real what I want to be when I grow up." He has his hands out looking at them, and he is covered head to toe in grease and gas and filth. He said, " I was getting ready to wash my hands and looked at how gross they are, covered in black. It reminded me that I want to be a mechanic!" Then he just looks at me with complete satisfaction, and walks back into the bathroom to wash. He had been out riding his four wheeler, and of course, he always has to improve on it's condition. He is too cute! His primary teacher is a mechanic, and he takes great pride in being a natural like Papa, so I guess that's what he wants to be for now. He did tell me today too that he is not sure that he can go to college. He says that he is only getting ready to start the 4th grade and is not sure he can make it through 4 extra years. I told him it was WAY more fun than high school, with so much more freedom, and the possibility of making so much more money. He said he would think about it!

Carsons thoughts

Carson has started mowing lawns for our neighbors. He started out with one, and it is growing. They think that he is too cheap not to use ($20), and he thinks that he is rolling in the dough!!! He bought a weed eater from my dad (which he told me today was actually the best deal he has ever gotten. Um, ya think! Papa spoils him! $20 for the weed eater which he had to go out and buy another one to replace his!) He does a great job. I walked around with him the first time, checked up on it the second, and have not done anything since. And he keeps having neighbors ask. So we have the boys pay 10% tithing, 40% mission savings, and 50% for them to spend as they wish. As Cars was putting his money in his savings for the last couple of weeks, he tells me that he is going to have WAY more money than he needs. He is going to have SOOO much extra. I told him lets figure it out. I asked him how long he plans to deliver papers, mow lawns, and then get a decent job with a regular paycheck. We do all the math on the numbers, and he sees that he will be way short what he will need for a mission. He got all bummed out, and switched from, I'm going to have sooo much money to holy crap, I need to find a way to make more money. Then you see the light bulb go off. His face lights up, and he says, "But everything I save for that you approve of, you will pay half. And you approve of a mission! There's my money! Now I have enough!!! Oh yeah!" I just laughed. He is so smart. I love to see them figure things out. It was the first time he even thought about that mom and dad might pay some of it. He was so excited then. I loved to see him so happy about something so simple and something so righteous! I love that the boys NEVER complain when they pay into their funds. Sometimes they might say, "that would be nice to have that money", but never trying to get out of paying to it, or to tithing. I also LOVE that his first thought was not that mom and dad will just pay for it, but Crap, I have to make more money. Love that they are such hard workers! I hope they are always as hard of workers as they are now. All my neighbors tell me all the time how they love how helpful they are. They offer to take out their trash when inside, and walk their dog, and help their babies, and pick weeds, and on and on and on. Love my boys!!!

Carson the Awesome

When I got married, I gained two nephews, ages 4 & 2. I taught them when asked who they love the most, to put their hands in the air and yell KIMBER!!! I thought it was awesome. After I moved to Casper my sister in law spent the day spoiling them and asked them who they loved the most and they still said Kimber, long after I had taught them that. It cracked me up. Well, Carson has taught Colby when asked, "What's Carson?" to say, "The awesome!" And when asked what anyone else is, to say, "the pooper!" So, "What's Dad?" Colbs replys, "the pooper!" Baylee has tried to get him to change it, and he won't. Carter and Caden have tried to teach him to say something else when their name is used, and he won't. Religiously he will reply "the awesome" or "the pooper" without hesitation. Cracks me up! Cars and Colbs have quite the bond. They are total buds. Colby trusts Cars with anything, and Cars loves his Colbs! 

Carson the Hero

Today I took the boys into JoAnn Fabric. I just needed to run in really fast and grab some thread. Then the boys wanted to look at EVERYTHING. Carson wanted to look at buckles for his paracord braclets and on and on. I just walked off, knowing that boys in a fabric store was not a great idea. I got up to checkout and the lady must have wanted to take her entire shift to check me out. She was going painfully slow (but in her defense, unless the cashier had been running at mock speed it wouldn't have been fast enough for me!) Colby was being a bear, so I picked him up, handed Cars the cash, and said pay for this and started walking out. Colby was twisting and turning and screaming at me. He got mad and looked me right in the face and told me to put him down, very stern. I just kept walking. He was still twisting and turning like a pickle, and then says to me with TONS of attitude, "Tars will tome save me!" and turned his head in disgust at me. Then he just sat there in my arms, waiting for Cars to come out. Then when he did, he wanted to go hug on Cars. I'll look at it with the glass half full. At least he has someone to look up to that he trusts to help him no matter the problem. Everyone needs a friend like that!

Nice

Last night Chet and I went to date night early. We were home by 7 and decided to go on a family bike ride. It was heaven. Boys riding like wild animals everywhere, like they owned the road. Boys so excited they are running right in front of you, almost riding up over you in the back, and just being crazy. Colby wiggling out of his harness and standing up in the trailer that he rides in behind Chet yelling instructions to his brothers. That's something that would normally give my a lot of anxiety, but instead it gave me permagrin. It was fun! We told the boys not to wake us this morning, just be good! We did get woke pretty early, but we didn't get up. We laid in bed until 9. It was heavenly! We made some waffles and sat at the table and ate as a family.  Then, we got up and ran a million errands that we just needed to do. Unbelievably it was really nice just being together. Then we got us some pizza for lunch and sat at the table eating (that doesn't usually happen at lunch time) When we got home we just played. Cars rode his fourwheeler, Cart watched a movie, Caden and Chet shot bows, Cael and Colby jumped on the tramp, and I sat in my swing watching my whole world around me, and was so thankful for my life. It is so hard sometimes, and sometimes I wonder if I had too many kids, but days like today makes me KNOW that I am doing exactly as I should. Being a mother and wife to these AMAZING 6 boys. I truely am blessed!!!

Night Show

The other night after dinner we were all cleaning up and doing dishes. Nothing in our house is ever quiet, especially when we are all in the same room of the house. Well all of a sudden, Caden bolts out the back door, runs in a says, "yep, they just started them up, hurry it's time for the show!!!" At which time all the boys frantically finish up their jobs of clean-up and run outside. I go outside and cannot hear anything. I asked Caden what he was talking about, and he tells me that they are coming. I listen harder, and still cannot hear anything. I was on the back porch at this time, and he first heard them while we were in the kitchen, and I STILL cannot hear anything. I was a little confused. The boys are running to get "front row seats to the show" Chet and I are totally curious at this time, and the boys are ushering the neighbor kids to our neighbors retaining wall, totally going along their fence line in THEIR backyard, and go to THEIR retaining wall and all sit down. She was out smoking on her front porch so I asked her if it was ok that my boys are sitting there, not knowing if this had already been asked. She had no idea what was going on, but there was so much excitement going on. Before we know it, we have about 8-10 boys, Chet and I, Matt and Dawn (our neighbors) sitting on their wall watching some teenage boys ride their dirt bikes up and down the hills behind us. They would pop a wheelie and they would all cheer and get excited. It was so dang funny. I got pics but cannot get them to post of all these boys lined up. Oh my goodness it was funny. I laughed the whole "show", about 10 minutes, just watching the excitement. Come to find out, they had been there the previous 2 nights, and my boys would run over where they could watch. The boys would come talk to my boys after they were done riding. Their audience was growing. It's the small things in life. If teenagers even knew the influence they have on younger kids, they would be baffled. I love to see my boys get so excited like that!!! It was a good night.

She's Baaaaaaaack

Close to the end of the school year, we found out that Baylee would be moving to West Virginia. Cars and her couldn't be around each other for longer than about 20 min without getting into a fight. We were super sad to see her family move, but it was somewhat of a relief. Well, here we are about 3 months later, and they just showed back up. They moved back in, and within 2 days, everything was back to normal. Only now, Cars knows what it's like to not have anyone his age to play with if she's gone. It was fun to see them playing again, and it is nice to see Cars full of life again. Baylee's mom doesn't cook much, and she always appreciated my cooking, so I must say it does feel good to have her back for that. I have already ramped up the baking to keep up. My boys just think that it's normal to have homecooked meals for every meal, and a dessert almost every night, and a homemade snack every day at 3. She actually appreciates it! Her little brother rang my door bell and asked for some more brownies, because he loved them. With Baylee comes her little bro, a few cousins, a lot of girl noise (shreiking and yelling), a much messier house, but a lot more fun. Cars told me that he was EXHAUSTED after the first day they played together. I had to take a chill pill (figuratively) and I even had to take a nap that first day myself. Holy chaos!!! But overall, we're glad they're back!!!!

Yahoo!!!

Today is monumental! It is a great day, 9-1/2 years in the making! We are so excited, we could... I don't know, but we are excited. We have been 3 days without an accident! NO.MORE.DIAPERS!!! I was running out of diapers, Colby was playing us, choosing to use the potty when it was convenient for him, and then not when it wasn't. I was frustrated. I finally told him that we were out of diapers. They were gone, it was time to go on the potty. I looked him right in the eye on his level and told him that if he had an accident he would have to sit on his bed until he needed to go again, and when he went on the potty, he could play again. I made him repeat it to me and sent him off to play. Here we are 3 days later, accident free. This was pretty painless. He has been a total champ. He refuses to wear a pull-up to the play area or bed, and he was fine! He is using public restrooms, and even told me twice today at the pool that he had to go and sure enough went when I took him. This means more stops when we travel, but oh how fabulous!!! Yahoo!!! Yahoo I tell you!!! Happy day, happy day! It's even happier since he's the baby! We are DONE changing "stinky butts" as Colby calls it. ("Mom, come change my stinky butt, brothers won't play with me!") At least my own babies strinky butts!

Mokin

Today we were all driving in the car and a truck in front of us was burning up his brakes. There was smoke EVERYWHERE. We were getting onto the interstate and could barely see off to the side where the smoke was drifting. It stunk like crazy. Chet and I were talking about it in the front. All of a sudden Colby says, "DAD! That truck is mokin dad! That truck is mokin!" He was so intense and wanted us to see the "mokin" truck, like we couldn't see or smell it ourselves. It was too cute! I love it sometimes when the kids cannot say the word they are wanting to say. Anytime I see smoke now I will think "mokin".

Dance

I have said it many times before, but potty training is not my specialty. I struggle big time. Colby told me today that he needed to go potty, so we went in, and low and behold, he actually went. Then he told me that he would be wearing underwear. I put underware on him and told him that if he had one accident, he would be wearing a diaper (he has been perfect so far - about 10 hours) So I saw him a few hours later playing with himself. I asked him why he was touching his pee-pee. He tells me, "Because it's doing a pee-pee dance, haha!" and he walked away. It was so funny. Like a perfectly delivered punchline. He didn't wait to see if I thought it was funny. He knew it was, laughed at himself, and walked away. How do they get so smart so dang fast!!

Kissing

This morning Cars climbed into bed to snuggle with me. I asked him how many times he thinks that he has been kissed. He said about 1000. I told him that was probably in the first week! We decided about a million times instead. So I was telling him the average couple kisses 3 times per day. I thought that stat was crazy! I was asking the boys if dad and I kiss more than that. Cars was like, "uh, YEAH!!! You kiss more than 17 times per day!" I asked him if he would kiss his wife more than 3 times per day, if he would kiss her 17 times per day. He said, "Probably a lot like you and dad. But first you kiss the bride. That's the first time!" Yep, that's exactly right Cars! Kiss her when she's your bride. Haha, I could only wish!!! I think that I have about 3 more years, unfortunatly! Hopefully longer!

Mother of the Year

4th of July! One of the funnest holidays of the year. It's warm and usually just exciting! Some friends had invited us over to there house for the day, so we went to hang out with them. We started out with a BBQ of delicious food. Then, I'm not a huge parade fan. So many people, hot, and a recipe for disaster when you have lots of little boys. So my friend felt bad that the boys didn't get to go to the parade, so she had them do their own parade. They made their own floats. It was sooooooo cute to see them. (She took pics but I don't have them to post) They loved it. Then they paraded down the sidewalk while the babies rode in their floats and waved to all the people. Then they each decorated a square on the sidewalk with chalk. The 6 adults there judged them (square and float). Amy did face painting on everyone. The boys all got a tatoo. Then they went out back and had a water party. Then they headed down to watch a movie while the adults played some dice game. Then Chet took a nap, we just sat and talked, and the boys just played. It was heaven. I loved it!!! Then we ran home to make some popcorn and get chairs for the fireworks. We got there at 9 and got great parking and spots. Then Carter reminded us that we hadn't had dinner. I told Chet that I would run get pizza while he saved our spot. Carter and Cars came with me. Little Ceasers was closed, Papa Johns was WAY too busy, so we ran to Taco Johns. Chet called and said to hurry since it was starting to rain, and he had the 3 youngest without shelter or vehicle. I started heading back, and my great navigational skills (NOT) failed me! I couldn't find my way back. The longer I drove, the busier it got, and the more it started to rain. I was paniking, and called Chet crying. When I told him where I was, he had no idea how to get me back, I was too far lost. We hung up so that he could run the babies to pavillion 50 yards away. The sky was lighting up, not with fireworks! The worst lightning I have ever been in. AND, my babies are out in it, while I am driving in RUSH HOUR type traffic. I was bawling. That set Carter and Cars bawling. Then Caden kept asking why I was crying (he was with Chet) The boys were asking me if we were ever going to see our family again. I felt horrible. After all was said and done, we missed the fireworks, the boys sat out in the horrible lightning storm, I picked them up and we drove home! Not exactly mother of the year award on that. Luckily Chet remained calm. If he would have gotten mad at me, I would have melted! I love my man.