Matching Clothes

I know that I put a lot of information on my boys personal prayers, but seriously I want them to know the most wonderful precious things they say. The heart of a 4 year old. While Colby was saying his prayers tonight he says, "I know that I have a playdate tomorrow (craft day at my house with my 3 closest friends that all have 4 yr old boys too) so I know that I have to wear matching clothes..." How funny is that! Who knows why that needed to be in the prayer, but he was serious as ever. He looked at me after and just gave me a huge hug while I did everything I could to not laugh. I LOVE hearing their prayers. Sometimes I think that I need to teach them better appropriate things to say, but then I remember that as long as they are being respectful, I want them to know they can talk to Heavenly Father about ANYTHING and that He cares! So I let them just speak their mind. And I LOVE the stuff I hear! What 4 year old cares about that... MINE that's who!! Haha, he was very right, he will have to wear matching "public" clothes. He's my only one, besides Caden sometimes, that wants me to kneel with him and listen to his personal prayer. I think he wants to suck every last minute of mom time before he has to go to bed. Cael just says them to himself now as well as Cars and Cart. They're growing up!!

Hot!!!

Last night Cael said he was scared, so he went downstairs to Carter's "bed". Carter has been sleeping in the love sac while he waits for Chet and I to build him a bed (a desire of mine for about 10 years. I want to build a bed) There is a queen bed in the room next to Carter's room that is not being used, but he's a geek and wants to sleep in the love sac, so we've allowed him too. Well, being the amazing brother he is, he moved to the floor and let Cael sleep in the love sac. When he woke this morning he was a little bugged at Cael (and believe me, I didn't feel one bit bad for him. Proud that he cared that much for Cael, but come on... go to the other room in the first place!) As I was shewing them to bed tonight... I mean kindly and lovingly with whispers and kind words only *cough *cough, Carter says not to come down again. I asked why Cael went down there and not to the bed on the floor next to dad. He says, "You guys are waaaaaaaaaaay too HOT!!!! And I don't mean boyfriend girlfriend kind of hot. Like temperature hot! I don't want to get into your bed anymore!" I grabbed him and started kissing him all over his face and neck and told him mom and dad were totally boyfriend girlfriend hot! He assured me that we are not! Kids descriptions kill me! So cute!! Not girlfriend hot, like temperature hot! Ay Yi-Yi!!!

My Sweet Cael

Today Cael was talking to me about a movie he saw where a kid was being bullied. The kid was delivering papers, and some older boys came by and threw his bike in a pond, took off his clothes and threw them in and then walked off laughing. He asked me, "Mom, do you know what revenge I would get on them? I would pray to God that he would take away their mean-ness, and make them a bucket filler instead of a bucket dipper! Don't you think that would be good Mom?" My reply with a great big smile, "That would be a great thing to do Cael. I would love that and Heavenly Father would love that too!" Oh I love that precious boy!!!

Are you kidding me?!?

Fall sports are into full swing. Chet and I are... overwhelmed. We are still playing coed softball every Tues night, Carter and Carson are playing 5th-6th grade football 5 nights a week, Caden is playing 3rd-4th grade football 5 nights a week (and he is the quarterback. We feel lots of pressure. His coach is brand new and Caden is very athletic but needs lots of work, so Chet spends every day at practice with him and then comes home and helps him with snaps and footwork), Cael is playing 1st-2nd grade soccer which is luckily only 3x a week, and Colby is playing pre-k soccer which is also only 3x a week. Life goes crazy around 4:00 when it's time to get Caden to practice. We then have practice until 7:30 every night, sometimes playing softball and sometimes having 4 different practices to get to. Not only that, Chet has church responsibilities (the other counselor is really sick and bishop is out of town for the 10 days.) He attends mutual, and meets with people starting at 6 on Wed night to get recommends for this weekends temple trip and callings. It's insane! But Chet and I are a good team. We laid in bed last night and filled in the calendar. We just looked at each other and it was funny how were both the same way. Just overwhelmed but very thankful for each other. We were just laughing! It's so crazy, but somehow it's all worked out! Oh, and Chet has work too. 4 hour dinners and foundations to attend and he is on the United Way Board. He was going to be the president and I was not very supportive of that. Luckily he asked to be just the secretary, but that is still another evening obligation. He has people come in from around the nation that he is expected to entertain and feed. So he plans that stuff, and takes the evenings sometimes for that too. He organizes shot gun shoots and has a catering company bring a buffet out for them. It's a lot!!! I think too, they're only 11. How in the world will I keep up? The older boys ride their bikes to practice when we cannot take them. Dinner is late every night, which is ok until school starts. Tonight we have open houses so I made Cowboy Salad (Lettuce, beans, hamburger, cheese, tomatoes, etc) early. Carter told me that I haven't made it since last football season. Half the family loves it, Cael and I tolerate it.  Cars looks at all the food on the table: pea pods (Carter and Colby love them), broiled asparagus, grapes, the salad, and dressing. He says, "Are you kidding me! Are you seriously just having salad for dinner!" He was so ticked. I told him there was a lbs of hamburger in the salad, but that didn't make him feel any better. I guess salad is not an acceptable dinner to him (although wrap it in a tortilla and put salsa on it and call it a taco he's happy!). Not one other complaint from anyone! He is way too much like Papa, that's for sure!!!!

Sell baby sell

We have a rule in our house that you have to pay back double if you steal something. Well, Colby got a treat on his way home from Casper and when he got home Carson stole some, right after Colby said no. I told Carson that he could buy him two new packages. Today he bought them for him. They were $1.09 ea. They were little air head bites. Colby walked around selling the one package for $0.05 each piece to all his brothers. After selling all that he could, we counted his money and he had $1.45. He ate several, still had several, and had his whole other package. It was so cute. He was so excited! His brothers were paying in pennies so they could get rid of them, and Colby loved "ALL" the money. So stinkin cute!!!

Quote of the Day

Carson is an eater. And he doesn't like cheap food. He loves jerky and nachos and things that cost $3+ at the store. I have been making him buy his own "snacks" that he just devours. His new favorite thing is to go sale shopping with me. He bought himself some jerky for a great deal and says after eating the first bite, " Ahhhh, food tastes so much better when you buy it yourself for a deal!" I loved it! Things do mean a bit more when you have to work for them. My kids think I'm mean, but they get compliments all the time that they are super hard workers. And this is why... great life lesson!!

Pay Tithing

Carter and Carson went to scout camp this year. While they were gone, we had to take care of their papers routes. Caden was willing to do half, so that left Cael and Colby and I to do the other half. Cael was a little paper delivering rock star. He ran the entire two routes (Colby did well too, he just couldn't keep up, but he sure tried with very minimal whining). I just walked on the sidewalk and he would run up behind me, and I would hold out a paper and he would grab it from me and run up to the door. When someone was outside, he would run it up to them and politely hand it to them and talk to them and he was so super cute. He had a total permagrin on the entire time. It made me happy seeing how much he loved it. For the last 4 years, almost weekly, he has ridden in the car watching his brothers do their route every week. I had no idea how great he would be (he now gets 40 papers) When he was done and I paid him, he held the money in the air and said, "YES!!! I have waited all my life to get to pay tithing!!!" He was so happy. I don't know if he was happy to pay tithing because that meant that he made money, or if he was happy to have made money so he could pay tithing. Either way, I don't care. I just love that he knew that was what we do. As Chet would say, "That's what Parkers do" (to anything that the boys question why. I'm sure we'll hear all about that one later, but I love the saying and use it regularly now.) No complaining or asking questions on this one! He knew exactly what to do... he had waited his WHOLE life for it!!

Caden is Double Digits!

Caden turned 10 today. Last night he got his football gear, and all 3 older boys got all dressed to go play in the backyard and my heart about died. I don't know when they got so old. It seems like it's taken FOREVER, and at the same time, I still remember like it was yesterday how dang scared I was to have my third little boy. He was like a little angel sent from above. He was such a good baby, and used up all the good then! Just kidding... kinda!

All Caden wanted for his birthday was $100. He waivered back and forth on it for a while, but settled on that when he saw me pay for something with a $100 bill. He knew then that he wanted to hold that in his hands and claim it as all his. But... how fun would a 10 year old have on his birthday if that was all he got. So, what to do? Get 100 $1 bills and tape them up all over the house and make him find all 100 and then trade it in for the $100 bill. Everyone but me fell asleep waiting for Caden. He was too excited for his birthday. Finally I told him to go snuggle up in bed with dad. Minutes later I was waking everyone and the taping began. Carter, Carson, Chet and I had a great time taping them everywhere (Cael and Colby are in Casper with Nana and Papa). When Caden woke this morning he went crazy finding them. It took him a good 30 minutes, but he loved it. After that long, he was missing just one. He then opened his gifts from his brothers. Carter found a UA football chin strap that Caden has wanted SOOOOOO bad at a second hand store when Caden wasn't with us earlier in the year, and although Carter would have LOVED it too, the first thing he said was, "I want to give this to Caden for his birthday." What would have been very expensive, Carter found for $4 and selflessly gave to Caden. Caden was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY excited. (I was proud of Carter for not only finding it, but thinking of Caden and not himself!) Then, earlier in the week, Carson had found a total sale on some good candy bars. He bought a ton of them and gave several to Caden. Caden was super excited about those too. I was just so proud. The boys didn't spend over $5 total on his gifts, but he was SOOOOOO happy about them. I think that is what gift giving is all about. Buying what the person really would want, and who cares the price. I love that Caden didn't care AT ALL that the chin strap was used either. Proud proud mom moment. By this time it was a mere 6:45 in the morning.

At 10:30 we started rounding up his friends. He had invited a bunch of people to lunch at Taco Johns, so I drove around and got everyone. It was 11 of us total (2 were the missionaries. Isn't that so dang cute! Every year he invites the missionaries to some meal with us. I love it!) He also had to two teenage boys that live close to us and spend a lot of time over here. He calls them his Mormon friends. They are really good to my boys and the boys love them to jump and play video games and eat dinner with us, and now celebrate birthdays I guess. It was a great time. We even got a 10% discount because it was so much! Haha, never had that happen! $75 to fast food!

After taking everyone home, except one boy, Connor, we headed to ask his parents if he could go golfing with us. Conners cousin was over (same age) and an EXCELLENT golfer and wanted to join (Caden knows Jaxen really well from playing with Connor so much) so SURE... come along. The more the merrier... right? So five boys ages 8-11 went golfing. It was Carter and Caden's first time, and Carson's second. Conner and Jaxen were little pros. They were so encouraging to my boys and so helpful and fun. It was a lot of fun. Caden was discouraged because he wasn't as good as them (Jaxen hit a 33 on a par 3 course... he was good!) but in the end he knew that he did really well for his first time. He hit about half the balls into the air. I kept telling him, "That was a great practice swing, now lets hit it" when he would swing and miss. I don't think he knew that I knew he was just missing it. He would just smile and hit. I was very proud of him. He hit a 68. On the final hole I told them that if anyone got it to the green (after Jaxen had already hit and missed) I would take them to DQ for anything they wanted. After everyone missed Jaxen asked if he could try again since he didn't know that when he hit. I smile and said sure. Can you guess where we headed next?

Onto DQ! Everyone ordered ice cream so big they about puked. Chet met us there and we just smiled as these boys just laughed and messed around. I sure love to see my boys happy! We then took everyone home, and Caden played his ipod until dinner, his favorite thing in the world to do. I have to keep tabs on him with it, or he will play all day. He loves having unlimited time to play in a day!

Then we went to dinner at our family favorite restaurant. Caden ordered fish tacos and strawberry lemonade. He wanted to be sang to so bad. Chet and I HATE that, but it's not about us! So... with fried ice cream in hand, they all came and put a sombrero on his head and sang in Spanish and then in English. Then the table next to us that was Japanese sang him Happy Birthday (while recording themselves) in Japanese. After they were done, a lady told him she could sing to him in Portegese. He said no thank you. He was all sang out!

Our little Cade-A-Babe is a highlight of our family. He fights like CrAzY with his older brothers, but while they were gone to camp, he told me that he really missed having them around. Quite a bit different than he usually says. That was a nice moment for me. For him to realize how nice it is to have so many brothers. He really missed them. Caden is a football fanatic. He didn't have a great year last year (mental mistakes from complete fear. He would do great in practice and played a star position, but would mess up in the games) but he never stopped talking about football all year. As Chet always says, ""Football never ended at our house." He is super excited for it to start. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and is easy to read. He is the biggest pig of the family and knows it!! He has a REALLY hard time keeping anything clean. Clothes, hair, hands, table, room, bathroom, you name it, he messes it up. It drives me crazy, but it is just him!!! I sure do love him. He still loves to snuggle. He is very particular about how he looks for church. He likes to be "just right" and takes it very serious. He loves church at the moment. He cannot wait to get the priesthood and go to the temple. He talks about it all the time. He loves to tell me when he feels the spirit or "makes Heavenly Father happy" I love that he recognizes it!!! I love his passion and love for all things life!

He loves all breakfast food. He would eat waffles, French toast, Swedish pancakes, etc every meal. He loves candy and sugar. He is really getting into baking. I hate for him to because he is SOOOOOO messy, but I let him cook about once a week. He loves it. He has started asking to help me with dinner. He is intrigued with chopping things lately. He loves to get one on one attention with either Chet or I. When he does get to spend time alone with us, he will always talk nonstop about ANYTHING, and then always thanks me later for listening to him talk so much and spending alone time with him. He has started delivering papers again because he is interested in money again. He loves to run and ride his bike and just be running! He hates to just sit around, unless he can play his ipod. He rarely gets sick. He starting diving this year and loves that. He told me today that he never wants to play soccer again. He has too many other sports he loves. If he can get his nerves under control, he will be an AMAZING athlete someday. He just doesn't realize it yet because he has ALWAYS played with older kids. It will be fun to watch him this year. He is getting into his muscles lately. I will have to watch carefully to make sure that it is always a healthy love. He's a little obsessed!

I cannot believe that I was the lucky one that gets to raise this amazing bundle of joy! He is so special to me!!! I love this corky, crazy, passionate, heartfelt, not so little anymore boy! Happy Double Digits Buddy!!!

Caden's Dinner

For Caden's birthday dinner he went to our favorite restaurant Los Compadres. At the table outside our booth was a table full of Japanese people. They were loud and laughing, and obviously tourists. All of a sudden I see one of them totally taking a picture of us. I was so confused. I looked at him like what are you doing. He couldn't speak English but he motioned to us and said very broken "Large family" and smiled huge. The funny thing was, we were missing the two babies. It was only 5. I cannot imagine if we had them all. He took about 4-5 pictures. Then, when the guys came to sing to Caden, of which Chet and Carter were mortified but Caden was tickled pink, the guy pulls out his video camera and starts videoing them singing. My boys were laughing at them so hard. It was pretty fun seeing someone so amazed with us. I sure wish we had all 5 boys there. We would have been like rock stars then!