We are a happy family

My children have the wrong mom. I spend my whole life taking pictures, planning what to take pictures of (or what to wear for the pictures), and putting them in photo albums so that they can be enjoyed.

Wednesday was our 9th anniversary. We missed FHE on Monday because Dad and Jaxon were at the Jazz game. So we had it Wednesday night instead (I know, we are so romantic). We gathered in our room for something different and the kids turned on their hyper mode. We got them to settle down and Alex’s diaper was so full it was leaking everywhere but he did not want to stop being silly to get it changed. Tanner was bouncing around on the bed and smashed his head on the bed post. We had not even started yet and everyone was either screaming or mad. Satan really wants FHE to be a hard thing so we will give up on it. Well, he is doing a good job, but we will conquer!

Our lesson was to look at our wedding pictures. I thought that was a brilliant idea because it was simple and fun. I thought we could look at what everyone looked like 9 years ago. Well, you would not believe the complaints and the whining. Alex even left the room (but that is not a surprise- he thinks he can do what ever he wants.) They got a little more interested about the honeymoon because there was a cruise ship and there were pictures of Mexico. But they really did not want to look at pictures. “I don’t like pictures mom”, “I never want to look at pictures.” I told them that they have the wrong mom to feel that way. They definitely got that trait from the Bartlome side of the family. But at least the kids know that we have pictures, they know that we are married and that they have ice cream on cruise ships. (Is that kind of knowledge the kind of thing we need a FHE for?)

Then my next brilliant idea was to color Easter eggs. Did I mention that we have 4 kids? We only have two adults in this house and the adults are outnumbered when it comes to making Easter eggs (and everything else for that matter). I was holding Chase so Andre had the hardest part (everything else). I handed out the eggs, one to each kid. I watched as Alex grabbed his egg and put it in his mouth. Nothing happened so he banged it on the counter. That was when a tiny little voice in the back of my brain said, “You can’t give and egg to a one year old!” So I took it away from him and started paying more attention to what I was doing. Andre was explaining the fine points of eggs dying to the older boys and I took one of the cups of dye for Alex (he does not care about fine points). I pushed the cup over to him and he grabbed it. This is when the voice yelled, “He thinks it is juice!” So then I realized that I would be dying the egg in Alex’s view. The older boys were having fun but both wanted dad to help them constantly. So it was chaotic (aka: normal). When Alex’s egg was done I handed it to him again because he really wanted it. He was so excited to have the egg. It was pretty exciting for him. He did want to eat it but was having no luck getting the whole thing in his mouth. I showed him how you take the shell off. He was not impressed. Them when I tried to get him to eat the egg, he got really grouchy. He never ate it and was mad at the whole egg coloring activity from then on. I think he thought the egg was going to be candy or something.

That was when I had my third brilliant idea. I got the popsicles out of the freezer and saved the day. The kids have not had popsicles all winter and they were so excited. Maybe they have a good mom after all.