Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We are excited to celebrate this evening. The Wise Hero keeps saying "Candy!" She's learned really well.

On Sunday morning the Wise and Hopeful Heros needed to carry their stuffed animals around in the carriers that their aunt made for us. 

On Saturday we went to our ward party. We got to wear our costumes and we had a lot of fun. The ward here has a carnival games and then a chili and hot dog party. Alice loved throwing balls and I loved watching kids play a smash the carrot game. It was fun.

Here are our scary dragons:

And the whole family:

Saturday was a crazy busy day. We went to the San Diego Safari Park. It was a lot of fun. We went then because during the month of October kids got in for free. It was a great zoo, but a little bit more spread out than most zoos. We had a great view of this tiger. She was marching back and forth. We loved watching some tiger cubs playing together, but we didn't get a good picture because they were playing behind a tree.

The Wise Hero loved all the animals. And she had a great time. The Bug Hero and I survived pretty well but near the end, our stroller got a flat tire and so I pushed a difficult stroller and The Bug Hero carried The Wise Hero. And The Hopeful Hero struggled. She had to walk nearly a half a mile. The promise of candy at the ward party motivated her. We loved seeing the baby giraffe and the baby rhino. 

Too cute not to include:

This is at the beginning before we did all our walking. The kids loved playing and being there.

The Friendly Hero was chosen for Student of the Month. We are proud of him!

It was hard, because the girls mobbed him. He found it a little embarrassing. 

Hello Again

Hi. We're still here. I do really well staying on top of blogs when I don't have an infant. The Wise Hero is nine months old on Sunday. And She is a dream. I love her cheeks that go on for miles and her rolls on her arms and legs that go on for days. She is perfect. And super chill.

The Hopeful Hero is a handful. She does all her exploring when I am occupied. So she can explore further. Case in point: Today I told her to leave her shoes and socks on at the playground and she noticed that my hands were full of the Friendly Hero. So she took them off. I noticed as the Friendly Hero started screaming, so while I was carrying him in, I told her, "I'm coming to get you next. You don't get to be outside without shoes and socks." She then ran to our friends and handed them her shoes and socks and told them, "Help me put these on? I not get in trouble." Super funny--but a handful.

The Peaceful Hero has a silly streak a mile wide. He loves to go to preschool and is excited that he is registered for Kindergarten. I'm in denial that I will have two of my children in school next year. He loves to tell jokes and make everyone laugh. He loves to play with everyone. He is a joy to be with.

The Friendly Hero is (ambiguous positive adjective). He likes school--as long as he tells you that he hates it. He really just hates spelling tests and timed tests. And I don't blame him. But he loves recess and gym and reading and math and science and social studies and dinosaurs. He loves to tell me the cool things he's learning. But He doesn't like school. In September we finally figured out his sleeping and so he is getting enough sleep and is super sweet. As long as you do what he wants--then he throws a fit for two minutes and then is super sweet again. I think about the Friendly Hero and he is wonderful and loving and stubborn. (Gee, I think he gets it from me.) He is earning the Lego Poe's X-Wing for reading 500 books in first grade and he read book 400 today. So he is amazing.

The Math Hero is doing well. I have so many days where I feel great about life and then I have lots of days where we are out of control. It's a fun ride and I've given up the illusion of control most days--who am I kidding? I love being in control. I just hide it better some days.

I look forward to posting at least once more before the Wise Hero turns one.

What We Have Been Up To

Or in other words:
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE WORLD

We would like to introduce the newest Hero in our family!

Born July 17, 2015 at 6:15 pm

7 lbs 15 oz, and 19 inches long

We adore her chubby cheeks!

She is named after my great aunt. When we were first married, we lived really close to my aunt, and knew that she wanted visitors, but you had to be sneaky. We did our laundry at her house so she knew that there would always be someone coming to visit her...but also so she could feel like she was serving us--which she was! For two and a half years we had family night with her and loved her. Both of us fell in love our dear aunt. And we told her when we were expecting the Friendly Hero we would name him after her if he was a she. And her response was that she would come back and haunt whatever girl she is named after. (Which kind of sums up my aunt: funny, kind, and loving.) So until she gets another name on the blog, our daughter will be known as the Haunted Hero. 

The Haunted Hero spent most of the pregnancy flipping up and down. She would be in breach on week, and head down the next. And so we were waiting to see if she would stay head down. Which she never did, so she was induced in the 38th week. Before the induction, I had a version--where my doctor grabbed the baby's head and bottom on the outside of my stomach and pushed her around the right way. I had an epidural so I didn't feel any pushing or grabbing. The nurses were all surprised that I have had two successful versions. They all told me that my doctor has the best success rate, and also that having the epidural was another key factor. And I was very grateful for all the prayers that my family offered and that we were guided in all the decisions to make.

Laboring was good. We read to each other and the whole experience was very peaceful.

After nine hours of laboring in the hospital, I pushed for less than 15 minutes and out came our precious bundle of joy! With the most delicious chubby cheeks!

Our first picture

Meeting the siblings, all of them adore her:

Peaceful Hero

 Friendly Hero

 Hopeful Hero

For months, she would come to me and say: "Minny (how she says her name) Mommy's baby, Minny's hand now." I couldn't explain that it takes a lot longer than three seconds to get the baby out, and that it wasn't time. But she waited and finally, the baby is in her hands.

 Our first family picture. (Sorry about the back lighting. We will be getting better ones)

 We are at home. We love her!

She has a mild case of Jaundice, which is on par with our family. She is kicking it faster, so much faster than the Hopeful Hero. And that is a great thing! She brings love and happiness to our family. I love this newborn honeymoon stage!

River Walk--Or a study in Bathroom Sprints.

On Saturday we headed to downtown Cincinnati to walk along the Ohio River. I had heard great things about the parks there. We took a few wrong turns and the boys loved the train bridges and the freeway passes. It's so much fun to travel with little boys!

We got to walk across the suspension bridge. And by We, I really mean my cousins and a few of my children. We made it onto the bridge and a quarter of the way, when the Peaceful Hero called out, "I have to go POTTY!" Well, that means that there is two minutes until we have an accident. So I got to turn around and carry Peaceful Hero in the Potty Sprint. I was very grateful for my cousins, since they were there to help out. 

Isn't my cousin beautiful?

On our way back--no accidents--we saw a barge and had a lot of fun. They were on their way back from another state, and we all headed back together.

While we walking back, we had another bathroom sprint, luckily it was a different child. Friendly Hero also had to go.

Almost to the bathroom. The man in orange laughed a lot and was very friendly to see me run back and forth with two different boys.

This was a really cool picture taken through the waterfall fountain at the bridge.

Cinicinnati

We went to visit my cousins on June 13 and 14th, and now they think that we only ever go to Zoos. When they stopped by for a visit, we took them to our local zoo, and we have heard how awesome the Cincy Zoo was and we insisted that we go. On a side note, I really love my new camera. Really love it. The pictures we got are amazing! They make me look like an awesome photographer.

We had a lot of fun. Our first stop was the insectarium. (No real surprise) But our surprise is that one of the Bug Hero's old co-workers was there. She works there on Saturdays! Super fun!

This is Ivan the Lemur jumping up to touch the white ball.

 Hopeful Hero enjoying the Manatee. I love how zoos claim that they are one of two or the only zoo with a certain animal. Of course they are--no zoo can have every animal. The Cincinnati Zoo is one of two zoos outside of Florida to be a home of Manatees.

 They also have an awesome animal show. We got to watch an ocelot play with a toy. He was a baby and they were starting to train him to be an animal ambassador.

 We saw an Asian Fishing Cat.

 We also got to watch two cheetah's run at full speed. It was so awesome! (And look at how awesome these two pictures are? I love this camera!)

Our happy family!

When asked what the favorite parts of the zoo were:
Bug Hero: Seeing my friend.
Math Hero: Watching the Cheetah's.
Friendly Hero: Watching the Cheetah's run really fast! And the Ring Tailed Lemur named Ivan. That was cool.
Peaceful Hero: The elevators and escliators. (These were on the way to the zoo entrance.)
Hopeful Hero: + Squack=Animals. She loved all the animals.

Happy Birthday Math Hero!

 I am going to be catching up over the next few days. I'm pleased with my efforts to take time to remember all the awesome things we are doing. We have been busy with visits, birthdays, swimming lessons, playing and being a family. We have had days of temper tantrums, but also days of tenderness and love. We love summer and are having a blast!

I've decided to go in reverse order. So this post is the most recent and the future posts this week will go further back in time. (Wow, cool! Time Travel!)

My birthday was Saturday. It was fun to get ready for it. The boys went shopping a week before, and the three year old told me what I was getting from him. Which is part of the charm of children.

Unwrapping presents. I loved having Hopeful Hero help me, and claim different presents. I also realized that I talk a lot as I open the presents. Most of the pictures are mid word.

This is a present that I bought myself. I was afraid that I wouldn't get my favorite cereal--which is an important tradition in our home. I wrapped it up and Friendly Hero was really confused why I was wrapping my own birthday present. When I pretended to not know what was in the present, he called me on it. "Mommy, you wrapped it. Of course you know what is in it!" The look on Bug Hero's face until I opened the present was pretty awesome too. He was confused and upset that I would buy my own present. Until he saw that it was cereal. And then he laughed. Because that's how we roll. 

I feel so blessed! I got a few new shirts and lots of playmobil. Can we all take a moment to enjoy the awesomeness of playmobil? Thanks.

And then for my cake. I made a chocolate cake with strawberry jam between the layers and covered in strawberries. I also feel super fancy for the garnish that I cut of the strawberry in the center.

I turned a prime number this year, and we didn't have enough candles. So we made due with 6. 29 is almost a multiple of six, so it works, right?

Moving

We are not moving. Our friends moved this week. And it was really sad. Happy for them, but sad for us. We have played with these friends a lot in the last few months especially. Probably three or four times a week.

I am very grateful that the five year olds don't mind the tag along brother. Here is Friendly Hero with his friends that he went to Pre School with and the super hero is the one who moved.

Here is Hopeful Hero with her friend. I will miss this little girl the most. She always loved me. She had the biggest smile and "HIIiii!" when she saw me. I think I was her third favorite adult. She always was running to catch me and hold my hand.

I will also miss their mom. She became one of my best friends here. I loved that we could talk about anything and everything. I enjoyed how she and I could share recipes, ingredients, ideas and laughter.

Good luck in Saint George! We will stop by as often as we can.

However, as they prepared to move, their little boy would talk about his new house. That caught on in our home. Usually Friendly Hero can be heard, "I get to build that LEGO and you, Peaceful Hero, can have a turn at our new house." Another thing he often says, "You can't use that LEGO piece! We will build with it again when we get to our new house."

It is Finished

I will never do one again on black cloth. Hold me accountable to this.

Love

Not many things better than sharing hobbies. Hopeful Hero spent most of the time talking to me about the book. She get's excited when we read to her.

The boys were playing with trains or LEGOs. It was a good Saturday.

Learners

The Visiting Teaching message this month is all about learning and teaching. And the new youth curriculum, that I am loving is all about learning and teaching, and learning by teaching. This month I have pondered a lot about teaching.

I went visiting teaching last night, and it was going to be a world wind blast, four appointments and we were going blitz right through it all and get it done. Well, two of the appointments fell through, and one I went to by myself.  I've thought a lot about learning and teaching and visiting teaching.

It took me back to the summer that I turned 18, my first experience with visiting teaching. A wise Relief Society President, wanting to include the high school graduates, assigned us visiting teaching companions. We were assigned to companions who went and taught the messages. They were to be our mentors, show us how to do it, and make sure that we did it.

And I see that mentors and mentees is how the gospel is lived and taught. Parents mentor their children, children mentor peers, we bring our friends to church, we have people show us about youth programs, youth teach each other, the honor bee and visiting teaching. It's all one big opportunity to teach and to learn together.

We don't make it to heaven on our own. It's very comforting. I have opportunities all around me to help lift, and some I can tell when I'm lifting and sometimes I can't. And others lift me up. And I'm excited to get to help those learn and have them teach me.

Here's me mentoring and teaching the next generation. We are going to be a great team!

Happy Birthday!

 I had an awesome birthday yesterday. You could even say it was a Golden Birthday. I made a list of 28 things to do since I was turning 28 on the 28th. It was fun! Sadly, all 28 things didn't occur. The one I was saddest about missing? A 28 minute nap. Yeah, some days, nap schedule's don't align to give Mom a break. But we had a lot of fun playing at the playground and getting 28 tickles out of Hopeful Hero. And saying hello to 28 friends and getting 28 Happy Birthdays. It was great!

Hopeful Hero playing with my neighbor. Isn't she getting BIG?

And she's sleeping really well. Not crying at night.--She is the easiest to sleep train, 

probably because we've learned how to teach it and encourage sleep.

I LOVE my Happy Happy, baby!

Digging with the black "X-cabe-ater"

Digging with all his friends. Rocking cool shades. 

We've got style at the Hero House.

An Update on Heros

 First off: We absolutely loved General Conference this weekend! It was a spiritual feast and a great way to end the week! At this point I don't have a favorite talk, but I loved the spirit and the focus on family and parenting. I also loved hearing the Prophets speak to us. This is one of my favorite weekends of the year.

And the boys are doing better about paying attention. At various moments in the conference, Friendly Hero would pipe up, "He's talking about the resurrection! I hear him talking about Jesus!" And then Peaceful Hero would pipe up, "Who Dat? Dat President Monson?" And when we told him no, "Why?"

We still had toys and snacks and lots of fun. We're not expecting perfection, but it's fun to see them learn and grow in their testimonies. By the way, their Easter outfits are adorable! Thank you Honey!

So speaking of Easter, we dyed eggs, and had a small egg hunt on Saturday. The boys loved it! 

Peaceful Hero keeps asking for more Easter! He then clarifies and asks for another Egg!  Friendly Hero can tell you the story of Easter, but I'm not sure he understands it all. Ever since we started telling him the story, he gets worried that he's going to die and go to Heaven, without us. If we all go together, then he's okay. But in his prayers, he has started asking Heavenly Father to bless Jesus as he is dead so he comes back to life on Easter. I love his testimony and he loves to tell everyone that Jesus comes back!

This week was kind of stressful. And by kind of, I mean medically stuff filled and emotionally draining. First off, we went to the doctor's for a weight check for Hopeful Hero, on Monday. I knew she was still small on Easter. She had just cleared up her jaundice, which for both of the boys, they didn't get back to their birth weight or start thriving until it was cleared up. Friendly Hero's was a lot more severe, and more stressful. But the doctor's here didn't see him. Peaceful Hero didn't cause worry, because he was eight pounds. Hopeful Hero, the nurses started freaking out that she was still 6 lbs 4 ozs. Her birth weight was 6 lbs 14 oz. They started talking about needing a lactation consultation, and other interventions. One nurse even asked in disbelief if my milk was in, or if she was having the correct number of poopy and wet diapers. (Hello! It is!) I was getting the vibe that she didn't trust me when I told her that she was following the pattern of my other children. The doctor wasn't as worried as the nurses, but he was concerned. So we went to a lactation consultation, and everything is fine. I decided that I would squeeze in an extra feeding every day, and wake her up frequently during the day--I refuse to wake her up at night. So instead of feeding her 8 times a day, I've been feeding her 9 times a day. And by Tuesday, she was starting to feel heavier. (Right when I knew she would.) We go back for another weight check tomorrow, but Bug Hero and I both feel that she's close to 7 lbs, if not over it. This week would have seemed busy if that was the only thing, because I'm spending close to 6 or 7 hours during the day feeding a baby.

But she's totally worth it. This is my favorite gown of hers right now. I love the puffed sleeves and the gathering on them. So much fun to have ruffles and puffed sleeves!

Tuesday, we were out at the playground and enjoying the warmer weather and the sun. I am getting the boys ready to go back inside, when the Peaceful Hero starts screaming and all the other parents at the playground start running towards me. The Peaceful Hero, who is also the climbing or adventurous hero, had climbed up the tall slide at the playground, and fell backwards off of it three quarters of the way from the ground. He fell backwards and landed on his back from about 10 feet high. His head was bleeding profusely  For a horrible accident to happen, it really was great timing--because someone took care of Friendly Hero, someone else took my monitor to listen for Hopeful Hero, one dad was home to give Peaceful Hero a blessing, two other people got first aid kits. Once we got down to the scalp, we realized he would need stitches. So another mom came with me to hold pressure on his head. Four hours later, he is the proud owner of three staples in his booboo. He's fine, no lasting harm. He's most upset that I'm not letting him play in the sandbox until it's healed--I don't want to be cleaning sand out of it.

The last person that needs an update: The Bug Hero. He sported facial hair this week, because he had eye surgery last week. He got a pinguicula removed. That's a fancy word for a callus on his eye that caused irritation and redness. So he no longer has a red eye!

Math Hero: I'm keeping up with everyone. I look forward to a less medically busy week next week. We are still having fun and enjoying everyone's company. The next update I will do will have pictures of the Hopeful Hero's newborn photo shoot. I love sharing them with people, and knowing that I make adorable babies.