Motherhood

When we were younger, my sisters and I gave our mom a notepad with a little saying across it.

"Motherhood: it's not just a job. . . it's an ADVENTURE!"

I must have always thought it was clever since I still remember it all these years later. I'm convinced that I just thought it sounded clever, but since we were such great kids, the adventure part probably didn't apply too much to us, unless in a very good "I have the best kids alive and they make my life great" kind of way. Definitely only in a FUN kind of way.

We've had the flu around here for a few days now, and it has been a doozy! Way too many hours of vomiting, cleaning up vomit (and the other nasty stuff that tends to accompany it when the flu hits). Tonight I went to my mom's at about midnight to get some Clorox wipes because the mess was just too much for me to keep using rags that needed washing, after washing. As I left I suspected I'd return home to another nasty smelling pile of something, with a child lying on the bathroom floor, and in my distress noted it aloud. Mom said that someday they would understand what I was going through.

Mom, now I understand. How did I not know that everything about motherhood is an adventure?

There are definitely times that motherhood is an adventure in the not so great kind of way. Our current circumstances (read: the FLU invasion) have been a not so fun reminder of that fact, but I do find it is a lovely ride too. Even in the deepest throes of yuck, Abbey thanked me for cleaning up after her, Olivia let me finish my book before asking me to read to her, and Anne is trying so hard to take care of herself so as to not burden me. Sometimes I don't deserve the great kids I have.

I'm so glad they're mine, and we can wade through this adventure together!

Family Home Evening Nativity

For our Family Home Evening tonight, we acted out the Nativity. Cory was Joseph, Abbey was Mary, Olivia was our angel, Anne and Jane were our shepherds, and Max was Baby Jesus.

Dance, Dance, Dance

Anne and Abbey have been doing a lot of dancing this Fall. They are both taking BYU creative dance and loving it. We were able to visit their classes this last week. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the newly charged batteries is the case and the ones in the camera died at Anne's lesson, so we didn't get many pictures (and I couldn't find them while I was posting this). However, she also is taking a ballroom dance class and we were able to attend their Christmas Party and got some pictures and video of it. Here are a few pictures of Abbey's class and Anne's ballroom party. They both did great!

A few more funny things the kids have said

My kids keep saying things that make me laugh, and since my blog seems to be the only place I really keep track of goings on in my life, I'm making an update to the last post.

Last week while grocery shopping, Jane informed me that she needed to use the bathroom. We were next to an employee of the store so he let me know there was a public restroom on the other side of the store, but if we needed to use it, there was an employee bathroom just through those doors. Since we've had many accidents lately ("I didn't quite make it to the toilet") we opted for the through the doors option. Since it was an employee bathroom, there was a wall of small lockers. As soon as Jane saw them, she squealed with delight, "Kitty cages!" I'm guessing her comment comes from recently having gone to Petsmart and seen the adoption area where there were lots of kitty cages.

Apparently, I haven't been looking my best lately because the few times I have taken time to look nice, I've gotten comments from my kids. On Saturday, we went to the Kramer Family Christmas party which consists of my dad's and his nine siblings and their families. I went downstairs to Anne and Abbey's room to check out myself in the mirror when Abbey said, "I know why you're trying to look cute. It's 'cause Syd's gonna be there."

Kids say the darndest things!

Since Max's birth, Jane has come up with some pretty good excuses for not being able to help. Her two favorites are "I'm too dizzy." and "I can't because my legs are too wiggly." (Now picture her bending in half and shaking her legs.) Sometimes she can't because her tummy hurts.

Olivia really loves Max and she especially loves holding him and playing with him. A few weeks ago, she let me know that she taught Max how to talk and that I should put it on our blog. I can't remember what he "said" but I'm pretty sure it was "a goo." Isn't Liv a great teacher?!

The girls aren't the greatest at going to bed (honestly, they just don't). We've been trying to let them play quietly in their beds, or just look at books. Well tonight, I stayed upstairs a bit longer and overheard/ joined this little conversation.

Thud
Olivia: "You just have to face your fears and do it."
Mom: " Girls, that doesn't sound good. What's going on?"
Jane: "Olivia's just learning me how to do stuff."

Since the girls share bunk beds, Olivia is learning all the different ways to get up and down fro the top bunk without climbing the ladder: Climbing over the rails and hanging before falling, climbing up/down over the headboard or foot board, jumping from the top rung of the ladder. I'm guessing this is whatOlivia was "learning" Jane. So far, no broken bones. Maybe Olivia really is a good teacher!

Halloween (a little late)

Our scary front porch!

(Our neighbor's grandson was pretty scared by our ghost.)

These were our scary faced

jack-o'-lanterns.

Please note the very sharp teeth on Olivia's (left), and the fangs on Anne's (center).

The small and very frightend jack-o-lantern on the right was carved by Mom for Max.

Here are Jane's and Abbey's.
According to Abbey, hers is sad because Jane's pumpkin stole her pumpkin's boyfriend.
She wanted to carve a tear on it's face too.

(I think she just really wanted to use the powered carving knife)

These pictures show the whole pumpkins better, not just their glowing faces.



Here are the girls in their costumes:

Abbey dressed as Cleopatra,
Lucy was an angel,
Anne dressed as a Lady from a Masquerade Ball




Jane was Cinderella, and
Olivia was Ariel.



Max was a very cute Cow, but I'll upload a picture of him later.

A Few fun Pictures

I've been wanting to make a collage wall of some of my favorite pictures for quite a while, and I finally started working on it. Thanks to my sister Eleanor for helping me turn the photos sepia. I had hoped to post a few others, but Blogger won't let me (and I'm not computer savvy enough to understand why and then fix the problem!).

Here is a picture of me a Cory a few years ago (2005). We went to Preference when we were dating, and thought It would be fun to go again when I went back to BYU.

(On a funny aside, I uploaded this picture a few years ago to a face matching website, and I came up as a 78% match with Janet Jackson and Cory had about 40% match with Jennifer Aniston!)

This is a picture of Olivia in her blessing dress. I have been trying to find these pictures for years (literally). I finally found it in a folder called "Princesses On Ice."

Where are my priorities?!

Here is one of the latest pictures of Max.

He's looking handsome in his blessing outfit.

(He was blessed by his dad yesterday).

One of three wedding pictures now on display in our house.

An old favorite that I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at.

(Abbey, Olivia, and Anne)

And finally a picture of all 5 of the kids.

I think they're a good looking bunch!

Pictures of Max

Since I just posted a lot of princess pictures, I thought I'd add a few pictures of Max . After all, Jane did always say he'll be our prince!

Olivia's is 6!

Olivia's birthday was last week.

She requested a barbie cake.

I thought it turned out great, and from the smile on her face I think she agreed.

Since several family members had been sick,

we just had her party yesterday. Anne and Abbey did a great job of planning it!

Her friends came dressed as princesses.

They played freeze dance to a playlist Anne and Dad created using songs from disney princess movies. Then they had a princess walk where they got to choose their crown and a candy necklace making kit.

Then we opened gifts and ate cupckaes.

Olivia wanted this Ariel costume so she would be the prettiest princess at her party!

Elephant's Journal

Yesterday we went up to Bountiful to attend my cousin's baby blessing. It was so nice to be with our extended family again. It can be overwhwelming sometimes because our family is so big, but I just love being around people I love so much and sharing our lives with them.

When we were driving home (it takes about an hour) the girls were making music requests but Cory and I insisted on leaving the i-pod on random. Ella Fitzgerald was playing. The girls asked us to change the music, but I said, "I like Ella Fitzgerald." Abbey responded with "I don't want to listen to Elephant's Journal." We all got a good laugh, but I'm beginning to question her hearing!

Max is here!

Max William Chambers

was born on 9/2/09.

He weighed 7 lbs. 8oz. and was 20 inches long.

There were no major complications. Mom is recovering and Max is doing well. Max was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck twice, which made Max's heart rate a little low at birth. Once he was born and untangled from the umbilical cord everything was fine. His APGAR scores were 8 and 9. He is a well tempered baby and his sisters can't get enough of him. They ask to hold him all the time. Here are some pictures of Max and the family.

Hootz and Holly's Wedding

Thanks to our friends the Hintz's, we were able to attend Saturday's Owlz baseball game. We all went together and the kids had a great time trying to

catch fly balls,

playing on the playground and

just having fun together .

I had suspected that the highlight of the game (for the kids at least) would be the fireworks display afterward. As it turned out, it was the

marriage of Hootz and Holly

(the mascots)

that proved to be most exciting.

Jane was a bit disappointed that Holly didn't have on a wedding dress--only a veil and her regular dress. After the "ceremony" the owls rode off on a golf cart. Jane was sure they were

riding off to their castle.

After they drove off, the fireworks started. Two songs were played, one of which was "A Whole New World" from Aladdin. As it played, Jane said, "Now they can dance." When the fireworks ended, and we were heading home, she started crying because we didn't ever get to see them dance. She was slightly appeased, however, when they handed out

wedding cupcakes

(only for the kids)

as we left the stadium.

It was a fun, though very late night.

A few Summer Highlights

Since I've been such a lousy blogger this summer, I thought I'd give you a few highlights.

Olivia learned to ride a two-wheeler, and Jane can really cruise on this lovely Dora bike.

(Thanks Dave and Nancy!)

Note Jane's attire. She often asks me

"Can I put on a dress-up so I can be a beautiful girl and dance?"

When I went out to get the newspaper one morning (it was just before the 4th of July) I heard what sounded like a marching band. I told the kids and we prepared to go for a little walk to find the music. When they came upstairs, the band rounded the corner onto our street. It was fun having our own personal parade. (Later that day I noticed another family's kids parading around the block with their instruments. It was obviously a fun event for the kids!)

For the 4th of July

we had our annual family barbecue and water fight prior to watching fireworks.

As usual, we all went swimming first. Ella loves the pool. She especially loved standing on my HUGE belly.

(I can't believe I still had 2 months to go at that point!!)

This little pool was originally set up for the babies,

but was quickly taken over by the bigger girls. They had a blast!
Jane and Eva had a great time eating watermelon while swimming.

After swimming and eating dinner,

the kids got to decorate their own cookies (and some of their faces).



Next, we had the water fight.
It started with water balloons. Grandpa was a favorite target.



I had scolded Cory for being the only guy who wasn't participating in the water fight, and he called me out for not participating either. By the time I had at least partially changed, they had pretty much run out of water balloons. I then got involved by attempting to dump the cooler on someone (John?), then the hoses were let loose. We noticed Gustavo was still very dry, and the fight began. I think I got him pretty well after lots of chasing him around the yard, but I was completely soaked.




Eva had already changed out of her swimsuit, but she wanted to participate in the water fight too. Once, Gustavo and I finished with the hoses, Eva took her turn soaking Grandpa.

Moving on to July 22nd

For Anne's birthday I made the cake of her choice. . . twice!

The first cake never quite made it to the frosted stage. Jane kept asking for lunch and I kept delaying, so when I finally came upstairs, I found that she had helped herself to nearly half of the bottom layer of the cake!

This delayed our party plans just a bit as I had to make another cake. (Thankfully, we were able to only run about 30 minutes behind our original schedule.)

Then when we returned from swimming I hurriedly made the frosting (somewhat unsuccessfully at that) and left for dinner. When we returned from dinner and invited everyone for cake, I moved the cake to the bar, and unfortunately. . .

Jane found it again and helped herself!

Dad gave Jane a spank.

Mom gave her a talking to

("We don't eat birthday cake until after we've sung to the birthday girl!")

and she put herself to bed.

Of course, the next day when she got her piece of cake, she didn't even eat it!

On July 25th, My mom and sisters threw me a baby shower.
Mom made this Where the Wild Things Are cake. After all our baby will be named Max.

(Maybe he can tame our wild things! . . . Then again, maybe the Wild Rumpus will really start!)

Thanks Mom, Sisters and all the family that attended.

Max will not be forced to wear pink or ruffles and lace!