Ava's Day of Attention

When you have a such an easy going little girl as Ava, she easily and often gets overlooked by two punky little brothers that demand a lot of time and energy. But today she got an overload of both my time and attention and I think she rather liked it, as did I.

I'm the room mom (and a crummy one at that) for Ava's preschool class but since I'm not allowed to bring the two little boys, I haven't got to spend much time in the classroom. We're making an auction item for her school's annual fundraiser and today we painted the frog stepping stones that we've been making for the past three weeks. My awesome friend Jayme, offered to keep my two little ones along with her 2 yr old twins while I went in and helped the preschoolers paint. As I helped them I finally got to see how Ava interacts with all the other kids and the teachers. Last year Ava was so reserved and shy that I was really nervous about how she'd do in school this year. I noticed today that she's still the quiet one but she's definitely making her own way into the social scene. Sometimes it's hard for me as an extra extrovert to watch her and not get frustrated. I'm learning to bite my toungue and try to take her as she is and wants to be. John always tells me that's just her and I guess he would know cause she's so much like him. Around just a few close friends she's bubbly, giddy and talkative but in a crowd she'd rather hang back and observe. Some days this makes for frustration on my part cause I want to push her into the group and make her have fun and I think she sometimes senses my exasperation. But today at preschool I could tell she was so excited to have me there cause she kept coming up to me randomly and hugging my legs or pulling me down for a kiss. It was quite sweet and helped remind me that even though she's my mature, grown up almost 5 yr old, she still really does like and need her Mama. She's usually all about Dada so it's nice to reaffirm that Mama is cool too sometimes.

Then this evening we had her first soccer practice with yep, you guessed it, me as the coach. She's been so excited to play and put on her cleats and shin guards for the past few weeks. So when we walked into the gym and there were about 10 kids already running around like crazy I was ready to see her jump right in. But she sidled up to my legs, clutching her ball and kinda whispered to me, " It's kinda crazy in here for me, I think I'll wait till the little kids get here." My first thought was, "Oh, no. I've volunteered to coach for this team and now Ava won't even play on it" but I was proud of myself when I told her that's ok, just stay by me for now and you can play when you want too. At 4 1/2 she's by far the youngest player on the team. You are supposed to be at least 5 to play and there are actually about four 6 year old rambunctious boys on the team so maybe it is a little to much for her all at once. She stuck to my leg most of the night but did try a few of the drills and activities. Then when we came home I realized she really did have a good time after she asked me if she could take her cleats, ball and shin guards to Florida with us to show Papa how good of a player she was.

I hope that as she gets older and more aware of other peoples opinions of her she will understand that I'm proud of her, anyway she wants to be. I think this is one of the hardest parts of parenting - watching your child turn into someone totally unique and different, but totally cool with their own character. I just hope that as her first cheerleader, I can give her the confidence she needs to go conquer the big bad mean world. Can my baby really be almost old enough for kindergarten?

Today I Pulled My 2 yr olds Hair

I knew the day was destined to fail, but I tried it anyway. We're leaving to go to Florida on Friday and I have no clothes so I packed up 3 kids and went to town shopping. Shopping for clothes = never successful for me. Why, why, why did I think that all the kids would help with that in any way?

So we get through the trip to the gym, the kids are snacked out on cookies and we head to Kohl's.

Everything starts off great. I'm loading the shopping cart with potentials as we make our way to the bathrooms. Change a stinky baby - check. Potty the two others - check. We make our way to the dressing rooms after running through 3 more aisles and me grabbing over 30 shirts, jeans and one pair of flip flops that look decent. By now Lias is really fussy but he'll be happy once I let him down to play in the big handicapped dressing room that holds me, a honking huge double stroller, 30 pairs of clothes and 3 kids, right? No. He wants to nurse now and Ava has to use the bathroom AGAIN - number 2. Too bad kid. Hold it. I rip clothes on and off, leaving them on just long enough for Nathan to tell me that he doesn't like any of them. I finally keep one shirt and grab Lias, who's screaming now that Nathans pulled the stroller away and made him fall.

We head to the bathroom, feed the baby, potty the preschooler AGAIN and everything calms down enough that I'm tempted to just glance at the kids section. 20 minutes later, the kids are done tearing the toy aisle apart, I've got more clothes for them then I could ever find for me, and the baby is stinky AGAIN. Its also 45 minutes past lunch and I haven't fed anybody anything but cookies. We quickly pay for the junk, head to the car and try to load up.

You'd think since we load into the car at least 20 times a week we'd be pretty good at this but no. Here's where it all really starts to break down. Ava and Nathan are told repeatedly to get into the van and in their seats. Ava listens. Nathan does not. I'm trying to change a very stinky diaper doubled with a nasty diaper rash from out of the blue and juggle a adventurous 2 yr old that thinks he wants to start the car. Lias is laid out on the seat with the seatbelt digging into his head, arching his very messy bum while Nathan is stepping on the very messy diaper and I can't even yell like I want because the door is open and everyone will hear me. I finally get the diaper on the screaming baby and get Nathan off the dirty diaper and back towards his seat. I wrestle the unused wipe I needed 2 seconds ago that glued itself to the the velcro diaper tabs on the dirty diaper, wrap up the diaper and jump into the car to Nathan's screaming. His all out ear piercing, mind numbing, I'm-losing-my-brain, scream and then it happened.

I reached out, grabbed his hair and pulled for all it was worth. And told him to STOP SCREAMING NOW!!! Not my finest parenting moment, that's for sure. Right after I did it I felt horrible but amazingly, he actually stopped screaming. We all took a few deep breaths and then he said in a little voice, "Mama, you no hurt me like that." I tried to reason my way through the whole situation but ended up at "You're right Nathan, it was very naughty for Mama to pull your hair." Way to go Mama, way to go. I just thought I'd document the whole situation so I can really remember how it was when I'm old and senile and think everything was all rosy all the time. Please tell me I'm not the only one who looses it occasionally like this?

He crawls! He stands!

9 month update on Lias

This baby is a mover and a shaker. He decided to crawl about 3 weeks ago and he really hasn't stopped moving since.

He got around pretty good before that by being a bum scooting baby but I think he's decided crawling might be a little faster.

He's also sprouted 5 new teeth in about 5 weeks. All my kids have gotten their first sets about 4 months, but he was a little behind and got his about 5. He's caught up to all the others though and is holding even with 8 teeth at 8 months, just like Ava and Nathan. Fun times, fun times.


He's definitely got Nathan beat in the movement department, who didn't decide to crawl till 11 1/2 months, and Ava wasn't very good at it till almost 9 months. But what's amazed me (besides the fact that I've posted a whole series of my baby extremely snotty nosed) is that he's decided to pull up so fast.

He pulls up to anything and everything - stable or not. His favorites currently are the table chairs, cardboard boxes and the 4 potted plants in the hallways. He's also become quite good at throwing things, with his favorite being the dirt from the potted plants. "Lias in the plants!" is the cry that gets me moving the fastest these days. Luckily, spring is right around the corner and they're all going outside where he can throw to his hearts content.

Please also note that he's still too chunky to even think about buttoning his pants. I'm hoping some of this movement will slow him down a little in the growth department cause I'm running out of clothes for him. Too get out of this stand, he just plops down on his cushioning and he's off to another adventure. Busy, busy, busy but, uuummmm, he sure is cute.

Bowdee-Howdee-Hum

So here's what we did in our spare time on Friday. For about 2 years now I've been admiring my sisters-in-laws cute kids and crafty skills so I finally got it together and learned how to make some of these. Every family reunion Ava's the little rag muffin that doesn't have any fancy bows but now we have no excuses since I've proven I am capable of making corker bows. Alas, I'm now sure my crafty sister-in-laws are onto bigger and fancier things but maybe someday I'll catch up to them.

They took a ton of time but I did have three helpers and they demanded I feed them lunch and change a few bums in the process. My awesome sister-in-law Dawne was patient enough to walk me through it step-by-step and I'm glad she did cause I think they turned out cute. Dawne's little girls are much more fashionable than us, since she usually makes her bows with 45 corkers (curly things) and I called in good with only 18 each. We have to ease us East Coasters in easy to the whole Utah fashion trends.

Ava loved making these, but not so much wearing them. The whole time we were making these, and other assorted flower bows, she kept asking me "Wow, Mama, I'm a good bow maker huh?" and " Do you think I should make bows for a job when I'm a teenager?". She made some monstrous pink poofy flowers and I glued them onto a clip for her but I seriously doubt she'll ever wear them. I did convince her to wear these beauties to the tiny little St. Patrick's Day parade in Little Washington and she got at least 5 compliments on them, which made them all worth while.

Now if I could just figure out how to fix her hair we'd be on our way to divas.

Up next, I have to conquer these fancy little numbers and then I'm having a party. A fancy, shmancy bow making party for all the friends I know. I'll be the coolest kid on the block then, huh? Or at least in Virginia, where these aren't a dime-a-dozen like in Utah. Bring all your ribbons, bows and craftiness my way and come have fun.

Spring Is Coming....

(This is a little song we sing over here - compliments of years of Joy School in the Donovan Household)

Spring is coming...

How do I know?

A little birdie told me so.

Ahhh! This is what happens when you don't post for three weeks! Little birdies turn into scary teenage birds!!



Welcome spring. Welcome garden. Welcome 50 new strawberry plants, 2 dinner plate dahlias and hundreds of sprouting tulips. Welcome dirty feet and hands and faces and nightly baths. Welcome wide open front doors and all-the-time outside playing kids. Welcome dirty crawler knees and dirt-eating-for-the-first-time babies. Welcome newborn calves with fuzzy hair and wobbly walks. Welcome green grass and lactating mama cows. Welcome popcorn trees and little purple flowers that bloom in the snow. Welcome soon-to-be born hundreds of baby goats and the sound of "maaaaaamaaaaaa" from the field all day long.
Welcome to our farm spring - we're glad you came our way.

Kinda Freaky

About a month ago I got one of those "urban legend" forwarded emails that talked about some random people going around Centeral Virginia door to door posing as college students. It said that they would try to give you a bottle of dish soap or an erosal can of Febreeze or something of that nature and then tell you they were conducting a study or taking a survey, then try to get into your house. There would be another few people in an SUV in the driveway and if the first was able to get into your house then the others would follow in an attempt to rob you or do harm. I thought, sure whatever and deleted the email.

So today about 2:45pm we (me and the kids) were doing laundry when we heard the doorbell ring so we gathered us all up and headed down. Ava got there first, then came running back to tell me she didn't know who it was but they were still there. I opened the door, with Lias on my hip, to a clean cut guy who held out a can of Febreeze and told me he was in the neighborhood giving out free samples. A little chill came over me and the email came rushing back to me so I immediately told him I wasn't interested and started pushing the kids back inside. He kept holding it out to me and telling me it was free and I just shut the door and locked it and he headed back to the SUV waiting in the driveway, with another guy in the driver seat. I had enough sense to try to write down the license as they drove away and I think I got most of the plates. Then I started checking my trash mail and found the email that talked about this and got kinda freaked out when it listed exactly what had just happened to me.

I called the local sheriff to report it and they told me I was the 5th person to report this in 3 days in our county. The email I had read had mentioned that it was happening in counties south of us and in the town we hang out in, which is about 25 minutes away. I guess a few people have gotten robbed at gunpoint and the email mentioned someone had been shot but I'm not sure how accurate it was. I decided not to call my neighbors since the sheriff said they usually pick only 1 house in an area and then move on.

I guess we're an easy target since we're off the road and have a pretty conspicuous house. It kinda unnerved me that someone would be that bold with all the trucks and office and going-ons on the farm around our house. I just wish that John would have been in the office (he was out in a field) so I could have sent him after the guys with his arsenal. Anyway, it was kinda freaky and I've got my doors locked tonight.

Straight from Africa, Just for Us

(Thanks Becky, they love the animals. My computer and camera have a been acting up so sorry for the late evidence)

We came home from our trip to Utah a few weeks ago exhausted and with super whiny, tired kids who fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport.

How lucky then, were we, to have a package with these fun animals waiting for us in our kitchen? The kids perked right up and were even agreeable and fun after getting a new friends that evening. Becky, our greatest friend in Africa (actually, our only friend in Africa but still our greatest) sent these to the kids via her man in New York, Ymir, who went to visit her a few weeks ago. They traveled all over Botswana and saw so many freaking animals that me and the kids couldn't even begin to keep up. We've been supplementing our lives with a daily dose of African animals supplied by Becky's blog for the past few months.

Our kids were in heaven with their new friends and Ava quickly adopted each one and added them to her "auction" that we get to attend most afternoons. But we've never been able to bid on a gazelle before, that's for sure.

Nathan decided the giraffe was cool cause it had a long neck that could double as gun, as does every other toy in our house currently. BOOM - his super loud sound effects go with each shot scaring poor Lias half to death.

And Becky even got Lias the right gift. She ought to be happy to know this is only Lias' second stuffed animal he can claim as his own (poor third kid) and our first stuffed hippo in the Genho household, if you don't count Lias himself. He was way more interested in eating all the paper tags that came on the animals, but Ava has adopted his hippo for safe keeping till he's old enough to carry it around himself.

Becky doesn't know this, but all those cool pictures of animals on her blog has created quite the stir over here between John and me too. One late night after blog reading I ended up on hers and had the crazy whim to look up airline tickets to Botswana. I came to bed that night with the thrilling idea that I should go visit Becky in Africa this summer. What are my chances of ever knowing someone in Africa again that would show me around and I'd have a blast with? So what that I have a nursing baby - I'll take him along. $2000 bucks?... A small amount to pay for that kind of adventure. It's dangerous in Africa and I shouldn't travel alone? Then I'll bring you along too, John. Geesh, just let me dream for a little while ok!?

But none of this really won him over so here I sit, watching my kids play with cool stuffed animals and daydreaming about elephants, hippos, lions, and giraffes.

But if one day I post a blog from Botswana, you'll know what happened. Thanks for inspiring us Becky. Keep up the good work.

Evil

Ava (while dancing around): Nathan, when are you going to be done on the potty?

Nathan (with an evil little sneer): In about 2 hours. Hehehe.

Does a two year old even have a sense of time or does he just like to annoy her?

Utah (Part 1)= Great-Grandparents, Family and a few Blasts from the Past

Utah was short and we packed in a lot, but it was fun.

We started with a trip to Great - Grandma and Grandpa Donovan (my dad's parents) in Ogden. Their house still has that same cozy feeling that it had when I was a kid, complete with homemade grape juice, pink peppermint candies on the kitchen counter in the little wooden bowl, cabinets full of Hummel figurines, and Grandma and Grandpa sitting in their recliners looking out the window onto the elementary school playground.









We talked, tried to play in the snow with homemade snowsuits (garbage bag and tape work quite well), sledded down the small hill in front of their house and had dinner with our Utah cousins.



Uncle Spencer made the trip up from St. George to see us, or rather to see my kids and played in the snow with them too.



I finally convinced Lias to crash about 1 that afternoon and he gave us a beautiful 3 hour nap. It must have something to do with all the comfy quilts that Grandma has everywhere in that basement room.


I gave my Grandpa a quick lesson with the digital camera and this is the shot he captured.

Ava found the most sought after spot in the house - laying on Grandpa's belly. This is one of my earliest memories of my Grandpa - laying on his belly while he watched TV and asking him when his baby was coming cause he had such a big belly.


Eventually the cuddling evolves to tickling and I'm not sure who got who better.






But we all had a great time and can't wait till they make their yearly trek east in the fall.


We spent the majority of our time with Papa (John's dad) in Bountiful, watching the snow fall and the kids play with his arsenal of toys in the basement. John's family is over run with little kids (24 grand kids and 17 of those in the past 4 years) and most of them used to live in the Utah area so he's really got the stock pile of all types of toys that will entertain and amuse grand kids of all ages.

But eventually even those toys got old so he also took us out the SLC Children's Museum, a place he frequents often when all those grand kids come to visit. Nathan finally got to get up close and personal with a "hell-e-cock-er" and he was in heaven. He was even kind enough to let us sit in it for a second but pestered us galore with all the "why" questions about a helicopter you could ever dream of. He's into the why stage pretty hard and doesn't even wait for an answer before he asks why again. Sometimes it's cute but usually it's pretty exhausting.




Papa oversaw all the activities at the museum. That is, until he felt the need to go shopping at all the tantalizing malls next door to the museums. I tried to beg my way along but he had already taken me to Kohl's that morning, where we had fun spending my 30% off coupon. I got new jeans, a shirt, and a new jacket, among other things.


Nathan and John had fun building towers.....



....and then pushing the button to make the floor shake so everything came tumbling down.
Check out Nathan's clenched hands - a sure sign he's excited.



He wasn't too excited to dress up though.



Somewhere along the trip we also stopped and saw a ton of family. We could easily spend a month in Utah and still not see all the friends and family that we'd like too, so I know we missed more than a few of you, but I'm glad for the few we did see.

My mom has 9 siblings and I think all of them live in the Utah area, so I thought I was doing pretty good to stop and see 3 of them here and there. I got to see my newest cousin on my mom's side too, who is only 9 months old and a complete surprise to our family since the oldest cousin is somewhere near their 40s I'm sure. Joshua McKean Racker was a complete surprise to his parent's too, who already had 3 teenager daughters and are in their 40s too. Aunt Stacey and I had a fun visit comparing our little babies (who share the same middle name) and catching up. She took pictures but I was too lazy to get the camera so I have nothing to show for it. I also got to visit with my Uncle Dave and Aunt Alecia and my Aunt Annie and her hubby Uncle Gary.

We also took the kids over to the old stomping grounds of B-Y-U to let them see where we used to be cool and walk around campus like we owned the place. If you ever want to feel grown up and old, take your three little kids and walk down memory lane on your old campus. It felt so surreal to be actually using the couches to nurse a baby in the bathroom at the Tanner building, reading the sign in the ladies room that said "Please respect the privacy of nursing mothers". I can't tell you how many times I used those couches in there for a long nap or to kill a lazy hour in between classes. We only stayed about an hour and met with one old professor, but it was pretty fun to relive it all.

And would a visit to Utah ever be complete without seeing someone about to pop and someone in a big white dress? (not the same person, of course!) We stopped by to see a great old friend, Alicia Wall (shoot, can't remember her married name now- sorry Stan) who was just weeks away from having her first little baby. We reminisced all about Block and Bridle Club, where we ate, danced and partied our way through BYU Animal Science. We wished her well on turning her little baby, who has decided to give her mom and dad complications and come out feet first, and headed over to crash a wedding.

One of my families closest friends, the Jay and Nancy Rollins crew, had just married off their 5th kid, Mary, so we went in our our finery (we hadn't packed a single peice of church clothes) and ate all their cake. I had a blast showing off my kids and reconnecting with Jaymie, Mary's oldest sister and one of my best friends in high school and at college.

We met up with Jeff, my little brother at the wedding reception and then headed out to his house afterward. He tried to tell us his place wasn't very nice and I had to set him straight. He lives directly south of campus- I mean directly south of campus. His house backed up to the parking lot where I spent way too many hours circling and circling hoping to get a spot to park my car my senior year. And the inside of his house? Lets just say that I'd live there with all my kids, it's that nice. I think I convinced him to stay another year there or maybe I just convinced him to get out and give someone else the posh deal. The kids had fun seeing him and crashed on the way home so me and John actually got to talk and laugh all the way back to Bountiful about our BYU days. Oh so fun but glad to be done with them too.


Part two tomorrow night....maybe.

Papa. Papa. Papa

We're at Papa's house in Utah, watching the snow fall and eating all his yummy food. Ava's in heaven, sleeping in his bed each night and playing with all his cool toys. John's kinda working but mainly playing, Nathan's being Nathan and a little contrary and Lias wants his own bed to sleep in. I'm waiting for Papa to get out of the shower so he can take me on a shopping spree to Kohl's, since I have a 30% off coupon. Then we'll come home, load up the kids and head to SLC to the kids museum to play. And the rest of the week? Who knows???

Set the Night on Fire

I've come to realize something in life since living on the farm out here. People in agriculture are a little different from the rest of us. To anyone not from an ag (or pyromaniac background) this picture above would be quite disturbing, something you might see on the news, but not something that happens in your own backyard (or the dry field next to your backyard).



Most normal suburbia wives will never have to see their husbands walking through a 30 ft fire or standing with a shovel next to the dry waist high grasses that surround the backside of the fire, waiting to put out anything that might catch.


However, I'm no longer a normal suburbia wife, so I now get to see this scene played out at least once or twice a year, with my own family as the eager participants. Last year, about 3 weeks before I had Lias, we bounced 15 minutes into the depths of the farm to a big, huge 25 ft deep pit the guys had dug to push stumps into after clearing the fence line. There were also all sorts of household items (couches, beds, junk) from the delinquent tenants that left all their trash in the houses when they moved. John jumped into the pit, along with 2 jugs of gasoline and promptly commenced in lighting it. I almost had a hearth attack as I watched from the truck with Ava and Nathan. I saw a ball of fire shoot up and then John jump out of the pit about 2 seconds later. John swears he wasn't even close to the fire but all that ran through my mind was "how in the world would I, obesely pregnant, ever get John out of that massive pit and bump all the way back down that dirt road that already almost put me in labor to the main road, and get 30 minutes to the dinky local hospital with a burnt husband and two screaming little kids?" John still thinks I overreacted but I'd like to see how anyone else would handle that situation.





Luckily, I seem to be passing on my fear of the huge fires onto my offspring. They all thought the fire was really cool until the wind started whipping it up. Actually, I don't think they were a bit scared of it but they were really hungry and cold, even though you could feel the heat from about 40 ft away. I hope Nathan retains this healthy fear of flames until well past his teenage years. John tells me that one of the scariest situations he's ever been in has been when a field he's burning turns directions and is coming straight at you.





The fuel for this fire was all the old massive trees that have come down around here in the past few months, one dried up Christmas tree and 2 months worth of boxes and papers from our own garage.


This big stump in the fire was about 4 ft wide and 20 ft long so it burnt nicely--- for about 2 days. John kept going back later that night to check on it and make sure it hadn't gone anywhere. Next time we light one of these little campfires I'll make sure and let all you suburbia friends know so you can come on out and feel the heat of our country bonfires. They're quite the rage.