Time to take a breath

This last week was crazy busy! Monday was a pretty normal day. Just school in the morning and we had some friends over to play in the afternoon. Tuesday morning was school again. Then in the afternoon we went to a playgroup, and then came home to swim at the neighbors house. That evening I had enrichment to go to. Then, on Wednesday things got even crazier. John left really early to go on a hike/campout with the young men. He was gone until Saturday! So, I guess I decided to fill my time up while he was gone.

We had school, and then went to a playgroup at the park. Then we went to another playgroup. Then we had to stop at the store, and we came home. I cleaned like a madwoman because I was having a party at my house that night. So, I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. And then we ran to Arby's to get some dinner. We got home just in time for the consultant to pull up. I had my party, which was a huge success! The kids got to stay up late and watch a movie downstairs during my party.

The next day didn't get any less busy. We had school, of course, and then we went to the Davis County Fair all afternoon. It was fun. We got to see a lot of animals and they had a cool little science tent set up where they had a bunch of different science type activities. I didn't get to take any pictures, though, because John had the camera with him up in the mountains. (Which, by the way, he almost broke because his bag of fish that he caught leaked on it!) Anyway, we had quiet evening and I put the kids to bed early to gear up for our next day.

Friday was the craziest of all! After school, my sister-in-law brought over her 3 kids (all under the age of 4) so I could watch them while she and her husband went to Salt Lake overnight to celebrate their anniversary. Yes, I said overnight! So, I had my Ethan (almost 3 months), her baby (9 months), her son (2 1/2), my Jared (3 1/2), her son (4), and my Joshua (5 1/2) by myself overnight!! To make it even more exciting, they had never been overnight somewhere without their mom! During the day they played outside a lot and were all pretty good. I had to break up a few fights here and there, but nothing too major. The fun started at bedtime. We had dinner (mac&cheese and hotdogs-I wanted to make sure everyone would eat it), and then I told them all if they helped clean up we could watch a movie before bed. They all did a great job cleaning up, so I turned on a movie. But, my sister-in-law's kids don't sit very still for movies...so that didn't go so well. I decided to go ahead and get them into bed. So, I tried to get them all ready, but both of the babies started crying. I tried holding them both, but they didn't like that. They wanted to be held alone. So, I've got 4 kids running around crazy and 2 babies crying. What do I do? I ended up having 2 of the neighborhood girls come over and hold the babies for me while I tried to get everyone else settled down.

That worked for awhile, but then they had to go home. I couldn't get the other kids to stay in bed, so I gave up on them and decided to just put my kids to bed instead. My kids were wonderful and had a perfect bedtime. After I got them to sleep, I tried again to get the other kids to bed. They just weren't having any of it. I tried having them talk to their mom a few times. I even tried to bribe them with candy and chocolate milk (I know that's horrible, but I was desperate!). NOthing seemed to work. By this time, the babies were both starting to get fussy again. Luckily, I had another lifesaver friend come over and help with the babies. Well, eventually I separated them and they finally went to sleep-2 1/2 hours after I started them! However, one of them was sleeping in my bed, and the other was sleeping in my babie's bed. That's where I was finally able to get them to sleep. I though, hey, no problem. I'll just bring up the air mattress from downstairs, and the baby and I will sleep in the family room. (The other baby was using the playpen.) That was fine, until I woke up in the middle of the night and the mattress was halfway deflated. I'm not sure what happened to it. Oh well. It was still fine. Everyone slept through the night, except Jared. He came out looking for me since I wasn't in my room. I was too tired to try to make him stay in his own bed, so I let him crash on the couch next to me.

So, the next morning came around. Everyone woke up at about 6:30, except Joshua. He woke up around 6, but I kicked him out and make him go back to bed. Anyway, I made Laura's baby a bottle, put him down on the floor next to me. Fed my baby. Changed both babie's diapers and clothes. Changed the other 2 kids diapers and clothes. Made sure my kids were dressed. And an hour had all ready flown by! I definately feel for mothers of twins and more! You're just constantly going, going, going! Anyway, the morning went pretty smoothly. I was expecting their parents to come get them around 11:00, but wasn't expecting John to get back until later that afternoon. But, he surprised me and got home at 10:30! I was sooo happy to see him after all that! It was a busy week, but a good one! We all survived and I'm sure I could do it again if I had to. :)

Sorry there's no pics, but I couldn't take any. :( But, here's some pics of John's peaceful mountain trip. (Actually he had some ups and downs on his trip to. He was with a bunch of teenage boys after all.) :)