Opening Day: Swim Season

 Lauren has outgrown our little plastic pool. Sam's had an awesome bigger one. Two days of use and it's already paid for itself! It was a hit! For Lauren at least. Gavin played with the hose and watered the lawn. :)

And my "little" brother made it home! Crazy that two years seemed like forever, but now that he's back, it's almost like he never left. Silly us we didn't take a picture of him, just of his sign. ;P

A Smattering of Pictures

I love it when Lauren and Gavin play together; lately they like to snuggle and they just giggle and laugh. A week or so ago, the primary had a missionary activity where returned missionaries from the ward presented about the places they went. Lauren thought it was pretty neat!  Gavin and Grandma are quite the buds and had lots of fun at the park.

 

I've Been Benched

Chase is really getting good at this wood-working stuff. He made a bench for the front porch for me for mother's day and I think it turned out awesome!

Preschool Graduation

Lauren graduated from preschool on Thursday! We're proud of her and how well she did. When I originally signed her up I was a little nervous as to how it would go, but she has done wonderful despite being the youngest in the class! It's going to be a long summer without her "school days" she looks forward to.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a typical Sunday. It was fun to hear all the tributes to the mother's out there. The thing that stuck with me the most was a comment from one of the talks in Sacrament Meeting. I can't remember it exactly, but the gist was that a son sat by his mother on mother's day handing her tissues while she wept hearing about all the wonderful mothers because she didn't feel like a wonderful mother herself.

I kind of felt like that as Chase tripped over my scooter three times to take a screaming Gavin out into the hall. I felt like weeping when I lost patience with Lauren when she ran over my foot with the scooter. I feel like less than a stellar mother these days. 

Kids will forget this right? Will they remember that I've had no patience the last few weeks? Will they remember that I couldn't tuck them in every night? Will they remember that I couldn't go downstairs to get the beloved extra box of fruit snacks for them? Will they forget that I couldn't take them outside to play?

This won't last, I know it will be okay. But it hurts to know that I have been and done better at being a mom.

I love my mom, she's been here through this whole thing making sure I'm taken care of. My sisters and sisters-in-law are great mothers too; in addition to caring for their kids have taken care of mine. I have a great mother-in-law who has taught me so much.

Even though I may not feel like a good mother now, I am surely being watched over by an army of loving mothers. 

Excerpt from the (Broken) Foot Files

Today started out as an exciting day. I purposely didn't do laundry or clean bathrooms yesterday since it was going to be so much easier today.

When a doctor tells you you'll get a "walking boot" after you get a cast off... it doesn't necessarily mean that you can walk.

Please excuse my ranting... sometimes I just need to be mad and down for awhile and then I'm fine.

We went in so excited and happy that I could be walking out of there in a matter of minutes. Got my blue cast sawed off, chatted happily with the MA, got new x-rays, and waited for the doctor.

Doctor came and in and said, "Looks great, healing nicely. You can go to the boot."

I say, "Awesome! So I can walk and get around okay then?"

"Uh no. You'll want to try gradually putting weight on it starting with your heel, but if it hurts too much don't push it."

"Okay. So can I pick up my kids?"

"I wouldn't"

"When can I take the boot off?"

"Only to shower, but make sure you don't move it at all."

Disappointed, we put the boot on, and left with my trusty scooter still in hand. I tried taking a few steps...it still hurt pretty bad.

We sat in the car for a minute processing, I thought, "Why the heck am I in the boot if I can't walk, can't take it off, and it's now subject to kids sitting, hitting, bumping, riding, hammering etc. and I'm still not supposed to move it?"  So I called right back up and asked to put the cast back on.

So hello bright green cast that I still can't walk in, but... now it has the extra stability so it can heal faster for another 3 weeks. Yippee skippee...

P.S. This is what a cast looks like when you let your 4 year old and your primary class "sign" it. :)

Random

Easter:

 We made it through dyeing eggs with only 4 of them cracked!

 Lauren wanted to eat them ALL!

Bathroom Update:

It's been a slow process, mostly because it's hard to work with two little helpers and a bum foot. :)

But we did get everything sheetrocked, mudded, tub and surround in, part of the texture done and most of the tile done! Thanks to our Dads who know how to do all of that!

 Floor tile with grout.

 Wall tile behind the vanity and toilet without the grout.

No Water Week:

This was a fun little experience not having clean water for almost a week. Thankfully family was close that were willing to let us use their water! I never realized before just how much water we use!

 Three cousins in the tub!

Scooter Adventures:

The kids think my lame foot scooter is the coolest thing ever. Gavin figured out how to climb and stand up on the "seat", yay. Four more days, four more days....

 Of course, he thought he was pretty hot stuff.

And what one does...the other one follows. :)