Taking it back...

I've been watching a little on the Duggar family, the ones with 19 kids. OK, so four kids is a breeeeeeeeze.

5 months along...

I know nothing in this photo is actually in focus, but isn't that face such a doll. When I had our first child, I was totally unprepared in how difficult, how tiring, and how wacky I'd mentally be in the beginning of being a mother. It took six months before I started falling into the groove. With the second, I felt like the expert. The third I started panicking again and fell into a bit of a life blur up until the fourth, which has now made me feel totally and fully committed in every moment of the day to being a mother. Life is hopping, there is way too much multi-tasking going on and not enough lazying about.

Maeleya -sweet little girl- is not as easy of a baby as I had hoped. At two weeks we hit a nursing issue, and the little girl was losing weight. You would think nursing three previous kids each for a year would make me the master... but every babe is different. You should never in passing ask a new mom how she is doing, as my neighbor (and friend) found out with me. One question was all it took for me to start crying in front of her -embarrassing- and when I tried to joke it off, squeaks came out instead of words and all I could do was let the tears roll. I thought I got things back in control, but the pediatrician has made me feel like I should offer a bottle after each feeding. YOU KNOW HOW MUCH TIME THAT TAKES TO DO BOTH? Yikes, but I feel like I should still nurse and make it work.

Maeleya is a very good baby...in arms. Don't think about a car seat, she wails the whole time we drive anywhere. I borrowed one of those pricey swings that can move two different directions looking for a miracle, but she gets a look of abandonment when we put her in there, and doesn't last more than ten minutes. Nights have been rough as well the last couple of months, and I feel like if she's waking up she must be hungry because she's not gaining a lot of weight, so we feed and feed and feed her through the night.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to cue the weeping violin in the background. I LOVE being a mom, challenges and all. Just writing this for all those other moms (ok, well maybe the two or three who read this) who feel like things are tough- there are many of us out there who need monthly cries. And I'm all for seeing a few more blog posts showcasing messy homes and mismatched children instead of mother/daughter matching ruffled aprons that also coordinate with the drapes in an immaculate kitchen filled with an array of desserts package in fancy wrappings ready to hand out to neighbors. Not that I don't like reading those posts, but I also like to know that really we all have our struggles.

Art on the Trail

Michael says I only post about the kids. I admit I've been trying to create a bond for the grandparents. I guess there is also a Michael and Mindy in the Walker bit mix.

Recently an old railroad track was cleaned up and paved to create a path that runs along the edge of our neighborhood. It was really great, very beautiful to go out walking with the kids or biking with the hubby on our date nights. Not long after it was finished though, graffiti starting taking over, especially at the end in a tunnel. A committee over the project scrubbed out what they could, primed over the cement and asked the community for volunteers to paint murals on the tunnel panels. I heard about this shortly after I had Maeleya. My nephew painted one of the panels (Brady). I'm sure every new mom puts "paint a mural" at the top of their list in the first months with baby. I thought it would be fun to attempt though, not every opportunity comes at ideal times! I do a lot with the computer for my design work, but I thought it would be fun to get out in nature and hold a paint brush.




Here is the model -cute man that can look like a gentleman with a touch of humor, just what I wanted. (Hey Rachel, is that money dangling from the umbrella?)




I love that I can ask him to wear a suit coat and a top hat and hold an umbrella without him asking a lot of questions. Years of being married I guess.


Here is the sketch:



Here is the final:


The cardinal is for the lady head of the committee, it's her favorite bird.


Two times while painting, deer strolled down the path to say hello and nod at the work.


Isn't it great that my mikey's profile is painted into cement, hee hee. If the kids ever cross this path as adults, they can drop by and say hello to the man on the wall.

Two true stories. Michael's intern year we spent in the heart of a city. Every day a man past by around fiveish on a unicycle in a suit. Every week I'd see a lady walking several birds. Yes I typed that right. At least that's what it appeared to be. A lady holding a large ring with birds perched on it strolling around the block. I didn't remember those images until after I had made the sketch, but I'm thinking they came out subconsciously. All those things you see surface at some point.

I'm so glad it got done before the snow came!

Sometimes

Sometimes when I need a smile I just look at the back of Maeleya's head. The hair, the ears...it cracks me up. Her hair started out wild, and it's getting wilder. It is like a magnet to people's hands. Strangers will come up and rub her hair. It's like a Buddha belly for good luck and prosperity.

The front of her makes me smile too.



Truly, I didn't try to get her hair up for a photo, it just looks like that.

and...



Sometimes, Kynlee dresses up her younger brother (but you didn't hear that from me).



and...Sometimes he wears a wig...and it's really, really not flattering.



Big Fall post coming...

paper bag

The second day of school, I heard Kynlee working on something in her room. A few minutes later she came out and asked me if I had a small picture of the family, one that would fit in a paper bag. I asked her what she was working on, and she explained that for homework they were supposed to put three items in a bag that described them or that were important to them. She told me, "I have a Book of Mormon, a picture of Christ, and now I need a picture of our family." Then she said with a smile "I want everyone to be Mormon."

Pretty cool right? It made me smile, but I admit I was also hesitant. I tend to, and probably foolishly so, like people to get to know me before I bring up my religion. I worry that the name brings negative feelings, because there are a lot of false, strange statements out there. But I figure if they think I'm awesome first :) then they will think maybe being a Mormon is not so bad. When Kynlee showed me her bag, in my brain I thought, "Really? First week of school your going to let everyone know we're Mormon?" Isn't that terrible? I kept my thoughts to myself and let Kynlee go for it.

Now, two months later Kynlee brings up at the dinner table questions about our religion. Her friends in the cul-de-sac were telling her what Mormons believe, things she hadn't heard of, and she was getting confused. In kindergarten, her best friend told her Mormons were not Christian. We explained to Kynlee that Christians were people that believed in Christ, and that lots of different churches were Christian, including ours. She explained that to her friend the next day, but her friend insisted Mormons were not. The same thing came up recently with the cul-de-sac friends. Kynlee told us she tried to explain to them we were Christian, but they kept trying to tell her what she believed. Heavy things for a six and seven year old. Kynlee started feeling like maybe she didn't want to be different.

She's a good girl, I think her thoughts are golden and she'll figure it all out. One of her favorite scriptures in the Book of Mormon is one Michael showed her, and since then she has wanted to read it every time we do family scriptures. 2 Nephi 32:8-9. I'm going to type it all out, because it is good.

"And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.

But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."

In just over a month, Kynlee will turn eight and be baptized. I'd like her to feel confident about her decision before it happens. I also think it's time that mom started showing as much confidence as her daughter and did a little explaining to the neighbors so we can all understand each other :)

Ander Turns 3

We celebrated Ander's birthday over the weekend. It was a beautiful evening in the neighborhood gazebo. Gazebo, not to be confused with zebra- which Ander thought he was going to see there. Kynlee and I went early to decorate, and the Zellers came before Michael brought the boys and baby. Ander ran as fast as his little legs would go from the car to the party area, so cute to see. He didn't know what a birthday meant in the morning, but by the evening he was loving it.

Our mornings have been really great while Easton and Kynlee are at school. It's fun to see him roam around without any sibling battles and I've enjoyed the one-on-one, makes for good memories, well mostly one-on-one, there is a baby attached to me.














Maeleya dressed up for the occasion, though she wasn't quite sure about it all.

(It's hard to keep those big flowers in the right place)








Kynlee started wearing more and more hats. It caught on with others, by the end I think Kynlee had over seven on her head.

Piano Duet

OK, here's the duet Lisa and I played for the talent show. I may have sped it up just a wee bit for web streaming purposes. It is a fun little number to play...

Talented Orphans

Our church ward had it's third annual talent show. I didn't think the Walkers would be represented, but it turned out Lisa got me to do a piano duet with her, Michael was asked to play his guitar for a family singing, and a couple of ladies put together a group of girls ages 5-7 to do It's a Hard Knock Life.

This was perfect for Kynlee's drama desire. I'm really glad the ladies had the idea and put in the time to practice, the girls had a lot of fun. We came up with the outfits. Kynlee's wearing an old second hand dress with some cover thing I came up with in my non sewing ways. Lisa (my sister) made a nice scratchy burlap jumper for Hadley, who wasn't totally excited after seeing Taya's -that is so cute it could be featured in a boutique. And check out Taya's face expression. It makes me laugh every time I look at it. I think these girls are too cute; they would be snagged up quick out of an orphanage.




Here's the movie production:

Tri Time

Michael was able to catch the last triathlon race in town. A good sprint tri that's a 500 meter swim, ten mile bike, and 3 mile run. I got there a little late and missed the swim, did I mention I have four kids now? I'm still getting the hang of it. We may have made it had I not needed to stop for gas.

He hardly did swim workouts and decided he'd take it easy in the water during the race so he'd have something left at the end. Taking it easy in the water turned out to mean a great time. His tall body and long fin like feet could have made him a Michael Phelps I think had he known back in the day.






I sent the kids after him at the end so they could cross the finish line together. Hopefully the officials didn't mind that. This race draws around 500, so what's a couple of kids at the end? He was just off from his great time last year, which I think is impressive since the first half of the year he spent all his spare time studying for boards. Way to go mikey-o!

I'm thinking for the next race we'll both have all the right gear. I'm going to make sure he has the shoe clip in things for the bike, proper running shoes, and swim goggles that aren't Ander's!

First Day

Got to have first day pictures. Look out second grade and kindergarten. The kids wanted to do crazy poses. They look so well groomed. Everything is new on them, even the socks. They must feel so cool. Kynlee really wanted a stylish scarf, and check out how white her shoes are (I give them a week). They are bathed, with teeth brushed and mouth washed even. I know a month or two from now they'll be jumping out of bed just in time to run out for the bus looking a bit crumpled. Last year Kynlee went to school with hair so tangled they sent her to the nurses office to have it combed out!

Rock Climb Camp

As expected, I have not gone out to do a lot of summer activities with the kids since baby arrival. In an effort to keep Kynlee from being too bored- because she shows signs of going crazy indoors the most- I signed her up for rock climbing camp. We had her in the same camp two years ago and she loved it then as much as she loves it now. It suites her natural strength, her inner desire to climb, and her fearlessness. It lasts a week for five hours a day. I had to be presentable by nine every morning with all the kids. I wonder if anyone noticed I had the same outfit on 3 of the 5 days (I'm in the stage of not fitting in to much).

The last day we all went in so I could take a few shots. For her first climb for me she tackled the hardest wall- the arch.


I was impressed when I saw how far she got on it, and how when she reached for the next notch, she slipped, but held on and swung her legs back so she could reach the big orange notch before falling. I've climbed this arch before with Michael- Kynlee got farther on it then us. I've got to get out there and beat her!



For her next climb, she wanted to show me how it's fun to climb blindfolded.





The owner of the place just had a baby the day before Maeleya, his third and the oldest is three! We bonded a little. He let Easton and Ander do a climb at the end.


Easton by nature is a bit timid and cautious, but I think having a sibling- and now two siblings- that are fearless pushes him to do things he might have not done had he been an only child.


Did you know they have full body harnesses so your two-year-old can climb? Ander loves it, I think he'd do it all day if he could.





After seeing all this, I got thinking that Kynlee may end up in an extreme sport unless I intervene. Another favorite sport of hers is swimming- nice, smooth, safe lap swimming. I think we'll start steering her that way.