the tough decisions

I'm sitting here on our first snowy morning of the school year.  Yup, you read that right - snow.  Although I'm not really ready to give up flip flops and short sleeves, I know this is the price we pay to live in the mountains and enjoy all the benefits of a ski town.

So, I'm choosing to embrace it.  I have a hot cup of coffee sitting next to my computer and the fireplace is roaring to keep me toasty.

My problem this morning is that I'm also sitting here staring at Sauce's binder that contains his homework that he so diligently worked on yesterday afternoon, and every day for that matter.  He rarely gives me much trouble when requested to complete his homework before having more fun.  He is careful with his answers, has neat handwriting, and generally takes pride in a job well done.

My first instinct was to hop in the car and bring it to him at school.  But, after some internal-parental-decision-making-wrestling, I decided that the only way he won't depend on Mommy to make sure his homework gets to school one way or another is to NOT bring it to him.

Ouch.  You see, this is the first time I've had to do this with my #2. 

Our #1 has been giving us a run for our money for years with things like this.  Last month, when fifth grade grades started streaming in, The Hunter was trying to explain away three zeros on homework assignments and a D+ on a quiz.

My man and I had to make it undeniable that the buck stopped right then and there.  The Hunter is passionate about karate training and he had a quarterly testing event to advance to the next belt color coming up.  It was harder for us than it was for him to miss that testing and remain at his current belt level.

The boy was heartbroken, angry, and embarrassed in front of his karate friends.  It was really hard for us to endure and he tried every way he could think of to change our minds.

Lo and behold, two weeks later we are seeing nothing but A's and an occasional B streaming in.  Admittedly, it has taken much more effort on my part as well.  I'm having to pester him to remember to bring home his homework, review each assignment with a fine tooth comb, make him redo incorrect work, and remind him to actually TURN IN his completed homework.

But, I'm seeing more proactive behavior from him.  He's learning how to succeed and little by little he is developing independence in this area.  It has NOT been easy.  But it HAS been worth it.

So, after reflecting on that victory, I'm expecting Sauce to come home from school upset about forgetting his binder.  I might even get a call from him asking me to bring it in.  But I'm holding out hope that this tiny lesson will reap great profits of personal responsibility for him in the future.

don't make me come up there!

My man and I were fumbling with an attempt at hooking up a television antenna on our roof(something we're absolutely not qualified to do) between dinner and bedtime last night.

Mistake number one.

At first, the boys were just playing in the yard, screaming and laughing and having a sword fight with the weapons they were awarded as party favors at a birthday party earlier in the day.  Cut a pool noodle in thirds, stick a two-foot PVC pipe in the end, and ta-da, you have hours of entertainment for boys.

It started to get dark outside and we hollered to the troops to get PJ's on and brush teeth (as we were balancing a large television on the edge of a mantle, while managing marital harmony over a wire that was too short to reach where it needed to go).

I'm sure you can imagine that we were not able to actually follow through and reinforce our instructions until we finished the project-that-we-should-not-have-started-until-AFTER-the-kids-were-in-bed.

As instructed, the little angels trotted up the stairs and did exactly as they were instructed to do.

N.O.T.

We heard squealing, yelling, running, stomping, thwacking, giggling, whining, thumping, hollering, and screaming.

My beloved and I returned fire with threats of what would happen when we got up there if they didn't knock it off and do what we told them to.

Suddenly we heard the ruckus silence and drawers opening and closing and water running.

N.O.T.

This is why threatening does not work with parenting.  We were stuck to the problem television and they knew it.  They called our bluff and continued on with the wild rumpus.

We finally man-handled the wires and finished our project.  I headed immediately upstairs to man-handle my children, but was met with this:

To which I busted out laughing and went and got their dad. 

And the camera.

I don't even know what to say about the snake skin tucked into The Hunter's pajama pants.  There are no words, so I will just stop here.

my tenth mother's day

A decade of Mother's Days?  Really?

My man has come a long way.  Ten years ago on my very first Mother's Day as a mom, I held my sweet little six week old baby in my arms, all bleary eyed and lacking sleep.  I was excited to receive whatever sentimental treasure my Beloved had carefully chosen for me out of immeasurable gratitude for birthing, nourishing, and caring for his son.

The blank stare accompanied by a, "What? You're not MY mother!" was not quite what I had in mind.

If anything, he is a quick study, because that was the one and only time that has happened in a decade.  I'm sure my hormonal tears told him all he needed to know.

He's going to love me for telling that story.  Anyhoo. 

This year, we escaped the land of eternal winter to soak up some heat in Moab (again).

We enjoyed an adventurous weekend of camping and hiking and eating and getting red sand in every possible crack and crevice.

Did I mention that it was 90 degrees?  I loved it - even when my deoderant stopped working.  Heck, I even loved it when Kenyon's deoderant stopped working.

The best Mother's Day card came from my sweet eight year-old Sauce.  At the risk of giving him a good reason to put me in a crappy nursing home someday, I am going to share his card here.

The front:

The inside:
  That boy has a way with words, don't you think?

it's five o'clock somewhere

Shall I say "Part One?"

Welcome to my periodic series recognizing the end of a long day - or possibly even several trying days in a row - with a rant and a glass of wine (well deserved, in my opinion).

Our household has been passing around yucky-fever-cough-snot-congestion-can't-sleep-staying-home-from-school-whiny-fussy-watery-eyed-only-want-mommy-illness for the past week.

Our little Squirt definitely had it the worst with fevers nearing 104 degrees and lots of crying for a boy who normally does a lot of smiling.

A trip (with four kids in tow) to the pediatrician won him the prize diagnosis of an ear infection and a trip through the drive-thru... pharmacy.

During our prayer time this morning, Sauce prayed that Daddy would be sure to use lots of hand sanitizer on his trip - I'd say we're all sick of being sick if we're going to the Lord about hand sanitizer.

Our neighborhood is having some sort of water issue (picture brown tinged water coming out of the faucet) and we can't use our water to drink or cook with.  Another errand was needed to the fire station where a nice firefighter loaded up my trunk with gallons of tax payer funded free drinking water.  Two days of this and it still isn't resolved.

Call me a spoiled American, but if I have running water in my house, I would like to actually, ahem, use it.

There are some more little punks at school giving my eldest a hard time and I'm growing weary of guiding him to rise above their crap antics.  I'm about ready to tell him to unleash his recently acquired cuss words karate training on them to silence them - no matter the consequences from the principal.

My beloved is on the east coast receiving some specialized training for his job, but I sure could have used him here today to kick some butt when my two middle muddles, Sauce and Rufus, couldn't get along for the life of them (for no particular reason at all, I might add).

In an attempt to "aid" their reconciliation, they spent quite a bit of time holding hands.  Then they graduated to sitting cheek-to-cheek when they still couldn't find love for each other.  Sauce was still having a hard time cooling down his hot temper, so I'm sorry to say that he was shoved out on the front porch (high temperature of 29 degrees today) and his fed up mother someone promptly locked the doors behind him.

He heard the muffled instructions to, "Calm the heck down!" through the door.  After about five minutes of teeth chattering, he came in to reluctantly make peace with his younger brother.

I thought I was feeling better, but tonight I can't take a breath without an over exaggerated coughing fit.

But since my beloved won't return until late tomorrow night, I'm heading upstairs to curl up with my body pillow that fills his vacant spot - and a healthy shot of Nyquil.

yellow school bus day

During the last couple of years I could be often heard saying, "It's a yellow school bus day!"  That meant that home schooling was particularly challenging that day.

Today was the real deal.  My fourth grader The Hunter and my second grader Sauce started school today.   And all the anticipation we've been feeling for weeks and months ended.

We had a great morning.  Mom woke up before everyone else due purely to nerves so I could get showered and ready first.  We woke up the boys at 6:45 and they hopped right up and got dressed in the clothes they excitedly laid out last night.

We then huddled up with blankets in our chilly living room for our family Bible time.  We took this recommendation from the book "Going Public" by David and Kelli Pritchard.  We've been reading together on and off all summer, but plan to do this every morning before school from here on out.  Five Psalms and one chapter of Proverbs each morning.

It's so fun to hear the examples that the boys apply to God's word.  There is truth at every maturity level.

Then they all hopped up to the breakfast bar and devoured some cereal.  I ushered them upstairs to get hair combed and teeth brushed.  We took the lunches that I made last night out of the refrigerator and put them in their backpacks and headed off for the bus.

A couple of neighbors were gathered at the end of our street waiting for our bus driver Joe.

Unfortunately, Squirt is three-going-on-seven and thought he was going with his brothers on the cool school bus.

Not so, youngling.

I didn't want to cry in front of the neighbors need to cry with all the tears that Squirt was spilling.  But I caught my Beloved choked up as the bus doors closed.

the podium

Although our mountain town keeps winter alive and well until late May, our ski season is coming to a close.

Our little men finished up their ski programs this weekend and our voices are a little hoarse from our cheers.

Rufus finished his program with the Cookie Race.  Notice the foil-wrapped cookie medal around his neck.  Coach Julia was awesome and really helped lay the foundation for his future in skiing.

 

Today The Hunter and Sauce had the final race with real times and medals within each age category.

The Hunter spent the day battling the barf and diarrhea bug, but mustered up the energy to get to his race and take third place in the eight year old category.

Coach Martin named his team of boys "Princesses" and worked these boys to the bone this season.

Sauce was visibly shocked to beat out every other boy in his age group to take first place.  Coach Justin sure sharpened his skills and their team had such a blast this year.

I did get to ski with my boys a few times this year.  Here we are on top of the world last weekend.

And, my world of men - my life and pure joy...

Just so you know, this is how it all starts.  Here's our little Squirt, giggling through his first experience on skis. 

I'm sure he's picturing the turns he will carve with his brothers someday.

things I should have blogged about - birthdays

Time flies by in my world surrounded by men. Two of my men had birthdays this fall. Our Sauce turned SEVEN in September.

I can't believe that my surprise baby turned SEVEN!!!

This boy. Oh, this boy has a slice of my heart.

He has turned into such a caring and loving person. He has undying enthusiasm for sports and a magnetic smile that just draws people in.

He is so caring and loving with younger kids and babies. Our Sauce loves to snuggle and really loves to wrestle with his dad and brothers.

And that baby that was more difficult than my first, has turned into the easiest kid in my bunch. He has proven to me that kids will just go on changing season after season. I never would have guessed that he would wind up as my dream boy.

To celebrate his seventh birthday, we had a little bowling party. Sauce invited three of his favorite friends, plus his three brothers equals a party!

Marin and Sauce are pen pals and great friends. I would like to get some legal documents in order for an arranged marriage, but My Beloved says we should let Sauce choose. Hmmm. I'll think about it.

Then in October, our Rufus went and turned FIVE on us even though I canceled his birthday and told him he had to stay a four year-old forever.

Luckily, he has Aunt Louie wrapped around his pinkie finger and all he had to do is ask in his sweet little four year-old voice for her to come from Atlanta for his birthday.

Abracadabra. Like magic, Aunt Louie appears.

This boy has continued to prove tough as nails. He is working so hard to be one of the big boys, but still needs some tender, loving, little boy care.

I sometimes forget that he needs more sleep than his big brothers and allow him to wear himself out beyond repair.

He is one of the funniest kids in the bunch. This boy can recall movie quotes like nobody's business. He can also make up some knee-slappers of his own that have sent us all into fits of laughter.

I look forward to watching his personality blossom and feel truly blessed by having him as my boy.

Another chunk of my heart lives outside my body - gone!

The best part about turning five in our house is that Dad will finally take you hunting. You must be at least five years old to join the hunt.

And chew gum.

Watch out elk. There's another Sweeney out to get you.

Have I mentioned that the boys are taking archery lessons as well?

I might need another freezer in years to come.

Happy birthdays all around. Now stop growing up.

date night

While my hunters were hunting this fall, I took the opportunity to use some free tickets offered by our community soccer program to take my Sauce on a little date night.

I have been quite neglectful thus far in my parenting career to take time for one-on-one date nights with my boys.  It is definitely something that I've discovered is worth moving up my priority list.

Sauce has been ga-ga about sports from the time he could sit on his own.  His first word was "ball" and he has always been a little star in athletics.  It was a no brainer to take him to youth night at the Salt Lake Real (pronounced "Ray-Al") professional soccer game.

I pawned off the littlest men for the evening and Sauce and I went on our adventure.  I was pretty impressed that although some of his friends from his soccer team were there sitting around us goofing around and really not paying attention to the game, Sauce was captivated.

He watched and cheered as if we were watching the Chicago Bears out on the field.  The visiting opponents were the Chicago Fire soccer team, so I was torn as to who to cheer for.

Before the game:

All the youth soccer teams go to go out on the field for the National Anthem.  See my sauce in the lower left corner of the big screen???

My soccer star:

My handsome date: 

About a week later, Sauce brought up to me that he considered our date one of the best nights of his life.

I'm smitten!

we start 'em early!

I try to be purposeful about NOT doing all the chores around here.  First of all, I can't do it all.  Secondly, I'm trying to keep my future daughter in-laws in mind and create men that know how to do household chores.

Sauce has always been my dishwasher man.  When it needs emptying, he is the one I call.

He recently recruited help in this department and I commend him for delegating...

plus it is about the cutest thing I've ever seen!

double black diamonds

When your kids grow up in a ski town, it is a safe bet that they'll surpass any average to above average adult skier by the age of eight or nine.

We have put them in the locals' program each season since they were each five years old - consisting of seven to ten Saturdays of skiing six hours with awesome instructors.

When I picked up Hunter and Sauce from their coaches this Saturday and said a few pleasantries, I was informed that they spent most of their day on black diamond and double black diamond runs.

Yet they were still asking to do another run when I got there!

We have reached a point with the older boys where it is FUN to ski with them.  It is no longer any work to take them along and they can ski anything on the mountain amazingly well.

How fun it will be when the little boys are at the "black diamond" level too!

do you want sauce with that?

Sauce was the only child that was a complete accident not exactly planned.

When Kenyon and I first began talking about having children, he said he wanted to have them close together, "like 18 months apart," to which I put my large foot down and said, "No way. Try three years apart."

I argued that kids 18 months apart would be having two babies at once. I had read all the parenting articles that said that two and a half to three years apart is ideal for siblings.

Well, when Hunter was about eight months old, Kenyon got promoted within his company and we prepared to move to Utah. Kenyon had to complete two weeks of training for his new position and fly out to Utah to look for a new home for us while I got our ends tied up in Florida.

We only saw each other for a few brief days within those weeks.

Let's just say that distance really does make the heart grow fonder - and impulsive.

Soon we found ourselves surrounded by moving boxes in our new home in the west. One night we sat in our living room and I made the remark that I was so tired and the only time I could remember being this tired was when I was pregnant with Hunter.

"You should take a test," replied my husband.

"NOOOO!!!!" was my shocked reply.

A few days later, I couldn't resist putting my curiosity to rest so I took a pregnancy test. It was positive and I was in pure shock.

I didn't tell Kenyon immediately, but left the test on the top of the tank of the toilet and asked Kenyon to get me my glasses that I thought I left there.

He came out with the test in his hand and a huge smile on his face.

I immediately started to cry.

I didn't feel ready. This wasn't my plan for our family. I still had a 10 month old nursing baby and I felt very protective of my love for him. I didn't want to share it with anyone else just yet.

"This is wonderful news!" encouraged my sweet husband.

I crumpled into his arms and had my one and only cry about being pregnant. From that point on, I was thrilled to be pregnant again.

Although we didn't find out gender at the ultrasound, Sauce's real name was always one of our top choices for boys names. Kenyon was particularly passionate about it and even lobbied for the choice by coming home from a professional baseball game with a jersey he purchased with the name on the back.

He wore it around without saying a word. I laughed and was absolutely sold.

Sauce decided to arrive three weeks before his projected due date (which I think was a little off to begin with). My water broke at 5:45 a.m. on September 21, 2002. I leaped out of bed and ran for the bathroom. When I had my wits about me and realized what was going on, I took a shower and got ready to leave for the hospital.

My labor was half the time of my first time around, but felt ten times harder. I am so grateful that I had my midwife Tina supporting me every moment at the hospital. It felt like labor was moving slowly, but I had no idea what slow really was until I started pushing.

I pushed my brains out for an hour and a half (triple the time of Hunter's delivery), and although one of my goals for this birth was to avoid another episiotomy, in the final moments, I begged Tina to give me one if necessary.

As that moment of relief finally arrived, we realized WHY it was necessary. The boy was "sunny side up," or posterior presentation and that combined with his big, fat, huge head equaled a tough birth experience.

I always tell Sauce that when Tina put him on my chest and I wrapped my arms around him, he grabbed my fingers and our eyes connected.

And my love just doubled.

Our friend Susan was at his birth video taping every painful and joy filled moment. In the quiet recovery room, she dubbed him "Camsauce" and never in a million years would I have guessed that it would stick....

but to this very day, he is our Sauce.

Little Sauce threw me for a loop in babyhood. He didn't follow my rules of sleeping and eating and being happy. Don't get me wrong, he was a happy baby, but he was so much more high maintenance that Brendan ever was. He wanted to be held a lot more and cried a lot more at nap and bedtimes.

He gave us a clear sign of his passions by his first word. "Ball"

He was our earliest walker and is our athlete and sports fanatic. Sauce has a smile that can light up a room and even strangers notice it.

Sauce is such a good friend, particularly to his brothers.

Love is a verb to Sauce. He acts on his love toward others. Whether it is a hug, a wrestle, a favor, a kind act or a compliment, he puts his love in action - and I love that about him.

I am so glad that God knows better than I do about plans for my life. I am so thankful that I was surprised with our Camsauce and my faith was increased by God's perfect plan for our family. In the end, 18 months apart was simply perfect!

Happy birthday Sauce. I hope you feel "verb-loved" because you have our hearts.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

location, location, location...

If it weren't for the location of our house, we would never have chosen the "1976 special" that we have been SLOWLY and painfully (we are NOT handy) renovating over the course of the last three years.

Still lingering for our enjoyment are the avocado green carpeting up and down, and the brown/black/white geometric 1970's carpeting in the basement, a gold framed mirror with gold "flowered" lights in the master bath, and what I affectionately refer to as our "mortuary lighting" in our master bedroom (wall sconces that must have been found at a 1970's funeral director convention).

Someday I'll enlighten entertain you with photos.

Everybody jokes that these are coming back in style.

Okie dokie, that's our excuse...

One of the things we love most about our house is the little stream flowing through our backyard.

It lies about 12 feet off our back deck and is set far from our neighbors houses behind us. Being snowmelt, the kids never really swim in it, even in the spring when it reaches well above their knees.

They do spend A LOT of time on the bridge that hubby built, splashing and moving rocks around. This year, they found these crawfish/algae-eating-type-of-underwater "fish," as they call them.

So, they've spent a lot of time - and tupperware, I might add - fishing this summer. They've made mini-aquariums out of all my tupperware for days on end.

Then they dump them back in and start over again.

Boys being boys.

And now Squirt is big enough to be in on it too. Today, he was walking around the kitchen when I noticed that it was too quiet.

You know what too quiet means.

I found him down on the bridge where Sauce had carried him and plopped him smack next to him. He was serving as a fishing partner.

I have to say that Sauce is Squirt's favorite brother. He loves them all, but these two have a special bond. I wonder if it was because Sauce was the one who was most excited about Squirt's birth.

Whenever Hunter goes to pick him up, he squeals and fusses, but Sauce drags the poor boy all over tarnation - and they are both happy as clams.

I think we'll stay for a while, despite the 1970's flashback.

you just might be a redneck....

If you are hanging out with a dog that is chewing an elk hoof that happened to be laying in the yard.

If your three year old son has a fluorescent orange cast and is shooting a .22 rifile.

And this is what he's shooting at:

Yes, that is really what he was shooting at!!! We went down to Scofield this weekend to the hunting camp that Kenyon's friend and hunting buddy owns. The boys fished non-stop and Sauce caught his first fish ever - a 16 inch cutthroat (is that how you spell that fish?).

Proud as pie:

will you hold my hand?

Goodness gracious, does it get any better than this???

VBS 2008

Last week Hunter and Sauce went to vacation Bible school at a local church here. It's not our home church where we attend every weekend, but it's near where we live and they do a FANTASTIC job each summer with VBS. The boys have been looking forward to it since last year. There's always a theme and we get a music CD to keep so the songs will live for many years in our home!

Each day of the week has a theme, like crazy hair day, crazy hat day, red white and blue day, etc. On crazy hair day, I realized yet another reason why God has not given me any girls. I cannot do hair in a timely manner - and I'm already 10 minutes late to almost everything!

On the last day of VBS, the kids performed all the songs they learned for the parents. Most of the video I captured was of Sauce, simply because once we sat down, Hunter moved to an awkward spot to get on tape.

An interesting parenting moment happened during the show that day. My sweet Hunter always puts his whole heart into performing (you will see that Sauce is a little more self-conscious during these times), and he was standing behind a little thug girl in his class that kept turning around during the song and telling him to stop singing because she wanted to "sing it herself." Brendan backed up, but kept singing - she didn't back off and it's not on tape, but it made him cry and leave the stage. Oh, my heart - it walked off the stage with him! We kept reassuring him that he was fine and to keep going, but it was all I could do to stay in my seat and not wring her neck tell her to please stop. I wanted to bring Hunter to confront her and tell her how she made him feel before we left that day, but luckily my husband, being a man himself, was wiser in the ways of raising little men and had a strong talk with Hunter about standing up for himself in the face of future opposition. I love my man!

Here are a few clips of their songs:

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

a want list

I am enjoying blogging so much, that I really want one of these.

However, because we are savers, not spenders, I have to save for such a big ticket item. For now, Sauce decided to make one for me!

Taking bets

The glasses are here. Yes, after thorough eye exams last week for Hunter and Sauce. Sauce was diagnosed with farsightedness like his mom (I can't get out of that one). His prescription was pretty strong for starter glasses, so I'm shocked he ever learned his letters and hasn't been walking into walls!

In pure Sauce fashion though, he picked out some very cute frames and prayed every night this week that his glasses would be done early. Now, he's fighting me about wearing them... go figure. I couldn't decide which picture to post - cute and angelic or pure sass... so I posted them both.

So, I'm taking bets on how long it will take my boys (because each one will point to the other when it happens) to break this pricy tool of vision aid. Go ahead, place your bets. I'll just say that I don't think we put aside enough money in our medical flexible spending plan this year.

To black diamonds and beyond!!!!

Although ski season is not officially over yet, we always feel like it's wrapping up when the boys' ski school is over. Park City Mountain Resort has a great locals ski program for seven full Saturdays of lessons and Hunter and Sauce have become great little bombers by participating in it. Here they are on their last day.

Kenyon always takes Rufus skiing for a little while when he
drops off Hunter and Sauce
Hunter and his coach Jess

Sauce and his coach Nick