Happy Birthday Heidi Baby!

mmmmm...cake
Heidi baby!

Naomi, Leah, Heidi with her mouth packed full of cake and Yaya

Me lovin' on my Heidi baby

Today my baby turned one!! Heidi has been such a joy from the moment she was born. While I was pregnant with her, I was so excited to meet her. I was in love with Heidi's spirit before she was even born. Miss Heidi is such a sweet, happy baby. She loves her sisters and is equally affectionate to her mom and dad! Heidi really seems to have brought our family closer together this past year. I love you Heidi baby. Happy birthday.

Sisters

Naomi to Leah
"Don't put your stinky little socks on my head!"

Winding Down

Leah and Yaya

Yaya, Ellie and Maya aka: The Girly Girls Club

Naomi at Silver Falls

my beautiful Heidi baby

As summer is coming to a close and the start of the school year is fast approaching we are taking every opportunity to get out and do anything we can! We have been to the beach (where the girls got their "first sunburns" and Heidi filled the bag of chips with sand), hiking and swimming at Silver Falls, up to Grandma's and over to friend's houses. We hope to squeeze in one last camping trip this summer.

Lars is shadowing an english teacher at the high school this first semester and then will take over her class the second semester. So he will be at school all day, do his classes on line at night and go to school on Saturdays. We just don't plan to see much of him this next year.

Leah is excited that Naomi is going to be at school with her. Naomi is just beside herself with anticipation. She's happy she got morning kindergarten and especially that she gets to stay for lunch if she wants to...and she definitely wants to!

Yaya really really wants to do pre school. Honestly I don't think she cares a bit about actually learning anything. I think she just really wants a social outlet. I wasn't planning on doing anything this year, but she keeps asking so I may see if I can find something for her to do. If she did, I would only have one kid at home for half the day. What would that be like? I might actually get to exercise...or nap.

Dance...or just stand there

This summer Leah, Naomi and Yaya have been in a dance class. A gal in our ward taught them with some other little ladies and they had a recital last week to show off their moves. Leah is in the back row, far left. Naomi is in the back row, far right. Yaya is in the front, far right...just standing there. Enjoy!

Another Break (sort-of)

Lars left the power cord to his laptop at his mom's house last weekend. Friday he decided to go get it. I fully expected him to go alone but he took the three older girls with him. Friday night I went out with my girlfriends, but all day today I have been working around the house making up for everything I haven't been doing all summer. It is amazing how much a mother can do when she's down three kids! I slept in ('till 8:30) bathed miss Heidi baby who pooped through all her clothes and bedding. Did all the laundry...washed, folded and put away, deep cleaned my bathroom, did the dishes, swept and mopped the floor, swapped all the furniture in two of our bedrooms, cleaning and vacuuming as I went, organized the storage shed, took miss Heidi baby on a walk and ate the rest of Lars's Reese's pieces that he foolishly left by the computer (bwa ha ha ha). Now, I remember when I only had one kid and I couldn't get anything done. Either I've made strides in my ability to multi-task, or I've gotten over my guilt complex that I need to interact and entertain my child every minute of the day. I'm sure it's a healthy combination of both :)

Lollapalooza!

took this picture with the girls just before i left

Yaya, Naomi, Leah, Heidi and me

my cute nephew miles at the Ba Ba Reeba restaurant in Chicago

the Chicago skyline at dusk

Me 'n Norm on our rickshaw ride

One of the stages and the masses of people at Lollapalooza

My brother in law Norm was planning on going to Lollapalooza in Chicago (a three day outdoor music festival with 130 bands). My sister Steph didn't want to go with him so he invited me to go. It was AMAZING! My sisters Steph and Becca were in Chicago as well and we hung out before and after the concerts each day. We ate some amazing food and saw some fabulous concerts. Lars kept all four girls at his mom's house for the weekend. It was spectacular!!!!! Some of my favorite bands were Depeche Mode, The Killers, Andrew Bird, Blind Pilot, Gomez, Lykke Li and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Music is so good for my soul. So is not being a mom for four days. Of course I missed my little ladies but it was so refreshing to wake up on my own and just lie in bed without having to jump up and get everyone breakfast. Luxury.

When I got back Lars and the three older girls were happy to see me, but Heidi either forgot who I was or was just plain mad at me. I took her out of the stroller to give her a hug and she started crying and reaching for Lars! She wouldn't make eye contact with me all day and wouldn't let me hold her until five o'clock that night. She recovered quickly after that and was pretty clingy for the rest of the night and the next day, but now she seems to be back to normal.

Growth Spurt

I think it's safe to say that miss Heidi baby is having a growth spurt. Yesterday for dinner she ate 5 scrambled eggs, three pancakes, a bowl of mixed veggies, berries and a bowl of cereal. Impressive.

We are not a "morning" family

Every morning, Naomi is the first one to wake up. She comes in to my room and announces she is hungry. So I get up and by the time I get dressed and use the bathroom she has usually melted down and started her morning fit. It generally lasts an hour and she flops on the ground screaming that she is hungry and cold and she has to go to the bathroom but she can't because she's afraid of spiders and her legs don't work so she can't stand up or sit at the table to eat. My current way of dealing with this behavior is to simply ignore it. She's been doing this for about three years, so I really don't even hear her anymore although I do still feel the grinding on my nerves. Anyway, Thursday started off like every other morning. Eventually Leah and Yaya filed out of their beds and we were all in the living room. Naomi, who was already in a fabulous mood, make some comment to Leah who immediately burst into tears. Naomi either felt badly or thought she was going to get in trouble and started crying as well. Yaya who was sitting on the couch, observed the situation, rolled her eyes and said, "Here we go again!" I couldn't have said it better myself. :)

Swimming lessons...take two

Leah

Naomi

Heidi on deck

Yaya on the stairs

Yaya, Leah, Naomi and friend Jocie

Leah, Naomi and Yaya all took swimming lessons this summer. They were all in level 1 together with their friend Jocie. Leah caught on really quickly. Naomi enjoyed knowing more than Leah (since it was her second time in level 1). And Yaya, well...as you can see in the picture she never left the steps. I guess it was worth it for her to get used to being in the water, but she sure didn't learn anything and refused to put her face in the water or participate in any activity. Heidi on the other hand would make a break for the water any time she could. She would dip her little feet and hands in the pool. I wanted to take Yaya out of class and put Heidi in, but she wasn't quite old enough :)

Name that tune

Last Sunday in a desperate attempt to keep the girls entertained but focused on Sunday I suggested we play "name that tune" with the songs they have been learning in primary. We each took turns and the girls caught on quickly. Every time it was Yaya's turn she would hum the same song, "I am a Child of God." After a couple turns her sisters just started guessing it before she even started humming. So one turn she started humming and her sisters guessed right away, but Yaya shook her head "no" and kept humming the same song. Finally at the end of the song she said, "It was I am a Child of God...the SECOND verse!"

A sweet moment.

Last night after Leah and I were done cleaning we sat down at the kitchen table and shared a plate of nachos. Leah was so happy to have some one on one time together. I think she often gets overlooked because she doesn't throw a stink or pitch a fit about stuff. Most of the time she just does whatever we ask her to do and usually more just to be nice. But she monopolized on this opportunity to have a little heart to heart. She looked up at me with her sweet little blue eyes and innocent face and asked, "Mom. When do I get to go on dates?" Oh help.

I hate ants.

The other morning I woke up and walked out to the living room. After a few minutes I noticed a large black mound on the floor. Upon further inspection I realized it was the remnant of a hot dog completely covered in ants. Only then did I notice the black line of them making a trail from the hot dog, across the floor, up the wall and out the window where the air conditioner is. I immediately cleaned it up and vacuumed obsessively for the next hour trying to get every last one of those dirty ants. Then Leah and I taped all around the air conditioner so there was no way for the ants to get in through there anymore.
It worked.
But the ants didn't give up.
Apparently word had spread through the ant community that there was a smorgasbord of food constantly being served by four little girls at the Wight house who could never quite remember to keep their food at the kitchen table.
So the next morning I woke up to find ants all over the fireplace and a certain some one's pop cans that never make it out to the recycling. So we cleaned that up.
The next morning I woke up to find the entire surface of my kitchen table black with ants. I freaked. I threw everything out the back door, garbage can, rug, chairs and performed a mass execution on these intruders. I scrubbed my table, chairs and floor and spent the rest of the day on the prowl for any ants that may have escaped.
That night Lars went and bought ant spray. He sprayed all around the house and all the problem areas. It looked promising. But...
The next morning the ants found my sink and my cupboards. They were in my cereal boxes, raisins and running up and down my walls and behind my cupboards. Last night Leah stayed up and helped me scrub down my whole kitchen until 10:30. She was so helpful. They also found their way into my bedroom and were crawling on me last night in my bed. Sick!
This morning Naomi suggested we just move into a new house that doesn't have ants. I'm just about ready to start looking for one. :)