Pet and not-so-wanted pet

I'm sure you can GUESS which one is the not-wanted one and it practically scared me to death. You see, I was weeding in my garden and in the corner of my eye I saw something dark and long. In my home, I didn't think anything of it......we have so many sticks, guns and toy snakes around. THEN the dark thing started moving towards me!!!!! So with all my boys there to see, I screamed like a girl and told them to run go get my neighbor. Afterall, I can claim the girls-can-scream card around here. My neighbor comes over in boots and gloves, holding a bucket and a mop. A MOP?!?! I offered my shovel, but he didn't want it. He kept trying to convince me that this snake was our "friend". I'll pick who my friends are, thank you very much.

Apparently this GARDEN SNAKE was "fully matured" and the biggest he had seen. Great. He pushed the mop on the snake and it coiled around it and he put it in the bucket. Then of course, all my kids got to touch and pet it.....even Aleeya. Seriously. Are you kidding me?
Last Saturday was the Stake Service Day and Brooks took Bronson to go clean some parks. I honestly planned on going but picking strawberries the day before wore me out. Talk about being handicapped now! Whoever says you don't get anything in return for service is DEAD WRONG. You see, my sons thinks if you go serve in your community you can come home with a turtle.....which is just what he did. Meet Holly. (She was Macky first, but after my extensive reading on these things, I found out she was a girl.....and if you you'd like to hear how I know, I'll bore you w/ the details later). Holly is actually North Carolina's state reptile and was about to be killed when Brooks grabbed her. It provided seriously a whole day's worth of entertainment and into the next day. The boys love/loved Holly. Why the past tense you ask? Well, Holly is hiding somewhere in the backyard (can't blame her) and we haven't see her for 2 days. But they DO love to dig and hide under things, so I imagine she's under a bush, cut grass pile or folage in the back corner of our lawn. Who knows......we may or may not see Holly again. But the boys now know that there's 4 girls (Aleeya, me, Sally and Holly) and 4 boys (Bronson, Camden, Emerson and Daddy) so this baby is the tie breaker in their minds.

Softball

Brooks plays in a Church softball league and the kids LOVE going to his games (however Aleeya watches it the most and follows the ball whenever it comes close to Daddy). Good thing because this is a VERY long season of games every Friday night.I let the kids grab some toys to play in the sand and OF COURSE Aleeya brings her dinosaurs (she still sleeps with her hotwheel cars). Emerson brought some animals and Camden and Bronson brought their bikes. But here's the funny thing, Camden is riding Emerson's bike here because his got ran over a year ago. He looks so ridiculous riding it because it's too small and has training wheels and Camden doesn't need them...........NOT to mention it has been run over the the wheels are bent so he has to lean the other way to balance it out.

BUT my favorite picture is of Emerson standing on his Clifford riding toy negociating with the snack shack guy to try to get some candy w/o paying for it. He's soooo funny.

Oh darn, I forgot to put the picture of Aleeya in the dugout with Brooks (eating his seeds). Everytime he's in the dugout, Aleeya runs and sits with him. SUCH SUCH SUCH a Daddy's girl. A few times she'll cry and freak out when he goes out on the field, but I think she's getting the hang of it now.

Field trip day FINALLY arrived

Here is the princess taking her rightful spot on her throne (Daddy's lap) for family prayer. She just LOVES folding her arms and getting ready.

So today was the MUCH awaited day of Bronson's kindergarten field trip to this one park place/zoo/train ride thingy (I believe that's the official name). Brooks was going to chaperone and decided to take Camden and Emerson with him. The boys were soooooooooo excited this morning and hyper and couldn't keep their hands off each other......obviously, take a look at these two pictures I took before they left.

So while Brooks took the boys, Aleeya, Sally and I and hung out. I went to a U-pick strawberry patch to go a-pickin'. Knowing this, I sent the camera with Brooks on the field trip so I could document it for the boys (better that, then take pictures of a 37 weekly looking pregnant lady picking strawberries) but they were having too much fun that we didn't get one picture taken. Oh well, I got plenty of stories of bears, roosters, water park (apparently just a few fountains), trains, etc.

I couldn't help but take a picture of my shirtless crew on Thursday night. I decided to be crazy and let them watch a movie. But here they are with their OWN pillows that went with that couch. We went to the fabric store a while back and they could pick whatever fabric they wanted to cover the pillows and this is what we ended up with. They love it.

Women's Conference!!!

Talk about a WHOLE lot of estrogen in one place......Women's Conference @ BYU. Many people depicted all the ladies walking around campus as "herds".....it was probably pretty accurate. First of all, let me start with the drama proceeding my departure. Brooks dropped me off at the airport a hour and a half early. While checking in, this nice lady from Delta was teaching me how to use the kiosk. She asked if this was my first pregnancy. When I told her it was my 5th, she about died. I told her THAT'S why I was so excited for this get-away with my sisters. She had 3 boys of her own. Anyway, we had a great visit. I went to go past security and they said I couldn't get on the plane because my ticket said "Ralph Degn" and not "Melissa Smith". Apparently when booking the ticket my parents forgot to change it to my name. I went back to this nice lady and she said my Dad had to call up the Frequent Flyer Mile Gods somewhere in Bangledesh to fix it. You can imagine how well that went over. My dad told me they couldn't straighten it out before my flight left and that I needed to hurry and get my bags back before they got on the plane. All of a sudden my nose started stinging and my eyes started watering. "It's okay", I thought, "get it together"...... When I walked up to the SAME lady to give her my baggage receipt to get my bags back, I lost it. And I mean lost it. I'm really not an emotional person....I think it comes with taking upon the Smith last name.....but every cry that has never come out this pregnancy just came out. We're talking blotchy face, red cheeks, and tears pouring out. Cathy (her name) told me that I NEEDED that get-away and she would work something out while I got a grip in the bathroom. I couldn't believe I didn't put my make-up in my carry-on, but I at least stopped the tears. When I came back out, she was on the phone with her 2nd person and she kept repeating, "I KNOW I'm not supposed to do this, but I have a good feeling about this. I have a good feeling about her......", etc. To make a LOOOOONG story short, I got on the plane after thanking Miss Cathy over and over (breaking down again in gratitude) and saying a quick prayer of thanks as well. It was quite the ordeal, especially considering they were paging my name, the plane was at the END of the terminal and everyone in between got to see a 36 week pregnant lady sprint through the airport.

But, as you can see, I made it. Here we are heading out the first day from our cozy Motel 8. I'm here with my sis, Jessica (left), Mom, me, Sarah (my sis) and Christine, my gorgeous sis-in-law.
Here we are doing our little sevice blankets while listening to Sister Julie Beck.

OF COURSE, we had some Jamba Juice stops between some classes, and had to pose by the mountains, because my boys wanted pictures of them. (funny huh)

And here's a dozey. So my sister, Sarah is 21 weeks along and wanted a belly shot. Tell me WHY the girl that's the LEAST far along ALWAYS asks for a belly shot. Oh well. You can tell I'm ripe and ready and getting close. :)

It really was such an incredible and quick few days. I flew home Sunday morning and couldn't WAIT to see my kids. (Oh, but don't you worry about them, they had a LOT more fun with Daddy then if I were home. They got to go camping, fishing, play games, get treats, go to softball games, etc. Bronson even said that Daddy is a GREAT snack-packer for school. Brooks even ran Bronson's lunch down to him at school when it was forgotten. Yep, they were spoiled. I think the dog missed me the most.....since she hasn't left my side even still.)

I DID have fun being the aunt and playing with my nieces and nephews. They are all so cute. But as I flew over North Carolina and was about to land, I really felt like I was coming home to the prettiest place on the planet.....and the view got even better when I got in the van and saw all those shirtless boys, and crazy-haired girl.....smiling at me! I love those rascals.

My family!

I actually got to see quite a few of my family....not all...... in less then 24 hours! Here is Patrick's (my brother) family. They seriously are just sooooooo stinkin' cute. I can honestly say though, there's NOTHING like seeing an older brother. It's like a sense of protection comes over me. Despite all the teasings, spit kisses and smacked feet I got from them, I still just LOVE being watched out for by my brothers. (Maybe one day Aleeya will feel the same......)

As I was driving up to Logan with my mom for one QUICK night, she said, "I betcha Dad got us flowers". I told her that would be silly and I didn't think so.....but yep, he got us flowers. Two vases....one for each. We had to guess which one was our's. One came with a card that said, "To the girl of all my dreams" and the other said, "To the girl of my dream". (Mom and Dad were "done" having kids before me, and Dad had a dream about me waiting in heaven asking when it was my turn to come......or something like that). Sadly there are no pics with Dad, probably because I was too busy enjoying his company and going through my TWELVE storage boxes my parents had of mine there......which I narrowed down to ONE! Thank you very much.....and thanks to Brooks for teaching me some things are just STUFF.

Casey (Brooks' brother), Jodi and their kids were soooooo nice to drive down to see me. It's so sad, but their youngest, Lincoln turned one in April and I STILL had never met him. Isn't he a doll? The girls were so sweet and it was just fun to hang out with them....albeit only for 20 minutes. And as usual Jodi was delivering favors to me. Talk about cool in-laws.
I spent the night before my early flight at Jessica's (my sis). I had never met her little Vivian (4 months) either! But Aunt Baloo is STILL always able to get the smiles even if they've never met me! Here we are playing the "Princess Game" (which I HIGHLY recommend if you have girls)....that I won at. Emma brought us up all crowns to wear and even though there were enough to go around she STILL brought her mom up a witch's hat. :)

Catterpillars to Butterflies......or is it a fairy?

Okay, so the last few days it has felt like we've skipped spring being in the high 80s. But I hear we're supposed to have a normal spring soon. Anyway, the kids have NOT COME inside at all and played and played (awesome because there's no mosquitos out yet!) On our deck there seems to be 5-6 new caterpillars every time we go out. The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Here they are playing outside and Camden is showing off one of his.

(Warning Mom: this post MAY disturb you since you think Aleeya isn't enough of a "girl".....especially considering she's outside playing with dinosaurs on the table.) Oh, and that caterpillar, along with 3 others went to preschool with Camden today too. Awesome show-n-tell, huh.Before our walk, here's Aleeya holding a caterpillar. She puts the death grip on them and doesn't let them go.....and didn't the WHOLE walk.......as you see, Emerson even tries to take them from her while she's distracted but he has never suceeded.

Oh, I need to add on that walk we found a driveway that had literally hundreds of caterpillars on the ground. The boys kept stuffing them in their pockets to take home and Aleeya added a few more to her fists. They ended up in the backyard, in the empty wading pool just WAITING to be the kid's entertainment for the next couple hours.
Here is the fairy/butterfly showing me her personal bucket of the caterpillars she caught herself. She's pretty talented.

In my defense, I DO dress her up and do her hair when we go out, and even put a shirt on. I promise Mom, I do. But isn't my little fairy (Brooks hates that word) so cute even with these incredibly dirty faces and nasty hair-dos?

Sleeping Angels

I just LOVE looking in at my kids after they go to sleep. Here's Emerson just looking like the angel he is. If he wakes up in the middle of the night to pee he'll crawl into Bronson's bed with him and they snuggle. It's so cute. The other morning when I went to wake up Bronson for school Emerson and he were RIGHT up against each other and Emerson lifted up his head and sleepily said, "Buenos dias, Bronson" and put his head down and went back to sleep. He's so funny. Here's Aleeya-beeya, cuddling her baby with her scuffed up face from keeping up with the boys. She's such a trooper.

I have the BEST friends.....ever

Ok, so the memo to all was WEAR pjs or comfties....but some didn't listen, or just look TOO cute in their pjs (man, their husbands are lucky!)......but here are some of my friends that were sooooo sweet to get together, bring snacks and get this, they EACH brought a freezer meal for me for after the baby comes.

Aren't they the best?

I could probably sit here and go on and on and tell you what each one brought, but I'll spare the details. We had such a FUN night!

(Note to self: green or ALL one color on me is NOT flattering and could come across as a big slimey blob.....or Flubber)

The happiest kid on earth!

HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY EMERSON!!!!Take a look at that kid's sweet face. He was sooooo happy with his pinata that he SPECIFICALLY asked for. It's a certain cartoon character and I'm going to see if you can guess who it is (the ultimate test of my pinata making skills......even if you guess wrong, it won't matter Emerson said it's perfect. :) and yes, he's easy to please).

Let me just say something about this kid. He's my angel and has my heart. He's the biggest Momma's boy and lights up when I walk in the room. Being prego, and about 6 weeks away, I can't help but think when he was born. On Good Friday 3 years ago he was the longest labor (after Camden's 45 minute one, ANY one would be long), opting for natural again (silly me.....I'll try not to make that mistake again), almost losing it mentally/emotionally, and being so worried about if my other kids at home were okay without me. So after his birth being the worst I've had so far, I guess it's only fair that he owns my heart even more. I love his smile, his laugh and his sweet stuttering. Okay, enough going on, I'll save it for his journal! :)

Potty-trained

Wow, am I sure glad I got Aleeya potty-trained at 18 months before the new baby came!!!!WAIT......WHAT THE?!?!? Aleeya, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?

Ok, so NO, I'm not potty-training her, nor would I be crazy enough at this point. So WHERE she got standing up next to the toilet seat to pee is beyond me. :)

After I ask the boys to go pee before bed, she always runs in, pulls up her shirt, grabs her ABNORMALLY LARGE AND PROTRUDING belly button and holds it

out to go pee. We're going to have HUGE gender identity issues when it comes time

to actually potty train her come fall. She's so cute though.