Let's get this straight.

I am incredibly blessed. I married a wonderful man. While he has many fabulous traits there is only one I am going to dwell on at the moment.

He is a great dad. Completely competent at taking care of his children. He plays with them, is patient with them, remembers to give them their medicine when needed ( way more consistently than myself).  He cuddles and reads and sings songs and dances with them. He is awesome. I am so glad he is the father of my children.

Switching gears slightly I am going to discuss a sentiment I hear surprisingly often. As I am leaving a meeting or event "Got to hurry home and save your husband from babysitting huh?"

Did you spot the problem with that question?

It is the word "Babysitting".

My husband does not "babysit" our children. As far as I am concerned no father "babysits" his own kids. It is watching your own kids. Being responsible for them, taking care of them, teaching them silly or important things, it is not babysitting your own kids.

It is fulfilling the same kind of responsibilities that I generally do during the day. I do not babysit my children everyday. A father who is home with the kids is not babysitting either.

He is being a dad. I am grateful to have a husband who can step up like a man and act like a Dad.

'Round here

Recent happenings:

• My husband did a lot of digging.
• I carried a lot of dirt.
• We leveled out a part of our yard yesterday in hopes of preventing water from coming in the basement.
• My daughter is having constant nightmares. I could live without this. Every night 1 am. Thanks.  Not the terrors, we got those under control. I have resorted to talking her through some beautiful scene to think about. It seemed to be working we had 2 nights in a row without any visits. Too bad it is an hour after she went to bed and I have had to send her back twice already. Maybe we aren't as far along as I thought.
• Hockey lessons ended. So sad.They were lots of fun. I improved tremendously.  We are going to take ballroom dance lessons.  Waltz and foxtrot are the main dances in this session. Later we will go back to hockey.
• My yard has become kid central. Not only are my kids here, there are the grandchildren of the next door neighbor. Then you can throw in the child from a block away, plus the 3 kids on the corner. OK, so that isn't enough for you? How about the neighbor on the other side whose 2 grandchildren snuck away to hang out at my house. I only let them in the yard after making sure Mom knew where they were. Today we had 4 kids from the bus stop over after the bus came. It is kind of nice the kids are getting older and stress me out less.
• School started. I officially have 2 children in school. My life is ruled by the bus schedule now. Get kids on bus. Get kindergartener off a few hours later, get 2nd grader off a few hours after that. Good thing I don't have plans of doing ANYTHING all school year.
• Took the 2 little ones to the park and played in the creek. It was good.
• My second grader is addicted to Calvin and Hobbes

Load 'em up!

I guess I just enjoy sharing ( mostly) things that make me smile here. Here is something I thought was well worth taking a pictures of.

You guessed correctly. That is a hand weight and two Hot Wheels (we don't do Matchbox cars around here) cars on the truck trailer.

Next up, even more entertaining as far as I am concerned.

Sometimes you need to haul great white sharks around in your trailer bed. My kids make me smile.

I forget

Each Sunday we have this conversation on the way home.


Ethan : Naomi what did you learn about in church today?
N: Um... I forget.
E: Victor what did you learn about in class today?
V: I learned about Sacrament. ( or whatever they talked about.)
N: Hey! That is what I learned about! I learned about Sacrament!

Every week Naomi declares she has no idea what her class was about and passes the turn to Victor. Victor than tells us all about what his class did. Seeing as they are both taught from the same manual they get the same lesson. Suddenly she is surprised to have the same topic brought up.

Let's dance!

If you want some entertainment, just turn this song on and watch my kids go, particularly Phebe.

 Even the white kids.

This is currently Phebe's theme song.

I do not recommend the official video. The music is clean, the video pushes my limits.

Cute, just cute

There are few things I have witnessed that are cuter than my 20 month old singing and doing the hand motions to "I'm bringing home my baby bumble bee."

Baby dancing is pretty high up there though.

More amusement

This just made me laugh.




That is all.