Sweetness

I love these moments with teddy bears!!

Benson - @4am

Yep, we have a crazy Dad. Every trip has to start long before the crack of dawn - my kids generally handle it better than I do, but clearly Benson takes after his Mom.

A Yummy Project

Look what we've done all morning!! And there's still at least three more dozen to go!

Old Memory

Just found that I had jotted this down randomly about Kienna.  Apparently it happened on June 3, 2007.

On Sunday, Kienna was standing over a vent at church and since it blew her dress out, she said, "I'm turning into a swan Mommy!!" and then she'd melt down and put her arms like wings.  

We MAY have been watching Swan Princess around this time.  Anyway, random memory that I thought I'd jot down.

My Monkey - Part 2

Benson just doesn't stop - ever.  I literally can put cookies on top of the cabinets and he still will do his best...

A Car Party!

The girls slept over at my moms last night, so I told the boys we could go have a boys party.  Jaymeson insisted that it should be a cars party.  "Mom, we would watch Cars 2 and eat pizza and have popcorn - in our pajamas!!"

Sigh, I just can't refuse that level of excitement.  So Cars Party it was (except we couldn't find Cars 2, so we watched Kung-fu Panda instead).

This was at a scary part - so Jaymeson was protecting Benson

We got Powers

I found the following piece of paper and wondered what on earth it was. I was told very simply that it was a list of Saryn's powers. Oh, okay.

Oh, and for your information, FKDA means Fairy Kant Do Anything.

Now you know, this beautiful princess is more than she seems.

An iPhone Blog

I just put 2 and 2 together and transferred my videos and pictures from my iPhone onto my computer.  (Well done Ashley!  Now you might have some free memory on your iPhone.)

Today has been fun.  Started with "Story of the World" at 10 this morning.  We have 10 kids in our home school group and had them all over today to discuss, reinact and/or play games related to our readings for the last couple weeks.  We learned all about how the Mayan's did math.  Ate Incas' chocolate (dark chocolate), had sweet potatoes (just like Christopher Columbus found when he came to the Americas) and reinacted the journey of Magellan.

Since then, we've had a play date day.  Kaia has Jenna Kapscos over, Kienna has Jasper, Saryn has Ava Meeks and Jaymeson has Tyrus.  (Benson is having a really good nap).  It's been fun to have everyone switch things up and to be honest, I think I'm getting more "thinking" time with 9 kids here than I do with 5.

And can I just say how much I love my nephew Tyrus?  He is a 10 year old boy that isn't "too cool" to come and have a play date with his 4 year old cousin that absolutely adores him.  If you ask Jaymeson who Tyrus is, Jay will answer, "He's my best friend!"  And Tyrus plays with him and teaches him to save for his mission and tells him what good manners are.  I just love Jaymeson and Tyrus' friendship!!

Anyway, besides talking your ears off, I also wanted to post a couple random pictures from my iPhone from the last few months to have a nice memory moment.  Enjoy!

Sweet little man fell asleep

Snuggle Time (Getting 'Nuggles)

Brooklyn reading her mission call

Mr Benson snitching - yet again

A puzzle we just finished

The Best Kind of Mornings

My kids really make or break my mornings. The expression says, "If mom ain't happy, nobody's happy". But I think a more accurate one might be, "if the kids wake up grumpy, mom will be grumpy". And that is regardless if how she felt before they wake up.

Today, however, has been absolute bliss! I woke up a little later than usual and Jarett made extra eggs for me. Then my sweet baby Benson woke up and just wanted to snuggle on my lap with me. I made him a quick breakfast and he was just so sweet and tender and excited about it all.

Then my sweet Jaymeson walks down the stairs, gives me a hug and sits down. I ask him what he wants for breakfast. He says, "I want Mini-Wheats, especially if you can give me a double!" While I'm pouring it in, praying there's a double, Jay asks me, "mom can I please go potty?"
"Of course Jay!" "Thanks Mom! You're the best Mommy ever!"

Sigh, perfection. It's what every mom wants to hear at some point.

Jaymeson showing my how big a "28 double" is

Jay DOES get a double mini-wheat (which he informs me is a "28 double" and thanks me profusely for). Gives me a hug and moves to the family room to play air hockey with Benson! I love seeing my boys play together.

At this point, I sat down I write the blog. My girls are stirring upstairs, and Saryn comes down, bed made, clothes on and gives me a shoulder rub to say hi. She loves to give shoulder ribs these days. It's such a sweet and tender way of hers. I love it. Sigh.

Well, laundry awaits and I need to get my older two up and at it. The weather is supposed to be nice today, so I think I'm going to go on a run and push my boys in the stroller.

Bliss I tell you! I hope today keeps going the way it has - and that all mornings could be even close to this good!






Oh, and Kaia came down for her bowl of mini-wheats... a triple.

A triplet that I'm excited about having

Yeah, enough said!

Some tender thoughts...

I had a good cry last night.  I was remembering Grampa and missing him quite a bit.  He would have turned 90 years old today and I think I'll be humming "Beautiful Dreamer" the whole day.  He truly is a great man!  I am hoping to celebrate his 90th birthday the way he (more than likely) would have - at his favorite place, the temple.  Love you Grampa - miss you TONS!

With Kienna

At Hayley's Wedding - with Gran and Aunty Beryl

Kaia playing her violin for him - he also played

With my five kids!

With Benson Melvin Cahoon (named after him)

Colour On Cowboy!

I am currently watching 7 kids (my five and Hayley's two) and you wouldn't believe there was even one in the house if you called. After a rather chaotic lunch, both the two year olds were out down for naps. Both needed to be 'nuggled separately and Macy had a hard time going down without her mommy. Meanwhile, Lola (5 months) was fed up and wanted to be held by a grown up. Kaia and Kienna were taking turns holding her and did a great job, but after about 20 minutes, she lost it. Of course, Benson had ALMOST fallen asleep as Macy screamed for me. Once I got him settled and in to Macy's room, Lola lost it.

(Pause - I would like to thank Heaven for never sending me twins, no matter how cool it would have been. And if like all mothers of twins to know that I think they're amazing!! - unpause)

So after getting the three babies asleep, I go to check on Jaymeson after leaving him in his room with Benson (on the off chance that he'd fall asleep too) and he was all dressed up in cowboy gear. Immediately he ran downstairs, grabbed a piece of paper and said he's going to colour some paper for a paper airplane. It even adds to the silence.  My thought - "Colour on, Cowboy!!"

Isn't he adorable?!?

Anyway, I'm going to enjoy the silence! The girls are working on school work and we are only speaking in hushed whispers now. I might even get something done!!

Springtime? in Alberta

On Friday, my kids were having leaf races in the run off on the side if the road. Only a few bits if ice remained and there were no coats involved. We even broke out the sidewalk chalk for some hopscotch.
By Sunday, however, it looked like this... And that's in the sheltered spot by our front door. 25 cm in a day is a lot of snow. But, oddly enough, it is probably the worst Calgary has seen this year. It's been a fantastic winter, and I am NOT complaining!

(If you look carefully, you can still see some sidewalk chalk under the snow)

Moments to Remember

I've been really trying to cherish moments with my kids recently so that I can remember them for a while. I want to look back without any regrets on their childhoods (which I already do, so I better start now). So when I saw this on my couch tonight, I wanted to take a picture and write down how sweet and tender my little Saryn is.

I just put Jaymeson to bed. He was being exceptionally sweet, so I told him, "you've got to be the sweetest thing ever to live". Without hesitation, he responded, "yeah, and the greatest!"

I don't know if that proves me wrong or just shows that the male ego is alive and well. Either way, it got a giggle out of me.

Benson fell asleep at the table while eating tonight. He kept on feeding Himself without quite getting the spoon in the bowl or his mouth. It was SO adorable! I got it on video, so hopefully I'll find a way to put it on here, but if I don't, I at least wanted the memory written down!