So so very tired, and my new most embarrassing story...

Last night marked night 3 or night 4 (I lose track...) of what I liked to call the possessed lock saga.  Only last night finally ended it.  Let me explain.
We installed a new lock on our front door a few months back.  The batteries were indicating low at the same time a loud high pitched voice started telling us to "replace batteries".  It seemed natural to assume the voice was coming from the new lock.  The sound was coming from that side of the house and the batteries were indicating low.
After changing the batteries in the lock all the indicators of low batteries stopped -- except the possessed voice.  Of course the voice only happened at night when I was trying to sleep on the couch or - on a really good night - in my bed.  Both Roy and I still assumed it was coming from the lock.  Like I said, it was coming from that direction.
Last night brought everything to a head.  After listening to the disembodied voice start up again at 11 p.m. (serious! only! at! night!) I dismantled the lock into three pieces - the battery pack, the inside the house part and left the outside the house part on the door.  STILL TALKING!  At this point I wrote a long blog post about the insanity of it all and turned that post into an email to the company, which I naturally sent.
About 20 minutes later I was downstairs near the door when the voice spoke again, "Replace Batteries".  Guess what?  Not coming from the lock.  Genius.  It was actually coming from a smoke detector on the ceiling.  WHY ARE THESE THINGS NEVER CLEAR?!  And why didn't I figure this out BEFORE I emailed the company?
So I did the only thing I could do.  Wrote another email to the company apologizing for my mistake and professing my clear embarrassment, deleted the blog post, reassembled the lock and went to bed because no one wants a 36 week preggo lady climbing a ladder at 1 a.m. to change batteries on a vaulted ceiling.  Seriously.  I can't even put my pants on without losing my balance so top of a ladder? Not a good place for me right now.
I shut our bedroom door, blocked out the sound as well as I could and fell deeply asleep.. . . until, Roy flung himself out of bed at 4 a.m.   Apparently, he'd had all he could take of the possessed lock that wasn't actually possessed but he was asleep so missed my epiphany.  I figured I'd tell him in the morning so he could change the battery.  Just figured it would be later morning that 4.
He was downstairs before I could process what was happening.  I realized the alarm had graduated from random intervals to regular and constant chirping - like a fire alarm does when it is low on batteries.  He clearly still thinks it is the lock but I calmly and possibly with a slight slur in my speech explain it is not the lock but the smoke detector.  The light dawns for him too and he proceeds to change the batteries at 4 in the morning.  Miracle of miracles, the beeping and phantom voice stop!  Sweet blessed silence!
Still, it took a bit to fall asleep again.  I was pretty sure I was going to injure D when his alarm went off and he came in my room this morning at 7.  Instead I rolled myself out of bed and made breakfast.
In other news, I sure hope I brightened someone's day at Kwikset.  If I was them I'd be laughing for a week after reading my late night missives.

Three year old plans

A is still cracking me up with nearly everything she says it seems.  Today she announced that when she grows up - after she is done being a dentist like Docca Todd - she will be a ducky swimming in a pond.

That gives us a squirrel and a duckling in one family.  I don't think D ever wanted to be an animal.  He's always been way to practical for that I guess.

Cute little hands

I went down to clean A up after her lunch of macaroni and cheese sauce (her favorite food) and we had this conversation:
A: "My fork did drop so I did use my cute little hands."
Me: "What?  Who told you you have 'cute little hands'?"
A: "Daddy and Jesus."
Me: "Daddy and Jesus did?"
A: "No, just Jesus."

I happen to agree.  I think she does have cute little hands!  (This is what her cute little hands are doing right now.  I know we've got to work on the thumb thing.  Pacifiers are SO much easier!)

Some happenings around here

Things are going fine and normal around here.  Well as normal as can be expected when one is 34 weeks pregnant.  I go to the bathroom every 30 minutes - even if I haven't been drinking.  My baby's movements are practically visible from outer space now.  He has officially reached from bladder to rib for a while now.  It is a bit uncomfortable to have someone pushing your ribs out from the inside while simultaneously bouncing on your hips.  I know it hasn't even been that long since the last time I was pregnant (3.5 years) but it keeps seeming like "Oh yeah, I forgot how fun this part is."  I'm grateful to be pregnant and have easy pregnancies but that doesn't disallow the fact that it's not all lovely and tummy snuggles.
The kids' excitement is waning.  It's old news now that they will have a baby brother.  They got all excited again when we set up the crib (which I only did because they were excited to do it).  But now it is back to 'Oh yea, someday we'll have a baby brother.  At least that's what mom and dad keep saying but we're starting to doubt such an event will really take place.'
About a week ago we babysat for a friend.  Her baby is about 10 months old.  My kids went crazy!  Especially A.  They were all up in her face giving her toys and trying to play with her.  We had her for the entire evening.  It just so happened that we needed to go shopping so we took her with us.  I was leisurely shopping while Roy had D, K and A off looking for something else.  So it was just me, baby G and my belly.  When Roy walked up with 3 more kids calling me mom, all of a sudden I realized how crazy we looked!  It reminded me of when I babysat in Spokane.  I would go for walks with a kindergartner, 3 year old D, 1 year old and a very pregnant belly.  Yes, they could have all been mine but really only one was.

We had 2 couples over last weekend for some games and snacks.  Roy had to share his ice cream, of which he happened to have 4 varieties for their choosing pleasure.  (The man loves his ice cream -- he makes it himself.  Not sure if I've mentioned that here before.  On that particular night we had butter pecan, rocky road, strawberry and mint chocolate chip!)  It was so much fun having people over!  We forget how much we actually like other people sometimes.   I had it figured out perfectly.  The kids go to bed at 8 so that is when we had people come.  We played games until 11, laughing and munching the whole time.  Definitely going to have to do that some more.

Roy and I took the kids shooting last weekend.  I took pictures but I'm almost hesitant to share them because of all the political stuff about guns happening right now.  I'm not out to make a political statement.  We happen to be family who owns firearms and does our best to educate our children about the use and danger (especially the danger) of firearms.  Roy's been hunting and D is looking forward to the time when he will be old enough to go hunting too.  We aren't all crazy and building an arsenal but we do have guns and ammo.  That said, the kids had a really great time.  A fell asleep on the way there and slept through the adventure.  D and K took turns setting up the clay pigeon thrower and they both had a countdown going.  "Ready? 3, 2, 1, FiRE!"

K gave a talk in primary on Sunday.  She was so cute up there.  Of course, K is pretty much cute anywhere, right?  She wanted her daddy to help her so he did.  K and I "wrote" her talk which basically consisted of listing how she knew Heavenly Father loves her.  Then I printed some coloring pictures off the internet of things like the earth, animals, friends playing etc. for her to color.  She got up and told everyone how she knew Heavenly Father loved her because he gave her a family, friends, the earth, sunshine and beaches, animals, scriptures and Jesus Christ.
This reminds me that A is now in primary.  She has been unbelievably excited to go into Sunbeams so she can be in primary like D and K.  She's done really well with the transition too.  She hasn't been sad once.  The first Sunday she was little nervous but happy to go.  Even when Roy and I were both in primary for K's talk, all A did was smile and wave at us but didn't get sad when we left or try to come sit by us or anything.  That girl is so easy sometimes it's almost unfair!  Love her!

The rest of our trip

Let's see, where was I?  Oh yes, Saturday without kids...so peaceful.  Sunday was great too.  Honestly, it has been, um... 8 years since I drove more than 10 minutes without kids in the car so the 3 hour trip back to my parents house with just my husband to talk to and no cartoon movies or fighting or tattling or needing something.... AMAZING.  Wow.  And we took our time.  Not that I don't love and adore my kids.  I do.  But it was a great day.  We stopped at my grandparent's house for a visit with them.  It was so fun.  They are so much fun to talk to and spend time with.

We didn't get to spend quite as much time as we would have liked because they had to leave to go to church.  The team teach a primary class.  How AWESOME!  I wish my kids could be in their primary class!  When we got ready to go, Grandma had some sandwiches all ready for us to take on the road.  Roy was seriously touched by this small act of thoughtfulness and kindness.
Our next stop was another 45 minutes down the road.  We stopped to visit my uncle and aunt.  It was nice to be able to sit and visit with them too.  We rarely see them, in fact Roy probably hasn't seen them for many years.  (I just sat here and tried to think about how long. I got distracted listening to Shrek and forgot what I was doing.  So we'll just say "many" years.)
We finally did make it back to my parents house and our kids.  It was great to have a day to rest from traveling before we loaded everything back in the van and started the trek home.  Happily our drive home was 500 times better than our drive down.  The roads were almost all clear and it didn't take us the extra 2 hours, and best of all, no one got sick!  Yea!

Today, all the kids are back to school.  (That's right, A even had preschool and I wasn't teaching.  Score!) But Roy took the day off.  We went down to his office because he got a new desk over the break and we've been needing to hang stuff up in his office since he started there *cough* ....5 years ago.  You know, things like his law school diploma that I bought the fancy $100 custom frame for.  Hooray for checking that off the list 5 years later!

A few photo highlights from our holidays

K's nest creation.

D and K built birds' nests with some of the extra tree boughs.  It was all fun until mommy ogre made them clean it up.

D's nest creation.

D was super proud of his pack meeting creation.  It is still in his room in fact!

We took the kids to the Johnson Farm Dinosaur Museum while we were in St. George.  It was not what we were expecting.  We were expecting dinosaurs but it was really footprint fossils and stuff like that.  Not very exciting for little kids.  D did okay but the girls were not impressed.

We were lucky enough to see two of Roy's sisters on this trip.  Here D is painting his Aunt Tomi's fingernails.    A cousin had been painting K and A's nails.  When they asked Aunt Tomi if she wanted her nails done she said only if D would do it.  She wasn't expecting he would say yes!  He did a really good job considering it was his first time.  He even did a second top coat of a different color!

Look who I caught on camera!