Camp Sparkle: destination Bartlesville

Every year my family gets together for a few days to enjoy "Camp Sparkle" (SPARKLE is our family motto, but that's a whole 'nother post for another day). This year we were lucky enough to host everyone at our house so they could meet Peter. They came for Memorial Day weekend and were able to be here for Peter's blessing day. It was so special.
We were only missing my two brothers (one is on a mission and one had just started a new job. We got to have my parents and my three sisters and their families. We had a total of fifteen people here. We loved every minute.
We took in some of the sites around Bartlesville, like WoolARoc, and the Tulsa Zoo, and the Kiddie Park, and downtown Bartlesville. And also had a lot of fun just hanging around the house and yard. The kids explored the creek, caught frogs & crawfish, and picked lots of peas (which grew just in time to share with cousins).
We loved being together. Some of my favorite things were the impromptu variety show on the patio, the adults date night downtown (dinner at the "Two Sisters" with my three sisters!), and watching everyone enjoy the kids.

We had such a great time! We felt so lucky to have the whole family at our house. WE hope they had fun and didn't mind the heat and humidity too much. It was another fabulous Camp Sparkle - we can't wait for next year.

Born of Goodly Parents

Soon after Peter was born we were lucky enough to have our wonderful parents come visit. My mom came just days after he arrived. We were lucky enough to have her stay for a week and a half. (It was especially helpful since Nate had to go out of town for work for almost a whole week in there.) She was such a big help. I could not have done it without her. She took over the house keeping duties while I took it easy and did my best to recover. She cleaned and cooked and took the kids to school and entertained Talmage and held Peter and mostly just loved all of us. We felt really lucky to have her here on Mothers Day, too. Her visit was just what i needed, physically and emotionally. Thanks Grandma 'Chele!
The next week we got to have Nate's parents here for a visit. They made it in time for some fun end-of-school-year events. They were able to attend Morgan's Kindergarten graduation and Emma's ballet recital. It was fun to have grandparents there to support the kids. They were wonderful to have around and so helpful. I could hardly get GrandpaSteve to stop working. He fixed many little projects for us that we just hadn't had time to get around to. It was so nice.

We are so glad they could all come meet Peter when he was so new. Nate and I are so lucky to have such good parents!

About Being Efficient

Being the mother of four take patience, planning, and efficiency. I knew this early on. So when the Dr needed to see Peter just five days after he was born and Talmage was due for his 18 month checkup, i thought i would efficiently combine the two. Now remember it was just days after giving birth and since it was a hard pregnancy it was a very slow recovery.
Except a few things made this visit not so efficient. Like getting there late because i am not yet used to preparing two babies. Like Talmage refusing to leave the play area when the nurse called us back, and running away from me once i did get him out, and repeating this three times - each time squeezing back further between toys and kids and chairs. This made all the other calm, put-together moms in the waiting room start to murmur and wonder to each other if there was some way they could help me. And when the nurse did come pick up Talmage up he started screaming.
The toy trucks in the exam room calmed him efficiently. I got both boys undressed and in dry diapers and then started nursing Peter. (see, efficient change BOTH diapers, then wash, then feed) Except it wasn't so efficient when Peter had his first and only blowout. So now we were both covered in mess and he had to be changed again. Just in time for the nurse to come get us to weigh the boys. I coaxed a nervous Talmage out into the hallway reassuring him it would be fine. I used my happiest Mom voice to suggest "Well put Peter up first to see how big he is!" I thought this would efficiently demonstrate to Talmage that it was fine and fun to be weighed. Except when i set Peter on the scale he started screaming, so Talmage flatly refused to stay on the scale. And rather than let him jump off to his death (that would not be efficient) we skipped the weighing. So now both boys are crying and i cannot effectively calm either one. Finally Talmage decides he will be fine as long as he can bring two huge dinosaur toys to the room with him. Except they are almost bigger than him and he cannot carry them. So now i am herding Talmage, carrying Peter, and carrying a dinosaur. The nurse is kind enough to carry the second dinosaur. Back in the room we happily waited for the doctor. When she came in i thought we would try the Peter first tactic again to prove to Talmage that it really is fine to get checked by the doctor. But Peter started crying again and then his circumsision had to be fixed so then he was really screaming. Talmage had a death grip on the back of my leg and huge eyes wondering what this doctor does to people. But we finally got Peter calmed down and Talmage on the table and things went pretty smoothly until we left and Talmage again tried to escape to the play area. But i just forgot about all the rules of recovery and pick up both boys. Who cares about the "don't lift anything heavier than your baby" rule anyway - my sanity was at stake here. Maybe next time we'll skip the doctor and just do at home care.

"Say 'Ahhh', Peter"

Four Kids is . . .

Four kids is . . .
The following stains on Talmage's shirt after his first and only wearing:
*tootsie roll drool (from the candy i gave him in a desperate attempt to calm him so i could take care of the baby)
*mud drool (from the mud he decided to eat while we sat out in our backyard to try to stay distracted)
*dirty, mucky water (this on his back from going down the rain soaked slide)
and last but certainly not least
*blood (which dripped down from his head, across his eye, and onto his shirt after he fell on the gravel strewn playground)

Four kids is . . .
chaos, but mostly a happy chaos. We are slowly adjusting. I think we are going to make it through these first hard weeks and then i will get back to blogging about all the wonderful visitors we have had.

Here is my new Mothers Day picture. With all four of my lovely children.

Fourth, Yet First - Peter Hinckley King

Well, for everyone who has been waiting (and for those who haven't, too) we had our baby this morning. His name is Peter Hinckley King. He may be our fourth child, but he gets First Place in several ways:

- He was our first baby actually born on his due date (Morgan and Emma were both two days early, and Talmage was a week late). But even if that hadn't happened, he was bound to have a good birthday. How can you not when you are choosing from May Day, Cinco de Mayo, or even May 4 (as Leslie's sister, Holly, put it, "May the fourth be with you")?

- He was our heaviest baby at 7 lbs. 13 oz. (21" long for those interested in statistics). Luckily he still had a small head.

- Peter also wins the prize (if that is the correct word) for the longest hospital labor period, clocking in at approximately 25 times longer than either Emma or Talmage (of course with them, we were only in the hospital for about 15 minutes before they were born). With Leslie's history, we wanted to make sure we got to the hospital in time. We arrived at 11:30 PM last night to have the doctor (who we had called to let him know we were on our way) tell us the baby was still quite high up and that he was going to go home to sleep. Leslie was able to have an epidural, but ended up needing pytocin after her contractions died down. Once she was finally dilated, though, Peter came quickly and was born at 8:30 this morning. As a plus, there was actually a doctor present (although our doctor actually went off call at 7:00 AM).

Well, I'll get on to more of what you are really after: the pictures.








One of the best things was to see how excited Talmage was to see his new baby brother. We'll see how long it lasts!





Talmage was so sweet!

The descendents of Nathan and Leslie

We have not had our baby yet, but while we wait i thought i'd report on our other wondrous progeny.
Progeny #1 - Morgan - Loves to analyze, argue and tease , has recently started entertaining himself in sacrament meeting by doing math problems to decode secret messages, charmed me with his scholarly appearance when he put the pencil behind his ear so he could fold his arms during sacrament. Recently while pulling out bamboo (it grows as a weed in our yard) he found that the thicker stalks broke off more easily than the skinny ones and made this observation, "Bamboo and people work the same; when they get fat they don't have much strength, but when they stay skinny they have a lot of strength." Made me laugh!

Progeny #2 - Emma - Loves to sing, dance, and dramatize, has started to tell us stories about "the lonely princess" (maybe this has something to do with the fact that she will soon have three brothers and no sisters), After a service project at the temple she repeatedly told us how she felt a happy spirit at the temple and because she was obeying the parents. She can have some serious attitude but can also be very sweet.

Progeny #3 - Talmage - Loves to run and roar and make trouble, we often think we should have just named him "danger" because of all the climbing, bonking and falling he does, he loves to lay on his belly when doing things that require concentration like reading books, coloring or observing grass and bugs up close, during family prayer he starts with arms folded then quickly gets up to bonk the kids on the head or try to make them laugh and usually folds his arms again before we say "Amen", crazy yet cute.

Progeny #4 - ???? - Apparently has no desire to leave the cramped quarters of my belly, doesn't let Mom sleep much, the kids have decided that he is definitely nocturnal, name suggestions are welcome.

And just so Nate doesn't feel left out and because he is the handsomest part of our family here is one more picture of all our boys.

A Hard Job

This is when i love being a Mom

Nate was out of town last week from Tuesday morning until Friday night. His company sent him to Texas to stay in a nice hotel on the beach and learn how to do his job better. He called me on Thursday night to tell me about the incredibly fancy dinner he had just been treated to. He was fed a tasty steak with beautifully presented and yummy vegetables on the side. He talked to interesting people during dinner.

I had just eaten frozen french fries and fishsticks. We had sliced cucumbers served in a plastic baby bowl as our side. I tried to have some conversation with my three little kids while coaxing them to eat.

As Nate talked to me after his dinner, he was walking down to the heated, beautiful pool for a nice evening swim to get a little exercise.

After dinner i cleaned up, got three kids in pajamas, teeth brushed, scriptures read, prayers said, and finally in bed; then i washed dishes and made school lunches for the next day. I barely had time for a heated shower, let alone any exercise.

Sometime during our phone call it hit me, Motherhood is a hard job! And in my quiet, lonely house i had a little bit of a melt down. There is always more work for a mom to do and most of it is not at all glamorous. There are very few tangible benefits for a mom. I do not get taken out on business lunches, my "company" will probably never voluntarily send me on a business trip to the beach even if it is to learn how to do my job better. If i do go on such a trip it will require much planning and coordinating to ensure that everyone survives while i am away. I do not get "vacation days" or "sick days" or "paid holidays". I do not get to collaborate with people from around the world to increase and improve productivity. And most of the "projects" i work on each day get undone before my "boss" even gets to review my performance. Don't i deserve all those little perks too?

But in that sadness i forced myself to list the benefits of my career. Like Talmage jabbering about everything as we run errands and giving me big smiles when i glance back, like Morgan climbing into my bed to give me a long hug in the mornings, like being the first person to hear about Emma's day, like a husband who loves me and appreciates all that i do (even if the house is crazy every evening when he gets home), like getting a hug and an "I love you" from my kids when i drop them off for school. Like collaborating with some of the finest mothers and best friends ever at our weekly playgroups (many different groups throughout the years who have all blessed and taught me). Like knowing my kids better than anyone else. Like knowing i am doing what the Lord wants me to do. It is actually a really long list. The more i thought about it i thought i really do love my kids and my husband and i am glad that i get to be here for them and get to be the one they rely on. And the biggest benefit is that i get to keep all of them forever. My "retirement savings" will never run out, benefits will never expire. What i teach my kids and the people they become will be with me always. I still say it is a really hard job, but i guess it is all worth it, right now and in the end.


POST EDIT: I've had this post composed for a week now but wasn't able to publish it because of a broken computer. As it turns out this last weekend my "company" (i.e., my wonderful husband and some dear friends) sent me on a weekend vacation. Nate kidnapped me away on Friday evening for a get away while friends watched our kids. We ate at a nice restaurant and stayed in a nice hotel (no view of the beach but it was OK). It was a nice, much needed rest. The best part of all was that on Saturday we got to go to the temple together. I got a little divine instruction on how to do this most eternal job a little better. It was such a blessing. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.