Mother of five?

No, I am not pregnant with triplets . . . let's just get that thought out of our minds right now :)

I went to Houston to watch my 2 nieces and a nephew for a few days (which means I had a 7, 5, 3,2, and 1-year-old).  The trip started off great here!  And the rest was much easier than I anticipated.  My two nieces are such sweethearts.  When you tell them to do something, they run off and do it!  Incredible!
For the most part, the kids got along well.  We played lots of games and played in the backyard.  The hardest part was Hallie.  She never wanted me to leave the room because she kept not being able to keep up with me and find me.  She whined for me to hold her 80% of the time and no matter how much I tried to hold her, it wasn't enough.  I still had to tend to the other kids, make meals, clean house, etc, etc.  She was not a happy camper.  The house is really big with 2 staircases, I would go down one and up the other and she would feel completely lost and abandoned.  Didn't help that she was getting over a cold and teething a molar.

My first adventure was capturing a lizard IN THE HOUSE!!  This little guy scared the daily lights out of me, hid and then a second time scared me.  But I didn't let him get away the second time.  We let him go outside.

I decided to take the kids to a park to 'have a break' and it ended up being super stressful finding each kid only to start over finding each kid again.  The park was crowded and unknown so I was stressed the entire time watching each kid like a hawk.  And I ended up 'losing' one in the time I checked on the others, but soon found her wandering toward the parking lot . . . SCARY!  The backyard was much better!

Dave was suppose to fly in on Friday night to help out for the weekend, but apparently, everyone and their little dogs too were flying to Houston.  For 4 days straight, the flights were completely sold out and even over-sold (not to mention 20+ standby passengers trying to get on).  We were disappointed and I was little bit nervous since my nephew who is a bit older would be joining our crew on Friday night.  He is a great kid and was able to help out a lot.  (P.S. Dave spent Saturday in Utah with his brother watching March Madness and made it home in time for our ward on Sunday)

On Saturday, the St. Patrick's Day leprechaun came and made a maze in the house.  The kids enjoyed crawling through it and finding their treats.  We had green eggs and green milk.

The trap is the art case with a hanging gold coin. Aidan is showing the size of the leprchaun.

Things started to fall apart in the afternoon, so in an attempt to 'reset' we went to a different park.  This time, there were very few other kids and so I could let them loose to play a bit more.  I went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and it was so much more difficult than I ever imagined.  The people were SO helpful and there was a play-place, but between ordering food, holding Hallie, getting drinks and condiments, policing fights in the play-place, eating, spilling, cleaning, holding Hallie, etc, etc, we left earlier than I was hoping for home.

I was most nervous for Sunday - with getting ready for church, and then hours on end and trying to keep it spiritually appropriate.  We all got ready really early and then I tried to put Hallie down.  She was woken up only 20 minutes later- ARG!!   I put both the younger girls to bed at 11:30 and they slept so long, we missed sacrament meeting (with how fussy Hallie had been, I wasn't about to wake her up early and make the problem worse, plus sacrament meeting with 2 pre-schoolers and 2 toddlers . . . seriously?!?)  I felt rejuvenated after Relief Society (even with Hallie there).  Luckily, some kind friends of my sisters came over and made dinner for us (he is a chef!).  It was the best homecooked meal ever (I had only eaten 'kids meals' for the past 5 days).  Plus, he and his wife cleaned it all up while I put the kids to bed.  Heaven-sent blessing!

A FULL bathtub!

 I used the TV as a babysitter so I could get a workout in on the treadmill- they look pretty glued to me! - Oh, yeah, and Buzz Lightyear came for a visit too!

Flights coming home were filling up fast and I was wondering if I'd be spending the rest of the week there, but Monday morning the latest flight suddenly had more seats (still wondering how and why this happens!)  It was a lot of work to pack up my nephew and nieces to get them to friends houses, pack up myself and kids AND clean the house enough to be empty for a few day.  Both Jackson and Hallie were crying and screaming during nap time, when I was trying to finish up packing and cleaning.  Finally, completely stressed and panicked about my upcoming 3 hour flight alone, I lost it (my calm and my sanity).  I called Dave in tears.  I was so mad at my children for not sleeping and that I had to pay the consequences for their stupid choices (not sleeping) especially on a flight.  I was so frustrated that my nieces prance gracefully to their bedrooms when I say 'naptime' and peacefully fall asleep (or stay quiet for quiet time) and my kids kick, scream, whine and complain (and don't end up sleeping).  Is it parenting?  Is it my kids?  Either way, I hate it!  Either I am a terrible parent, and doing the best I know how isn't good enough and I feel tons of mommy guilt. Or my kids are terrible and that makes me not like them very much.

Dave helped me calm down and get in control enough to finish packing, cleaning, get my nieces to the next babysitters and get to the airport.  Getting lost in Houston was yet another moment of a tearful call to Dave (he is an amazing support to me).  We were late to the flight and I couldn't find the right parking spot.  I got on the shuttle and in the process my purse and phone felt out of my backpack (luckily the next shuttle brought it to me!!).  We finally were checking in (I had 6 pieces of luggage, a stroller and 2 kids and managed to get it all in to check in without help!) and found out that the flight was delayed . . . 3 hours!!  No wondered the flight had so many seats open up!  I was worried about filling the time, but we wandered the airport, got in PJs.  ordered some food at McDonald's and the kids ran crazy in a secluded spot.  We boarded the flight earlier than expected and then waited on the runway for over an hour!  My kids were totally ready for sleep, so I was just praying it would take off!  As soon as it did Jackson and Hallie conked out.  There were only about 30 people left on the flight, so we had many rows to ourselves.  Jackson took a row and stretched out and Hallie slept in her car seat.  I read and played on the kindle fire.  It was a nice flight, but I was exhausted.  We finally made it home and crashed.  I was SO tired, but couldn't fall asleep.  I was so glad to be back with Dave.  What an amazing thing marriage is.  I am so glad to have his love, support and encouragement in my life.

To Lori:  I was happy to do this for you and your family, I hope that my honesty in the difficult parts of the week will be understood.  You do not need to apologize or feel bad.  Life happens!  I am just glad you got the chance to go to Germany and be alone with your husband!  I enjoyed getting to know your kids better.

 Hallie's crazy hair 

 STOP taking my photo!