Lately...

I have been way too busy to post the last 2 months. Oh, you want to know what I've been doing? Pretty much sitting right here, nursing my baby.



BUT--my hard work has paid off. Maxwell is getting nice and plump.



Last Sunday, we enjoyed a triple baby blessing with his 2 cousins, McKay and Brennan, who were born within a few weeks of Max. We blessed them in order from fussiest to most content, which meant that Maxwell went first. He's the fussiest baby I've had, which has made life a bit frustrating at times. But, his smiles are so adorable and they make all of the difficulty worth it.











Sunday was such a wonderful day. Not only did we get to enjoy being near tons of family, but we were also able to experience something amazing with Isaac.

He received the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained a deacon. Swen gave both Max and Isaac beautiful blessings.



Last weekend we also enjoyed a family reunion with my side. 6 of the 7 Tadje kids were able to come with their spouses and kids. We had 38 people staying in a huge cabin that we rented. 14 adults, 24 kids 15 and under, 18 boys, 6 girls! We really missed Carolyn and Nate and their 5 1/2 kids, which would have brought the total number up to 45.5. AWESOME!!! We went on a nature hike, played games, talked, and ate a lot of good food. I think the most memorable game we played was fear factor. In one of the events, each team picked one rep to lie on a plastic sheet and schmeer whipped cream all over his face. Then the team members took turns standing at their feet throwing Cheeto-puffs. The team who was able to stick the most Cheetos to the face of their rep. won the event. It was totally hilarious. It was also funny afterward to see the children without manners (mine) picking up wayward cheetos off the deck, dipping them in the cream on the reps' faces, and eating them for a little snack.








This week, we've been trying to figure out how to handle summer. Now that I'm an adult I admire my mom (and feel sorry for her) for the way she handled me during the summer. I was seriously a bump on a log. One time she asked me what goals I wanted to set for the summertime. Sprawled out on the couch with a book in hand, I answered, "Oh, I'm fine. I like it just the way it is." What a lazy bum! I'm afraid I'm not as patient with my own children. If they're not accomplishing something, I feel myself start to have nervous twitches. I'm trying to strike a happy medium between relaxation and productivity. The last few years, we've used the pouch system. I made pouches with 2 pockets--a "to do" pouch, and a "done" pouch. As soon as all of the cards in their "to do" pouches are in the "done" pouches, they can have fun for the rest of the day. That's not too harsh is it? The trick is to enforce it, which I'm hoping I can handle. My sis and her 5 kids are coming to stay with us tomorrow, so we're starting on Monday. Wish me luck! The silver lining is that we can hopefully go swimming every day once jobs are done, so the house can stay clean for longer than 5 minutes. We're usually good at keeping to a schedule for the first little while, but it slowly fizzles out as I get more used do the slow pace of summer. Just when I'm there, it's time for school to start again. :)

Do any of you have good ideas about how to handle kids in summer?