The next week was Lutheran Schools Week. My dad saved a local paper for us because Ellie was in a picture on the back page in an advertisement for Faith Lutheran School. They had dress-up days which Ellie loved. Her first day was pajama day and of course it isn’t until this point that you usually realize that none of their pajamas are that great to wear out in public. Ellie has kind of leaned towards old t-shirts and shorts for pjs. She chose to wear her old Tinkerbell pjs that were a tad short on her. Her other days were crazy hat day (she wore her Phineas hat from the show they went to), Western Day (got to wear her boots and hat), and sport/career day, which she wore her Tiger’s cheerleading outfit.
Jackson had a dentist appointment on Tuesday and finished his filings. I hope the experience promotes better dental care in the future. We had done so well up to that point. He didn’t really like the feeling of his mouth being numb and he was worried about starving since it was hard for him to eat for a few hours J. I went out to eat with some friends that night and he was still here when I got home, so I guess he survived.
I hadn’t planned on going anywhere for spring break this year so I tried to come up with some different activities to do around the house because I knew the kids would get bored pretty quickly and it is hard to do too much with them right now since the babies take up so much time. My parents decided to go down to Bentonville and Dallas to visit Sara and Amanda’s families and they offered to take Jackson and Ellie but I wasn't sure how they would do for a whole week and I didn't want my parents to have to deal with their melt down when they hit their breaking point. So we were just going to tough it out at home for the week when they all convinced me that I should just go too and take all the kids. I went back and forth on my decision for a while. I knew that I would have a lot of help but I feel bad when they all have to help me so much. But I knew the kids would really enjoy going so we packed up (first time packing for five kids and it took me a little while) and headed out Saturday morning with my parents and Molly. We stopped in Overland Park, ate some lunch at Andy and Autumn's, and picked up Briley to go along with us. I always had someone else riding with me in my car to help feed the babies and Ellie rode in my parents' car the whole time and Lincoln rode with them a lot too. Jackson loved having the whole back seat to himself again. The twins did pretty well even though getting them fed took a little work. Sometimes, whoever was feeding them would just hang out in the back seat until they were done so Jackson and I got to hang out a little.
The first day we traveled down to Bentonville and got to stay the night at Sara and Ryan's. They actually had a charity dinner they had to go to that night (Brett Michaels was the entertainment :-)) so my parents offered to watch the kids along with one of their friends' daughter. All the kids had a great time together.
Lissy met up with us in Bentonville and then we headed to Dallas the next morning and the chaos continued. I had not been down to Dallas since Amanda's twins were born and had never seen their new house which was beautiful. All the kids loved seeing each other and immediately started playing. Amanda and Todd are great hosts and she had little buckets beside our beds with water and snacks. The next few days flew by and were just crazy. I had some returns I needed to make and some shopping for the kids' summer clothes I was wanting to get done so it seemed like with those trips and other stuff they had planned things were pretty busy. The first night Amanda and Todd grilled for us and the older kids all slept in the playroom together (or tried to).
The next day we headed to Ikea. My dad wasn't feeling great and Todd had to work, so it was us girls with the nine kids. We had lunch there first and then made our way through the store. Jackson loved it. He told Lissy, "I'm loving these low prices." He also told us he wanted to take his kids there when he was older. Another funny thing he said had to do with Amanda's notorious candy cabinet. The kids were so excited to discover this cabinet, but then he said, "I can't believe she waste all of her money on this stuff."
That night the kids watched a movie in the backyard. My parents brought their projector down and they played it on the fence. The next morning we went to the neighborhood park. It was pretty windy but the kids loved it. They wanted to bring Carson's jeep which ended up taking forever. Ellie drove it on the way home and I tried to run behind it and push it. I noticed they still had it in the low gear with the safety latch on it. You needed a screw driver to remove the screw so it could go in the higher gear and I was so tempted to ask one of the construction workers building the houses if we could borrow a screw driver.
Later that afternoon some of us took the kids to see The Lorax and mine were really impressed with the theater-much bigger than the Downtown Cinema 8. The next day they got to go to Legoland. It wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be but it did provide some entertainment for a little while. I did run into a problem with Lincoln though. I forgot to bring the diaper bag so I was just praying that he wouldn't need a diaper change and of course he decided to poop while we were there. Thankfully Amanda had some stuff in her car, so we were able to take care of things.
The twins were good for everyone. We took turns getting up with them at night which really helped. The other kids loved hanging out with them (except for maybe Carolina-she wasn't too sure about the babies). Amanda said Colton kept asking for the babies after we left.
I know this picture doesn't show it, but they smile so much now-it is all so much fun. We headed back to Bentonville on Thursday morning and stayed the night there again. Sara made us a yummy dinner and always had a good breakfast for us. Molly and I drove back to Kirksville Friday with my kids while my parents stayed in Bentonville another night. It was great to be home. We were all so tired and worn out. But it was also great to be able to go on the trip. Everyone was so helpful and Amanda and Todd and Sara and Ryan were all such great hosts to us. We all had a great time but we did miss Andrew. He had to stay home and work. He hated to see us go but knew the kids would enjoy it. I think it was also good for him to get a little down time. I think he spent a lot of time at the office and the ranch and was able to attempt to get caught up on his work. He did fail to notice the big sheet of yellow paper I left taped to the counter with a few things I was hoping he would get done around the house. Most of it was just daily things I do like laundry, getting the mail, putting out the trash but then a couple other things like fixing the toilet and sweeping out the garage. Even though a lot of it didn't get done, I did come home to a clean house like I left it. And he did finish up some of the stuff after I got home :-).
I did get a nice break after the crazy week though. Some of the girls from our small group got together Saturday night to listen to a replay of a womens conference our church had a couple months ago. It was a great message and a nice, quiet evening with friends.
And the twins have some big news. First Miles has rolled over a few times from his belly to his back. The first time I thought it was a fluke with the way he was laying in the pack-n-play but then he did a couple times laying on the floor too. And then last night they actually kind of slept through the night. I changed up their schedule a little bit when we got home and they now eat every four hours which means their feedings only take around 5 hours out of the day instead of seven. I had them skip their late nap after their 7pm feeding and kept them up and fed them some cereal around 9:45. It took a while to feed them because they both wanted to doze off. I had to feed them, take off their clothes, feed them, change their diapers, feed them, put their pjs on, and then feed them one last time. But it worked. Andrew heard them cry a little around 4 but then they went back to sleep. One of them was whimpering a little when I got in the shower this morning but they were both back to sleep when I got them up at 7 to start their morning feeding so they would be done by the time I had to take Jackson and Ellie to school. I know it was just one night and we may not be there 100% but we are close! And they will be three months tomorrow. Crazy!
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