Summary of a typical day

Summary of My Day Today
I've never written down everything I've done in a day. I thought it would be an interesting exercise.

6:47 am - Wake up and get ready to go running
7:00 am - Go running
7:45 am - Return home and finish getting Candace ready for school and out the door to the bus stop
8:05 am - James leaves for school, Get boys dressed and fed, Shower, Get myself dressed and fed, Clean up breakfast, Tidy living room, Make beds, put Luke down for his am nap (8:30)
9:05 am - Leave boys with babysitter, Volunteer at Candace's school
10:15 am - Return home, Get library books in order, Head to the Library
10:30 am - Story time at the Library
11:30 am - Return home, Lunch, Babysit Neighbor's Child
1:00 pm - Return child to Neighbor, Clean up the toy room with boys,
1:15 pm - FIND THAT JOSHUA HAS PUNCHED A HOLE IN LEVI'S CHRISTMAS PRESENT (LARGE BOUNCING BALL)
Neglect to clean up lunch because I'm too tired
1:30 pm - Put Joshua in time out, Put Levi down for nap, Feed Luke his bottle and put him down for a nap
1:45 pm - Make sure Joshua is still in time out, Lay down on living room floor to nap
2:30 pm - Get up and talk to Joshua about what he's done, Color with him for a while, Read my book.
3:30 pm - Levi and Luke wake up from naps, Sing a few songs with the kiddos, Start dinner preparation,
3:45 pm - Candace gets home from school, Get her and the boys a snack, Neighbor's child comes again to be babysat
4:10 pm - Start Candace on piano practicing, Continue with dinner preparation, Break up a fight between neighbor's child and Levi
4:30 pm - Joshua comes into the kitchen with the SAME BOUNCY BALL THE HE PUNCHED A HOLE IN AND HE HAS NOW TORN A 12 INCH DIAMETER CIRCLE OUT OF THE BALL SO NOW IT IS IRREPARABLE.

Put Joshua in time out again.
4:45 pm - Perform minor surgery on Levi's foot,  ie. remove a splinter, Make banana bread, start rice on stove, Help Candace finish the rest of her homework
5:10 pm - Break up fight between neighbor's child and Joshua, Put Joshua in time out again
5:20 pm - Pick up James from school
5:45 pm - Dinner time,  prayer, scriptures
6:45 pm - Get all kids bathed, clear table
7:30 pm - James leaves again to study
8:00 pm - all kids in bed, sweep, dishes, mop kitchen floor
9:00 pm - Blog, Read my Book, Tidy living room, Scriptures, BED

Now after reviewing the day there is one thing I've noticed. JOSHUA NEEDS SOME SERIOUS DISCIPLINING. After discussing this with James we've come up with a few ideas. Any advice would be welcome.

Playing in the Crib

 

Climbing Trees

My kids love to climb trees. Here is Joshua.

Cute little Lukenator.

Can you find Candace and Joshua?

How We Spent the Last Two Years

Our very good friends and neighbors, the Latorre Family, drove away today to their new life in Texas. We will miss them very much. 

Melted Plastic

Any guesses as to what went down here?

Skills

Look at that face! 

Joshua had just fallen down and had been trying to get up for a few minutes with no luck. 

Joshua has been trying out Candace's skates. 

He wears them all the time when we're outside. 

He falls again and again, but amazes me with how he keeps sticking to it. 

Today he was trying to get up after a fall and I was encouraging him. 

Joshua pleaded, "Mom, help!" 

I said, "Come on, Joshua. You can get up." 

He replied, "You have to have skills to get up." 

That boy cracks me up. As evidenced by the next picture, he clearly has them. 

As a side note, check out his awesome attire. 

He takes dressing up and skating very seriously. 

Day Gone Wrong

It was a particularly difficult piano practicing session today with Candace. I just didn't realize how difficult until I saw this note on my pillow.

I hope one day she is grateful that her parents strongly encouraged her to do hard things. 

Rainbow Jelly

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day. These are leprechauns the kids made with their hand prints. Candace, Joshua and Levi drew their faces on. Candace and Joshua wrote out their names. Luke's is just well, tiny and cute. We made three rounds of hand prints to send out to Grandparents, but I never got around to mailing them. 

Stephanie gave me this next idea. Yesterday we spent multiple hours making this fun "Rainbow Jelly", as Levi calls it, with the kids. It took 3 times as long to make as it was supposed to because I kept forgetting to do the next layer and it would sit in the fridge for a while in between each one. The kids LOVED mixing the jello and watching the layers build into the rainbow. It tasted great as well. Thanks Steph for the great idea. The pictures were taken last night at 8:15 (the kids are normally in bed by 7:30) because they were just so excited to see the end result and it had taken that long. 

at the park ... again

Aunt Becky found this cute park near the Peach Palace. She invited me and the boys on a play date.

This is the really cool pirate ship they had.

Levi's cute grin.

He climbed up those rocks and slid down this slide over and over and over again. He also demanded to wear his swimming suit and "dragon shirt" today. Whenever he feels he looks especially awesome, he says, " This is like a COUGAR shirt." Don't know what he means by that exactly except that BYU is cool.

Luke has recently discovered that he loves slides as well. If you sit him on the top he squeals and squeals as he slowly scoots himself over the edge and down the slide. I can't get blogger to recognize any of the video I take on my camera. Oh well. 

Joshua insisted on wearing this white turtleneck that day. He also asked this morning if he could change him name to Luke Skywalker. I told him I loved the name Joshua Eugene Taylor, but if he really wanted to he could change his name when he was 18. Candace then announced she was not changing her name when she was 18, but just the way it was spelled to "Kandis." I remember wanting to change my name to Vicky when I was growing up. I wonder if that's a normal fantasy for a child. 

Luke peeking at Becky. He loves his aunt. 

Cutest three boys in the world.

What is going on with Joshua's left eye?

This is the face Luke makes when he's grunting at us and wants a response. I also got that on video, but can't post it.