A Window into a 6 year old's Brain

Our family was swimming at my parent's house yesterday and Jaxon says out of the blue,

"Dad, why don't you bring your money home? I know you make thousands and thousands of money, so why do you keep it all at work? If you brought it home, we could be RICH!"

Mark and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

Upon further questioning, Jaxon disclosed that he wanted to be rich so he could buy things.

"What kind of things would you buy?" I asked.

"You know, like a bird or something." He said.

Guess Who's Baby Hungry?

Yep, it's Jaxon.
He loves babies, SOOOOO much.

He waited two hours for Ella to wake up while we were at my mom's today. She didn't, so he didn't get to feed her a bottle (the photo was from last week). While he was disappointed, I was proud of him for not throwing a fit.

He said, "Mom, I want to see baby Ella everyday and every night. I love her so much."

When I asked him if he was ready for a baby sister, he said, "Yes!"

But, I told him that his little brothers were NOT ready for a baby sister. So, he tried to ask them himself and change their minds.

Good luck with that!

How many kids can you fit in a shower?

After playing in the sprinklers yesterday, my kids and my friend Danielle's kids piled in the shower (most wore their bathing suits).

It was a little crowded with five kids in that tiny shower.

Finn climbed out and then they came up with a little shower song.

I thought it was pretty funny so here it is.

Announcing Baby Ella

My sister Tacy was due on June 2nd, so imagine my surprise when she didn't go into labor until Friday night.

I got a call at 2:30 AM that she had checked into the hospital and I was told to bring my camera.

On my way to the hospital I heard the song, "It just some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride, everything will be alright, everything will be just fine." I started to tear up, imagining the next few hours of childbirth awaiting Tacy, as well as her future with Ella.

Cami and I arrived at the hospital at 3 AM, after my parents and two of Tacy's friends, Esther and Michelle.

All six of us helped support Tacy through the wee hours of the morning, laboring without drugs through intense contractions.

At 7 AM, Tacy's midwife, Janice came and told Tacy she was dilated to 9 cm and then she broke Tacy's water. She promised 30 min to delivery. But it wasn't that easy.

At 7:30 Tacy started pushing in earnest, and although she tried many different positions, the baby's head wouldn't pass behind the pubic bone. She was pretty well stuck.

Thus, the pushing went on and on with Tacy yelling, "Get her out!" and "I can't do this anymore." She was in some kind of intense pain I'll never understand since I've had epidurals with all three of my babies.

I do remember the exhaustion. And boy was Tacy exhausted.

Finally, on Saturday June 13th at 9:34 AM Ella Jane came into the world. They put her right on Tacy's chest and we were all in tears because we were overcome with the miracle of this little girl.

Even right now, as I'm writing this, Jaxon's looking at the photo saying, "Boy mom, Tacy sure looks happy."

Yes, honey. She does.



Here are more photos at my webalbum.

Rough and Tumble Boys

So, if you can't tell by the new masthead and side photos of the boys:

THEY ALL HAVE MOHAWKS.

It was my sisters' and mother's idea.

But, I think they look pretty cute.
Here are some more photos from our shoot.

Scenes from a Marriage: Yesterday

Actual phone call yesterday:

Me: Honey, I've got some good news and some bad news.

Mark: Bad news first.

Me: A photo radar speeding ticket from Tempe came in the mail today.

Mark (interrupting): It was me, on my way back from the Salsa Challenge Wrap Up party. It was after we switched cars, I was driving your van.

Me (stupefied): Um, no. That was the good news, it was me in the van on my way to the same party. There's a photo.

(Then I flip through the mail more carefully and discover Mark's photo on ANOTHER SPEEDING TICKET FROM THE SAME DAY, ON THE SAME ROAD, IN THE SAME CAR.)

Me and Mark in unison: Oh, dear.

Mohawk and Swim Meet

On Friday, I gave Jaxon a MOHAWK.

He likes it because he thinks it looks like a dinosaur's spine.

And now he cares a lot about his hair.

"Mom! Finn just messed up my mohawk!"


"Mom, I want to make my hair into a mohawk!"

The plan is to keep this style for a few days or weeks, then shave it all off into a buzz.

I tried to do surfer hair with Jaxon, but it always looked ratty, and instead of looking like a surfer dude, he mostly looked like a homeless child.
























Yesterday Jaxon had his first swim meet. He did the back stroke pretty well, only he kept turning around to see if he was done. He placed 5th of 6.

Then he did the butterfly and raced against his friend, Ethan. Jaxon kept looking up and giving Ethan a thumbs up through the race. And then because he doesn't exactly know how to do the butterfly (he just mostly swam under water), he won first place, coming in a fraction of a second behind Ethan (who has great form in the butterfly).















But, it was FREESTYLE race that made the event EXCITING. (see video below, esp last 20 seconds)

It's hard to see from the video, but Jaxon starts off the race with goggle problems. Then, he starts to realize that he's behind and decides to give up because he's not winning. He goes totally non-responsive, eyes closed, floating in the water.
The crowd is yelling and getting nervous and then some random man DIVES in to SAVE my tantrum-throwing child.
When they climb out, the crowd CHEERS, and I can't figure out why.

It was crazy. I even forgot I was still filming and thought, "Oh, I probably ought to turn off the camera."
As I walked over to get Jaxon someone asked me what happened and I said, "That's just his personality."

I took Jaxon aside to talk to him and he yells at me,

"I QUIT!"

Whoever said that boys aren't as much drama as girls has never met my children.

Now You See It . . .

When I first discovered the macro setting on my camera, I set to work photographing my wedding ring.

I love my ring. I've never seen one quite like it, Mark choose it for me and gave it to me for our engagement.


The first photo is from last July, the second is from April when I was trying to figure out of the macro setting was working on the camera.

The last photo is from yesterday.

Our morning was crazy, swimming at Val Vista Lakes Clubhouse while Jaxon did swim team. Then we changed in the locker room and headed to the gym. After the gym, I showered and got ready then piled the kids in the car and headed to Finley's 18 month
checkup.

We drove by a jeweler and I instinctively glanced down at my ring and the center diamond was missing. I got that horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Where did I lose it? At the gym? The pool? At home, in the car? Yesterday?

I had no idea.

So, I called Mark and he was disappointed, too. I called the gym and told them to look for it, but it's sort of like looking for a needle in a haystack.


I don't expect to find it, but I'm really, really sad it's gone.

As I looked more closely at the prongs, only 2 of them were in great shape. I'm pretty amazed it held on this long.

I wish I had taken it in for maintenance more often, but I always thought of that as frivolous, so it would look shinier.

Now I know better.
Mark says for our tenth anniversary next year, maybe I can get a new ring.

Sounds good to me.

Until then, don't be surprised to see a "replacement" bling on my finger.
Or, a tattoo. No, wait, that's Mark's idea.

Embarassing Peronal Confession #6

I have GRAY HAIR.

No, I am not joking with you. It's not just one or two. In fact, near my temples I have a little sprinkling of white hairs that my friend Amy NOTICED yesterday.

It's possible that I've had these for a while, but since I've gone back to a darker hair color they're finally noticeable.

Still, I am only 29 years old.

I'm not ready for gray hairs.

Our Little Grievance

On any given day, you could walk into our house and hear either Mark or me holler, "Grievance!"

That is the name we give to our children when they are particularly aggravating. Usually it's in a joking way, not an "I'm going to tear your head off" way.

Lately, though, Finn has been our Little Grievance.

Here is a list of some of my grievances against him.

-He hits constantly. Anything, any person, any animal. He just HITS.
-He throws constantly and he has remarkable accuracy. He throws so hard that when I seem him pull his arm back, I cover my head instinctively.
-He got WRITTEN UP at the gym's childcare for hitting and throwing toys at children.
-He refuses to say (or sign) please, he just screams and yells, "MINE!"
-When I ask for a kiss, he lowers his forehead to my lips, so I can kiss HIM (actually, that's pretty cute).
- When he's mad at me, he'll hit, throw, and SPIT.

Lest you think I kid, behold the attached movie taken today.

I decided to have a music lesson with pots and pans today. The kids had a great time, but by the time I pulled out the camera, Finn was done. So, he made his feelings known by throwing the musical tool (aka, the wire whisk) not once, but twice, spitting (it's very quick, at second 13), and hitting me. Of course, it was nearly naptime, so he was a little cranky.

Note, I did actually laugh a little, because he's such a predictable little grievance. But, in fact, this is a bad habit to start when you're only 18 MONTHS OLD!

Have you seen this kind of aggressive behavior before in a baby this age? Am I just forgetting how kids are at this age? Is this because he's got two older brothers?

I'm just a little worried about this one. He has such a temper and he's so aggressive.

T-Ball Star

Our little Jaxon just finished his second season of T-ball (that's two T-ball and two soccer, for those of you keeping track). He starts swim team next week and we're thinking about karate next.

Here's a photo of Jaxon and his T-ball buddies. The two on the left (Jeffrey and Ethan) will be on swim team with Jaxon.

During the season, Jaxon kept refering to the outfield as "outbase." He also was very sweet when one of his teamates got hit in the head with the ball. Jaxon went out there and helped the girl walk off the field.

But, Jaxon was best known on the team for his bat throwing antics. He would swing the bat really hard, then let it go sailing. Sometimes he would say, "Oops, I forgot" while it was still in the air.

By the last game, he had broken his bad habit, so we hope it doesn't resurface next season.
Here's a 10 second video of his batting.

To the Class of 2009

I've been baking cookies all night to give as gifts to the five graduating seniors in our ward.

This is the first year that ALL of them sent us graduation announcements.

So, I made cards for them from the selection I had on hand.

The first set were "In Deepest Sympathy," and I wrote how I hoped the cookies would help them in their difficult transition to adulthood. (not that funny)

The second set are cutesie with a flower and the word "Believe" smattered about.

I imparted to the seniors of my infinite wisdom:

"Believe in the Power of your Dreams."

(or at least believe in the ability and willingness of your parents to rescue you from any potential mistakes you'll make in the coming years)

Remember, there's NO shame in moving back home . . . or never leaving.

-- Seriously, though --

Congratulations on Graduating!

Love, The Steeds


I'm pretty sure that's the best card they'll get for graduation (except the ones that have money in them).

What do you think?

He said WHAT?

I just read my friend Allison's blog where her son made a comment about intercourse with some friends over ice cream (he was referring to Intercourse, PA).

It reminded me that I didn't post Jaxon's amusing (and slightly, no very irreverant) comment at church yesterday.

First, let me preface this that I have done a good job of reminding my children about what the bread and the water of the sacrament represents.

So, during the sacrament, Jaxon picks up a piece of bread from the tray, puts it in his mouth with a little gusto, then loudly proclaims (as though he were eating strawberry shortcake), "Mmmm, Jesus's BODY!"

Mark and I weren't sure if we should laugh, cry, or crawl under the bench. I think I did all three.

Katie's Visit

Aren't they cute? I met Katie, Mark's sister, when Mark and I began dating. Right off the bat, I was struck by how similar they look. In fact, if you'll remember this post about Mark and his brothers, they don't look as much like him as she does.
Thus, my hope is that if we have any daughters, they'll look like Katie.

Isn't she beautiful?

So, here are some of the photos we took when Katie came to visit with her kids, Adlen (which is Nelda spelled backwards in honor of their maternal grandmother), and Tysen (ages 3 and 5 months). Katie's husband Justin is a good guy. He decided to spend the weekend refinishing their kitchen cabinets instead of coming down to see us. We won't count that against him though.

It was wonderful to Katie and her kids visit. They live in Las Vegas, so we see them a lot more than we see the Michiganders, but not as much as we get to see my family.

But, with this heat, moving to Michigan is sounding more and more appealing. . .

Scenes from a Marriage

I borrowed this title from Emily's blog. I love it. This scene is for mature audiences.

I accompanied Mark to Las Vegas for a short business trip on Wednesday and Thursday. We stayed in the luxurious Wynn and had a great time.
Here's our conversation when we were preparing for the trip.

Me: "So, what should I wear when we go out Wednesday night? (gesturing) This sexy dress or that one?"

Mark: "Um, I hadn't really planned on going out. I thought we might order room service and stay in."

Me: (slightly irritated) "So, you're taking me all the way to Vegas and not letting me out of the room? If that's what you want, why don't you just hire a prostitute?"

Mark: (slyly) "Because my work won't reimburse me."



(I thought this was so funny I would blog about it so I Mark's permission for this post. Also, the dress in the photo above was not one of my options, that was one my sister was going to wear to prom, so I tried it on for fun.)

Embarassing Personal Confession #5

Today I learned that the place where you check the oil in your car is NOT, I repeat NOT, the same place you put the oil in.
There is another spot for filling the engine with oil. It's wider, so you don't have to spill it, or try to fashion a funnel out of say, a bottle's nipple.

Not that I did that, or anything. But if you were thinking about trying it, don't. Because it won't fit.
And if you did try it, and it didn't fit, throw the nipple away. Don't put it on a bottle for your baby. That would be really gross.

Fruit: Wash Before Eating

A variety of poop issues yesterday led me to do a stinky load of laundry first thing this morning.
When the washer stopped, the load still smelled a little ripe, so I added more detergent and bleach and ran it again.

Then I moved the laundry into the dryer and discovered . . .

A banana peel.

Which I washed in the laundry not once, but twice.

Today's Lunch

Admittedly it's been a while since I've been to the grocery store. Part of the reason is that I've been too busy and the other part was that I spent our budget on groceries about halfway through the month and I'm stalling to get to May. _sigh_

So, today for lunch I had a piece of toast, half a leftover avocado smeared on top, with a breakfast sausage on top of that.
Delicious. Ok, really it wasn't as bad as it sounds.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I had a naked 18 month old baby (naked b/c he has a really bad diaper rash) standing on my lap through the entire thing.

Doesn't make that even more appetizing?

Yes, My Boys Are Wearing Pink.

Since I don't have any daughters to dress up for Easter, I decided to dress up my boys.

In matching pink shirts.

It's not a crime, at least not one punishable by law.

I couldn't get a good shot of them on Easter Sunday, so I took this at my sister Cami's open house on Sunday. (I spent all week working on getting a black dry erase marker stain out of Asher's shirt. I was successful)

Anyway, the pink looks good on my boys, especially the blonde ones. I hope pink stays in for boys for a long time.

The photos below are what happens when I ask Jaxon and Asher to hug Finn. As you can see, some hugs are more successful than others.

Breaking the News

Despite repeated attempts to find the mice this morning, Jaxon managed to get to school without finding the empty cage.

I worried all day, but many of your comments helped me feel confident in my plans to explain to Jaxon how I killed not one pet, but all nine of his pet mice. (*I keep reminding myself that people intentionally kill mice all the time).

Luckily, the babies were asleep when Jaxon came home from school. I sat him down with a juicebox and told him I had some bad news.

"The mice were outside all day and I found them dead after the party last night. It was too hot for them to live."

Then I told him that they were in heaven as a family and that it was okay for him to be sad. I reminded him of the glove/hand lesson about bodies/spirits.

He was sad, for about a minute. I helped him do some deep breathing.

Then he asked, "Where are their bodies?"

So, I told him the truth. "Their skin and fur starts to break apart, it's called decomposing, and it smells bad, so I threw them in the garbage." He seemed satisfied with that answer. I think a funeral would have been overkill (pun intended).

As Nate suggested, I asked him if he was sad because he worried about their being in pain when they died, or that he missed his pets. He said, "I'm sad they're dead."
Yep, that's how a 6 year old thinks.

A few more tears and deep breaths and I brought up the idea of a new pet.

Suddenly, Jaxon jumps up with a smile and says, "I want a hamster!"

That was the end of mourning for the mice.

It couldn't have gone any better if I'd planned it. I don't know what I was so worried about. He was waaaay more traumatized when the mouse was crushed by the wheel and spasming and convulsing in the cage. This was cake compared to that.

Thanks again to everybody for your helpful suggestions. I'm sorry that so many of you were traumatized by pet deaths. Perhaps this will be a good reference when you go through this in the future with your kids . . .


Last thought. I can't find any photos I took of the mice. How sad. I take photos all the time. I can't believe I didn't take photos of them.