So, I posted some pics from the weekend, but here's the rest of the story.
On Friday we took Jethro out of school early and left to go to Chicago, but first we made a stop in Hammond where there's a junkyard so Brett could get some things he needs (and wants). Luckily for me and the chillens, there's now a Cabela's in Hammond, so he dropped us off there. We were there for a good three hours. But if you're going to be stuck in a store with 4 kids for 3 hours, Cabela's is the one. In fact, we didn't get tired or bored or cranky or anything. You see, it's got everything in there--an aquarium, tons of animals that have been stuffed, free fudge samples, books, toys, cool hats, a cafe with venison, buffalo, and ostrich meat (although we did not eat anything from the cafe), and last but certainly not least, shooting galleries. Several different workers at different times gave the kids tokens, so for spending no money, Jethro and Hazel got to shoot a awful lot. I did it once too, and got an incredibly high score. Okay, so that's only compared to Jethro, but still. I took a bunch of pictures, but I don't feel like posting any except these ones of cute little Talmage Crockett. 
Anyway, when Brett finally came and picked us up we continued on to Chicago and met Kami and her kids and Jennae, our friend and college roommate who came to visit, at Millennium Park, where we played in the fountains and saw the cool sculptures, and then we went to the theatre and ate sandwiches and listened to a cool band from I cannot remember where. Actually, I don't think I ever knew. Anyway, that's what the videos are from. It was good times.
We went back to Kami's house and put the kids to bed and youtubed for awhile. Sometimes I feel very abused not to have high speed internet. But I'll survive.
The next day Brett and I went to the temple while Kami and Jennae generously watched our kids. Kami even nursed Talmage for me (which I am totally fine with, in case anyone wondered). They actually watched them at the beach--so the kids had a great time. Brett and I met them there after our session. It was a beeeee-autiful day--so gorgeous. I borrowed Jennae's swimming suit (I hadn't thought I would swim) and swam for a while. It was awesome. I love love love swimming, and it was fun. I feel much more at peace with it being Fall now that I've had a good swim.
Then we went back to Kami's house and she made us dinner and we went home. Ethne cried all the way from South Chicago to our house. It was amazing. (She was sooooooo overtired, there was really nothing we could do for her--trust me, we tried everything.)
Unfortunately, we weren't thinking, and we forgot that Jethro had ridden his bike to school on Friday, and we didn't take it home when we picked him up early, and it got stolen. Sad, sad.
Yesterday Brett had to go to a branch 45 minutes away to do an audit right during our sacrament meeting, so I called a couple families to have my kids sit with them so that I could play the organ. It was actually so easy--I sat by one of the families when I wasn't up there, but I really didn't have to do anything. I could even listen. (!) I think I'll tell Brett to leave more often so I can just dump my kids on other people. :)
When I was in the nursing room feeding Talmage, I was talking with two women from a different ward whom I had never met, and a girl from my own ward. The girl from my ward mentioned my having four kids, and the two other women's eyes practically bugged out and they gaped at me. In their surprise they said, "You have four kids?!!! You look so young! You look so put together and composed!" I thought it was funny. Though, in their defense, I look young because I am young. In fact, I was thinking the other day how when I'm thirty-four I'll have a 15-year-old. That's weird.
This morning I actually exercised. I know--blasphemous to my morals. But a girl is doing aerobics workouts at the church, and that's actually okay to me. It's not boring running, and it's not lame videos. She had upbeat music, and a really hard workout that was also fun. At one point she was doing some aerobic kickboxing stuff, and it reminded me of the good old days at USU when Andrea, Kami and I took an aerobic kickboxing class and we would punch each other really hard (with bags, of course). Good times. Anyway, we shall see how faithfully I continue to go. Of course, if I mention to Hazel that tomorrow is exercise day and she gets to go play at the church, she will make sure I go!
Last week I started making bread, and I asked Brett if he would go check and see if we had any more wheat flour out in the bucket in the pantry. He went and got it, there was a little left, so I dumped a couple cups into the bread dough. Then I heard Hazel and Jethro saying something about seeing ants in the flour. I turned around and they were looking in the bucket, so I looked. Sure enough, there were these TEEENY little bugs just teeming through the flour. They were small enough that you couldn't see them at first, but then you noticed all the movement. YUCK! So, I looked in the bread dough. Ewwwww! Needless to say, I had to throw it out and make a new batch. Sans wheat flour.
The other night I was getting Hazel ready for bed, and she wanted to ask me something, but every time she was getting started and said "Mom," I would interrupt and say, "No!" I did it several times and finally she squealed and said, "Stop no-ing!!!" hee hee.
Jethro left a note beneath my pillow the other night. It says "Daer Mom, i love you. You are fun. Sometimes you let me make crafts. Love Jethro." and it has a picture of two stick people (actually rectangle people) holding hands. It was kindof unclear at first whether it said "you are fun sometimes" or "sometimes you let me make crafts," but I had him read it to me, and it was the latter. Phew. But my favorite part of the note is that he wrote it on a sheet of paper from a pad we have on the fridge which says "TO DO LIST" on top, and he crossed out TO DO LIST and wrote "LOVE LIST." :)
I don't know that I have much to say. So, another picture post I guess. Good thing I have cute kids so it's not a hardship. :)
Redheads.
The kids before church today. Jethro was sick, that's why he's not in the picture.
The girls. (Oh, and Kami I bought the red dress for Elena when she turns 4. But Hazel's going to wear it in the meantime. It's even prettier in real life.) And why can I NOT get my hair to go how the hairdresser styled it after she cut it?!
Talmage in a hat. (So of course there had to be a picture. But don't worry, I'm sure there will be more pictures in the hat.)
And we walked to the park today and saw some ducks.
I know, I know, Jethro was too sick for church and yet not too sick for the park. Hmmm.
Oh, I do remember now that I have something to relate. Remember how Jethro got his bike stolen? Well, we first walked to the playground at Jethro's school (before the duck park), and there were some kids riding bikes around the parking lot. I saw one little boy on a bike that looked like Jethro's, so I pointed at it and Brett went over and looked at it. We knew it was Jethro's because there was tape around the handlebars where he had hung a toy shrunken head from it (it was in a pirate gift box from my sister...). Anyway, so Brett told the kid that it was his son's bike and asked where he got it. He said his dad found it on the road. Well, we ended up taking the bike, since it was Jethro's. But now I feel pretty yucky that we kinda yanked it out from under the kid. It was one of those things that we really should have thought about for a few minutes before approaching the situation, I guess. I'm truly not sure what was the best thing to have done--just let the kid keep the bike? What do you think we should have done? (oh, just as an aside, Jethro's been praying every day that he would find his bike.)
The sun and clouds were doing pretty things today.
