Double Double Toil and Trouble

 We had our annual visit to the Gardner Village Witches this week and it made me think about the famous phrase of those spell casters created by Shakespeare-double double toil and trouble.  They may have been discussing my house at this time!  Someone is constantly trouble.  And, more often than not, it isn't one of these cute boys:  

 Chances are, its one of these girls:

Its common in the world of moms to know trouble is abounding when the house is silent.  While the quiet is welcome, its a sign of bad things happening!  I frequently call out Brenna's name when this happens and lately, her response is: "Don't see me."  Hmmm....she doesn't want to be seen.  Truthfully, sometimes, if I can tell it is neither life threatening or permanently damaging, I just turn around and pretend like nothing is going on.  When she walks around with her pants below her little bum and I ask her to pull her pants up, she says, "Sorry mom, I can't.  Its just so funny!"

 Brenna is a constant bully to Katelee. Ok, who am I kidding, Grant is too.  Katelee would describe herself as the most tortured in the family.  She has buckets of tears to prove her point.  My little pretties are sometimes little witches themselves!  While there are good witches and nice girls, there are mean ones as well, and Brenna has told me she is not nice...she likes to be mean.  She really likes to try out her wicked ways on this cute dude:

 Here he is hitting his two month mark this week.  We took him to the pediatrician today and he weighs 12 lbs 4 oz, 23 1/2 inches long, both these stats are in the 75% percentile.  His head, following suit of his siblings, is in the 25%.  So, our kids have small noggins but they are still brilliant!  He is also patterning his sleeping habits after his siblings.  This means they are atrocious.  I get little sleep which gives me more than double the toil and trouble because I am stinking tired and have to deal with cute fat boy and three others!  Brenna likes to twist his toes hard and then tell me, "Mom, I'm not going to do this anymore.  Watch, watch, I need to show you what I'm not going to do."  Then, she repeatedly does it...or sticks her finger in his eyes or nose.  Little sweetie.  I have had some serious conversations with Harrison about working on this and he just looks at me like he has no part in this sleep deprivation.  See...

We are loving his constant smiles and he has starting having conversations with us too!  While I miss my sleep, I know this too shall pass and then maybe my toil and trouble will go away...ok, it won't, but maybe it won't feel like double. 

On Top of the World

 There are times in your life that you feel like you are on top of the world- things couldn't be better and you are close to heaven!  That was how we felt this weekend...also the kids and Dave went on top of the mountain at Snowbird, so they literally seemed to be on top of the world! 

This weekend we had lots of visitors for the little man's blessing at our church.



Grandma and Grandpa McArthur came a week early and slept in the guest room in our basement hotel!  Because they were here, they got to accompany us to our annual pumpkin patch evening.



We found the perfect pumpkins, got lost in the corn maze...okay, the kids just ran through it as fast as they could.  The current record is 29 seconds, beat that if you can!



The evening was capped off with a tractor ride and treats at the gas station.  Good times for everyone!



More family came in town about a week ago to meet little Harry and be here for the big event.  My brother, Brad, and his family drove in from Colorado, Aunt Amy recently moved here, Aunt Anna flew in as well as Uncle Brian, all on Dave's side.  The Saturday before the blessing, the visiting McArthur clan, as well as Dave and our big kids made their way up the mountain to Snowbird. 

There were German festivies abounding at the Oktoberfest.  Because I wasn't there, the chicken dance was not participated in.  Apparently, Dave didn't make it to the dancing tent on purpose!!  I am shocked!  Harrison and I opted out of the fun because it seemed too cold for wee babykins. 

Sunday, we had all my siblings, parents and Dave's visiting family members come to our church and Dave gave sweet Harrison a beautiful blessing.  Dave got teary and I got choked up as he blessed our baby and let him know how we all adore him.  I don't know that I will remember everything that happened that day, but I will always remember how I felt.

I felt, and still do, feel extremely blessed.