Ramblings: Spring Fever (Not to be confused with Bieber Fever)

Yes, I'm alive. This is one of the first times where the boys are at preschool and I haven't had anything scheduled--doctors and dentist visits alone with five kids are enough to keep me swamped. And that's just for check ups. But add the recent meetings Jeremy and I have had with our new financial planners (do you know how much it's going to cost us to give them five youngins' some higher education? whoa nelly) and the estate attorney  (I guess we didn't really care about having wills and trusts and stuff like that until #5 came around. Maybe now we should have the lottery for the lucky winner of who gets to inherit the five loud, mess-making crazies if both of us croak. Bonus: It comes with a healthy life insurance payout for the insane person that agrees. Any takers? NO? Shocking.)

You think being MARRIED to an attorney that I'd have all that stuff done already. Uh, nope. Six years ago he was nice enough to visit amazon.com and purchase the "do-it-yourself will" software that is still in it's original, unopened cellophane wrapper. Hmmm...if after what we paid Harvard for that fine ivy-league legal education, he has to go online and buy a cd with a fill-in-the-blank will, then I want at least a partial refund, please. Or at least educate a few of my offspring at a sizable discount. Geez.  We've got the professionals on it now--hopefully they don't have to go online and order any form contracts.

We've been busy the past few weeks. At least after all the ice and snow storms that got school and everything else around here canceled for practically two weeks. We were all going a bit stir crazy but now the warmer weather seems to have moved in for awhile. (That was a major understatement. At one point, I was curled up in the fetal position in my closet, rocking back and forth and mumbling incoherently. There's only so much hot chocolate and movies you can consume before all that pent up kid-energy just explodes and splatters all over the walls. It was a LONG winter.)

I'll try to remember what we've been doing based on the pictures on my iphone. I got to upgrade to the new iphone since mine finally bit the dust. With as often as the kids threw it around and dropped it while begging to play fruit ninja, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did. A fun new feature--a camera on the front so you can see when you're taking a picture of yourself or you can video chat with someone else that has one. Trace liked it. And the finger in the mouth? That's his favorite thing to do--chew his fingers. Usually the four straight it with the thumb sticking out.  It also explains why his front is always soaking like he just got hosed down for a chubby baby wet t-shirt contest. Drool mania all the time. He goes through five bibs a day.

The three little boys and I went to the zoo with cousin Dexter and some playgroup friends. I hauled those four boys around the zoo and had strangers stopping to tell me, "Bless your heart. All boys?" It was taking too long to explain it to everyone, so I just started saying "YUP!"

 This cheetah was either really entertained by the three or figuring out how to bust through the glass to eat them. They did smell like peanut butter sandwiches and gogurt I guess. She stayed pacing back and forth right behind them for the longest time. Aidan was getting a little nervous. Trace was just happy to be outside in the fresh air...and to have all the cute little faces that kept popping up into his carseat to say hi.

Their poor friend Addie has to deal with their silliness all the time (she's in their classes at church and school) and she didn't get why they thought it was so funny to pose under the 3D realistic-feeling elephant's bum that was protruding from the wall. They entertained each other with an hour's worth of poop jokes. She's the one we always say looks more like Aidan's twin than Avery does. 

I also brought down a bunch of the baby stuff last week from the attic. Trace got to try out the exersaucer that all of our other kids have enjoyed. He loved it. Probably both for the entertainment and the knowledge that he was protected from the four-four year old feet that are constantly running past his head when he's lying around on the floor.  Now he just has to endure being spun 180 degrees at 90 miles an hour and having those toys all activated at once by four hands slapping all around him.

Every year the BYU basketball team comes to place TCU in Fort Worth, which is about an hour from us. So we (and pretty much every other BYU alum I know) got tickets and flocked to see Jimmer Fredette play. The very same Jimmer that Alex had his picture taken with in the cafeteria on BYU campus during a Father and Sons basketball camp last year. Alex looks way older now and I have to say Jimmer's packed on some more muscles since then.

Apparently he's even awesome enough that the ESPN guys and everyone else just call him Jimmer now. And I know because not only has Jeremy shown me every youtube video of him, but I've also visited most of the fan websites trying to find the right picture for the shirt I made Jeremy for Valentines Day.  He said he wouldn't wear it to the game. So much for being a super-fan...

We went with Jeremy's sister Candice, her husband Peter, their little Laura (whoops--no pics of my own so I stole one) along with Jeremy's cousin Michael and his kids. Maddie debuted her BYU cheerleading outfit and Trace his tiny Cougars t-shirt. I'm pretty sure Michael turned away on purpose so I couldn't make any jokes on here about how he and Jeremy have such round heads--a trait shared by most of the Fielding boys I think. That and broad shoulders with long, dangly arms--a feature I'm insanely jealous of. 

Luckily BYU was winning the whole game so Jeremy didn't have to get too psycho. And since we won, we had a peaceful ride home--unlike when any BYU team loses anything. We usually steer clear of Jeremy for about three days--especially after a football game loss. SpongeBob Cranky Pants.

The twins' preschool class went on a field trip to the post office on Tuesday. The parents had to drive them and attend, but they thought they were hot stuff.  It was actually really hilarious. They were wearing blue construction paper hats that said "US MAIL" and walking around holding their partners' hands. The postal guy giving the tour was pretty terrible at relating to the kids and making it on their level and his voice stayed monotone and boring the whole time. He gave the tour like they were 11. At one point he started talking about how expensive it is to mail letters in Japan and how small Japan is in comparison to the whole US--basically trying to brainwash us all that at 44 cents a stamp, we're getting a heck of a deal! So stop complaining taxpayers!

But they liked it anyway and especially liked that we stopped at Sonic on the way home for candy sundaes. Addie had to put up with their potty humor some more because she rode with us and she was SO upset that the boys were being loud even though Trace was asleep. She kept shushing them and telling me, "Why won't they whisper? They know they're supposed to be whispering!" Welcome to my world, sista.

I got a diet coke with LIME yesterday. Why the capital letters? Check out those lime wedges and tell me that they didn't earn those capital letters. There was about the equivalent of a lime and a half in there. I appreciate the worker that decided to go all out with the lime.

And I've taken a year to write all this and haven't even gotten caught up. You're really missing out on the story of me trying to go watch Alex's basketball tournament while trying to manage the other four that REALLY did not want to be there. At one point, we were sitting on the sidelines and Avery and Aidan were intertwined in a full-on pretzel formation, beating and kicking the living snot out of each other while laughing/crying hysterically. The line between fun rowdiness and pain got a little fuzzy by the end.  And that was only an hour into the three that we were there.

Alex has started baseball already and my chauffeuring duties have gotten even more immense. I'm off to drop him at practice and run home to feed the rest dinner, only to load them back up to pick him up. But first the nightly hour long search for his mitt and cleats. Days like this I sort of wish for book-worms that have no interest in sports. Or I could teach Alex to drive himself there...how fast does a riding lawnmower go?