Kate

Kate said, "I have a big fat mouth and I'm not afraid to use it." She also says, "Hoolarious," instead of hilarious. Kate is Hilarious. She can be really fun.

Current Events Mingled With Fond Memories

Our Cat, Meg, gave birth to four kittens last night. Our kids were so excited that they used their high pitched I'm going to burst with excitement voice and sang Christmas carols. (The Christmas carol part is really true. Funny Huh?) So bursting with excitement Ruth and Kate actually got themselves ready for school with 20 minutes to spare. They almost never get themselves ready. Usually I just become a big old nag. So during their spare time they decided that each of the four oldest kids would get to name a cat and they each chose which one they wanted to name. Adam named one Boy. Johnny really did not like that name and begged me to make Adam name him something different. I refused. So Johnny decided not to name a kitten after all and to just call the one named boy, Chatty. Ruth named hers Spice, and Kate named hers Gigi, after the cat in Kiki's Delivery Service. So I named the last one Kiki.

At dinner tonight we were telling John the names we gave to the kittens. Johnny got after Adam for the poor name choice of boy. John asked Adam if he liked the name Boy. Adam said, "Yeah, my am boy." That reminded me of Ruth. So to help Johnny feel less upset we told these two stories about Ruth and Kate.

1. When Ruth was three she said that her name was "Girl Ruthy". By three and a half Ruth dropped the Ruthy and decided that her name was just "Girl". When people would ask her what her name was, Ruthy would say, "Girl". One day during Ruth's dance class Ruth's teacher said, "Come here, Ruthy." Ruthy would not come. Ruth's teacher asked her again. Ruthy said, "My name is not Ruthy. It is Girl." Ruth's teacher replied, "Your name is Ruthy. Come here, Ruthy." Ruthy again insisted that her name was Girl, so Ruth's teacher gave in and said, "Okay, Girl, come here." Ruthy actually continued insisting that her name was Girl until she was nearly four and a half. Then she wanted to be called Ruthy until first grade when she began insisting that everyone call her only Ruth.
   
2. When Kate was three and people asked Kate what her name was, Kate always said, "Kate Prettiful." If you would say, Kate, Katie, or Kathryn. Kate would make you say "Kate Prettiful." That lasted until she was about four. Now Kate insists on being called Kate. She will tolerate Kathryn, but she will completely ignore whoever calls her Katie. If you keep calling her Katie she will eventually correct you.

So wanting to be called funny names, and using funny names at three is a tradition in our family. In fact, when Johnny was three and a half to around four and a half he insisted that people call him, John Washington Robertson, and he would ignore poeple who would not say his full name.

Frustration

I just got back from Wal-mart with all of my children. That is hard anyways but today they seemed particularly determined to run away, wrestle, drag behind, and pull everything off the shelves. Kate and Rachel kept staying behind. Rachel pulled things off shelves. Ruth tried really hard to help with Rachel while saying very loudly how we just need to tie Rachel up. Kate and Johnny kept wrestling. Kate also kept squeezing in between me and the cart and making it difficult to push the cart. Adam sat in the cart, but when I did let him out he sat on the bag turn table at the register. But, while these things were down right annoying and people certainly looked at me either like I was crazy or with pity, the frustrating thing is how much groceries have gone up in price. Everything is like 1 1/2 more than what it was 2 weeks ago. Gas has done the same thing. So I ask, how are we suppose to stay in our budget when nothing else stays priced for our budget? But I think if I announce beans and rice and no more cookies from here on out there will be mutiny in our home. It might actually be cheaper now to feed us on the McDonald's dollar menu. So I have come home from the store $45 shorter and about one meals worth of food. But since the kids were so bad I had good reason to make everyone do a chore and now the house is all cleaned up and I have not done any of it.

ps. A few Highlights: 1. Anya smiled through the whole store. 2.Ruth made sure we did not lose Rachel, and 3.Johnny really was pretty good. But Johnny still had to do a chore for picking on Ruth and Kate when we got home. Ruth had been given a chore in the car ride to the store for picking on Kate, and see above for why Kate had to do a chore.

Night Out For Me, The Mom

Last night John had me go out by myself to get a break while he stayed home and took care of all six kids!!! That is not always easy. He played tag with them most of the time. But he astonished me by putting them to bed. That is a really nice thing to do for a mom. A friend of my with kids all my kids same ages said that she would pay some one a million dollars to put her kids to bed. It is so true. Bedtime and cooking dinner time are my two hardest times of the day. Anyway, Adam was in his bed, but he was really crying. I went in the help him settle down. I did the usual send him potty, help him say his prayers and give him a drink of water and a cookie. After I tucked him all in again Adam looked at me and asked, "Where did you go mom?" I actually parked the car at a park and did some writing. Anyway, Adam gave me a "that is not a good reason to leave me, mom" look, and said, "Did you know I was crying?' (he actually said I instead of his usual my). Well, that was just cute and sad. I hugged him and told him that I loved him. Kate also wrote me a note that said I missed you and had a drawing of her in an ocean of water and tears streaming down her face. John said that when he said that it was bedtime Adam started crying, so he gave him a cup of hot cocoa (that must be why he was up at 1:30am with a soaked bed:)). It is nice to be missed, but I only left for two hours. I am our only way of feeding Anya, so two hours is my limit. Kids are sure funny.

Not Really Funny

This should not be funny, yet I find it so. You see Johnny and Adam wrestle and fight all morning everyday until Johnny goes to kindergarten. I have just gotten used to this constant brawl we have. I kind of think it must be a boy thing. So today when Adam came to me upset and said, "Mommy, Johnny tried to take my neck off" I had to suppress a laugh rather than being absolutely horrified as I should have felt. Knowing how things really are, I asked Adam what he did to Johnny. Adam said proudly, "I hit him on the bum." But then Adam continued, "But Johnny tried to take my neck off and that is BAD. Do something, Mommy." So I yelled across the house,
"Johnny do not strangle, Adam." Then Johnny yelled back across the house, "But Adam hit me because I took my cube game back." Anyway, this isn't really suppose to be funny. It was just the way Adam put things.

The Champ

I know that 'The Champ' is Johnny's Uncle Jay's nickname, but John (the dad)thinks Johnny is becoming a real contender. Johnny has become very competetive, and he is really good at a lot of things. He is the best Mario Kart (game cube version) player in the family. He has won the gold trophy on all of the cups. In fact Johnny would like any one who reads this and sees Jay to tell him that he knows he has beaten him because Jay's gamecube does not have the 'all cup tour' on it. He won that by getting a gold trophy on the special cup at 150cc. Johnny is very proud to think that he is better than The Champ, Jay.

Today, Johnny was telling me that he is just the best and that everyone knows that he is just the best. I should emphasize the period there. Then Johnny told me that his strategy for being the best is just to do the best that he can. That, he says, is why he is the best. So there you are. Johnny is definitely in competition with Jay for being 'The Champ' Robertson.

Just A Fun Day

Tuesday was just a fun day. I did at lot with the kids and it all went well and we all had fun. In general conference a few weeks ago Elder Ballard told mothers to enjoy more of the doing rather then looking toward the finish. At first I did not see how that would work. How can I enjoy putting my kids into their pajamas when they are running away from me yelling no? Well, I just thought I would try, and when I remember to enjoy my kids the days are good and relaxed and fun. I feel a lot happier too. So anyway, Tuesday, we did a lot of fun stuff. Tuesday was earth day and so the zoo was free. Adam and Rachel do not remember ever going to the zoo. I think Rachel was 2 months and Adam was 19 months the last time we went. I have never seen Rachel so excited. She ran ahead of me pretty much the whole time and squealed, and even screamed, every time she saw a new animal. She would run up to get as close as she could squealing and screaming and saying, "I see a...". I did not know that Rachel knew so many names of animals. Although she did make some cute mistakes. She called goats dogs, and cows pigs. I think Rachel liked the sheep the best and she liked the giraffes second best. She stayed looking at the giraffes while Adam and I looked at the rhinos. Adam said he liked the gorillas the best. The gorillas were wrestling and banging on the glass. That made them pretty exciting. I stopped to nurse Anya while we watched the mere cats. Rachel wet her pants at this point. And this is when Elder Ballards advice came in handy. I just looked at Rachel's wet pants and the puddle on the
ground, asked Rachel if she wet her pants (She said, "yep, wet." )and we just let her air dry and continued having fun.

When we got home we were pretty tired and it was time for Ruth, Kate, and Johnny to get home from school. I had them do their homework right away as usual while I folded laundry that I had not gotten to earlier and we chatted and had fun. Then I went outside and played wiffle ball with them. I did not feel like making dinner so we got John and headed into the car. We bought a bucket of KFC and ice cream cones for all. Then we headed to a park. Again I used Elder Ballard's advice. The kids wanted to just go and play so I did not make them stay and eat. Some of them grabbed chicken
and ran and others said they were starving just before bed. But there were no confrontations and that made our
family time better. I held Anya the whole time and even went down the slide with Anya and Rachel a few times. I walked around the water with the kids and smelled the pretty lilacs that Kate picked. I did not get upset with Kate for picking park flowers or Rachel for walking into the water. I just enjoyed watching them. John played freeze tag with Ruth, Kate, Johnny, and Adam (as seen in the pictures). The kids just loved that and John got his exercise. It was late when we got home, but Ruth and Kate had cleaned the house to earn bigger ice cream cones before we left, so even bedtime was easy. It was just a fun, good day.

Baby Talk

Johnny looked at Anya and said, "Gaa gaa goo goo." Kate turned around and said to Johnny, "Do not say gaa gaa goo goo." Johnny relpied, "I am talking to the baby and that is baby talk. She should understand what that means."

Big Boy

Last night during dinner, Adam came over to me and asked for a bite of my rice (he had rice still on his plate, but that is another blog). I gave Adam a small bite. Adam looked at the spoon and said, "That is tiny. My is not tiny. My not want tiny bite. My am big. My want a big bite." So I gave Adam a great big bite and he sighed a big happy sigh.

Poetry With Gramma

One night when Gramma was here, Ruth and Kate stayed up late and we all wrote poems. The next night Gramma showed us how to make little books and we painted them and put our poems in the books. We had a really fun time doing this with Gramma and I am pleased to say that we are at least quite creative. Here are our poems.

Haiku's by Diane
Ruth
Ruth is a fairy
Dancing with pretty flowers
My magical girl

Kate
Kate is really great
her eyes are big green emeralds
Sunshines when she smiles

Johnny
Good and smart and clean
playing games and learning things
happy little boy

Adam
Run, Jump, Shout for Joy
Wrestling brother and sisters
Fun Happy Adam

Rachel
Sometimes an angel
Singing a beautiful song
peaceful and happy

Two Poems By Kate

The wild deer prancing through the wood.
The silent breeze goes by.
The fairy tales of springtime bells.
Th white maiden in the gown.
The handsome man in bow and tie.
The wedding bells go by.
And in the flower girls basket,
Is the spring we love.


I am Grandpa.
I don't like poems.
So I did not write a poem.

ps. Kate says I am a poor sport.


Two Poems by Gramma

Buttons
Round-- square.
Metal-- glass.
Plastic-- clay now baked.
Yellow, brown, a dot of orange
A kiss of blue.
Holes in the middle
Thread drawn through.
Buttons, Buttons, Buttons,
Old ones from Gramma's tin--
Diamond ones-- pink and brown.
Green-blue, pearl, clear.
Patterns-- white shirt buttons.
Buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons.
Buttons, buttons, buttons, buttons.
And More...

Sa Lither
Sott, Sweet, Smiles,
Smart silvery smiles,
Small sunshine smiles,
Silent still smiles,
Snow surf smiles,
So smile smile, so smile,
Sweet Sott Sunshine
Some simple
Some seem
silly
some somber

A Lot of Poems By Ruth

I hear a big noise.
That sounds like a voice.
Saying the Volcanoes Arose

Winter is here
It makes me cheer
To know that Christmas is near.

Kate is eight.
She looks great.
But sometimes she can be late.

About a Star
That is glass
It looks like brass,
All shining, gleaming there.

The wind is blowing strong
I have had this feeling all along
It is a nice day.

And Finally Poems by John Wesley Robertson
Pretentious
Poems are pretentious
Trying to sound important.
Their boasts are empty.

My poems are the best.
Unlike the rest.
Displaying the talent with which I am blessed.
But if that's so...
I just do not know,
Why others who hear them,
So quickly do go.

Gramma and Grampa Came

I needed to say that Gramma and Grampa came. We love it when they come. Johnny and Adam wrestle with Grampa all day. Ruth and Kate shop with Gramma. Rachel cuddles with Gramma and relishes that she has two more people to read to her. Johnny had a Mario Kart companion in Grampa. Kate loved having a quiet talk with Gramma. Ruth loved going with everyone to Exploration Place. I was glad to have my parents here helping and playing with my kids, and still just taking care of me. Grandparents are the best. We are sad that they live so far away. Thank you for coming Gramma and Grampa.

About Rachel

Rachel wanted John to take her potty, but John was working and did not have the time to take off. So I grabbed her up and brought her in to the bathroom. I asked rachel, "Do you want daddy to take you potty?" Rachel said, "yah, da-ee paw-ee" I then asked, "Do you want Daddy to play outside with you." Rachel said, "Yah, Da-ee ou-yie" Then I asked, "Do you want to go get the mail with Daddy?" Rachel responded, "Yah, Da--ee mail." I asked Rachel, "Do you want to play a game with Daddy?" Rachel said, "Yah, da-ee gay." I then asked, "Do you want Daddy to kiss you." Rachel shouted, "NO!!!!!!" After that Rachel said no to anything thing else I asked her. That is more typical. Generally if you ask Rachel anything at all she just says no. I think that I asked her so many questions because I was enjoying the fact that she was talking so much.
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John and I really like this picture of Rachel even though it is definitely a grumpy faced Rachel. Rachel saw me point the camera at her and this was the result. She has decided that she does not like getting her picture taken.

If At First You Do Not Succeed

Kate had to practice her spelling words three times each and this is the result. Take a close look at dollar, window , and hello. Either this was a good joke on Kate's part or she didn't look at the words very closely. But John and I thought this was pretty funny so Kate did not have to redo it. Making your parents laugh is like getting a "get out of jail free" card in the beginning of Monopoly.

Anya Esther Robertson on Blessing Day

Here is my beautiful little Anya Esther in our family heirloom blessing gown. My Grandmother found this dress in an attic of an old house in Sanford, ME in the 1940's. My mother was christened in this dress. Myself, and all of my siblings were blessed in it, and now all of my daughters have been blessed in it. I think that Anya is just beautiful, and good natured. We are very blessd to have her in our family. My parents flew to Wichita from Maine and my sister Amber flew from Utah. It was a nice day. I am glad that my dad was there to assist in the blessing. Family is a blessing, and we are so glad to have our six little child making our family bigger and happier.

The Truth about Me

It seems to me that from people's commentary they have a very mistaken idea of who I really am. People seem to think that I am a really good mom who does a lot on very little sleep. Well, for about the first 7 weeks after Anya was born I was getting very little sleep. But Anya has been sleeping from 10:30pm until between 4am and 7am since she was 2months. (She is just over 3 months now). So I can actually get plenty of sleep if I go to bed early enough. But I usually don't go to bed before midnight so I only get between 5 and 7 hours of sleep. But that is still very do-able.

Now as far as me being a really good mom. That is just plain old not true. I lose my temper and yell way too much. I make my kids do a chore if they shout a lot in the house, but I am still too lazy to walk to find some one I need, and just shout for that person across the house. When some one spills anything, I just about flip out. I amaze myself at how little control I can have when one of my kids dumps a bowl of cereal on themselves. My first instinct in dealing with my kids when they are screaming about something is to give them a big old smack on the bottom and tell them to shut up. Thankfully I usually have more control than that. But I think it is scary at how little sympathy I have for a kid who has just fallen down. When my kids are sick I think "gross germs" and "I don't want to deal with this" instead of "my poor little baby, I want to help you and hold you and make you feel better".

Here is a good illustration of how bad I really am: A couple of weeks ago Rachel went through the house and in the space of about half an hour dumped books off from every book shelf, broke some of Ruth and Kate's things, and drew on the walls in three different places just before dinner. I was ANGRY!!! I put her in time out. I started cleaning up and Johnny would not stop talking to me about Zelda and I yelled, "JUST SHUT UP AND DO YOUR CHORE!" That got John's attention and he asked why Johnny needed to be yelled at. Then I just felt more angry. Ruth and Kate started complaining about having to pick up messes that were not theirs, Rachel and Anya were both sitting in chairs screaming and then I saw another enitre shelf of books completely dumped out at the bottom of the steps and I lost it. I grabbed Rachel, spanked her and started yelling at her to put the books back on the shelf. John came at that point told me that I was out of control, and took Rachel away. So then I was even more angry and yelled at John to stop talking to me and said that I would leave if he did not. At this point Ruth and Kate started crying and holding onto my legs. John then pointed out how horribly I was behaving, and said that he was going to take the kids out until I calmed down. Well, I grabbed the crying baby and said I better feed her. Then John and the other kids left. I felt like crap, fed the baby and cried and cried and thought that I would have to move away from my family while I cleaned the whole messy house and made dinner. John came back later and we fed the kids and put them to bed. I painted with Kate because I had already promised her that I would and then cleaned all of the bathrooms and went to bed with out talking to John. The next day John asked why I was mad at him. I thought that he took the kids out because he thought that I was just a terrible mother. He apparently took them out because he thought I needed a break. So as everyone can see, I AM NOT A GOOD MOM. I can even be a very bad mom.

Most days I try to shoot for ordinary mom, and I pray that I do not ruin my kids.

Now some people may think I am a good mom because I am fairly organized, but that is because I don't like chaos (as illustrated in the very embarrassing terrible story) I can clean the floors and paint walls right after a baby is born and put a belt back on my washing machine because I cannot stand to get behind in chores. I think that just means I am psychotic. I happen to know a few other moms who feel the way I do about getting behind so I feel justified. But John is always begging me to take a break and to let ht house get messy. Oh well, I know it is weird, but I feel more sane if my bed is made and there are no dishes in the sink.

That is the truth about me.

Why Babies Cry

I walked into the room while Rachel was holding her baby. I heard her say something like, "No, Baby!" I asked Rachel if she was talking to her baby. Rachel looked down at her doll and said to me, "Baby is crying." Then she kissed and hugged her baby.

Never Let The Crowd Slow You Down

Johnny can now read well enough to follow along in the hymn books at church. Today in church, during the songs, Johnny sang one to two words ahead of the rest of the congregations because he can "read faster than everyone else."

Kates punishment (by John)

I told Kate to come over to me and I drew a picture of a book on her hand. I told her it was a book-mark. The next day Kate came and wrote the letters "ing" on my hand and informed me it was a mark "ing". Johnny, not wanting to miss out on the fun drew a line on my hand and informed me that it was a line "ing" (except I don't think he knows the word "lining" and there was no "ing" involved in his,..I'm afraid he just didn't get it which made his pretty funny in its own way).

Washing Machine

My washing machine broke down officially yesterday. Well, at least officially enough that I went and bought a new one. The belt keeps falling off and the drum has begun leaking. But I keep draining the darn thing with our wet vac, tipping it over, putting the belt back on and using it. John helped me a couple times with the process yesterday, so he was VERY happy to take work time off and help me find a new washer. I am getting a front loader this time. I had to use laundry mats the years that we lived in big cities and loved the front loaders (not the laundry mats). One of the biggest problems I had with this last washing machine was it was always getting unbalanced. Front loaders don't have that problem. We got one for $600 at Home Depot. I felt really blessed to find what I wanted for under $800. When I bought my current washing machine 3 1/2 years ago all the front loaders of decent size were at least $1000, and we just couldn't afford that then. So I bought the cheapest large capacity Maytag. This time we surprisingly have the money and front loaders are cheaper. Again I am astonished at how the Lord blesses my family. We just payed off all of our credit card debt with our tax return and I am anxious to make sure that we make it through this next year debt free. When I was draining the washing machine for the second time yesterday I was surprised at how peaceful I felt. Of course I was praying for help to know what to do. When it became clear that I would have to get a new machine I still felt very peaceful and sure that it would be okay financially. We bought the front loader on our Home depot credit card because they give you six months with no interest. After we were home and the kids were in bed I looked a little at our finances and discovered that next month we get an additional paycheck. So we will have the money to pay for the washing machine before we even get the first credit card statement. I know that we could have bought another cheap top loader washing machine, but I wanted a front loader, and I think that Heavenly at times is happy to provide us with our wants as well as our needs. I am very grateful for the careful and thoughtful care of our Heavenly Father.

News

1. Rachel had a birthday yesterday and she is now 2. For the last two months Rachel has been preparing to turn two with a lot of temper tantrums. But she did love her birthday. She got a doodle pro and a bunch of helium balloons that all the older kids won't let her play with. Poor little girl. No wonder she screams so much. We gave her both cake and ice cream to see what she likes better and she only ate the ice cream. Now we know.
2. We legally changed Esther's name to Anya Esther. We had to set up a court date, take off work and see the judge to do this. The lady working for the State Department of Vital Statistics said that this is not inconvenient. I would like to know what is inconvenient for her? The judge had to have us raise our right arms and have us swear that all of the information we gave them was true. Crazy, but I am glad that we did so. I feel much better about the name now. I suppose if I thought we were definitely having another daughter I would have not cared so much. But with six kids, who knows??? We may be done all together.
3. Ruth turned 10 on March 22. She now has to vacuum every night instead of picking up the floors, and she now has to listen to three sessions of general conferences. But she did get all of her own hair things and she likes doing her own hair, and my mom bought her a Nintendo DS. So that I think she finds her growing bigger responsibilities worth it. Next year she gets to become our official baby sitter. I am glad that Ruth was born first. She is an amazing help.
   

April Fools Day

During Family Home Evening John and I both had items of business to present to the family. I went first. I told my family that I was tired of them being sick so much and that I had decided that we needed to improve our health standards. I mentioned that we were going to eat less junk food, but eat a lot more fruits and vegetables. I also said that the kids were going to start taking daily vitamins and that we all needed to get more exercise. John (the father John to be precise) was MAD. I know this seems irrelevant to April Fool's Day, but just keep reading. John's turn for family business was next. He reminded us all that April fools day was the next day and he suggested that we have a little contest to see who could play the best joke that was neither mean nor messy. John told the kids that the winner would get a dollar.

So now to April Fool's Day stuff. I played the first joke with this email to John, and I got him good too.

Dear John,

I looked up some health information and you are right. Vegetables and
fruits aren't necessary for good health as long as you don't eat too
many calories. That is all that matters. So I won't be making us eat a
lot more fruits and vegetables.

I thought you would be happy to know this.

I love You,

Diane

Johnny read what I wrote to Dad and began playing lots of word jokes. He did get me a couple of times. Once he said, "Mom, Adam stole my egg and won't give it back." I said, "Adam, give Johnny his egg back." Johnny laughed and said, "April Fools!!"

Adam tricked Johnny when he said, "Johnny, Rachel took your egg." Johnny got mad and Adam said, "April Fools!!"

Kate put scotch tape all over a dinner plate and wrote: This plate is not drawn on, on the tape. She actually put on two layers of tape so when you peeled off the first layer there was the same sentence underneath and you became uncertain that she had not actually drawn on the plate.

Ruth got Kate a glass of orange juice and told her it was water. Kate was pleased with this joke.

The next morning I told all of the kids that we all won and I still owe them all a dollar. I think that our kids did well at coming up with non-mean, non-destructive April Fool's jokes. I was never sure if John did anything or not. But I can be sure that he will get me back at some point.

A little Song

I sang this to Ruth when I asked her to set the table.
to the tune of: Nephi's Courage

The mother commanded Ruthy to go and get the plates;
Set them on the table before it gets to late.
Johnny and Kate did not want to try.
Ruthy was a good girl this was her reply:
"I will go; I will do
Whatever my mother says. I know if I try and obey
I'll have a happy day.
I will go; I will do
Whatever my Mother says. I know if I try and obey
I'll have a happy day."


Ruth really liked this song, but Kate and Johnny were pretty upset. Johnny asked if I could sing "Kate and Adam instead." I didn't mean to compare them to Laman and Lemeul. I had to inform them that I didn't think they were like Laman and Lemuel. Anyway I was pleased to come up with such easy and rhyming word changes to fit our little "
will you set the table situation." I can't always pop things like that out of my head and have it come out rhyming, never mind making any sense.