Totally capturing their Personalities...

This is one of my favorite pictures because it absolutely captures the boys and their personalities. Oakley- the leader, out front, checking it all out first for everyone. Eli - everything is funny to Eli, totally carefree and loves to laugh. Asher- checking out all the possibilities, probably thinking "I wonder if I can wriggle through that opening." and "Can I get through before Mom catches me?"

All the Pics...

We got our CD of pictures from Jessica today and are totally happy! How lucky we are to have such talent in the family- thanks Jess, you're the best! You can check out our three handsome devils pictures at:

http://www.photoshow.net/watch/Xb7EI8Gf

Being a Rock Star...

Last week I had this moment when I was looking at Asher and realized just how grown up he is. I still refer to him as "Baby," but the reality is he is almost two! As I realized how soon we will be finished with the baby stage forever, I got a bit sentimental. One of the things that I know I will miss more than anything is the moment when I open the door to the nursery after naptime or in the morning, and see that cherubic face beaming at me with the, "I am so incredibly overjoyed to see you," look on their face. That is the moment that I feel like a total superstar. I am the rock star, the celebrity, the movie star of that Baby's world. Their face says it all, "There isn't anyone else in the whole entire world that I would rather see standing in my doorway."
A line from a movie I watched a few months ago continues to cycle through my brain a lot. In “The Nanny Diaries,” the Nanny (played by Scarlett Johansen) is letting the parents of the child “have it.” She is disgusted with the way this rich family that treats their son as if he’s an “accessory” and spend time with him only when convenient. She tells them there are only a few more years that their son will love them unconditionally and they are wasting that precious time. Since hearing that thought, I have thought, “How many more years do I get to be the Rock Star in my child’s world?” I remember my teenage years and how I treated my family worse than anyone else that I interacted with. How long until my boys would rather be with their friends than with me? At this stage of life, all my children want is to be with me. They are completely delighted so easily, they just want Mom to interact and spend time with them. They are just as happy playing a game of Sorry or swinging in the porch swing as they are at Disney Land.
This concept introduced by “The Nanny Diaries” has inspired me to enjoy the “doorway moments” more and realize that my celebrity status is not everlasting. I know my children will always love me - but it’s the boundless, never-ending, limitless, on your sleeve, unlimited, endless, infinite, ceaseless, without end love of a young child that isn’t forever.
I may keep Asher in his crib until he’s twelve- or he breaks the bottom out of the crib, whichever comes first, so that I can have more “Rock Star” mornings…

Laundry is my Favorite...

There are a lot of fun jobs when it comes to maintaining our household. My least favorite is cleaning the kitchen floor. This is because the happiness of a clean floor is absolutely short-lived. Within what seems like nano-seconds, someone will tromp through with wet, muddy, and/or grassy shoes; spill a drink of some kind; or drop food from their chair. The floor looks the same or worse than before I swept and mopped it way too soon to find much pleasure in this job.



My favorite household job is folding the laundry because I get to SIT DOWN and WATCH TV!!! It is such a glorious thing. I am absolutely astounded at how quickly the laundry baskets are overflowing in each room. I find the jobs of hauling all six laundry baskets, sorting the clothes, and washing all nine million loads of clothes quite bearable knowing that I will soon be plopped on my bed watching a show I actually want to watch- not Teletubbies, Rug Rats, or Curios Geroge (Although I must admit I do find Sponge Bob quite entertaining.)



One of my favorite shows to watch right now is called "Jon and Kate Plus 8" It is a reality show of a family that first had twins, then 3 years later, wanting to add one more baby to the family, actually ended up added septuplets. My mind cannot even wrap around the whole idea of being pregnant with and giving birth to six babies at once, let alone actually caring for them after they were born. I think the reason I enjoy this show is it makes me appreciate how "easy" my life is in comparison. The episodes where all eight of the kids get the flu, potty training, trying to re-carpet the house, etc. make me realize how much harder it could be than having three little boys in four years. I also like this show a lot because I think Scott and my personalities are very much like Jon and Kate's. She's a bit bossy, but really gets things done and is very organized. Jon is amazing at how much he helps out, but he does tune Kate out quite a bit and does his own thing- only later to realize Kate was right. Kate does get a bit mean sometimes, as I know I do too. So that's another reason I enjoy the show so much- and I hope I learn to be a bit less like Kate in the sometimes too short and sharp tone she takes in her conversations with her husband.


The folding of the laundry is quite nice if the boys have kept themselves entertained with only reasonable house destruction and mess-making. Now actually getting the clothes from the folded piles to the drawers and closets is another story. The reward of being able to sit and enjoy a show is over and I struggle getting myself motivated for the final step....

Pictures....

My cute cousin Jessica took the boys pictures last week. They turned out fabulous! Here is a link to her blog....

http://zander-bug.blogspot.com/

Hurray for swimming....

Swimming is one of our favorite summer activities, although this hasn't always been the case for me. For years I was too humiliated to be seen in public in a swimming suit, but then I reached that point of parenthood where you just aren't embarrassed about anything anymore. Although I must admit there is a bit of apprehension each time we exit the dressing room to see the crowd at the children's pool- how many perfect bodied mom's will be poolside today? Most often I take a look around and think - in reference to how I look in a swim suit - "Well, it could definitely be better, but it could also be worse." So I find contentment in being in the average zone most of the time. Although while swimming last week, a size 1 girl was there with my same swimming suit on! This was not at all fun for me and I was just waiting for my Eli to make the comparison between "big" and "little" like he learned about in preschool this year.

Asher's favorite activity at the pool is picking up food off the ground and eating it. I spend way too much time chasing him around the deck running interference between dropped food and his mouth. Maybe more exciting toys to play with in the pool will minimize the time spent out of the pool scrounging around for food....

Asher shoving a fresh-from-the-ground Tic Tac that I thought I had taken away. I think he decided to go for it again when he saw me trying to take his picture and knew I couldn't get to him quick enough to take it away again. 20 month olds are way smarter than I give them credit for....

Eli has increased his pool bravery 100 fold. He's always been nervous around the water and swimming lessons this spring at the indoor pool only made it worse. Once his teacher tried to get him to put has face in the water and blow bubbles, it was all over. He wouldn't go back to lessons again. So I was really surprised when he, all on his own, started going down the tube slide in the kiddie pool. He must go down that slide over 100 times each time we've gone swimming this summer. He always wants me to watch him and give him the "thumbs up" when comes out the bottom of the slide into the pool. He still grins from ear to ear, most likely the result of the satisfaction of having overcome a huge fear of his.

Eli is so proud of himself for conquering the tube slide at the pool!

Oakley spends his time going down the big waterslide and in the lazy river. He often makes friends with other kids and plays with them. So I just have to check on him regularly and he is totally self-entertained, which is so nice! The only problem with Oakley at the pool is that he never, ever wants to leave. Even after four, five, six hours of swimming- he is totally mad when I tell him it's time to go. The solution I've found to this problem is the kiddie pool closes at 8:00 p.m. The lifeguards blow their whistles and yell that the pool is closed. They turn off the water to all of the slides and things on the play equipment. The big pool stays open for two more hours, but Oakley and Eli think that both pools are closed- so they willingly get out. The entertaining thing is Oakley yells out at all the people in the big pool as we're walking into the dressing rooms, "The pool is closed! You need to get out!" Most people completely ignore him, but once in a while he'll get a strange look from somebody. I'm dreading the day someone actually responds to him and tells him that the big pool isn't closed until 10:00.

The Poop Doctor....

Asher has had serious diarrhea since last July. After a few weeks we took him to the doctor and found out the sickness that everyone in the family had experienced and thought was the flu was actually a parasite called cryptosporidium that was spreading like crazy through Utah County swimming pools. After a few days of puking and diarrhea, we all got better except Asher. Because Asher wasn't a year old, the doctor wanted to wait and see if the diarrhea would clear up on its own because the antibiotic used to treat crypto is so harsh. When Asher turned a year old and was still waking up every morning with pajamas soaked through and a crib full of poop, we went back in to get the prescription. Spending every morning bathing Asher and doing a load of poopy sheets was not a happy way to start the day. The treatment was supposed to work quickly, but we unfortunately so no improvements. Thus began the year-long quest to find out what was Asher's serious poop problem.


The poor child endured test after test after test. He had to have his blood drawn several times at the hospital lab and that was awful! I usually made Scott take him, it was too traumatizing to for a mother to watch. We took in several poop samples to be analyzed by the lab- which for those of you who haven't ever had to take in a baby's poop sample, the process isn't fabulous. I had to line Asher's diaper with Saran Wrap before he went to bed. When he woke up, urine soaked of course since the Saran Wrap prevented any urine being absorbed, I'd have to put the poop-filled Saran Wrap in a cup for the lab. Boy, those were fun mornings! Fortunately, none of the things they were testing for came back positive - especially things like Cystic Fibrosis and Giardia.

After waiting three months to get into a Pediatric Gastroenterologist, who looked and acted EXACTLY like the inventor played by Rick Moranis in the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" movie, with no helpful outcome. There was another G.I. that Asher's pediatrician recommended going to see, but she was a six month wait! But with no improvements and running out of options, we got an appointment with Dr. Harnsberger and had to wait it out.

Dr. Harnsberger was fabulous! She was actually very friendly and acted really interested in our situation. She is obviously in high demand, yet took a thorough history and wanted to get all of the information she could. She is the mother of three sons also, so I felt a connection to her immediately. She would say out loud what she was writing in her notes and when she asked me if Asher ever had stools that are actually formed, I replied I could count on one hand how many times he had in the past year and that my husband actually called me on my cell phone once to tell me, "Asher had a real poop!" to which she noted, "A family party with formed stools." After talking to me for 45 minutes, she prescribed an antibiotic that is supposed to work on the intestine because she thinks based on the information I provided he's got some bacteria that needs to be killed. We're on day three of the treatment and we haven't had any diaper explosions since. Maybe we finally found the solution. It seems so simple; I don't know why the other doctors didn't try it out. I guess that's why it takes 6 months to get into Dr. Harnsberger - she can actually solve the problem! Hurray for doctors who are caring, compassionate, and take the time to really investigate the problem. They are a rarity any more...

The Things Kids Say.....

While at an ice cream shop, Grandpa Fotheringham was trying to explain to the boys what a "brain freeze" is. Eli, who was still obviously pondering over the concept, later said, "I want a free brain." Don't we all....

When I was driving Oakley to school yesterday, we passed a grandma out in her yard doing some work and she had a scarf tied around her head. Oakley said, "Have you noticed that when grandmas work outside they like to have a little something tied around their head?" What six-year-old talks like that?!?!?! Only our Oakley....

Oakley Start Montessori...

Montessori Learning Center runs year-round. So Oakley graduated from Deerfield Elementary Kindergarten on Friday, May 30^th and started Montessori on Monday, June 2^nd. Although resistant to the idea of going to summer school in the beginning, Oakley is resistant to any change actually, he runs right in every morning. There is the occasional grumbling, but I have no doubt this is the best situation for him and I am amazed at all that he is learning and he’s finally being challenged after a year of coasting along in kindergarten. Montessori teaches cursive before print, so Oakley has been working really hard on his penmanship. I can’t believe the improvement in just a couple of weeks! Writing has always been a huge challenge for Oakley- most fine-motor things are for him. But with all of the one-on-one he’s getting, the improvements are amazing.

Their system of teaching reading and writing is so completely different from anything that I ever learned, I’m learning right along with Oakley. Scott and I love reading on the back of the flash cards and learning all these things about the English language that we never knew. We’re starting to read the Chronicles of Narnia together. I don’t know that I’ve ever read ‘the Magician Nephew” before and am loving it as much as Oakley. Reading is my one-on-one activity I try to do each day with the boys. For Eli and Asher, I read to them individually before they take their nap. With Oakley, I read to him at night before he goes to bed.

I thought that I was going to be so relieved when Oakley was in school and occupied all day. I was exhausted and guilt-ridden that I wasn’t doing enough with him during the day, so I thought it would be a huge relief when school was keeping his brain engaged for most of the day. Now that Oakley is in school from 9:00 – 3:30 every day what I’ve discovered is the huge change it is. I feel like I have hardly any time with him now. We went from one extreme to the other. I, surprisingly, really miss having Oakley home more. I promise you no one is more shocked than I. I thought this was the situation I have been dreaming of for years. The house with the golden windows really isn’t all that I thought it would be. Lesson learned! I will not wish Eli and Asher in school any sooner than they’re going to be. It will come soon enough….

Now I spend time thinking how Oakley is under the influence of ‘the world’ more hours of the day than he is with me and I wonder, “What should I have taught him that I haven’t already?” “Is he going to choose good friends?” “Is he standing up for what he knows is right?” In motherhood there are no “re-do’s” so I’m trying to take confidence in my attempts to teach my children to make good choices and choose the right. If I’m this concerned about my six-year-old, I can only imagine how many sleepless nights are in my future as Oakley actually starts driving a car, dating, etc. sigh… there is no bigger incentive for weekly Family Home Evening and daily family scripture reading that having your oldest child start attending school all day…..

Oakley's Education...

Our Oakley is one bright child. And I’m not saying this just because I’m his Mom; we have the numbers to back it up. During his kindergarten year we came to the conclusion that Oakley needed something more than public school had to offer. I think that public education works for 80% of kids. As Oakley’s mother, I felt very strongly that I needed to do all within my power to help Oakley foster this gift he has been given. Since Oakley started preschool at 2 ½, his teachers kept telling me how intelligent he was, I just smiled and nodded my head – figuring they said this to all mothers. Also, because Oakley is our first child, we figured all kids did what he did. I thought all 18 month olds had the books their mothers read to them memorized. I thought all babies would sit and willingly be read to for over an hour from the time they were a few months old. I didn’t have anything else to compare it to, so I thought it was the norm. As all mothers do, I taught him his letters and the sounds they make starting when he was about two. I figured that’s as far as I needed to go because I didn’t want to be one of those neurotic mothers who was teaching their three year old Greek. I knew he needed to know his letters, colors, numbers, etc. before kindergarten and that’s as far as I wanted to go because I didn’t want him bored in kindergarten. Then at age three he started asking me, “Does this say…..” on words he’d see on the cereal box, in his books, on signs, etc. and HE’D BE RIGHT. Yes, Oakley totally taught himself to read at three years old. I can take absolutely no credit, no one iota – he figured it out himself. When I went to October Parent-Teacher Conference and his teacher told me he had already tested out of all the reading materials for kindergarten, I was a bit concerned. So what was he doing in kindergarten then? There didn’t seem to be any attempt to get him more material. That’s when I knew it was time to start looking into private schools.

As I began asking friends who had their children in private and charter schools about their children’s experiences, I still felt so unsure about what to do. I don’t know how I would have ever made a final decision had it not been for the incredibly strong confirmation Scott and I both received after touring the Montessori Learning Center. The director was amazing and that’s what impressed us most in the beginning. As we learned more about the curriculum and how the classroom was set up and all the detail, we just felt better and better about it. We toured other schools, talked to more parents, and neither of us ever felt once that there was a better place that our Oakley could be. As soon as the doubts about how we could afford the tuition, all of the driving involved, what about having friends in the neighborhood – neither of us could deny the powerful impression we had that this was the best place for Oakley.

The Palisade Attitude...

Camping- it’s one of those things we do because the kids love it so much! I like camping, too, I just don’t like being the Mom who is in charge of getting all of the equipment packed; the meals figured out, food bought, and prepared as much in advance as possible to make things easier while out in the wild; and the unpacking, endless laundry, and having dirt-filled boogers for days after getting home. My parents planned a week-long trip to Palisade State Park in June for all of us to go on and we were really looking forward to it. My brother Jed was flying in from Seattle and we love any chance we get to spend time with him. Palisade is a really fabulous place to camp at, especially with younger kids. My Mom always makes sure to get the campsite right across from the lake. There are no motorized vehicles allowed on the water and it has a great beach for the kids to play with sand toys on. The water is shallow for quite a ways out and the kids will play at the water all day long. I look forward to the time in the beach chair with a good book and soaking in some warm sun rays.

Asher checks out the fish Oakley caught

The thing I most appreciated about this trip was the time I was actually able to spend interacting with my kids. I didn’t get frustrated when Eli, for the 587^th time that day says, “Look at me, Mom!” or when Asher wants to go on a walk or Oakley wants to play a game or the kids want to go to the play area to be pushed on the swing compared to while at home and trying in vain to get something accomplished, these requests sometimes, unfortunately, get annoying. At Palisade, because the pressures of home life are removed, I can just enjoy my children instead of trying to move down the to-do list that is always endless.

I tried my hand at fishing, with no luck. Oakley was the only one able to actually catch the tiny fish swimming in the Lake.

Our two mighty fishermen

I am trying to incorporate more “forgetting of the to-do list and enjoying my children while they’re still young and want to spend time with me” now that we’re at home. But I think it will continue to be a balance that I struggle with forever…

Eli - The Digger of Sand

Asher gets a free ride from Dad

Grandma always has lots of crafts to do

Oakley shows off his Rock Pet he made with Grandma

Asher entertained himself for the majority of the time throwing rocks in the Lake

We were so proud of Oakley when he learned to "Man his own Kayak"

The ducks were always glad to see us show up with some bread to share

And the real reason for it all ...
to exhaust the children!

Asher's face says it all - there just comes a point where we all know it's TIME TO GO HOME and sleep in our beds and get in a shower you don't have to wear flip-flops in.

Eli entertained himself on the way home by trying on his teddy bears clothes. The red tank top fits his bear much better!

Only the Desperate...

What would possess someone to take three children, ages 6, 4, and 1, load them into the car, and actually take them inside an actual place of business? DESPERATION! On Monday (3 June 2008) I had to take get a prescription filled and Scott was gone overnight for work. So I girded up my loins and was optimistic the promise of pizza for dinner would be an incentive for improved behavior from previous trips to the store on a desperate mission. Since I had to endure the experience anyway, I decided I might be able to sweeten the deal by making use of a coupon for a free $25 gift card with a new prescription refill. After picking up Oakley from school, we headed to the nearest Shop Ko. After the five minute unloading process and a reminder of great rewards that awaited the obedient child, we headed inside the store. As I presented to prescription and coupon to the pharmacy employee, all seemed to be going well until I was told this coupon was only good for a patient who had not filled a prescription at their pharmacy before. The temptation of the $25 gift card was too much. I foolishly said we’d have the prescription filled at their other location just a few miles away. Oh, what then seemed like just a few miles and a few more minutes was definitely not worth the $25 or any multiple of that amount for what would then occur.

We repeated the process of handing the pharmacy employee our prescription and coupon. She smiled kindly with this look of “You poor, poor woman – having to take all three of those boys to the store” and told us it should just be about ten minutes. Music to my ears! I figured I could keep them entertained for that long. Who was I kidding?!?! The next ten minutes included shouting matches between Oakley and Eli over whose turn it was to have their blood pressure checked at the pharmacy's machine; all 30 walking canes being taken down and strewn all over the pharmacy, being used as swords for duals with both the willing and unwilling participant; each humidifier taken off the shelf and checked out for it’s amazing features; and multiple drug remedies tested for their aerodynamic abilities.

I’m sure as quickly as was humanly possible, the prescription was ready and the technician rang us up, handed us our bad, and said, “Have a nice night,” with this look in her eyes like “Yea right, like that will happen with your wild Indians.” Because I don’t usually shop at Shop Ko and knew I would place the gift card in my wallet and forget about it for years, I decided we’d pick up a few flats of flowers and be on our way. We needed the flowers and there was a register outside in the garden area to pay for purchases. Again, in my faulty thinking, I thought, “at least we’ll be outside, what more damage could be done?” I was about to find out. Eli helped me pick out the colors of flowers he liked while Asher immediately picked out the mud puddles he liked. Oakley wanted to “play store” and was pushing trying to climb behind the register. I started looking around for the clerk as a gray-haired couple found great entertainment watching how quickly Asher was covered in mud, Eli was running around adding all kinds of flowers to the cart as I kept telling him “We don’t need any more flowers” and he kept saying, “But I love this one, too!”, and Oakley kept insisting he could be the clerk and I could pay him for the flowers. I finally found the teenage boy who was working in the Garden Center and asked him if I could pay for my flowers, thinking the Finish Line was in sight. By this time other customers were lined up to pay for their purchases, including the completely entertained Grandpa and Grandma. After he totaled up the plants, I handed him the gift card and he got this “deer-in-the-headlights” look on his face, and started pushing a lot of buttons and sliding the card multiple times, all to no avail. He made numerous phone calls to employees in the store trying to figure out what to do. All along, the mud and water continued accumulate on Asher, Eli continued to bring in flowers that he knew we just had to have, and Oakley kept saying he knew how to make the register work. This went on for at least five more minutes, which is an extraordinarily long amount of time in this circumstance, and the young man said, “I’m sorry I can’t get it to work. I think the computers must be down. You’ll have to take your purchases inside to pay for them.” I put on my most gracious smile and said, “Here is the gift card with $25 on it and here is more than enough cash to cover the difference. When your computer is back up, you can ring them up and pay for them then.” I placed my card and money on the counter and the flowers in my basket, scooped up my mud-covered one-year-old, called for my four and six-year old to follow me to the car, smiled at the older couple who were chuckling at my performance with the incompetent clerk and was on my way home finally! On the way home I wondered how old that young man would be and how many children it would take for him to finally understand my actions that day.

The Beginning...

I am not giving in to peer pressure. Even though all of my friends have a blog and have tried to convince me I need to start one, that is not the reason for the creation of the Beeson Bunch BlogSpot. After all, why would I add something else to my already endless “to-do” list? Actually, at this season of my life, my to-do list basically consists of keeping three wild monkeys/boys alive and happy. That pretty much consumes 98% of my day. The other 2% I try to spend cleaning our home, maintaining family finances, and trying to preserve some contact with the outside world of friends and extended family. No, the reason for the invention of the Beeson Bunch BlogSpot is that I heard blogs can be printed and bound into a book. This is especially important to me since I am an absolute failure when it comes to keeping any kind of journal or personal history of mine or my family’s life. My hope is that the darling things my children say that are forgotten a few days later will be recorded on this blog. Or the crazy things that seem to happen on a very regular basis with three young boys in the home will also be made note of. At the time, these crazy life experiences can seem frustrating and overwhelming. But I know that at some future time they will be seen as humorous and will bring about a chuckle as I’m old and gray.

This is my desire and motivation for starting this blog. I can’t imagine others will find it that interesting or exciting, but all are welcome to view it who would like to. For me, it is more of an opportunity to make record of the outrageous, fantastic, bizarre, comical, charming, endearing, tiring, once-in-a-lifetime, strenuous, and meaning-of-life events that occur daily at the Beeson Household.