Kari's night out

Kari and her mom went to LaGrande tonight to a church choir concert. That left me at home with the kids, which can be exciting. You never know what can happen with mom gone. She left at about 6 pm and she was gone about 1/2 hour before I wondered if Kari took Oakley with her, or if she was home still. I thought about calling Kari and asking her if she did have her but chickened out and looked for her at home. It would not look good if I called Kari and asked her where her baby was, especially after listening to all her instructions (make dinner, the kids all need baths, comb all of their hair, clean pajamas, play, read them all a book, etc.) and reassuring her everyone would be safe while she was gone. I didn't call her and wouldn't you know it, Oakley was asleep in her crib when I went in to check on her. It would be great if she would stay asleep until Kari got home. She didn't. She woke up right after I put the french fries in the fryer.

I thought it would be good to get the kids pajamas all ready to put on right before dinner, so I had them get their pj's and set them on the couch. It was then I found out why Kari made sure to mention that I have them wear clean pj's as their were none in their pj drawer. I quizzed Kaci to see if they would be found anywhere else and she kept telling me we better do laundry. I thought about doing laundry for about 1 second and headed into Colton's room, maybe I'd find something in his drawers that would work.

It was then that Becky called to see how we were doing. I had Oakley in one arm and was helping Kaci find pj's when I answered the phone. I told Becky I had the kids for the night when from the other room came a scream like no other. McKay must be getting her finger cut off or something, at least it sounded pretty bad. I ran out to the living room and found Colton and her fighting over a toy.
Becky must have been wondering what was going on as I quizzed the kids on "who had the toy first?", the question game that always leaves you wondering. I never found out but from the investigation I believe McKay had the turtle and Colton took it away from her. We got it back to her and she was happy about that.

In the meantime, I guess Kaci misunderstood my instructions to "get pj's and bring them to the living room" and she had her pants off and was getting in her pajamas.

I got her dressed again so we could have dinner and realized it smelled like was something was burning. In all the confusion I had forgotten about the french fries and they were definitely done, well fried.

We got the kids to the table, the table set, and had our prayer for dinner.
Dinner went good but time was getting short. My whole goal when I have the kids is getting them to bed as soon as possible. In this case my goal was 7:30. I realized I was not going to make it if I was going to get Kari's list done so I decided to multi-task. I ran in and got the bath tub water started then came back in to finish dinner. Now I'm really doing good.

Dinner went well, nobody spilled anything and we had tasty hamburgers, well done french fries, pork and beans, and and oranges for dessert. I didn't have enough hands to do all that and feed Oakley her rice and peas baby food so I gave her cheerios and french fries. She was pretty happy and quiet with that.
It wasn't long before we finished and Colton went in to check the tub. Dad, the tub is full, and it was. Kaci and McKay wouldn't get in until I let alot of the water out. Then it was either too hot or too cold for them so I stood there and added more and more water until it was just right. While I was in the bathroom I had Colton watch Oakley in her highchair. He kept laughing and I finally went out to see what he was doing. He was having her try on hats, and they looked cute.

I went back and got Oakley's rice and peas baby food ready for her. She was strapped in the high chair so she wasn't going anywhere. Her dinner looked gross, a light green mush. I tasted it and it didn't taste any better than it looked. She really liked it though and ate all of it. I went and got the girls washed up and out of the tub and had Colton take his bath then. We got everyone dried off and into pajama's. The girls had to wear Colton's sweats and t shirts. They could hardly walk they were so big (but they were clean). It smelled like Oakley needed a diaper change then, so Kaci showed me where the diapers and wipees were and went and got some pj's for Oakley. I changed her diaper and realized where all the gross, a light green mush went that I fed her for dinner.

It was only 8:15 by that time, and everyone was headed for bed. We read scriptures, said prayers, and read our bed time stories. Everyone was tucked in and I thought about cleaning up the whole mess that was left behind from dinner, baths, pj's, diapers, etc. I didn't remember that on Kari's list of things for me to do so instead of cleaning up, I sat down and watched the Jazz game instead.

Once again, with Kari gone leaving me with the household chores of getting the kids fed, bathed, and put to bed, I realized how much Kari does for our family. Kari does what I did last night with ease, and with much more love and patience than I will ever have. She is wonderful. I love my family so much. All in all, it was a fun night home with the kids......josh