Plums Galore and Flying Kites...ending the day with Bryce's Breakfast Barf Buffet

After dinner today we went and played outside, as usual.  It was pretty windy out so we made the most of it by getting out our cheap little dollar store kites!  We hadn't flown kites in a while so the kids had fun.

Caitlyn wore these glasses all day today for some reason.  She's so adorable.  She liked looking "smart", ha ha.

Mason and William took a mid-day bath together.  It's crazy how much darker Mason is than William.  We call them the Brown-Face and the White-face, ha ha.

I attempted to make plum jam again today...it didn't quite harden up the way that I hoped it would, but it was thicker than the syrup I made a few weeks ago.  This jam was actually spreadable.  I really need to figure out how to can.  We have so many plums!  I just picked a whole other bag of plums...I'm going to give it to our neighbors because I don't think I can handle one more plum, ha ha.  Next year I am hoping to figure out the  whole canning process so that I can can a ton of jars of plum jam and have something easy to give out to people as gifts with a nice loaf of homemade bread.  Sounds good, in theory, but chances are the jam will be runny and the bread won't taste as good as it sounds.  But, by golly, that's the kind of woman I want to be so I'll try my hardest to make it happen!

I also made 3 huge pans of plum fruit leather.  I don't know...it was in the over literally all day and I don't think it turned out that great.  Some parts were hard and others soft.  I'm sure the kids will eat it though.  They ate all of the peach leather from yesterday.

SO many plums!  It's so strange to me that last year we didn't get one single piece of fruit...and this year we have too much to handle.  Doesn't make sense at all.

William opened up his 2 birthday presents from Grandpa and Grandma Turley a little early.  He needed something to brighten up his day, ha ha.  The kids also threw him a little mini birthday party.

William is the sweetest in the morning.  I absolutely love how he comes out of his room and finds me in the morning.  After he finds me he just wants to cuddle me.  He's the sweetest little baby boy.  I'm really, really, really, really, going to miss these days.  Pretty soon he won't be a little boy anymore who's only wish is to cuddle his Mommy in the morning.  I love him so much.  How blessed am I to be his Mommy.

We were done having kids after Caitlyn.  But I knew that there was one more spirit that needed to come to our family.  I knew it like I knew the gospel was true.  It was a burning in my bosom.  It brought me to tears.   It was William, wanting to come down to our family.  He came so quickly, without much effort at all in trying.  In fact, this may be a little bit too much information for a journal/blog, but I am not able to get pregnant while nursing.  I don't get my period while nursing.  I nursed Caitlyn for 16 months.  As soon as I weaned her, I was waiting for my menstrual cycle to start up again.  It was at this time when I knew that we needed to have another baby.  After convincing Jon that we needed to have another baby, we tried to get pregnant for one month, before I even had my first period.  Well, I never got that first period after Caitlyn.  I got pregnant with William instead!  It was fast, but I wasn't surprised.  It was one of those things that just felt so right.  It was like I knew that it was going to happen that way before it even happened.

I wish that I could have another baby.  But, I am beyond grateful for the children that I have.  And I'm grateful that was able to have our little William, even after we were "done".  I can't imagine life without him.  Without William, I wouldn't have known what it was like to have a C-section and all of the physical and emotional scars that go with that procedure.  I wouldn't have known what it was like to have a baby boy as my last child.  There is something special about a mother having a baby boy.  Daddy's have their little princesses and Mommy's have their baby boy's.  If I didn't have William, who knows.  Maybe I would have started another career by now.  Without William, we may even still be living on the East side of town.  We probably wouldn't have this dream house that we live in now.  Without William, I wouldn't know who Scott Joplin was.  All of his siblings would be different.  I would be different.  If I didn't have William, I wouldn't have felt complete.

It's amazing how much one child changes you.

Oh, and at the end of the day (right before we were going to read scriptures)...Bryce puked all over the floor.  Food poisoning?  Who knows.  He's sleeping in the "barf bed" now.  We have a pull out couch that the kids happen to sleep on when they are sick...they call it the "barf bed".  I'll never forget when Nana and Grandpa Duncan came to visit and the kids told them that they would be sleeping in the "barf bed".  We also have this Christmas bowl that for some reason the kids used to grab and use as a barf bowl before we actually collected real barf bowls (leftover ice cream buckets).  Every Christmas that Christmas bowl ends up on our table, with Jon's parents and Darlene's family...and the kids say, "Can you pass the barf bowl please?".