Family Update

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that you all understand why these updates are fewer and fewer. It is certainly not for a lack of funny material to report. I simply play catch up every single day of my life. As I sit here and type, Mitch is finishing the last haircut, Brooke is crying in the swing, and I am trying to think of what cleaner I will be using to get the marker off of the wall in the boys’ bedroom.

You see the boys must think it is a game to dirty up the house as soon as I clean it. Today, literally minutes after I scrubbed the bathtub, Cooper dotted the entire surface with mascara and poured liquid make up all over the side of the tub. You see I really was not that mad about the make-up because it is one that I have had since high school or perhaps college, but I never wear it. I am not even sure why I had not thrown it away before. But the mascara, which is the only make-up I do wear, is literally obliterated. Does anyone know a store that has mascara on sale this week?

Tonight, I was having the boys draw pictures for the missionaries. Jace decided to bring his marker into the bedroom and color on the wall and mirror. Ironically it was just today that my friend Teresa asked me if it was my three year old who was into making the messes. I said, oh no, Jace is well beyond the Naughty Gnome stage. Cooper is now well into it. What was I thinking? I was setting myself up for failure. I think, though, it did not make me all that mad because I just handed Jace the Clorox wipes (I wish I was the one who invented these.) and told him to clean it up. He did quite well.

Cooper, on the other hand, does the messes for a little cause and effect fun, and also to make me react I think. I am not sure about the latter, but here in my household, I do think they perhaps do naughty things for attention. Yesterday alone Coops dumped the plastic knife box, and then just about 30 minutes later, dumped the box of forks. (Who was the idiot mother who did not move the plastic utensils?) He earlier, while getting ready for church, opened his milk cup and poured it on the dirty laundry. Well at least it was already dirty. He also dumped my bag of Epsom salts that ironically I received from the boys for Mother’s Day last week to offer me some relaxation and rest- ya, that backfired! And he dumped the bag of goldfish crackers all over the kitchen floor. That was before I mopped the floor so his timing was good that day.

Brooke is two months old now. My how time flies. She is already in the 3 to 6 month clothing- no surprise I know. I am not sure how much she weighs as that would mean I go to the doctor on the routine well checks. Do not get me wrong, I do the well checks, but I merely do them late. She is into her routine for the most part. I still have to interrupt her naps regularly to transport children etc., but she is settling into our family quite nicely. The boys adore her- I think Jace most of all. He gives her hundreds of kisses each day. I think she grows tired of them, but she does not complain too much. She simply stares at him with fearful, deer in headlights stares as he comes in to lay one on her. She can sleep through anything, and noise does not even spook her much anymore. She is sassy, but all in all, she is a pretty good baby.

We had her blessing a few weeks ago. Grandpa John and Grandma Kathleen came down from Reno, along with my nephew Grif. It was great to have them support Brooke on her special day. My mom and all the local siblings of Mitch along with their families came as well. Mitch’s aunt and uncle came too. It was nice to have them as Mitch’s parents were unable to attend because they were still traveling home from a week in Orlando. Our good friends Andy and Leah also came. We had a great brunch at the house afterwards, and it was really a pleasant day. She looked adorable and I really am feeling good about this little one being the last installment of the Bishop clan.

I know I need to cuddle little Brooke more and just waste time holding her. I wish I did it more. I know I will regret not holding her more, but there is so much to do. I guess the balancing act of a mother is her constant struggle. I just wish I could make time stand still.

Cooper is still not really talking. He is smart and I know there is nothing to worry about because his receptive language is incredible. He says all of the words found in a Dora episode and he talks to her on a regular basis. He also points to every Dora item in Target as we wheel past it. Too funny. I never noticed all the Dora merchandise until I had a son obsessed with the character. Mitch LOVES Dora cartoons. He really loves the hour-long episode about friendship bracelets.


Aiden is doing well and loves scouts. He can not wait for his Thursdays. He is also loving school and has second grade humor tales to tell me each day. I laugh not with him, but at him. I hope he never catches on to this. I would hate to make him feel bad.

Grey is loving school and is excited to report that he reads Magic Tree House books independently. He is also enjoying the pool, but is a little fearful of the pop up breathing. I think he will be swimming here in a few days, but yikes, he is fearful of it. He would rather hold his breath the full length of the pool rather than stop his momentum.

Gage, on the other hand, loves the pool and has no fear at all. He can swim the length of the pool, can jump in, turn around and get out. I know he will be swimming like Aiden in no time. Amazing.

Oh and Jace loves the water too. He will be swimming too by month’s end. He just loves it and begs to go in every day!

Well I have two stories that I must report indicating what a stellar mother I am. The other day, we had an awards assembly to attend. I took all the carpool kids as well as my four stay at home kids. I let the kids get out and told the older five to go on to school. I told Gage, Jace and Cooper to play on the playground. I then got Brooke out of the car. I was counting the kids as I was visiting with another K mom. As I got closer to the kids, I looked at the little boy in the gray T-shirt who I thought was Jace to discover that, in fact, it was not Jace. With all the gusto I could muster, I calmly but forcefully told the boys to come immediately with me to go find Jace. I began scanning the schoolyard, to see my little three year old run around the chain link fence looking earnestly for his misplaced mother. Gratefully another friend helped me retrieve him and what could have turned out dreadful, turned out just fine.

Another mom of the year award goes to me again just a few days later. I was making food for the blessing. Coops was in the kitchen with me while the boys were playing. Grandma and Mitch were off getting a garage sale find in his truck. I needed help with the garbage so I called Aiden to take out the garbage. Aiden did and apparently Cooper followed him silently and stealth like. Meanwhile, Mitch and grandma came home so I helped unload the goodies. When Mitch and I came back into the house, we both asked one another, where is Cooper? We both ran around the house calling him repeatedly. We looked outside, inside, at mom’s, in closets, etc. Now I am freaking. I yell to all the kids to help me search. Aiden, moments later, finds him asleep at the threshold of the garage door covered in black soot probably from the tires. I scoop him up and immediately begin to cry. He wakes up to the sounds of my sobs and begins to cry as well. Mitch takes over the soothing role as now, I am in no position to soothe. I immediately think of our Father in Heaven and how he must feel when he loses us. I was so grateful it was May and not August too.

Well Brooke is in tears again so I need to attend to her. I love you all and hope this finds you well.

Kim and her zoo

I love to see the temple

For a while now, I've wanted to take the kids to walk around on the temple grounds - well, we'll use the term "walk" loosely when we talk about my kids being outside. So when a friend of ours was getting married, we had the perfect chance. We all went over last Saturday morning, and while Kim went in for the sealing, I stayed outside with the kids.

It may have been a little chilly, but the boys really liked it. I'm not quite sure they appreciated the significance of the place, but we'll work on that.


Our little Brooke - once we were safe inside the car, out of the wind. Her Aunt Tara insists that she wear these flower things. I don't mind the tiny bows, but these things are a little LARGE for my taste.


This is pretty much the best picture I could muster of Cooper. He just was all over the place. He hasn't been feeling well, which translates to "There is no way I'm going to look at that camera, sloppy father-figure person!"


Checking to make sure that Brooke was handling the wind alright.


Cooper, Grey and Aiden


The boys checking out the secret of the echo benches. Ah, the things I get to pass down.


The Crew


My five little guys. I was really sad that it was too cold to take Brooke out of her seat to get a picture of all of them. Cold? I know you're looking at all the boys in shorts and thinking that we're horrible parents. When we dressed them, we had no idea that the wind would be so strong and cold on Saturday. After the sun came out, it was warmer, but still too cold for Broccoli.

So Wrong!

Courtesy of my brother's iPhone and the app "Face Swap." I apologize now to my children if for some reason you end up looking like either of these oddities. Especially if Brooke looks like that wierd scruffy person on the left. I'm so sorry. You may now go and wash out your eyes.

Here's the original for reference:

Aiden is Jawsome!

Ah Cubscouts. Where the Boys are separated from...well, the woosier boys. Nothing accomplishes this better than the great equalizer - the Pinewood Derby. So with Aiden in Cub Scouts for the first time this year, I was ultra-prepared. During one of my runs down to the Scout office for uniform supplies for Aiden, I picked up a Pinewood Derby kit - you know because I knew he'd have one at some point. You want to know what happened? The great Cub Scout guru-spirit, Akela, threw me for a loop that's what! A few weeks ago Aiden informed me that he needed to make a rocket for his Cub Scout Space Derby. Space Derby?!? I vaguely recalled seeing kits for that too at the Scout office, but that had propellers, light-weight material, and well, no wheels!

So on Monday, Aiden and I set to work on his rocket. That's when I let him in on a simple truth; at least it's a Bishop simple truth. In these kinds of events, it doesn't matter how fast your car or rocket is - it's whether it LOOKS cool or not! I mean, don't get me wrong, if you could send your racer down the track or in this case, string, so fast that it peeled the paint off the other racers, that would be way cool. However, it is also pretty unlikely. So what can you control? Make it look wicked awesome, eh!

After some discussion, we decided to make Aiden's racer look like a vintage, Army missle. We both worked on sanding the block down to a stream-lined torpedo shape. We planned out the color and decal arrangements together. Now we needed a name. Aiden said he liked the initials "TX" so we came up with "The TX - Tornado"! So at least it would look and sound fast.

Here's the results:







Last night was the big night. I reminded Aiden several times that we were there to look cool, not win. However, I knew what was pumping through those little veins - pure desire to set that string on fire as he burned up the competition. After a few test runs, he was pumped. Our chances looked good. Then it happened. In preparation for his first heat, I wound his propeller a few too many turns - SNAP - rubber bands broken, dead in the ...um air. If looks could kill, I tell you I would not be writing this entry right now. Aiden looked at me with an expression of horror combined with "old man, if you didn't think that I could come over there and squeeze the life out of you with my neckerchief, you're about to find out."

I set to work as quick as I could in trying to repair the thing. I tied the rubber bands together and worked feverishly to somehow make it so he could race at least once. Thanks to the help of some of the other dads there with tools (note to self - next time bring the whole garage) we were ready to give the race a try. Although the TX-Tornado was never quite the same after the break, it went on to race quite a few times and I watched the almost tears turn into smiles. Especially when most of the other kids would come up to Aiden and tell him how cool his rocket was. Some even asked if they could borrow it and race it a few times instead of their own.

See, Dad knows what he's talking about. Looks beat speed every time. Well almost everytime. For his efforts, Aiden got the "Jawsome Award". Overall, I think it was a good night.

Pictures of the Little One

Based on the blue carrier and puppy dog blanket, can you tell that we thought we'd be going home with a boy? Thanks to friends and her aunts, Brooke at least went home in a pink outfit (even if Kim is still adjusting to the whole pink thing).

VADER Bike

For Gage's birthday we tossed around a lot of ideas for a gift (he also makes lots of suggestions) so coming up with his gift was a bit of a challenge. Then it hit us one day. He was out riding bikes with his brothers (Grandpa John and Grandma Kathleen got them all bikes for Christmas in 2007) and I noticed his little 12" was slowing him down. Mind you, Gage is still a little on the shrimpy side, but when the boys are out riding, he has to work extra hard to keep up with Grey and Aiden. So we decided to get him a new, larger bike and let Bubs ride Gage's old bike. As we shopped though, we decided that shelling out $80 for a new one was a bit much. Then we remembered that we had a bike some friends had given us for Aiden. It worked fine, it just was not anything fancy for a birthday gift. So that is when Grandpa, Uncle Hudge and I went to work! We converted that Huffy Rock-it into an interstellar, plasma-powered Vader Cycle!

My dad helped me get all the old stickers off and clean it up. We replaced the tubes and got a new seat and hand grips. Hudge helped me make Darth Vader vinyl stickers, and Grandma Dian made a new faux-leather handle bar pad for the bike. This thing is truly an original now. Gage loves it and it felt really good to improve and recycle something, instead of just buying something new.

The Final Bishop Has Arrived

I'll post more details, pictures, etc., soon, but I had to get this information out. We now have a GIRL!!!!!

We're dealing with a little post traumatic stress right now and really trying to let it all sink in. After the delivery, she just kept announcing to the the whole room (while she kept hitting me in the chest I might add) that we have a daughter.

So Brooke Carolan Bishop arrived on Mar. 19th at 9:15 p.m. She weighed a healthy 8 lbs. 9 oz. and is 19 inches long. She has a very short crop of blonde hair and blue eyes. She definetly looks like a Bishop baby, just with the other kind of plumbing.

Mom and baby are doing great and we hope will be home from the hospital soon. Stay posted for all the adventures that the 5 Bishop Brothers +1 Sister are able to conjure!

A Quick Post to Answer All Your Inquiries

Greetings to all! We just wanted to make a quick post to let people know there is still no baby, but we are thinking it will be soon. I did get incredibly itchy (which happened with Jace if you remember) so they tested my liver, and I am fine. I guess since I had my gallbladder out last February that helps with liver functioning. The liver takes over and does better when it does not have a sick organ to rely on. I guess the itchiness has been a result of slightly elevated bile levels, but still in the normal range so no harm to the baby. This is a huge relief, as I certainly did not want to be induced if at all possible! SO the wait continues, but I have been contracting and at my doctor’s appointment last Friday, I was well on my way! We may be able to welcome a new, nameless one very soon.

Many have asked if it is a boy or a girl. We do not find out, but we have a pretty big hunch that it is a boy. I am really fine with either! Actually a boy would be very welcomed as I have all the necessities for a little slugger! Boy number 6 must be left unnamed, though! Mitch and I read list after list and are still left unsure. Perhaps we will have to meet him to know what to name him.

The weather has been delightful so we have enjoyed bike rides, walks, and park days. Mitch took them bowling on President’s Day and the boys LOVED it! I stayed home with Jace and Coop as 9 month pregnant women have no grace on the alley floor! Last weekend we went and saw the North Las Vegas model airplanes fly and how cool that was! My boys stood lined up at the chain link fence ogling the retired air force guys as they played with their beautiful and very expensive toys! Too funny!! Some things never change—boys and toys forever more!

Well we wish you all well and Mitch hopes to post soon on the details of the new arrival! Oh and the stories we will have to tell about how Cooper deals with a new baby sister or brother! We fear for the life of the defenseless one. Perhaps the baby will have to live on the washing machine. One of my kids had to do that—can’t remember now which one, but…. Probably should have written that in the baby book. You know I have so many good intentions!