In With The New

So, 2012, you are coming to an end tonight.  You've been a pretty good year to us, can't complain.  The whole Mayan Calendar thing was a little anti-climactic, but other than that, you did good.

I'm glad we survived this last month.  We just told the kids on Christmas that we are expecting again, due July 15th.  So this past month has been terrible cause I was hit with a double whammy of being sick plus the worst of the morning sickness.  I'm 12 weeks today so praying that the placenta will take over and I'll be able to feel normal again for a while.  Going to enjoy every minute of the 2nd trimester as much as I cursed the 1st trimester over this past month.  Plus that being sick was really terrible, just about killed me, I've always felt that I was pretty robust and strong and not prone to illness or colds.  So that was hard.  During one evening when I did feel well enough to sit at the desk, I came to the computer to search for answers where all truth can be found: Google. I googled "Why did God morning sickness" and found this great post which gave me some comfort and helped me refocus my thoughts on the Lord.  Especially this thought helped:

May I not waste my morning sickness by forgetting what it meant that Christ suffered to bring me life. ~ Christ suffered in so much greater ways for me! When I am tempted to self pity, it helps to remember Christ and all that he did on the cross, so that I can have life.

2013, Corey says, is going to be a GREAT year.  Well, then great! Looking forward to it!  He says this is the year where the stars will align (aka his business is going to take off!!!  Yes!) and as he works toward that end, I'll be looking forward to another angel baby. 

(Oh Sophia!  You are such a pretty little thing!)

Temple Square

Corey took the kids to Temple Square several weeks ago.  They brought along their own hot chocolate in a new Stanley Hot chocolate steel thermos that Corey's pretty excited about.  The kids were freezing, they were trying to snuggle as best as they could with their plastic cup of scalding hot chocolate. 

So they were freezing on the outside and had burnt tongues on the inside.  The kids were in pjs, random clothes, Hyrum had two ripped knees in his pants.  But I thought Mel looked stylish. 

Someday hopefully the rest of us can catch up with her and we'll all be respectable looking.

Christmas Morning - It's a Wonderful Life!

We had a great morning here yesterday.  After opening presents had finished and kids were busy working and assembling toys, I walked down the stairs and could see the mess on the living room floor in front of me, and said "This place looks like Christmas Morning!" to which Wesley's little voice rang out "It IS!!"  It was cute. 

Let it be known that this pic above does not do the mess justice.

On Christmas Eve we watched "It's a Wonderful Life" on Corey's computer.  The older kids and I enjoyed ourselves and I love near the ending (Joe and Eth were laughing too) after George realizes he's alive again and as he runs home to see if it's really real and he hoots and hollers all the way home: "YAY!" when he sees his wrecked car! "Merry Christmas Mr. Potter!!!" he cheers to him through his office window.  He greets the cops at his home "Probably here with a warrant for my arrest!  Isn't it wonderful? I'm going to Jail!  Merry Christmas!!!"  It's amazing what a little bit of perspective gave him.  Although things in Bedford Falls really were bad with George out of the picture.  It was so black and white anyone could tell which was the preferred reality.  When George realized how much he loved his wife and kids and life he wanted to live more than anything.  Even though George's problems were real and heavy and I could sympathize with him when he was feeling overwhelmed with burdens and money troubles.  I hope everyone who is down trodden, especially during the holidays, has an angel looking out for them ~ that angel might be you. May we all reach out and lift the hands that hang down.  Short video here by one of my good college friends.

Christmas begins with "Christ" and "mas" in Spanish means "more" so if we put that together ~ More of Christ ~ That is what I hope Christmas brings to each of us.

Blocked Sewer - Ew...

Merry Christmas Eve.  I still feel miserable, but today I am glad that I've spent most of the day vertical and not horizontal.  Cough is almost gone, throat feels a lot better, congestion and headache still lingering.  Took a bath around 11, shortly after that Mel let me know that the carpet in her room was wet, we found out the drain there by her room with the hot water heater was clogged.  Flooding into her room and also in another part of the basement too by a toilet pipe.  Our hero the plumber was able to put the puzzle pieces together and found the problem - not just a clogged drain, it was a blocked pipe.  His 100 ft. cable wasn't able to find and clear out the clog, so he had to drive downtown to get a longer cable.  4 hours later and we're all good and able to flush toilets again.  Counting our blessings - glad this happened on Christmas Eve and while we were home, not on Christmas Day.  Going to have to rip out the carpet in the basement again though.  Drat.  It's okay, didn't totally love that evergreen colored carpet anyway. 

Here's a happy video to end the Eve on a positive note.
Merry Christmas

Sick Day 4

Well, the kids are all better - they were being really loud this morning playing the "What" game - You can't say "what", if you do, you're it until someone else says "what."  They were all laughing so hard and they each took turns congratulating themselves on such a silly and clever game, as they'd say "This is so fun!"

So, the kids are better, but my throat is super bad and I've got a pretty bad headache.  Man, I've been like sick this whole month.  I have not gone to the store for groceries or anything this whole month, and I haven't done any Christmas shopping either.  Corey's been at the helm and manning the sails and working in the soup kitchen, he's been a one man show.  Thanks for being amazing sweetheart.

So, today I've kinda lost my voice, so it's good cause it's a long term goal of mine to not raise my voice to the kids.  Nice to have it forced upon me, cause I feel like I'm being a much calmer and nicer person.  Thank you sore throat!  And, aside from their noisy "what" game rucus this morning, it's helped the kids been more quiet too cause they have to listen to me very attentively to hear my sick whispers and requests.  I've been sipping warm lemon honey water or warm juice all day and laying around with rice bags on my head and throat.

The kids have been kind servants to me reheating the rice bags at my request.  Corey's mother made these for all of us.  She asked if I wanted some and I didn't know - never used them or really heard of them, but now I know that these are something I don't know how I lived without.  They are great, they've been a life saver, thank you so much J!

Sick Day 3

Things are the same around here, possibly a little worse.  Lily's got a really sore throat and was up 5 times last night, but is completely unwilling to take medicine or cough drops with a little voice protesting "It is disgusting!!!!"  This morning we finally got her to choke some down with a spoonful of sugar and some apple juice, but hasn't seemed to help her too much yet.  Corey's used the word "damned" twice today to describe our household.  When Lily went in wailing this morning as Corey's good morning call, he commented "We're like the house of the damned..." and then later when several kids were moaning, Corey said "It's like watching damned souls..."  Kinda funny. 

I'm feeling better though. 

We watched movies all day yesterday.  Today they were well enough and the house was a wreck enough that we made them clean.  The kids were also well enough to get into several arguments.  Corey had promised them they could watch a movie after they cleaned their rooms, which they eventually did, but because of all the bickering we had to endure during the long process of cleaning, he revoked their listening privileges and is not letting them have the volume on...

"Dad!  You promised we could watch it!!!"  

"I will let you 'watch' it.  I didn't promise you could hear it."  

"This is so annoying!"  

"Not as annoying at listening to you guys fight." 

Good news is I was able to continue vacuuming after they started the movie and it didn't matter.  :) 

Sick Day 2

Well, we're sick.  Sick = fever and sore throat.  Joe's sick but he still wanted to go to school today.  Go for it, don't breath on anybody.  Mel's sick, Ethan's sick, Hyrum has a tummy ache but no sore throat or fever, Wes is sick, Abi's fever is gone but she still seems pretty miserable, and Sophi is warm too but I think her fever is from teething - she's got molars coming in and was gnawing on her pointer fingers last night as she tried to breath through the discomfort, she's a tough cookie.  Everyone slept in extra long this morning and then they are all still laying around.  Including Sophi, I've never seen her just lay on the couch holding still for over 10 minutes.

It made us all laugh how she was crossing her little ankles ~ just taking it easy.

Sick

 

So Abi is sick again, this time with a fever and sore throat.  Giving her tylenol and being more compassionate to protect myself from bad karma.  But then, as I observe her behavior, I start to wonder if maybe she really is just a little dramatic person?  Cause yesterday with Wesley's help, Abi learned she had a loose tooth, and later she lost the tooth, and boy was her world coming to an end over the course of those several hours.  She couldn't/wouldn't eat anything cause it hurt her tooth, so she was hungry, sick, she kept wiggling it though so it was at over a 45 degree angle sticking out, I finally made her lay down (so she wouldn't faint at the blood) so I could get the tooth out and we could hopefully move on with our lives.  Got it out, then she lost it on the floor and we haven't found it yet, but I told her the tooth fairy will still visit her.

Poor kid, doing the best she can with her small troubles.  Nothing compared to what other children and parents and families in our country faced over the weekend.  Praying for all of them, I just cried as I read through these tributes to each of the victims on CNN.  Just beautiful children.  So sad.

In addition to that, Friday morning we also heard sirens and could see the lights from the firetruck out our windows from a housefire down the street.  Turns out two people were murdered and then their bed set on fire.  I didn't know them, it's still under investigation as they try to figure out what happened, but that curtailed night games by the kids as they all felt it was too dangerous outside.  Childhood slipping away as some of the sad and evil realities of this fallen world raise their ugly heads. 

Pain, suffering, and sadness are a part of this mortal experience.  As much as we might like to skip this course of learning, we can't if we want to learn and become who God wants us to become.  There are lessons we have to learn.  Christ was not spared agony and suffering, we shouldn't expect to be either.  Although we can take comfort in knowing that he knows our pain, He's been there and He can heal us.  He did not come to remove our pain, He came to heal our pain.  Praying for all the families and friends of those in Newton to feel His healing power.

'Stache

On Wednesday for our Cub Scout Den meeting, we made some crafty holiday ornaments.  Red and white pipecleaners were twisted and braided into candycanes.  Then the boys started getting real creative.  Hyrum came up with this contraption that Wesley just thought was brilliant and so followed suit:

Below is Wes with his completely serious "We don't take to kindly to strangers around these here parts..." expression.

A pipe cleaner 'stache for a Old West Sheriff costume accessory.  What do you think?  We're all kinda disgusted by it, but are laughing at the same time.  Gross.  He walked around with this up his nose for several hours.  Funny boys.

Tummy Ache Karma

Well, I am just super excited this morning because I've been up for over an hour and haven't felt like passing out or throwing up even once!  AND I didn't have any emergency night time runs to the bathroom with Montezuma's revenge.  That, my friends, is good news.  I have had a nasty bug for the past few weeks, which said bug, I've now learned, was given to me by my 5 year old Abi who had this bug last month.  I didn't put it together until this week that I have what she had, and will explain the "karma" in a moment.

In 5 year old terms, the discomforts caused by this bug involve "my tummy hurts" - which is what she complained to me for 3 weeks as she'd follow me around the house.  She'd complain for a while, then she'd be playing and seem fine, then she'd complain, every other day she looked pale and was quite lethargic and she'd pour herself a bowl of cereal, eat a bite, then walk away.  She was always asking for food but not able to eat anything and she lost a few pounds, which is a big deal cause when you only way 50 lbs, there's not much to lose.  After a trip to the pediatrician for a physical exam, blood test, and x-ray, the diagnosis was: dunno.  Although she did faint from having her blood drawn, which was big news she was able to brag about when she got home.  The Dr. suggested I just watch her, log her bowel movements for frequency, color, consistency and call her in a week.

There she is sick and taking a nap last month on 11/12.  Her diarrhea went away and she started eating again, so it looked like her body had finally overcome whatever it was, although she still says "my tummy hurts" now and then.

So, when it was my turn, I learned the discomforts of this bug in adult terms: constantly nausea, Montezuma's revenge, not wanting to eat anything (I was able to tolerate chewing and swallowing clementines and cheese sticks, then I'd throw them up...) not wanting to have lights on, music on, just let me lay down on the floor in the corner of the room and please no one talk to me or touch me or ask me to do anything that requires me to move.  Yeah, good luck with that.  Poor Corey was working all day then coming home to hungry kids with no dinner made and a messy house and useless wife, and doing all the grocery shopping.  All I could do was voice from the corner "Sorry to abandon you..."

Two days ago, as I suffered on the floor and wondered when/if it would ever end, Abi came in to ask me to wrap a lego present she had assembled for one of her siblings. 

"I can't, I'm sick."

(Thoughtfully) "One time when I was sick, you said 'I don't care'..." 

(Awkward/guilty pause) "I did?"

"Yeah." 

(Continued guilty pause and remorse of conscience) "I'm sorry Abi." 

"That's okay."

(Trying to redeem myself) "But I did take you to the doctor!  So, see! I cared! Right?" 

I don't remember saying "I don't care" to her, but can see myself saying it had there been a moment of worn out frustration with life/house/kids on my part, which I'm sure there was.  "I have a hundred other things to do and I don't know what's wrong with your tummy!  I can't help, just go lay down~" "but my tummy hurts" "I don't care..." 

That was bad, Tiff.  Karma.  You deserve this illness to teach you to be a more sensitive mother, to teach me a lesson so I can be more compassionate when these little ones are suffering and don't know what to do to help themselves, just like I don't know what to do help myself.  Come on, the least I can do is care, sheesh!

Gotta watch what I say and watch my actions, making a goal today to be better behaved, since I'm hoping I will be able to stay on my feet for several hours if not the whole day? (fingers crossed)  Hopefully I've repented enough and learned my lesson.

Twelve on 12*12*12

Mel turned 12 today.  12 on 12/12/12.  Pretty cool.

At school her class sang happy birthday to her at 12:12.  Fun. I think she's had a good birthday.  She had Raspberry white chocolate cheesecake in her lunch, Sweet Tooth Fairy delights for her friend party after school, she's been enjoying her gifts that her very generous grandparents and friends gave.

Her brother's hovered near by coveting her gifts, telling her she's so spoiled. (Although I don't think we could spoil Mel.  She's just an angel.) She got her long asked for pogo stick from Gma G, Ethan drooling over her art set from Corey

Abi and Lily have been eyeing some jewelry and sparkley stuff she received from Gma H.  I'm sure the battles over protecting stuff will resume. 

Gotta figure out how to keep the little ones from destroying everything in sight.  That has been on my mind today as they've taken all the ornaments off the bottom half of the tree again. I think I'll need to vent about that soon.

High Chair Nap

Sophia likes to peek her little head around her high chair sometimes to see what's going on in the other room with her siblings.  Melodie was walking towards her and could see that Sophi wasn't peeking, she was napping.

Doesn't look like the most comfortable position to sleep in, but whatever works I guess. 

Kinda impressed she was able to fall asleep in this contorted position at all.  Cute baby.

Christmas Tree

The kids put up the tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  They asked me if we could put it up, I said not yet and then went to take a nap. When I was awake it was up and lights were on it.

I didn't mind that they didn't obey me.  I just didn't want to have to do it, so I was rather pleased that it was up and I didn't have to do anything.  I like the kids owning stuff - like over the summer they wanted to put up the tent, I said go for it, but you guys have to take it down too.  They're getting pretty good.  Mel is the good leader of the pack when it comes to traditions and decorating.  I need to try not to slow her down.  The kids like decorating for Halloween and Christmas and that is totally fine by me, go for it, and then I usually get in the mood as I see them working.  (Same goes for cleaning the house, I have to make lists for then and once they start it helps me kick it in gear.)  So I did get into the Christmas spirit a little bit once they got the ball rolling and I helped put on more lights on the tree in in their bedroom windows and I took down the Fall decor and put up Christmas pinecones and such.  Plus I put on the Mannheim Steamroller and they all paused and sighed and with nostalgia said "Oohh!  This reminds me of Chile...." Great memories.

Reading Christmas books.  (Love that man.)

Orange Balls

Came home with a box of Christmas oranges.  Sophi and Lily thought I'd bought them a box of balls to play with and threw them all over the kitchen and great room.  Still, it kept them busy while I unloaded the other groceries.  I think I found all of them, but we'll see if I missed any - hopefully there won't be any small fermented citrus smell any time soon. 

Sometimes I wonder why I even do buy real toys when they're just as happy wingin' it with dishes, packaging, or food.  Funny girls. 

Almost Teen

Joe is our first up and coming teenager, and hence we're trying to figure out our policy regarding the technological issues that are new to us and going to be issues with each up and coming child in line.  We haven't figured out what we want to do yet, seeing as we didn't use them when we were teens. Joe got an iphone last year for Christmas.  The novelty of it wore off pretty quickly since we didn't buy him a phone plan, he basically just used it as an itouch.  He stopped using it over the summer and tried to trade it in for a basketball hoop (which we didn't get yet).  But then he started using the kid's cell phone to text and we didn't like that too much, seeing him hurry to text beeps from his pal across the street who he can call and spends most of the day with anyway, just kinda seemed dumb.  (No complaints about his BFF though, they are both great kids)

So anyway, over the weekend Joe took his "I'm growing up I'd like more freedom" request up a notch and tried to discuss at every available moment with his father over the weekend the topic of him getting an Instagram/facebook account. Even coming up to his slumbering father and having a verbal one sided conversation with him as Corey took a nap on Sunday afternoon.  Which did wake him up and irritate him.  Although he didn't reward Joe by opening his eyes or joining in the conversation that apparently just couldn't wait.  Joe is such a great kid, so we kinda feel bad making this so difficult on him, but we just want to do our best to try and help him stay great. 

So, yes, a new experience is upon us with our first teenager, who shall officially "teen" next month.  Melodie, it will be interesting to see how Jr. High changes this angel.  I guess along as she still is in love with her guinea pigs and more interested in them than with talking on the phone, we're still safe. 

And guess what, she is going to have a pretty cool birthday this year cause check this out... she is turning 12 on 12/12/12.  I bet there are not too many people who can claim that.  Gonna help her set an alarm too at 12:12 so she can really party it up for that minute there.  :)

Concert Report

Spaceman! - going through the galaxy on the big screen there...

Everyone holding up their cells as they sang "Don't want your picture on my cell phone..." that one was one of my favorites of the concert experience.

Ok, my opinion about concerts after going to one:
1) Pretty fun.  I think if I was a teenager and was there together with a big group, it would have been really fun.  As for Corey and I, obviously not much conversation going on, and what we did try to say we had to repeat several times cause it was...
2) Very Loud.  The opening band said "You guys are gonna love it!  You won't be able to hear for a week!!  Yeah!" - to which Corey and I looked at each other with big eyes saying "uh-oh, that's not good..."  I like listening to their music, I want to be able to listen to it and hear it, and that's gonna require me to have my sense of hearing, so that's gotta be protected as #1 priority here.  Luckily I had these babies in my pocket, which we kept in for most of the time once the show started.

Corey said he wouldn't have thought to bring plugs.  "How did you know?" 

3) Hard to hear the music - I took out the plugs on a few of the songs, and it was still pretty hard to hear cause it was so loud, but still we knew what they were saying even if we couldn't really hear it well, and it was good to have the experience.

4) Hard to see - we kinda had a bad angle, people in front of me were tall, not a big deal for the cheap tickets we bought. 

A live camera kept showing on the big screen, and there above you can see Ronnie the drummer, he is always just dripping with sweat.  I had fun watching this guy a few rows in front of us

He didn't have a good beat/timing or seem to know most of the lyrics, but he was dancing and totally into it, it was fun/cute.  He seemed like a little kid.

So, we left a little early after the encore started and as we walked out could hear a lot better in the hall, Corey bought a shirt for a business contact/Brandon Flowers fan in Colombia, no line at the t-shirt stand (good timing!) and as we walked out we could still hear outside so knew the closing song, and listened to Battleborn on the cd player as we beat the traffic out.  I don't think we loved it, but it was fun, glad we did it to know what it was like and check it off the list of things to do during life.  I don't think we'll go to one again any time soon.  We did think it would be fun if it were a dance concert and you really could get out there and dance to the songs. 

Mostly glad our ears were not ringing after.  :)

Killers for Date Night

Excited to go to a concert tonight with Corey.  I've been to only one "rock" concert in my life - REO Speedwagon in 1996.  Corey was in the MTC getting ready to go to Chile for his mission, that's how I can remember the year.  I wasn't impressed with the concert and haven't felt the desire to go to another concert since, although we just didn't do concerts in my family growing up (my older sister did go New kids on the block!  woo!)  - although I do still like REO's song "In My Dreams" as my little bro introduced me to that song at the same time in 1996, the time that Corey'd left on his mission, so it was a good teenaged lovesick song for my anxious heart as I wondered over the real possiblity of not seeing him for 3 1/2 years, which is how it did in fact turn out - (2 years for his mission, then I left for a mission of 18 months before he came back, makes for a good courtship story!)

Anyway, so we'll see how this goes tonight, I think it should be fun. So, hope the venue and the crowd are both good, don't know what the UCCU center is like.  I'm sure it will be hard to compete with Europe's crowds, still I but hope we're more like the crowd in the vid below...:
and not like the crowd watching them here in this Jimmy Kimmel video.

Found out a little while ago that the Killers performed in Chile while we were there in April 2011 at Lollapalooza, too bad I didn't know about them yet, doh.

Flash Cards

 Lily got a hold of Hyrum's Spanish cards today and put them in the following order on the floor:

I thought it was funny and it made me smile.  She came up with this all on her own.  Pretty good, little 3 year old!  If you're so smart, do you think you could learn to use the toilet now?  (She's being difficult, I don't have it in me to put my foot down yet, trying to get there...)  Any advice is welcome.  :)

A.P. Pictionary

On Sunday we played a game of Pictionary with the kids.

Although we got to call it "Advanced Placement Pictionary", and you can too when you play, if it involves atleast 4 small children in the room, and two of them are constantly interrupting your thoughts, one of them is sitting on your lap at all times, and another small child climbing on the table trying to steal the dice.

Corey'd say in a little bit of frustration "Sophi, we're kinda in the middle of a game...  ...so are you apparently."

(as in she's in the middle of our game, sitting on our game board...)

Still it was a good game of skill, intrigue, and competition.  Everyone wants to be on Mel's team, and I admit she is dangerous.  "She even rolls good!" her teammate Corey gloated as she rolled another 6, our team kept rolling 1s and 2s.  Just not fair.  Joe would roll a 2, Corey'd tease "Two. ...too bad for you!!!  Haha!!"  (Everyone is a bit competitive and talks smack)  Mel and I both had to draw a "mermaid" and get our teams to guess it, Mel won and Corey had to rub it in... "...she didn't even get to the shells!"  Yup, I admit it, she's good.

It was Corey, Hyrum and Mel against Me, Joe, and Ethan.  Ethan kept making me laugh by asking me in all seriousness everytime it was my turn to draw: "Is it an idiom?"  Hyrum was a very detailed artist.  It was cute.

We also let Wes and Abi draw pictures and everyone got to try and guess it.  They did pretty good.  Wesley was super detailed and would carefully sketch his piece.  We didn't put a time limit on their drawings, which was good cause they averaged 3 minutes.

Joe's a little competitive, so our poor performance was getting under his skin and he seemed close to tears during parts of the game.  But miraculously near the end, we were on a winning streak and were guessing pictures left and right AND rolling high numbers.  When we were both on the last space of the board it meant next play would decide our winner.  Hyrum and Joe are on their marks, get set, and GO!  Who will win?

Joseph pulled out a great doodle of a face with his eyes scribbled out - "BLIND!"  The underdogs came back from behind for the win!!!

And Hyrum had to go to his room for some time alone.  Our true objective was achieved: "Teaching the kids how to handle tough times and trials when the consequences are small."  He recovered after a mere 45 minutes, and we learn once again that, despite disappointments, life goes on... 

(Chin up, Hyrum!)  Although we didn't follow him around trying to comfort him or pester him to be happy, we gave him time to grieve his loss, it's part of the healing process.  And everyone's ready for a rematch this weekend.  :)