Scrapbook Memories

Tonight, as I took a quiet moment to myself, I was surprised that the quiet moment wasn't getting interrupted. Yes, the house is unusually quiet. Mel was gone at a friends house, Hyrum and Abi were sleeping, but as for the rest of them... hm. I went to find out why, and was happy that it wasn't because any little people were getting into trouble or making a mess somewhere. The 3 little girls were playing with toys in their bedroom, and in my bedroom I found all the boys.

Earlier today, when Lily, Abi, and Wesley got back from school, they showed their school class pictures to their elder siblings and told them about all their friends and as they showed them to the older kids, it made them want to go back and look at their old class pictures from oh so many years ago...

...which led to them up into my bedroom where they took several years of scrapbooks off the bedroom shelves and they spent over an hour at them and laughing at the memories. Love moments like these. :)

(and Natalie just can't resist climbing on an open back!)

Too Much Chocolate Milk

Last night we were going to bed and everything seemed in order. Kids are all feeling better, I still have a cough that likes to attack me during the wee hours of the night, but other than that all was well and normal. Natalie sleeps in a crib in our room, and after we got in bed we heard her sound like she was gagging on something in the dark. Then she started breathing and then started to cry ~ and as we turned on the light we saw that she had thrown up. Never fun to throw up, and I'm sure it's especially traumatic for babies, who don't know what the symptoms are or how to prepare, and so the poor things just get it all over their hair and face and in their ears... ugh! Throwing up is bad enough when you stay clean and send all the vomit down the toilet. It was pretty gross - lots of chunks of ham and a ton of chocolate milk that she had really really liked at dinner time, so we just let her keep having it. We were laughing at how much she kept wanting it. Silly baby! Ah, now we've learned our lesson and next time we'll be more wise. So she had been asleep and didn't seem to like her dreaming interrupted to take a midnight bath. Luckily, for the bed, she had been sleeping on a blanket that caught most all of it, so we didn't need to change the sheets or bumper pads, just the pillow case, blanket, and her pjs. Corey helped her in the tub while I started a load of laundry.

Time for bed and Natalie didn't give any warning signs of the night ahead

She was all cleaned up, we put a new blanket on her bed, put her in clean pjs, and then I nursed her to sleep, thinking some mother's milk would be good for her tummy. She fell asleep, I transferred her to her crib, phew! Glad that wasn't too painful. 12:45, time for bed. Put her in her bed, and maybe 2 minutes later - she threw up again, sat up, stood up, and then puked again. Got the sheets that time, blanket again, pjs, and it went down the bumper pads and on to the carpet. OK! So, I guess she wasn't done! Looks like it's time for another bath and another load of laundry, yay! And again, Natalie was not happy. We washed her hair out again, she's like having this recurring nightmare, I bathed her while Corey untied the bumper pads, and there are no more pjs for her to wear. I think she's done... if she was't the first time she definitely is now, this has been a lot of throw up. BUT, just in case... I look around for another blanket... She didn't want to go in the crib, I didn't nurse her again, she just wanted to be held. But I wasn't going to bring her in our bed, so down to the couch I go with a baby in a diaper and a big soft blanket in between us. She sprawled out over me and went to sleep. And I don't know what time it was, but it didn't take long until she'd puked the third time. Ham and chocolate milk again. She had a lot of room in that little stomach. Luckily the blanket caught it all with the help of my quick "slumbering to alert in seconds" reflexes that held up the blanket as a wall/shield to protect the floor, couch, and myself. We went up for our third bath of the night. She didn't get too messy this time though, so mostly just a quick wipe off of her face and hands and neck. and I rinsed off the blanket and put it with the sheets and bumper pads from throw up mess #2 that were waiting their turn.

SO! That was my night! Oh, and after all the throwing up I stayed up several hours coughing. Natalie is all fine and dandy this morning, but I need a nap. And thus is life with kids in the cold winter months.

Surviving Hitler

I'm still sick with a cough. Energy is okay, but I'm sick of being sick and am really sick of this cough. Morning sickness is better than average and I'm hopeful it will go away entirely soon. So, I spent a lot of today reading. My mom got us this book for Christmas. Corey read it over New Years Eve when he was on his sick bed. I am almost done with it too, I started on Sunday when I stayed home from church with little sick girls.

Gives me some perspective, if he can deal with war and she could deal with starvation and slave labor in a Auschwitz, seems like I should be able to be grateful in my circumstances, right? Yes. So, here is an interview with the author that was done in October, and great reviews on Amazon. I've loved the book, and I love Gustav and Agnes and their opposite but similar stories of survival and going forward with life, the bad and the good, trusting in a higher power. They show such faith, I'm adding them to my heroes list. I want to be like them. Highly recommend this book!

Patriarchal Blessing

Last night we had an experience that I have been looking forward to for a long time. Joseph received his patriarchal blessing. (Read here about what a patriarchal blessing is.) It was awesome. We've talked for a few years about what a patriarchal blessing is but, despite me being excited, we couldn't just take them to get it cause we want to - we have to wait until they want it and seek it. So last month, the bishop of our ward took aside each of the youth during class and encouraged them to prepare to receive their blessings. After that, with my full and eager support, he set up an appointment with the bishop around new years and got his recommend and then set it up a time with the stake patriarch for the 11th after his birthday.

So a patriarchal blessing is a personal thing, and this one isn't even my personal - it's Joseph's, so I especially can't go blabbing about it. But I will say, after the blessing was given by our Stake Patriarch, the first thing he said to Joseph was "Wow, He really likes you!" I am so excited for Joseph, for him to learn more about the awesome valiant spirit that he is, and I'm excited for the future! Joseph is going to do great things, there is no reason to fear the future or the "end of the world" if we have faith in Jesus Christ and his goodness. :)

Happy 15th Joseph

Happy Birthday Joseph. I like this kid. We woke up this morning to a normal morning. Actually it's a bit messier than normal cause we're still looking like the night of the living dead house around here. Abi went to school today, but Hyrum's still got a cough so he stayed home one more time. I think he could have gone and told him so, but whatever. Then I told him I don't want to hear weeping and wailing about all the homework he has to catch up on when he goes back on Monday.

So, this morning, Joseph's happy birthday... I didn't decorate cause Natalie was a little difficult last night and this morning and never let me sneak away... so I apologized to Joseph for not decorating the window and he was cool with it. I also didn't get him any presents, cause I don't know what he wants, so I gave him cash in small bills. Didn't top Ethan though - he gave Joseph a million dollar bill! Can't beat that. And this personalized card.

The kids are getting to be so funny and good goofy friends to each other, if you couldn't tell. I love it.

I'll update with more pictures later. :)

10 Week Appointment

I had my first OB visit today with this pregnancy. Good thing is that they did a quick whatever with an ultrasound machine and I was able to see if we were having twins or not. And we not, but I was starting to wonder... cause the kids keep talking about it, and cause Joseph had a dream that we had twins before we even told him we were pregnant, and also cause I feel like I'm already big and showing... I'd love to get 2 kids for 1 pregnancy, but I've heard twins can turn things on their heads, and we're already kinda on our heads around here. Anyway, so it's no twins. My great weight gain could be because I haven't had the I'm on my death bed morning sickness this time and thus haven't lost 10 pounds. I never liked feeling sick, but did enjoy being skinny for a week after the morning sickness was over and before the "eating for two" diet began in it's fury.

Ok, so that was the good unknown thing to find out at this visit. The bad thing about it, like all dr. visits, is that I just have a deep dislike for them. I'm trying to get the guts up to be a difficult patient and give my "I've been a frequent customer" demands, such as not wanting to come in every 4 weeks. I don't want to play the game this time, please? I know the routine, I know what to look for, I know how I feel, plus I've got the Spirit to guide me... how bout I just call you if I have any concerns, and if I don't, well hey, we'll just see you in July and we'll talk then! Sigh, but as much as I'd like to be difficult, I'm not. I just go along with it and sit there... forever... everytime. These first world problems!! My appointment was at 11:15, I got there at 11:10, I didn't see the dr. until 12:25. Maybe it's just the nature of OB visits, but the office was not busy at all, I saw 3 other patients besides myself, and I about pulled my hair out from being stir crazy...

And was going a little nuts trying to keep Natalie happy and quietly entertained for an hour in an exam room...

We ripped the paper...

blowed klennex tissues in the air, tried to find doggies in the women's magazines (not a lot of dogs in those) scrolled through pictures on my phone, and I tried to keep her out of the sterilized supplies in the drawers and off of the computer... 

for an hour.... I'm going to go one more time, and give OB appointments one more chance at next month's 14 week visit, but if I'm waiting around for an hour again, "it's over" - says the hard liner side of me. Well, I'll go back for the 18 week ultrasound, and then I'm playing the reschedule game and am going to push those things as far apart as possible. Having a legitimate excuse to miss OB appointments is a pro in the "should we go to Brazil" column.

So that was my dr. visit. Then later was my second trip to America's best with Melodie. I'm going to have to make a third trip tomorrow, cause only Mel was able to go today cause Ethan had to stay after school to work with a fellow student on their science project. Mel can't do it tomorrow cause she has flute lessons, so I just took her today rather than wait until Saturday, cause I thought Saturday would be a little busy, and thus cause longer wait times. So for today, it was much the same as yesterday ~ she read her letters, the "puff" test made me laugh cause it seems like such torture to them, and here's Mel with her WALL-E eyes~

Natalie fell asleep on the drive there and slept through most of the exam which was helpful. She woke up near the end and tried on some cute frames, she's our little doll that we dress up and play with.

Time for Eye Exams

Abi has been laying around the house in different locations over the past few days, and during one of her transfers yesterday, she left her glasses on the stairs. ...Where they got stepped on and broken in half. Those were her 2nd pair to break, so she's now using an old prescription pair of glasses. Which was what prompted our decision to go get eye exams today for the sick kids at home - might be easier to do two kids at a time rather than all four?

Abi was thankfully up and walking around a little bit today, so that was an improvement, and I thought the sunshine might do her good. (Probably just enough good to offset the harm the poor air quality did...) And Hyrum was a little better too, so after promising to not breathe on the ophthalmologist we made quick appointments online and left after Lily went to kindergarten. Look at Abi, she's even smiling! That's a good improvement! There's the Abi we all know and love.

They both passed their exams, eyes look good, and they survived the "puff of air" test, whatever it is that does, totally funny to do that, so suspenseful! And we also thought of Brian Regan the whole time "Are these my glasses!?!?" as they did the exam, their big lense things made the kids look like some of Wall-E's friends...

Hyrum ready to go~

In the waiting room again. Luckily it wasn't a long wait.

Natalie preferred to climb around on the chairs rather than play with the toys.

And then over to try on frames.

Natalie loved trying on the glasses too. Which frames to you want, little girl?

She likes how these ones fit.

You look good Nat!

And she knows it!

Sick House

This is what it looked like around our house today:

Joseph and Melodie went to school, but Ethan woke up with a fever and stayed home (texted me at 6 and woke up Natalie, who I was being a body pillow for again). Hyrum went to school but came home saying he felt sick all day, and then he took a three hour nap.

Wesley and Abi both stayed home again. They missed yesterday too

Lily woke up at 6:30 this morning with her energy returned. She stayed home from school yesterday but went today. Glad she's feeling better.

And I'm very thankful that Natalie and Sophi are feeling better. Sophi is a low maintenance sick person, but Natalie.... it feels like I've been holding Natalie 24/7 since New Year's Eve. I'm very very glad she's feeling better, cause now I have a little bit of my freedom back. Abi talked to Corey earlier this morning, she had asked him for a blessing last night, but it was a little late to call around for another priesthood holder to come over. He apologized to Abi this morning and we called my dad for him to come over today.

He came over tonight after Corey got home, around 8:30, and then we all lined up for priesthood blessings for the sick. Nice to have my dad here. Joseph said he felt a little sick at school today to, so everyone got received a blessing except for Melodie, who somehow has escaped unscathed yet again, lucky duck. 

Furnace Broken #2

In November our upstairs furnace broke (where we all sleep). Yesterday we had a broken furnace again, this time the basement one. I came downstairs in the morning and felt a chill, I thought a window was open or that someone had just left the door open. Everything seemed in order, Corey cranked up the heater, but after a while I noticed that the thermostat showed no increase in temperature.

Then, as I stayed home from church with 4 sick girls, I smelled something burning. I couldn't tell where it was coming from, or if it was just my acute pregnancy sense of smell playing games with me. I felt like a search dog sniffing around the main floor. It was strong in the bathroom, in the office, and by the stairs. My best guess was it was either the furnace or the fridge, so I turned them both off in the breaker box. When Corey came home from church, the air had cleared and so I turned them both back on and had him do a smell test. We were able to figure out it was the furnace. I called our awesome furnace guy Eldon (great guy, I highly recommend) and he came out first thing this morning. Yay! I was crossing my fingers that we wouldn't have to wait 3 days for anything to be shipped. Turns out it was the same problem as last time - those darn Lennox control boards! Eldon said they are all busting right now, they've got some 13 year defect glitch or something. Luckily he knows that now and hence has a lot of the control boards on hand. He said there were two burned spots on the control board, so that was what I was smelling. Yikes. Glad we didn't have a fire. Blessing that I was home with sick kids.

So this morning, we were grateful to have all slept in warm beds, but the furnace was not turned on for the main floor. I decided to make an effort to make the morning not miserably cold by waking up at 5:00 and turning the oven on. I cracked open the door and it was on for the next 5 hours... it helped a little to ease the shock of the cold temperatures when the kids came down for breakfast at 6:30. Mostly we all just wore our jackets and came to warm ourselves by the over like it was a camp fire. Toasty.

I prepped myself for another $800 bill, but luckily it was over $300 less this time, yay! I was very happy to pay him such a good price for our quick return to heat. See, it's all a matter of expectations. Last time I was thinking it would cost $300 tops and I about died when I saw the bill. This time since I was prepped and expecting to make a $800 payment, I was happy with just a $540. I'm going to try to always keep my expectations low! Therein lies a key to happiness!

Trilogy Time

We are all sick around here, so looks like another day of movies might be on the agenda. They're watching Dolphin Tale 2 right now.

Corey's taken most all the movies to work though, I'll have to figure out something, cause today seems like a good day for a trilogy. Maybe I'll call my mom and see if we can borrow Star Wars.

(We're a little sick of being sick.)

2014 In Review

Here's our 2014 recap to go with our "holiday greeting" and make it official:

Happy Holidays! We hope you had a great 2014 and we wish you a wonderful 2015. Here is a recap of some of the fun our family had this past year:

January - Joseph turns 14, we began a new tradition of family parties with our January/New Year party to kick it off, it was so fun. 

February - 15 year anniversary, Valentine's party, Family Pictures
March - Ethan turns 12, Lucky Party
April - Easter party, Family vacation to Newport CA and Disneyland
May - Corey and Ethan go to Brazil, Joseph wins a SBO position at school
June - Lily turns 5, Wesley turns 9
July - Natalie is 1, Ninja Warrior obsession fun is underway, Scofield, Park City
August - Hyrum turns 11, Corey and I go to our 20 year High School Reunion, Corey and Ethan to Brazil again, School Years' Eve party, Another school year begins
September - Abi turns 7, Sophi is 3
October - A month of Family Hikes
November - Corey to Brazil, Natalie starts sitting at the table for dinner, Thanksgiving at Bear Lake
December - Melodie turns 14, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

And, to save the best news for last, we're expecting again :) Baby 10 will be here in July.

Happy New Year!!

New Year's Eve 2014

We went up to Brighton today for big family party and New Years sleepover, just like last year (New Year's Eve 2013 and New Years Day 2014). Corey didn't go with us, as he was home sick with a major man cold, and thus his last request of this life was for me to leave him behind, but to not stop until I reached Zion. And to raise his children well.

But before he said that he told me to leave the little girls home with him, since it would be too much for me, cause it's hard to watch so many kids, plus I've got morning sickness right now, right? Thankfully not, thanks to my magnesium miracle. He looked about like how I remember feeling during all my past first trimesters. So me being sick and pregnant was one reason he asked me not to take all the kids. The other reason was that I only have room for 7 kids in the van. But since he was laying totally incapacitated for the better part of the afternoon, I decided he was in no position to be in charge of caring for anyone's needs since he couldn't even care for his own (I said as I put a straw of ice water to his lips).  I called others who were going up and two of them had room for one kid, so that took care of step 1: getting us all up there.

Step 2: Food. I was in charge of eggs, a treat, and a salad. I ran a quick grocery errand to get 5 dozen eggs and all the ingredients for a yummy spinach salad and for a big party sized bowl of Party popcorn. Then we were ready to go. We didn't have plans to go skiing, which turned out to be a good since Corey was out of commission. Other people went skiing. The kids would have liked to go. Next time.

Abi had been pretty sick with a cough this whole week, but really really didn't want to miss out on the fun. So she came and I gave a disclaimer about her health as did all the other parents ~ we all had a lot of kids coughing. 

I don't think she felt all that great, but she's still smiling. Lily and Sophi were coughing but still had energy. Natalie was TERRIBLE the whole time, super clingy, she had a fever, I kept serving her up the infant tylenol and she spent most of her time on my hip with her hand tightly wrapped around my neck... (she was not her normal happy self. Poor kid...)

Or she was asleep on me, using me as her body pillow. Not the best nights sleep I've had, but I can handle it (cause I got magnesium!)

Melodie and her friends~

Ethan photo bombing as I prepped the timer for the group photo:

The kids played games, watched movies, and we had a ball. At midnight everyone tooted horns and cheered. We took a group photo - doesn't that look like a big fun group for a slumber party? Good times.