wow, talk about catch-up!

ok, so it's been awhile, and i'm way behind on everything. a newborn and moving and then christmas: gee i wonder why nothing is getting done? it doesn't help that we are mooching internet from one of the doctors offices nearby, like next door.

so i took shannon in to get tested for acid reflux, and she didn't even dribble. the one day that i needed her to spit up and she doesn't. if she continues in the same way that she has been, i'm going to have the doctor treat it and see if she does any better.

we finally got the tree up 3 days before christmas. with the move there was no room, and the tree was buried on the porch (it's a fake tree that we store in a large tote.) the tree went up on monday and didn't get decorated until tuesday. but at least it was up.

we had the sister missionaries over for christmas breakfast this year. for those of you not familiar with the tradition, my family invites the missionaries for christmas breakfast. we have a big breakfast; eggs, bacon, sausage, danish, hashbrowns, fruit; then we open presents with them. it's nothing big, and the gifts are ususally gag gifts. well, the sisters stopped by one day when they noticed that someone had moved in, and we invited them to join us. it was a blast.
one of the gifts i got them was a growing husband. it's about an inch tall, and you put it in water and it grows. shaun was worried they would be upset about it, but they thought it was hilarious, btw-so did i.

shaun had to work today so i had the kids by myself at church. it was fine until we were getting ready to go home and elizabeth wet her pants. it's a good thing i keep an extra pair in their backpacks. i left them in the mothers lounge while i went to get the car. it had a fine layer of ice on it.

it's snowed every day for the last 2 weeks. there's so much snow on the sides of the roads that you can't see the traffic coming from uphill. we got 8-10 inches on christmas day alone. we were just getting ready to leave for church this morning when we noticed that we'd been plowed in. it took us a half-hour to dig out; of course, we were late. not only that, but it rained today instead of snowing.

Moved at last!

At first I thought I would move my office last and not bother my family and friends with the "stuff" that is so difficult to move. Well, it took the better part of a week and a half to move it unfortunately. Family came over and we moved most of the belongings we have on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately enough it was before the snow fell, and it was a nice day to say the least. We were all surprised at the good weather. Now that being said, when I moved all the paintings and artwork that is so difficult to move tonight...it was snowing and blowing at around 10 degrees above zero. Thank goodness my friend Brent helped with some of that. It takes forever. The kids have had a hard time keeping out of the things laying all over the new house. It is a REAL mess. I ought to take a picture of the before and after to give a better idea perhaps. Last Sunday, we had a bunch of friends over for dinner and games. That was pretty nice actually, and would have been even better had we had the whole house together :) We are so fortunate to have found this home. We don't know what the utilities will amount to yet, but at 400 a month, we could not argue for a 3 bed home of our own. It is pretty old and is settled in quit a bit. Nevertheless, we are warm and have a roof over our heads. Well, I am really tired, so Sleep must take priority here. More to come I'm sure. Later everybody.

messy, messy, messy

so, life has been crazy. we moved this last weekend, for the most part. we still have bits and pieces to move, but since there is no one waiting to move in right behind us, it's not a problem. i had spent the week cleaning and running around getting ready for the move. the new house wasn't cleaned well, and i hate moving into a dirty house. the big problem was the tub; there was about a quarter inch of soap scum in the bottom, and that had to cleaned out before i was comfortable using it. so saturday rolls around, and everyone is showing up in about an hour to help move us and nothing is in boxes yet, and i'm done. you know when you are exhausted and you just can't do anything more how you tend to shut down? well, that's where i was at. shaun told me to not worry about it and they would get things taken care of. so i didn't do anything. that was the hardest part.

so, i get the washer and dryer and you can see from a previous post, but i can't take them until the other couple are gone. since monday is laundry day, we were back here at the old house to do laundry. while i'm trying to find things to do to occupy myself, they get into the food coloring and proceed to dump it on the ice cream maker box-thankfully, no clothes got dirty. i got that cleaned up and then they decide they are going to take shauns monet puzzle box apart. monet was an impressionistic artist who used the dot method to create his amazing paintings. these puzzles are torturous to put back together. in fact, it took 3 hours or more to get the 6 small puzzles in order. while i was doing that. taylor put his halloween costume back on by himself, they got into some foundation samples and spread them all over the kitchen counter, and they started in on the office (which is still here. shaun has a project he needs to do and it can't get done if he has no office to work in. we will move it over this weekend, i think.).

this morning while i'm laying in bed with the baby they got into my makeup and proceeded to paint each other. since that was the only thing they got into this morning wasn't terrible. but, it occurred to me that if i can't even handle my children how am i going to be able to handle school on top of everything else. i still haven't figured out what to do with the kids while i'm in classes. maybe going back to school was wishful thinking and i should just forget about it.

potty trained?

so, we just had our first accident free day!! she went in all by herself everytime she needed to go potty, and only once did i have to tell her to go in and go. we'll see how things go in the future though. one day does make it permanent.

washer and dryer anyone?

so, i was talking with brent the other day. i was checking to see how their house offer had gone; when he started talking about the bunkbed and the washer and dryer. this was not unusual, but his tone was. there had been many situations talked about and what they would do with some of their stuff. he's giving us the bunkbed, and he had a deal for the washer and dryer. he told me that anyone who will clear out the junk in the back and the stove and dresser on the porch can have the washer and dryer. moving and getting rid of that stuff requires a truck, and moving the washer and dryer requires a truck also. so, while we are moving our house this weekend, we are going to take a load or two to the dump, and then i can have the washer and dryer after they are gone!! ha! that saves us a lot of money, and i get a NICE set (close to $1500) for free!

housing and sliced fingers

so, we were able to find a place to move into. actually, my neice found it for us. she was at work and talking with a co-worker who mentioned that she had a house that was going to be opening up for rent. turns out the rent is $400 a month, and the deposit was only $200. so, we automatically took it without even looking at the house. at that price, we can't afford to not take it. there are no utilities included, but even then, the price is still going to be less than anywhere else. it's a 3-bed, and actually has enough room to put the two older kids in their own rooms and still have an office. but, i'm not sure that i'm going to yet. AND i will actually be able to put my table in the kitchen!!!
last night, brent came up and informed me that there was a realtor that was going to be showing the house at 1pm today. AAAAHHHHHHH!!!! my house was not clean in the least, and i had been doing laundry all day. so, i called a friend and she came by after she got off work to help me clean. i cleaned my entire house and got all my laundry put away by 1am. turns out, the people who looked at the house are making an offer! they might get the house sold before they leave and not have to worry about renting it out.

i woke up yesterday morning to elizabeth screaming in pain. turns out that taylor had gotten a hold of the scissors i keep on the fridge. they were cutting hair off of ponies, and stuffed animals. and then taylor decided to cut his sisters finger. i just barely got the story today: apparently she was complaining that her finger hurt so taylor decided he was going to cut it off for her. (i occasionally tease the kids when they complain that something hurts, that we are going to just cut it off. i guess taylor took that a little more seriously than i had thought.) the bandaid on her finger makes it look huge!