more christmas

i figured a couple of small posts about christmas was better than a great big long one!

this is our christmas breakfast spread. the fruit tray has strawberry dip, oranges, bananas, green apples, kiwi, and red grapes. i've dubbed it our fruit rainbow. there are hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and danish. milk, orange juice, and eggnog to drink.

as blythe and blaine had just moved 2 days previously, we had them over for dinner. we also had millers, and des. that was a total of 16 people for dinner! it was actually a lot of fun. i managed to make it through without have a breakdown at all! 

for dinner, we had ham (it was a 13 lb with bone, but i still have 1/2 left!), funeral potatoes, a huge veggie tray (carrots, celery, tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, broccoli, and cauliflower), rolls, and salad. if anyone was hungry when dinner was over, it was their own fault!

christmas continued

our good friend, blythe, moved back from texas this week. so, monday was dedicated to helping them get their stuff moved in, and semi-settled (we got beds put up).

tuesday, we found someone to watch the kids so we could do some last minute errands. we got some help with christmas this year, and needed to pick it up. however, it made no sense to do it WITH the kids, as it was for them. besides, upon picking it up, it filled the van. there wouldn't have been room for them. there was 3 times more than i was expecting!
upon going through the stuff, i discovered that there was way more stuff than we needed. i pulled 3-4 items out of each of the kids' boxes, and put them up for a later occasion. some of the stuff didn't fit, or was too "young" for them. but, i have birthday stuff for taylor, elizabeth, and shannon this next year (i think).
that night, i proceeded to wrap everything. it took me a little over 2 hours to get everything wrapped. all the kids had 6 gifts, plus their santa one. 7 is more than enough. next week, we will go through their old toys, and choose 3-4 to give away.

taylor received a couple of i spy wii games from santa. he had a wallet, an emergency bracelet, skipbo jr, a scarf, and various odds and ends in his stocking. he got a bunch of cars, 2 consructo-bot transformers, a voice changer, a slinky (which the little kids have destroyed), a pair of jammies, and a top racing game. there are other things that i can't recall.
elizabeth got an alarm clock from santa. her stocking contents are a mystery to me right now. she got a large doll, a doll head to practice hair-dos on, a couple of princess barbies, a pair of jammies, boots, gloves/hat set and a complete outfit.
shannon got a princess tea set from santa. a pair of jammies, a complete outfit, a couple of princess barbies, some hair things; barettes, clips, headbands, a scarf/gloves/hat set, and various odds and ends in her stocking as well.
ashley got a plastic tea set from santa. she also got a pair of jammies, hair things, a couple of princess barbies, a new pair of sunday shoes, a new dolly, a musical guitar, and various odds and ends in her stocking as well.
michael received a steering wheel that makes different vehicle sounds, fire truck, car, big truck, etc. he also got a new outfit, a play phone, some trucks, a set of little people super heroes, a pair of jammies, and some books.
 shaun got the hobbit on extended dvd, a new ball cap, the original story of superman book, published in 1978, a nice hoodie jacket, a shirt, a 12 piece screwdriver, a model car to assemble and various odds and ends as well.
i got a pamper pack from santa. it had 8 or so pairs of socks. it also had a sleep mask, but it gives me a headache to wear. i got a pair of jammies, some jewelry, a water tower for my christmas village that is still being painted.

santa also left us a gingerbread kit, which the kids started to put together today, and a snow disk. from their aunt, they received 2 snowman kits. eyes, coal, buttons, noses, and scarves.

considering that until the week before, we weren't going to have more than 3 gifts each, we made a haul!

christmas

it's been a few weeks.

trying to get ready for christmas, and all the normal stuff has taken up almost all my time.

the kids have struggled the last 2 weeks or so, getting school done. i think they're ready for a break, but if we take too long, it will put us further behind, and make it that much harder to get back into it. i've discovered that incentives help elizabeth with her literature. and that taylor can get his entire schedule completed in less than 3 hours when he wants to. this week, being christmas, we are taking it easy, and just doing spelling.

i had an impromptu goodie baking day with a friend. i mentioned to her that i wanted to do a few more goodies, but was unable to because of funds. she offered to purchase the supplies, and then we had fun the rest of the day! we made fudge (YUM!), we tried eggnog fudge (WOW! i don't like eggnog, but that stuff was divine.), we tried caramel (the first batch ended up too hard. the other batches i made at a later date, were just right!), and we made a pumpkin roll. she took everything we made back to her house, cause there were less fingers to snatch pieces, and a "hiding" place.

later, i made some m&m sugar cookies, and dipped some pretzels. days later, i still need to get everything plated. 

i made 2 batches of danish. and we gave away an entire batch. 

christmas breakfast was delicious, as always. this year, i wasn't able to manage strawberries, so we did fruit dip instead. i didn't do pineapple either. it always ruins my pan.

our menu consisted of, scrambled eggs, danish, hashbrowns, bacon, sausage, orange juice, milk, and eggnog. my favorite meal of the day!

christmas baking

as christmas draws ever closer, and i realize how close it's getting, it's time to start on the christmas goodies.

fudge, chocolate covered pretzels, danish, caramels, cookies...and anything else i think of.

as things have been a little tighter than normal, i tried substituting in the fudge recipe. i didn't think things through far enough, and the fudge didn't turn out. a 4.4 oz chocolate bar is a lot less than a 12 oz bag of chocolate chips. it tasted ok, but not normal. but it was super greasy, and when you cut it, it all crumbled. the second attempt, i got the correct ingredients, and it finally turned out right. the kids mutilated the fudge, so i can't cut it and put it on plates to give away. 

crooked smile

yesterday morning, michael pulled the pan of fudge of the counter...

glass pan

5 lb of fudge

...right onto his face. there was blood, but we couldn't find the source (he wouldn't let me in to look either).

last night, as shaun was getting him ready for bed, we discovered that his lower jaw appeared to be crooked.

you can see where his middle teeth don't match.

so, late last night, 9:30, i took him up to the hospital to have him checked out. we were able to quickly see the doctor, and he saw the concern. he ordered a ct scan so that we could have a clear picture, especially, since michael wouldn't let us look inside his mouth.

and then we waited. they had to send the scan out to have it read. finally, at 11, we had the results. no fracture, no misalignment. (YEHAW!) the doctor thinks it's just swollen and bruised, and that he's holding it at a spot so that the least amount of discomfort occurs.

if things don't improve by tuesday, i'll take him back in, and have him re-evaluated.

slow and steady

i have finally reached the point where things have started to slow down. at least it feels like it. it's entirely possible that i've just gotten accustomed to the new normal for us.

mondays are insane. at least they feel like it. we have an appointment at 10, and again at 1. between the two, there is just enough time to make sure kids get fed, and check on a few things.

today, we added another appointment at 9, and then a desperate need to get milk and eggs. i've been running since 7:30 this morning, and won't be able to stop until after 10 tonight.

school is very short on mondays because of all the appointments.


i think the thing i've learned the most over the last few weeks is to just take things a little slower. if i keep trying to run all the time, i'm going to fall short. and i hate falling short. i've stopped trying to be supermom, and i'm just focusing on being the best mom i can.

power

this morning at 6:30, the power went out. the outside temperature was -11F. needless to say, it was cold. as the power was out, i used the good brain i was given, and figured that the little girls would be out of school today.
we bundled everyone up, and tried to stay warm. the power didn't come back on until close to 2, and by then the temp in the house was only 60.

we are starting to stay warm now. hope it doesn't go out again!

finality

shaun's uncle passed away last week. he had been on dialysis, and was a diabetic. i'm not sure what killed him in the end, but i suppose it doesn't really matter. we were all a little surprised he went first. his wife is just as bad off as he was.

the saddest part, is that his family doesn't believe in the gospel. they had been members at one time. he lost a daughter in a horse riding accident. since then, they have been antagonistic toward the church.

the funeral was on friday, but we'd had sick people and were hesitant to attend.

we hope that the rest of the family can find some peace.

updates

i seem to make all these grand plans, and then things fall apart.

i've been trying to keep up on the blog. i love that it can be used as a journal, and at the same time keep family up to date. it's hard to do updates, or anything for that matter, when you don't feel well.

i spent last tuesday and wednesday cooking for thanksgiving. i got pumpkin roll and rolls done. and since i was trying to stay awake, i also made cookies, and something else...can't remember what it was.

wenesday night, i woke up in severe pain. i have a very high tolerance level, so for something to wake me up like, it has to be pretty bad. we called a friend, and he was able to come help shaun give me a blessing. within 20 minutes, the pain was gone and i was able to go back to bed.

thursday, i cooked the turkey, and the rest of our thanksgiving dinner. that night, i had pain again. it wasn't as bad as the night before, but it still hurt.

friday night, we were up most of the night with michael. he was throwing up something fierce. the poor kid dry heaved for hours. saturday we were kind of lazy. since shaun and i had been up all night, we were really tired.

saturday we cleaned. we were able to get the house pretty well done. elizabeth and shannon didn't get their room as clean as it needed to be, which is nothing new. i'm ready to take away all their toys, and leave them with just their beds, their clothes, and one blanket for sleeping. both shaun and i went to bed early, 10:30/11. only to have to get up and sit with ashley who said her bum hurt. we never did figure out what the problem was.

the alarm went off this morning, and as usual, i turned it off. the next time i woke up, the clock said 9:45! we were late for church and i was going to be in trouble if i didn't make it there to do the library! i threw on some clothes, told shaun he'd have to get the kids ready and bring them later, and ran out the door. i made it there in plenty of time, and my partner made it as well! i learned just today (i've been in the library with her for 4 months or so), that she suffers from migraines.

....

it's been an interesting week and a half. the kids are all great, the problem has been me.

i went in to the doctor on the 15th. i'd been having sharp pains in a knee when ever i knelt down. since i have 3 little kids, i kneel down a lot. so, this was causing some problems. while i was visiting with the doctor, we addressed several issues. my wrist pain is most likely tendinitis  he thought the pain in my knee was also tendinitis  i think it might be a torn muscle. my night sweats are most likely due to being overweight (i don't want to hear anything about how i'm not, because i know that i am. about 20 pounds). the migraines we discussed some possible reasons, but didn't come to any conclusions. my back pain, he wanted to get some xrays of.

the next 5 days, i went through some serious exhaustion. so badly, that only bare basics got done. and i'm so grateful to shaun for picking up the slack. i would get up at the same time, 7:30-7:45 to get the girls off to school. by 11, i was so tired that i would get the kids some lunch, some days, and then have to go take a nap. i would sleep until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. i would go back to bed around 10-11 and sleep the night through. the next day, i would do it again. about the time i was going to go back in to the doctor to get some tests done, i was doing better.

thursday i was able to make it in to get the xrays done. friday, i got a call back from the doctor office with the results. i have arthritis in my lumbar spine, and a bone spur forming, somewhere.

friday, elizabeth and i both got haircuts. i'll try to post pictures soon, after i take them....

saturday, i woke up with a headache. i took an aleve and tried to get going for the day. 20 minutes later, it was a full-blown migraine. i went back to bed and waited for it to ease up. it never did. it got worse. i spent the day in bed, sleeping off the migraine.
a good friend of ours had come over to paint with shaun. he graciously bought us dinner, and continued to help shaun with the kids.

needless to say, it's been an interesting time.

midnight ramblings

there is a teenager in my ward who is pregnant. i don't know the particulars, and it doesn't really matter for this ramble. she attends the alternative high school. the alternative high school is where they send the trouble kids. the ones that can't seem to succeed for whatever reason.
i recently read a story somewhere, where a 16 year old girl was raped and forced to attend the alternate school instead of her normal high school, because she was pregnant, and the administrators were afraid she would be too much of a distraction.of course, she'll be a distraction! but not necessarily in the way they are thinking. the poor girl can't sit in a normal desk, you can't put a pregnant belly in those tiny things. she can't walk normally, her hips hurt, her back hurts, her feet hurt, and once that baby drops, she won't even be able to sit comfortably.
the good distractions will be that people will think a little more about their decisions. leave a pregnant girl in regular school, and those that are active, will get to see the possible consequences of their actions every day.

this is one of the reasons that we have so many unwed teen pregnancies. we hide the consequences by putting the mothers in alternate schools, or pulling them out and home schooling them. girls are made to feel like they are less important and "damned" by their parents, so they hide the pregnancies and then abandon the babies at dances or in  parks etc. and those consequences are far worse than just being an unwed mother.

eyes

we have a family history of bad eyes, on all sides. all but one of my siblings has glasses, and all of shauns (that i can think of) also have them.

taylor got a new prescription 2 weeks ago. 4 days into the new glasses, and they got broken. when we were finally able to get back in to the doctor, they had been lost. 

shannon was due for an exam. i think it was just routine, and to make sure she was ok. she is not getting glasses. she's so excited! she keeps asking me when we can get them, and telling me that she wants them... funny girl!

exhaustion

today is the first day in almost a week that i haven't desperately needed a nap in the afternoon. i should have taken one yesterday, but was able to push my way through, barely. as it was, i went to be at 8:30 when the kids did.

i haven't been able to figure out why i'm so tired. although, i've had lots of suggestions given. one day, maybe i'll find out why i do this.

exhaustion

i am thoroughly exhausted!

i have been doing laundry for 5 days straight, and i'm not even close to being done. i got nearly done with the lice laundry, and was finally able to start the regular laundry. then we discovered even more lice laundry. and then i discovered completed lice laundry that had to be redone! blankets and pillows that had fallen or been put on floors that hadn't been vacuumed yet.

unfortunately, laundry will continue for a few days.

the local head start has a no nit policy when it comes to lice. that means that if the kids even have empty egg sacks still in their hair, they can't go back. both shannon and ashley have been home all week.

school has been difficult to manage. when we discovered the lice, i scheduled the next day as a vacation day. both taylor and elizabeth tried to get school done. we are still at the point that school requires a lot of mom help, especially for elizabeth. trying to do school and delousing was not working. that was why i planned to take the day off.

baby prayers

today, michael gave the prayer at dinner. it went like this:

mom, "time for prayer. everyone fold your arms."
michael, "heavenly father."
mom, "...thankful for this food."
michael, "food"
mom, "please bless it."
michael, "bless it"
mom, "help it to nourish."
michael, giggle, giggle, giggle
mom, "and strengthen"
michael, "strengthen"
mom, "our bodies."
michael, giggle, giggle, giggle
mom, "in the name,"
michael, "AMEN!"
mom, "of jesus christ"
michael, "AMEN!"

amen

pumpkins 2013

 here is smurfette. it's what elizabeth wanted on hers. she went to bed before i got pictures taken.

 ashley chose the kitty. and then insisted on a picture with her pumpkin.

shannon wanted a horse. and of course she had to have a picture with it as well.

 and since they do nearly everything together, one of the both of them.

  taylors, the star wars "sign." the first attempt didn't work too well, so shaun turned it into a creepy face.

 and the pictures with.

and shaun putting a superman symbol on his!

i normally end up doing pumpkins by myself with the kids. this year, shaun wanted to save me some stress and frustration by helping out. after the first 2 cutouts didn't work well, we decided to just cut the peel off. some of the designs had very tiny places to "cutout." it wasn't worth it!

halloween 2013

 this was the extent of my costume this year. sparkly eyeshadow. i don't do a lot for me. the kids are more important.

 michael. the smurf decided to eat the paper bag.

 taylor. i thought we did pretty good for a jack frost.

 elizabeth. pocahontas. these were so FUN to make!!!

 ashley. my poor attempt (and by poor i mean $.) at a ballerina.

shannon. once she saw elizabeth's costume, she HAD to have the same one!

frustrations

i got everyone treated yesterday, except for me. in the middle of ashley's, the comb starts to break. i was able to get her finished, but because the comb broke, wasn't able to get me done. so, i sent shaun to the one place in town that i knew had them. they were all out! (apparently, this is a wide-spread issue.) on his way home, he stopped at our little corner pharmacy. they could order us one, and have it to us first thing in the morning. since there wasn't another option, we went ahead and got one.

this morning, shaun took the girls to school. the van was clean, and i was not... . they checked the girls, and still found nits. (what frustrates me, is they check twice a week, monday and wednesday. monday when they checked, they didn't find anything. but i know that shannon had it. so, they don't find them when they are there, but find them when they are not?!)

so, shannon and ashley had another vacation day from school. and both were greatly upset that they couldn't go.

oocoos no more

 so, here's my little man, hairless. when i tried to use the guard on the clippers, they didn't work. i then tried just scissors, but didn't like the look. i then went to bare clippers, and he now looks like a cancer patient. i miss is blond hair!

and this is what my laundry room looks like, after i've already done 4 loads! unfortunately, most of what needed to be de-loused, also needed to be washed. i've just been put it off. this is going to take all week to get cleaned up!

oocoos, again

as if life wasn't crazy enough!!

last night, elizabeth complains that her head itches. so, i sit her down and start looking her over.
sure enough, she has lice.
and so begins the process of de-lousing the house.

i treated elizabeth last night. shaun stripped her bed down, and vacuumed it. we started washing things and throwing other things in the dryer.
today, we treat the rest of the family, and hopefully get the rest of the house taken care of.

the kids are all staying home for a vacation day (some vacation, huh?). we'll all be working our tails off though.

success!

i have had troubles getting elizabeth to read. anything. which has been making school difficult.
she doesn't even like to read things to me.

yesterday, i found a "solution," at least temporarily. i had seen an image somewhere, they had to convince themselves to study (must have been a dry subject). they placed skittles at the end of each paragraph in their textbook. when they reached the skittle, they could eat it. i was in the process of making individual bags of snacks, while i was trying to get elizabeth to do her literature. so, i placed a mini marshmallow at the end of paragraphs. when she reached the marshmallow, she could eat it. she read her story without any problems!

now, granted, this is not a permanent solution. but, for now, it will work.

learning curve

homeschooling has created an interesting  situation in our house. first of all, it's a HUGE learning curve. second, it means that any free time i'd gotten from having everyone but the baby in school in the morning is now gone. the other day, i had one of those moments where i wasn't sure the trade-offs were worth it.

today is better.

the other problem i've run into, is that the week i started homeschooling, my schedule exploded. i had multiple things going on each day that took time away from school. i think next week slows down. at least, i hope it does!

when i signed the kids up, they warned me that it would time to get a good schedule going. they told me to expect a minimum of 6 weeks to get things straight and fluid. i hope it doesn't take quite that long, but with the first 2 weeks so crazy insane with appointments, it might.

as if all that wasn't enough, i have a severely depressed spouse who refuses to entertain medical solutions. and all my alternative ones aren't working.

see, i'm trying.

today, we had an eye appointment for taylor. he's jumped 2 strengths in the last year.

i was able to get halloween costumes finished for the girls. with lost of help, of course!

i got granola bars made, and brownies made, and dinner done.

and throughout the day, we did school. taylor struggles to do his math. after that, he breezes through everything else. elizabeth doesn't like to read. which causes a problem, cause just about everything requires reading.

in a funk

i have tried for weeks to get posts up. and i keep running into blocks. either emotional, or physical. i get on the computer to write, and get lost in cyberland (not a good thing!). i get on to write, even have the page up to type, and for some reason, can't get myself to put anything down. or other times, like today, i get started and then i have to go change a bum and get kids dressed.

i suppose it's mostly cause i'm in a funk right now. the last few days have been strange. i know what needs to be done, and i want to get them done, i just can't seem to do them. the basics get done, cause they are habit. i've done laundry for so many years, that laundry day just happens, even if it is a little late some days. some days, dinner is a little more difficult to do.

i'm not really tired, but all i want to do is sleep. it just occurred to me that things could be much worse if i weren't on my medication.
some additional thoughts are required on this.

donating

i am doing something i never thought i would do...

i am donating all my baby clothes.


i have recently joined a group that's all about helping out and donating things to those in need.

i had been keeping all my baby clothes until i was sure that we were done having kids. especially since baby clothes are so expensive.

but since being on this group, i've discovered that there are A LOT more people in need than i am. and since they aren't currently being used by us, they should be used by someone else.

besides that, if and when the time comes that we need some, the means will be there to get them.

celebrate youth

madison school district does a huge back to school party every year. they do it in one of the parks. they have free sack lunches, free carnival games, and raffles. the best part is that we live less than a block away from the park they do it at!

 elizabeth doing the climbing wall. she didn't get very far, but she had fun!

taylors turn on the climbing wall. he got 3/4 of the way up! in flip-flops!

 free train rides!

 waiting for our turn on the train.

bouncy house fun!

 face painting! ice cream

 minion!

balloons!

this one's a double yolker

in truth, there are 2 eggs in the bowl. do the math.

holey hose!

something ate my hose this summer. i was not happy!

i put duct tape around it, and that works for about 2 weeks. then i have to reapply it.

canning

 LOVE these beautiful peaches!!!

cousins

i discovered one day, that i have cousins living in my ward. he's in the bishopric and owns the inexpensive movie theaters in town.

anyway, we were at the space derby, and trying to entertain kids during the lulls.

aren't these just the cutest little girls ever!!

cool dude!

such a cutie! and turning into such a delightful little boy!