Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone. We had a great Christmas together. The kids even slept in until 8 am. We had to get them up. Can you believe that?! Probably the last year that will happen, though. Once they get older and start to catch onto the "get up earlier than the sun" bug on Christmas morning, we'll be griping! Anyway, the kids made out like bandits. Santa was very good to them, as he always is. I got Mitch a Wii (I think I'm more excited about it than he is). We've been playing Guitar Hero III and Wii Play way too much... the house is definitely showing a little wear from my lack of attention to it. Mitch got me a really nice 22" flat panel TV for the bedroom and a DVD player to replace the one that died a few weeks ago.

We stayed up late last night playing each other on the Wii and then watched Prince Caspian. I HIGHLY recommend that movie. It made me cry, just like the first one did. I love the allegory it makes with the Lord and if we're seeking him and having faith, etc.... you have to watch it. I also love the end where the kings and queens are getting to be with Aslan and how peaceful and right it seems. I am so looking forward to getting to be in peace and to learn and grow with the Lord. See, I'm going to cry again. I'm going to go now.... get a Kleenex.

It made me giggle

I'm in Wal-Mart at 10:30 pm tonight checking out and this BIG, BIG black guy in front of me is buying Breaking Dawn, Stephanie Meyer's book. I asked if he was reading them and he said yes! That's awesome and so incongruous it made me, the cashier and him laugh.

Isaac & Thanksgiving

The Drive

After trying a Hot Tamale Candy, Amelea said, "Honey, it's hot!" stuck it in Ava's face and said, "Blow on it!" She ended up eating the whole bag!

We were able to go to Colorado Springs for Thanksgiving this year. Mitch's brother Mark, and his family are stationed there. His parents and his brother Mike's family came down, too. It was worth the LONG drive over there to see family. And, boy was it a LONG drive! All in all, the kids did quite well, though.

We ate a scrumptious dinner. I love how Kristin cooks... we did almost all of it on Wednesday (three pies, stove-top stuffing, yams, rolls and salads). So, Thursday was the turkey and potatoes. We got to spend a lot of time hanging with family, playing Guitar Hero and The Great Dalmuti. Mitch did a rotisserie turkey on the grill and the girls did a high-heat one in the oven. Mitch ended up catching the BBQ on fire... flames shooting 8 feet into the air... so he got to watch that turkey until it was done. It was a great turkey, once we peeled the charred skin off.

Isaac turned one on Thanksgiving day, too. After digesting dinner, we brought out Isaac's teddy bear cake I'd done on Wed. It was fun to share the day with some family, as they are normally not close enough to celebrate birthday's with. Isaac didn't really know what he was supposed to do with the piece of cake placed in front of him. He toyed with it and eventually tried a little and threw most of it on the floor. He got cleaned up in the sink and then got to open some presents.

The girls all went shoppping on Black Friday... Target and the Mall. It was really not as bad as I had always thought it would be. You always hear horror stories, so I had always assumed BF was a very scary time to shop. But, it was actually fine. There were lots of employees in every store ready to help out and all the registers were open, so there was very little waiting in line in any of the stores I went in to.

We left Colorado on Sat about eleven am and finally made it back to STL about two am. Half-way it seems like it's been forever and you should atleast be getting close, but, alas, you're not and you must keep driving! The only scary moment, was when we were in the middle of no-man's land Kansas and all the gauges on the Expedition went to zero.... no speedometer, no gas gauge, no battery or temp. Nothing. Mitch turned around in the middle grassy strip to go back to the only place we'd seen for miles and in hitting the bumps seemed to have jiggled everything back in place. All the gauges went back up and we made it home.

Anyway, it was a good vacation for Mitch, he really needed to see some family and feel normal wearing his plaid shirt.

Plaid

Cousins playing Barbie Swan Lake

Isaac's First Thanksgiving Dinner

Mitch as the "Favorite Play Thing"

Mark as "The Chef"

The Men doing KP

Guitar Hero.. and Alyssa who could beat everyone

Too Cute One Year Old playing with his Sisters' Barbies

The Birthday Cake Before and After

The Birthday Boy After Cleaned up and opening presents... cute boots!

landscaping

Today, I cleaned out the garden. There were lots of green tomatoes frozen on the plant, so it felt kind of wasteful to dump them on the ground. But, it felt great to pull up the ugly, and I mean UGLY, butterfly bush and mulberry bush in our front bed. Now, a dear sweet man from our ward is going to come over and help me redo all the landscaping. I'll post pics when it's all done. Heres to hoping that it turns out nice!

It's Autumn Time, It's Autumn Time, the Leaves are Falling Down

I love autumn time. Crisp air, beautiful colors, warm blankets and hot chocolate. I love sweaters, big down comforters, thick wooly socks and crackling fires. I adore snuggling in with my sweeties and watching a movie on an early dark night with caramel popcorn and our PJs on.

The weather here is definitely getting colder and the coats had to come out. The kids are growing up so fast, Ava put on her coat from last year and the sleeves hit her mid-arm. That kid is so long! So, today, we're going to buy her a new coat. She wants a white poofy one with fur around the hood from Target. I want her to have a more practical purple one with a zip out liner and zip off hood. But, I've already learned, they have to like it, or they won't wear it at all and that's absolutely not practical.

Here's a few pics of the kids this last month. Isaac is walking all over, Amelea is working on potty training and Ava is trying to learn her letters and numbers.

Isaac was helping the girls in the potty room .

We all went apple picking at Eckert's and ate fresh apples right from the trees!

An old pic I found hidden on my camera. Look how itsy Ami Lee is!

Before and after!

So cute!

Apple Butter Festival and my Stika Machine Fantasies

I love my Roland Stika machine. It makes all the cute vinyl wall and craft decals that you've all probably seen everywhere now. It's great for customizing family names and putting your fave quotes on walls and other places. I got it about two years ago and have been toying with different ideas on how to make some moolah off of it. I did about five projects for our ward's Super Saturday in July and it was so well received that I have been talking about doing a craft fair.

Two weeks ago (four days after the christening gowns were done) my friend Trisa stopped by to see if I wanted to share a booth with her at the upcoming Apple Butter Festival and sell our wares. I jumped at the chance, with visions of fun, money and something to do. For the last two weeks, I've been making wooden plaques, etched glass mirrors, plates with sayings on them and glass blocks with lights and bows, running all over Saint Louis picking up supplies and spending money like mad.

The kids were amazingly well behaved and helpful and had lots of fun painting wood with me and any other things I could come up for them to do. The house suffered... a lot. But, after yesterday's cleaning spree, it's looking a bit better for the wear. (Just an aside: a clean house makes me a lot happier... I can be such a bear when the house is a mess.) So, I am done with the Festival and feeling better because my house is livable again.

I didn't sell nearly as much as I had hoped to at the Festival, nor did Trisa, but it was still a good, fun learning experience for us. I've decided to keep at it and try a few more fairs before calling it good. I think I'm also going to have a few parties... where you can get sayings on your wall if you have friends over and I can make their custom sayings right there for them to take home. It would be fun and a nice way to make things more personal. The Festival was so big, it was quite overwhelming; not only to me but I think to all the people coming to see all the stuff. I also think that the economy has made people a little bit more wary of spending money just to spend it. So, sales seemed to be down for all of the vendors. It was still a gorgeous day and lots of fun to try our hand out at a craft fair. Here's some pics of a few of the things I had there.

Christening Gowns

I've been an on-line goner this month with tons of projects going on. My neighbor saw the curtains I sewed for the girls' room and asked if I would sew her Godson's (twins) christening gowns. I offered just to let her borrow my machine, but she said I could do it! And, me in all my stupid desire to please and have something to do with my hands glory, opened my mouth and said yes. Seriously. Could I get any stupider? So, for two weeks solid, I worked on two christening gowns (Catholic, so must be floor length), two slips AND... because they're boys, two rompers, oh and two bonnets, too. UGH. I learned a lot about sewing and they actually turned out quite well. Next time that happens, though, I'm definitely going to keep my mouth shut and get details first, before committing to such a large project in such a limited amount of time! Thank goodness for a sweet husband who was willing to watch the kids an entire Saturday so I could cut out patterns and pieces!

Chocolate Milk

"NO more chocolate!" I yelled one day. The girls think that they must have chocolate milk in a steady supply. I swear, they'd be happy if it was intravenously fed to them! And, of course, with their bellies full of "chocklatey" like Amelea says, they rarely, if EVER, eat the food I make. So, heck, why cook? I'm so sick of cooking and throwing it away.

The next morning of no chocklatey had Ava downing a huge bowl of cereal and asking for seconds... Really, I didn't think the kid could eat! And Amelea, well, she just stared at her bowl for ever, and stalked off. I left the bowl there hoping she'd come back and eat it. An hour later, the bowl is gone. I check the sink... no bowl there... check the living room.... no bowl. "Amelea, where is your cereal? Did you eat it all?" I asked her, as she sat in front of a Dora the Explorer cartoon. Her no-bones reply: "Gahbage". What!!! I go and check the trash can and find the bowl of Rice Krispies and milk not politely dumped in the garbage, but what can only be described as vehemently THROWN, with all the might a two year old could muster, into the garbage. Not a neat and clean little thing to clean up, I might add.

It's now been three weeks sans chocolate milk and she's finally getting better and eating more food, even being happy about it. Ava even said the other day that she LIKED "reg-lar" milk. I was SHOCKED---pleasantly.

A Few Pictures That Really Don't Belong Anywhere

The curtains that I finally finished. Yes, I've been thinking about them for a year! But, it's finally done, and I love them!

This is our wonderful, free, swingset! Our friends, who were moving, gave it to us to take down and out of their backyard! The kids love it!

No, Isaac, dirt really doesn't taste that good. And, no, you didn't kill the plant, Amelea beat you to that, not three hours before.

Our big helper, pushing the stroller whose wheel falls off. Think we've gotten our $15 out of it?!

More helping. So sweet.

One of his first steps!


Her latest naps happen spontaneously. Must have been an entrancing book! She stayed that way for TWO hours! Never moved!

Ava is a serious puzzle girl. This one is 150 pieces and she did it all without any help. Maybe she'll be a dentist someday!

Isn't he cute?!

The princess who can't keep her crown on. Need I say more?

More cuteness. He melts my heart.

Hey, Mom, Watch Me!

Amelea is our dare-devil. Just the other day, I'm dutifully cooking dinner and hear from the living room," Hey, Mom, watch me!" So, I look around the corner, and lo, there stands Amelea on her rocking horse, hands held jubilantly in the air, rocking the horse with her feet. Next thing we know, she's going to be trying stunts like that on a real horse!

Couple of days later, she's standing up in her little wagon, trying to scoot it like a skateboard. Guess that behavior is portent for future trips to the ER. As if three in the last seven months weren't enough!

Speaking of, I don't think I have written about our trip in July back home. My gruff, fun-loving, crap-saying Grandad was released from his mortal calling and we all made our way back to Montana for his funeral. It was wonderful to see all of the family that can't ever seem to get together in one spot at one time for ANYTHING, and bittersweet because it was definitely not something that we wanted to be seeing each other for. I miss him terribly and am sad that my children won't get to know him until later. There's nothing like his cowboy humor for putting life into perspective. I yearn to know how to do that and hope that maybe someday it will be a talent I've added to my repertoire.

During the ascent from Saint Louis, Amelea was happily looking out the window and suddenly grabbed her back and started saying owie, owie (sp?). The volume kept going up until I pulled her out of her chair and handed Isaac, my lap-child, off to the sweet flight attendant. She continued to whimper and whine (which, is obviously not usual for our dare-devil) and I really didn't know what to do. I am no doctor, but she didn't have a fever, so I decided it probably wasn't anything to be too alarmed about, but I couldn't get her to let go of me, either. Just then, the sweetest guy ever, Richard Boudrero, came up the aisle and asked if I would consider letting him help me. He'd been trying to convince his female seat-mate to help me, but she sat tight, so he screwed up the courage to come ask me. He was seriously an angel from heaven. He sat and patted Isaac, then traded and patted Amelea the whole flight (2.5 hours). She clung to him, because she knew he really was an angel! Turns out he lives in Logan and has a grandkid on the way, loves kids and is very active in the Church. What a blessing to have him on the same flight.

Upon landing, Amelea started screaming in pain again. I asked to be put on a Great Falls flight instead of the Billings flight we were booked on. They gladly did it as the Billings flight was over-booked. We ended up having to hang out in the SLC airport for 3.5 hours before we left again, and so many people came out of their way to ask if they could help me (alone with three kids). It was so heart warming and reassuring.

Mitch flew in the next night, Friday, and we were able to all attend the funeral together. I know that I could not have done it without him there. I am so grateful to him for making such an effort to be there for me and my family. Unfortunately, he could only stay until Monday.

The next week, we hung out with his and my families. Thursday of that week, my mom, dad, sister, her daughter, Adalynn and my kids took a quick trip to Coeur d' Alene, ID for some Continuing Ed for Dad. It was so much fun to see beautiful country and spend some time together. The trip back was not so much fun, the kids and I had had enough with travel and didn't do so hot the last two hours, but we made it. Amelea started fussing the last hour that her back really hurt, again and I paid attention.

That night, after no naps in the car and no sleep and lots of screaming and crying, I took her in to the Emergency Room about 2 am. The ER doc thought it was constipation, as there was no fever and the pain was intermittent. We went back home to try some Miralax and try to sleep. She slept for about 2 hours and was off and running before I was even beginning to feel up to it (of course!) The laxatives did nothing and she still wouldn't eat. No naps and more crying that day sent us to the pediatricians. 2 chest x-rays and they saw a distended colon. Hopefully, they said, she wouldn't have a full-blockage, or anything else worse.

Back home we went, with enemas, suppositories and more things to molest this poor little girl with. About 11 pm she finally stood next to the bed, head buried in her crossed arms and pooped just a tiny little bit. I was so relieved and hoped that her pain would finally cease. Not so. She squirmed, cried and whined that night... all night. About 4 am she finally began to fever. I packed her back to the truck and took her back in to the ER. This time, they consulted with the Pediatrician we'd seen the afternoon before and decided to do a barium enema CT scan. But first, yeah... you know it... they had to start an IV. It took two nurses, a bed sheet and me to hold her down. Talk about a little fighter! After that, we decided she definitely needed some anesthesia to get the barium into her and hold her still enough for the scans.

When it was all said and done, she had pneumonia; and probably had it way back before we ever even took off from St Louis. A few days of antibiotics, and a lot of sleep for both of us, and she was a changed baby girl.

Not that our dramas were over. While in the ER with her wrapped in my arms, I called my sister-in-law, Cindy, to ask if she might possibly be able to watch the other two kidlets as my sister was flying out that day and I didn't know how long I was going to be in the hospital with Ami. "Well, yes", she says, "but I have some bad news. You know how we've been hanging out a lot and our kids have been playing so well together? Yeah, well, we have lice. I hope we didn't give it to you."

So, there I am with two year old Ami, swaddled in a bed sheet, in my arms, in an ER bed, checking her head for lice! I swear! Thank the good Lord we did NOT have any. We treated anyway, 'cuz, dang it, after this trip I was NOT going to take any little critters home with me! What a trip. One for the record books.

Once we got back to Saint Louis, we relaxed, stayed home and tried to recover. Well, two weeks later, our computer decided it had had it. The hard drive gave up and we lost it all. $1000 to recover everything. Good thing is Mitch had just bought an i-Pod and backed up all the photos onto it, so we still have most of those. (All except the trip to MT I'd just gotten back from.) The hard drive is in the safe and someday if we ever get the itch to pay a butt-load of money for those three weeks of pictures, I guess we can. But until then, it's all a memory. Some good, some not so, guess that's how memories go.

Library Day

So, we went to story time today at our local library branch. To start the day off, the car wouldn't start. I had spent all day yesterday charging the battery (because, yes, it was dead yest. and we didn't make it to gymnastics).

Anyway, today was a special library day: they had a puppet show and a dressed up doggy-mascot visiting. All the stories were about dogs and the kids should have loved it. Their attention was good for 1/2 of one story. Then, we were goners. Isaac started walking all over to all the kids around us. (Yes, that's walking... he's nine months old!) This made attention go to him: "oh, he's so little, etc," instead of the story-teller. Anyway, after stories and puppets, it was craft time. A milk-bone with ears and nose glued on and eyes drawn on. Should have been cute. Ava couldn't get the eyes drawn on and Amelea flipped out when I put glue on hers. I mean, like full-on two year old tantrum in the middle of the room, legs kicking and voice at top notch. Mostly, I just ignored her, but after 5 minutes, I'd decided enough was enough. Ava was upset that her dog's ears were "wrong" and still upset about the eyes. By, the way, where was Isaac? Oh, walking out the door checking out the throngs of people out in the hallway! So, I quickly grab him, tell Ava to chill out about her dog ears and grab Amelea up off the floor, kicking and screaming. Now, I've also got my big fat purse full of the library movies and books to return edging out Isaac's room on my hip, and the only place to put Ava's gluey doggie milk-bone. I finally get Amelea to calm down and realize that Isaac is licking the glue off of Ava's craft. ARGH. If it weren't for 4 year old feelings, that milk-bone would be in the trash. Turns out Amelea wanted to feed the dog bone to the big dog/mascot thing. Once we figured that out and she got to meet him, she was good.

I finally got everyone off to the book section quietly, with all shoes on and nothing foreign in their mouths. We picked out a few books, only knocked off a few movies from the shelves, and then I turn around. Amelea's eaten almost all of the dogbone, crumbles falling out of her mouth.

The car started, and we left the library with my car's jacked electrical system making the wipers, radio and lights go on and off, on and off, on and off. I am spending the rest of the day at home!

Thoughts and other stuff

Amelea is quitting napping. There goes my mommy time, time to do all those things that your kids always want to "help" you with. So, no more blogging, decorating, sewing, paying bills, making vinyl lettering, talking on the phone, or even reading. And heaven forbid I try to watch an adult show. So, remembering back on when Ava quit daytime naps, we're in for rough patch, but it will get better. I am going to try to institute a "quiet" time during the day. I guess you could say we already kind of do that with movies. You would not believe how much my kids love movies! Lately I've been kicking them out of the house so they enjoy a few hours of nice weather.

Speaking of kicking kids out of the house, I just read a short piece on the mother who gave her 11 year old $20, a map and some coins to call home with and let him navigate his way home in NYC, on the subway. She couldn't believe how shocked people all over the world were that she allowed him to do that. Well, she has a point that we try to shield our children from all things that might incur pain, danger, trouble, and anything else like that. And heaven forbid, what would the neighbors think of her parenting if something bad happened to her child! Holy Crap. I've decided this is a pretty screw-ball land we live in and we can't really expect our kids to grow up into functioning, thinking people if they've never had a scratched knee or had to figure something out on their own. So, here's to kicking the kids out more often and watching less TV, allowing them to scratch some knees.

Another thought along that vein: Do we really have to kiss every "boo-boo" and try to make them feel better about every little sad thing that happens to them? Does that make these kids think that anything bad that might befall them is truly worthy of attention; make them think that they have to loudly bring attention to all their ills? Am I saying this right? My dad would laugh at us and tease us when we came loudly into the house with another one of our woes. It often brought perspective and hilarity to the situation, maybe teaching us that not everything had to be met with complaint. I think my kids whine an awful lot and wonder if this might be the cause: all the "oh, poor babies" and not enough perspective teaching.

I wonder

I sing a lot in the car, mainly to keep the kids entertained. I find that it lightens the mood and they love to join in. Mitch can attest to the fact that I can't remember words to songs and often make them up. Anyway, I am driving down the road going home and start singing, "I wonder when he comes again, will herald angels sing? Will earth be white with drifted snow, or will the world know spring?" Ava pipes up from the back... "ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT DADDY?" HaHa! Guess that tells you how much Daddy is around! Maybe he'll be around when it's spring....6 months from now!

More Isaac

Isaac is in the eat everything phase. Angie caught a cute pic of him on the Fourth of July.

We had a lot of fun that day. The ward's Elder's Quorum held a pancake breakfast and flag ceremony in the morning. Then we went home, took naps and went off to the pool. Ava is turning into quite the little mermaid; she is unafraid of putting her face in the water,now. Then, that evening we had a nice BBQ with friends, yummy salads and hamburgers and hotdogs. Mitch and Ava topped the night off by going up to SLU hospital's parking garage, top floor, and watching the fireworks. I topped it all of by joining Ami and Isaac in bed... yes, quite the party pooper I am.