Happy Birthday, Abigail!

Today our dear Abby is 9 years old! What a great 9 years it's been to have her in our lives. Our lives would be a very dull place without Abby's sense of humor, sensitivity, conversation, wisdom, quirkiness, obedience and sweetness. We love Abigail!

Last night Abby had a Spa Party. Her birthday always catches me a little off guard right after the holidays. It was a little last minute, but I think we pulled it off. Once we had our theme, thanks to Google we found some recipes for some bath salts and lip gloss. We had four little stations, the lip gloss, the bath salts, decorating sleep masks, and massages (Anna's great idea). Anna also had her two friends, Kaycee and Sadie, come help and the three of them were lifesavers. I actually had time to take pictures and hang back and observe the party guests. They are such a cute group of girls and them really got into the activities and seemed to enjoy. It was a fun night.

Abby blowing out the candles on her cake.

50 points for anyone who can tell me what the cake is (hint: it is related to our theme)

lip gloss station - kool-aid powder, petroleum jelly, a little water

massage studio, aka teepee, but it works



bath salts - epsom salt, soap dye, soap fragrance.

Sleep masks, they have adhesive felt on the inside and paper on the outside that the girls decorated.

Happy Birthday, Abigail! We love you!!!

Spelling Bee

Anna qualified for the School Spelling Bee which was today and she did GREAT! It was so nerve racking, I was kind of a mess. I got so nervous for every one of those kids (there about 25-30 kids) let alone my own dear daughter. Anna was fabulous though, poised, clear spoken and confident. She got some really hard words, but handled the pressure like a champ. She made it to SIXTH Place - WOO HOO! We're really excited to have a champion speller in the family. Congrats, Annie!

I made her pose with her certificate right before she went to bed tonight.

Joshua

The kids love to help feed him his baby food, he tends to wear a lot of it when that happens.

This big guy turned 6 months old last week! Kind of unbelievable to me, wow. He weighed in at 21 lbs and 4 ounces. He's in the 93rd percentile in weight, 68th in height, and 93rd in head circumference.

Pictures just don't do his thighs justice.

He loves to sit up and play with toys, he loves splash in the bathtub. Anytime one of his siblings is in his line of sight he just squeals in excited anticipation. He also loves me and Brennan, it's so rewarding to walk into a room and have someone completely light up. He's honestly just heavenly. We love him so much. Happy 6th month birthday, Joshy!

Update

A week or so ago, Brennan, being a good husband, was taking the garbage out, but when he opened the big garbage can outside a cat jumped out. Unfortunately I was out of ear shot, but according to him he screamed like a girl. It cracks me up every time I think about it. We love Brennan.

I am feeling more overwhelmed and out of control than I did right after Joshua was born. He's been sleeping terribly and for the first six months after I have a baby I can somehow deal with sleep deprivation and then overnight my ability to deal with it ends. I think ultimately it's a survival tool to force me to figure out how to get my babies on some semblance of a schedule, but it might be a rough few weeks. It also helps that even in the middle of the night I find Joshua adorable.

Anna is busy, busy, busy. She got third place in her class spelling bee and is now studying for the school spelling bee. She got a speaking part in the 6th grade musical production and is working on memorizing her lines. She and Abby slept in Joshy's room while we had Brett and Jamie here and Brennan or I discovered her in rocking Joshua a couple of times. He would wake up and rather than wait for me to come get him she got him out and tenderly rocked him back to sleep. So sweet. We love Anna.

We've known for a few years that Abby has a mild case of asthma. It hasn't been a big deal, just a little shortness of breath or a tight feeling at night. She has an inhaler and uses it mostly just before bed. Last Sunday night however, she was in bad shape. We thought she had pneumonia or bronchitis or something. She was really wheezing and uncomfortable and extremely pale. We took her in Monday morning to our pediatrician to find out it was an asthma attack. He said we should have probably gone to the ER, her heart rate was 175 and her blood oxygen level was 89. Fortunately she responded quickly to the nebulizer treatment they gave her. The doctor gave us a nebulizer, and some steroids. It took her a few days to regain some color in her face. I'm so grateful for good medical care and modern medicine. Poor little Abby has had to stay in during recess thanks to the fact that we have the worst air in the country right now. She's been a champ. We are so grateful Abigail is okay and we love Abby.

Nate has become a genuine football fan. He's had ample opportunity too, let me add. 36 bowl games, really? Anyway, I was in laying with the boys in my room and I let him watch the end of a game. He started yelling about pass interference. I was skeptical that he actually knew what that meant so I asked him and he yep, he explained it perfectly. A few days later I heard him yelling to Brennan something like, "Oh my gosh, Dad, did you see how deep that pass was?" Very cute. We love Nate.

Earlier tonight Abby and Nate were not getting along. Abby didn't want Nate to play with her and Anna which made Nate mad etc. Abby came into the kitchen to tell me about it and I was lecturing her about being nicer to Nate when Ben started yelling for Abby. She tried to just yell back, "What Ben?" But he wouldn't have it, "No, come here." "Why?" "Abby, come here right now." She walked into the family room where he was casually perusing a "Diego" book and he looked up at her and said sternly, "The truth is, share." What funny little man. Later tonight he came out of my room and said, "Mom, Daddy is watching boxing and I told him he's not supposed to." "Is it boxing or ultimate fighting?" "You mean the kicking kind?" "Yes, if it's the kicking kind he's not allowed to." I walked into my room to find Brennan sheepishly laughing. He said he turned on the tv and saw the fight on and started watching. Ben climbed down off the bed. When Brennan asked him where he was going he was vague but said something about needing to tell Mom something. He's keeping us all in line. We'll take his help, heaven knows we need all the help we can get around here. We love Benny.

Joshua is six months old! Can you believe it? He sits up and he plays with toys and he gets mad if I walk out of the room. He drenches me every time I give him a bath with his new found talent for splashing. He laughs and laughs at the kids and gets so excited every time he sees Daddy. Most importantly, he's very fat. Very, very, very fat. We love every single roll and dimple. We love Joshua.

The Adventures of Benjamin George

I need to do an update, but there are several stories I have to record about this guy:

Monday night it was Nate's turn to be in charge of our game for FHE. We played a xylophone version of Name that Tune. Ben doesn't quite get the whole rotation of family night responsibilities and always wants to be in charge of game so we usually squeeze a quick Benny game in each week too. Monday night was no exception. After playing Nate's game, Ben told us to wait for a minute while he went to find some totally awesome game. He game back in a few minutes with a shoebox containing some Phase 10 cards. The week before that we had played spoons so he was clearly inspired by that as he sat down and told us to sit in a circle. Then he explained that someone would "shef" the cards (we're pretty sure he meant shuffle, but he kept saying shef and it was killing me) and we would each get 3 and then we would grab a spoon. He ran and got some spoons and spread them out. We all grabbed some cards and then a spoon and started cheering. He was delighted.

The next day after the kids got home from school I told them I was going to go try to take a nap while Joshy slept. Ben came running up to me asking if he could please be in charge. I told him and the other kids that yes Ben could be in charge. He started jumping up and down with his arms in the air. I told him that Anna needed to do her homework and then when the timer rang she needed to get ready for ballet. A few minutes later he came into my room and said, "Mom, Abby said she doesn't have homework." I said, "Right, she doesn't because she was sick today so just Anna has to do hers." "Okay." A few minutes later he came in again and said, "Mom, does Abby have ballet too?" Usually Abby does have ballet before Anna, but she was sick. "No, she's sick so she's not going." "Okay." I'm seriously considering turning things completely over to him. Pretty sure he's more on top of things than I am. Although Anna told me later that while at first he was riding her pretty hard to get her homework done he later offered to let her off the hook if she would play with him.

Wednesday I was trying to get ready to go shopping, Joshua was still asleep so I decided to expedite things and pump so he could drink a bottle in the car. As I was pumping Ben came in and said something about popcorn. "You want me to make you some popcorn?" "No, I did." "WHAT? You put popcorn in the microwave?" "Yeah". "Uh, did you take the plastic off?" "Yeah, I used scissors and cut it off and I remembered what button to push." As soon as I could, I ran into the kitchen to investigate. Sure enough there was a bag of popcorn popping in the microwave. Unfortunately he didn't push the popcorn button and must have set it for 4 or 5 minutes because it was very burnt. I don't know why I'm always surprised that this child just takes matters into his own hands. It was especially funny when my almost 9 year old asked me how to microwave popcorn later that day. We love Ben.

Anna Got a Camera for Christmas

I'm so glad she did because she's a much more committed photographer than I am. Here are some good ones that she got.

the xylophone that the kids got, it's seriously been a huge hit

Nate and Rex doing what they do best, all sports all the time

Three goofy girls

my personal favorite picture, Benny with my hair - cracks me up!

"Nacho Libre" inspired wrestling masks aka underwear on their heads

Brett and Jamie (Brennan's brother and mom)

Joshua who just discovered his tongue

Lucy in Abby and Lucy's silly face contest

Abby's silly face

the boys getting serious about a toy Christmas morning

A VERY Merry Christmas!

Can you believe it's already over? Wow, we had such a nice one. I am feeling extremely grateful. Christmas Eve was so nice, Brennan's brother came in from Reno to stay with us for the week. We don't get to see him very often and he's never been to our house so we're loving having him. The kids adore him and he's great with them. I spent most of the day making our special dinner and each of the kids helped with one of our dishes. Abby helped me with her favorite fruit salad, Anna helped with our traditional wassail, Nate helped me with the mashed potatoes (I think he managed to peel one and I did 19 :)) and Ben helped me with the rolls. I have long been really intimidated by anything with yeast (making it that is, I wish I had a fear of eating it). Anyway, I decided it was high time I attempted homemade rolls. They weren't perfect, but they were much better than I expected. Yay for me!


We all enjoyed our feast and then everyone pitched in for the clean-up so we could get on with opening the jammies. After everyone got settled into their pajamas we read Luke 2 and then watched "It's a Wonderful Life" My parents joined us which was a good thing, because me, Nate and they were the only ones that could appreciate that amazing movie. Anna was in tears, Abby was sad and grumpy and Brennan couldn't take it. In his words "it's 99% sad and hard and 1% happy which is too little too late." I know what he means, but totally disagree. Anyway, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make that a tradition like it was for us growing up. Bummer.

Christmas morning started a little before 7:00 with great enthusiasm. The kids went down and woke Brett up so he could join in all the excitement. They were so rewarding as they reacted to all their gifts. It was a really fun morning. I forced myself to cook breakfast (I was running on pure adrenaline by that point) and told everyone "Merry Christmas" and went off for a long winter's nap. Perfection.


After my nap we headed to my parents' house for more fun and more gifts. My mom ordered 30 foam blocks which she sewed covers for for the kids to play with whenever we're at their house (which is a lot). They were a huge hit. They are a blast. Then she gave all us adults our gifts one of which was this:

It's a painting by my Mom of the house we grew up in, which is the same house me and my family live in now. (Brennan always hates when I say that because he worries that people will think we somehow mooched our house off my parents, so let me clarify that we bought our house from my parents.) Anyway, my Mom painted this and then had 6 copies made. Such an amazing gift. One of the sweetest moments and one of my new all-time favorite Christmas memories is when we opened our painting and I was watching my sister's reaction. I finally turned to get a closer look at ours which Brennan was holding and saw that Brennan was in tears. My sweet, funny husband was so touched and surprised by my parents' gift he literally burst into tears and was using the painting to shield himself from observation. It didn't work, and we (including Brennan) all burst into laughter, but it was sooooooo sweet. I love how tender he is.
We had a great mellow time with our family. The day after Christmas, Brennan's mom, drove up to be with her two boys and the rest of us. We had a great few days with her and Brett. She left New Year's Eve and Brett leaves tomorrow. We loved having them. It's especially been great getting to know Brett better.

The kids spent New Year's Eve with my parents and their cousins. Brennan, Brett, Joshy and me watched a movie. Today we went to my parents' for lunch (and dinner) and played some really fun games. It was the perfect way to end the holidays.