Update

I could probably cut this way down and just sum up the last few weeks by two words: sickness and Olympics. That's pretty much what we've been doing. You know I can't just leave it to that though, right? I mean come on, two words? That would kill me.

So for the sickness part, as you faithful readers will recall we took Joshua to the ER last Sunday morning and fortunately he tested negative for RSV. He's been pretty good this week, but just hasn't totally gotten over the cold and I'm not sure about his ears either. He had a couple of really rough nights, but I'm not sure why he wasn't struggling to breath or anything I'm wondering if it was his tummy from the antibiotics. Then Friday morning I woke up in the night and got a very nasty case of the throw-ups. Last night Abby and Brennan joined the club. Fortunately this seems to be the 24 hour thing and I'm feeling great and I think they'll be feeling a lot better soon. Hopefully, this will remain an elite club of just the three of us!

I've really tried to keep Joshua home the last few weeks and so I haven't seen much of the outside world lately. I've discovered a crucial key to happiness in these times and that is: take things a second at a time. If I start looking ahead, wondering how I'm going to get back into my exercise regime, or shower or make dinner I start to get a little crazy. If, however, I don't look ahead and just deal with the tiniest sliver of the present I can usually stay calm and sometimes even enjoy the mellowness of it all. Fortunately, too, having 5 kids teaches you that babies are only babies for 2.5 seconds and while it would be nice to sleep each night, it's sooo temporary.

Brennan has been a champ again. He took such good care of me and everyone else yesterday. I was laying in bed worrying about whether Anna would remember to turn in her book report and take her lunch or whether Brennan would remember to pick up the carpool and give baby love his medicine and guess what they did it all. I'm starting to think that maybe, just maybe, we women worry too much. Anyway, Brennan has been in the trenches right along side me through many sleepless nights with Joshy and I am so grateful to have a partner in all this. I love Brennan.

Anna has been incredibly helpful too. She came home from school yesterday and completely took over with Joshua. She knows just how to calm him down, and keep him happy and loves him to death. They had their cast party yesterday for their play they did last week and Anna was supposed to bring a treat. She made no bake cookies all by herself, and they turned out great. I was very proud of her. She and Chloe were here last night and they asked if they could go watch tv downstairs, but instead the little kids started doing "gymnastic" tricks on an old mattress and Chloe and Anna got way into it dressing up as reporters and announcing the gymnasts and their tricks. I love that they are so creative and not to cool yet for those kinds of things. We love Anna.

Abigail saw one of those little coupons tucked into an American Girl catalog, it said, "Free Catalogue!" but she misread it and excitedly said, "Oh my gosh, I am SO keeping this! I can get free college!!!!!" I'm so glad she's on the look out for a good deal for her college education. If only. We tease Abby that while she can be extremely graceful and coordinated, she is also a gifted klutz. The other night she came into the kitchen, stepped around Joshy's exer-saucer which was in the middle of the path and told me something. When we finished there was a VERY loud bang, bam, crash, smack. We looked over and there was Abby sprawled out on the exer-saucer. She gets a little ahead of herself sometimes and leaps before she looks. She's a great sport about laughing at herself and letting us laugh with her. We love Abigail.

Nathan reported to me that Ben should not get in trouble because he was not "traticipating". I love the words he comes up with. He has been our Olympic fan and is obsessed with short-track speed skating. Last week we got to go watch Nate in the first grade patriotic program and it was fabulous. I LOVE watching him in these things because he furrows his brow, looks right at the chorister and sings his little heart right out. He is so focused it cracks me up especially when he's singing a light happy little song and he looks like he's getting dental work done. I'm also always struck by how handsome he is, I know I'm prejudiced, but I can't get enough of his face. We love Nate.

Benny has been a great sport about being cooped up lately. My sweet neighbor has 4 little kids, Ty, Diana, Will and Daisy. Ben loves playing with them and has kind of combined them into one name: Tyana. He is always wanting to go to Tyana's. Nate and Ben were playing football yesterday. Ben has learned that when things aren't going his way play sick. Yesterday he was upset because he wanted the storm trooper action figure, but Nate had it. He collapsed into tears and on the ground saying, "My stomach hurts because I don't have the storm trooper!" Brennan and I watched them tackle each other and then Ben stood up and pretended to throw up. Evidently he's decided the ultimate in toughness is to play so hard you vomit. Awesome. We love Ben.

Joshua is a long-suffering, sweet little chubs. The people at the ER were cracking up at his "stoutness" as they put it. He's had to deal with one form or another of sickness for basically 2 months now, but still manages to be adorably sweet and happy most of the time. He's so social and loves to engage everyone and anyone. Yesterday about broke my heart when he kept looking at me wondering why I wasn't picking him up. I missed him!!! We love Joshy.

Oh the Drama

We've had quite a weekend. Beginning with the big ACPP's (Anna, Chloe Play Productions) production of "The Princess and the Pauper" We had a bit of a scare when we lost our venue, but luckily Chloe's mom is a school teacher and pulled some strings and saved the day by getting the school. I always have a mild heart-attack before these performances because I realize I have no idea what is going to be performed. Rehearsals were at my house every week, but they were downstairs in another universe and I never saw it. Anyway, people paid to have their daughters be part of this and it always makes me nervous. Yet again, however, I was totally blown away. Anna and Chloe were completely organized, figured out scenery, props and costumes completely on their own. They made the best of the location change which actually turned out to be a blessing because they were able to use the big steps and be closer to the audience rather than a huge stage far away.

WARNING: Some serious parental pride ahead!

We were mostly totally blown away with the performances. All the girls in the play did such a darling job, but we were especially proud of Anna and Abby. Abby was one of the leads and I kind of had no idea what to expect. She was totally confident, poised and had real genuine stage presence. And, it was a musical and you should have heard her belting out her songs. Brennan and I looked at each other and both kind of burst into tears (I know, we're out of control). Anna, we knew could perform, but she had to play like 4 different pats including a prince. Her other character was the comic relief and she totally hammed it up in the most delightful way. She too, has such a great voice and even managed to sing as a boy in a love song with Abby. SOOOOO cute. Here are some pics. and video clips for your viewing pleasure:

This first one is the duet with Anna (as a boy) and Abby. (They sang along with a CD which also had singing on it, so that's why you'll hear other people singing)

Untitled from Andrea W. on Vimeo.

Anna as the clumsy villain

Meg the Princess and Abby the Pauper

The whole cast

The lovely princess


Our sweet pauper

This is a little snippet of the finale.

Untitled from Andrea W. on Vimeo.

Our other weekend drama included a little trip to the ER for Joshua. Poor baby is currently battling round three of ear infections and then Saturday night was working hard to breathe. Sunday morning we called my parents who kindly took the 4 big kids all day while Brennan and I took Joshua to the hospital. They thought for sure he had RSV but he tested negative for it. They observed him for a while and then sent us home with an inhaler and what to watch for. He was so sweet through it all.

My mom reported that not suprisingly our emotional little crew back at home were upset and worried about their baby brother. Several of them were in tears and at one point my Mom walked into a bedroom where she saw Anna reading the scriptures to Abby and Nate in an effort to comfort them. So sweet. Nate also showed my Dad that he'd brought one of Joshua's socks to their house saying that Anna had suggested they have something to remind them of Joshy.

I will be the first to admit that the emotions around here are sometimes a little out of control and often run amok. When someone around here feels something, pretty much everyone in the world will be well aware of it. I'm probably the least emotional of the bunch, but I'm getting more and more so every day. Anyway, all that drama and feeling does have an upside and it was all put to very good use this weekend. We love our affectionate crazies very much.

Princess and the Pauper - Venue change

Due to a funeral needing our church building the girls' play will be changed to our school (down by Smiths). Hope no one feels pressure to come, just wanted you to know where it is if you were planning on it. Thanks!

Love is in the Air

I need to record what turned out to be my favorite Valentine's Day ever. Last Monday for our FHE lesson we talked about service and how important it must be because that's what Jesus spent his days on earth doing. We then wrote all our names (except Joshy) and each of us took turns drawing one of the names. The name we drew was our secret valentine and we had to do some kind of anonymous service for our person every day until Valentine's Day.

I LOVED seeing what everyone came up with. There were lots of treats left on pillows and cute pictures drawn. My favorite though was Nate leaving a pile of goldfish crackers on Anna's bed. I had Ben and everyday he'd come out and show me something he'd found on his bed. I'd say, "Wow, is that from your secret valentine?" "No." "Yeah, I think it is." So very cute and the kids really didn't need to be reminded they looked so forward to doing something kind each day. Sunday we each wrote a letter to our person and told them what we love about them and signed our name so they knew who had been serving them. It was so much fun. It showed me once again that in spite of all our problems and weaknesses, we are blessed with lots of love in our home.

Also, not much in life is more awesome than the Olympics, right? LOVING them.

Creativity

A little while ago the girls found some felt I had and created dresses for their dolls with the felt and stapler. I think they turned out so cute.

Anna's dress on the left and Abby's on the right.

Our festive holiday girl made this headband and decorated her shirt for their Valentine's party at school.



Now here's some creativity of a different kind altogether. Ben and Abe always run around at my mom's house with these nerf swords down their shirts and it cracks me up.

Oh and last but not least, you are all invited if you want to (no pressure) to come to Anna and Chloe's production of "The Princess and the Pauper" this Saturday at our church at 1:25 pm. Admission free.

Photo Catch-up

I'm a little behind on my photos here, so here's some things I wanted to get posted. This first photo is my parents' birthday date with Abby. They took her to a special art workshop at a nearby children's museum. You can see what she painted, isn't it great? She LOVED it. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Next up, Nate's class went to the State Capitol last week so my Dad kindly squeezed them into his schedule and spoke to them for a few minutes and showed them the Governor's office. They were really impressed. Nate was so proud to show off his Grandpa and his two little brothers.

Lastly, Eliza and I took the kids to the park today perhaps a little prematurely. It was kind of freezing, but still fun. Here's Belle:

Here's my sleepy drooling baby chubs that we love.

Hello Again

I think this is probably a record radio silence for me. Weird. It's not like anything too spectacular has been preventing me, just been holding a very chubby baby a lot or too tired to think, let alone to try to string two coherent thoughts together. Poor chubs has double ear infections and before we found that out Ben had a stomach bug and then Sunday Nate got it. Good times. I'm okay with it because just in the last few days I've felt like maybe winter will indeed end, the end of January is always a good sign, and I wasn't sure if it was going to end this year. Whew. I've been reading and hearing a lot about how much people hate January, and I'm with you; however, I will say in January's defense that it's one of the reasons Spring is so spectacular.

Now onto aforementioned chubby baby, Joshua. When I finally took him to the doctor, (I could not decide if he was sick or not, he was sleeping pretty terribly but still so sweet and happy in the day) even the doctor said she had not expected to see infected ears because he was so happy and smiley. He truly is off the charts adorable and sweet. He has started having opinions about where I am in relation to him though. It cracks me up he'll be sitting playing or happily sitting with Brennan and if I walk out of the room he'll start crying the most heart broken cry. I think he's got great taste :). It's good to have a fan club however small. He's also gotten really grabby lately which totally catches me off guard and cracks me up everytime. I'll be holding him and walking through the kitchen and then suddenly notice that Joshua is holding a bread bag he snagged off the counter. So funny. We love Joshua.

Benjamin goes back and forth between the most entertaining, delightful little guy to a crazed irrational 3 year old. Mostly he's the delightful version of himself which is fortunate. Brennan took the boys to a hockey game the other night and on the way home he could tell Ben was getting sleepy. He kept telling him to stay awake (even a 5 minute cat nap could energize him for hours). One time he looked back and saw Ben's eyes closed so he said, "Ben, don't go to sleep." Sleepy boy managed to say, "I'm just making birthday wishes." Not bad, eh? He is such a great little companion and gets so excited when I make a few minutes to do a puzzle or play a game with him. We love Benjamin.

Poor little Natey got so sick. He was a brave little sick boy and never asked for anything. I kind of had to force him to accept my attentions. I think the hardest part about being sick for him was having to stay away from Joshua. He is way into football lately and frequently drops football terminology. The other day I kind of quizzed him to see if he knew what any of the terms he'd used meant and he did. He's got a good teacher and plenty of opportunities to increase his knowledge :).

Abigail had a program at school which was centered around the Chinese New Year. She gets so excited about these performances and sings her little heart out. I love watching her perform. Because Abby is so on top of everything, she's always ready for school first, ready for bed first, etc. she's my most available helper. I ask a lot of her and want it on the record how much I appreciate her and all she does to help me and her siblings. We love Abigail.

I had an SEP conference with Anna and her teacher last week and as I went through a file of her work I got to read a creative writing piece she'd written. I burst out laughing several times at her wit and her cute sense of humor that came through in her writing. It was one of those moments when you see your child as someone completely independent of you and our home, she's a real person with a very developed sense of identity and sense of humor and a fantastic writer. She has her performance tonight for their 6th grade musical review "On the Radio" which I can't wait to see her in. We love Anna.

Lately I'm feeling extremely grateful for Brennan. He's been incredibly helpful lately, especially with the sick kids. He totally took care of Nate while I stayed at a family function with the rest of the kids and stayed up late into the night with him while I slept with sick little Joshy. We all tease him that he's got life pretty good because of all the flexibility his job gives him to golf etc., but he wouldn't have that flexibility if he wasn't so good at what he does. He really does work hard and he also knows how to enjoy life and keep a good balance. He's super involved with the kids and helping out around here. We are fortunate to live close to much of my family and extended family and he knows how important they are to me and is always ready and willing for our many get-togethers. He's always willing to let me get a break from responsibilities and patiently puts up with my shortcomings. I love Brennan.