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.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

Today was precisely the day we needed around here. Maybe we won't have to cancel Christmas and maybe I won't be forced into early retirement. As it turns out when my kids get some sleep and actual food (as opposed to subsisting wholly on sugar) they're quite delightful.

I spent the morning walking with a good friend who also happens to be my aunt, and then visited with some other friends. That's always a great way to start things off. Then my sister and her kids came over and I helped Eliza and my girls make these:

I know you can't tell from the photo, but they're actually hairclips, cute huh?

Anna made the ones on the left and Abby's are on the right

It was fun to teach my girls and my 24 year old sister how to thread a needle and do a little hand-stitching. :) We both felt very uncharacteristically crafty.

After Lizey and Abe and Belle left the kids and I settled in and watched Polar Express. Brennan came home a bit early and took and nap with Joshy while I went into Ben's room to help him find the pair of pants he wanted (he decided around 4 pm to change out of his jammies). While I was in there Nate's bed looked so inviting I gave in and took a nap in it.

When I woke up the boys were playing happily, the girls were outside playing barbies in the snow and so I made dinner accompanied by my very favorite Christmas music and assisted by Nate and Ben. Seriously, if you've never heard of Cori Connors, you really should. She has two Christmas albums and I'm completely in love with both of them. There's something kind of melancholy about the first album "Sleepy Little Town", but it's also deliciously cozy and comforting. The new album is called "One Small Boy". LOVE them.

After dinner the 4 big kids went outside to sled on our driveway. After that Brennan got the boys to bed and I let the girls watch part of White Christmas with me and then sent them to bed and started wrapping gifts while I finished the movie. Lovely day.

Here are some recent photos:

Here's how the kids entertained themselves yesterday, dressing up and posing

Family Christmas party
Molly, my neice, sweetest angel EVER!

Another niece, Belle, the cutest and craziest camel, EVER.

Benny the Shepherd


Abe the star

a photo of Brennan smiling, just look at those blue eyes!

What I Did Today

What a day, what a day. It started with reminding Anna somewhere between 44 and 63 times to grab her teacher gift and card, loading all 5 kids into the car for carpool, realizing I forgot Ben's beep (pacifier, yes he still has it and no he can't drive for 1 1/2 miles without it), coming in to find the beep and seeing Anna's teacher gift and card on the counter. Sigh.

Benny, Joshy and I then enjoyed a few quiet hours where I was going to get all kinds of things done but somehow managed to get almost nothing done besides feeding, bathing, changing, nursing Joshua. Kids get out early on Fridays, so before we knew it it was time to pick them up. We ran to Smith's first to get more eggs so Anna could make cookies for her friend's cookie exchange party. Picked up kids on the way home from grocery store then came home and helped Anna get started on cookie dough. I had to run Abby to her friend's house so I left Anna in charge of Ben and Nate and told her to finish the dough by adding 5 cups of flour. Joshua and I ran Abby to Paige's and came home to find Anna trying to mix dough that was much too thick and flourery. Dumped dough in the garbage and started over. Finally got dough done, and into the cookie press then into the oven. Finished cookies and ran Anna and her friend to their party. Came home to get more done, managed to sort of clean out the car and pack Nate for his overnighter with his cousin.

5:10 Pump. Anna walks in from party, load her, Nate, Ben and Joshua in the car and go pick up Abby. Swing by Arby's for kids' dinner. Drive to our nearby "big" city (while using my double jointed arm to reach back and feed Joshy his bottle) to meet my brother to hand Nate off for Rex's birthday party. Drive to sister's house to drop off girls to watch her kids, drive home.

6:45, get home, greet Brennan, feed Joshua baby food, get him ready for bed, nurse him while Ben sits with us to stroke my hair.

8:00, all is quiet, Brennan laying with Ben, Joshua asleep, Anna and Abby not home yet, Nate at Rex's. I start organizing choir folders for tomorrow's rehearsal.

9:00, girls come home, get ready for bed in a flash, okay that was wishful thinking, really it took 45 minutes.

10:00, finish folders, start cleaning the kitchen.

10:30 sitting at the computer wondering why on earth I felt compelled to write this rather than just going to bed. I guess sometimes I just need to see what I do all day because based on what I have to show for today: a batch of cookie dough in the garbage, laundry still unfolded, messes as far as the eye can see, memories of impatient things I said to the kids all day, and about 4 days' worth of stuff to do tomorrow -- I think I should fire myself or at the very least force myself to resign :).

Update

I'm kind of dying because tonight Brennan said, "Uh, did you know Joshua has been teething?" "No." "He has a tooth." My little 5 month old baby boy totally has a tooth poking out of his gum. I had no idea. I kind of got this rush of sadness and pride. As strange as it sounds I was proud of him because he seems to be just this darling little blob, but he's actually been being productive growing a tooth for who knows how long and hardly even fussy. I felt so sad because I don't want him to grow up so fast. In 2 seconds he'll be moving out and I want to hold on to all my kids! Okay, yes now you know how completely neurotic I am. We love Joshua.

Benjamin very patiently ran a lot of errands with me today. At one point he was ready to be done and wanted some food. I promised him if he could get whatever he wanted to eat if he just let me finish. By the time we were finally checking out Ben told me he was totally out of energy. I bought him some lunch and an Icee. As we sat down to let him eat he took a few sips of his Icee and said (with an enthusiasm in his voice that you just have to hear to believe) "MOM, I'm starting to get more ENERGY!" Today he asked me, "Mom, what's Abe's first name?" I said, "Well it's Abe, or Abraham." "Oh yeah, Abraham, GREAT job, Mom!" We love Ben.





Speaking of teeth, did I mention Nate lost one of his top front teeth? I love how he looks. He wonders why whenever an adult notices his missing tooth they start singing "All I want for Christmas is my one front tooth, my one front tooth." (The other one is loose and I'm really hoping he'll lose it before Christmas so we can sing the song correctly). Nate has been really worried about the fact that there aren't any presents under the tree. He asks me every day if I've bought any yet. I really need to get wrapping so the poor boy can relax. We love Nathan.

Can I tell you how nice it is to have a child that reminds me about the things she has going on. So often as a mom you have to just sort of be the brain for everyone in your family and keep track of where 7 different people are supposed to be and bring and do and eat at all times. Actually I only have to do that for 6 people because Abby is on it. She's also such a little nurturer and LOVES it when I ask her to get Joshua dressed or hold him when he's drinking a bottle. We love Abigail.

Anna and Chloe had their class here yesterday and our cute little neighbor girl (she's 4) got to stay after a little bit so her Mom could finish some errands. Both Anna and Abby were playing "doggy" with her. I was heating up leftovers for dinner and Diana didn't want any. I knew her Mom would be here to get her soon so I didn't worry too much about the fact she wasn't eating, but Anna wouldn't rest until Diana finally ate a bowl of cereal. I love how much she loves little ones. We love Anna.