Keeping January Interesting

January can be really long and boring. We spend lots of time inside relaxing and being lazy. Especially with a mom who is getting very pregnant. Lucky for most the kids, they have school everyday. HAHA.

Luckily, they have a Dad that loves them. We made it to the pool in January and the kids had a blast. No, I was not swimming. Just observing and taking pictures. I was really there to get Sarah when her lips turned purple. :)

Let's swim! 

Playing with baby sister.  She loved the slide and went down over and over and over and over. :)

My big sister was plugging her nose so I thought I would try. :)

And, on the really good snow days the kids went outside.  One day they came home from school to a foot of snow in the drive-way.  I told them we needed to get our drive-way shoveled as Dad was not going to be home until late that evening.  They took it well and we all bundled up to get shoveling.  The kids must have been really good that day because not long after we started our neighbors across the street (they have 6 boys) came over.  With their snowblower and 3 extra boys to shovel our driveway was cleared in no time.  The kids got to just enjoy a great time playing in the snow after that. 

I can't help it.  I just love these girls.  They are so cute!

A Shrimp Sized Amount of Patience

Yesterday was Saturday.  A glorious day when my house is always clean (by about 2pm) from top to bottom and we generally don't have much of a schedule.  Nate wanted to shop for some shoes in SLC and then we were going to stop by IKEA, just for fun.

Some plans just turn out wrong.  We went to Fashion Place because Nate wanted a Sears.  Alas, when we got there we found the store was closing and had already sold out 90% of it's inventory.  Disappointing, but we still needed food, right?  We walked to the food court.  Now, I don't know exactly what is wrong with me.  Sometimes my patience is just not existent.  We ordered some corn dogs at the Corn Dog Factory and I was in the middle of paying when Ben informed me that he didn't want a corn dog.  Whatever?!  I was annoyed and I wasn't going to get him something else.  He was being kind of argumentative.  We had already had a little squabble earlier that day in which I had yelled at him.  I mean, I really yelled at him.  I had to apologize later.  Anyway, here I was, buying him dinner and he was complaining.  Right there in front of the cashier I gave Ben a swack on the forehead.  Not sure what a swack is...well, neither am I.  It is kind of like a little hit on the forehead, like you are trying to kill a bug sitting there.  I also told him he was acting like a jerk.  What, you can't believe I said that.  Neither can I.  It was really a sign of my lack of control.  Anyway, I felt pretty bad about it and found myself apologizing once again.

As we ate I began sharing tastes of my shrimp (from the Japanese place) with the kids.  At first Ben told me he was allergic to shrimp and he didn't want any.  I was trying to make up for my bad behavior earlier so I encouraged him to try it.  I figured that he probably really wasn't allergic to it.  He decided to try.  One bite and about 1 minute later the allergic reaction set in.  Your throat starts to itch, your ear canals start to itch and the space in your esophagus seems to shrink.  He was not very happy and I felt even worse.  I should have listened when he told me he didn't want any.  Before we got out of the mall Ben had thrown up on the floor on his way to the bathroom.  I think he was having a bit of anxiety about his throat.  I was worried we were going to have to take him to the ER but luckily, he seemed to maintain the ability to breath.  We ran over to ShopKo for Benadryl.  Our night ended.  Ben did not recover fully for a couple of hours.  No IKEA trip for me.  I guess that was my penance for the whole thing. Next time I will remember - keep Ben away from shrimp.  And, on a more personal side, recognize my limits and be the one to stop talking, walk away, or totally ignore the situation so that I don't do something I regret.

Motherhood is tough.   

Nate is Great!

Nate had his 37th birthday this week.  Yes, I did say 37.  His birthdays are never super exciting since it falls right after Christmas.  However, the kids did decorate for him and we made him his favorite "No Bake" cheesecake.  I've made that for him every year since we got married.  It's kind of tradition now so even if he decided he didn't want it we would still have to do it.

I pulled some pictures from years past.  Nate is always such a good sport no matter what we do for his birthday.  It shows on his smiling face and the smiles of his kids.  They just love celebrating their Dad because...well, frankly, he's the BEST!  I can't even deny it.  So, even though we didn't do anything super awesome and we actually just walked around the mall for his Birthday, Nate just smiled and let his kids enjoy his day.

I am taking him on a one night get away on the first weekend in February...so that is his real birthday.  To get those kind of perks we have to take what we can when we can.  Anyway, Happy Birthday to my best friend.  I love  you!!!!

Sundays and Quelf and the New Year

My brother and his wife gave us this game for Christmas.  We played today.  I had to lay on the floor like a puppy and pretend to be sleeping for five minutes.  I had to copy everything Nathan said for 5 minutes....which he easily made me mess up. Someone had to build a pretend snowman.  Someone had to pretend to pick someone elses nose.  Nate had to smell an armpit.  The list of random things went on and on...but it was a good laugh for everyone. Except for when kids were angry because mom laughed when I shouldn't have ...or snuck other kids ahead in the game because I felt bad they were so behind.  Then there was the time that Rachel fell off the table.  I don't know how that happened.  Emily ran upstairs to throw up during one part of the game.  Random things happened during the game of randomness.  However, we also laughed so hard we cried a couple of times.  It was a fun game. 

Sundays are generally long at our house since we try to observe the Sabbath.  Mostly, that means no video games and no TV (except when people are sick).  It is how we end up playing most of our board games.   The last 5 weeks we have had sick people every week.  Today was the day I thought we would all return to our former glorious selves.  Attending church and having a truly Sabbath Sabbath Day.  Alas, at breakfast Emily puked all over the floor.  Thus began another Sunday of Nate and I tag teaming and another Sunday of letting go of our Sabbath Day rules so that the little sick person could be happy.  Oh well.  Maybe next week we will be glorious.  Today we will watch movies, play video games and allow Nate to watch football downstairs in front of everyone.  He usually tries to watch it sneakly up in our room.  We all catch him doing it.  :)

So begins the new year.  I have absolutely no goals.  I am having a new baby this year.  I figure nothing else I do could beat that so why bother. ;) I have enough to keep up with everyday that I can't drop the ball on.  Adding a New Years goal just seems like a burden.  This year I am just going to keep the balls in the air that are already there.  I will be easy on myself and allow my self all the leway in the world to mess up and be mediocre.  I hope to continue to be able to handle work and the kids... and survive having two babies and working at the same time.  I hope to maintain my kids doing a chore everyday and I hope to keep making them do their homework everyday.  I hope that we will keep spending time as a family and reading a scripture together at dinner.  I hope we make some more good memories this year like we did last year.  I hope my kids will know how much I love them even while I am losing my patience with them over chores, fighting, and homework.  I hope that the kids are young enough that they will forget most of that anyway.  I hope that's enough.  Happy New Year!


 

My Last Post of 2012

Signing off for 2012.  We have had a good year.  I am looking forward to next year with excitement and a bit of anxiety.  2013 will bring the last little bundle to our family.  We have plans to finish the basement so that baby boy Baxter can have a home of his own upstairs and Ben can move downstairs.  It will be a big project and I hope we can pull it off as soon as possible. 

I have personal plans to find some time to take care of myself better.  I know, it sounds a bit selfish.  But, this pregnancy has made me realize that I am not as young anymore and I need to start taking care of my health.  I will have 5 kids to keep up with and I don't want to be a stick in the mud.  I want to get my kids out and doing lots of things.  And..really...after a while you just start to realize that it's ok to find a bit of yourself again.  Life keeps changing.  I am ready to change with it a bit.  :)

Can't wait for all the experiences of 2013.  Happy New Year!!

Having Fun in Spite of it All.

 We have been planning to take the Front Runner to Temple square with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of months.  Our last chance came a couple of days after Christmas so we decided to seize the opportunity...sick kids and all.  They were getting a little better by then.  :)  The train is always a good time.  We will be excited to use it again.  That was always something we loved about living in Ogden.  Now we can enjoy it here. 

 We made it to Temple square.  I think we spent more time inside the visitor's centers then actually walking around...but we did it.  By the time we went to eat the kids were pretty spent.  We made it back on the train around 9pm.  Then...we managed to miss the American Fork stop.  We took too long to gather our stuff.  Word to the wise when you ride the train.  Be waiting by the door.  :)  It still worked out.  We rode to the Orem stop and we were able to catch the train going back the other direction.  It only set us back 20 more minutes.  And, I kept telling the tired and sick kids how they would never forget the trip because of our little mishap. 

 My parents were good sports being patient with the sick kids and sharing the experience with us.  We were all happy to get into bed that night. 

Good bye to Temple lights until next year when we will do it all again. 

Have a Very Contagious Christmas!

Well, I have never had a year of complete and utter sickness for the entire holiday...but I guess everyone has to have it some time. I think this year a lot of people were hit hard over the holidays. Our kids all woke up a couple days before Christmas sick with something. They spent the next four days downing tylenol, sleeping, and watching TV. They did manage to open their Christmas gifts but it wasn't with as much excitement as we would usually see. Christmas Eve we debated...but finally decided to go ahead and participate in the Stalker Family Christmas Eve Party. Most of them were already exposed to the sickness anyway since it was going around at the grand kid party. Nate and I were glad we went even though the kids didn't do much more than sit on the couch and sip little bits of sprite. It would have been lonely to miss the party and the family.

Christmas morning we had to bring everything to Ben and Rachel on the couch. Sad kids. Emily is always our little trooper and she seems to keep her cheer despite most things.  So around 9pm we all made it downstairs to celebrate Christmas. 

Sarah is always such a sweet heart and due to the fact that she had a flu shot, she only ended up with a runny nose during the entire sickness saga.  I was so glad.  I don't know if Nate and I could have handled another sick kiddo.  We really had our hands full.  I felt bad for Nathan dealing with all this sickness for his big vacation but I was so glad he was there to help out. 

I know...the barbie house is gigantic.  It may have been a bit of an extravagant purchase but I just couldn't resist.  Besides, I have three girls who can enjoy it for years to come.  Sarah can use it as a playhouse.  ;)

So, Christmas was a bit of a challenge.  I am kind of relieved it is over.  Nate and I go back to work tomorrow.  The kids go back to school the next day.  For the most part our sicknesses are winding down.  Nate and I still have colds but the kids are definitely better.  And really, despite everything, we still enjoyed our time together.