The rest of the month

 

Here are some things we did, the rest of the month:

We went to a nativity/creche display that one of the LDS churches puts on here.  It’s one of my favorite things and I was SO HAPPY that Gabe wanted to read every word of the brochure and go slowly through the displays.  He was my buddy, willingly:

Meanwhile, Seth was dressing up as a cow and bowing to baby Jesus in the children’s section:

 

Some of us got more out the display than others. 

This is the “Sunday Christmas Outfit Picture”.  It’s only remarkable because, wait for it, this was the FIRST picture I took.  As in:  I took one picture and it was good and I didn’t have to take 276 more to get everyone to look at the camera.  Christmas miracle.

And, even though I was admittedly grinchy and stressed out throughout much of December, here is evidence no one needs to call Child Protective Services:

We made and frosted Sugar Cookies

and made and decorated Gingerbread Houses.

(Although, whether adding MORE sugar to my diet made me a nice mom is definitely debatable.)

And here is Emma’s Christmas violin concert.  Is it even possible to take a useful picture at a kid’s concert?!

This is when we went ice-skating walking.  Meaning: Emma, Gabe and Jane skated around the rink, while Ryan and I hobbled, bent over, desperately trying to keep two peoples’ balance for an hour.

Ooh!  Here’s a highlight! Ryan’s work put on a fabulous Christmas party—lake cruise, buffet dinner, fun dinner companions, fabulous prizes.  And we won won of those fabulous prizes!  THE LAPTOP I AM CURRENTLY TYPING ON!  Yay, F5 Networks.

We completely finished decorating and organizing our basement and kids #4 and 5 play for hours in our art corner.  Plus, it’s so cute.

Faith and I visited the elementary school for the class parties.  Here are Jane and Faith and Gabe with his candy train:

And Gabe and his neighborhood buddies didn’t let a little snow slow them down when it comes to playing “Dominoes” on the trampoline.

And Seth got this ridiculous looking coat.  Because I was frustrated with his zipper on the old coat and ripped it off.  (See? bad mood all month.)  Luckily Gap was having a %40 off sale and I had Gap Rewards and it was clearanced, so my temper only cost me $10 for the new coat.  Plus he looks like he’s heading off to the Artic every time he puts it on…so it was pretty much worth it.

And we had the best New Years Eve ever.  I’ll have to post sometime about the details of my Progressive Party.  Kids and adults mingling without hardly any crazy, plus yummy food, plus funny games, plus actually staying up till midnight equals a truly awesome evening.  (You’ll notice my kids aren’t in this picture.  We sent them home to bed early around 10.  Which made it even more fun…)

I’m glad we only take pictures of the happy and light-hearted. No pictures of certain wrapping paper throwing instances or venting conversations to Ryan that prompted Seth to admonish me “When Heavenly Father gets stressed out, I don’t think He says ‘Stupid’ that many times.” or the 20 pieces of fudge that entered my face.

That way in 10 years, we’ll all forget that December 2010 was hard and only remember, hopefully, that despite it all, we did some fun stuff.

Bekah’s Birthday

Bekah is…

--the sister I finally got after waiting for 13 years!

--the family picture taker and distributor

--the family member that regularly talks to everyone.  If you want to know what’s going on with _________, call her.

--so determined.  There are a few things she’s done (graduated from Running Start when Utah doesn’t really have a program, etc.) that I am in awe of.

--the girl who can grow enough hair that she’s donated it to Lock of Love and/or sold it a few times.

--careful and organized. 

--devoted to her nieces and nephews

--the owner nicest teeth some dentists have ever seen!

--always up for a trip (Switzerland, Israel, church history sights, most of the temples in North America, to name only a few!)

--strictly obedient

--an exerciser, a reader, an employee at Church Headquarters, a BYU grad, a flosser, a beauty, a decorator.

(not her babies…these are my cute new twin nieces—daughters of Nate—Aubree and Brynlie.  I wanted to put this picture in because it’s a. pretty of Bekah and b. hello!  twin neices.)

--23 years old today!

The Christmas Report

Frankly, December was tough for me:  too much to do, too little sun, too difficult 2 year old, too much eating.  But…

Christmas was really lovely.  It was the first Christmas that we’ve ever spent with just our little (big?) family and it was nice to just connect and enjoy each other on that level. 

We all donned the obligatory Christmas attire and headed out for our restaurant-and-a-movie Christmas Eve tradition. 

The restaurant was so kid friendly and pretty low stress.

 

Faith found a boyfriend there:

 

We watched Tangled for our movie and I concur with everyone else:  super great. 

We went to the Daines for our Bethlehem night tradition: bathrobe Bethlehem attire, candlelight, fish, pitas, hummus, no utensils, silly cousins. 

We did a ridiculously irreverent Nativity Play and opened PJs and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus.

We love the easy-going familiarity and good spirit we feel when we’re with the Daines.

Christmas morning was early for us. 

We’d bargained 6:00 am with Gabe and at 5:45 we got a knock on our door “Um.  I know you said 6:00, but I thought you’d want time to comb hair and take pictures, so I thought I’d make sure you had 15 minutes.”  Thanks, Gabe.

Seth won for Most Enthusiastic during present opening.

…especially when the whale/dolphin pillow pet made it’s appearance near the end.  He was sweating that one.  We finally got a Wii and though the big kids found out about it early (such a bummer to not get a Pay-off Reaction for such a begged for present!), it’s been the most popular present by a mile.

We spent the day playing games, watching movies, taking a chilly walk, doing puzzles. 

I didn’t make any special Christmas meal on the 25th (I was tired of spending my holidays in the kitchen!), so I made our “fancy” meal the next day (Sunday). 

I honestly couldn’t imagine that the grouchiness and stress of the first few weeks of the month would go away, but it did and paid off in a sweet, easy, blessed holiday with my favorite people in the world.

Sitting at the movies with Faith

1:24 pm-- Faith would like to sit on your lap for 1.9 seconds.
1:27 pm-- Faith would like to sit on your lap for 2.6 seconds.



1:31pm-- Faith would like to sit on your lap for .9 seconds.
1:34 pm-- Faith would like to sit on your lap for 4.7 seconds.
1:39pm-- Faith would like to sit on your lap for 3 seconds.


1:44 pm-- Faith would like to sit on your lap for 1.3 seconds.




1:58 pm-- your lap would like Faith to take a nap for 2.3 hours.

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Yeah...not so much

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A few of my favorite things #2

(blogging from my phone due to computer virus!)

Things that made it fun to be a mom this week:

--Emma has a good sense of style
--that F went back to sleep in our bed this morning
--E doesn't stay mad long
--G unasked distracting F so I could get stuff done
--that Seth wore this for 4 straight days



--J continuing to blow everyone out of the water on our memorization project
--E asked me"can I start the soup for you?" when I was late coming home from scouts
--E is such a good example
--E and G are such good friends
--J quick to forgive
--when I pray about S all I can ever think of to ask is that I can appreciate and soak him in!
--F is so smart: knows her shapes and letters t and o
--S is so good at playing alone
--F is such a cute talker. So fun to hear all day!
--I was happy G sought me for help in a social situation
--I got a raving text about how great E is after babysitting one of my friend's kids.
--G had such enthusiasm at his concert. Everyone came up and commented after!
--J is loving speech therapy.

Just typing this makes me less grouchy to start our weekly deep cleaning jobs. Maybe I'll refer back a few times when I see Seth drying the floor with his head or notice Gabe's dusting has missed a few (million) spots.


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Quick Quote

We take a break from the My Children Are Great Love Festival to add this bit of reality:

(I don’t think he’s trying to strangle her…)

After a frustrating day, Ryan had this to say "If your appliances functioned as poorly as your children, you'd take them back.”  (And knowing me, I’d probably ask to speak to a few managers and make them send me new ones.)

Snovember (did I steal that title from another Spokane blogger? Probably)

 

The month started with Faith’s birthday.  (Little tip:  if you have the option of having your membranes stripped on Halloween: Don’t do it.  I know all you want is to get the baby out of there and that you think that having a birthday the day after Halloween can’t be bad.  It is.  You are exhausted from Halloween week, want to retch at the idea of a cake and no one wants to party after 72 parties, anyway.  Good thing she was only two and had no idea how badly she was shorted this year.)

Here’s some pictures from the day. 

With presents:

With her darling kitchen that she only plays with if I bribe an older sibling to go down there with her.

With her cake (the tiniest, store bought thing that Safeway had to offer):

Before she fell asleep, while I rocked her like a little baby:

  

Also, on her birthday, our Pediatric dentist offered a “$1 per pound of candy” deal.  The kids were not too interested until I mentioned that Free Kids Meals at Red Robin were being offered.  They jumped.  This picture was front and center in the local paper the next week (maybe because the dentist was also our hometeacher??)

 

Also, I’m over Wolves in Cub Scouts.  And I love it.  Even after I had a mini-breakdown when the member of the bishopric (also known as Ryan) called me.  Even though I have no boys that age.  Even though it’s after school on our busiest night.  Even though I already have another calling.  Somehow that’s how callings work.  You say yes and even though there isn’t much in it for you…you walk away at the end with a happy feeling.

Also, this is how Faith spends her entire day.  Pushing our step-stool around like she’s 85 and this is her walker.  Mind your toes while in our kitchen.  Faith has counters to see over and egg cartons to get into.

 

My old iPhone broke.  Ryan got me a nice new one.  Gabe walks around the house pretending the broken iPhone is his.  (Could he teach some of that “imaginative play” to Faith so she’ll use her play kitchen?)  Here he is taking a picture of his PRETEND iPhone.

Also, we had the snowiest November on record.  LOVE breaking records like that!  The only good things about snow Novembers?  1)  Cute pictures  2) the kids totally want to play in it.  They refuse snow play in March.

Aunt Bekah took them sledding while here for Thanksgiving.  And took pictures.  Officially favorite sister.

  

Also, Seth and Ryan made this darling turkey “disguised” as a Captain Hook (just like Seth’s Halloween costume).  (This is why I put him in charge of these big school projects.)

Also, Seth was hilarious and awesome at this kindergarten Thanksgiving sing-a-long.  He only talked about it for 367 minutes the week before.  And that guy loves head gear.  You can find him wearing this baby any time of the day or night. 

Also, we hosted Thanksgiving for my mom and her husband, Rick, my brother Sam and his new wife Stephanie and my youngest sibling Bekah.  All adults is kind of a nice way to go for Thanksgiving. 

They appreciated all the food:

made table arrangements simple:

were up for any outings we took them on:

(at the snowy Spokane river)

(Riverfront park carrousel)

 

played with the kids:

 

didn’t try to fight Seth for his Gooey’s sundae:

Here are Jane and Seth breaking the wishbone a few days later. 

               

Hopefully they wished for another month as lovely and filled with busy fun as November.  (I wouldn’t mind if they stuck a “less snow” clause in there, though).