Busy Busy Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of year, but I have to admit that this year it seemed to lack a little. It seemed that fewer people were filled with the spirit. Fewer homes we're decorated for Christmas this year. We were a little disappointed when we took the kids out to look at lights. Even our own neighborhood had only a handful of houses decorated. We were also very busy. We did a total of three Christmas'. I don't think I want to eat again till next Christmas. We had so many yummy dinners and treats of all kinds. I also got to bake over 200 hundred cookies. I think at one point I actually started to look like the Pillsbury Dough boy. It'll be a long while till I bake again. Christmas Eve was a lot of fun, we enjoyed a lovely dinner with our friends, the Kunz's. The time went by really quickly and before we knew it it was almost 10 pm. The men decided to tell the kids they had seen Santa flying into the neighborhood and that we had to get home and in bed or he wouldn't come to our house. The kids were falling all over themselves trying to get out the door and into the car. We got home with just enough time to decorate Santa's cookies. It was a lot of fun letting the kids decorate the cookies. Faith was good about trying to get all of her sprinkles evenly distributed over the frosting while Emma and Charlie put a nice big pile right in the center of their cookies. We loved every minute of it. Once they were asleep we had to put together a few of their toys. Then Santa showed up and put his toys under the tree. Needless to say between the Grandparents, Mommy and Daddy and Santa the kids made out very well. Thankfully the kids didn't get up till almost 8 am. They loved opening their gifts. Charlie wasn't really into it until he saw that there were toys underneath all that paper. They had a great morning. We had to pry the kids away from their toys to go to our friends, the Halsey's, for dinner. It was a wonderful day.

Stocking Stuffers

The girls' favorite toy, The Diamond Castle

The happiest baby ever!!!

My little man

Now it's New Year's Eve and I feel like the year has just flown by. We have had a lot happen this year. Jason separated from the Army, joined the National Guard, got his dream job and became the Elders Quorum President. Faith had her first day of school and celebrated her fifth birthday, Emma celebrated her third birthday, she also performed in her first ballet recital. Charlie turned one and started walking and has started talking. I worked on my calling as Second Counselor in Relief Society, I also was pregnant (once again). We welcomed our fourth child this year, a boy. We got to go home to see Sean get married. And last but most certainly not least we celebrate our eighth year of marriage. It has been a wonderful and blessed year for us. Next year doesn't show signs of us slowing down one bit. I look forward to another fun filled year.



So here are some photos from when we did our gingerbread men. I couldn't tell which the girls liked more, the decorating or eating the candy pieces. I am also including a random video I took about three weeks ago. It is one of my favorite videos of the kids. I especially love the look of Charlie's face when he sees Jason come through the door (you don't see Jason though).

Faith's 1st gingerbread man

Emma's 1st gingerbread man

Charlie eating a gingerbread man (did you think I would actually let him decorate one. He would probably have ended up with more frosting on him than on the cookie.)

Faith made a gingerbreadman that looks like Grandma. See the cane.

More pictures

I didn't get a chance to include these pictures in my last post, so here they are.

Our Christmas Tree 2008.

The Girls hammin it up.

Holy Smokes Batman, what's wrong?

My favorite picture of Charlie at the pumpkin patch.

Jason kissing the funky looking squash.

Charlie passed out after church.

The Kids enjoying movie night.

Way Over Due

I know that I have been absent from the blogging scence for a while now and I apologize to everyone. Time just seems to slip away from me. So much has been going on its hard to keep up. In October we took the kids to the pumpkin patch. They had a wonderful time. Charlie liked sitting in the wheelbarrow with the pumpkins. The girls had to have their own wheelbarrow to cart around the patch. They all loved putting pumpkins in an out of the wheelbarrows. Amazingly we were actually able to get a picture of all us together.





Just a few days after the pumpkin patch it was off to California for Uncle Sean and Aunt Liz's Wedding. The girls were flower girls and Jason was best man. The girls were so beautiful (thank you Sean and Liz for the dresses). They had a wonderful time getting their hair and make-up done. They even got to ride in a limo to the ceremony. They also loved the reception. They had their own little kids table that they shared with the ring bearers. It had coloring books and crayons, bubbles and toys on it. It also had one more thing, Pixie Sticks. They thought they had gone to heaven. Instead of eating their dinner they filled their bellies mostly with colored sugar. Yeah for Mommy!!!! Daddy was "convientely" seated at the head table and was "unable" to help monitor the girls sugar intake. Needless to say they were on a major sugar rush. All that sugar came in handy for all the dancing they did. The girls partnered off with the ringbearers. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen. The kids litterally danced till the party was over. Then they passed out into sugar induced comas. Emma literally fell asleep the minute we picked her up to take her out to the car. It was a wonderful wedding and a great day. Faith also got to celebrate her fifth birthday in California. Nana bought her her very own little Strawberry Shortcake cake. Not only did she get spoiled with gifts, but all the kids did. They had a wonderful time at the party. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them.










Just two days after we got back from California, my family came out to visit. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother-in-law and my niece came out. It was so wonderful to have them all here. Faith go to have another birthday party here as well. And of course she got more presents. I think she started to think that every few days it was time to have a party with cake and presents. My family joined us at church for Hyrum's blessing. It was so wonderful to have them there to share that with us. We all were very emotional. It was one of the greatest days we had on their visit. We got to hang out a lot and the kids got to know their cousin. We are trying to convince my sister and brother-in-law to move out here. I'm using every trick in the book to get them out here. I have even offered free babysitting whenever they want. But hey, no pressure. The kids all got to go trick-or-treating together for Halloween. They had so much fun. Faith was Slivermist from the new Tinker Bell movie (in other words she was a fairy). Emma of course had to do the same thing as her sister so she was also a fairy. Charlie was a duck. It was the cutest thing. I can't believe that he actually let us put the hat and the foot covers on him. He didn't even try to take them off. All the guys took the kids while the womenfolk hung back at the house with Hyrum and all the good candy. We loved having all of them here.








So that puts us up to date. Everyone is doing well considering they are all sick. The only healthy people in the house are Hyrum and myself. Faith is enjoying school. Although we are getting a good dose of the "parental curse". You know the one that all of our parents have cast upon us; "I hope you have children just like yourself." Well we got that. Of course it would have been nice to have some of our traits more evenly distributed among the children. The case in point; Faith had received a couple of straight faces and a sad face at school over the last couple of weeks. She received them for getting out of her seat to talk to her friends. I know right about now my parents are cracking up. I used to get in trouble for the same thing. In case that weren't enough Jason was also a talker in class. So we have double the problem. She loves to talk to her friends. I can only imagine what our phone bill will be like when she reaches her teen years. Heaven help us. Emma and Charlie love hanging out together when they aren't fighting. We have a lot of fun together. Emma has really begun to be more of a motherly type since Faith has gone off to school. She very much wants to be just like her sister. Every morning she askes me when she gets to ride the bus with Faith. She can't hardly wait. Neither can I. It will be nice to only have two kids at home next school year. Charlie is such a boy. He is constantly tearing down Emma's "castles" when they are playing with the blocks. Not only does he tear them down he then laughs about it. He also loves to throw anything that remotely looks like a ball. Which means he likes to throw everything. He is such a cutie though. He is also a very loving boy. I love watching him with Hyrum. He is so gentle with him. He loves to rub his head and give him kisses. They will be the best of friends and the worst of enemies I'm sure. Hyrum is doing great. He gets chubbier everyday. I love nibbling on his leg rolls. He is just a great baby. He started smiling about two weeks ago. He has the biggest smile. Right now his favorite thing to smile at is the Christmas tree.

Thanksgiving was great. For the first time we did Thanksgiving with just our "little" family. Now that there are so many of us it feels like we have company over. The kids loved watching us cook all the food. Faith kept saying she couldn't wait to have a feast. She loved telling us (about 100 times) about the Piligrams and the Indians. She even did a little Thanksgiving reenactment with her Little People Thanksgiving set (Thanks again Nana). We all hung out in our pj's all day and stuffed ourselves with lots of yummy food. Next year we'll probably let the girls help out with some of the cooking. I think their favorite part was when I made fresh whipped cream. I put it in a pipping bag to decorate the pie and I had some left over. So naturally I squeased a little into my mouth, you know, quality check. Of course then everyone wanted a little. They pretty much had whipped cream for dessert. I wish we had gotten them on camera enjoying it.

We started decorating the house for Christmas. I tried to convince Jason to start on Thanksgiving. He said he refused to start decorating before the day after Thanksgiving. So Friday we started :). The girls are looking forward to decorating the tree and hanging their stockings. I LOVE Christmas time. Now its time to finish the decorating and start making our gifts for family.

On another note Jason and I will be expanding our family soon. That's right Jason and I are getting a dog (probably). I bet you all thought we were pregnant, didn't you? Her name is Lady and she is a 2 1/2 yr old, pit bull/terrier mix. We have been allowed to keep her for a week to see how we like her. So far she has been wonderful. She is already house trained. She is trained so well that when she has to go outside she rings these bells we have placed on the back door. She then barks at the back door to tell us she is ready to come back inside. She has been great with the kids as well. She loves to follow me around and I think she is closer to me than anyone else. We think she will be a great addition to our family. Once we make a final decision I will post pictures of her.

Well that is it from our house. I am including some recent pictures as well. We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and we hope the Christmas spirit has begun to touch your heart. We love you all.

Emma fell asleep like this one afternoon.

Charlie saying hi.

Daddy and Charlie in their Sunday Best.

My little man in his first suit.

All ready for church.

Hyrum's Big Smile.

Hyrum's first bath.

AAAAHHHH!!!!!

Jason had his first drill for the National Guard this weekend. He left right after work on Friday and is due home tonight. I don't understand why my children choose these times to act out. I think there has been a constant state of crying in my house since the moment he left. The only time it is quite is when they all go to bed in the evening.

I thought that planning fun things for the kids to do while Jason is away would be good motivators to get them to behave, but instead they turned into ungrateful little monsters. On Friday night I let Faith have a sleep over (she got all happy faces this week at school). The minute the sleep over start the fighting began. At some point someone was being left out and was crying. I finally got them all to play together and be quiet. That didn't last long. We went from screaming crying to just plain screaming. I didn't think my kids could get any louder, but I was wrong. I had to shout at the top of my lungs just so that they could hear me tell them to use their inside voices. Faith of course had a smart remark, she said, "Mommy you should use your inside voice too." EXCUSE ME!!! She and I had a little "talk" about telling mommy what to do. The girls finally fell asleep around midnight.

We got to start it all over again on Saturday. This time it was Emma who wanted to be the bigger brat. She was little miss temper tantrum. I think she should win an Oscar for her performances. I tried to get her on video, but ended up deciding it would only encourage her behavior. The girls spent most of the day on time-out. I was so glad when nap time came around. All the kids crashed. That night the girls were being half way decent so I decided to let them watch a movie and have popcorn. Just when I thought I had gotten everyone under control Charlie decides he needs a turn in monster mode. Where the girls were whinny and crying he was destructive and crying. On the bright side he is a little easier to discipline. I just but him to bed super early. I think his teeth are bothering him (he's cutting three more teeth). I pretty sure he is also coming down with a cold.

This morning has been better we only have had one melt down so far. Jason is due home in eight hours. I can't wait till he gets here. It will be nice to have someone help referee. I must admit I have gotten spoiled over the past few months. Jason has been on a day schedule and he hasn't had to go anywhere. I forgot how hard it was without his help. But it was good for me to get a refresher. Jason might be going TDY to Iraq for three months this January. We will find out sometime in the next couple of months for sure.

On a lighter note, Hyrum had his two week check up on Sept 30. He sure is growing fast. He weights 8 lbs 12 oz and was 21 1/2 in long. It's unbelievable how fast they grow. Before I know it he will be as old as Charlie. I'm trying very hard to burn every thing into my memory. I want to enjoy everything about having a newborn in the house. I have to admit that I am a little sad that we won't be having anymore children, but I feel that our family is complete. However, Heavenly Father may have different plans for us down the road.

Hyrum James

Hyrum- Hebrew- form of Hiram. Meaning: noblest; exalted.

Hyrum James: Born 12 September 2008 @ 3:06 pm

7lbs 7oz

20 1/4 in

This past week has been filled with much joy for our family. It started on 10 September with the arrival of Nana (Mom W). We were all so excited about her arrival, but I think the kids were more excited than anyone else. We spent most of the evening catching up on events. We all hoped that Hyrum would make his appearance, but alas no baby that night. On Thursday, 11 September Nana got to put Faith on the school bus. Faith loved it. She loved showing Nana what a big girl she was.

The night before delivery.


Finally Friday 12 September arrived, today was the day they were going to break my water. I was really nervous. We woke up very early (4:45 am) to get ready to go to the hospital. We got the kids where they needed to go and off we went. We were supposed to arrive at the hospital at 6 am to check in and all that stuff. They didn't actually get around to breaking my water till 9 am. I was hoping that my labor would be as fast as Emma's (they broke my water that time too), but it wasn't. My labor (from the time they broke my water till delivery) was 6 hours. My contractions weren't that bad for most of my labor. The nurse said I had a high pain tollerance, but I still think they just weren't that strong. For the most part we just sat around and talked while my labor progressed (Jason, Nana and Laurie were all there), and no I didn't have an epidural. This time I had no problem asking for something to take the edge off the pain (it's amazing how your prospective changes by your fourth baby). They gave me something that wasn't supposed to be as strong as morphine (which is what they gave me with Charlie), but it sure felt stronger. I have to include the picture of me all drugged up. Everyone got a good laugh out of me. I guess I was pretty funny. I don't really remember much except that I knew my mouth wasn't quite working in conjuction with my brain.



No, I'm not smiling for the camera. I had no idea they were even taking my picture. I must have been feeling pretty good at this point. Unfortunately, the drugs had to wear off sometime. This is when the real pain began. On the bright side I was at 9 cm by this point. Right before it was time to push I began begging for more pain meds. I they kept telling me I couldn't have anymore, so I turned to my wonderful husband and said, "Please, please Jason make them give me some more medicine". I thought he could get them to do it. It broke his heart to not be able to help me and it broke mine to see him in pain as well. Luckily by this point it was time to push. Once again my doctor almost didn't make it (this happened with all the kids except Faith). The nurse was holding Hyrum's head back and telling the doctor he'd better hurry. Hyrum was out in two pushes.

It was an amazing experience. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by people who I loved and who loved me. The birth of Hyrum brought all of us closer, especially Jason and I. It is so amazing what our love for each other has helped to create. We are very blessed to have fourth healthy and beautiful children. It has been pretty easy so far to intergrate Hyrum into the family. He already a great baby. I think he might be the mellowest of all our children. We can't wait to see how he will change as he grows. The kids all love him. The girls are especially attentive. Charlie just likes to pet him every now and then. He is very gentle with Hyrum (which is great, because he's not gentle with anyone else). I am including some pictures from the past week and I hope you all enjoy. I want to thank Mom W. for being such a blessing to us. She helped us so much and of course she spoiled us rotten, especially the grandbabies. I'm so happy she was there to witness our little miracle. We love you Nana. I also want to thank Laurie. You have become another mother to us. Thank you for being there. You will always be a part of our family. We love you and Rick very much. Last, but most certainly not least, my husband. I couldn't imagine how different my life would be without you in it. Together we have overcome much and become closer and stronger because of it. I thank you for being there for me. I know you felt like you couldn't help me, but just being there was all I needed. Thank you for giving me four beautiful children. I love you with all my heart.

We thank all of you for your well wishes and support. We love each and every one of you. May God bless you all as He has blessed us.

Daddy and Hyrum

Nana and Hyrum

Grandma McDonald and Hyrum

Hyrum

Charlie looking like a big boy.

My two funny girls.

Faith and Hyrum.

The boys.


Emma and Hyrum.

A Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Today I went to the doctor for my regular check-up. He has decided that if my body doesn't go into labor on it's own by Friday then he will break my water that morning at around 6 am. YEAH!!!! I am so excited that there is an end in sight. We can't wait to meet our little man. We will keep you posted.

A Day Full of Firsts

So Monday was Faith's very first day of school. I can't believe that time has already come. She was so excited about going. She was a little upset that I wouldn't let her ride the bus her first day, but hey I was going to play my "I'm the Mommy, that's why" card as much as possible. We had Jason meet us up at the school so the whole family could walk her to class. We beat Jason there by a couple of minutes and Faith was not happy about waiting for Daddy. She couldn't wait to get to class (we'll see how much this changes over the next several years). Once Jason got there we got some pictures and were on our way to her classroom. She loved putting all of her stuff in her cubby and she found her seat with no problem. She wasn't the least bit scared. She didn't even ask me to stay with her. I must admit that her not being scared helped me hold it together, well at least till we were outside. She had a wonderful first day of school.

Daddy and his girls in front of the school.

Walking the halls.

Faith saying hi to her teacher, Ms. Gamlin

Mommy and her big girl (no body's crying)

After school we took her to her first dentist appointment. She LOVED it. She got to check out all of the tools they use to clean our teeth, she got to wear cool sunglasses so the overhead light didn't blind her and she got to watch TV. Her favorite thing was the suctions tube (called Mr. Thirsty). She loved that it almost always sucked on part of her cheek. Every time it did it she would laugh. She also got a new toothbrush (which of course she tormented her sister with later) and she got a prize from the prize closet after her check up. She also has great looking teeth they said. Next time she goes she will get her first set of x-rays done. All in all she had a very big day.



We miss having Faith at home during the day, but nap time sure is a lot nicer and longer. (Emma and Charlie actually take good naps). Emma loves helping me get Faith on the bus in the morning as well as getting her off in the afternoon. She misses her sister sooooo much. Every morning she asks if she can go with Faith. Next school year will come all too soon and she and Faith will both be in school riding the bus together. Great, here come the water works, I better go find some Kleenex.

Waiting to be cleaned.

Counting teeth (she has 20).

Making them shine.

Check out my pearly whites.