Cancelled

Church is cancelled this morning. I was already dressed and getting the boys moving when the phone call came. Chad was at the church shoveling the sidewalks. So, the walks are clear and I was showered earlier than I wanted to be.

But if there's going to be a day that's suddenly wide open with no plans, isn't the best to be right after Christmas? This way we get more family time for playing with Christmas presents. I have a feeling we'll be playing Monopoly Jr. later this morning.

Nathan was supposed to give a talk in Primary today. We wrote it last night and then I remembered that the printer needed to be installed. I had uninstalled it just before Christmas because it was acting up. It only took us 3 hours to get it re-installed and functioning last night. That printer doesn't know how close it came to physical abuse! So anyway, maybe Nathan can give his talk next week. (Hopefully, Daniel will have an opportunity to give a talk soon because he was expressing a desire to give one last night.)

We had a nice Christmas. The kids were so excited for Santa to come. Daniel couldn't even get to sleep. He came down once after Santa had already set out the presents, but I don't think he noticed. He did say the next morning that he saw Santa's shoes! The three oldest got a box of K'Nex each. They have been busy building, Nathan particularly.

One favorite present has been disposable cameras. They got one from us and one from Grandma. Leah's are both out of pictures and she's wondering when in the world I'm going to deliver her pictures to her! I'm wondering the same thing!

We traveled to Utah to visit cousins and grandparents for a couple of days. We had a nice visit.

I learned that my brother, Aaron, should have been a pirate and my brother-in-law, Cody, likes to make friends with Cannibals! (what?)

The roads were fair. We made sure to leave Utah in plenty of time to get home before dark. So after lunch with Grandpa Peterson, we loaded up and hit the trail. The snow started about Woods Cross and kept us company the rest of the way home. Malad Pass was a little tricky as well as other random spots. We had an altercation with a snow plow at one point and ended up with a chip in the windshield. I'm very glad that we did not have to travel any of those roads in the dark. I think I would have pulled over and waited until morning!

Yesterday was a productive day for our family. I finally made some rooms bigger by making the laundry room smaller. (I moved some stuff out of the rooms and into the laundry room where it will sit until Chad gets the time and/or motivation to find a place for it in the garage.) Chad installed a new light for the dining room and replaced the dead microwave in the kitchen. Both were Christmas presents for the house/family. He even replaced the light cover on the van. We bought a replacement while we were in Utah instead of trying to find one up here and having to wait for it to be shipped up from Utah. (The old one was cracked and filling with moisture.)

Now for pictures. I am working from my laptop while sitting on the bed with Joseph sleeping on my chest. Since I'm getting my pictures remotely from the main computer in the next room, I'm unable to see what they are before I add them. Think of the following pictures as a grab bag!

These are some shots of the kids playing in the snow on Christmas Eve. We got a TON of snow that day and they had an early Christmas present. The "foggy" picture is of Daniel and Leah as they worked on a snowman. It's really just a mound of snow, but we won't blame them for poor snowman snow. The picture isn't very clear because it was taken through the window.





The kids dug right into their stockings and Rebekah dug right into anything edible. She ate so much sugar in a short period of time that I was sure she was going to be sick.







The kids got Silly Putty in their stockings. They were quite curious about it's properties. Even this morning, Leah was noticing how skilled she was with it. (In fact, she's so skilled, I've had to comb it out of her hair.)







Rebekah's gift from Santa was some Little People toys. You can see that she didn't get to play with it much at first. It's tough to be the 4th child in a family!


Here we are having dinner with cousins. All of those kids makes for lots of noise and lots of mess. Lots of tears, too. (Not just from the kids!)



















I snapped this picture of Rebekah on the road. Silly Girl!

Seen on my Dr's waiting room wall

Three Wise Women

Would have asked for directions

Arrived on time

Helped deliver the baby

Cleaned the stable

Made a casserole

And brought practical gifts

Then there would have been

Peace On Earth

Good for a Christmas smile!

Ho Ho Ho - Grocery Store Santa

We were having a hard time finding Santa this year. We learned that he would be at a local grocery store and planned to visit with him on our way to the TaVaci Christmas concert. They fixed up really nice place for Santa to sit and visit with the kids. Unfortunately, people kept shopping from his perch! At least they tried to decorate it with flowers and stuffed animals. Too bad you can still see the Pepsi cases.

So here are the pictures of the kids. They didn't care that Santa was sitting on 3 oddly spaced boxes of soda pop!

Joseph

Daniel

Rebekah

Leah

Nathan

This is a picture of Daniel and Leah after their big TaVaci concert last Saturday. I have some video of them singing on stage, but it's not uploaded yet.

I have been feeling pretty funky lately. Yesterday I started with a low-grade fever during a nap. It went away. It came back today and has lingered more. I've been REALLY tired, too. I was waiting in line at Wal-Mart today and just wanted to put my head down on the foot of Joseph's car seat in front of me. Since I'm so tired, my reflexes are slowed. Maybe I'm anemic. That's been the case before. I'll try some iron pills (which means stool softeners, too) for a bit and see if things improve.

Daniel is still having trouble with wetting his pants. I took him to the dr today to see if he had a bladder infection. Nope. But she did prescribe a nasal spray that is supposed to strengthen the bladder muscle. I hope it helps, but I won't be too disappointed if it doesn't, since it was $46.75 for tiny bottle! I feel stuck with this problem. If he does have a muscular problem, how long will it last? Do we keep medicating him? Can't we just get him to go to the bathroom more? Is it really such a big deal after all? It does stink and make me roll down windows.

The kids are all very excited for Christmas in 2 days. We are pretty much ready for the big day. We're visiting my family for a few days afterward. I hope I don't end up sick for the trip. We're still working on getting someone to feed the animals. It's a little harder when you don't live in a neighborhood and you still don't really know the people at church.

The house is getting closer and closer to "moved in" status. The library made great strides today. Our room, the laundry room and my sewing room are still pretty bad. The garage, too, but that doesn't bother me as much since it's not really my responsibility.

And now I go to rescue Chad from Joseph.

Covered Bridge

Have you ever seen a covered bridge like this one? The bridge gave way as the house was pulled across. That has got to be a scary sound when you're the truck driver!

Wells, Wails and Wills

Last Monday was an interesting day for us. There was a pretty heavy snowfall that day and we were enjoying finally getting something worthwhile. I was working on laundry and found my washer humming but doing nothing. I had to advance the knob until things started going again and was thinking that the washer was really on it's last cycle. (It came with our first house. I think it's about 15 years old now.) When I tried to start the next load, it wouldn't even turn on! So much for giving me warning. Then I got a tickle in the back of my brain (ever get one of those?) and decided to see if we had water in the house. Two faucets later confirmed that the washer was probably ok, but we were in trouble!

We have a private well and don't have any experience with that type of thing. Worse than not having water was that I couldn't call up the city for help. So I called Chad. Chad called a pump guy that his partner knows from church. A very friendly Grandpa came out to help us. I'm guessing he's in his late 70's. His truck tires are bald and he slid past our house when he first arrived. He eventually determined that the pump was fine (thank goodness) which would save us about $1000. The problem seemed to be the electrical cable from the house to the pump had gone bad somewhere under ground. Grandpa didn't have any cable on his truck so he was gone for about an hour to get more. While he's on his errand (and I was hoping that he didn't slide off the road somewhere out there with his bald tires in our big day of snow), Chad is digging holes in the frozen ground. Parts of the cable are waiting until spring to be buried. I had mud all over my house! Over $300 and 5 hours later, we had water again.

I was just dying during all of this thinking of the three 55-gallon water drums that Chad had to empty at the old house to move them over. What a waste! And now I'm mildly panicked that the power will go out and the well pump won't work. There's got to be a way to break into the line to hook up a generator if needed. (The folks in the mid-west are now past a week with no power since their ice storms.)

So the washer didn't need to be replaced, but for that price, we could have started shopping for a new one.

In another topic (do you like my segue?), Joseph has been rather cranky. And he's always hungry. ALWAYS. He settles down best for me, but sometimes that hasn't been enough. He's usually willing to eat, but I don't always have enough to satisfy his hunger. Then I started thinking about it last night. I don't think I've been producing as much milk this time. I seldom feel the "let down" and never get uncomfortable from too much milk. I know that I'm supposed to let him nurse even if it doesn't seem there's anything there because the supply will increase with demand. I'm not sure that will be enough. And he's too frustrated to suck at an empty fountain.

So last night I made him his first bottle of formula. He was having a hard time getting used the nipple and was sucking like he was nursing instead of using a bottle. But he took over 2 ounces and was fast asleep. Was this the first time in days or weeks that he's been full? How sad to think he's been so cranky because he's been hungry. He surely wasn't starving, because we're not saving any money on diapers. He did sleep for 4 1/2 hours after that. YAHOO!!! I didn't sleep that whole time (thanks, Rebekah), but it was still really nice. I nursed him this morning (I was halfway full) and then had to give him the remaining bottle this morning before he stopped wailing. Now he's asleep in the swing (hence the reason you're even reading a blog post from me!).

Since we're in baby mode around here, I was talking to a friend about babies and we were mentioning how good of a baby Rebekah was. And she really was a great baby! (Especially compared to my friend's youngest!) And now that great baby has grown into a very willful child. It doesn't bother her to get in trouble and she wants NO help from anyone. I nearly lost my mind watching her get dressed this morning. If I was struggling that much, I would beg for help! But every time I offered to help her, she firmly turned me down. I'm sure this determination will serve her well if she keeps it. It may be the undoing of her mother. As for her sister, she's not so much willful as she is full of attitude. I really don't stand a chance!

The kids had their TaVaci Christmas Concert on Saturday. Daniel and Leah did VERY well! I'm sure Leah was the youngest one on stage, but she seemed to know (mostly) the words and actions. Daniel was full of energy and I even picked out his voice a few times. We were so proud of them! I have some videos/pictures of that as well as visiting Santa at the grocery store (wait until you see his Pepsi throne) that I will put up soon. We're all so excited that Christmas is only a week away! Chad is more panicked than excited since he still has a bit of shopping to do. That is his traditional way of handling the holiday! :)

Reflections on Santa

We took the kids Christmas shopping on Saturday. It's a long drive into town so we had some time for a conversation about Santa Claus. I learned a lot from Daniel, our resident Santa expert.

You should know:

The real Santa can't leave the North Pole until the snow is really deep in the place he's going or he'll get sick.

Santa Claus isn't magic and doesn't have a magic wand. Therefore he can't come in through the chimney because he's just too big and fat! He gets in through the door and if that is locked, he breaks a window. (I'll be sure to keep my door unlocked on the 24th.)

The way Santa REALLY gets presents in the house is he flies over the house and drops them down the chimney.

Since Santa doesn't actually come in the house (because he's just dropping presents), he's not the one that eats the cookies. It's Rudolph.

And since Santa Claus isn't magic, it isn't him who gets the reindeer in the air. Again...it's Rudolph.


Daniel is very serious about his Christmas wish list for Santa. He won't tell us what he wants...only Santa. We're trying to convince him that Santa might not bring him exactly what he's wishing for, but it will probably still be something cool and worth keeping! I'm sure this is the last year for the magic for Daniel. Hopefully, he'll help us keep the secret for the younger ones!

We've finally cleared out the old house and it's (mostly) clean. The realtor held an open house on Saturday. He sat there all by himself for 3 hours. It's just not a good time to try to sell a house. Today, I've been trying to put up pictures around the house. I think we have too many pictures. I'm not sure I'm skilled in the aesthetic eye needed for this job. Luckily, Chad isn't either, so he'll be fine with most whatever I do.

We've got our Christmas tree up and a couple decorations. I think I may go easy on the decorating this year. It's just too much at once for me. I did finally write our Christmas letter last night and we took a picture to include. Here is the one I didn't use.

You can see Joseph (or should I say Baby Jesus?) better in this one, so get a good look. Of course, you've likely seen plenty of him already. Hopefully, I'll get the Christmas cards in the mail by the end of the week. (If I'm lucky.)

I shot this picture this morning while I was helping Rebekah get out of her snow gear. This is the ultimate multi-tasking! Unfortunately, he realized fairly soon after this that a laundry basket was holding him and not Mommy. He's now asleep on my chest while I sit slouched so I can type with two hands.

We had a surprise visit from the Stake Presidency last night. All 3 of them were at the door. Coincidentally, it was while we were trying to get the Christmas picture taken, so I'm sure they heard me yelling at Rebekah to look at the camera...which you may have noticed she didn't. Chad is finally getting a calling - in the Elders' Quorum Presidency.

I have already been given a Visiting Teaching assignment.

Something STINKS!!!

Twice in as many days, I have had to cancel my plans and go straight home because one of my boys has wet his pants and it STINKS (worse than you can imagine). It's disgusting and I'm disgusted!!!

Actually, tonight BOTH boys wet their pants. We were at the old house doing some clean up. Three empty bathrooms and apparently none of them good enough. The last two loads my washer has run have been toxic waste management.

It's embarrassing. You know those kids in school that always stunk and no one wanted to be friends with? It seems I am raising some of my own. Their teachers probably have headaches.

Rebekah started potty training this week. She loves it although she's yet to actually put anything in the potty. Maybe I should start the boys, too. You know...a refresher course.

Understanding History

I have a deepened understanding of communities and why the women form groups. Yes, socializing is a basic need that most women seem to have. But I also see the importance of helping each other out.

I am barely keeping afloat. Much of this is my own (un)doing since I am so independent and don't accept help easily. But there is so much that I want to do or need to do that I haven't been able to do. The clock steadily ticks the minutes of my days away and I get nothing accomplished.

Christmas is coming (and that presents a whole list of things to do in and of itself). The house needs to be cleaned. Boxes need to be unpacked. The old house is still not completely empty. I have a three week old (TODAY-Happy 3 Weeks, Joseph!), a 2 year old ready to potty train, a nearly 4 year old wanting Mommy's attention, a kindergartner that gets home in the middle of the day (therefore severely limiting how far away I can go from home) and a 2nd grader who hates to do anything you WANT him to do. I'm waiting for the day when he succumbs to his procrastination and finally goes to school without his homework complete. I hope the teacher makes it unpleasant enough to motivate him for the future. I may call her myself and request a tough sentence for the Little Offender.

Joseph is still trying to figure out his days and nights. Consequently, I am, too! It doesn't help that he was circumcised yesterday and is a little extra cranky. I've typed half this post with one hand! My hair still isn't finished for the day as I couldn't even finish my shower before he started crying again. All he really wants to do is nurse. Yipee for me.

I want to run out and get a few errands done, but when can I do that? And now that I've moved farther from "civilization" it takes me at least an extra 20 minutes to be gone.

I've decided that I need at least 4 of me. One for Christmas (I guess that's just seasonal help). One for Joseph (also seasonal help, but for a longer season). One for the 4 older kids and the housework to be done (that was the old me...before 3 weeks ago). And lastly, One to sleep. I have a secret burning desire to fall fast asleep for several days.

My current goal is to curl my hair and brush my teeth before Nathan gets home in an hour.

FOLLOW UP: I did get my hair curled.