This month is just dragging!

Happy Leap Year Day! I wonder how many 4 year-olds are getting their driver's licenses today. I'm glad MY 4 year-old isn't! She already drives me to the edge on a near daily basis.

Speaking of Leah, it seems she's going to avoid the worst of this plague we've been fighting. I wish Rebekah and Joseph had been spared. I hate it when the little ones suffer so much. I can't even give Joseph cough medicine...and he really needs it! Daniel's staying home one more day...just for the heck of it.

I'm glad they weren't sick like this last Friday because Chad and I had tickets to the Vocal Point concert. It would have been a bummer to miss it!

I've got to clean my house today. I wonder when that will happen. I'd like a good nap today. The first 5 times I fell asleep last night were interrupted. Two of those were phone calls! And they weren't even for us. So of course, I didn't even wake up until 8 this morning. Nathan was already gone to school and Chad was waiting to leave for work.

Rebekah's fever is gone this morning (Daniel's, too), but she is in the WORST mood. She's clingy and her breath is deadly. Joseph needs to eat in T-minus 10 seconds. It's going to be a fun one for the Mommy!

2 Hot Heads - revised post

*Less than 4 hours after this posting, Daniel was home from school with a fever. It's a party around here! Did everyone get their invites?*

Rebekah broke out with a fever last night. So far, she hasn't wanted to get out of bed. It would be the best for all of us, if she stayed there. If she decides later that she wants to get up, I'll have a very heavy little girl wanting constant attention.

She'll have to fight for time with Joseph who, though still without a fever, is miserable in his own way. His decreased appetite has forced me to start pumping. I am mastitis-shy since getting it so bad when Leah was an infant.

Nathan is still coughing just as bad as when he first got sick. I hope he doesn't try for round 2. If any of them do, it will be him.

Daniel went to school despite a cough and an attempt to stay home. School gets out early. Maybe he can find someone to share his germs with. Maybe he can find the family that gave it to Nathan and give it back! I hope he doesn't call for me to come get him. I don't want to load 4 sick kids into the car.

Leah is still only mildly ill. So I can't blame her crankiness on that, yet!

The infestation is complete

Daniel and Leah are now coughing.

On a brighter side: no one else has fevers. Nathan just likes to be special.

Valentines 2008

I've promised you a summary of Chad's Valentines from a couple weeks ago, but I've been slow to deliver. Today I make good on my promise. These are the pictures I have, but there were other things I didn't get pictures for.

Each day he got a German Chocolate cupcake with the day's number on in it molded chocolate w/pecans. This is the last one, hence the number 14.









I did things like decorate his truck a couple times,









made a "red dinner" in which we had red foods and decorations,









sent him on a scavenger hunt through the library using pictures of book spines as clues,











gave him a shower of balloons...which would have been really fun if the balloons actually showered down (I ended up dumping them on his head.),











replaced outdated pictures with new ones in the frame he got last year during the two weeks of Valentines,











and had the kids make him Valentine cards. Rebekah went heavy on the glue to which she added several heart stickers. I thought it was a little redundant, but it was her project - not mine.










And for Valentine's Day, I gave him a scrapbook of pictures from his childhood along with memories from his family. I created it digitally and had it printed/bound. It looked great (except for about 4 typos) and he really liked it.



For most people, Valentine's Day is one day. For us, it's 14. But then we add an extra on because Chad proposed the day after (there was no way he was going to do it on V-day). So every year I find a way to say "Yes" all over again. This year was a cookie bouquet that we delivered to him at work. Everyone in the office got a cookie. He was satisfactorily embarrassed. :)

Three down, two to go

We have had some sick kids. Nathan slept for two whole days (Thurs. and Fri.) and still has sick eyes today...but he still went to school. He has been coughing and running a fever. I got a glimpse up his nose while we were at church yesterday. It looked like honeycomb. YUCK! So then Joseph started coughing on Saturday. *sigh* That was the one I was hoping would be spared. Today is Rebekah's turn to start coughing. It's the wet, raspy coughing. It caused Joseph to fill my lap and the recliner in a nice mucus/milk mixture. We both have new clothes on and it's not even 10 AM. Now we wait and see if Daniel and Leah join in the fun. Let's hope that Mommy and Daddy can skip this one.

A Valentine for You!

Happy Valentine's Day to all my family and friends!


I appreciate all of you who read my blog and leave such great comments. I often find myself composing a post based on what I think you all will enjoy reading. I sure come up with some interesting ideas when I do that. Lucky for you, I don't share all of them!

So I hope all of you have or had a great Valentine's Day. Let's get together for lunch some time!

I had such a great response from my before and after pictures yesterday that I thought I'd go for overkill. You may be rolling your eyes, but it got me to clean the downstairs...just to be able to take pictures!

The downstairs is really only 2 rooms (and food storage which I didn't clean or take pictures of...you're welcome): the TV room and toy room.

TV room BEFORE














TV room AFTER

I started on this room first, and had it mostly put away, when I moved into the toy room. When I turned around, this room was halfway to messy again! And it was only Rebekah and Leah "helping" me. Joseph was there...in full voice!


Toy Room BEFORE














Toy Room AFTER

I vacuumed this room first. I'd had the door shut and noticed a yucky smell when I went in. (It likely has something to do with the previous owner's dog.) So I went upstairs for some carpet powder. Nathan came down as I started vacuuming and asked why it smelled so good in there. I told him that I sprinkled something and he went to get Leah. When they came back, they both dropped to the floor and started inhaling! So if you find out later that they have respiratory problems, it's probably from concentrated carpet deodorizer!

And, of course, since I started in this room it was ready for play and these two monkeys got in there before I could take my after picture. With so much room to play, how could they not spread out? I'm still not sure why Leah has to be IN the bin.

I also chased down cobwebs with the attachment and vacuumed the stairs. I guess since we're in the country, we'll be raising spiders. There are cobwebs everywhere! Maybe I should just leave everything until October. By then we can claim to be a haunted house and charge admission. We do need a new furnace for next winter.

While I was cleaning, Nathan came home from school...with his Valentine's Day bounty. By the time I got upstairs, he and the girls were sitting in a pile of candy wrappers and Valentines. Nathan ate a whole (full-sized) Hershey's Chocolate bar...you know, the one you break into sections! He was disappointed when I told him to hold off on the rest of the candy. The girls have been disappointed, too. It was repeated when Daniel came home, except for it was only Daniel getting a sugar high. Nathan shared his Valentines with the girls and they have been carrying around their pretty treasures all afternoon.

In between free moments to clean (don't even think that I got that done in the first try), I took care of immediate needs...mostly Joseph's...and made Valentine cookies. That first picture up there is a shot of the cookies. I found a very yummy sugar cookie recipe. It has been a bad day for counting calories! At first, I thought I'd just have 2. Then it was 4 and 6. Before I knew it, I had given up counting. I decided to go ahead and have a Valentine treat for myself. I figured if I just ate as many as I wanted, I'd eventually make myself sick and be able to avoid them for a few days. It nearly worked. I need a couple more. I was just performing a quality control check and disposing of the imperfect ones. And I was REALLY picky!

Here's a shot of Nathan in his new hat last night. He made it all by himself. He really loves his K'Nex. I really hate cleaning them up!

Happy Valentines' Day again! I'll post some of the Valentines I gave to Chad over the past two weeks in a day or so.

I am accomplishing something today

Sometimes I don't know how the whole day slips by without me getting anything done. Today, I got some things done and wanted to prove it!

I did the dishes.

BEFORE

AFTER

I made the Valentine treat for today. (Chad if you check this in the next 2 1/2 hours, your surprise will be less surprising.)

BEFORE

AFTER

I folded a ton of laundry (after I washed it...also done today), changed the sheets on my bed and then made the bed. Then I folded more laundry. While I was making the bed Leah asked,"Who's coming to our house?" Apparently, I only change the sheets/make the bed when someone is coming for a visit.

BEFORE















AFTER















That is all I have pictures for. But the day is not over and neither are my ideas.

As you can see from those last pictures, I need to make some curtains for our room. That sheet has been up there for several months.


I did another scrapbook page yesterday. Nathan's birthday. So far, I'm not doing too bad to keep up with 2008. I'm missing New Years. Hmm...
does that go with 2007 or 2008?


It's snowing today. For some reason, I feel colder. That's silly though because the temperature today isn't much different that the last week has been.

Disclaimer: I usually do a spell check on my posts, but it hasn't been responding lately. So I'm sorry if something is misspelled. My poor brain can't keep up with my crazy fingers!

It's been a while

I haven't posted a scrapbook page in a while. Trust me, I've been busy! I took some time this evening to do a page. I chose to do Leah's birthday. Now I'm only one birthday behind for the year (and not even thinking of the years before this one).

We've actually had some good weather lately. Some things are melting. Slowly.

We drove to visit Chad's parents' house for an impromtu visit yesterday. While we were there, they asked if we went to the worldwide training meeting. YIKES! We'd forgotten all about it! So we packed up the kids really fast (I can't believe we didn't accidentally leave one behind) and high-tailed it back home. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive...which was how long we had until the last broadcast began. I was the one we decided would go while Chad got the 4 oldest kids to bed.

After changing clothes and rushing to the church, I was less than 15 minutes late! Joseph was not happy to find himself in the chapel, and made me leave twice to change his diaper. It was a good meeting though and I'm glad I was the one to attend.

There isn't any snow forecast for the next couple of days, so I'm hoping that snow days will not take us by surprise for a while. I love my boys. I love when they go to school.

How can that be?

I think my house has a cold. I keep finding boogers on my walls. Anyone know what kind of medicine cures a house's runny nose?

Rescue Mission

Daniel was sent outside to check on and ultimately rescue the dog from his dog house today. The snow had drifted high enough that the dog was blocked in his house! Daniel had to crawl on top of the snow to keep from falling in to the snow that was waist-deep in some places. It was pretty funny and Chocolate was very happy to be rescued.

Sorry for the background comments. I was talking to Chad on the phone and Joseph was crying for me on the bed behind me.

I watched a snow mobile cruise down the street in front of our house. You know the snow is bad when you see that!

I love it!

Rebekah wanted to earn a marble. So she found some toys that needed to be cleaned up and went to work. I was so proud of her! She does that sometimes...just randomly cleans something up (that her OLDER siblings carelessly left out!). She got a marble.

I've been tagged

What is his name? Chad Russell Collett
How long have you been married? 8 years, 10 months, 7 days -ish
How long did you date? 2 months
How old is he? 34 (ancient)
Who eats more sweets? ME...but he is easily tempted
Who said "I love you" first? I think it was him. (We wrote lots of notes.)
Who is taller? OH PLEASE!
Who can sing better? We both have our strengths. Ask him to sing, "Watch Out For The Big Brown Bear."
Who is smarter? Chad (I would be stupid to say otherwise!)
Who does the laundry? usually me..but he helps fold and put away
Who pays the bills? he pays them, I mail them in
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I guess I do, depending on which way you're looking at it (whatever is closest to the bathroom)
Who mows the lawn? Hello!! There is about a foot of snow outside!
Who cooks dinner? I should. If I don't, he does.
Who drives? It depends on who is on that side of the van when we're getting in!
Who is more stubborn? Me. But I'm sure the kids get it from him.
Who kissed who first? Didn't we kiss at the same time?
Who asked who out first? He asked me...blindly...over the phone. So brave!
Who proposed? He did, but I was expecting it. (I had a momento prepared in my pocket.)
Who has more siblings? Him. He has 7, I have 3.
Who wears the pants? We share...but my leg is a little bigger. I let him lead whenever he wants!

I won't tag anyone specifically, but will be interested to read yours!

Photo Essay

This is pretty sad, as photo essays go, but I still think they say a lot! I took these last night. I reaffirmed that my boys are out to drive me nuts. They were not really cooperative...especially Daniel.

Are they all yours?

Scary things happen when they get their heads together!

Pecking order.

The kids are really piling up around here!

School is cancelled again today. It's the 2nd time this week and 5th time this year. Chad was talking with someone last night that was part of the committee to draw up the school year calendar. He couldn't remember including ANY snow days in the schedule. So unless the administration added some, we're looking at an extended school year!

SNOW!

Mommy, can we go outside and swing?

No Dear, maybe later. The swings are frozen to the ground.

I don't really participate in Wordless Wednesday. But it is coincidentally Wednesday. I could never be truly wordless, but maybe brief.

Abusing the system

So far, Rebekah has practically potty trained herself. I've offered praise and encouragement, but she's supplied the desire. She stayed dry all day yesterday! She went potty more than 4 times. I had to do some redirecting when she started cleaning it up by herself. Only Mommy or Daddy dump it!

Her motivation has been a piece of candy. Each time she goes potty, we give her one of those tiny tootsie rolls - grape flavored. We may have come to the end of that practice! By the time she went to bed last night, she was headed to the potty at least once an hour. It doesn't seem worth my time to empty a tablespoon of potty into the toilet! And her last attempt came up dry.

So the candy will have to be used only for the back end of the problem. The part she hasn't mastered yet. The REAL reason we want her potty trained...if you catch a whiff of my meaning!

Pictures

I finally got the books put away. It was not an easy task because Rebekah kept pulling them out behind me. I thought I'd take a picture. The kids will be in here tomorrow digging in to them again. It must be something about the rainbow of colors that they can't resist.

This isn't all their books. There are probably around 10 mixed with the toys downstairs and at least 50 in the boys' room.

These are pretty much just picture books, board books and coloring books. Chapter books and higher reading levels are on the shelves up around the room. We like books! We don't like moving them.

I took Joseph in for his 2 mo. check-up today. (He's 3 months in a week. We're a little slow around here lately.) He's 61% for his height and 32% for his weight. He's going to tower over the other kids! They gave him an oral vaccine for rotovirus. It smells like raw hamburger. I'm not making it up. They also gave him 3 other injections, so he's pretty cranky. I don't remember the other kids getting this cranky. They mostly just slept a ton. I'd prefer that.

Daniel got to pick a prize for reaching the reading requirement in his class (280 minutes for the month). Apparently, there were only 2 kids who didn't make it. How embarrassing. Where are their parents/guardians? What was Daniel's prize? A computer video game. Wouldn't it make more sense to reward him with a book or at the very least a bookmark? Chad made him read 15 minutes before even loading it on the computer.

BOOKS!

We are missing two library books. They were there one minute and impossible to find the next. Ever been there? So I'm going through the kids' books to see if they've been mixed in. The books are so disorganized, that I'm pretty much handling each one. I'm halfway through and haven't found the library books yet.

We have a lot of books. I would be surprised if there weren't at least 500 kids' books. Do you know how easily that many books get spread around the house? It's amazing.

So I'm in the "library" cleaning up books and Rebekah comes in.

Rebekah: "Doing? Making a mess?"

Yeah. Thanks a lot Rebekah. Now sit down and help me out!

UPDATE: I found one! One more to go!
UPDATE #2: I found the 2nd one. Now I really do have a mess to clean up.

Snow boots in winter

You can't buy snow boots in winter. Have you tried? Retailers are so focused on the coming seasons that they can't provide a selection of items necessary for current seasons.

Two years ago Daniel's hand-me-down coat wore out. So in January, in a SNOW STORM, I went from one end of town to another looking for a winter coat. I couldn't find a one. They had already clearanced them all out. Of course, they have plenty of size 14 and up since that's the age that won't even wear a coat! What I could find were vast quantities of spring jackets and windbreakers. It's JANUARY. Who's thinking that far ahead except for the women who can't NOT spend money? I ended up shopping on eBay and finding him a coat for the rest of that year and the next.

Yesterday I took all 5 kids (yes, I am insane) out shopping. We had a small list, including snow boots for Daniel. I only went to Wal-Mart since I needed an oil change and I could get most things on my list there (and I did have 5 kids...I wasn't up to multiple stores). Unfortunately, I couldn't find snow boots. Yep...already gone. We're having school cancelled nearly weekly because of snow and the Wal-Mart is already stocking rain boots. It's the beginning of February, folks! Shouldn't you at least consult the groundhog before you decide winter is over? I think I will shop eBay later today. At least I can go there without putting any of my kids in a carseat!

And speaking of snow. We've got a lot. My friend has a snow drift to the top of her privacy fence. In her driveway, the snow bank is taller than she is. Our swings have stopped swinging. Chad goes out to feed the animals and is in snow up to his knees. And more is coming. I went into my old neighborhood yesterday before the snowplows got there. I felt like I was surfing as the van kept getting thrown side to side in the churned snow. There had to be 3-4 inches on the road. There are a lot of remarks about how much snow we've gotten. I think people have forgotten that this used to be normal; before people started talking about global warming.

It's a good thing that I have plenty to do inside (I'm trying to really believe that) since I won't be going outside any time soon! Which reminds me...I have a house to clean.

Freezing our Twinkle Toes off

The snow has been falling, falling, falling. We had to plow our way out of the driveway on the way to church this morning. It wasn't a sure thing that we wouldn't get stuck. We didn't.

At the end of sacrament meeting today, they dismissed us to go home. The roads weren't great and the snow was still coming down. Some teachers hadn't even been able to make it to church in the first place.

School was cancelled on Friday. Tomorrow is an "early release" day (no Kindergarten and the rest of the school gets out at 12:45 for teacher planning). I'm wondering if they'll even bother. They're probably running out of snow days, though. We should know either way in about 12 hours.

The kids had fun giving Chad the Valentine's cards that we made for him yesterday afternoon. He had to wait until late this afternoon to get his cupcake since it was Fast Sunday. It was probably killing him to think of that yummy cupcake! :)

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Nathan's a big SIX today! Actually, he's not big at all, but we'll go for the feeling and not the measuring tape.

We already went out for his b-day dinner last night since tomorrow is Fast Sunday. He chose Subway. Go figure. Why can a person not avoid smelling like onions when spending time in a Subway restaurant?

I made Nathan's cake during the week. I assembled it last night. Nathan says that he wants to be a Mailman when he grows up. So I decided to put a mailman on his cake. Do you know how hard it is to find a decent picture of a mailman? I learned how to make the design from Amber. It didn't turn out too badly, considering it was my first try and I was using available frostings.




Nathan got an ant farm, K'Nex (thanks Grandma), 2 Book of Mormon figures and some plastic "cowboys and indians" for his birthday. We're excited to get the ants. The K'Nex are already clipped together into several creations.


We had a little project accomplished today. I wanted to turn a closet door into a message board and we bought chalkboard paint for it. My friend's sister made me the vinyl for it. Now I just need some chalk. We're going to paint a board for the kids downstairs. Maybe that way they'll leave me some space on the door!



Joseph is changing so much. He is starting to laugh and squeal. Remember how he used to HATE getting his diaper changed? Now he is the happiest when he put him down on the changing table. I was joking that our family was assigned a "Changing Table Angel" to save us from the inevitable meltdowns. I'm not sure it didn't really happen!

He's also stopped being so cranky at night. I haven't been enjoying my wheat bread. I may try some again to see if that's what it really was.

Still trying to figure out my crazy colon. I need to be flushed out (there's a REALLY bad pun in there!).

The weather continues to be cold and unhospitable. School was cancelled yesterday for the 3rd time this month. We had a night above freezing earlier in the week and then it dropped back into the low 20's the next day. So all the parking lots are sheets of ice. Our driveway suffered the same fate. Don't visit us if you aren't steady on your feet. We don't have enough money for a lawyer.

The 14 Days of Valentine's have started yet again. This year, Chad gets a german chocolate cupcake each day, with the day's number in chocolate on top. (Like the one on Nathan's cake above.) Additionally, something different is planned each day. This afternoon, the kids and I worked on something for him for tomorrow. This is the 9th year I've done this. I had no idea what I was starting that first year! My friend is doing it for her husband for the 2nd year.