Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we drove 2.5 hours to Chad's parents' house in Hagerman. We had been fighting a cold bug that most of us had graduated from, except for Daniel who was in the middle of his 3rd day of fever and had a cough. (Joseph was the only other one to have a fever and it wasn't real reliable, so I was surprised Daniel still had his.) Chad and Nathan never got sick. The last time we had a family gathering like this, we had sick kids so we cancelled. This time, it was too close to Thanksgiving, we were bringing the plates and rolls, and we would have been without a dinner of our own - so we decided to risk it (plus, it wasn't a throw-up germ). Since then, I've heard of at least two different families that have been sick and it was probably from us. I feel really bad about that and I apologize to them. It's so hard to know what to do sometimes.

In addition to plentiful germs, the food was also plentiful (and better for the body). Here is Rebekah, doing her best to avoid the nasty, healthy food and only pick out the "treats." Chad is trying to influence her for good.


There were 31 people in attendance, aged about 6 months to about 568 months. ;) For that many people (and months) you need a really long table.

It's impossible to get such a long table in one camera shot and still see who is at the table. So took two shots.

The food was really yummy (at least what I ate) and more than filling. Many thanks to Peter and Kelly and anyone else who brought over the whole platter so I could keep eating without burning any unnecessary calories.

After dinner, some of us slumped around and questioned our eating habits. Nathan and Rebekah tried to make me feel guilty by working Grandma's elliptical machine together. When you're the size of Nathan and Rebekah, it's not something you can do by yourself!

Other children burned off their feasts by jumping on the trampoline. Leah and Nathan (again with the guilt, Nathan?) and their cousins had fun getting a natural high. ;)
I have not jumped on a trampoline since I was 23. I think I will be able to say that for the rest of my life.

After the feasting over turkey was over and cleared up, and a couple of hours had passed, it was pie time. Chad's family has a pie palooza every Thanksgiving. I don't know what their record is, but this year was a record for me. Check out all those pies. You can try to count, but you'll come up short because they aren't all in the picture. There were 31 pies (it might be 32). Our family of 8 only brought 2. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered if we didn't show up! ;)

Sarah really like the chocolate pie that Grandma fed her. When Chad was dressing Sarah that morning, I was thinking her shirt was a little underwhelming when it came to a holiday outfit. But when this happened, I was glad for a shirt that would welcome a few more dribbles!

Sarah has a little cousin that is about 4 months older than she is. They don't see each other too often, so it's pretty much like meeting a stranger each time. But they seemed to be hitting it off nicely this time!

In Chad's family, a gathering is never complete without at least one game. (I played a game of Phase 10 earlier in the day that lasted at least an hour and a half and never got off Phase 3. They teased me for throwing the cards after each round, but REALLY!)

We have "Our Book of Thanks" that we started last year. We have everyone write what they are thankful for and we put in a picture of the whole group that was there. Here is Rebekah writing her thanks.

Here is the picture for the book. There are 8 siblings in Chad's family; five of the siblings made it this time. Santa needs to bring me a better camera if I am going to be expected to take nice pictures of a group this big ever again!

We drove back home that night. We left about an hour later than I said I wanted to (as I knew we would) and got back home a little before midnight. It never fails that when we drive in the dark, certain people in this family have serious meltdowns about 50 minutes from home. Tradition was honored and I was so glad to not be a Black Friday devotee.

The kids enjoyed playing with cousins that they don't get to see very often and it was nice to be part of a family celebration (instead of by ourselves). We must have left the rest of our germs behind because Daniel's fever finally passed and no one else got sick. Now we live in fear of the flu bug that is going around the schools and community right now.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, we stayed home. I am torn about this holiday. I really like visiting with family, but I dread large family gatherings with kids running amok. I have a hard enough time when just my 6 go at it. When other kids join in the mix, and I can't really say anything about it, I just get tense.

Luckily, we had planned to stay home and didn't have to travel on bad roads or deal with the blizzard that came this year.

We raised a turkey and Chad butchered it on Tuesday (when the temps were hovering around 15 degrees) instead of Wednesday (when the temps would be all the way up to 7 degrees). It was twice as warm then!

We invited a ward member over who didn't have a place to go. She added some cheer to our evening!




We also started a new tradition this year. I got the idea online somewhere and put my scrapbooking program to work. This is the cover.


We bought a watercolor sketchbook and I mod podged this to the cover. We put in a copy of our group photo and everyone wrote what they were thankful for, including our guest. I look forward to looking back through this as the kids get older and start bringing "friends" to dinner. :)

Later that night, we went to the home of another ward family and enjoyed some pie while playing a game. One of my favorite things about being in this ward is that everyone is so sincere. And it was completely comfortable to be in the home of someone old enough to be our parents because they treated us like equals!

I hope everyone had a memorable (and pleasant) Thanksgiving celebration!

ACK!

Where has the time gone?

I have been busy with various things, including trying to clean my house.

I spent a nice morning on the floor of the kid's bathroom scrubbing toothpaste off their carpet. I realize that I have a propensity for exaggeration, but believe me when I say that you wouldn't have been able to find one foot in any direction without coming to toothpaste. Whether it dripped from their mouths or fell straight from the tube, there was toothpaste from one wall to the other, on the shower stall, on the walls, cupboard fronts, mirror and maybe even the ceiling (I did find dried toilet paper wads up there).

I have vacuumed countless cobwebs and then found more again after the vacuum was put away. We have so many spiders out here!

We can now walk through the storage room without using any contortionistic moves. That has been nice!

There used to be a 2 1/2 foot high pile of stuff on my sewing table. I can now see the cutting mat in most places. I still have two pairs of pants to sew for the girls and Christmas pj's to cut and sew.

Among cleaning and organizing, life has been chugging along its usual pace. We've had Pack Meeting, got the studded tires on the van, gone grocery shopping, done homework, had FHE, shoveled walks (and then shoveled them again), driven carpool, gone to meetings, been sick, etc.

I will post pictures and share some of the better memories as I can. After all, it's Thanksgiving tomorrow and we have a few things we need to do for that!

I hope you all are having Thanksgiving with someone you care about and that you travel safely if you travel at all. Be careful in that crazy snow we've been getting in Utah and Idaho!

Thanksgiving

I haven't mentioned our Thanksgiving yet. It's not because we didn't have one, but because I didn't think I had that much time to sit at the computer! I'm not sure I have it now, but I did get the pictures loaded, so we'll see how fast I can type. Sarah wants attention, the Christmas bins are all over the living room, Chad leaves work in 15 minutes and dinner (soup) isn't started.

We visited family in Utah for Thanksgiving. We stayed at my mom's house one last time before she moves (again) to the house that I lived in from 16 years old until I got married.

Dinner was at a sister's house - a 50 min +/- drive from my mom's. The kids were glad to get out of the car. We were there for 6 hours. It was nice to visit with my youngest sister and her tough-looking-but-friendly husband. Too bad we didn't get to spend more time with Amber and Cody. We enjoy playing games with them. It was a wake-up call to see my little brother. He's getting old! (No offense, Aaron.) And if he's getting old, I'm getting old; a fact that has become a bigger reality to me this year. I think Aaron may always be a 16-year-old boy in my mind, since that's about the time I left on my mission. My sister, Andrea, and her husband hosted and put a lot of work into preparing and recovering from the 30+ people in their home. I saw my Aunt Bonnie for the first time in several years. I think she's got a magic potion because she doesn't seem to have aged since I last saw her! I also met her husband, Eric; a very pleasant fellow!

Here are some of the men in my family. Crazy...all of them!


The day after Thanksgiving, I spent much of the day with my mom...cleaning up her house to move back into and doing a little light shopping. While we were gone (with Sarah, of course), Chad took the kids on a hike. It was a bit cold, but I think they had fun.

They are such great looking kids!



And possibly needing a little therapy.


That night, I asked my mom if she'd be willing to watch the kids (all 6) for a little while so Chad and I could get out. I was feeling a little guilty for abandoning him all day with no one to visit with or anything to do. While we were gone, the kids got to make cards with Grandma. I think they had fun!


The next morning (about 8 AM), Chad took Daniel, Nathan and Leah back to the hiking trail to see if they could get farther without the littler ones. They'd heard there was a waterfall and wanted to see if they could find it. That's some cold hiking! They saw lots of ice, snow and mud, but Leah had to go to the bathroom before they got to the waterfall. It was probably OK since the trail was getting more difficult and they weren't really prepared for hiking.

I love this picture of Daniel helping Leah up the slippery trail!

Nathan suddenly became interested in leaves this trip.

When we got home, we noticed a wet spot in the bathroom carpet. Ugh. Chad took the back part of the wall off in the bathroom and found the problem(s). That leak has been at it for at least 2 weeks. And it of course couldn't be an easy fix...the parts are old enough to be hard to find. We are now considering replacing the whole tub and re-doing the surround. Merry Christmas, house!

Here is Chad's temporary fix after breaking into the wall. That board was first used under my daybed mattress when I was a kid. We've used it for many things over the years, but never as part of the wall! It's held up by packing tape. Anyone else have something they'd like Chad to come over and work on? He's really quite handy!

And look at my Sweet Sarah. She really likes those animals dangling above her. Here, she is talking to them. :)

In other news, Daniel's jaw has started hurting again. We made it a month. But it was a great month! He'll see the DR on Friday. He also has an orthodontist appointment next month. That will be fun.

Bossy Turkeys

How was every one's Thanksgiving? We had a very busy trip south to visit with my family. My mom recently moved an hour closer to us, so the trip was pleasantly shorter, but that meant that we had more traveling to do to visit with other members of my family.

The kids bore the trauma and abuse of the road fairly well. However, we were nearly done in around the last 45 minutes of our trip home. I thought Joseph might head up a mutiny when we
got into the van for church today, but he was thankfully calm.

We had a big feast on Thursday. We had a nice prayer by my brother-in-law (thanks, Roy) before eating. I felt a little disappointed that nothing more than the prayer was said in regard to thanks and blessings. I have been more apt to notice my blessings recently and had been looking forward to hearing some others express sentiments, too. Oh well.

After the dinner, the kids went out to play and the remaining grown-ups played a couple of games of Imaginiff... Apparently, I was voted to be a sheep dog. My sister was thought to be akin to a Turkish Bath. Chad and I seem to be viewed in a certain light by my family as both of us often got unanimous votes from everyone at the table.

The next day was very busy for our little family. We stopped at the This Is The Place Heritage Park and took a train tour of the park. It was cold and misty = why did I bother with the curling iron? From there we drove 45 minutes to my sister's house for lunch (VERY yummy...thanks, Amber!) and a game of Settlers of Catan. We left there about 5 pm and drove an hour to my dad's for a 90 minute visit and dessert. We had another good drive back to my mom's and rushed the kids through a shower before putting them all to bed.

My dad and the kids

This isn't the best picture I got of this, but I had to laugh at Nathan's eyes. There's always something with this crowd!

The next morning was my niece's baptism, so we left the house at 9:01 (11 minutes late) and drove almost an hour to get to the church. After the baptism was a lunch at my sister's (thanks, Andrea!) and from there we drove to Hogle Zoo. (Tonight, while we were writing in journals, Daniel asked how to spell "Hoo-gi-lie." Everyone got a good laugh!) We walked around and did our best to stay warm for 2 hours. We returned to my mom's to clean up a bit, finish packing, lighten her leftover load and got on the road just after 6. We arrived home at 8:45, much to the relief of Joseph, Rebekah and Leah (and everyone within the sound of their crying).

Sunday truly is a day of rest, for which I am Grateful. It's nice to be home.

As with any family, ours has it's quirks. Sometimes I struggle with the things that happen more than others. As we were driving home, I was thinking about little things that affect me and trying to figure it all out. I decided I am part of a bossy family. The people in my family are all the smartest ones in the room. (Some are louder about it than others.) So no one in my family really ever asks for advice from anyone else. I mean, if you are already the smartest, who is left to get any good advice from? Right?

We're all so focused on being the toughest and smartest, that we fail to really talk to each other and get to know everyone.

You think you have it bad? Let me tell you about my experience...
You don't have that problem figured out? Let me tell you what you should do...
That's not any thing. Once I....

You know how it is. It goes on like this until everyone has gone home or gone to bed and then you really ARE the smartest (and only) one in the room. I would like to just sit down and have someone Ask me something and then listen...no advice, no competition. A little sympathy would even be better, but not required. I would like someone to feel like they could confess an insecurity or dilemma because it helps them talk to someone they trust. Period. I have many friendships like this, but none in my family. Well, maybe with my dad.

Anyway, this is my family's quirk. (OK, we have more than that, but who only has one?) So there were a lot of bossy Turkeys at Thanksgiving. I was one of them. I am a product of my environment. But I hope that there is a better future for us.

And having said that, here are some family group pictures of the turkeys in my family. We're only missing one cousin. (I hope they remember I need a picture of that missing poult before this Saturday!)

Mom and Michael

Us

Andrea and her family

Amber and her family

Aaron and his family

A very long update

20 November 2007

This is for all of you faithful friends and family that have been checking our family blog daily hoping that I finally got around to sharing the details of Joseph’s birth.

I have had a hard time finding a good time to blog. The pain medicine I’m on helps with the pain, but slows my reflexes and brain functions. It slurs my speech, too, but at least you’re spared having to listen to that! And if I think I can function well enough, that’s when one of my FIVE kids needs me!

Even now, after I’ve written an entire 2 paragraphs (my hands are a little shaky and my mind won’t focus), I had to take a break to help Rebekah put on her socks and shoes, answer what else starts with ‘s’ besides snake for Nathan and then convince Leah that she CAN put her socks and shoes on by herself. Chad and Daniel will be home in 5 minutes before we all “drive into town” for TaVaci classes this afternoon. Normally, this would just be my job, but since I’m so safe behind the wheel, Chad gets to do the driving.

But I knew this would be nearly impossible to sit down and get accomplished, so I’m typing it first in Word and will post when it’s finally done. I’m hoping for this week sometime.

Joseph is one week old today. While he spends 95% of his time either sleeping or eating, we’ve learned one thing about his personality: he does not like to have his diaper changed! This became quite clear the first days in the hospital. It’s very strange to me. I’ve never had a baby react to diapering in such a manner. Normally, getting his outfit changed falls into the diaper rule, but not as severely. If he cries this bad when the cold air hits his personal space, I can only cringe at the response he’s going to have during his circumcision!

For those of you who don’t know much about our family, all of our babies are born looking identical. Maybe it’s delayed multiples. In fact, after 2 or 3 babies, I was programmed to think that all babies should look a certain way. I get a small shock when I see other newborns that don’t look like a Collett. How is that even possible? Anyway, Joseph was the very same. It was almost a spiritual experience to see him for the first time because I felt like I already knew him!

He is such a sweet little baby (minus the diaper issue). The past few days he’s started having a little time each day where he stares at me through half-open eyes and seems ready to listen to whatever I want to say. He’s so serene and almost seems to exude wisdom. At times like this I just speak slowly and softly and say his name over and over.

I have particularly enjoyed his extremely soft face and hair. If someone could create a cream that had that result, I’d buy it by the case! On the flip side, the rest of his skin has been peeling like crazy. At first, he looked like he had wrinkled tissue paper for skin, but now he looks like a molting lizard.

As for the hospital stay, it was pretty much uneventful (thankfully). I didn’t have any complications. Joseph had a very low jaundice risk. He didn’t have any problems with nursing. In fact, he latched on the very first try and has been latched on ever since! (If you can imagine how that feels, you’re sympathizing with me right now.)

I was awake for the entire c-section, the clean-up afterward and the hour of recovery that follows. (It was during the recovery hour that Joseph got to nurse for the first time.) I have never been awake for the entire procedure. Somehow, I felt a little cheated out of some of the deep sleep I had been anticipating. I still don’t feel like I’ve caught up. But I got to hear most of the Doctor’s conversation and participate in some of it.

It was decided that I’m nearing the limit of my pregnancies. I told the Dr. that we’d like one more, but I’d respect his opinion. He thought I would be fine with one more, but the scar tissue was getting more and more difficult to stitch closed. Someone made a joke that I’d probably get twins and the Dr. said that wouldn’t be a good thing. If any of you know my history, that’s got more than Murphy’s Law to make it happen for me. (So far, I’ve avoided any extra trips to the hospital with this baby.)

I only had one moderately annoying nurse in the hospital and a couple of mildly annoying ones. The rest were awesome. Everyone got all excited about my blood pressure. I guess they don’t see low blood pressure very often. It averaged something like 88/65 but went as low as 75/55ish and all the way up to 112/80ish. They liked to ask me if I felt ok or if I was dizzy. The only time I had any problem was during the delivery when it dipped into the 80’s and I got sick enough to throw up a bit.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 AM on Tuesday and left at 1PM on Friday.

I can’t believe that it’s already been a week! Joseph is so sweet (even when he’s using his killer suction on me at 3 AM) and I feel overwhelmed to think that I’m the mother of FIVE beautiful children (some with current behavior problems) and that they are healthy and have the ability to be happy.

To top that off, I have the blessing of being married to Chad, the best man in the world! He’s done so much for me and the kids and I just keep feeling more and more in debt to him. It’s not easy to deal with a hormonal wife, stressed out kids and work on moving a houseful of furniture and food storage within 3 compact weeks.

*
Now it's Thanksgiving evening. Chad worked all day to make the big meal. He is a wonder! I worked the whole day to stay in bed and tend to Joseph. I've got a few pictures of the kids eating their dinner, a movie of Joseph this afternoon and one or two more pics thrown in for fun.
I am very thankful on this day of nationwide reflection. We have a nice home (two actually...anyone want to move to Idaho?), a generally healthy family (although the pharmacist does see our name quite often), temporal and spiritual comforts and a bright future.