Which Shoes, Chin Trauma, New Teeth

Yesterday the kids came home from school and wanted to play in the snow. Aaron actually donned regular clothes besides the flip flops and shorts he wore last time to go play with them. Matthew didn't want to get cold or wet so he stayed inside with me and Noah. They tried to make a snow fort, but it was too cold and the snow was too powdery to do much of anything. They did end up having a snow throwing fight, though. Aaron later coaxed Daniel into making a snow angel. While Daniel was laying down, Aaron and Josh ganged up on Daniel and threw snow on him. Daniel was NOT happy about it!!

Shortly after the snow throwing incident Josh and Daniel decided they were too cold and came inside. While inside they were so cold their teeth were chattering. I then told them to go downstairs and take a warm shower. Before they went down to shower they made sure I would make them some hot chocolate for when they got out. Any excuse for hot chocolate, right?!?
Sarah, however, wanted to stay outside. She loved being outside and didn't care about how cold it was, snow getting in her face or anything. She learned how to throw snow and loved it. She threw it at anything and everything including Dad.

She also threw it at me while I was trying to take a picture of her pink nose and cheeks. She thought it was pretty hilarious. Aaron had to finally force her inside after a long while.

While the boys were downstairs showering I heard Daniel start screaming. Now if you know Daniel you know can't take all his screams seriously because he is very dramatic. I usually wait and see. A lot of times he will get distracted with something else after a minute or two and forget what he was screaming about. However, Josh came upstairs fully dressed and Daniel was still screaming. I asked Josh what had happened and Josh told me Daniel had fallen down in the shower. After hearing this I went downstairs to check on him. I found a very sad Daniel with a very swollen and red chin. I guess he used his chin to break his fall. This morning it is all black and looks quite lovely. Who knew you could get a shiner on your chin? I knew it must have really hurt because he refused his hot chocolate--poor guy!Here's Sarah giving Daniel loves after his traumatic chin injury.A little after that it was time to take Josh to piano. When I came home I found all the kids piled in Aaron's lap. Daniel still needed loves after his traumatic chin injury. Sarah needed loves because I left in the car without taking her along. Noah needed loves because he likes to be held. Matthew was in Aaron's lap because he needed help with his homework. Daniel and Noah are sucking their thumbs so of course Sarah has to suck something to be like her brothers.What you didn't see in the few minutes after this picture was taken was the massive meltdown Matthew had. Since Josh had gotten his own shoes wet by playing out in the snow, he decided to wear Matthew's nice dry shoes to piano because the wet ones were too cold. We didn't find this out until it was time to take Matthew to piano and he couldn't find his shoes because Josh was wearing them. Matthew ended up very unhappily wearing his church shoes to piano. Josh is such a stinker!!

Earlier in the day Daniel was getting bored. He decided to do some artwork. He got out some paper and tape wanting to make a hat. He couldn't find the scissors so he asked me where they were. I told him exactly where they were, but he still couldn't find them--he is not the best looker. After he couldn't find them he decided to improvise. I didn't know this until he came to show me his masterpiece. He proudly showed me how he got a pen and scribbled back and forth pressing really hard on the paper to cut it like scissors. Hoping for the best but expecting the worst I then asked where he "cut" the paper with the pen. I cringed when he told me he had done it on my dining table. I went to see the damages and sure enough there was a huge gouge mark on it. I tried to clean the ink out of it, but some places were to deep to clean the ink from. I didn't get mad or yell I just sighed and then pointed out to Daniel what he had done. He felt awful and started to cry about it. I especially couldn't get mad after seeing his poor, pitiful, very sorry face. All I can say is this table will have lots of character by the time my family is done with it!! And again the pictures don't do it justice. Noah has been a little fussy lately. Since he hardly ever cries I was starting to wonder...My suspicions were confirmed when he let me sneak a peek at his two teeth starting to poke through. It makes me sad he is growing so fast!! I will miss that sweet gummy, no tooth smile!

For dinner we had spaghetti and meatballs. I also served some green beans and the last of the cranberries left over from Thanksgiving. Now Matthew HATES the texture and taste of every fruit and vegetable known to man except pineapple, broccoli and lettuce. If he tries something he will usually gag himself on it. However, to broaden his horizons I make him at least sample some of everything that we eat otherwise he would never try anything new. He was not happy about eating his beans or cranberries, but he tried them. Well if you can count swallowing them whole with huge gulps of water as tasting them. Unfortunately, we were woken up about 1am this morning to Matthew asking for help. He had thrown up all over the toilet and needed help cleaning it up. NICE! We went downstairs and sure enough he had thrown up. He had tried to clean it up himself, but there was just too much. We ended up cleaning up the whole beans and everything else off the floor. YUCK! Matthew then blamed me for making him throw up. He said he threw up because he ate the beans and cranberries for dinner. Too bad that didn't hold too much merit since we had eaten dinner over 8 hours before! Moms get the raw end of the deal!! So instead of running any errands today we are at home resting and hoping no one else catches the barf bug!

Decorating for Christmas, Helpful Sarah, Sweet Smelling Desk, Fancy Hair, and Daniel's Shots

Today for church I got ready early (which doesn't happen often) and had some extra time. I decided to try something fancy with Sarah's hair. Here's how it turned out: Now if she would have held still I could have gotten a better picture, but she had things to do and too many toys to play with. You know how being a toddler is!

Whew, we got our workout at church today! We have sacrament meeting last and since Aaron is in the clerk's office during Sunday School he usually sneaks out for a few minutes to save us a bench. We need a bench for containment issues. It's easier to contain the kids when there is only one exit (unless you count under the benches, but most the time the kids don't think about that escape route). Unfortunately, Aaron didn't get a chance to save a bench today. That meant we had to sit on the chairs in the back with way too many escape routes. At the beginning of the meeting I had to leave to feed Noah because he was quite starving. To help Aaron out, I took Sarah along with me to the Mother's lounge. Not the funnest thing, but I managed to stop her from playing with the diaper pail, sink and changing table. When we got back to sacrament meeting Aaron traded me Daniel for Noah since Daniel needed Momma loves instead of Daddy loves. After the trade Noah made one whimper and Aaron took him out to the foyer ASAP. I don't think I have ever seen him move that fast!! That left me with the other four kids sitting in the chairs with--may I remind you--too many escape routes. I also think Sarah should count as at least 3 kids because she is one active little girl. We ended up being the side show entertainment for sacrament meeting. When I quietly yelled at one kid the others started misbehaving--except for Matthew who was quite the little angel today. Sarah ran around and screamed every time her brother's didn't give in to her wishes. However, we hung in there and lasted the whole meeting. I am patting myself on the back even if the people sitting around us weren't.

Aaron loves Christmas and always wants to decorate early. This year we ended putting up our Christmas decorations a few weeks before Thanksgiving. For every year our children were born we have bought them a First Christmas ornament. Here's Noah's:
This summer I was able to find a killer deal on stockings with free monogramming. Knowing we are done adding to our family I splurged and bought 7 matching stockings with everyone's names on them. While we were hanging them up we were in awe with how many there were. I know, I know--we have five kids, but seeing all those stockings was shocking. How did I end up with five kids?!? Yes, I know how it happened, but I still feel like I am 21 and not old enough to even be married let alone have five kids!! It's a good thing we are done because I don't think there would be room for another stocking on that mantel!!Sarah has been "helping" me out lately. She forcibly crawled up in my lap tonight while I was feeding Noah. She had grabbed a spoon and tried feeding him along with me. He didn't appreciate her spoonfuls as they went clear to the back of his throat, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. The other day I got out a bottle and put juice in it to see if I could coax Noah into taking a bottle. He absolutely refused so I set down the bottle and did some other things. I looked over to find Sarah had picked it up and was trying to feed him. Of course she wouldn't take no for an answer even if Noah didn't want it.However, she tried feeding Sydney while she was here. Sydney didn't mind as much as Noah did. She is quite the little momma.We were having a rather rough day on Saturday so we sent the kids for some quiet time that afternoon. When they came out of quiet time Josh and Daniel smelled awfully sweet. I asked them why they smelled so good. Josh said, "Oh we cleaned the desk downstairs." My uh oh radar started going off and I probed even further. I asked what he had cleaned with. He said, "Those little bottles downstairs." I had him go downstairs and show me what "little bottles" he was talking about. I was upset to find he had gotten into my stash of teacher Christmas gifts. I had gotten a bunch of smaller bottles of Bath and Body Works lotions to give teachers, bus drivers, aids, etc. for Christmas. Josh and Daniel had found them and used them to "clean their desk" which means they just smeared the bottles all over the desk. I was not happy, but at least I won't need to use an air freshener downstairs for a little while. The "clean" desk will be the new air freshener.

Thursday, a week and a half ago, Aunt Jill was picking Daniel up from preschool. Daniel insisted he only wanted Aunt Jill to come and NOT me. Complying with his wishes because I didn't want to hear his complaints (aka whines) Aunt Jill showed up--only to be sought out by Daniel's teacher. She told Jill that Daniel could NOT come back to preschool again until his immunizations were up to date. I had gotten most of Daniel's immunizations up to date at his 4 year old pediatrician's visit. He still needed to finish the 3rd shots of his Hepatitis B, and his MMR series. However, me and his pediatrician decided to wait until he was ready to start kindergarten to finish up the last of the shot series he needed. I guess this would not work out for his preschool class. That meant I had to get Daniel in for a check up in two days. I called the doctor's office and pleasantly surprised they could squeeze him in Monday morning. I took him in and they did the full physical. Daniel weighs 37.1 pounds (25th percentile) and is 42 1/2 inches (30th percentile). Although he is little, it is so great to see him on the growth chart. Getting him on the growth chart was such a struggle for us all when he was a baby. It's a relief to see how much he has grown since then. His vision was also 20/20. I am so glad all the kids got my good vision unlike Aaron's!! Then came the shot part. I had told Daniel nothing of him getting any shots. When he saw the medical assistant rubbing his legs down with alcohol he started getting curious. The MA then told him he was going to get some "school medicine" to keep him healthy. He just figured the bandaids had the medicine on them and was actually excited to get them put on his legs. It wasn't until miliseconds before he got jabbed with the needle he figured out what "school medicine" actually meant--SHOTS. He screamed loud, long and hard. You would have thought we were cutting off one of his legs by the way he screamed. However, the magic power of stickers, bandaids and oreos calmed him down. I am glad we won't have to worry about any more "school medicine" for him for a while. I am sure he is, too. Since Daniel was going to be in school Tuesday afternoon since we had gotten his immunizations up to date that meant I would only have Sarah and Noah along with me. It would be prime Christmas shopping time and since Noah and Sarah don't talk too much they are great at keeping secrets. Aaron decided to take a half day off to help me do the Christmas shopping. However, Tuesday right before Daniel was to go to school and after Aaron had taken the half day off, Daniel's teacher called and told us preschool was cancelled because of the supposed BIG blizzard we were going to have. It made me even more unhappy when the "Big Blizzard" turned out to be a dud. I guess you win some you lose some right?!?

Thanksgiving, Christmas Tree Jubilee and Seeing Santa

Wow I still can't believe Thanksgiving has already come and gone!! This year's Thanksgiving was small it was just with my family and my sister's family. She reserved her church so the kids could have a bigger area to move around in and it turned out nice! We split up cooking the dinner. I had the turkey, stuffing, gravy and the cranberries she had everything else. It was quite delicious. However, we almost didn't have any turkey. I had a turkey in the freezer and I took it out to defrost in the fridge Monday night. I was worried when I pulled it out Wednesday morning to check on it only to find it was still frozen quite solid. That's when I started to get a little nervous. Aaron was out and about that morning so I sent him over to Costco to pick up a fresh turkey only to find they were all sold out. I made one more desperate call to a local butcher shop to find they in fact had five fresh turkeys left in stock. I breathed a sigh of relief and sent Aaron over to pick up the biggest one they had--a 26 pounder. It was a full 26 pounder because I didn't have to deal with the stupid gravy packet inside it like all the frozen turkeys come with. I was glad because what is Thanksgiving dinner with no turkey?! Anyway I prepared it the night before and Aaron volunteered to get up at 5 am to stick it in the oven for me--what a nice guy!! The rest of the morning I spent cooking, cooking, and cooking some more. I had to make the cranberries and the stuffing as well as cook almost a whole entirely separate allergen free meal for Daniel so he wouldn't have to eat just a poptart for Thanksgiving dinner. I also made the cranberries with fresh cranberries, however, I burned the first batch. I started cooking it and then had to break up some crisis between my kids only to come back and find it was quite burned on the bottom of the pan. It was burned so bad it has been soaking in the sink since yesterday morning and I still can't get the charred cranberries off the bottom of the pan no matter how hard I scrub. I really liked that pan, too. I will keep trying to scrub it off, but it's not looking good. Of course I had to throw that first batch out, but oddly enough I had another bag of fresh cranberries in the freezer. I pulled them out and cooked them, but this time I didn't stop to break up the other crisis' that happened while I was cooking. What's a little game of screaming cross body slam inside the house between siblings? When everything was finished cooking we transported it to the church, set everything up and then gobbled until we wobbled. Sarah tried to be proper by using her utensils, but eating with the knife and cutting with the spoon didn't work out so well for her.While we cleaned up we put a movie on for the kids and scooted the couch over so they could watch. While the TV was on we got a lot done. Hey the whole world could explode, but if the TV were on none of them would ever take notice...is that a good or bad thing?--I am still trying to decide. Of course we cleaned up and perused the Black Friday ads to strategize. We decided to hit the midnight sale at Walmart. We got most of what we went for and then some.

After the catch up nap for me this morning, my family headed over to the Ogden's Christmas Tree Jubilee. It is a fund raiser for special needs kids in the Ogden and Weber School districts. Local businesses and families decorate Christmas trees and donate them for a silent auction. They let the public come and view the trees before they are taken down. We have done this for about 5 years and love it. We parked outside. Aaron got the stroller out for Noah. While I was unbuckling Noah and getting him out of the car Sarah hopped in the stroller thinking it was for her. She absolutely refused to get out and it was too cold to try and argue with her--the little stinker!! I ended up carrying Noah down the street and into the building while Sarah got a nice cushy stroller ride. When we got there we looked at a few of the decorated trees and then we got into the line to see Santa. Aaron held our place in line while I took the kids over to make the crafts they had. Matthew loved chatting it up with the people in charge. They made little clothesline reindeer, beaded candy canes and then wrote letters to Santa. Sarah of course had to participate like her brothers. Aaron took the opportunity of the vacated stroller to throw Noah in before Sarah could come back to stake her claim again. Noah was pretty happy-go-lucky the whole time.

Here's Matthew showing off his reindeer who incidentally is name Erika after his bus driver. Erika the red nosed reindeer....doesn't quite work does it? It is better left as Rudolph, but don't tell Matthew that.Sarah finished with her craft to come back to find Noah in "her" stroller. Luckily, she didn't get upset, she just gave him a kiss.Finally it was our turn to see Santa. Matthew hopped up with his letter and started right into telling them what he wanted. Noah just looked at them both not knowing what to think. He didn't cry though--I don't know if he will be as happy next year when he sees them. Josh rattled off what he wanted, too.Daniel didn't have any problems listing all his wants either.Sarah had to get on Santa's lap because her brothers did. She was happy for the first picture then she started eyeing Santa like "Who the heck are you?!" and hopped right off.

Afterward she really enjoyed her green candy cane she got from Mrs. Clause as you can see it smeared all over her face, hands and clothes.

While the kids were telling Santa all their wants, Santa had to cringe because it didn't match any of the stuff Santa had picked up for them at the Black Friday sales he had spend the majority of the night at. I guess Santa will have some returns and exchanges to be doing in the next few days--DOH!!

Anyway, I really do have lots to be thankful for and I was really reminded of that when I read the stories about the special needs children that were benefited by the Christmas Tree Jubilee. It never ceases to amaze me whenever I get down, there is ALWAYS someone else who has it worse. I am thankful for the challenging, but wonderful kids I have. I am blessed to be married to my best friend who is able to laugh and cry with me as well as help me through the challenges we face together. I am thankful for the job Aaron has to support us, for the food we have to eat, for the warm house we have to live in and for the wonderful blessing of a working car for transportation. I am thankful for our educations and careers we have been blessed with. I am truly blessed to be a stay at home mom. I am also extremely thankful for the gospel and the comfort it gives me in times of trials. I love the Thanksgiving holiday because it helps remind me of how much I am blessed with!! I must add I also am very thankful for You-Tube since it helped teach Aaron how to carve his very first holiday turkey!! We had a great Thanksgiving!!

Decorated, Funeral for a Hat, Food Glorious Food

I finally got around to decorating the kids' rooms. The kids have finally been moved to the rooms they will be in for a very long time. Sarah's room of course is princess themed. I had to try and match stuff up to the mural I had painted on her wall last year. A little spray paint, a few shelves, some new curtains and bedding and voila. Here's how it turned out:

The new black out curtains Aunt Jill made:Here's the mural I had to try and work with:Had to get a canopy!

The other boys' rooms are still a work in progress. We got some curtains hung up, but I have a lot of painting to do for them to be completed.

Here are the new curtains Aunt Jill made for Noah's room. They were originally supposed to be for Josh's room, but.....it's a long story.

In March after we got Josh's seizures under control, we really needed to make sure he got enough rest since lack of sleep can bring on a seizure. Since I was laid up after having a C-section, Jill took Josh over to the fabric store and let him pick out some curtain material. After that she started sewing the black out curtains for his room in hopes the black out material could help Josh sleep later than the 5 am he kept getting up at. She started them, but as time got closer for her to go home the curtains didn't get all the way finished. The last night she was supposed to be in Utah, she was going to stay up all night and finish them. While she was sewing late into the night she didn't feel very well. She was horribly uncomfortable and in the wee hours of the morning she decided to stop sewing and go to bed--little did she know she was in preterm labor. The next morning she started bleeding and contracting--she was 25 weeks pregnant. That's when she got admitted to the hospital in preterm labor. Anyway, by the time she had Sydney and flew home on the Leer jet the unfinished curtains went with her with her promising to finish them. The curtains finally got finished and hung this weekend. Too bad they are now for Noah's room instead of Josh's room. However, Josh still goes up and looks at them and admires the nice fabric he got to pick out. Those curtains were sure a labor of love!!

Aaron has this hat he absolutely loves. Finding a hat for him that fits him, is comfortable and one that he likes is a next to impossible task. Anyway, he had this one hat he LOVED, however, it was bordering on the gross side. I finally couldn't handle it anymore and threw it in the washer against his wishes. I promised I would put it on a delicate cycle not to damage it. It got washed and I left it in the washer and forgot about it. Unfortunately the next day I threw a huge load of laundry in the washer to get washed--still forgetting about his hat. His hat didn't survive the wash. When he pulled it out he came and found me pretty upset. His hat was totally shredded. I felt so bad I let him go and pick out an early Christmas present for it's replacement. Oops!

As for Noah he has finally decided that baby food isn't such a bad thing. I am glad because that means I can escape for a few hours without him screaming for food since he won't take a bottle only me. He is getting so big!! Anyway I will post some more pictures of the kids rooms soon.

Waking Up Angry, Daniel's Bad Day, Snowy, Yummy Forehead

Aunt Jill came for a visit this week thus no blogging posts so here's the catch up of this week. Of course Jill can't come here without helping me out with some project or another. This visit's project was to help me decorate the kids' bedrooms. We have lived here for almost 8 years and my kid's bedroom walls don't have a whole lot on them. I wanted to change that. In going around shopping for different things we stuck Noah and Sydney in the stroller together. They did really well together. Noah loved sucking on Sydney's head anytime he got the opportunity. Here he is pulling her head closer so he can suck it:Luckily she was a pretty easy going baby who didn't mind most of the time. If Noah couldn't get a hold of her head he would settle for his fist. We would set them down in different places and Noah would purposefully work his way toward Sydney so he could suck her head. Hey--it got him to somewhat learn how to army crawl. Maybe when he's ready to try walking we can invite Sydney over and use her head for his incentive...They loved being together:The other kids loved having her and Jill around as well. They know Jill as their second Mom since she took full care of them for almost a month around the end of my pregnancy and after Noah's birth. Sydney fit in with all the chaos in our house. Hey, what's one more screaming child? She is a sweet baby, though. She loves to smile and coo.While Jill was here visiting it snowed. It snowed enough the kids were able to go out and make a snowman. Aaron went out to help in his all purpose flip flops, shorts and T-shirt. Why he didn't get warmer clothes on I will never know. After making the snowman it turned into a snowball fight. By the end Aaron was FREEZING!!Sarah saw everyone outside and insisted on going out with them. She was only wearing her pajamas so she grabbed what she could and forced her way outside. She grabbed Noah's coat and her mismatched shoes without socks, but she didn't complain because she was outside having fun with everyone else. I have found a yummy pumpkin cookie recipe that happens to be Daniel friendly. Judging by Sarah's face she seemed to like them. She also waited until our backs were turned and crawl up on the counter and stuff handfuls into her mouth until someone came and stopped her. We have been having a problem with Daniel tearing his sheets off his bed every night/morning. Finally after completely remaking his bed after about the fourth morning I had had enough. I asked Daniel (rather angrily), "Why do you keep ripping the sheets off your bed?" He thought about it for a minute and then replied, "Mom, I just wake up angry." After that I made him remake his own bed. The first morning I made him remake his bed he got even more angry. It took him over two hours with much wailing and gnashing of teeth to finally remake his bed. Magically after making him remake his bed he stopped waking up angry and ripping the sheets off his bed every morning. Funny how that works. Here he is remaking his bed rather unhappily: Daniel had a pretty rough afternoon the other day. He was messing around and knocked the phone and charger back behind the TV. I made him wiggle back there to pick it up. While he was behind the TV he cut his finger on something. Wow, I never thought anyone could howl so loud for so long. He came out from behind the TV and screamed until he got a bandaid on his finger. The bandaid made it magically feel 100% better because the screaming and crying immediately stopped. Right after that he got in trouble for something else and was upset enough he started looking for his blankee to comfort himself. Unfortunately, Noah had purposefully rolled/scooted over on top of his blankee because it was so soft. While Noah was on top of Daniel's blankee he barfed everywhere. When Daniel saw that he was quite upset. Me upon seeing the situation started laughing. Daniel got really mad and yelled at me, "IT'S NOT FUNNY MOM!!" That made it even more humorous, but I had to try and stifle my giggles until Daniel wasn't looking at me anymore. We had to throw Daniel's blankee in the washer so in the meantime he had to find comfort elsewhere.

We were cleaning up the house before Aunt Jill came and Aaron found Sarah's tutu. He put it on her and she wore it all day. She even fell asleep in it that afternoon. Yes she is still in her pajamas. We spent the whole day cleaning so I never changed her out of them because we weren't going anywhere. Anyway she loved wearing her tutu.

Her tutu didn't slow her down in slightest. I had made some Cafe Rio burritos for dinner. I had cleaned everything up except I had gotten distracted and left the salad dressing on the counter. Sarah seized the opportunity. While no one was looking, she climbed on the counter, tutu and all, grabbed the spoon and started shoveling it in, dripping it everywhere in the process. I don't know if you can launder the tulle (the tutu material) but at this point I don't have anything to lose. It's ruined as it is so I will let you know how the washing of it turns out. Oh that little girl!!! For the birthday party Daniel attended at Chuck E. Cheese's the other day he got a photo card. It is a little plastic card with his picture printed on it. He brought it home and was so excited. He told me, "Mom, Mom I have a card. I can buy stuff now." I wish it were only that easy! The next day he was even more excited because he then told me, "Mom I have this card so that means I can go to Dad's work, too!" What an imagination--and what a goofy face!! He is a ham when it comes to taking pictures!

Sarah is not the funnest person to shop with. She likes to play the game hide and seek in the racks as well as lets see how fast I can run away from you. She also screams bloody murder if you try and put her in the cart, too. Let's just sum it up and say shopping with her is definitely not for the weak of heart. However, the other day I was trying to look at something and she was strangely quiet. I looked over to see she had found the shoe section. She was in heaven finding all the shoes and trying them all on. Here's she proudly modeling the huge pair of boy shoes she had found: She got a little upset when she couldn't get the plastic tie undone that was holding them together. She got even more upset when we made her take them off and put them back.

We were also at Ikea earlier in the week. Jill and I were looking at something when she snuck off. I finally heard her say, "It's broten (broken)". I looked to see she had crawled up on a desk and was trying to push the buttons on a fake computer. When nothing happened with the computer and no one came to get her she must have figured the computer was broken. She's a crazy kid!!