Secret Visitor, Matthew's Sweet Piano Skills, Open the Floodgates

We had a special visitor at our house last night. Our friendly Santa Clause made the rounds around our ward and stopped by our house, too. The kids were so excited (except for Sarah). They got to tell him everything they wanted for Christmas. I was cleaning up dinner when I glanced up at the window to see him peeking in and it about scared me to death!! He was just making sure we were home. Matthew saw him through the window and was so excited. Sarah, however, would have nothing to do with him. This was the best picture I got with her in it and she is trying to run away.

Noah was curious, but he didn't cry. He just stared at him. Daniel was so excited to see him. Santa even came bearing gifts. They were little gift boxes filled with candy and toys. All the kids stuffed their mouths as fast as they could because it was bedtime and they wanted to eat all their candy before they had to go to bed.

Noah has been quite constipated lately so I started feeding him prunes and oatmeal. After a few days that still wasn't working so the pediatrician said it was ok to give him a small dose of Mirilax. Well we had success and then some after dinner tonight. The plug came out and the flood gates were opened. We had a major CODE BROWN on our hands (literally). DISGUSTING!! He leaked out of the front, sides and back of his diaper, all over his pajamas, all over the high chair and all over the blanket we put him on to change him. It was bad enough Aaron had to shower him. I think I can safely say he is not constipated anymore. Matthew and Josh continue to take piano lessons. Their piano teacher didn't have a Christmas recital, but she still gave them Christmas songs to practice. She recorded Matthew at practice today to show us how well he is doing. It is great to see him progressing!

Today after school Josh came up and asked Aaron if he could stay up and watch football with him. Aaron was so excited that he is now old enough to become interested in football. Aaron was excited to snuggle with two of his boys and watch Monday Night Football.

Visiting Temple Square, A Waste of Energy and Caught Red Handed!!

It has been a while since we have done anything fun as a family. Yesterday morning we decided to try and get all the chores done quickly so we could have some fun. When I told the kids it was time to pick up and then clean, Josh's response was, "It will waste all my energy cleaning!" My response was, "Too bad, so sad--now get to work!!" We got the house super clean and then had a quick lunch. However after the whirlwind of Sunday morning preparations you can't tell the house was ever clean! Anyway, after lunch we headed down to Temple Square. We were able to get in to see the movie The Prophet of the Restoration that was playing at the Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We were a little nervous taking all our kids to the movie, but it wasn't too bad. Noah ate and slept through the movie, Sarah wandered the walkway between Aaron and me, Josh and Daniel watched the movie, and Matthew once he got over the loud noise did pretty well. An added bonus is there weren't any credits at the end of the movie. The credits for some reason really upset Matthew and he will start screaming if we don't leave immediately or if the movie isn't turned off right away. When there were no credits Aaron and I breathed a sigh of relief. Afterward we headed out to look at all the pretty lights. Temple Square was packed. There was a BYU basketball game at the Energy Solutions Arena near by so after the game all of the fans came over to check out the lights as well. We weren't able to get too close, but here is the fountain where Aaron proposed to me almost 11 years ago. Wow a lot has changed in 11 years--like the addition of 5 kids!! Anyway, by the time we were done looking at the lights Aaron and herded the kids back to the car and remarked how much we feel like sheep dogs herding our kids around. Instead of nipping at their feet for them to keep up we grab hold of their hoods, collars or whatever else we can reach to make sure no one is lost. We will really have our hands full when Noah becomes mobile!!

Here we are in the Legacy Theater. Daniel got a little stir crazy in the middle of the movie and stood up and started waving his hat around. He was trying to make some shadows on the big screen, but it didn't work and we made him sit down ASAP.Yesterday in addition to chores I also did haircuts for everyone. Ahhhh I love not needing to comb everyone's hair every morning--for at least a month, anyway. Sarah was upset because she never got a turn to get her hair cut. That's what you get when you are the only girl! The boys always want faux hawks when their hair is long enough so Aaron gave Matthew a real mohawk to see what Matthew would say. He didn't really care, but I did so it got shaved off.Noah is loving his freedom from rolling. He rolled over and ate part of my gas bill. I wonder if they will take the excuse, "My baby ate my gas bill"? Good thing I pay our bills online! Sarah the fashionista got herself "ready" this morning. She grabbed an ornament off the tree and put it on her head. Then she grabbed one of Josh's snow boots and one of Daniel's shoes to complete her ensemble. What do you think? Who knows maybe she will have a future in the fashion industry...Daniel got himself ready for bed last night. I really didn't care what he picked out as long as they got to bed. It wasn't until this morning I noticed Daniel had grabbed a pair of Noah's pants and used them for pajamas. I would like to think those would have been uncomfortable to wear, but it didn't seem to phase Daniel. Who knew he could squeeze a 12 month size pair of pants on his body? Pretty impressive. This morning Aaron sent Josh to find the boys' some black church socks. Aaron then went upstairs to see Josh snooping around in our closet which is where all the Christmas presents are kept. Aaron told Josh to get out of our closet and then asked him what he saw. Josh said he just saw some socks and that was all. Aaron kept asking him what he had seen. Aaron then said he knew Josh had been looking and then asked him one more time what he had seen. Josh then told us a few of the toys that he had seen. Aaron asked him why he didn't say that in the first place. Josh looked right at him and said, "I didn't understand what you meant." OHHHH that little stinker!! I think we should return all those presents and give him a lump of coal!! So much for Christmas surprises!

Sarah is one independent little girl. Aaron was fixing the kids lunch and I guess wasn't going fast enough according to Sarah. Sarah grabbed hold of Daniel's frozen nugget bag and pulled herself out a handful. Who has time for cooking them? She started eating them frozen. She ate two frozen ones until Aaron noticed what she was doing. YUCK!! Regular nuggets are bad enough, but frozen??!!

Another Shot for Noah

We have had a small round of croup at our house. Noah got the worst of it though. Monday night I was awakened at 2:30 am with Noah crying. Noah usually sleeps through the night so I groggily walked into his room. When I got there I found him just fighting to breath. That woke me right up. Then I heard him cough that seal bark that comes with croup. He was just struggling to breath as well as slightly blue tinged around his lips and fingers. I bundled him up and took him out into the cold night air. That loosened him up a little bit, but he was still working pretty hard to breath. I took him into the 24 hour pediatrician's office to get evaluated. When we got there being out in the cool air had loosened him up even more so they decided to just give him a steroid shot in his thigh to reduce the inflammation around his vocal cords. That way it is easier for him to breath. I brought him home and stayed up with him for a couple more hours to make sure he was going to be ok and then we both went to bed for a few hours. Since then Noah has been doing great. He feels a lot better. Sarah and I caught the same bug but it doesn't affect us as bad as it did Noah. We basically have colds.

Noah is starting to sit up. He can sit for a few minutes before he tips over, but he seems pretty pleased with himself. He also cannot leave any socks on. He kicks them off faster than I can find them to put them back on. Must be Aaron's son!
Sarah has quite the fashion sense. She brought me over her boot and screamed until I helped her put it on. Then she grabbed one of the boy's Spongebob slippers for the other foot. Then she went and grabbed a red marker (thankfully it was washable) and colored on her shirt, pants and feet. This picture was taken before she got hold of the marker.Today I went to the store to pick up some cookie making ingredients. I found some Daniel friendly chocolate chips and bought some. When we got home I made the kids help me take in the grocery bags. Sarah got a hold of one package of chocolate chips and threw it into the air. When it hit the floor it split open and spilled about half the chocolate chips all over the floor. I told Daniel and Sarah they had to clean it up thinking they would throw them in the trash. I was wrong. When I looked they were stuffing their faces with chocolate chips as fast as they could. I didn't know chocolate could be smeared so far!

When I finally cleaned up the mess we made some vegan pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I had plenty of help. Sarah was the first to volunteer to lick the beater. Why I let her wear a white shirt on days like this I will never know...doh! Hopefully I can get the stains out. To keep things exciting right after this picture was taken Sarah scooted backwards and fell head first off the bar. She is ok, but I kept a close eye on her because she hit the ground pretty hard. Good thing she is so hard headed :)! Josh has been doing basketball and he is on the same team as one of his friends, Hailey. That has been nice because we can carpool. However, it was Hailey's Dads turn to drive and he got to listen to their conversation in the back seat. This is where he overheard Josh tell Hailey he knows where all the Christmas presents are and he and Daniel have peeked. He knows that someone is getting a spiderman toy among other things. Since we have moved Matthew into our storage room we don't have a good secret place to hide the presents. I thought I could hide them in our closet, but now I know that didn't work out so well. I need to somehow very discreetly find out what Josh and Daniel have seen so I can decide what presents need to be returned and what presents we can keep. Really?! The little stinkers!!

Today Daniel had preschool. He came home and showed me his work. He got to cut pictures out of magazines that remind him of his mom. The pictures he chose were a kid playing with their mom and a family having a picnic outside. He also chose a made up bed. Lately Daniel likes to "surprise" me by making my bed for me. He will tell me, "Mom I am going to have a surprise for you." Then after he has gone upstairs for a few minutes he will then tell me, "Mom, I dropped something in your room and you need to come get it." Then I will go upstairs and be surprised that my bed is made. Daniel just beams when I tell him THANK YOU!! This happens almost every morning and I think it's sweet. That is why he clipped a picture of a made up bed. The next picture is of a mop. I asked why he chose this and he replied, "Oh it's the one you got for free." I never got a mop for free, but I have gotten other things for free with coupons, deals, etc. He really pays attention. My favorite picture is the diapers coupon. Daniel told me, "Mom I cut out a coupon for you." I am a couponer and use coupons for anything and everything I can and he has picked up on that. I am teaching my kids how to be cheap--oh I mean frugal and how to spot coupons and not be afraid to use them--that makes me one proud momma!

Poor Noah

Noah turned 8 months old yesterday!! He is getting so big. He is so big he got his first dose of Synagis (the RSV shot) today. The shot is for high risk and/or premature infants to help prevent or at least lessen the symptoms of RSV if he gets it. It is so expensive you have to "qualify" for it and Noah qualified with no problems. The ventilator, pnuemothorax (hole in his lung) as well as home oxygen and other kids who attend school that bring home every disease known to man were more than enough to qualify. We had a regular appointment and he is growing well. He continues to be in the 10th percentile for weight (16 pounds 7 ounces) and the 25th percentile for length. He is starting to like food so I can get a little break here and there which is nice. This is the first shot he has ever gotten besides the pokes for his IVs in the hospital. We are delaying immunizations for a couple years so these were his first shots. He got two of them one in each thigh--poor guy. He was all smiles until they jabbed the needle in his leg then he was quite sad. After I got him calmed down he tried to see how many fingers he could fit in his mouth at one time. The record is 7 if you are interested. He is getting quite grabby, though. After they put the blue bandaids on his legs he kept trying to grab them. He actually pulled one of them off in one of his attempts. It was a little bit of a let down when they actually gave him the shot. I was expecting more for my $1600 than a measly shot--maybe some gold plated socks or something along those lines. Luckily our insurance decided to cover the whole shot minus the office copay so that was a load off my mind. We have the next five shots scheduled every 28 days until the end of March--poor Noah, he has no idea!!

To start out the day we all had a rough morning. I came downstairs to find Josh and Daniel had pulled out a brand new bottle of frosting from the pantry. They were eating that by the fingerfuls for breakfast. They knew that was wrong because as soon as they saw me they tried to hide the evidence. They were able to hide the tub of frosting, but not all the white smears all over their hair, hands, faces and clothes. Then Matthew got out of the shower and couldn't find his pants which happened to be sitting RIGHT in front of him. After I calmed him down from his humongous meltdown he was able to see them and put them on. While this was going on Sarah got into my purse and grabbed my bottle of lotion. She took off the cap and emptied the rest of it everywhere. Oh what a Monday!! Hopefully this isn't a glimpse of what the rest of the week will be like!!

Speech, Demise of the Hoppity Horse, Need a Coke?

We had an IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting Thursday for Josh. We met with Josh's Speech teacher, assistant principal and Josh's regular education teacher as well as Josh and myself. Since Josh requires more services (speech) than the average student they make a special plan for him. This plan has to be updated at least once a year or more often if needed. I was very excited to find out Josh has progressed enough in his speech therapy he is almost to the point of not needing services anymore. They are working on mastering his last sound which is the letter "g". He can pronounce it correctly if he is consciously thinking about it, but doesn't do so well in conversation so that's what they are working on for now. I am so excited!! That will be one less thing to worry about when he gets it mastered--YAY for Josh (and me)!!

Today was pretty crazy. Aaron and I got woken up to Matthew telling us, "Daniel popped it!" We found out that Daniel got a hold of Sarah's hair comb and popped the hoppity horse with it. Nice!! What a nice way to start the day! Later on at church my "maternity leave" from callings has now ended. I will now be serving as Activity Days leader. The bishopric member who extended me the call thought I might be excited to spend some time doing girl stuff since I have all those boys :). I don't know what activity days entails, but it will be fun to find out. Josh also gave a talk in primary today. I love he can now read them!! We can just watch him give his talk without helping him. During Sacrament meeting I had to leave to feed Noah. This time I tried to leave when Sarah wasn't paying attention. I guess it didn't work out so well. When I got done feeding Noah I came out of the Mother's Lounge to the foyer where I found Aaron and the kids sitting on the couch. They were waiting for me to finish so we could leave. Aaron told me after I left Sarah came unglued because she needed her mom and Aaron just wouldn't work. Aaron was pretty relieved to see me walk out of the Mother's Lounge to make a fast getaway! I guess the 1:4 ratio was too much for Aaron to handle--can't say as I blame him. Even the ratio of 2:5 is too much for us both to handle sometimes. After dinner tonight we went driving around to look at Christmas lights. Matthew started singing songs and making up his own lyrics. His best song started out like this to the tune of Frosty the Snowman: "Frosty the Snowman ate some bad food. He threw it up and had to get the carpet cleaner out." Maybe not such a bright future for song writing....but funny nonetheless.

I volunteered in Josh's classroom last week and outside the door they had all the children's Christmas lists up. They are learning about money and budgeting so Josh made a list of all the Christmas presents he wanted to buy to give to everyone. There are some interesting things and he even included Uncle Jeff, Aunt Jill, Aunt Johanna, etc.: While I was volunteering his teacher had Josh officially introduce me to the class. He was a little embarrassed. When it was time for me to leave I tried to catch Josh's eye to say goodbye. His teacher saw what I was trying to do and told Josh it was ok to give me a hug goodbye if he wanted to. He quietly said he didn't want to and pretended I wasn't there. It makes me sad to see my Joshy is now embarrassed to have a mom now. He is growing up too fast!

Sarah loves her coat. She wears it all the time and gets mad if you try and take it off. If Aaron's at home I try not to take her to run errands with me since she is not too fun to shop with at this age. Since she has been left a lot, I guess she always wants to be prepared by having her coat on to go bye bye with me. She will ask, "Need Coke (coat)?" I wouldn't put her coat on her the other day so she put it on herself. She put it on upside down and screamed if I tried to take it off to fix it. She also screamed until I zipped it up. So I zipped it up and it now looks like she is wearing "The Cone of Shame" from the movie Up.

Today I was getting ready to make dinner when Daniel asked if he could have a chip. I said yes and next thing I know Matthew and Sarah had sat down with Daniel and they were shoving chips in their mouths as fast as they could. I guess they misunderstood when I said one chip. They must have thought I said, "Eat the whole bag of chips." Crazy kids!

Noah and Sydney

While my sister in law Jill was visiting we had to get pictures of Noah and Sydney together. Noah is 7 months old and Sydney is 6 months old. They must have known each other and been good friends in heaven. When Noah was born Sydney must have missed him because she was born right after even if it was 3 months before her due date. Our portrait session went as well as you can expect photographing two babies. When one would smile the other wouldn't and vice versa. It was fun getting them dressed in matchy outfits, though.

What's a photo session of babies without numerous spit ups/barfs from Noah or a blowout from Sydney? In the middle of everything Sydney filled her drawers which ended up leaking out onto her outfit. After that, we then decided to get some pictures of them just in their diapers with the matching blankets Jill made for them. We also got their stuffed animal babies in the the picture with them. By this time both of them had had enough of being photographed so they were not happy.

I love these babies!!

Bubble Showers, Sarah's Sweet Moves and Some Basketball

Yesterday was a pretty chaotic day. Sarah thought she would start out her day with a muffin...topped with toothpaste. Yummy--hey, I will give anyone the recipe if they are interested. Sarah seemed to enjoy them. Blech!!I sent Josh and Daniel to take a shower yesterday morning. They took forever!! After 30+ minutes I went and told them to get out. After they got dressed they came upstairs and told me they had a bubble shower. I asked what that was and they told me they got lots of soap and made bubbles all over with it. NICE!! No wonder soap goes so fast around here!! Maybe I should think about getting some bar soap instead of body wash.....

Sarah LOVES Daniel. Whatever he does she has to do as well. I was trying to take a picture of Daniel's bruised chin. Sarah came and stood right next to him and was watching him so she could do the exact same pose as he did. She will be sad when Daniel goes to Kindergarten every day next year!

Daniel was laying on the ground and Sarah had to lay down right next to him and do the exact same as he was doing. Crazy kids! Hey it keeps her entertained and out of trouble so I am happy about that!

Yesterday I had three places I had to go. I had to run to pick up some pictures I had taken. Since it was going to be a quick visit I just carried Noah in his car seat and tried to hold Sarah's hand while Daniel tagged along. Sarah had other plans. Unfortunately, the photo studio was in the very back of the store. Walking back there Sarah refused to let me hold her hand. She also had to stop and look at everything. I had to finally hold on to her hood and direct her where to go. We finally picked up the pictures and headed back to the front of the store to get out. There was a double set of doors to get through. Sarah bolted and got through the first set way ahead of me. She then started running for the second set of doors which led straight out to the busy parking lot. I started running after her which wasn't very easy while carrying Noah and his cumbersome car seat. Sarah cut in front of another Mom trying to open the door for her two toddlers. I got to her before she made it all the way out into the parking lot, but at a cost. I got through the first set of doors only to have my purse strap get caught on the handle of the first set of doors. This gave me just enough room to barely reach Sarah before I couldn't move forward anymore because of my caught purse strap. However, in the process of reaching for Sarah I knocked the other toddler down to the ground. I started apologizing and then swung back to get my purse strap unstuck. In swinging back I bashed Daniel in the head with Noah's car set. Between the poor toddler that got knocked down, Daniel crying from being hit in the head with the car seat and Sarah screaming because I stopped her from running away it was a scream fest. I was glad to get to the car. With my confidence a little shaken I was still determined to get some grocery shopping done. I headed over the grocery store. I grabbed a cart and put Noah, still in his car seat, in the front part of the basket. Sarah grabbed a hold of the basket and was walking along side me. Daniel just tailed behind me. I was relieved when it looked like she would stay along side the cart. However, she got bored with walking along with the cart really fast. I was in the baby food aisle trying to read food labels for the food I was picking up for Noah. Sarah decided to go over to the far section of the aisle and started ripping off the labels from the baby food jars. I grabbed her and put her inside the cart. Oh she was not happy. She was screaming bloody murder. She then worked her way over the top of all the groceries inside the basket smasching them to try and get to me. She finally crawled into the basket section and then unexpectedly jumped into my arms. Lucky for her I caught her, but I had to put her down because I couldn't carry her and push the cart. Yep she started wandering off again....so I put her in the cart. She worked her way over the top of all the groceries and unexpectedly jumped into my arms again. I put her down....and the whole thing repeated itself a few more times until I gave up and cut my losses and went to check out. While in the checkout line Sarah and Daniel were very interested in looking at the little beverage fridge next to the checkout stand. Now they were a little occupied I tried to hurry and check out when I heard Daniel start screaming, "MOM!! MOM!!! MOM!!" I looked over to see Sarah was trying to pull out the drinks from the fridge. I told her to stop, but only half heartedly, because if she really pulled the drink out what could happen? This did not make Daniel very happy. I turned back to the checker to watch her scan my groceries when the checker asked me, "Um...Are you going to let him do that?" I looked over to see Daniel dragging Sarah across the floor by the hood of her coat. Daniel had tried to stop Sarah from getting into the fridge by picking her up to bring her to me. She of course went limp and threw herself to the ground and refused to move. Daniel did the best he could and picked up her hood and started dragging a screaming Sarah across the floor over to me. After the checker asked me if I was going to allow that, I looked at her very defeatedly and said, "Why yes....yes, I am." She looked at me very surprised and shrugged her shoulders and finished checking me out. On the way out of the store I put Sarah in the cart, she worked her way over the top of the groceries smashing them even more and was attempting to jump into my arms when I snapped this picture:

After this I gave up on going to the third store I wanted to get to. I had had enough of shopping with kids for the day. I keep waiting for shopping with my only girl to get fun. I think I have a few years, though!When we got home I fixed a snack and Sarah decided she needed to go and get every baby spoon out of the silverware drawer to eat it with. She used each spoon once and when I was not looking she went and put every dirty spoon back inside the drawer. Yummy! I washed all the silverware again.

Later on that night after the kids were put to bed I was sitting and relaxing when I looked down and noticed the main stone of my bling bling ring had fallen out. It just adds to my day! Luckily the ring is completely fake, but still....Then I heard from Matthew downstairs, "Daniel is writing on the wall!" I went downstairs to find Daniel had yanked the door stop out of the wall and was using the screw end of it to not only write on the wall, but to carve in it, too. I have some nice art work courtesy of Daniel on the downstairs wall. That's ok it matches the hole Matthew punched out of the other side during and major meltdown last week. In other happenings this Josh started playing basketball this week. He has a few clinics and then they start having some games. He seems to like it. Here's an action shot of him dribbling the ball: I was cleaning up the kitchen yesterday so I turned on some music. Sarah started showing me some of her sweet dance moves:

I really do love my kids, but I admit they can be very trying at times!!!! It also seems that not only my dining table, but the walls of my house will have lots of character by the time my kids get done with them.