Noah's Chompers and Oh Sarah!!

Noah is one fun "big" toy the kids all love. He is the center of attention a lot of the time and gets wallered by all the kids. He likes it most times....well, sometimes. Noah's two bottom chompers are officially in. I seem to be his favorite teething ring, unfortunately. That isn't much fun while he's nursing! I guess he still needs to learn don't bite the....um, hand (or other anatomical part) that feeds you (literally!!). Today I had to take the Suburban in to get the oil changed. I didn't time that very well since today is the first day of Christmas break and I had to take all five kids with me. I took it to the same place as last time. It made me laugh to see Sarah's scribbled handiwork still on the wall from last time we were there which was about 5 months ago. The employees must like her work or they don't ever clean that place--it really could be either.

The kids were surprisingly good while we were there at the oil change place. When we got home I herded all the kids inside. Sarah took this opportunity with lack of supervision to go over open up the fridge, pull out the egg nog and drink as much as she could as fast as she could.

When I caught her she quickly tried to put the lid back on, but it was too late. She was caught red handed with a nice egg nog mustache to accompany it. Oh I really need to get that refrigerator latch!! However, my friend says it doesn't take very long for kids to figure that one out either! When I got the egg nog put away I went downstairs and sat on the couch. She came down after right after and was eating a cookie that she had snuck while I was putting away the egg nog. She's the fastest troublemaker in the west!! We usually keep Noah's car seat in the car, but it was brought in the other day and Sarah had lots of fun playing with it. I can't believe she fit in one of these just over a year ago. Sarah likes to reach on the counter to feel what's up there. Usually she is rewarded by some treat of some sort. This time it was the bag of chips. She pulled it down and spilled them everywhere. I was upstairs combing my hair when this happened. Daniel, bless his heart, got out the broom and was trying to clean it up. The mess was too much for him and he came upstairs to tell me. I came downstairs and cleaned it all up, but Sarah was not too happy about it. I think it's because she couldn't get her chip fix in since they all got thrown in the garbage. Yesterday evening after dinner Sarah had a dirty diaper. While Aaron and I were arguing--oh I mean discussing whose turn it was to change it, Sarah went over and tried to take care of the problem herself. She got undressed, pulled off her diaper while standing up which spilled the contents of her diaper all over the floor. Ewwwwwww!! Aaron grabbed her before she could do any more damage and whisked her up to the shower. I had to get out the carpet cleaner to clean up the mess. Nice! I thought the boys were trouble makers, but they don't hold a candle to her!! If anything she is teaching them a thing or two!

2010 In Review (aka Christmas Letter)

Whoa what a crazy year 2010 has been for us. We are just now starting to come out of strict survival mode to actually living and enjoying life. I never got around to doing Christmas cards this year so everyone will have to settle for a blog post instead.

This year we have had many ups and downs so to catch everyone up on our comings and goings we will start with our newest addition, Noah. Noah was/is our preemie. He was born almost two months early and spent his first month of life in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. He was born early via C-section since I started into pre eclampsia and my body couldn't handle the pregnancy anymore. After we were able to bring him home from the hospital he spent the next two months on oxygen and an apnea monitor. He did stop breathing a few times, but nothing some stimulation couldn't snap him out of--thank goodness. He is currently 8 months old and very cute and cuddly. He is a very laid back baby (which is what I needed for baby #5). He loves to sit up, roll over, coo, giggle and eat. We are thankful he decided to join our crazy bunch!

Sarah keeps us on our toes. She turned 2 this year and very mischievous. She likes to get into everything! Her favorite mischief makers are markers and makeup. She thinks she is just like her brothers even though she is half their size. She copies everything they do. She is going to be one tough little girl! I am glad that I have at least one little girl to try and balance out all this testosterone in our house!

Daniel turned 5 this year and started preschool. He loves going to school like his older two brothers. He loves wearing his backpack and having homework to do. Hopefully that enjoying homework part will continue through the rest of his school years!! He ended up quitting karate around the time Noah was born because our lives got so crazy. However, before he quit he did get up to a blue belt. We still continue to carry an Epi pen around for him, but his allergies to milk, eggs and tree nuts are somewhat decreasing. We are hoping we won't need the Epi pen for too much longer. Daniel is our comic relief and a chatter box. He keeps me company all day long and loves to talk. He continues to be a snuggler (I LOVE IT) and carries his brown blankee all through the house.

Joshua turned 7 this year and is in second grade. He gave us quite a scare in March. He started having breakthrough seizures in February. We increased his medication dose, but he continued to have them. In March his neurologist ordered for a sleep deprived EEG. On our way home from the EEG Josh started having seizure after seizure without stopping. We took him over to the hospital where they tried to stop it and they couldn't. They then transported him by ambulance down to Primary Children's Hospital where he spent three days in the hospital. During those three days they did an MRI which came out normal and started him on a second medication. That almost stopped the seizures. Since it takes a few weeks for the medication to have full effect in the body we had to adjust the new medication a few times after he came home for a few break through seizures. Once we got things under control for him he was able to resume soccer and he started basketball this last month. He loves to read, help me cook, and continues to be a big help around the house and with his siblings. He is quite thoughtful and is looking forward to being baptized in 2011.

Matthew turned 9 this year and is in fourth grade. He really enjoys school especially riding the bus. He continues to be in the learning center for the majority of his school time to help with his autism. He loves math and is excelling at the piano. He earned his Wolf badge in scouts and was able to participate in his first PineWood Derby this year. Aaron and Matthew had fun making their car. He is quite the conversationalist--albeit most of the conversation revolves around Union Pacific Trains, Freeways and the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. He will talk to anyone and everyone and also has a very infectious laugh. He adds some flair to our family.

As for me I have been busy with my kids this year. I had a 9 day hospital stay that ended up with a surprise C-section in April. That took me a little longer to recover from than I thought. Thank goodness Aaron's sister Jill was able to come be the kids' second Mom so I could somewhat recover. That was before she ended up hospitalized because she went into pre term labor herself while helping me out. That time was shear craziness around our house!! We really enjoyed and appreciated having her here to help, though. At church I went from being Nursery Leader to Activity Days Leader. I am able to volunteer in Josh's 2 grade class and love it. I love being a Mom even with all the ups and downs!

Aaron continues to work as an Electrical Engineer up on base. He is involved with designing an amphibious assault vehicle for the Marines. He ran his first 5 K this summer and loved it. He believes he has the best calling at church as ward Membership Clerk. He loves spending time with family and between work and family he stays pretty busy.

A highlight of this year (besides adding Noah to our family) was we were able to take a vacation to Texas to visit Aaron's family in August. We had lots of fun visiting Grandma and Grandpa Mancil and the kids even learned how to swim in Aunt Jill's pool. It was a fun vacation and we have fun lasting memories from it.

I am glad to say we survived 2010, but I would be lying if I told I am not happy to see it end. We are hoping for a more calm and quiet 2011. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to everyone!

Love,

The Mancils

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!