Happy New Year

Please excuse me for a little "blog-therapy". I have no picture for this post. Why, you ask? Well, because I'm busy sanitizing the house and carrying around throw-up buckets. Three out the past 6 years we have spent New Years Eve with throw-up buckets instead of noise-makers. Once again over Christmas one of the kids picked up the stomach flu and this time it happens to be Levi. In an effort to keep the rest of the family healthy my entire life centers around cleaning and quarantining the sick child. Jim getting sick is simply not an option so I need to do everything in my power to get this bug out of the house. Jim can't miss school and we can't afford for him to miss work either. So, it will be a while before I'm able to post anything else I'm sure. I sure don't remember this "gift"being on any one's Chritsmas list!

Dancing Queen!

Rebecca absolutely cracks me up! Today was the day...the day to try on the skinny pants. Come on girls, we all have them. you know, the ones that call out to us and laugh in our faces every time we look at them, daring us to try them on. Well, today I had to try them on because in addition to being my smallest pair, they are also my favorite pair. It didn't look too good at first since I tried putting them on just after the shower, but once I dried off, they fit, much to my delight! Now this is especially meaningful to me since fitting in these pants after having 4 kids doesn't come easy. I have to deprive myself of many of the foods that I love and work my butt off at the gym...literally. So, in victory I was doing the skinny pants dance in my closet....enter Rebecca. She just smiles and starts dancing right along with me. No music or anything and she doesn't think this is strange at all. Finally, after a few minutes she says "Mommy, why are we dancing?" I told her we were doing the happy dance and she said "Oh mommy, I'm soooooooooooo happy!" and continues dancing. What a goof! Any reason to dance is reason enough for her!

867-5309

This really should be my phone number as I am such an eighties girl at heart. For those who are not aware, there was a song in the eighties called 867-5309/Jenny all about a girl named Jenny. I just can't seem to handle the technology of this era. I just got my first real cell phone a month ago and still can't figure out how to turn off speakerphone when I accidentally turn it on. However, my sister apparently has the same problem so I don't feel quite so bad about this one. I also frequently need to call any number of people for help when using my new computer and now this morning was the real kicker that convinced me I should really still be in the eighties.

My wonderful husband bought me an MP3 player even though we weren't exchanging gifts...go figure. But, he felt bad about all my complaining about the gym music. I used to have a simple 5 station walkman that grew very tired about 6 months ago and stopped working. Since then I have been forced to listen to the gym music. Since I go to Powerhouse, a weightlifting gym, they play screaming music...literally. I used to enjoy listening to peppy yet sane music that would get me ready to start my day and now since I have to listen to all this yelling, I find myself ready to strangle people when I get home from the gym instead.

As I walked into the gym this morning, ready to enjoy my new gift it really would have worked out well if only I could have remembered how to turn this newfangled thing on! As I stood there baffled by this thing not much bigger than a postage stamp I just had to laugh at the thought of answering Jim's question of how it worked with the response that I couldn't turn it on. Determined that this thing wouldn't get the best of me I just began pushing all of the unlabeled buttons. Would it be so hard to just label these buttons for retards like me? Well, eventually I did get it turned on and enjoyed listening to the Newsboys and songs like Strong Tower and Devotion instead of songs from Korn and other people singing (read screaming) at me about how they want to kill me! Thank you honey for the much better start to my day!

I am slowly figuring our how to live this century but I really should have been born much before my time and life would be much more user-friendly for me! The only thing left to figure out about it is what to do with all the sweat that rolls into my ears and is now trapped there by the earphones and then it feels like I have water in my ears. Let me know if there are any ideas out there!

Is the Doctor In?

The darkness of my previous blog was depressing me so it was time for a change. I don't have much in the way of Christmas pictures to share because my sister and I got our identical cameras confused and she currently has most of my pictures on her camera. So, there will be more to come after we get this all switched around. But, I do have a few good ones to share. We had a very busy, sugar-filled weekend. Jim had to work on Christmas, so we had to extend the festivities.

Of course I was on my own Christmas Day which was complete with medical traumas. It's never a good sign when your child comes into the bathroom crying and covering his head with his hand and blood is seeping out between his fingers. The paramedic student was at work so I was left to deal (or panic )on my own. Luckily Jim was able to get home to look at it and it was determined that he didn't need any further medical attention. The blood stained patch on his hair made for memorable pictures I'm sure!

The day continued to go smoothly when Emily blew out the bottom of her diaper all over my pants and Grandma's good, fabric chair (sorry grandma). All in all, we had a very eventful Christmas Day.

Now I am of course on my own to put most things away as Jim is once again working and trying to do this while having kids in my way all the time continuing to make messes along the way has me ready to pull my hair out! It would be really nice if Jim were here to help out with the kids, but alas, this is not my life right now.

Jim got some much needed things for work including Mountain Dew (this is a necessity for him) and some "toys" to try out. Now I'm trying to get Emily back on her nap schedule and detox the others from all the sugar and hopefully the noise level will return back to normal as well! I'll post more Christmas pictures when I get them.

And, Action!

Well, in keeping with tradition, we are just putting the finishing touches on our Christmas Musical. I figured the kids would get this type of thing in school, so we started doing this last Christmas ( for those grandparents who get this as a Christmas gift, enjoy the sneak peek!) and we will be all done with it this weekend. I never quite thought of myself as a choreographer, but I don't seem too bad at it. Teaching a three year 3 songs and dances is the hard part; but, in the end it ends up being well worth it as the kids have a very entertaining and original Christmas gift and memory for the future. Becca never ceases to crack me up at her loud and off key singing but she definitely gets as A+ for effort! And then there's Levi who always gets to play his drum for one song. He beats it like it's flapping around on the ground and he's trying to beat the life out of it...he even taps his drumsticks together for the beat in the beginning of the songs like he's seen real drummers do. He insists that he can't play the drums and sing even though we try to convince him that the drummer for the Newsboys does, but he still insists that he cannot. He does seem to have trouble doing two things at once anyway. So, enjoy a peek at our Christmas production and you'll just have to take my word for it that it really is priceless!

Emily Update

Well, it's official...Emily is perfect! She went to see the Neurologist this morning and the results of her MRI are normal. Her crazy eye movements have also pretty much stopped and she is still developmentally fine, so all is well with her. Then she went to see her Pediatrician today and she still continues to be on the charts for both height and weight which is totally amazing for the kids in our family. Her Dr. just laughs at her because it is so strange for kids in our family to have rolls in weird (but cute) places. Emily continues to learn new things every day. She has developed a new liking to sucking on her index finger. I haven't really seen this before, but it makes her happy, so, whatever. I left her on the kitchen rug the other day and went to take the trash out and came back in to find that she had rolled over. She loves standing in her exersaucer and laughing whenever anyone else laughs. It's really cute. Now with all these crazy Dr. visits past us (we've been going between all the kids at least every two weeks) we can finally get ready for Christmas!

Lesson Learned

Upon reading the title, the assumption is most likely that Annalise learned a lesson. This assumption however, would be false. I think I have the sweetest, most thoughtful six year old daughter. Today I was getting lunch ready for all of us at the same time. Annalise is a girl after my own heart in that she likes things with "the works". Hot dogs with everything on them including onions, tacos the same way and sandwiches with lettuce, tomato and onion even. So, today I was making her sandwich and I cut up the rest of the tomato I had in the fridge. Then I went to cut up the last tomato for my sandwich and found it to be rotten. I said "oh, bummer". Annalise questioned what the problem was and when I told her she said, "aw mom, you can have my sandwich instead." I said, " no sweetie, you just enjoy your sandwich". So then several minutes later I saw the rest of her food almost gone and her sandwich still sitting there. When I questioned her about it she said she just felt bad about eating it since she had tomato and I didn't. Who says these things? (I'm even ashamed to say I may not have given her the tomato had I known it was the only one!) Another great lesson learned today from my daughter...how to truly be selfless!

Ooooh, those cheeks!

I thought I'd post a picture showing what I spend a ton of time doing every day...these cheeks, I just can't get enough of them. And then there's her thighs, she has so many rolls and cracks and crevices things could get lost in them. I've never had a baby quite like this. My mom said I was chubby like this, but this is new to me. She looks so cute wearing tights with her short, fat legs. She is just so cute we all can't get enough of her. Jim even calls her a sweet baby during her few fussy times. She has been such a blessing. We are getting geared up for her MRI on Monday morning at 9am. The challenge will be getting her to go 4 hours without eating. Every once in awhile, she might do that at night, but most times it's every 2-3 hours. Speaking of sleep, there really is a downside to having flannel sheets...they are so warm to have to get out of. Since I have to get up usually 3 times a night, it really is becoming difficult to drag myself out of them. The good thing is that Emily just waits patiently until I get up to get her. She sleeps right next to me and she just makes grunting type noises when she wakes up to eat, she never cries and then smiles from ear to ear when I finally do get over to her. I can't complain about that!

Barlow Girl?!?!?!????

When you look at these three do you see the next Barlow Girl? I'm not so sure but Annalise is convinced. For those who don't know, Barlow Girl is a Christian music group made up of three sisters who play all their own instruments and sing. I guess I would call their music alternative, but Annalise and Rebecca LOVE their music...they are one of my fave's as well. Annalise has it all planned out (of course) of who will play what instrument and the only question was "What to do with Levi?" This was the topic of discussion at lunch today. It was settled that Levi will be the stage manager and of co use drive the big truck with all their stuff. Levi then piped in that he wants to start his own band like the Newsboys (his favorite group..another Christian alternative band except this one is all guys). He of course will play the drums, but he's not so sure about the singing part. He says that we obviously need to have some more babies that are boys to help make up his band. I find it so funny that my kids are so into their favorite groups. Emily's favorite music is by far Sara Groves. The instant I put her on, Emily stops crying. Maybe it's because she's my favorite and that I listen to her music so much. In fact, her music was playing while I was in labor and even when Emily was born. Whatever the reason, Emily has got to be her number one fan. I would love to have a musical family, but even if not, it made for interesting lunch conversation!

Movin' and Shakin'

Emily is doing all kids of new things. She is spinning around in a circle on her back. She often turns a complete 360 in the time it takes me to wash the dishes or take a shower. She also has favorite places to lay which are quite funny. She loves to lay in the bathroom. I think she likes the bright lights. She lays there while the other kids are taking baths, but then we just leave her there because she is so happy there! She also likes the laundry room for the same bright lights. But, the funniest part is that she likes to be under the dishwasher door when I'm putting dishes in it. I think she looks like a mechanic under a car. It is quite funny to see these little legs moving and "running" while they stick out from under it. I LOVE newborns and have been sad to see her getting big so fast, but I had forgotten how much fun this discovery age can be!

Hooray For School

I am so excited about the day we had with school. Annalise had a ton of testing and assessments which for English, she only has 4 times a year so I don't get much of a chance to make sure that she is really "getting it". Not only did she pass, but she got 100% on all of it. The testing alone took 1/2 hour which shown how lengthy the tests were. She also did her math and Spanish really well. Sometimes her Spanish is so hard. She is in an immersion program that requires her to type full sentences in Spanish which involves spelling words that are more difficult than her spelling words in English. She got all the spelling right and her math was a breeze. She filled an entire notebook page with what she remembered about the history we read which I'm usually lucky to get 1/2 page out of her. The great day continued with Levi who when reading his sentences started reading some words without sounding out each individual letter, which is a major stepping stone in reading. What a great day that we're going to celebrate with a pizza party tonight!

Do You Know the Muffin Man?

Did you know that the Muffin Man is also a mechanic? Levi seems to think so. The other night we were on the way to my parent's house to sit in the hot tub. We passed the place where we'd taken our van last week to get some work done. When we passed Muffler Man, Levi said, "Hey, there's the Muffin Man!" That caused some serious laughs! The hot tub was great and it was Rebecca's first time. In our family Grandpa's hot tub is the reward for becoming potty trained...a feat she has mastered since last winter. Speaking of Rebecca, she got up this morning and pronounced that the clothes I got out for her she couldn't wear because they were "dangerous", whatever that means. I also love this picture of her bad hair day, she's such a sport to humor my picture taking moments! What a hoot life can be over here!