"Christ"mas Tree

This year we read an article in the Friend about a different kind of Christmas tree. Each day (we tried to remember) we would write down on a paper ornament something about our Savior. The kids wrote things like: He heals my owies, he was born on Christmas, he loves me, he was baptized. On Christmas day we read through all the ornaments. It was a nice reminder about the day we were celebrating.

Play Again playhouse

Last month Brian's sister asked us if we would be interested in their old outdoor wooden playhouse. They hadn't set it up since they moved from Washington because their new home already had a sort of playhouse in the backyard. She said it was pretty old and worn out, but we said we would love to have it. It has a drive-up window, puppet show stage, basketball hoop and window planters.

We stored it in our neighbor's garage. She is a very nice, bed-bound widow with an empty garage and she was happy to let us use her space. It was a perfect set-up. We would sneak over during nap time and put Paige in charge of calling the cell phone if something was wrong. She knew we were working on a surprise and that we weren't very far away. [One thing I love about Paige is that she is very good about surprises or secrets. She does not ever want to spoil it.]

We painted the roof, and sanded and stained and weather-proofed it all. I am very pleased with how it all turned out. It was a great Christmas present, and all it cost was a bit of time and some cans. Thank you to the Penrods for thinking of sharing it with us.

BEFORE

AFTER :)

On Christmas day in the morning

Christmas Highlights

It was different having Christmas on a Sunday.
I was pretty worried that the kids wouldn't cooperate, but they did really well.
We woke everyone up and got ready for 9am church. We had just enough time to eat the sugared cereal Santa left out on the table and to look through the stockings set out on the couch.

After returning home from church and eating the traditional omelets and orange juice, the kids put back on their Christmas pajamas to open Christmas presents.
Brian's sister, Elaine, came over to celebrate with us.

These are our "paJANAs", because Grandma Jana made them for all 60+ grandkids.

Everyone loved the ride-on toys that Santa left for the kids' big present (the real, anonymous Santa Claus). They raced and drove all around the house and around and around and around the kitchen table. They were a huge hit!

We also hosted Christmas dinner for Brian's siblings. We didn't know it until late Christmas Eve, but it turned out pretty well. We even found a place for all 20 of us in our small house. We had White Sauce Lasagna, garlic bread, cinnamon jell-o, and salad, with eggnog and ice cream for dessert. Yum!

It was a very delightful and merry Christmas!

2011 Christmas Card

These are a few of our favorite things in 2011:

Paige (1^st Grade – 7)

"My favorite thing was when we got to go to Arizona and go on a zipline. My other favorite thing was that I got to see my cousins at the family reunion. It was so fun! I couldn’t even stop playing with them."

Ashby (Preschool - 4½)

"My favorite thing was when I scored 6 goals in soccer."

Levi (2½)

"Ride on tractor in Montana."

Cody (3 mo.)

Sucking on his fists and smiling and laughing at his brothers and sister.

Tara

"My favorite thing about 2011 was carrying and delivering a healthy baby boy to add to our family. I love watching my children learn so many new things every day. I also loved celebrating 10 years of marriage to Brian. I am so lucky to have him!"

Brian

"Favorites of the year: Celebrating 10 years w/Tara; Welcoming Cody into our family; Helping Paige learn to ride a bike; Cheering for my kids in their soccer games; Lots of mountain bike racing; Family trip to my dad's old stomping grounds in Montana + a quick trip through Yellowstone; A fun reunion in AZ; All four brothers in Provo for a bike trip."

We hope you have had a wonderful 2011 as well. Merry Christmas to you all!

Putting Christ in Christmas

In an effort to not spend too much money this Christmas we embarked on a big and fun project of creating illustrated Books of Mormon to give to friends and cousins. It is something a friend gave our family when we moved from our house in Orem and we have always thought it was the neatest thing.

First, we took our boxes of old Ensign and Friend magazines. (Which I had only been saving for a project such as this, but had never gotten around to doing it.) We flipped through at least 100 magazines looking for good pictures to use in the scriptures. They had to be a good size, and hopefully correspond with something in the Book of Mormon. There were, of course, many pictures of Christ, but occasionally we'd find something really unique, like Alma the Younger, or Lehi's Dream.


After cutting and cutting, I sorted through all the clippings and arranged them into categories. We ended up with 27 groupings. Then I went through and printed out a paper of corresponding scriptures to go with each category. The hard part was finding scriptures that would space out the pictures nicely throughout the book, instead of clumpings in a certain chapter.


Then we took glue sticks and pasted in the pictures throughout the scriptures. We also marked the scripture that went along with the picture. Now we had an illustrated Book of Mormon with more than 30 pictures to look at.



We've found these to be really useful to bring to church to look at pictures and talk about what is going on. It is always exciting during family scripture study to turn the page and see a new picture as well.

Although it was a lot of work, I really enjoyed making these presents. It was a big learning experience for me to get deeper in the scriptures and make connections between stories and important gospel principles. It really helped strengthen my testimony and turned out to be an easy way to think about Christ during the Christmas season.

Interesting fact: This is the most used picture of Christ in the Ensign,
in various stages of cropping.

Oh - and now I can't open a church magazine without automatically flipping through it and seeing if there are any good pictures to cut out. I hardly even bother with the articles. Guess I'll have to get over that.

I believe in Santa

You hear the stories of Christmas miracles and the eyes of children lighting up. You read about the sacrifice and the generosity that accompanies the season and it is all so magical.

Over the years we have been the privileged and grateful recipients of such Christmas miracles. Santa has visited us a number of times, especially when we have needed him most.

Looking back, a few miracles really stand out:

A box of ornaments at our doorstep so we could decorate our tree
Money anonymously appearing in our empty bank account
Large check from my parents after they sold their house
Enormous gift basket of food, snacks, trinkets and even a large frozen turkey
Toys left in Brian's car while he was at work

Isn't it amazing!

My great desire is that I will always remember these Christmas miracles and someday, without hesitation, be able to save another family's Christmas, like others have saved ours.

So, say what you want about Santa Claus, but he has visited my house too many times for me not to believe.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Caroling

Our family likes to go Christmas caroling to our neighbors as we deliver presents. The kids are good at "Jolly Old St. Nicholas", "Jingle Bells", and "Rudolph" but someday they'll figure out the words to the more traditional carols. Christmas caroling is one of those times Brian misses living in California and I miss living in Arizona. Brrrrr.... 20 degree caroling sure is cold. We're lucky to get half a song in at a house. Its not much, but its the thought that counts.

'tis the Season

'Tis the season for babysitters.

We have had/will have need for a babysitter 6 times this months. Too many parties or special events are scheduled in which children are asked to stay home.

While it is always nice to have a little break (especially if it means I don't have to cook dinner!), December is absolutely the worst time to try to pay a babysitter - it would add up to over $100!
I am grateful for good friends and neighbors that have helped soften that blow by trading babysitting and favors. Its nice to know I can count on people to take good care of my children while I am away.

Naughty List

"I hate you!"
"You're stupid!"
"I'm gonna punch you in the face!"
"No!"
"I don't want to!"
"You're not my mom anymore!"
(actually he says, "I'm not your mom anymore!" - but he means the other way around. It always makes me laugh when he confuses it.)

These are phrases I hear on a daily basis from our lovely four-year-old, Ashby. For the past several months he has just had the worst, hateful attitude about everything. Every now and then we get to see the old, loving Ashby, but most of the time he is standing in time-out. I hate having to get mad at him all day long. Its exhausting and just makes me so sad.

The other day Ashby got a message from Santa which informed him that he was on the dreaded naughty list. I wondered if it would even make a dent in his attitude.

Yesterday and today however, we have had a very pleasant little boy on our hands. Every now and then he will act out, but its very minimal. I love my pleasant Ashby! He is a sweetheart and I can't help but wonder why he would ever want to be the mean Ashby. I sure hope he gets used to this new attitude and it will last long past Christmas.

(I guess I should knock on wood).

GO COUGARS!

Look what we got to do!

It was the last game of the season and we had been wishing all Fall that we could go to a BYU football game. Well, we got last minute tickets to the game on Saturday, and they were awesome seats. We were able to find a babysitter for the little boys at home, and we took Paige and Ashby. The only problem was that the game didn't start until 8:15pm and it was below freezing. We snuck in some snacks and tried to stay warm with blankets, but we ended up leaving during the 3rd quarter around 11pm, came home and drank some hot cider and cozied up in bed. The cougars won handily 42-7 and it was fun to be back at the old stomp'n ground.

First backyard snow

There's nothing like the first snow of the season to help you realize what's missing in your kids' wardrobes.

Paige needs snow pants, and hopefully her boots will fit one more year.
Ashby needs snow gloves and maybe a new jacket.
Levi needs snow boots.

Paige worked very hard rolling large snow balls around the backyard to make a fun snow man. Ashby had a snow ball fight with Daddy, but cried when he got hit. Levi didn't scream this year when we put on his snow suit. :)

Smokey Eyes

Paige keeps talking about "smokey eyes". After Halloween when she had bathed and washed all her face paint off she still had a little bit of black around her eyelids. She woke up the next morning thrilled saying, "Oooo. I have smokey eyes." She loved it! It lasted a day or two. She reminded me of a time months ago when we had watched What Not to Wear and the make-up make-over lady gave the woman "smokey eyes". "Its just like that show we watched!" she says. Now, whenever I actually have time to put eyeliner on (maybe twice a week) Paige will point out my "smokey eyes". She sure is a funny one.

Paige and the trophy

Every year the state PTA puts on a competition called "Reflections" in which students can submit art projects, music, poetry, etc. to go along with the theme. This year's theme was "Diversity is...".

Paige wanted to do a project called "Diversity is Lakeview Elementary School". We drew the outside of the school and I cut out flaps for the windows and doors because Paige wanted it to be a lift-the-flap picture. Inside the flaps she drew pictures of different kids. Different hair color, different skin color, different activities - ballet, soccer, painting, reading, scooter, and the playground. She did a great job with lots of detail.

At the assembly Paige was awarded a trophy and was told that her project will advance to the city competition. She was absolutely thrilled! She just kept saying, "Its my first trophy ever!"

Paige absolutely loves to draw, so it is exciting that she found a way to be recognized for her talent.

Note to Self

Dear Tara
Next time you have a baby, please remember how great you felt two weeks after giving birth when you weighed yourself and found that you had lost enough weight to fit in your [skinny-for-you] jeans. Please let that be a jump start for your weight loss goals and don't use "I just had a baby" or "I'm nursing" as your excuse to eat anything and everything you can get your hands on - thus gaining all that weight back and making you start over the hard way. Please remember.

2 months old

Cody is interacting more and more each day.
And he is sleeping longer and longer at night. (In fact last night was 9.5 hours!)
We're figuring each other out and that is a nice feeling.

Ashby the Pirate

"I liked getting lots of candy and saying 'trick-or-treat' and I liked being at the haunted house, Aubrey's house. And I liked carving my pumpkin. My favorite candy is all of the candy that I get, except gumdrops or chocolate with nuts or M&Ms with nuts. I liked being a pirate and my bandanna and my sword and my eye-patch and necklaces."

Paige the skeleton

Paige says:
"I really, really love Halloween. I love to go trick-or-treating and get yummy, yummy, yummy candy. Candy is so good, I cannot stop eating it when I get home from school. I liked the parade at school. I was a skeleton. A very, very funny skeleton, with a very funny tutu. But the best part of all was having fun. But the worst part of all was my brother Ashby fell down on the road when we went trick-or-treating and hurt his knee."

Paige walked through the school Halloween parade waving at everyone. Afterall, isn't that what you do at a parade? (of course she was the only one).

Levi-o'-Lantern

This year we tried to carve a pumpkin that looked like Levi. We highlighted his long, long eyelashes, his toothy smile and his hair line. Pretty cute pumpkin.

"Happy Halloween. Daddy and Happy Halloween. Pumpkin and pumpkin hat. Treat. Go to sleep."

Rumor is Cody is ours

I wasn't sure at first.
When the nurse handed me this new baby, I thought for sure he must belong to someone else. Our kids all have long, dark eyelashes. But this baby didn't have any.
After 8 weeks I am proud to announce that Cody is ours! - and he has eyelashes touching his brows to prove it.

the influence of Paige

Paige makes friends wherever she goes. She is the most outgoing and delightfully friendly girl you'll ever meet.

Over the years Paige has made special friends with my ob/gyn and the nurses in his office. She has often come to my doctors appointments during the previous pregnancies and she always had a new picture that she drew to give to Dr. Judd.

At the hospital with Cody, Paige saw Dr. Judd in the hall and gave him a kiss on the cheek and chatted it up with him and the nurses for quite a while. She likes being the center of attention and they were happy to give it to her. She then ran inside our room and proceeded to draw a picture - a liger, which we taped to the window of the door to our room. The staff couldn't get enough of Paige.

At my six-week check up Dr. Judd asked how Paige was doing and laughed at how cute her liger in the window was and how the nurses teased him for weeks about the kiss he got at the hospital. I was surprised by how much he could remember. But I think that's just the influence of Paige - she's hard to forget. Then the nurse in the room lit up and said, "Oh! You're Paige's mom?!"

I'm sure I'll be known as "Paige's mom" for the rest of my life. And that's okay with me.

Blessing Cody

Last Sunday we blessed Cody in sacrament meeting. Kevin (Brian's brother) was planning a trip up from California to go mountain biking in Utah county, and he hadn't ever participated in one of our babies' blessings before so we took that opportunity. Which also meant that Brian's mom and dad were able to hitch a ride with Kevin and be here for the event also.

Brian was sick that weekend with a very sore throat. He was so horse that the deacon holding the microphone had to make sure it was right up against Brian's lips. Brian gave a very nice blessing, and Cody didn't even cry until the very end.

Although we had plenty of family at the blessing to support us, it was hard for me to not have anyone from my side of the family there. I was missing everyone - especially Tasha who had just moved a couple weeks before. But, of course, it was still a very special day.

Rumor is I'm lonely

I'm surrounded all day long, yet I feel so lonely. There's a constant tugging, holding me back every day because I feel like something is missing. It takes me a while to figure out why I feel lonely and then I realize...I miss my mom. I miss having someone to call and brag about my children to. I miss her encouraging notes. I miss her advice. I miss her listening ear. I miss her hugs. It is strange to think that I have had two babies since she has been gone. I miss her the most after I have a baby. There are so many "firsts" that seem to go unnoticed because she's not here to ask about them. Her kids and grandkids were always her top priority and I never felt like I was interrupting anything when I called to chat. I miss feeling that important.

So when I wander around the house aimlessly I realize its because something's missing. Then I usually find myself in front of the pantry trying to fill the void. But that's a post for a different day.

t.v. time

I have found I am much more patient with nighttime feedings and a cranky baby if I have something good to watch on t.v. I am grateful for cheesy Hallmark channel movies that make me feel good in the middle of the night. I'm also grateful for I Love Lucy, Saved by the Bell, and the Cosby Show. Even some of the infomercials are looking pretty interesting - I'm making my Christmas wish list. :)

6-week smiles

At 4am the other night I had some nice moments with Cody. He gave me some of his biggest smiles yet. I wished I had the camera. Eventually I waddled over to grab it, with Cody being balanced on the nursing pillow to try to not interrupt the moment. It was difficult to position the camera in the right spot, put my face close to his to get him to smile and then snap the picture. I missed most of the really good shots, but here are a couple of pleasant ones. I think it is funny when newborns give the really, really big smiles that are so awkward and end up surprising themselves. It sure is fun to have a more interactive baby. We'll be turning this hard newborn corner pretty soon!

Cody is finally gaining weight!

We've had a little bit of frustration with this baby.

When we left the hospital Cody had lost more than 10% of his birth weight which made the doctors nervous. He weighed 8 lbs 2 oz at birth.
Recommendation - Wake every two hours to feed and wait for my milk to come in.
One week old: Visit to pediatrician to check weight.
Weight: 7lbs 4 oz.
Recommendation - Wait for baby to wake up on his own and hope he feeds more productively before falling back asleep.
Two weeks old: Visit to pediatrician for two-week check up.
Weight: 7lbs 15 oz
Three weeks old: Visit with lactation specialists.
Weight: 7 lbs 15 oz
Recommendation - Pay attention to hunger cues (if he wiggles his legs, he's ready to eat. Seriously?!). Feed every hour and hope to increase my milk supply. Yikes! Every hour? What I am supposed to do with the rest of life? Luckily Gayla and Tori were in town that week and helped take care of everything for me.
Four weeks old:
Weight: 8 lbs 2 oz. Finally back to birth weight, but still not gaining the ounce a day he's supposed to gain.
Recommendation: Breastfeed and supplement with formula for every feeding.
Five weeks old:
Weight: 8 lbs 13 oz. Hooray! He's finally gaining weight!


All I can figure it that maybe Cody has a high metabolism like his dad. The lactation specialists said he was getting an average amount of milk from me, but it still wasn't enough to gain weight. So now I bottle and breastfeed him and we are settling in to a good routine.

Holy Cow! Paige is 7!

Paige had her "best day ever". This is what she tries to achieve every day when she wakes up, especially when she knows something special is happening that day. This time is was her birthday. I told her we needed to keep her special day pretty low-key since we had a 3 week old baby and I wasn't up to a big party.

We invited her cousins and family over to celebrate. We had face painting and a pinata too. We put our broken trampoline to use by stringing up the pinata between two poles and only allowing one child in the circle at a time - brilliant!

My sister Gayla was visiting from AZ and she taught me how to make cakepops. I had never heard of them before, but apparently they are very popular and now I see them everywhere. It was fun because everyone got to dip and decorate their own. Which meant I didn't have to try to make them professional looking (there are a lot of really cute and clever cakepop ideas out there).

Paige is thrilled to be 7. She is growing up to be an amazing little girl. Sometimes I get concerned that she doesn't act mature enough for her age, but I should probably just let her enjoy being young.

My favorite thing about Paige is how much she loves her family. She is so good to her little brothers and she loves me and daddy. Paige is wonderful. I can't wait to see what fantastic things are in store for her this year.

TRUCK!

Levi has made up his own little language. He starts a lot of words with "ee" or "fo", like "ee-pa" (Grandpa) or "ee-gone" (all gone). For the last year he has said "doo-doo" for any trucks he sees. "Tow-doo-doo", "dump-doo-doo", "big-doo-doo". I think it started because of the big rigs that looked like trains which he called "choo-choo". No matter how hard we tried he would not say "truck". It was very frustrating because I knew that he knew the right word. Finally, while reading one of his favorite books the other night, Levi surprised me by saying "kuck". At first I didn't realize what the word meant, but then I jumped for joy! I smiled and laughed and high-fived. Levi was, of course, very pleased with himself.

Christmas time?

Whenever the heater kicks in for the first time it makes me think of Christmas. And that's pretty much the only thing about the change of seasons that makes me smile.

Downhill fast

Back in May we acquired a used trampoline from our neighbors. They were getting rid of it because it didn't bounce very well and their kids were getting bigger. Its a springless trampoline with elastic bands. They were right that it didn't bounce very well, but the kids didn't care and they jumped and ran and played forever and really loved it. Over the summer that poor trampoline got saggier and saggier. Now it sags to the ground without anyone even on it. It sure didn't last long, but at least it was free.

Series of Fortunate Events

Wednesday August 31, 2011

7:30 am Brian and I checked into Orem Community Hospital. We got comfortable in our room and ate the large breakfast burrito we had picked up on our way there. Even though we live in Provo, all of our kids have been born in Orem. We have had such good experiences at that hospital.
8:30 am Dr. Judd came in and broke my water. I was surprised by how much it hurt. I hadn't remembered it hurting so much. Started pitocin.
9:00 am Received epidural. Not so much because of pain yet, just because I really hate the feeling of amniotic fluid leaking all around me. Yuck!
11:30 am Brian ate my lunch.
12:30 pm Nurse began checking progress more regularly. She said she'd back in a half hour to check again or I should beep if I "felt the urge to push". I'd heard this phrase before, but don't remember ever really experiencing it. In the past the nurses have always told me when I was ready to push.
1:00 pm I paid closer attention to my body and felt pressure. I wondered if that was what the nurse was talking about. She came back in and told me I was fully dilated. Dr. Judd was notified, but was still probably a half hour away. The nurse was concerned that the baby was still positioned very high. She recommended giving a practice push just to move the baby down. I told her that my last baby was born in less than one push and I wasn't sure if a practice push would be a good idea. She agreed, and added that I shouldn't even cough. The nurse told me she could top off my epidural so I wouldn't feel "the urge" until the doctor arrived. I told her no and waited patiently, fully interested in this new feeling - knowing that I could push, but having enough control not to.
1:30 pm Dr. Judd arrived in my room and everyone prepared for delivery. I was much less nervous with this baby and didn't even throw up.
1:46 pm Pushed for seven seconds and heard the cry from our new baby boy. Brian was so excited that the baby was crying right away. (I guess because he always thinks back to Ashby who made the doctors nervous by not crying.)

The baby weighed 8 lbs 2 oz and was 21 inches long. He had all 10 fingers and toes and was perfectly healthy.

The nurses cleaned him up and handed him to me but I couldn't get a good look at him until a while later when everything calmed down. He was the most round-headed and least beat-up kid we've had. His eyes looked a bit squintier than our other kids. He has an extra little cartilage curly-cue in his ears. He seemed to have a fat lip and his hands were purple, but he looked like a very content newborn.

The older kids came and visited after school. Dad and Jana traveled up to take care of everything while we were in the hospital. It was so nice to not have to worry about anything at home. The kids were, of course, thrilled with the new baby. Everyone wanted to hold him. Paige was the natural big sister, Levi practiced being "soft", and Ashby couldn't stop smiling.

My recovery was very quick. I showered later that first day and got dressed. In the past I've fainted in the shower, but I felt great this time. Whenever somebody came to my room and saw me dressed they looked surprised and asked if we were going home. Heavens no! We know better than that. We always look forward to having babies because those two days in the hospital are the only time we get a vacation. No kids to deal with and we can send the baby to the nursery whenever we like. Plus I don't have to cook any food!

I was usually up and about the hospital and my room, instead of sitting in bed. Mostly because I've learned the hard way that those hospital beds kill my tailbone. So I would kneel in the bed, sit in the glider chair, stand, or sleep on my belly while at the hospital (Hooray for sleeping on my belly again!) Brian took off work for the two days and was with me the whole time. There were a few times when we thought we should just head home and start our new life with four kids, but it was too hard to give up the quiet solitude of the hospital.

Of course everyone kept asking us what our baby boy's name was. Good question. For weeks Brian and I had tried to figure out a name. But I think it is hard for us to decide without actually seeing the kid. It wasn't until the second day in the hospital that we decided on a name...Cody Garrett Blumer. Cody is a name we had liked and Garrett is my grandma's maiden name and it all just sounded good together.

So, Cody Garrett Blumer was ready to check out of the hospital and start his new life. Brian picked up Paige from school with the other boys and they all came together to take Cody home.

Now we have four kids and I'm sure it will be challenging - but we are up to the task. We are happy with our four cute little monsters. (See them in their monster shirts?)

Choices

I know I have a lot to write about, but whenever I have spare time, my choice is to sleep.

Breakfast burrito

On our way to the hospital to have baby #4 we picked up a breakfast burrito for Brian to munch on during labor. (I snuck a few bites as well). Brian made a facebook status wondering whether the baby or the burrito would weigh more. Well, here's the comparison. At least they have the same wrapping.

Rumor is we're sticking it to the man

Somehow we forgot to take our own advice to not have a baby in September. (Of course sometimes you don't really get to choose). Our new baby is due September 3rd - three measly days after the school cutoff.

In the previous post you learned that I wasn't going to be induced early like I had hoped. So we canceled all our helpers and told them to wait a week. On Monday we went back to the doctor for a check up. I hoped there would be some progress, but knew that even if there was, there was probably no way to get scheduled at the hospital with such short notice.

Well, Dr Judd checked me and then said, "So, do you want to have a baby on Wednesday? I reserved a spot at the hospital for you just in case." What?! Well, that would have been nice to know before we canceled our perfectly arranged schedule.

We spent the rest of the day on the phone trying to arrange help so we could have our baby in August instead of September. It started getting pretty complicated, but finally Dad and Jana were able to come while we were in the hospital to take care of everyone else, and then Brian's mom could come after that. Hooray!

So everything is set. Its not like we had to have our baby before the school cut off. We might decide to wait a year before kindergarten anyway - but at least this time we will have the choice! The other thing about having an August baby is that now we will have birthdays in May (Ashby), June (Me), July (Levi), August (baby) and September (Paige). Fun, right?

What's his name?

We are having the hardest time coming up with a name for our new baby boy.
There are several names we like, but it seems like they have been stolen by the girls. Names like, Riley, Casey, Sam, and Sidney. We can't agree and nothing really stands out yet. Guess we'll have to figure it out soon - we're good procrastinators.

Pantomime

This morning Paige was acting odd. She would only communicate with me by drawing pictures, writing words, sign language and pantomime. It was cute, but confusing. Eventually she explained to me that she had been getting in trouble for talking too much in class so she was practicing NOT talking. Unfortunately this new method of communication requires even more attention. Heaven help her teacher.

Working

For about the past year I was working part time. I was working as an assistant to my neighbor who is a Lia Sophia consultant. I did all the behind-the-scenes things - you know, like design invitations and posters, print everything, stuff envelopes, and mail invites. It wasn't a very glamorous job. (Although she did reward me with a few great necklaces). I got paid $8 an hour. Not much, but I think it was somewhat helpful to our bank account.

Well, I am no longer working. It is nice to not have that little feeling over my head - the knowing that I should be doing something else feeling.

Hopefully I can focus more on my kids. Maybe I'll even get around to some of the projects I haven't done for a couple of years - like family DVD's and scrapbook pages. Its crazy how far behind you can fall.

Negative Attention

I'm afraid Levi enjoys getting in trouble.

Unfortunately I think it may be the only time he gets any attention. I better start looking for more positive reinforcement, or we're in for a really hard time.

Rumor is I'm ready to complain

10 months is a long time to be pregnant.
Throughout the months I told myself I'm not allowed to complain, even if I want to, because I know the worse is still to come and I don't want my complaining to get annoying.

I was doing pretty well, and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel...only one more week. Usually I'm happy to have a baby stay inside me for as long as possible - its much easier to take care of a baby inside, than outside. Newborns scare me. But the last few days I've actually been looking forward to being done.

I had a disappointing doctor's visit this afternoon. He was supposed to tell me that I would be induced next Tuesday or Wednesday. Instead he said there is no progress being made and he guesses it will be another two weeks before the baby comes.

I understand. I definitely don't want to have the baby if my body isn't ready. But...
We had all our out-of-town helpers perfectly lined up - now what?
I only wanted to clean the house one more time
I only wanted to go to the grocery store one more time
I only wanted to do the laundry one more time
I only wanted to shave my legs one more time
I wanted to be able to bend over again
I wanted to not care about bumps in the road
I wanted to be able to move again
I don't want feet in my ribs
I don't want to feel contractions all through the night

[sigh] This is just me complaining, but I'm allowed to now!

Paige the First-Grader

Paige woke up bright-eyed and happy this morning. She got dressed, read her scriptures and told me how to do her hair. Today was "red" day which took off the pressure of what to wear on the first day of school. I guess her class has a different color each day this week. We didn't go school clothes shopping this year anyway, since we had so many hand-me-downs. The only trouble is that there aren't really any "outfits".

First grade! Paige couldn't stop talking about how excited she was for lunch time. She even remembered to make her own lunch the night before. She picked out a princess lunch box. I tried to get her to pick out some other cute design, but her heart was set on those princesses.

Paige's desk is in the very front center of the classroom. She is excited to have a secret cubby underneath to store her stuff. On back to school night she noticed that her name was placed under "teacher's helper" for the week. She is still waiting to see what that means.

There are only a couple of kids in her class that Paige already knew from last year. She will have lots of opportunities to make more friends. But I asked her who she sits right next too, and she said it was a boy, but she couldn't remember his name. Maybe that's good - she won't get in trouble for talking to her neighbor too much. Cause she never talks too much. :)

A Summer's End

Well, another summer is gone.

I think it was a pretty good summer. A little lazier than I had originally envisioned, but I guess that goes with the last months of pregnancy.

Luckily, we were able to cross off almost everything on the summer list the kids made.

Places to go this summer:

• Summerfest
• Pet Store
• Dinosaur Museum
• Bean Museum
• Dentist Office
• Water Park
• Sandy Beach
• Canoeing
• Hiking
• Theater
• Race Track
• River Trail
• Hot Air Balloons
• Movie Theater
• Family Reunion
• Parade
• Mini Golf

We were supposed to go to see The Sound of Music that Paige auditioned for earlier this summer, but we waited til the last week and it was completely sold out. I was pretty sad about that.

The summer brought way too many late nights. Fortunately, that meant sleeping in, so it was okay with me. Now the sun is setting earlier, so hopefully we can go to bed earlier.

Paige starts 1st grade in the morning. She is extremely excited and I'm excited for her. Here's to a year of new experiences.

Father's blessings

I'd just like to express how grateful I am for a willing and worthy priesthood holder in my home. It was wonderful and beautiful today to watch him patiently explain to the kids about the priesthood and ask them if they would like a father's blessing. I always looked forward to getting a father's blessing at the beginning of each school year, and I'm glad that we are continuing that tradition. I was also very eager for a priesthood blessing as we get ready for this new baby. Thank you Brian for the tender, thoughtful, and loving experience you helped your family have today.

Bringing up Baby

I have been feeling pretty stressed out about the arrival of our new baby. I just felt like there was so much to do and I was running out of time. So I have been working hard around the house to actually start crossing things off my list. There's moving Levi into Ashby's room and into the toddler bed, rearranging dressers and closets to make room for everything, finding spots for all the large baby items - swing, bouncy seat, bassinet, etc. - and probably the biggest project, sorting through clothes.

We came home from our family reunion with 5 big garbage bags of hand-me-down clothes and ever since, my front room has looked more like a store with piles of clothes everywhere. I am so grateful for free clothes, but it is pretty daunting since our house is already jam-packed and we don't have any storage space. Well, I went through everything and ended up putting 6 storage bins up in the attic. I sorted through all the baby clothes and washed and folded them.

Look at all these baby clothes! And this pile is just the 0-3 months. I bet I could go the whole three months without even having to wash the clothes. Oh,... washing baby clothes...that sure ends up being a lot of snaps clanging around in the dryer.

I'm starting to feel more prepared. There is still a lot to do, but I think I've got it under control. I'm starting to feel a little more excited, and not just stressed.