Christmas '08

This Christmas was one I won't soon forget! Christmas Eve started out normal. We were going to my aunt and uncle's house for our traditional family white elephant gift exchange that we do every year on Christmas Eve. Mike had to work, and I wasn't watching my friends' baby that day, as I normally do, so I just had my 4 at home. I bathed everyone and got them ready to go so we could leave as soon as Mike got home. We headed out and were all feeling great and ready to have a good time with family. We got there and ate a TON of food (all yummy finger food) and the kids all went up to play in the playroom for a while.

Laney being goofy

My cousins little boy, Jono

My other cousins little boy, Trey

Scary

Cousins...

Jono's brother Zach

Chloe playing with a toy cat...

At around 8, we decided to start the white elephant fiasco, so we called all the kids down from the playroom. Elijah came down and was acting horribly cranky, so I held him for a while, and he started crying like he was in pain. My neice Autumn said that she saw him bump his head on the wall, and he kept saying his head hurt, so I'm freaking out thinking that we're gonna have to take him to the ER for a CAT scan or something. (I'm majorly paranoid, by the way) We gave him some tylenol, and I just held him on my lap for a while. After about half an hour, he got down and said that he wanted to play. That made me feel a little bit better, and I thought that maybe he just had a headache from bumping his head, and the tylenol was kicking in. The playing didn't last long...he started whining again and this time he was complaining that his stomach hurt. When we left and headed for home, he was still cranky, but hadn't thrown up or anything...yet. We got home and let the kids open their stockings, since they all had pj's in them that they could wear. We got Elijah some Mario pj's, because he loves playing Mario Kart, but when we tried to put them on him, he wasn't having any of it! He said he wanted to wear his superman (or supeyman, as he calls him :D) pajamas. I didn't get any pics of them opening their stockings because I was preoccupied with him. We put them all to bed, and Elijah continued to be fussy. He finally fell asleep after a few bouts of gagging and nothing coming up. He woke up crying a few times, so we eventually put him in our bed and I went to the couch. He slept pretty good after that, but that morning we slept in (after being up all night with him), and we were supposed to be at my mom's house at 9 for our annual Christmas breakfast. So instead of letting the kids open our gifts first, we decided to go there first and open ours when we got back. We just let them stay in their pajamas and off to Grandma's we went. Elijah threw up right after we got there, so we had to take him out of his clothes. We didn't have any clothes there to put on him...yet. I knew my mom had stuff for him to wear, but we hadn't opened presents yet. After we ate breakfast and listened to my nephew read the real Christmas story, we started opening presents.

Here's Elijah snuggling with my niece Mariah...this was before we had clothes on him ;)

He opened his Thomas train in one of the brief moments he was feeling okay.

Don't they all look thrilled?? :P

Isaac and the girls had a fun time at Grandma's!

Grandma helping Isaac open a present.

Chloe...who knows what she's doing...probably looking for another present to open

Laney and her new sweater

Oh my, the stuff we got from my mom was unreal. We literally came home with 3 trashbags full of stuff!!! I had to do 2 full loads of laundry to wash all the clothes she got us!!! We had a great time at my moms house with her, my grandma, and my sisters and their families.

We came home and both of the boys were out cold, so we let the girls open their stuff while the boys slept.

Chloe with her E-pet. I got her a duck because I always call her my little duckling, and she kept saying "Mom, this is what I always wanted!" :) She's such a sweetheart!

The girls and their drawing stuff.

Polly pockets

Laney has been wanting a journal for a long time. This one will only open for her because it recognizes her voice! She loves it!

Chloe and her Barbie carriage

After a while, Isaac woke up so we let him open his stuff.

He doesn't look too thrilled... He really was :) Mike just caught an off moment :)

See?

Then Eli woke up and we talked him into opening his gifts. He didn't really feel like it at first.

Poor thing, trying to muster up the strength to smile.

Opening his cars

And his awesome zero gravity car.

Although this Christmas didn't feel like it normally does, nothing about its meaning changed. We still rejoice in the fact that God sent His Son to earth to die for us, and we are so very thankful for that! There are way worse things than having a sick kid during Christmas. How blessed we are that God has even given us children to raise! God really has blessed us so much, and there aren't words to describe how thankful we really are!

Hmmm...

Chloe asked me an interesting question today. She was standing on the arm of a chair and said "Mommy, if God can do anything, can he make me fly?" I told her she was right, that God can do anything He wants, but it's unlikely that He'd make her fly, but He could if He wanted to though. How in the world was I supposed to answer that?!?! :/

Christmas at Crown Center

We took the kids to Crown Center this past Friday, and we were able to go with some good friends of ours and their 4 boys! The kids all had a great time together!

At the crayola land...Isaac's not too sure what to do at first.

Oh, ok...I'm actually allowed to play on this stuff

Laney and Elijah going down the slide

Elijah jumping into the area that was once filled with balls. I'm assuming they took the balls out for sanitation purposes. But now it's just a big empty pit.

Jordan jumping down the slide :)

Hudson and Chloe

My little man

Elijah was really cranky before taking this picture (he didn't want to leave the play area...of course...) but he wanted NOTHING to do with Santa. Which was fine by me. The Santa guy told me that he'd still hold him even if he was crying, if I wanted a picture. I was like, ummm....no thanks. You're not that big of a deal to us first of all and I'm not gonna subject my kid to your horror just for a lousy picture. Thanks anyway.

Look at how terrified he was! Poor thing.

The girls posed for a cute picture. ;)

Telling Santa what they want. They know he's not real...I was praying they didn't say something to him along the lines of "Well, since my mom and dad actually buy us the presents, maybe we should just tell them what we want, k?"

Posing in front of the pretty decorations

Checking out the awesome gingerbread village

Playing outside and FREEZING our rear ends off!

Ethan and Chloe

Laney in her new car (she told me to write that, but the way :D)

Isaac sitting completely still. I think he was just so frozen solid that he couldn't even complain about being cold. We didn't stay outside for too long...


And lastly, our little...er, well, biggish...family. :)

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

Uh-Oh

...is all I'm hearing from Isaac these days. He must love hearing himself say it or something. He's also saying dog (it's always dog-dog...he says everything in 2's), that (dat), no (that's another favorite), yes (which comes out ja...he must know German :D...with a little head nod) da-da and ma-ma (although when I ask him to say ma-ma, he says da-da...I think he's just being a little stinker though). He waves hi and bye and he points to everything!! He's getting a little better at not being so attached to me now...thank goodness. I mean, I love him and all, but geez. It was getting to the point where I couldn't do anything without either holding him, or him being right next to me. I can actually get things done now!

We have decided not to go to Denver for Christmas. Mike will be most likely be working and he only has about 6 hours of vacation left for the year, so I'm glad we got to go for Thanksgiving. I would love to take the kids to Crown Center and the Plaza sometime this weekend, while their Christmas stuff is still up. So be looking for upcoming pictures from that!...hopefully we get to go!!

Our new dog!!

I guess I should start at the beginning of why we made this rash decision to get a puppy, seeing as how we have 4 kids...2 of whom aren't potty trained yet. (Yes, Elijah still isn't...that's a whole other story) Mike and I came to a decision last Saturday that we would postpone our Disneyworld trip till 2010. It just worked out better for us in many ways, but we're planning on going with Mike's side of the family, and the timing worked out better for them also. So since we aren't doing that for the kids next year, we thought it would be nice for them to have a puppy....I know, the logic may seem a little weird, but it makes sense in my mind. We've been wanting a boxer for a while, after our first boxer, Remi, got taken out of our backyard. She was the best dog ever! We still really miss her. We really wanted to go through a breeder, as that's how we got our first boxer and it's nice to be able to see the mother and father and get all of the info on their bloodlines and such. We came across this website and spoke with the family that runs it and set up a time to look at 2 of the females they had that were 7 weeks old. The one we picked was a little smaller than her sister, but she was the one the kids, or Laney and Chloe, fell in love with. She is a little sweetheart. We almost have her potty trained!!! or housebroke, or whatever. Her name is Lily. Me, Mike, Laney and Chloe all wrote down 2 names on paper, put them in a hat, and let Isaac pick one. Lily was one of the names Chloe had. I really wanted to name her Zoe, but we agreed that, no matter what, which ever name was picked, that was the one we were going with. So that's how we came about naming her Lily. It's cute and it fits her! :) She's so snuggly!!

Precious little face :)

And for memory's sake, here's a picture of our old dog Remi. She was the fawn color. Lily is brindle.

Remi and ELIJAH...that's how long ago we had her!!! Aww..I miss her!!!

Tag, I'm it

I've been tagged by my friend Nicole, and have to follow the rules. Here they are:

Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their name as well as links to their blog. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I HATE winter, but I love snow. If it could snow in the summer, that would be the best! I just really hate cold weather. Hate. It. I always tell my hubby that I should have been born on a tropical island somewhere.

2. I have to play with my hair to fall asleep. I twist it around my finger and then rub the soft part with my thumb. I've done this since I was little, and I just can't stop! The funny thing is, Laney does it too. She started doing it when she was about 2...when she actually had hair to do it with.

3. I am OBSESSED with pregnancy and labor and delivery. (see last post) If hospitals (and the mothers, of course) would let me go into rooms and just watch women give birth, I'd be there! Oh, and if we could afford it, I'd have as many kids as I could :)

4. I hate to cook! I like to bake, but cooking is just not for me!

5. I have to smell everything. Especially if I'm gonna be eating it. But it doesn't just stop with food. I love to smell my kids' feet, especially if they're stinky. Really. :)

6. I love 80's music. I think it's caused by having sisters that are 10 and 11 years older than me. When I was growing up, that's what they listened to and I got hooked.

7. I had the first cabbage patch with teeth. My dad glued teeth on my favortie cabbage patch kid, way before they started selling them like that...I have no idea how he made them, but it looks really cute! Now my girls play with him.

Ok, so I'm only gonna tag a few people

LaTisha
Andrea
Julia
Layna

To Doula or Not to Doula

So I've been thinking for a while now that I really want to go back to college and get my nursing degree. I realize that this isn't going to happen any time soon...I love being at home with my kids and don't really want to take any time away from that. In a few years when my mom retires, she has offered to watch the kids...whoever is still at home...so I can go back to school. I really want to be a labor and delivery nurse, as nowhere else in the hospital really interests me. My sis-in-law just completed nursing school, and yesterday was offered a job in postpartum. I am really excited for her! I told her she had better call when she has some interesting stories! :) Something I've been thinking about doing instead of becoming a nurse, is taking some classes to become a registered doula. Money, or getting paid, has nothing to do with it...other than the cost of college if I were to pursue a nursing degree. The only reason I would love to be a L&D nurse is because I would love to help women through labor and delivery. With every one of my pregnancies, I loved being in labor and delivering my babies. There's truly nothing like it! I've found the DONA website to be extremely helpful in where to take courses and things like that, and I've contacted a lady here in the metro KC area that is part of the KC doula group. I'm really praying about this, as I realize that it will take time away from my kids as well. I know that I will have to be on call and leave whenever the mother goes into labor, so this idea may have to wait until mom's retirement also. Mike isn't going to be able to get the girls off to school if I'm not here, as he leaves for work way before they even get up. It's just something that I've wanted to do for a long time. I want women to have the same amazing memories of the births of their children as I do. Even though I was in miserable pain through 2 of them, I still remember them to be 4 of the most incredible moments of my life! I am also obsessed with watching labor and delivery shows (Birth Day, Maternity Ward, Babies: Special Delivery, Deliver Me...etc.) You name it, I've watched it! Anyway, I just wanted to get some of your thoughts on the idea, as well as prayers for me. I would appreciate it very much! And if any of you are expecting and would like a labor support, I would love to be there! :D One of the requirements for doula certification is being present at 3 births. Finding volunteers is going to be the difficult part!

Thanksgiving in Colorado

We were able to travel to Denver for Thanksgiving and we had a great time! We had dinner with our family, Mike's parents and his uncle James. While we were there, it snowed a few inches, so the kids got to play outside. Since we weren't really prepared for snow play, we had no boots or anything, so we put plastic bags on the kids' feet with a pair of Mike's dads' socks over the bags. They had fun...especially Elijah. He threw a fit when it was time to go inside. We also went to a place called Mr. Biggs, it's a little like Paradise Park, but much cooler! It has an indoor golf course, a bowling alley, an arcade, a go-kart track, a kids place (called Little BiggTown) with different themed rooms (like a salon, a kitchen, a dress-up room, an auto shop, a sand pit, and much more) and a foam ball factory. We let the kids play at Little Biggtown and at the foam factory. They had a BLAST...well we all did, really!!! It was very cool! We also let Mike's mom give Isaac his first haircut. He looks like a little man now :) She did a really good job! The drive down went okay...it could have gone better, but the car ride home was a disaster! We got delayed about an hour because of slick snowy roads that were actually a little bit scary, and then Isaac got sick and threw up all over! But it was worth being able to see family. Here's some pictures from our trip.

The girls ready to play!

Chloe making a snow angel

Chloe eating the snow

All bundled up!

Mike cleaning the snow off Elijah's face

Laney throwing a snowball at Pa-Pa

This picture is hilarious...I think it's pretty self-explanitory :)

Isaac playing with Ma-maw in the music room at Mr. Biggs

Playing dress-up

The girls in the salon

Elijah in the racecar room

The boys in the toy room

Elijah running on the track that was meant for the little bikes.

The girls in jail...where they should be!

The foam factory

Little ham

Isaac getting his 1st haircut

View of the back

All done!!!

Oh, I forgot to mention that this little monster started biting while we were gone.