The Past Few Months

So I had a baby and stopped doing everything that wasn't absolutely necessary. Truth be told I even stopped doing some of the necessary stuff. I have heard this a lot during the past few months, "Mom I don't have any clean (insert any article of clothing you like here)!" I'll never be able to use the excuse, "I just had a baby" ever again so I figured I had better make the best of it.

But I am determined to climb back on the wagon that is my life so now we'll have regular meals, clean laundry more often and a whole bunch of posts in a row. :)

This fall our family watched or played a lot of soccer. During that time I mostly stayed home and lactated or slept with Henry. But I did make it to a few games late in the season.

We went to Disney on Ice for Free! I love free! The first half was fabulous, the second half, not so much.

We celebrated Halloween with cousins. Oh how we love the cousins!!

Henry was blessed on a gorgeous November day. Thanks to all the family who joined us!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving in Boise, ID with my family. Here's my Mom and Dad enjoying the meal. Does my Dad look like he might not be happy that the next day he turned 59 (again)? Happy Birthday Dad!

Kate and Ethan played in their winter piano recital. Here they are with their teacher, Shirley Ransom.

Jason turned 38! Wowza. You go babe! This picture tells me two things. #1. You are one awesome Dad and husband since you held our sweet little bundle for many nights in the wee hours so I could sleep just a little longer. Thank you so much! #2. Staying up half the night with a newborn in our late 30's is WAY harder than it was in our 20's! I do believe this picture was actually taken just after 8 pm. :)

I have struggled like crazy to keep up with life and at the same time slow down and enjoy every single second of my time with little Henry. Knowing he is our last has made me want to stop the clock. Seeing how Ethan has grown up so fast reminds me that I won't be holding Henry in my arms for long and I want to savor it. I have done as little as possible around here and Jason has been extra nice about it. Besides feeding kids and changing babies and sort of keeping up on the house I managed to get out of the house for a super fun Christmas party dressed as an elf named Beaker Sparkly Toes.

Ethan had his first ever orchestra concert and he had a short violin solo. He was very, very nervous but did wonderfully. He's loving music right now. He also made a very cool hatchet for a school project.

Kate turned nine! She had a cupcake party with her friends at a little bakery downtown and then we made this cake at home for her. She loved putting on and eating the terrible sugar cube candies that spelled out her name. This girl has a terrible sweet tooth. My mother would say she inherited that from me.

Nathanael turned 7 and had a crazy boy birthday party and lost his two front teeth. Sadly his permanent teeth were already coming in pretty well before the primary ones fell out so he never had a toothless grin.

Elijah has become uber naughty and extra cute. Bad combo for me, good for him.

And finally our wonderful bundle of joy has gone from this. . .

to this. . .

to this. . .

to this. . .

Happy Belated Halloween

This Halloween is one we won't soon forget. I planned to take the kids downtown where the merchants hand out candy (beginning at 4 pm). Then we were going to eat dinner, go to our ward trunk or treat and then come home to watch a movie (The Goonies- edited version) and roast marshmallows in the back yard.

When Nathanael got home from school at 11:30 I told him that I wanted him to do his chores (would have taken him 10-15 minutes to do his two chores) right after lunch because he wouldn't have time to do them when the bigger kids got home from school (this is when he would normally do them). After lunch I nagged and he goofed off for a good thirty minutes. Long story short, after the nagging I gave him a very clear ultimatum. Do your chores before Ethan and Kate get home. If you don't do them, you won't trick or treat. Do you understand? Yes. You won't go with us if you don't have your chores done. Do you understand? Yes. No candy for you- do you understand? Yes. Ok. Can you do it? Yes. Will you do it? Yes. Awesome. I won't bug you anymore.

So every so often I would randomly call out the time, "It's now 2:15, 1 hour and 15 minutes until the kids get home." He sat in the kitchen and played games on the chairs. "It's now 2:45, 45 minutes until the kids get home" and so on.

Story becoming long again. So he didn't start working until about five minutes before they got home and he didn't make it. AHHHH! Are you kidding? What kid would *not* do two measly chores and give up trick or treating? I don't get it. I felt terrible about it- total backfire. He still had to finish his work, while Kate and Ethan were trick or treating. He was weeping and wailing and carrying on. I was so close to just letting him go, but I didn't and he stayed home.

After getting some candy (not a ton this year for which I am so grateful!) we came back home and had some friends over to watch our movie outside (Nathanael joined in for this). It was so warm we were able to do it and be comfortable (with blankets). We also had a fire to stand by if needed. Later we roasted marshmallows. Once the sugar high wore off we dropped like rocks into our warm beds.

Can you guess what my kids dressed up as?

Blank space where Nathanael should
be shown dressed up as a bat.

Ethan wanted to be an "Australian." Aside from telling him that Australians wear clothes just like we do I didn't argue since I didn't have to do anything for this costume. He wore the hat he made at cub scout day camp this summer (theme was cubs down under), the shirt Grandma and Grandpa sent from Australia for his birthday and a sign on his back saying, "G'day Mate!"

Kate asked to be a polar bear. Yikes. I don't want to go into the hairy details but I ended up throwing some material on the table with the sewing machine and this is what came out. Next year she wants to wear the same thing, without the ears, and be a marshmallow.

Eli was our adorable frog. Jason took this awesome picture with his new SLR "work" camera (that means work pays and he plays). He says it was luck getting such a good shot. Luck or skill, I don't care I LOVE this photo!