ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS. . . . . .

disclaimer: you WILL end up with a Christmas song stuck in your head by the end of this post

.......IS MY TWO FRONT TEETH!

That's right - two of them! Ben's 2 front teeth had started protruding - they were more horizontal than vertical! I finally noticed the new tooth behind one of them and convinced him to let me pull it out. Then, he came home from church and smiled at me! Voila! The Bishop pulled out the second one. Now both my boys can wish for their two front teeth. I wish Joshua's teeth would come in already. He's been so cranky about them! But, then again, he's a biter.

We were singing that song in the car and Sarah's version went like this, "All I want for Christmas is my corner tooth." She really wants to be like Ben and lose a tooth. When we tell her that she isn't old enough she says she already lost one and points to the back where she will eventually get more molars - her corner tooth, I guess!

On another note.....I've made up my own Christmas song this year.

To the tune of "All I want for Christmas".....

All I want for Christmas is a good night's sleep,

A good night's sleep,

Please, a good night's sleep.

Gee if I could only have a good night's sleep,

Then I could have a Merry Christmas.

It's been so long since I could say

"I got eight hours of sleep,"

Gosh, oh gee, how happy I'd be

If it was sound and deep!

All I want for Christmas is a good night's sleep,

A good night's sleep,

Please, a good night's sleep.

Gee if I could only have a good night's sleep,

Then I could have a Merry Christmas!

It's been almost a month since the baby slept well. Which, of course, means I'm not sleeping well. For awhile I was getting up every hour or two, taking care of one child or another - sometimes two children at a time! With the sicknesses in the house, earaches, coughs, even throw-up and teething, our nights have been rough. I cried a few nights, almost dropped the baby when feeding him, and can't remember how many times I got up because I was just too tired to remember anything! Things seem to be getting better. The last few nights I've only had to get up a couple of times. I'm also trying to let him cry it out sometimes. It's good to remember that these event won't last forever.

december's second week

So, last Sunday was our big snow storm. It went all day monday, too. The schools were closed for 2 days and that was kind of fun. We mostly just stayed inside and kept warm. We did venture out Monday afternoon to go to the doctor. Sarah and the baby were not well and I was getting concerned. The baby even had a rash. Sarah had been having a lot of earaches, too. I would here her saying, "Stop. Stop it." over and over again. Then I'd find her with her hand over her ear. Well, the doctor said that the baby was fine, just had a cold. That Ben and Sarah had infections and virus'. So we got them on amoxicillyn. Ben's better, but Sarah still has the nose and cough. It's been a week and I might take her back in. The baby has not gotten better either. He has goop coming out of every orifice! And the sleeping! Well, that better go in a separate post!

Watching the snow fall sunday night.

On Tuesday afternoon the kids invited themselves over to our neighbor's house. The baby and I walked them over there. We were pretty frozen by the time we got back. The next few days the temperatures were in the negatives. And Ben was back in school. He really enjoyed staying in at recess, surprisingly. In fact, by Friday, I had to tell him he had to go out for at least on recess. Even today he told me he would just go out for one, but I told him it wouldn't be cold enough to justify staying in. He likes the leapster 2 they have in the classroom that he gets to play with.

Going down the street to get to our neighbors.

We've gradually replaced windows in our house, but the ones on the back porch are still really old ones. On the freezing days I noticed the ice on them and thought of the old days when I'm sure that was standard. I've been really grateful for all the conveniences we have like gloves and boots, double layer coats, insulation in the walls 4-wheel drive and even cell phones to know my husband is safe.

We had pogonip for a few days, too.

And the icicles.

Sarah wanted me to paint her nails one day. So, we did red for Christmas time and added little stickers. Hers were half gone by the end of the day. I painted mine red, too, and wanted to french tip white on them, but only got one done. I just don't have as much time for pampering as I would enjoy. But, it was a fun thing to do together. We also made cookies at her insistence. She often asks to bake something with me.

Thursday night was Ben's class Christmas concert. We got there 15 minutes early and picked our seats. By the time it started the room was packed, with families standing all around the auditorium. They did the performance at the High School stage. It was for the 1-3 grades. After Ben's class sang their songs we left so that others could have our seats. He did well, sang all the songs, and no misbehavin'! I didn't get any pictures. We video'd it and I ended up with 2 kids on my lap. We were glad to get out early. Sarah and the baby weren't feeling too well and it was still early enough that Ben and I could go to my mom's Community Choir concert. He got kind of bored, though, and we just had to count down the songs til it was over. He was most anxious for the treats they had. It was only an hour, but it must have seemed like forever for him, and for Kannon who called at the end to see when I'd be home!

My mom and dad stopped by on Friday to visit and see our tree. We decided Joshua is very much elf-like and tried to get some good pictures of him. I know this is only half his face, but still adorable!

Ben brought home a t-shirt and sunglasses on Friday. He had wanted to win them by participating in a fundraiser at the beginning of the school year. His grandma was determined to help him win. So, we were glad when he finally got his "prize". The glasses have lights on them. He put these on as soon as he got home and wore the glasses almost all night!

Kannon and I got a babysitter for Friday night so that we could finish up our Christmas shopping. We left about 5:30 to go to Reno. We met up with my parents, who were also in Reno, and had dinner at Carl's Jr. Then we stopped at Toys R Us and Target. By the time we left Target, there was already 1/2 an inch of snow on the ground. Coming home was harried. I sat in the back with the baby who fussed for almost an hour, which is how long it took us to go 25 miles! The roads were completely covered and driving in the snow was very blizzard-like. I was a complete stress-mess. From Fernley home it wasn't bad at all.

We did our ginger bread houses on Saturday, although I made them with graham crackers this year. I read about using burnt sugar as a glue and it worked really well. I hate the royal icing, however. It's always so messy to work with. I'm glad they are done now and that we are continuing this tradition even if I don't like it so much. The kids do. They even ate some of their houses that night! And Sarah has been begging me to eat mine and share it with her!

(If you look at Ben's teeth, you can see how the front 2 are kind of odd. Over the past few months his mouth has kind of spread out and those 2 front teeth have protuded. Instead of being at a 90 degree angle they are more of a 45 degree angle. He's been afraid to pull them, they are loose, and I didn't want to hurt him. People kept saying he'd lost a tooth because of the gap between the front teeth and the next ones over. On Sunday I discovered his new tooth already coming in behind his baby tooth! Last night he finally let me yank it for him. Yay! I'll post a picture soon. The other one isn't quite ready yet. And he found another loose one on the bottom. Now he and the baby can sing, "all I want for christmas is my two front teeth!")

One other thing we had planned for saturday was a movie with popcorn. We rented UP and popped popcorn on the stove. Kannon's aunt and uncle gave us a kit to make real movie popcorn. I got it too salty. We'll try again another time since we have a few more movie nights planned this month.

After church on Sunday I stayed, with the baby, for choir. When I got home I found this in my backyard! It made me smile. I know, I know, it was Sunday - but we just didn't have the chance any other time and it was starting to melt. It's our snow family.

Complete with coal eyes and carrot nose!

We spent Sunday evening at my parents house visiting and playing. I put the baby under the tree for a bit and he loved playing with this branch. I remembered that when I was a kid we would lay under the tree and look at it from that view. We had a great tree skirt that we'd spend hours talking about. It had 4 elves painted on by my grandma, and we each "owned" one of them. Mine was the one with brown hair, brown eyes, and a pink and blue dress. The skirt has since worn out, but my mom took it apart and repurposed it as a runner. I have plans to make one just like it in crosstitch. When I have the time - ha!

And for those of you who are thinking, "she complains about not having time for anything - how is she getting this blog done?" - Just know that I have given up my shower for the day while the baby is sleeping. So, today might not be a good one for a drop-in visit! =)

first week of december

It seems to be all I can do just to get a smattering of pictures with a few descriptions on here!

We finally made it to story time again last week. After the stories the kids got to make Santa puppets. That was kind of fun. I hope we get to do more activities like that now that they are in the new building.

This year, for Christmas, I told Ben he could have a special tree in his room - at the time thinking it would be for the kids. Well, my mom found the pink tree and couldn't resist getting it for Sarah. So, now they both have a tree for Christmas.

That being said, they are having a hard time dealing with the fact that I "own" the family tree. When I told Ben not to touch anything on the tree because it was mine, he said, "You mean I held the tree and Dad cut it down - for YOU?!" That's right. My ornaments are special this year - they are the ones my mom bought me for my last birthday, and I don't want them broken!

A few weeks ago I sat down with the kids and the calendar and a list of fun things to do this Christmas. We picked what we wanted and scheduled them in. For years I've wanted to make fruitcake with my Dad. It's his mothers' recipe and he used to make it for our family every once in awhile. Well, each year it seems we don't have the money or the time and it gets postponed. This year, I put it on the calendar and talked to him about it far in advance. We each bought 1/2 the ingredients a little at a time so that it didn't feel like so much money. Then, on Friday, we met at their house and he and I made the fruitcake. I was the mixer - you HAVE to use your hands, and Dad added the ingredients. It was really fun! I took a few pieces home with me and have been eating them for my breakfasts. Yummy!

On the first friday of December our town lights up the big Christmas tree on Maine St. I think they said this was the 25th year? We had it scheduled to go as a family. But, at the last minute I didn't want to take the baby out in the cold. So, Kannon offered to stay home. Neither of us wanted to go, but I couldn't let the kids down. We only live a few blocks away, so we bundled up and took a walk. We got there, found a good friend of ours, and a few minutes later they lit up the tree. Then.....wait for it.....we went back home. Woo hoo. It's really not all that special to me. I just like to drive past it at night a few times each Christmas season!

Ben with our friend Paxton.

On Saturday we had scheduled our tree finding expedition! Kannon got up early to run up to Reno and vote in their Union election. He came right back home and we loaded up in the 'burban. We went out to the Carroll Summit area. I told him two choices for roads to drive down, and we took the one less traveled. About 3 miles later and after a heart-pounding ride up a hill, I said, "what about that one?" and Kannon stopped. I got out with Sarah, and we checked over a couple of trees. Then I gave Ben the pick of 2 different trees and he chose the one with more needles but shorter. Yay, that was quick. Equally quick was the cutting of the tree and then the kids went straight for the hot chocolate. That's the part they were most excited about, I think. It was also scheduled on the calendar - "get tree, hot chocolate."

For those of you familiar with our area, you know that on Highway 50 there are a lot of salt flats where people have taken rocks and written names, initials, websites, you name it. On our way out that day, Ben kept asking if we could do that. We figured we wouldn't really have time (Kannon was going to the temple that afternoon) and said maybe another day we'd come out just for that. Well, on the way back we were buzzed by a few Navy jets and Kannon wanted to stop and listen and watch for a bit. Well, wouldn't you know, there were some rocks right there and you couldn't even tell what they spelled anymore. So, Ben and I got out and left his mark. It was so cold!

After we got home, Kannon trimmed the bottom of the tree and set it up in the living room. He then started getting the front porch loaded with wood in preparation for our upcoming really cold weather! I helped out with that and after he left for the temple, and the baby was asleep, I decorated the tree. It was nice to get it done without too much interruption. Sarah really wanted to help and I wouldn't let her. I guess I was a mean mom about that.

I really like it, and love the smell of the fresh tree. It's also really fun to see the special ornaments and know that they were picked out just for me!

Christmas begins!

Just thought I'd get you in the mood for Christmas! Here's our own little elf!

Thanksgiving and illness

The last few days before Thanksgiving were pretty stressful for me. I had quite a few projects that had to get done. I had hoped to get my Christmas cards all finished and ready to send. We're half-way there. The envelopes are stamped and addressed, the letter is written, I just need to get the pictures and write to everyone. There was my haircut. I helped in Ben's class. He had a pretty noisy cough. It didn't seem to be related to anything, no mucus or gunk - just loud and barking. I took him to see my kinesiologist friend, Julie, and we got him taking some stuff to clear it. He stayed home on Tuesday, just so he wouldn't be an annoyance to his class.

One of the things I wanted to do was make apple-cider donuts to bring Thursday morning to Elko, so that my mother-in-law wouldn't have to worry about breakfast. After everything was packed, kids were washed and in bed, I stayed up late to make the donuts. I had made a quick trip to the store to get more oil and accidentally grabbed canola oil instead of vegetable. I'm also wondering if I left out a cup of flour, I kind of lost track when I was making them - lack of sleep? I mean I had stayed up late the night before finishing the embroidery on my m-i-l's grandkids sweatshirt. They were really doughy. I followed all the directions, but I don't know how hot the oil was, I didn't have a thermometer. So, the first 8-10 donuts were burned, bad. They were black within seconds. So, I turned down the heat and they started looking better. But, then I noticed they were absorbing the oil to the point that they were falling apart. I finished cooking almost all of them, but I was so frustrated with them that I threw the last bit of dough away. And needless to say, the donuts ended up going out to the dogs, because they just tasted like oil. I don't know if I will ever try donuts again, I'm perfectly happy buying them from the bakery!

We had a mostly pleasant time in Elko for Thanksgiving. There was good food, Bingo for prizes, lots of playing with cousins. My m-i-l got us a hotel room as our Christmas present. We stayed there Thursday and Friday nights. On Thursday, we took the kids down to the pool and they had a good time. It ended up being a little too cold for Joshua so I took him back to the hotel room. Kannon took the kids to spend the night with Grandma and I was asleep before he even got back! He did wake me up early, wanted to go see about a computer monitor. We did end up getting it, and I can say I'm really happy with it. It's a flat screen (of course, I guess all new monitors would be). And it just gives us so much more room on our little desk.

We also got some stuff at KMart - gloves, snowsuits, and shoes for the kids. When we got back to the hotel, Kannon took the baby to his moms and I did a workout with my sister-in-law. I did the elliptical machine and the treadmill and felt really good when we were done. Spent the day at the house. The kids got to sleep at the hotel with us that night. And I got to go to the movie again with the girls. We went to New Moon and I was kind of glad to be seeing it a second time.


Benjamin and cousin Mickale

When I got back to the hotel, Kannon was watching football with his dad. When it was over and we were about to go to bed, Sarah got sick. At this point the baby was being really fussy, too. Did I mention he'd been teething!? Got his first tooth on the 21st and his second one came in that day (27th). So, he was crying and Sarah was upset and gross. Kannon and I were doing our best but not being as patient as we should have been. It's always a little more frustrating when you are trying to be quiet and not bother the other people in the area. She got sick a few times and then all through the night I was up checking on her and feeding the baby. She had a fever all night. She didn't throw up again on Saturday, but I could tell she didn't feel good. I took Ben to the pool one more time, thought we'd meet up with his cousins. When we got done and back to our room, we found out they were going to go swimming with Grandma in about an hour. Kannon took off to play basketball and I stayed with the kids while they ate donuts and oj. Sarah was upset that she didn't get to go swimming, but I really didn't want her throwing-up in the pool! Later, I took her and the baby with me to go visit my aunt Peggy in Wells. She slept on the way there and they whole time we were there. She seemed kind of out of it again at bed time and I was worried about her throwing up again. Let me just say that I had told Kannon we should just go home - that morning! He really wanted to stay. Well, by bedtime Benjamin had a really bad earache. After a few hours of his crying Kannon said we were going home. That was more than fine with me. I mean if we'd stayed and left in the morning, we'd be bothering everyone else in the house with his crying. I knew we had a prescription pain ear drop for him at home, from the last earache he had. So, we left at 11pm and got home at 3:30am. Kannon had to stop once to sleep for a bit. I told him I wouldn't be able to stay awake with him, I was so exhausted. I did wake up the last hour and read to him from the Ensign. Sunday was better with everyone's health, but we did a lot of sleeping.

We got our family pictures taken at Olan Mills inside Kmart on Saturday and while we were waiting we let Joshua test out some baby stuff! He might find this under the tree Christmas morning!

Joshua had his first real food on Sunday, too! He's been trying to eat with us for awhile, now and I thought it might help him sleep longer. So we tried some oatmeal. He loved it, ate it all so fast. In fact, he'd get mad every time I took the spoon away to get more cereal. He also was determined to help and held the spoon with me for most bites! I'm not sure if that was the best time to feed him, though.

I started feeling ill around dinner time, upset stomach. I went to bed right after the kids at 8 pm. The baby was awake at 9, 10, 11:15, 12:30, and 3:15! I don't know if it was the food disagreeing with him or if he was sick like me. I was feeling nauseous the whole night and had other bathroom needs. Monday went the same way. And the baby was fussy and spitting up more than usual. Today has been better for me, but the baby is the same. At least he only woke up once last night. And Sarah, although over the flu stuff, now has a cough! Ugh - does it ever end!? I've always felt like we were a pretty healthy family, but lately it seems never-ending. I guess that's what happens as your family grows. Hopefully we can all be healthy for Christmas. I've worked hard on having things done, or scheduled, so that we can have a relaxing time together and really have the true meaning of Christmas in our hearts.