Christmas Cards

I had all intentions of sending out a real Christmas card this year. Well considering it's 3 days prior to Christmas I don't think it's going to happen. This year has been a memorable one...some of the memories I'd like to forget and others I never want to forget. We'll leave it at that.

I also had hopes to spend one full day baking with my children and deliver goodies that looked like they came right from the Rachel Ray show (does she still have a show?) Then I came back to reality and quickly remembered that I signed a contract long ago to never admit that Martha Stewart gets all her ideas from me...thus I cannot go ahead with my baking day or I'd end up having to host my own TV show as I'd put Martha out of business and I just don't have the time in my life right now to start hosting. So to make a long story short...both my blog readers, I will not be delivering any goodies. This doesn't mean I don't love or appreciate you, it simply means I have worked my tail off the last two months trying to loose baby weight and I'm one pound from pre-pregnancy weight and if I bake I'll eat and if I eat I'll plump up and if I plump up I'll...you get the picture...Not to mention I'm enjoying having all three boys home and baking with them stresses me out. I choosing to have a calm holiday break and enjoy the moments than be up tight just to have baked goodies. Long story short...no goodie plates this year. Please accept my apologies.

Conversation this morning...

#1: "You know what mom?"

Me: "What son?"

#1: "I could just stare at #3 for an entire hour, that's how much I love him. He's just so cute. Sometimes when I'm at school I think about his face in my mind so I don't forget what he looks like. I'm so glad he's my brother."

Me: "I'm so glad he's your brother too."

I pray the brotherly love stays around for a lifetime.

I liked these quotes I found while reading tonight...

"I speak to fathers and mothers everywhere with a plea to put harshness behind us, to bridle our anger, to lower our voices, and to deal with mercy and love and respect one toward another in our homes" - Gordon B. Hinckley

"Good homes are still the best source of good humans" - Neal A. Maxwell

"There should be no yelling in the home unless there is a fire" - David O. McKay

"I can assure you that the greatest responsibility and the greatest joys in life are centered in the family, honorable marriage, and rearing a righteous posterity." Ezra Taft Benson

Good stuff.

Young Women's Christmas lesson... done
Young Women's Christmas gift...done

We bought pocket size Books of Mormon for each girl, covered them with scrap booking paper, glued ribbon and a flower on top and made it something they will hopefully carry with them in their purse or backpack and read often.

I had two great women come over to help out and I think it turned out awesome! Hopefully the girls will focus on gaining a strong testimony of this powerful book and allow it to be an influence for good for the rest of their lives.

In preparing for the lesson I found some good quotes about the book...

Dallin H. Oaks said "In a day when many are challenging the divinity of Jesus Christ or doubting the reality of his atonement and resurrection, the message of that second witness, the Book of Mormon, is needed more urgently than ever."

And Joseph Smith said "The Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.

I know this to be true. It will change your life. Wanna learn more? Go here for a free copy of this magnificent book.

#1's Christmas break started today...Finally, #2 has someone to play with all day.

I finally cut the boys hair this morning. I hate doing it but the end results are they always look handsome (if I didn't screw up). I just don't understand why they cry and complain when I do it but when I take them to an actual salon they sit there like perfect angels with smiles on their face the whole time. I'm starting to think it's worth forking out the $25 bucks so I don't have to fight with them to get it done here at home.

Tonight there were dishes to be done, laundry to be folded, picking up to do, Sunday lesson to prepare but spouse was gone and I was lazy. I put the kids to bed at 7pm...they fell right to sleep...let #3 milk me as long as he wanted and watched a movie. It was splendid. I want to do it more often. Like every night. Maybe I can when I'm retired and am sitting with my phat retirement check each month...retired mothers get a phat check right? WHAT? NO PAYDAY?

I quit.

OK...maybe not...I'll hang in there.

So I was supposed to babysit today but the mom ended up not going into work. I decided to make it a "date day" with me and the two youngest. We headed out to Bass Pro Shop to meet up with other moms in our ward. We arrived a few minutes after the tour had started, no big deal, we found the group and after a whole 5 minutes of being there B says he has to go potty. OK, #3 is asleep in the stroller so as I start pushing him B runs and plops himself down on the foot rest of the stroller. Well somehow that made the front wheel get stuck and boom it breaks right off. Gurrr. I was peeved. This stroller is band new and is my stroller or jogging. Not to mention I felt like we were making a scene and I was totally embarrassed. Lifting the stroller up and pushing it out the store on the two back wheels we made a pit stop at the bathroom then headed out to the car. I'm glad I could drive 40 minutes to be in the store a total of 10 minutes.

I figured while we were out we'd run some errands on that side of town...one of which was Costco. B decides he wants to play the electric piano they have on display in the store. After I told him to sit on his bum I turn my head just in time to see him stand on the bench and proceed to knock it over crashing it down making a huge noise and him landing right on top of a now broken piano bench leg. Gurrr. I was peeved again. The noise startles #3 and he starts screaming. Nothing like another scene. I'm sure people must be thinking...yet again, another mother that can't handle her children. I have to say I was pretty pleased with myself that I didn't get upset at either incident, I stayed very calm. I am trying to put into practice some quotes I found over the last few weeks in preparing for a talk. While preparing I felt I saw a slight glimpse into how we were treated by our Heavenly Father prior to coming to this earth and I want my children treated that same way. And I must be the one to treat them that way. My patience was tried today to say the least.


On another note...#1 had his winter concert at school tonight. As always he looked so handsome in his white shirt and tie. It was fun to see him with all his little friends. I am learning more and more each day of why is he the oldest child. I'm SO glad he's the oldest. He's a great example to his brothers and has a very tender heart.

This little guy is such a happy camper...his latest stats as of December 10th are:

14lbs 11oz
24inches
strong and healthy. sleeps through (9pm-7am) the night 90% of the time.
enjoys his swing and bouncy chair. loves to have his diaper changed but hates bath time. loves when music is played and loves when his brothers stop mauling him for hugs and kisses.

Random

Today was a busy day and I'm glad it's over. It started with a 5am workout so I could be dressed and ready to teach #2's preschool class by 9:30am. Taught preschool while having our little friend here I babysit part-time then when preschool was done at 12pm #2 & #3 and I headed over to #1 school for his winter story stroll and hot chocolate. Came home to prepare parts of the dinner for our young women's activity which was a progressive dinner, did homework with #1. Had the 3rd and final house for the progressive dinner cancel on me so I very quickly picked up the house and vacuumed the kitchen floor and made my house the final stop. Fixed dinner for the family dropped the kids off at a friends house since spouse was gone for the night, picked up two YW on my way to the church and started one of our final YW activities before the ward split officially takes place all while changing many poopy diapers and doing lots of feedings. The activity went well and we had a great turn out. I'll miss those girls who will no longer be in my ward. The boys were such great help this afternoon...they cleaned the playroom all by themselves and didn't complain once about it. It was awesome!

On another note here are some family pictures from Thanksgiving day.

They sure do love their brother.

Just now I told my family to pretend like I wasn't here. I had something important I needed to take care of and couldn't be interrupted. It's funny listening to Pops get the kids to bed and hear comments the from the kids telling him how to do the routine. (He's usually not around at bed time except for mutual nights.) Not to mention the baby is screaming and I know he's not hungry, we'll see how long spouse will go before he comes and gets me...I'm betting 5 minutes.

This guy had another blow out at church. Again I didn't have a change of clothes and no diapers. I'm such a prepared mom. I accidentally left the diapers on the kitchen table. Again, he left church naked.

I'll try harder next week.

P.S. I love the Young Women.
If they could only know I try my best.
Is this a taste of having a teenage daughter?
I do love them.

#2

This kid is a crack up. I always wonder what he'll choose to be when he grows up.
He's witty, clever, mischievous, very busy and lovable all at the same time.
He's got the best older brother that he admires so much and can't seem to give enough hugs and kisses to his younger brother. So far he seems like a perfect fit right in the middle. Never a day goes by that I don't laugh out loud from something he's said or done.
What fun he ads to our family.

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving weekend brought...

an afternoon in the park with cousins...

time spent teasing cousins...

A fun field hockey game with big and little cousins...

time to hoard this precious gun...

opportunities to decorate the table clothes with crayons and pictures...

lots of family...(this one's for you Miss A.)

And a free picture with a not-so-friendly Santa...(I guess you get what you pay for)

A wonderful weekend in all. Thanksgiving always brings to much food and not enough time with family...or is it the other way around?

Blessing Day

Sunday November 29th was #3's big day. He was blessed at church by his papi (a.k.a. dad) and was awake during it and didn't even cry. Thank goodness. A sweet day for this sweet boy. It's a good thing we didn't wait any longer to do this because the family blessing outfit would not have fit. It was small already.

Afterward we had family over for a small luncheon and enjoyed each others company. It was a busy weekend but worth it.

A couple things I learned while at church yesterday...

1. My boys DO NOT know how to whisper. I feel a family home evening coming on that teaches them how to whisper.

2. Right when church starts a trigger goes off in their brains telling them they should be hungry despite the fact they ate lunch 20 minutes earlier. I haven't brought snacks to church in many months and they still continue to ask over and over and over and over again.

3. Always carry a change of clothes for the baby. A blowout is always a possibility and with no back up outfit you end up carrying around a naked baby wrapped in a blanket. Luckily it happened towards the end of church.

4. There are always the fewest amount of young women there when it is a lesson they could use. Not to mention they missed out on some really yummy treats.

5. The boys think as soon as church is over they get to wrestle around in the YW's room as I'm cleaning up. Every week I tell them "no" and it still happens.

We'll see how next Sunday goes.

What a week...I'll be glad when it's over.

I think it's safe to say my emotions are not yet back to normal.

I have decided that when the time is right I will hire a house keeper to come in once a week. Not because I am incapable of cleaning or lazy but because it would be one less thing to focus on and free up time to spend doing more important things. Things that have an eternal value. I know I can still teach my children responsibility and cleanliness and have a house keeper to. It will be possible.

If you have a house keeper I applaud you.

For those that nurse or are going to...

So much to blog about so little time...three kids is defiantly a little different than two.

But I must write this before I forget. If you're a nursing mom, a going to be nursing mom or know one, read on.

So, a wonderful sister of mine told me about a cure for mastitis (you know the horrible infection that can sometimes accompany the natural breast augmentation after one delivers a bundle of joy) she learned it from her midwife and when she first told me I have to admit I was kind of skeptical but put the information in the back of my mind for possible later use and the next trip to the grocery store included purchasing a brown russet potato.

So about a week ago I realized I was starting to feel sick and as the day progressed my sickness became worse and was accompanied by a very painful feeling, almost like a burning feeling in one of the utters. Uh oh...I knew what this meant. It was on a Saturday so no going to the doctor and our blessed insurance doesn't cover doctor visits or prescriptions so I didn't want to fork out 200+ Benjamin's. That's when my brain reminded me of the bit of info told by that intelligent sister. When the feeling of mastitis starts to come on cut a russet potato and put the inside of the potato on the sore breast and the potato will draw out the infection. To make a long story even longer...I had spouse wrap an ace bandage around me with a potato on the inside next to the sore ca-who-na. The look on his face was priceless but I woke up Sunday morning with nothing...NO PAIN AT ALL and I felt great!!!!! You can literally feel the potato drawing out the infection, it's almost painful but worth it. This cure cost me a whole 34 cents and no antibiotics went into the body or the baby's milk. It seriously worked and I would highly recommend it.

Maybe later I'll write about the garlic I placed on my children's feet last night and they woke up today feeling a whole lot better.

Kudos to natural remedies.

Game Day

Saturday was game day...ASU's biggest little fans...

Like father, like son.

They almost pulled out a win...I'm sure we'll watch next Saturday hoping to celebrate that night with a win...yes, wearing the same get-up. Can't wait.

One Month Check up

Today I'm thankful I have my baby. I read her story and thanked my Heavenly Father as I held #3 a lot closer.

We visited the doctor for the one month check up and this is where he's at:

Weight: 12lbs 9oz (97th Percentile)
Length: 22.5 inches (78th Percentile)
Head: 16 (Can't remember the Percentile)

He's growing strong and looks great. I'm very thankful.

The update.

I think about blogging but the time to do it lately has been late at night or very early in the morning. You see, I've had this problem lately at night were I hear a voice coming from my master bedroom, it calls to me. I have finally figured out who the voice is...it's the voice from deep down in my mattress. The voice starts calling out about 9pm saying "Come to me, come feel my comfort, come, Come, COME, I'm waiting for you, come feel my soft joy." I succumb each night to it's temptation and I give in thus leaving the blogging world behind. Then prior to each child waking I set the alarm with intentions to wake 90 minutes early and update the blog along with the hope of getting other daily tasks done prior to reality hitting but once again that voice calls from the depths beneath. The problem in the morning is, not only is it the voice that calls but the giant arms come out and wrap around me holding me down, sinking me deeper into the soft cloud that I am lying on. Those arms don't release until 6:30am when I have to wake and prepare my oldest part of reality for his daily dose of education. Thus the reason for the lack of updates.

However the last few weeks have included the following:

~I feel like I can now bond with a cow, we could get to know each other well while we're both being milked.

~I must convince myself once again that my treadmill is my best friend and must be visited daily. I've spent 40 minutes each morning with him the last four days and I have yet to be convinced. I think it's safe to say we have a love-hate relationship. But I am hopeful the daily dose of visits will pay off...eventually...like in 7 years.

~Can't decided if I should buy a scale or not. I don't want to have to add "fix hole in wall" to the honey-do list for spouse. Maybe after three kids I'm more mature though...OK maybe not. I'll take "scale" off the shopping list.

~Still having to tell myself it's worth waking up to get #1 off to school each morning, each day I repeat, "his education is important...his education is important...yes, more important than your sleep..."

~Saving mega $Benjamin's$ when it comes to putting gas in the car...I've had no where to go lately.

~I have yet to eat breakfast prior to 10am...maybe I'll burn a few extra calories this way!

~Remembering the blessed smells of puke and poop, especially when both scents are on my shirt and I don't bother to change it all day long and then accidentally forget to change it prior to the school PTA meeting. That was embarrassing.

I am defiantly NOT complaining, for this is my reality and my reality is a pretty great place to be.


Now for a couple of updated pics...

The little one...the reason for the lack of sleep...
Best big brothers in the world.I love this little outfit...he was wearing the cutest shoes...to bad the camera didn't catch them.

And the reason why I've yet to succumb tonight to the voice from the bedroom? This man kept this little guy for me this afternoon so I could have a late afternoon silent visit with the bedroom voice. It was 60 minutes of pure joy~maybe I can bask in that same joy tomorrow. He truly is the best spouse I could ask for.

P.S. Have you ever spent the day with a three year old? If not, it's quite entertaining. It's funny to watch this particular three year old eat, put on his shoes, and try taking care of bathroom business so he "doesn't have to wash hands." Pretty creative if you ask me...for he hates washing his hands. He is such a little stinker sometimes but the FUNNIEST little man I've ever met. You'll never go a day without laughing when he's near by. It's rejuvenating seeing the world through a child's eye. I pray it'll always keep me young at heart.

Uh oh...the voice is calling...I must give in now.

Saturday

Saturday morning brought us our first family outing as a family of 5.
We headed out to #1 soccer game. Which he played pretty darn well...

#2 always loves watching a good soccer game...as long as he has a snack to keep him occupied.

It was fun to get out...a bit warm though but fun none the less

Then that night was the ward Halloween party. I stayed home with the baby and spouse was able to go and take the two oldest who really enjoyed themselves.
Pops was...well I don't think his proper description is politically correct so I won't say.
#2 was a Power ranger and #1 Darth Maul...not my favorite choice but he was very excited and that's what matters. Right?


#2 was very excited about his costume and loved showing off his big muscles!


Since there were no masks allowed spouse painted #1's face just like the mask that came with the costume. Not a bad job at all...I told him maybe it was time to switch careers and become a makeup artist.

Baby and I enjoyed the peace and quiet at home...and some of the candy brought home by the kids!

Friday at the Park

Friday the boys rode bikes to the park while I pushed #3 in his stroller. (Which by the way he loves) I enjoyed basking in the sun...

The big boys enjoyed climbing all over the toys even with their bike helmets still on...

and the new one slept the afternoon away. So peaceful.

Not a bad Friday afternoon.

A few pics

These photos are from today...October 22, 2009
He's 15 days old

There's something sweet about a baby's feet...

This is the little man at 9 days old

This is the night we came home from the hospital
Thursday October 8th 2009

Five days old with his big brothers. This was after our first family home evening with #3. Spouse gave the lesson on being examples to our siblings. Afterward we gave the boys these pajamas that said "big brother" on them. They were thrilled.