One of those days!

Ever have one of those days when you are too sick to do anything...but there are still five kids running around the house?  I'm usually very particular about how much screen time we have...but today the t.v. was on from 7:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. (I'm sure all my kids are in bed with mushy brains right now!)  Somehow, I need to make it through 4 more months!

Merry Christmas 2010

Wow!  How can you not have a fun Christmas when you have 5 young kids in the house?!  We did our traditional acting out of the nativity on Christmas Eve with the wise men bringing our Christmas pajamas! I think the kids were ready to go to bed at 7:30 (which was all right with me...I still had plenty to do!)

Ryan and I were up until midnight on Christmas Eve wrapping presents because I had not wrapped anything!  Then the next morning we had 3 girls in our room at 6:30 a.m! (Can I just say that was not enough sleep for this pregnant woman!  My stomach was not feeling well when I got up and didn't start feeling better until about noon.)  We went into the front room to see what Santa brought, Logan joined us about 7:00 and Mason came to the party about 7:45.

We had a yummy ham dinner (in our pj's!  Because in our house we stay in our pj's all day on Christmas!)  I didn't have enough energy to make dessert so hopefully we'll get the banana cream pie and strawberry cheesecake made sometime in the next few days!

It was an enjoyable and relaxing day.  I am grateful for the birth of my Savior and for all of my blessings!

Fall Semester

This semester started out great but is ending in a fizzle (at least for me!)  I found out I was pregnant over Labor Day weekend...just a month after we had started school.  I should be feeling pretty good by now, but I'm not...and it's making it really hard to keep up with my little brood!

Mommy reading time has slowed down a bit.  We just finished our fourth book of the semester...it took longer than normal because I keep falling asleep during quiet reading time and often by the time I was awake enough to read...it was time for the boys to get up and too chaotic for me to read to the girls!

I was hoping to do more "extra" activities with my kids this year...but that hasn't happened as I wanted.  Although, as I think about it we have done several extracurricular activities.

*We go to gymnastics once a week.  Kessiah, Jenessa, Sienna and Logan are all in classes at the same time
*We have gone to the library for story time once a week.  Kessiah and Jenessa usually play on the computers or read while I take the 3 little ones to story/craft time.
*Kessiah, Jenessa and Sienna are all involved in 4-H.  Kessiah does cavy and sewing.  Jenessa and Sienna do Clover Kids.  Jenessa has also been attending Kessiah's cavy club meetings.
*Jenessa, Sienna and Logan all played soccer this fall.
*Kessiah has continued to take piano lessons (although our teacher is moving at the end of this month, so I need to find a new one!)
*Kessiah goes to activity days (church group) twice a month

Kessiah:  She started out the semester with a bit of a lazy attitude, not wanting to accomplish her assignments each day.  We had a little talk after a couple of weeks and she has done really well since then.  She is my early riser...usually up around 6:30...she gets started on her work and gets her stuff done early. 

Jenessa:  This girl is NOT a morning person.  She is lucky to get started on school by 10:00...and it's driving me crazy!  I'm constantly torn between letting her get started at her time or pushing her to get moving!  Because I'm too tired to push to much right now....she generally goes on her time...which means she often doesn't finish until around 4:00. 

Sienna:  I feel like she has suffered the most because of this pregnancy!  We did preschool really good the first month and then I got sick and have been really inconsistent!  Jenessa, however, has decided that she is going to be a teacher when she grows up and has taken it upon herself to do preschool with Sienna and Logan 2 days a week....that has been a great help!

Logan:  He pretty much follows Sienna around all morning and takes a good nap in the afternoon.  He has managed to learn a lot even though he has had almost no "formal training"

Mason:  He wanders around during the morning and takes a good nap in the afternoon.  He continues to have a physical therapist come once a week.

Mom:  I have pretty much gone into survivial mode...so if I get the following things done, it is a successful day (unfortunately, there are very few "successful" days!)
1.  Kessiah and Jenessa get their school work done
2.  I get the kids to any activities I deem important enough to put on the calendar
3.  The kids eat something for dinner besides cold cereal or making themselves a hot pocket
4.  The dishwasher gets started at night
5.  The laundry gets started at night

sick crackers

Logan just asked me where my "sick crackers" were.  He was referring to soda crackers...maybe I've been eating too many lately and complaining about my tummy hurting!

The Santa Card

Yes, it's true...I've pulled out the Santa card...you know the one...where you tell your kids some version of the "You better be good or Santa won't come story"  I've done it a couple of times already this week...unfortunately, it only lasts for about 20 minutes or so.  But tonight I had had enough from one child in particular.  I called Santa's workshop and left a message for Santa letting him know that Christmas would be cancelled at our house until further notice.  The nice man who took the message let me know that it wasn't too late for the kids to start behaving better and Santa would be watching.  The event has left some of my children in emotional turmoil, I just hope I can call back and say that he is welcome to bring gifts!

4-H Week

This week was full of 4-H activities.  Usually, most of these don't fall in the same week!  We had Clover Kids (Jenessa and Sienna) on Tuesday.  They made treats for the white elephant gift exhange that we had on Community Meeting on Wednesday.  Thankfully, I was able to drop Sienna and Logan off at work with Ryan for the Community Meeting.  It made that meeting a little easier on me, especially since I hadn't been feeling well that day.  On Friday, Kessiah had her sewing meeting.  On Saturday morning, I took Jenessa and Kessiah to the mall where we did 4 hours of service at the Angel Tree booth.  They had so much fun they wanted to go back the next day and do it again!  It really was nice to see the generosity in our community.  Saturday afternoon Kessiah had her cavy meeting (Jenessa went too, she seems to be making herself part of that club even though she is technically not old enough!)  All of these meetings are just once a month (except the Angel Tree booth...they need to do 6 hours of service for 4-H during the year)...but they just all landed on the same week this month!  Thankfully, things slow down nicely for the next two weeks!

We ended Saturday evening with Ryan's annual Christmas bowling party!  Santa was there too!

20 weeks and it's a ....

(drum roll please...) BOY!  Not really a surprise, I knew it was a boy from day 1...but it has been confirmed!

I am 20 weeks...halfway there!  April just can't come soon enough for me!  I have been nauseas and on the couch for most of the past 2 days, I was hoping to feel better by now!  This might be one of those pregnancies where I have that nausea hovering over me the entire time!