December 2011 Highlights

I haven't had time for blogging, and feel like December was a blur of sleeplessness, but I don't want to forget some of the highlights of December 2011.

- Decorating the house for Christmas.  I felt overwhelmed with the thought, but the kids were so excited.  I let them decorate the tree all by themselves, as well as the rest of the house.  I did get out only about half the Christmas decorations as we normally do though!

- Decorating the Gingerbread House.  Uncle Dan brought the kids a gingerbread house this year.  They put the whole house together, but when it came time to put all the candy on, the house collapsed.  The frosting just wasn't strong enough....much to the delight of the kids!  First year they didn't have to wait till Christmas Eve to eat it  :)

- Family Christmas movie night.  We made pizzas, ate lots and lots of Christmas cookies and watch Home Alone 3.  A perfect family night.

- Hot chocolate and candy canes.

- Aspen's school Christmas program.

- Journey's ballet recital.

- Slumber party at Grammi and Papa's house.  Grammy and Papa surprised us by putting on a slumber party for all the grandkids the first weekend of Christmas break.  They went all out by planning games for the kids to play - "tasty test" and bean bag toss.  Taking them hot tubbing.  Watching Christmas movies, and setting up a tent in the living room for Aspen, Journey and Peyton to sleep in together.

- Baking Christmas cookies for Homeless Christmas party put on by My Father's Heart.  I felt challenged this year to give in such a way that it would be a sacrifice or that it would cost me.  As I thought about it, I realized that this year, giving of my time is the biggest sacrifice for me.  I am still adjusting to having 4 small kids, including a nursing newborn, and time is something I feel like I don't have enough of!  The kids, Mark and I all worked together to make and frost 3 batches of sugar cookies and 2 batches of gingerbread for the party.

- Christmas dinner out with all my brothers, sister and the husband/wives.  While the kids were having their sleep-over, Charity suggested that we all go out to dinner together.  We went out to a Thai restaurant in Gresham and then came to our house for drinks and dessert.  It was a lot of fun.  The guys played Wii games and the girls hung out and talked.  Teague was the only kid, and he was a perfect baby!

- Christmas Eve at Lisa's
- A relaxed Christmas morning at home as a family, then to Grammy and Papa's for the rest of the day.
- Going up to Nana & Papa's after Christmas for 2 days.
- Going to the beach for the rest of Christmas break and New Years.  Dan, Troy and Kirstyn came down to the beach with us for a couple days.  We had so much fun hanging out, and it was a great way to relax and spend time as a family. 

Life right now..

Teague is 8 weeks old, and such a little sweety.  From the day he was born, he has been very quiet and laid back.  He very rarely cries, unless he wants to eat or be held, or if he's tired and wants to be put down.  He does well in the baby swing and likes the Bjorn.  I haven't worked on putting him on a schedule other than to try to bring his bedtime down to 7:30 (like the rest of the kids), but he seems to be naturally falling into somewhat of one.  Right now, I feed him for the last time before bed around 7:15 or 7:30 (after putting the other kids to bed), and he will sleep until midnight or 1:30.  He is generally up every 3 hours after that.  Some mornings he is ready to be up around 6:45 or 7, but there are others where he will sleep in till around 8am.  He will stay awake for a while, then go back to sleep.  So far, he will sleep anywhere.  In the swing, his carseat or his crib.  I haven't had to do any sleep training (like I did the other kids) to get him to nap putting him down while he is still awake.

Teague slept for almost the first 4 weeks straight.  I would have to work so hard every evening to keep him awake or tire him out.  Almost every evening I would give him a bath.  Evenings were the hardest because as soon as I would put him down to sleep, he would wake up. Both Mark and I would go up to his room multiple times every night to put the binky back in his mouth before he would stay asleep for his "long stretch" of around 4 hours.  This was the time of day where I was most tired and so ready for a little break before going to bed myself.

At 4 weeks, Teague started to wake up a little more, and I noticed that he started having some of the same reflux symptoms as Willow did.  I could hear the milk come up his throat and he would gasp and choke on it, often waking him up or keeping him from going to sleep.  I started him on the same meds as Willow, and that helped a lot.  As of now, I've had him weaned off the medication for the past 2 weeks.  He doesn't have the severe symptoms that Willow did, and as long as I stay away from most dairy, he does ok.  He is very congested, and I'm wondering if the dairy I do still eat has anything to do with that.

Journey is absolutely in love with Teague.  She loves to "hold him like a mommy" and is very protective of him around other people.  Right now, Aspen and Journey fight over who gets to have him lay with them in bed while Mark and I get everyone down for the night.  He will talk and smile at them.  It's such a sweet time of the day.  I love seeing them talk to him and love on him.

She's getting so big...(sniff)

Seeing these two pictures made me realize how much Willow is growing up.  She is getting so tall and thin and loosing her baby look...

 Therefore, since she is now 2 years old, and we have just around 8 weeks until the baby is born, it was time to say goodbye to the beloved binky.....  :(  (yes, mommy loves it as much as she does).

Rounding up all the binkys in the house for the big goodbye...

I was dreading the day when we would have to throw the binkys away, but decided that now that we were home from the beach, it was time.  I had big plans to do what I did with Aspen - ask her if she would want to throw it away in a really happy voice, she would say, yes, and the drama would be spared until nap or bedtime....  Yep, didn't go as planned... 

With Aspen, he was like, yeah!  Then proceeded to throw the binky away, and went on with life until naptime (and he realized that the binky wasn't coming back).  Willow, on the other hand, looked at me like I was crazy and said NO!!  Then stuck it in her mouth and chomped down.  I ended up having to pry it from her teeth, throw it in the garbage, then walk the garbage bag out to the can all while she was screaming and throwing a fit in protest.  Five days later, she is still sometimes (very) angry about the loss at bed/nap times.

Now to decide if I want to pursue potty training....  Seems like she wants to, but honestly, I don't want to.  Confession time: I hate potty training!

Back to school - 2nd grade

 We are just a week into the 2nd grade school year.  Here was Aspen's first day of school picture....he was trying to look happy....

.....but this was how he really felt about going back to school, lol

I can't blame him.  We had such a fun summer, and it went so fast.  It's hard to get back to reality and buckle down to the school schedule for all of us!  I wasn't ready for him to start school either.  I love having all my kids home, and watching them have so much fun playing together.  Now, that doesn't mean I could do the home school thing.....  I just love summer, free time and my family all together  :)

32 Weeks!

I have just 8 weeks plus a few days (if history repeats itself) before baby boy makes his appearance!  I am getting more and more excited and anxious to meet him.....especially since it's been in the 90's, and I've been hibernating inside the house all week trying to keep cool.  :)  We are no closer to choosing his name.  I thought we had narrowed it down to 3 names, but now I'm not sure.  We will probably take our list to the hospital and choose when we meet him  :)

I've been measuring 2 weeks ahead for the past couple months, so am expecting a big baby (although hopefully not too big!).  Everything else has been healthy, and up until now, my midwives have let me go 6 weeks between appointments.  It has been super nice since it's a 30 minute commute each way for a 10 minute appointment.  They've now put me on the 3 week schedule, but at least that means I'm getting close to the end  :) 

One other funny thing that I'd never remember unless I wrote it down -
Aspen has asked me multiple times if he can be in the room when his baby brother is born.  He feels like he is old enough, and really wants to be there with Daddy, lol.  Hmmm, for your own good, and future sanity, I'm gonna give you a big, fat "no" on that one, Aspen.  You'll understand when you are older....

August at the beach & a reminder to myself in the future..

We have just a week left of summer vacation, and thus a week left at the beach for the summer.  Just like last year, I've loved spending August at the beach.  Life slows down a bit, although mostly we just do normal life in a different place for a month.
I've been doing some extra cooking and food preserving for the winter and the upcoming baby this month too.  Here's what I've finished so far:

- 7 quarts & 6 pints of roasted tomato & herb marinara sauce (freezer)
- 2 batches of granola
- 8 batches of blueberry freezer jam
- cooked up pinto and black beans & made up a batch of spicy bean cakes for the freezer
- made up a batch of chicken stock to freeze

For this last week, I plan on making up a bunch of pizza sauce to freeze, and trying my hand at canning up some salsa.  I've never done that, but hopefully I can find a winning recipe  :)

I've also been slowly, very slowly been coming to grips with the fact that I have GOT to slow down and pay attention to my body.  As much as I want to, I can't do everything I want to do and operate life like I'm not 7 1/2 months pregnant.  I've been struggling with severe pelvic/lower back pain at times over the last couple months, and also just being flat out exhausted by evening.  Some of this has to do with having 3 kids to keep up with and take care of, but I think if I was honest with myself, it's more due to doing too much.  I've been cutting things back and while I'm still tired in the evenings, it's not totally painful to stand and walk.  I am a slow learner  :)

And as a reminder to myself in the future, here's what I feel like God has been showing/highlighting to me over the last week or two....

When I over schedule or overdue things, it leaves me too tired to be the parent I need to be. 

Willow's attitude has been getting out of control, and she has been ignoring us when we tell her to do things like "come" or "no".  I realized that I have been allowing myself to be a lazy mom, and have been overlooking things when I should be dealing with them because I've been either too busy or tired.  My first priority should be the kids and raising them, not cooking, my projects, cleaning, rearranging the house, or anything else that captures my time and attention. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Willow!

This summer I've been working on catching up on scrapbooking, and have been working my way through 2009, the year Willow was born.  It brings back so many memories.  It's amazing to me that my baby girl is 2 years old already. 

She was my easiest labor and delivery, and my hardest baby.  She has a larger than life attitude and can be quite stubborn, but is so much fun and brings so many smiles and laughter to our house.  We love you, Willow!

I think celebrating the 2nd birthday is one of the most fun birthdays.  It's the first birthday where they are able to really grasp the concept of "my birthday" and presents.  We celebrated Willow's birthday at our house with my side of the family, and her actual birthday at the beach with Nana and Papa.

 The traditional ice cream cake.  You might notice the candles are missing (yep, I forgot to get some)....we let her take a bite out of the cake instead  :)

 Wearing the adorable dress up clothes from Charity.

 Snuggling with Grammy and the new baby Grammy got her.

 Modeling more dress ups.  This was the year of dress up clothes and baby dolls. 

 She has lots of "help" opening the presents!

 How fun!  More dress up clothes!

Journey has just discovered one of the funnest parts of having a sister.....She gets to play with all the new toys too!