February 6th

Have I mentioned that I love the kids off-track chore charts? I pull them out whenever they are off track (like a couple of weeks ago) and they are life savers. These charts keep them busy and on top of things and they keep mom from nagging and sounding like a broken record, "did you make your bed?" "did you clear your spot?" "Did you brush your teeth?" "did you practice piano"....repeated 30 times :).

One of the days the kids were off, February 6th to be exact, we pulled together a surprise celebration for when Dad got home. Why? Because February 6th 2013 is exactly 10 years to the day that Scott proposed marriage to me! I have it inscribed on my engagement ring as a reminder. It was also the day his grandfather proposed to his grandmother and since these were their rings, the original date inscribed on the ring is 2.6.43 . Isn't that amazing?! I love it! So we decided to scratch our original dinner plans and get something that Scott loves: pizza, sparkling cider, salad and donuts :). I know, not all healthy, but a once in a lifetime opportunity and I wanted Scott to be pleasantly surprised and that was exactly his reaction. We also wrote out a few love notes. We posted one on the garage door (that's the door he comes in when he gets home from work) that says, "Ten years ago today...." and then inside on the wall in the kitchen there were more heart notes that read, "you asked a question..." "that made dreams come true." The kids and I had so much fun preparing for this and Scott was so pleased...I think his exact words to me were, "thank you. This was just what I needed." Thank you Scott for choosing me! BFF!

* A quick update on Nora: she is doing much better. Her cough is gone. Her nose is still running but not as much and it's all clear mucus which is great! I'm also being a lot more watchful on what she's eating. Since her appointment she's eaten several avocados, a variety of whole beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, pizza crust(home-made and whole grain), graham crackers (whole wheat and  honey sweetened), eggs, and lots and lots of oatmeal with ground flax and coconut milk(that's her favorite).

Nora is 9 months

This little girl is so much fun! She loves looking in the mirror and giving herself kisses on the glass, or on her reflection in our fridge! I took a short video of her doing it the other day.



Nora is a really good sleeper. She takes a couple of naps during the day (about 3 hours of naps total) and then she'll go down for bed around 8pm and sleep until about 730am. In the picture below she fell asleep on Elisabeth while we were meeting to do our family song, scripture and prayer just before bed.

Nora is all over the place! She crawls everywhere! The other day she was playing nicely in her room with some toys so I hopped out to cut up some veggies for dinner and I left the door open so I could hear her.  When I popped back in to check on her she wasn't there! All the doors were open to the rooms upstairs so I quickly went into each room: No Nora in the bathroom, no Nora in my bedroom or bathroom, and finally I found her in Charlie's very dark room (he had his night shades drawn) playing with a couple of his soldier guys.

I am so grateful we got this gate up, and at the perfect time.

If Nora hears the kids playing downstairs, she tries to go get them, like in this picture below where she's sticking her arm through the crack at the bottom.

Nora has had a cold for a couple of weeks and when I took her into her wellness check appointment yesterday the doctor had some not so good news for us. Not only did Nora go down in weight by a few ounces from her 6 month appointment  (she's been nursing a lot less and she's been sick, which doesn't help) but she also had ear infections in both ears, one medium-ish and one pretty bad one, and she has bronchiolitis (most likely caused from RSV) which the doctor could hear in her chest...she has mucus in her lungs. So the nurses did an oxygen check which came up really low( normal is 100%, when people get sick and they're breathing is restricted it can get down to about 90% and Nora's was at 83%; and they triple checked that number) and they wondered why she wasn't turning blue. They quickly got a catheter that they put through her nose and suctioned out a bunch of this thick mucus that was stuck inside. They checked her oxygen levels again and it was instantly up to 99%! Amazing! I was so happy we went in for her wellness check. The Doc told us that if she starts sounding wheezy again, we're to take her into a walk-in clinic and give a prescription paper she made for us, to the nurse and they'll suction her out again. Doc knows I don't like antibiotics but she advised that I get them for her this time because she has so many issues going on right now that she wants it cleared up fast. So we'll do the amoxicillan, and I'll continue with the humidifier and the raised bed crib mattress. I'll need to be more diligent about suctioning out her nose with the bulb, and I need to watch her eating more closely. Doc suggested adding coconut milk and ground flax to Nora's oatmeal (her favorite food right now) which I will do today. She also gave me a list of all different foods that would be good to add calories: avocados, cheese, eggs, hummus, beans, peanut butter, butter, Greek yogurt etc. All of those things we eat pretty regularly so it shouldn't be too hard, I just need to be more aware of how much she's eating and make sure she's gets more of that coconut milk in since she's not getting much breast milk anymore.

Here are Nora's 9 month (and a half) stats:
weight:  15.21 lbs - 2%
height: 26.97 in - 22%

No shots for Nora this time around, which was a blessing with all the other things that we had to do today; still plenty of crying though. Being held down to have your nose suctioned with a catheter is probably worse than getting poked with a needle. 

Free Time

 The kids go back to school today. I really do love having them home with me. We didn't do anything extraordinary during their three week break...mostly we just hung around the house, cleaned, cooked, did chores and crafts, practiced instruments, etc. It snowed a couple of times which was fun. The kids built snow men and snow forts!

 We made some Valentine's and brought them to our at the nursing home. They made a few personalized ones for Heber, Don, Lorraine and Dorothy plus a few extra to hand out to anyone who seemed like them might like to have one.They absolutely love going there. I love watching the elderly with our little kids because they are just so sweet and they light up when they see them. It is very dear. We also made some things for Annabelle's birthday party which is coming up this weekend. We made her invitations and delivered them, and we also put together some things for her party gift bags. She's going to be having a 'Princess and the Popstar' birthday party because she's obsessed with those dolls and that movie right now (it's a barbie movie and not my favorite but it's her favorite for the moment :)). I am SO excited for her party! I can't wait til Saturday! I'll be taking lots of pictures so be sure to check back!

 Our neighbor and good friend recently had a baby so we brought her a frozen dinner plus some cookies that spelled out the babies name :).

 And since we were making cookies, we brought over a couple of plates to different neighbors who've helped shovel our drive since Scott couldn't do it with his arm and I just hadn't gotten to it because we were busy inside :).

So I guess now we're back to our normal school-life schedule. I go into Charlie's class every other Monday and Elisabeth's class every other Thursday which means I get to go in today. I love being involved with the kids school and life in general and I'm grateful I get to go in and volunteer and that Julie and I can switch off watching each others kids so we each get a chance to do this.

Internet down

Well the modem for our Internet connection died yesterday. It was pretty old, so the phone company thinks that's what did it even though we told them 2-year-old Jane was playing near it and had shut off the power on the main surge protector which it was connected to and that's when we couldn't get it started again. But either way we are currently without our wireless Internet access and so this will be a very short post, just to give you that information, since I'm typing with my thumbs on Scott's cell phone before he leaves for work :). That's dedication for you :)!  I'll write more once its up and running again. 

Daily Schedule

For record keeping sake, here is a look into a typical week at our house: 
6:00 roll out of bed, pray, put exercise clothes on
6:10-7:00 exercise (circuit training or dvd or elliptical; if it's warm I'll jog outside)
7:00-8:15 make and drink green smoothie, get kids up and going, supervise as they get dressed, clean room, make beds, unload dishwasher, practice piano/cello, help with lunches and kids breakfast, nurse Nora, if it's Mon or Wed Liz needs to be to orchestra by 730
8:15-8:35 pick up neighbor kids and drop them off at school with Liz and Char
8:35-9:00 clean up kitchen- load dishes, wipe down surfaces, put things away that people have put on counter, sweep floor, mop if dirty
9:00 if MWF, Madison arrives at this time(a 5-year-old girl whose mom is in school and needs help b/c she's single). The girls have free time and usually dress up or play with barbies while I do some more around-the-house-pick-up and another chore (vary on different days: a couple times a week it's laundry, other days it's dust and vacuum, or clean toilets and mirrors, or scrub tubs and showers, or shovel snow off the driveway or declutter and organize a closet or shelf etc). I try and get dressed and ready now. If I don't have time now I'll quickly do it while they're eating their snack. I shower Tue, Thur and Sat mornings.
10:00-10:15 snack time; we'll usually have things like apples and peanut butter, carrots, yogurt, granola, banana or something easy like that
10:15-12 if it's Tue or Th when Madison is not here, this is usually when I will run errands or have appointments made with doctors, dentists or visiting teaching. If it's MWF, the girls play again while I clean some more and if all my cleaning gets done before 12 then I'll see if something needs to be prepped for dinner (usually does) and do that and if I still have some time I'll check my email. Nurse Nora
12:00-12:30 lunch. Usually PB and J sandwiches or oatmeal.
12:30-2:30 quiet time. This means Jane and Nora are sleeping and Annabelle and Madison can color, look at books or do puzzles. We do school time for about 20 minutes. I spend part of this time finishing up dinner prep and then I'll either read or blog, send email responses or do things for my calling at church
2:30-3:00 if MWF we make sure Madison gets dressed back into her clothes and her bag is all packed because her mom comes to get her some time within this half hour.
3:00-3:45 The kids get out of school at 325 and usually my neighbor brings them home so until they get here I usually do another run through the house, make sure things are picked up, prep a snack and then we read books or just relax and visit until they arrive. 
3:45-4:10 snack. I try and have snack all ready made up because the kids are starving when they get home and it's better if they don't have any time to talk or wait around for their food because they are easily set off when they're hungry and I'd rather be prepared than have to deal with the emotional part
4:10-6:00 homework, piano, cello time. I'm usually in the kitchen from 345 until after dinner(we finish dinner around 6:45pm). I help with homework, I finish getting ready for dinner, the kids help set the table, we usually have to unload the dishwasher again and load it back up again (we run it twice a day), and when Charlie is on the piano I'll usually walk out into the living room and sit with him on the bench because he does better when I do...he's less distracted if I'm right there with him.
6:00 Scott arrives!!! We are all always SO excited to have him home! The kids have set the table and dinner is ready so as soon as Scott has a chance to set down his bag in our room, we eat.
6:45-7:15 dinner clean up, everyone clears the table and loads their dishes, we wipe down the table, sweep, clear papers and things off the counter
7:15-7:45 everyone gets pajamas on and then we meet back in the living room where we sing a couple of songs about Christ, we read scriptures and kneel together in prayer. If it's Tue or Th the kids bathe
7:45-8:30 or 9:00 kids brush teeth and climb in bed. Scott and I divide and conquer. I nurse Nora and then one takes the kids who sleep upstairs (Nora and Char) and the other takes the three girls downstairs. We read stories with them, say prayers, scratch backs, talk, that sort of thing. The younger girls go to sleep right after, but Charles and Elisabeth sometimes stay up to read alone until 830 or 9.
9:00-10:00 or 10:30 read, blog, visit. Once or twice a week Scott and I will do something together like play a game or watch a movie or just talk longer. If it's been a really exhausting day (all days are tiring but the exhausting ones are usually the emotionally draining ones when maybe several children really required more of my time and patience than usual or something like that) we'll skip some of the reading/blogging time and just go straight back to our room and do scriptures and sleep
10:00 or 10:30 read scriptures, talk, write in journal, pray
10:30 or 11:00 sleep

Friday the kids have early out and have piano from 145-245 but other than that the schedule stays pretty much the same. And sometimes Scott can get home an hour earlier on Friday.

Saturday and Sunday are different. Saturday I go to zumba at 715 at a local church building. when I get home we eat and clean and then later run errands and the kids can play with neighbors after they've cleaned their bathrooms and their rooms are ready. Either Fri or Sat night we'll have a family game/movie night where we'll do one or the other and make popcorn. Sat night we get all our church clothes out and our scripture bags packed and everyone showers. Scott and I also put together the dry ingredients for breakfast so that we can still have either pancakes or waffles Sunday morning even though church is early. Sunday we have church from 9-12. Scott or I have meetings an hour before church most Sundays so the other one of us is busy getting everyone ready. After church we eat, the little girls nap and we hang out at home and write letters, call family, sometimes skype, sometimes play a church game or movie etc

And a quick update on Scott. Here's Scott and his injured arm...a picture I took a week ago. He had an appointment with the doctor Thursday and they said he could take the sling off now and start exercising his arm so that it can get it's strength and range of motion back! Yay! He's not supposed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk with that one arm for three weeks, but that should be fine.

Nora is crawling

 Nora started crawling a couple of weeks ago, around 8 and 1/2 months of age.

 She's getting faster and going farther every day. We've been talking about putting up some sort of gate at the top of our stairs for years...both Annabelle and Jane fell down all 14 carpeted stairs, twice each(Amazingly, neither one was seriously injured and I'm sure they must have had angels protecting them). We decided not to just push the couch up against the top of the stairs like we'd done in years past, and which obviously wasn't good enough. We've tried to put up the metal gate we bought but with the shape of the railing post, it is not steady.

Scott had some scrap wood in the shed and decided to make one. He bought a hinge and a hook so we can lock it closed. It was sort of an eye-sore what with the one piece of wood being unfinished and the other piece of wood painted an auburn color. Since the kids are out of school right now,  the kids and I took it upon ourselves to fix it up. One day we sanded it and went out and bought paints for the design we had in mind.

That evening Scott and I painted the front of the wood white and let it dry over night. The next morning I painted the back side blue and we let it dry until after lunch which is when I let the three oldest (the younger two were sleeping) paint their ocean mural. I penciled in a few dolphins for the kids to paint in, but besides that they pretty much did it all on their own.

 The front of the gate is all white with all the kids handprints on there, even baby Nora. She was really hard to get on there but all the other kids did great. I saved Nora for last and when I put the paint on her hand she immediately made a fist and would not open it. I grabbed a toy she likes and put it near the spot where I wanted her hand to go and sure enough she opened her hand to grab the toy for just long enough that I was able to quickly get her hand down and marked. Unfortunately, as soon as her hand was pressed against the board she fisted it again making a rainbow type shape on the board...but it was the size of her hand and I could see where the original hand print was so I felt like that was good enough for now and I could probably touch it up with a wet rag and a brush once I got her other hand done. I washed her hand off and we went through that whole scenario again with hand number too.

The kids laughed and thought Nora's reaction to the paint on her hand was hilarious. They were also so surprised when they saw that I was able to save her print and make it look nice. I just wiped between the fingers with a clean damp cloth and then added some paint to where she first placed her hand down. I think it turned out really cute!

 And here is their ocean mural! They absolutely loved being able to do this and I thought it was pretty fun too. The ocean mural was Elisabeth's idea, and a good one! And now we should have a pretty safe Nora...as long as we can be sure we're always locking up the gate after we've opened it.

Scott is 32!

 Scott turned 32 last week. With my help, the kids each got Scott a snack/food item that he could take to work and which we wrote fun messages on and then placed in spots around the house where he'd easily find them in the morning like in his sock drawer, in the bathroom on the counter, near his lunch box etc. They said things like, "I am nuts over you dad" and then we attached it to the jar of nuts, and "I think you're 'grand'" to the 100 grand candy bar. He thought it was fun to find these all over the place :).

 For breakfast all he wanted was a healthy-ish cereal. Cereal is something I rarely buy but if they special request it on their birthday, how could I say no. And the picture above he's opening his gift from me which was a game he really liked that we played with his parents while we were in NC. It's called Double Bananagrams (we got the 'double' version, which just means it's for more players, because all of our kids love to play games and we knew we'd some day need it. Elisabeth and Charles can already play it with us with a little bit of assistance) .

 Scott also special requested these cookies. They are nutella sandwich cookies. He loves nutella so when we came across this recipe a few weeks ago he knew that's what he wanted for his birthday treat.

 And I had a buy 1 get 1 free cupcake coupon from a bakery so I got 2 cupcakes so that he had something to hold his birthday candle in since the cookies were too crunchy on the outside to hold a candle.

Going backwards, we had lasagna, home-made bread sticks(made with half whole wheat flour), and salad for dinner. The lasagna was made with a particular home-made red meat sauce and a home-made white sauce. Everything was amazing! Happy Birthday Scott!

New Year

Well, it's Sunday night and I just signed onto my blog to write a post for Monday and I noticed that the post I wrote and posted for this past Wednesday, didn't ever work. So I went into my account to find the post and I found the title of the post, "New Year" with not even 1/4 of what I wrote and the pictures I posted..needless to say, I was disappointed to have lost that post and the time I spent writing that post, and I'm not going to rewrite it because I already did it once and it took awhile. Instead I'll give a summary and try and find the same pictures I used for that post.

I had the books I read in 2012 and then talked about some New Years resolutions for myself which are pretty much to do what I'm doing already but get even better at it like to be a better mom and wife, to continue to keep a clean and organized house (see picture with a pile of clothes on the floor. Several times a year we go through our closets and give away things we don't use anymore), learn lots and do well in my calling, continue eating well and exercising...that sort of thing. Oh, and I do have an all around new goal and that's to stop biting my nails! I've been doing it since kindergarten and I've finally decided this year that it's really got to stop.

The picture of Jane and I eating food with candlelight was to show that Scott and I still do dates several times a month but that usually they are in-home dates where we'll get take-out or watch a movie or play games after the kids have gone to bed. On this particular evening, both Jane and Nora decided they wanted to join us and so we let them...but just for the record, normally our in-home date nights are kid-free; this was the first time any of the kids have joined us. And that's all for now folks! I'll post again real soon. I've got pictures from Scott's birthday last week and of Nora crawling! She is so, so sweet and dainty! I just want to have her glued to my side all day...oh wait, she is! I am so lucky!! Seriously love that baby!

New Friend

 A single mom in our neighborhood has gone back to school and needed someone to watch her daughter a few days a week. It worked out with our schedule to have her over during this semester so every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9-3 we have Madison over to play. Madison is about the same age as Annabelle and because of all the time they spend together they've become like sisters. We still keep to our regular schedule of snack and lunch time, and school and quiet time and they still have lots of time for dress-ups and barbies etc. Here they are quietly coloring while Jane and Nora nap.

 One afternoon they were trying to decide what to do and I suggested barbies and they turned me down flat! Then I saw the state of our barbies hair and couldn't blame the girls for wanting to do something else. By the way, there was a pinterest project I saw to put liquid fabric softener in barbies hair and it would make taking tangles out easy; uh-uh, no, no my friend. The tangles were still awful and on top of that they wreaked of fabric softener! I had to keep them outside for 2 weeks and they still smell...but at least it's not so strong that it's giving me a headache anymore.

 So I decided to play hair dresser and I combed and trimmed all the barbies hair and got everyone looking very lovely :). I even thinned several of the barbies manes out with my thinning sheers and I gave Ariel some long layers :). Tangled or Rapunzel needed a serious chop. I literally had to cut my way through her braid to get it undone.  I  ended up giving her the "after Flynn chopped her hair" look which the girls were okay with because it was in the movie. The girls were SO excited to play with the barbies again...and I may or may not have played barbies along with them for awhile.

Cello

I know it's not Monday or Wednesday, but honestly, I think I'm going to need to post Fridays too because there is just too much going on around here all the time for me to cover it in two posts a week. That being said, no judging if I miss a Friday here and there :).

Elisabeth started playing the cello a couple of weeks ago! Her school provides an orchestra class per semester for a small fee once you reach third grade and she really wanted to do it and so we're giving it a try. She could have started last semester in the Fall but when I told her she would have to wake up early for orchestra practice twice a week, plus wake up early every day to practice cello before school so she'd have time to practice piano after school and do homework she decided to pass. But now she's determined. And I'm glad we waited because now she really knows what she wants and she's very responsible about it. I don't even have to wake her up or ask her to practice. She sets her alarm, gets up and ready and practices on her own. I know it's only been a couple of weeks but I think it'll keep because she's been responsible about piano for the past two years. Many times Charles and Elisabeth practice an instrument at the same time.

Having a piano background has helped her pick up cello pretty quick. She knows all the notes and so reading the bass clef for cello has been easy. We started her with a 1/4 size cello(we rent it) but last week we moved her up to the 1/2 size because she was in between sizes when they sized her and this just seemed like a better fit...and Scott and I can practice more comfortably on the 1/2 :)...and I'm not even kidding. Scott played viola for a little while so he knows some and I've just always wanted to and can read notes somewhat so Elisabeth comes home from her lesson and teaches me what she knows. It's so fun! Right now she can play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Jingle Bells :). Can't wait to hear what she'll be playing a year from now. Soon we'll have a Jon Schmidt and a Steven Sharp Nelson in our home :). If you have no idea who I'm referring to, watch these videos. And better yet, have your kids watch them and they too will want to learn to play. They have tons of videos on their website pianoguys.com and you can search them on youtube. Here are a couple popular ones:

Cello Wars (star wars parody)


Coldplay - Paradise(Peponi)


Love Story meets Viva la Vida (this is an older one so the video isn't as fancy as the newer ones)

Bear Hug, Eskimo, Butterfly, Fishy Kiss

It is FREEZING cold outside! FREEZING!!! I don't think I have ever been in weather this cold. The other night it got down to -1 degree. Below zero!!! Ah!  Being born and raised in the Seattle area of Washington, the coldest of the cold winters would get down to maybe 30 degrees and those were more rare days. Usually it was in the 50's during the winter. Thank goodness we live in a day and age where we have furnaces in our homes that keep us toasty and warm while inside.  And thank goodness we have these cute little kids to snuggle with on these very cold days(and all year!). Here are a few pictures I took of Annabelle and Jane recently, giving each other their daily dose of love :).

Bear Hug

 Eskimo Kiss

 Fishy Kiss

 Butterfly (Annabelle always looks hilarious when she does this one. She's trying to brush her eyelashes onto Jane's cheek by repeatedly blinking)

*As a side note, this is the time of year when I regularly wear my rubber gloves while I wash dishes and lather on the coconut oil because otherwise my hands will dry up so much they'll crack and bleed and that's no fun at all.

Dislocated Elbow From Church Ball

Saturday night Charles wanted to redeem his 'bedtime pass' and watch a movie with Mom and Dad. Scott had 2 back-to-back basketball games at the church, 8 and 9pm, so Charles and I started our movie night without him.

Around 930pm I got a phone call from my neighbor saying that Scott had gotten hurt and her kids had just run home to tell her with instructions to call me. I called Scott's cell and he answered after several rings. He said the paramedics were coming over to help. I quickly got off, called my neighbor back to fill her in and then she asked if she could come over and stay with the kids(all of who were sleeping, minus Charles) so I could be with Scott. I threw on some jeans and a jacket, grabbed my purse and jogged over to the church(as a side note, it was 5 degrees outside). When I got to the gym, Scott was still lying on the floor, the paramedics surrounding him. His elbow looked funny and was hurting a lot so they gave him some morphine and then put him in their ambulance and brought him over to a hospital near by. The story is that he was going for the ball, fell, and caught himself wrong.

I followed the ambulance over in Scott's truck since it was parked at the church. Once there, we were put in a room and had to wait for someone to come in and take an X-ray. Then we waited for them to read it and get back to us. They confirmed the dislocation and to our relief, nothing was broken.

As the doctor put it, " it looks like the ice cream fell out of it's cone". They sedated him (because the doctor said he didn't want Scott to punch him in the face :)) and then in about 10 seconds it was fixed. I watched as the doctor held the upper arm and manipulated/turned/pushed the lower part in such a way that everything locked back together again. Kind of interesting to see and it reminded me of when Annabelle dislocated her elbow and our pediatric doctor twisted it back into place. After that, the pain in Scott's arm was much better. We waited again and then they took another X-ray and found everything to be in order. They wrapped Scott's arm, put it in a sling and sent us on our way, about 3 and 1/2 hours after we had arrived. There was a lot of waiting time. I'm grateful to our neighbor Sheryl, who stayed with our kids early into the morning. Scott is not supposed to lift anything heavy (including baby Nora) for a week or so and he's supposed to go in to see an orthopedic surgeon at the end of this week just to make sure everything is still good and that there was no ligament damage. Doc also commented (kind of jokingly, but kind of not) that he thought men should be done with church ball once they reach the age of 30. I think I'm going to have to take his side on this one. We'll be praying for a speedy recovery. 

Happy 7th Birthday Charles!

 Charles turned seven on Sunday! He got a bike from Scott and I and money and books from grandparents. We have a few birthday traditions. One of which is that we open family presents at breakfast. So we did that while breakfast was cooking. Another tradition is that the birthday person gets to plan the menu for the day. We had pancakes and sausage for breakfast, Mr. Pings Secret Ingredient Noodle Soup for dinner and an ice cream cake (all ice cream and toppings, no actual cake) for dessert.

 Charles even offered to help make dinner.

 And the last birthday tradition is that during dinner, we go around the table and each person says something nice about Charles (or whoever's birthday it is that we're celebrating).