New Arrival

No, the pictures of our new arrival are not of Irelyn- though those are coming soon. You see, we have an awesome globe that I love to use to teach the kids (and myself) about the world. But it was pre-1994, so it still said USSR and Czechoslavakia and a bunch of other stuff was wrong. And it was small. So we upgraded. Size wise, anyway.
This was the space pre-map.

Alex took this picture of the map when it first came and we were holding it up.

We very quickly made and painted a frame for it and used Command strips to hang it up! (I am loving those more and more!) I think it is awesome!!

A close-up of our beauteous frame that we are so proud of!

And a close-up to show you what a great map it is. Idaho Falls and Pocatello and West Virginia are all on there! We were especially impressed that West Virginia made it on there. Oh, and North Dakota.

We have all already learned a lot, which just shows how unlearned we are! It looks great and is so useful and the whole project, including the map, cost just over $100! Not too bad! Now it makes me want to do other home projects, but I have decided nothing looks as pretty as money in a bank account and food storage on the shelves, so that will be all for a while!

Flexible

I have always been very flexible- I could/ still can do the splits and lots of other weird things. But being flexible as a parent has a totally different meaning. It means this- "Hmm... I will do A, then B and maybe C, and if we're really lucky, maybe brush my teeth." Two hours later, "Okay, A took a lot longer than I planned. In fact, it's only half done. Well, we'll skip B and I will brush my teeth while taking care of C." Two more hours pass. "Well, really it's okay if it all gets done tomorrow. I'm sure it won't hurt to wait one more day to (insert action here- shop, fold laundry, clean bathrooms). In fact, I can finish it tonight after the kids are in bed." After the kids are in bed I fall over in a heap of exhaustion. I can't even remember the last time I actually got to item C, and unfortunately, blogging is usually C...... or even E or F.
  But the trick is, to have nothing ever go the way you had planned, and not let it put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
  If you were to ask me what I did with my day, I'm not sure I could tell you. It's so indefinable, it's like trying to remember a dream in the morning. Something happened, but all the details are fuzzy.
  Maybe if my to do list were this- A. Keep kids alive.
                                                    B. Feed kids.  
                                                    C. Dress kids.  and so forth, then at the end of the day, I could look at my list and say, "My, what a productive day we've had!"
   And in the end, it is a productive day. When I see what lovely, smart and kind children our kids are most of the time, I know that all these little nothings are adding up to a big something.
 
     And just to prove my point, this blog post has been written over the course of two hours this morning, in between preschool pickups, baby feedings, Emme clean-ups, book readings, stopping Emme from spinning the baby in circles in her saucer and phone calls- and I still haven't brushed my teeth!

                                                  

Holiday Goings-On

Whew! We have been very busy around here, but I am going to try and give an abbreviated version of what we have been doing- while Emme is sitting on my lap! Yikes!

Here is cutie Emme the Sunday after we put up the tree. Never again will I try to decorate with all the kids at home. We worked for two days to have the whole house all clean, so that we could have a fun day of decorating and then make cookies. But it was terrible!! Alex kept going behind me and undoing everything and the other kids were pulling out everything from the boxes. I was rather cranky the whole time and have decided that it would be a nicer memory for the kids to come home from school and be all excited that Mom decorated while they were gone. Rather than, "I remember decorating with my Mom every year. And she was always so mad!" Lesson learned. Sometimes your "vision" has to be re-adjusted for reality.

Another lesson- Thanksgiving Eve. After decorating, the next day we were going to ring in the holidays with a Christmas movie and popcorn and hot chocolate. I wanted it all to be so nice and the house all clean, especially since the next day everyone was coming to our house for Thanksgiving. By the end of the day, I felt overwhelmed and the house was a mess! I felt so discouraged, that once again, no matter how hard I tried, it wasn't what I wanted it to be. But, I walked away from all the mess, we pulled the couch up close and Danny made a fire, we had hot chocolate and popcorn and watched Mickey's Christmas Carol. And guess what? It was so fun! In fact, afterwards Tristan kept saying, "That was so fun!!" The lesson learned this time- just because it isn't perfect to you, doesn't mean it isn't wonderful to the kids. They really weren't worried about the sink of dishes anyway.

So here is a picture of us as we got under way.

Alex being Santa for Alaina. He wanted people to sit on his lap so badly. And Alaina really took it seriously and thought about it when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas.

Thanksgiving was super fun, relaxed and pleasant. Lots of food, lots of talking, afterwards we watched Jeopardy episodes and laid around. Haley and Dallin came for dessert, and we were all deliciously lazy.

 

See how big Irelyn is? I am going to put on pictures of her right away. She is changing so fast!! 

Ward Christmas Chalet- Emme and Josh hugging beforehand. The best part of the Chalet was- I wasn't in charge of anything. And I was so glad. :)

Christmas party at the Gables. Alex cornered Santa and sang Christmas songs to him. Santa was very accommodating and Alex was very happy.
Their party was great and I wish I had gotten more pictures! Lots of delicious food and singers and Santa and great decorations. I was grateful that we got to go.

Silly Alex. He found a way to combine his two favorite holidays, Halloween and Christmas.

 The kids had over two weeks off for Christmas. They don't go back until this Tuesday. It is really hard to take all 5 kids places by themselves, but we can't just stay at home all the time! So I tried to take them all to the mall to see Santa. It was..okay.... until the end, when I swore I would never take them all somewhere by myself again! But, we did see Santa! (Tristan is behind the poinsettias.) 

Well, this takes us to Christmas. I will stop for now so that you can breathe. But brace yourself, Christmas pics to come soon!! I know you can hardly wait!!

Kattie wedding pics

Here are a bunch of pictures from Kattie's wedding! Sorry they are so late! 

I will let the pictures speak for themselves. 

By the way, it was an amazing, beautiful wedding, pretty much what I wanted my reception to be like, and an amazing couple. I'm so happy for them!!

These are all in totally random order. Enjoy!