Last of Winter Break...

While Naunie and Grandpa were here we went up to the Wisconsin Dells and stayed in a condo up there. It was a big effort to get there and we got lost on the way, but once we made it we had a great time. Grandpa's birthday is the 27th so we celebrated with him. Here is his lemon pie:

Wesley loves his golden puff cereal!

Breakfast! We watched movies, swam at the swimming pool and played a few games at the arcade. And watched more movies..... there really isn't all that much to do in hotels/condos besides watch tv when the weather is bad!

Here are Naunie and Nora working on Nora's friendship bracelet kit:

The boys playing with their Batman guys:

Wesley and Grandpa:

 

Scooter in his new bed and with his new toy. He fell asleep hugging and chewing on his toy:

Wesley and Naunie playing:

Grandpa was pretty nice to play with Scooter!

Grandpa and the boys watching something on the tv that Naunie and Grandpa gave us!

 

Saying good-bye! :( 

5 is a great number.

On Christmas Eve after the kids opened their pajamas we had one more present for Wesley.... a new shirt! He wasn't all that thrilled about getting a shirt, but it was what it said on the shirt that was fun: 

It took the kids about 10 seconds to figure out that Wesley's shirt meant this:

They have a sibling on the way! Sophie and Nora were super excited, Sophie has been asking us for months if we are ever going to have another baby! The girls are both hoping for a sister and the boys are hoping for a brother. We are thinking this little one will be the caboose of our family so we will be finding out what he/she is! Also, this baby will actually have a room to call their own so I am going to need to do some re-decorating in our office! Fun! On December 29th, the day we got home from the condo with my mom and John I started having some very heavy bleeding. I instantly knew I was miscarrying because I've had a few miscarriages over the years and have never experienced any bleeding with my other 4 pregnancies. I called the doctor but since it was a weekend I would have had to go to the emergency room and didn't want to wait in there forever and pay a $75 co-pay just for them to tell me what I figured I already knew was happening. So we e-mailed our families and told the kids we weren't having a baby after all. The next day, Sunday, the bleeding had really slowed down so I went to church and felt fine all day. Monday morning I had stopped bleeding so I called the doctor and got an appointment with a family doc at our clinic. Brian and I went down and she did an exam and was going to send me to the lab to do some blood work and I asked her to check for a heartbeat because I had heard one at the doctor just a few days before. I didn't think she would find one at all, I just wanted to be sure. But she found it! We were pretty surprised and a teeny bit hopeful, but still not thinking that all would be well. She sent us to the hospital for an ultrasound and told us we may be sent home or we may be sent to the operating room. Scary! So Brian and I went to the hospital. This was New Years Eve and our experience at the hospital wasn't super, but since they were short staffed and it was a Holiday we figured that at least everyone was very nice so hopefully on a regular day things work a bit more smoothly there! Once we got to the right place for the ultrasound I laid down and when she started it we immediately could see the baby moving and it's tiny heart beating! Since the ultrasound tech can't tell you anything (lame!) we left the room trying not to feel too hopeful, because I truly thought they would tell us that there was more bleeding or a tear or something and I would need to plan on having a miscarriage, but it would take a while. After waiting a while the ultrasound tech came and told us we could go home (great news!) and our doctor would give us a call. She called not too long after we arrived home and said that everything looked fine and she could see no reason why I would have been bleeding so heavily! I was really shocked, but very excited of course. I've still been a bit cautious thinking there is still a chance something could be wrong, but I had another ultrasound yesterday and I've still been feeling sick and completely pregnant. :) So we got to e-mail our families and tell our kids once again that we indeed are going to have a summer baby. What an emotional roller coaster that was! But I am feeling so grateful all is well. Besides the sadness of a miscarriage, I was not looking forward to going through the 1st trimester all over again! We can't wait for baby #5 to join our family... and maybe make us complete?

Christmas!

The kids were surprised this year by having Naunie and Grandpa Dalley come for two weeks during Christmas break! They got here about 10pm on the 19th and in the morning we woke up to this:

these trees usually stand really tall! Brian went and shook the snow off them a few times so they wouldn't break. The last two days of school were cancelled and we were so glad Naunie and Grandpa got here when they did or they probably wouldn't have been able to get here for a few more days!

We decided to tile the dining room while they were here because grandpa has done it quite a bit and we have a friend with a tile saw. It ended up being more work and more money than we'd planned (as these things usually do!) but we love how it turned out and were grateful to have grandpa's help! Now Brian knows how to do it and can do the kitchen as well.

 

before...

 during...

On Christmas Eve we decorated gingerbread cookies to leave out for Santa. Wesley had this huge bruise on his forehead from running in to a table at the library. :(

We also had our Christmas Eve program. Naunie and the girls performed the classic "Chinnies" and sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Sophie played Away in a Manger on the piano...

Brian played a David Lanz Christmas song...

I read "The Gift of the Magi" but couldn't finish because I was crying (I just love that story!) so Brian finished reading it for me. Nora performed her ballet routine and Naunie read "The Night before Christmas". Grandpa sang a song and played the guitar and the boys did some various cartwheels and tricks for us... for some reason no pictures were taken for some of these! Oops!

The kids got their Christmas Eve jammies and a family puzzle. Wesley refused to wear his new jammies though - silly boy!

 

Checking to see where Santa is on the Santa tracker website!

Leaving a note and the cookies for Santa right before bed:

 

We push the beds together and let the kids all sleep together on Christmas Eve. Although we did end up moving Wes to his own bed. 

 Here are their stockings and Santa bags on Christmas morning!

 

Santa brought Miles a stealth rider remote control car.

 

 Santa brought Sophie some binoculars and a nature book.

Santa brought Nora a rock smoother. She had written him a letter that said, "Dear Santa, I have been good all year long! Please get me at least one thing from my list! I really want a rock smoother because I've been collecting rocks my whole life with nothing to do with them exsept to look at them!" Love, Nora.... how could Santa not oblige to that? She was pretty excited.

 

Santa brought Wesley a Chuck truck, which he loved. The kids also got a stuffed animal and a book from Santa in their bags. 

 

Miles and his Rescue Bot! Wesley actually ended up LOVING the Rescue Bot and wanted it constantly so Miles decided to give it to him and we took Miles out and got him a different one. Now they play with them together every day.

Grandpa got some nice Bose headphones that really came in handy while he was here, since they are noise blocking :)

Naunie got an ipad! She was excited and we all had a great time playing Fruit Ninja on it while she was here.

Nora got a bunch of Junie B. Jones books. 

We decided gifts within our family had to be homemade. Sophie made Brian a football board game. She worked hard on it and it turned out pretty cute. Miles painted Brian this picture to hang in his office at work.

 Sophie made me a rice pack and Nora made me a weaved picture.

I also got all of the Harry Potter DVD's. I bought them on Black Friday and was pretty excited. Brian got a calendar for his office and an old Reader's Digest Piano Book with all the great old school children's songs in it. It was kind of funny because my sister in law Hannah has this book and when I saw it this summer at our family reunion I knew I wanted to get it for Brian for Christmas. On Amazon it was $50 plus shipping so I wasn't going to spend that much. But Hannah had said her neighbor had one so I ended up buying it for $15 from Hannah's neighbor and then they mailed it to us! I was to thankful, it's a fun book and I can't wait for Brian to play us some songs from it.

Naunie and Grandpa got their annual Family Album, which they love. Nora got a box of Care bears I'd been picking up at thrift stores (all with the tags still on!) She is very in to Care Bears these days and was pretty excited!

 And a shot of the girls with the rocks before putting them in to the Rock Smoother. Once they are out we will have to add an "after" shot.

Naunie and Grandpa got the girls a Calico Critter doll house. Of course they were thrilled with this. They love those sweet little animal families, and so do I!

Naunie and Grandpa got the boys a Batman Imaginext Batcave. They were also thrilled and it has been played with daily, sometimes even by all four kids! Thanks Naunie and Grandpa! It was a great Christmas. We felt so blessed to have Naunie and Grandpa here with us to celebrate this special time of year. It was a great first Christmas in our new home.