Home sick

I stayed home from church with a sick Wesley today. Luckily it's a cold and not puking since he's still a poor aim when it comes to puking. He has a fever, nasty cough, watery eyes and rosy cheeks. I also kept Miles home for 2 reasons: I didn't dare ask anyone else to keep an eye on him during Sacrament meeting and I needed him home to play with Wesley, because even though he is sick he still wants to play Legos and Rescue Bots. It was a quiet morning for me so I got my sewing area cleaned so I can go ahead and mess it up again. Yay!

I love this spot. I picked up this lovely piece on the curb in Michigan. Score! Yes, it's missing a few handles - but no biggie, I can still get them open. I also love my ancient sewing machine. My dad bought it for my mom as a wedding present and it still works like a charm. My mom has sewn a great many things on this machine; from my baby clothes to prom dresses (and plenty of lovely 80's wear in between) to Sophie's blessing dress (which was made from the train of my wedding dress). I'm not the seamstress my mom is, mostly sticking to blankets, skirts and other simple projects - but many doll clothes have been churned out of this spot in the past few years, maybe one day I will branch out and attempt bigger and more complicated things...as long as my sewing machine holds up :)

Nora

On Sunday after church Nora and I were cuddling on the couch while Sophie was reading by the fire with the dog and the boys were playing legos. The camera was sitting nearby so I took a few pictures of us. I often get told that Nora looks like me, but if I look at pictures of me at her age we don't really look that much alike. Nora is our child who has the strongest need for physical attention. She needs to be hugged, kissed and snuggled. And often. She is also highly emotional right now. I watch her struggle to gain control over her emotions and it is so hard for her. She has such a beautiful and tender heart but she is easily upset and can completely spiral out of control over things that seem so very small. We have read books and tried many things; losing privileges and toys, being stern, ignoring her, holding her, sending her to her room, trying to talk with her, etc. I find myself in these situations just wanting to cry with her because I feel so lost as to how to help her. I feel like she reaches a point where she knows she has lost control and it frustrates her even more. Poor sweet girl. She has a harder time if she is over tired or hungry. I know we'll be able to work through this and she'll learn how to deal with her strong emotions, but it is sad to watch her struggle. The good thing is that she has never had any problems at school or church or anywhere but with family. So I know she can do it! I just need to figure out how to help her in the best way.

Diaper Free!

 For the last 10 1/2 years we've been buying diapers. Since Sophie was born we've always had two kids in diapers for a while and then just one. That is a lot of money (well spent money of course...) But I despise potty training and my general way to potty train is to wait until they are ready and want to do it (no staying home for a week straight and dealing with a hundred accidents for me). Sophie was potty trained about two and a half, Nora and Miles were both barely three. Wesley turned three in September but has been extremely resistant to the whole thing. And knowing his sweet little self as we do, we knew pushing him would just not work. So every time we went to the store we'd look at the toys and he'd want one (of course) and I would say "As soon as you wear big boy underwear we will come back and get this toy!" He would consider it for a second and then say, "No. I want diapers." We would also look at all the cool underwear and I would tell him he could pick some out if he would wear them. Again, "No. I want diapers." So this past Friday he and I went on our Friday shopping trip out to Costco and he saw some Superhero underwear that we'd looked at many times before but this time he said, "I want those!" I told him he'd have to wear them and keep them dry and he said okay. We brought them home and put them on and the boy has had ZERO accidents since he put them on. I knew once he decided he was ready it would be easy!

Such a fun little guy. It must be noted that he has also been an easier kid all around the past few weeks. His smile still melts my heart and I love spending the day with him.

She's got style.

Nora has always had a style all her own. She came down for church today wearing these socks and shoes with her leggings and dress. It was almost too much for me. I generally let her wear whatever as long as it's weather appropriate and modest - and this unfortunately fit the bill. I almost suggested something else but since I was busy getting the boys ready for church and gathering my church bags and singing time stuff I just let it go. Besides, half of our Sunday mornings she's upset because she can't find shoes to wear so I was happy she at least found a pair without my help. It kept me giggling all through Sacrament meeting every me I looked down at her feet. Oh, and yes our driveway is pretty much an ice rink and so was our church parking lot. I had a hand on both Nora and Miles while getting from the van to the sidewalk at church and I took them both down with me when I slipped on the ice! Luckily for me Miles broke my fall. Poor Miles!

Puzzle-ing

Wesley loves doing puzzles. And in the winter we do a lot of them. The best part is that once he figures one out he will sit and do it over and over again. He was pretty proud of himself for doing this one completely alone after doing it with help a few times. Love this little guy.

Winter Break!

The kids had 2 weeks off of school for Winter Break and we had a great time. Which is good because the first 2 days they were supposed to head back to school got cancelled because we were having the coldest weather we've had in years, and the coldest weather I've ever experienced. Only - 41 wind chill. Yikes! We didn't do too much besides hang out at home and play, but the kids all got along really well for the most part and I wasn't anxious to send them back to school. 

Here are a few things we did:

Went to our favorite Ice Cream Parlor, Ella's Deli. We had coupons expiring so we went there on New Years Eve. Although we couldn't actually find the coupons before leaving, we had already told the kids we were going, so we still went. Later the coupons turned up under Nora's bed...

Nora loves to snuggle up with Scooter on the couch and hold him while he naps. It's pretty cute and Scooter loves the attention.

This is our friend Chia, he is a college student going to BYU-Idaho and comes home in the summer and winter break. He's good to our kids and took the older 3 to McDonald's and the Dollar Store before he drove back to Idaho (he didn't quite dare take Wesley and really, who can blame him? 3 year olds are tough!) I'm not sure why Miles is looking so surprised in this picture, but it's funny.

The boys spent plenty of time looking at cool stuff on the computer, mostly playing pbskids or looking at all the lego sets they want to own.

The girls spent plenty of time goofing off, crafting, doing their rainbow loom and reading.

We have to try to wear Scooter out since it is too cold to walk him right now. Wesley loves playing with that green toy and keeping it away from Scooter.

Wesley got a good bump on his head during a dad and 4 kid high dog pile. Ouch! But the fun never stops until someone gets hurt, right?

 

The last night before heading back to school the kids got a little stir crazy so Brian sat and read a Roald Dahl (one of our favorite authors) book to them.

Considering all the time we spent cooped up together in the house, the kids did so well and we had a lot of fun. A few other things we did with no pictures are: built snowmen (before our cold front came in), went to see Frozen (LOVED IT) and played the Wii (we got one for Christmas!) And the most shocking part of the vacation, my house wasn't completely trashed when they left for school today! I'm still not sure how we managed that. What a great winter break!

Christmas!

Christmas Eve started out with new jammies for everyone!

Then we had a little program where everyone got to choose something to do. Sophie and I both read stories and Nora played a song on the piano while Miles sang it and Wesley was the moral support. :)  We sang more carols together while Brian played on the piano and then ended with reading about the birth of Christ from the scriptures.

The kids get to sleep together on Christmas Eve so we pushed the girls' beds together and let them watch some Christmas movies before they all fell asleep at about 10.

Surprisingly they all slept in until about 6:30! The girls came down and then Wesley and then we let them wake Miles up at 6:45.

Even Scooter got a toy and a new bone.

Wesley loved his chocolate Santa, it didn't last long.

One of my favorite things about the girls is that they spend a lot of time making gifts for everyone in our family (even though we draw names...) Sophie spent a long time making this rag doll for Nora.

Nora was excited about her camera!

Daddy really wanted to get the kids all Nerf guns this year.

In our family name draw Brian and I got the boys names so I bought an assortment of costumes at the after Halloween clearance. The boys love dressing up in these and thinking they are invincible. Nora drew Sophie's name and got her a new pocket knife with her own money, Sophie lost hers on a hike this summer and was pretty excited. Sophie had Brian's name and made him a really cute "newspaper" with news all about him in it. Miles had my name and gave me some bath salts (which I may have bought myself...) but he did draw a cute picture for me :)

We had a great Christmas morning together. Sophie got a football and a pillow/arm chair from Santa and boots, a nerf gun and lego set from Brian and I. Nora got a ukelele and care bear hat from Santa and a camera, legos and nerf gun from Brian and I. Miles got some superhero action figures from Santa and a hotwheel set, nerf gun and lego set from Brian and I. Wesley also got superhero action figures from Santa and legos, a nerf gun and a Bullseye (from Toy Story) from Brian and I. Brian and I got new pillows and a fancy kitchen mat that's really soft and cushy. Later that day we were supposed to go have dinner with friends but around 2 I got sick and was throwing up the rest of the day. No fun. But I'm glad it was later in the day when we were just relaxing so I could enjoy the morning. Brian cleaned up Christmas, fed the kids and put them to bed and cleaned some more!