Hurricanes and lifeguards

Tonight Farris read me a quote from the Reader's Digest, something along the lines of:
What is it like to have four kids? Sort of like if you were drowning and someone handed you a baby.
I snickered, thinking, oh yeah, try five.
Felicity counted up the kids and said "Seth's the forth!" and Caleb lit up. "So that means that Seth jumped in and saved Mommy!"
I laughed out loud at that one. For as adorable as Seth is, he's a little roller coaster of emotions, he can be incredibly demanding and grumpy...oh, he can just be hard sometimes.
But the more I think about it, it's true, and not just about Seth. It does feel like a whirlpool, a crazy spinning hurricane in our house sometimes. But with five kids, there's always one to jump in and save me.
Sometimes I need a snuggle just as much as Seth does.
Making faces with Caleb, just to try to make each other giggle, even in the middle of church...oops.
Joseph's lightheartedness lets me relax my death grip on the to-do list a little.
Abigail's amazement at the whole world, but she still thinks we're the coolest thing she's seen.
Felicity's wild imagination mixed with this incredible practical side that pops out unexpectedly.
I'm so very grateful for the little lifeguards Heavenly Father sent me. I'm grateful He knew what I needed. And I'm grateful for Farris, that we're both swimming through this adventure together.


p.s. Tarilynn, that poem of yours got me feeling all sentimental-ly ;)

BYU Family Christmas Party

Every year, BYU hosts a family party for all their employees. It's become one of our favorite traditions. The kids love the carnival games, the doughnut, the crafts, and the boys especially love to get a picture with Cosmo. Seth had just woken up when we put him on Cosmo's lap. I was afraid of a sleepy-head- meltdown, but apparently waking up with a cougar dressed as Santa is a good thing. We might have to keep that in mind. I love how Joseph is looking up at him with so much admiration.

One of the favorite games is the pinata. I love how Caleb looks all Star Wars Light Saber in this picture.

Seth could spend the whole time in the balloon pit. See, balloons=FUN. Always.

This year they also had a free movie, The Muppets Christmas Carol. I'm ashamed to say I have never seen it, but here's one of my favorite parts, I really liked this song (and now I know why one of my roommates used to always count down to Christmas with sleeps)

And now that I'm caught up, it's time for me to get some of my own sleep!

Our Christmas Nativity

One of the countdowns to Christmas we are doing is an activity advent where the kids open a bag a day with a different activity. On Monday they were supposed to act out the Christmas story. They threw themselves into it with enthusiasm and presented it to us for FHE. They even rounded up their own costumes, with only a couple suggestions from us. I handed my robe to Caleb, but he was kind of dubious. He thought it looked a little "like a girl." Joseph loved being the angel, but he had problems keeping his halo up. Life imitating art, or art imitating life...?

The cast was: Mary played by Felicity; Joseph played by Caleb; the angel played by Joseph; the innkeeper played by Joseph; and the tiger (yeah, I know) played by Seth. Baby Jesus was played by Raggedy Ann and then for the photos, Abigail.

It was beautiful to see them put it together, no fighting and no need to teach them a script. Felicity even made a star out of K'NEX. I was very proud of my munchkins.
But every performance has a backstage story, and in our case I'm going to share some of the more comical moments, before and during:

Caleb to Joseph: Felicity needs to get a pillow, because pregnant ladies are kind of fat.

Felcity: Joseph needs a hollow.
Me: A what?
Felicity: A hollow.
Me, with a light bulb above my head: Do you mean a Halo?
Felicity: Whatever.

Joseph, practicing: There's no room in the inn!
Seth: Yes there is! [rather indignantly]

Felicity: Seth can be a Shepard.
Seth: NO, I'm a tiger.
Farris: You could be a sheep.
Seth: I'm a tiger. [As you can see, Seth is very firm in his opinions. And, yes, this is why our pageant includes a tiger]

During the performance:
Joseph (Caleb) protectively puts an arm around Mary (Felicity). He then turns to us, somewhat embarrassed, and says: "What! In the movie Joseph does just like this."

Felicity: Here Seth, you can be a sheep with our donkey [she hands him our stick horse]
Seth, taking the horse: No, I'm a tiger.

Joseph, puffed up with the importance of his roll, announces in a loud voice: I'm the innkeeper! There's no room in the inn!
Caleb: But my wife is having a baby!
Joseph: A baby! A baby! [then he dissolves into giggles]

We had so much fun doing this, I think it will have to be a tradition from now on. And maybe next year we can find a robe that's not so "girly."

How Lovely Are Thy Branches

I was going to title this "Oh Christmas Tree", but I figured that had been done before. This is one of my most favorite Christmas/Thanksgiving traditions. Although much of the last nine years I've stayed in a warm van with a little baby for most of the trip. Maybe Farris, who trudges through knee deep snow dragging a prickly tree wouldn't agree. But I'm glad he still does it! There is a wonderful smell up in the mountains in the winter, you can't get it anywhere else. Here's Farris about ready to set out. He packs kids in, hands them off to aunts/uncles and then packs trees out. This is how he can eat lots of pie and stay thin.

And here's our tree all put together! Our tradition has been to set the tree up and decorate it for FHE the first Monday after Thanksgiving. My tradition is to light the tree twice. Once when I take all our working light strings and get 2/3rds of the way up, and then again after I unwrap the lights and try again. Last year Farris bought another package so I wouldn't have to wrap it twice...and then we got a bigger tree this year. Our tree will never win awards for being the trendiest, or even have matching ornaments, but I love that each year we build our collection a little more so that as we bring them out of the boxes the kids can say "oh, I remember that one!" Someday I want to have a snowflake tree too, all silver and white and blue, but I think we'll always have a kids tree.

Felicity trying to get her favorite ornaments up high away from Seth. It's a week after we originally decorated and more ornaments are getting moved up higher. The bottom third of the tree is getting empty. Although there is plenty of ornaments scattered on the floor around the tree.

Farris getting in on it. We mostly let the kids go crazy, but sometimes we step in so one branch doesn't end up with 12 ornaments.

Happy he found one of his! We try to give the kids a new ornament each year. And I try to buy them in the after Christmas sales. Love Target for that, by the way.

Now that our tree is up it feels a lot more like Christmas. We just need some snow...please?

Abby's 3rd and Thanksgiving

I am determined to catch up! And in this busy season, that means, little words and many pictures. So here's the first picture. Isn't she adorable? I've been trying (and succeeding, so far) to take a picture of her, her blanket and her rabbit stuffed animal on each of her monthly birthdays so I can make... something entirely cute out of her first twelve months worth of pictures. I was startled with how much she has changed from her second to her third. And now it's almost time for her forth, sheesh, she's growing gangbusters. Love her cheeky grin. And those chubby legs!

Thanksgiving was wonderful. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I did eat a lot of pie. My family didn't perform as usual, however, we only had 17 (if I remember right) pies. We usually have much more. We spent Wednesday night in Burley with some of Farris' family, and then after dinner (so funny...Judy used to raise chickens, so we always have chicken instead of turkey. Joseph's kindergarten just had their Thanksgiving Feast and very loudly kept saying things like "What's Thanksgiving without a turkey?" Kindergartners think they know everything, and they usually voice that opinion emphatically.) we headed to Richfield for Pie Day. Pie Day is closely related to Thanksgiving Day, and tends to run into breakfast the day after. And sometimes later. We brought four pies this year: Peach, Apple, Chocolate Egg Nog Swirl Pie, and Cream Cheese Pumpkin Cake (basically a rectangle pie). Yummy. My favorite pie for this year though was: Rob's Raspberry Cheesecake with Oreo Crust. Wow. And there were too many second place contenders to mention. Anyway, there is more to Thanksgiving than pie (although my nephews would argue that point), and we had much visiting and laughing and a great after-too-much-food walk around the farm. On Friday when many people are being pushed and pepper-sprayed (what was that about, anyway?) at stores, we went up to the Sawtooth's and cut down trees. Farris picked out a bigger tree than usual and it's beautiful. More about that in the next post.

Here's Joseph enjoying the snow. We walked through about two feet of it, and were finishing loading the trees when another storm rolled in.

Caleb all bundled up. I'm not really sure when those teeth of his are going to grow in, but he does love to sing "All I want for Christmas is my THREE front teeth."

Sethy is too cute. He loved the snow...until he got to where it hadn't been plowed and then an adult had to carry him the rest of the way.

We had a great Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for two wonderful families that we have to spend time with every holiday.

And obviously, I can't do a post without many words.

Happy Halloween...err, Thanksgiving...err, Christmas ALREADY?

I realize that's a long title. But it's very true! Maybe it's because there isn't any snow outside my window (at the moment. We have had two storms that melted quickly), it just doesn't seem like Christmas time. The smell of our freshly cut Christmas tree that we traipsed through two feet of snow in the Sawtooth's is definitely helping, though. Anyways, here is a quick trip back to Halloween because it didn't get done before!
Here's our family of pumpkins! The picture doesn't show it that great, but we each picked out a pumpkin when they were still ripening and scratched a face in it. Well, I did Seth's, Abby's and Farris', too. The pumpkins scabbed over in a couple of weeks and there you have a quick, easy and a lot less messy pumpkin carving (we did some carving and painting, too, though). Joseph carved his upside down, that's why his vine is coming out the bottom. It's kind of his personality though. You know, a little off kilter?

Sweet Abigail's first Halloween! My cousin gave us this bee costume for Seth, so it's a hand me down, but she looked awful cute in it. Babys dressed as bugs...strange as it sounds, it just works.

This is Seth dressed as a dinosaur. Oh, wait, that's right. He refused to wear the dinosaur costume because he said it belonged to Caleb. This of course happened on Halloween morning five minutes before we had to be at the school for the costume parade. More on that later.

Joseph wanted to be a ghost. He actually had that idea for weeks before and stuck with it until the night before Halloween, but at that point there's no going back. I found a bunch of fabric at the DI and spent about an hour cutting and sewing and then he added his own facial expressions to finish it off. That boy is too funny in front of a camera.

Caleb wanted to be a soccer player. And not just any soccer player, he wanted to be himself playing soccer. I just had to make sure his soccer uniform was washed. Who am I to deny that kid of his dearest wish? Especially when it didn't involve me sewing, gluing, or even duct taping anything together.

Felicity, for the second year in a row, wanted to be horse. And I, for the second year in a row, vetoed that idea. The only horse costume I can think of is from that Cinderella movie with Drew Barrymore (I can't think of the name...drat. Here comes 2:00 in the morning with me shouting it out...) where the step sister and the guy she likes both dress up as horses. Anyway, I can't think of how to do it without it looking dorky. So, this year she came as a cowgirl. Farris' mom years ago made him a cowboy outfit and we still have the chaps and vest. So I used them as a pattern on fabric that wouldn't need to be hemmed and hot glued the fringe on the edges. I do love my glue gun! We also painted my old dress boots pink. I was going to spray paint them...and never got around to buying spray paint, so we took what we had and I used acrylic paint. I don't really recommend it, it scratched off too easily, but in a pinch for an outfit she'll wear twice, it worked.

Here's the three on their way to school. Joseph is sooo scary ;)

So why was the day busy? Ha, let me tell you. After getting the kids out the door for school (costumes and picture taking done, too) we had a quick breakfast and then went over to the school for the Costume Parade at 9:00. It was actually more like 9:10 by the time I had thrown us all together, at least enough that everyone was fully clothed. This was the time that Seth declared he could not wear Caleb's dinosaur costume, so we just grabbed his Superhero cape. I figured I'd have enough time later in the day to find some kind of clothes that would go under the cape so it wouldn't be so... lame. My sister and parents had actually spent the night before at our house and they were gathering things together so they could leave right after the parade. Very cute parade, I love how this school still does things like this. When we left the school we came right back to the house and I started blowing up a couple packages of balloons and then decorated them like ghosts for Caleb's class party (the whole time I'm thinking, how come I didn't volunteer to just read a story?!?). We were going to play Ghostbusters. I taped a white napkin (until I ran out of white and then the rest of the ghosts were blue. Oops) on each balloon, and then drew a ghosty kind of face on it. We had just enough time to make some PB and J for the kids before we ran to the school. Still hadn't found any clothes to go with Seth's cape. For the game, we had a relay race where each of the kids got to "bust" a ghost by sitting on it. It got pretty loud and I was afraid the Principal would think we were under attack, but the kids loved it. Balloons and noise: always a winner. Abby wasn't real impressed with the party, she even slept through all the popping.
The older two kids came home pretty soon after we got home and we actually had our first trick or treater. It was 3:00 in the afternoon. I hadn't even found the candy/toys that we bought to hand out, so she left emptyhanded. I know, I'm the Scrooge of Halloween. I put some stuff in the crock pot for dinner and got everything ready for the Trunk or Treat at the church--including finding the little toys to give out, but I didn't find the candy until about two weeks later. Our ward had it early this year so it wouldn't interfere with FHE. Halloween on Monday is just weird. I still hadn't found anything for Seth to wear, so he happily went in his everyday clothes with his cape. But hey, he was happy, he got candy, I was happy, I took a mommy tax from his candy. Next year when he cares more I'll make a real costume for him. After the Trunk or Treat, it was our family's turn to clean the church. We just had to vacuum and wash windows and our little ghost, soccer player, cowgirl, and half way superhero jumped in to help, mostly because we told them if we got done fast enough we could still fit in some trick or treating. When we were finished we did a quick run around the neighborhood to those we didn't see at the Trunk or Treat and then the day was done. Whew. That was one of those days powered by snickers and peanut butter cups!

Abigail's blessing

Life has been moving fast again (always?) so I'm a little behind on my blogging. In playing catch-up I thought I'd start with Abby's blessing day.

Here's the little star herself!

I made her blessing dress out of leftover material from Felicity's baptism dress and with kind of the same idea, but I'll (hopefully!) do a post on that later.

It was a gorgeous day thankfully. With the crazy weather we've had this last year, I wasn't sure if it would sunny or snowing, but the weather was beautiful and everyone was able to be outside. Which was good, we had each of our brothers and sisters and their families, plus my Uncle Darryl, Aunt Ellen, and cousin Denece with her kids. The total was over 50 extra people, we had a packed house!

She was so good for the pictures, even though the petticoat with her

dress had been bugging her all day.

Sweet little thing!

At this point, our kids were feeling a little rowdy. They were surrounded by cousins and having a blast! They were pretty good for the pictures, but you have to expect a little peace sign action. Better than bunny ears!

Trying to get everything just right.

These next three pictures are Abigail with her grandparents. I love that my parents and mother in law are such great grandparents and are very supportive of their many grandkids. We love having all of them come visit and spend time spoiling the kids. Grandma Child getting a little love in.

Abigail is Grandpa Newey's 14th grandchild. He's always loved the grandkids but been a little cautious around the newborns, preferring to look instead of hold. We're slowly breaking him in and the last time we were visiting in Idaho he spent two mornings holding her while Farris and I slept in. And he loves it! Abby already has him wrapped around her finger.

Grandma Newey getting a chat in.

Abigail is growing so fast now, she's almost 3 months old and quickly outgrowing clothes (which makes me kind of sad, all those cute clothes!). She's getting chubbed out more (her cheeks delight everyone!) and her cooing makes me laugh everyday. She tries so hard to get in on the conversations with the kids. She loves her baths and getting her diaper changed, I think because my face is close to hers and I talk to her while I'm getting her cleaned up. She LOVES it when people talk to her. Felicity thinks that if Abby had been a boy, we could have named her Kickly because Abby is always exercising those chubby legs of hers. In church on Sunday we were sitting toward the front and our High Councilman noticed Joseph giving Abigail kiss after kiss after kiss and commented to Farris about it after Sacrament meeting. He sure does love his baby sister!