Flying, six months old, and Valentines Day

This is going to be a very picture heavy post, I'll try to keep it short on words! But a lot has happened, leaving me little time to catch up on here.
On February 1st, Felicity had her first Science Fair. When we found out it was coming up I handed her a how things work kind of book and within five minutes she knew she wanted to build a hot air balloon. It looked fairly simple, so we found a template online for the balloons panels (I found out they are called Gores, who knew?) and she started cutting and gluing tissue paper. It was a little iffy, I think it might be easier when she's a little older.

We tested it outside with my blow dryer, and after several trials, finding and gluing holes shut, and even putting a plastic garbage bag inside to hold the air better, we still could only get it to float a couple inches, and not for very long. But she had loads of fun making it and the boys loved to watch/help/hinder as the case may be.

Seth brought out his dinosaurs to play in the snow while we were trying to make the balloon fly. He didn't get my lame joke when I asked him if that was what killed off the last of the dinosaurs. We haven't had enough snow this winter to kill off much.

Felicity's creation! It turned out cute, anyway. And she got full points, and lots of practice for future science fairs. And we learned that we will not let them procrastinate at all.

Here is her display at the fair.

Then on the 11th, Abigail turned six months old. As you can see from my action shot, she's been rolling like crazy. She'll roll and scoot and turn herself around on our tile floors easily. She made it across the living room floor one day. She still doesn't have any teeth, but she's getting more and more hair all the time, I think she will turn into a redhead, with kind of a dark strawberry blond. She's now eaten rice, oatmeal and mixed grain cereals and even tried squash. She made some funny faces with the squash, but she ate it. We went to her six month appointment yesterday and Seth kept saying over and over that he didn't think Abby should get owies--Seth speak for shots. He told the nurses and the doctor the same thing, and when the nurses poked her and set her off crying he was pretty mad. "I said, don't give Abby owies!" he kept yelling at them. She's pretty good with shots and stopped crying quickly, but Seth might not let her get any more. She's got a good bodyguard.

On Saturday, our living room was invaded with the makings for Valentines for the kids to give to classmates. Nicki came up and helped out, there was always at least one of us telling Joseph to focus. Abigail can reach further than we are used to and she kept grabbing paper to eat. She thinks squash is gross, but pink paper? Yummy. For Valentine's Day this year we decided to make a boy one and a girl one for all the kids to take in. OK, OK, I decided it after I found these cool valentines on Pinterest:

For the girls, Hershey Kiss Rings:
http://www.momontimeout.com/2012/01/bring-on-bling-valentine-ring-craft.html

For the boys, Army Men with fun sayings:

http://jacolynmurphy.blogspot.com/2012/01/for-valentinesall-is-fair-in-love-and.html

Luckily the kids loved the idea, especially since they got the leftover army men and at least two kisses each. Seth, I believe, had more. For the Army Men, we had a couple sayings: "All is fair in love and war," "You dropped the bomb on me!" and "You're the BOMB!" which set off a whole slew of Cars 2 quotes.

Joseph showing off some of the rings we made. Oh, his faces make me laugh every day. Such a silly kid.

Farris usually gets a Mylar balloon for each of the kids for valentines day. They LOVE them and play with them for at least a month after. One dollar well worth it.

Caleb is such a sweetie.

His balloon floated up before I could get the picture, but again, I love the face.

I don't think Seth remembered his from last year, but anything to do with balloons is good.

Aww, love this picture. All together we had a fun Valentines Day. Farris got some tulips for me (favorite!) and I got to help out at Felicity's class party. I love helping out in their classes and wish I could do more. Maybe next year when Abigail is a little older.

We've also been potty training Seth. I think I've gone through a whole bottle of disinfectant wipes for every surface in the bathroom, and our number of laundry loads have gone up. Ugggghhh. But he's been dry every night since we started. Gotta take the good where I can.

My sis in law Tarilynn had been coming up every other week to play with the kids so I can have, sigh, a couple hours of quietness. Lovely. Thank you very, very much Tarilynn! The kids love it too, Joseph can't wait to kick me out when she gets here.

Whew, sorry for the long post, hopefully I'll get back to my once a week with shorter posts grove. Heh. We'll see!

Christmas 2011

Christmas was wonderful this year. Farris was able to take off the days that the kids were off of school so we had a lot of family time, which was wonderful. Too bad we didn't have any snow to enjoy! On Christmas Eve we decided to watch Puss in Boots at the theater here in town. Cute movie, but not a great movie. But the kids loved it and were quoting it the rest of the day. Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner isn't so traditional: we make Ebelskivers, danish pancake balls. My mom learned to make them from her grandma and I sort of learned from her...I still need a lot of practice flipping them! We made two batches and one with peaches and one with pineapple. Next year I think I'll find a recipe for a desert ebelskiver, yummy.
Another tradition that the kids love is the opening of Christmas Pajamas. This year I used our new baby as an excuse for not making them, much less stressful for me!

Abigail loved the gift wrap much more than her new pjs.

After baths we watched Joy to the World, which I love. So beautiful.
The kids decided they wanted to all sleep in the boys room together, thus the better to catch Santa, and had us bring the plate of cookies into the room with them. Santa must have hit our house late, because there was a lot of squirming and giggling for awhile after the lights were out.

We didn't have church until 11:00, so we decided to do stockings before breakfast, then presents, then church, then the long drive to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We decided to simplify presents this year, like Rocky and Stacey's family. Like the Wise Men, we gave three presents. Just not gold and oils. That wouldn't be quite the same in today's world. Instead it was clothes (church clothes for all of them this year), books, and a toy. It was nice to not have the pressure of making sure everyone has the same amount of stuff in their pile. Joseph got the Millennium Falcon, complete with a little Han Solo and Chewbecca.

Caleb is hitting his Lego craze age and was so excited with this set.

At a yard sale with year we found a huge bin of Littlest Pet Shop things. Felicity was so excited. And, yes, we sometimes shop for Christmas presents at yard sales. How cheap are we...

Abigail surrounded by presents. Again, she was more interested in the paper. The kids did a good job each picking out a present for her.

We only had Sacrament meeting for church and our Bishopric did a great job reminding us of Christ and what is really important. The kids behaved fairly well, considering they were keyed up to the extreme.

When church was over we threw everything into the van and headed out. We spent a few days at Grandma and Grandpa Newey's, playing with cousins and eating lots of yummy food. All the adult women (and Abby) hit the after Christmas sales. A lot less craziness than during the after Thanksgiving sales. It was fun to spend that day with some of my best friends, I love my family.

After a couple days we headed over to Farris' mom's house. His whole family was there, so it was great fun. The family party is always a little crazy with plenty of wrapping paper fights in the middle of much unwrapping and picture taking.

Joseph incognito.

Seth, too.

Mustaches seem to be a theme this year. I forgot my camera for my family's Christmas party, and everyone was going to send my pictures of the mustachio adventures from it...but it hasn't happened...yes, this is a hint...I will post them when I get some.

I love this picture of Great Grandma Larsen and Abigail. Abby smiled at just the right time. Rachel loved seeing all the kids being crazy around her. She gets more great grandkids every year, five or six last year alone I think?, but they all adore her.

We came home on New Year's Eve, we even managed to get home before too late so we wouldn't' have to worry about crazy partiers. The kids were excited to get back to their new toys. I was glad to get home to my own bed, even though we had to do the After Christmas Digout. So much stuff to find places for and get put together!

I love Christmas. We're still trying to find the perfect blend of traditions to keep and the ones to toss so that we're not overwhelmed and we don't lose sight of what we need to really have and be at Christmas. I do miss the specialness of the whole season and how excited the kids are about everything. I miss the fun and the music, but I am glad to slow down a little now. It's a nice feeling the day we take the tree down and get the last ornaments put away. It's almost a cleansing feeling to put everything back in it's everyday (hopefully better than) order and get back to the ordinary.
Well, as ordinary as can be at our house.

Christmas lights at Temple Square

We finally did it. We rode the Trax up to Temple Square. And it was beautiful and cold, and the kids loved it. We watched about half of the Nativity before the kids got too cold and looked through some of the exhibits in the visitors center. It was just cold enough and we were later than we had thought we would be (more on that later) so we didn't walk around outside as much as usual. We did take pictures by that grouping of trees over by the seagull monument that is all red. So pretty! But the red in the trees didn't show. But this picture turned out cute! Seth smiling at his Daddy, Caleb and Felicity doing the cheese, and Joseph making a silly face. Yep, that's my crew! Abigail was bundled up in Farris' coat, she slept quite a bit.

The Trax was quite an adventure. I goggle mapped the address for the closest station...and we could not find it anywhere. We finally stopped at a business and I ran in to ask the receptionist. So we were there a little later than we thought we would be. There was a train pulling in when we found a parking spot, so I grabbed the kids and the gear while Farris ran to get the tickets (next time, we'll buy them online). I grabbed, grabbed, grabbed, managed to get the van locked and we all ran over there...Farris was still in line, not too many people, just really slow people. We eventually found another kiosk, but by this time the train was gone. It's only 15 minutes between trains, so we weren't worried. We waited and then boarded the next train. I sat down next to Seth, and then immediately jumped up again. Seth was missing one white sneaker. We decided that I'd take Seth to find the shoe and just meet them at the Salt Lake station. I ran around like a crazy lady trying to find the shoe before the train left, some sweet people helped me look, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Luckily I had my keys to the van so I ran back to see if it was there. Sure enough, it had fallen off inside the van before he got out. He never said a word as he walked through the parking lot, waited in line, crossed the tracks to the other side, and waited some more. Never said a word. Oh, that crazy kid. By the time I'd found it the train was gone and I figured we'd meet the rest of the family in Salt Lake, but they had gotten off before it left. They couldn't see me at first, and then they were afraid that I had gotten back on without them noticing. Whew. Now we were all together with the right number of shoes, coats, gloves and hats and we waited for one more train.

The ride home went a little smoother. It was fun riding the train, the kids loved it, and we didn't have to find parking downtown, hurrah! I think this will become a tradition every year. But I'm afraid I'll be paranoid about shoes.

Abigail's 4 month picture

Here's our happy girl! Abby turned 4 months old on December 11...and I've so far remembered to take her picture right on time every month. Hopefully that will continue! As you can see, her smile is growing. She is a baby that smiles with her whole body: sparkling eyes, chubby cheeks all crinkled, arms waving, tummy jiggling, legs tucked up and I'm sure her toes are curled under those socks.
She started rolling from back to tummy right before she was 4 months, but she didn't master it until a week before Christmas. She's rolled from tummy to front once, but mostly she plays for a minute, and then puts her face into the floor and howls until someone rolls her over. Bubbles she can do (she entertains her brothers that way) and she just started blowing razberries, too. Her face gets this far away look and she starts blowing like she's too bored for us. But as soon as you blow her one back, she starts to do her wiggle smile. She makes a lot of people smile with her sweet grin. We are enjoying our little cutie!

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."