Happy 32nd Robert!

It's Rob's birthday, and to celebrate, he received his first gray hair! At least, that's what he told me - he tried to show me and I can't see it anywhere... I just think he's paranoid. :)

Anyway, we celebrated yesterday with my parents, and today Rob had to work. :( But I have a couple of more presents for him to open and a turkey dinner cooking right now. And luckily, I was able to cancel all my students today since Macy and Tessa have been feeling under-the-weather. So, hopefully we'll just have a nice, relaxing evening at home.

Here is a cute video that I took of the kids yesterday. One of these days I'll update some more pictures and things on the blog. Life has been crazy lately!

32 things I love about Robert:

~ He treats me like his equal ~ He listens to me ~ Encourages me to try new things ~ He is a very patient father ~ He loves to try new things ~ His piano skillz are epic ~ He's good looking! ~ He has goals and dreams ~ Talented in many areas ~ Love his bear hugs ~ GREAT kisser! ~ He makes me smile ~ He knows how to fix cars ~ He knows how to take care of the yard and the house ~ He is brave enough to deal with spiders and mice! ~ Gives great back and foot rubs ~ Has an inspiring testimony of the Savior ~ Shares his testimony often ~ He is a worthy priesthood holder ~ He lets me tickle him ~ Loving companion ~ I just love being around him ~

He supports me in my endeavors ~ He helps me learn and grow every day ~ He encourages me to be a better mother ~ He plays with the children ~ He helps the kids with homework ~ He helps me with housework ~ He works hard at his job ~ He has a great sense of humor ~ He is very clever ~ He is my best friend and I don't know what I would do without him!

Here's to many more Happy Birthdays, Honey!

New Things

Things are going well so far with our new motivational CD. It's so nice to be able to just turn it on and let the kids take care of the morning and bedtime routines by themselves. I'm still working on my patience, but I think things are getting better. They like being able to earn dates - they earn about one date per week. So far we've only been able to follow through on one date, even though they've earned two each. We might have to change that slightly, just because we already have so many things going on. We don't have much time for dates, let alone money. But even just taking a walk around the block with one child will be nice when the weather is a bit warmer.

We all had a nice Valentine's day weekend. Robert bought me a pretty pair of earrings and matching necklace - green hearts with little tiny diamonds. They're fun - I don't have jewelry that color, so it's nice to have something different. The kids all had fun at their Valentine parties on Friday. Elise came home with an adorable little stuffed puppy. She said it was from Cooper, who told her that he's in love with her and he has been in love with her since second grade, but he was too scared to tell her. She told him that she's not in love with him, but she still wants to be his friend. He said, "Oh, I don't care if you're not in love with me." LOL ... at least she didn't break his heart...

Friday morning I took our dining room chairs over to Mom's house. She bought some material for us to reupholster them, since they've been completely trashed by children spilling food and paint and things on them in the two years that we've had them. We started working on them, and Tessa was just wandering around, climbing on things, like usual. I was sitting on the couch and out of the corner of my eye I saw her climb onto a chair that was right next to the couch. I didn't think anything of it until I saw her fall. She basically slipped straight off the chair - right down, flat on her feet. She collapsed to the floor and started screaming and crying in a way I've never heard her do before. It scared me - a LOT. I thought for sure she had broken her leg or something. I picked her up and immediately called the chiropractor - my first thought. They said to bring her right in. It only took me about 10 min. to get her loaded up and drive over there. He checked her out, and she let him wiggled her foot and leg, but she just kept crying, nonstop. He said to take her next door to our Pediatrician to get x-rays before he would do anything else.

I picked her up and walked to the Ped's office. They took us right in and asked what happened. We had to wait for almost 20 minutes before the doctor could see us, and Tessa ended up crying herself to sleep. Poor little thing. When the doctor came in, I told him that before she fell asleep she had been squeezing her left knee. He was able to test out her right leg completely without her waking up, so we knew that leg was okay. He tested her left ankle and hip, which were fine. As soon as he pushed on the inside of her left knee, she woke up and started crying again. He recommended that I take her to the hospital down the street for x-rays. He said he could do it at his office, but since that isn't his specialty he'd be more comfortable having a professional x-ray tech do it. So we packed up and headed to our 3rd medical office of the day.

We were at the hospital for almost an hour total. The x-rays came back with no visible fractures. I called the pediatrician to ask what he wanted us to do, and he recommended that we come back so he could give her a splint. Did I mention that all this time we were both still in our pajamas, since it was supposed to be a laid-back lazy day at mom's working on chairs? It was 12:30 by the time we got back to the doctor's office, two hours after Tessa fell. He was at lunch, of course, so I went to get us some food before we went back. French fries and a frosty from Wendy's help tired, hungry, stressed girls a lot. Back at the doctor's office we got a splint wrapped around her leg with ace bandages. She hated it - kept telling me she was stuck. "Stuck, Mommy! Stuck!"

I was able to keep it on her for about an hour and a half. The doc said not to force her to wear it. We've been trying to get her to wear it for a couple of hours at a time, though. I really think it's helping, and she has been a lot more okay with it the last two days than she was at first. Robert took her back to the chiropractor yesterday morning and he did a very light adjustment on her. The diagnosis was a severe sprain in the knee. The chiro thinks the ankle might be sprained as well.

Today she was finally attempting to put a little weight on it. But she's definitely limping - just barely putting her toes down to hobble on the left leg. She has taken to scooting around on her bum, and even crawling. She's not quite ready to walk yet, but hopefully in the next day or two she'll feel more comfortable putting her weight on it. If not, I'll be taking her back to the pediatrician on Tuesday, after the holiday. She's definitely going back to the chiro on Tues. regardless.

Most of Friday all Tess wanted was to sit and cuddle with me. But yesterday and today she was pretty fussy and discouraged with the fact that she isn't as mobile as she's used to being. I hope she learns her lesson... we've been having a hard time keeping her off the kitchen table and chairs for the last few weeks. Maybe this will help her see the reasoning behind the "No Climbing on the Furniture!" Rule...

We're very grateful for the blessing that this scenario didn't turn out any worse. It could have been much worse...

(And didn't the chairs turn out nicely? Thanks Mom for all your hard work while I was running all over town and nursing an injured baby!)

Heard in the Car

Macy: Mom, a boy at school is in love with me, and my friend Rylee.

Me: Oh really?

Macy: Yeah, he thinks we're in love with him. But I don't think we're supposed to love guys until we're like 14 or something.

Me: Yeah, you can't date anyone until you're 16.

Macy: Yeah, I think I'm gonna wait a few more years until I start crushing on guys.

Me: Good idea.

My New Favorite Website

A few months ago I ran into a sweet lady at the UPS store. She asked me if Tessa was our only child and I explained that we have a blended family of five children. She said, "Wow, I bet your house is clean all the time, right?" And I LAUGHED my head off and assured her that in fact, NO, it's not, and in fact just that morning I had been not-so-patiently encouraging the children to clean their rooms before they left for school.

She proceeded to tell me about this website and even wrote it down for me so I wouldn't forget. I believe that she said she has six children, and that one of them (the smallest, I think?) had just passed away. :( I felt so bad for complaining about the bad morning I had.

Ever since we met I've been thinking about this sweet woman and what she told me. I have almost ordered this program three or four times, but with Christmas and birthdays we just didn't have the money. (It's not even that much money.)

So, last week I finally was able to order it. I think there is a 30-day money back guarantee, but even after ONE DAY I think we're sold. The key will be consistency on my part, I know that.

But it was so wonderful to wake up this morning, turn a CD on, and watch the children QUICKLY and HAPPILY do everything they needed to do to get ready for school. They even all did an "Act of Kindness" ... (IE: Chore) without me asking them to.

I'm trying to make this as simple as possible for everyone involved. Yesterday I went through all of the kids clothes and boxed up a bunch of them. The drawers and closets were all stuffed to overflowing. They were constantly fighting over hangers (and we now have a HUGE box of empty hangers). Many of the things I boxed were summertime clothes that they can't wear right now anyway. Some things we're getting rid of because they're too small or too stained. (LOL - you should see how big the girls' boxes are - they have SOOO many clothes.) It feels so good just to have completed that step of the simplification of life. I let everyone choose six shirts to keep in their closets. They have two outfits for Sunday, four sets of pajamas, and all the underwear and socks that didn't have holes/stains in them. We boxed everything else. We'll do laundry one day a week instead of three or four. I've already started teaching them how to help with the laundry.

I think the kids are relieved too - so many less things for them to be in charge of. I'm hoping this will help them be more motivated to hang up/fold and put away their clothes, instead of stuffing them under beds, behind the dresser, and under the dresser. I'm also hoping they will be able to tell which clothes are clean and which are dirty so they won't just keep putting things in the laundry basket hoping I won't notice!

The next project is toy simplification. I'm going to rotate through things. Put some boxes in the downstairs storage, leave them there for a month or so, then box up the things that have been played with and switch. We have seven people in a 3 bedroom house and there is clutter everywhere. That's part of my stress problem right now and I'm excited to get it under control. I need to go through my own things as well.

Anyway, the program above is great. There is a CD for the morning routine and one for the bedtime routine. Each one includes an "Act of Kindness" that each child is responsible for. If they need help, I will show them how to do it. Once they are well trained in that area of the house, they will choose another area that they want to learn to take care of. These are small, simple things like "Unload the dishwasher", "Fill the dishwasher", "Vacuum under the table." Then they need to get dressed, make beds, put clothes away, brush teeth, etc. And I don't have to tell them to do any of it. The CD does it for me. :) It has fun, upbeat classical pieces on it, many of which I have performed in my orchestral experience.

At the end of the routine, I give each child a sticker on their hand so they can remember that they did a good job, and I thank them for loving our family by helping around the house and doing their jobs quickly w/out me asking, and then we hug.

I'm looking forward to continuing to work on being a happier, more productive family, and here's to having less stress in all of our lives! :)

Birthdays

Elise turned nine this year. She's a great big sister, especially to Tessa. She loves to help take care of and play with Tessie. She's getting very good at the violin, and is back in tumbling lessons. (We stopped for a little while because of money.)

Elise asked for a scrapbook for her birthday and she also got stickers and paper to use in the book. She got some fun clothes and a few other toys and things as well. She has been really interested in arts and crafts of all varieties lately.

Elise requested "Cookie Pie" for her birthday dessert. She helped me make it and it was yummy. We had ice cream with it. Happy Birthday Lisey-YA! (That's what Tessa calls her.) :)

This big man turned six on Christmas Eve. We did some fun things that day. We made sugar cookies for Santa, and that was Isaak's birthday treat.

I found this toy at Target and immediately thought of Isaak. I knew he would love it. He's a bit more into cars than trains these days, although he still loves the trains.

It's a really fun racetrack. You have to try to hit the track switch button at the right time to get Lightning McQueen to zoom up Mack's ramp that moves back and forth. Isaak has a bunch of the cars from the movie that can sit in the grandstands and watch.

He got some little tractor cars and this cute sweater from Gma and Gpa.

We set up the racetrack at Gma and Gpa's house after we had Christmas Eve dinner with them. Happy Birthday Isaak!

Macy turned six in January. I always wanted twins! Hee hee... I'm glad the kids get along as well as they do. Macy got this fun beading kit to make jewelry with. Her dad was in town for a couple of days, so he took Macy and Elise to Boondocks after school on Macy's birthday.

Macy requested chocolate pie for her birthday. It was still a little frozen, even though I let it thaw for longer than I was supposed to.

Macy also got some clothes and tumbling lessons. We hope you had a great birthday too, Macy!

We had a combined birthday party for the three of them w/ my family. Here are a few pics.

Macy with her lion cub from Grandma. It responds to touch - meows, growls, purrs, and even goes to sleep.

Elise got a polar bear that works the same way.

Isaak got a cool big firetruck from Gma and Gpa. This is so cute - he lets Tessa sit on the firetruck (after he moves the ladder) and he pushes her around the living room. She loves it.

I was so excited to get these dolls for the girls. Macy has an American Girl doll that her dad gave her in MN, and she talks about it a lot. I thought it would be fun for the girls to have them to play with together. My parents, grandparents, and sister all contributed a bit of money to the dolls. They were so funny when they opened the boxes... I would post the video, but apparently it's ginormous, so you'll have to take my word for it. I had them open a small box with accessories first, and neither of them had a clue what they were. Then I let them both open the dolls and Macy was like, " *gasp* Elise!! It's American Girls!" and they both starting squealing. Very cute. Thank you to all our family and loved ones who helped all the kids feel loved and spoiled on their birthdays.

My Contest Entry

The Nester is doing a giveaway! Check it out...

This is what I would create if I win. :) I need a little more peace in my life.

December

Mr. Snowman says I'm a slacker for not blogging in over a month!

We did some craft projects one day. Tessa had fun decorating herself with pipe cleaners.

The rest of us made ornaments with pipe cleaners & beads. The kids gave most of them away.

Clockwise from the top: Kaleb's, Tessa's, Macy's, Elise's, and Isaak's

Herriman Orchestra Christmas Concert

Tessa likes to try on everyone's shoes. These belong to one of my students. She was even walking around in them and was able to go a few feet before falling.

I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out. I saw the idea in a magazine and it took me about an hour to figure out exactly how to put it together. I made it for my sister-in-law, Jen, whose name I drew in our family gift drawing.

Macy & Kaleb, thrilled to be riding Trax up to Salt Lake to see the lights at Temple Square.

Isaak was just thrilled to be on a "train".

Tessa was thrilled to take a nap. We ended up riding the train for almost two hours, without seeing the lights. When we got close to Salt Lake, we had to stop because there was a car crash downtown that was blocking the train tracks. It took them about 25 minutes of sitting there not moving before they finally told us they couldn't go any farther and we'd have to either ride a bus the rest of the way or turn around and go home. It was 8:30 pm by this time, so we opted to go home. Oh well, at least we tried. There's always next year. (And more bad cliches that make us feel better for not just driving up there in the first place.) :)

Isaak & Santa at our ward Christmas party.

Elise & Santa

The obligatory, "Get me the heck off this weird guy's lap!" photo...

Macy & Santa

Girls waiting to see Santa. Tessa's already worried...

And of course Rob volunteered to provide the breakfast music while everyone ate. He's such a sweetheart and a great pianist.

Later that day I went with my students to play at a couple of rest homes. I put a mom in charge of pictures, so what you see is what you get. :)

Robert & I played "Oh Holy Night" together at the end.

I think the residents enjoyed having us come. We'll have to do it again next year. Elise & Macy were so funny. I only "taught" them one of the five songs we played. But they both insisted on "trying" to play the other songs along with everyone else. They both play really well by ear, and I think they did a pretty good job, even though I couldn't really hear them from where I was standing.