Loverly

I love this picture. (it's even better large, click on it to see)

Nice Christmas

We had a nice Christmas.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Family Fun

We had a family Christmas party on Monday. The kids had fun, we had fun. It was a nice time!! Can you believe Christmas is here?

These are the babies that were there ... Quinn, Charlotte, and Ryker.

Grrrrr.....

Quinn can growl on command. It's TOO cute!!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

Tessa: "Mom, I want a venus flytrap."

Me: "why do you want a venus flytrap?"

Tessa: "because it's a magical plant." (this is said with awe)

Me: "What makes it magical?"

Tessa: (smiling hugely) "it eats flies!"

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Me: "Teeeesssaaa ... time to get ready to go"

Tessa: "I'M WATCHING TV!"

Me: "Brielle, would you go turn the tv off so she gets the picture that it's time to go?"

Kate: "Picture? I want one!"

Me: "It's not a real picture."

(10 minutes later Kate was still insisting on me giving HER the picture)

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Tessa was looking at a magazine and saw an ad of a woman in a snow globe with no clothes on but a ribbon (don't ask me why this was in the magazine, and that magazine is now gone and recycled)

Tessa: "mom, this girl is naked"

Me: (annoyed this ad is in this magazine) "she's covered with a ribbon, so not completely naked, but not modest either."

Kate: "let me see .... "

Kate looks at the picture before I pull it away, opens her mouth in a perfect "O" shape and says "OH. MY. GOSH."

It was pretty funny ... the way she says "gosh."

****************************************************************

Kate is sitting on the bed right now next to Quinn

She pulled him forward toward herself, and he spit up on her blanket.

Kate: "EEEEEWWWW. Quinn spit up on my blanket. It's disgusting."

(it's just so funny to hear some of the things she says coming out of her tiny 2 year old body)

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I love being a mom. It makes life more fun.

Seventh Heaven

Look how many stockings we now have!!

If Quinn Had a Hammer

Oh wait, he does!!

Matt loves this picture. Quinn holding a hammer. (he thinks it's hilarious)

(I just had to put this on after my last post. a little happiness before the rant. Complaining isn't very becoming, I realize ... but it's real. and that's something.)

He Happens to be the Fussiest/Sweetest

I love Quinn. I do.

That being said, I am having major frustrations right now with him. He wants to eat all the time, he wakes up when I set him down, even if he's sleeping soundly in my arms 5 seconds before. He does not like to be set down at. all.

Now in my head I understand he's just a baby, this stage lasts for such a short time, and I know he just loves me and wants me to be near him. It's sweet really. I guess.

What I'd really love to do is:

• eat a meal without listening to a hysterical baby in the background
• take longer than 2 minutes to eat anything
• go to the bathroom when I have to
• get a drink when I'm thirsty
• clean up anything so the house isn't a disaster
• have dinner partially prepared when Matt and the girls get home
• sleep for 8 hours consecutively
• finish the Christmas things that need to get done in daylight
• take a shower when I need to, and not have to hurry
• type things with both hands (this has been a one handed post)
• stop the little girls from fighting rather than having to watch/listen to it just happen
• go anywhere without the baby for longer than 2-3 hours

To every thing there is a season .... right? This is not my season for those things, and that's ok. I really am fine and happy with it lots/most of days. It's life with a baby.

What I really love about having a baby?

• the adorable smiles
• hearing him laugh for the first time, and every time after that
• having him fall asleep in my arms and just holding him (even if I'm thirsty)
• dressing him in boy clothes that are so cute
• kissing his little cheeks
• and ears
• and feet
• and "lippies"
• hearing him fuss knowing my presence will calm him down
• knowing I am the one who he wants most (for now)
• savoring every moment because they're gone too fast
• watching him grow and learn new things

See? I do love this. Sometimes the part I hate the most is the part that is also the sweetest and most satisfying.

I guess being a mom is just hard. and rewarding. and tiring. and funny. and frustrating. and great. (but for today I'm going with hard.)

Covenant Children's Choir Performance

(see above ... and pause the sidebar music player)

This was last night. Brielle did an excellent job! We were so proud of her. Even with the snow, every seat was full in the audience. Brielle said the clapping was really loud which she thought was cool.

(Please, please please pardon the absolutely dreadful camera work ... in my defense I was holding Quinn and Kate kept pulling on his hands making him move even more. It's very poor quality at best. just close your eyes and listen if you don't want to get motion sickness.)

Brielle is on the side closest to the piano, in the back row, 2nd from the left in a black dress.

2009 Christmas Letter

Our 2009, A Year Full of Blessings

Christmas is here, the stockings are hanging
Our tree is trimmed nicely, the jingle bells are clanging.
We’ve bought a few gifts, and even made treats
(Well, what is the holiday without any sweets?)
Our 2009 has gone swiftly by
In fact 2009 days are in short supply.
With blogs, Facebook, and email what more can I say?
You know what has happened in our life’s every day.
So I’ll just quickly mention the reasons we’re grateful
This holiday season, and we have a plate full!
The safe arrival of Quinn Matthew is our #1,
He came August 19th, our sweet lovely son!
We didn’t realize we were missing such nice shades of blue;
Our rose colored glasses have changed a few hues.
The girls are delighted; his “lippies” are kissed
As often as possible (it’s true he’s hard to resist)!
Our cute little boy is our #1 blessing,
Then #2-5 …. Anyone up for guessing?
I suppose it’s a tie between our 4 daughters dear.
In truth they fill our lives with much cheer.
They’re thoughtful and silly they can laugh up a storm,
When you see their bright smiles it makes your heart warm.
Brielle, who is 9, is in the 4th grade.
She reads, draws, and helps. She truly has made
A super big sister to our cute Linzi-loo …
An 8 year old extraordinaire, who still loves the zoo
In fact our 2nd grader Linzi is a lover of most furry friends;
She reads and writes about them, her love never ends.
Tessa Rose is our 4 year old princess divine
Who loves to dress up in things that do shine.
If it has a sparkle, glitter, or pink
Tessa’s all over that … she’s our girliest we think.
And last but not least is sweet little Kate
Whose laugh is contagious it puts you in such a state
Of pure happiness; we really love her!
She’s the sweetest and silliest … I bet you would concur.
With 5 kids in our home there’s no way this could be quicker,
If you have read this far, you deserve a smiley sticker!
We hope you have a Christmas that is happy, safe, and fun,
And that you have felt the spirit of the season once it’s done.

Merry Christmas 2009!
Love,
Matt, Honor, Brielle, Linzi, Tessa, Kate, and Quinn!

Eight Years of Linzi

Linzi is 8 today! We are so excited for her ... I can't really believe it's been this long ... but I'm so glad that it has. We've had a fun 8 years! Year 1: all the new things babies do are just so cute ... Linzi had a great smile and such cute huge, bright eyes!

Year 2: Linzi learned to talk ... she whispered everything she said to us ... most people didn't believe she could talk, but she was just a quiet girl.

Year 3: Linzi was still the baby ... she would snuggle with me and I called her my "bubba"

Year 4: she and Brielle played together constantly .... she liked to dress up. she started her love for anything "boy" and developed her quirky "tomboy" personality (which we love)

Year 5: she started school this year ... she did such a great job in kindergarten ... her favorite color started to be black and definitely NO pink.

Year 6: she STILL had a major love for dogs at this point ... she had many that would sleep on her bed at night with names and everything.

Year 7: she had friends at school, played with her sisters at home, she still loved dogs, loved mostly "boy" toys, liked to wear skinny jeans (NO flares), and has continued to develop her unique personality.

Year 8: what will this year hold?
We can't wait to find out. Happy birthday Linzi Noelle!!

He's Got Skills!

We're so impressed!! (well, I am.)

"how long have you been 18?"

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

i just thought this was funny. (in a Twilight/LDS sort of way)

Gala

Matt and I attended the Festival of Trees Gala last night. It's a black tie charity event where people spend too much money on donated Christmas trees with crazy things attached to them, like boats, Harley's, toys, trips, etc. But it's all for a great cause, so it's a good thing.

We ate fancy food, saw many fancy trees, mingled with fancy dressed people ... it was a nice evening. Thanks to Matt's mom for watching the kids for us.

(do you see where "Santa's" hand is? He was pretty close to being "too close" if you see what I mean. Why do Santa's always have to fulfill the "creepy santa" cliche? )

Today

Do you ever have those days where you feel like it's not anything special? You don't do anything amazing. You don't go anywhere exciting. In fact, you and the ones who didn't go to school don't even get "dressed" ... the little ones didn't have their hair fixed ... after dinner they still have food on their faces.

This is one of those days. Matt is teaching school this evening. I am home all day and all night -alone with the kids. I'm fine with it ... it's not a big deal, but it's slightly boring. And sometimes I get tired. Especially tired of not talking to rational grown-ups.

So instead of being productive this evening, the girls are drawing, Quinn and I are blogging, and we're dreaming of more exciting "today's."

(I do find it a little cute that they're all out there drawing and singing together, despite the mess they're almost probably making.)

(these pictures were all taken just a minute ago ... true to how we really look tonight)

Children's Choir

Just in case you're in the area ... Brielle is singing with a children's choir for Christmas. There will be 2 performances:

Festival of the Nativity - Dec. 5 in the evening

Main Event - Dec.13 (this is the performance that will also be featuring many other choirs and performers)

It should be pretty good I think ... both events.

Bumbo-licious

This is our newest achievement. Sitting in the Bumbo. I like it because the baby can see everything really well. Quinn is fine with it for a few minutes, then he gets mad, so we'll see if that gets better. Kate used the Bumbo ALL the time. Hopefully Quinn starts to like it more.

{side note: my ankle is more yellow today ... yellow is not a good look for me.}

Busy as Bees

Today was Primary program day. It is always so cute to see all the children sing and speak and show us parents what they have been working on. (and the kids all looked especially cute today ... they were wearing their matching Christmas outfits ... SO cute!! sorry no picture ... I'll get one soon though)

So Tessa was the first to get up to do her part ... the 3 kids in front of her did theirs, she got up there and wouldn't even show her face, and definitely wouldn't speak. So the woman who was supposed to be there to prompt the kids (they all supposedly had their parts memorized) said Tessa's part ... and then Tessa hid in her hair and walked back to her seat. It was pretty funny. When we got out to the car after church, Tessa says, "did you see me? didn't I do great?" Of course I told her she did super great and she looked pleased. I suppose I can imagine that it would be hard for a 4 year old to talk in front of a couple hundred people ... so the fact that she even went up there and stood was good I think.

Next was Brielle who smiled all the way up to the microphone, and then she flawlessly gave her part, as she had memorized, and then sat down.

Linzi did the same. She had hers memorized and did a great job.

They all did really well on all the songs, and the song where they had learned sign language for all 4 verses they did REALLY well. I was impressed.

Kate was pretty miffed that she didn't get to go up with them .... but we gave her gum and fruit snacks to soften the blow a little. It worked. I love that about 2 year olds, they're so easily distracted.

So after church we had a little Achievement Day fireside. (I'm one of the leaders now) ... I went with Brielle and Linzi. Brielle was supposed to show something she's been working on, so she chose to practice a song from the Primary Song book. I haven't been very good at giving her piano lessons, so she doesn't really know too much. We went through the song together, I wrote all the numbers for the fingering to help her figure it out, and she's been practicing for about a month. She actually did really well. She played the whole thing, memorized, and only had one tiny mistake ... which wasn't noticeable AT ALL. (although she felt bad) I was really proud of her.

I actually think I was more nervous for her tonight, than I am for myself when I sing a solo. I guess that comes with the motherly territory.

I'm glad today is over. I got through church limping, which was fine ... although when you're limping everyone asks you what happened or comments on it ... and I kind of felt like an old woman to be limping the whole day, but at least I got through it without falling again.

On to Thanksgiving!!

New Moon

I went to see New Moon last night. I really liked it. I thought it was much better than Twilight. The cg wolves were really life like ... and HUGE. Those scenes with the wolves were some of my favorite.

It was a little hilarious how every time Jacob showed up without his shirt all the teen aged girls screamed and swooned ... even some of the non-teenagers did too. I laughed. (although he is cute)

All in all I thought it closely matched the book and that made it great.

(and Quinn wasn't hysterically crying when I got home, so that was a plus.)

Our Little Night Owl

This is for Aunt Karen ... too cute, right? (she bought these pj's for Quinn ... this was his first night to wear them)

Ankles and Aging

Ankles ...

Well it's healing I suppose. Today I can put a very tiny bit of weight on it with a brace on. Lovely bruise, right?Aging ...
Quinn is 3 months old today. It has gone so fast. I suppose it seems about right though, he's getting too long for many of his sleepers. Soon I'll have to move him up a size. His hair hasn't grown though, still a baldy. But he's a CUTE baldy!!

Ow

So last Friday I was hurrying to the car with the kids ... holding Quinn in his car seat in one hand, and holding Kate's hand with the other hand ... it was wet outside and I slipped on the deck and dropped both Quinn and Kate and fell off the deck onto my ankle.

I screamed, Kate screamed, Quinn cried, and Brielle screamed. It was a pretty dramatic scene. I realized almost instantly that I was really hurt and wouldn't just be getting up. Luckily, Quinn and Kate were both not hurt, so once I had made sure they were OK, I looked at my ankle. No bones were sticking out, so that was good (I was sure there would be it hurt so bad) ... I sat there pathetically crying and Brielle grabbed the keys and brought me the phone from inside the house and I called Matt and told him "I've fallen and I can't get up" but I was crying so he knew I wasn't just joking. He said he would be right there.

Pretty soon it started raining and I knew I couldn't walk, let alone carry Quinn to the house or car, so I had Brielle carry him to the car so he wouldn't get wet. The girls were all crying, Linzi didn't want to be late for school, and I sat there knowing my ankle was messed up, knowing I was muddy and wet from sitting on the cement, and feeling really annoyed and pretty shaken up.

Luckily Matt came home, helped me into the house, which I might add, was really a sorry sight ... at one point he said he was just going to carry me because I was being pretty useless getting up the stairs and into the house ... in my defense, it's hard to hop on one leg up stairs especially when you're in pain.

Anyway, he took the girls to school and then the little girls to my moms, while I cried on the bed and tried to figure out how to get the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face before he took me to get the xrays. I seriously haven't felt that kind of pain in a long time ... childbirth hurts, but it's productive pain ... this kind is not nice. It was pretty swollen by the time we got to the urgent care ...

Long story a little less long, not broken, just a really nasty sprain (dr.'s words, not mine) ... "stay off of it for at least 4 days" she said. I laughed inside and thought with five kids, one of them a newborn that would be an interesting proposal.

So I have, in fact stayed off of it since Friday morning, and to tell the truth, I couldn't walk on it even if I wanted to. I really hope it feel better at least by this weekend. The swelling is mostly gone, now it's just a nice shade of yellow-green. But seriously, it still hurts.

What a pain. In more ways than one. It's impossible to carry a baby with crutches, and the crutches aren't all they're cracked up to be either ... my armpits are sore.

So that's my pitiful story. I'm sorry for complaining .... on the bright side ... all of this time Quinn and I are having hanging out on the bed has gotten me to see many cute smiles!

(and there are other bright sides ... I could have hurt both my ankles, I could have knocked myself out, could have dropped the baby and he could have gotten hurt, could have broken it with blood spurting out .... it could have been WAY worse ... so I feel blessed it was only just a really bad sprain on my left leg, which isn't the leg I drive with.)

Last Straw

Isn't she too cute. She just loves drinking from a straw, and constantly walks around wanting a Capri Sun, so this is a common sight here at our house. (along with the messed up hair and the dresses she loves to wear) (oh, and the mess in the background is also a common sight here.)

She just loves being part of the crowd ... the crowd being her older sisters. She HATES being left out.

Kate is pretty cute if you ask me.

Calling

I got a new calling today. Activity Days Advisor. That means that every other week I will get to have an hour long activity for the 8-11 year old girls. Brielle and Linzi are excited. We'll see how it goes. It might be really fun.

Quinn The Cute

I just can't resist his little face, and the girls just love him to bits.

(and that would be "literally to bits" if I would allow it ...

pretty much I'm his protector half the time)

Had a Halloween!

So we did mostly homemade costumes this year.

Matt and I are a chick magnet and a "chick" (I'm not big on dressing up, so this is what I came up with for our party we went to)

See? Those are chicks on his gray "magnet-like" shirt.

Brielle is a Greek goddess ... Aphrodite?

Linzi wanted to be a black lab named Fido (of course) ... she said she wanted her hair to look like the dog's ears.

Tessa chose to be a red flower girl ... I think it was inspired by the wedding of David last month ... but she chose her dress and tights and everything (all things we had, sweet girl.) Then we have Kate as our Fiorina. (yes, I said "Fiorina" that is Kate's word for ballerina)


And last, but definitely not least, is our very own Little Monster, Quinn.

Still Loving It

Quinn turned 2 months old this week.

He has started smiling ... although how one would catch the smile in pixels is beyond me ... every time I got the camera he stopped.

He is holding his head up ... not completely, and not for too long, but more and more all the time.

He is blowing bubbles ... it's oh SO cute.

He is babbling and cooing, which I love.

It's been such a short time and he's changing so fast. It's sad in a way, but that's the nature of the baby I guess.