Christmas

 

The kids each had their own advent calendar this year, thanks to their Grandma Kate. We also had a family advent calendar with a daily Christmas activity in it- anything from putting together a Christmas craft from kiwi crate, to doing a secret service for someone in the family, to reading a Christmas book together.

We made a bunch of Christmas cookies as usual- some to send to Grandpa Sid, some to give to neighbors, some to take to parties, and lots to eat!

On Christmas morning, Austin's parents came over to watch the kids open presents have crepes with us. We had church at noon then the kids spent the afternoon playing with their new presents. In the evening, Austin's parents, his older brother's family, and his sister's son all came over for lasagna and playing games. The kids always love playing with their cousins and we were all exhausted by the end of the day. 

 

Nutcracker

The girls and I attended the Nutcracker ballet this weekend and had a wonderful time. The ballet was accompanied by a live orchestra and the girls got to look in the pit while the musicians were warming up. They were enchanted the whole time until the very end when Natalie started getting wiggly and hungry. We brought lots of snacks and treats, but they ate most of them before the ballet even started, so she needed something else by the end.

We went to Whole Foods to get some soups and cookies afterward. The girls mostly just ate as much soup as I told them they had to before they could eat their cookies.

 

Trevor is six!

 Trevor turned six and had a nice, quiet birthday at home. We had chocolate waffles for breakfast with crepes as well. We had some chocolate waffle batter left over from Leif's birthday, so I made that, but there wasn't nearly as much as I thought there was, so I had to make up some crepes quickly too.

Trevor got some fun presents including a marble run, kinex, snoopy pajamas and slippers, clay, and some money to put into his savings account. All the kids have been building like crazy with the marble run and kinex and its nice to see them all building and playing together.

Trevor requested rice krispie treats for his "cake" which is nice because its easy and the kids can make it almost completely on their own.

He wanted homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner and Austin's parents came over for dinner and rice krispie treats.

Here is Trevor's birthday interview:

Who is your favorite person? Mom

What is your favorite color?  Blue

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Tom and Jerry

What is your favorite outfit? Snoopy Pajamas

What song do you like the best? Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms (He only gets these once a year on St. Patrick's Day, but apparently they're his favorite)

Who is your best friend? Dad

What do you want to do when your grow up? Be a farmer

What is your favorite book? Snoopy

What are you really good at? Tumbling

Where do you wish you could go on vacation?Manitoulin Island

What would you buy if you had a lot of money? stuff

What is your favorite dinner?  Macaroni and cheese (made with vegan cheese for his allergies of course)

If you could have a wish, what would it be? That my family would disappear (He's been watching too much Home Alone)

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Peach

Who do you want to be like? myself

What do you like to do with your friends? Play games

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday?

What is your favorite thing to do? Play with my sisters

What are you proud of? Everything

What are you afraid of? Ghosteses

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Eat cookies

How strong is Dad? Really strong

What does Dad do best? Work

What does Mom do best? Cook

What do you like best about Dad? That he is strong

What do you like best about Mom? I don't know

Leif's 10th birthday!

 

 

 Happy birthday to this sweet and goofy 10 year old! Leif is still a deep thinker and tells me whenever I say something that doesn't make complete sense. He likes things orderly and scheduled. He also still loves his sleep and happily goes to bed when its time while all of his siblings are dragging their feet and finding excuses to stay awake. He still loves everything space and loves to help cook. He also loves everything Christmas and begs to get the decorations out as early as possible each year. Our tree has been up for over a week now thanks to Leif- he got the house all tidied up to get permission for getting the decorations out.

We started the day with our customary chocolate waffles, then Leif opened his presents and spent the rest of the day playing with them. He wanted chicken rolls for dinner and a pumpkin pie made from real pumpkin for dessert. So, I spent most of the day in the kitchen and Leif was happy to help me throughout the day. 

 

 

 

 Leif got a hand-made nutcracker from our family- he has a love for nutcrackers- after the Christmas tree its always the first decoration he goes for. So now he'll have his own, nice decoration to look forward to each year. 

He got Legos from his cousins, a solar system thing to put build from his grandparents, and some money from his grandpa and from his great grandma. He is the best of all our kids at saving, so I know he'll keep it for something he really wants.

 

Here is Leif's Birthday Interview:

Who is your favorite person? Natalie

What is your favorite color? Green

What is your favorite thing to watch/do on TV? Play Zelda on the Switch

What is your favorite outfit? My new rocket sweatshirt (he just got it for his birthday)

What song do you like the best? Random ones that dad makes up (Leif also loves to make up random songs- he usually takes something that one of his siblings say and turns it into a song that he sings over and over)

What is your favorite cereal? Cinnamon Life

Who is your best friend? Asher

What do you want to do when your grow up? Be an astronaut

What is your favorite book? NOT my geology book

What are you really good at? Legos

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Oregon

What would you buy if you had a lot of money? The most expensive car ever that I liked

What is your favorite dinner? Chicken Rolls with asparagus

If you could have a wish, what would it be? Be able to make more wishes

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint Chocolate Chip

Who do you want to be like? Dad

What do you like to do with your friends? Play almost any game

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Go to the moon (he really does hope to go to the moon someday)

What is your favorite thing to do? Play Minecraft

What are you proud of? Creating things out of Legos

What are you afraid of? Atomic bombs falling on me (he's being a smart-ass today)

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? You tell me

How strong is Dad? Very

What does Dad do best? Work

What does Mom do best? I'm asking you

What do you like best about Dad? He sings funny songs

What do you like best about Mom? Stuff

RSV

 Our poor little Natalie had to be hospitalized for RSV this week. She had been pretty sick with fever and lethargy and just sleeping on the couch for several days, but on Monday evening her oxygen levels dropped really low and Austin decided to take her to the emergency room.

 They were there for awhile before they decided to hospitalize her and I drove up to ride in the ambulance with her. She was very happy because although I forgot to bring almost anything with me, I did remember to bring her Petal Bunny. Once we got settled into a room, Austin and his dad gave Natalie a priesthood blessing.

 It was really late by the time they left and we were ready to sleep, but like any hospital stay, it was constantly interrupted with nurses, doctors, phlebotomists, and respiratory therapists coming in the room. Natalie insisted that I sleep in the same bed as her, which was good anyway because she needed a lot of help not ripping all the tubes and wires off when she half-woke up throughout the night. Our little lady endured a lot of poking and prodding and even had to get a second IV put in when the first failed. The doctors decided to give her antibiotics because they believed she had developed a bacterial pneumonia. Her fever, which had barely been manageable with both Tylenol and Ibuprofen dropped the next morning, so I think they were correct. When her second IV failed, instead of trying for a third, they decided to administer her antibiotics through two simultaneous shots to the thighs- that was miserable, but better than enduring a third IV. Every single nurse there was incredibly patient and attentive to her. When they had to do something difficult, they brought her a little prize and she enjoyed that. She also became quickly attached to a snowman quilt that a volunteer had made for her room and she got to take home. A teddy bear was also in the room, but she didn't care about that until the last day when she started feeling better and wanted to play more. 

 Natalie did not enjoy the hospital, but once she wasn't just completely miserable, she did like getting to eat anything she wanted any time of day- I was just happy to get food in her. She had milk and juice whenever she would drink it and figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't going to say no to her eating a cookie for lunch. Although, after awhile I did insist that she eat a few bites of something real before starting on the cookie or brownie (she never finished more than a few bites of those either).

We were most blessed by all the support of family members. Grandpa Brent came to visit Natalie every day, Grandma Kate came and brought her roses, Aunt Renee visited with a bag full of prized that were perfect for a little girl stuck in bed. Aunt Renee and Uncle Justin also visited us on Thanksgiving to bring us some dinner (and help me keep my sanity after being stuck in a little room for days on end). They also took our older kids for two nights while Austin kept Trevor who got quite sick, but never quite as bad as Natalie. Austin and Trevor came to visit us once as well so that I could go out on a walk (with Trevor because I didn't really want him in her room to pick up extra germs). My family kept in touch over the phone and we had several offers to come help take care of the older kids, but we were blessed for Austin to be able to work from home and the kids were responsible enough to take care of most things while their dad worked. 

 On Wednesday night I started to see a little bit of Natalie's personality returning, although she still mostly just slept, she tried to joke with me and play a little bit. By Thursday evening, when she was awake I could really see her personality back. I really needed all those prizes from Aunt Renee then to keep her busy in bed when she wanted to get out. On Friday, the doctors and respiratory therapists decided to aggressively lower her oxygen and see how she tolerated it and by the afternoon they were ready to take it off. They wanted to see how she did when she was sleeping, so I had to convince her to take a nap (not that hard once I turned all the lights out, took away her toys, and had the nurses stay out of the room). She struggled a little bit, but they decided that we could go home as long as she had oxygen at night for a few nights. We were ecstatic to be able to get unhooked from all the machines and go home- maybe I was even happier than she was!

So far she has been doing pretty well, even though she fights us to have to take her antibiotics every morning and night. Trevor also seems to be getting better and not going down the same road as his little sister.

Trick-or-Treat

 The kids were excited and off-track all day as they waited for trick-or-treating to start. We finally made it through school and other daily chores and the kids couldn't wait to get going. It was difficult to get them to eat their early dinner as they kept running to look out the window to see what the neighbors were doing in their costumes and who was starting trick-or-treating early. We finally started about 6- which I thought was a bit early, but their were hoards of kids out already. We tried to avoid getting stuck in big crowds, but there are way more kids in our neighborhood than I realized. The kids had tons of fun and got more candy than anyone needs in less than an hour, so we came home and watched the traditional It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

If you're observant, you might notice that three of the kids (Natalie, Asher, and Leif) are wearing the same costumes they wore last year and the other two (Heidi and Trevor) are wearing costumes previously worn by their older brothers. I was just not up for making new costumes this year and convinced the kids that they could just find costumes I'd already made. They didn't put up much of a fuss since they really liked their costumes from last year and we have some pretty cool stuff from previous Halloweens. Hopefully next year I'll have the time and energy to make something new, but I was glad they were such good sports this year.

Leif was pretty proud of his pumpkin and wanted to make sure I got it in a picture. This is the big one he grew in our backyard and tucked in with a towel on the chilly nights.