Some memories from 2007

Our new nephew Lukas arrived. He was tiny but is now at the end of the year healthy and happy!

Leia lost her first tooth and then lost it again in a bowl of spaghetti!

Rachel and Ben came to visit us for a few weeks and we had a marvelous time.

I had the chance to go west for the first time with my friend Shannon. I loved the Grand Canyon and the landscape which is so different.

Our wonderful trip to Tennessee when Mum and Dad came out for the summer. Together with Grandma Joan we had a relaxing and fun time!

My gorgeous children all dressed up and heading out to Trick or Treat. All the events of fall were great with pumpkin picking and carving.

Going to Illinois for Thanksgiving to spend time with Grandma Cinda and Grandpa Bob.

Christmas this year has been cozy at home just spending lots of time together. The kids went to see a horrible Santa at Walmart. It was funny more than anything. You could see his own whiskers beneath the beard and he didn't even ask the kids what they wanted. Our family photo for this year turned out good. Of course Spencer continues to be our wildcard in photos but the backdrop seems to add interest.

Now to the new year ahead. I have several goals that I'd like to accomplish.

1. Exercise every day

2. Finish my writing project

3. Toilet train Nathan

4. Go on a trip for our tenth anniversary

To all our friends and family - we love you and hope you have a wonderful new year!

Christmas Day

I am truly exhausted. Gary and I woke up this morning with rotten colds. The kind where your nose gets raw because it's always dripping and you are wiping it 24/7. Of course we had to pull it together for the kids and luckily for us we were carried through by their excitement. It was so exciting for them to wake up this morning and to see all the presents. By the time we had opened up the presents, undone all the packaging, assembled everything and played with the kids it was eleven. I then spent the next three hours in the kitchen preparing the Christmas feast. (In England it's all about the food!) We then had Christmas dinner followed by more playing. By about 4pm the kids were getting so grumpy. The excitement had been entirely too much. We took a drive to distract them a little before a snack and bed. Nathan was the most tired because he is recovering from an infection which needed a trip to Childrens (that's a great story I'll save for another time). He was so happy to get into bed and cuddle up with his new Lightening McQueen toy. It's only 6.15 and both Gary and I are feeling so cruddy that I'm sure we won't rise from the couch until about 9pm when we'll probably drag our sorry butts to bed. Even so I can honestly say it's been a fantastic Christmas spent in the company of my most favorite people in the whole world. I am blessed beyond measure. I don't even regret buying the Buzz Lightyear laser guns for the boys!!

Christmas program

Yesterday was Spencer's Christmas program at school. Grandma Joan was able to make it and so she, Nathan and I sat and enjoyed the songs they sang. They sang a song about bells while ringing little bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Away in a manger, and We wish you a Merry Christmas. Spencer kept calling out greetings to us which was funny. He did very well and was very poised in front of the crowd. Special memories!

Who's a pretty boy?

Much to Gary's chagrin, the boys have both at one time or another thought it great fun to wear something that belongs to Leia. As long as we keep them in the house while indulging in this little passtime!!

Bananas and 'Quack Quack'

There comes a time with each child when one day you feel you have emerged from that foggy haze called babyhood. Today I felt that with Spencer. It's taken a lot longer with him than it did with Leia seeing as he's 4 and 1/2 already. Now don't get me wrong - I love babies but I think at different times you want different things and right now I am craving a break from baby things such as diapers, incessant mess, miscommunication leading to tantrums etc......

This afternoon, Nathan was down for a nap and Spencer said he wanted to play with me so I asked him what he wanted to do. First we built a castle out of mega blocks which he is actually using and role playing with instead of knocking down and strewing the pieces everywhere! Then we played four board games in a row. He adhered to the rules and didn't get mad if I won. The games were, Insey Winsey Spider, Tummy Ache, Red Dog Blue Dog, and finally Quack Quack. I was feeling very warm and fuzzy by this time to be having so much quality time with my sometimes very hard son. So I decided to get out my camera and capture it, just in case Gary didn't believe this tale when he got home from work!

On another note, Nathan won't eat anything except bananas for breakfast. He ate three this morning one after the other. Does anyone think this is excessive???

My boys

It's so nice to see all my boys watching TV from the couch!

Big boy bed

Well we have certainly had a day of it today. We decided that Nathan needed to make the transition to a regular bed since he is getting way too big for the crib and I want to start toilet training him after Christmas. The room which we call his has up until today had a full size bed in it for visitors as well as the crib but we decided to take that bed out to make room for a twin. We spent most of the morning cleaning out the closet to make room for the full size bed and then part of the afternoon breaking down the bunk beds in Spencer's room so we could reassemble the top part in Nathan's room. Eventually the idea is to have Spencer and Nathan share a room and use the bunk beds properly assembled but that is something for another day, possibly another year! We were all enthusiastic about this new arrangement and told Nathan all day that he was getting a big boy bed. Finally all was set up and I decided to take him upstairs and introduce him to his new sleeping arrangements. At first it seemed to be going well. He jumped up and down and thought the bed was very fun. And then when he realised that he would have to sleep in there he wasn't too happy. In fact Gary had to hold him down while I took a picture. Then he made his hasty exit followed by a lot of tears. Just for fun I had him say cheese for a picture while he was still crying. The last picture has been dubbed "tortured two year old". Wish me luck tonight!

Snow day

When we woke up this morning Leia was anxious for me to turn on the TV to find out if she would get to stay home from school. One bleary eyed look outside and I already knew. But getting a few extra zzzzs was not on the menu when you have three excited kids. So after breakfast I started the hunt for snow gear. As usual I do not think about buying any until the snow is already here. Leia's boots from last year worked, Spencer put on his wellies (not very well insulated but better than shoes), and then poor old Nate had nothing. I went into the closet and hunted out a pair of old boots which have fur on the inside and fit him perfectly. The only problem is that they used to belong to Leia and are a gorgeous shade of pink. Oh well, I thought. Gary is at work so he can't complain about him being scarred for life and he's only in the backyard. I remember when snow was fun. Needless to say I took one or two shots and then retreated back inside as fast as I could and took the rest hanging out the family room window!

A Christmassy kind of day

Today was a lot of fun. Gary and I did a little Christmas shopping while the kids were in school. Then when we picked them up, we went to the tree farm to cut down our tree. It was -3 degrees C so we were a little bit chilled but it couldn't dampen our spirits. We found the perfect tree and brought it home. The kids were so excited they couldn't contain themselves. We had FHE (reading the Christmas Story in the scriptures), ate cupcakes, and then we decorated the tree and the house. Leia and Spencer played with their Nativity play set and we listened to Harry Connick Junior. The House smells divine.

One of those days

I am tired. Because it has been one of those days. This morning Nathan woke up with a huge poop in his diaper accompanied by a diaper rash. To quote my good friend Jill - "sigh". I tried to avoid inhaling as I dealt with this wonderful start to the day. Then the boys proceeded to trash the house complete with strewing my cds everywhere and leaving tiny plastic soldiers all over the house specifically for me to tread on. By the time I had cleaned up the mess I needed some stress relief and so I turned, naturally, to Hobby Lobby and Target for said relief. However, once arriving at Hobby Lobby, I discovered that Nathan had a wet backside. Why did you not anticipate this I hear you ask. Well only because this was the third diaper of the day and it was only 11am. I changed him in the car but was assailed by the aromatic fragrance of pee soaked jeans for the rest of my outing. I had a temporary moment of "ahhhh" when I found something that Leia would really like for Christmas but then it was right back to business. After lunch I sought a quiet few minutes by laying Nathan down and putting Spencer in his room for some quiet time. I had literally closed the door on him when he yelled through the door, "Something fell off my glasses". Now this is a truly ominous statement - one that strikes fear into my heart. I opened the door to see his glasses bent into a truly unrecognisable state with one lens popped out of the frame of course. Now he has popped out the lens and bent the frame before and we have managed to fix it but one look at this mess told me it would amount to a trip to Beavercreek. So by the time Gary arrived home, Spencer was truly sullen because of the disciplining I had to implement. Off Gary trotted to Lenscrafters at my worst time of day. Leia is tired from school and Nathan is grumpy. Not 20 minutes after Gary has left the house, Nathan is walking like he is saddle sore and crying. Whilst I am dealing with poopy diaper number two which has inevitably worsened the diaper rash, I reflect on why it is that my son sees the need to poop twice, sometimes three times a day. Perhaps it has something to do with the two or three bananas he eats daily??? If any of you have never experienced what an almost three year old's poopy diaper is like, I will let you in on it. It's the same as if you pooped in a diaper and then had to see it up close.

Maybe later on this evening, I will wax lyrical about how wonderful, gorgeous, and good my children are. No doubt the clock will read 11pm and my children will be asleep at that point!