FINALLY...I'm in a holly jolly mood!

It wasn't easy, and I may not have handled the obstacles that came my way very pleasantly (sorry!),
but...

We finally made it to our new (temporary) home last night, and guess what:

It finally feels like Christmas!

If you didn't get your fill of unwrapping things and opening boxes, feel free to come on over and I'll let you open some of mine.

It's good to be "home."

Stuck

Snow is not my friend. I'm sick of snow. (Clarification: Snow is fine, as long as it stays off the roads, doesn't cancel school the last week before Christmas break, and doesn't give me cabin fever.)

Will we ever make it to our new home? I'm not sure. Will it ever stop snowing? It doesn't look like it will.

Will the Northwest ever learn that snowplows are not just convenient, but necessary?!

Will I ever have to move in December (in the snow) again? I hope not.

What am I thinking!?

I keep find myself asking that question. Like last night, for example. We had to have Family Home Evening, moving week or not, and we have got to have just a little bit of Christmas around here, so the girls and I got busy making beaded angels. What was I thinking, starting a project like that? And then I spent hours sitting in a chair in my kitchen while Jennifer colored my hair, and wondered how I could possibly get everything done today before the moving company invades the house tomorrow. And what was I thinking when I told Doug that I could handle all this moving stuff while he's working at his new job, and we only see him on the weekends?!

And sometimes I ask myself what was I thinking when I decided that it would be less stressful to have the moving company pack my stuff than to box it all up myself? It may be less physical exertion, but it's not less stress. That's my conclusion. Because I still feel the need to organize and purge every corner before they do the packing. And then I still won't know exactly which box holds whatever I'm looking for when we move in to the new house.

And now, what was I thinking starting this post, while out of the corner of my eye watching two little girls in the tub who now need to get out and I can't finish what I started here.

But let me just tell you this: I really strongly dislike four-legged furry things that want to share my living space. And this time, it's not a racoon in the back yard space. It's a rodent-type thing in the attic space. I'm not kidding.

Two nights ago, Lauren called me into her bedroom a few minutes after I had said goodnight, and whispered to me, "My bed is making noises." It wasn't her bed, but she does sleep on the top bunk, which is very close to the ceiling where a mouse (or whatever) was making it's scratchy noises. I HATE that sound. A lot.

This was Lauren's prayer at breakfast:

"...I don't want the mouse to die, but please make it go away and not come back, so that I can go to sleep at night, because Emily just ignores it, but I don't know how to do that."

And I told her I'm praying for the same thing. Not because I think it would be sad, like she does, if the mouse died, but because I think I might lose it if I have to remove it (dead or alive) myself.

And I don't need one more reason to "lose it". I have plenty of others!

Finding Time for Family

Since we're spending a few weeks apart - Doug is working at his new job, and the girls and I are trying to button things up here at home - it was nice to have a Family Reunion scheduled during this busy time. It gave us some valuable time together. We spent a few hours in cramped spaces (planes, trains [if you count the airport ride between terminals], and automobiles) :

and we spent a few days with all these people in the same house:

(It was a pretty big house!)

We had each other, we had cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, we had sunshine, we had a Wii, and we had a pool. What more could we need to be perfectly content?

Tradition

What do these movies have in common?

• Aladdin
• The Adams Family
• My Girl
• Enchanted
• Bolt

These are a few of the movies I remember seeing in the theater on Thanksgiving days. It's a great place to "fat dog" after a fabulous turkey feast.

Lazy Afternoon Activities

Mommy gets some computer time,

Lulu confiscates the camera,
Baby sits (!) and plays,

Emily puts on Christmas music and gets her sisters to make snowflakes.

When I see them working hard on their snowflake project, I smile and say, "What a good idea."

Hannah mumbles something as she cuts paper...

"You're making crafts?" I interpret.

She repeats herself more clearly: "We're making crap."

Yep, I heard her right the first time.

Emily checks Hannah's intentions: "What does crap mean?"

Hannah's answer: "It's a word for messy."

Oops! Bad mommy.

Feeding Olivia

These pictures are blurry (That's what happens when you try to snap pictures while at the same time trying to feed oatmeal with bananas to a grabby baby.) but they tell a clear story.

Hey Ma, Look at the time! I'm hungry. When are you going to feed me?

What the heck is this stuff?

Oatmeal?! No way. I'm not going to eat that! Just try and make me!

Oh, sure. Bring in the reinforcements. You think you and Em can take me? No problem. I can spray you both at the same time. Watch this...

Hey, wait a second...what's this stuff on my face? It's kinda good, actually.

They're Watching You

I don't know about you, but I am always curious to see what kind of coupons I receive when I check out at my local grocery store. Depending on what I buy, this machine automatically prints coupons for me to use on my next purchase. Like when I bought some baby food recently, it printed out a coupon for 50 cents off my next baby food purchase. Makes sense, right?

But once in a while, I get a coupon that seems random. For example, one time the machine printed a coupon for 2 free movie theater tickets. That was pretty sweet. And I'm not sure what I did to deserve that. But I enjoyed that coupon.

The other day I got a surprise that wasn't quite so pleasant, though. That dumb machine printed off a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $25 or more at "CATHERINE'S PLUS SIZES".

What did I buy to deserve that?!

We like to laugh.

Katelyn reported that her YW lesson today was about Dating and Marriage. (Isn't that a funny jump from Primary lessons just 2 weeks ago?) Anyway, she said that during the lesson, the advisor asked these 12-year-old girls what qualities they would look for in a boy they would hope to date, and the first two that Katelyn listed were:

1. Does he have the same standards as you?
and
2. Is he funny?

That made me smile. I can see why she thinks that's important. I love having a husband who can make me laugh, even when I don't feel like smiling. It is the best medicine, so they say.

It's a bloody business...

...But at least we know what Lauren wants for Christmas.

Trick or Treating

This little witch went Trick or Treating:



This good witch had a bun:

This little witch loved the candy:

And this witch has almost outgrown the fun:

This little piggy said "whee, whee, whee", I'm happy at home.

Our own porch was void of Trick-or-Treaters all night, except for one pair:

They had fabulous costumes! So good, in fact, that the girls didn't even recognize Aunt Jen!

Happy Sugar High!

Greetings from Lauren

Life

Life is pretty busy.

Life with five kids is hectic and busy.

Life with five kids attending three different schools (the preschool being at your house this week, meaning you have to plan and teach it) plus afternoon soccer practices and jump rope class is sometimes overwhelmingly busy.

Life with 5 kids and their various activities, when you have to help with the Friday night Halloween party and Trunk-or Treat at the church, and then on Saturday you're hosting and/or attending kids' birthday parties from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., is almost too busy!

Life as described above, crammed into a week when your husband accepts a new job which means an out-of-state move and preparing to sell your house (hopefully soon) is nothing but crazy busy!!!

Thank goodness for a "day of rest."

Growing Up Overnight

Saturday was the day. I finally removed the portable crib and all of Olivia's other stuff from my bedroom, and moved her down the hall to sleep in her crib and share a room with Emily. So far, it's working out great. She goes to sleep really well at night, and then Emily brings her to me at 4 a.m., before her crying even wakes me up! (Poor Emily. I guess I need to keep the baby monitor in my room, because I really don't want her to have to wake up for that. In fact, one reason I chose Emily as Olivia's roommate is because I thought she'd be the most likely to sleep through Olivia's cries. Guess not.) Anyway, Olivia got to spend more time sleeping in my bedroom than any other baby, but I still wasn't anxious to give her the boot. I'm just not ready for her to grow up!

But she's doing it anyway.

Sunday morning, we (Emily, actually) noticed that Olivia's first tooth has erupted.

Chewing feels good! That's the tag of my new clothes, cuz I'm outgrowing everything so fast!


If she takes her first steps tomorrow, I'm really going to cry!

What kind of mother?

I'm not totally sure what a "Soccer Mom" is. I do take my kids to practices and lessons, in a mini-van. Just about every afternoon, I'm rushing to get a child somewhere or rushing to pick another child up from something, or, I'm just sitting in the hallway or the parking lot, or the cold field, waiting for them to be done. Is it more than that? If what I'm doing is being a soccer mom, then I don't really enjoy it. I do enjoy watching Emily's soccer practices and games, don't get me wrong. I just don't like the rush to get everyone home from school, throw a snack at them, make sure they've used the bathroom (because public toilets are usually gross and never conveniently located, and my kids always seem to need to use them at the worst times), make sure they have all their gear, make sure all the siblings have what they need, pray that Olivia doesn't need to eat or have her diaper changed right at the time when I need to be driving somewhere....and then rush home to try to pull together dinner in about 5 minutes or less, so that we can be working on homework or off to the next activity... And only three of my kids are in only one activity each!

I prefer being a "Couch Mom". If you don't know, I'll tell you what that is. It's a mom who loves to sit at home, snuggled up on the couch with a kid or two and a snack and some books, with no clock in sight and no worries about that. (Plus, sometimes, she gets off the couch to make some more yummy snacks, and sometimes she lets the kids help with that, too.) This is how Hannah and I spent some time this afternoon. While we ate our popcorn* out of a big shared bowl, this is how our conversation went:

Me: Hannah, I have a question. When you grow up, are you going to remember this?

H: Yep.

Me: You'll remember eating popcorn and being silly with Mommy?

H: Yep.

Me: Good.... But will you remember that I was mean sometimes?

H: No. Cause we don't want to remember mean stuff.

Me: Yeah, we don't like to remember that.

H: And we don't like to remember bad shows on t.v.

Me: Have you seen bad shows on t.v.?

H: (nods her head yes)

Me: What?

H: "Stardust"

Me: Oh. (Comforting thought to self: Well, that was Daddy.)

*If you want to have a good time like this, it helps to have the right kind of popcorn: PopSecret Homestyle. It's the best!

More Than 31 Flavors

The other evening, I (finally) took Emily to the ice cream shop to redeem a birthday certificate she received. In that moment, she experienced a severe case of indecision. Funny how, when I buy her an ice cream cone, she doesn't seem to struggle so much with her choice. But I think that because it was her own purchase, she felt pressure to make it really count.

Anyway, while Emily paced back and forth, studying the 31 flavors before her, the girl behind the counter got bored, I guess. Or maybe just hungry. I watched curiously as she took a small pink sample spoon, scooped out a bite-size chunk of ice cream (Gold Medal Ribbon?) and popped it in her own mouth! I wonder if my surprise showed on my face. Do you think that's as funny as I think it is?

Well, at least she didn't double dip.

One time I was at another of my favorite ice cream counters in SoCal with my sister-in-law, Melaina. She asked for a sample of something, which the attendant gave her. Melaina was still undecided, so she asked for a taste of a different flavor. The attendant answered, "Sure. Same spoon?" and reached for the little sample spoon Melaina was still holding. It took both of us by surprise to see the ice cream girl stick the spoon that Melaina had licked into the tub of ice cream and hand her another sample with it. After we got over our shock, we couldn't stop giggling. Yes, it was disturbing, but mostly, it was hilarious.

The most disturbing image burned into my brain, though, is of the little frozen yogurt shop I worked at as a teenager. First of all, I always ran the shop alone--even closing up at night, and all. How scary is that? But thankfully, I suppose, the biggest threat I faced working in that shop was an army of cockroaches. DEE-SKUSTING. I saw them on the floor, on the side of the yogurt machine, and - worst of all - in the bowls of toppings. Which is why I never snuck any of those and popped them into my mouth, with customers watching, or without.

Good news: I guess I can assume that my local ice cream shop doesn't have cockroaches, or if they do, their teenage employee has never seen any. Cuz she still eats the product.

P.S. My all-time favorite of the 31 flavors is World Class Chocolate. But Emily and I have now discovered the goodness that is called "Baseball Nut." You should try it sometime.
What's your fave?

At 5 months...

Olivia drools a LOT, blows bubbles, and chews on anything she can stuff in her mouth.



She screams for fun (sometimes she sounds like a hawk screeching; other times, like a vocalist doing warm-up exercises).



She giggles, but rarely--only if someone is exceptionally funny.



She is starting to get a bit wary of losing her mother in a crowd.



She's trying hard to roll over.



She enjoys spending time in her Saucer.





And she just experienced her first haircut. Why? Because we have a strict family rule: NO MULLETS! And she was about to break that rule.





The sisters and I tried the homestyle cut

(See what I mean about blowing bubbles?)

but before long, we knew it was time to call in the expert: Aunt Jen!

(See what I mean about chewing on things?)

(She looks kind of nervous, doesn't she?)

But I think Olivia likes her new style!

It doesn't seem like they're really listening, but they are.

This morning we gathered our family in our cozy little family room to watch and listen to General Conference. It takes great effort to keep the girls focused for two hours each session, but we especially encourage them to listen closely to the Prophet. During his closing talk this morning, urging everyone to enjoy life as it comes, he spoke to parents of young children, promising that someday we will truly miss the fingerprints on every just-cleaned surface, and the toys scattered all over the house.

Immediately, from out of the pile of pillows and blankets on the floor, Emily calls out, "So Dad, are you going to let us make more messes now?"

Birthday Wishes

To Grandma D.


From Lauren

That's a picture of the b-day lady at the top.

Below that is a bunny, who says he wants a carrot.

Lauren started writing the lyrics to the Primary song,

"You've had a birthday,

shout hooray!

We want to sing to you...."

But then she ran out of room, so she just decided to say

Happy Birthday!

YAHOO! I found it!

Did we have fun at Camp Ritchie?

In the words of Mary Murphy, "YES WE DID!!!"

(Speaking of Mary, I miss SYTYCD. DWTS just doesn't thrill me anymore. But I would like to see them put the DWTS judges on SYTYCD, and then it would be a perfect combo!)

*A little note of explanation: this picture was taken circa 1990 at Girls Camp (Camp Ritchie). These are all girls from my ward: Erika, with the beautiful, full, spazzy hair; Aamey; Stacey; and Alicia. When I moved away from California, Erika made a scrapbook for me with lots of fun memories, including this picture, with the caption: "Try Swiss Formula, it's the best. I wouldn't trust anything else for my hair!"

See, I told you she keeps me laughing. :)

If you want to see more pictures of those happy days of my youth, check out Erika's blog here.

Focus

Guess who is in every picture snapped by our camera? Baby Olivia, that's who. You know how, stereotypically, the first child gets photographed a ton, and subsequent children are supposed to have fewer and fewer photos of their childhood? Well, the thing that blew that theory in our case is the new digital technology. See, many of our pictures are taken by my kids (especially Lauren and Hannah), and not me. Back when we had a camera with actual film, I would not have been so free with it. I probably take just as many pictures of Olivia as I did of Katelyn as a baby--maybe slightly fewer. But when I was buying film and paying to develop it, and half the shots came back from the printer and went into the garbage because they were worthless, I had to be little more choosy.



Anyway, here is a sampling of Hannah's photography:



Daddy and Olivia. See the resemblance? I do. Mommy and Olivia. See that nice brown spot on my cheekbone? Yeah, I didn't have that before Olivia came into my life. As you can see, I love her a bunch anyway. My face has a nice-sized blemish like that for almost every one of my pregnancies. I hope it's not cancer.


And here's the picture I took this morning. These two were so irresistable in their pink and brown, I had to take a quick snapshot. (I hear that the new trendy combo is brown and green, which is also a good choice.)
On my Christmas wish list: a nice digital camera that I won't want to share with my little ones. And would someone please develop a way to print the picture date on the back of the print instead of the bottom corner? That would be fantastic.

Tradition

If ever I get sick, I'll give you three guesses as to what else is going on in my life, and I guaruntee that at least one of them applies:

1. It's back to school time.

2. It's the holidays (as in, Christmas time).

3. I've recently been in a doctor's office waiting room.

In this case, two of the three are true.

It's exactly how I felt one year ago. Exactly...except that I'm not pregnant this year. :)

Time Keeps on Slipping

Stuff is happening, but there's no time to blog about it. Why? Because I'm in a race against the clock. I was looking forward to school starting up again, because it felt like it had been a very long time since I'd had a normal routine...you know, with the baby being born, and school letting out for the summer, and vacations, and what not.

Is this what "normal routine" means? Yikes.

On the first day of school (which also happened to be Emily's birthday), I woke up at 6:30, and when I looked at the clock at 9:30, three hours later, I thought to myself, I've been up and going for three hours, and all I've done is fix breakfast and get kids off to school. Honestly, that was all. I was still in my pajamas!

Here's a brief overview of the busy schedule:

KATELYN:

Gets up and ready for school on her own. (Thank goodness!) Leaves home an hour earlier than her sisters, and gets home an hour earlier in the afternoon. Or at least, she used to get home earlier, until she started Cross Country training this week. She's enjoying it (and it's wearing her out), and we're so proud of her. She is also learning the flute this year. Still finding time to read books, and lots of them!


EMILY:

Turned 10. Decorated her own cake (with just a little help from Mom). Has the same teacher she had last year, so it didn't take her long to adjust. Also started soccer again. I wish I had a camera at last Saturday's game, when Emily played like a mad woman, heading the ball to intercept the opposing keeper's drop-kick! (Another mom asked me, "What are you feeding her?!) It was awesome.

LAUREN:

Has some adjusting to do, now that she's in school all day, every day. She has been to the nurse at least twice already, but, as Lauren says, "She didn't know what was wrong with me." I think Lauren would love to just play all day. The nurse must be nice.


I wish the nurse could have helped with this little bloody issue: trying to lose that top tooth. It was a stubborn one! For days, I thought it was about to drop out, but it hung in there, despite our best efforts (with floss, fingers, etc). When it finally did come out, it was chewing gum that did the trick.

This was almost 24 hours before it fell out.

HANNAH:


Started "preschool" with four little friends from church. I'll be teaching every fifth week. She loves it. So do I. She wishes it was every day. This is my first week to teach, so I've been preparing. On Monday when she asked if she was going to preschool, I explained that she didn't have school that day, but that I would be teaching her school this week, so I needed her to help me get ready that day. After getting dressed, and asking again if it was time to go to school, she got frustrated when I said she wasn't going to school. She rolled her eyes, put her hands on her hips, and said, "Mom, do you know what? When we get ready for school, that means we need to go to school." It finally dawned on me that she thought "get ready for school" meant get dressed, brush teeth, eat breakfast. I guess I didn't do a good job explaining that "get ready" on Monday meant looking up ideas online, and buying a couple things at the store!


OLIVIA

She's learning to take regular naps (I think it's working, but I don't want to jinx myself by saying so!) and to laugh.


She has laughed before (Labor Day weekend we heard her first giggles), but she's not yet a big giggler. We've really got to work the laughter out of her. She prefers to just be a quiet observer. But she does squeal at her toys, and blow bubbles and "growl", and so many other cute and adorable things. We love this girl!

Breakfast Conversation

Mom: Doesn't Olivia look adorable?

Dad: Yep, I could gobble her up.

Emily: Well, she would definitely fill you up!

4 Months

I have so much to catch up on, and so little time! For today, let's just play another game of "Baby to Baby"...

In fifth place, weighing a puny 13 pounds 8 ounces, we have 4-month-old Lauren.

Barely squeaking ahead into fourth place is Emily, at 13 pounds 10 ounces.

This girl is used to being first, but in this case, she wins third place, weighing 14 pounds 2 ounces at 4 months old, it's Katelyn!

Dropping to a respectable second place is our former champ, Hannah Beans! At four months old, she weighed 15 pounds 12 ounces. Not too shabby!

But today, we crowned a new heavyweight champion! She may be the youngest, but she's got something to prove. Don't mess with this little cutie! She now weighs 16 pounds 8 ounces, and she's STILL GROWING, folks!

Baby, take a bow! Mama's so proud of you all!!!

My Grandpa passed away last Wednesday. You might remember him from this post I wrote last year. I'm so glad I was able to visit him last month and treasure what I knew were probably my last shared experiences with him. He wasn't saying a whole lot during our visit, but my last favorite memory will be sitting next to him during Sacrament Meeting, sharing a hymn book with him, and his compliment to me: "Great voice!" Coming from him, I take that as a true compliment.

You can read his obituary here. He was an amazing man.It's sad that he won't be greeting us when we visit Utah in the future. But I had a sweet experience last weekend that I'm trying to keep in mind.

It was a beautiful, blue-sky Saturday morning, and I was outside playing with my children. Out of nowhere came a small (but noisy) plane flying above us, doing barrel rolls and loop-de-loops and all kinds of tricks, making us all stop and stare. It made me think of my Grandpa, and stories I've heard of his daring stunts as a pilot in his twenties. Knowing him as I did when I was a kid, I had no trouble picturing or believing those stories about him! While I knew that Grandpa's body was failing now, and was about to die, I also saw so clearly the joy and freedom that he was about to experience, in spirit. It made me smile, and almost chuckle, I felt so happy for him, so lucky to be his posterity, and so glad for who he is and will continue to be.

I'm so glad to know that life doesn't end with death, and I'll look forward to our next visit! :)

"______ Makes the Heart Grow Fonder"

What is it? Is it really absence? Taking off for an evening with the ladies? Is it Thai food? It could be that sticky rice with mangoes! Is it just coming in out of the rain? After standing outside the closed restaurant, chatting, huddling under the eaves and shivering in the pouring rain, it did feel good to come inside my warm, dry house. Maybe it was a combination of all these factors and more (like the peace and quiet of my dark house, and knowing that I can climb in my cozy bed as soon as I click the button to publish this)...



Whatever the cause, I'm smiling tonight, peeking in on all my girls and my husband sleeping peacefully, and thinking how lucky I am that they are mine, and how blessed we are in so many ways.

It's a Jolly "Holladay" with you, Erika!

Today I spent the day with my BFF since childhood.

Every time I get together with Erika, it's clear to me why we've been friends for almost 30 years. She is just so much fun to be around! She makes me laugh, and you know how I love to laugh.

Put the two of us together, and we act like kids and giggle like school girls, even though we both have children of our own now. Our youngest babies are about 3 weeks apart.


Look how baby Kate smiles for the camera. She's a natural. You know, she started modeling at just one week old!


"Psst...Hey, Kate! Did you hear what I did to my dad to get out of the last hour of church on Sunday?..."


"...Sure wish I could think of some way to get out of taking all these pictures!"

Teens

After our wedding anniversary yesterday, Doug and I have now been married for 13 years. We've entered the teens. And speaking of teens, funny enough, I was actually still in my teen years on our wedding day. Shocking, but true.

Another thing I find shocking is that my sisters thought the bridesmaid dresses were atrocious. (Now you tell me, Sarah!)

What do you all think?

To be honest, there are a few details about my wedding that I might change if I were planning it today. But thankfully, I have no regrets about my marriage to this guy. If the biggest disappointment of that day was a peach dress...I can take it. :)