It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

We hope you all had a magical and memorable Christmas this year.

In case you were wondering, Mitch-darling and I managed to set a record for the most Christmas shopping accomplished in the shortest amount of time for the most children - EVER. We've patted ourselves on the back for that one. And to tell you the truth, other than one pretty stressful day last week, it wasn't as terrible as I feared it would be. All was calm, all was bright.

Christmas Eve was full of the usual excitement - culminating with the ever-more impressive Sullivan Nativity.

            

Just before bed...Christmas Eve. They were not sleepy.

 Christmas Day we hosted the big Sullivan family dinner at our place. 30+ people, and I think it came off well. Everything is still intact. Of course, I haven't inspected the basement (the kids' domain) that closely. Just kidding. 9 or 10 more kids isn't going to make that much difference at a house already full of little dudes.

What's an extended Sullivan gathering without some picking and singing? A little boogie action by my littlest nephew Ezekiel Roanhorse...

We've been doing some good quality R & R the last few days. Mike's Mom hosted their family dinner yesterday with world-class food (again). Today she and I went for pedicures at our favorite place - I always appreciate those outings with her. And tomorrow is a ski/boarding day for 4 lucky kids with their Dad and G-pa M. Not bad.

Christmas is such a beautiful thing. I love the hopeful feeling it brings. And those of gratitude and love for the Savior of the world. It represents everything good to me.

If you didn't receive a Christmas card from us (and even if you did), Merry Christmas to you. We have the best family and friends in the world.

A View of the Inside of our Fridge and Other Updates

Everyone here has been busy taking turns getting sick. Strep. Our fridge is full of bright bubble-gummy bottles of antibiotics for all 5 kids. Plus Mike. (He actually has pills - not pictured.) That makes 6 for 7 of us. Pretty impressive numbers.

Twice a day everyone forms a line at the kitchen counter and I administer the goods.  Somehow I have escaped the scourge. But I haven't been 100%. My sciatic pain has gotten a little out of hand. So, I'll be seeing a chiropractor soon (or anyone else who claims they can give me some relief). 

A few items of interest lately from the life of Noble:

His submission for the Carbon Atom model assignment at school -

Saturday his Lego Robotics Club had a scrimmage against the only other club in the area in preparation for the big competition in January.  The Super Mega Nano Chips (Noble's club) beat the Smashing Robot Chickens... hands down. I was seriously amazed at what they could do. Wow.

Today I went to see my midwife - and - in case you doubted, our pregnancy has been professionally confirmed. I love to hear that little swoosh-swoosh heartbeat. *sigh*  She set the due date for July 1.

This weekend we will actually start our  Christmas shopping...watch out, world.  We're late this year so we have some ground to make up. All my friends and family out there who were done Christmas shopping in October, try not to think too poorly of me. I have to tell you, I had a nightmare last week that Christmas Eve wuz upon us and we didn't have anything done. Holy smokes. I woke up sweating...and reminding myself, "It was only a dream... only a dream." Wish us luck.

A two-year-old has been HERE

On the First Day of Hanukkah

A Hanukkah meal.

I couldn't believe how much energy I had yesterday so I started working on a bunch of projects. A homemade felted advent calendar, a dump truck-load of laundry, mopping the floors... I didn't finish any of it. EXCEPT my last minute plan to make a Hanukkah meal. The kids were pretty excited that there was something festive going on. They overlooked the sad inaccuracy of our pretend menorah and just took it all in. I sat them down at the table and started to tell the story of Hanukkah. No sooner had I begun, but they started chiming in with details of the story that they already knew.  Tillman: "Yeah, Judah Maccabee! I know him. He fought against the Greeks." Jessie: "The Greeks sacrificed a pig on the altar of the temple!" (I don't think anyone ever taught me this stuff in elementary school... or high school for that matter. My kids are either WAY smarter than me or educational opportunities have improved - or both.)

Anyway, I think we'll repeat this next year. Everyone loved the food. Potato latke, Challah (braided egg bread), roasted chicken in a traditional marinade, apple sauce, and apple cookies with ice cream (don't know if that part is very Jewish - but whatever). The kids wanted to know if we could celebrate every night of Hanukkah.

Me: "Um. This is good enough."

Snow Report - 11/29

An additional 12 inches of powder over night - making a 2 day total of nearly 2 feet.

 We kept in 4High to get out and to school this morning. Jessie couldn't believe school wasn't canceled. I told her it would take a lot more snow for that. As it was, they arrived at school 10 minutes late (mostly because things hadn't been plowed at the school and traffic was snarled at drop off).

 It took 2.3 hours to clear this driveway (& the walks) today. Who needs a gym? 

 The cool thing is now our house looks like a cupcake.

Sick on Sunday

 This morning we dug out from another over-night storm. Looks like we'll have to do it again this afternoon. It hasn't stopped. Maybe another 8 inches total today. I'm telling you, with a driveway the size of ours, a snow-blower is in the cards in the NEAR future. (Merry Christmas, Mitch-darling!)

And this is what Sully's doing right now (good day for it). 

Little Sully-pants didn't make it through church today. Fever, snot, sad. The mini-dvd player right next to him, spinning "Cars" (the 118th showing this weekend) was about the only thing that could calm him down today. Poor guy.

Mike surprised everyone yesterday when he brought home this year's Christmas tree unexpectedly (just before the game). Sully was the most excited... after me. :) We had Mike's brothers, Gary and Tim (in town for Thanksgiving), his dad and Grandma Helen over for the game. Mike cooked up some of his yummy beef nachos and we settled in. You all know the outcome of the game. I know Ute fans were relieved even though it wasn't pretty. A blocked field goal is a pretty intense way to win a game. Jessie is still getting over it.

After our guests went home, we finished off the tree.

I think it's the prettiest one we've ever had. It was so cozy.

Also this weekend, Mike and his bros got out to do some skiing on Black Friday. He said there were no lines and the snow was great. Awww man, I was a little jealous.

We had a great Thanksgiving with family (both sides) and the best food.

We are grateful for all of you - family and friends.

Now to go cook up some holiday left-overs for Sunday dinner.

Not so Bad - Time for Thanksgiving

Whew! The blizzard came and went last night...and this is all it left.

Not a lot in the way of new snow. (Thanks to our sweet neighbor who had our driveway and sidewalks snow-blown before the dawn this morning.) We had about 12 inches more than that from the storm that came through on Sat./Sun. - plus that one knocked out our power and cancelled church. (If you can't get a school snow-day, a church snow-day is almost as exciting.)  Still I'm not going to be a scoffer. It was pretty hairy last night with the winds & driving was scary. I'm glad our Tuesday night schedule was cleared and I had my family safe and warm & home together for dinner (a very rare event for a week-night).

And I'm glad that the storm has moved on for the big events of the week. Thanksgiving tomorrow - it should be pretty frigid this year (20's). And of course, the big game on Saturday (you know the one I mean). Happy Rivalry Week. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pull it Together

I think I mentioned that I have been super-duper tired and unmotivated lately. To clear things up...there is a reason.

We are expecting a 6th little Melton.

First trimesters are my nemesis. I think I would take the extra 20 lbs and stress-incontinence of the 8th month any day over feeling like I have mononucleosis for 3 months. I can't really complain - my pregnancies aren't so bad compared to a lot of women I know.  I haven't ever been nauseous for 9 whole months or had my feet swell or had serious complications (knock on wood). I gotta tell you though, doing this at 35/36 is way different than at 20-something. I can feel the drain more. It's weird. There's something a little sobering about realizing that my body won't always respond effortlessly to the demands I make on it. And the realization that this is the end of the road for me as far as child-bearing. I don't know. I think a lot of women make that decision without a lot of sadness. It's not that I want to have a lot more kids or something. (This is where you might smirk sarcastically because ... we already have a bunch of kids. Believe me, we've heard it all.) That's not it. It's closing the door on this phase of my life. That is tough. So even if we had decided to be "done" with 1 or 2, the decision would feel the same to me. Kind of a satisfied, but semi-sad - "OK, this is it."

So. I'm struggling to keep up with life these days.
This is how things went down this morning / afternoon.
6:30 AM - drowsy, drag myself to the living room to read scriptures with the kids (Mike catching up on z's after working late). If the kids can show up so can I. Read. Prayer. Make scrambled eggs and toasted English muffins, melon for breakfast. Talk about stuff with the kids. Shoosh them a bunch of times so they don't wake up Sully or Mike.
7:30 AM - coat over jammies, fire up the X-wing in the garage, load kids with backpacks & lunches (hoping they actually brushed teeth) - drive them to school, discussing the fall of the Roman empire with Jessie as we go. Drop off at 7:45 AM.  Drive home, let the Space Donkey out of his kennel, feed him. Walk zoned-out into the house. Sully is awake in his room. *sigh*  Get him a sippy of milk, let him down, hope he'll stay out of trouble. Drop back into bed next to Mike (he's kept the bed warm for me - how thoughtful.). Sully climbs up between us, lays there sipping and snuggling. He needs a diaper change - but I am WAY too tired to care. He climbs down at some point. I am unconscious for 2 HOURS. Seriously? I wake up with a jerk at 10:00 AM. I run to find Sully - contentedly watching PBS (did I turn that on for him?). I apologize to him for making him wait for his breakfast. Into the kitchen to make him an egg-McMelton - I notice he has pulled a stool to the counter and dug through the Halloween candy bowl. I see the remains of at least 5 or 6 pieces of candy that he has fed himself for breakfast. I am not mad at him. I apologize again for being up late. He must have been hungry (plus, candy would be his first choice any day for breakfast). I make him breakfast and he eats a little...mostly he wants a drink of water. I would too if I ate that much candy first thing in the morning. Poor kid.
Late start - so I don't expect much from the day. Do some yoga stretch (part of pregnancy for me is sometimes-severe sciatic nerve problems - my dad calls it psychotic nerve) - ouch. Shower. Say good-bye to Mitch-darling.
Wanting to make-up for my morning neglect, I arrange to take Sully over to play with his cousins. I help Holly rake leaves at Mom's. We have a pleasant picnic lunch on the grass (it was 60 degrees today).
2:30 PM It's time to pick the kids up from school. Sully throws a huge fit when we have to leave. But he's asleep by the time we pull into the carpool line at the school. I wait. This is my only chance to make some progress on Aron Ralston's book, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, that I've been anxious to finish.
I break up the usual number of in-car squabbles on the way home, crank up the 311. At home I get kids going with homework, piano practice, cover a math text book with a brown paper grocery sack for Jess. (I can't believe I remembered that skill.)

I yawn all afternoon.

It's been sort of survival like this the past several weeks - being fatigued so much of the time and a little nauseous. My running has all but come to a stop (I got out earlier this week once for a very short jaunt).  So I feel extra sluggy.
Still, everything is great. My energy will return. And more importantly, we are grateful and happy about the little person who will be coming to us. The kids are busting-the-seams excited about it. I don't think they've ever been more stoked about a new brother or sister. Maybe because they know this will be the last one they will get.

THe Glasses are In (the house)

I picked them up on the way to get the kids from school. As soon as he put them on in the car he just  kept saying, "WHOaaH!!!! whoooaaahh! I can READ the clock in the car now!!! The trees have individual leaves!"

Again, I apologize, Noble, that we didn't know sooner.

If there is a kid who can pull off this kind of change of image mid-elementary school with ease - it's Noble. (I wish I was as cool as he is.)

Weekend Walks and Some Items of News

These are some shots from our Saturday Constitutional walk/ride with the Sullivan clan. Jordan Parkway at Jordan Narrows. For riding: skateboards, scooters, wagons & Mitch-darling.

Lots of things have been happening. Mitch-darling will (finally) be working during the day again starting in Dec. He will also be teaching an Econ course one night a week. In other news...Jessie will be getting braces soon and Noble will be getting glasses this week. Apparently he's been near-sighted for a while - maybe a few years. Sorry about that, Noble. Having always had 20/20 vision, Mike and I were a little slow on the uptake. The funny thing about both of these corrective devices is that Jess and Nobe both cannot wait to get them (I understand a little more in Noble's case since he'll actually be able to see once he gets them). I remember thinking braces were horrible before, during and after mine. So much, that I quit wearing my retainer early on and I don't care when the dentist tells me I've had "slippage" - seriously, good enough is good enough. I'll post pics of Noble once his glasses come in this week.

I'm too tired to blofg. (Ha ha. I love that drunkish spelling...I'm keepin it)

I am. And though I know there's a world out there hanging on every word I post online (humor me), I just don't feel so up to it.

Quickie news from the home front before I bag it for the day:
* It snowd (another great fatigued spelling) up in the mountains quite a bit this past week. I hear ads for ski passes, etc. But honestly, I'm too tired to be excited for all that either.
* Trying to put away Halloween. There's a lot of crud to pack up. That makes me tired.
* You would not believe my kids' schedules these days (and Mitch-darling's too)...well, maybe you would. Tuesdays are brutal in that department.
* mIKE'S working the polls today. He wondered if taking Wealth of Nations to read would be breaking the "no political books" rule for poll workers.

Things are good. Full speed ahead.
A little break would be nice.

Let's Have a Party, There's a Full Moon in the Sky...

This post has a lot of photos. That's probably unavoidable for something so cool.

The single most anticipated night of the year.

This may be the photo of the night (well done, Elena).

How about that for a festive sky?

I think the party came off as awesome as we planned. Thanks to the efforts of many, beginning with...

In keeping with Mike's plan to "keep the neighbors just a little on-edge" we erected a massive arch in our front yard. Bendy and Roy just acquired a GIGANTIC inflatable arch for their race timing business and offered to set it up for some added "oomph" in the way of party atmosphere as our guests arrived.

Because we just can't do anything half-way.

It was huge and obnoxious, and I could NOT stop laughing. Mike commented that maybe the neighbors would think we were just showing our support for the University of Utah (who was giving Colorado a good whooping at the moment). 

We took a group photo under the arch once everyone got there. It was so huge the picture had to be taken from a pretty good distance away. 

 Don't you love that you can get away with stunts like this at Halloween?

Some of the crowd.

La Puma and El Rey Leon preparing to rumble. (Let me tell you, more than a few people were coveting those pink pants. And talk about COMFORTABLE... 
Mitch-darling actually wore them to work today. I'm not kidding.)

Here's a quick clip from the fight. What you are about to see was NOT choreographed.
This was a real-live fight. Really.
It might appear to be a little weak. But you should know that El Rey Leon pulled a muscle in his shoulder doing those lifts, and went to church the next day smelling of Bengay.
 
Untitled from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

Mysterious secret-agent Jessie.

Derek made it home from Monterrey in time for the party. It was great to have him back after 7 months away at Army training.

A game of Dia de los Muertos bingo. Those Mexicans know a thing or two about fun with macabre.

<------ Black-lit Hal in the Vampire Room.













The Vampire Room lived up to all it's promise as a perfect setting for Halloween festivities. A few spinning lights, a black light and some loud Halloween-y music...and PRESTO!

I won't show you any of the footage of those glowing pink pants dancing, because, let me tell you, it's pretty intimidating stuff...but here's a clip of some of the party-goers doing a little "Thriller" (be glad I'm not posting all 45 minutes of "Rock Lobster" instead).

Thriller from Angie Melton on Vimeo.

We even spookified the powder-room. Flickery light bulbs, bloody hand prints...

A few more highlights.

Casey showing off a few pull-ups -

Sean dressed to kill with his SO, SO AWESOME Army-issue specs (those are for real)

My cute mom - It's probably this woman's fault that we all love Halloween like we do.

We missed Dad (who had his temple assignment and who would have no-doubt come as a bandito again), Tim and Helen too.

If the Vampire Room survives another year... we might do a repeat next October. Put in your requests for invites now by texting: "Giant Inflatable Arch" to my cell phone.

Happy Halloween!

Life is good.

When you feel grateful. Grateful comes most intensely when you go through the rough patches in life. You have to be grateful to be happy. So......(and this is the funny part) if you correlate that (like a math problem) - life's difficulties can bring us to a place of greatest happiness, appreciation, and peace. Who would have guessed? Well actually, wise people like our parents know stuff like this. Also, President Monson spoke about this at LDS General Conference a few weeks ago. I needed to hear that.

It's kind of counter-intuitive how difficulties can sharpen to almost super-human levels your appreciating for simple joys, comforts, compassion, goodness...

Like, when a toddler climbs up on your head in the morning as you are trying to sleep. And you have to smile drowsily. Or when that toddler lays there softly singing jabbery 2-year-old songs. How cool is it when thoughtful neighbors think of you and share from their gardens - because they know you didn't have a chance to plant one yourself? Or when an old friend calls out of the blue to say hello. Children who put up with you - and forgive you. Or the sun rising in a fall sky. Today I saw a guy on a motorcycle drive by the Air National Guard and salute the flag as he passed - and I thought, "how cool".

Do we notice all the things around us that are right? Sometimes it takes struggling & suffering a little to refocus on what has been given and not on what is lacking. To feel really grateful and happy.

From Pres. Monson:

Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings.

This is a wonderful time to be on earth. While there is much that is wrong in the world today, there are many things that are right and good. There are marriages that make it, parents who love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach. Our lives are blessed in countless ways.

We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues. Someone has said that "gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."

:)

We like pumpkins in the patch.

This is an annual post. I know.
But, this tradition of picking our pumpkins is one of my favorite things in the world.

Disclaimer: Don't give me a hard time if the kids look like the Little Rascals in these pictures. I didn't scrutinize their outfits the way many pumpkin patch parents do. (The sweet little Halloween-y babies and toddlers followed closely by camera-toting parents. Yeah.....I'm kind of a slacker like that.) Shirts and pants on backwards here and there. And I know, I know, there are a few boys in dire need of haircuts here.

This year we took the kiddz to a different pumpkin patch. It was cool. But... as I told Mike, I thought it was lacking sincerity (a la Charlie Brown). In reality, I'm sure that it is not that much more contrived than the one we've historically gone to. But there weren't any vines ... and that made me feel like something was just not right. You need the vines to feel pumpkin patch-y. You know what I'm saying?

There was a cool little corn maze for little people.

If you look close you'll see the fall colors on Lone Peak here. It was a beautiful day.

Sully's pumpkin.

Grace in the driver's seat.

This is hands-down, my favorite time of year.

I can't wait for the Halloween par-tay this coming weekend. You will hear more about that (I know you are dying to).

Is it Fall yet?

It is in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Hiking up to one of our favorite spots - Willow Heights trail (we just call it the "Troll Pond" trail.)

Sully & "Brubber"

Grace with our sweet little cousin. 

So pretty. 

Jess and I actually missed out on this hike because of a funeral this morning. It looks like a beautiful time guys.