New Year Woes

Sometimes the best plans just fall to pieces.

Last Thursday night, I bought a car. We had decided to try buying from ebay because we thought we could get a great deal and figured the risks were minimal with all the protections ebay offers. We did get a great deal (so far we think it's a great deal anyway) and were able to buy this nice 2005 Toyota Corolla for 30% less than blue book value.

The tricky part is that the car is in Florida so we had to either pay to have the car shipped here or go there to pick it up. Since it's winter and since winter in Florida is pretty nice and since I have some time off for holiday break and since driving it back is much cheaper than shipping it, I decided to take a quick trip down there to pick it up. We decided to let Adam come with me to keep me company.

So here was the grand plan:

- Greg and Adam would fly to Tampa, Florida this morning (Dec 31).
- The guy from the car place would meet us at the airport and deliver the car.
- Then Adam and I would head to Busch Gardens (a big amusement park) and spend the afternoon and evening. They are staying open until 1 am to celebrate the New Year so we planned to ring in the New Year on a roller coaster.
- Tuesday morning we'd go to the beach and then go back to Busch Gardens for some more fun (the tickets are good for two days entry to the park).
- Tuesday afternoon we'd start back and finish the drive on Wednesday evening in time for Adam to get back to school on Thursday.

Grand plan? You bet! We were so excited!!

So here's how things worked out last night...

- 10:30 pm - everything packed ... off to bed

- 11:15 pm - phone rings ... Tammy answers to an automated computer telling her our 6 am flight out of Moline was canceled due to heavy freezing fog.

- 11:15 - 12:45 pm - Greg on the phone talking to computers trying to get on another flight to Chicago or make other arrangements to get there for our connecting flight. After more than 1 hour of frustrating calls, he finally gets connected with a human. "Hello, this is Shirley" she says with a very thick Indian accent. I explain the situation to Shirley. "Okay, sir, we've rebooked you on a flight out of Chicago at 9:30 in the morning." "I don't need to be rebooked out of Chicago, I need to be rebooked out of Moline". "Oh, you need to fly back from Tampa to Moline tomorrow?" "No, I need to get from Moline to Chicago." "I'm sorry sir, there are no available flights from Tampa to Moline tomorrow." After several more attempts to explain it, I finally groan and say "Should I just go to the airport and talk to someone there?" "Oh, yes, sir, that would be the very best." So I go back to bed with nothing resolved. I decided to get up early and go to the airport and talk to someone there. I thought maybe they would give me a rental car to drive to Chicago or something for our connection.

- 1:20 am - phone rings again ... Tammy answers again (she's quicker out of bed than I am). "Hi, this is ... from United Airlines. Can I talk to Gregory?" It wasn't Shirley, some other agent with United. This one knows what she's talking about. She tells me that she's rebooked us on another airline leaving Moline at 5:55 pm today arriving in Tampa at 11:30 pm. "11:30!! It's New Years Eve. We have plans for tonight." "I'm sorry sir, that's the only flight I can get you on." After a few more minutes of futile discussion, I finally agree. By the way, they wouldn't give me a car to take to Chicago since it was a "weather related" cancellation. Back to bed.

- 2:10 am - Harry Connick Jr starts singing "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" from our downstairs stereo at full volume. Ben likes to play with the controls on the stereo and had managed to turn on the alarm clock somehow. I crawl back out of bed again and trudge downstairs to turn off the stereo.

- 3:05 am - Jacob wakes up to eat. Tammy falls asleep feeding him, but finally gets back to bed at 4:15 am.

- 4:45 am - Ben runs into our room and climbs up on the bed. "Ben, why don't you go lie down in the chair?" He often comes into our room in the early morning and sleeps on our chair. "But I can just sleep here in the middle. I'm going to jump." Leap. Crash. He smashes between Tammy and I. We just roll over and try to sleep.

- 5:30 am - "POPS! POPS! We're late!!! We missed our plane!!" Adam runs into the room in a panic. We should have been boarding our flight by now.

- 6:00 am - All the kids are up and so am I.

So, after a nearly sleepless night, here's the new grand plan:

- IF we can get out of Moline, we'll fly to Tampa arriving just before midnight.
- We'll ring in the New Year in the luggage area at TPA. Then we'll catch a cab to our hotel.
- At 9:00 New Years day our car guy is going to pick us up at the hotel. Hopefully it won't take long to get the car and then we'll still TRY to get to Busch Gardens for some fun before hitting the road to drive home.

Not such a grand plan anymore, but we'll still try to make the best of it. Right now, I should be in 80 degree Florida weather getting my new car. Instead, I'm at home looking out the window watching the snow fall. I wonder how the snow will affect our afternoon flight?

Merry Christmas!

We've had a very nice Christmas holiday here in our home. This year we chose to have a very low-key, slow-paced, relaxing time.

Last night we had our traditional Christmas eve singing Christmas carols, reading scriptures, acting out the nativity story, opening a few presents (including pajamas!) and enjoying some Christmas treats (which we had made earlier in the day). We also finally tried out our fireplace for the first time (we finally took time to get it cleaned a couple of weeks ago).

Here are some pictures of the candy making.





Here are the kids sporting their new pajamas on Christmas Eve.



Most of the kids fell asleep quickly, but Adam stayed up WAY too late and ended up somehow injuring his nose in bed around 10:30 pm last night (just about the time Santa Clause was loading up the stockings). So he jumped out of bed crying and we almost ended up with a trip to the emergency room on Christmas eve. In the end we decided it wasn't serious enough to go to the hospital and are just hoping now that it doesn't scar! Jake also had a rough night and we were up with him until about 1:00 am.

Even with the late night, all the kids were hopping around our room before 6:00 am excited to go downstairs to open presents. Tammy and I reluctantly crawled out of bed and we headed down.

Here are the kids making their way to the great room where the presents were:


Tammy got me a really nice gift - a mini, hand-held digital video camera. We've not had a way to record videos for our blog before (other than short sound-less videos) so this is perfect. You'll now hopefully get to see a few more videos of our family.

So, you can watch to learn about the rest of our Christmas morning!



We hope that you all had a very peaceful and enjoyable Christmas morning!

Busy busy week

It seems that December is a very busy time of year for most people. We've felt especially busy this past week.

Last Saturday Adam had his annual Christmas piano recital. It is so fun to see him up in front of people performing. The Christmas recital is always a duet recital, so Adam played a couple of songs with Tammy. They both did really well. Tammy gets more nervous than Adam at those things and I think was more relieved when it was over than Adam was. We had a nice time out for dinner with him afterwards (the other kids were with a babysitter).

On Tuesday we had a big ice storm. You probably heard about it on the news. It didn't turn out to be such a big deal around here. Mostly just rain freezing to trees, but the roads stayed pretty clear. It made the trees and plants and shrubs look beautiful though.

On Wednesday I drove with my work team to Kansas. On the way down we drove through southern Iowa and northern Missouri where the ice storm had done a lot more damage. It was sad to see the hundreds of trees that were split and fallen because of the weight of the ice. It seemed like nearly every tree had some damage.

The time spent in Kansas was enjoyable. Our business partners took us out for a nice night on the town. We got to go to a really nice restaurant in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City and to enjoy the Christmas lights there. After some meetings on Thursday we made our way back home just ahead of the next big snowstorm. We were lucky to have good driving conditions both ways.

On Friday our family hosted my work team for our holiday party. There were around 10 adults and 11 kids (including our family). It was fun to finally meet some of the families of the people I work with. There was a lot of work to do around the house to get things ready (especially with me being out of town much of the week), so this added significantly to the busy-ness, but by the time the party time arrived everything around the house looked great. I think everyone had a good time.

Saturday arrived with another snowstorm. We decided to brave the snow and drive to Iowa City to visit Todd and Deanna and their family. The kids made sugar cookies and had a nice time with their cousins. Saturday afternoon I had to go shopping for a new dryer - ours had finally given up after 9 years of hard labor.

Here are some pictures from the week:


Anna and Ben building their first snow fort together.

Lizzy smiling in the snow. It was very cold that day, but the kids had a great time.


Adam built a rather elaborate snow fort only to have it destroyed later by the snow trucks when the plowed after the next big snow.


Lizzy in front of the Christmas tree.


My friend Carl from work at the work party holding baby Jake. We're trying to convince Carl it's time for him to have some kids. If baby Jake can't convince him, no baby can!


In foreground is Bill from work and background is my manager John and his wife.


John's son is in Adam's grade and goes to the same elementary school as Adam. They knew each other a little before, but had a great time playing at the party and I think will be better friends now. By the way, we got a new air hockey table this week as an early Christmas present. We've all had a great time with it so far!

Sweet moments with the kids

Some of the best things about being a parent are the tender moments with your kids where you feel really close to them, or where you really feel like they understand something that is important. I have had a few of those lately, and wanted to share them with you. I should write them down more often because these are the moments that make it all worth it.

I will start with Adam. Over the past few months we have been practicing some Christmas duets together. It is always fun to play together, and feel like he actually wants me there practicing with him. It won't be much longer until he is better than I am! This past Saturday was his recital where we performed these duets together. We got a sitter for the other kids, except Jake, and then took him out to Chili's (his choice, his favorite, he loves their ribs and molten chocolate cake) after the recital. It is always just so wonderful to be with them more one on one. He just seems so grown up to me right now. There is nothing specific he said, but it was just the closeness and enjoyment I felt out of our relationship. He and I sometimes butt heads, so I just feel so much relief and happiness when I know he knows I love him. It is a great feeling. I like knowing he actually loves me too, even if I don't know everything.

With Anna, it was a very specific incident. Every Monday night we have Family Home Evening. It is a time we set aside for our family. Everyone participates. We sing together, we pray together, we have a spiritual lesson, a fun activity or game, and, of course, a treat. So far it is something our kids look forward to every week. This past Monday, for our lesson, Greg talked a little about Christmas, and why we celebrate it and then we watched this great DVD called Joy to the World. It has the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing, words read from the Bible of the Christmas story and scenes from that have been portrayed. It also includes words from the Book of Mormon, and tells of the sign the people in the Americas saw at the time of the Savior's birth. It is really well done, and just makes you so grateful for the Savior and this wonderful time of the year. As we were watching this, Anna, who was laying on the floor, gets up and comes and sits by me on the couch. She was crying. She seemed surprised by this, but wanted to be with me. I leaned over and whispered to her that she was feeling the Holy Ghost. Then after we were done, Greg asked everyone what they thought. Anna was quick to answer in the most sincere and loving voice, "Papa, I felt the Holy Ghost while I was watching that." Greg asked her how she knew that. She said because I just felt so happy inside, that Jesus was born. She was just so sweet and sincere about it. It wasn't the answer she thought we wanted to hear, it was from her heart. Being the person I am, I am crying, and just so full of love and joy that this is my little girl. She has such a sweet and sensitive spirit, and already she is starting to understand one of the things we most want her to understand, that the Lord loves her.

After Family Home Evening we put the boys to bed, but Monday is the girls' stay-up-late night (the boys night is Tuesday). This is a time when we get some of that all important one on one time, or two on two time as the case may be sometimes. The kids get to choose what we do, but it has to be interactive, no TV or whatever. Well recently we have started taking the kids out on "dates" on these nights. It was my night for a "date" with Lizzy. She wanted to go to the store. I had some things I needed at JOANN's so we went there. She loved that place! We had to look at everything. Look mom! Isn't this so pretty. OH, how cute. She just went from thing to thing and went on and on about everything. At one point she takes a big breath, and turns to me and says, "I'm a talker tonight!" I just burst out laughing. Yes, she was, but I loved every minute of it. #3 of 5 is a hard place to be in a family. I think Lizzy sometimes struggles to find her place and to shine. It is great to see her at ease, being able to be herself. She is fun and bubbly and playful, and when given the chance, loves to talk!

With Adam and Anna at school, and Liz going to preschool 3 mornings a week, I have more chances for "moments" with Ben. He has become my little buddy. I love that he is always singing. Today he was singing 5 little monkeys to me while I was feeding the baby. Then he decided to change it to five little Jakies. He has such a great voice too. While we watched that Joy to the World DVD last night, he sang along with Angels we Have Heard on High. He picked up on it because that was one of the duets me and Adam have been practicing. It is the cutest thing ever. Sunday the Primary children, ages 3-11 went up to sing a Christmas musical number. He is still in the nursery until January, so he starts crying, because he wants to go up to the front and sing so badly, "Why do the girls get to go up all the time and I don't?" His music brings a lot of joy to our home, even if half the time he is singing "Clementine". By the way when I took him to his 3 year well check, he was 38 lbs., which is 95%, and 40 inches, which is 90%, a big boy.

Are you sick of moments yet? I do have five kids ya' know! Jacob has been the sweetest baby so far. He is the kind of baby that makes other people want to have another baby. Last night he woke up at 3. He wasn't even really crying, it was more of this cute little cooing whine. It's like he is extra gentle with me in the middle of the night. So I fed him, but I had to change his diaper too, so he got good and woke up. Even though it was dark, there was still some light and I could see him smiling at me. I just thought to myself, "I love this baby!" I have been so grateful he has come to our family. After I was done feeding him, I laid him down even though he was still wide awake. He just laid in his bassinet and "talked" to himself until he fell back asleep. I just lay in bed listening to him. Those are the sounds a mother loves, sweet, baby noises. It was just one of those times, where you know it is all worth it.

I don't get to blog as often as I would like so when I do, they tend to be way long posts. Sorry! I would love to hear some of your moments with your children. Being a parent is hard a lot of the time, but also so rewarding.

Teeth and Testing

The tooth fairy visited our house three times last week - each time for Anna. She is now very qualified to sing "All I want for Christmas is my FOUR front teeth!".

So, now Anna is convinced there is no Santa Clause. Here's why. On Tuesday, she lost her first tooth of the week. Tuesday night, she diligently put the tooth under her pillow. Somehow, the tooth fairy must not have heard about her tooth because she forgot to come (this is the second time the tooth fairy has missed poor Anna!). So, Anna has this idea that the tooth fairy would never be so irresponsible as to forget about her (twice!), so the tooth fairy must not be real and it must be her irresponsible parents who forgot about her tooth and they just pretend to be the tooth fairy and therefore, Santa Clause is not real. Very logical.

Here's a picture of my toothless little girl.




This is a picture of Anna with the last tooth just ready to fall out.


This is Ben trying to look like Lizzy with a pink headband. It somehow doesn't make him look quite so pretty as it does Liz.

In other news, today the kids got their results of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS). How many of you took those when you were kids? I remember clearly in grade school taking the ITBS and thinking how important Iowa must be that they got to test the kids in Kansas and I clearly remember each time the scores came home. Now that we live in Iowa, I guess it's no surprise our kids take the ITBS (and yes, Iowa is important).

I don't like to brag much, but when it comes to my kids, and considering this is a blog about my family, I figure it's okay to brag a little (or a lot). My kids are smart. Adam is a little genius (no surprise to anyone that's known him a while). The ITBS has two scores, one is called the Iowa Grade Equivalent which shows what grade level the child is performing at in each of the categories of the test. Here is a sample of Adam's grade equivalent scores (keep in mind he is in the THIRD GRADE!!):

Reading Comprehension - 7th grade, 1st month
Spelling - 7th grade, 8th month
Language usage and expression - 8th grade, 4th month
Problem Solving & Data Interpretation - 7th grade, 9th month
Mathematics total - 7th grade, 3rd month
Core total - 6th grade, 5th month

The other score is the Iowa Percentile Rank which compares him to other 3rd graders. Here are his scores:

Reading Total - 97th percentile
Language Total - 99th percentile
Mathematics Total - 99th percentile
Core Total - 99th percentile
Composite Total - 99th percentile

We always tease Adam that he sometimes acts too much like a teenager (mostly referring to his attitude on those "off" days). Maybe it's because he really is thinking a lot like a teenager. We're hoping that means we'll get through the teenage years with him before he reaches puberty, then he'll be easy when he really is a teenager. Wishful thinking!

Anna did really, really well too. They don't give quite as many tests to first graders, but on the ones she did take, she scored at or above her grade level on all of them. She was very consistent in her scores which shows that she is comfortable in all the different areas of learning that they were testing on. It's been fun to watch her really take off in school this year. She loves learning and does very careful and thoughtful work. She loves her teacher this year and that is a huge help to her.

We really love watching all our kids growing and learning. Lizzy shows a lot of the same kinds of quick thinking that Adam has. She is reading well now and loving preschool. Ben is more like Anna, much more careful and deliberate about things and interested in doing quality work. He loves music right now! Last night he was telling me that he was afraid of the dark. I told him that when he feels afraid, that he should try to think of something that makes him happy. Then I asked, "What makes you happy, Ben?" He thought for a moment, then said, "Music makes me happy!" And he makes us happy!

Pilgrims and Indians

How many of you can say you had a real Indian at your Thanksgiving dinner table this year? We can! Also among our distinguished guests this year were six direct descendants of William Bradford (the governor of the Plymouth Colony widely credited with planning the first Thanksgiving feast in 1621). So we're thinking we had about as authentic a Thanksgiving dinner as you can get.

Okay, so Rajesh isn't a Native American (but you can't dispute that he's an Indian) and our distinguished descendants of William Bradford happen to be my wife and kids, but hey, that's still pretty cool we think. We had a really great day.

In case you're interested, here's the line from Tammy to Mr. Bradford (you other Ebberts can use this as your claim to fame too!)...Baby Finches children of Tammy Ebbert daughter of Darleen Hall d. of Wallace Hall son of Horatio Hall s. of Ann Tracy d. of Gamaliel Tracy s. of Gamaliel Tracy s. of Gamaliel Tracy s. of Nehemiah Tracy s. of Rachel Ripley d. of Hanna Bradford d. of William Bradford s. of William Bradford (Mr. Thanksgiving).

I mentioned Rajesh in our Halloween post (he helped us carve pumpkins, remember?). He's flying back to India tomorrow, but we were happy that he could still be here to spend Thanksgiving with us. He helped to "spice up" the day (I'll get to the spices in a few minutes).

We started the morning with our annual church "Turkey Bowl". Every year on Thanksgiving morning, a bunch of guys from church get together to play football for a couple of hours. This year, we had a good crowd of 22 people (4 boys including Adam, several teenagers including a couple from the high school football team, and a bunch of old"er" men trying to relive the glory days [me - except without the glory part]). Rajesh came with us for his first ever experience at American football.

So all day yesterday people at work were telling me to take it easy on Rajesh, make sure Rajesh didn't get hurt, be sure to watch out for him and so on. Nobody warned me that cricket players know how to run really fast and hit hard! Perhaps when they said "watch out for him" they were really saying "WATCH OUT!".

Rajesh was impressive on the football field. For someone who's never really seen American football, let alone played it, he sure had a pretty good understanding of how it works. So we ran this one play, my team was on offense and Rajesh's on defense. I was sent on a long fly and there was a trick handoff to try to draw the defense off me. The first part worked and I was wide (I mean wide) open down field with nothing between me and the end zone. The ball was thrown downfield, a perfect pass. That's when I noticed Rajesh coming - and he was coming FAST. I think he scared me and I got ahead of myself and tried to turn and run before I caught the ball right, and I totally dropped it. At that point he hit me and hit me hard and as I was going down I think his knee got me on the top of the head and I was flat on my back. I didn't notice the blood until later. I laid there for a few minutes trying to get the buzz out of my brain, then hopped up and congratulated him for the great hit. He was awesome. He also intercepted a pass right in front of me (again - that I should have caught, but he was too fast for me) and ran it back for a touchdown. I took several other good hits from him. It was a great time!

Adam also had fun. He didn't get the ball as much as he would have liked, but made some great plays and had one run that gained about 12 yards. He's going to be a good football player someday I think.

At one o'clock we had our feast. In addition to Rajesh, we also invited some friends from church, the Dixon's, to join us. Pretty traditional meal - turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, veggies, casseroles, bread, sweet potatoes, and so on. Rajesh even brought an Indian curry along to share with us. He called it "medium" spice. Translating "medium" from Hindi to English is "Extra super spicy hot". It sure added some great flavor to an otherwise typical bland holiday meal. Rajesh was also kind enough to help us in the kitchen while we were scrambling to finish up preparations. At one point, I think he was stirring two batches of gravy at the stove. Some hosts we are, but we appreciated the help!

Here are some pictures...


Ben and I made all the pies. Well, Ben stirred the flour while I made the pies.


This year we only made five. I think last year we ended up with 10 or so and found we couldn't quite eat them all. I like to make pies (and sort of like to eat them too!).


Here's everyone lined up ready to feast. Look at all the yummy food (we still have some if you're in the neighborhood)!


Since we're sharing American traditions with Rajesh, it was only right to let him break the wishbone (plus it saved a war between the kids about who would get it). And, just like football earlier in the day - he whipped me! I'm glad he'll get his wish (maybe that means a wedding in the near future? Was that what your wish was, Rajesh?? :-)).

It was a great day all-around. After Rajesh returned to his hotel, we went to the park across the street to hunt for a geocache. Our friend Rich (Dixon) is a world class geocacher. We do it occasionally and enjoy it, but nothing like Rich does it.

After the geocache we were frozen (it snowed this morning... I'm dreaming of a white Thanksgiving.... just like the....sorry I'm not a very good singer!) so the rest of the day was spent relaxing and eating pie.

Hope you all had a really great Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for and need to remember those things more often! We took time during dinner to talk about the things we were thankful for. For my work friends that are reading this, you will appreciate that Rajesh's response was "I'm thankful for the great people I work with and the good team that we have! They make my life a lot easier." (I didn't say it quite as eloquently as he did.) I absolutely agree with him! (And I like all you family people too.)

Low life high life

Tammy is forcing me to post this picture. Any guesses where I am? If not, read on...


I posted a couple of years ago about my first ride on the corporate jet. Lately I've been traveling about once a month to meetings in Kansas and we've been scheduling those meetings around the corporate jet schedule. When there is room on those flights, it really makes the travel to those meetings nice - get up in the morning, fly to Kansas, have 7 hours of meetings, fly home by 5:00. Usually, it goes pretty smoothly, but today was not the best of experiences.

For one thing, I've been kind of sick lately so I wasn't feeling great to start with. Add to that having to wake up at 4:30 am to be to the airport by 6. Then top it off with a ride on the potty seat. It wasn't my best day!

If you read my earlier blog post, you'll read about the belted potty seat. I thought it was a joke the first time. It's very real. There are nine normal seats on the plane, but they want to be as efficient as possible, so they always book 10 people on every flight. The leftover seat - you guessed it.

So, the picture is, yes, me sleeping on the toilet of the corporate jet. That was my assigned seat for the day. One of my co-workers was kind enough to snap this one picture and send it to my team. Livin' the high life! Fortunately no one needed to trade seats with me during the flight!

A note to all my dear Kansas family: I always feel so guilty when I take one of these trips. We are so close to home, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to see everyone. We actually land in Gardner (the airport behind the old North Supply building) so I can practically see our old house as we're coming in to land. But as soon as we land we're whisked away to these all day intense meetings and have to be back to the airport by 4:00. So far, I haven't been able to convince them to let us stay longer than a day, but perhaps one of these times. I think we'll be back there on December 13 if anyone wants to get together for lunch!

Here's Benjamin carefully mixing his paints.


And little Jacob! He's the smiliest baby I've ever known - it doesn't take much to get him to grin at you.

Pumpkins and Jack-o-Lanterns!

On Saturday we had our annual pumpkin carving and painting fun! The younger kids paint while the grown-ups (and Adam this year) carve their pumpkins. These are some pumpkins we picked ourselves last weekend from a pumpkin patch!


Here's Anna having a ball painting her pumpkin.


Lizzy with a big grin as she starts painting away!


Adam has been slimed (either that or he just turned into Spiderman!)


My friend and co-worker Rajesh is visiting this month from India. Halloween is not observed much in India (he said he first heard about it reading our blog last fall) so we decided to invite him over for an American cultural experience. This is a shot of his first ever pumpkin carving. Great job!

We also had black bean burritos for dinner (I know -you'd think we could come up with something American to eat considering it was supposed to be an American cultural experience - oh well). He told me later that he learned from dinner that an Indian could live very happily in Mexico. We enjoyed having him in our home!

Happy Halloween!

Jacob had a pumpkin suit on. I wanted to paint the top of his head to look like a jack-o-lantern, but Tammy wouldn't let me!

Ben was the dragon. Here he is with his friend Holly. When Adam had his face all painted and bloody like a vampire, Ben was very frightened. Adam handled it really well - every time Ben would cry out of fright, Adam would cry out of fright at Ben's "scary" dragon costume. That made Ben feel much more brave!

Happy Halloween!

Lizzy performed in her preschool Halloween program today. She sang out the loudest and really enjoyed acting in front of the crowd of parents.


Adam decided to be a vampire this year. He enjoyed it so much, it may become his full-time job when he is grown!


Anna was happy to have her glitter paint face with princess fairy costume.


The kids went trick-or-treating with the Jensen kids. It was strange this year with daylight savings time still around - it was light outside for trick-or-treating!

Jake's 2 month checkup

I took Jacob to the doctor this past week for his well check. Jacob is doing great! He weighed in at 11 lbs. 5 oz. which is 50th percentile. He was 23 1/2 inches long, which is 75th percentile (I have a friend who had a baby that was 23 inches at birth!). I can't remember the exact head size but it was also 75th percentile, which is small for a Finch. He has been smiling and cooing so much lately. He has been doing that since he was about 3 weeks old, but now it comes so much easier for him. It is really fun. He has the most pleasant temperment and is just easy going and quiet. He is sleeping really well still, getting up only once a night.

The saddest part of the visit, of course, were the shots. Maybe it is because he hardly ever cries, but it really bothered me when he was crying after his shots. I just felt so bad. You could just tell that it hurt. He has been fussier the last couple of days, but did better today. I have to say this was an uncomfortable visit for me as well. I chose not to get the prevnar, you know the pneumonocacal (sp?), or the new oral rotavirus vaccines. We have never gotten prevnar, and when Adam was a baby they had a rotavirus shot that they recalled, so I just would like to see how things go with this one for a while. Also, with both of these I feel like ther are not as serious as some of the other illnesses, anyway... the nurse practitioner seemed very concerned that I wouldn't get these vaccines (I know the shots are combined, but the poor child already was getting 4 or 5 vaccinations that day). I probably wouldn't get the varicella (chicken pox) either except it is required for school. I also had to sign this waiver "Refusal to vaccinate". I just felt terrible, but I felt like it was the right thing to do for us. I don't know, it felt like it harmed the relationship with my practitioner. The tension was thick and she tried to talk me into it and told me all these things I should do to prevent illness and how I should get the other kids vaccinated with flu shots (I said no to that too). I don't know people. Am I crazy? I seriously want some opinions, even differing ones. You folks with medical backgrounds.....hint, hint, and you moms out there, what do you think?

It was not my favorite visit to the doctor, but I guess most visits to the doctor are not enjoyable, it usually means something is wrong. I do have to say though, Lizzy and Ben were awesome! We had to wait about 35 minutes just to be called back there and then all the time spent in the room and the waiting time there. Our appt. was at 9:30 and we left the office at about 11. They did really well though, even the nurse practitioner commented on how well they behaved. That made me happy. Ok, yes, there was a promise of a treat involved, but I'm OK with that.

Anyway, Jake is doing great. He has been such a blessing to our family. I am always amazed at how much love you can feel from this little person that can't do anything for himself, that needs you for everything. He just lays there and smiles, but it fills our home with happiness to have him do that . We really do feel loved by him. It is pure love. Babies are such a blessing, and we are thankful to have one that is so amiable all the time, who loves us. We love him too of course!

Funny Lizzy

Lizzy: Mom what does s-i-s-t-e-r-h-o-o-d-i-s-p-o-w-e-r-f-u-l spell?

Me: (I know what she is looking at so my response is easy) Sisterhood is Powerful.

Lizzy: Who is Sister Hood?

Of course I start laughing. Lizzy starts crying. When she realized I thought it was genuinely funny she said it over and over "Sister Hood" "Sister Hood" I will never think of that word the same again.

Two Months

Well, our little Jacob is 2 months old now. In some ways it seems like the time has flown by and in other ways it seems like it has slowly crawled by. I was really tired at first, more tired than I remember being after the others were born. I seem to be coming out of it though. I was having some challenges nursing the baby for a while too, but that is going much better. He is just a sweet, wonderful baby. He has such a gentle, pleasant temperment. He does great at night too, just getting up once almost every night since he was born. The other night he even slept for 7 or 8 hours straight ! It was just one night, but I will take it. The kids love him. In fact he is practically smothered half the day with children in his face. He takes it all in stride though. I think Ben has had the hardest time. He has required extra patience. I think he is coming along though. My house is a mess and I always seem to be running late, but other than that things are going well. We were overwhelmed with kindness the weeks after Jacob was born. So many people brought us food and gifts. It was wonderful! We felt so loved and were so thankful not to have to worry about one more thing. One wonderful lady even took Lizzy and Ben for a day and had a "party" just for them. They still talk about it. Another lady brought them to the park and out for ice cream. I am so grateful for the church and all the good people we know who helped us.

We also had a stream of family visitors. First was Greg's mom and her husband, Jim. They came just 2 weeks after Jacob was born. I was still having nursing troubles and spent a lot of time in my room with the baby. Thankfully they took good care of Lizzy and Ben, or rather, spoiled Lizzy and Ben (the other kids too, but they are at school most of the day). The went to parks and the musuem and went to "playground restaurants" (Burger King) and even to climb on the tractors at John Deere. Jim spoiled me by making a lot of the evening meals. We were so glad to have them come. Here are some pictures of their visit:








As usual things were crazy while they were here. I celebrated my 32nd birthday. It was a simple affair. Dinner at home, yummy cake, fun presents, and Jim and Cherrie watched the kids so we could go out for a little bit, even the baby stayed with them. Greg also had to speak at Stake Conference, where several congregations from our church meet together, in front of about 1,000 people. We chuckled that his assigned topic was peace and harmony in the home, as our home seemed to be turned upside with this new little one coming home. He did a great job though, and since he told a story about his good dad, I think it was neat that his mom was there to hear that (Greg's dad passed away about 10 years ago).

Here is a birthday picture.





In between visitors, Ben had his 3rd birthday. We had two celebrations; one was with just our little family with spaghetti and a yummy cake and presents. The other was with Ben's cousin, Lawson, who was born on the same day as he was. Since the Ebberts are now living in Iowa City, it was a great chance for the cousins to celebrate together. The kids always enjoy playing with their cousins. We are so happy they are so close now. Enjoy the pictures:



These are the cool dump truck birthday cakes that Aunt Deanna made for the boys. (Delicious too!)


Our next visitors were my grandparents. They have been our most faithful visitors since we have lived here. They have come just about every year we have lived here and years like this where we have a baptism and a baby blessing, they have come twice. They haven't missed any of the kids' blessings. They are fantastic visitors to have because they just sort of go with the flow. My grandpa always keeps busy with house projects. Both Greg and I really appreciate that. It is great to get some of those nagging projects done. He was also the official tickle monster for the week. My grandma is great at reading to the kids and talking to them. Lizzy, especially always seems to have something to say. They also helped a ton with meals and cleanup. The took Liz and Ben out to the musuem and while the girls were at a birthday party, they took the boys out on the town while Greg and I ( and the baby, this time, so we could be gone longer) could go out on a date. They also came to see and participate in Jacob's baby blessing. Look, more pictures!

Jacob's blessing was beautiful. He was blessed with a strong mind, body and spirit. He was blessed that he would be a wise and compassionate man and that people would come to him for advice. He was blessed that he would desire to live the gospel, to be baptised and live worthy of the covenants he makes throughout his life.

We were really happy that Tammy's dad and wife Nancy were able to be here for the blessing as well. They stayed for a few days afterwards and we enjoyed having them with us very much. They took Ben out birthday shopping (and he LOVED that - not to mention the other kids who were suprised with gifts as well). We all got to go out to dinner the Monday evening they were with us. Tuesday Lizzy and Ben and Tammy and Jake enjoyed a trip to the zoo with Grandpa and Grandma. The older kids were sad they missed out on all the fun (school again!) but were all glad to be able to spend a couple of evenings enjoying their grandparents. Here are some pictures from their visit:







Finally, since we're catching up for two months of missed posts, we'll end with some pictures from this weekend at the pumpkin patch. It was a cold and very windy day so it made for a good day to be picking pumpkins. Enjoy the pictures.