December 2016

     The month of December started out with our kids being sick. Annalyn was still feverish from the croup that she got after Thanksgiving. Luckily her fever was low grade and she seemed to be feeling better. She had a fever for a total of six days. I had to take Summer in for a flu booster later that week so I got to make another quick visit to the doctor and then Kyla ended up getting croup so Joel and I took turns staying home from church with her the next Sunday. Summer got it a few days later but luckily hers didn't last as long as Annalyn's did and after five long weeks of staying home with sick kids, we all got to go to church together as a family on the 11th of December. Our kids were so naughty that by the end of sacrament meeting Brynlee was the only one who was sitting in the chapel all by herself.

     There were a few other colds and yucky stuff that got passed around our family this month but luckily everyone was well enough to enjoy and celebrate Christmas. Brynlee has this awful cough that has been lingering since she had croup during Thanksgiving break. It sounds awful and she is so loud when she coughs that it has been a huge distraction to everyone around her. She had a substitute teacher at school one day and apparently the teacher  told Brynlee she was driving her crazy and made her go to the office and I ended up getting her and taking her home from school. Then Brynlee got in trouble for taking a cough drop to school (even though it wasn't a cough drop, it was just a little throat drop and it was mainly to ease her fears about going to school.) For a while she was convinced that nobody wanted her at school so she was just going to quit going. There were two whole weeks when it was a fight to get Brynlee to go to school every day. I finally went and talked to her teacher and that has helped with her not wanting to go to school.
    
     Once Christmas was over I decided to set up an appointment to take Brynlee in to the doctor to see about her cough. The day before her appointment she started complaining that her leg hurt and she would hardly walk on it. The next morning she was really hobbling around and crying that her leg hurt. She could barely limp into the doctors office and the doctor was a lot more worried about her leg than her cough. She prescribed me some allergy medicine to help with the cough and then sent us over to get some X-rays done on Brynlee's hip. Brynlee could not even move her hip properly to get the X-ray done, she was in so much pain. Luckily we got the X-ray done right there and they were pretty fast with the results. It turns out Brynlee had some fluid that was in her left hip and it was causing an excruciating amount of pain in her leg. I guess that can sometimes happen after a virus or cold and the fluid just settles in the leg for some reason. I had to give Brynlee Ibuprofen for several days but that seemed to ease her pain so she could walk and less than a week later the pain was gone and she was back to normal. Unfortunately the cough was not. We are still trying to figure out how to get rid of her cough.

     We tried to do several things to bring in the Christmas spirit and did several fun things as a family. We did some crafts and listened to lots of Christmas music in the van and before bed. Brynlee had a school Christmas program for her whole school where they sang some songs. Brynlee was chosen to play the bells for one of the songs and she was so excited to do that. She has been singing those Christmas songs for a long time so Annalyn almost knew them and could sing along while we listened.

  
     It snowed a lot this month. My girls sure enjoyed playing in it at first. The Friday before Christmas break Brynlee ended up having the first Snow day in Kuna in several years. Luckily she got to go back to school next Monday and Tuesday because she wasn't that excited about missing school. We really got a lot of snow so I am glad we didn't have to go anywhere in that stuff. (The picture of Kyla crying below makes me laugh every time I see it. She fell in the snow and got covered in the stuff but she was fine until she realized that she had lost her quarters that she was going to use in the quarter machine at Annalyn's speech. Luckily I had an extra one for her.)



     My Uncle Eric, the one that was in Australia was in a pretty serious accident at work on the 9th of December. He got knocked off a ladder and landed right on his head. They did brain surgery on him but things weren't looking so great so my mom and grandma hopped on a plane and went to Australia. Our family was all desperately praying for a Christmas miracle while also realizing that this may just be his time to go. After a few days it became clear that my Uncle was not going to make it so the difficult decision was made to take away Eric's breathing tube. He lived for several hours after and slipped away from this Earth on December 15th; the same day as my brother Josh's 18th birthday. Eric was surrounded by my mom and grandma at the time and I hope he could feel of their love. I know it was excruciatingly difficult for them to watch Eric die but it was important to them that he didn't die alone. I think in the end there were several little tender mercies given to all of us and while we will miss Eric, we are at peace that this was his time to go. I am grateful for the knowledge that we will see him again. I think everyone's heart hurt the most for his nine year old daughter Patricia. She meant the world to him.

     Since my mom was gone on Josh's birthday, the rest of the family got together and had ice cream and pie and then Joel went with everyone to see Rogue One, the new Star Wars movie. My mom came home that Sunday and I had everyone over for a Sunday dinner. It was good to be together. Having Eric die was a hard reminder of the important things in life and it was good to spend some quality time with my family. While grandma was gone we went and surprised her by putting up her Christmas tree. We wanted her to have something festive to come home to and we knew she didn't have time to put one up before she left.


     My grandma stayed in Australia and did a little funeral service for Eric there in Australia and then had his body shipped back to the United States so we could also do a little funeral for him here. My Aunt Lisa came up from Texas and my mom has a few cousins that live close that came to the funeral as well. Because of Christmas his body didn't get here in time for his funeral that we wanted to have on the 27th so we had to push it back to the 29th. He was usually late to everything and I guess now we can say he was even late to his own funeral. Our family met in the chapel for a small funeral service. Grandma gave a life sketch of Eric, my brother Josh and some friends sang some songs, and then my dad and the bishop gave some talks. It was over in 30 minutes but I think everything important got said. My Uncle was a quiet guy. He didn't talk much. I will always remember him with a smile on his face. He could be a tease sometimes, I remember him calling Brian 'stick man' all the time when he was little. I always thought he could beat any video game and fix any electronic that was broken. He was super smart and had a lot of random knowledge. He used to send me little fun or informational emails all the time. I will miss him a lot.

     After the funeral service we had lunch at grandma Verna's house and then we drove to Oregon where we left his body to rest. It was super cold and snowy but we were all able to say goodbye and see his final resting place. I got a little teary eyed during the funeral service, I think most of the family did. We will all miss Eric and it was hard to have him go so unexpectedly; but I know he is in a better place and that he is happy right now.

    Joel's sister Joy came down right after Christmas and we had fun spending time with her family. Joy fixed up all the girl's hair and painted everyone's fingernails. We played several games and watched many movies with them. We love spending time with family.



     It was also fun to spend time with my family. We played many games with them and We even took Lisa sledding/snowmobiling with us. Joel traded his old trailer for four snow mobiles and this was the year to do it. We have had record amounts of snow that Joel has gotten to play in and enjoy and he doesn't even have to leave town. He has had a lot of fun with those things. It was a good thing we went close to go sledding because I think each of my kids went down the hill once and then they were done. They just got too cold, Annalyn's sled tipped over, and Brynlee got her gloves all wet. Grandma watched Summer while I went so I got to go down a few times and I had fun. Lisa is from Texas so she didn't last in the cold for much longer than my kids did. Brynlee enjoyed riding the snowmobile home with her dad.

     It seems like the snow was around for most of the month so Brynlee got to go out and she made a little snow girl all by herself.. I tried to get Summer asleep so I could come out and help her but it took to long so Brynlee made it all on her own.

     This month was full of many hard times. With the death of a loved one and so many sick and whiney kids, there were days that were super hard but there were many fun times. I am grateful for all of the Christmas lights and the joy of the season that made this a month to be remembered and cherished.

Summer is Eight Months

     Little Summer is crawling all over the place and getting into all kinds of stuff. She is constantly putting stuff in her mouth. She is pulling herself up to stand with ease. She says "mama" and "dada" all the time lately and is starting to cry when other people try to hold her. She is a serious mama's girl lately and if mom is around she doesn't want anyone else to hold her. It was a real challenge to get a decent picture of Summer this month. It took me several days and numerous tries to get her to hold still long enough for me to get a good picture. I had to bribe her with lots of food and toys in order to make it work.

Summer is the best little baby to take places with you. She is pretty happy, loves to be held and packed around in her baby carrier, and enjoys just sitting back and observing the world. She sleeps well in the baby carrier and in her car seat in the van. Being at home can sometimes be a different story. At home she can be pretty fussy and whine to be held, especially when she is tired, she likes to be held and rocked to sleep for all of her naps, so she sometimes makes it difficult to get things done around the house. Really I wish I could just sit and hold her for all of her naps. I do love snuggling with this baby girl.

Summer loves to eat big people food and pretty much eats whatever we eat. She sits in her high chair at the dinner table for lunch and dinner and eats with the rest of the family. I have not bought very much baby food so she eats lots of cooked carrots, applesauce, bananas, sweet potatoes, peas, pears, and peaches. I just set her food in a little bowl, or sometimes I just put it on my plate, and I smoosh it up and feed it to her. She has also had lots of eggs, pieces of muffins, cheese, crackers, and bits and pieces of whatever she can eat without choking. She has been getting a little pickier but for the most part she is a pretty great little eater.  

     Summer got to experience snow for the first time this month. One day I actually put a snowsuit and a warm coat on her and set her in the snow. She did not enjoy that experience. She was fine with being out in the snow as long as I held her but as soon as I set her in the snow she just sat their and cried. I never did get her to come around to the stuff. I mean, her name is Summer so I guess it makes sense that she doesn't like winter.

     Summer also got to celebrate Christmas with us this month and she sure enjoyed it. She just liked being in the middle of everything and watching the excitement of everyone else. She never did open any presents but she had fun playing in the wrapping paper and crawling amongst all of the presents. She liked crawling under the tree and playing with all of the ornaments that would fall off.

     Summer got sick several times this month and wanted nothing more than to be held. She sure was nice and cuddly but so miserable. I was determined to get this baby out of mom and dad's room and into her room that she shares with Annalyn so I packed up her porta crib. She slept in her bed for a few nights and then she got sick so I let her sleep in our bed. She still wakes up a lot at night, sometime she still wakes up every three hours to eat. I was hoping having her in another room would solve that but for now she is sleeping in our bed and she seems pretty happy with that arrangement and still wakes up far to often in the middle of the night. Good thing she is so cute cause she makes me tired.

Merry Christmas 2016

     We started out the month of December with a lot of plans but life got in the way and a lot of them never got done. We did focus the month on "lighting the World," by doing service and trying to light the world the way the Savior did. While we ate dinner we would all talk about the things we did during the day to light the world. It was a great way to bring the spirit of the Lord into our home and it helped our kids to see how they could be like Jesus just by doing little things to help those around us. Even if we didn't get to make gingerbread houses and go Christmas caroling we still had a wonderful Christmas.

We decorated our tree the day after Thanksgiving but waited to put any presents under it. It was hard enough to keep Summer from playing with all of the decorations on the tree. We also went and watched the Kuna night lights parade one night. That was pretty cool to watch. It was short and Annalyn was in a pretty bad mood but we still had fun.

      Our family did get to decorate sugar cookies and we enjoyed doing that. Everyone got five cookies and they all did a great job at decorating them. Annalyn made sure to save four cookies and help decorate them for Alesha. We invited Alesha over the next day to get her cookies and at that point everyone else had already eaten their cookies and had been eying the ones for Alesha all day. Annalyn was so excited to give Alesha her cookies and then she took one of them since she knew Alesha wanted to share. Then Kyla and Brynlee took one leaving Alesha with one tiny little cookie to eat. Haha!

     We did a few other Christmas crafts and watched some Christmas movies this month. We made some puppets one night and then Brynlee found some boxes and made a little puppet stage and each girl took a turn putting on a little puppet show for Joel and me.

     The girls all got to sit on Santa's lap at our ward Christmas party and nobody cried this year. Summer seemed a little unsure about the whole thing, I set her next to Anna and she seemed to be just fine. Annalyn and Kyla and I ended up getting at the end of a very long line to see Santa and Kyla was not so happy about having to wait. She decided to go up closer and stand by Brynlee. The next thing I know she came up to me and she was eating a candy cane. She snuck up there and cut in front of everyone without me even realizing it. I was a little bummed that I didn't get her picture so I figured I would sit her back up there and recreate the whole thing when it was Anna's turn but at that point Kyla had run off with Joel and was nowhere to be seen. Luckily another mom took a picture of Kyla and sent it to me. Thank goodness for good friends. The primary kids also sang a few songs during the program. Kyla was really bummed that she couldn't go so another mom took her up there. Kyla stood right on the front row and waved and smiled at everyone the whole time. She didn't sing but she jumped up and down and sure looked cute up there. Brynlee and Annalyn also sang but Kyla kind of stole the show. When she came back to me she had the biggest grin on her face and she said, "that was so Fun!" I love her enthusiasm and excitement for life. 

     We spent Christmas Eve with Joel's family. It was too snowy to go caroling so instead we ate tacos, opened presents, and watched  a movie while eating ice cream cones. It was a fun night. Joel's mom gave us a hand painted saw that we put up in our kitchen.

 
     Christmas day was on a Sunday this year so as soon as we opened presents we went to church. Annalyn was super excited because she got the Num Noms lip gloss truck that she has wanted all month. Brynlee made out pretty well too. She picked out a lot of her own clothes so she didn't have as many surprised but she still made out pretty well. Kyla woke up and was eating candy that she got from grandma Hirtle. She seemed pretty chill about the whole things and never got super excited. She just took everything in stride. After church we visited a neighbor and then went to my mom's house where we enjoyed some yummy food, we played lots of fun games, and the kids got to open more presents. My sister in law Heather made up a game where you had to unwrap prizes that were stuck in a big ball of saran wrap while you wore a Christmas hat and two oven mitts. It was fun and challenging.

I am so grateful that we got to celebrate the birth of our Savior surrounded by so many loved ones. Merry Christmas.