All I want for Christmas...

is a full, uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep. Preferably at night, but I'm willing to take it whenever.

All I want for Christmas...

is a full, uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep. Preferably at night, but I'm willing to take it whenever.

A little sparse

Sorry folks. I'm working on a lot of Christmas projects and won't be posting much until then. But, to tide you over, here are some thoughts:

Read this article about Romney. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/mitt-romney-flip-flopper-or-not/2011/11/30/gIQAH6ubEO_blog.html#pagebreak

Can you imagine having a president named "Newt"?

Seriously Herman Cain. If you really did have even one affair, why in the world did you not think about this before you ran for GOP candidate?

Nathalie is potty training. Today was pretty good and gave me hope.

Charlotte has bumps all over her head because she falls over from standing all the time. Poor girl. She also got a tooth this week. Rough week for her.

Emily's hair now reaches down to the middle of her back when straight.

Matt and I are going on a date tomorrow. Woot!!

So proud

Charlotte is so busy. Her newest thing? Standing up! No, she's not even 7 1/2 months old. Yikes, we're in trouble here!

She loves to pull herself up, where she can. She is still really wobbly, but her crib is a great place to practice since it's soft when she falls. Her favorite place though is the dwarf lemon tree. We keep it inside in the winter since it can't handle the freezing temperatures. She loves to pull herself up and eat the dirt.

I love this picture. The girls adore Charlotte and she them. They make her smile when no one else can. She giggles, laughs and talks to them all the time. If they're not playing with her she starts "yelling"-- you know, to get their attention.

I love this picture because it shows how proud she is of herself!! Seriously adorable.

Time is flying by

How is time going by so fast? One minute I think it's August, and all of a sudden it's almost December. I blink and a day is gone. I blink twice and a month is gone. I feel like I'm scrambling just to catch the special moments because they're only here for a split second.
My children are growing right before my very eyes. My sweet Emily has matured so much just since she began school that I can hardly believe it. She's a little girl now. Not a baby, not even a big toddler. She can do monkey bars on her own, asks how to get to heaven, and talks about germs in her body.

She is starting to put words together and just seems so big. Helping with chores, taking care of Charlotte, helping me cook, taking care of herself, caring about other people's feelings. It was just yesterday that she was a baby Charlotte's size. Wasn't it?

Nan speaks like a 4 yr old with a little 2 yr old voice. She asks for things that 2 yr olds don't often think about-- things like healthy snacks, cuddles, songs. She seems so big as she shares with Charlotte, gets herself a drink, practices using the bathroom (be there soon, hopefully!) and can actually draw things, like spiders and people now.

She seems so big when she picks out her own clothes and puts them on. When she tells me how the leaf truck works and what schoolbuses do. She seems so big when she puts her plate by the sink. And even when I cuddle her at night, I marvel at how she is too big for a crib now and has to sleep in her twin bed. How her pants which she's been wearing for a year, now come above her ankles. Wasn't I just holding her little newborn body in my arms, marveling at what a beautiful baby she was?

Even Charlotte is growing. Did you know that she crawls now? She started being mobile before 6 months and two weeks ago, at 6 1/2 months she officially start crawling. Don't you like the above picture? She just finished eating a brownie that Nathalie had given her. Today she pulled herself up into a standing position in her crib! Stay a baby Charlotte! Don't grow up (but please, please, start sleeping through the night).

Charlotte, my sweet little girl. The one who looks at me and says, "mamamamama". The first baby to say my name before their dad's. The earliest crawler, the most precious cuddler. Please, baby, stay little.

My children are growing so fast. I love seeing them grow. I love each new milestone for each of my daughters. I'm so glad that they are growing. But it's going by so quickly. Before I know it, they'll be gone.

I love them so.

A Tale of Dragonfire, Three Brave Knights and Two Damsels in Distress

Once upon a warm fall morning in the faraway land of Ohio, sat two damsels. The damsels, after spending a morning of labor, were enjoying the fruits of Etsy-ville. "Think you," said the first damsel, to the second, "that these are cuter than the first?" The second damsel replied, "Ladybugs, Mommy."

At that moment the first damsel heard a noise coming from a nearby laundry cave wherein were housed two dragons, the Water-Washing Dragon and the Fire-Drying Dragon. Normally all humankind had good relations with these dragons and provided them with much nourishment. But on this day, the Fire Dragon had had enough. She bumped the Water Dragon, who made the noise, then started spewing fire out her throat.

The first damsel ran to the cave, expecting to see the Water Dragon's rage everywhere. Instead she noticed the Fire Dragon's wrath and saw flames heading toward her. Quickly she moved the nourishment out of the way of the Fire Dragon's fire and grabbed her magic red metal wand. "E-gads! I must have bravery or we all perish. Pull, squeeze, sweep!" she thought as she waved her magic wand over the Fire Dragon.

The Fire Dragon was subdued. The damsel in distress then did what any self-respecting damsel would do. She called the wise man.

"Ah, dear daughter! How good to hear from you!" said the wise-man. "I give you this counsel. Heed it well to calm the Fire Dragon and preserve your lives. Call in the three brave red knights on their trusty steed. Have them best the Fire Dragon."

Trusting in the sage's advice, the damsel called the three red brave knights. They arrived in their red and chrome glory and jumped out to the rescue. "Don't worry, brave knights," said the damsel. "I have conquered the Fire Dragon and am only asking for some knowledge."


The two of the brave knights went into the dragon's lair, whereon they found that if they so much as touched the dragon's throat, fire spewed forth again. However, thanks to their courage, they removed the fire cord of the Fire Dragon. "Damsel," said the oldest of the knights, " 'Tis a simple fix. To truly change the Fire Dragon, you must replace it's fire cord with that of a better tempermant. Only then can you live without fear of the Fire Dragon's wrath."

"I thank ye kindly, dear brave knight!" exclaimed the damsel. And with that thanks, she escorted the knight back to his horse. Where she found the second damsel ready to ride the red and chrome steed with her knight in shining armor. Luckily the first damsel convinced the second to stay by her side always and they returned to their cottage.

The End.

*********************************************************************************
We had so many blessings this morning. One, that I was home when the dryer vent caught fire. Two, that the washing machine made an unusual loud noise that caught my attention and took me to the laundry room. Three, that there was a fire extinguisher right next to the laundry room. Four, that even though I've never used a fire extinguisher, I was given the knowledge immediately on how to use it. Five, that my dad convinced me to the call the fire department. Six, that the fire department responded promptly, thereby being on the scene when the vent caught fire again. And seven, most important, that Matt and Charlotte slept through it all.

I have known this for some time but today it was really evidenced to me that I have a loving Heavenly Father who is truly watching out for me and protecting my family.

I can't help but feel like a bad mom

We spent the weekend at my in-laws house (the girls and I), checking my husband's grandma while my in-laws are out of town. At some point I was feeding Charlotte and Emily asked for a pb&j sandwich. I feel like I say, "Just a minute!" way too much to the girls, so I asked if she could make one herself. And she did!

And then tonight, at 7:40, I was putting Charlotte to sleep. Emily told me she was tired so I asked her to brush her teeth and go downstairs to read books. She brushed her teeth and decided she was going to bed. She walked past me, said, "Good night Mom" and climbed into bed. When I checked on her literally 4 minutes later, she was out.

Nathalie was waiting for me to read books to her...but got tired while I was putting Charlotte to bed. (And I put Charlotte to bed from 7:35 to 7:45 tonight, it's not like I took an hour!). So she came upstairs and climbed in bed all by herself.

I put Charlotte down and she fussed for a minute, then fell asleep all by herself.

I know I should probably be celebrating that all these things happened without me nagging, rocking, singing, repeating.... but I can't help but feel like I failed. Shouldn't I be putting Emily to bed instead of her putting herself to bed? Shouldn't I be rocking Charlotte to sleep, cuddling with Nathalie and getting Emily a pb&j? What's wrong with me?

Imagine a circle...

Our main floor is basically a circle. You enter into the living room/foyer area. Straight ahead is the kitchen. Obviously stairs are to your right and the living room is to the left....


Here is the foyer. The living room and foyer are one big room. BIG room. Right now I have the couch making some kind of a division, but I'm going to get a table to put behind the couch to make it more distinct as well as a rug in the living room to kind of bring all the furniture "in", if you understand. The stairs are a flat paint, chocolate brown. Ugggggly. And they're really dirty since flat paint is hard to clean. Matt and I are probably going to carpet the upper half of the stairs and replace the lower half because they're also really squeaky.

Here is the living room. The fireplace is actually a little less purple, but ugly nonetheless. Matt and I aren't sure what we're going to do with it long-term. It's not wood-burning, so pretty much useless in our eyes. Matt wants to rip it out...but I'm not so sure. Look at the french doors on the right side. That leads you into the dining room....

Here is the dining room. It's really big!! Our table, which looked so big in our little apartment, has oodles of room to spare in the dining room. We will be keeping the dining room mostly the way it is. We're going to replace the windows eventually and put a little window seat there and we may be knocking out a partial wall to open it to the kitchen a little more, but we'll see. You see the picture on the right side of the little window? Right next to that picture is the entrance to the kitchen from the dining room.

Here's the kitchen from the dining room entrance. This is where our next major renovations start. The cabinets have GOT to go. The floor is shoddily done and doesn't go under the cabinets. The stove and refrigerator are both free-standing and in the way. We have several ideas, but the most popular one right now is to move to the stove over to where the cabinets are, then knock out part of the doorframe between the foyer and kitchen and put the fridge there. I will lose my pantry, but we're going to use a small cut-out area in this wonky kitchen and put shelves there. There is a built in original chimney in the middle of one of the kitchen walls (you can't see it) and we're having a hard time working around that because we're not even going to try and remove the chimney. We'll be replacing the floors with tile instead and putting a maple wood countertop in. We will have white cabinets which will be on the bottom and then, because the kitchen is small, put shelves on the top to leave it a little more open.This will be next summer's project. And we'll try to do most of it in a few days so that we're not without a kitchen!

Right next to the refrigerator and on the left of me if I'm standing in the doorway of the dining room looking into the kitchen is the doorway to my LAUNDRY ROOM AND EXTRA HALF BATH!!! Oh my GOODNESS I love this room. Look at all the cabinets!!! And the farmhouse sink! And an extra half bath!! We will be replacing the floor in here too, because it is lineoleum with paint splatters all over it. We'll probably also be rearranging a few things here, but that's a long-term plan. We're thinking a couple of years out because this room is very functional and mostly attractive the way it is.

Here's a view of the kitchen from the doorway between the foyer and kitchen. See how the fridge sticks out and is in the way of the back door? Yeah, we definitely need to do something like that. Unfortunatly the kitchen is small and we're working around the original chimney. Maybe we'll uncover the chimney (it's been built around with drywall) and put a built-in stove? But that would require TONS of moolah and we don't want to invest everything in this house. So there you have it!! This is the main floor of our house!

The price of a little peace and quiet

You know those times when you realize your children are being really, really quiet? And you think, "Hmmm...I wonder what shenanigans they're in to." Well, I chose to ignore the other day. It sounded better to finish nursing Charlotte in peace than to get up and go investigate.

The great thing about my children is that, after they do the deed, they come and tell me about it! Nathalie, ever my princess, came down a few minutes later and said, "Look Mom! I'm so beautiful!"

Emily wouldn't let me take a picture of her again. Emily had mascara for blush. Nathalie put the mascara on her lips and in her ears. Oh, my ladies.

A Tale of Two Kitties

Halloween 2011. This was the only picture I got of Emily because she's shy. Emily figured out that the more houses she hits, the more candy she gets. We ended up finishing trick-or-treating with Nathalie and me going on another 2 blocks with Emily before she wanted to call it quits. Emily wanted to be a kitty again just like last year and of course, Nathalie wants to be whatever Emily is! And now there's way too much candy for them to eat. Or me.

Larger Than Life

Nathalie has a huge personality. If you've ever spent any time interacting with her, you'll know that she has her own opinion...and she'll let you know it! She is very strong-willed, stubborn, into everything. She's very smart, funny and talks like a 4 yr old. She is the antagonist to a lot of Emily's tantrums.
For example, yesterday we were driving somewhere. I keep some books on the back row between Nathalie and Emily. Nathalie was looking at a book that Emily wanted. Emily was getting more and more upset that Nathalie wasn't sharing. I told Emily to take 4 deep breaths and then we'd talk about the book. Emily started breathing and Nathalie, in true Nathalie spirit, threw the book up between Matt's and my seat. Then she yelled at Emily, "Now you can't have the book either, EVER!"

Her nickname is Nan. It started when Nathalie was a baby and Emily couldn't say her name. Emily called her "Nani", which evolved for a short time into "Nanners" when Nathalie went through a banana-loving phase. Now it's just "Nan."

Three days ago Matt was sitting in the living room doing homework. Nathalie and I were in the kitchen and Nathalie was getting into everything. She finally grabbed the knife sharpener and told me, "I'm going to go kill Nephi!" A little desperate to get her out of the kitchen I said, "Okay, go kill Nephi. He's sitting in there!" and pointed to the living room. Nathalie ran into the living, "sword" out, went up to Matt and announced, "Nephi! I'm going to kill you!" Matt put on a sad face. Nathalie leaned it and whispered, "It's okay. It won't hurt."

Nathalie is just absolutely filled with life. She has such a personality that she can't keep it in. She frustrates me to no end, but she also makes me laugh every other minute. I sometimes think of her as my "joy child" because her joy starting around 7 months old is what brought me out of post-partum depression. True to her name, Nathalie brings life and joy to everyone around her.

Larger Than Life

Little ray of sunshine

Charlotte is 6 months. She weighed in at 15 lbs 14 oz and is almost 27 inches long. She is right on track developmentally She is adored by everyone around her. In the blessing Matt gave her as a baby, he mentioned that she would be loved and supported by all her friends and family. That is such the truth. There is so much love surrounding this little girl that sometimes it's almost palpable to me.

Charlotte has probably been my neediest baby. She only likes to nurse although she will take a bottle occasionally, she doesn't want to be put down and she hates to be left alone. And yet....she and I have bonded in a way that took so much longer with the other two girls. I've never been so happy to have a baby before. I love having her around. I still (6 months later!) stare at her while she's sleeping, play with her when I should be doing other things. She loves her sisters and desperately wants to be running around with her crazy sisters. She doesn't like to sit still AT ALL! She can almost crawl and just wants to be standing.

And yet she loves to cuddle with me. She is content to be kissed and cuddled and held all day. She is so sweet. It's hard to explain but you can feel that as much as she is loved by others, she has a lot of love to give too. It has been such a joy with her the last few months. I can't imagine life without her at all.

Any ideas?

We had a bit of sick household this last weekend. I had the flu-- the feverish, chilled, headachey kind. Charlotte and Nathalie were and still are completely congested.

Anyway, the point is, because of being sick Charlotte has been really clingy. So clingy that she starts crying when Matt holds her. So clingy that I can't even put her down. Benadryl (yes, she's 6 months) doesn't seem to make a difference to her ability to sleep or breathe. She won't take a bottle at all, which she had been taking one before bed previous to getting the cold.

I don't know what to do! I've never nursed a child exclusively this long before but Charlotte won't take a bottle. I'm taking fenugreek daily to keep my supply up. I can't go anywhere after 7:30 (her bedtime) and she often wakes up several times a night, often 2 times before 11 where I have to go in and nurse her.

Is this normal? Is it just the cold? How do I get her to start taking a bottle once a day regularly? I just don't know what's normal for a baby that's EBF.

Also, Nathalie fight sleep every night.... for 2 hours. We just put her to bed AGAIN. We put her in bed at 8pm tonight. How do I get her to sleep? It doesn't matter to Nathalie how long we sing, read books or cuddle. We even gave her Benadryl for her cold and she's still up.

Parenting is so confusing! Who's the genius out there that has the answers to my questions?

UPDATE: I decided to give Charlotte what she wants until her cold is gone. We slept together last night and while it wasn't ideal, we both got a lot more sleep. She also gets her shots tomorrow (poor little girl! What a rough week!) so it'll be a few more nights before we're out of the woods. And you were right: I need to crack down with Nathalie. I always feel bad locking their door or being mean, but 10pm is just way too late. It just breaks my heart to hear Nathalie cry because her door is locked. Nathalie needs some special attention lately. She's kind of getting lost in the shuffle.

Family, family

Thanks for all your responses! I think it's so important to realize that we need each other. Motherhood is a job I wouldn't trade for anything else, but sometimes it can get a bit lonely. So the next time you have a hard day (or month, or year) remember that there is another mom who knows exactly how you feel. Reach out to those other moms. It'll probably turn out that they need you as much as you need them.

So...last week my mom and "little" brother came to visit!! The last time I saw my bro he was a tad shorter than me. This time he was as tall as Matt!! We had a blast and Uncle B was a favorite with my girls. Well, Charlotte liked my mom more but that's probably because Uncle B was a little nervous holding such a squirmer.

We had so much fun with them. We went swimming at their hotel the last night. Emily is a COMPLETE fish. She was all over that pool.


We went to the park. I adore Nathalie's face here. Nathalie is not quite as adventurous and athletic as Emily is, so she was thrilled but a little nervous to be hanging by herself.

My grandfather came to visit us, just for a day. Nathalie was SO disappointed because she thought that when I said, "my grandpa is here" that it was her grandpa, my dad. There were some tears but she decided to check my grandpa out a little later anyway.

We picked apples and made apple cider with our very own apple cider press (video to come in the next psot). We made the cider press ourself and the cider turned out delish. Mmmmmm.....

My brother conquered the apple orchard.

Nathalie was my brother's little buddy. She can't wait to see him at Christmas.

My bro and Emily played Rapunzel. Sometimes my bro was Rapunzel....but I didn't say it.

We went to COSI. Emily is posing on top of a hill here! Don't you love that? She's hilarious.

My mom loved on my little baby. Who wouldn't want to? Charlotte is freaking adorable. My mom is awesome with babies too and Charlotte loved her. Charlotte is mobile now. She uses a combination of rolling, the inch-worm and the army crawl to get where she wants to go, albeit slowly. No, she's not 6 months yet. I think I'm in for trouble!

There was this awesome baby water table at COSI. The kids LOVED it, including Charlotte. I thought the water was a bit cold for babies but they didn't care!

All in all we had a super busy but awesome week. My mom took over my laundry (thank you a million times!!) because I really dislike laundry. She also organized the piles in my basement so I actually can walk down there. She took Emily to school, helped make lunches, read lots of books to the girlies and we had a blast. My brother was a gem and SO patient with the little ones, especially Nathalie (who woke him up every morning).

Counting down until Christmas!

We all want to be good mothers. When we look at our responsibilities with purpose, we love our jobs, even if we are submerged under loads of grass-stained laundry and piles of casserole-encrusted dishes. Mothering is an education all in itself, only the credits we accumulate are eternal.

This ain't fer sissies

People don't talk about the craziness of motherhood. Nobody mentions the days where you want to scream, cry and run around like a psycho. Nobody mentions the days wher your 4 yr old acts like a teenager and it takes all your patience to be loving and understanding.
Nobody talks about the days where your children are exhausted because one of Daddy's projects kept them up really late the night before. Where they eat cake or cold leftovers for lunch, sitting on the floor of the kitchen. No one mentions the days where cereal is served for dinner with powdered milk because Mom hasn't had time to go to the store and it's either that or a can of beans.

No one mentions the days where you want to get in the car and drive away, except that you wouldn't have anything to listen to since your 4 yr old "washed" your iPod and your 2 yr old stuck something in the cd player so it doesn't work. No one talks about having your baby scream bloody murder every single time you put her in the carseat so that simply driving around the block is torture.

No one talks about the days where you are exhausted from being up all night with puking children and a crying baby while your husband works. No one says how hard it is to keep going when there is no one to fall back on. No one talks about how much your shoulders hurt after you've been holding your baby all day because she cries every time you put her down.

No one explains how much patience it takes to comfort crying children multiple times each hour. Or hour you wish, just for a moment, that you could plan out your next quilt or go for a run, but you can't even go to the bathroom without a child coming running, crying, "Mommy!!"

No one says how hard it is to keep life going when work, your bed, church and school see your husband for an entire week. You don't even get to sleep with the man, much less talk to him.

How come now one talks about these things? We're all in the same boat! So here's what I would like. Please post a comment of one of your most horrible days as a parent. Let's briefly unite and realize that we're all in this same craziness together. We may not talk about it, but we're struggling with the same things at the same time. Let's not struggle alone, just for a moment.

(P.S. All of these things are examples from my life. Thankfully however, not all of them happened at the same time.

P.P.S. These are some seriously adorable pictures of my girls. )

School Girl

Matt and I really debated when and where to send Emily to preschool. We knew she needed some kind of outlet this year, but weren't sure if it needed to be only a few times a week or every day. In the end all our reasons for preschool pointed toward a public preschool which is 4 full days a week.
I was so worried that it would be too much for her. I shouldn't have worried! Emily is thriving. She loves school, she loves her teachers, she is doing better behaviorally, she has learned all the songs and things they do. As for our family, I am much less stressed, she is much less bored and she and I don't have so many conflicts at home. She just adores preschool.

I can't believe how big she's getting! She loves her princess lunch box, which she picked out. She wears something pink nearly every day, and most days her outfit is different shades of pink. I sure love this little school girl. It is wonderful to see her so happy!

Capper

So, we had a bad week. Not a terrible week, or a week where I threw in the towel and we ate hot dogs every day (though we did have them one day). And the kids weren't too crazy, it was mostly just things going wrong. But you know what Emily said to me tonight?

"Mom, you're the best mom ever."

Oh yeah. Your heart just melted.

Highlights from a bad week

-- Emily had an ear infection this week. The hilarious part is that she called it an ear "confection."

--Even though she only went to school for 2 days instead of 4, she got green cards BOTH days! That means she didn't pinch, hit or fight anyone for two days in a row! Maybe your child is an angel, but mine is not and Matt and I were totally thrilled with her behavior this week.

--I got to see one my best friends thriving in her new surroundings.

--Nathalie calls barbies "Marbies". I ask her specific questions about "marbies" just to hear her say it.

--Charlotte can now get up on all fours and lunge forward to grab something. Still working on the separate limb control though, thank goodness.

--Matt and I sat down and gave each other the funds for a few special things. Him-- an apple cider press and grinder. Me-- a used iPod since Nathalie shoved something into the cd player in our van and Emily "washed" our iTouch so both are irrevocably broken.

--Apple cider.

--Operation: Basement Rescue has begun. I actually started going through all the boxes and random junk we've been throwing in the basement for a month.

--Our computer decided it wanted to work again. Hurray hurray, especially because I was getting a little desperate for the kids to watch a movie.

It's not all the Matt and Michelle Show

So in all the moving and fixing up, I've not posted pictures of our girls lately. Truthfully, on some days, they were left to their own devices as Matt and I built shelves in the basement or put back doors or installed things. The beauty is that we have a backyard they've conquered and so they often play Rapunzel back there. But you deserve to see these beauties.

Nathalie. What do I say about her? She gets into everything. No, seriously. Everything. Should I say it again? Everything. I don't know how to convey to you her level of curiosity. She is busy all the time and can outrun me a lot of days. She is also very loving and often gives kisses, hugs or tells me that she loves me. When she's not drawing on the wall or ripping up my scriptures that is.

So beautiful, my girl with the big brown eyes.

Emily turned 4 in the middle of this whole mess. I only got one picture of her cake, but that somehow got deleted. It wasn't a special cake though, just one with lots of frosting per her request. To describe Emily I would use: strong-willed, stubborn, intelligent, clever, imaginative, active, defiant, creative, determined, leadership (read: bossy) and compassionate. She is all of these things.

Not to mention she has the most amazing hair.

All three girls. This is how Charlotte usually feels when Emily holds her. She loves it when the girls play with her...but not when they hold her. One word? Disgruntled.

I LOVE this picture. Thank you Emily, for finally be good enough with the camera to capture this. I will treasure this always. Charlotte is my beautiful doll baby. And she has the cutest smile.

Emily got this one too. She's pretty good for 4!! Charlotte is 5 months now. She's 14 1/2 lbs and almost 26 inches long!! Apparently she's going to have my build. Charlotte is happy when she's cuddling. She's happy when she's playing. She's NOT happy when she's on the floor or when no one is playing with her. She spends a lot of time in the sling. At least I'm starting to get her out of my bed at night.