28 December 2008

We’ve had a busy week this week, as I’m sure many of you have. Kolby and Eli had last week and this upcoming week off of preschool for the holidays. And Michael got one day off of work this week, December 26th, so we decided to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas day each a day late (which worked out fine since the kids are too young to realize that we didn’t do our Christmas on the actual Christmas day anyways). So, the days before Christmas were filled with last-minute gift wrapping (I had most of my gifts done early, but we ended up getting a few more things last-minute), running some errands – I got a nice piece of red fleece on sale and cut and tied a baby blanket for Courtland to match his brothers’, I helped Grandma get all of her programs set up on her new computer that arrived in the mail (her old one crashed just after Thanksgiving) and I uploaded all of the music from her CDS so it could be added to her Ipod, and of course the boys also enjoyed taking one link off of their chains each night to count down the days until Christmas.

On December 25th (our Christmas Eve), I got some laundry done so the boys would have clean pajamas to wear on Christmas morning and I gave them all a bath at the same time by myself (an event that takes a lot of preparation and time, and therefore doesn’t happen all that often). While I was getting them all cleaned and dressed, I pulled Eli out of the tub and cut his hair, vacuumed up the floor, washed him off again, and got him back out of the tub to get him dressed. We noticed last time that I cut Michael’s hair that the little plastic ¾-inch guard for our hair clippers had gotten broken somehow, and that, of course, is the one I use for Kolby’s and Eli’s hair when I cut it short. So, I decided to use the next smaller sized guard (which would mean it would be longer before I’d have to cut Eli’s hair again the next time). Well, the end result was definitely shorter than I had intended – I never really wanted my boys to have a buzz cut, and that’s basically how it ended up – but of course Eli is as cute as ever, and it will grow back before too long. I also have Isaac his first haircut that morning while he was in the bath (I learned that giving haircuts in the tub can be helpful, because the kid has water to splash and play in to keep him entertained and then it is easier to just rinse down the child and the tub afterwards). Anyways, I just trimmed Isaac’s hair around the edges – I didn’t want it short (and didn’t want to lose the few cute little curls around his ears), but it had started to get kind of fuzzy looking lately, so it definitely needed a trim. I think it turned out nice – it still looks really cute combed to the side.

After Michael got home from work and the boys woke up from their naps, we started some of our Christmas Eve traditions while we were waiting for dinner to cook. Michael’s family has a tradition of reading the story of Jesus’ birth while acting out the nativity, complete with bath-robe costumes. We don’t have any robes, so we wrapped towels around the boys’ heads and shoulders and had them act it out (luckily Camden is still young enough that he didn’t mind being Mary, since I was video-taping, so we didn’t have any female actresses). Afterwards we got out the two special Christmas Eve pop-up books that are a tradition in my family: The Night Before Christmas and The First Christmas. Isaac wandered around the room while the other three boys sat and listened and moved all the little pieces of the pop-up books while Michael read. After dinner we piled into the car to drive around and look at Christmas lights. We had heard of a place in Sugar House called “Christmas Street” because of it’s impressive lights display. We drove and got near the street before both the older boys announced that they needed to use the bathroom. It’s rather difficult to find any kind of store or gas station that’s open on Christmas night (we found one restaurant that was closing, and the employees inside wouldn’t even open the door for me to ask them if our children could use their restroom). Fortunately we eventually found a Walgreens that was open. When I took the boys inside it was raining out, and when we came back out to the car it had started to snow. We drove back to the street with the lights, and there was one street that had a different verse of scripture on a poster displayed in each yard, telling the story of Christ’s birth. Then the next street up had the lights display (which didn’t seem much more impressive than other houses decorated for Christmas, except it was nice that every house on that street was lit up). But by that time the snow was coming down hard, and it was hard to see the lights very well, and Camden had fallen asleep in the car. We headed home, and we saw a man walking in the snow and offered him a ride. I’m glad we did, because we drove for what seemed like 15 or 20 minutes in what was by then quite a blizzard (that would have taken him forever to walk) – he was going to meet some family who’s car had broken down, and it wasn’t snowing when he started walking. So, I felt glad that we were in the right place at the right time to offer him some service as part of our Christmas.

When we got home we put Isaac down to bed and we tried to wake Eli up, but he asked if he could go to bed too. So Kolby and Camden stayed up and found the one gift under the tree that Santa had left before we interrupted him by coming home from looking at Christmas lights, so he would have to return later than night for the rest of the gifts (this is another tradition from Michael’s family – and this gift is always a game that the family can play together that night). So, the boys opened the gift, and it was a 300-piece puzzle that we had fun putting together. We were surprised that Camden enjoyed staying up the entire time and handing us pieces to put together. And then we let the boys put their gifts for family members under the tree, which Kolby was especially excited about. And Kolby left out cookies, carrots, and egg nog for Santa and the reindeer, of course. After we put the boys in bed, we got the gifts out and put them under the tree and filled the stockings, which we set out on the couch next to the tree (Grandma’s fireplace doesn’t have a mantle that we could hang stockings from). Then we went to bed after a while.

In the morning the boys actually slept a little – they were up pretty late the night before – and Kolby came into our room around 7:30 or 8:00am and we were still able to get a little more sleep after that. Michael and I each took a shower and got dressed before getting up the other boys and Grandma and heading upstairs around 9:30am. The snow outside was pretty, and we enjoyed a white Christmas. The boys liked opening their gifts. One gift we got for them was two sets of wooden train tracks that go with the ones they have so they would have enough to build complete tracks they could all play with at the same time, and I had the idea to wrap lots of the pieces separately, so the boys would have more little gifts to unwrap. Then, last week a friend from church offered me another set of these wooden train tracks because she said she got them for her grandkids and ended up with a duplicate set, so I wrapped lots of those separately too. I guess that was a little much, because the boys were still working on unwrapping gifts an hour after we started, which was definitely too long for Isaac and Eli was getting really hungry for brunch by then and saying he didn’t feel well. But other than that it was a really enjoyable morning. The other big gift for all of the boys was a Fisher Price nativity set, complete with stable, tents for the wise men, the inn, all the people, and the animals. And they each got a church movie in their stockings to watch on Sundays. They were also pretty excited that they each got a new “brushtooth” (toothbrush) in their stockings too. They got some adorable outfits from my parents and from Grandma Faun. And there were lots of fun coloring books and sticker books, which they love. They enjoyed picking out gifts from under the tree and handing them to each person (although they weren’t always patient with the idea of waiting while each person opened their gifts), but it was fun to see them give their gifts to each other and give hugs after opening them. Michael and I had quite a laugh after I opened one of my gifts from him: a favorite board game, Thurn & Taxis, and then he later opening the exact same game from me. This is a game that can’t be found in most normal stores, and it ends up that we both got it from the same specialty game shop. So, that was pretty funny – especially since both of us were so sure that the other would be really surprised and have no idea what their gift would be. I also gave Michael another board game, Ticket to Ride Europe, some new white temple pants (since he’s recently grown out of his from before his mission), and a tile sign that I made with his favorite quote on it that he can put in his office someday. And he gave me this beautiful set of Willow Tree figurines of a father, mother, and four boys for our family – now we just need to find one more little boy and it will be complete. The boys had fun giving each other the wooden puzzles they had picked out, and giving Michael his church socks he had asked for. And I really liked the pretty place mats the boys got me for the new table we are planning on getting when we move to New York. Oh, and thank you to both of our parents – Mom and Dad gave us a Clearplay DVD player which edits movies that you buy or rent, so you can watch movies at an appropriate rating (no mater what they are originally rated) and you can filter out things like violence, inappropriate language, etc. for yourselves and your children (we are looking forward to Michael having a better work schedule when he finally finishes this rotation next week so we can rent some new movies and try it out) – and Dick and Debbie gave us money that we decided to put towards our table when we move to New York (I am very excited to have a nice table that isn’t a hand-me-down with matching benches and chairs that will seat our entire family plus guests, it will be so nice). Thank you to all of our family members and friends for the thoughtful gifts, treats that have been brought, and nice Christmas letters and cards that have been sent!

So, we had a nice Christmas. Since Christmas I’ve started to have Braxton Hicks contractions (which is happening a lot later on in this pregnancy than in some of my earlier pregnancies, so at least we know this baby is going to get here before too long). It’s kind of funny too – I only have the contractions in the evening and at night before I go to bed – not during the morning or daytime at all – I’ve never only had them at a certain time of the day with any of my other pregnancies. Although I feel pretty ready for this baby to come, I haven’t hit the really impatient part of this pregnancy yet (probably since we’ve done this a few times before, and we remember that it’s harder after the baby is born, with the lack of sleep and the fun of breast feeding and everything. I’m ok with whenever he comes, as long as it’s after New Year’s day (actually, after January 10th – my birthday – would be preferable) and before February 10th (since he’s due February 9th, and Camden was 5 days early and Isaac was 7 days early, I think I’m being pretty reasonable to say that I would wait until the due date – but for some reason strangers in the grocery stores lately think that it’s a really good idea to say that maybe I’ll have a Valentine’s Day baby when they hear that the due date is February 9th. I don’t think that’s very nice – to say anything about a baby coming more than a couple days late, plus I don’t think Valentine’s Day would be the ideal birthday – I’ll have to talk to the midwife and see how she feels about inducing before Valentine’s Day). Oh, and I don’t want him to come on January 31st, since that is Eli’s birthday, and I’d prefer that each of the boys have their own special day – two birthdays back to back would be better than them having to share the same day, I think. So, I’ve got lots of good ideas – we’ll see what happens. I know that I always said when I was pregnant with Kolby that I’d never have a Halloween baby . . .

So, yesterday was Michael’s and my 6-year anniversary. We are planning on celebrating sometime this upcoming week (waiting until tomorrow to find out which day Michael will get off of work this week). We have always splurged and done something really fun (something that we wouldn’t normally do) for our anniversary – like one time we went and spent the night at a beautiful room in an Anniversary Inn and last year we splurged and had a really nice dinner at a fancy fondue restaurant. This year we have some fun ideas, but we’ll have to see if they all work out, since we don’t know the work schedule yet. But yesterday Michael had one of his late nights at work and so I did a quick dinner of leftovers with the boys, finished up their bedtime routine early, and then I let them stay up late and we watched one of our new movies, Enchanted, together with Grandma Faun. Michael got home during the movie and surprised me with a pretty little bouquet of beautiful gerber daisies for our anniversary. They smell and look beautiful! How sweet!

So, today was church. I am SO looking forward to the new church schedule starting in January – 11am church will be so much easier with the kids, not to mention the fact that Michael will be on an outpatient medicine rotation in January so he will actually be able to go to church with us every Sunday (he hasn’t been able to get a Sunday off from the hospital for at least the last 8 weeks during this rotation, if not longer during his last rotation, I think). Eli is starting next week in a primary class – he is done with nursery and is excited to go to primary like Kolby. Camden still enjoys his nursery class, and I can’t wait until Isaac hits his 18-month birthday and is old enough to join Camden in class, since he hit the point a couple months ago where it is impossible to get him to sit through the adult classes with us, so the majority of church is spent out in the hallway with him. But I had a sigh of relief today when Michael walked into church at the beginning of the third hour – he never gets off work that early! – and we got to sit together as a family. We got through most of Sacrament meeting before he finally had to take Isaac out in the hall, where Isaac fell asleep in his arms for the last few minutes of church. But none of the other boys had to be taken out (I think they knew it was different because Daddy was there too). After church and lunch we put the boys down for naps and we each tried to read a little bit before we both ended up falling asleep on the couch. The younger two didn’t nap well (Isaac never did end up falling asleep), and when the boys got up we watched one of their new church movies – Kolby chose the one about the prophet, President Thomas S. Monson. Then we had dinner and Kolby practiced his piano songs before bedtime. Michael is now sleeping on the couch and I have stayed up later than I should have working on the computer (since I haven’t gotten on the computer in several days, and I’ve been trying to catch up with photos and the blog, except the internet won’t connect and let me post anything on the blog tonight for some reason – I’ll just have to post what I’ve typed tonight another day). Well, I’d better get to bed.

Oh, I had to write something cute that Eli said a couple days ago:

The other day Eli was working on his Disney sticker book with Grandma Faun, and they were doing a page with Peter Pan stickers. Grandma had told Eli the names of all the characters, and she asked him who the pirate was:
Grandma: “Who is this?”
Eli: “Captain.”
Grandma: “Captain who?”
Eli: “Hanger.”
Grandma: “Captain Hook.”
I thought it was pretty cute that he made that association between Captain Hook’s hook and a familiar object that was also hook-shaped.