The Nutcracker

I had big plans to take the girls to see The Nutcracker for one of their Christmas gifts.  I didn't tell them until the day before that we were even going somewhere, and I didn't tell them where we were going until they actually walked into the lobby at the theater and they figured it out for themselves.  I was really excited, personally, to see the show because I'd never seen a ballet before.  And since Jane and Claire are in ballet right now, I thought they would be thrilled.  The were super excited, naturally, which usually results in them misbehaving, but I sorta managed to not let that ruin things.  I think they mostly enjoyed the show.  They said it was "too loud."  When the curtain went down, Jane started crying because she said her head hurt.  And that was the beginning of this long awful week of sickness.  I'm so glad we were all well enough to go.  And hopefully we didn't infect a bunch of strangers.  We saw one of the young women from our ward who performed in it after the show.  Her mom took a picture of all of us with her, so I'm hoping she sends me a copy of the picture.

I've been thinking lately, and maybe it's just the darkness of winter, or the sickness, or the cabin fever, but we haven't been "cleaning up" well when we go out for things like this and for church.  We always look a little scroungy to me.  I don't know if this is just my own vain sensitivities, if we're just exhausted and have been putting no effort into it (most likely), or if it's because we don't spend money anymore on things like new dresses and tights and we end up going out with bad homemade haircuts and stained socks in scuffed, hand-me-down shoes.  This is ok.  It should be ok.  I feel like it's bad form of me to feel bad about these things.  But, I do notice, have been noticing.  And there are always excuses, but I wish I didn't have to make them.  I am very happy with my life.  I love my family and everything that we have, but I get these ideas in my head that make me discontented, that make me hope for better things and for changes that usually end up involving willpower and waking up earlier.  Our girls are so beautiful.  If they were in sackcloth they would still look beautiful.  We put forth the effort that we could muster, and I have no doubt that as the kids get older, we'll have more to muster.  Right??

Stuff Lately

Claire on a date with Daddy.

I've been trying to teach the girls how to meditate before bed to help them calm down (and ultimately be able to calm themselves down).  After a couple of days, I still can't tell how successful it is for them.  Jonny is usually already in bed because he's way too distracting, but we let him try it one night.  He lasted about six seconds, which I thought was actually pretty good!  Plus, he looked so cute trying.

He packed his sippy of milk around like this all day and called it "hot chocowet."

Jane attacking her homework.  She's usually a sport about it, but I'm afraid the amount she gets is making me insane.  Plus, she's a little bit of a stressed kid anyway that I'm afraid it's making her even more stressed than usual.

Audrey isn't feeling well, so it seems . . . 

Inevitable, really . . . and I don't even wear mascara!

Jonny and Dad out on Hunt Mens' Club.

I couldn't find the three wise men to the kids' nativity . . . looks like Audrey had other plans for them.

Claire said: "Darcy is the best baby we are ever going to have...and I know she's a girl baby because she has long eyelashes."

Excited, sad, scared, jealous, confused, enchanted, surprised about something you really don't want to see, tired, want to do something mean to someone else, annoyed, nervous or embarrassed or sick, hypnotized, silly or teasy, you supercilious scoundrel, happy, leader look, and furious!!!  This is Audrey's super power.

Thanksgiving!

This year we stayed home.  Dave's parents and their foreign exchange student made it later that evening, but for the main dinner it was just our family.  We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, gravy, cranberry sauce (probably my favorite part of the meal), pecan pie, and pumpkin pie.  It was perfect.  Well, not perfect, but that was what made it perfect.  Instead of doing a thanksgiving tree this year, we started a family notebook to write down what we're thankful for each year.  This seemed more meaningful than me taking an hour cutting out and writing on little leaves that no one ever reads. 

Update: Nearing Christmas

Darcy has been found sitting up all on her own twice yesterday!  AND today she was actually crawling, hands and knees, instead of army crawling to get the things she wants.  Her 7 month birthday just passed, and I can hardly believe it.

We've had sickness here.  Last Friday, Audrey stayed home from school with a fever and a bad cough.  Saturday she was well, but that evening, Jane complained of the same.  Hers lasted through until Wednesday morning, when she could finally go to school.  Claire had it Sunday and Monday.  Jonathan has had it a bit here and there, but not so bad as last night and this morning when is breathing started becoming difficult again.  David started feeling it Monday . . . and so far, I am not sure if my symptoms are a result of catching it, too, or if I'm just too tired.  Darcy has been waking up regularly at midnight and staying up until well into the morning.  Combine that with all the night time coughs and nightmares (courtesy of Charles Dickens, how precious is that?) and trips to the potty, and I am basically running on fumes.  I've managed most days to crash on the couch for a few moments.  But I've also been spending a lot of time in my pajamas and not getting a whole lot done but dispense medicine.

I did have a couple productive days.  One evening, I just couldn't stand it anymore and I cleaned the garage to make room for cleaning inside.  Now if I feel the urge to send something to the garage, it has a place instead of being added to the heap and making it harder to park the van in there.  :S  I have little bursts of productivity, like the day I raked all the leaves and did a million other things.  I like those days, but they are usually followed by really unproductive days.  Or unproductive weeks.

We did get out to see The Nutcracker on Saturday between sicknesses.  I loved it!  I think the girls liked it, too.  They bickered a lot and complained about how loud the sound was, but I think they liked it.  I know Claire acted like she liked it.  As soon as the curtain closed and the lights came up at the end, I turned to Jane to see if she'd had a nice time, and she burst into tears because she said it was too loud and her head hurt.  Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for, but it could hardly be helped.  I'm just glad we were able to make it.

I have plans to gather the pictures up this weekend and put them on the blog.  No sense in getting behind before we even get started, right?  I'm also still working my tail off to get the pictures put back that were missing from 2007 and 2008.  What a huge chore!  I think it's close to being done, though.  My hope is for it to be done before we leave for Christmas break.

Oh, yesterday a lady came to give us a quote for cleaning the house every month.  Do you know what that would mean to me??  It would be huge.  I think we are going to squeeze some more money out of the budget and make it work.  I think we might be able to do it.  She's supposed to call me back later this afternoon to schedule.

As far as Christmas preparations, we have been doing pretty well with our ornament advent.  Surprisingly well.  We've also been reading our Christmas books.  The gifts and stocking stuffers have been purchased and have arrived, now it's just a matter of wrapping them and figuring out how to pack it all into the van to take to Mom and Dad's next week.  That will be the real Christmas miracle.  :S

Claire

She calls me "ridicleous" sometimes. (Read that carefully.)

She just said goodbye to a little boy who was at our house tonight by hugging him and kissing him on the cheek.  {"I just like kissing people on the cheek!!")

She also has a huge crush on Luke Johnson.  (He told his mom, "Claire has pretty hair like every day.")

She spends most of her time looking at yoga books, my baby book, our wedding album, or Dave's high school yearbook.  I'm not exaggerating this.  She looks at all of them at least once a day.  I should pull down the book of all the paintings in the Louvre and our two volumes of sculpture books.

Productivity

Yesterday I . . .

fixed the DVD player in the van,
raked the leaves in the front yard,
trimmed the bushes in the front yard,
washed a mountain of dishes,
swept the gross kitchen floor,
and washed a mountain of laundry.

AND earlier this week I fixed a broken toilet.

. . . and today I finished updating the blog, so . . .
if anyone wants to send me a medal and some cookies and stuff, feel free.

Also, don't expect this much productivity to happen more than once or twice a year.  :D

(except for the blog, which will stay updated, right!?)

Drum roll, please!! . . .

THE BLOG IS UPDATED!!!

Cue Hallelujah Chorus!

Now, let's not let this happen again, ok??

2015 is going to be play-by-play, all the way.

Nativity Pictures for Nana and Oompa

These are the pictures we took for the nativity project Josie and Jake are doing for Dave's parents this year for Christmas. Too cute, huh?

November/December stuff

Two binkies!  We gotta get this kid off the binkies.  :S

A few things:

I don't know if I mentioned it before, but Jane came home after Spring Break this year and asked if we could go to Fruitland.  (Which is a rural town outside of Boise.)  I asked her why she wanted to go there.  "A boy in my class went there to see his Grandma!  It sounds really fun!"  I guess she imagined a place like Disneyland . . . only with fruit.

November 22nd: Darcy is rocking on her hands and knees and can army crawl everywhere!  She can get basically anything she wants now!  It's on!

December 7th: Found a gray hair on Jane's head.  She's a high-strung child, and a bit of a worrier.  :S

Snow! Nov 2014

Darcy sees snow for the first time!  She's not majorly impressed.

...even though it was kinda a lot!

Dave took the girls sledding!

DARCY Nov 2014 (the first time I posted this, I wrote that it was Claire. Oops!)

She came with us on a date, but had a little bit of a hard time.  She's pushing out two teeth in this picture!  She didn't have them before the date, but she had them after!  

She woke up super late in the night and started acting like she was done and ready for morning.  :(  But it's SO hard to say no to such a sweetcake!

She's a very social baby.  But she especially loves Nana and Grammy.

Misc Nov 2014

"Look, Mama!  House!"

This is the ceiling at the pediatrician's office.  These ducts are way high up.  Jonny kept pointing to them and saying, "Bonk head!" and covering his head.  :)

This is Claire playing teacher.

Claire and Daddy taking selfies.

Claire loves it when it's our turn for preschool.  And Jonny would love it, too, if it didn't mean sharing things with other kids.

Audrey wearing her favorite shirt (she has a lot of favorite shirts).

"I'm going to be a ballerina when I grow up." I hope she likes her Christmas present! We have tickets to see The Nutcracker. Shhh.