december in review

december is always one of those months that go by way too fast but is always a ton of fun-except for the fact that i was sick for 2 weeks with some weird dizzy headache disease. i could do little more that sit around all day and that even wore me out. so i started reading the Harry Potter series...i finished the first four books in this time and then i was hooked and finished up the series by the end of the month. i loved them, my favorite i think was #4 just because it was so different in alot of parts than the movie-of course the books are way better than the movies. we also got a ton of snow early this year so my kids have been loving playing outside. brooke had her Christmas concert at the start of the month and there's nothing like a bunch of sweet kids singing Christmas songs to get you into the season.

brooke was the cutest little lambchops ever, well actually she was a sheep-i love that we live in an area where the program can still be on the nativity. we went to see santa at the carousel this year, they had free rides and treats-my kids loved it-except kelsi, she decided she was too old to sit on santa's lap.

koy asked for a flying airplane, a bakugan, and his own little house(santa never figured this one out)

brooke asked for a blue Tonka truck-this sorta surprised santa and i shook my head yes at him

kaden asked for a red nintendo DS and pokemon rangers game

it was not very busy so the guy let them ride the carousel over and over and over, i don't think brooke would have ever stopped-about the 6th time i had to finally say it was enough...i was getting dizzy just watching!

this is what kaden and koy thought of that many turns!

my kids invented a game called kick the booty-they played it on the trampoline all summer and now they play it inside, which is a little wild but i just love when one of them asks the other "wanna play kick the booty" and the other one replies "yeah, let me get my booty!" they crack me up!

we made some gingerbread houses for family home evening...i think you can tell by the picture whose house kept falling apart-kaden was not happy:(

we also did the nativity(a family tradition from my family, it's alot easier with more people)...brooke was so cute as Mary with her round little belly and kaden was so excited to wear his Harry Potter robes as Joseph...Koy wanted to be baby Jesus but settled on a wise sheep holder, as he called it and we're just happy kelsi still likes to cooperate.

kent worked really hard and finished our computer table by Christmas morning-it was a surprise, he put a tarp over it...it is really nice-you have to come see it in person to really appreciate it...it is also good to have the computer out of kelsi and brooke's room.

Christmas morning was fantastic-the kids slept in until 8:30. santa must of thought that they were all very good last year-they were all very happy!

then that evening we had a birthday party for kelsi-she turned 12! we were happy that we had so many of our family show up even though the weather was horrible.

this is kelsi at 6 months-she was just too cute! we didn't find out what we were having so when my water broke at 6 in the morning on Christmas we wanted to keep it a surprise...so we didn't tell anyone. i started to do a 1000 piece puzzle and waited for contractions, by about 5 we decided to call the doctor, he told me to get to the hospital and i don't know why but i just sat back down and kept doing my puzzle. i think this is when i realized that i was terrified to have babies, i can't believe i lied though. so at about 6 the hospital calls and kent answers and they are all like "where are you?" kent just shook his head at me! we got to the hospital around 7 and they said they needed to start pitosin to get the contractions going and just asked if i wanted my epidural at the same time-it was nice...i never felt one contraction with kelsi. they said that i wasn't going to to have the baby until the next morning so about 9:30 kent went to find some food-it took him along time, he couldn't find anywhere open-we forgot it was Christmas. while he was gone the nurse came in and i asked her if it was normal to have lots of pressure in your back, she checked me and said "oh, your ready to have this baby" it was about 10:30. she called the doctor on call and started wheeling in all kinds of stuff, kent finally got back at about 10:45 and asked what was going on...the doctor got there shortly after and we had kelsi at 11:11pm. when she came out kent said "it's a boy!' and i can still remember the strange look the doctor gave him and i was thinking whats wrong with my baby and then the doctor said "no, it's a girl!" i didn't have the slighteast idea about what to do with babies, we stopped on the way home from the hospital at ToysRUs to get things like a binky, a swaddling blanket, and baby wash. i can still remember the shock on the checkout ladys face when she asked how old kelsi was and i said "2 days". oh, the things i didn't know! my mom was busy with my younger sister, kara who was also having a baby-so kents mom suggested we come stay with her for a little while, i'm so thankful:) well i did finally read a book about babies and then i kind of went crazy and had kelsi on a rediculous schedule, poor girl! kelsi did demand alot of attention though and i can remember a conversation with my mom that it was just not what i had imagined it would be and my mom said "are you making it harder that it should be?" and i decided then to just have more fun and let the house be a little messy, and her toys didn't need disinfected every day, and if the blocks ended up in the wrong bin it was okay, and her hair didn't have to be done everyday. it was the best advice ever because being a mom is always going to be hard work so you should always take time to enjoy it too! i love being a mom, kelsi is such a good help to me now too...i really don't know what i would do without her.

sacrament remedy

this was my solution to our sacrament behavior-just kidding...
but for family home evening we did talk about even if i did tie them all down and keep their mouths quiet this wouldn't be reverance. i used that primary song that says: reverance is more than just quietly sitting-it's thinking of Father above, a feeling i get when i think of his blessings. I'm reverant, for reverance is love. we came up with some rules together-no toys, one potty/drink break, and we will only bring our scripture bags(inside: scriptures, scripture markers, a picture of jesus, and for brooke and koy a small snack for after sacrament), we have been to two sacraments with our new rules and they have done really well-koy no longer rolls on the floor with no toys to play with. and i should apologies for my last blog seeming so negative-i didn't mean it too...i just wanted to remind myself later that i am always trying to improve on things of importance. a side note: my kids loved being tied up and i'm sure i will be asked to do it again for family home evening!

sacrament

okay-so i left church feeling rather beat up. we have had numerous talks about sacrament meeting. first from Elder Oaks in conference, then from the stake presidency, then from our ward and then today we had a relief society lesson on Elder Oaks talk. well i have loved hearing what all the speakers had to say and think it is very important since it should be our most important meeting. but our relief society lesson turned to how noisy our sacraments are and quite a few of the older sisters kept talking about how they never brought toys or activities or food for their kids-and even some of the younger sisters kind of said the same thing and i was getting grouchy with all the talk about everybodys "perfect" kids in sacrament-because mine aren't! and i was starting to feel like maybe i wasn't invited anymore. well i seriously was kind of grumpy by the time i was heading home and then that night as we were reading the scriptures a scripture totally popped out at me from 1 Nephi 16:2 "...wherefore, the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center." i thought back to my bad feelings and realized i needed to be humbled-i sometimes have a hard time being told i am not doing things the right way or even that i could do them better. so we will be having a family home evening to try to work on our sacrament behavior!

jack sprat

every month for pre-school koy learns a little nursery rhyme...this month was: jack sprat could eat no fat his wife could eat no lean. but koy goes around singing: pat pat could eat no pat his wife couldn't eat pat too! we all think it's too funny:]

105.5 the hawk

so the other day we are driving and brooke says, "mom-turn it to 105.5 the hawk" and i said "where did you hear that?" she said, "it always says that on the bus!" this is one of those moments that made me realize how quickly my kids are growing and how they are being influenced by the world...i mean she used to only ask to listen to things like "the wheels on the bus" or "snuggle puppy"!

movies

this was my stack of movies to put away after hunting season-that's one thing i kinda like when kent is gone i can stay up and watch my movies and get some stuff done because i don't like going to bed without kent so i stay awake as long as i can...my favorite movie "emma"-i probably watched it 4 times.

kelsi's check

kelsi put a scrapbook page in the fair for 4-h...it was super cute-and she won an outstanding ribbon which we thought was pretty cool, but when we picked up her page we found out that she also won some money, $10. well kelsi was pretty excited especially since this was her first check:) we went to the bank to cash it and kelsi signed the back and all...on the way home kelsi said,"that was fun-do you think when i babysit for you, you could write me checks now?"