Christmas Time

Last night we decorated our graham cracker "gingerbread houses." Much fun was had by all. The kids did a great job of doing it all by themselves and it is always fun to see their personalities come out in their decorating. My favorite was Benji's stable, complete with baby Jesus. We also attended a fun cookie exchange with some friends from the ward. Thank you Piersons for being great hosts!

Before I sign off, a funny conversation...

George: Mom, I have a good idea!

Mom: What? (up to my elbows is soapy dishwater)

George: Ella wants to be a princess when she grows up, and since you don't have a job and all you do is take care of us, maybe when we get all grown up you can be her servant!

Mom: (laughing) Well.................only if she pays me lots and lots of money.

I just about passed out. What am I teaching these kids about moms? I need to rethink my parenting here. Too funny! Really though, George is a sweetie and a good helper.

Snow!

George buried up to his neck!

We survived the big storm, but right now we're feeling a bit taken. I mean, we live in VA now. We're not supposed to get this much snow, right? That was one of the perks of moving to this place! I have to admit, though, that I'm glad that our first Christmas here will be a white one. And it was kind of funny going to Walmart Friday night and seeing everyone panic. It was nuts! It was like people thought the world was going to end.

Daddy and Ella shoveling the driveway

George had his last day of school on Friday. This is a picture of him with his darling teacher. He just loves her and she has made such a difference with him this year. We are really sad that he has to switch schools and are praying that he gets another wonderful teacher.

George and Mrs. Dickey on PJ day

Look at this big girl! None of my other kids were this strong at 2 1/2 months. During tummy time they just laid there with their face in the carpet like little beached whales. But this girl is strong, I tell you! She even reaches for toys. What a cutie pie!

7 Weeks

I can hardly believe it has been 7 weeks since this little one was born. She is such a fun little thing. And happy (most of the time) as you can see from this picture. I know it's not a great picture, very dark, but she's smiling and that's hard to catch! Also, like her brothers and sister before her, she is starting to really chunck up. Just look at those cheeks!

I'm trying to get my act together to actually send Christmas cards this year. So, if you would like a Christmas card and think I may need your address, please e-mail it to me. Maybe you should e-mail it to me even if you think I have it. If you know me at all, the fact that I've probably lost your address will come as no surprise. If you want your name removed from the Christmas card list you can e-mail those requests as well. :)

Oh! By the way. We bought a house and moved again! We're nuts, I know.

She's here!!!

Amelia Jane Harry arrived on Friday October 2 at 6:46pm. She weighed 7lb 10oz and was
20 1/2 inches long. We are so excited to finally have her here! The labor went well and I was able to do it without pain meds-which was my goal. I'm a little bit tardy in my posting because we have spent the last few days running back and forth to the doctors trying to monitor her jaundice. However, today her levels stayed steady so hopefully we're reaching the end of our worries. Yeah!
Have you ever noticed how hard it is to get a decent picture of a newborn? They are so wiggly and pull the oddest faces. She really is just a cutie pie. We all adore her to death.

Online Again

We're finally back online after the move! It took awhile to get ourselves together but I must say I am very excited to re-join the real world.

We are getting to know our new surroundings and so far really like VA! George is really liking his new school. Ella turned 3 and we only have 4 weeks until our new little one arrives. Whew!

I'm sorry I'm not posting any pictures. It will have to wait for another day, I'm afraid. Bye!

Criminal Confessions

We had quite the adventure this morning. Here's how it played out...

I was heading out to the doctor's office to give them my request for records transfer form. It had taken us a million years to get out the door because the kids didn't really want to go. Finally I ushered the last little body out the door and closed it tight...only to realize that I didn't have my keys! We were locked out. Normally we keep a spare hidden in the barn, but with putting the house up for sale and such we had moved it. I did a quick look around the outside of the house and was assured that all of my paranoid precautions taken to ensure our safety while Benji was away were in full force. All of the doors and windows were locked tight with the exception of one of the boys' bedroom windows on the second floor. What to do? I had no cell phone and I knocked on the neighbor's doors and no one was home. I could high tail it down to the library and call a lock smith (expensive)...or I could break into my own house. I decided to break in.

So, my first criminal act was to "borrow" a step ladder out of the neighbor's garage. From the top I could reach a bit past the second floor window sill. I then cut through the screen with a pair of garden trimmers, opened the window, hoisted myself up and through (not an easy task when 6 months pregnant) and was able to unlock the door.

The kids loved the whole situation. Some of the ideas they came up with were 1-climb up the side of the house with a rope (George added, "But mom, maybe you don't have the right skills.") 2- Climb the pine tree and swing over to the window 3- Let Iyah the monkey climb the side of the house. I was also informed many times, through hands covering giggling mouths, that "Daddy is going to be soooo mad at you!" Hope you're not mad babe!

Dinner Conversation

My boys had the following conversation at dinner tonight and I found it quite entertaining:

I: George, what if you had to dance with a girl?

G: Eww! I would yell, " Iyah help me!"

I: (Giggling) What if a girl tried to hug and kiss you?

G: I wouldn't let her. I would run away.

I: What if she chased you and hugged you and kissed you?

G: Then I would beat her up. I will never let a girl hug and kiss me.

I: Yeah. We don't like girls.

At this point mom jumped in

M: I hug and kiss you and I'm a girl.

G: But you're in our family. We don't want princesses hugging and kissing us.

Good to have that one clarified. And obviously mom hugs and mom kisses are still OK. That makes me happy.

We did it Daddy!!

After much convincing, bribing, teasing, etc. George finally agreed to let me try to pull out his tooth. I got on the internet to learn how to tie a slip knot with dental floss and we set the time and place- after dinner in the family room. When the time came George slipped quietly upstairs for a minute. When I asked him why he said he went to say a prayer to help him to be brave. However, bravery has never been his strong suit. The minute he re-entered the room he was freaking out. I finally got him to "just let me see if I could even get the string around his tooth." However, once the string was set he decided there was no way he was letting me yank that thing out. He covered his mouth with his hands and was screaming! Iyah was covering his ears and Ella had her face in the couch and was rocking back and forth. It was very dramatic. At this point I don't think I could have gotten that string off if I tried. So, after practically sitting on George and restraining his arms under my legs, etc. I gave it a yank. He was yelling, "Don't pull it out, don't pull it out!" as I calmly walked into the kitchen to get him a paper towel. When he staunched the bleeding and calmed down he told me again, "I don't want you to pull it out." At which time I presented him with his now detached tooth. His response? "Oh." I asked him if it hurt. He shrugged. Geez. One down...how many to go?

One more quick story. Ella is always loosing her "better" baby. Whenever I can't find it at bed time I try and substitute the "other" baby. She doesn't like that very much. "Me not like that one!" she tells me. Well, today when I was picking up her room guess who I found in the garbage? You got it..."other" baby. I guess she'd had enough substitutions.

Climbing Trees

Iyah (up top) and George (Down low)

Iyah's new hobby is climbing trees. I don't know how it started, but he is really very good at it. I think part of the reason he likes it so much is that it is one thing that he does better than George. I have to admit that it scares me to death! I turn into the super paranoid mom, "You'll fall to your death!" or "We're going to end up at the hospital!" I can practically see him rolling his eyes at me. He says, "Mom, I can do it, I'm a monkey!" Then he asked me the other day if we will have lots of trees for him to climb at our new house in VA. All I can say is...mom hopes not.

Our Last Week

Baseball Boys

T-ball ended for George this week. Unfortunately it rained on his last game, but the kids didn't mind one bit. George liked t-ball a lot more than he liked soccer so we were glad to finally have a successful sport experience. I think it helped that dad was the coach! Isaac was especially excited that he was able to play in a couple of games, filling in for missing players. He hit as well or better than some of the kids, but he didn't quite get the running the bases part. All in all a great season and very happy boys.

Little Miss Ella got a new hair cut. This picture is her cheesing it for the camera. I told her we needed to take a picture to show her grandmas and she said, "Okay" and then stood there smiling until I went and got my camera. She knows she's pretty darn cute.

This is our last week with Benji and then he heads down to VA to start his big new job! We are very excited to start this new phase of our lives, but we are going to miss him super lots. Hopefully we can join him soon!

Boys

Iyah showing off one of his caterpillars

It is caterpillar season in NY. These little buggers are everywhere and Iyah is obsessed! He finds them everywhere and walks around with them crawling all over him. One even crawled up his shorts yesterday. He had a moment of panic before he was able to locate the runaway. The worst part is that he is constantly trying to sneak them into the house. He put one in his shoe to try and get it past me and accidentally squished it. Bleh! I feel bad for the ones the boys catch because they really get put through the wringer. The poor little caterpillars have been buried alive in the garden, given swimming lessons in a wheel barrow full of water, sprayed with the hose, stashed in sock drawers and dropped more times than I can count. And those are just the things I know about! I'm never sure when I should put my foot down on the torture of caterpillars. Do I let the kids experiment and explore, or do I save the poor things?

Can I just say before I'm done that I love it when my kids play nice! Yesterday Iyah and Ella played upstairs in their rooms for over an hour without any fights, breaking anything, or making a huge mess. It was WONDERFUL! I wish they did that every day. Packing up a house with 3 enthusiastic helpers, on the other hand, is a different story entirely.

Visit From Nana

We had a nice visit from Benji's mom these past 2 weeks. She helped out a lot as we got ready to put the house up on the market, and the kids loved having her here of course! We didn't do a whole lot except hang around, but it was fun.

On the news front...we've had an offer on the house and we signed the contract today. As our realtor says, it's not a done deal until the closing, but we are very excited and optimistic. A week on the market isn't bad if I do say so myself. We have definitely been blessed. All those prayers are paying off. Now we just need to find a place down south!

It's a Girl!

We had our ultra sound this past week and found out we are having another little girl!! Everybody is very excited, especially the boys. I can't tell with Ella. She keeps telling me that she has a baby in her tummy too and that hers is a boy. I have a hard time believing she really wants another brother. I think having another girl around the house is just what we need.

We got our house up for sale yesterday. Now we play the waiting game. We are exercising great faith that someone will want it soon! VA here we come!

More News

We have even more news! And I guess we'd better let the cat out of the bag because I have been getting a lot of questions. We are moving...again! We really thought we might make it past the 3 year mark this time, but it was not to be. Benj has been offered and accepted a job in Virginia at the Library of Congress! We are super excited! He will be starting in early July after George gets out of school. We will be living in Culpeper- about 1 1/2 hours from D.C. The LC just built a new film and sound archive there. So... right now we are stressing out trying to get the house up for sale (Prayers asking for help in finding a buyer would be much appreciated) and all of our junk sorted through! I think this will be a great move for our family.

Newsflash

Well it's been a long time since my last post and just in case there is anyone left actually reading this blog we have lots of news!! OK, really just a few things. First, this little guy is 4!


Our little Iyah is growing so big! Benji says he is going to be our gentle giant. He is such a loving and sweet boy. He loves to snuggle and isn't afraid of telling us how much he loves us. We finally found a preschool where he feels comfortable. I knew it was right when he told me, "Mom, my teacher loves me and I lover her." He is now thriving and loves school. We are so grateful to have Isaac in our family.

Our second news item is that we are expecting baby #4!! This is the reason I have not posted in forever. I have been sick, sick, sick! Everyone kept telling me that I must be having twins if the sickness was worse, but I am relieved to report that there is really only one bean in my belly. I am now almost 14 weeks and starting to feel a little bit better, although my WONDERFUL husband is still doing most of the cooking and shopping. He really has been great-practically a single parent, poor guy. But needless to say we are very excited to welcome a new little spirit into our family! The kids are super excited and weirdly enough both boys say they want another sister (maybe to get Ella off their backs?) and Ella says she wants a brother (I think she's been brainwashed).

Our third bit of news is that my little sister, who's not so little anymore, just got her mission call to Chile. We are very excited for her! She leaves in June and we are going to have to become dedicated letter writers as we will probably not get to see her before she leaves. We love you Jam-o!

Oh yeah, and I turned 30 this week. Ugh.

Happy Birthday George!

Can you believe that this little guy is six? What a great kid we have. He is such a sweet boy and a great big brother and we are so grateful to have him in our family. It has been so fun to watch him learn and grow. He has an amazing mind and a super imagination.

Since it's his birthday I'll list a few interesting facts about George:
1. He loves legos.
2. He spends most of his free time pretending to be some kind of super hero.
3. He hates to comb his hair.
4. His favorite dinner is chicken and rice.
5. He loves broccoli and gets really excited when I serve it- except when it has some kind of sauce on it.
6. George is very much a male- in that if the TV is on he is incapable of concentrating on anything else and doesn't hear anyone who attempts to talk to him.
7. His best friend is still his blanket that he calls "Warmy"
8. He is impervious to the cold. He can play outside in the snow for a long time.
9. He likes to write stories and wants to write when he grows up. He spends hours pacing through the house "thinking" them up.
10. He cannot sit still while watching TV/movies. He gets so excited and enthralled that he is constantly running and jumping. Benji says he is probably the only kid that burns more calories watching TV than in normal play.

We love you George!! Happy Birthday my man!!

Iyah is a sugar maniac. He loves anything and everything sweet. A couple of days ago I walked into the kitchen and found him guzzling this...


When I asked him what he thought he was doing , he calmly informed me he was drinking the jam- like it was a perfectly normal thing to be doing. Duh mom.

Yesterday Benj had the day off of work so we decided to take the kids sledding. The boys had a blast and even Ella liked the bunny hill. It was a great day and only one other kid was there so we didn't have to worry about crashing into people, etc. George was a total dare devil. He developed his own way of riding in the sled to make him go faster. And I have to brag just a little bit..I beat Benj in a race. It helps that he can't steer to save his life (sorry babe!)


Plowing has left huge mountains of snow around. The neighbor girl and the kids turned this mountain into a fort. That along with the snow cave that dad dug in another mountain provide hours of fun in our freezing winter wonderland.

This one's for Grandpa

This post is especially for my dad...Look what you've done to my children!!! You've corrupted them. :) Thanks to you, grandpa, my kids regularly ask for popcorn. A snack that NEVER used to be seen around our house is now a regular. They will forever be grateful, and as long as I can leave the room while they are eating it I think I can handle it too.

Back in the Saddle Again

We had quite the challenging end to our year, but we made it and here I am, back again! No pictures today, but soon I hope. We enjoyed hearing from everyone through Christmas cards and e-mails, and plan on getting our "New Year" letter out soon! As I've been looking back at 2008 I realized we reached quite a few milestones. To name a few:

1. Ella started walking
2. George started kindergarten
3. Isaac started talking a lot!
4. We had our one year anniversary of home ownership
5. We bought a car

And I'm sure there are many more that I can't think of right now. Some things I'm looking forward to:

1. Isaac starting preschool (Please let him like it!)
2. Learning how to quilt.
3. Warm weather
4. Turning over storytime at the library to another mom. It's been a good experience, but is getting a little overwhelming in view of everything else.

We are excited to see what the new year will bring us.