O Christmas Tree....

It occured to me yesterday that with Mark's little trip, the dates that we can all be together as a family to put up the Christmas tree are limited to next weekend, or the week before Christmas. This weekend coming up is far too early. The next weekend is Thanksgiving and we'll be out of town. The one after that he's gone! Can't do a weekday because Oren wouldn't be able to help.

I guess it's going up right before Christmas this year! Probably a good thing anyway, because last year we did it at the beginning of December and it looked awful by the 25th thanks to the kids playing with the ornaments and the cats trying to sleep in it.

This isn't deep or profound, just the random revelations of a sleep-deprived mommy who likes the pretty lights on the Christmas tree in the evening.

Wait a minute.... how is it just 2 weeks until Thanksgiving?

1 Month Old!

Daniel turns 1 month old today! It's hard to believe that a whole month has passed. Wasn't I still pregnant just the other day? He's growing so fast, all my babies are. Oren is 4 feet tall, and Nathan is just 2 inches shorter. William is exactly 3 feet now, and Daniel is just about too long for his newborn sleepers, and wears the actual 0-3 month sizes! Although, I find it amusing that even though Oren is so much bigger than Daniel, he only weighs about 5 times what Daniel weighs. Just 5 babies to 1 Oren. :-)

Mark is back at work now, we've sure enjoyed having him home this last month. He was much more helpful this time than with the other babies, and I miss him a lot in the evenings. He came home from his first day back and said they are sending him away for 2 weeks in December. It's just 2 weeks, but he'll miss my birthday. At least he'll be here for Christmas! He was at an appointment this morning, and it was really hard trying to get all 4 boys out the door so Oren could be to school on time. We made it, but wow, that was stressful. 2 weeks of it will be interesting. But I have the rest of November, and I'm just grateful that this is the first time he's been away since his deployment when I was pregnant with Nathan. That's almost unheard of nowadays, that long being home. I wonder what the house will look like when he gets back?

Oren's abstract art
Frankenstein finishing touches

Here ya go!

See, so much better than a frizzy ponytailed mess. And I never realized just how full my poor bookshelves are until these pictures. So many more books I want to get, but don't know where I would put them!

I went to go give Oren a hug today, and it struck me just how tall 4 feet is. My oldest will be as tall as his Mom in just over a foot! I put Daniel in clothes Oren wore as a newborn, and now Oren is so tall. Where did the time go?

Halloween 2009

update by Mark:

vampire dad
Willy

Nathan

Oren wanted to match dad

face painting at a haunted house they only made it through 3 rooms. We went back later and Nathan still didn't like it. I carried Oren through while they watched Nathan outside

Oren did most of this I just carved out the harder spots. He even did the mouth, eyes, and some of the branches.

Nathan did this all by himself. He even made ears.

I did this same one last year but alot smaller. I added staples on his forehead and bolts on his neck, both with fake blood of course. It took a very long time! I'll take a picture and add it later. Also on the back of Oren's pumpkin, he did an awesome job at cutting abstract art into his pumpkin, but it's drying out, so we have to rehydrate it in a bucket and take the picture, hopefully, that works. Or it will just add to abstractness of it. Happy Halloween!

Feeling like me again.

The past few weeks have been amazing, finally having Daniel here and safe. But you know those lovely baby blues?

Thank heavens Mark has been here to help, because with a little guy nursing constantly until just 2 days ago when it finally seemed to be a schedule - crazy, but still a schedule - nothing was getting done by me.

And sure, my clothes fit, and I can bend over again, but my hair was driving me nuts. What's the point of long hair if you just ponytail it all the time? How are you supposed to feel good about yourself if you are just throwing a scrunchie, jeans, and a t-shirt on and calling it good for the day?

The few things I have baked haven't turned out so good, and cooking is the thing that I do! Did being so good with food this whole time cost me my chef skills, and therefore the thing that I consider makes me more desirable to people, aka. my husband?

Well, today I took a step to reclaim myself. It took me 2 weeks of thoughtful consideration. Is this what I really wanted? Was I going to wake up and hate myself for doing it? Was this one thing really going to help me feel like me again, like I am special and attractive and talented? Okay, nothing is ever a magic cure, but I was pretty sure that I would at least feel better about myself.

I chopped my hair off again. It was nearly to shoulder length, and looked great curly which I never had time for. Now it's back to short with lots of layers, kind of like that picture that Steph had up when she trimmed her own hair on her blog. Maybe I'll get brave and snap a photo to post.... Every curl that fell to the floor made me feel so much better. I was out, doing something just for me. And I just felt freer and freer with every snip. There was so much hair left on the floor, all these red curls, and I just looked at them and grinned. I have a new bounce in my step today, I am smiling today, and Daniel's latest blowout didn't even phase me! I know the other stuff will come back in time, and of course Mark loves me for more than my food. It's amazing what a haircut will do for you!

On a different note, Daniel is growing so fast! He was 7lb 1oz on Friday, and today I had to get him weighed before some routine lab work. 7lb 12oz! That's 11 oz in only 6 days! I guess all that nursing is working pretty well. :-)

Halloween fun!

Let me start by saying that I was acting my costume Saturday night, and forgot the camera. And forgot to take pictures at home before hand, and was way too tired afterwards. But the boys were totally cute!

Our ward had our party the same hours as the base trick-or-treating, which was fine with me. Dinner was a chili cook-off, but I never found out who won. We entered a Spicy Pork Chili, which I didn't realize until I had a bowl of it at dinner that I had totally forgotten the fresh cilantro at the end. The cilantro is what makes the chili taste so good that you want to eat 2-3 bowls of it, so although it still tasted good, it wasn't a winning chili. *sniff*

Mark set up his scary skulls with eyes that light up, his strobe light with the sound sensor and spooky noises, and all of our jack-o-lanterns around the trunk of the van, and I handed out candy while Oren took himself collecting and Mark escorted the younger 2 boys to obtain their treats. Daniel hung out with me in his seat in the trunk of the van, since he was asleep and can't eat the candy anyway. We managed to come home with more candy than I handed out! Yikes!

Mark vetoed me dressing up as a witch, like I do every year. So I took some of Oren's face paint from his vampire set, and gave myself some spectacular under-eye bags, pulled my hair back into a questionable ponytail, and wore a shirt about hearing voices that only talk to me.... I was a new mom with no sleep! That got some laughs, but not as many as the husband whose wife got him to dress up as a very pregnant nun. (He actually pulled it off quite nicely...)

And Mark finally found an excuse to yank out his retainer. He had gotten a set of vampire fangs for his costume that came with what it said was impression putty. Turns out it was more like plastic. He melted the little balls, poured it into the fangs, and set it on his teeth. When he went to go pull them off, they wouldn't budge! He had forgotten about his retainer that had been cemented onto the back of his top teeth over 10 years ago, and the plastic had molded around them. After an hour of wiggling, he got them off, but in the process tore the cementing off of one side. So he gave a good yank, and the whole retainer came off. Half the cement was left on his teeth. Now he's got to get down to the dentist and have the cement sanded off, and get a referral to the orthodontist to get a new retainer cemented in before his teeth move crooked again. I thought it was hilarious! Especially when he started asking if I thought my embossing gun could melt the plastic without burning his mouth. Umm....no.