Gah, my finger's a mess. Very dislocated, have to see an ortho about having it broken and put in place next week. Yeah fun.

Anyhow, Christmas was great. The kids got tons and tons of stuff. I won't go into the "What Were They Thinking..." thoughts on some of their gifts, but they were shown incredible generosity by all around them. We'll just put it that way...LOL My favorite things that the boys got (because they enjoy them so much) are an Ipod for Jakey - he LOVES his Shuffle (Santa brought this and I put some soundtracks on it off itunes), Justin got a Thomas The Tank Engine Laptop, but Jakey got a L-Max and Justin's in love with it (He's going to get one of his own for his b-day in a few weeks). Jayden got a Bumbo knock off chair and she's been happily sitting in it all day while everyone opens presents. She even got lost in the wrapping paper layer on the floor a few times but just waited patiently for someone to pull the paper off of her. Those are my favorites for the kids.

Kevin and I got lots of nice presents as well, my favorite has to be a DVD recorder that has a built in digital tuner. We don't have cable, haven't had it in years and this tuner picks up the digital channels (I guess in 2009 antennae broadcasts are going to be obsolete) and so instead of having fuzzy reception we have crystal clear digital reception!! And we get the CW! Before we only got NBC, CBS, ABC, My Network, PBS, and Fox - now we get the CW. Kevin could not be happier, he LOVES Smallville.

Well Jayden's decided she should nurse again and I need to finish packing for the trip to the cabin. I'll be around to everyone's blogs as I have a break here and there in packing and laundry. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

I think I broke or dislocated my pinky finger!

Last night I had to run to the grocery store and I got in the car and shut the door. Then I realized that my seat belt had fallen out of the car and was outside the door to the car, so I opened the door with my right hand and pulled the seat belt in with my left, there was this moment where I knew it was about to happen but couldn't stop it and then BAM! I slammed the car door on my poor fingers of my left hand. My middle and ring fingers hurt a bit, but my pinky doesn't even seem to want to be on the same hand as them and at rest doesn't lay flat with the rest of them...it jars off to the side and won't lay flat...

a few pictures....





It hurts and all but not "go to the emergency room" hurts, so I think I'm going to wait out going to the doctor or maybe just tape them together? I don't know. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I think that I might be training up a hit man! LOL

Today Jakey got his hand pads from when he was in karate and attached them to a long plastic toy from his room making a "hand" with it. He walked around the house playing with it for a bit, even bringing me Jayden's pacifier once with it. Then, after a while, he set it down and played with something else. Justin thought this hand was seriously cool and so he picked it up when Jakey had set it down. After a little while Jakey realized Justin had his invention and he wanted it back.

So, the boys come running into the living room screaming and fighting over the hand. I tell Jakey, let go of him - he had it and you're going to have to use your words to get it back or let it go for a while until he's done playing with it. Jakey looked at Justin for a few minutes thinking about this and then says, "Justin, come in our room so I can tell you all the reasons you should give me back that toy" with this look on his face that says, "I'm going to pound you until I get my toy back!" ACK! That wasn't the lesson I was trying to teach!

Ah, folding loads upon loads of laundry while watching Clash of the Choirs, fun stuff I tell ya! Did anyone else watch this show? I thought it was beautiful! It's not over yet, so no one tell me how it ends.

I am proud to announce that I only have one more load of laundry to dry and then ALL of my laundry is done! My laundry hasn't been 100% done since February, before I got pregnant with Jayden! LOL I even put the boys' shorts away (except one pair for wearing around the house), so I'm really proud of that accomplishment!

Tomorrow begins the crazy, hectic, holiday weekend. My mom's school is having finals so they let out early and my mom is going to pick up the boys and take them to her house for the night and Kevin and Jayden and I are going Christmas shopping. Kevin's also taking Jayden and I on a date to a steakhouse that his boss owns that was just named one of Kern County's Top 10 Places To Eat! I'm excited, this is my last steak and potato (until my birthday) because in the new year I have a hefty goal in weight loss to achieve. I'm not really looking forward to battling the crowds.

I also need to find Family Home Evening ideas for the cabin next week and pack. We're leaving on Wednesday for the cabin. We have our own ownership up there but we didn't get a cabin (too full) so we're staying with my parents, which is fine, they have lots of space heaters! LOL And Kevin isn't coming up until the weekend. The boys are BEYOND excited to be going to the cabin. They LOVE building snowmen and having snowball fights! Plus Jakey found out today at school that his friends are going up the same week too and so he'll have a buddy for Bingo and sledding. The ownership in this cabin property is my favorite thing my parents have ever given me, it provides Kevin and I the opportunity to make priceless memories with our children. I love that they are so excited about this. They are MORE excited about the cabin than Christmas! LOL

Jakey and I also need to work on his talk for Sunday, he has a good start so far. Justin's super excited because we've been letting him stay the first hour in Primary instead of going to nursery and then just going to nursery for class time. By classtime he's ready to go back though and is screaming for "Papa Bob" the older man who is our nursery leader, so I don't know how he's going to take it come January. Because we're going to the cabin, this Sunday is his last Sunday in nursery.

Saturday night Kevin and I have an extended Ward Council dinner to go to at the church that I need to find a sitter for, I'm hoping to find a young woman who needs some service hours! LOL I'm excited to get to eat a grownup meal two nights in a row! LOL

Sunday night we're having our friends David and Yaneth over for dinner and to exchange Christmas presents with them and their children. This is one of my favorite parts of Christmas because it's more laid back then with our families, and less people, and just overall CALM, which is nice. Plus it's so neat to see how much our families have grown. When we started sharing a night together before Christmas with them 6 years ago, they didn't have children yet and we only had Jakey, now we've added four more kiddos to the mix in the last six years between us! Amazing!

Monday we have Kevin's family. This one is crazy. Kevin's family is not religious and so I spend the whole night wishing that it weren't all about the presents, LOL. Every year (10 years!) Kevin's grandma forgets to put my present under the tree which doesn't bother me at all, but it really upsets her and we end up staying late because when she notices us leaving without something for me she wants to search the whole house for my present, LOL. I've been promised this year my present will be first, which is fine, and funny, LOL, I just think it's a hilarious coincidence (which I KNOW it is, his grandma is SOOOOO forgetful! LOL) She really is so forgetful, when I was pregnant she took me to alot of my ob appointments and I would call her about 3 days before to remind her, then the day before, and then the morning of to remind her, and one time I did the 3 days before, and the day before calls, and the morning I called to remind her she was in a city two hours away! LOL She had forgotten all about my appointment! LOL Anyhow, Kevin's family's celebration gets CRAZY.

Christmas morning this year is going to be much calmer - I'm forcing the issue on this one. We're staying home until noon and then going to Kevin's mother's house, only for about two hours. She has ALOT of indoor pets (6 cats and 2 dogs) and I can't handle it at all. They're pretty good about keeping them off of me when I'm there but it's their pet's house and that's fine, I just can't handle all the animals. (I'm not allergic, I just don't like them LOL) Then we're going to my mom's house around 2 where we will stay through dinner time.

Wednesday we leave for the cabin!

So, I won't be around much....so I wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Jake frequently asks about things he did "when he was a baby", I think he wants to be reassured that we took good care of him like we do Jayden back then, LOL. Anyhow last night he wanted to hear the story of how when he was in Kindergarten he used to think that ducks said, "AFLAC" instead of "quack, quack." (I had been given a stuffed duck from the AFLAC rep where I worked when he was three and he'd played with the toy for a few years and we never really discussed it, AFLAC sounds similar, and then I volunteered in his classroom in K to find him saying "AFLAC" whenever his teacher said, "and what do ducks say?")

So Justin was running around the room not paying any attention to us and I stopped him and said, "So, Justin, what do ducks say?" and he yells, "GOOSE!" and then starts coming around tapping us on the head saying, "duck, duck, duck, goose!" LOL Oops. Guess I should have been teaching him what ducks say! LOL

That's it! I'm gonna be a SAHM until my kids are in college!

Today Kevin and I were talking while I drove him to work about Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy. She's 16. Last week a friend in my ward told me that her daughter (17, will be 18 in a few weeks) is 23 weeks pregnant. Today I was watching the Today show and something was said that like 75% of all teen pregnancies happen in the girl's home between the hours of 3 pm and 6 pm!

I got pregnant at 17, almost 18 and things definitely turned out ok for me. But that was because Kevin was ready to grow up and take care of us, things could have turned out so much worse. (And I think a little, we wanted to prove the world wrong, so in the harder more awful days of our marriage that motivated us to make it work, LOL.)

The girl in my ward that is pregnant, I really feel for her. She has the gospel, she KNOWS. She plans on marrying her 16 year old boyfriend (when he can legally marry her) and raising the baby. Neither of them has a job. This just makes me so sad. I mean I know, I know I could not have placed my baby for adoption, but I like to think that if I knew that Kevin wasn't going to be able to marry me and support us and create a family for our child that I would have been selfless enough to place my baby for adoption with a family that could have given him everything. But I don't know. I might not have been. And I see this girl and think, what are you doing?? Plus the formerly infertile side of me screams "holy cow, that is SO not fair." Thank goodness I have Jayden because a year ago this would have sent me to the loony bin. I don't really want to say much to her (even though I've been encouraged to) because I don't want her to think her situation is going to turn out like mine because likely, it's not going to.

And Jamie Lynn? What were her parents thinking letting her live with her boyfriend?! We were listening to a radio show this morning that was talking about it which is why we were having the conversation and they said that Lynn Spears (her mother) is writing a parenting book, um a What NOT To Do guide? But mostly the point that hit home about Jamie Lynn was that how can their mother really parent them when they don't "need" her for housing, money, food - they are providing for themselves so what is she going to do? I mean obviously not letting your children have a career would alleviate this problem altogether but some young stars turn out fine...not too many though.

Kevin and I had long been thinking I would go back to work as soon as our youngest child entered Kindergarten and now I'm thinking that they might need me more once they're in school then they did when they were babies! I definitely don't think I'll be going back to work until they're grown. Plus my children are something like three times more likely to have a teen pregnancy because I had one then most children. That's a scary thought! Especially since I know my friend is providing a good home for her daughter, and is a SAHM and her daughter got pregnant. (Granted my friend is her stepmother and she and her husband have custody of her and she went to visit her mother for the summer in another state and got pregnant while she was there.)

Jakey asked me the other day if everyone is poor when they get married and we had a talk about how you can go on your mission, come home, go to college and get a job and then get married, or at least be sure to focus on going to college and that people who go to college make more money than those who don't usually, so hopefully those thoughts stick with him. We have a bell to "unring" of sorts because Jakey is actually IN our wedding photos.

What TV/Movies Make You Cry?

Tonight I was watching The Biggest Loser and saw lots of people all emotional about the winner, and while I was happy for them it didn't tear me up, yk?

There are three moments in a movie or tv show that have made me cry.

1. Zach and Kelly Break Up on Saved By The Bell I remember watching this when I was pretty young - like 10-12 somewhere in there (probably closer to 12) and I was SO. SAD. A local station runs reruns of SBTB on Sundays after church and I've watched them and I see the progression of the episodes is leading to this episode and it still makes me so sad! I've seen it on reruns on TBS over the years and every single time I cry!

2. The Notebook - the end when Allie and Noah die together - SO SAD.

3. The Christmas Shoes - oh my goodness, little boy buying shoes for his dying mother - the song played at Christmas time gets me every. single. time. and I've forever vowed off ever watching the movie again because it's SO. SAD.

So what are your moments that made you cry on tv and in the movies?

I must share that nope, my kids do not all look at the camera on cue, LOL. They make funny faces, scream strange things, look at eachother, a foot gets in the picture, or some weird body part, and I have to clean the house before I taken them so that the "background" isn't a cluttered mess, LOL.

But it helps that I have such cute subjects! LOL (But maybe I'm biased??)

Today, in pictures!

I dressed Jayden and thought - oh my goodness this baby is too cute! And the outfit was recently given to us by a friend so I like to snap a pic and have it printed and include it in the thank you card, so that's what this pic is about...



Well bringing out a camera means the boys come running from the other side of the house - they want to be in the pictures too!!!! LOL So I set her with them and began snapping away...

During this picture Jayden started tooting in her pants...



And the boys reacted by doing this...



Then Jayden let another one rip...LOL



Justin saying, "I thought girls didn't stink? Jayden is SMELLY!"



Then we get different levels of excitement from each child...



Then Jakey's eyes look weird, and Jayden is so over the picture taking session.



And therefore, no good picture today! Well not REALLY good, just "normal" LOL

What's Gnu?

Last night for FHE we played a game Jakey got for his birthday called, "What's Gnu?" How it works is that two letter tiles pop out of the machine (let's say "A" and "W") and there are cards all sprawled out with different letters on them and you have to make a three letter word, like "AWE". So Kevin and I are like 12 or something, but we were DYING when letters like "EX" came down the machine. What OTHER word can you make with those letters???? LOL I know, we're 12. LOL (BTW, I made the word AXE, but not until I'd laughed good and hard over the "other" word, LOL)

So after deciding that it might not be the most wholesome game for FHE, LOL, we decided to play "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader" (as can be bought at Walmart for $10) and apparently they didn't put the proper title on the box, it should read, "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grade Child Prodigy Entering Harvard For 6th Grade" the answer to that would be "NO". Nothing like a game to make you feel stupid! LOL

Then, we decided to play Buzz Jr. for Playstation 2. I LOVE this game, it has really easy controllers (it comes with them) and you just try to perform some task faster then your opponents, there are four controllers. Even Justin LOVES this game. And it restored all of our confidence in our intelligence! LOL

Oh and how did Jayden participate in FHE? She screamed her ever loving head off every moment of it. Yep, she's not a fan of family togetherness, only Mommy and Jayden togetherness, LOL.

Shortly after I posted the pic below the missionaries rang my doorbell. Two doors down is an inactive/investigating (husband is a member, wife isn't yet) family and their two year old was very sick and needed to go to the hospital and the mother was upset because none of their family could come to watch their 5 month old baby, so they wanted to know if I could babysit the baby for her. So I said that wasn't a problem and she brought little Teagan over.

Jayden and the boys were playing on the floor still and I set Teagan on the floor too. The boys totally migrated to Teagan because he's in that super fun stage of smiling and laughing and playing with toys. Jayden got upset because no one was paying attention to her, (my little diva! LOL), and so I nursed her and put her to sleep. She slept for 3 hours in her bassinet! I picked her up and changed her and nursed her again just a bit ago and she went right back to sleep! Guess she's on the sleeping side of a growth spurt! LOL

Good thing she slept for 3 hours though because Teagan needed a bit more attention after the "newness" of him wore off and the boys ran off to play. He's a good baby, content to lay on the floor and play but likes for you to stay right with him. Also his bottle was premade and he apparently really dislikes it cold because he wouldn't take it until it was more at room temperature, but once he did take it he went right to sleep but only catnapped because every noise from the boys woke him up.

Their 2 year old, Trevin, is really sick with RSV and in the hospital now. Poor kid! Teagan's dad came for him around 2 this afternoon and they have family coming from another city to help them while Trevin's so sick. I'm glad I chose today to stay home, I very much remember what it's like to be so worried about one child and having the others there needing your attention too!

And the whole thing gave me the confidence I needed. We are totally open to having another baby - even right away - but not officially TTC, just whatever happens, happens...and I feel more confident that I could totally handle having two close together because all of my parenting experience is in having children nearly 4 years or more than 4 years apart. Kevin and my mom bet that we'll get pregnant next summer and be due around Justin's birthday and I'll go into labor on Justin's birthday and have another baby share it's brother's birthday, LOL.

Anyhow, Jayden's still sleeping! Yay! Better hop in the shower!

Jayden's new favorite activity - hanging with her brothers! LOL (Well right behind nursing, that's her all time fave, LOL!)

Real Treasures

At our Enrichment meeting the other night a sister shared this story, I don't know the author, but just wanted to share...

The cheerful little girl was almost five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them, a circle of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box.

“Oh please, mommy. Can I have them? Please, mommy please?” Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then looked back into the pleading little girl’s upturned face. “A dollar ninety-five. That’s almost $2.00”

”If you really want them, I’ll think of some extra chores for you and in no time you can save enough money to buy them for yourself. Your birthday’s only a week away and you might get another crisp dollar from grandma.”

As soon as Jenny got home, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17 pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she went to the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for ten cents.

On her birthday, grandma did give her another new dollar bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace.

Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere, Sunday school, Kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed, he would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story.

One night as he finished the story, he asked Jenny, “Do you love me?”

“Oh yes, daddy. You know that I love you.”

“Then give me your pearls.”

“Oh daddy, not my pearls. But you can have princess, the white horse from my collection, the one with the pink tail. Remember, daddy? The one you gave me. She’s my very favorite.”

“That’s okay, honey. Daddy loves you. Good night.” And he brushed her cheek with a kiss.

About a week later, after story time, Jenny’s daddy asked again, “Do you love me?”

“Daddy, you know I love you.”

“Then give me your pearls.”

“Oh daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my baby doll. The brand new one I got for my birthday. She is beautiful and you can have the yellow blanket that matches her sleeper.”

“That’s okay. Sleep well. God bless you, little one. Daddy loves you.” And as always, he brushed her cheek with a gentle kiss.’

A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was sitting on her bed with her legs crossed Indian-style. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling and one silent tear rolled down her cheek.

“What is it Jenny, What’s the matter?”

Jenny didn’t say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy, and when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace.

With a quiver she finally said, “Here, daddy. This is for you.”

With tears gathering in his own eyes, Jenny’s daddy reached out with one have to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny.

He had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her the genuine treasure. So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting her us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us beautiful treasures.

Today Jayden wore an adorable red corduroy dress and we happened to have a matching GIGANTIC bow (of course). Anyhow, at church EVERYONE commented on her outfit and bow and stopped to fuss over her and one older lady said, "well look at your little Christmas present!" She is, she's definitely "all I wanted for Christmas".

Last night we had our ward Christmas dinner and the Primary children performed a program on the stage of our cultural hall. We had a Mary and Joseph, a doll for baby Jesus (Jayden was wayyyyyy too fussy to be held by a 9 year old girl), all the other boys were shepherds and all the girls were angels. The Bishopric were the Three Wise Men and one of them read the Christmas story from the Bible. We sang, at intervals throughout the program and at one point the Primary President sang a solo of "Mary's Lullaby". She has the most beautiful voice and even the children fell completely silent and stopped fidgeting, the girls commented on how the song gave them chills. It was incredibly beautiful. Then the Three Wise Men handed out gifts to the children. Much nicer then some Santa!

This morning one of the Primary kids came in and was so excited and he told us that they had been given a Christmas tree overnight, when they woke up this morning someone had put a tree and lights and a few ornaments on their front step and so they were late because they had stopped to decorate their tree before church. The excitement in his eyes reminded me of what Christmas is about - definitely not Ipods and toys!

Well I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and made plans that do not involve cleaning my house! LOL

I'm going on the great hunt for snow pants in Bakersfield. Do you think I can find some? LOL We're going to the cabin the day after Christmas and I'm determined to keep my kids dry and healthy and warm the whole time we're there! LOL So, how hard do you think it'll be to find snow pants in a town where it hasn't snowed in nearly 9 years? LOL We shall see!

I'm going to drop off the boys at Kevin's work at noon and they'll come home and clean the house and hang out. Then I'm going to meet my mom for lunch and then we're going to scour stores for snow pants for the kids (Jakey, Justin, Natalle, and Erica) MAYBE, just MAYBE we'll find some for grown ups too! And Jayden needs a bunting or something to keep her warm.

So since almost everyone (actually probably everyone) who reads my blog lives where it's cold, how do you keep your baby warm in the snowy weather? (Obviously she won't be building snowmen but our cabin is drafty and cool, we use space heaters.)

Well it's Saturday morning and I'm trying to compile a "to do" list for myself.

What I want to do:

* sleep in (already not accomplished)
* go back to sleep (probably not going to happen)
* build a fire to keep warm (can't do this, it's a "no burn day")
* stay in jammies all day (for sure not going to do this, we have our ward Christmas dinner tonight)


What I have to do:

* Clean the house (we're having friends over after church tomorrow)
* make Peanut Butter Bon bons (we're bringing them to the church tonight for the dinner)
* finish Jakey's Shepard costume
* get everyone dressed and looking good for tonight's dinner

Kevin has to work today. Last night we were talking and he kept saying "it's my weekend" to work, well Kevin hasn't NOT worked a weekend since the weekend I gave birth to Jayden, so that was 7 weeks ago. He's supposed to be rotating with two other people and I told him I'm getting tired of him keeping them "company" that we're just as important as his job and while I want him to do a good job, he needs to find the line between "doing a good job" and "not making his family a priority" and get on the family side of it. It's frustrating for me because I've been out of the workforce for so long, I guess I fail to understand, but I truly think that he spends more time then he needs to at work doing things that aren't necessary. How am I gauging this - it's just a hint, but his cellphone has a picture of a female coworker doing a cartwheel on it. That's not required activities and well kind of makes me mad. Like if they weren't doing cartwheels he wouldn't be working 80 hours a week. Then I was uploading pictures of Jayden from my camera and found pictures of his female coworkers posing at his desk. I'm not jealous in that I think there's anything going on, I think Kevin was too lazy to leave his own office to take a picture, LOL, but if less picture taking were going on, and say these women were at THEIR desks, more work might get done? But I digress, he provides for our family and that is important, I just wish that we were a bit more of a priority, at least once every seven weeks.

Anyhow I guess I really needed to get that off my chest. The boys woke up having not seen their father since yesterday morning when we took him to work (if he'd had his company truck it would have been Thursday night since he last saw them) and they were devastated. And I'm worn out because by the time he gets home on Friday nights Jayden's already in bed and I've been the one taking care of her for the past 24 hours, there's nothing he can really do for her between the hours of 11 PM and 6 AM (when he leaves for work) and so I'm going to be on my own again until he gets home tonight.

Well I must go protect the Christmas tree from the three year old, convince the eight year old he needs to clean his room even if his brother made some of the mess and nurse our newborn for several hours (growth spurt).

I just love this...so I thought I'd share!

Dear Santa,
I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:
I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy. If you're hauling big ticket items this year

I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely.

It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back.

Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always, MOM
P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa for many years to come.

"Help! Someone come take the comb away from my Mommy!"

My random thought:

Why do your kids bring you the GoGurt to open AFTER they've slobbered all over it trying to get it off with their teeth?

Just had to get that off my chest. Jakey did the worst "slobber all over it and ask you to fix it" thing the other day. He got three teeth pulled at the dentist and had gauze shoved in the holes, bloody gauze I might add. The dentist gave him several toys for being such a good boy about having all those teeth pulled and one of them was a pirate eye patch. He was trying to put the string through the holes to get the eye patch to work with his super bloody mouth. Couldn't do it, and hands it to me, bloody strings and all, and asks me to string it for him. Um, no. Yuck.

Speaking of his teeth pulling, OH WOW. Have you ever seen teeth that weren't ready to come out naturally pulled out? These were his eye teeth (fang type, vampire, teeth) and they were HUGE. HUGE. Like oh my gosh, wow, HUGE. Poor kid. She kept giving him shots in his mouth and more and more and more and more and it still hurt. He was a trooper though! Amazing. He thinks the toothfairy needs to bring him $7 PER TOOTH for that though, LOL. He's still showing them off to his friends though. The shock factor in what those teeth look like is just amazing, LOL. He's all set for braces now, in February he goes back to get them on.

I'm trying to decide what to do with Justin. The preschool I want to send him to next year has an opening starting February 1st. It's 4 days a week but this opening is only for a child whose parent will volunteer at the school. (There are two rates, one is for kids whose parents can't help out and one for kids whose parents do help out, if you kid goes 4 days a week you help out 4 days a month.) I could not take Jayden and she'd be three months old. It's only from 9 am to 12 pm, so just three hours and Kevin's sister would babysit her, however, she's exclusively breastfed and I've never even given her a bottle. I have ZERO interest in pumping, I'd probably do that over giving her formula though, but again what if she won't take the bottle? I'd be volunteering on Mondays. I was planning on doing it this way starting in September but Jayden would have been just over 10 months old, almost 11, so definitely eating solids and able to survive three hours without breastfeeding. I also don't know if I'm ready to leave her for three hours! I think Justin needs the interaction though.

Well Jayden's napping and Justin wants some attention while Jakey's at school.

So this is what happens when you try to get your baby to smile for the camera...

She does this while you're recording...



And this, two seconds after you start to shut down the camera and so you can only quickly catch it with a regular still shot...



She CAN smile, she just apparently doesn't "perform" tricks...LOL!

The "Pebbles" look:



It's hard to be this beautiful:

Jayden's doing alot better. I took her to the doctor yesterday (her insurance found us someone) and oh man. It was awful! The waiting room served as the waiting room for the doctor's office, a WIC office, and an imaging place - so it was PACKED. The people were a little "loud" (cursing on their cellphones, etc.) and then there were only 3 seats when I got there so I sat in one and the other two were next to me...so a few minutes go by and this kid (probably about 14) in ankle cuffs (like handcuffs but around his ankles) comes in with an officer! The only place left to sit was next to me so the kid sat there and his officer was posted by a door. Apparently this kid needed to see the pediatrician too. (He was dressed like they have to dress in this camp for kids that have committed a crime, my brothers both spent time there...jeans, a specific color shirt (yellow) and shoes with no laces.) Anyhow the kid didn't say or do anything, but Jayden (after an hour of waiting in the waiting room) needed to eat, so I had to breastfeed right next to this kid!

Anyhow the pediatrician said that she's not contagious anymore, seems like she's definitely on the mend but to continue breathing treatments until she stops coughing completely and to call if I need more meds for the nebulizer. She also said that the two month shots can be given any time after 6 weeks and Jayden was 6 weeks 1 day yesterday so she got her shots, poor little baby! She just cried and acted so hurt! She was a little inconsolable last night so we gave her some Tylenol before bed and she did well last night.

Also, yesterday I was above to pull enough of Jayden's hair up to have a little pony going on top of her head! It was SO CUTE! Think "Pebbles"! Anyhow, I have to snap a pic of it today, SO. DARN. CUTE!

Today Jakey's having three teeth pulled at the dentist and then we're meeting my mom for dinner at Denny's and then going to get material for Jakey's Shepard costume for Saturday Night's Ward Christmas Dinner. So I better get to cleaning my house - we ehave boxes everywhere from putting up the Christmas tree last night. We went fake...we bought a $30 6.5 ft white prelit tree at Walmart, cheaper then a real tree so we could chose to buy another one next year because either way we'd have been out the money. It looks good!

Well Jayden's waking up, have a great day everyone!

Jennie tagged me for this Christmas Meme!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
At Christmas I like wrapping paper, for every other occasion, I like gift bags.
2. Real tree or artificial?
Usually artificial, but I think we're getting real this year...I've only had a real tree 2 other times.
3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually long before now, but this year we're doing it tonight, just barely 2 weeks before Christmas! LOL
4. When do you take the tree down?
This year probably on Christmas day because we're leaving the day after Christmas for our cabin. (My parents bought Kevin and I a share at their cabin retreat, so now we get our OWN cabin!)
5. Do you like eggnog?
I do like it, my kids don't but they say they do, ask for a glass and then don't drink it! GRRRRR
6. Favorite gift received as a child?
Every year of my life until last Christmas and probably this Christmas my dad has bought me a porcelain doll, we haven't been speaking since Denny passed away, so he hasn't bought one for me. I love my dolls, and I'm so sad that this won't continue. I'm looking for a doll for my daughter for Christmas this year though.
7. Do you have a nativity scene?
WE do, however, Justin is a baby-Jesus-kidnapper. Jesus is frequently missing because Justin doesn't want him sleeping alone in the living room, so he carries him around and tucks him into bed with him. I was super upset until he told me "I just want to be close to Jesus" who could argue with a little boy telling you that?
8. Hardest person to buy for?
Kevin, he always wants things i just can't afford to get for him, or at least I feel that way because I don't work and I feel stupid spending his own money on him...I know, I know it's "ours" but still.
9. Easiest person to buy for?
My mom, I know her the best and I always see things she'd love. Her b-day is a few days after Christmas so I get her more than one present!
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
At the time I thought this was the worst Christmas ever, now that I'm an adult I see it differently. My parents got divorced when I was about 10 (separated at 9) and when I was 12 my dad hadn't paid child support in a good long time. My mom was working several jobs, but it wasn't enough and our electricity was shut off in November, it didn't come back on until April. Obviously our Christmas was very tiny that year...my poor mom, our tree's lights didn't even light up but she tried so hard. I wanted some new clothes so badly and she got me a sweater from Goodwill. It wasn't very pretty at all, I hated it...but she was so excited, or at least she tried to be. Since we had no television to watch (no power for it) we played Monopoly by the fireplace every night together (my mom, my brothers and I) and so our other present besides one piece of clothing was the board game - Life to me and my brothers...again, I was sad to have to share my other present, because I was stupid and young, but we played Life and Monopoly for months every night by the fire until our power came back on. Then this was the worst Christmas ever, but now I appreciate all my mom did for us that year, and I know how hard it was for her.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Mail!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I guess Home Alone, I'm not a huge Christmas Movie person, maybe Polar Express.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
a week or two before Christmas, I'm a total procrastinator.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
nope.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
peanut butter bon bons!
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
WHITE!
17. Favorite Christmas song?
Right now I just am loving hearing our primary kids singing "Picture Of Christmas"
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Well, we stay in town, at our home at night, but travel around to everyone's houses and it makes me crazy!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?
no
20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
Angel usually, I need to find her, we have a fiber optic one.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
We open presents with Kevin's extended family on Christmas eve and then come home and open pajamas with our kids (I want them to look cute and match in Christmas morning pictures)!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
Shopping at Walmart.
24. Do you buy gifts for your pets?
no
25. Have you ever been Christmas caroling?
yes, but not in a long time.
26. Hot chocolate or hot apple cider?
I like both, I drink hot chocolate more often though.

Whoever wants to tell us about their Christmas' is who I tag!

ARGH. I have a long ventish post, and if anyone has any ideas on how to fix this I'm open to them!

Here's the thing...everyone knows our insurance has been a HUGE pain since Jayden was born, right? Well this is EXACTLY the issue. We have Health Net for our children. Jacob and Justin are on it and they see a Dr. B through Golden Empire Managed Care (the medical group - we'll call them GEMCare from here on out). So in September I called Dr. B's office and asked about Jayden seeing them, they said no problem, I registered at the hospital and specified Dr. B as her pediatrician. I had Jayden October 28th and Dr. B came and saw her. When we got home we found out that Dr. B's medical group - GEMCare no longer accepts new patients of Health Net as of October 1, 2007, the boys are fine, just not Jayden.

I called around the other two medical groups in town - Independence Medical Group and Bakersfield Family Medical Center - NONE of their pediatricians, probably 60 or so, are taking new patients right now. NONE. I CANNOT find her a ped. So we decided we'll appeal it and pay cash for Jayden to see the boys' pediatrician. So we've paid cash since then.

On Monday night Jayden got sick enough, I realized we hadn't even gotten her insurance card yet and so I called on Tuesday and found that they hadn't added her, they had all the information it just was "sitting there" so I made them manually add her to the policy right then and took her to Urgent Care. Then when I went to fill the prescriptions they didn't add her to the rx plan so her prescriptions weren't covered.

Wednesday I took Justin to Dr. B's office and the dr said that Jayden needed to be seen again, that she looked terrible and to take her to the Pedi Center. Later that evening (the Pedi Center doesn't open until 5:30 PM) she looked ok so I kept her home. During the day Wednesday though I called GEMCare and spoke to a few "managers" and "supervisors" (I think it was the person sitting next to the original person I spoke with but whatever...) and they swear that this isn't something THEY did, that Health Net won't place anyone in their medical group and to get them to do it because they'd be happy to take Jayden. So I called Health Net and they say it's GEMCare and I royally flipped out on the "supervisor" I got, he called around town and he couldn't find Jayden a pediatrician either. I told him to file whatever he could that I want her on GEMCare NOW with the boys and he got snippy with me but when I said I was going to involve the media he agreed to try - yeah whatever.

Anyhow tonight Jayden is grunting alot, having a hard time breathing and hasn't eaten almost all day, is so weak she's just sleeping. So I decide it's time to take her to te pedi center, so at 5:30 we went in. The doctor looked her over and said I'm going to give her a breathing treatment and send you to the hospital, she needs to be admitted. So a breathing treatment happens and they tell me to take her to a certain hospital and that a doctor will meet me there to admit her.

So, I get to the hospital and they are agreeing she needs to be admitted because her oxygen is at 86% when she's eating and she can't just not eat until she gets better. All of a sudden she throws up like 2 lbs of mucous. Her color slowly starts to come back as we wait for the chest xrays and RSV test to come back. So the pediatrician shows up and he's chatting with us while we wait and asking about our ped situation because he saw she's a Dr. B patient with Health Net and he can't get anymore patients right now because GEMCare and Health Net are frozen. I said yeah and explained all of the above, he got a worried look on his face and says "if I admit her to teh hospital as a GEMCare doctor I don't think that they'll cover it." I tell him REPEATEDLY that I don't want our insurance to be a factor in her treatment, it'll work out. And he leaves the room for a few minutes.

He comes back with a prescription for a nebulizer and the breathing treatments and says to me, "how about if she's RSV negative you take her home and give her breathing treatments and if she's RSV positive we'll figure out a way to admit her." I agreed, that seems reasonable, right? So he gives me the Rx's and leaves. She gets another breathing treatment and afterwards her oxygen is at 94% while nursing and not, either way she seems pretty good, better then before at least. So the test comes back - RSV POSITIVE, so I say, "then I guess we're staying?" to the nurse and she says "no he's discharged her either way." WHAT!!!!!!

Now, on one hand, the treatments are working, she's showing improvement and she doesn't need oxygen anymore when she's on them, on the other hand, she went south quickly, and most importantly, I HAVE FREAKING INSURANCE AND THEY SHOULD NOT BE A FACTOR IN HER CARE!!!! I truly feel as though if this insurance barrier didn't stand in the way she'd have been admitted, and I think on alot of levels she needs to be in the hospital. I can't fill the prescription tonight either, so it's going to be a long while until she gets another breathing treatment.

My baby BETTER be ok is all I have to say to that doctor and Health Net. And tomorrow, I'm going to gather all the names of everyone I've spoken to and the dates and I'm going to send an email to the local news, what else can I do? I've exhausted every phone number and address I've had.

Gosh, I hope she's ok tonight, I just don't know...

A post for another day will be, "where was Kevin while our daughter was being admitted to the hospital..." Grrrrr again.

Achoo, Achoo, Achoo! Yep, I caught it and it IS HORRIBLE! I've taken like 3747842974392 showers because it steams my head a bit and I can't take benadryl cause I don't want to compromise my milk supply (dry up) because I'm already a little on the low side because Sis is just not nursing as much as usual. Poor thing she just feels rotten too. She seems better some of the time but still so sick.

I am making it a goal today to get dressed and clean up the livingroom (must have a good looking background!) and record Jayden on my camera. She's learned how to smile!! Social smiles! They're so cute! She'll be hacking up a lung and I'm patting her back and telling her "it's ok Sis, it's ok" and she'll stop and look up and just smile so big! SO. CUTE.

Last night the boys got in some trouble for slamming eachother's fingers in their bedroom door during a huge knock down drag out fight they were having, so they were sent to bed at 6:00 and fell asleep quickly, well at 4:30 this morning they wanted to get up for the day...and they've been up ever since! UGH!

My mom took the day off work to take my stepdad to a surgery thing he's having done today on his back (outpatient) and when she gets him home this afternoon she's bringing me some homemade oatmeal cookies (boost the milk supply!) and taking Jakey and maybe Justin with her back to her house to spend the night! (Hopefully she thinks they're both well enough to go! LOL)

Well Jayden's sleeping, I better shower and get dressed and clean up a bit around here....dirty house from everyone laying around doing nothing.

Sickness, Cleaning, and Christmas Trees

Maybe all the sleep Jayden's getting will mean my house gets cleaner and she learns to sleep without being held? I can dream, can't I? LOL

Seriously though, I rediscovered my living room floor under all the blankets and pillows that it was buried under this morning from the "camp out" last night. Justin woke up several times during the night screaming and I can only do one kid in the middle of the night so Kevin was on Justin duty and Justin's newly deciding not to wear pull ups to bed and is successful about 85% of the time, but I won't risk it in our bed, so they had to lay together on the living room floor with a puppy training pad under Justin, LOL. Yay for being slightly productive though! LOL

OK, so how bad is it that Christmas is in what 19 days? and we have not put up one decoration? Usually Dec 1 is the latest we put them up! We're considering getting a real tree this year because our fake tree died last year and we threw it away. Since we're not 100% on what house we're moving to (still haven't signed) we don't know how big the rooms will be in our house next year and so we're leaning towards getting real this year and going back to fake next year when we know how big of a tree we could get. You wouldn't want a 6 footer in a room with vaulted ceilings, that would look silly!

Anyhow, I've had a real tree twice in my life. Once when I was 15 I asked my stepdad to buy a real, flocked with purple stuff, tree. That monster cost him like $100 and we had two other trees up that year, but he did it because I wanted it! LOL I was a stupid 15 year old. Anyhow, that thing was a MESS, needles everywhere, luckily I bribed Denny to water it for me so I didn't have to climb under it. My parents even put all MY presents under my tree that year. LOL

The second time was when Jakey was 1 year old. We were "financially challenged" and heard of a tree farm where you could cut down your own tree for $15. We went out there and it took FOREVER to get it cut down and then we had to tie it to the top of our Daewoo Nubira, LOL! The thing was IMPOSSIBLE to get to stand up straight and kept trying to tip over and so we had to tie a string around it and nail the string to the wall behind it! LOL Plus the needles and worrying about watering it (Jakey was not as easy to bribe into watering the tree for me!) Plus I stayed up at night worrying about all the bugs or mice that might be in that tree. Creeped. Me. Out.

Sooooooooooooo, the point of these stories, how do you take care of a real tree and it not be such an ordeal as what I've gone through? Jakey's old enough to water the tree now, so I'm not too worried about that - he keeps the dog alive, LOL, but needles? And will we be able to keep it upright? Any special "tricks"?

Ah, sleeping baby. Probably the best part of having sick kids is that they sleep more then usual. LOL Jayden's passed out on the couch and I'm about to drug up Justin again. LOL Thank goodness for cough medicine MEANT to make him drowsy! LOL Jakey woke up not feeling too great this morning too so he's home from school. A big storm is rolling in right now so it's the perfect day to stay home and rest up and eat soup!

Justin has the same thing Jayden does per the doctor yesterday. The best part of the visit was that Jakey got his own "prescription" too. The doctor wrote a prescription and gave it to Jakey and had a long talk with him, it says "wash hands OFTEN and stay out of your sisters face when she's sick!" LOL He was bouncing all over the tiny room and crawling on the floor and then would run over to touch Jayden and I'd yell at him for touching her face and for crawling on the floor and he just kept going and going so finally the doctor scolded him for it and had a long talk about the germs on the floor and all of that, thank goodness, he was driving me nuts!

So, now I'm feeling a bit of this cold too. It's ok for now, just kind of stinks to be getting sick on top of everyone else. Oh well.

Anyhow Jayden rolled herself over - how does she do that! And uncovered herself so I have to go take care of that, later!

Poor Sick Baby!

My sweet little girl is SICK, SICK, SICK. She had been a little stuffy over the weekend and started coughing after church on Sunday, yesterday she was sick but like buy saline and put it up her nose type sick, then last night (always in the middle of the night) she developed a fever. Since she's so little ANY fever is NOT a good thing. I was worried about our insurance stuff because the boys' insurance STILL had not added her and sent us cards so I decided to wait until morning.

This morning I FREAKED OUT on the insurance company until they manually added her to the policy. We couldn't find a pediatrician to see her (STILL) unless I wanted to pay cash at her regular pediatrician and honestly it's getting really expensive, so I said screw it, if they can't get her a pediatrician then they can pay urgent care prices! And I took her to Urgent Care.

So, at Urgent Care we had a super helpful doctor and he did an x-ray of her chest and said she does have some fluid on her lungs, so he suspects bronchitis. They did a breathing treatment on her and gave her Tylenol for her fever and then we were released with some antibiotics because he thinks her bronchitis is bacterial, or at the very least she's getting a sinus infection from her nose stuff backing up into her eyes and green goop coming out of them. So, then we were released and on our way!

I picked up the boys from Kevin's sister and realized Justin was hacking up a lung himself! I had made dentist appointments for the boys so I took her prescription to the pharmacy and then ran to the dentist with them. At the dentist I was informed that Jakey needs 3 teeth pulled and Phase 1 of braces. Braces are REALLY expensive. Our insurance pays NADA. So...that stinks. They do pay for the teeth to be pulled so those are getting done next week and then he'll get Phase 1 started in February. Darn. No cavities though for him or Justin!

Then I went back to the pharmacy to get Jayden's medicine and the pharmacy says that the insurance is saying she's not covered. So I call them and FLIP OUT again and they say oh we have another computer system for prescriptions and she's just not added to it yet, but we can do that, BUT that department closes at 4:00 (it's 4:30) and so I'll have to call back tomorrow. So I had to pay cash for Jayden's prescription - it wasn't expensive - only $21.00 but still it's the point of the thing, my copay is $5!

Anyhow that was my very long day. Oh and tonight Justin spiked a 103 fever and he's seriously sounded sick, so we're going to his pediatrician tomorrow cause he's sounding croupy. Shoot me now. We're canceling all plans for the rest of the week and holing up in the house with chicken noodle soup, orange juice, 7 UP and movies! A storm is coming in on Thursday to last through the weekend so it'll help us feel good about staying inside! LOL

Well the grumpy baby calls...

Oh man, I have one sick little girl on my hands! During the night (of course, all illnesses come in at night) she started sounding stuff and hacking up a lung. She slept sitting up, I was on my side with my knees bent and she sat in the corner my tummy and legs made sleeping all night. Then at 5:00 AM I couldn't stand it anymore and Kevin took her to sit up in the recliner the rest of the night.

I had a doctor's appointment for my 6 week checkup this morning so my doctor's family practice physician's assistant took a look at her for me and said that she needed a vaporizer and saline nose drops and to use the bulb syringe (we call it a "Booger Plucker"). So after my appointment I came home and did the saline thingy and set up the vaporizer and then laid down and nursed her - all of a sudden she launched forward and out came SO. MUCH. PHLEGM. and breastmilk and who knows what else...oh man! Plus the sheer force of that caused a bottom explosion too - I'll spare you those details, let me tell ya, it was NOT pretty!

She's having a hard time nursing because her nose is so stuffy, so she latches on, I let down, and she pops off to breathe and gets a shot of milk in the face...LOL That is kind of funny, a little sad, but funny too. She's gone through alot of clothes today and is currently swinging in her swing, which she's decided to like because it sure beats lying down. Poor thing!

I didn't get a picture of her alone in her dress because I'm taking her to have them done professionally so I didn't think about it. We're having this shadow box thing made for her room - it's a whole post in and of itself so I'll describe it another time, anyhow for the picture to be in too.

Anyhow, my appointment went well, I'm still losing weight! It's that baby-induced anorexia - can't eat cause she won't let me put her down! LOL We've decided not to take our fertility for granted. No TTC but no BC either...it's a huge waste of money and a slap in the face after all the money we spent on fertility treatments before we got pregnant with Jayden...so we'll see...we're taking our chances!

It's going to be so strange not going to that office every month. After going for a year for fertility treatments and then for the pregnancy, I've just been there so much! LOL Kevin joked that they're going to "give away my parking space" now! LOL

Anyhow, missy is asleep in her swing so I should start some dinner or something. I'll be around to visit you all this evening...I love reading everyone's blogs while I nurse but it's hard to comment then so I have to go back...anyhow just wanted to thank everyone for giving me something to do while I nurse! :)

Ah! We survived the day! I decided to just chance it and put Jayden in her blessing dress before church and she spit up once or twice but spit up's white, LOL so it was fine. At church the Primary President was gone and so I had a bit of stuff to deal with, and I was conducting but it really turned out well. We had some families that moved out of our ward come visit for the blessing, my parents came and brought Erica - my niece, and so our little Primary swelled from just about 12 kids to over 25! It was awesome to have that many kids, especially during singing time. Amazingly ALL of our teachers showed up and things went really smoothly!

Our closest friends are non-members but this was an important event so they chose to come to Sacrament Meeting today to be there for Jayden's blessing. Kevin's family (non members as well) came, even Kevin's formerly-inactive boss(he and Kevin have gotten really close these past few months and he's become active again) came with his wife and mother-in-law. Plus our wonderful ward family, we were completely surrounded by support and love for our daughter's blessing day!

Jayden was an ANGEL during her blessing, didn't make a peep, well from her mouth LOL. She looked BEAUTIFUL. The "for blackmail story" of the day was, during her whole blessing Jayden was FILLING her diaper, making all kinds of unladylike noises! LOL The men almost burst out laughing when it was over, and Kevin kept getting distracted by it, LOL. The young man holding the mic had the mic right at about her diaper level, and well yeah, the congregation got to hear her noises too. LOL

Then, my parents and our best friends came back to our house for dinner - we had ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, garlic bread and cake for dessert. It was a wonderful day. I was totally wiped though and an ungracious host because after my mom left I fell asleep in a chair nursing Jayden while we still had company! LOL They quietly excused themselves while I snored away - Kevin saw them out...LOL Guess I'm not quite as "recovered" as I try to be sometimes. Anyhow here's some pics...



Kevin's sister took this apparently she never heard of "say cheese" LOL



Kevin's family with us



Our friends David and Yaneth and their family with us -



Good thing that Kevin wasn't inspired to change her name! LOL

Whew! I think that we're finally done getting ready for tomorrow! The ham is bought, the boxed potatoes (I know I should have made real, but I am still sort of recovering from giving birth, I thought maybe everyone will forgive me), the gravy is bought (yeah see above, LOL), salad stuff, pistachio fruit salad thingy stuff, and a cake with pink flowers for dessert. I bought disposable plates, cups, and flatware so that I wouldn't have to wash anything when we're done but the pans. Everyone's clothes are clean and hung and ready to go in the morning. And I. AM. BEAT. We scrubbed the house down too, but no time for Christmas decorating, except I put out a small Nativity.

The most surprising thing was Kevin and I put off vacuuming the living room for as long as possible because Jayden was asleep, well finally we just had to do it, we wanted to be done with all the cleaning and she'd been asleep for like three hours so we just went ahead and turned on the vacuum. She slept through it!! Crazy!

And the jinx that that last sentence was, guess who's waking up right now? Yep, she's up! Better go feed her, that was a long nap!

6 Random Things

A few people have tagged me for this, so I thought I'd get this Meme in since I'm the worlds WORST meme/award blog buddy!

1 - I am TERRIFIED of escalators. WILL NOT ride on them, I find the elevator or take stairs!

2 - One of my thumbs is shorter then the other. When Jakey was about 1.5 I picked him up (you know under the armpits thumbs on chest pick up) and he was throwing a fit and broke my thumb, the cast they put me in regrew my thumb bones weirdly and so now one thumb is shorter then the other.

3 - I used to have a mole on my forehead that embarrassed me so I tried to cover it up. I had it my whole life and it was BIG and NOTICEABLE, luckily when I had my gallbladder removed 3.5 years ago the surgeon said, "would you like me to just take that off while I'm doing the gallbladder surgery?" It has changed my life, I'm way more confident with the mole gone.

4 - I hate socks - good thing I live in CA! LOL I only wear them cause I have to so my shoes don't get stinky in the winter otherwise, sandals all the time!

5 - I never thought I'd be homeschooling. I don't love it or hate it, I feel totally neutral about it which scares me and makes me think that back in public school is the right place for Jakey!

6 - I like to sleep with the TV on, Kevin doesn't so he wins 99% of the time but since I'm nursing he lets me keep the TV on so tat I can see to latch on the baby.

I don't tag anyone - unless you want to tell us 6 random facts about yourself!

So I'm still REALLY hormonal. LOL So you'll have to excuse the sappy post. And it's 11 PM and I'm awake because I finally got Jayden to sleep and Kevin's still at work because one of his drivers flipped a truck tonight and he's out with the wrecking crew turning back over the truck. And I realize how it totally could have been Kevin in that truck had he not gotten this promotion.

Anyhow.

Kevin's coworker (a girl) heard about Jayden's crying fits at night and sent her Ipod home with Kevin (she's getting a new one - the touch one - and is letting me buy this one from her for $50 yay (it's a classic) ANYHOW, so she sent home this Ipod with Kevin and told him to tell me "put the pods in your ears and just walk with her - she's still going to cry but you're not going to hear it." So I did. Now some of the music on her Ipod I could live without (Rap - yuck) but 90% of it is music I would listen to (country, rock, other stuff, I like everything but rap).

So, for the second night in a row I'm walking Jayden in the kitchen (her preferred room of darkness and quiet) and listening to the Ipod when In My Daughter's Eyes by Martina McBride comes on the Ipod. I cried. Yep, I'm still hormonal.

In my daughter's eyes I am a hero
I am strong and wise and I know no fear
But the truth is plain to see
She was sent to rescue me
I see who I wanna be
In my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes everyone is equal
Darkness turns to light and the
world is at peace
This miracle God gave to me gives me
strength when I am weak
I find reason to believe
In my daughter's eyes

And when she wraps her hand
around my finger
Oh it puts a smile in my heart
Everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about

It's hangin' on when your heart
has had enough
It's giving more when you feel like giving up
I've seen the light
It's in my daughter's eyes

In my daughter's eyes I can see the future
A reflection of who I am and what will be
Though she'll grow and someday leave
Maybe raise a family
When I'm gone I hope you see how happy
she made me
For I'll be there
In my daughter's eyes

Wow. My baby is one month old today!! Can you believe it?!

Her one month appointment is tomorrow - I forgot that I made it for a day that Jakey is in school so I wouldn't have to take all the kids - smart me three weeks ago! LOL

Some pics!!!

Someone in my mom's ward made this sweater and booties for Jayden


All dressed and ready for black friday shopping



Who holds Jayden so I can eat and use the restroom?? Big brother!

Whew! Jayden's really, REALLY running me ragged! She just really thinks she needs to be held ALL. THE. TIME. Yesterday I spent the whole day trying to get her to sleep so I could set her down, I'd set her down and use the restroom and do one small thing - switch over laundry, unload the dishwasher, whatever and before I could finish that task she'd be awake and screaming like someone was ripping off her arm because she had realized she wasn't being held. Then last night she could not be consoled, poor thing I just don't know what to do for her. I gave her gripe water and nursed her and she screamed/whined through all of that. I am seriously wondering if it might be reflux because it seems like I'm feeding her fire sometimes. Tomorrow she has her one month check up so we'll see, I just feel so bad for the poor girl!

Anyhow she was screaming while nursing all night so I didn't sleep well at all and this morning when it was time to take Kevin to work so I could keep the car I just didn't have the energy in me. He's going to call his grandma to see if she can take me to our car later today because I was just soooooo exhausted. I really only got an hour more's sleep then I would have gotten if I had just gotten up so now I feel bad for not just getting up and taking him to work so I could have the car for the rest of the week. I have errands to run and that sounds about as fun as gnawing my own arm off right now. Ugh.

- Bank
- Insurance office
- Post Office
- Walmart
- Grocery store
- Costco

Someone shoot me now! That sounds like a day of misery. I seriously need to see if Kev's sister could watch the older two for a bit while I do that stuff. I need to take the car to the car wash as well and that just adds to the list of things I don't want to do.

Anyhow, I'm trying to upload some cute pics of my sweet baby girl (who screeches while she nurses) to spruce up this post a bit but my camera isn't being recognized which means I'll have to restart the computer and restarting the computer is just after gnaw off my own arm on my list of things to do today.

Maybe I should take up drinking energy drinks? LOL Just kidding, I can't even stand the way they smell when people open them, but then I'm one of those people who hates gum too for the same reason - the yucky smell.

Have a great Tuesday everyone! I'm off to try to look presentable to run errands and BEG Kevin's sister to keep my older kids for a few hours while I run errands. I'll even pay top dollar at this point! LOL

We ended up just deciding to buy the rights to our pictures...there is no way I can choose! LOL These are still mostly unedited (no filters or anything like that yet).

Which ones should I have her edit and then print though!

Kevin and the boys

A)

B)

C)

Jayden (alone)

A)

B)

C)

Jacob alone

A)

B)

Jayden and me:

A)

B)

Family Pics:

A)

B)

C)

There were others of the boys,Justin by himself, etc. that only one came out good, so after everything's edited all post those and the ones I decide on from these...so what do you think?

Look, I'm no longer 42+ weeks pregnant with an empty bubble! LOL We tired Jayden out taking pics of our family at the park with the awesome photographer that we hired today. She was great with the kids, it was a good experience. We'll see what she comes up with. Anyhow so Jayden's crashed out with Kevin and Jacob and Justin got sent to bed early because there was a brawl in the boys room that ended with a really bloody nose and some severely hurt feelings.

So today Kevin's telling me that some of his mustache is turning grey and we're discussing how close he's getting to 30 (about 15 more months! LOL) and we hear this conversation from the back seat:

Justin: I'm Justin Big Boy

Jakey: Yeah, you're getting to be a big boy...you're getting older.

Justin: Moooo-ooooommmmmm, Jakey called me old!!!!

LOL, yeah 3 is like over the hill. LOL

I did go black friday shopping too, got Jayden a swing for $35! And got the boys jeans for 1/2 off, can't beat that! It was fun, and surprisingly everyone was in good moods and no one was being trampled. I did not go especially early though, we didn't even leave my house until after 7 am. Couldn't freeze my baby girl and couldn't leave her! LOL I saw this one nursing mom in the bathroom at a restaurant just bawling because she was sooooo engorged. She told me she had decided to get up at 3 am and leave her 2 month old at home and not take a pump or anything and she was in so much pain and leaking through her breastpads. I gave her some from my diaper bag and was SOOOOO glad I brought my baby!

Anyhow that's everything from breastpads to family pictures...fun fun! I hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend!!

Ah, the running around town is over.

I think I told you all that my grandma finally seems to be getting over the whole obituary fiasco thing right? Well she seems to be...thank goodness. I felt horrible enough about it as it was, and I didn't mean to forget her in the survivor's list. Anyhow, either way - she seems to be moving past it. And we seem to be rebuilding things a bit at least. Today she and my aunt and cousin came to my mom's house for lunch.

Here's some pics!

My Grandma, my mom, and me. (Yeah, my mom already put up her Christmas tree, I know too early!)



My Mom and me


My Grandma holding Jayden for the first time


Our Family



Generations - My Grandma, Mom, Me, and Jayden

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

What I am thankful for:

* Kevin - he works so hard to provide for our family, and he's a great husband and daddy.

* Jacob - He's such a good big brother and a big help to me.

* Justin - he's hilarious, he always makes us smile.

* Jayden - she was worth the wait! She's a beautiful baby girl!

* That our car is still hanging in there! Good little car! :)

* We have a home, we're not really nervous about the move, it'll all work out I'm sure.

* Kevin's job, losing his job at the beginning of the year was the best thing to ever happen to us, hard to see at the time but now it was a huge blessing that we can easily recognize.

* Our health, we're all really very healthy this year!

* Our faith and the Church.

* Our ward - it's filled with fabulous people who are as wonderful as family.

* My closest girlfriends IRL - they make me laugh and share my problems and are always there for me.

* My blogging friends - they too make me laugh and share my problems and are always there for me!

* My Mom and Stepdad and extended family.

* Kevin's family - they really do so much for us, his grandma helps with anything we need and his mom and sister are so helpful with the boys.

Ok, that's what I'm thankful for this year...what are you thankful for?

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I talked them into ordering a premade dinner from Marie Callendar's Thank goodness!

Kevin forgot to bring home our car last night - he drove a company truck and left our car in the yard and so I couldn't take him to work this morning the way I was planning to so I could go to my mom's house to bake. So she's going to come and get us at 1:30 and then Kevin's going to pick us up tonight at her house. We're going to bake! Banana Nut Bread and this Jalapeno Cheese Bread...should be yummy!

Last night I made dinner! I made Potato Soup - it was a recipe from the Taste of Home Cooking Show I went to last week. Super easy recipe:

Mix 3 cups of milk, 1 can of cream of potato soup, and 2 cups of country style hashbrowns in a pan, heat to boiling and then turn to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.

Top with cheese, crumbled bacon, and chives.

REALLY easy and the kids LOVED it.

Kevin also brought home a sandwich from Subway for me to have with my soup. I had been craving cold cuts since I really didn't have them (especially without feeling guilty) while I was pregnant - so I had the cold cut trio! Yum!

My mom also brought some Gripe Water for Jayden and thank goodness! The poor baby was just totally gassy and she really calmed down about 20 minutes after she had it and slept much better last night!

Anyhow Jayden's taking her first nap of the day so I better run and get dressed for the day. Have a fun Thanksgiving-eve - preparing food or traveling or whatever it is you're going to do!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

(pics will follow soon!)

I know, I'm so whiney. LOL It's my blog and I'll whine if I want to? LOL Just kidding...seriously though - tomorrow you all are getting happy baby pictures and pics of the boys and I baking and stuff rather then the same old whines from me! LOL

Anyhow, Kevin's work is making a "Thanksgiving Lunch" for all their employees tomorrow. So, this was decided at the last minute. Kevin calls and says, "Maribelle is going to drop off some food that we need made for work tomorrow....I really need it cooked by 5:00 am, can you do this?" WHAT?! I'm THREE weeks post partum! I'm not cooking Thanksgiving dinner for MY family, why would I do it for them? They decided this because I'm a stay at home mom, I'd like them to all know that does not equal sit-at-home-bored-eating-bonbons mom! ARGH!

I told Kev he's gonna have to get up and make his own food. I'm too tired. Jayden woke up at 9:00ish this morning and took three 15 minute naps until just about 30 minutes ago - 5:30 she finally crashed...I'm EXHAUSTED...she was not contentedly awake, she's EXHAUSTED.

I've never had a child scream for no good reason, last night I did! I nursed Jayden from 4-6 pretty much nonstop yesterday afternoon so that when Kevin came home I could run to the grocery store. He got here and she was fussing a bit but said there's really nothing more I can do for her anyways, so he'd go ahead and keep her and just to hurry. Yeah, hurry, on Monday before Thanksgiving at the grocery store? I almost got beat up for a bag of flour on the baking aisle! Anyhow, I got home at 7:30 and started to nurse her again while I ate dinner. She did ok until about 8:00.

At 8:00 Dancing With the Stars came on and I was trying to watch it but Jayden just started screeching like her arm was being ripped off or something. She wouldn't nurse, she wouldn't calm down for jiggling, bouncing, burping, patting, rocking, burping, diaper change didn't help, NOTHING helped. It was so bad that we turned on the closed captioning so I could "hear" what they were saying on the tv. I felt so bad for her, there was just nothing we could do to make her happy....occassionally she'd drift off to sleep and then startle awake and scream again. This lasted until 10:30! Then I laid down with her and we went to sleep while she nursed, she literally nursed ALL. NIGHT. LONG. I would just roll over when she fussed and pop her on the other side, she just needed to nurse ALL NIGHT I guess.

This morning she and I slept until 8:30 and she's still conked out...man, I wish I knew what was wrong with her! She's been trying to be fussy at night but this was exceptionally bad. She's pooing and having wet diapers so I know she's getting plenty of milk, and yesterday she wasn't especially spitty or anything and burped well...I just don't know.

Luckily Kevin was here when it happened because he held her for half of the screeching time, he even agreed that if she starts this up again tonight he'll come home early even though Tuesdays are his late night at work. I just don't think I could take that alone, it's one of those screaming sessions where you HAVE to leave the room to remain sane every now and then.

Good thing she goes to the doctor next week. Sigh, she's up...hopefully she's in a happy mood!

Look! Both hands!

I worked very hard on mastering the fine art of transferring the sleeping baby to her bassinet. And I paid particular attention to her "schedule" (the one she made up - if it were mine it'd be much better! LOL) so now I know when she sleeps! She seems to have three awake periods a day (so far) from 7:30 - 10:00 AM, 1-3 PM, and 7-10 PM, they seem to get longer by a few minutes every day. She's not truly "awake" from 3-7:30 AM but she's eating solidly that whole time. Oh well, in good news I don't wake up engorged ever, LOL. Anyhow, knowing her a little bit better, it's getting easier every day.

We got a TON of laundry done this weekend, I just have two more loads to wash and then the hanging needs to be put on hangers and 3 loads folded and put away and we're set! I'm also looking for a few EASY recipes today for some EASY baking to do on Wednesday. My mom gets off work early and I'm going to her well stocked kitchen to bake while she holds my baby. Nothing like making messes in other people's kitchens! LOL She's also going to make gingerbread men with the grandkids (my kids and my neices).

So everyone else does Menu Plan Mondays, and I'm not really there yet with cooking in this A.B. period (After Baby), so my goal for this week is NO FAST FOOD. My tummy hurts and if I never see another Sourdough Jack it'll be too soon. Plus eventually the breastfeeding weight loss will slow, especially if I'm living on Jack In The Box! LOL

And on a truly ambitious note - we're going to make a big dinner/lunch for Jayden's blessing - ham, potatoes, whatever...ACK! I hope I can actually pull it off. Now here's the thing - if we just invite our families back to our house for lunch we'll have almost 20 people here, if we invite all the people who are coming to our ward (friends and family) from other wards just for the blessing, we'll have like 40 people there (yep we're going to double our small ward's sacrament meeting attendance! LOL), and my house is small!!! (Well it's like 1700 sq ft but still it's awkwardly shaped, like everyone would fit in my gigantic master bedroom suite, but not in my itty bitty livingroom and kitchen, LOL. So what should we do? Hope some people don't come back to our house with us? LOL (I pushed for holding it at my mom's or Kevin's grandparents houses because there is more room there - and they clean those houses, not me! LOL)

Well here's a pic....I still have a TON of weight to lose, but it is coming off so I'm hopeful. But anyhow, either way, here's me and Jayden today. Should have face away from the sun, I'm all squinty LOL.

Oh man...let me tell ya...Kev didn't have to be at work (or so we thought) until noon so he was super helpful last night with the baby...I would just feed her, he took care of all her diaper changing, rocking, burping needs and I slept in until 8:30 also, it was HEAVEN. Better than chocolate, better than ANYTHING. Awesome.

Then, Kevin's work ended up not needing him to come in so he was home all day. Unfortunately I didn't get by the hospital to see my uncle (he slipped and broke his ankle and had to have surgery today to put steel plates in his foot ouch) but I did get a haircut and bought myself a new pair of shoes today! Yay for that huh? LOL

I also found a photographer to do outdoor pictures for us, I just haven't been able to bring myself to go back to some conveyor-belt studio after our awesome pictures by Tammy! I don't know if she's as good as Tammy, but her sitting fee is really reasonable so I'm willing to chance it. So, fingers crossed! Now just to decide what to wear, I'm pretty sure about everyone but Jayden, she doesn't have many solid colored clothes, I might have to get her something solid, and then decide which gigantic bow to put on her...LOL Just kidding.

Tonight we went to our ward Thanksgiving dinner - it was AWESOME. And I have to tell you, my boys were SO AWESOMELY BEHAVED! All the other kids were running around the cultural hall and jumping off the stage and acting crazy and my two sat so nicely and just ate and Jakey took the plates of everyone at our table to the trash and had nice conversations with the adults at our table, we were even complimented by several people on how well behaved our boys were tonight. I was almost waiting for one of them to throw up because they're NEVER that good unless they're sick! LOL So far, so good though they seem good. And when we got home they went straight to bed no arguments. Nice!

And Jayden's asleep now too, I just got done showering because I love my new haircut but I don't have the energy (or time) to blow dry AND curl my hair - so curl it is! LOL I got a few new skirts and tops (in a size smaller than my prepregnancy size) last weekend and I'm wearing one of my new outfits to church tomorrow, exciting stuff I tell ya! Maybe I'll get a pic...I'll try.

Anyhow, night all!