Teething

We have tooth number 3. Gabbi got her first two bottom teeth when she was just 4 months old, and has been working on the third (bottom right side) ever since then. It does this thing where it comes just below the surface and then vanishes again. It has been frustrating to not be able to do anything. She hasn't been her happy playful self for quite some time, so needless to say I am ecstatic that it finally broke the surface. Here is to happy babies everywhere (until the next tooth decides to make an appearance)

This is the best picture I could get with her mouth open. She isn't very cooperative when she is eating. :)

Tip of the day

Only buy matching plates, bowls, silverware, cups, and multiples of the same box of cereal so that there is no fighting over who gets what or "I wanted that one!", and every child has something to look at while they eat. Have a great day!

Old photos

This was at Paterson Family Farms this past Thanksgiving. It was such an amazing place. They had corn mazes, wooden go-karts, fried apples, slides, play houses.

So festive.

Just thought I would post some family pictures for the extended family. Enjoy!

On a short leash

So our new bundle of joy has been doing "doodies" all over in my house ( No worries we have nothing but hard wood, so clean up is quick and easy). And when I take her outside to do her business she just looks at me like "What am I supposed to do out here?" She is making me crazy! I thought dogs were just supposed to be house trained, and know how to play fetch, and bring your slippers, and all that other dog stuff, because they are dogs? Apparently not. It's all learned. I do have to say she isn't a stupid dog, we have already taught her to sit and play fetch, it's just the potty training that is getting me. And the sad part of it is that it is my fault. I am so distracted with my other four children that I can't remember to take her out. So my new plan is to keep her on a short leash literally. She is on a leash on my wrist for the whole day, no matter what I am doing until we get this thing down. I am sooooo tired of cleaning up more messes. I have to say so far it has been successful. A little annoying at times, but good. We have also had to teach her to eat. Not like how to eat food, but to sit and eat all her food when it is given to her rather than let her play around and eat at her convenience. ( Funny to me how kids and puppies are so similar) I have to say this has helped the potty training as well. You regulate what goes in, you can regulate what comes out. :)

Lateral Femoral Cutaneous and The Errand of Angels

Do you ever have those days where you feel like your mind is sort of slipping away? I can make a perfect batch of rolls or fried chicken, and even battle killer stains in my kids clothing and totally win. But when it comes down to spelling simple words like "recipe" or "definitely" I am at a total loss. Or when Emma comes home and needs help finding the mean number to a math problem and I think to myself, " there are nice numbers and mean numbers?" No its an average! Ridiculous I know. But then my husband comes home and asks me to spell Lateral Femoral Cutaneous (a nerve that innervates the skin of your outer thigh) and its a piece of cake. What gives? Maybe its my competitive side coming out that I totally have to show off to him. But really, some days I get a little nervous that I am not as smart or "educated" as I should be to have the lord have such faith in me to leave his special spirits in my care. How am I supposed to raise children to be strong, hard working, polite, law abiding citizens? Children who chose the right, even if the rest of the world isn't? Children who want to serve missions, who want to follow the lord. Children who could survive one day on there own without me? It scares me to think about. To think that maybe I'm not doing enough? Is it the little stuff? The "I love yous", making lunches, and trips to the library when they want to go? Is that enough? I sure hope so, because that I can do! (even if on occasion I complain a little) I love my children more than anything, and I want them to be successful in this life.

10 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today is Emma's special day. She is turning 10. Man I'm getting old. She might tell you that today is not that great because her birthday is on a Sunday, or because she didn't get a friend party this year (we only do friend parties every other year). But I say it's great. We get to be together as a family and celebrate how wonderful it is to have a 1o year old. So in honor of the festivities I leave u with 10 fun facts about our Emma:

1.She thinks she is older than 10, "like 12!" which is like an adult.

2. In her mind, she is the center of the universe (I guess its my fault for teaching her that she is)

3. Emma has some awesome dance moves, she only busts them out when she thinks your not looking.

4. She is always willing to sit with you if she thinks you are having a bad day( so much more sensitive than her mom, I wonder where she gets it from?)

5. She hates to write in cursive.

6. She hates the color pink, unless that is the color of the shirt she is looking at in the mall and wants you to buy it for her. Then it is her favorite. Any other time her favorite colors are blue and green!

7. In an all out wrestling match with her brother she only wins 2 out of 5.

8. Even though she thinks she is an adult, she still likes to play make believe with the little girls. ( I hope she always will)

9. She loooooovves to read! ( Again I don't know where it comes from, she may be a martian child)

10. If Emma was stranded on a desert island and could take only one thing with her, it would be her grandma Hansen. (she says it would be me but I know her better than that)

We love you Emma and hope your tenth year will be better than the rest!

We're announcing!

Yup you heard right we are announcing the arrival of a new addition to our family. She is a two month old Boston Terrier/Beagle. Born November 6th. So far we have had a lot of piddles (thank goodness for tile floors), a lot of yelping, and a lot of fighting (over who gets to hold her). The picture really doesn't do her justice. She is adorable. The runt of the litter, I guess that is where the name came from. Dad said she was "Tiny" and the kids just latched onto it. We are still working on crate training her, but she prefers you to hold her and rock her to sleep. The only one in the house that likes to cuddle is a dog, go figure. Oh well I will take what I can get. I will let you know if I regret the decision to become a "Dog Owner" in a few more weeks, but so far so good.

Can I have a big fat do over please?

Do you ever feel like you should just crawl back into bed and start the day over again at 8:00 in the morning?

No?

Well let me tell you, today, not a good day. The sad part of it Im laying in bed thinking to myself, " today is going to be a better day", ( because last night I had lost all patience with my children and had to use every ounce of energy I had left in me not to take it out on my husband. Its an on going cycle kids make mom crazy, mom makes dad crazy, dad makes kids crazy and so on and so on)

So first off Gabbi leaks through her diaper onto our bed. No big deal I just throw her in the shower with dad, strip the sheets off and we are back on track for a good day, minus an extra load of laundry

Next comes Emma screaming she didn't finish a piece of homework and she only has one minute before she is supposed to be at the bus stop ( which is a block down the street from our house and she has to walk). "Ok go get it", I tell her. She is crying through the whole thing and can't even spit out a coherent sentence. ( it is a reading assignment) I tell her I will not sign it unless she does it properly. After a few deep breaths and up and down and up and down the stairs to find a pen ( because the pencil in her back pack that is on her back is for some odd reason not a sufficient writing utensil) we finish the homework and get her out the door and on her way to the school bus. "Ok Emma is gone to school, the hard part of the day is over,(until she gets back at 3:30)". As I am pulling a baby out of the shower I hear this blood curdling scream MOMMMMMM!!!!!!!! "Emma what's wrong"?"

'No one is at the bus stop!" she says. I ask her" Why aren't you at the bus stop?" "Because I can't see anyone else down there and I must have missed the bus mom what am I going to do?" At this point I am just aannoyed because ssoooo much drama over something so silly as to how am I going to get to school now? SO I yell at her to go watch out the window for the bus, then dad kindly informs me that maybe school is canceled. I think to myself that is silly, the weather is not any worse than it was yesterday. I jump on the computer and begin looking up Local News websites and look over and Emma is off in la la land staring at the neighbors house across the street. At this point annoyed turns to mad. She is upset about something yet refuses to help out in the situation. I can't find anything posted about school being cancled. Then I begin to get angry that she didn't even go to the bus stop in the first place, just pranced around in the driveway a bit then came back inside stating she couldn't see the bus. I rampage through the house tell her to sit and wait so I can shower and get myself ready for the day. She starts crying thinking I am not going to take her to school, and I just have to ignore her so that I don't start yelling again.

We load up ( dad included) As we pull into the school parking lot it is looking a little dark inside, no cars in the parking lot, and no tire tracks for that matter. I have a huge pit of guilt creeping into my stomache . Lee and I turn and look at each other and both of us grab our trusty I-Phones. Jump onto the District site. Sure enough there it is

NO SCOOL JAN 8 Due to weather conditions. I feel like crap. All I wanna do is cry. I apologize to Emma. We drop dad off at class then head over to the grocery store for some potatoes for dinner. I can't even talk to her. I am still so angry at the way the"good morning" has played out. Not anybody's fault but still frustrating. Now I am home all day with 4 bored kids, piles of wet soggy snow , and zero patience until dad comes home and we start all over again. "Yes I would like a do over please."

Just so we are clear, I love my kids, I love being a mom, and I love the drama. What would I do without it !?!

Happy 8 Months

Today Gabbi is 8 months old. Time flies by too quickly when you want it to. Sometimes without meaning for it. My baby is changing so much. Three weeks ago when we got to Idaho she wasn't even sitting up on her own, or eating anything but rice cereal. Now she is mimicking me saying "ma ma", and I think she is starting to actually understand that it means me. She is realizing that she gets anything she wants from the other kids just by squaking. And I mean actually squalking. She is the loudest out of all of them (combined), but she is also the closest thing to a "snugglie baby" that I have ever had. I am so excited to watch her change and grow, and can't wait to see more of her personality develop. Gabbi I love you.

The Water Smells different

We made it back home from our Christmas vacation to Idaho which means: back to school (dad and kids), a driveway with 2 weeks worth of un-shoveled snow piled up (and no snow shovel), an empty fridge, a dead car parked in the garage (meaning no trip to the store for groceries), luggage piled in the entry way full of things to be put away, toys and wrapping paper from our "second Christmas"(presents we left behind that wouldn't fit in the luggage), whinny spoiled kids, (thanks to the two hour time difference, and also G-ma and G-pa,) :), a stack of mail, and best of all sheer exhaustion!!! So needless to say I can't wait to get back to the old routine of naps. (for the kids of course) All in all it was a fun trip and we are so lucky to of had the opportunity to go back home. Jessica's wedding was wonderful (Lee's little sister). We made it to the temple just in time. Christmas was wonderful. The kids didn't even notice that we didn't have a butt load of presents this year. I will have to remind myself of that next year when I am stressing about them not having enough. And friends and family were wonderful. We can't wait to do it again! ( I speak for myself in that last statement, Lee is done with planes for a very long time, not traveling with kids or anything, they were awesome, just planes. More to come on that later)

As for my title, I was showering last night and I was noticing how the water smelled. Its not something I noticed the first time we came out here. Its not a bad smell like chlorine or anything, it is like when you go outside during a rainstorm how it smells sweet and yummy. Its not like that in Idaho. I guess you can add that to the very small list of things I like about Ohio.

For the New Year I would like to read the Book Of Mormon, maybe boost my spiritual knowledge a bit. I feel like I need to be more educated in the gospel. And also I would like to NOT complain aboutlaundry so much, even though I loath, despise, hate, disgusts me when (I don't have a thesaurus close by so that's it for "not like" words ) doing it more than any other thing in this world.Blog more often. All in all try and be a more positive about Ohio and excited for what the future has to bring.

Happy New Year !

( four days late)