sledding with the 4wheelers

Matt and Amy took us all out on their 4 wheelers one day.  It was soooo fun!! Everyone had a blast!  We all took turns on the quads and in the sled while the babies slept warm and toasty in the house... perfect!  After playing in the snow, we headed in to enjoy hot cocoa. Yummy.  What a fun day!

Nyah, Eric, and Gabe

Dad and Wesley

Gabe, me, Eric

Matt and Amy pulling all the kids on the sled.

Cute Logan and Nyah enjoying their hot cocoa.

Gabe and Wesley being as silly as can be!

Christmas 2012

It's only Valentine's Day and I'm finally finishing Christmas! Better late than never, I say. Especially with journals and blogs. Besides Christmas was so special, as always, that there is no way I could skip it.  So here it goes....

Lined up ready to see what Santa brought!!

Gabe and Wesley - what handsome boys!

Mom gave us a priceless gift of dozens of FHE lessons... laminated story figures, fish pole games, stories,even a flannel and white-erase board - everything you can imagine to make an absolutely fun, creative family night. It's amazing! It represents 100's of hours of work and I am so excited to use it!! Mom you're the BEST!!

 We spent the second half of the day at the Richardson's where we all got spoiled with more gifts and fun times!

Eric's cute sisters Cailtynn and Crystal

I think Nyah enjoyed the baby's exer-saucer even more than Ian! Silly girl!

shhhh...babies sweeping

All the doors were shut when I went upstairs this morning, with Nyah standing guard saying "shhh, babies sweeping!"  In each room I found a similar scene and I couldn't help but take pictures. So sweet! 

Then later I found her up in my room with her teddy bear draped across the lip of the waste basket and herself positioned on her stool, armed with toilet paper and handsoap, wiping his bum!! It was too funny. She didn't like my suggestion of using pretend soap instead, but helpfully ran into her room and fetched a real wipe and reapplied herself to her task:

not snowed in... fogged in!

I have always really liked fog. It just looks so cool.  I love the mystery of it too and how lonely it feels - in a good way, if that makes sense.  I suppose it just makes me feel introspective because it cloaks you and hides the world around you.  Anyway, we get fog regularly here in Washington and it's pretty neat.  But when I woke up this morning and looked out at thick fog again, I started having a very weird sensation that the world could be burning, for all I know, because I still can't see a thing around me!!  And for the first time I was really sick of the fog and had a strange feeling of claustrophobia.  Thankfully it blew off this afternoon for the first time in DAYS and I actually got to see a ray of sunlight (for about 2 minutes, but I'm not complaining).  You see we have been submerged in the thickest fog for probably 4-5 days. And it lasts all day - as in 9am looks exactly the same outside as noon and 3pm, etc. Always a weak, gray light filtering through very thick fog. I could barely see all my neighbors behind me - I better add that normally I can see what they are having for dinner, we live that close. (Privacy is not the strongest selling point of our house!)  Anyway, here a cool picture of our walk to the bus stop this morning....

update on Nyah

There's good news and bad news....
Good news first. The silent-back-to-bed routine worked perfectly!! It got better and better until the last few days she goes cheerfully to bed and for naps, just like the old Nyah. I couldn't be more happy!  She even told Eric last night she wasn't afraid of her bed anymore (I actually didn't know she was afraid of it...) and she literally bounces into whenever it's time to sleep now.  As opposed to her screaming refusal to get in it at all last week.  So I have heaved a huge sigh of relief over that.

The bad news.  She now gets up at night. Usually starting around midnight. Ugh. In the beginning she would go outside her room and turn on all the lights, upstairs and down, and wait for us to wake up.  Then, I think when that was taking too long (mommy was getting very tired), she would wake up her brothers. Poor Gabe just dealt with it - I didn't even know she was waking him up until he told me one day. But you can imagine how ticked I was when at 4:30 am one morning I wake up to hear Ian just screaming. He just doesn't do that. Well as soon as I leave my bedroom I see why... Nyah is laying down looking at books with her feet drumming on his door! Grrrr! I completely forgot the silent-back-to-bed routine that time!  After that she got sneakier.  She started going downstairs in the dark, dragging pillow and blankies, and shutting herself up in the laundry room where Denali sleeps.  At least no one was getting interrupted sleep but the dog. ;) Anyway, we had a talk with her and guess what.... weirdly it worked. Well, I'm not sure if it was the talk or the prize of a tootsie pop in the morning. But she stayed in bed all night, as far as I know, I guess. She is up super early with Gabe but honestly I don't care right now, as long as I get to sleep!  It's only been one night so we'll see if she stays put again tonight.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed...!

Nyah's bed troubles

There's nothing like a 2, almost 3, year old to remind you that you have no idea what you're doing as a parent.  Overnight (literally) Nyah decided she hates her bed now and won't stay in it... and definitely won't sleep in it.  It all began two mornings ago when the light popped on at 5am and a loud whining could be heard right outside our door.  (I have to add that this was the first morning in several weeks that Ian was sleeping in...of course.)  This had never happened before so I went to go tuck her back in bed. That was when the screaming started. And the kicking. And the writhing around. Wow.  I was flabbergasted.  She was having a full-fledged tantrum at pitch dark, sleepy, quiet, 5am. Yikes.  It was awful. Needless to say, I never got her back to bed that morning... or since. No joke.  Nap time was worse. This time my own stubbornness kicked in and after I tried rewards, bribes, and threats, I tried to barricade her in her crib. Of course that didn't work. Where there's a will there's a way... anyone with a stubborn toddler knows that!  Instead I'm afraid I instilled in her a hate for her bed that day. It was my first big mistake. (Hey ok fine, that's not the first... geez!)  That evening Eric and I were completely baffled and more than a little frustrated when she blatantly refused to stay in bed and cried for several hours. I mean this was our little sweety that had always loved bedtime! Seriously, she has always just cuddled up in there with her special pillow and binki and gone right to sleep. Half the time she would ask to take a nap! That's why this is so weird.  Now she says she doesn't like her bed anymore. It makes me really sad because I think it's my fault for trying to force her that first day. :( 

Anyway, I pulled out my beloved Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book and started the silent-back-to-bed routine.  Pretty much, when we put her to bed we tell her it's bedtime and no more talking or getting up, etc. From then on we don't speak a word or even make eye contact with her. Just gently pick her up and put her back in bed. No extra attention at all - no kisses or hugs, nothing.  It's really hard but it's working! I mean she immediately jumps out of bed crying and follows me to the door. I shut it, she opens it, and I gently take her back to bed.  I end up just standing right outside the door and every time it's opened, even a crack, I go in and put her back to bed.  It was obvious that poor little Nyah was so confused at first. I mean, we told her we wouldn't be talking anymore, that it was bedtime, but still the silence was really hard on her. It took about 20-30 times last night before she stopped opening the door and just fell asleep on the other side of the door. The hardest moment for me was the second to last time I had to take her back to bed she was crying "mama, mama, mama!" and frantically patting my lips. It was obvious she was begging me to talk. It was really sad and hard but the book had said you have to be absolutely committed and I remember how the night before we catered to everything she wanted and it never stopped! I'm so glad I stuck to it because that was the point she finally stopped.

The same thing happened today at naptime and bedtime but each time it's taken less to get her to stop opening the door. I gave up on making her stay in bed.  She falls asleep on the floor and when I go to bed I transfer her to her bed.  She still gets up at 5 but I think I'll work on one thing at a time and hope that it resolves itself. I think the main problem is her aversion to her bed right now.  In hopes of changing her feelings, last night Eric and I decided to convert her crib into a toddler bed. Gabe and I worked hard to get her excited about it while they "helped" me do it but sadly when it came to sleeping in it, it didn't make a difference.  I could just kick myself for forcing the issue that first day. But oh well. Live and learn, I guess.  I won't make the same mistake with Ian! ;)  By the way, I taped her light switches to off so she wouldn't be able to turn on her lights in the middle of the night and it's worked well. I remember having to do the same thing with Gabe when he went into a toddler bed. It only lasted a week or so then he would sleep in a little - 6 instead of 5!  But Gabe has always been one to get up super early, even as a baby he would wake up between 5 and 6 and quietly play in his crib. Nyah, on the other hand has been more of a "late" sleeper, for our family anyway.  7am is more her style.  I'm hoping that comes back and she grows quickly out of this phase.  Well, it's time for me to hit the sack. I better go get her off the floor and tuck her in bed!

Christmas Eve

What a day! Before the night's festivities we got in some sledding. Mindy, Mom and I had a blast with the kids! Then we headed home for our traditional Christmas Eve...

Scrumptious dinner of Chicken a la King to remind us that the Savior is the reason we are all together as a family celebrating Christmas. I love how Mom has the tiny candles clipped to our plates. Everything is so pretty and festive!  Then the kids acted out the Nativity while Dad read the story out of Mom's bible from Jerusalem.  After that the kids shared talents... which were so fun to watch! Then we all sang Christmas songs and read Christmas stories (while eating lots of goodies) until it was time for bed so that Santa could come!

When Ian wasn't available to smother in love, she would turn all her loving attention to Gage! Oh my goodness she adored him!

Nyah made a very sweet Mary and Wesley was so cute and serious about being Jesus' daddy! Gabe and Jack made very handsome wisemen and we had Logan as a cute little shepherd. :)

Someone didn't want their picture taken, ha!

Wesley bravely sang an entire song - very cute!

Gabe recited quite a bit of The Night Before Christmas... all by himself!

Logan was so stinkin cute singing his song and swinging that bell back and forth the whole time!

December 2012

Wow have we had a busy and exciting end of 2012!  First of all I should mention that Thanksgiving was deliciously fun with our good friends the Paternosters and O'Neills. We hosted this year and it was a lovely holiday.

Here is the spread, minus the best part... the people! You can see us all in the corner of the mirror snapping pictures but of course once we all sat down everyone forgot to take another picture!

I didn't forget to capture the cute kids though!

Then came December... Christmas Time!! What a fabulous month we had! Here is a picture journal of all the fun times:

Same as last year... Nyah fearlessly climbed up on Santa's lap. Gabe was so excited when Santa arrived but then was overcome with painful shyness when it was his turn. Both had fun though! 

 

Snowflake Lane!

 

Our fun friends: Joel and Whitney O'Neill with their two boys

Love this picture of Nyah's face... not too thrilled to be quite that close to her!!

We lost Gabe in the crowd that night - scariest 5 minutes of our lives :( especially for him, poor guy.  This picture of his funny hat-hair helped coax a smile out though.