Ward Christmas Party

Our ward Christmas party this year was Grinch themed. Everyone was encouraged to dress as Who’s or in an ugly sweater. The party was a lot of fun and the food was delicious. Natalie and Jenna were excited at the prospect of dressing as Cindy Lou Who. Thank goodness for Pinterest tutorials on how to do Who hair. 

The girls were excited to see Santa, but Jenna did not appreciate that he was sitting next to the Grinch. The grinch mask made her very uneasy. We are grateful to be part of such a good ward and for all the work put into that night. 

More of Decemeber

Beth’s first pony tail. Some of her hair is getting long and hanging in her eyes. So at seven months old she needs it pulled back. 

Natalie lost another tooth. This happened at school which meant she got a cool tooth necklace to bring it home in. 

A picture of Jenna because she is so cute. She is really growing up. She is getting better at playing by herself while Natalie is at school.

Beth got to see Santa at the library for story time. I was a little surprised she was happy about it. Jenna was home sick with Justin this day. 

Justin has been putting in long hours to remodel a bathroom in our house. He is doing an amazing job and we are grateful for his hard work. I am really hoping that the remodel helps get rid of some of the strange smells from this house. When he tore the shower out he said he found several dead mice in the walls. 

Christmas Excitement

With the holidays here it feels like there is always something going on. From parties and choir performances to gathering supplies and gifts so as to be ready for the big day. This year has felt more busy than normal. I have to remind myself to slow down and enjoy the little moments that truly make Christmas time magical. For instance the falling snow that started our morning off yesterday. The girls were thrilled to hear it was snowing. They squealed while throwing the door open and peeked into the dark morning taking in the white frosted side walk. It was awesome to see their excitement.

After school yesterday they worked hard to decorate our windows with Christmas gel clings. 

This picture was during breakfast on Sunday morning. I know I am going to miss these days of all my girls being little. This was a rare morning where everyone was happy and cooperative.

I keep thinking if I get such and such done I will have more time to just sit and be present. I realize this is a faulty thought and am trying to live more in the moment. I am grateful to be able to make these Christmas memories. It truly is a magical time of the year. 

Thanksgiving

We beat the stomach flu here just in time to make a trip to Utah. The girls were so excited to spend the holiday with Grandma Jamie, Grandpa Barry and the cousins they don’t get to see very often.

We left early Wednesday morning, thanks to Beth making sure I was awake at 4 am. It worked well in our favor as we all are much happier early in the morning around here, as opposed to evening time. 

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner and a lot of time to visit with family and play with cousins. The girls especially enjoyed pie. 

Friday we went swimming and watched a movie. Saturday J and N went with Ben and Dana’s family to watch the new Grinch for Abbie’s birthday. They followed the movie with grinch pancakes at IHOP. Jenna and Natalie were super impressed.

Some other highlights of the trip were; snow, lots of snow, staying at Ben and Dana’s house, they have lots of fun toys, and the annual Weller’s Open house. 

We had a great time and are so blessed to be part of a neat family. The girls were sad to leave, but we all needed the rest we got when we made it to our own beds Sunday night. 

Halloween

Now that it is nearly Christmas, I guess I can write about Halloween. The girls were very excited to dress up and participate in all of the festivities for this holiday. They were princess mermaids, I was a bank robber and Beth my sack of cash. 

We carved pumpkins for family home evening that week. Natalie dressed up for the costume parade at school that week. Then Halloween after school we had Mummy dogs, Monster brains with mouse eyeballs, and witches fingers for dinner. (aka hot dogs in crescent roll dough, peas in ramen noodles, and carrot sticks) My children do not like Ramen Noodles. Weird, I know right? We then hurried and got our costumes together tho start off our trick or treating at Grandma Lasley’s. We then continued on to Ontario to walk the trunk or treat at my parent’s ward. 

The girls got a sufficient amount of candy and we were done by 7. With past years experience I tweaked how we did things this year. It was a much more pleasant experience and I didn’t come home feeling so exhausted from trying to be in 3 places at once. It was a Happy Halloween. 

6 and 7 Months

This little girl is 7 months old now. I didn’t get a 6 month picture. So Halloween will have to suffice. At 6 months she was rolling everywhere and starting to like food more and more. She also loves to pull her sisters hair as soon as they get close. Her favorite thing though is mom. This is still good and at time frustrating, but I do love love love her chubby cheek smiles. She did have her first time with the stomach flu while being 6 months old. Thankfully she only through up one time, but she did not appreciate it.

Just before turning 7 months olds her first tooth came in and she learned to clap her hands togethers. Now she is really rolling and almost army crawling everywhere. She is eating more food and usually only wakes up once a night to eat. She does have a hard time getting into a deep sleep in the evenings. So just because I put her to bed at 7:30. I often still end up rocking her until 9:30. We are working on breaking that habit. Her favorite baby food is still pears. She wants to try whatever we are eating though. She is getting more interactice with her voice and definitely is recognizing people more and more. She loves watching her sisters run and play. She was 18lbs 6 oz at her 7 month appt. She was about 68% overall for height, weight and head size. We love our squishy, long dark haired baby Bethie girl. 

October Happenings

Grandparents

Grandma and Grandpa Blazzard came to visit two weekends ago. The girls were so excited to see them and had a wonderful time. I was grateful for all the time they spent with the girls as a lot of my attention still goes to Beth. Jenna needed that attention and was far better behaved after they left because of it. 

Daddy showing off his motorcycle for Grandpa Blazzard. Jenna is the only girl brave enough to ride it with him. She loves spending time with her daddy.

Natalie hanging out with Grandpa Blazzard.

A special lunch date to Carl’s Junior and a movie afterwards. Everyone went and did this while Beth and I were at a Super Saturday for Relief Society. I was told the girls laughed prettt hard at this movie.

Grandma Jamie and Grandpa Barry always bring fun gifts with them. This one was from Great Grandma Kelly who also always sends something fun for the girls. These bubbles had spill proof lids! Such a great idea. The girls enjoyed blowing bubbles for quite a long time. 

The weekend went too fast! We are grateful to have such good people to call family.

October

Natalie was thrilled to pick these disguise glasses out of the treasure chest at school. We call her Mr. Jones the master of disguise when she wears them. This is her and Jenna after school. Jenna is relieved when Natalie gets home from school each day. She really enjoys playing with her older sister. 

Mr. Jones came to the pumpkin patch with us. A couple of generous neighbors invited us to gather pumpkins from their fields. It was a fun project one day after school. 

Aunt Elizabeth and Embree joined us on our trip.

Jenna likes to be different and picked a green pumpkin to bring home. Much to her dismay it eventually turned orange.

Natalie had a field trip to the pumpkin patch and this all in one day. Unfortunately Jenna and Beth were sick the day I was going to take them to a business pumpkin patch. This year this is all we got to, but it was still a fun experience and we were grateful to our neighbors for the pumpkins. Our porch looks ready for fall now with all the pumpkins on it. We have also enjoyed repeatedly singing the "Five Little Pumpkin Song". 

5 Months

This girls is 5 months. She is generally happy and loves to eat. She figured out how to roll and rolls all across the floor now. She like baby food quite a lot at first, but doesn’t seem to be as impressed lately. She does like tiny pieces of bread or crackers. She loves her sisters and is more into hanging out with daddy now. She is pretty good with getting drug along everywhere we go. I do wish she slept a little more and longer, but life is busy and she has to get sleep where she can and this we don’t have the best sleeper at home. We are so grateful to have her in our family. 

Rock n’ Roll Day

Natalie’s school celebrates Grandparents Day by doing a 50’s theme dance for the kids and their grandparents. It is a really fun idea and Natalie was very excited for it. They learned and practiced the dances in P.E. leading up to the day. Grandma Corn was a good sport and happily cut the rug with Natalie and Jenna who didn’t want to be left out of the action. They did the Hokey Pokey, the Twist, Hand Jive, Limbo (the kids were definitely better at this then the adults) and the Bunny Hop. My mom was a rock star grandma (and mother 😁) and found Natalie the scarf and skirt at the goodwill in Boise the day before. It made Natalie feel special to dress up. Grandma Lasley came along to watch. She was a true 50’s girl and told me that poodle skirts were made out of felt back in that time period. This fun fact surprised me. It was a fun dance party for all.

General Conference Weekend

We just completed another weekend of General Conference. It was wonderful, uplifting and my soul needed to hear the words spoken. I don’t know if I have been as grateful or prepared for a general conference as I was for this one. 

During the week leading up to conference we talked with the girls each day about g.c. and the prophet and apostles that would be speaking. Their pictures hung in a very visible area and were kid friendly for looking at and touching. I planned meals and got special treats for the guessing game we played during the actual sessions. This picture was a fruit of all these efforts.

The girls were as excited as me and set up this table and chairs in the living room to be ready to watch and do activities on during G.C. Natalie even got Book of Mormons down to put on the table to "remind us to think of Jesus." 

My heart was full seeing the girls so excited and look like they were ready to announce G.C. While they needed many activities to keep them occupied and quiet, they sat in the room the entire time and listened the best they could. I was grateful for their enthusiasm and willingness to be quiet enough that I could listen to the words spoken. I especially wanted to hear about the church schedule changes with two hour church and doing more gospel study as a family. ☺️

The Women’s session Saturday evening was so powerful and answered many questions I had. Before going to it we ate dinner from the Willowcreek Harvest Festival. It was delicious and came with a piece of pie. Jenna had pumpkin and thought her "squishy orange cake" was good stuff. 

Sunday morning I got up early and got showered and dressed before everyone else woke up. (Something I have been notoriously bad about the rest of my years of g.c watching). This helped set a good tone for my day. Usually I am trying to shower during the morning session on Sunday. Again the girls did relatively well. 

To burn some energy between sessions we went on a family walk. Our kitties followed us the whole way. The girls loved the company. 

The time and effort of preparing for general conference was definitely worth it. I am thankful for our prophet and have a testimony that he is the Lord’s prophet on this earth. I have much to ponder and start working on from the words spoken. I am especially looking forward/ already enjoying the invitation to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. Already starting I can feel a different spirit about it and am being taught different things than I have before. What a great weekend and kickoff to another week. 

Folding

This girl is a little bit of a compulsive towel folder these days. She can’t stop practicing and so I find all the towels folded in the bathroom. She event takes the off the hooks to fold them. 😝 

School Carnival

Our elementary school had their annual school carnival last weekend. The girls had a blast at it even though it ended with tears from being too tired from a full week of getting up early with big sister for school. They jumped in a bounce house if their choice, got their face painted, fished for prizes, picked ducks from the duck pond and ate lots of treats. 

We had a good weekend with this event, homework, bike riding and a cousin’s birthday party. Getting in the routine of school and bed time and getting up early is going stretching all of us. Justin and I were definitely feeling tired this weekend. I am hoping it gets easier. 

4 Months

This girl was four months olds August 26th. She is such a delight and keeps us all smiling at one point or another during the day. She started eating some solid foods and was pretty excited about it. She has yet to sleep through the night but can do a six hour stretch on occasion. She weighed 16lbs 2oz and measured 26 in long at her well child checkup. She loves her sisters and they love love love her. They can’t walk by her without touching her or trying to get her to smile. She loves to babble and grab toys. She can roll from side to side but doesn’t really try to roll over. Her nicknames are Bug, Bethie Lou and Bessie. We are so grateful to have her as part of our family. 

Quiet Time Activities

As part of our daily routine I like to have a quiet time. This consists of me and the baby being able to rest and the other children at home play or read by themselves for a short time in the afternoon.

It is always a challenge for the older girls to learn to be content by themselves for the one-two hour time period. Yesterday I gave Jenna about four different activities (puzzles, books, building magnets) she could do to fill her time.I also had been working on sifting through all our girls clothes to get ready for the seasonal change coming up. There were stacks of clothes on one side of the room. This is what I found after quiet time. 😂😂😂Towards the end of rest time she started folding clothes. I couldn’t believe how much she had gotten done and was quite impressed with her ability! 

She then helped me fold a basket of towels and she did an exceptional job for being three. It is fun to see more of this girls abilities and personality shine with her older sister gone at school. 

Sickness

People kept telling me that when you send your oldest to school, you are in for a year full of sickness. We were only two days into the school year and it came true. 

Last week Natalie, Jenna Justin and even my dad all had a terrible bout of the flu that ended with congestion. Fevering for days, body aches, chills, congestion, sore throats, and eye irritation. It was a nasty virus and put a damper on our week. The original plan was for Justin to go to Utah to help out his family, but everyone came down with sickness and he wasn’t able to make it. 

Natalie fell asleep on a drive we made Sunday in effort to get out of the house.

This girls had two experiences this week that were parenting firsts. She threw up all over herself and the floor at Chik-Fil-A because she stuffed her mouth to full and gagged. A very kind mother sitting next to me ran to grab me extra napkins and tell the employees we were going to need cleanup assistance. It was embarrassing, but I am glad I am as far into my mothering experience as I am, other wise it would have been way more traumatic for me. 

Saturday morning she woke up very tired and wore out from the virus. I made her mad over grabbing a pacifier she was trying to reach and putting it in Beth’s mouth. Bring three, she really wanted to do this herself and being tired compounded her anger. When she gets this angry she has a pattern at times of holding her breath and passing out. I had left the room not realizing how upset she was and heard a loud thump. I ran back in  and she was just passing out and seizing from holding her breath. It was terrifying to me because it was the first time I hadn’t been with her from start to finish on one of these. It took me a while to piece together all that happened and at first was worried the virus had caused it. Thankfully Sunday she was much better and is still improving every day.

It was a miracle that this little babe didn’t get sick. I had a minor form of the virus and my milk must have been making the correct antibodies to protect her. She had a good week and started eating a little bit of solids. She enjoyed this far more than either of her sisters did at her age. She did great at her four month appointment and weighed in at 16lbs 2 oz and 26 inches long. She isn’t rolling yet, but definitely holds herself up well. She is a happy baby as long as she gets her sleep and her belly is full. She loves morning times, mom, and her sisters. She likes to smile at daddy, but has a harder time when he holds her. We will keep working on that. One day she will love him I’m sure. 

It was a long hard week, but we were still blessed along the way. A dinner from my mom, Priesthood blessings, prayers said for us, that kind lady at chik-fil-a, tylenol and ibuprofen, opportunities to exercise patience. It all gives us experience and helps us grow,  because it is hard. 

I am hoping the rest of the school year isn’t this bad with sickness and we can make it through a full week of school this week.