The Winter Life

It's hard to believe we are in the middle of winter now.  Well, I can believe it because it has gotten really cold here.  As in, people are even talking the possibility of snow, which hasn't happened here for like 15+ years type of cold.  We have ice on the windshields in the morning that I have to scrape off with my library card because I actually don't own an ice scraper...Exciting times :)  I feel like it's nothing compared to those Logan winters I endured where my nose hairs would freeze the second I walked outside, but I feel bad taking my babies out for school pickup with this cold.

I feel like the week we were switching over from Fall to Winter was somewhat of a black hole for us because we got the flu.  Bad.  It started with Lillian, the poor thing, who woke up throwing up several times the night before the Primary Program at church.  I sent Jared on ahead with Jocelyn and Jonas but Lillian, who had memorized her part and was all jazzed up, had to stay home with me and Emma.  Apparently Jocelyn did amazing at delivering her memorized part as well as a solo line in a song that we didn't even know about until she had the mic in her hand and stood up and sang perfectly!  I wished I could have been there, but she felt good about it so that was the most important part.  Emma sealed the deal that the sickness would spread by sneaking over and drinking right out of Lillian's sippy cup full of 7 up.

Well, I thought we were in the clear but still canceled all play dates, etc. for the next couple days. Sure enough by Wed. morning I started throwing up at 4 am, Jonas was throwing up by 7 am and Emma by 8 am.  Needless to say, Jared kindly stayed home from work to keep the house running...Besides cooking all the meals and doing 5 loads of laundry, he took kids to/from school, kept Jonas and Emma safe and did some yard work.  The littles didn't have the flu as bad as me and the older girls, but Jonas thought it was a free-for-all and went into a power-ranger coma since I wasn't policing the video watching.  I seriously didn't get off the couch the entire day (except to run to the bathroom to do my flu business) and didn't even get to read a good book. I just slept on and off.  Jared said his favorite quote was at 5 pm when he wanted me to help Jocelyn with her homework while he started dinner.  I don't even remember this but apparently I said (in an exhausted voice) "I just need to sleep right now..." then fell back into a deep sleep.  Good thing he is so capable :)  I finally moved to the other couch at 9 pm and talked with Jared for a little bit before falling back to sleep again :)

By Saturday I figured we were definitely in the clear, especially by the night time when we had our 1st date swap scheduled with our friends (I put together a new group because we are in desperate need of date nights).  I figured "everyone's been fine since Wednesday" so Jared and I went out to a quick dinner and were at home depot buying things for a home improvement project (I know, a very romantic date...) when we got a call from my friend informing me that Jocelyn had just thrown up (a ton) in the middle of the kitchen and 11 kids (ages 5 and under) were crawling through it. Lovely...Every parent's nightmare dream.  We left our cart at home depot, and rushed over there to remove our kids from the premises and try to assist with clean up.  I told Jared I wasn't feeling well and I would most certainly throw up if I cleaned up the amazing mess (which isn't my normal response).  Don't think I've ever seen such a huge throw up mess, ever, and they had just moved into that house the week before. Sheesh.  I tried to clean up Jocelyn and then trapped me and the four kids in the car with the throw up stench while Jared cleaned up for a good half hour.  Don't worry, I took her a nice peace offering the next week but anyway...We got home and through the night Jocelyn and I were both throwing up.  I kept us all home from Church the next day not only to limit us sharing our potential sick germs, but to keep us from getting any new ones!!  I had lysoled and cloroxed my house all over, canceled all interactions, thrown away toothbrushes, washed sheets, blankets, everything that could harbor germs and to what avail??  My sanitizing agents were my constant companions but certainly not my best friends that whole week.
The good news?  Jocelyn and I got to watch Anne of Green Gables non-stop that day and we had a relaxing family day that we hadn't had in a while!

Didn't capture a lot of pictures because, as it turns out, nobody likes to look at pictures of throw up and people in pajamas being lazy.  If you are really wanting pictures of that, google it :)

Lillian and Emma snuggling on the heater vent

On a lighter note, my kids inherited their Dad's and Uncle Brian's talent for snuggling on heater vents every morning.  Apparently Jared and his siblings would create "heater bubbles" all the time with their blankets and my brother would do the same.  One morning Lillian and Jonas brought their blankies down and were carrying on this tradition when Emma walked over, backed herself up and sat right in Lillian's lap to get in on the action.  They told me "Mom, go get the camera! Look how cute we are!" They were so right :)  The kids also happen to have Monkey footed pajamas this year and are very proud of themselves.  Two of them were hand-me-downs from older sisters that happened to fit, one was the only kind they had in the right size for Jonas at the local second hand kids shop and then I found the other one on sale at Target in the right size.  They were thrilled.  They send out a memo (via yelling from room to room) almost every night "Hey-I'm putting my monkey jammies on, wear yours too so we can match!"

Kids in monkey jammies

Lucky for us, Jocelyn has been preparing for her 1st grade holiday performance and they sent her home with a CD to practice with.  The CD contains such gems as "frosty the snowman" (with a country twang), "Santa Claus is coming to town," the Chipmunks version of "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth," mele Kalikimaka, and the dreidel song.  I know you're all jealous that this isn't blasting through your house at top volume in the name of "practicing for the program!"

So Jonas, overall, has actually done really great at potty training. I must say, better than his two older sisters thus far.  But man, it's just not my favorite part of parenting.  I posted this on facebook a month or so ago.  So we've definitely had better potty training days. Let's just say that I had to throw away a pair of unders at JCPenney with something brown and special in them since we were within minutes of getting his birthday pictures taken. And, right when we got home, despite the fact that he was sitting on the toilet he managed to spray something that wasn't water ALL over the bathroom. Loads of talent, that one!  He also had an accident at the kids zone at the rec center while I was exercising one day and they didn't realize until I picked him up and saw his "cowboy walk" toward me.  Nice. When I reminded him how they have a potty just his size there and he really needs to keep his unders dry he told me "I just really needed to play!"  Anything else is secondary, clearly. Even necessary bodily functions :)

We also celebrated Hanukkah (kind of) by making latkes and applesauce for dinner, reading a hanukkah book and spinning the dreidels that Jared's Jewish boss sent home for the kids.

Jonas with his dreidel

 We've also been attending the Home Depot kids craft every month.  In just the past couple weeks they had a bonus week of crafts AND santa visiting so the kids were extra excited.

Giving Thanks

Before Thanksgiving Jonas had a fieldtrip for preschool that coincided with a day off of school, so we all joined him at Prusch Farms nearby (they've had a unit on farms that has been super fun).   They didn't have a ton of animals but we got to walk around with goats and chickens, see pigs and even saw a baby calf nursing on her mama.  Playing at the awesome park attached as well as on the wishing well and having to fight the birds for our lunches were some of the highlights.

Whole crew at the field trip

the wishing well.  some of the wishes were pretty entertaining to listen to

Jonas and his preschool buddies

For  Thanksgiving we were talking about braving a trip to Utah.  We were getting excited to pay Jared's family a good visit since we haven't done that for like 2 1/2 years (and even then it was in preparation for his brother's wedding which is always a hectic experience).  However, with the nasty flu that knocked our feet from under us and the logistics of getting our crew to UT again, and mostly the fact that Jared had a crazy amount of work, we ended up staying home.  The kids and I were pretty bummed that first day and I had to wrap my head around grocery shopping, entertaining kids for the entire week (since we had the WHOLE week off of school), etc. Not that Jared wanted to be working an insane amount either, but we decided to make the most of it.  Jared went grocery shopping for me to ease the load and I came around to the fact that I needed to enjoy being home :)

We went swimming at the rec center one afternoon, read and played at home a couple other afternoons and really enjoyed just having the time off.  Emma girl really seems to have grown up just in the past couple weeks and maybe it was more time spent with her siblings...She is dancing to music, waving "hi", combing her hair and signing "more" and "book" and "light" (even initiating them on her own).  I was thinking she might not be into the signing, but she pulled through.  One night after I had gotten all the other kids down for bed, we walked into her room to put on her jammies and get ready for bed and she signed "book" and looked at the book basket in her room. I was so excited I read book after book to her.  She seems to really enjoy reading which always makes me happy!  She'll even let Jocelyn read to her which is so fun to witness-I am thankful I have such a helpful and sweet older daughter.

Emma girl looking so big in her rocking chair-her new favorite seat

Jocelyn reading to Emma

Emma LOVES raspberries

Emma doesn't love when I contain her in her walker to keep her away from trouble

A neighbor and I took our kids to the Monterey Bay Aquarium one day (with the generous use of our friend's visitor passes) and had a great time.  We used to go there all the time when we lived right by there and got the free library passes, but it had been a while so the kids were enthralled.  I was talking it up and telling Jonas they had sharks and all kinds of fun things.  You could tell he was internalizing all of it and nodding his head.  A couple hours later he asked "Mom?  Are the sharks in cages?"  Poor thing probably thought he was going to be eaten alive!!  Surprisingly one of his favorite things was the penguins.  He kept watching them dive and play over and over. All the kids had a wonderful time and were sufficiently exhausted by the end of the day.  It always amazes me what a different world exists in the ocean.  I was thankful that we have such a wonderful aquarium so close to us to help us all appreciate the wonderful creations of our Heavenly Father.

The best I could do with all 4 kids in the clamshell!

Jonas and Emma in the clamshell

The Jellyfish are always captivating

Jonas with our neighbor and the tiger shark

 Thanksgiving itself we watched the Macy's parade online in the morning. Jonas was thrilled to see Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles, Power Rangers, Buzz Lightyear and the like.  He pretty much thought the parade was for him alone.  We also went to see Frozen as a family in the morning and had some friends over for dinner in the evening.   It was meant to be in the afternoon but due to some unforeseen turkey issues we had to delay.  Jared had been gearing up for months to deep fry a turkey.  He's actually been talking about doing this for years but since it can be costly and risky and we've rarely had to host our own Thanksgiving we've never really pursued it.  This year, however, we had some neighbors selling a turkey deep fryer with brand new oil for a really good deal so he decided to go for it.  He did all sorts of research on injecting the turkey, talked to an experienced turkey frying friend, borrowed a camp chef from a friend since the heating element was not working, etc.  He was all geared up until he poured the oil into the pan and saw a slow and steady drip of oil coming out of the bottom of said pan.  We tried to brainstorm any safe way to fix it and looked around for other pans (mere hours before we were supposed to eat) and couldn't find any good solution.  We had to, very disappointingly, scrap the whole thing, reconfigure our cooking schedule, borrow a neighbor's oven and push dinner back a couple hours. Everything ended up tasting great and we had an enjoyable time but Jared had to chop some wood to vent his frustration at the whole thing! I was thankful he was attempting to cook the turkey to begin with and grateful that when he was frustrated we have a backyard and a new axe to help him vent.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We also learned that we certainly aren't ready for a pet yet!  We pet-sat a rabbit for our neighbors who were going to be gone for the weekend and although the children were very pleased with the idea of pet-sitting and promised up and down to help they didn't deliver.  When it came down to it, guess who was the lucky one cleaning out poop and handling the animal? Yours truly.  Unless, of course, it was time to feed the rabbit treats.  Emma was thrilled to see the rabbit and would go into the sun room and clap her hands and "talk" to the rabbit throughout the day.  But the kids proved to themselves and their parents very clearly that they are not ready to be pet owners yet!  I am thankful for that :) 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Since we were home the weekend after Thanksgiving break we were able to decorate the whole house for Christmas.  It was pretty fun to get out the decorations and see the excitement on the kids' faces as they put up their own ornaments.  You might also notice in the picture that there are no ornaments on the bottom 1.5-2 feet of the tree. Well, that's because Emma is so good at taking them off and every time she would remove and/or break one, the kids would put it up higher and out of her reach.  This means we have a very heavily decorated tree at about 3-4 feet and hardly anything above or below there!

Lillian in front of Christmas Tree

We invited some friends over to decorate Gingerbread houses with us one day which was a huge mess and a lot of chaos with 11 kids 5 and under, and Jocelyn at 7 to bring up the average age :) but they had a lot of fun.

All kids with their gingerbread houses

Decorating chaos

We delivered all our family gifts of mistletoe and potpourri and also hosted a Hot Chocolate Party & Appetizers at our house to give us a chance to visit with some of our friends in between holidays.  We plan to host another one this Sunday with another (different) group of friends because just that one week we had about 30 kids.  We figured we'd try to somewhat limit the damage on the house:) Of course I failed to take pictures, but it was a success and everything tasted good and it seemed everyone had a good time visiting.

To try to get the kids into the real purpose of Christmas we've been doing our advent calendar with Christ-centered books, etc. every day (or at least most days and then play catch up on nights when we have more time).  We also participated in an "adopt a family" community program where we shopped for a little boy around Lillian's age and bought him Christmas and then also made some fleece scarves for delivery through our church to the local homeless shelter.  One day when then girls were having a huge "girl" playdate I got the scarves all cut out and ready. Then they and their friends tied knots in the edges to finish them.

The girls (missing one in the other room) tying the scarves

Jocelyn and neighbor tying scarves

That doesn't mean that they aren't "asking" for certain things from Santa.  Jonas has been talking about getting a big buzz lightyear for months and I happen to have an "in" with Santa who tells me he is getting one.  Which also means that the days for these two little pals that Jonas has been playing with will soon come to an end. In fact, one day when I asked Jonas "What if Santa brings you a big Buzz, what will you do with your little Buzz?" he responded "I'll just leave out Buzz with cookies and give Santa the little Buzz and he can leave me the big Buzz."  He has it all worked out :)

Jonas with little Buzz and Woody

Our generous neighbor gave us Gilroy Gardens tickets two more times this month.  We ended up sharing tickets with two different families for November (since we just went in October and were busy doing house projects amongst other things) and then another family and ourselves to go see the "Holiday Lights."  It was freezing and since we are getting over being cold and, let's be honest, wimpy Californians we didn't last for very long but it was still fun to see what all the hype was about.

Cait and older girls holiday lights

Whole fam. bundled up at holiday lights

Jared and Emma holiday lights

As usual, the very first Family Home Evening in December the kids demanded that we take out the Nativity costumes and dress up and act out the Nativity story for the FHE lesson.  We were in the midst of that when our neighbor came over to pick up our old Christmas tree that we had offered them.  He was a little embarrassed (probably for us) when he saw we were all dressed up, but we told him it was perfect timing and he could take a picture for us and join us since we were short one wiseman!  He humored us with the picture, but for some reason didn't take us up on dressing up... I can't imagine why??

We are so excited to be able to see some of our family over Christmas!!  We wish we could be with all of our family, but we'll take what we can get.  I think some are even coming to our house to spend a night or two so that should be fun.  We are so grateful for this time of year and all the sights, smells, traditions, people and above all the opportunity to remember Christ.

Birthday Pictures

Birthdays and Zoo

Jonas turned 3 and since we were in the wake of having his older sister's birthdays he knew the drill.  He got to pick out a special cereal and requested breakfast in bed.  We were testing him and I told him "Ok, Jonas, Time to do your chore!" to which he hesitantly shook his head.  I responded "Just kidding! Birthday boys don't have to do chores, do they?"  He totally had the hang of it by mid-morning.
He shared some fruit kabobs and chocolate dipped pretzels with his nursery friends at church and then had his friend Max and his family over for some cake and ice cream that afternoon after his special birthday dinner of chicken nuggets and Mac & Cheese (His favs).  He wanted a superhero cake so I chose the easiest one to decorate :)  Jonas lucked out with a garage sale find of a black and decker tool table as his big gift.  He wore down the drill battery within 3 days drilling everything in sight.  He was so excited he had one that looked just like Dad's!

Jonas with his super chocolate batman cake

With our ticket system the kids have decided they pretty much want to save up for the "dates" with mom and Dad. If they want to spend more than a few dollars on their date they have to bring their own birthday money so for Jonas's date the other night he wanted to go to Target.  After a lot of deliberation they decided on some Halloween clearance costumes that were a few dollars each.  He was very excited to say the least...When his friend came over the next day for a playdate he was so excited that both the super hero costumes would be used at the same time!

Ironman Jonas

Captain America

Breakfast in bed

 The next day we pulled the kids out of school to go to the Zoo as a family to celebrate Jonas and Emma's combined birthdays.  The school doesn't have much funding for field trips so I take the initiative when I can to take them on fun educational adventures :)  Plus, the only time we could use the library pass (to get 1 adult and 2 kids in for free as well as parking) was on a weekday.  It was a really nice day to go (not only due to the beautiful weather) but because it was hardly crowded at all.  We didn't get to see some key animals like the lions and elephants very well because they were either far away or taking naps or both, but we really liked the zebras and giraffes and chimps and bats. Emma was getting done with her stroller about the time we hit the giraffes so we pulled her out and let her stand on her own near the short fence.  Shortly after that one of the big male giraffes looked right at us and started walking right toward us.  Emma immediately burst into tears and screamed out of fright.  Poor thing! It was so cool to see the giraffes so close up though.  Jonas also had a fright when we were in the petting zoo with the goats and he was petting a short one near him. When he turned around there was a huge goat looking him straight in the eye.  I tried to calm him down saying "Wow! What a big dude, do you want to pet him?" so we kind of laughed and the rest of the day he kept talking about "Big Dude." 

4 kids looking at zebras

4 kids riding on the tortoise at the playground

Jared and Jonas by Camels

Petting Goats

Giraffe staring us down

Family by giraffes

Tortoise Jocelyn

Lilly on the frog

Super Dad at the Zoo

In the middle of there we celebrated Halloween and then Emma's birthday at the end of the week. It was so fun to have my parents here to celebrate with us.  It's hard to believe my baby is one but she is walking around like she owns the place and is really happy having that mobility so I guess I should get used to it.  We also weaned last week in honor of her birthday since she was nursing me dry.  We have her doctor's appt. next week so I'm anxious to know how much weight she has gained. The best birthday present she got (since my parents were in town to stay with her while I was running errands and doing school drop off/pick up) was that she had both of her naps in her OWN CRIB and she was able to sleep until she woke up ON HER OWN!!  Being a fourth child she doesn't get that luxury very often since we are usually on the go.  She did a great job eating her smash cake and we were so sugared out by the end of the week nobody even asked for a piece of cake after we sang happy birthday and unwrapped gifts.  We just threw it in the trash the next morning.  Emma got some duplo legos for her main gift and she loved them!  

Emma with Legos

Birthday girl checking out her cake (mostly just avoiding the camera, but whatever)

Emma eating her smash cake

We loaned this riding zebra toy to some friends who had kids at good ages for this and they recently returned it.  Emma is loving it (as are all the kids). You'd think they'd received it for the first time.