Nine is Fine

Noah is 9


My Middle Child turns 9 tomorrow. I was so thrilled to have my Noah. I have the tradition of telling my children their birth story for their birthdays! It is so fun to share with them how they entered the world and joined our family! Noah came after my labor was induced. It actually was a pretty easy labor, and he arrived at 5:28 in the afternoon, with the Chief, my mom, and my oldest sister, Suzanne there. It was a rainy, sleety day, but it was a happy day in a long January month!

Let me tell you about Noah.
He's athletic. He sets goals and goes for them. He likes to win, and he has been lucky enough to be on winning football and basketball teams! He enjoys cub scouts. He is not afraid to try things like snowboarding, but he really doesn't like heights (gets it from the Chief!) and climbing up a 4 step ladder is daunting. He can be really silly and a goofball one minute, and then Mr. Shy the next. He despises public speaking. He cheers for the BYU Cougars, Utah Jazz, and the Minnesota Vikings. He used to be Mr. Neat, and now he is Mr. Messy. He doesn't like to sleep alone, and begs his older brother to let him bunk with him. He prefers to be outside doing anything over being trapped inside the house. He rarely watches television, unless it is a sporting event. He is a great little brother, and a sweet older brother. He still lets mom snuggle with him. He loves to do "different" things with his hair, and he is really opinionated about how it should be cut. Noah gets called "Noey" by his family more than Noah, and he also likes to be called "Sport". He is really good at memorizing things, and he is a good speller. He does well in school, but would prefer not to have homework. He is creative and smart. He is really strategic at Dominoes, and has a really great laugh.

Noah, you bring so much JOY to our family. We love you!

Happy Birthday, Noah

Home, Sweet Home!

It's nice to be home, sleeping in my own bed, sleeping through the night! It was a wonderful experience to have the opportunity to help my friend, and to care for her two sweet children, but I also realized that these old bones struggle to get up numerous times/night and still be functional the next night. Let me just say that snuggling that sweet baby girl was so amazing though! Loved almost every minute of it! (there were a few I could have done without...you know...the poopy diapers, etc!)

I really enjoyed being a "stay at home" mom for those 3 days. I loved making cookies with the boys, and getting dinner together in the morning, so it could cook in the crockpot all day, and even doing the laundry wasn't so bad, since it was only one load each day. I did "arts and crafts" with the boys, and we read stories, and had time to go to the park. It really was a nice change of pace.

Don't get me wrong, I love my jobs too. I chose a career, that I would love, helping people, and I do love what I do. Just wish I had more time at home with my three bambinos to spend reading, and crafting, and cooking, and connecting. Guess we just have to make every moment count.

It's good to be home. Missed the Chief and my two oldest boys!

Going to be a Nanny

Tomorrow, Seth and I are flying to Denver. We're going to help my oldest friend in the world, Julie. She needs to head to Orlando on Sunday for a work meeting, and her hubby is in Italy for his annual sales meeting (tough life, eh?) and so I'm going to head to Denver to nanny for their two beautiful children!

I'm super psyched about it! I met baby Lydia when she was just 2 weeks old. She is a big 3 months old now! I'm excited to see how much she has grown since then. And I'm happy that Seth and Nicholas, who is just 2 months older than Seth will get a chance to play together for the long weekend. Seth is excited for the plane trip.

I'm going to miss the Chief, and the boys. I made them some Molasses Cookies to make up my leaving for 5 days! They love them...maybe they will forget that I'm not home since they will have those to munch on!

Here are the beautiful kiddos I get to spend the next few days with! My goal is to exercise daily, along with keeping all three kids happy and healthy! Wish me well! It's been awhile since I had to get up numerous times to care for a newborn!

Oh the pain

I have never really experienced immense, long lasting pain. Until this past week. it was pain that brought me to tears many times. In such a short period of time, my mood was thrust into a deep depressive state. I wasn't sleeping...pain wouldn't allow it. I wasn't able to eat much due to the tooth pain, therefore I was increasingly hungry. I was irritable, and I was feeling so alone. I didn't want to be near anyone because I couldn't trust myself to not say something mean, and regretful, so thankfully the Chief let me spend a lot of time in my room, and he entertained the boys. I did the bear minimum, and did my best to hide my pain from the boys.


I went to the dentist on Friday morning, and he thought the pain was due to a filling that was "too high" and without numbing it, he shaved it down. And I had thought that my pain was bad before that...that was 90 seconds of torture! He said it would take a few days but the pain would subside.


But it didn't. It worsened. I was in tears. I was feeling forlorn, and paranoid. What if the pain never ends? What if my dentist doesn't know how to solve this? What if he can't see me Monday morning? It was bad!


I dropped the boys at school on Monday and drove straight to the dentist. He said it was time for a root canal. At this point, I was just grateful he would do something that involved taking away the pain. Of course, the numbing only lasted 4 hours, and then the pain returned. It is getting better each day...thankfully. I'm hoping that by Friday the memory of this week will be dimming and the pain I endured will be a memory that is fading fast.


One thing is for sure...I will have more compassion and empathy for others who experience pain. I can understand now, where I couldn't before.

2011 Arrives in Style

Our family started a new tradition this year with Eli the Elf. He flies to the North Pole each night and reports to Santa how the boys are doing, and then returns and hides in a new spot each morning. Seth was happy to wake up and discover where he had hidden each new day. He left on Christmas Eve and will return on Thanksgiving this year! Here he is sitting with Baby Jesus in the Nativity!

Here is the only family photo we got during the whole month of December! We can be so good at grabbing the camera but we don't always do a great job of taking the time to pose together! Here we are at Temple Square, which Seth reports was one of his favorite things we did this holiday season. It was a cold night, on the evening we went, but it was nice to be there with our little family for FHE.

I have been vegging this past week, with the boys. I worked a little, but mostly, I hung out with the boys, read some books, played dominoes with friends, and ate yummy food. We went to see Tangled on NYE day, and really enjoyed being together.

Alas, tomorrow we go back to work and school and routine. Noone was thrilled about making lunches this evening or laying out school clothes, but we got the boys in bed before their normal bedtime, after many nights of staying up way too late, and sleeping in way past "normal" which was superb, but must come to an end.

We made some goals as a family for 2011...one is to have fun as a family...playing games, working on projects together, and being healthy. We did that in 2010 and all of looked back and said how much we loved that, so we'll do more of that!

I'm excited for the new year before us, excited for the growth my children will make, and the new things we will experience. Here's to happiness and good health!