Frustrating!

Well, over the past week I have tried to upload a video to blogger of Sophie laughing and each time I do it, my computer freezes and I lose the whole post. Then last week something went wonky with Windows and it decided to reload itself. So now there are too many things to fix before I can really delve into the ins and outs of uploading video.

Sophie was four months old this past Saturday. She is growing sooo fast. She is really beginning to be interested in everything around her. She is really starting to have people preferences as well. She likes everyone as long as I am around. She doesn't like her food to get too far away.

We went to the opthamalogist for Jack this past Friday. His eyes are doing good and holding steady. The doc said without the glasses they would deteriorate, so keep up with him wearing them. He is usually pretty good about it, but about three weeks ago his glassed broke beyond repair and he has been going without. We got two pairs picked out for him and need to venture out into the major snowstorm to pick them up today.

Bella is taking it upon herself to uphold the family tradition of knocking out a front tooth at age 4. I was changing the sheets on Jacks bed and they decided to play roll down the mattress. Well, of course she slammed into the wood part of the bed and bloodied her lip and loosened her front tooth. So I guess technically it isn't out yet. I am trying to give it a few days to see if it will firm up and stay until it is ready to come out on it's own. Jack was climbing onto a trampoline and slipped and knocked his front tooth out when he was 4. Nate's big sister was walking by him while he was playing on the floor and kicked his front tooth out when he was 4. My dad had something similar happen to him when he was 4. Now I am totally grateful all these have been baby teeth. And I pray none of them will go my route and have a biking accident at 17 which results in a very expensive titanium implant. Nevertheless, I plan on fitting Sophie with a mouth guard as soon as teeth appear....

Port-a-Potty

I completely forgot to mention the port-a-potty at Christmas. Above is a picture of it sitting in my mom's driveway. Yep-you read that right, in her driveway. You may ask-is her house under construction? No, no it's not. She suffers from one bathroom syndrome. An unfortunate condition of many homes built pre-1990. In years past this has been quite and issue. It seemed a potty training child was always pounding on the otherwise occupied water closet, unnerving the person inside. Regular adults don't seemed primed to always go to the bathroom with company. I myself am rarely alone in the bathroom, I think it was around 2001 the last time I didn't have to entertain someone, teach them to use the potty, or yell at them to leave me alone through the door.

This year my mom provided room and board for 10 people, and decided we must have an alternative to pounding on the door. Knowing complete home renovations take more than a few weeks, the rental of the port-a-potty was the chosen solution. Other possible solutions that lost out were pounding on the neighbors door, or teaching all boys what it means to be a true outdoorsman. All said and done, it was a hoot, of course all the little kids had to use it. Thankfully it was very very clean, and even had a heater inside. I sooo want to know what her neighbors thought! I guess the port-a-potty company failed to pick it up promptly, so they had it in the neighborhood for a few weeks. I must say, it did fit in nicely between the bushes. And it served it's purpose saving people from rather uncomfortable encounters.....

Happy New Year!

I just noticed it has been over two weeks since I wrote an entry. I am sure it is due to the craziness of the holidays along with the week in Oregon. I managed to get through it all with just one minor breakdown. I always want to have everything packed and organized the day before we leave along with all of us in bed by 8. Well, when I realized that was not going to happen, I had a bit of a panic attack. But all was well and we made it to Oregon and back safely and sanely.

The kids had a great Christmas. I think they got everything they wanted/needed/ever dreamed of. Sophie traveled like a dream. She only was fussy when she was hungry or had a messy diaper. I was really pleased and astonished with how well she did. Jack and Bella were good as always, they are used to the long car trips and know we will get wherever we are going eventually. We played car baseball, and I won. Jack made up the game and I think he slanted it in my favor. Every red car was a single, green, blue and white got you out. Emergency vehicles were home runs. There were a few others, but I don't recall them all right now. Bottom line, I beat Nate 82-18.

My brother brought his girlfriend and her kids this year. All the kids had a ball and got along swimmingly. Her youngest happens to be named Jack, so we had 7 year old Jack and 3 year old Jack. He didn't really want to be called little Jack, so we will have to figure out something else. They gave Isabella a makeup kit for Christmas and she proceeded to paint my fingernails and toenails. She did a decent job for a four year old, and she got quite a kick out of being able to put glitter all over my face.

Jack got scrabble from his great aunt and uncle, and a dictionary from one of the grandmas and I think he was entertained by those for hours. I love that he can go from playing Star Wars to spelling out ordeal in scrabble and have the same amount of fun doing each. He always inspires me to enjoy what is going on and love whatever I am doing.

We went out to dinner for Nate and my grandma's birthday. Nate got some money toward a bike and a few other fun things. We are going to try and go biking this summer all together, so he needs one and we will have to get a trailer for Sophie.

Then we headed back to Utah for New Years. We stayed up mainly because Sophie was still awake, I know we are party poopers, but well rested most of the time. Today we went on a cleaning/unpacking blitz, as Nate's fam came over for pizza and games. It feels good to have the house mostly clean. I really need to organize the girls room, but we are overall good. I can't believe it is 2008, we spent the evening going over goals for the year and getting ready to jump back into our regular schedules. We were so blessed in 2007, if this year is even half as good, we will be lucky kids.

Jack Loves PopTarts

I mean, he really loves them. He would eat them everyday if I let him. He has been making his own breakfast for about a year now and he is in a pop-tart and hot cocoa stage. So basically he gets all sugared up then I send him to school...

He did go through a butter wutter stage, which is basically toast with peanut butter on it. He will eat cereal, but no milk on the cereal please! That one baffles me.

Two Weeks to go...

This month is really flying by it seems. I am doing pretty well getting all my shopping and such done. Nate has been a huge help this year and has gone to the mall with me the past two weeks in a row. I like when he comes with me because I am much more efficient. Also, I finished shopping for the kids last week while Bella was at preschool. She is just too old to shop in front of this year and it seems I get much more accomplished in the morning, so I am grateful for preschool.

The kids went to see Santa on Saturday. B actually sat on his lap this year, she has been terrified of him her whole life, but still wants to make sure he knows what she wants, poor kid. But this year she decided to be brave so she could protect Sophie. She asked him for Lincoln logs, which was a bit of a surprise. Jack asked for Lego's, which I expected. After Santa we went to eat at Red Lobster, my first time. And I actually managed to eat some fish-I am usually not a fan. While we were there the snow started coming down pretty heavily and it took us over an hour to get home. The kids were pretty excited, nothing like playing in the snow. I am sure Nate was just thinking-man, I am going to have to shovel. But we woke up the next morning to find our driveway and walk all shovelled, we have some very nice neighbors.

I had sharing time yesterday in Primary. I actually kind of like doing it, but always feel a bit relieved when my turn for the month is over. We also had our Primary teacher appreciation dinner last Friday and it was a blast. We only had about half the teacher show up-about 25 or so-but it was a lot of fun and the food all turned out great. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with a primary this large, but everything always seems to go great and everyone gets along really well.

We took pictures outside yesterday of the kids for our Christmas card. The above picture is from yesterday, but not the one I chose for the card. I can't wait to get them to see how they turned out! Nate thought I was insane taking Sophie out in the cold, but we went super fast and she was inside with him until right before I snapped the picture. Everyone survived just fine.

Last night we watched the Amazing Race and Jack's favorite team got philiminated. He was a bit devastated. For some reason Bella has picked Ronald and Cristina as the team she likes. They are a father daughter team where the father is not so nice or considerate of his daugther's feelings. I am hoping she is not catching all of that, but is just imagining herself and Nate going on the Amazing Race together. I picked the goth couple early on. They came in second last night, so hopefully they will keep moving up.

In other news, LOST season 3 comes out tomorrow. Nate and I have been watching this pretty much from the beginning and have gotten to the point that we had a little party with our in-laws last year when the season began. I find that LOST is something people either love, hate, or have no idea what is going on. I am totally buying it tomorrow with much relief that there will be something we can sit down and watch in the evening. We only have basic basic cable, and the writers strike is starting to effect what's on. I kind of like watching the older Leno every once in a while, but on Saturday night we found ourselves watching the most ridiculous movie called Night of Terror. It was so bad we couldn't turn it off. So LOST will be a welcome diversion. That and all The Office DVDs. After all-the strike seems to be here for the long run.

Smiles!

Sophie has been so smiley lately. She smiles at Nate whenever she sees him. She smiles when I aim the camera at her, which makes me think she may be an aspiring ham! She smiles at the kids when she sees them, and she smiles whenever she wakes up. It's so adorable, and most of the time her smile is too big for her face!

It seems like we have entered a really busy time of year. At least there is more to do than I seem to have time for. Sometimes this is good, as it causes me to really prioritize what we should be doing this time of year and what we should be focusing on. I am trying to really set down and figure out how we are going to spend our time between now and Christmas with what we want to do and what we need to do.

Sophie has her two month check up tomorrow, and I must say I am not really looking forward to the shots. I can't believe she is already two months old and it seems she is growing so fast. When Jack was a baby it seemed to last such a long time, and Sophie's babyhood is already speeding by. She is really coming out of the newborn stage and becoming really aware of what is going on around her. She has started to pay attention to toys, mostly just to look at them, but she will bat and try to grab one every once in a while. She is also awake a lot more during the day.

Saturday we all went to the jewelers to get my stone tightened in my wedding ring and Nate bought me an anniversary ring. I really love it and am a bit surprised how tickled I am by how lovely and sparkly it is. We had been planning on getting one someday, it is so nice that someday has arrived! Bella loved looking in all the cases in the store and was enamoured by all the sparkly things. After the jewelers we went to the mall and did some shopping and went to Cold Stone-yumyum!

Last night we went with the Glovers downtown to Temple Square to see all the lights and such. We have done this every year for the past several years and the kids all have a ball. Well, after we planned for the night we realized the First Presidency Christmas Devotional was going on, so there would be a lot of people and a lot of traffic. We decided we would just get there right after the devotional started and leave just before it ended. Logistically, it seemed easiest to have Nate and Jeff drop us all off next to the temple, have them park the cars and come meet us in the visitor center. That way, we wouldn't have to walk with all the kids as far in the cold. Shelly and I and the kids waited and waited in the visitor center for quite a while. Jeff showed up and said the nearest parking was miles away, and for us to take the kids through and meet up with them on the other side, and to be quick about it because the devotional was going to end in a few minutes. So we hurried across and they picked us up. We had not factored in that we wouldn't be able to find any parking, they have knocked down the two downtown malls and their parking structures, and with the Christmas devotional, everything else was really full. So this will be the year they just played chauffeur while Shelly and I rushed the kids through. Nate and I laughed about it all the way back to their house. We then had cocoa and cinnamon rolls and the kids exchanged gifts. It was really a fun night despite the parking.

This isn't the best picture, but it's pretty silly on Bella's part. This is my first turkey. It weighed 21 pounds could feed a small army. It turned out pretty good thanks to Brad's telephone help and no one got sick. So I count it a success. Really, Nate and I made a joint effort at putting Thanksgiving dinner on the table. He helped get the bird ready, I have a little trouble with raw meat that still resembles its animal form. Then he took care of Sophie all morning while I prepared the stuffing and potatoes. He set the table and did a lot of the clean up as well. I must say, I am a bit sore from peeling 10 pounds of potatoes and chopping onions and celery. We had eleven people for dinner and way too much food. I realize on Thanksgiving every year that I am not a huge fan of Thanksgiving foods. I can attribute this to the eight or ten times I had the flu on Thanksgiving while I was growing up. I think I just associate it with being sick. But everyone else seemed to have had a great time and finished off the evening playing Encore. If you haven't played Encore, you totally should. Marsha got it for me this year for my birthday and we have been playing it at family get togethers ever since. Basically you have to sing songs associated with a word or phrase on a card. And you go back and forth with the other team until on team runs out of songs to sing. The best part about it is the kids can play and have fun if they want to. Also, Nate's family is full of people who will sing shamelessly for the most part without regard to being in tune or self consciousness. This makes the game super fun and I am always sad to see it over.

I woke up the day after Thanksgiving around 5:30 to feed Sophie and decided I would run to a few stores after that. I figured everyone would be asleep, so I may as well get some shopping done. I wanted to go to Target, but the closest parking space was my house, which is miles away. So I ran over to Kohls, they had been open for hours already, so it wasn't as busy. I shopped for Bella and got stuff for Jack's stocking and was home by 8 o'clock. We went to see Enchanted all together around 10, then to IHOP for lunch. Enchanted was cute, tons of references to other Disney Princess movies. I have been waiting for a princess movie ever since Bella was born. Don't get me wrong, I love the Pixar flicks, but I remember how much I loved Ariel when Little Mermaid came out and wanted another princess flick for my girls. Silly I know because I was thirteen when Little Mermaid opened, but I have always loved Disney, still do. When we got home I lay down with Sophie, intending it to be just a few minutes, and awoke a few hours later. I must have been pretty exhausted to sleep like that, so it was good, but I always feel really groggy after naps.

So now I am on to the Christmas shopping rush. I have made a list, I just need to start getting stuff done, time always moves so fast on this side of Thanksgiving.