Why so long?

Well I know it has been forever. I have a good reason, really...

I adore reading others blogs, esp. other moms and particuarly when it sounds like our lives are similar. There is a feeling of not alone-ness, even if this mom is a perfect stranger to me. When we started our blog, and I think it was two years ago, it was intended to be a journal of sorts, one we would print out and save for our kids. And secondly, it would allow those who are not near us to catch up on our happenings. But over these past few years I have never once printed anything out and well, dont ever see myself doing that cause the expense in ink would be astronomical. Yes, I can save it all to my computer. But you know. I love opening an actual journal with actual handwriting, it is just so much more real to me and up until starting this blog I kept journals for each of my girls as well as myself, but slowly I have only been using the blog and their journals lay quite bare next to my bed. I dont like this. I only have so much time in a day and it is always getting shorter so something has to give...I have made a decision that it has to be the Blog. Or atleast if not all the way shutting the blog down it will be VERY infrequently updated. Please believe me when I say I would love to write a post every day. So much happens, so many thoughts cross my mind I would love to share but I dont have time to write in my actual journal and the blog. So I am picking one cause we all know I am not going to write the same thing twice :)

As far as time getting shorter. I am entering the third trimester and for the first time hoping i stay pregnant for longer so that I have more time with just three children. We are also finishing up getting things (including turning our closet into an office space, equipped with a new outlet/phone line, shelves, etc...) ready to start school at home next week. The girls are so excited and have been dying to start. Not that we dont do somethings all the time but to officially start (I always save some new art supply or game or something exciting for when school starts). I am so glad back to school has already happened. It is abit hard not to go put a child on a bus and just have less children around but I made it through that feeling. Why am I doing this? Simply, we thought of our goals/hopes for our children and honestly couldnt figure out how public school would help them arrive to those. So I had to let go of the remaining redeeming qualities/attributes of public education and take a leap that without knowing all the answers, somehow having them learning at home would better help them to achieve goals/hopes of their lives.

Good luck to all those making their own way through life..it is so short

talking

Jacob is off for anohter 24hr shift of OB. Our last for the next month or so. He actually will probably be sad. Me? Im kinda happy for another change in schedule.

So I found our Childrens Primary Song book. It was still in the many tubs and boxes in our garage. Have I mentioned that it takes forever around here to get even one project done, but we keep at it. The girls and I sat around on the couch enjoying this much missed treasure, singing primary songs. Right after singing, I'm Thankful to be me, I said the following to the girls:

Me: Do you two say your prayers at night when you are alone in bed?
Liliana: Yes, sometimes I do.
Mattie: uh -huh
Me: Well you know I say my prayers every night and do you know something I say in my prayers each night?
Liliana: what
Me: well I thank heavenly Father for each of you every night
Them: full of quiet smiles
Me: smiling, thinking what a nice moment this is
LIiana: Are you trying to be a better mommy?
Me: (surprised by this comment) Well, yes I am sweetheart
Liliana: well you should pray about that in your prayers
me: yeah....Ill get right on that...

why do we teach our children to talk?

This pic

I love this picture. This girl is getting so big!. I

never knew I would meet someone just like me,

but as I have gotten to know her I realize I have.

She is 5, (although she likes to say she is 5 and 1/2,

even though she isn't). She slipped herself into the next class up in primary and was devastated when i informed her that she needed to go back to her class (she doesnt want to be with the 4yr olds-darn that Feb, birthday). I want to give this girl the world, cause I think she wants it. We have 'officially' had to decide if we wanted to homeschool her or not as it would be time for Kindergarten. I change my mind every day it seems. I really am not ready (who is?) to revolve our life around her school schedule, when we could accomplish more school in less time during times that work for us as a family. She wants that darn bus ride....anyone own a yellow bus we can have a ride in? She absolutely loves to read, it was so magical when it happened. I think I take it for granted now. As we stayed with some friends who hadn't seen her in awhile she asked to read the nights scriptures (which consisted of 3 pages of Book of Mormon Stories). We just sat and listened to her quickly read all of us the scriptures, not having to take time to sound out a word, even if it was a new one, as well as showing her confidence. When she got done our friends were beside themselves, jacob and I just looked at each other and I realized then that we already thought that was normal. She took my scriptures to bed (to read) the other night. I think it may be time to get her her own, complete with a pink zip up case:)

oh, you may be asking how she is like me. The biggest thing we have in common by far is this: We never accept reality as it is presented to us. We think reality can be changed at any given moment. For instance, you may wonder how this trait plays out in real life, here are a few of our examples:

* If someone tells me I have a budget of 200 in Primary, I say, "well that is not gonna fly" and I start figuring out ways to get that changed. I dont do what many would and say, "okay, we will make it work somehow".

* If I tell Liliana a consequence for an action of hers (good or bad) she, infront of me, puts on her thinking cap and lets me know she has thought of a better one (or one she prefers).

In essence, nothing is set in stone till she and I have gone around that stone and pushed it from every angle and only after doing that and either moving it or seeing that it really cant be moved or changed, will any acceptance happen. It is not about being deviant. It is not motivated by trying to be the boss. It really is innocently just an idea that reality can always be altered, our ideas can change outcomes.

Actually quite hilarious (sometimes) when I feel her pushing on me (when I am playing the Rock)......sometimes (not always, hardly ever, but sometimes, I change my stance, just cause inside I am so proud of her trying to alter reality.

Today

I do not like doing bedtime by myself. Nope, not one bit. There is not ANYTHING I can say that I like about doing it by myself. So why do I forsee myself doing the bulk of bedtimes by myself while our kids are the youngest (and need a whole song and dance to get to sleep)? First night with Jacob back on nights, he leaves just in time for everyone to fall apart before dinner. It is great.

On another note: We met with a midwife a few days ago for a home birth. We wanted to check her out, see if we would all be a good fit together. Interesting how when thinking of a home birth I am more interested in finding someone who meshes with me well compared to when i do a hospital birth I only look for someone who just totally wont try to overrun me and be my boss. We are excited about the idea of NOT getting in a car for a ride to the hospital when i am in labor. We are excited to NOT have to have various people watching our kids, wondering how they are doing, how they are doing missing mom and dad, sometimes for days on end. I know I am soooooooo excited about NOT being woken up every morning around 5 (weather I just got to sleep or not) to have my belly pressed on (thereby spewing blood everywhere and needing to get up and change) and being asked how many times my baby has nursed and pooped and getting the whatfore for not telling them sooner that she did infact nurse around 1am (not being dramatic here, just telling it like it has been for me). I am also excited about NOT having to fight about things like Vit. K shot, or the eye antibiotic, or Antibiotics for being Strep B (which I usually am)..so nice to not have to fight.....

We have insurance (or I should say, we pay for insurance) so a hospital birth would be partially covered but we would still have a good amount to pay, so with the home birth cost it about evens out, probably slightly more for the home birth (unless I can convince my insurance company to cover part of it, it is afterall cheaper for them to payout on a home birth than what they would pay out for a hospital birth). Anyway. we have been heading in this direction since the beginning. With liliana we had an OB (we looked into a midwife, but they were over an hour away and didn't service our town at the time, we also looked into a female Family Doc, had an appt with her and realized, wow...she thinks every man is doing wrong by their respective women (she was very suspicious of jacob) so finally settled on an OB that happened to also be a D.O., we thought since jacob was soon to be heading to DO school we would get to know one. He was great to get along with, but lets face it, he was an OB. He so looked forward to Thursdays. Why? Because those were his scheduled Surgery days (C-sections, as well as other gyn surgeries). He loved scheduling the timing of babies being born and once he saw how miserable i was around 40weeks he dangled that carrot and I took it (what an awful carrot to dangle, when all along he knew and I knew I had no desire for a 'managed' (medicalized) birth..yes, yes, yes, I still had my choice...but I made the choice based on being a new, scared, first time miserable- this- is- never- gonna- end- pregnant person who had only my husband for support and bless his heart he didn't know how to help me (if he did, he would have done anything to help me). I know I did the best I could at the time. Had I had a different care provider the outcome would have been different. I would still have been the same miserable 40-weeker, but different specialties 'help' us differently. Had I been able to secure a home birth at that time I would not have had the 'induction' carrot dangled infront of me by that provider. But learn and live....

So for Mattie we chose a Family Doc (he saw us for our other family needs as well,which I loved, my kids already knew him as he did their well child's, etc...)I could very much be myself with him. Part of that I know came from being in DO school and seeing all Jacobs classmates and realizing, oh, they are just ordinary (sometimes totally crazy) 20-30 something year olds who are just as scared to be in that room with you and you are uncomfortable to be in there with them. So I could totally let him know about what I thought when he was looking for the baby's head and would press hard, boy would I yell out at him, "Your killing me, stop it already...we all know where the head is"...it was refreshing to have a family doctor my whole family felt comfortable with and knew he was always on top of things and actually listened (even if he didn't agree-like when we told him we were taking Mattie to a Homeopath to deal with her food sensitivities/eczema and diarrhea/ sleeplessness/foggy brain-ness) He still wanted to know what we did, and would check on her progress. But he didn't actually make it for the birth, he strolled in 5 mins too late and he was bummed.

Then for Jane we went with a recommended nurse midwife who delivers in the Hospital. I also got along with her as well and she also did alot of leg work to help things run smooth in the hospital (particularly since we were refusing so many of the 'normal' interventions for the baby). If I were up for another hospital birth I would probably go back to her. Although she is a midwife, she was trained as a nurse first. That makes for a different type of midwife care as usually Certified Nurse Midwives still think like nurses (and I don't particularly like how nurses are trained to think).

I have now met with a Certified Professional Midwife. So someone who went to midwifery school/training, then apprenticed for three years, attending births and helping/learned under the eyes of another midwife (kinda like residency), then had to complete around 50 births as the midwife in charge before qualifying for her professional license and has continued to do about that many births a year for quite awhile now. She has seen some scary things. She is not a vigilante, trying to make everything work at home, nor someone who thinks hospitals are bad. Afterall, they are not bad. They are just where you go when something is wrong. and until proven otherwise, there is nothing 'wrong' about being in labor (except for the fact that our husbands get out of it Scot free.....man...anyway..i wont get into that). She carries emergency supplies with her to handle excessive bleeding and many of the problems that could arise in the hospital. She also is there with you earlier on in the labor so she is able to assess yours/babies condition and can spot a problem earlier on and transfer you to the hospital before the emergency occurs. I mean, she comes even if you are just in labor moving from a 1-2cm...she will stay for days if you want her too, making biscuits, going on walks, whatever helps you relax..she is in no rush, hence you don't have to feel like someone is waiting around for you to progress. I cant wait for that!

Well you can tell I am excited about this. Although this pregnancy was not planned at all I am thankful that it is happening at a time when we live here and have great midwife choices around. I also know I have a great hospital to go to if something does arise and great Ob's (who are really good at what they are trained to do:handle problems) who are on=call waiting to help.

Some people have said that I must feel comfortable with this because Jacob will be here and he is a Doctor. The answer is no....if he were a carpenter it would be the same. Seriously, it probably makes it harder to do because of his job. He only ever gets to see the scary crazy, everything goes wrong births. Mostly because his OB patients tend to already have alot of issues (like drug addiction, etc) and things spiral out of control with them. So he has all the scary images in his mind. But that is not normal. Of course there are risk. There are risk to going to the hospital too. Sometimes babies die. I dislike even writing that sentence. And sometimes they die no matter where you gave birth and it breaks our hearts.

I have been surprised about the amount of people who would be scared to do a home birth. Our countries Morbidity/Mortality rates have not gone down due to having hospital births, they have actually risen!!!! We have an awful rate, esp. compared to other countries that primarily practice home births (like the Netherlands) or even compared to Germany, where all births are either attended by midwives in your home or at the hospital-the Ob's just hang around for when something goes wrong. they don't even presume to try to handle a normal pregnancy/birth-THEY HAVE NOT BEEN TRAINED FOR IT!. They seriously have not. I know that sounds silly. But most have never in 3-4 years of residency seen someone come in and require no medical intervention, ever.

Alright, I think I am done writing this. I have only had to go put both girls back in bed around 6 times in between trying to type this. They are finally asleep.Hallelujah!!!!!!!

Posting

Well it has been awhile since updating. It is not that I dont get on the computer most days, I just am not sure what I want to update about..Alot goes on everyday. Yesterday was our first day without people here working in our house.My first day to walk around my house, just me and my kids. I could nurse without a blanket, I could sing outloud, etc...It was nice. Alot has been done to our house and i look forward to showing you the pictures. Right now we are still working on painting the downstairs and today just finished striping the last room of old wallpaper...we ended up paying someone (alot!) to paint the new upstairs, so atleast it would be done and the girls could get into their rooms. Feeling so broke with house expenditures it is crazy. I cant believe the amount of money we have spent in such a short time...

Jacobs sister Zarah came out to help us as we survived or tried to survive these weeks of camping out (still have not unpacked anything from our garage, including furniture to sit on, like a couch)

To add to our craziness (incase we wanted to add to it-and we didnt)...we found out we are pregnant again (This time TOTALLY counts as a SURPRISE!)......so...yeah......dont even know what to say...this may be appropriate..AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Our kids are thrilled and have no concept of how this was so not on the radar. Jane and this baby will be 16mts apart. crazy days indeed!

On a another note, I have been blessed (and I express gratitude for this every night) with not having my normal (throw up every day, lay on the bed all day, cant stand up, etc..sickness)..I am just utterly and severly exhausted, till around 3pm...then i perk up and feel great the rest of the day..but before that...watch out :) oh, and because some may ask, due date is around Dec 2nd-9th....

Here

We are Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yes folks....our mattresses (beds) have been moved to their new floor destination and all three girls are sleeping on them..so far so good. Jacob is off at work, he left around noon. I have been home (so nice to say those words....our home...it does feel different and i am not sad at all to leave our rental (normally I am, about leaving any of our homes) most of the afternoon, unpacking, taking care of the girls and trying to keep them out of the workers way (they were priming the upstairs today. I dont have much food in the house, so I am munching on bread and butter..not to bad, it could be worse, I could be out of butter :)

I already love my kitchen, so much room and cupboard/counter space. I have finally decided on a color...it is a shade of blue, cant wait to show the pics...

Thanks to some great friends our old house is empty and spotless!!!!!!!!!!!! With all that has been 'hard' this week, the burden has been lightened a ton through this family and others who have either watched the girls or feed us or packed us or cleaned up after our mess. I dont remember who said it and I didnt get to hear much during conference, but this I remember: We are His hands....

Alrighty. Wish us luck! We are moving over the rest of our junk in the morning, you know, from basecamp#1 to Basecamp#2..to continue our camping experience of course, just different scenery. The upstairs will be primed tomorrow, doors up, carpet laid, and ready for little girls by Friday. As for the rest of the house....time heals all wounds right????

No..seriously...it will get done at some point. We seriously are doing as much to a house that most do in the time they own a home over 20years...and we will get it done in 2mts...pretty good and pretty crazy...and pretty expensive...i think that about covers it...will post the 'pretty 'pics soon

camping

Alrighty......so.....looks like camping will be the theme of the month. Went over to new house today to start cleaning up and unpacking and realized...um, the workers are not as close to being done as we were told they would be (supposed to be done Wednesday), so we assessed the situation (power tools all over the place, piles of saw dust, sheetrock in the hallway, half painted walls, etc......) and we realized there is no way we could even make it work in this house with the children. So we are gonna be camping at our rental for another week. I say camping because all we have over here now are our mattresses on the floor, one bucket of toys, one thing of books, a few laundry baskets of clothes and our toiletries, alot of my kitchen stuff is already packed, even my washer/dryer are over at the new house....We eat sitting on our kitchen floor, i mean we have nothing to sit on here..it is crazy....anyway......worst things have happened. I am just thankful our house had not been rented out yet or we would be at a hotel, although staying at a hotel might be cheaper than paying to rent our house on top of paying for the mortgage at our new house (which we were not planing on overlapping those two) Anyway wish us luck, pray for us that we will and the workers will get everything done. Let me know if anyone wants to have my big girls over to play for abit, they sure miss their toys that are all packed.

Moving Day

I cant stand moving....moving just plain stinks. and moving with small kids stinks even more bbbnmhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjggggggggggggggg(these letters were types by mattie as she got out of bed for the 20th time (no joke) while I was trying to deal with Jane crying)....I think my two fave reasons for moving out o this house are:

1. the door handles in this house dont lock......my kids are free to open and get out and my toddler has never had to be put in her room, hear the door shut and know she just cant get out so she might as well go to sleep. Nope, instead she knew she could always just run right out squealing in delight at her escape. So jacob or I (usually me, as he is usually not around for bed time) have to stand and hold the door handle as she tries to open it and I am soooooooooo done with that. I can not wait till we shut the door and she comes to it and learns for hte first time that, yes indeed she will be staying in her room....

You know, the problem is not with my kids. Even though they are abit out of sorts and abit acting up from spending so much time away from here and me, as they have been over a different persons house every day for a week now. I know it is because I need sleep and I need to see an end to the chaos known as moving. I know it doesnt help that we are moving into a house we cant unpack into right away due to major things still needing to be done, like painting and flooring. not to mention none of the closets have any of the shelving up yet so cant unpack hardly anything but beds and dressers till that gets done.

and jacob is working overnights for the next 5 weeks, so he comes home at breakfast time and has all this stuff to do but anyway....

back to the other thing i loathe about this rental house. The upstairs toilet, just about everytime we flush we have to plunge the heck out of it. you may wonder why we dont ask the landlord to fix it. Well, we have a property manager and he could care less about the house as he is not the owner and the owner has already made it clear that she doesnt have money to deal with anything here, not to mention this is how the toilet was on day one of living here so it must have been something she was living with and therefore wouldnt care that we have to live with it as well.

There are loads of things we have struggled with in this rental which has only fueled our desire to get out of rentals. We are really so happy to own a home and we can see what it will be like when all these things get done in the next few weeks but in the meantime, i may loose it. Just so you know. I just hope I can 'find it' when it is all over with

more house

here are some more pics of the house work.So in these you will see some framed out areas upstairs. One of the little areas is a built in cabinet into the eves with framing around it where I will hang a curtain as a little clubhouse for the girls in their room. I think there is also a picture of the rest of the mst bedroom with its current lovely wallpaper...we have taken quite alot of that stuff off the walls but this rooms wont come off so it will be painted over......still doing last minute decisions on the colors..anyone have a favorite to recommend????? Your color just may be chosen:)

house

Here are some outside and inside pics of house so far....In these pics you will see the mudroom area, or part of it, it connects our garage and house, which is so great. You will see part of the new construction, our mst bdr closet and bath area and new stairs going to the upstairs. You will see the thing with the bars, which will be a walk in pantry. I think they used it as a little dinette area.

Our new abode

Moving day is fast approaching, weather the house is done or not. I was hoping for all the way done but looks like it will most of the way done. Many of you know we bought a house but, although in good condition, it needed to be expanded upon. The whole upstairs was open attic space and we needed bedrooms there. There were also too many walls downstairs, making the house very choppy and darn near impossible to see from one room to the next, so we are 'opening' it up....basically knocking down parts of walls....it also had that flooring...you know the kind....looks like nice wood but it is only pine..which is well not gonna work for my ladies who like to dance around in cinderella shoes and who like to bring rocks in from outside and drop them on the floor. So we are also installing new flooring and carpeting. This place was in sore need of a new heating system and the new upstairs was gonna need heat, so that is also being done. Lets see what else..oh yes, added a master bathroom (and boy it better be a sanctuary for the price it cost to add it!), a gazillion closets, a kitchen pantry the size of a small room, all new kitchen appliances, a ton of electrical work (and they like every other person in this state tried doing alot of the electrical work themselves, so there was quite a mess to get sorted out, not to mention, places that didnt have lights that needed them and places, like the basement that have like 25 lights for some reason)...We are also doing major landscaping on the outside (partly to fix the fact that the ground around the basement needs to be slopped to prevent leakage into basement, and partly to get rid of all the asphalt the previous owner decided to lay all around the house..and because, we needed a few places to plant some food/flowers)...I am sure I am leaving something out..but lets get to some pictures. We are the third owners of this home, which was built in 1940. I tried to take some 'before' shots, but in some of the rooms you will see some of the new work going on. We are excited for what will be the finished product (someday soon). These pics are a few days old now, alot more has already been done.

Well instead of adding the house pics I am adding pics of the girls..I will have jacob upload the house pics...

Math Major...who would have known???

A few pics from my #1's 5th birthday party.........We had a great Storybook party where everyone brought a fav book and dressed up as a character in it, we got to read lots of books, play games,and make our own books. She loved her party and just loves any excuse to have as many friends over as possible....

now unto Math.....
I didn't particularly like math in Highschool and was soooooooo happy in college that I didn't have to ever take it again. I could have worn a shirt that said, "who needs algebra anyways????"...at any rate I thought I was done with it, other then when I use it for all the math one does day to day but that is besides the point....

The thought occurred to me that I think I am currently majoring in math.....why is this? Well I use alot of Algebra every day and I just realized it. Oh, I did not like Algebra...n= x=5 stuff....i despised having to divide x/n and somehow get another letter. "I don't know, is the answer P"?....I mean, it drove me nuts mixing letters and numbers.....and Word problems......they just about killed my little teenage brain.
My algebra teacher loved word problems, so now I had to take words and decide which sentence needed a number to stand for it and which sentences needed to be represented by letters..ughhhhhhhh..(wow, just writing about that class makes me irritated all over my skin, didn't realize it still is like that for me, anywho...)

So this morning, after being awake most of the night and yet having to be 'awake' for the sake of the children's livelihood (and maybe the houses survival as well) I stumbled out of Matties bed carrying Jane (no, mattie was not in her bed (I mean, why would she be there anyway....??? She was in MY bed with Jacob of course...of course, anyway, we basically played musical beds last night, expect instead of switching beds when the music was played again we would all get up as zombies and move beds when crying happened (that counts as music, right?)----
anyway, I said to myself,

Sleep=Happy MaMa

Hey, I just did some Math with words, how about that......and I started to think of other math problems I have learned over these last few years as a mom and came to the realization that lo and behold I am majoring in Math........When i get done I will definitely have my Doctorate.....and to think, all it is costing me is my sanity, and a few gray hairs :)

Here are some more math problems, enjoy, and feel free to comment any of the math you have learned as well...

* x Toy=0 desirability, unless....Y wants toy, then Z will desire it Equally, so Y=x=Z, (ALWAYS)

* The dirtiest clothes or poopiest diapers ONLY happen within an hour of finishing all laundry and the next laundry day is now 3 days away

* Mama on phone= whiny, sad, fighting, need to nurse children (ALWAYS)

*Hard days ALWAYS end on a hard note (like jacob calling and informing me that he will be even later than normal, and 'normal' is already a 14hr day (can i just say it has been a hard day, if you havent picked up on it already.....and there is no relief in sight, atleast not for a few more weeks till he switches to a different schedule, sometimes I have to remind myself that other peoples spouses come home atleast by dinner time and definently on weekends. That those daddies are around to help with bedtime and even sometimes with wakeup routines.....i have to take mine to the hospital if i want my children to lay eyes on him once in a 6 day period......i know, i know, we chose this job.....but sometimes.....it is just sooooo hard....so hard you really cant describe it to another unless they have or are going through it. Don't get me wrong, we both are happy with his chosen profession, he finds so much joy in helping others in a time of need and i love that he loves to serve that way and found a way to meet our needs financially doing it. As of now my children dont realize that other peoples daddies have a different work schedule than theirs and that those daddies are home more. I guess all I have to say is, It is HARD being in the FIRE...........

* Planned dates with spouse= no success and the converse is true, spontaneous dates with spouse= success (if on calendar and babysitter is all set, something will happen, always.....)

* The sweetest moments always come on the hardest days around these parts (like today, watching my girls get down to some of my fav music, or having my 5yr old ask how she will know which prince to marry when the time comes and if she will be like Aurora in Heaven,

* The times when I cant do all for myself or my family or my house and feel like never ever able to complete a task = the times when I think of the Savior the most.....

and one more random thought....
I had a good friend recently tell me I stink at order in my house (for things) and it is so true.....not because im not screaming inside for it......i want it like crazy, but after playing with my children, doing school work, cleaning with them, reading with them, running errands, and cooking from scratch all our meals and snacks, there is no time left....none.....not unless i give up sleep and I am not getting much of that right now anyways....so not much to give up there. I think the thing that frustrates me most is everything just needs a home....if something has a home (and the home is easy to get to and accessible for me and the children) then it will get put in its home, but if we have to walk upstairs, take out a few totes, etc.......to get it home.....it will just hit the nearest flat surface.....so, in honor of this lovely trait and because we are moving into our new house (we close next week:) please leave in the comment section any great idea you have or tools or gadgets you use for organizing and setting up an orderly house for yourself and kids......that will be much appreciated....

Photos

We have finally received our pictures from our Christmas photo shoot...boy was that 'fun'....two and a half hours of trying to get our kids to take pictures...well we got a few good ones and a few silly ones. Will be posting several over the next little bit...Enjoy

my ladies

Man I love this baby Jane Girl...

And I still miss this girls full head of hair

And this big girl will be five next week.....ummmmm...how do I have a 5yr old? (notice the shiny lipgloss on her lips...yep, got it for christmas, it is already all gone, so is #2's....)

happenings

So lets see. What been going on around these parts...

We have a house under contract (yeah, finally!)...We got a fabulous price (what, someone actually wanted to sell their home and were motivated to do so..crazy, but true)...we close end of Feb. but wont move in till end of March. In many ways we are redoing half the house, knocking down some walls adding others, finishing off spaces, etc...lots to do and a great contractor to do it (Jacob will do very little of it due to time (or lack there of) not to lack of desire (he would much rather be nailing some wood then checking a prostate, come on....wouldnt you???)
It is only going to be a 1-2 mile move for us, which is great for the girls and for moving day. We are super excited and very busy trying to get all the requisite stuff inorder to make it all happen on time...

I will take before and after pictures of the house and post when I have both...excited to see the tranformation myself...

Now right before going to look at and buy the house our 2yr old had some unsupervised time and decided to cut her hair.....well she didnt hurt herself but she cut too much to salvage it...so out came the buzzers...you know, having 3 girls I did not think I would be using those on my children but she sat great for it...
I miss her pigtails and beautiful hair but it will grow...she has recognized that it is gone...(my hair smaller is what she says)...So here are a few pictures of our crazy two year old..

Christmas and our vacation

The last few days Jacob has been working nights. So assuming not much was going on at the Hospital he comes home fairly rested, but if he was awoken alot then he comes home and sleeps(or tries to)...It has been nice having him home for these last few days during the daytime. The girls have acted like a friend has come over to play with them and constantly ask daddy to play with them. It has also been nice since we keep getting loads of snow...(i.e. he shovels the driveway everyday...how nice:))

We had a great Christmas holiday. For me what made it so nice was the fact that Jacob had vacation during the same time. We had 11 days off in a row!!!!!!!!I was soooooooo happy to have him home and know that we would wake up and he would still be there and go to bed and he would be there again....I just don't take that for granted anymore...this residency thing can take its toll and having him home was so what our little family needed...I will post some pics from Christmas...and due to how this Christmas went I think the following is in order for next year:

1. all one needs in a stocking to be happy is a stick of chapstick and a lollipop
2. Don't try to wrap each gift separately, just throw it all into one box and wrap up that one gift...it is such a chore for a two year old to have to keep opening presents when after opening the first one you just want to go play with it.
3. Why bother to put that some gifts are from Santa and some from mom and dad, at the end of the day...Santa somehow brought everything and isnt he just so great!
4. All a girl really needs under the tree (according to my 4yr old) is a new Christmas dress (that twirls, don't bother if it doesn't, heartache and devastation will follow, if the dress does not spin right), a camera (to take pictures of herself, of course), and a new doll (to mother, no matter our age, we are always ready to be in charge)


Some of the things I loved about having jacob home was:
1. He can finally understand how we go through soooooo many dish towels and rags (pee on the floor or stairs (like when mattie hiked her leg up like a dog and let it rip on the stairs- it wasnt entirely her fault, she just couldn't decide which bathroom to use, upstairs or downstairs and got caught in between...what are you gonna do...)
2. Now he knows why mattie is always naked, or half naked when he comes home....(she is constantly getting into water or spilling something, etc...and any feeling at all of wetness will not do, all clothes need to come off...---this is why she got panties in her stocking...we go through 5 outfits a day)
3. He has seen firsthand that the children are really not at all interested in cleaning up..unless i bribe them with any of the following- a handful of dried onions, or dried chicken bouillon, or a bath in the middle of the day, or a chance to help scrub the poop out of the toilet (yes folks, around here, scrubbing poop all by onesself is a highly desired job and the litte ones are willing to clean the whole playroom by themselves to do it....(yes, i know, my kids are crazy!!)
4. He had an opportunity to build the girls a quick playstand. This is basically a Waldorf toy from Germany that can be made many ways and cost a ton (when you consider that it is just wood after all) but that jacob made simply for cheap...the girls call it their 'house' and love playing in it. Jacob got a good therapy session by having a chance to work with wood and his hands again, he has sooooo missed that. I will include a picture of it. We put it under the tree with the presents...

Today he and I were looking at our girls and jacob remarked on how quickly they are growing up. I agree. We are so trying to enjoy them at this age. We feel so blessed to have 3 happy, and healthy and beautiful little ladies. We are so very grateful to have a home that is warm and for jacobs job which provides for our needs and allows him to help others. We look forward to this upcoming year and hope we are able to find a more permanent home for our little family...(anyone know anyone living in Orono or Veazie that is thinking of selling a home, let us know:)