Our week in pictures December 24-30

Monday:

This kid is amazing.  He finds ropes, scarves, string or whatever and just ties things up.  

Wednesday:

So I have no pictures of Christmas day!  What the heck!  But here's Madeleine the day after Christmas wearing her brand new roller skates and listening to her iPod.  

 Saturday:

Here's Andrew playing MY brand new iPad Mini.  I love my new mini.  I was skeptical, but it turns out it's the perfect size, and the kids really love playing it also.

Our week in pictures December 17-23

Weds

These two.  I always say they will never be best friends, and I need to stop saying that or maybe they will hear me and it will be true.  But they just fight and fight and pick and pick at each other all day long really.  It's sort of a relief to send Isaac off to school.  This was one incident where i made them sit facing each other because they were both so mad.  They both kept screaming, "I WON'T" when I told them to look at each other.  It was fun times.  

Thurs:

Andrew finds scissors and just cuts up everything he can find.  It is so frustrating to have cleaned up one cut piece of paper in one room only to find he's cutting up another in the other room.  

Saturday:

It's not Christmas around here unless we do sugar cookies!  Madeleine knows it and starts asking when we'll do them as soon as the tree goes up.  It's always fun for the kids for about four cookies, then they are bored with the decorating.  But that's okay, since it means less of a mess from sprinkles!

Sunday:

The kids were looking so cute/handsome in their Christmas duds I had to get a picture!  I don't know what Isaac and Andrew are looking at since I was the only other person in the room!

Pictures of the week Dec 10-16

Monday:

Laundry is my nemesis.  As soon as I get it all done, it's laundry day again and it just keeps on piling up.  It's terrible, but not uncommon for me to hear, from the bedrooms as the kids are getting dressed in the morning, "Mom!  I'm out of pants!"  Dang. 

Tuesday:

This one is entitled, "I'm renting a house with white carpet.  And I have small boys who like to play in the mud."

Wednesday:

I strongly dislike (I'm trying to cut back on my use of "hate") going to appointments with all five kids.  I feel like a three ring circus wherever I go.  But, when the big kids have dentist appointments, all five must come.  I spent a sweet forever in the waiting room trying to contain the mayhem.  But, the silver lining in all of this is: 1. No cavities!  And 2. as I was driving home I remembered Benjamin had scouts that night, and I wasn't sure when or where.  I was already spent from the circus, and I probably would have skipped scouts, except for right as that thought crossed my mind, my phone rang and my soon to be new neighbor offered to pick up Benjamin and take him along with her son.  It was a wonderful moment.  

 Thursday:

Oh Andrew.  His sleeping habits are killing us.  We've spent the past two months trying to keep him from napping during the day.  If he does nap, he's up till 10 at night bouncing off the walls.  That is not at all fun for anyone.  Well, probably Andrew has fun.  But Adam and I, not so much.  Add to the bouncing off the walls after 8:30, he's super cranky and naughty all afternoon long.  So I'm already spent from trying to manage him, but because he's so tired, bedtimes are a horrendous fight.  I always have visions of people who say their favorite time of the day is bedtime because they snuggle, and read stories and talk about the day with their kids.  Our bedtimes are stressful, and not happy, and there's no chatting about the day.  So in order to save my sanity we've just let him sleep when he wants.  If he falls asleep in the day, I just know he'll be awake later and I can plan on it.  

 Also Thursday:

Adam made the mistake of telling Andrew we were headed to Little America over the weekend to swim.  Andrew changed immediately and spent the rest of the day wandering around wondering when we were going to "tiny America."  

Friday:

There was a skiff of snow so the kids excitedly bundled up and spent a couple of hours outside playing together.  I love it when they voluntarily play together.  I stood at the window and watched all four kids playing in the snow, and felt so lucky that I was able to pick them up from school, like normal, and that nothing in their life had changed since that morning.  

 Saturday:  

We went down to Salt Lake to visit Temple Square, along with 50,000 other people.  Literally.  There was a Jazz game, and The Tabernacle Choir had their Christmas concert.  We met my mom, and Adam's parents and walked around the temple and into the new City Creek Center.  It was cold, but we bundled everyone up very well.  Thomas was so content he fell asleep.

Sunday:

Thomas is starting to spend some time independent from me!  He'll lay on the floor and play with the hanging toys for a couple of minutes at a time.  He's so sedentary, that I don't see much rolling any time soon.  Plus he's really fat.  

Our week in pictures Dec 3-9

Monday:  

Andrew loves to vacuum.  And since we have carpet in the dining room, and under the counter where the kids eat it needs to be vacuumed frequently.  So he's a big help!

Tuesday:

Madeleine's third grade Christmas concert was a great time.  She had been practicing, and talking about it for weeks.  It was a pretty cute bunch of songs, and she did a great job singing.  

Wednesday:

Today was Benjamin's 11th birthday!  Adam picked him up after school and they went up to Twin Falls to pick out some skis!  He was super excited!  They went to dinner, and had a good time just talking.  Benjamin requested this chocolate peanut butter cake which is super rich, but very delicious.  

Thursday:

I love sitting with Andrew while the kids are at school.  We read books and just have a great time playing together.  

Friday:

It's Nutcracker season!  This year Madeleine is a soldier and a gingerbread cookie.  It's a lot of work to do the Nutcracker--practices every night for the week leading up to the performances on Friday night and Saturday afternoon.  She did a great job.

Saturday:

Today we got together with all the Hansen family (minus Ashley--we missed you!) for Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas party.  The kids sure love playing with cousins and exchanging gifts.  Grandma and Grandpa gave Andrew this geotrax set which he hauled around with him and showed to every person in the room.  It probably weighed as much as he did, and he could hardly carry it, but it was so cute to see how excited he was.  

Yeah for the return of daily pictures!  But, I'm using my phone to take these pictures because our camera is toast, and the lighting in our house is awful, so it's hard to say these will be awesome pictures, but it will be something.  

Ten minutes of play

Today was parent teacher conferences.  I have been looking forward to my first chat with Isaac's teacher for about five years now.  I wondered what will she say to me?  Will she recognize the incredible spirit in this boy?  Will she love him like she should?  And of course she did.  She told me all the things I already knew about him.
We waited forever to see Madeleine's teachers.  When I'm waiting I often wonder what is going on in there that's taking so long?  Are there serious problems to be talked through for that student?  My conferences are quick and to the point.  I have no questions to ask.  The teachers generally only have good things to say.  No conflicts to resolve or issues to be talked through.
Benjamin's homeroom teacher said the same thing that every homeroom teacher he's ever had has said to me, "I wish I had him for more of the day.  He's such a great kid."  I walk away from chatting with his teachers wondering what the point was.  I now understand why my parents didn't go to parent teacher conferences when I was in school.  His teachers can't ask me to improve nearly perfect.
There were a couple of moments where I thought that maybe some time with flash cards could improve a certain score.  I wondered where I'd fit that in to the day.  Which ten minutes of play would I cut so Madeleine's math score would go up.  Or how would I convince Isaac that it will eventually be worth his time to finally learn letters.  When it comes down to it, I may think that a flash card could help, but I know I won't change ten minutes of play in the tree outside for a better math score.  She has so few ten minutes of play as it is.

Halloween festivities

Pumpkin carving was a great success this year!  I managed to keep the pumpkin carving tools accessible through two moves so we got to work on Monday night.  Everyone had a pumpkin, and a design in mind, and we had a great time scooping out pumpkin guts!

Benjamin decided he wanted to be a turtle this year.  He has an obsession with them and really wishes he had a real live turtle.  We happened to have several cardboard boxes kicking around in our basement, and I figured out how to fashion a turtle shell.  He painted the outside green, we attached it with some elastic straps and he was good to go.  

Madeleine wanted to be the Queen of Hearts, so she turned to her Grandma Hansen like she normally does for Halloween costumes.  Grandma came through on short notice and made an awesome costume!  We worked out some sweet make-up and she was good to go.  

Isaac and Andrew just dug through the costume bin and picked stuff that happened to fit them this year!  

And baby makes seven!

Thomas Martin was born September 10, 2012. 

We spent the nine months leading up to his birth wondering if we were having a boy or a girl.  We didn't find out at our ultrasound, and people thought we were crazy!  Friends asked all the time if we had a "feeling" either way, and we really didn't--I didn't at least.  We knew it really didn't matter what we had and so we decided to wait for that super exciting moment at the hospital.  I had this idea of how it would be the most amazing thing in the world to have waited, and waited, and then worked so hard through labor to have Adam say, "It's a...!"  Turns out, I was sent to the hospital at 7 centimeters dilated, but not really in labor.  And once I was started, he came pretty fast so there was no long drawn out labor, or pushing stage with the thought of finding out what we were having as an incentive to keep going.  But the most disappointing part of the whole nine months was that both the nurse and the doctor told us we were having a boy before he was born, even though we told them we didn't know.  I'm not at all disappointed to have another boy, but I was very disappointed to not have my moment.  

Thomas has been a very good little baby.  He sleeps through the night frequently, tolerates being hauled around by his older brothers and sister, and is pretty happy.  The kids think he's the cutest little toy ever!  They were so cute meeting him for the first time, especially Madeleine.  She has taken to the role of big sister, and I love it when she picks him up and says, "I'm going to change Thomas' diaper!"  

He was two weeks early, but still weighed 9 pounds!  He was so fat, with rolls on his neck, and his cheeks were just huge.  He's since grown into the weight, but he's still a big baby.  We just love having him in our family, even though it adds a new element to the crazy around here.