Happy New Year! For awhile there, I didn't think I was going to pull off Christmas or New Years, but it's all over, and people seem satisfied. However, I do believe Jarom, James, Mckenzie, and after today, even Ruby now know that we're the ones in charge, not "Santa" or "Baby New Year." My tired and murky brain has muddled around too much. AACH! I hope I haven't destroyed the magic of the season for them, though!!!
Well, lots of living has passed us by. For awhile there, I lost my calendar and I felt I was adrift without it. I went on faith and my cloudy memory -- and what my children could tell me! But, it's now back in my hands and I'm ready to revel in the memories for a moment.
The last I wrote was December 7th. That was a Friday night. It was our ward's Christmas party (which we didn't make it to) and James' ballroom dance concert. Cecilia stayed at home with the youngest children, and I dragged Jarom, Mckenzie, and Ruby with me to watch and record James. It only lasted an hour, but it looked like he'd had fun! James had been throwing up earlier on in the week (or threatening), so he'd missed the last practices, but he seemed to know what he was doing anyway. Garrett and Cali were at a game doing their pep band thing.
December 8th, Ladd and I went to Mapleton for his friend Christmas party. We visited four of their houses for different courses of our meal. It was fun seeing a different part of them and getting a feel for their homes as well as their families.
On December 9th, Ladd and I sang "Star of Bethlehem" in Sacrament Meeting. We had tithing settlement directly after church, and then choir.
Tuesday, December 11th, was my doctor's appointment. I had to be tested for glucose, and the doctor has decided that I will need to have my blood drawn every month to keep track of my ? (something in my blood) to see if I will have blood clotting abilities by the time I give birth. Mckenzie had activity days and Garrett and Cali had another pep band thing, and Jarom and Cecilia had YM/YW's.
December 12th was my birthday. I had received a package in the mail and lo and behold, it turned out to be my copies of the book "Deliberate Motherhood: 12 Key Powers of Peace, Purpose, Order, and Joy." It was a gift just to see my name in print and see all the pages my writing appears on in the book. Ladd took Lena, Alyssa and I out to eat at Costa Vida, and then we went to DI. I was hoping to find some pregnant clothes there, but found their version of XL was smaller than mine. A bit disappointing, but Lena, Alyssa, and Ladd all found fun things there. When the kids all got home, we celebrated my birthday. I got a beautiful lamp, a tiny heart-shaped ceramic container from James, some Christmas music, a candle, a disposal (!!!!!), $20, and a $60 gift card to Kohl's. Ladd and I went to Garrett and Cali's band concert, and then we had my cherry cheesecake that Cecilia had mostly made and some ice cream to finish off the day. It was a great day!! Dustin called to wish me a happy birthday and asked what I'd done for fun that day. I told him we'd eaten at Costa Vida and then gone to DI. After a bit of silence, he said, "I guess something to change it up." Then when I told him I'd gotten a disposal for my birthday, he said, "I've never been without one." I think Dustin was having a hard time relating to me!!!! I told Rick and Tiffani and Darren and Accalia and they both got the whole spending time at DI thing!!!!
December 13th I babysat Ashton and Vivian for Kelsy and Adam most of the day. Mckenzie and Ruby had dance that day, and I was gone to Jarom's band concert when Adam came to pick up his kids. I hope everything was okay. . . .
On December 14th, Ladd had a make-up meeting up at Deer Valley that he had to go to, and then when the kids came home, we packed up and headed up for the Snydermill Lodge up in Park City. We hadn't had any snow for awhile, but it was snowing while we were up there. We took both cars. I didn't get much sleep that night because the "mattress" wasn't more than a foam pad, but all the kids seemed to enjoy being with their Olsen cousins, playing games, watching movies, and sledding. Lena got scared in the middle of the night, and roamed the lodge crying. Mom Olsen brought her back to bed. That's when I finally woke up (must've been one of my actual sleeping moments), and I helped calm her down and get her back to sleep. It was a fun idea, but lots of clean-up for the adults since most of the families bailed early on in the day on Saturday. Later on that night, Ladd and I went to the Kurt Bestor concert.
December 16th -- Darren and Accalia came and had dinner with us one last time before they headed to Washington. Adam and Kelsy were all throwing up and we had no desire to have that re-spread since both of our families had just had bouts with it. Mom and dad Hinton popped in briefly to bring our Christmas present on the 17th (I think), but they stayed with Adam and Kelsy and mom ended up throwing up a lot on their trip up to Washington with Darren and Accalia. Not fun for her or anyone else! I must admit to a selfish thought that both Ladd and I had (separately, of course). I knew that mom and dad should've stayed with us!
On December 19th, Ladd and I took Lena and Alyssa to see the sing-a-long up at the Elementary where all the grades sing a Christmas song. After school, all the kids and I rejoiced because we were now officially on Christmas break!!!!
On December 20th, Ladd and I took Garrett over to the hospital at Same Day Surgery for his operation on his tonsils. I took a video of Garrett after he came out of surgery which Garrett posted on my Facebook account (without asking me :). Our Christmas break has been tinged with Garrett's recovery process. He's done fairly well, and managed to interact rather normally, thankfully.
December 22nd we woke up to find that Lena had pink eye. No one wanted to touch her, and thankfully, the doctor simply called in a prescription for me! So, Garrett stayed at home with Lena on Sunday, December 23rd because I was directing the choir for the Christmas program and couldn't stay at home with her. The choir sounded great, and all three songs went off really well. I especially enjoyed "Because He Came" simply because it was authored and written by two members of our choir. That was a neat experience!
December 24th was a laid back day for me. On the 21st, I'd spent most of my day shopping, then on Saturday and again on the 24th, I just had a few details left to finish off. Ladd spent that day at home and we just enjoyed the whole day being with each other. Ladd and I took a few hours to wrap presents during the day so it wasn't such a huge burden after the Bethlehem dinner and Christmas plays. Ladd did have to put together the punching bag station that is now in our piano room with no plan yet for moving it elsewhere (sigh). It took me the whole time he spent doing that to simply do the stockings. We got to be around 12 or 1 a.m. Not too bad. . . .
December 25th was a fun day. The kids seemed to enjoy all their gifts. Garrett got an ipod touch, and Jarom got a PSP. Both seemed shocked and soooo pleased. Cali got a new clarinet mouthpiece, and Cecilia got a gift card so she could do some shopping for clothes. James on down all got a castle or house. Alyssa got a Dora dollhouse and she seemed really disgusted with it. She even kicked it and said, "I no want a house. I want a castle!!!!" At least she liked all the Disney princesses she and her sisters got. I also got a gift card (yeah!), and some piano music that is once again too easy for me, a nice hymn book, some books, a pedometer, and a music stand. My parents gave us a laptop. WOW! Sometimes they just blow us away! Chad and Corin had us on Ladd's side and gave each of us individualized gifts that were quite generous. Dustin and Nicki gave us a huge bag of quinoa (keen-wa) and a game called Spon-tun-eous. It'll be fun to play!!! We unwrapped all our presents and spent some time playing with them. Poor Ladd was bombarded with all the things he had to help put together. He started as soon as they started unwrapping their gifts and barely finished a while after all the gifts were opened. We watched Brave, then headed to Mapleton to finish off the day.
On the 27th, Garrett had his "star wars marathon" in which he and his friends didn't even watch 10 minutes of one of the movies. They did play games and go sledding (mind you, Garrett's not fully recovered yet!) which none of them came prepared to do.
Cecilia and I have done a fair amount of shopping this last week. We've both finally used up almost all of our money and I think we're both glad with what we've found.
December 29th, I got a haircut! It's a pixie cut and pretty short. I'm having fun with it so far. I've been mistaken for my mom. :)
December 30th we spent up at Jaimie and Trisha's ward and home because Mitchell got home from his mission!!! Ladd has been working up at Deer Valley and had to work then, too, but came at the very end.
Yesterday, we all went to the movie with some of the Olsen family. The oldest five kids went to see the Hobbit, and I took the youngest four to see Wreck It Ralph. It wore me out wrestling with the girls and keeping them safe and socially acceptable. Later on in the evening, we ate a small dinner and enjoyed the various snacks I'd prepared. We all watched lots of movies until Garrett and Cali left for their New Years Eve Dance. After that, we started dropping like flies. Ladd went quickly, and so did Lena, Alyssa, and Mckenzie. I took a brief and sporadic nap on the couch until it was almost midnight. Then, we watched the countdown on TV, cheered when it turned midnight, then went in and sang "Ring Out Wild Bells" -- all three verses. We knelt and said a prayer, then we ate breakfast (doughnuts, yougart, and cold wassail), and started heading to bed. Once again, I tried to get comfortable on the couch until Garrett and Cali came home.
This morning, I told Ladd he had the morning shift, so he got up and fixed pancakes for the kids and played and rough housed with them for quite awhile. Baby New Year brought a movie that has all four of the Herbie movies on it. Ruby wanted to know if it included her Ferbie (which was her "castle" for Christmas.)
Life is good. I forgot to mention that one Sunday, half of my face went numb. It scared me quite a bit. The nurse at the doctor's office tried to get me in to see a neurologist, but I guess I wasn't that exciting a prospect for a patient. I finally took matters into my own hand and scheduled an appointment for the end of January. Not too long to have to wait considering it usually takes up to three months to get in to see a neurologist! Quite the ups and downs we have, but it's still wonderful! Ladd's officially done with his intense week up at Deer Valley and it's almost time for him to head back to Fidelity and the night shift. School starts up in earnest in two days!!!! AAAAGGGHH!!! Here we go again! Bring it on 2013!
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