Christmas

Christmas was so great. We spent part of Christmas Eve out at the farm with Stan's parents and Blake and Whitney. We came home to open pjs and prepare for Christmas morning. I LOVE having Christmas morning at our own house. Molly slept through the whole Christmas morning fun. It was ok though. She will never remember that she missed it, but she's not in any of the pictures. Stan took some good video of kids reactions that will be fun to watch later. 

We went back out to the farm for Christmas dinner and a sleigh ride. It was fun. A new experience for us all.  

Watching a muppet Christmas Carol. 

Molly

I've kept up with her baby book but have neglected the blog. I'm trying to do too many good things.  Here are some updates. 

-9.5 months

-crawled at 7 months(early for my kids)

-small, weighs only 16 pounds

-loves to empty cupboards, play with wallets, pens, plastic bags, and some toys too. 

-likes books, especially something I'm reading to an older child. She isn't sitting still with us but wants to rip the pages.  

-loves music

-waves her hands

-is fascinated by lots of things-I love this about babies and all young children. Everything seems so new and exciting. 

-sleeping through the night most of the time. Woo hoo!

-still nursing.  Can't believe I'm still doing it. If she would take a bottle, I'm sure I wouldn't be. Love her anyway. And now that I've accepted it, it's not so bad. 

These last two pictures... I found her like this after her nap. I guess the neck was big. 

Post Christmas

It's always nice to "go home".  With Stans new job at the college, well he started last January, he had the whole week off after Christmas. We arrived to a beautiful winter wonderland. The snow was calling me. Before I moved to Edmonton, winter was my favorite season, as long as I can remember. After breakfast each day we were there, I was out with the kids, having lots of fun sledding. When you go outside that early the days pass slow and feel long. It was a great week of fun and relaxation, notwithstanding 3 kids that puked. (It was a super fast stomach bug,1-4 hours and then they were brand new.) it was great spending time with my mom and dad and Rob and Cori. We watched some movies, watched some sports, ate good food, played some games, visited Manito Park's inside light display(the smell of fresh vegetation made me want some plants in my home). Stan I and got to go to the temple too!

Dishwashers

I feel like I've had bad luck with dishwashers. It seems that over the past 5-6 years, each dishwasher I've had works only about half the time, even while living in my mother in laws house, a dishwasher she hasn't ever had issues with. I'm always excited when it's working. Thank you, Spencer, for your happy expression. That's how I feel too. 

Thanksgiving

I have the privilege of being a citizen of two countries and today we celebrate in Canada. 

Today I'm grateful for:(in no particular order)

-freedom

-healthy children

-agency

-peace that only comes through striving to follow the Savior by living His commandments 

-personal revelation

-amazing family legacy on both sides, the I was born into and the one I married into. 

-material blessings such as food, clothing, shelter and beyond

-a healthy body and mind

-ability to gain knowledge 

-local libraries which provide so many resources that I can borrow and return 

-church leaders, general and local

-the challenge of raising children

-husband who loves me unconditionally and works too hard so I can be home with our little ones

-the many people who love and help us raise our children

-4 seasons, I'm loving fall

-the ability to have a clean home-while children are gone or sleeping. 

Service FHE

We were grateful for Brynn's brilliant idea to rake the leaves in Shirley Hirsche's backyard. It's fun to serve. The kids worked hard and they were happy. 

General conference

The counsel I received from conference:

-be worthy to have the spirit to guide me, don't live life without it, too hard to do it on my own

-the atonement helps me be the person I want to be and the person Heavenly Father wants me to be. 

-ponderizing scriptures is brilliant.  I struggle to memorize and remember so I got discouraged with memorizing but now I don't have to and effect this will have on my life will be great. Love the idea of doing it as a family or at least sharing together. Groups on Facebook/Instagram will be great too

I love Macy's Lego creation of the choir, the speaker and the congregation at the conference centre. 

I have to admit I was disappointed that my two oldest seemed to lose their excitement about conference. They usually take amazing notes. This year, they barely paid attention but at least they were with me. 

A new tooth

It's hard to get one of her cute little tooth but we do see her tongue like this a lot now. She has been miserable, even though this picture shows otherwise. And now she has a cold too, double miserable. Nights have been sad and there is a lot of crying unless someone is holding her and lots of times it needs to be me. But...time keeps moving along like it always does. We have more happy times than sad ones. 

A new family tradition

We decided to go to the temple each month as a family. Our plan is to do baptisms with kids old enough to do that and then I would participate in a different ordinance. The idea behind this new tradition is to give our kids the opportunity to be near the temple, and to want to live in a way that they will want to go inside someday. We love the temple and have received so many blessings by going often. 

Since it was our first time taking everybody, we made a weekend of fun out of the trip. We stayed overnight and spent the next day in Waterton. We hiked summit lake, which was new for us and it was awesome! We remembered how much we love being in nature and how fun it is to hike. 

Awkward bliss

It has been cool and rainy for a little while. Yesterday all the kids went outside. A few moments after the last of you exited, mom said to me "isn't this silence blissful"? I agreed that it was wonderful. We sat in silence together for just a half minute until Joel burst through the door, saw us sitting in silence and said "awkward silence?" We laughed. What you thought was awkward Joel, was blissful to mom and me. It's so good to be still and enjoy peace and tranquility. 

(Stan's entry dated late August or early September. )

His favourite game

This kid loves this game. 

Joel's first band performance. The video was too big to put on here. Not sure how to make it work. He brought the trombone home and drove everyone crazy  because he didn't know any notes. He hasn't brought it home since. He says he's good enough that he doesn't need to practice. 

A challenge

A recently returned missionary shared a challenge given to her on the mission from Wendy Watson Nelson. It is this:

Each day, ask a question, then read your scriptures to find the answer. 

I'm accepting this challenge. It will add meaning to my short reading sessions. 

Today's question:

What does Molly need during the night, why isn't she sleeping?

As I read President Uchtdorf's message in the July Ensign this was the answer(s) I received. 

Waking up in the night with Molly, as well as her sporadic and short naps, is strengthening my character. I'm relying on the power of the atonement to get me through each day. I'm learning compassion for others who are awake every night.  I'm learning that my priorities really are spiritual health, family relationships, and homemaking. I feel it a great day when something is done in all three of those areas and it does happen. 

-It is possible that it's allowing us to be more flexible. If she was completely on a schedule, I would have a harder time leaving the house and doing things with the kids/family. 

This is Molly in her swing. She was placed a little awkwardly but she had a good nap there. 

Those pictures are deceiving. They make our grass look green!

Learning from Molly

Having children is a humbling experience. Something you can't really completely figure out because each child is different and they are always changing. 

My first baby didn't like sleeping and it was really hard getting her to sleep. I read several sleep books and tried lots of tricks with very little luck. 

Children 2,3,4 were a cinch for sleeping. I was able to figure out early on what worked and it worked most of the time. They slept well during the day and at night. With this sweet girl #5 everyday is new and different. Sometimes she is easy to get to sleep, sometimes not. Sometimes she sleeps well at night, even a 7 hour stretch and lots of times it is 3-4 hours. By now 3 of my 4 other children were sleeping through the night. Somehow I'm being blessed with extra patience, an ability to function on little sleep, an especially I haven't come undone over her not sleeping. Having 5 kids I don't want to be trapped at home during the day with a sleeping baby, there's fun to be had. And Molly has a happy temperament and she likes our attention and we love to give it. After all these ramblings... This is what I'm learning

-life must go on even when you function most days on little sleep

-having older kids in the home is a huge blessing and they need to be part of my game plan. Most of the time they are happy to help

-it's ok to live life not on a schedule(even though I love structure and order)

-the relationships with my family are the most important part of my life and each day should be spent strengthening them. 

-babies grow into kids and kids into teenagers faster than I realized. I'm ok with it but you can't turn back time

-slowing down and simplifying life is a really good idea. Focusing on the basics is really all that matters

-although I can't imagine ever having all my kids in school, it WILL happen one day and I'll have time to do other things I can't do now. 

Baptism/blessing weekend

We tried to keep the parties somewhat separate since Macy really wanted her own special day and Molly didn't care.

So the baptism happened on Saturday, May 16 in the afternoon.

It was a special weekend for us as a family.  We are so happy that Macy chose to be baptized and that Molly was sent to our family!

Mother's Day

These are my Mother's Day cards this year. I always fund the things they write about me entertaining.  

Top three pics are Macy's.