Christmas Eve: The Final Phase

 This picture doesn't have much to do with the final phase of Christmas Eve, it's just a cute shot of Jackson, who kept Jared and I company as we wrapped every single present to go under the tree, which is our tradition.  We finally finished around 2 am in the morning--certainly a late night, but always well worth it to see the kids' faces in the morning when they wake up to see all those presents suddently under the Christmas tree!

 Yikes spikes, I really need to take out the red eye and rotate this pic....but I'll leave it for now!  By the by, the kids told me earlier today that Jackson's shirt looks like the Don't Eat Pete gameboard I made for primary...they were laughing that they could just put M&Ms on his tummy and go to town!

Christmas Eve: The Loop of Lights

This is a new tradition for us, and I am calling it a tradition because I really think we will keep it up!  This Loop of Lights is just a long-necked cul-da-sac that is dripping in lights.  We parked maybe half a mile away, I loaded Jackson up in the moby, and we walked along the loop with thousands of other people.  It was beautiful-each house was decked out in a different theme, the best house being the Nativity theme:  we walked through that house's backyard, which basically took you on a walk through the Nativity with beautifully painted murals depicting Christ's birth.  Scriptures were playing over a loudspeaker, and the spirit was so lovely.  It was a great, simple way to remember the reason for the season on Christmas Eve!  It only took us about 30 minutes to walk the loop, which was honestly ideal for the number of kids that we have!

My favorite picture!

At home, the kds got in jammies before turning on the Christmas movie of the year:  "Arthur Christmas" (though some of the kids ended up in my room to watch portions of the real Grinch).  At some point, we took a break to make hot chocolate, and once the movie ended, we laid out Santa's snack.  JD wrote the traditional note letting Santa know he could take a nap with the blanket we always lay out for him, just in case he is starting to fall asleep at the proverbial wheel.  I am sorry to say James was already in bed at this point, he was so wiped out from the day, it was unavoidable.

The silly shot, truly denoting how excited everyone was!

The kids were asleep within 30 minutes, once we finally tucked them in bed, which always seems to be the case.  We always have fun memories to build for Christmas Eve as a family, and I absolutely love this part of the holiday celebrations.

Christmas Eve: Family Party

Happy Christmas Eve!  What a busy start to this fun day--I am utterly wiped out as I am typing this during naptime!  Today was always bound to be a crazy day for me, as we have lots going on and Jared is working until midday (we hope-he technically should have a full work day, but they always send them home early).  I got up this morning at 6:15 to brave Walmart in order to get our Christmas breakfast items, as well as things for a last minute craft I hadn't planned yet.  I got back home in time to get Jared off to work at 7:30 and to get started on my huge to-do list.  I did the dishes; sanitized the kitchen; got gluten free cupcakes into the oven; put together a manger craft; packed up all the items we would need to take to the family party (holy packing batman!); got all the kids up/breakfasted/dressed/nursed; and wrapped cousin/family presents.  We only left for our family Christmas party 10 minutes late-could have been worse.  It became worse when I realized we went to the wrong building. We ended up finally getting there 20-25 minutes late....sigh.  Oh well, it was the best I could do as a single mother trying to prep a ton of stuff on my own with 6 kids running around.  In any case, I was super happy to be going to our family party!  We didn't have everyone there, but it was still a blast, and I ended up really enjoying myself despite low expectations without Jared there.

This is not in order.  :)  We did the Nativity as pictured above-Sara got to be a shepherd this year and James actually kept his ears on for about 5 minutes (which is 5 minutes longer than I was expeting-I had to bribe him with chocolate chips though).

We played the short version of the candy bar game, which was perfect timing-wise; I actually thought that was pretty fun, and Sara caught on pretty well, I barely had to help her. We made the craft I planned, which was inspired by the craft our kids made the night before at the Hanson's holiday party!  I was super happy with how it turned out-tweaked it just a bit, and it was super cute-super! Suzie did a lovely little family home evening segment, and Jordan was paying rapt attention the entire time.  JD and Karianna colored throughout, but so it goes.  We had the cousin gift exchange ,and all the kids were psyched with getting and giving presents from/to the cousins-I love that part, I love getting them involved in the giving.  I forgot to bring JD's present from Samantha-left it at home since they gave it to him early.  He was sad, but he got to open the reindeer poop that Grandma Erickson brought, and he enjoyed that (which made me question his sanity).

We chowed down on snacks, and I was so grateful that pretty much everything was gluten free-JD was a happy camper with that one!  I think the favorite item was pudding with various toppings including gummy worms.

A crazy, busy morning, and we didn't get home until close to 2:00, but it was great, great fun, and I really enjoyed hanging out with family!  Now, time to snag a quick, 30 minute nap before the festivities continue!

Christmas Sunday

Today was mine and Jackson's first day back at church!  I wasn't anticipating staying the whole block, but I ended up doing so-it was nice to be able to sit in on Jared's gospel doctrine lesson and even relief society-I don't remember the last time I did that.

Jackson did great, and it was wonderful to sing the Christmas songs and hear all the beautiful musical numbers.  The primary kids sang the song I had picked out, and it was slightly odd not being the one directing them...no matter, I'll be back at it in a few weeks!

We managed to get the family pics done before church and took some individual ones below afterwards.  Looking forward to Christmas Day!

 

Doctor Updates

I feel like I have been to a bazillion doctor appointments in the last week!  At this point though, we are done with check ups until February, then we will hit dental check ups, cardiologist check ups, one more pediatrician check up, and I am assuming an ENT and a podiatrist check up/consultation.  More info regarding that below....

1. Me:  I am officially recovered from pregnancy/delivery.  When you think about it, this is actually kind of a sad day-I can't use that as an excuse any longer for being tired or out of energy!  As James would say- "Aw, man!"  
2. Karianna:  She's way late for her 9 year check up, but I blame pregnancy for overlooking it (see what I mean about #1?)  Anyhow, her check up was just fine, she is in the 50% for height, which I find hard to believe, but oh well.  She's in the 20% for weight.  She has 20/20 vision in both eyes, which is great as we haven't seen a need to have her wear her glasses for over a year.  BP is fine.  Every other little nuance they ask about is fine too.  All in all-Nana is doing great, and she was super happy about getting a flu mist instead of a flu shot.
3. Sara:  She's also a bit late for her 4 year well-visit, but again: oh well!  She's in the 75% for both height and weight and doing great across the board.  We got a prescription for the bumps on the backs of her upper arms-just a steroid cream that should calm the very common bumps down.  We also got a podiatrist referral for her.  Sara has always been pigeon-toed, to the point where I feel like it causes her to fall more frequently than she should.  I asked about it last year, the doc didn't feel any abnormal bone growth, and recommended she wear a very structured pair of shoes to help train her feet back to normal for a season.  We have done this and beyond, other than summer when she wore a lot of flip flops.  It hasn't helped unfortuately, and even though the doctor still does not feel anything odd, we are going to consult with the podiatrist just in case.  I'm not seeing this as an emergency situation of course, so I'll probaby wait until after the holidays settle down until even scheduling this appointment. She got a flu shot and did fantastic, only saying ouch once while her eyes filled up with tears.  She got 2 other shots, and didn't say anything, just gritted her teeth. Its the first time she has not cried for shots, and we had practiced this a lot-so proud!
4. James:  He's right on target for his well-visit, seeing as he just turned 2!  He's in the 60% for height and only the 25% for weight-he's always been either off the charts or just barely on the charts, so that doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is he looks like a little chunk of a kid-and he eats more than any 2 year old I know!!!!  Anyhow, everything else panned out just fine for him, though the ped made me worry just a little as he listened to his heart and immediately asked me when James is going to the card again.....I did bring up the issue of bloody noses.  James gets bloody noses at least once every two weeks, sometimes as much as 2 or 3 days in a row.  At first, it was just an annoyance.  Lately though, I feel like it is taking longer to get them to stop, they bleed a TON (like, a scary amount that soaks shirts), and they end in huge clots that have to be pulled out in long strings...think bloodred worms.  I know, that's gross, just true.  This is not an emergency situation again, but this is where the ENT referral comes in.  We will go see the ENT James saw when he was an infant to see if anything needs to be cauterized, as it just seems the same spot is probably reopening.  We get after James all the time about not touching his nose, but this issue happens before I wake him up in the morning, and occasionally during naps--I don't know what else I can do to make sure he stops touching his nose other than constantly hounding him while he's out of bed.  Why do frequent bloody noses happen?  Something to research.  He got a flu shot, along with 3 other shots-screamed for all of them while they were happening, stopped the second I said, "all done".  He also screamed while getting weighed, but had no problem with the doctor checking out every inch of his body. Go figure.

Hmmm.  In looking at that list, it doesn't seem like a lot.  Granted, I went to Karianna's appointment twice (the doctor's office had messed up the scheduling the first time around and couldn't fit us in), and Jackson had his 2 week appointment and circumcision appointment not too long ago.  I think at the end of the day, we probably won't have too many months out of the year that are devoid of medical appointments.  That's just the way it goes apparently, hopefully at some point it will settle down!

That's how it goes.

Having 6 kids means needing multiple takes before you get a decent shot of everyone together...if that actually even happens.

Take 1:  James and Jackson look PRECIOUS and so do most of the other kids....and then there's Sara falling off the couch....

Take 2:  This one is pretty good actually, but I wanted James looking....

 Take 3:  Jordan is falling asleep.

 Take 4:  This one is okay.  James has such a good smile, though, I wish we could have seen it....goes for Jordan too....

Too bad I can't photoshop Sara out of take 3 and transfer her into take 1....then I'd have my picture!

Ward Christmas Party

 Our ward Christmas party was tonite, and though I was completely UN-excited for it, it actually went fairly well, even with Jared leaving after the first 30 minutes-he didn't even get a chance to eat, poor guy!  In any case, the kids did a great job in the ward nativity program, the food was decent, and the music and overall ambience was lovely.  The performance for the last 30 minutes-singing and piano-was beautiful, but not kid friendly, and the kids very much started to lose their ability to sit quietly, despite books and some things to draw with.  I almost pulled the plug when James pooped through his diaper....thankfully my mom handled the kids while I ran him to get a diaper, wipes, and a fresh change.  By the time we got home, I was exhausted but generally pleased with how the night went.  Here are some random nativity pictures-they are not the best quality!  Karianna was an angel, Jordan and JD shepherds, and Sara a sheep of course-she didn't want to keep her ears on during the performance.

 YOu can see Sara approaching with her best primary buddy, Kenzie.

 Jordan in his shepherd getup.

 And Sara managed to put her hat back on.