Warm Chocolate Fuzzies

Lest I ever complain about my children too much or lead anyone to believe that one of them might be very negative and driving my crazy with the "half-empty" cup, we had a breakthrough tonight. I remember a couple of conferences ago, Elder Ballard talked about the joy motherhood. He said "Recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction." This was a moment for me. The first night we set up and decorated our Christmas tree, before bed we turned out all the lights in the house and turned the lights on the tree and all sat together on the couch to look at them. Noah got so excited and wanted to go around the room and have "good family conversation--you know, like we all can tell our highs and lows for the day"(that's when we tell about something sad and something happy. The lows usually are easier to think of for some, but on this night he actually said 3 highs and said he had no lows for the day)--so we did that and sang a few Christmas songs and read a scripture story before bed. I had such a good time. Since then it is what the kids expect every night. On Sunday as we sang Christmas hymns in church, Noah was finding the songs ahead of time and reading them and made sure to sing, and he fell in love with the hymn "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". He begs to sing it every night and wants to get the hymn book out and sing all of the verses. It is so nice to see him happy and excited and positive about something, that I will sing all he wants to sing. (And our kids have never been ones to go around humming and singing like some other kids do, so I love that he will actually sing). Anyway, tonight Trav came home late (or I should say is coming home late, since he's still not home), and we went through and sang all of the Christmas hymns, and as I put the boys to bed. He kept saying how he just loved the music and the words.

NOAH:"Mom, you know how when you drink hot chocolate, and your chest feels warm as it goes down? That's how those songs make me feel."

What a great description of the spirit and the way it works! So tonight I go to bed with hope and warm fuzzies myself. On a side note, the first night we were singing by the tree, Kaden plugged his ears every song, and cried a little. I don't know if we were singing really bad or he just wasn't feeling that same spirit. But even he has gotten better, and tonight said Noah taught him to love "Hark the herald angels sing". And he has stopped plugging his ears.

And still more--

Lovely garage with most of the boxes we haven't gotten to yet.

This would be our stashing room right now for boxes and things we don't want to deal with yet.

Same room as above.

This our our Christmas room =). Future piano room? That would be oh so nice. For now we finally have space enough to display Marian's huge nativity (why do I have someone else's really nice nativity, you may ask--we ask ourselves the same thing, but for now we'll just enjoy it)

The funny plastic wall decorations were from our Christmas part last year and I just figured while we have empty walls I should get our money's worth from them. . .

More and More

Our family wall

Okay it's really still a mess in here, but not getting better very fast. Look at all the cupboards and counter space. The only thing is that the cupboard are built for someone much much taller than me, so we had to buy a little ladder, and the entire top shelf has just food storage and stuff I don't have to read very often.

This is right by the kitchen, but is it's own room. Yeah! --a real laundry room!

Ooops, did I already post this one--It's from the front door.

This is standing by the couch looking towards the front door.

Furnished pics

Okay I wish I could just wait until everything is unpacked and perfect, but face it. . . my house will never be all perfectly nice and clean at once. So we haven't hung everything, and I haven't organized all the rooms, or even unpacked a lot of boxes, butI had to post more house pictures anyway. Otherwise it may be years. . . this is just as you come up the stairs.

This is as you come in the front door and pass the front rooms, one on each side.
Okay so they are all the same room, but this is from the kitchen table.
Taken from half way up the stairs. . .

From the landing at the top of the stairs. . .

Killer eyes

I sure hope Micah keeps these eyes. I was relieved that when he lost his dark beautiful hair, his eyes still were bright blue, so I could kind of still recognize him. I was just being weird putting this outfit on him this morning (I don't think daddy approves of it). It's actually super cute and comfy, but after putting it on him, maybe yellow is more or a girl color, I don't know. . . Anyway, I was taking a few pics of the house and can't just not add this one. Noah adores Micah--he is such a good helper with him.

Exploding Diapers. . .

Seriously--why are people so in love with huggies. I remember using huggies with Noah until he was probably 12-18 months, and they suddenly started leaving those gooey crystals on his batooty and we tried Luvs and have never used anything else (except for when I am convinced we can save money and buy the generic brands and then Trav and I vow to never do that again). But Luvs are great and hold everything in and are way less expensive than Huggies or Pamper (I really like Pampers. . . ). Any, we just got a Costco membership (whoohoo, we have never lived close enough to a Costco at a time we thought it would be worth it)--I decided take a couple of long trips there by myself and not buy anything, but just price everything so I could compare it to Walmart and the Commissary and from here on out I can know what to buy where. I remember some people telling me diapers are cheaper at Costco, and the price per diaper is cheaper (they have Huggies) than Luvs. I like the way Huggies fit to snuggly and stretchy, and I did the math and it was less than one cent more per diaper for the Huggies (so I guess it would be less with a coupon). I decided what the heck, I'll buy a huge box. Everyone rants and raves about Huggies, so they must be the best.

So that night before bedtime, I put Micah's first Huggies diaper on him. The next morning (Sunday morning, just before church), I started to change him to get him dressed, and opened up his PJs to find Huggies diaper crystals exploded everywhere. And to add to the mess, he had done his morning load and that was all mixed in to. I didn't even know where to start and had to lug him into the bathroom and clean him up in the tub. All the while I wondered what I had been thinking--did I not remember this was actually why I switched to Luvs? I guess I thought I had done it for the price. . . So I am wondering if Costco lets you return diapers--we have used a couple of them since, but I just make sure to change him often and put the Luvs on him at night. Does no one else have this problem? Is it something in my kids' urine that just doesn't like huggies? Aaaargh.

Sharptooth

I don't remember any of my kids being like this. In fact, Micah hasn't done it until just recently and it may be just a fluke--but he is biting and pulling on me and hurting me, and it makes me impatient with everyone around me who is making noise and distracting him, and even impatient with the innocent babe who looks at me blankly or laughs if I act upset with him. I'm not sure what to do. Even when he is not biting, it feels uncomfortable and sore to nurse lately. And he has no idea what to do with a sippy cup or bottle. You put it in his mouth and he thinks you are playing a funny joke and bites a little and just starts laughing. Is something wrong with him? He also is not really taking to solids anything like his brothers all did. We've been trying for about a month, and sometimes he will surprise me and down an entire jar, but usually it's 2 or 3 bites before we give up. It'll be interesting to see if he doesn't ask for food all the time like his brothers. Unlikely--he does want to nurse all the time, and he is still a Passey boy. . .