Dreams

All three of my children are active sleepers.  They toss, turn, talk and yell all night long.  Sometimes I'll lay awake and try to listen to the things they are saying in their sleep.  One of my children in particular has very scary dreams.  Dreams that cause him to cry out in the night.  We've talked a lot of about this with him (and his father who lets him watch the Mummy right before bedtime), and I thought making dream catchers would be a fun thing to try.  I thought about buying the pre-made kits and assembling them, but I wanted my kids to each be able to choose their feathers, beads, and colors.  After a few tutorials on you tube we made these, even weaving the pattern in the middle with real sinew.  Afterward we talked about how they work and hung them in their rooms.  Ethan asked me about ten times if I really thought they were going to work and if he would see the bad dreams caught in the net.  He's cute!

 

Baby it's cold outside

This was what my phone said the temperature was yesterday morning, and that wasn't even including wind chill (with wind chill it was around -20s).

So, this is how we dress for school in the morning.

 

Here is my sweet Liv.  She is really into doing her hair, spraying perfume, dressing-up, and dancing lately.

On a side note, one of the funny things about Shawn's job is that he often comes home and tells me the outrageous names of the babies born that day in the hospital.  He had a winner the other day.  The baby's name is La-A.  He had me try and guess how to pronounce it, but I failed.  This name is pronounced La-dash-a.  Dead serious.  Nevaeh seems to be a popular name also (Heaven backwards), that we often laugh about.  I sure hope these children don't suffer from their crazy names.

In all seriousness I just commented the other day to a friend how grateful I am that Shawn gets to work in the NICU.  He puts in lots of long hours, we are taking 36 hour days weekly.  Most of the time I feel like a single mom. because he is gone a lot, but he is so important.  He's the doctor that takes your lifeless, non-breathing baby from you right after you deliver, he is the doctor that tells you your baby is breathing again, or has a terminal illness, or needs a big long needle stuck in its tiny body.  Daily he tells parents their babies are going to die and pronounces babies dead.  Daily he saves lives and tells families that their baby is going to make it.  He pokes their cute little bodies with needles and tubes in every direction, which sounds terrifying to me, but he loves it.  For every minute that he is away, he is helping someone else and I know that we are blessed because of it.  From someone whose first baby was wisked away to the NICU, I know what it's like and it's totally a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

Ice Skating

We live a couple blocks from the Petit National Ice Center.  I couldn't pass up going to one of the largest ice skating rinks in the country (next to the one in Utah) that is used an an Olympic Training facility.  After much convincing, everyone agreed to go this past weekend.  It was one of the most comical events ever to occur in our family (next to the duet performed by Shawn and Ethan during family home evening a few months ago).  Below is a picture of the kids after we all got on our skates and were ready to go.

Ethan LOVED ice skating, which is rare because he usually hates everything I make him try.  In fact he begged and begged to go "just one more lap around."  One time he was out skating around the rink (it is a track-like rink and in the middle are a bunch of hockey rinks) and they were clearing everybody off so the machine could clean the ice.  I couldn't see Ethan, he was off doing his thing.  I started to worry and then around the corner I see one of the workers skating with Ethan in his arms.  He picked him up and was quickly skating toward us because the Zamboni machine was coming right behind.  Ethan laughed whole way.  Skating lessons might even be in Ethan's future, we will have to see.  Now, here comes the funny part.  Cole.  Wow, he was crazy.  Everytime his skates touched the ice he tried to run.  It took him 15 minutes to go around once because he fell every second.  He wouldn't let anyone help him, he was determined to do it on his own.  I wish so bad that I had my camera, but I locked it away in one of the lockers.  Liv did better than Cole, but when Cole complained and was done she quickly joined.  Since Shawn's feet were killing him he took Liv and Cole down to the locker area to rest and wait while Ethan and I did another few laps.

Ethan's already begging to go back and I really hope that we do.  It was fun!

Sunbeams

For the last 7 years I have had a child in the nursery at church, but not anymore. Yesterday was Liv's first day in Primary as a  Sunbeam.  She was so excited.  I'm so proud of my kids.  They are getting so big and grown up it makes me sad sometimes, but truly I'm excited to see the great people they turn out to be :)

Here is Liv on her first day as a Sunbeam!

Black and White Dinner

Last night we had our first official Black and White family dinner.  One of my new years resolutions is to have monthly themed dinners.  I have big plans for the rest of the year so let's hope I can stick with it.  I decided that I want to start every January off with a fancy family dinner where we all make goals for the new year and practice good dinner etiquette.  We learned how to place our napkins, how not to burp and ask politely to be excused for the bathroom, no talking with food in your mouth, no slurping, gulping, etc.

The dinner was so much fun.  The kids loved all the balloons and candles.  I initially wanted to make something fancy for dinner, but I ended up being practical and made something the kids would actually eat, so we had Lasagna, breadsticks, salad, and chocolate pie for dessert.  I made Shirley Temples for the drink and that was definetly a favorite.

Everyone had to dress up fancy.  I let them choose their own outfits, and it was funny to see what combinations the kids came up with.  Shawn was the matradee and I, the hostess.  I even made Menu's and  took their orders like they were sitting at a fancy restaurant.  The writing on the Menu was a fancy cursive and was hard to read.  Ethan thought that the Shirley Temples were "Shitty Temples" and kept referring to those all night.  Shawn and I laughed every time someone asked for a "shitty temple".  Everyone was referred to as "sir" or "madame".  I have to say that Shawn wasn't ecstatic about the idea when I told him my plan the the dinner, but he was so wonderful, helpful and played his part perfectly last night.

So here are some of our GOALS, HOPES, AND DREAMS for 2011

Ethan:  See the statue of Liberty and the Presidents House, take a rock climbing class, climb the rope to the top in gym, learn how to rollerblade, and keep a clean room.

Cole:  Go to soccer camp, Disney World and Harry Potter World, learn how to do math problems better, learn an instrument (like the tube), and go hiking.

Olivia:  Have a princess tea party, take a gymnastic class, and learn how to swim.

Shawn:  Do better at Home Teaching and take the family to Disney World.

Jenn:  Take the family to the Wisconsin Dells for a weekend, exercise better, and get my children to eat healthier, learn more about graphic design,  and improve my sewing.