The Advent Calendar

Drinking eggnog

This year instead of candy in the Advent calendar I tried to be a little more creative. Everyday we have been trying to do something. I wanted my kids to really feel what Christmas means. We wake up every morning and see what the calendar says to-do.  Some days its as simple as saying something  nice to someone, others do a service. We have made Stars and discussed their meaning in Christmas, colored manger scenes and a few others. Of course there have been days of playing the Wii as a family and watching a movie, as well as watching the video of the birth of our Savior, scripture reading and just playing games. It has been pretty fun and the kids have enjoyed it thus far. Naturally I couldn't take pictures of everything, but here are a few of the things we have done so far.

Look at that Manger

Yep I can color

Good assist Dad

Cutie

Quite the artist

Displayed art work

Coloring and cutting

Nems loves to color

The Star

Abbys Nativity

The Star

Here are some videos of Playing the Wii as a family. Thankfully Abby didn't get one of Seth and I duking it out. That would have been embarrassing.

Ice Ice Baby... Too Cold Too Cold

Attempting to slide down the front yard

As I sit and write this, its day 3 of the Ice storm. It was fun and pretty the first day and School was cancelled. Day two was rough because roads were bad and we couldn't leave. Day three, shoot me.  Seth's out of town, the kids are stir crazy, all we do is eat and its cold. The road in our neighborhood is a solid sheet of ice and I am not brave enough to drag the kids in the car by myself. 

I would venture to guess school will be closed tomorrow as well. We are running out of things to do without killing each other. Most places are closed, even church was cancelled.  Crazy times. I do enjoy spending time with the kids, don't get me wrong. But I like to go to the park, play in the back yard, ride bikes all of which are out. The crafts come harder to me plus I don't really have the supplies. But I am trying. I don't like my kids to watch tv all day. Granted they have been watching more than normal but its still limited.

We did go out and have a little fun. These pics and videos are from day 1.



Brrrrrr



Take a picture of me mom.

Look at how think the ice is on our tree

Ice angels



Hugs...

Project Christmas

 The day after Thanksgiving we took advantage of the beautiful weather and decorated for Christmas. Abby really wanted to be on the roof. Seth obliged and I had an anxiety attack.  She was having the time of her life. She thought it was the coolest thing she has ever done. She even told her class when asked what they did for thanksgiving. That was what she remembered.

After the outside was done, we worked on the inside. We got the tree up, the manger out and Christmas treats were consumed. It was a fun day. Briggs in no way wanted to take part in being on the roof. Neither did he want to be on Seth's shoulders to string the tree or place the star.  So Emily did the honors :)

The time of her life!

No dad!

My turn?

Cheese

Little miss adorable.

 My camera is dying a slow death resulting in some blurry pictures but, at least I have some :)

Good little patient

 Where to begin? Emily has struggled with ear infections since birth. She had her first set of Tubes around 9 months old and they helped a lot. Unfortunately they only lasted 7 months before falling out. When the tubes fell out the ear infections started to come quickly. I decided to try a more homeopathic route with oils and going to the chiropractor, and they did ease up, but never did they go away.

After spending lots of money on the chiropractor and oils with continued ear infections we started considering tubes again. Then she got another infection. She was put on antibiotics, after two weeks her ears were worse. She got a stronger antibiotic and by the third week of antibiotics we decided it was time. She was always in pain and I hated her taking so much medicine. I called her primary care physician to see how many ear infections she had actually had, it was 7 in 6 months. YIKES I didn't realize it was THAT many.

We went to the pediatric ENT Tuesday, who suggested taking her adenoids out too. Since this was her second set of tubes it would maybe prevent a third set in the future. I wanted it done ASAP because I knew she would just get more infections if we waited, plus Thanksgiving was approaching. The surgery was scheduled for Friday. Thankfully Seth was able to take the day off and take care of Abby and Brigham.

She was such a good girl. We had to be at the hospital at 530am and wait til 7 for our surgery. Seriously everyone kept commenting on how good she was in pre op, not to mention her overwhelming cuteness.

10 minutes before the surgery they gave her something to calm her down, and in turn basically make her super giddy. It was hilarious. Then they took her away :(  She had to be under for roughly 20 minutes, she had to have an IV and a breathing tube, which I was really nervous about. But she made it through. The doctor said the tubes went in well and he cleaned out her ears. Her adenoids we larger then expected too so it was a good thing we took those out while we had the chance.

Waking up from anesthesia was really rough, as they brought me to her, I could hear her screaming for me. No Bueno. She had lines and tubes all over her and she was very disoriented. It was really hard to watch.  I laid in the bed with her to try and calm her, she would ease up for a bit and then start wailing again and screaming for me despite being right next to her. After about 20 minutes of that not working I told the nurses I needed to pick her up. They helped me with all the gear, and once she rested on my chest, she was much better. She calmed down right away and fell asleep a few times. It took awhile for all the drugs to wear off but we were released around 10. We went home and had donuts, she was super clingy for a few days and rather grumpy, but today is day 12 post op and she is much better.

Here is hoping these tubes last much longer.

The little patient

Pre op entertainment

This is a short video of Emily doped up.  Cute and sad at the same time.

Brighams Feast

The week before thanksgiving, Brigham's school hosted a feast. Just like last year the food was rather tasty. Brigham loved having Seth, Emily and I there. They sang some songs and then we feasted. We sat with my friend and Andi and her son, who also attends the school. It was a fun day. All except for the fact that as soon as Seth left, Brigham got that look in his eye. I knew it would come and sure enough, it did. He puked. Thankfully I was able to catch it all in my cup.  Not that many people seemed to notice around us.... Well except for our table mates and some of the teachers...sorry about that.

Favorite Pic of the day!!!
 

  

Primary Program

We recently had our Primary Program at church. The kids had memorized their parts a month before and we so excited to do it.  The went up on stage like it was no big deal, sang their songs, spoke their parts and it was over. I loved it because I could pick out Brigham's voice out of all the kids up there singing. Proud momma moment. As you know we have had our fair share of melt downs when it comes to public performance so I was a bit worried, but they did it and it was lovely. Here are a few pics of the kids dressed for the big day.

 

Down Time

After Brigham's last game we went to Cabelas to spend some time and look around. The kids love going there. As you can see Emily wasn't to keen on taking her picture with the moose but those are some classic pics. Same with Briggs, he sat for about 2 Seconds and was ready to be off that thing. Fun family time.

 

 

 

Best Picture Ever