Building a snowman family

Yesterday, the children wanted to build more snowmen since they had so much fun Monday. So they bundled up and waddled outside to build their family of snowmen. Below is the results:

On Monday, the weather was warm and the snow was soft and perfect for packing. Tuesday, it was a cooler day (low 20’s) and the snow was quite dry. So here are more pictures showing the true results of their efforts:

I thought the snowman was cute--so is Emmalee! The kids had fun playing outside, but gave up quickly on the snowmen family. So instead of a family, we have a giant snow-Dad & a iddy-biddy snow-baby!

And we all had a good laugh last night when hubby came in from locking up the sheds & workshop. He said he almost asked who was in our backyard because he saw this tall figure out back! I wonder what the snowman (snow-daddy) would have answered back.

Anyways, needless to say, the girls did not get into town yesterday. We decided we would just wait until our scheduled trip on Friday, and make do with the food we have here. For those not familiar with our little Idaho town, we do have a nice convenient store, just off the interstate, that sells a few groceries (and has the staples--bread, milk, eggs). But they certainly are not bargain prices--so I buy as little as possible at the store. We did buy a couple gallons of milk and some bread yesterday here in our town, but the children made juice & crystal light so we will cut back on the milk intake.

Okay--enough about shopping. Hope you enjoyed the pictures of our snowman family.

Christmas snowmen, dinner & letter

Today was a wonderful day to play outside (for my children!). The sun broke out of the clouds and the thermometer broke the freezing mark! (we were close to 40!) The boys got soaked to the bone digging out a snow tunnel with their cousins and friend, and then took on the challenge of building a snowman taller then they are. When they had me go outside to see their creation, I was surprised at how big the snowman was. I couldn't believe my 2nd and 5th graders could build such a great snowman!

After that hard, heavy work-out outside (the snow had a ton of moisture in it because of the warm sun melting our 1 1/2 feet of snow), the boys moved inside and played a bit on the Wii. My 8-year old then decided to try his hand at the boxing game on the Wii--and broke the family record. He even changed into a t-shirt and shorts! He was so worn out he asked to take a nap at 5 pm.

But dinner was in the oven. We had our "Christmas dinner" today (ham, potatoes, rolls, veggies) because we decided years ago that Christmas was supposed to be a day to enjoy, not slave over the oven and work, work, work! Plus, most years we are getting ready to travel to WY to visit my family. This is the first year in 17 years that we did not travel to WY during the Christmas break (due to our little newborn son). It's hard enough to travel in the bitter cold & snow over the 2 mountain passes w/o a little one! We miss our family, but we know it was best to stay home!

Okay--back to dinner. I made a triple batch of potato casserole (otherwise known as funeral potatoes). I like to cook once, and eat 2-3 times. I usually make at least a double batch of most meals (lasagna, enchiladas, pot pies, etc.) Anyways, we had a wonderful, yummy dinner and then watched an episode of "Waltons"--a family present from Santa. Hubby and me like to watch the older TV shows where we can all enjoy the family values (without having to worry about inappropriate content). Now the children are all nestled snug in their beds.

The other accomplishment that occurred today--I mailed out our newsletter with our family picture to the 50 family & friends on our Christmas mailing list! I had decided (with my husband's encouragement) not to stress about getting the letter out before Christmas, and worked on it when I could. We finished it last week, but didn't get the address labels printed until today.

I have to say that this has been the least stressful Christmas since our first few years (before we had to worry about children, traveling with them, etc.). I have even been enjoying listening to Christmas music today and humming "It's the most wonderful time of the year."

If the weather cooperates, we will be having a girls (plus baby boy) day in town (remember, it is 45 miles away), if the weather holds. It is supposed to be cooler tomorrow (20's) but it's not supposed to snow. We plan on shopping (the clearance items), looking for shoes, and taking in a movie--if we can find one that will entertain both my 12 & 3 year old (they are the only girls).

Plus, it would be nice to have some milk, bread, cheese, and potatoes before my scheduled trip into town on Friday. Our poor potatoes froze about 2 weeks ago, and we salvaged as many as we could, but I used the last of them today. With a teen-aged boy, and 4 growing (active) children, the milk & food goes quicker than I would like. Plus, I only have room in my fridge for so much (although I can fit 8 gallons of milk, 6 bricks of cheese, & 6 dozen eggs in the fridge along with the other little things.)

A little of this, a little of that

What a week!! It is early Sunday morning (really late Saturday night for me--hoping to get to bed soon) and I am grateful for so many things.

I can't believe my baby boy is 7 weeks old already--in a way it feels like we have had him forever (because we have), but time is going by way too fast for me!!

We have received a ton of snow and the forecast is for more snow this coming week. We received 16 inches on Christmas Day, then had a break on Friday. But Saturday it snowed a couple inches more. The snow earlier was great packing snow, where today's snow was light and fluffy.

I did some cleaning today--the first time I really did a lot since having my baby and surgery. Weird--it felt good, but also was tiring. I enjoyed my break from big household duties (vacuuming, sweeping, cleaning toilets, etc.) but our floor needed a good vacuuming--the children can only get it so clean!

I love our family traditions at Christmas-time: no big meal to cook on Christmas day (omelets made by hubby), making gingerbread & sugar cookies, watching "The Nativity" (3 min.) before opening the presents, playing games and doing puzzles while the children are on break.

Talking about breaks--we have the best schedule for school!! Our small district went to a 4-day school week this year (which we all love) and we have 2 full weeks off for Christmas, a full week for Spring Break, and we had a great break for Thanksgiving.

Way off the topic, but I am glad that I decided to get organized for Christmas in September and October since the baby came the first part of November. Every year I tell myself that I will have everything wrapped and sorted so that on Christmas Eve I am not wrapping and getting things ready last minute. I can say that I was ready Tuesday (2 days before Christmas) and I hope that I will be able to be ready even earlier next year. I would have been done a bit sooner, but I needed go on one more shopping trip w/hubby and a storm came over the weekend so we postponed our trip to Monday. We have to travel 45 miles to shop, doctors, etc.

Well blog followers--I guess I had better say goodnight. My precious baby is now sleeping so I need to take advantage of every second of rest I can get. But I do need to let Aunt P. know that he is smiling and gooing at us a lot now. Hurry back for a visit!

Good night, sweet dreams.

Our Christmas morning

We woke up to snow Christmas morning and it snowed all day. The kids were quite excited--Zane and Callum woke up at 4:45, but they were really good and just looked at the presents and dreamed of what they might be receiving from Santa. Hubby got up to get our traditional breakfast/brunch ready (Christmas omelets), and in doing so made a big crash as a glass dish fell and shattered on the kitchen floor.

Needless to say, we all were awake by the crashing of dish at 7:20 (so that really is late for Christmas morning for little ones). All of us went to wake our teenager who thinks sleeping is more important--"the presents aren't going anywhere!"

He finally rolled out of bed with the threat of being dragged out into the snow storm and we all settled down to watch "The Nativity" 3 minute movie by the LDS church. After watching about Christ's birth, we opened our Santa gifts and looked in our stockings. Hubby suggested that we take a break and eat our omelette's (since 2 of the children had been up for hours, and the kids all wanted to eat their candy from the stockings). Surprisingly, they all agreed to stop opening the gifts and eat breakfast. My husband makes a mean omelet--anyway you like it! Plus, this morning he decided to make biscuits and gravy to go with them. YUM, yum!!

With full tummies, we turned to the mountain of presents still under & around the tree. Emmalee (3) excitedly inquired, "We get to open ALL the presents?!" The children opened the gifts and helped our baby open his (not that he was a bit interested in any of them being only 1 1/2 mo. old). When there were only a few presents left, our special-needs 8 year old, Callum, asked, "Mom, are we going to get the Wii?"

That was one gift the whole family wanted. I told them again what we told them before Christmas: that the salesman at Circuit City told us there were no Wiis at their store, and we probably would not be able to find a Wii in town! (I didn't say yes or no, and by now the older children were pestering me to answer yes or no--not to dance around it.)

After truthfully answering their questions, (no, Dad did not buy the Wii; Mom & Dad are not giving you a Wii; etc), Dad found 1 more present from the grandparents (they give us $ to buy presents--so this year=Wii) and the kids were extremely excited about receiving the Wii.

To be continued--my baby needs to eat.

Getting ready for Christmas

What a wonderful Christmas our family had. We had a great week--the children got along (only a few bickering moments which is tolerable since they are not in school).

The children and I baked sugar and gingerbread cookies. Then I made cookie dough balls and a double batch of banana bread/muffins. That was on Tuesday. We decided not to rush things so we waited until Wednesday morning (Christmas Eve day) to frost the sugar cookies and deliver them to our friends. We narrowed our list down to 15 families and Ethan drove me and the older children to deliver the treats.

We participated in a Stewart family tradition (that doesn't occur every year) of eating chili and clam chowder at my husband's dad's house. This year it was a small gathering--most of Hubby's siblings have grandchildren now and stay with their families--so it was our family of 8, grandma & grandpa Stewart, 1 uncle and a brother and sister-in-law. The food was yummy--especially since I didn't have to cook! I love it on the days that I don't have to cook for my family only because then I am not as tired from the cooking and the clean up!!

After dinner and a nice visit, we were off to drive around our small town to enjoy the Christmas lights. That took us a whopping 20 minutes--and it was that long because we had to back-track on a street to enjoy an outstanding display of lights. The children were excited about opening one present (our tradition) and wanted to change into their jammies and open their gift.

But we told them they would be opening 2 gifts this year--one from us and then the gift from their sibling (we drew names this year). We got them new jammies and we wanted them to appreciate and enjoy the gift from their sibling without getting lost in all the emotions and whirlwind opening of presents that occurs on Christmas morning. The children all loved what they received from their sibling and all wore new jammies to bed.

I will write more tomorrow since baby boy just fell asleep and I am going to get my beauty sleep now.

I am okay

Just wanted to share a few more thoughts--I think this blog is more for me than for anyone else and it is theraputic to get my thoughts out.

I am a procrastinator when it comes to things I don't really like to do, and sometimes with things I do like to do (like scrapbooking). I have been planning on getting back on track after being pregnant and having Benjamin, but not today. I really planned on starting my healthy eating habits and exercise when the kids go back to school in January. But after my doctor visit today, I got a wake up call and started today. My blood pressure is really high--high enough to be put on medicine if it doesn't drop some in the next week!!

It is high for many reasons--ones I can change. I have had relatively great health all my life and let bad habits creep back into my lifestyle (like lack of exercise, poor eating habits, eating too much and too much junk, too many activities, too much stress, too little sleep...). I felt I could do it all--be the ideal super mom that no one really can be.

Life will go by too fast--it already is. Ethan is a junior already and before I know it, all of the children will be grown. I put too much stress on myself thinking I need to get so many things done--but I know I cannot do them all without help. I need to enjoy this time instead of being so stressed that I can't enjoy the small (and big) things in my children's lives.

I know there are times and seasons for everything--now is the time when my house will never be "clean", when I will never have enough time to organize & get things put away since I choose to be involved in all my children's activites.

I was recently reminded that I need to enjoy the now--don't keep saying "if I can just get through this event, or get this project done." I really do know that I will never get everything done, and sometimes I think I stress so much about getting things done (whatever the project, school event, church activity, cleaning, etc) that I don't enjoy the process of planning and doing the things I do. Don't we all fall into this trap?

So today, I didn't stress that my Christmas newsletter and cards are not done yet alone mailed out. I didn't yell at my kids to go to bed. I sat and chatted with my sister. I played a game with Emmalee. The house is messy and I am okay.

I

thankful for family

Just a few thoughts about family. First--5 weeks ago I had our 6th baby by c-section and in the process had my appendix removed. So I was told recovery would take about 4-6 weeks and no lifting, bending, etc. for minimum of 3 weeks. Hard for a busy mom!!

I wanted to thank my mom for coming and helping with my recovery and taking care of my family. It was really nice to be waited on and not feeling the pressure to get things done that I knew I shouldn't be doing.

I am grateful for my children pitching in and helping with dishes and laundry and with our new baby, Benjamin. Brienna decided not to be the middle school basketball manager so she could be home after school and on weekends to be my manager.

My husband has been pulling more than his fair share. He got up during the nights when it was really hard for me to get the baby and change diapers. He has been doing dishes, laundry, and cooking. It has been nice to have the help of others.

Pamela (my sister) has gone shopping for our family 2 times (probably 2 times more than she wanted to). She almost needed 2 shopping carts. But it saved me a trip to town and all the time on my feet, lifting and bending when I shouldn't have.

I am grateful for my family members. I don't express my thanks and love often enough--life gets so busy and seems to fly by!!