Life

Today was the last Friday Forum that I am doing. I got everything ready for it, and then I started to have contractions. Because I was worried about them getting worse, I called the Institute Director's wife and asked her if she would take the food to the institute for me. She was an angel and she did it for me. I felt bad because I couldn't fulfill my responsibilites that I had committed to, but she assured me that everything went well and I am sure that it did.
Tomorrow is my cookie exchange/family party. It has been hard to get ready for it with all of these contractions, but my wonderful husband and beautiful girlies have been such a big help! Even though it wasn't the way that I would have preferred to spend my Friday night, it certainly is rewarding to be able to walk around and know that the house is clean and that we spent time together as a family to do it. Tomorrow night, my cousin, Katie Bennion is going to babysit the girls and then sleep over. I don't know who is more excited. . . Katie or the girlies. . . I just hope that they all have fun! I am excited for them to all spend the evening together while Otto and I go to his work party. I just hope that my contractions stop because I sure do have a busy day tomorrow and it will be a lot more fun if I am not in pain all day!
Until tomorrow!

Expo Latino

This morning, Abby and Anne both performed in an Expo Latino that was put on by their school. It was put on to show the diverse cultures of the Latino countries. Otto was at work, so I reluctantly took Caroline and Dustin by myself (trust me, this is not an easy task!!). I was early enough to get a front row seat and watch my two beautiful girls do their dances. Abby's dance was actually a bunch of children's dance games that was really neat to watch. Anne's dance was the national dance of Columbia. Both of the girls were dressed in pretty, colorful dresses and both of them looked great!!
As I was watching my girlies dance on the stage, I was so proud of them. Not just because both of my kids have great rythym (which they get from me of course. . . .their daddy is an engineer. . . need I say more?), but because my girls are learning more than just a language. For those of you who don't know, both Abby and Anne attend a Spanish school. Otto served a mission in Chile and felt strongly that he wanted his children to learn Spanish. I was a bit concerned because I don't speak the language, but it has turned out to be great! I am learning more and more spanish every day and watching the girls learn about other cultures makes me so happy. These girls are learning about countries that have different backgrounds than theirs. They are learning that there are people in this world who don't have the same quality of life that they have, and yet they are happy. They are learning about other religions and thus asking more questions about their own religion. They are learning about other holidays and having fun doing it. They are able to taste food from other parts of the world and attend festivals that celebrate these cultures. Having the girls attend a Spanish school has really taught them more about life than just about a language.
When Caroline and I were waiting for the concert to begin, she noticed that there were some blankets on the wall that looked like the ones that we got when we went on our family cruise to Mexico. She also noticed a dress that looked like the one that she also got down there. It made me really want to go back to Mexico with the kids because we had so much fun down there. The girls were able to speak Spanish to the merchants at the markets and everyone wanted to touch their heads because they hadn't ever seen such fair children speak such good spanish. The girls were so proud of themselves when they got to buy their special Mexical dolls themselves and they loved attending a concert that taught them about the history of the Latino culture through dance.
All in all, I have to say that there are many decisions that I have made in my life that I wish that I could change, but sending my girls to a school that teaches them more than just a language, is probably one of the best decisions that I have ever made. Would I do it again. . . . YES!!!

Naughty or Nice

Okay, I have to write this entry quickly because I have to start teaching piano lessons any minute. I LOVE Christmas!! Have I mentioned that before? I especially love this time of year because of my kids. One of the perks of having children during this time of year is the whole Santa Clause thing. Every parent should take advantage (as I do) of the fact that Santa is always watching to see if you are being naughty or nice. If my kids are being bratty, I remind them that Santa can see them and he knows that they are being naughty. If they do something nice, I say, "Good thing Santa was watching" to encourage them to do it again.
Well, yesterday Caroline was being . . . well . . . a monster!!! (That's what my brother calls her anyways.) I had told her several times to straighten out because Santa was watching her. She didn't care (she is kinda stubborn. . . must get it from Otto). The last straw came when I went upstairs and walked into my bonus room. The ENTIRE room was COVERED in toilet paper!!! Seriously. . . she must have used 10 rolls of toiletpaper to be that thorough. I knew that it was her because the big girls hadn't been home all day, Dustin had been asleep, and I had asked her earlier to bring me some toilet paper for our downstairs bathroom. I asked her if it was her, and she defiantly told me that she had done it. I then informed her that Santa was DEFINTATLY NOT GOING TO BRING HER ANY PRESENTS BECAUSE SHE WAS SOOOOO NAUGHTY.
Hmmmmm. . . .all of a sudden her attitude changed and she decided that she did want presents from Santa. So she started crying and telling me that she promised that she would be a good girl. I was still mad, so I told her No and that it was too late. Santa had seen her being too naughty.
Well, after I calmed down a bit we had a talk and I told her that if she wanted Santa to come she would have to clean up all of the toilet paper herself and be an extra good girl until Christmas and then MAYBE Santa MIGHT bring her a present. Caroline agreed to this and thought that it may work out for her.
Today I had to brave the roads (it was very snowy) and take the kids with me to Ikea. Both of them were really good. After we left the store, I told them how proud I was of them because they were so good and the first thing to pop out of Caroline's mouth was "Will Santa bring me toys now?" I laughed and told her that it would take a long time to convince Santa that he should bring her toys, so she needed to be good for a long time.
I honestly think that every parent should take advantage of this whole Santa thing. . . . Caroline has been an angel all day!! I wonder how much longer it will work?

My Sister

On Thursday Amanda and Dayln arranged for us to all go out to dinner because they were coming into town on their way to Cardston. We went out for chinese food at our family's favorite restaurant. . . Leo Fu's. At the end of the dinner Amanda and Dayln had arranged for us to all open some special fortune cookies that they had prepared for us. The waitress had forgotten, so she had brought us out some regular fortune cookies, and then later she brought us out the special ones that announced that Amanda and Dayln are expecting and they are due in July. Jenna was up in Edmonton, making Thanksgiving dinner for her friends (that's my girl!!) so Amanda had told her the night before. We are all so excited for Amanda and Dayln.
Even though I have known since Thursday, I didn't want to post it on my blog until I was sure that Amanda and Dayln had had the chance to tell his family. I thought that it was only fair. When we were driving home from the dinner, I told Otto that I had a feeling that Amanda didn't think that I was excited for her. I am very excited for her. I have just been going through this whole thing with Robin. . . and I am a little envious of Amanda. When Otto and I got pregnant with Abby, my mom was at a craftshow. We told my dad and he said that he was glad for us. We then called my mom and she said, "Oh. . . put your father on the phone." That was a bit of a downer, but we were still excited. When Amanda announced that they were having a baby, my mom was excited and jumped up and gave Amanda a hug and shed a tear or two. My dad also cried and told Amanda how excited they were and then cried again. I just kind of wished that they had had a similar reaction when we had told them about Abby, and then Anne. With Caroline, my mom was excited and she started squeeling and clapping really fast. . . then she remembered that they were going on a cruise so I got the admonition that I was to have the baby before the cruise (which I did, she left 2 days after Caroline was born). When we announced that we were pregnant with Dustin they acted pleased. But when we found out he was a boy, I thought that my mom was going to pee herself because she was so excited. My parents kind of found out in a round about way that we were pregnant with Robin, so I can't really blame them for not being excited. I had told my Grandma Bennion first, on our family cruise, and she leaned over to apologize for not acting really excited to me at dinner, and good old keen ears Christie heard and said, "What?? You're pregnant? And so my mom said, "What. . . you ARE pregnant?" That was the last I heard about that. With this baby, I was at the cabin and I told my mom very first, and she cried because she was so excited for me. We then talked about whether or not I thought I could do Camp Croppin' for her this year (her major scrapbooking convention that her company holds every year), and we both figured that with a bit of planning, I should have no problems doing it.
Not all of my parents reactions were bad, I was just envious about the first one because ours wasn't that big of a deal. . . that combined with the fact that I am sad about Robin, and the fact that I am pregnant and I am a very grumpy pregnant woman, I am quite sure that Amanda thought that I wasn't happy for her. I am. I am excited that at least Lee will have a cousin on my side of the family to play with so that all of my kids won't be completely bored whenever we have a family get together. I am excited to watch Amanda learn about being pregnant and watch her be a mother. I am excited to hear about all of the wonderful things that are going on in her pregnancy and after their baby is born I am excited to give her tips. I really am excited to have a neice or nefew on this side of the family. My sisters all compete with each other to see who is the best auntie. . . but they haven't seen anything yet!! Just ask my other nefews!!

Much Better

It's Saturday morning and as the busy hussle and bustle of the day begins I decided that I had better sit down and write a quick note after my last post. Otto and I took a quick jaunt down to the temple yesterday, and all I can say is, "Thank goodness for the temple!" I feel more at peace now, and everything doesn't seem so overwhelming. I am still worried about a few things, but I am going to try not to dwell on them. With 4 crazy monkeys at home, it's easy to make myself busy so I don't have time to think.
Thank you for your wonderful comments, I really appreciated them. It was really nice to read some supportive words this morning after being at the temple yesterday.

Sad and Depressing

This entry is going to probably be sad and depressing, so don't read it if you aren't in the mood. I won't be offended! In fact, I will probably not even know. I have been going through a bit of a hard time lately. When Otto and I had our stillborn baby, Robin in May, we were able to get through it. I have no regrets about anything that had to do with her birth and the way we handled her death and her funeral. I have actually felt quite at peace with everything and I am glad that we chose to do things the way that we did.
However, now I seem to be going through a whole mixture of conflicting emotions and I don't know how to deal with it. I think that some of it has to do with the fact that I am pregnant again and we are getting excited to have little baby Lee join our family, and some of it has to do with the fact that it is getting close to Christmas time and I was expecting to have a little baby to fuss over, and most of it has to do with the fact that she was not born alive, so I never got to really be her mommy. These are all hard things for me to face.
When I first had Robin, I wanted to look at all of her things all of the time. Otto and I bought a beautiful white memorial box to keep her things inside of and it was hard for me when I had to put everything inside of that box. I keep pictures of her on my laptop, which I used to look at every day, and my mom bought me a whole bunch of items to help me remember her, which I had all over my old house. I belong to a bunch of online support groups which have helped me because I have been able to talk about Robin as much as I want to other women who are going through the same thing as me. Otto has been really good about everything and has let me talk about things, even though it is hard for him to even hear her name.
Now, however, things have changed. I want to visit my baby's grave, but at the same time, I don't want to go when the rest of my family is with me, which means that I can never go. Every time Otto goes to the gravesite, he cries, and so I put off going because I can't be strong for him right now, but I feel so bad and guilty for not going. It seems to be one of two places where I can be close to my baby, but we haven't been able to buy her a headstone, so the only thing that commemorates this little child that we had is a stick in the ground by my Nana's headstone. That is also really hard for me to look at because I feel that she deserves more than that. I am scared to look in Robin's memorial box because I know that I will burst into tears, and I don't want to cry any more. I have a hard time dealing with the fact that she is really not here. I haven't been able to bring myself to look at all of the pictures that we took of her at the hospital because it reminds me of how broken her body was when she was born and that breaks my heart because as her mother I want everything to always be perfect for my children and that was one big thing that I couldn't give her.
Being pregnant with Lee has been an emotional roller coaster. I am so worried that something is going to happen with him, but at the same time, I am soooo excited that Dustin is going to have a little brother. Right now I am 23 weeks along and when I was this far along with Robin, she had already died, but I didn't know it so I was still oblivious to the fact that she wasn't alive. It brings a lot of feelings of guilt to me because I still believe that I could feel her move. Whenever I feel Lee kicking, I think to myself that this was the exact feeling I had when I was pregnant with Robin, but she wasn't actually doing anything. It is the weirdest feeling I have ever had because I don't know how to deal with that fact.
I love Christmas!!! I am probably the biggest Christmas fanatic that you will ever meet. This year, even though I am totally excited for Christmas to come, I am also dreading it. I miss Robin so much every day. I am really dreading Christmas Eve because she won't get to be baby Jesus in the family nativity pagent, and when I see Mary holding a doll instead of her, I don't think that I will be able to handle it. I really feel as though someone is missing in my family and that is hard for me to deal with right now.
As I mentioned earlier, part of this is probably just me being pregnant and so my hormones are all over the place. I do know that I will get through this, and even though I am having all of these conflicting emotions, I am usually okay. . . . it's just in those quiet moments when I have time to stop and think about things that I don't know what to do.

Pizza and Slurpees

As I was running around doing errands today, I started thinking about all of the things that I need to get ready before December 1st so that we can start doing all of our family traditions. I know that I have already written that we do follow alot of my parent's traditions, but there are a few that are our own. One such tradition is that on Christmas Eve, at lunch time we always have Pizza and Slurpees. I always giggle to myself when I think about it because it makes me remember the origins of that tradition.
When Otto was in school and Abby and Anne were just little babies there was a year when my Grandma and Grandpa Bennion were out of town (we usually have dinner on Christmas Day) visiting my Aunt Christie for Christmas. On Christmas Eve we did the usual dinner with the Lee side (and what a party it always is). On Christmas Day, we did our Christmas thing at our house and then we went over to my parent's house to open presents with them. We had lunch with them and then they asked us if we were going to go home to have naps. Well, we took the hint and we left. At about 4:00, Otto and I realized that we hadn't made any dinner plans for Christmas Day. We weren't going to be able to go to my Bennion Grandparent's house, Grandma Lee was spending the day with Uncle Garry, my parents made it obvious that we needed to be elsewhere, and Otto's family all lived out of town. It was the weirdest feeling. I didn't have any groceries, but we figured that since movie theatres were open on Christmas Day, restaurants would be too. NOPE!! We drove around for 2 hours looking for somewhere to eat. The girls had fallen asleep in the back, but I was getting really hungry.
Finally, I remembered that I had some frozen pizza in the freezer, and we swung by good old 7-11 and picked up some slurpees to go with it. So that year, on Christmas Day, we had a healthy little family dinner of pizza and slurpees.
Otto and I have decided to incorporate this event into our yearly traditions to help us remember that day. I want to make sure that we remember it so that the kids can learn how important it is to 1 - plan ahead and 2 - make sure that no one is ever forgotten. Whenever I think about that day, I always giggle to myself because who would have thought that I would not have made sure that we had plans on Christmas day.

Music

Every year I sing in our church's production of Handel's Messiah. It may not be the most professional performance that there is, but we do have strings and a chorus of 185 people. Throughout the years I have had many disappointments in the production because I have auditioned for a solo part and didn't get it, or things weren't conducted the way that I would have done it. Yet, I still continue to sing in it, year after year. This year, I asked myself why and here is the answer that I have come up with.
I truly believe that Handel was inspired when he wrote that music. Every word is taken directly out of the scriptures and every word speaks of Christ. When I sing that music and forget about everything else that is going on, I become overwhelmed. The power of the words in Messiah, combined with the music brings a feeling inside of me that I just can't describe. I feel as though I am truly singing praises to my Savior. Every time I sing it, something pops out at me. I learn something new about the Savior's life every year, and every year I am amazed by it.
This year, I am having a hard time listening to the pastoral symphony because that is supposed to represent when the Savior was born. It is just too hard for me because it makes me miss my little baby. But then we start singing the words to the other songs in the oratorio and I soon forget about my own little sorrow and I start to feel glad. I especially have loved listening to the soprano aria "I know that my Redeemer liveth". The part that I love the most about it is that it says that although worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. That reminds me that even though Robin's body was broken and not perfect, when she is resurrected she will be perfect and when I get to see her again, she will be perfect.
That just makes me want to sing Hallelujah.

Maybe Christmas Doesn't Come From A Store. . . .

Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. I know that this is true, but sometimes there are things from a store that can make Christmas fun. I have just gotten back from buying all of my kids' Christmas presents and now I can't wait for Christmas to come. Having little children has made Christmas sooo magical. I remember when I was a little girl that I couldn't wait for Christmas. My mom would decorate the house so beautifully, make cookies, make nuts and bolts, do crafts with us, do advent calendars with us, make us do service projects and just make Christmas the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas Eve was always my most favorite day of the year. We would spend the day playing and then we would get all dressed up and go over to a relative's house for Christmas Dinner, after that we would act out the Nativity (with most of the girls secretly wishing they could be Mary) and have a talent show. After that we would talk with our Grandparents and they would tell us about their childhoods. After we would go home, we would carry out the presents, one by one while listening to Christmas music. We would then open up our Christmas pj's. After changing into our new pj's we would read out of the "nice box" (this is a box that was full of pieces of paper with good deeds that we had done written on them), eat cookies, set out our stockings, and write a letter to Santa.
For most kids Christmas Day is the most exciting day of the year, and I did enjoy it, but with all of the traditions that we did on Christmas Eve combined with the excitement of what Santa was going to bring us made Christmas Eve the most wonderful day of the year. I could NEVER sleep on Christmas Eve, and so my parents had to set a time limit as to how early I could wake up on Christmas Morning. I would wake up every hour. As I grew older and became a teenager and no longer believed in Santa I would still have trouble sleeping because I was so excited for my younger siblings.
Tonight I just got back from shopping for my kids' Christmas presents. I really wish that Christmas was tomorrow because I am so excited to see my kids' faces when they wake up on Christmas morning. For the most part I do the same traditions that my mother did when I was a kid, but there are a few things that we do differently. I really wanted the kids to remember why we are celebrating Christmas, so instead of eatin cookies on Christmas Eve, we bring out a birthday cake, put a candle on it and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. On Christmas Eve, the kids do not bring out the presents to put under the tree. I keep them all wrapped up in my closet and then on Christmas Morning when the kids wake up, Santa has taken all of the presents out of my closet and put them under the tree. It is really magical, and I love seeing the kids' faces when they see all of the presents under the tree! I still have problems sleeping on Christmas Eve, and by 6 am, Otto has usually had it and he lets me wake the kids up so that we can open presents. I just don't think that this will ever change. I hope that when they are teenagers that there will be some way for us to keep the magic of Christmas because it is truely the most wonderful time of the year!

My Cousin

I was reading my cousin's blog the other day and it really got me thinking. She was talking about fate and choices and what it was exactly that got her to where she is today. I started thinking about my own choices. I know that I have made some choices that are not all that common. I chose to get married at the tender age of 19. I chose to have 2 babies within a year of each other. I have chosen to become pregnant with baby number 6. I have chosen to be a stay at home mom and not advance my career as a caterer. I have chosen to have a family instead of travel the world. I have chosen to help out the Institute of Religion by providing them with food every Friday at no charge. I chose not to attend University and get a degree, but instead work so that my husband could get his degree.
When I say that I have chosen all of these things, obviously Otto was involved in most of them and they were decisions that we made together. I have been thinking about these choices that I have made and how they have impacted my life. I have asked myself, would I have made different choices if I were given the chance? For most of the decisions, I know that I would have made the exact same choice. My only regret is that I have never had a formal education. I often feel inferior because of it even though I know that I have my music and my catering that have both come in very handy when we have needed some extra money. I just wish that I had that piece of paper to back me up. Maybe when my kids are older I will go back to SAIT and get my Red Seal.
The other thing I have been thinking about when it has come to the choices that I have made is: Am I happy with my life generally? I can definately say that "yes" I am very happy with where I am in life. I have a wonderful husband who loves me very much and who is a FANTASTIC father to our children. I have four beautiful living children who make me smile every day. I have one perfect angel who is waiting for me in heaven. I have another little handsome boy on the way. I have a house that I can finally call home and that I LOVE immensly! All in all, I would have to say that I am blessed because of the choices that I have made.
I heard a saying once that has really stuck with me it goes like this: The key to happiness is not getting what you want, it's being content with what you have. I can honestly say that I am at a point in my life where I do feel completely content with what I have. I mean who could ask for anything more right?

Monday Monday

Thank goodness for husbands who take the day off! That's all I have to say! Otto had decided to take today off because he has extra vacation days and almost all of the kids didn't have school today. It ended up being such a great blessing to me because I had to spend most of the day in bed. Ever since last night, I have been having pains coming up the right side of my abdomen and I have been feeling really crampy. I have been worried about it, and I have been debating whether or not to go to the doctor, but Otto told me that as long as I could feel the baby move, and as long as I wasn't in severe pain, to spend the next couple of days taking it easy and we will see what happens. Otto hasn't been feeling well lately, so it was nice of him to say that to me. He took care of everything today, and I spent the day with my feet up.
My pains feel a bit better, but whenever I walk, I get cramps that feel like contractions. It is quite worrysome for me, and so I have been trying to stay off of my feet as much as possible. I know that most people would want to go to the hospital, but from my past experience, there isn't much that they can do. They can listen to the baby's heartbeat and tell me to stay off of my feet. That is pretty much what I have been doing at home. If anything gets worse, I will DEFINATELY go to the hospital, but for now, I am just going to pray, wait and see what is going to happen.

Weekend

I have had the opportunity to think about alot of things this weekend. These past few weeks, I have heard rumors about a friend of mine. I didn't know whether or not they were true, and it was bothering me that so many people felt as though they had to "weigh in" on the rumor without even knowing whether or not it was true. This person has always been special to me and we have always remained friends over the years. So, I emailed them to ask if the rumor was true. I felt really akward being so forward and direct about such a sensitive topic, but I felt as though I owed it to them to find out directly from the source whether or not it was true. My friend was very sweet in their reply and answered my question and made sure that I knew how much they appreciated me coming to them. I am glad that I went directly to my friend because after I had my little baby Robin, apparently alot of people were all wondering why I couldn't tell that she had died. Instead of asking me this question directly, I had to hear it through the grapevine and it really hurt my feelings that people wouldn't just ask me that themselves. I know that people are trying to be sensitive when they talk about things like that, but I would have really appreciated someone asking me directly instead of it going around the whole city with no one actually wanting to find out for sure. When that happened to me, it made me realize how hurtful gossip can be, even when we think that we are sparing others feelings.
This weekend, my sister, Amanda and her husband Dayln came down for Friday night and Saturday. My brother Jason, his wife Suzanne, my sister Kristin and her friend Elise all came over and we hung out for the evening. It was really fun. It was really neat for me to realize that we actually do alot of things with my siblings now that they are older and starting to get married. I never thought that this day would come because when we were growing up we were all so different from each other and we fought all the time. I really hope that my kids can grow up to be close to their siblings because it is really important to me to have the family spend time together.
As Christmas time gets closer, and I keep getting more and more excited for the holidays, I have begun to decorate my house for Christmas. Some people have told me that this is a bit early, but then again, they don't know me very well and so they don't know that I have actually been buying Christmas presents since August. Silly people. In my family it has always been tradition to have each of the kids have their own Christmas trees. In our house, we decided that it would work better if each of the kid's bedrooms had their own trees. That will bring the grand total of Christmas trees in our house to 5. Not quite the 7 that my mom had when I was growing up, but give me a few more years and we will see!! For Abby and Anne's room, I bought this gorgeous 7' tall white christmas tree with white LED fiber optic lights from Costco. I then went out yesterday with Amanda, Dayln and Kristin and bought a whole bunch of silver, blue and purple christmas decorations. . . . with sparkly ones of course. This tree is every little girl's dream tree, I think. We have decided to call it the Snow Princess tree because it sparkles so much and we even found sparkling tiara ornaments that are on the tree. It really is a beautiful tree. Caroline is lucky enough to get the tree that I had when I was growing up and all of the leaves on that tree are made out of aluminium. It is a really pretty tree, and I remember how excited I was every year to decorate it. She also gets all of my old ornaments, which I think she will like because they are all pink and silver and white. Dustin's tree is a fiber optic tree that changes color. . . . I can't wait to see him at night once it is turned on!!
I have decided to do a memorial tree for Robin. I call it my Angel tree. I have ordered a bunch of angel ornaments from Willow Tree and I am excited for them to arrive so that I can decorate my tree. It is going to be hard to go through Christmas, this year, knowing that we are missing someone, but hopefully we will be able to feel as though Robin is with us when we look at this tree. It is a really weird feeling that I get inside when I think about Christmas because I am so excited, but it really makes me miss my little baby that I should have had. We will not have an infant to play baby Jesus in the Christmas Eve Nativity this year, and so I am dreading Christmas Eve just a little bit because of that. It will be hard.
Well, I seem to have written a novel today, and maybe that is because I haven't written for a couple of days, or maybe that is because most of my family is now sick and this is the few minutes of peace that I seem to be able to steal away for myself. Either way, thanks for taking the time to read this one.

Anne

Today has been a nice day for me. It didn't start out that way because at about 6 am, Anne came into my room complaining of a headache and feeling dizzy. Normally I just tell my kids to go back to sleep, but Anne has been diagnosed with children's migrains, so whenever she complains of a headache I listen. I will also let you in on another little family secret. . . .whenever my kids are sick, you can see it in their eyes, so it is really obvious when they are faking it. Poor Anne's eyes were terrible this morning, so I knew that she really was feeling bad. So, I gave the kid some tylenol and took her into bed with me. . . Otto had already left for work, so there was room for her to sleep.
I let her sleep in and I took Abby to school late. When she woke up, she didn't really want to eat, but I made her eat some fruit and drink lots of water. I then took Abby to school and Caroline caught the bus to her school, as well. I asked Anne if she was feeling well enough to go shopping (I had to get the groceries for Friday Forum), and like the true girl that she is, she said that she thought that she could manage a bit of shopping. . . it was Costco after all. After going shopping, we came home and I put Dustin to bed and Anne and I watched "Meet the Robinsons".
Even though Anne wasn't feeling well, I enjoyed spending the day with her. Last year Anne had morning kindergarten and Caroline had afternoon preschool and Dustin would nap in the afternoons. This meant that I got to spend alot of time with just Anne, and I really enjoyed getting to know my little girl better. This afternoon felt a little bit nostalgic to me because I got to spend some one on one time with my little princess. It's too bad that it took a migraine for me to be able to do it, but I am glad that we got to hang out for the afternoon.

SURPRISE!!!

I am so excited because when the big girls come home from school today, thier room will look different!! I have just finished buying everything that needs to go into their room, and so I can't wait to see their faces when they take a look at how different it looks!!
Abby and Anne have a very large bedroom and I wanted to make it cool and different for them. The theme of their bedroom is princess/midevil times. For Halloween I had my cousin Alex take pictures of them in their princess costumes with Dustin being a knight in shining armor. I have gotten those pictures blown up on poster board and I am hanging them around the room. I then bought these cute princess bedding sets at Ikea to put on their bed. Because their room is so large, they have room for a sitting area in it. I have bought the cool hanging chairs from Ikea to hang in the corner (one for each of them) and I got a whole bunch of mirrors to go on the wall behind it. I then have a circular rug that goes in that corner, so they have this really cool little sitting area in their room. Another bonus of their bedroom is that they have a tv mounted on the wall, so they can also use that corner to watch tv. I am getting so excited just thinking about it. I can't wait until they get home. . . only 3 1/2 more hours!!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!!

Today is the 31st anniversary of the birth of my WONDERFUL husband. In other words today is Otto's 31st birthday. Yesterday we had a housewarming/birthday party for him. We had planned on spending the day cleaning and organizing everything, which we did, however we took our sweet time getting everything done. So when our friends came over, I continued to make appetizers while visiting with them. It ended up going over pretty good, and I didn't get any complaints about the food, so I guess that that's a plus!!
Because today is Otto's birthday, I have been thinking alot about him. I know that I can say just about anything I want to about it on here because he never reads it!! I was thinking about how his life was growing up. It was so different from mine. His background is totally different, and I have been thinking about that because I have realized that I am so grateful that Otto grew up the way that he did because it gives him a different perspective on things. There are things that we make sure we do because Otto did it when he was young like teach the kids how to ice skate, put bubble lights on our tree, (you will have to come to my house at Christmas time to see this. . . it's pretty cool!!), and visit the Crowsnest Pass every year so we can eat at a diner called Chris'. I am glad that we have these traditions and that we do these things because it lets the kids see a bit of how their father grew up. His upbringing is very different from theirs so I love it when he can tell them some of his memories of his childhood.
Today I am pretty much just grateful for my hubby. We got married when I was 19 and he was 21 and I know that it made my parents nervous. However, these past 9 years have been great. We have been blessed with 5 beautiful babies with number 6 on the way, and we have made it through some tough times. We have also had some wonderful times, including right now. I am so glad that I was able to find someone who could love me as much as Otto does and someone who could be such a wonderful dad to our children. I sure do love my big guy!!

HELP!!! I'm pregnant and I still can't sleep!!!!!

I figured that since I can't sleep, and since I wanted to use this blog thing as a journal for my kids, I figured that I might take a few minutes and jot a word or two down! It is almost 3 am and so I cannot be responsible for anything that I write down right now.
Today, I let the kiddies stay home from school, well, except for Caroline. . . she still got to go! This morning, Santa began working his credit card magic online to get ready for the holidays, and so I basically let Abby run the show this morning. I know it sounds terrible, but hey, I am almost done my Christmas shopping and I am really excited about that!!! Now if only I could figure out how to harness the energy of my children I would be set. (I think that all of the candy from last night might have something to do with it!!)
Abby, Anne, Dustin and I then set out in the afternoon to the great and glorious land of Costco. We went there to get all of the food for Friday Forum. And we ended up with about $150 for ourselves!! I know that Christmas is my weakness, but those Christmas garlands, and decorations are soooo cute!! They even had these beautiful angels, which has become my new thing since I was blessed with my own little angel this year!!
After dinner, we did homework, cleaning, and made monster brains for dinner. It looked terrible, but it tasted great!! And hey, my kids ate a whole meal of spaghetti squash without two many complaints so I am happy about that!! The trouble is that Anne is my most picky eater and she wants to be a ballerina. I really struggle with that because there is such a pressure for ballerinas to be thin as they grow older, and I really want her to learn how to stay lean and still eat balanced meals! It does give me an edge at dinnertime though. Whenever I see that she isn't eating properly, I just tell her that I will not let her be a ballerina until she eats a balanced meal. . . that doesn't mean that she has to eat all of it, just some of all of the different parts of it (if that makes sense). I don't know how much longer that arguement will hold up, but I plan on milking it until it stops working! None of my other kids have that problem. In fact, if I call a meal something like monster brains, Caroline will go for thirds!!! (Maybe that is why my brother constantly calls her monster!!!)
Dinnertime eventually ended and so it was bathtime. The girls all wanted to have a "hot tub" in my jetted tub. . . so I let them. . . what can I say. . . it even has a sprayer to wash their hair with!!! So, I lit some candles and filled the tub with warm water and turned down the lights and then turned on the bubbles. And do you know what those monkeys did???? They asked why I didn't give them music too!!!! I actually would have, but our speaker in our ensuite isn't hooked up yet, so I couldn't! Dustin would have none of that. He doesn't care for the jets, so he had a bath all by his lonesome and played with dora toys. I guess that some things just don't beat out Dora!!
When I was getting the kids ready for bed, Dustin and I found these really cute costumes that my Aunt Christie handed down to us. I put on the purple dinosaur costume and he ran around scaring his sisters!!! Then he made me change him into the tigger one and the girls loved it!! The only problem was that he wouldn't let me take it off of him when it was time to go to bed, so instead of fighting with him about it, he is currently sleeping in a tigger costume and pj's. He will definately NOT be cold tonight.
Well, now it is past 3 am and I do have Friday Forum tomorrow, so I had better get to bed so that I don't yell at someone tomorrow. Wish me luck!!

A Halloween Fit for a Queen (or 3 princesses and a knight in shining armor).

Yesterday was Halloween. . . . I love holidays, but they always seem to be so much work also. Yesterday the kids had so much fun, and that seems to be what this is all about. I LOVE watching my kids get excited about holidays and I will miss that when they get older!
For Halloween the girls were all princesses and Dustin was a knight in shining armor. It was adorable! The girls all had school parties and I made "Monster Brain Dip" for them to eat there. They all got candy from their teachers, friends and bus driver! Their candy bags were almost full by the time they got home and we hadn't even started going trick or treat yet.
Dustin's highlight of the day was when the two of us went and bought a Halloween cake. It was a chocolate cake and it had a picture of a pumpkin on it. He wouldn't stop touching it and calling it pumpkin cake, so by the time it got home. . . . well it didn't quite look the same. . . . but the kids didn't care!!
This year, instead of candy, we decided to hand out mini playdough. It worked great!! Otto took the girls out with the neighbor kids and Dustin and I stayed home and played playdough. Caroline tired out after about 8 houses, so she came and joined us. It was really fun! We didn't have very many kids come to our house for Halloween, so we still have tons of playdough left. . . better than candy if you ask me!!
After trick or treating was done, we went to my parents' house. It is something that we do every year and my mom seems to really like it. My brother Jason, his wife Suzanne and their puppy Max were there. They had even made a costume for Max and it was adorable!!! It was a little dragon costume!! Max hated it, but we all couldn't get over how cute it was! The kids had alot of fun at my parents house and we didn't end up leaving until after 9:30. So. . . I kept them home from school today because I figure that it will be easier for me to deal with 4 sleep-deprived, sugar high children than it will be for their teachers to have to deal with them. I guess that that is also one of the parts of having a holiday. . . the day after!!