Hyrum is 6

Our sweet Hyrum turned six on Christmas day and we had a great time celebrating our favorite little man.  We enjoyed a quiet family day (my favorite kind) with fun presents and an Ivy safe cake of course.

(I'm not sure why he tilts his head whenever we take a picture)

This is his "I'm 6 now" picture complete with his favorite colors, a picture of himself, and the all-important "color changing chart".  (An ingenious discipline device his Kindergarten teacher uses.  Pretty much, if he doesn't get a color change all week he gets to choose a prize out of the treasure box.  He's very ashamed to tell anyone who'll listen that he received one color change... the path of delinquency begins...)

He loves running around and wrestling with Daddy and Ivy.

He loves riding his bike even in the freezing winter.

He takes care of his little sisters even though he's not quite big enough for the responsibility yet...

He'll even play dolls and dress up once in a while- although he'd much prefer his macho Transformers and Legos.

He loves to sing Delia songs and make her laugh- she can't get enough of his attention.

 

He got to choose a "special place" to go for his birthday.  Chuck e Cheese's is ALL THE RAGE in Kindergarten so he HAD to go there.  We waited until his Grandma Trump and cousin Sarah came into town (good thing too- the more adults per child ratio the better).  We've never been before and I was hilariously surprised to discover that it's pretty much a casino for little kids.  There's tons of games where you use tokens to win tons of tickets that "buy" SUPER cheap toys (the kind you throw away as soon as the kids are distracted).  It was a total blast for Hyrum and the adults even had a fun time too.

I literally cannot squeeze and love and kiss this adorable kid enough.  We're so very privileged to have him in our family.  We love you Hyrum!!!

One of my favorite Hyrum quotes:

"Charlie is my BEF."

"BEF?  Do you mean BFF?"

"NO MAWWM.  BEF."

"What's BEF mean?"

"It means he's my teamate."

Christmas (a little early, and very late)

Hello Blog, I have missed you dearly.  Things have been so incredibly busy around here and you've been severely neglected.  Nope, not the "I'm on vacation and having the time of my life, so I'm too busy to sit at the computer" kind of busy.  The kind of back breaking, moving all our junk, taking up and down pictures and decorations 500 times, deep cleaning every nook and cranny, and touch-up painting until the wee hours kind of busy.  Yes, we spent the entire Christmas break staging our house to sell.  And yes, it might not even sell according to top market specialists, but we are gonna make the house look as beautiful as possible anyway- so HA!!! 

Finding out we needed to put the house on the market in early January was a huge shock (my little naive brain thought it would only take a month or two to sell).  So our dear friend Santa Claus came a week early so we could pack up all the Christmas stuff and start this crazy process.

Even though we were super busy and stressed, we did have time for a little fun...

We made Santa some cookies:

Decorated a Gingerbread House:

Took some pictures of Daddy's cool new beard by the tree and with Hyrum in it so people didn't think we were just trying to show off Daddy's cool new beard:





Opened lots of awesome presents

Hyrum proudly displaying his new Night Fury (you can see the "Christmas Morning" damage in the background)

Played some major dress-ups:

 Tickled and giggled:

Posed in our ADORABLE aprons Amanda Sorenson made:





 Had major fun in the snow:

And... had lots of Daddy time, which was the best present of all!



We're Thankful

Family, Church, Friends, Freedom, Home, Neighbors, Beauty, Laughter, Food, Love- it all sounds so redundant and simple, but we're so very thankful for the amazing blessing we've been given from our Lord.

Even though we weren't with family this Thanksgiving it ended up being a wonderful day (and not quite so stressful as our Utah Thanksgivings where we try to make it to both sides of the family's meals).  The food was amazing and the company was the best...

We're thankful for our dear friends the Lamms who had Thanksgiving at their house (nothing's better than going to someone else's house, pigging out, letting your kids trash it, then going home to a nice clean house.)

I'm thankful Bry made all 10 layers of my Mom's famous rainbow jello. And Bry's thankful he has such an AWESOME mountain man beard.

We're thankful our kids have such great little friends and they're so healthy and happy.

I'm thankful Delia's hair is long enough to hold barrettes now, so it doesn't look quite as crazy.

Who wouldn't be thankful of this little baby doll?

We're so thankful for this silly little boy for keeping us all laughing.

We're so thankful for our saucy Ivy girl who is in charge and knows it.

Yes, we have so very much to be grateful for- what a BLESSED life!

(The boy up top with Hyrum is our friendly neighbor with his cute little puppy)

Bry and the kids colored pictures of what they are thankful for.  I thought they turned out so fun:

Ivy Girl's

Hyrum's

Bry's (love the teeth:)



Grandma Comes to Town

We were so lucky to have my Mom come visit us last week. It was such a fun visit.  The kids love the unlimited games and books and snuggles, I love the perfect in-house babysitter and dishwasher and an actual adult to talk to during the day, and Bry loves the fact that no one's grumpy when he comes home from school- WE LOVE GRANDMA!

We had lots of fun going on walks, visiting Hyrum's school, and going out to eat.  But the bestest activity was picking apples at Carter Mountain.  It was such a great day:  the weather was perfect and the view was amazing... too bad I forgot the camera.  The above pictures are the only ones I captured the entire trip- I'm honestly ashamed of myself.  The kids only get to see their Grandma three times a year at the most and I completely spaced capturing those precious moments.  Too bad,  maybe I could guilt-trip her into another quick visit because of my faux pas...

Here's some fun pics from when both my Mom and Dad came right after Delia was born:



Passing down the great art of the "wet willie".  Thanks Dad.



Hyrum The Reader

Hyrum has been in Kindergarten for two and a half months and it seems like he comes home a more mature and smart little boy every day.  I can't believe the rate of his progression nowadays.

Before attending his Parent/Teacher conference I was a little bit apprehensive.  I didn't know how I was going to react to a semi-stranger critiquing my precious child.  I have a difficult time with standardized tests that are supposed to sum up a child's intelligence.  I also know that Hyrum isn't perfect when it comes to paying attention and following directions (unless it has to do with dinosaurs, dragons, or Lego's).  I was amazed to find out she only had shinning compliments for his behavior and class work.  He is truly excelling and I'm so proud of him.

He must get his "brain genes" from his dad because I was never quite so successful in school.  I always wanted to be in the smart kids' groups, but no matter how hard I tried I could only scrape average scores.  This resulted in a life-long struggle with low confidence.  I had the attitude of, "why should I even try if I'll never be good enough?" (No one's fault but my own.)  Don't get me wrong- I perfectly understand the need to separate those children who need more of a challenge, it's so important to give them tools to excel in life.  Now that I look back I realize how silly I was.  I wish I hadn't let letters or numbers on a paper influence my self worth.  Now I believe every person has their own version of intelligence and the term "stupid" is just a myth.  I've also realized that getting good grades has more to do with confidence than actual brain power. 

("Mom I love you, Hyrum.  Mom I want to learn from you.")

Hyrum's most exciting news right now is he's reading!  Before embarking on my "teach Hyrum to read adventure",  I never realized how complicated and crazy our language is!  All you have to do is teach them the alphabet and coinciding sound and they can read, right?  WRONG!!!  There's all these complex rules for those little brains to digest and then there's hundreds of words that just throw those rules out the window.  How in the world am I supposed to explain words like: "thought", "again", "their", "language", "English", and even the word "word"?  There's been so many moments when I've wondered how in the world any of us learn to read. It's been a difficult process, but all of a sudden, just in the last few days, reading has changed from a frustrating chore to super fun and easy!   Hyrum constantly has a book in his hand reading through them like an old pro.  He's starting to discover the magic of reading that I've been trying to convince him of all along.  I'm so excited for him, it's such a huge step to be conquering so quickly.  What a champ!

(We had lots of help from starfall.com, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and way too much time in front of the TV with PBS kids on.)

This little note from Hyrum's teacher is semi-off-topic, but I had to share it:

Soccer Escapades

We tried soccer again this year (even though our last attempt was disastrous) and Hyrum actually did great.  Turns out he is a gifted little goalie.  He also loved running around with his friends and kicking the ball (most of the time in the wrong direction).  But hey, at least he's a great keeper, right?

We spent most of the games running to keep Ivy off the field (maybe she'll be the Forward in the family).  She can actually dribble the ball better than most of those 5 year olds (including Hyrum).

The only difficulty was the fact that it cut into our precious Saturday.  The early Fall would have been the perfect time for day trips with the family, but it was impossible with the soccer schedule.  I never realised what a hassle sports can be.  I participated in soccer, track, and softball for so many years and never thought about the huge sacrifce it was for my whole family- not only financially, but the amount of time it takes.  My parents were (and are) such an amazing support to me.  I never heard them complain- they were just there, every game and meet cheering me on.  So, so amazing, I will be forever grateful. 

Our 4 Month Old

My perspective on parenting a baby has changed SO much since we had Hyrum.  I remember constantly being so impatient for the next phase- "When is he going to crawl, walk, and talk???"  My, my how times have changed!  I RELISH in the fact that Delia isn't mobile yet.  It makes life so much easier not to worry about choke-ables, toddler escape artists, the cupboards getting dumped out, toilet paper rolls on the floor, and everything that comes with curious toddlers.

We have ENOUGH opinions and temper tantrums and constant questions of "are we there yet?" right now.

I absolutely savor all snuggle time I have with Delia.  Yes, the house is an absolute disaster, but this girl loves to be held right now and that won't be the case in a few short months.

We're so lucky to have this little surprise in our family.  I'm so excited to get to know her as the years go by, but right now I'm so happy she's only a cuddly, soft baby



 

Delia is our most vocal child.  She loves to coo and talk (and cry).  She's also super ticklish and laughs easily (especially if Hyrum and Ivy are involved).  The only problem is we can't capture these moments on video easily.  When we turn on the camera she's so fascinated with the red light we can't distract her with anything else.  Here's our best effort though:

The Best Holiday

I don't really know why Halloween is my favorite holiday.  It might be the cool, crisp air, or the crunchy leaves, or the full moon against the black sky casting creepy tree branch shadows everywhere, or the chance to dress up and whole-heartedly join in the mutual embarrassment, but it's probably the free chocolate. 

We had a great time this year.  As the kids get older our options for fun only expound and grow.  Hyrum is starting to pick his own costumes, so relinquishing control is something I'm trying to learn.  It's not about me, it's about the kids (that's what I keep reminding myself).  Ivy was super shy, but she'd follow Hyrum anywhere so we didn't have too many meltdowns.  And Delia was our sweet little baby doll, happy as long as she's in her little carrier.

First Ivy, Delia, and I ventured to the pumpkin patch with Ivy's preschool.  It was a fun day, but I wish the whole family could have been there.  It's becoming a frequent dilemma in our house:  take Hyrum out of school to avoid the crowds or go on the weekend and fight with hoards of people.  So, poor Hyrum and Daddy went to the grocery store pumpkin patch this year (Hyrum wasn't too happy about it).

Actually capturing a picture of Ivy where she is not only smiling, but holding still, AND looking at the camera is a miracle. Here's a collage of a few more pics that didn't turn out quite as "picturesque".

Next, we decorated sugar cookies.  We are quite the icing artists.

After some Halloween Bingo and Twister we carved our pumpkins!

AND finally... the costumes.

I LOVE Trick-or-Treating in our neighborhood.  It doesn't make very much sense because only about 10 people total are actually home and have candy.  But here's my reasoning: NO CROWDS (I know, I must be crowd phobic or something).  Since we are pretty much the only people who bother to Trick-or-Treat in this quiet neighborhood, the people who are at home with a bowl of candy are ecstatic to see us and our ADORABLE munchkins.  We chat and they show us their pets (who of course are in costume), they give our kids a HANDFULL of candy, and we come home feeling like we did a great service to our lonely neighbors.  I honestly couldn't imagine decorating my house (and my cat), buying candy, and waiting at home for little visitors just to be disappointed.  We should be awarded some Halloween badge of honor for our kindness:)

This video is hilarious because it displays one more of Ivy's fears.  We already knew she was scared of monsters, dogs, toilet flushing, vacuums, bathtub drains, bugs, and the dark.  Now we can add one more to the list: knocking on doors.

Paying Homage to Cabbage

WARNING: The proceeding blog post includes such words as "breastfeeding", "engorgement", and "gas". 

For those of you who are prone to blushing, scoffing, or using phrases like "too much information!" you might want to skip this post.

You've been warned...

Just a stinky vegetable that gives me gas? 

NO LONGER! 

The cabbage will go down in the "History of Erin" books as a beautiful, amazing, healing flower of paradise.

I was heartbroken to find out I had to stop breastfeeding Delia last week.  I am ashamed to admit I was feeling resentful towards her because whenever I ate chocolate, dairy, and most fruits and veggies she was irritable and gassy.  So my diet was pretty limited.  I was fantasizing and craving foods like pizza, ice cream, cheese sandwiches, and chocolate chip cookies.  Even though I was excited for the time when I could resume my junk food diet, nothing prepared me for the abrupt halt in nursing my sweet baby.  When I had to stop, I realised how lucky I was that I could breastfeed, how precious that time was, and how satisfied I felt giving my baby the best nutrition possible.  I've been incredibly emotional and clingy towards all my kids ever since- I never realised how important the simple act of breastfeeding was in my life.

Poor Delia was an absolute champ about the whole thing.  She went through a hard day and then drank the formula like she'd been doing it all her life.  She hasn't shown any signs of trauma or anxiety either (I know that sounds silly, but I honestly thought she would be bad-tempered and angry at me for abandoning her).

I on the other hand, suffered not only emotionally, but the engorgement was excruciating.  The pain, the sleepless nights, and the anxiety was so horrible!  I had previously heard about using a cabbage compress, and many friends suggested it, but I didn't believe it would make any difference.  Finally, after enduring a week of pain without relief I was desperate to try anything.  The FIRST night after applying the cabbage I slept like a baby (a baby who sleeps through the night- which no baby does, so I don't know why we say that, but you get the idea).  The relief has only gotten better with each hour and I could dance for joy.  Do I smell like a combination of rotting cabbage and sour milk?  Yes.  Do I really care? Nope!  Thank you whoever decided to put cabbage in your bra!  You were crazy, but I needed you!