Nathan's belated birthday update

My sweet young son turned four a few weeks ago. He was so excited and kept asking when his party was going to happen. We had our family over and he really loved the attention and all his new gifts, like he needed anymore gifts. I cannot believe that he is four. It just seems like yesterday that he was a baby and now he is a big boy. He is pretty outgoing, talkative, and very snuggly and wants to lay in bed with me and read or play the DS a lot of the times. I love spending our Monday and Tuesday's together. We have such a great time and love to hang out with each other. I am hoping that when the baby comes he will not feel left out but I am sure that some of that will occur. I am hoping that since he is older he will experience it differently than the other kids. So we will see. I know that there will be an adjustment period and our relationship will change but hopefully it will be for the better.



He really wanted a basketball or soccer cake but he got this one. He was happy with his moms lack of artistic cake skills.








He loved his new punching bag. He still plays with it and it is ironic that it is Michigan since it give him even more motivation to "destroy it".

The following are house reconstruction pictures from a few weeks ago.






These are current day pictures. The electrical, plumbing and heating and cooling have been installed and next week we are moving onto insulation and hopefully drywall after that.


Master bathroom

Master bedroom and bath

First floor expansion.

Another view of first floor expansion.


Belly shot



Kids decorating my birthday cake.


Everyone singing. So sweet.

I just have to vent for a few minutes about being pregnant. I generally love be pregnant and I have very few issues or problems. Yoga, swimming and keeping in shape keep me from having few aches and pains. I love the opportunity to have the experience of carrying children and know that it is a short term experience. I will miss it when the baby is out and the responsibility kicks in. What I am frustrated with is my restless leg syndrome. It has gotten worse with each pregnancy and I am tired of trying to lay down only to have my legs feel like they need to move. So I have to get up and move around when I really want to relax and stay in bed or on the couch. It happens almost every night and sometimes when I relax in the afternoon. When I am not pregnant it happens maybe once or twice a week and is somewhat tolerable. It is affecting my sleep and I become more irritated when it occurs. So I am looking forward to not expecting it to happen every night.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-my family
-being able to be pregnant and carry 3 happy kids (soon to be 4).
-Having the opportunity to add onto our house.

Holiday wrap-up

Well we had a great Holiday season. The kids were really excited about Santa and the Elf's hiding spaces did not get old. They loved waking up every morning trying to find him. The last few days he ended up in upstairs in their rooms and they thought that was pretty cool that the elf ended up in their rooms.

Julianne said that one of her friends did not believe in Santa and she did not really question it. Then D heard her say after she looked at her Santa gift that, "he is really real." So that was great to hear. I hope she holds onto that imagination and spirit. I know that the younger kids will probably find out earlier than she does so it will be nice to keep that dream alive.

My mom and grandma were in town so that was nice to have the additional company. D's mom and step dad came for Christmas Eve dinner and then came up in the morning for breakfast. We ended the evening by going to my sisters for Christmas dinner. The kids played really well with her kids and they had a great time.

Our New Year's Eve was spent at a neighbors house. Julianne spent the night at a friends house so we definitely missed her but she had a good time. We ended up leaving the neighbors around 11:15 and told the kids that the night was over. We got them in bed and was able to watch the ball drop by ourselves. So the Holiday season was great and pretty uneventful.

Nathan had an asthma episode a few days before Christmas. This was the first time he actually talked about it and expressed his feelings about it. He told D that his asthma makes him cry. I slept with him that night and he woke up around 1:00 am and said that he was scarred as he touched his chest. He was definitely breathing really rapidly so we did a treatment and I gave him some antihistamines. The next day he was better and bounced back pretty quickly. He must have had a cold because a few days later I got it and I did have a lot of junk in my lungs. So I am sure it affected him a little more than an allergy episode.

We are not back to the swing of things and regular life. The kids were tired today and told our babysitter that they needed some time off of school. So they are trying to adjust as well. The Christmas tree and ornaments are gone and the house is back to normal, well at least as normal as it can be with construction occurring. The addition is moving along pretty fast. They already have the inside framed and just this week we were able to go into the master bedroom. It looks like it will be a great space for us. The room is about the same size as our other bedroom we will just have a larger bathroom and closet. I am looking forward to the new, lighter space, the upstairs laundry room and our new mudroom. I still have glimpses of guilt because we don't really need it and our house is great without it. However, the space will be well used so I keep remembering that.

Pictures from my dad's early Christmas


Julianne loving her new Uggs

Nathan just had to try his new remote control car in the snow. We told him it may short the car but he insisted. Sure enough it did short the car but once it dried it worked again.

Cousin time


Waking up the girls on Christmas morning.


Santa gifts. Julianne recieved an American Girl doll horse, Mallory got a fairy house and Nathan recieved a Bat house.


Some Christmas chaos

We got Nathan a Nascar race car set. It is an older fashion on where you have the triggers and you try not to run the cars off the tracks. The kids had a ball with it.




After opening the gifts the girls had massive pretend play time.

Gigi got the boy cousins these spy glasses and they loved them.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Our great holiday season
-Visiting with family
-Nathan picking our pink heart rocks for the girls
-Julianne and Mallory buying me dollar store rings
-The thoughtful gifts from D

Is there an Elf on your shelf?

Well I finally broke down and bought an “Elf on the Self” ploy. The kids and I were shopping last weekend for a birthday gift and Julianne, my persistent and loving child, really wanted to have an elf in our house. All her friends had one and she did not understand why we did not have one. So I ended up purchasing the 30 dollar elf and book and the kids have enjoyed it. I have been hesitant about purchasing it just for the sheer fact that it enhances the are you “naughty or nice,” “Santa will give you a lump of coal if you are not good,” etc (do I need to go on? We all have heard these sayings). That drives me nuts and I think it is actually a bad parenting strategy. We all have our naughty sides when we were children but did we ever receive a lump of coal or less gifts then our siblings? No. So it drives me nuts when people ask my kids this. Oh well, I guess it is more the tradition of Christmas than adults really meaning what they say. So anyway, I do not talk about being naughty or nice when talking about what Santa will bring the kids. However, the book emphasizes this fact, thought not too much, so it is a small enough amount that I have accepted our Elf and what it stands for in our house. It stands for a mystical figurine that travels to the North Pole each night and ends up in a new place in the morning. The kids have enjoyed finding the elf’s new location as much as I have enjoyed trying to find creative shelves/TV/Lighting fixtures for it to call home for the day. The kids are still intrigued about how it actually gets to the North Pole each night and why it does not talk to them and why they can not touch it (it looses its magical powers if you touch the elf). So I love the creativity it adds to the Holiday Season so for that fact I am glad the Elf (named Chris) is in our house and a part of our Christmas tradition.

We found out a week ago that Julianne did not pass the 3rd grade reading assessment test. She failed it by a measly 6 points so that was a little frustrating but I remember not passing my planning certification test by one point so I can relate to the pain, frustration and feelings of it being unfair. However, as we all know, life must go on and not everything is fair and just. So we shared this news with her and since she did not pass it she has to take it again in the spring. Her teacher told us before we found out the results that most the kids that do not pass it do so mostly because they have never completed a test like this. The wording and directions are sometimes more difficult and foreign to the kids. So I think that may have played a part but I do think that it is mostly because Julianne hurries through work and does not take her time. She swore that she took her time and I am sure that she took more time then she usually does knowing that it was a test. But she also misses main themes/words/information when she reads because she is always moving onto the next sentence. She rushes a lot and misses minor words that have important meanings. So the next day we got a letter from a reading resource teaching stating that she should probably get additional help for reading. So I was thrilled because I have been wanting her to get extra help for reading but she has not qualified in the past. So this will give her extra time and attention and someone else who is more qualified than me to help her out. I, quite frankly, get frustrated reading with her because she does make such small mistakes and does not really “sound” out the word and instead just guesses. So we are hoping that this extra help and her awareness that she just needs to slow down and take her time will help her in future reading tasks. She has been really excited about meeting with her special teacher. There are several other kids in her class and another class that are also in the program she is in. So she loves that the teacher gives her treats and checks up on her. I am proud of her for adjusting so well and for putting in the extra effort.

Julianne is also having a hard time going to sleep. She has always had weeks where she claims that she can not fall asleep after having been asleep for awhile. But this is the longest episode and is probably going on 1 month. She really does not go to bed until 10 or 11. Which I think that for her 10 would be the latest but the 11 and beyond are a little late. Mallory and her play until about 9:00 then she does things in her room but she has been coming down every evening around 9:30 or 10:00 stating that she cannot fall asleep. So we keep telling her different strategies and we have even given her Melatonin for a few nights and the does not seem to work. So I feel bad for her because she always says that she is tired at school and she wants to go to bed but she is having a hard time falling asleep. I can relate to the fact that it is annoying when you have spurts of not being able to fall asleep. Then you starting thinking about all the sleep deprivations that is going on and that just makes it worse. So we are trying to help her but also not make her reliant on us for solving all her issues. Hopefully it will work itself out and we will not have to really do anything drastic.

I just dropped Nathan off at school for his last day of school before the winter break. We got his teachers flowers and a card and he was so excited to give his teachers his present. It was really sweet. In the car he said, "I can't wait to give Ms Caroline my present." He ran into the classroom and gave it right to her. It was really sweet to see him care that much about giving his teachers a gift. He is really excited for Christmas this year and keeps talking about it. We finally got our tree up so that that has helped. It will be fun to see him really excited on Christmas.

Our room addition is in full swing now. They have removed the back wall of our house and now we have all these temporary walls up. It is becoming a little drafty, especially with the single digit temperatures, but it is great to see the progress they have made. they are suppose to get it done before the baby is born so we will see. I am not too hopeful but I will be pleasantly surprised if it is. They have been working hard so I know that if it can be done they will do it.

Pictures of the house (this was actually about a month ago so I need to take updated pictures)



Grandma Marci brought over gingerbread houses and cookies to decorate. The kids and their cousins had a great time. Everyone got a chance to decorate and add their personal touch to the goodies.







We went bowling a couple weeks ago and despite the high cost of bowling we had a great time. We played one round and ended up paying almost 50 dollars. what ever happened to bowling being a low cost activity. We will wait until coupons arrive before we go again.










Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-listening to Mallory read on her own (she loves to read)
-hearing the kids go downstairs before we get up so that they can find the Elf
-Nathan telling us that he loves us.
-Julianne and her love of snow (she was outside yesterday laying on her belly licking the snow for quite a long time)

I'm still hear...

I am just unmotivated to write anything. Nothing much is happening and I have not really taken any pictures. I took pictures of my friends kids, a friend of mine and my own kids for some holiday cards. I do love my friends pictures but I am not as thrilled with my kids pictures. I am sure it will turn out wonderfully, but we are our greatest critic.

The girls soccer is over so that has been nice to have some more free time. I am getting started on shopping and organizing for the holidays. One thing I dread is composing our calender and Christmas card. It is just time consuming and I feel like my time is so limited. I am also against the entire Christmas card giving. What do we really do with them after the Holidays? I actually do keep the picture cards and put them in my yearly folder to keep but the others I shamefully recycle or give away. It is nice to see pictures of everyone else's families that I do not see all the time so I guess that is the point of sending them. I am sure others feel the same way but enjoy seeing our family. It would be nice if we all decided to not send cards and instead send a holiday e-mail or some other way to share our family updates besides buying 80 cards and stamps. I just dread when the first cards come and it reminds me that I have to get started on the entire process. Usually mine are the last to go out so I am trying to be more proactive this year.

I am also working on a quilt for Mallory which if it was my choice I would spend all my time on but with all the other things going on I have to divide and conquer.

We have started renovating our house so we now have a large mud hole in our back yard where our screeened in porch used to be. They are pouring the foundation for the crawlspace this week and the next. So when I get those pictures up I will share them on the blog.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-using my limited "me" time to work on a quilt
-giving thanks to everyone who is supportive and responsive in my life.
-The kids giving me 10 minutes to blog while they are coloring at the kitchen table.