more illness

are you tired of my illness posts yet?  because i sure am!  this has been the year of the stomach bug for us.  it must just come from different germs in a new place because we are never, ever this sick and it has been the same bug over and over.  this time makes five.

maddux woke up with it on wednesday morning.  he has made it to the toilet each time to vomit and even with horrible diareah, he has had no accidents or set-backs in his potty training.

manning vomited all over matt on sunday night and all over me early this morning but seems to be better now.  matt had a short time of 'discomfort' and mason seems to be the only one to skate by this time.  maybe because he has taken the most naps and rested when he needed to?

at least it seems that we are all getting more immune to it because this go round was not nearly as bad and it has been getting progressively less each go round.

we are just going to lay low until the kids have to return to school.  praying that this is the end of it!  love.

finally - a snow man

so i am not terribly fond of the time it takes to get the kids all bundled up for playing in the snow.  i feel a little bad about it, but until they can all go out and enjoy it, it just isn't something i can do on my own.  so i assign that job to matt.  i think we will be investing in more snow gear this year as madelyn has had the same suit since she was two and it really doesn't fit any more (it was really, really big when she was two).  mason's gear isn't waterproof and maddux doesn't really have 'gear' other than a hat and jacket (which by some miracle, he was willing to actually wear).

madelyn and mason did a much better job of helping daddy with the snowman this year.  maddux stepped out into the snow and decided that he was cold.  he also doesn't like how the snow sticks to everything and just wanted to come back inside.  again, this is why i can't do this on my own.

i love this picture of madelyn.  she was tossing snow up in the air and running through it yelling, "this is the best day ever!!"  she has snow flakes all in her eyelashes.  you should be able to see them if you make the picture larger (aka click on it).  but even without the close up, it is a cute picture of her.

and here is their finished product.  they went back out to add sticks for arms a few hours later.  the kids loved making it with daddy.  and from the looks of the forecast, this snowman is going to be with us for quite a while!  love.

candy cane ice cream

after church we decided that we would try making some homemade candy cane ice cream (aka peppermint) with the ice cream maker attachment to our stand mixer.  we have had the ingredients for a while but daddy wanted to be able to see how it worked so we waited for a day he was free to help too.  it worked out great because he did it almost totally by himself!  it was surprisingly more work than we had expected it to be.  we were all pretty excited about it and at the end, it was (almost) worth it! 

the kids got to help with the candy cane breaking.  the idea was that they could hammer the candy canes with their toy hammers, but the bags proved to not be quite strong enough.  oh well.  the job still got done.

all of the kids took turns watching it 'churn' for the entire 20 minutes - i was surprised that they watched it just turn for that long.  (notice that madelyn's entire outfit is polka-dots.  it is two different shirts, skirt, pants and even polka-dotted socks.)

the ice cream turned out super yummy!  it was very time consuming so this will be just a once in a great while treat i think.  love.

pretzel time

determined to keep the germs away, we are taking our doctor's advice and staying home as much as possible.  today we filled some time by making pretzels!  now that i have discovered my oven's 'bread proofing' setting, they came out wonderful!  this might be dangerous...  the funny part is that they all love making them, but mason and i are the only ones that eat them. love.

legos!

i love legos!  more specifically, i like following detailed instructions and making something correctly!  really.  i am not super inspired to build something of my own imagination but i was always the one to follow the manual or picture on the box to build my brothers' sets growing up. 

we have been putting off 'real' legos because of all the small pieces and still having crawlers in the house.  but mason is so good at puzzles with lots of pieces, we thought that he might like a lego 'puzzle'.  but, wow, did we have a very difficult time finding a set that we were willing to have in our house.  why do they all have to be so dark and scary/violent?!  thank goodness for the 'creator' series.  we got a pretty basic 3-in-1 set (which he read on the box when we gave it to him - maybe i should be working on reading with him?  he is much more interested in trying than madelyn was at this age). 

he did really fantastic following the instructions.  all i did to help was make sure that the pieces snapped together completely from time to time.  about half-way through, madelyn joined us and couldn't stand how slowly he was going so she sort of took over.  mason didn't seem to mind so i just let her help him (read: do it by herself while he watched).

it took them about an hour when it was all said and done.  well worth the money in my opinion!  love.

christmas crafts

since christmas is now past and the gifts have all been opened, here are some of the things the kids and i (mainly i) have been working on for the past month or two...

first we started with our homemade ornaments.  on my side the siblings just exchange ornaments, so we thought that we would make ours this year.  we started with a bowl of 1x1 inch felt squares.  then i gave each child a longish needle with thread and let them go to town.  the only rule (besides not poking each other) was not to but two of the same color next to each other.  madelyn made a few with patterns (red-green-white-red-green-white) and they all enjoyed it.  which was good because we did this at least five different days.

here are two of our finished felt wreaths.

then we painted feet for a canvas of christmas trees for papa and nana.  it came out so well that we made one for big pop and grandma too.  it was about then that matt and i realized that we only make gifts like this for the grandparents and never for us (they get all of the keepsake like things) so we plan to do one for us too - although, now that i think about it, we never did...

when i saw these on pintrest, i knew that it would make my mom very happy!  matt liked the idea too so we picked colors to match each set of grandparents' home and got going.  the kids helped paint all of the wood circles and then i did all of the writing while matt screwed in all of the hooks and eyes (not an easy job, by the way).  we were really happy with how they came out and they were such a big hit that we are going to make some more birthday 'coins' for each family.

teething necklace for baby wyatt from madelyn - the cousins all exchanged names (except for the mistake i made in double assigning mason..  we are actually going to draw names when we go down this summer so that will make things easier for the next year).

all three teachers received a set of four cloth coasters (well, madelyn's teacher will get hers when school starts back...).  the kids picked the fabrics for their teacher (mason was particularly passionate about the colors he selected for his teachers and was constantly checking on my progress) and then i pretty much had to do the rest from there because of how much you needed a glue gun.  simple but very time consuming!

once i had a sewing machine, i got a little craftier.  a few friends got reversible coffee cup sleeves.

matt got a back heating/cooling pad and the kids all got a set of hand warmers/boo-boo packs (madelyn's were heart shaped and the boys got squares)

maddux got a new (larger) sleep sack.

and we all got fleece socks (matt, mason, maddux got navy and madelyn and i got red with chicks).  i was really pleased with how well the fits turned out and i even made my own patterns!

i am already planning for next christmas!  and the plan is to make more things that the kids can play a larger role in putting together.  i just love giving homemade gifts - the giving is just that much more sweet.  (don't worry, we bought plenty of gifts too!)  love.

tuesday tip - have a merry christmas

merry christmastoday we celebrate the birth of jesus christ.  and we do "celebrate" around here.  the kids and i make a cake and we sing "happy birthday".  matt and i try to stay off electronics and just 'be' with our family.  that is my tip today - don't miss it.  have a very merry christmas!  love. 

christmas day!

happy birthday, Jesus!  thank you for coming as a gift from God to forgive our sins and allow us the hope of an eternity in heaven!  such a great reason to celebrate.

since i couldn't get up last night to help, i took some pictures of the tree before the kids came out to open everything.  we still haven't bought new stockings.  we just have the two matt and i used in our first christmas as a married couple.  since maddux doesn't really care, we just used a felt gift bag we have from papa and nana last year.  the goal is to get some for the whole family this year (i am being really picky about the type and style of stocking - that and i am cheap like matt).

uncle derek sent the personalized stuffed animals for the boys - aren't they cute?

we are expecting the opening to take most of the day!

manning was the early bird around 5:45am.  i was still pretty dehydrated and light-headed from my night of illness but duty calls.  he woke up a very happy baby and i had the delight of listening to him babble happily in the dark for about an hour before the other kids started to join us.  (i have been working on uploading some video of him going at it - he even threw in a "ma" here and there for me - but after about 6 attempts over three days, i am giving up - for now.)

the rest of the kids and daddy got up around 7:30 which worked out perfectly because we had planned to skype with grandma and big pop to open presents before they went off to visit their local grandkids.  what didn't work out so great was madelyn excusing herself to go vomit occasionally.  she is seriously the easiest sick kid!  a sore throat brings tons of moaning and complaining, but vomiting is no big deal.  the good news was that she didn't feel poorly and was a delight to be around.

the boys ready to go

madelyn got a personalized doll from uncle derek.

we started with the stockings and as always, the kids would have been thrilled with just the small items they found in them.  maddux was particularly excited about a lid-free cars cup he found in his bag.

madelyn was pretty excited about these hand warmers/boo-boo packs i made for all of the kids.

we had decided that the kids would have to take turns opening gifts and they did!  not only did they, but there was no complaining, not rush to get to the next gift and madelyn kept volunteering to let her brothers go first!  it made for a simply wonderful morning together.  it was really a special christmas for me.

mason was the poser of the morning.  he wanted a picture of everything.

mason finally got his "race track with a race car" that he has been talking about non-stop (more on that in another post).  he wasn't as excited/surprised as i would have expected, but he was really happy.

maddux got a new phone.  he has worn out all of the others.  he is a little old for it but he was really excited about it.

we also skyped with papa, nana and uncle derek to say merry christmas.  and calls to uncle brad and uncle josh and their families.

other than madelyn and i being ill, it was a near perfect day.  we are richly blessed.  i hope that your christmas was filled with love and hope.  love. 

christmas eve

christmas eve was off to a great start with the delivery of homemade cinnamon rolls!  we have some sweet friends who made and then delivered them - and they were delicious!  we made some eggs, bacon and hash browns to go along with them and had a nice long breakfast.

the kids (and i) were really excited to open presents.  matt and i had discussed letting them open their christmas jammies after lunch this year so that i could wash them before they wore them tonight (they felt almost sticky with flame retardant - i am guessing).  madelyn got fleece polka-dot pants and a shirt, mason got 'yetty' pants and a thermal shirt, maddux got x-ray style jammies (picture below) and matt and i just got navy sleep pants.  i couldn't get a theme going this year - maybe i will make them next year...

madelyn giving matt a neck rub and maddux 'helping' with his feet.

matt had to go into work in the late afternoon, so he got to spend quality time with the kids by making their gingerbread houses!  i just got a kit that had four little houses in it.  it worked out really well for each kid to make their own instead of all working together on one.

all maddux heard was 'cookie' and dug right in! oops.

 matt ended up having to do most/all of the construction on his own.

while they were working on the gingerbread houses, i thought i should probably take a few pictures of manning by the christmas tree - this being his first christmas and all.  oh the fourth.  madelyn's pictures are in a christmas dress, mason's in a cute sweater, maddux dressed as santa, manning's are in the random jammies he slept in with spit up on the arm.  oh well, the thought was there.  right, manning? (please forgive mommy.)

 

and then i let him take a stab at opening his christmas jammies.  he really liked the paper but was more interested in me and his brother, mason, who came around to 'help'.  once we got his jammies open he sat there chewing on them for at least 30 minutes quite happily.

and now it was time to decorate the gingerbread houses.  matt thought that it should be my job.  of course he did.  he had dumped out most of the icing trying to get them together so there wasn't really enough left to ice the roofs.  it was quite a mess to say the least.  the kids had fun though.  they weren't pretty, but they didn't care one bit.

i thought that i should at least be in one picture for the day

maddux' compromised wall proved to be unable to bear the weight of his decorations.

since maddux' had already fallen apart and they had already had lunch, we let the kids tear into them as soon as i took the pictures above.  i think mason was the only one who actually ate any gingerbread.  and now that they were good and sugared up, matt headed into work.

manning sitting around

once manning was down for his nap, the rest of the kids and i snuggled up to watch pollyanna.  i loved this movie and thought it would be a nice way to pass the afternoon.  (we picked up a few movies from the library on friday to enjoy this week.  the other night we watched the incredibles with daddy.)  i was actually surprised how into it they all were.  after about 30 minutes or so, madelyn asked to go take a nap - sure.  and then mason went in to join her after about another 30 minutes.  maddux and i finished out the movie and everyone was still asleep. 

it was getting close to when we needed to start eating dinner so that i would have enough time to get everyone cleaned up and to church.  matt was just going to meet us there because we wouldn't make it on time if we had to wait for him to get home.  i jumped in the shower and started getting ready.  everyone was still asleep about 30 minutes before we needed to leave. i was able to get madelyn up and moving but mason was not interested at all - he was in a very deep sleep.  i had to start nursing manning or there would be no chance at all of getting there.  and then it started snowing.  matt called to say that he was leaving the office and i told him that we just weren't going to make it.  if he had been here to help me we might have had a chance, but there was just no way i was going to get everyone fed and dressed in time.  so he came home instead.

last night we had also discussed the idea of letting the kids give out the gifts they had chosen for each other so that their $3 gifts that they were so proud of did not get lost in some of the more exciting (and expensive) gifts on christmas morning.  after dinner everyone got bathed and into their new jammies and shared their gifts to each other.

maddux' jammies seemed perfect for him.

mason stopped to say "cheese" any time i pointed the camera in his direction.

we are so glad that we did it this way!  the kids were all so excited to give their siblings the gifts they had selected especially for them.  it was a really sweet way to spend the evening.  unfortunately, around this time is when i started to feel poorly.  matt got the kids down by himself for the most part and i was throwing-up in our bathroom.  ugh.  this was not really ideal at all.  i was so weak that i had to have matt put out the rest of the presents and stockings.  i love that sort of thing so it just shows how rough i was feeling.  i was praying it was food poisoning.  love.