Monday, November 9, 2009
Sleep Update
For those of you who may be wondering how my night went, (see previous post) here is the update: The baby slept all night. (He woke up at 5:15, but as long as there is a 5 as the first number on the clock, I count it as morning. Plus, I can just feed him and then he'll sleep for another hour or two.) But Megan. Oh Megan. Apparently my mere presence in the house puts her in some sot of hypnotic haze and she needs to seek me out. (I can just here the thoughts in her little brain. Must be with Mom... Must be with Mom.... Must always be with Mom...Not really much different from her daytime thoughts - hold me, hold me, hold me...) But still, she only got up once, and that is a huge improvement. I just need to think my positive thoughts a little more strongly, I guess. I have to admit that when Amelia asked me if I was going to sleep at the hotel every night, I was tempted to say yes, just so they would think I wasn't here and stay in their beds all night. Here's hoping for more good nights.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Ah....Sleep
This is not my bed, but it is where I have slept - alone- for the past two nights. Why? you might ask. Well, because for the past several weeks, sleep has been rather sparse for some of us around here. 
Most nights, I get up 2 or 3 or 4 times with Peter. Then I also get up 2 or 3 times with Megan, most often having to take her back down to her bed and sit patiently by until she falls asleep again. (Because I know there is no chance of me sleeping at all if she climbs into my bed.) Add on to this the occasional night where Amelia also gets up to go to the bathroom and starts crying because she doesn't want to go into the dark bathroom alone. And Samantha waking up and crying because her teeth (recent dental work) or her legs hurt. And then sometimes the dog starts barking to go out or to come back in, which necessitates a rapid response so he doesn't wake up anyone who might still be asleep at that particular moment. And so it has been going for night after night, after night for weeks and weeks. Some days I feel like I can barely see straight and I find myself just dreading the nights because I am so desperate to sleep but am not hopeful that I will be able to do so. This has also led to an almost constant headache, continual loss of coping skills, and apparently to my being a less than perfect mother and wife. (Go figure.)
Most nights, I get up 2 or 3 or 4 times with Peter. Then I also get up 2 or 3 times with Megan, most often having to take her back down to her bed and sit patiently by until she falls asleep again. (Because I know there is no chance of me sleeping at all if she climbs into my bed.) Add on to this the occasional night where Amelia also gets up to go to the bathroom and starts crying because she doesn't want to go into the dark bathroom alone. And Samantha waking up and crying because her teeth (recent dental work) or her legs hurt. And then sometimes the dog starts barking to go out or to come back in, which necessitates a rapid response so he doesn't wake up anyone who might still be asleep at that particular moment. And so it has been going for night after night, after night for weeks and weeks. Some days I feel like I can barely see straight and I find myself just dreading the nights because I am so desperate to sleep but am not hopeful that I will be able to do so. This has also led to an almost constant headache, continual loss of coping skills, and apparently to my being a less than perfect mother and wife. (Go figure.) Now I know that I need to let Peter "cry it out" at night, but he is usually so sweet and pleasant during the day that I just can't bring myself to be mean to him like that. But it turns out that I'm married to a pretty great guy, who came home on Thursday and told me that he had booked me a room for Friday and Saturday night so I could get a little sleep. (In Shawn's defense, he is perfectly willing to get up with kids at night but he just doesn't wake up. And usually by the time that I get him to wake up enough to be of use, I'm awake enough myself that it defeats the purpose, and then often, whichever child he may go to try and help, will scream until I show up anyway.) So anyway, I was feeling very guilty about leaving him with the kids while I went off to sleep. (But not guilty enough to stay home.) He said he would take care of the whole crying it out thing with Peter and I could be sleeping soundly somewhere else. So off I went.
What do you know, but apparently all it takes to get all of my kids to sleep through the night is to get me out of the house. Both nights, no one got up. No one. Seriously? Even the baby slept until 5:30! He managed, by sheer will alone to get all of the kids to stay in their beds asleep all night. (Sheer will is also how I believe my brother Rob has managed to keep all of his hair when all of my other brothers are losing theirs - but that is another, unrelated topic.) Apparently my power of positive thinking is not nearly as strong as Shawn's. I guess I better work on that. And now that I have tasted of the sweetness that is a good night's sleep, I am pretty sure I don't want to go back to that getting up 7 or 8 times a night - ever again. Wish me luck, I'm off to bed for a glorious, sleep filled night. (See me being positive?) They will all sleep tonight. They will all sleep tonight... They will all sleep tonight....
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Raking Leaves
It's that time of year again, when many, many (but of course, not all) leaves fall to the ground. There are 9, yes 9 large, mature trees in my front yard, which I really love during the spring and summer months (except the pears - I don't love those- ever). But come fall, all of those trees drop a lot of leaves and then it is time to rake. Of course, I expect my kids to help in this little endeavor. This morning, when the task was presented to them, you would have thought we told them we would be hanging them from the trees by their fingernails. There was a lot of crying and yelling and even some hitting, I think, because of the fear that someone might end up doing more work than someone else. Seriously, it was ridiculous. However, I did not give in because, as I tell my kids all the time, I expect them to do hard things and, what do you know? They survived. I don't quite know what Samantha planned to accomplish with a shovel, but at least she was out there "attempting" to help. And Jonas was actually quite useful.
Once they remembered the fun of jumping in a leaf pile and burying each other, they realized it wasn't so bad. Here's Samantha in the pile.
Can you find 3 Stringhams in the leaves? (Clearly I was doing most of the work at this point, since they were all in the leaves.)
I had to convince them that the leaf pile could only get bigger if they actually helped me rake up the leaves.
Finally, Duffy got brave enough to join in, so here's 4 kids buried in the leaves. You have to look pretty closely to find Samantha and Jonas.
Too bad there are still some leaves in the trees that are just waiting for the lawn to be clear again. I am still so grateful for these beautiful fall days!
Once they remembered the fun of jumping in a leaf pile and burying each other, they realized it wasn't so bad. Here's Samantha in the pile.
Can you find 3 Stringhams in the leaves? (Clearly I was doing most of the work at this point, since they were all in the leaves.)
I had to convince them that the leaf pile could only get bigger if they actually helped me rake up the leaves.
Finally, Duffy got brave enough to join in, so here's 4 kids buried in the leaves. You have to look pretty closely to find Samantha and Jonas.
Too bad there are still some leaves in the trees that are just waiting for the lawn to be clear again. I am still so grateful for these beautiful fall days!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Fall Fun
We have been enjoying this beautiful fall weather. I am finding it hard to stay inside, since I know its only a matter of time before it will be too cold for me to want to venture out at all. So, when our friends, the Dunfords, invited us to join them at Sugarhouse Park we jumped at the chance. The girls all enjoyed playing on the playground and feeding the ducks and geese.
(Anyone know what I have to do on my camera to get rid of the blue hue that all of my photos seem to have lately?) Never mind, I think I found it.
(Anyone know what I have to do on my camera to get rid of the blue hue that all of my photos seem to have lately?) Never mind, I think I found it.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Ironic
I am finding humor in the fact that Shawn, as Young Mens President will be attending Standards Night tonight, and then will leave to go play with his band at Liquid Joe's (a bar). He's calling it missionary work, I call it funny. Anyway, I have tickets if anyone wants to go and hear them play at 9:00 tonight.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Disneyland Miracle
Warning: Long post
Now, there are a couple of reasons why I call this post the Disneyland miracle. First of all, Shawn has always been anti- Disneyland. I really didn't think we would ever go. It's not his sort of vacation. (Of course, I use that term very loosely because going anywhere in the car with 5 children really isn't a vacation no matter how you look at it.) But anyway, no matter how many times it was brought up I knew it was something he didn't want to do. Then one day, out of the blue, he said, "I've got a couple of days where I don't have anything scheduled. We should go to Disneyland." What??!! This is his very busy season at work, and he has sometimes gone for days without seeing the kids because of his schedule. I think he decided this would be a good way to spend a little time with the family. Believe me, I wasn't going to argue with him. So next, we asked the Boydens if they wanted to go with us, because they are always fun to do things with and I knew my kids would enjoy going with them. Plus, there was a pretty good chance they could pull it off on short notice. Then we also invited Rob and Michelle thinking there was no way they would come on such short notice. (I clearly underestimated Rob's hatred of all things Halloween. He was more than happy to leave costumes and trick-or-treating behind. I'm pretty sure if it were a different time of year he might not have been so willing.) We also invited Matt and Anne and Jake, hoping they could come but on short notice what can you expect? So with the Boydens, Marshes and us, we had 18 people heading to Disney land. (Sadly, our camera was out of battery for the big group photo, so you'll have to check with Katie or Michelle for that shot.) The next reason for the miracle, is that my kids whine and complain so much about how long they are in the car just driving to St. George we thought we could never make it all the way to Anaheim alive. They surprised me. They were great travelers, both coming and going! (And no vomiting even -which tends to happen altogether too often on long car rides with some of my kids.) And thirdly, we all had a great time. And that was a miracle in and of itself.
We all found rides that we loved. The teacups
The Maliboomer. Rob, Rob, Shawn and Samantha loved this one but Jonas and I didn't like it so much.
All of the kids liked these sit in a vehicle, go up in the air and fly around rides - even Megan.
And of course, who doesn't love Splash Mountain?
My personal favorite was the California Screamer. Rob, Shawn and I rode this repeatedly and loved it every time. I have always loved rollercoasters.
Of course, a lot of these rides wouldn't have been possible if not for the willingness of Katie, Josh and Michelle to take care of our kids while we rode. So thank you to all of you. (It was great to be there with other people so we all could have fun. Although, I think the Stringham family tended to slow everyone else down - so we apologize, but thanks anyway for all the help!)
After the beach, we put our tired kids to bed at the hotel and then Shawn and I returned to the park with the Boydens for a few last rides and to say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom before we had to leave in the morning.
All in all, we had a great time and we're glad we went ahead and did it despite our reservations. Thanks Marshes and Boydens for joining us in our adventure! Now did someone mention Hawaii for next Halloween?
Now, there are a couple of reasons why I call this post the Disneyland miracle. First of all, Shawn has always been anti- Disneyland. I really didn't think we would ever go. It's not his sort of vacation. (Of course, I use that term very loosely because going anywhere in the car with 5 children really isn't a vacation no matter how you look at it.) But anyway, no matter how many times it was brought up I knew it was something he didn't want to do. Then one day, out of the blue, he said, "I've got a couple of days where I don't have anything scheduled. We should go to Disneyland." What??!! This is his very busy season at work, and he has sometimes gone for days without seeing the kids because of his schedule. I think he decided this would be a good way to spend a little time with the family. Believe me, I wasn't going to argue with him. So next, we asked the Boydens if they wanted to go with us, because they are always fun to do things with and I knew my kids would enjoy going with them. Plus, there was a pretty good chance they could pull it off on short notice. Then we also invited Rob and Michelle thinking there was no way they would come on such short notice. (I clearly underestimated Rob's hatred of all things Halloween. He was more than happy to leave costumes and trick-or-treating behind. I'm pretty sure if it were a different time of year he might not have been so willing.) We also invited Matt and Anne and Jake, hoping they could come but on short notice what can you expect? So with the Boydens, Marshes and us, we had 18 people heading to Disney land. (Sadly, our camera was out of battery for the big group photo, so you'll have to check with Katie or Michelle for that shot.) The next reason for the miracle, is that my kids whine and complain so much about how long they are in the car just driving to St. George we thought we could never make it all the way to Anaheim alive. They surprised me. They were great travelers, both coming and going! (And no vomiting even -which tends to happen altogether too often on long car rides with some of my kids.) And thirdly, we all had a great time. And that was a miracle in and of itself.
We all found rides that we loved. The teacups
The Maliboomer. Rob, Rob, Shawn and Samantha loved this one but Jonas and I didn't like it so much.
All of the kids liked these sit in a vehicle, go up in the air and fly around rides - even Megan.
And of course, who doesn't love Splash Mountain?
My personal favorite was the California Screamer. Rob, Shawn and I rode this repeatedly and loved it every time. I have always loved rollercoasters.
Of course, a lot of these rides wouldn't have been possible if not for the willingness of Katie, Josh and Michelle to take care of our kids while we rode. So thank you to all of you. (It was great to be there with other people so we all could have fun. Although, I think the Stringham family tended to slow everyone else down - so we apologize, but thanks anyway for all the help!)There were lots of character pictures...
The girls with Tinkerbell:
The boys with Pluto:
Peter was fascinated with Dale's nose and everytime he touched it, Dale reached up and touched his nose too. He didn't quite know what to make of it, but it was cute to watch.
When Shawn and Michelle took the girls to wait in line to meet princesses, I expected a lot of photos like this:
But why wasn't I surprised to see these photos of Shawn and the princesses?
I always thought he liked Belle, but he's smiling pretty big there standing next to Cinderella.
Peter was fascinated with Dale's nose and everytime he touched it, Dale reached up and touched his nose too. He didn't quite know what to make of it, but it was cute to watch.
When Shawn and Michelle took the girls to wait in line to meet princesses, I expected a lot of photos like this:
But why wasn't I surprised to see these photos of Shawn and the princesses?
I always thought he liked Belle, but he's smiling pretty big there standing next to Cinderella. Our kids are not the most resilient, and later in day 2 they started melting down a bit. (As seen by this photo of Jonas.) 
There were lots of tears from Megan and a full on smack- fest between Jonas and Samantha that we didn't capture on film. There just wasn't enough magic in the kingdom to keep everyone happy, so we took off for the beach. (I'm pretty sure this was also because Shawn couldn't stand the thought of being that close to the ocean and not going there. Deep down, he was really meant to be a surf bum. Too bad he has a family to support.)
The Boydens joined us, and the kids were thrilled. They loved playing in the sand and the waves. Lauren and Amelia both got soaked. Shawn bought a boogie board and Lauren especially enjoyed using it. (My deepest apologies to Lindsey, who did not want to go to the beach and wanted to stay at Disneyland. I probably owe her some donuts for ruining her day. But we still had fun.)
The Boydens joined us, and the kids were thrilled. They loved playing in the sand and the waves. Lauren and Amelia both got soaked. Shawn bought a boogie board and Lauren especially enjoyed using it. (My deepest apologies to Lindsey, who did not want to go to the beach and wanted to stay at Disneyland. I probably owe her some donuts for ruining her day. But we still had fun.)
After the beach, we put our tired kids to bed at the hotel and then Shawn and I returned to the park with the Boydens for a few last rides and to say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom before we had to leave in the morning.
All in all, we had a great time and we're glad we went ahead and did it despite our reservations. Thanks Marshes and Boydens for joining us in our adventure! Now did someone mention Hawaii for next Halloween?
Halloween
Since we made different plans this year for Halloween, there was no trick-or-treating and I thought we were off the hook for costumes, but it turned out that there was still at least one party for each of the kids to attend. Megan was a witch for her ballet party.
Peter only got dressed up because I love this little spider costume and figured if he didn't wear it now, we might never use it again. All the kids since Samantha have worn this as babies.
And somehow, though Amelia dressed up as 2 different things for both a ballet party and a primary party, I didn't get any other pictures. (What kind of a mother am I?!) She was a green dinosaur for one and I can't remember what else. Jonas was a graduate, and Samantha was Alice in Wonderland. And again, no photos. Ah well. We still have memories. So here are the pictures from Halloween Day.
For the most part since we spent the day at Disneyland and at the beach with some of our favorite people, I'd have to say we didn't miss out on too much. (Except, there are no little candy bars for me to steal from my kids' stash - and I definitely am missing that!) More on Disneyland in the next post.
Peter only got dressed up because I love this little spider costume and figured if he didn't wear it now, we might never use it again. All the kids since Samantha have worn this as babies.
And somehow, though Amelia dressed up as 2 different things for both a ballet party and a primary party, I didn't get any other pictures. (What kind of a mother am I?!) She was a green dinosaur for one and I can't remember what else. Jonas was a graduate, and Samantha was Alice in Wonderland. And again, no photos. Ah well. We still have memories. So here are the pictures from Halloween Day.
For the most part since we spent the day at Disneyland and at the beach with some of our favorite people, I'd have to say we didn't miss out on too much. (Except, there are no little candy bars for me to steal from my kids' stash - and I definitely am missing that!) More on Disneyland in the next post.
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