An important conclusion

I have reached an important conclusion. Pregnancy and blogging just don't mix in my world. I have only so much energy in a day and by the time I've taken care of the more necessary things in life, there's nothing left for blogging. It has literally been weeks since I have read any blogs so I feel so behind on everyone's lives. (I feel like I've really accomplished something if I check my e-mail every few days.)



Despite my lack of posting, we have actually been quite busy. So, for those of you who care, I am going to pretend that I have been on top of things and postdate a couple of things - so you can go back and read up on our goings on. And for those of you who don't, just look for my next post in a couple of months or so. (I have high hopes of posting Christmas photos before March.)



Have a Merry Christmas!

Getting a Tree

Not necessarily a very exciting event, but one that we look forward to each year. I think we are one of the few who still get a fresh, real tree each year. I just love the smell of having a real tree in the house at Christmas time. There is alway some discussion and attempts to convince each other which is the best tree to choose. We always get the same kind. I don't remember what they are called, but we refer to them as Charlie Brown trees. They don't have full big branches and typically have big spaces between the branches as well. Apparently Samantha didn't remember that this is the kind we always get, and it wasn't what she wanted - AT ALL!!! She threw a HUGE tantrum at the Christmas tree lot. This might be somewhat typical of my 2 year olds, but my almost 8 year old?!!! We gave her several quiet, polite warnings that she better change her behavior, but she didn't take our suggestions. Shawn finally hauled her off to the car and locked her in. It was pretty embarrassing to have all of the tree lot workers commenting on it. Being locked in the car didn't stop the fit either. She just kept screaming and kicking and yelling. Needless to say, we had to put in a direct call to Santa and she lost her ticket to see the Nutcracker. (She managed to earn that back by spending the next morning doing housework, but she is still working on earning her place back on the nice list!) Ah, the joys of children. The rest of us were happy with our pick.

Chicago

After returning from St. George, we had just a few days to do the laundry and pack up again before heading to Chicago for Grandpa Quincy's wedding. In a nutshell, it went something like this...

Bitter cold, lots of eating out at fancy places (not an easy task with 4 kids), lots of wedding festivities, pink fluffy dresses, pink ties, dancing, saw a show (The Million Dollar Quartet), new American Girl dolls for the girls and lunch at the American Girl store (a highlight for them), a trip to the Museum of Science and Industry for the boys (Jonas would have spent days there if he could), 3 trips to The Fudge Pot for chocolate treats, an attempt to see the zoo, but too cold, hats, scarves gloves, coats for all and still bitter cold. We look forward to returning in warmer weather!

Meet Fred

Fred is the newest addition to our family. He is our family's head elf. He joined us on December 1st and plans to stay until Santa comes. Although we have several elves watching us all the time, Fred is the only one who willing shows himself. We are allowed to talk to Fred, but we can't touch him or his magic might leave. He uses his magic every night to go and visit Santa and give him the daily report on everyone's behavior. He lets Santa know which of us ended up with nice stars and which of us ended up with naughty stars at the end of each day. And he can keep Santa updated on the latest additions to our wish lists. (A very nice bonus for those of us who just can't make up their minds about what we want most of all.) The most fun thing about Fred is that every morning when he returns to our house, he is in a different place. We all try to be the first one to spot him each morning. Amazingly, he even followed us to Chicago and back again with out missing a day!

Thanksgiving

We went to St. George this year for Thanksgiving. There was no improvement in the weather despite traveling south. It was cold and rainy the first couple of days. It was fun to be with family. We met my nephew and niece from Atlanta for the first time. The kids enjoyed getting to know their cousins a little better and it was good to see Rich and Sandra again. We had dinner with Shawn's extended family at his aunt Marci's house. Thanksgiving day involved playing the wii, launching rockets that we had made, and haircuts for the boys at the barbershop. (Shawn's cousin is married to a barber.) Jonas was not happy about getting his haircut, but he was beginning to look a bit like a full-maned lion and what with a wedding coming up and all.... well, we just hope he'll forgive us before too long. The rockets were definitely a highlight for the older kids in spite of the rain. It was amazing to see how high they went. Samantha's managed to last through 2 or 3 launches which was quite a feat since they were made of paper and it was wet. Although, I did remember to take my camera to St. George, I don't have a single picture from the weekend! Here's some video of the rocket launches.



We did manage to squeeze in one last adventure on our way home. While we were driving on the freeway, the hood latch on the suburban broke. It was very windy and we were obviously traveling at highway speeds, so the hood flew up, bent back and smashed into the windshield. Despite being unable to see anything, Shawn was able to slow down and pull over to the side of the road. It was pretty frightening and we felt extremely blessed that it all ended so well. Samantha cried and yelled "we're doomed, we're doomed!" over and over again until we convinced her that we couldn't call the tow truck and get help unless she stopped. Fortunately, Shawn's mom and Doug were just 10 miles ahead of us in Beaver. We stopped there and were able to secure the hood down so we could drive the car home. It doesn't look pretty, but it could have been so much worse. We figure we will at least need a new hood, a new windshield, new wipers, etc. , etc... One of the first things we did after pulling over was to give a prayer of thanks for our safety. And despite the delay, we still managed to make it to Thanksgiving dinner at the Stewarts - almost on time.



The damage:

A little like this...