Christmas in the Hospital

Our Christmas was the merriest ever. We have a beautiful little girl healthy and still with us thanks to modern technology. Hattie has been blessed with a strong constitution and it has been a blessing. This has been our season for sick kids. Poor Hattie got a nasty case of RSV most likely because of all the sickness around our house. We spent a few days before Christmas in the hospital and a few days after getting Hattie better. (that is the short nice version of the story) Dearest Nathan did everything possible to make it a nice environment for us.

Santa made an unprecedented stop on Christmas eve to the hospital room!

Santa's Lap

Ellie came back from this activity and said, "We saw the REAL Santa mom." "How do you know it was the real Santa?" "Because he said he lives up at the North Pole and he had a real beard. And Mrs. Claus was there too. She was pretty."

Christmas begins

We have been a little late on the draw with many things because of sick kids and a trip to the hospital with Hattie. We got our tree up a few weeks ago and the kids had a blast helping Nate put it up. Christmas started for us when grandma and pa brought a tree to us.
Wells helping out.

Ellie helps out.

This is how Harrison helps out.

The Christmas Concert

At the community Christmas concert on December 9, 2007, both Ellie and Nathan sang solo's. Guess who stole the show? She went with Nathan to a practice on Saturday told the organizer she had a song to sing and they put her on the program right then. She didn't know the song as well because although we had practiced the song several weeks ago with grandma Miller we hadn't done much since. The video isn't real great quality but it is worth posting! I was glad for the video because I didn't get to go because the germ pool was too great a risk for Hattie.

Hattie

Another Favorite Picture
"A few of my favorite things" about newborns.

-I love all the face contortions while both awake and asleep.
-I love when they pull up their feet and arch their back as you pick them up.
-I love their precious hands.
-I love milk dribbling from their mouths because they fell asleep nursing.
-I love the warm sleeping little bundle on your chest.
-I love, love, the sweet smell of a newborn.
-I love when their eyes start to focus on the world around them.
-I love the big grins(air bubbles? happy thoughts?) while sleeping.
-I love the elastic band arms and legs, cute only on a baby or small child.
-I love little pursed lips.
-I love chubby cheeks bouncing when the are burped.
-

Photo Op.

I tried one night to take some pictures for Christmas Cards because since Hattie was born we have only been out to the doctor. She is getting better but we have stayed away from all germ pools. So... I tried to take some pics of the kids for Christmas cards and these are the cute rejects.

Fun with gramps and grams.

Every morning Ellie and Wells went into the room mom was sleeping in and woke her up by crawling quietly in her bed then snuggling with her until she woke up. They then requested story upon story until she ran out of new stories or was too tired to finish her sentence. She left our house sick, no doubt from lack of sleep and being overworked. I took a sabbatical from laundry and dishes while she was here.
Grandma practiced a song with Ellie that she sang at our annual community Christmas program.
Wells put on grandma's glasses and became a concert pianist. Nathan and my dad made gingerbread houses with the kids. This was the first round.

Hattie's Blessing Day

We blessed Hattie at our home last Sunday. Normally it would be at the church but both dads were here and not likely to be in the same place at the same time for a while. We only had a few there because I was worried about all the garbage germs out there at this time of year. I am not sure November is the greatest time to have a baby. Nate's brother Joe and wife came to support us and a family friend Ron along with the parents and bishop. I just sat and held Hattie so no one would touch her so there isn't much picture documentation.

Just my style!!!

Hard to believe it is almost December before I post the kids in their Halloween costumes. Typical me!! I didn't even have my camera Halloween night. We went to a friends work and she took the only pictures we got. She was nice enough to send them to us and so her they are!

Sweet little Hattie.

This week has been a hard and a good one. It has been hard because Hattie has been sick with lung congestion and a few time I have been scared for her. This has been a good week because my mom and for part of the time my dad have been here to help me. This enabled me to hold Hattie most of the day and night. I let myself enjoy holding her while others were doing my work -which I haven't done as much with the others. There are always things to do and the babies get held when they need me. I wondered(mostly at night when I was tired) if Hattie would be with us for long and so I took advantage of having the help and just held her. I was so thankful that my dad was here to watch her. She still is sick but she is more alert and no fever. Mom and dad are gone now and Ellie and Wells have been so sweet and helpful to me. Nate has let me sleep in and I am feeling less sleep deprived. Most of the time I feel like I can do this four kid thing. Not long after we brought Hattie home I was holding her and the others were running around and I looked at Nate and said "This place is crawling with kids." When we are in the car and I look back at our four kids in car seats it seems like our family grew big really fast. We sure do love Hattie in the family!

Enter Hattie Mae...

Well it has only been a few days but it feel like a month has passed since having our little Hattie. She is so great at sleeping the day away and staying up all night so it has been a challenge to get a good picture of her because her eyes only open at night and for some reason I am not in a mood to start snapping pictures then. We got a few pictures today and I will keep trying to post them! She was born Wednesday in the wee hours of the morning weighing in at 7.12 and 21 inches.
Grandma is here to let me get a few naps.

Tagged

I enjoyed reading my friend Michelle's tag blog and learned several things I didn't know about her. She tagged me which means that I share my info then pass the buck. This tag is different than the favorite movie, cookie etc. This tag is to find out five things most people don't know about you. Then I tag 5 people to do the same. I guess I should put up a few websites so you can follow along if you want.

1- I have water skied in February when there was snow on the ground and ice in the lake. My friend Jen and I were suckers for an adventure and she was dating a guy with a boat. We gathered up the dry suit, the neoprene hat, booties and gloves and went to Utah Lake. We didn't ski long runs and didn't do any fancy skiing(not like I ever was that great a skier!) so as not to crash but we had a blast laughing and loving the craziness the whole time. The pics would be fun to put on but I would have to find them then scan them in. -too much work.

2-I have a habit of sleeping with something over my ear. I can't fall happily asleep until my topside ear is covered.(with my hair or the sheets) I either heard something about earwigs getting in your ears or saw a movie with something crawling in ears when I was young and it has been a nightly thing since them. Nate never knew this until just recently.

3- This one is probably a little neurotic but I'll share it since I am dealing with this right now. I hate boogers! When I was a child I really got grossed out when I saw someone pick their nose and eat it. It even gives me the creeps thinking about it now. I know it is a natural part of growing up but I really hate it.Wells just recently found out how much I don't like that habit. If I see him picking his nose and eating it I (unemotionally) tell him he has had his treats for the day and he doesn't get whatever sugar treat we have. I wonder sometimes if this borders on abuse. I just cannot handle it! I would never ask Nate if he did that as a child because I could never kiss him again! Should I see a counselor?

4-I love the smell of coffee. I have never had the stuff because I love my commitment to my church too much, but I really love to go down the coffee isle at the store. We were at a buffet the other day with family, and the smell of the coffee smelled better to me than anything. I drink barley drinks like Postum and Pero (which my Korean friends tell me is healthy for me) and they taste about what I think coffee smells like.

5- We are trying to come up with girl names for this next little one. I love the name Suki(Sue-ki)but Nathan really doesn't like it. I am sure we won't use the name for this little one so I can talk about it.(we think it is a girl but didn't bother to have a more accurate ultrasound) I think there was a girl name Suki that I knew when my family lived in Mexico for three years while my dad was going to medical school. There are two more tidbits that maybe someone didn't know about me.

I tag my sister in law Audrey, friend Stephanie M, cousins Angela, Mary, Camille and their mom my aunt Claudia.
PS I would like Jen, Lora, Sherrie, Angie, Miriam and the list could go on to get a blog going! I want to see the kidlets, house, boyfriend and so forth.

Wells' Birthday!

There was really no exclamation point with this birthday. With a few crazy days and a million things to do Wells got gypped. He went with daddy to work which was the only thing to save the day. He as most kids do has such a hero worship on his dad that anything they do together would be the greatest. Wells wanted an ice cream cake so this was an easy version of it. Michelle! your cop out for a birthday party makes me laugh compared to this cop out. But I did what I could considering...
Ellie had a great organized fun birthday this year. I might make it a five year old tradition and not feel bad about this party-less birthday.
This is a meringue ice cream cake although it looks like melting ice cream! I love this cake and so do the kids.

Ribbon Festival

The kids are in piano with a fabulous piano teacher. She has a great talent for teaching kids! She also happens to be my sister in law. Ellie and Wells have been looking forward to Ribbon Festival for a while. It is a real kid friendly music festival. The played three pieces for three different "judges" and had three different classes 20 minutes each. Wells beamed when the judge called his name and after playing his little piece he said, "I have another one." so he played the next piece in the book much to our surprise. I think he would have kept going if I hadn't helped him off the bench. The one I took pictures of was Music and Movement class. They danced, clapped hands and skated around on paper plates to music. After they were finished they got ribbons for every class they took. They came away with 6 ribbons each and feeling mighty proud of themselves. We finished off at the Darigold cheese factory to eat and get ice cream.

Posting Time!

I love it when friends and family update blogs regularly! I'm an all or nothing person so when I post I will have a few days of posting everything and then a lull. I am enjoying looking at blogs and emails tonight after several quite stressful days. I am blogging because it feels like I am accomplishing something. I need the feeling of accomplishing something as we all do. I think I need it more often in my current stage of life. I sometimes write: read kids stories, do dishes, make dinner, on my list just to have something to check off.

GOOD NEWS 1 Today we went for kids shots and my prenatal check-up. It is nice to hear the baby's heart beat and know she/he is in the right position. I only gained 2 pounds since last months visit and that feels great! I just got sent a billion cookie recipes and think I will celebrate! I have two weeks left and with any luck it will be sooner!

GOOD NEWS 2 Last night Ellie and Wells were sharing a bedroom while Harrison gets used to sleeping in Wells' bedroom and they were having quite a conversation. Wells said "It made me feel special when you made me some cinnamon toast this morning Ellie, let's talk about that." Ellie a few minutes later said "Wells you are an adorable boy, ya know that"...."Ya, will you hand me that blanket." I enjoy their little chatter so much, most of the time. They have been playing the "Stop copying me." game for a while and that gets old but I really love that they are such great friends.
Tomorrow I will post some pics. As for tonight I am not wanting to get up and get the camera to do such a little thing as post them!

Daddy Rules!

Sunday evening is the kids favorite time of the week. We pop popcorn, make orange julius and dress up in daddies Isreal garb to act out scripture stories. The kids are acting out Jericho and the walls falling down in the picture. The kids pay such good attention to Nathan when he is telling stories. He has a way with his Old Testament stories. Nathan is a primary teacher in church and he forgets he has sharing time until they remind him 5 min prior to doing it! Everytime I ask the teachers how he did and they say he does a great job! Amazing I think!
This motorcycle is one of the favorite toys of my kids. The sun rises and sets on Nathan for Wells and he cannot get enough of his daddy and the pickups, motorcycles and tractors.

We have some real monkeys in our fam!

This was another of our fun stops when we were in Utah. Nathans climbing gym partner built his own climbing gym in SLC. It was so amazing. The kids had a blast climbing on the numerous walls and kids routes there were. They also loved the blocks in the kids corner. Nate's brother and family came too and had a blast climbing. Nathan loved getting back into climbing and maxed out his muscles. Ellie and Wells did so well being so small on these amazing 42 foot routes. Wells never made it up to the top of the tall ones but loved challenging himself on the kids routes. Ellie was the star of the show. Jeff, Nate's friend who is climbing professional(with an amazing climbing portfolio) said to Nate "Sorry to tell you but Ellie is a better climber than you are." He said she was a natural climber and he would love to see her climb more. She went on three of the tall routes and with no apparent fear of heights. Harrison and I had fun watching. I did go water skiing, a 2 mile family race, and a few other hikes this summer in case you wonder about my sense of adventure. I have lost a little of my fun factor with pregnancy but not all!

Quiet Time!

The kids are down sleeping for a few moments and it is a good time to get a bijillion things done but I would rather catch up with blogs and emails. We have started a Maughan-tesory school here in our home, because it seems to be the best option at present. Nathan is pretty dead set against Ellie going to the school in our little town.(I am of the same opinion but it does seem like a great idea at times.) The only other option was driving four hours a day to get Ellie to a private school... so I thought I would give kindergarten a try! I think it is one of the better places to start because there isn't too much material I can't help her understand. She and Wells are doing really great and I am hanging in there! Ellie,I have to say, is a great joy (more than not) to have around. She is a great go fetch girl. She also helps me trail Harrison cleaning up the constant stream of messes he makes. She feels indispensable to me...and she is right! We were with a group of women picking grapes to juice the other day and she was next to me picking when she said "Mom, I want to go help Elaine do you think you can do with out me." I assured her it was ok for her to go and in her little helpful voice she said again, "Are you REALLY sure you can do without me!" What fun these little ones are. And yes I did get some grape juice bottled and it is good. My family loves it. I did around 72 quarts minus a few broken! You may think that I am quite the little molly homemaker but if you lived where I live I am guessing you would do the same. If only to have something to do and feel accomplished about.
PS I wish I were better about remembering my camera and I could have showed you the gorgeous fields of grapes we were picking in. One of these days I will post pics of our area.

First BYU Football game.

Nate's family are die hard BYU fans especially when it comes to football. This year their family reunion was the ball game! This labor day weekend reunion also coincided with one of my extended family reunions. It was so fun to see family I hadn't seen in long time. There were also several of my family at the game cheering on my cousins boyfriend BYU's starting corner back. My dad, brother Lincoln and cousin Chad sat with the Maughan clan which was fun.

California at last.

After driving most of the day we crashed a party of Nathan's uncle Don and wife Fran. They were so wonderful to host us. They live 10 minutes away from Disneyland and were happy to have us stay. They had a party going on with 4 of their 6 children who all had families of their own. The kids all live in the area and they get together all the time. What a fun family they are.

Disneyland and Laguna Nigel

We stayed with my cousin Jen and her family so we could go to the beach with them after our two days at Disneyland. It was a great day at the Beach and it wasn't crowded because school had just started in most places. Disneyland was really nice because with a few exceptions there were no lines.

Sea World

The kids loved the shows and loved all the new kids playland places. There were new attractions from the last time we went 3 years ago. We stayed out of the "splash zones" which was much cleaner but a little less exciting.