Before having my fourth child, I had heard the saying that "Once you can handle three, you can handle anything." In my naive mind, I took that to mean that my fourth child would be born and on we would go with our lives, without feeling so much as a glitch. So now here I stand, 4+ months later, and I can testify that four has definitely felt like more than three. Whoever made up that saying mentioned above lied. At least in my case. In all honesty, it might just be that having a new baby is hard, whether it is number 2 or 4 or 10. Once you have other children, you no longer have the luxury of planning your life around the tiny one's little schedule. He gets woken up to take or pick up kids from school. He gets fed in the minivan at the soccer fields or in the gymnastics parking lot. He gets his head knocked (or drawn on with a pencil like this morning) time and again from well-intentioned sisters. Such is the life of the fourth child. And how is he holding up through all of this? Just fine with his chubby old self. Me on the other hand? I have my moments. My heart is full and I love my kids so much I feel like I might burst. But at the same time, my hands are also extremely full. I often feel like I am swimming through mud or like my limbs are tied with string as I try to accomplish any sort of task. Every where I turn there is another mess to clean up, or a diaper to change, or a baby to nurse, or laundry to switch, or a two-year old who needs help on the toilet, or a fight to break up, and sometimes it feels like a luxury just to get to go to the bathroom. Really it can be exhausting. I don't mean to discourage any of you from branching out into the big bad world of 4+ kids. Because, in all honesty, we'll probably have more. This is just one of my journals, so to speak, so here we discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly. And it's not always pretty around here (as can be seen by the above mess that was lunch turned into "blood" by my almost five-year old who thought it a good idea to mix her ketchup and applesauce. This is after I had removed the two-year old from the table who kept using her corndog stick to wipe ketchup in said almost five-year old's hair. All the while I am holding a baby in one hand and trying to read through Christmas card letters. See what I'm talking about- full hands.) Anyways...onto something else. Another misconception that someone told me is that Texas has all the seasons. I mean really? Have you lived here? Our fall is not much, but we do have quite a pretty spring. Really Texas weather consists of mostly hot and muggy, or cool and pleasant. Two seasons with small transition periods. We are now in the cool and pleasant time, although things were a little chilly before this week. Last week the trees finally caught on that fall was almost over and turned brilliant shades of yellow/orange. It really made me so happy to see.
As for the fourth child, he finally made the trek to his own room all the way down the hall from his mommy's room. It's a sad time, but a good time as he wasn't really sleeping as great anymore. I'm surprised we waited this long actually to move him. He was just such a great, silent sleeper that we didn't really want to rock the boat.
Despite what has felt like an excessive amount of "sibling rivalry" in our home as of late, there have been some kind moments such as Jada providing Cole with several toys to play with, or Jada wanting Mya to play with her and saying "You're best my friend- ever."
Below has been my awesome nursing spot- the chair is so comfy (thanks Gma for the hand-me-down!) and the presents make for awesome side tables to hold things like burpy cloths or phones or books. It also was unfortunately my "mastitis recovery zone" this week. I came down with the most horrid fever and aching right side Tuesday night. It was one of the worst nights sleep I have had in recent history. I went from freezing and shivering to burning up. I was so dizzy I could hardly walk. Luckily the fever was pretty much gone by morning and I got hooked up with the meds at the doctor's- four times a day for a week! I feel much better. Elle, on the other hand, came down with a fever last night and has been okay, but not great, today. She is doped up on Tylenol and I am praying that the illness stops with her and that we are all healthy by Christmas.
The kids are driving me crazy with their enjoyment over all the gifts wrapped and under the tree. I am glad they are having fun with them, but they have been pulled out and put back under the tree about a zillion times. Wrapping on some gifts has already ripped so tape has become our friend. The girls were playing a game of "guess what is in this present" and apparently Jada didn't understand the rules and started opening one. She's two- what do you expect. It also should come as no surprise that she told Elle what she got her in our sibling exchange. Like I said, she's two. The surprise will just have to be which "Magic Treehouse" books Jada picked out for her since we all know what is wrapped in those packages.
I will be sad when getting mail becomes boring again. We have received so many packages from family and cards from friends over the last couple of weeks. It has been so much fun! We look like some spoiled old people with all the gifts under the tree- you can thank my loving family for those. The girls will have an awesome Christmas, and they are so excited! And you like how Jada is in shorts and a t-shirt? She would probably choose shorts everyday if I let her. I guess that is what happens when you learn to dress yourself and it's summertime. Shorts in the day, nightgowns at night.
Elle had her holiday party at school on Friday before Christmas break began. It is kind of lame with their set snack that the whole school gets and a few activities, but the kids still have fun with it.
And we had a little photo shoot pre-church on Sunday in our pretty little Christmas outfits. It started off all happy-like...
But then took a turn for the worse when we tried for a group shot...
Mya wanted to hold Cole and had to put her arm around him which made Elle sad because Mya was blocking her and Jada decided to do her "chong-chong" face. Good times I tell ya.
Mya finally got to hold her look alike buddy- something she has wanted to do a ton lately.
And now all that's left is Christmas! Jake's brother Paul is coming in town to celebrate with us and then we'll probably head over to Louisiana sometime next week for a fun trip. I'm crossing my fingers that we are all healthy and able to enjoy the holiday. We had a fun FHE lesson tonight to get ready for Christmas. I stole the idea from my friend Jenner's blog and had us practice gracious gift opening. We all got brown sacks to use as "gift bags" and searched the house to find fun things to give as "gifts" to members of our family. All kinds of things were used- panties, spoons, phone charger, one slipper, calculator, a piece of paper- you name it. We then gave these gifts to each person in our family (minus Cole), who would open the sack, take out the gift, and graciously thank the giver for their wonderful present. We all had fun with it, and at the end I had them hunt for the greatest gift of the season (our Fisher Price baby Jesus from the nativity). Once we opened that I talked about how we need to be grateful to our Heavenly Father for this wonderful gift of his Son. Fun and spiritual all rolled into one! A great lesson/activity. Thanks Jenner for the idea! I hope everyone has a healthy and happy holiday! Merry Christmas!
It's never too soon to start celebrating Halloween 2010, right? Or maybe it's just Jada's favorite shirt. Oh yeah- that is more likely. I believe she dug it out of the hamper to wear this day. And she pulled it out of the hamper on Christmas to wear, also, but mean old mom but a stop to that holiday confusion. On we go...
Aren't my kids cute?! Because blogging is definitely more exciting than watching a round of Tiger Woods golf on the Wii, I got a jump start on posting my Christmas pics! We had a great day with lots of good food and fun presents so on with the pictures...
Elle unfortunately came down with a fever Sunday night that lingered on over the next few days so we didn't do anything too exciting towards the beginning of the week (unless you count laundry and cleaning the house as exciting which I definitely don't). The girls did have a fun idea to make Christmas cards for their friends so they got creative and I let them pick out some treats from the store to go along with the cards. The girls really have fun dropping goodies off to people so this was a great way to pass time. Luckily no one else got Elle's fever (knock on wood), at least not as of yet.
Christmas Eve morning I took the kids to the donut shop at the front of the neighborhood where they got to dine on a nice, healthy Christmas breakfast.
After the donut shop, we got the oil changed (always a fun way to spend time) and then came home to get ready for Christmas Eve. Gingerbread houses, Christmas Eve presents (PJ's of course), reindeer cookies for Santa, and green frosted cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast...
I've basically decided that living in the kitchen really isn't my "thing" and I didn't think it was fair if I had to cook a big dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It was one or the other (fair enough, right?) so on Christmas Eve we hit up BJ's. Way better than anything I could have cooked anyways. Jake's brother got in town late that afternoon so we got to celebrate Christmas Eve together.
We put on a very moving rendition of the Nativity...
Santa only leaves presents for happy girls, Elle...
Okay that is better (sort of)...
Baby Jesus received wonderful "gifts" (aka- jelly beans and frosting) from the wise men, and I got to play a duel role as shepherd and star holder. Awesome production.
We then split into two teams and decorated gingerbread houses...
Christmas Eve PJ's!
Cookies for Santa (happy, Elle, remember?)...
All snug in their beds...
Man made Christmas morning barricade...
And Santa came after all!
The letter below explains it all. Luckily Daddy hit up that "special place" the day after Christmas and now the bike is as good as new.
The jeep was a huge hit! She loves it and kept wandering back to it to try it out all throughout present opening. Love it when they get gifts they love!
I'm pretty sure this baby would have preferred to keep sleeping, but we couldn't let him miss his first Christmas!
We were so glad to have Paul here. He became an expert toy opener and removed about a zillion rubber bands from some of the Littlest Pet Shop stuff the girls got. He also set up a bunch of the toys, relieving Jake from a lot of his work. Below are some other fun gifts the kiddos got. Jada has wanted a bike helmet for awhile now, so Cole was nice enough to get one for her.
Boy presents! So fun!
All the "Barbie and the Three Musketeers" stuff you could ever want!
When asking Jada awhile back what she wanted for Christmas, she said a shopping cart. Grammie bought her this winner...
And Cole loves his jumperoo from my parents! His little toes barely reach the ground, but it didn't take him long to figure out how to bounce like crazy. It is so cute!
We love Christmas!!!
It is interesting being the parent at Christmas- definitely a lot more work to make the day memorable and fun for the kids. By the end of the night, I felt a lot like this...
