This Week at Our House # 1: A New Year

I was thinking this year I would like to try out a paragraph format for my weekly blog updates. I just need to be careful not to exclude any of the kids. They like to see what I have to say about them each week, and I certainly don't want to miss anything cute they've said or done. My kids love reading over past blog posts and the silly things they said when they were little.

The week seems a blur to me. We had 5 dentist appointments, though 4 were on one day and the final one was an early in the morning appointment for Arwen to get sealants in her six year old molars. None of the kids had any cavities this time around. John has been pretty firm with the kids that they need to brush their teeth both morning and night. That seems to be paying off. Johnny used to always have cavities and now he has been cavity free for several years. It's nice to know they are all taking teeth care more seriously.

I had two midwife appointments, one on Wednesday, and one on Friday. During the appointment on

Wednesday my blood pressure was high two of the three times they took it. I also found out that I am now dilated 4cm. That took the midwife off guard, but not me. That means things are normal to me.  Anyway, because of the blood pressure and because my blood sugar has been having unusual spikes, they asked me to come in for a blood pressure check on Friday.

On that Wednesday appointment, I brought Sam with me. I expect having a new baby around will be quite a shock for him, so I wanted to have a little one on one time with him at the appointment and grocery shopping afterwards. Sam quietly cuddled me or sat quietly in his stroller with his hands folded together the whole hour and half appointment. All the nurses and midwives were surprised at how quiet and still he was. I told them it was because he was surrounded by strangers and unfamiliar equipment. One mentioned maybe I gave him benedryl. The idea horrified me. Ugh, it seems you can get judged wrongfully even for the good behavior of your kids. I assured them that if Sam had a sibling around to play with, he would surely be running around. They asked me not to take him to the next appointment in case they needed to send me to the hospital for further testing.

The Friday appointment, I took Kate. She can drive, so if I had to go to the hospital, she could get home and give the van to John. Well, my blood pressure was back to normal. I have had some pain that I attribute to the presence of gal stones in my gal bladder, but may actually have something to do with hellp syndrome or preeclampsia, so they took a blood test to check my liver enzymes. Never before have I been so carefully watched during a pregnancy. But, that is all that was done and we got to go straight home afterwards.

On a happy note, Baby Gideon is still looking good, and each week my amniotic fluid has gone down. It won't be too much longer before we get to meet this precious boy. I am 39 weeks today.

Of course we held our annual New Years Eve party. Since we homeschool and John doesn't sleep

well at night, our family stays up late and gets up early. Going to bed past midnight is an everyday occurrence for most of us. Still, we had snacks and played a lot of games. I watched some shows with the youngest kids, and we nearly finished our first 1000 piece puzzle for the year. I think everyone had a nice time. Sam was the only one who did not make it until midnight. He fell asleep at about 11:30. Arwen was the second child to drop off. I think she managed until 12:30. Everyone else was sent to bed before 2am. We are a late night family. I am always hoping this will change. Maybe in the New Year, hahaha!!!

One night this week, one of our little chickens didn't make it to the shed at dark. We know that we have a fox living in our woods, and thought maybe the poor chicken strayed too far and got caught. But later that night, I needed to send Adam outside for a moment. He went out by the shed and there was our chicken waiting to be let in. She has not wandered far from the other chickens since that night.

Joseph is the biggest fan of our chickens. He cried and cried and worried and fretted. I was happy for his sake, that our chicken survived.

On the same topic, we got a farm bird catalogue in the mail on Friday. I handed it directly to Joseph as I thought he would most enjoy looking at it. Well, everyone enjoyed looking at it. In fact, Kate, Rachel, Anya, Joseph, Joshua, and Arwen all took turns looking at it and deciding what ducks, geese, or chickens they want to own. All of them decided that more ducks or chickens is what they want to spend their little bit of Christmas money on, except Kate. Kate wants a game.

Joshua decided that he would get a boy chicken and name it "Cutie Pecky 3".  Cutie Pecky 1 died. Cutie Pecky 2 has such a horrible name that we all call her "Hecky Pecky".  We made fun of Josh's horrible choice in chicken names, and then he spent several hours asking everyone in the family what good chicken names were.

Rachel plans to get a male duck that she wants to name Parley P. Pratt. Kate hates that idea, but is trying to be careful not to talk Rachel out of what she wants. Anya agreed to get a female duck the same breed as Rachel's. Kate is worried the breeds will mix. Joseph said that he wants to spend some of his money to get Johnny a female runner duck. Johnny really likes the look of the runner ducks. Arwen wants to get three chickens just like the little Brahma Bantam that we have, but they cannot guarantee what color brahmas will grow up to be. She may be changing her mind. I am giving them all a little time after the excitement of the catalogue before willingly ordering anything. I want them to be certain this is how they want to spend their money.

The catalogue looking and dreaming lasted for two days. We are still planning on moving as soon as a job comes with enough pay, so I am not convinced that this is the best way for the kids to spend their money. But, I am surprised to find out where their current love seems to really lie. We also got a lego catalogue and an American Girl catalogue the same day. I guess my kids love farm birds. I know that we all love living on a larger larger piece of land. We want to move desperately for one reason, but we all like out little home and little bit of land out in the country.

While Susan did not join in the chicken and duck catalogue  dreaming, we know she loves the chickens just as much. She catches them easier than any of the other kids and she checks for their eggs more than anyone else.

We spent a lot of time as a family discussing the gospel and the scriptures and covenants once

This is a chocolate cheesecake Rachel made to remember Christopher's 3rd anniversary of his birth and death

changes were made in the temple and made public. I think that took up almost all of our family scripture study for days and the conversation is still going.

Vacation is over now, and we start school back up tomorrow morning. We had a nice 3 week break for the holidays.

One cute kid note to end with:
I am still hanging laundry out to dry. Sam always comes out with me. Saturday morning Sam came out, rode his little scooter into my feet and said, "Beep, beep, Mom. Beep, beep." I thought that was darling, and moved out of his way.