My Grandma

A few weeks ago, after a devastating battle with a brain tumor, my dear Grandma passed away.  While I am happy that her suffering is at an end, I will miss her terribly, and have been flooded with thoughts of how wonderful she was, and how much I have learned from her.  Next week we will head to my mom's house and the kids will all hunt for Easter eggs, a tradition started by her and one of my very favorite memories of my childhood.

She was very selfless, never seeking any recognition or spotlight, always happiest when she could be quietly in the background, making food, smoothing the way so that others could enjoy themselves.  Some of my favorite words of wisdom from my Grandma:

-She was famous for her cooking, and her pies at Thanksgiving always got rave reviews.  When I got married, she told me to just use the refrigerated pie crusts- she told me that no one would know the difference, and if anybody asked, I could tell them it was my Grandma's recipe!

- She always said that if you were a stay-at-home-mom, that it was your responsibility to do your job and do it well.  She told me to think of it as any other out of the home job, and wake up on time, and do the work.  There have been innumerable days in my life as a mom that I have been motivated and encouraged by her advice, and gotten up out of bed and did my job because of her words.

More than anything else, she loved each and every person in her family, and each and every person felt of that love.  I certainly felt it growing up, and even my husband and children, despite living many thousands of miles away and only seeing her occasionally, they all felt of her love for them.  When she passed, Kydon remarked that he rarely felt as loved by anyone as he did by her.  I left her funeral with a renewed determination to love my family more, to serve them more, and to be more selfless than I have.

The day after her surgery for the aggressive brain tumor, calls were going around the family fast and furious that she was not doing well, and we were all tearful and anxious and worriedly waiting for any news.  My doorbell rang, and there, sitting on my front porch was a package.  Inside was a beautiful baby quilt for my newest daughter, born just 1 month before.  Hand quilted by my Grandma, and sent to us by my Aunt.  I will never forget that her last few months were spent the way that her entire life was spent- despite pain and headache and physical discomfort that she dealt with most of her life, her energy and time and effort was always thinking of others, seeking to show her love to them, trying to serve them.  She loved each and every new baby, and I know she would have been delighted to meet my sweet Clara.

My grandma is in a better place now, and we are all better for having known and loved her.

Imagine It!

For science this year we started out studying human biology.  We loved it- it was so much fun exploring our bodies and learning about them!  When I got invited to check out "Body Carnival, the Science and Fun of Being You" at the Children's Museum of Atlanta, I knew it would be a fun way to wrap up our unit before we moved on to chemistry!

 

It was really fun, the kids loved trying to "beat" the exhibit- to walk the line even while wearing the crazy goggles (it took a few tries), to not get dizzy in the tunnel, and to walk the balance beam while keeping your arms straight down!

 Aidan thought it was cool that inside the artery he could hear the "real" heartbeat!  He wanted me to crawl in there with him, but seeing as how I had the baby strapped to me, I opted to watch and take pictures!

 "They call it a dizzy tunnel, but I didn't even get dizzy".  I, of course, wanted them to read all the info and explanations and figure out why and what and how.  They weren't so interested in that, mostly wanting to just run through it and grab and pull and punch.  Despite their best efforts, they did learn something, because later they were all able to tell me some things about the body they didn't know before!

 When we had exhausted that exhibit, we then spent several more hours exploring the rest of the museum.  It felt nostalgic for me.  When the kids were little (2 and 3, I think), my sister and I bought memberships here, and there were many days we packed a lunch and schlepped all the kids down here so that we could relax and talk and let them play.  We haven't been in years, and I was surprised how much they liked it.

 Abigail said "Mom, you never should have brought me here!"  When I asked why, she said that now she was going to be bugging me every day to come back! 

 

 Jack couldn't get enough of this crane to transport all the balls.  He played on this thing for about 2 hours! 

 First, he was dumping all the balls on his brother, but when he saw me taking pictures....

 He came after me!  Only one or two hit little Clara in the sling!  :) 

We had a lot of fun, staying for almost the whole day.  A very enjoyable school day!

Valentine Party!

One of the the things my kids miss most from "regular" school is the class parties, so we decided to have a homeschool party for Valentines day!

Luckily in the past few months a few new homeschool families have moved into the ward.  We had a little lunch, decorated some cookies, did a couple of crafts, and exchanged cards.

 The kids had a blast, I mean you get a bunch of kids in a room with some sugar, and what's not to like?

Jack with his cookie:

Abby loved it because it was mostly girls... a nice switch from her normal life!

We used some Hershey's kisses to make little mice, they turned out so cute!

My cute little nephew joined us, because as of a few months ago my niece has joined the homeschool world!  Yay!

It was a lot of fun, and I was happy to be able to connect with the moms and have some good conversations!

The Double Fister

Clara will not take a pacifier.  She hates them!  What she really wants is to suck her little thumb.  Unfortunately for her, she has not yet developed the fine motor skills to release the thumb from her fist, so she is forced to suck on her little fist, just trying and wishing for that thumb to pop out!

 

 The other night Kydon was holding her, and she started double fisting it, trying to get something going!

 A rare moment of the hand being open- now just how to get that thumb into the mouth!

 It has to be there somewhere!

 Almost- this is the normal sucking attempt.

And back to the double!  She never did quite get it, but she sure had fun trying!

Plans for the Future

Okay, I have been in serious hibernation mode.  It is time to get back to blogging!!  I think of posts all the time, I just never take the time to sit down and write them.  I am going to make a serious effort to update this blog and write about all that is going on- because it is a lot! 

 

All 3 of the kids have very definite plans for the future, and they discuss and refine them quite often.  They are so specific, and funny/cute, I thought I better write them down before they change! 

 

Aidan has had a hard time over the last few years as his passions are somewhat at odds with each other.  His loves include:  The Civil War, huskies and other dogs, the Iditarod, and the military.  He has struggled with how to reconcile all of these loves into his life, because the Iditarod and huskies are in Alaska, which really has no connection to the Civil War.  He thought about trying 6 months in one place, and 6 in the other, but who would take care of the dogs while he was away?  It was a very disturbing problem, but he finally found a solution.

 

First, he will move to Gettysburg where he will live for a few years, studying the Civil War and doing battle reenactments.  He will then move to Alaska, where he will raise dogs and run the Iditarod.  After winning the Iditarod a few times, he will then move to Hawaii, where he will join the Navy, and his mission will be to raise the USS Arizona from its watery grave.



Jack has some pretty awesome plans.  First, he is going to be a billionaire.  No doubt about it.  He will have plenty of money to finance his move to Hawaii, his huge house, his fancy cars, his surfing lifestyle, ...... and his 69 kids.  Yes, 69.  He started out wanting 100, but that got changed to 94 when he didn't think he could come up with that many kids names.  Kydon and I broke the news that he probably couldn't have 94 kids with only one wife, so of course we had to look and see what the record number of kids with one woman was, which turned out to be 67.  He wants to break the record, but still be "reasonable", so he is going for 69.  Good luck to his future wife!  At least she will have plenty of money for a cook and several nannies!

 

Abigail only wants ONE kid.  No more.  And she is going to adopt, because NO WAY is she going to grow a baby.  She and her one child are going to live with Jack and help him take care of his kids, and also enjoy living in his mansion.  She also wants to be a teacher.

The other day they were once again discussing/refining plans, and Aidan started hitting Jack up for a donation!  "Jack, when I move to Hawaii, will you give me some of your money to help me raise the USS Arizona?   It is going to cost a lot of money, and we really need to raise it!"  Jack was not as generous as you might think with his imaginary money... "Well, I might not have *that* much money, and I might need it for all my kids, and I'll have to see what I can do".  I find it so funny that none of the other kids say they are going to have money- it is just accepted that Jack will have lots of money and the other two won't.  They constantly ask Jack to buy things for them (fancy cars, etc), but they never say that they will be rich also! 

As for this one...

 We are just happy that she started smiling and laughing!

Right now her plans only include eating, sleeping, and being the cutest thing ever.  I think she is well on her way to accomplishing her plan!

Life is beautiful!

Naked baby in a Santa hat- you're welcome.

 

Ahh....  life.  It is pretty great right now.  I was so worried about having another baby.  I was not looking forward to it, and I would have been so happy to just stick with the 3 we already had.  But the second little Clara was born, she had my entire heart.  I love her!  She is the most amazing little thing, I can't seem to get enough. 

She makes me want to have another.  (It won't happen, but it does make me want it).

Christmas is wonderful.  A few things got pared down- no outside lights this year, and it is looking more and more like the Christmas cards just aren't going to happen.  But we decorated the house, my shopping is practically done, and we've even baked a few treats. 

Homeschool was great today.  Last week not so much, and I had a looooong talk with Kydon about if we should send them back to school.  We decided to stick it out at least for the rest of the year, but boy-oh-boy, I would not have been that heartbroken to send them back last week!  But today was fantastic, so hopefully there will be more of those. 

My baby is big, and fat.  She is one month old, and is in 6 month clothing.  She is super heavy, but I don't mind a bit.  She loves the sling, and I love to sling her.  She sleeps all day long, and cries from 9pm till 12am.  But after her crying and cluster feeding, she sleeps well- the past three nights she has slept either 5 or 6 hours after midnight.  She loves her Daddy more than anyone, and also likes to scratch her face (FYI, 6 month clothing doesn't have those handy hand covers like newborn clothing does).  And although it is a mere 1 inch long, she has all 5 of the rest of us wrapped around her tiny pinkie. 

I am feeling better and better every day.  I feel like cooking and cleaning again, I can bend and reach and sit and function without pain!  I still have some lingering issues that I am working through, but overall things are getting back to where they should be.  AND, thanks to my cleaning, the kids have a whole new wardrobe since I cleaned out a linen closet and figured out that when I told Aidan to put away a basket of laundry, he thought I meant "shove it all behind the towels in the closet"! 

Who knows how long it will be before the next crisis, so I'm just going to sit back and enjoy feeling good.

She's Here!

In just a little under 8 hours, I went from this:

 

(Sorry for the graphic image, but it is just too unbelievable not to share)

 To this:

 Our littlest pumpkin was born!  And she is perfect in every way!  Clara Colleen was 9 lbs, 14 oz, and 21.25 inches long.

 I was very anxious about the delivery, and it went better than I expected.  I went to the hospital at 6:30 to be induced, the doctor broke my water around 8:30.  I got the epidural not long after... but it didn't work right away.  One hour of painful contractions was enough to make me really appreciate the doctor coming back and giving me another bolus, which kicked in very quickly and I was pain free after that.  Despite some worrisome happenings (meconium in the water, cord around the neck, trying to vacuum her out), everything went very quickly and she was born just a little after two! 

We have 3 cute kids who are over the moon with their little sister.  Abby is our little mama, and the primary fashion coordinator, making sure that Clara is held, burped, talked to, loved, and dressed super cute every day.  Jack loves to hold her and whisper lullabies in her ear.  Aidan was the first to change a diaper (voluntarily, I might add), and he told me yesterday "Mom, you just can't say no to a newborn baby"!

She has fat rolls everywhere, cute chubby cheeks, and a very calm and sweet nature.  She sleeps all day and wakes up around 2am, just to keep us humble!  Having a new baby is pretty magical, and we couldn't be happier with our new little addition!