Christmas

This Christmas was wonderful! I've been working all month to try and bring the Spirit of Christmas into our home. We listened to Christmas music whenever possible, we watched Christmas shows and movies, we did Christmas activities, and each night I did a little devotional/scripture story about the Savior for our family scripture study. 

On Christmas Eve, we went to Mom and Dad Holbrook's house for dinner. It was a quiet dinner; aside from the kids who actually live in the house, we were the only ones there for dinner. My in-laws scheduled a different time to see each of the families and didn't host a big Christmas event because of covid, and we ended up with Christmas Eve. It was nice. We opened presents from them after that, and we had a good time. 

Our scripture study that night with the kids was reading the Christmas story from Luke to them.

And, as per tradition, Daniel and I stayed up late that night wrapping presents and other things, while watching Scrooge. It was perfect! Sometime after we were done, Jack woke up late at night crying (probably a bad dream) and woke up Camille, who had a present from Santa (a cup holder that hangs on the side of her bed -- which she explicitly asked Santa for) on her bed. She got all excited, that Santa had already been to our house. Daniel and I were worried that she'd have a hard time going back to sleep. But we told them to go to sleep, and we didn't hear from either of them again until morning.

Christmas Day was lovely. It was slow and relaxed and fun. We woke up sometime during the 7 o'clock hour. Brooke woke up first and got a chance to sneak and peak at all the stuff before coming upstairs. We ended up having to wake up Camille after all the other kids were awake for a little while. 

They were so excited to go downstairs to see what Santa brought. They loved going through their stockings. But Jack was especially excited about the big red pickup truck that we'd gotten him and just left next to the tree. It was fun to see him so excited!

It took us all day to open presents. Not because there was so much to open, but because someone would open a present and then we'd all stop to look at it and play with it. Mom and dad gave the kids some sand art kit, and we stopped all things to do some sand art together. It was like that all day. We had a lot of fun, though! It was relaxing and slow. 

My big gift this year was a new bike, which I'm very excited about. I'd like to do more bikerides with the kids this summer. The bike Daniel got me is a little too big, so we need to exchange it for the right size. But it's really nice. Smooth and light, and I love it! I took it outside for 5 minutes or so to test it out, and I think that was the only time any of us was outside.

Daniel's big gift was a smart fitness watch. And he loves it! 

Brooke was cute. We got her a watch for Christmas, something she's been asking for for at least a year. She was overjoyed to get a watch, and she thought it was so cool that dad got a watch too. After she opened her watch and the book set we got her, and the snow boots she wanted, she opened a bigger gift from us -- a Spirit doll set. She and Camille were really into the TV show "spirit" and this set included Spirit (the main horse), a colt and the main girl in the show, with a stable and accessories. It was pretty big, overall. When she opened it, she was thrilled and kept saying how she felt so spoiled and that it must've been expensive, etc. It was adorable. She loved it, and I could tell she was grateful.

I made a fancy-ish Christmas dinner -- my favorite lasagna, salad, special drink, etc -- and we all sat down to eat. Then, after putting the boys to bed, we stayed up late playing monopoly with Brooke. Camille watched for a bit; but she wasn't too interested in the actual workings of the game. She liked playing with the money, though. 😂 What kid doesn't? We played til about 10:30, when Brooke went bankrupt and we just ended the game to put her to bed. 

It was such a fun Christmas!

PS: Sawyer was 7 months old on December 21st. 😭😭 This year is going by too fast! But he IS the cutest little reindeer I ever did see!

December

 It's been quite a slow December compared to others in the past. Usually Christmastime is fraught with activities, shopping and parties. But because of covid this year, most people are cancelling their usual things.

I got most of my shopping done in November and while my sisters and mom were here. Plus, most of the shopping I did for Daniel I did online and ordered things to be sent. It was nice not to be stressed about shopping this month. I only had a few things to finish up for the kids, and Daniel and I did both of our family exchange gifts already -- we got Mom a gift certificate to the Anniversary Inn, and I got Houston a bacon subscription for 3 months (which I thought a fairly brilliant gift for him; I always love when I have strokes of genius for perfect gifts). 

I've been sick for the past week, which put a little bit of a damper on our "shopping with the kids" trip. I intended to take them shopping with Daniel last weekend, but you can't go anywhere when you're sick this year. So I took each kid separately to do a little online shopping and to order gifts for each other. We did their name exchange a few weeks ago, so they can give each other Christmas gifts. Brooke worked really hard last week to get all of her economy stuff done so that she could earn enough money to get Sawyer a gift. And Camille just hasn't spent her money in months, so she had enough for a gift. It certainly wasn't as much fun as going shopping together, but everyone already knew what they wanted to get their sibling, so it was pretty easy to look up and purchase.

I had a girls night with my friends about a week and a half ago. We went to dinner at Strap Tank and did a gift exchange. It was so fun! And so needed. This year I've felt very isolated from anyone, so anytime I get together with people, I just soak it in. We chatted and ate and opened presents, and it was lovely. I laughed, though, because we exchanged gifts randomly, and the gift I chose had peppermint chocolates in it. 

The other girls night, a baby shower for my friend Charlee, I missed because I was sick. It's just been a typical cold, but I can't do anything outside of the house because I can't spread whatever this is. Getting sick this year just puts your life on hold, it's kind of annoying. Normally, I'd try to stay home for the most part, but I'd still go shopping. I missed going to church with my family yesterday because of it. 

The family and I have been doing some fun Christmas activities this year: Christmas movie night watching A Muppet's Christmas Carol; candy cane hunt; watching a nativity video; drinking hot chocolate together; reading Christmas books; watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"; pick out a Christmas tree and decorate it; sing and dance to Christmas music; make gingerbread houses. And I've done about half of the Light the World prompts, which has been great too. It's been a nice Christmas season. I even started reading "A Christmas Carol" again too. 

Our church situation for the past couple of months has been that we go to church every other week. They've divided the ward into 2 groups and each group switches off going to the building for church, and the other group watches the meeting online and does the Sacrament in their home. And we have started singing in church, which is nice. I'm glad that we can at least go every other week. I've loved having church at home this year, just with my family. But I've noticed since we started meeting with the rest of the ward how much I've missed hearing from other people and learning from them, and it's been wonderful being with the people in our ward. 

The electoral college officially voted Joe Biden as the new president, which is a real shame. I'm nervous about the state of the country when he gets into office next year. But I'm also relieved that this election year is over. Election years for the past handful of elections have been tumultuous. People are uncivilized to each other, especially over the internet, during an election year. So much debate and rude comments. And protests and demonstrations -- it's been especially bad this year, so much violence and destruction by Black Lives Matter organization and Antifa. Far left wing groups that hate this country and want to destroy it. I'm hoping that it calms down a little next year, because the election is over. 

This December, I've taken a break from social media. I wanted to be less distracted for the season -- for my family and also so that I can focus on the Spirit of the season. It's been really nice, and I find I don't miss it that much, though I still do reach for my phone out of habit. I have been on a few times to post things for Light the World or to look something up that I saved. But mostly I've kept off, and I have been a lot less distracted and spending time on other things. Maybe too much time watching cheesy Christmas movies, Daniel might say.

Sawyer turned 7 months today. He is the cutest little baby! He's normally very happy and smiley and giggly. He's so cute and we're all pretty obsessed with him. He completely lights up when he sees Daniel and Brooke. They're his favorite I think. Brooke is so good with him -- always playing with him and talking to him and making him laugh. Camille loves him, too, and is always concerned about him and if he's happy. Even Jack loves him and is good with him! He doesn't spend as much time with him as the girls, but he shares his cars and wants to include him in the things that we do. It's really cute to see. We're so glad that he joined our family this year! He's rolling around like a little fiend. He can pretty much roll well enough to get to the things he wants that are on the floor. He's not sitting up on his own yet, though. He's almost there, but he's still unsteady and he'll fall over if we leave him unsupported. He has the cutest hair. When I give him a bath, I dry off his hair with the towel, and it gets all fluffy and swoopy. I love it.

Camille's MRI

Camille had an MRI today. The endocrinologist we've been working with wanted to see an image of her pituitary gland to make sure it's normal and functional. Daniel took her to this test, too. She really didn't want to go to this one. The last test, her growth hormone simulation test that she had a month ago, kind of shook her up. It was a hard one. It was 5 hours long, she couldn't eat beforehand or during, and they had to do an IV to give her the drug. Daniel said she fought doing the IV, but once it was in, she was fine and cheerful. She read with Daniel and watched a barbie movie. But about halfway through, she started asking when they could be done, and she was really out of it at that point because she hadn't eaten all day. Anyway, she really didn't want to go to this MRI test. She hung onto me and cried when it was time to go, and it made my heart so sad. Daniel said she was so sad all the way there and refused to get out of the car. He bribed her with new hatchimals, but then she fought super hard when they were putting in the IV for this test (it's procedure to put little kids to sleep for an MRI). They administered the drug and she fell asleep. Daniel said they thought she was asleep when she popped her head up and said, "I think I wet my pants." The rest of the test was uneventful. Daniel got to see the image, they woke her up, and Daniel brought her home. He stopped at McDonald's to get her lunch before coming home. She was so sleepy when they got here. It was adorable watching her try to eat her French fries when she could barely keep her eyes open. She didn't really say anything at all for a while after she came home, she was so out of it. So we turned on some TV for her. And so cute! Poor little thing. It's been a rough year of testing for her this year. 

Wedding Week

 The week of the wedding, the week after Thanksgiving, was fun and full of so many things. Diane and Hou were of course staying with us that week. We did a lot of eating out together, getting swig, staying up late to chat and watch movies, and we played a game or two. The Case boys played with the girls. Owen was a little bored for half the day while the girls were both in school, and he couldn't wait for Brooke to get home from school, because she played with him more than Camille did. But Jack and Declan loved playing together! It was so cute to watch. They were pretty good buddies and got along well and played well together almost the whole time. There was one morning when I saw Jack walk by with his blankie draped over his shoulder, sucking his thumb, and I heard him say, "Declan, do you want to snuggle with me on the couch?" I just about died.

Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment for the girls and Sawyer in the afternoon. We picked Brooke up from school and left Jack to play with his cousins. The appointment went well. The girls are growing, as is Sawyer, they all got flu shots, and Sawyer got his vaccinations. We really put Dr. Arnold to work that afternoon, with all of us coming in at once. Concerning Camille's growth, he said that she's growing and following the curve... just far below the curveline for her age. He told me that as long as she keeps growing and doesn't flatline on her growth curve, then she might not need growth hormone therapy -- it just means she may be a late bloomer. We'll see what happens there. She's scheduled to get an MRI soon, to make sure her pituitary gland is looking well.

I printed off a fun December calendar for our Light the World prompts and family Christmas activities we'll be doing this month. It's going to be a really fun and special month. I didn't choose all of the LTW activities; I kind of picked the ones that were more doable for us and worked around what we were already going to do. Of course, the wedding was the first thing we did on our December and Christmas calendar.

Julie and her 3 big boys flew into SLC the day before the wedding. Hou went and picked them up, and that night was basically spent having dinner, chatting and preparing some of the food for the wedding. We went to bed way too late, of course.

We all got up and ready the next morning, and when Jack asked why we were getting all dressed up, Daniel told him that we were going to Scott and Melanie's wedding. Jack says, "Oh, they can kiss now!" 😂

When we got to the temple, we piled all of the kids into our van: Brooke, Camille, Jack, Sawyer, Owen, Declan, Scottie, Drew, Roman and Ares. 😬 Daniel had set it all up for the kids to watch a 25 minute movie in the car while they waited for us to be done in the temple. It was for sure not a long enough movie, and I was told by the bigger boys and Brooke that they had at least 5 kids screaming and crying at the same time. Sounds a bit like a disaster, but they survived.

Meanwhile, we had a lovely time in the temple with Scott and Melanie. We waited a long time in the waiting room before they led us all in to the sealing room of the temple. I loved what the sealer talked about. He told Scott and Melanie a lot of beautiful things about sacrificing for each other, how the other person is now the most important person, and how the things that the Savior did in Gethsemane, the whole Plan of Salvation was for them, for that very moment that they were starting their eternal family. It was so special to be in the temple, especially since we haven't been able to go for most of this year.

After the ceremony, we spent a nice long time freezing outside to take wedding pictures. The kids complained a lot, we all complained a lot. Mom brought some delicious wassail to the temple, and we all had some while we waited in between pictures. It was the perfect touch to the wedding. Melanie looked beautiful, and they both looked so happy and in love. I'm so happy for them!

We went back to the house for lunch and naps, and also to finish food preparations. And then in the late afternoon, we headed to Denise's house for appetizers, dinners and normal wedding activities. They had cancelled most of their wedding plans because of covid, but they basically had a normal reception, just without all the people that no one knows. It was really nice, actually. Intimate and quaint and special. Just family and a handful of friends. The dinner was good, there were some fun games and dancing, and then we sent the happy couple on their way. We stayed way later than we had assumed we would (we didn't know they'd planned basically a whole reception -- we were planning on dinner only), and the kids didn't get to bed until after 10pm. I didn't make them go to school the next day, so that they could sleep in and spend that last day with their cousins.

Friday was the last day with everyone there. Julie and her boys, and the Case family, and Mom and Dad. We hung out in the morning, Mom took us girls out for a late lunch, Mom did some crafts with the kids before bedtime, and then Mom and my sisters introduced me and Sammy to their new favorite show -- some Korean show on Netflix, called Crash Landing on You. We had a bit of a girls night, while the boys had a bit of a boys night at Brian's house. It was fun!

Diane and Hou left Saturday morning, and then Julie and her boys flew back in the afternoon, and I drove them to the airport. It was more bitter than sweet to see them go. Mom and Dad came over for dinner, and then Dad introduced me to HIS favorite new show, the Chosen -- a series about the life of Christ. Mom and Dad love it, and I really like what they showed us.

They left the next day, really early in the morning, and life went back to normal. We went to church and I missed my family all day. And we were left with a wreck of a house and loads upon loads of laundry.

Thanksgiving Week

• The days leading up to Thanksgiving were spent preparing for our family. Mom, Dad, Diane and Hou and their family drove here on Wednesday, and we spent those 3 days cleaning up the house, doing laundry, shopping and running errands, all in preparation for them coming. We got it all done, and with time to spare. The girls were so helpful, and we got it all done, so we had a little Thanksgiving movie night on Wednesday night and watched "Free Birds" before bedtime. I didn't feel like making food that night, so we had pumpkin pie and popcorn and bananas for dinner. 😆
• We made pies on Wednesday: 2 miniature pies and a full sized pecan pie. Each of the girls decided what kind of pie they wanted in their mini pie plate. Camille chose coconut cream and Brooke chose a berry pie. We had a good time making those pies together. 
  
• Sawyer reached up to touch Daniel's face, felt his beard and starting giggling. He rubbed Daniel's beard, and Daniel rubbed his face against his hand, and he just laughed. It was so cute.
• Jack, saying to Declan, "Do you want to snuggle with me, Ducky?"
• We had Thanksgiving by ourselves this year, and it was really nice, actually. We spent a few hours in the kitchen making all the traditional food. I got a pre-seasoned turkey breast from Costco, and all we had to do was throw that in the oven for a few hours. It was just the right amount for us. The food was so good, and it was so fun to spend it with each other. We talked about the things that we are grateful for while we ate. And then we had pie and hung out. 
• I ran a 5k race on Thanksgiving morning. My friend, DeAnna, ran it with me. We've been running the last few months in preparation for it. The training was a little too slow for me, I didn't feel entirely prepared for the race; but I enjoyed running with DeAnna. The race was fun. So many people came out to it. The route was over by Thanksgiving, running through the golf course and on the Jordan River trail. I ran the whole thing! The only time I walked was halfway up a really big hill. I thought I'd have to walk a lot more. I really enjoyed it, though, and it made me want to run more races. It was a wonderful way to start Thanksgiving day, out with other people, exercising and being active before we went home to cook and glut ourselves the rest of the day. 😂
• We've had a good time with Diane and Hou here. We haven't done too much -- just chatting, playing games, eating, taking care of the kids together, shopping and errands. But they're fun to be with.
• There's been a lot of wedding stuff this past week, after Thanksgiving. Friday was bachelorette and bachelor parties, the ladies in the morning and the gentlemen in the evening. It was a very scandalous party, tea party for us, and with funny activities and gifts to make Melanie blush. We had a lot of fun. Diane and I went to Victoria's Secret to get a gift for Melanie beforehand. That night when the boys were at their part (all night long, btw), after putting the kids to bed, Diane and I had Zulus for dinner and watched Sweet Home Alabama.
• Saturday was the "Food Shower" for Melanie and Scott. We all went to Denise's house for dinner and gave the bride and groom foodstuffs as gifts, to get their kitchen started.
  

The Election + The Latest Developments

 This year, more than any year in the past, I've been interested in politics and have tried to keep up a little better with what's been going on in the country. I haven't done it perfectly, but I was pleased with my little progress.

Anyway, I voted for President Trump. I couldn't vote for Joe Biden. I really don't think Democrats are doing good things for the country, as much as they like to say they are. And I don't agree with any of their policies. 

But I had a lot of fun following the race on Election day! No matter what happens in the end, I actually enjoyed watching newscasts about the election and what was happening. I watched Glenn Beck's broadcast of the election.

Since that night, there has been a lot of shady business happening in the swing states. Ballot dumps that go 100% to Biden. Republicans being shut out of ballot counting places. Sharpies given out in polling stations, and then those ballots not being counted. I mean, just a lot of shady things. The democrats are trying to cheat this election, it seems fairly obvious. President Trump has gone to court for a lot of these things, and it'll be interesting to see how things play out. But they basically already called the race for Biden. I personally doubt that President Trump can still pull this out of the bag, even if fraud is proven in these specific states. But we'll see. 

 Either way, I'm glad it's mostly over. What will happen will happen. I hope democrats don't win house, senate and presidency, or our country will be socialist in 4 years. So many socialist in the democratic party. But, I'm trying to be positive and have faith that things will work out in the end.

The Sleeping and Breastfeeding Story

 Sawyer is a beautiful, delicious, delightful baby. But he hasn't been a walk in the park. His first few months, he seemed like a pretty easy baby -- he didn't cry or fuss too much, he slept really well considering his age, and nursing was the same challenge it's always been (but I had taken the stress off of breastfeeding from the get-go). He was particularly jumpy those first few months; any loud noises or excessive craziness from the girls would scare him and he'd start screaming. But that was the only thing that was remotely hard. 

Obviously, newborn sleeping is hard. The night waking is killer. But it wasn't the worst we've ever had. He was a dream compared to Brooke as a baby. 😆

But once he turned 4 months, things got pretty difficult for a while.

The breastfeeding story in short: I started nursing him at 1 month old, and he was just a lazy nurser; not efficient enough to nurse along. I pumped until my birthday, and as my gift to myself, I weaned myself off of pumping in the few weeks up to my birthday so that I could be done ... on my birthday. So, I pumped for 5 months. It was 5 months of nursing, pumping, feeding from a bottle. Now, we still nurse and I still supplement from a bottle, because he still doesn't get enough from me. I am totally good with this arrangement, partly because I have so much stored and frozen breastmilk. It's been a month, and we still have a lot of breastmilk in our freezer, and in Daniel's parent's freezer (they were kind enough to store a lot of it, because our freezer isn't big enough for all of it). And that's where we're at. And I'm contented with this. He has given me at least 6 good months of nursing, we've gotten some good bonding with it, it's helped in putting him to sleep these last months, and so whatever happens from here on out, we've at least done this. 

The sleeping is more complicated. We sleep trained a few weeks after he was 4 months old, and it was disastrous. Especially since we had to stop swaddling at the same time because he was rolling. It was a very hard transition for him, and he was back to waking up every few hours. And he didn't seem to be taking well to the training. So, I stopped training him and started swaddling again, with one arm out.

But things didn't improve. So the week after my birthday, we tried again. And in the meantime, naps were going terribly. He wasn't sleeping well at night OR in the daytime. And neither was I. There's been a lot of back and forth try to figure out what to do for him. Last week, I think we turned a corner. He had a few days in a row when he went to sleep without crying at all for bedtime, and he stopped waking up so frequently. He went down to one feeding at night, sometimes late enough in the morning that I got 6+ hours of sleep. I'm sure we still have some bumps to get over. We still have to do nap training -- his naps are still not stellar; he usually misses at least one nap a day because he just wakes himself up or doesn't transfer well to his crib. But at least I seem to be getting most of my sleep at night now. That makes such a huge difference in how I feel and how I manage my emotions. 

•  When I gave Sawyer and Jack a bath this week, Sawyer was fascinated by the water. I poured cupfuls and cupfuls of water over his little body, and he loved watching it and putting his hands up to it. I loved watching his interest. And he got mad whenever I stopped pouring the water on him to pour it onto Jack. It was so cute. 
• Sawyer popped his first little tooth on Friday! A little one on the bottom. And I can see another one on it's way. It'll probably break through tomorrow.
• Sawyer was 6 months old on Saturday. I can't believe that. His first year is half over! He's been such a sweet and also challenging little baby. I love the stage he's in, while at the same time I'm missing his little newborn self. He's rolling around like and champ and holding his head up while he's on his belly so he can look around. He smiles and laughs very easily. He is working on improving his sleep (it's been a slow process). He's really ticklish, which kills me. His delighted squeals delight me. He's happiest when he has everyone's attention. His siblings, especially Brooke, fawn over him and love him and always try to make him happy. 
• Brooke is reading Pippi Longstocking and LOVING it. She read a little of it to me and Camille tonight, all the funny parts that she loved, and we were cracking up together.
• Brooke put together a fall festival for our family that we held yesterday. She planned and carried out the whole thing, with very little help from me. She wrote the whole plan with rules and game instructions out on several sheets of paper and had a score sheet for the teams. We were separated into 2 teams: me and Jack vs. Daniel and Camille. We bobbed for apples; hunted for the coolest leaves; ate caramel apples; drew and cut out our own leaves; and had a paper leaf hunt. It was actually really fun, and I was pretty proud of Brooke for planning and doing the whole thing. She's been talking about doing it for over a month, but kept forgetting to do it. I'm glad we finally got to do it yesterday. She's the cutest little boss.
• The kids watched Toy Story 3 on Friday, and there's this extended scene with a garbage truck and dump site in the movie. Jack is now obsessed with the movie and is already asking to watch it again this coming Friday.
• President Nelson did a video message on Friday morning about gratitude and issued everyone a challenge to flood social media with gratitude posts. I took that invitation and have loved seeing so many people do that same. The #givethanks challenge has brightened my mood so much just in the last 3 days, and I have loved sharing what I'm grateful for. It has certainly helped me dispel the gloom I've been feeling over the past several months. 
• Last weekend we moved the big crib into Sawyer's room and started having Jack sleep in the other bunk bed. He looks so tiny in that big crib.