Decorating for Christmas

We always kick off the Christmas season by decorating on the day after Thanksgiving and then watching "Scrooge". It was nice for Mima to sit and direct and have all her grand-babies to snuggle. (Well almost all, we are still waiting for Lila to make an appearance...) Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with lots to be thankful for. We are grateful for our families and friends and all they have done to help us get ready for our baby and taking care of Mima Kim. Hopefully the next post will be the big announcement with pictures of our new baby!

1-800-Schwans?

Tonight at Mom's was the typical controlled chaos of visitors coming and going, and the sweet sisters from the ward bringing in food. Caitlin's in-laws were over to make a cast of Mom and Caitlin's hands as a keepsake. After they finished, Mom decided she wanted to take a shower and get cleaned up and as she was heading to the stairs the doorbell rang. Since she was closest she answered, in her nightgown and oxygen tube. It was the poor Schwan's delivery man wondering if she wanted to place an order. She chuckled and said, "Well, here is where we are. I'm dying of cancer and am on home hospice care until the end and I can't really eat anything. We also have people bringing the rest of the family food... so... we don't really need anything right now." The poor man is probably going to need some serious therapy. His jaw just dropped and he stood there sputtering for a moment. Then mom said, "I know my husband loves your stuff and before I die I am going to teach him to order through the internet so that he will have nice easy stuff to cook for himself." (Like my dad couldn't take care of feeding himself any day of the week...) The delivery man stuttered out, "I... I... I don't know what to say." To which mom replied, "What you do is go back to corporate and tell them that we love your products and they have been a life saver to a woman going through chemo for the last year." At this point I stepped in and let him know she was sincere, but also heavily medicated and her brain-to-mouth filter doesn't always work very well. The rest of us were laughing hysterically, but there might be an opening for a Schwan's route driver in my parent's neighborhood very soon.

No Forward Progress...

I went to the Dr. yesterday and nothing... not even a little bit dilated. This wouldn't be such an issue but we are now in a bit of a time crunch because we want my mom to be around and lucid when this baby comes. My doctor was very kind and told me if I could get to a 3 on my own then they could induce and help the process along, but until then it is too risky to the baby. This is a lot of pressure on my cervix, and not the kind needed... Other than that disappointment we are just all hanging in there and spending a lot of time hanging out at Mima's. She is on some pretty heavy duty drugs, which makes her say some funny things. My personal favorite right now is she tells everyone, "Don't try to hold it in, your head will explode..." So if you come to visit you should be prepared to let all the emotions out because she doesn't put up with anything less. She is kind of like a big budget movie, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and because she is one amazing lady you'll come to offer comfort and leave feeling comforted and peaceful.

Our girly time...

Evie and I have a nice routine going in the morning after our boys leave for work and school. We get some breakfast, get dressed and then turn on Sesame Street and play beauty parlor. I love having a little girl and getting to do her hair and all the fun we have together. This cute hairstyle I found on a blog, I love that there are some really creative mommies out there that share all their great ideas for hairstyles. Many of you have heard of http://www.shedoeshair.blogspot.com , she has some links on her blog to other hair blogs too. It's a great resource if you need some fresh ideas or something for a special occasion.
Evie likes to be the beautician too. I wish I could get a picture of her "doing" my hair. She comes out of the bathroom with a scrunchy on either arm and a comb and brush and attacks my head. She cracked me up the other night when she found a little paintbrush in the crayon box and came into "paint" my toenails. She spent almost 20 minutes pretending to dip the brush in a Lego and carefully painting each toenail a beautiful blue color. I am so ticklish on my feet I had to work very hard not to kick her by accident when she went in between my toes...But she isn't only a girly-girl, this is her and her daddy getting ready to watch the Jazz game last week. I love the contrast between her hair in curlers and the hand-me-down jammies from her brother. The shirt is a football jersey that says bobcats on it, but Evie calls it her "Booo-ser" shirt and wants to wear it whenever the Jazz are playing. She loves to cheer for Carlos Boozer and the Jazz!

Daylight savings?

So, whoever decided that changing our clocks forward or backwards to get more daylight to work by was obviously not a parent of small children. My children came running into our room at 7:00am since they normally get up between 8 and 9, and their biological clocks aren't reset as easily as my microwave. Being Sunday morning, and because we have a late church block, the kids get to turn on the Disney channel and eat cold cereal while we sleep in. Evie decided she wanted a cheese stick instead and brought it in to me to open. I sent her around the other side of the bed to her dad, and heard her sweet little voice, "Daddy? You open dis for me?" Brian's groggy response, "Sure." Evie gave a little huff and said, "Daddy, don't say sure (imitating his growl), say YEAH (in a happy squeal)!" I laughed myself the rest of the way awake, and then shocked the heck out of my family by making blueberry waffles for breakfast. I don't think I have used the waffle iron for almost 2 years. When I asked if he wanted me to make waffles, Jake looked at me with his mouth open then said in an awed voice, "You can make those?" I think I'm nesting. Last night I made roast beef and mashed potatoes from scratch, and did the dishes, and the breakfast dishes too... hmmmm.

Happy Halloween!

Here is a glimpse of our Halloween costumes. Lila decided she didn't want to be left out of the fun!(This was my cousin Sarah's great idea, and boy did it ever get a reaction. People either thought it was hilarious or creepy...)
Here is Evie and Mima waiting to watch the costume parade at Jake's school.
I realized as I was getting ready to post this that I only have one picture of Jake in costume. Not a good mommy moment. My only defense is that I am mostly brain dead at this point. Can you tell what he finally decided on? He is an entomologist. Reaction? Stunned silence? Yeah, he is a funny kid. People would guess, "An explorer? Steve Irwin?" and he would say, "No, I am an entomologist and Evie is the bug that I have caught and am studying." Then he would usually hit her in the head with his butterfly net.