Wyatt

Clearly I am not keeping up with this blogging business. But, I thought I should take few minutes to update. Wyatt turned 8 in March! I am so completely amazed at the fact that I have an 8 year old! Where has the time gone? Where is my sweet little baby boy with the funny little lips!!!?!? Wyatt is so amazing, and everyday, Jared and I remember what a miracle he really is! Right now, Wyatt loves to: Read, Read, Read! He is always reading, and learning new things. Play with friends. He really loves to be with his friends, and create new games to play. Make us laugh. He likes to make up words, and sometimes it drives us crazy, but other times it is pretty funny. He is starting to like riding his bike a little more. He's kind of an inside kid, but lately he has been being the dare devil and riding it out in the dirt fields, all over the hills. He loves to play with his sisters, and to torment them. He thinks it is pretty funny when Nadja gets mad at him, and when he laughs at her when she punches him, it makes her more mad, and he laughs even harder. He is so deeply spiritual. I know, he is only 8, but he gets it. He really gets it. He knows with a perfect assurance, what his Heavenly Father expects of him, and he strives to be that person. He is a ray of light to our family. Here are some pics, of our little man!

I forgot!

Yesterday, was a panic moment for me. You know when you go shopping, and you turn around for just a second, and then when you look back, one of your kids is missing? That instant panic and fear that comes to your heart, even though you know that they are just around a corner, not too far. I drove down the hill to wait for Wyatt to get off the bus, so I could pick him up and drop all the kids off at grandma's, and head to work. The bus pulls up, drops 4 kids off, and Wyatt was not one of them. One of the boys runs to my car and says, "Wyatt didn't get off the bus!". Panic! I know that the bus will turn around and bring him back, if he knew to tell them that he forgot to get off. But I had the prompting to follow the bus. Knowing my Wyatt, I knew that he would be in tears, and a little panicky. So, off like an Indy race car driver I went, following that bus! It finally stops, at the top of a hill 5 minutes away, and I jump out of my car and run to the bus door, tell the bus driver, my son didn't get off, and she says, this is my first stop. My heart dropped to the ground. Did I follow the wrong bus somehow? She says that she will call the other bus driver, and then, miracle of all miracles, Wyatt's head pops up over the front seat, and just as I knew, he was in tears. Wyatt lives in his head a lot. He is my make believe king. And he was daydreaming when the bus stopped on our street, and he forgot to get off the bus. After grabbing him off the bus, and hugging him fiercely, and telling him I loved him so much, we decided to talk about it on the way to grandma's. He said, "I knew it wasn't far from our house." How wrong he was. He would have been an hour walking home, if he could get out of the subdivision the bus went to, and make it to the street that he knew. How grateful I am for that prompting to follow the bus, because if he had gotten off the bus, and tried to walk home, it would have been a nightmare for all of us! I love my crazy son, who maybe daydreams too much, but now he knows to tell the bus driver next time if he forgets!

Sickness

Today marks the beginning of week 2 that we have been sick at our house. I started it with a fever and a cough. Random, just a cough. That was really awful. There is nothing worse than a cough. You can't control it. Then you suck on cough drops all day, and your teeth feel gross, and you have chronic bad breath, and you still cough a little. Needless to say it spread quickly, to Wyatt, who still has the cough, but the rest of the cold has faded. This also means sleepless nights, with kids getting up in the middle of the night to come get mom. Then Nadja started with the fever and stuffy/runny nose. A few days later the cough started. Then Isabelle started 2 days after that. Monday, Nadja still had a fever, so we packed up the whole family, and went to see our pediatrician. We love that our pediatrician will take the time to look at all of my kids, even if we scheduled the appointment for just one of my kids. You know, there are strict guidelines that I try to follow so that I don't take my kids to the doctor for every little sniffle, and cough, and 5 days with a fever is one of those questionable things for me. With a chest x-ray, it is determined that our little bug, has a mild case of pneumonia. A second look at Isabelle confirms that she is probably not far behind Nadja. As I have been home all week with sick girls, I began thinking about how much I love being mom. I don't love losing sleep, but that panic that sets in when I hear one of my kids crying in the night, and the chance I have to fly out of my bed to their room to help them, reinforces in my mind, that I was meant to be their mom. I love that I can help soothe the pain, and panic that comes from feeling so yucky. Being a mother is most important above all, and I am truly blessed to have the opportunity. Yes, I have gotten away with the bare minimum when it comes to house cleaning, and cooking as well. I'm just glad that when it comes to my kids, I can be here to help them through whatever they are going through. How grateful I am for a husband that provides so I can do exactly as I want, and that is to be a stay at home mom. I love to be with my kids. They drive me crazy sometimes, but I will take that madness, because it fills my heart to overflowing!

Party Time

Well, it's Christmas Eve tomorrow, and I felt like I should blog a bit about what we have done recently, so that tomorrow and Tuesday, I will only have to blog about Christmas. We are so excited at our house for Christmas. We got an elf this year.

His name is Buster. I'm not sure if I already blogged about him. I am surprised at how much my kids look forward to finding Buster, and any mischief he gets into when we sleep. He's been in the fridge, up by my Christmas village, with dolls, writing on pictures, and mirrors, and he most recently, bound and gagged the neighbors elf. Naughty elf! Jingles(the neighbors elf) exacted his revenge. He kidnapped Buster, and held him ransom for some mini marshmallows, and some hot cocoa. We are so excited for Christmas this year! Wyatt has been trying to fit into church clothes, that really do not fit him, for a good month or two now. Last week, I promised him a new church shirt that would fit. He looked pretty spiffy in his new shirt today.

Wyatt had his last basketball game yesterday. We are always glad that he plays, and oh so glad when we finish.

We also went to Blackfoot to see Grandma Jaeger, and be a part of her Christmas party. We have some fun little pics of that. We are not sure how much longer we get to have our dear, sweet grandma, so we want to have these great memories, with our kiddos!

Last thing I wanted to mention, was our cousin sleepover. My parents, had the kids sleepover, and they had a movie fest. Home Alone, The Christmas Story, and they never made it to Elf. We love to have our cousins over, and play til we drop!

Just the highlights of some of the fun things that we have been able to do this month, with a few more planned for the future. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Well, we hit the road for Thanksgiving. We headed to Las Vegas. While overall it was a blast, I have to tell about everything we did! On the way there, Nadja got sick in the car. By then we were already half way there, so we figured we would just get there, and she would get better with some rest. Jared and I have figured out that we prefer to make the trek, in the late evening, and get there at 1 in the morning, as opposed to drive during the day. The kids can be in their jammies, and sleep for part of the trip, which really helps make it go fast. Wednesday, we helped Mary cook and prepare, so there was a little less to do on Thursday. Nadja was still really clingy to me, and pretty pale. Not her usual crazy self. Thursday came, and we had a beautiful meal.

The kids played, and of course there was football watched!

Nadja fell asleep on the floor waiting for me to finish my hair.

Thanksgiving night, Jared went with his cousins and uncle to see The Addams Family musical. So, I took the kids into the hot tub, that Mary and Bill always so graciously heat up for us.

Friday, we had baseball games for Zach. I didn't go, I just stayed home with Nadja so she could rest. We went out to a park where they have tons of Christmas lights. That is always a lot of fun. Then we came back to Bill and Mary's to play a few Minute To Win It games (most people know how I feel about these games, and I will just say, not a fan). Saturday was just run around day. We went to the red rocks and took a few pictures.

That picture, of course, is my family's best side! Saturday evening, the ladies got to go out to see Cirque de Soleil. It was an amazing show. I feel very lucky that I got to experience that, and now I just need to get Jared there to see it! So we had a great time, despite the fact that Jared and his dad were sick on the trip home. And Riley and Mary were sick later as well. We brought the disease with us, and shared. Thanksgiving is so much fun with family. And I'm grateful for the one I have!

Random loveliness

As I was uploading pictures, I saw a bunch of pictures that need to make an appearance on this blog. So here goes. It is pretty much our summer, in a nutshell.

My kids out enjoying a really good rainstorm. I love that we just took their shoes off, gave them an umbrella and set them free! Rain is my favorite weather, and I used to set up an umbrella, grab a blanket and a book, and go sit on our deck steps while it rained. So glad my kids can have those memories too!

We bought these bunk beds for the girls. We are building a room for the girls downstairs and when they finally move down there, we will take their bunk beds down, so that there will be a little more room for toys and 2 girls in a room.

Isabelle turned 5 in August. We had a great party for her, with just family. She is such a beautiful little girl. At 5 she loves to play dress up, and dance all the time. She is always making up dances. She has more attitude than any teenager I've met. She loves to color and draw. She is always looking for ways to include other people in everything we do. She loves to play with her friends! Her favorite color is purple, because that is Aunt Caitlyn's favorite color. She is sweet, and loves to give hugs and kisses!

So long Rufus, hello fort!

Well, after 2 great years with our dog, we had to give him away. He is very aggressive to other little children. He is totally mellow to our kiddos, but other kids come around, and he gets very mean. Rufus bit someone 6 months ago, and he did it again a week ago. That is when we decided that we can't do this anymore. He was such a good dog for us. We are so sad to have our good buddy gone, but we will always cherish our great memories we have of him!

Happy news at our house though, is the almost completion of Wyatt's lab. We just need the siding, and Wyatt is going to paint it on Saturday.

This is the front view, from our yard.

A couple of table/shelves to hold tools, and experiments.

Trap door with an escape route to the dirt fields (in case an experiment goes bad)

Jared has also worked diligently on building a new mailbox for us. While I tease him a lot that it is our guest house(Ha Ha), I am very proud of his hard work! Now we even have a light in it, so bright that I'm sure our neighbors are cussing us, and it looks similar to a lighthouse, showing the way.