They grow up so fast!

The children have been especially amusing this week. They are learning and doing new things all the time and growing up when I'm not looking! I kinda like it.

Check out this lego tower. Super high, right?

Check out the base. Joshua figured out all by himself that he needed to make it more stable. Then he and the girls built it till it was taller than they were. I think they are quite brilliant!

I got up from a nap to see Callie making herself some peanut butter graham crackers for snack! She did it all by herself. Its kind of nice, except I'm pretty sure she was licking off the knife before putting it back in the peanut butter jar.

Yes! I finally got a shot of her smiling! She somehow knows to stop the second I push the button on the camera. You should see her huge grin. So cute!

Now this is too adorable. This is Delaney, changing her baby's diaper! Its doubly amusing, because her baby's name is Prudence. For those of you without little girls, Prudence is the name of the little girl in the "Once upon a Potty" book and video. (Which Delaney loves and has watched 5000 times.)

Here's baby, all freshly diapered! The only problem with this is that Delaney uses up my wet wipes on her baby, and when she changes the baby, she throws away the "poopy" diapers. This means I have to fish out the (clean) diapers from the trash so I can use them on Rylee. And did I mention that the baby here gets changed 10 times a day? She also gets dressed in Rylee's clothes a lot too.

Here's my big girl! 2 1/2 months and getting so big and adorable. Still a crank though. Must be held all. day. long.

Joshua has become a surprisingly fantastic brother. Not only does he like to hold his sister, but he can be relied upon to pick her up and comfort her in a pinch. As I may have said, she must be held or she cries. Then she screams. Then she's nearly inconsolable when you do finally pick her up. Then she settles into pathetic snuffles. Joshua can pick her up before she reaches the screaming, inconsolable phase. Rylee prefers Mom, but she's content with Joshua for a bit, which is a big help to me. Here Joshua is playing with her. She does like to "stand", but right about now she is reaching her limit.

This is the most wonderful thing! Marian actually WANTED to read her library book to me! And she did.

Ups and Downs

Its amazing how different I feel this evening compared to this morning. This morning I was feeling like I had it under control. Rylee is doing great at night. I can count on a 4-5 hour solid block of sleep, and she usually only eats once at night. I can usually count on her to sleep till 8:30, so I can get all the morning things done and the kids off to school without having to deal with her as well. I was thinking that these days I can get out and do most things that I needed to now. Yesterday I even took all 5 kids out to the grocery store and they were very good. These days I don't have to wait on Rylee so much because she has a little bit of a schedule and I can tentatively predict how hungry she'll be and when she'll need to eat. It helped that we had no obligations today and I was able to have a leisurely morning. I made pancakes for breakfast, made lunches, got to exercise and shower. So I was feeling pretty good and pleased with myself.

Tonight I look at the chaos and mess that my house is and I want to pull out my hair. I see all the things I want to do, but I can't because I spend all day holding Rylee. She is a sweet, adorable baby, but she's not happy unless she's being held. So if I can't do something one handed, it doesn't get done. I can't fold laundry or wash dishes. I can't pick up very efficiently, so I don't. Its also harder to discipline the kids and the teasing and attitude is getting out of control.

So tonight, I am a little discouraged. I know that some things have to slide right now, but I'm tired of it. I want my house to be neater. I want my kitchen squared away. I want that giant pile of laundry to magically fold itself and not reappear again as soon as I've got it put away. And I really want the 5 million toys that are scattered throughout the house to be gone. Sure, I could do some of this in the short periods that Rylee sleeps, but really. On the scale of what I want to do when I have 2 free arms and some peace and quiet, laundry and cleaning are pretty far down the list. Ah-hem.... what am I doing right now?!!

Thank goodness Dan is so wonderful in the evenings and on weekends! He's holding the baby right now. I can still hear Joshua and Marian heading for bed. This is my only quiet time. Dan will go to bed soon and it will be me and Rylee until midnight. I'm now going to get myself ready for bed so that I can jump into bed as soon as Rylee is down for the night!

Family picture and First Snow!

For some reason, the Primary President wanted pictures of the children and their families. Whoo-hoo! She took our family picture today. Because I always have the camera in the diaper bag, she was able to take a shot with my camera as well. This is a much better picture than the last one- when the 3 children had their heads poking out of the tree fort's rails.

Isn't Dan handsome in his suit?!

As a reward for cooperating, the kids got to do their usual silly shot.

We got our first snow of the season yesterday. It wasn't really cold enough to sustain it, but it did precipitate ALL DAY, and eventually, there was some accumulation. Joshua was so excited when it first started falling that he began to draw some grand designs for the snow. Alas, it was unfulfilled. The snow was quite slushy and wet, and the kids did go out to play in it. They had a lot of fun.... and got very wet.

Since the snow collected on the cars first, they were very popular. That's Joshua, Callie (by the van), and Delaney (in the red coat).

Joshua rode his scooter in the slushy snow.

Marian was determined to make a giant snowball. Eventually she found enough snow, with Joshua's help, that they made a snowman! But this was about how much snow stayed on the ground.

Dan made the kids hot cocoa after they came inside. They love hot cocoa.

Joshua thought he should have cocoa every time he came in.

This is the adorable snowman they managed to make! They finished it well after dark last night, so I took a picture of it this morning. I'm impressed that they were able to make it with so little accumulated snow.

Photos of the Week (Mostly Rylee!)

Well, I take a lot of pictures of Rylee because I spend the most time with her. And somehow, this week, it was all Rylee.

My friend had a baby just before Thanksgiving. She had gotten our girls matching outfits, so we had to get them together for a photo shoot. I hadn't thought Rylee was THAT big until I had her next to her little friend (who is a week old here!). Her friend was not thrilled. Rylee was a little confused.

Callie the photographer strikes again! This is what I do all day. Good thing I have cute kids!

Yes, I have very cute and sweet children. Joshua has been very interested in holding Rylee and has proven himself trustworthy to do so. He's a good brother, and a great kid.

I got tired of holding the little dumpling and I pulled out the jumper. She liked it. She's still a bit small, but she really liked the standing.

Her cute outfit of the week! She's only got a few more weeks till she outgrows it all, so I wanted to remember some of her cutest things.

I love it when she's happy! And Callie loves to hold Rylee. Rylee tolerates it for short periods and then she gets cranky.

The Santa Question

In our family, the unwritten rule of thumb is that whoever feels more strongly about something is the person who gets it done. For example, I like the bed to be made. It is important to me, so I get to do it, because it's not that important to Dan. He loves me enough to throw the covers on so its "made", but I like it neatly made. Because it it more important to me, I tend to be the one who gets it done. I admit, most things are more important to me because I'm a bit more picky. I prefer to think of it as "detail oriented".

The current problem is Santa. I am not a huge Santa fan. I fail to see what a man in a red suit who gives kids toys has to do with the real meaning of Christmas. A man who encourages greed and commercialism has no relationship to the spirit of Christmas that I cherish. Last year we had a child old enough to question the existence of Santa. I would have just been honest, but Dan surprised me with a fervor for the fat man. This whole Santa thing is actually pretty important to him. Who knew?!! Not I.

Since Dan felt strongly about perpetuating the Santa myth, I agreed to not crush the possibility that he existed. When Joshua persisted in asking, I sent him to Dan who essentially told him if he wanted presents, he darn well better believe. The kid is an ardent believer now. He sent a Christmas list off in September, before I had a chance to grab it off the mail holder. He is now under the impression that he merely needs to ask and his wishes will be granted.

Joshua told me he wanted a Nintendo DS for Christmas. I said he wasn't getting one. He said, that was okay, he would ask Santa. Um.... why would I want my kid thinking he just has to ask this imaginary man for something and he's going to get it?!!! I told him I was telling Santa not to bring him one. So he's not holding out too much hope for it. He's hoping for some other things I'm pretty sure he wont get though. And that's why I don't like Santa. Why can't I just tell my children that we give gifts because we love each other and it symbolizes the gifts given to Christ? Why can't I tell them we are celebrating Jesus' birthday by giving thoughtful presents to each other to show love? Why do we need to include Santa? What, exactly, does Santa offer to me in terms of celebrating the birth of our Savior?

I try to pawn the kids off to Dan when they ask about Santa, but he's at work all day and I'm the one who gets to have these little gems of conversations with them. I don't like it. It feels like lying to me. If I saw more of a purpose in it, I would feel better about it, but I just don't like Santa. I want Christmas to mean something to them, not just that they get presents. I know that they are children and that's about all they'll get from Christmas for a while, but still, I'd like to think they were learning something a little deeper as well.

How do you deal with it? What do you think?