the first time

our sweet, precious little man wanted to have something to call his own and he went out of his way to assure that he would. earlier in the week he started getting sick - messy diapers and a fever. fast forward to yesterday and he introduced not keeping anything down, not even dilute. so off he and i went to the doctor after a four wait for our appointment time. by this time we was completely lethargic, dry heaving and moaning. i was so thankful for the 7 minute drive to the doctor instead of the hour and 40 minute one we had been making before the move. upon listening to what had been going on with him and seeing just how he lacked energy - good ole Dr. Burt - sent us over to the hospital for some hydration over night. this was the first time we have had a child admitted to the hospital due to sickness. when the time came to put the iv in - after being there for about 2 hours - he was done but didn't have any energy to object. after three nurses had tried to find a vein that would support the fluids we asked for an anesthesiologist to come and give finding a vein a try. 10 tries and a hour and a half later A VEIN was found that would sustain the influx of fluids - the crook of his left elbow. it was a rough night with a lot of moaning, thrashing and not sleeping. he even managed to get a substantial goose egg on his forehead from one of this thrashing episodes when his head made contact with the side rail of the bed. he finally slept from 5-8 a.m. and then again at 12:30-2. we got discharged since he didn't have a fever anymore and was able to take 6 ounces of fluid - a strained soup - which he kept down. he was so excited to see jason and to get to go home. i've never seen him grab his blanket as fast as he did today when i asked if he wanted to go bye-bye.

as a side note: the older two had the stomach flu the entire night at mom's house but at least jason was staying there and got to take on that challenge. i guess i am grateful that they all had the stomach flu at the same time - now if jason and i can just escape without getting it. probably won't happen but i can hope and pray!

pictures of the new house before renovations

Priss's room - it is the largest of all the bedroom because of her "secret room"

kids bathroom - gotta love the double vanity, we sure do

Lil Man's room

Swee's room - we will be painting a different color than Bearcat purple soon!

game room with adjacent full kitchen/man cave

playroom

master bedroom - wallpaper will be removed soon

first floor 1/2 bath

dining room

the library

i forgot to take a picture of the tv room - it has french door that both open with glass inserts in the door and on either side. i also accidently deleted the game room picture so just imagine a 13 in tv sitting on a child's table since he don't have furniture for that room yet.

have you missed me? didn't think so...

but here is what we have been up to anyways!

sledding at McCullough Park

playing in the snow

playing in the snow

contemplation

we are pretty much settled into the new homestead now we are just waiting for the kids to get used to their new teachers and schools. swee is testing his boundaries with his new teachers and i am unsure if they are holding strong or not. we have struggled with keeping our hands to ourself. not that he is being mean but just that he is touching people. priss on the other hand thinks school is forever long and really misses her old class and friends. she is inundated with worksheets it seems and that is so different from the old school/classroom. i am in an quandry as to what to do. the school she goes to is a great school but just seems to be stuck in the worksheet era, whereas at the old school they did a lot more hands on learning - science lab (building simple machines), each 2nd grader had their own netbook for the school year (did spelling, internet research and writing assignments on it), and they went to specials more frequently. priss has went from a student who loves, LOVES, loves school to one who really could take it or leave it. jason and myself are contemplating applying to a labratory school that is close by. both kids would be at the same school next fall and it is an exceptional school but to be admitted you must be chosen from a lottery and each grade level only has about 40 students total with siblings of current students being selected from a sibling lottery first. i think we are going to apply and leave the decision as to whether they should go or not up to Heavenly Father. he hasn't lead us wrong so far and i don't know why he would begin not!

this raising kids is quite complicated and becomes even more so as they get older. i would love to just keep them at their present ages until i can get this all figured out but i am smart enough to know there is no way i can make that happen.

any advice? bring it!

new house

as i sit in my new house with it completely silent (except for the fan running - it is quiet/rest time here) i am feeling so much gratitude for the blessing of this house. it is the home we plan on raising our children in, having them bring friends home to, hosting crazy parties with nuts-o teenagers because we will be the place everyone wants to be, but most importantly it is a home that reunited my family under one roof again. i never would have thought i would be raising my family in my hometown. i was willing to go wherever the Lord took me never thinking he would bring me back home. my children will go to a high school that was my high school's rival, they attend church in the same building i did as a child and they will get to have extended family close by. what a blessing we have been given! just had to put in words my feelings this day.

here's christmas

i will apologize upfront for the large number of pictures but here is all of our christmas celebrations this year...

christmas eve - dad and jason's side
christmas morning - santa came and gave a family gift of going to see Disney on Ice this month
christmas day - off to mom's for christmas dinner and presents
crazy times but wonderful memories, loved getting to see jason's parents, brother and my parents during the holiday festivities, but missed the fam that was still out west

hope your holidays were as blessed with family times as our's were

the camera cord and the computer still don't care for each other so i am now at the mercy of pictures cds being made...keep forgetting to get them made - maybe i should just get a new camera - doubt that happens anytime soon though!

Christmas is coming once the camera cord likes the computer again...

hang tight!

getting settled

life has been like a tornado over the past 5 days...finishing packing, moving, shuffling kids around as we unpacked, having jason's mom here to help unpack before christmas, UNPACKING and feeling like the boxes multiplied in transit because there is no way we had all this stuff at the last house - wait we didn't, we had a storage unit, christmas with the slopsema side, christmas program at swee's old preschool, seing santa, making peppermint bark with grandma pat, lil man learning he can climb up and into the dryer - trying to get swee's clean undies out - dragging blankie around the house like he's linus, and saying goodbye to some great friends. wow, can't believe that was all crammed into such a short period of time.

please cut me some slack if i didn't get a christmas card to you this year - i promise to do better next year!

i don't advise doing it...

owning TWO homes that is. as of 1:30 p.m. today we are the proud or crazy, i haven't decided which yet, owner of two homes. we are relieved that all went well on the first closing because even as i was driving there today it didn't look very promising. the gas had been turned off in the house since august and it has been below - way below- freezing around this part of the world. the gas was to be turned on tomorrow but we changes it to today to make sure the furnace worked and the pipes hadn't frozen. as i was heading north my realtor called to ask if the gas company had arrived yet so the gentleman could go and un-winterize the house but he wouldn't turn the water on until the furnace was up and working. i was supposed to do a walk through on the house before closing but the thermostat had to be replaced and so the furnace and de-winterizing wouldn't be completed before our scheduled closing time. so we closed on the house before we knew the furnace worked and there weren't any leaks. as it was jason found a pipe leaking in the basement but the contractor was willing to come back and fix it. the furnace did work so when we took some items over to the house it was 45 degrees in the house - very brisk but we got a brand new thermostat out of the deal. we are so glad to have this finished today! now just two more nights in the old house and no more day trips up north for me! YEAH!

also while in i was up north i:

-took swee to meet his new preschool teachers and to see his new school

-took priss to see her new school, get a tour of it, and for her to be assigned to a class

-picked up christmas items that had been shipped there to lessen the number that would need to be transported during the move

-ordered cupcakes to take to priss's school on friday as a good bye gesture to her class and teacher

crazy day but so productive!

doubt crept in...

and trust rushed it out. over the past week we have had the privilege of having extreme highs and equally extreme lows. we found out the house we are selling is closing 2 weeks earlier than expected and the one we are buying, no closing date in sight. causing us to be close to being HOMELESS. it was our understanding that we would be closing dec. 15th on our new home and the 29th on our old home. this apple cart was completely overturned when the dates switched. after spending what has felt like millions of minutes on the phone, forgetting about the house and at times what is going on around me, i as of today have a tentative closing date of the 15th at 1 p.m. this is following a phone call to the loan processor, the timeshare company (that has caused all the issues because of incorrect information provided by them to the mortgage company) and then a credit bureau that i believe is located in cali. i am now a completely ANNOYING client with more people than i care to admit. so much so that we are certain that our name will get around and no one will want to deal with us in the future. i have decided that i am never moving again and that my grandchildren one day will visit me in the home we have purchased/are purchasing.

thanks to a lot of prayer and realizing just how capable heavenly father is the doubt left and the trust moved right back in where it was always lingering in the shadows.

our life in a nutshell 15 days before christmas this year!