Jordyn's Determination

Some of my babies just LOVE the dishwasher. They hear the door open and they sprint, to the best of their abilities, from wherever they are.

This is fairly annoying to the poor child whose chore it is to empty it! It takes forever to empty the dishes when every other second you have to redirect a determined baby! So, the boys attempt to barricade her out of the kitchen, using chairs, tables, large toys, boxes, and highchairs.

This just adds to the thrill of challenge, as far as Jojo is concerned. Here she is moving in, past the barricade.

Thank You! (I think...)

Patience just came up to me and gave me a big bear hug and said, "You're a nice, big mama!"

Update!

If you waded through yesterday's very pitiful post, here's an update on Nathan's drive test:
we were able to get him in on March 19 (the earliest possible date) in Maple Ridge, which is just across the river! Yeah! Now I'm back to thinking that my life will be so much better in two short weeks : )

Woe is me...

Welcome to my little pity party. I frequently think that I'm just a chronically postivie person always able to see a silver lining on every cloud, but this week I think it's more that I just rarely have clouds! A positive attitude is not difficult when everything is pretty much going well in our little world. But today I feel sorry for myself....

Yesterday Nathan took his driving test. This was the event that was going to free me! He would be able to drive himself to his (many) activities, and help out with getting his brothers to theirs. But, you guessed it, he didn't pass. That's not the bad part. The bad part is that the earliest appointment they could give him at our hometown is May 22. Not a typo. Two and a half months. That's ridiculous. So we ended up going online and finding an April 3 appointment but it's in North Vancouver. That's about a 90-minute drive. We'll be going in the middle of the day, which is good traffic-wise, but I'll have both girls with me and we'll be hanging out at the Driver Licensing place while Nathan takes his 45-minute road test. Do you feel sorry for me yet? Of course it will all be worth it if Nathan walks out of there with his license, but there's obviously no guarantee of that...

There is an appointment on March 26, but it's in Kelowna. Would it be silly to drive 3 hours for Nathan to take a drive test?

But that's not the end...

Yesterday afternoon the boys had dental appointments. Of course I had both girls with me too. It takes a certain amount of energy to corral them for 90 minutes, but it's only twice/year...whatever. My 17 1/2 year old son, who has been cavity-free his entire life (a point of pride for me, apparently) has a CAVITY! Dylan has one, too, but that's not as shocking. So now we have more appointments, more corraling, more expense, etc.

Okay, pity party over.

Onto more important news. Don and I are embarking on a new venture into the world of non-consumerism. We read this article in Christianity Today and were inspired to try this for our family, but on a smaller scale because of our family's gargantuan size.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/mp/2006/002/7.44.html

Shopping once every two months obviously takes a lot of planning and list making! I planned a one-month menu for March, and then I'll repeat it for April. I made lists for the butcher, the farmers market, Costco, the bread store, the grocery store...and then we shopped over the course of three days. We spent $600, which, I think, is what we normally spend in one month. But if this food lasts two months, we've cut our spending in half. We do have a small amount of cash allocated for milk and fresh fruits and veggies each week.

This will theoretically save time (no weekly shopping trips, yeah!) and money, since each trip into the grocery store, even if it's just for a jug of milk, ends up costing $40...

I'll let you know how it goes! Oh, on tonight's menu: teriyaki chicken, rice, and broccoli. Can't get much better than that!

Don & Don (don't you just love when fathers and sons share a name?) are digging two huge trenches today for our new power and water services. You should see my yard (not). And it's going to get worse before it gets better.

Heather, please tell your dad and Beth that theirs was the prettiest wedding cake I ever saw. I miss you! I can't believe I got within 100 miles of you and we still couldn't connect... Hopefully we can spend some more time together this side of heaven, but in case that doesn't happen, lets request mansions right next door to each other, so we can catch up then.

Patience and Jordyn are playing together...kind of a hide-and-seek game, and giggling together the entire time. It's very cute and heart-warming. I can hardly remember my troubles through their laughter : )

Way too cute...

Here they are, in all their glory!

Mom, did you notice Jordyn's outfit? It's so nice to be able to use all those adorable clothes again!

February 26 Update

Hello everyone! Last week was a busy one...hence no blog post, so I'll try to give you a recap here.

We started the week with a few of the big kids sick, which resulted in days home from school.

Jordyn had her 1 year immunizations, which Don took her to. It was very sad for both of them, but they did survive. Don says he'll never do that again.

Patience continues with her swim lessons. She got a bonus lesson again last week because Marianne lets her come whenever someone is not going to be at their lesson. She had a minor setback on Tuesday, resulting in a "time-out" on the side of the pool, and eventually being expelled from the pool because, where Patience is stubborn, Marianne is stubborn AND in charge. She returned the next day and did exactly what Marianne was asking her to do on Tuesday. Go figure...

Danica was with us three days this week (well, 2 1/2 really...more on that later).

My mom was supposed to fly in Friday evening for Jordyn's birthday and Dylan's jazz concert, but the flight loads looked heavy so she was going to try to come in at 2:30 instead. So, we made hurculean efforts to rearrange our day, including Danica's grandma picking her up at noon so I could fetch mom from the airport. I'm watching the Alaska Airlines website so I could track her flight, and it shows late. Well, shoot. We have club speeches Friday night and the schedule is getting tight. The next update on the website shows the flight is CANCELLED! I call her cell phone only to get a very depressed grandma...yes, the flight is cancelled (due to mechanical problems) so of course all of the paying passengers are getting routed on later flights, making stand-by travel impossible. Since she was going to have to fly out 5:00 a.m. Sunday, we decided it wouldn't be worth her trying to fly in on Saturday. That was a big disappointment to everyone involved : (

On Friday night, we had our 4-H club speeches. There were two heroes that night, and they both happened to be my sons : ) In 4-H, public speaking is a competitive event. You start at the club level, and the top speakers there go on to the district level; the top district speakers go onto regionals. For seniors, the top regional speakers go on to the provincial competition. For every 4 speakers, or portion thereof, a club can send 1 speaker to districts. So, if a club has 4 junior members competing, they send one on. If they have 5, they can send 2. Our club, which has EXCELLENT public speakers, had only 4 juniors competing. I needed one more junior to speak at the club level so we could send 2 speakers on to districts. But where would I find a junior who was willing to write and deliver a speech in 24 hours? Sean! That's right...I explained my dilemma and asked him to basically deliver an impromptu speech, understanding that my expectations were not that his speech would be perfect...he just needed to do his best. He did, and his speech was actually quite good! And, we did send on two wonderful speakers to disctricts. Our second-place speaker owes Sean a HUGE favor : )

The second hero of Friday night was Nathan. Nathan wrote and delivered an excellent speech on Friendship, complete with his signature examples from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. But the other senior speakers were pretty darn good, too. It was going to be a tight race. Seniors, after delivering their prepared speeches, have to deliver an impromptu speech. They all leave the room, the judges decide on a topic, and they come back in, one at a time, get the topic, have 1 minute to prepare, and then deliver a 1 to 2 minute speech. This year's topic was "The person who inspires me the most and why." Again, the other senior speakers were good. Really good. It wasn't looking good for Nathan. But HE NAILED HIS IMPROMPTU. It was the best unprepared speech I've ever heard, with the perfect combination of sincerity and humor, he had the audience laughing and crying. It was amazing, and I'm not just saying that because HIS SPEECH WAS ABOUT ME...it really was a fantastic impromptu...textbook perfect. I was so proud of him. He did place first, and will go on to the district competition this Friday night.

Saturday was another good day for our household. Dylan had his jazz concert on Saturday night, and we had planned for some time for Kelsey to babysit for us...but with Mom's plans falling through, everything kind of changed around, and instead of Kelsey watching the girls, Valarie came! It was great (mostly) except for she is clearly out of the "mom" stage and into the "grandma" stage, because both girls were still awake at 9:30 when I got home, both having a great time with Auntil Babadee, as she was letting them do anything they wanted... But it was great having her (thanks, Val!). And the concert was great! Mom would have loved it, especially "Georgia On My Mind." Dylan was in two jazz bands and one vocal ensemble, in which he had a solo. Unfortunately the acoustics weren't too good and it was difficult to hear him. But I'm sure it was amazing : )

Is that enough information? I could say that Val and I took Nathan, Sean, and Hailey shopping Saturday to get Nathan some clothes for his Ottawa trip...he needs "conference wear," which is inbetween casual and dressy. We got some incredible deals at Wal-Mart, and Val was able to lend her fashion expertise.

Yesterday a.m. Sean and Dylan had swimming, then onto church. I did some housework that I had been too busy for previously, in addition to 5 loads of laundry. Last night the kids (all but Jordyn) had movie night with a rented movie and popcorn. It's nice that Patience is getting old enough to do that. After the movie, we all participated in a "5-minute Room Rescue" (living room and girls' play area) and then it was off to bed for the girlies. The boys and I watched the amazing "Senators vs. Sabres brawl" on youtube.

It was a busy, but productive week. This week has the same potential...check back for updates!

Knock, knock!

Nathan taught Patience a "Knock, knock" joke this weekend when they were taking a walk out back together. It goes:
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Boo."
"Boo who?"
"You don't have to cry, it's only a joke!"
Then Patience laughs hysterically (every time).
And she tells the joke over and over to anyone who will listen.
Our Knock-Knock Joke era has begun...not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Our California Trip

Nathan and I had a lovely, uneventful trip to California this past weekend. We left Thursday night after dinner and baths for the girlies, and headed south to Val and Dave's. There, Nathan went to a Baker basketball game with Kelsey and one of her friends, and Val, Hailey, and I got some visiting in. I also got to see some of Val's artwork that she's doing for her graphic design course. Apparently, Val is one of those people who is good at anything she puts her mind to!

We left bright and early Friday a.m. Four o'clock to be precise. Val and Dave didn't hear us leave, but their puppies did! I drove the first bit while Nathan got a bit more sleep. I got us south of Seattle and then we switched. I drove through Portland, which really wasn't too bad during the time of day we were there, and then Nathan pretty much drove through the rest of Oregon. It rained on and off pretty much through the day. We got into the Bay Area around 7:30, which is how I planned it...I figured if we got there late enough, surely we wouldn't run into the famous bumper-to-bumper traffic. But I was wrong. Everyone and their cousin was driving from the East Bay into the SF area! So it took almost an hour to go 15 or so miles...so frustrating to be "so close and yet so far." We finally made it to mom's and had a lovely lasagne dinner. Nathan showered, I jammied, and then we settled down in front of the t.v. That's when I realized how tired I was, so I excused myself to bed and Nathan played Grandma's game cube (yes, she is the coolest grandma in the world).

Saturday a.m. I had Nathan do some homework before we headed over the hill to the home of the Sharks, HP Pavillion. We left around 10, and stopped at this wonderful little warehouse in Moss Beach, of all places. We did some shopping, much to Nathan's horror. He was very motivated to get out of there and head to San Jose.

Finally, we left, and Nathan drove over the hill and into San Jose. We got to the Shark Tank, and Nathan found out how quickly $60 goes there. Lucky for him, his grandmother was willing to buy him some Shark souvenirs, as was his mother. All in all, he left there one happy Shark fan!

After that, we did some more shopping and then headed to Cold Stone Creamery, a wonderful ice cream store that we liked so well that we even returned the next day for round two. Saturday night we watched The Guardian. Great movie! We stayed up late (for me) and headed to bed around 11:30.

Sunday morning mom and I headed into Half Moon Bay, purchased two lattes, and then window shopped our way up and down Main Street. While we were doing that, Nathan was doing more homework and watching two NBA games. We got home, thought about packing, and then sat out in the backyard where it was warm and sunny. That was really nice! Around 4, we headed back to Pacifica for a little more shopping and ice cream.

Sunday evening we watched Extreme Home Makeover, and then went promptly to bed. I set my alarm for 3:00, but actually woke up by myself at 2:40. I got Nathan up, we got in the car, and repeated Friday's drive except in reverse. I was in Richmond by 4:00 a.m., and there was actually commute traffic at that hour coming from the East. We were well onto I-5 by 5:00 a.m. And when Nathan woke up around 6, we were in Red Bluff. We gassed up, switched drivers, and then we were off. We got into Bellingham around 5 p.m., hitting hardly any traffic in Seattle. We picked up pizzas at Papa Murphy's, and dairy at Edaleen's, and then made it home by a little past 6. The girls were happy to see us, but not incredibly so. Jordyn was quite happy to stay in her daddy's arms, as that is where she had spent the past 4 days, apparently.

We had dinner, did some unpacking and cleaning up, and went to bed! This morning I forgot it was already Tuesday. Luckily Don remembered about the trash and recycling! Patience had her swim lesson where she once again did not cry at all.

Look Who's 1!

I can't decide if this year went by quickly or slowly! I think the days were long but the weeks were short...

At any rate, Jordyn is clearly out of the baby stage, and is now 100% toddler. She's happy to play with Patience for longer periods, and, thankfully sleeps through the night regularly.

She still says no words...sometimes mamamama or dadadada, but that's about it.

She hones her climbing skills daily. Now the couches are no problem, neither is one of our chairs...I imagine in a few days nothing will be safe and we'll have to store our chairs ON TOP of our kitchen table to keep her from climbing up there.

She loves to be carried, but not sat and cuddled with, unless there's a bottle involved and she's hungry. She won't cuddle and take a bottle just for the fun of it. She's shy with strangers, especially if they talk directly to her.

She's sedate and serious where her sister is energetically hilarious and engaging. They are different in so many ways, not the least of which is their looks.

Happy birthday, darling Jordyn.

Cousins

Here are Miss Kelsey and Mr. Dylan... taken in December, I think, when the girls stayed with me for a weekend and helped on the farm.

We've been fortunate to have cousins (and LOTS of them) in a variety of ages. They've had the pleasure of traveling together to Disneyland, Hawaii, the best vacation ever (houseboating on Lake Shasta), not to mention the summer Kelsey stayed with us and swam on the Langley summer swim team.

Of course, Val and Dave have kinda dropped the ball and haven't produced little cousins for Patience and Jordyn. But they do have a plethora of four-legged friends that Patience is excited about, namely horses and short dogs.

This week I'm getting ready to take a whirlwind trip to California with Nathan. I need a short break and he needs 30 hours of driving practice before he takes his driver's test.

More later...

Saturday Morning Relaxation

This morning Jordyn single-handedly removed some couch cushions... just enough to make a nice place to kick back. Then Patience, not wanting to miss a modeling opportunity, jumped up beside her. I have several shots where one is smiling while the other is looking away, but I think this one is the cutest of the two of them.

Busy day today...I'm running a 2-hour dog training session that Nathan was supposed to do until something better came along, namely a weekend tournament in Kamloops for basketball. Then we're going to try to get the agility equipment moved so our 4-H dogs can start using it on a regular basis.

I'll post more later!

The Girls Play

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6. It's a wonder Pam and Adrian even let Danica stay here, with the terrible habits my lovely daughters teach her.

So, Pam, if Danica tears your couch cushions off and uses them as an indoor play place, don't blame her.

The order of the day here is apparently lavendar t-shirts and jeans.

It's a beautiful sunny day, but cold. If it were next winter, and everyone were a year older, I'd bundle them up to play outside. But with Jordyn, that just doesn't sound very fun. We'll just have to stick with the indoor play place for a while longer.

Peek-a-boo!

This picture is worth 1,000 words...

Patience shoes her horsie...

Watch out, Uncle Dave! You have up-and-coming competition in the farrier trade. Not only can Patience shoe her horsie, but just look at the fashion statement the shoes make! Not your boring ol' steel shoes...

Patience had swim lesson #3 yesterday, again with brother Dylan in the water with her. She is still crying when Marianne is working with her, but is fine when she is "swimming" with Dylan. It'll be interesting next week when Dylan is back in school and can't accompany her.

She started with her, "I not go hummmmmm," when I was putting her swim suit on her before her lesson, and quickly added, "I not feeling well" to her reportoire to try to get out of going to Marianne's pool. Poor Bubelah. But swimming is one of life's little necessities in the Murphy household.

Look who has ankles...

Jordyn is wearing a pair of the cutest little boots that Mom bought (in two sizes) when Patience was a wee baby. Imagine my disappointment when she was never able to wear them because I couldn't zip them past her chubby ankles.

Our little Jojo is so petite in comparison to Patience. She had her one-year check-up yesterday and she's growing perfectly along the 50th percentile. Patience, in comparison, was barely hanging onto the graph, somewhere between the 95th and 99th percentile.

So, among other things, I'm enjoying wearing shoes on my little daughter...

Another couch wrecker in the making...

What do you see on the couch? That's right. One-year-old (almost) Jordyn. And what do you NOT see on the couch? That's right. Cushions.

That's because Jordyn's big sister, who shall remain nameless, has taught her how to climb on the couch and throw all the pillows off. Now this is her favorite activity, coupled with looking out the window once she gets up there.

Can't she get hurt up there? Can't she fall off? Yes, and frequently. But does it stop her from doing it? No. Such is my life...

You Know You're Old When...

Your child is old enough to donate blood! Today Nathan took another step on the road to adulthood. He and I had back-to-back appointments to donate blood, but when we got there, I was told that I couldn't donate because my iron was too low. I was shocked! Not.

But Nathan's was perfect...his little blob of blood sank to the bottom of the vial with lightning speed so he continued on through their processes, interviews, questionnaires, etc. Of course he thought the juice and cookies were a great bonus.

I came home with a pamphlet listing iron-rich food which I'm supposed to start consuming regularly.

It's amazing how fast they're all growing up. Jordyn will be one in less than two weeks, and Nathan will be thinking of moving out in less than 18 months.

My Over-Achiever

Can anyone guess which of my kids was selected to participate in the 2007 Canadian Mathematics Competition?

Swim Lessons!

There was an old woman, who lived in a shoe, the had so many children, she didn't know what to do!

Okay, I'm not technically "old," although if you ask my children they'd probably say I am. And I don't live in a shoe...but the rest of the nursery rhyme fits me pretty well.

On Tuesdays Patience has swim lessons. I'm able to bring her to Marianne's pool. Not a problem. I can even entertain Jordyn in her stroller during the whole 30-minute lesson. It's being in the water with her that has me stumped! No, I don't have to be in the water, but if I'm not, Patience has to sit on the steps while Marianne works with the other kids.

So, this morning I had a brainstorm! I happen to have several other children who could probably help out from 12 to 12:30! It just so happens that Dylan has a spare during that time, so I picked him up from school, drove around the corner to Marianne's, and tada, Patience has her very own helper, and was out in the water the entire 1/2 hour. It worked out perfectly!

Thanks, Dylan, for being such a great big brother...

Happy Birthday, Sean!

Here is our once baby, now middle child, Sean at his 12th birthday party. Slumber party. Never. Again.

Actually, Don and I slept fine, considering the boys were all down in Boyland and we were far away from the action. But according to Nathan, they didn't sleep at all.

But they're having a great time. They've been playing with Nathan's Wii, eating pizza, chips, cake, ice cream, pop...and now Don is making crepes. It's 8:30 and the parents are due at 11:00. We can make it!

On the agenda today, I'm taking Dylan to the bank to do some 4-H banking, taking Nathan to another basketball game, and then we'll have Sean's family birthday celebration this evening.

There's still snow on the ground, but skies are blue and the roads are finally clear for driving. I'm starting to feel the gardening itch for the first time in a few years. I think I'll do some gardening this year (on a very small scale...like maybe 40 sq. feet).

More later...

Hide and Seek!

I'm cheating... this picture of Patience and Danica is actually from last week, but it's so cute I had to post it.

We've been busy, but not with anything monumental, so I haven't been inclined to blog. So, I'll just fill you in on our mundane lives : )

We've had snow! In fact, the snow and icy roads made us cancel our 4-H meeting on Wednesday night, which was a pity. Nathan's basketball game was also canceled. So far this school year the snow has really wreaked havoc with many events.

Nathan's basketball team is on Vancouver Island without him because he has two tests next week (in Physics and Math) and we felt that missing more school was just not in his best interest. Keep in mind he was out of school for more than 3 weeks between the Hawaii trip and Christmas holiday, so it's really time to buckle down and concentrate on school work. It's amazing that this semester has only three weeks left, and in the third week Nathan will be taking some pretty substantial provincial exams. Eeek!

Dylan has been having a blast with his new keyboard. It has a lesson mode, where the keys light up to show you which ones to press, and a chart on the display shows you which finger to use. I'm pretty sure this is not how real lessons would go (right, Heather?) but he's enjoying the challenge. After you play the song, it shows you your score. If you score 70 or higher, you get applause (Dylan loves this feature). The funny thing is that because electronic games have not been welcome in our home this week, the boys have decided that the keyboard can be a pretty good substitute.

Sean stayed home from school (his dad's decision) on Wednesday because of the snow. On Thursday he didn't want to go, but I forced him out the door. I'm glad I did, because his (great) teacher took the kids outside for science and taught them things about the snow, like how to make an igloo or a Quincy. The kids had a blast!

Jordyn is quickly closing the gap between she and Patience. It's not going to be long until there's more playing and fighting between the two. In the past two weeks, Jordyn has decided that daddy is who she wants : ) It's very cute, and of course Don is over the top with her adoration. I think Jordyn is cutting her other top tooth, which will make two for the top and two for the bottom.

Tomorrow is 4-H for the boys. Nathan will be helping out with dog training in the a.m., and then all the boys will have Outdoor Living training in the afternoon. I'm hoping it doesn't snow...I'd hate to cancel tomorrow because of the weather.

Tomorrow night Val, Dave, and the kids are coming over. The kids are having Pizza here and the adults are going OUT. We've been wanting to take them to our favorite Greek place for ages, but we've never made it happen...so, hopefully, tomorrow we'll get to dine with them there.

I think that's about it for now!

Rich in Girlies!

Good morning from the tree farm! This morning we woke up to a beautiful dusting of snow and the appropriately cold temperatures to go with it!

We had a quiet evening last night, beginning with Nathan driving Dylan and me to WalMart, during which I didn't gasp or brace myself once. This is a huge step in the right direction.

After the girlies went to bed, Don played tech support (it's like a reality game) to niece Joleen and sister Val. During that time, Nathan and I listened to the Sharks have a feeding frenzy with the Red Wings. The 9-4 victory was exciting even just listening to it!

This morning we are having fun playing with new Christmas toys (some of them haven't even been played with!) with Danica. All three girls LOVE the kitchen, table and chairs, and tea set. Today is the last weekday of Christmas vacation for the boyos...they'll be off to school bright and early Monday morning. Ugh... It's been such a nice, relaxing two weeks (three for Nathan!)...

Pretty Hair!

Patience has never been a fan of having "pretties" in her hair. She'd take em out as fast as I could put them in so I eventually gave up. But this Christmas she got some really cute hair things in her stocking and to my surprise she likes them! She'll willingly sit so I can brush and part her hair and make pigtails.

The hysterical thing is that Jordyn is fixated on Patience's hair pretties. She follows Patience around, trying to touch her hair, and even pulled one out when Patience was sitting on the ground not paying attention. So I put Jordyn in her highchair and proceded to "do" her hair. She sat relatively still! I pulled up all her long hair and made it into a little palm tree, and wouldn't you know it, that little girl left it in her hair all day long! Patience walked around saying, "I soooo pretty!" and I think Jordyn was thinking the same thing : )

Patience's Tea Party

This might have been the cutest thing that happened in the history of my being a mom to daughters.

If Patience has a nap during the day, she's up late. Far later than I like to be up! But sometimes it's just impossible to keep her awake during the day, so I have to pay the consequences. I have to admit that she is very self-sufficient, so being up late with her is not difficult...it's just....late.

So this evening she was up late playing and I was on the internet when she came in the kitchen, grabbed my hand, and said, "c'mon, Mom." She lead me into her little play area where she had set up a tea part for four. Her guests, along with me, were Jessie and Woody from Toy Story. So we sat (I sat gingerly on her new little pink chair) while Patience poured me cup after cup of "tea," and then I switched to coffee so she could run back and forth to her kitchen where she has coffee maker with real brewing sounds.

It was very precious...a memory I'll have for a long time (especially now that I've blogged it). I love having daughters (thank you, Lord).

Christmas 2006

The kids all slept graciously late Christmas morning. In fact, we had to go wake up Patience and pull her out of bed at 7:30. She was in bed really late the night before, and kept saying, "I'm soooo tired!"

Everyone was ecstatic with their gifts. This year, the theme appeared to be "few, but expensive," which, I suppose, is normal for older kids.

Nathan was wowed with the Wii, compliments of Grandma and Grandpa Steitz, and thanks to Don, who stood in line all night long the night before it was released. If he hadn't done that, I don't think we would have been able to find one. He also got a Sharks treasure chest full of everything teal: shirts, hats, jerseys, a wallet (with Sharks/Canucks tickets inside), and lots of other things to make a Sharks fanatic happy.

Dylan got a keyboard, filled with features for a budding musician. He wants to learn to play piano, and this keyboard has a lesson mode with light-up keys, etc. He also got a cell phone/mp3/camera thingy, and a couple of serious racing suits for the upcoming swim season. Let's just say that if he doesn't win any races this year, it's not the suit's fault!

Sean is now the proud owner of a digital camera, Heely's, serious racing suits, and more stuff, I'm sure! He and Dylan got the Knights and Cities expansion pak for Settlers of Catan, and many movies...

The girlies got a kitchen, which they love, an adorable table and chairs and tea set, a toy organizer (such a boring gift could only come from their mother), the little people zoo (very cute), and a gazillion other fun toys.

I got a new digital camera from Don! It's teeny weeny and I'm afraid I'll lose it. I'm still trying to figure everything out...for instance, this morning I tried to fit the battery pack into my computer to download pictures. There wasn't a slot that size anywhere. Lucky for me, I have tech support who showed me the teeny weeny SD card (thanks Mom & Lee) that slides into a teeny weeny slot in the front of my laptop! Very convenient!

Don had a clothes Christmas! It's been a while since his wardrobe has been overhauled, so I went through all his stuff, donating some, tossing some, and organzing the rest so he can find things easily. He now looks very hip!

We had the pleasure of having Don's sister and her family down from the Edmonton area, and it was the first Christmas ever for both families to be all together Christmas morning. It was a full house, with Don, Waneta, and my mom, but it was great!

After brunch, the Murphy's and my mom loaded up and went south of the border to spend the day with Val and Dave and their kids. We had more Christmas presents there...my favorite being portraits of the girls! When my mom was up that first weekend in December, she and Lee took the girls shopping with Val in Bellingham. At the mall, they took the girls to the Picture People and got some adorable shots! Apparently is was very hard work, which is why I've never attempted to do it! But I'm so thankful that they persevered : )

In the picture is me holding Jordyn and her Christmas stocking that my mom's friend, Dani, knitted for her. Patience has a similar one, and they're both precious. Thanks, Mom and Dani!

Winter Wonderland

Here are my five amazing children during November's snow. This snow might have been fun for the kids, but it sure wreaked havoc with the school calendar and with Dylan's band concert.

Mommy's Holiday Hair

I'm just posting this picture because you can kind of see my new fun hair color. It's roughly the color of this shirt (before Jordyn slimed it). The best news of all is that my gray is completely covered, however temporarily. My kids are too young (well, some of them) for me to have gray hair. Especially so much gray hair.

I just put both girls to sleep. Patience has been creating a habit of taking a very late nap, say from 3 to 5, and then being awake until 10 or later. Um, that doesn't work for me. So today I made sure that the late afternoon nap didn't happen. Yes, I paid dearly for it with a very grumpy girlie, but I'm loving life right now!

Okay, and now I need to get some things checked off my to do list.

Merry Christmas!

Here's Miss Jordyn during her very first experience wearing a Santa hat! She was quite inclined to rip it off as fast as she could...let's just say that this shot was a miracle!

I can't believe that Christmas is four short days away. At this point I have a manageable list of things I need to buy, do, decorate, cook, etc. Mom comes tomorrow in the late afternoon which we are all looking forward to SOOOOO much!

My wonderful sister is making the airport run for me since she has a plethora of free time right now : )

Don's sister Colleen, and her three children, are down from the Edmonton area for Christmas. The kids are having a great time together. They will be here for Christmas for the first time ever (that I can remember). I let both boys stay home from school today to enjoy cousin time. I took advantage of Dylan being home by taking him for a haircut, along with Patience, and then to the grocery store. Things are just so much easier with another big person along. I left sleeping Jordyn in the care of her brother Sean. You'll be relieved to know that she slept the entire time I was gone!

Nathan is struggling away in Hawaii...hardly able to keep up with the basketball, shopping, and snorkeling schedule. He misses us deeply and can't wait to come home (NOT!). Anyway, we're looking forward to seeing him Christmas eve and hearing of his wonderful Hawaiian adventure.

We're still alive and kicking!

Sorry for the lack of updates these past three weeks. It'd not that nothing exciting and interesting happened, it's just that when you run a Christmas tree farm AND have 5 (active) kids, time for blogging is scarce.

Let's see, the major news is that my dad (stepdad, actually) just spent more than two weeks with us to prevent me from having a nervous breakdown. While Don is super busy this time of year, I really need another adult around here, especially one who drives! Lee made fires every morning before anyone woke up (Don's going to miss that!), drove various boys to school, practice, hair cuts, and lots of other places, worked in the concession stand during the day until Sean got home, and all day long during the weekends. He babysat, gave JoJo bottles, made toast for the girls...the ways he made himself indespensible is endless! He left this morning at 4:00 to get to the airport in time for a 7:30 flight. Our Christmas angel has left us.... Now I'm pretty much on my own!

Except that my two nieces, Kelsey and Hailey, are visiting us this weekend and will help me with childcare and/or concession stand duty. I'm really looking forward to having them here...Patience adores them both.

Nathan also left at o'dark hundred this morning for Hawaii. I'm trying real hard to drum up some sympathy for his having to wake up at 3:30. He's there with the senior boys and girls basketball teams from school, and they're there for 9 days...until Christmas eve, when we pick him up at the airport at 9:30 p.m. He's going to have an incredible time, I just know it!

Jordyn now has two bottom teeth, and has pretty much decided that pureed food is for babies. Sometimes I can sneak some into her, but when she's done, she just pushes it right back out, kinda like when play-doh gets squeezed through an opening. She much prefers toast, crackers, bites of real food, and even a peanut butter and jam sandwich if Sissy leaves one close enough to the edge of the table!

Don's been working like a horse for about four weeks straight. I think 40 is just a wee bit too old to be a Christmas tree farmer.

Dylan had his school Christmas concert last night, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't be any prouder of that horn blower. He's an amazing trumpet player and his band teacher made sure that everyone knew it last night, giving Dylan several solos and other showcases. He has another concert tonight, and this time Don will go see his WonderKid.

Okay, so we're all fine, busy of course, but oh well! One more weekend of retail farming, and I'm hoping to sell every last cookie and brownie that I've baked! (the boys, on the other hand, hope there's leftovers!).

Pictures to follow...Don's been hogging the camera lately : (

Snow!

By the time this snowstorm ends, there will be a foot of snow that has fallen! This picture looks black and white, but it's not...

This morning Don and I took JoJo into Langley to purchase touques and gloves, because amazingly enough no one could fine theirs. It took hours because of the horrible driving conditions. We were in the truck, driving with 4-wheel drive, and there were plenty of cars and trucks in the ditches on either side of the road. At Wal-Mart, we stocked up on groceries so we don't have to drive for awhile. This snow is supposed to last a few days.

We'll probably have no school tomorrow...shucks! In the meantime, the kids (except for Jordyn) played in the snow, built forts, and had a snowball fight. Only one person ended up in tears...it wasn't Patience.

Can you believe...

that Valarie gave ME a hard time about updating my blog?!?

The good news is that the Richeys arrived safe and sound to our farm around 4:30 this afternoon. I couldn't get my shoes on and the baby bundled up fast enough...by the time I got out there, they had their tree in the bed of their truck and were all ready to come into the warmth! In the good ol' days Valarie would've spent hours finding the perfect tree...now it appears that the tree that's closest to their truck when they park is the perfect tree!

They brought pizzas, pop, and a very yummy dessert which we all ate in no time. The kids had a great time together...amazing...and the babies were in hog heaven with all of these fresh people : )

Here are photos of various groups of people! For newcomers, the pictures are Dylan, Val, and Nathan; five cousins eating pizza, Hailey and Patience, Kelsey and Jordyn, and me and Dave!

Napping with Daddy

Last night, after my coaching interview, I came home to dad "babysitting" Jordyn. It was 7:30 and they were both completely sacked out! The flash didn't even wake up Jordyn.

Patience, who put herself to bed at 5:00 last night, is still sleeping soundly. Thank the Lord, no vomiting last night! Maybe she'll even be able to eat something more than just two Saltine crackers today. Poor little thing...but I have to admit, her sleepy cuddles are very nice. Normally she's way too bouncy to give anything more than a cursory hug. Yesterday she fell asleep on my lap twice : )

Catching Up!

Well, what a week this has been! On Wednesday of last week we had a pretty brutal storm in the PNW...sustained winds at 100 mp caused considerable damage, not to mention driving hazards AND power outages. We lost power at around 11 a.m. on Wednesday and it didn't come back until Friday morning...almost 48 hours! The first day was fun, almost like an adventure, Thursday was a little annoying but when I woke up Friday a.m. and found there was still no power I basically lost all my sense of humor about it.

The power outage was not without its benefits. The boys didn't have school Thursday or Friday, freeing them up to work with Don. Don was able to get a load of trees out of the interior on Thursday with the help of Nathan. That's a huge relief because the weather just wasn't cooperating when Nathan was available.

This weekend I spent Saturday a.m. at a 4-H workshop and then just did my normal house and kids routine in the afternoon.

Saturday night Patience woke up around 1:30 throwing up. Lovely. And since she shares a room with Jordyn, she woke up too. I cleaned Patience up, her bedding was a mess, so I put her to sleep on the floor in my room. I got Jordyn back to sleep (lucky girl got a bottle in the middle of the night!) and then went into my room just as Patience got sick AGAIN. More clean up, and this time I smartened up and got her a bucket. I brought her into bed with me, and every 15 minutes she would say, "bucket," we'd sit up while she vomited into the bucket, I'd clean her up, empty the bucket, etc. until around 5 a.m. We woke up at 8 and she wasn't able to keep anything down. The poor girlie has only had water and two saltines all day long, and has lost most of the water. She went to sleep around 5 tonight (and she's slept alot of the day) so I'm hoping a good night's sleep will help her recover. She doesn't seem feverish.

I did several loads of laundry today...cleaning all of the casualties of Patience's getting sick as well as catching up with the regular laundry. Those days without power put a kink in my routine of a load (or two) each day.

Don has worked all day long. This afternoon he took Nathan and Dylan down to bale a hundred or so trees that he's selling wholesale.

Tonight I met with our 2007 head coach for swimming to interview some potential coaches for his staff. I think this is going to be a good year.

And now I'm off to bed...a little early, I admit, but I need to catch up on lost sleep from last night and who knows what's in store for me tonight.

Pink on Pink

Here's JoJo all happy with herself for being in Sissy's chair!

JoJo is now officially 9 months old. She's still crawling, although she's getting quicker! And right now she's suffering from her first diaper rash : (

She's 100% on a bottle now...boy, that formula is expensive! And eats about three jars of baby food a day, plus snacks of Cheerios and such. Oh yeah, and she eats whatever table food we give her at dinner time.

The Bearded Sailor

Another request from Grandma: a photo of Nathan with his beard! This is Sailor Nate all decked out for the Remembrance Day parade on Saturday.

Nathan got permission from cadets to grow a beard after his drama teacher requested it for a part Nathan is playing in the school play. He just found out that now that it's a fully-grown regulation beard, he can keep it as long as he wants! Apparently in the Navy it's okay to have a beard, probably due to the seafaring tradition...

Since he hates shaving, he's going to keep it!

Patience's Disrobing Disorder

My lovely 2 1/2 year old daughter has a rare disorder: she'll consciously or subconsciously take her clothes off at nearly every opportunity. Don really hopes she outgrows this before teenagehood! As a result of her behavior, she is frequently running around the house either naked or in some degree of nakedness.

Yesterday when she appeard butt naked, I yelled, "put your clothes on!" for the tenth time and she appeared one minute later with socks on.

She was wearing a new western shirt from Grandma (duh) and hasn't quite gotten the hang of any shirts besides t-shirts, so when she redressed herself without assistance, this is what happened! Upside down and inside out! She did fine on the lower half, though.

Sometimes she puts her underwear on so that one leg hole is around her waist, which of course throws everything off, and makes it look (on one side) like she's wearing a thong. Very funny...

New Sleepers!

I'm sure we wouldn't be able to have all these hundreds of children if we had to purchase all of their clothes. But we don't! We have the most generous parents who send boxes of incredibly cute clothing every so often so that when we actually DO buy something ourselves it feels foreign!

Here is Miss Patience modeling two of the five or so new sleepers that Grandma sent to her. Can you just see her saying, "Cheese!"?

Thank you, Grandma, for the wonderful new sleepers, socks, and shirts! I love the cowgirl ones!

My Gazebo-less Garden

For those of you who know what my backyard USED to look like...

You can see the skid marks that the tractor made pulling my gazebo out of the backyard and over to where the second shop is. The gazebo was on the new proposed property line so we had to move it before the subdivision could be finalized.

Nathan was shocked when he came home and it was gone. I never knew it even mattered to him but he told me that he wanted to get married in that gazebo just like Don and I did. So we'll have to make sure it sits in a picturesque setting when it's in its final place.

I'm hoping my yard won't look like this too much longer...

One Horrible Night

Ugh...I haven't had this little sleep since Jordyn was a newborn! Yesterday Miss Patience had a very late, very long nap, which made her not really sleepy until about 11 last night. That's much later than Don and I like to be awake, but since she's currently sleeping in a trundle bed in our room, she kept us awake until she finally drifted off. Shortly after that, Miss Jordyn woke up and started crying. This happens at least every other night, and we just let her cry. She goes back to sleep after a few minutes. Last night, after 20 minutes, Don went in to change her diaper. She has had a bit of a diaper rash lately, so we wanted to make sure she wasn't stuck in a dirty diaper. Nope, that wasn't the problem! So, he put her back to bed, freshly diapered and she continued to cry for 20 more minutes. Then I hear a crash/thump, and then her crying escalates. I run in, only to find her laying down, crying her heart out. As soon as she sees me, she stops crying. I pick her up and snuggle her to me as much as possible (she's not a snuggler) and try to sway/rock her back to sleep. She settled down but didn't seem tired AT ALL. She looked at me, around the room, out the door, wondering when we were going out there... After 10 minutes of that, I realize that I am not going to be able to rock that baby to sleep. So I put her back in her crib...heart-wrenching crying...for another hour. I think it was around 3 that she finally was quiet. So, yeah, we got about 4 hours of interrupted sleep. Jordyn is taking a nice long morning nap (must be nice) and Patience is just plain cranky. I think I'm going to try to keep her up until 7:30 or so. She'll probably fall asleep at the table...

Not Just Fishing...Catching!

Sean and Don had an excellent time at the fishing field trip today. Even though the weather was poor, there were lots of fish caught! They were salmon and they were spawning, and there were lots of them. Sean caught the second fish of the day, and, according to Don, Sean is an excellent caster! Here is a great shot of Sean, and another one of him and his teacher, Mr. T.

A Rainy Saturday Morning...

The weather is bleak here: driving, freezing rain! I'm hoping that all this weather is over before December, as this is really not the weather conducive to choosing a real tree at a Christmas tree farm...this is the weather where you run to the grocery store and buy an imported, dried out tree.

This morning Don and Sean headed off to Sean's fishing field trip. Yep, in this weather. I hope it clears up at least some, or it's not going to be any fun for anyone.

Dylan is gone for the weekend to his Redhawk Voices retreat. Nathan was supposed to be sailing, but the cadets had the good sense to cancel when they saw the forecast. No sense in getting a bunch of boats and cadets all the way to Harrison just to have it be too windy to put in.

I was hoping to drive south and visit with Val, et. al., but I think the last thing she needs is to be exposed to our lingering colds.

Nathan is still sleeping; Jordyn is down for her nap, and Patience is terrorizing the house. So that's our rainy Saturday morning for you! I'll post more later, if anything newsworthy should happen.

Houston, We Have a Mudroom!

This is yet another room that is too small to photograph well...this is the view from the top of the stairs. There are just a couple of details left, such as trim for the window and closet, a closet door, and a long white coatrack that will go on the wall opposite the wood stove. Oh yeah, and a proper light fixture. Right now we're just using an old floor lamp.

There is still a little painting left to do, as well. Last night Don painted 1/2 of the stairs (the same color as you see on the floor) so now he'll do the other half.

Our project is so close to being done I can hardly stand it! I can't believe how much these extra walls have added to the "livability" of this house. We should have done it long ago (we've said that about every renovation project we've ever done, though!).

The Return of Our Christmas Tree Farm Angel

Altenate Title: Will Work for Wine!

My wonderful stepdad, Lee, retired last September from an eternity working for the airlines! He is one of the best retired people I know...always busy, always travelling, working on house projects. He's definitely not one of those people who kind of fade away when they retire!

Last December, when I was 7 months pregnant, with a toddler to boot, and a lot of work to do around the farm and the house, plus the three boys who all have lives and need to be driven places, I was getting a little nervous about how I would make it through...

And then, just like a guardian angel, Lee arrives at the farm and stays for 12 days! He worked long hours with nothing for compensation besides a little food and wine! He made the fire early in the morning, he drove the kids all over the place, he made and served popcorn to zillions of kids for our school tours, not to mention assembling the zillions of snowmen crafts that those kids put together during their tour. Yep, he was definitely indispensible!

And he's coming back!!!! I just found out from my mom that when they come up for the end of November (concert) Lee will just stay on through the busy weekend! Even though we aren't doing school tours this year, there are other additions, namely Jordyn and Danica! So I'll still need his help : )

If you haven't figured it out already, Lee is a pretty spectacular dad! Now I'm looking forward to the Christmas tree season instead of dreading it!

Playing with Mrs. Potato Head

Here are the girlies playing together (well, okay, Patience is playing and Jordy is watching!) with Mrs. Potato Head. You can see that Jordyn doesn't feel well. Poor Bubelah...

A House Full of Sickies!

That's right...now we're all stuffed up or dripping : (

I have the beginnings of a face ache. Poor little JoJo is still not better, but she doesn't have a fever so I don't think she has an ear infection. Patience just has dark droopy eyes and she's willing to sit (or lie down) and watch a movie. Admittedly, that's not so very bad!

Yesterday after lunch I was wiping Patience's hands and face and said, "what do you want now?" with her bag of Halloween candy in mind. She said, "Baba." I said, "Don't you want some Halloween candy?" and she said, "No candy, nap!" So off she went with her bottle for a nice afternoon nap (lucky duck!).

Don said she did great with trick-or-treating! She didn't say, "trick-or-treat," but she did say "thank you" everytime. And she would just stand there saying thank you with her bag open until people gave her more candy! And more often than not, she would try to enter people's houses...they must have seemed like the kind of people she's like to get to know!

Nathan brought home bad news...a failed math test. He says the teacher is going to let him rewrite an especially dismal part of the test which would raise his score. Let's hope that's right, because a failed test means no basketball, which starts next weekend.

Dylan fessed up to something he's been secretly doing after school: he's singing in a Jazz ensemble! I told him vehemently "no more choirs or bands, young man!" because I though that 5 was definitely enough! But the music department wants to start a younger vocal jazz group because right now the really good one is made up of grades 11 and 12 students. Dylan is in the "second string," so to speak, which is made up of grades 8 to 10. It's a small group...6 students. And Dylan wants to know if Grandma is going to come to February Blues, Poppy's Jazz festival, to hear him play and sing! He figures we can celebrate JoJo's birthday whenever the festival is, so you can kill two birds with one stone!

Oh, and here's another news flash: Dylan has decided that he's NOT going to Disneyland this year. He has three more years of pricey band trips, including one to China! so there's no rush in laying out the big bucks this year. I'm sure he'll regret it when the rest of the group heads out in April, but you can only do so much when you're not independently wealthy. I figure he can continue saving, and by next year's band trip he'll be all set. It's painful to learn delayed gratification, but what a great perspective to be able to have.

Okay, I'm off to do more reading. Patience, unfortunately, loves "Fox in Socks." It's very difficult to read!