Jan 13th Update

Another quick update (I warned you they'd be quick!)

We got to watch baby Maya for a day!  She was very good and the girls loved her.  She only cried when I tried to feed her and then she cried REALLY hard! I finally figured out that she was tired and not hungry so I put her to bed and she was asleep within seconds!  Wow.

The only tough part was actually MY baby!  Hannah was crazy jealous.  She was also enchanted with Maya.  So, if I was holding Maya, Hannah was crying and screaming things like "Dat MY MOMMY!".  If I wasn't holding Maya, Hannah was trying to climb all over her and treat her like one of her baby dolls.  Funny girl.

Oh, and in the picture, Samantha just REALLY wanted to make sure that Maya's head didn't "look away."  She wasn't pushing it, just holding it "in case it fell."  (-:

We took a spontaneous trip in 11 degree weather to get ice cream cones!  We were VERY disappointed to find out that our McDonalds does not offer chocolate ice cream!

Samantha had some fun with my lipstick.  She came running into me at my desk saying, "Mommy, I made my face beautiful.  I have a really big face, but it SO PRETTY!"

The boy's figured out how to do something on my iPad that I have no clue how to do.  (I just found these pictures when doing this post):

Cory is a fabulous story teller.  Since the boys were little he has told them stories.  I read to them, but don't do so well at telling them fun exciting stories.  Most nights Cory will tell them a bit of the "Aragorn Story"  (aka Lord of the Rings). They LOVE it.  But tonight he pulled them up with him and told them the "Ammon Story."  The sat and listened to him for over 30 minutes.  It was so, so touching.  I had to take a minute behind the wall in the kitchen to say thank you for a good husband who not only wants his kids to learn to love the Lord, but actually does things to help them.

Oh, and ps...one other thing is is REALLY good at is praying with them.  Bedtime is the most difficult time of the day for me.  I somehow find a way to be pretty patient and occasionally fun throughout the day, but by bedtime, I'm burnt-out, tired and impatient.  I just want the kids in bed and a few minutes to myself.  I regularly forget to help them with the personal prayers.  I'm really, really trying to work on this, but for now I'm just extremely grateful for a husband who steps up and does it instead.  Every night, almost without fail, he kneels down with them and gently teaches them to pray.  He is never more gentle or kind with them than he is in those moments and I love it.  I record it here so that they will one day know how he loved them!

Church is crazy for us right now (why do I feel like I've been saying that for 5 years????  Please tell me it does calm down eventually!)

First off, our church just moved to 11 am.  Personally, I think all singles ward in the world should be required to meet at 11 am so that fewer families have to.  It is SO tough b/c it interferes with naps and lunch so all four kids struggle.  Sacrament is always a bit of a challenge (as I'm sure many of you can relate).  But right now, we are also teaching Micah and Noah's primary class which has twelve 5 year olds in it!  On top of that, Samantha is struggling to go to Sunbeams (especially when she can see us just two rows behind). So, she ends up crying and wants to sit on my lap.  For those of you who know Samantha, she is determined and when tired SCREAMS uncontrollably.  So, since I can't really leave, I hold her to avoid the screaming.  In addition, Hannah cries and cries in nursery.  I left her there last week and she cried for over an hour.  Today, they calmed her down after about 30 min, but then she had a poopy diaper so they brought her to me.  So, we had all four of our kids and 12 others.  STRESS.  Seriously.

But then we got them all home (amid quite a few tears and cries of "I'm so hungry" and "Im so tired...can't I just sleep?"), changed them and fed them.  They were all smiles: (for about an hour...haaha:

And in that picture up there, you can see our new elliptical!  Yay!  I'm SO excited to finally own a nice piece of exercise equipment.  A 13 yr old young man in our ward put it together for me (he was amazing!)

And on the house front, things are moving along.  We've had sub-zero temps here at night which is really unusual and way below the average temps.  So, the ground on our lot actually froze.  They couldn't pour the basement floor over frozen ground.  So, they had to rent a bunch huge machines to come thaw out the ground.  Our builder was kind enough to both pay for this and actually do this himself.  He and his crew were out there (in freezing temps) for over 8 hours thawing everything out.  They finished at nearly 9 pm and covered the ground with special blankets.  They poured the basement floor the next day.  Then then started all the backfill (which means we've now got window wells!)  They will start framing tomorrow.  Yay!

I've got about a million decisions to make in the next month about carpet, tile, laminate, countertops, sinks, faucets, tubs, toilets, beadboard, lights, backsplash, built-ins, window casing, wainscotting, appliances, paint colors etc my head is spinning.  Trying to find time to go meet with all these different people and look at the options in the showrooms / find the lowest prices is nearly impossible with 4 kids!  So, while this is a dream come true and I'm loving it, I will also be glad when it is all done b/c it sure is overwhelming!

We've Got Window Wells!

A day or two after they poured the basement floor:

The garage:

The backfill is almost done!