My baby

Today my baby is five!

Five years ago right this minute, I was asleep, under sedation after an emergency caesarean section. I had an epidural already in place, but when they rushed me in for surgery (Mosey was descending with his head cocked to the side, ear presenting first, which is very unsafe), and made the first incision, I discovered that it hadn't fully numbed my right side. Ouch! So I was given something or other in my IV, and I barely made it conscious through the delivery.
As it was, I got to see him only for a second because he was rushed to the NICU for breathing problems.
As I slowly came out of the anesthesia, I had some sort of panic attack and started hyperventilating. I was terrified, because it really felt like I was not getting enough oxygen. I couldn't catch my breath long enough to call for a nurse. Finally one passed by and I gasped out that I couldn't breathe. She checked my oxygen saturation, and it was fine, and she told me just to slow my breathing. Yeah, right! How do you slow your breathing when you feel like you are smothering?! Finally, they sedated me again and I didn't wake up until the next morning.
Mosey spent the night under an oxygen tent and was doing a lot better by morning.

But he was still breathing really fast and the doctors were not comfortable letting him out of the NICU. I didn't even get to see him until nearly 12 hours after delivery. And I didn't get to hold him until the next night.


But, after a less-than-promising beginning, he improved and was released from the NICU after 5 days and came home with me.

He was an easy, easy baby. (Well, maybe any baby would have seemed easy after twins!)
He didn't cry much, slept very contendedly in the sling or the swing, and seemed to adapt to life this side of the womb very well.


The twins were not happy about him for several weeks, but finally managed to accept his existence, and finally to even love him.

(look at the scratches on his face-- Brigham and Joseph did that to him! So sad... But they were only two and it was a tough adjustment)

Mosey is still my sweetie, maybe because he is the youngest. But he is by far my most cuddly child, and always has been. He will grab my face and kiss my cheek. He still manages to find his way into my bed to snuggle with me more nights than not.

He is a funny kid, too! He has an infectious laugh, and it's not just me that says this. He finds little things uproariously funny, and you can't help but laugh with him.

He loves animals. And he LOVES stuffed animals. Here are the stuffed animals currently on his favorite list:
Little Dog (the first, and best-loved of his Webkinz animals, a chihuahua)
Lumpy (Webkinz elephant)
Good Squirrely (Webkinz squirrel)
Pug (Webkinz pug, oddly enough)
Rudolph (fawn)
Polly (pink and white dog with pink bows on her ears)
Giant Polly (same as above, but bigger! She's little Polly's mom, apparently)
Scooby Doo
Fur-Real dog (no name)
Fur-Real cat (no name)
Golden (dog given to him for Christmas from Brigham)
Attack (cat)
Sunshine Bear (Carebear, actually the "Funshine" bear)
Blue (from Blue's Clues)
White doggy (no name, he actually gave it to Ben for his birthday, but has since sort of adopted it as his own, to no one's surprise)


Mosey also loves to read. He's a really good reader! He's reading the Charlie Bones books along with Joseph. He reads out loud sometimes and it's the most adorable thing to hear. He has great inflection for dialogue, and reads with spirit. He was reading this afternoon and only got caught up on the word "indignantly." That is a hard word! He's a great speller, too, and frequently corrects Brigham on his spelling (admittedly, spelling isn't Brigham's greatest talent).


He's still afraid of the dark, and won't go into the garage by himself, or even into the bathroom if the light is off. He'll ask one of his brothers to turn the light on for him first.

He is TERRIFIED of the automatic flushing toilets at Walmart. Absolutely terrified.
Along those lines, he sometimes prefers the backyard to the toilet, much to my chagrin. But sometimes his brothers don't want to stop what they're doing to turn the bathroom light on for him, and what's a boy to do? :-)

His favorite food is fruit, smarties, and any kind of soda. He tells me all the time, "Mom, I'm hungry for a smartie!"


He loves to play on Webkinz World and Starfall.com, and he is scarily adept at anything to do with the computer. Like, he can open up Blogger, create a new post, and publish it completely on his own. He can find the Republican National Trust and fill out the contribution form to donate 79 trillion dollars. Go to the Starfall.com store and try to buy $220,000+ worth of stuff. And he can dance like nobody's business.

He loves to sit on my lap when shopping at Target or Walmart or HEB (the only places I can shop, as they have the ride-on carts). I love to kiss the top of his head while he's riding on my lap.

He says to me, "I'll hold your hand, Mom, so you don't fall." Sometimes he wants me to go upstairs and I tell him it's too hard for me, and he will say, "Don't worry, mom, I'll hold your hand so you can get up the stairs."

He always prefaces a statement to Ben or me, "Mom (or Dad), I hafta tell you something." And then we have to respond before he will actually say what he has to say. At night as I'm trying to settle him down, he'll say, "Ok, mom, this is the LAST thing I'm going to say." Until the next thing, and then *that* is the last thing.

He adores his big brothers and does everything with them. First thing in the morning, he asks me if Brigham and Joseph are up yet.

I love him so much, my heart just bursts with love for him.

Happy Birthday punkin' pie!

Bad, bad blogger

I've been so bad updating my blog as of late. I have the problem in that I don't like to go out of order. I have not yet blogged about Ben's birthday last Saturday, because I have not yet had time to upload and edit the pictures. Therefore I cannot blog about anything else until that is done! Or so my methodical logic tells me.
And I will blog about Ben's birthday (he's 34!), hopefully tomorrow before Mosey's birthday on Saturday (he'll be 5!).
Today I went to Houston for my 6 month visit with my oncologist, Dr. Popat, at MD Anderson.
It was fine. They took blood, he listened to my heart and lungs, asked if I felt well (yes), if I had any questions (no), how I felt about how I'm doing in the study (don't really know, I guess pretty good), went back and drew more blood (oops, they forgot a couple tests), and that was that.
Well, then he sent me at the last minute to Baylor to see my neurologist, Dr. Hutton.
I really, really like Dr. Hutton. His office hasn't been the most on-the-ball, I'm not sure why. Dr. Hutton said they're going through some personnel restructuring, and he seemed genuinely upset that my phone calls and messages over the past few weeks were not answered. So upset, in fact, that he gave me his cell phone and email address! What doctor does that, I ask you?! He must trust me not to forward him all the latest miracle cures for MS that come my way. :-)
Anyway, when I was with Dr. Popat, he asked when I was seeing Dr. Hutton, and I told him I hadn't been able to schedule a visit yet, so Dr. Popat called Dr. Hutton himself, and voila! An appointment was made for right then! ( I actually kind of felt important!)
I didn't really want to go, since I knew that this neuro appointment was supposed to involve the full EDSS scoring (walking tests, math test-- yes, really, peg test, etc.) and I had already been walking all over creation (it felt like) at MD Anderson and I was hot and tired. Plus I forgot my Baclofen this morning and was a spastic mess. Plus I only got 4 hours of sleep last night (had to leave for Houston at 5:30 AM and had to get all the boys' stuff ready for the day, blah, blah, blah).
Plus, I had timed everything so that if we returned to Austin right after my MD Anderson appointments, I'd get back in time to take the boys to piano lessons. But an appointment with Dr. Hutton messed with all that. I was very frustrated because I knew I wasn't in any shape to do the EDSS scoring, and he'd want me to come back later anyway, so a visit with him was just going to be a waste of his and my time. So I called his office and tried to communicate this with the person at the front desk, to no avail. So I went. And it was probably good, since I left with his cell and email, the cell and email of my new nurse contact there, and the assurance that my MRI and neuro appointment will be made post haste. Actually, they had tentatively scheduled an MRI for this very night at 10:00! It didn't work out for me to stay for it, but I was very impressed by how quickly they made that happen. I'm not sure I ever wrote about the long and involved and very, very frustrating saga of getting my pre-transplant MRI's scheduled last spring. It literally took 3 months. Although I think 2 months and 29 days of that was time wasted by an incompetent, although very nice person who shall remain nameless and who no longer works at Dr. Hutton's office, and 1 day to actually schedule the MRI.
Next week I'll probably go back to Houston for the full neuro visit and MRI's. It's actually making me a little sick to my stomach. I've been fairly successful in keeping myself really busy and preoccupied and not thinking too much about my MS stuff. But the MRI will be big. If there are new lesions, that is NOT a good thing. Really, really not.
I don't think I've really seen any deterioration since I came home from the hospital, but I also don't feel like I've recovered as much mobility as I had before the transplant, so I don't know what to make of that. Maybe there was some trauma that happened during that one really bad flare at the hospital when I reacted to the ATG. Who knows. Maybe nothing.
I just feel like skipping the MRI and continuing on in ignorant bliss. But then again, if there has been no change on the MRI, that will be incredibly encouraging. So I'm very, very torn.
I'm afraid I'm going to be a mental case for the next week or so. Maybe it's time to break out the Xanax? (kidding)
Anyway, I'm back from Houston for now, had a safe and very enjoyable trip driving out with my friend Sue (who volunteered last night at about 9:30 PM to come pick me up at 5:30 AM and spend her entire day driving me to and from Houston. Major, major brownie points), and now have the cell number and email address of an actual, real-life doctor (insert evil laughter and hand rubbing here).

The boys' first car wreck

Well, it wasn't much of a car wreck, really, thank goodness.
We were on our way home from church, stopped at a stop light and got rear ended. It was quite a forceful jolt, actually. It shocked all of us, and then Mosey started crying and told me it hurt. I think he was more scared than hurt, because he hasn't complained for the rest of the afternoon.
It was a 17 year old kid, and he was very polite and obviously scared. I felt really bad for him. That first fender-bender is pretty awful.
Luckily the height of his fender and ours was such that very little damage was done to his car, and the bottom part of our bumper only was dented in. He was very lucky, because, honestly, after the jolt we felt, I fully expected to see his hood buckled at least somewhat. I hope our bumper isn't too expensive; it always annoys me when bumpers are expensive to repair. Isn't the POINT of bumpers to protect the body of the car?
It was good, in a way, to drive home the importance of seatbelts.
Mosey said, after we were back on the road, "I'm never going to drive when I am a teenager. I'm only going to practice and practice." And that is just fine with me.

Happy 2009!!!!!

Remember our cute little gingerbread house?



Well, after some of this...



A little of this...



A lot of this...



Some more of this...



And of course a little doggy action...



We ended up with this.




And this. Three very happy boys and a whole lotta crumbs.





They got creative this year and had a whole scenario in which a massive multi-car pileup demolished the house leaving nothing but rubble.

All-in-all, a very successful Gingerbread-Demolition-2008!

I am not sad to see 2008 move into the history books. In many ways it was a really great year. I got into the stem-cell transplant clinical trial, survived the transplant, and my blood counts are almost all normal. The boys started homeschooling, a dream I've always had. Ben has a good job, and we are financially secure and comfortable. We are truly blessed.

But I also never want to have another year like 2008 again. I know I could survive it, in case we're ever faced with similar challenges, but I would sure rather not!

I am hoping for a much less eventful 2009!!!

It's pretty weird to me that it is now 2009. I remember well when 1989 seemed like such a futuristic year. And 1999 seems like such a short time ago. In 2019 I'll be 42, have two 17 year olds and an almost 15 year old. It seems like a lifetime away, and yet I know it will be here sooner than I will believe possible.

The acceleration of time as I grow older has really surprised me. It is certainly bittersweet. I relish in my children growing older and learning and becoming such fascinating little people. But I miss their littleness especially now as I see how fleeting it is. On the other hand, I also have seen that life grows sweeter with each passing year, and I would be lying if I didn't say that I do look forward anxiously to that day when I will once again be whole.

Anyway, enough reminiscing.

Last night we had our annual demolition of the gingerbread house. It was as fun and messy as it was last year, as you can see from the pictures.

We then went to a get-together at my friend Stephanie's house and enjoyed good food and adult conversation while the kids ran wild. Finally at around 10:30 Mosey came to us begging to go home. Poor kid, he was soooo tired. Joseph and Brigham were still rarin' to go, and watched Harry Potter upstairs after we got home. Last time Ben checked in on them, Joseph was still up at 1:15 AM. Wowee. Mosey conked out very quickly, although he was up again by 8:30 this morning and was consequently a little grumpy all day.

Today we packed up our Christmas stuff (I'm always sad to see it go, but happy to reduce the clutter), and then we cleaned out our garage! Actually, Ben cleaned it out and I sat and watched and directed. I wonder if there is anything I love more than getting a messy area nice and clean and organized? I love it. What a fabulous way to start out the new year!

The kids are all nestled all snug in their beds and Ben is staying home from work again tomorrow, so all is well in the Turner household.

Christmas 2008

Well, I suppose I ought to post my Christmas report/pictures before I write about New Years. In the interest of time, and at the expense of originality, I'm just copying the email I sent my family about our Christmas.

Here is my 2008 Christmas report.

We had a fun little Christmas here in Austin. The week before, I made cookies every day and in the evenings the boys went on "secret agent missions" and dropped them off to various people.

The week of Christmas I started making bread wreaths (like the ones you make, mama), and ended up with 12 we wanted to deliver to friends on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure I'm ever going to be able to convince my family of the fun and value of caroling, but the boys had a really fun time delivering the bread. They rang the doorbell, ran and hid, and when the person came to the door, they jumped out yelling "Merry Christmas!" (Or in Mosey's case, "Boo!!!"). And we were lucky, every single person was there when we delivered bread to them!

After delivering bread, we went to HEB (grocery store) to shop for our shepherd's dinner. [This is a tradition carried over from my childhood. Every Christmas night, instead of a big traditional Christmas feast, we have a "Shepherd's dinner" in which we eat foods we imagine the shepherds might have eaten on the night Jesus was born. As a kid, we'd shop at Trader Joes, but sadly there is no Trader Joes here in Austin, although I can't imagine why. Austin is SUCH a Trader Joes kind of place. Anyway, the meal usually consists of nuts, dried fruit, various kinds of cheese, flat bread, hummus, special kinds of fruit juice, and, to keep the adult males in the household happy, roast chicken. We eat it on blankets in front of the fireplace with all the lights off in the house besides Christmas tree lights and/or candles. It's delicious, easy to prepare, easy to clean up, and really brings the spirit of Christmas back into the house after the day's festivities. It is one of my most favorite Christmas traditions.]

Once home, we got to work decorating a gingerbread house (from a kit, no time or patience to do the real thing), and the boys, who had their choice of dinner menu for the night, chose Ramen noodles. I did let them get special flavors at HEB, to celebrate the occasion.

We then had a sort of dance party with Ben dancing with the boys to very loud Christmas music (Harry Connick Jr.'s "Wooden Soldiers on Parade," the Polar Express train song, and others).

Once the boys were thoroughly riled up, we did a Christmas program in which Joseph and Brigham each played their Christmas songs they learned, and accompanied the rest of us singing. It was very fun, and my heart was warmed when Joseph wanted Brigham to play "Silent Night" several times so we could sing all the verses. This from the kid who refused to go up with the primary kids on Sunday to sing their primary Christmas songs because he "doesn't like to sing." I don't know what his deal was. But it about made me cry to have him request that we sing all the verses.

Then we read the Christmas story from the Bible, and it was bed time! Ben and I were up very late wrapping presents. We don't leave any out unwrapped, because the way our house is arranged, the boys can see straight into the living room from the upstairs balcony. I loved talking with Abraham and hearing everyone else's voices. [Conference call with my family, speaking with my younger brother on a mission in Switzerland.] And actually I really enjoyed the late night present-wrapping with Ben. We don't get a whole lot of child-free time together.

Christmas morning Joseph was the first one up, but very obediently played Civilization on the computer until his brothers woke up, not until 9:00!!!! Bless you, children! Then it was present opening. We had them take turns opening presents from Ben and I, then had breakfast, then had them open presents from each other.

Another heartwarming moment for me was seeing Joseph's excitement over watching other people unwrap the presents he had purchased. We had the boys each buy a present for one other boy, plus one for mom and dad (Ben and I took them out separately). Well, Joseph was not imbued with the spirit of giving. When I told them I wanted them to each spend about $5 of their own money for a present for their brother, Joseph said, "I'm only going to spend $2! I don't want to spend all my money." I told him he was on thin ice and that I would be more than happy to take back the presents I bought him. Over the several days before Christmas I tried to tell him how exciting it is to see someone else open your present, and that he would be so glad that he took the time (and money) to choose something nice. Then a couple of days before Christmas, when we were shopping for something for Ben, again he tells me he doesn't want to spend his money on presents. So I told him the story of the young man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to enter the Kingdom of God. I wasn't sure if any of it sunk in and I was pretty depressed at how I'd let my little boy become so greedy.

But Christmas morning, BEFORE he opened any of his presents, he grabbed the present he bought for me, and was just beside himself with excitement for me to open it. I'm telling you, that was better than any gift he could have bought me. Anyway, what he bought was pretty darn sweet, too. Target has these candy bins in which they sell Sunkist fruit gems. It's the only place I've ever seen them. I bought some for the boys some time ago, and told them it was my favorite candy. Well, Joseph remembered that, and he bought me a bag of Sunkist fruit gems. Can you say, "Awwwwww?"

He was also very excited to see Brigham open his present, which was a slinky. Brigham had bought himself a slinky at the Target Dollar spot several weeks ago, and then immediately (accidentally) stretched it too far and ruined it. So Joseph, my little Grinch, ended up being a very thoughtful gift giver, and I think he now has a little testimony, at least, of gift-giving. (I had also ordered Brigham a slinky, but happily it hadn't arrived yet, so I didn't spoil Brigham's surprise and Joseph's excitement).

Brigham gave me a Christmas mug (and you bet it was the BEST Christmas mug I ever got), and gave Mosey a stuffed animal, one that Mosey had been admiring at HEB for a few weeks. Mosey LOVES it, and has been carrying it around ever since. Mosey gave me a green spiral notebook, which he was very sure I needed (and I DID!), and gave Joseph a Scooby Doo movie (which was immediately watched upstairs while I gratefully napped for a few minutes).

The boys bought Ben some little shelves to organize his bookshelf in our room, and they each bought him a bag of flour (Ben has been making lots of whole wheat bread recently, isn't that amazing?). They really wanted to buy him a wheat grinder, since he's been using our hand grinder to make the flour (he's trying to figure out how to use our food supply), but I didn't have time to properly research and order what I wanted. Yesterday I finally ordered one for his birthday on Saturday. We've been debating the relative merits of a mixer versus a wheat grinder. I voted for a mixer, but he would rather have a grinder. And he does usually only make one loaf at a time, which isn't too hard without a mixer. Of course, last week he was trying to make loaves of bread for the people who work for him, and as he was strenuously kneading the dough he said, "Oh, I can see now why people want a mixer!"

The other big hits were:

Scooters for Brigham and Joseph (Joseph's been riding his non-stop)

Webkinz animals for Mosey

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego computer game for all of them (remember that game?)

King Arthur castle lego set for Joseph with accompanying knights for all the boys

Balloons for Brigham (he has been asking for balloons for forever, and Santa put a bag of them in his stocking. Who knew that a $1 bag of balloons would end up being his FAVORITE?)

A Microscope from Grandma Frandsen!! (I love this as much as the boys do)

A Wacom tablet for mom (a pen and tablet that works sort of like a mouse, and is very useful for photoshop stuff)

New clothes for Ben and an FM transmitter so he can listen to his MP3 player in the car

And... new couches! We've never bought new couches before, we've only ever gotten them from family members, Craigslist, or Salvation Army, so this was big for us. We got them at Biglots, because the price was definitely right. I hope they hold up, but we just didn't want to spend too much while the boys are still little and hard on furniture.

We got other things too, but those were the big ones. I actually felt pretty good about the number of presents we got, which was nice. (I usually feel like we get too many.)

We had our Shepherd's dinner in the evening and then all collapsed into bed. Or at least I did.

Ben took the day off on Friday, too, and we had another day of playing with new toys and attempting to clean up some of the gigantic mess that Christmas always makes.

So, that was it! The house is now cleaned up, new toys put away, and the boys are enjoying some time off from lessons for a few days. I'll probably start up with some lessons tomorrow, but kind of lead into it gradually.

Joseph on his scooter. He's gotten really good over the past week.

Brigham working on a map of the United States puzzle.

Playing knights on the living room floor.

Mosey and his new stuffed animal Golden (from Brigham) hanging out with Dad

On the day after Christmas, Ben was working on winterizing the pool, and Brigham decided to get in, too! It was pretty cold, but he stayed in for a few minutes.

I really love not living in a cold place.

Ben thought ahead and put on his wet suit. A little more comfy.

Joseph didn't want to swim, but sat on the tramp and watched.

Mosey got in for a very short while but decided it was just tooooo cold!

Christmas Eve Dance Party

Christmas Card

Here is our holiday photo and card!

Goals for the day

1. Clean up at least some of the zone of destruction that used to be my home. (I'd rather have a Santa who comes down the chimney the night AFTER Christmas and cleans up all the mess!)
2. Eat something besides cookies or candy.

Merry Christmas!

Chick-Fil-A kind of day

I forgot to feed the boys breakfast today. What is wrong with me? So I compensated by taking them to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Yummy shakes PLUS an indoor play-place. Double bonus because it is so COLD out here. Ok, so it was in the 50's. That is SO COLD for us!
Tomorrow will be a good day. I'm trying not to make it so hectic. Whatever we get done, I want it to be happy and fun, and if it isn't, well, then it probably isn't worth doing.
Our secret-agent missions are at an end, and tomorrow all we have to do is deliver 12 plates of bread-wreaths. No problem, right?

Brigham's first recital

Joseph's first recital

Pause for a breath

Well, the past week was a total whirlwind.
Ben had his work party at our house Monday night. Fun night, but the kids were up until 11:00. Not good.
My big goal for the week was to get my Christmas cards made, ordered, and mailed by Saturday. I really loved the cards I made last year and I've been stressing about not measuring up to the standard I set for myself. But I'm ok with how it turned out. It's totally different from last year's. Of course, the day after I submitted it, I read a post on Segullah about Christmas newsletters, and in the comments, the idea of writing a poem for your newsletter was thoroughly mocked. Yes, I wrote a poem in lieu of a newsletter this year. Oh well. So if you HATE poems in your Christmas cards, just don't tell me about it because I spent a ridiculously LONG time composing the darned thing. I managed to get the thing submitted in time to be delivered by Friday, giving me about 18 hours between delivery and the time they needed to be at the post office.
My other big task was to get 2 presents mailed off, also by Saturday. These presents took a fair amount of work and preparation which involved other people doing certain things, so I also didn't get everything I needed until Friday night.
Long story short, I was up until 5:30 AM Saturday morning getting those presents ready and addressing and stuffing Christmas card envelopes. I didn't write ANY personal notes on my cards, which I normally make a big effort to do. No time or energy this year.
But I got it done, and it's a huge relief. I feel like I can really enjoy Christmas now.
I've also been baking up a storm, making at least one kind of cookie each day this week (so far, lemon bars, chocolate-chocolate-chip, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodles, and hersheys kiss cookies). We've been doing ding-dong-ditching with cookies every night this week. The boys call it their "secret agent missions," and they're unbelievably excited and cute about it. Lots of work for mom, but totally worth it.
Rewind a bit. Last Saturday was a fun, busy day. We went to the ward Christmas breakfast. Mosey was Joseph in the primary nativity pageant. So cute.
Then it was the big boys' first piano recital. Brigham played "Silent Night" and Joseph played "Joy to the World." They did a good job. I was a little nervous on Brigham's behalf, not because he wasn't ready, because he definitely was, but because I knew he really wanted to play perfectly. He told me on our way to the recital, "I really hope I don't make a mistake because I won't get to do the performance over again." He's such a perfectionist. But he played perfectly and was very happy. Joseph wasn't nervous at all, I don't think. But he's not the perfectionist Brigham is (I'm still trying to convince him that accurate rhythm is just as important as accurate notes), and therefore not as inclined toward nerves. He did a nice job, too. Later, they reported their favorite part of the recital to be the refreshments afterward. Of course.
After THAT, Ben and the boys went to their post-soccer-season party at Chuck-E-Cheese, and I went to a baptism at the church where I spoke on the Holy Ghost. There is an awesome family that found the church, and the mom and one of the daughters got baptized. I believe the dad and the other over-eight child are also going to be baptized. They have five kids and everyone always asked them if they were Mormon, and now, the mom jokes, she can say that they are!
I met back up with everyone at Chuck-E-Cheese and then we went to get our Christmas tree.
This was my first year not going out onto the lot myself to inspect trees. I just wasn't up for the walking on uneven ground. But somehow Ben and the boys managed to get a beautiful, nicely-shaped tree even without my input. Shocking, I know. :-)
The rest of the evening was spent decorating the tree until it was time for me to leave to go to a Christmas choral performance at the local high school. It was a very nice production (it included dinner), but it was THREE HOURS LONG.
I was exhausted at the end of that day!
Well, sorry for that boring, boring, boring laundry list of the week's events. That's what happens when I don't keep up with my blogging.
Here are some pictures for posterity.

I know I'm biased, but I think he's pretty much the cutest little Joseph there ever was.



Brigham announcing his piece at the recital.



And Joseph. I only noticed as they both went up to announce their songs that their pants are now at flood-level. Oops. They're getting SO big!



This is what Mosey did during the recital. Hung out on Dad's back.

So busy! (oh, so busy)

I would love to post.
But I have too much to do!
The boys had their first piano recital yesterday, they did great.
Mosey was "Joseph" in the primary nativity on Saturday morning. He was so cute.
We got a Christmas tree.
I am ALMOST done with my Christmas card.
Tomorrow night we're hosting a Christmas party for Ben's team from work.
I have to make 2 dozen cookies for it and keep the boys from destroying the house.
It is now 2:11 AM, only 4 hours past my bedtime.

Please disregard the previous post

Does anyone else have a 4-year-old who knows how to publish a blog post on his mother's blog?
No?
I didn't think so.
I could just delete the post, but I think I'll leave it as further evidence of my son's weirdness.

thepoop

pooppoopooppooppoop

The Birds

This is just weird. We went to Walmart earlier this week. When we got done with our shopping and came back out, it was about 5:45, we noticed this unbelievable cacophony of bird calls. Hundreds upon hundreds (probably thousands) of these blackbirds were flying all around, chirping and calling and crying. They were flocking to the trees in the parking lot from all over the sky, wave after wave after wave of them. It was like a mega-convention for blackbirds in the Walmart parking lot. It's hard to see from the video, but the trees are completely, totally filled with these birds. I've never seen or heard anything like it.

Have you seen the old Alfred Hitchcock movie, "The Birds?" It was like that. So very strange.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Austin has such weird weather. Yesterday was a really pleasant day. Jeans and t-shirt weather. In fact, I was out until about 5:00 yesterday afternoon, very comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt. Then about when we were putting the boys in bed, I heard it starting to pour rain outside. Weird, it hadn't looked like rain before.
Then this morning when I woke up, I looked out my bedroom window and saw this:


(well, not this exactly, Mosey was still inside in his PJ's, but we did see snow on the deck!!)

The boys were thrilled. Joseph went out immediately to try to make a snow angel, but the snow was really sort of a crusty ice, no good for snow angels. The last time the boys "saw" snow was 2 years ago when Austin had a freak ice storm 2 weeks after we moved in. It didn't really snow then either, just a few flakes. But we had 2 inches of ice on the ground.
Anyway, they were very excited, but soon got VERY cold (Mosey came in just after I snapped this picture and changed his clothes, LOL).
We spent the rest of the day inside, warm and toasty. Man, am I NOT cut out for cold weather! A few days of this is fine for the diversion, but any more than that? No thank you!

On a different note, here's another fun science project/Christmas craft. We learned about growing crystals by making Christmas ornaments! Dissolve a bunch of borax in boiling water, and then suspend pipe-cleaners bent into Christmas shapes into jars of the solution. Within an hour or so, the borax crystals start forming. They're very sturdy and pretty!


Here's one of the shapes that got too crystallized to be able to get out of the jar. Oops!


The borax makes large, pretty crystals.



And here's some of the ornaments we made, hung up in my kitchen window. I took (too many) pretty, sparkly closeups of them too, but won't bore you. Try it! It's fun and easy! And not too messy, either, which is a HUGE plus. (and you see the plant on the left? That's our bean plant that is now about 2 feet high. We germinated it from a pinto bean and it is growing in a jar with a paper towel and water. It still amazes me that it grew out of nothing but water, air, and sunlight. Science is cool.)

Lightning Bolts!

The boys' soccer season ended yesterday. They ended up with a winning record! Lost 2, tied 3, won 3!
Yesterday we played the hardest team in the league; they beat us easily three weeks ago. They had a couple of real super-stars, and their coach had to actually pull them out at the end so they didn't run the score up.
But yesterday, we benefited from their misfortune. One of their super-stars was out, and they had two games in a row. We were their second game. Every team in the league had one day where they played two games, and we lost our second game as well. It's hard for those little kids to play hard for 2 hours straight! (although in our defense, it was HOT the day we had 2 games in a row, and yesterday it was downright chilly, for Austin)
Anyway, we beat them 2-0, and it ended up being the only game the other team lost all year. I felt bad for those little players, but mostly I felt happy that my boys ended the season on a win. They had been saying all morning that they were going to win the game, and I was worried they were setting themselves up for a fall. I kept saying that I didn't care if they won or lost, as long as they played clean and did their best.
But they won!



This is what Mosey does during games. Makes faces at me and tries to block me from taking pictures.



Here is Joseph about to kick the ball. Brigham is right behind him, catching air.
The two of them are a pretty formidable force on the field.



Here's Brigham after the game. He was happy, but decided to give me his tough-guy look.


On a different note, we also got the boys' soccer portraits yesterday. I opened Brigham's envelope and saw this cute, sweet picture of him:

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And then I opened Joseph's envelope, and saw this:

The world's best soccer picture ever.

Ooh, he had been a serious pill that day. The photographer was not happy with him. I wonder why? He refused to cooperate or smile. This is the lovely team photo they got:

Luckily, there were only 7 kids there that day. I took the top photo yesterday after the game, we had all our players but one yesterday. And Joseph was in a slightly better mood.

Anyway, Joseph is the ultimate photographer's child. And the ultimate pill when he wants to be.

But in a secret sort of way, I can't help but think his antics were worth it, just to get that priceless picture of him glowering with the soccer ball.

Totally worth the $15.

Sssseen me anywhere?

Joseph found two little garter snakes up by the lake yesterday afternoon. He took them home and made them a cozy little home in a cardboard shoebox.

This morning, only one of them was in there.

Where, or where could you be, little snakey?

I'd rather find you now, and not slithering between my sheets one of these nights...