I love the holidays! xoxo // Hays update

I can faintly hear Brian playing "the Friendly Beasts" on guitar downstairs and singing. I've always loved to hear him sing. I'm lounging back in my chair to give my swollen belly more room as elbows and knees jab me from the inside and I'm regretting all that cookie dough I keep sneaking. 

I thought it might be fun to sing "the Friendly Beasts" at the ward Christmas party this week, but Brian decided to take over playing the guitar and that's probably a good thing since he will practice it until it's flawless. The kids are very cute singing it. Especially Felicity who sings softly, "I said the sheep wit the curly hair (it's supposed to be horn- but so cute!) she gave a blanket to keep warm." And then she stops. Heart melter. It was stake conference today which is like a Sunday off. Brian has no meetings so we get to sleep in, the meeting is somewhat torturous, but only two hrs. The Penrod's came over and ate lunch with us and so did Sarah.  We chatted for several hours. I love having friends over every week and it is such a blessing to have Sarah here. The kids love her and see her so frequently... multiple times a week. 

December is such a party month. This week we have three party nights in a row... which means I don't have to cook 3 nights in a row! Let's be honest, I won't have to scramble eggs or make a soup nobody eats for 3 nights in a row. 

I'm not sure if nesting is kicking in or what, but I spent a lot of time cleaning this week: junk drawers, cupboards, knobs, walls, sheets, pantry, closets and I finally mopped. Brian fixed our washer since the part came in, so I had heaps of laundry to do. In-between that I volunteered at Liesel's school during math rotations and again the following day for the gingerbread house party. 

I also organized a gingerbread house party of my own and let each of the kids invite a friend they hadn't played with in a while. Liesel invited two friends and Hannah and Felicity each invited one. I thought i could get away with no friend for F'liss, but not the case. That girl is too with it and insisted on Eva coming because "Eva is my best friend."  I hot-glued graham crackers together and made mom's ultra-powerful icing recipe to ensure the kids wouldn't be eating these... haha! We used all the leftover halloween and parade candy and everyone decorated their houses and then I took the kids home at dark. 

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but every Friday the elementary school gets out at 12:30pm. I took the kids to the Make-one Take-one event in town. It's to empower kids and teach them the spirit of giving. Community members donate toys, ornaments and all sorts of junk and the kids enter the room and are given three pieces of paper (like $3) and everything in the room is "$1". The kids walk around and shop for their family. Each one of the girls shopped for another sister and then went into another room to wrap their gifts and make several crafts they could use as presents as well. I thought it was really neat and they really enjoyed buying one another gifts. Although both L & H chose these really ugly glass angels that Felicity opened up and broke on the floor today (along with my gingerbread ornament). So long, pink and purple angels! 

Liesel started swim club this week. The season only has 6 weeks left, so I thought it would be perfect to sneak her in now. She was assessed and passed and went to both practices last week. She was happy and they work them pretty hard. She has a swim meet this Wednesday, but they don't have winners and it's just against each other. She will be doing swim until the end of January. 

We had large chair boxes arrive this week and Saturday morning I helped the girls convert them into houses. I got out the paints, the art bin and the hot glue gun and they went to town creating their home, picking their house number and decorating their house. 

Hannah went to Sam's birthday party and I got ready to take the kids on a bike ride up at Dead Horse Point-- but first I dropped off Brian's bike at ISKY so he could join us. The bike ride went well for the first 1.2 miles (I let F bike the first .3m and then hid her bike in a bush and put her on my back). I took a wrong turn and the trail was an easy intermediate instead of just easy and I was cringing every time I watched the girls bomb down cliffs and rocks like pros... my goodness! We got to a huge hill and the fun was over. I decided to help everyone up and at the top L said she had a flat. I cried, we prayed and ultimately had to hike out. The whole time I was feeling like world's worst mom because L said all I do is yell at them and it is kind of true and then she said it wasn't true and that I was a great mom, but I was feeling terrible and cranky and sad. Brian decided not to come to us for various reasons and biked down from ISKY on single track (like 25 miles back to his car at Arches) and left an hour after us and still made it back at about the same time. Everything with kids takes so long and I was feeling the weight of having kid #4 and feeling selfish and sad and hormonal and like I can't even raise the three I have so why would I take on another?! And then we made it back to the car as the sun was setting and ate some snacks and made it home and everything was fine again. 

Speaking of hormonal, the pregnancy is going well except for the insane dreams I have... like last night I dreamed I accidentally birthed the baby while in bed and then it wouldn't breathe and dad was there and said I did it on purpose because I don't like hospitals. So weird! Brian can't even sleep in the same bed as me, but opts to camp on the living room floor to avoid my tossing and turning all. night. long. 

Felicity biking with her rat. She loves to have Elizabeth tied to the handlebars. 

Happy Liesel!! Although she got these pants stuck in the bike chain and I had to rip them out! She was so mad! Apparently they are her "favorite after school pants" 

Most awkward stance award! I was trying to show F, but it looks like I'm about to fall over and off that cliff. 

Little pookies in helmets are so cute. 

Liesel in her classroom with Owen and Ellie, her friends in class. 

Hannah and LIesel came too to steal candy off the table while Liesel gave me the evil eye and said, "Ms. Mikalyn said that was not allowed! NO one is supposed to eat candy!" So I said "Ms. Mikalyn doesn't have a two year old."

Taken per mom's request right before this email was sent. Bathroom selfies are so awkward! 34 week tomorrow! Woo hoo! 

Boxes! I moved the sofas and carpet so they could work in our living room. 

Every day a Holiday // Hays Update

I'm now officially the parent of a 7-year-old. Brian and I realized that we have now spent over 1/3 of the time we get with her officially in our home. She had a great birthday party. Brian was spending the night on the White Rim so we decided to have a special birthday breakfast: german pancakes, sausage, berries and whip cream. So in other words, desert for breakfast. Then Liesel told me I was supposed to bring a treat to her class for her birthday. So I made cookies. Then I cleaned the house and prepped for her scavenger hunt. The clues took them around the neighborhood and in our backyard, ultimately leading to a treasure map hidden in the swingset playhouse. From there, they had to figure out where the "X" was in the garden and then they took turns digging up the cooler that Brian had buried (very well, I might add. With cooler handle down locking the lid so the entire thing had to be dug out completely by 9 kids and a pregnant lady). They were so excited when they spotted the lid and eventually we got the whole thing out and passed out the goody bags. I went to buy stuff for them, but couldn't throw my money down for a bunch of plastic junk so I just gave each kid $1 and a slap bracelet. Then we busted open Liesel's star piñata we made months ago and they filled the remaining space in their goody bags with candy. 

Liesel requested a doughnut cake (hello, easiest birthday cake ever!) and she helped me pick out the doughnuts that morning before school. They ate that, watched her birthday video I made and then she opened presents. Afterward, I was too tired to make dinner and should have just left it at the candy and cake, but they insisted they wanted food so I took them to McDonalds. No surprise that 24hrs later Felicity woke up in the middle of the night throwing up. 

Friday we took the kids to the tree lighting and to see santa. Its a great little Moab tradition to have the community come out, the band plays carols, the crowd sings carols, they have cocoa and cookies and the kids tell Santa what they want for Christmas. Then they plug in the tree (a big pine that has been decorated by ornaments the elementary made including Liesel) and a ton of lights. 

So Friday ended well, even though it started out rough. Liesel (probably on a sugar crash post-party) didn't want to go to school and then we got in an argument over asking for a parakeet for Christmas on the way to school. Apparently we got there late (although I didn't know it) and so I biked home with Hannah a different way only to see Liesel pull in at the same time from the other direction with tears streaming down her face. She said the door was locked, "and I just couldn't do it mom! I couldn't go to school!" I gave her a hug and let her mellow out for an hr, but then I took her back to school in the car. We talked to her about it being kind of a big deal to just leave the school when we thought she was there! Yikes. But she was fine by the end of the day and I took the kids mountain biking with Leslie and Natalie and their kids-- then went to the tree lighting like I said above. 

The following day I got a sitter so I could go mountain biking with friends. Then I took the kids on a hike in Arches which was really fun. Sometimes it's great to have friends around and sometimes it's great to just have us. This time it was great to just be us and talk and sing and play in the sand. When we got home the kids decided they wanted to see "Coco" --a new Pixar movie. We made it about 40 mins in and then Hannah said it was too weird for her and we all left. I knew she was going to say that because she doesn't like anything "weird" so I don't know why I took them in the first place.

The light parade was that night. It's another magical Moab tradition where the community all comes together to watch the floats pass by. Everything is lit up, the hospital provides yet more cookies and cocoa and I spent half the time looking at the kids' adorable faces. It was a great night. 

Christmas is stressful, but beautiful too. I finally prepped the advent calendar with Light the World and the kid's did a great job loving their neighbor today. Although, I'm pretty sure Hannah's story was a total lie: after hearing that Liesel befriended someone lonely sitting on the playground "buddy bench" -- Hannah decided to one-up her by telling me that Ava in her class was crying because her grandpa just died and she gave her a hug and they started playing together. I was like, "hmmmmmm." but the point is, her heart wanted to love her neighbor even though it didn't necessarily want to be honest. It is interesting to me that in Liesel's baby blessing she was blessed with obedience and honesty and hannah was blessed with charity and faith... 

Felicity has been like World's Cutest Toddler this week. Everything she is doing lately has me all heart-eyed and dying of cuteness. Her little voice and giggles. But man, that child is destructive. She breaks books, draws on stuff, dumps out my makeup, somehow gets soaking wet, breaks ornaments or puts them all in the laundry basket and is somehow always stealing raisins. I'm pretty sure she is fueled on Cuties (small clementines) and milk. 

Liesel practicing cartwheels in arches

the mountain bike crew

kids and santa. H asked for a surprise, Liesel a boomerang (?! so ridiculous!) and Felicity a flashlight. If it was up to me, I wouldn't even do santa because I feel like I know what they want more than they do. 

a few friends at her party

swinging at her piñata 

friends! Piñata! Arm of victory after the hunt! 

opening the treasure map

The treasure

Felicity in a tree. She was very happy hear. Seeing that is wearing the same thing two days in a row here (see bike photo earlier) makes me realize I must dress her with what is on the floor. whoops. 

Girls on our Arches hike

Liesel at her birthday party! 

Doughnut cake I worked on for like a whole 5 mins. 

Liesel did not like this picture. She said her smile was weird. I love her shirt. It was a hand-me-down from a friend and liesel has been saving it to wear today for months! It says, "I'm so happy today!"