Sunday, December 10, 2017

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. 





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