Happy Thanksgiving! (And I'm only a month late!)

Hello! Now that I've fulfilled my procrastination obligations, I'm ready to blog!:-)

This Thanksgiving was phenomenal! Dad and Casey had to go all noble on us and save lives on Thursday, so we had Thanksgiving on Wednesday. Pete and Missi endured hours of "Are we there yet?" to join us for some good times and tasty goodness. Grandma and grandpa Murray traveled from afar to partake of the insanity. Even Casey joined us on Wednesday for some L-Tryptophan and carb overload.(of course, the day I forget my camera!). Thank goodness for blogging sister-in-laws! (Thanks for the extra pics, Miss.)

Here's a couple of my favorite people in the whole world! (Don't let him fool you, folks. He looks like the best grandpa ever, but really he delights in feeding children plastic grapes and laughing at them when they spit it across the room.) ;-)


Here we are trying to get dinner on the table. It was a feast to be remembered. And Missi brought the BEST cranberry chutney. Yum! And mom's tablescape was gorgeous. She gave Sandra Lee a run for her money!


The food was fab and the fam was fun. We wrapped it up early and headed home to sleep off the gluttony.

Thursday (Thanksgiving), I promised I would make rolls for Darrick's parents, so I planned on spending the day in the kitchen. I was pleasantly surprised when the whole crew showed up to hang out with us while I cooked.

Alex took Grandma and Grandma straight out to the garden to show them his bounty. And then he ate all his bounty (sweet peas), one by one.
"See Grandma? This one tastes good...and this one...and this one too!"

Here's Steve in his tragic teenage boredom flinging dinosaurs at Nate. At least they were both entertained. :-)

I love this picture! I wish we lived closer to Pete and Missi so we could take many more just like this.

Alex LOVED having Spencer around, but he'd try to drag him whenever Spencer didn't come on his own. I can't imagine what would happen to a puppy if we got one. lol

The inseparable princesses. Katie was so happy to have Claire around. It was like finally getting the little sister she's been asking for that Mommy said she was never going to get, because if Mommy has any more babies, our carbon footprint on the planet will be too big and it will kill more Polar Bears. And we can't have that, now can we? :-P

"Look, Spencer. This is my red shovel. You can play with it. Just kidding. Give it back."

Dallin, our family soccer champ, was very gracious while playing soccer with Ethan and Nate. Even though Ethan and Nathan started making up their own rules, Dallin went along with it anyway. He's a good sport!

Grandpa and Spencer playing ball. Uncle Pete gettin in on some of the soccer action.

Grandpa played "I chase, you scream" with the girls the whole time. It was VERY cute.
"Grannnnpa! Come and get these oranges! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Eeeeeeek!" Run. Scream. Repeat.

Friday was amazing. We haven't seen our cousins in something like 20 years! They were nice enough to make a trek out to Tucson to come see us. We went out to Dad's airfield to have lunch at the cafe and then let the kids have a helicopter field trip. The cutest thing was when the kids were all done eating, they wanted to get up and go outside. Dad and Jack went out there with what looked like 20 little ducklings following them around while the rest of us ate. (Yeah, I know. A picture would have been good, Kirsten.)

The whole crew: Angela's boys, Christian and Wyland. Jennifer's daughter, Sophia. And Pete's and my crew of monkeys.

Spencer was so cute. He and grandpa had fun exploring the helicopter.

I was going to photoshop Dad out of this picture because, well, that would just be funny! lol But I didn't...so... Rotating pilots.

Family picture time! Jack's family + 1. (I forgot her name! But Jennifer brought the German foreign exchange student that was staying with her. She was a sweetheart.) Good lookin' crew right there.

Our family. Nothing like a warm Thanksgiving holiday in shorts. :-)

Later that day, all of us regrouped at Dad's house for some visiting time. Angela brought her puppy and Katie couldn't get enough of that little chihuahua.

We sat outside and chatted for a bit. Then, Peter and Missi came back from visiting friends and we played Loaded Questions. It was a fun way to get reacquainted with everyone. Now I know that Susan worked at a dime store and the movie of Grandma's life would be played by Lucille Ball. ;-)

While saying our goodbyes, I had to take a few last-minute goofy pics. Here's me and my favorite Grampa playing kissy face.

Thanks to everyone who came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was an amazing holiday and we had a blast. We miss you all and hope we can see each other again soon.

The Blog Before the Thanksgiving Blog (Yes, that's my title.)

I'm seriously lacking in the time and creativity department at the moment, but I know some of you really wanted this picture, so here it is! My beautiful baby girls! We just need Sophia and Emily in there! ;-)

Halloween Fun

Yes. Yes. I know. It looks like Kirsten blogs 4 times a year. Once on Halloween. Once on Thanksgiving. Once on Christmas. And one random post thrown in for good measure.

So here's Halloween!

I came down with the flu on Friday while at work. I thought about not going trick-or-treating at all, or just sending Darrick out with them, but we actually went all out this year and got them the costumes they wanted. Plus they'd hate me. "Mom! You promised!" So we went. Two clone troopers, a vampiress, a tiger, and an escaped detainee from the CDC swine flu prison.

(I apologize for the picture quality. I have a pretty nice digital camera, but failed to check for kid gunk on the lens. *sigh* )

Ethan and I are terribly uncoordinated when it comes to taking pictures. He always tries to smile for me and I always seem to catch him in between the sigh and the smile. "Oh fine, Mom. Cheese!"

Nate was soooo pumped for Halloween this year! It was funny because he and Ethan looked so much alike in their costumes (even with the masks off), that a couple of times Nate was turned away from candy because they said "You just came up here kiddo! You already got some!". He sort of smiled and said "Oh sorry!". I had to take Ethan up there next to Nate so they could see my twin clone troopers and hook Nate up with some candy.

And there's always this one house where the family goes all out. Every year they dress up, sit outside, and jump out of bushes to scare people. Every year. Same house. Same bush. So we walked up to the house, the kids knowing what was going to happen. Nate must have forgotten though because when the guy jumped out, he screamed and dropped all his candy, then stood there completely frozen. Freddie Kreuger helped him pick up his candy, gave him a hug and said sorry. :-)

I'm not sure what pose this is, but how super cute! Katie looks like the nice vampiress that cares for baby animals. Maybe she runs a shelter.
Just too cute. :-)


I asked Katelyn to give me her "devilish vampire grin". This is what I got.

And here in the backyard after I showed her what "devilish" looked like.



Alex was so siked for that tiger outfit! He still puts it on and chases the kids around the backyard. I tried to film it for you guys but the kids keep stealing the batteries out of all the electronics for the Xbox controllers. So I tried to use both cameras and neither had batteries. Foiled again!

Ethan and Alex playing trick-or-treat in their little house.

Nate the clone trooper. (He begged for this pose. If only you could hear the sound effects.)

That's Halloween! We'll see you at Thanksgiving! :-P

When the world turns its back on you...

.....You turn your back on the world. Or put a box on your head, if one is available. After a fight with Ethan, Nate decided he wanted to put a box on his head for the night. I tried to talk to him to find out why he was doing this, but only monk-like silence came out of the box. Not a peep. Not a grunt. Even when Alex decided it must be a game and began to run around laughing and smacking the box around, he didn't move or make a sound.

Everyone was supposed to be in bed, but Nate refused to budge. So I left him in the living room while I put the rest of the kids to bed. I tried talking to him to see if I could help, but he wouldn't speak or even nod.

I entertained the thought of ripping the box off his head and dragging him to his room, but thought it might be better to just let him sit there until he either got up and went to bed or fell asleep.

After an hour had passed, I decided it was time and took my box-headed child's hand and guided him to his bed. He climbed into bed and tried to find a position which would allow him and his box to sleep together comfortably, but boxes on your head can make for a fitful nights sleep. (It was a good thing he had a box on his head though, because I could barely contain my laughter. lol)

I peeked in the handhold hole on the side of the box and said, "Nate, maybe if you got rid of your pillow, your box would lay down more flat and be more comfortable".

Nate whimpered back, "But Mom, I can't sleep without my pillow. I'll be uncomfortable".

"Hmm. How 'bout you take the box off your head then, so you can sleep comfortably on your pillow?"

"No."

After a few more minutes of trying to talk him into sleeping on feathers instead of cardboard, I said in a more stern voice, "Well, Nate, you can't keep the box on your head all night. I don't want you to suffocate."

"It doesn't smell good in here either."

"I can imagine. Let's take it off." I took the box off his head, gave him a hug and covered him up. I asked him if he was OK and he said he was, so I didn't press it. I just wanted to go relax and fall asleep. Exhausted from the day, I slowly walked out of his room, when I heard this tiny voice say, "I love you, Mom".

That's when I realized why my parents haven't killed me yet. I, too, had said little "I love you" statements after being punished for seeing a forbidden R rated movie or getting in trouble while fighting with my sister over whether the arm rest sitting between us should be up or down during the 24 hour drive from Arizona to Oregon.

The only reason I'm still here is because my parents also decided that my "I love you" voided any thought they may have had of strapping me and my sister to the top of the van so they could ride in peace. And for that same reason, Nate narrowly avoided being strung up by his toes and whipped with a wet noodle.

The Best Laid Plans...

Since I was working from home this summer, I thought it would be great to blog all the time, have the kids write penpal letters, turn them into prodigy NASA scientists, go on a vacation, take tons of pictures of all the fun things we were going to do, finally file all those papers stacked in the corner, get the kids swim lessons, learn a new language, run a marathon, and I'm sure a million other things were on my list of "What I Want to Do This Summer". But what I REALLY did all summer was stare at the wall in a daze while the kids stared at the Wii. (5-6 hours of sleep a night and 100+ degree heat with only a swamp cooler will do that to ya. lol)

So, though my plans went awry, I still happened to take a couple of pictures here and there. Here are a few from when Mom came down to visit. After much "convincing" (she pretty much had to smack me upside the head to wake me up from my sleep deprived stare), we took the kids swimming. Daddy even got to come along!

Since I failed to get the kids swim lessons, this outting was most interesting. Nathan had a few scares where his head went under water for a few seconds or a Katie-induced wave crashed into his face. Though grandma helped him stand up or wipe the water from his face within a few seconds, he made it more difficult by thrashing around like a shark had hold of his leg, which can be a difficult feat in 3 feet of water. ;-)

Later, in true Willie fashion, he recounted his near-death experiences by saying, "The water consumed my whole head for like 20 minutes! I couldn't breathe. I almost died. Whew!"

Then there's our fearless Katiebug.

We had lots of fun while grandma was visiting! And though I haven't learned a new language, the kids brilliant studies this summer haven't prompted a call from NASA or Matt Lauer, and the papers are still sitting in the corner waiting to be filed, I'm thinking I should at least fulfill the "go on a vacation" plan. Maybe the last weekend before we head back to school, we can come up to Cali for a visit. Here's to hopin'! ;-)

The Signs are Everywhere!

Sorry it's been so long. Life happens.

So, recently our Xbox 360 tanked and left us with all this spare time to....oh, I don't know....use our brains and play! The kids have fantastic imaginations. It reminds me of when all 6 of us use to make ridiculous "music videos", build forts, or just wrestle until someone got hurt. (Usually Will, at the hands of Pete dangling a ginormous loogie over his face, swooping it back into his mouth only to let it drop millimeters from Will's face again. I'm so looking forward to the day Ethan learns how to torture his siblings with swinging loogies and dog CPR.)

Which brings us to our post today: Signs.

The kids love the movie "Night at the Museum", so they created a museum of dinosaurs and antiques (toys, of course) for me to walk through. Here are the signs I was told to read before entering the museum.

This one from Nathan reads: CALM PEOPLE ONLY. Even you Ethan. You can only enter if you are calm.

This one from Kate says: Thank you for visiting the museum. And thank you for being nice to our sculptures. From Katelyn and Nathan. And no touchy touchy the stuff.


And then Nate says: No Pretend Hobos allowed at the museum. (I know huh? His obsession with the Hobo thing!)


My trip through the hobo-less, calm museum was quite nice. I saw dinosaurs I thought had been lost for centuries (or at least a few months since last I tripped over them on the floor.)

And then, the mother of all signs. Nathan loves to write. (My boy!). He wrote this to Darrick after Darrick was in his accident. For those who can't quite make it out, it says:

Dear Dad,
I almost thought you died in that car accident in Idaho Streets. But did shuttle come? Is it yes or no, circle one of them. (Nathan circled YES for him). Yeah, you didn't die, that was a close one.

I'm not sure which brother was scratched out of the picture, but I think it may be Alex. Alex likes to torture Nathan A LOT. :-)

It's Time for a Vacation...

As I'm sure many of you have heard, Darrick was in a rollover accident this weekend. He walked away from the accident, but was in the hospital yesterday. He has since been discharged and we await review of his scans and x-rays by the radiologist this morning. Having said that, aside from some extreme fatigue and pain, he is miraculously alive and well. Though I know these people will never see this post, I would like to thank all those who cared for him and helped him come back safe.

To the couple who took care of him while he was in shock right after the accident, a heartfelt "Thank You". He tried to crawl back into the upside-down truck cab, but the snow poured into the cab and quickly melted, filling it with ice cold water. You let him warm in your car for 2 hours until help arrived. Thank you!

To his Grandma in Salt Lake, the doctors said your treatment of that deep gash on his ankle probably saved him a month in the hospital for cellulitis. You win the Best Grandma ever award! :-)

To the couple whose items he was moving, you were very gracious and helpful. Thank you for taking care of him and helping him get back home.

Thank you to TMC's Trauma center staff for whisking him away quickly and calling him an idiot for waiting to be seen and for flying on a plane with a possible brain injury.

And thanks to all of you who were my shoulder to cry on this weekend. I'm not sure I can handle anymore of life's vicissitudes right now. Please, Life, wait until next week or so to throw anything else at me. :-)

P.S. Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa V for covering for the distraught "Easter Bunny" who couldn't function well enough to hide eggs. Though, when I told the kids that Easter would have to wait until Monday, Ethan replied with "That's OK Mom. We know you're the Easter bunny. We can do baskets whenever." lol

Life comes at ya fast...

I'm so sorry I've been absent. Updates...

Nathan had his cast removed last week. Much to our surprise, when the cast came off it looked something right out of a Harry Potter movie. Completely bent and deformed, just as it had looked when he broke it.

This is how it looked when it first broke:


This is how it looks now:



After all the crying and the "Put my cast back on! My arm looks weird!", the doctor says he has to "remodel" his arm. aka Surgery! Rebreak! Poor kid. And it's only cost us $8,000 so far. :-(


We moved into a new house. It's a lot bigger...huge backyard, huge house for the same price as our other home. The owners are PHENOMENAL, so hopefully we won't run into the same problems as our old property manager who now wants $3000 in damages for a house that is completely undamaged. *sigh*

I guess, other than all that, life is going OK. The kids and I are about to have dinner and play Pirates of the Caribbean Scene It (DVD game). It's time to chill out and have a great night with my babies. :-)

I hope everyone else is doing well. I hope Emily decides to give Jami a break soon. lol

Love you guys!

Kirst

WWII, Light Sabers and Morphine

I still can't get a straight story on what happened, but Nate says he was pushed while reaching for something. Kate and Ethan say they were playing keep away and when Nate reached for his toy, Ethan grabbed it before Nate could get it and he fell. Either way, hard cement floors and "Keep Away" apparently don't mix because my little Nate broke his arm on Friday. :-(



The emergency room doctors put his arm in a splint and told him to go back in for his cast in a few days. Right before he got hurt that night, I had told him what a great imagination he had and how smart he was. So, while he was coming to, after being put under with medication, he kept mumbling about what a great imagination he had. And then he started talking about how he was fighting in WWII with a light saber. That's some imagination!



We're managing his pain and he's doing great. He's a little tired of laying down all the time, but he's being a super trooper. Luckily it was his left arm, so it shouldn't interrupt his schooling too bad.

Other than that, all is well here. Hope everyone else is doing well. :-)

Kirst

Just a quick update...

We're good. Thanks. Love ya. Bye.


Okay, maybe not that quick. ;-)

Recently, the older kids had an awards ceremony at school. All of them won the "Perfect Attendance" award for the semester. Yay!

Katie thinks her award says, "You're the best kid in the whole school". I'm glad perfect attendance makes her feel that good about herself. :-)



Nathan recently won the school's writing contest! My boy! He won $25 and promptly spent it on Bakugans. (The new pokemon.) Someone please tell me why these little Transformer "wanna be" toys are $6 EACH!




Alex is doing great at school. He's picked up a new word though. I thought we wouldn't have to deal with the "bad words" until elementary school....but his favorite new word is STUPID. Everything is STUPID. I want to play with my STUPID work bench. I want some STUPID cereal. I want to STUPID water the STUPID flowers. Ride my STUPID bike! I love my STUPID house mommy. Somehow I think the meaning of the word is escaping him.



Ethan is the best 9 year old a mom could have. He is SO helpful around the house and when we're out running errands. He's also great at taking over the role of explaining things to the kids. This morning, Alex took it upon himself to kick over every Lincoln Log house Ethan and Nathan built. Ethan calmly took Alex aside, put him on the couch and said, "Alex, you don't destroy. You build. No destroy. Build!"

Alex seemed to understand and hopped off the couch. Then walked back over and kicked the Lincoln Logs again. This is where Ethan combined all the threats I make to the kids into one, long breath...

"Alex, if you do that one more time I will lick your face, string you up by your toes, take away the Xbox and send you to bed at 7:30! And I mean it!"



Kids make great mirrors. lol

I am doing well. Fun kids. Fun job. Fun weather. Fun, Fun, FUN! Although, the owners of the house I live in have decided to sell it. (Yes, in this market. You're wondering the same thing I am, aren't you?) So, I'm on the lookout for a new pad. We have to move in May, but I'm sort of stuck as to location because my job is on the far east side of the city. Ahhhh....c'est la vie.

Well, we hope everyone is well. I saw that Claire is doing well. (Love the DVD Robot!) ;-)

Love ya!

Kirst