Merry Christmas!

A few days before Christmas Anton was working on a project at the table.  In the midst of coloring and in deep thought he popped up with the following:

Anton:  Mom, I like Christmas better.

Me: Better than what, Anton?

Anton: Mother's Day.

There you have it, Christmas is better than Mother's day. (I whole-heartedly agree.)

We've Moved!!

I am sure that most of you that read my blog already know, but yes, we have moved.  We are now mostly completely settled.  I have only three more boxes to unpack, but I first need to rearrange a few things and re-organize so that I can get everything I need where I want it.  Linden claims that I have hidden everything from him.  I am just too anal to let him unpack anything because I want it where I want it.  Plus, I am the one here all day and need to know where things are placed.  He will eventually learn.  Unfortunately, one of the boxes that is not unpacked yet is the box with the cable to connect the camera to the computer. So no new pictures this post.

Today was our first Sunday in our new ward.  It seems like it will be a great ward.  I am really missing living in Shelley and being so close to grandparents and not in a city, though.  Maybe someday we will be blessed enough to get back to Shelley.  (Linden is hoping for Firth, we'll see.)

The thing that I like the most about our new place is that I don't need to have on four layers of clothes in order to stay just semi-warm.  The second thing is that there are NO mice. The third thing that I am enjoying about our new place is that when both of the boys need to use the bathroom at the same time one of them doesn't have to hold it or pee out the back door.  Hmmmm,  maybe the thing that I am actually enjoying the most is the fact that Isabel now shares a room with her brothers and not Mom and Dad.  YEAH.  I don't have to turn sideways to walk around her crib and get to my clothes.  I don't have to go to the hallway to put my pants on anymore because that is just something that can't be done while standing sideways between a bed and a crib.  I can get dressed in my room.  She sleeps better and Linden and I sleep better.  We have a space of our own again.

Anton is adjusting to his new school.  It has been difficult.  I feel that his class in Shelley was perfect for him.  Here it is good, there are just lots of challenges.  For some reason the district decided that all of the kids that either registered late or moved in would be sent to an overflow class instead of breaking it up throughout the district.  The overflow class seems to me to mostly consist of kids that their parents didn't care enough to make sure they got registered on time.   There are about four kids total in the class that know their alphabet.  Most of the children don't know their alphabet, numbers, or anything really.  The teacher is struggling trying to help them catch up. The childrens' social skills are also a bit behind, probably because of the type of environment they live in, making it more difficult for my shy little Anton to make any friends.  I know I shouldn't judge.  I wish there was something I could do to help these kids.  I am volunteering for half the class day every Friday in the classroom.  But where the kids really need help is at home.  In the meantime we continue to let Anton read to us at night and work on challenging him with work at home.

Zackary and Isabel have started getting quite jealous of each other.  While Anton is at school they both have to be held by me if one is held by me.  They both need to have the same toy. It is really cute to watch the way they interact with each other, best friends most of the time as long as they both feel they are getting what they need and want.  We are all like that, though.

Zackary is making progress with his speech.  He is also quite the gentleman.  He will always say, "Thank you for helping me, Mama."  with EVERY little thing.  I am astounded how polite he is.  He also is currently insisting that I listen to him and "see" him when he is talking, even when I am driving he wants me to "see" him.   He is always saying, Mama, I am telling you something, Mama, I am telling you something, Mama, I am telling you something, Mama, I am telling you something, Mama, I am telling you something,  SEE ME, Mama.  I think that he has caught on that I can't look at him while I am driving at least.  On all other occasions I am required to look at him so that he knows I am listening.  Hopefully soon he will realize that my ears work just as well if I am not looking at him while I am cooking, etc.  By then I will probably miss having him need to tell me every little thing and "see" him.

Isabel LOVES blankets.  Whenever she wakes up from her nap she always has to have her blanket leave the crib with her and be snuggled.  And when she sees Anton or Zackary get one of the blankets we keep on the couch and try to play with it she goes to them and takes it from them and insists that we snuggle her with it.  She is quite territorial with any blanket and thinks it belongs to her.

Linden and I are grateful that he has a job.  It is much better than when he didn't have any job at all.  We are truly blessed to be able to live in a bigger, warmer, cleaner, more comfortable home.  THANK YOU!!

A Five Year Old's Wisdom

Our conversation at the dinner table tonight went something like this:

Zackary:  Anton you're fat, Anton you're fat, Anton you're fat, Anton you're fat, Anton you're fat, Anton you're fat.

Anton:  Zackary, if someone is fat they already know it and you shouldn't tell them.

Wow!  I was impressed.  Now I just need to figure out where Zackary came up with calling Anton fat. 

A Few Fun Fotos

Clear back in July after all of the rest of my family left, we were lucky enough to have Adrien here for another week.  We had lots of fun visiting with him and catching up after not seeing him for a few years.  It was wonderful.  As usual, he was GREAT with the kids.  They loved playing with him.  Adrien chose to go home to Belgium looking like an Idaho cowboy.  Plaid shirt and Stetson hat and all.  He looked great. WE MISS YOU, Adrien!!!!!!

Adrien and David getting up close and personal before Adrien left.

Adrien with the kids.  Thanks so much for coming to visit.  Come again soon.

For Mother's Day and her Birthday all of Linden's siblings chipped in and got her a brand new set of furniture.  Her very first that wasn't a hand-me-down.  It is a really nice set and looks great in her living room.  There are a few new rules at Grandma's house that are now enforced strictly.  NO FOOD and NO SHOES on the furniture. We love you Grandma.

A view of the sofa.

And the love seat and ottoman.

Finally, one morning in July, we had been given a bag of cheetos by Grandma.  I wouldn't let the boys have any one night, but promised them they could have some the next day.  Needless to say the next morning, the first thing Zackary asked for was Cheetos.  I made them eat some real breakfast first, before they could have what they considered to be the real breakfast of Cheetos.  So here are my darlings in their pajamas covered in orange Cheetos dust. They LOVED them.  I also let them watch a movie in the morning while they enjoyed their Cheetos.  They got spoiled.

I love my three blond, bald headed children.

She's Home and Recovering

Early Wednesday morning last week our little darling started with a severe case of diarrhea and a high fever.  Thursday morning we took her to the doctor because we knew she was pretty sick.  We were sent straight to the hospital with Isabel.  She got to go through all of the fun things that they do at hospitals.  The IV and the catheter were the main things that she disliked.  But for the most part she didn't care where she was as long as mom was holding her.  She hadn't been eating or drinking for over a day and was severely dehydrated (despite Linden and I trying to force feed her liquids with a medicine dropper and EVERYTHING else we tried).  For those of you with medical backgrounds her bicarb was a 10.

Twenty-seven hours after arriving at the hospital we were able to go home.  Isabel was doing better, but still not perfect.  She didn't eat or drink anything hardly at all on Thursday.  Friday morning she downed the blueberry muffin and chocolate milk they brought for her to eat so we got to go home.  Saturday we were pretty worried that we were going to have to go back to the hospital because Isabel was refusing to eat and drink again and we just couldn't get enough liquids in her with the pedialite through the medicine dropper and the pedialite popsicles, etc.  Then Aunt Misti showed up with pedialite jigglers, Isabel downed them.

We are still pushing liquids, etc. and doing our best to keep her hydrated.  We had a follow-up appt. with the doctor today and they finally had some results from the stool culture and said that Isabel needed antibiotics to treat her severe diarrhea since she still had it and they knew what was causing it.  Hopefully now she can start to really recover and we won't have to worry about dehydration as much in a few days.

Here is our little darling on Friday morning, sitting on the chair/bed that I got to sleep on.  She had just finished her breakfast and was the happiest that we had seen her in over two days.  She has chocolate milk and blueberry muffin all over her face and hospital gown.

I was trying to get a better shot of her little arm, all wrapped up in a board with the IV covered so it wasn't tempting for her to want to play with.  She didn't even really notice it at all on Thursday, she was so sick.  Friday was a different story.  She is actually trying to sit up using just one arm, due to the IV.

Here is the crib that she got to sleep in.  Thursday evening Linden was admiring all of the bells and whistles that the crib had and mentioned that maybe we should get a fancy crib for her at home also.  Later that evening, when Maria and Josh were visiting I told Josh that Linden mentioned maybe we should get one for home.  Josh then said, "That crib would cost more than your house!"  SO TRUE!!  I laughed so hard.  (For those of you that don't know we rent a trailer home from 1973, and my guess is that it would probably cost a few thousand.)  Thanks, Josh.  I really needed that laugh.

Linden came by with the boys to visit for a little bit.  Anton was so concerned about Isabel having to stay at the hospital and not sleep at home.  He didn't want her to be there, but at home with him. It was great to see such love and concern in him for his baby sister. 

I am truly grateful for medical technology and knowledge.  If we had been living in South America or Africa, our little Isabel probably wouldn't be with us still.  It is so hard for me to see my little ones so sick.  I am also grateful for priesthood blessings and the miracles that come with them.  Here in a few more days I am sure that Isabel will be dancing again.  In the meantime we will keep feeding her pedialite jigglers, pedialite popsicles, and pedialite through a medicine dropper when she won't take it any other way.

She Dances: Now we are in TROUBLE!

She LOVES to dance, or at least shake her booty.   A couple of weeks ago we were at  the Hocking family reunion (post coming).  We were all dancing and Isabel started shaking her hips to the music.  She was the hit of the party.  Everyone loved to see how absolutely adorable she was while gettin' her groove on.  So I finally remembered to get the camera out when we were at home so I could share.
Make sure you watch Anton in the video, also, not just Isabel. Especially at the end.  Let's just say that Linden and I are concerned that Isabel will be the hit of the high school dances and not Anton.

Anton was more interested in playing the guitar than dancing.

 

And of course Zackary wants to do everything that Anton does, so, here is his guitar.

One more view of Isabel dancing, becuase who can resist watching her again.

On a SIDE note, don't try to turn the camera sideways while filming because it "looks better" on the screen that way.  The video is sideways when you download it.  Yes, I am so technologically savvy!!

A New Journey

My baby boy started a new journey this week and he LOVED it. Kindergarten.  (It is hard to believe that he is five already, I remember it like just yesterday when I got to hold him for the first time.)

We have been counting down the days until school started for a long time. We went to the kindergarten open house and he met his teacher and some of his classmates.  We went to registration and he was pretty excited to see his classroom. And  on Thursday he was thrilled to actually have the first day of school arrive.

We put him on the bus.  I was quite relieved to see that his bus driver is his cousin's grandpa.  How fun!!  And then I followed the bus to make sure that he made it to school safely.  He was just fine.  On our way home from the school Zackary, who has been feeling quite left behind with Anton going to school and not him, informed me that we needed to measure him when we got home because he was bigger.  Measure him we did.  He wouldn't let me forget.

Our little kindergartener.

Anton thoroughly enjoyed his first day of kindergarten and had so MANY things to tell me about when he got home.  He showed me his little Humpty Dumpty and the wall he made, he told me about the playground and his classroom, his teacher, how a girl sat in his seat so he had to sit somewhere else, and also about their snack, and "but, Mom, there was not prayer before the snack."  I then proceeded to explain that we can't say prayers out loud in school, but that he can say them in his heart.

Anton, with another cheesy grin and proudly showing off his backpack, as we wait to go outside to catch the bus.

Another observation that Anton made was, "there was nothing to buckle me in, Mom."  I guess we have him trained pretty well.  Both grandmas called to find out how the first day went and they got told all about his first day of school.  Also, when he was talking to one of his aunts he told her that there was a boy that had hit him twice, once with his hand and again with his forehead, but that Mrs. Hayes, his teacher, had told him to stop.  Needless to say that after he got off the phone I asked Anton more about what happened.  He told me that he didn't hit anyone but it was just the boy that hit him.  It sounds to me like Anton didn't do anything to provoke the hitting or respond incorrectly.  I was glad to hear that, I just hope that Anton doesn't get picked on.

It was a lot harder to watch my baby boy get on that bus than I thought it would be.  I felt like I was sending him out to the wolves.  Linden and I just need to do our best to help prepare him and teach him correct principles and then watch him learn to handle the challenges the world throws at him.  How grateful I am for the gospel that gives us a great foundation and an eternal perspective as we strive to raise righteous children.

Our three wonderful little ones.  Yes, Zackary and Isabel got to go with me in their pajamas as we followed Anton to school.