Big boy hair!

It's hard to see it in the above adorable picture of adorable Brighton, but he was starting to sport a mullet. I don't have anything against people who choose this particular style of hair, it's just not my thing....nor do I want the mullet to be the thing for any of my kids. :) It was time for Brighton's first hair cut! I have wanted to trim it for some time, but the protests of his siblings and father have delayed this momentous event. It seems that everyone was very attached to his baby hair, except his mother. :)

But once I started throwing around the "mullet" term, I garnered Dave's full support...well mostly full. :) I trimmed it Sunday morning before he got in the shower with his daddy. He was very wiggly and the hair cut is NOT even in the slightest...but the mullet is gone and he is looking like a big boy! :)

Dave was slightly appalled that I could just throw his little baby hair away in the trash and not save any of it. The girls all came in and made sad sighing noises for the loss of his baby hair. When he came out after his shower, the boys all cooed over him and how sad it was that his baby hair had to be cut off...but everyone also made sure to let him know how handsome he looked. :) I'm just glad the mullet is gone!

A very delicate surgery

Sebastian decided that his remote controlled T-rex, now nick-named "Rexy", needed to have his broken legs stabilized through surgery. He gathered all the necessary equipment/tools and placed them on a "sterile" paper towel. Haven was assigned as his surgical assistant/nurse.

It started out just being Sebastian and Haven, but soon an audience formed.

Elijah and Brighton took a break from watching to play. :)

Fiona was later enlisted to help with the stitching up. She is the one, after-all, with the sewing kit. :) Haven is helping with the stabilizing sticks (pick-up sticks broken in half.) I'm not sure if Rexy is any more stable than she was before, but she now has cool scars to show off to all her dino friends.

The great computer change-over.

Usually Thursdays are one of my very favorite days of the week. Of course, Thursday is right before Friday and Friday is just about the weekend! Then there's the fact that my 4 oldest kids attend the Home School Academy all day that day, the house is quiet and calm and Scarlett and I get to hang out together. :) One of my sisters-in-law loves Thursdays and always celebrates that day. Thursday is also one of my work-out days, which I look forward to and love. Oh, and Survivor is on that night. :)

Last Thursday was not the usual joyous Thursday, however. I was scheduled to have my first root canal that afternoon (in place of my usual work-out...so not the same!) I had downloaded some stuff on to the computer the night before that I could put on my phone (which is also an MP3 player) to listen to during the dreaded dental procedure. I planned on getting this done first thing in the morning after I dropped the kids off at school...but the computer would not turn on!! I tried for about an hour to get the computer to boot up, but it wouldn't. Then I remembered the laptop and decided to use it, instead. Guess what? It's battery was just about dead and the power cord was not working!! I got to quickly check my e-mail and facebook before the battery died. I tried different plugs, wiggling the cord, everything but it would not work! Not the greatest way to start off root canal Thursday, in my book!

After lunch, Dave came home and I was off to my root canal appointment. Technically, I could've walked. I purposefully choose dentists (this is our 3rd...) who are located in the business park across the street from our neighborhood so that we can walk there. The biggest obstacle to this goal, however, is that the street you have to cross, although it does have a light, is freakishly busy and scary to cross. Plus it was colder that day. Plus, having never had a root canal before, I didn't know if I would really feel like walking home afterwards. I'm glad I drove.

I have inherited a lot of really wonderful things from my mom....my teeth not being one of them, however! (Sorry Mom...still love you!) She has told me how it can be very hard for her to get numb for dental procedures and how her root canals have been two-parter's. I didn't really think about any of this before my root canal...everyone said it would be no big deal at all, so that is what I expected. Until he had numbed me 4 different times already and I could still feel the drilling. The dentist said, as a last resort, he could just drill very quickly into the nerve cavity and then be able to inject anesthetic directly into it. Well, it turns out I also had a pulp stone (akin to a kidney stone, only in your tooth root) so he had to "quickly" drill into my nerve about 4-5 different times! Then he had to inject the pain killer directly into about 2-3 more times before I was finally numb! But this time, my jaw was already killing me from being propped open for 45 minutes, and the root canal hadn't even officially started yet! This is one reason why I only got 1/2 a root canal that day...

There was, however, good news when I came home from the dentist...Dave had called Sam's Club (where we purchased our relatively new and now dead computer) and the very nice manager there said that he would take the computer back as a return and credit us so we could buy a new one!! What a nice guy! And what great customer service! So we picked out a new one on Saturday and Dave set it all up Saturday night while I used the laptop (the new cord was ordered, but the old one was working again, randomly.) He spent a lot of time last night switching all our old computer data (which a nice friend of his from work was able to save off our dead computer!) to the new computer. I still have not hooked up the camera to the new computer, however, which was the whole point of this long-winded post. :) I have not been taking nearly as many pictures as I used to, anyway, since my camera is getting old and not taking very good pictures...but there are a few memorable moments sitting on that little card inside my camera that I really should download and blog now that the great computer change-over has taken place!

Sleeping like a baby.

Sleeping FOR your growing, in-utero baby is NOT like sleeping like a baby! Of course it's hard to get and stay comfortable and random appendages fall asleep. It's definitely frustrating to have to get up every few hours to go to the bathroom. Then there's heartburn to contend with, and weird, random leg cramps. Speaking of legs, there is also restless leg syndrome that can get pretty darn irritating! But this pregnancy, those things seem like cake to get over compared with the dreaded INSOMNIA!!

I am tired. I am overly tired. I am exhausted. I go to bed and it can take HOURS to actually fall asleep! Then, when I finally get to sleep, I wake up several times a night for NO REASON and then can't fall back asleep right away!! AGH!! I used to find solace and relief in my daily nap, but now INSOMNIA has ruined that too!!

Being pregnant is a wonderful, happy blessing. I love my sweet little unborn. :) I love that my body can nurture and support this new life. I just wish it were easier to get some rest!

6 weeks left and counting!

Oh No!

The other day, we actually got enough snow to warrant shoveling. I sent Sebastian, Fiona and Elijah out to get it done. About 10 minutes into it, I saw the above image. Oh no! Has Elijah fainted from over-exertion?

Are we experiencing another round of stomach flu and he is about to throw-up?

Oh...huh...he's just taking a bit of a break to hork down as much snow as possible without actually having to do the work of picking it up and bringing it to his mouth. :)

Sebastian and Fiona, on the other hand, were hard at work making another snow curve to keep kids from going into the street when they sled. Sebastian had most of the sidewalk shovelled and had used a lot of the snow for the wall.

The girls were busy playing while all of this was happening. Then they came out and saw the kids outside and, of course, wanted to join them.

When Elijah saw the above picture of Scarlett, he said "aw, she's so cute!" Elijah is her buddy. He came in shortly after the pigging-out-on-snow feast. Being her buddy, he helped Scarlett get ready to go out into the snow. What a nice big brother! All of the kids are just so sweet and helpful...they impress me every day with their willingness and desire to help one another!

Back to the snow scene outside: Once Sebastian caught onto the fact that, while he was still shoveling, Elijah was taking an extended "break" to eat snow, he came over to "encourage" Elijah to help out some more.

And on a completely different note: I have been letting the kids use the camera pretty much whenever they'd like to. It's getting older and not taking nearly as nice of pictures as it used to, so I am not all that protective of it these days. When I was downloading the snow pictures, the above picture caught my eye. When the boys saw it, they both started giggling. Everyone is so good at playing with Brighton and love to think of different things to make him giggle. I guess Brighton thought it was funny to sit on Elijah's head. :) I'm sure he didn't get *any* encouragement from his big, silly brothers! :)

The kind of day we're having...

Brighton just dumped a nearly full bag of Honey-Nut Cheerios and I don't really care....in fact my first thought was "awesome, they can have a snack and be entertained at the same time!" instead of something more sane like "oh geez, there went $3 and now I have to clean it up!"

That's just the kind of day we're having. Or, more specifically...the kind of day I'M having. There have been some days during this pregnancy where I have been a normal, productive person; doing normal, productive things like cleaning and feeding people. I have to admit, though, that the majority of this pregnancy has consisted of days like today. I'm tired. I don't feel like cleaning. I let kids sleep in late. I'm just sitting around. The house is a pig sty and a half. I am not really "making" kids do chores and clean stuff up. The kids certainly aren't complaining. The dogs (who now get to eat hundreds of cheerios off the floor) are certainly not complaining. But I am...it never really feels good to not be productive day after day. It does feel good to get things done and to have a clean house and yummy, healthy food to eat. The motivation and energy just aren't there most days. Some of my pregnancies have been super productive times....when I was pregnant with Haven, my house was so consistently clean that I ran out of things to clean every day and resorted to washing couch cushions and such! I had a lot of energy and, I think just as importantly, tons of drive to get things done. Not so this time around! I guess I have plenty of years ahead of me of having a clean house.....that's what I am telling myself, anyway! :)

Budding composer

Fiona has been taking piano lessons for a few months now from an adorable teenage girl in our ward (our church congregation.) She has been learning a lot and really loves to practice and loves playing the piano. This week, she started writing her own songs. With hand-drawn lines on a blank piece of paper, she meticulously wrote in the notes as she selected and played them. The next day, I printed off some blank sheet music from this site.

She went right to work on some new songs! She really gives a lot of thought to how she wants her song to sound and tries it out several times before writing down the notes.

This particular afternoon, Brighton was having a hard time taking his nap, so she voluntarily played a few octaves higher and pressed the keys very lightly. :) I love seeing her play the piano and hope that she will continue to love it and achieve a comfortable level of proficiency as she gets older.

My Dad taught me how to play the piano when I was little. I practiced very little and had whole years at a time when I hardly played. I did manage to continue learning, though I never tried very hard. I really enjoy playing the piano now, but am sad I never took the time to reach a more serviceable level of proficiency; I play only a few songs well enough for myself or anyone else to sing along to and I do not play well enough to be an accompanist at church...both things I hope to accomplish one day! I guess I should follow Fiona's example and practice more!