A Little Drama and A Big Girl Bed

Hailey has been my stubborn child from the beginning. When she was like 2 she would rather be on time out for what seemed like hours (it really wasn't) than apologize for doing something. Not much has changed since then. Yesterday I overheard her say, "I hate my mom for putting the bed like this." When I said something she came to the defense that she meant she hates the bed being there. Probably not too horrible, but still my feelings were hurt and I explained to her that "hate" is never a good word to use and that she should probably say she was sorry. She never did and eventually after talking more with her and at least getting a few nods that it wasn't the best thing to say, I let her off the hook. She is overly emotional and I don't know what to do with her. I try really hard never to get angry with her or talk harshly. When she gets into these moods I just speak calmly to her and explain my side of the problem give her lots of hugs, and then leave her to sulk until she decides to come around. Then this morning, all of her chores were done except wiping off the table after breakfast and I told her she couldn't play until she wiped the table. Her cousins are visiting this week so of course she wanted to play. It wasn't very messy and it should have taken her 3 minutes at most (she is a pretty slow worker). I explained this to her, but it didn't really matter, she just put her hands over her ears and pretended not to hear me. While she was in her room I took this picture of her. 45 minutes later, she came out and wiped the table and went in to play with her cousins. At least today and yesterday she wasn't in a screaming fit over it all, because as many of my friends have witnessed she can get that way too. Why the DRAMA!!! Can someone please give me some suggestions to deal with this? Has anyone else had these problems? Will she eventually grow out of it? UGH!

In other news, Sunday night was Lilly's first night in a big girl bed. She took to it like a champ! She was so adorable, even after she woke up in the morning she stayed in bed until I came in to get her out. At nap time I said, "Are you ready to take a nap?" She said, "ya" and went and climbed in her bed. When she woke up she did get out this time and start playing, but she didn't get out of bed before she took her nap. Same deal with bed last night. I hope she takes as well to her little brother who should be here in about a month because she can be quite possessive, especially over mom and dad.

Merry Christmas

We headed down to Utah for Christmas this year.
Here is Allan with all the girls after Christmas Eve dinner.

Here are the girls in their new Christmas Jammies from Grandma Jean.
They were being cute and posing and so I had to put a few pictures.

Grandma Vicki bought them cute slippers.

On Christmas Morning there were lots of presents to be opened.

I love Lilly's Face in this one. For the last 2 years I have taken the girls to the dollar store and let them pick out presents for eachother. It's cheap and they get the experience of giving presents.

Allan thought I had too many rules for opening presents because we opened them one at a time and then the kids had to thank the giver and give them a hug before I would let another one be opened.

Today (the 26th) we went to the mall and Build-A-Bear to spend some Christmas $ and then the kids played at this playground while I grabbed a few after Christmas sale items.

Christmas day also leaves just one month till my due date January 25! So here I am nice and pregnant

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! At the end of this year I am feeling so blessed to have such a wonderful family and a new baby almost here. I am especially grateful for my testimony that I have a loving Heavenly Father who sent His Son Jesus Christ to be an example and make it so that I can live with my family forever. And also for the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, The Book of Mormon, and for a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and for continuing revelation. We are all so grateful for wonderful friends and family who have supported us and shared another year with us. We didn't send out a Christmas card and update this year because I am waiting and will be sending out something once the baby is here, but we have enjoyed getting your cards and letters. We love you all and send best wishes for a wonderful 2010!

Overview of November and December

I should be better about blogging, and taking pictures! Sorry there are not going to be any visual aides for this blog. I don't even know where the months of November and December went. Lets see if I can remember:

Football season finished up with two wins against Air Force and Utah. Overall it was a great season and we will be cheering on BYU in their bowl game tonight. As much fun as I had, I will be glad to not be going out of town half of our weekends anymore.

We spent Thanksgiving with Allan's family. It was lots of fun as always to get together and relax and let the kids all play with their cousins. On Black Friday I headed out to help a friend get some things she was wanting and was back before Allan had to leave for work along with new boots for me and the kids.

Hailey, Ally, and Natalie were in the Nutcracker with Idaho Ballet Theater. It was a lot of fun, but also very tiring. They had Saturday practices all November and the week of the performance they had a tech rehearsal, 2 dress rehearsals, and 3 performances between all of them. They were so cute! Ally was meant to be in both nights, but ended up feeling sick and not performing on Saturday, the day her grandparents were all there to see her, but Hailey and I went to see her on Friday night and she did a great job. Hailey is getting to be quite the dancer and Natalie was too cute, she was one of the smallest kids in the performance. I ordered pictures of the girls in their costumes and will post some when I get them.

Ally was then sick for a week and missed a bunch of school, Hailey didn't feel well for a day or two, Natalie and Lilly ended up with a cold/cough that they gave to me and I was down in bed for a few days. In between all of that Life went on with the following.

I have been volunteering in Hailey and Ally's classes weekly and also just put together an Accelerated Reading Rewards Program for the whole school, bought prizes, and caught all of the classes up with their prizes from the beginning of the year. I have now found a parent to help me for just about every class so hopefully that job will calm down with the new year.

Hailey and Ally were in a Christmas program at their school. I took a couple pictures but forgot my SD card at home so they are stuck on my camera at the moment.

We have also been having lots of Christmas parties and lots of goodies, I am so done with all of the Christmas candy it isn't even funny. It's a good thing I am pregnant and have an excuse to gain weight, but I am sure I will be paying for that later.

I am tired of being pregnant, the countdown has really begun now as I have less than 5 weeks until my due date. I am huge and have been asked (as with every pregnancy) if I am having twins. I am tired and have no energy to keep up with 4 kids and a house. Especially after being sick, my house needs a cleaning overhaul before we bring a baby home. I have SO much to do before the baby comes, it gives me a headache just to think about it. If I didn't have any kids around I am sure it would be a breeze to get the house ready, but reality sinks in and I have to feed and do laundry for 6 people and all of the other things it takes to keep our home running smoothly and that I am involved in and it all seems impossible. I am hoping that anyday (hopefuly sooner than later) that nesting instinct will set in and I will get everything done.

This week we are headed down to Utah for Christmas with my family, and now that the kids are home from school today Christmas vacation has officially begun and everything will have to be put on hold while I pack all of our things and presents and get ready to leave on Thursday morning. We will be coming home on Sunday and I will be puting my kids to work helping me get everything I can done before they head back to school after the new year.