Boys are for playing with

The kids decided to beat Grandpa Rod up. Grandpa Rod wanted Madison's blanket that she got from the young women in the ward when she broke her leg and Madison was NOT happy about it. Alexis and Drew decided to help her beat Grandpa up so he couldn't keep the blanket. Poor Grandpa probably left very sore.

Daddy is the best horse in the house according to the kids. All four kids can still fit on his back while he gallops around the room but I don't think that that will be the case for much longer!

The kids LOVE to take pencils and tape things to them. Currently they are loving taping ribbon or yarn and then turning on the piano music and having "dances". 

Self portraits

I walked into the kitchen and caught Jocelyn standing on the desk helping herself to whatever she wanted. 

Alexis told me the day of her "concert" that she was going to be singing Christmas songs and that I had to be there at 2:30. So I pulled Drew out of preschool early, woke Jocelyn up from nap time and loaded them all up. When we got there we were seated next to the only other mom that had come. It wasn't a concert at all, it was merely a school sing-a-long to Christmas songs before Christmas break. We didn't even get to see Alexis, but the singing was fun!

Madison's self-portrait.

Not a self-portrait. Alexis took this picture and even though John is closing his eyes it is such an adorable picture!

Drew self-portrait.

Alexis self-portrait. She apparently had to wrestle the camera away from Jocelyn in order to take a picture of herself. 

Graham Cracker Houses

The innards of Madison's house.

Jocelyn saw no reason to build a house when she had free reign to eat as much candy as she could.

Drew's finished house. 

Alexis' finished house.

Madison's finished house.

John's finished "house", he was going for the minimalist house this year.

All the kids loaded their houses with as much candy as possible because they wanted to be able to eat candy whenever they wanted. They were going to save the candy until Christmas Day but then decided that "eating that much candy on one day would make us sick."

6:00 AM excitment

I heard sirens at about 6:00 AM one morning but they quit so I assumed that they were coming from the main road, about a mile away. Then I heard someone driving on the gravel, I assumed the neighbor next door was getting an early start to working since he works from his backyard. By this time I HAD pee, pregnancy will do that to you. Coming back into the bedroom I noticed red spinning lights. I woke John up to tell him that there was something going on. We ran to both windows and saw flames out the front one. Because I didn't have my glasses/contacts I thought the neighbors house was on fire. John assured me that it was behind the house. He went running out to see if there was anything we could do but with 4 fire engines, 5 fire marshals, 2 ambulances and 3 cop cars we weren't really needed. The neighbors barn caught fire and no one knew until about 5:45. They're not sure what caused it or how long it had been going, but no houses or people were hurt. The kids loved seeing all the emergency vehicles, and a couple of them fell back asleep watching cartoons.

Food Dudes

Alexis'

Drew's

For my apprenticeship this semester I helped with the Food Dudes study. They measure the kids' carotenoid levels, among other things, before and after they've given fruits and vegetables to the kids during the lunch hour, for about a month. I was curious to see what our levels were so I took the kids and did their measurements. Alexis' score was more like what everyone else in the house was at, except Drew. Drew was off the charts. I knew he was our fruit and vege eater, I didn't realize how much more he was eating than the other kids! (The red region is the norm for people in general. Anything above red is above average and the blue is the upper limits of measurements.)

I took 19 credits this last semester, including this apprenticeship. I was really stressed about just passing one class in particular as she was a beastly teacher. No, it wasn't just me. The mean on her first test was 20/50. I don't think that there was a single mean above 30/50, on all five tests! There were a number of people taking her class for the second or third time. I was praying for a C-, seriously, I would've been SO happy with a C-.   I ended up with a B- because I aced the last test. Oh, happy day! The B- was my lowest grade, I ended up with a 3.49 GPA this semester. Only one class left to go and I can graduate! I don't know if I'm truly excited about that, but John is!

Thanksgiving

I love this picture of Drew and Grandpa John Drew. I wish we would've brought the good camera, the one that actually focuses!

We did Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Wadley's house this year. Everyone came but Rob and Tina who are too far away. It was a fun day for the kids, they love running around with their cousins and being crazy!

Old Main sledding

 

  After taking a test I thought it would be fun to bundle everyone up and go sledding down Old Main Hill. There were a few people sledding there and the hill is big enough with a nice slow-down area. Because my belly is housing another little person I didn't get to sled and Jocelyn fell asleep on the way over so she didn't get to either. John had fun carting the kids up and down, he even went down a few times with them. All three kids were loading into the sled and John gave them a push down the hill. Unfortunately, the kids took a sharp left and a tree brought them to a sudden stop. Drew was thrown out of the sled, Madison was folded up inside and we're not sure what happened to Alexis. Because they wouldn't quit whining about being in pain we decided to take them home.

If you look at Madison's forehead you'll notice a nice big bump. When we took her beanie off, it was embedded in her head. The next day she had lots of little scabs where we pulled it off her head.

Drew's nose is red, his eye is black and that entire side of his face was swollen for a couple of days.

Madison unfortunately didn't have just a bump on her head. We took her for x-ray's because she kept complaining that her leg bone was hurting. The x-ray's didn't show a broken bone and the doctor we saw thought that she had ligament damage. He referred us to an orthopedist to see what was going on. Monday we went to the orthopedist and he put Madison in a cast because he thought she had a growth plate break. Madison LOVED her yellow sparkly cast. The doctor was nice enough to made the cast removable so that she could bathe and stretch her leg occasionally. Madison was told that she wasn't allowed to walk on her leg for three weeks, which meant great fun for mommy! About two weeks after getting her cast she figured out she could hobble around. Within a few days she'd figured out she could run. By the time we got back to the orthopedist the bottom of her cast was worn out! When we went back three weeks later they did x-rays again and it didn't show any break at all, instead the orthopedist thought that she basically compressed her bone right next to the growth plate. We could see regrowth around the edges but still no obvious break. She still limps somewhat, but it doesn't hurt any longer!

Alexis escaped with no injuries - the doctors correctly guessed that she was the one on the back of the sled! Needless to say, we will not be going back to Old Main Hill for sledding.