Having a FUZZY summer!!!

It t'was a cold and stormy night.... HA! Katelyn and Emily were dying to go on a walk, so they took some stuff to the neighbors.They came back about 20 minutes later begging to jump on a trampoline. They pondered between Schroeders and Sherrys and decided Sherry's would be the most appropriate. Off they went to knock on the door! Sherry wasn't present at the time, but they decided her love for them was so great and she wouldn't mind. They seesawed and jumped only to come back with freezing feet. They decided fuzzy socks were the solution. They then decided a "selfie" session was needed. As they would say they were rockin' the socks in JUNE!!!!!!!

Emma 1 month old

Emma fell into a great schedule. She was only waking up 2 times a night and sleeping very well during the day. She was a great nurser and we just love to snuggle her. I let the kids each take a skip day from school while I was on maternity leave. Each picked a different day and stayed home with Emma and I. They loved just being here and snuggling with us. We went out and ate lunch with most of them also. Everyday before the kids left for school; each had to hold and kiss her good bye and then they would race to see her in the afternoon. It was nice to send Blakely off with the children in the car to school with the exception that I had no car. Emma struggled with kicking jaundice. She was on a bilirubin light for almost the whole first month. She was always undressed down to a diaper and onesie. We made a trip at least twice a week back to the hospital to get poked in the heel. We become very acquainted with the check in staff and the lab. It was nice to see Uncle Greg and Oralia even though that caused Emma pain. She spiked up to 17 but just could not get below a 10; which we needed to be off the light until she was almost a month old. She finally made it to a 9. We were so excited. The kids were very concerned about her and what the nurse said. We started adding in a bottle of formula to help with kicking it. She took the bottle the first two weeks just to supplement, but when Mom started to try to add in bottles to prepare her for the babysitter, she did not want to take a full feeding until the weekend before I went back to work. It was hard for me to let go of my classroom, but after going back for parent teacher conferences 2 weeks after she was born, I decided it was going to be okay and I let it go for awhile. I loved being home with this sweet little girl. During the month, we had wonderful dinners and helpers to help us prepare for Emma. We tried to stay put at home and not go anywhere for the first 6 weeks. Thank you for all your love and gifts, everyone was so kind to help us with Emma.

Miss Emma Uvene

Miss Emma Uvene is now 1 week old. She has won over our hearts to the point that everyone needs/wants to hold her, kiss her, burp her, and even sometimes change her diaper. She has sent Shawn and I into a tailspin of "I guess we are doing this again." Through this last 9 months, I was the one shaking my head when I was sick, tired, and feeling miserable saying" Can you believe we are having a baby?" And Shawn responding yep, no questions. But about 3 weeks ago, Shawn came home from church scratching his head after seeing another little boy walking around in his class watching the father try to keep him entertained; he wondered "We are really having a baby, and doing this all again." I responded "Yes, we are." After having Emma for this last week of course we just love having her in our home. I had Emma on the 16th of October at 5:38 p.m. I started contractions about 2:30 in the morning and finally deciding to call in a sub at 4:30 in the morning, we headed into the hospital about 6:00 am. We woke up Blakely and put her in charge of getting everyone off to school. My contractions basically had dwindled down to nothing by the time the doctor came to check on me. So he decided why not we were already there, let's have a baby today. I am use to quick deliveries, but my body decided to take a little longer to get Emma here. By 3 o'clock I had not progressed very much; I was getting discouraged and Shawn was having a hard time being idle. Shawn had blessed me with patience in my blessing earlier that morning; so he and I had to remind ourselves of that. By 5 o' clock we were moving along nicely and with the help of a great doctor and nurse we delivered Miss Emma. She let everyone know she was not happy about being out. She was a beautiful 7 pounds and 5 ounces and 19 1/2 inches long. The kids were dying to come in and see her. So after I was sewn up and situated we called them in. Blakely and the boys came in and held her. They stayed for a while so Blakely to get to mutual. We had the Bronsons and Katelyn come about 10 o'clock to see this good looking little baby. Shawn and Katelyn headed home and I tried to nurse and get some sleep. The nurses did a great job checking on us and taking care of myself and Emma. The next day, Shawn and I enjoyed the solitude of the hospital with a visit from Grandma Peterson who of course brought her a going home outfit. We decided we would go home that afternoon so we could be with the kids and send them off to school the next day. Grandpa Manwaring came down that night so he to could hold and snuggle with this new little one. It has been so nice to send the kids off to school and it is just Emma and I. I have never done that before. I sure love the quiet the house offers when the kids are gone. I get to hold and love her all by myself. Her first outings has been the hospital to get poked again and again for bilirubin testing. She gets to sunbathe and sit naked on a bilirubin pad. Most of the time she sleeps and eats. We have had a few evenings of crying only to be soothed by nursing. She has to put up with Mom getting after the other children to get jobs, homework, and piano done. We are still adjusting. Brady wants to know when I am coming back to school. His classroom is next door to mine, so he likes to come see me during breaks. The kids for the most part are holding it together getting to school and home. Blakely is my high school aide at school so I have to listen to the things my class is doing or not doing. I hope everyone can do well for the next 6 weeks. It is hard to leave the school responsibility to someone else, but Emma is first priority right now. 6 weeks will be gone before I know it and then it will be hard to leave her during the day. Thank you for all your love and support.

Eight is Great

My Garret is now eight. The age of accountability. The age he gets to start making decisions that will affect the rest of his life. Too heavy..... He is such a fun little boy. He is full of sometimes too much energy especially when he is jumping onto your back. He is great a t tumbling and if I felt like I had more time I think I would put him into a tumbling class. He wears his heart on his sleeve. All you have to do is look at his face and you know exactly how he is feeling. He starts cub scouts and I get to be his leader. He has been coming with me to scouts since Sept. when I got put in. He also gets baptized in January. He even gets a birthday party with friends. I keep trying to celebrate the kids' birthday on the weekend, because it is so hard during the week, but I have a hard time with it. Grandpa and Grandma Ginnie had dinner with us on his birthday and then he had friends at the church playing games on Friday, and then had Grandma and Grandpa Peterson over on Sunday for dinner. He celebrated all week long.
For his friend's party we borrowed the church gym and played relay games for a couple of hours. No one wanted cake or ice cream because they were too busy playing games. I was worried about keeping the boys busy but they had a fun time.
Heavenly Father thought to send Garret to our home. He knew I needed a fun little boy to keep us on our toes and we figured out how to raise a boy. I have been preaching alot about self- control to Garret lately and I am sure I will continue. I am telling him that to be a good missionary he has to master his emotions and control, because I know he will success as a missionary.

Christmas 2011

Once again the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas break goes so fast. I enjoy having one week off before Christmas and one week off after Christmas. I don't think that will happen next year:(
I love just being home because we never are anymore. Why is that? We h ung out at home and had friends over. Blakely had her first boy/girl party. It was fun except too many younger siblings and no place to put Dad. Dad was banished to Katelyn's room to watch TV. He does not like that.
Shawn and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. I have almost been with Shawn longer than I was with my parents. We decided to stay close to home and send the kids over to Grandma's while we enjoyed a quiet house. I am truly married to a great man.
We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with Blake and Josie's family. I love to get together with their family. The kids enjoy each other and we visit too late especially on Christmas Eve. Soup, crackers, carrots, rolls, and sparkling apple cider. The kids always opening pajamas or something related to sleeping.
Christmas morning as usual was sending kids back to bed until 6:30 am. We decided to let the kids open presents before church. Shawn did have to be at the church for a quick meeting before sacrament and we met him at the church. We hurried home and gathered our contribution to Christmas dinner. It is always great to go to Shawn's parents home. We enjoyed all the yummy food and great company. For New Years Eve we spent it with our great friends the Bronsons. I made a new skirt for Blakely for her FIRST New Years Eve Teen Dance. All-in-all we had a great Christmas filled with giving, pouting, laughing, and family togetherness.

Sunny Thanksgiving!

Shawn and I decided to head to sunny Arizona for Thanksgiving this year. Shawn's motive to ride in the desert with Jake. Becky's motive to visit family. In order to make the trip worthwhile, we took off the three days prior to Thanksgiving off. It was a stressful time before trying to get prepared for a sub in my class for three days. We headed out in Shawn's truck down to Las Vegas on Sunday. We arrived to Uncle Brad's and Aunt Chelsea's house to excited cousins all the way around. The kids played and played until it was time to go to bed. The next day we headed to the strip to walk around with 9 kids and 3 adults. Now we can say we have done that. We headed for a little shopping at the one and only Las Vegas DI. We are in the big time now. The next day we headed out to Arizona. We traveled well in our 4 door pickup. Excitement would flare up about every hour and half. Shawn's brother let us borrow his GPS which we liked, except when we got close to Phoenix it kept taking us off the freeway. Shawn was a little grouchy about that. We got to Beth and Jake's house that night. The next morning we met Brian and Shan and their kids and went to the Desert Museum. We learned about a true desert. We saw snakes, spiders, mountain lions, and river otters. I didn't think river otters were part of the desert, but okay. We ended our walk through the desert with dinner at CiCi's pizza.
Thanksgiving was the next day and we worked hard to make a fabulous dinner. We had barb-qued turkey, lots of mashed potatoes, frappe, and wonderful pie. We played games and watched movies on the projector in the garage. We loved the sunny weather where no coats were needed. Beth wanted to it the midnight sales for Black Friday, so away we went at 10 o'clock. We stood in line to no avail. There were others who figured out a better system than us. Got home at 1:30 in the morning with nothing to show but tired bodies. The next day was leftovers and good-byes to Brian and Shan's family. Shawn and Jake took off to ride the desert with the girls finding a part for the truck. I was thinking we might have to stay another day. We had gone to about 5 different parts store and I even crawled under the truck and took pictures of the part we needed. (It was a seal for the drive train.) We finally tried the Dodge dealership and hit jackpot. Once the boys were back from the desert, the girls headed to get our toenails done. We enjoyed the foot massage and cute nail polish.
The next morning we got up and headed out about 7:30 in the morning for the long trip back. This time Shawn ignored the GPS and went the way he thought he should go. We stopped for lunch near Vegas and kept trucking. The kids held on pretty good until the last couple hours. We stopped in Wells, NV for gas and snacks. It was definitely time to put back on the coats. Brady wanted Shawn to sit by him so I drove the last 2 hours. We got home at 10:30 pm from a sunny Thanksgiving trip. We thank everyone who helped us have a great vacation.

Halloween 2011

It is not good that the only camera we have is a camera that is Blakely's. Consequently, it is hard to get pictures taken and posts posted.
I love trunk or treats, but at the same time it is hard to dress the kids up twice for trunk or treat and then for school. When Halloween rolled around we went to the dress up box to see what we could find. I had bought costumes for the boys on Halloween clearance last year, which they have worn quite a bit through out the year. So thankfully, they wore the costumes for Halloween. Garret was a dragon from "How to Train your Dragon." Then the girls told him he couldn't wear his mask and he became HALF BOY HALF DRAGON. He still looked liked a dragon with a boy's head never the less.
Brady became Buzz Lightyear. He is starting to outgrow Toy Story. He wore the Buzz costume with a little hesitation. He loves dressing up for any occasion. He loved the Halloween party as he got to play games and win prizes.
Once the kids hit a certain age they come up with different costumes. Katelyn and her two good friends at school decided to become Cinderella and the two evil step sisters. Bekha was Cinderella, Emily and Katelyn were the evil stepsisters, and Mrs. Harman, Bekha's helper was the evil step mother. I am sure they look cute, but did not get to see them because they all dressed up during school.
Blakely really didn't dress up because she had a football game that she played at. She decided that she would be a juvenile delinquent and dress up as herself. I don't think she mainded too much not dressing up because she loves to go and hang out with her friends. We went after the ward party to pick her up from the football game. This a whole new ballgame for us with Blakely now in high school.