Merry Christmas

Finally, I think I'm all caught up.  I feel bad about the rushed posts though and I really am hoping to do better at keeping up on blogging this year.  I think I did slightly better this year than last though.  Which probably is a bit sad.

Anyway, we had a really lovely Christmas this year.  We stayed home once again and had just our family which is always nice.  The one bad part this year was that I came down with an absolutely miserable cold so I wasn't feeling all that terrific.  I still made our annual homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles at the pleading of the kids.  Plus, chicken noodle soup is great for colds anyway, so it was probably the perfect meal.  Christmas morning we got to see what Santa brought before enjoying our traditional omelet breakfast.  Then we just took it easy for the rest of the day opening a few things and then enjoying them before opening a few more.  We had a nice dinner and just really enjoyed the day together.

Santa brought Kaya her shopping cart and cash register.

Lynnsey got the beautiful American Girl doll Caroline from Santa.

Spencer loved his marble run from Nana and Grandpa.

Santa brought Kendall a digital camera that may be a bit nicer than mine.

Nana and Grandpa gave Taylor a Doctor Who Dalek alarm clock.  It works!  And it has scared the pants off of him a few times already:)

It was a great end to a crazy, difficult, but wonderful year. 

December

December was a crazy month as usual with all the happenings going on and the excitement leading up to Christmas. 

We spent one Saturday at a Christmas carnival that the college hosted.  The kids had a great time playing all the games and earning tickets to redeem for prizes.

Then they got to have another Santa visit. 

On December 7th, we celebrated Kendalls 13th birthday!  Yes, we now have two teenagers in the house.  And once again I am left baffled as to how it is possible for kids to grow up so fast. 

This year, as an odd-numbered birthday, we just had a family party.  My favorite kind.

I was so proud of this gift.  He had asked for a Doctor Who apron which were not only scarce but also about $60.  So I designed one myself and he was totally thrilled with it.

He loved his light saber and book from Nana.

The favorite though was the new Michael Vey book from Grandpa Potter.  He was just a little excited.

We enjoyed the annual winter band concert again.  This time Taylor wasn't participating so we missed seeing him.  He isn't taking band officially this year and just joins in when he can, but he was so swamped with projects from school that he couldn't work it in.  Kendall played with the middle school band though, and did a great job.

Kendall and the middle school band.  I promis he's in there somewhere.

Lynnsey has been busy all fall with the Chime Club and they've had several performances for different groups, but we hadn't been able to see a performance yet.  Finally they scheduled one at the hospital where they performed first in the lobby for the public and then went upstairs where they performed for the patients.  They did a wonderful job and performed some really difficult pieces.

The Chime Club performing for patients at Oaklawn Hospital

Kaya was so excited to go to a birthday party for her best friend and even more excited when she learned it would be held at a roller skating rink.  She had a ball and only fell down a few times.  And now she's already wanting to go do it again.

Kaya and friends at the skating rink.

The same day that Kaya was at her party, our friends invited our other kids over to make "gingerbread" houses.  They had lots of fun--even Spencer who made one that he of course couldn't eat.

Spencer's gingerbread house.

We got to open some early presents from Grandma Oswald that were actually supposed to be sent last year but weren't ready in time.  Among them was Kaya's quilt that she has been waiting anxiouly for.  It is so cute and cozy and fits on her bed perfectly.

Kaya and her "Grandma Oswald quilt".

November

November was a bit stressful for us because we had another surgery date looming before us.  This time is was for Kaya.  She developed a problem in one of her eardrums caused by the ear tube that she had put in when she was a baby.  The right one fell out and healed right up.  The left tube decided it didn't want to come out.  Ever.  So it embedded itself in her eardrum and then shifted to the side and created a large perforation in the eardrum.  That was a problem because the tube was not only preventing the hole from healing, but the hole was trying to repair itself by healing all wrong.  If left untreated it would have become an eardrum and hearing destroying tumor.  So the only way to fix the problem was for Kaya to have surgery.  And this surgery was more of a major ordeal than getting the tubes in was.  They actually had to go in behind the ear which meant basically making an incision that would allow them to fold her ear over enough for them to get a big enough work space.  The surgery involved an overnight stay in the hospital.  So we were thankful once again to have my mom here to help with the other kids so that we could both be there for Kaya.

We arrived super early to check in and Kaya was really excited about her adventure.  We were less so.  

All set up in pre-op just before they took her back.

The surgery took a couple of nerve-wracking hours in which we sat in the wating room watching a monitor that indicated where she was in the process.  The surgeon came out and told us everything had gone really well and he felt that the repair was successful.  He said the perforation in the eardrum was a lot bigger than they had initially thought and covered about 40% of the eardrum.  After another shorter wait, they let us go back to post-op to see her.  She was groggy and VERY unhappy.  She wanted her IV out and kept telling us to take her home.  Once they got her settled into her room, she calmed down and took a good nap.

Ready for a sleepover in the hospital.

Once she woke up, she was in better spirits and watched some movies while munching saltines.  They wouldn't let her have anything bigger until she could keep down fluids and crackers which took awhile for her to be able to do.  Finally that evening, she was ready and she was so excited to order from the menu.  They told her she could order anything she wanted.  And she did:  chicken noodle soup, jell-o, chocolate pudding, toast and jam, and vanilla ice cream.  It took her a good two hours to eat it, but she finished nearly everything. 

Kaya and her "giant tray of food".



She steadily improved that evening and was so funny.  When she walked to the bathroom on her own and I remarked that I thought she was getting better, she yelled: "Thanks chicken noodle soup!"  Then later when we were settling in for the night and told her it was time to go to bed, she burst into tears and said, "I just don't want to go to sleep because this was the best day ever!" 

The next morning she was doing great, so after breakfast and some time in the play room, we were all set to leave.  She has recovered really well and much faster than I think I would have.  She was pretty much her normal self right away and we had to keep reminding her that she needed to take things a bit easier.  Which was hard to do because her uncles came for Thanksgiving and how do you take it easy with all those fun rough-housers around?

We had a really nice Thanksgiving weekend with my mom, Jonathan, Timothy, and Samuel here.  The kids absolutely loved having the uncles around.

Kaya with her favorite uncle Timothy.

We also went to the local Christmas parade for the first time in a few years.  Actually this is the first time that the weather was mild enough for me to even want to go see it.  Afterward we went to the kids museum to see Santa.  Unfortunately he was unavoidably delayed and not able to get there so the staff rounded up a helper at the last minute.  Kaya was still thrilled to visit with him.

Halloween

Last winter Kalen's brother Todd sent us the complete dvd set of Gilligan's Island.  We have been working our way through them this past year whenever we have extra time before bed or on a Saturday afternoon.  It has been so much fun to watch the kids giggling over those silly episodes and enjoying them so much.  When one of the kids made the connection that there were seven castaways and seven of us, it didn't take long for the idea to come for our whole family to dress up as the crew of the SS Minnow for Halloween this year. 

It was harder than I thought to come up with some of the costumes (there aren't too many gold evening gowns for preschoolers out there...), but I thought the results were fantastic.  We had a lot of fun showing off our costumes at our branch Trunk or Treat and then again trick or treating on Halloween.  

Spencer aka Gilligan

Kaya as the glamourous movie star Ginger

Lynnsey as the lovely and sweet MaryAnn

Kendall as the Skipper

Taylor the Professor (working on that darn radio!)

Amy and Kalen as Lovey and Thurston Howell III.

The Skipper beating up on his little buddy Gilligan.

Autumn

      As bad as I was about blogging this fall, I was even worse at taking pictures to document any of it!  We had a very busy couple of months after school started and I felt like I was doing good just to keep up with everyone.    

We participated again in the Festival of the Forks even though this year it was very wet and very chilly!  We watched the parade in which Taylor and Kendall played with the marching band and Lynnsey and Spencer walked with their school.  Then we made a quick pass up and down the street to check out various vendors.  After some elephant ears and butterfly fries, we decided to call it a day and went home to warm up.                          

                                  

The fall colors were beautiful again this year, in spite of the warnings that it may not be spectacular because of the dry summer we had.  We enjoyed lots of time hanging out in the back yard and going on walks around the neighborhood.

Mommy and her girls:)

Probably the thing that kept me the busiest was babysitting full time.  And by that I mean FULL TIME.  I have kids five days a week from around 7:15 to 5:15.  I'm watching the same two that I had last year--a little boy who is 3 (and who is dying to go with Kaya to preschool.  If only...) and his little sister who is one and who has become a destructive force to rival Kaya's toddler years.  (I may document this in pictures in a future post--it's pretty unbelievable the things she manages to destroy in literally seconds!)  And as if I weren't crazy enough, I decided to take on two more kids too.  I have a little baby boy (who was 6 months old when I started; now he's 9 months) who is here all day and his big sister who is 6 comes  after school and on no-school days.  I'm pretty exhausted most days.  And beyond exhausted on the others.  But this is helping tremendously to pay down our car and medical expenses from the surgeries we've had this year and then we are hoping to start actually saving once we get the debts cleared so we might be able to help our kids go on missions and to college.  I just wish we could do that on Kalen's salary alone so I could just be a mom who could actually help out in my kids classrooms and go on field trips and help with the parent teacher organization.  Oh well.  The sad thing is, I actually turned down four other people needing childcare this year!  Our local daycare closed and people were scrambling to find sitters.  I felt terrible turning people away, but my hands are way more full than I can manage now; I can't imagine adding that many more to the mix. 

The kids have enjoyed having a baby in the house again and he is very popular around here.

Back to School

Once again we arrived at one of the most painful days of the year (for me).  As exciting as it is to see the kids advancing to another year of school, it is also sad to me to see how fast the time is flying by.  And that is especially true this year as I watched my oldest head off as a junior in high school and realized how very little time we have left with him at home and again as I sent my BABY girl off to her first day of preschool and realized that I was just sending the oldest to his first day of preschool.  It is not fair! 

Taylor off to 11th grade!

Taylor is continuing to attend two different high schools this year; both here in Albion and at the Battle Creek Math and Science Center.  He has been doing well at both but it has been a big challenge so far with more and harder classes.  He's doing another year of Online Seminary as well that takes a large chunk of his after school time.  And he just joined the National Honor Society which, unlike the group I belonged to in high school, actually does things.  He's continuing in Boy Scouts too and is hoping to earn his Eagle soon.

Kendall is finally out of elementary school and goes to Junior High at Albion High School.

With all the changes and consolidating they've been doing at the elementary school, Kendall was sure that he would be there forever.  But at long last, the time came for him to move up to junior high.  So far he is really loving it.  He enjoys having 7 different classes along with all the various teachers who all think he is the best kid in the universe.  He has joined the drama club and is continuing to play the clarinet in the school band. 

4th grader Lynnsey

They did end up making more changes at the elementary school across the street from us again and it has become a kindergarten through 4th grade school now, so Lynnsey has only one year left before she'll also head up to a wing of the high school where 5th and 6th graders go now.  She's a little sad about that, but really has been enjoying her year.  She has the same teacher this year that Kendall had last year and that plus all her best friends in the same class has been lots of fun for her.  She auditioned for and was accepted into a musical group called the Chime Club that plays hand chimes.  This is the first year that there was no fall soccer and she missed that but is looking forward to the new longer spring season coming up.

He seems too small for it to be true, but Spencer is officially a 2nd grader!

Spencer has so far been loving his second grade experience.  He has a great teacher this year who he has really connected with and he is just doing really well.  He is excelling in every subject but really loves social studies--especially anything with maps and geography.  And he is a great reader and loves the Junie B. Jones and Magic Treehouse series.

Kaya's first day of preschool!

This was probably the hardest part for me.  For half of the day, four days a week, my baby is off to school!  I miss her terribly but she is just absolutely loving it and is learning like crazy.  She has tons of friends and loves how grown up she feels when she is off doing things without me.  She could barely write her name when she started but now she is constantly writing--sometimes just random letters but a lot of times she'll ask me how to spell certain words for a story or a note she's writing.  The only thing that makes it okay with me is to see how excited she is to see me when she comes home and to still have a few hours of the day to read and snuggle together.  Kindergarten just might kill me!