well, hello

has it really been since december that i posted?!  what the heck-of-a-doodle.  (to quote pace).  so, i've decided there is going to be no back-blogging here.  just a clean fresh start.  i will leave you all wondering  what in the world we were up to from december through may.  and you (and i) will just have to deal with it.

my friend in virginia (hi--you know who you are) had a great idea to play catch-up on the blog without technically back-blogging.  i am going to copy her idea and write a post about each of the kids (and possibly myself, too and loren(?) if i ever make it that far).  so, today we will start with the bub of all bubs.

 

he decided to turn out rather high maintenance (sort of/maybe/probably the reason for the lack of posts lately) and is needing physical and occupational therapy for a whole host of issues (low muscle tone, poor muscle memory, poor motor planning, speech delays, and eating problems).  the GOOD news, though, is that he improves pretty much every week, learning something new or strengthening a skill he already had.  he can finally crawl, cruise around on furniture, and has recently started being able to walk behind a push toy.  his therapists are hopeful that he will be walking by the time he turns two.  he is also learning some WORDS (hooray, hooray, hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and has actually held onto about 6 words for two weeks now: up, bye, orange, shoe, school, night-night, knock-knock.........it's kind of a random list, i know.  oh, he can also say banana when he wants to.

he is a super cute baby, though, and i love him to death in spite of himself.  here's a little more info on the bubness:  he has just decided he likes being sung to, and singing to him in the car and while i'm changing his diaper is the only thing that keeps him happy.  he also LOVES to go outside (it REALLY makes me miss florida, i just gotta say.)  when it does stop raining he is so happy to go out on the swing or sit on the trampoline.  he also really, really likes oranges.  and he turns my kitchen into a total sticky disaster when he eats them.  he likes swimming, too (we go once a week to an indoor pool).  he's so funny in his swim tube--he can mostly keep himself upright, but when he does start to fall forward and he knows his face is going under, he just closes his eyes and blows bubbles and waits for me to rescue him.  which reminds me, sometimes he can say "bubbles" also.  bath time is also a favorite of his.  so is getting into mischief of all kinds.  at least now he shakes his head when he knows he's getting into trouble.........too bad knowing he's not supposed to do it doesn't make him not do it.


so, there you have it.  one post down, 7 more to go.  easy-peasy, right?

all in a day's work

pace has been asking me for a while when i'm going to get around to hanging stuff up in his room.

today he decided to take decorating matters into his own hands. he was busy upstairs for a long time. when he came back down, he was super excited and wanted me to come see how he'd decorated his room. he kept saying "it's just so awesome, mom. you're gonna love it. you'll be so surprised!"

this is the first item of decor: a pen taped to the wall, with a blank paper taped next to it. "so i can write my calendar and draw stuff if i need to."

next, a blue ornament (gifted by gretchy, who got it from school), hanging next to a blanket artfully draped in the door crack of the closet.
another artfully draped blanket, arranged under a jewelry box stolen from madeline.

and, tadaaaaa! "mom, look, bet you didn't even know it............a necklace!" hidden under the blanket and attached to the dresser with a climbing hook.

one more blanket on display. draped over the fan.

and this has nothing to do with decorating, but it does have to do with how things are different around here since we've had a boy. this is now considered to be an appropriate way to say family prayers.

and we have the traveling nativity.

can i do this in 15 minutes?

so, i have 15 minutes before i have to race out the door to get pace at preschool. we'll see how far i get. mostly it will just be a list of everything i hope to post in-depth about at a future (soonish?) time.

1. we are now in seattle (well, really, issaquah)

2. it's raining

3. we stayed for 3 weeks in a hotel (3 different hotels, actually) before we moved in

4. it is hard to keep 6 children quiet in a hotel room for 3 weeks

5. some of the children may or may not have gotten locked out of or into adjoining hotel rooms in the middle of the night

6. we got a trampoline

7. pace promptly broke his leg jumping on the trampoline

8. we are on week 10 of having either a cast (named "blue leg") or a brace (named "iron man leg") on pace

9. wells started therapy for developmental delays and also for food-eating issues

10. wells turned one year old (we are lying to everyone and saying he's still 8 months, though)

11. we love our new ward

12. we miss our pool. we are trying to be good sports, but i'm afraid we got a bit spoiled.

13. we still like issaquah, even though it is pool-less and sun-less

14. the kids mostly like it because i finally bought them some boots they've been wanting for 2 years now

15. 7 minutes left--i will try to post some pictures

16. one more thing--i really like organizing a new house. i hate moving, but i think i'd really get jittery if i didn't get to start from scratch every 2 years. i have tried a new approach in this house--i label everything--everything has a spot and that spot is labeled and so THERE SHOULD BE NO CONFUSION AS TO WHERE THINGS SHOULD GO! right, children? liesel and gwyneth say i'm going through a post-nesting phase. whatever it's called, i'm having fun!

iron man leg
"blue leg and good leg are friends"--pace specifically requested this picture of them together
some moves with blue leg

the time has come.........

to panic. or to move. both of which are happening this week. i sort of mostly-all-the-way just wish it was already october and i was all settled in seattle. alas, it is only the end of june and i still have a cross-country trip and a month-plus of homelessness to face. BUT in the middle of all that i will get to see my sisters (and mom and dad and davie) and friends and loren's family and so maybe i will survive after all. now, if i can just figure out a way to keep my baby alive and getting fat(ish) during all of that. ha! actually i started a new system that is working well--i only nurse him twice a day and then i feed him bottles of milk that i've pumped and/or been given through many minnie miracles. he gets much more milk from a bottle than he can from me, so since i've been doing this (4 days) he's actually gained weight! and is that how you spell 'minnie'? because i thought it was 'miny' but that must be because i was thinking of 'tiny'? 'minny'? (*the problem of the 'mini' spelling is solved, thanks to the linford family lending a hand in their comments--now that i see it, it's completely obvious that's how it's spelled---*)anyway, i know that was a long story made very short that probably didn't even make sense at all, but it's on my brain, so there you go.

and here's the latest from my pace boy:

sunday in sacrament meeting at church he had to use the bathroom, which is highly illegal, of course, but i was not willing to call his bluff, so i let him go out with gretchen. when he came back in, he stopped in the aisle and put his leg up on the side of the bench and just stood there looking around with his leg propped up all straight in front of him. i quickly pulled him into our row and told him to sit down. as i pulled him past me, he leaned in and whispered, "i was just doing some exercises." i think i let an out-and-out laugh escape. he kills me.

he's just started getting carsick (a curse he inherited from both loren and me), so we've been talking a lot about getting sick in the car. i was making him do some jobs around the house this morning, and he said "mom, actually i'm house sick. i think we'd better go camping."

fine, i'll post

the kids have been BEGGING me to post pictures of their new rooms. so, here goes! there are some other random pictures in here, also, and nothing's in a particular order, because that's just how it is.

i repainted madeline and gretchy's dressers. (i know the pix on the wall are not centered right--we had to change the dressers to allow for their new reading corner, and i haven't moved the pix yet--or put the handles back on mad's dresser)

here's mad at field day
gretchy at field day
pace and the bubs
painted my oak bookshelves black, with turquoise insides. i really like it, even if it's somewhat unconventional.

liesel and gwyneth made these canvases themselves. it was quite the project, and very fun.
i painted their dressers turquoise.
i made some new pillows for my bed. also painted the lamps and got new shades. can you tell we're on a turquoise kick around here?
here's a really bad picture of the reading corner (two pink chairs under a canopy) and pace illegally climbing on the beds.
painted the beds, also, and the frame of the canvas that my great grandma gave my mom, that she gave to me!

don't know why i've been such a blog slacker lately. i have lots of things to say, but i don't really have the energy to organize anything into anything readable. possibly because i've been painting everything (not really, but close) in my house, plus nursing a baby. paint, nurse, paint, nurse. that is how i spend my time this month. painting is fun, and my baby is cute, so i guess i could find worse ways to spend my time, right? plus, liesel started therapy up again, which adds some busy-ness in to my days. PLUS, i am in this crazy post-baby-getting-ready-to-move nesting/decluttering/cleaning phase, so inbetween the painting and the nursing and the therapy i'm cleaning out the little metal track thingy on my french doors (just to give you an example of what i got distracted by today). i also redid and organized the office. it's kind of like i can't face the big stress of moving unless i get everything organized here first. which seems kind of backwards---why not wait until i move, since i'm going to have to redo it all in 3 months, right? but, my brain thinks better when things are all set-you-bet, so there you have it.

let's see.....what else to say?

liesel's doing really well. she bent her leg to 102 degree yesterday in therapy (just past a right 90 degree angle) which is a HUGE deal for her/me/us. it still hurts to bend it, but it's getting better. she can walk pretty well now--not quite back to normal (still slow--she does this hop/skip/limp thing when she wants to go fast).

the kids have been spending lots of time in the pool again, which makes me happy! i can't bear the thought of leaving it in 3 months........

we went to the beach twice this week, too. just trying to soak it all in before we go.

liesel and gwyneth went to girl's camp during spring break. they had so much fun and came home singing all the camp songs and teaching them to the other kids. it totally reminded me of when i came home from camp my first time. and it does NOT seem like that was long enough ago to have children doing it.

pace spends all his time either swimming or dancing and singing. liesel and gwyneth turn on youtube videos while they're doing schoolwork (i know, i try not to care.......) and pace hangs out with them and learns all the songs and the dance moves. he is so cute when he dances, but as soon as i turn on the video camera he gets all weird. i'll keep trying. he did a full handstand the other day while he was dancing. he was so surprised at himself. he looked at me and said "mom, i got sticked upside down for a long time!"

wells is a really good baby. really, seriously good. it's a good thing i nurse him or i'd never hold him--he's just really happy playing by himself. and, he made himself even cuter by learning how to do a kissing face and noise this week.

this is him sort of doing his trick.

12!

liesel and gwyneth turned 12 today! we just got back from getting their ears pierced. fun stuff. here are some of their thoughts about being 12:

"being 12 hasn't had as much of an impact on me as i thought it would" (liesel)

"kids grow up so much faster than adults" (liesel)

"being a kid goes by so fast! being a teenager goes by even faster" (gwyneth)

"we promised ourselves we wouldn't be brats when we turn 13. why would be brats now?" (both)

time to get sappy now. i love my girls! this year has been way too hard, but i'm so glad i've been able to be home with them. we have had a good time doing projects and learning to sew together. we just redid their room (all diy projects) and it was SO fun!

i'm glad i have twins. watching them together is one of the best things in my life. i couldn't ask for better children!

and the reason there are no pictures in this post is because loading the pictures on is what always keeps me from posting! pictures next time. (soon?) and pictures of liesel and gwyneth's new room and other projects we've been doing.

no particular title

my baby's taking a super long nap and i have a couple of surprise spare moments! i don't have anything in particular to say, but i do have some cute pictures i can post........

who needs an ipod? this is the new generation of boom boxes. i found pace walking around holding the little-people nativity stable upside down on his shoulder so he could hear it play "away in a manger" better.

liesel and gwyneth organized a family olympics competition. we did an obstacle course, swimming events, free-throw shots, sit-ups (i did 4 the first time--ha! i tried again and squeaked out 31), push-ups, hula-hooping........when it wasn't his turn pace practiced his motorcycle-riding skills.

here is liesel doing her push-ups
i love decorating the tree. it might be my favorite part of christmas. this picture of madeline captures our excitement.
a good use for extra ornaments.........
we went to the everglades a couple of weeks ago. we kept forgetting liesel was in a wheelchair and kept leaving her behind. pace took pity on her.
does it look like we have a really big family? i never think it's that big until i catch a glimpse of us all together. yikes!