SHE DID IT!

Dacie Ann Sorensen CRAWLED on her 10 month and 3rd day b-day-trying to get in the tub with her bros! What a milestone. It still takes much prodding to get her to do it-She is a princess and prefers the easier method- yell until your brothers give you what you want, and your mommy comes and gets you!!! ha ha

It is raining today (FINALLY!) so we are trapped indoors and grumpy!!I painted Dacie's fingernails for the first time yesterday. She thought the first hand was pretty cool, by the second...NOT so cool! ha ha ha (and I almost passed out trying to blow on them so hard to dry quicker) You can see them a bit in the crawling picts. BUT I included a close up at the bottom! I'm not gonna lie, I have seen better paint jobs (even by her dad) BUT I have a GIRL to play with! YEAH!!

A perfect ending!

To end the GREAT DAY (check post right before this one 11-27) We sat on our front porch swing and watched the beautiful sunset that this state is so infamous for!

You Know It's a Great Day When....

Your hubby comes home by suprise for lunch to just be with you a little more that day AND you have had time to MAKE 4 DOZEN COOKIES on top of: getting your kids to school, lunches made, the other kids dressed, yourself dressed and showered, volunteering in the class, feeding the heel biters at home, boiling chicken for dinner, and a BLOG! (Of course, in my mind I feel like I have so much more I can do and should do BUT I really have to put it all in perspective).

The reason for making the 4 dozen cookies is that tonight I am going to a cookie exchange for the first time. I was a bit leery about making that many cookies and having that many cookies in my home. But, then I started thinking of everyone I could take them too, as an early holdiay 'kick-off', instead of when their homes are already FULL of too much sugar-and I decided to dig in! I was in a cooking mood today anyways-so that has helped the whole situation.I will let you know if I am a fan of cookie exchanges after.
IT IS A GREAT DAY!!! YEAH!!!!

Dacie is for sure a GIRL! She LOVES CHOCOLATE. Today I introduced her for the first time to a chocolate chip or two-and her response was such a deep, warm sounding "mmmmm" that we have all experienced in our girly chocolate love hearts. I felt her happiness! So did her smile-check out the melted chocolate and one little curl on her head. I am in LOVE with having another girl to hang with in the house!

Over The River and Through The Woods....

To Grandfather's house we go- the KIA knows the way to carry the weight through the sand and drifted snow (Cottonwood fluffies). As we pulled out of town late afternoon on Thanksgiving Day to go down to Phoenix and have dinner with Dan's family. I had to wake the boy's from their naps early...so I sang the to Grandmothers house- song to help lighten the sleepy mood a bit (to which I was told to be quiet! hmmm). It DID SNOW as the wind had picked up and there were 'fluffies' (off of the budding bushes around here) flying EVERYWHERE- it looked just like snow...no snow yet, or ever I am afraid with such a warm fall!

(Above) Grandpa and Ryland sleeping in Grandpa bears bed-sleeping buddies were not hard to come by with so many bodies around! (Below) Grandpa and Ryland looking at X-mas lights-my favorite is grandpa and how he is wearing his hat!

Our tummies were empty and we pulled in just in time for dinner (we timed that right). We enjoyed our stay in Glendale the rest of the weekend. We got in some serious high definition football games (Dan), shopping (all of us), some sweet deals (Alicia), temple trip (Dan and Alicia), videos (kids), playing games (Dan and Alicia)going to the Glendale Glitter lights (a glorified Christmas carnival, vendors, dancers, jugglers, singers, games, man-made snow, music, crafts, and all) the main square was all decked out in lights! (Ryland, Dacie, Mom and Gma &Gpa Sorensen). We certainly made a weekend of it-



On a motherhood note-no one ever told me that half of my children's lives would be spent nursing them back to health (maybe you forget like labor pains-thank heavens! ). If I could get them all healthy at the same time it would be grand! Ryland and Dacie started showing early signs of strep-so we called in and got antibiotics. Colton started with a dry cough that kept him up all hours at night. Dacie started severe diarrhea once again (before we got the antibiotics)-after having it for 14 days! I was tired of having a sick baby, and she certainly did not want to be put down or not paid attention too. She screamed most of the weekend and in the car (I hope it is sickness and not a phase). She did not sleep well at all either, and when you are staying at someone else's home we share a room with her, or next to her and cannot just let her cry it out! Dan took a large load this weekend at night wakings, as I felt nauseated the whole weekend pretty much. My immune system has been shot since I have had Dacie. With little sleep, not feeling well, and little patience w/ sick children-it can take the fun right out of FUN! I hate it!!!!!!!!!!!



On a spiritual note ,however,because I felt so sick I had a legitimate excuse to not attend the temple and just sleep (like I felt like doing). But, I knew in my heart that it had been too long since we had last went, and that it needed to be a priority and a sacrifice if needs be. We got ready and went to the temple. The whole trip up there I was not sure this was a good idea, but as soon as we arrived I felt absolutely fine. It felt sooo good to feel well. I was so happy and free of burden. We did sealings, and I was so IN LOVE with my husband. I felt the spirit so strongly. I did not want to leave for fear the feelings/sickness would return. But, it didn't and I had a sick free lunch and shopping after. It was a sweet ending to my weekend. In church on Sunday they quoted the scripture John 14:26 : "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." I knew I had just experienced that attending the temple.

Now we are home and are grateful for our own beds!We are grateful for healthy bodies today, fans so we do not have to hear Dacie cry it out AND we appreciate being fed, trashing the house, and having a place to go-that is big enough to hold our four very calm and very sedated children (and us) ! ha ha ha. Its time for FHE catch you tomorrow!?

*The rest of the pictures are of Grandma,Me, Dacie and Ryland at the Glendale Glitter lights; a shot of the downtown lights themselves; Ryland riding Grandpa Sorensen style; the juggling, nutcracker stilt man giving Ryland a 'high five' when he was walking past and Ryland was almost as tall!

On a fatherhood note, yes, this is the Dad writing. It's great to be back home after a weekend of football, food, football, temple trip, football, shopping, a little basketball, and football. Coming soon: a posting about the late Mr. Skunky (I now have a pellet gun in case the trap doesn't work). Stay tuned for more. Editors note:The same pellet gun also destroyed a turkey decoration-compliments of Daddy and Colton!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving from the....Turkey bowl playin' (Dan is the quarterback)
Pumpkin Mashin' (Dacie at Thanksgiving FHE)
Skunk Livin' (We got him..on film! look closely, we could not get too close!)
House decoratin'
holiday bow wearin'
Pumpkin carvin'
FHE havin'
Eatin' lots BUNCH!!!!
Dan, Alicia, Colton, Sterling, Ryland, & Dacie

S is FOR......

S if for Sterling and his Special day. On Monday (11-19) it was FINALLY his Special day at preschool. He brought in his lunch sack full of letter S items- a Snake, Stickers, and pictures he drew of friends Sahara, Sadie, and Sterling. It was also the Special Thanksgiving feast that mommy and Ryland were able to attend. We made popcorn (oops-we broke away from the S).

S is also for Sterling who gets Slammed with Sickness. Soon as his body recovered from the Stomach flu he came down with a bad case of Strep. After two Sleepless nights he was tested and given antibiotics yesterday(11-20).

S is for Sterling's Sister~ Dacie. She now has 9 teeth (that is 3 new ones) which she managed to get through while she was throwing up. She had her first normal diaper on Saturday BUT went right back to abnormal. We are going on day 10 since she got sick! She is showing off her new outfit from Aunt Kerri and bow made by mommy (while sucking on a battery), and playing with pumpkin seeds for her first time during our Thanksgiving Family Home Evening we had on Monday evening (11-19). She is living on yogurt!


S is for Skunks. Have it old you I hate them? We are working on trapping our second skunk as we entice him closer and closer with apples each evening. We tried to do the full-on trapping the first night and it backfired. We assume he went in the trap to get the apple and triggered the door early. Of course Spooking the Skunk, and so he Sprayed. It was 3:30am, and the only reason I know this is because it woke me up. I thought it was Dan being "stinky" so I told him to roll over or do something (we had a good laugh about that the next morning when I realized what it really was). Dan woke up a short time later to the same Smell and Sprayed our house with Lysol-hoping to damper the poignant smell. The trap is right outside our window! Pee-ewe. I think we may kill this skunk rather than let it free! I hate SKUNKS, whose name should really be SKINKS!

The Sabbath, a Day of REST!

I'm not Gonna Lie-Our Sunday evenings are anything but restful. As a family we try to make Sundays as much a day of rest as possible with children. After not playing outside or with friends, and with no TV/videos all day they get pretty "wired" by evening, so we try to suggest calm sabbath day activities they can do. They usually end up reading some books listening to music. As the holiday season is approaching we have been listening to the Polar Express soundtrack frequently. This last Sunday as they were reading and listening, they asked if they could dance. Who could say "no" to three boys who just want to dance reverently (yeah right!)? They all ended up dancing around the room in circles (our carpet is going to end up with a worn track in it). Dacie even had her first dance, as Colton wanted a girl to dance with and mommy was blogging. The dancing turned to 'creative movement' as pillows went flying through the air, and eventually it ended with someone joining the pillows in the air and allot of crying. At that point the boys all ended up in their beds-where they probably should have started anyways!
Dan and I manage to keep it restful for us-as you can see in this picture, sometimes our discipline technique is to sleep on the couch in the same room and ignore it until there is blood. Dacie is a bit wiser than her bros, she watches the fun under cover! Sundays certainly are a work in progress!

SUPER SATURDAY!

I'm not gonna lie, our Saturdays are SUPER busy. We always try to fit in a little bit of everything (I guess we do not want to be outdone by our Fun Fridays-look at our last post) So I thought I would do a picture documentary of this past Saturday. The morning started at 6:30am with a bottle feeding to Dacie (daddy did it, so no picture-zzz's were more important). Ryland cried out not long after that so mommy woke up and could not go back to sleep. I got ready for the LAST soccer games of the season instead. Daddy and Dacie went with Colton to an elementary school in town, and mommy and Ryland went with Sterling to get donuts (for the end of season party), and then to Sedona to get lost trying to find Sterling's field. The trophies are the boys favorite part of the season-Colton (Earthquakes) and Sterling (Supernovas) showing off their grammy's!
We came back to do some work on the house or yard (Daddy had a head start getting back earlier than us). We raked leaves and worked on the 'forgotten' corner of our yard, trying to turn it from a spider haven to a spider heaven!
The boys decided it was such a nice day out that they would bust out one of Sterling's b-day toys from cousin Kayden, and make dinosaur bones in the sandbox.
Saturday afternoon naps are a blessing! I found Sterling asleep like this the other day on my bed. I guess he is trying to block out the world-can you tell what are his knees?
With four heads of hair constantly needing cutting, we could always do a haircut every Saturday-here is 25 dollars worth of hair ($12 a haircut X's 2(Dan and Colton)+ a tip= $25 at least) I cut it in the garage after naps!

After filling our tummies with some dinner-we decided to do something fun as a family to celebrate Sterling's birthday this past week, since he did not have a friend party (we only do parties on the even years). We went to a local ceramic store called serenity ceramics in town and each picked out and painted one item! Here is the birthday boy with his fairy!
Ryland opted for the monkey in shades of yellow and pink! woohoo!
Colton and his dragon! We were so happy to have discovered this place that is reasonably priced-it is going to be a future date night for sure. The boys are anxiously awaiting pick up next week after their ceramics get baked!
Shhh! The kids are in bed, daddy quickly slips to some game time! and mommy.....

to her crafts. This is the two bows I made for Dacie-a Thanksgiving one and one to match a cute outfit (from Aunt Kerri).

There was only one casualty to a day of fun~My finger! My glue gunning techniques have much to be desired (anyone know how to glue ribbon besides a hot hot glue gun?). Check out the blister (which looks allot whiter and puffy today!). Who said mom's aren't tough? Then is was off to bed, and we slept as hard as we played today! Saturdays are SUPER because we get to do allot of things we normally don't get too, and we have Dan the man at our side!

FUN FRIDAY!

A family "tradition" started when Colton started having Friday 4:30-5:30pm practice. I would take all the kids with me to run around at the playground, while Colton practiced. Dan would get off of work at about 5:15pm, and then the eternal question would come-what should we have for dinner? By the time we would get home and prepare something, or finish up something already started, set the table and do the dishes our Friday nights would be shot. So, Dan started getting $5 pizza from Little Caesars on his way home and would meet us at the field. I always had a blanket handy in the car-so we would throw it out and have a makeshift picnic on Fridays. The boys started getting attached to this little tradition, and when other activities would conflict with the Friday evening picnic-we would hear about it!!! Sterling started calling it Fun Friday where "we could do whatever the fun we wanted!" We have kind of caught onto the idea and tried to do something 'out of the norm' for our fun on Fridays. It has been a few weeks since we did the picnic last (with our conflicting schedules) and it was Colton's last practice-so we had to do something! Since we had pizza for Sterling's b-day on Wednesday (we do draw the line for pizza to only once a week-ha ha) I decided to keep the tradition alive and pack some sandwiches, fruit, drink, and chips in our rarely used picnic basket. The boys were in heaven! It is amazing how something as simple as Friday eating at a park is such a big deal to the kids! Dan decided to make it a night of the fun and took Colton and Sterling to the high school football game later that evening. Our high school is in the state playoffs-and won!!! I am not sure the boys were watching the game or filling their mouths with the candy dad bought them! Go Marauders! However it made for an early Saturday morning soccer games! Here's to FUN FRIDAYS!

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY STERLING!

Our sweet, stoic, friend to everyone, imaginative Sterling's b-day started bright an early, around 3:30am (I think). I had just gotten done 'being sick' in the bathroom and Sterling had just gotten done "being sick" in the other when I emerged to check on the family. I climbed into his sleeping quarters in the bathroom and sang to him. Sterling and I had been sick from about 4pm that afternoon- and that 4am trip was our last trips to the bathroom (what a present for both of us!).

Every time Sterling would throw up he would ask if we would still have his birthday. We did-in modified form. Here were the pro's and con's of the day:
1. Sterling must be royalty because he got daddy home on his birthday (we cannot even manage to get him home on his own birthday, let alone any one else's). Granted it was the state of affairs Dan came home to the afternoon previous. I was puking in a garbage can, trying to change Dacie's diaper (she still has diahrrea and a SUPER sore bummy rash) since she had just leaked everywhere and Sterling was up in his bed puking, and I was sobbing. Dan called work and told them he would not be in the next day. It was like a holiday or something!
2. We cancelled all other obligations and got to stay in pj's as a cute, cozy family (as cute and cozy as sick gets!) all day. FYI-Sterling still gets his special day at preschool on Monday (we were able to switch).
3. He was well enough in the evening to enjoy ONLY two pieces of pizza (as opposed to the 6 he could down) and some cake, as well as some play time with his new"kitchen" set (mom got at Walmart on some serious clearance), and fake food his siblings gave him!
4. He got his own bedroom for a day (the bathroom) which will probably be the only time in his life! ha ha
He is our little optimist and has such a zest for life (you would have thought we gave him the world by putting up crepe paper and balloons while he was napping). We are glad he is part of our family. We hope you enjoy the pictures of our little soccer boy (#7) he can run, but he can't kick (we are not complaining, considering his history of club foot-we are blessed he can run). Happy birthday little man!

The SuperNova's Fall 2007 (missing 2 players)



Sterling's own bedroom for the day!


Notice Sterling's little blue birthday boy badge he is wearing on his shirt? (that is when he felt his birthday became 'official' when we pinned it on him!). He is our little imaginative boy and LOVES to make believe and play pretend! Can't wait until he can really cook for us!

It's FINISHED!

The Primary program that is! As some of you know there are MANY MANY hours put into the program the children in church put on once a year. Colton with his 2 speaking parts and Sterling with his 1-memorized them and did great! I thought I was in the clear for awhile from doing them as I was released as the president of that auxillary-BUT its not so, I was then put back in as the primary chorister in the summer (so beyond my comfort zone) and I was back in the saddle getting ready for it again. It has then become my responsibility to make a children's choir out of the 40 kids who attend primary weekly. I have to admit-music does touch your heart quickly, and ecspecially children's voices. You always worry about how it will turn out-but then it DOES, and as someone wrote on a comment today after the program, " I heard angels sing today!" It is true, they did great! My heart was full and dry eyes were hard to come by in the last song.

I have to admit that I almost "lost it" as Colton in his best sunday suit stood "dancing" wildly in the front row, as he had to go to the bathroom so bad (that is the LAST thing he EVER wants to do-it is such an inconvenience to him) . So I was standing and conducting all the while trying to motion to him to go to the bathroom NOW! ha ha. We clebrated our success by visiting our sick songs in the hospital (all the songs we sang for the program were admitted to the primary children's hospital 4 weeks ago when they had a panic attack because they heard the program was coming soon-the children had to sing and get each song evaluated by the nurse before being released). We brought balloons (popping them to see what song we were going to sing to them) ending with the happy news that they were all released from the hospital today! Yeah! HOWEVER, the children were all sent home with a prescrition of singing pills for when they felt their songs were starting to get "sick" again! Thus the pictures of our pill popping adventure-the boys and I had fun filling and drawing on all the donated medicine bottles! It was a successful day.

BUT with the good comes the bad, and our sweet Dacie caught the flu that has been going around (I thought we were in the clear, since we do not get out much). She threw up right as we were leaving and Dan missed the majority of the program, he snuck in for the last song and slipped right back out. She has been throwing up and having diarrhea since then. She is not sleeping well.We have been able to get with other friends to get a recipe to make home remedy pedialyte http://rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade.htm ( which she has kept down for a bit! cross our fingers- 11/12 she did! and that is what she has been living on today) It is suppose to make its rounds through our entire family-so all the boys went to bed with buckets tonight (and a practice drill). Aaah-don't know how much I will be writing this week. I HATE the flu BUT love the primary kids!

I a strong guy!

Ryland (2.5) is our bottomless pit and has a way with words, that have you in stitches. The other day began and ended like any other with Ryland in my ear-telling me over and over, "I'm so hungry" " I am so so hungry mom" "Mom-you hear me? I'm hungry". I told him that he is always hungry, to which he replied, "No I not-I not a tall guy"(which if you have met ANY of our boys is absolutely NOT true). So he proceeded to eat his breakfast, which consisted of a banana, 1/2 and apple, complete large yogurt, imitation crab meat, wheat thins, and I am sure i missed a pretzel or two in there (can you imagine what our food bill has become and what it WILL become w/ 3 great eaters!!!!). AFTER he had finally had a fill (for a little while at least) he comes to me and says (while rubbing his tummy) "Now I bigger and strong. I a strong guy." I was in stitches. While we are on the subject of Ryland humor, that same day while I was working out on my elliptical he comes up to me and says," you so dizzy?" to which I replied that I was not. I was curious as to why he asked that and the only thing I could come up with was that 1. I was sweating and breathing hard and he did not know how to describe that or 2. AWHILE ago my equilibrium was off with sinuses and I was doing pilates on a ball, and got SUPER dizzy and laid on the floor for a bit. Maybe he associates exercise with dizziness now. Whatever it may be, even if he is on my last nerve that day-he manages to make me smile!