Happy Thanksgiving!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

(scroll down, pause my music...and ENJOY!!!!!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuwid8_O8dk&feature=player_embedded

The world is a GOOD place!!!!

51/2 Month Check- Up and its a THUMBS UP!

(this is the ultrasound from last month where we found out the sex)

I just got back from my OB/GYN today and ALL IS WELL!

No infections (for once)

Blood Pressure- good

Babies heartbeat- good

My tummy weighing in the right size-good

My triple screening for neuro defects and down syndrome came back- negative

Scales- BAD!

(I have been able to stay about a 4 pound weight gain this entire pregnancy...but now it is 10- AAAH!!! that is even with the stomach flu in ONE month)

Since this could very possibly be my last pregnancy I was determined to take cute belly pictures every month for records sake...however, my belly is not cooperating this pregnancy.

The baby is really carrying high this time, my upper stomach is ball round... but that leaves the left over belly from the boys with nothing to fill down below (you get my drift..sorry guys) so tummy pictures are not quite there yet. I KNOW it will all fill in...but I will wait for that before publishing!
So for now you get little Miss Dacie...who ran in and said...."look mommy! I have a baby in my tummy!"

Here is the official document from the ultrasound tech telling us what sex we were having (it was sealed in an envelope!)

Before Dacie even found out we were having a boy I kept asking her, "don't you want a sister to play with?" and she kept responding "no, a brother." I figured she was inspired or knew she would not have to share her toys...or that she would get her own room as a teenager...or that she solidified princess status! ha ha ha

Soccer Season is OVER!

It's FinISHED!!

Ryland's first soccer season is over
We brought our last snacks (yogurt) and said our final farewells to our coach and team
NOT before we had some soccer cupcakes and they received their first beloved trophies!!!!
Go RYLAND!

Thanksgiving Playgroup!!!

MOM, I NEED new shoes!!!

SO the other day Sterling comes to me and says, "Mom it is time for me to have new shoes." Thinking that he was growing tired of his 'favorite' pair (really) and just wanted a new style I told him, "the ones you have work just fine Sterling." To which he replied, "BUT MOM, they have a hole all the way through the bottom." Thinking to myself, that as a really good mom I think I would have noticed that I said, "no they don't I have not seen the hole...bring them to me." This is what he brought to me... pictures below. Needless to say we went out the next day and got him some (since it was raining).

I am an old woman who lived in a shoe who had so many children she did not know what to do!

HaPPy 7th BiRthDaY StErLiNg

Saturday November 14th- was Sterling's 7th birthday

He has been counting down FOREVER

Since it was an "odd" year birthday we did not have a friend party...

so he got 'stuck' with his fam.

~

The day before we made the candy-filled cornicopias for his class and pulled him out of school for lunch, for a McD's happy meal!

(no...that is not a bloody nose or a booger- he has a dry nose and scab to show for it-sick-o)

So we took a trip over to the casino and went bowling after Ryland's soccer game. The casino was so good to him, they even brought him his own special birthday balloon!

Dacie..the roller

Colton the rockstar (2nd place to daddy)

Sterling the Birthday bowling boy!

Ryland the thrower

Daddy the spare (he won!)

Funny birthday faces!!!

~THE FIESTA~

Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen took a trip up for the evening- they brought a "party in a bag"

Grandma brought her infamous taco soup and fiesta dinner, Mexican table clothe, Spanish music, sombrero's, and a pinata (as well as THE PRESENT~ an entire post forthcoming on that one!)

oooh! We should have them over to dinner more often!!

Sorry girls he's taken- ha ha ha

Birthday LOVE from his favorite girl

THE PINATA!

metal bat in the house...we know risky!!

real risky

Dad taking care of the "unbreakable" pinata

loading up on the 'loot' ~ peanut m&m's, granola bars, and broken gingerbread cookies

Uncle John and Cara (and the last missing piece to Sterling's birthday present) joined us for cake and ice cream as well as the pinata

The cake was so much prettier BEFORE I used the left over lame icing from the cupcakes I made for the school fair!!! aargh!

Oh wells-it all looks the same in our tummy's!!!

we ended the evening watching "up" in pj's, blankets and pillows

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STERLING MAN!

VETERANS DAY

VETERANS DAY + No School + 4.5 hours with pizza at the PARK (w/ friends) + a warm Bath+ No nap

= Early ZZZZZ's

The LAST of the Harvest...

Besides the picking of the pumpkins, we collected the last of our garden as it has slowly turned brown and froze in the evenings.

These products were the main producing "veggies of our labors" this year from our garden.

We have enough really HOT peppers to make some serious kickin' salsa...but no one really likes that. So we add a tip here and there to some chili and bar-b-q them for a kick at dinner.

In fact, one night, Dan paid each of the kids to eat the seeds, a quarter a seed. We got some serious tears that evening...the thing is, even though the sibling did it right before them they would still try it...I guess our kids are desperate for money!!

So anyone have any use for some SERIOUS hot peppers?

or cool recipes?

Now the cherry tomatoes.... I could plant a whole garden of them and fill my mouth with those "bursts of joy"!!!You could find me all summer long picking em' straight off the vine and filling my mouth-they were soo much better then the store boughten kind. The sad thing is you can go through allot in a little time.

This little bowl of them took allot of my willpower to leave around for about 2 days! Dan was a little possessive of them (rightfully so as he did a majority of the gardening this year)
We will miss you garden...what

happened to your friends the squash and zucchini, they let us down?

AND...

DACIE AND I GOT THE STOMACH BUG.

Mine lasted over 24 hours.

That will show me...who am I to say what is enough!

*but we are all on 'the mends' again (fingers crossed)

ENOUGH!!! already...

OK so I have learned the through the school of hard knocks that sickness is a BIG part of childhood, and "nursing" those sick children is an ABSOLUTE part of motherhood. I have resigned myself to the fact, accepted it, and have made the best of it. We have our little systems down (a saved small mattress in the bathroom when the puking starts, and an on-hand bucket), I always keep a stock of certain necessities on hand. I feed my children vitamins, and probiotics. I look for the "natural" methods. But I also keep them vaccinated and well checked with the doctor.I sterilize water bottles, towels, bedding, toys and always have a can of Lysol on hand. So I feel like I do my part to keep "what comes what may", at bay.

BUT after last night I am throwing my arms in the air " I SURRENDER!!!"

Colton came down with the swine flu about 2.5 weeks ago. He just went back to school full-time at the beginning of this week. Not only does the virus last long BUT it is the "other" things that come with it that take longer to fix. He ended up with a double ear infection, losing about 9 pounds and losing all motivation to do ANYTHING.

I had to spoon feed him most meals and made sure he drank. I stripped his sheets, bathed him, changed his pj's...and so on. I have not missed a medication, given him medications he did not want, and blown noses and cleaned up coughing vomit more than I would like to mention.The problem is there are 3 other kids to tend while he is sick!

Unfortunately, my sister probably picked up the virus from being around him and she has absolutely been "out of commission" for over 2 weeks, and still sounds AWFUL~ She will probably be out the rest of this month. I can't be around her at all. I feel so bad....

She has been my 'life-line" in regards to childcare this last year. Dans parents are close but both work full-time and are going to help with a new niece being born in a week or 2 (they cannot risk getting sick) So with out family-any form of reprieve I use to receive with my kids has been gone. I have had one of them attached at my hip AT ALL TIMES- shopping, going to the bathroom, meals, helping at the school,most drs. appointments, etc. and I can't ask anyone else to babysit because I cannot spread the germs. I have been on house arrest with grouchy kiddos.

On top of Coltons sickness, Sterling came down with the stomach bug, it was swift but violent. He has since contracted another form of it at the other end...as well as Dacie.

I came down with a milder form of the swine flu this last week and have just felt "off" with a pounding headache. I think my vaccine may have kicked in...BUT there is NOT MUCH I can take for reprieve in regards to pain. Dan has really done THE BEST he can with helping when he is home. He cannot take off too much work b/c he pays our mortgage and after a certain amount of sick days he is on leave without pay. We HAVE to make it work.

I felt better yesterday then I have in a LONG time. So I went to town bleaching the entire house!!! It needed some good cleaning. In fact, I bleached the skin off my knuckles doing it!
So lo and behold, Dan comes home from work with 103.5 degree fever last night!!! He has been taking Advil (a very RARE thing I can get him to do) the last 2 days fighting it off. It arrived...he was 'on fire' all night and the medicine did not lower anything. He had the chills and was awake most of the evening. His throat is on fire too. So after a LONG day of bleaching I did not get the rest I thought I might.

TO Top it ALL off- Ryland woke up around 10:30pm and started throwing up the rest of the evening. Between Dan's chills, fever, medicine, snoring, and running into the other bathroom to clean up vomit and diarrhea I am tired and SUPER bummed....

I realize this will all go away and it will be fine.Dan is at the urgent care as we speak hopefully to get some tama flu and antibiotics...so we can lessen the time of his sickness. I am sure being pregnant has not helped the matter. Scrubbing the floors on my hands and knees is already starting to get tiresome. I am not surprised my baby boy is cramping today and I feel little out of sorts. My heart aches for those who are sick and I want to help them.... but some moments I feel absolutely alone, tired and SICK of being SICK! It is hard enough running a household when you are feeling well and everyone else is, but when you and everyone else is not....it stinks!!!I don;t understand why you can almost have a week of "on the mends" children, only to POP up with more. I guess I feel hopeless at times too because I realize there is a few strands of things going around here, and there is ALLOT more of us to work through.

I have a supportive husband ( I would never have married any different), but he works ALLOT and is gone allot...so a large portion of all the family and household responsibility is mine- it can be a large burden to carry at times.

So now that I have my lonely pity party. I will return to those who need me most.My list is long and life continues on with obligations I have to meet...sometimes I wish I had a fairy godmother who could touch those things that NEVER will get done (like fixing our back deck, making room for a 5th child in a too small house....)

I have had ENOUGH!

GHOULS NiGHt OuT!!!

As many of you are well aware...I much anticipate my once-a-month girls pokeno game nights!!!

This month we had it the week before Halloween, and the theme was "Ghouls Night Out!"

We were suppose to come dressed in a costume, being prego and all...not much fits nicely anymore-so I threw on some horns, a red boa, high heels, BIG hair and some sparkly make-up and called it good!

Little did I know My BUDDY Becky Kerr had the SAME idea

Great minds think alike!!!

I certainly was NOT disappointed in the least~ it was one of the yummiest dinners I have had in awhile. Full tummy, lotsa' laughs and even a COOL BUG cake...life does not get much better than this!!!
***Oh don't you fret...we also had our infamous annual couples Halloween Party~ (pictures will be coming soon as I can steal them from my sis!)

THE sorensen family COSTUMES!!!!

Dan's work got together and did a whole Alice in Wonderland casting call for their costumes this year...

any guesses what Dan was?

THE BLUE CATERPILLAR !! (see below)

I think he chose this so he could act like he was "on drugs" all day

Colton following in his fathers footsteps...

and dressing like his dad's "signature" SKELETONSterling as JENGO FETT

Ryland the ROMAN SOLDIER

.... a crazy one at that!

Dacie as DOROTHY from the Wizard of Oz

... you can even catch a glimpse of the wicked witch of the west in the background!

I wish I could say I sewed this costume myself...but I have to thank my talented mission comp-Sister Harvey (thanks for sending it over the miles and miles to let us borrow!)

Mom as ME the classroom parent party helper!!!

The trick-or-treaters HARD at work!

~

Here are some THINGS I BET YOU DID NOT KNOW!:

Dorothy eats hot dogs and home-made root beer around a bonfire for dinner!

A skeleton, jengo fett, roman soldier, Mrs. Santa Claus (bottom left), and snow white all ride on hayrides together- "won't you ride my hayride tonight!"

Jengo Fett wears camo sneakers and white socks!

Skeletons can have raging fevers and double ear infections

Roman soldiers alternative mode of transportation was NOT a chariot and horse...it was hot wheels tri-cycles

~

OUR OTHER FESTIVE CLOTHES

Opting out of his high accessory costume for preschool- Ryland chose to be a crazy haired skeleton boy for his party!

Ryland and Dacie dressed up to watch the Halloween costume parade at the elementary school Friday afternoon

AND to go help with Sterling's classroom party painting faces!

Dacie hanging with Sterling and his buds at school!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN to all and to all a good night!!!!