My Last "Silent Night"

Tonight as I nursed Brandon to sleep, I sang him "Silent Night".  I love singing lullabies to my kids, and I always sing "Silent Night" during the holiday season.  I realized that today was the last Christmas I will ever have a baby to sing "Silent Night" to.  And even though all day I kept thinking about how this is our last Christmas with a baby, and won't things be so much easier when Brandon is older... it still make me get a lump in my throat.  It is bittersweet to think that the baby chapter in my life is coming to a close.  

Even though it is our last Christmas with a baby, we also had some firsts:

1.  This was our first Christmas that no one was sick.  A true Christmas miracle!

2.  Even though there were moments of crying, I'm pretty sure it was our first Christmas when no one spent the entire day crying.  I swear, Magsy spent her first 3 Christmases crying, and it was super annoying.  

3.  First Christmas season since getting married that I won't travel at all.  And since my family came to see me, I didn't miss out on anything!

4.  First Christmas in our new home.  Epic.  

5.  First Christmas in about 20 years that I wasn't asked to sing at ANYTHING.  My ego is a little crushed.  But the busy-mom side of me quite enjoyed sitting back and relaxing.  

6.  First year neighbors brought treats over.  We've always had our close friends bring things over, but we received SO much this year, I was totally blow away by how many neighbors reached out to us.

It has been such a great holiday season.  I am looking forward to spending the rest of the holiday on my rear, but the weeks leading up to today have been jam packed with awesomeness.

A ballet recital at the Festival of Trees.

A baby boy in a super cute Christmas sweater.

Piano Recital.

Decorating our new house!  I am obsessed with decorating for Christmas.

A white Christmas!  It just isn't the same without snow, so I have been beyond thrilled the amount of snow we've had.  

A school program.

Delivering Christmas presents to needy families, dressed up as Christmas angels.

A fun Christmas party with Todd's coworkers.

More snow!

TONS of presents!

I ordered personalized cutting boards for my family this year.  They turned out so cute!

I got my first tablet, and am wondering how I ever lived without it.

Sledding in our neighborhood park.  Being able to walk to our sledding destination made sledding about a hundred times more manageable.  I freaking love our new neighborhood!

I sooooo loved hosting my side of the family for some pre-Christmas celebrating!  Ty's heart broke when he found out they wouldn't be here on Christmas Day.

Another Christmas miracle, a decent family photo!

Brandon continued to rock his Christmas sweater all season.  

Ty's smile and goofy side prevailed.

We acted out the nativity.

All the kids and dads got blow guns.  I foresee lots of fun in the future.  

We had Christmas mornings to ourselves, which was wonderful and relaxing.  

The kids and I made a blanket for Todd.  They loved helping!  

I got something sparkly....

If your house has to be messy, at least it's Christmas messy!

Bigelow Grandkids.

Brandon wearing his uncle Brian's shoes.  Too cute.  

What an amazing Christmas we've had!  

First Day of Pre-K!

I've been waiting three longs months for this afternoon.  After entertaining 4 kids for all of the summer, I have anxiously awaited the day that the 3 big kids would be at school and the baby would nap.  Ah....  Seems like years since I have had some quiet time to myself.  And what do I do with it?  I blog about my kids, lol!

You can't see the paper very well in the picture, but it says "When I grow up, I want to be a DAD!"

Every time we ask Ty what he wants to be, he says "dad".  I have tried explaining to him that he will be a dad, but also have to choose a profession.  He doesn't get it.  :)  So for now, he's going for dad.

I took the cutest video of him before he left, but my blog won't upload it.  So here is the link if you'd like to view it on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151741174197621&set=vb.519562620&type=2&theater

It's hard to believe Ty will be starting kindergarten next year.  He is really growing up and changing so much lately.  He always asks us how our days were, and is starting to draw and write letters.  He got so confident swimming this summer, and is independent enough to get his own cereal in the morning now!  (Sounds like a small accomplishment, but I LOVE when my kids can get their own breakfast!  

Ty also has alot of natural, athletic ability.  He has always loved to jump and climb, and sticks every landing.  He taught himself how to do flips on the tramp and on the swing set.  He amazes us!

Whatever this kid decides to be when he grows up, I know it will be awesome.  He is so full of life and love!  We love you, buddy!

10 Weeks!

No, I'm not pregnant.  But thanks for assuming.  :)  

It has been ten weeks since we moved into this dream house of our's!

We have been so so busy!  The main thing we have done is set up, which has been really fun!

Todd's first, personal order of business (after happily setting up the entire rest of the house for me first) was hanging his guitars up.  He may have even had to buy one more to finish things off.  :)  His office is looking so awesome, and it's wonderful to have an office that doesn't double as a storage room, lol!

This is our bedroom.  We inherited a KING size bed, and it is heaven!  I love having some space in our room.  I also love having our room on the main floor of the house ( and all the kids upstairs so I can sleep through their noise!)

This is part of our bathroom.  It's enormous.  I love it.  It pretty much doubles as a play room while I get ready.  I can't say enough how wonderful it is to have space!  

Aside from setting up the new house, we have actually done alot of other things too!  

I have somehow managed to attend 4 births.

We have hosted lots of play dates and get togethers.

We have gone on a lot of walks and bike-rides, and are loving the new neighborhood.

We have had two minor floods in the new house, even though we never had one in the old house!

We have hired quite a few contractors/plumbers/workers to do things for us, and never had one of them get it right the first time.  Sigh.

We have gotten alot of help from family and friends.  Thank you!

We have purchased a new dishwasher, new tv, tv mount, and guitar.

We have lost alot of money on our rental.  Boo.  

We are out of money, lol!

We have missed our old ward.  Tons.

I have already subbed in primary more in the new ward than I did in 7 years in the old ward!

We have gone to Utah twice.

We have watched Brandon turn one.  Learn to walk, climb, and say a few words and do a few tricks. 

 His best trick since moving here, sleeping through the night!

We had our best MRI with Bronwyn ever.  She did it without sedation and was a total rockstar.  We also don't have to do another one for TWO years!

We haven't started teaching Ty ukele, but we did pose this shot and think it's about the cutest thing ever.  Plus, you get to see my white kitchen.  :)

Brandon still loves his thumb, but I think he still loves me more.

This is us entertaining ourselves by Todd placing him in the windowsill of the office.  

The messy joys of a baby insisting on feeding himself....

We love our big backyard.  And are in awe of our neighbor's sunflowers!

It has been quite the ten weeks!  But overall, we are pretty much settled and enjoying our new neighborhood. The girls are making lots of friends, and so far I haven't seen a single person smoking anywhere nearby.  Heaven on earth.

Cool Moves

Brandon is entering the world of toddlerhood, and is oh so cute!  He is starting to take a few steps by himself (which instantly throws his older siblings into ecstatic cheering) and he is dancing too.  He melts my heart!  Here are some short clips of his awesomeness.

Well, the best dancing video of Brandon won't upload.  So instead, I give you a cute one of Ruby dancing when she was here in June.  :)

 g

Leaving, On a Jet Plane...

I'm not going anywhere, except maybe to crazy town... But that's a whole other post.  :)

I miss my sister.  She moved to South Carolina.  And even though Texas was a million miles away, and this move doesn't really change anything about how often we will see eachother, it just feels worse.  I haven't seen her house.  That really bothers me.  I've cried a little about it.

So I've been feeling emotional, and it's the time of the month that I'm supposedly supposed to be able to control my emotions.  Sigh.  Then my 8 year old asks me to sit and look through her memory box with her tonight.  She has never really shown any interest in it.  It's possible she didn't know it existed until we moved.
So I sat on her floor, and began to unravel.

The first thing I grabbed was a small stack of pictures with her and my dad together.  (I know, can't you just feel your throat tighten up just thinking about it.)  You've heard it all before.  She was my first child, the only grandchild to meet my dad, named after my dad, born at the perfect time to heal our family...  She handled the tears rather well, and just said something like "You're feeling pretty sensitive, huh?"

Then came the old drawings, her blessing dress, the bracelet from the hospital when she was born, her first report card, the hat my mom knitted her, the blanket Todd's mom crocheted when she hoped Todd was a girl, her first bracelet, her Relay for Life certificate.  These all brought an onslaught of memories and accompanying emotions.  But then I found this.  (To the tune of 'Leaving on a Jet plane'.)


I'm growing big, I'm about to come out
Get ready mom, I'm gonna scream and shout
I'm going to wake you up all through the night  (this turned out to be way too true)

The dawn is breaking, it's early morn
My diaper's so full, it's very well worn
Already I'm so hungry I will cry

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you're my mommy
Hold me close, and never let me go
Cause I"m Marie and Todd's baby
Don't know how I got so lucky
Our baby, we love you so.

She'll be a genius, a music prodigy
And with her parents, she'll be a hottie
Bronwyn, we already love you so

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you're my mommy
Hold me close, and never let me go
Cause I"m Marie and Todd's baby
Don't know how I got so lucky
Our baby, we love you so.

Hilary and my mom sang this to me at my baby shower.  I had forgotten all about it, but remembered it instantly once I saw the paper.  So glad I saved it.  We sang the original song every time my dad left town, which was somewhat regular when I was growing up.  I remember the sadness in my mom's eyes every time he left.  We would wait at the airport until we saw his plane take off.  Then we'd sing.

This little parody means so much to me.  I feel so much love coming from it.  How on earth is my baby going to be 9 this year?  And why does my sister live so dang far away?  And why, oh why can't I get a grip?!

Much Needed Update

 

I have been getting major blog anxiety because I am getting sooooo behind.  Life is busy.  Life is good.  So good, I don't want to forget it!  

I finally broke down and signed the kids up for soccer.  It was 6 weeks, and all 3 kids played at the same time.  Ty didn't play at all, which reaffirmed my decision to wait until the girls were older.  But the girls really enjoyed it and did really well.  I loved seeing their confidence bloom, and see them try so hard.  I'm really glad we did it, but I definitely won't put Ty back in for a year or two.  

At least he liked the cupcake.  : )

 

We moved!  (More on that later)  I was bound and determined to be the first one to use our new soaker tub, but alas, the girls beat me to it.

 

Hilary came to visit, and brought the stomach flu.  Thankfully, my mom was also here to take care of us!  And I never thought I would be glad for one of my kids to be sick, but it was sooo much easier to take care of Brandon because he was sick too, and just stayed in bed with me for a couple days.  

He is so cute here, I could cry.

 

We tried to get a good cousin pic... This one is the best.  But seriously... Why can't my oldest child pull through when everyone else does?!

 

Also tried to get a good shot with my mom.  

Fail.

 

At least 3 adults can manage to smile simultaneously!

 

We are LOVING our new house!  Most rooms are still works in progress, but here are a couple before and after shots.  We had the fireplace mantle and the kitchen cabinets painted.  I LOVE how it all looks.  

 

 

I have always wanted a white kitchen.  Keep dreaming folks, dreams come true!

 

This little guy decided to turn ONE!  He is sooo cute.  He finally has two little, bottom teeth.  He loves to dance and gives the wetest kisses ever.  

 

One of our worst attempts at a family picture, EVER!  So disappointing.  And in case you are wondering, skeleton shirts are still in style in June.

 

We succeeded at creating another child with a massive sweet tooth.  Brandon loved his birthday cake!  

 

My mom and Lynn treated our family to a trip to Lagoon.  It was sweltering hot, but the lines were super short!  We had a great day!

 

First taste of cotton candy.  

 

We totally wore Ty out!

 

My kids loved playing all the carnival games, and came home with quite a bag of loot!

 

Lynn and my bonus nephew, Jonas.  

 

The best part was how much the kids enjoyed the rides.

 

WHEW!

Father's Day!

Several week ago, my sister and I were discussing how being married to a loyal man, who loves you and your kids, and will raise them in the gospel, is really all you can ask for in this life.  Todd has done this, and so much more.  He gives his all to our marriage, to our kids, and to his career.  He works so hard for us, and is the best dad ever.  He is clobbered the second he walks in the door after work.  The kids can't wait til he is home, because that's when the fun starts!  He is always willing to get down and play, and can sense when someone needs a little more one on one time from him.  

I always knew that Todd would be a great dad, and it is so fun watching him be a dad.  I am filled with so much joy when I see his face light up when he holds a baby, or when I watch him walk into church holding hands with everyone, or when I watch him play catch at the park.  He is loving, kind, funny, energetic, patient, and creative in his parenting.  Our kids couldn't be blessed with a better dad.