The Sheer Shock and Other Updates

Okay, is anyone else shocking themselves like a mad person every time they touch anything (and anyone) in this wintry weather? Not only am I am hearing from the kids, at least five times a day, "Hey, you shocked me!" but I have also taken to turning on light switches with my elbow so as to protect my fried finger tips from any further damage. (Shuffling around in slippers while I am at home does not appear to be helping the situation, but how can I resist when they keep my feet so toastie warm?) (As opposed to the unwelcome warmth of electric shock any time that I walk more than two feet and then touch any surface, of course.)

In other news, Craig has been sick on and off since right after Thanksgiving. My poor guy sleeps pretty well at night with the help of the humidifier and then wakes up and sounds like he is coughing up a lung or two all day long. He is taking it like a trouper, though, and I am realizing just how much he helps me since he hasn't been feeling well enough to do all the normal Daddy stuff. (He has also been freezing cold, which is slightly amusing, since I am always the one that's cold, and he's always the one that says things like, "Okay, you have to stop touching me...your hand is too hot.") Hope he gets back to normal soon. It's hard when your baby is sick. :)

I am craving Top Ramen like a mad woman lately. I must attribute it to the fact that I am having a boy...with all the girls all I ever wanted was chocolate chip cookies and Skittles. The nice thing is, all I have to do is eat a package or two, and I've already met my sodium requirements for the week! Other things are weird/different as well, like the fact that my normally raging heartburn isn't actually that bad, probably because (I'm pretty sure) I am carrying a lot lower this time. Also, I'm as hungry as a bear. Usually by this time in a pregnancy I have almost no appetite, due to the fact that my stomach is squished to the size of an empty grape peel. But such has not been the case, and the crumbs of something delicious frequently dot the front of my shirt. I've heard that boys are very hungry little creatures, and this seems to be confirming it.

Looks like it's time for my pre-dinner smackerel. I'll catch up with you more as soon as I can!

Graduating from Babyhood

It's official! She is a big girl. (Despite the still peeing in a diaper part. But all in good time, friends.)

Lexa Boom has been doing just swimmingly in her new big girl bed. (The fact that she could--and did--get out of her crib any time that she wanted made this transition a relatively simple one. Except for the last two Sunday nights, she has been great about both going to bed at night and taking naps. Sunday nights are another story, but I blame late church and very late naps for that.)

I still think of her as a baby most of the time, but a real baby around here should cure me of that pretty soon.

Proof positive: lounging on her new 

cupcake bedding from Grandma Linda

Oh, and did I mention that she got her driver's license?

She really is growing up before my eyes.

And speaking of things that are cute, 

is this not the cutest little chair you've ever seen?

A little big chair for my little big girl.

(At least one of those things won't be getting 

any bigger and going to college some day...)

Thought You Should Know...

Family Pics (For the First Time In...Um...A Lot of Years)

Did you get a Christmas card from us? I hope the answer is yes. If not, don't worry, it just means that I haven't remembered to ask you for your address yet. And as long as you don't mind getting something that says "Merry Christmas" in January, (or...er...February) then we are in excellent shape. And it's not because I don't love you. I promise. It's because I was planning on finishing my last class on December 9th, which was sadly extended to February some time. (As if the month of December isn't crazy enough already. I mean, have mercy already!)

Determined as I was to do homemade cards with a hand-written message this year, like I usually try (really really!) hard to do, I figured a photo card was better than nothing. (And nothing is precisely what it would have been without dear old Walgreens.) Pretty much, I figured it was better to be realistic and actually send something out, than to be optimistic and not.

Which brings me to the meat of it:

We got family pictures done! For the first time since Alexa was born! Good intentions, friends, good intentions. My road to you-know-where should be good and paved by now.

Thanks to a sweet lady in our ward who offered to do our pictures for free, (and at the last minute!) I can finally say that we have an updated family pic. I was fine with doing just the girls, but my friend convinced me to do all of us, for which I am grateful. Because, even though I'd rather see the kiddos than myself, these are, as my friend Holly says, "going to be the good pictures some day."

Here are some of my faves:

(see the flash of pink behind the tree? 

That would be Alexa. Running like a maniac.)

Little Van ended up doing something weird in all of these 

walking shots, but this as probably the best one.

 I especially like the way Alexa is marching.

I love these ones, too, only because this is more like what we actually look like:

Alexa's look says "get me outta here!" while my 

mischievous Savanna says, "you are trapped forever, 

because that's what we do to little sisters around here!"

Total lack of cooperation. 

(Just like in half of our family moments.)

Julia trying to be the boss.

Savanna hanging on for dear life. 

(Like in the other half.)

I have so much more to tell...don't give up on me yet! I promise I haven't abandoned blogging for FB. I'd rather eat a pencil.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures.

Mourning with Those who Mourn and Keeping Things in Perspective

Last week's tragic, tragic shooting in Connecticut has had me, one: bawling my eyes out, and two: thinking about a lot of things. This sounds terrible, but all other horrific events of this nature I have been able to briefly consider and then quickly put on the shelf in my mind labeled "not to be thought about."

This one, though, I simply cannot seem to set aside in my mind.

This one is different. So different. The sheer magnitude of the damage is on the incomprehensibly large side, but that's not even what it is.

It's the children.

As if victims in these types of situations aren't helpless and innocent enough, the majority of these victims were the most helpless, and the most innocent that they could be. They were mere babies in the scheme of things. And, having babies of my own, this tragedy has hit home in a way that no other has before. My heart aches with the thought of the  inescapable void that the stolen lives of these children has left in the lives of their families. It rejoices with the thought of those adults who did everything in their power and laid down their lives to protect them. And my heart greedily, selfishly tries to lock my own children in and keep them safe in a world where we have less and less control over what happens to them.

So, just as I am sure you are, as Christmas approaches and I think of the tiny inconveniences of my own life compared with the abject grief in the lives of others, I am:

hugging my children a little tighter
listening to them a little better
kissing them a little (okay, a lot) more
appreciating their sheer vivacity and presence in a way that I never have before.

And I am remembering, and crying with, and praying for those who cannot.