Decorating the Christmas Tree and Visiting Teen-Santa

Here are some pictures of the kids decorating our Christmas tree. We actually did this the Monday before Thanksgiving since I knew December would be a busy month. I love our Christmas tree! Not because it is anything fancy but because I can tell you a story behind every ornament. I especially love the beaded bells and angels and the hand-stitched ornaments that both my grandma and Chris' grandma made for us. I love pulling them out every Christmas and reminiscing about them.



This year we thought we would try visiting the Santa in Cedar City. We have always gone to Las Vegas or St. George in the past but thought we would stay close to home this time. I think we are going back to the city....

We were standing in line for a while before Austin finally got his first glimpse of Santa; he turned to me and said "Is Santa a teenager?" I looked at the Santa and thought, "Now that has got to be the worst Santa ever." Luckily, we have already discussed with our children that the Santa's that we see are only Santa's helpers because the real Santa is busy getting ready to bring toys to all the little children and he couldn't possibly be at all the malls AND still get ready for Christmas. But REALLY, wasn't there any "helper" over the age of 25 in ALL of Cedar City that could have played Santa!

The Geek Squad!

Before I had children I wanted all boys so that I would have a little construction crew. Fortunately, you don't always get what you want. I got something better.... The Geek Squad!

Austin dressed up Allison as a nerd and thought it was so hilarious. He begged me to take a picture of her.

They are still pretty cute...even dressed as nerds!

Kaley's Blessing

My newest niece was blessed over Thanksgiving weekend and we got some cute pictures with her and all the rest of the nieces and nephews on my side of the family. (Hey Stacy, if you want more pics let me know and I will send you some. )

Katey, Michael and Kaley

Abigail holding Asher...or should I say, Abigail torturing Asher :)

Asher - 4 Months

With the holidays, lots of sickness and trying to fit in working out, blogging has been neglected. I have just a sec to post some cute pics of Asher at four months. He is the most smiley baby. Everyone who sees him falls in love with him instantly because he smiles at them and they immediately think that he loves them and only smiles for them. It is the funniest thing to watch waitresses, people at the store, and strangers virtually anywhere we go think that he smiles only for them and fall completely in love with him. I don't remember this happening as much with my other children. Asher is rolling over now and also learning to laugh.

Sleeping

Playing with toys

Stretching

Who Would have Thought?

Who would have thought that by working out you could give yourself kidney failure! We sure didn't...but you can...and Chris almost did! Last Monday, he went to the gym for the first time in a long time. He worked out with a trainer. The next day when he was complaining about being sore I basically told him to suck it up and stop complaining because he would be fine. (I am such a nice wife, aren't I :)) By the end of Tuesday his arms had swollen up pretty badly and I thought that was unusual but I spoke with the trainer and they mentioned that it can happen. So we continued to let it go but Chris still was saying that he was in a lot of pain and it wasn't going away it seemed to be getting worse. I feel really horrible because I still figured it would just go away. Well Wednesday night he started peeing BROWN! That is definitely NOT normal and then I knew that something was wrong. I told him to drink twice as much water as he usually does and we started looking up stuff online. He didn't want to go to the doctor. By Friday, I told him he had to go. When he went in, the doctor almost hospitalized him immediately. He still had blood in his urine, his liver enzymes were 10x higher than they should be and his CPK test (which checks to see if a certain amount of enzymes are in the blood) came back over 100,000 (it is supposed to be under 300). The doctor said that he had something rare called Rhabdomyolysis. It is when there has been trauma to the muscle and it starts to die. As the muscles die, they release so much "gunk" into the bloodstream that the kidneys can't fight it and shut down. The only treatment is dialysis. Luckily, Chris's kidney function test came back fairly normal so he let Chris go home. He told us that he was the first patient he hadn't hospitalized. He had to go in and get more testing to make sure he was continuing to improve. In the meantime, he has been in a lot of pain, nauseated, extremely fatigued and disoriented. He also couldn't use his arms at all...his muscles just don't work. He is slowly getting better and will hopefully not have any long-term effects. BUT who would have thought that this could happen simply by working out?!

What the...

Asher's favorite sleeping position makes you go "what the......?"

Welcome Kaley!

This weekend we were lucky enough to be able to go see our newest niece be born. She is my brother and his wife's first baby. Congratulations Michael and Katey! We love you guys!

This is Kaley with daddy. My sister is a NICU nurse and made her cute bow from hospital hats.

Preschool Co-Op

I am in a preschool Co-op with some family and I am LOVIN' IT! There are 5 kids so we teach one day a week for 2 hours. We found this program online and I just have to brag about it. If you want to know more about it keep reading...if not, just skip down to the cute pictures.


This is NOT a paid advertisement...but I had to tell anyone who is interested in doing a preschool from home about it. The first month we tried another program (which was actually a little more money) and it doesn't even come close to this one. It works for co-op groups and even real preschools. You can get it for schools from 1-25+ students and for as many months of the year as you want. They send you everything that you would need for school (except for the things that you should have on hand, like glue, crayons, scissors, ect.) Every month there is a different theme and they focus on about 3 letters, 2 numbers, 2 colors, and a shape. They have several different activities everyday that you can choose from: crafts, music (it comes with a different CD every month), science, reading, theatre, social studies, etc. We usually don't get through them all. I am sure that Allie wouldn't be getting a better education if I were so send her somewhere! If you are doing any kind of preschool you have to look at this site...and it is all for the LOW PRICE of $13.50 a month. (Prices vary depending on how many kids/months you choose but it should stay around $15 per child per month). Enough already....check out the site! MOTHERGOOSETIME.COM

This lesson was on spiders. They made their own spider web, painted with finger paints, played spider games, listened to a spider song made a "Spider" treat, etc.

Asher at 3 Months!

Wow...time just keeps on aflyin' by! Please tell it to stop so I can catch my breath!

Asher's first smiles caught on camera

Tummy time!

Austin's Baptism!

Once again we are so proud of you!

As soon as Austin came up out of the water he shouted, "Can we do it again?"

Halloween

Who doesn't just love Halloween?! We are no different! I think I enjoy Halloween even more now then when I was a kid. I love looking at my kids excited faces when they get dressed up and get candy just for knocking on someones door! It is awesome!

The kids went to a Halloween Carnival at my sister's work!

Austin feelin' "the force."

It wouldn't quite be Halloween without stopping by Great Grandpa and Grandma DeMille's to ride the train, eat some food and visit with some cousins!

Grandpa just had surgery and this is him dressed up in his "Get Well" hat.

We ended the night by having a little "Wii party" at my sister's house.

Thank you Santa!

Allison was in the bathroom with me this morning watching me get ready.

Allison: Mom, those are pretty earrings. Can I have some earrings?
Mom: Maybe for Christmas you can get some earrings? You can ask Santa for some.
Allison: How will I ask him?
Mom: You can write him a letter.
Allison: He will get it?
Mom: Yep!
Allison: But how will I tell him Thank you!

That is Thank you enough!!

Mom - The Nurse

Well, when they say moms are underpaid I would have to say these last couple of weeks that surely seemed to be the case. Chris got swine flu (which lasted over two weeks), Austin, Allison and Abigail all got ear infections and Asher ran a fever for a couple of days. Luckily, I didn't get sick. Mom's can't take a day off!

Catching Up!

Here are some of the things we have been up to lately...besides having lots of parties!

Allison holding Asher...her new favorite thing!

Cheer Camp
The local high schools hold a cheer camp for little girls to help raise money for their squads and all the DeMille cousins wanted to do it. I didn't get any great pictures of Allison actually cheering but here she is ready to go. She really liked it and was so cute doing it.

General Conference
This was the first year that we, as a family, sat through, and actually listened to ALL FOUR sessions of general conference. I tried to prepare my kids better before hand. We had an amazing breakfast which will become our family tradition (Sourdough Waffles with Strawberries and Whipped Cream). We moved the couches and set up a table right in front of the TV. We printed out General Conference packets (from sugardoodle.com), made and played with play-doh and had a different snack when ever we heard certain topics (ex: Sacrament - Ants on a log, Forgiveness - mini Butterfingers, Priesthood - popcorn). We designated a "quiet zone" so that they had to be quiet whenever they were in the "zone." I really think that all the advanced preparation I made paid off and hopefully we can keep these new traditions going. I was pretty proud of my kids (and myself :)).

Riding Horses
We had a family home evening at our Bishops house a couple of weeks ago. They own a dozen + horses and allowed our family to ride them. The kids loved it. Chris and I definitely felt a little rusty since it has been over a decade since either of us have been on a horse. They also have lots of other animals that the kids loved playing with...dogs, pigs, rabbits.

Chris and I were busy around the house when we realized that the kids were "too quiet." You know the feeling when you think you are going to find them doing something very wrong. Well, we were wrong. This is what we found...all the kids fell asleep at the bottom of the stairs.

Our Austin-boy

Wow, before I even start writing this post my eyes are tearing up. Our little Austin-boy is getting baptized. Isn't that amazing?!...for so many reasons. For one, I can't believe he is turning 8. I can't believe time has gone by that fast. It seems like just yesterday I was holding him in my arms as a little baby. He has grown into such an amazing little boy. He is the smartest little boy and likes to teach us about different things he learns about. He loves learning and reading. He is such a great little helper. He helps with laundry, cleaning, and especially his sisters and now his little brother.

He has always had a testimony of the Gospel. I can feel it in him. He memorized all the Articles of Faith by the age of 5. He has read all four Children Scripture readers through by himself at least once. He also tries to read the real scriptures. He loves going to church. When we miss a Sunday he always reminds us that we are supposed to go. One time when we were camping on a Sunday, he asked if we are supposed to be camping on Sunday. On Sundays, the primary will always ask him to give the talk, scripture or prayer if someone didn't show up and he willingly does so. He reminds us to pray and read scriptures and have family home evening. I am so grateful for his example. He really is one of the best sons we could have asked for.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!

8 Weeks!

Asher is 8 Weeks. I totally want to eat him up...he is sooo cute. No cuter then my other children, I guess, since they all look exactly the same as babies. Maybe it is because I know he is my last but I just enjoy every minute of him. He is smiling a lot more but I haven't been able to get it on camera yet. The older kids still adore him to pieces (sometimes, literally). He went for his two month check up yesterday and he weighs 10lbs. 14 oz.

He's Official!

Chris is officially an Engineer now, FINALLY! For those of you who don't know, once an engineer graduates from an ABET accredited university they have to work under a licensed engineer for four years. Then they have to take an 8 hr test, pay money and fill out a really long application. Once they accomplish all that then they can become an officially licensed Engineer. But Chris, being the over achiever he is, isn't stopping there. Since he actually wants to be a Structural Engineer, he has to work for another three years under a licensed structural engineer, take 2 more 8 hour tests, pay more money, fill out more paperwork and then he will finally be a Structural Engineer. But for now, I am really excited that he is official!

Congratulations Babe!

Two Big Celebrations!

We had a very busy weekend throwing two huge parties. The first one, on Saturday, was Allison's 5th birthday party. She had a "Pretty in Pink" party with lots of pink every where! This was her first "friend" party so I went all out. It reminded me of the scene from one of my favorite movies, Steel Magnolias. "The house looked like it had been hosed down with Pepto-Bismol..." Allie loved it and she had a fun day. Thank you to my wonderful sisters for helping me...you guys are so awesome!

On Sunday, we blessed our sweet Asher. Thank you to everyone who came to see him blessed. We had a fabulous dinner and dessert after and got to have a nice visit with family.

The Birthday Girl!

Pink cake, pink decorations and pink food!

At the party, the kids made bracelets, pink chocolate suckers and played with pink playdoh.

We couldn't keep Abigail away from the food!

Our first family picture!