Shhhh... be quiet... Anni is sleeping.

I have been trying to teach the girls the art of being quiet with a sleeping baby. It hasn't been easy. Either I hear, "Mommy guess what I saw...." or "Ali" followed by crying, or someone is telling on someone else. All of these screams do not make it easy for Annika to stay sleeping. I don't know how I managed to get a light sleeper for my third child but she is a light sleeper.

Each and every morning I wake up and feed Annika and she plays in her big crib while I shower. She is content and happy until about the time the older girls wake up. Then she is ready to go back to sleep. The problem is that I don't have time to rock her to sleep while getting the girls ready and so I wrap her up already buckled into her car seat. And then she screams.... and screams.... and screams... for what seems like forever but is really only 5-10 minutes. I still don't have time to take care of her as I am doing hair, making breakfast and making lunches. So Ali loves to play the mommy and puts the pacifier back in her mouth and whispers soothing words to her. She is my very persistant child and eventually she succeeds in putting Anni to sleep.

This morning was especially difficult. Anni cried, fell asleep, and then dropped the pacifier and woke up screaming... Ali kept fixing everything and getting her back to sleep. Finally Anni seemed to be sleeping well and Ali tip-toed away from her car seat. "Shhhh... be quiet everyone" she whispered. She kept reminding us. . . .

City Creek Hike

Last Saturday Cameron took a friend from work hiking along with his dad. They went down City Creek for a half day hike. They had a lot of fun and said it was very beautiful. Cameron also contracted poison oak during his hike. I guess that may have been the not so fun part.

Later after he got home Ali and I went up to Snow Valley and skied for a couple hours. It was a lot of fun. I was very proud of my cute daughter going over all the jumps. She is getting way too big. But it is fun to go and actually enjoy doing something so active with her now.

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My Blessings

So this post is a little of everything. We had no school Monday for the holiday and no school Tuesday or Wednesday for snow. I am grateful for lots of snow because it means water for us and it is fun to play in now.

I drove down the hill on Tuesday with the girls to take Annika and Ali to the doctor and Ashling to preschool. It was raining and snowing a little. I slipped and slid in one spot enough to scare me for the rest of the drive down the hill. I am grateful for the skills to steer and remembering not to use my brake that caused me to not get in an accident.

We found out why Annika makes so many noises like she is a squeeky toy. She has something called Tracheomalasia. Her trachea is not totally formed and so it makes noises by collapsing a little when she breathes. She will grow out of it eventually and it is not life threatening but concerning when she gets a cold. I am grateful that this is just a minor birth defect and not something more major.

Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day but there was still no school. I took the kids down the hill for the day. First we went to the park while I nursed Annika. Then we drove next door to the Highland City Library. It is a library/ learning center and they had the coolest things. There were fish, birds, reptiles and insects to look at. They had a center all about recycling and things to read about the local flood control dams and other reading things. They had a cool tree that they have story time puppets shows from and also computers for the kids to play on. The best thing was the roof garden with every kind of plant on the roof. The view from the top was amazing and the sun felt so very good. We then went to Costco and had a cheap costco lunch of hot dogs and soda. The costco treats inside were not the greatest but we did sample a little. Finally we went to Chalon's house and played with cousins. The girls tried to catch butterflies which is pretty hard without nets. Chalon fed me yummy salsa and made us home made pizza dough to make pizzas later that night. I am grateful for beautiful sunny days, fun places to go and fun family to hang out with.

Wednesday was major lay-off day at Cameron's work. This is the third set of layoffs they have done. And some people have also left for greener pastures. He survived this third lay off and was told they don't intend to lay off him. (Hopefully sometime the economy improves or their intentions will mean nothing.) I am grateful that he still has his job and we have great medical benefits in case Annika needs anything more to fix her problem or if she ends up in the hospital with a cold.

Friday was also a fun day for us. Ali has ski school in the afternoons. All the parents wait until the appointed time and all the ski school kids get out of school early and head to snow valley. Up at Snow Valley the kids ski and the mom's sit in the lodge and talk. I also went skiing a little bit on my new skis. (Which are new only to me but given to me by a very nice friend who didn't need them anymore.) Thanks to friends who watched my cute little baby up there. I also took Ashling down one run. I love living in Running Springs and having the small town feel and I love having season ski passes at snow valley. Thanks Cameron for hosting! Ali continued skiing with her friends. It is nice for her to have the opportunity to ski with friends. I can't express how much I love living here and can't imagine anywhere else being quite as nice. I am grateful for good friends, good snow and places to go that are inexpensive (at least to us.)

On a down side I came home and Cameron told me that his work is going to a four day work week twice a month! I absolutely hate our awful slow economy. It is going to be difficult to find the things to cut from our budget for this last cut in our income. It is the third time in a year that our salary has been reduced and this time it will really hurt us. In the mist of trying to find a way to earn more I am grateful for a husband who is willing to work hard and take care of us and continues to help make it possible for me to stay home with my three beautiful girls who keep me happy.

Annika also slept through the night for the third night in a row! I am very grateful that she is a very early sleeper. She seems to crave a schedule and routine. She is learning to go to sleep on her own which I am very grateful for. She is happy and alert and learning to do new things every day when she is awake and sleeps cuddled up in a very cute swaddle-me blanket. (She started sleeping through the night the day I got this in the mail from Angie. Thank you so much!)

Overall I guess this week couldn't be better and even though we will have to become very creative with spending money I am grateful that we have some money still to spend. I will pray for a nicer economy for next year.

P.S. I am also grateful that we still have a washer and dryer because my three loads of laundry daily would be really hard to wash all those clothes by hand!

Annika is One Month Old!

Annika is one month old. She is a pretty good baby. She is smiling, rolling over a little and very alert. She likes to look at her sisters, at the tv, and at her play gym. She loves bath time and being held by everyone. She She has her fussy moments and we are working on learning to go to sleep on her own. She wants me to rock her and I like rocking her but she doesn't want to be put down later (I don't like that.)

We took her to the doctor today and she is 10 pounds 2 ounces and 22 inches long. I can't believe how big she is already! I wish I could slow down her growth but watching her smile is worth it.

President's Day Activities!

This picture is not from President's Day but I like it so I put it here.
Once there was a snow man, snow man, snow man,
Once there was a snow man tall tall tall.
Ali is sliding down the big burms. We have about 4 1/2 feet on the ground right now.
Ashling is trying to get around by crawling because the snow is so deep.
Ali and the snow man. Did you know that snowmen wake up at night and play, have snow ball fights, sled and do other things. And then in the morning they go back to the same position they were in all night? This is what Ali told me this morning.

President's Day dawned with the beginnings of another storm. Cameron decided to stay home from work since the snow was predicted to fall all day. He took 6 hours to get home in Friday's storm and he didn't want to deal with that again. We enjoyed a relaxing day of watching it snow, Cameron snow blowing every few hours, the girls playing in the snow, and I held Annika almost all day. (She was having a fussy day.) We also put the girls bunk beds together.

In the evening I decided I needed a walk and a break from the house. The snow wasn't falling but it was cold. Ali and I bundled up and left on our snowy walk. When we turned around hail pellets the size of dimes started to fall hard. We ended up walking with our hands on our faces. All of a sudden there was a flash of lightning and thunder at the same time. I hit the ground and pulled Ali down with me . I have only been so scared from lightning one other time (when hiking we were caught in a thunderstorm at the top of a peak and ran down in the rain.) We ran all the way back to the house and were glad to be safely inside. It was an adventure and I am glad that I went out in the weather to experience it.

Bunk Beds!

For the past couple months Cameron has spent all of his spare time (which isn't much between blowing snow, working, skiing and helping with the kiddos) working on bunk beds for the girls. Here are the results of his work! I appreciate that I can ask my husband to build me something and he makes it look wonderful. He bought all the materials without even having a plan but just coming up with an idea in his head. Great job Cameron. Now the girls have room to play in their room because their playroom is now the baby's room.

Snowy days

This is a picture of the snow the day after our major storm. Doesn't it look beautiful? We received about 2 1/2 feet of snow over the course of three days.
Cameron's dad brought the snow down to Apple Tree Learning Center where Ashling goes to preschool. This is how they do snow, California style.

Annika is 3 weeks!

Annika is now 3 weeks old. I wasn't sure I was going to include a post for three weeks but this morning Annika impressed me so I needed to post. I put her under her play gym where she proceeded to reach out and push the toys that rattled around deliberately. She liked being able to hit the toys with her hands and also grabbed them and held on to them. A little later I turned her over on her tummy. She didn't seem to like this for more than two or three minutes and so I went to turn her back over. While I was watching she rolled from her tummy to her back. Did you hear that? My 3 week old rolled over! I seem to not be being heard when I ask that she stays a newborn forever! I put her back on her tummy and yes she rolled again....

Baby in the sink!

A bath in the sink helped Annika to calm down.

Ski Day

It snowed overnight on Friday and Snow Valley had about a foot of new snow. Cameron had to "work" at Snow Valley for the day. We all decided to go up and join them along with some friends. Ali, Ashling, Cameron, Brent and Davin all went skiing. I resigned myself to one more week of sitting in the lodge but I am hoping to ski next weekend. Amanda and I watched Annika snore away for about four hours. This picture is of Cameron skiing and it appeared on the website for snow valley.

All I could ever want

It is snowing. First there were ice ball pellet flakes that fell like little rockets while I was going to pick up Ali. She pulled her hood over her head before exiting the bus. She was smiling. Then the snow turned to rain for a few minutes before becoming thick slow flakes. I have taco soup ready and simmering on the stove, a big beautiful fire in the fireplace, plans for hot chocolate later and a beautiful newborn baby to hold and cuddle. In addition I have two older daughter who are performing dancing and singing routines with a little gymnastics in-between. What more could I possibly want?

25 random things about me

I put this on facebook and tagged a lot of people that way. I also tag Melissa since I didn't tag her on facebook and she needs to blog more....

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)
1. I love to swim especially in the ocean. But anywhere will do.
2. I love snow. I especially love watching it snow.
3. I love stargazer lilies. They are my favorite flower.
4. I do not like cedar trees. I would be happy if they disappeared from the mountains.
5. I love ravioli right now. I bought some frozen stuff at costco and it is really yummy.
6. I love having my body back. I can bend over and get stuff and move around easily.
7. I am watching bones from netflicks currently. (I rent some new tv series and watch all the episodes.) The guy is hot and some of the humor is great.
8. I want to start riding our bikes. We need a bike rack so that we can ride them on the beach.
9. I love Mammoth. I would love to go skiing in the winter but we mostly vacation there in the summer.
10. I like to run long distances and up steep hills. Although I haven't done this is awhile.
11. I like to play settlers of Cataan and risk.
12. I would like to go back to school to be a nurse someday....
13. I want to learn how to swing dance but my husband is unwilling...
14. I want to adopt a little boy... we can't seem to make our own boys.
15. I lead music in primary for my calling.
16. I love to eat strawberries and pineapple.
17. My favorite desert is cake.
18. I can watch friends episodes again and again.
19. I love to watch the sun set from the rim
20. I decorate my girls rooms with butterflies and pink, purple and green.
21. My room is dark red and white. I want cherry wood furniture and a four poster bed.
22. My baby gives me trouble going to sleep at night but then she sleeps all night except for nursing once or twice. At least she doesn't want to play at night.
23. We are planning a family vacation this summer to June Lakes in the Sierras. I am already looking forward to it.
24. I really want my own pool.
25. I wish the economy would improve soon.