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.