Because he loves me…

…my hubby took the baby after I was up with him for an hour so that I could get some sleep – and he gave him a small bottle of formula when he realized that baby was hungry, AGAIN, and he had eaten barely an hour before.  Thank you, wonderful husband of mine!

Random Thoughts…

I have two hands!!  The baby is slumbering peacefully in his crib.  It is hard to believe that he is one month old already – it seems we just barely got home.  He is up to a whopping 10 lbs 7 oz – as of last Thursday anyway – boy can he eat. 🙂  He even got left with the babysitter for the first time this last weekend so hubby and I could go on a desperately needed date. By the time you have 5 kids dates every week become a necessity not a luxery. 🙂  He did really well – granted we stayed in our little town and were only gone 2 hours – but he did great.

I honestly haven’t been in the mood to write – anything.  I’ve been terribly neglect in all aspects of my writing, as well as (shocking as it may be) reading.  The only thing I have read lately is my Book of Mormon in Spanish – Spanish because I have a new calling in church.  We have a new Spanish group starting in our ward and I have been asked to be the Relief Society Spanish Laision – so I do all the translating during RS, translate the newsletters, and go with the presidency on visits to translate for them as well.  It is quite exciting, but a bit scary too as my Spanish is a tad bit rusty.  So I have been polishing up with reading and speaking as much as possible.  I am reading Harry Potter in Spanish as well – slow going, but fun. 🙂

Jacob has transitioned to having a younger brother very well and frequently asks to hold him by pushing up his sleeves, thrusting out his arms and saying “baby”.  The girls of course constantly vie for Jame’s attention and it is fun to se James spending more and more time awake and alert – except for at night. *sigh*

One other reason I haven’t written or been in the mood to write is that I am too tired most days to put two thoughts together coherently – but I got a nap today (wahoo!) and am doing better – I hope – let me know if any of this makes sense. 😉

Some of the crazier things that have happened of late:

We finally had a string of days with no rain – very cold, but no rain so the children were thrilled to have a chance to play outside for extended periods of time.  On Friday they were out for maybe 10 minutes when I got a report from Dorothy that Elizabeth was telling Jacob and Emily to eat mud and that they were doing it.  Apparantly they ate A LOT of mud.  When I grilled Elizabeth her only response was, “But they wanted to do it.”  At this I sighed, shook my head, “That doesn’t make it right does it?”  “No,” she replied and then was very angry with me when I told her she was inside for the rest of the afternoon – when she began throwing a fit I simply said, “well, I suppose I could have you eat mud rather than playing inside…”  She quickly calmed down and accepted her fate.

 A few days ago Dorothy accidently knocked over a large vase of flowers that Paul had given me for the birth of James.  As water cascaded and spilled over the counter I saw, in horror, that it was headed right for our camera.  I made a wild dash to the counter in an attempt to save the camera from the approaching flood. I failed to realize that much of the water from the vase had already hit the floor.  With all the grace of goofy, my feet promptly flew out in front of me and my behind made a splash as I landed in the middle of a huge puddle of water.  Soaked, sore, and a tad bit unhappy I staggered to my feet and managed to snag the camera – unharmed, thank goodness.    I think walking on water is not a forte of mine…

Well, for now that is all – I am lucky to have gotten this much written 🙂  If my luck holds out, I might get a few blogs visited!

Time Flies When…

Time flies when you have 5 kids – I could have sworn that I had just barely written when Paul started giving me a bad time for not writing in over a week – oops!  I have discovered that while I am nursing boy 2 I have some good reading and computer time.  I have also realized that computer time is one handed and thus not good blogging time – must be why its been a week.  🙂

Time flies when you are goofing off on facebook and discovering just how addictive scrabulous is.

Time flies when dinner time is approaching and baby is hungry – I don’t think we have sat down to eat before 7:00 yet this week.

Time flies when you are trying to haul five kids out the door.

Time flies when your eyes finally close for that much needed nap and 10 minutes later the kids are barging in the door – home from school already??!!??

Time flies when the kids are all happy, no one is fighting, no one is whining, we are all getting along and having awesome fun family time (maybe that is why these times seem so few and far between – hee hee, just kidding)

Time flies when you are on a date with your honey.

Time flies when your kids grow up right in front of your eyes.

Time flies when your sleeping (because hubby has snuck off with the fussy baby so that you actually CAN sleep).

 Speaking of sleeping, I should go wake the boy and feed him so that I can sleep tonight. 🙂

A Case of Snuggles

I think the thing I miss most about babies at this stage, and the thing I love the most about babies at this stage is the snuggles.  I love how they cuddle up on you and and snuggle into you. How they are content to lie on your chest and just be held.  Jacob barely stops long enough for me to give him a quick hug, let alone sit and cuddle with him for any period of time.  Yup, I love the baby snuggle stage. 🙂

As requested: Mama and James

A Mother’s Prayer
(a rubaiyat)

I feel the rhythmic creaking of my rocking chair
And press my cheek, so soft, against your downy hair.
I drop a kiss upon each peaceful slumbering eye
And utter in my heart a silent hopeful prayer.

I want to nurture you and teach you to reach high,
I want you to understand that it’s okay to cry.
I’ll teach you to catch snowflakes on your tiny tongue
And marvel at the rainbows in the glistening sky.

I’ll show you nature’s miracles, after spring has sprung
And show you all the little creatures hiding among
The rocks and crevices. I want to teach you
How to sing the song that’s left unsung.

I want to show you lions, roaring at the zoo,
And be your secret confidant when you’re feeling blue.
You are my precious child. None can compare.
Remember always who you are, my darling, I love you.

-J.H. Schmidt

And a couple of Papa and James too:

Dad and James at birth center

A Very Merry Christmas

James’ birth rather usurped the attention and I never had a chance to post about our Christmas.  Christmas time for our family i s a time of fun traditions going back to Paul’s and mine childhood, and new traditions that we have started together with our little family.  We gather around the piano and sing carols, act out the nativity on Christmas eve and indulge in scrumptious cinnamon buns on Christmas morning.

Recently we have begun the tradition of going to the hospital to serve dinner on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, but for obvious reasons we didn’t go up to the hospital this year.  Because of our excursions to the hospital we decided on another new tradition. That was to have Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve – we especially like this one because it gets Mom out of the kitchen on Christmas day. I get to enjoy the children and play with them. We still have our Christmas dinner as we feast on left overs from the night before.

So, Christmas Eve found us feasting on our dinner afterwhich we read the Nativity Story from the Scriptures as the children acted out the different parts. This year Elizabeth was Mary, Jacob was Joseph, Dorothy was the angel, and Emily was the shepherd/wiseman.  Dad as always was Herod and I was the narrator.  In between the different scriptures we read we sing carols that go along with what we are reading…

Other traditions of the evening include driving around to see the lights, sometimes some caroling (if we haven’t done it earlier) and a late night visit from Santa Clause (Jacob just had the hardest time waking up)…

 Christmas morning dawns and no one is aloud to  go into the living room until everyone is up and dressed.  The kids lurk in the hall trying to peek into the room full of excitement and anticipation.  Finally we give the signal and they stampede into the room.  Stockings are the first order of the day followed by a cinnamon bun breakfast.  Only after breakfast is devoured do we gather around the tree to enjoy opening presants and wrapping paper wars…

This year I made pajamas…

And Paul made Lincoln Logs…

So, that is a quick snippet of our fabulous Christmas. 🙂

Ten Tiny Toes on Two Tiny Feet

Link to Published Article

For those of you interested in reading my article that was published in the Ensign here is a link to the article. It is quite short as there is limited space in a magazine, etc. So don’t be surprised by its brevity. 🙂

The article is about an experience that my husband and I had while our son, Jacob, was in the hospital.  (If you are not familiar with Jacob’s story you can find a link to it on the side bar under heart kids)

For those of you who are not familiar with the publication, Ensign, it is a magazine that is published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Thanks everyone for your support and interest! 🙂

Little Brother

Siblings welcome the new little brother…

Jacob loves to give James kisses (and now that he is better, he can give James all the kisses he wants)