Paging Dr. Hoedl, Dr. Elizabeth Hoedl

In Honor of Valentine's Day....

I'll share some stories about Brett. Hard to believe, but these are all just from tonight.

So, Brett decides to teach Gavin a new game. It's called, "See who can hit the softest". If you've ever been duped by this game, you know that you let the other person hit first so they'll hit you softly, then you respond by hitting as hard as you can with the victorious shout of, "I lose!"

How many times did it take Gavin to figure this out? Well, let's see- after Brett "losing" about 6 times, Gavin was still asking to play it 100 more times. So, either the poor guy didn't understand the concept, or he was just so excited to be "winning' a game that he didn't care.

Brett finally stopped, worrying that Gavin might develop bruises on his arms from "winning" so much. :)

After way too much sugar for the evening, the kids were a little wound up, and when are kids get wound up, you practically need a bullhorn to get their attention. They were running around screaming, while Brett was holding Elizabeth. Once they were all on their way upstairs, Brett says to me, "I finally figured out how to get Elizabeth to go to sleep. Anytime I'm holding her and having to yell at the kids, she just falls straight to sleep." Great honey, next time at 6am when she's being fussy, we'll just wake one of the kids up to yell at.

Brett had the "big V" a couple weeks ago. Each of the kids got varying degrees of information about what type of surgery it was. They all knew that Daddy's "privates" were going to be sore. So, while kissing the kids goodnight, Gavin asks, "Daddy, do your privates still hurt?" Brett responds with, "No, I"m feeling better now". Lauri has to chime in, "Why don't you just call it what it is a p-i-n-e-s-s. Isn't that right?" To which Alyssa answers, "Not even close Lauri." Lauri quickly responds, "Whatever. Whatever its called. Why don't you just call it that long thing between your legs?".

As I said to Brett, "At least she said "long"" :)

(Side note- the girls observations on anatomy come from their two not-so-modest little brothers.)

Hope everyone had a Happy Valentine's Day!

Back from a break (from blogging)

We are back in the swing of things around here. We had a round of fevers (thankfully avoiding the baby), Lauri's eye surgery, out of town visitors, and two weekends with snow/ice. I'm ready for a little peace.

Of course, Brett takes his first business trip tomorrow, leaving me alone for 3 days 2 nights with five kids, we have Eli's birthday this week, Alyssa's next, and Brett's having surgery.

That's life, right?

Here are some pictures from the snow this past weekend. We had a perfect hill to go flying down. The kids had a blast sledding with Grammy and their Florida-born aunts.

From SNOW

From SNOW

From SNOW

From SNOW

From SNOW

We also had our fair share of wipe-outs. Papa was supposed to be catching the sledders from the utter doom of the creek behind him, but sometimes they were going a little too fast.

From SNOW

We had a full schedule day, but we still managed to have time for snowball fights and snowmen.

From SNOW

From SNOW

From SNOW

Poor Elizabeth didn't get a turn this year.

From SNOW

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!!

We celebrated this year by hanging out at our house, just the seven of us. Lauri made us all party hats for our party. We feasted on pigs-in-a-blanket, mozzarella sticks (deep fried in daddy's new fryer) and chili dip.

The majority of the night was spent with our newest toy- a Wii. I was really surprised at how family-friendly it is. As you can see, Gavin and even Eli were able to play games. We just had to tell Eli to do his "Power Ranger moves" for the boxing game.

Here's Gavin testing out his golf swing. He's not quite the next Tiger Woods.

Lauri played us some songs on her new guitar.

And, ever the party-animal, Alyssa spent her time between Wii turns re-reading Peter and the Starcatchers.

The kids stayed up to watch the ball drop over NYC. We celebrated with a grape juice toast. After that it was off to bed, but not without incident. Lauri was carrying Brett's half-empty (or I guess, half-full) beer upstairs for him, when she tripped, hit the beer on the stairs, and splashed beer all over herself. Like I told Brett, I guess it's not a New Year's party without someone smelling like beer. I just didn't think it would be my 6 year old.

So, here's a final toast to a great 2006 and an even better 2007! Cheers!!!

Baby's First Bath

Here's little Elizabeth all snuggled up, belly-full, sleeping not knowing Mommy and Daddy were getting ready to wake her up........

....to this......

She did settle down after a few minutes, right as Daddy was done washing her. She looks rather pensive in this picture, no?

Here she after the trauma- all wrapped up in her towel. In case we had forgotten, the towel reminds us that she's a "BABY" in cute heart letters over her forehead.

Christmas

Christmas Eve- setting out cookies for Santa

Christmas Morning- before opening presents

Our Christmas Angel

The kids' castle that Grandpa built for them

one happy family

Elizabeth Mae

This is the Christmas blanket and hat the hospital gave us.

Here is a close-up of our princess.















My girls












A rose among thorns

Favorite Christmas Songs

I had to subdivide these into my own categories:

Favorite Traditional Non-Religious Song:

"Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" by anyone

The line, "Next year all our troubles will be miles away" offers such hope :)

Favorite Non-Traditional, Non-Religious Songs:

"The Hanukkah Song" by Adam Sandlar

This one just cracks me up every time I hear it.

"Mele Kalikimaka" by anyone

I like this because it takes me someplace warm.

Favorite Non-Traditional, Religious Song:

"Mary, Did You Know?" sung by anyone

This has become one of the girls favorites too, but I have to stop them when they start singing it to each other- it becomes rather silly when they respond with, "Yes, I did know" in a falsetto voice. Also, they need to learn the real words because we end up with, "Mary, did you know your son was gonna save us?" and such like that.

Favorite Traditional, Religious Songs:

"O, Holy Night" by anyone, but especially Josh Groban

I love to belt this one out whenever I hear it. Doesn't matter that I can't carry a tune- I just belt it.

"O, Come All Ye Faithful" by any church choir/congregation

For some reason, this song always brings tears to my eyes. During the line, "Sing choirs of angels, sing in jubilation, sing all ye citizens of heaven above" I can always picture my departed grandmothers along with Brett's departed grandmother in robes just belting this song out- kind of the way I do to "O, Holy Night" :)

Anyone care to share theirs?

Some Pictures

Here is our family at Thanksgiving.

Here are the kids dressed up for the wedding:

Turkey Talk

We've had a rather quotable Thanksgiving today, so I thought I'd share my favorites....

"It's a mix of red and blue."

That was Brett's smart alec answer to Alyssa's question, "What's The Color Purple?" Of course, she was referring to the Broadway musical that was performing during the parade this morning. And daddy knew that....it's no wonder our 4 year old knows the meaning (and proper use) of the word "sarcastic".

"Am I sick?"

This was Gavin's question after Brett and I were commenting on his sideways viewing of the tv. He seems to prefer watching television out of the side of his eyes- left or right. it's rather amusing to watch, we're just starting to wonder if there is a reason for this.

"Now, it's going to hurt you."

This was Brett's comment to Eli as we were trying to give him a haircut this morning. My aunt's wedding is this weekend and his hair was sticking straight up. Brett always cuts the boys' hair, and Eli usually loves it, but this morning he decided it was hurting him and proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs. And, once you star a haircut, it's pretty impossible to just stop in the middle. Brett got frustrated with Eli's scrreamin and squirming. I mentioned quietly that that may not have been the best way to settle him down.

"Yeah, but what were you for Halloween?"

Another Gavin quote- this one is response to my uncle who was a life-long fireman telling Gavin that he used to be a fireman. Gavin was less than impressed, I guess.

"You need to pick out your wrapping paper now"

From one uncle to another aunt, after we were teasing her about her age. We were all sitting around my other aunt's house where my grandparents happen to reside. My deceased grandparents. They now reside on my aunt's entertainment center in nicely wrapped boxes- floral for my grandma and a more regal, manly stripe pattern for my grandpa.

But, my favorite quote for the day was Eli:

"Happy Thanksgiving, LaaLaa"

This was at about 7:15 this morning. What made this so delightfully amusing was that we thought he was sound asleep. He was laying on his belly, clad only his diaper, in the middle of our bed.

Overall, it was a very pleasant Thanksgiving. It began this morning with the all of us sitting around eating breakfast watching the Macy's Day parade, then heading over to Brett's parents for a turkey lunch, then out to my aunt's for visiting with my family and a little dessert. Poor Gavin crashed in the car on the way home. The girls are now in bed asleep, Eli is of course still wide awake, and Brett and I are flipping between the end of Grey's Anatomy and the Chiefs' game.

So, what does it mean when....

....the drive-thru lady looks down at you and says, " Wow! How far along are you?" To which I politely reply, slightly exasperated, "34 weeks" "MAN!" she says "That's a really big belly for 34 weeks!"

Bragging on my baby girl

I try not to post too many "Mommy brags" on my blog, but with how hard I've worked with Lauri to get her to write, I deserve this brag as much as she does- well, maybe not "as much", but close.

We are working on pronouns right now, and her grammar lesson today required her to write three sentences on a woman from the Bible using her name once and then the pronouns she and her. This is what she wrote:

God made Eve the first girl alive and the second person alive. God told her to not eat the fruit from one tree. She ate that apple from the tree and God told her to go out of the garden forever. She went out of the garden like God said.

She wrote this all by herself, without asking for any help at all. Progress!!!!

TV Watching

Last year, Brett and I never really watched tv. We couldn't follow a show for the life of us. This past spring we picked up Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy- it was a nice end to the weekend for us to relax watching these shows. This year, with Brett being in bed by 8pm, I've joined him and started picking up some new shoes to watch, so our level of "television involvement" has increased. Plus, for some reason, it seems that during pregnancy I can't focus on reading- not a clue why- I can usually read through a couple books in a month, but I just think I don't have the energy that it requires anymore :)

So, last night, we're watching Desperate Housewives, and I am actually shocked by what happened- that doesn't happen to often- and I actually laughed out loud at a couple quotes. The one that sticks out in my mind though, is when Lynette's husband (talking about taking custody of his daughter from a previous relationship) says,

"I thought you didn't want five kids."

And Lynette quickly responds,

"I didn't want the first four either, but they're starting to grow on me."

I looked at Brett and just burst out laughing :)

By the way,the show that follows DH, Brothers and Sisters, is very good. Something about the way the the characters are written-the family dynamic- something- it is really good tv.

Not exactly the type of book club I imagined.....

but still a lot of fun.

I picture a book club as a group of people sitting around with coffee and snacks making pithy comments about wonderful classics.

Tonight, it was sitting around in a circle sharing our favorite book title, drawing a book cover with construction paper and crayons, and playing a game of "pass the book". This was Alyssa's book club that she designed for us. She planned this out all day and made up little cards for us to fill out.

We had a lot of fun sitting around for about 20 minutes going over our favorite books and showing off our drawings.

Halloween Pictures

Nothing like celebrating Halloween with your cousins :)

We have a pink Power Ranger, Robin, a blue Power Ranger, Buzz Lightyear, another blue Power Ranger (from a different season), a Mickey fireman, and a cowgirl.

The kids stayed out for quite a long time. They were frozen by the time they got home, but they all had fun. We now have a grocery paper bag over halfway full of candy. It may not sound like much, but trust me: it is.

Check out the Power Ranger poses from two and the goofy smiles from the other two:

My Boys

Tonight Gavin came busting into our room while Brett and I tried to take five minutes to talk without interruption (a very rare occurrence in our house). He came in a started singing and dancing around. I could barely keep a straight face. We finally managed to kick him out when he came twirling back in a minute later with his "beebee" covering his head. On top of that was Alyssa's American Girl top hat (a sparkly pink) and he was carrying the matching dance stick. He continued to sing and dance around our room, so by this point we gave up talking. He is such a performer its ridiculous.

Eli gets to sleep by laying in our bed at night, and he was in a particularly goofy mood while we were trying to settle him down, so I was asking him all kinds of questions. I asked him, "Are you a baby?" "No" "Are you a big boy?" "No" "What are you?" "Eli boy" He's still awake right now making monkey noises (thankfully quietly since daddy is already asleep) and licking my arm as I type. Side note: We managed to get rid of his "Paby" (pacifier) without any fuss from him. He hasn't even asked for it. Woo hoo! Hopefully, he'll forget all associations with it by the time his little sister is born in 6 1/2 weeks. (YIKES!)

There's Just Something About A Sleeping Baby....

That makes you forget you spent an hour and a half trying to get him to settle down. Eli is now sleeping soundly on my pillow, on my side of the bed. It hard enough to settle him down when he is tired, but when he gets silly, it's almost impossible. How do you look into an almost two-year old's eyes and tell him to "Be quiet, daddy's trying to get to sleep." when all he keeps saying is "I love you too!!! I love you too!!!" And then his eyes go all silly and a smile peeks out from underneath his "paby". He finaly gave in, with two of his doggies by his side. Now, to just transfer him to his bed without waking him up or breaking my back.

Our Baby Girl

Here's a picture from our 3D sonogram this morning. She is definitely a she :) She is also extremely stubborn, and would only show us her full face briefly. She prefers to nuzzle into the placenta or cover herself with her arms and even feet. This is a pretty clear shot of her face.
















This one is a little bit harder to tell, but that is actually her foot poking herself in the eye. You can see her nose and mouth right below.
















The technician was impressed with her chubby cheeks and fat rolls :) You can kind of see how she already seems to have the "nursing cheeks"

Not quite a cold winter's eve, but still...

A good night for hot chocolate. At least for the kiddos. My pregnant body has an internal temperature of about 110*, so although the windows are open (despite the rain) and that it's only 54* outside, I am sitting here sweating, while the littles enjoy their hot chocolate. Poor Eli just gets his "pabie" (that's slang for pacifier around here) dipped in the other kids' cups.

Then, we're downstairs to watch Sleeping Beauty. Why oh why would I subject myself to that after the Little Mermaid incident? Well, I don't have quite the emotional attachment to Sleeping Beauty (or, as we call her around here: Sleeping Booty)

Brett is in bed (been there since 6pm) due to an awful headache and (I'm sure) pure exhaustion. No painting tonight. I'm not quite sure why I'm giving the kids chocolate and marshmallows when I'm ready for bed myself. Maybe the kids take after their father with an immunity to caffeine. Maybe.