One more Christmas picture

We waited until we were all feeling better to put together our ginger bread house. The kids had a blast doing it, but I think they ate more candy than they put on the house.

Its Christmas in Florida

Well, we know its Christmas everywhere else too. But we kind of had to remind ourselves as Mother Nature doesn't give any reminders down here. So here are our Christmas pictures. Jarin BBQing hot dogs on Christmas Eve, Jesse and his pirate ship, Nate in his new exersaucer. I think that's more of a gift to me! Hannah with her new Barbie mini-sewing machine, which really sews. She's so excited to start creating. Eleanor with her new Leapster. She played games on it all day!! I would love to include a Christmas picture of me, but I am the photographer and when I photograph myself, all you see is chins, and there is so much more to me than that. It would be a real shame to see only my chins.

Yoga-master Nate

So, we've noticed that in Nate's efforts to become mobile, he is becoming a master of Yoga. Here are a few of his poses that he makes look so easy. His favorite poses include: downward facing dog, cobra, cow, crocodile twist, and plank.

Christmastime

We're feeling much better, although we aren't quite 100%. But, I thought I would post a few pictures of the kids with Santa. We have a neighborhood Santa that hangs out at the lake for a few hours every year so the kids can visit him. We found him to be delightful, but thought he must have been cookin' in his Santa suit.

Jarin hung up Christmas lights a few weeks ago. Its hard to get a picture that isn't blurry at night time, but here's my best shot.

I keep finding Nate under the tree playing with the lights and ornaments. I'll move him 5 feet away and he's back in less than a minute, even though he doesn't crawl yet.

Not yet...

I had hoped by now I would be reporting that Hannah was back to school and we had moved on to all the fun activities that accompany the Christmas season (baking, christmas parties, Christmas concerts, etc. etc.) But, not yet. Hannah is indeed back to school and doing great. But Eleanor, Jesse, and I are all sick now. My voice is totally gone. The doctor doesn't think I have mono. The kids may have mono, but the test frequently has a false negative for young children and they get over it faster, so we didn't even get them tested.

Its not all bad though. We have been so blessed by thoughtful friends from our ward who have been bringing us dinner while Jarin is gone on a trip. Must be nice to be in Jamaica, mon? We've enjoyed a huge plate of holiday cookies (really good ones) from our neighbors as well. Plus, to give us something fun to look forward to, some little pixies have been doing the 12 days of Christmas for us. They are quite clever and our kids LOVE getting something on the front porch every night. They check every few minutes throughout the evening. I must say I'm impressed because we live in a cul de sac with very few hiding spots and we haven't seen them yet.

My 7 year old has mono!

Who would have thought that my 7 year old would get mono? She's been sick so much this school year, its kind of a relief to know why. She has been a great sport about it. Even though we are all tired of staying home, we're glad to know that some R&R will help her get back to her normal self. Now, we just have to find out who she's been kissing.... Just kidding. My brother-in-law Mike informed me that you can get mono in other ways, like from shaking hands or using a drinking fountain. Good things to know, I guess.

Never a dull moment

There is never a dull moment around here. We've had a wild couple of weeks. It started with the trip to the beach to take family pictures for that perfect Christmas card. We drove to the beach, everyone was dressed in matching khaki and white and found a great spot, set up the camera and the battery died. So, we played at the beach for a few hours and headed home.

Hannah was our next adventure. A few days after the beach, she became quite sick with a very high fever. So we kept her home from school. I think its something more than a bug because this is her third time missing school this year for a fever. That is very unusual for my normally very healthy girl. Long story short, she had strep and some kind of virus and has now missed almost 2 weeks of school this time. How frustrating!!

Jesse, my sweet Jesse. I dropped a Christmas gift on his head on accident and it was a heavy one. It cut pretty deep through the fatty tissue on his forehead. I didn't know foreheads had fatty tissue, but the doctor pulled off a chunk and said "this is a fat globule". His forehead is a bit leaner and it has one stitch holding the skin together for now. The amazing thing about Jesse is he was all smiles once I stopped the bleeding and told him it would be alright. He kept telling me what a great mom I am all through the ER evening.

Nate is starting to push up on his hands and is getting pretty mobile by rolling and pushing himself backward. Its fun to see his progress.

I know this is a lot of writing for me, but its been a busy couple of weeks and I guess I needed to get it out of my head. So I hope you enjoyed my thoughts....

Florida wildlife

Tonight, Eleanor opened the front door, then said "Hey mom, is this a baby snake in our house?" Yes, I said snake. So I ran to the door to see a baby snake. It was probably about 5 inches long and black. I poked at it with my flip flop and it slithered UNDER our CLOSED front door. Anybody want to come visit? I opened the door and tried to smash it with my flip flop (it was all I had!) then saw it slip under the threshold plate. The answer to the burning question: no, I never did get it. I'll keep my eyes out for it and keep something deadly by the front door for next time I see it. We see lizards all over the outside of our house and we have frogs hop in all the time. They're fun to catch and I honestly don't mind them, but I do have some issues with snakes, even baby ones.

We see all kinds of beautiful birds. I've included a picture of some birds we saw down the street on our way home the other day.

Thanksgiving

We had a quiet Thanksgiving here at home. We brined a small turkey, then Jarin cooked it on the rotisserie. Yummy!! Yummy!! It was so moist and full of flavor!! We also made sweet potato oranges, which we truly enjoyed. Here is the link for the recipe. Of course, I cut back the fat and made the serving sizes smaller by using clementines. I also omitted the nuts (yuck) and put marshmallows on top.

OK, so the link didn't work, but here is the address so you can copy and paste. I'm sure you're all dying to see it.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sweet-Potato-Oranges/Detail.aspx


As usual, we went around the table and shared what we are thankful for. Here are the things we are most thankful for:

Jarin: Family, job, house, health
Sarah: Having our family together and I'm thankful I don't have to cook a 7 course meal every day!
Hannah: The Book of Mormon
Eleanor: Yankee (oh, how we miss Yankee!)
Jesse: Mommy. Oh, and Daddy too.
Nate: Rice cereal. He enjoyed his first serving of delicious rice cereal at the Thanksgiving table. We weren't planning on doing it then, but he seemed so interested in our food and he IS 6 months now, so we got it out and he loved it!

Bil's wedding

Most of you know "Uncle Bil." He got married in the Portland, OR temple to a darling girl named Caitlin last weekend. It was a sweet weekend for everyone, so nice to see family. "Cousin Jenny" was a super hostess and took great care of all of us. She even did mom's hair and took her for a mani/pedi!

In spite of Nate's size, the kids LOVE to carry him around. He's perfectly happy to be carried. In fact, he really thinks its pretty great. He's getting stronger every day. I think he will be sitting on his own soon.

Eleanor's pics

I took a few pictures of Eleanor after school yesterday. She had her hair curled with rag curls and was so excited about it.

Breakfast outside

The weather here is so beautiful!!! I can totally see why so many people retire to Florida. We had breakfast on the lanai this morning and it was heavenly.

Halloween

For Halloween, we went to the Trunk or Treat at the church. They went all out with games and dinner, and trunk or treating. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time. Jarin came home from a trip just in time to accompany us home from the party. I also put up the pic on our family bench from Halloween night. The kids aren't really looking at me because they were anxious to get out trick or treating and get all that candy.

Brooker Brave!

Hannah received the Brooker Brave of the month award in her class for October. This is her with Principal Lacy, receiving her award. Awesome Hannah!!

Eleanor sleeping

We continually find Eleanor sleeping in strange places and in strange positions. We found her asleep under the craft table the other day. She went to bed in her room, but sneaked out and hid under this table by our room.

Major Thayn

Jarin pinned on Major's rank on October 1st. Jesse and I got to be part of the ceremony, then we got to go outside and tour the G-5, a very cool plane. Jesse got to sit in the cock pit and dream.

Walt Disney World

After spending the summer without Jarin, we decided to take a little family time. What better place to go than the happiest place on earth? We took the girls out of school and just enjoyed a fun week in Orlando.