Two more weeks have gone by and we are enjoying "normal" life.

Details from Jan 10-16
School was back in session after two snow days, and now the snow is all melted. Tuesday morning three of my friends came over and we visited while the kids played. That night Lee made pea soup, and I some yummy rolls (thanks again Cindy!) and we fed the Elders. It was very very good (great job Lee!). Lee had Friday off thanks to the four-day weekend holiday! We went on a date test driving some vehicles, finishing it off with Lamb's Donuts. YUM! Friday night we had some more friends over and played Bananagrams and Skip-Bo. Saturday we hung out at home mostly. We ALL went to the commissary together...something I am glad we don't do hardly ever! That night we babysat our friend's kids. (See train pictures below)

Now for this last week: Jan 17 - 23
Lee had Monday off to complete the 4-day weekend. The new Relief Society President met with me on Monday and on Wednesday to work on Visiting Teaching. Wow. I now have a new appreciation for all those VT Coordinators out there! We aren't done (and never will be technically) figuring out the routes, but my Pres. is amazing and has figured out most of it. We should be ready to hand out the new routes on Sunday. Thursday I watched 3 different kids and also visited with two of the moms later. I love getting together with other mothers during the day! On Friday I started preparing for Saturday. We went to St. Louis on Saturday, so I switched the laundry day to Friday (normally I do laundry on Saturdays and Mondays). We had a great time in St. Louis. We have some fun traditions (well, I think so) for the kids when we go to the temple. They seem to look forward to the trip too. Also, Lee and I enjoy the time of rejuvenation and helping out with the work done in the temple. Other happenings: I filed taxes last week. It's the earliest I've ever filed. Yep, I like tax time. For anyone who has five kids, what is there not to like?! Lastly, somewhere last week, Cal managed to fall in the toilet with his clothes on.

Speaking of toilets, just one more week and we are potty-training the girls. Any advice? My friend Jeanne potty-trained triplet boys all on her own. I think I will survive okay as Lee will take a week off of work and potty-train Shanna and I will do Haley. It will be nice to have only ONE child in diapers, not THREE. And a little extra money every month will be nice too! Here's hoping that our 1-week training that we essentially did with the boys works with the girls too.

It's amazing seeing Elden go from this...

....to this! We sure love this little guy. I often think of his big fight he had to undergo with his small body.


Shanna and Haley Sunday night...I usually take preparing simple Sunday meals literally. And this was even simpler as Lee made the homemade french fries! Yes mom, we had our veggies.



A picture from over a week ago while babysitting our friends kids. (The see below train picture.)



Enjoy the week!

We've had a few firsts and some hopefully-lasts this week.

I started feeding Elden baby food. I don't like the "baby food" stage, truthfully. I just rather nurse them or give them what the rest of us are eating. But so far it's going okay and I am excited that he is developing well!


We had our first snow day from school! And I am glad I found out soon enough that I could sleep in a little.








Our little guy weighs 15 pounds now!


Another first--Elden has been getting up on his knees lately. I am so thankful that he is showing signs of getting ready to crawl.


Another first (sort of): Elden is now in his own room, which basically means no more mid-night, or early morning feedings. (Breakfast is not served till 6am...at the earliest!) He actually has been sleeping through the night for weeks and weeks, so I am hoping that naturally continues and that my writing this doesn't jinks anything!

Want proof that kids watch what you do?? Shanna did ALL of this of her own accord. I don't know if Lee opened the baby food container, but I didn't! It was so cute!


Elden playing in the closet while I was getting the kids geared up to play in the cold and snow on the 2nd snow day of school.




And for the hopeful-lasts....This month we bought diapers for the girls for the last time! In February Lee is taking off a week of work and he is potty-training Shanna and I am potty-training Haley. They will be 3 months shy of their 3rd birthday at that point. I am hoping we luck out like we did with Clark and Cal and get them potty-trained in a week! This will be the first time since May 2nd 2007 that we will have just one kid in diapers!

And the next BIG first AND hopeful-last: kids cutting kids' hair! Cal cut Shanna and Haley's hair last week. Haley's wasn't bad at all. Shanna's....well, I have to fix her hair in a weird way. So if Haley's hair looks great and Shanna's doesn't, now you know why!

Other than the two snow days, the main happening of last week was the after-the-holiday cleaning. I miss all of my family that was here! COME BACK!

Oh, I did get a new calling! I am now the Relief Society Visiting Teaching Coordinator. In our church we get paired up with another lady in the congregation and visit other ladies from church to see how they are doing and share a spiritual message. It's a great way to get to know the women in our church and to find out how we can serve them. I've had many callings in Relief Society--our church's woman's organization, but never this one. There is a new Relief Society Presidency too. Any tips anyone?

One of my freshman roommates (go Ricks College!) gave birth to boy/girl twins today! Little did we know what excitement lay ahead for both of us after missions and college! I hunted her hospital down, and I am excited to call her and find out the wonderful details tomorrow. After I called and found her hospital, I walked upstairs to lay Elden down for the night. As I went in to the girls' room, I thought about how old they are now (2 and 3/4ths, ha ha) and how quickly time goes. My friend sure has a lot ahead of her in caring for two babies, (our first night home from the hospital was a nightmare!) but she is amazing and has an awesome husband, so I am not at all worried. I am so happy for them!

Thanksgiving 2009

We had an amazing Thanksgiving. We started off by visiting some friends in Memphis and spending the night with my friend Gianetta and her family--thanks! It was great to see Gianetta, Celia, Teresa, Laura and the Etheridges. After visiting friends, going to to the Memphis temple and doing a little shopping, we headed to Mississippi to visit the Ereksons, Bunkers, and Bartholomews.

Enjoying making real gingerbread houses...a yearly tradition in our family. Besides all the wonderful food she provided us, Lena made houses for all the kids to assemble--at least 19 of them (well minus the two babies which makes 17). Plus Dad and Sam built and decorated their own gingerbread houses too. I think Lena even had a couple of houses left over. I bet Sam is talking to Shawna in that picture.























We celebrated Sam's birthday a few days early




Thanksgiving afternoon we drove around and saw some cypress trees (right?). Then we drove through a creepy part of town where the houses were on 10 foot or so stilts because of continual flooding in that area. Yes, very creepy.




Thanksgiving night we went to a park













After the park we had a race in Lena's yard. Usually we do a longer Thanksgiving day race, but it was dark out by the time we started. Lee won the guys' race and Clark won the kids' race!

Aside from the Erekson's HUGE house, they had a HUGE yard too! The kids LOVED it! They have a section of their yard that is like a fish bowl. The kids loved sliding down the grassy hill to the bottom with sleds. Clark inherited his great-grandpa Thompson's hat.






Thanksgiving dinner was delicious!!! Cute hair Kirsten! (I fixed it, ha ha.)




I did help out some...I made the jello salad!






The girls had a fun time at Lena and Mike's


Baking pies with Grandma! It wouldn't be the holidays without LOTS of pies in my family!








One day we took a strenuous journey to Louisiana (just kidding, it was about 25 minutes away) and helped Sister Cochran. Well, actually we were the beneficiaries of many yummy pecans.














Yes, we picked up pecans off the ground


And we picked some more


And Paul found more....what a true picture of Paul--whistling while he works!






















I am very thankful for my family. Like I said, we had an amazing time!