This is how I feel this Christmas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

the kids

Look at the little Ladies Man!

We can't get enough of those chubby cheeks. Nate is two months old and weighs in at a whopping 14 lbs, only one pound less than his 5 month old cousin! I can't wait to see those wrestling matches. He'll have to wait awhile to challenge Jake and Carter.

Apparently these are funny faces--who knew? In other news, it is December 11 and I have done almost NO Christmas shopping. I can't seem to get rid of my bright little kids who watch everything I put in the cart. I have finished one of my stockings though, not making fast progress over here.

I love Christmas!

I've been listening to Christmas songs around the clock now, and it is so fun. My mom and I put up my Christmas tree today--yesterday we did hers. My next goal is to make stockings that I have had fabric for for several years now...but lets not go there. I just love Christmas!

What's your flava?

I got this from my friend Camille, it's lots of fun!

Beautiful Girl

Yes, Emmy has two different colored eyes. One brown, one blue. When she was 1.5 or 2 she got a fleck of gold in the one eye, which slowly changed over time to be 3/4 brown. They are pretty, but it's hard to correct red eye in her photos! Click on this picture to blow it up, they look even more amazing up close!

Fat Baby

Nate is six weeks old, and weighs 12.5 lbs. He is gaining a pound a week, and shows no sign of stopping. I feed him bottles daily, I just can't keep up with him. I can't wait for him to smile! He makes sweet little happy sounds when he is eating, I just love it.

Car Talk

Ashley: Mom, do you scream? Because I do.

Me: I try not to Ash, I don't like it.

Ashley: I scream LOUD!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. We went to "Grammy" Lisa's, as Bash has started calling her. Bashy's newest thing is to make up nicknames for everyone. Deborah became Debbie or Deb Deb, she calls Justin "J" and me "Katie Lisonbee Mom." Camille is Camilly Bo Bielly. She also smiles funny for the camera. The kids had their own set up on the coffee table, and Deb brought them chocolate turkeys.

Emma thought the table was too low.
My mom had her shoulder replaced the Monday before, so we did a small feast this year. My uncle Steve and Grandma Bankhead came over from Utah, Deb and Zack our family friends, Mike and Jen and a friend Mary from China, and then us. Steve did most of the cooking, then Deb, and I did the green bean casserole. One of my favorite parts was the nap I took after dinner!

"Mom, get the camera!"

"Take a picture, Mom, everybody is being so cute!"

Naptime?

I used to get such great naps in the afternoon--no more. I don't have any idea what happened to that time, but today I'm trying to update my blog instead.

Look at the proud Daddy--he's been waiting a long time for that boy! We blessed Nate on November 4th. Justin's parents and brother and sister came out, as well as my youngest brother and two sisters. It's so great to have family. My sister Mary came for two weeks with her baby, so we sat around lots feeding the boys. I appreciated the efforts of everybody to come support us, especially because I know it required a little sacrifice for lots of them. Here are the Lisonbee family representatives:

Nate wore the same little outfit his cousin David did. He actually kept it clean all day--that's never happened to me before!

Emma is now 7, going on 17. She is very helpful with Nate.

Camille and Ashley like to be silly.

Grammy Lisa loves babies. She was so helpful to me the first weeks after Nate was born. She picked up Emma at school every day at 4pm, then brought her home and stayed with us through dinner and helped put the kids to bed. She also provided much needed company and back up baby bouncing. She is the one who got Nate to take both a bottle and a passy. I never would have survived without her. Plus, she has such a twinkly smile :)

Check-up

Nate had his two week check-up yesterday. He has gained a little weight and is back up to his birth weight now. He is poopy EVERY time I change his diaper, and the doc said that means I have good milk. I'm hoping that will beef up the little boy so he is nice and fat. And, I'm tired.

First snow

The girls insisted on getting out their boots, hats and mittens, even though the snow wasn't even sticking to the streets or sidewalks.

P.S. What happened to fall? That went a little too fast for my taste, I hope we still get a couple more weeks of it.

baby connisseur part 2

Sitting at the dinner table, talking about a surprise we had for the girls if they ate whatever healthy thing we were having that night. (The surprise was a basket of bluberry muffins, covered up with a cloth so they would eat something besides just muffins.)
Emma said she could smell them and knew what they were, but when we gave her another whiff she couldn't tell us. Camille had a go and said, "mmmmm," but also couldn't name the surprise. Basher took one sniff and said, "MUFFINS!"

Phew

Nate seems to be doing better and better, hopefully this three night trend will continue. I am amazed how little else I have time for. I am already missing the days when I could get to Target and back in barely more than an hour. I can't even get out of my house in an hour now. I get a little stir crazy being home so much, but I try to remind myself that there really aren't many more important things I need to do.

Passing a milestone

Wow, as cute as he is I forgot how much I hate that first night home. I was up all night long, crying unreasonably for half of it, and if I didn't have good friends here I'd be dead today because somebody took Camille and Ashley until 2 pm this afternoon. I'm still alive, the first night is over, and I have lots more help scheduled for the week.

HOORAY!

Sorry for the delay, but appearing now for his many fans is
Nathan James Lisonbee, or Nate Dawg.



My labor wasn't too bad. We went in at 6:30 am Friday morning, started an IV and pit at about 7 am, then got an epidural between 9 and 10 am, before the real pain started thankfully.

Nate was born at 4:07 pm, Friday October 12th. He was 7 lbs 10 oz, and 19 inches long. He's a compact little cutie. I was certain he'd be over 8 lbs he felt so heavy to me, but he's just short. He gets it from the Clarks. Speaking of Clarks, Grandma is a BIG fan!

The girls were also very excited, Ashley is especially attached to her "baby bwother." They came to visit Saturday morning, and took turns holding him. They were also very excited about the chocolate pudding in the lounge.


I absolutely adore this picture of him, how do you not love a chubby cheeked baby with frog legs? I think I'll blow it up.

It ain't over 'til it's over

Still pregnant. Does anyone besides me feel that this is dragging on and on and on? I wonder if I'll sleep at all tonight--I'm thinking no.

Enough is enough

Camille peed on the carpet at my mom's house tonight. My mom just had her carpets cleaned a couple weeks ago. Isn't Cam a little old for that? I wonder if motherhood will ever involve fewer bodily functions than it does now. You would think once they are potty trained--but NO!

Almost ready

I'm getting all my things together, trying to get ready for the kid. I pulled my infant seat out of storage in my mom's basement and got the confirmation from my girlfriends that it is not too girly for a boy. I went to target and bought a few baby blankets, some sheets, boy pacifiers (mine are all pink), my favorite smelling baby lotion, and other necessities like that. I made some new boy burpcloths--my favorite cloth diaper ones that absorb tons of spit. I even started washing new clothes. It is kind of fun, I haven't really had to prepare like this since I was pregnant with Emma! Now if I could just get up enough energy to put my house in some kind of reasonable order, I'd be all set!

Thanks...

I went to the library with Basher today, and a random little girl (about age 3, I guess) patted my belly as she walked by me and said, "you have a BIG tummy!" I think her mother was a little embarassed. You gotta love kids, they just tell it like it is.

I posted it on the other blog so I though I might as well let the whole world see what I have been complaining about.

Countdown!

Yeah for me,
I have an official date. Today at my appointment they told me they would schedule my induction for Friday the 12th of October, exactly what I was hoping. That means two weeks and three days from now I should be getting back to my cheerful self. Oh, I can't wait!

baby connisseur

I almost got out my old french dictionary to check out the spelling on that word, then figured the four people who read this blog wouldn't care!

So we were at a Mexican restaurant in Park City with the family and Justin and I got horchata. (Just in case it's a rice milk drink with cinnamon in it.) We love it. Ashley tried a sip and said, "mmmmm, cinnamon!" You've just got to love a two-year-old fat kid who can pick out spices in new foods!

These other pictures are to illustrate another funny habit of Basher's. She loves to block the way and say, "what's the password?" It is usually bibbity-boppety-boo, please, por favor, abre, or other things like that. Sometimes she makes you say several. It struck me as so funny at gigantic Sunset Park that the little tiny thing ran ahead to "block" the path.

And they sailed on.

My Dad told me that in the Mayflower log the most common entry was "And they sailed on," meaning much of life must be trudged through a day at a time and is not glamourous. I think a pregnant woman must have kept that log--a nice one who knew to say nothing when you have nothing nice to say. I'm 32 weeks now, and trudging on.

Vacation Pics

Camille and Ashley wouldn't leave baby David alone! They just loved him. Cam especially was very good with him and one night she laid beside him and fell asleep putting his passy back in.

Cam was nervous on the boat at first, but then she got comfortable and had so much fun. She even helped out with the rope a couple times. In this picture she has a tight grip on the boat, and also on the baby's carseat to make sure he's okay!

The girls loved the bow of the boat and call it the "flying seat."

Vacation

So we have had two "vacations" since my last post. Parts of Justin's family came here for a couple weeks, and we just got back from a week in Park City with my family. We've had a lot of fun, but I think once you are a mother they should call it something else, like temporary relocation or something like that. I'm exhausted!

busy busy busy

Justin's fam is here visiting. We are having a blast, and are halfway through our visit. Here is a link to some pics we posted of the fun things we've been doing on the Lisonbee family blog!
http://michelle-controlledchaos.blogspot.com/2007/08/cousins-catch-up.html

It's a little crazy, all kids have several bruises or other battle marks. Lots of scraped knees, an abundance of scratch wounds from an unnamed little one, even a black eye. Still, they whine when we separate them to sleep at night. (It's the only way to get any peace.) Wish we could get together more!

28 weeks

I am now going on 28 weeks pregnant...it's not going fast enough.

nevermind

Today I hate year-round school, because this is our last week on then we are off for three weeks. Thursay and Friday are parent conference days, too, so only three more days of blessed peace and fewer children and then I'm back to my full-time entertainment job. Hopefully the time will pass quickly--the Lisonbee's are coming out to visit so if I'm alive still on August 1st it will be easy after that. Expect reports of meltdowns coming soon.

Thank heaven for school!

And for year-round school, for that matter. My kids started a week ago and things around here are already going a little smoother. Camille loves kindergarten, she tells everyone that she is a kindergartner. She is pretty excited that she gets her own Thursday Folder (the way they send info home from school) because she has watched Emma get one for two years now. She talks about recess a lot, that and snack time. What do you expect--she's five!

Emma also is much better behaved when she is in school. Honestly I think she just gets bored, and I don't have the time or energy to entertain her all day. She likes her new class and there are lots of kids from last year so I think she got comfortable quickly.

Now if only it wasn't so bloody hot I could happily run around and do my errands and work with only one child for the limited time I have that option. Since it is bloody hot we go to the pool or stay in air conditioned spaces--it's all I can handle.

Baby Chicks

My kids have been pestering me at every turn today! They are out of school, of course, so I have to keep them busy. We went to the pool yesterday, and today I thought I'd run a couple errands and then let them have friends over while the baby napped in the afternoon. We got all ready and drove 15 min. away, walked into the first store, and had our first two tantrums there not 5 feet from the store entrance. I turned around, took them all out, got back in the car and drove home. Not just a little bit annoyed that they had spoiled my plans.

So we got home and had lunch, and they were good for 15 min. while they ate Spongebob macaroni, then the baby threw another tantrum about taking her nap. She cried hysterically all the way to bed and didn't stop when I shut the door. Then Camille took over from there. She shadowed Emma pestering her and making annoying noises. She tried to play games on the computer but didn't have enough patience to wait 2 seconds for the screen to load so she had the computer frozen clicking buttons and then freaked out. I sent her upstairs for quiet time (which incidentally she was already supposed to be doing.) She continued to argue with Em all afternoon, just hanging around and bothering her.

Poor Emma had a rough day. She was great up until the time I lay down for a nap, then she would not leave me alone. I tried to call a friend for her but they weren't home, and so we were waiting for them to call back and she checked about that every few minutes, otherwise she just sat right beside me balancing and messing around on Justin's exercise ball and hovering. I snapped at her and asked her to put it away, which she didn't. After not too long I went up to my room to escape their bickering, and Emma followed me. She kept coming in my room to tell me what Camille had called her and ask when I was getting up. At one point she told me to get up in 5 min and I said NO! I had barely slept at all.

Then Ash got up from her nap and started calling me from her room. Naptime over. Now it is 5pm and I'm feeling extremely edgy, but Emma's friend finally just got here and they are playing upstairs and not hanging on me for the first time all day. Time to make dinner.

I read once that being a mother of toddlers was like being pecked to death by baby chicks. I don't think it applies exclusively to toddlers.

family fun...

We have been having such a blast with our kids this summer. I took them camping again last week with my little brother Mike while Justin was away at Scout Camp. Then last night we went bowling with them for the second time. The kids just eat it up. I can already see the positive effects between the girls. Emma and Camille have been playing so well together, I'm loving it!

Ashy Bash

Ashley is currently terrified of bugs, also dogs. She freaks out when she sees a fly in the house. She has to point it out to me and won't relax until we swat it. Heaven forbid it actually fly toward her, it causes a full scale panic. She also points out all spiders and any other crawly things on the ground. It often turns out to be a little piece of mulch from our back yard, but better safe than sorry, right? Just last week the girls were playing outside finding roly polies. Camille loves them and brought one in the house to show me. She and Em were taking turns holding it, and then they took it back outside to let it go. Unfortunately just after earning his freedom Ashley squashed him. She was proud of herself but the other girls came to tell me all distrought and crying. It was quite comical. Our neighbors have two wild little dogs that frequently escape when their daughters go in our out of the house. My kids will run screaming for the house or the back yard when they do, all in terror. Ashley gets so scared she will freeze and just tremble. She likes to see the dogs but prefers they take no notice of her.

A Few of her favorite things include sunglasses, babies, band-aids, playing outside (especially without shoes), fruitsnacks (which she is begging for every morning by 7am), baths, going potty, trying on shoes, purses, chapstick, and Grandma.

She knows the names of all our friends in the ward, but calls the dads only by their last name. Sunday she saw our friend Bill Nalen across the hall and said, "Mom! I saw Nalen!" Jerry Larsen is "Larsen," even when she is speaking directly to him. Anybody we don't know is a "danger." It sounds pretty funny when she runs in from playing outside and says, "Mom, there's a danger!" Meaning she saw someone out there. If we see someone in the store she will either ask, "What's that Mom?" or ask if it's a "danger."

Bash likes to be the center of attention, and get a laugh. She makes faces, pretends to burp at the table, snorts loudly, announces every time she toots, and has a hilarious fake laugh. Once I was getting mad at her because she took off her diaper and peed in her bed during naptime. I sat her on the potty and gave her a mean look to show her I was very upset. She made a little face and said, "Am I funny mom?" I said NO. She then gave a little pout and said, "I wanna be funny!"

She is such a lovey, snuggly little thing. When someone leaves the house to go somewhere she says, "Huggie, Huggie!" and gets very upset if she doesn't get one. She comes up to me lots and asks to be held, or to snuggle me. She also spontaneously grabs my leg or hugs me and says, "I love mommy." She does it to Justin, too. When I get mad at her she won't be happy until I sit and hold her for a minute and she knows I still love her. If I stay mad she hovers around me whining and pouting until I'll stop and hold her a bit then she can go about her business.

I wish I had a picture of this but she has a fettish about getting stuff inbetween her toes. She will sit down and examine them one by one, pulling them apart and swiping with her finger if she finds "nasty the toes!"

single parenthood

Justin is away at Scout Camp for a couple days, and I'm thinking single parenthood is overrated. My kids have been pretty good, but the hard times really kill me--like for example when they are all three screaming or talking to me at once. Tonight Ashley started melting down at 6:30, crying over every little thing. I was reading stories--not exactly your high stress activity--and I told her to shhh because she wouldn't stop whining while I was reading. I wish I had a picture of the face she gave me. "MOM! Why you say Shhhhh!?"

How may girls is too many?

It turns out for me, that would be four. But not to worry, we will soon have a little more testosterone flowing in our house! It's a boy!

New Tatics

Tonight we put Ashley to bed by herself, usually she goes at the same time as Camille, and she didn't like it too much. She yelled down to me for about an hour, here are some of the comments:
"Mom!"
"Mom!"
"Is it morning?"
"Mom?"
"Mom, I need my blankie, it's on the floor." (It wasn't when I put her in bed.)
"Mommy!"
"Mom!"
"I took off my pants!"
"I took off my pants! I took off my pants! I took off my pants! I took off my pants!"
"Mom, I took off my pants!"
"Mom, I took off my diaper."
"I mean I took off my pants, not my diaper."
"Mom!"

about 45 minutes into the yelling:
"Camille!"
"Camille, go to bed with me!"

After getting no responses she finally started talking to and playing with a toy dog she had in bed. I did eventually go up and tell her to be quiet and gave her the blankie, and she finally went to sleep.

Gone Campin'

Last weekend we went camping! Wuhoo, our first time as a family! We went to Chatfield with a few other families in our ward. The site is less than 10 miles from our house, which was nice. The weather was great and so was the company. The kids acted like old pros. They wore their old jeans, and got good and dirty for me. I wish I had taken a picture of Camille and Emma's feet Saturday when I put them in the bath, I'd never seen blacker, dirtier feet.

When we were hanging around the fire at dusk, Ashley turned to me in her camp chair and asked, "What's this mom? What's this?" I had no idea what she was talking about so I asked what and she said, "are we camping?" Like, is this all we do? She had a little suffed dog she brought and wandered around with it stuffed inside her shirt most of the night.

A couple of us brought bikes and the older ones had a ball riding around. Emma was one of a couple who had just learned and they only plowed over two little kids. It was a nice big area though, with lots of empty roads so it was a great spot for bike riding.

One of the families brought a mini house bouncer thing, and that was a big hit. The same family also had the brilliant idea to bring a bunch of glow sticks, and that is how we kept track of all the kids after dark. We plan on going again soon, it was a great weekend.

here's Camille

I would describe Camille as a somewhat volatile child. You know that nursery rhyme about the little girl who had a little curl? That is Camille exactly. The interesting thing is that she can flip from sweet to furious in a matter of seconds. She is known for screaming when she gets frustrated, so we hear that a lot. Even more interesting (and more rare) is that she can also flip back to sweet, although it happens much less. She will tell me, "I changed my mind, I'm going to be happy." and she does. It is very difficult to predict what will precipitate these changes, I don't even try. There are a few common ones, for example finding a treasured item moved from where she carefully placed it, being bossed around or mothered by Emma, or not being able to accomplish something she is trying to do like get her sunday dress on.

In reference to the above mentioned habit of stashing treasures, this is the same child who caused me some alarm one day when I found my wedding ring missing from beside the bathroom sink. I thought perhaps Justin had hidden it (which he sometimes does) to punish me for leaving it out, but I called him at work and he assured me he had seen it there when he left that morning. Later in the day--after checking the pockets of every pair of pants I own--I thought to ask the kids. "Girls, have you seen mommy's special wedding ring?" Emma said no, but Camille said yes. I said, where is it? "Oh, I'll show you, it's right here." She proceeded to take me upstairs and reach her little arm behind a dresser to get my ring. I about died, I couldn't tell if it was from relief that my diamond was not lost or the fact that I would never have found it on my own! When she was small and she fell, we would not go rescue her because the first person to reach her became the villian responsible for her trouble and she would smack them. We would look away and pretend we didn't notice, in which case she usually would scream but at least not take it out on someone else.

Cam is so very creative, one of her dominant traits. She is a self-entertaining child, and was an easy baby. She will go with a bucket of polly pockets to some corner of the house and amuse herself for hours. She has a great imagination for play, and loves to imitate movies. She also has a great sense of humor and it's so fun to watch movies with her and see where she will laugh out loud. Often it is when a cartoon character gets smashed or hit with something. She has been quoting the funny parts of movies to me since she could barely talk! She used to love Shrek a lot and now is into Cinderella III, and the Return of Jafar. She likes the part where Iago says, "you got a problem pinkie?" to a flamingo and then knocks it over. She told me today she had named her special pink blanket "pinkie."

This picture was taken during the big blizzard we had this last December. We took the kids out that day to play in the snow, and Camille wasn't a fan. Right after I forced her to pose for this pic I sent her inside where she happily sat on the couch and watched a movie.

She is also my most sensitive child, and the one it most breaks my heart to get mad at, because she does not cry often so when she does tear up you know she is sincerely hurt. When she has her feelings hurt she will go hide or try to hold it in, and you should see that little face! My favorite face of hers is when she is beaming with pride--when she has managed to accomplish something or receives praise, it is so much fun to see her soak it it!

Did you ever see a girl so loaded with personality?