A change

This has been one long month. Tessa hasn't been sleeping and it's taken a toll on me. I've been waking up with major stomach and back pains. This isn't Tessa's fautl, it's my own. But, I've decided it's time for a change. The problem is not just lack of sleep, but my gall bladder is acting up. I had a gall bladder attack when I was pregnant and it's been bothering me ever since. I was told by a chiropractor that it was my gall bladder and after doing some research, figured that is what it is. Rather than go to the doctor and have to be scheduled for surgery, I'm going to avoid that and try to fix it on my own. I'm cutting out diet coke, spicy food and junk food. My diet is really bad, I must admit. I haven't had any diet coke since Saturday (woohoo!) and I haven't been eating fatty foods at night before bed. My new breakfast is herbal tea with lemon, two whole wheat pieces of toast with honey. I have a homemade jamba juice for lunch (frozen fruit, yogurt and juice) I've been snacking on beets, eating more veggies and no ice cream, chips or salsa and only a bit of dark chocolate! I actually woke up without a tummy ache today! The first time in ages. Hopefully this is the start of feeling better in the long run. Just need to keep it up.

Tessa 8 months

She wants to stand up now-all the time! She tries to pull herself up on anything she can get her hands on. She is rolling and scooting all over the place, and she wants to crawl but hasn’t quite figured it out. This past month she has been sick a lot, and up in the night a lot. She’s also teething! I felt a little tooth just barely coming in today. She loves her baby food-she’ll eat anything I give her, but seems to prefer the turkey and sweet potatoes. Her new favorite game is, I drop the toy and you pick it up. She loves the toy she got for Christmas-she drops a rolly polly thing in and it goes through a tunnel and activates music and comes out the bottom. She’ll play with that for at least 10 minutes!   She is now sitting in the shopping cart and stroller without her carseat and loves to look around at people and her surroundings. We always get stopped numerous times in stores so people can admire her and compliment her, but she hardly ever will give them a smile. Those are reserved only for those she loves-her family and a few special friends. Her siblings are still crazy about her and her face lights up when they come home from school. She loves her Daddy too-when he’s not paying attention to her, she’ll look at him and smile until she gets his attention. When Mommy holds her, she likes to eat my hair or suck on my face. She’s just so adorable. We all love her so much!

Random things

Happy New Year! We didn’t do much for New Year’s. Julio wasn’t feeling well, (I should post a video I took of him when he came down with a fever) but we did head to Ikea during the day New Year’s Eve. We got free kids’ meals, browsed the store and let the kids play in the play area. It was fun. We just stayed home that night and watched movies, ate popcorn and drank sparkling cider. The kids all wanted to stay up until midnight. Lucia actually did and Tessa was awake too! It was a little party! We all woke up sick on New Year’s day. It’s been a long week with Tessa being up in the night coughing. Poor baby.

I love that face!Midnight, New Year’s Eve

Yesterday, about 10 minutes before we had to go pick up Marco from school, I was nursing the baby when Sylvie came running in wearing a pair of Tessa’s bloomers (diaper cover that goes under a dress) and was dancing around singing “Shake your booty! Shake your booty!”  I had already gotten her dressed and ready to go, but I had to do it all over again. We were a little bit late picking up Marco.

This week, hopefully we will all be better and can sit down and set some goals for the year.

Christmas Day-part 2

Because of church this year, we didn’t even start opening presents until about 2 pm. It took us so long because we had so many gifts and the kids started to get tired of opening them! Imagine that! Next year, I need to remember to not get so much and that they do get gifts from family besides me!

Lucia with her make-up kit from Grandma

The adorable apron Aunt Tami made.

Marco has had hours of play with these gears from Grandma and Grandpa.

Hi Grandpa! The girls with their gifts from Great Grandma Strong.

Brian loves Ticket to Ride!

Eden didn’t want her picture taken.

Brandon was elated with his ticket to Disneyland from Callie!

A happy but tired momma and baby. Christmas this year was wonderful, but when it’s done, I’m done! Thank you to all our family who gave us so much. We loved it all.

Christmas Day-part 1

Santa came!

Lucia asked for an art kit and an easel. She got both (plus a sketchbook and lots of easel paper) and was so happy! She loves to do art ALL DAY LONG!

Tessa was in such a good mood Christmas morning-all smiles and loving all the stuff in her stocking-new bibs, hair bows, toys.

Marco didn’t ask for a light saber, but he was so excited to get one. He also loves his new Nerf gun. He likes to play war and he and Uncle Brian had a blast together.

Sylvie loves her new bike. It was hard for Santa to know what to get her since all she asked for was candy!

We could have been done with Christmas with just the gifts from Santa! The kids were happy with their main gift and stocking stuffers. But, we had to eat a quick breakfast and tear them away from their new toys.  We got dressed and had to be to church by 10 am. Since the kids didn’t wake up until 8:30, it didn’t give us a whole lot of time. It was nice to go to church on Christmas day. The meeting was so nice and it was fun to meet and greet friends.

Christmas tree tights!

Christmas Eve

First, a delicious ham dinner (thanks to a newcomer this year, Lew) Cute babies look on below.

Pre-white elephant gifts-the kids got to open their “special” gift. (actually a $1 snow globe, but still special to them).

Sylvie and Eden got a reindeer and penguin stuffed toy. (didn’t get a photo of Eden)

Some of the prized gifts including the above reindeer hat were a Dallas (the TV show from the 80’s) board game, a Christmas cat decoration, the snack daddy caddy, and the coveted Ticket to Ride game.

After the raucous White Elephant exchange, we settled down to read the account of Christ’s birth from the scriptures.

We tried to get a family photo in front of the tree, but not everyone was cooperating (Marco )  We made it home by 9:30 and the kids were in bed by 10.  It was a late night and we were so tired, but we had to wait for Santa to come…