2012 Year in Review

Twenty Twelve.

January - Huge Ice Storm in Washington and lots of friends lost power. We built huge snow forts, missed lots of school and saw just how many families we could cram into our warm little townhome.

February - Avery Ann turned 3!  Wade turned 36 and spent his birthday in Utah...without us:(, Eli started nursery at church - although it took him about 10 months to decide that he wanted to go.

March - Gage turned 8 and was baptized!  Wade went to San Antonio for work.  Just when we thought he had outgrown them, Noah had a couple seizures, had a fun ambulance ride and visit to the ER.  All while Wade was out of town.  Not my favorite day ever.  I turned 32.  Gage started scouts and participated in his first pinewood derby!

April - Wade went to Utah again - this time he drove and took the big boys.  Two big announcements   Number 5 was on her way - and we were moving to Utah!

May - Just after recovering from all of Noah's tests and concluding that they were "inconclusive"  he had another seizure  ambulance ride and then hospital stay.  Longest two days ever!  The poor boy was exhausted but happy once he found out they had Star Wars movies at the hospital he could watch.  We celebrated our 12 year anniversary.

June - Packing and more packing.  We pulled the kids out of school and had a mini vacation with my parents in Sequim, Washington.  We visited Forks, we played at the beach and had a lot of fun.  The day finally came at the end of the month - and Wade graduated Residency!

July - After 4 years in Washington, We moved! We found out baby number 5 was a girl.  (After a scare, we found out she was healthy too!) Wade started working a real job.  Instead of buying we found a perfect house to rent for the time and love our new neighborhood.  Our summer was cut really short by year-round-school.  Gage started 3rd Grade, Noah started Kindergarten

August - Eli turned 2!  We somehow survived the Utah heat.

September - We had our first break "off-track" from school and tried to fill our time being home and staying busy.  Wade worked and worked - but we see him tons more now!

October - Back to school.  My parents came for a short visit.  The boys participated in a running club in our neighborhood.  Gage was pretty proud that he finished so well in the race they had at the end of the month.  Baby girl kept growing and my blood pressure kept rising.  I spent a lot of the last of the month on bedrest.

November - Noah turned 6!  Little tiny Lucy May was born on November 5th!  My parents came to visit and stay with us and help for a few weeks.  We had Thanksgiving surrounded by family and blessed Lucy May at church.

December - Somehow we've survived having the whole month off track from school.  For the first time in four years we had to buy snow gear and have enjoyed the Utah snow.  We've enjoyed establishing some Utah Christmas traditions..one of which is having Wade actually home to celebrate it with us!

~~

2012 has been a challenging year and a blessed one at the same time.  

Some things have gone our way, some others have not.  

We've tried to roll with the punches and make the best of it.

We are looking forward to 2013, because we think it can only get better from here.

{Christmas}

And just like that...

Christmas 2012 is over!

The week flew by and I'm not even sure where the time went.  

This was the first year in 4 that Wade didn't have to work Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day!  

It was so nice having him home!

I was horrible at documenting anything this Christmas.

I hardly took any pictures. 

Christmas Day especially I tried to put the camera and phone away and just enjoy the time with my family.  

Christmas Eve, Lucy got all dressed up and ready to party with the Christiansens!

Wade's sister Pam always hosts the Christmas Eve party.  

I posted before about Pam's awesome play room.  

Wade is seriously just a big kid at heart.  He chased Eli around all night through the window.

The party was fun.  We had scones and played lots of games.  We haven't been to the Christiansen Christmas Eve party since Gage was a baby - so needless to say, our family of 7 added a little bit more volume to the party this year.  

It was great:)

Wade's mom was actually in the hospital the whole week, so we were all a little sad Grandma couldn't be there.  We missed her and are glad she is home now!

Of course, we stayed too late and had an hour drive home.  We hoped that this meant the kids would sleep a little bit longer Christmas morning.

hoped.

All 3 boys were up and ready to go downstairs at 6.  But Avery - my worst sleeper - was actually peacefully sleepingaway.  Something sounds wrong about waking up your worst sleeper - but finally at 7am I gave into their pleadings and they were able to wake her up and go downstairs.

Funniest picture of Christmas morning.  I tell Eli to take his fingers out of his mouth....and what does he do?  Put them up his nose!

Gage and Noah were super excited to get a Hobbit Lego Set each.

Christmas Eve Wade had been discussing with Gage what would happen if Santa didn't bring Legos.  How that would make him feel.  

Gage replied, "it's okay.  I put a lot of different things on my list, like a thousand dollars."

We were glad Santa was prepared with Legos.

My favorite part of Christmas morning?  I totally skipped the whole "Breakfast casserole - nice hot breakfast" deal this year and bought a huge box of miniature cereals at Costco.  The kids were SO excited and no one complained about how they thought the casserole was gross.

Score!

Plus, every morning this week Gage has been able to fix breakfast for everyone while I sleep in!

Even bigger score!

Everyone got new blankets/comforters for their beds this year.  Avery and Eli had a great time cuddling in theirs and watching a new Tinkerbell movies all Christmas morning.

Lucy did what Lucy does best.

Slept and looked cute.

Christmas afternoon/evening we went to my sisters for a little party.  We had lots of snack food and celebrated with a birthday cake for Baby Jesus.  Then we held the annual Christmas Coke Challenge.

We had 9 different kinds of soda the players had to guess and even though she got one wrong by putting down a selection that wasn't even on the table (?!) - my sister Kathy won!

Noah and Charlotte were my assistants putting together the game.  That meant they got to just drink all their little cups and didn't have to play. (Noah's favorite thing!)

And then after waking up to Eli running around the house at 3 am all week "just because" he could get out of his crib on his own, we got him a "new to him"  (out of the closet where we had it stored)  bed this Christmas.

He has really loved having his  own little toddler bed and does pretty well at nap times and bedtimes still.

And since he got a new bed - Lucy got a new bed!

She doesn't really care, since she sleeps in her bouncy chair most of the time.

It came and it went.

All a little fast.  

But it was a good holiday season and we had many things to be thankful for.

Sunday Photo .50

My last Sunday Photo for 2012 and this is the best I could get.

A right before we head up for bedtime - 

everyone sit on the couch - 

and smile - 

and not act too goofy - 

and try to be happy about it photo.

I've been taking a Sunday Photo for 2 whole years now.  And I wish I could say that everyone at my house was excited when I told them it was time for the picture of the week.  Sometimes I try and sneak it in, and sometimes I just make them grin and bear it.

Honestly, I have considered stopping this Sunday Photo shenanigans.  But I just can't get myself to do it.  Seven years ago, when I started this little blog I blogged almost daily.  Now,  4 more kids later, life has gotten a little bit more busy and these Sunday Photos are usually the only time I sit down to document our crazy chaotic life.

Yes,

The kids are growing up before my eyes.

I think I'll keep it up one more year.  

And just cross my fingers 2013 brings a few better pictures!

Sunday Photo .49

I was commenting to Wade the other day just how blessed we are to have friends everywhere.  If we could put a star on the map for every place we know someone, we'd have a map covered in stars. 

 Friends from high school, friends from even before high school, between Wade and I attended four schools before graduating with our bachelors (UAM, UVSC, BYU and the U of U)  then Iowa for med school and residency, plus church friends and blog friends (Wade says they don't count...but they do!)

It's amazing and great.  And such a blessing.

But it's a lot of people and I just wish I could send a card to every single person.  But I can't.

Presenting

Our digital Christmas Card:

Short little highlights from this past year:

Wade: Graduated residency in June.  We moved from Washington to North Salt Lake, Utah in July!  He now works for Foot and Ankle Specialist of Utah and has an office in Bountiful, Utah.  We love that even though he is working many hard hours building his practice, he works pretty normal hours.  We see him every weekend, he gets to enjoy church with us(!) and most days he even gets to come home for lunch!

Debbi:  Keeping up with 5 kids 8 and under is super busy.  She still enjoys reading and crafting when there is a spare moment.  She served as the 1^st counselor in Relief Society (women’s organization at church) in Washington and now has the same calling in Utah. She has enjoyed getting to know and serving the sisters in her neighborhood.

Gage:  Turned 8 in March and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!  He is in 3^rd grade at a year round school (the verdict is still out on if we love it or not) and loves Legos, Scouts, space and music.

Noah: Is 6 and loves half a day kindergarten.  He loves Star Wars, Legos, fried chicken legs and video games.  After a few seizures and a hospital stay this spring, he started daily anti-seizure medication.  He has been seizure free since May!

Avery:  Avery is 3 going on 16.  She thinks she is the boss and tries to be the little mom to everyone.  She loves to draw, sing and dress up and change her clothes a million times a day.

Eli:  In August Eli turned 2. He is a typical boy, he loves cars and trains!  He loves to climb out of his crib and will eat anything he can find.  Eli goes along with any plan Avery comes up with, so the two are usually finding trouble, one way or another.

Lucy:  Lucy May joined our family November 5.  She is a tiny little girl who has a ton of hair and loves to sleep.  She is the baby and will undoubtedly be spoiled.  We all adore her!

~~

The presents have all been wrapped and the preparations all done, now we get to sit back and anxiously awaiting Christmas morning.  

Gage and Noah have been dancing around singing that Christmas Eve is tomorrow and they just can't wait.

It will be the first time in 4 years Wade doesn't have to work on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day!

And while we are still having a pretty modest Christmas, we are feeling extremely blessed.

It's not about what is under the tree.  

But who we have around it that counts to me.

Hopefully the spirit of Christmas has touched your family, your home and your heart too.

Merry Christmas

love,

Wade, Debbi, Gage, Noah, Avery, Eli and Lucy

Temple Square & Gingerbread

Wade hasn't been home for a Christmas in Utah in 7 years.  Yep.  7 years!

1st year of med school we came home for new years, not Christmas.

2nd year we spent in Iowa because Noah was a tiny baby

3rd year we went to Tennessee for my family reunion

4th year Wade was working his bum off trying to impress the residency program he really wanted.

Then residency hit and we never saw him again...blah, blah, blah...

Long story short:  It's been while.

But since we are here...and here for good now, I thought it was about time we start some new Utah traditions!  

First one:  Visiting the lights at Temple Square!

We went this past Monday for family night.  It was raining a little, but nothing too bad. Besides, we are from Washington....rain won't hurt us!

Noah looks sad in this picture, but he said he wasn't sad,  he said a raindrop had just hit him in the forehead!

Avery jumped for joy when she found this "pink tunnel!"  She thought it was amazing!

We tried to go across the street to see the new candy windows at Macy's but apparently Eli had had enough. He sat down in a rain puddle (in the middle of a crowd of people) and wouldn't get up.

So we headed back to the Joseph Smith Memorial building and everyone enjoyed some hot chocolate and cookies.

Avery and Eli look like total trouble in the picture above!

I could have stayed longer, and so could have Gage and Wade, but everyone else was pretty tired.

Either way, it was a pretty fun night and a great tradition to start!

~~

While we've been gone for the past 7 years, Wade has also worked on Christmas Day and/or Christmas Eve for the past 4 years too.  So he's kinda been non-existent

This year however, it's different!  He left work Friday and he doesn't have to go back until Thursday   We won't know what to do with him.

(just kidding....totally kidding.  We are loving the fact he is actually AROUND now!)

  

I've done gingerbread houses with the kids by myself for the past couple years. 

And honestly...it's kinda a pain when the adult to kids eating sugar ratio isn't too equal.

So, Saturday  when Wade was home we did gingerbread houses.  

We cranked up the Christmas music.  

Dumped out a bunch of candy and went to town.

I guess we didn't make one for Lucy.  

But we had a lot of fun and ate a lot of sugar.

While the kids were gorging on sugar..I mean decorating their houses, Wade and I started dancing to the Christmas music and we did some old country dance moves.  We could have picked our kids chins off the floor..they were all looking at us speechless   

Finally Noah said, "WOW.  I didn't know you guys knew how to do that stuff."

HA!

So, I guess what we learned from gingerbread houses this year is that there is never enough candy and we need to dance in front of our kids more often:)

{December Highlights}

What a month!  The kids got out for Thanksgiving break from school and then went off-track for the entire month of December.  I figured this could either be a very good thing, or a very bad thing.  We made an "off-track-bucket-list" and got started.  Now I think we have crossed everything off (except any item related to homework!)  I think we did a good job balancing it out, relaxing and keeping busy.  

Five kids totally keeps me on my toes, there is never a dull-moment, free time or time to catch my breath!

Back while my parents were still helping we visited the Festival of Trees.  It was awesome and a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

The boys favorite was a Lego Tree Display.

And Avery, of course, loved the pink trees.  All of them!  I asked her to turn around for a picture and she started to twirl.  She is such a funny girl!

Lucy got to hang out with us at some Christmas parties.

We had one for his office at a restaurant downtown Salt Lake, and then one for the Utah Podiatric Association at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building   We had such a fantastic view!

We spent a lot of time doing laundry.  

I found Avery and Eli doing this one Saturday morning.

With a family of seven I am pretty sure I will NEVER finish laundry again in my life.

My nephew Tyler came to visit. He is an airplane mechanic and so we thought a visit to the Hill Aerospace Museum seemed appropriate.

Avery thought Tyler was her new best friend.  She wouldn't let him do anything but play with her the whole time.  She even fixed his hair and gave him a manicure.  He was a good sport to put up with her!

The next week my other nephew (Tyler's younger brother) came and visited for one night on the way home to Tennessee from BYU-I.  I had a Relief Society Activity that night, Gage had Scouts and Wade had something else....we didn't get to see Josh as much as we would have liked, but it was still nice to see him.  He just his mission call and will be heading to Brazil in April!

Wade took a trip to a coding conference in Phoenix.  

So I braved the Ward Christmas party by myself and 5 kids.

They were super good and I didn't have to make dinner!

My niece Charlotte had a piano recital that we crashed.  Literally.  After all the musical numbers the teacher asked for all the children to come back up front.  I am SURE she meant all the piano students, but before I could stop them my two boys bolted up there and took part of the bell number too.  

(If you click to enlarge the picture they are up front.)

We played a lot of house.  

And Legos.  

And sometimes the two mixed.

We did some Christmas traditions.

This Christmas story we share every December during family night.

Santa Bear has come and made an appearance.  He is our cheap version of the Elf on a Shelf.  I don't have pictures of everyplace he has been.  Some favorites have been - the toilet, the refrigerator  he decorated the tree with (clean) underwear, he also teamed up with the tooth fairy a couple nights.

We drew names and did Christmas shopping.  

Wade's niece Shay got married!  She's been planning this wedding for the past two years!  

It's crazy to see our nieces and nephews grow up!  Get real jobs, go on missions, get married...

(I think it means we might be getting old?!)

Avery and Eli enjoyed eating tons of cookies and dancing the night away at her reception.

I have NOT enjoyed shopping while being off track.  5 kids is a total challenge.  One day I had to document it because I'm sure that I will forget what it was like!  Lucy goes in the Snugli pack, Eli and Avery in the cart and Gage and Noah walk.  And I need a lot of patience and maybe even a  Diet Coke when we are done.

Avery had entertained up by wearing lots of different outfits every single day.  This particular day we didn't leave the house, so I let her wear it all day.  The boys kept snickering at her because (you can't tell in the picture) but it's black nylons she has on and they kept laughing that they could see her underwear:)

Darth-Eli.

Sleeping Lucy

This past weekend Lucy had to show us that she was no baby and could slide down the stairs.

Oh the things that the kids put up with when Wade is home!

One of the top items on our "bucket list" was play Legos at Aunt Pam's house.  Wade's sister has so many Legos!  Her youngest is a senior in high school and (won't admit) to playing legos anymore.  The kids had a blast dumping out the bins and searching through all the pieces.

She also has an awesome play room that Eli enjoyed!

And then she brought them a "snack" of marshmallows and Coke in little party cups!

Aunt Pam is as good as Grandma!

Noah lost his two front teeth this break!

He swallowed the second one at Pam's house.  

And then he was mad at me for flushing the toilets the next day...

he thought we were going to find his tooth?!?

One thing Gage really wanted to do was visit Santa.  Since Santa didn't come to the Ward Party, I knew I would have to visit a mall and I was totally bummed.  I was not excited, but it had to be done.  When the 8 (almost 9 year old!) still believes in the magic, who was I to spoil it?

One trip to the mall, a bunch of complaining from Noah and an expensive picture later, we had all visited Santa and told him our lists!

And last but not least, we visited Wade's office to drop off some treats and presents.  The kids love going there, but there are just so many of us!  Eli had a great time inspecting everything he could find outside.

There were days we totally just laid around in our jammies and did absolutely nothing too.  Wade read the big boys the entire Hobbit book one week.  They are all obsessed now and want to see the movie (NOT going to happen!)

I asked the boys this week and they said they liked being at home, but they were eager to go back to school too.

We have a week and half left off track, full of Christmas and New Years, so I think that sounds just about right!