I 'm still really busy trying to get things back in order after our trip , but I wanted to let you know I was home again . Yes , we really were gone from last Friday up through yesterday . Ugh . I was ready to come home Sunday morning . When I have time I 'll write the whole ugly story . For now I have to go do more laundry . Chris emailed me today finally with a plan for Christmas . He wants to take the boys shopping on Thursday and then go down to his parents ' on Friday . He says we will stay overnight at least , and then for as long as he can stand it . I say that 's a good plan . We are planning to leave most of the bulky gifts there rather than bring them home just so we can pack them , so it shouldn 't take us too long to get out when the time comes . I finally got the last 3 haircuts done so I can get pictures done next week . I decided to just send cards out late and do the pictures after the rush . They should be cheaper too . I still have to make all my cookies . Last year I didn 't do any , and it was nice to take the break . This year I really planned to do them ; but as yet they are not done . Oops . With Chris doing all the work on the house at night after work , I haven 't had any time to get in the kitchen and do them , because I 'm making dinner and watching Levi . Hopefully now Chris can give me a hand . I don 't know how much time Chris is actually taking off for the holidays . He usually takes the week between Christmas and New Year 's off , but it looks like he 's taking off Thursday and Friday this week , so I don 't know if that means he 'll work 2 days next week . I have to ask him . Levi decided to celebrate the first day of winter with his second tooth . He was very cranky yesterday and this morning . I hope that 's why . I always worry about ear infections , because how can you know ? He hasn 't had a cold yet , and I haven 't had a real one , but I have been stuffy a few times . You just never know when a baby is going to get one , and they can 't tell you when they have it . Ugh . I hope he 'll be ok . Ok , checked with Chris , and yes , he has Thursday and Friday off , plus all of next week . Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be pretty warm , as opposed to the frigid temps we had yesterday and will have again on Christmas Day , so I might take the boys out tomorrow too . Today I officially got some Christmas chores done : I mailed a card to my Dad and to my Grandma in Florida , and I baked one batch of cookies . So pitiful , really , LOL . But at least I can say I started ! Posted by Last Friday Chris and I went to his company 's holiday dinner party . His boss has it at his house . Brave man , I would never invited 22 adults here ! Well , when we got there I could see why he was willing to do it . His wife has the house decorated so beautifully it was incredible . Every single room was packed with Christmas decorations , plus the outside was done up too . And it was all tasteful and done very well . Chris got a little nervous after we were there a while , thinking this was raising the bar for our own house shopping , LOL . The party was fun , his coworkers and boss are very nice . It was casual , so I didn 't have to worry about not having anything fancy enough to wear , and I made an apple crisp , since everyone was asked to bring a dessert . We had our friend from church come over and watch the boys for us , and while Chris was going to try to take Levi with us , I just didn 't think his coworkers were really in the mood to have a baby there , so I asked if it would be ok to leave him at home too . Our friend is very good with babies , and it was only going to be a few hours , so I was pretty sure it would be ok . She is magic with getting them to sleep so I figured if I fed him right before I left and was gone only 3 hours , he wouldn 't starve and if he got grumpy she could just get him to sleep . As it turned out I was right . We were gone from 5 : 30 to 9 : 30 , and he was just starting to get grumpy when we got back . He had slept a while and just woken up . So our timing was perfect . On Sunday we had friends come over to visit that we haven 't seen in almost 2 years . They used to live here , but moved out of state a few years ago . Their family lives up here , so when they come home on holidays they try to get out our way to say hi . Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn 't . It is always so good to see them . When they were here , and before any of us had kids , we did so much together , we were always doing something . Kids and lives have gotten in the way , and it is sad now that we don 't see each other more . But getting together is always a lot of fun . I made pizza and we watched Spiderman 2 , which Chris had just gotten as a Christmas gift from his Sabbath School class at church . After we got the kids to bed , they put on Return of the King , which they had brought with them . We only watched selected scenes , because we didn 't want to be up very late . They left this morning before 9 because they wanted to try to see some other friends up here before heading home . Chris waited until they left before going in to work , so he 'll be working late tonight to make up for lost time . He also has to make up for the 2 hours he missed on Friday . Oh , did I not tell you about what happened on Friday ? Well . . . . . Friday morning I woke up ( still on the couch as Chris had just put the last coat of paint up in our room ) and nursed Levi , then fell back asleep with him tucked in next to me . The boys trickled downstairs to watch morning cartoons , and about 8 : 30 I figured it was time to get up . I felt cold , so I asked Noah to check the temperature on the thermostat ; he read 55 . Yikes ! Oh man , I thought , Chris let the oil run out again . Ugh ! So I went downstairs to check the oil level . Nope , we weren 't out yet . Hmmm . I flipped the switch on the furnace , nothing . I checked the fuse . I checked the breaker . Nothing . I called Chris and told him to come home and fix it . He had me check a few more times and gave up and came home . He ended up getting all the way inside the furnace , checking all the connections , making sure there was power through it . He couldn 't find the problem either . He gave up and told me I 'd have to call a guy to come and look at it . I had the phone in my hand ready to dial when he called out to me " don 't call ! " I heard the heat come on and went to find out what he did . It turns out the 2 year old had climbed up and opened the door on the thermostat , flipped the switch from heat to cool , closed the door again , and pushed away the exersaucer he had used to climb up . He had done all this and left no trace of his presence , so it never occurred to me that someone had messed with it . If you ask me , I am going to be in trouble with this kid , LOL . So phew , no money spent to fix the furnace , but bummer , Chris wasted 2 hours of work to come home and turn it back on . Posted by Chris finished up the last room last week . He painted our bedroom . We slept in the living room all week , since not only did it smell , but all the furniture was piled up in the middle of the room and we couldn 't get to the bed , lol . Levi also slept downstairs , because of the smell , and he wasn 't very happy about that . He didn 't sleep well at all . I picked a pale green color , but I bought recycled paint since it was half the price , so the tint came out a little greyer than I had wanted . I don 't really care , since we 're moving anyway , lol . And hey , anything looks better than faded peeling icky wallpaper , right ? Here are the pics : Our Bedroom Before Our Bedroom After The carpet in there is still golden yellow , but it actually doesn 't clash too badly with the color of paint . I think with a tan or off white carpet it would look greener . Posted by Levi had his 4 month check up on Friday . He weighs 15 lbs 2 oz , and is 25 1 / 4 inches long . It sounds big , but actually he is slightly smaller than most of his brothers were at 4 months . He was sooo good for the doctor . He even laughed and giggled when the dr examined him , instead of cry , like most babies might with a stranger . He is perfectly on track for development , which is better than the other boys were . He likes to stand if you hold him by his hands ; he is grabbing at everything and bringing things to his mouth to chew . The doctor was suitably impressed by his tooth : - ) He watches everything and plays with his hands and feet , and seems to respond to his name . It may be the way we say it , though , it definitely sounds different than his brothers ' names , so he is probably reacting just to the difference in sound . He got 4 shots again : - ( but he did really well , of course . 10 minutes after they were done , he had already forgotten . I asked the nurse not to put bandaids on them this time ; she only has regular kids ' bandaids , not the little round ones , and last time it took 2 weeks before I could even pry them off his skin , and they still left a mark , I just didn 't want to go through that again . She was surprised and wanted to know what I would do about the bleeding ; I told her I 'd just hold the gauze to them and put pressure on until the bleeding stopped . That 's what I did , though she thought I was crazy , lol , and it was only maybe 5 minutes and he was fine . And no bandaid gunk ! Definitely worth it in my opinion . I really really really like that doctor and the office . It is so nice there , and once again I had barely any wait . I am so used to having to sit in the waiting room for 40 minutes or more , and then another half hour in the exam room before I even see the P . A . It took only 45 minutes from walking in the door to walking out . I am so sad I will have to leave ! I left Troyer and Noah to play in the waiting area this time , while I took the other 4 boys back . The rooms are so small , and last time they argued and it got so loud so quickly in that small space . I figured 8 and 10 are old enough to wait together . They did fine , and it was much better with 2 less kids whining about how there were no good toys in there , lol . Of course the 2 yo thought the rolling stool was the best toy in the room , lol . The only other incident of note is that Micah pooped while we were in the exam room . Do you think I had any large size diapers in the diaper bag I brought ? Of course NOT ! lol They were in the other bag that I left in the van . This office keeps a nice basket full of diapers on the cart with the baby scale , so the nurse offered one to me , but the largest size they had was a 4 , and Micah is between a 5 and a 6 , so we had to just wait until we got back to the van . Ugh , it was a smelly one . I feel bad for the other people in the office , lol . They must think I am a bad mom for letting my kid stink , lol . I will be happy when Troyer is old enough to send back out to the van for the other bag . Although I guess when he is , I won 't be needing to change diapers any more . I also had a doctor 's appointment this week . Back in October my ob 's office called to tell me my pap came back abnormal and I needed to come back in in December to have it redone . At the time I swear I was told that this is common for post partum paps , but when I went in the doctor said no , it is usually caused by an infection . Of course I was worrying some between the phone call and the appointment , but I figured the dr would reassure me at the visit , since I was told on the phone it was probably nothing to worry about ; but he wasn 't very reassuring at all . He didn 't test for infection , which I thought was odd , since that is supposed to be the reason for the occasional odd cell . Anyway , now I have to wait 4 more weeks to see if this has resolved itself ; I hope so , as it sounds like the next procedure for testing doesn 't sound so fun . I forgot to ask the dr about my prolapses , and if they could be the cause for the pain I 've been having . I used to think it was tailbone pain that I got when my 4th baby was born , but lately it has been getting much worse and seems to be more muscular than bone . I 'm sure that being so overweight is not helping , nor is spending so much time in this computer chair ! lol Sometimes it even bothers me after laying down , which is counter - intuitive to the pressure - on - the - butt theory . Of course I can 't help but wonder if the is some connection with the pap results . My crazy brain throws up visions of odd lumps growing in the wrong places . I 'm sure I 'm fine , but I 'm one of those people who can 't help worrying . Not quite to the level of hypochondriac , because then I 'd be sure there was something dire wrong with me , but still wondering if there might be . I should update you on how the work is going on the house . I don 't have any new pictures , which is mostly why I didn 't write anything last week . I like to be able to show the transformation . My sister came out to visit last weekend , officially to help with some work , but really because I wanted her to see how nice my house is starting to look . She came without her kids , to the boys ' disappointment . We had piles of bags and boxes everywhere , and there was just no room for her kids , . We had such a nice time , though . She helped me take some bags to the Salvation Army , and then watched the boys so Chris and I could take a van load of stuff to the storage unit . She was going to help me go through some stuff to sort into pack / donate / toss , but we really only got through a small section in the basement . She helped me bring some stuff up onto the deck for another trip to storage . but the dumb place locks up at 1 pm on Sundays , so we weren 't able to make a second trip there . It 's been raining and drizzling since then ; I hope the stuff on the deck is ok . We have them up on a pallet , so the rain isn 't touching anything directly , but it is humid and I am just worried for the stuff . We woThis past weekend Chris started work on our bedroom . It is the last room he is going to paint . That leaves just 2 rooms he didn 't do . I am sure this room where the computer is should get painted , but at least the other rooms look good . Our room is going to be a light green color . I hope it is pale enough . The boys ' room turned out a bit darker than I had planned , and now I am worried that the green will be darker too . Well , maybe even dark it will still look good . We 'll find out ! Chris just finished the priming last night . We had to sleep in the living room because the Kilz stinks so bad . Poor Levi isn 't sleeping well down there . He does so well upstairs in the bassinette , so I thought if I brought it down he would still sleep ok , but it didn 't work . He hasn 't slept in it at all . He slept in my lap and on my shoulder part of the night , but right now he 's asleep on my shoulder while I type . Hmm , maybe I should say Poor me , lol , as I am the one who only got 3 hours of sleep . I don 't look forward to today ; Mondays are always rough here , but today half of my stuff from my bedroom is out in the hallway while the room gets done ; I am going to have to chase the boys out of the stuff all day . Ugh . And meanwhile get the laundry done . Double ugh , lol . This weekend Levi got his first tooth ! I wondered if it would break through the gum before he turned 4 months old , that was when Troyer got his first tooth , but it did , so now he is our current record holder for earliest tooth ! And for those who are wondering about nursing babies with teeth , he has stopped biting now that it is out ; they bite more while they are teething and their gums are sore . Chris finished up the boys ' room this week . I can 't believe how different it looks ! Actually , he 's not completely done ; he is going to paint the closet doors and he missed the spot on the ceiling where the light is . But whew ! Look how great it is ! Just a quick post to show you what Chris did in the living room . He painted the walls a muslin color , and added a small trim to the tops of the walls to hide the gaps where the ceiling tile doesn 't quite meet the tops of the walls . The people who lived here before us apparently didn 't know how to cut them , lol . Today is my last day of vacation , with the 4 oldest boys down at their Grandma 's house ; they will be home tonight . Chris and I did a bunch of work while they were gone , including getting into their room and painting . It isn 't done yet , so no pictures yet , but it looks soooo good already ! I can 't wait to take pictures and post them . I do have a picture of the trim in my kitchen , which I got to finish . I really like how it turned out . This fall I decided to sign the boys up for swimming lessons . I had gotten an email that the Y was going to have homeschool sessions for swimming . Normally Chris wouldn 't agree to something that costs so much ( $ 50 per boy ) , but after this summer 's incident with Samuel in the pool , I think he realized it would be a good idea if they could all at least keep their heads above water if they ever fell in . So for 3 weeks in November they had swim classes , twice a week . Noah and Samuel I put in the beginner class , polliwog , and Troyer I put in the next level up , guppy . They finished their last class last week , and they did really well . The instructor wrote up " report cards " for them and gave them all nice comments about attitude and effort . Unfortunately they didn 't have any opportunities for extra swim time , so they couldn 't practice , and so they didn 't graduate out of their levels . I am going to sign them up for 3 more weeks in December . They had a really good time . Caleb and Micah really wished they could go in too ! There are floor to ceiling windows in the lobby that you can see the pool from , and I had the boys out there while the older ones swam , so they could watch . There was also a teen center with pool table , foosball table , ping pong table , air hockey , and a racing car arcade game . I also brought crackers and candy to bribe them to stay good , lol . On the last day , at the end of class , Samuel left the pool to go to the bathroom and cut his toe on the door ( pulled it open right across his big toe - Ouch ! ) . It did bleed so they bandaged it , but it meant he couldn 't get back in the pool . Good thing there was only about 5 minutes left to the class , so he didn 't miss much ! This weekend Chris brought the exersaucer down from the attic . It might seem a little early for it , since Levi is only 3 months old , and I think the instructions said the baby should be 4 months , but we gave it a try anyway . He loved it ! He has even been able to push with his feet and swivel around . We are not sure if he is doing it on purpose , and he can 't steer yet , but he likes the turning ! Today is the 2nd anniversary of my mother 's death . She died of endometrial cancer , which had spread to her lymph nodes a year after she had a hysterectomy . She had the hysterectomy because she had unexplained bleeding and she had finally convinced her gynecologist to remove her uterus after numerous d & cs over several years . No one knew about the cancer until the surgery . When her doctor came to talk to her after it was over she told her Oh by the way , there was a 6 pound tumor in there . Excuse me , but how in the world did she miss that during all the exams my mom had been to ? Anyway , she advised my mom that it was entirely contained within the uterus and all removed . She probably didn 't need any follow up treatments , just the usual annual check ups . My mom had heard horror stories of radiation therapy and was very glad to be told she didn 't need it . This doctor told her she could consult with an oncologist if she wanted but probably didn 't need to . You didn 't need to tell my mother twice . She pretty much treated it as if it had never happened once she got home . In fact , none of us even knew about the tumor until almost a year later . I have to say , I hold quite a bit of bitterness towards this doctor for advising my mom not to follow up on it . But she is not the only one to blame . At her one year check up , my mom passed with flying colors . Of course , they were checking for spread in her abdomen . Soon after that she developed a big problem with what she assumed was her asthma . She went to her regular doctor and he began a series of prescriptions to treat the asthma , but it kept getting worse . It never occurred to him that it wasn 't asthma . Also , a few months later , she developed a horrible pain in her lower back . Her doctor told her it was arthritis . He began a series of prescriptions for pain meds for that , none of which even touched it . It didn 't occur to him that it wasn 't arthritis . About 4 months after her 1 year check up , my dad had to take her to the emergency room because she couldn 't breathe . It turns out Even so , none of us suspected that that was the last time she 'd be conscious . She got settled in her room at the hospital and they medicated her , and within hours she was barely able to communicate . By Wednesday morning my dad called me to tell me the doctors said it wasn 't going to be long . I called Chris and told him to come home , I was going back out . He was home in less than an hour but it seemed like forever . It took 4 hours to drive there , and it was endless . I got to the house and no one was there ! I needed someone to take me to the hospital , because it was downtown and I had no idea how to get there . Dad and Aimee were out making arrangements for her . Finally they got home and Aimee and I got in the car and drove to the hospital . On the way Dad called Aimee on her cell phone to tell her that the hospital had called . Mom was gone . I was so upset , I had really wanted to be there at the end . I only missed her by an hour . We got to the hospital and met some of Mom 's friends from her church . They had been there praying with her when she died . I am glad she was surrounded by her good friends . We went in and said good bye , and signed the release form , and went home . We met her doctor in the hallway on the way out , and he had a look of shock on his face . He really never expected her to deteriorate so quickly . He was probably the only good doctor she had through this whole ordeal . I am steaming mad at all the others who pooh - poohed her symptoms and ignored her . That year Thanksgiving was not as bad as you would have thought . Since a lot of family was out for the funeral , they stayed for the holiday as well , and it was nice to all be together . Last year Michelle had Thanksgiving at her house , and Aimee and her family , Chris and I and the boys , and my Dad were all there . It was crowded and noisy but it was nice to be together . This year none of us will be together . Michelle wanted to do dinner again , but Aimee 's dh wasn 't keen on doing the drive again ( it is 7 hours for them to get to her house ) , and my dad decided he didn 't want to drive either . He moved to Florida 6 months after Mom died ; he claimed that now that he was retired he could come up and visit us in the summers when it was too hot down there , and stay down there and skip winters . Well , it seemed kind of far to us , and he had never mentioned Florida before Mom died , but whatever , it 's his life . Of course all his plans to visit have gone out the window . He has not been north since he moved 18 months ago , except that Thanksgiving dinner last year . This year he is not even going to come for that . He has never met his newest grandson , and I guess it doesn 't matter to him . He 's not a baby person , you know . Can you tell I am bitter about this too ? LOL To make matters worse , this year since we are in the midst of trying to move , Chris isn 't even going to go home to his parents for dinner . He wants to stay here and work on the house . I can understand , and I am going along with it , but it means that it will only be the 2 of us and the baby and Micah for Thanksgiving . The other 4 boys are going to MIL 's for a week so we can work on the house . I don 't think Chris is thinking about what this time of year means to me , or maybe he doesn 't realize how I feel about it . He hasn 't asked , that 's for sure . So , except for my beautiful Levi , this year pretty much stinks . I hope Christmas will be better . Anyway , I want to say , " Mommy , I love you . No one loved me as much as you did , and I miss you . I hate that life is so unfair . " There is a beautiful picture of her from her wedding , but it was too big to scan . I am a bit distressed that I don 't have more pictures of her . I am hoping that they are in some albums that I already packed . Sorry to be so long in updating , I have been busy . Last weekend Chris and I went through the house and gathered up a whole room full of stuff to pack away and put in storage . One room looks pretty good now , but it has hardly put a dent in the rest of the house ! Yikes . The three oldest boys have been taking swimming lessons at the Y this month . I thought they were doing really well , but they got their evaluations yesterday , and none of them passed into the next higher class . : - ( They got good remarks and their instructor likes them , but their skills weren 't good enough to get into the next class . MIL is going to come up and get 4 of the boys next Tuesday . She will keep them for a whole week , through Thanksgiving , and bring them back Monday . That gives Chris and me a whole week to pack up more junk and hide it in the storage unit , lol . I sure hope we get done with this soon ! Another reason I have not been able to post lately is Levi . He is 3 months old now , and such a cutie , but he is already teething ! Poor guy , he is not even old enough to hold a teething toy . He sucks on blankets and clothing , and has already gummed me a lot . Ouch . He is very cranky , but there is not much I can do for him . Luckily he is alternating sleeping a lot and waking , so sometimes I can sleep with him and get a good rest , and sometimes he is sleeping in the day and I can get a lot done around the house . Twice now he has slept for 8 hours ! Here is a picture of the boys ' room . We took out the second bunk to make the room look bigger . Right now they are sleeping 2 to a bed . It is working out ok , for the most part . There have been a few squabbles about blanket sharing , and Micah 's diaper leaked this morning so poor Noah had to sleep on the floor to avoid getting wet . But mostly they think it 's fun . In this picture you can see how the paper is crumbling / peeling at the edges and in the corners . I think Chris wants to paint it , but I don 't know how well the paint will stick . There 's a lot of patching he has to do in here too . Ain 't that paper pretty ? What you can 't tell in the picture is that part of the flower print is actually silver and only shows up with the light on it . I suppose maybe it was better looking before it faded , but it sure isn 't something I would have chosen . Then again , it beats the pink in the dining room at The Big Yellow House ! LOL We still haven 't finished the kitchen , and it got cluttered up again in the meantime . Ugh . I was looking forward to having that look good , lol . Chris started patching in the living room last night , so I guess that is the next paint project . He painted the play room last week . He made a big deal out of painting the ceiling ; I 'm not sure why he painted it at all . Oh well . So there is a brief update , I 'll try to be better ! Posted by Just wanted to show you Caleb in his cowboy hat . It 's his new favorite . It used to be Noah 's , but Caleb claimed it . There are a pair of boots that go with it , and they are Caleb 's size , so I guess they have to be a set . Noah got them to wear in his aunt 's wedding ; he was the ring bearer , and her wedding had a western theme . He was so cute ! He wore a tux with the hat and boots . Samuel didn 't really like the boots at all , and he never wears hats . So the boots have been sitting , waiting for another boy to love them . Their wait is over ! On Friday , our homeschooling group held a science fair . Troyer , Noah , and Samuel did a project on rainbows and prisms . Chris was supposed to help with most of the project , but he was so busy that he waited until 2 days before it was due to get started . Unfortunately that meant that he and I did way more work on it than the boys did . We taught them as we went along , but they really only did the coloring on the poster . We had some cool experiments / demonstrations to do ; they worked better at home than at the fair though . I think the favorite was shining different colored lights together to see what colors they would create when combined . Light is opposite of pigment , so some of the kids were pretty surprised . The bathroom is done ! Chris finished up painting the trim this week , and I ( finally ! ) found some curtains for the window . It was tough trying to find some . I went out yesterday and had a hard time finding any curtains at all that weren 't floor length drapes . But today I got lucky and found some with green in them . I wasn 't sure the green would match the trim , but figured I 'd take them home and see , I could always return them if I had to . Well , I am so happy , they match great ! I have to say , to me they look more like kitchen curtains , and since I already have ivy in my kitchen , I am afraid of there being a little bit of ivy overkill in the house ; but hey , that was the only pattern with green in it at all . ( Well , ok , I skipped right over the all green curtains that were too frilly . Waaaay too much ruffle . ) I decided to go ahead with a green stripe in the kitchen , and that is looking really good too . I am doing it in just acryllic paint , but it is a half inch wide stripe , so it doesn 't matter . I think it helps make the two tone colored walls look like they are supposed to be that way . I will post a picture of that once the stripe is finished . Chris power washed the deck yesterday and today . It looks really nice , except now it really should be sanded and sealed . I don 't know if he is going to do that . He also rented a storage unit in town today . Now we can start packing up stuff for real , because we have a place to hide it all . I have only been making sad little efforts at decluttering because I didn 't want to have boxes sitting all over the house . I just knew the boys would get into them and unpack them for me , and lose stuff or break it . The plan is for Chris to finish painting the stairs and hallway this weekend . I picked a very light yellow color , because the carpet is a dark rust color . I wanted something bright but there isn 't much that goes with rust , lol . And we are NOT going to replace the carpets ! I will post a picture of the hallway once that is done , too . That will leave us with just the living room and family room / play room to paint and declutter , and we will be ready ! I am getting kind of excited . I suppose I 'll get over that very quickly , as soon as I have to keep the house clean for showing . Ugh . LOL I took some pictures this week , because Chris , over at the Big Yellow House , took such a beautiful shot of her street , and I wanted to see if my neighborhood was as nice . I think it would be , if it would just STOP RAINING ! ! ! Here are some pictures : Back Yard ( see , we make up for the front yard by having a great back yard ! ) It really is pretty here , when the sun is shining ; it just so happens that that is not so often : - ( Something about the mountains here trapping all the clouds in our area , or something . Bleh . I was going to try to repost all the stuff I lost last week , but I just lost my momentum with that one . I don 't even remember what all it was about , except a 1 am poop blowout , followed by a 2 am puke fest by the 6 yo . Oh , and Chris worked late all last week , and on Thursday , which is Survivor / CSI night ( ok , so now you know how low my tv standards can go , but hey , I balanced it out with the CSI ! ) he had called to promise that he 'd be home to put the boys to bed at 8 . Ok , perfect timing . Well , at 7 : 45 , the 8 yo , 6 yo , and 2 yo locked themselves in the bathroom and broke the knob . Joy . I got out screwdrivers , I got out nail files , nothing worked . Finally I resorted to a hammer . No good with that one either . It was 8 : 15 and I was fuming , Chris was no where to be found , and the boys were still stuck . Micah had pulled down one towel bar and the curtain rod . Let 's just say that the knob became Chris ' head as I pounded , LOL . Finally he came home , and I gave up and went down to watch tv . Of course the boys were out in 5 minutes . It seems I was using the wrong size screwdriver . Oops . Oh well , now the knob is ruined and we have nothing on the bathroom door to keep it shut . We will be replacing the knob , but with something easier to get open , LOL . In the mean time , we have not a peephole , more of a peep window . It is exactly at Micah 's eye level , so when I 'm sitting on the pot , I hear " See you Mom ! See you ! " LOL Posted by literally ; Levi is asleep , lol . I thought I 'd post a quick picture of the wallpaper in our hallway , so you can see why we are painting over it . This is the paper that was here when we moved in , and aside from the boys peeling it in spots , and gouging out a nice hole under the window , we haven 't changed it . I guess we were just waiting until the youngest was old enough to not destroy it before we bothered putting any work into it . Now we just want it to look nice enough that it won 't scare away home buyers , LOL . I can 't believe it 's been a week since I 've written anything . Levi has been very much in a Don 't - Put - Me - Down mood this week , and it is too hard to type with just one hand . So what has happened since last Friday ? Well , Chris got the kitchen painted . It looks pretty nice . It 's the wrong color , but hey , it still looks nice , lol . I had wanted a white , but not a bright bright pure white . We looked at paint chips and decided that they all were so close , just choose any one of them . Well , he went and just bought a can of Antique White . Hello , that 's cream . Very yellow . Not white at all . Ugh . Oh well , it still looks better than fingerprint - and - macaroni - and - cheese - and - Cocoa - Puffs - white , LOL . Now to declutter . . . . . On Tuesday I had to run to the store , and on the way home I went through the drive through at McDonald 's and drove back to the park . Levi slept the whole time , and the boys had a great time eating at the picnic tables and playing . It really is a neat park . Today I took the boys out again ; we finally made it back to the WalMart portrait studio for Noah 's portraits . A month ago I took him out , but there was a power outage at the mall that ran up and down the whole street , so all the stores were closed . It took this long to get back , lol . This time , though , I had all the boys with me , and it was raining out . That didn 't seem too promising , but I wanted to get out of the house anyway . It turned out to go pretty well , the boys were very well behaved . I didn 't much like the photographer , but you get what you pay for , right ? I think the picture came out nice . We did some more shopping , I found some stuff for the boys for Christmas already , drove over to the Super - WM and did grocery shopping , came home with loads of junk food ( Halloween is too much temptation for me ! lol ) and crashed on the couch . Maybe next week I will get something done ? Noah 8 years old On Wednesday Levi turned 2 months old ! Today he is 9 weeks old . Wow , that went fast . Today he had a milestone . He has been hinting at a smile for a few weeks now , but today was the first time he looked straight at me and smiled in response to finding my face ! : - ) He also cooed at me , that was his first coo . So exciting ! This week also saw his first official poop blow - out , yuck . In fact , he had 4 of them LOL Today Troyer was holding him when he did it ; yuck it was a mess . I have done a lot of wash this week ; - ) Posted by Short Story : Levi is 12 lbs 6 oz , and 23 " long . He got 4 shots , and is now napping peacefully . Long Story : Just wanted to give the stats on Levi . He was scheduled for his 2 mo check up for next Friday , but I got a notice in the mail yesterday that I needed to reschedule . When I called , they rescheduled for this morning , yikes ! I hate having to drag all the boys out on such short notice like that . This was our first visit to the new doctor , so I had to make sure we had time to find the correct building , and to fill out forms when we got there . Of course it was a fight to get the boys all dressed and fed in time ; Micah in particular thought it was a great game to run around the house with no shirt or shoes on and missing one sock . This with 5 minutes to get into the van . I also wanted to get a shower this morning , and I had to be bad mommy and let them all run around the house screaming and fighting , and Levi crying in his bed , just so I could have clean hair . I just couldn 't stand the thought of the doctor 's first impression of me being dirty , kwim ? Well , I should have been happy with dirty . The boys were not so good for this trip . Caleb was worst of all . He has been very whiny lately , and disobedient on top of that ; take that and put it in a tiny exam room with 4 other boys and a baby , with one toy for them all to share , and you get chaos ! I was so embarrassed about not being able to hear the poor dr . I should say here , that we found the building fine , walked right up to the desk and checked in , and as soon as they were done copying his insurance card and getting information from me ( I didn 't have to fill out any forms ! ) the nurse was ready to take us back to the room - NO waiting ! Wow ! And after she did the basic weight / height measurements ( Levi is 12 lbs 6 oz and 23 inches long ) , it wasn 't more than 5 minutes before the doctor came in for the exam ! What ? Not 45 minutes ? ? ? LOL And he was very nice . I am almost sad we will be moving in a few months and not be able to go to this office anymore , lol . Anyway , there was one of those beads - on - wires type toy , big enough for them to share , in the room , and a basket of books . Of course they all had to fight over the one color of beads rather than each claim a color . Caleb screamed and cried and pinched his brothers ' hands . Ugh . I put him in time out and he cried some more . Ugh . Levi had to get his shots today , and Caleb cried during that too ( I can 't blame him there ! ) . Then it was time for check out , and I promised Caleb we 'd weigh him on the way out , to see if he weighs enough to get out of his harness on his carseat , and use a seatbelt with just the booster . ( He does , he was 40 . 7 lbs ! ) They fought over who would get weighed first . Then the boys needed to wait for me to check out and pay the co - pay . Again , they were antsy and picking on each other , and Caleb was screaming that Samuel was whispering in his ear . Ugh . Finally it was time to go back to the van , and Caleb wanted to hold my hand , so Micah just walked off . I told Noah to hold his hand for me , but Micah ran from him and ran all the way down the sidewalk . Yikes ! I find it very scary to see my 2 yo running away near cars ! I ran after him , with Levi in the infant seat slung over my arm , and caught him , but he wasn 't happy about the firm grip I kept on his wrist ! Even worse , there was someone parked right there , sitting in the car talking on their cell phone , watching the whole thing . All in all , I found the entire visit embarrassing . I was not a good example of a TOK mom in control of her well - behaved kids , LOL . I yelled in the van , and when we got home Caleb had a mandatory nap . I am still not feeling much better . Yesterday was a beautiful , warm and sunny day , so I grabbed the boys and we went to find a nice park . I had a few in mind I wanted to check out that we hadn 't been to before , so I let them pick . On the way to the park , we passed by the fruit farm that has a life sized wooden tractor out front . It is there just for the purpose of taking pictures , and I like to do that each fall . They have a bunch of their pumpkins out front too , but the pumpkins didn 't make it into my pictures . Troyer We drove past one playground and decided it was too crowded , so drove down the road to the next one . This is a park not far from our house that we have driven past many times , but have never stopped at . From the street you can 't really see much more than the ball fields , so I didn 't know what to expect in terms of play equipment . I had thrown the boys ' scooters and skateboard in the van in case there wasn 't much to do ; as it turns out , it is a great park ! Lots of climbing equipment and slides and swings . Even better , we had it all to ourselves : - ) There was also a nice paved path all the way around the playground and playing fields , so we went for a walk . Well , I walked , Levi was in the sling , and the boys scooted ; - ) On Sunday I knew I was going to have to go out and do a big shopping trip . I told Chris this , and he said he wanted to go out first and pick up paint , so we could get started this week on at least one of the rooms . Yipee ! So I said sure . He took Troyer and Noah with him . It turns out that he decided that since Troyer turned 10 , it was time for The Talk . Yikes ! Already ? ? ? I wasn 't so sure Troyer even wanted to hear it , he always yells and covers his ears when I mention girls at all , LOL . It turns out they were gone for quite a while . When they finally got home , Noah couldn 't wait to tell me all about it . It was really embarrassing , LOL . My electrical engineer husband of course described it as being like " plugging in a cord into an outlet " LOL . So Noah told me how gross that was and he didn 't think he 'd want to " plug it in " anywhere , but then his imagination took over and he started suggesting other places to " plug it into " and I just didn 't know what to say ! LOL * Sigh * I don 't think * I * was ready for the talk ! Anyway , it took them a while longer than I thought it was going to to get back , so I didn 't get started on my shopping trip until after 4 . I took just Levi with me , and this time I remembered the sling ! It was getting really old having that carseat take up room in the cart when I was just carrying him on my shoulder anyway , and it was hard to push the cart with one hand . I am glad I remembered it ! We stopped at 3 stores , and he was wonderful through all 3 . He stayed awake through the first 2 , but didn 't cry at all . I did have to nurse him in each parking lot , before I strapped him back in his seat , but at least he wasn 't crying while I was checking out ! He did get a little cranky at Super WM , the last store , but it was because he was tired , and as soon as I got him to sleep , he slept in the sling for the rest of the trip . I think my brain also fell asleep , because even though I had a list in my hand , I kept skipping items and having to go back for them . I think I lapped the store 3 times , because they put things like light bulbs and shampoo on the opposite side of the store from the groceries . Ugh . By the time we got home , he was seriously hungry for more than a snack in the back seat , so Chris unloaded the groceries from the trunk while I sat down on the couch to nurse Levi . Holy Cow , my feet were SORE ! I was out a total of 5 hours , most of that time with the extra weight of the baby strapped to me . It must have been quite a workout , because my leg and butt muscles are still sore today . I also spent more money than I should have . Because Chris was so late , making me have a late start , the bank branch that actually opens on Sundays was already closed , so I had to use my debit card instead of cash , which I prefer . I was also buying some clothes and bins for starting to pack up the house for painting , but those things don 't come out of the grocery budget , so I wasn 't paying attention to the total bill . Oops . When I got home and added it up , I found out that now I only have about $ 35 for the next two weeks . Good forNot surprisingly , after being rocked to sleep so wonderfully all evening , Levi was prepared to be awake for quite a while . That 's ok , I thought , the price to pay for him behaving in the store , I didn 't mind . I watched some tv , then got on the computer for a while . I really wanted to drop into bed , because I was so worn out from carrying him everywhere , so I was waiting for him to drop off to sleep . He would keep nodding off while nursing , but wake right back up again when I tried to lay him down . Finally I gave up at 1 : 30 , when he was asleep on my shoulder , and took him to bed with me so I could get some sleep . We had gotten home at 9 , so he had been up for 4 1 / 2 hours . He slept for 2 1 / 2 hours , until 4 am . I had hoped for more , but didn 't mind getting up , as maybe he would go back to sleep in the bassinette and I 'd get some more sleep . Well , guess what ? He wouldn 't sleep . He would fall asleep on my lap , but as soon as I even tried to get out of the chair , his eyes would be wide open again . Ugh ! Finally I got him to lay down , it was 6 . Chris was already up and in the shower . I knew that it would only be a half hour or so before Micah and Caleb were up and bothering me , waahh . But worse than that , do you know , within 20 minutes Levi was crying ? He just would not sleep alone . I laid in bed and cried myself , LOL . After 5 hours of power shopping with that baby strapped on , and then getting only 2 1 / 2 hours of sleep , I was going to have to get up with the rest of the boys and start the day . My feet * still * hurt , and my butt hurt from sitting in the chair most of the night , and now my stomach hurt from not enough sleep . I had Chris bring Levi to me in bed , and I nursed him until he fell asleep , but it was not until 7 am ! The boys did get up , but they were really good about going down and watching tv and getting themselves breakfast so I could rest in the bed . It wasn 't a deep sleep , but it beat getting up . Of course , being a Monday , I knew it was going to be a bad day . Mondays are laundry day here , plus it 's a fight to get the boys back into school work after 2 days off , and I had a lot of cleaning up to do after a weekend , because I usually put things off . I was right , and Monday lived up to its reputation , LOL . By the time Chris got home I was getting a second wind , but I was still sore and tired . He so nicely offered to make dinner for me , and I was able to get a little more laundry done . There is a lot I didn 't get done , though , so I will be playing catch - up all week . On Friday morning , our homeschool group went on a tour of the local EMS station . Our group has mostly large families , so it was pretty crowded . Only 7 moms , but 29 kids ! Since I had Levi in August , I am now the second biggest family in the group ; one mom has 8 kids ( she just had a baby in August too ! ) , two have 5 kids , two have 2 kids , and one mom has one . For as large as our group is , though , they are very well behaved . I think my boys were the worst behaved there , lol . A few times I was thinking what an appropriate place to bring them , so when they hurt each other , they can get care right away ! LOL We started with a little talk in the meeting room , then a tour of the inside . It is not a big station , so it was a short tour , LOL . The boys were really looking forward to the ambulance tour anyway . Somehow Noah thought they were going to get rides , whoops , lol . The paramedics did strap a few kids to the back boards to demonstrate how to stabilize a body , but my boys didn 't want a turn . I asked about getting some of those systems for my house , for after I finish cleaning the house and they are trying to follow behind me and mess it back up ; - ) Finally they all got to have turns going inside to look at all the equipment , and the EMT gave out purple latex gloves . They were a big hit ! Posted by My oldest son turned 10 years old today ! Wow I can 't believe I have a child in the double digits already ! I am just not old enough ! ; - ) For his birthday today , he got to watch all the tv he wanted ( he is a tv junkie , in spite of the fact that we only get 1 1 / 2 channels ! ) . He watched the usual shows , but this time didn 't have to bargain for them . His favorites are Arthur , Zaboomafoo , Between the Lions , and CyberChase . PBS just started showing George Shrinks in the afternoons , and he likes that one too . These are all kind of young shows for him , but we don 't get Nickelodeon or Disney ( I am * not * crying over that ! ) and these are semi - educational , so I am happy to let him watch them . Hey , he isn 't picking Barney or Jay Jay or Caillou , LOL . We had to go out shopping to get icing and cake supplies , because he chose to have a homemade cake instead of a bakery cake . All the other boys chose a bakery cake because they want the toys on top ; Troyer designed his own cake and created the topper . We also had to pick up dough for pizza . I didn 't have enough money to buy take out pizza ( we went to McDonald 's twice in the last 2 weeks , so bye bye money , lol ) , which he really wanted , but he was happy enough to have homemade . I also got some wrapping paper , and some milk . We got home in time for him to watch more tv , and I got to work on the cake . I have to say , I think the cake turned out ok . I didn 't have the right size decorating tool for writing , so I had to abbreviate and leave out his name , but he didn 't mind . He made car forms out of clay , and saved foil wrappers from way back at Valentine 's Day , lol , to wrap them in , and then drew up the Finish sign and taped it to straws . The roadway is chocolate sprinkles . Much tastier than black icing , if you ask me ! All in all , it is certainly not a professional job , but he is soooo proud of it , and if he is happy then that is what counts : - ) I made 3 pizzas , because most of the kids will only eat plain cheese pizza , but Troyer wanted pineapple on his , and Chris likes pineapple and olives , and I like mushrooms . I decided to make some of each and make everyone happy . Yum ! The cake tasted even better than it looked , and then Chris had a surprise , he had stopped at DQ on the way home and gotten 2 Treatsa Pizzas . Double Yum ! Of course by now no one was really that hungry any more , but there is always room for ice cream , lol . Next Troyer got to open his presents . He had a theme this year , in that most of his gifts were Muppet stuff . He loves Kermit the Frog and The Muppets . He got The Muppet Movie on DVD ( we have it on vhs but the dvd has all the extra interviews and stuff ) , a Muppet computer game , a Muppet beach towel , and a CD of Muppet songs from the tv show . He also got a Thomas DVD ( yes , he still likes to watch Thomas the Tank Engine . This makes Micah very happy ! ) and some Ninja Turtle bubble bath . His aunt got him a stuffed lemur that looks a lot like Zaboomafoo , that was a big hit ; and his other aunt got him a Bionicle , also a big hit . After all the gifts were opened , we listened to some of the songs on the CD and then it was bed time . Chris actually let me take a picture of him and Troyer together , and it turned out great ! There are precious few pictures of Chris anywhere that don 't have him making faces or trying to hide , lol . Posted by I have spent the last few days wandering through blog - land , reading strangers ' blogs . I just followed a link from one , and followed a link from that one , and so on . It was pretty fun ! Usually I don 't have time for that sort of thing , but this weekend Levi was just on a weird sleeping ( non - sleeping ? ) schedule , and some of my regular bloggers were away for the weekend or just not updating , so I had time on my hands . I must say , though , that I feel so inferior now ! Not only is my writing style nothing to shout about , but I can 't do the fancy stuff I 've seen on the other sites . I haven 't even figured out how to do the list of links yet . I know I know , once I stop procrastinating I can figure it out pretty easily ; I just haven 't felt like putting the effort into it . It is really neat to be able to read about other people 's daily lives and thoughts ; some of them make me feel grateful for the pretty easy life I have , others just make me laugh , and sometimes I can even identify with a particular experience . Mostly , though , I think it helps me see my own life in a different perspective . As a SAHM in a somewhat rural setting , I can get kind of isolated and start to get bogged down in the annoying things in my life . For a while a few years back , I got so bogged down I became depressed enough that it affected my family , and it took a year or two of talking with a therapist to climb back out of it . It feels funny to admit that , but at the same time , I am glad that was all it took , and that I didn 't need to take any medications , so it didn 't affect my pregnancy / breastfeeding cycle . It also helped after the sessions stopped , because I can still use today what I learned then . This period now , post - partum just 6 weeks out , I find myself coming closer to that edge again ; add to that the stress of my dh 's new job , plus having to move , and homeschooling 3 kids . I am sleep deprived and most likely nutrition deprived too . I have too much time to think about how fat I am , how messy / dirty my house is , what a bad job I 'm probably doing tI 'm finding it hard to come and post here , because I feel like I can 't write as well as others , and I don 't have any fancy stuff in my posts or in my sidebar . I 'm pleased with myself for just getting pictures on here ! lol But I am also somewhat inspired too . One of these days I 'll get it figured out . We went out yesterday , were gone for the whole day , from 7 am until 9 : 30 pm . So what do you think happened ? One of the roofing guys FINALLY called me back ! ! ! But was I here to take his call ? Noooooo . Aaarghh ! ! ! ! ! Luckily he gave me his cell phone number and I was able to call him today . He is going to come over on Sunday to look at the damage and see how much needs to be done . Let us hope we have good weather again next week ! ! ! ! On Tuesday the boys were out playing in the yard until dusk . Samuel and Micah , as usual , attracted all the mosquitos . Samuel got quite a few bites on his face . On Wednesday morning his eyelid was swollen , and we figured he 'd gotten a bite on the lid . His bites always swell up more than normal , but they usually don 't bother him and they go away fine . We weren 't really too worried about it . Well , today it was worse ! Plus , there is no center to the swelling where the bite would be . I can 't figure out what happened . He says it doesn 't hurt , just itches a little when he touches it . He is really good at not bothering it . I hope I don 't need to worry . I got extra lucky last night , because Levi slept ! ! ! He was up a lot , but kept going back to sleep in the bassinette , so I actually got some sleep last night ! ! ! Wow , I wasn 't expecting it . I even got a shower this morning ; good thing , too , since I have my 6 week check up tonight . Wow , Levi will be 6 weeks old tomorrow , already ! That went fast !