Welcome to a new day!!!

The real names of this post are "therapy" and "avoidance". It is only 8:30 and I'm ready to go back to bed and call this day a total loss. Please, if you are not a parent read no further. Also, if you have a susceptible gag reflex. If you don't like complaining read no further- I just need to get a few things out (therapy). With pregnancy I have been averaging 5 hours of sleep a night and that doesn't take into account the tossing and turning. I wake up every morning with a massive headache that goes away between 11-12. I've actually been grateful for this. For a while the headaches would return around 2 pm and last until bedtime or longer. In other words I'd have a headache for all but 2-3 hours of the day. Morning only headaches I can handle.

Moving on... I get through the time BEFORE school by sticking Tag in his chair swing (baby version of straight jacket) in front of the TV. This is the only way I am able to get the other kids out of the door. This morning Tag had diarrhea. BAD. As in, something was dripping from his chair swing onto the floor. Carson, curious kid that he is, smelled it to see if it was pee. It wasn't. Until I picked him up I thought his bottle had been upended in the bottom of his chair and was dripping everywhere. Nope. While I was changing Tag (clothes, diaper, cleaning out the chair, starting laundry, changing a second diarrhea diaper, somewhere in there) Carson threw up... on the carpet... do you blame him? I was dry heaving a little. Through all of this Ginny was bugging me for cereal. I kept asking her to wait until I could get the messes cleaned up and the kids to school. Did she wait? No. The result was that my kitchen looked like someone dive-bombed it with a gallon of milk.

I was inspired yesterday by a lovely RS lesson to be more organized and especially more calm. I woke up this morning and said a prayer asking for help to be able to separate the important things from the unimportant... in other words to do with my day what my Father in Heaven would have me do instead of my priority list. At the end of this I asked for help in being patient with the kids and not losing it. With the headaches and lack of sleep this is something I've been struggling with in the mornings. I remember hearing that you should never pray for patience... but I'll probably do it again tomorrow.

Enough avoidance. I'm off to do some more laundry, cleaning, sanitizing, mopping etc. You know, what Heavenly Father had planned out for my day. It's hard to feel the spirit in a home that smells like poop and puke. I'm just waiting for the R.S. Presidency to decide this would be the perfect moment to stop by for a visit... I have to say that even though my morning was less than ideal I have so much to be grateful for. Tag's bum is so sore that he can't sit down. This diarrhea is toxic. But he is so smiley and happy in spite of his pain. So, among other things, I'm glad for happy kids and I'm glad it's not my bum! (Okay I had said enough avoidance, right? Liar.)

Interested?!?!

If you want to check out my New Year's Resolutions you can find them here. (the ones I am willing to share, any way)

2011 in Facebook Status Updates

January
-10 minute power nap (unscheduled). Ahhhhh, that's better.
-Snow Day! Happy kids.... not sure about myself yet.
-I can't believe it's been 25 years since the Space shuttle Challenger disaster. I remember watching it in my classroom. They made a really big deal about it since Christa McAuliffe was from our state (New Hampshire). I think I still have my laminated book mark saying "Reach for the Stars".
-No school tomorrow! The kids are really excited. We'll be staying inside. The forecast is a high of Neg. 2 and a low of Neg. 15.
February
- Thank you for the birthday wishes everyone! I DID have fun plans- dinner and a movie with Brian. We haven't been out alone in months. It was wonderful. Thanks for watching the kids, mom!
March
-Damien: Today was really scary.
Me: Why?
Damien: All the girls were wearing Justin Beiber (sp?) shirts because it's his birthday.
-Preferred way of eating apples today: whole with a tunnel cut through the center so that there are no "spiders" or seeds, courtesy Ginny.
-Me: Abby, When are you going to learn to be patient?
Abby: When I'm a mom and I have a baby and then when it comes out I won't be a patient anymore.
April
-Abby posted a sign on her door, "Zoo Open Today, $5".
-Me to the girls: Who wants ladybugs and who wants ducks?
Abby: Ladybugs
Ginny: Ducks... and ladybugs.
Me: You can have one or the other.
Ginny: OTHER!!!
-Tag's first tooth made an appearance today!
-Tag has had a big week this week: first tooth, first time scaling the stairs, first time saying "dada" (he's been saying "mama" for months), first time REAL crawling not spider or army crawling, and FIRST black eye. Yep, he pulled a chair on top of himself.
-Three dozen hard boiled eggs. Deviled. Egg salad sandwiched. Gone in less than 12 hours.
May
-"How do you afford your rock'n roll lifestyle?"
-Me: Ginny, what were you eating that turned your lips purple?
Ginny: I was pretending.
Me: You were pretending something that turned your lips purple?
Ginny: I was pretending the crayons were make-up.
-latest Ginnyism: don't step on that, it's hot lama.
-my 4 year-old informed me this morning that her hair was not "fabulous".
June
-Me: Do you like yogurt?
Brian: Not unless it's chocolate or butterscotch.
Me: That's pudding.
Brian: Oh, yeah.
August
-Just found my cat playing with a bird that he caught, killed and brought into my living room. Ugh. Did I mention that he has been de-clawed? He has some mad skills.
-My sons new fave thing to do at church: rip pages out of hymnals.... great.
-"There are kidneys failing as we speak." -Captain Awesome.
-Taking a shower after camping is the best feeling EVER! (much better than waking up to my 4 y/o having peed in her sleeping bag and having her hike 3 mi. going commando.
September
-How out of it am I today? While attempting to put my baby down for a nap I stood over the tub for at least 15 seconds feeling really confused before I re-routed to the crib. Yeah.
-figured out what the big difference between girls and boys is. Headbutting.
-Book Club Friends: (everyone else can ignore this update) Watching the Utah/USC game and Louis Zamperini came on- it was so astonishing after discussing him last night. He looks exactly the same as that 1998 Nagano video. At least if we lose it will make an old man happy, ha ha. That's what I'll tell myself anyway.
- I was going to leave out all mass updates but thought I should make mention that I posted a call for update silence for the morning of 9/11. Ten years.
- I love my daughter's new and improved lyrics. "It wasn't really so, but it seemed to be, popcorn jumped off the old cow." Ingenuity makes up for what it lacks in metre, in my opinion.
-Abby came home from school today and informed me that now she wants to be a geologist when she grows up (before she wanted to be a Girl Scout Leader. I think for the cookie benefits?!?!?) Her grandpa will be so proud.
- Current least favorite thing: cleaning PB off of silverware.
-So, I see all of the Halloween stuff has been out in the stores and honestly, who buys candy this early? They must have much stronger will power than I do because candy would so not last until Halloween. Unless I bought stuff that I don't like and why, why would I do that?
-Ahhh, football, salsa and chips... 16 little girls have gone home. Birthday party over. It feels so good. Let's complete this day... GO UTES!!!
-"I've got to admit it's getting better, a little better all the time." 'Course that depends a lot on which side of the fence you're sitting on.
- This is embarrassing. I'm going to have to refrain from mentioning my Ute fan status for at least a month if I want to keep any friends here in Colorado.
-Game over. Competition stomped on. Good Night.
- A very long and boring update concerning my dislike for the new facebook layout.
October
-Baseball or debate??? Hmmmm.
-Stupid angry birds... time for bed.
- I think Tag may have broken a couple of my toes this morning.
November
-I just cut gum out of Ginny's hair. I love Halloween. Luckily she's due for a haircut, I didn't want to deal with PB, etc.
-Tag, armed with a 12 inch zucchini, surprise attacked Brian. I am so glad that he can open the fridge by himself (sarcasm intended). Luckily my toes and Brian's pride are the only casualties so far.
-Ginny does not understand the concept of death due to natural causes. She asked how Grandpa Naylor died and Brian said he just got old. She looked confused and asked, "He just got old and then someone shot him?" Where is this coming from? It's not like I let my 4 y/o watch violent T.V. Must be that all of the other sunbeams are boys.
December
-Abby: What was your password for typing pal?

Me: We didn't have computers when I was in first grade.

Abby: Oh yeah, and you didn't have electricity.
!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
-According to Ginny the girl's room is being haunted by Michael Jackson.
-Best Christmas vacation ever (sarcasm) 5 out of 7 kids have puked, some multiple times. Now Brian has it too. It can only go up from here, right? On the bright side our dryer was fixed just in time to deal with all of the extra laundry!
- We left gorgeous snow-covered Colorado for a relatively brown Salt Lake City. Still.... Being with family makes it a beautiful Christmas no matter what it looks like outside. Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas!!!

It has been a great year for the Naylor family. Of course, that is always true. No matter what we may be going through it's all part of the journey and we are loving the journey! Before I get started: if you blog and your name (or blog's name) is not in my sidebar please let me know. My e-mail is shoelessmama@gmail.com.
Brian has had the opportunity to teach Abby's primary class at church this year which has been "fun" and very entertaining for him. I believe Abby has enjoyed it too. Brian is still working at Allosource but recently instead of working on spinal bone grafts he has been working on joint replacements.
I (Sarah) am still enjoying being a stay at home mom. I stay busy with play groups, book clubs, blogging (sorta), trying to get Ginny ready for Kindergarten next year and trying to keep my very busy Tag safe from injury. I've been the ward chorister since March. I really like picking out the music for sacrament meeting, it gives me a level of control that I love. I'll get back to you on how I feel about the actual conducting part....
Abby is 6, is in First grade and is such a little smarty pants. She is reading short chapter books and still loves to be read too. She got a book order from school and circled every other item. She believes that she's going to get all of it for Christmas despite my telling her otherwise. Abby is still taking dance this year but decided to take a break from ballet and is doing "mini-poms" don't ask me what that is- it doesn't look like cheer leading. She has also developed an interest in science. She has informed us that she wants to be a geologist when she grows up and she asked for a telescope for her birthday (I know she's aiming for the stars and the dirt, weird).
Ginny is 4 and is the family clown which I'm sure will translate into class clown once she's in a classroom. She keeps us laughing whether on purpose or not and definitely has way too much attitude. Ginny is very expressive, often it's not so much what she says as the face she is making while she says it. She is the only girl in her sunbeam class (at church) and I'm pretty sure that's the way she likes it. She is a girl of simple tastes- all she asked for for Christmas is a really big stuffed animal snake. Okey-dokey. We can do that. She wants to take karate so we're looking into getting her started with that.
Tag is 1 and will be entering nursery (our churches version of day care during meetings) in February and I can't wait. He is so busy! His favorite things are to throw objects into the toilet or down the stairs, open the fridge and throw heavy items out of it and climbing anything and everything. He found a snake in the backyard and stepped on a Rocky Mountain Tick in the same day. He also loves music and is quite the little dancer. He does not understand when we are upset with him (usually for throwing things) and just smiles all the more.
We've also had some fun adventures this year. We are still living with my brother Michael and his 4 children (Damien (almost 12), Tailynn (10), Emma (7) & Carson (5). The kids love it. I am so glad that we can have this experience. I hope that my kids can look back on it and feel how lucky they were to live with their cousins for a time. We are learning a lot about ourselves, about patience and about communication too.
We all went to South Dakota over Spring Break and visited Mt. Rushmore. There are also two caves in the area (Wind Cave and Jewel Cave) which are National sites and we visited each of them as well. On the way home we drove through Wyoming and stopped by Devil's Tower (of "Close Encounters" fame). I think this may have been everyone's favorite stop. There were large boulders every where and we all climbed around and had a blast.
In July all of us went to New Hampshire to visit my parents and my sister Elizabeth and her 4 boys who moved there this past year. We had so much fun, as always, swimming at Lake Winnipesauke. My parents live right on the lake and it is one of the most beautiful spots in the world. Our kids had swimming lessons at Gilford beach just like I did as a child... memories! We went on our traditional hike up Mt. Major gathering enough blueberries to make a pie. It was great to have Brian's cousin Jeremy and his cute family stop by and visit us for a couple of days too. We went to the ocean for a day and my sister took bunches of cute pictures.
My dad's family was having a reunion in Maryland this summer so all 18 of us packed up and drove down. We stopped at Gettysburg and Antietam and made a stop in Washington D.C. as well. Our day in D.C. (we walked everywhere) was so hot- it was 105 with a heat index of 120 (due to the humidity) we were all dying. I was very grateful for air conditioning in Ford's Theater (where Lincoln was shot) and the Smithsonian. But the highlight of the trip was visiting family in Maryland. There were people that I hadn't seen in many years and it was great to see all of them. We also visited the farm my dad grew up on and the ancestral Rudy farm which is now owned by a relative of my mom's, go figure! (pictured below with all of the grand kids except Tag who was asleep in the car)
My kids and I stopped in Utah on the way home and visited our friends and family that we've been missing so much while in Colorado. We are truly blessed with so many good friends and the best families in the world (in our opinion)! We hope you are all healthy and happy and that you have a wonderful Christmas Season. We have a lot to look forward to this coming year...
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Including a new addition due May 28!!!

A few things I neglected to blog about...

We had 18 people in our house for Thanksgiving (and the week leading up to it) yet somehow my sister and I BOTH forgot to take any pictures. The only ones I got were these of Tag. Apparently he thinks that being covered in plastic mesh and plastic AND being frozen isn't going to stop him from eating a turkey.
Begin Halloween: my cute little bumblebee.
Sorry, best picture I have of the whole group.
Damien: cereal killer. I wish I had gotten a better picture of his costume. He came up with this all by himself. Michael fashioned a knife with the use of cardboard, tinfoil and a sharpie and fake blood out of red food coloring and karo syrup. It never quite dried.
Ginny: Tiger Lily, but everyone kept mistaking her for Pocahontas.
Tag: bumble bee
Carson: Buzz Lightyear (for the 3rd year running, he is missing the hat and that didn't even deter him)
Emma: Astrid, from "How to Train Your Dragon" she had a shield and axe that are not pictured.
Abby: Raggedy Ann
Tailynn: the Corpse Bride... tried to figure out how to have a worm crawling out of her eye but it just wouldn't work.
My 3 happy children.
Some of Abby's dance class (not everyone had shown up yet). As you can see Emma was a flapper- we hadn't created the Astrid outfit yet so I came up with this on short notice. I think she looks great, dirty look and all... and people say she's like me, pshaw.
Brian and I spent the day in downtown Denver for our anniversary this year. This was the highlight of our day. The tour guide was wonderful and we were the only ones on that particular tour so we got to take our time and ask LOTS of questions.
Abby on "Nerd Day".
Abby petting a pig.
We went to the berry farm and loaded up on raspberries. The strawberries were pretty scarce- we were told to come back during the week, oh well.
A sampling of our booty.
Abby took a tumble on the way to school. There is one hill that always gets at least one kid every fall. When will they learn not to run down it???





Tag re-discovered spaghetti...
and was introduced to taking a bath in the sink.
The school held a fair.
Should have put them in gymnastics. Abby was doing full flips.
Abby has learned some bad habits... don't know who she learned it from. No one else in this family sleeps with books. Brian never has to clean piles of books from his side of the bed in order to sleep, I mean...
THE END. (for now, anyway)

Abby's B-day: Aftermath

As you can imagine our garbage bin was pretty darn full following Abby's birthday bash. Topping off the bounty were the remains of Abby's birthday cake/Rapunzel's tower. Tag has many new skills such as opening the refrigerator, dragging a stool and climbing into the cupboard- but on this day topping of the list was: digging in the trash. Here are the results: (and, yes, those are bite marks in the styrofoam).
This really doesn't show how pervasive the green icing was through out the kitchen. Ginny ran to me and said, "Mom, Tag has Abby's birthday cake! Come look!" I was expecting that he had found a stray cupcake... was I in for a surprise.

3 mos. later this phone is still not quite the same.

Abby's Birthday

Abby wanted to do a "Tangled" theme for her birthday party. I enlisted some help from the young women who gave the girls a beauty parlor experience with hair, nails and some face-painting (6-year-old version of a make-over) . I was VERY glad to have some help with the hair. They did a great job, I don't do hair, and the hair took the longest so I would have been doing hair all day. You can see Abby's Rapunzel tower cake in the background and some jello cups with boats that I made. If you would like to take a closer look I posted on my other blog and there are lots of great Tangled birthday ideas on-line.
Abby LOVES science. She asked for a telescope for her birthday and luckily grandma had given one to her other granddaughter years ago and it had never been opened. She asked permission and then re-gifted it to Abby. She also got some sciency-geology type gifts from us and a Tangled tower and various other things...
We had twenty (count 'em) girls here for the party, and even though I'm glad it's over it really was a blast. I had almost as much fun as Abby did. Left to Right:
Top: Emma, Sammie, Madison, Tailynn, Paige, Hope.
Middle: Annabelle, Faith, Rachel, Avery, Dylan, Maddy, Holly.
Bottom: Allison, Kate, Abby, Jocelyn, Kylie, Ginny and Tatum.
We also had the 6 young women who helped out (not pictured): Sarah, Kiana, Oaklee, Brittany, Janae and Jessi. Brian and Tag hid upstairs (except for the opening of the gifts) and Michael took his boys out for the afternoon.