Cure the Winter Time Blues

I was reading one of my friends blogs about how she was going thru the winter time blues right now and asked for some suggestions on how to cure this blah feeling most of us go thru this time of the year. Since then I've thought about my blah feelings and some ideas to get me and my restless kids thru the end of winter and into spring. Here are some suggestions I've read about and thought of for myself.

• Play a board game or cards with your family
  
• Always have something to look forward too - start planning
• Spray a citrus scented room freshener or light a summer scented candle
• Brighten up your home by opening the shades
  
• Surprise your spouse with an unplanned date
  
• Get up and start moving - go for a walk, find an indoor track if it's too cold outside
  
• Try a new dessert recipe
  
• Go shopping - beware this can be dangerous
  
• Plan a service project for you or your family to do
  
• Host a craft night with all of your girl friends
  
• Have a mommy daughter or son date
  
• Have a smoothie night using tropical ingredients
  
• Take your kids to a restaurant that has an indoor playground and let them loose
• Go swimming - we LOVE the indoor swimming pool at the Legacy Center in Lehi
• Paint your toenails - I wish this is something that I could do by myself right now!!!
• Get your hair cut
• Always have FHE
• Set up an indoor obsticle course
  
• Buy yourself flowers - these will allow you to think about summer
  
• Plan your summer time vacations
  
• Take a trip down south for the weekend
  
• Have an indoor picnic
  
• Go outside and enjoy the beauty of winter and sled, ski, skate or make snow angles and snowmen.
  
• Set up the tent indoors and pretend to go camping with your family
  
• Get a good nights rest - lack of sleep can add to the blues

These are just a few suggestions that I've been able to think of. I know winter can be long and boring for some but just remember spring is around the corner and not too far away.

I can't wait.

Today I just sat back in the recliner and couldn't stop thinking about how much my life is going to change in only 5 1/2 weeks...I'm going to be a mom of 4 kids!!! When and how did that happen:) I'll admit for a long time the thought of four kids was very scary and I'm still a lot nervous about taking care of Cassie and the baby, but today I finally felt some peace about our growing family. I just wonder how long that peace of mind is going to last. It could be that I am so uncomfortable that I just want this baby out of me, but I really am getting excited to welcome a new little baby into our home. There is nothing more precious to me than holding MY little newborns. I can't wait to see our little girls hold their younger brother and I'm so excited to watch Kurt rock our newborn son, hoping that no other responsibility will call him away from the moment.

Here are a few pictures of our family growing one by one.

Sadie's blessing day.

I haven't scanned in any of Sadie's pics from the hospital yet so this is the youngest picture I have on file

Kurt holding Jessica (one of my favorite pictures)

Our little Cassie

I can't wait to post pictures of our little number 4. It's going to be so different holding a newborn wearing blue. Until that post I'll be waddling around the house and everywhere else I go, eating anything that I want to because when I'm pregnant I'm going to enjoy being pregnant the way I like to enjoy it (twix bars and rootbeer floats), and maybe just maybe I'll finish a few of my projects that I have laying around, probably not.

Christmas

I don't know where to begin, of course this would be a whole lot easier if I would only have been faithful in posting. So now it's catch up time.


Christmas was so busy and so much fun this year. We spent the holidays with Kurt's family up in Malad, ID. This year all of the brother's were able to come with their families and stay at Grandma Peden's, needless to say it was a full house. The more the merrier!!! We started out with a Christmas Eve party at Kim & Lee's. The food was excellent but the highlight was a visit from Santa Clause. It was so cute, we had everyone downstairs and asked Sadie to sing one of the songs she had learned at school. While she was singing Santa came barreling thru the front door upstairs shouting Ho Ho Ho. Sadie kept on singing while her eyes got bigger and bigger. Finally Santa made his way downstairs and visited with each child, giving them a present. It was so much fun as a parent to watch the excitement!!!

Christmas morning wasn't as crazy as expected. With all of Kurt's brother's and their families, Kelly and Donna, and Grandma Peden there, we had way too many presents. I could not believe the amount of gifts that over took the family room. I wish I had pictures for proof, but I didn't have a working camera for the big day. I could have killed myself when I turned the camera on and then realized that I had left the memory card in the computer at home. Anyway, way too many presents and way too much excitement. We (the parents) finally got to bed on Christmas eve around midnight, and when we went to our room we found Sadie wide awake. She told us that she had heard Santa fall out of his sleigh due to the heavy bag of presents that he was carrying. So cute. I remember staying up late and listening for sleigh bells that I swore I had heard when I was a kid. So Christmas morning came at about 6:30am. The wind was screaming against the windows and had made it a long night, so as soon as Cassie woke up Kurt had had it with the wind and got out of bed and made the rounds thru out the house waking up all of the kids, except Aubrey and Treyton who had been up since 5:30. We brought all of the kids to the top of the stairs and brought down the kids in three shifts of different age groups. To keep things orderly, we had the kids play with their gifts from Santa first and then we removed everything out of the family room so then we would have room to open the presents that were under, besides, in front of and in the Christmas tree. Once again way too many presents. It was great, it was fun and it was exciting for all. I don't know if my children got the true meaning of Christmas at all but they sure did have fun!!!

Now onto the weather. It definitely could have been better, it snowed 1 1/2 feet with the wind blowing for two days straight. I did not leave Grandma's house for two whole days. In fact any trip outside was made only upon necessity. Well almost every trip, Paul and Emily's kids felt that it was a need to play out in the blizzard. I guess when you live in California that becomes a need. As cold as it was they still had fun and of course the snowman was built. We even had to dig our mini van out of the snow when it was time to leave. So I guess you could sum up our vacation with excitement, family, fun, too many presents, and way too much snow. What more could we have asked for?