New sleeping arrangements.

In preparation for the new baby's arrival, we had some of the kids swap beds. Domonique is now with the bigger girls in the quad-bunk bed. She's on the lowest bunk and her first nap in her new sleeping spot was Sunday (1/22). She did amazingly well, both for the nap and at bed time, so I have been hopeful that it would continue to be an easy transition.

The next day I put her to bed in her new sleeping place for her nap. I went to check on her and found her here.

We took the side rail off the crib because Xiomara is going to use that bed while Kevin's mom is visiting (we'll be moving the top twin bunk down to the guest room so Xiomara will be displaced). Anyway, I guess Domoique wanted to sleep in her old bed.

This morning, when I got up, I checked on the youngest kids who were supposed to be in bed. I found that Domonique's bed was empty. I looked on the floor to see if she had slid out but she wasn't there. She wasn't in her old bed or anyone else's bed. I asked all the older kids if they had seen her. They hadn't. I ended up looking behind the couch and that's where I found her.


She had been asleep when Kevin and I went to bed that night, so I don't have any idea when she got up and wandered around the house and then finally put herself to sleep behind the couch. Silly girl.

Xiomara's now 6 years old!

This year her birthday fell on the fourth Wednesday of the month. That meant it was a Pack Meeting night. We decided to have our birthday party with Grandma and Grandpa Nichols on Tuesday so that we could go to the Pack Meeting. They brought the cake - a cat, as was requested. I put the candles in a row and she blew them all out in one breath.

She was surprised they all went out at once. We all were!

She was so fast at opening the presents (pulling the stuff out of the bag) that I had a hard time capturing the moment. I finally put the bag on the table and said, "Wait for it.... now" so that I could have the camera ready. I guess it doesn't matter. She certainly enjoyed opening the gifts.





True to tradition, birthday morning started with pancakes with ice cream for breakfast. I did forget the balloons, though so did everyone else.

She opened Grammy and Gaffa's card at dinner (because we forgot that, too).

We sang to her several times and she just soaked it all up. What a special girl she is and we are glad to have her in our family!

Doing what they do best.

Marissa was invited to a friend's birthday party on the north side of town. Kemiah and I went shopping while Marissa was at the party. That left the other kids home with Dad and we all know what he does in his free time - gather, split, stack, or haul wood (or any combination of the above). So after they hauled home a couple loads in the morning, Marissa, Kemiah and I left for the party/shopping trip. Domonique went to bed to take a nap and the others headed outside. Normally, I help the kids stack the wood after it has been split, but since I wasn't there Kevin got out a ladder so the kids could stack on their own. They worked together and did a great job.


Between those two trees is all the split wood they stacked by themselves.

They also stacked all the whole logs to the right of the tree on the right. All that wood to the right was gathered since we got back from Christmas. So we have burned all the wood that was stacked here last year.

Good works! Thanks guys for doing such a great job!

Last one of the year.

I just put the last post for 2011 so you might want to scroll down a bit to see my cute little girl feeding herself. Of course, if you don't care then I guess you haven't missed anything. So I'm all caught up for 2011, unless, of course, you count the summer trips we took in May and June - camping, Church Historical Sites, family and so forth. Should I try to add those or just let it go? We'll see.

What do you know?

My little one, Domonique, loves bananas. It's actually one of the few words she can say, "nana." She'll ask for one when she wakes up the in the morning and when it's time for lunch. She loves to eat them. So I thought it would be a great lunch to mix a banana with some fresh strawberries and blue berries that we had leftover from dinner the night before. So that's what I gave her today. She really did enjoy the berries and left the banana. She then asked for more and I said, "Eat your banana." She shook her head no and asked for more. I was surprised to see her completely deny the banana while wanting more berries. Silly girl!

First snow of the year!

I am so grateful that my kids enjoy simple pleasures. Maybe because they don't know anything else. Anyway, it snowed on Thursday and Friday so the kids were excited to use their sleds. On Friday they used them to haul wood to the coal shoot door so we could replenish our supply in the basement. On Saturday they got to play! Fortunately, there is a slight hill between our house and our neighbor's house and that was enough for my kids. Three of them were out there all morning. I even dressed Domonique up and she got to be pulled around on the snow. It was so fun to watch them try different things, share with each other, and play together. So here are way too many pictures of my kids sledding down a teeny tiny hill!

Ready...

Set...

GO!

Now do it again!

Two on one.

One on two.

Ready to tackle the snow!

Sled snowboarding.

The big kids showed her the trick!




They really had a great time. The funniest part to me was at the beginning, when I saw Ben shoveling the snow off the hill. You can see the grass on the hill, not because they packed down the snow but because he got rid of the powder stuff on top. It all worked out in the end so I guess it doesn't matter how to get the track ready, as long as you can sled and have a good time doing it!

Back to work!

After a nice vacation over Christmas, we came home on Monday. Kevin had the rest of the week off so he got right to work on collecting more fire wood. We are a little worried that we don't have enough for this year, and we can always start collecting for next year. The four oldest kids are his little helpers so they have been busy as well. They probably only worked the last three mornings, and then Kevin goes out after lunch to cut up more so it's ready to pick up the next morning. Today, when they got home, Ben said, "Dad's working the heart and soul out of us." It made me smile. I know they are hard workers and their Dad keeps them going. It was just funny how Ben decided to phrase it. Fortunately, the weather has warmed up again (relatively - high 40s instead of low 20s, for this time of year) so the kids were actually a little too warm and ended up taking off their coats to stack the wood they collected. I'm so thankful that the snow hasn't come yet because it really would be awful to do this kind of work in the snow or wind or rain. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the beautiful week we have had!