Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful family and friends. We love you!

Amazing new discoveries

Heidi has recently started rolling tummy to back, back to tummy, she has discovered her hands and most recently, her voice. Here is a little video of her "talking". She went on for another five minutes after I stopped recording. It was hillarious. She does it all the time too!

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

A tree branch in our front yard weighed down to the ground with ice.
Pine needles coated with ice

Our plant out front

Our grass

Everything had an inch of ice on it

Well, Leah's winter break started a week early. School was canceled every day last week. She was very excited until Friday when she realized there would be no holiday party and sing-along. We missed church again, but this time for a true fear of never making it home. We've had snow and ice and rain with random freezings and thawings in there. Now, growing up in Iowa I consider myself to be a competent driver in these conditions. The difference here is that I don't think this town (or the one next to it) owns a snow plow. Only a few people venture out each day so the snow on the streets gets packed down just enough to make it pure ice, but never enough to wear it off down to the pavement. So even I have been avoiding driving as much as possible. We have been planning on going up to Portland for Christmas, but we may have to revise our plans...I guess we'll see. Here are a few pictures of our latest ice storm. Enjoy!

Just noticing..

We've been so puzzled about who Heidi looks like and then I just saw this picture of Yaya...they are practically twins! Take a look. Who's who?

And the eggnog wasn't even spiked...

It all started with some christmas music, and then a three year old in a pretty dress...some ballerina twirls gone wrong and her head met with the corner of the fridge. But don't worry...she didn't get a drop of blood on her dress and was very happy to wear a butterfly bandage until we got it glued shut. Yaya thought I was putting a real butterfly on her head. She kept asking, "Where are the wings?"

Where are we?

The little town we live in has a "limited selection" of stores shall we say. The ones we frequent most often are WareMart, Bi Mart and Wal Mart. One night we ordered pizza for dinner and as we pulled into the parking lot to pick it up, Leah asked from the back of the van, "Where are we, Pizza Mart?" Not a bad guess!

Seriously?

We awoke this morning to a surprise "snowfall". Having spent the last winter in Iowa this was more of a "light dusting" in our book. Nonetheless...church was canceled even though all the snow had melted by the time it would have started at 11:30!

If at first you don't succeed...

Well, today was a milestone in little Heidi's life. She rolled over for the first time. She has become the new source of entertainment for her sisters. They find great pleasure in rolling her onto her stomach and watching her roll to her back. Then they all squeal with delight, laugh hysterically and then roll her onto her stomach again (repeat twelve hundred times). I was able to capture this glorious moment on film...enjoy.

In case you ever wondered about flubber...

If anyone out there in the blobbing world would like to read a completely pointless yet entertaining article...http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/flubber/flubber.html

Was that a "b" or a "g"?

Due to a typographical error, my blog has been referred to as a bloggity blob blog. I must admit this threw me into a fit of uncontrollable laughter! From this day forth, I shall refer to this method of communication, as blobbing...i need to update my blob...oh my gosh did you see her blob?...you get the idea!) And just to back up my decision with more than fourth grade silliness, Wiki says: Blobs were originally just amorphous chunks of data. So there you have it. Blob.

are you talkin' to me?

Yaya has three imaginary friends; Izzy, Tinky and Limey, or more affectionately referred to as "my maginaries". At first I was pleased with this new invention not only because it entertains her for hours on end but also because I've heard having imaginary friends is a sign of genious! (Don't ask me to site my source...i'm sure it's completely credible. Ahem...) Anyway, Yaya has been referring to them with increasing frequency lately and usually in the context of something like this..."Shut up!" "Mooommm, Yaya just told me to shut up." "No I didn't. I told my maginary friends to shut up." or "pttttttttthhhhhhht" "Mooommm, Yaya just spit at me." "No I didn't. I spit at my maginary friends." I'm not so sure they'll want to be your friends for much longer.

I'm Dreaming of a Gold Christmas

I asked the girls to tell me what to write on their Christmas lists for Santa. Emilia just started listing off toys she already has. Naomi rattled off every toy she had seen the last time we went to Costco with frightening accuracy. And what did Leah want? Oh, the usual for a six year old, "a shiny, big, golden rock". That's my girl, skip the ponies and the nailpolish and go for the gold!

Bribery

Since we got home from this trip Emilia has picked up a new tactic to get her way. Bribery. Yaya really wanted to take a bath, but I didn't want to start one for her at the moment. When I said no, she responded with, "I'll give you some candy if you start the bath." When that didn't work, she tried again, "I'll give you some money." And where, I asked, are you going to get some money? "Leah's piggy bank!"

The End

Heidi and Miles




It started snowing saturday night and Sunday the girls went out and played with their uncles in the snow. Then we loaded up and drove back down to Kansas City (four more hours) with my sister and her family. We stayed there monday and got back on the plane tuesday. Everyone was a bit more exhausted this time, so the flight didn't go quite as smoothly. Why is it when kids are the most tired, they fight going to sleep? Give it up and pass out already! Eventually Naomi and Heidi fell asleep...as did I. When I woke up, Emilia had gotten a pen and colored both her feet and legs up to her knees. I really couldn't have cared less! My mother in law picked us up from the airport in Portland and we hung out at her house until Lars got off work and came up to get us. We drove back down to Monmouth (one hour), transferred sleeping girlies to their beds and dropped all our luggage where it remains to this day. Still working on that one!

The Reception

Jackson and Miles, the only two male cousins!

Sydney and Leah dancing.

Uncle Andrew dancing with Leah, Sydney and Emilia.

Bree and the photographer's daughter Abbey.

Ben, Joe and Jacob singing the song they made up for Matt and Becca.

It was basically the funniest thing I have ever heard. If I can get a hold of a video, i'll post it.

Pictures of the Wedding

Uncle Joe babysitting Miles during the wedding.

Becca's dress and flowers.

Andrew keeping Heidi warm and Norm keeping Miles warm.

Matt and Becca

All the kiddos, both families...but only two from Matt's.

The Fagersten Kids

Ben, Jacob, Andrew (who is standing one step lower than the other boys) and Joe

Amy, Shar, Becca, Elizabeth and Stephanie

The Big Day

Friday was the wedding. We drove back down to Nauvoo, took pictures, attended the ceremony, had a nice dinner put on by Matt's family at the church and came back up to Cedar Falls (six more hours in the car).

Girls Night Out

Wednesday Elizabeth and her family arrived from Maryland. We took Becca out for a "bachelorette party". We called it that, but beside the fact that none of us drink anyway, all of us (beside Becca) were either pregnant or nursing, so it was pretty low key!
Thursday was Thanksgiving of course. We kicked Mom out of the kitchen and made dinner for her. Ok ok, she did cook the turkey, and made the gravy, and answered one thousand questions since we used all of her recipies, but we like to think we contributed in some way!

The Craziest Week - Travel Log

My sister Steph picked us up in Kansas City friday afternoon and Saturday morning we drove up to Nauvoo, Illinois (four hours) to meet my sister Becca, my parents and my grandma at the temple. It was a lovely day which of course included a trip to the Nauvoo Fudge Factory. One of my favorite quotes is displayed in there..."Family...mostly sweet with a few nuts." Nothing so refreshing as the truth! My girls rode back up to Cedar Falls, Iowa (three hours) that evening with my parents and I took Heidi and rode with Matt (her fiance') and Becca to drop some stuff off at their apartment in Muscatine. We took a little detour and went out to eat. I've realized that having a baby strapped to you will get you alot of unwanted attention. No one likes to be stared at while they are eating, but it seemed to be my fate that night. It's hard enough to eat over my baby without spilling on her without an audience, but we made it through the meal with only a few crumbs in her ears.

Sunday was church and visiting with friends.
Monday was shopping and prepping for Becca's bridal shower.
Tuesday was Becca's shower.

How many kids do you have?!?

The girls and I just returned from a little jaunt across the country to celebrate Thanksgiving and my sister's wedding with my family in Iowa. Lars dropped us off at the airport where he sat with the girls in the car while I did curbside check in with my three bags and two carseats. I gave the man my name and flashed him my photo ID while he printed off my boarding pass. "Will there be an infant riding on your lap?" Yes. "And anyone else flying with you?" Yes. Three more kids. "You have three kids?" Four. "You're flying alone with four kids?" Yes. No. That didn't make sense, but yes, I have four kids flying with me. "Same last name?" Yes, same last name. A chuckle and a "Good luck" and we were off.

Thankfully we were able to get two rows of seats across from each other and the ride remained new and exciting for the duration of our four hour flight to Kansas City. The barf bags were used as puppets and the evacuation instuctions as napkins, but all in all everything went well.