Christmas Tree Hunting

We did our annual Christmas tree farm trip this evening. It never disappoints. Big poles to carry around, trees to find and cut down, candy canes and hot chocolate to enjoy, beautiful weather. It was a great little trip and we finished it with dinner at Chick fil A, so the kids were in heaven. I'll miss this place. I'm sure wherever we move will have great options for cutting down trees though, so I'm not worried. But this is our fourth trip here and it's great.

Highlights included Spencer helping actually cut down the tree.  Genevieve was in a bad mood, super tired, and she only wanted to frown for a picture, so Bill helped her out. Spencer and Aaron were in stitches. Here's a bunch of photos. Good times.



And for a fun comparison, Christmas 2015



Christmas 2014



Christmas 2013

5 Months Old

This sweet girl is five months old and gets cuter and cuter every day. Here's a fun comparison to Genevieve in the same outfit at about the same age. Genevieve is in the flower headband. The resemblance continues to be so strong.

Chloe is delightful. She sleeps through the night. She goes to bed as early as 6:30 some nights and as late as 8PM. If she goes to sleep early she does wake up in the early hours of the morning, but she still does a good 9-10 hour stretch. No complaints at all.

She just rolled over for the first time three days ago from front to back. She is so close to going back the other way too but she doesn't seem to want it yet.

She also just discovered her hands and that she can hold things and now they're everywhere grabbing everything. She likes to play with my face when I'm nursing her, which is pretty cute until she sticks her finger up my nose. Hahaha!

She still loves cloth. Her favorite blanket to sleep with hands down is her white one from Grandma Barbara. She will not sleep for any length of time without it. No substitutions allowed. This is how she sleeps, fingers wrapped through it, legs uncovered. She kicks off any blankets I put on her legs. It's pretty funny actually. She's still in our bedroom as she sleeps really well there, so when we come in at night she stirs a bit, lifts her legs up, and repeatedly womps them down on her mattress. It's like geez parents, can you quiet down a bit?? We chuckle every time.

I discovered just this week that she's well on her way to sitting up on her own. We started the era of the IKEA high chair again. it's been in storage for six or eight months but she's rocking it now. This is a good thing because she's officially done with her swing. This is how I found her in it this morning. She's got some serious core strength.

We went walking a couple times this week and she's hit the stage where she's comfy in the front pack again. Her legs are big enough to stretch out now and it's the best. That means I can front carry her again and free up my hands and she even fell asleep the other night. I love this stage.

I'm just relishing this sweet baby of mine. Everything seems extra sweet because unless something crazy happens, she's our last and that makes it special.

Fingers crossed, hitting final milestones

I just paid for Bill's Spring semester tuition and our health insurance through August. If all goes as planned that is the last payment of both of those to Clemson that we will ever make. I'm super excited, but mostly a tad nervous because there is A LOT of work to be done between now and May for Bill to pull this off. We're hopeful and cautiously optimistic that he can do it and that is a wonderful place to be. So one more baby step to the end of grad school hopefully crossed off.

Car Troubles

We are in the eleventh hour of this whole college experience. Our stuff is wearing out. We're bursting at the seams of our house. Our cars are old. I basically pray that everything will last just a little longer so we can get through this last year, get moved, get established into job and home and all the expenses that come with that before we have to replace anything major.

Yesterday was quite the day. I had plenty of opportunity to think about the possibility of replacing a vehicle, which would definitely not fulfill my prayer for everything to work just a little longer. Thankfully it looks like that won't be necessary, but I definitely thought about it as the afternoon unfolded.

I took the girls with me to a baby shower about an hour away yesterday morning. On the way back the Jeep went haywire. All the electrical systems turned off including all lights, flashers, the radio, and as I rolled to a stoplight, the Jeep itself cut out completely. It was pretty awesome. Traffic was super heavy as everyone headed to Clemson for the football game. There was an accident about half a block ahead, so everyone was stopped right where I was, which was helpful. I got out and waved to the guy behind me that I was dead. He immediately pulled off the side and helped me get off the road. We were going to push it forward but then realized I was on a slight hill, so I just let it roll backwards and pulled off. I told him Bill was on the way, thanked him for his help, and he headed out. Genevieve chowed down on the leftover treats from the baby shower while we waited and Chloe slept. It got pretty warm, so thankfully Bill and the boys got there pretty quick. He pulled in beside me and jump started the Jeep and we headed on what we hoped was our merry way.

No such luck. We got about a mile down the road when it died again. Thankfully Bill saw it happen and was able to pull into a parking lot with me behind him. We went to jump it again and lo and behold, the van died instead. Woohoo! All six of us stranded with both vehicles dead, half an hour from home! We called probably ten people before finally getting a hold of my dear friend Becky, who has taken us on as her grandkids ever since we moved to South Carolina four years ago. She and husband Ed came and saved the day. They helped us get both batteries over to an auto parts store and tested. We discovered the van's battery was the original to the vehicle, ten years old. It was totally dead. The Jeep's one was good as it's only a few months old. We determined the alternator is shot on the Jeep. We got a new battery for the van, got it going, and then said a quick prayer as we turned the Jeep on with absolutely no systems running, even air, and Bill started home. Becky and Ed followed us and what felt miraculous at the time, the Jeep worked and we got both cars home.

While I'd just as soon not have car problems, Bill and I agreed we are very grateful it all happened at the same time yesterday. He'll be able to replace the alternator himself. It won't cost an arm and a leg. We didn't have any afternoon plans. He'll miss just one morning of work to fix it. Not bad. The kids did great. They got to play around helping "fix" the Jeep and eat at Burger King and play in the Christmas trees at Walmart where we got the replacement battery. It was an unplanned five-hour setback, but we made it through and everyone was happy when we got home. I couldn't ask for a better result.

Job hunting

Bill is nearing the end of his PhD program and he's in the thick of dissertation writing, planning a class he's teaching next semester, and job hunting. It's all very exciting and stressful and exhilarating. He's in the process of finding places to reach out to and we've had some fun conversations of late about what and where those opportunities are.

Things such as this: the priority is to get a job. It would be nice to find something out west nearer to family. Second choice is in the United States. Third choice is getting a job. This is especially relevant to us because a significant chunk of his industry is outside of the U.S., so there's a very real possibility of international opportunities, if we choose to seek them out. The thought of moving abroad, albeit not high on our list just at the moment, is still adrenaline-inducing. It's something we very well may do later on.

Wind engineering firms seem to gravitate towards out of the way places. Fort Collins, CO. Burlington, VT. Ontario, Canada. Great Britain. Dubai. Australia. Germany. Not all of those are out of the way of course. People ask us where we want to end up. I'm at a bit of a loss to answer. It's like well, we've been in school for ten years. We have four kids. At this point the idea of a steady, well paid job is a much bigger goal than a specific place. We could enjoy lots of places.

We spend many an evening dreaming about what it would be like to live in one of these places. Most recently it was the Vermont option. Totally remote. It's on a beautiful lake. Very close to Canada. Closest temple is Montreal. Passports for everyone! Quite expensive coming from the South, but that goes for everywhere we move. Talk about a switch in climate, as we're still in the 80s here on Halloween. Back to real winter! Cross country skiing from our back door. Time to pull out all those bins of winter clothes and start supplementing for the two more kids we've had since using them regularly. And hello, everyone will want to come visit us. Think the movie White Christmas, lololol.

Fort Collins, CO. Close to family! Brand new temple in the city. IKEA an hour away versus three in the Vermont option. Because of course, proximity to IKEA is of utmost importance. Hint, not really, but fun to look at. Also expensive compared to where we live now. Again, not much of a factor. Big mountains. Snow. Lakes. Actually have some friends that live there already.

So definitely some fun evening, after the kids are in bed, sort of conversations and dreaming. You better believe we'll be pulling out the old decision analysis tools as Bill talks to folks and opportunities start to emerge. For now, lots of butterflies in my stomach, deep breaths as I contemplate the end of an era and beginning of post college life. I've been dreaming of that for years. Here's to this last push to the finish.

School Events

Kindergarten is fun. Spencer does all sorts of new things. We get to participate in tons of stuff and it's all new and shiny and maybe when it's the fourth time going through it I'll get bored, but for now, it's all fun. Yesterday was our first fall festival. I didn't really know what to expect, so I didn't pre-buy any tickets for anything. That turned out to be a good choice. We just bought a bunch of tickets and ended up sending the kids on repeat through the bouncy toys to get rid of them at the end.

There was an extra event that you paid for separately, bubbleball. Let me tell you, that $3 was worth every penny for five minutes of sheer joy on Spencer's part. I got a couple of videos and they're golden. It was a great afternoon.

Another milestone reached

Bill hit a major milestone this week in his research. He finished the data collection portion of his dissertation. With that done what he has left is to analyze and write the majority of his dissertation that he hasn't done yet. As anyone who has completed a PhD knows, or if you are close to someone that has completed a PhD, dates of graduation are exceptionally fuzzy and have no guarantee. He'll graduate when he finishes and defends his dissertation. But, that being said, the goal is to graduate in May and he's working very hard to make that a reality. He'll also start job hunting this week, looking for wind engineering jobs or possibly teaching positions. Exciting times around here. He's been in school continuously for nine years, so this is feeling really nice.

Family Pics

My friend took some family photos for us and she got some total winners. It's basically insanity trying to take pictures where all four kids look good, so I'll take it if at least one or two are smiling and I'll laugh all year when I see the kid with the crazy eyes in our family shots. :) The individual shots are pretty much my favorite. Here are a few.

What a day

This morning was pretty much a slam dunk for rough Monday starts to the week. I went running and the hills got to me and I had to walk at least half the run. My jogging stroller pulls to the right and is annoying to push, but mornings are my best time to run. So I'm in the market for something that works better and we'll see what comes of that. I want a BoB. Hopefully Craigslist will be my friend.

Halfway through my run I got a call for a meeting I was supposed to be calling in for, but I thought it was tomorrow, so I'd left to go running. I told them I'd call back in 20 minutes. Well, the course I was running goes across a levy by the lake, which is gated on both ends. I have to take the kids out of the stroller and fold it up to get through the gate. At the first gate I unknowingly dropped my phone out, probably when I folded the stroller up. I didn't notice for a hundred yards or so when I tried to get it to make that call. I went back to search and didn't have any luck, despite knowing the phone had to be right there.

I headed over to Bill's work to borrow his phone, which didn't have the number I needed, or I thought it didn't, so I had to call my mom, then make the call, 20 minutes late. In the process of all the juggling Bill was in the van watching the kids and I walked out the door of the lab without his keys. Yep! Locked out! The look of panic on Bill's face said it all. Thankfully, not a minute later a guy drove up who has a key. Huge blessing there because nobody else is in Bill's lab and it's a few miles from main campus. That was one less delay for the day.

He headed back to help me find my phone and I took his phone to call it. I walked the stretch it would be in and still didn't find it. I only found it after calling it and following the sound. Someone had wedged it in the gate. Unfortunately, they or maybe me stepped on it before that happened and the bottom corner of the screen is shattered, with cracks spread across the whole phone. It's new as of July. Total bummer. I ordered a screen protector from Amazon and shelled out to have it come tomorrow. I'll put the cover on so it can't break anymore and hope that there's a good deal on Black Friday next month and I can limp to then with the broken screen.

In better news, nothing else went wrong today. Ha! Here's to a better tomorrow.

3 Months

This sweet girl is three months old. In the last week or two she's suddenly realized there is a world around her and she is really happy about that. Don't be fooled by these pictures. She is super smiley and starting to giggle and it's delightful. This is one of my favorite stages, when babies really start to interact with the world around them. 

At three months Chloe still sleeps through the night most nights. She's still in her rocker sleeper and loves it. She isn't much of a day napper unless she's in her swing, so we do that a lot. She sleeps really well in her carseat too, which is lovely because I do a lot of pickups/dropoffs these days.

She's very patient with her sibling's love. Genevieve can't stay away from her. She kisses her all day long and Chloe mostly isn't bothered.

She's growing like a weed. She is over 13 pounds now and fitting into her 3-6 month clothes and even some 9-month clothes. She loves all things cloth. The fastest way to calm her down and help her sleep is to give her a blanket, most particularly a beautiful white knitted one from her Grandma Great, Bill's grandma.

I take her and Aaron running with me a few days a week and she is kind enough to tolerate it. She doesn't sit up well yet, so she kind of slumps in her seat, but with the head debobbler thing from her carseat that she grew out of she is pretty comfy in the stroller and she usually falls asleep.

Mostly she just tags along with me everywhere I go and is pleasant as can be, which is really awesome. Oh how I love this sweet little girl.

She laughs!

Chloe started laughing this morning. I even got it on video. It's adorable. But it was before we got all the way dressed for the day and there's a bit too much undergarment in view. Hahaha! So just know that we're enjoying the cuteness and I'll try to get a video soon with clothes on.

We went to the Clemson First Friday parade last night. It happens every year the Friday before the first home football game. Not gonna lie, it was the tamest parade I've ever attended. Apparently Utah knows how to make parades a bit more exciting than this one was and I was spoiled without even knowing it. We had fun even as I wondered why I would want to see all the sororities on campus walk by shouting the Clemson cheer. I noticed not a single fraternity participated. We've never gone to it before, so chalk it up on our list of lasts. It was hot! I've been checking the weather and this weekend looks like it will be the last two days in the 90s. Folks, 93 degrees is too hot for September. Chloe's face in the pics says how she feels about that.

But regardless of the heat and the general chillness of the parade and lack of floats and people throwing candy, it was totally worth getting out on a Friday night to be with the crowds and let the kids get all excited. We're starting to come out of our shell of staying at home all the time. When I had Aaron that first year we basically hibernated. It was so stinkin' hard to get everyone out the door to do everything. But now a couple years later it's somehow not so hard, and so rewarding to get out and about. I think it's because the other kids are a lot older and more capable even as we have another baby. It makes all the difference. It's good because I'm not a natural homebody, so being able to get out and about again fills my cup.

Aaron is all about balls, so these ones totally made his night.

Guys, I'm hot!

The low flying plane and news helicopters were pretty fun for the kids too.

No seriously guys, it's hot, and this hat is doing nothing for me. Ha!

Lasts

We drove there and back 9.5 hours yesterday to go to Isle of Palms beach by Charleston. It was a whim of an idea I had Sunday night that Bill jumped on board with and helped me make happen, and it was awesome. Getting back at 10PM on a school night was maybe less awesome, but it was totally worth it.

See, Bill and his advisor are both pretty certain he will be able to finish his PhD in time to graduate next May. As all grad students know it's never certain until he has passed his dissertation defense, but it's a very good sign that both he and his advisor have the same goal and expectation and are working towards that.

That being the case it has suddenly hit me that we may only have nine months left here in South Carolina and we better enjoy as much as we can before we graduate and head off to who knows where, but most likely far away from here. I really love living here. We have such great friends and grad school has been about as good an experience as we could expect from it, and I will really miss this place when we leave. It's been almost four years and that's definitely the longest we've lived anywhere since we got married, so it has definitely grabbed me. It will be a sad day when we drive out, albeit also wonderful because college will finally be over and that makes me ecstatic.

Anyway, so we headed down to Charleston and had a lovely day at the beach. Chloe experienced the ocean for the first time and seemed okay with it. The other three had a fantastic day. They love the beach and playing in the waves and building dribble castles with dad and shoveling mountains of sand and going and playing more in the waves. It made me a tad nervous how far out they were comfortable going, but I was also really pleased that they got over their fear of the waves, especially Aaron, from when they were younger. The footing is pretty uncertain in the ocean and they figured out how to stay upright, which is great. We stayed close enough to grab them if they did happen to get knocked over, and all three had at least one wave completely wash over them at one point during the day, but they were okay and came back for more.

The best part for me was when we pulled them around in the shallows on the boogie board. Aaron especially had this look of pure ecstasy on his face that made me so happy. I was surprised he wanted to do it, but after seeing Bill pull Spencer and Genevieve around, he hopped on and asked me to take him for a ride.

It was a good day. It may be the last beach day before we move. We shall see. Check that one off the list though. 

Oh, and Bill and Aaron were certainly there but I only took pics while I was hanging out with sleeping Chloe and when she woke up, and they didn't come over then, so we'll just pretend we have pics of them.

Genevieve is 4!

My sweet and spicy Genevieve turns four years old tomorrow! She's been so very excited about her birthday all summer long. Hers is the last of our four summer birthdays, seven weeks after Aaron's, so it feels like a long wait. But tomorrow is the day and she's so happy. She keeps telling me things that will be different since she's four, mostly things she won't be scared of, like the Harry Potter movies for one. I love how her mind works.

We celebrated her birthday today, with all the food she wanted to eat, plus her requested cake, strawberry with pink icing. My friend posted it on her blog and it is divine. We went to a handy dandy funfest put on by Clemson City and she thought it was all for her birthday. Win! She got lots of great presents from us and her grandparents and when she went to bed tonight she told me it was the best day ever. That's what I like to hear! And we're going to celebrate a bit more tomorrow, so it will keep on being awesome.

My oven isn't level, so everything comes out slightly thicker on one side than the other. Since this was a double decker cake I just strategically put the rounds so the thick and thin parts matched up. Voila!

This is so Genevieve. No clothes on, hair in her face, and so happy about her new gifts. She's a firecracker of a girl and she sure does know how to enjoy life. 

She helped me add on the sprinkles before we blew out the candles. She's not as interested in cooking with me as her brothers, but she comes in sometimes.

So much happiness in this special girl.

Genevieve is a girl of extremes. She feels everything so strongly, so she is so happy, then so sad, then so angry, and whatever other emotion she can feel. I love that she tries to make others feel good. I wish she wasn't so good at setting her brothers off, ha! She loves Chloe with utter abandon. That baby has received thousands of kisses from Genevieve. :)

She's so excited to start preschool. She has to wait about 10 more days, but it's coming up and she's going to love it, I'm absolutely certain. I can't wait to see what this year holds for her. She's going to rock it, whatever it is.

First week of school in the books

Spencer had his first week of school this week and it went awesome!

I can't believe how old he looks in this picture. He is doing so well. He loves everything about kindergarten. 

I took him to school on the first day. I walked him into the gym where the other kids were and sat down with him and asked him if he wanted me to walk him to his classroom. He thought about it for a good long moment and said no. I asked if he was ready for me to go. Another long moment of thought, then yes. Ha! It's like he wasn't nervous at all. Maybe he wasn't. That's not an emotion he feels very often as far as I can tell. I had a much harder time leaving than he did having me go, but no actual tears, just teary thoughts. 

Since then Bill has taken him to school on the way to work and I pick him up in the afternoons. It's working out great. 

I don't have tons more to say about kindergarten except that I knew he would love it and I'm so glad he does. He wants to go back every day and that makes me happy. 

We're reading a ton now. I had gotten out of the habit through Chloe's pregnancy because I was so tired, but we're back on it and have been plowing our way through the Little House on the Prairie books. The kids love it. We're on book two and read a couple or three chapters a day. 

Genevieve starts preschool in 2.5 weeks. She's so excited for that too. We went to a preschool playdate on Wednesday and she had a ball. Her backpack that had been on backorder finally came in and she wore it all day long. It was adorable.

 

Come September 7th when she starts it is going to be really quiet around here in the mornings. I can't wait to see how much she loves it too. I know she will. 

End of the summer

Remember all those articles that come out every year around this time with controversy about parents being too excited for their kids to go back to school and throw guilt around about how we should treasure every moment with them and we're bad parents if we are ready for school to start and get them back into it? I'm sure another round is just waiting to come out in the coming days.

Well guess what? They're utterly ridiculous because kids going back to school is awesome. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And not just for the parents, but for the kids. So while I'm probably not going to stage a photo of me jumping for joy in the background of my kids' first day of school photo as if I can't wait for them to be gone, well, I can't wait.

This summer has been a total wash. School ended and I went through the last few weeks of my pregnancy, which are always the worst. Then I had Chloe and spent the next month recovering from that. That's mostly past now. But I still only have a seven-week old and her schedule is all over the place. I have three other kids who have decided they need to take all their aggressions of being cooped up and a bit bored more often than not on each other and fight entirely too often. This summer has been horribly hot and humid with very little of the normal breaks for beautiful rainstorms that we usually have. Going outside is pretty torturous most of the time. There aren't a lot of activities to do in our little rural neck of the woods that don't involve swimming, which is really hard to do with just me and all my kids. And let's talk about how most activities are hard to do with me and four kids five and under.

So you know what? I'm really excited for summer to end. I'm excited for Spencer to start kindergarten. He's giddy over his teacher and going to school. I'm thrilled Genevieve gets to start preschool in a few weeks. She can't wait. She's going to love it. I can't wait for the potential of Chloe and Aaron being asleep at the same time occasionally. The idea of sitting on the couch and just not doing anything for a bit and not having anyone come blazing in with some need is tantalizing. I can't wait for the kids to come home after their days happy and make better use of the time they have here at home instead of counting the hours. Despite Chloe sleeping through the night, I still don't get enough sleep because I have other responsibilities when she's asleep and most of the time I don't go to bed at a decent hour.

So crazy articles aside, I am thrilled for the end of summer and the start of school. I'm thrilled for them to be gone so I can breathe again. I'm thrilled for the experiences they are going to have that I can't give them. I'm thrilled for their growth and learning. And I'm ready for a bit of breathing room to get the handle of this four kids life. It's something else. I love them so, so much and I'm grateful for every one of them and their amazingness. I'm also completely overwhelmed at regular intervals and feel totally lost. And let's not forget that I'm there's a real possibility that we could be done with grad school next summer and the happiness that brings me knows no bounds. For now Bill works days, he works nights, he sometimes works Saturdays and all so that can become a reality. He is working his tail off and he is amazing for the effort.

This article touched a chord for me today. It's very true. So onward and upward and let's be done with summer and onto the next phase. No regrets and no guilt. Just excitement for new things. 

Pictures from this week

Sleepy Chloe on my shoulder. So sweet

She deigned to sit in her bouncer, which she does not love yet, for a few minutes late at night while she was happy right before bed.

Spencer asked us to take his picture at the park

More park

Everyone's favorite seat, though we officially call this Chloe's stroller now to avoid all arguments.

Look, she does smile! She's rather long suffering of her sibling's love and starting to favor us with more of these. It's fantastic.

These are pizza rolls. They are amazing. The cheese leaked out the bottom and got crunchy. Oh so good. Home run dinner. We'll be making these again. 

Not a good shot since it's through the screen, but Genevieve and Aaron decided to camp out under the trampoline. Aaron was full on laying on the dried out grass with no clothes on. We've had a horribly dry summer, so the lawn is basically dead. It made me cringe as I was worried about ants mauling him and scratchy dead grass, but he didn't seem to mind at all.