Beluga Tales

Quick Ellie picture- Happy Baby!

2011-12-18T17:37:00.001-05:00

Have to hurry. We're seeing Uncle Bryce and Aunt Meg, so I have to hurry.

Bye!

Becca

Another Ellie update!

2011-11-20T08:11:00.007-05:00

This is another update on Ellie, and yes, it includes pictures!

Ellie is a good baby. She has slept through the night, and wakes up about 6 or 7 to eat, and goes to bed about 11 or 12. So 6 to 8 hours of sleep isn't bad. I end up going in and getting Ellie many mornings when Mom isn't fully awake and I'm getting ready for school.

Ellie is getting so big. She is over 10 lbs., maybe over 11. I don't know. She isn't as small as she was.

Ellie is also getting strong. She sleeps on her tummy, so her neck and upper body strength is amazing. She is starting to try to army crawl, but can't find a support for her feet to push off of, so she can only army crawl when one of us gives her our hand to use. She loves to move and is fun to play with. She is also able to hold herself up when I grab her hands and pull her onto her feet. She loves to stand, and I help her walk by holding her up. She has been having fun moving her legs and walking. Evidently it's a reflex to move your legs like that when walking. She's sure enjoying that reflex then. She likes walking on carpet more since she can get a sure footing. But she enjoys walking anywhere. She is so cute.

Finally, we (Laura and I) had a photo shoot of Ellie, and it was using one of the stools so she could sit up and we took the pictures in front of a plain brown wall so it looked like on of the backgrounds of a photo shoot. The lighting wasn't great, but it was fun. She was very cooperative. See for yourself:

More, random pictures of Ellie:

Is my tongue ready to come out? Yep!

Ellie and her tongue!!!

Happy girl!!!

Ellie ended up being a ducky/chicky. It was too cold to be a fairy.

Ellie the fairy

Isn't Ellie just adorable? I think she is. And she loves that little tongue which is so cute. We love Ellie so much!!!

Love,

Becca

Ellie

2011-10-30T11:21:00.003-04:00

Well, it's been over a month now, and Ellie's 7 weeks old. What a cutie!!! She's such a good baby, only waking up once a night.

She's changed a little since these pictures were taken, but it is basically what she looks like today. Isn't she cute? Her shirt in the above picture says 'Thank heaven for little girls.' So true. We love Ellie!

Becca

Eleanor Melanie Cate

2011-09-14T16:30:00.000-04:00

Mom with Ellie

Dad and Ellie- that shirt was her first blanket- Dad's "I Love You Dad" shirt

Rachel and Ellie

Laura and Ellie

Grandma and Ellie and Miri

I just had to post a few pictures, but she was born at 12:58 in the morning on September 9, 2011. She weighed 7 lbs, 9 oz. She was 20" long. And she's adorable.

Becca

Ellie

2011-09-14T16:27:00.008-04:00

Well, this'll be mostly be pictures of the little girl herself- by request of Aunt Katie (she asked Mom to post pictures of Ellie...) so here they are!

Pretty baby...

farther off shots...

Daddy holding his Ellie...

Grandpa Cate...

Grandma Cate (a hard one, since in almost all of the pictures, she was talking to Laura when I got the picture, but it was my bad photography's fault...)

Mommy and Ellie... so cute together...

Me and Ellie...

Laura and Ellie...

Brian, sick but trying not to get Ellie sick- we had to get one
picture of him with Ellie...

Miriam's other picture, which is the same 'pose' as Brian's, shows
a really goofy smile...

That's my hand, I had just readjusted her head when Laura shot the picture

Rachel and Ellie... you can tell how much Rachel loves Ellie...

And surprisingly enough, these last 5 pictures were taken at 7 this morning, and it's now 4:50, and she's just being changed out of them!!! What a concept!

Well, these are the recent pictures of baby Ellie.

Yep, she was blessed on 9/11 so Grandpa Cate could participate since they were leaving right after sacrament meeting to go to the airport. So she was blessed, Mom took the sacrament, and then they left. But we were lucky that they got to come at all!

Becca

Still no Ellie

2011-09-07T18:21:00.002-04:00

Yep, it's true, Ellie is still inside Mommy's tummy, and seems to have no intentions of getting out. On the plus side, Ellie won't ever complain about a birthday on Fast Sunday!!! :)

Grandpa Bristow, you are crazy!!!

2011-08-25T16:28:00.003-04:00

As I got on the computer, I saw an email from Grandpa Bristow, and the email was about the earthquakes we got here. (We got a 5.9 earthquake at about 2 that lasted for almost 30 seconds, and then another at like 8 that evening. There were 3 aftershocks for all of them combined.)

So he said...

Of course the real mystery of all this is the relationship between Josh & Amanda moving to Virginia and the strange events that have followed them here: record snow, earthquakes and now Hurricane Irene making a beeline for the DC area. Is it a mere coincidence inquiring readers want to know? :-)

Silly Grandpa!!!

-Becca

King's Domion

2011-08-10T09:18:00.004-04:00

We took our annual trip to King's Dominion yesterday. Fun was had by all and we were grateful that no one got lost and it didn't storm on us. Becca, Rachel, Laura, and Derek started out the morning with the huge roller coasters. Unfortunately, Laura got too hot and threw up after one of them and took it easy the rest of the day. My mom and I had fun with Brian, Miriam, and Jeffrey, going on more tame roller coasters, playing in a splash house, and trying to keep cool! It was so humid in the morning that just waiting in the shade for them to go on the rides (there are like 5 rides in the park that a pregnant woman can go on...) I was dripping. I was glad when the water park portion opened at noon. After sitting in the air conditioned car for lunch, we headed to a water ride then to the water park, Laura joining the younger kids at the splash playground and then on the ferris wheel and the carousel. Miriam and Brian were disappointed they couldn't go on all the rides, but there's enough to do that they had a good time anyway. Becca, Rachel, and Laura had read the Book of Mormon, Brian read the BofM stories, and Miriam and Jeffrey listened to stories to qualify for the trip. The kids watched part of a movie on the way home and then we turned on the Book of the Mormon stories as a fitting end to the day and most of the kids slept at one point or another on the ride home. We all had a great time and were completely tired out by the end of the day. I do look forward to doing it again, not pregnant. :) I'd attach pictures, but we didn't take many...we were having too much fun!

--Sarah

Update on Ellie

2011-07-20T09:01:00.001-04:00

Mom's 31 1/2 weeks pregnant, so only about 7 weeks til Ellie is probably born. So she'll most likely be born at 38 1/2 weeks.

**Sigh**

-Becca

It's a girl!!

2011-06-08T08:48:00.002-04:00

How time gets away from me! We've had the fun of Spring break, the last crazy month of school with testing, concerts, awards assemblies, etc., and here we are in our second week of summer vacation. The kids are enjoying the freedom to read three books a day (Rachel), play legos for hours on end, watch mythbusters on netflix, swim at the pool, and generally have a great time. I am enjoying having everyone around, at least I am when I am not playing referee. My favorite consequence I have come up with in the last couple of days is that when one of them is bugging another, I get to assign them an extra chore. We'll see if it cuts down on the contention....

On another note, I had an ultrasound in May and we're having a little girl! I knew it, but it was nice to have it confirmed. :) We are thinking of naming her Eleanor and calling her Ellie. We could also call her Ella or Nora, or name her something else altogether if she doesn't look like an Eleanor. :) The kids delight in telling me that Ellie is growing (my belly is getting bigger...). I am glad she appears to be healthy and growing and developing normally.

--Sarah

New Additions

2011-03-19T09:13:00.002-04:00

In Feb, one of our gerbils died and so we were able to get a new one that got along with our other from almost the first day. Her name is Pippi, so we have Pippi and Poppy. She is cute and has lots of energy!

On a happier note, we are happy to announce that we are looking forward to welcoming another little one in September. We're all excited and I am really hoping for a cool summer! I am feeling better and starting to not be quite so tired. Yeah!! Everything else is going pretty well...we are all healthy, for the moment, the kids are doing well in school and enjoying it most of the time. Miriam is looks forward to joy school (Jeffrey joins in when it's at our house) and everyone is growing so fast! We got out the measuring stick out a few days ago and most of the kids had grown at least a half an inch since Jan. Crazy!! I can no longer see over Becca's head, which was a shock, though I have long since resigned myself that she is going to be taller than me, and soon. We are enjoying the start of spring--daffodils and crocuses and hyacinths, trees blooming, and lots of birds. Oh and the bugs are starting to reappear. I guess it's a small price to pay for some beautiful weather!

--Sarah

Guess what? We're sick again

2011-02-06T08:02:00.003-05:00

Yep, we are. Rachel brought the stomach bug home on Tuesday and stayed home on Wednesday, then Brian brought home the fever bug, so he had both at once. Now Lala is just getting over the stomach bug. On Friday, Mom was reading to Laura's class, and as she was leaving, she went to go check on Bri. Well, he and his teacher were a couple steps out the door on the way to the nurse. He had a fever, so Mommy brought him home. I have lucked out that I haven't gotten the bugs, but neither have Daddy, Mommy, Miri, and Jeff. Hopefully we won't.

Hope you aren't sick!

-Becca

Sick, sick, sick!!!

2011-01-03T08:48:00.003-05:00

I hope you aren't as sick as us on the East Coast! We have this horrible cold that makes you really congested, have a bit of a sore throat, feel miserable, and won't go away. I think Aunt Meg and Uncle Bryce got it on the plane and then gave it to us. Hope they're feeling better.

Hope you are healthy during this season of the year. If not, hope you'll feel better!

-Becca

Hallelujah Chorus Food Court Flash Mob!

2010-12-19T16:01:00.003-05:00

This is a must see. This is a flash mob singing the Hallelujah Chorus in a food court. If you look for more info, it says that it is the Welland Seaway Mall with the Chorus Niagara singing.

Isn't this GREAT????

I like the first two people singing. The girl sounds really good, but I was totally surprised at the first boy. He has a strong voice. This is a must see.

-Becca

We are actually getting snow!

2010-12-16T10:39:00.002-05:00

This is our second snow this year, and it is coming down hard. We probably have about an inch on the ground right now. It's nuts, since we were supposed to get snow 11-7 last night, but didn't get any, but now it has been snowing 7-now. And it is 10:45. I went out early, but came back in, but Laura, Brian, Miri, Jeff, and Dad are out there. I'll try to get pictures later.

Quick Update...

2010-12-07T20:40:00.002-05:00

Wow, we haven't written since September! So much has happened. Laura is now 9, November has come and gone, and Brian has had and been over strep throat. Yep, Brian had strep throat. Luckily, none of the rest of us got it. Saint Nick's Day has come, so now (plus the 4 we already had), we have 10 little Webkinz huskies (Lil' Kinz) running around the house. And there are 4-5 who all the difference is is a hairband around their neck. Whose husky is which band anyway? Rachel has an email account, we have had many Webkinz play dates with cousins, and we reprogrammed the laptop. Wow, we have done so much. Now if only I could start getting presents for Christmas...

-Becca

Becca's first temple trip

2010-09-06T22:34:00.002-04:00

We had a great whirlwind trip to DC so that Becca could go do baptisms for the dead at the temple this morning. Because it was a national holiday, the temple was open this morning and Derek and I got to both be there as she experienced the peace of the temple for the first time. It was so neat to share something that is so important to me with Becca. Dad sent us some family names, and other people had brought family names for the youth to do, and that always makes it even more special. Thanks to Amanda and Josh for taking care of the other five plus their four while we were at the temple and letting us crash at their house so we didn't have to get up at 5am to be at the temple at 9! What a great way to spend Labor day!

--Sarah

Are we still alive?

2010-08-25T18:55:00.002-04:00

Yes, we are... but have just been horrible at blogging. Now, what has happened since we last posted?

First, I returned from Girl's Camp. Not a big deal.

Then, on August 4, we all went to California. Firstly, we stayed at Uncle Henry & Aunt Janine's house. Thank you for letting us stay with you!!!!! We had tons of fun playing with Claire, Madelyn, Ellen, and Ricky. That was a lot of fun. We will have to do that again. Then, we went up to South Lake Tahoe. We stayed at a timeshare in one condo, while the California Cates stayed in another. The Anguilla Cates stayed at a different timeshare. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Genelle, and Aunt Carolyn stayed at another. The McCowns stayed at a cabin of a friend of Grandma & Grandpa's. We stayed there for a week, enjoying our time-share's pool, having fun on the beach of Lake Tahoe, and just relaxing when we weren't hiking or spending time with family, or doing crafts of all sorts. What a wonderful way to spend the week.

Then we returned to Grandma and Grandpa's. We had a fun time until we (Rachel, Laura, and I) were on horseback & attacked by hornets. I got bucked off, Rachel's horse ran and bucked like crazy, while Laura got 9 or 10 stings. We are all fine now. And just for Michaela McCown, my scab looks like a Llama. She would enjoy that.

We had a fun time there...

Now, school has started. This Monday, we had to go back to school. It has been an interesting experience. Nothing less than interesting. Rachel just started middle school, 6th grade. I started 7th. Laura started 3rd at Bedford Hills (the local elementary school) where Brian has just started 1st. Miri will do the homeschool preschool thing.

We have been having fun.

It is time for me to go, so bye!!

-Becca

Family reunions are great!

2010-07-27T23:16:00.002-04:00

I am noticing that Becca is doing most of the blogging recently. And since she is at Girl's Camp, I thought I would be the one to say how sad we all were to see the Malletts and Wilkins families go, and to see Becca head off to Camp, though she is super excited. Now it's back to the real world--laundry, dishes, cleaning the garage, etc. for a week before we get to go have fun at the Cate family reunion in California! :)

--Sarah

PS there were lots of great pics taken...we'll try to get some up soon.

Summer update

2010-07-22T11:52:00.003-04:00

Wow! Since we last posted, we have had 14 extra people come to Virginia, a couple of families move (or get ready to move) out of our ward at church, and have MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! Yes, I am now 12.

So, I said we have 14 extra people come to Virginia. We have the Wilkins ( you can see a link to their blog under FRIENDS AND FAMILY on the side of the posts) here from Utah. So they are staying at Grandma and Grandpa Bristow's house. Even as I type this, my siblings are playing with Abby and Emma and Ben and Lizzie. They are also playing with Anna, Melanie, and Jonathon, which brings me to the next visiting family. The Malletts are staying with us. They have Anna, Melanie, Jonathon, and Ryan, but Ryan is taking a nap right now. (You can also see a link to their blog on the side of the post under FRIENDS AND FAMILY.) Then, we have Bryce and Meg. They came out here from BYU, in Utah. They'll be staying for quite a bit.
So there are our 14 visitors.

Now, it's lunchtime, so I have to go!

-Becca

P.S.- the Moms are going out to lunch. That's Sarah (cate), Katie (wilkins), Amanda (mallett), Meg (bristow) (I think), and Grandma Bristow! Lucky ducks!!!!!

I've got silly kids

2010-07-09T12:54:00.003-04:00

So the kids were busy this morning having a mock trial of their gerbils ... for sleeping before naptime.

Silly, eh?

Family is here!

2010-06-29T10:22:00.002-04:00

Lately, family has been here in VA with us. The Malletts (link to their blog under friends and family) came down since Grandpa Bristow had problems with the pacemaker (?) in his heart, and had to be at the hospital. So they came down. In about 10 minutes, we will be driving to the Lynchburg Airport to pick up Uncle Bryce and Aunt Meg. Wait, scratch the 10, instead, put a 1, so I have to go!

-Becca

School's out!

2010-06-06T14:55:00.003-04:00

School is out, and I start to pity my parents. No more days of peace and quiet left, but then again, I get to spend more time with them.

So far, we have a busy schedule-
Cousins on the Bristow side coming July 17ish
Girls Camp for me on the last week of July
Leaving for California the beginning of August
Family Reunion for Cate side 2nd week of August
Come home from Cali

Then school on the 20th I think. It's ridiculous how much we're going to have happen this summer, as well as Mom wanting to do some work on the house itself. Here are things we want to accomplish-

Paint the Main Level
Do yard work

that's all I know of, but there is probably more to this list then I know of...

Seems like we're in for a busy summer!

-Becca

Summertime is great! Yes, it is busy, but before we get to do the extended family thing, we are enjoying having time for the more important things in life, like taking walks together, making friendship bracelets, homemade ice cream and umbrella houses (during the storm, no less), and reading lots and lots. Gotta love it!

--Sarah

Sick, sick, sick!

2010-05-16T15:55:00.004-04:00

We have had a bug going around our house, and Jeffrey & Laura have been sick. I caught Laura asleep in the reading corner in our room (me and Rachel) when Mom was looking for her. I had to take some pictures, she was so cute, so here they are:

She is SO cute, isn't she?

She woke up (halfway) to tell Dad that she was just tired, then I tucked her back in, brought Hedwig, Hermes, and Tenise (her owls, but I have no clue where the name Tenise came from, and Laura says, neither does she!) She later woke to eat a little bit, fell back asleep again, and was woken up to eat a bit more. We are still recovering from the bug, but who knows who it will strike next?

Hope you all are not sick like us!

-Becca

A few pictures

2010-04-25T16:13:00.011-04:00

Rachel sitting in the backyard.

The girls had fun taking pictures of everyone down in the woods behind Grandma and Grandpa Bristow's house. Just FYI, Grandpa Bristow is doing much better and started cardiac rehab this week.

Jeffrey on a Sunday afternoon ride around the race track.

Laura sitting on their little bridge over a little creek that is higher now than later in the summer.

Brian with his dimples.

Miriam (second attempt). I love her smile--she doesn't hold any emotion back! I had to laugh last week when we were watching one of her little friends, her friend got angry and did the same growl that Miriam does sometimes when she's mad. And another kid in church her age did the same thing today, during church. lol!

After tasting the ritual passover foods, we had a "feast" on the floor of simple foods that Jesus might have eaten--pita and hummus, carrots, and of course, olives. You can guess which was Miriam's favorite. For a 4 year old, (or a 2 or 6...) it doesn't get much better than enough olives for all your fingers. :)

It would have been a candlelight dinner, which the kids love, except that with daylight savings, it's too light unless we eat at 8pm.

Update on Grandpa

2010-03-24T20:35:00.001-04:00

Grandpa B. is out of the hospital, and doing fine other than being a little tired.

-Becca

At the end of the day...

2010-03-17T23:11:00.005-04:00

We had a challenging day today, but at the end of the day, things are looking up. My dad had a heart attack today, but he realized it quickly and got to the hospital and they were able to treat him quickly. The next couple of days will hopefully be very boring as he simply responds to the treatment and gets better. I'm grateful he's been exercising regularly the past couple of years--hopefully that will make recovery easier.

Kids are very resilient. They weren't happy about not getting to visit Grandpa at the hospital tonight (he needed to sleep!), but we'll have corned beef and cabbage tomorrow, assuming it's a boring day at the hospital. A day late, but I don't think they'll mind too much.

-Sarah

Uh oh!

2010-03-17T17:32:00.003-04:00

Imagine a Saint Patrick's Day, you're all happy, and you come home to find crazy kids, throwing Legos, and no mom in sight. Dad says he needs a hug, which normally means something went wrong. I asked and he told me Grandpa Bristow was in the hospital. Mom is with Grandma, which also meant no St. Patrick's Day dinner (traditional), so that really dampened the holiday happiness. Grandpa's had a heart attack and damaged an artery, so they put in stents, and he'll be there for 3 days to make sure he's okay. Looks like we may have Daddy-cooking for the next 3 days. But thank goodness for visiting teachers. Sister Council brought dinner, so we'll have that. Thank you Sister Council!!!

-Becca

Poppy!

2010-03-09T07:28:00.002-05:00

Rachel's new, energetic one is hard to get a picture of, but here's one of the best images of her:

-Becca

A death in the family

2010-02-28T23:23:00.002-05:00

We had a very sad evening tonight. Just before family prayer, Rachel put Snowball (the white gerbil) back in her cage, and when she came back, Snowball hadn't moved. And she wasn't breathing. She has had some health challenges for awhile, but it's still sad that she is gone. Rachel was especially sad because she loved and played with Snowball more than anyone else, but we are looking to get another gerbil to keep Butterscotch company in the next couple of weeks. The kids had a hard time tonight, but we will bury her tomorrow and hopefully that will give them some closure. RIP Snowball.

--Sarah

Gerbil cage extension - snow day fun

2010-02-10T11:06:00.005-05:00

So out of the last 8 school days, school has been canceled 7 days. This morning's activity was gerbil cage fun.

Jeff thought the whole thing was very exciting.

Miriam getting the raw supplies.

Miriam had grabbed the camera and was having a great time being the photographer. Hi Becca!

Rachel showing off the addition to snowball. You can see another tube behind her.

Traffic jam. The gerbils were able to get past each other.

Miriam getting Laura ...

Brian and Miriam had an ongoing game where Brian was trying to not let Miriam get a picture of him. She finally got him.

Butterscotch enjoying the excitement as well.

Hey, I can take a picture of myself as well!

Laura did a video of the finished product. If you get motion sick, I'd stop at the 1:30 mark.

Snow week!

2010-02-05T14:18:00.005-05:00

Here's Rachel inspecting her snow candy. We made cherry flavored lollipop stuff and then drizzled it over the cookie sheet covered in ice. It cools very quickly in wacky shapes. This was on Jan 30 and there is another cookie sheet out there gathering more snow. Yeah!

We had fun walking in the snow this morning when there was only an inch or two on the ground which is more to Jeffrey's liking than when there's 12 inches on the ground and he can't really walk anywhere. Becca and Derek worked on making a snowman around the mailbox post--I'll try to get a picture of that after they add the scarf, etc. when it stops snowing. I guess we're making up for the past few warmer winters with all this white stuff (29 inches of snow so far this winter, before this storm). The kids have been out of school all week and we're enjoying it and all the sledding. But we are just laughing and amazed at how much it has snowed--this storm comes on top of about 6 inches still on the grass, though the roads were clear. Hope you're having a great winter too!
--Sarah

Team exercise

2010-01-31T22:26:00.003-05:00

The kids were having fun on the exercise equipment and it just made me laugh. Series of 6 short videos of the munchkins.

Snow Day fun

2010-01-31T22:10:00.003-05:00

Well, at least they plowed our cul-de-sac the first night, just wish they hadn't left 3 feet of packed snow and ice in front of our driveway.

White stuff sure is pretty.

Trying to make the trampoline into something of a snow fort. Of course after all that effort, the kids have shown almost no interest in it. Oh well.

In order to have weather-appropriate food we had Brazilian beans and rice. The kids were pretty squirrelly so we turned out the lights and used candles, it sometimes has a calming effect on them, not so much this time.

Dad in front of the SR-71

2010-01-31T18:09:00.004-05:00

Dad has always wanted to take a picture in front of this plane/jet/glider/whatever it is. We went to an Air and Space Museum on the way to the Malletts' house, and it happened to have it, the USS Blackbird. He had me take a picture of him with it.

-Becca

White chocolate, chocolate cookies

2010-01-31T15:42:00.002-05:00

We tried a new recipe and made these cookies, but didn't have any white chocolate chips, so we used regular chocolate chips and it tasted just fine! What else are we supposed to do on a Sunday when we're snowed in?

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/White-Chocolate-Chocolate-Cookies/Detail.aspx

-Becca

Snow, Snow, and more SNOW!!!

2010-01-31T08:27:00.002-05:00

I'm getting to type this because we are snowed in. Normally, we're off to church by now, but with 12 inches of snow on the ground, we're not going anywhere. Snow started falling late Friday, and lasted most of Saturday. Church is canceled, yet the newspaper still came! We spent yesterday playing inside, eating snow candy, and going out in the snow once. Mom wanted to make a snowman, but this snow is a powdery snow, so we can't go sledding or make a snowman for a couple days...

Hope you all are avoiding the sicknesses!

Love,
Becca

Out of the mouths of babes

2010-01-19T09:03:00.003-05:00

A couple of funny things the kids have said recently... Brian can't seem to remember how to say spaghetti. Normally kids say pasketti, but he always calls it scapetti. Funny boy. Maybe we need to have it more often...

Miriam was sick on Sunday with a fever and body aches. I felt bad for her because she was truly miserable as we drove home from DC, but I had to hide my laughs as she kept saying there were evil spirits in her tummy, and wherever it hurt. It took a bit of explaining that it was the germs that were causing her troubles. She was fine on Monday, but Laura threw up during the night last night so maybe we're not quite done with the bug after all.

Jeffrey is also starting to talk, which is delightful. He says Mama, Dada, Bebo, Yatchel, and Yora. Now if he could only say Grandma...

A funny retake on Repunzel- Refurzal

2009-12-31T21:43:00.002-05:00

A funny movie Rachel, Laura, and I came up with after being sent down to the basement:

-Becca

Sarah's take on the snow

2009-12-19T14:07:00.002-05:00

Isn't it fun to be forced to step out of the normal life for a day or two? What with all this snow (14+ inches in a state used to only 3-6" most of the time) the only place I'm willing to drive to is the hospital. So we have to read stories, make snow candy (lollipop stuff that we drizzle over a cookie sheet of snow), watch movies, play out in the snow, and try to keep the kids from driving each other nuts! What a rough life! I am glad we still have power and gas logs for a quick warm up.

Jeffrey didn't take to the snow much--cold, as high as his hips, and when he tips over (with or without Miriam's help) he ends up face first and unable to get up because he's so bundled up.

And we're taking down the Noah's Ark border in Jeffrey's room, to get it ready to paint and then Brian will move in there with him and Laura will move in with Miriam, leaving Becca and Rachel in the other room. Sounds like a fun Christmas break project, right? The kids are excited and ready to help so that I can paint and we can play musical rooms.

More snow pics!

2009-12-19T11:21:00.000-05:00

Hope you don't have the same "luck" we did!

-Becca

Snow, SNOW, SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-19T11:15:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we got out of school early (1 and 1/2 hours) because it was supposed to snow. And snow it did. We have a foot of snow on the ground right now and it's still snowing hard. We had fun earlier, but it got cold. Rachel and Laura are still out there, I think.

More pics later.

-Becca

Laura's baptism day

2009-12-07T09:54:00.001-05:00

Well ... we're only running a month late. Oh well. Was a great day.

Halloween pictures

2009-11-16T18:45:00.000-05:00

Brian was a ghost whose eyeholes kept drifting as he went trick or treating. By this time, he was tired of them and so he'd ditched the costume.

Miriam was a bunny, with the costume coming from another family in the ward whose kids had outgrown the costume.

Becca decided to be a witch--maybe it was reading all those Harry Potter books. All we had to find was a bigger witch hat. Yeah for the costume box!

Jeffrey is such a cute little elephant. He loved the candy, especially lollipops and it was the first Halloween where he kind of got what was going on. :)

Rachel and Laura wanted to be black cats, as identical as possible. Don't they look great?

Our traditional family snapshot at Grandma and Grandpa Bristow's house when we trick or treat there for one last treat (after we've gone around the neighborhood here).

When will everyone be better?

2009-11-16T18:32:00.000-05:00

We have been entertaining for the past 5-6 weeks at least one bug that has I think and I hope finally made the rounds. There was the fever, sore throat, coughing...we figure it was probably the swine flu, but it has taken its own sweet time and Derek is the last one with it. It has been interesting how it has affected everyone differently. Becca and Brian would have missed school except for a four day weekend, Rachel, Laura, and Jeffrey seemed to have just a cough (no fever), and I mostly avoided it (had a couple of days a week apart where I felt icky). It hit Miriam hard--she ended up with pneumonia and my blessing to just lay on the couch watching movies all day until we could get her breathing better and her energy up. But she is back to her spunky self. (Last night Derek told me this about Miriam...he was going to tickle her and she waggled her bottom (sort of sticking it out) left and right saying, "My bum says no." Who knows where that comes from...) Derek's now been down for more than a week, though he still works--he can be uncomfortable in bed, or sitting at the computer, and at least he is distracted a little when he's working. I hope he gets better soon! Hopefully we have had our sicknesses for the winter!!

--Sarah

Miri has (is fighting off) pnumonia!

2009-11-03T09:13:00.000-05:00

Miri had a cough/fever bug, got a bit better, then worse. Mom used the Nebulizer (breathing system) with Miri, but finally took her to the doctor. She got a prescription to help her get better, and another calming one, plus some albuterol. She isn't using the Nebulizer anymore, but is still taking one medicine, and still has a bad cough.

You might be wondering why I can be posting at this time of day, school time. No, I'm not sick, and we get today off for Election Day. It's all good.

-Becca

Becca is famous!!

2009-10-22T09:11:00.000-04:00

She was on TV!! Well ... you can see her around 45 seconds into the video, she was getting a flu shot, she's got the pony tail, but is facing away from the camera.

Stinking Yellow Jackets

2009-07-29T15:26:00.000-04:00

Evidently there is a yellow jacket nest under a bucket helping to support the trampoline by sitting on a leg. So, basically, when we jump, we shake the nest, so when Laura and I are jumping on it in the rain because, well, it's extra bouncy, I get stung twice. Ouch! Daddy is planning to lead an invasion of the nest as soon as he goes to Home Depot to get the stuff to attack them with. Go Daddy!

-Becca

Jeff is starting to WALK!!!

2009-07-08T18:29:00.000-04:00

I've seen him walk before, and we've tried to catch it on video many a time, but this was the first time I was successful.

-Becca

For all of you with Wiis...

2009-06-30T13:46:00.000-04:00

For all of you with Wiis, there is a game called Wii Play. There is this one game called Find Mii. You find all these kinds of people. Miis are the people you play on, and you get to make them. We beat the game(Find Mii) with 40 seconds to spare... and the last level was level... 99!!!!!!! It took Me, Rachel, Laura and Brian to do it.

I better go back to help Mom get Miri down for her nap...

-Becca

Funny little boy

2009-05-14T15:17:00.000-04:00

Jeff was enjoying himself immensely, having just emptied a bunch of dishes from the kids cupboard.

Crazy! Where'd all that time go!?!

2009-05-01T13:20:00.000-04:00

Can you believe it!?! Jeff's birthday is in 23 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can anyone tell me where all that time went???

-Becca

Silly Children

2009-04-27T16:01:00.000-04:00

Two funny things to share before I forget:

Yesterday Miriam was in a cute skirt and blouse and I said to her, "You're adorable!" Her response? "I'm not a Gerbil, I'm a Miri!"

Today, Sarah comes downstairs, "Miriam says she has a bee in her nose, could you help her?" Miriam, enunciating a bit better this time says she has a bead in her nose. Sometimes you can push on the side of the nose and get the object out, but it was too far in. Uh oh. So I cover the other nostril and say, "Ok Miriam, blow your nose hard!" On the second blow this blue bead comes shooting out her nose, bouncing off the floor and landing in a nearby shoe. So what does Brian do? He picks up a different bead and starts to put it in his nose.

What are they thinking? And what do people without kids do for laughs?

Lots and lots of eggs

2009-04-11T10:51:00.000-04:00

We ended up coloring a LOT of eggs today, about 40. That wasn't the original plan, but when we grabbed the wrong container of eggs from the fridge, 18 raw eggs got dyed before we realized our error.

Anyone know how to tell raw eggs from hard boiled, particularly after they've been dyed?

The World through Miriam's eyes

2009-04-06T16:36:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to share a funny thing Miriam said yesterday. To preface this, she's been listening to the Book of Mormon stories as she goes down for her nap and for bed. When we were watching conference, I pointed out President Monson to Miriam and said, "That's the prophet." Her response? "But he's not tied up!" I had to laugh at her association of prophet and tied up...but it makes a certain amount of sense when you think of Abinadi, Ammon, Alma and Amulek, Nephi, etc. :) President Monson better watch out... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed conference as much as we did!

love,

Sarah

Ironic is it?

2009-04-02T19:16:00.000-04:00

When our computer mouse was slow, we automatically think our computer is slowing down. We reboot is and ironic is it, we find out it was only our dying mouse.

I have to go because dad is at a space conference and mom needs my help.

-Cousin Becca, daughter, niece, whatever

Let me just add that I spent 8 hours trying to rebuild my computer before discovering this. The problem was that the Windows XP install CD was made before SATA hard drives were around, so it could not find the hard drive!!! One of the things I love about Linux is you download a new CD whenever you want and the new CD knows everything up to date. Microsoft is so guarded, you can't say, "Hey, can I download a new XP CD that is up to date?" They'd practically call the police. So after finally getting things reinstalled and discovering the mouse STILL wasn't behaving, I had to realize the problem was the mouse. Oh well, the computer is faster now.

-Derek

Overdue update

2009-03-29T16:03:00.000-04:00

We haven't done a blog post in a bit, thought we should put something up. I enlisted Becca and Rachel's help, and Rachel's contribution was:

"Hi. Bye."

She then expounded that this (the blog) wasn't interesting, and that the gerbils WERE interesting. We tried putting the gerbils in the girls' room, but it didn't work out. They may not officially be nocturnal, but evidently the gerbils' bedtime is later than the girls' bedtime. So now their home is here in the office. :-)

As soon as the gerbils moved to the office, Becca complained that this was unfortunate because then they couldn't get to the gerbils unless their homework was done. Poor girls. (Rachel says to add a frowny :-( )

We had a ward party on Friday where the kids cleaned up on the door prizes. Becca put all of our names in the jar for the drawings and she, Rachel, and Laura all got a prize. Becca's scarf is modeled below by Butterscotch (while eating a sunflower seed, which Becca wants me to be sure and mention).

Rachel got a snuggie (a blanket with arms) and both Rachel and Laura got book reading lights, which means bedtime may get even more challenging for mom and dad. Sarah's mom keeps laughing about there being justice in this world.

In any case, we need to wrap this up because it is about time for family dinner so ...

Love to all!
-Derek, Becca, and Rachel

The Jeff Training PowerPoint

2009-03-09T18:33:00.000-04:00

The other day the girls played with Jeff on the trampoline and Rachel REALLY wanted to make a PowerPoint with them. I tried to encourage her to do a blog posting, but she was adamant that she wanted a PowerPoint. So anyway, here it is, 5MB of it:

Jeff Training Arena PowerPoint

Love ya!
-Derek

Lazy Sunday

2009-03-08T16:37:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been a fun week. We had snow days on Monday and Tuesday and celebrated Miriam's birthday. Miriam is 3 years old. She is happy to be 3. We had crazy weather, from a record low for March 4th (7 degrees) to a record high for March 7th (76 degrees) for a 70 degree swing in like 80 hours. I was just reading comics on the laptop (Becca and Rachel wanted to do a Powerpoint of some pictures of Jeff so they kicked me off of the desktop), when I looked up and I saw that I was surrounded:

And as soon as they found out that the laptop had a camera it was all crazy:

It seems like you show kids a camera and suddenly they are all hams.

Well, time to start thinking about dinner and all that. I'll work on pictures of snow days and such later when I have access to my desktop. Love ya!

-Derek

Photo Update

2009-03-05T18:23:00.001-05:00

A cute pic of Jeff I took.

-Becca

First Decent snow!!!!!!

2009-03-02T07:38:00.000-05:00

Our first decent snow of the season in March. It started snowing yesterday around noon and this morning it was 4 inches. No school today. Technically we're snowed in. The cars are covered with snow. There was also no paper. I expect no mail either.
I better go so I can go out and play.

-Becca

Rachel's news

2009-02-22T19:59:00.000-05:00

I've been crocheting a blanket for my cousin who is due to be born in March. It took a long time but I'm finally finished. Pretty good for my first blanket, right?

And we got another gerbil finally, her name is either Marshmallow or Snow Princess or Snow Queen. At the moment we have to keep the two gerbils apart, we found out that females from different litters will often fight, so we have to keep them from being able to touch each other, but near each other so they can get used to each other. I hope mom and dad survive the process.

Love,

Rachel

Photos of Jeff

2009-02-22T08:21:00.000-05:00

Jeff has woken up about 5 minutes ago and is giving the camera this "When's this gonna end" look.
We're trying to get Jeff to sit still, but crawls off the pillows towards me. He's crawling over a white stuffed bunny for those of you who wanted to know what that white thing under Jeff was. I have the camera and he's fascinated with the camera.

-Becca

P.S. Yes I know how to put pictures on the blog now. Dad taught me how this morning.

SAD news!!! :.(

2009-02-20T17:21:00.001-05:00

Raisin died two days ago. We found her dead Wednesday morning, she had died during the night. Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad, sad story. Oh well. We still have Butterscotch, and we will get another gerbil as soon as we can to keep her company. But there aren't any female gerbils for sale in Lynchburg at the moment. Bummer.

-Becca

Pretty stuff but not enough to be useful

2009-02-17T19:22:00.000-05:00

Monday, on President's day so the kids had the day off, we had another wimpy snow fall. Kids tried to go sledding, but it didn't work well.

Becca, Rachel, and Laura (pulling Jeff). The snow would essentially disappear after one run. Too wet, made great snowballs, but lousy sledding.

Miriam and Brian thought it was cool though they're fighting off some bug so ran out of steam quickly.

Laura on our trampoline, Miriam and I catching snowflakes on our tongues, Rachel on the Potter's trampoline (near the sledding hill).

-Derek

New evidence of our insanity ...

2009-02-17T10:49:00.000-05:00

... we got gerbils.

They're pretty cute. They evidently have no concept of personal space. I enjoyed the "don't mind me, I'm just going to use you as a body pillow." They love the wheel, and if they get going fast enough, when they trip the wheel can carry them for a full revolution. It almost seems to happen too often to be an accident, though I believe it is.

So far the leading names are "Raisin" for the black one Rachel is holding and "Butterscotch" for the brown one Becca is holding. Butterscotch seems to be the more active one, always moving, while Raisin is more content to just be held and cuddled. Interestingly, Raisin is the one who wants out more and is first out the door when it is opened. Also, she chews on the bars of the cage just after she is returned to the cage.

Fun stuff.

-Derek

Miriam's latest escapades

2009-01-30T23:29:00.000-05:00

So it's really late, but Derek just got a new laptop for work (needed one to test code on) and I think I will like having a very portable laptop to surf the web, or post a blog. I can sit on the couch and type pretty easily.

But more importantly, things are going pretty well here. The other day Miriam had been running and bonked her lip into the table. Five minutes later as I was snuggling her, I asked her how her lip felt. "Bonked," she replied. "I need to 'er' it." (that's what it sounded like) Then she said, "Er" with a lilt in her voice and gave me an impish grin. I guess it worked for her. And it made me laugh. She is so cute!! And her stripes have almost worn off. On Sunday, Becca and Rachel were drawing posters in their room and then came down and we were playing Sorry and Quiddler with Uncle Reid. All of a sudden I realized that I didn't know where Miriam was. Well, Becca or Rachel or Laura accidently left their door open and Miriam had found a pen. She had blue marker on her belly (emphasis on the belly button), legs, and even the small of her back. And her dress only had a tiny mark on it, remarkably.

Anyway, she keeps us smiling! :)

--Sarah

No school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-27T08:47:00.000-05:00

Today we have no school... probably due to the rain we were getting that was turning into ice on the roads. It started out as an hour delay. Then we got a call and after the call ended Dad said,"I'm so sorry guys. There's no school. " And everyone was "YEAH"in' and "UH-HUH"in' for about 30 seconds and then everyone was back to what they were doing before the interruption.
We got a Wii on Martin Luther King Jr. day. It is very fun. We have the games Wii Sports and Wii play. It is cool. I can't wait to play on it.

I guess we've been bad about keeping this updated...

Anyways, I'll let you get back to your day.

-Becca

Day Off of School!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-16T12:00:00.000-05:00

Today we have a day off of school all due to the cold. Just because they didn't want children out at the bus stop in almost 0°F weather. So we are having a good day at home. We started the day off with blueberry muffins made by ME.
Last night for dinner we some soup which is kind of like Olive Garden's Zuppe Toscana, which mom found the recipe to here. It is really good except that we kids thought it was too spicy, so, if your kids don't like spiciness very much, tone down the crushed red pepper. It is SO good homemade. Print off the recipe and try it if you like the Olive Garden version.

-BECCA

News ...

2009-01-13T18:46:00.000-05:00

Boy, I'm not doing well in keeping up to date. Let's see ...

Laura had her first gymnastics lesson this week. She's been desperately asking since the Olympics to do some gymnastics, so that was one of her Christmas presents, 12 lessons or so. I'm afraid we've created a monster.

Jeff has gotten to be pretty mobile. He is doing a full crawl, but seems to think that crawling is so you can get over to something which you can pull yourself up on. Unfortunately, he's not as stable standing as crawling so he's fallen a couple times and has a bruise (or two, or three: added by Becca) on his forehead. Poor kid.

Becca and Rachel have been telling us all the details of various Warrior Cat stories. We know more than we ever planned on. Glad the kids enjoy reading. The kids have been going through a comic book phase, so Santa brought some and we got some more from the Library, so kids are often found sitting somewhere and giggling.

We had Brian's birthday party last night, had a good time. For Christmas he got a Nerf suction cup dart gun, but had lost some of the darts, so we got him a bag of 30 darts. He should be set for a while. We had fun for a while last night with me trying to shoot darts on a moving ceiling fan. Today he shot all his darts at the back door, was laughing the whole while. Cute kid.

Brian and his train cake	Cute kid
The fan with darts	Jeff likes ice cream
Jeff doing his standing	Miriam did the new puzzle

I can't figure out why there's a big gap, but oh well. I hope people are doing well!

-Derek

Catching up ...

2009-01-04T21:24:00.000-05:00

Couple of quick thoughts:

Christmas went really well. Kids were really excited to get gifts for each other, tried really hard to find something that their siblings would enjoy. Christmas morning each child was asking their siblings open the gift from them next, they were so eager to see the reaction from their siblings at opening the gift from them. Good kids.

Sarah's brother, Bryce, came home for Christmas from BYU, was fun to see him. Granted his body did the "can't get sick, can't get sick" during finals and promptly was knocked out when he got home. Got better right in time to go back to BYU.

Bryce's "friend" Meg came out, spent a couple days in Virginia. Seems like the two of them are trying to sort out if there will be something more than "friends" later. The kids like Meg, so a point in her favor. We'll have to see what they decide.

New Years was a fairly quiet event, kids got to stay up later than usual, not to midnight, but some treats and games made it a fun evening.

The Smiths, friends who moved from Lynchburg a couple years ago, were back in town for the weekend. We met up with them at the park, played with them and several other families who came to see the Smiths. We ended up inviting them to crash at our place for the night, and the kids had a good time playing together before it was time to head off to Church.

Church is now at 11 AM, and so far I'm not enthusiastic. With 1 PM Church, Sunday mornings Sarah and I take turns getting some much needed sleep. And for the kids, it is right in the middle of lunch time and nap time for Miriam. I'm sure we'll get used to it over time.

Well, life is good!

-Derek

Beds...

2009-01-03T10:30:00.000-05:00

Last night Laura and I changed beds. Man... going from top bunk to the bed beside the bunk bed was a BIG change. I stayed up late playing Hot Death Uno (yes I know how... Uncle Bryce taught me how) and then I stayed up late talking with my sisters. I had itchy eyes and had a washcloth over my eyes and finally didn't need it it and by the time I was asleep it was about 10:15ish. I woke up at about 7 with this weird "where am I" feeling looking up at the bunk bed... weird!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So anyways... We went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for waffles... and to say goodbye to Bryce and Meg... a girl he met at Cumorah.
So anyways I have to go... we're meeting a family from out of town at 12:00 and I have more things to do.

-Becca

New pics of the kids!

2008-12-27T23:33:00.000-05:00

Jeff is moving now!

Miriam at the playground.

Brian on the bridge we've made behind the Bristow's house.

A rare, good, smile from our beautiful Laura.

Rachel at the bridge.

Becca on the bridge.

Here's recent pics of the kids--Becca and Rachel got a new camera for Christmas and have enjoyed it immensely. Just a note on this post--there is probably a more elegant way to get all these individual shots on the blog, but I don't know how to do it, and this was only possible after Derek went through and edited the code to make the pictures all be lined up and the text not be links to who knows what. We had a great Christmas and hope you did too!

--Sarah

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-24T14:10:00.000-05:00

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

-Becca

Photo of Becca

2008-12-22T18:13:00.000-05:00

I thought I would try to add a picture to our blog--it shouldn't be too difficult, right? Well, here's a picture of Becca with glasses. She just got glasses in September. And Bryce was a little surprised when he saw her on Sunday that no one had told him that she had glasses. So, now you know. Isn't she cute! She loves being able to see. She has about 20/200 vision and we just figured out there was a problem this summer when she couldn't read a sign at the swimming pool that the rest of us could. But luckily, August is the cheapest time to get glasses. Yeah!! So she has two pairs, though she takes them off when she is reading because she doesn't need them then. I will try to get the family picture on sometime soon--it turned out surprisingly well considering that we had to get eight people to all look at the camera with a pleasant expression on their face all at the same time. Evidently I had a hard time with this as a kid, and Laura is my "can't you look pleasant for 1/500th of a second" child (see Calvin and Hobbes)--she just doesn't want to. :) Anyway, if I don't post again before Christmas, Merry Christmas!!

--Sarah

A "Day of Rest"?

2008-12-21T22:50:00.000-05:00

Don't get me wrong, it was a very good day. It is just that while I'm refreshed in some ways, I'm physically exhausted. I'm sitting here holding Jeff, 10:30 at night and I am ready to nod off. But Jeff is still squirming, so here I am. I just feel the need to share some of what happened today.

Quick run through the day:

Becca made breakfast this morning, chocolate muffins. They were very decadent, almost too rich to eat more than one. I think she took the basic muffin recipe and then took liberties with it, did a great job. She tried melting some chocolate chips to put on top, but burnt the first batch. Sarah helped her understand what happened and how to do it right. Becca loves cooking, has talent there. However, she's not as big of a fan of cleaning up, but then who is? Miriam was happy to help "clean up", with the result that her face was soon covered in chocolate.

So then it was bath and shower time. Normally we try to get baths and showers taken care of on Saturday so there is one less thing to worry about before Church on Sunday. However, yesterday was a big day for getting last bits of shopping done with the kids and for them to wrap presents. They are SO excited for Christmas, have put a lot of effort in getting things for their siblings and yesterday was something of a crowning moment. They were READY! The net result was a lot of things didn't happen quite like we would normally have preferred, but hey, it's Christmas and the concern they are showing for each other is fantastic. So it is time to get the kiddos clean. Or should I say it is time for me to get soaked. I mean half the time I feel like I'm the one who showered or took a bath by the time I'm done. Is it like this for other parents out there?

Sarah meanwhile has been dealing with Jeff and working on her lesson for Primary. Sarah is no longer in the Primary (children's organization) leadership, was released like 5 weeks ago, but so far has not been able to make it to Relief Society (the women's organization). She keeps filling in for Primary teachers who are sick, traveling, or dealing with family emergencies. She actually had a chance once, but then our family was felled by illness and didn't make it to Church.

Now with clean children, I marshal some of the troops to clean up the worst of the dining area and kitchen so Miriam will not undo the work of getting her clean. Of course she notices some of the delicious and messy items being moved and tries to intercept them. Some quick distraction and now we're safe.

Much of the rest of the morning is an enjoyable time reading and playing with kids. Of course my voice is starting to wear out from reading to the kids and the choir is singing in Church. This could be interesting. Hum, isn't chocolate also a no-no for people who are going to sing? In any case, the men are seriously outnumbered and though I don't make it to all the practices, I want to take part.

Ah lunch. It doesn't seem like it should be difficult to gather kids together to feed them burritos before it is time to head out the door to Church. But kids are wandering in and out, playing with whomever and by the time we're loading up the car, Rachel has only eaten a half burrito, we've had two burritos end up on the floor because I was trying to get Laura not to do something with a bit of cheese and the cheese grater with my left hand and not paying enough attention to the warm plate with the burritos in my right. This is one of the things as a parent that always strikes me as it shouldn't be difficult, should be relatively straightforward, but never is. Why is that?

Ok, loading up the kids into Beluga, we're on track to be 10 minutes early to Church. Woo hoo! But wait, we didn't fill up the van yesterday and it is getting low. Ok, grab a 5 gallon can of gas from the garage, get about 4 gallons in before the can doesn't like angles and the gas stops flowing. No problem, 4 gallons should be fine for the rest of the day. Hum, Sarah hasn't made it out of the house. Ah, the printer accidently got turned off and the computer will not talk to the printer again until the computer gets rebooted, and Sarah can't print out her lesson plan for teaching Primary. So much for being at Church 10 minutes early. I grab a USB thumb drive, copy the lesson onto it, will print it at Church. Finally, we're out the door, we're only going to be 5 minutes late to Church. Where did those 15 minutes go?

Sacrament meeting goes really well. We get there after the opening song and prayer, but before the choir has sung. I join the choir in the pause after the sacrament has been passed, while the young men are going back to sit with their families. First up are the children singing "Christmas Bells are Ringing". The pianist, Janice Roskelley, did a fantastic job of musical gymnastics staying with the children while being unable to see the conductor, whom it appears the children may not have been paying full attention to while making a joyful noise with their bells.

Then it is time for the Ward Choir to sing their first number. My brother-in-law Bryce has joined the choir in spite of only having participated in practicing half a song. Don't get me wrong, he's not a slacker, he just arrived home from college last night. However, he's in BYU Men's Chorus, so he can pretty much pick up some music and sing it. I really appreciated having him there, I'm much more comfortable when there is a strong voice next to me to let me know when I'm on the right note or not. Good stuff.

The meeting continued with some more musical numbers, the highlight for me, was Sister Gibbons singing "O Holy Night". I don't know about you, but somehow to me Christmas isn't Christmas until someone sings "O Holy Night". I bought an mp3 of someone singing it because I had a couple Christmases when it wasn't sung. I think for me it goes back to growing up and having Brother Crockett sing it while I was growing up. It is a powerful song of the life and mission of the Savior and it continues to move me.

As the meeting was getting closer to ending, I had a moment of panic. We hadn't sung "Silent Night". Was it on the program? Borrowing a program I saw that it was the closing hymn, and order was restored. For this one I blame Sister Sharon Folger singing her obbligato, a kind of melody that goes on top of the main melody of the song. I am sure the musically literate are laughing at my definition, but whatever it is, it sticks with you. So as we sang, I could hear Sharon in my head, not as good as having the original, but it was another piece of Christmas being Christmas.

Another bit of sacrament meeting fun was poor grandma and grandpa Bristow getting kids dumped on them. With me up on the stand with the choir, Jeff decided he needed to eat and then took his own sweet time. The result was mom and dad having 5 grand kids. Fortunately they had Uncle Reid and Carrie Gibson (a family friend) to offer some help. It did look like Miriam was pretty cuddly so maybe grandpa didn't suffer too much.

The rest of Church is hard to describe for me. I guess I'll just say I was struck by all these good people who are also overwhelmed and strengthened by Christmas. Good people.

Next was the rush to the Dobyns' house (a family in the ward). The have a beautiful, large, log cabin house, perfect for the Ward to get together for food and friends. The Dobyns' have a cat and 3 dogs. Miriam started out afraid of the dogs, especially since they'd bark each time a family arrived and rang the doorbell. I told Miriam the doorbell was a button to make the dogs bark and she thought that was funny and eventually warmed up to the dogs to the point that she decided to become one. Bo, their 80 pound mutt, had some difficulty at times with Miriam walking around on all fours, almost as if he wasn't sure if she was mocking them. Zipper, a smaller, very good natured dog, was very patient, though at times she seemed to say to Denise Dobyns, "Please, make her start walking normally, this is freaking me out." We did draw the line at Miriam wanting to copy Zipper by licking something off the floor.

In any case, it is now very late (1 am) and Jeff has been in bed for more than an hour (I did take a break in the middle of writing this to get ready for bed and talk with Sarah), but I just needed to get some of my joy down. Been a fantastic day, I'm exhausted, but life is wonderful. I'm so grateful for this time of year and the love Christmas brings as celebrate the life of our Savior.

-Derek, dad, whatever

Yeah, we're better!

2008-12-13T17:21:00.001-05:00

What a joy it is to have six sick kids (try saying that 5 times fast)! I guess it was only 5 because neither Rachel or Derek got sick. We had a stomach bug come visit last weekend and it took about a week for us to completely exterminate it. The primary president said several kids asked where the Cates were since we rarely all stay home. We believe in sharing, but draw the line sometimes. Dad was annoyed because December is a counting month at church and we are 5-6% of the ward. :)

I did LOADS and LOADS of laundry, though not so many dishes and now I am thoroughly glad to be healthy myself and sleeping better at night again. We had six miserable up-multiple-times-with-multiple-kids or Jeffrey-sick-in-bed-with-us nights. I don't know how single parents do it--we at least got to take shifts. Now it's just the normal Jeffrey-wants-to-eat wake up. That we can cope with!!

The kids are so looking forward to Christmas and it's fun to see their eyes shine at each new thing--putting up decorations, St. Nicholas coming, Christmas music and lights, etc. Christmas is definitely more fun with little kids around.

--Sarah

Snow!!!!!!!

2008-12-06T17:01:00.000-05:00

We got our first real snow today! We have had flurries before, but that was only for about five minutes. I'm at Grandma and Grandpa's house so we could help Grandma with her tree, make cookies, and just have fun!!! I'm here with Rachel and Laura because Mom, Brian, Miriam, and Jeffrey are sick. We're watching a video (okay we've watched Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Frosty Returns, and we're watching The Muppet Christmas Carol.)

It is pretty crazy at our house; Miri throwing up because she is coughing so hard, Brian feeling pretty pitiful, and Mom just not feeling well. That is just the reason we're at Grandms's house.

Well, it's time I go home and help Mom.

-Becca

Family Update

2008-11-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

Our family is doing well, Miri is getting potty trained, Jeffrey moving everywhere (I mean it), and Brian puttsin' along, we're all doing okay.

Jeffrey is now 6 months old and rolling and scooting everywhere. It's all another reason to clean up. :( Oh well.

Miri is 2 and being potty trained, and it's quite an experience! She had 4 or 5 accidents 1 or 2 days ago; Dad's getting quite good at cleaning messes up. Miri is talking and messing up a storm enough that some of us sometimes refer to her as Walking Talking Tornado. At times it seems that she only has one volume- loud.

Brian is 4 and is going to preschool and loves it. At dinner we have goods and bads, and his are almost always - "Good: I got to go to school today" or " Good: I get to go to school tomorrow. " "Bad: I don't have school tomorrow" or " Bad: I didn't get to go to school today."

Laura is 7 and says "I don't want to go to school today" and after school says " I had a good day!" She is very good with Miri, which makes it easier for Mom and Dad.

Rachel is 9 years old and is obsessed with Nintendogs and loves her dogs. At school her favorite subject is math, social studies, or science.

I am 10 years old and I love to read. Right now I am reading the Warrior series. It is about a couple groups of cats. I don't have a favorite subject at school because I like all of them.

Mom is forever doing work, but finds time for everything else. She is totally amazing! How she finds time for her stuff is a mystery.

Dad works from home and is almost forever busy. It is a big help to have him around to help Mom. He is amazing!

So, all in all we are doing well.

- Becca

Welcome!

2008-11-28T10:16:00.001-05:00

At the continued insistence of my eldest daughter, Becca, we now have a family blog. We'll have to see how diligent we are about updating it. In a family with 6 kids there is often something to report but it also means there is often no time to report it in. Well, I think I'll post this and then let Becca do her own post. Life is good!

-Dad