Beginning of December

The first week of December went by in a blur. It was our first week with Sophia home and getting back into the routine of things. I was so blessed to have members from my ward(church) and friends bring me several meals and also to have my angel mom helping me with the kids school carpool and activities. Luckily Sophia is doing well and after going to her doctors check up is looking great except for a little jaundice. Dr. Werther said to just watch her and get her in the sun as much as possible. She is a sweetheart and continues to be a champ at nursing! This has to be the biggest and most welcomed surprise yet! The other three kids never nursed well and I was dreading it, but nursing Sophia is a special, enjoyable, dare I say a relaxing time for the both of us and I couldn't be happier about that. The kids all love her so much and will come around her and have little conversations with her. They put words in her mouth and I think it is so cute. Im pretty sure they hear me doing the same thing and visiting with her and so they just follow suit. Sophia is still in that sleepy new born phase and sleeps most of the time still but we are just loving having her sweet spirit in our family. We had our first family night together the day after we got home from the hospital. Although most of the time it is very difficult to hold the younger kids attention I still know it is important to spend time as a family learning and discussing the gospel, how we can serve, how we can be better people, and goals for our lives. Sophia was a wonderful addition to this and I feel very blessed. We decided to give the kids all christmas pjs so that they could wear them the whole month of december. We talked about the true meaning of christmas and also what we could give Christ for his birthday. The kids ideas were all so cute. They said things like pick up toys for each other, bring cookies to the neighbors, and say kind words. I just love the month of December and the special feeling it brings with it. With that said I struggle and get annoyed at the way the world tries to commercialize Christmas and I have to fight not to make the month all about getting and more about giving with the kids. I have a lot of improvement to do and I hope in the future I can create more opportunities for my children to see outside of our circumstances and to give to others that don't have as much or sometimes nothing at all. My kids always notice the homeless people on the corners and want to help! I need to do a better job at keeping food and water in the car that I can easily pass to them or even a little cash. Something also exciting that happened was attending my best friend Jades baby shower. I am so excited for her and that our daughters get to be born so close. She is such a great friend and has always been there for me! Jon thought he would get the boys out of the house and go to an Oilers vs. Coyotes Hockey game while me and the girls did something fun at home. Wyatt and Bentley were in heaven dancing around to the music and cheering on their team. Jon always reminds them how lucky they are to go to these games at that he didn't get to go to one until he was an adult. And on a completely unrelated note every time I try to have photo shoot with Sophia I can't even get one good picture which makes me sad but I guess thats just real life and I will have to deal with it! Also the weather has really dropped and gotten very cold but the clouds and the sun shining through make for very beautiful sun sets!