Crackers Anyone?

Sometimes I don't think I am going to make it. Ever feel that way? Right now I would consider myself in survival mode. I love the kids ages....they really are fun, but Issy's age is the most challenging. When the other kids were this age I felt the same way. Will they ever be able to talk? Or, is it always going to be point and scream? And, into everything. It seems I am always telling the kids to shut doors!! Ahhh!! But, this season will pass soon enough, right? I've been through it 3 times. Surely I can do it once more!

But, they are cute. I walked into the kitchen the other day to this. She was having a good time and wasn't making a "hard" mess, so I just let her continue.

Yes, Finally!!

I'm back....I guess it seems like such a huge job to go through my pictures and decide what to post! So, I just haven't done it. I was going to get to bed early tonight, but instead, I'll post a bit. That way I'll stay in good with the father-in-law, as well!!

And, our first pictures of the night.....Animal Baby's Vicious Attack on Big Sister...OUCH! Need I say more? Just a big Ouch. Alaina didn't hold Issy for a few days after this incident! We don't know what provoked her to do it, and man, how could she do it so hard??!



Moving right along...

New Year's Day on The Farm....too much fun. There were a lot of Andersons there. The guys had 3 or 4 4-wheelers with at least 3 sleds behind each! The snow was perfect and the laughs were plentiful! No one was seriously injured, either! To see all the little people there, meaning younger than me, was a bit hard to grasp at times. In a good way, of course. It just doesn't seem that long ago that we were the kids running around! Now, we all (or most) have our own kids! Fun.




Alaina....she really got into it! And, when she fell off she just got right back on!


Claire and Issy hanging out inside where its warm.

After a few conversations of Annika being the comedian in the family and well, just her own person, she comes up with these! She was heading outside, but there were no goggles left, so she saw these hanging there! And, she was so excited that she would be the only one who wouldn't get snow up her nose! Yep, that's my girl.




Caleb....King of the Sled!

We brought in the New Year with not a whole lot of excitement. Well, a call from our neighbor saying the Christmas Tree in the office was on was pretty exciting, in a stressful way! That light on meant that the house had dipped below 50 degrees! Back in 2000 our furnace kicked out when we were in MI for Christmas. Not fun when you are 7 hours away. But, we had our neighbor take a walk through and the furnace was fine. He even turned the heat up to 68 so it would be a chilly 60 degrees when we got home the next day!

Here's Annika at about 6pm. She just couldn't do it any longer. Too much partying for the week!

But, she perked up about 8 to party with Papa Bob for a little bit before heading to bed.


I know I was trying to hold out until midnight, but I didn't even get to see the ball drop on Channel 6! That would have been at 11:00. That couch just sucks you in! Oh well, maybe next year I won't be such a party pooper!

Moving right along to December 30th. We went to Wausau to visit our new little nephew and cousin Jackson, born December 19th! I feel for the little man and his so-close-to-Christmas birthday! Erik moved right into a boy cousin role....he loved holding him!


I know, not the greatest shot photography-wise, but check out the hair! A perfect match! She didn't like him too much, though. Deeds was just a little too friendly for her!


December 28th...can you get any cuter than this kid? Caleb and I are buddies. I could just take him home with me! That is, until he needs his Mama! I told Amy I'd make Caleb's birthday cake b/c we'll be in MI that long weekend in February. The next day I got a call from Caleb at about 8 in the morning telling me he wants a green birthday cake. I couldn't understand all the hundreds of words he was saying, but green birthday cake was loud and clear. No problem, Caleb! Auntie Kim, actually, its just Kim, will come through for you!


I love this picture of Auntie Lissy and Issy! Don't they look like sisters??!


I'm skipping Christmas...hope you don't mind! There are just too many to go through at this time. But, Isabel before Christmas playing us some tunes on the piano! I think we have pictures of all the kids at this age doing the same thing.



Now, next time I'll have Erik's birthday shots! What a fun weekend we had with Pupsi and Nana here. Erik thought he was pretty cool turning six. I do have to tell you the conversation we had last week. I kind of feel like Grandma Berniece, because she always said its not really a bad word if you are just repeating it!

Erik: Mom, what is sh*t shat?
Mom: What?! What did you say?
Erik: Sh*t shat...what is it?
Alaina: Erik, its not sh*t shat its CHIT CHAT!
Erik: That's what I said Laina, SH*T SHAT!
Mom: (Trying really hard to keep from busting a gut!)
Alaina: Erik, its CHIT CHAT and means just talking a lot.
Erik: Oh.

Tim says I have get his speech teacher to move onto the "ch" sounds before he gets himself in trouble!!

I feel like there is so much more to write. Alaina lost her top front tooth today. After a few days of trying to pull it out it just fell out in the van this morning. She called my mom and dad tonight to tell them what happened and she put the tooth on the floor next to her. Wouldn't you know, the tooth is lost. I had to come up with the idea that a really sneaky tooth fairy must have been on call tonight, because that is just what some do....snatch the tooth before it gets under your pillow! So, as she is in tears, her and I made up a story about how s/he swooped through and snatched it up. So, tomorrow morning instead of a prize under her pillow, she will have to search for it. It made the tears go away! I'm glad I just wrote that or else I would have totally forgotten!

Let's hope I can keep up on this more...I'll try. :) There's a bunch of fun pictures on the camera, but its not that easy to download. It should be, but for some reason, its just not. Oh well. Nighty night!

Coming soon. :)

Its January 4th. Tomorrow it all starts again. What a big couple of weeks. Tim did get all my pictures downloaded, so hopefully tomorrow evening I can upload some and walk you through the Anderson/Nordin Family Christmases.

For now, I'm tired...was going to get to bed by 10, but its now 10:15. Tomorrow is a big day. Annika has an appointment with a Urologist....she has another UTI or the one from beginning of November never went away. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this.

Did I say I was going to bed?? I now hear Issy crying upstairs....this is unusual, so I guess I'm making a detour.

Friday....

I'm sure you are wondering what in the world happened over here!! I have been really bad at keeping this updated....

Our week at a glance....

Last Friday Uncle Anders pulled in! He and Tim insulated and drywalled the garage. Yay!! Warmth out there in the dead of winter. We had a good time with him around....the kids thought it was great! He left on Tuesday....tired and sore and probably on kid overload!

Sunday:

I guess there is a first for everything. I was on my way to Costco and JoAnn's to do a little Christmas shopping and made it oh, about 4 miles and ran out of gas. Yes, me in the van with 1200 miles on.....out of gas on the end of a t intersection. I was pulling out from a three way stop and it just quit! I was stuck. So, the people behind me are honking their horns, so I just had to wave my hand out the window. What else was I suppose to do?? Two guys ran out of their cars and said they'd push me to the side. Yes, that is ALL they did. Push me to the ditch and run. There was no, "can we do anything?" Or, "how can we help?" Just a push to the ditch and gone. I would not have even been able to identify them if I had to. So, there I sat....right on the side of a 3 way stop for all to see and laugh at. My gas light did come on when I was out on Saturday, but we used to have about 50 miles or so in our old van. So, I didn't panic and knew I'd be heading to Costco the next day. But, Tim and Anders took the van out later on Saturday and then Tim drove it to church on Sunday. With a snicker in his voice he said, "hope you don't run out of gas" when I left Sunday afternoon. Hee hee. It was just not funny at the moment. When I did get to the stores, I was really not in the mood to shop anyway!

This week Alaina was writing a note to Alvin the Elf. That's a whole other post that I have to get in here with pictures and all, but for now lets just pretend you know who he is. So, she writing him a letter and telling him all of Santa's reindeer. You know, "Prancer, Dancer, Cancer....wait, that's not one, is it mom?"
"Uhh...nope!" "Comet and Vomit.....wait, that's wrong again. What is it mom?"

The funny thing was she was not even laughing or thinking anything was funny!!

Today we woke up to about 8 inches of snow. No school, which was a bummer b/c of the Christmas programs and parties, but we had a good time at home. We snow blowed (thanks Papa Bob for the tutorial again this year!)....I love that. I think its my new favorite thing. But, I feel bad for the people shoveling, so after my driveway was cleared I blew out two neighbors. Would have done more, but I ran out of gas. Don't I know all about that these days!

After dinner I got a phone call from the Crystal Lake 911 dispatcher asking me if everything was okay b/c they just received a hang up call from our number. What??!! Umm....I didn't call and I don't know who did....but we do have 4 little people that are in goofy moods and just running around. One of them could have. Well, the lady said that an officer was coming over just to check it out being it was a hang up call.

I hung up the phone and called in the troops. Funny how the two big ones came and Annika just seemed to be missing. She does not do guilt well. I finally found her and asked her if she called 911. Sheepishly, I did get an "uh huh" out of her. Busted big time. I told her the police were coming over and she had to tell them that she called.

We stood at the door and waited a whole 2 minutes for them to arrive. She was so scared it was kind of funny! Is that bad of me to think that?! When they came to the door, of course, she turned mute and wouldn't talk, but I think the point got across quite well. I did have to give them my name, number, and birthday, so we'll see where that ends up. The older kids were just panicking that the police were going to take me to jail! Glad to hear they don't want me going!

We baked 8 loaves of bread today, cooked up some tapioca, and after the 911 incident, made Gingerbread Men. Its so funny that the kids have been wanting to make these for a week now. Alaina just gets so into it and read the story and the warning in the recipe saying, "be really careful when taking them out of the oven b/c some gingerbread men are known to run away." She said that was TRUE and that we had to be really careful and lock all the doors. All the kids were getting their "gear" (pots on heads and wooden spoons) to be safe and catch them if needed. Well, the first man did not do anything. He just baked. How boring is that?! So, the next round had two on one cookie sheet. With 4 minutes remaining on the cooking time I told the kids to quickly go brush teeth so that when the timer goes off they are ready for bed. They ran upstairs (with their "gear" on as Annika calls it) and I ran to the oven and put the two gingerbread men in the lower oven and put an empty cookie sheet in top oven. Then sprinkled a few sprinkles on the floor. You can just imagine their excitement when they came back and the timer was going off. Where could the gingerbread men have gone?! Oh the search began. Annika kept calling them Ginger and they were so serious looking for clues! They even found a cookie behind the piano and were convinced that it was the gingerbread men who put it there! Finally after 1/2 hour of searching we had to call it quits and go to bed. Alaina was just bawling her eyes out, though, b/c she was scared of the gingerbread men running around the house at night. Tim made me go take care of her and calm her down! So, I did end up telling her the truth about the story and how I moved the men. She said that she was not going to tell the other two, but then talked herself into thinking that maybe the gingerbread man story is true after all. She has such an imagination on her and just wants to believe everything! Its so fun to watch her. We'll see what happens in the morning.

I can't post the pictures tonight, because my computer is not working! Arrghh.....so even the Christmas cards are not even made yet. Its been a bit of a frustration this week. I may have to do New Year's cards or Valentine ones. Its not like Christmas changes every year! It just seems like it went extra, super fast this time around. So, with that said, I have to get to bed. I do have more stories from this week that are just classic....I'll have to write those later. Its way past my bedtime!!

Professional.

I forgot to tell you about our family portrait session we had! Check it out at www.monacellaphotography.com . Click on proofs and the password is Nordin . (I just can't figure out how to make that a link! I SOOO wish I was more like you, Taryn, in this area!!)

CRAZY! That is all I have to say. Annika is, obviously, our comedian as we all knew already! It was hard work, but I think we got a few keepers. Issy was tired and cranky and Erik and Annika just would not smile normal! We weren't too into the cheesy smiles that they loved to show off!

I love my family! I think we look pretty good. :)

Again...

Today was COLD...BRRRR....but I wasn't really outside in it. I did watch Tim put up the Christmas lights, so now the house looks pretty on the outside. We are still working on the inside. I love our tree, though. Its so pretty. And, this is the first year I didn't have to decorate the tree by myself! I didn't even put any ornaments on it! It was fun to see the kids oohh and ahhh over whose ornaments were whose. So much fun. We bought a really nice one last year It was a floor model, so we got it at a great price. Coming from the UP, I never thought I'd have a fake one, but it is pretty nice. Those pictures will, hopefully, come tomorrow. We have to try to get a Cmas card picture soon. We'll see. So much to do and and so little time!

This evening I took Annika to the Urgent Care. That's only the SECOND time I've been there in 4 days. Wednesday night I had Issy. Do I feel like a terrible parent, once again! Annika had a UTI the week before Thanksgiving. I didn't catch that one for 2 weeks! She had no symptoms, just stinky pee. I didn't think anything of it. Last spring she had all the symptoms and it turned out to be nothing 3 times. She was on antibiotics over Thanksgiving, and now yesterday I noticed that her pee was stinky again. Today it was the "VERY FREQUENT gotta pee right now" symptoms. ARRGG! I took her in at 6:30 and even though her pee looked like water, she did test positive for a UTI. She's back on meds for another 10 days. Now its off to a pediatric urologist to get the whole check-up. Poor girl...I just feel so bad for her. I'm hoping we can get to the bottom of it soon!

We have A LOT of snow and the temps are suppose to drop into the single digits tonight. All I can say is Brrr!! We've had a fire in our fireplace all day yesterday and today. LOVE IT. I always thought I'd like gas better, but the sounds that a wood burning fire make is so peaceful and calming. Except for when it shoots out sparks onto the carpet. I don't like it then! We learned a little tip when we were in Canada. The gas hook-up is great to keep a wood log burning for hours and hours! I need to go curl up in front of it now.

Thanksgiving Pics

A little overdue pictures from Thanksgiving! I realized I never even got any pics from Annika's birthday posted. Uggh! Life is just moving too fast for me right now! I just need a few days to sit and drink hot Chai Tea and yeah, just sit. That would be good enough!

Like I said, we did have a good time. It was a fun day....we had dinner with the Nordins at 1. It was so not like any other years! It was just Anders and our family. Hopefully, next year there will be more! But, still lots of laughs. :)




Always photogenic!


Papa Bob started this....putting Jello in his glasses! So, of course, sometimes there advantages to wearing them! Erik and Annika were a little jealous!


Now, this is the life. I think Uncle Anders and Annika were just a little to comfy!


Then after dinner it was back to the doghouse/chicken coop for these two!



Around 4 we heading South to Wallace for an Anderson Thanksgiving. A little more craziness, but always fun. These two crazy little people are always giving us a laugh! And, here's the whole crew. Can't wait for the day when they ALL stay with Pupsi and Nana! They could handle it!





Then a dip in the hot tub. Oh do the kids love this! And, they get pretty crazy in it, too! Pupsi had to get out because he was getting in their way. His legs were too long and taking up the whole tub!


I guess that's enough for Thanksgiving. I do have more, but I guess a few are better than nothing!