Our Little Family's Christmas

We had a wonderful little Christmas here on Christmas Eve. Here are some pictures from our morning and gift opening.

All of our stockings stuffed with goodies and waiting for children to discover them.

All three kids in their chairs. The girls got theirs for Christmas and immediately sat down in them when they got up in the morning....no one even noticed the stockings.

Peder discovering his stocking and dumping out the contents. He was SO excited to see Annie and Clarabel (from Thomas the Tank Engine) in there that he ran across the room to show Daddy.

Emmy digging things out of her stocking. She immediately handed one of her candy canes to Peder for him to have. Such a sweetie.

Mari with her stocking. Like her Mommy she is slow to wake and it takes her awhile to get going.

Emmy opening her first present. She was very good at tearing open her presents.

Mari tearing in to a present. Notice the red shoes? She got those in her first present and put them on right away.

Mari opening up her favorite present, a Little People Princess Doll House.

Emmy on her favorite present, a rocking unicorn that sings and makes noises.

Peder with one of his favorite presents. When I asked him what his favorite presents were he said his guitar and harmonica....he loves all things musical.

Jake opening his favorite present, a reciprocating saw. (Notice a haze starting?)

Me with my present from the kiddos, a computer program for my scrapbooking die-cutting machine. It's AWESOME!

Mari in the present aftermath....what a mess! And see how the haze is a lot thicker?

It's because of this. I made homemade caramel rolls in a bundt pan that separates apart. The caramel dripped onto the bottom of the oven. I stuck a cookie sheet under it, but not before it was too late and the house was filled with smoke. Lesson learned!

Peder with some of his new hard hat, tool belt and some of his new tools.

We had a very Merry Christmas and hope the rest of you did too. I'll post pictures from our other two celebrations in the days to come!

A House Filled with Joy

I got home from work tonight to a quite hilarious situation. Jake was running a bath for all three kids and Peder came running out of the bathroom in just a t-shirt and proceeded to take that off as he said hi to me. I went in to the bathroom to say hi to everyone else. Jake greeted me appropriately with a hi and a smile over the shoulder, Emmy totally ignored me and Mari waved hi to me with a smile while trying to pull off her diaper. Quite the greeting and I couldn't help but laugh and fall in love with my family all over again.

Our house is completely filled with excitement for tomorrow right now. One pie is cooling and the other is in the oven, Peder has repeatedly come out of his bedroom to "go to the bathroom," Mari is talking away in bed and the caramel rolls for breakfast are rising in the fridge. We're bubbling with excitement here. Tomorrow is a big celebration for us. Santa comes and we open presents right away in the morning. Then we'll have caramel rolls for breakfast and Jake and the kids will play the morning away. I'll be in the kitchen making a capon with garlic gravy, corn casserole and rolls and summon Jake to make the mashed potatoes at the right time. After our afternoon nap we'll head to our church's Christmas Eve service. I love it and the kids will be in church with us. After that we'll drive around to look at the lights, have pie and I'll make a snack dip. It's a big day, a day of traditions we started when Peder was just over a year old and one that we now look forward to every year.

The night before Christmas Eve all the kids get a new pair of jammies to wear to bed and for opening gifts in the morning. The kids really like theirs this year and I think they all look pretty cute. :)

Peder in his new Lightening McQueen jammies.....VERY EXCITING

Mari, post bath. Her jammies say, "I'm Santa's Best Gift"
Emmy doing some reading before bed. Her jammies say Sweet Dreams and are all glittery, she thought that was pretty cool.

All three kiddos in their new jammies...getting this was quite the ordeal.

Daddy and Emmy reading Twas the Night Before Christmas. Emmy was very interested, but the other two abandoned them soon after the story started.

Putting out cookies and milk for Santa. Each of the kids decorated one cookie for Santa and Peder picked out one of Jake's to put out too.

Putting out bread for the reindeer. I thought we had carrots, but I was wrong, so Daddy suggested that the reindeer might like some bread. Good save.
So we're all set for Santa and Christmas....now if Peder would just fall asleep so Santa could come!

So I said no more whining

But I WANT TO! Emmy was admitted to the hospital today and that bugs me. I hate the hospital. I hate it when my babies are sick. BLECH BLECH BLECH! Check out her caring bridge page for more info: www.caringbridge.org/visit/emmareneearly.

Why the stomach flu?

So.....yeah. Peder was sick Tuesday night and through Wednesday afternoon....with the stomach flu. Now Jake is sick and Emmy just threw up for the first time. Yesterday I realized that my kids don't get colds, they just throw up all over everything. Seriously, I can think of ONE cold and that lasted like a day. Maybe that's a good thing, because I can handle throw up better then a gross runny nose, but then a runny nose is a lot easier to clean up.

UGH! My biggest thing is that Emmy throwing up makes me very nervous. After the doctor repaired her malrotated stomach he told us that there is a 10% chance that it could recur....so every time Emmy gets the stomach flu I'm going to freak out. WHOOP-DEE-DOO! At least I know what to watch for.

The two sickly ones are cuddling on the couch. Hopefully they can just mope together until they are all better.

In other news, I'm on my way to knowing what the heck has been going on with my pelvis and the severe pain I've been having. I had an x-ray yesterday that basically said that the area in the center of the pelvis where it comes together is asymmetrical and that could be causing my issues. Today I had an MRI. It was excruciating. I had to lay flat on my back, legs straight out and then they taped my toes together so I was pigeon-toed. Not exactly the most comfortable position when your pelvis is 100%. I just can't believe that they really expect you to lay completely still for 40 minutes. Anyway, I have a follow-up on the 30th, so hopefully I'll know more then.

I'm done whining. I'm going to get the girls ready for bed and then go do all the grocery shopping for the next week. A big list this week, with Christmas Eve's dinner and Christmas cookies on the list. If everyone is feeling well, the weeked will be a fun one.

Another Monday...

Mondays are always hard in our household. Daddy is gone and everyone just seems to have a hard time with that (including me). Today is no exception. Mari went on an hour long tantrum this morning....mostly because she wasn't getting her way and was told that hitting is not ok. Peder is playing too aggressively and has shoved his sisters over repeatedly. Emmy has been pretty even-keal today....at least so far.

So when I'm feeling frustrated, impatient and exhausted like I am today, I take time to look at my scrapbooks or just find a favorite picture of us. Our Christmas picture this year turned out really nice. It only took like 8 tries, compared to the 20-30 of years past (and that includes the years when it was just Jake and me and the dogs. So I look at my adorable family and try to remember that my screaming children are the same ones that are smiling so adorably at me from this picture.

The main basis of my frustration is that I'm continuing to have severe pelvic pain and once again it's starting to prevent me from doing the things that I want to do. The pain is not well managed and I'm really hoping that I can get some answers this week. I have an appointment with an orthopedist on Wednesday morning and hope to have a plan of action then. I'm going to PUSH for one.

I am ready for Christmas to be here. I have to go pick up a few more things, but otherwise I am set to go. I can't wait to watch my children and husband open their presents. I'm excited about what each of them is getting and know that they will all like what they get. We're baking cookies with Peder this weekend and I've gotten our menu for Christmas Eve done. WA-HOO!

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season and are staying warm. It's SO cold out there I don't even want to let the dog out!

MIA

It's been a bit since I've posted. I promise I have good reason. When we haven't been uber busy, I've been laid up on the couch taking muscle relaxers. I'm having some major issues with my pelvis again. I had hoped I was past all of this since I was doing so well over the summer, but in the last couple of months it has been progressively getting worse. This week I had a doctor's appointment and I was referred to an orthopedist, so hopefully I'll be on the road to recovery or at least have some kind of treatment plan starting next week.

Last weekend we went to the Macy's 8th floor display with my parents and afterwards we met a bunch of our family to watch the Holidazzle parade. The kids were in absolute awe of the 8th floor display and seemed to enjoy the parade.

Waiting in line....the dividing ropes provided some entertainment along the way.

Jake and me waiting in line....I think we're cute. :)

The kids could not believe it. Emmy and Mari pointed and said, "Ooooh!"

Peder checking out the cool things with Grandpa...we played musical kids throughout the display. The kids kept switching adults...at one time I was carrying both girls.

See how excited the girls were? Too cute!

Mari telling Grandpa how cool the stuff was.

Emmy saying, "Look Daddy! Look!"

Grandma and Peder being amazed.

Taking a picture at the end of display resulted in this reddish glow. It's from all the glitter in the floor.

The Stockings are ALL Hung

I got all of the stockings done, and they look great if I do say so myself! I've been working like crazy to get Mari's done before Christmas. I also just sewed mine and Emmy's and did some "touch up" work on Peder's and put the hanging loop on it. I love having them all hanging on the wall....they look so cute! My house is now COMPLETELY decorated. WA-HOO!

Exhaustion

I am completely exhausted. Bone tired. Would fall asleep this moment if I didn't have 3 children sitting next to me, wide awake.

I've been working my tail off on Christmas projects. I have been getting quite a bit done and getting close to finishing quite a few things. I'm SO determined to get Mari's stocking done that I'm staying up WAY too late working on it.

I would also like to mail out my Christmas cards on Monday, but have a lot of things to do to get them ready to mail. I have to write our Christmas letter, but I always have a hard time summarizing a year on one page....and this year will be especially difficult to do that with.

Emmy had a doctor's appointment today where we learned how to "dilate" her. Fun, FUN, FUN! It's going to be an interesting 6-8 weeks.

Now I just need to get an appointment for my pelvis....dang thing won't give me a break.

I'm just glad that I'm getting things done, it will make the weeks and days closer to Christmas a lot easier to make it through if I don't have as many "stressors." I hope to post pictures of our weekend soon....I'm just too tired right now. :)

Thanksgiving Blitz

We are finally home from our second Thanksgiving celebration. We spent Thursday at my parents' house celebrating with my side of the family. On Friday I spent from 1-11p scrapbooking at Archiver's with my Mom. I think I got 18 layouts done....we had a lot of fun and my Mom finally spent more money then I did while we were there. :) Jake took the kids to his parents' in Red Wing to do the local Christmas kick off down there. It sounds like they all had a ton of fun there too. Then today we headed back down to Red Wing with the Early family. Peder had a ton of fun playing with his cousin and we got to do some catching up with the family that is in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Tomorrow after church we are going to grab some lunch and then we'll be picking out our Christmas tree at Gerten's. We have the living room all set up so that once the kids are down for their naps we can bring in the tree and get the lights on it. We'll hopefully be able to decorate it after dinner tomorrow night. I'm excited!

I have a lot of projects that I need to finish up this week. And another bunch that I need to get started on. I'm excited to get these things done. I have three of the five stockings done and hung up and I should be able to get the other two up by the end of the week. That has been a HUGE project that will be nice to have done. I'll post pictures once they are all done.

I also have some pictures from our Thanksgiving celebrations and I'll hopefully be able to post those in the next couple of days.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were surrounded by loved ones! We've had an excellent weekend so far and have SO much to be thankful for.

Busy, busy, busy

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the projects I have going on right now. Things are a bit crazy with all of the projects I have going on right now. So here's my list of things that I need to do:

- Two Christmas gifts, almost done with one haven't started another.
- A special surprise for family and friends
- I need to finish stitching Mari's Christmas stocking so I can get it sewn together and it will be able to be hung up with the rest of our stockings.
- I need to sew my stocking and create a "hanger" on it.
- Sew Emmy's stocking and create a "hanger" for it.
- Finishing touches on Peder's stocking and create the "hanger" for it.
- Write up our annual Christmas letter
- Get our Christmas tree, decorate it, and get our family picture taken so I can print it off for our Christmas cards
- Finish Christmas cards: add our family picture to it, stamp the sentiment on it and sign them all
- Make a Christmas list for shopping AND shop.

I think that's it, but some of it is really time consuming, so I'm hoping that I can get it done in my timeline that I was hoping for.

BLECH! I'm glad I started some of these projects LONG ago. :)

New goal...

Today is the beginning of a new schedule in my life. I'm going to be getting back into working out regularly and try to lose 15 more pounds by Jake's birthday (March 15th). If I reach that goal, I will be getting a nice reward from Jake's annual bonus and purchasing a new wardrobe. I'm trying to decide if I should post my weight or just how much I have lost.

This is going to be tough for me, especially considering I have had continual issues with my pelvis. I'm hoping to get into the doctor this week and get a plan in place to deal with this. I've just been doing core workouts because anything lands me on the couch for the rest of the day and sometimes the next. I hope to get back onto the elliptical more regularly as I strengthen up my core.

I'm tracking my weight and will weigh in here every Sunday. Hopefully this will help keep me on track.

I've been working on all kinds of Christmas projects lately. My biggest one is Mari's Christmas stocking. This week I also need to get Peder's, Emmy's and my stockings sewn together and hanging loops on them. Then I can hopefully finish up Mari's in the next week or two and have all our stockings hung up this year.

Here are some pictures of the kiddos. They are happy and cute and silly....just as they should be. :)

Here is Peder in my boots and his Handy Manny hat. Can you get cuter?

Mari pretending she is 15 and too cool for her parents.
Emmy trying to get around with an enormous catheter bag and a ton of tubing.

Peder with his new kitty he got from some family friends before Emmy's surgery. He LOVES it.

Mari looks a lot like her mommy when she wakes up from a nap. Sad, yet hilarious.

Where is God?

So it seems like I'm getting things at just the right moment a lot lately. I read a chapter for my book club this week and it talked about where the women thought God was and where the saw God. It, of course, made me think....

God was with us the last 3 days. There is no other way to explain the miraculous events of the last 3 days. The fact that Emmy was home from the hospital less then 48 hours after she got out of surgery floors me. The fact that her surgery was 4.5 hours when we were expecting 6 or more, amazes me. The fact that Emmy is crawling around our living room, playing with a xylophone and is happy and giggly makes my spirit soar.

So where is God? God was with my baby girl over the last 3 days. I told my sister on the phone the other day that God had to listen to all the prayers going up for her.....it was just too noisy to ignore.

The last 3 days have been filled with miracles for us. There is no other explanation for me, but to say that God guided Emmy through this.

The pictures below are proof. The first one is from yesterday evening and the second is from this morning. Could you be that happy 36 hours after a surgery? I know that I've never been.

Prepping for the week ahead

So I've been spending my day playing with kiddos and doing some packing when I get ignored. I had to share how cute Peder is this morning. I got all his and Mari's clothes packed and there was quite a bit of space left in the suitcase. I still have quite a bit to pack for both of them, but a lot of it has to wait until after nap time. So Peder threw his pillows in the suitcase to be packed. And about 10 minutes later, he did this:

What a goof ball. He's definitely ready to go to Grandpa and Grandma's.

Some things come at just the right time

I am involved in a book club at my church. We have been meeting since June and the women in that group have become a big part of my life. Outside of book club we send each other e-mails, pass along prayer requests and "follow" each other's blogs. We are a community and a safe place for each other. We are currently reading the book "The Faith Club" which is about three women, a Muslim, a Christian and a Jew, who came together to write a children's book and the challenges they faced in overcoming their stereotypes and their own struggles with their faith.

We meet on Tuesday nights and I was reading the last chapter for this week and a story that Priscilla, the Jewish woman, included hit a note with me. Here it is:

I loved best what he called "The Paper Bag Story," which addressed the challenges people face in life, challenges he himself faced.

"Imagine this," he used to say to us. "Take your problems, all of them, from the tiniest, annoying concerns to the most horrific, difficult challenges, and put all those problems into a brown paper bag." He'd pause. "Then imagine if everyone else in the world took all of their problems and put them into their own paper bags. Think of how many bags there would be, all piled up into one gigantic mountain of brown paper!" The image was vivid to me.

"If you were told that you could pick any bag of problems and take it home with you, do you think you'd want someone else's problems?" my father would ask. "I don't think so. You'd be scampering to find your own bag in that mountain of brown paper."

I think that this is a great perspective for everyone. I often times tell people and Jake and I say it quite a bit, that we are thankful for all of our children, for the challenges of having twins, one with a medical issue and where all of this has brought us in this life. There is no way we would trade our life. There is no way we would ask for anything different. If things were different, our life would not be what it is, we would not be who we are and our children would not be who they are. I can't imagine Emmy without her yelling, spit-fire personality, and I don't know if that comes from yelling at doctors and nurses or it just is who she is, but I wouldn't want to find out either. I can't imagine Mari without her flair for drama. I can't imagine Peder without his sweet soul handing out hugs and kisses and telling us that he's worried about Emmy in the hospital. All of these things may not have developed if things didn't happen the way they did.

So today I choose my brown paper bag of problems, and I would choose it any time, any place without pause, because with that brown paper bag of fears, stressors and worries come my beautiful children and their giggles, kisses and sweet smiles.

Some Halloween Pictures

I have been getting to updating this a little more often. We got some great pictures of all the kids trick or treating. We also went to the Unicef Carnival at church, and hopefully in the next couple of days I can get pictures up from that fun event.


Mommy and Peder getting ready for trick or treating. I tried to go as Minnie, but this is the best I could do without spending any money.

I think Peder's favorite part of the evening was when we would ask him: "What happened to Peder? I see Mickey here, but Peder seems to be missing." He thought it was the best, and still asks to wear his costume every day.
Mari the butterfly. The other two got out of their costumes right away after we got home from trick or treating, not Mari, she work it until bed time.
Mari's costume from the back. Isn't that just the cutest thing ever?

Emmy the flower. She wore her hat all night starting at about 2:30p. It was so cute seeing this big flower around her head all day.

Can we please get to this trick or treating thing? I want to get going!

Peder and Mari rode together in the wagon. They were very cute talking the whole way.

Emmy got her own ride....and Mommy's hat.

Trick or treating at one of the houses in my parents' neighborhood. You can't see Emmy, but she is there in full garb watching this guy give them each a bag of treats.

Grandpa Pederson was the driver for Mari and Peder....Daddy got to push around Emmy and I caught everything that was thrown out of the wagon and stroller.

We all had a ton of fun and the kids loved the fact that they got all this candy just for saying, "Trick or Treat." When we got back to my parents' house, Peder would walk into the dining room where they had all their candy and yell "TRICK OR TREAT!" To which Grandpa or Grandma respond by throwing HUGE handfuls of candy into his treat bag. What a little cutie.

Crazy Life

I've been meaning to update this for months (as you can see....since April). It's been SO busy and crazy, that I can't even believe I thought I'd be able to update this. I'm really going to try to update this more and more, especially because the girls are now 15 months old and all the kids are growing up SO fast.
Peder is in the midst of potty training. He pees in the potty all the time, but absolutely refuses to poop on it. Any tips? Leave a comment! We're trying everything and I'm REALLY sick of poopy underwear.
Mari walks around the house carrying her latest accessory. Seriously, both girls LOVE to accessorize, but Mari has it down to an art. She also talks non-stop. She rides in the back of the van and talks the whole ride....whether it's 10 minutes or an hour.
Emmy is working on walking. She is REALLY wanting to keep up with her brother and sister, but she is also the most independent of our children. She is our little firecracker. She rarely cries, but boy is she good at YELLING!
Jake has stitches in his head....from touch football. He took an elbow to the eye....nice.
I've been scrapping and cross stitching like crazy. LOVE IT! I'm also in a book club, working part time for Heidi (my aunt) and Mark (my uncle) and participating in a Mothers of Multiples group.
Here are some pics of the kiddos. Something to tie you over till next time!

We're back!

Hey everyone!  I'm planning on getting back into updating this on a regular basis.  Hopefully once a week or so.  That way you can keep up with all 5 of us, rather then just Emmy.  Also, it may not always be pictures, but more of a "glimpse" into the Early Family Life.   Can't wait to get back into this!