Yearly Christmas Ornaments

Keeping with our tradition of picking out new ornaments, we have new pictures to add to the collection!

Alice went for the big and bold, pink fluffy ball:

Emily picked out another sweet little bird.  You can see the one she picked out a few years ago on the tree behind her (down by her hip):

William found his favorite paw patrol pup Skye:

 

And Grace's love of Hello Kitty is a secret to none, so she was very excited about this find:

 

Juliet has latched on to the little Mermaid, and just loves it.  One of the pictures I snapped before remembering to grab the Santa hat was my favorite:

 

later days

You can see the pictures from last year in this post.

Runner up/outtake pictures:

P.S. I have a big long post about thanksgiving that I started, but I went down sick for two entire days.  Sarah even brought us dinner each night, because I just couldn't execute my normal activities. = (  So I wanted to blog about thanksgiving before posting these pictures, but I am just so excited to share them!

P.P.S. Downsizing from a 9 foot tree to a 6 foot tree meant getting rid of all my non sentimental ornaments, but we are still short of space.  I think we might have to get a slightly larger tree next year, to accommodate all of our family traditions! = )

Garage Sale, well, Yard Sale

The Friday before thanksgiving, I held a garage sale.  It was cold, and windy, and cold, but it felt so amazing to empty the shed of all the cast offs, it didn't matter!

My outside helpers

Emily made 3 great signs for me to use (she was inside of course!) = )

I used the heat lamps to help warm, and my mom was the primary adult in charge (inside.)  She and the kids helped me move things from the shed to the front area. She also came back with Sarah's neighbor Josh the next morning and he helped us with some of the heavy lifting and set up.

Business was slow the entire day, but I sold my Christmas tree* and our TV stand, and a handful of other things to souls brave enough to get out of their cars.

My mom came out and helped me pack up just before dusk.  We filled my car with what we could and put the bigger items on the roadside.**

what happens to a propane tank that runs for several hours in particularly cold weather

It was rainy and colder on Saturday, so I didn't regret holding it a single day.  And I feel soooooo good having cleaned out the shed!

Once we cleaned out the shed, this little girl found the bike she received 2 Christmases ago. It had a low tire, and there were snow flurries in the air, but she was determined! I spent 15 minutes outside with her

Now, if we could just get that carport put in, my "big projects" list would be pretty minimal!

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* ::sniffle:: it was my 9ft tree, and just couldn't stand up in our new house.  That and my photo frame screen were the only two sentimental things that I sold.
**people picked it over and everything was gone before the trash ran!

William Answers His Birthday Survey, 5 years old

Yesterday we so busy, we didn't have a chance to answer them, so we are doing it today!

I am 5 years old.
My favorite color is: Green
The coolest person on earth is: Me
The thing I do best is: Play
If I could change my name, it would be: Chase
My favorite toy is: Skye
When I grow up, I want to fix things
I like to watch: Paw Patrol
My favorite song is: Paw Patrol theme song
My favorite book is: Paw Patrol - Pups plan a surprise party
3 words to describe me are: big, crying, falling down the stairs
When I was little, I used to: be in mama's tummy
My favorite season is: fall
The food I like most is: chicken
One food I really don't like is: broccoli
My best friend is: Zia
For my birthday I want to: go on a helicopter
My best memory is: Going to the store to pick out toys

See his answers from last year here.

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William's 5th Birthday!

Yesterday, William turned 5 years old!

He went to bed on Friday a 4 year old:

and woke up Saturday morning as a 5 year old!

His first request was to open another present (we allowed him to open one small one the night before) before Billy and I were even out of bed.

He got three hundred darts to go with his Nerf gun.  Who thought that was a good idea?

Not long after, he lost his gun because he was shooting people in the face... = /  He threw a fit, and took a nap on the floor before his party.

It was finally time to load up and go to the bowling alley*!

Out of William's class of 15, we only received four RSVPs, and only two yeses. = (  Of course, when you have four sisters, it is always a party!

He sure was happy to have the two that came though (and a tag-a-long little sister)!

Juliet, William, Nolan and Bridget

Before we were able to secure a child rail ramp, it took a loooooooooooooong time for the twins to get their balls down the lane.

Juliet

One loved little boy:

At the tail end of his party, they turned on the black lights, so we were all glowing!  Of course, William ended up opening up his gifts in the dark = )

We all had a great time, but sure missed the cousins!

later days

You can see William's invitations here, and his answers to the birthday survey here.  And what his party looked like last year here.

*totally unrelated, on our way into the bowling alley, someone had dropped their slushee.  However, instead of being a blue puddle on the ground, the slushee in question was frozen into a weird, unnatural solid mass.  #michiganproblems

Down, but Not Out

This past week, Billy went on a 3-day, 2-night trip to their Pennsylvania plant.  The company plane was down for maintenance so he had to fly commercially, which takes so much longer!

Alice woke up in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, with tummy pains, and ultimately became ill.  I sent a message to my mom to have her come in the morning, so that I wouldn't have to load a sickly Alice into the car to drop off Emily and William. Luckily it was an isolated incident, but I kept her home just the same.  The twin's day off of school is also Wednesday, so while my mom kept watch at home, I headed to the store for supplies (and Birthday cupcakes for William's class!)

Emily was very excited to have the travelling skippy-jon jones backpack from her class during this time.  On Wednesday I had gotten skippy into some "trouble" while Emily was at school, much to her delight.

Billy came home before his trip to pack.  Since Alice was back to normal, my mom left and the three of us went to pick up the school goers. We all missed Billy that night, but we endured.

The next morning I woke up feeling unwell.  As these things happen, it was William's turn to bring snack for his birthday.

I powered through the morning routine, and felt a tiny bit better since I had my caffeine, so I went and sat with my mops ladies at our meeting.

It was restful, but once the twins came home, my caffeine had run its course, and the three of us laid down to rest, since my stomach was very unhappy.

Getting the big kids was the biggest challenge, because I did not feel well and homework time is just below bedtime on list of challenging times.  The big girls took pity on me, and despite the fact that it took them hours to do their lessons, they didn't fight me.  My mom and sister made a special trip out with a pizza and root beer for dinner (which was phenomenal, since I didn't feel like eating.)

When you don't feel well time drags, but we managed to clean up, get ready for bed and I had forgotten shots until late Wednesday, so we had to do them off schedule.  We managed to settle in a little bit early for a good night's rest.

Friday I woke up still not 100%, but better.  When the kid's were all off to their learning institutions, I knocked out a bunch of errands, even the extra low tire pressure light that came on!

I was excited that Billy would be home that evening, but his flight was delayed and delayed and delayed, so the twins and I picked up the big ones.

When he did get home (well after dark) he brought them the only thing they requested from Pennsylvania: pencils!

In conclusion, blogging did not prevent me from catching something that made me ill, but I was able to complete my duties, which I will count as a win.  Especially since Alice, with her super* immune system, was worse off than I was.

later days

*Alice spent the majority of her first year and a half in daycare.  She was sick all.the.time.  Billy and I also were sick quite often.  It was not fun, but because of that time, Alice rarely stays home sick from school as an older child.

Birthday Celebration

My birthday fell on a Friday this year, so I got to celebrate on my actual birthday!

My mom's gift to me was watching the kids for the evening and next morning, so that Billy and I could go stay at the English Inn.  We'd been on a dinner date there a few weeks ago, but staying the night is even better!

We were late to our dinner reservation, since our car starters took much longer than anticipated, which put the whole day behind, and we were still working on homework when my mom arrived.

They staff was so great though, we were able to check in to our room, drop off our luggage, and still enjoy excellent service.

We intentionally ordered different dishes than our previous visit, and everything was phenomenal!

After leaving the restaurant we checked out the pub, which is well done.  It reminds me of many of the pubs in England, low ceilings, small dimensions, but fewer accents. = )

Our room had an electric fireplace, which was actually really pleasant up here!

The next morning we went to breakfast, which is a full service ordeal, and the only way you can enjoy it is by being a guest! 

We had time afterwards to pack and lounge around in our room until check out. then we did a quick, cold tour of the grounds. = )  They hold weddings here, and I can see why, it is so pretty, even in the winter time!

We came home to happy children, and Emily completed my Birthday card pile with a special book. = )

Alice made me the 3-D Tardis, Emily made me the card and book

It was a very happy celebration, and we only have to wait until Saturday to celebrate our next birthday: William's 5th!

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Bonus: a video of the big kids singing me happy birthday that morning

William's visit to the Optometrist

Unsurprisingly, William lost his glasses.  He didn't' really use them at home or school, so it came as no shock when we could not longer locate them.

The Friday before fall break, I got a letter from the office that they needed copies of his hearing and screening tests (they needed these for kindergarten, but since he is not in kindergarten, I didn't think anything of it.)  Since he had a post ear tube surgery check up just a few weeks before we moved, it was no trouble at all to dig out his latest hearing test, but the vision was a little harder.

When we had our initial set up with his ophthalmologist in Dallas, he was given a prescription for glasses.  I don't think I ran a copy of the prescription, and I don't know that I was given any other paperwork at the time.

I was going to have the school wait until his initial appointment with the ophthalmologist in Grand Rapids, but this was not one of the 11 appointments we had that day.  So I called his pediatrician to set up a screening.  This at least took care of the bit the school needed.

They were able to refer me to a local optometrist to schedule the eye appointment.  This fell on the day after our long hospital day, so he missed even more school. = /

Screening tests at this age must be tough, because he doesn't quite know all of his letters, so they had to switch to pictures, which I think are a little easier.

While the doctor was making final comments on the computer, William managed to unscrew the raising/lowering lever on the seat.  Luckily I was able to repair it without a tool.

pretending to be a triclops with a candy eye.

He was very disappointed that he didn't get to bring his glasses with him.  I'm anticipating a call this week, calling us in to test them out.

His vision might be poor enough that he will actually prefer to wear his glasses this time around.  We will see.

later days

A Ridiculously Complicated Carport

We are building a carport.  It's actually a concession on our part.  We wanted a garage, but when we spoke to the contractor* he said that we would have to do some major construction on our laundry room just to get a door at that end of the house, let alone add on a garage.  Major construction is not in the budget, but this Texan cannot imagine scraping snow off the car every morning, so a carport was the best compromise.

I could not get a contractor to call me back about a carport either.  This came as no surprise at this point, since construction in this state is near impossible, so we brainstormed a bit more, and decided even a pre-fab carport is better than daily snow scraping.

We found a company that actually answered their phones! ::shock:: and we were able to put in an order for a decent looking pre-fabricated carport.  They were no longer taking orders after that week, so I did things a bit out of order, but paperwork around here is somehow faster than construction.

In the contract for the carport company, it said that our building site had to be level within three inches, so I went to a landscaping company and settled on some crushed concrete to be delivered the following Monday.

They called me Monday to say that with the rain, it would have to be later in the week before they could deliver it.

Later in the week I went in to our local office to find out about building codes and what I would need to build a carport.  Turns out we needed a survey done of our property, which might be on file with a certain office, but they never returned my call.  Lovely.  So I called half a dozen survey companies.  Two called me back, one of which was a corporate surveying company and would have been very pricey.  The other company was $150 more than what we were anticipating, but when they are the only ones who return your calls, you have to make compromises.

So we set up an appointment for this week (which was 3 weeks away at the time).  Almost 2 weeks after I called, the office that might have our survey called back to tell me they didn't' have it. But did give me some insight into a simpler method of obtaining a permit.  I went out to the county website, and used some information from their GIS system to give an approximate placement for our carport.

When I brought it in to the village office, it turns out we couldn't build it where we currently park, because it would not be 10 feet from our property line.  = /  Our options were to build in the backyard (not convenient) or on the other side of the house (slightly more convenient.)**

We got very lucky that our leveling dirt delivery had been delayed, because I would have been very sad to have to have purchased it twice.  When they called back to reschedule, we left it open until I got the approval from the village office on a location.

So I redrew our sketch, putting it on the other side of the house.  When I brought it back in, she told me that it had to be 25 feet from our property line, and that our property line is actually 2 feet in from the sidewalk. Our house is only about 5 feet from the sidewalk anyhow. This means that the bottom two front porch steps aren't even on our property.

Once again, I redrew the new location of the carport^, again more inconvenient than before, but this time my mom was the one who dropped off the papers, while I took William to the optometrist.

On Friday, the village called me back with news of an approval, so the twins and I went to pick it up.  I scheduled with the landscape company to come out to deliver on Monday.

Tuesday was grocery day, so I had planned on driving out to the county seat (about 40 minutes) on Wednesday afternoon, but my check engine light came on. ::laugh of disbelief:: so it had to wait.  Thursday morning I dropped of my car at the mechanic with Billy, then took his car out to the courthouse.

My mom was on call to meet the bus for the twins, in case I ran out of time.

When I arrived, I parked in the back, but all of the doors I could see said "no public entrance" on them.  So, instead of trudging through muddy & wet grass to get around the building. I moved the car around to the front.  I had to go through a security scanner to get inside.^^  This may not sound like a big deal to y'all in the south, but I had on a coat, and hat, and gloves... it was annoying.  = )

So, I navigate through the halls to the office.  I explained what I needed, and had all my papers in order.  She asked who would be building it, and when I told her, she said "oh, they are in the system, but don't have a permit on file."  splendid. I pulled up my email to get contact information for her, and at this point they, thankfully, cut me out of the middle.  The permit lady was in direct contact with the construction firm, and was able to request exactly what she needed.

While we were waiting on the email with all of the documents, she looked at my zoning approval from the village, and told me I needed a health permit.  For a carport.  seriously.

So, I walked over to the health department, and because we have a well on our property, we have to have a $29 permit to build, well, a carport.  So I paid their extortion fee, and headed back with my health permit to the courthouse.

I have to be rescreened by security, and this time there is a line, and my time is ticking.  Back in the office they had received the email, but the correspondent had forgotten the signature.  At this point, I had to contact my mom, so that she could meet the bus, but didn't have any service, so I went down the hall to the nearest window.

Back in the permit office, they finally got all of their documents in order, and it was another $130 for a permit to build this amazingly complicated carport.  As she was handing me the approved documents, she told me that now I need to take a 2'x2' board, and I laughed because I thought she~ was kidding.  She was not.

I had to take a 2'x2' board (I asked her if it could be a little bit bigger, so that I didn't have to take out my saw) and put it at the end of my driveway with some super special code so that the inspector could tack up our building permit.  How am I even surprised at this point? I also had to stake out the area that it's going, even though we have a large slab of crushed concrete in place already.

Gee, I wonder where they want to build the carport?

My mom bought me some reclaimed stakes from a thrift store last week, for 8 cents a piece.  At least those were cheap.

The $130 permit was supposed to be up at 9am, but it's still not there.

Once that piece of paper is up, the only thing we are actually waiting on is the construction company to schedule and build the carport in question.  We are really hoping to beat the snow.  Who knew that would be the least frustrating part?

later days

*this is another complaint about the lack of people calling me back in this state.  only 2 contractors out of the dozens I left messages for called me back, and the other one was just too polite to say that he didn't have time.

**we are on a double lot, so we have two entrances leading off of the road, but one of them leads to grass.

^I do want to say that our village office staff was great.  They were helpful and answered the phones when I called.  We just needed more time, which we didn't have, so it was kind of a haphazard process.

^^I certainly understand why you would need a security scanner on a courthouse.  I mean, you don't end up in front of a judge for happy things, usually.  But making the public go through security seems a little over the top to get a permit.  And I do feel like maybe the employees should be screened as well, I mean they would be just as capable of bringing weapons in as anyone else.

~the ladies in this office were also helpful, I just did not like what they were saying.

William's 5th Birthday Invitations

On Monday, William brought party invitations to pass out to his school friends!  The neurosurgeon cleared him for full activities just in time for his party. = )

He must have watched a video of some sort, because he is really into bowling right now, and is excited to spend a few hours with his friends at the bowling alley.

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The Twins' Halloween Parade

Avia came with me to see the twins' parade at their school. They made two passes around the gym, and I still didn't get a good picture of Grace!

the skunk tail was very interesting to Juliet for most of her walk

I got stopped by the counselor to do some paperwork when I was headed to their party, so I missed the whole thing, though it wasn't very long.

They were happy to have some visitors, and enjoyed checking out the other costumes. = )

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Emily lost her first tooth!

Emily was very excited last week to lose her first tooth!

She had to wait 6 years for this day, and had been wiggling the tooth for over a week.

The tooth fairy came and brought her $5, but didn't bring a note. = O Maybe she'll explain why when the next, already loose, tooth falls out and she comes to pick it up.

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A quick picture post

Just a few pictures from the last week that didn't fit anywhere else:

William has a weird way of brushing his teeth.

I wanted one more picture of all 5 in the morning, since the babies were starting school!

This is how the babies come home from school:

later days