House O' Sullivans

This afternoon, I convinced the kids to pose for a few photos. I like to take at least one decent picture of each of them every year. Here are a few of my favorites. (We mostly spent the time laughing as evidenced by the Hallee shots.)  My mom brought over some boxes this afternoon for the kids to play with. Somehow Zeke and Hallee got the idea that they'd sleep inside the boxes in Zeke's teepee for a sibling sleepover tonight. Those are Hallee's feet protruding form the teepee. The aerial view: Sophie, not wanting to sleep in her room without Hallee, moved into the teepee too. When I looked in on the scene I could not stop laughing.  

The only reason that I can update the blog tonight is because Casey is at a church meeting and the kids are all quiet and in bed. I told the kids that if they didn't bamboozle tonight (meaning they need to be quiet and stay in their beds even though we put them to bed at 7 pm) they could enjoy a stick of gum tomorrow after we eat breakfast. Living close to the ground, my kids are still motivated by one little piece of gum. Lucky me! The house is quiet and still. (This rarely happens, especially lately.) With the arrival of #4, there has been little free time or solitude for me. (Not that I had much before.) Unfortunately , I regenerate in solitude so often I am overwhelmed by the simultaneous noise and demands of four kids.  One classic example from this past week: Sophie got a sewing machine for Christmas because she really wanted to learn to sew. She's been begging me to teach her to sew for months . I've been buying myself some time by saying, "You nee...

For the past few years, we've had private health insurance. Back in the day when I was teaching school, we had amazing insurance and it cost me nothing . After I had Sophie and quit my day job (in favor of my current 24-7 job), we signed up for a policy through Select Health at a fairly decent price. Every year, however, they'd raise the rate and we'd have to downgrade to a slightly more generic plan to be able to keep it affordable. Somehow in the years of downgrading, we ended up with a policy that had a separate maternity deductible, so although our yearly family deductible is $1,500, we have a $7,500 maternity deductible. Honestly, who came up with that idea? I didn't even realize that we had a separate maternity deductible until this year. Bummer. After paying nearly $7,000 in premiums this year, we paid another $9,000 to have a baby with no complications, no medications, totally natural birth and the shortest possible hospital stay that we could get away with. ...

As a little girl, I learned quickly that Santa wasn't real--that my parents were the ones that loaded all of those presents around the tree every year.  My mom had made a commitment to always tell us the truth so that we would trust her, so when we asked, she told us the truth about old Mr. Claus. Even so, I remember my sister Kristen and I trying hard to stay awake, listening for the bells of those reindeer, landing on the rooftop. I wanted to believe that it was true. Alas, like my mother before me, I made the same promise to my children--that I would always tell them the truth no matter what. Even so, when "Santa" walked into the ward Christmas party last Saturday, Zeke took off running, arms stretched wide open. I have to admit, this guy (and his wife) were legit. This Santa had a real beard and plump rosy cheeks and eyes that twinkle-- just like the stories. He was a total juxtaposition to the one we'd seen at Walmart earlier in the day--a pathetic excuse ...

Here are a few not to be missed pictures from the past couple of weeks:  WARNING: this first one is a bit graphic Somehow Lindy breached her diaper in an explosive act that literally filled the leg of her sleeper and she has the audacity to stick her little tongue out at me. On Thanksgiving morning, Casey had the kids list some things they are thankful for on index cards. Their cards are treasures and have been hanging on the inside of our front door for the past week:   Zeke's drawing of "Dad, Lindy, Mom and Bear Bear (his comfort item of choice)." I'm liking my sweet hair in his rendition. Zeke's drawing of "a present, a worm, a book, a ladybug, and a Christmas tree" Sophie's list Sophie's addendum. (And we don't even have a cat.) Hallee's drawing of our family along with our two bunnies--Snowball and Niblett--and each kid's comfort item (giraffe, tiger, and bear bear) During December last y...