Tree Time

Today we finally put up the tree.  I feel bad when I’m not really into it. Mostly its because we just don’t have a great spot for the tree to be, so it ends up in the way.  The kids were excited, so I had them help me rearrange the couch sections so the tree could fit.  We have “couch island” while the tree is up.  Basically the sections are all pushed together and we have to crawl over the double sections to sit down.  Very cozy.  A little too cozy sometimes.  I put together the tree-in-a-box and let the kids do whatever they wanted with the box of decorations.  I had to hold back on my urge to move things and spread them out.  JC put almost an entire box of gold ornaments in one square foot of tree.  They enjoyed themselves, anyway.  I got to take pictures.  Harrison slept.

(JC’s gold ornament section)

Harrison wasn’t feeling great yesterday, so he missed out on his first trip to see Santa.  I was dying to put him in his little purple shirt and tie (matched JC’s) but it was not to be.  Poor baby.  I’ll have to put him in it for Christmas day.

The gentleman who is Santa is from town, but he does this as seasonal employment all over the state.  He’s very sweet and gentle with the children.  He talked to each one, even Aria (who was obviously feeling a bit sheepish, but played along), and asked them what they wanted for Christmas before ushering them off stage for the next group of waiting kids. 

I wonder if he owns his suit or if the venue provides it??

Merry Christmas!  See you soon!

Some stuff

So this is what we’ve been up to lately.  I know I’ve been hiding out at home a lot lately, I just can’t seem to figure out where all my “free” time went among 5 kids, a full time job, some photography (my niece is a SENIOR this year!!) and trying to maintain the house just above the level “Hoarders” would intervene….

I begged the kids for a few shots I could use for possible Christmas cards:

but mostly I got this:

I had Aria’s friend D. help…..then cropped her out for a cool baby-floating-and-unsafe look:

          

I also got a shot with their awesome skeleton hoodies:

Baby Harrison is now 6 months old, Naughty is 4, Piper is 6, Max is almost 9 and Aria will be 11 next week.  Time flies.  I already miss my little newborn.  I love when he falls asleep in my arms, I’m always so reluctant to put him down.  Isn’t he sweet?  He has the easiest personality of all my babies.

My job keeps me busy, my family keeps me busy.  Daddy has been doing the stay at home thing and I think he’s getting the hang of it.  He also makes me the best omelets most mornings.  I can’t complain! I married a good man.  One who can cook.  He’s also going to do the March to Mandaree again this year with new stops to honor different KIA vets.  If you didn’t get to read about M2M, click the link and find out.  It was a great experience for us.

That’s all for now, I’d better go to bed.  You never know when the baby will decided NOT to sleep all night.

Friday Fragments

Well, as it turns out, 5 kids and a full time job take up a lot of time.  Who would’ve thought?  I miss you all out there!  I decided I need to play catch-up here and post all the lovely things that have gone on around these parts with Mrs. 4444’s Friday Fragments!

• Harrison Nathan Goodiron Fraase was born 3/12/12 at 11:05 pm.  He’s already 4 months old and super adorable.  He’s probably the most mellow baby I’ve had.  He comes to work with me every day, but soon I think he’ll need to stay home with dad.

(a little taste test of rice cereal)

• In May Aria and Piper earned their next belts in Tae Kwon Do, Max however, has decided he doesn’t want to be in it anymore.  I’m sort of disappointed, but I’m holding out hope that he’ll change his mind later on.  I tested for my last belt back in December while I was seven months pregnant.  (I look better from the back)
• This was my Mother’s Day photo.  Who needs happy smiling, grinning kids? This is real life.
• This was my Mother’s Day gift.  I’m actually pretty pumped about it.  What good is managing an organic food store if I don’t take advantage of all that produce? (Max’s face is just a bonus gift.)
• I got one more charm for my necklace from The Vintage Pearl.
• I’ve been a slacker as far as photos go.  I was disappointed in myself for not getting more newborn pictures of Harrison in the first two weeks when they work the best.  I had this pounding headache and chalked it up to lack of sleep and caffeine.  It finally got so bad that the day my mom left I realized I couldn’t take it any longer and had my husband bring me to the ER.  My blood pressure was 201/109 (for those of you non-medical peeps, normal BP is 120’s/80’s).  They were surprised I hadn’t had a stroke yet.  It turns out I had developed post-partum preeclampsia.  It’s fairly uncommon, but does happen, even when my blood pressure was perfect through out pregnancy.  I only recently came off of blood pressure medication for this.  I read post-partum preeclampsia is one of the most dangerous conditions for new moms because they can ignore the symptoms (like I did) passing them off as run-of-the-mill post-baby issues.  My feet were swollen long after delivery (weeks), I had upper epigastric pain, pounding headaches…if I had just put it all together.  Anyway, I survived.  I think I really freaked out the PA that was on duty the night I went to our local small town ER, though.
• I’d better get to bed!!  I’ve been walking 4 miles with a friend every morning, well, almost every morning.   6am sharp!! 

One year ago today...

One year ago today we were on a journey:

From Mel:
We are off! We started in Wahpeton and in two days we have arrived in Enderlin. Our first day started out a bit rocky with some rain, but soon it cleared and the past two days have been great. Steve was joined by Arnold Lenoir from White Earth who plans to walk with us the entire way. The White Earth veteran color guard came to start us off as well as some of the Goodiron family. Two news crews came out to film, and several papers published small blurbs about the march.
Day one ended around 5pm with 38 miles behind us, a majority of those walked between Steve and Arnold (I got to finish off leg #3!). Our oldest two, Aria and Max, walked one mile with me as well.

Day two was an early start with both Steve and Arnold walking their leg of the journey at about 5:30 am, I finished after lunch and we had the afternoon to nurse tired muscles and tend to any blisters.

We are all in good spirits and are excited to meet those who will be joining us as in the days ahead!
You can learn more about March to Mandaree at www.marchtomandaree.blogspot.com