Help!

I know it's only been a few days - but I need help with another girl name.  Mike and I can't seem to agree on anything.  I need a feminine girl name that 'goes' with my other girls.  It can't be on the top 10 list (or even the top 20).  Things I'd prefer (but aren't deal breakers)  I'd rather not have the name start with the same letter as my other girls (so everyone has unique initials) and I'd really like to use Allen as a middle name (even though Mike says no) so it needs to kind of 'go' with Allen.

We have Anna Elise, Madeline, and Lilah - so any ideas on names that would 'go' with these and fit my criteria?
Things I've come up with that Mike says no -
Natalie
Hallie (like Halle Berry, not Haley)
Lenora

Names Mike likes that I said no -
Denver
Jaqueline

Name on our list that neither one of us loves that could work (maybe one of these will grow on me)
Elenora or Elinore
Hadley
Evelyn

So PLEASE give me suggestions.  I've looked at tons of websites and I can't find anything I love that Mike likes that fit my criteria.  Also, please don't be offended if I listed a name as a 'no' that you like or have used - it's more about it being the 'right' name, not that it isn't a good name...

We are having...

ANOTHER GIRL!  Honestly I am very excited and so is Madeline.  Everyone else is just going to have to get over it.  Mike just muttered 'another wedding' and 'how often are they wrong?'.  Anna Elise was quickly distracted with talk of redecorating and rearranging rooms.  Calvin is basically a happy boy so he will be ok.  I do feel a bit sorry for him, but reminded him that being the only boy does have it's advantages. 
It seems a bit anticlimatic to announce another of the same, particularly for the Russells who only have 1 grandson (Calvin).  However, we are rooting for either Sean and Rachel or Matt and Sarah to have a boy to help continue on the Russell name!
We had two solid choices for boys names - we aren't really happy with any of our girls choices.  So the search for a girl name continues...
On another note, when I got home from my appointments I found that Calvin had been playing hair dresser and had seriously tangled a comb in Anna's hair, to the point where we thought we might have to give her a cute little bob.  She was not happy.  Mike told Calvin that if Anna Elise had to have her hair cut he was also getting a hair cut - like Daddy's.  Luckily for everyone - Mike and I both worked on it for about 30 minutes and we were eventually able to get the comb out of her hair.   Mike said that Calvin was obviously not going to be a hair dresser when he grows up!

Merry Christmas!

For the past two weeks we've been...

• looking at Christmas lights (lots of times)
• doing Christmas service
• Sledding (and getting our car stuck on a slick hill, ever see a pregnant lady pushing a car up a slick hill with her face splattered with mud from the bald tires?)
• getting new tires for the car
• attending our ward Dinner Theater Christmas party
• hosting a Christmas Eve party
• getting a wall upstairs so that we have a door to our bedroom now
• had two snow storms - one of which canceled school for two days and the other canceled church
• Christmas shopping
• sat in front of the fire with hot cocoa
• read Christmas stories
• went to the Train & Toy show
• eating the gingerbread house
  

Yesterday we had a great Christmas.  The kids were all happy, excited for their gifts, pleasant to each other, and there was minimal fighting and crying.  We had a fire going all day, yummy food, and a great time  - for a whole day life seemed so good!  Yes, reality hits soon after, but we really enjoyed our day!  I am grateful for a savior who makes those 'Christmas' type days a possibility for every day!

FYI - my ultrasound appointment is on Wednesday, Dec. 29th - so check back for an announcement!

Sledding!  No - Madeline is not wearing pants and yes she did go down the hill that way.  It's a long story and I blame her dad and pregnancy!

Riding the train at the Train & Toy show

Hot Cocoa in front of the fire

Part of our crazy nativity on Christmas Eve

 

The girls in their new hats that grandma made them

Calvin shooting hoops with his Christmas present

Calvin after a sled run

Christmas Morning pictures:

 Lilah's present is bigger than she is!

 Madeline with her fairies

 Calvin's dartboard

Anna Elise got dress up make-up, everyone has had and given multiple 'make overs'

Our Last Minute Jaunt To D.C.

On Saturday we decided to take a quick trip to Washington D.C.  I had hoped to go during the week right before Christmas but Mike's work schedule seems to be filling up fast (yeah) so we decided to go while we could.  We spent more time driving there and back then we spent there - but that's how it goes!  We left after lunch and drove to the temple to drop me off.  Mike took the kids to a nearby playground and they had a great time despite the colder weather.  Here they are on their motorcycle with a double side car!

After I was done they came back and we wandered around the visitor's center.  We saw some beautifully decorated trees and nativities from all over the world.  Then we headed outside to see a life sized nativity and to look at all the great lights! 

 

 

We then found a local pizza place for some dinner.  While waiting for the pizza Calvin started making faces at Lilah so she made a face right back.  Once Mike got his phone out to take pictures all the kids wanted a picture of their funny faces and I promised them that I would post them!

 

 

(I don't think Madeline knows how to make a funny face)

12 Days of Service

Last year our family did the 12 Days of Service and several of you expressed some interest.  So this year, I thought I would share it with you early so if you wanted to participate as well you had a reminder and some ideas!  These services are catered to our family and our children's ages so you would need to adapt them for your own family and needs.
If you want to end on Christmas Eve you would need to start on Monday!  If you want to finish it on Christmas Day then wait until Tuesday.  We don't 'pick' them randomly, some take a little bit of time and I have to plan them based on our schedule - but if you are flexible then picking them out of a jar would be part of the fun!


Here the list:

make and deliver goody plates
make and  mail cards
make someone else's bed
you pick something nice
let someone else go first
do an extra chore for mom
say something nice about everyone in the family
pick out one toy to give away
clean up your room without whining
take canned goods to the food bank
participate in a community project
give a present to Jesus

One of THOSE Weekends

I'm so glad the weekend is over.  It was one of those weekends that you will look back at and laugh about, several YEARS down the road.   It started Friday just past noon.  I was just finishing up the last batch of sugar cookies.  I had dough waiting for Anna and Calvin to play with when they got home and one more pan to bake.  I hadn't fed the little girls lunch yet.  The school called to say Calvin had fallen down at recess, he was ok, but I needed to come get him.  I thought that meant come get him and take him home.  So the girls put their shoes on (but no socks and for such a quick trip I didn't force it).  I left my house slippers on and we jumped in the car.  We got to the school to find Calvin with a pencil sized hole in his head.  It was small but very deep.  The nurse said stitches and I agreed.  So we checked Anna Elise out of school, got in the car and headed to Patient First.  I called a couple of my friends who lived out that direction and found someone at home who was able to watch my very hungry and ill dressed children.  I ran Calvin to Patient First and $25 and an hour later was told that they wouldn't stitch such a deep cut - take him to the ER.  We drove to the ER and checked in there and waited and waited.  I called to check on the girls to find that Lilah hadn't napped and had been crying the whole time.  That was not like her!  We finally got to see the Dr.  It took all of 10 minutes to check him, give him a couple of shots, hold him down and stitch him up. Calvin walked out with 4 stitches and a large blue popsicle.  We got distracted on the 5 minute drive to get the girls and it turned into a 20 minute drive, but oh well.  We finally made it home in time to frantically frost the cookies, eat a light dinner, and get a sick Lilah and a sick Daddy settled and the rest of us loaded up into the car (I also had a minute to put on real shoes!).  We took off for our Primary Party.  We had a great time!

On Saturday I was so behind since I didn't get much of anything done on Friday.  When I tried to catch up on dishes after lunch I discovered a clogged kitchen sink.  Mike tried for hours to fix it, he discovered it was in the main pipe because the bathroom sink made the kitchen pipes drip...So by late afternoon I had dirty dishes and the contents of my 'under the sink cabinet' strewn about my kitchen, not to mention bowls of dirty water, tools, and plumbing stuff all over.  The bathroom was torn apart as well since we had tried to get to the problem from that direction too.  At almost 6pm a plumber finally showed up.  At that point I knew making dinner was out so I did a hamburger run.  By 7:30 the plumber was gone and our clog was too - but my house was a wreck and I was still very behind.  I cleaned everything up and in my hurry grabbed all the bath tub toys and threw them in the dishwasher (they were a casualty of the mess in the bathroom).

On Sunday we woke up to another sick child (Madeline) and Mike was getting worse.  I also discovered that I had put a few non-dishwasher safe bath toys in the dishwasher (along with the safe ones).  My dishwasher was not happy.  It was a mess.  The mess was all over the top rack, dripped onto the bottom rack and settling on the bottom of my dishwasher.  Most of the dishes went back into the sink as I cleaned out my dishwasher!  Not fun!  However, I did get it cleaned out and it is functioning again!

I was relieved to find that we had no major problems today!  Mike is still very sick and his throat hurts so bad he has quit speaking, but he did go see a Dr and we do know that it isn't Strep.  We hope he gets well soon!  the little girls are both feeling better and no one else has gotten sick.  Here's to a very quiet and uneventful week!

 Calvin's Stitches

A sick Lilah and Daddy resting

17 Weeks and Counting

Today I am 17 weeks.  I thought I would post a picture.  Although I started showing VERY early and got big fast I have to say that I have slowed down considerably and I feel much better about my size!  I'm also feeling much better in general.  The nausea is gone (yea!) and the saliva is almost gone (yea!) and I have some of my energy back.  Last Saturday I actually cleaned the house, so I must be feeling better =).  The kids are all very excited and Anna Elise really wants to feel the baby kick. I haven't even felt it move yet, so she has a while to wait, but I'm glad she has warmed up to the idea.  I've decided to see a Dr this time around.  It is sad to say good bye to the midwives, but it just hasn't been the same since my midwife retired after Madeline.  We'll see how it goes with a male doctor.  He said we could schedule the ultrasound at my next visit which is this week!   So hopefully we can find out the gender in time for Christmas!

Singing Prelude

Our family was asked to sing for the prelude music at church today.  It was an interesting experience to say the least!  We have practiced our song "Families Can Be Together Forever" for a month.  All the kids, even Lilah, had it down.  We got to church early to practice with the piano and we were set.  We got up there and were arranging everyone on the stools and I noticed that Madeline seemed very focused on the microphone.  When I moved it up, she moved up, when I moved it over, she moved over.  We started singing and Madeline just stole the show.  She grabbed the microphone and sang her heart out.  It wasn't ugly yelling, but it was loud 3 year old singing.  I kept moving the microphone and she kept following it.  Mike and I each grabbed an arm to move her back but she kept finding a way to sing into the mic.  I should've just sent her up there to sing a solo!  Maybe next time they will just ask her!  We aren't sure where we got her!

Since we went to extra effort to get ready this morning we took a picture of the kids. 

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving yesterday!  We just celebrated with our little family and had a great day.  We really missed both of our extended families in WA state but it's also nice to do our own traditions here.  Cooking a whole Thanksgiving meal on my own was a lot of work, but also fun - I got everything I wanted for dinner =).

What we are grateful for:

Anna Elise: family, our backyard, house, my teacher, and school
Calvin: flowers, puzzles & books, Christmas, my teacher, and friends 
Madeline: Lilah, Thanksgiving, mommy, flowers, and Christmas season
Lilah(she really said this): naps, going home, presents
Sally: My family and this new little baby coming this spring, my savior, prayer, this holiday season, that this year (probably the worst ever) is almost over!
Mike: family, a stress-free Thanksgiving, time-off from working (but thankful I have work!), to be an American Citizen, this time of year to reflect on our blessings and the plan of salvation

 

 This morning the kids were up bright and early to decorate for Christmas.  They have been anticipating the day after Thanksgiving just as much as Thanksgiving itself!  We put up our tree, decorations, outside lights, and brought all our presents downstairs and it isn't even lunch yet!  They are busy playing with all their Christmas 'toys' (nativities and puzzles). 

Potty Time!

Look who's on the potty!  After several attempts (we were interrupted by morning sickness and two rounds of flu) she quickly caught on.  She didn't want to be bribed and once she put her panties on she didn't want to take them off!  It only took a couple of days and she has it down.  Although she wakes up dry in the morning, we aren't brave enough to put her to bed without a diaper (because the 1 time we did she didn't wake up dry).  However she won't take her panties off so she wears a diaper over her panties at night.  She has been the easiest child to potty train.  She decided she wanted to and so she did!  She has always been such a big girl!  Yeah for Lilah and yeah for mommy getting a nice diaper break!

Ballet Day

 

We are anxious for another boy!

By Mike from his andriod

Trunk-or-Treat

 

Our Ward Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night

 Calvin the Blue Power Ranger

 Lilah our squished Giraffe (the costume was just a bit snug)

 Anna Elise declared herself a 'Japanese Girl' even though everyone called her a China Doll

Princess Madeline

Thanks to both Grandmas and Aunt Trina for the costumes!  The kids had a great time and got enough candy to compensate for not going trick or treating on Sunday.

It's Autumn Time!

Over the past month we have had fun doing a lot of 'Autumn' activities.  I have very few pictures.  I have been too tired and Mike too busy to remember the camera or bother with pictures.  The one time we brought it, the battery went dead in 2 minutes!

Early in the month we went to Carter's Mountain.  We picked apples, ate hot, fresh apple cider donuts, and played on the mountain.  The kids love it.  Mike loves the pizza we always get at Christian's Pizza.

 

Calvin went to the pumpkin patch for his first field trip.  I went with him.  There is nothing like chaperoning a bunch of kindergarten kids to make you appreciate your own children!  Calvin has his moments at home (lots of them) but he was so well behaved on the trip and he always gets a smiley face from his teacher on his daily behavior report.  He is a good boy!  We got to ride out to the patch to pick out pumpkins, get a donut, and eat our packed lunch.  He had a great time.  Unfortunately his pumpkin was rotten.  It was dark brown inside and half full of liquid.  Very gross!

We went to our local pumpkin patch as a family.  We played in the hay maze, the hay pile, went on a hay ride and ran into some friends from the community that the kids played with.  It was lots of fun!  That night we carved one of our pumpkins before it got dark.  We'll finish the other one and get some pictures!

The kids have been raking leaves.  Their Dad has been teaching them how.  The first batch they raked they had to bag up and throw away.  However, the second batch they were able to play in and had a great time!.  I'm sure we have lots more coming!  After fall is over and they have raked all the leaves their Dad is going to pay them.  They are very excited!

Just In Case...

What does a three year need at Church?  Madeline packed her purse for church and I let her take it into Sacrament Meeting.  I couldn't resist a peek at what she thought she might need....

 

It made me smile to see what was inside.  At the top is her purse.  The first thing I pulled out was her notebook and a little box of crayons.  How practical - she may need a notebook at church.  The glittery diamond ring may be necessary if she had an accessory emergency!  However, her Dad's magnet business card for his Home Show and those red ballet slippers made me laugh...and then her plastic rose, of course!  She ALWAYS has something in her purse, pockets, or up her shirt.  It may be a toy, or flashlight, a tool or vacuum cleaner attachment,  perhaps chewed gum she isn't suppose to have and is either hiding from me or saving for later, she usually has something of her sister's that is off limits like lip gloss or jewelry.  Once it was a pair of sunglasses she stole from a store (and later returned).  I check her stash more often now!   She is our sneaky packrat!

The Not So Terrible Twos (yet)

 Lilah turned 2 on Thursday!  Even though she had just watched Anna Elise's birthday a few days before she didn't really seem to know what 'birthday' meant.  We talked about her birthday a lot and she just looked at me blankly.  However, when I brought the cupcakes out to the table after dinner and we all started singing to her she knew exactly what to do.  The candles were both blown out before we could finish the song.  Then when we moved into the living room she tore into her presents - so she figured it all out pretty quick!

Lilah is my most independent child.  She is constantly saying "I do it".  For months she has been able to dress herself from head to toe and she does every morning and night!  She puts her clothes on and if they aren't right side out and forward, she takes them off and does it again.  She puts her shoes and socks on too.  She washes her own hands with a stool in the bathroom, just like the other kids.  She climbs into the car, gets into her carseat, gets her straps on and buckles the top strap - all on her own - or else!  It takes her forever - but it's not faster to do it for her because then I have to fight a screaming, flailing toddler!  She carries her own stuff, wants to walk without holding anyone's hand (which I do fight her on in busy parking lots) tries unsuccessfully to cut her own food, and everything else!  For being 'two'  she really is pretty good.  Her temper tantrums are short lived and only occur when she isn't allowed to try or do something for herself.  She gets along well with her siblings, holds her own, and is such a big girl!  She was on her way to being potty trained and had gone in the potty several times when my morning sickness took over everyone's lives and that was abruptly halted - maybe this winter...In the meantime she will continue to try to talk me into letting her change her own diaper (she has been unsuccessful so far, that is one thing I won't let her do).

Anna Elise Turns 7!

 Anna Elise turned 7 years old today!  We celebrated yesterday with presents, lunch at McDonalds (her pick) and Cupcakes!  She had a good day.   Mike took the three oldest kids to Lowes for 'Build and Grow' and they had a good time. Lilah stayed home to help mom make frosting! 

Second Time's a Charm

We are pregnant again!  This one seems to be going much better then the previous one.  I am 10 weeks on Monday.  There is only 1 baby, the baby is measuring right on the dates, and it has a strong heartbeat.  I am sick as usual, but this time it isn't quite so bad in the morning and I am on Zofran in the afternoon/evening and it is a bit more bearable.  I am still exhausted and I still have that horrible saliva problem that I always get, but overall I am doing ok.  I look like I am atleast 4 months pregnant, nothing fits, and I'm eating like crazy, but I'll worry about all that later!
We told the kids this week.  Anna Elise cried and stormed out of the room.  She says we don't need anymore girls!  She knows if it's a girl she loses her room and she LOVES having her own room. She calmed down and it isn't quite so upset.  Calvin was very excited and BEGGED me to have a boy.  He doesn't seem to get it when I tell him I'm not the one that picks the gender.  Madeline told me she has a baby girl in her tummy.  Her name is Penny and her next name is Bow and her other name is Rose.  Next she will have a boy baby and name him Mountain Lion.  Lilah just looked confused - she pulled up my shirt and checked out my belly button for a while.
I am busy trying to figure out what car seat(s) to buy that will fit in my car.  We really don't want to buy a new car, but we haven't figure out how to fit 5 car seats in the one we've got.  I've haven't given up yet!
We can't wait for May!

Lost Teeth

Anna Elise has had a loose tooth for a few days.  She has been wiggling it and her Dad decided on Saturday that it was time!  Mom tied a piece of string around her tooth and tied the other end to the door and this was the result...

...nothing!

Calvin is always anxious to be first and can't stand to be left out.  So when he claimed to have a loose tooth as well, I didn't believe him.  He was begging for a turn so I checked his teeth and sure enough, he had TWO loose teeth.  While Anna Elise recovered we gave Calvin a turn.

It turned out to be a traumatic experience for him and he wouldn't let us pull the second one...

Anna Elise's second attempt...

...she wasn't very happy.  Luckily her Dad was able to get it out by tugging on it.

First Day of School

It was the first day of Kindergarten for Calvin.  He rode the bus with Anna Elise this morning.  She let him sit by her.  When they got to school Anna showed him where his class was (it's her old class room and her old teacher) and took good care of him!  Calvin had a great time!  He said he was good.  He made some friends but doesn't know anybody's name.  He told me he played with the little boy who had a Transformer backpack and a dinosaur folder - so he is remembering the important stuff!  He came home in a good mood and after about a half hour told me he was ready to go back - right now!  He is excited for tomorrow. 
Anna Elise had her first day of first grade.  She loves school - she told us that 'first grade rocks'!  She enjoyed helping Calvin out and was glad to see a few familiar faces in her class from last year.  She did get blisters from her cute shoes and I had to bring her tennis shoes and socks half way through the day - but she still had fun.  I'm glad they had such a good day!
It's sad and exciting all at the same time to watch your kids grow up!  

Another Adventure

We took our family to see Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally this weekend.  The Rally was great, but our weekend also had a few disappointments.
We left on Friday afternoon and drove to our hotel.  The kids played in the pool and had a great time.  After dinner Mike left for the temple (it was his turn).  He left an hour and 15 minutes before the last session.  It was suppose to be a 25 minute drive, so we doubled it, we know DC traffic (or we thought we did).  What we didn't know was the construction schedule.  At 8:15 (15 minutes before the last session) Mike was still 20 minutes from the temple so he turned around and came back.  It seemed like a waste to be in DC and not get some time at the temple!  We shook it off and went to bed.  We were up early and arrived at the metro station to an almost full parking lot.  Luckily we've done this before (see my 9/12 post from last year) and we knew it would be crazy.  We had bought our metro tickets the day before.  We avoided the half mile line to buy the tickets and jumped into the large crowd to get on an already overflowing train.  We squeezed on and had a great trip into the city.  I loved the metro trips.  Everyone is going to the rally and it so fun to talk to everyone about where they are from and why they came.  Someone always offers me a seat because of the kids and some kind stranger is holding at least one of my other children.  We got off into a hot and crowed station.  It took a half hour to get out!  It was worth it though.  We walked to the Lincoln memorial first and sat behind the stage for a wile, but couldn't hear.  We went around the crowd and found a spot about halfway to the Washsington memorial and sat on the side and listened.  I loved Sarah Palin's speech.  After an hour we walked the rest of the way to the Washington Memorial to see the huge crowd and get a feel for the layout.  It was awesome.  We really enjoyed the rally and the best part is all the kind and good people gathered with you.  It's so inspiring to see so many people who feel the way you do.  I have to say that our first rally on 9/12 last year seemed more awe inspiring and I think had more people - but this one was good too.  The most frustrating thing is that the reports on attendance our insultingly low.  CBS news reports 87,000 people in attendance.  If you count the buses that came alone that would be close to 500,000 and then there are those that drove and flew in...I think the park rangers estimate of 650,000 is more accurate.  They did this to us last time too - reporting 30,000 people when there had to have been 800,000 or more.  Anyway - it was such an amazing experience.
We ate our lunch and walked to the Smithsonian Natural History museum.  We looked at mammals, the ocean, and dinosaurs (Calvin's favorite, he could name all the skeletons) and then realized that Mike had lost his very expensive phone with irretrievable data on it for work.  It kind of sucked the fun out the museum.  We could track the approximate location of his phone with my phone - but you can't really walk through a crowd of people and ask them all to empty their pockets.  The phone eventually left DC and settled in Arlington, then the battery died.  So sad.  The drive home was good and the kids were well behaved.  It was good a weekend, but disappointing to miss the temple and lose the phone.
We love being so close to DC and being able to go participate in these things.  Mike goes several times a year on his own, but we feel it's important for our children to have this experience as well.  Going and doing and being there is important - but oh it's a lot of work!

 Behind the stage looking towards the Washington Memorial.

 The view of the stage and the Lincoln Memorial behind it.

 The kids - Lilah is actually smiling, not crying (click on the picture).  Madeline was not in a good mood.

 All of us

 Mike took 'giant' pictures of the kids next to the Washington Monument (or in Calvin's case the George Washington Monument)

 Anna Elise's 'giant' picture.

Lilah's 'giant' picture.  She is 'roaring' at Mike.

 Madeline was hiding behind this tree during lunch.  She was poking her sandwich with a stick and then licking the peanut butter off the stick.  Yes, it's gross, but she was quiet and happy while doing it!

Kids behind a prehistoric shark's jaw.

Very cool dinosaur bones!