Friday, December 30, 2016

SMILES 2016

This Christmas break didn't go as we imagined. We all got the stomach bug this week and poor Marcus was throwing up for 60 hours. I was worried we were going to end up in an ER to hydrate him. He didn't want to drink anything but milk and refused crackers. The milk came up within 10 minutes of him drinking. I limited his intake and he would scream for more because he was so hungry.  I finally started giving him a lollipop to distract him once the 2ozs of milk were gone. Then in desperation last night I remembered I still had frozen breast milk and he was able to keep that down and he's been recovering today. I'm so grateful for the Holy Ghost who I am sure prompted me to try the lollipop and remember the breast milk in the freezer.


Anyway, google photos sent me a notification about a video they had put together titled, "SMILES 2016". It made me smile and I thought I would share and say Happy New Year as we head into the weekend. Here's to a healthy happy New Year or at least finding the smiles throughout the year.


Highlights from our New Year's Festivities.  Steve took Ellie skiing at Powder Mountain today. Grandpa Stan went with them. I picked up Mimi around 1:30 and took Andrew and Lila up to do afternoon/evening skiing. When Steve and Ellie were getting ready Andrew said so enthusiastically, "I WANT TO GO SKIING! I'll put all my gear on and be happy." I had already planned to take Lila up for afternoon and thought I could take him to do a few runs. They just did a couple of small hills by the rope tow (Steve probably could have taken him up on the lift, but we needed one more adult to be able to go with the girls and Grandpa had taken off his ski gear). Andrew loved it and kept saying, "Again, again." When we got home and he saw the big trail map Steve had he pointed to the top and said, "Next time we start up here Dad and we go straight down super fast." ;)  Steve said the girls were much improved since last week (we went Thursday to Snowbasin with Grandpa and it was a rough day--it was crowded, I was on new skis and skiing for first time in almost 2 years, the girls were rusty and it was just a rough day). So I was glad to hear they had an enjoyable time and hope we can make it back out together this year.
Ellie saw a friend there and made a couple of runs with her.



Saturday I went and got a facial (gift certificate Steve gave me for my birthday). Then ran a couple of errands and picked up Krispy Kremes as a surprise--the kids loved it. Then we cleaned a bit, folded laundry, and got things setup for our traditional party. The kids played some Wii bowling, table tennis which is really funny to watch Andrew play.


Andrew loved the fortunes inside the balloons. This one said "Smile more often, think positive thoughts, and relish in good fortune." So he was showing us his smile.






We watched some of the London fireworks then did sparklers. Then we watched a couple of countdowns on Netflix and pulled our little confetti launchers. It was nice to just ring in the New Year together in a relaxing and fun way. Love IT!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

This season I sang that song to Andrew almost every night. He thought it was funny and I was hoping it would help him stay in bed because "He sees you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake." It didn't really, but it was fun. Yesterday when I played the Michael Buble version of it he sang it loud and strong it was cute. Christmas Eve was a wonderful day. We had been up late the night before at the Buckley Christmas party and the boys did not sleep well so I was up and down with them and did not sleep well at all. Steve finally made breakfast burritos around 9:45. Then he helped me fix the shelves in my kitchen cupboards. It was my present new shelf pins because the original plastic ones were breaking and the size was weird so we finally found some that we could make work after we wrapped them in a little tape. ;) I was in desperate need. My spice shelf just crashed one night while we were watching a movie we heard it fall. So he would fix them and then I would reorganize those cupboards. Of course it was the crazy cupboards that were desperately in need of reorganizing so it took a couple of hours. I took a bath which was nice so nice. Then we made our traditional Christmas Eve chocolate cake to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Ellie said this is one of her favorite Christmas traditions we have and she was a big helper. She measured all the sugar and flour, I didn't double check and the cake is quite as sweet as it should be, but a little scoop of ice cream does the trick. It's so moist and yummy. As soon as Andrew saw the cake he was determined to get a piece as soon as possible and planted himself right in front of it.


After dinner we watched the Luke 2 Nativity video played with Amy Grant's Breath of Heaven, it's my favorite! We talked about the events of Jesus's birth. When the new star appeared in the video I asked Andrew what it said. He said, "the star is not talking." Ok, what did the new star symbolize or mean to the people. It was a symbol that the Savior was born. Then we talked about how choice people Mary and Joseph must have been to be blessed with the opportunity to be 'parents' to Jesus, but it came with it's trials, he was born in a manger. We all have our own trials and struggles, but we have to remain faithful for Heavenly Father has a plan it may not make sense at that moment, but it will all be made right. Andrew asked to watch it again. So we did. Then we did some more of our Gospel Art Kit readings that we've been doing since Ellie was 2. Lila said this is one of her favorite traditions we do and I have to agree. No matter how many times we read those stories we learn something new or find a new way it applies to our life in that moment. It is truly amazing! This year we also tried to watch the Light the World videos The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released to help us all become a little more Christ-like. Anyway, we had missed a few days do to skiing and the family party so we played catch-up and it the spirit was strong after watching the Nativity and reading more about the Savior. It was a beautiful Christmas Eve! Then we ate cake.

  
Steve worked on the basement and finished installing our new video doorbell for the rest of my Christmas present.  When he rang it Andrew said, "The Jingle Bell it works." Then they made everyone that came to the door push the button and we did have a couple of visitors. We finally set a piece of cake out for Santa and sent the kids to bed around 7:45. I love that in their notes they each mentioned what the other one wanted without knowing they did that, it was sweet and Ellie made sure to tell Santa that they will be in the basement next year so he doesn't miss them or get confused. ;)












We awoke this morning to 6 inches of snow and it hasn't stopped yet. We woke the kids up at 7:30am because we had sacrament meeting this morning at 9am and we let them look at what Santa brought and open their stockings. 















Then we ate Christmas eggs, sausage and cinnamon rolls. 


We got ready for church. Mimi and Grandpa surprised us by meeting us there. We came home and Marcus went down for a nap while the kids opened the rest of their presents. The girls loved their new robes and Ellie was completely surprised by her new iPod and alarm clock. Lila loved the American Girl doll bed and ski outfit that was a last minute request. Andrew made a great exclamation of excitement over, "his new toy." I think it was a success! Well, I guess the girls were a little disappointed we didn't catch Santa with our new video doorbell. ;) We told them he doesn't use the front door, he lands on the roof and comes down in.



 Unfortunately after that Andrew started throwing up and we began triage mode. I handled sick boy downstairs while Steve dealt with the baby in the toy room and the girls built Lila's new Shopkins house of legos upstairs in their room. Marcus did get to finally open his first Christmas presents. He mostly just enjoyed the paper . . . once the toy got going he thought it was pretty entertaining. ;)



















It wasn't quite how I imagined the rest of the day, but I guess I'll be grateful we didn't have anywhere to be as it quietly snowed outside. Andrew is tuckered out and I'm trying to keep him awake a little longer in hopes that he can sleep all night. Steve is out snow blowing the drive and then we'll enjoy some ribs for dinner with the girls after which will play our new game Poison with them too. Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 24, 2016

Buckley Christmas 2016

The annual Christmas party was set for this Friday and as we visited with Dad throughout the week he was excited to tell us all about how he started doing Family History work and how he watched a YouTube video titled Find 30 Names in 30 Minutes. They offered to watch all the grandkids so we could go to the temple, but I decided that it would be nice if they could go with us. We haven't all been in the temple together since Jake and Marcee's sealing. So I coordinated it with Jake and Nessa, arranged for a babysitter for my kids and Anson, and called the temple to make an appointment. It was a good experience.


Steve got called in to work for the afternoon. So I put the boys down for a nap in anticipation of the party that evening. Then the girls and I folded and put away laundry and I did their hair as we visited. It was wonderful. 

When Marcus woke-up we put him in the little Santa suit that all my kids wore for their first Christmas except Andrew (he was too small 7 weeks old at his first Christmas).










We headed for Mt Green around 4. When we arrived we took some family photos then we had dinner.























Following dinner Mimi let the kids open pajamas and of course they all changed into them and we tried to get the kids to play downstairs with a new car track Mimi got while we played Deal or no Deal again. After each of the adults went we challenged Dad to do the game and told him we'd all pitch in to cover his winnings. He got down to two boxes $550 and $1 and he ended up with the $1. . .whew he almost broke our banks. ;)


The kids were having a rough night so it was a bit more scattered this year, but we still have fun and Mom & Dad were very generous. There was a very frantic frenzy when the kids opened their presents and proved Andrew's shirt to be true (it said, "Santa is Great, but I've got Grandma & Grandpa).




Grandpa played a mini version of the game with the kids. Ellie was determined to get the $100 max. She got down to two boxes $1 and $100 and Grandpa offered her $50 (which all the other kids took much earlier in the game). She looked at me and I told her it was totally her decision but she had to understand there was a chance she could get $1. She chose to keep her box and it did have the $1. She didn't cry about it or anything. I was so proud of her for owning her decision. Grandpa later snuck her $40.

The party ended and we said good night to everyone. Then we decided to shovel their driveway before we left. It was a good arm workout and hopefully saved Dad a little bit of work.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Naughty or Nice, Checking it Twice

It's always fun to reflect as I look through pictures to prepare the Christmas card. We've had some nice and not so nice moments this year and hope you enjoy reading the little snippet about each child (disclaimer: there is no intended implication of guilt, naughty or nice in the write-ups).

We're grateful for the gift of redeeming love in our life both for and from our children and for the redeeming love of our Heavenly Father who sent His Son a newborn babe. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).

Merry Christmas!
Love the Moores--Steve, Britney, Ellie, Lila, Andrew & Marcus

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Mommy Daugher Doctor Dates

Last Thursday I took Lila to the orthodontist before school. It was just the two of us and we had some fun chats to and from. She told me that Dec 21st is the first day of winter and also the last day of school so we should go skiing the next day. I asked her why she liked skiing and she said she liked going down the hill and seeing all the city lights as they drove home (they did evening lessons last year). After meeting with the orthodontist I realized the girls, each of which are supposed to see him every 6 months, are spread out 3 months apart and the orthodontist doesn't want to me to move one that much right now because he wants to keep an eye on their mouths/teeth. So I guess I'll be driving there every three months and enjoy the one-on-one chats with the girls.


Yesterday I took Ellie to the dermatologist she's had a scalp issue since this summer and it just isn't completely clearing up and her ears started bleeding around her new earrings. He told us to use the prescription shampoo more frequently (every-other-day) and the scalp should clear up in a couple of weeks. He thinks her ears are sensitive to the metal in the earrings and told us to get some plastic or gold earrings. So after dropping Lila off at dance last night (the drop-off involved delivering our last 12 days of Christmas gift, library stop, and a drive through the city Christmas lights before taking her to dance. They all love driving through the lights, but I especially love the excitement Andrew shows for it-this time he told me it was a great idea like quesadillas;) . . . anyway, after all that I took Ellie to Claire's to get some more earrings. We found some gold plated earrings and it seems to be helping already. Since we were at the mall we made a quick stop at the aquarium (benefit of having a membership) to pet the sting rays and Ellie actually got to touch a shark this time too.


Today I checked Lila out of school before lunch and ran her to the doctor to do a urine sample just to make sure it's clear before we start the low dose antibiotic. Afterwards I took her to lunch at her place of choice, pizza pie cafe. Then we went to the dentist to get two teeth pulled, which was recommended by the orthodontist. When we got there the paperwork they had showed the canine teeth and I thought it was the lateral teeth so I asked them to call the orthodontist and apologized for the trouble. The dentist was nice and said don't apologize I would do the same if it was my kid. He went ahead and numbed her since he would be pulling teeth no matter what. She was so nervous and they asked if she wanted the gas, but I held her hand and she did great. Sure enough the orthodontist had sent over the paperwork for the wrong teeth and he apologized. They're out and she's awaiting the tooth fairies special visit tonight because it is her first time getting teeth pulled and Ellie got a special gift. Good thing Mom got a note off to the tooth fairy just in time and I think she is going to bring some clip on earrings for her (what a coincidence since we were at Claire's last night;).

Man I've felt like I spend a lot of time running kids to doctors, dentists, orthodontists, school, dance etc., it can be crazy and hectic at times, but I'm grateful for the small windows it provides for some-one-on-one time and hope the kids will remember those special moments.

I need to give a shout out to Steve who is great and takes the boys as much as possible for me to do this or does morning carpool runs by himself with all of the kids since I try to schedule most of the appointments before school. He is wonderful and is aware of how taxing it can be to run the kids so much and tries to make sure I don't get lost in the shuffle. Love him!!

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Terrific Tuesday

Today was wonderful. Recently I've felt like life is just flying by in a blur with the vertigo and sickness I've been kind of in a fog and then there has just been a lot to do making life almost feel like an out of body experience which I don't like. I want to enjoy and savor every moment. And today was a wonderful day. Andrew and I played with a tape measure for a couple of hours measuring everything including ourselves stretched out on the ground. After measuring me Andrew said, "you're 45 cents mom." :) Steve came home at lunch and I was able to get my hair cut and enjoy lunch with him. When the girls got home from school I was feeling relaxed and not worried about what needed to be done next. They had an after school snack, we talked about school and Ellie's field trip that did not go well. They had to wait at the movie theater 45 minutes for another school to show up before they started the movie--then 5 minutes after they arrived at the Natural History Museum the power went out. She was quite dramatic about it. I told her it was a bummer that all these things happened, but did she enjoy the movie? yes, yes the movie was good. And we've been to the Natural History Museum several times (we used to have a pass) so at least she didn't miss out on something completely new. It's a hard job as a Mom to be sympathetic, but also help them see the positive side of things. Ellie helped Lila study vocabulary while they finished snacking then they dusted and Ellie finished her book report. While dinner was cooking we turned on some Christmas music and the kids just danced and laughed. Andrew didn't have a shirt on because his took a dunk in the toilet last time he went to the bathroom and he refused to put on another shirt. He would ask each of the girls to dance with him and then they were jumping over the music table. It was like we didn't have a care in the world, a magical time. We ate dinner and went to make our 12 days of Christmas delivery when Steve and I decided to surprise the kids with an early Christmas present and we went to the new aquarium in the mall. I bought a pass months ago and we've just been waiting for it to open and the right time to go. Well tonight it was. The kids loved it and Andrew kept saying that was the best time ever.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Gingerbread Decorating

Last Saturday we needed out of the house. We had been sick and cooped up all week. So we took the kids Christmas tree shopping that way we could be outside but not feel like we were exposing anyone to the illness because we were outdoors. We found a tree and came home and set it up, but that's all that really got done this week. Honestly, I've still been feeling under the weather and having some dizzy spells so it hasn't been too productive of a week. I decided since we got a real tree that we would do popcorn strands and decorate the tree really simple this year. During my quick Walmart outing yesterday I found a gingerbread ornament kit and thought it was perfect since we hadn't done our traditional gingerbread houses this year. So today we decorated gingerbread ornaments and strung popcorn/cranberry strands. It was messy (I didn't even mind the mess-seriously, Steve was more worried about vacuuming than me). We had a lot of fun even I decorated a set. 


Andrew spent hours decorating his gingerbread ornaments and then I gave him a wire to string popcorn and cranberries on (I thought maybe we could turn his into a candy cane decoration), but he would string and then eat both the popcorn and cranberries. He was hilarious and must have ate a couple dozen cranberries straight. We also decided to do colored lights since our artificial tree always has the white lights already strung on it and we haven't had any problems with those lights for years, but one of the brand new LED colored strands we bought kept burning out so we finally ended up just taking that strand off and putting a new one up (poor Steve strung the lights on the top of the tree 3 times).











 
Final product. I love it. It's not fancy, but I love that it's decorated with our popcorn/cranberry strands and gingerbread ornaments and our memory ornaments. I even love the tilting star at the top. It is a really special tree to me for some reason.

 
We had a big snow storm earlier this week and Lila went out and shoveled the sidewalk before school while the boys watched from the window.

Ellie was at an early morning ballroom practice. She had ballroom every day but Tuesday this week because they performed at the Festival of Trees on Thursday and then had the school assembly performance. Ellie rode the bus down and back to festival of trees. They left school at 11 and didn't get back until 4. She's growing up and having events that take her out of school, fun, exciting and a little nerve racking for Mom. ;) I was able to attend the assembly on Friday morning to see her dance.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Golden Ticket Thanksgiving

We finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and I have to say it was a different experience reading it with my kids. I really really enjoyed it. Andrew wouldn't even beg at night to read more than one chapter. I don't think he was really following most of it, but he loves "story-time" as he called it. There were moments in the book where we were all touched for example when Charlie was so hungry that he began conserving energy and then he finds the $1 and moments when we each learned a lesson from the ridiculous kids behavior. It was a fun thing to read with the kids and watch the movie, I hope to do it with the boys again when they are a bit older.

We got a call from the doctor yesterday to tell us Marcus has parainfluenza. I told him his fever had gone away and he said he is probably still contagious so after going back and forth about whether or not to go to Mt Green for Thanksgiving we decided to do our own. We already had the turkey in the smoker and I had made two pies on Tuesday (well one pie--chocolate caramel pecan and a pumpkin cheesecake) so Steve and I decided to taste the pumpkin cheesecake at that moment since we now had to eat it all ourselves and it is delicious along with the turkey we may have tasted when it came out of the smoker. ;)


Last night Andrew starting running a fever . . . here we go again. I think it must have been what Ellie had last weekend too. It just affected Marcus the worst. Fortunately Andrew slept all night so hopefully we can keep him resting and this thing will go away in a couple of days.


This morning I remembered I had bought frozen roll dough at Bowmans and pulled that out, made stuffing, cooked mashed potatoes in my pressure cooker, and sweet potatoes (which we probably could have done without, but it's tradition. don't get me wrong we love sweet potatoes, we have sweet potato french toast all the time, but the candied versions with marshmallows not really our thing) and I made cranberry sauce last night to enjoy with our turkey tasting. We each took turns going around the table and telling each person why we are grateful for them it was nice, except Lila was being a stinker and couldn't think of anything to be grateful for regarding Andrew . . . oh little brothers and Lila needs to look for the good in everything she has hard time looking past what she doesn't have.

We missed hanging out with extended family (believe me the girls cried at the table when they realized we wouldn't be going to Mt Green), but there was something truly magical about just spending it in our own home, relaxing and playing together, enjoying things we enjoy doing and that's why it was our Golden Ticket, a miraculously wonderful Thanksgiving in the middle of a chaotic month.
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