at which point we finally decided to just get the tape.

can the christmas light people really think of 

no better way than this?

i mean, i know you can just buy a prelit tree and all.

and make no mistake, i was cursing myself and our real christmas tree

the entire time i was taking down these lights.

especially b/c i know we have a perfectly beautiful prelit tree in the basement

that i could have put up

and avoided all of this with.

and why i earth could i not have put the twisty ties in an easier place to find?

or did i throw them away?

could sean please look in the garage one more time?

or maybe it was in the basement

in the things

by the things?

god bless sean for his patient heart:)

and god bless the smile of mine that gets him to look in the basement one more time.

at which point i then had to go look in the basement

and the garage

and the basement again

before we finally decided to just get the tape.

and then vowed to be more organized about all of it next year.

kind of like we did last year.

and maybe couldn't we get those garage shelves to keep everything in once place?

whichever. 

adios muchacho.

second thoughts

i think it's starting to stink.

maybe friday is best.

or better yet,

today...

experts of girls {convo's with cade & brennan}

while eating apples 
and jumping off of 
my coffee table 

onto coolie, the 6 foot bear, 
the following conversation occurred between two 5 year olds...

brennan: i went to girl world, and they taught me how to be experts of girls. 
i know more about girls than you. really i do.

cade: no, i'm experts of girls.

brennan: all the girls of the whole world know me though. and they all love me too.

cade: ok ok they love you, but they love me too. they're in love with both of us. 
but we won't ever let them come here because then they will try to kiss us.

brennan: we DON'T want them to kiss us. not even our sisters. 
just our moms 'cause they're our moms and they can do stuff like kiss us.

cade: yeah yeah just our moms. cause we love them.

{chase's new favorite game: riding brennan like a horse. trust me, it's mutually loved.}

christmas {fever} day

brennan woke up with a fever.

we held the kids off in our bedroom with a christmas movie for half an hour until the motrin kicked in.

it spruced him right up for a couple of hours of presents.

the poor kid didn't even want to go downstairs when he came into our room at first.

there's nothing sadder than a kid with the flu on christmas.

sore throat.

headache.

fever.

achy body.

runny nose.

it came on just as we were putting him to bed on christmas eve,

was the worst on christmas day,

and wiped him out for the entire day after.

the rest of the day he layed on the couch watching movies,

and he declared that honey i shrunk the kids was his new favorite.

i drank tom and jerry's out of the cutest christmas mug i've ever seen {thank you lindi} most of the day.

my favorite part is the bun on the back.

it's the most ginormous thing,

and holds more liquids than you could possibly imagine.

chase loved his fireman raincoat the best,

as you will see in the photo below.

and the skylanders and princesses worked together to save the day with chase's firetruck.

max entranced with her 

ballerina jewlery box.

the boys fighting crime.

brennan at his post 

on the couch.

for 

the 

entire 

day.

after christmas dinner at grandma carol's.

we were sooooo tired.

and brennan's 2nd dose of motrin had worn off.

poor chap.

a week later i found my kitchen counter.

and it was a beautiful beautiful thing to find:)

i stood there admiring it for 5 minutes.

i almost forgot what it looked like all cleared off.

at least no one was puking.

at least not on christmas day.

a house full of believers {EVE}

on christmas eve 

andrea had us all 

playing games.

really goofy ones.

the ones you can only play with your family.

like putting a peppermint joe-joe on your forehead,

and then trying to get it into your mouth without using your hands.

like you have to scoot it down over your eye,

by opening and closing your mouth in weird ways,

and then down onto your cheek,

sometimes shaking your head back and forth is a good method,

and then ever to slowly getting it into your mouth

without

letting

it

fall

onto

the

floor.

sean beat us all in about 2.5 seconds.

but he has an unfair advantage with his nose.

i guess technically it's not cheating when you're using what yo' mama gave ya.

most of us just dropped our cookie on the floor about a million times,

except for the super competitive folk

who did it over and over and over again.

just to show us how "easy" it really was.

all the while,

andrea and jaren's living room had about 20 of us with our faces to the ceiling

and cookie crumbs on our face,

you know

shaking our heads,

and opening and closing our mouths really big.

i don't think i've ever laughed so hard in my entire life.

after stuffing ourselves with clam dip,

meatballs,

martinellis,

joe-joes,

lemon bread,

rolls,

and everything else good you can think of.

other games:

marshmallow toss into the christmas wreath bowl.

candy cane bolt stacker

{only for the steady hand, sheesh}

tinsel limbo

and of course,

a thralling round of a white elephant gift exchange,

where i walked away with the greatest white elephant gift i've ever managed,

{except for the time when i had sean secure me the amazing mixing bowl and hand made apron--

but that was too classy to really be classified as a "white elephant."}

{marshmallow toss into the christmas wreath bowl.}

the greatest white elephant gift 

i've ever bargained 

and bartered for:

i branded it ours the minute the trading was over. tape too. phew.

then santa showed up to bring all of the kids some lollies and jammies

 

and we called it a night.

or least we ended part 1 of the night.

the part where the kids go to bed,

and santa's helpers begin the real work.

and then we read luke 2

and tucked them all snug into their beds.

there's nothing like having a house full of believers.

magic.

1:24am again

our christmas tree is still up.

i plan to keep it up until the thing dies.

{except i might be convinced to take it down on friday solely b/c then we can drop it off at the park for free christmas tree removal, instead of leaving it on the side of our house until may again like last year.}

but if i am not talked into taking it down on friday,

then i hope i will be able to keep it up and alive until june!

because having it up,

with the lights all aglow,

is making my house feel less like january,

and more like a calm december.

a calm december which i did not have i might add.

which makes it all the more enjoyable in januray.

despite the inversion and cold of january.

AND 

amidst another bout of barfing that hit brennan at 1:24am last night.

january really is my least favorite month anyway,

and the longest month of the entire year,

or at least it feels that way,

as obviously there are other months that end in 31 days,

which i will not recount,

because it would require me to count the knuckles on my hand,

and well, then i wouldn't be able to type.

second to august, which is my second least favorite month,

but at least august has sunflowers to brighten it up.

and now,

january has a christmas tree and lights to brighten our home up with it.

and to think i thought all of the laundry was done for the night!

i really have been meaning to wash his comforter for quite awhile.

but i'm telling you,

walking up and down the stairs carrying load after load of barfed on bedding and clothing,

while sean bathed brennan for the second time in one night,

and max laid herself in our bed after all of the excitement,

it was just not as bad because the christmas lights were still turned on,

and the tree was still up.

and it made the barf not as depressing,

although barf is always depressing,

and it made me gag more times than i would like to recount.

also, it snowed yesterday.

and that made it great too. 

because you know,

the tree and lights are still up:)

letters to Beth {the tv and dresser fell on chase}

dear beth,

welp, this morning chalked up to be my most traumatic in motherhood.

you might say this is an overly dramatic statement, but nevertheless,

my legs are still feeling like jelly 3 hours later.

chase was watching a movie, sitting on the seat at the end of my bed as usual.

brennan and max were at a friend's house,

and i was just getting out of the shower.

i was squishing the water out of my hair and reaching for a towel,

and then i heard the loudest crashing sound i've ever heard.

and i knew.

i knew what had happened before i opened the door.

i flung the door open as fast as i could,

and it was worse than i thought.

i get really calm in crisis, but i was scared to death.

i thought for sure he was broken.

the pelvis.

his head.

something was definitely going to be wrong.

this was just too heavy all on him for him to be ok.

this is what i was thinking.

i was praying he wasn't broken,

but i was just so sure he was going to be broken.

i'm pretty sure i said "oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh" over and over again the entire time.

i could hear chase screaming from under everything, and it was awful. 

i tried to pull the drawers off of him first and reach for him with the other hand.

but everything was just so heavy.

and i just remember thinking "get him out get him out get him out!!!"

yelling at myself in my head.

the wood was cracking because everything was tilted, and then it fell on him again.

and it was torturing me that it was taking so long to get to him,

but everything was just so awkward and heavy.

i still don't remember how i even got him out,

but i finally lifted everything enough to pull him out.

{remember i'm still dripping wet and completely naked, but i didn't even care.}

we just sat on the floor and i burst into tears, 

and we both were crying together for a good 5 minutes.

i think he might have been crying more b/c i was crying, and it freaked him out,

but i just couldn't stop crying.

from the minute i pulled him out i just couldn't stop.

i didn't want to put him down,

and he just wanted to lay on my bare naked chest.

i finally got up the courage to stand him up,

and i was just SURE he was broken.

but by the grace of god he was NOT broken.

he was drenched on one side of his body,

and the carpet looked like someone had peed on it,

but i assure you i did not.

and he did not.

which i was proud of us both for not doing

b/c it was just so scary.

my hair had just dripped all over us.

i just kept thinking i was going to have to call 911,

and they were going to find me holding broken chase, 

and i would be all wet and naked!

when he stopped crying and started walking around i felt a little bit better

and finally stopped crying,

once chase started pointing at the upside down tv 

begging for me to turn his movie back on i knew he was ok,

so i called sean and took a picture of what had happened so he could see.

and chase was running around acting normal,

but i just couldn't shake my nerves.

it shook me up,

and it shook me up bad.

then i called linsey and started crying all over again,

and she promised they would come over and help us bolt everything to the walls this weekend.

and she told me to take some deep breaths,

and kept trying to figure out how it had even happened,

and we concluded it must have been b/c he tried to climb up the drawers,

which most likely ended up shielding him from most of the weight when it actually all fell on him.

and do you know what i kept thinking?

i kept thinking that all of the problems i was worrying about in the shower 

were not even problems if chase were hurt.

just as long as he didn't come out of there with a broken head or pelvis,

then everything was going to be ok.

i still haven't moved that dresser and tv back into place.

i just wanted to leave it.

i don't know why.

maybe i will go through and clean out the drawers for the goodwill tonight.

i don't want to ever have that happen ever again.

i'm just so relieved chase is ok.

have you ever had something really scary like that happen?

is bear a climber?

my other kids are not climbers.

i've always thought people were being a little overly cautious when they bolt stuff to the walls,

but now i have vowed be more compassionate.

that seems to be a common thread in my life lately.

learning to be more compassionate.

it's so great and so awful all at the same time.

do you know?

i've been waiting and waiting to write to you about christmas

but something is wrong with my computer, 

and it won't load pictures from my phone to my computer,

so i have all of these pictures from christmas that i can't do anything with until it gets fixed.

and honestly,

it just seems weird to tell you about anything other than this right now.

man, i think we dodged the bullet this time.

and thank goodness nobody but chase had to see me dripping wet and naked this morning.

phew.

i love you,

emily 

OCEANS.

did i tell you about the time last week when all of my kids were puking?

and there was so much puke that i described it to people as oceans of puke?

things we learned 

during "oceans of puke":

1. max has great luck with tiled floor. thank you max.

2. brennan pukes like a walking zombie that's puking. he means well. it just turns out bad{ly}.

3. puking babies are by far worse than any other form of puking human. 

b/c they're quiet people, except when they're not. 

and you don't know they're puking 

b/c you're holding the garbage can lid open for your 5 yr old who's currently puking,

so he can puke into the garbage can 

b/c the puke bowls are all being washed in the dishwasher 

and really, it just seems efficient for him to puke into the garbage can at this point in the process,

and then right at that minute the baby comes around the corner puking,

and you're thinking

"baby puking! baby puking! get him onto the floor!"

you know, b/c there's carpet everywhere.

a house of carpet.

almost.

and so you're holding the garbage open with one foot and reaching out for the baby with an arm,

and you feel like you've got things under control,

and your husband is coming through with his one man hazmat crew,

and then you go around the corner and you see it.

oceans of puke.

from the baby that was walking around looking for you.

puking everywhere he walked while he was looking for you.

oceans of puke guys.

OCEANS.

and so you get on the horn right away and schedule the carpet cleaner to come the next morning.

and they are there bright and early,

b/c they are awesome like that.

and they remember the time they came for the purple berry smoothie that max spilled all over the carpet in your bedroom when chase was 3 weeks old.

like i said, they're awesome like that.

and then they clean your recliner chair,

and tell you it was worse than last time,

but not the worst they've seen,

and you take that as a compliment.

and then he cleans the sap off of the love seat for free.

because you know,

the guys at action extraction are awesome like that.

OCEANS.

OCEANS.