Happy Friday

I finally got a little sleep last night! Yesterday I took Ammon to his six-month appointment and he is 15 lbs and 26 inches long. He is small but he takes after the rest of us! I didn't even bring up sleep questions with my doctor because I knew what he would say and I know what I need to do I'm just not doing it. Anyway, Ammon got his immunizations and he didn't cry with the first one and the second one he cried for a second and then stopped. I was so surprised he did so well! Anyway, that evening I fed him at 10:30 p.m then put him to bed and I went to bed. He woke up crying at midnight and I checked on him to make sure he was okay--I didn't let him see me. I could see he was fine so I went back to bed and let him cry. He only cried a little bit and then went back to sleep!!! Hallelujah!!! Then I woke up at 3 a.m. because my body has been doing that so often this week it thinks that is what time you get up!! I checked on the baby and he was asleep! Imagine that! So I went back to bed. He woke up at 4:30 a.m. screaming so I fed him finally and then he went back to sleep and didn't eat again till 7 a.m. That is a schedule I can handle! But he should have been doing this months ago!! OH, Well. I will take this one night at a time. It is amazing how good you feel though when you get a decent amount of sleep!
Aidan got to walk to school today with Kalli which he thought was the coolest. The reason being is he qualified to go to the school movie this morning!! They have a new thing at Westmore every month where if you have good behavior, 100% attendance and turn in your homework every week and pass the Math assessment, you get to go to the movie of the month. They took two school buses of kids to the SCERA movie theater and today they got to see "The Apple Dumpling Gang" Kalli was in tears yesterday because Aidan was on the list and she wasn't. She was on the list all the way till yesterday and she got marked down because of behavior in her class. Maybe she will learn a lesson. I don't know. She has been getting in a lot of trouble this month! Anyway, I told her to try hard and she can go next month. And she felt better (I think) when I told her she couldn't go this month even if she qualified because she is still grounded from T.V. and movies!!! Anyway, Aidan got to go the movie this morning and he loved it. He loves school so much that after I fed him lunch, he wanted to go to class (the afternoon kindergarteners were told they didn't have to come back to class if they didn't want to.) So I took him back to school.
Kael is leaving this afternoon for a winter scout campout. He is looking forward to it--you couldn't pay me to go camping in the snow!!!

Joys of Baby Ammon

Well my baby is growing up and six months old tomorrow so we are slowly introducing solids. It makes me sad and happy at the same time. Sad because this is my last baby and happy because Ammon is growing up and it is getting easier as he grows. He really isn't that excited about eating rice cereal right now. But I know he will get used to it. He is so funny--he has been blowing raspberries and sticking out his tongue lately. I love all the cute things he is doing. Having a baby is such a joy. I am trying to enjoy everything that comes with it but when he is happy, it makes life a little easier! Maybe when he has had more solids he will sleep better. Last night he ate at 8 p.m. then went to sleep. I should have gone to bed too! I went to bed at 10:30 p.m. and then he got me up at midnight. I fed him then fed him again at 3:30 a.m. and then again at 7 a.m. He is a feeding machine. I know he doesn't need to eat but it is just easier to feed him than listen to him scream for an hour. I know all you out there are smarter than me and are saying just let him cry! And I will sometime...just not yet.

Enjoying Time with Kalli

Saturday Kalli and I enjoyed making bread together. She did everything! I just stood by if she had questions and helped her figure out the recipe. She did great. A few more times and she will be able to do this on her own. I think making bread is a lost art. It is my goal to teach her how to cook from scratch and be able to do that as a teenager. Since she was grounded last week (whoops was I supposed to divulge that piece of information?) she and I have a lot of time together to do things! Anyway, she is going to be a good little mother when she grows up.

Parenthood Woes

I have been so caught up in not having sleep with my baby and the little trials you have with young children that this new trial hit by surprise! And that is having a tween! Kalli is ten and a wonderful girl but this week we have had some struggles. I have been spoiled with Kael (age 14) because he is quiet and not as intense as Kalli. Plus he's a boy and he doesn't get as moody and emotional as we girls get! This week we had some issues that I won't get into here. I will say that it is so important to build good relationships with your kids before they hit puberty! It is so important to keep the lines of communication open and no matter what let your kids know that you love them no matter what they do. That being said, I am not putting up with disrespect and there are consequences for unacceptable behavior. Sigh. I think that even though it has been hard dealing with the issues with my young children, I would rather deal with no sleep and potty training and messes than with this! I guess I will just have to accept that my kids will grow up whether I like it or not and as they grow I will have different challenges to deal with. After they are young people, I may get my sleep again but I will have to deal with hormones and battle of wills. Hopefully I will get through this and all my kids will be good people and be productive members of society!

Kari got a nap!

I thought these were some fun photos that tell about my day. Aidan and Aaron found that you can bang Mashed potato cans and drink cans with unsharpened pencils and they make a marvelous noise. It also gives me a headache! But they had fun with it. I use past tense because the cans are now in the garbage. They banged them up so much that they wrecked them (oh, darn). The next picture is one of the last of Ammon in his bassinet. He is now sleeping in the front room in the playpen and the bassinet is gone. The last picture shows that yes, I actually get a nap sometimes. This was taken by Kael when he got home from school. Aidan and Kalli were still at school and Aaron was taking a nap of his own. I really needed this nap and I was so glad to get it!! Yesterday, I felt really good because Monday night I actually got seven hours of sleep. No, Ammon has not slept through the night yet. I went to bed at 8:30 p.m. I got up with him every three hours except when I got up with him at 1 a.m., I didn't feed him at all, I rocked him back to sleep and he slept two more hours! He will be six months next week and I am going to start with the tough love soon. I hope. Don't give up on me. Someday I will get some sleep.

Clean Fridge today!!

okay you will have to turn your heads sideways to look at these photos of the bottom of my fridge. I don't know how to rotate them and I'm trying to write this blog quickly before my baby wakes up from his nap (so I can't take time to figure it out!) Anyway, the colorful one is the dirty picture and the white one is the after picture. I can't believe I got my fridge clean!!! It has been two years at least since I have given my fridge a good cleaning. I figured since it was almost empty anyway, it was a good time to clean it. I started about 1 p.m. and I worked at all day. I took out the little compartments in the door and cleaned them (Aaron helped me dry them and put them back!) Anyway, I just wanted to get it clean--it looked so disgusting--I kept getting interrupted. I'm not complaining but it is hard sometimes to get anything done the way I used to when I was single. Kalli needed help with her math; Aaron wanted me to pay attention to him and kept getting into things and getting into trouble; Ammon wanted me to hold him all day; Aidan wanted me to read with him; Kael had homework to do so he couldn't help me. Anyway, I am exhausted even today but I feel much satisfaction from a job well done!!!

Ammon-my cute baby!

You can see right here in these pictures that Ammon is just growing way too big for his bed! I had written in early blogs about moving him but I never did. Well now I have to. I will probably put him in his play pen to sleep since Aaron is back in the crib. This other picture shows Ammon doing a situp. He is so funny! He wants to see what is going on! He will have abs of steel! Last night something funny happened. I fed him at 1 a.m. went back to bed. He woke me at 4 and I sat down to nurse him and we were both so tired that I fell asleep sitting up and he fell asleep on my boppy pillow! I woke up at 6:30 a.m. with a kink in my neck and a baby in my lap!! See Ammon--you can go longer without eating!!!!! Well, hopefully, soon I will get the energy to train him to sleep all night long.

Update on the Wendts this week

I can't believe that the month of January is almost half gone! Time is just flying too fast. Ammon is growing like a weed and becoming so interactive and fun. If only he would sleep Anyway, Aidan is VIP (Very Important Person) in his class this week and that has been fun. I made a poster for him that I sent to school yesterday and it is hung up on the classroom wall. Friday I will go to school with treats and we will talk about him to the class. He is very excited. On thursday it is his half birthday-that's right he is 5 1/2! He is growing fast too. Soon all the kids will have passed their half birthdays. Kael was 14 1/2 on December 23rd, Aidan is next this week, Ammon will be six months at the end of this month, Kalli and Aaron will be 10 1/2 and 2 1/2 at the beginning of March. I signed Kalli up for the Westmore choir club yesterday. That will start at the end of this month. I enjoy listen to Kalli sing (most of the time.) Hopefully, this will be a fun thing for her. Kael just started a new semester this week at Lakeridge and has some new classes. Instead of P.E., he now has Computer Tech class which he is ecstatic about. Our goal for this term is get better grades than last semester. Kael was a 4.0 student in 8th grade but he has found that 9th grade is a lot harder! I have confidence in him that he will do better this term! Scott has been working busily downstairs in our basement. He has been putting new light fixtures in. Kalli and Kael got new light fixtures in their bedrooms and they look so nice. Hopefully, soon he will be done and we can turn the power back on. It is so annoying sometimes for me to go to the Food Storage room at night and try and find food in the dark!!! Scott has been working hard so I'm sure he will finish his project this week.

January's Menu

I just added two recipes on my recipe blog for those that follow that. I got my menu project done for January and have decided to write it down in this blog. I'm sure it won't be of interest to anyone but maybe it will give you some ideas for dinner. When I make a menu, I usually follow it but I'm not very strict with it. Sometimes I switch around days but a menu helps with the question, "What shall I make for dinner tonight!!" You know, I really don't feel like I'm that remarkable of a cook but after making dinner for 15 years, 365 days a year, I do know how to cook a little bit!

Thursday Jan 8th-Ground Beef Stroganoff over rice or noodles, corn, rolls;
Friday Jan 9th-Homemade Pepperoni Pizza, green beans, strawberry jello;
Saturday Jan 10th-Leftovers
Sunday Jan 11th-Crockpot Chicken Breast with Cream of Chicken soup, mashed potatoes, carrot coins;
Monday Jan 12th-Chicken pot pie made with leftover chicken;
Tuesday Jan 13th-Tuna Casserole, corn;
Wednesday Jan 14th-Spaghetti, Homemade Breadsticks, Green Beans;
Thursday Jan 15th (PAYDAY!)-Homemade chicken cordon bleu, baked potatoes, corn;
Friday Jan 16th-Homemade Pizza;
Saturday Jan 17th-Leftovers;
Sunday Jan 18th-Pot Roast of Beef with vegetables, Rolls;
Monday Jan 19th=Beef Stir fry with leftover beef over rice and chow mein;
Tuesday Jan 20th-Lentil Soup, breadsticks;
Wednesday Jan 21st-BBQ chicken thighs, baked potatoes;
Thursday Jan 22nd-Rotini Noodles and Hamburger bake (Homemade Hamburger helper basically);
Friday Jan 23rd-Chicken Enchilada Pie;
Saturday Jan 24th-Tacos ,corn;
Sunday Jan 25th- Breakfast for dinner (bacon and eggs and waffles)
that's all folks

New goals for the year

I haven't written a blog for awhile so I thought I would today. School started back up yesterday and although I enjoyed the break, it is good to get back to routine. I took Kael to Jazz Band this morning at 7 a.m. and the only good thing about having to take him that early was no one was on the road which was good because it was snowing. Kalli got off about 9 a.m. with her friends (she loves walking to school with the Thompson girls!). I had a hard time getting myself in gear this morning because of being awakened all night by Ammon and Aaron so I just let the boys watch T.V. I hate it when the T.V. is on all morning. Anyway, I felt better after reading my scriptures and getting dishes done. Hopefully, the baby will go down for a nap this afternoon when I put Aaron down and Aidan goes to Kindergarten at 12:30 p.m. I am hoping to get some projects done but we'll see. With a 2 year old and five month old, these days I am just really happy to get anything done.
I have been trying to make some goals for the new year. One of them is to try to do better getting my Food Storage together. I told the kids that at least once a week we are going to eat something from our food storage so we can get used to it. We had Lentil soup last night and dinner time was not a happy time. Kael ate his soup without comment. Kalli sat and looked at it and cried for about 30 minutes. Aidan out and out refused to touch it. Scott tricked Aaron into licking some soup off his fingers and after he tasted that it wasn't that bad, he ate it right up. Well, anyway, Aidan and Kalli finally had some and decided that even though it looked disgusting, it really wasn't that bad. So we got through dinner and hopefully we can try some more foods (even though we have had Lentil soup before it has been awhile). I really don't want my kids to starve if we are in situation where all we have to eat is lentils and beans and they refuse to eat them. So, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah. One of my projects was to write down a schedule of a different food storage item that I would buy each week and also to write a menu and decide what different dishes to eat each week. We shall see if that happens but that is the plan. I have a picture of Ammon here because he is just so cute. I am so glad that he is in our family. This bumbo seat helps him sit up. I'm sure by next month he will be sitting up by himself.

Happy New Year!

Wow! It has been a fabulous year and I am looking forward to greater things in 2009. Last night we had such a fun celebration at my grandma's house. All my siblings and their families (minus Erik and Stephanie and their three kids) were there so it was hip happening place to be! We missed you Erik and STeph of course! My mom and dad played Disney Scene it with the grandkids and the adults played Partini and Balderdash. That was a lot of fun. We had a lot of good food and a lot of fun. Oh, we also watched Kung fu Panda. My baby fell asleep and 5 year old Aidan but do you think my energizer bunny Aaron slept? No! He was running around and going, going, going. Scott had to work last night--I think he finally got home at 3 a.m. so he didn't get to celebrate with us. Today I am ready to take down our tree and say goodbye to Christmas till next year. Plus, Aaron keeps taking ornaments and garland off the tree so it will be nice to not chase him away from the tree anymore! Next year I will have a 1 and 3 year old to keep away from the tree! Ah the joys of life!