Mia

Mia gets tired at the swimming pool.
But mostly she loves it. She likes the pool more then the others right now. We go once a week. It is great exercise for all of us. We alternate between our YMCA without the slides and Melanie's Y with the slides. We take Hans with us every once in awhile:)

She gets cold or coldy as she says.

She loves to open my sliding door, stick her head out, and yell "Friday! Friday come home!" over and over again. Wonder where she got that one from?

Got it on video. It's painfully cute.

Mia is my baby. She hasn't worn diapers since Wednesday. I have been telling her for 2 months when she asks to go on the potty that she has a diaper on so she just should use that. I guess I wasn't really ready for the annoyance of it and the ending of a diaper changing era. I've been changing diapers for over 7 years. I used to joke that I wouldn't potty train Mia until she could say with perfect diction "Mother, I would like to use the toilet now." So I find it funny that my not even 2 1/2 year old is potty trained. Piece of cake, actually. She has had 2 accidents. That's it. And one was with a babysitter and the other at the Y daycare. Other then that she has been perfect. It was good timing because I realized I only had 3 diapers left too. I don't do pull-ups or diapers for naps (if she still took one) or bedtime and she has been perfect with that as well. She did wake up at 5 am 2 mornings to use the potty, but she went back to bed. We made a special trip to Target to buy underwear for her and she picked out Dora, of course. She loves them. She will show them to anyone who walks by. She just bends over into a down dog and pulls the underwear up so you can see them. They are quite big on her. She is a small gal. We should get a couple years out of them. She felt so special and it was fun for me to watch. When Hans and I got home to the babysitter and an accident, Mia said, "Dora is so sad. I went poop on her." But she said this in a singsong voice while she was dancing. At least she gets that she shouldn't do it. She is so cute. I love this little girl. Now I think I'll make her stay in her crib until she figures out a way to persuade me otherwise.

Katelyn is 6!

Katelyn is a star gymnast. 20 pull-ups and a back walkover on the beam! She is always in a leotard and she is upside down more then she is not.

We had a baking party and decorated our own cakes. Here is Justin's masterpiece.
Ashley's cake. And Melanie helping decorate in the background.

Can you tell that this was exciting for Katelyn?!

Opening presents. Katelyn thought of a number between 1 and 10 and had her friends guess. The closest one got to give their present first. Katelyn got a zhu zhu pet, a picture making kit, a purse craft, matching nightgowns to wear with Kit, a new jacket, 20$, and a big coloring book and crayons. WOW!

We played pin the chef hat on the giant picture of Katelyn.

It was funny to watch people play that game.

Justin was the most disoriented.

The girls in their Aprons that I made. Check out Mia's Dora apron and Justin's lightning mcqueen apron. 9 in total. I'm pretty darn proud. They are all doing their impressions of a chef. Cute girls.

The birthday girl. I love when we can have the birthday party on the actual birthday day.

Decorating hot pads with fabric markers.

Blowing out candles! We also made our own pizzas, rolled out our own dough, put fruit on skewers, and played pass the present with our aprons. It was a very fun and exciting party. Katelyn and Kit in matching nightgowns.

Update

I didn't take a single picture of my trip to Utah with Melanie. We had such a great time. We left Thursday morning and came home late Monday evening. It was a long time to be away, but Hans handled it gracefully. I had some help from my neighbors and friends. We shopped, skiied, went out to lunch, got pedicures, went to a movie, went to the temple, had a superbowl party, and just generally had a great time. My two older sisters live in UT as well and they were able to ditch their kids and we just spent time together. It was so nice to be together and be friends. I loved it. I came back Monday evening to a crazy week. I frosted cupcakes, sorted through school folders, separated valentines, and tried to prepare for the week. Tuesday was my birthday. I am 31. I felt like I had already celebrated my birthday over the weekend, but I was still grateful to Hans for making an effort and for friends who stopped by. So thanks! The kids were really excited to see me and to give me their presents and eat the cake they had made. Hans had made all 40 heart-shaped playdoh for the kids to give out for valentines. So we took those valentines and Katelyn's birthday cupcakes to school on Tuesday along with Justin's valentines and valentines day box to his school. Laurie watched the kids so Melanie and I could go to yoga together. So nice. I hadn't done yoga since Wednesday and I was craving it. Overall, I enjoyed the day. And turning another year older. After my celebrations were over we went straight to getting ready for Katelyn's birthday party, which I will do a separate post on. It was a great trip and I'd do it again tomorrow if I could!

More Random Pictures

She's easy to love.
They are easy to love too, most of the time...

When I go anywhere, these 3 people follow me. I love my entourage. I will miss them in a few years. They are perfectly happy to run my errands with me and spend time with me.

I finally captured a picture of Mia doing her booty shake. She is usually naked when she does this. With some prompting she obliged.

Christmas Pictures

I didn't format these pictures very well, but they are here. Christmas morning is so fun when you are a parent to young children. They still believe (Ashley is on the fence) and they are so so so excited. We did Christmas morning in shifts. We opened and played with presents from Santa for awhile. After breakfast we opened some more. And after lunch we opened even more. I love that they just want to see and play with what they have opened. Mia loved unwrapping presents and the whole experience was just too good be to true for her. She was so cute to watch. All Justin wanted was a digital camera. He got a disposable camera, but he loved it just the same. He was so cute with that camera. I still need to get his pictures developed. I have Katelyn the blue leotard you see, which I think was more of a present for me then for her, but it is cute on her. It was a great morning.

Random Pictures

Decorating sugar cookies. We love this activity.

There is a huge dirt pile across the street from our house. They are building a house right in front of us. It has provided endless recreation and dirt in my house. Justin was not scared to slide down it.

The girls loved torturing Friday and making him slide down with them and then run him back up.

I love this picture. Ashley is watching Hans. Justin is watching Ashley. Katelyn is filled with complete joy, as usual. And Friday is hoping to run away.

I love this girl. She painted that great snowman picture you see behind her. And you can see Mia holding scissors in the background. This drawer holds school stuff. It also provides Justin, Mia, and Katelyn a place to do artwork, cut stuff up, and make a mess.

Update

The past two weeks have been so long! My poor Mia has been so sick. For 3 days I dealt with croupy cough and a fever and then the day the fever went down she started throwing up and having lots of diaper blow outs. I assumed it was Rotavirus (opted out of this vaccine since I felt uncomfortable making my 8 lb baby drink it) and just dealt with the symptoms. But 6 days later I thought maybe she would die and I would go crazy so I took her to the Doctor knowing they would do nothing. The Dr told me to take her straight to the ER to be re-hydrated, which I didn't do since it costs upwards of your life savings to take a trip to the hospital and I had already vowed that 2010 would be a doctor free year. I started syringing pedialyte into her mouth 1 oz every hour and she started to be a little more responsive. At this point she couldn't even lift her own head, had lost 2 lbs, and was very listless and lethargic. By the evening she looked awful again and when Hans got home he decided we needed to rehydrate her, which would be cheaper at Urgent care. The Dr there said that while she would benefit from rehydration it wasn't bad enough that if we had to pay for it out of pocket that it would be totally worth it. If we kept up with pedialyte the virus should be done - since 6 days is usually the max time for these things. So home we went and slept with Mia between us waking occasionally to syringe pedialyte into her mouth. In the morning she seemed a lot better, although she was still having diarrhea and she only slept most of the day not all of it. By the evening though she started throwing up again and being miserable. She did this for 3 more nights. Every day I thought she might die so I'd call the Dr and talk to them - she'd lost 3 lbs at this point - my 23 lb baby down to 20 lbs. She looks emaciated. Her skin is gray and her eyes are lifeless. I'm pretty much just sitting on the couch holding her watching endless TV. I hate TV. And the Dr would say - well take her to the hospital - but all we can do is send you there and tell you to feed her whatever she'll eat and hope the virus runs its course soon. Ugh!! But then every afternoon she would start to seem a little better after not eating anything and we'd feed her stuff and she'd be cranky and screaming at me and then she'd go to sleep and wake up vomitting again. We finally gave her a blessing and both Hans and I independently thought that this must be Gluten intolerance like me and put her on a gluten free diet yesterday and she hasn't thrown up since. She woke up twice last night to eat. I am so so so relieved. I think she might be able to grow and tolerate food again. She's eating and keeping it down. Over the last two weeks when I would try to have her eat something she would scream at me "I don't like food!!"

So that is why it's been a really long couple of weeks for me. I am so glad she is better because now I get to go to SLC for my birthday with Melanie and ski. I can't wait. We leave Thursday. The other 3 kids have been so great. The girls started art classes and we have still managed to find time to spend with them through the complete exhaustion.

I am excited for this week to start and for all this to be over.

Sick Mia

Poor girl got Croup last Sunday and Rotavirus on Thursday. She is still suffering.

Christmas Break Highlights

Some highlights of the Christmas Season:


1. Getting build-a-bears and playing with them for the entire day.
2. Playing at little biggs and having the entire place to the 5 of us for most of the time.
3. Seeing Princess and the Frog on Christmas Eve with the Morrills.
4. Watching my small people act out the nativity.
5. Opening presents on Christmas morning. Santa brought candy in stockings and legos for Mia, a camera and sword for Justin, and American girl dolls for Ashley and Katelyn. I also gave Mia some Dora books, Justin a transformer and remote control tractor, and the girls a webkinz with a leotard for Kate and a jewelry box for Ashley. They were, of course, also spoiled by grandparents. It was fun this year to have the kids draw names for each other and watch their excitement at picking out presents for their siblings. It was a great morning. Justin and Mia were up before 6:00 am so we had time to bathe them, clean, do laundry and all sorts of other inappropriate Christmas morning activities before the girls even woke up. I, in my craziness, had even taken down all of the Christmas decorations by lunchtime. I'm okay in my obsessiveness. We had Morrills for dinner and were grateful they came for the distraction.
6. Driving to Utah on the 27th. Hans' and my anniversary. I left my driveway at 4 am. I was somehow able to stay awake without Hans there and I kept trying to coerce the kids to fall back asleep. I did have an Ensign article experience in Denver when I felt the prompting to switch lanes, which gratefully I did. Within a couple minutes a car came driving along, lights off, driving the wrong way in the lane I had been in. A drunk driver, I am sure. What kind of idiot drives the wrong way on a 5 lane freeway, clearly marked with big dividers in the middle? Just another reason to not take up alcohol...I didn't even see the car until I would have crashed into it. I'm feeling grateful for the protection offered by the Holy Ghost. The rest of the drive, gratefully, was uneventful. The kids did so great and we made it to Utah by noon.
7. Signing the girls up for ski school and having them LOVE it.
8. Skiing an entire day with the girls. I was on a high for several hours afterwards feeling so amazed that I was doing something I love with my girls, who also seemed to love it. They did so great too. They both did a black diamond by the end of the day. I was totally impressed. Hans is taking them this Saturday.
9. Walking around Temple square with the Fords and touring the Conference Center.
10. Spending a morning at Christensens watching Sara, Justin, and Mia play. I love cousins.
11. Going to dinner with my siblings and in-laws and parents and then bowling afterwards. No kids.
12. New Years Eve party with my parents and making predictions for next year and in 10 years. Realizing I'm getting old.
13. Having to tell Mia that we don't do booty shakes at the dinner table. That girl. She loves to dance. And whenever she's naked she runs around shaking her booty, while yelling "booty shake, booty shake." She also has taken to calling anyone who wrongs her "a meano meano."
14. Touring Grandpa Egberts fire station, including fire truck, ambulance, and bomb squad truck, and getting to aim and spray the actual fire hose. So fun.

And while I'm remembering I need to get this down - our babysitter experience on Halloween. We came home at around 9:30 pm and the babysitter was sitting between the girls watching a Barbie movie (I'd told her 8:00 for bed) seeming to enjoy it more then the girls. Justin was asleep on the staircase. And Mia was screaming in her crib, totally naked. I've never had this happen before. I really couldn't stop laughing at how funny it all was. The babysitter seemed totally oblivious to it all. I probably will ask her to babysit again, just most likely during the daytime...

I, of course, took NO pictures while I was in Utah. Not a single one. I will post Christmas morning pictures eventually. I did take a few of those.

Christmas Letter 2009

Here's what I sent out to most of the people I care about. But you only get a card from me if you don't live near to me. And I sent this out on printer paper cut in half and shoved into an envelope with a picture of the family, of which I can't find to put on this blog. I felt conflicted about my Christmas cards this year. On the one hand, I sent one out. On the other, it was the bare minimum. Nevertheless, here is my reflection on the year:

During this Christmas season we are so grateful to reflect back on the previous year and to reconnect with so many of you. We are especially grateful for the knowledge of the Gospel, for the birth of the Savior, and for the ability that we have to return to live with our Heavenly Father again. A quick update on the Egberts:

Ashley, 7, is a beautiful, bright, and helpful girl. She loves art, piano, school, and playing with her sisters. She is most grateful this year for our dog Friday.

Katelyn, 5, is full of energy and joy. She loves art, piano, gymnastics, webkinz, crafts, and making forts for her siblings. She is most grateful to have started Kindergarten this year.

Justin, 3, is an outgoing, loving, energetic, and handsome boy. He loves bikes, Lightning McQueen, playdates, wrestling, and candy. He is most grateful to have started pre-school this year.

Mia, 2, is spirited, happy, and well-loved. She loves Dora, babies, and keeping up. She is most grateful to have gotten tubes put in her ears so she can hear and talk.

Hans is busy with his dental practice and the day-to-day of that. He competed in his first triathlon, hiked to the top of Pikes Peak, and makes time to play Frisbee and basketball weekly. He is most grateful for family and friends. (After I sent this out Hans changed his mind and said he is most grateful this year for his new motorcycle. So I'm sorry to you friends and family who he was ALMOST most grateful for. You were so close.)

I am busy with the day-to-day of raising 4 children. I ran 2 half-marathons (one in Hawaii!!), my first full marathon, hiked to the top of Pikes Peak twice, got diagnosed with Celiac disease, and certified to become a yoga instructor. I am most grateful for my health.