Living with the elderly

My dear, sweet husband is OLD! He turned 30 today and is in disbelief that his twenties are now behind him and a whole new decade awaits him. Today he got up with the kids at 7:45am and let me sleep in until 9am, isn't that sweet? Not that I plan on letting him sleep in on my birthday (there are some things that just can't be bargained with) but I paid him back by taking him to lunch at Goodwood BBQ. Because Jeremiah loved Steve's remote control helicopter that he got for Christmas, I went out and got him one today. I know, it seems a bit childish, but give him a break. Turning 30 has brought out the inner child in him, trying to revive any sense of youthfulness left in him. But I love him all the same, happy birthday honey!

I found this picture among some slide's that my sister-in-law is converting to photos. If I find more to embarrass him, you know I'll be posting those too. I have some of his birthday today but those will have to wait until I can download them onto our computer at home.

A blog to get you through the holidays...

Just a few days before the big holiday rush that keeps us way too busy, so this is really my last chance to get some good old fashioned blogging in.

I realize I never blogged about Thanksgiving, and I really wanted to share how much I enjoyed our little holiday. My parents, Carissa, Adam, and their kids all came to our house for Thanksgiving, and although we missed some integral parts of our extended family, we had a good time. Mom, Carissa, Dad, and I spent most of the morning making a great Thanksgiving dinner, and the timing was perfect because we ate while the kids napped and then fed them when they woke up. I finally got to see "Twilight", which I didn't love, but it was fun to watch and even more fun to actually have a girl's night out. We didn't pull a crazy and go out early on Friday, but we were out of the house by 10am and onto the madness that I love so much. With Jack around it meant keeping a closer eye on Aubrey, but in a really cute way. He was mesmerized by her, and was the first to run to her if she started to cry. He is going to be such a good big brother! My family left Saturday (the Poyfairs) and Sunday (my parents), and it really made me sad. I love being with my family, and seeing them is a reminder of how much I love and miss them. It was really hard to say goodbye. Even my children, especially Roman, had a hard time when everyone left. We can't wait to see everyone again!


It wouldn't be a family get together without some good wrestling matches. Poor Jeremiah was largely outnumbered.Dad was secretly excited that my only apron was a pretty pink. I had to catch him off guard in order to get his picture (there's nothing wrong with a man in pink, right?!). I love the placement of the onions.Our childless Thanksgiving dinner. Notice the plasticware? Apparently gathering at the only Hjelm household without a dishwasher wasn't the best idea, but who am I to complain? The boys tackled the dished afterwards!My dad napping with Aubrey. It was really cute, they took turns snoring.
Olivia and Jack and Jeremiah...I think they're watching Kung Fu Panda. Aren't they cute?Roman, Hayden, and Olivia getting ready to eat their pumpkin pie. You can see Jack abandoned his after eating the whipped cream. I'm pretty sure the others did exactly the same thing.Aubrey was so spoiled with everyone around taking turns holding her.

Here are a few random pictures of our sweet little girl...



Aubrey loves her swing. We spent quite a bit on batteries each month, but the cost is so worth it. She takes great naps in her swing, and if you look close in this picture, she can see herself in the mirror above her. She loves to look at herself (isn't she so vain?!) and talk into the mirror. In fact, she just loves mirrors. It must be a girl thing.

A few weeks ago, Roman had rotavirus. By the time we took him to the doctor's, he was over the worst of it. Little did I know that Aubrey had caught it. The day after Roman's doctor's visit, on Tuesday morning, Aubrey started throwing up and, soon after, the bad diapers started. I took her into the doctor's three days later, found out she'd lost half of a pound (we joke that she was trying to lose some weight after hearing she was in the 90% for her weight at her 2 month checkup), but since she wasn't dehydrated there wasn't a whole lot the doctor could do. Rotavirus just needs to run its course. However, by Saturday evening she had not had a wet diaper all day and when I let her cry for a good five minutes or so, she could not produce tears. The on-call doctor told me to bring her to the emergency room. We checked in at 10pm at the ER, where they tried to have her drink Pedialyte, but because she refused it and her blood levels showed she was borderline dehydrated, they decided give her in IV and to admit her. She was dehyrated enough that the nurses were having a hard time finding a vein to put the IV in, and my poor girl cried so hard that I had to leave the room, I couldn't handle hearing her in so much pain. At 4am we finally got into a room on the pediatric floor of the hospital. Our pediatrician dropped by around 8am, and told me that once Aubrey could hold down some formula that we could probably go home. I was all for waking her up and seeing what she could hold down, I'd only had 1 1/2 hours of sleep, but it wasn't until 11am that she held down some formula, and we weren't released until about 1pm. It was a long day, but she gradually got better over the next 24 hours and now is fully recovered. Thanks to everyone who called to see how she was doing and prayed for her recovery!



Aubrey usually sits in her carseat in the kitchen with me when I'm cooking dinner. She's my chef-in -training. However, with her being sick I had a towel under her in case she threw up. I was apparently not that interesting because she fell asleep rather quickly into our dinner preparation.

This is Aubrey at the hospital. It looks like she's wearing a cast, but they had to wrap her arm where the IV was to keep her from pulling it out. The room we were in was part of the new addition to the hospital, including a plamsa screened TV (not that I watched any of it) and a fold out couch that was 10 times better than the one Jeremiah slept in after Aubrey's birth. The nurses were really nice to me, even bring me lunch because they knew I didn't want to leave Aubrey alone. A charity group had donated some knitted caps and Aubrey received one, it's a cute little hot pink skull cap with white hearts. It's a little bit but I love it.

On Monday, the day after her hospital stay, Aubrey was in better spirits. I caught her on camera talking. She is a huge talker! She talks in her swing, she talks while I'm changing her diaper, she even talks when I'm trying to feed her at 3am. Hopefully you can hear her, Roman is talking in the background too.

Tonight we took the kids to the Toledo Zoo's Lights Before Christmas. We had free admittance with our zoo membership and knew the kids would love looking at all the Christmas lights, even if we didn't love freezing ourselves silly. I was ready to leave before we even got through the gates, it was only about 24 degrees outside, but there was no stopping the boys from running around like kids in a candy shop looking at all the lights. I think Jeremiah was the only crazy not drinking hot chocolate there (he hates hot chocolate, who knew that was even possible?!) but I was all for getting myself a large cup, it was only $2.50 but I would have paid quite a bit more, it was that good. Or maybe I just loved it because it was really hot and I was really cold.

Here we are! Roman is throwing a fit because we made him sit in the stroller and Aubrey is hiding under a pile of blankets. And I learned that I need a winter hat. My ears about fell off they were so cold!

Just before we left we saw this light show, it was set to Christmas music. At first, it was the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but by the time I began filming it was cheesy...I mean classic... Christmas music. I love this video because the boys are just sitting there smiling at me, they think I'm trying to take a picture. Enjoy!

By the way, Hayden says the funniest things! Today we were up in our bathroom and he pulled out my conditioning mousse, Hayden sees me use this every day when I get out of the shower. He hands it to me and says, "Here Mom, you need to use this because your hair just doesn't look wonderful right now." Thanks alot, Hayden!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

The catch-up before the catch-up

What? A post with no pictures?!

So with my laptop's sudden demise, I'm now using our old PC (I know, so 80s!) which is great, my brother-in-law built it for us a few years ago and it works great, but I'm sort of computer-stupid and can't figure out the software to allow me to download our pictures from our camera. So until Jeremiah can peel himself from studying for finals, I thought I'd at least post a little catch-up.

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, we had a lot of people in not a whole lot of space, but the coziness was inviting, especially since it was my family that I love and miss so much (well, part of my family, the rest are slackers and stayed home!). I'll post pictures and more detail in a few days.

Aubrey had her 2-month well child appointment on Monday. She is 12 lbs 8 oz, putting her in the 90% for her weight...yeah, she's a chunk. Although I think she took all our joking of her weight literally, and that afternoon started having horrible diapers (want details?) and throwing up most of what we fed her. By Thursday she'd lost half of a pound and it was determined that she had caught Roman's rotavirus. Now you can't say timing isn't everything, she got the rotavirus immunization on Monday, but by then she'd already picked it up, Roman was just getting over it on Monday! How sad to see my little girl throw up, her cry afterward is so pitiful, all I can do is hold her, even though I usually have throw up all over me while I'm comforting her. Since she usually throws up the most during her early morning feedings, I've had to change my pajamas and undergarments several times in the dark before going back to bed. However, she has been sleeping pretty well. This morning she woke up at 6:45am, I was impressed. She must love me.

Things Aubrey loves:

• Her swing. There is a mirror above her, she just stares at herself. She must know how pretty she is.
• Getting her diaper changed. We get the biggest smiles during this time.
• Being held. If we put her down she gives us a dirty look and then proceeds to cry.
• Being swaddled. Another big-smile moment, because she knows it's bedtime and by then she's usually pretty tired.
• Her brothers.

Things Aubrey hates:

• Baths. Who's child is this anyway? My kids LOVE baths!
• The carseat. Traveling anywhere isn't a whole lot of fun.

The boys are really good with her. They are quick to find her binky if she's crying or offer her toys. Roman is especially prone to sharing even his favorite toy, including his lovey, with Aubrey. It's really cute. Hayden loves to sing to her and they fight over who gets to hold her. Their first question when they wake up is "Where's Aubrey?" I love that they love her so much.

Jeremiah is surviving. We don't see much of him during finals, except during meals, and even then all he can talk about is his study schedule, how he's going to remember everything, and spouting off random law information like the rest of us really care (or understand what he's even talking about). He's even mumbling definitions in his sleep! I'm just excited to get some naps in when he's done with finals. Of course, we get to see him too, and I'm excited for that, but naps sound really good right now.

I'm surviving too. The doctor told me on Thursday that I have asthma, so I'm on in inhaler and medicine, she said there was wheezing in my lungs which is causing my persistant cough. Hopefully this clears it up because it's really obnoxious to have Aubrey asleep finally only to have me start suddenly coughing and wake her up. Speaking of sleep, I'm off to bed!

Elmo Live!

So Hayden's preschool teacher, Ms. Christine, is very "green". She was given a grant this year through BP Oil to teach her students about recycling and the environment. Hayden's learned about solar energy, compost, gardening, recycling and such and the classroom has added a dishwasher, moving from disposable tableware to plastics that can be washed.

Well then weren't we lucky that Elmo Live came to Toledo, and the title was "Elmo's Green Thumb." So perfect for what he's learning, right? The preschool director negotiated with the ticket sales and got us discounted tickets to the show. I couldn't pass it up, I knew both the boys would have a blast seeing a live performance from Elmo and his friends.

Waiting for the show to start. They were so excited!!!

I promise my camera is high-quality...unless of course I use it to take pictures in a dark auditorium. This is when Elmo first came on stage, the cheers were so loud, it was like the equivalent of Miley Cyrus entering a teenage-filled auditorium. He's a superstar!

So the story is that Elmo has a "friend" (the sunflower) and he wants to find a special place to plant the flower. Abby Cadabby accidently shrinks all of them, and they wander around Big Bird's garden and learn about bugs and plants, and Elmo figures out where to plant the sunflower. Of course Hayden didn't catch all this, he was more concerned about whether he would be able to meet Elmo in person, which of course he didn't, Elmo only visited the kids in the very front row (who paid like a gazillion dollars to be there). Poor Hayden!

Here they are dancing to a song. They were the only kids in our area dancing, they got a lot of smiles and laughs from parents who probably wished their kids were as cool as mine.

Of course I was also one of those "mean" moms who didn't buy my kids any of the super-expensive Elmo items being shoved at us from every angle ($8 for a coloring book?!). I hated the poeple in front of me who just had to buy their little girl the $10 life-sized Elmo balloon, it totally defeated the lie I told my kids that the balloons weren't for sale. But they got to look at it (and probably tried to steal it) and luckily they didn't throw any fits. Such grateful children I have!

A Blessed Day(s)

Here is my attempt at catching up on my blog...

We went to Utah for my brother's wedding a few weekends ago. The plane ride there consisted of:

• A grumpy couple sitting in front of Roman, Aubrey, and me (their first comment was "How long is this flight?" I had to laugh...boy, were they in for a fun ride!)
• Aubrey acing her first airplane ride, she ate in the beginning and slept the rest of the way. If only they other kids were so easy.
• Grumpy man yelling at Roman and me because Roman kicked his chair in excitement. This was after at least 2 hours of the flight, I thought Roman had been well behaved.
• Me crying because grumpy man yelled at us. Normally I would have said something to defend us but being a tired, overemotional new mom, all I could do was cry. In my defense, I did say "Look, I'm trying my best" but I left it at that. I was a little afraid of grumpy man.
• Hayden sat by his cousin Olivia, they did pretty well. Carissa gave me some great ideas for activities for our flight to Utah in December (yup, we get to go through this all over again in less than a month!).

Steve picked us up at the airport, we visited with his family a little bit in Lehi, and then made our way to Provo where we were staying at my mother-in-law's house. It was great being back in Utah, I couldn't keep my eyes off the mountains!

Friday was a busy day. I got my haircut with Destiny, Jeremiah convinced me to get bangs, I'm still getting used to them. I'm not sure I'm going to keep them. Destiny and I then met up with everyone for lunch at Brick Oven, and of course I got their salad bar. Lunch was chaos with more kids than adults, only in Utah right? I got to wave to Celeste and her family, Stina and her family, Mom, Dad, Grandma Betty, and Aunt Cathy from across the table, not a whole lot of conversation, but it was nice to be in everyone's company. It was great to see Celeste, Bryan, and their kids again, it had been almost a year and I didn't eve recognize Cole! All Hayden and Roman could talk about the whole vacation was their cousins. After at attempt at giving the kids a nap (laughable considering we only had an hour) we met up with the family for pictures. Nothing says fun like family pictures with kids sans naps. Our photos were taken by Andrea Hanks, who by the way is an amazing photographer. I'll hopefully post those pictures later. And then just to add to the one-thing-after-another-theme, we went straight there to PF Changs for Kory's wedding dinner. Could he have picked a better place? Everyone had a great time, we even coaxed my uncle Lorrin to propose a toast to Kory and Ana Lee. Despite no naps, the kids were pretty good, even though Roman and Bryce, two peas in a pod, ended up knife fighting with their butter knives and later with their chopsticks. At least they were doing it in fun (because apparently "fun" is trying to stab your cousin, right?). We got back to my mother-in-law's in time to hang out with our niece Cecile and Steve, Mel, and their kids for a little bit. I even snuck out and went to Walmart with my mother. I felt like a traitor, I really wanted to hit up SuperTarget while I was in Utah, but my mom insisted on Walmart since it was closer. I caved, but I missed SuperTarget.

Here's Kory welcoming everyone to PF Changs.


Roman sat next to me and Bryce at dinner. He loved the food (more proof he's really my son!) and he had a great time with Bryce.

Hayden acting silly with Rix and Olivia. They had so much fun with their cousins.

We were really excited for Aubrey's blessing. Celeste's mother-in-law gave us a blessing dress for her to wear, it is absolutely gorgeous and I was beyond excite to show her off to everyone. The dress even came with a little bonnet, I couldn't get over how beautiful she was. The blessing was held at Steve and Mel's church in Lehi, and we were so grateful for everyone who was able to drive out for the event. Sadly Kory got held up with last minute wedding errands and couldn't make it, this would have been the first baby of mine whose blessing he would have been able to participate in. Aubrey was quiet during the beautiful blessing that Jeremiah gave her, and afterwards everyone hung out for a light brunch (thanks Stina for the exotic fruit salad!). After a quick lunch at McDonalds, we drove up to Salt Lake for Kory's wedding. To add to the stress of the day, there was a huge traffic jam just past the point of the mountain, and I feared they were going to start the wedding without us. We dropped the kids off at the playroom where Celeste's mother- and sister-in-law were watching all the kids and walked as fast we could without appearing rude. The wedding was beautiful, it reminded me of my own wedding day and the things that were told to us then. Ana Lee was beyond gorgeous and I thought that although I don't know her super well, I know her well enough to love her and to be excited she is now apart of our family. After some quick pictures (quick because we had several children who needed naps), we headed to Lorrin and Wendy's to give the kids a nap, even though with our luck they didn't actually nap, and neither did we because their dogs were too excited to have new people trying to lay on their couch. Then, as quick as we got there, we got ready for the reception and left again. The reception was held at Le Jardin, and I didn't quite know what to expect but I loved it. It looked like a fancy greenhouse with fountains and tables with chairs, and a ton of plants and flowers. There was a chocolate fondue table that served as our dinner (best dinner ever!) and the kids loved running around the stone paths and, of course, splashing in the fountains. We weren't sure how long the kids would last, but they were in a bit of heaven with their cousins, and we stayed for most of the reception. It was difficult to leave, it isn't often I get to see any family or friends and I knew that by leaving it would mean not seeing them again for a long time. Even going back in December doesn't guarantee I'll see everyone, and that was really depressing for me.



Aubrey just after she got dressed. It took two people (thanks Destiny!) to get her in her dress because it was so long, but isn't she gorgeous?!

My adorable dad with my Grandma Hjelm. I was so excited to see her there, I didn't know she and my aunt Denise and uncle Kurt would be there, thanks for coming guys!


I love this look. It's like she's tolerating her dress, but she was too cute so I kept it on as long as I could.


Proud mommy (like the bangs?) with her pretty baby.


The bride and groom, don't you love her dress?! My sister in law is gorgeous!


Ew, who took this picture? We don't want to see that!

Who's that handsome man next to Ana Lee (no, not Kory!). Although Kory was quite handsome himself. This is a picture of all the best men, Jeremiah, Bryan, Adam, and another Jeremiah (yeah, that got confusing).


Rix, Olivia, Roman, Hayden, and an attempt at getting Jack into a picture. They were adorable in their little wedding outfits, except I really ought to invest in some black socks for my boys.


This is the only picture I could find of Aubrey in her dress, so you'll just have to take my word for it that she was, as usual, beautiful.


Our family photo.



In what looks like a big family photo of Adam and Celeste (ha ha!), there is Rix, Olivia, Roman, Hayden, and Bryce, with Jack and Cole being held. If only Aubrey was present, the picture would be complete.

The plane ride home was better for me, at least no grumpy man, and because the flight wasn't full Aubrey had her own seat next to me. Hayden again sat next to Olivia, and Roman and I scoured the Sky Mall magazine looking for toys. Let me just point out that this airplane had no diaper changing station, it was an adventure changing Roman without one, especially because he kept reaching to flush the toilet, making it that much more difficult. Hayden, however, was terrified of the airplane bathroom and later had an accident because he refused to use the bathroom. He's never had an accident before, so of course his first one would be on an airplane.

Bad, Bad Blogger

I was doing such a good job updating my blog, and then I turned into a blogging slacker. Actually, I have good excuses. Not only have I been busy being a mom of three, which really does take a lot of my time (and it's fun to use Aubrey as an excuse for as much as possible), but my own laptop has competely crashed on me, and I only have internet access when Jeremiah is home and not using his computer for school, which is really not that often. Thus the reason for no pictures yet. I need to redownload them onto Jeremiah's computer, hopefully I can do that Sunday. I just didn't want you all to think I completely abandoned my blog, since I know you all live your life just to see what we are up to =)

Also, I completely spaced announcing who won delicious chocolate for guessing Aubrey's birth date. No one guessed October 10th, but four people guessed the day before or after, which is close enough. So, Ana Lee, Carissa, Melissa, and Jen are all going to pack on the pounds since I'll be sending them my favorite chocolate...Ritter Sport (for those of you who don't know this deliciousness, you are missing out).

Photo Randomness

Here are a few photos that I've taken over the last few days, partly to prove that I dress Aubrey in clothes other than pajamas - even though in my own defense, her pants and onesies don't exactly fit her yet, at least the pajamas don't fall off her when I pick her up =)

Not only does Roman prefer pink over all other colors, but it is also difficult to keep him from my make-up bag. At least he doesn't quite understand the purpose of eyeliner yet (or guyliner, right Bryan?!).

Aubrey's first Sunday. She is wearing a dress that a friend gave us and a purple headband that I made five minutes before we left for church. I know, it looks pretty cool and I'm way talented, but in all fairness, Carissa taught me the fine art that is headband-making.

Aubrey in her pink hoodie. I love it.

She is kind of fussy, almost to the point where I wonder if she might be colicky. Today I put her on her tummy to see if that would help her, and she fell asleep almost immediately. While making Jeremiah's lunch, Roman gave Aubrey her binkies and his telephone toy. I had to take a picture since he put the phone up to her ear like she had actually received a phone call.

Rick or Reat!!!

According to Roman, my title is the proper way to ask for candy on Halloween. If it were Hayden, it would be that awful rhyme, "Trick or treat, smell my feet...." and so on. We had to explain to him that people aren't inclined to give him candy when he sings that to them. Luckily our conversation sank in and he was back to the traditional trick or treat, thank you for the candy, and happy halloween phrases soon after.

Here are some pictures from our eventful night (which by the way, the kids were so excited to go that they refused dinner).

Aubrey was, you guessed it, a pumpkin. By far the cheapest costume, the shirt was at the dollar spot at Target, the pants are on loan from Olivia, and the hat was on clearance at Toys R Us. Today was also a special day because she wore a bow in her hair for the first time. Now I'm obsessed with bows and am anxious to get to the craft store for more ribbon.

Hayden, for some reason, chose to be Harry Potter. He only knows Harry Potter through my XBox game that I rarely play, so I'm thinking he learned about this through preschool. Anyway, the robe at the costume shop was $20, but we found a dracula robe for $6 at the craft store so we improvised. I think he's adorable, and if the doctor ever says he needs glasses, I won't hestitate because he is so cute in a dorky kind of way with his glasses on huh?

Finally, Roman was an elephant. With his obsession with the animal, I couldn't refuse Old Navy's costume, and luckily I even got it on sale. He couldn't stop looking at himself in the mirror.

Afterwards, the kids had a quick bath followed by dinner - yogurt and pumpkin cookies (I know, I know...crown me mom of the year!) and they went to bed. Sadly, we had no trick or treaters...not so sadly, we have a big bowl of Reese's peanut butter cups just for us!

Pumpkins

We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday up in Michigan (again, for those of you who think we traveled a long distance for pumpkins, the Ohio-Michigan border is seriously like a mile away from our house). I did some research online and found one that sounded like fun. This pumpkin patch had a little haunted house for the kids, tons of pumpkins to choose from, hot apple cider (which really was the reason I went), and little activities for the kids, including a tunnel created with hay. The kids loved looking for a pumpkin, of course they tried to grab the largest ones, but we were able to convince them that smaller pumpkins were just as cool. We didn't stay long, it was freezing outside and the wind made it worse. The kids still had a blast and were so excited for their pumpkins.

We decided to have the kids paint their pumpkins instead of carve them. Call me crazy, but carving pumpkins with my kids is an accident waiting to happen, and paint is so much safer. I found finger paint at Toys R Us, thinking it would be easy to paint with. However, the paint turned out to be more of a gel, so I pulled out my craft paint and prayed they didn't get any paint on the floor (am I lucky or what, they didn't). I almost want to have them paint pumpkins more often, they worked quietly for almost an hour...even Jeremiah got into the groove and painted Aubrey's little pumpkin.

Hayden loved painting. He was so impatient as we cleaned out the inside of the pumpkin. Jeremiah really wanted roasted pumpkin seeds. Note to self - next year, buy the stupid seeds. It took us forever to clean out those pumpkins.

I love this picture because of Roman's face. He is concentrating so hard on his painting. It was a very serious project. And any time he got paint on his hands he'd freak out. I was standing by with a baby wipe throughout most of the process just to wipe down his hands. If you notice, though, he didn't seem to mind paint on his face.

Jeremiah's pumpkin. Apparenly Aubrey was his muse. So was her binky.

Hayden with his pumpkin.

Roman with his pumpkin. No he's not trying to be a pirate, he's saying "cheese".

Sidenote- these are important pumpkins. I ran outside in the rain today to save them from getting all wet. And you know how much I hate the rain.