Disorganized chaos

We left all but one small bookshelf in Oregon, as well as the kids' dressers. They were ugly, beat up, and not in great repair, so we decided to just replace them once we got here. We're still working on that. As you can probably imagine, our house is not currently the most organized place on earth.  Clothing in our home spends most of its time in laundry baskets anyway (whether dirty, clean, or folded and waiting to be put away), so I am content to wait on the dressers a little longer. The books are largely hanging out unpacked in the garage, so I'll wait on the bookshelves, too. Somehow, though, we developed a toy problem. Toys never lived in dressers or bookshelves, and yet there is suddenly no where to put all these things.
We currently have all four children sleeping in one room while their toys occupy the bedroom across the hall. We started out with the older kids in one room and the little guys in the other, but first Sebastian moved over (because he was lonely without his big brother), and then we dragged Henry's bed in, too (because it seemed ridiculous to lavish that much space and privacy on an individual weighing less than 20 pounds. Also I don't want him to get used to sleeping in silence.) So now we have a room full of toys, and no organization for them.
Yesterday I learned something while playing hide and seek with the kids. If your six-year-old can lie down on the floor in the middle of the toy room and you can't find her, you have officially reached the point where Something Must Be Done.

Snow Days

 Last week we had two snow days. Isaac still had to work, but Lizzy had no school, and I don't think I will ever be comfortable driving in snow, (even the relatively small amount that we got). Honestly, I am a big wimp when it comes to being cold. I am pretty much done with winter by Christmastime. Playing outside all day, making snowmen and having snowball fights? Thanks, but I'll stay inside with the baby and keep the hot chocolate warm. Which is what I did while Lizzy and Barak made a snowman on our back patio.

 After that, I felt like our "play outside in the snow" requirement had been met, so we had to come up with other ways to entertain ourselves. We started out by unpacking a few boxes.

 We found the box with the wii in it, which allowed us a happy hour playing a dancing game which had the kids jumping around the room. I'll spare you the video I took.
We did a lot of reading. The kids and I are reading Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race against Time right now, and I recommend it. It's the second in a series that continues Ian Fleming's original story. (It's better than the original, though.)

 We did some workbook pages. Lizzy refused to do the one that was sent home from Kindergarten, because it was "too easy" so we let Barak do it.

 We did some simple crafts.

 And of course we made cookies. I've never made snickerdoodles before, so we thought we'd try it. They came out mostly pretty good, but so far all the cookies I've made in Oklahoma have been really dry. Nothing a glass of milk can't fix.

I had a very enjoyable couple of days. I think my kids are really funny, and creative and smart. I really like spending time with them. 

Übrigens: Henry is in love with his feet. He spends a lot of time playing with them and chewing on his toes. Completely adorable.

A random group of pictures

As I said below, I just added a ton of pictures to the computer, and in an effort to remember why I took them, let me share with you some of my favorites.

 Best buddies

 Barak has gotten really funny lately about thinking kisses are gross. So I kiss him extra.

 Henry is completely in love with my mom. He smiles and talks to her like nobody else.

 Sebastian got into a roaring contest with my dad. I wish I had taken a video, so that I could always remember how high he jumped when he heard my dad roar back. 

 I LOVE matching Christmas pajamas.

 Poor Ammon was so sick on Christmas. And yes, Lizzy is sitting on the couch reading with a headlamp. Because she's awesome.

 I really love these next two pictures, because they show what it was really like at Christmas. I feel like there is a lot of happiness in these pictures.

 Jamming with the one-year-olds

 Buddies

 Living without furniture or dishes for the first week proved to be a fun challenge. The kids are sharing one cup of hot chocolate, because we forgot to buy disposable cups, but somehow remembered the straws.

 Henry, with awesome hair. I hope it really grows in that way.

 Henry's first taste of food. He has done really well with solid food, though he would really like to feed himself. 

 This is from yesterday. I can't believe how big Henry is already. Life has been a little hectic the past few months (since he was born, really) and I'm worried that I'm letting his babyhood slip away without stopping to enjoy it. He really is a wonderful baby. Sweet and loving and mild. He likes everybody and is generally content as long as somebody is holding him or paying him a little attention. 

Kids behind the camera

I finally got around to putting my pictures from the last month or so onto the computer. As I scanned through them, I was able in part to re-live the last couple of days in our house (which SOLD, by the way! Hurray!), Christmas celebrations with the Jensens, Christmas with the Washburns, and the first week in the duplex we're renting here. There were a lot of pictures. I realized how blessed I am, to have had really good friends who helped me so much with packing and cleaning, to be a part of two really fun, really caring families, to have found a place to live here with plenty of space for us all... I really feel greatly blessed.
Scrolling through, I also discovered a series of pictures taken by my kids. Isaac and I were trying to tie up about a hundred loose ends as the truck with all our things was delivered, and a maintenance man showed up to replace light bulbs.  To distract our kids, I handed them the camera, and wound up with some beautiful shots, like this one:

I think that's Barak

A whole lot were like this, of Barak's "cool moves."

 Barak's feet

 A closer look at Barak's foot

 Lizzy's feet, in case you needed to compare

 More cool moves, while Mom and Dad do boring things, like sign up for school and health insurance

 The view out our back door

 Barak's hand

I  don't know, I think they're natural photographers, don't you?

Oklahoma!

Well, we made it. The truck came, our things have been unloaded (though not unpacked) and we finally have the internet. It's been quite a month. The journey getting here is worth its own blog post, but for now, I want to focus on my first impressions of life in Oklahoma.

• It's going to take me some time to get used to the water here. When it comes out of the tap, it swirls around for a while in a most disturbing way, before settling into clarity. It doesn't taste too bad... but it doesn't taste too great, either. 
• The weather is bipolar. The day we got here was sunny, but extremely windy. The next day was 60 degrees and gorgeous, and the following morning we woke up to snow which turned into ice and stuck around for a week. I am unable to discern any kind of pattern, and will just have to start trusting the weather man. 
• The wind is insane. It's like being on the Oregon coast, except, without the ocean. Or the beach. 
• It is DRY. Lizzy's poor hands might never be the same again. She applies lotion and goes to bed with gloves on, but in the morning her hands still look like they have lizard skin. I'm told the summer is just as humid as it now is dry, and I wonder, what will that do to my hair?
• People here are very kind. On our first Sunday at church, I think everyone in the entire ward introduced themselves, and we were invited to dinner that very night. That was a great blessing, because our furniture had not yet arrived, and we were getting tired of sitting on the floor. More importantly, we made some awesome new friends. 
• The grass is brown. And completely dry. In January. Weird.
• It is beautiful here. The sky really knows how to turn blue. I'm looking forward to spring when all the trees get their leaves. 

I'm sure there are more things I could mention, but It's getting late, and Henry is getting bored with the hairbrush he has been chewing on, so I will leave you with a picture of the Washburns NOT in Oklahoma. It was taken over Christmas, in Utah, but at least it has all of us in it.

As a special note, Lizzy was throwing up in a bowl on the side of the road right before this was taken. 

The List

Everywhere I go, whatever I am doing, there is a constant list running through my head. I am weighed down with "...mop the kitchen floor, vacuum, make the bathrooms not-gross, scrub the smudges off the wall, I hope our house sells soon, laundry needs folded, we're out of laundry soap, grocery shopping, prepare Sunday school lesson for my primary class, please somebody buy our house, call about that duplex listed on Craigslist, find someone to watch my kids while I'm at the doctor, when's the last time I fed the baby? what's for dinner tonight? start packing, clear space in the garage for packed boxes . . . "
As much as I would like to ignore all of these things and just play board games with the kids, the fact remains that we are moving far, far away, and time is running out. I feel a little stressed about it.
On the other hand, look at how cute they are:

Happy Sunday

Sundays can be hard, because we leave for church at around 10:30, and often don't get home until after 2:30. This makes it pretty impossible for Sebastian to get a nap. When this kid doesn't nap he can get pretty ornery. This week he was running around, being a little stinker, and earned himself a timeout. His timeouts are only two minutes long, but by the time it was over, he was fast asleep.