Home of the Sleepless Knights

  So when I was a senior in high school I did a report on this old fire station that is in Boise. It's cool because it is pretty old but it is still in use. So we went down to the station to research it and we found out that that stations nickname is "The home of the Sleepless Knights." It is right downtown, so naturally they have a lot of activity during the night. I remember thinking what a cool nickname that was and how these guys were so brave and noble, sacrificing their own sleep to help others. At that time I don't think I quite realized what it meant to go without sleep. I had never experienced having to get up multiple times in the night. Never really been woken from a deep sleep only to become a groggy sleepwalking zombie. But now I am part of the club. I have become a Sleepless Knight, and so has my noble comrade Kevin. And it is not so glamourous as I had pictured it in my mind all those years ago...

  As many of you probably already know, Calum is not the greatest sleeper. If we time it just right, when he is sleepy enough but not too sleepy he goes down great and stays down for a while, but that window of opportunity doesn't stay open long. On his good nights he still wakes up at least twice. Sometimes he is easily soothed by a pacifier or some milk. But other times he thrashes and screams for what seems like an eternity. We have tried to let him cry and tucker himself out when he does this but unfortunately it doesn't happen. He screams and gets more and more worked up until as a last resort we have to take him on a car ride to trick him into falling asleep. And with that, there is no guarantee that he will stay asleep when the car ride is over. So most of the time we try to prevent the hysterical point and get him back to sleep before that occurs. But like I mentioned we are not always successful. I asked the doctor what he suggested we do and he said "That's just how babies are, some are good sleepers, some aren't." Thanks for the advice doc. 

  That is during a typical week for the Foulger's. This does not include vacations, or illness. And lucky for us last week was a perfect storm of them all. As you may recall last week Calum and I returned home from babysitting in Utah. As expected Calum did not sleep well there, but we survived. But trying to get him back to his usual routine was the pits when we got home. He didn't want to go to bed and he woke up numerous times throughout the night. Then he got a fever Thursday night, poor kid, and was up constantly and couldn't go back to bed because he was hot and uncomfortable. I decided to take him in to the doctor the next morning since the weekend was close approaching and I didn't want to have to take him into instacare. So I took him in and he didn't have any other symptoms besides the fever. So they advised us to keep on keepin on and that it should go away. As you can imagine the next couple nights didn't go so well. Then come Sunday, his fever had broken but he had developed a rash all over his back, belly and neck. I called the on call doctor and they informed me that Calum has a virus called Roseola. Now grandma's don't fret. They said it isn't serious and normally goes away on its own. The good news is that his fever is gone and the rash doesn't seem to bother him. So he has actually started to get back into his old routine. Kind of. 

 So my question is how much longer?? I can't be a sleepless Knight forever!! It definitely wears on a person. lucky for us we have each other and awesome friends to help us out. One of my friends even brought us dinner because she said she knew how tired we'd been. Little things like that definitely mean a lot. We know that we are definitely being looked after and even though we may be a little sleep deprived we still get to spend each day with this cute, mischievous kid! And we wouldn't trade it for anything, not even a good night sleep.

What a stinker :)

My week as a mom of 7

Darcie, I decided that you are my hero. Taking care of seven kids is not an easy job! At all. I had an old pro with me this week and we were going going going all week long. I think that you are amazing! You love and take care of all your kids and manage to look cute and have fun while doing it :) I hope I can be as awesome as you some day. 

Yep I survived. Took care of my sisters kids last week and had a blast doing it. My mom had pity on me and decided to forgo her trip to Phoenix and spend the week with me and seven of her grandkids. I was grateful. I'm sure I could have managed on my own but with my mom there we were able to divvy up the chores, sleepless nights and dirty diapers. 

The older kids were a big help. The oldest is 13 and the youngest is only a couple months older than Calum. The older ones knew the ropes. They could translate for their younger sisters and were able to fill us in on their routines to make the day go smoothly.

Calum had a lot of fun being around his cousins. He did get beat up some though. The youngest of Darcie's clan was not used to having someone littler than her around so she played a little rough with him. She would try to pick him up (remember she is only about 3 months older), she would step on him, take his toys and get excited and hit him on the head. None of this is because she was being mean. She is the sweetest little girl ever. She is just used to playing with the big kids and was trying to teach Calum to hold his own.

Ride in Cinderella's carriage the night before Kevin left. They were doing them up at the temple for a fundraiser. The little girls loved it!! I of course had an allergic reaction to the horses and sounded like a man for the rest of the night. 

 Ramey's awesome Valentines box. 

My mom brought down a gingerbread house for them to decorate. They were so stoked. They didn't even care that they were decorating a gingerbread house in February :)

We had lots of fun with the girls. They painted my fingernails, helped write Valentines played cards and minute to win it games, did an obstacle course, danced, and of course did makeovers...

The older two girls did the little girls make up, they were so excited, they love dress ups, princesses and everything girly, so naturally they were excited to get to wear make up. They were so cute and held so still while the older girls beautified them. The older girls both told me that they wanted me to do their make up crazy. So I did and they thought it was fun. Then they did mine and got a little carried away! Haha. It was so funny. They were laughing so hard while trying to put make up on me,which made us laugh harder. Ashley was saying stuff like, "Don't worry, I'm a professional." It was hilarious. My mom then decided that she wanted in on the action so we did her make up too. We had a lot of fun with the girlies. 

I was so glad that I got to help out my sister while her and her hubby went on their first real vacation together in 15 years! Her kids are so amazing and fun and I loved getting to spend time with them. I also got to see some of my friends that live out around those parts, so that was fun. Kevin missed us lots and we were really glad to come home and get to see him and get back to life in Colorado. It was good to spend time with family I sure love and miss them.

Farewell to Lindsey

This week has been a good one. We fixed our car!! Thanks to Rod and Cathy for letting Kevin fix it in there garage so Kevin didn't have to lay in the snow to fix it. So that was a plus. But the most exciting thing is that we were able to make a trip out to Utah to visit family and play with cousins. Calum loves being around all the kids and his older cousins sure love him.

 Calum was not to sure about Squirt the turtle. He chased him around but still did a little anxious laugh when he got to close.

 It's not a party without reverse charades.

 We got to see Lindsey one last time before she heads out to West Virginia for her mission. We are so excited for her and grateful for her awesome example. Caleb is also headed out to Florida in May but we're hoping we'll get to see him again before he goes. But just in case we snapped a pic of him and Calum too :)

Another fun thing we got to do was go up skiing with Kevin's dad. And check out some of the events at the Dew tour. First time for us to hit the slopes this season. I didn't ski at all last season so I was excited to get up and break in my new skis. It was a good day. Kevin also got suckered into SKIING AGAIN with my brother-in-law and his kids. Such a hard life.

Calum and me are staying out here for a week to watch my sisters 6 kids while she and her husband go to the Caribbean. So I am sure I'll have lots of stories next week. Wish me luck!

Snow Days

So Denver weather is pretty much amazing. At the beginning of the week me and Calum went on a walk  and it was so warm that we didn't wear coats and we ended up taking off our sweatshirts. Later that very week we got so much snow that people pretty much bought out the grocery store, preparing to stay indoors for a days. Crazy. While most people got the day off, Kevin had to go into work at 4am to start plowing the parking lot at the temple. He worked a lot this last weekend. We were sad we didn't get to see him much but we're also grateful for his awesome job. As a result of all the snow, me and Calum stayed in a lot and I think he was kind of restless to get out. He would follow me a round all day long while I tried to get things done. He even managed to eat some raw onion chunks that I had dropped moments before. I swear he is part puppy, comes into the kitchen and just hovers waiting for me to drop some food so he can snatch it up. It works too. I pulled four pieces of onion out of his mouth! And he was just going to town, chompin away on em. They didn't seem to bother him at all even though they were making me cry like crazy while I was cutting them up. Crazy kid. And when he wasn't following me around he was knocking down lamps and shutting himself in the bathroom. I need to think of more ways to keep him entertained...

So this was our walk earlier in the week. He loved checkin out the ducks. I wish we had brought some bread. Next time.

I thought this was so funny. I came in Calum's room to find him sitting in this basket reading books. Silly boy.

Calum was a little hungry while we were trying to get this tie on him so that is why he looks grumpy. But I still think it's cute. Also I wish I had a picture of the awesome outfit Kevin put him in for church. It didn't quite go. Kevin even said so himself but he didn't want to take it off him because he was already dressed and ready. It made me laugh. Can't wait to see the outfits he puts on our future girls. Haha.

Tried to get a good picture of these kids watching the superbowl. This is the best I got. Calum just likes to move to much :)

Calum's first piece of Candy. He was in heaven! I know I'm a bad mom, but at least we brushed his teeth after :)

Trying to see if he fit in these shoes yet. Almost. They are still a little big. Also kind of heavy for him to crawl with. Might have to wait til he's really walking.

Which might be soon. He cruises around with this thing and pulls himself up onto everything. He also had a couple moments where he was standing without holding onto anything. Brief moments, but still, he's getting a little better each day. Yikes.

So there is a plethora of pictures for you to look at. I don't know what got into me this week. Calum is just too cute not to take pictures of!