Shannon Yee

So, I put Thaddeus down on my bed for a few minutes to brush my teeth and Josiah was in his room getting dressed. Eila was in the living room singing (very loudly) on the coffee table. Thad, of course, started crying within a few seconds and Josiah responded with “Eila stop singing; Thaddeus doesn’t like it.” Josiah continued yelling at Eila to stop while Thad continued crying and Eila continued singing. It was very loud and a little comical as each child was in a different room making themselves heard throughout the house. Fortunately, it only lasted for a very short while. Now, we’re off to play outside and have a dance party while we play baseball.

I had a lapse of good parenting judgement today. Josiah has suddenly decided that he’d like to wear undies instead of diapers and is doing so. When we were playing outside and he needed to take care of business, I let him just go in the grass rather than taking him inside. Unfortunately, Eila thought that seemed like a great idea and before I knew it she was joining him and then there were two naked kids running around the yard. They quickly got on their bikes and escaped to the front yard streaking down the sidewalk. Our neighbors found them very amusing along with my attempts to corral two very naked kids back home.

This is what Eila yelled to me a few minutes ago as she was watching Care Bears in the basement. I came up to figure out what to make for dinner and didn’t get very far when I heard her crying and hollering for help.

Since this is very uncharacteristic during TV time, I quickly checked on her to see that Professor Coldheart was up to no good and Eila was cowering, but unable to turn her eyes and look away from the screen. “Turn it off!” she demanded desperately so I obliged.

This was the second DVD I put in for her as the Disney Princess Party cartoon was far too frightening and it was just the first song. Needless to say, Eila is a little bit scared of many things right now including but not limited to cartoons (and wind – especially thunderstorms, but who can blame her after we were picnicking with several friends during a storm a few weeks ago where she went completely nuts with fear.)

After about a month of constant help, I ventured into the world with all three kids and it is a lot like adjusting to two kids for me. The hard part is not having a new baby, but the same other kids who have a slightly more tired mom with a little less patience and reasonable, logical thinking. A continuation of pregnancy sort of, except that I’m more comfortable physically and can take the baby out if desired…

Today I’ve only had all three kids for a short while and yet still I’m thinking that three is two too many. I’ll keep #3 and lend out the others to any adventurous and brave soul who will take them… ;p

In just three hours, #2 has succeeded in clogging the toilet with an entire roll of toilet paper – unrolled and shoved in, throwing a ball and racket at #3, smothering #3 with a blanket, waking #3 from a sound sleep by screaming as loudly as possible over and over, spitting all over #1 and the table, breaking a doll house and making #1 cry, taking over everything that #1 has and infuriating her. He has also eaten, read books, jumped on the couch and laughed a lot.

Child #1 has screamed and yelled at everyone, smashed her head into the wall, fallen off a chair AND table, tried to twist #2’s arm backwards, and kissed #3 more times than I can count. She has also sang and danced the entire time and changed clothes about six times. She did clean up her room too.

Edit (10 minutes later): The boys are sleeping and the girls are both calm and so glad that those boys are finally sleeping. They needed it!

I love Sundays. In our house, we try to keep them as a family day. Church can sometimes be a little busy since Brian and I often have to be there at different times with varying responsibilities, but today we were both just regular church attenders. On Sundays, I especially enjoy Brian helping with dinner and often making it all complete with grocery shopping since we are often out of food at this point. Today was no exception and he took Josiah to the grocery store with him, while Eila finished napping. We had family nap time and then went for a walk around the block enjoying the great outdoors. We all cleaned up together after dinner and then watched the space shuttle launch. And, Brian and I watched the end of High School Musical 3. It was a perfect lazy Sunday.

I had wanted to post my thoughts on my birthday about the previous year and hopes for the upcoming year… I had actually wanted to do that at the new year, but my good intentions didn’t amount to much.

I’ll try to keep this short and sweet, but since I am a woman of many words, who knows how much I will actually write.

I am very blessed in every way. I have a fabulous family (both immediate and extended, including my in-laws and step-family and all the others too!) My husband has a great job that he enjoys with relative security, given that we live in the worst-hit area economically. I have two healthy and bright kids. I am pregnant and love it. I cannot think of anything that I should be able to complain about.

So, for this year I really want to focus on being grateful and showing my thankfulness and contentment in all that I do. Practically speaking that means simple things like just expressing appreciation out loud or in writing more often. It also includes things like being more patient with my kids and showing satisfaction who they are now even when I don’t like what they are doing or it is messing up my plans. And I have lots of plans every day, but gracefully accepting the inevitable disruptions is a big part of being grateful, I think.

I guess even though I’m now in my thirties, I am still a work in progress and really not that much farther along in many ways than my two and four year-olds. I am thankful though that I get the chance to make some changes and grow each day.

I just can’t start again.

It seems like I just don’t have anything worthwhile to share and that I don’t have time to share what isn’t really worth posting in the first place…

So, all this to say, I’m going to read a book to my kids now and we just finished playing a rousing game of Chutes and Ladders followed by Memory. I was soundly beaten by my newly 4-year old daughter, who just got poked by her brother with a drum stick.

Merry Christmas! This is a great time to celebrate and remember that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born into this world and lived as we do, with lots of stresses and pressures, yet He was perfect. Then Jesus died for us and rose again, so that we could live with God forever – the way it was meant to be. We have been transformed by this good news and pray that God’s great love will change your life as well.

One way our lives are changing is that we are eagerly expecting another baby boy this spring. With two fun little red-headed children, the real question is what color hair will this baby have (although many people are wondering what we’ll name him, including his parents)!

Brian continues to work at ePrize doing web development and as manager. In his free time, he is still part of the Bell Creek Church worship band and also joined a guild for World of Warcraft this year. In the evenings, after dinner he often wrestles with the kids or plays some Candyland before reading them stories. He has redesigned his website and entered the twitter world. Most recently, he successfully undertook a number of home improvement projects. Strangely, he struggles to find time to shave and get a haircut.

Shannon (that’s me) continues to head up the MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) ministry at our church and was able to attend the International Convention in Dallas this fall. This was her first time away from both kids for an overnight and everyone survived! In addition to the exciting daily chores of laundry, cooking and loving on her family (which also means keeping them out of too much trouble – harder than it sounds…), she is also slowly realizing (finally!) that she is not perfect.

Eila is our fun, whiny, bossy and loving big girl – almost four years old. She loves to learn and read stories; she asks to do school almost everyday with Mom as her teacher. She also loves an audience and will tell a story or sing and dance, in costume, for any willing bystander. Eila has taken a wide variety of classes this year, like ballet, swimming, gymnastics, and Tae Kwon Do; she enjoyed each one and has a hard time deciding what to take next. She is very excited about her new baby brother especially since it meant that she’ll have a new bedroom all to herself.

Josiah is two years old, but not too terrible. He loves to climb, run, jump, hit and throw. He is very ticklish and laughs uncontrollably at just the threat. While Eila loves all things princess, Joe is a fanatic of all things Thomas or train-related. He always talks loudly and possibly even more than Eila, who he is ever trying to imitate. Despite some tough times due to food sensitivities, he is a fun if fearless little boy. He is really happy about the new baby and will show others where he has a baby in his tummy (or neck sometimes) too.

As a family, we were able to spend a couple of weeks this summer up north with our extended families. We also ventured on a camping weekend with some friends. We are really looking forward to our final trip this year to Phoenix to ring in the new year.

For all the latest info and pictures throughout the year, check out our family websites.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Love, The Yees