Who let the kids out?

My kids learned a new song this week... They have been walking around all week singing "Who Let the Pigs Out!" then snorting like a pig - even Evie sings this.... It's hilarious and cute for about the first 5 minutes, then everyone starts looking at us funny and it gets old.... :)

Monday was President's Day and the girls had the day off school. Eileen has been itching to go to the library and the aquarium and the museum... well I thought I might have energy enough to conquer the library with 5 kids, so we set off. I didn't realize until after we arrived that they were closed for the holiday. So trying to do some quick thinking and trying to keep the kids from having a total meltdown, I noticed the mall across the street and thought the play area might keep them happy for a bit. We all had fun - we ran into some friends there and the kids had fun getting their wiggles out. As we packed up and headed out, I stopped for a minute to chat and Aaron wandered off, not realizing we had stopped. Thankfully our friends helped out with searching for him and we found him after a few minutes of mommy in a panic. He had headed towards the bathrooms, since he didn't really know which way we were going.

Our week went pretty normally, piano lessons, choir and school. We had preschool at our house on Tuesday, it was nice to start getting back into routines, and the kids loved having friends over. Thursday was a Chocolate themed Relief Society activity - It was nice to get out and eat junk food :) Plus the ladies there made sure that James was held and entertained the whole time - so it was nice to have a bit of a break.

The weather has been beautiful mostly - we had one day with a bit of snow, but mostly it has been sunny and warm. We have had fun playing outside and even had most of the windows open in the house on Saturday.

Saturday was kinda busy. I had a rehearsal for Stake Conference with for a musical number I am going to be part of. Also, a friend in our ward threw me a baby shower with yummy food and wonderful friends! We are now fully stocked on diapers for the next few months at least. We had a nice family home evening this week where we talked about our names and what they mean. We told the kids about the grandparents that they were named after and a little about those grandparents. Dan and I are blessed to have had the examples of some amazing grandparents and love to have the chance to teach our kids about their fore bearers. After talking about the kids' names, Dan asked them what his name was and where they thought it came from - our smart kids quickly figured out that his name was Daniel and he was named after the biblical prophet Daniel. When asked what my name was - the prompt response was.... "Mommy!!!"

On Our Own

Well with Dan's parents around for a few more days, we got a few more projects done. We now have blinds on one of our windows, a ladder up into the attic, a stand for our washer and dryer, some more food in our deep freezer, and a plan for our backyard. We sent them home exhausted, but we are truly grateful for their desire to help us make our new house a comfortable home!!

Valentine's Day was fun - we enjoyed celebrating together. Dan made us all heart shaped biscuits for breakfast. The girls enjoyed their school parties and the candy they got. And with some help from Ann, I made a giant heart cookie for Dan and cupcakes for everyone. LOL- well I'm no award winning cake decorator, but they were fun and yummy, and the writing is legible - which is good for me. :)


So now we start adjusting to life with out extra help. Thankfully I have the best hubby in the world who helps soo much!! It does scare me though when I think about all he does - I really don't know how I am going to manage when he has to go out of town in a couple weeks....

I am also amazed at how fast James grows - I can't believe he is almost 4 weeks old - he's almost out of the 0-3 month old size. He is getting better about sleeping at night - but still not quite where I would like him to be... he is usually ready to be awake around 5 am - which is a bit early for me - if we can adjust that to 6 - it will be about right for getting the kids off to school when Dan is gone.

Blessed

The title of this post has a double meaning this week. We are so blessed!! James has been a good, healthy baby - he sleeps well (just not always at night) and it is so fun to watch him grow and watch his older brothers and sisters love him. Evie has had a runny nose for the last week, so it was no surprise when James got a bit stuffy for a couple of days. He hated it, but he seems to be feeling much better now. In fact, I would say he is one happy baby! Dan was sitting and playing with him and coaxed a couple adorable smiles out of him!


Grandma and Grandpa Jones arrived on Thursday and have been keeping busy ever since. My dad arrived on Saturday in the midst of putting up lights in our upstairs rooms. The boys spent most of the day hanging light fixtures and ceiling fans in our three upstairs bed rooms and the main room - THANK YOU!!!!!!!! The house is so much nicer now! I think we exhausted my poor husband though..... Dan even took me out on a date to home depot to pick out the ceiling fan for the front room. Now we just need our blinds.... :)


The grandparents and the Bessendorfers gathered with us today to bless James. The kids loved being together for church. Eileen and Zoe were basically inseparable. Evie was talking the whole way there about "see Zoe? See Jacob?" She just loves them! We even managed to get them to stand together for about 3 seconds. :)


James was an angel during the blessing, he was quiet and alert the whole time. My mother-in-law took pics of the whole family, but I'm going to have to convince her to send them to me....


And of course my handsome little man. Evie heard me call him that and walked around for the next half hour calling him "little man."


Aaron and Evie have seemed to adjust so well to this new addition to our family, Eileen and Anna seem to have gotten a bit moody recently - I think that maybe this adjustment is getting to them a bit - I wasn't really expecting that, and I have been trying to make more of an effort to include them and show them how much I love them. They are such good kids and so helpful, but since they are at school most of the day, they don't get as much mommy time as the other two.

All in all - life is good - I am tired, and Dan is tired, but that kinda comes with the territory. I am surrounded by amazing people - both old and young - who love me and support me. I have children who shower me with sweet hugs and kisses and a husband who would run himself to the ground to take care of me and help me (though I try not to let him run himself that hard) How many women can say that the only time their husbands don't listen to them is when she is telling him to stop doing dishes and go lay down!

Adjustments

Well my baby boy is almost 2 weeks old now. It's amazing, but he has already grown! He's holding his head up more and is already starting to get bigger. The kids just dote on him - they love to hold him and play with him.

I still feel like I'm healing - go figure but an 8 lb 10 oz baby is harder on your body than a 7 lb baby. I thought I was up to a simple trip to Costco - but I was wrong - Dan keeps asking me if I want to get out of the house - usually this much time stuck in one place drives me nuts, but for now I am content to stay home and heal.

Aaron had his 4 year old check up this week (yeah - a month late was the soonest they could get us in) Dan took him (Dan took this week off work) when he got his shots - all he said was "owww!" He's such a brave big boy!! We also took him for his 4 year old pictures ( and by we I mean Dan) he had a blast - hamming it up for the camera - and he looks so handsome!

Eileen and Anna had Thursday and Friday off school - Friday would have been cancelled anyway for show - we got nearly a foot and a half - the kids had fun playing outside in it and Dan helped Aaron build a snow fort - Aaron mostly had fun knocking it down!

My mom went home on Monday - we were sad to see her go, and Evie spent most of the rest of the week looking for her and asking "where's grandma?" This week we have had to adjust to no Grandma - next week we get to adjust to Daddy being back at work, It's a good thing I have such good kids to help me!


Dan took me in on a date last night - knowing that going out wasn't really an option, he made me a wonderful fancy dinner right at home - a yummy steak, baked potato, and asparagus, plus candles and sparkling cider! I am married to the sweetest man ever!!

Welcome Home James!

Well after all my griping, last Sunday night once again saw me pacing around the house with some rather painful and regular contractions. Around 2 in the morning, I decided that they were regular enough, painful enough and not going away enough that we ought to head into the hospital. Unfortunately we chose a busy night at the labor and delivery department.... When we got there they took us into a closet sized room, with an uncomfortable bed for me and a small hard chair for Dan, we waited an hour or so before someone could get there to check me and see where I was at. I was between 3-4 cm dilated, they decided to wait a couple hours and check me again. Dan stretched out on the floor to try and sleep a little and i tried to doze between the contractions and the worry. Before the nurse came back, Dan had to leave to take the girls to school, while he was gone, she came back and found that I hadn't progressed at all. She said that they couldn't admit me. I explained to her that my labors go fast and that if these contractions weren't real, I wasn't going to be able to tell the difference when they started being real. She nicely told me that I could walk around the hospital if I wanted. Well, I still had to wait for Dan to be done dropping off the girls, so I went and walked around and had a bit of breakfast. I went back up to tell them I was going home and they informed me that they had changed their mind and that they were going to admit me and start some pitocin and get this going. The only place they had room for us was in the high risk area so the nurse was excited to have an easy delivery ahead of her. They started the epidural and the pitocin. The on-call doc came in to check on me and found that I hadnt progressed much and for the next couple of hours, I didn't see anyone but my hubby and my nurse. At this point a couple of residents came in and checked me and found me dilated to 8 cm. They set up the equipment and I started pushing. Less than 15 minutes later, we had a new healthy baby boy. Unfortunately for me the epidural was really mostly just working on one side, so I felt the whole thing. It was probably a good thing that they didn't let me hold him for very long before taking him to be cleaned and checked, between 36+ hours with out sleep and the fatigue of labor, I was shaking like a leaf. By the time I finally got to hold him, It was so bad that I threw up all over myself and him too, now of course with my stomach empty, it was even worse, plus they wouldn't give me and pain meds until they were sure I could keep it down.... Anyway, I finally got my baby boy - clean and healthy and all we had to do was wait for a room to move us into.

We have named him James Allen Jones, he was born at 3:34 on January 23rd weighing in at a whopping 8 lb 10 oz (making him my biggest baby yet!) and 20 inches long. He is a remarkably calm baby - he hardly fussed while they were cleaning him off, in fact he hardly fussed the whole time we were there.

Somewhere in all the insanity, my mom had arrived, she came by, as well as the family in the area to see us. Dan brought the other kids in to see him - Evie is just enamored with her baby brother and all the kids have been very sweet and helpful. We spent the next couple days sleeping, feeding and recovering, before coming home on Wed afternoon. I made the mistake of trying to jump back into life and found that I really needed to slow down and take it easy.



James has a bit of jaundice and we have been getting him poked to check him out for the last couple of days, but it's looking like all is well and he probably won't have to go under the lights. Now I just need to learn to put him down - it's just so hard when he's so sweet and snuggly!!

Still Waiting.....

Well after 3 days this week where I thought we might be heading to the hospital, it's a bit depressing to find myself still very pregnant. But despite some very strong and fairly frequent contractions, they eventually slowed and mostly stopped and here I am still looking and feeling like a beached whale.

I have been rather reluctant to venture too far from home for fear of finding myself too far from my hospital, so life kinda has felt like it's on hold this week. We have mostly been home bodies. A friend from church took the kids on Friday and let me have a bit of a day off, it was wonderful! The kids had a great time and didn't want to leave, after it seemed silly to drive home just to turn around 20 minutes later and go get the girls from school, so we went to the library for a bit and had fun reading and doing puzzles. Otherwise our week has been uneventful... Next week will be more exciting, I promise :P

Waiting

It feels like we are all just holding our breaths and waiting. We keep going about our every day lives - piano lessons, school, church, play, work, doc appointments - but behind it all there is a feeling of holding our breaths and waiting. The newest addition to our not-so-little family is doing his best to make his presence known. He kicks and wiggles all day and I wait somewhat impatiently - feeling like it could be any day now (of course maybe that's just all the pushing he does on my bladder...) The kids are excited - they are excited for Grandma Cox to come back out and excited to meet the new baby. (I say kids, but I don't think Evie has any clue what is about to happen.) We had some friends over on Tuesday with their new 1 month old baby - I spent some time holding her - and Evie would climb up with me and look and pat her head sweetly and was very gentle with her. But after about 10 minutes or so (longer than I expected) she looked at me and said "Put baby down!" very clearly. She liked the baby and was ok with mom holding the baby, but the baby's time with her mommy was over and it was her turn now.


In addition to all the waiting, this week we celebrated Aaron's 4th birthday. We hadn't even come close to getting rid of all the junk food from the holidays, and now we have more cake around our house. Dan made Aaron a race track cake with real hot wheel cars on it. He loved his clothes from Grandma Penny and his Spider Man toy from Mom and Dad (Dan feeling a need to get him a 'manly' doll) Happy 4th birthday little man!!! We LOVE you!

Finally, just a fun little picture of the girls all dressed up for church... maybe I should have waited to take the picture until AFTER I had done their hair all pretty, but really - when it comes to getting 3 who are smiling - you take what you can get and be glad. :) Plus - they are all wearing 'new' dresses. Eileen's is a new Christmas Present from Great Grandma Penny, Anna's is Eileen's old dress - but it's new to her, and Evie's is Eileen and Anna's old dress - but once again new to her.

Back to Life... Back to Reality

Well - the family has gone home, the kids are back in school and life is slowly returning to normal (at least as normal as it can get when I look like a beached whale and am about as useful....)

Tuesday we met Grandpa for lunch at a place called Holly West which I guess has been around and visited by my grandparents for MANY years. It was fun - but since (as usual with my family) we were running late, I had to drag the kids out early and before they were quite done eating to get the girls to their piano lessons.


Wednesday the female part of the family went to California Pizza Kitchen to have a little baby shower for me. I LOVE the food there (probably a good thing that the nearest one is over half an hour away....) and ate way too much with a stomach that is already being encroached upon by a baby - but loved the food, loved the time with family and loved having a no-kids lunch out!

Thursday was another doc appointment - not terribly exciting - it took all of 10 minutes for the Doc to measure me, listen to the heart beat and say I'm doing well. Aaron and Evie didn't even get to finish the snacks I brought for them. Thursday was also the family send off - they were wonderful about doing all the clean up from their stay so that it didn't create extra work for me - and even un-decorated and took down the Christmas tree.

Saturday Anna had a birthday party to go to for a friend from school. It was at a local pool - she had a BLAST - she loved playing with her friends in the water for a few hours - and since the only reason she had to get out was to eat cupcakes and pizza - she was happy. She didn't even complain when we had to go home!

A Testimony

Eileen is going to be turning 8 this year. Since her 7th birthday, she has been eagerly looking forward to her 8th birthday and the opportunity to be baptized. I talked with her earlier today about what it means to get baptized. I talked to her about the promise in the scriptures - Moroni 10:4 and how he tells us that if we want to know that the scriptures are really the words of God - all we need to do is read them and pray about it and the Lord will let us know. I explained that we would like her to listen to these words and find out for herself. She thought about that for awhile and then with some help from Dan, she wrote out her testimony and then got up to share her testimony during Fast and Testimony meeting at church. It was so sweet to see and hear her talk about her own knowledge of eternal truths.

...And a Happy New Year

We mostly spent our week recuperating and trying to get everything ready for house guests. We threw all the kids into one room and were actually able to get each family into their own room. We finished up Christmas Presents, cleaned house, and blew up air mattresses. The kids had a blast playing with their new toys and were entertained enough between that and the gorgeous weather to let Dan and I get everything done. (And still leave time for me to take a lot of naps.)

Family started arriving on Saturday morning - all the flights were delayed - so they were later than anticipated, but eventually they all made it safely. We got everyone settled, then headed over to Grandpa's house for Bagna Caulda and a bit of New Years Eve fun. Then we came home, put the kids to bed and got out the puzzle. :) Sandi and I mostly worked on our traditional New Years Eve Puzzle, while Dad wrapped presents and Dan and Jon browsed Netflix.

Sunday, I had a musical number during church and Sandi and I finished the puzzle. (Dan even helped some) :) And Dad and Grandma Penny wrapped more presents.

Monday I woke up with a bit of a head cold. I struggled through the morning, then finally gave up and took a nap...all afternoon. While I napped - the rest of the group went bowling. Of all the kids, Evie had the highest score... :) Haha - they used a ramp thingy and bumpers of course.


Grandpa Francone, Doug and Mark all came over for dinner and then we did our final Christmas Gift exchange. I love being able to spend time with family - and it's been such a blessing to have all our Colorado family around us and so much of the rest of our family gathered here with us. I am looking forward to a few more days with them. I'm not even so eager for the kids to start school again with them around :P

Merry Christmas

I need sleep.... after an exhausting couple of days, I am hoping to be able to take it a bit easy the next couple of days.... well maybe after we finish cleaning up from Christmas and after we get ready for company....

This week has been just insane. I looked at the calendar on my phone and we had things going on almost every day this week!! We started the week off by joining some friends for a Christmas Family Home Evening. We had a great time with friends eating treats and playing games and talking about the meaning of Christmas.

Tuesday was the kids last day of school - the girls were so excited about all their Christmas parties and crafts and such (and of course the candy they brought home from school.) After school we went to piano lessons. The girls both really seem to enjoy them and after a tough first week with Anna, I hardly have to pester the kids at all about doing piano lessons.

Wednesday, I had an ultrasound. My doctor wanted to double check on the baby's size and make sure that we had the right due date set. This was the latest ultrasound I have ever had, and it's funny how much more cramped the poor kid looks in there than he did last time. Also - the baby is head down and I'm starting to sit really low. Dan took the time off for the holidays, and we spent the rest of the day trying to get ready for Christmas.

Thursday was another day of getting things ready and cleaning and wrapping - lol - even when each kid is only getting a couple things, when there are 4 kids, it really adds up! I also had a doctors appointment (separate from the ultrasound with my normal doctor) I am down to appointments every week now - kinda crazy to think I'm that close!!! The doctor said I am doing fine and we sent an induction date for January 24th. So come rain or shine the baby will be here by then! Thursday evening we headed down to Great Grandpa's house (despite getting nearly a foot of snow that day) to go caroling. The kids had fun singing and ringing bells - and no - even with all that snow it really wasn't that cold - we bundled up in hats, gloves, scarves and warm coats and were just fine! We then had some yummy chili at Grandpa's.

Friday morning, we went out and looked at washing machines and dryers. We have been wanting new ones for awhile now - the old ones (and they are OLD - they were used when we got them, and the we got the washing machine when we were married over 9 years ago) We have also been having problems with the washing machine just stopping mid cycle - that makes it rather hard to get everything done!!! Plus with another kid on the way - we have really been wanting the extra capacity so that I don't have to increase the number of loads that we have to run each week. We found our new appliances and enjoyed snagging the holiday sales and are looking forward to a delivery next week! Friday also became a bit of last minute shopping day - Dan took the kids to the dollar store to get each other gifts - Aaron didn't quite understand the idea of getting stuff for other people - he just wanted to get stuff for himself. The girls had fun picking out stuff for each other - lets just say that a lot of glow sticks were involved....

Saturday and Christmas Eve were all about cleaning the house, and cooking food. This being our first time really hosting a holiday event in our new house, I was a bit anxious about everything going well and being perfect. For dinner, we headed down to Frank and Tina's for Bagna Caulda (Francone family tradition - yummy Italian dipping sauce....mmm) We had fun singing and eating and chatting and finally headed home to get the kids in bed...late...again.... which was then followed by Dan and I staying up even later stuffing stockings and setting up the Christmas stuff.

After a late bed time for us all - morning came very early!! We had church at 9 am and Dan and I had decided that we would let the kids do the stockings before church and then would do the rest after. The kids knew this and thankfully the only trouble we had with it was Aaron complaining most of the time about wanting to go home - but part of that was him being tired too. The kids didn't wake us up at the crack of dawn to open presents - in fact, we ended up having to wake most of them up. The kids had fun opening stockings and eating pop tarts and sugar cereals for breakfast. Evie was so excited about the pop tarts that as soon as she found them, she forgot the rest of her stocking and took them to the kitchen, blessed her breakfast and started eating. After church, we stuck around for a baptism that I had been asked to sing at. (Aaron's complaining was getting MUCH more frequent by this time) Then we finally went home to finish opening presents. The kids had a ton of fun, and were happy to spend the rest of the morning and afternoon playing with their new toys. Dan found a slot car set for Aaron and the boys had tons of fun setting up the track and racing cars. The girls got a bead set from Grandma and Grandpa Jones, and had fun making necklaces. Then some last minute cleaning and cooking and the company started arriving. We had a full house with Grandpa, Frank and Tina, Doug, Mark and Julia, Newell and Becky, and of course the kids belonging with above mentioned adults. Dinner was yummy and was followed by a semi-chaotic opening of presents. The kids loved their gifts and loved being with friends and family. And loved eating dessert. LOL - oddly enough, most of what the kids ate for dinner was the veggie appetizer tray we had out. Not going to complain when it's healthy though :P The girls each got one of these adorable dolls from my Great Aunt Joan, and have been carrying them around ever since.
Plans for next week? SLEEP, finish a few more Christmas Presents, SLEEP, Play, SLEEP, set up guest rooms, SLEEP!!!!!!

What am I most grateful for this Christmas?
My Savior, and the chance to think of him a bit more often.
My family, and getting to be surrounded by them during the holidays
Sleep....

Holiday Cheer

Well it is officially feeling like the holiday madness is begun. The kids are still in school until the 20th, but with all the holiday stuff going on (and the Christmas music on the radio) and the rush to finish presents and get them mailed off, life has been busy. We had Zoe and Jacob over on Thursday to play. The girls have so much fun together and Jacob is amazingly patient with 4 giggly girls. Dan treated him to a game of Stratego when he got home to help make amends. :)

Then Saturday the whole Bessendorfer family came over to help decorate Christmas Cookies and have dinner. The kids had lots of fun. Evie was only allowed to do one cookie because all she wanted to do was eat the cookies and the frosting. :) After, the kids went and watched the Grinch while the older people played a game together (which I WON - for once) :)


Sunday was our Church Christmas program. which included the choir singing - and so we had an extra choir practice on Saturday morning. Christmas seems like it's always about the music for me - but I LOVE Christmas music :) The program went well - then we had a Stake music fireside tonight where we sang again. It was fun to sing and see friends from the Peoria ward. Is it really only a week until Christmas??? Where did the month go? I wonder when life will start to slow down again... and realize that it won't.... :)

Christmas

So Anna's middle name is Noel. I have loved this name for as long as I can remember, and wanted to use it in one of my children's names. Anna was very excited this year when we explained to her that Noel means Christmas in French. She matter-of-factly informed us recently that she wants to be called "Christmas" now instead of Anna.

Yey for no Travelling

Well - this Saturday Dan returned and will be home until at least the end of February! Yey!! Probably just as well - I don't think any of us would survive with me pregnant and no hubby again. 8 months pregnant is too big for moving boxes that got soaked by the snow melting off the car in the garage. It's way to pregnant for me to be out shoveling our driveway and side walks. It's too pregnant for me to be cleaning out the fridge to find out what that foul smell is. And it's too pregnant for me to be chasing the kids around cleaning up after them...only to find that they made a new mess while I was cleaning the old one.

We are now about 6 weeks from the due date. I have an ultrasound and another appointment in about a week and a half. Right now every thing seems to be moving right along - though I feel (and look) a bit like a beached whale. It's a good thing the CMC concerts were not any later in the month, or I would not have fit the dress. :) Dan is ever the sweetheart and told me last night that from the back and even from the side with a hand up to cover the baby belly - I look the same and I haven't gained any weight at all - I'm married to such an awesome man :)

LOL - now to back track a bit - Monday was piano lessons - Anna is taking a try at it (we will see how long this lasts - she had better figure out how to practice with out my forcing her to if she wants to keep it up...) so we drove out for piano lessons and then, since we were on that side of town, we stopped by Grandpa's to play and chat and have dinner. We had a nice time and were glad to see him and glad to not have to go home to a daddy-less house.

I've realized this last week that being 8 months pregnant means I cry over everything. Whether I'm frustrated with the kids, upset over the damaged stuff in the garage, singing a Christmas Song, saying a prayer, typing a blog post or the sweet little notes I found under the Christmas Tree, I cry at everything!! Poor Dan has to deal with it long distance while he's out of town. These are what I found under our Christmas Tree by the way. :) So after a crazy, rather stressful week - we are very grateful to have Dan back - to have our house getting back to some semblance of normal and Mommy is putting herself on bed rest (or craft room rest) for a day or two... I was planning on it anyway, but I seem to be coming down with a cold which is making it all the more necessary.

Sleep? What's that???

Yeah you are probably thinking.... just wait until her baby comes - then she will REALLY know sleep deprivation. Yes that is probably true, but somehow not having Dan home is always more exhausting than I expect it to be.

Monday for Family Home Evening, we decorated our Christmas tree and talked about some of the symbols of Christmas and why we celebrate it. The kids had fun decorating, though here we are a week later and we have broken like 5 of the "not easily breakable" ornaments. We keep the kid friendly ornaments separate for the kids, but they have still managed to break a rather large amount of them.... Aaron LOVE to have the lights on - the hard part is making him ask me to plug them in so that he doesn't try to do it himself.

Dan left on Thursday for Hawaii - just as it was starting to snow here. It has been snowing on and off ever since. The kids are loving playing in it. I'd rather not drive in it, but it is awfully pretty!


This weekend was the beginning of my concert season with the Colorado Mormon Chorale. The concerts were a lot of fun and went well, but my back wasn't fond of standing still with a music folder for an hour straight. At least I have a week to recover before the next ones.... :)

Church today was wonderful - the kids were fairly well behaved, the lessons were wonderful! Eileen saw the Ward Choir notice in the bulletin that said "Singers of all Ages" and decided that meant her too, so she decided to come sing with me today. She is so sweet and I love hearing her voice join in the group.

On the way out to our car today, I was carrying Evie and cautioning the kids about being very careful walking on the ice, when I managed to slip and fall on the ice - the fall was not hard, and the grand total of my injuries are a few small scratches that aren't even worth a band-aid and bit more soreness than usual. The fall really didn't hurt much and Evie was just fine (having landed on me) but I felt a bit like Bambi in his first time out on the ice..... Thankfully nothing damaged but my pride!