Daylight Savings is Losing -- Big Time

I don't know what in the world is going on this week, but the time change for daylight savings is KILLING us.  And not so softly.  Hahaha.  How's this for things you never want to hear at 3 in the morning -- 

Scott:  "They're all downstairs watching TV!"

Wait, what??? Hahaha.  True story.  In the wee hours of Monday morning, when Jane came stumbling in a little after 2, Scott went to go put her back in bed and had to lay down with her till she fell back asleep.  When he came back to our room about 45 minutes later he informed me what the oldest 3 were up to.  Grace had headed downstairs to "her chair" before we even went to bed, but apparently her middle of the night insomnia led to TV watching which woke up Ethan who came down to join her and Sophie soon followed suit.  Nothing is quite as ridiculous as going downstairs in the middle of the night and meeting resistance from your children when you tell them they need to go to bed.  "Dad's so mean!!!" was the exact quote from Ethan as he stomped angrily up the stairs when Scott told them to turn off the TV and go up and Sophie just refused to budge.  Scott had to carry her up to bed and we decided it was probably best to just leave Grace put on the chair where -- according to Ethan -- she was faking sleep.  Fun times.

I'd like to say that things got easier as the week went on and they adjusted to the time change, but unfortunately that was not the case.  The problems with going to sleep {and staying asleep} contributed to many late mornings and Grace has now added 3 more tardies to her outstanding record.  We are winning family of the year.  

In addition to all our usual problems, we are also dealing with Jane who has now decided that she "doesn't like sleeping!" and has thrown massive knock-down screaming fits the last two nights at bedtime.  Grace has gone back to falling asleep on the rocking chair in our bedroom, and to really knock things out of the sleeping park Alex is now giving us problems as well.   This afternoon, when I went to put him down for his nap, the crib {that we got second-hand from some people in our ward before Ethan was born and has lasted through each of the kids so far} totally broke to pieces when I tried to put the side rail down.  BOO!!!

{And yes, my first thought after this happened was that I needed to get a picture for documentation sake.}

After trying in vain to fix the slats, I finally gave up and just put him down for his nap in the Pack n Play.  The end result?  Alex is now FREAKED out about sleeping.  He was tired enough at nap time that he didn't cry TOO much, but at bedtime tonight he screamed for about an hour straight before I finally had to go and rescue him.  We seriously need sleep rehab over here.  :(

In other news, there have been some major changes in the air around here.  A couple of weeks ago at Stake Conference, a huge boundary switch-up was announced and we are now in a new ward.  Our old ward has always been on the small side, but it has shrunk even more over the last year or so.  The ward we share a building with has always been huge and there have been rumors for years that the boundaries were going to be re-drawn and we would get part of their ward in ours.  Well, what happened instead is that the line was completely changed.  Instead of a north ward and a south ward, there is now an east ward and a west ward.  The result?  We basically have half the people from our old ward and half the people from the other old ward.  It has been quite a shocker, but I definitely feel like this was an inspired decision.  Our new ward seems really great, and it's not like we'll never see our friends from the other ward ever again, so all in all I think this change will be a good one.

My visiting teachers in the "old ward."  Natalie (left) will still be in the new one, but Leia (right) will be in the other new one.  

Karissa was my first visiting teacher in the "old ward" and now she's in the other one.  

More of my good friends who are now in the other ward.  :(  

{L to R -- Karissa, Miranda, Jen, Me, April}

It will be sad not to see all of our good friends at church every Sunday, but I am so grateful that we've gotten to know them while we were here.  We are lucky indeed.  :)  

And now, I'm off to get some sleep.  Wish me luck for tonight!!!