What We've Been Up To

I haven't blogged in awhile, so I thought I would catch my reading public up on the most important happenings of late.

Jane is cruising and using her little arm to hold things against her body. I'll get a picture of this sometime and post it. It's super cute.

Emily is still the most determined human being I have ever met. She summed it up when I asked her to stop doing something bad and she told me, "I don't have a choice".

Chris is working like crazy and we are thankful that he has work at a time when so many are being laid off.

And me? The most important thing that's happened to me lately is that I got this slammin' hoodie for $5. I was so excited about it I could hardly sleep that night.

(Of course, the part about the hoodie is all in jest - although I did really get it for $5. Thanks for a great week, Chris. I love you.)

The Magic of Christmas

Before you have children, people tell you life is more fun with kids. Four thousand poopy diapers into the process, you begin to wonder if you were sold a bill of goods. And then Christmas comes along. There are few things more fun in life than a preschooler on Christmas day who has been asking every day since the first snow, "Is it Christmas yet?". Well, today the answer was finally yes.

On Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas Story. It went fairly well. I am amazed at how attentive my small children were through the accounts of Christ's birth in both the new and old worlds.


After that, we started a new tradition. We decided to give the girls new pajamas on Christmas Eve, thus serving the two fold purpose of 1) Giving them something to open that they can use immediately instead of handing them a toy and then saying "Go to bed. You can play with it tomorrow". And, 2)Giving them something to wear that won't look ratty and gross in the Christmas morning pictures. That's the background behind this lively video:



I don't believe there has ever been a human being so excited about a pair of clearance pajamas ever in the history of the world. Jane cleverly used the distraction to steal Emily's sippy, thus resulting in an off-camera fight.

Christmas morning was almost more excitement than Emily could stand. As soon as she saw her castle she exclaimed, "Oh! I wished for a castle!". Perhaps she watches too many princess movies.

Jane just went with the flow - enjoying her own gifts and carefully choosing her moments to help herself to Emily's gifts. And then helping those gifts into her mouth.

It was a wonderful Christmas. Someday I will look back and miss Christmas with small children. And then I will rejoice in the knowledge that my poopy diaper days are over.

The Big One

Yesterday, Jane turned 1. Everyone keeps telling me how they can't believe how quickly time flew. I always just smile and say "yeah, where does that time go?", but really I'm thinking "Seriously, it's only been a year? It feels like it's been 20 years". But that's one of those things you don't really say in polite conversation.

Here's how Jane looked a year ago:

And here's how she looks now:

It's amazing to see how much she has changed. A year ago she was just a screaming lump. Now she is a happy, mischievous girl that laughs all the time and calls anything with a face "baby". We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Jane has the dubious honor of having quadrupled her birth weight by 1 year of age. As much as my arms and neck and legs ache from hauling her around, I am much happier with her entering this flu season at 23 pounds than I was at her entering last season at 5 pounds, 12 ounces.

We kept Jane's first birthday pretty low-key. We ate her favorites for dinner - hot dogs and mac and cheese. You don't have to eat vegetables on your birthday.

This was followed by presents

And cake

And then a very necessary bath.

Yay for Jane!
Yay for birthdays!
Yay for whole milk, honey and forward facing carseats!
How time flies!

O Christmas Tree

For future reference: December 5th is a bit late to get a fresh Christmas tree. But through perseverance and a bit of luck, Christmas was saved by the firefighter's Christmas tree sale which had just started a couple days earlier. Not only did we get a beautiful tree, the proceeds went to a local charity.

Last night for Family Home Evening, we decorated our tree and I successfully resisted the desire to spread out some of Emily's ornament clusters.

While we decorated, Jane practiced her stair climbing skills. She still doesn't walk, or crawl with her tummy off the ground but she has figured out the stairs, thus making her a danger to herself which is, I believe, exactly what she intended.
Sorry about the picture. I think I had the camera on Bigfoot Capture mode.

Talent Show

Last night, Chris taught a Family Home Evening lesson on talents (and despite being assigned well in advance, Jane totally fell through on the treat). We talked about magnifying our talents and then about talents that each member of our family possesses.

What is Daddy's talent?

Emily: Hanging out at work.

What is Jane's talent?

Emily: The puking up talent.


Apparently Emily's talent is keen observation skills.

Saturday is a Special Day

Is it bad luck, Karma, or just proof that God has a sense of humor? Well, whatever it is, the end result was that yesterday was my second Super Saturday as enrichment counselor (or whatever they're calling it nowadays). And this year I had no enrichment leader to help out.

For those of you that have no idea what Super Saturday is, I will give you the rundown. It is a crafting day that usually happens in the fall where all the ladies make Christmas gifts for their friends and family. It is a HUGE deal and a great deal of pressure for the poor sap who is in charge. That would be me. And as I did last year, I will refer you to my extreme dislike of crafting.

I would have been dead in the water without a great deal of help from the other ladies in the Relief Society Presidency as well as a few volunteers from the ward. I think it actually went as smoothly as a Super Saturday run by a craft-hater can possibly go.

I won't go into too much detail, but here are the crafts for which I took direct responsibility:

A family home evening assignment board (Yeah, I know the handwriting on the hang tags looks like a six year old boy wrote it. It's the best I can do):

These super cute framed thingies (thanks mom for having the inspiration for these hanging over your sink and for giving me a quote to use):

The obligatory Christmas ornament (I decided to go rustic this year. Even I am not totally sure I like it):

There were seven other projects conceived by more talented and experienced crafters. But this is my blog, so I won't let them outshine my efforts here.

Most people were very appreciative and I only had a few hecklers, whiners and complainers. I've already started my "Next Year..." list. Like, "Next year we are only doing six crafts. Max." But secretly I'm hoping that next year, someone else will be in charge. Like one of the hecklers from this year. And I will heckle to my heart's content.

I would be remiss not to mention the bright spot of Super Saturday. We are lucky enough to have a masseuse in our ward. She volunteered to give 15 minute massages to whomever desired one. I got mine at the very end of the crafting madness and it was lovely. It was my first massage and I've decided that massages are like meth - it only takes once to be addicted.

All in all, Super Saturday didn't go as badly as I feared nor as well as I hoped. My opinion hasn't changed - the only good Super Saturday is a dead Super Saturday. And this one is. Finally.

Sugar Sugar

In the days immediately preceding Halloween, nearly a foot of snow fell. That's what happens in Wyoming.

The snowstorm gave us plenty of time to carve pumpkins. You'd think with all that time on our hands we would have had one of those really cool ones of the grim reaper or President Nixon. Not so.

Both the girls were fairies this year. Emily was Tinkerbell and Jane was a very round fairy. I've done some quick calculations and I'm not sure those wings have enough surface area to provide lift to Jane's frame. In Wyoming, fairies wear turtlenecks and, as the evening wears on, usually have to don their coats. This will probably be the last matching year. Next year, Jane will have her own opinion on her costume.

Emily takes the cake for trick-or-treating dedication in the 3 year-old category. I went out with her until her bag got too heavy for her to carry (and I was getting cold) and then Chris took her out until it was too late to politely knock on doors.

Then came the best part: the sorting of the candy. Now, I'm not one of those crazy moms who thinks I have to check my kids' candy for razors and joints. I am targeting peanuts. When Emily eats peanuts, her lips swell, she gets hives and I won't even mention what else happens. I am more fortunate. That means I get Emily's peanut laden candy.

(Yes, that's a Fiber One Bar. We live across the street from a guy who grows organic vegetables and runs marathons. No further explanation necessary.)