Year's End

As another year comes to a close, I find myself thinking about what the past year has brought to us.

Kevin has been at Adobe for over a year now. He has too much to do and not enough time, but he seems to be valued by many of the people he works with. He spent ten days in India in October meeting and working with the team of Indian employees he works with on a regular basis. He has discovered that like all jobs, there are pros and cons.

Daniel has grown a lot in the past year, both literally and figuratively. He is now taller than me and takes great pleasure in that fact. As an eighth grader he is firmly ensconced in middle school, is doing great, and still loves school. Knowing that high school credits begin accumulating in ninth grade, he is already making plans for the classes he wants to take so he will be able to participate in the programs that interest him.

Nathan is also looking ahead. Over the course of the past year he has grown from a little boy into a young man. He is excited to start seventh grade in the fall and with registration coming up in the next month or two, he has already decided what his electives will be.

Matthew is still as energetic as ever and although I still struggle to understand him, we are having fewer conflicts. As always, some days we get along better than others, but every bit of progress is good. He has grown at ease in his new school and is striving to gain independence in as many ways as possible. He is getting braver in many ways and little by little he is learning to deal with his fears and anxieties.

Malia has crossed the line from being a toddler to a preschooler. She loves school and is making friends of her very own. She makes me laugh regularly and I love her company. It seems that she is growing up far too quickly, but she'll still sit in my lap while I read stories and I intend to hold on to that for as long as I can.

As for me, the headaches are fewer in number and less intense. I continue to search for ways to make things even better and although I'm not where I would like to be, I'm grateful for the time I've regained and the days when I'm headache free. As my children get older, our days have become more hectic and I spend a good amount of brainpower making sure everyone is where they need to be when they need to be there.

Overall, I feel we've been very blessed in the past year. Like everyone we've had our struggles but relatively speaking, they have been very small.

Another Random Comment I Never Thought I'd Hear Myself Say

"There's a dirty sock in the Christmas tree. "

Sigh. Life with boys can be interesting. And dirty. Their bathroom isn't quite as bad as a gas station, but there are times when it's bad enough that Malia is reluctant to get down to business. As most girls are, she's a fan of a tidy bowl.

Solitary Holiday

At last the fevers have broken! Maybe it was the snow that brought the cool. My kids sure were excited about it although Matthew and Malia were both bummed that they couldn’t go out and play in it. After three days of fever, building a snowman is not on the to-do list. Even if it is the first real snow of the season. And it is a Christmas snow as well.

With all our Christmas visitors (expect for Santa, of course) warned off due to the plague upon our house, we had a not exactly calm and/or quiet day but it was pretty laid back. It started early (long gone are the days when my children blissfully slept until they were fully refreshed on Christmas morning). In fact, Nathan was up, showered and dressed by 6 a.m. and that was about two hours after he actually woke up.

In addition to the normal silly stuff filling her stocking, Malia was the proud recipient of a Fisher Price Little People Castle. The princesses sing, dance, and talk. She thinks it is wonderful. And she is not the only one who has played with the princesses today. All three of my boys had to have a turn as well.

Here she is showing off the new doll purse I made her. Be sure to check out her awesome outfit. She picked it herself. And her uncombed hair is one of my Christmas day concessions: don’t make her stop playing long enough to get her hair combed. 

Matthew received a remote control car. He has a little Lightning Mcqueen rc car that my brother Adam gave him for Christmas about four years ago and he has literally driven that thing to death. When the gears got so stripped it wouldn’t drive, Kev helped him fix it as much as possible (these toys are never designed with repair in mind) and he has continued to drive it even though it is pretty sad sounding. So Santa picked a perfect car-one that drives super fast and is repairable. Believe me, the look on his face in the picture in no way expresses his excitement about this particular gift. He has been driving it as much as possible around battery recharging times, is trying to learn how to prevent crashes (this thing goes fast) and purposely 4-wheeling over the detritus littering our family room (including the princess castle). Believe me, he has driven over all of our toes at least once today.

Another winning gift was the flag football set that Nathan gave him. His face in this picture captures pretty well how he feels about it.

Nathan is definitely moving into teenager territory. He was super duper excited about food, in particular a bag of Cadbury chocolates. Daniel got a similar bag for his birthday and Nathan liked them so much that he asked for a bag of his very own for Christmas. It made it onto his wish list and everything.

While the chocolate was the sweetest gift, the iPod Nano was definitely the most rockin’. Nathan has been asking for a way to listen to music and general conference for months now. It would appear that Santa heard is request. Nathan was really excited about getting his own iPod, possibly even more excited than he was about the chocolate. ;-)

Daniel also received an iPod Nano, yellow instead of the blue that Nathan got. He was pretty excited about that although the pictures definitely don’t reflect how much he likes it. Both boys got an iTunes gift card to accompany their iPods and a portable speaker so they don’t always have to use the earbuds. Daniel also got some Star Trek models that he has been wanting.

Kev and I decided that instead of more stuff, we would give the boys “experiences” for Christmas this year. Matthew gets to go to one BYU basketball game and one BYU football game. As he has turned into an avid BYU fan in the past year, he is pretty excited. Nathan will get to choose one show at Hale Center Theatre and one at The Desert Star Playhouse. He has already looked up what shows will be performed this year and is having a hard time deciding which ones to choose. Daniel’s was a bit different but totally tailored to his interests. He got a one year membership to Origami USA, the national origami club. The membership includes several monthly publications, access to online resources and the opportunity to check out books from the origami library located in New York. We just need to pay for shipping. Kev made a gift certificate for each boy and I think that they are more excited about their experience gifts than anything else. This is definitely something we will be doing again.

We also gave Nathan and Matthew loft beds to replace their bunk bed. Their room is just small enough that the bunk bed, dressers, and toy bins take up all the space. Not only is there no room to play in there, but neither boy has any space that he can call his own. So putting loft beds in will allow them to have all the space underneath as their own private space. I’m hoping it will be a good thing for them.

As for the grownups, I received the iPad Mini I’ve been wanting and Kev got a new hard drive with tons of storage space so he can continue building our home computer network the way he wants.

This afternoon we discovered our next door neighbor snow blowing our driveway. We have great neighbors. We expressed our thanks and wished him a Merry Christmas.  A few minutes later there was a knock on our door and our neighbor presented us with this:

He says that he is good at snowblowing but not so good at finding newspapers. Yeah, we haven’t really been out for the past few days which means we didn’t even think about picking up the newspapers. We all got a good laugh out of it.

As the day winds down, I can honestly say that we had a good day. Matthew is already in need of some parts for his rc car. Nathan and Daniel have filled their iPods with their own personal perfect mix of music. Malia has finally calmed down and is headed for sleep. There are presents strewn around the house and skid marks on the ballroom floor. So yeah, good day.

High Tech Holiday

Matthew and Malia are both still feverish today. That meant no Christmas Eve dinner with the extended family. But thanks to some cool technology, we were still able to participate in the annual reading of the Nativity story and the musical portion of the evening. Kev and my dad got their iPads out and we connected via facetime. My technologically advanced sister Esther connected my dad’s iPad with the t.v. so the folks gathered there got us on the big screen. Nathan still got to play his piano piece for everyone and Matthew, who was still running a fever but definitely feeling better, acted just as spazzy as he always does when he’s on facetime. While it wasn’t as good as actually being there (no cheesecake, although I think I’m the only one who missed that), it worked out really well and made my kids feel like they didn’t miss out on much. They didn’t care about missing the food (having pizza is actually a treat for them and one I didn’t feel bad about doing on a holiday since Matthew isn’t back up to eating yet anyway) and they still got to join in the festivities. So not the way we had planned the day to go, but still, we do have some pretty cool technology nowadays.

Some Days Just Don't Go According to Plan

Today is Christmas Adam. (Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, Adam came before Eve, therefore today is Christmas Adam. This tidbit brought to you by our ward’s Teachers’ Quorum.) Kev has been running a fever for the past three days and he is finally on the downhill side of whatever he has. Now Malia is running a fever. Matthew woke up sick this morning as well, throwing up and running a fever. Poor kid. He really, really, really wants to not be sick on Christmas. I don’t blame him. Being sick is never fun, but being sick on Christmas is absolutely miserable.

I was sick on Christmas the year I was in first grade. I woke up sick on the very first day of Christmas vacation. I remember being sick a lot when I was a kid and spending a lot of time lying on the couch with a barf bowl. On this particular occasion I was so sick that I didn’t even make it to the couch. For a number of days I was in my bed feeling like death. As Christmas approached, Jon and Patti (my older brother and sister) would come in and encourage me to eat a little soup or drink some 7-Up so I could get better in time for Christmas. But I had no appetite and couldn’t keep anything down even if I did manage to eat it.

And so it went until I awoke on Christmas Day still just as sick. I did make it to the couch, but I just laid there not even caring that Christmas was happening all around me. My siblings tried to get me excited about the gifts that were for me, but I was still feeling so awful that I honestly could not work up any enthusiasm. As the day began to wane and I was feeling no better, my Dad called our home teacher and the two of them gave me a blessing. Within a few hours I was nearly completely recovered. As night fell and my siblings all went to bed, it was quiet and peaceful (something that rarely happens in a home with seven children) and I finally had my own little Christmas. I clearly remember finally being excited about the dolls and doll house furniture I received.

This particular experience is one that has always stuck in my mind for a couple of reasons. For starters, it was the first time I ever remember knowing without a doubt that there really is power in the priesthood. In all the subsequent years, I have never faltered in that knowledge. That’s how powerful a lesson it was for me. Second, it taught me that in spite of all the grief that siblings may give each other (and believe me, with seven of us there was grief a plenty), there is love there. The kindness and compassion my two older siblings showed to me is one of the only clear memories I have of those sick days. This is a particularly valuable reminder for me now as I watch my own children bicker and fight and wonder if they are ever going to get along. I believe it will come, with time and age and understanding because in spite of it all, there is love there.

I know it doesn’t help Matthew at all, but I know how rough it is to be sick on Christmas. While he still has a full day until our first holiday gathering, I have a feeling that we may just be hunkering down at home for Christmas this year. Nathan was pretty disappointed when we had that conversation a bit earlier today, but when I explained that it is more important to be together on Christmas that it is to attend all the fun parties, I think he understood. Because in spite of all the drama that happens between Nathan and Matthew, there is love there.

So to wrap things up, we may not currently be merry and bright but we are still hoping to have some holiday cheer. If you show up at our door we will welcome you, just enter at your own risk. You may go home with the plague.

All Dolled Up for the Holidays

Today was the annual Christmas program at church. I normally look forward to this day, but this year I just felt stressed. I got up later than I should have so I was running a few minutes late which is pretty rare for me and always makes me feel on edge. We arrived almost on time for a quick choir practice and discovered that another ward was already in the chapel even though our block starts first-one of the side effects of having four wards in our building right now. A quick relocation to the primary room gave us about 15 minutes to practice before our meetings started. I sat in Relief Society for twenty minutes before heading off to do the music in nursery and then it was on to primary. I had forgotten to bring some things so there was a last minute change of opening songs. Sharing time was all of 5 minutes long (I kid you not-one short video) so I was unexpectedly left with 35 minutes for music. Wow. A bit of advance notice on that one would have been super. At least the kids were more reverent than expected, although that was probably just because half of them were home sick. As soon as primary was over it was off to Sacrament Meeting where I proceeded to miscount at least three times which threw off my pianist and my choir (bless them for fumbling through and getting back on track). And then when the primary kids came up to sing, I was all prepared to lead them but got the songs in the wrong order. That didn't confuse the kids, but it did make me feel totally out of it. I was completely wrung out by the time I got home.

Most of the time I manage everything pretty well, but on days like today I feel like I have too much on my plate.

But doesn't Malia looks cute in her Christmas dress? She was pretty excited about it. :-)

The Most Important Meal of the Day

Malia made me breakfast this morning.

She knows just what I like. :-)

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

The weather has been really wacky this year. Until just a couple of days ago, daytime highs were in the 50’s and 60’s. Definitely not conducive to snow. My kids have been longing for snow and were so excited when they woke to snow on Sunday morning. They actually cheered. Unfortunately, the snow didn’t last.

It’s been so crazy warm that it hardly feels like it’s nearly Christmas. In spite of that, we’ve been soaking up the holiday cheer over here. Nathan and Matthew are off-track this month so I put together an activity advent to give them something Christmasy to do each day. Yesterday’s activity was watching a Christmas movie. They did watch “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” but the main event was last night’s viewing of “White Christmas.” As this is the 60th anniversary of that flick, there was a limited engagement showing in the theater. Seeing the movie on the big screen meant that details which usually blend into the background were noticeable. The movie had been remastered and it looked great! This is a movie I have watched at least once every year for as long as I can remember. In the days before VCR’s and DVD’s, my dad used to sit us down every year when this movie was aired on t.v. and we watched as a family. Now I sit my own kids down to watch it so it has become one of their Christmas traditions as well. That made last night a family event. It was totally fun. When we got to the end of the movie, Malia exclaimed in her not so quiet voice, “I like that movie!” That made a chuckle run through the audience. I can’t help but love that my kids enjoy this movie as much as I do.

So we may not have much snow for the holiday this year, but my family has enjoyed a “White Christmas” in spite of the weather.

Here Comes Santa Claus

Have I mentioned that we love our preschool? I’m sure I have. Let me tell you about yet another reason our preschool is so awesome. Every year the kids get to have breakfast with Santa. He comes to preschool, reads the kids a story (This year he told us about all the different jobs he has had. It was very enlightening.), lets them sit on his lap (if they so desire), gives them a candy cane and then hangs out with them while they eat orange rolls and drink milk. Malia was her normal chatty self, asking questions like whether or not Santa wears his suit all the time and does he have reindeer. However, in spite of her chattiness, she absolutely refused to sit on his lap. She wouldn’t even stand by him. But Santa is great with kids and snuck up on her while she was eating breakfast.

Of course, once she realized he was there she informed him that he was in her way.

Santa was great though and gave her a candy cane anyway. And once that was done she was willing to stand next to him and chat…until he took a step toward her and then she ran away. But by then I think it was just a game.

Malia never did tell Santa what she wants for Christmas. When I asked her after the fact, she told me she wants a present. When asked what kind of a present, she said, “Just a present!” Apparently she is easy to please.

Birthday Bash

Daniel’s birthday was earlier this week. At the ripe old age of 14, planning his party was a cinch. He made the invites, managed the RSVP’s, planned the menu and picked the movie. Kev picked up the pizza, so all I had to do was make cupcakes and be present as the adult in charge. While Daniel’s social circle was very small when he was in elementary school, it had definitely grown since he hit middle school. We had a good dozen kids here (even some girls!) and Daniel told me that all of them are involved in the music program at school. It looks like he will be following in my footsteps as a music dork with a sizeable entourage. And all his friends know what he likes. He ended up with a good assortment of origami stuff, Dr. Who items, and cold hard…gift cards. And it was noisy. So, so noisy. But noisy is different than naughty. They were all very well behaved and I think they had a great time.

This evening we celebrated Daniel’s birthday with my family. He has kind of moved past the point where he wants a super fancy cake, so we just decorated his with a simple Star Trek symbol. It made the whole cake making process much easier.

 
Here are a few tidbits about Daniel:
-He has started singing with the ward choir which is nice for me since I am the choir director and we are always short on men.
-He loves playing saxophone and wants to learn clarinet as well.
-He sincerely likes school.
-He is still super good at origami. Some of the models he is working on are enormously complex.
-He has developed a quirky sense of humor which is probably good considering who his parents are.
-He is taller than I am. Yes, I know it’s not hard to do, but it is still one of those things that reminds me how quickly time is passing.

Oh, the Grocer Is a Person In Your Neighborhood

Although she was super shy when she was younger, Malia tossed that aside around the time she turned two. Now she is a little social butterfly. She talks a lot and has a tendency to chat with whoever is around when we go shopping. One of our local grocery stores is great for having friendly employees. They always greet us, talk to Malia, give her stickers, etc. There is one guy in particular who is super nice. He is a bit on the older side and just happens to be completely bald. On one of last month’s shopping trips she was so chatty with him that he was completely charmed and gave her four stickers. That, of course, cemented him in her good graces. Now every time we hit the grocery store she looks for “the guy with no hair.” And when she finds him she grins and says, “I found you!” He loves it, of course, and plays along with her games. Today she was pushing her tiny cart (this particular store also has kid sized shopping carts…super fun if you can keep your kids from playing bumper cars with the back of your legs) filled with produce and was lucky enough to find him not just once, but twice. She made me switch checkout lines when she realized we weren’t in this particular gentleman’s line. He played along with her hide and seek games and gave her four more stickers.

What can I say? Good service at a family friendly grocer makes me more likely to shop there again.

A Couple of Cutie Pies

Today was pie day and by that I mean the annual baking of a million pies so we can all eat way more than we really should. In my family it is as big an event as the actual Thanksgiving dinner. It is a lot of work for the big folks, but for the kids it is just a chance to play with their cousins. It was warm enough that Malia and Kate spent a couple of hours in the sand box and on the swings. I don’t know about Kate, but that made Malia super duper happy. And then they got to make their very own tiny pies which they loved.

Malia fell asleep on the way home and was sooo tired that she didn’t wake up when we got home. I got her out of the car, carried her inside, handed her off to Kev and she snoozed through the whole thing. That is extremely unusual for her. Even when she was a baby I couldn’t get her out of the car without waking her up. She must have played really hard. :-)

Halloween: The Holiday That Keeps On Giving

I’m still finding candy wrappers in the washer when I do the laundry. And a very warm (and thankfully still wrapped) Starburst just dropped out of the dryer. At least it makes laundry day interesting.

This is Why There’s Been Much Talk In Our Community Concerning What To Do About the “Urban Deer”

The dumb thing wasn't even scared. It just stared at us and then calmly returned to eating our lawn. It was the middle of the day. And there were three of us having a staring contest with the not-so-wild-life. Sigh. At least it is fall. In the spring they nip the buds off all my tulips and it makes me crazy. At this point it just means we won't have to haul the lawn mower out again this season.

Football Flashback

As I was going through Halloween pictures yesterday, I realized that I completely forgot to tell all y'all about Matthew's latest passion. He has discovered that he loves football. We signed him up for flag football and his games were in September and early October. He was pretty small compared to the other boys on his team but that is not a big surprise. He is pretty fast but because his legs are so short he struggled to keep up. Nevertheless, he had a fabulous time and was bummed when it was over. He is already looking forward to next year.

He is definitely going to be my sports fanatic. After having two sons that just don't care about sports, it is nice for Kev to have someone that will watch football with him. Right now Matthew's favorite teams are BYU and the Seattle Seahawks.

I think a lot of this football fervor were picked up from one of his best friends and I don't mind at all. It is so nice that he finally has a friend who will come looking for him. Matthew is usually the one seeking out playmates and I worry sometimes that they play with him just because he comes to them. In my experience one sided friendships are not terribly long lasting. So I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see Boston at our front door. :-)

Eat, Drink, and Be Scary!

Earlier this month, Jacob (Nathan’s favorite cousin) invited all his similarly aged cousins to have a Halloween sleepover at his house. Nathan was super excited about it, but when I asked him if he wanted to trick or treat with Jacob or in our neighborhood, he was torn. This is his last year for trick or treating (in my family the kids only trick or treat until they turn twelve) and we have a really fun neighborhood for trick or treating. People sit on their porches or their lawns to hand out candy. There are homemade doughnuts, hot dogs, sometimes even pizza to be had. There are as many adults roaming the neighborhood as there are kids…and not in a creepy way either. It is a really family friendly location. So Nathan really wanted to be able to trick or treat around here for his last year but definitely wanted to party with his cousins as well. So we hatched a plan to have all the cousins trick or treat here and then go to Jacob’s house for the sleepover. Before long, it evolved into a Halloween themed dinner/trick or treating event.

We fed the kiddies worm sandwiches and jello brains before we hit the street. They were all so hyped up that I was surprised they managed to eat anything, but they actually did. Then it was on to the main event. Nathan and the older cousins went on their way and the littler kids stayed with the adults. It was super fun!

The over twelve crowd had their own celebration. They did baptisms for the dead and then had their own party that included dinner, games, a movie and candy, of course!

Here are my kiddos in their Halloween attire:

Daniel as Dr. Who (the 10^th doctor)

Nathan as a stick figure (during the day he had black electrical tape for the lines and he used glow sticks at night)

Matthew as a BYU football player

Malia as Rapunzel

Carving Out Memories

Due to much business travel for Kev this month, pumpkin carving happened at the last minute.

Matthew was literally up to his armpits in pumpkin guts.

Malia was super excited that she got to play with knives.

And Daniel and Nathan are definitely my children. Like me, they both stick out their tongues when they are concentrating.

We ended up with Daniel’s cool looking dragon pumpkin…

Malia’s Elsa pumpkin…

Matthew’s BYU football pumpkin…

and Nathan’s Olaf pumpkins.

I firmly believe that the carving of the pumpkins in the important part because it is fun. Having perfectly carved pumpkins in nowhere near as important as having a bunch of happy kids. Based on the happiness scale, I think this year’s pumpkin carving event was a definite success. Don’t you agree?

Where the Wild Things Are

The correct answer to that would be…preschool…on Halloween. Seriously, they were aaaaaalllllll jazzied up. Malia was totally excited that she finally got to wear her costume. (It’s been in hiding since I finished it last month. Otherwise she would have been in it every day.) The other kids were equally excited to wear their costumes. The whole thing was kind of like trying to herd a bunch a cats. Here is our attempt at getting a group photo:

See what I mean about the herding cats thing?

But they did have fun making monster stew and playing a keep the pumpkin off the ground game.

As far as Malia is concerned, her first ever school Halloween party was a great success!

The Witching Hour

Pinterest is a great place to glean fun ideas for holidays and over the last few weeks I have seen a vast assortment of things that looked entertaining. Malia’s hairdo of the day was a Halloween themed Pinterest discovery.

In spite of the fact that I would be creeped out at the thought of spiders crawling on my head (feeling pretty icked out just typing it…), Malia thought it was super cool. She was also excited because we were headed for an outing with my sister Rachael and her daughter Kate. The combo of holiday hair, a seasonal t-shirt and an impending outing meant she was pretty hyped up and it turned into this:

Very appropriate for Halloween, right?

Anyway, our outing was to see the witches at Gardner Village which is something we’ve never done before. With only the two little girls, it was a pretty low ksmey affair. We moved at a stroll rather than a stride and just kind of took our time. Once Malia figured out that we were looking for witches, she was pretty attentive to what was going on around us. And of course, a cookie at the end was great to!