Two Things Guaranteed to Draw a Crowd

Great art and animals. We saw both today, although not at the same time.

This morning Kevin, Daniel, Nathan and I were able to go down to the BYU Museum of Art to see the "Sacred Gifts" exhibit. For those who may not know, this exhibit is comprised of artwork depicting the Savior, most of which is on loan from a number of churches (and a castle) in Denmark. Most of the pieces have never been removed since they were installed in the 1800's and it has been said that they will never be loaned again. Most of the artwork is familiar to the LDS population and seeing it in person was a wonderful experience. The fact that it is even here is pretty much a miracle so if you get a chance, go see it. It will be open until May.

This evening we piled everyone into the car and went to see the ZooLights. We had planned to go last Thursday but it snowed like crazy and the roads were hazardous so we hunkered down at home and introduced the boys to "A Christmas Story" instead. This was the first time we'd ever seem the ZooLights and we were pretty impressed by the display...and the crowds. Most of the animals were asleep, but the snowy leopard was wide awake and pacing which was pretty cool to see. The tiger was asleep, but it was still neat to see since he is usually pretty elusive when he's awake. As he slept he did some big tiger growls and Malia told us he was snoring. She also told me she wanted to lie down in the tiger's little house but I assured her she would get too cold. We saw some of the other big cats as well, all asleep but not hiding like they usually do. It was impressive enough that Malia wasn't even disappointed about not getting to see the elephants. 

On our way home he stopped at Build-a-Bear so Malia could stuff her reindeer that Santa brought for Christmas. It was pretty busy, but she was excited to be able to hug her "red nose reindeer."

So a super busy day. But a great one.

Merry Christmas!

Are you ready for this year's Christmas photo montage? Ready or not, here it comes. 

Malia got a play kitchen from Santa but was completely underwhelmed until Kev started building it. Then he could barely keep her (and Matthew) off of it long enough to finish putting it together. 

She was pretty thrilled to have her own flashlight though.

And she loooooooved the baby doll stroller that Matthew picked out for her. You can see that she has Baby, a flashlight and a new cup from her kitchen in the stroller which tells you where her priorities lie.

Which reminds me that I should tell you about going Christmas shopping with Matthew. In the past he has gone to the dollar store and just picked out whatever crazy things he could see. It was a challenge to get him to think of things that his family members would like instead of just what he liked. This year was totally different. When I asked him what he wanted to get for everyone, he informed me that he wanted to get Daniel some Doctor Who stuff, something music or Spiderman for Nathan, some "new technology for work" for Kev and another baby doll for Malia. I was pretty stunned because he had clearly thought things out and actually wanted to give gifts that people would love.

With that in mind, I took him to Mediaplay f.y.e. to choose presents for his brothers and Kev. He made his selections very carefully and wisely and when we got back out to the car he slapped his forehead and said, "I forgot to pay for the presents!" Then he pulled out his duct tape wallet and proceeded to show me the $26 he had inside. I had not idea he had even brought his wallet with him and I was impressed. I assured him that he could pay for Malia's present.

When we got to Wal-mart, it took him about 2 seconds to spot the baby doll stroller and decide that Malia would love it. He asked me how much it was and when I told him it was $10 his face fell. Ten bucks is a lot to a 6 year old who has $26 to his name. But he wanted so much to choose the perfect presents and he had put so much thought into the whole thing that I made him a deal: I would pay half. That perked him right up and he happily paid his portion at the checkout stand.

The whole thing made me cry a little bit. What a great kid he is turning out to be.

Speaking of that great kid, let's move along to Matthew.

He got two Ironman wrist repulsors...

...the Ironman 3 blu-ray...

...an Ironman helmet (I had to look hard and buy used for this one) that he has been wanting forever...

...and a totally rockin' Ironman hoodie. He also got Ironman Uno. Guess there's kind of a theme to his gifts this year...

 

Nathan got Spiderman Uno...

...and a kindle. He is thrilled beyond all belief. He told me that when he first glimpsed his little pile of gifts (it was pretty tiny compared to the other stacks) he thought for sure that he was going to be disappointed but he wasn't disappointed at all!

Daniel got big boy Lego (recommended for ages 16+)...

 

...and a model that he has been looking at all year. He also got Star Trek Uno. I had no idea there were so many different versions of Uno.

 

As for me, last month I got an early Christmas/birthday present when Kev bought me a new sewing machine. He also got me a new ipod for Christmas. He spoils me just a little bit...

 

Now Santa is napping and Kev and I wish we were, but things around here have been hopping all day long. Matthew has been doing a fabulous "golf ball in a tile bathroom" imitation for about a week and Nathan has been hyped up for nearly that long. With all that anticipation finally coming to fruition, hopefully they will sleep really well tonight.

It All Worked Out

I had planned to sew a Christmas dress for Malia. I had a pattern picked out and everything. But after shopping four different fabric stores, I was unable to find a Christmasy fabric that I liked and felt was dressy enough for church and a good match for the pattern. I did, however, find a piece of fabric that would be perfect for Easter so I purchased it and will save the pattern for the spring.

Luckily for me (because honestly I don't think Malia cares yet) I happened to see a darling Christmas dress while shopping and got the very last one. Malia carried it around on the hanger the entire afternoon of the day I bought it so it would seem that she likes it to. Here she is all dolled up for church:

I did find a cute piece of fabric to make a simple pillowcase dress, but of course I forgot to take a picture of that one…

She Has Good Taste

Yesterday Malia saw a sweater hanging in her closet and was absolutely determined to wear it. She kept telling me, "I need that!" It took me a few well thought out questions to figure out what she wanted:

"What do you want?"
"That!"
"I need more details. Tell me more."
"I need that!"
"Is is clothes or toys."
"Clothes."
"Is it a shirt or a dress or a sweater?"
"Sweater!" 

Once I knew what she wanted I more than happy to oblige since this particular sweater was a favorite of mine when I was an itty bitty as well. My mom made it for me and I remember wearing it. All I had to do was find a new ribbon for the neckline and she was good to go. And pleased as punch about the whole thing.

And the Winner Is…

Matthew! For once in his life, Matthew came out ahead of the food allergies!

Today was his oral challenge for almonds and he passed with flying colors which means that he ate all his stuff and didn’t react at all. So his allergist has okayed almonds and has actually said that it looks like he has dodged the entire tree nut bullet so she is comfortable letting him have things with a tree nut cross contamination although she still thinks we should take care with actual nuts, possibly do food challenges for a few others before we really incorporate them into his diet, and watch him carefully as he starts to expand his diet.

We bought him a box of honey nut cheerios this afternoon. He is pretty darn excited.

And I’m just relieved. Not only does this put a few things back on the menu, but all the worst case scenario things that have been running through my mind for the past few weeks did not actually occur…

For those of you not in the know, there is one specific antibody that causes food allergies. Matthew has enormously high numbers of that antibody which means that he gets a lot of false positives when they try to do blood tests for allergies. Pretty much everything they test for comes back showing numbers that indicate allergy whether or not he is actually allergic. Due to that and a positive skin prick test for cashews several years ago, his allergist advised us to avoid all nuts. But she has been doing skin tests and watching for any sign of allergy to almonds (because he is allergic to milk, being able to eat almonds would make almond milk an option as well as soy) for years. After three years and five negative skin prick tests (the fifth was this morning just to make sure), she felt confident enough that he was not actually allergic to try the oral challenge. So hopefully that helps explain why we have avoided nuts all these years and why we will probably do oral challenges for a few more before we just throw all caution to the wind and say he isn't allergic to tree nuts.

But we'll wait a good while because I don't think Matthew is ready to handle all the stress again right away. And frankly, neither am I.

That Last Post Reminded Me...

...that Kev took pictures of all the kids last month and I have yet to post them. So here they are, except for Daniel since I used his in the last post.

It’s Official…I Have a Teenager

With Thanksgiving being so late this year, Daniel’s birthday kind of snuck up on us. We celebrated with my family on the Sunday just after Thanksgiving and with all the holiday plans we had, I didn’t have time to make a cake. So Daniel picked out an ice cream cake from Coldstone instead. I didn’t even remember to take any pictures of him blowing out the candles. And he gets his birthday present from Kevin and I in June so there weren’t even presents. Poor kid.

This evening he had a party with his friends. Daniel decided he wanted doughnuts instead of cake so that part was super easy...and nine boys (plus Kevin, Malia and I) consumed three dozen sloppy joes and three dozen doughnuts. I’m sure the boy to food ratio will only get worse as they get older. But the boys had a great time. And Daniel’s favorite gift was a totally cool Doctor Who clock from his cousin Devon. He had multiple people offer to take it off his hands if he didn’t like it.

So I now have a thirteen year old. And he’s only a couple of inches shorter than I am. And I’m pretty sure that isn’t going to last. And he’s growing up way too fast…

A Perfect…And Cold…Night

Last night we went downtown to see the lights on Temple Square. It has been quite a few years since we’ve been, so the boys were super excited. In fact, we realized as we were driving that we haven’t been to see the lights since we moved and were no longer living across the street from a Trax station. Malia heard us say “train” and suddenly she was very excited about riding a train. Too bad we were driving in the car…

But Kevin had a stroke of genius as we were looking for a parking spot downtown and he chose a spot just across from the Trax station that is one stop away from Temple Square so we could take advantage of the free ride zone and ride one stop from our car to our destination. Malia was thrilled when we got on the train…and quite put out when we got off just a minute later. She kept saying, “I want to ride the train! I want to ride the train!”

But she was distracted just a few minutes later when she caught a glimpse of all the lights. And we enjoyed a nice walk around Temple Square and through the visitors’ centers. There were far fewer people than we expected so it would have been a delightful leisurely stroll if it hadn’t been so cold. It was only about 18 degrees and after a while we started going numb. We plan to go back another time so we can spend more time in the visitors’ centers (the boys all wanted to stay longer and see everything, but we didn’t have time) but I think we’ve decided that we’ll always go to see the lights on a weekday early in December. The lack of huge numbers of people made the whole thing just a little bit more enjoyable.