March 3, Day of Heros

Okay, bad title, but it's quarter past 11:00 already and I'm not in my clearest frame of mind. I couldn't let another day go by without recording the fact that yesterday was Troy's birthday. I am only a day late in wishing him a bloggful happy birthday. Luckily we did celebrate in person on his actual birthday. We also found out that yesterday was the birthday of Alexander Graham Bell, which is significant because Troy and his coworker Steve, when phoning each other, always answer with a chipper, "Ahoy hoy!" This is the greeting that Mr. Bell thought we should use when answering the phone instead of the very boring hello. Of course, idiot that I am, did not know this, and thought that Troy and Steve really liked sailors or pirates or something. Ahoy matey! So I guess Troy and Mr. Bell are soulmates. Connected. You know.

What birthday would be complete without a birthday cake? Or breakfast in bed? We decided to combine the two. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to bring Troy breakfast in bed because he's always awake so much earlier than I, but thanks to the slowly recovering back injury, he was still there when I got up! And we figured that as long as we were pitching all propriety out the window by having cake for breakfast, we would also dispense with the whole separate plates thing. Here's a fork, kid! Have at it! My kids were in heaven. Cake for breakfast on mom and dad's bed without all that silly distracting tableware. Yes, I had to wash the sheets.



After a rather normal-ish day (okay I did bring Hires home for lunch - another birthday must) Troy and I went out for an early evening date. This is the second year we've done this and it's becoming a favorite. We drop the kids off at my in-laws' place, go off for a date, and then upon our return have presents, cake and ice cream together. For our date we decided we'd had enough eating for one day and chose a movie instead. Dan in Real Life. Good movie. Mostly I just liked sitting next to Troy in a quiet theater and enjoying a show together. The best present of the evening? A box of Lucky Charms from Carol (Troy's mom) - a tradition since his childhood. One box of sugar cereal on your birthday that you don't have to share with anyone. In keeping with Tradition, the box of cereal is now hidden in the attic or something.

I hope Troy had a nice birthday - I adore him completely. He's the best part of my life.

Jingle Bells and Cockleshells

Kids. Gotta love 'em. Of course, as I type this I can hear my two darlings getting ready to tear each others' eyes out, but hey. You GOTTA love them or else you'd run away, is what I'm trying to say. Anyway, I'm pondering my adoration for my children this morning because Bitty has named two of her toys. Their names are Jinglebells and Cockleshells. I find that to be completely adorable. It reminds me of my cute niece MG who, as a young tot, had two imaginary friends whom she dubbed (spelling is on the creative side, I'm sure) "Reebus" and "Cellerina." There was one more, too, I think, but I can't remember. Anyway, that was hilariously funny to us, and now I'm enjoying the new additions to our family as well. I believe that Jinglebells is the cat, this hideous plastic thing we got as a white elephant from the annual New Years Party at the Stringhams. Can't remember who it's from, but thanks a lot. Unfortunately, my daughter has glommed onto the thing and tries to sleep with it, even though it's hard plastic. Cockleshells is the very soft and sweet Pooh Bear. Bitty's not very interested in sleeping with the soft one. Just the hard plastic one.

And now, some footage of Bitty doing some singing. I think it's pretty cute.

"The Booger Hound Rides Again: A Cautionary Tale"

This is the title for the story my friend Becky and I have just decided I should write. It will be based on my daughter, who has, literally in the past four days, discovered that boogers are edible. "Edible" being a very loose term, of course. She is constantly on the fish and nibble and we're trying hard to curb her enthusiasm for her new hobby. "Bitty, don't eat that." Her reply? "Can I wipe it on your pants?" She has asked this question to both me and Troy this evening. And two nights ago she actually fell asleep with her fingers up her nose. Any suggestions on how to deal with this fun new development are welcome.

In other news, I must say, I can't believe we made it through today! There were so many strikes against us. Strike number one: It's Sunday. Any church goer with kids knows that Sunday isn't exactly a day of rest. Strike number two: Troy tweaked his back yesterday. "Tweaked" is a pretty specific term at our house. Every so often he leans over the wrong way or something simple like that and some little thingy in his back goes BOING and that's it. He is literally crooked for a few days and can't do much by lie there. It's boring and frustrating for him. So, no church for Troy today, sitting being the worst position he can be in. Strike number three: Bitty had a nap yesterday. I think I finally got her to sleep at about 12:30 or so...luckily she was very cute and happy, lying in bed in the dark singing songs to herself about "I like pink," but I didn't wake her up this morning. She slept in until 10:00, so guess what, we decided just to skip church. Strike number four: We decided just to skip church. Church is often our only out-of-house activity on Sundays in the winter. Of course church has other draws for me besides getting us out of the house, but when that doesn't happen you sure notice being inside all day. The kids held up pretty well, and we did take a very chilly walk before dinner, but with bouncing-off-the-walls kids and an out-of-commission husband (who did try to help me, more than he should have,) I was very grateful when the kids closed their sleepy little eyeballs at 9:30.

I would also like you to know that miracles do happen. This week I have seen several. One would be the laundry miracle. I have this little dream (okay, actually major obsession) each week as I do the laundry that I'll be able to do every stitch of laundry in the house and have it dry and folded before one single item is added to the laundry basket. It never happens. Ever. But still I try. It's just a fleeting hope. That is until my husband went down in the basement and cleaned out every inch of the lengthy duct leading from the dryer at the back of our house to the vent at the front of our house. Wow. Suddenly the dryer dries things. I could hardly keep up. Another miracle we enjoyed was seeing the sunshine. The weather was so gorgeous this week - it was actually warm and nice out. No coats! Even the occasional short sleeves. I know it's just Utah teasing me - we did get a rainy/slushy storm yesterday, and there is certainly more to come, but ah....I'm excited. Miracle three, my two year old has play dates. Her little friend J is so darling and the two of them actually play together. I just love this shot of the two of them in their dress ups, (take note of Bitty's shoes, especially,) just happily in their own little world. Maybe that's how she learned about the boogers...

Time: Flying By

Wow. I didn't realize that I hadn't blogged in a while. I guess I keep doing all my blogging mentally. It happens after a while, once you get going on your blog, everywhere you go you start speaking to yourself in "blogesse." I walk around, thinking of titles, witty remarks and the like, and suddenly I realize I haven't actually made it to the computer in a while. My mental blog has lots of entries but I guess I'd better get a few of them down on the actual blog.

Hmmm. Where to begin? These days have sort of been the best of times, the worst of times. Not the very worst, of course, but Bitty sure is giving us a run for our money. I have to remind myself that she was pretty ill for almost three weeks and she's just coming out of it. Part of it is also the fact that Troy and I decided that we had had enough of the binkis. We didn't take them away while she was sick, but we have been wanting to pitch them for a while. With Stomper it was so easy. "Here, kid. I'll give you this dinosaur if you give me those binkis." Done deal, no sweat. But Bitty doesn't have one single passion like the Stomper/Dinosaur love affair. I thought long and hard about it, and realized that Bitty likes to get her hands on things. Dress ups. Musical instruments. Stuff like that. So I bought this really cool doctor kit. I tried to approach the subject with her over the past couple of weeks, like telling her the story of how Stomper got his dinosaur. "Hey, do you see that cool brachiosaurus? Wanna know how your brother got that?" It didn't take her long to guess where we were headed so whenever I brought up the subject she'd say, quickly and firmly, "PweeDon't!"

"PweeDon't" is her version of "Please Don't." I, silly mother that I am, continue to insist that my children at least make an attempt at having manners. Bitty does a good job. So does Stomper, of course, but Bitty has really picked up on the please thing. If she wants you to stop something, such as me singing (don't know why she hates that so much...) she'll let fly with a very quick, "PweeDon't!" She's very firm about it because I've finally taught her to say that instead of instantly screaming when she doesn't like something. Of course now Troy and I do rapid-fire "pweedon't"s at each other all the time. It's a favorite.

ANYWAY, the binkis. I didn't think the trade was going to take, but lo and behold, it did. Sunday after church I made the proposal and she very happily chucked all her binks into the garbage can outside. We bid goodbye, and I spent the rest of my Sunday getting checked by my new and very young physician. Predictably, she asked for them many times, but all you have to do is ask her where the binkis are, and she grin and shout, "In the GARBAGE CAN!" She's very proud of herself, and is even sleeping pretty well. Now all we have to do is get her potty trained....(groan!)



Bye Bye, Binkis, Hello, Dr. Bitty!




















My favorite Stomper blog-worthy event this month was receiving a letter from him. He sent it from school. It made me happy because he was practicing his writing, which he doesn't show much interest in. It's the cutest thing:








In other news, we've had many opportunities this month to spend time with dear friends. We've had more than one family we know chose to come to town in February as opposed to Christmas time. I've enjoyed some girls' nights and we've gotten together with the Durhams and Gardners and all the wonderful people that are a part of that awesome group of friends. As we've gotten together I keep thinking about my greatest prayer and wish for my own children: that they'll make and keep the valuable kind of friends that I have. I think the quality of people in my life are perhaps one of my greatest blessings outside of my husband and children.

I guess this entry is getting obnoxiously lengthy, so I must end. However, I cannot do so without relating to you the miracle of the telephone. I have this cell phone that I love. It's purple, it's a motorola flip phone...what's not to love? Well, I took Bitty with me on a series of errands, including a trip to Costco. After a successful trip (meaning I got away without spending our entire life savings) I was driving along 300 West and saw a car wash. Believe me, we needed to stop there. I thought I'd grab the phone and call Troy to see if the Jeep's rack can go through a car wash. (It can't, by the way, though luckily I did not find that out through experience.) Anyway, I could not find the phone anywhere. After a couple minutes of the very safe steering/searching driving combo, I finally thought I'd better pull over to search in earnest. When I got out of the car to walk around to the other side and look under the seats and stuff I finally found the phone. On the hood of the car. My heart stopped. It was not just out on the open hood, it was kind of tucked in the crevice between the edge of the hood and the windshield wipers. I think what must have happened was that it fell out of my purse or something right by the car in the Costco parking lot and someone found it and placed it on my hood, thinking that the driver of the car(me)might actually see it. Well, thankfully my phone survived the trip down the road on the exterior of my car. Perhaps it even enjoyed the ride. But I felt sort of freaked out for the rest of the day. This is not a phone I could afford to replace. I only got it because I had earned a discount with my provider. I don't think they let you do that twice. Anyway, yay, my phone was miraculously saved. Of course I misplaced it again later in the evening whereupon I had to confess that I have a serious phone problem. Luckily it was just left at home while I went out instead of being lost again - I don't think I deserve more than one phone miracle a day.

1000 Words

Bitty has been sick all week, and I think this picture, forwarded to me from my sister, about says it all. My Sicky Bitty Kitty! Bitty keeps acting like she's about to get better and then the next day will blossom into new heights of feverish glory. Fever, ear aches, coughing, boogers, sneezing....we have it all going on. Even a barf or two. All week I've had tons of plans and I kept lying awake in bed at night trying to figure out how I was going to make it all work, and then I'd have to just let it all go. It has been sick week. Now that Dr. George has given us a little amoxicillin for the ears, I'm hoping we're on the road to recovery. Not only will it be nice to have a cheerful toddler back in the house, but I could use a night of sleep. Last night Bitty woke up and got really restless just as I was going to bed, and finally at 3:30 or something I got up with her. We fell asleep together on the couch around 5:00, and then Stomper got up before 7:00. Yeah, not quite enough snoozes for the parents this week. And on that note, I'm off to bed.

The Tea Party

Despite our happy afternoon at the zoo yesterday, both Stomper and Bitty have been feeling a bit under the weather lately. The zoo really helped, I think, but everyone was pretty cranky today. Cranky and touchy. I know that something that really helps the kids is when they get some special attention from me. No *&!@, Sherlock, I know. I just forget sometimes when I'm getting through a day with my little to do list and I'm racing around accomplishing things. Really important things like making additional lists (and dividing them into sub-categories) (I'm mostly kidding) and cleaning the kitchen for the 11th time that day. Then suddenly both kids are weeping at the slightest provocation, and provoking each other, thus continuing the weeping/provoking cycle. They both have colds, they both seem to delight in vexing one another, and Stomper had a rare bout of anxiety as I tried to drop him off at school today. I decided we needed a little something special this afternoon. I know, the zoo was special yesterday, but something a little quieter and personal. So, we went out to tea! I had been thinking of having a tea party at home, but I also thought about the toys already evenly sprinkled across the living room floor and the dishes already piled up in the sink, and I knew that it would be challenging for me to focus on the kids and the kids alone instead of how messy the house was. Then I remembered this charming little tea house down town called the Beehive Tea Room - they have, for like $2.50 or something, a "child's tea party." The child gets a silver tray, all to themselves, with a silver urn full of hot chocolate simply heaped with whipped cream, a little creamer with milk and three wafer cookies. Plus a small (and sturdy!) tea cup and saucer. Talk about heaven for little kids. I enjoyed a delicious cup of tangerine ginger herbal tea - man, that was yum. So yum that both the kids liked my tea better than their hot chocolate. It was really fun. Of course, the kids did insist on fiddling with everything in sight, from the beaded lampshade to the decorative books on the shelf behind our heads, and they did decide to play a game of pretend in which their hot chocolate urns played the main characters, using their lids for mouths. It made me a little tense - a spill was inevitable of course - but really, doesn't that just add to the charm?

Sunshine!

I really can't complain about the weather this winter. It's been great. We've had storm after storm after storm, which gives us the water we need, plus it keeps the valley free from the nasty depressing stinky inversion. So I'm grateful. But I won't say I wasn't thrilled to have two days of sunshine this week. Warm - up towards the fifty degree mark, and wonderfully sunny. Yesterday as soon as I picked up Stomper from school we headed up to the zoo. It's been quite a while since our last visit and it seemed like the perfect time. Boy did the kids love and need it. Upon arriving at the zoo they both took off at a full sprint. Of course, they both fell on their faces within the first few yards and within seconds of each other, so I guess their little limbs were a bit rusty on the running around thing. After a brief recovery, we set forth once more. It was such a great day - there were animals out and about and really active. We especially enjoyed the gorillas and orangutans, who were frolicking. The bears, red panda and cougars were all up and about as well. My favorite may have been the leopard, who's enclosure borders the wolfs. That leopard is constantly being tortured - you can tell he can see and smell the wolves, and that he wants very much to eat them. He's always pacing the fence along that side and yesterday he was actually perched up in a tree in a rather menacing manner. The wolves haven't seemed to notice that they've attracted the attention of a fierce carnivore.




I couldn't help but post a pix of Stomper's favorite: the reticulated python. He loves the thing, and makes mention of it often. He's also under the impression that Bindy Irwin, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, is the owner of a reticulated python, and is anxious to make her aquaintence. He has even written her a letter (rather, he dictated it to me) and I am in search of a fan mail address to which I can send the letter. Anyway, I think he's got a thing for both Bindy and the snake.



All in all it was a really refreshing afternoon out in the cool air and sunshine. My children even commented about how hot it was outside. The day continued in a happy vein as we returned home and I made dinner and they actually ate it. Miracles do happen.

Funny Kids

Oh, these kids of mine. Does any body here know how to be a parent? I'm pretty sure I don't. I'm working on it, believe me, but there have been some days this week when I was out of ideas. My two darlings appear to hate each others' guts. I'm not kidding. About three days this week they have been like a terrier and a weasel every second they've been together. Even with one of them away at school or at play dates - no amount of time apart seems to be enough of a break. And then suddenly they'll just be sweet and play together. Of course, in this picture, they had to be asleep to be nice to each other:



This morning Stomper decided that he needed a bath. The rest of us were sitting at the table eating breakfast together and we heard him singing in the tub. I guess he liked the way his voice sounded with his ears under the water. I need you to know that I am swallowing some pride here in revealing the disgusting-ness of our bathroom...we're going to get to it, okay? Anyway, Stomper was hilarious. He went on and on and on - I just caught a little clip of him; I didn't want him to catch me filming him. Troy and I just sat at the table and laughed into our hands.

Doh! A Deer!

We had a visitor yesterday. We've had so much snow lately, the local wildlife doesn't quite know what do. As the snow started falling once again yesterday morning (as it is starting to do at this very moment) Troy looked up from the computer out the back window and spotted a deer in the back yard! We thought it was kind of cool and had a good time watching him/her walk around. It looked like a yearling or maybe a doe. Well, it was cool for a while, but as the day wore on and the deer did not go away, it got to be a bit of a pain. Dear Alex the puppy was not allowed to go outside, due to his carnivorous nature, and the longer we wouldn't let him out the more he wanted to go out. Troy did take him for a couple of potty breaks in the front yard on a leash, with which Alex was non-plussed. What's the fun of being put on a leash if you're not going to leave the front yard? I don't think Alex ever figured out what was back there because if he had , I can only assume he would have screamed like a wookie until he was hoarse. Yes, he really can scream like a wookie. He's not a barker, but he can make quite a ruckus when needed. The trouble with deer is that if they get freaked out they lose all ability to think clearly and start bashing their heads into fences trying to get away. So we couldn't do much but wait.

Even better was the fact that last night we held an enrichment meeting at my house, so our house was packed with 8 extra adults and a few extra children as well, and I couldn't just put the nosey nervous doggie outside. He hung out under everyones' legs, which is his refuge in times of anxiety. That was fun. Finally in the late late evening Troy put on his gaters and stealthily snuck into our neighbor's yard and approached the deer to shoo it away. It took a couple of tries, but he finally got it frantically dashing in the right direction and it headed out, along our street and up south temple. Where it headed after that, who knows. Maybe it will visit the governor.

Better!

Before:



After:



A major problem in our house is meeting the standard of "A place for everything and everything in its place." Here's my take-half-the-day, ignore-the-kids, gets-way-messier-before-it-gets-cleaner project for today. And I feel happy. Now, as soon as the kids go to bed I can pull out my scrapbooking stuff and make it a huge big mess all over again!

Funnies

Just a couple of funny stories -

Stomper is really on a roll as far as asking me questions. Deep, eternal questions like, "When I'm resurrected, how old will I be?" I think he just thinks about stuff like this all the time because all his conversations these days include Jesus, death and resurrection, and creation. It's all a bit over my head. On Saturday I was in a hurry, late as always, driving to a meeting at the church. Bitty was crying loudly in the back seat, my phone was ringing - friends at the church asking me to go back home and grab stuff they forgot - and through the mayhem Stomper insists on telling me his latest discovery. "Mom! Mom! I know how Jesus created dimetrodons! He got the body, screwed in the legs and head and glued on the sail!" Do YOU have any suggestions on how I'm supposed to respond to that? Especially while my other child is screaming and I'm trying to answer the phone and drive at the same time...

My other funny is all about me. Are you familiar with Jamie Oliver? British chef, has a new show called Jamie at Home, he's awesome. How can I describe his cooking style? Definitely more laid back and relaxed, very comfortable and very hands-all-over the food kind of cooking. And the food he makes is extremely ...what? Rich in flavor and variety of ingredients, he moves fast and furiously and passionately. Okay, I'll just say it. It's total food-porn for me. The way he just throws all these incredible dishes together...I can't move while I'm watching. The knitting needles in my hands come to a total standstill and a little puddle of drool forms in my lap as I'm watching. His shows are a half and hour and include several recipes but I find I have to limit myself to watching him make only one recipe a day. It's just obscene to watch more than that. Troy was a little disgusted with me last night as I shushed him while I watched Jamie make this gorgeous golden crusted pie with chunks of apple, fresh blackberries and candied ginger....he heaped a big slice of it on top of real custard and then dribbled it with the scarlet juices from the pie....oh my. I gotta go. Someone slap me and send me to weight watchers!

A Fond Farewell

It was my mother-in-law who called me last night around 8:30 to let me know that Gordon B. Hinckely, the prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, had passed away. I was totally shocked. I have noticed his decline in energy over the past year or so, but thought that we would be made aware of an admittance to the hospital or something. How wonderful for him to have lived such a full, eventful and fulfilling life and pass away without long painful illness or injury. I just wanted to express my love for this wonderful person, and my sadness at his departure from this life.

Park Day

Just because it snowed 8 inches yesterday is no reason to not go to the park, right? I was so grateful to get my friend's phone call this afternoon, as the empty day stretched ahead in the most depressing way. She said that she and her boys were bundling up and heading for the park. What a great idea. Now, it was COLD - this morning was 2 degrees below 0 - the coldest it's been here in years, and the high today was around 19. I'm also grateful for the good snow clothes my kids have right now because they stayed nice and dry and enjoyed some sledding, sliding, flailing and stomping in the piles of fluffy snow today. I was surprised at how long the kids lasted. I finally took Bitty home. She zonked out face down on the couch while I did dishes, and then our friends the Moores and the Grundvigs joined us for some inside play and hot chocolate. It worked out great. Some days my house gets really really small when that many people are over, but today the kids played pretty mellow-ly (?) in the livingroom while the mommies chatted in the kitchen. I thrive on days like that, you know? I'm so enjoying the snow we're getting - usually January is one long smoggy nightmare, but so far this year it's been totally bearable. Not that I'm not looking forward to the spring, but I think, like last summer, it's easier if you just enjoy what the season has to offer. So let's go get cold, baby!

Mr. Potts

I saw this video on youtube, and I just can't get it out of my mind - I loved it so much. It's a clip from the British show "Britain's Got Talent," with the infamous Simon Cowell on the judges panel. I love this clip not only because the man, Paul Potts, can sing, but because I love watching the looks of boredom, skepticism and disdain on the judges' faces just melt away into awe and respect. It gives me the chills.



P.S. Don't you think that hot British chick should replace Paula on American Idol? I sure do.

Creativity Gone Wild

It all started with a little art time for Bitty. She was bored, I needed to wash the dishes, so I got out the tray of watercolors, making sure to remove her shirt so it wouldn't get painted. Viola - there was the perfect blank canvas for her. Once Stomper came in the kitchen, I knew we were on a slippery slope, but hey, we're all about free expression and creativity over here! Two of my sister's girls were here, and with their artistic touch, we just went hog wild. And then we opened up shop at the Preslar mop-n-shower.

One Nutty Nutty Mutt

Our dog is crazy. Here's the story. Yesterday I decided to make lamb for dinner. I'm usually not a big fan of lamb, but I have this recipe my mom made me once long ago and I remember loving it, so I tried it. Just for the record, the recipe is great, but it turns out that I don't like lamb. I don't think I ever need to eat it again. Anyway,in the afternoon as I started browning and braising the meat, Alex went berserk. You're probably thinking he tried to climb the stove and steal the meat or something, but it was the opposite reaction. He started trying to climb out the front door. He ears were flat back, his tail was totally between his legs - these are not things he does often. Some dogs you look at the wrong way and their tail just goes right up there. Alex...you look at him the wrong way and he basically gives you the finger. So he's pretty much trying to claw his way out the front door. We opened up the back door and he slunk outside like we were about to beat him. Something about the smell of lamb totally freaks him out. Okay, it freaks me out a little bit too, but wow. Not only would Alex not come back in the house, he spent the rest of the day curled up under the trees in the farthest corner of our yard. And he still won't come in this morning. I scrubbed the kitchen down, and there is no lamb left in the house. But I can not get that dog back in our house. No offering tempts him within ten feet of the door. Weird.

An update on my feelings about my children: it's easier to love them when they're deathly ill, don't you think? Have no fear, my children are not actually anywhere near death, but Stomper sure had a rotten day yesterday. He's got some nasty combination of allergies and the pukies...the poor kid. He's doing better this morning, though still slightly feverish. But last night his little eyes were just red, he had huge circles under them, his skin was super pale, his little lips all parched....he looked awful! And he said cute things all day like, "Mom, my eyes just keep thinking it's nighttime!" He slept a lot during the day and then tucked himself into bed at 8:00. He's so skinny as it is that when he has a day of not eating and throwing up it kind of scares me. What a bony little man! Luckily Bitty has not appeared to have picked anything up, at least not yet. Stomper really seems to be struggling with something he's allergic too. I'm trying to get him in to an allergist, but that takes some time. Until then I guess we'll be enjoying a daily claritin cocktail and staying away from kitties. The real miracle of the day was that I spent the entire day inside the house with both kids and I was not insane by the time they went to bed. I was actually in a pretty good mood, believe it or not. I guess I really do like my kids after all!

Ups and Downs

Let's start with an up, shall we? In fact, let's start with two. First of all, last week or so I took the kids to the aquarium, way out on 7th East 106th South. We go there pretty often and I don't usually bother taking pictures, partly because it's really dark in there and hard to get a good shot, and partly because, you know, how many pictures of the aquarium do we need? However, I did have to post one because it is really hard to catch a shot of your kids petting the sting rays. On the day we were there the rays were so active, practically jumping out of the water all over the place, and both my kids got pretty hands-on with them, perhaps more so than they wanted to!



My other up for today (so far) is in the knitting world. I've been wanting to make a sweater for Chase and I found a pattern I'm excited about. I asked the women at the knitting store about it and they said it would be pretty simple, so I went ahead and bought the yarn for it. Well, when it came time for me to pull out the pattern and get started I had a real problem deciphering it at first. That would be because the waist band is all cable knit - you know, the rows that look like they're braided. I panicked. I am afraid of cables - they just seem complicated beyond belief. Then I just thought to myself, "Calm down! READ the pattern." I did, and I thought I could understand it - so I tried it out, and guess what! I could totally do it! I was so excited - it's a great feeling to me. Here's the waistband of the sweater:



Now, on to the downs. Do you, as a parent, ever feel vaguely like you have NO IDEA what you're doing? Are you ever blown away suddenly by the weight of what you are attempting? Trying to teach small children to grow up into good, responsible, compassionate and educated people? I know, I know, I'm probably doing fine, but sometimes it just seems overwhelming. And it is. Part of the heaviness for me right now, and I'm ashamed to say it, is that the kids are kind of making me bananas. Stomper in particular seems to have a never-ending supply of questions that I can't answer, (Mom, when is my lizard going to come out of his house?), requests that I can't grant, (Mom, can I have a pet octopus? Can we dig a really big hole for him in the back yard?), "What About's" that I don't understand, (Mom, what about my knees?) and best of all he must start every sentence with, "Mom?" He'll repeat my name 50 times, even if I'm looking right at him, until I say, "Yes?" And if he stops in the middle of a question and needs to start again he needs to say, "Mom?" again. Like this: "Mom, can we....Mom? Mom? Mom? Can we have a ...um, Mom? Mom?" You get the idea. Sometimes it feels to me just a little bit like someone has grabbed a lock of my hair and is now jumping up and down. I get rather tired of feeling like all of our interactions are negative, so I've really been striving for the positive moments with Stomper. Nice talks, praise, special activities...these are the times he chooses to scream in my face or ask me politely to please stop talking or interrupt with, "Mom, what about outer space?" Bitty's problem is more along the lines of going from happy to full-on screaming in about one nanosecond. So now I hang my head in shame as I confess my impatience with my children. I've been a bit down hearted.

But then come more ups - because Stomper and Bitty will be in the process of chipping away at my sanity one brain cell at a time and then suddenly change channels to charming, happy, resilient, sweet and loving children. These moments save their lives and mine. And I cherish them, I really do. Bitty is awesome at saying please and thank-you, and says it in the cutest way. "Oh, TANK-you, mom! TANK-you for the banana!" One morning she came racing out of the bedroom, saw her dad and said, "Oh, hi there Troy!" and went racing on by. So of course there are high moments and low moments. I just had to vent about the lows for a bit...okay, I'm ready for all your comments about what a good mom I am. Just kidding. Just tell me I'm not alone!

I'm no Windybrook

I have a friend known as Windybrook Spinner - she calls herself this because she nicknamed her home Windybrook (cute - I need a cottage name for my house! Nothing is coming to mind outside of Dusty Acre or Construction Central...surely there's something cuter than that for our little ramshakle hut o' love?) and because she's a spinner of wool into yarn. She's awesome, and I admire her knitting from afar. I have no hopes or aspirations to rise to her standard, but I did knit a sweater for Bitty. It only took me four months. That's a long time, by the way. But I'm pretty pleased that I finished an item of clothing that actually fits my daughter. It has plenty of flaws, but if you kind of squint you can't see them too well. If you want to be really impressed, check out my friend's website. Woah. Anyway, I LOVE knitting, as long as I'm not in the middle of fixing one of my frequent mistakes. I'm now going to start a sweater vest for Stomper...it should be done by next Christmas!

Good Flicks

I've had a nice weekend enjoying checking some movies off my list. (Yes, of course I really have a list of movies.) Friday night, after doing some rushing around with kids and knitting a bit at my sister's house, my friend TL and I made a hasty run for a 10:00 showing of Juno. Now, I don't know what everyone's tolerance is for the slightly crass, but if you can handle a little, go see this movie. There's plenty of gross teenager talk, but I found the characters enchanting and the story heartfelt. And the soundtrack completely quirky. I'm sure part of the reason I really liked it was the experience itself. It's been a long time since I've been in a theater that was even half full, and this evening it was pretty packed. There's something about a group of strangers laughing, and laughing hard, all together. Also being there with TL was great. She's such a good and sensitive friend. I was surprised at how the scenes such as the ultrasound and the birth of the baby were hard for me. She picked right up on that and put her arm around me. I think we cried a little together both for Matthew as well as the fact that she probably won't be having another baby due to medical stuff. "Stuff" being surviving breast cancer. You go, TL.

Saturday evening Troy and I enjoyed a date night together, with many thanks going to my in laws who took the kids for a really long time. We went out to dinner with our Mayfields and our growing friends the Gonzales's. We went to a restaurant in the gateway called Biaggi's...oh yum. Seriously yum. Italian food, really nice atmosphere. Wanna hear about our appetizer? (now, Margaret, you either need to skip ahead or prepare yourself. :)) Shredded duck sauteed with dried cherries and mushrooms and served over warm polenta. Drooling yet? You should be, because it was awesome. I had a butternut squash ravioli with butter sauce (call me Tubs) and walnuts. Misty and Mike both had this incredible black linguine with lobster. Joy! Okay, let's move beyond my food fetish. We enjoyed watching National Treasure 2. Not quite the indie film-genera like Juno, but it was exactly what I thought it would be and it was a ton of fun. My favorite was the London car chase.

So cheers to good friends and good movies, and here's hoping for many more!

Christmas Sledding Slideshow

Just a Couple of Grumps

I can't remember if this was last night or the night before, but one evening in our recent past Troy and I were both in the bathroom helping the kids get out of the tub. We were wrapping them in their towels and drying them off, stuff like that. I thought it was going rather well when suddenly Stomper looks at Troy and says, "So, are you two always going to be in a bad mood?" Troy and I just looked at each other first in surprise and then we just had to hold in our laughter. I thought it came out of the blue but Troy reminded me that a week or so ago he had gotten after Stomper for misbehaving while getting into his jammies and had said something like, "Have you noticed that your mom and I are in are really bad mood? We need you to cooperate!" So I guess he thought that the bad mood had just never ended. Glad he perceives what seemed to me like a pleasant evening as me being in a bad mood.

A Hunter on the Move

You may remember that Stomper received a lizard for his birthday - a leopard gecko who has been named T-Rex. Well, Stomper and T-Rex don't actually interact that much, although they share a bedroom. T-Rex is nocturnal, so that makes it a little rough, plus his care and feeding pretty much need to be done by an adult. He's a fun little pet though, and I know that Stomper loves him. He holds him every three or four days and that makes him happy. What I'm surprised about is how much Troy and I are enjoying him, minus the fact that I think it costs more to feed him that it does our dog. He's just fascinating to watch. Our favorite thing is putting crickets in his cage every evening. We were surprised to learn that a gecko will shake its tail like a rattlesnake before striking. It's pretty cool. I just had a make a video and post it to either gross you out or share in the fascinating circle of life going on at our house.

Bye Bye Gingerbread

This year as I was cleaning up Christmas, I couldn't decide what to do with our gingerbread house. It was a work of art, truly, but it's got to go at some point, right? The best idea I could come up with was to put it on the back porch and send out Stomper with a hammer. Now that's a good time.

Forgotten Details

I realized that I had to make note of a couple Christmas details I forgot. They're not especially big details, but I wanted to remember them. The first, as my sister reminded me, is about Bitty on Christmas day as she went sledding. She did go down the hill a few times on the lap of a grown up, and once or twice they tumbled into the snow. She was so optimistic about it - she'd tumble, hop up, and exclaim in surprise, "I'm okay!" I guess she liked the way this sounded or the laughs she got from it because she started throwing herself in the snow and saying loudly, "I'm okay!" Just added to the charm.

My other favorite part of Christmas this year was watching Stomper think about giving as well as getting. Don't get me wrong, he stewed long and hard about the gifts he wanted to receive, and talked about it more than I needed to hear. And I think the presents had only been unwrapped for three hours when he asked when Christmas Eve was coming again. But I was charmed when he approached me a couple weeks earlier about giving gifts to his sister and father. What was really amazing was that he didn't immediately assume that they'd want a dinosaur. He decided that his daddy would like a new saw and that his sister would like a talking Dora doll. I was so pleased that he thought about it and actually recognized what they might like. He and I had a fun outing, including a stop at The Sconecutter for scones and hot chocolate, shopping for their gifts. And on Christmas morning there was a gift that Stomper had picked out for me with his dad. It was a set of two really great knives - they're made by Kitchen Aide, I think, and they're sharp little buggers. And it was all his idea. I was proud of him.

Ten Years!

Yesterday, December the 30th, marked a big day for Troy and me; our 10 year anniversary! we decided to actually do something to celebrate. Most years we're so wiped out from Christmas and New Year's and stuff that we will MAYBE go out to dinner or something. This year with the kids being a little older we had them sleep over at Margaret's house (THANK YOU!) and we went for a sleepover of our own at the Hotel Monaco. It was super fun. Indian food from the Himalayan Kitchen downtown, (not quite Bombay House, but pretty good) and breakfast at the Emigration Market cafe, and most importantly a snuggly soft bed with no kids in it or anywhere near it. Sleeping in. Fantastic.

I just want you to know that I have the greatest husband on the planet and I'm not quite sure how I lucked out enough to marry him, but somehow I did, and it's been the greatest blessing in my life. I love you, Troy. There, now it's recorded for posterity.

Christmas!!!!!.....is over.

Isn't it amazing how you take at least a month or two to carefully prepare for this holiday? We shop, we decorate, we plan, we pick carefully the gifts to give our children, our spouses, our neighbors. It takes some serious effort, you know? And come Christmas morning the family has it all torn apart in about 30 minutes! 45 if you're lucky. We did have a good time, though.

Christmas Eve was a fun day with delivering gifts to the neighbors and making cookies. We spent the evening at my sister's house with everyone except Adam's family. We enjoyed our traditional Mexican feast of posole, fresh tortillas and black bean salad. Other years we've gone all out with sopes, homemade refried beans and fire roasted vegetables and great stuff like that. We just didn't feel like going to that effort and mess this time, which was fine. We really enjoyed what we had. Our kids were so wiped out that we left early and put them to bed early. What better Christmas present is there than that? I had some new Christmas jammies for them as well as a book, "Snowmen at Christmas." I think a new children's book every year is a great idea. Anyway, Bitty was falling asleep so fast and hard that I could barely get her to open the gifts. Stomper was in bed with his eyes closing before I remembered that we hadn't set out any cookies or milk for Santa. Me being me, I made him get back up out of bed to go with his dad to set them out. Troy and I then enjoyed a lovely evening by the fire watching Christmas movies, drinking eggnog, wrapping a few remaining presents...doesn't that just sound perfect? It was.

Christmas morning began for us at four a.m. when Stomper came in our room to let us know that Santa had indeed arrived and delivered presents. And it was time to open them. We convinced him to wait at least until dawn. He climbed into our bed and Troy went and got into his. I dozed between to floppy kids for another couple of hours before giving up. Stomper was up again at 7:30 or so, and it was quite the struggle to keep him from opening his gifts before Troy's parents came and Bitty was awake, but we managed it. I had this idea that we should enter the living room all together for the first time, but Stomper was not to be stopped. Finally the grandparents came and we woke up Bitty so the paper tearing could commence. Nice morning. It's so hard every year to find that balance between giving the kids what they want and what would make them happy, and giving them just too much stuff. I think we did well this year.



The really magical part of Christmas Day came later at my parent's house (that would be day FOUR in a row of parties with my family, by the way....) when we went at noon for an omelet brunch. We were lazy and sleepy on the floor for a while, but then we whipped out the sleds and the fun began. Luckily I have managed to gather some really great snow clothes for my kids. Seriously, the trick to fun in the great outdoors is good gear, because if you're cold and wet, no sledding is fun. Both the kids were warm and dry, and my parent's yard provided the absolutely perfect sledding hill, a foot deep in fluffy powder. The hill down is steep enough to be fun, but not so long that the kids won't climb back up it without getting exhausted. We had so much fun, and the real champ was Stomper. He had an inflated sled with handles, and the kid must have made 50 runs. He would climb up the hill to the top and immediately jump right back on the sled, sitting or flopped on his belly, and go screaming down again. He never cried when he tumbled into the snow, he never had to be carried, he just went around and around and around. Bitty did well too, though she only got on a sled a few times. She was packed into this great big purple-checked snowsuit I found at Kid-2-Kid, reminiscent of Randy in A Christmas Story, but she was as happy as a puppy just rolling around in the snow. We were out there for at least an hour and a half, and then when we came in Troy stayed out for another hour perfecting a banked curve to make a turn from the very top of the hill. Great sledding. Unfortunately, my brother has all the pictures so I'll post a slideshow when he sends them to me.

We ended up staying at my parent's house until the night. The kids and I bundled up on the bed downstairs and watched A Muppet's Christmas Carol and we all played Cranium...I'll tell you, my brother Adam and I have an almost creepy ability together at games like that. We're a good team. Anyway, it was a fantastic day and I'm so grateful for wonderful friends and family that surround us.

The rest of the week and weekend cruised by with more festivities including a trip to the aquarium with the Grundvigs, more cousin time and more sledding. We also held the annual Preslar family Saturday-after-Christmas gathering with MORE presents (holy loot - time to be done with new stuff for the kids!) and good food and fun together. Stomper received from his Grandparents a giant rubber t-rex that is about two feet tall. It's huge. We need to build an addition for it. We had all of the grandchildren together for the first time in a very long time.


At the Aquarium with the Grundvigs


All the Preslar cousins...not a great photo, but it's what we've got!

So I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year - I am compelled to again express my deep and humble gratitude for all the fantastic people in my life, especially my family. I am so blessed and feel much love for life.

Catching Up

Here we are, on Christmas Eve, and all I want to do is blog! We've had so many fun things going on the past couple of weeks and I just can't seem to find a time to sit down and type a little bit. Partly that's because I've been up to my eyeballs in projects that I shouldn't have been doing (as per usual) and I finally got them all squared away.

The first item on my agenda is to rename my children. I'm really sick of this "CTP" and "RAP" stuff, so I've decided to come up with some nicknames for them. From now on, my 5-year-old son, formerly known as CTP, will henceforth be known as "Stomper," due to his adoration and constant imitation of dinosaurs. And my 2-year-old daughter, formerly known as "RAP" shall be dubbed "Bitty," because that's what I call her all the time. There.

I wanted to post some funny videos of Bitty. The first one is of her having a conversation with Troy's t-shirt. He's got this t-shirt with a flaming skull on it, and I think one evening while I was gone and she was upset, he distracted her by putting his hand under his shirt, making the figure bounce around and talking for it. They named him "Edgar the Friendly Monster," and now every time he puts on the shirt she'll go chat with Edgar for a minute. The second video is of her telling a story, and it's just cute. She's been really into stories lately - especially one about jingle bells being stolen by a dinosaur and taken to his castle. Love it.








A funny Stomper story from the week - he's gotten really into Godzilla. I guess his buddy has a couple Godzilla books he was showing him and they both just got sucked in. I guess it's a natural progression from dinosaurs to superhero monsters. Coincidentally, Troy was flipping through the channels and found the Godzilla movie with Matthew Broderick that was made a few years ago. Stomper was of course immediately enchanted, and we let him watch it. Well, in the old stories Godzilla is a good guy who saves people. I guess. That's what I remember from the Saturday morning cartoons - Godzilla and Gadzooks! Remember? Anyway, in this movie, Godzilla is just a big destructive monster and everyone is trying to kill him. Stomper was rooting for Godzilla the whole time, yelling for him to bust through walls and stuff. Sadly, at the end, I believe Godzilla gets wiped out. The last two or three minutes were cut off, so I don't quite remember, but all we saw was a dead Godzilla. Stomper turned to me, quivering lip and brimming tears, and said, "I didn't want Godzilla to die." And then he started sobbing. And sobbing. I just rocked him for a long time. Remind me to never let him see Old Yeller or Where the Red Fern grows. He was so sad!

We had a great storm this week. I have been so excited this month because we have had a pretty snowy December, and it's just so Christmassy! But last week the snow started melting a lot, enough for me to do some raking of all the leaves that got trapped under the snow. Our favorite weather man Kevin Eubanks kept predicting snow, and once even wore the white coat, indicating snow the next day, and it didn't happen. He wore it on Thursday night again, and we were doubtful that any snow would really show up. Friday was this super warm and windy day, and when I went to the pharmacy at 4:30 in the afternoon I could see blue sky. Admittedly the line at the pharmacy was pretty long, but I was shocked to find when I left that Kevin's predicted storm had arrived, and how. It was like we got hit with a baseball bat. The temperature totally plummeted and we started with a hail storm of mighty fury. Then in settled into a nice long snow that gave us at least five or six inches to coat our town in white again. It's been cold ever since, keeping the branches packed. And what I'm really excited about, especially now that both of my brothers and their families have arrived safely in SLC, is that we're to get another 2-4 inches this evening. A snowy Christmas eve! How fabulous!

It's been such a busy month, plus dealing with Bitty's sleeping, meaning that I never let her nap so she'll go to bed before the next day, I'm a little disappointed that we haven't been able to do some of the things that I wanted to for Christmas. I of course wanted to take the kids downtown to see the lights at Temple Square, and the lights at the zoo, and the fun stuff going on at Wheeler Farm like Santa and wagon rides and hot chocolate and stuff. I just couldn't make it work with the freezing cold evenings and napless days, and being up to my eyeballs in a teddy-bear project. I'm sad, but you know, I think we'll live. We're all still excited about the holiday and are really enjoying our family, and what's more important than that? Next year will be better for all that stuff because our kids will be bigger but not too big yet, you know?

Last night we had a really fun party at my parent's house. My entire family was there, which hasn't happened for at least two years. It was so fun to have us all together. Adam and Whitley and Peter and Sheri got to meet each other's babies for the first time, we had Kent Miles, a really great photographer, come and take pictures of our family, we had really great food (I made it, so what else could you expect, right?) and we exchanged gifts. The winner gift of the evening was an evil plot developed between Adam and myself where we orchestrated for his son and Stomper to receive mini-marshmallow shooters. Adam and Margaret and I did a lot of pre-party laughing as we imagined my father's reaction to the shooters - you load them with mini-marshmallows and the pump them up and they fire the things all over the place. Dad's reaction lived up to our expectations. He was not so excited about them. I didn't actually see any veins in his forehead pulsing, but it was close. But really, the little kids gobbled up the marshmallows as fast as Smith and Stomper could fire them. Here's Dad:



And here's the gunmen:



We really had a fun evening, enjoying our family. Tonight holds more family time, as does tomorrow, and I'm sure by then we'll be about familied out. Merry Christmas to you all, with much love and gratitude.

Here's some more pix from the evening:

Joy to the King's Singers

I am such a lucky girl. Every year the Mormon Tabernacle Choir puts on a huge Christmas concert in the conference center, and invite some fabulous guest to join them. A few years ago it was Angela Lansbury, and two years ago I got to go hear Audra McDonald, whom I adore. This year the featured guest was the King's Singers - a group of six male vocalists, founded in 1968. Of course none of the original people are still in the group, but they have managed to keep the same sound with all of the changes over the years. Anyway, I really really wanted to go hear them sing, but it's super hard to get tickets to this concert. In years past you've had to wait in long lines or sit on the phone for forever, but this year they decided to make a lottery - you enter in your email address and preferred date of attendance, and cross your fingers. I was not one of the lucky winners. Neither were my parents, in fact, but they seem to have a lot of connections because they did manage to get four tickets through a friend who couldn't use theirs. Yesterday morning Mom came over to help me with the kids for a bit, and asked if we knew anyone who would like two tickets because they couldn't find anyone to go with them. HELLO!! ME!!!! Troy offered to watch the kids so I could go with a friend. I never did find anyone who could join me, so I ended up having an evening with just me and my folks. It was so fun. And the concert was lovely. Beyond lovely. It was gorgeous. The conference center was totally decked out, the stage set up like a miniature Christmas village, dripping in poinsettias and lights. The music was other-wordly - I can't wait to buy the cd next Christmas.

I guess my parents' ticket connection is a big-shot because we were in the front and center section, seated about 20 rows behind President Hinckley and his family, and right next to the new member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Elder Cook. Wow. Talk about great seats. The best part of the evening for me was spying some dear friends a few rows ahead - friends who lived in our neighborhood a few years ago and ended up moving to Texas for school, whereupon we lost touch with each other. I spied them just as the lights were going down and I waited patiently through the whole concert, though I was wanting to leap out of my seat and climb over the people in front of me to get to them. When the show was over I really did almost knock down a few people on my way forward, but luckily no one was injured and I enjoyed a fantastic reunion with my dear friends, the Binghams. I just love them. And the best part is that they're back in Utah, so we are hoping to reconnect again after Christmas. Moments like those just make me so grateful for my life, so richly blessed with friends. And the heavenly music we heard sent my soul flying into happy Christmas-ness.

Here is a video of The King's Singers with all of the same members that I heard last night:

Shopping Nightmares

I had several ideas for the title of this post like a possible headline, "Heroic Dad Leads to Serious Nightmares," or perhaps what you already know, "Rachel is still crazy." I couldn't decide. Here's the story.

Hail to Troy! Yesterday he took a day off, the first of many, I think, due to the fact that he has a ton of PTO left and he wants to keep working on our little house. He decided to give the first day to me. All to me. Isn't he fabulous? Of course I had images, dancing like sugarplums in my head, of movies or a nice long nap or bath, but I forced myself to let them go and face reality. What I wanted most was to check off as many things of my uber-list as I possibly could, most importantly finishing the Christmas shopping. In the morning we all kind of hung out together, Troy entertaining the kids while I did the filing and stuff like that. I think I checked off like four things...joy!

One funny moment of the morning was CTP informing us that he would not be going to preschool that day due to the fact that Miss Valle, one of his two teachers, had yelled at him. Upon our questioning as to why she had been yelling, he got very sheepish and didn't want to tell us. The poor kid hung his head and slunk away like a little dog. We talked to him for a while, and he finally confessed his major transgression. "I tweaked Caleb's nose." Does this strike anyone else as being extremely funny? It did us.

Anyway, in the afternoon I did take C to school to help him do a little presentation about our family's favorite Christmas traditions, but after that, I had hours to myself to shop. I still had a glimmer of hope in my head that it wouldn't be too bad, that I'd have time to take a book into Paradise Bakery and sit down for a while or something heavenly like that. It was not to be. I'll just say that when any shopping trip involves trips to two separate Walmarts, you know you're screwed. The Romney family is doing some sub-for-santa gifts this year, and I was doing quite a bit of the shopping, and had a real problem locating some of the gifts. Does anyone know what a "matchmaker" is? One list just said, "matchmaker" and I can't find, even on line, what that is. And it's hard to randomly choose clothing for someone you've never met before. I know, I'll be okay, but I was going to a lot of places to try to find what these little girls wanted.

I have been shocked at the crazy-ness of the stores this season. Every time I've tried to nip in a store, in the middle of the week in the middle of the day, every place I've been has been packed. Yesterday I was going a little nuts waiting for parking spots, getting stuck in traffic (no kidding!) and being in long long lines behind little ladies who want to apply for credit cards to get the extra 10% off. I remained grateful to be doing the shopping without my kids, but my mood did slide downwards all afternoon until finally I was about to lose it. I realized that I wasn't thinking about Jesus very much as I was racing my shopping cart down the isle and hurling things into the basket, or as I was speeding down the street starving and finally giving up on my dream of a pleasant solo lunch, pulling a little too quickly into the drive-through of the first fast-food place I could find. I tried to breathe calmly and remember why I was racing around like this, and I felt a little better.

That is, I thought I did until I woke up nearly screaming from a nightmare this morning. Does anyone besides me have "out of control" nightmares? In my dream our family all woke up this morning and it was suddenly Christmas morning. We went into the empty living room, whereupon I panicked, realizing that I hadn't wrapped a single gift. I told Troy to distract the kids while I ran upstairs to wrap stuff. That's when people starting coming over - like some know-it-all guy who watched me try to wrap gifts and yell at the kids at the same time as they kept coming upstairs. His offerings of useless parenting advice about made me crazy. More and more people came, friends & strangers, and just sat and watched or wanted to talk or wanted me to feed them. No one wanted to help, which would have been nice because none of the tape would come off the roll, none of the wrapping paper was big enough to go around the boxes, and my children insisted on continually coming upstairs to see what I was doing... Please tell me you have these kinds of dreams too. It was similar to the Easter Dinner dream I had where Oprah was with me in the kitchen to "help" but spent the whole time tasting my cooking and making witty comments to her camera crew, as more and more people showed up for dinner, the only food items they brought being things like a dish of olives or a box of toothpicks. Also the ovens didn't work. Stuff like that.

I don't know what else to say now that I have further revealed my mental problems. All I know is that I'm getting the wrapping done this week. Now that the shopping is done, I can do that. Thanks again, Troy. Next year, I'm shopping in June.

Gingerbread Adventures

I think we have started a new tradition that I hope we do every year. Last night was the second annual "Evening of Gingerbread Mayhem" with our dear friends the Mayfields. Last year Misty was just a week or so away from delivering their fourth child, and spent the evening vomiting, due to the stomach flu. Good times! This year we each had two gingerbread projects, she with a train and a house, while I had a tree and a house. We made many jokes about not wanting to let our kids help and thus ruin everything. We did manage to let the kids get into it a little bit, but with their "help," a crying 1-year-old, chatting dads, plus one large trumpet/kazoo in RAP's mouth, we decided to cut the evening a little short. We really did have a good time, though. Next year I think we'll let the kids totally do one house, glopping it up with as much candy and frosting as they want, symmetry be damned, and then then Misty and I can stay up late all by ourselves and make our perfectionist little houses just like we want to. Is it a plan, Mist?



By the way, my mom gave us a cool advent calendar a couple of years ago that is a Noah's Ark scene, and every day one more animal gets hung up on it. CTP is loving it - it's been one of the only things that is helping him understand when Christmas is actually coming. What I love is that he never forgets each morning to place another animal on the ark. He'll often get up first and take care of it quietly before any of us even know about it. It's not very ceremonial, but a little job he thinks about each day. He never tries to put up more than one animal, either. It's been really fun this year. I think I'll try to find another one for RAP next year so they're not fighting over who gets to put up the animal each day. Or I guess I could try some parenting and encourage them to share, take turns, all that baloney.

This week has been INSANE - packed with morning and afternoon playdates, school-time playdates for R, church parties, gatherings with friends - literally like 4 or 5 things a day. I think C is starting to show the strain, and I'm looking forward to a quieter weekend. We don't have that much going on next week either, but knowing me, I'm sure to pack it in. What it's all making me think about is how blessed we are in friends and family. We don't have enough time in the day to spend with all the people we love, and all the ways we want to celebrate this beautiful season. I couldn't be richer if I had the world. I'm so grateful for the people in my life.