Christmas! (almost two months late)

We actually celebrated sometime during the first full week of January. While it wasn't a up to full Christmas standard - it was after all the first time we celebrated with just our own little family and it was right after a move - it was great for a first go.

A few days before we celebrated (and about three days after we moved in and were mostly settled) we set up the tree. I put hooks on the ornaments while the kids were free to put them anywhere on the tree. I think next year we will have a talk about balance and distribution...

As you can see there are a few clusters of ornaments. In fact, once when tell Dallas to put one on the tree I specifically said to not put it on a branch with another and to spread the ornaments out, so he put it on the branch right next to it instead

Ok, I admit it! I put some of the ornaments on the tree...

We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner of meatballs, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and corn with strawberries and grapes to finish it off and sparkling apple, peach, pear, and grape to drink. (Chey likes to call it "sparkly juice")

I have found my kids love asparagus and I am extremely happy about it.

Also note the festive tablecloth (that is still on our table to this day). I am growing leaps and bounds in homemaking/interior decorating

This is about where the story ends however. Neither Cam nor I remembered to pull out the camera Christmas morning... I told you we are still learning!

Something Dallas got for Christmas/his birthday was a bike and he enjoys new challenge (he has never ridden a two-wheeled bike before... don't get too excited, it has training wheels).

The first time it was ever ridden was to the park. I realized after we started that the way to the park is on a slight incline the entire way. Dallas had to climb that learning curve fast! Then on the way home he was given the chance to work on braking. While at the park he got some practice on the mostly flat pathway.

On the trail in the park. Chey was walking faster than he was riding.

On the sidewalk heading home, he starting picking up speed. He is still wary of going much faster than a run but he sure loves it!

You may notice the weather in those pictures looks not very wintery. We had a week or two of fairly warm, dry weather in beginning/mid January. Since then the snow, rain, cold, and wind have all shown their face and it is no longer very good bike riding weather.

Halloween

Halloween this year was some carving pumpkins, trunk-or-treat at the ward party where Dallas also tried his hand at eating a donut on a string (he gave up after two nibbles), and the Children's Museum "Enchanted Woods" event.

The "Enchanted Woods" was done in the middle of October. The children gathered at the entrance of the museum where King Aurthur sent them on a quest in search of the Golden Rose (if you ask Dallas what they were looking for on their quest, he will still tell you, "the Golden Rose"). They were to ask those they met for assistance and to give them any assistance that they could, because the kids were knights (Aurthur knighted them before they embarked on the quest) and knights always help those around them. The children traveled through the museum meeting Robin Hood, Long John Silver, Humpty Dumpty, Dorothy and the Scarecrow, and many other storybook characters. They helped everyone they met and in return the kids got information on where to find the Golden Rose (if the character knew anything) and a little treat (donated to the museum by local businesses: some small toys or coupons or candy... one stop gave them all schoolboy apples from a local farm). It was very fun for the kids and taught them a few good lessons as well. I have no pictures from that day... not good planning on my part.

Dallas' favorite song is "What's This" from Tim Burtons "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Dallas has never seen the movie, but he loves that song (and can sing most of it himself). When it was time to carve the pumpkin we went online to glean ideas from free pumpkin templates. One template was Jack Skelington, the main character, and singer of "What's This", on "Nightmare Before Christmas". Dallas was sold. He wanted a "Jack" pumpkin. So I gave it a whirl.
Unfortunatly, Jack has a stitched mouth which is fairly difficult to carve into a pumpkin, but it all worked out, although Jack is missing a few teeth...


The ward night I again didn't bring the camera with me so you don't get to see Chelane wearing her Trick-or-Treat bag around her neck and pointing to it when asking for candy or Dallas trying to eat the donut on a string. We must be content with pictures in really bad lighting instead...

Dallas got to be Woody this year and Chelane was stuck using his old Buzz Lightyear costume from last year. She did love being Buzz, although she was mistaken for a boy a lot.

These pictures are after the Trunk-or-Treat. Chelane wanted her face painted, which she didn't hold too still for and didn't keep her hands off afterwards... oh well, I should have seen that coming! Dallas has a Chinese yo-yo in his hand. He LOVED playing with it until he (or his sister) pulled the paper off.

The kids weren't the only one who dressed up. I came almost straight from work and didn't bother doing anything fun. However, Cam went all out. He grew out his hair and sideburns since mid-September when Dallas mentioned he wanted Dad to be Wolverine from X-Men for Halloween. Cam visited a local cosmetology school right before the Trunk-or-Treat to get the hair right.


He finished the look off with a flannel, jeans, his leather jacket, and old army dog-tags.

Please excuse the deer-in-the-headlights look, I really have no idea how that happened! This may be a costume we just improve upon every year, Cam had lots of fun dressing up!

Christmas PJ's

I have a sometimes bad habit of taking pictures of things with the intent to blog... and then it doesn't happen. I happened upon this beauty:



It is a family tradition (like in many families I am realizing) to make (or purchase) new PJ's for Christmas. This year Cameron and I braved the early morning Black Friday at JoAnne's Fabric (where we spent two and a half hours, split between the cutting line and the register) to buy flannel at $1.50/yd.

Dallas has been into rockets and things "blasting off" ever since this summer. It may have had something to do with launching homemade model rockets on the Fourth of July... even though, at the time, the sound was very scary to him.

Cam and I count to three after we ask Dallas to stop doing something before we enforce (you know, the time you give the child to make the correct choice on their own... or maybe it is the time you give yourself, silently pleading that they WILL do the right thing on their own so you don't have to get up and clean up yet another mess...). At times Dallas will end our stern "three" with a "blast off" or a blast-off sound.

So when we were in JoAnne's and I found an amazing spaceship/rocket/outer-space themed flannel print, I was ecstatic.

At home when I pulled all the flannel out and started making Chelane's pair, Dallas moseyed over and saw his print. He didn't let go of it for well over an hour.

I was thinking "SCORE!" If only I can be this in tune with what he likes once he hits his teenage years...

Happy Birthday Chelane!

This did happen back on September 30th but with being in Canada, I am just now getting around to writing and sharing pictures about it. (sorry the pictures are pixely or something, they do look better if you click on them and view them full-sized)
Here is the ever-happy birthday girl with her birthday cupcake. I remember Dallas and my little brother's first birthdays both ended in tears and un-touched cake (unless someone making them touch it counts). Chelane was completely different.


As you can see she adored the attention.


And couldn't wait to dig into the cake. (Yeah I started to freak a little too with how close she came to touching fire and hot wax; but, hey, that is the hazard of having a birthday party... we live on the edge).


Big brother Dallas approaching an oblivious Chelane. Yes, he blew out the candle.


After the candle and paper was removed Chelane began to inspect the sprinkle laden cupcake.




Either she really inhaled it that fast or I stopped taking pictures... It reminds me of my first birthday picture (apparently I liked the cake so much I tried to eat the plate). Such a happy girl on her birthday!

We're Back

We are back! In the Seattle area, that is. I should have posted this a few days ago. We drove through the night,leaving at about 7:45PM on the 30th to arrive about 6:30AM the 31st. Cam and I had never driven through the night before and while Cam survived gallantly I lost it about 4:30 right after we crossed the border leaving Cam to, so I have heard, brave a torrential downpour with blinding rain. Apparently he was fearing for all our lives.

Cam let me sleep until about 10:30AM after we arrived at my parents' house at which time he slept until about 1PM; then we went for another car ride to see my brother, Jeremy, and his family to go trick or treating. Dallas was Buzz Lightyear, I will have to post some pictures of that soon.

Driving through the night really got Cam and I in the Halloween mood, we were both zombies for the rest of the day! (Bad joke, sorry!)

Spring Break!

I am loving this Spring Break thing. I get to spend the days with my kids and hubby (and other assorted family members depending on the day)! I have also planned to make this a very productive week (ie doing all the things I have been putting off for the last month or two).

I get to do some outdoor/lawn work as well as starting the garden(!!) Dad bought some already started tomato, zucchini, and lettuce plants that can be put in the ground soon. He also wants some bushes ripped up and the gate to the fence finished. Cam will need to do a bit of the outside work too, but since I am here to watch the kids he is free to.

I will be home to take Dallas to the park in the afternoon if we want (the weather should be in the 60's on Monday). Hopefully we can hit the Science Center or Zoo or Pike's Place sometime this week too.

On Monday I am getting fingerprinted for my paraeducator job (I sorta needed to do that within about ten days of being hired...). I also need to be fingerprinted for my Washington Teaching Certification application that I have (finally) finished. Luckily I can do it all at the same time for only one fee and I have to be fingerprinted at the building I need to turn the application into so it works out beautifully. Then I can start on my application to the Auburn School District (they have a middle school AND high school math teacher opening for next year).

Wednesday it my most exciting day (of things arleady scheduled). I go to the dentist at 7am (and I am ECSTATIC about it, not kidding at all), hopefully schedule another dentist appointment for later this week, and then get my haircut at 10am. I am very ready for a hair change. Cam says he doesn't care what I do with it and when I warned him I may come back with it shorter than his he didn't bat an eye. I just can't keep it long. It gives me headaches when there is too much weight on my head. And I just put it up in a ponytail all the time (which causes worse headaches). I am thinking of a Keira Knightly thing (when she had short hair) or the current Natalie Portman.

Thursday the SKIP therapists are doing a home visit/evaluation to start Dallas' speech therapy. I am very happy I will be home for it. We are also scheduling them so they can be done in the evenings after I am home from work. I am hoping we can get Dallas to be more verbal.

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was one of the most memorable Valentine's Days I think I will EVER have! I apologize that there are no picutres with this post, but then again you are probably happy I didn't post any after you hear about the day...

Cameron's brother was coming into town with his new flame. The plan was to go out to lunch, maybe spend the afternoon around the mall, and then attend a church sponsored dinner/dance in the evening. Nothing fancy but I was looking forward to it (plus there were some clothes I needed to return to the mall, we had a gift card to the restaurant, and the church function would be free; really how could you get a better, relaxing Saturday than that?).

I will have to say I am so happy we had kids, it keeps life interesting. I am now either ready way in advance which allows me to be early/on-time to things, or we are embarrassingly late. Something always seems to come up and the only way to deal is to plan for the unexpected (which requires you to give yourself 10-20 extra minutes) and be flexible.

Two kids make this much more fun.

We were riding to the restaurant in two separate cars (having two kids also allows for only one (very small and quite uncomfortable) extra passenger in our compact car) when Dallas decides he needs to throw-up. I will spare you all the details for those with weak stomachs, but let me say there was a LOT of it. We pulled over to assess the damage and deemed it inappropriate to continue on to a restaurant. Cam stayed with his brother and company (who hadn't eaten any lunch yet) while I turned around and took Dallas home (with all the windows rolled down and the heater turned on full blast). Mercifully, Chelane fell asleep.

I stripped Dallas down to his diaper in the backyard, wiping off his hands, mouth, and neck with a clean corner of his undershirt. Grandma was nice enough to take him inside to bathe him while I hosed down (literally) his clothes and completely dismantled carseat (I took out the straps and everything). Then I tackled the small amount that leaked through the carseat onto the car seat. After coming inside I started a batch of laundry and let my frozen feet thaw out (I did all the hosing off barefoot).

We figured Dallas throwing up was a fluke. He had been sticking his whole hand in his mouth and practically down his throat the last few weeks and gagging himself (darn adventurous kids). We thought he had just gotten really bored in the car and gone all the way this time. We were still planning on the dinner/dance (and maybe a little bit of mall going). Jeremy brought some pizza to the house for lunch/afternoon snack/dinner (it was about 5pm) and Dallas ate it just fine. Ten minutes later Cam starts yelling at me to hurry upstairs.

Regurgitated pizza is not a fun sight, nor fun to clean-up, but it sure can clear seven people out of a room quickly. Cam isn't much help when kids start to chuck their cookies. He is a little empathetic and it starts his gag reflex up. I was trying to decide if I should bathe off Dallas first or tackle the carpet when Jeremy started to clean up the carpet without any provocation and I was able to bathe Dallas and start (another) batch of laundry. (As a little side note here I am SO thankful for washing machines and running water. I think episodes like this really put things like that into perspective. Since I am talking about being grateful for inanimate objects I should express love for family that helps unselfishly with things like this too!). After his bath Dallas threw up again downstairs (we caught most of it in a bowl) and he was banished to the bathroom (Grandma was tired of throw-up landing on her carpet, and really, who could blame her?).

Well we pretty much wrote off doing anything that night. The dinner was suppose to start at 6:30pm (seating at 6:15) and 7pm was rolling around. If you know anything about me you could figure that I was stressed not to mention tired. Dallas' last bout was pretty much just clear liquid and we figured his tummy was empty. He wasn't running a temperature either. He was doing a good job not throwing up while playing in the bathroom so we eventually let him out.

At about 7:30pm Cam's brother and company were trying to decide if they should just go when Grandma insisted that we all go to the dinner/dance, the dance wouldn't be starting yet anyway, and enjoy ourselves; she would watch Dallas. So we did. They were still serving dinner when we got there, so those of us that were hungry were able to eat. We even spent a few hours dancing afterwards. Cam says he has no sense of rhythem, but he is a good enough sport to dance with me anyway. We really did have a great time after all was said and done (I even was laughing, which after a day like that is an achievment for me), although I don't know how much fun Grandma and Grandpa had with Dallas.

I am so thankful for a loving and close family. And I apologize profusly to my brother's and sister's kids that Grandma and Grandpa were watching yesterday if any of them get sick. We didn't plan this, we swear!

(And incase you are worried, Dallas didn't throw up all night (and slept really well) and has eaten some toast, a tiny bit of egg, and some cheerios today with great success. Hopefully the throwing up is over.)

Recooperation

It has been a long while since the last post. I apologize. Cam and I took the kids up to Vanderhoof, British Columbia for Christmas. It was pretty cold, and "warmed-up" to about 20 degrees F near the end of the visit (it had been negative 20 degrees near the time we arrived). Cam's sister had a snowsuit and gloves her boys had outgrown so Dallas was able to go sledding and play in the abundant snow.

Cam took Dallas outside to play, did odd jobs for his parents around the house, took the kids and me around to visit his friends, and participated in a basketball tournament at his old high school. The tournament was all alumni (or current faculty) and the current varsity team. The alumni were split into three groups: the fresh out of high school (I am guessing 20 and under), Cam's age (20-30ish), and the well experienced (30+). They did a "round robin" thing (so each team played 3 games, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening) with and hour or so break in between. Dallas, Chelane and I made it to the 4th quarter on of each game and sometimes saw the whole 2nd half. Well, Cam's team went undefeated. It seemed that they had pretty steady energy and most other teams peaked around half-time and peetered out by the end. Anyway Cam seemed to have lots of fun at his old stomping ground.

I spent most of the time sewing. I made Dallas some PJ's (Cam's mom did the arms for me though), and 3 flannel blankets for Chelane. Cam's mom made Dallas a stick horse head (that we still need to stuff and put on a stick). We also managed to find Cam's old teddy bear and stuffed monkey named "Chee-Chee" that Cam's mom generously fixed up and laundered till they looked practically new (I took them home with us).

Dallas spent lots of time playing with his five and three year-old boy cousins that live close by and exploring the basement of the house. We didn't bring a booster seat for him so I am sad to say he lived off of cereal for most of the vacation (it was impossible to make him sit for an extended period of time and eat). He also started to sing along with hymns at church (before you get too excited let me tell you he isn't saying any lyrics or even staying with the melody, he just sort of sustains a note...)

Chelane was held and fought over by uncles and aunts and grandma and kept mostly indoors and wrapped in blankets.

I am sure I will take and post some pictures soon, but for now we are still trying to get settled in and I need to clean out the camera... we don't have a memory stick so I holds about ten photos...

The Christmas Debate

When should you start Christmas preliminaries? After Halloween or after Thanksgiving? I can see both sides of the fence in this one.

Growing up we were not allowed to play Christmas music or put up any decorations before the Friday following Thanksgiving. Of course on that Friday all Christmas-ness broke loose as we climb up to the loft in the top of my parent's garage to fish out all thing Christmas. My sister would make sure that Christmas music was playing bright and earl. We put up our fake tree, decorated the downstairs with my mom's collection of Nativities, and (sometimes) put the lights up outside.

I asked my mom one year why we had to wait until after Thanksgiving and she gave me a very astute (as always) answer. It is to give Thanksgiving a fair shake (that is me paraphrasing). The more I think about it the more I agree that Thanksgiving does get swallowed up by Christmas too often. In stores the day after Halloween all the Christmas things get put out (if they weren't out already) and, in some cases, Christmas music goes on the radio. I can understand the stores' reasoning: unless you are a grocery store, you get more revenue from Halloween and Christmas than Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a very important holiday though. Even if you don't want to celebrate the Native-Americans-save-the-English-settlers bit just the idea of having a day of the year soley devoted to thinking about all your blessings and to be especially grateful towards you Heavenly Father is, I think, a very good thing.

One another side of the same coin, Christmas is also an extremely important holiday and should really get more than a month for celebrating the birth of our Savior, so is starting the day after Halloween such a bad thing? Honestly Christmas could just be thought of as an extension of Thanksgiving (actually that should be the other way around).

Like I said, I can see both sides; and now, being the mommy and needing to decide holiday traditions and everything that comes along with that, I still am far from making up my mind on this matter.

Of course this is all a moot point since we will be moving right before Christmas and be spending the actual holiday in Canada...

Our Halloween

Halloween this year was a little different than you would expect from a family with an almost-two-year- old and semi-new born.

First of all Cam took the day off to go in for some dentist work at 9 in the morning. He needed a bit of work done (why not take advantage of the dental insurance we may not have for a while, right?) and they estimated 4 hours. They gave him a pill to take an hour before he went in and would "administer more as needed." It is basically a sedative that would make him loopy enough to pass out during the work. Well, I went down to Provo to hang out with Karma for a while before she had class and when 1 o'clock rolled around I went to get Cam from the dentist.

The dentist work went fine but, oh boy, was Cam out of it. His speech was very slurred, he talked very quietly, his eyes were never more than half open, and he would take long pauses while talking to you or take a long while before answering any questions. He insisted that he could get himself in the house and upstairs by himself, that I should just take care of the kids (after I let him go by himself and read the post-operation stuff I found out I should always hold his arm while he walks and help him upstairs if stairs aren't completely avoidable... oops, I am glad he didn't hurt himself).

I let him sleep until about 6 then woke him up to eat something and see what he wanted me to make/get for him (he wanted a smoothie and me to make pudding) I also told him I was going out for a few hours, Dallas was getting ansy (I wouldn't let him in the room with Daddy while he was sleeping and that is where the TV is, so he was watching movies on the computer when he wanted too, and he just had too much energy for me to keep up with him). So I fed Chelane, left Cam (who was seeming a little less drugged), and navagated out of the neighborhood full of early trick-or-treaters to go to the nearest large store that had the best possibility of entertaining me for at least an hour and a half: Wal*mart.

If anyone is wondering the best time of the year to go to Wal*mart, it is Halloween night. The parking lot (which I haven't seen less than half empty before no matter when I come) was only about 10 cars deep, they didn't have many registers open but I still only waited for 2 minutes to get to the front of a line. We did a little shopping, purused the DVD's, called Karma to see if she wanted to come up and hang out with me (I needed non-drugged adult contact) and people watched. Like I said, there weren't many people at Wal*mart, but almost all the people that were there (including employees) were dressed up in honor of the holiday. I came across one person dressed up (well make-up'd) like the Joker in "Dark Knight" and the resembalance was pretty scary. I actually tracked him down after I passed him and asked if I could take a picture, unfortunatly the camera on my phone isn't very good and the lens is dirty so all my pictures come out grainy and unclear, but here is the picture anyway (I sorta think the bad-ness of the camera adds to the affect (or is that effect?)).


When I got home around 8 Cam was asleep again and I woke him up to administer the smoothie (I had gotten a smoothie too which Dallas took the lid off while I was tending to Cam and knocked on the floor... so I ended up with half a smoothie). Then Karma called me and told me her tentative Halloween plans had fallen through and to come get her for the weekend (yippee!).

I left the house close to 9 to go get her and navigated through the mostly deserted neighborhood (I guess when you have small kids the night ends early) to kidnap Karma from Provo. And by the time we got back Cam was almost completly normal... Happy Halloween!