Cabin Fever!

Did you know that adding jacuzzi jets to a bubble bath makes an enormous amount of bubbles? So many, in fact, that you have to turn off the jets? We found that out today!

We feel like a family of home-bodies. We haven't been out of the house much this weekend as our arctic temperatures are hanging around. It was sub-zero last night. I knew we were going to be home all day, so I divided the day into several activities. The kids watched a movie this morning, then we made Play-Doh, had a pizza-making contest (with the Play-Doh), we had reading hour, a puppet show, nap/play with your toys in your room hour, and now bubble baths!

We even had an unexpected visit from Ruth, our neighbor who has Alzheimer's. She surprised us by walking right though the front door.

And the day is young, it's only 4:00!

Welcome to Antarctica!

Holy Moley, it's COLD! We got another 6 inches of snow here yesterday, lots more in the mountains. The storm ALMOST prevented me from going to book club last night, but our trusty Utah snowplow crews came through. I was amazed that the roads were as clear as they were because it was snowing when I woke up and literally didn't stop until 3:00 or so in the afternoon. I heard that a 20 minute commute took 1 1/2 hours yesterday morning because there were vehicles off the road everywhere.

Today the news story is the COLD! I was at the market before dinner and the air was absolutely frigid. The thermometer in my car said 12 degrees but I guess it's more like -3 with the wind chill. Brrrrr! I'd love to post a photo of the wintry scene but I think I'll stay inside where it's cozy.

I know what you're thinking... It must be pretty bad outside for ME to decline the opportunity for a photo! That really says something, doesn't it?

Tristan's Baptism

Tristan's baptism was yesterday afternoon. It was a very special day for him and for our family. Dan baptised Tristan and Grandpa D. confirmed him. There were two other children who were part of the baptism, so it was very special.

Jolie and a couple other children sang a song during the program called "When I Am Baptised." These are the lyrics to the song:

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,
And I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

Tristan's primary teacher gave him a beautiful journal to record his thoughts about the day. He made his first entry in the car on the way to dinner. When I was tucking him into bed last night he showed me what he'd written. Among other things, he said that he felt very special after his baptism. I know this is a day that we'll all remember for a very long time.

Scrapbook

I promised Robin that I'd post some photos of the scrapbook I made for all of the grandparents for Christmas. It was quite a project. I started just after Halloween and finished just in time for Christmas. Each scrapbook includes 25 of my favorite photos of the kids (taken during 2006). I looked everywhere for a nice embellishment for the cover but finally covered the front and back with this patterned paper and I cut my own monogram letters out of chipboard and then I painted and inked them. Oh, and thank goodness for Ben Franklin where they sell ribbon by the yard (yards and yards and yards of ribbon!)

The Lights on Temple Square

This week we took the kids to see the lights on Temple Square. It was amazing! There were nativities representing all areas of the world, beautiful luminaries, music, and ofcourse the gorgeous lights. It was quite cold and wet, but we had a great time.

Do We Have Mice?

I couldn't resist posting some photos of what we found under the tree on Christas Eve. Dan and I stayed up late wrapping gifts on the 23rd and we put some of the gifts under the tree. Less than 24 hours later, this is what we found.

The Wonder and Excitement of Christmas

The best part of Christmas for Dan and I (other than the new Lexus, ofcourse) was watching the kids' wonder and excitement. We've witnessed a small glimpse of doubt coming from Tristan this year so it was especially fun to see his excitement Christmas eve and Christmas morning.

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma D's. We ate Dad's Orroz con Pollo and one of my new salads. Mom had some games ready for us, including a card game called "Slap" and a game in which we told a story based on an assortment of items she'd put in a sack (it was a very interesting story!) The kids got to open the pajamas Grandma had made for them.

After we were home, we got Santa's milk and cookies ready and the kids also wanted to leave some carrots, lettuce and apples for Santa's reindeer. We had a long discussion about the appropriate time for getting up Christmas morning. Dan and I decided that 7:00 would be fair. It was a hard sell for Tristan but he finally relented after I explained that Dan and I would be up late cleaning and getting the food and other preparations ready for Christmas.

Well, that was nice in theory. Dan and I finally got to bed around 2:00 a.m. and it wasn't long before Tristan was up, telling me he had woken up and couldn't go back to sleep because he was so excited. I'm pretty sure he'd checked out the scenery downstairs. I think I told him to go back to bed and think about school. It must have worked because we didn't hear anything more from him until 6:30 a.m. when he came in to wake me up and tell me it was only 30 minutes until 7:00. Before long, I heard his and Jolie's voices downstairs, and then I heard both of them in Gavin's room, trying to wake him up.

The kids were full of excitment and wonder. Gavin was thrilled to find a battery-powered train that Santa had set up for him. After we were through opening gifts, we spent the rest of the day putting toys together and playing with them. Mom, Dad and Lisa came over for brunch and stayed the rest of the day. We did our traditional Raclette for dinner. It was a great day!

Tristan's Eight!

Tristan turned a big eight years old on Friday! I can't believe it. The kids were out of school for winter break, so we spent the morning with our friends, the Jeppersons. They're moving to Kansas City next week so we were especially glad to see them. It's going to be hard to see them go.

Tristan's friend, Evan, also has a birthday the week of Christmas, so oddly, Tristan spent his birthday at Evan's party. They had pizza and went bowling.

We had a family party for Tristan Friday evening. Grandpa and Grandma D., Aunt Lisa and Grandma I. came over for his favorite dinner (my "famous" spaghetti). I made a special candy cane-covered cake which we ate with peppermint ice cream.

Some of Tristan's favorite gifts were his Heelies and archery lessons. He chose to go for the archery lessons instead of having a party with his friends this year.

Happy Birthday, Tristan!

When You're Two... the World is Your Playground

I had to grab my camera this morning and catch Gavin playing with Sir Topham Hat and his engines. He was at my feet while loading the dishwasher and he asked if he could turn the "windmill" inside the diswasher. Then he said something about a bridge and ran to get his trains. Before I knew it, he was using the small rack of the dishwasher as a bridge for his engines. Before long, he had Sir Topham Hat sitting on an upside-down water pitcher next to the dishwasher.

A Fresh Blanket

Dan and I spent last weekend in San Diego where (big surprise) it was warm and sunny. When our plane landed in Salt Lake Sunday evening it was raining, and by the time we got home it had turned to snow and it was sticking to the roads. By morning we had ourselves quite a little blanket of fresh snow (6-8 inches?)

I'm actually happy for the storm because we've had a crusty layer of old snow hanging around from the last one. There's nothing like fresh, powdery, Utah snow!

Tristan wore his snow bibs and boots to school and Jolie and Gavin and I played for a while and even had a little snowball fight before the kindergarten bus showed up.

Jolie, Jolie, Jolie!

My mom came by this morning to give Jolie an early Christmas gift, this GORGEOUS dress. My mom made it! We saw the fabric several weeks ago and we knew it would make a beautiful dress. Jolie is a lucky little girl.

I wish I could say that Jolie's disposition at church today was as beautiful as her dress. She was rather damanding and sulky. I didn't understand why until I realized that she must have been tired. Last night Dan and I were out late at a Christmas party. Although the babysitters put the kids to bed at 8:00 as instructed, Jolie apparently stayed up until 11:00 or so, spying on the babysitters. This morning she had all sorts of information to report about what they did after they put the kids to bed.

Our babysitters are twin sisters who live in our neighborhood. At church I asked them about last night. They had no idea she was awake but what they told me was consistent with what Jolie reported, so I'm certain she was awake at 11:00 or so.

Uggggh! The Tough Lessons of Childhood!

Tonight we attended the Reflections Award Night, an annual celebration of our children's achievements in the arts. Tristan entered a photograph that he took of the Blue Angels when we were in San Diego. Last year he won a trophy and his entry was sent onto the next level of the competition. His photo was a close up of "November Snow". Although this year's photo was much more impressive, he was faced with one of the hard lessons of childhood: WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR RAGE AND DISAPPOINTMENT WHEN OTHERS RECEIVE TROPHYS AND YOU DON'T.

It was rather embarassing when Tristan's name was called and he stomped up to the podium to receive his certificate. He then hid his face in my lap and proceeded to cry and grunt (did I mention we were sitting on the front row?) This is the proud photo I took after his meltdown was complete.

We spent the ride home and 40 minutes afterward lecturing him about how we don't always win, someone has to come in second place, a trophy isn't a measure of sucess, it's knowing you did your best work and tried your hardest.

I guess these are lessons we all have to learn at one time or another. Some of us have a harder time than others.

The Feast

Despite all the work, Thanksgiving was very nice. The kids were excited to help with the cooking. Tristan and Grandpa made a special pumpkin pie, Jolie and I made a mud pie (yumm!) and both of them peeled potatoes. Gavin tried to do some damage on a couple of potatoes with a variety of kitchen tools, as well.

We used our high tech Viking meat probe to determine the cooking time for our turkey but it failed us. Fortunately, Jerry arrived early and suggested we give the turkey a little more time in the oven.

We were excited to have our friend Maria with us. She brought her grandmother's famous stuffing and a delicious pecan pie. We sat in the family room after dinner, moaning about our waistline discomfort and looking though the shopping ads. Maria and mom also talked Dad into giving them a foot rub.

Pilgrims and Indians

Yesterday I helped with Jolie's Thanksgiving feast. The kindergarteners have been learning about Squanto and the first Thanksgiving. They got the rare privilege of eating in the cafeteria! This has been a much-anticipated event for Jolie. All week the kids have been working on their costumes. They died macaroni for Indian necklaces and decorated their Indian headdresses and Pilgrim hats. They each got to choose which costume they wanted to wear to the feast (this year the Indians were much more numerous than the Pilgrims).

One of the kindergarten teachers told me that a sixth grade class walked by the cafeteria as she was bringing her kindergarteners in. She said you could hear the sixth graders in almost a group sigh, "Ooooohhhh..." as they watched the little kids. It was as if they were all fondly remembering their own kindergarten Thanksgiving feast years ago.

I'm glad I got to be there. I'm sure Jolie will remember this for some time.

Christmas Cards

I was up until 1:00 this morning working on Christmas cards. I just finished them so I thought I'd post some photos! I've been in a card swap for the past couple of years. I send blank cards each month to people all over the U.S. and Canada. I get cards from all over, too, which adds a bit of excitement to the trip to the mailbox each afternoon.

I'm also rather pleased with myself because I used materials that I (mostly) had on hand. I made a gift album for Dan's parents last Christmas and I had a lot of paper scraps left over. I also made the embellishment ("Merry & Bright") in MS Word! If anyone is wondering how to write text in a circle, please ask. It might just save you 2 or 3 hours of trying to figure it out on your own.

I'll get 24 different Christmas cards back from this swap. I can't wait!

Autumn... Autumn... PLEASE DON'T LEAVE US!!

This week we've had some beautiful Autumn days close to 70 degrees. Ofcourse all good things must come to an end, and in the case of our weather, it's usually from one extreme to another. The forcasters have been warning of a big change, so we decided to enjoy the sunshine while it lasted. We joined Grandma on one of our favorite trails for a walk.

Yesterday was one of those days of urgency in which we all knew we'd better get certain things done or we'd regret it. I caught a glimpse of my neighbor doing the last of her fall cleanup at 8-something in the morning when I got Tristan off to school. Throughout the day I saw people out doing the necessary chores of fall. On our way home from parent teacher conferences we saw some neighbors on their roof putting up Christmas lights! It didn't make sense until I realized they were saving themselves an icy climb later in the season. It was a busy day and we didn't get a chance to start raking the leaves and pods off the lawn until dusk. So while the rest of the neighborhood was out in their yards during the day, we were outside raking leaves in the dark. It wasn't bad though, it was still pretty warm and the kids played a fun game of "Ghost in the Graveyard".

The Main Event!

THERE'S SO MUCH EXCITEMENT AROUND HERE I CAN HARDLY STAND IT!!! Tristan and Jolie were up early again this morning (did I mention they've been up at 5-something the last three days?) This time it wasn't the anticipation of Halloween that had them awake (and daylight savings hasn't helped), but it was the QUEST FOR THE CANDY! A good Mommy hides the Halloween candy before she goes to bed unless she approves of Rollos and Starbursts for breakfast. Once I got the stash out of hiding, there was some serious trading taking place on our family room floor. Gavin gave away a full-sized Snickers bar (yes, they give that out in this neighborhood) for Tristan's Play-Doh. A good mommy also monitors the trading to make sure less experienced Trick-or-Treaters aren't taken advantage of.

Last night we left for Trick or Treating at dusk (about 5:30) and we were home by 7:30. Tristan ended up ahead of us with a group of friends. I had Jolie on foot and Gavin in the jogging stroller so our pace was way too slow for Tristan. Things were more complicated this year as Gavin was in and out of the stroller at every house. I'd forgotten how scary some of the sights and sounds of Halloween can be to a little one. He was really frightened by the masks that the older kids were wearing. Jolie and I kept reminding him that they were kids in costumes and the scary faces were just masks. After a while he said "It's a mask, Mommy" as though he was trying to convince himself it was true.

Don't the kids look darling? I made Gavin's lion costume and part of Tristan's. My mom made Jolie's gorgeous dress and the other half of Tristan's costume. Jolie is Elizabeth Swan from Pirates of the Caribbean and Tristan is Jack Sparrow. We intended to give him hair and a beard and the works but I ran out of steam. I asked Tristan whether he'd rather spend an hour in hair & makeup or be out on the street that much sooner. It was and easy choice.