Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas! We had dinner with my parents on the 21st. They have a separate Christmas celebration with each child's family. They made us a great dinner, and then gave the girls their Christmas presents. "Super-Princess Capes!" Katie and Elayna really have fun with them.

Christmas Eve was hosted by Amanda and her family. We ate, talked and played some games, then exchanged white elephant gifts. By the time we got home, it was past time for the girls to be in bed. I sewed pajamas for the family. The girls got long night shirts, and Ryan got some pants. I hadn't wrapped their pajamas for Christmas Eve yet, so I just gave the pjs to them as they were getting ready for bed. Then, in the morning, we took pictures:





We had forgotten to tell Katie that she wasn't supposed to go into the living room when she woke up in the morning. So Ryan and I heard her get up at about 8:00 and go to the bathroom, then we didn't hear her go back in her room. Soon Katie came into our room, and told us what each person had in their stocking. After much persuasion, we got dragged out there, and opened our stockings. Then we started opening presents. Katie would open something, and want to get it out of its box, and Ryan would say, "No, let's just open them all first." I think Katie really enjoyed Christmas this year. It was so much fun to watch her be so excited for everyone to open their presents.
Katie got a doctor set, (we are considering calling it a PA set, since we have 2 in the fam.) a tool set ("now I can work up in the attic!") and a beauty set with a hairdryer, brush, fake makeup, etc. She loves them all.
Elayna got a big set of fake food, some little bug car things, and a drum that plays different beats on one side, and is a regular drum on the other side.

Then, we went to Bowman's at about 10:00 am. Irma made the yummy quiche that she makes each year. Then we exchanged presents. Irma had crocheted some baby dolls that are "stuck" in their blankets. They are great, because the hat, bottle, and blanket are all sewn together, and can't get lost. I had one like that when I was a little girl that I loved, and it is packed in my trunk. Matthew gave us a beautiful chime from the Philippines. Ryan got a "tux" t-shirt, and I got a lovely platter. Irma also made a collection of all her favorite recipes. The best part is, they all have comments about the reason she likes the recipe, or when she remembers making it for the first time, etc. Clarissa gave Katie and Elayna some Sesame Street books that Clarissa remembers reading when she was younger. Katie loves them. We have to read at least 3 (because I'm three!) a day, but most days we read them all. Irma and Jerry also gave Elayna a talking/singing dog, and Katie a start on her college fund. The container "counts" how much money is put in.

Next we went to the Evans' house at about 1:30. Elayna was actually still asleep at the Bowman's, so Ryan went and got her later. We had hoagie sandwiches, then exchanged presents. Dennis and Naomi's family got us a nativity block set that the girls can play with, plus some yummy homemade chocolates, smelly stuff for me, and jerky for Ryan. We sent the kids to play downstairs while the adults opened presents. Mom had sewn aprons for all the women, and Dad gave the girls these cool soda-top purses. The men got Sudoku books and a gift card to Olive Garden. GG and Grandpa Joe also gave each family a black plague that says "Count Your Blessings".

At 4:30, it was time to go back to Bowman's to party with the extended family. We ate some more, talked more, and sang some carols. Then we went home and put the girls in bed.

New Year's Eve was at John and Emma's house. Emma made Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas that were great! We played games, talked, and ran after kids. There was a night-long game going where you couldn't say certain words. We were each given a "Good Luck Bag" , but if you said "Happy" ,"New", "Year", "Eat", "Ate", or "Game" someone could take your bag away. Then whoever had the most at the end of the night won. And it was Ryan! Yay! The girls both stayed awake and pretty pleasant until we rang in the new year. They fell asleep about 10 minutes after we started driving home.

New Year's Day we had breakfast at my parent's house. Crepes, Orange Rolls, Cinnamon Rolls, a Sausage/Egg Casserole, Chocolate Milk and OJ. Yum! The adults spent most of the day talking to each other, while the kids played downstairs or watched a movie.

We got to spend most of the week before Christmas with the Bowmans. Jonathan, Gillian, and Peter were visiting, and we loved spending time with them.

Then, the week after Christmas, Mike, Kristine, Kylie, Zach and Blake were at my parent's house. We tried to spend as much time as possible with them also. Ryan was great and let me stay late a couple of nights so I could enjoy visiting with them longer.

After reading through this post, it sounds like most of what we were excited about were the presents. Although we enjoyed them, we loved spending time with our family even more. Also, I love what President Monson says, (paraphrasing, because I couldn't find the actual quote) "Instead of asking 'What did you get for Christmas this year?', Ask 'What did you GIVE for Christmas this year?'" Unfortunately, I think it is hard for us to tell others what we have given. It sounds boastful, or as though we are looking for someone to thank us.

I just want my children to be able to look back at this and see that we did give to others too. Ryan and I decided months ago that if he got a Christmas bonus, we would use part of that to help others. Ryan was excited to give to "Toys for Tots" because he loves toys so much, and wants others to experience that joy. Our ward has an "Angel Tree" each year, which is basically a Sub For Santa. We decided that those 2 charities were what we wanted to contribute to this year. Though we didn't give a lot, I still think it is important for my girls to know that we are trying to live as Heavenly Father would have us live.

Concerts and Parties!

Dec 10:
Ever since my Dad has been in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, most of the adults in our family has been able to attend the annual Christmas concert each year. Dad was released from the choir in March 2008, but luckily, he has been able to get us tickets for the last 2 years. Hopefully the tradition will continue!
This year the guest artists were Natalie Cole and David Mcullough. Ms. Cole's voice isn't something I would listen to a lot, but it was a very enjoyable evening. Mr. Mcullough told stories about "O Little Town of Bethlehem" which involved Winston Churchill. We ate at Olive Garden and had I fun talking with my family and enjoying the evening. Dennis has a 12-seater van, so we were all able to ride up together.
We were gone from 4:00 to about midnight. I'm grateful I have a good babysitter in Aubri Coughanour. She is very dependable, and the girls love her. Katie will frequently ask me "Can we have Aubri babysit tonight? You and Dad can go somewhere?"

Dec 12-morning:
We had our Ward Christmas party. There were breakfast burritos and cinnamon rolls. There was also chocolate milk.... Katie dumped a cup of chocolate milk ALL OVER Elayna. Poor thing. She was soaked. I got her clothes all changed and brought her back to the table. Just in time for Abby to spill HER chocolate milk all over the table. Children are so fun! The party was short and fun. It was nice to have the party in the morning, since this time of the year there are so many parties, especially at night.

Dec 12-evening:
Ryan's work party was at the Marriott again. Johnny B was the entertainment. He tells stand up jokes and hypnotizes willing victims. We had lots of fun laughing at people that had volunteered to be hypnotized. I can't imagine wanting to do that. Ryan's supervisor, Bret, won a Blue Ray player. Last year him and his wife won an iPod and a digital camera. We are taking their seats/tickets next year. :)
Each year they have a new way to choose the winners. And they are pretty close mouthed about it too. Understandably, since there is probably about $5,000 in prizes given away. That is plus the bonus we got, and the extremely nice dinner. Dan (the owner) is so generous, it is such a great place to work.
Mom and Dad were nice enough to watch Katie and Elayna. They also brought the girls home and put them in bed while we were at the party.

Dec 13:
Ryan and I are both able to sing in the Community Christmas Choir because Jerry and Irma were kind enough to watch the girls for the rehearsals (and the performance).
The performance went really well. I think we all felt good about it. Irma commented that the choir seems to get better each year, and I agree. This year, there were so many men, it sounded very powerful.

Ryan volunteered to play a piano solo. He played Carol of the Bells by George Winston. He did a fabulous job. He is very talented, and really enjoys playing. He is already trying to come up with a piece to play for next year.

Snow and Christmas Decorations

We got so much snow on Dec 7 and 8! Here are some pictures:

Note the tricycle handlebars:


The chairs were overflowing with snow:


The snow on the table was very impressive:


Ryan came home from work and shoveled the driveway for about an hour. There was a lot of snow to move. As he was coming in, he shut the garage door, and there was an awful sound. The broom had somehow leaned into the groove of the door, and it forced one side of the door to stay where it was, while the other side kept going down. Ugh. It looked awful. So crooked and twisted. Ryan worked on it, and banged on it, and rewound the cable that lifts the door, and did all sorts of stuff to it. And voila! It worked again. Hurray! He's so awesome! He tells me we will still need to replace it, but it isn't as vital as I was expecting it to be.

Here are some of our Christmas decorations. We have lights downstairs, in Katie's room, and in the front room. Then outside, Ryan put some lights above the garage, around our front window and door, and on our tree in the front yard. I haven't gotten a picture of the outside lights because it is so cold! Once the sun sets, I'm not very excited about being outside. It has been below zero most of the week at night.



These are the stockings that I have decorated: (very reminiscent of the ones my mother made for us when I was growing up)



I have a wonderful friend named Jenet that let Ryan and I come decorate gingerbread houses for her Christmas present to us. She makes the gingerbread (she made 52 kits this year!), then invites friends and families to come over and decorate them with all the candy and chocolate she has piled around her kitchen. It is really fun. This was Ryan's first year to come, and I think he had lots of fun.

This is my house:


This is Ryan's house. I think he has lots of fun, original ideas. I really liked the window decorations here:




His front piece was broken, so he made a neat design with it. You can't even tell where it was broken, can you? He made a candycane "tree" and a nice river/lake/waterfall thing.

Katie and Elayna

I found this picture on my phone. It was taken in August. Elayna and I were in the shade of the tree, because it was so hot. And this is what Katie was wearing:


Katie asked for Ramen for dinner last night. But as she told me, "You make the noodles great, but the sauce is not so great. Daddy makes really great sauce." Ryan puts all sorts of spices in the broth, and I just open the little package that comes with the noodles. I'm happy though. That means Ryan can be in charge of a meal or two each week, if Katie wants to eat it.

My mom was reading a story to Katie about Santa Claus. Mom asked Katie, "Is Santa going to bring you a present?" I guess Katie just laughed and said, "no". She thought it was a joke.
Since then, she has learned that he should be bringing her presents, and gets upset if we tell her he isn't. I don't even know where she learned any of this stuff!

Ryan has an aunt that we call Mickie. Katie was telling me about Mickey Mouse (I can't remember why? a movie, or a story?) and she said, "not our Mickie. Another Mickey." Then I said, "Mickey Mouse?" and she seemed relieved to know that I figured it out.


The girls have lots of fun in the tub. I usually let them just play in there while I do stuff on the computer or cook dinner. (I'm always within ear-shot) Katie was calling for me to come see them. Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles. A kid's best friend.



I was "resting my eyes" on the couch downstairs. Elayna kept whining about something, so I finally turned around to figure out what the problem was. She was stuck, and couldn't get down. She had climbed up there all by herself. Notice how far away the chairs seem to be. I don't know if she pushed them away while she was climbing, or what. It is just a funny picture:


Elayna never crawls anymore. She's running and chasing Katie all over. Those girls have so much fun together.

I told Elayna her bottle was under her bed, then asked her if she would go get it. She crouched down, saw it was there, shimmied on her tummy till she could reach it, and brought it to me. I think that is the first time I recall her following instructions that were more than one step.
I was braiding Katie's hair, and she sneezed (or "blessed you", as she says). We told Elayna to go get a tissue, and she headed into the bathroom and pulled the toilet paper off until it was all off. (thankfully the roll was almost gone) Then she brought the paper to Katie.
She is getting better about coming when we call, or not doing something when we tell her no. She will cry for me, and I'll tell her "I'm in the living room", or wherever, and she will come find me. It is amazing how children learn and grow every day.

Snow pictures

This is Katie playing in the snow:

This is Elayna playing in her car, in the snow:

This is Katie hiding in the leaves:

This is Katie after a finger painting experience. Note the "lipstick":


Katie is so incredibly obedient and sweet. Most of the time. She also throws intensely horrible fits.

Elayna is a definite climber, she opens doors, she wants to be outside all the time. I'm sure she has pulled over more things than Katie even knew existed at her age. I'm sure most of it is because Katie only saw what Ryan and I interacted with. Elayna sees what all 3 of us see, plus anything within her reach that she thinks should be pulled on.

Katie keeps finding and giving me pennies. (probably the same ones, over and over.) Then, when we go shopping and I tell her we don't have the money for it, she says, "I gave you money! You have lots of money!"

Elayna loves to suck on lotion containers. The pump kind, tubes, flip lids, etc. I have also found her sucking on the pump of our soap. I guess she must like the scent, and figures the stuff inside should taste the same.

Friday nights are movie night. Ryan got some new animated Justice League Unlimited shows (cartoons of heroes, for those unschooled in the world of comics) that we were watching. Elayna has never been much of a movie watcher, but she likes to play downstairs while we watch. Last Friday, she wandered upstairs and shut the door. That left her upstairs, in the dark, all by herself. After we heard her screaming, Ryan went and opened the door for her. Next, I heard some thumps and went to investigate. She had pulled the nipple of her bottle off the towel where it was drying. She was whining and grumbling as best as she could while sucking on it. She was headed towards the stairs to come get me, I assume. Poor thing. I felt bad that she had to go find her own bottle before I would put her in bed.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We had a leisurely morning, then went up to Provo to have dinner at Mickie's house. Delicious food, as always. They started getting out the pies before we could leave, so we had to have some of their desserts. Then we went back to Santaquin to my parent's home and had even more dessert. It was a great day. We love being able to spend so much time with our families.

We set up some Christmas decorations yesterday. Ryan put up lots of lights. I think the girls had lots of fun with it. It is fun to think of doing our own traditions now. My Mom always made Christmas Punch. Ryan remembers listening to "John Denver and the Muppets" Christmas songs. He remembers listening to that record and a Disney record while setting up Christmas at his house. We are going to try and come up with some traditions that our girls will remember. I was thinking we needed some special food that we ate after decorating. Because food is always good.

Update on Marissa and Ryan

I'm overwhelming myself with projects:

-Starting both girls' baby books, (wanting to have them finished before Christmas, because that is a good cut-off date)
-trying to organize my actual photos (since I've never really done it before, and it was confusing trying to find baby pictures of the girls)
-trying to organize, print, and/or upload digital pictures
-wanting to print blog books out for Christmas (not going to happen this year)
-I've gone through most of my desk, papers, and folders. Recycling old papers, filing things to keep, putting all photos together.
-labeling and identifying blog posts for future reference
-coloring paper dolls for Katie
-trying to get ready for Christmas
-7 sewing projects for Christmas

I don't think I've really made any headway on most of these things. My office is now relatively organized, but doing that just gave me more ideas of what I need to do.

Looking at this list, I'm definitely going to have to focus on Christmas stuff first, then work on baby books in those blah months until I can work outside again.

Alisha was here for about 2 weeks at the end of October. That was really fun to see her and her son. We tried to spend as much time with them as possible.

I'm running or exercising at least 3 days a week. I try to run outside with my mom on the warmer days, but I think those are over. Luckily, Mom and Dad have a treadmill, and an Elliptical, so I will still get my exercise in.

I'm a couple of pounds below my pre-Elayna weight. (Now Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years will help ruin that.) But I feel good, and some days I even have enough energy to really play and dance with the girls for more than half and hour.

Our Ward Primary Program was a couple of weeks ago. I'm the pianist, and I was pretty nervous about it. But, I made some mistakes, and the children kept singing, and nobody told me how awful I did. In fact, I was thanked and complimented, so it was good. I still really enjoy the calling.

Ryan got called to be a Sunday School teacher to the 16-17 year olds. I think he is excited about it. He is a really good teacher, and he will be a great influence on these kids.

Ryan's work is still great. He is a wonderful asset to the company, and he enjoys what he does. He's still working at Rocky Mountain ATV/MC in Payson.

Ryan's week usually includes all of the following:

-teaching Jerry a computer language
-hanging out with Derek
-have a date with Marissa
-watch movies with Matthew
-watch sitcoms on DVD with Marissa
-laundry (that's right. He does all the laundry. How lucky am I?)
-play computer games
-look for new toys to buy
-box up stuff for eBay sellings
-unpack stuff from eBay purchases
-other misc stuff that he does at night while I'm sleeping


He gets home each night at about 6:30, and we eat and play with the girls until about 7:30. After the girls are asleep, we might do something together, or he will do some of his activities while I work on my projects.

He also comes home almost everyday to have lunch with us. It really breaks up my day, and gives the girls another chance to see him.

He is great about spending time with us as a family. He doesn't spend any time on himself while I'm awake unless he's with Derek on Tuesdays or we are doing our separate things.

He also has every other Friday off, which gives us long weekends twice a month. It is so wonderful to be able to spend our weekends relaxing together and playing with the girls. We might not always get everything accomplished that we wanted to do, but we enjoy the tickling, wrestling, teasing, fighting, watching movies, taking naps, and just plain old fun that we have instead.

I'm very grateful that Ryan is so devoted to our family.

Katie-isms

Irma bought a clown wig in the after-Halloween sales. Katie, for some unknown reason, decided she needed to frown for the picture:


Elayna, on the other hand, loved the wig, and it shows:


I told Katie that we needed to go Visiting Teaching, and she said she would just stay home. I told her I couldn't leave her home alone, and she told me she would watch Elayna. I said she needed to come with me. Then she said, "Grandma Irma leaves Matthew at home." (Matthew just got home from his mission. He's 21 years old.) I started laughing and told Katie that Matthew was an adult, and when she was an adult, she could stay home and watch Elayna while I went Visiting Teaching.

Katie was throwing a fit at my parent's house. I put her in a room and shut the door. Soon I heard her yelling, "Mom! I always love you mom!" and crying her heart out.

Irma is trying to teach Katie some Spanish. (It would probably go smoother if I knew some Spanish and reinforced the lessons at home.) Whenever Irma or Jerry wash Katie's hands and mouth after eating, this is what they say, "Mano, otra mano, bocca." Meaning, "hand, other hand, mouth". The other day Katie was asking me, "Is this hand mano, or otra mano?" She thought one of the hands was actually named "other hand".

Elayna is speaking more and more. This week she started to say "Toast", "Ba Ma!" for Batman, "Ba Ba" for bottle, "Ba Pa" for Grandma or Grandpa, "Pu pa" for purple (which can mean any color, right now), and recognizes that colors are different and have different names. She also mimics the sounds we make when we speak.

Halloween 2009

My parents have a great Halloween setup. They have a "fish pond" off the balcony:



The "hair" the girls got from fishing:


Eating donuts off a string:


An Obstacle course with crawling:


And jumping, balancing, climbing, sliding:


Also cousins and pizza!:


My parents put a lot of effort into these activities, and the kids all love it!

Thank you to Naomi for providing these pictures. I was very upset when I realized that I forgot the camera for the other half of Halloween; bowling with the Bowman family!

We ate at a new Mexican place in Payson, which Ryan and I weren't terribly impressed with, but the food was really good. Then we went to the bowling place, also in Payson. Katie and Elayna wanted to spend most of the time playing with the computer that inputs the names and scores. Katie was pretty good at getting the ball to knock down some pins, especially after we found a ramp thing that she could put the ball on, then push it onto the runway. (I saw the ramp in Mike and Kristine's videos, so when I saw something similar leaning against the wall, I was excited.) Of course, Katie was very specific that she needed a pink ball. She refused the lightest ball they had, even though it was a reddish pink instead of pink pink.
Katie was ahead most of the time, but Ryan and Jerry won in the end. We had a lot of fun with them, and we were pretty exhausted by the time the day was over.


Ryan also had a birthday in October. I think he enjoyed the day.
My mother was asking what Katie was going to give Ryan for his birthday. Katie's response was, "Maybe I could give him one of my toys that I don't want anymore?"

She actually ended up giving him a Depeche Mode pin from his present he got back in April for Father's Day, his birthday, and a little bit of Christmas. (It was a deluxe set, and cost a lot.)

We love him so much! Happy Birthday Ryan! (pretend this was written 3 weeks ago, okay?)

Pajama time

These are some new pajamas we got for Elayna. But mostly I like the picture cause she is just hanging out on top of the pressure cooker.


My two cute pajama girls:



I was trying to take some pictures of Elayna going up and down the stairs. Maybe the camera is like an eye? You know how babies always want to touch other people's eyes?



When the girls play outside, this is where I can most likely find them. Katie riding her scooter around,



And Elayna riding the riding lawn mower. Ha ha!

Las Vegas, part 2

Saturday Evening was a Halloween costume party at Ryan's cousin Staysi's house. We all admired each other's costumes and talked and mingled more.
This is the Bowman family: (minus Ryan and Clarissa, because they didn't dress up)



After the party, Matthew graciously stayed with the sleeping girls while Ryan and I went partying! I know, weird, huh? Guess what is even weirder? It was at a smoky bar. bleh! I was pretty scared of the place. Our group was in the back corner. I didn't look anyone but our group in the eye, I didn't move from my chair for the first 10 minutes. Then I chose a song, and went straight back to my chair. I stayed within arm's length of someone in our group the whole time were were there. Well, except for when I got brave, and headed to the bathroom all by myself! It was scary. I truthfully think I was more scared by the venue than I was of singing. Oh, we went for the karaoke, and it was really fun! I must admit, I was nervous. The song I chose I didn't recognize at all, so I hurriedly chose another one. "Just a Girl" by No Doubt. It also didn't sound familiar, because I was the one supposedly singing, not the artist! I was so used to hearing the artist sing it, I didn't know how the song went. Luckily, my (Ryan's) cousins and sister were there to cheer me on, and sing with me. By the time I got to the chorus, I think I did alright. If I ever do it again, I will do so much better!


Later, a group of us girls got up and sang "Sweet Caroline". It was really fun, and I really enjoyed singing with them.


Ryan sang "In Your Footsteps" by Depeche Mode. He did awesome. Derek and Amber (cousins) also sang songs, and they did great too.


By the time we had done those songs, it was about 1:00 AM! Agh! I don't normally stay up that late. We brought 2 very drunk cousins home. Ryan, of course, was hungry, so we stopped and got him a Carl's Jr burger. While we were in the drive-thru the before mentioned cousins both got out of the car and hurled. A couple of times. Yuck! Thank goodness we were stopped already! A definite deterrent to drinking, in my opinion. So we got home really late, and Irma was sleeping in our bed. (Matthew had skipped out on us, I guess.) Ryan offered to sleep on the couch so she wouldn't have to walk back to her room, but she wanted to go.

After the party, but before the karaoke, I realized I had forgotten my ID. We drove 10 minutes back to get it. Ryan went into the room while I stayed in the car. I guess when he got to the room, the door wasn't closed all the way. If it was me, I would have probably freaked out. The girls were both asleep within about 10 feet of the door. Well, he went in and found Jerry and Irma in our bedroom, because Matthew had gone long-boarding with Jerome. Lest you think Jerry and Irma were being irresponsible for leaving the door open, they were expecting Matthew and Jerome to come back, and that way, they wouldn't have to wake the girls by knocking on the door. Ah. What a relief. So many scary things can happen!

Sunday morning came bright and early. Ryan was a sweetheart and went out with the girls when they woke up so I could have another 1/2 hour to an hour of sleep. Thanks sweetie! Checkout was at 10:00 normally, but the hotel extended it to noon for us. We got everything back into the car (ending up with more stuff than we came with. How does that happen?) and headed to the Luau.



More yummy healthy food, and yummy desserts. Everyone got a lei, leia, you know, the flowers around the neck thing. They had hula hoops there to have contests, balloons, a limbo bar, (how low can you go?),a plastic beach picture, and fun decorations. It was fun, but we were about ready to head home. We had been playing for 2.5 days straight, and it was hard!



We all said our goodbyes and headed off. Oh wait, we need to stop at the gas station to go to the bathroom and get gas. Now we are off! Elayna fell asleep before we got to the gas station (about 5 minutes away). Katie fought sleep for about an hour. I actually just about fell asleep as we were leaving Vegas. I was asking Ryan questions, because he had mentioned he was sleepy, and I was listening to his answers, I really was. I just happened to be dreaming about other things in between my mumbled "uh huh"'s and "oh yeah?"'s. Luckily Ryan has a lot to talk about, and it kept him awake. Important since he was driving. Katie slept for an hour and a half until we got to the Virgin River park area. It is beautiful!


We all got out and walked down to the river. We hiked some rocks, threw rocks in the river, (some people, named Ryan, threw rocks into the water way too close for comfort and splashed me! The idea!) and just hung out there for about an hour, I would guess.





The Virgin River park area was really fun. It was a much better rest stop than just a gas station, and we really enjoyed it. Thanks to Jerry and Irma for stopping with us, and suggesting it in the first place!

Then we drove until Cedar City, ate at IHOP, and drove home from there. We got home at about 10:00 pm on Sunday night.

Wow. What a trip. We had a blast. I'm so glad we got to visit with our family. I'm grateful we got there and back safely. I'm grateful to Irma for coordinating and planning the WHOLE (mostly) thing! It was great.

Las Vegas trip, part 1

We drove down to Las Vegas for a family reunion. Oct 9-11. I know this will probably be boring to most of you, but this is my "journal", so you will just have to deal with it. Or skip it. :)

My mom let us borrow her car/truck. (If I'm talking to Mom, it's a car. If I'm talking to Ryan, it's a truck.) By the way, Thank you Mom! It made the trip so much better! We left Friday morning at about 8:00 am. I had packed lots of snacks and drinks. We all ate quite a bit, but the applesauce, grapejuice, and doritos were a little too much for Katie. She threw up on the way down. Not very fun. Luckily, none of it got in the car, so that was a relief.

Katie moved into Bowman's car after lunch at the Mongolian BBQ place in St. George. Yummy. They stopped and played in the river at the Virgin River Gorge. Ryan, Elayna and I opted to keep driving, since Elayna was asleep.


We checked in at the condos. They are great. We stay at a place called "The Cliffs" and they are in a neighborhood area, with a swimming pool and lots of room. It is worlds away from "the strip". The price was very nice also. The whole place is non-smoking, and we have always been very impressed with the accommodations there. They have 1 and 2 bedroom suites. All the suites come with a kitchen, washer and dryer, and large living area. And the cost? Seriously, about $60 a night. Awesome!

We went swimming, then got ready for the first party. Irma, Mickie (her real name is RoseMarie, but I always forget to call her that.) and Blanca shared memories of their mother, "Tita". They also talked about their grandmother. We had lots of yummy desserts and snack foods. I think Irma counted about 40 people there. Katie won the drawing for a huge door prize. It had candy, movies, chips, popcorn, and candybars in it. Katie thought it was a birthday gift from everyone at the party, so she thanked Grandma Irma for it the next day.

That night, the girls slept pretty well. So did Ryan and I. Saturday morning, we slept in, (kinda) then Ryan went to the park to help secure the spot. I guess it would be more accurate to say I slept in. Katie went over to Bowman's "house" and then shopping with Irma. Then I put Elayna down for a nap and she slept for like 3 hours. So I had a fabulous morning of showering, getting ready, and reading. It was so relaxing! The park we went to was awesome. It was huge. Very nicely maintained, with play areas covered with permanent canvas things. The only bad part was that the bathroom was so far away! Len brought some old-fashioned looking bikes that we all took turns riding.
Ryan was the first to ride his bike to the bathroom. Unfortunately, when I had to take Katie, we couldn't ride, so we just walked. And walked. Ugh. While we were there, we had a Mexican Fiesta with wonderful Mexican food. There was a pinata and lots of talking and catching up.


Pictures courtesy of Derek, Clarissa, and Staysi. We always bring the camera. We just forget to use it!

Movies, Continued

When Elayna had just started walking a couple steps. It's more of a lean and jump rather than walking, but her feet do move:


Beautiful girls dressed up for Church. Elayna walks a couple of steps. But notice the weird dragging crawl Elayna does at the end of the video. She will crawl on her hands and feet (not knees) when she wears dresses. This was kind of half way between a regular crawl, and a downward facing dog crawl.



Katie dances and sings a compilation. All I can make out is Baa Baa Black Sheep at the end:


Elayna practices talking on the phone while taking a few steps. Also Elayna walks to Gracie. She says "Hi", and "Baby":


So, in the last post about movies, I showed Elayna walking with the help of our hands. That was in July. Then, September 16-she takes some steps on her own! Yay! Now, October 20th. She can be coaxed to walk across the room to you, but she doesn't like to do that more than once a day, maybe twice if you're lucky. Just on Sunday, the 18th, I guess she was walking more, but she doesn't do it much at home.

Movies

This video was taken in July. She was just starting to walk with us:


Elayna loves to laugh, especially where Katie is concerned. Sometimes Katie will do something, and Elayna will laugh and laugh. I don't get it most of the time, but I laugh with them, because their laughs are so contagious. Here Katie and Abby were playing with balloons, and it was apparently hilarious!


This is what meets me most mornings. I'm usually a little slow getting into their room in the morning, and they are awesome about just playing in there until I come in. Katie comes and tells me they are awake, then she goes back in and entertains Elayna. The other morning they were both just saying, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" until I came in. Such cute girls! (this was taken in August, right about Elayna's first birthday. Note how she says Hi and waves.)


This is just a couple of different clips of Elayna. The first clip shows her getting upset that Ryan is holding onto her. The next one is her reaction to seeing the camera--climb on Mommy to get the camera! Next is Elayna dancing and singing, standing up by herself, and then getting distracted from walking. Last is Elayna meowing like a cat.

I dislike coming up with titles.

Elayna took her first steps on Sept. 16th! She walked 3 steps to Grandma Paula.

Katie is really trying to understand time. She will ask if today is tomorrow, and refer to days of the week. However, I don't think she understands the concept yet.

Katie has a "school" book that she loves to play with. It is a dry erase book, with pictures, letters, numbers, matching, etc in it. She will work on it for 15-20 minutes.

I cleaned out our garage, so there is actually room for 2 cars to park INSIDE the garage. Weird concept, I know.

We have way too many flies in our house. The other day I was swatting flies away from the food, and noticed Elayna doing the same thing! She also likes to rub her hands together as though she is rubbing in lotion.

Katie saw a picture of her cousin Bella on the beach. Katie said, "I want to go to that sandbox, mom". Time for a beach trip!

When Elayna stands on her tippy toes, she can barely reach the handles on the doors. We have the lever-type handles, so it is just enough that she can pull the handle down, and it will flip back up. Another inch or two, and she will be out the door. She seems to get into a lot more stuff than Katie did. I remember being surprised that Katie never played with the toilet paper in the bathroom. Well, Elayna is more than making up for that! It must be this phase of life, because I felt like this morning all I said to Elayna was "No!". I remember doing that with Katie some days.

Katie can do somersaults now. She is so cute.

The girls were playing outside, and I came out to check on them. I saw Elayna, poised on her tippy toes, stretching as high as she could to reach the tools that were on the shelf. Did I mention she was on the seat of Katie's red tricycle? Agh! I really wanted to get a picture, but, under the circumstances, decided it would be better to get her down, and not risk the wheels on the bike suddenly shifting and throwing her onto the concrete.

My harvesting achievements for the year include:
1. picking about 7 gallons of plums, juicing them (a 4-5 hour process), and then, after having the juice in the fridge for 2 weeks, drying the juice into fruit leather.
2. drying a bushel of peaches (about 7 batches),
3. making about 12 peach/plum fruit rolls, and making 5-6 plum fruit rolls,
4. picking enough tomatoes from my garden and Irma's garden (thanks Irma!) to make about 6 quarts of spaghetti sauce that I froze,
5. peeling and coring enough apples to make a batch of dried apples, and a crockpot full of applesauce.
I feel fairly satisfied with my accomplishments!

We were having a tickling war, and suddenly, Elayna came up behind me. She was moving her fingers in a ticklish fashion and saying, "tsckl, tcskl, tkl". It was so cute! I love that she wanted to be involved.

The Living Planet Aquarium

We decided to visit The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, Utah for a day trip. I think we had a lot of fun. It took us about an hour and a half until we were ready to go. I think you could probably spend 3 hours there, if you wanted to really watch the animals, and read about them. The 3 year old in our family kind of flitted around to different displays. If there wasn't something moving in it, it wasn't worth looking at. :)

One thing about their pricing. It was $8 for adults, $6 for 3-17. They did have coupons on their website that you can print out and bring in. I thought the neatest part was that the annual membership was only the price of 2 visits. So if you think you will visit it more than once or twice, it is definitely worth it to buy the membership ticket.

They currently have 3 main displays: Discover Utah Gallery, Journey to South America, and Ocean Explorer Gallery. They were advertising a South American Penguin Display coming soon, but I don't remember when.

I think this first picture is in front of some trout from Utah, but I'm not sure.


We actually weren't terribly impressed with the Utah fish. Maybe we have seen and eaten too many. :) But they did have a neat "boat" that you could sit in the driver's seat, and it would move as though on water, while taking you on a visual tour of about 12 different things. There were also native frogs, toads, and salamanders.

The salamanders immediately reminded me of being a child, and seeing them in our window wells. And of course, I thought about Michael. When he was little, I guess Mom had told him to wash his hands. Well, he didn't want the salamander to escape, so he just stuck it in his mouth sideways (like someone holding a knife in their mouth while climbing up a ladder) and washed his hands. I didn't see it, but it still makes me laugh.


They also have a "touch pool" where you can put your hands in the water, and touch the stingrays that are swimming around. There was one stingray that would swim almost vertically along the side so you could touch it. (not pictured here)


They had a Coral section that has lots of fake coral you could climb in. When we first asked Katie to get in one for a picture she looked at us as though we were crazy. Then she looked back at the dark hole her parents wanted her to crawl into. She wouldn't go in until I showed her it was like a tunnel and I waited for her at one end. This particular picture is just a small alcove, but she didn't seem to understand the concept of putting her face in the hole for a picture. That is why I'm right by her:


On one of the "coral" displays there was a crab. I told Katie to touch it and again she thought I was trying to kill her. I had to touch it and bend it's leg to show her it wasn't real. The coral was towards the end of our time there. I think she had seen so many things in real life that she had only pictured before. It must have seemed weird to see animals move in ways she had never imagined. No wonder she was wary of touching one that truthfully, looked pretty real. In fact, as I reached out to touch it to prove to Katie it was fake, I had the minuscule second of hesitation. What if it was real?


This display had a spotted stingray (among other things) that is in the bottom right corner. Elayna was reaching up as though to touch the fish as they swam by. I love how intrigued both the girls are:


Some other things that we didn't get pictures of: In the Ocean display: upside-down jellyfish, regular jellyfish, sea horses, crabs, sharks, eels, a weird fish that looked like coral-but walked instead of swam, and a sleeping octopus. (Katie didn't even remember seeing that one)

In the Journey to South America: fish that floated on the surface and had bulgy eyes like alligators, frogs, spiders, an electric eel that made "noise"-they had an audio representation of his electricity, turtles, and mini alligator things.

You can also feed the stingrays, but it cost $6 extra. We walked past the group as the leader was explaining how to feed them. You hold your hand out flat, and the stingray will swim over your hand, and suck it out of your palm. I'm not sure if that would be thrilling or scary. Probably both.

I have always loved the water, and I love going to aquariums. This was a fairly decent one, that I predict will become much better in the years to come.

What I've been up to...

Well, I'm the new primary pianist. Ryan was the previous pianist, but he was ready for something different. He hasn't gotten a calling yet, but he keeps busy watching Elayna and helping Katie with bathroom breaks. I really enjoy being the pianist. It is a great excuse to play the piano as many days as I can. The girls just play downstairs while I practice. Some of the songs are challenging, but thankfully, not too many. It is nice.

We got our front driveway fixed. I don't have pictures, but imagine a big hole beneath my driveway. Now imagine the cement in the driveway got broken in half because of the weight of the car. Also, the cement had dropped about 6 inches from it's original placement. The sidewalk had also broken. There was a 6 inch step where there shouldn't be, and the upper pad sounded hollow underneath. We were sure it was going to fall and break any day.

When we got the bid (last year) to get the driveway lifted (they pump cement into the hole under the cement, which causes it to rise to it's original spot), it was going to cost between $700 and $900, depending on how big the hole was. We knew the cost of cement had risen since then, but even with that, it only cost $562!

I know that we have had many blessings given to us by our Heavenly Father. Some are because we pay our tithing no matter what. We have been very blessed financially because of this. Ryan has a wonderful employer that appreciates the hard work he puts into his job. There was a large project that his department was working on, and because they completed it on time, they were given a substantial bonus. We used most of the bonus to pay towards our credit cards, but decided the driveway needed to be fixed.
We are constantly showered with blessings!

Amanda and I went to an Enrichment activity last Tuesday. Ryan was kind and generous enough to watch Katie, Elayna, Junior, and Abby. AND on a Tuesday, which is "his" night. He normally spends it with his cousin Derek in Provo, so Derek came to Santaquin that night. Well, as Amanda and I drove in, I noticed the front door was opening, and since the kids normally race to the door to see us, I figured it was them. I yelled "Boo!" as the door opened, only to see Derek kind of avoiding my eyes and going outside. Awkward!

My aunt Lynette let me come pick some of her plums. I got about 7 gallons worth. I steamed the plums and got about 3 gallons juice, that I will then make into plum syrup.

There has been idle speculation on the fact that I like dining tables. Indeed, I just bought my 4th dining table in 4 years. This post refers to the other tables.

This is the table I had until today:

It is a beautiful table. When it is clean. Which isn't as often as I'd like. Cleaning glass is just no fun. Plus the sun comes in from the windows to the side of it, magnifying the streaks that get left there each time I wipe it off. Plus, Katie and Elayna love to touch the underside, and see their hands from above. Ugh. Even more fingerprints to clean off. Also, because of the beautiful scrolls and leaves, there isn't much room for more than one chair on each side. It is also a little wobbly.

So I decided I wanted a table that was easy to clean, looked nice, and came with at least 4 matching chairs (the previous table had 3 matching, but only 2 functional). This is what I bought:


I actually got this table, 6 really nice chairs, 3 not so nice chairs, and 3 bar stools for $125. Not bad. Katie really likes using one of the bar stools to eat at the table.
The table top needed a little work. Mom let me borrow her sander, and a dark glaze. It isn't real wood, just a wood laminate. So I barely sanded it, then put 2-3 coats of glaze on it. Then I lightly sanded it and put a clear varnish on it. Repeat 4 times. But, I am happy with how it turned out:



We ate dinner at it tonight. The cleanup was so easy, it felt very stable, and we had more room. Very nice.