Random Christmas Pictures

I just think Bree has the cutest profile. We got Emma and Bree matching Christmas jammies. I wanted a pair of the footed jammies too but Loralee said no.

Emma was very out of it most morning and spent half the time crashed on the floor like she had downed a few too many spiked Egg Nogs

Here are the girls in their matching Christmas dresses. The blonde cutie, for those who don't know, is Kayte, Emma's cousin.

Christmas with the Packards

I’ve always been of the opinion that the Packards (my wife’s side of the family) are a little crazy. I’m still of that opinion, but over the years there has been a change in my heart where I can now look through the craziness and admire the great qualities they have.

Let me start by saying that there are literally a million Packards and they all know each other and are intimately familiar with everything that’s going on in the other 999,999 Packard’s lives. I’ve been in this family for years now and I haven’t even come close to figuring out who goes with whom and which of the 3,000 kids running around came from which womb.

They have a built in mechanism that they use to sense when a Packard clan gathering is going to take place, and they converge on that location like a flock of locusts devouring a corn field. I don’t mean anything negative by that comparison, it’s just that there are so many of them, there’s always food involved, and it’s a form of organized chaos on a grand scale.

So I think I can be forgiven if it’s taken me a long time to adjust to the overwhelming experience that being a part of this family can be. But I’m older and wiser now and I have come to appreciate that there are things the Packards do that I have never seen another family do and the fact that all 1,000,000 of them do it is amazing.

My current case in point is Christmas. We’re here in So. California and this is the biggest of all the Packard nesting grounds. Every year a few days before Christmas all the various Packard strongholds pick a few families they want to spread some Holiday cheer to and they all go caroling.

There’s easily 50 of them that come out to sing, and they’re all good singers so it’s like a semi-pro choir going caroling. In the middle of a song a group of them will break out in harmonies. Nobody tells them to do it and there doesn’t seem to be any planning to do it before hand, they just know to do it. I just stand in the middle of them all trying my best to carry a tune and suddenly people all around me will go into a harmony. The problem is I don’t know how to sing harmony and I’ll have 3 different harmony parts going on right next to me. I end up trying to mix a Bass part with an Alto. I think I gave myself a hernia during one of these adventurous attempts and I ended sounding like a pair of cats declaring their undying love for each other.

Despite my own personal discomfort and confusion during the singing I’d have to say that it’s a pretty wonderful thing. I mean who goes caroling anymore? It’s unheard of. But the Packards do it and the people they sing to love it. I’ve seen people they sing to cry at the end because they were so touched.

Another Packard tradition is to make the Santa experience very real for their kids. On Christmas Eve all the cousins will gather together to eat, run around the house, scream, eat, hit each other, scream, eat, and drive their parents insane. A lovely evening in anyone’s book. At the end of it all one of the cousins will get a phone call and on the other line is Santa. Santa will talk to the chosen cousin about what’s been going on in their life and will tell them what time he plans on dropping by the house. Considering that there are 325,000 cousins, being the chosen one is a very big deal. Loralee still remembers the year it was her turn.

Before the kids go to bed they all choose a hiding spot, because Santa made the mistake of letting them know when he was coming by so now they get to hide and watch him put out the presents the next morning. So when Christmas morning comes all the kids are hiding behind couches and curtains, under piano benches, or just curled up in a ball because all children know that the human rock is the best camouflage there is. And this is when the real magic happens. Santa (performed by a family friend) comes in the door and starts putting the presents under the tree. Not only that but he will talk to himself about what’s been going on with each child during the past year (this information provided in the form of a script by the parents). It’s no wonder that Loralee got in a fight in Junior High about the existence of Santa. Of course he’s real! She had seen him every Christmas for as long as she could remember!

Christmas with the Packards isn’t just a nice idea and a pleasant morning spent together, it’s a production. It’s a symphony of planning, cooking, organized chaos and a deep sense of tradition. Like I said, there’s no other family I know that goes to this amount of effort to make Christmas a magical experience. If they weren’t a little crazy I don’t think it would work because only a crazy group of people could make this work every year. God bless them for it too.

Here's a small sampling of all the Packards in their caroling glory.

Bree's 1st Birthday

Bree made it to the all important 1st birthday. Cleveland tried it’s best to take her out by sending her to the ER when she was first born, and by giving her various infections and illnesses since then, but she has survived and her 2 teeth show that she’s doing just fine. For some reason that we really can’t explain we thought we’d do a Japanese themed party for Bree. We had various sushi desserts and some real sushi for the adults to pretend they like to eat. We even tried to make everyone eat with chop sticks which is always good for a laugh

These are Sushi Cupcakes for the kids with some Wasabi frosting on the side

These are rice crispies wrapped up in fruit roll-ups with a gummy worm in the middle. They were disgusting.

Just some pics of Bree enjoying some frosting. She had no interest in the cake portion.

I hate flying

There is nothing worse to me than being stuck on a plane and my trip out to California for Christmas break was everything I hate about flying wrapped into one miserable morning. I left from Cleveland at 6:50am which was a brilliant start. I flew down to Cincinnati on a little plane which is always a little painful because the seats are smaller. But to add to my joy was that I got the seat at the very back of the plane which was bad for 2 reasons. 1st, you can’t recline those seats. I know that reclining only involves a 2 inch change in your vertical orientation but that 2 inch is a lot when you’re crammed into a 12 inch sitting area. 2nd, right across the isle from me was not another passenger, but every passenger on the plane had bowel issues during the flight because I got to sit next to the toilet. To top everything off on this leg of the flight was that the air blowing out of my feeble little AC was not cold but very warm. So that was my hot, poo-scented, non-reclining portion of my trip.

I managed to survive the first portion of my flight by taking off one side of my sweat shirt and wrapping it around my face. This let me avoid most of the smell, provide some sort of head rest, and cooled me off a bit.

After my layover we boarded our plane to San Diego. This was in a big plane and by luck I got a row with some extra leg room so I had hopes that I would be able to enjoy this portion of the trip more. To top it off the plane wasn’t too full so it looked like I’d have the row to myself. At the end of the boarding a woman came and sat next to me which didn’t bother me too much because it was obvious that it was just going to be the 2 of us and I figured she’d just slide over a seat once the doors closed. The doors closed, but no sliding. I suggested to her that now might be a good time to slide on over because obviously nobody else was coming, no sliding. Surely she would slide on over in a few minutes, no need to worry.

Now would be a perfect time for a huge snow storm to hit and cause us to sit on the runway for over an hour waiting for them to plow the runway and de-ice the plane. Yet again, no sliding by this woman despite my many hints that only an insane person would want to sit next to someone else on a plane when there’s an open seat right next to them. I have also figured out by this point that this woman doesn’t speak any English. But honestly, should that matter? There’s an open seat!! In what culture is that something to be avoided? To top this portion of my fight off the man in front of me has figured out that you don’t need head phones to listen to the music coming from the arm rest in the plane. All you have to do is turn up the volume all the way and everyone can enjoy your selection. I had ear plugs in and I could still hear his music with him singing right along.

We eventually took off and made our trip to San Diego while I had a strange little woman snuggled up to me who doesn’t speak any English and has a horrible case of body odor. After a few hours of trying to gesture to her and speaking loudly about how it was morally wrong to not take that open seat (that’s how you help someone who doesn’t understand what language you’re speaking miraculously understand you) I gave up on enjoying some personal space during the flight. At least I could watch the in flight movie and escape from my horrible reality for a while. To my joy I got to watch Hair Spray. There’s nothing better than having a smelly foreigner leaning on you, a guy blasting his arm chair music and dancing in front of you and getting to watch John Travolta in drag at 30,000 feet. So I say again, I hate flying.

This Years Christmas Letter

I was reading an article in a magazine the other day about rules for writing a holiday letter. Since I’ve never written one of these before I thought it would be important for me to follow the rules.

Rule #1 : Don’t brag. We had a miserable year. Dental School is making me fat and bald and an all around grouch. It’s a good thing I only have 1½ years to go. Loralee is barely scraping by as a mother. Our children will likely need therapy if she doesn’t turn things around soon. Emma is short and will be for life. Maybe we’ll get her leg lengthening surgery. Bree is almost a year old and still can’t talk, walk, or use a toilet. How disappointing.

Rule #2: Don’t be negative. What a wonderful year! I love school despite the frustrations that come with it. Loralee has been keeping busy with projects around the house and loves to play with the girls. She’s a great mother. Emma is a joy and loves to dance and sing. She even got a solo part in her recent dance recital which was very cute. Bree is Loralee’s daughter through and through and has LOTS of energy. She’s only been here for a year but we couldn’t imagine life without her.

Rule #3: Funny stories are always welcome. Emma had an interesting event while at church a few months ago. She managed to sneak away in sacrament meeting while Bree was distracting us. She made it all the way to the stand where the Bishop was in the middle of an announcement. After noticing her next to him he turned to see who it was, and BAM Emma punches him right in the stomach. He couldn’t breathe for a full minute and had to sit down. Very embarrassing.

Rule #4: Don’t Lie. O.K., that didn’t happen.

Rule #5: Keep it short. We had a good year, but not too good since I don’t want to brag.

Man, following all the rules is hard. Let us just wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa and everything else. Thanks for all of your love and support for our little family.

Love,
Dave, Loralee, Emma, Bree, & one on the way!! (Just kidding)

Yes, we're alive!

I know, it's been a while! We haven't had much to "report" on, so I didn't blog. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with our friends,

had a great "girls day" during the crazy shopping weekend, and have been on the run ever since, getting ready for...drumroll...Emma's first dance recital!!! Let me tell you, I was about to pee my pants at how cute all these little kids were in their costumes, especially (of course) Emma's class and the one just younger than them with 2 yr olds! THEY WERE SO STINKIN' CUTE!
Emma's dance teacher is a 4th yr dental student's wife, Miss Tracee, and I can't say enough what a fantastic job she does! Emma thinks the world of her and is quick to tell me every week on our way to dance that Miss Tracee must have missed her so much. She really is amazing! She had the recital at the stake center in Kirtland (it's just a free event, bring friends and family and a treat to share!).
Emma has her best buddies Elizabeth and Evie in her class and they were adorable teddy bears! The whole class started out "asleep" and the music began and the teacher came around and tapped each one to wake up and they did cute little dance moves to stretch and stuff. She had a little "solo" part that we didn't know about! All the girls were running off stage and she stayed on and laid back down and I was like, No Emma, get off the stage! But it was all part of the act. Little girls came on in groups trying to wake her up, then finally she woke up and they all joined her and danced! It was so much fun to watch this whole recital. Ever since Emma has started dance she isn't afraid to make up her own dances to whatever music she is listening to or show she is watching, or she'll just make up her own song and dance to it! We recently got "Annie" and turned it on and now she always wants to watch the "dancing and singing movie"...but I'm not sure how I feel about it (I didn't realize how drunk Miss Hannigan always was!). And, of course, anything with Barbie and dancing is always appreciated! What fun it is to see her grow up and experience things that "older" girls experience. She really is getting older, and while it's sad that my baby is growing up, this part is so much fun!

And then there's our cute, sweet, funny baby Bree. I LOVE THIS BABY! Her personality is so much like mine that I can't help but love on her and give her kisses and snifflies all day. She's learned some new tricks lately. She's been able to do this floppy wrist type wave for a little while now, but now she's learned to open and close her hand as a wave, and I LOVE watching that tiny hand move like that! And I'll make monkey noises and she copies me and thinks it's hilarious. Her monkey sound sounds like "whoo whoo whoo." We went to Lowe's yesterday and when we were checking out the lady said hello to Bree and smiled. I always notice it takes a few seconds to register to her what is going on, so she just stares, then smiles. Then the lady waved, so Bree keeps smiling, waits a few seconds, then does her new little wave! The lady LOVED that, and by that time, the other checkers were watching and laughing too. Dave did something while paying and the lady laughed at that, then turned to Bree and made a slow laughing sound and said Your parents are silly. Then Bree copies her laugh with her monkey sound and we had the whole group laughing their heads off!! That took a lot longer to type than how it all played out in real life. But it was funny to see her interact like that. She LOVES LOVES LOVES to wrestle. Sometimes, in the middle of the day we'll just be doing our thing and all of a sudden she'll fall to the ground and roll and growl and get all spazzy and giggly. That's when I know she wants to wrestle!

I just laugh at her most of the day. But don't talk to me between 4-6pm--that's when she turns into demon child! Just kidding...it's not THAT bad, that's just when she whines all the time b/c she's hungry and wants to eat her dinner and go to bed. She's in bed by 6pm at the LATEST and doesn't wake up until 7:30am (or later if she woke up around 6am and we just gave her a bottle in her crib-then she'll fall back asleep until 9 or so!). WE ARE SO LUCKY! I just love my family. Dave exists too. :) It's just more exciting to hear about the girls.But, I HAVE noticed that a lot of bloggers talk about their life, so maybe I'll talk about mine. Hmmm...let me think about what I've been doing lately. I've totally been into my digiscrapping and I love playing around with different products and layouts.

Also, my sister Adrienne made a HUGE paper mache "F" (for Finch) that was just so awesome, so I got some smaller letters (12 inch) and did a J for Joy and an H, which I haven't finished yet, but will be either Ho Ho Ho or Happy Holidays. She made my huge "L" for my Christmas present, and from the word on the street, it's killer. I'll post pics of it when we get back from California.

I also found this site from my friend Hatsuho's blog, and it's AWESOME...if you're the crafty type. We're following in Dave's brother's footsteps and we've created a Christmas elf. We told Emma that Santa can't watch ALL the kids to make sure they're good, so he sends Christmas elves to watch them. Our elf's name is Blinken. And he's ALWAYS watching. I was talking to Dave about how we were going to have Blinken leave messages and little treats for Emma and thought if I could leave a little shoe somewhere that would be cute. Lo and behold, I'm just browsing through this site and WHA-LA! My elf shoe, complete with a free pattern! I've gotta finish making it tomorrow, and it WILL be coming with us to California! So, the girls and I head to Cali on Thursday. I'm so excited for warm weather, walks on the beach, sunshine, Christmas dresses made by Grandma, and time with family! Maybe Dave and I will go on a date too :)

Bree Talk

I've been able to be home more than usual these past few days and I've realized that Bree can talk. So since I think this is a sign of her exceptional giftedness I thought I'd share the dictionary of Bree.

Uhhhh. This is how she says Uh-oh. For some reason the oh never quite makes it and it's a very throaty uh. But she thinks it's great to throw things and say uhhhhh.

Da. Which of course means Dad. When I drive she likes to yell out Da!! and then I have to call back Bree!! It will go back and forth like that for a long time which is probably annoying to anyone else but I think it's cute.

Na. Which is No. She can actually say no sometimes but it usually comes out na. But she does shake her head when she says it and will sometimes shake her finger at you too.

Da. I know this is the same one as Dad but when she nods her head she's saying ya. And the sound is a little different. Some will say I'm stretching this one but it's real. She actually said yes this morning but I think it was an accident.

Boo or sometimes Ba. This is boo of course. She thinks this word is very funny and will laugh after saying it. She often times will hold a blanket in front of her face and do the peek-a-boo game at the same time.

There's not really a word for mom yet, which I tell Loralee means that Bree loves me more. I think she knows Emma has a name and will call for her but she hasn't settled into what to call her yet. There has been Eeeda, just Ma, or a whole slew of vowels that end in Da. She'll get it eventually.

But for 11 months I think that is pretty good. She has also been working on her growling which is useful for any wrestling she needs to do with Emma or me. She's definitely got some spunk and since she's almost as big as Emma is now I'm worried that she'll be picking on Emma soon. Hopefully they'll always love to play with each other as much as they do now. I'll have Loralee post some pictures of the two of them wrestling, it's funny to watch.

our little punkin'

I felt so bad that we didn't have any pictures of Bree in her costume for her very first Halloween, so I put it on her-she is so stinkin cute! Before, she totally fought me on the hat part, but I got her distracted, so she kept the whole costume on (well, minus the little booties) for a long time!

nothin' new

The stomach flu plagued us TWICE-NO FAIR (just Dave and Bree got it twice-I ended up with it on Monday night)! All last week we just stayed around the house and relaxed (ie: watched movies all day). Emma was going CRAZY. She doesn't normally have school on Mondays, and Tuesday was a teacher day. So since she had the flu the Friday before, it had been almost a week before she was back in school, and boy, did she need that! Dave realized she needed some sort of stimulation, so a couple nights when he got home he took her out-bookstore and sporting goods store and Target. At least we're teaching her young how to shop! JUST KIDDING. Dave never buys anything, Mom's the one with the issues here. Being sick has been great for our budget b/c I was just too tired to think of all the things I needed to buy from Target.

I think winter is on its way in. We've had some really windy days-enough wind to strip the trees bare. And I think we're all dreading what winter means...gloomy dark days, cold windy weather, and lake effect snow. Usually Lake Erie is almost frozen over by end of Nov/beginning of December. When it's frozen, that means we don't get the crazy lake effect snow. But it hasn't been freezing, so we're going to get some nutso storms this winter. My friend Chrissy said that's what happened their first year here and they had the worst winter ever. Good thing I'll be going to California for a month! Here's a cute picture of the girls looking out the window at the wind.

So Bree HATES anything that will keep her warm. Socks, shoes, jackets, hats, etc. I have tried multiple pairs of socks (tall ones, short ones) and different shoes (boots with velcro or zippers, shoes with velcro and laces), hats (beanies, snow hats with under chin straps)-she can get them ALL off! We're not gonna be able to go ANYWHERE this winter if this child doesn't learn to like those things. I even put tights on her one day and she was sitting in her car seat while I was driving, screaming as she was pulling on the toes to get them off. She pulled so hard that the crotch of the tights came down and her leg came up and then she pushed it back down through the OTHER leg of the tights-that made her REALLY mad! I finally got a hat on her last week and had her wear it around the house. Once I get her attention away from the fact that she's wearing a hat, she kind of forgets. And she looked SO CUTE! I have to say, with a hat on, she looks a lot like Emma. So here's a picture of Bree in a hat and Emma in a bonnet-their faces look so similar!

Happy Halloween

We've been SOOO lucky this week to have the Stomach Flu visit us! He's made himself feel quite at home, and has invited visitors at midnight, 12:30, 1, 1:30, 2, 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30 in the morning, then some more visitors a couple days later at 10:30pm and 7am. I think he might be afraid of me b/c I haven't seen him, but apparently Dave seems friendly enough to have seen him a LOT. We're lucky to have so many people come to call, what with Cold and Ear Infection coming last week. Bree's friend Antibiotic comes and goes b/c he doesn't like Stomach Flu, so once Stomach Flu leaves she'll have Antibiotic over for another week or so. Washer and Dryer are feeling pretty good about themselves b/c they've provided quite the service for me this week.
I apologize to any friends if Stomach Flu comes to your house. You can curse my name for exposing your children--I deserve it.
But at least Emma got to go trick-or-treating! Here's JoJo...and her sidekicks Cinderella and Ratatouille!

And here she is checking out the loot with Dad (who was keeping Stomach Flu company).