Extended Family - Christmas and New Year's

After a beautiful relaxing day, enjoying our little family, the magic, and a beautiful program at church, we headed over to Grams and Papa's house to enjoy some time with them before heading up to "Narnia" (the Cundick family cabin). We got to spend a little time with the cousins who wouldn't be joining us at the cabin, and these kids got to open their gifts from Grams and Papa.

It was hilarious to watch Cpc try to deal with his cousin Smc who was being a little bossy that evening (around here Cpc is the bossy one - I guess it just comes with being oldest?). I have a little series of pictures where poor Smc is trying to get everyone in line but doesn't realize that she's just making everyone upset! She's going to be such a great leader someday, along with Cpc (at least Pmc keeps telling me not to squelch his "leadership skills" by telling him to let me do the guiding!)

Then we headed up to the cabin for a glorious and relaxing three days. Pmc spent the first day sick :(, but the rest of our time was wonderful. Even though there was next to no snow, we still managed to do some sleigh-riding! Alas, I didn't take any pictures all weekend. But I have some sweet memories etched in my mind.

My favorite is simply the joy of family. On Christmas night we put the kids to bed before their cousins arrived at the cabin. Pretty early in the morning they both ended up in our bed for one reason or another. But once their cousins were awake and playing outside our room, they heard those voices and woke up with a start. The first thing they said was "cousins!" and jumped out of bed and we hardly heard from them the next 4 hours! I'm so grateful for the cabin to provide a great place for our kids to get to know their cousins! They played with each other all day long every day. They were thrilled to give and receive presents to/from each other. And they were especially happy to get to match each other in their PJ's!

So, after a 3-day hiatus from each other after leaving the cabin - they were again thrilled to all join together to celebrate New Year's Eve with some dinner and games! Grams and Papa provided them with hats, poppers, noisemakers and sparkling cider! I love this picture - especially because it's what the night was really like - nobody listening to the adults, and certainly not all cooperating at exactly the same moment for a picture. I think we're missing a couple cousins in this one even!

Sometimes I can hardly comprehend that these two little boys are actually mine. How grateful I am for that!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Magic

I am not quite sure how to accurately describe or even sum up my feelings about Christmas this year. I guess about the most accurate thing I can say is that it was magic. We didn't have a lot of money, and in a way that was nice. On the other hand there were some very generous elves watching over our family, which made our stress levels plummet - which is extremely nice! Mostly having a child who "gets" Christmas morning and Santa Claus and all that was absolutely, totally and in all other ways - I mean it was amazing! It was just so magical and enchanting.

Christmas Eve at Grammie & Boba's was especially fun. The kids really enjoyed being with their cousins. They didn't quite comprehend acting out the nativity - but they were pretty thrilled that they got to give gifts to the baby Jesus.

Cpc asked Santa - in a nice letter - for a "Mickey Mouse book" and "a new Snoopy." I love and adore that my kids love Snoopy. Pmc and I both loved Snoopy when we were little, so we think it's fitting! Anyway, Cdc asked for a "Merry Christmas" in his letter. They both got what they wanted! Cdc got his wish in the form of some "animals."

Cpc and Cdc both got to choose some gifts for each other. They were both thrilled to be giving each other something they knew the other would want. I never realized how early in life they could catch on to this. Cpc chose a "slink dog" from Toy Story for Cdc, and his excitement when Cdc was opening it was palpable. Cpc was also thrilled about the presents he got to help choose for mommy (socks and a projection alarm clock) and daddy (Wii Mario Kart).  I love seeing that giving spirit develop!

P.S. Sorry for the poor pictures. Something funky is wrong with the lighting on the camera and we haven't figured out how to fix it. Oh, and Picasa didn't save our edits to pictures - so there's that red-eye too. I'm too lazy to go fix it and re-upload!

CHRISTMAS CARD 2011!

We apologize for being so late with this, but hope it finds you well this Merry Christmas Eve! We have so much to be grateful for, especially each of you - our dear friends and family! Please know that we are thinking of you this wonderful season and pray that you are filled with JOY!

P.S. Don't forget to turn off the music on our sidebar if you're not using a feed!

Christmas Preparations

This year being much poorer financially than we have ever been, we've actually enjoyed preparing for Christmas much more. Things have been simpler, and we've been able to enjoy the Christmas season so much. We are definitely grateful for this and hope we can keep this mindset in future years, poor or not!

Here are two little snippets of our preparations:

At storytime a few weeks ago they decorated snowflakes. We were especially impressed with Cdc's artistic expression. He decorated that snowflake on the right all by himself! I was amazed at how he continued to just get those outer edges! Cpc does a great job too, but he certainly isn't artsy - he's too much like me!

The boys had a blast baking and decorating sugar cookies with us to give to friends and neighbors. These are our fanciest cookies - all due to Pmc's artistic abilities of course! Cpc put on the sprinkles on the trees and Cdc helped me do all the green and white frosting! Cpc also helped me mix up some hot cocoa mix for some other friends and family. He is an AWESOME candy cane smasher!

Picture Update

Apparently I've been really good lately at uploading pictures to Picasa, as well as writing little posts of my thoughts. But I've been forgetting to a little journaling along with posting pictures. Sorry! So this will be a brief rundown in words - and lengthy in pictures...

Cpc showing off the temple he built for FHE one night.
Dinner at Cowboy Grub the night before Aunt Cse left on her mission.


Our first Thanksgiving meal, at my mom's house the week before Aunt Cse left.

The last rose of the season, the end of October!



Salt Lake City seriously has the BEST storytimes for kids. I LOVE the library system here! That's Cdc on the left and Cpc on the right. They LOVE storytime at the library.

Our in-house cook. He's been telling me lately that when he grows bigger he wants to make dinner for us all by himself without any help!

Cpc was very excited that I let him choose for himself which hat/mittens set to buy!

This is the coveted item that Cpc is saving his pennies for these days. If only I were doing better at remembering to let him earn them! Sorry for the awful picture, it's for Cpc so that I won't forget, it's a Lightning McQueen cell phone.

I think Turkey Bowls are the best tradition ever. I never heard of them until my mission, but they are a definite tradition for us.Paul is on the right, I barely missed his nice kick. Mostly look at that beautiful Thanksgiving weather though!

Also from the Turkey Bowl. The boys and I played on the sidelines!

Thanksgiving weekend at "Narnia." Aren't those boys cute watching their movie!

Cdc at Gingerbread Storytime at the library. He decorated his cookie all by himself, and then was very upset when I told him he could eat it!

Cpc's final product, sorry I forgot to rotate it. He had a progression going where he'd have me take a picture, and then add feet, take another picture, add hands, take another picture, add - uh, those red things on the side of his belly? Funny kid.



This would be Cpc's latest photo shoot. He's getting pretty good with that camera huh? I didn't even show him how to change the setting to black and white. He actually got some REALLY good shots of Cdc (he did take like 100 pictures in a matter of 5 minutes though. These two are doing so well at just hanging out together and treating each other pretty well. I don't know why Cdc will cooperate for a photo shoot for Cpc and not me though!


We drove up to Logan a few weeks ago and thought it was awesome how the fog was just spilling out of the canyon like a cauldron!

Our real Thanksgiving feast. YUM!

Our annual Thanksgiving Turkey. Cdc is on the red, Cpc on the orange, the blue hands are mine and the yellow are Pmc's - but I accidentally wrote my list on the yellow so Pmc got the blue!

What a gorgeous night in Narnia.

Turns out my children have a very strong attachment to the Snoopy I got for Christmas when I was 3 or 4. Snoopy finally got his first washing and mending this year - you should see him now!


Cdc and Cpc both really wanted to put the star on the tree, so we let Cdc put on the star for our mini tree, and then we took it off and let Cpc put on the real one.

Pmc finally figured out how to get our star to glow (it's been our plan since we bought it our first year of marriage!).

Another picture-taking venture by cpc!

Our annual Temple Square visit to see the lights. The boys LOVE the lights this year. Everywhere we drive once it's dark we hear repeated "Christmas Lights" from the backseat each time they see some.

Apparently my boys have my same addiction to Creme Brulee.

Pmc won 2nd place in his recipe contest! That is some darn good chili, and it is his very own recipe!

We have a tradition of reading a book about Santa Claus each December. It gives some awesome details about everything that goes into Santa's venture to deliver presents all around the world in one night. That man is sure a great example of Jesus, spending his whole life just trying to make kids happy! His wife is pretty fantastic too. She shares her Christmas Cookie recipe in this book - Molasses chocolate chip cookies - this is the first year we've made them and they are VERY tasty!

That's all folks! Now watch for our Christmas card - I really think it should be here before Christmas!

SPD

Sensory Processing Disorder. It's a really tough thing to explain. Many times when I try to explain it to people I recognize this look they get in their eyes that says "everything you're telling me is exactly what a typical kid is like - and you're going to go labeling it as a disorder and claim that it's hard? WOW!" Sometimes it makes me doubt myself. And other times it makes me feel like I need to help the world understand this. But most of the time I try to blow it off and just keep doing my best and trying hard to figure out exactly what Cpc needs.

This week that is going pretty well. Last week I thought I just might die. We took Cpc to therapy (Occupational Therapy) on Friday and even his therapist was lost as to how to help him. We use to take Cpc to therapy earlier in the day. Well, he's never real dis-regulated until afternoon/evening, so I guess she just wasn't quite seeing the real issues we were dealing with. But we started, by chance, taking him on Friday afternoons - generally his worst time of the week. And boy, this last week she really got a good picture of what we have been struggling with around here. The interesting thing is that even though she seemed completely lost and we left therapy feeling very disheartened - I think it was actually the most helpful session we've had. We learned some things that I don't think we would have learned otherwise. Not only does Cpc need LOTS of heavy work (he carries 8-10 gallon jugs of water up and down the stairs on a daily basis - plus other similar activities) to help regulate him, he also needs help calming his system after these activities. We knew after the first week we went to therapy that it was helping. But we could never quite make it work at home. What we didn't realize is that the 20-minute car-ride immediately after therapy was an essential part of the process for him. Car-rides are a calming for him, but we also have other things that help to calm him. The funny thing is, no matter how wired he is, trying to calm him without getting in that heavy work doesn't work. But you put together a few heavy work activities with a calming activity and suddenly he can function just the same as any other kid. He's kept his underwear dry 4 days in a row now, without me having to notice when he needs to go potty. Maybe this is too much information for some, but this is literally a miracle in this household. It has been AGONIZING over the last 10 months to watch Cpc go from perfectly potty-trained to COMPLETELY UN-potty-trained even while he tries so hard and wants so much to wear underwear and not diapers. Pmc thought of an awesome way to explain this last night.

It's like there is a freeway between his senses and his brain. If he hasn't had the input+calming activities that he needs it's like there is a traffic jam on the freeway. But if he has had the activities he needs there is a free-flow of traffic. If he's not regulated through those activities it doesn't matter if his bladder is sending out the signals that it's full and needs to be emptied, his brain just doesn't get the signals and he never gets himself to the potty. But if he is regulate - no problem. He needs no reminders from us, he knows exactly what to do.

And this is more than just potty training. Cpc is a kind, thoughtful, obedient boy. But when his system is not regulated - I can tell him 12 times (with him hearing every word - and capable of repeating back to me what I just said) to do something and what the consequences are if he doesn't(that he definitely doesn't want), and he won't do it. The connection is never made. He just can't do it. It's not a matter of choice. He. Can't. Do. It. He seems stupid, or defiant, or belligerent. But boy, you get that kid regulated and he is on the ball. He's not perfect. He makes mistakes. But he is kind, thoughtful and obedient. His true personality shines through. He's brilliant. He's funny. He's happy. He's loving.

I'm so grateful for our discoveries this week and have a lot of confidence that we have made a breakthrough. But just in case this is another one of those "two-week-fixes" that have been common for us - I'll try to delay partying about it for another few weeks!

But I'll have you know that I now have to use TWO hands to count the number of times Cpc has fallen asleep cuddling in my arms. And that made me cry tears of joy yesterday!

Lots of time for thoughts right now

Pmc here (yes I'm still alive despite very little written evidence in the form of blog posts recently...)  I -obviously- don't write very often, which means that when I do I tend to wax philosophic and try my best to make this count for about 3 months worth of posts! (Sneaky, right?)
Just like every other week of my life, this week has been unlike any other...  It started off with some bad news: (See Atec's post about LAME car criminal mischief)  Then there were a couple of good chapters... on Tuesday I made a couple pots of my personal recipe chili for a competition sponsored by a local radio station.  I won this round and advanced to the finals in a couple of weeks. I'm excited to know that my chili recipe is good enough to win a competition, and I'm super hopeful that I'll win the grand prize - a $500 gift card and a trip to a Utah football game!
Also, Thanksgiving day was perfect.  I had fun playing in a local 'Turkey Bowl', then coming home to be with my family and making the rolls for a splendid dinner with some of my extended family.  Dinner was even better than usual, and the night ended with some games and a good night's sleep.  (Which marks the last night in which I slept well...) Which brings me to the next piece of bad news: The Utes' football loss to the lowly Colorado Buffaloes. It was a disaster. Cold. Windy.  Ugly.  It's literally been the first football game which I've lost sleep over; each night since I've awoken with the game on my mind and it's taken me at least 30 minutes to fall back asleep.  What's wrong with me!!??!!
All of this led me to do some pondering over the last 36 hours as we spent time up at my family's cabin in the mountains East of SLC and came back home last night.  I've known for a long time that sports, especially University of Utah sports, mean more to me than they probably should.  What I'm trying to figure out now is, why do they mean so much, and how can I change it?  I don't think it's unhealthy, I just want it to be more... uh, more manageable!?!?
This time spent in thought lately has been good for me.  I've realized that most of the time I know I'm a wonderful guy in a lot of ways.  (Humble, I know.)  But there are moments almost every day that I honestly struggle to feel good about myself, and I think the best way for me to feel better about myself as a whole is to adjust some of the little things - like caring a little too much about sports- which are holding me back.  There's nothing big and glaring, but the accumulation of small deficiencies can be as bad as one big obvious flaw.  Life isn't about perfection, but improvement.  I'm enthused and slightly terrified at the opportunities I have right now to improve and I'm actually grateful that my eyes have been profoundly opened to some specific changes I can make. Carpe Diem!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving. I just love having an entire holiday to remind us how important it is to be Thankful. I only have a minute, so I'm just going to tell you about two things I'm grateful for.

Leaves to rake and jump in with my boys in the fall. I am grateful for something that teaches so instantaneously the value of work. You rake up the leaves, and then you have fun jumping in them. It helps me try to remember that in all the other work we do around here.

My little sister Cse who just left on her mission last week. We miss our in-house babysitter, her serene presence, and someone to always care. But we are already feeling the blessings of her service.

CTR

In our church there is a common phrase used: "Choose The Right." It is used most frequently with children and youth to help them remember to make good choices. Often it is shortened to CTR and placed on things like rings, bracelets and necklaces. Cpc has a little bracelet that says CTR on it. We haven't yet really talked about this phrase, but he loves the bracelet. Actually, he loves to chew on the bracelet because he's always seeking some oral input.

Anyhow, this morning we drove daddy to work and he was chewing on his bracelet in the back of the car when we heard him say "CTR means not getting on time-out." It sure made me smile.

LAME

Our car got broken into last night. LAME! Actually, it didn't get broken into, it was unlocked. We are usually pretty good at locking up, but I probably got a little lazy thinking "it's behind the house, who even knows it's there?" There wasn't much to steal, we managed to remember to bring the camera in (although it's usually in the diaper bag/backpack that was left in the car). So, the only thing of real monetary value was the GPS.

Yes, we're sad about the GPS, it was really nice to have. But we did get it for free, and we can live without it just fine (now that we're not living in New York!).

However, they also stole our little diaper bag/backpack. I don't get it. Yes, it is Kelty brand (because it came with our Kelty child carrier) - but really? It's a kids size backpack that didn't even have decent straps. Why in the world would you dump everything out if it (including a pretty nice little travel camera tripod) and take the bag? I don't get it.

We hope that on judgement day whoever stole it will have to watch a little playback of Cpc crying when he found out it was gone. Either that or return it to our porch. We won't look for fingerprints or even try to turn you in. He just wants his backpack returned!

P.S. Why in the world would you take the GPS and not take the charging cord (even though it was RIGHT THERE with the GPS)?

Couples Workshop

We spent our date night last week on supporting my "Power of Moms Trainer Manager" and attending her Couples Workshop. Can I just say QUA-LI-TY? Yes, that is exactly what it was. That was a quality way to spend our date night. I highly recommend attending one sometimes. Much more manageable than getting away to a Couples Retreat. Anyhow, we got lots of great ideas, but the one we're choosing for now to implement is some family rules.

I know all family's have rules - but I also think most family's are like ours - we had too many rules. We needed to pare it down and make our system easy enough for our kids to understand. So we now have 4 family rules: Respect, Love, Order and Happy. Pretty much all our other family rules fit into one of these categories. We also have specific consequences to go with each of these rules - and they're working much more effectively because the kids know exactly what to expect (instead of their behavior getting responded to with anger, time-out, or ignorance - depending how much time or attention mom or dad want to give!).

I wish I had remembered to get a picture of Tiffany and I with our husbands or something - one of these times I guess!

Bubble Bath vs. String Orchestra Pit

So the other night we were listening to one of my very favorite pieces ever written - Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. I love this piece for so many reasons, one of which is that I performed it in Europe with my orchestra just after high school. Anyway, there is a part in the piece where it goes from super-duper quiet, almost inaudible, to super loud very suddenly. Pmc mentioned how he thought that was obnoxious and I argued that it was one of my favorite things about the piece - and ultimately we just got talking about music and how it affects us.

Toward the end of the conversation I made a startling realization. If I was seeking relaxation, I would prefer to sit in the center of a quality string orchestra over a bubble bath. Yes, really. I think the vibrations of a string orchestra are as relaxing/comforting as a bubble bath. I have always cherished quartets and string orchestra's and I think that's why. There is something about those vibrations that just melt my heart and make my troubles melt away. I always found it funny when my friends said that listening to classical music puts them to sleep. How can you possibly fall asleep in a bathtub? For me, that kind of music is totally relaxing, but in an entirely different way than would put me to sleep.

Now you know a little more about me. No wonder I stuck with violin for so long, but too bad I can't be a quartet all by myself. So anyone else think there is something better than a bubble bath?

The Candyman

Remember back here when Cpc got to dress like "The Candyman" from Candyland? Yeah, well, because of Cdc's name - he has received the official nickname of "The Candyman." We apparently got rid of the hat and mittens we used for Cpc's picture - but we figured we better get a picture of him in this outfit - even if he's outgrown it a little.