The Funnest Things Ever

12/29/09

I've been trying to put Christmas decorations away all day, but Luke is sick AGAIN and so I keep winding up sitting in front of the computer while I hold him/feed him/let him nap in my arms. So hence, another post.

This morning I was being sarcastic on Facebook as usual and said that "Cleaning up after Christmas is the funnest thing ever!!!" which lead to Mike (Yoder) saying "Funner than moving?!?" and Liz (Jowers) saying, "Funner than having a baby without meds?" So naturally the wheels in my head started turning and I started wondering what the "funnest" (yes, you grammar people, I realize that's not a real word but so what) things I've done this year are. So here they are in no particular order, because really, how can you quantify fun?

1. True--having a baby without meds was probably one of the funnest things in my whole life. Whenever it's brought up, Mark always says that he much preferred Luke's birth to the 12 hour ordeal we had with Madelyn. IT'S NOT THE BREVITY OF THE SITUATION THAT WAS FUN IT WAS THE NO MEDS PART. Although three hours of feeling like I was being turned inside-out was plenty long, thank-you.

"Well, it was no walk in the park for me, either."

2. Me getting strep throat with a one-week old baby was fun.
3. So was moving twice in six months.

Boxes....clutter......Aaaaaacck

4. So was the drama of planning Maria's wedding.

Drama?? What drama?!?! There's never any drama involved with weddings.

5. Fasting blood draws, anyone? I got to do that twice this year. Add that to the life-draining, puke-a-licious time that is the first trimester of pregnancy.
6. Not having enough money is always fun!
7. Mark having to take "the boards." Shudder.
8. Car troubles! Oh, our cars. Our lovely, delightful cars...
9. "What is that unholy stench in my new house?!?!?" (It's the carpet, and it still reeks. The second we get our tax refund, I'm going to home Depot to pick out something new.)
10. And yes, cleaning up after Christmas is definitely making this a spectacular week for me. Because you know how I love having 3,000 things to put away!

A mite too grouchy, am I? Here's some more really fun things.
This time I will not lie.

1. Taking Madelyn to the ocean for the first time.

Newport Beach, CA

2. When Madelyn emerged from underneath her blanket in the corner of the delivery room to come meet her baby brother and asked me, "How was your day?"

September 25th, 2009

3. The tram ride at Disneyland with the dinosaur animatronics. HAHAHAHAHA! "Scree!" "Caw!!" (picture little red glowing eyes).

4. That one month that we had cable and I got to watch The Food Network all day.
5. When I saw "Mark T. Yoder, PA-C" on the Premier Pediatrics sign outside his work. Seriously one of the proudest moments of my life.

6. Giving a bath to Luke is fun. I want to eat that little boy up every time I see his plump little naked body.

"I'm so delicious I can't resist eating my own hands."

7. Also: realizing that he inherited my eyes (the shape of them, anyway) from me, since he initially looked like just another Chinese Yoder boy. Ha! Take that, genetics!!

Hardly even looks like the same kid, I know! It is.

8. Overpriced but delicious caramel apple + fireworks at Disneyland= Oooooo, Aaaaahhhh
9. Madelyn giggling nonstop the first time she put her glasses on and could see(!) out of her left eye


10. Last but not least, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. AWESOME book (my favorite), awesome movie. I got it for Christmas plus books 1-7. I find myself becoming more geekified as I get older. It's fun.


Wow--judging from that list, I need to go to California way more often. What are the "funnest" things you've done this year?

Happy Anniversary to us!

12/28/09

Mark and I were married eight years ago today. EIGHT YEARS! I don't know if we ever expected to end up where we are today--with a career, a house and two kids. Mark officially had no idea what he wanted to do when we got married. He just resumed going to college (at Dixie...those were the days) and we figured things out as we went along. That kind of sums up our life so far: we figure things out as we go along.

Look at you! You all look so young! HA HA!!

Anyway, for some reason, every time our anniversary rolls around lately we are either sick or moving. Last year I had bronchitis (and we had just moved a week and a half before), and last night poor Mark had a terrible stomachache and was up till 3:00 or 4:00am. Four years ago we were moving from Cedar City to St. George. Three years ago on our anniversary, we spent 12 hours on the road, in the snow, moving to Albuquerque. Mark was in the moving truck towing his car, and I drove behind with two-year old Madelyn. We were greeted in NM with 23 inches of snowfall (a 30 year storm) that first night and couldn't leave the house for three days. Aahh, memories!!

Yeah, I felt like crying, too

Of course if I have to be sick, moving and/or snowed in every year, the person I want to do it with is Mark. I love you, my dearest!! Here's to eight great more years!

Christmas...

12/26/09

...is over! YAY!!! No, I really love Christmas, but the stress of it this year was a bit much. I am rather looking forward to life returning to normal. You?

Christmas Eve: Time to read The Night Before Christmas? Not before a few tales from Arabian Nights. Madelyn said, "I want the scary book."

"Santa came!"

"Santa came!"

We had a lovely Christmas and enjoyed spoiling our kids rotten. One of these days I might actually get all their new toys put away.

Also:

Luke turned three months old! What a precious boy!!

Haha...still can't resist a turban picture

Weight: 13 lbs. 15 oz. What a CHUNK!! Love to nibble on those rolls!
Length: about 23 inches
Loves: cooing, smiling and squealing, kicking, chewing and slobbering on everything, his swing and new baby mat, his mama (and daddy and sister, but mostly his mama)
Hates: wearing hats, getting strapped into his car seat, getting his nails trimmed, wind in his face

(boy, that diaper's on good and tight...)

We also got Madelyn's five year stats on Wednesday:

(look at Luke stretching up to look at her--so cute!)

Weight: 33 lbs 14 oz. (10th percentile)
Height: 41 3/4 inches (37th percentile)
BMI: 13 (0%)

I thought it was interesting that they start checking kids' Body Mass Index at this age. Good thing our skinny minny has nothing to worry about! Luke will thin out too, I'm sure. But for now I'm going to enjoy snuggling every dimple and crease on his little body. Now if only he knew how to clean house...

It's here!!!

Andrea Bocelli's performance of The Lord's Prayer with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir finally showed up on YouTube. SWOON!!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Happy birthday Madelyn!!

About seven weeks old, winter 2005

12/22/09

Yesterday, Madelyn turned 5! I can't believe she is that old! She has really grown up this year. I am proud of her and how much she has learned and changed. Even though she spent the day running errands with me, she said she still had a good time. I wish I could have managed a big birthday party for her with all her friends like she wanted, but things have been much too hectic. As in, so-much-to-do-that-you-want-to-poke-your-own-eyeballs-out-hectic.

Soooo we just went out for lunch at Del Taco (because it has a play place--not because the food is good...blech.) she got to pick out a new baby doll at the store, get balloons and then we went to the library. She made sure everyone we saw knew it was her birthday and skipped around the grocery store singing, "I'm the birthday girl, I'm the birthday girl..." When daddy finally got home, we had spaghetti, she opened the rest of her presents and I made a gooey cake.

This is an Old Navy doll she received whose name is "Sydney" (one of Mark's favorite girl names) according to the tag. Madelyn calls her "Signey", though. They look remarkably alike, except for Signey's melon head.

She got a ballet shoe necklace, pink tights, slippers and a tutu, because she kept telling me this was her "ballet" birthday and that her "carrot"and "plastic" birthdays would take place later. (??)

"Daddy got me a new sled!!! This is the best present ever!"

"I'm five!!" (And wore five outfits--count 'em!)

I'm taking her for her 5-year checkup tomorrow (shh...she hates checkups and has to get her you-know-whats for kindergarten) so I'll update you on her stats later. But here's her top ten:

10. She loves practicing writing and will ask you how to spell words so she can write them out
9. Her favorite colors are red and pink now. It used to be blue. She is becoming more girly by the minute

8. She loves all books, but especially "Where's Waldo" and other books with hidden things
7. She loves Charlie Brown videos and will watch the holiday ones (The Great Pumpkin, Thanksgiving and Christmas specials) year-round. Something else she loves year-round is hot cocoa, which she insisted on drinking all summer long.
6. She has learned how to say she's sorry in preschool, and it was quite shocking the first time she was apologetic to me. That had not exactly been a virtue of hers...
5. She still loves to paint on huge pieces of paper and will sometimes use her hands instead of her paintbrush, but that is about the extent of her purposefully making messes. THANK GOODNESS. Well, unless you count the toys she is always dumping all over her room. But I'll take that any day over discovering that the TV screen has been smeared with a stick of butter. That happened only a year ago, people.
4. She refers to today as "this day", yesterday as "at last day", and tomorrow as "at next day." She's learning the proper terms now, but I think her versions are cute.
3. When Mark comes home, she always drops whatever she's doing, and squeals "DADDYYYYY!!!!" and runs into his arms. They like to go out and do stuff together.
2. She is a major chatterbox. My favorite quotes lately: "Jesus never gives up." She said this about President Monson, too. Also: "Luke bless-you'd on me!"(i.e. "sneezed"), and just now as I was helping her put snow gear on as the baby was screaming in my lap, she said, "Mister, I'm not dying or going to jail--I'm just going outside to play in the snow."
1. Every day since Luke was born, she has said "We're so glad we have a baby!" She loves that little boy so much and she is the best big sister.

There's so much more I could say about her. She has been a ray of sunshine in our lives since day one and we are so happy that she is in our family!

Around age one

We love you, Miss!! Thank-you to everyone who called her or sent gifts!

Poll

12/20/09

I am going to do some recipe posts soon, but I have way too many I could put on here. So you tell me which ones you want and I'll consider typing them up.

From Thanksgiving:
Four Berry Pie
Crescent Rolls

From Luke's blessing day Mexican feast:
Café Rio Shredded Pork
7-Layer Bean Dip
Refried Black Beans
Melissa's Muy Bueno Guacamole
Green Chile Chicken Posole (I already posted this recipe here)
Cherry Tart
Lemon Cheesecake Tarts

Christmas goodies:
English Toffee
Cinnamon Nuts
Peppermint Bark
Mint Chocolate Cake

I could do a 12 Days of Recipes Extravaganza... Well, I dunno. Just tell me what you think.

My boys

12/17/09


I believe the words we're looking for here are "Cute!" and "Luke may look exactly like Mark in this picture, but he clearly takes after his mother somewhat. If you account for his eyes, chin and lips but not his ears or nose...or his wide hands and long torso. Yes--I can almost see the resemblance now."
Thank you.

Yep, I'm stressed.

12/15/09

It's the most harrowing tiiiime of the yeeeaarrr....

Here's what you need to get into the Christmas spirit!

"Here, mom. Let me just use this candy cane to snare all the ornaments and take them off the tree. I am 'collecting' them for my own purposes. You may actually find this a handy tool for retrieving my stuffed animals from under your bed."

What--you don't make a gigantic mess when you're being crafty? Psh. You lie.

At least I have about 30 pretty new things to show for it. I'll list this stuff and more on my etsy site in a few days once the girls at Mark's office have a look at it. Do me a favor and order something!

...A million Christmas cards to send!

...Gifts to wrap!

...Goodies to make and deliver once I go back to the grocery store for more chocolate and more nuts!

And don't forget... a sick baby! It's just not the holidays unless your kid brings home a nasty cold from school, passes it along to the little one, who then wakes up every hour during the night to scream bloody murder and gets both parents sick as well.

Add a little car trouble, freezing weather, surly almost-5-year-old behavior, an exceeding amount of laundry, lack of money, birthday parties, ward parties, preschool parties, work parties, and I for one am holiday-ed out!!

Tune in next week to see if the tide has turned and if my reading of Dickens' A Christmas Carol has put me in a straight frame of mind. Although it seems Christmas was a little simpler back in 1843...

Typical!

12/13/09

Conversation between Mark and I this afternoon:

Me: Have you seen my gray fleece jacket? I think I left something in the pocket.

Mark: You're asking me where it is?!? Why would I know? I didn't even know you had a gray fleece jacket.

Me: Sigh...


By the way, this picture has nothing to do with anything. I just thought it was funny.

Cutie

12/9/09

"I can see much better!"

"I want to show Grandma Nora when she turns alive again."

"I'm glad I got my new glasses!"

It's me again

12/7/09

I took some more pictures! No, really.

Madelyn and her friend Peyton, aka "Peyton..she's already 5."

Madelyn was in a parade on Saturday with some of her preschool friends. Cedar City loves nothing more than putting on parades and festivals practically every other weekend. This one was called the Storybook Cavalcade and had about 70 floats and/or people dressed up like cartoon or storybook characters. A personal favorite of mine was Billy Goat Gruff and the troll under the bridge. Madelyn had no idea what that one was all about. Apparently I have been slacking in the frighteningly weird old fairy tale department.

(That's a swan, if you can't tell. At first, I was all, "Look at that chicken!!" Well, it does look like a freaky sort of chicken when you glimpse down the street with the sun in your eyes. Just one of the many gems of the parade.)

It was a balmy 39* F or so, but was kinda windy so we left the baby with our sister-in-law Sally. Madelyn had a princess costume on and got pretty cold. She still had a great time, though. After her part was done she came to watch the rest of the parade with us and holler at everyone who went by with her shrill little voice.

...waving at the Grinch

"SANTA! OVER HERE!!!!!"

On to Sunday...

Hahahahaha!! Dirty clothes turban baby!!

The kids' church outfits were matching so I took some more pictures when we got home.

Madelyn kept getting punched in the eye

Go ahead-- the "round-headed kid" Charlie Brown references are just too good to pass up

Look at those blue eyes!!!!!!

...And now if you'll excuse me, a baby poop explosion has just occurred on my lap and I have quite a bit of laundry to do.