More Christmas

Since there were too many more pictures to share in the last post, I thought I'd just do a post of pictures and captions...(caption above picture)

Beau was really happy to get this Rescue Bot toy from Nana...he just didn't feel well so his happiness wasn't so apparent.

 Dad got to stare in wonder at his new digital frame, complete with pictures from his mission and random pictures from family get togethers

 Rus even liked Marianne's Big Bear

 Cutesy and a silly upside-down Bug. Cutesy is teaching me about doTERRA essential oils. We called her stash "the pharmacy."

 Beau and his new shelf from Grandpa and new soft blanket from Cutesy.

 Bekah's coveted Little House on the Prairie collection from Nana

 Marianne with her new horse from Nana and baby blanket from Aunt Katie and Claire

 Beau. Studly Beau with his new soccer ball from aunt Katie.

 Studly Jacob and his new ball from aunt Katie.

 Marianne got dressed by her two grandmas. Nana provided the dress and tights and Cutesy gave the sweater. I provided the bright yellow door for her to dance on.

 See? I told you she's a rockin' dare devil!

 All of the cousins (minus Marianne and Katie's kids) on New Year's eve.

Marianne was in a silly mood and couldn't stop tackling Beau. He loved it.

Christmas 2012

As always, the month of December is a total blur with SO much going on that it is so hard to keep track - and to keep the blog up to date. (It doesn't help when our modem dies and the new one takes its time getting here, either...)
But it was a good month - with both good and bad things happening that make me realize how blessed I am to be a mother and to have happy, healthy kids to love and take care of. I didn't have a big project to work on this year like I usually do and it was so nice to work on little projects with the kids or do something totally random and spontaneous.
My favorite parts of the month were:
* Going to the bell choir concert with Bekah and my neighbor Kate. It was a beautiful concert - unlike any regular concert I've ever attended. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Carol of the Bells tied for favorite.
* Going to the same neighbor Kate and her husband Roger's annual musical Christmas party. All their friends and neighbors come and everyone sings along and/or plays instruments. There were two flutists (floutists?), a violinist, a celloist, two guitarists, and a hammer dulcimer-ist. And there were many other instruments to play and share from cymbals to bells.
* Teaching my kids about serving others anonymously. We did special things for another family and my kids really enjoyed being sneaky and keeping such a big secret. And it just so happened that as they helped another family every Saturday morning, our Saturday mornings (and all the jobs and cleaning that go with them), were so much happier and more peaceful.
* Working in the garage. Rus got it in his head to make me a little side table for Christmas. And then he thought, why not make three at the same time and give them away to siblings for gifts. Our family had his sister Carla for Christmas and my brother Jared, so they each received a beautiful curly maple side table.

I really enjoyed working with Rus; he has learned so much about the different tools we've acquired over the last year and how to sand and finish a piece to make it really stunning.
Look at this! It has a native New Mexico walnut for the top and the drawer front. I absolutely love the character of the wood.

I also was able to do some fun little projects with the kids. Bekah helped me to make a little motorcycle "puzzle" for Jacob and Beau. I designed it several years ago for a gift for a friend, but I had never made it for my own kids. I think it's super cool, but Beau gets really frustrated with putting it together. And Jacob can't seem to keep track of the pieces.

* Having my parents visit. It was SO fun to have my mom and dad come for Christmas. And especially to have them stick around for a few days after! My dad and I played in the garage, Rus and my dad went shooting, my Mom and I decorated my room, and the kids soaked up all the extra attention and love. If we didn't have a stomach bug visit at the same time, it would have been perfect.
* Christmas eve was really nice - we made a special dinner (which I only stressed a little about when my meat thermometer suddenly died and I had visions of seriously overcooking a really expensive piece of meat that my mom bought...maybe chicken is better...), and then later we all pitched in to act out the nativity. The wise man on the left was a little cooky, Mary has the same fondness for Bekah's beanie that Bekah has, and Beau made an excellent shepherd. My dad was Joseph, I narrated, and Rus was really happy to not be the donkey this year (we used the rocking horse instead). My dad read "The Night Before Christmas," and "The Great Walled City," which is a story we always read Christmas eve when I was a kid, so it was a great flashback. We put the kids in bed and then my dad and I played scrabble for a while to make sure the kids were really asleep before we set everything up. (I might have lost the game...but really we had to end early, so who's to know what would have happened in the last few turns. I could have made that 75 points back...)

Aren't we all cute in our Christmas jammies? (Even though it's a bad picture...)

Christmas morning was full of happiness...new books...(thank you Nana!)

...new friends...Marianne loved this big ol' bear. Have I mentioned that she loves to rock on the horse? Standing up? Holding on with one hand? Oh yes, she is a daredevil.

Beau made Bekah a special bag to hold her Lalaloopsy dolls. He picked out every piece of fabric and ironed it himself. He even drew me a picture of what it should look like. So cute...

The Bug and I holding Big Bear.

It was a really special time for the kids and for me. I am so grateful for the amazing life and sacrifice of my Savior, without which we would not celebrate his birth! I hope you all had a peaceful and merry Christmas!

I just realized I have many more pictures to share...another post!

Artists at Work

 I love it when fun things spontaneously happen in my home. It makes me feel like a good mom, even when I usually have very little to do with it. And it's a nice reprieve from all the yelling reminding and yelling coaxing and yelling disciplining.

A few days ago I was working out some ideas for Beau's joy school lesson I had to teach. I got out the watercolors and had him paint a picture using little droppers. He had a great time.

Marianne wanted in on the action, so I set a piece of paper in front of her and a crayon. She didn't want the crayon, she wanted a paint brush. I gave her a slightly wet one. She tried it out but quickly realized it wasn't doing anything. So I dipped it in the paint and gave it back to her. She wouldn't paint with it and was still mad. So I put a little bowl in front of her with a tiny bit of paint in it, just like Beau, and she was happy. She was happier still when she had two bowls.



Don't think I didn't know what she wanted all along. She painted for quite a few minutes and then started sucking on the paint brush and that's when I cut her off and cleaned up her grinch-stache. Don't worry, the paint is non-toxic and waterbased...

My neighbor was so sweet to think of me before tossing out an aluminum easel she had and some kid's art paper. Bekah instantly wanted to try it out. She had to take the easel outside to draw. I told her it was too cold, but apparently artists aren't supposed to care about things like the weather. She placed the easel facing the front window where our Christmas tree is and drew the windows and the tree. I'd share a picture of it, but she never finished it. Note her cute hat that she made herself that she wears everywhere and everyone always comments on how cute it is. I took this picture from inside the house by the tree.

 Then it was Jacob's turn. He did an awesome chalk pastel drawing of a desert scene complete with a saguaro cactus, horned toad and lizard. Whoops this came in sideways...

Marianne wanted a turn, too, so Rus was going to sit her on the barstool to have at it but Jacob quickly jumped in and said he'd hold her. He is a great big brother!

Marianne has really been enjoying all of the kids a lot more. She has walked up to Jacob a couple of times when he is sitting on the couch or floor and wanted up and then just hugged him. She's also done this to Bekah. I think it's so sweet, my heart melts everytime. This is the beautiful part of having kids!

Thanksgiving, Marianne and Grandma MaryAnne

 I just had one of the best Thanksgivings ever. It was right up there with the year Amy invented her patented turkey drawing (1989), and Tyler's wedding (2010), and my first experience seeing the bonfire at the turkey pit at Uncle Casey's house (2009).
This year we were able to go to Mesa again to see my family...but it was Marianne's first trip and it was super SUPER special because she got to meet her Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Hansen (or Grandma With The Gum - as my older kids call her because she always gives them gum). Marianne is named after her great grandma - MaryAnne Hansen. I changed the spelling on her name because Grandma said it bothered her that people always called her Mary instead of her full name.
Anyway - the best story from the trip was our last visit to see Grandma and Grandpa. I wanted a picture with me and Grandma and Marianne, so Rus took one:

Marianne is a pretty particular little girl - she really just likes me and Rus and no one else. I wanted a picture with just her and Grandma but I wasn't sure if she would put up with sitting on Grandma's lap. I decided to hurry and throw her on Grandma's lap and have Rus take the picture quickly. Lo and behold, Marianne was perfectly content to just snuggle down and let Grandma hold her.

While on Grandma's lap, Marianne watched the other kids get pieces of gum from the side table. She slid down and claimed her own piece of gum. I tried to get it away from her and she ran back to Grandma and wanted up. She snuggled for a few minutes and then slid down. I said, "Marianne, give me your gum," and she ran back to Grandma and wanted up again. I guess Grandma was home base where she was safe to mangle a piece of gum (in its wrapper), in peace. Grandma was tickled pink to have Marianne like her so much! That one thing made the whole trip worth it. This is my favorite picture of them. What you don't see is the gum in Marianne's little fist.

The kids enjoyed visiting Grandma and Grandpa because they have a neighbor across the street with an electric model train. He turned it on for them and they were captivated following it around for about 45 minutes.

We did dinner a little differently on Thanksgiving day. It turns out three of my cousins and one uncle live within a mile of each other, so we did a progressive dinner. I liked it because we got to see where they each live and it stretched out the normal eating time of fifteen minutes into several hours. Of course the destination everyone really wanted to get to was the pie house - and that's because McKenna made them and they were amazing. I'm talking German Chocolate Pie Amazing.
I didn't get to see Amanda and her family on turkey day because they were with Eric's family. And Amy and Mike were in the area but with Mike's family. So on Saturday we all got together to have a picnic at the park. It was really fun to see the cousins play. Madison, Bekah, and Sarah are each nine months apart; they had fun riding scooters all around the park. Did I mention that I love Mesa for Thanksgiving because the weather is always SO beautiful?! It was actually pretty warm - in the eighties. My girl has some growing to do...Sarah is catching up to her!

Here is Bekah in her super chic hat I bought her the day before. It was on clearance. She loves hats. I couldn't resist. She forgot that Mesa was a warm place and only brought her boots.

 We also went on a hike so Jacob could get up close with some saguaros. He had just finished up a desert unit at school and was intensely spewing out facts about cacti and desert animals. He was ecstatic to see so many saguaro on this trip.


 It was a GREAT trip. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family!

One Day...Trained...Inspired

I'm tired. I need to get ready for bed (but it's covered in clothes that need to be put away), and it's just so much easier to sit here and get lost on pinterest or a baking/cooking blog. I have just the slightest - ha! - infatuation with new recipes. In fact I tried a new one this past week - butternut squash ravioli with browned butter sage sauce. It was delicious. I know it was good because my kids wouldn't touch it. Beau cried just looking at it. I'll make up for it sometime by getting a sitter and serving them kraft mac and cheese. Blech. One day they might have decent tastebuds. One day all of their drive-me-mad qualities will suddenly spin in the right direction and Bekah will no longer be dramatic and irrational - she'll be a passionate advocate (lawyer? animal rights activist? *please no*)...and Jacob won't be slow and hyperfocused, he'll be methodical and hyperfocused (engineer-style). And maybe Beau won't punch everybody he walks by - instead he'll join the football team and take it out on well-padded young men of the opposing team. And if there's hope for all of them, maybe there's hope for me too - like I'll stop leaving my earrings out in random places all over my house, really loosing my keys and/or phone at least once a week, and irrationally yelling at Rus in the middle of the night when Marianne cries. Oh and sticking my foot in my mouth on a regular basis. But we won't go there...
So I'd like to take a paragraph and talk about the Bug. She is fourteen months now and such a ham. I talk to her all the time like I do with any of my other kids and I swear she understands every word. She even talks back and I'm pretty sure she's saying "thank you," "please," "night night," and "Bekah." Some of them resemble the actual word (like "Beba"), and some don't. But she says it the same everytime, so I'm sure she knows what she is saying. She still loves climbing the ladder to Jacob's bed and has thus trained me to put the ladder away every morning. I gave her a hair cut tonight because her hair was getting a little mullet-ish, and I almost cried when I saw the back of her head without her cute little curls. I hope they grow back! She loves anything and everything soft and will hug said-soft-things fiercely. It doesn't matter if it's a towel in the bathroom or Bekah's favorite stuffed animal or a stranger's baby blanket - she wants them all to hug and love. In this respect she reminds me so much of Bekah when she was little. She also loves to color. None of my children has colored so early. If you give her a paper, she will want a crayon so she can scribble. Of course I think this means she's going to be an amazing artist. ;)

One other thing I should mention about her - she has trained me to put her on the toilet at least once every day so she can poop. I'm serious. If you have known any of my children when they were little, you know that they hate to poop and make some serious noise whenever it's time. Marianne is no different and I have found that she is a more successful pooper if I sit her on a kid's pottyseat on the toilet and let her have at it. I haven't changed a poopy diaper in a month and a half. Great, right? I don't know how it will work when we have to go out of town.

I love when my kids all enjoy something together. Here they are admiring our first fire in the fireplace. 

 Here is Marianne and Jacob. She wanted to "read" this book, so she backed up to Jacob (who was sitting and getting his shoes on), and sat on his lap. She should come with a "BEEP. BEEP. BEEP."

On a more serious note - I was in charge of a holiday dinner and program for the women in ward at church. My calling is the Relief Society activity leader - which I have decided means "Spiritual Party Planner." It's a great calling! For our holiday dinner we wanted to have a program with speakers and music and a "Bread of Life" theme. I found a talk to serve as a framework for the program and needed four women to speak on four different attributes of Christ. I had no idea how to pick four women for that task! So I prayed. And I pulled up the phone directory for the relief society sisters. And then I looked at every name of every sister in our ward and wrote down any that stuck out. I purposefully avoided most of my peers because while I knew they would each do a great job, I didn't want to choose them just because I knew them better than other names on the list. When I had a list of several sisters, I looked again at each of the topics and could clearly see who would be perfect for what. The point is - I was inspired, because each of those sisters' talks was amazing! They were just right for their individual topics. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father showed me who to pick and allowed me to see His hand in our activity. We also had musical numbers that night by several different women and they were amazing. Our committee wanted to turn everyone's focus to Christ before the holiday madness, and I think we did that.

Beau's Glasses

Beau has somehow upped his awesomeness. I should have known at his four-year-old check up this summer that he wasn't just being grumpy when he was doing his eye exam...but I didn't. I felt really impressed to have him tested for speech, and while the whole speech therapy was a really good thing, perhaps the most important part of the whole process was his eye exam. (They not only test speech - they test vision and hearing and motor skills.) A very diligent nurse tested his vision and was persistent when he again became suddenly grumpy trying to read the shapes with his right eye. It turned out that he just couldn't see with that eye and knew that he was getting the answers wrong - so he didn't want to do it. She referred me to an eye doctor and I took him in for that appointment a couple of weeks ago. After several hours, lots of tests, and having his eyes dilated (not fun), we found out that Beau has a lazy eye. Amblyopia. Not a wandering lazy eye (the kind I always think of), but just where his right eye is weaker and doesn't focus like it should.
So Beau gets to have glasses. Bekah and Jacob were/are super jealous. We all told Beau how lucky he was, and he was SO excited to get his glasses. He doesn't enjoy wearing them all the time and will ask for a break every few hours, but all in all he's doing really well. He still really likes it when someone tells him he looks awesome in his glasses.
Because he does.

Halloween

For the last two years my children have been asked to dress as a storybook character for the school's Storybook Parade that they do on Halloween. I know in some families this would mean that we would pour over our favorite books and find the perfect character to bring to life...But in my family it means that my kids come up with random costume requests and then I try to find books with characters who they may vaguely resemble...
...Like a cat (not too hard), or a basilisk lizard. (Thank you Wild Kratts.) Bekah found a children's book called the Adventures of Cattail, and Jacob and I wound up writing a story called "Spiny the Swimming Basilisk Lizard." (Catchy, huh...)
If I were to love my children based on the easiness of their costume, Marianne would come in first because I didn't do anything for her. I just strapped on Beau's old dinosaur tail and she was the talk of the Storybook Parade. (I LOVE this picture of her - she was totally hamming it up!)

Bekah would come in second because I only had to sew a white tummy patch on her black shirt and buy a tail and ears. She loved being a cat, but cats apparently don't smile when they're posing...

Beau would be next because he wanted to be Optimus Prime and I was too cheap to buy the actual costume, so instead I bought sweatpants and a sweatshirt and ironed on red and silver fabric until he looked good enough. I was able to find a cheap Optimus Prime mask that he wore at least once before deciding he doesn't like masks really. I might not have taken a picture of just him! Here he is with our whole group - Jason and Joy's three older kids came with us to the trunk or treat.

And Jacob would be last because I had to turn him into a basilisk lizard! It involved a fair amount of cardboard cereal boxes (for the spines) and some cool fabric - silky snake skin stuff and a green mesh to lay over it - and a hat and a tail. And yes, the base of his costume is camo thermals. I sewed the crotch shut, don't you worry...I drew the line at making him some custom basilisk lizard feet.

 

It was a really fun Halloween, but I'm glad it's over! Now just to get rid of all that candy without consuming it myself...