going out with a bang

Tyler decided to finish off 2008 with quite a bang...literally. And by "bang" I mean a 4 foot fall off a playground structure onto his shoulder. Another trip to the Emergency Room (which thankfully was every bit as empty as the first/last time we went there). I'm no radiologist, but when I was standing in the x-ray technicians room and saw this pop up on the screen, I knew it was serious.A broken collarbone! There's nothing they can really do for it. The doctor said he was supposed to keep it immobile for 4-6 weeks. Apparently he's never had a 3 year old boy! The regular sling they gave him was ridiculously big and kept falling off so we borrowed this better contraption from my sister (her daughter broke her collarbone at age 3).

As we left the ER, Tyler shouted, "Goodbye everyone...see you next time!" Sadly, this is probably true! Kevin & I have decided instead of contributing to a college savings fund for Tyler, we are going to open a medical expenses account for him...

He is doing remarkably well and is in good spirits and (fortunately? or unfortunately?) it hasn't slowed him down too much.

Thanks to Laurie who forewarned me that ER visits come in threes...I will start saving my money and keep holding my breath!

personal history recap

I hope you've enjoyed my little personal history trip down memory lane this year! It's been a goal of mine for many years to get it recorded. I did 44 entries this year. Out of 52 weeks (including selling/buying houses and moving)...I'd say not too bad! It was much easier than I imagined, especially when I broke it down by topic or specific time period. I highly recommend doing it! I have learned so much about myself, my family, and what I value as I was forced to think back and put events & emotions into words. I am planning to have all my entries printed & bound, so my posterity can have a record and enjoy my life as much as I have.

But never fear...the fun is not yet over! Next year I am planning to journal about the years (almost 12 of them!) since Kevin & I have been married. I promise lots more embarrassing photos and crazy adventure stories.

personal history: happy new year

This week's personal history entry is, appropriately enough, my childhood New Year's celebrations. Our family never traveled at the holidays. We had a very small extended family, so Christmas and New Years were always just our immediate family. New Years Eve we usually had a little family party. It consisted of a few decorations, party hats, noise makers, and snack foods. It was usually right before we went to bed (at our regular time of course), so we usually wore our pajamas. I always looked forward to it - mostly because it was okay to do stupid stuff like put giant black olives on each of your fingers and my mom bought fun foods that she normally didn't (like little bread...only my family will probably understand this...I saw some in Costco the other day and almost HAD to buy it!). My dad was always there, but he doesn't appear in any of these photos.

1980 (age 5 1/2) - Either all the food wasn't out for the photo, or my mom went really light this year...
1981 (age 6 1/2)

1982 (age 7 1/2) - Apparently my mom forgot to buy paper plates...and we got SODA!

Not sure what happened to 1983...

1984 (age 9 1/2) - Lots of snacks this year!

Not sure what happened to 1985 or 1986...
1987 (age 12 1/2) - Another good snack year! I guess we also decided we were too old to wear pajamas...

As we entered into our teenage years, the parties didn't happen anymore, since we were usually out with friends or at church dances.

New Year's Day morning we would watch the Rose Parade on TV. We even went up to Pasadena a few times to watch it live. This is something I would love to take my children to see when they are a bit older.

New Year's Day was the only day of the year that my dad watched football. He claimed he was getting his "year's worth" all in one day. After the parade was over, he would switch it to football and it would stay on the rest of the day & night. This was back in the day when they played a whole bunch of bowl games on that day (it just doesn't seem right anymore that they spread them out for a whole week), and the Big 10 champ would play the Pac 10 champ in the Rose Bowl. My mom's college alma mater was University of Wisconsin, so she would always cheer for the Big 10 school, and my dad would always cheer for the Pac 10 school. She threatened no dinner if her team didn't win!

I have fond memories of New Years. I hope to be able to pass along a few of these traditions with my children. We've tried watching some of the Rose Parade each year, but it is too long & slow-moving for them. Kevin is doing a great job carrying on the watch-football-all-day tradition...

wii had a good christmas...part 1

It's not every year we get two Christmases! I will do two separate posts about our Christmas festivities this year....this one summarizing these past few days, and another one next week summarizing our second Christmas after my brother & his wife arrive from China (well, technically they'll arrive from Utah, where they currently are visiting her family).

Christmas Eve we had dinner with my parents after they arrived. The kids opened their adorable Disney pajamas (gifts from Aunt Rebecca, shown below) and then they went to bed quickly and easily. Everything was already assembled so I just had to set it out. A mellow and relaxing Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning our kids slept in until 7:20. For those who know our kids well, you will realize what a true Christmas miracle that was! Too bad I was already awake and couldn't enjoy it! They loved their gifts. It always surprises me what they like best and how little they expect. Tyler would have been perfectly happy with just the coloring book and tape from his stocking. Natalie was thrilled with the kitchen & play food. Brandon was excited about the Wii (it was for both of the boys, but Tyler didn't really understand what it was until we set it up), but he seemed more enthralled with the watch & Pokemon cards in his stocking.

Here are some of the other cute photos I took on Christmas:

Me & my girl looking Christmasy.

A family photo...as always, nearly impossible to get everyone looking at the camera, smiling, and with their eyes open at the same time!A rare shot of just me & Kevin.

With no planning, my sister & I ended up in matching attire! Even the same exact pants (bought on clearance, of course!).

Every year we take a photo of my & my sister's kids in front of the tree. It's fun to look back and see how much they've grown over the years. We bribe (threaten?) them with not getting to open presents until we get a good shot!

The day after Christmas there was much more Wii happening around here. Brandon is quite good and Tyler is getting the hang of it. No injuries or broken furniture...yet.

A family outing to Krispy Kreme for fresh, hot, yummy donuts straight from the oven. Between the 12 of us, we polished off 2 dozen in about 5 minutes flat! Then off to the mall (not sure what we were thinking...it was the day after Christmas!) to ride the double-decker carousel (my sister has most of those photos on her camera).

Out to dinner with my parents and then to see the temple lights. It was very cold (I'm not even joking...it was about 40 degrees, and for us that's FREEZING). The horrified look on my face in this photo is because right as my mom was taking it, my dad who was standing behind her, got his sandal (why he was wearing sandals in 40 degrees is beyond me) caught and fell over backwards. He hurt his elbow, but otherwise was okay.

I was not totally sold on getting a video game system, but with a husband who loves them and two boys, I knew it was inevitable. The Wii seemed like the best choice, because it's active & family-friendly. It's quite fun, I have to admit! I had only played a few frames of bowling earlier in the day (finishing out a game Tyler wanted to stop), then Kevin & I played after the kids went to bed. I beat him!

Today it was off to the train museum, another place I've been wanting to go for years. Not sure why it's taken me so long, it's only a few miles from our house and it's very cheap! The boys had lots of fun climbing up on some on the engines & cars.

The next few days we're back to boring, normal life while my parents head to Texas to my niece's wedding. Then they come back and my brother and his wife arrive and the fun will start all over again! It's hard to believe Christmas is really over when I still have a closet full of wrapped presents...

christmas cookies

The gingerbread house went so well last week, I decided to brave doing sugar cookies with the boys this year. Thanks to a cookie mix packet (free after coupons, of course!) and some leftover frosting, it was a fairly short, easy, painless process (though not nearly as tasty as homemade).It was very fascinating to watch their different decorating techniques, which suited their personalities exactly. Brandon was very careful and deliberate, slowly placing each sprinkle on the cookie individually. Tyler was fast, reckless, and crazy, often dumping half the sprinkle container on a cookie if I turned my back for a second.

The boys had a great time. I enjoyed feeling like a good Christmas mommy and having no fights for a whole hour! Of course we had to taste a few to make sure they were good...

We're ready for you Santa!

fun family friday

Kevin took the day off from work on Friday. For no reason. I know, try not to fall off your chair in shock! He has never done this before, and it will not likely happen again for awhile. He only gets two weeks of paid vacation each year, and we carefully plan out our year and use a few days for each vacation. When a family reunion was cancelled (well, rescheduled for 2009) this summer, we decided to try to go to Washington for the holidays. Then Kevin's parents decided to move to Ukraine for a year. So Kevin ended up with 6 extra vacation days that have to be used before the end of this calendar year or they are forfeited. Lame policy...I really wish we could roll over vacation time, but strangely no one at his company asks our opinion!

Anyway, Kevin will be using some of his days off over the next few weeks when we have family in town, but he had one extra day that needed to be used. So he took Friday off. It was a nice start to Brandon's Christmas break (he was done with school on Thursday). We decided instead of "wasting" the day doing household chores or taking turns hiding out in the den working on the computer, we would make it a fun Friday and spend time together as a family.

We started out the day with a leisurely breakfast. There was a hilarious brown sugar vs. cream of wheat incident which got us all giggling (including Natalie, who didn't understand what happened, but was laughing at us laughing). I won't bother to try to explain what happened - it was one of those "had to be there" moments. But I want to remember that we actually had fun at mealtime (sometimes mealtimes are not fun around here, it's just us constantly reminding our kids to sit down, be quiet, use good manners, and eat).

After breakfast, we headed out to a Museum for Youth that I've been wanting to go to for several years, but have not had the guts to attempt by myself with three kids. I thought it might be a good day to go there, since the schools near that area were still in session that day. I was right - we walked in and the place was almost empty! There are two sides to the museum - an older kid area and a younger kid area. We decided to walk through the older kid section first (since we knew we'd never get them out of the younger area). We were literally the only people in that section of the museum. It was nice because then we could let Natalie roam freely and the boys enjoyed a few exhibits and crafts. Then we went over to the younger children area (for ages 4 and under). Brandon was the oldest/biggest kid in there. All three kids had a blast - I think they could have literally spent all day there (we left after a few hours because Kevin & I were hungry!) There were playhouses, play food, dress ups, books, crafts, slides, climbing areas, you name it. A fun place we'll definitely have to go back to!

Later in the afternoon, we went to Brandon's swim school. We enrolled him in indoor swim lessons this winter to help keep up the skills he spent so much time working on this past summer. Every Friday night they do a Family Swim time, which is free for members. They will be starting to charge for this after the first of the year, so we wanted to go at least once while it was still free! We all had fun in the pool together. Then we went to In & Out Burger for dinner on the way home.

It's amazing how much fun we have together as a family, especially when we put all the chores and time constraints aside. Even though it's sometimes challenging to take three young kids places, I always enjoy spending time with them. It was nice to take a short break from this busy holiday season and create some family memories together. The boys deemed it "the funnest day ever!" I couldn't agree more.

the mystery is solved...

Tyler has been sick off-and-on for the past two weeks. It has ranged from coughing, to stomach ache, to vomiting and diarrhea. It comes and goes and changes every few days. Not quite sick enough to justify a $25 doctor co-pay or to stay home, but just sick enough to be annoying and keep us all up half of the night.

So today he was playing around in the bathroom, and I went to check on him. What did I find? He was LICKING THE DOOR HANDLE! When I told him that was gross and asked him why he was doing it he replied, "It tastes good!" Well, at least the mystery of his perpetual sickness been solved...

(sorry, no photo...I wasn't going to ask him to do it again!)

holiday preschool program

This morning was Tyler's holiday preschool program. He attends a home-based preschool done by a friend of mine, who is creative and loving and fun (and best of all, cheap!). Their holiday program and their end-of-the-year program are adorable and not to be missed!

I was a bit nervous when I walked in and saw this look on Tyler's face. Nightmares of Brandon's 3-year-old holiday program came flooding back (the one where he bit a little girl on the nose right before it started). But I think Tyler was just a bit confused & overwhelmed with all the people coming in, because he was fine as soon as it started. Please note the lovely black-and-blue eye shiner, compliments of his older brother! And lest you think it was an Easter program, the first song they did was called Sneakin' Snow Bunny...hence the bunny ears.

There are 10 kids in his class (6 girls and 4 boys). They sang Sneakin' Snow Bunny, Once there was a Snowman, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Short & sweet...just the way we like it! I won't bore you with all the photos or video I took, but here's just one cute shot:

Tyler with his teacher:

gingerbread house

I have been rather Scrooge-like when it comes to doing a gingerbread house with my kids. The time, work, money, and hassle involved with two young boys just didn't seem worth a couple minutes of fun. The few gingerbread houses I did as a child were a disaster, probably because they were made from homemade gingerbread (too soft) or done with graham crackers (too flimsy). My sister felt much the same, but after she had a good gingerbread house-making experience a few weeks ago with a kit, I thought I might give it a try with the boys this year. I've been on the lookout for a good deal on the kit (because of course I couldn't bring myself to pay full price). Ironically, our home teacher showed up on Sunday with one! We did it Monday night for Family Home Evening.

I built the house ahead of time, so it would be totally dry & solid. In order to avoid fights, we gave each boy a side to decorate. I was therefore forced to let go of all my OCD and matching/coordinating tendencies. Brandon with his side:Tyler with his side:
Amazingly enough, most of the candy even ended up on the house (they got to eat the cookies that came with the kit). I definitely need more icing practice, but not bad for everyone's first effort. I think this could become a fun, new tradition around here!

random act of kindness

This morning I was the recipient of a random act of kindness. I was so touched. Natalie and I were at the mall trying to finish up Christmas shopping. We had been there almost two hours, and we were at our last store waiting in line to pay. I was in a hurry to pick up Tyler from preschool and the computer was having trouble with the man in front of me's purchase. Natalie was being a perfect little angel in her stroller (she wasn't the whole time, but happened to be at that store). All of a sudden, the older man customer in front of me turned around, apologized for taking so long (it wasn't even his fault!) and then pulled out a $5 bill and gave it to me. He wished me Merry Christmas and then told me to go buy something fun for my "precious little girl" who was sitting so quietly and patiently in her stroller. I was shocked and of course refused the money. He insisted. When he left, I was so stunned, I almost couldn't function to make my purchase. Somehow a kind man and $5 made a world of difference to this frazzled mommy on a December morning of rain, stress, and frustration. I left the mall with my heart full of love and gratitude and a renewed spirit of Christmas kindness. And some people say there aren't angels among us? I beg to differ - I met one today.

personal history: christmas

This week I gathered more childhood Christmas photos...for your amusement. If you want to read more about my childhood Christmas traditions, I wrote quite a bit about them last December...that's what got me started on this whole personal history thing this year! 1977 - Age 2 1/2

1980 - Age 5 1/2 - Me with my favorite childhood doll (and you have to love the short-shorts with those groovy brown boots!)

1981 - Age 6 1/2 - At least I now know where my boys get their "holes in their jeans" gene from!

1982 - Age 7 1/2 - This is one of my favorite Christmas photos (along with the very first one at the top of this post)

1984 - Age 9 1/2 - We were apparently old enough now that the tree moved out from the corner to the middle of the living room!

1987 - Age 12 1/2 - First solo photo!

1989 - Age 14 1/2 - Isn't this a bit old to be taking pajama photos???

1991 - Age 16 1/2 - Thank goodness for no pajama photo!

Did anyone else notice we went from dressy clothes, to casual clothes, to pajamas?

legal age

As I mentioned earlier, Natalie turned 18 months this week. That of course, in Mormon world, means she's of that glorious "legal age" for Nursery! Two whole hours of snacks & toys for the toddler, and two whole hours of relaxation and enjoying classes for the parents. It's a WIN-WIN situation. The sweet, loving Nursery leaders in our ward were kind enough to let her come in a few weeks early and she has been happy & doing great by herself...right up until today! It was a flashback of the Santa episode from yesterday. Screaming, crying, clinging, the whole works. Finally, the leaders told me to just go and they would handle it. She calmed down after a few minutes, so I was relieved. I enjoyed about 20 minutes of Sunday School, when they brought her to us. Kevin took her back in a bit later, with the same results.

I've never been through this before - my boys were THRILLED to go to Nursery. After the first of the year (in 3 weeks), there will only be 4 kids in her (younger) Nursery, so I'm hoping that will help. Any advice or suggestions until then???

soccer season

This fall we officially entered into the world of youth sports. With two boys I guess it was inevitable! Brandon has never really expressed interest and given his tender-hearted and slightly fearful personality, sports didn't seem like a good fit. But now that our fearless, fast, aggressive Tyler is three and eligible to play, soccer seemed like a good fit (or at least a way to burn off some his endless energy). Or so we thought...

His first practice and game he was surprisingly very tentative and scared (he mostly just wanted to go to the playground right next to the practice area). His second game, he scored a goal (in the wrong goal, but no one cares or keeps score when they're three). The rest of the season he wasn't very interested. He would kick the ball if it came towards him, but mostly he would just run behind the pack of kids that was chasing the ball, but he wasn't interested in getting in the middle of the chaos. He never complained and was always willing to go, but never really was very excited about it.

We had a fun team with great parents & kids. The kids were so cute, and all were as easily distracted and uninterested as Tyler was. It made for some crazy adventures trying to get them to practice, play, and go the right way!

His team was the Red Hot Tamales (even though his trophy says Red Hot Chili Peppers). Tyler is on the front right (in front of the male coach). I chuckled when I saw this photo - it's a perfect representation of his team...no one paying attention!

I think we'll hold off on more soccer for a few years until he expresses a specific desire to play when he's a bit older.

ward christmas party

This morning was our church ward's Christmas Breakfast with Santa. It was very well done and extremely well attended. The food was great and our kids ate a ton (which is rare for them when we're somewhere other than home). Natalie insisted on sitting in a chair by herself and using a fork and did remarkably well. They had everyone sing a few familiar Christmas carols (Jingle Bells, Rudolph, etc.) to summon Santa. As I've mentioned before, Natalie is completely obsessed with Santa (I think it started on the Polar Express back in November) and she shouts "TANTA!" every time she sees anything Santa in the stores or while we're driving. It's cute the first 37 times each day, then it just gets annoying, since I have to find what she's looking at and acknowledge it before she'll stop shouting. Anyway, you can imagine how excited she was to see Santa. After waiting in a terribly long line (we have a HUGE primary & nursery), our kids finally got their turn. Here's what happened - the photo says it all.

But she really liked the candy cane and toy he gave her!Aren't I a great mother? Giving my 18-month old a whole candy cane as we're driving down the road. I'm sure I read something about a choking hazard...but at least she was happy & quiet!

Oh, and when Santa asked what the boys wanted for Christmas, here are their responses:

Brandon: "A hamster and a Pokemon desk (not sure what this is)"

Tyler: "Whatever you bring me!"

18 months old

I can't believe Natalie is 18 months old today! Where did the time go? I hate it when people (usually older women whose children are grown) say, "Enjoy them while they're little, they grow up so quickly!" And then I think to myself, "Yeah right, that's because you're not trying to (fill in the blank - whatever I'm trying to do at the moment) with three little kids underfoot and bugging you!" But now I'm starting to realize that they really DO grow up fast and someday when I have a house full of teenagers I'm sure I will miss their sweet innocence and loud, constant chatter.

A funny story about this shirt. It says, CUTE AS A BUTTON on it. Last week she was wearing it and a lady came up to me and asked if it said CUTE BUTT on it!