Christmas in Snowflake

We had a fun Christmas in Snowflake. This year we stayed with my parents and Christy, Tennyson and Hudson were there too. The kids had so much fun playing together and played really well. The day before Christmas we took the kids to see Tangled. It was the first time we had taken Kelton to a movie. I think he was a little scared at first, but he liked it. I really liked the movie and can't wait until it comes out on video so I can watch it again.

On Christmas Eve we went over to Webb's so all the grandkids could open their pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa. Our whole familly got matching U of A pajamas. It was really fun.

Here are a bunch of the grandkids in their new pajamas.
Here we are in our matching pajamas on Christmas morning.

Natalie got up at 6:30 on Christmas morning. A little while later she asked if she could wake Kelton. I told her no. She then went right in and did it anyway. I guess she was just too excited. After everyone was awake, we needed to wait a few more minutes for Melanie and Sean to arrive from Show Low. I found Natalie up in the window watching for them.

Damon is 8 months old, so this is his first Christmas. He loves to eat paper, so he was a fan of wrapping paper. He did actually seem interrested in the presents underneath too.

Damon also thought all the big boxes were really fun to climb on. He pulled himself up onto his feet for the first time on Christmas day. He fell over and cried a few seconds later. Also, by the end of our stay, he was crawling everywhere. Before we went to Snowflake, he could crawl a few "steps" but then would flop on his belly because it was faster that way. But now, he is pretty good at crawling on his knees.

You can't tell from Natalie's face, but this was her most favorite present.

Over Thanksgiving, Nate's neice, who is a junior in high school, had one of those dolls that simulates a real baby that she had to take care of. Natalie was fascinated by this doll that cried and had to be fed and changed. She decided that she wanted one for Christmas. I found this doll that the face moves when you give her a pacifier/bottle. The eyes open and close (not the old school ones that use gravity--this actually looks real) and the mouth looks like she is sucking on the pacifier. It makes sucking noises and if you take out the pacifier, she cries. If you leave it in, she falls asleep, closes her eyes, and her chest rises and falls as she sleeps (and kinda snores). If you pick her up while she is sleeping, she will wake up and make playing noises. It's a really cool doll. I would have loved it as a kid. And Natalie does love it. She has been the best little mother to her doll. We got the doll a rocking basinet and I crocheted a blanket for it. We actually didn't know the doll cried. It didn't say anywhere on the box that it did. So when it first started crying, we thought it was one of the real babies in the house. My sister Melanie even went down the hall to check on Jade because she thought it was her. That night, Natalie pulled the doll in her bed next to where she would be sleeping. She came to me and asked, very seriously, "Mom, what do I do if my baby starts crying in the middle of the night?" It was so cute. Who knew I would be giving motherly advice to my daughter so soon? I assured her that her doll wouldn't cry in the middle of the night. I then made sure the bottle and pacifier were far away from it's mouth. The last thing I needed waking me up along with my real baby, was a doll crying.

Nate combined all his resources (including some left over birthday money) to get himself a PS3. I also published his missionary journal and all the letters he wrote home (and also the letters his mom wrote him) in a hardbound book and gave that to him. Nate surpried me with an iPod shuffle and an under the cabinet stereo system for the kitchen. I didn't even know that I wanted any of that, but I am really excited about it.

We had one little setback at the end. We tried to come home on Monday night but a little more than an hour into our trip, Kelton threw up. Natalie followed suite about a minute later. They had eaten some cottage cheese right before we left, and I think it might have been bad. So, the kids and the car were a mess, so we headed back to Snowflake for the night. By the time we got back and got everyone and everything cleaned up, it was about midnight. We then got up in the morning and started our trip over again. It was lots of fun. But that part aside, we had a great Christmas and had a lot of fun seeing our families.

My spirit is...

This little girl of ours. She really does keep us entertained.

We told her it was her turn to teach FHE tonight. She's been waiting for this for a few weeks. She told us she didn't need any help and then she said she needed to make a picture first. So she ran off to her room.

A few minutes later, she came back. We sang, we prayed, and Natalie started her lesson. She held up visual aid #1...

and said... "This is my spirit. It's white because I have a clean spirit."

Then she held up visual aid #2...

and said, "This is Kelton's spirit. It's black because he had a dirty spirit."

Nate and I started laughing, as quietly as possible, of course. Apparently, in her mind, she has been an angelic child and her brother has some repenting to do. Anyway, she later told us that people with clean spirits return to heaven with Heavenly Father and people with dirty spirits go down to the bad people. I asked if Kelton was going to go down to the bad people, and she said no. So that's good at least. We then had a nice talk about what you do if you have a dirty spirit, i.e. repentance.

Silly girl. We love her tons!

All I want for Christmas is...

Not the two front teeth, but close. The two bottom ones. Natalie's two bottom teeth have been loose for a little while now. As I was brushing her teeth last night, I wanted to take a picture, mostly because her permanent teeth are coming in behind her baby teeth. (Her dentist said this happens in about 10% of kids.) So she has two rows of teeth. It reminds me of a shark and how they have multiple rows of teeth.

So then, I decided to wiggle the tooth, like I do every night. It was so loose, but still stuck. I asked her if I could just pull it out. She said yes. So I started pulling and she said it didn't hurt, so I kept pulling, and... out it popped! I think I scared her though, because I gasped and she didn't know her tooth had come out and she thought something was wrong.

Then I showed her the tooth and she was soooooo excited. She couldn't keep the laughter inside. She could only be quiet for a few seconds at a time before the next round of excited laughter came out. It was so cute. You can tell she is way excited.

Here she is in bed with her tooth tucked in beneath her pillow, waiting for the tooth fairy. Who, by the way, took her tooth and left her a dollar. She is very excited to go to the dollar store and pick out "whatever she wants." Her other bottom tooth is really loose too and I've noticed her working at it more today than ever before, because now she knows how fun it is to loose a tooth. That one will be gone too within the week. Oh, and Natalie also discovered yesterday (before loosing her tooth) that her top right tooth is a tiny bit loose. So there is still a chance that she might be wanting her two front teeth for Christmas. If so, I will definitely teach her to sing the song. And I will record it.

And Natalie is not the only one... At about the same time that Natalie's permanent bottom teeth started poking through, Damon started getting the exact same two teeth. (this was 3 or 4 weeks ago) I thought it was funny that they were both getting the same teeth at the same time. Natalie, however, was a lot less grouchy about the whole process.

Look closely, they are there! As of today, they are a little more than halfway in. I forget how razor sharp they are. I love how these super sharp teeth coincide with them being mobile enough to get all the little things in their mouth that you have to fish out with your fingers. I wonder if Heavenly Father thinks that is funny. I have to admit that I would be up there laughing too... if I weren't the one being bitten all the time.

Lawyer conversation

Today we were driving in the car and Natalie asked,

"What do they do in law school?"

Before I could answer her, she asked,

"Do they sit around and color pictures?"

I started laughing. I said, "No, they don't color pictures. They learn how to be lawyers."

"Oh. I want to be a lawyer."

So later tonight at dinner she remembered to tell her daddy that she wants to be a lawyer.

Nate said, "You want to be a lawyer? Hey, Natalie, what do lawyers do?"

"They make money."

Nate kind of laughed.

"Dad, how do you make pennies?"

I really started laughing. I'm not quite sure how to explain to a 5 year old what lawyers really do, but I guess I need to explain what it means to go to work and "make" money. No wonder she wanted to be a lawyer...

Shhhh! Don't tell daddy!

Wouldn't he be an aborable girl?
And look at those eyelashes...

Damon needs yet another haircut. I've cut that hair on the top of his head about 4 times already. Now, the sides are actually needing it too. But I thought before I do that, I needed a picture first. Nate doesn't like this hairdo--even on a girl. So... sorry, Nate. And sorry Damon. I just couldn't resist. At least there's no bow, and I didn't put him in a dress. (I thought about it though.)

*update* Nate says I'm grounded. :(

New

As you can already probably tell, we got a new family picture. And I've decided that there aren't many more stressful things in life than getting a family picture. (Not really, but it sure felt that way at the time.) Lets just say, the kids were crazy--especially the almost 3 year old. Kelton wanted to have nothing to do with holding still (what else is new). Natalie felt the need to make silly faces. And Damon started crying uncontrollably, which he rarely does during the day. I was shocked that we got a picture this good. However, if you know Nate and me well, you can see it in our faces--we are trying our best to smile instead of strangling some children. The more kids we have, the harder this picture taking thing becomes. Oh well. There is it. Done for at least another year.

And if you can't figure out what else looks different, I made a new blog background. I'm not super happy with it, but I wanted it to match the picture. Maybe I'll make it better when I'm feeling more creative.

Halloween pictures

Our Halloween this year is actually over before it technically even started! (I guess that's going to be true for most everyone reading this, though.) We had our ward trunk-or-treat on Thursday night. The kids had a blast of course. I wasn't too happy about it starting at 7:00 on a school night, though. (Remember that Natalie catches the bus at 6:50 am.) But despite the tired kids, it was fun to get them dressed up.



Natalie was Belle this year, thanks to my mother-in-law's amazing sewing skills. She had recently made Belle's dress for the town production of Beauty and the Beast. She made this miniature version with the leftover fabric. A lot of people were amazed at the dress. It was fun to see their reactions when I told them that Natalie's grandma made it and that we didn't buy it from the store--or from the Disney store. (I've seen Disney store dresses, and I have to say that this one is better.) One lady even asked if I made it. Bless her. :)

I put gold eyeshaddow and mascara on Natalie. I had to put this picture on so you could see her eyelashes. The camera didnt' quite capture it. They looked so beautiful!

And Kelton was a stubborn monkey, I mean, a monkey. Oh, this little boy. Does he seem to be missing something in the picture? We had a very hard time getting him to put his costume on. He wanted nothing to do with it. But he wanted to trick-or-treat. He was crying/screaming in the car when we got to the church. Finally we said, "if you want to trick-or-treat, you have to be a monkey." After getting the top part on, we didn't even try for the pants. Sometimes with an almost-three-year-old, good enough has to be good enough. And he does have shorts on, in case you are wondering...

We have a picture similar to this from when Natalie wore this costume. It's the "monkey looking at the candy picture." It cracks me up every time.

Here we are at the trunk-or-treat. Damon is a banana, in case you can't tell.

Nate passing out candy while the kids dig into their own. I was surprised by how many empty wrappers were in their buckets by the time we got home.

And here is Kelton after getting his bucket taken away because "no you can't take a giant bucket of candy to bed with you." You can't even imagine how mad he was. Well, if you know Kelton, then maybe you can. Me taking pictures of him didn't help matters any.

Funny story: A couple of years ago, I think when Natalie was two and a half, she had the same type of tantrum at bedtime. But I was adamant that she was not taking her bucket to bed. After a lot of crying, Nate finally figured out that it wasn't the candy she wanted, just the bucket itself. So we dumped out the candy into a plastic bag and gave her back the pumpkin bucket. After that she was perfectly happy. Yeah, not so much with Kelton. He wanted the candy.

The next day, Friday, Natalie got to wear her Belle dress to school. She had a lot of fun at their class Halloween party and came home with lots of fun Halloween craft stuff, and yes, more candy.

So now we enter the phase of "how much of this candy does a good parent let their small children eat?" When we just had Natalie, I think I only let her choose one peice a day. It lasted forever, which was a bit annoying. (And the sugarholic in me just can't throw good candy away. Plus, I would have been devastated if my mom had ever thrown my Halloween candy away. ) So over the years I have evolved to more of a "get it over with" attitude. As long at they eat their meals, I let them have (almost) as much of it as they want when they are done. That way it only lasts a week or two and then we don't have to deal with it anymore. And if they get sick, they will learn a good lesson--too much junk food is a bad thing. I think that's one of those things you can only learn the hard way. Anyway, I'm curious to know what everyone else does with their kids' Halloween candy...

Oh, Natalie

A little background to the story...

A while ago, when Nate was in law school, Natalie asked why he was going to school. We told her, so that daddy can be a lawyer. She then asked, "why?" So we explained how all of the stuff we get from the store that we need and all of the stuff we have costs money, so daddy is going to school so he can be a lawyer so he can make money, so we can have the things we need. Made sense. I could tell that she understood. Natalie has been really excited for her dad to become a lawyer. She was excited when he graduated and didn't have to go to school anymore. She knew he had a big test he had to take and he couldn't be a lawyer if he didn't do a good job on it. She was excited when he passed the bar. And yesterday, Nate got his letter from the AZ Supreme Court stating that he had passed his character and fitness report (its a huge background check you have to pass, along with passing the bar to become an attorney) and was eligible to be admitted to the Bar and practice law in the state of Arizona. (after paying yet another fee. Aparently there is an annual fee (like $500!) to be part of the AZ Bar. My goodness, I never knew.)

So...

Nate went in to tell Natalie the good news. He told her he passed all of his stuff so he can be a lawyer now. She got really excited, smiled real big, and gave him a hug. Then she said, "Now, I have some toys I want." Nate came out and said, "And so it all starts..."

It was pretty funny. I guess we need to now explain that he has to get a job as a lawyer to be making enough money to go get some toys. And even then, I have a list. She's going to have to get in line.

Children's museum

Be prepared, there are a lot of pictures coming... Today we went to the Children's Museum with Rob and Tina and their kids. (I have to admit, I've lived here for over 8 years and I didn't know we even had a children's museum.) We had a great time.

Here's all the kids. Damon is even waving to you. :)
This is zoomed in from one of the shots of the group picture. What on earth are my kids doing?

Firefighter Natalie.

Kelton could not be bothered with the fireman attire. He just wanted to drive the truck.

Christian's turn. Very cute, but in the true fashion of a 1 1/2 year old, it only lasted a few seconds.

Once again, Kelton has to drive.

So this room was really fun and I think it was actually Natalie's favorite part. They had this thing you put stuffed frogs with velcro on the back onto and then used a rope pulley thing to lift them up to the ceiling where they were then hit by a fan which knocked them off and they went flying through the air, landing on whoever was nearby. Tina and I couldn't get over it. I think we thought it was way cooler than any of the kids did. Then, like in this picture, they had these block things that you could build a pyramid with--because that is definitely what any child is going to do with these stuffed, overly large blocks.

So here's my grumpy story. We got in trouble in this room. Everyone was having a lot of fun. The kids weren't being crazy--just playing, having fun. Then a musuem nazi, I mean employee, came in and informed us that we were all being too rowdy, and that this room is only for children under 4 years old. I must admit, I was pretty mad. Okay, I'm still mad about it. Nate thinks I should write a letter. It was obvious that this guy was mad at us. First of all, there was nothing about the look of this room that would designate it as a place only for small children. Usually in parks, museums, etc. that have special places only for little kids, they stand out as being such. This place was made to look like a rainforest. And really, how is a 2 year old supposed to stack those giant blocks into a pyramid? And, as we were getting kicked out, little Christian headed toward the blocks and proceeded to climb up them. Then I noticed the sign on the wall that read, "no climbing." As I watched Christian, I thought, "what else is a little kid going to do with these?" No, nothing about this room designated it as a spot only for little kids. And I guess what really makes me upset is that all these kids got in trouble for being kids in a children's museum. They were playing and having fun, and making noise--which, I'm sure, is what drew our friendly museum man in. It's frusterating that everywhere in public I go, I feel like I have to keep my kids quiet and on their best behavior and basically keep them from being what they are--little kids-- so that they won't upset people. But to have to feel that way in a place meant for kids?! That I paid to get into! Okay. (deep breath) I'm done now. Rant finished. Soapbox put away for another time. :)

This cool little floor area had some kind of projection on it. The kids are trying to squash the bugs running across the floor. (the flash messed up the effect)

Rock wall. This was right after we got kicked out of the other room. I wanted to find someone to ask if it was really okay if we could touch it and climb it, or if that would get us in trouble. Wait... I forgot. Rant finished. Sorry.

So this room had a bunch of giant paper mache-like dinosaurs in it. I feel bad now, because after looking at the pictures, I realize that Kelton was scared. I don't know if the picture is too small, but you can see it on his little face. He is concerned. I don't blame him. That dinosaur was painted a bit like Darth Mal.

This should have been my dead giveaway. He has his fists clenched and is growling at the dinosaurs. Kelton will growl at "beast-type" things that scare him. We caught him growling at a large spider at our house a while back. It's really quite cute. He's scared but it's like he's trying to show the other creature to back off because he's scary too. But.... in this case, I just thought, oh look how cute. He's growling like a dinosaur. Sorry, Kelton. I get it now.

Damon and Aunt Tina.

Drawing a picture.

They had this center where kids (and hungry mothers) could get a bag of gumdrops and a bunch of toothpicks and make whatever they could come up with. Natalie's first attempt was a "shooter," but it didn't work out. (like a nerf type shooter gun. we always just call them shooters) This is her with her caterpillar.

Kelton and his house. I'd like to say he's a mastermind builder for a 2 year old, but he had help from his cousin Hannah.

And for anyone still with me at this point... Here's a Damon update. He is sleeping better. Still not quite what I want, but much better. For the last 3 nights he has slept from about 7:30 to between 4:00 or 5:00. Then I give him his pacifier and he goes back to sleep until around 6:00 or 6:30. I'll take it. We're still going to work on it, but for now, I'll take it. Here he is before his dinner tonight. He's such a happy little thing. It is just not hard at all to make him smile.

Tonight was also his first night drinking... soy formula. So he got this little spotty red rash thing--all over his body. I just thought it was really bad dry skin. I remember Kelton having something similar. Anyway, he had a checkup with the pediatrician and the doctor didn't like the look of it. So he got us some 1% hydrocortisone cream to put on it and said he thinks Damon might be sensitive to cow's milk. I'm a little unclear because I don't know if that means he won't be able to drink milk later on... I'm not entirely convinced that the milk is what caused it. But the doctor wants us to switch to soy formula. I'm not too excited about it. I'm not quite sure why though. Maybe it's just because it makes me feel like a hippy. What's next? Organic baby food? Cloth diapers?! (ha! yeah right.) Anyway, Damon got his soy bottle before bed tonight and he didn't seem to mind at all.

I'm married to a...

LAWYER!!!

Nate passed the bar! We are excited, relieved, proud, relieved, happy and very relieved.

He's okay

After the really sad picture from the last post, I just wanted to show everyone that Damon really is okay. :) Natalie took this picture this afternoon.

VCUG

This morning I took Damon in to the hospital to have a renal ultrasound and VCUG. This is all followup for the UTI he had a little while ago. They needed to check to see if the infection was caused by something like urinary reflux. We won't find out the results until we meet with the urologist in a few weeks. But doesn't this look like so much fun? Poor baby.

Something different

Can you tell what's different?

Natalie didn't have school today, so we decided to play around. She has never let me do this before, but today she agreed to let me straighten her hair. After seeing her for the last 5 1/2 years with nothing but curly hair, it was definitely different! She thought it was pretty fun too.