Calm after the Storm

The whirlwind of the holidays and a bout of the flu and finally a chance to catch up.

The few days before Christmas was a mad rush to finish making pajamas and putting together the kids' 2009 scrapbooks. James pitched in several hours to help so we could continue our tradition of opening up cozy, new PJs and a scrapbook for each child to lay around and look at on Christmas Eve.
Hyrum also got a badly needed haircut on Christmas Eve.



On Christmas morning, the kids were up at 2:30 and every hour thereafter until everybody else got up around 7 o'clock. I don't know what a hangover feels like, but that's the best way I know how to describe what I felt like on Christmas. Despite the "hangover," it was so fun to have everyone together at Mom and Dad's on Christmas day. Dax and Jennifer even came down for awhile.

We came home and unpacked and packed back up to head for winter fun at Camp Zarahemla.


There wasn't as much snow as we expected, but enough for some good sledding. We all had some good rides, but Sariah was the funnest to watch. She was tireless, and gutsy. No tears, even with the crashes.

We came home the morning of New Year's Eve, unpacked, and packed back up to head out to Dad and Mom's. It had started snowing pretty good and once we got out on the roads and realized how bad it was we wondered if we should chance it. The kids protested turning around, so with a prayer a maximum speed of 30 miles an hour we trekked on. As we crept toward our final destination, I knew we had made the right decision when I could see three large bodies with headlamps rolling the biggest snowball I had ever seen in the dark. Got the kids all dressed up in their snow clothes and within an hour they and Dax, Kase, Vard, and James had built the biggest snowman ever...ten foot five inches!


In this photo they are measuring their final engineered masterpiece. (For scaling purposes, those with headlamps are all well over six feet tall.) The nighttime snowman building experience was a memorable New Year's Eve for all.

New Year's Day found us playing basketball and eating pizza as usual. Enjoying the final hours of being together.

During the course of the whirlwind we were sleeping in very common quarters and Hyrum got into some BAD sleeping habits as I would cater to his cry not wanting to wake up others. The last night we slept away from home he was up every hour! With that, I was ready to come home and get life back in order.

So, Monday morning with that January burst of energy to clean up, clear out, and make fresh I was up and running. By Monday night, I was throwing up and as sick as I've been for a very long time. Now that I've been through it while James took care of me, and vice versa, we're hoping for a new Monday tomorrow to start fresh.

Picnic?

He's as good of a sport about picnics on December 22nd,
as he is about tea parties.
Sariah insisted.

He also elicited this.

(I still haven't figured out how to rotate video.
And, I didn't realize the washing machine was so loud!)

Why do I love the holidays? Because James is home!

Innocence of Youth

The following conversation occurred while Talmage was helping me to make rolls a couple days ago. Sariah was observing. I found it very precious.

Sariah: "Mom, we need some chickens."

Talmage: "Did you know if you fertilize eggs they will turn into chickens?"

Me: "So if an egg is fertilized, a chick will hatch?"

Talmage: "Yeah."

Me: "What kind of fertilizer do you use?"

Talmage: "The ground kind."

School Cancelled

Trying to keep everyone busy on a snow day.

James painting

Talmage and Sariah helping me paint my project.

Bryant helping with Christmas cards.

Talmage making "reindeer tracks" for his teachers.

My mom says, with much experience, that to make one's Christmas you have to have:
1) a project
2) a great second hand find
3) an exciting surprise

One of my "projects" this year was suppose to be a "quickie." I'm a couple weeks into it now and still not quite finished. My sister made these countdown blocks that I thought were so fun. I decided to whip some up for the sisters that I visit teach and a few others. Again, I've enjoyed it, but it has turned out to be much more time consuming than I originally thought.

Icy Eyelashes

I'm usually not a fan of before-the-morning-shower photos, but when my eyelashes started clicking with my blinks on my morning jog I had James take a picture. It's cold!
Here's Hyrum enjoying the festivities of the season. (Although he won't have much to do with "real food.")

Hardest laugh I've had recently:

Yesterday during the afternoon crescendo before Dad gets home, I had a crying Hyrum in my arms and the kids were at the bar shelling peanuts with the shells EVERYWHERE. I was trying to get dinner ready and Talmage was telling me about a recent survey they took in his class about student's preferences for pets. He said that most students preferred dogs and cats. Some would like to have a hamster. And then he said, most matter of factly, "And Mom, you wouldn't believe it, but I was the only one in the whole class who wants a mongoose." That took me right out of the moment and I couldn't help but laugh whole-heartedly. Hyrum stopped crying because I was shaking with laughter, the kids started giggling and the whole mood changed. Then all of a sudden, in a very serious way, Talmage said, "I don't get it." I laughed all the harder. He really couldn't see why a mongoose was anything out of the ordinary. I love that kid. I love that he brought me comic relief when I needed it.

On a sadder note. We discovered Sariah chewed Hyrum's fingernails until his fingers were bleeding! How'd we know? The blood around her mouth was the give away! I thought they were playing together on the living room floor, he wasn't even putting up a fuss. He is so patient with her. Poor little Hyrum.

Winterized

Finally an updated family picture. Love them!

James and I were outside until almost midnight last night in sub-freezing temperatures trying to finalize all of our winterization efforts. The garage and the back patio have been in disarray as the shed has been under construction. With its completion, we were super anxious to get things back in order. We parked the van in the garage last night for the first time in probably two months. Good timing too, our high tomorrow is supposed to be 22 degrees!

Bryant sang the hymns in sacrament meeting today. That was one of those precious joys for me.

Talmage bore his testimony in sacrament meeting. I don't think he was even nervous.

Hyrum has his first really nasty nose, but he's being a good sport about it.

Sariah is relentless when it comes to "defurring" Hyrum. She takes his socks off, pries his toes apart and picks the lint ("fur" as she calls it) out. He is so patient with her. We've tried to get her to leave him alone, and now we catch her sneaking him off to do it. It is a serious fettish. You can tell she is agitated when we won't let her do it. I've found an outlet for her though. She loves to peel oranges and pick off all the white stuff.

'Tis the season...

One of the things I love about the Christmas season is my sewing machine humming along to Christmas music. This year, these little fingers have a project of their own. It warms my heart.

Hyrum is now standing with ease. That puts another glitch in our ongoing battle of learning to sleep at night. When he wakes up, he pulls himself up and doesn't know how to let himself down. The crying has become longer and harder instead of the other way around. It's torture for the both of us (and Sariah who doesn't do much sleeping in her own bed lately) but what can you do when the morning brings this face?