Thanksgiving and Christmas

For Thanksgiving we went to the Baer’s home. We had a wonderful meal and at first Jeff thought he’d have to be on call for work but the night before he got a text from someone offering to cover the weekend. This was a huge blessing as Jeff has been feeling a bit burned out and overwhelmed so this was a welcome break. The night before Jeff and I stayed up making two sweet potatoes dishes and apple and cherry pie. The next morning we went to Westminster and made the rolls at Sarah’s house while the children played at Mama and Papa Baer’s house. Jeff did all the bread food (pie crust and rolls) and it tasted delicious! Plus it was so much fun to work with him in the kitchen and have a cooking friend. We had a wonderful day with family and the kids were so happy to play all day. They always love going to Mama Baer's.

The only picture I took was of the delicious apple pie. 

The day after Thanksgiving was spent putting up Christmas decorations. Lily and Ryan had a great time and after the ornaments were put on the tree Lily kept rearranging them as she loved pulling them off and putting them on. Ryan just likes to pull them off, but for some reason Lily has no problem with that and even encourages it so everyone’s happy. At night when Lily was supposed to be in bed I found her sitting on her little rocking chair next to the tree. I asked what she was doing and why wasn’t she in bed and she said with a sigh, “I’m just looking at the tree.” She said several times how beautiful it was and how happy it made her. Jeff also put lights in Lily and Ryan’s rooms and Lily’s never get turned off. She wants them on all the time.

We have never put up house lights before, but every time we pass a house with lights Lily asks, “can we do that at my house?” She asked that a lot when we passed homes with Halloween decorations and we didn’t do any of those so we decided it’s time to get festive. Jeff purchased some multi-colored hanging lights and went to work. We don’t have a ladder so he jumped on the roof from the van. He worked hard for a bit but then had to make a trip to the store to get more lights. He wasn’t sure how he would get down from the roof, but he thought if I helped him down by the side fence he could make it. I thought he wanted to step on my back to get down but he really just wanted me to guide his feet. In any case he made it down safely and my back is only mildly sore. But since he had to finish we prayed some more and he made it safely on the roof again and back off. The kids were so happy to have our house lit up and now we feel less guilty when Lily points out homes lit up with Christmas lights. Plus, it is nice to be festive.

We started an advent calendar and are putting a little treat in each number (M&M’s) and I thought I’d put an act of service Lily could perform for the day as a gift to the Savior. So far that hasn’t really taken so we may just be doing the treats this year. We also started “Elf on the Shelf” and named our elf Buddy the Elf. Lily loves him but doesn’t get the whole concept of not touching him. So he hides in the morning but then he spends the rest of the day on Lily’s bed (where she sleeps with him) or in her back pack so she can take him to school. After she used the bathroom I told her to wash her hands and she didn’t so I said I was going to tell Buddy the Elf. A few minutes later she conceded to use a wet wipe and told me to be sure and tell Buddy the Elf that she was being nice now and wiped her hands. Unfortunately the reminders of his mission and his reporting of her behavior only works a small fraction of the time, but it still is a fun Christmas activity, even if we can’t always fear her into being compliant.

Last year we made a gingerbread house and Lily had a lot of fun so it's now a tradition. Lily and Jeff love eating the candy together, I'm glad they have each other.

Lily was a very careful decorator. 

Other noteworthy things this month: Lily loves to feed Ryan and he eats for her,  it's really cute. 

Ryan got a haircut and it only took 4 of us to do it (thank you Lisa for being a great helper in this challenging task. Ryan sat on Lisa's lap, I tried to entertain, and two women worked on his hair). There were lots of tears.....from Ryan. 

Every child has a picture like this, don't they?

Ryan's a big fan of Lily's princess boots. I think because they are so much easier to get on than his own, or maybe he likes pink, who knows. 

Ryan loves praying and we often have to say several prayers until he's satisfied. 

We finally got mats for our cement floors! Hooray! My knees and bum are so happy. 

Ryan loves carefully building towers. 

Lily surprisingly wanted to build with Ryan, that's an improvement from the past. 

Christmas morning, she loves her Princess tent. Jeff set it up the night before and put her presents inside. 

Once all Lily's friends were inside Ryan had to join the fun too. 

Let the unwrapping begin!

Jeff also set up this elaborate tent system the night before. 

Ryan was a fan. 

A blendtec, yeah!

A photo Lily took of Papa. 

Ryan's favorite place to hang out while unwrapping gifts and it kept him contained for a bit so that was nice. 

One of Lily's favorite gifts was her favorite cereal, Lucky Charms. She never gets it because she only eats the marshmallows and that does weird things to the bowels, but it's Christmas and Nana gave us some cereal to go with the wonderful bowls and silverware she thoughtfully gave us. She noticed that whenever we had people over for dinner I was always washing dishes because we never had enough. She's so observant and I was very impressed with her gift. 

Train tracks are always fun. 

This was Nana's monkey, but as you can tell Lily thinks it's hers. There was a lot of sadness when reality set in that it was not going to be coming home with us. 

We tried to take some family photos at Sarah's house, but the kids weren't really happy to cooperate. They did however love the dancing Santa, and Lily liked to shake her hips in sync with him. 

Ryan was just in awe of this dancing little man. 

And he of course had to dance too.  

Lots of attempts. How do people with multiple children get everyone to look at the camera at the same time? It's beyond my understanding. 

Calm Down and a Christmas Program

Today Lily asked if the baby is in water in my tummy. I said “yes, the baby’s swimming.” She replied emphatically, “babies don’t swim in tummies, they swim in swimming pools! Silly mommy.”

Lily put Ryan to sleep tonight by singing him three songs (Twinkle, I like to look for rainbows, and John the Baptist) and then shut his door and said good night. It was very sweet. She also read “Brown Bear” to Ryan after I read it to him and surprisingly he sat through both readings. I never thought he’d be at the stage of listening to books read to him!

Yesterday Jeff and I were upset about something and Lily said to Jeff, “Daddy, just take a deep breath and calm down, ok? Take a deep breath, take a deep breath (Jeff finally took a deep breath), now calm down. Good job calming down daddy!”

Lily went with Jeff to get his haircut and she told him “good job for sitting still Daddy!”

Jeff put a lot of work into getting a Christmas program done for our ward. Our ward doesn’t have a choir so he had to start from scratch. We were already into December when he just sat down one day and figured out some songs to sing, called some people to play instruments, lead the choir, accompany, and sing in the choir and three practices later they did an excellent job. There was a great spirit and many people commented on what a great program it was. I was very proud of him and all the work he put into it and now he wants to keep a choir going and sing on occasion throughout the year, which seems like something people are really interested in doing.

Trip to California

We had a great trip to California. It seemed fast but it was more like a vacation since my mom and Maria kept the kids most of the time. The flight there was awesome. Lily sat with Jeff and was entertained the whole time and Ryan slept, which was wonderful. 

 He did get wake up for the landing and was excited to look out the window. 

The first night the kids were exhausted but they did pretty well at the Country Club for dinner. They never get juice so this was the highlight of the day for them.

Lily was so tired she had to rest under the table until we were ready to leave. 

And Ryan found a new friend: a doll that wasn't Lily's so she wasn't trying to take it away from him. 

We took Lily to Disneyland while Ryan stayed with my mom and Maria. Lily got to meet all her character friends (Winnie the pooh, tigger, mickey, Minnie, eeyore, and goofy, Cinderella, Aurora, and Ariel). She wasn’t scared of any of them, just a little shy. But she wanted to give them all hugs and was very sweet. We had breakfast with the characters and then waited in line to see princesses so then we could enjoy the rest of the day knowing we had at least seen who she wanted to see. And then we still ended up seeing characters so she got lots of time with them.

Got out the door early, Lily was still tired, but she loved the neck pillow....came in handy for keeping her head warm. 

Breakfast with the characters, a GREAT way to start our day!

We saw Minnie just as we were leaving breakfast, Lily was in heaven. 

Lily had no fear and was excited to ride with her daddy.

 Waiting to see Rapunzel. We didn't realize it was supposed to be a comedy act with no singing by Rapunzel or Flynn (the singing was only done by the narrators), but after we got over that we could enjoy it for what it was and laugh.

Lily's friend she made in line, they were best buds.

So excited to meet her princesses, Cinderella, Aurora, and Ariel.

 Her favorite rides were the carousel and the roller coaster in toon town. I thought she’d be scared but she loved being up high and going fast. She did NOT like rides that were in the dark, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and Winnie the Pooh.  Pinocchio is just weird and even Winnie the Pooh has the weird heffalumps so I don’t quite get it.

 Lily was a little cold in the theater, but luckily she had daddy to keep her warm. This was a great show. Very professionally done with wonderful singing and dancing. 

 Mulan and Pocahontas

Lily was so excited about all the bubbles in the air

 Giant bubble dancers....weird yet cool.

Tiana

The best part for Lily was gathering all the streamers that fell from the ceiling. She couldn't help herself and had to pick up every one she saw on the ground. She'll either be a great groundskeeper or a hoarder someday.

Very happy with her collection. 

Meeting some more friends. 

 The Tarzan tree involves a lot of walking, probably not a favorite for a preschooler. 

 Great vaudeville type show of Beauty and the Beast. The narrators (two men) took on all the other parts besides Belle and were very funny with their lines and singing. 

Gaston has muscles made of melons. 

Lily is yelling "fie!" to Gaston.

 At the parade, it got cold!

 A nice family let Lily sit on the bench with them. 

The only souvenir Lily wanted were two ornaments, a Minnie Mouse, and Mouse ears that had a Mary Poppins theme. They now hang on our tree.

The next day Jeff and I had the ultrasound (Lily came too and her favorite part was talking on the office phone....and.....it's a boy and he has Jeff lips!!!), 

and then we were off for a kid free 24 hours. We visited Bryce and Becca Porter in Mission Viejo so that was a fun visit and Mission Viejo is very nice. We then went to our hotel, which was the Queen Mary, which is a big boat. 

It was a fun experience and is apparently haunted. We didn’t have any sightings, but it just had a haunted look to it. There was an ice sculpture and sledding nearby which was fun to do and we went to dinner at a nice restaurant in Long Beach.

I don't know how many times Jeff slid down, but it was a lot. 

Jeff went ice skating and tried to use the penguin so he wouldn't fall. He was told very sternly that those are only for little kids. 

View at breakfast.

Saturday we hung out at home for a bit then went to my friend Liz Chambers’ wedding reception

 and then the Valencia Stake Christmas Program. Nathan was in charge of media, Kirby Heyborne, narrates, and Richard Rich is the music coordinator. It was excellent and Jeff said the best he has heard. It brought a great spirit and would be such a wonderful missionary even to invite people to. Afterward we got to go to dinner with Nathan which was so much fun since we never get to talk with him. It was a very nice evening.

Meanwhile the Woodruffs were very helpful with kids since my parent’s ward Christmas party was that same night and Papa played Santa. I felt like we had so much together time on that trip that it really was like a vacation and it was in sunny CA so it was the perfect trip. And Maria was so helpful and even stayed the night while we were on the queen mary because my mom had some meat stuck and spent 3 ½ hours at Dr. Jack’s getting adjusted. It finally went down the night before we left. She never complained and had our kids the whole time so she was amazing.

Lily is doing her favorite thing, painting, while Granny Dot does her hair. 

My dad dressed up as Santa at the house so we could see Lily and Ryan’s reaction. They seemed okay at first but then didn’t love the idea. After my dad went upstairs Lily said, “Santa is Papa.” She wasn’t fooled.

The flight home was a bit of a nightmare, but the flight going out was perfect so I guess you can’t have it both ways.