Christmas Tree 2013

Picking our Christmas Tree is one of the funnest most memorable Christmas Traditions we have. One year when Meg and Adin were pretty little, we spent over 2 hours debating between two trees. One was bigger and absolutely perfect in every way but it was a little more expensive. The other was acceptable and cheaper. Literally over two hours. It all ended with us picking the more expensive perfect tree. It rang up at a lower price than even the other less perfect tree was supposed to be. We were shocked. Our own little Christmas miracle that year. There have been all sorts of fiascos with trying to transport trees home. Oh, and even more fiascos trying to get rid of the trees at the end of the season. Two memorable years. One year in Orem we didn't know what we were supposed to do with our tree. We left it on the curb and noone came to get it (that's how it works where we live now). The garbage man came and was driving off without it so Brian went out and was chasing after the garbage truck while carrying the christmas tree. Hee hee. Another time in Orem, we read that there were drop off locations. We tried to stuff the old dried up tree in the trunk of our car but were worried it would fall out so Brian climbed in the trunk and then pulled the tree in on top of him and had me drive to the location with the trunk open and him inside under the tree. He was getting totally scratched up and was freezing cold. I got to the elementary school where I thought there was supposed to be a drop off area, but couldn't see any trees anywhere. Brian was a little frustrated and didn't want to drive to a second location where I thought it might be. Sooo, he just dumped our dried up tree right in front of the elementary school. There were no other trees in sight he just dumped ours there and we left. I'm sure there was a lot of frustration upon the part of whoever found that tree and maybe even some kind of illegal dumping we may have committed. One year, in our more inexperienced Christmas tree days, we let the water drop below the bottom of the trunk. We googled it and found out that that would make the tree stop taking water essentially making it so it would dry out far before Christmas day. We literally took every ornament off the tree (lights too I think) and Brian carried that dang tree outside and recut the trunk (with a handsaw mind you). Then Brian and I had to completely redecorate the Christmas tree. There was no gentle placing of ornaments that time around. It was just shoving ornaments on while we grumbled under our breath. Now we check the water on our Christmas trees a couple times a day and it never even hovers around becoming empty. See, awesome Christmas memories that we totally would not have if we bought a fake tree. That's not even accounting for the way more awesome smell and look of a real tree. 

 It was pretty bitter cold this year so Gracie was quite bundled. It was also her bedtime so she was a little confused. She doesn't do so well with anything that goes against exactly what she needs at the time. She was screaming the whole way home. Scream screaming. Straight to bed for her.

Sillies.

Me projecting my craziness onto my daughter. This was the tree we thought we liked the best and I didn't want anyone to take it so I had Meg guard it for a minute while I looked at another one Brian was holding up. Meg instantly attaches to the trees. If we hold one up that we don't like she apologizes to it and assures it that it will get to go to someone else's house. Last year she even named our tree although I can't remember what. 

 This is the winner. It was perfectly shaped. We needed something tall and skinny this year because neither Brian nor I wanted to move the recliner out of the front room to make room for a tree (we have always done that in the past in this house but this was our first year with our beloved recliner that we adore and couldn't part with for a month). This tree was skinny but not quite as tall as we usually like, but we loved it. Brian always sets up the tree and spends a loooong time getting it perfectly straight in the base. Then he spends a good hour putting on lights. This was our first year with beads. Brian mentioned last year that our tree was missing something and suggested beads this year. We both love the look so much better. Why hadn't we thought of that before. It made me wonder what other awesome ideas there are out there that we haven't thought of yet. :)

 We bribed the kids with hot chocolate to wait to decorate till morning because we had gotten home so late.

 Gracie was a huge help.

 And this year was Adin's year to place the star on the tree.

One funny side note. Being in my pregnant nesting stage last year at this time, I put away all the Christmas decor in a very organized fashion and even labeled everything. I labeled the lights that when on the tree with a sticky that said tree lights. We don't really have any other colored lights so it wasn't really necessary to have them labeled. The kicker was that I put a sticky note in one of the Christmas boxes reminding me that Joanns put their Christmas wrapping paper on clearance 2 weeks before Christmas. It's funny for me to think back on that time and how wired my brain was with hormones that I thought it was essential to remind myself of a sale on wrapping paper. Crazy lady. How does Brian put up with me?

November in a Nutshell

Things are crazy for us right now. We have lived in Salt Lake for 4.5 years. We've been ready to move on a couple times and it never came together for us. We have been feeling stagnant here for a while. The neighborhood isn't the greatest. Meg has no one her age in the neighborhood or the ward. I don't feel terribly safe in the neighborhood. It's busy and hectic. We've been waiting for Brian to get licensed as a social worker which he did a couple months ago and that made us feel extra ready to move on. Our plan for our next step was more school or to move somewhere rural and apply to have our student loans paid off. We've attempted to make that decision 3 times in the last 3 years. It's been excruciating. Deciding over what we want versus what is realistic. It's been hashed and rehashed. After months of feeling anxious to move on everything has climaxed this month and it's looking like we will be moving in January. Now that it's looking likely we are both shaking in our boots (Brian will like that phrase). We don't do well with change, yet we've been longing for it. Crazies. That's been us in a nutshell for November.

Meg's been her usual grown up self this month. She found a pair of earrings that barely dangles and she wears them every day because she sooo wants to wear dangly earrings and I've said she needs to wait till she is older. I put her hair in a really high bun on top of her head for her halloween wig. One time when she took the wig off and saw herself in the mirror she thought she looked so grown up. Now she wants to wear this hair style often. She is super concerned about her outfit and it it goes. She got the Christmas talk a few days ago. It broke our hearts...literally. We hate how grown up she is. She has been logic-ing this out since last year. She has been asking way to many questions in front of her younger brother, and we felt like it was going to be ruined for him by her constant doubts. She got a big grin on her face and said, "I knew it". That helped it not sting as bad. She double checked that it was the same for other holidays like easter. We explained the huge importance of keeping the secret even around kids her age. I think she likes being in on something like this since she likes to feel old. Darn her. This month she decided to try out to be the class representative to the geography bee. Her teacher only gave them a weeks warning and just told them to study maps. She came home and studied for at least an hour a night and learned most of the states. Turned out the test had a lot about rivers and mountain ranges. She didn't win, but I was proud of her for not being too upset. She didn't win reflections this year and was heartbreakingly devastated. Her best friend won this year which only made it sting more. They say your kids need to learn life lessons like that, but it sure was hard.

Adin, turned seven. Darn him. He has been your typical boy. At least I hope he's typical. He thinks gross things are hilarious. This month he has been a little obsessed with anything Mario. I haven't had to monitor him too much on video game time in the past because he wouldn't play too long. This month, I have noticed play times getting longer and him getting ornerier when he plays too long. The other day when I dropped him off he gave me the typical big open mouth kiss (lip chomp) on my cheek. Meg had already ran off with friends so I watched him go up by himself. I vaguely heard him yell, Love you mom so I rolled down my window and he yelled it again. I told him I loved him too and then he kind of bounced up the stairs to school. I tried to memorize the moment because I sure do love that kid at this and every stage. He got to be star student for a week at school and was pleased because that meant he got the most time at recess. I guess being the first out the door is a big deal. That .2 second really adds a lot. He was watching a cooking show with me the other day and his young naivety was too cute. It was a competition show that he loves called chopped. Watching the show led to him referring to his plates as appetizers and entrees at chuckarama the last time we went. Anyways, it was the final round and there were only two female cheffs left. I asked who he wanted to win. He paused and said ummmm, I want the little bit chubby one....not the brown one. Eesh! To him these aren't labels or judgements. Just a way to explain to me what he is talking about. I kind of like the innocence.

Gracie, oh Gracie. This girl has become incredibly mobile. Thankfully she still wants me to hold her and cuddle her quite often. She is obsessed with the stairs. She loves to climb up them. The problem is that if anything distracts her she will turn around and lose her balance. Every main room we have has stairs in this house. I have put a gate at the top of the most dangerous set, but if we are in the kitchen she wants to go up to the front room and if we are in the front room she wants to go upstairs. She is also at the stage of everything going in her mouth. It's so much harder with bigger kids to keep tiny things off the floor. I'm constantly picking up a little piece of tape or a tiny piece of a wrapper of some kind. She has been obsessed with destroying a project Adin has been working on in his room. She has started to play a little game of chase sometimes in the evenings. I get on the floor and crawl after her and she giggles and giggles. She cut her first two teeth (bottom) last month and has been working on her top two this month. They are coming in soooo slowly and are super painful for her. Poor baby. She is still super scared of strangers. We took her to thanksgiving and she wouldn't let anyone but me or Brian hold her. She warmed up to smiling at people by the end, but still wouldn't let them hold her. I adore having this girl around. It 's been all the more fun this time around I think because the older two are older and get to take part in enjoying her. Plus I'm older and more patient and more cognizant of how quickly time passes by and more cognizant of what a true blessing a baby is. (I know bad sentence) She is one loved little girl. I just feel so over the top blessed to have her. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't have at least one moment where I look down at this baby and just feel a rush of gratitude for her and for being a mother to her and to Meg and Adin. I love love it.

Adin Right Now

Yesterday Adin turned seven. I also have been needing to do an "Adin right now" post. Seems like a good time to do it.

This was him then.

This is him now. 

What a handsome boy. I love this kid (and the other two) till I want to burst. I feel a lot of guilt about my record keeping with Adin. I was pretty good at writing stuff down with Meg. Obviously, I am turning over a new leaf and trying to do better at record keeping now that Grace has come along. Adin....I have so little written down of him. It breaks my heart and is a huge motivation for me to start writing things now. That being said, it will be hard for me to write this post and try to stick with what he is like right now and not go off on tangents of all the little things I want to remember from years past. I definitely want to document as much of that as possible, but for this post I am going to try my darndest to stick to what this amazing kid is like right now. 

Adin is hilarious. He is always saying the funniest things and can make us laugh on the roughest of days. He has always thought he was way funnier than anyone else. He will laugh harder about something he says or does than something someone else says or does. I have written down little things he has said throughout the years in one of my journals so I will have to pull that out and do a post on that. 

He has trouble with certain words and I refuse to correct him because I think that if he stops saying them the  cute way that he does that makes him seem older (runon sentence I'm not going to fix). For example, he is in love with Boptarts. His favorite is strawberry and he eats one every day. Another mispronunciation he says daily is "Dear Hemly Fodder". I love that. He cannot understand the difference in prayers between "please bless" and "we are thankful for" He always says, please bless that we had a good day and please bless that I had fun with my friends. We did a family home evening on it so that he would understand the concept. We thought he was getting it and at the end asked him to say the family prayer and he tried so hard and put so much effort into it and was concentrating so hard, but just couldn't do it. That was a year ago 

Speaking of food. He is the pickiest eater. Don't worry, he will eat pizza, corn dogs, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, boptarts, mac and cheese and fruit snacks. He doesn't like most meats, but will occasionally try some steak. He likes some vegetables. He loves all fruits (at least there's that). He despises potatoes. Yes, potatoes in any form but especially mashed. He totally psyches himself out and will gag and cry. Pretty much any dinner but the above unhealthy foods, he hates. He eats school lunch on the days they are having any of the above foods and otherwise I have to make him a jelly sandwich (no peanut butter). His favorite dinner is pretzels (like the pretzelmaker version) and he mixes his honey butter and pizza sauce and chows down. When he likes the meal he can put away a lot of food. 

He is a builder. We joke he got that from the Marchant side because Brian isn't very handy. :) He builds with knex and legos. He follows the directions all by himself and can construct some pretty difficult things. He also loves doing it and calls himself a master builder. 

Adin is and always has been a total social bug. He gets along with everyone at school and tends to be the ring leader of the group. His favorite thing about school is recess. Last year his crush was Sylvie and this year his crush is Berkley. He is always pointing out pretty girls to me. He gets shy and embarrassed around them. It's so cute. 

He is naturally athletic. He did great in soccer this year. He also played tball this fall and could knock the balls way out there. Brian's excited to have someone to play catch with (thank goodness). This year he has also started golfing with Brian. He loves loves it. He will go to the driving range for a couple hours at a time with Brian. They went to DI and found him a few clubs that are his size. He alternates hitting range balls and putting. I love the pics of him posing with his golf clubs. It was freezing one night and he came dressed up like he is above with his clubs and told me he needed me to take some pictures of him playing golf. Despite the cold, I couldn't resist seeing what he had in mind. He had these (and some more) very specific poses in mind. See, adorable?!

He fights constantly with Meg, but I know he loves her. He adores Gracie. He is rougher with her than anyone in the house and she loves it (I don't). Gracie will giggle and giggle at Adin. His room is right off the kitchen and she loves to follow him in there. 

He is all boy in his likes and I really like that about him. He loves video games. He loves super heroes and only recently stopped believing they were real and lived in New York City. He loves Star Wars. He loves being a spy and a ninja. He recently held ninja classes. He made each of us a card that entitled us to a ninja class. Brian went first. He took him into his room and shut the door and just came at Brian and starting railing on him with a super intense look. It took Brian so off guard that he just hurried and left and was laughing pretty hard. The above pic is how he dressed himself up like mario randomly. Ha ha. Along with being all boy, he likes the potty humor and thinks it's hilarious. We're working on our manners with that one. Without further explanation, I will say that we refer to him occasionally as the toot monster.

Adin is and always has been super expressive. I love to watch his face as he tells me a story. So so full of expression. He raises eyebrows and gets wide eyes. He squints and quirks his mouth. I get lost with the story he's telling because his face is so captivating. I've got to find a way to get it on video. Adorable and one of my favorite things about him.

He has always been my most cuddly kid. He has a special place in his heart for his mom and loves to cuddle with me. I totally eat that up and adore that. Just the other day I dropped him off at a friends house for a birthday party. They were loading the kids into their car to go to a movie. As I was leaving and walking to my car I heard him call for me. I went to the car and he said (in his baby talk voice which I also love) that he was going to miss me and gave me a huge hug and a kiss. The other boys in the car just watched with open mouths and I could tell that they were ready to tease. Adin doesn't care one bit if they tease. As I drop him off for school he always hugs me tight and insists on kisses. I know it won't always be like that but I sure do love it. 

Adin is kind hearted and tender hearted. He doesn't like to see me sad and is always so apologetic if he made me that way. He loves to tease and be teased, but if you push it to far he can get his feelings hurt pretty easily.

A few more pictures I couldn't resist posting. Like I said, he thinks he is hilarious.

PS Please don't loose those adorable baby teeth. I can't resist that smile.

Halloween 2013

The debate of what to be fore Halloween this year was fairly short. It was decided on a drive home from school. The had both toyed with a few ideas, but when this idea of Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Bride came out (not even sure who came up with it) they were both sold. I thought Meg would be hesitant because I didn't think she would want to be "married" to Adin. Adin pointed that out to her right away and I held my breath waiting for the idea to collapse and all she did was laugh and think that was cool. Meg had toyed with the idea of being a creepy clown. She basically based her rejection of that on the fact that she would be wearing face paint rather than real makeup. This girl looooves to wear makeup. She asks for it all the time. She loves that she can wear mommy's makeup depending on what she decides to be for Halloween. I'm not sure how many times she asked me if her lipstick was still okay? Ha ha! She also didn't wash her face when she showered for a week so that a little smidgin of eyeliner would stay there and she was pleased as punch when it did. Gracie is an adorable ghost. I wanted to pick something halloweeninsh but still cutesy. I googled ghost and found a costume similar to this and I was sold. I made all the costumes this year. They were easy peasy.

 So mad this picture didn't turn. I successfully turned all the other pictures in this post, but this one wouldn't.

 Meg and Adin's smiles wavered as I tried to get a smile out of Grace.

 This was the first picture of just the two of them and it cracks me up. I didn't pose it at all. Adin just cosied right up to Meg because, after all, they are married. Meg completely spazzed out that he was putting his arm around her. Affectionate versus not as much.

 I also didn't pose any of the rest of these shots. They watched both Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein last year and rewatched Frankenstein this year. Apparently these are poses from the movie.

 If you haven't seen the movie, the Bride of Frankenstein walks around looking like  Meg looks above. Listless and stone faced. Frankenstein lurches around just like Adin.

 She love the leaves and sat and played in them for 10 minutes before I ran in and changed her into her costume. After a couple of takes she tipped and face planted in the leaves before I could save her. Suddenly her relationship with leaves changes and she no longer would pose in them. Scaaarry leaves.

 Awe, I nice stable bench. She took it.

Dang it! Another one that didn't turn. She was done. She wanted mommy to pick her up. I happily obliged, but don't you love a good crying face. Adorable!

Trick our treating in Salt Lake. We altered our plans and stayed home this year rather than going to Brigham again. Halloween was on a Thursday and Brian had to be to work first thing in the morning and we have Gracie who doesn't handle it very well when she doesn't get put to bed exactly when she wants to be. First we hit the ward trunk or treat where they pretty much filled their baskets. One lady insisted they do a trick to receive a treat. Meg recited the first article of faith. This earned her a bag of top ramen. Weird! Brian whispered a joke in Adin's hear something like, Why was tigger afraid to use the toilet? Because Pooh was in their. Bahaha. This earned him a candy and....a bag of top ramen. Adin, of course, doesn't like top ramen so he was none too pleased. 

Next was up to Holladay for some trick or treating. A couple years ago we went on the street of one of the kids friends. It just seemed like a safer area for trick or treating. We found that there were many elderly people there and not too many trick or treaters. They tended to dump handfuls of candy or have very large treats. This year was no exception and the kids came back with enough candy to last them a year. Meg's is nearly gone now...at least the good stuff. Adin's is relatively untouched (at least by him, trust me Brian and I have touched it plenty). Adin does love candy but has a tendency not to eat it. It's odd and I'm not sure why, but it's the same for all the holidays. Silly boy. 

Overall, Halloween was a big success this year. I am love loving this stage of family life. The older two are so much fun and it's been beyond fun to add Gracie. 

Picture Story of our Fall 2013

Fall/Halloween is a big deal for us. We pack in as many activities as possible. 

Black Island Farms. This is our favorite place to go for fall fun.

Gracie waiting for her dad and Meg and Adin to go down the long bumpy tunnel slide behind her. Brian made a spectacle of himself by screaming like a scared little kid the whole way down. He had quite the group of people laughing at him. Out of character? Yup. Hilarious.

Daddy and Grace on the train ride.

Meg and Adin on the corn maze. The drive of the tractor was a 14 or 15 year old who was a little enthusiastic about his job. He was trying to make the ride as exciting as possible. He would slow down and then speed up really fast and tried to take sharp turns. At one point his enthusiasm even caused him to drop his glove and he had to pause the ride to get it. Ha ha.

Mommy and Grace looking over the corn maze.

There were 3 parts to the corn maze. I pushed Grace in the stroller through the first part and then she had had enough so I waited for the others outside. Little did I know the second leg was the biggest. It took forever for them to come out. I even had to call on Brian's cell to see what was going on. It's one of the better corn mazes in that it's actually difficult and they got a little turned around. Brian figured out where they were on the tiny map and was able to get them out.

This stack was at least double this high at one point. Brian watches tons of scary movies with the kids. They have seen lots of movies other parents wouldn't dream of showing their kids. So far no nightmares so we keep going. In fact Meg started a book a couple months ago that really freaked her out (Percy Jackson). I told her to stop reading it and pick a different book. I told Brian about it and he disagreed. He thought we should encourage her to keep reading it so that she would realize it wasn't as scary as she thought and to teach her not to be afraid.  That's what we did and she ended up absolutely loving the book and continuing on the in the series.

A little taste of our Halloween decor this year.

Droubay party 2013.

Adin's been wanting to try this kit for years. It comes with a little hammer and you pound in these little spike things. It's Frankenstein. He loved it. He paused halfway through and told me it was even more fun than he expected.

Meg carved her own all by herself this year. I didn't let her use a big knife, but she did use a little cutter that came in a kit. She ended up cutting herself a tiny bit. Brian was in the house with Grace so I told her to go have him get a bandaid. She went in and was anxious about telling him because a bunch of aunts and uncles were around and she was feeling shy. He told her to go wash it off in the bathroom. As she turned around to go to the bathroom she tripped over Grace's head. This caused and overly tired Grace to start screaming. This caused an overly embarrassed Meg to start bawling. Awe, the dramatics of our daughters. :) Meg was humiliated and ran and hid in the bathroom. Fun memory of the year. Ha ha.

We threw together a last minute Marchant side Halloween party.

Balloon pop game. 

Transfer the candy corn from one side to another game. We won. Charisse and Kory cheated. Sarah and Felipe tried but ended up just helping the kids. Brian and Michelle...not sure what they were doing. :)

The big event that was somewhat a last minute decision was Brian taking these two to a haunted house. Brian was trying to get me to go and I was feeling to old for it :). Meg overheard and said she really wanted to go. Adin went back and forth. Meg desperately tried to convince him not to go so she would have some alone time with daddy. Adin was a little nervous and very worried about leaving me home alone with Grace. He didn't want me to feel lonely. The recommended age was something like 12 so we felt a little apprehensive. We told them if they decided to go that they had to commit to it and couldn't get there and start crying and back out. At the last minute Adin decided he would regret not going and didn't want to have to wait a whole year till he had a chance to go again. They had an absolute BLAST. They clung to Brian the whole way, but took it in stride and were quite brave. Brian said there was a moment in line when he looked at poor little Meg and she had her nervous look and was biting her nails. Adin kept his wristband on for quite a few days after so that he could prove to his friends at school that he went. It will definitely become a yearly tradition.

Meg was feeling tired and dramatic a few days later and in an outburst said how unfair it was being the oldest child. She had to wait 9 years to get to go to a haunted house and Adin only had to wait 6. How unfair is that?!

That's a wrap!