Christmas Season

 Our December flew by in a flash!  We kept busy helping out with lots of church related events and doing several projects in the house being built. Todd tiled two floors in our new house to speed the time and save on costs.  He was up pretty late many nights to make it perfect and he did a very good job.  His dad and brothers helped a lot too and we really appreciated it.  I painted the room we'll be using for our gym.  It was sort of an evolving project, the colors changed slightly here and there over a week's time and kept me up late a lot working on it as well!  I'll add the picture to this blog as soon as I take one.  Hopefully tomorrow. 

 I was in charge of a Relief Society Christmas Dinner in December.  It was a wonderful evening and a lot of sisters did a fabulous job working on it.  The high priests volunteered to be servers and work in the kitchen as well.  We took them up on it and it was such a relief to sit back and be served like that.  I really appreciated them- they wouldn't let us clean a crumb in the kitchen or put a single chair or table away in the end.  I love the priesthood!  Many ladies were getting a nice break with their little ones in the nursery that night and a lot of people helped out in there as well.  It was the largest group we've had in nursery for one of these things and it made me happy to know so many women came.  It was a great turn-out.

Our Primary had a fun program where they saw Santa, ate yummy treats, and watched the movie, "The Polar Express".  They all came in their p.j.'s and sat on pillows.  They loved it. 

Here they are with Santa that day.

 Our ward activities committee threw a tremendous family party.  As you can see in the following picture, the gym was pretty amazing for a ward party.  They worked on it for a long time.  I helped out a bit in the end as payback for all the help I received for my R.S. dinner.  I spent 6 hours ironing some of those chair covers, helped decorate the tree, helped hang the murals along the sides of the gym, brought cinnamon rolls, sang in the program, and helped clean up afterward.  And I probably did much LESS than most ward members!  I pray I never get called to be in charge of one of these because those shoes are far too big to fill.

Here are Tim Davis and Mary Barlow in the Polar Express play performed at the ward party.  It was about 30 minutes long and the ward members involved had memorized lines, songs, and put lots of work into it!

Kindra Webster and I sang Amy Grant's version of "Oh Come All Ye Faithful"

with Derek Herzberg on the guitar.

I haven't sung in a while since my singing buddy, Marcee, moved a year ago.  But this month I sang three times!  Aside from being asked to sing during the Christmas Program, Laura Roberts asked me to sing "You're Not Alone" early in the month for part of her lesson. And I was also asked to sing, "Star Bright" in our Christmas Sacrament Meeting with Denise Myers.  I really enjoyed all the singing.  However the time I was putting in to practice or prepare for all these events was starting to add up.  I was also asked to speak in our Christmas Sacrament Mtg, a short talk, but still... by then I was a little burned out on church participation and helping out over a few weeks time!  I felt like I really missed my Christmas season at home with my family. 

Those last few days before Christmas I got really stingy with my time and just enjoyed my kids during the day.  We finally broke out the Christmas music, since we were finally home, and made holiday treats to deliver to friends, colored Christmas pictures, decorated the house (only the tree had been put up), and bought presents for the kids to give to mom, dad, and each other.  I had done ALL my kid Christmas shopping online as soon as we got back from Cancun in November, probably on a prompting, because I'd have NEVER been able to do it in stores after that.

On with the Christmas festivities...

Here is Brielle's group of 1st graders at their Christmas concert.  She did SO good.  She sings the songs word for words all around the house all the time now.  I love it!

Santa came to her concert too.

This is Ashton in his Donkey costume at his pre-school concert. 

He had a solo and did a super cute job!

We spent Christmas Eve (early evening) at Todd's mom's house.  She had a friend come dressed as Santa to deliver each of the grandchildren a gift from her.  I wonder what children think about Santa asking them so many times what they want for Christmas or if they even notice these things!  Maybe they think he's forgetful in his old age, hehe.  Either way, they loved it each time they met him.  All but Lainey, anyway.

She was not so excited about Santa.

When Santa finished with the grand kids, everyone dressed up in costumes to perform the Christmas Story while Todd's step-dad, Galen, read it aloud.  Brielle was Mary.  Ashton got to be a donkey again and even sang us his donkey song from pre-school again.  Lainey was the little cow.

Brielle and Makya sang us their Christmas concert songs since

Todd and Kris weren't able to attend their concert.

Exchanging gifts.

On Christmas Eve we always open a gift- always new pajamas, and sing Christmas songs around the tree.  The kids set out Oreo's for Santa and sprinkle reindeer food (hay) outside.  Then it's off to bed.  Todd and I finish wrapping presents over movies and Oreo's :-)  And of course we dispose of the hay...

Here are the children seeing the Christmas tree Christmas morning! 

Oh to be a kid again.

Somehow I missed Brielle and Ashton's gifts from Santa with the camera.  Brielle asked for a fairy dust necklace she saw in a magazine.  Ashton asked for a helicoptor.  They love their gifts!  Looks like Santa remembered one of the times they told him what they wanted!  Brielle also got a karaoke machine, which doesn't work :-(  So she'll have to wait while I exchange it through the mail.  That would have to be the only real down side to online Christmas shopping- the chance of needing to return/exchange a gift and wait forever for it.  Lainey's favorite gifts were the ones in the pictures.  She LOVES pushing her doll everywhere.  She also loves to be pushed herself in it. 

At noon we went to Todd's dad's and met up with all the family there.  We exchanged gifts and had yummy treats and cinnamon rolls.  The guys all tinkered around in the room Todd's dad just converted into a home gym.  Many of his gifts were related to that room and it's pretty cool now!

Todd's Dad and step-mom.

I didn't get out of my pajamas for two whole days!

We finished off the day with our own Christmas dinner at home- ham and rolls were a must! 

It was a very busy Christmas season- note to self to make next year much MUCH more low key.  But it was a wonderful holiday with family.  And only got that much sweeter to top it off with the arrival of my side of the family three days later. (Another day another post!)  Hope everyone had a beautiful holiday!



Up to Date

It's been a fun week being back from the land of perpetual summer and coming home to sudden full throttle winter.  The kids enjoyed a day of no school from one foot of snow being dumped in one night.  Not too unusual where I'm from, but very rare here.  I purchased new sizes for most of the kids' snow gear before our trip when we were already out and about shopping for trip-related things.  I'm glad I did because the only item I hadn't purchased (Walmart didn't have Ashton's size) was Ashton's snow boots.  And I had a heck of time finding any AFTER all the snow arrived.  Of course, by the time we'd come home from Cancun, everyone was sold out.  I finally found and bought REI's last (much more expensive than I'd normally pay for) pair of boots in his size.  Actually, his size was sold out, I bought the size he'd wear next year and a very thick pair of socks to fit them now and justify paying the price.  He'll get two year's use from them.  I stopped buying Brielle pink boots, gloves, and snow pants when she was a touch older than Ashton is right now so we would be able to pass black boots and snow pants down from girl to boy and boy to girl.  This will be the last year I have to kick myself for not having made that change even sooner!

This week we decorated our tree and started frequently making hot chocolate.  The house feels cold ALL the time now, to me.  Of course, as always, Todd is still too hot.

As much as we enjoyed our vacation, being with the kids 24/7 did leave Todd and I craving some time to ourselves.  This weekend we had several things we got to do.  Friday, we got a babysitter, ordered the kids pizza for a pizza party at home, and Todd and I went to see the new Harry Potter.  I'm still only on book 5 on audio book, almost done with it.  But maybe I'll have finished book 7 by the time the other half of it comes out in theaters.  I actually like each movie less and less because they evolve from "scary for kids but cute to adults" to full on horror films (to me).  And I hate super scary movies.  But I'm already hooked from the previous ones.  I have to finish all of them. It helps that, scary or not, I really like the 3 main characters.

Saturday afternoon I went out to lunch with some of my friends to celebrate Lisa Davis' birthday.  Our friend, Kerri snapped this picture of us, but, thus, wasn't able to be in it with us!  I had no idea I was this tan until I saw this picture.  Let's hope some of that fades fast!  I stick out like a soar thumb!

Saturday night, Todd and I got out again for Todd's Company Christmas Party.  Matsy's catered again and I LOVE Matsy's.  It's my favorite little local restaurant in town.  We went early to greet people as they came in.  It was a good turn out.  I think they have 135 or so employees now, and while not all of them came, the volunteers, Cicily Ambassadors (high school scholarship volunteer program), and spouses/significant others were invited too.  So it was a full house at the 4 Rivers Cultural Center.  It's really amazing to see how 3 people dreaming out loud together 7 years ago has turned into something that has affected, given jobs to, and blessed so many people.  I'm proud of them and what they've accomplished.

Sunday we were invited to dinner by some new friends of ours, the Skeens.  We had tons of fun with them and our kids are begging to play with them again.  We love making new friends! 

I thought I'd catch up on how each of us has been doing since I haven't been so good at keeping up with every day life on the blog:

Todd came down with Bells Palsy a couple weeks before leaving to Cancun.  For anyone not familiar with it (I wasn't), it's where your facial nerve (in your neck just below your ear) is swollen or even damaged which causes that side of the face to become numb. It's uncertain what causes it, though doctors agree one of the possible causes could be the swollen glands you get with a bad cold/sinus infection inflaming the nerve.  Todd was battling a pretty serious and long-term sinus infection at the time.  Recovery seems to take anywhere from 2 weeks (but that's rare) to 9 months or so.  In very rare cases, it doesn't ever fully go away.  Todd is at 4 weeks now and it's 100% gone as of about today.  So we're very grateful for that.

At first he couldn't blink the one eye, couldn't seal it shut to sleep at night, couldn't smile on that side, and couldn't eat or drink without leaking food out one side.  Opening his mouth wide to fit things like a sandwich was difficult too.  By the time we went to Mexico, he was no longer taping his eye shut at night and could blink and eat.  He swam in the salt water ocean with no eye trouble.  He was pretty stoked!

Todd started triathlon training back up this month.  He's been studying lots about nutrition for properly fueling the body when doing that much activity.  He felt like he lost more muscle than he'd like to in the last year with the training he was doing, so he's spent the last few months taking a break from heavy cardio activity and doing more strength training instead.  I'm excited for his future races since he did so well his first year- a half iron man in his first triathlon year!

I'm doing pretty good.  I just feel busy- too busy.  I don't know if it's all in my head and I need to learn how to stay calm when life really isn't that hectic, or if I just really have that much going on and need to learn to say no to some things in life.  The seemingly obvious cause would be building a house.   But that's really not been that stressful.  There were those couple of weeks there right before our trip that I had to make a ton of visits to Boise and pick a bunch of things out that would need to be ordered around the time we'd be gone.  Like picking the exact granite slabs out to reserve them, finalizing the tile, marking the spot for the well, etc.  The house is currently being painted and I haven't been to it in almost a week.  So I'm excited to see the progress!  The painters will be done within the next couple of weeks.

There was a scare with our well. I always had a feeling it would work itself out and be fine, but it could have end up up costing a lot of money.  While in Mexico, we received an e-mail from our builder saying the people digging our well had finished digging it, and ultimately discovered the well location we chose was unsuccessful at pumping enough water to function for us.  We not only need so many gallons per minute for the house, but our furnace is a geothermal water source heat pump furnace that requires additional well water.  In total, we needed at least 25 gallons per minute.  This well didn't even pump half that amount, and was, thus, useless for any purpose of retrieving water from. 

Our best option was to pay a little extra to have a new well dug, hoping that it gave at least twice as much water as the first one, and then to use the first well as the injection well (the well that the furnace's water goes back into after it runs through the furnace pipes) instead of a water retrieval well.  (We were going to have to dig two wells for this anyway- one to get water from and one to put water in.)  If the second well didn't have enough water, the next option was to pay a total of $7500 to have a third well dug.  That would let one be for the house, the other for the furnace, and still leave the first well as the injection well.  OR we could dig deeper in the first well to the sulfur level and forever-more deal with sulfur water (requires a pricey system to add chlorine to the water and filter the sulfur mostly out- NOT my ideal choice since, to me, one of the biggest benefits to having a well is avoiding the icky chlorinated city-type of water). We e-mailed our builder back saying we'd like to try using a well witch and would shoot for the cheapest option of hoping for one  well to supply both house and furnace.

He hired and sent out the well witch. Sounds crazy but we'd always heard great things about them.  The well witch came out with his sticks to estimate where we should drill a well and found a spot where he said the aquifer from the first well crossed another aquifer and should have plenty of water.  They dug there, and sure enough... 35 gallons of water per minute!  So we're happy to pay for the cheapest option, though it does still cost more than it would have if the first well worked and all they had to do was dig the separate injection well.  The reason being that we had to pay for a new screen for the second well after the first well's screen was removed (that ruins them) to make it become an injection well.  Yes, I know this sounds terribly boring.  But it was a big deal at the time.  We're  totally sold on well witches.  NEVER drill a well without one!

We just put on our Relief Society Christmas Dinner last night.  It was a really nice evening.  I'm so grateful for wonderful sisters who did so much of the planning and preparations for it.

I probably feel busy because it's Christmas time and everyone feels busy at Christmas time.  I've been better at being consistent with working out lately and that usually means something else is left lacking.. like the house getting clean or the laundry getting folded.  So I think I just feel like there's more to do because there IS! And some things are not getting done.  I've never been able to balance everything.  I tell myself that no one else does it all either, but sometimes it looks or seems like, really, everyone else is MUCH better at doing it all than I am!  I'll get it someday, right?

On to someone else... Brielle.  Brielle reads up a storm every day now.  Her teacher told us at the meet and greet when school started this Fall that we'd be blown away how fast these first graders learn reading skills.  I AM blown away.  Brielle also really likes math. She quizzes us math questions all the time.  She likes to count down to things more than we could tolerate so we finally bought her...  her very own calendar.  Several times a day we'd get "How many more days until Christmas?" or "How many more days until my birthday?", "until we go to Mexico?", "until Grandma and Grandpa Foster come visit?", "until, until, until."  So this calendar has helped a ton :-)  Brielle occasionally makes breakfast for her brother and sister if she wakes up before us.  Like on the weekends when Todd and I want to sleep in, but our kids' internal alarm clocks still go off in their heads at an ungodly hour.  Usually yogurt parfaits or cereal or a bagel with cream cheese.  She puts on cartoons for everyone and gets Lainey dressed.  I would say it's an "oldest" thing, but I know I was NEVER that helpful to my parents.  Maybe they were deprived!  Brielle talks a lot about her music class at school.  She's learned the words to a good variety of songs and sings them around the house all the time.  I love that.  That's what my home sounded like all growing up.  People coming and going but always singing whatever song was stuck in their head at the time.  Brielle has a pretty little voice. 

Ashton is very loving.  He loves hugs and kisses.  He loves to snuggle.  He demands  a book, a song, a prayer, and a kiss at bedtime every night, no cutting him short.  He has this way about him where everything has a method.  If it's not done correctly he gets very upset.  Even for very silly small things.  Like ketsup.  If the ketsup is not put in the exact right spot not touching any other food at all- even the food it's meant to be dipped in, things start to get ugly...  Or if I sprinkle cinnamon in his oatmeal but stir it BEFORE I put the raisins in, EVEN if I stir it again after I put raisins in... Or if his blankets on his bed are not lying completely flat in place, he cannot sleep.  He will NOT let me drop him off at school without a kiss.  (I'll be very sad the day that ends.)  He was very late one day and so was I for something I had to be at.  So I sort of quickly hauled him into the school, dropped him off and ran and they said he was a complete grouch the whole time at pre-school because of it.  He builds the most symmetrical yet very ornate things out of Lego's.  His mind is very creative.  He shares Brielle's love for drawing and draws several cute little pictures every day. He's all about being strong.  He asks to be held up to the pull-up bar all the time to whip out some pull-ups and afterwards he always has to flex his muscles for us. Ashton loves his pre-school.  He does really well in it.  He memorized his 4 line solo for the Christms program and is ready to perform next week!   We can't wait to see him in it!

Lainey can EAT. She eats almost as much as Ashton and Brielle put together!  She may look small, but she hides a lot of food in that little belly!  When people babysit her, that's always the first thing they say- "That girl can eat!  She never stopped eating!"  She actually gained 3.5 pounds in 4 weeks last month.  That doesn't sound like much, but when it's such a high % of her original body weight, it was a lot!  Lainey is very kissie lately.  She gives kisses away like no tomorrow.  Yet she's also the family bully.  It started out defensive against two bigger siblings, but now SHE picks on THEM.  She's pretty tough.  She's phasing out of biting, but it's not completely past her yet.  Lainey is at the age where she loves to be helpful.  Sometimes too helpful.  But it's very cute to have her shadow me all day and be so willing to help out.  She's always happy and her smile brightens our home all day long.