New Year's Eve

Before I forget again, as I've done every time I write since October, our theater got a grant for the digital projectors, so it lives on!  Not only that, but the grant was for more than what was needed for the projectors, so we got a new sound system, and Jeremy (the manager) is all tickled excited with all the renovations he'll get to do--new paint, carpet (it's 20 years old, though you wouldn't know by looking at it), new neons, etc. So, the weekend after Thanksgiving, the theater closed down for installation and then re-debuted Twilight (ugh!) in Digital.  We've gone to see Skyfall (thoroughly enjoyed it) and The Hobbit in 3D (not enjoyed).  It was our first 3D movie and we were impressed with neither the 3D nor the movie itself.  I told Shad he can find another date to see the other 2 Hobbit movies.  I won't go.

Anyway, it's that time of year again and I'm not quite sure what resolutions I want to make.  But it's definitely time to start thinking, as well as evaluate what I achieved this year.

 

2012 Resolutions

 

1. Make time to exercise 3-4 days/week.  I was great at that until first trimester sickness and fatigue hit.  Now I'm getting back to it.
2. Keep kitchen counters clean.  For dang sure not.  But the effort was there.
3. Obtain 5 piano students.  Nope.  Had one for a couple months, but lost her over the summer.
4. Pay attention to and recognize birthdays.  Fail.  I think I caught 3 birthdays.  Maybe.
5. Find freedom from financial stress.  I think this one is going to be a "living science" meaning that it continues to grow and develop.  But I did.  I spent time online looking around for self-help tips, blogs, etc.  Ways to shrink your grocery bill.  Stuff like that.  I found some good resources, as well as this book: America's Cheapest Family Gets You Right On the Money by Steve and Annette Economides.  I've only read the grocery section so far, but it's helped immensely!  I'll check it out from the library again when I'm ready and have time for it.  Gotta recover from the holidays first.
6. Read 10 classic books.  Yep.  Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass were trippy books that I wouldn't exactly consider to be enjoyable.  The Jungle Book was fun.  I did like The Joy Luck Club.  The Scarlet Letter was a tough one to read, not for storyline's sake, but all the descriptive and narrative writing.  I found the book on tape at the library and suddenly I was able to get through the book much faster.  I did find it to be very enjoyable.  The Secret Garden was nice.  Macbeth is always a delight, but following it up with Hamlet was quite the downer.  Two dark Shakespeare plays back to back only begged for a spoonful of sugar from Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream.  I also participated in the library's summer reading program to read 10 250+ page books in 10 weeks.  I don't think I've read a book on my own since then.  That was overkill.  Won't participate in that again.
7. Read the Bible and Bible Dictionary.  This was a lofty goal to begin with, but then in May I got called as Gospel Doctrine (Sunday School) teacher, and I threw the idea of reading the Bible out the window.  I did make it through the Bible Dictionary though.
8. Decorate 1 room.  I did two.  Bam.  Okay, maybe one and a half since the laundry room still needs some finishing touches.
9. Learn guitar.  Nope.  But I did spend more time with the piano than I did last year.
10. Learn more Chinese.  Nope.  I pulled out my CDs once.  But I did teach Tom "ni hao" (hello) and he and Katie both say "gam bei" (cheers).
11. Finish Personal Progress (young women's goal program at church).  Check!
12. Bike a centurion.  Nope.  I got pregnant and then the weather got bad, daylight was waning, etc.  But I did train for it and thoroughly enjoyed as many bike rides as I could manage with the kids and summer heat.
13. Be 100% on visiting teaching.  FAIL!  But I made efforts.

 

I know there are a lot of people who don't like making New Year's Resolutions because they don't like knowing that they failed at something.  I, personally, don't care if I fail, the point is that I probably wouldn't try so hard if I didn't make the resolution in the first place.  Besides, I'm happy counting my successes, not my failings.  And I guess I don't really mind counting my failings, either.  They give me ideas for how I can improve next year.  There are many things I accomplished this year that weren't on my resolution list, like learning to bake rolls, buns, bread bowls, breadsticks, crackers, etc.  I learned how to can and successfully canned two batches of soup, each yielding 7 quarts.  I have more soups I want to can.  I employed my crockpot at least once a week, giving me more time to spend elsewhere in my home than dirtying up my kitchen...or to dirty it up more by trying out whole wheat rolls.  And sewing.  Holy cow, did I ever use my sewing machine this year and have lots to catch up on when I get the tension fixed on it.

 

And so we get to this year.  Here are my ideas so far.

 

2013 Resolutions

 

1. Exercise 3-4 days a week.  Begin a yoga/tai chi rotation.  I'll need to get a tai chi DVD.
2. Prove to the world that a healthy baby can be produced without me gaining 25-35 pounds during pregnancy. Really? Because that's an obscenely ridiculous amount to gain.  No wonder women have body image issues after pregnancy.
3. Prove myself wrong that I'll still be able to yield a successful garden with a fresh baby and two toddlers.
4. Use my crockpot twice a week.
5. Bake more homemade breads.  So excited for the breadmaker on its way!!
6. Read a chapter a day in the Bible.  I'm still Gospel Doctrine teacher and have Doctrine and Covenants to study this year, along with Our Heritage, so I'm trying to be realistic.
7. Read 10 biographies/autobiographies.
8. Decorate 1 room.  Besides the baby nook I'm creating in my bedroom right now...
9. Learn to play 1 song on the guitar.  The kids most commonly ask for Baby Monkey so I'll go for that.
10. Learn to sing "I Am a Child of God" in Mandarin Chinese.  I bought a Chinese hymn book before I went to China!  I am a big believer in music being an excellent tool for language acquisition.
11. Connect with an extended family member over the phone once a week.  Family is such a loosely defined word in my book:)  Paul Jones, Nikki (Kelson) Thomas, and Robyn Bailey count as family.
12. Work on Family History once a month.

It's Deeyicious!

Here's Miss Katie when she fell asleep in her seat after second lunch at 2:30 in the afternoon.

 

 

One of our library activities was making crowns (precuts).  Katie just loved wearing her crown.

 

Tom knew he was handsome.

 

This was the first time Katie brought a shirt to us to play dress up.  She loves hearing us tell her she's so pretty when she's playing dress up.  Guess I know what to sew for her birthday next year!

Shad began a project to paint the figurines for our game, Shadows Over Camelot, which is a King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table quest game.  It's quite the project and still ongoing.  The kids were very interested and took turns sitting very still in Dad's lap to have a front row seat.  Katie even had to have a toothpick just like Dad.  See it in her mouth?

 

There it is.  Toothpick in the mouth, just like Dad.

 

This is the day they sat on the washer for the full load.  Katie had some wild hair after her nap.   Just like Einstein.  Up in every directions.  Untamed and curly.  Here's the front view.

 

And the profile.  I promise, we're not training for mugshots.

 

We had a wonderful blizzard blow through Wednesday afternoon and night. Shad got sent home early when the power started flickering. He invited the missionaries to come over and spend the evening with us, helping us prepare for coming guests, have dinner and play a game or two. Given that they'd otherwise be sitting in their apartment staring at each other, they thought it sounded like a great plan. I couldn't have agreed more.

 

I had a long list of baking I wanted to do, along with my list of sewing.  Given the importance of getting Christmas presents sewn, the baking got pushed to the back burner...no pun intended.  In fact, most of my baking got done on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas when company was here to take care of the kids and Pris was actively washing every dish I made and scolding me when I tried to wash one myself.  Seriously, it was amazing to be able to spend two days in the kitchen and not have a dirty dish to show for it.  I made Fudge, Gingerbread Cookies, Sandies, and Turkish Delight all for the first time, and repeated favorites of Peanut Butter Blossoms and Peppermint Bark. 

 

The kids helped me make the Blossoms and Bark Thursday prior to guests coming.  We made a new alteration to my Bark recipe, adding in a layer of dark chocolate to go with the white chocolate and crushed mints.  It was a winner.  Tom had excellent self-control for a two-year-old chef and didn't eat any of the kisses that he was assigned to press into the warm cookies.  He tried to sneak a couple, but was well supervised.  Katie was luckier and found herself an opportunity to steal a kiss.  She was sitting on a bar stool that I thought was far enough away from the counter that she wouldn't be able to reach the bowl of unwrapped kisses.  But when I turned my back on her to swap cookies in the oven, she proved me wrong.

 

Do you have a Dadda Horse built for two?  We do.

 

We had our friends from church, Sarah and Matthew, over for breakfast, lunch and games on Saturday.  It was our last time to get together with them.  They're moving to Manhattan, KANSAS (not New York) tomorrow.  Kendells began arriving just after Sarah and Matthew left.  Tom and Katie were freshly awake from their naps, but still playing quietly in their room.  I went to get them, but when Tom saw the door opening, he quickly ran back to his bed just in case he'd get scolded that he was supposed to be napping.  All I said was, "Tom, who's at your house?" and he went running out of his room just as fast.  He and Katie were both well aware of who was coming.  Tom made sure that everyone was there to be with him--"Levi, don't play games.  Nana, don't play games.  Nana, don't eat it food.  Just yook at me."  He wasn't going to share time with anything.

 

Brian and Deb Kieswetter came over Saturday night with dinner for everyone.  That was the Christmas present they wanted to give and they were more than happy to include the extra Kendells, especially since they weren't able to feed them before they moved.  We had elk and buffalo burgers, along with chili made from both meats.

 

We had a fun weekend with sleep deprived children, as is usual when we have guests and the kids are too excited for sleep.  There was loads of Boom Bang, peek-a-boo, tickles, and cuddles.  Shad worked Christmas Eve and then had the rest of the week off, using two vacation days.  We think it was a smart move.

 

I'm afraid I set Tom up to have a miserable time sleeping Christmas Eve, because when I tucked him in, I explained to him that this was a special night.  That in the morning when he woke up, he got to wake everyone else up and tell them, "Wake up!  It's Christmas!"  And then we'd all run downstairs and turn on the Christmas lights and music and we'd open our presents because it's Jesus' birthday and he loves us.  Oh, that two-year-old was giddy with excitement and had a hard time falling asleep after that.  But, typical of my dear Tom, he remembered all my instructions in the morning and came to my room telling me, "Wake up!  It's Christmas!"  He was smart enough to know that wasn't good enough, but to wait for me to get out of bed.  We woke everyone else up together and got set up for opening presents.  It was Tom's job to distribute the presents to everyone, as dictated by me.  He did a wonderful job, saying, "Merry Christmas!" every time he handed out a gift.  He was delighted any time one was for him, but his eyes lit up and he said, "Ohhh, FANK YOU!" when I handed him a large box that was for him.

 

Turns out that inside that large box was a wooden train set, and suddenly every other gift was forgotten.  That one was the winner.  Two other favorites are a small plush dog from Ruth and a small plastic rifle.  He loves that he can have a small handheld gun and so can Katie.  That girl is an excellent playmate for him.  She enjoys shooting, cooking, soccer, and playing "engarde."

 

Dan and Ryan arrived in the afternoon and further excitement ensued.  Let it be known that Uncle Dan is the favorite uncle.  Sorry Jake, don't think you'll be able to buy these kids' favoritism.  Dan's got that pretty well locked away.  Katie is all flirts and cuddles with him, and Tom just always talks about Uncle Dan whether he's here or not.  It's no secret they adore him.

 

Jimmy and his boyfriend, Kerry were able to come up in the evening.  We had a second round of opening presents when they arrived and then I set to work cooking our Thai dinner.  We decided last year that we'd make a tradition of having international food for Christmas dinner.  It's too soon to have another turkey (we don't particularly enjoy dry tasteless meat anyway), and Shad's parents, Ruth and Levi aren't fans of ham.  Last year we had a spread of Indian food, and this year the vote came back for Thai.  We had Red Curry Chicken, Cashew Chicken (minus the cashews because my pregnant brain forgot them, but that was okay because Ryan could eat it), and Coconut Chicken Soup, with Fried Bananas for dessert.  Holy cow, that was some eating.

 

Here are the Kendell kids all together on Christmas.

 

The cousins enjoying breakfast together.

 

Shad has a .22 rifle that had been left in Dan's possession, and we decided it was time to get that back, what with Obama's reelection and all.  We just both felt strongly that we needed to get that...and find a safe method of home storage for it.  Anywho, Shad, Dan, Ruth and Levi went out shooting on Thursday.  Since they were gone playing guns, Tommy decided that he, Ryan and Nana needed to play guns too.  It was only fair, really.  So, armed with an empty nerf gun, a tiny revolver, and Tom's new rifle, they ran around the basement shooting at imaginary aliens, with Tom yelling, "Go ge'em! Go ge'em!" and Ryan being the one to make sure things were safe.  They ambushed me when I came down the stairs with Katie.

Over a month ago, I tried to teach Tommy "delicious."  I'm not satisfied with "yummy" anymore.  It's time to move past that word.  Maybe it's because when I was teaching English in China, the kids called all food a "yummy treat."  I couldn't get them past that.  I tried giving them yucky food when I was teaching Kitchen for the week.  Sweet, salty, sour, gross, delicious, etc.  Nothing I tried to expand their vocabulary stuck.  "Yummy treat" had been ingrained in their minds and there was nothing I could do to change that.  What was worse, was coming home from work, having FHE and Tawny talking about our "yummy treat" after the activity.  Sorry Tawny, but there were some words I just wanted to smack out of your mouth.  Anyway, when I tried to teach "delicious" to Tommy, he didn't like the word.  I even gave him the definition in words he understood--"Tommy, 'delicious' means 'yummy treat.'"  He responded then (and every time since then when I try to reintroduce the word), "No, Mom.  Not deeyicious.  Just so yummy."  But Thursday night, he climbed up on a bar stool next to the counter where an open bag of Chex Mix sat, and soon I was hearing, "Mom! Hurry so fast!  It's deeyicious!"  Oh my goodness, I am so proud of my boy to finally accept that word.

 

And speaking of language abilities, I get weekly emails from babycenter.com telling me information on my children's development.  This is what I read this week for Tommy:  "By 30 months, your child can name a few body parts, some colors, and even a friend or two. Her memory and speaking ability work in tandem. Help out by expanding on what she says. If she says, "Dog sleep," you might say, "Yes, Spot is curled up and fast asleep in his doggie bed." She can't imitate your complex language patterns yet, but her brain is absorbing them. Every time you repeat her words or expand on them, you're giving her memory practice."  I'll have them know that my 30 month old child can name 26 body parts on my count, primary and secondary colors (except purple), over 20 friends, and 23 family members.  Not only that, but he is capable of saying full sentences.  He tells me, "I don't know what you're talking about." "Please, may I have a snack?"  "I am thirsty." "Read to me, please!" and "Katie is sleeping."  Just to name a few.  I've unsubscribed from those emails.  They obviously don't apply.

 

And to wrap up, here's two last pictures and a video.

 

Tom with his beloved train set.

 

Katie with Tom's plush dog (she got one just like it, too).  These dogs are her favorite Christmas present. 

 

She also loves the hooded towel I sewed for her. She was desperately outgrowing her infant one.  Did I mention that I couldn't finish my Christmas sewing? I suddenly had tension problems with my machine. I spent 4.5 hours trying to fix it, with my aunt Mary on the phone for a good bit of that, instructing me on how to take apart my machine to try and fix it. I'll just have to wait for the repair man to come to the quilting shop next month before I can finish my projects.

And a video of Tom playing with his train:

http://youtu.be/PuYmPBuPquo

100%

Oh!!  I almost forgot.  I started a blog a while ago for ILP lesson plans.  ILP is the company that I worked for when I went to China.  Everything in my world now makes me think, "If I were teaching with ILP, this would be fantastic!"  I thought it'd be a great resource for other ILP teachers to use, because I know how hard it was for me to come up with lesson plans sometimes.  Well it turns out that there's a school in Provo, Utah teaching kids to speak Chinese with the same method that ILP uses.  The owner of the school found my blog and contacted me last week.  He wants me to be a paid consultant for them and provide them with lesson plans.  Unlike the ILP teachers overseas who don't really have much else going on and thus, have time to write lesson plans, the teachers for Achieve Fluency are generally going to school in addition to teaching, so they don't have a whole lot of time for lesson planning.  That's where I come in.  I'm so excited to see how this develops and what opportunities it brings for me.  I dreamed ILP lessons last night.

 

Something Happened!!!

I just checked into upgrading my photo storage so that I can continue to post pictures directly on the blog.  Last time I looked, I was using 99.9% of my 1 GB storage.  Suddenly today, I see that I'm using 19.86% of my 5 GB storage!  I can post pictures now!  So here's what I've got since Halloween.  Don't worry, I'll use this new space sparingly and not overwhelm you with loads to look at.

For some reason this picture makes me think of Shrek.  Not sure why.  But Tommy loves his Q-tips.

 



 

Katie learned to walk!

 

 

And put those new walking skills to use with doll strollers.

 

You know the saying, "Don't cry over spilt milk?"  That person had toddlers and was just trying to keep their sanity.  I use that phrase ALL THE TIME.

 

Katie loves to play peek-a-boo.  "Oh, no!  Where's my Katie?"

 

"There she is!"

 

 

The birth of the Bacon-Brat-Cheddar Burger.  Shad's brain child that he's been drooling over for about 6 months.  He made it for his birthday.  Bratwurst wrapped in bacon wrapped in cheddar wrapped in approximately a pound of ground beef.  It was a beast to behold and a beast to eat.  I didn't try.  I was still in my first trimester of pregnancy, which for some reason made my appetite that of the third trimester--where you think you can eat food, but are suddenly and without warning full due to a squished stomach.  Weirdest first trimester thus far.

 

And we couldn't just have this dinner by ourselves, so we invited a pair of very excited missionaries to join us.  Elder Leavitt said this was the best thing he's learned on his mission and he's confident that his stake president will agree when he returns home and reports.



 

We had some delightful crockpot honey ham for Thanksgiving and the day after, it was even more flavorful and succulent than it was the first time.  Shad and I picked at it off a plate and ate it like candy.  Katie appreciates good meats and got real comfy and cozy with the crockpot on the counter while she dined.

 

Dad at the Chubby Pickle in Phillipsburg.

 

Mom playing at the park with Katie and Tom.

Okay, so that was a bit of pictures and it was only November.  I'll get December later, but my husband just made me lunch.

Good Vibrations

Well I'm 4 months pregnant today!  Other than the ailments of fatigue and nausea (which are, thankfully, done and over with), I've had chronic headaches and tension in my brow, no matter how I try to relax and massage it.  It gets quite wearying and draining by the end of the day.  But with the fatigue and sickness out of the way, I'm finally back up to energy levels that allow me to catch up on laundry, can 7 quarts of Manhattan Clam Salmon Chowder, and try to keep up on dishes and cleaning.  I've also been able to get whatever little in store Christmas shopping done that I need to.

We went to Destination Kitchen last week, which is one of Tom's favorite stores in town.  He wasn't feeling ready to eat lunch when I wanted us to (it was the usual time), but when I told him that we could go to "The Kitchen Store" after lunch, he jumped right on board.  I've never seen him eat a PB&J sandwich so fast before.  Or so messily.  His mess is usually contained to just his mouth, but the speed eating had it all over his hands, sleeves, shirt, and face.  Lovely laundry.  But there's a kid's kitchen set there with cool toys (all of it wooden) and a metal shopping cart, and Tom just loves to cook.  He's ALWAYS cooking.  So he had me and Katie sit at the tables in the front of the store while he cooked at the back and brought stuff up to serve us.  After he'd been gone for a while, he finally came around the corner with an oven mitt on his hand, carrying a cookie tray with velcro cookies and frosting all laid out.  Wish I had gotten a picture, but since aprons and oven mitts are already on my list for Christmas sewing, that's something I'll see a lot more often in just a week.

My bobbin winder tire got worn out last week and needed to be replaced.  Bad timing with all the sewing I'm doing and needing to wind bobbins!  And no big surprise, but the sewing store in town doesn't carry any basic replacement parts, and the repair guy is only in once a month.  Still disappointing.  Ebay proved to be a shining light for me, though.  I found a 4 pack for $6 with free shipping and it was here in less than a week.  In fact, it was supposed to arrive today, but arrived on Thursday or Friday last week.  Same story with the fabric I ordered from Fabric.com (the store in town doesn't carry knit fabrics; they're primarily a quilting store).  Love that!  So I'm extremely behind on my sewing list, but am hoping to get caught up during naptime today.  I've already sewn 2 aprons (gifts for friends) and Katie's hooded towel.  I can't list everything, because somethings are surprises, but I sure have my work cut out for me and need to get things speeded up.

We went to Shad's work Christmas party on Friday night, and it was enjoyable.  Which is more than we can say for last year.  Last year they had really loud music playing so that it was hard to hold conversations, the food was undercooked due to the oversized portions, and even though there was a separate smoking section at the front, you still had to walk in and out of it, and the smoke drifted into the non-smoking room.  This year was at a different venue with no indoor smoking.  They only played 1 song and had quiet the rest of the time.  They food was fantastic and cooked all the way through.  On top of that, they compensated all the mandatory overtime with nice bonus checks, and gift cards won through games.  We won a $30 gas card, and a light up snowman and angel.  Tom and Katie were delighted with those, which made up for any hard feelings for being left behind.  Our friends, Paul and Mallory, babysat them.  Tom had a great time.  Katie got tired around 8:30 and grabbed her coat, went to the door and started crying, saying, "Door.  Mom! Bye bye!"  Apparently her crying included a little "buh buh buh buh buh!" blubbering, which Mallory felt really bad for laughing at, but couldn't help herself!  They were so happy to see us come in the door--Tom cried out, "Dad! You're back!!  Oh, Mom! You're back, too!"  Both kids were more excited to see Shad than me, because between him working overtime that day and their naps, they only saw him for an hour before we had to leave them.

Sunday we Skyped with Shad's parents, and Katie had trouble with them not being on the computer anymore.  So we had to call other people.  We called my dad and she happily talked to him for several minutes before it was bedtime.  She had a hard time with bedtime that night.  We went to console her an hour later when she was still crying.  She had been hinting all week at wanting to move into Tom's old crib, but that night (at 10 pm!) she practically begged.  So we moved her over.  Our big girl is in a big crib now and done with the pack-n-play.  Now I can get that ready for May!

Did you know how awesome my boy is?  He's so awesome that when I only had to heels of bread left last week for his PB&J, he not only ate it, but still thought it was the best thing in the world.  I love him!

Some more glimpses into the language of Tom: he has developed a shorthand for one of his favorite phrases.  "DOWN!"  It's usually preceded by a heavy sigh, or click of the tongue, and is short for "just calm down, please."  I hear it all day long, and most the time I don't need to calm down.  He just didn't like what I told him.  A week ago, I told him that Nana and Bumpa are coming in two weeks.  He understood that I meant it would be a while before they came, but he replied, "Mom, just ony one week."  When he thinks we're going so fast in the mini van, he says, "Lightning McQueen Niny-seven! So fast!"  But oddly enough, that only happens in residential streets and not on the highway.  There's a clip in the movie, The Emporer's New Groove, where the Emporer busts open a door and says, "Boom, baby!"  So when Tom comes in the house from being gone, he says, "Boom, baby!  I'm back!"  We heard that last night when we were all coming in from the van and he was the last one through the door.  When I came back in with a second load, he told me to say it.  We also hear, "Eh eh eh!" a lot, which is what we say when the kids are doing something they shouldn't.  So Tom says that to us and Katie.  He can be quite bossy.  A year ago, if you asked what Tom wanted to be when he grows up, I'd have said a dentist.  He was constantly checking my teeth and poking at my tongue.  However, right now I'd have to say that he aspires to be a policeman.  He sure does a good job of policing Katie, and most of it is rightfully so.

What do a two-year-old and one-year-old want to do most in the world when they wake up from their afternoon nap?  Why, sit on the washing machine after Mom has just started a load, of course!  At least, that was the desire yesterday.  They sat on the machine for the whole running time of the load.  We ate snack and then I washed dishes.  They just sat there and enjoyed the vibrations.

Oh, you know, just stufffff

Ugh, I'm still frustrated trying to figure out the problem with uploading pictures.  The storage site, that I was unaware I am using, is full and yet I can't delete anything because it won't load the album.  Great.  Maybe I'll just have to go back to writing without pictures and sending the pictures via Shutterfly.  At least I know how to do that without spending hours trying to find a solution.

After our delightful post-Thanksgiving vomit virus, Tom went straight into a cold.  Shad and I caught that and were rendered useless for a weekend.  I think we went through a whole kleenex box while we camped out on the couch.  We finally started getting over it about a week ago.  I remember how excited I was when my ears started unpopping on Thursday.  Katie, lucky thing that she is, managed to escape both sicknesses.  She cut a second tooth during the Thanksgiving week, so her nose stopped running, but then it started again around the time we caught the colds.  It's still dripping, so I'm thinking she's got another tooth working through.  Good for her, because she's 13 months old and has 2 bottom teeth.  Still, that doesn't hold her back from eating everything she possibly can.  Other than grape jelly and tomatoes, I can't think of a thing she's refused to eat.  She can't manage raw or still crisp veggies, but eats everything else.

We're going through with our refinance, though it's not actually saving any money on our monthly payment.  We are cutting out 3.5 years, though, so shortly after Tom turns 12, we'll have our house paid off! Eat that, economy!

Tom and Katie are best friends.  Tom is including Katie more and more in his play.  He's realized that it's okay for her to play in with the kitchen set at the same time as him, under the premise that I told him she's cooking dinner for him.  He thinks that's so nice of her.  He also cooks for her in return.  Yesterday morning while I was doing some Christmas shopping online, Tom had Katie shrieking in delight as he chased her around the living room, roaring at her.  Every now and then she'd fall down because she was laughing so hard, and then she'd laugh more because she fell!  Katie is a tease and knows when she's being funny.  She'll find things that make Tom laugh, and keep it up as long as he's laughing and telling me that, "Mom, Katie being funny!"

Katie likes to play dress up.  She'll find shirts of mine or Shad's and bring them to us so she can wear them.  Her face just lights up and we tell her she's so pretty.  It's funny to watch her try and walk while wearing a shirt that goes down past her feet.  She manages, though.  On Sunday after church, a lady told me that I'm going to have to keep my eye on this girl because she's just going to be so beautiful when she grows up.  The lady and a couple others who overheard were surprised and laughed when I told them that Katie already flirts with the missionaries.  She even favors Elder Evans over Elder Leavitt.

Yesterday, the kids and I braved the cold wind and walked down to the thrift store to pick up some things I need for Christmas sewing projects.  Everyone in the store complimented me on my well-behaved kids.  The two of them just walked around the store (it's very small) doing their own looking around while I did mine.  Several people told me how well Tom talks and the things that he said to them (he's only shy when he chooses to be).  One man, who was an elementary school teacher, (he was funny--he said he only chose that major because that's where all the girls were in college) told me that he sincerely hopes to run into me another time in town because my kids are just so wonderful.

Oh, the funny things Tom says and does!  I told him once after leaving a lunch visit with Shad at work, that Dad had to go back to work to get some money for us.  Tom understood that very well and said, "Oh, fank you Dad! Get it some money!"  Now I hear relatively often, "Mom, Tom go back work Natoma.  Get it some money."  A conversation that occurs about 30 times a day (word for word, with occasional slight variations) is, "Mom okay?" "Yes, Tom, I'm okay. Are you okay?" "No, I'm happy!  Mom, yers a pretty girl!"  "Thanks, Tom!  You're a handsome boy."  Last week while I was miserable on the couch because my head would throb everytime I stood up, Katie got something from a kitchen drawer that we're trying to teach her to stay out of.  Ever the policeman, Tom snatched it right from her hand, put it back, then scolded her, saying, "Katie! Dats not fer yers!"  He often says, "Oh, ESSEWENT!  Good i-de-a" (Thumbs up included).  Boom Bang is a game that Tom plays all the time.  It's inspired by a martial arts video game of Shad's, and executed Tom-style, which means that Boom Bang looks like running circles around a room and crashing into things and people; wrestling; and sword fighting.  Tom likes to fake burp after drinking, so he made sure to do that during the sacrament on Sunday.  He at least knows to say, "Scue me," afterwards.  Yesterday, while I was washing our dishes from breakfast, first lunch and second lunch, Katie was fussing in her high chair.  Tom told her, "Katie, no crying!  Just eat sandwich, please!"  He was patiently waiting for her to finish so we could go on a walk, and she was exhausted, given that it was 2:30.  She fell asleep in her chair.

Oh, and one more I almost forgot!  Last week we were leaving a store and saw a woman walking down the sidewalk.  She was wearing a long, dark trench coat and a striped scarf.  Tom got excited and exclaimed, "Oh, wea Hay Poer!"  The woman and I were both confused, and Tom was insistant that I understand what he was saying.  I figured out that he said, "Wear Harry Potter."  He thought the woman was wearing a Harry Potter costume!  Totally made my day!  I explained it to the lady; she understood the logic and thought it was funny too.

Now for Katie's language.  Ruth asked me last week about Katie talking and so I started a list of things she says.  It started small, but then just kept growing as I'd remember more things or she'd learn new words.  Here's her vocabulary as I know it now: hi, bye, more, bed, hat, head, baby, water bottle, coat, jacket, apple, banana, cracker, chocolate, book, I love you, aiyaaaa (the karate sound effect), mama, dada, bumpa, nana, cup, bowl, ball, dog, woof, car, vroom vroom vroom, hammer, boo, pray, amen, blue bunny (her beloved toy), light, tree, diaper, deer, elk, cat (there are trophies on the wall at the hunting and sport store).  She signs eat, but doesn't say it yet.  On Saturday, she said diaper to Shad, then ran to the diaper corner to have her diaper changed.  We were so excited for her!  She also very clearly asked me to "call Grandpa."  We did, and she held up her end of the conversation.  She knows baby to mean baby, but I think she's confused about the whole pregnant concept.  When I pat my belly and tell her baby, she pats her belly, Shad's belly, anyone else's belly and says baby.  So I think she thinks it's a body part.

Well, my lovely daughter, who still hasn't learned to stay out of the dirt of our indoor plants, has just notified me that I've been blogging too long.

Thanksgiving

You know what I wanted to do during nap time today? Sit and rest, and oh, write a blog post since it's been a few weeks.  And when I went to upload the few pictures that I have right now, I couldn't.  Why? Because my Picasa Web Albums (that I didn't know I was using every time I put a picture on a blog) are full.  They are full, make it near impossible to figure out how to delete anything to create space, and have long-running scripts that force the window to close and reopen.  Why would anybody choose to use that?  So it'll be a while before I can share any pictures because I have other things to do with my time than spend forever trying to figure that out.

In the meantime, I'll try to keep my brain together and remember things that I've been forgetting to write about.  I had a list earlier and now, of course, I can't remember them.

We had a fun Thanksgiving.  Natoma decided to be human and give their employees their due holiday, instead of making them work it.  Shad's been working mandatory overtime 50-60 hours a week since September.  Others in QA have been at it since July.  People are getting burned out and this is expected to continue at least until Christmas.  Probably longer.  They're really backed up and overloaded on orders.  Anyway, my parents arrived Wednesday night.  Tom had been so good waiting for them.  I told him the Friday before that they were coming and showed him on the calendar so that he could understand that it would be a few days, but that we could be excited now.  Finally on Wednesday, I told him that they were coming today.  He repeated, "Gramma and Grampa come two days." I had to re-explain that they were coming after dinner when it was bedtime and that they were going to sleep at Tommy's house.  That meant a whole different thing to him and he understood.  It's nice to have language comprehension develop further so that we have good communication.  Thursday was a nice relaxed day.  Shad went out with the missionaries in the morning to play Frisbee golf.  Mom and I walked down to the park with the kids to meet up with Shad after we all got ready.  Aside from the ham I put in the crockpot after breakfast, we didn't do any cooking until after lunch.  Then Mom did all the cleanup and she and Dad watched Shaun the Sheep with kids so that Shad and I could have some game time.  That was nice.  Almost like an at home date:)

We tried to go to the Fort Bissell Museum in Philipsburg, but found out when we got there that it's closed until May.  Warm weather only thing.  We shopped around a bit to make it at least worth the trip.  Then went down to Logan for awesome pizza and wings at the Main Street Pizza place.  After lunch, we walked two blocks over to the Hansen Museum, where they had a fun exhibit of health based interactive activities.  The kids loved it.  We got our house all decorated for Christmas in the evening while Mom cooked.  She wanted to make a lemon chicken dish that my sister Jen made for them when they visited her in Canada a couple weeks ago.  Shad and Dad cut a spruce tree from our backyard.  We didn't want it there and it's the perfect size for a Christmas tree.  We watched Cinderella Man in the evening...okay, we talked about it at 8 and it was 9:30 before we had Dad all set and ready to go.  So it ended at midnight.  When we moved upstairs for bed, I lost my dinner.  Take it from a pregnant lady with loads of experience, acids like lemon juice and vinegar (Italian dressing) are the last things you wanna throw up.  Gosh, it burns! 

Shad and I thought I was just being pregnant, but when I was up again at 3:30, 6:00 and 7:15, we knew we had something contagious to deal with.  Tom started at breakfast Saturday morning.  Shad caught his Sunday afternoon.  Katie's still managed to escape the horrors.  Shad and I only had the bug for 24 hours, but Tom is still getting over his.  He only threw up for a day, but then had a fever and hacking cough.  We've had to try so hard to get him to eat or drink anything.  Really, probably just enough to keep him alive.  His energy has returned today.  He's been all over the living room cooking for me and bringing me more.  His strength is not back though, since he still doesn't eat much.  Watching him walk is like watching Katie, though sometimes she looks more stable.  And he and I have both come to the conclusion that stairs are entirely out of the question.  He just can't handle them.

Aside from sickness, the kids have been having a hard time adjusting to their dad being gone so much.  They miss him, cry any time they see him leave, act out, etc.  On top of that, I've still been getting over the turmoil of first trimester nausea and fatigue, so without Shad here to help me so much, our house has been in a general state of chaotic, filthy disarray.  I just can't keep up with all the demands of taking care of 5 people single-handedly.  We're slowly finding balance...or at least trying to.  Having a weekend with my parents definitely helped.  The kids got more attention, play time and outdoor time.  Mom got us all caught up on dishes...though after 4 days of playing nurse now, I'm behind again.

We qualified to refinance our home!  The quote for the monthly payment is that we could be saving almost $100 a month AND cut off 3.5 years.  Yay!  We took our application over to our neighbors to help clarify somethings I didn't understand.  When we got to the liabilities section, I only had the house down on that.  They asked about car payments, student loans and credit card debt.  They were shocked when I told them that we didn't have any of that.  Their two sons are rather swimming in it, so they were rather dumbfounded at the thought.  I'm really thankful for the way Shad and I choose to manage our finances.  We may not have loads to spare and still can't afford $500 a month for health insurance, but we are happy as we are, not having the shackles of debt tying us down.  We will be going from 7% on a 15 year loan to 3% on a 10 year loan.  I'm super excited!

Tom-isms: He does catch on to things!  His pop gun that he got for his birthday has been a problem a little bit.  Being misused as a sword and all.  So he gets corrected that it's a gun, not a sword.  Lately, Katie's taken an interest in it.  Today, he told Katie, "No, no, no, Katie! (yes, he's started pronouncing the T) Not a sword! I's a gun!"  He even took it away from her until I had him convinced that she was using it as a gun.  He's also been mirroring my language, asking, "Katie, yike some druice?" (Katie, would you like some juice?) "Okay, be right back."  And the newest one: "Good idea!"  Several months ago, Tommy was commenting on something in the sky on a walk...the moon or clouds or something.  I told him, "Tommy, Jesus made the moon."  His reply was immediate: "Oh, FANK you, Gees!" His pronunciation has improved to "Gesus," but he still thanks Jesus for the stars, moon, sun, clouds, sky, trees, etc.

Katie has been acquiring more language skills, too.  She desperately tries to talk all the time.  Just this weekend she picked up banana, apple and cracker, and is thrilled to have that new communication!  Her face just lights up, knowing that I understand her.

I've reached the second trimester now, which means a bump and the eye of the storm.  I've been trying my hand at a new area of baking: breads and crackers.  I've tried out wheat thins, rolls, hamburger buns and bread bowls.  There's tweaks that need to be made here and there, but overall, we like these new homemade food items.  I'm also looking at cloth diapers, but not only that.  Instructions online for sewing your own diaper covers.  And then I still have a list of more soups I want to can.

Well, I better run and get to other things...like tonight's dinner.

Filling in the Gaps

I don't know where he picked it up, but Tom learned that pirates have hooks on their hands.  So now when he plays pirates, he gets a hanger...and ends up holding it backwards!

 

 

Katie is a climber and quite proud of herself, too.

 

And good at helping finish leftovers.  She found her leftover birthday brownies after I evicted her from the dishwasher and helped herself .

 

City wide cleanup means that everybody puts their junk on the curb and it gets picked up on the designated Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  That also means that the preceding weekend is generally known as "trash swap."  We participated in the scavenging and came out with a 7 piece Coleman cookware set (I told Shad that I was pretty sure Dad would beat me with a stick if I passed that up); a small bookshelf; a triple stroller that needs a simple wheel repair; a baby toy...one of those arched things that has dangling toys on it for the kid to play with while lying on their back; a trash bag full of girl clothes (I have yet to go through it); and swing set grip handles, plastic wheel, some hardware, and a glider swing.  Not bad for trash swap!  We put out stuff of our own, but it really was trash.  On Monday, when the pick up actually began, there was a...well I don't know what all those machines are called.  Look at the picture.  That thing was parked outside our house for about 3 hours and was the cause of much excitement.

 

When the kids discovered that it was just sitting there, they had some youtube time.

 

This dump truck came by that had Shrek strapped to the front for some reason.

 

Just a couple of kids sharing milk time together.

 

The Sunday before Halloween was stake conference for us.  We didn't go because Shad had worked 58 hours that week, but the cherry on top was that on Saturday night, Tom hit his head on the coffee table and we took him to the ER just to make sure he didn't need stitches.  We were told to keep a close eye on him and spending 2 hours in the car, then 2 hours of conference and another 2 hours in the car just didn't sound like a good idea.  Turned out to be a good thing because I woke up with a terrible headache.  Worse than I've had before and Ibuprofen didn't take care of it.  I spent a couple hours just lying down in bed while Shad entertained the kids.  When I was finally able to come downstairs, this is what I saw:

 

Minus Shad and Tom.  All I saw were the chairs, benches and pillows arranged like that and couldn't help laughing at what fun that must have been...whatever it was.  I found the builders down in the basement and asked what I had missed.  "Oh, that's Her Lady's Vigor."  Well what the heck does that mean?  "Oh, it's our pirate ship."  I had a fit of hysterical laughter at that point, imagining my kids playing on a pirate ship called Her Lady's Vigor.  Shad and Tom gave me demonstrations as to what that looked like.  They shot at things out the window.

 

And had sword fights.  Tom used me to share/swap out the weapon he wasn't currently using.

 

One day when I wasn't feeling well, Tom went upstairs to play with his hammers and ended up taking a nap on "Nana's bed."

 

Katie has this little Alfalfa clump of hair that usually stands on end at the back of her head.

 

We went trick-or-treating with our friends, the Vanderveers.  Eden was The Little Mermaid, Hattie was Cinderella, Tom was Harry Potter, and Katie was Dobby.  All kid costumes were sewn by the moms.

 

And in case you missed it, we're expecting a #3 May 18th.