Thanksgiving

This is a little late, but better than never, yes? We celebrated Thanksgiving at home again this year, and it was delightful. We were tired at the end of it, but food tired is always more of a blessing than a curse. We also introduced the kids to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year. I always watched it growing up, until we moved to Saipan anyway, and it was always fun to see the balloons and bands and shows. I also love seeing where different bands and squads come from. The kids really liked it. I also borrowed a great book from the library called Balloons over Broadway. It has great pictures and tells the story of the man who invented and designed the first balloons used in the Macy's Parade and why the Parade was started.

This year we had our friends the Axtells over for dinner. They usually go down to Boston but because their toddler has such a time in the car, they didn't want to risk five hours of screaming. It was fun to get together. Between dinner and dessert we went outside and kicked a ball around and the kids balanced on the slackline.

Let me introduce you to the stars, from L-R: Mal's Secret Pecan Pie, flourless chocolate torte, buttermilk pie, grapefruit merengue pie, pumpkin pie, and peanut butter brownies.

Friday morning breakfast.

The kids enjoying leftover cheese ball, nuts, fruit, and rolls for lunch on Friday.

The past few months have been an opportunity to learn to be thankful for everything and everyone in my life. I've been trying to complain less and smile more. I'm always telling the kids to be thankful for what we have--because it really is way, way more than we need; but the best way to teach is by example.

Petya and Friends

It's fun to see Petya really come into her own now that she's the big kid at home. For a while after Finn and Madie started school, Petya would keep asking if we were going to see our friends, "Logan and Caroline." I kept explaining those were actually more Finn's friends than hers, and that they were in school now too. 

"But," I'd say, "we will see Viv and Emily!" 

Finally talks about her own friends and is excited to see them when I say we're going anywhere. The cutest kiddo to see her with is Emily. These two are wicked sweet together. I came around the corner to get Petya ready to go and found them sharing a bean bag and looking through a book together. 

They are like this all the time. It kills me.

Play Date

In my attempt to keep Madie from driving me mad again today I called up my friend Lindi to invite her daughter to come play for an hour or so. She immediately said yes and so we had little Elise dropped off here around 12. When Madie saw her beautiful, keeping-cool-in-the-Georgia-heat style dress, she suggested that she too should wear a dress--shocking, I know--and slipped into her yellow polka-dotted one so that she and Elise could "both be princesses."

The peace I expected Elise to bring only lasted for about five minutes. Madie then started coming to me with all sorts of complaints about "Elise using my computer" (read "book that plays music"), and "Elise not wanting chocolate milk" (which is, indeed, a hard concept for Madie to grasp, I dare say), and questions about Elise's likes and dislikes. All of these I responded with, "Try to work it out honey," or "I don't know. Why don't you ask Elise what she likes?" So I quickly threw together a lunch and took them out to the courtyard where I walked Finn around in the stroller. I must say we have very picturesque grounds at our complex: all shade trees and deep grass. To watch those two little curly-headed lassies run around in their cheerful dresses was like watching a scene from The Secret Garden--sans Dickon in the wheelchair. The sunlight picked it's way through the leafy branches and lit up the top of Madie's head like she was giving off an aura. They found such delight in "chasing" Finn and me and then I would turn suddenly and reach out to grasp them and they would scamper away screaming. (I'm sure the neighbors loved it.)

It was improved upon by our neighbor and her kids returning from a walk soon after we got out there. Madie and Elise are right in between the ages JulieAnna and Scarlet are, so generally they kind of did their own things each, but I really enjoyed visiting with Michelle. And I'm sure she enjoyed visiting with me, since I'm such an interesting person. Finnegan, of course, was doing his second-favorite activity: sleeping.

It's been so much better than yesterday thanks to Lindi (and especially Elise) and Jessica, who took Madie for a couple hours--okay, it's going on three as I type--to hang out at their place. It's been so nice to actually get some housework done and relax without Madie throwing fits or constantly pestering me for one thing or another. Days like yesterday are 99% caused by boredom, so to have something to look forward to, like a friend coming, helps so much. And then to have something to look back on, like giggling in the trees, tops it off with a little added sweetness.

Camping with Giants

First camping trip of the year, and the weather couldn't have been better for it! We had a bit of a heat spell this weekend, and decided to head to the redwoods for some cool air. It took FOREVER to get there with traffic, and the fact that Little Basin is just not convenient to drive too. Mal even said commented on how secluded this place was, and that's coming from a Mainer! Luckily we made it while there was still light out. We did have an interesting thing happen when we put Madie to bed. One of our neighbors was really friendly and gave us a couple of glow sticks for the girls. We put Madie to bed with it, thinking it would be something fun for her. About 20 minutes later, I hear Madie start to say "Dadda, my tongue hurts." I went in to check on her and, just as I had suspected, she had bit the tip of the glow stick. The stick was leaking out and he said her tongue hurt. I couldn't remember what was in the glow stick, so at 10:30 pm I ran to the rangers office to call poison control (no cell phone service), and get the assurance that it's not a big deal and just dilute with water. PHEW! That was a worry! It was odd, because Madie has never been a kid to taste or bite things, she just isn't into that. I guess the glow stick just looked that good.

Mal cooking some fajitas.

We were glad Blair, Shelley, and Kara came with.

Madie and Kara had fun running around.

Kara must have had a dirty hand at some point...

Madie had a really hard time keeping her eyes open for the camera's flash.

We found some newts near a little brook.

We went for a little hike in Big Basin.

And headed to Natural Bridges for some beach time. It was such a nice day in Santa Cruz!

I almost couldn't keep track of Madie. She was having so much fun running around the water, playing with her bucket. She was galloping around everywhere. I wish she had liked the beach more when we were in Saipan where the water was actually warm!

Sleepy

Right now I've got a little boy totally passed out on my lap--this is after I got him up from his nap, mind you--and a little girl wrapped in a blanket asleep next to me on the couch. All three of us have been fighting colds; I think Kaleb might have brought them to us as a present from his preschool-going sister. I don't know for sure though. One thing I do know is that the four nights in a row of little sleep for Madie definitely weakened her immune system to the point where she probably could have caught anything.

This is the second nap of the day for each of them, which never happens. Kaleb was in a horrible mood all morning and when I tried to put him on the couch to watch a movie with Madie (which he doesn't have the attention-span for, but he wants to do whatever she does--initially anyway) so I could lay down for a few minutes, he threw a huge fit. I said, "Fine! Be on the floor if you want!" and moved him down there. He cried on the floor for a few minutes then calmed down but didn't move. He just watched me getting Madie situated and the movie going, etc. After ten minutes he was totally out. He slept for maybe half an hour. I did get to doze lightly for about thirty minutes myself near the end of the movie while Kaleb toddled around. When I woke up the movie was just about over and Madie had passed out too. I figured she might, she was so sleepy-looking right from the moment she first got up this morning. She slept about an hour while Kaleb and I ate lunch.

This cold doesn't seem particularly bad, just very energy-draining. I just hope it passes quickly. One thing I've found that seems to help with the congestion is a little lemon oil on the bridge of our noses. They still run, but I used some last night and was able to breathe through my nose all night long; what a blessing! That's got to be my least-favorite part of a cold, the congestion.

Family, Friends, and Dresses

Mallory's sister (Kaitlyn) flew in to SFO last Wednesday and has been adjusting to our time zone in preparation for EFY this week. She is really excited and has enjoyed visiting California so far (we hope). She has been great at being a last minute babysitter for Madie when we have to make a quick trip to the store or want to get away for a date. It was really weird running to the store after 8:00 pm without having Madie with us...can't remember the last time that's really happened.

Want to know why this girl is so happy?

Look at her nails! She was so excited that Kait painted her nails. Since she had them done, she has been very careful about taking care of them and asking for touch-ups as needed.

A new hobby Madie has taken up is throwing rocks into the creek. Does she need an excuse to wear this dress? Absolutely not. She sports it on bike rides, shopping trips, to the mall, the park...pretty much anywhere you could think of. Thankfully it cleans up really easily.

On Saturday we met up with Adam and Tari McDonald in Sacramento. We haven't seen them since we graduated from BYU-I in December 2009! It's a shame we haven't hung out more often since we have only lived two hours away from them for the past year. They are heading down to Arizona for Optometry school in a couple of weeks, so luckily we can still get together with them when we visit my parents. So we met at this community water park and had a picnic lunch.

Madie really liked the water, as you could imagine. She was apprehensive at first, but then warmed up really fast. We had a near 'scare' when Mal thought she spotted Madies shoulder starting to burn, so we took her out. She lost it. She is quite the stubborn two year old. She was inconsolable for a good 15 minutes. We tried putting a shirt on, which she refused to wear in the water (thanks anyways Adam and Tari...sorry for the wet shirt). I took her under the canopy for a few minutes to try and calm her down, she wouldn't have any of it. After checking her shoulder again, it looked to be alright. In the end, we just lathered on some extra sunscreen and put on some aloe vera afterward. No sunburn! But she was instantly better once we put her back in the water. She loved playing with the fountains in the shallow water.

On our way home, Mallory commented how she was a little worried about getting together with Adam and Tari because she wasn't sure things would be the same as they used to as far as how we would joke with each other, etc. Needless to say, we picked up right where we left off in 2009. It was a great visit and we were glad we could get together before they took off.

While Kait was babysitting Madie on Saturday night, she introduced the lava lava's to her. Madie wore them proudly, dancing to the ABC's.

She is pretty particular about how she wears the lava lavas. Tassels have to be on the bottom so she can watch them when she dances (runs in-place and jumps around).

The Prusso's and What We Did There

So, as was said a couple of posts ago, we watched a family's four kids for a week while their parents were away at Girls' Camp. They were a handful sometimes but a lot of fun! And Madie loved hanging out with so many "brothers and sisters." (Well, most of the time. View "Names Adjusted.") Anyway, here are some pictures so in later years we can reminisce about our time with the Prusso kids--or try and remember who they are. I guess it depends on how far in the future you want to go.

Madie's chillin' poolside at the tennis club. (Yes. We were temporarily members of a tennis club. Oo-la-la!) I took Madie into the pool with me when we got there for Alice's swim lesson, but she started shivering and her lips turned blue, so we got out and changed and watched the other kids swim for 15 minutes. Not the most fun we've had at a pool, but Madie enjoyed it while it lasted. Then gave me hell the rest of the time. (Okay, not that bad. But the initial explanation of why we couldn't stay didn't go over well.)

The Prussos own some beautiful hens, like this one right here. They proved endless entertainment for Madie. She now knows how to make a proper chicken noise rather than just her generic "tweet tweet" for anything with a beak.

The younger girls and I had some fun at a park. Can you believe Jane and Alice hadn't ever climbed a tree?! Neither had the other little girl I nanny, Cali. I mean, c'mon! That's all I did in the summer. Well, that and pelt Sam and Jake with water balloons from above.

On our last night, the girls had a fort inside...

...while Canyon and Mike had a fort outside. Canyon built what could be compared to a sheikh's tent. I guess he's all into adventuring--in style.

I slept on the couch. Considering Lily ended up going to sleep in her own bed rather than the couch cushions on the floor and Mike and Canyon ended up moving inside once the sprinklers came on that Mike thought he had turned off, I think I made the most comfortable decision.

There's the dangerous duo. Even at breakfast they BOTH insisted on sitting next to Madie, which I'm sure made her feel very...secure.

On our last day we took the kids to the zoo after cleaning the house up. Here I am explaining to the kids how in Saipan they enjoy fuzzy flying rodents stewed in their own blood. The kids were enthralled.

And to top it all off we hit up Fenton's afterward. Here's Madie being generous with her Mandarin oranges. (Really, this is generosity. She loves those things.)

Oh Won't You Save Me, San Francisco!

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I didn't realize how many pictures were sitting on my camera until today when I went to upload them all to my computer. So I guess to start with, I will post about our latest visitor.

You need to be more careful of the poses you make, Maiko. I post the best ones I have.

A very good friend of ours from school just took a job as a flight attendant, and she's stationed in a city in NorCal! So when she had an over-nighter in San Fran, she gave us a call. We took her to our farmer's market, stayed up talking late, then the next morning was Mike's day off, so we showed her around the city!

Mike and Madie posing in front of one of the new hearts on the four corners of Union Square. I think they were to raise money to rebuild a children's hospital, but I can't quite remember.

Then we headed over to Japan Town. This was my first time in Japan Town and honestly, I wouldn't mind living there. If I were going to live in the city, anyway. It's clean, the houses are pretty nice, and it's quiet.

That is the cutest samurai I've ever seen. And the geisha! WOW! **Wolf whistles**

 Finally we headed over to the bridge. I mean, after all, it was a beautiful day in San Francisco and this is one landmark that is always worth the trip!

Look, Levi! They stack rocks here too! Of course, I've never seen a rock-stacking artist quite like you.

Speaking of places to live in San Francisco, just for the record, I wouldn't mind at all if we lived in one of the houses up the street from the bridge. Just throwing that out there.

 Madie loves the ocean. She stared at the waves from the wall for a while, then when we went to meet up with Dad and Maiko (they went on ahead while Madie finished a nap the car) we ran into some wildlife. Madie was particularly interested in this guy--he, however, was interested in the person with the lunch sitting just outside the picture.

This was a beautiful seagull. That's right, I said it. He had perfect coloring and was actually pretty clean looking. Do you KNOW how rare that is?! 

Tromping along the wall just up from the beach.

"Bring in the bottled lightning, a clean tumbler, and a corkscrew!"

For those of you who don't know her, this is Bethany.

Image A

Bethany and I landed some sweet tickets to go to the Charles Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco last weekend. It was held in the Cow Palace--don't ask--and as soon as you walked in it was honestly like another world. All the workers spoke in British accents--even a bum sitting on a keg outside a store gave me a look and said, "'Ello, luv." It was awesome.

One of the first stops we made was at a bonnet-makers. (See "image a" above.) There's something you should know about Bethany: I didn't think I'd ever get her into a bonnet. That's just not the type of girl she is. She's more this type of girl:

ARRR! Ye lass in back o' me'll be walkin' ye plank afore long!

I, however, was DEFINITELY going to try on a bonnet! Check this Christmas beaut out!

There were tons of shops. Tons. Wand-makers, a couple of haberdashers, a harp shop, lots and lots of roasted nut stands, a couple of candle shops and candy shops, dress-makers and corset shops, Fezziwig's was right as you walk in, where you could learn to dance, they had three other stages and a whole separate theatre, there was even a scientific demonstration for all those interested by Phileas Fogg and his associates. I wasn't as good about taking pictures as I should have been, but I did get a couple more. For instance, the mask-maker shop. This place was AWESOME! Man, if I had a couple hundred bucks to blow on something I would use bi-annually at the most, these masks would be it! Check out my crow! It was my favorite one.

And Bethany's bear was pretty cool too. They had smaller ones--just to cover the eyes--and even bigger ones! They had a wolf mask that was just enormous!

All in all, it was a very fun time, even if we didn't find a third person to go with us (we had three tickets) and despite not being able to blow a ton of money on frivolous but really cool things I would have loved to have and used occasionally despite their being out of fashion. I did spend $14 in an antique bookstore, but you can't blame me for that. I saw a little book called "Песни о Мире" ("Songs of the World") all in Russian for $4 and a hardcover, 1910 printing of Shakespeare's complete works for $10! A piece of my heart stayed at the bookstore though when I couldn't purchase a small collection of children's stories with illuminated illustrations throughout because it was $95. :( Someday...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

CAMPING!

We went on our first camping trip of 2009, which is also our first camping trip together. It was a perfect time to break in the gear Mike's siblings bought us as our wedding gift last August. (Just so everyone knows, we loved it all!)

Here's the one picture of Mike (he kept taking the pictures). He's unrolling the tent after we had laid down our tarp. After camping in Idaho two summers ago, much later in the season, and FREEZING to death, I was not going to fool around anymore. A tarp was a necessity. And our new air mattress worked out nicely too.

There's this gray thing that goes to our tent, and I have looked all over that sucker to see what it is supposed to be used for, and found nothing obvious. I can't find the directions, but in a couple weeks, when we go with our ward, I am definitely figuring it out.

We were tucked between two ridges. This is the one across the little dirt road that Mike and John climbed around on while Jennifer and I held down the fort. There was also a little brook that ran right next to us, which was nice to fall asleep to, even if Sam did have to stay strapped in his high chair the whole time to keep him from running/falling down the very steep slope into it.

Jennifer, Sam, and I right after we really got the fire started.

A nice nature pic from Mike's hike that first day.

Re-awakening the fire after we had cooked on the coals of the first one. We kept part of it flaming the whole time, so it really didn't take too long for it to start up again.

A nature shot from Mike's hike the next morning. I like the red wood against the green and white.

Another nature shot. It just looks so picturesque. It was nice to be up in the green of the hills. It's been really rainy for the past few weeks, - which WE are loving! Every day I go to my religion class, Bro. Kinghorn starts out by talking about what people think of the weather. They all complain and say they are ready for "summer to start." I look at him and say, "This is actually how summer is supposed to be." (By the way, "really rainy" is actually only a couple 20 minute showers a week, but it's a lot more than we usually get!)

Chris heats up by the fire on Saturday morning.

Tanni's over the bacon and eggs, and I'm doing pancakes. (I realize my face looks mischievous here. I'm not plotting anything.)

Hanging around the campfire after breakfast. It was fun to get together with some friends, and to test out our new gear! We stayed surprisingly warm and dry all night long, even though it did drizzle at about 6:30 the next morning.