December Wrap-Up

The first weekend of December was Heart 'N Home's company party. 

We dragged our feet a bit but finally got our tree up.  Here's the three stooges looking for the light causing a string of lights to go out.

The following Friday was our ward's Christmas party.  None of our kids cried from sitting on Santa's lap this year, but Lainey still wasn't sure about him.

Saturday, the 12th was Brielle's Tavaci concert.  Tavaci is her choir group that she attends practice for weekly.  They put on a really cute Christmas concert.  Afterwards the kids got to see Santa.

They couldn't chat with Santa long because immediately after, we met up with our good friends, the Williams, to let the guys take the little boys (and Lainey) to the house to be babysat and the moms take the daughters to the Nutcracker Ballet in Boise.  Brielle and I went last year and loved it enough to make it an annual tradition.  We were excited that the Williams, who moved to the Seattle area in July, were back to visit Fruitland for the weekend so Allison and her daughters could join Brielle and I at the ballet.  It was beautiful and we all loved it!  It's my favorite mother-daughter tradition!

For Family Home Evening we made a ginger bread house.  More like we ATE the ginger bread house!

 

I love Todd's masterpiece, the Snowman.

Here's Lainey at the gift exchange at Grandma Lee's on Christmas Eve.

 

 Of course, most of Christmas day she was all about the wrapping paper...

...but outside the paper, these beads were a hit with her. 

 Ashton got the rocket that he raved over time and time again when looking at the toy magazines that came in the mail.  Oh how he wanted that rocket!

 Brielle got a MyTwinn doll.  I was worried it wouldn't get played with as much as she talked like it would when she asked for it.  But she's loving it.  The doll wears pj's at bedtime, dresses on Sunday (but can't come to church), and is generally next to or near Brielle at all times!  So I'm glad it wasn't a wasted gift. 

We had a wonderful holiday season.  I guess we still have New Years Eve tomorrow.  It's wonderful to have Brielle home from school for her Christmas Break.  Ashton's loving it.  At first, she got a little bored, but since Christmas and the arrival of new toys and games, they've both been super content and made one happy mommy!

Thanksgiving in Alaska

I have a lot of pictures backing up on my camera from the holidays so here's the Thanksgiving/Reception photos. 

Thanksgiving Dinner in Wasilla with my family.

 

 

After dinner the adults took naps and the kids went sledding on the hill in the front yard.

 

 

That evening we went to friends of the family, the Buese Family's home for pie and ice cream.   He owns a creamery and has fabulous ice cream.  It was a VERY yummy evening.

The next night, Scott performed a "house concert" at my parents home.  About 25 people came.  It was the first time I'd ever heard him perform other than jamming around thinking no one else is listening.  And of course I've heard his recordings which I really like.  But he did awesome.

 

He uses some new equipment now called "Looping".  His equipment plays sound affects as well as allows him to record himself either harmonizing, playing acoustics by tapping and thumping his guitar, etc. and then play it back over and over for Scott to play the rest of his song to.  It was a real live one man band.  Pretty impressive.  He's so talented.  Now he's playing his second contract at Carnival Cruise.  My parents just did a week on his cruise ship to celebrate their 30th anniversay and heard him play every night.  They constantly overheard people saying he was the best cruise performer they'd ever heard.

Saturday we spent the afternoon sledding and then swimming at the local pool.

 

 

 

That evening was Devan and Maura's Alaska open house. My mom hired some friends of hers to do the reception and they did an absolutely beautiful job. 

 

 

 One of the highlights of the evening was seeing a very old friend of mine, Melissa Browning (used to be Goins)  We've known each other since elementary school and were close friends in the good old days.  We were in the car accident that messed my pelvis and hips up.  She has a lot of effects from that still as well.  We had a great time catching up and meeting each others' families.

A couple cute shots of Marty and April at the open house.

 

Lainey's New Soothing Habit

Lots of little ones like to suck their thumb and twirl their hair or tug their ear.  Lainey has sucked her two fingers since she was born.  She definitely prefers them to her thumb... even though her new teeth put little indentions into her chubby knuckles.

The other day Brielle came home from playing outside with the neighbor kids.  She asked me, "Mom, is holding up one finger bad?"  I knew where this was going.  I explained "the bird" and that is is crude and means something very bad.  I asked if her friends did that and she said, no, but they were saying it's bad to do too.  A year or so ago, Brielle proudly proclaimed Todd the "B" word at the dinner table thinking it was a compliment.  After I flipped out and way overreacted, I decided to come up with a plan for the future. I told her that from then on, she should come to me if she heard a new word she didn't know the meaning of so she could ask me if it was bad and if she was allowed to say it.  I was glad she took me up on it this time.

I decided to turn it into a positive conversation and teach her that, while there are things we can say with our hands that are bad words, there are things we can use our hands for to say really nice things.  And she can teach them to her friends.  I taught her how to say "I love you," and she got super excited and exclaimed, "Mom!  Lainey knows how to say I love you in sign language too!  She says that all the time!"  It was more than a silly connection, she really thought her baby sister was a genius for a moment there!

Now Lainey's hand work is evolving.  Her new thing is to "say I love you" with the one hand while using her other hand to twirl her fingers in circles over her bald head as though she were twirling her hair.  It CRACKS us up!  How does she know to do that!?  There's nothing there but a few peach fuzzies.  Nothing to grab anyway.  She just twirls the air as if she knew what should be there...

Lainey's getting funner every day.  She's been crawling for a few weeks, but this is the first week where she'll go from room to room and really explore the house or follow us around.  You see the liberation on babies' faces when they become mobile and can see what goes on beyond the walls of where we set them down at.  Of course, this also means I'm having to vacuum a LOT more!  Woo hoo!  I'll add our home video of her crawling to this post soon.

 

Christmas Lights and crafts.

Todd put our Christmas lights up this past weekend!  This year we went with the Boise State theme (like Halloween).  We did blue and orange.  I know, not really Christmas colors, but it looks cool!  I really like it!

Brielle was super helpful with the lights.  She screwed bulbs in the correct pattern and put clips on them and everything.  Then she stayed out in the cold and watched Daddy put them all up. (Ashton was napping.)

I bought these fun little motorcycles at JoAnne's the other day.  They come with the right kind of paint to use on plastic.  The kids LOVED painting them and play with them constantly.