Finally...Christmas Pictures!

Well, it is the last day of the year and for my last post before I publish my book I figured I needed to have some Christmas pictures, along with a few others that Josh uploaded from his phone. So, without delay, here are the photos in no special order!

Sad News

I know we just announced that I am pregnant but today we got some sad news at the doctor's office and they couldn't find a heartbeat. So tonight I'm going into the hospital to have everything taken care of. Thank you all for being so supportive of us, we have already had so much love and help shown. We are grateful for our knowledge of the gospel and for the peace that comes during hard earthly experiences such as this. We have already felt the Lord's comfort and blessings although we are still sad.

Computer Woes

Actually "woe" is probably too strong of a word for this, but I am sad by the fact that my computer is still not fixed. They did call and it is all fixable and they are starting today but I'm losing out on the great pay rates during this week for my job. I've been trying to stash away the cash for our move and this is slowing me down. So I must be patient and wait for the computer gurus to fix up my desktop and give us another call.

I went to the gym and the grocery store by myself today. I left the kids with Josh and he made sure that Melynn had a good nap. She went to bed late last night and Emmett woke her up early. Lovely. We hope to take down Christmas decorations and go to the library for new books and fold laundry today.

Last night Josh and I went to the temple and on the way back to the babysitter's house we witnessed a car accident. It was crazy. The driver was probably drunk because he pulled out right in front of three cars. He got t-boned and his air bags deployed and everything. Josh went to make sure everyone involved was okay and I called 911. It was my first time and it was a little nerve-wracking. But the ambulance and police and fire department came and everyone got taken care of and Josh was my hero. He said no one was critically injured and that he didn't really have much to do but I still felt good knowing that he at least knew what to do if it had been more serious.

That's why the kids got to bed later than normal. Crazy.

Currently Unplugged

Sorry I haven't updated on Christmas or the time we've had with Josh around. I somehow got a computer virus on our desktop so it is getting fixed at a computer repair shop and I am left to wait for Josh to leave his laptop unnattended while I'm also not busy with other things. That doesn't happen very often so...no posts. And I can't get my pictures on here until the computer is all fixed up so no Christmas pics either.

I guess the biggest news from Christmas is that we told our families that we are expecting again. We were going to wait until March and have them find out on Match Day (St. Patrick's Day 2011) because that is when we find out where we are moving and we wanted all the excitement wrapped up in one day. But, Josh started to feel like we were being mean by not telling them...so we told them. Baby #3 is due June 25th and so far I haven't been sick at all compared to the other two kids. I have been really tired but that's it. In fact, I took a nap this morning when Melynn went down for a morning nap. I'm 14 1/2 weeks for those that like to count. I'm honestly trying to ignore it so it will go faster. I try not to count weeks because it makes them drag on and on. Enough on that front.

Christmas went well. The kids were happy and spoiled and Josh and I got some things we needed. Like Josh got me new socks and I REALLY needed them. I don't think I've had new socks since before we started medical school. They were looking pretty shabby. So that was nice. Josh also got me a Shel Silverstein book of poems, which I love. They are so quirky. I got him a ski pass to the local ski bump, Mt. Crescent. It cost me less for the pass than it will for him to rent his skis, poles and boots, which is a bummer, but he deserves something fun. I hope he'll pick a day and go...he's tempted to take Emmett but I would hate to miss out on watching Emmett ski for the first time. We are hoping to save up money for a ski vacation for next winter. Don't know if that will happen but it would be nice.

Emmett got a dinosaur (the one from toy story) from Santa. Melynn got a Mrs. Potato Head. And the two of them got a play kitchen and some personalized aprons. Santa's little elves were very busy building the kitchen on Christmas Eve in the study room and had a lot of fun trying to follow the directions. I don't think I've ever had so much fun putting together a toy. After it was done I just wanted to sit and play with it myself. It is almost a dream come true. I remember three years ago being at the Black Friday sale at Toys-R-Us with a couple of buds and this guy was checking out next to us with a play kitchen that cost $250 or something crazy like that. I remember thinking to myself, "By the time we have enough money to buy a big toy like that my kids will all be grown up and won't want a play kitchen." Well, this year I scoured the ads and found one at Wal-mart regular price $69.99 on sale for $40. It wasn't a doorbuster so I was pretty sure I could get one. Then I found the same kitchen for sale at another store for $30 so my plan was to pricematch at Wal-mart to get the $30 price without going to another store. Well, we couldn't find one! And went we finally did, they only had one (and my friend also was trying to get one) and the box was all smashed up. I did ask the manager to lower the price, which he did to $25. I couldn't believe it. We did end up going to the other store just so my friend could get one for $30, which she did. In the end, all of us were happy and I didn't have to wait until Emmett was a deacon to get his play kitchen.

I love Black Friday shopping. The memories make me happy knowing I got movies that could sell for $20 and I got them for $2. I actually did get a bunch of movies this year. I stretched our Christmas budget out and everyone seemed happy.

Speaking of shopping...I went shopping yesterday to see if I could find any good deals. We got some clothes for the kids for next winter that I packed in a box ready for the move and I found two fitted dress shirts for Josh that he told me to keep until his birthday and Father's Day. Van Heusen for $10 each. Can't beat that very often. We also went to Nebraska Furniture Mart to the clearance building to see if they had any twin beds. They were all still really expensive and so we are tossing around the idea of building a bed. I like the idea because 1) I have wanted to build something off of the Knock Off Wood website for ages and 2) I can get exactly what I want for, hopefully, a smaller price. We shall see. We picked the plan last night while watching The Next Best Baker on TLC and it's really cute (but not cutesy and girly). I think it is masculine enough for a boy's bed. It has me thinking about what I want to do in our new place (we really want to buy a house) and I think it would be so fun to actually decorate a bit. So I have ideas floating around in there that are starting to materialize but at the same time I don't want to set my hopes on buying a house because it really depends on where we match. If we match where the housing market is still really expensive then I will have to forget all my high hopes of decorating for another five years. That is such a depressing thought.

I finished two books in the last little bit...The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and Anne of Green Gables for our book group. Now my boys are telling me it is nap time so I must go.

Don't Break a Tooth

Alright, why is it every year I try to make candy and it never comes out quite right? Is it my recipe or is it just me? My mom gave me very specific instructions on how to make her amazing English Toffee and I followed them exactly and it still came out chewy. It was strange. I'm blaming that one on the humidity, although it is not very humid here right now. My second trial was a batch of caramel. I just picked a recipe out of a cookbook that I had tucked away and tried it out because I'm not really sure which one would be best. Well, the one I picked was not a good one. I again followed the directions exactly, used my candy thermometer and everything and it turned out so hard we had to chisel pieces off. I hope we don't get sued by our friends for giving them such bad candy. Luckily I made some chocolate crinkle cookies that will hopefully salvage any reputation I have in the kitchen. The sign I have hanging in my kitchen comes to mind on days like today. It says, "I kiss better than I cook." So true, so true.

Here's another good story from the last few days. We were preparing lunch and Josh was making a double batch of macaroni and cheese. I put him in charge so I could do something else for a minute and he drained the noodles but the colander tipped over in the sink and noodles fell out...about 1/4 of the pot I would guess. Well, I cleaned up the mess by pushing the noodles down the drain and running the disposal for a few minutes and thought nothing of it. Later that night though the kitchen sink was not draining and Josh and discovered that the noodles did not want to go down. I had made the mess worse by putting them down the drain. But, fix-it-up master Josh got out his tools and used his pipe wrench for the first time and took off the U-shaped part of the drain pipe to get the clog out and guess what! There were two baby spoons down there causing all the trouble. So it wasn't totally my fault. I'm blaming it on the spoons.

Josh Is Home

He's taking the kids to play in the 2 inches of snow on the ground because Emmett insists on going sledding. It shouldn't be a long venture since there really isn't anything for him to play with or sled on. We are hoping for snow before Christmas.

He kept them with him this morning while I went to the gym. It was nice.

He was supposed to fly in Saturday night at about 10:30 but was able to catch some earlier flights (for a fee, of course) to get him in at 6:30. It was wonderful to have him home. The kids stayed up late, we went out to dinner and that day's activity was to drive around a look at Christmas lights. We didn't see many...maybe we took a light-less route.

Sunday was a busy day. We had our Christmas sacrament meeting program, which I had to design and execute and it went well. I took all the narration from some old talks given by President Monson. I wanted to have some of his good stories. The songs were all beautiful and everyone did a great job. We also had our combined choir fireside that evening that I was playing for. It went well too. It also fulfilled the activity of the day: attend a Christmas concert. I feel much lighter now that those two big projects are finished up. Today's activity is to make treats for the neighbors. I don't know if it will get done since the day is half over and I have to teach piano lessons in a couple of hours. We'll have to see. Maybe it would get done if I got off my duff and went and did it. Ha ha.

One more thing. We checked out a book from the library that is really cute. It's called Toot and Puddle and is about two little pigs that are best friends. Toot is adventurous and wants to travel and Puddle just wants to stay at home for his adventures. It goes through the course of a year as Toot travels the world and sends Puddle postcards. Toot comes home in time for December and they celebrate. That is what our family is doing this week: celebrating because Dad came home. Hooray!

Do You Ever Have...

Do you ever have crazy dreams? Like totally realistic but thank goodness they are not real dreams? Well, I had one last night about Melynn that woke me up almost in a cold sweat. It scared me to death. Here's what happened (well, not really happened but you know what I mean):

I was at some scout event (why I can't tell you), out in the woods, walking along a type of boardwalk that was elevated, probably two stories in the air. Melynn was being her independent self and refused to hold my hand (there were bars on the sides to prevent falling) and we were managing to get across but at one point she noticed a wiggly board and got on her knees to fidget with it. By the way, her stopping to look at something or touch the garbage my neighbors dropped on the stairs or the cigarette butts they left on the sidewalk is totally normal. Disgusting, but normal for her. So for her to stop and look at a wooden board is not out of the norm and I stopped too to watch her. Well, she pulled at it and it wiggled and then a scout that was in front of us stopped and got on his stomach and pulled from the other side creating a large enough gap for her to poke her little head through and look down. And then she fell through. It was one of those slow-down-the-seconds moments as I watched, helpless, as she hit the ground. Then the dreamy superwoman part came out of me and I jumped off the boardwalk and landed by her (without breaking a leg) and prayed that she would breathe and not have permanent damage. Then I woke up.

Needless to say that when she woke up 15 minutes later from Emmett opening the door I gave her lots of hugs and was grateful again that it was not real.

Ever had a dream that woke you up like that? And totally off the topic,  has anyone ever successfully washed a Pillow Pet?

Day 16 Flop and Day 17 Success

Yesterday's activity was "Have breakfast for dinner" and Emmett wouldn't have it. He has been asking for hot dogs for days and we didn't have any so I told him he had to wait until we went grocery shopping. Well, we normally grocery shop on Thursday morning but the roads were still a little too snowy for me to venture out so I was postponing until today. Again, Emmett wouldn't have it. At about 4 PM yesterday he decided he was going to "take Emmett to the store by himself." He got his shoes and socks on. He got his coat on. At this action Melynn got mad and wanted her shoes on because she thought she was getting left behind. So I got her ready and slipped my shoes on as well. As he was getting ready to leave I asked him how he was going to get there. He said, "I'll take your car." I asked him how he was going to drive the car with no keys and he said, "Then I'll walk." I had one more up my sleeve and asked, "How are you going to pay for the food?" That got him. He realized he had no money. So I asked him if he would like it if I took him to the store, in my car, and used my money to buy him some hot dogs. He said yes and we went but didn't get home until almost 5:30. It was a long couple of hours till he was in bed but we made it. So, no breakfast for dinner.

But today we did our activity. It was to go to the library and pick out Christmas books. We got some good ones I think. And the best success of the day came after lunch and before Melynn's nap. Yesterday I tried having her go on the potty without much success and three pairs of wet training pants...plus she didn't ever poop, which is strange. So today after lunch she kept sneaking off into corners and I knew she was up to something stinky and I caught her before she had gone and plunked her on the toilet. She pooped! I gave her two Hershey kisses for pooping on the potty but she gave one back, the sweetheart. One for me and one for her. I think we are far from getting her fully potty-trained but I consider that a huge success.

Day 15: Big Event

We had fun today having a playdate as our advent calendar activity, but the main event came this evening when Melynn....drumroll please....peed on the potty! I was so excited because I wasn't convinced she was ready to potty train. Now that I have a positive sign, other than her stripping down to her bare bum-cheeks, I am more ready to go ahead and try. I have been putting her diapers on backwards for a few days now and she can get them off. I'm not sure I want to try the duct tape as people have suggested. So...I think once Josh gets here we will have a potty training crash course where we do nothing but focus on that. I think both kids out of diapers would be a pretty good Christmas present for a mom. Can it happen??

Some Pictures

Josh got offered another interview. Number 13. At Yale. I'm so excited for him!

I have some new pictures of the kiddos. My mom sent them both a nice, new flannel blanket. Here they are modeling them. They have also enjoyed playing with the box that the presents came in. Also check out Melynn's awesome bedhead pictures. And the last one? That was taken at my friend's house when they watched the kids and Melynn fell asleep eating. Classic.

Up to Day 13 Already?

It seems like December is going really fast. We are trying to hold together during Josh's long trip away. I did have a small moment of tears yesterday while I was fighting with the kids so I wouldn't be late for choir practice. I'm pretty sure Emmett asked why I was crying and I said something like, "Because I just can't do it all anymore!" But after my little moment I was much better and am doing fine.

For day 10 and 11 I have already forgotten what we did. One day was dance like crazy to music. I think another was to watch a Christmas movie with popcorn. We checked out Frosty the Snowman from the library. I think Emmett has watched it four times since Friday. Then yesterday, day 12, we made a Christmas craft, which was leftover from the Branch Christmas party. It's a little Christmas tree ornament and Emmett did a better job than I did. I gave mine to Melynn for her to destroy and Emmett's is hanging on the tree. Today I cheated. We were supposed to "make sugar cookies" but we had the Married 2 Medicine playgroup and the activity was to decorate sugar cookies so I said that was going to count. Emmett didn't seem to care. Whew! I avoided a really big and dirty project. Lucky me.

I have some pictures I need to download and get on this blog that Josh took and sent me. They are from his trip to New York/New Jersey. He went to Carlos' Bakery and bought a cupcake just because I love the show Cake Boss. He had to wait in line outside for 45 minutes just to buy a cupcake. Now that is love. Thanks Josh!

Days 7, 8, and 9

Our advent calendar is being really fun, just like it was last year. And it is less stressful this year than I remember it being last year. Maybe that is just from my attitude more than anything. Anyway, on Day 7 Josh was in town so our activity was to go to the Children's Museum and we had the kids ride the carousel. It is the first time we've taken them on it because it costs extra and I'm too cheap to do things like that, but it was a special Christmas activity with their dad. It was fun!

Day 8 was have hot chocolate with marshmallows. Emmett still calls them Smarshmallows. We had a couple friends over for hot cocoa and soup for dinner. Then we went up to the church for my last activity with the activity day girls. I got released last week from that calling. I was a little sad but it is hard to always find a babysitter so I can do the activities. The new leader is awesome and the girls will learn a lot from her.

Day 9 is today and the activity of the day is to learn a new Christmas song. Emmett requested Jingle Bell Rock. because he's heard it on the radio. I already taught him Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells so I was thinking we should do either a Christmas hymn or a Primary song. Last year he learned Picture a Christmas and this year they learned The Nativity Song. I'm thinking that a refresher of Picture a Christmas will be better than trying to teach a new one from start to finish in a day. That's a big task. Maybe I can get him to do some video of his singing too.

Day 5 and 6

Josh was gone this weekend and kids and I were not very nice to each other. I think Melynn threw a tantrum each time I had to put her coat on or take it off. I don't know why this causes so much grief. Emmett only throws tantrums when I want to go to the gym. I still make him go.

But Josh is home and we are all happier now. Yesterday for our advent calendar we watched the Christmas Devotional at our friend's house. I didn't hear much because I am easily distracted and Emmett heard none of it because he was playing so on the way home he asked if we could watch the Prophet. I will have to put aside time for us to watch the archived broadcast while Melynn is sleeping so he can "see the Prophet."

Today was a fun one. We made Christmas cards for the great-grandparents. For some reason we chose to do this last year, even though they get a fancy store-bought card with a picture. The cards we made tonight were covered with stickers and little handwritten messages. Can't get better than that, I guess. Hopefully I can get to the post office tomorrow so we can get some stamps to mail them off, along with those nice printed cards that are stuffed and sealed and ready for postage.

On another note, Josh really had a good time at his second interview. He was down in California and the weather was beautiful. It is really cold here right now, though no snow, and I was fairly jealous of his little "vacation" in sunny SoCal. But he's back now and freezing his tush off with the rest of us. He leaves Wednesday for some more interviews. Cross your fingers for him, or say a little prayer.

Day 4: Go See Santa Claus

We tried a new Santa location this year: Bass Pro Shop. It was great. It took longer for us to find the Christmas area than it did to wait in line to see Santa. They did free pictures and had lots of toys on display to play with. Emmett drove a race car around a track and used a remote control to drive a monster truck. Then he asked for one. It was $49.95. I told him no. They had coloring pages and gave each kid a free kids meal with the purchase of an adult entree, good through Jan. 31st. Maybe Josh and I will have to go take the kids to eat sometime. It was sad to take the kids to see Santa without Josh but I just knew it needed to be done early or it wouldn't get done at all. Josh left this morning to interview at Loma Linda. The more we look into So. Cal. the more I want to move there. The temperature today was going to be in the mid-60s! It looks like there is affordable housing there, due to the sharp decline in housing prices over the last two years, and the best part in Josh's mind? 4 ski resorts about an hour drive away! Talk about perfect location. Let's see if the program can live up to all the other good things.

We Have a Pet Frog

I was telling the ladies in the branch tonight about our new pet. It's a little orange rubber frog named Lester. Emmett named him. I'm not sure where he came up with Lester but it stuck and I like it. It is a great name for a fake pet frog, don't you think? Emmett loves his frog Lester and carries it around periodically, puts him on the table during meals so he can share food with him, and sometimes puts him on the Christmas tree so he can go for a ride. I find him all over the house because Melynn also like him. Her favorite thing is to pull his stretchy frog arms out as far and she can while making this strange grimace on her face. It is as if she is trying to hurt the poor frog. Good thing he isn't real.

On to other things though. We started our Christmas tradition (that I started last year, ha ha) of doing a Christmas activity each day using my advent calendar box. I chose different things to do, typed them up, cut them into strips and stuffed them into days as I felt would work. December 1 was "Write a letter to Santa Claus." Got that done. It was super cute too. Emmett told Santa that he had been a "happy boy this year." Nothing about being a good boy in his letters. He's pulling the "happy" card. I hope that is enough to convince the man in red to bring him a present. He asked for a dinosaur, the one from toy story. He also informed me that next year he is going to ask for a "big robot." I hope Disney comes out with a movie to help me fulfill that wish...   December 2 was to attend the harp concert at the Mormon Trail Center. I didn't go with Emmett and Josh because Melynn didn't get a good nap that day and desperately needed to go to bed early. I enjoyed the hour of peace and quiet. It was like an early Christmas present just for me.  Today, the 3rd, was to make paper snowflakes. I failed at getting it done today so tomorrow we will have to do two things. But I did get to the library book sale and bought just under $10 of books. Guess how many I got? 10 hardback kids books, including Nate the Great, and five books for me (two about homeschool and three classics, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre). I was pretty excited. So far so good.

Melynn's New Skill

Before I say what Melynn has learned to do I just want to put down that when I took Emmett for his two year old well-child visit the pediatrician told me that I needed to teach Emmett how to undress by himself because it was essential for him to know how to do that before he would ever be able to potty-train. So we taught him and he potty-trained and all was well.

So back to Melynn. She has been able to remove her pants independently for quite a while but on Monday during FHE we couldn't keep pants on her at the gingerbread display because she just wanted to strip down. I guess that I didn't see that as a warning. Until today...

She woke up this morning before Emmett, which is unusual. I woke up to her shaking her crib bars. When I went in I was shocked to see her butt naked standing there with a huge grin on her face. She was so proud of herself for unzipping her pajamas and getting her diaper off too! Again, I should have seen this behavior as a warning of what was to come but I didn't.

At naptime I put her down and she was fairly quiet, just singing and talking to herself for a while and I was busy doing preschool with Emmett and Ethan so when she started crying I just ignored it, hoping she would fall asleep. After a few minutes though I had a break in what we were doing and went to check on her and found her stripped down again with poop smeared on the white crib sheet and her full poopy diaper sitting there beside her. This time she was not grinning. Luckily I was occupied with preschool and Josh was home so he had to clean up the mess. I have heard of people duck-taping on diapers until their kids are old enough to potty-train. I hope that isn't what we have to do. Is she showing me that she wants to go on the potty? I have put her on it and she doesn't do much but I know that the reason she pulls off her diaper is because she is wet or poopy. She's only 20 months. Can you potty-train a 20 month old that can barely talk? What do I do with her?

Thanksgiving + Emmett's Talk

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun having our meal at the Stewart's with the missionaries. It was a feast. We probably had enough food to feed ten more people. I think there was a pie per person. But on Thanksgiving can you ever have TOO MUCH PIE? No, I don't think so.

We made a lemon supreme and a banana cream. And we took pictures...

We also got a couple pictures with Isaac while he was visiting us. He came out for the weekend before Thanksgiving so we could all say goodbye to him. Emmett is excited to write him letters when he is on his mission in Edmonton, Canada. Brrr!

The last thing on here is a couple of videos of Emmett's second talk for primary. His topic was "When we serve others we serve God". He did a great job today at church, even better than during these videos.

Enjoy the pictures and video!