Toothfairies and Snowglobes!

We have had such a wonderful Christmas season...filled with lots of family, lots of laughter and lots of joy. Enough spoilage happened throughout the season for us to feel very loved, but not overwhelmed. And the kids of course LOVE having Christmas so many days in a row. (We open here before leaving for Southern Alberta, opened on Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas day with Cliff's family, and had Alisha and Paxton's baby shower on the 27th!) Rhett kept asking if we were opening more presents. He really enjoyed playing the elf this year and helped daddy and Papa - aka Grandpa Dooley - pass out all the gifts.

Baby Paxton is oh so sweet. The boys just loved on him...and Brock was gentle...sort of. Very curious about the new cousin.

Rhett was determined to sleep with Grandma and Papa every night and would sleep plastered right on one of them the whole night. Of course they loved it.

Brock thought he was terribly funny one night when he was cuddling with me and playing with his suckie. He took it out of his mouth, looked at it, looked at me and shoved it straight into my mouth mid-word. He started laughing and kept trying to do it over the next couple of days. Maybe he thinks I talk to much?

Zane looked outside one day while it was snowing and said "Grandpa! It looks like we're in a snow globe! It looks like someone picked us up and shook us!" LOVE it!
He also got brave and let me pull his wiggly tooth. He was all set to cry and carry on and it was out! The shocked look on his face was priceless. And of course he was very excited that the tooth fairy found him at Grandma's house.

Cliff had to leave us on Christmas day to come home and work - boo - and he was very dearly missed by his boys. For Rhett it was a tie between Daddy and Lego Star Wars. But we had a wonderful time with lots of great memories. We are happy to be home and thrilled to have 1:00 church today instead of 9:00 - makes getting the unpacking and settling back in a little easier.

And unfortunately no pictures to display yet. My wonderful hubby surprised me with a great new camera for Christmas and we left before I could install the software to the computer. So, when I get it up and running I'll post some pics. Zane is anxious for me to finish his quilt that I started working on down south so pictures might wait until that is done.

I have a few New Year Resolutions this year :
Be healthier
Be better at prayer and scripture study
and
Learn to parent more from prayer and scriptures

Hope everyone is happy and well and having a great start to the New Year!

Masterpiece

Zane's gingerbread house that we did at school today. He was thrilled for me to be there. Didn't want much to do with building, but definitely into the decorating/sampling the candy. And we were the first ones done. Some moms were doing all the decorating....not sure if their kids even touched it, and some went WAY overboard on decorations, techniques, etc. It's grade one. Seriously, not a competition. Just fun for the kids.

And he took the pictures himself. We had to email pictures to everyone so he could brag. Fun times.

It's so fun to see him in his classroom and interacting with his teacher and friends. How is he already this old?

AND we have a great surprise! Mom and Dad are going to be here late Saturday night and get to stay for church before heading home. They're going to be at a family thing not far from us so are making a quick stop. Not only do we get to see them early, they get to hear me sing on Sunday and have offered to take stuff like presents down for us so it's less to pack around the kidlets. Yeah!!!!

Baby steps

That's what is starting to happen around our house these days. Brock is standing and balancing really well and is even taking a few shaky steps. Yesterday he walked about 4 steps from me to Cliff.

Sniff....

Tear....

But celebrating as well! They change so fast!

Spoken for....

I've been meaning to blog this for a long time but keep forgetting...
A couple of weeks ago while I was out with the girls, my friend Kathleen told me that her daughter Emily (who is a year younger than Zane) has decided that she is going to marry Zane. I guess this is something that she's been thinking about for quite awhile - she wanted to get the decision out of the way so she could move onto other things. And Zane is her choice. Kathleen told her that she liked her choice but wondered what made up her mind. Emily told her that she was sitting in church and looked over at Zane, and decided. Oh, and he sings good too mom.
Now won't it be funny if they actually do get married?

10 months!

After the tree!
One of his classic faces...and check out the teething cheeks!

found a wheel to spin

ready for church

playing some Christmas tunes...

How is he already 10 months old?

I started this post last week....and finally have it finished!

At 10 months he is 23 lbs of BUSY!!!!

-almost walking by himself

- crawling and army crawling

- reaching for everything!

- LOVES to blow raspberries....especially while eating yogurt, mashed potatoes etc, or during sacrament meeting!

- LOVES the Christmas tree and will not leave it alone. I've now moved all the decorations from the bottom of my tree and am seriously considering moving the lights and garland. Arg.

- pushes his little walker truck thing all over the place. Carpet is best but he's pretty good on the wood too.

- loves to make a mess of the DVDs.

- thinks being on Rhett's bed (bottom bunk) is the BEST ever

- has 7 teeth

- still seems to have a laugh quota

- thinks it's very unfair that I won't let him play the piano during piano lessons

- loves to spin wheels

- starting to make strange sometimes

- is very determined but can be distracted

- is determined to see inside Vato's kennel but his mother is more determined that he stays out!

- sticks his tongue out a lot

- still cuddles with mom to go to sleep...and I love it most nights

- still wakes up once or twice a night

- has had all his classic teething signs for the past 2-3 weeks but hasn't popped the last one through yet

- wears mostly 12-18 month clothes

- got his first bloody nose on Sunday and has split his lip 3 times in the last month

- is starting to stand by himself

- is so fun

Thank goodness for Kindness!

So we had a great day yesterday (even with the FRIGID temps) and headed into Red Deer for a little shopping and FHE. We were shopping for a new winter coat for Zane. The one he had he couldn't zip on his own and has a big hole in the liner. I probably could fix the whole and get my mom to help me with the zipper...but right now my time is better spent on other things and if the coat already has those problems I'm not convinced that it won't continue to develop others. Anyways, I digress. We managed to find Zane a coat that he LOVES, and it was 40% off so that made me love it. We grabbed some supper, met up with Cliff, and headed to the north end of town to the Pines Lodge for a FHE with a bunch of families from our ward. We put on a Christmas program for the old people. Lots of carols, a few solo numbers, and of course the nativity song, complete with kids dressed in costume. Rhett was supposed to be a shepherd, but didn't make it through the first song so Zane happily took over. Cliff had to leave early for his volley ball game so Brock hung out with the bishop so I could play. It was a great time and I hope the kids felt the joy of service.
Then came the fun part....gathering 3 kids, all their winter gear, my stuff and making the trek in the frigid cold to the van. Luckily we are blessed with a great ward family who love us and help us! I had more than enough help getting everyone in their gear and then 2 wonderful young men carried all my stuff out to the van for me.
We pulled in just before 8:30 and I had the thought to go and open the door and then come get the kids out of the van. So, I told the kids to wait, ran to the door, shoved my key in....and it only went half way. OK, this isn't good, I thought. I tried again....and again. And then once more as I frantically reminded Heavenly Father that it was below minus 30 and I had 3 of his little ones with me.....and Cliff wouldn't be home for at least an hour....and I was starting to panic. Then I thought of my neighbor Percy Bryant and thought maybe he could help. I started the van again, ran over to his house, explained the situation, and he gave me lock de-icer. Tried it, didn't work. Panic setting in again. Start van again (only had one set of keys with me) and ran back to Percy again. He grabbed some super duper lubricant stuff that they use in the oil field and came to my rescue. Thankfully that worked and we were soon nice and warm in our house.
And as I thought of it later I was thankful to see the Lord's hand in it all.
I love this time of year. We are really trying to teach our kids the meaning of Christmas and to show them examples of kindness and service. Hopefully in the next 6 plus years it will be my boys helping some young mom carry stuff out to her van!

Flashback

Have you ever had one of those moments when some little insignificant thing triggers a memory from deep in the corners of your brain?
I had one tonight....
Zane was sitting at the table during supper (pizza and pop tonight) and was playing with the tab on his pop can when he snapped it off. He was really surprised and thrilled. And instantly I was transported back to Jr. high when my friends and I would see if we could snap the tabs off with certain parts intact. And then we would save them.
Why you ask?
Because somehow, somewhere, someone decreed that if you could get the tab off with the little button part attached as well you could save it for a future kiss.
I had a pretty good collection going at one time.....
And speaking of collecting kisses....we had a good system that involved purdues as well. Oh Jr. High. I DO NOT miss you.
But it is fun to remember and giggle a little.

Season of Giving

So here we are in the middle of the Christmas season....and I'm really loving it. Minus the blizzard that blew in today. As we've pondered on this year's Christmas we have really wanted to focus on teaching our kids about giving, and not just getting. I think this has really been brought into focus with Zane being in school and having "friend" influence. It seems like every other day he comes home with a new idea to add to his Santa gift.
So we've been talking about it as a family and tomorrow after my morning choir/song practice, the kids and I are heading to the dollar store with one of the young women in our ward. (Cliff works Saturdays and I need someone to sit with 2 while one shops). And once there, the two older ones will be able to purchase a few small things to gift to people. We're really hoping that they will get to experience the magic of giving through this and learn a little. We're also planning gifts that they can help mom bake or make for friends and family. Of course, they are still buzzing with excitement for Santa. And we're mixing things up a little there this year as well. Santa is bringing one big family gift and a few small things in the stockings. And they will each get one maybe two gifts from us. Hoping that those are going to be homemade but the days are rapidly slipping away....not sure if that is going to happen.
We already have so much. It's time to step back and teach that to our kids instead of constantly giving them more and more.

I'm an Auntie!

I have been waiting impatiently for 2 days now for Alisha and Jay to get their computer back and announce to all the world that their baby boy was born on Wednesday, Dec 2! And now that they have so can I!

Name: Paxton John Scott Christensen
Time: 12:51 am
Weight: 7lbs 11oz
Length: 21.6 inches

And cute as a button! We are so excited to be an auntie and uncle finally! Oh the spoilage to dole out! So excited to meet him at Christmas.

When I told the kids Zane was very excited to have a cousin and Rhett was crushed " I want a cousin too!" I explained that Paxton was his cousin as well and all was good again.
So, congrats to the new parents! And to you Lish, nice cape!

Great job

Yesterday in church it was Zane's turn to give the Jr. primary talk. This is his 3rd or 4th turn since sunbeams. When I told him about it he was really excited. He found a scripture he wanted to base his talk on, found a picture in his gospel art book and kept reminding me to write his talk. He chose Lehi and the Tree of Life. I wrote a short talk using words that he could read himself. He practiced by reading it over to Grammie S and Grandpa Dooley and Auntie Kizzy. Yesterday he was just vibrating and then it was his turn. He walked right up to the pulpit, took a big breath and read his talk. Just like that! I was soooo proud of him. All of his previous attempts have consisted of him hiding so no one could see him and being so scared he cried.
Cliff and I both had several people tell us what a great job he did and how proud they were of him. So good job Zane! You did a fantastic job!

And my girl in seminary that was mostly inactive at the beginning of the year has been coming to church with us, attending YW's and went to the temple with the youth in our ward on Saturday. I couldn't be more thrilled!

Girls Just Wanna Be Girls!

So 3 girlfriends and I went out last night. And we had a BLAST! We went to New Moon (for my posterity it's the 2nd in a series of vampire love stories). We all really enjoyed the movie. I thought they did a great job on following the story and bringing out the important parts. Some of the acting was a little cheesy but that's part of the fun of these movies. And then we went to Smuggler's for dessert. Oh yum. Cheesecake. Divine.
Cliff and one of the other dad's teamed up at our house and us two girls went together. It worked out great on all ends and after we got home our friends stayed and chatted until 11:30.
I'm so grateful for wonderful friends. As couples and as girlfriends. Not living close to my mom and sisters is hard and I miss them tons. But the Lord has blessed me so abundantly with friends here who make my life richer, fuller and really wonderful. And for that I'm grateful.

Sometimes it's better to just walk away.....

So yesterday afternoon I walked into the kitchen and saw a yogurt mess on the table. Nothing serious....just an errant foil lid that had been smeared a little bit. I picked the lid up, tossed it and asked Rhett where the mess came from. He looked up from what he was doing to inspect what I was asking about and this was his answer:

"I don't know mom. It's your problem. It's not my problem".

Dumbfounded I asked him what he had just said and he repeated it - word for word.

I just walked away. And called mom and dad to report that their grandchild was still alive. Of course they burst out laughing. It's much better to be the grandparent.

On an unrelated note....it's going to be a very long 29 days until Santa. Brock has expressed interest in my tree today and is NOT impressed that his mother doesn't think this is a good idea. He also thinks he must walk everywhere and is figuring out his push truck rather well. And he was only up once last night (interject angels singing Hallelujah here). Made for a much more productive day today.

Wanted: a new lung please

Cough. Cough. Cough. Hack. Hack. Hack. Rattle. Rattle. Rattle.
These are the sounds echoing through my house and my chest these days. Stupid cold will not surrender and I'm starting to hurt. I'm resisting the urge to drag my butt into the doctor's because I'm fairly certain it's just a viral thing and I don't want to be in a concentrated area with other people sick with worst than I have. So that's my whining. Onto more pleasant things.

Zane is reading up a storm! He is loving reading and just can't get enough. It gives me warm fuzzies all over to see him curled up over a book and figuring out most of the words himself. It also makes me feel a little old.

Rhett is all of a sudden talking so much better and so much all the time! He is still my best whiner - we're working on that - and still has ZERO interest in potty training. I'm running out of ideas. Bribes aren't working. So I thought I'd try the leave-him-in-the-wet-pants-after-an- accident technique. I explained it to him, we stayed dry for a couple of potty rounds and then he peed. Not a lot, but enough to make his pants fairly wet. I told him I'd set the timer for 10 minutes and then we'd change him into dry stuff. Gave him a towel to sit on and went back to what I was doing. 10 minutes were up and he wouldn't come get dry! He stayed in his wet clothes for half an hour and didn't care a bit! GRRRRRRR. Can someone please give me a magic wand? But he continues to make me smile and laugh and melts my heart every day.

And Brock is a going concern. His latest trick is to climb onto of his walker. He likes to play with the toys on it when he's not actually sitting in it. So he crawls over, pulls himself up, and steps both feet up onto the plastic over the wheels. And there he stands oh so pleased with himself. Grinning from ear to ear. Oh my busy busy baby!

And I forgot to blog a couple of weeks ago about the great news that Cliff got. Trail has contracts with different builders in and around the city to supply the appliances for the houses those builders do. Some are bigger contracts than others and all of the sales guys have certain builders under them - so they get commission on the product going into those houses. Trail has been working for almost 2 years to get Laebon Homes to sign with them and they finally did. The great news is that it's become one of Cliff's builders! Laebon is one of the biggest builders up here so it's really a great thing. Congrats hon!

Super Saturday

This is what I did at Super Saturday before going home sick....love the craft and how cute it is but it does panic me a little! I have so much to do before Christmas!

9 months

He's 9 months old now! And got his first "real" haircut with clippers last night. Not sure who cried more - me or him. I wasn't expecting to cry...just started to come when Cliff started cutting. Sigh. I'm such a sap!

Anyways, at 9 months Brock is:

- 20.8 lbs - not a big change from last month

- 28 inches

- army crawling every where!

- pulling himself up on everything

- cruising around furniture

- has 5 teeth

- had his crib lowered last week

- waking up once a night still

- mostly in 12 month clothes

- has discovered how to open cupboard doors and pull stuff out

- forever crawling under things and getting places he shouldn't be

- tries to crawl through things and gets VERY frustrated when that isn't possible

- LOVES his bath time and tries to 'help' get his clothes off so he can get in faster

- finally likes potatoes

- will hold his bottle for a little while but gets distracted and usually ends up with milk everywhere

- loves music and starting to 'dance' when he hears some

- still very curious about Vato - sigh

Oh we love our baby boy!

Time flies

Wow. The last little while has really flown by! Here's what we've been up to:
- still adjusting to the whole pet thing
- all my blood work came back good - so no mono! Yeah!
- crossing fingers for no more strep this season or might have to get tonsils out. Boo!
- Brock is fast! He still army crawls but can move! And he's creeping and pulling himself up on everything and has figured out how to open my cupboard doors and pull stuff out. He keeps me hopping!
- we had a great time at our trunk or treat. Sorry, forgot to take pictures. Zane was Batman, Rhett was Spiderman and I went as a hiker with Brock in a baby back pack that we borrowed from some friends.
- attended Zane's costume parade at school. He was THRILLED to see us.
- Halloween Rhett was hacking up a lung and running a slight fever and Cliff wasn't feeling great and Brock had a runny nose so the boys stayed home with Daddy and I took Brock and went to adult session of stake conference. The sickies snuck in a little trick-or-treating but got rained out about 20 mins after starting
- I sang in the choir for Stake Conference on the Sunday session
- and this last week has been taken up with various members of the family being in various stages of sickness. GROSS! So tired of our house being sick. Hopefully another couple of days and all will be good again.
- and this took me almost a week to finish!

I have Survived....

having a pet for one week. And we're both still here.

Things I like about having a dog:

The walks, the tail wagging when he sees us, my kids playing with him, my kids getting over any fear they had of dogs, petting, loyalty, crazy antics in the backyard when he doesn't know I'm watching

Things I DON'T like about having a dog:
The wet smell, the shedding, the one-more-thing-to-think-about on my daily list, the dog not being crate trained and wanting to sleep on my couch

I have survived.....
another bought of Strep Throat....we think. If my swab tests positive it will be #3 in 6 weeks. Yuck. So my wonderful doc gave me different drugs and a bunch of blood work. He's testing my thyroid, liver, and for mono. Yep, mono. Gross. So hoping that one doesn't come back positive. Drugs are making me feel pretty good but by the end of the day throat is still a little sore. Hot lemonade with honey is my friend.

I have survived.....
Brock starting to crawl. It's army crawling but he's crawling and moving fast. He's pretty determined to get under the table where Vato lives when he's inside and I'm just as determined to keep him out of there.

I have survived.....
multiple years of no sleep and no end in sight to sleepless nights. Sigh.

I have survived. And grown. And learned. And come out smiling....mostly.

Adding to the Family....

No - we're not pregnant. You can start breathing again. We've added a four legged member of the family.....

Introducing Voto (va-toe). He's 10 months old and has been answering to this name for that long so we figured we'd keep it. Zane was pretty keen on naming him Anakin but we convinced him that Voto was a cool enough name. So, here's his story. He's a Rottie-Jack Russel cross and was given to a family's son by his girlfriend and he's not home enough for a dog so he took him out to the farm for mom and the grandparents to look after. But they already had 2 HUGE dogs (as big as Rhett - seriously) and one more was just too much. So they advertised on Kijji, Cliff saw the add, we've been going back and forth for the last couple of days and today we brought him home. He's neutered and has his puppy shots so we don't have that head ache. He's great with other dogs and kids - been exposed lots to little ones. And he comes, sits, learns fast, doesn't bark, isn't hyper, doesn't jump up and loves to chase cats. If I had to describe a perfect dog all of those things would be on the list. He hasn't tried to chew anything, listens to me great and is just so mellow. So far a great addition to our family.

And although some think this choice is completely random and sudden for our family, Cliff and I have always talked about having a dog. I never had a pet at all growing up and Cliff usually did so we come from different perspectives. But there are lots of things that a pet can provide for a family and for kids and we decided that now was a good time. Zane's already pretty confidant around him - Voto sat in the back of the van next to him for the ride home and kept getting closer and closer to Zane. Zane was thrilled "mom, I think he likes me!" And 5 minutes after getting home even Rhett was cautiously patting him on the head. Brock is politely disinterested right now.

So here's to our new adventure!

8 Months!

OK, so he was 8 months a week ago.... Life is busy!

But Brock at 8 months is soooo much fun! Things he's up to:

- loves to stand up against anything

- starting to shuffle along things

- pulled himself up in his crib from sitting

- goes from his tummy to his bum when it suits him

- scoots but doesn't crawl

- loves paper, cords etc - anything that he shouldn't have

- blows raspberries ALL the time!

- loves to give the baby in the mirror kisses

- doesn't make strange

- reaches his arms to go to mom or dad

- thinks that Rhett and Zane are the BEST

- makes a funny clicking sound

- has 3 teeth cut and almost a 4th

- won't hold his own bottle - makes for good cuddles

- still has poof hair

- is a screecher

- usually has 2 good naps a day

- still doesn't like travelling for more than an hour

- is 19.6 lbs and about 28 inches....hard to measure a squirmy little person!

- likes most everything I've given him to eat

- says da da da all the time

- is usually up once or twice a night

- loves baths - especially if he gets one all by himself

- loves to walk all over the place if you hold his hands

- is a happy happy little boy

Reward

This is my new hair....well, old hair but new color and freshened up cut. I hit my 20lb mark last week and decided to reward my self with a non-edible reward. So today I got it foiled and cut. And I'm going to try and repress how much it cost because I LOVE it.

So, 20 down, lots to go!