First stitches :(

Little owies here and there...

Little owies everywhere!

Duke, as Jaedyn so gently put it, "got cut open" on Friday. Poor Duke. There will never be little Dukes running around. sniff sniff. Hence he got his first stitches.

And today, Jaedyn got her first stitches. This afternoon Jaedyn stayed home from church cuz she had a snotty nose. There's so much crap going around right now we figured we wouldn't add to it. Plus Chad hasn't been feeling well and was staying home and I wasn't sure I was even capable of handling 2 children on my own in church. Mothers do it all the time. I'm such a wimp. But I was grateful for the snotty nose excuse!

A little while after Lilia and I got home from church, Jaedyn and her Daddy were horsing around and bang! She cracked the back of her head against the bed frame. The craziest part is, we don't even have real bedroom furniture! It's just that puny little metal rail beneath the bed. Chad exclaimed "Oh my gosh she's bleeding all over!" and freaked the poor kid out. She started wailing and I came running. I have to chuckle at this part cuz it made me chuckle at the time. As I came around the edge of the bed I see Jaedyn sitting on the floor with blood all over her back and Chad is sitting behind her with his hands cupped just catching the blood. Oh dear. He was trying to be so helpful! Dear man. Lesson number one: Pressure on a bleeding wound!

I grabbed a towel and put pressure on the wound until the bleeding slowed and Jaedyn had stopped crying. Crap. "It's gonna need stitches if it's ever gonna stop bleeding." Thank goodness my first aid kit includes some xylocaine and a suture kit. Thus, Jaedyn got her first stitches. And she did so good!

After the fact I made a comment to Chad about how I think we just saved about 400 dollars. He told me, "I guess you can go ahead and buy that Dyson". 

"Really?!"

I'm still waiting for him to answer me.

Snow days

Just some more fun memories

This one is the Wind Caves Trail

And obviously setting the camera on a snow covered rock is not so effective!

Christmas time

CHRISTMAS EVE

We went out to the Allreds for Christmas Eve dinner and a nativity. It was so fun! And yummy! And I've never seen a better looking nativity :)

Mary

Joseph

A shepherd coming to worship the baby

The Wiseman Paha! Right before she broke her gift :-(

Chad playing with dolls. I try and tell him not to do it in public places.

CHRISTMAS MORNING

We kind of eased the kids into Christmas this year. Last year they were so overwhelmed by all the gifts and people and change and excitement that it kind of had the opposite impact on them... it was a bit crazy. So this year they opened one gift each day starting a couple days before Christmas. This was kind of fun... each toy brought a days worth of excitement and then on Christmas morning it wasn't so overwhelming. 

First gift of 2012 = hours and hours of fun

This dress did not last long on the hanger!

Lilia's first baby doll. An exciting and monumental event in each girls life!

The girls shared a hanging chair and a train set both from IKEA (can I just say that I love that store?). They also got a couple homemade gifts including sock puppets from Grandma Boyd and capes and crowns from Grandma Tina. I love the homemade gifts. I think they're my favorite gifts to open each year!

Chad surprised us all with a wii! It's actually a funny story. I opened a gift that ended up being a Wii Zumba disk. I looked at in confusion expecting a DVD. "Chad it says Wii on here". He played it so well "What?! Well I think they work in DVD players, it should be fine" "uh... it says here that you need a Wii controller for feedback" "oh well, sorry. We can return it and get something else". 5 minutes later we opened the Wii. Never thought Chad would pay money for such a thing. Turns out he didn't. He actually won the grand prize at a raffle at work!

Decemberings

I love the month of December. It's been an interesting one too! It's been so warm up until this last week when it suddenly plunged into single digits. But up until then I was still hiking weekly and taking my kids with me... that's how warm it was! Ok well, we did have rosy cheeks by the end.

Chad came home with Duke about a month ago and that dog is so smart! Well ok, sometimes I tell him otherwise, but he is learning really fast. We've been trying hard to train him on a leash and off and he's coming along. With the help of a really cool vibrating shock collar. Sounds mean I know, but I've actually only shocked him twice on low voltage. He responds really positively to the vibration... thank goodness.

I turned 30 this month! Aiyaiyai... yaiyai! Really, it was weird. I just don't feel like that much time has passed. Especially the last 10 years! I believe the earth may be in cahoots against us and is actually revolving at a faster pace. Maybe.

We went to a Christmas party the night of my birthday and had some of the yummiest food! And then we built little candy trains with the kids... which is such a better idea than gingerbread houses! We've done those in the past and the kids just can't help as much cuz you're so focused on keeping the things standing that it turns into more of an adult activity. This was for the kids and Jaedyn was so proud of hers. Wish I'd gotten a picture of it. I've just been such a slacker at the blog that picture taking hasn't been on my mind.

We've taken Jaedyn out a few times to do some shopping for others for the holidays. She likes to hit the toy section. Each time we've been out she has to touch and hold and rock every toy in the department before she'll decide on one. We've been trying to teach her to keep others in mind with her shopping. We'll ask, "is this something you think so and so will like?" and thoughtfully she'll either discard it or pop it in the cart. So it was pretty cute when she ended up giving me a birthday present she picked out. I unwrapped it to find a little baby doll. Hope everyone enjoys their Jaedyn specials this year! They were selected with much care and love... and mostly with you in mind!

Check out this little humdinger that Chad got me! Woo hoo! 

It's been so much fun! Well really, there's quite the learning curve to it and I'm definitely still learning it! Helen and I tried to take it out on a run the next morning but 6 minutes into the run we were both crying and whining. It actually was 11 degrees out with a slight breeze. We ended up on the treadmill and stationary bike... lame. And the rest of the week told the same story. So Saturday we decided we'd attempt it a little later in the day and hit the mountains with our snowshoes in the afternoon this time. (I have to insert at this point that Chad hit a garage sale in the spring and got me a pair of snow shoes for 10 bucks! Cha-ching! They work awesome!)

Here we are, happy to finally be outdoors.

Helen and Heather with their dad

Registering my first official Garmin adventure... and hoping to find some grouse :)

The trail was beautiful and serene. We were the first one's breaking trail since the snowfall. Duke had the time of his life bounding like a deer and pretending to try and scare up some birds. 

And as one final Decembering... Chad was up reading late on Saturday night when he heard a loud bang. He ran to the window to see a car full of jolly folks taking a baseball bat to our mailbox! Dirty buggers. They demolished the thing. The next morning to our chagrin there it sat in the snow in 4 pieces. Harumph. So I took Jaedyn out to see it. What a great teaching opportunity. We discussed their choices and decided to say a prayer for them... you know, help them make better choices and feel the Spirit working in their lives... that kind of stuff. The interesting thing was that after this, probably not a lot changed with our little visitors... but my attitude sure did! I'm actually grateful for the teaching opportunity.

And grateful for my fix-it man! I have a freshly fixed and duct taped mailbox :)

Surprise!!!

Chad told me on Monday night that there was a sale for Christmas that he wanted to hit that night at 7:30 so he asked me if it was okay if I put the kids to bed by myself. 

A sale right at 7:30?? I thought that was weird but agreed that he could go. When he left he asked me not to go to bed until he got back. Once again, I thought, "this is weird". But agreed.

Surprise!

Meet Duke. Duke is a Brittany. Poor guy came to us half starved and I think a bit neglected. But no worries, In our capable hands he is fattening up nicely.

Chad is brave... don't ya think?

 

And this is a little of what we've been up to ever since

The kids loooove him! I wish I could have had a video camera running in the morning when we took him in to Lilia's room. She rolled over and up and then paused on her hands and knees, thrust her head forward with a look of utter surprise and a bit of bewilderment and exclaimed, "OH!" and then just paused and stared. Adorable. She hasn't stopped loving on him since.

Jaedyn also all day long has asked to go outside and play with Duke. On Tessa days, this is her babysitter who she is normally very excited to see, she exclaims "I don't wanna go! I wanna spend time with Duke!" I think she was also kind of traumatized with our last dog experience cuz she has several times told me, "Mommy I want Duke to stay with us. I don't want him to go away". 

Poor Charlie. He's in a better home now but a part of me will always miss him. Can't say as much for Chad. We made the right decision giving him away. I think our last place was too small for two alpha males :)

Still I was nervous when Chad brought Duke home. I was under the impression that Chad did not like living with dogs. I really didn't think we'd ever have another. My first reaction when I saw Duke was utter shock. When I got over that I was just nervous... "uh Chad, are you sure?"

Like I said... she literally does not stop loving on him!

And thankfully we had some nice weather before this most recent snowstorm hit so we could enjoy the outdoors with him. He really needs to learn to walk on a leash!

He's so great with the kids, big enough to play and have fun with, knows his boundaries, doesn't jump on the kids, sniff crotches, or lick. He also lets the kids crawl on him, and he's very gentle. Almost too gentle! Oh and he's 2... so the puppy-isms are pretty much gone.

It's evident that he was an outdoor dog with little leash experience and not much exposure to books, kids toys and countertops! Ack. But he's a quick learner.

And this is what Chad brought home and surprised us with on Wednesday night. Think there's a connection?

Halloween

What I get to wake up to. Paha! Chad's hair was so realistic people didn't need to see his blades to know he was wolverine. And he went to work like this! He hasn't had a haircut in 3 months. Poor man. I postponed family pictures because of this costume. We just had them done this last weekend. Sadly, Chad declined the haircut and facial shave that I was hoping would take place following Halloween. Our pictures are gonna be great!

Making Princess Hair

Oh my sweet adorable little scarecrow! Lilia loved her costume! If you look closely you can see her little burlap patches on her shirt and hat that transform the costume from a Fall Fairy to a fancy scarecrow. I also drew a little nose on her following the photo shoot. orange/yellow eye-shadow on the nose with little stitches drawn on with eyeliner. Which surprisingly stayed on her face all night long.

She was quite the trick or treater too! Crawling up the steps, knocking on the door, grabbing a hand full of candy, and carrying her candy bucket the whole time!

So thrilled. So cute.

I can't believe I don't have a finished picture of our little Sleeping Beauty. Shouldn't be hard to get as she hasn't taken this off since... except to go to church. Then she was back in it for her nap. Haha. She loves it! But the finished product includes the pointed little shoulders and a crown. Mom did all the hard work on this one. She interpreted the directions which were crazy! And missing vital parts!

Jaedyn was very polite at the doors. She continued to call it "Sticker treating", hehe and said "thank you" at every door. She cut the trick-or-treating short however when she asked for dinner. Oops. In our party's defense, we were trying to go while it was still light and warmer outside.

Princess pose.

Ok now this one is embarrassing! I wasn't gonna dress up for Halloween but we were going to a Halloween party and Chad told me, "Just dress up in something Rachel McAdams would wear." I've occasionally been told that I look like the actress from The Notebook. So I tried. I saw the picture he took and immediately regretted having tried. I look nothing like her! Ah well. I'm sure people just thought I was a 50's chick or something.