'Tis the Season for . . .

Trimming the tree
Untrimming the tree . . .

Making Christmas goodies (and eating plenty along the way) . . .Making gingerbread men . . .

Making Christmas cut-out sugar cookies . . .

Christmas class parties . . .

(Abby wearing her pajamas to school and loved making her Santa mask)

Millie with her beloved first-grade teacher.


"Tis the season of Christmas, of course, and I am desperately trying to make it feel like such. Of course, this is hard to do if the weather happens to be 75 degrees and the air sticky with humidity, which it was last week. I am, therefore, grateful for the colder temperatures we've been experiencing the last few days. I can only hope they will last. I know I'm a little batty in this regard, but for Christmas, I like it to be cold! There is just something so un-Christmasy to me about warm weather in December. We have had some fun, though, getting in the spirit of things.

The Joys of Giving . . . Getting?

Tonight for FHE we drew names as a family and went to Wal-Mart so that each person could pick out small gifts for each other and hence, learn more fully the joy of giving rather than merely getting. Millie and I went off together to pick out gifts for Daddy and Abby. Daddy, Abby, and Jane went to pick out gifts for Millie, Jane, and Mommy. We made a big deal about picking out something that the other person would like and keeping it a surprise.

For the first 1o minutes we managed to keep the two groups apart (only occasionally passing each other in the toy aisles). Millie desperately wanted to get Abby a large My Little Pony stuffed baby (one of the ugliest toys I've ever seen) that she desperately wanted and Abby had picked out a game that she longed for to give to Millie. Jane just tripped up and down the isle pointing out any and all Barbie items (she is obsessed!). After that, somehow the two groups merged into one and the girls began an excited campaign to convince each other what to get for them, hence no more focus on giving and no more element of surprise (aside from Jane who, I believe, will still be surprised when she opens her Magnadoodle on Christmas morning). It was in this moment that the whole FHE experience fell flat and we entered the world of gift-getting frenzy. Even though we made each of them carry the gifts they were giving to the checkout counter, they spent the whole ride home talking about what they were getting and wanting to play with it when they got home. Hopefully, we'll have better luck next year.

Recent Millie-isms: While making gingerbread cookies: "How did you even make this dough? It's terribly good!!"

Pointing to the Catholic church accross the street from our church building: "I know that church. It's the Cadillac church."

Coming in from church: Millie: Mommy, can I help you with anything? Mommy: Thanks, Millie! That's so nice!
Millie: That's what Christmas is all about! (matter-of-factly)

Jane-isms (or should I say Queen Jane-isms? She's going through a commanding phase these days):

While listening to Christmas music on the radio in the car:
Jane: "Momma! I want "Anise Dabidab!"
Mommy: "What?"
Jane (louder and more demanding): "I want "Anise Dabidab!!!"
Mommy finally realized that she is referring to "Feliz Navidad", but can't quite get her to understand that Mommy cannot control what they play on the radio.

Jane Turns 2!

I remember the excitement of throwing Millie a party for her 2nd birthday. When Abby turned 2 we had a fun family celebration with a special dinner and decorations. This year for Jane's 2nd birthday, Jane was lucky to get sprinkles on the ice cream in her waffle bowl after a dinner of leftovers (granted, it was the week before Mark got home). Poor Jane! But what we lacked in pomp, we hopefully made up with in love and attention. She loved the light-up birthday tiara (couldn't for the life of me find an ordinary birthday crown at Wal-Mart) and opening her presents.

Jane is such a delight -- full of personality and determination. She was the earliest walker of the bunch (10 months) and moved quickly from walking to running. She amazingly agile and resilient (she picks herself up after she falls saying, "I okay!"). She is also full of mischief and has a twinkling, mischievous look whenever she is doing something she knows she's not supposed to do and is waiting to get caught. She has a ready smile and a willing hug. She'll often pause what she is doing to come and give me a hug, say "Hi Mama!" and then run to resume her activity (heart-melting!).

I love when I ask her to give me a kiss on the cheek and point to my cheek, she leans in and gives me a kiss and then she says, “Other cheek” and I turn my other cheek for her to do the same thing.

Jane is a real ham and most of the time gets silly when she is the center of attention. She rolls her eyes and shakes her head and makes funny noises. Another funny thing she's started doing after brushing her teeth at night is saying, “’pit, ‘pit!” and makes a spitting sound over the sink. She has seen her sisters spit out their toothpaste and so she wants to do it, too.

Lately her greatest love has been Barbie movies. This is hilarious since she has no interest in any other TV, but almost every morning she wakes up and says, “Wanna watch Diamond Castle!”. She knows all of the songs word-for-word, and loves to dance to the music (apparently she watched it every day while Mommy was visiting Daddy in NYC). When Mark came home he brought her a Diamond Castle Barbie that plays music from the movie when you press her hand (this is the toy that I take off the shelf each time we go to Wal-Mart to keep her occupied and which, of course, she screams for every time when I leave it in the store)
and she looked like she had died and gone to heaven. After continually hearing the songs belting from the Barbie's belly for the past week, we are all wishing Diamond Castle Barbie herself would die and go to heaven.

Jane adores her big sisters and they adore her. They are both content to have just her for a playmate because she is ready and willing to do anything they want. Each night, after I put her in her crib she summons them each to her room, calling "Millie, hug!" "Abby, hug!" We just love our little Miss Jane!

AHHHH!

MARK IS HOME!

Let the heavens sing. Let the angels rejoice. All is right with the world (in an ideal world, of course, which this world isn't, but things certainly are beginning to look up!).

Happy Halloween!

Millie designed our Jack-o-Lantern face this year.

Ready to go get "canny" (as Jane calls it). Abby was probably the most excited for Halloween this year. She laid out her costume the night before and all day asked, "When is Halloween going to start?" On our way home from trick-or-treating she summed up her experience with "This was the best night evah!" Millie agreed.

Millie loved her fairy costume.

Pretty Princess.Eating Jack-o-lantern quesadillas, "monster toes" and breadstick bones for Halloween dinner.

Trunk-or-Treat at the church

Cute kitty (she called her costume "Hello Kitty") Jane seemed to eat her candy as fast as she got it. By the time we went through all of the cars at Trunk-or-treat she had probably finished off 6 or 7 Dum Dum suckers. She kept saying "wanna other lollipop". As we were going around the neighborhood Abby said "Jane is such a good eater of candy! She's a good eater-upper!"

After one house that had a rather dark doorway and spooky decorations Abby said (much relieved), "I thought that house was haunted!" After which Millie said, "Oh no, she was actually very nice!"

On the way home, Millie (who for the past year has been worried about the Daddy Tax that Mark levvies upon her Halloween candy) said, "I know how to keep Daddy from taking my candy! I'll give him some!"

Field Day . . .

It was so fun for me to cheer on Millie and her class during Field Day this week. She ran in four events and did a great job! It was great to meet all of her friends and some of the other parents.

Millie has been so eager the past few weeks to get some decorations up for Halloween so we decided to make some for Family Home Evening this week. Abby had fun painting styrofoam spiders, and Millie had fun designing our pumpkin face and helping scrape out the seeds.

October

Sanity Check -- NYC

Last week I went here . . . To get away from this . . .

but mostly to see . . .

I wandered through here . . .

and experienced this . . .

I walked across this . . .

On which I saw this . . .

And then the east coast and Dallas contingents of my family arrived and we had a great weekend together!

When Mark left for New York, we planned for me to visit him after he had been there for six weeks and it couldn't have been better planned in terms of my sanity preservation! The week before I left I was feeling pretty maxxed out so it was a wonderful break to fly off on my own with several books in my carry-on (all child snacks, dollar-store toys, coloring books and crayons, diapers, wipes, and binkies were confiscated before boarding -- old habits die hard :)) and join up with Mark. Words can't express how wonderful it was to see him again -- even though it was his busiest week of training (unfortunately we didn't know this when we planned my visit).

During the days before my family arrived, I walked the Brooklyn Bridge and tooled around the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood (never spent much time in Brooklyn before), walked around the city enjoying the nippiness of the Fall air, slept in, walked Mark to work, walked through Central Park (made me miss the girls terribly to pass by all the places we played last summer), saw Mary Poppins on Broadway (ok, but didn't really wow me), and went to dinner with Mark in the evenings. Mark was also given some complimentary tickets to the Metropolitan Opera from a ward member who is in the opera and so we had fun experiencing that (too bad that I had forgotten to bring my full-length chiffon and sequined evening gown and my fur stole).

After my mom, dad, and Dave arrived from D.C., Jennifer and Matt from Dallas, and Matt and Sara from Boston, we had a wonderful time visiting the special Van Gogh exhibit at the MOMA (a definite highlight!), visiting the Met, visiting Ground Zero, walking the Brooklyn Bridge at night and then eating at Grimaldi's famous pizzaria, watching Boston lose to the Rays (the losing part wasn't fun for those of us who are Red Sox fans and even though I sound like I'm in the know, it was mostly Mark watching and me talking) from Jennifer's and Matt's room in the Waldorf Astoria, and walking through SoHo and Greenwich Village.

Ground Zero

Waiting in the cold for pizza that was definitely worth the wait.

Enjoying Grimaldi's pizza

In order for a New York trip to be fully satisfying to my sister Jennifer, it must involve a celebrity sighting. To date, she has seen at least one celebrity during each of her visits. We were getting worried when, as of late Saturday afternoon, we had yet to encounter one. Then, as we were walking through SoHo, we stopped by a park to watch a little bit of a roller hockey game and even though we were all watching the game, Jennifer was the only one who noticed that the tall, gray-haired guy playing closest to us was none other than Tim Robbins (her ability really is uncanny). We were all rather amazed that she had recognized him and then my dad started to heckle him calling out things like: "More defense, Tim!" or "Way to go, Tim!" for which he earned a smile and a nod. Not wanting to feel like a celebrity-crazed paparazzo, I didn't initially take a picture, but since I was the only one who had a camera with her at the time, I finally took this blurry, distant, and through-the-chain-link fence shot while he was on the bench. One observation -- he's much taller than I would have thought.

A family picture after church.

Mommy turns ?
I wasn't really thinking much about my birthday this year, not expecting much, but had a wonderful day thanks to all of those who called or emailed, to Mark for sending me surprise flowers, and to amazing visiting teachers who brought me a yummy lunch. The girls and I had a fun night (so nice that it was also children's night!) going to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe to celebrate my and Abby's birthday.

Abby Turns 4!

I can't believe my little Abby is 4 years old! She is growing up so much! She has the best sense of humor. It is even better for the fact that it is completely under the radar. Most of the time she is so sweet and rather soft-spoken so that when she breaks out the funnies, they are really funny!

To celebrate her birthday, we had a pajama party, and she was so excited she just "couldn't wait". Every night she would ask what day it was going to be the next day in eager anticipation of blessed event. It was very low-key (still on my own), but we had a great time decorating pillow cases, having a treasure hunt and fishing pond, and playing some other fun party games. It made me so happy to see her so thrilled to have her friends there to celebrate with her! Upon going to bed, she said, "Thanks, Mom, foah the gweat powty! It was the best powty evow!"

Eagerly waiting for friends to arrive

Crowning Moment -- the revelers after a rousing game of Pin the Crown on Sleeping Beauty. Let it be noted that Mommy, herself, is not renowned for her artistic ability. Abby, however, did color Sleeping Beauty beautifully.

After blowing out the candles on her flower cake.

A little sisterly love during craft time.

Showing of the loot from the treasure hunt.

So much fun!

Checking out the birthday presents.

Tea Time

At the beginning of the month the girls were invited to a "tea party" and I thought these pictures were cute so I had to post them.

High society

Mademoiselle Millie

Miss Jane

Lady Abby