Birthdays and more

Things have been really busy lately! Let me backtrack.

My mom flew in on the 14th, and is heading home tomorrow. I love having my mom here to play with us! We really have become close friends now that I have kids and I call her all the time for advice. She drove down that first weekend to Vegas for one of my neice's baptism though, and the timing was good because we had a crazy weekend.

The funeral was on Friday morning, and that went really well. Christopher had a tougher time with it than he thought he would, to be honest, and we are really praying for his mom right now. No matter how much advance notice you have, it is still losing a parent. But the funeral was very touching, even if my daughter was screaming out in the hallway with me during the whole thing. That was the part that upset me about the whole week- with the kids needing naps and Kaitlyn being too sick to be watched by anyone, I was really torn because all I wanted to do was be "wife" and not "mother" for that week. Christopher spent most days over at his family's house all day long (I could only come and go sparing with the kids), and then it really was frustrating to not hold my hubby during the funeral. But what can ya do? I had a friend who could have watched her, but her nose was dribbling everywhere and no one wants that. When I peeked in, I could see that Tyler was cuddled up on Daddy's shoulder, so I am glad that he at least had his "buddy" to comfort him.

After the funeral, we went up to Sundance that night to a friend's cabin, which is always awesome. It was such a hectic weekend to try and cram in staying overnight at the cabin on Friday and Sunday nights, but we love it up there enough that it is worth re-arranging everything! We had to dash back down on Saturday, leave the kids with a sitter, head up to SLC Temple for a wedding, come back and relieve the sitter, and then head back up to the Ute Stadium for the reception that night. And then after church we headed over to the Skarda's for a little while, then back up to the cabin for the night. Whew! I'm so glad I got to catch up with our friends though, because we always love hanging out with them.

The next week was great, just hanging out with my mom. Our goal was to get everything set for my laundry room reno, but that is a long horrible story for another post. Kaitlyn's birthday was that Wednesday, and since my Beehives all adore her to death I took her to mutual and brought cupcakes to celebrate with them. She is a bit of a handful when I bring her, but it's like having 10 moms there to help anyway! I waited until she was home and in her high chair to give her a cupcake though. Tyler was happy to get one too.

Then, on Saturday, we hosted the "January Birthday party" for my extended family. There are 12 people on my mom's side of the family with birthdays in the same month. (To give you a reference, there are 2 in February.) In fact, 7 of my mom's 13 grandkids arrived in January. How we do this, I don't know. I certainly didn't help. So we lump it into one big party. At first I wanted to make Tyler a bulldozer cake for his birthday, but with it being a party for everyone the idea in my head grew past my abilities (like I could have pulled off a bulldozer anyway) I decided to order cakes instead. Oddly enough, this was the first time I ordered cakes in my life! Our wedding cake was made for us as a gift from my Aunt's friend, which was awesome and something we really appreciated in the "starving students getting married" stage of our lives.


My friend recommended this little AimeeCakes that she used for her little guy's birthday party. And they were great! I have to say, the french vanilla cake with raspberry filling was incredible. I had her do a calendar with all the birthdays on it for everyone to have, and then each person there celebrating a birthday got their own little cube of cake.

I thought the skis were adorable!

The only one that made us scratch our head was Tyler's here. I told them he loves bulldozers and dump trucks- construction stuff. And we got a really cute cake with dogs, boats, and airplanes. Huh?

We apparently needed to coach Tyler beforehand on how to blow out a candle, because he needed a bit of help with that.

So my Aunt Betty helped.

But he didn't need any coaching on how to eat it. Yummy! Notice how neat he was though! What a funny kid. I just handed him a fork, and he didn't spill a crumb.

Kaitlyn, on the other hand, had no such reservations about making a mess.


And then we opened some presents. My mom got a tunnel and tent set at Costco for my kids, and they had a blast with that!


Betty even gave it a shot.



It was a fun party, even if we didn't get as many people as we hoped.

I was going to include my birthday in this post, but the post is getting way too long, so that will have to wait!

Vencil Skarda

I should have made this post earlier, but things have been rather busy. We have a convergence of family this week- my mother flew into town this morning to stay for a couple of weeks. Well, that isn't totally accurate. She is driving down to Vegas for the weekend, since one of my neices is being baptised, and then comes back on Monday to spend the rest of the time with us. And while she is gone, we will be spending a good portion of our time with Christopher's family.

A lot of people have been coming out of the woodwork, calling us when they saw the obituary, so I thought I would confirm the rumors on here. My father-in-law passed away a couple of nights ago. He was only 68, but he has had cancer for a couple of years now, so it was very much expected. Christopher was there for quite a few hours the night before he died and got to say his goodbyes. Overall, I think the family is doing ok. It is always easier when you can know that he is no longer suffering like he was. And to be honest, Christopher was never all that close to his Dad. Losing your father is always hard though. He was a really great guy - the totally classic, kooky old professor. He taught math at BYU for 40 years, and spent most of those years wandering around the halls, finding more people to tell random stories to.

Anyway, thank you to all the people that have called. We really are doing well though, especially since the family is so close down in Provo. It is nice to know that we have such a great ward family that calls to see how we are doing, even when we didn't actually tell anyone :).

If you would like to see the obituary, it is online here.

Things I like

A quick blog post today. I just found a couple of things on the internet that I found really entertaining, and wanted to share.

First of all, from the CES show in Las Vegas: they have now made a navigation system that speaks to you in the voice of Kitt from Knight Rider. I mean, seriously, why has no one thought of this before? I don't even want a navigation system (they are pointless in Utah, where all the streets are numbered), and now I want this navi just so I can listen to Kitt tell me where to go. Awesome.

Second of all, my brother's good friend has finally gotten all the permission to do his second dance video. If you haven't seen Evolution of Dance itself, climb out from under a rock and go here. But to see the new one that debuted this morning on the Today show, go here. It doesn't have all the songs on there he wanted to put in there, but he had a heck of a time trying to get the rights to do the songs. It is still funny! My favorite is the Ok Go imitation. Classic. My brother asked him if it was going to keep him busy for a while, and he said "I won't be home again until March." That's a "yep." He really is a cool guy- we met him on one of our trips to visit my family back there.

Tyler's birthday

I think Tyler had a nice day today. It was rather low-key, mostly because he has no idea what a birthday is anyway. But he got to open presents from his grandparents this morning. (I'll admit it- we were going to hold back a present from Christmas to be for his birthday, and I forgot, and then figured that he had so many new toys from Christmas it was silly to buy him more so . . . yeah, we didn't get him anything. Sad, I know, but true.) He liked this puzzle a lot.

And then, this afternoon, we went to Kangaroo Zoo to play with some of his cousins. Last time we went there, he liked it, even if he was a bit tentative on some things. We saw a big improvement this time! He did a great job, just carefully pulling himself up some rather big "ladders" all by himself, time and time again. That kid will do anything for a slide.

One of the coolest moments of the day was a very random one. Some background first: a few months ago, when Kids on the Move was testing Tyler to see his progress, they asked me if he did any problem solving. You know, using an object to get to something he wanted, etc. And I couldn't think of anything. He just doesn't get driven about things that often, so if things aren't easily done, he just finds something else to do. And then today, we were hanging out in a seating area when Tyler picked up a chair and marched off with it. We all stood there, watching him leave, with our heads tilted. "Where is he going with that?" And then, about 30-40 feet later, he sets it down in front of a favorite obstacle and uses it to climb up onto it easier. TA DA! Problem solving! I was so proud.

Also, last time, I had my other camera, and went bonkers trying to get good pictures. I was excited to try my new awesome camera out here and see how much better things are. I learned a few things.

1. I have a LOT to learn about my new camera still. I have read a few books, but I still need a lot more practice. The good news about times like this is that you have problems, and go home and look up how to solve that problem. Like, why things are still blurry in sports mode, and what settings to use in Tv to fix it.

2. It turns out that no matter what camera you have, the lighting in this place stinks. It is very bright, very harsh overhead lighting, and the inflatables make very harsh shadows over the slides. So your camera is fooled into thinking it is very bright out, and won't turn on the flash, even though you need it to fill in your faces. Grr.

3. My auto-focus likes to focus on things other than my kids. Like dinosaurs in the foreground. I figured out how to correct that once I got home and read my book.

In the meantime, it was great to see how much fun Tyler had with his cousins!

I think the funniest part is trying to convince him that he is three. We taught him a few months ago that when someone asks "how old are you?" he says "two". And now we are telling him that is wrong, and trying to get him to say "three". Can you blame the kid for looking at us like we are crazy? I actually started working on that a month ago, since I knew it would be hard, but he still says "two", and then he will say "three" when we start to correct him, and sometimes even get to "four". He does love to count!

New Year musings

I am not usually a New Year's resolution type of person. I try and make new goals and work on them whenever I get fired up about them during the year. But this holiday does mark a few little milestones for our family, and those are always fun to reminisce about. So while everyone else looks forward, I chose to look back just for fun!

Seven years ago-

Christopher and I met at the Liberty Bowl in 2001. We were both in the marching band, and I happened to sit next to him on the bus ride to our Graceland tour. We hung out the rest of the trip, playing air hockey at Dave and Buster's, wandering up and down Beale Street (where the one and only picture of us was taken, crappy as it may be) and then sitting next to each other on the plane ride home, New Year's Eve. I remember we celebrated the countdown twice because we were flying across the country and it caught up to us in two time zones.

It's amazing how time flies by. I can hardly remember what life was like without Christopher- he truly is the other half to my soul in so many ways, and I am so grateful that I was late getting on the bus that day! What a random moment to make such a good team. I feel truly blessed to be in a marriage with someone who is just as devoted to making everything work as I am, because that has made all the difference.

Three years ago-

Three years ago, I was due with our first child on February 1st. We flew to Ohio for Christmas, since I figured it would be our last chance without dragging kids and half the universe with us. My work had been chaotic that year, and I had set aside the first two weeks in January to set up things for my replacement and get things together for the baby. I had multiple people tell me they wanted to throw us a shower as soon as the holidays were over, so the only little clothes I had were the four pieces that my mom and I got over the Christmas break. We flew home on New Year's Day, pulled in the driveway at 1 am, unpacked a handful of things, and climbed into bed.

The next morning, my water broke at 9am.

I spent the first two hours on the phone, trying to sort out what on earth we should do- calling the midwife and my Hypnobirthing instructor to find out what was going on, calling a half a dozen people in my school to tell them I was never coming to work again, despite school starting back the next day, etc. The funniest call was to my mother, who thought I was just calling say I made it home okay. I calmly told her about the flight, and what time we got home and everything. And then a pause. "So, my water broke this morning . . ." "WHAT!!"

That is the part I remember every year on this day- the shock. I had not gotten in the mindset to have a baby yet- we were having a baby, but it was always so far off in my mind in comparison to the hectic job I had. And then, suddenly, there he was in my arms. We have truly fallen in love with this guy since that day, but what a day that was!

Mike and Brie's Wedding

This last Monday and Tuesday was spent driving back and forth to SLC for my cousin's wedding. We left the kids with a neighbor family (thank you Robinsons!), and they all seemed to really enjoy having babies around to play with while we went to the dinner (instead of a luncheon, they had a dinner the night before). Then we left them with my friend around the corner (thanks Steph!) while we went up for the early morning ceremony, which was one of 53 that day in the SLC temple. And finally, they came with us that night for the reception, which was beautiful (even if it was in the Ute Stadium :). I only took my camera to the reception though, but I did have a lot of fun with my new lens there. If you are in the family and want to see all the pictures, go here. Otherwise, I wanted to post a couple of my favorites.

My pictures didn't do her wedding dress justice- it was gorgeous!

My kids spent a good portion of the night running up and down the hallway, pushing around these benches they had and getting rides on them, etc. My cousin's son, Jackson, was their ringleader :).

Christmas

Somehow, earlier this week, I thought about what I was going to say on my blog, and then mentally checked off that I had written on my blog. And now I forgot what I was even going to say! LOL.



Anyway . . .


Christmas was fun around here! We went up to see my extended family for Christmas Eve. The big shock for me was seeing my Grandpa- he just had surgery on his eyes, because he could barely see even with his glasses. And so while they were fixing the cateracts, they went ahead and fixed his vision, so now he doesn't need his glasses! He has been wearing the same frames in every picture I have ever seen of him, way back into the 1940s. So seeing him without glasses was quite strange. At 95, my Grandpa is just amazing.

And then we had a great Christmas morning here at our house. Not that the kids understood why there were more new toys to play with suddenly, but they were quite happy to enjoy it anyway. The big item for this year was the "new" train table. When we visited Ohio last August, my mother found a train table at a garage sale for $20, and Tyler spent the entire visit hanging out at that table. We have had a small train set here for a while, but it had no home and we always missed that awesome table. So Grandma sent it here for Christmas! It cost about as much to ship as it would have to buy a new one, minus the fact that this one is bigger and more solid than ones I have seen in stores, and it has two drawers for parts. We set the table up when it arrived, but it wasn't very interesting to the kids until Christmas morning when they came down to see a new, big train set laid out for them. They both loved it (though Tyler was rightfully a little possesive when baby sister tried to grab and eat all of his train bits).

Christopher gave me a new lens for Christmas - 50mm with 1:1.8f - that many people have recommended as their favorite, so I was really pumped about that. He was even thoughtful enough to give it to me the night before so I could use it on Christmas morning. It takes a bit of getting used to, switching from a zoom lens to a fixed one, but the lower f-stop rating more than makes up for it. I think I am hooked. (If that doesn't make any sense to you, just skip over it!)

The kids had lots of little presents to open from cousins in Vegas (we draw names in my family- thanks Scot and Kathy!) and Grandparents, as well as from us, and it was fun to just make a nice, slow morning out of it. They weren't into the unwrapping very much, so we just let them have 10 mintues with each new toy before moving on. It was great! I'm sure as they get older it will turn into a frenzy soon enough.

And the big ticket item to each other this year was Rock Band 2 for our PS3. We bought the PS3 for the blu-ray playing part, and this was actually the first game we got for it! We have had guitar hero for the Wii for a while, but I think we might sell it to fund Rock Band, because I love the drums a lot, and we both liked that the characters were just a little more clothed, along with more songs to choose from (once we unlock it all). And the kids love the drum sticks, which is rather concerning actually . . .