107th Passage

Today has been rather unpleasant, so I need some writing therapy. What better excuse than that to write my top ten of 2013?
This is a yearly tradition for me. Remember the rules? I will write the 10 things that had the most impact in my life in 2013 in chronological order. And it doesn't have to be good things. Bad things count as well. This year, however, was pretty positive, all around.

1.In January I decided to potty train Lydia. It certainly wasn't smooth sailing, but we got her done!

2. Early in the year I found out I was pregnant again! We were excited, but wary, what with my history of miscarriage. But this one stuck, and we made an announcement at 13 weeks, the end of April.

3. In March, David and I had our first anniversary, which we spent in Boise at the Anniversary Inn. It seems crazy, right now, that we haven't even been married for two years yet. But it's been a great almost two years!

4. Sometime around tax return season, we paid off our van. Hooray for traveling down the road of becoming debt free. We've still got quite a ways to go though...

5. On April 20th, David and I were sealed in the temple. A wonderful occasion, a wonderful day, a wonderful memory, a wonderful blessing.

6. Karate! I got to take lessons with the older boys and David. I actually loved it, particularly after getting the yellow belt and being able to spar. I would love to take lessons again, especially if I could do it at a faster than little boy pace. :)

7. Summer. This is kind of a cop out, but I didn't know how else to do it! We had an awesome camping trip with my family, that would have been better if it wasn't in 100+ degree weather and if there was shade. We also got to spend a lot of time with the Poston's since David's brother Matthew and his family were visiting from Virginia. We went camping with them as well. Lots of fun was had for sure.

8. I got to have an afternoon date with David in McCall! We visited places that were sentimental to us because of our honeymoon spent there. Fun times.

9. There were quite a few concerns during this pregnancy. Ultra sounds showed bright spots where there shouldn't be any. For awhile there we were concerned about cystic fibrosis, or other problems. Not fun to always have that in the back of your mind whenever you think about the precious little one growing inside of you. But it all resolved itself; yet another blessing from God.

10. Last, but not least, I had a baby! Sweetie-pie Allison joined our family in November. We love her oh so much.

That was our year in a nutshell. I look forward to the next year with my love and cute family.

106th Passage

Morgan got sea monkeys for Christmas. When he unwrapped them and we told him what it was, he was excited and said, "Now I can have my very own pet!"

Yesterday we treated the water, and today he added the eggs. So far I can't tell if the specks are sea monkeys, or if they are something else floating around. 

Post-it #154

Lydia loves nightgowns. She got this one for Christmas, and it came with a little nightgown for a doll. I considered giving that part to Alli, but Lydie got to put it on the monkey she got from Grandma and Grandpa Martin instead. 

105th Passage

Lydia is my girly girl who loves girly things. Like fingernail polish. She got a little kit for Christmas that has polish, fake nails, lip gloss, mirror, etc. in it. 

Here she is with her fake nails. They didn't last long.

 Yesterday she gave me a manicure.

 Not too shabby for a three year old.

 We also painted her toes and fingernails.

104th Passage

My baby is growing and learning! She's still in newborn clothes, but she weighed 8.2 lbs yesterday when I weighed her on the meat scale. 

She's learning how to stick out her tongue, blow bubbles, and she kicks her feet and wiggles around more during happy play time.  

103rd Passage

This year we got all the kids on Christmas day. We had to wait for William and Owen to arrive around 7:45 before we could start anything though. 

The kids went into the living room and found Styrofoam swords under the tree from Santa. Lydia kept looking for hers, but we pointed out the pretty dress for her instead. I think she was okay with the substitute. 

 I found this lovely necklace from David in my stocking.

 Lots of excitement opening presents. The kids were mostly gracious enough, though Owen was obviously unenthusiastic about a couple things.

 Lydia was really fun to watch. She was super excited about everything she opened and gave little squeals of delight.

 Alli woke up shortly after all the presents were unwrapped. She got a couple things too.

 I gave David a fletching jig. Here he is making arrows with it in the middle of the living room floor.

 We got the game Mousetrap as a family gift. I think it's a hit.

We also went to my parents' house and played. Yummy food, fun games, ham radio instruction, and talking with missionary brothers on the phone.

Post-it #153

Here are some official "baby's first Christmas" photos.

Post-it #152

Alli wore this to church on Sunday. She wasn't a happy girl when I was taking the pictures. 

This was Lydia's from when she was a baby. Shall we play "who wore it best?" Here is Lydia from three years ago.

Post-it #151

Here's my adorable Super Baby in a cute Christmas outfit.

Post it #150

David was invited to go into primary last Sunday to play his guitar to Christmas songs for all the primary children as a special Christmas treat. They all thought it was pretty cool. 

I like having such an awesome husband. 

102nd Passage

Owen: I wish my imaginary friends were real, then Paws could do my chores for me. He's the really really fast one. He knows the way to the North Pole, but I don't. Isn't that weird?

Lydia replaces "don't want" and "don't think" with "think so not". It cracks me up. "I think so not take a nap."

Speaking to Morgan about the sea monkeys he got for Christmas, William said: daddy only got you them so he could eat them an make you mad!

Owen: are you Martin?

Morgan: no, I'm a Nelson.

Owen: what if you were Martin, and what if you were stuck in a chicken suit forever?

Me: I'm almost done.

David: you're almost beautiful. . . . Times ten. You're only beautiful times 9.9.

He thinks it was a nice recovery. I don't think it counts as a recovery at all.

William: you don't know anything.
Owen: yuhhuh, I know lots of stuff.
William: then what's 1x1?
Owen: 2
William: nope. It's 10.

Lydia comes down stairs giggling and looking behind her "the kitty's following me!"
Me: what?
Lydia: the kitty is following me, it's upstairs.
Me: there is no kitty.
Lydia: it's dead.

I just saw Lydia looking in my closet saying, kitty? Kitty is gone.
I guess that dead cat that was following her the other day hasn't made a reappearance.

Earlier today Owen said, "did you know I have a magic finger? It's this one." He flips his middle finger up "I like to use it. It's my magic finger."

In the middle of breakfast Lydia stops eating and looks at me and says, "hey, guess what? I have eyeballs."

Morgan: what if my pointer finger was my longest, and there was a pretzel growing on top, and I'd keep on eating it and eating it, but it would keep growing until it was as tall as the house?

The other day for school Morgan and William were supposed to team up and write a limerick. I honestly didn't think they'd be able to get the rhythm or idea. But they did! Check it out.

He's too fat to fit through the door.
He's too flat to take a tour.
He's Santa!
Santa drinks fanta!
And he lived in the sewer.

While trying to teach Owen about opposites (is this normally an impossibly difficult concept to teach/grasp?) we had this conversation.
Me: ...so the opposite of boy is??
Owen: good?
He may be on to something.

Lydia is a little bit afraid if the bathtub drain. When I pulled the plug this morning while she was still in the tub, she scrambled out saying, "ah!! I keep falling off! It will break my toe!"

I had to keep reminding Morgan that he was supposed to be doing his chores. The more reminding I did, the more impatient I became. Morgan stomped back up to his bedroom and said, "you don't have to be so aggressive with me."

Morgan: "lots of babies are born each day. Every second a baby is popping out of a mom's whatever it's called."

From David's facebook: Is it weird that Owen just called me a "pissy marshmallow girl"?

Morgan: "sometimes I catch flies and pull their wings off so they will crawl on me longer."

And old man at church sits down and says, "You move your feet you lose your seat."
Owen: "you move your chicken noodle you lose your butt."
Old man: "you sound like you've lost your mind."
Owen: "my favorite words are butt, and naked, and chicken noodle."
The old man turns to me and says, "Tabasco will fix that."

Owen: Mommy, you're a one man business.

Lydia: Mommy, guess what? Soup.

101st Passage

Sometime this month we went up to chop down our Christmas tree. This year we went up past Banks. I think the pickings there were a little better than last year.
We drove, found some trees, picked one, and chopped it down. Last year we hiked up snowy hills and froze, and several of us fell down at least once. This year was much easier.

After selecting the tree, all the kiddos got to help chop it down.

Then David did it.

And here's our tree.

All decorated. 

Let me remind you that finding a lovely, full, manicured tree in the forest is pretty unrealistic. 

Here is our tree from last year.