Grandparents

When Emma was 2 1/2 and Tyler was just a year old we drove to D.C. for Thanksgiving to be with my grandparents who were there on a mission. That was one of the most fun trips - my Grandma is SO MUCH FUN and loves kids. She played with mine the whole time we were there, and she got them hooked on hide-n-seek, even in their tiny missionary apartment. When the kids couldn't find her (which was always the case), she would literally squeak until they found her. I got the biggest kick out of my grandma, squeaking from some closet or bedroom. This little sound has carried over into our own games of hide-n-seek.

Emma is at pre-school this morning and Tyler said, "Will you play with me?" I asked what he wanted to play and he told me we should do hide 'n seek. This game is hilarious but also frustrating because my kids are clueless about hiding. For that matter, they're also clueless about seeking. He started counting to 10 (much too fast) and I took off running with him hot on my heels. As I jumped behind the couch, I heard him start squeaking, needing a clue about where to find me. I like to call this cheating, but he is only 3. He of course found me quickly and then I got to find him, using the squeak method as well.

My other grandma is so talented and always knits things for my babies. I have always felt a special bond with her. Before Emma was born she gave me (for Emma) some homemade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls. They hung out in her crib as a baby, untouched for about a year. Now Emma really enjoys playing with them, almost on a daily basis. I don't get to see my grandparents too often. I am fortunate that all 4 of them are still living (while all of Spencer's have passed) and I hope my kids get to make lots more fun memories with them.

Here they are with the Grandparents during our trip to D.C. (2006)

Here is my grandma meeting and holding her very first great-grandchild (Emma).


Here are my other two grandparents (dad's parents) meeting and admiring Emma. I love this picture.

On the flip side

I think Spencer feels a little dumped on after my last post, which I assured him was all about ME and how I need to just deal with MY pet peeves. So, to make up for it, I'll tell you all what I have appreciated most about him lately: not once after we lost our baby did he ever say anything that made me feel guilty or that I might have been even the slightest bit responsible. If our roles had been flipped, I can see myself asking something like Well, when was the last time you felt movement?? He never said any such thing. Not only did he not say dumb things, but he said all the right things. He protected me in so many ways until I was ready to jump back into life.I know that tragedies often cause stress in marriages, and our tragedy has just brought us closer together, mostly because of him and his sympathy and his compassion. So, I can surely deal with an un-cleared microwave timer for the rest of my life - that's easy.

Pet Peeves

I realize that sometimes I am completely irrational. Some of the things that bug me are simply ridiculous. In terms of grammar, the latest thing that totally irritates me is the non-distinction between who's and whose. There IS a difference. But does it really matter? Sometimes yes but usually not. Still, it bugs me. (Here is my last grammar-ranting post from a few months ago, which turned into a great discussion.)

When our two kids were both little and drank from sippy cups, I became the sippy cup nazi. I had certain lid colors that coordinated with the cup colors (talking about the cheapo sippy cups that I still have 3 1/2 years later). I think the color coordination was all just in my mind, however. I told Spencer how it worked, how they HAD to go together. He of course never seemed to care which color of lid went with which color of cup. Let me tell you, it drove me craaazy when Tyler was drinking out of a red cup with a yellow lid (supposed to be green). Why did it matter? IT DIDN'T! Even as I just now poured some milk into an orange cup, I moved the green lid out of the way to find the yellow one. Ridiculous!

One thing still makes me mad, and I am embarrassed to say that it has resulted in slight anger coming from my mouth more than one time, but most likely less than 200 times. When Spencer heats things up in the microwave, he always sets the cook time for way longer than necessary. When he determines it is done (based on a certain amount of sizzle, or one too many explosions), he opens the microwave and takes out his food. He never clears the timer!! I know, who cares!? But it's the one thing in our marriage that makes me crazy! (I guess we're doing pretty well if that's the only thing.) I have told him many times that I recognize the insanity of my irritation, but that he still needs to clear the timer so I can read the time when I'm in the kitchen! Nothing worse than getting up in the middle of the night, going into the kitchen for something, and not being able to see the time. You may see my point, but I realize this is something that I'll have to get over. Because no matter how many times I tell Spencer, I'm still going to have to be the one to clear the microwave, probably for the rest of my life. Hey, if this is the worst I have to say about him, we're in pretty good shape, yes?

Do you have irrational pet peeves?

Snow

Our weekend mini-getaway (by "mini," I mean less than 24 hours):

• One NICE cabin. Scratch that...it was no cabin. One NICE house. Seriously - heated bathroom floor tiles.
• Great company. Two other couples; some old friends and some new ones.
• Yummy food. I have a new food love - Eggs Benedict. Really, where has this been my whole life?
• Games. Even if they're silly and people "cheat," it's still fun. (The cheater was my husband, btw.)
• Snow. We may have had to drive a few hours to find some, but wow - FUN. Not bad when the outside temp is 60 degrees. That's MY kind of sledding.
• Two cute snow-deprived kids, who physically could not stop sledding.
• Vegging and afternoon napping, and watching the kids run circles for hours and hours.

Maybe, just maybe, the best part was hearing Tyler hum (loudly) the tune to Jingle Bells every time he was coming down on the sled. Classic. Or maybe the best part was watching Emma wipe out for the 459th time and staying face-down in the snow, too exhausted to lift her body up one more time. Or maybe it was seeing all the kids reach meltdown at the same point, after two fun hours of sledding. More likely, it was watching Spencer and Ben have a little snow fight, trying to get the ice down the other's neck.

Blog Book

After 3 1/2 weeks of printing and a week of being lost at my local post office, my blog book arrived on Thursday. There have been a lot of people asking me about where to get blog books printed. It's a little tricky to find a good place. If you want more specific info than what I provide, let me know. I also know of a new website that is launching their blog-to-book features in about a month, and I'm really excited about the features of this site.

I LOVE how this turned out. Since I started my blog about 18 months ago, I printed the entire 18 months. I think I'll do one for every 2 years from now on. It's a flat rate for a certain amount of pages, and then a small fee for every additional page. Mine is about 90 pages and I paid $46. It's hard-bound with personalized and customizable front and back covers. I am not going to show too much of it because there's lots of personal info, but it's really cute and I'm happy with it. The one thing I don't like is that sometimes the captions don't match up with the pictures like how they do on my actual blog.

How's this for an easy way to do family history?

Projects

We have been having some glorious weather. I know that's the last thing a lot people want to hear right now, in the dead of winter. It's been sunny and in the 70s all week long. Even for where we live, this is very unseason-like. I took advantage of the warmth today by sitting outside and completing a project I have been wanting to finish for almost 2 months.

This is Macie's box. Inside:

• A little shadowbox with a sprig of her casket flowers (dried). (Thanks to my MIL who took care of this for me after the funeral when I was a zombie case and wasn't thinking straight.)
• Her memory box from the hospital (with a lock of hair, pictures, footprints, the shampoo they used to wash her hair, the hospital blanket, and the shirt they dressed her in).
• A typed-up and printed off account that I wrote, with as specific details as possible so I won't forget anything.
• All the cards and letters people sent. I should probably print off emails and include those too.

I thought this box was cute since it looks like a block, so I finally painted it today. The pink is a little more PINK than I wanted, but so what?

I also am getting in the mood for Valentine's! I don't have too many decorations, so I made up this sign last week and got it all attached to the canvas today. I'm happy with how it turned out.

We have been busy and crazy and my poor kids haven't had a very patient mom. We're planning a little, fun family getaway this weekend to make up for it!

They say the darndest things

Tyler started Primary today. I can't even describe how excited he has been, mostly because he knew he would get to sit right in front of Emma! He has been calling himself "huge" and other similar things in preparation for the big day. I don't know whether to feel happy for him or sorry for him that he's the only boy among 5 girls in his class. I dropped the kids off today for their new classes. He walked right up to the front row, BEAMING. When he waved to me for the 3rd time I figured he'd be ok and I left. But maybe I should have stayed!

I have had more people come up to me today and tell me funny Tyler in Primary stories! The first was from the chorister. Every time they would sing a new song, she would ask who knew it and his hand would shoot up. He assumed that since he knew it (though he really didn't), he got to go up and stand with her. So...Tyler spent most of singing time up in front of the rest of the Primary. I wish I could have seen that. Tonight our Bishop stopped by. He said that when he went in for middle exercises they asked if there were any visitors - people there for the first time. According to the Bishop, a little voice from the front row said, "I'm a visitor!" And again, the hand shot up. He was right - it was his first time. So the entire primary sang to the entire Sunbeam class.

Some other things about Tyler:
*He is so polite! When we introduce him to someone new, he'll say (in a strong voice): "Hi! I'm Ty-er!" He did it just today at church when we introduced him to a nice man who was in a wheelchair.
*His grin melts my heart.
*He's still a cuddler. And he is always telling me, on his own, "I wove you."
*He LOVES to sleep (this is a recent love of his, in the last 6 months). He knows if he's tired and will ask for a nap and asks to go to bed at night. In fact, I'm usually trying to find ways to keep him up later so that he won't be up at 6 a.m. Strange kid. I love it.
*He is always telling me he will "bretect" me from the bad guys.
*His new favorite thing to say is "Aww nuts." It sounds so funny coming out of his mouth.
*He is so well-behaved. He sits through Sacrament meeting with no toys or treats and just lets me (or Spencer) hold him.
*He wakes up so happy. Almost too happy. It's lovely and also painful to hear "HI MOM!" at 6 a.m.
*He loves wearing his Jedi knight cape, while watching "Star Vors" and playing with his "lifesaver."

Recap

I have a love/hate relationship with this time of year. I love Christmas. I hate messing with the decorations. I hate how a stomach flu is always passed around. I love the time off Spencer gets/takes from work. I hate how dark it is so early at night. I hate paying our crazy heating bill. I hate how there are always football bowl games on. :) I love that my kids are suddenly absolutely addicted to the music from Mamma Mia. ADDICTED.

But most of all, I love witnessing the magic of Christmas. This year was no exception. We had the privilege (?) of being the recipients of gifts by TWO separate groups doing The Twelve Days of Christmas. Whoever did it was so kind and thoughtful. The four of us had lots to look forward to every night.

Macie's headstone was taking a long time (I can't blame them - we were picky). Alas, the company we went with realized how much we wanted it in for Christmas and put a rush on it. Not only was it in the ground in time for Christmas, it was in about a week early and it looks FANTASTIC. I just love it. Sorry, you guys don't get a picture - it's just too precious for the 'ol blog. But...another witness of Christmas magic.

I only cried once on Christmas day, sad about what my baby girl was missing, and what I was missing. But, my two other darlings didn't disappoint. Every present was an exciting moment for them; they were caught up in a fabulous world of toys and presents. Even though Tyler keeps referring to his Christmas presents as "junk" (i.e., Look at all my junk!), I know Christmas morning was just magical for him, and for Emma. And me? My very favorite gift is a beautiful pink tourmaline and diamond ring (October's birthstone), which is just the perfect reminder of sweet Macie. I love it.

Now we enter the longest, coldest, darkest month of the year. Hopefully some of that Christmas magic will carry over...