weird Christmas

Well, for starters, it's Christmas this week.  Totally weird and not really feelin' ready for it.  I mean I bought the few presents we're going to buy and wrapped them.  But they're all stacked up high on a shelf because when I put them under the tree ... well .... let's just say a certain one year old boy was totally fascinated with shiny bows and tearing off wrapping paper.  So we have an empty tree.

And then there's the fact that this is the first year we're not spending Christmas with either of our parents.  Chris' mom and dad were supposed to meet us in Minneapolis, but couldn't get away for work/church reasons.  After the initial disappointment I thought "maybe this won't be so bad.  We'll get to start our own family traditions this year."  But we're not going to be at our house for Christmas.  We're still going to Minneapolis to spend the holiday with Chris' brother and his wife.  Which will be fun, but kinda weird.

And then I had this huge dilema about cookies.  (yes, cookies!)  Should I bake Christmas cookies??  I usually never do because our mama's bake a whole ton of them and that's usually enough sugar intake for the whole year.  But our mamas aren't going to be around for Christmas!  And I don't like making dozens and dozens of cookies because I EAT THEM ALL!!!  (sigh)  So I've been fighting this scroogy, bah-humbug attitude for the past few weeks and I don't like it :(

So then what's this whole Christmas thing all about?  (and let's be honest, we all know the right answer, but do we really live it?)  I know Christmas is not about presents, or cookies or in which bed we wake up on December 25.  But it's alwasy easier to say that when you have cookies and presents and the like.  So I'm learning to let go.  I'm learning to enjoy this season for what it is.  I'm finding Christmas.  I guess that's a part of growing up and making that transistion from being a part of my parent's family to becoming our own little family.

And the closer we get to Christmas the more excited I'm becoming.  I'm looking forward to a low-key Christmas with JD & Pamela.  I'm excited for Brooks to actually know how to open presnents and enjoy the tree.  And I'm totally excited to take Mr. B ice skating for the first time.  And of course I'm excited to remember the great sacrifice that my Savior, Jesus made by coming to earth as a baby so I could have eternal life (way better than any gift wrapped in snowman paper if you ask me) 

Merry Christmas!!!! 

Travelin' Mama

You ever have that 'need to get away feeling'?  Well, there's been none of that around here.  Because believe me ... I've been away.  And now, finally (sigh) I'm back home.  Yes, it feels good to be back home.

It started the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  We packed up our son and half of our home into our mini-van and hit the road to Wisconsin to visit my family for Thanksgiving.  We decided to leave after dinner so we could drive and the little would sleep the whole way there.  Well, turns out that's not such a good idea.  Because around midnight it physically hurt to keep my eyes open (yeah I know, I'm old) leaving my poor husband to drive in the dark by himeself.  And from 11p-1a Brooks was WIDE awake, shooting the whole 'driving at night so the kid will sleep' theory right in the butt.

But we arrived around 2am and crashed hard in the morning.  Thank goodness for grandparents who are more than willing to feed and entertain a 17 month old while mom and dad sleep in.  (sleep in??  does that happen when you're a parent?)

Brooks taking an important call.

We had fun spending time with family ...

eating good food ....

mmmm, sweet potatoes :)

and opening Christmas presents.

And per tradition, on Thanksgiving morning the boys went out on the bay to shoot stuff.

(shrug) It's a guy thing, I guess.

We spent the rest of the weekend there relaxing, crafting (well, the girls did anyway), and museum-ing (is that a word) before we headed home on Sunday.  That gave me just enough time to unpack, do laundry and pack my bag to leave again on Wednesday.  Excect this time I was flying solo.  Literally ... I flew to Dallas all by myself.

A few weeks earlier I was accepted into the training program to be a Bradley childbirth instructor.  So I grabbed my carry-on, drove to Minneapolis and flew to Dallas for the four day training.  Let me tell you how weird it was to get my boarding pass by myself.  And sit next to a stranger on a plane for two hours.  And check into a hotel by myself.  I never travel like this without my husband.  And this was my first time away from my baby.  (sniff sniff)

I did ok, but I sure did miss 'em.  I felt so much better leaving though, since my mother in law drove in from Montana to stay and take care of my boys while I was gone.  Everyone seemed to manage pretty well without mom which made me feel kinda sad good.

And as far as the training goes.  Well, they were really long days!  Like from 8am-10pm kinda long days.  But I learned a lot, made some great new friends and gained a bit more confidence for teaching other couples how to have a totally natural, unmedicated birth ... something I am totally passionate about.  I still have some paper work to finish up (hospital evaluations, book reports and such) before I can actually teach.  But start telling your pregnant friends ... this mama is teaching childbirth!  And it's going to be great!!

jabber box

Brooks has been so talkative lately.  Well, I suppose I should clarify.  Although he's starting to actually "verbalize" some words, he uses a lot of sign language still.  But to me that's just as good as talking!  And to show off how brilliantly smart my son is (I'm biased, I know. That's my job!) I've jotted down all his "communications". (more for my record than anything else)

Signing:

More

Daddy

Eat

Sleep

Penguin

(he made this sign up himself.  See? Brilliant!!)

He also knows .....
Please
Puppy
All done
Bath
Mommy
Pray
Fishy
Brush Teeth
Work (as in "Daddy's at work")
Thank you

Verbal Words (and what they mean :)
Da da (of course)
mamamamamamamamamamama (usually said when crying or distressed .... lucky me)
shoe (says it clear as a bell)
baw (ball)
ah-yah (all done)
mah (more)
mow mow (kitty)
sah (sock)
Co (Cole)
na (snack)
too tee (touchie - aka pacifier)
eeeeeeeee (please)
amah (amen)

He also sings Old McDonald with us filling in the animal noises for cow, kitty, puppy, duck, snake, sheep, lion and monkey.  (That's right, this Old McDonald's farm has lions and monkeys!)  And to top off my bragging session, he can effectively point to his nose, ears, mouth, eyes, bellybutton and feet.  And he will gladly show you where yours are too (we've had little fingers shoved in our eyes, ears and up our noses many times)  Yeah, I'm one proud mama!

Finally Booked

So it did it!  I finally applied (and 6 hours was accepted).  My flight is booked and my hotel is reserved.  I'm flying to Dallas in two weeks!!!!  Ok ok, you probably want to know why, right?  Well about a year ago I start tossing around the idea of teaching Bradley.  It's the childbirth class that Chris and I took while we were pregnant and we loved it!  (I'll spare you all my jabbering about why it's the best ... you can just take my word for it)  And I found I was passionate about sharing this information with other people.  But because of poor timing, lack of resources or simply not enough guts I never applied.  That changed Sunday.

I realized while spending time with my pregnant friends over the past few months that I'm just as passionate about childbirth now as I was a year ago.  Chris told me to do it, Carol told me to do it, Bethany told me to do it ... but you know what finally motivated me to apply?  Southwest airlines!  Yep that's right.  They ran an ad on Sunday about their holiday sale on flights and I thought "Hey, I should check this out."  And sure enough, I found I could get a roundtrip flight from Minneapolis to Dallas for about $200!  (6 months ago it was going to cost closer to $400)  We could make this work!

So I downloaded the application Sunday nigtht, filled it out on Monday and faxed it in Tuesday morning.  I made a quick call that morning and left a message saying I was sending it.  (I still couldn't believe this was actually happening.  My hands shook as I watched the fax machine suck in each page and send it to the Bradley guru's in California)  Then I followed up that afternoon to see how long this process would take.  I honestly thought I was too late to get in on this training in Dallas and I'd have to wait until spring.  And everything was happening so fast it didn't quite seem real.  But that afternoon I talked to an actual person (not the machine) and she informed me they not only received my application, but already processed it and approved it!

Um, what?  Really?  That fast?  The other Bradley teacher in town said it took a long time to hear back about her application.  This couldn't be happening.  But it was.  The gal told me what I needed to bring and to go ahead and make arrangements.  Oh wow.  So last night I booked my flight and this morning I reserved my hotel room.  I'm really going to Dallas.  I'm really going to be a Bradley teacher.  No more talk.  I'm doing it.

Of course when I return there's a whole lot more stuff to do.  I have to finish all my other requirements for affiliation (book reports, hospital reports, class observations, etc), then student teaching for two sessions.  Then I have to figure out where I'm going to hold classes and how I'm going to get students.  But I'm really doing this and Chris is behind me 100%.  I love him!

I will keep you posted on how things go, but for now.  I'm flying to Dallas!!!!

In a Nutshell

The weather at the beginning of the month was sooo beautiful.  We spent more days than I thought playing outside (remember, it's November)

This would be Brooks ... eating a rock.

And Charlie eating a rock.

Speaking of Charlie ......

He's a mounted moose!! (insert laughter here)  Our friends Brent & Laura looooooove Charlie and bought this hilarious get-up on a post-halloween sale.  He hated it.  We loved it :)

Ok, back to the nice weather.  We recently received a sandbox for the backyard for free. Yep, FREE!  And lemme tell ya, it's a big hit!

A little sand down the shirt never hurt, right?

November 3rd was my Mom's birthday and Brooks sent her this lovely little picture greeting. 

Amazingly enough, this was the first picture I took.  I realized it turned out so well because 1) My son loves the camera and 2) he had no idea that that piece of paper was even there.  Because as soon as he discovered it, he did this ....

Yeah, that's more like it.

Can you guess the story behind this picture??

I was tired of Brooks dismantling my purse and strewing all the contents of my wallet across the living room so Chris did this for me.  I guess that solves the problem.  Too bad I'm too short to reach it.

Oh and we can't forget Brook's favorite part of the day .... bath time.  Dad has fun during bath time too.  You can see why.

One evening I was giving Brooks his bath while Chris did the dishes and Brooks looked at me and signed "Dad", then followed by the expression that said "You're no fun.  Where's Dad?"  I guess I know my place in the world.

Early Tuesday morning our good friends Ben & Carol Hayzlett welcomed their first baby, Hannah Lily.  I was nervous wreck all Monday night knowing she was in labor and praying like crazy.  But mom and baby are healthy and I made not one, but two trips to the hospital to see them.  I was just so happy for them (and I loved holding that baby :)

Other than that we've been going to story time, the library, the community center and of course, reading lots of books.


So that's November in a nutshell.

my little helper

It was one of those days again.  I was trying to finish putting dinner together, clean up some dishes and get the house in order before Chris came home and Brooks is crying and clinging to my leg .... again.  So instead of hobbling around the kitchen with a toddler attached to my lower extremity, I put him to work.  Well, sort of.  He was my little dishes helper.  This kiddo loves to play in the water!!

Doesn't he look so grown up?  It totally reminds me of standing on my mother's kitchen chairs helping her wash dishes when I was a little girl.  There must be a picture of it somewhere.

He was lovin' that wire whisk!  He even grabbed the sponge and attemped to "wash" the dishes.  'Cause you know ... mom was doing it.  I love getting my kiddos involved in chores around the house.  (Because Drew and Cole feel like they're part of the family most days)  Today Cole helped match socks while I folded laundry.  Then we made granola where he measured tablespoons of cinnamon, counted cups of oatmeal, and used those muscles to stir it all together.  Did we have fun?  Oh yeah!  Was he learning?  You betcha!  (we need 5 cups of oatmeal and we already put in 3.  How many more do we need to add?)  Did he know he was learning stuff?  Not at all!  Hehe, I feel so sneaky.  Like when I put cauliflower in the mashed potatoes but no one knows and eats it anyway!

Ah, I'm so in love with that little boy! 

So while Brooks may not be able to help with many chores around the house, he certainly can play in the water while I do dishes.  And it definitely keeps him from crying at my feet!

bookworm

So my son's favorite thing these days are books!  Book Books Books.  It's the first thing he pulls off the shelf in the morning.  He grabs a book, crawls over to me on his elbows while holding the book (because he still isn't walking) thrusts it towards me and says "mah mah mah" (more more more).  So we read the book.  Then we read it again.  And again.  And again.  Then I convince him to choose another book so I don't loose my mind reading the same book over and over.  And he does.  Rinse lather repeat.  Before you know it, half an hour has gone by and all we've done is read books.

And when Daddy comes home he becomes the book reader. 

We stopped at the Goodwill store in town a few days ago and picked up some new books for $.50 and Brooks loves them.

Apparently Charlie does too :)  I love my little bookworm.  Let's just hope this loves of books continues.

1 year later

Exactly one year ago we took this picture.  It was a Sunday, SD pheasant opener to be exact.  And our little peanut was only 4 months old.

Well, here he is one year later.  It was pheasant opener again and Brooks wore his flannel shirt for the occasion ... again.

Isn't he just he most handsome little boy you've ever seen??  He wasn't donning any camoflauge this year because ... well, we don't have any camo that fits him (ahem, Dad).

This is his infamous "cheesey smile".  What a goofy kiddo!  And if you look real close, you'll see his front tooth that he chipped a few weeks ago.  Yeah, he's all boy.  Now I have to wait 5+ years for that tooth to fall out and a normal one to replace it.

Anteater Eater

As we were playing in Brooks' room before bed last night we discovered the mini beanie babies.  I pulled out the puppy and he signed "puppy".  I pulled out the bird and he signed "bird".  Then we pulled out the anteater and he did this .....

He stuck the whole nose of that anteater right in his mouth!  And then he carried it around that way for the next five minutes.  And it struck me so funny that I laughed out loud!!!

Oh yeah, he played with other toys and crawled all over the place with that thing in his mouth.  Then this morning after I changed him and got him dressed, he found that goofy anteater and did it again!!

"Here mama, you try it."

I love my little anteater eater.

Summer heat ... in October???

On Friday the high temp in Sioux Falls reached a whoppin' 85 degrees.  Yep, 85.  It's October!!  And this weekend has been more of the same.  October is supposed to be when you dust of the hooded sweatshirts and warm up apple cider and put away the flip flops.  But not this week.  I actually pulled all my sandals back out and even some shorts.  It's crazy.  But I'm not complaining.  If this weather means postponing the nastiness of winter, then bring it on!!

So because of the nice weather, we naturally took advantage of it and went outside and colored with chalk.

Even Charlie was hot.  We actually only spent about 15 minutes outside because Brooks was still dealing with croup and the heat seemed to make his cough worse.  But it was fun getting out while we could.

Then on Saturday Augustana College had their homecoming parade.  And since it was only 1 block away from our house, we decided to walk down and take in the festivities.  My favorite part, of course, were the marching bands.

Brooks' favorite would have to be this ...

A blue sucker.  With every parade comes candy, and Brooks wanted a part of it.  So he had his very first sucker.  And boy was he a mess!

Look at that blue tongue :)

Oh yeah.  He ate the whole thing.  Then he started working on the paper stem too ... until I took it away, that is.  What a perfect day for a parade. 

And despite the hot weather I snuck in a few baking projects too.  I actually canned my first jars of applesauce.

It wasn't as hard as I thought and suprsingly enough, they actually sealed!!!

I think I'll be making more in the near future ... now that my fear of the jars exploding has been releived.  And because I have so many apples still left, I made this beautiful pie. 

Betty Crocker ... eat your heart out!!  That's a homemade crust, homemade pie filling, lattice top and (sort of) fluted edges.  Are you impressed, mom??

This week it's supposed to be in the mid to upper 70's again so it looks like we'll be spending more time coloring with chalk, swining on swings and going for walks.  So HA!  Take that winter!