Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year! Sadly, I don't have any pictures of Christmas Eve or Christmas day. But, not to worry! I still have plenty of pictures courtesy of my Mom and Sherwin. I even have a video to post!

My brother Jacob came to visit from Arizona. He has been seeing a girl, Erica, from Idaho. In fact, they went to grade school together in Lincoln (a township in Idaho Falls) and her parents are my Grandma Sears's neighbors. She lives in Boise now, but she and Jacob have made a few trips to visit each other. She came to visit her family here in East Idaho for Christmas, so we finally got to meet her.

On Christmas Eve, we went to my Grandma Sears's house for dinner and presents with the extended family. The kids loved seeing my brother James's kids again. Piper and Hyrum have always been close friends, and lately, she has taken quite a liking to Emily. She insists that they're sisters, not cousins.

Grandma Sears got us some much needed towels, toys and clothes for the kids, and new silverware. It is so great to have good silverware. Ya know, the kind that match? The kind where the spoons don't bend when you dish up ice cream? Yeah, that's the stuff... Thanks Grandma Sears!

Some of the cousins at Grandma's house. Top Row: Piper, Monkey, Emily. Bottom Row: Isaac, Hyrum, Savannah, Mason. If you're confused about the monkey, read this entry for more info.

I helped mom make matching Christmas dresses for her granddaughters this year. You'll have to check out my brother's blog if you want to see his girls in theirs. His blog is linked on the side bar. Here are some of the Christmas pictures of Hyrum and Emily. If you want more Christmas pictures, you can find them on Facebook.

I wish I had pictures of opening presents on Christmas day, but my camera wasn't charged. I can assure you though, it was wonderful! The kids got talking Woody and Jessie dolls from us. They were a huge hit!

The kids also bought small presents for each other. Mike and I decided not to give each other presents this year so we could afford the dolls, but he cheated and got me a vegetable steamer anyhow. Mike's sister Jen and her family had our names for Christmas. I'm very excited to spend my Jo-Ann's Fabrics gift card! I'm just having a hard time deciding which project I want to make. Mike's Best Buy card is as good as spent, and it's going to take Hyrum and Emily years to finish all the activity books they got. Thank you, Golding family! Dan and Cristtin also sent us a package, although it wasn't for Christmas. We saved it for Christmas anyhow. I cannot tell you how much I love hand-me-downs! Thanks guys! A Secret Santa provided our kids with new coats, snow boots, snow pants, school clothes, and plenty of toys. In fact, there were 3 large boxes of presents and food. I guess he must have known how tough it is to be out of work for 5 months. Thank you, Santa!

After opening presents at our house, we headed over to my mom's house for breakfast and more presents. It was a full house with the four of us, Mom and Sherwin, Sherwin's son Dale and daughter Suzanne, and Jacob. Mom and Sherwin got me new pots and pans. Does it mean I'm getting old if I'm excited about that? The kids got more books and more toys. Hyrum was excited to get The Sound of Music from my mom. That is by far his favorite movie, but we've never owned it. Emily got an Aristocats DVD. Singing and dancing cats? Doesn't get much better than that! Even Jacob spoiled them with an enormous Lego set for Hyrum and a Playdough activity table for Emily. Jacob spoiled us too with a Nintendo DS game each. It was hard to resist the urge to hold The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks over my head and sing "Du-nu-nu-nu!" (If you haven't played any Zelda games, you won't understand. It's ok, we forgive you.) We spent the rest of Christmas playing with the kids' toys. Dang, Lego is still fun when you're 30!

The day after Christmas, we went with Jacob and Erica to visit my Grandma Page and Aunt Pat. It was nice to see them again. I really need to visit my grandma more often. It was good to hear how my cousins on my Dad's side are doing. That evening, we had dinner and game night at my mom's house. We taught Erica how to play Pinochle and had a great game of Balderdash.

Now, I promised you a video. If you're still reading after that long post, here's your reward. Last week, the kids got a belated Christmas present from Mike's friend Kit. We'll forgive the lateness since it was on backorder and shipped from Japan. Besides, it's just too dang cute!

Emily's Birthday

Ok, so I tried to do December all in one post, but I'm having troubles getting blogger to upload any more pictures. I guess I'll break it up into a couple posts and see if this works.

On December 6th, we celebrated Emily's 3rd birthday! We had the party at my mom's house with the 4 of us, my mom and Sherwin, and Sherwin's son Dale. We had a great time! I think that playing with Emily's pop beads after she opened her presents more than made up for the missing birthday cake. Here's a video of the night.

Sorry that all my videos have J-pop music in them, but I don't currently have any good songs in English on my computer. Besides, the title means "Empty Your Pockets." Rather fitting for December, don't you think? Poor Emily had a bad cold, but I still think she gave a stunning performance!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the event. If you want to see more pictures, I've posted more on my Facebook page.

Emily greedily looks over her pile of presents

Emily plays with her new friend, Zebra. Aren't my kids so creative with their toys' names?

My mom gave Emily and Hyrum matching bedspreads for their birthdays. I think that when Emily first saw hers, she thought that it was Hyrum's. She caught on when she saw it on her own bed at home that night. She was pretty excited that their beds matched.

Emily gets a kiss from Dad. (look at all that jewelery!)

Emily gives a kiss to Dad.

Emily tries to escape Dad's whisker burn.

I can't believe that my little girl isn't so little anymore! She's excited to be in Primary now, although she had a hard time letting go of Nursery. Hyrum assured her that she'd have a lot of fun and get to sing a lot. That helped. I think I uncovered her real fear this morning when she told me that she thought she had to grow up to be a boy in order to go to Primary. She didn't believe me when I told her that it's for both boys and girls. Good thing I had Hyrum there to back me up. She always listens to her brother.

Summer and Fall

Let's see... in our last episode, I had just gotten a job at Qwest, Mike was doing well in school, and things were looking up. Well, that's only half true now. Mike is still in school, but I lost my job at the beginning of August. I was concerned that I wouldn't make my quota coming out of training, and that's exactly what happened. I don't have any hard feelings though. Qwest treated me very well in my short time there, and my coaches and trainers fought hard to try to keep my job in a review board. All those that worked with me directly knew how good I was on the customer service end, and felt that I was still a good fit with the company. But after what my trainer said was the longest review board meeting she had ever been in (over 2 and a half hours), it was a corporate decision to let me go. The rest of the summer sped by in a blur of homework and unsuccessful job hunts.

Early in the summer, we went to visit Mike's family. His sister's family owns some property which they fittingly call "The Land" at Starvation Reservoir in Utah. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins. We made stick horses, went 4-wheeling, swam in the reservoir, and played the most physical game of spoons I've ever seen. Hyrum still talks about how Ken threw him in the river. In fact, it was what he talked about for his part in the Primary Program in October.

Making stick horses.

Hyrum and his horse (photo swiped from the Golding's blog)

Hyrum started kindergarten in mid August. He's loving it so far, and doing really well! His teachers are all great! In his first parent-teacher conference, I was told that he leads the class in reading and math. His teachers think he is quite brilliant, although he can't communicate it well. He is still doing speech therapy and is talking much better now. It's hard to believe that only a few short months ago, he wasn't speaking in sentences. Now he's quite a chatterbox, although his speech often sounds labored and mechanical. His speech pathologist referred us to a private speech and language clinic in Idaho Falls. He has only gone for 2 weeks now and is still in the testing phase, but I am anxiously looking forward to his continued improvement. Sitting in the waiting room during his testing, I feel blessed that his condition is mild, and that he has met good teachers along the way. There are so many other kids with many more problems than him. In fact, I feel a little guilty worrying so much about his speech when he's clearly better off than nearly all the kids there.

Hyrum's first day of school

The end of summer brought the start of the college football season. Mike had bought season tickets for Boise State before I lost my job. Mike and I went to the opening game against Oregon and got to watch Boise start yet another perfect (so far) season with a great win against the Ducks. We also got to witness the "Punch Heard Round the World" in person. Since then, Mike has taken each of the kids individually to games, and we once went as a whole family to sell our tickets and watch from the warmth of the basketball arena. On that trip, the kids got to go out on the blue turf, pet the Boise State Bronco, and wave as the band walked by about two yards away. They loved it! Hyrum thinks he wants to be a football player, and Emily is in love with the "pretty horse named Bronco."

Hyrum and Mike at the BSU/Miami (OH) game

Emily after the BSU/UC Davis game

If summer was a blur of homework and job hunting, fall has been a blur of sickness. There hasn't been a single week since October when one or more of us hasn't been sick. We had a good Halloween despite all four of us having the flu. Hyrum asked to be a super hero, and Emily asked to be a pink star. I decided it would be easier to make the same costume for both of them and convinced her to be a pink super hero star... whatever that means. I didn't want them to be any specific super heroes, so I made them their own style costumes and crests. I was planning to make them super hero capes for Christmas, but I guess this saves me the trouble.

Hyrum's school didn't allow costumes, only crazy hair. Here he is with green hair. Yes, it was green even if the picture doesn't show it well.

These are the crests that Mike and I designed for the back of their capes.

Emily with her star wand. Do super heroes have wands?

Criminals beware! Super Emily is coming for YOU!

This is as tough as Hyrum can manage to look.

He may look scrawny, but he's surprisingly strong. *cough*

November 17th was Hyrum's 6th birthday. Six! I can't believe it! We celebrated his birthday on the following Saturday. The only present he asked for was a fish. We kept him locked out of our room for a couple days while we set up an aquarium and let the water cycle. I thought he was getting suspicious because he kept catching glimpses of the towel we draped over it. Saturday afternoon, we moved it to his room and put the fish in. I think he was afraid to acknowledge that he really got fish. When we brought him to his room and told him his present was inside, he very purposefully avoided making eye contact with the tank and searched his room for a wrapped gift. We had to confirm several times that the fish were his before he allowed himself to get excited about it. Since then, he has spent a lot of time watching and studying them. Now Emily wants a pink one for her birthday next week. That evening, my mom invited us over for dinner, cake, and presents. He got a new bedspread from my mom, a puzzle from Emily, and church socks from Mike and me. I'll try to post a birthday video like last year, but it took me a long time to put that one together, so no promises.

Hyrum is still avoiding looking at his fish tank.

DeeDee thought it was her birthday.

Yesterday, we had Thanksgiving with my Mom and Sherwin. Sherwin's son Dale and daughter Suzanne were there as well. We had a nice time eating, chatting, and playing games. I can't wait to see Mom's and Suzanne's pictures and videos of Sherwin, Dale, and Mike attempting to do the "stunts" from the Cranium Family Fun game.

After four months of unemployment, I'm still looking for work. However, Mike and I have decided that I will be returning to school full time this spring. I have wanted to go back to school ever since leaving, so I'm very excited. However, I'm also terrified. What am I thinking!? It's been almost 9 years since I left Ricks! I hope I haven't forgotten everything. Also, I'm worried about living off of student loans and financial aid with both of us in school full time. I spoke to the music department, and they seem to think I should be able to do a work study in the music building to help supplement our income. I just hope it's enough. So far, the plan is that I'll continue my degree in Music Education, but I'm apprehensive about the amount of time I'll have to spend away from my family. Music is a very time intensive major. I've been arguing these points in my head since Mike brought up the idea about two months ago, and it has caused me an enormous amount of stress. However, after making a shaky decision last week, I've received several reassurances that I'm doing the right thing. It almost reminds me of when I was at Ricks and struggling with my choice to be a music major. I had my answer then, and I have my answer now. So wish us luck!

I hope to post again after Emily's birthday, but let's be realistic here... I'm lousy at keeping this thing updated! Heck, look at the banner at the top of the blog. Emily was a baby in those pictures, and she's going to be 3 next week! I'll do my best to be better about posting updates, but if you really want to know what we're up to, just give us a call.

A big thank you to Cristtin for warning us of our impending doom!

Spring and Summer So Far

It's been a while since we last posted a blog. A lot has changed around here, but I'm going to try to keep the news brief and post a lot of pictures and videos instead. So let's get the news out of the way first. In the beginning of May, my job cut hours once again, bringing me down to 25 a week. They encouraged me to stick it out until they could offer 40 hour shifts again, but I told them that this was completely unacceptable and asked that they give me paid time off to find another job. That same day, I received an offer from Qwest and put in my 2 week notice at Center Partners.

I began my 10 week training at Qwest in mid May. My official title is Qwest Center Service and Sales Agent - Western Region, Idaho Falls. Yup, quite a mouth full. The pay is better, the employees are treated better, the benefits are incredible, and I enjoy the job more. The only problem is that there are quotas. On Tuesday, I begin the evaluation period of my training. I need to meet certain revenue goals in the next 4 weeks in order to remain employed at Qwest. I'm more than a little nervous. I've had several high revenue days, but I've also had several low ones. I'm hoping it all evens out during the next 4 weeks.

Mike has been extremely busy this summer. He decided to take summer classes in order to catch up in his new major so he can finish sooner. He also accepted a summer internship. I think it was a bit more work than he was expecting, but he's enjoying it. He loves his calculus class, and his boss at work has started training him to be a reactor operator.

The big downside to us being so busy is that the kids are at daycare for 8-9 hours a day. Luckily, they love it. The daycare is run by some members of our ward, and they are great! The adults interact with the kids rather than just sitting back and watching, and they encourage learning and imaginative play. They know each of the kids individually and are as proud of them as we are. Despite the adult/kid ratio being somewhat poor on certain days of the week, all the kids in the daycare are well mannered and friendly. They're doing an awesome job! My kids actually look forward to going to daycare to see their friends and learn new things.

Even with as busy as we've been, we've still found time for fun. Memorial Day weekend was great! Even though we had to stay close to home, we still took the kids to the park and flew kites in the baseball diamond in our back yard. Yes, we have a baseball diamond in our back yard. The kids' new favorite song is "Let's Go Fly a Kite!" We actually had to tell the kids not to sing it at daycare anymore because we were afraid the staff was getting tired of it. Mother's Day and Father's Day were great too. Mike and I also celebrated our 9 year anniversary on May 12th.

Last night, we went to a company party at Tautphaus Park. Qwest provided food, a live band, discounted ride tickets to Fun Land, and free tickets to the zoo. We had a great time! After eating, we headed over to the rides. Hyrum was anxious to try the ferris wheel, but Emily was afraid. However, when she saw me and Hyrum get on, she suddenly became braver and asked Mike to take her. Hyrum loved every second of it. Emily, on the other hand, started out scared. When their car got to the top, he pointed out all the things she could see from up so high, and she decided it wasn't so bad. She happily told Mike, "Oh! Ferris wheel isn't scary! I like the ferris wheel!" Here's a picture of Mike and Emily during the ride.

After that, we hit the merry go round. Again, Emily was afraid, so I stood beside her. It didn't take long before she decided that it was fun and even became brave enough to take her hands off the pole to wave at Mike as we went past. Hyrum was a pro. He must have remembered going on the merry go round when he was younger. He didn't even want help getting on to the horse because he was determined to do it himself. After the merry go round, the kids went on a train ride. They both loved it! Hyrum said it was his favorite, but later he couldn't decide if he had liked the merry go round or ferris wheel better.

After the rides, we went to the zoo. It was probably about 7:00 in the evening, and some of the animals were already asleep for the night. Hyrum was disappointed that his usual favorite, the otters, weren't swimming. Emily still got to see her favorite, the zebra. She has loved zebras from the very first time she ever saw one. By the time we got to that exhibit, she was sleepy and resting on Mike's shoulder. When she saw the zebra, she suddenly perked up and got more and more excited. "Zebra! It's my zebra!" They also had a petting zoo with animals such as a donkey and goats.

After the zoo, the kids wanted to play on the playground. The video needs a bit of an intro. Emily is afraid of crossing bridges thanks to Dora the Explorer and the Grumpy Old Troll Who Lives Under the Bridge. All in all, we had a great night!

We're looking forward to taking the kids to see the fireworks show next weekend. After how much Hyrum loved the fireworks at Jen's house last year, we think he's going to love it! We'll just have to make sure Emily gets a good nap that afternoon.

Updated!

Hah! Now you can't say we haven't!