Christmas is here!

Since we spent our vacation with Paul's family and we went back to Ontario last year, this year was a Seattle Christmas (ie: rain, no snow)

We put up our tree, but with vacation never got around to the outside lights. The boys kept asking me when we'd put up lights outside and I kept asking when they'd help me.  Our tree is enormous... we have a lot of ornaments, my parents bought me one a year while I was growing up and now buy 1 for each kid (as I try to do as well) each year, so until they move out it's gonna be pretty heavy. Not to mention the ornaments the kids have made...

This is how it got decorated. Carter (and Henri after the first few nights) slept on the couch by the tree. The first day we got it up and put lights on. Then in the middle of the night Carter decorated the middle. We woke up to find our tree with a belt of ornaments. He was too short to reach the top but wanted them too high for Valerie. Then Henri decorated the bottom with the ornaments that wouldn't be hurt by a toddler playing with them and then I decorated the top.

Valerie carefully examined the ornaments.  She then took a lot of them off, but did as well as a 2 year old could be expected to with a tree full of little toys sitting there.

Valerie's hoping for snow, but so far there was just a dusting one morning that was mostly melted by the time we woke up. When we got snow last time you literally couldn't get the little kids out of it.

Then we went to see Santa.  Carter asked for "a Pokemon plush toy" Henri asked for "pretend grapes" which Santa asked to be sure of. Henri says he's going to pretend to eat them when they arrive in his stocking. I realized he's not looking for the plastic food kitchen type grapes but the ones in the craft stores to decorate your house that I always tell him he can't have.  Luckily Santa did deliver both requests as well as lots of candy.

 We love the Santa at Molback's! Free, take your own pics short or no line, free coffee and Kringles (like a donut-but don't tell your kids it is a donut, they will repeatedly correct you. But it can be fun to call them a donut over and over to keep hearing the employees correct you repeatedly...)

Since we had a lot to do, Mom did a lot of internet shopping this year. V loved the boxes

 

 

Our friends came over for some graham cracker houses. The boys spent a lot of time and energy on them, esp Henri. Valerie pretty much just liked frosting off a knife...

The Saturday before Christmas we went to Dad's side of the family and did a gift exchange and had a Southern style meal catered which was awesome not to have to bring food, lol.  The boys got more sticky ninjas (that's all H asks grandma for anymore) unfortunately some got stuck on the ceiling and Paul had to rescue them)

 He then joined my cousin in some hula hoop tricks. My grandma called later to say how much she enjoyed Paul's unusual outgoing nature :). Unusual meaning he's not known as the most outgoing person, not that he's got an unusual nature.

The gift exchange got Henri 2 boxes of chocolate which he refused to give up and Carter a new blanket for his bed so I could have my quilt back. Which ended up going to Camp Unity since I never realized how "loved" it was getting! (P.S. bonus post about blankets next)

My independent girl has been incredibly snuggly lately. Not sure of the reason, but it's taking some getting used to... Grandpa doesn't seem to mind, though.

Valerie liked opening presents even if she would get sidetracked with something she particularily liked

 The boys "helped" her a lot.

On Christmas Eve, my brother, his girlfriend & son came over with my parents.  All unwrapping stopped when the kids unwrapped these felt handmade angrybirds from my brother's girlfriend.  She said, "I guess I should have warned you and had them opened last." They were a hit!

I almost got all the stockings made. Valerie's left and assuming we spend next year in Ontario where we use our childhood stockings I have 2 years to do it. I'm going to need it. The pattern I chose is pretty complicated.... I cross stitch and my mom sews them up for me. Yes I could sew them, but I want them to look nice.

I love that Henri's at the stage where everything he opens is.... "oh, just what I wanted/needed!"

So after stockings we open our gifts to each other. Valerie's loving a new Dora Dollhouse and furniture, the boys got Skylanders video game for XBox which they pretty much play or talk about every waking moment now. When I made them turn it off, they got out art supplies and drew the characters.  I got Paul a few things I thought he'd like. 

So I'd been looking at Costco for a SLR camera. As you can see from my photos above, the light and focus are starting to not be as crisp in my point & shoot handy little camera and now that the kids are getting bigger and Valerie's getting faster I'd hinted for a Cannon T3i that was a great deal with an extra lense until after New Year's.  Paul found that they also sold the T4i online that was also a deal, but more expensive, being the next generation. I hemmed an hawed and mentioned casually that the T3i would be nice (has auto shooting options, the Nikon does not) but maybe we should go for the 4 since technology changes so fast.  A few days later, I'd seen a box wrapped up in his office and casually asked if it needed to go under the tree. Paul got upset and pulled out a T3i box and said, no, he needed to return it since I clearly wanted the 4i and I got upset at having ruined the surprise and he said, "I'll just get you an Xbox and after new years you can get what you want."  I was disappointed, but I guess I learned about snooping before Christmas.

Christmas morning, I saw a box the right shape as a camera and had high hopes.  Imagine my disappointment when I opened an Xbox. Seriously? I thought... who would give their wife who plays maybe one video game a month an Xbox. Well, I thought trying not to be sad, I guess I could connect it to our bedroom TV so we can watch TV in there (we don't have cable, only Netflix & HuluPlus).  I smiled, said nothing and set it aside.  All the presents got opened, the boys ran down to play Skylanders (we got them one game, my parents the other in the series) and Paul brought up an envelope with a camera flash in it.  I got a little hopeful thinking, "ok, at least I can go get one after Christmas, I guess"  Then Paul finally came in and said, "aren't you going to open your Xbox?"  I warily smiled and said, "ok.  Instruction manual, hmmm...."  Under the manual was the camera. He completely tricked me.  What a stinker! I tried not to overly freak out as I'd been kind of a pain in the butt about the whole thing but inside I was glad it wasn't an Xbox!

Then I played. OMG, even in auto mode I love it!

I mean seriously, doesn't she look adorable! Makesyou want to forget the  fact that she totally stole this from my stocking and is going to be a sticky mess when she finishes it...

plus, with the portrait mode that blurs the background my kid messiness will be at least blurred in my shots instead of clear and focused...

experimenting with the "no flash" mode

Poor Henri who was an Angel in Turks has been a whiny mess since we got home. I think he's had a hard time being off his normal routine... I told him to put his clothes in the dresser, after freaking out I found it silent in his room.

 

 

Valerie's also been very outgoing and talkative the last few days after about a week of pretty much giving us only the grunting treatment...

 

I'm guessing she wants a cookie??

 

 

She's been obsessed with Dora, hence when I heard about a dollhouse up for grabs I nabbed it. Note her Dora videos, which she will watch for HOURS if you let her, which it being the season of lots to get done, Mommy has graciously let her.  Because thats the sign of a good mom, right?

 

Humbling...

Well, if you've seen over the past 2 years, I've been incorporating more prayer in my daily life. Usually while driving or in the shower when I get 2 minutes of peace. Driving you say? Let me introduce you to my car that I love with the wireless headphones and DVD player, I now listen to books on CD instead of children's CDs :)

Anyways, so one prayer that I've been praying because I'm still working on it is to be less judgmental.  Erin, you aren't judgemental! you say You donate your time and efforts to helping those less fortunate, you are doing fine!  Well, let me tell you, there's an inner dialogue in my head that can be vicious when it comes to making snap decisions about people after taking one look at them.  I admit it. This is my biggest character flaw (there are others, I never said it's my only... just the one that bugs me most).  So I pray God will quiet down that inner dialogue long enough to let me get to know the person before judging them. Wait, I mean let me get to know that person and accept them as they are. Right.... that's the end goal.  So 2 years into this apparently I'm not much closer than when I started.  Especially when I'm tired. Yes, there's a story here.

We got home from Turks. I'm shivering with the kids in our shorts and tank tops waiting for Paul to get the car outside baggage claim. I'm tired, we're freezing.  A college age guy stops his little car just in front of us, puts on his flashers and goes inside.  My inner dialogue became an outer dialogue because my filter was just too tired to work.  I say, "Wow, that's a no parking zone, he must think he's better than everyone else and the rules don't apply to him."  Traffic starts backing up as people arrive and their rides arrive as well. "Ug, look, now there's a backup because no one can move!"  Then he's back in his car, still not moving.  I'm pretty sure he heard some of my comments and he comes over and says, "do you guys need a blanket? I have one in the back of my car."  I snottily (pridefully, I'm sad to admit) reply, "no thanks, my husband's almost here with the car" in my head "if you would move your car he could get in here, too. Plus, I don't need help from a kid who can't even follow parking rules."  We're still shivering.  Finally Henri announces (you know what's coming, right?) "I have to go to the bathroom"  Sigh.  Now decisions must be made. Do I haul 3 kids and luggage in? Do I wait for Paul to rush Henri in?  These are the times when having 3 kids on your own sucks.  I call it triage.  Figuring out as fast as possible the best solution to an immediate problem and hoping you made the right choice.

"Carter, will you please take your brother to the bathroom?"  ok, maybe not the best choice to send 7 and 4 year old boys to a public restroom on their own.  1 minute later. Carter comes back crying without Henri.  "Henri hit me when I tried to hold his hand"  "You left your 4 year old brother by himself???!" I grab Valerie and tell Carter, "stay with the bags, wait for dad, I'll take him."  Again, leaving a 7 year old with cars passing by by himself, probably not a great choice either....  I figured we'd waited long enough he'd be by himself 5 minutes at most, besides, the college kid was right there and knew what his mom looked like. Yeah, that guy I just totally judged was my backup plan for my most precious thing in life. I was really tired.  I take V and H into the bathroom, he goes, I get back and yes, Paul is there, he was 2 minutes behind, if I'd been awake I would have just waited for him to show up and run H to the bathroom by himself, but clearly decision making was not at it's best that evening.

I get in the car. Carter has a blanket. "Mom, that guy gave me this blanket, he said I could have it." I sigh. "That was nice, did you at least say thank you?" C: "No, I forgot."  Ug, so now I have completely misjudged a stranger AND my child has no manners. I believe I started crying at this point and realized God's humbling power. Not only did he keep my children safe when I couldn't manage on my own, but he grew my inner character at the same time....

Anyways, I was reminded of the incident 2 days later when I dropped Carter off at school and impatiently told the minivan infront of me, "come on! There's plenty of space, move up!!!" and heard from the back seat, "he must think he's more important than the rest of us."  My heart dropped this was my opportunity to start making amends, "Honey, I never should have said that. I should be more patient. Remember how that guy ended up giving you his blanket? "  C: "Yeah, mom, that was pretty cool." 

Then in church this Sunday when we passed peace between each other, our pastor mentioned something he does periodicly, "When you pass peace think of someone who you have wronged or who has wronged you and keep that person in mind when you pass peace today. Let the sign of passing peace let you forgive or be forgived as Christ forgives us"  (paraphrased, sorry, Pastor Kelly!)  the guy immediately came to mind.  I know he's forgiven me a long time ago. He forgave me when he gave my child a blanket (which later was passed on to Camp Unity... part of my penance!) I needed to forgive myself and take away the lesson I'd learned.

So thank you college guy from the airport. For your blanket, your forgiveness and your tolerance and non-judgement of a tired, cold, grumpy mom.

P.S.  And please, no one call CPS on me for this story.  The kids were fine and people around us were interacting and watching out for them.  I am sharing the story so hopefully someone else can take the lesson I learned to heart.

Turks & Caicos

What better way to enjoy the holidays than to say, "I got as much done as my could before Thanksgiving, now it's time to relax and say, 'screw it' to all the other preparations and spend time with family."

We joined my husband's family in Turks & Caicos (in the Carribean if you are as geographicly challenged as I am).  There were 23 people in our group! The 5 of us, his parents, his grandmother, his sister, her husband and her two girls; his other sister, her husband and her three girls; his step-sister, her husband and her 3 girls and one son (yeah, we're a little girl heavy on my husband's side of the family-makes up for the extremely boy heavy family tree on my side).

So last time we all met up there, Carter was 3, Henri was barely a year old and not quite walking and I was pregnant with Valerie (though we hadn't told anyone!)  This time was a little different.  We got the same set up we had last time... a 2 bedroom suite that has a kids' room with a door, sink, bunkbed with a trundle and an Xbox :)  The huge bathroom with jacuzzi tub (we never used this time) shower, double sinks is in between and then Paul and my room with a huge king side bed as well as a chair that can fold out and a daybed with a trundle.  Yes, theoretically this room sleeps 8 people!  Considering our children seem to have a heck of a time sleeping somewhere besides their own beds it worked out fine.  Henri always slept in the bottom bunk just like home.  Carter alternated between the top bunk and the daybed in our bedroom. Valerie alternated between the two trundle beds. 

How did the kids do? In a nutshell, Henri did outstanding.  He was happy, did whatever we wanted and puretty much passed out wherever he was when he was tired. Carter did as well as Carter does when he's tired and somewhere he can't control what food he's eating.  He had a great time and was for the most part his usual happy, helpful self, however there was some whining due to the great diversity in bedtimes while on our trip.  Valerie. Well, Valerie pretty much screamed and threw a fit whenever she was not either in the pool or in the shower AKA the water.  Bedtime was not great considering shes not great going to bed at home and in T&C without a door she cant open and sharing a room, she was a pain.  The first night, after having flown overnight and having a 6 hour layover in Miami (sidenote: we had 6 hour layover both ways and the kids did GREAT! We were very much thinking about changing our flights to prevent it but there weren't many options coming from the west coast, but it worked out fine).  Midnight she was throwing her swim gear and shoes at us screaming "SIMMING!!!!!!" 

I don't have the details handy of what we did every day and where we ate (important at a resort!) so I'll have to do anothe post when I have that, but for now I can share the pictures.  And yes, it turned out to be very relaxing even with 3 kids in tow. To start with, our room came with a spa credit which we used for a couples' massage.  Also, having our kids be the ones that no one ever gets to see, all of Paul's family were very nice about asking if the kids (esp the boys) would like to swim, play games, go for ice cream, etc. The little kids swam with Puddle Jumper floaties, so I could lounge by the side of the pool with a magazine and check periodically on them and felt like they weren't going to drown.  Frankly, any place where having a Pina Colada at the pool at 10am doesn't make you the mom they all whisper about is a relaxing place to be.

Hmmm... maybe we didn't have to buy tickets for the kids... looks like maybe they'd qualify as carryon!

Play area at SeaTac

We finally arrived and the kids got to enjoy the white sand:

Paul and his neice went parasailing

Which was good, because I really don't like height. Especially heights that involve me way up in the sky in a tiny harness.

Seriously, painful to get her out of the water. I looked every night for gills.

Valerie finally gets to meet Elmo. He's terrifyingly large for a monster who is supposed to only be 3 years old.

Henri's pretty happy with him, though.

 Henri's ready to try out the snorkel gear in the pool. Unfortunately there was a tropical storm that passed by the week before our trip, so although Paul and I did go out snorkeling once, we did not have the kids go as the water was pretty choppy most of the week.

view from the snorkel boat of the resort

Carter in his nest, the daybed next to ours.... after they put it back the next morning he left a note each day saying, "please don't brake"

We did the Sesame Street Character breakfast, which I think was worth the cost, especially since kids were discounted and Valerie was free, they got a small Elmo plush and a cup with a straw.

Elmo's not so scary from across the room. Her second favorite character was Ernie

Watching the Characters dance Gangnam style was awesome too... I may have a video somewhere from the Elmo Birthday party we attended. The kids also baked with cookie monster while they were in childcare while we were at our massage.

Trying to get pictures of Valerie before family photos. She runs way too fast!

after the first 3 days of not having to wear shoes she was just too cool and refused to wear them. This continued until about 3 days after we got home...

First thing in the morning our fun was to check out the cabanas and see how the towels had been folded....

A rare moment out of the water, she finally started napping about 1/2 way through our trip. Well, passing out randomly by the pool...

 Carter remembered the swim up bar that served milkshakes from last time (he was about Henri's age last time we were there) and was excited to introduce the concept to Henri..

Valerie got a braid and bead combo like her big cousin and examined it carefully before finally leaving it alone, though she thought it was fun on the way home to click the beads on her headphones...

The boys loved having so much time with their cousins B & C and would ask where they were anytime we were separate...

How do you spend 6 hours in an airport and then 6 on a plane with 3 small children? Electronics, baby. And have backups because if you have a delay you will run out of battery life.

 

 

So that's our trip, we made it, we relaxed.  Then we got back and realized it was only a few weeks until Christmas! (coming up next)

November

Ah, November. Fall is always a busy time in our house. I get signed up for things, the kids start school, new routines, etc.  By the time the last week of December rolls around I kind of feel like I'm recovering from being hit by a truck. This year is no exception.

However, I also try to keep things in perspective and have fun.  Besides downloading Gangnam style for the dance game for Kinect, I laughed over and over at the following two videos online this month.

Gay Men will Marry your Girlfriends

And

First World Problems


Living under a rock and still don't know Gangnam style?  This link can show you all the rage...

Here's Paul doing it which is super funny, too....

(by the way if you are reading this blog at work, make sure you have your volume turned low as both links have sound. One has a bad word, but I'm not telling you which one)

As soon as the church charge conference was done we had another well, issue shall I say... come up at church.  Tent City 4 asked us in November if we would be able to host them in January. We've hosted Tent City twice before. Before the first hosting, the neighborhood wanted nothing to do with it.  When we hosted the 2nd time it was kind of a non-issue. Neighbors were more curious about it than anything else.  So we said yes, we would take them starting January 12th when their current 90 day permit was up to stay at their current location.  TC4 had some issues with their parent organization Share/Wheel which came to a head and about 3/4 of the residence from TC4 defected to make their own encampment now called Camp Unity Eastside. Long story short is that we had to recind the offer because we took in Camp Unity Eastside. When I say took in I mean that in the 10-14 days it took us to get the camp up and running (no tents, etc. were taken from TC4, so all new supplies had to be procured including 200 pallets, 600 blankets and 60 sleeping bags and about 40-50 tents and tarps) they were literally iving in the sanctuary, hallways, etc (not in classrooms, we have a co-op preschool which occupies our classrooms during the week).  Since  being Membership Secretary means I'm on the board, it took up a lot the room in my head thinking about procuring supplies, etc.

The other thing that happened is I started working with a group called The Heart of Giving.  I got brought into it because a friend of mine runs one of three Garage of Blessings out of her home about 20 minutes away. I met her through my Mothers of Preschoolers group.  She and I have similar personalities in that we both feel that we should help out our fellow neighbor and are both pretty much type A personalities with a love of organization :) Basicly the Garage of Blessings is a free garage sale.  People donate to the garages instead of say, Goodwill and instead of the items being resold at a thrift store, they are given for free to anyone who needs them.  Heart of Giving is an umbrella organization with similar goals who partnered with the garages.  Heart of Giving runs various FaceBook pages that work like the garage but for immediate needs outside the garage as well as bigger items that are too large for the garages to keep on hand.  These pages are in various parts of the country.  Anyways, she was thinking it would be easier for her if she could run the garage and organize donations open it for people to "shop", etc. if I could help her by keeping an eye on the Facebook page for her particular area.  Since I use FB regularily I thought, sure, no problem.

What this means is I'm an administrator. If inappropriate comments are made, offers for money are put up, advertising or spam gets put on or a need is posted then met, I delete stuff.  Seems I've done my job too well as I'm now referred to as the "Silent Terminator" and a behind the scenes admin for about 20 pages now.  I focus on the 3 I was first put in charge of, but rove to other pages as they need help and I have time for.  It's been fun seeing the blessings, like a few kids who gave up their Wiis or DSs that they barely play with so they could be given to kids who were hoping to get some for Christmas but their parents didn't have much money after paying rent or losing a job but made just a little too much for many of the Christmas programs available in the area.  We seem to be filling up a gap between "entitlement programs" as the US seems to refer to them these days and the working poor. I also love how much stuff is being kept in use and out of the landfill (BTW, did you know we are the first state where we recycle more than we throw away???)

So with all this going on, I'm working on delegating more chores. Like the laundry. We're now folding about 4 loads at once  (about one weeks' worth of laundry) rather than every other day.  Because of the arrangement of doing more chores Carter told me one morning that I "ruin all his fun". That evening we all spent an hour folding the 4 loads of laundry on my bed. (By "we" I mean, me, carter helping as much as he could, Henri helping when he felt like it, Valerie dumping the 3rd roll of toilet paper this week into the toilet and throwing the laundry on the other side of the room, and Paul being at work) Carter says, "this is fun! We should call what we are doing fun chores!" the kid is wacked.

Oh, yeah, still trying to potty train Valerie. We're at about the same stage as my last post. I put her on the toilet, she pees, then if I leave she puts a roll of TP in the toilet (we've gone through a lot of TP lately). She poops her pants every time, never in the toilet but she's still getting enough in the toilet that I do less laundry than using cloth diapers, so I'm sticking with it. Since our schedule has been wierd with the older kids off school, we've had some bad days where she just peed her pants all day, but now that I'm getting her back on task it's back to where it was.  She even kept up while we were on vacation (vacation and Christmas will be in another post-this is just filling the gap of the end of November)

Besides all this I took a scrapbook class from Inspired to Scrap and won a grand prize for completing all my homework by the end of the month! Not to mention all the great pages I completed for the kids' albums (mostly pictures from Carter's summer vacation away from home). I enjoyed it so much I'm signed up for another one in January from Feeling Scrappy.

I haven't been doing much large-scale cooking, so we are eating up dinners from the freezer from swaps and my own pre-cooking.  Though one night we hadn't thawed out and needed to eat up some of our Costco purchases before leaving on vacation, so I put hot dogs in crescent rolls.  Carter's comment was  "mom, this looks like Jesus wrapped up in those cloths, doesn't it?" Guess I know what to make for lunch on Easter!

Around the same timeframe, Carter realized one of his good friends from school (a girl he likes to play Pokemon with) lived down the street.  I went on a field trip with Carter's class at the end of last year and met the girl's mom. Down to earth, from Canada, really liked her.  So I said, "Tell her we can have coffee and you guys can play!" So Carter writes a note, "Dear xxx's mom: My mom would like you to call and have time to have coffee with her. Our number is XXX=XXX=XXX and Olivia and I can play Pokemon."  He walked it down to her house and handed it to Olivia's dad who passed along the note.  Mom calls and says, "I just got the note and my heart melted, how cute!"  We had a playdate, though I realized afterwards that "mom" was "soon to be stepmom" so I was totally confused because I thought it was her mom that lived there, apparently her dad lives down the street (just moved in between last year and this one) with his fiance.  Anyways....

Paul and I had our 9th anniversary. Didn't really celebrate, but hopefully next year will be celebratory.

When we met 10 years ago...

When we got married 9 years ago...

We had a great Thanksgiving with my mom's family sharing lots of traditional Thanksgiving food :)

Next post... our vacation!