Trip to Utah

I went to write a blog post today and realized I had several drafts I had started. So these posts are a little out of order.

In December I flew to Utah with Christine and Jacob by myself. I remember flying with Christine as a baby and being so scared. hahaha how little I knew! Traveling with one baby and two adults is so easy compared to traveling with two kids and only one adult. The flight there was pretty easy, Jacob slept for most of the time, but the ride back was difficult. Christine fell asleep, laying on her seat and my lap, leaving only half of my lap for Jacob to bounce on. I fed him baby puffs, and tried to keep him from grabbing the hair of the lady sitting next to us, who was not happy being stuck by us. I think it took about 5 years off my life.

Though the traveling was miserable, the trip itself was wonderful! One of the highlights of our trip was getting to see our very dear friends Sarah, Annalia, and new baby Ryan. They moved to Houston around the time we did, and had babies at the same time, and then moved away at the same time. We miss them soooooooo much!

Sarah is a super mom and an Occupational Therapist on top of that, so she is always coming up with fabulous kid activities. She brought over some cookies for the girls to decorate.

Sarah was a lifesaver during my pregnancy, helping watch Christine, letting me lie on her couch while Christine played with Annalia's fabulous play house. I wish so much that we still lived nearby each other.

During our trip, we played in the snow, met my parents' chickens, and ate delicious food. Christine's favorite part was playing outside with Papa every day. Mommy stayed inside where it was warm.

Last year Uncle Keith gave Christine a rubber ducky for Christmas, so this year she told me "Uncle Keith is going to give Jacob a rubber ducky" because that's what Uncle Keith's role is right? Luckily Uncle Keith is the best, and after hearing this got a rubber ducky for Jacob. Christine was ecstatic, jumping up and down after opening Jacob's present.

It was fun to see my family again. We definitely don't get to see them enough. (Jacob was already asleep when we took this picture, if you were wondering where he was)

Climbing

These were taken the beginning of January. Jacob at 8 months.

Jacob is such an active, strong baby. He is so determined, when he sets his sight to something, there is no stopping him. Trying to make him hold still enough to put on a diaper is quite the challenge. He doesn't like to cuddle at all, and if I try to snuggle with him he tries to climb up me (like put his foot on my shoulder and try to launch himself above my head).

He loves his sister. Each morning Jacob wakes up about an hour before Christine. Jacob and I play in his room until Christine wakes up. If I open the door of his room to go throw away a diaper or something, Jacob will bolt out of his room and go straight to Christine's door and start banging on the door. "Get up sister! get up!"

Princess Christine

Princesses are big at our house.  

For a long time Christine just wanted to be Cinderella. But she has slowly embraced all of the other princesses. Now, she usually is some mix between Ariel, Cinderella, Belle, and Sleeping Beauty.

This was her favorite pajama shirt. It has long been far too small for her. Her belly would hang out 4 or 5 inches. But she would beg that she could even wear it under her regular pajamas!  Soon though, her bare mid-drift became the least of our worries when the arms got so tight she could not get her hands through them. Luckily she has the most clever Mom in the world-- the Crafting Zuzzy, who transformed the shirt into this beautiful play dress.  She is posting a tutorial on Monday; check it out (http://www.craftingzuzzy.blogspot.com/).

 
Jacob is pretty tolerant of the princesses. He finds it quite entertaining watching Christine spin around in her dress-up clothes.

Actually one of his favorite toys is Christine's play necklaces.

He loves sucking on them while, Christine decides what fabric Mommy should use for her next princess dress.

The other day Christine decided that Jacob needed to be inaugurated into the royal family.

King Jacob loves looking out the window at his kingdom, and wielding his Crayon Scepter!

 She crowned him King Jacob.  Isn't it great to have a princess for a sister!

Once there was a Snowman!

It snowed here in Texas!!

 Seriously, what is with this weather.  I tried to complain to my brother, Eric, about how I have had to scrape ice off of my car almost everyday this year. I forgot who I was talking to, though. He immediately stopped me at the pass... "you are going to complain to me about cold! I live in CANADA."  It appears that even as cold and as miserable as our weather has been it can't compete with the -40 experienced in Canada.

 Nevertheless, here is our snow day. Schools were canceled. Streets were closed. People were acting like the Apocalypse had begun.  It was mayhem.  Fortunately I had plenty of Utah driving experience to simply laugh and avoid all of the snow-scared Texans.  The med-students and other students had the day off.  But the residents and other essential staff made our way around the craziness to the hospital.

Texas driving 101: When driving up a hill in icy condition, drive ridiculously slow. If you hit even the slightest bit of ice, slam on your breaks.  If this happens to you while you are on a hill, your car will begin sliding back down the hill. At this point panic! Alternate hitting the gas and slamming on your break in rapid sequence.  This will allow your tires to spin out of control and hopefully get you facing perpendicular at the bottom of the hill.  Then, turn off your car and give-up. Hopefully the thin layer of ice will have melted in 45 mins and you can proceed. (I really did witness multiple cars doing such things)

 Christine was very excited for the snow. She had just returned from Utah and knew exactly how fun snow could be... unfortunately she quickly realized making a snow man out of such a small amount of snow is a little difficult.

With a little help from Mom, she made it work though. A real Texas Snowman!

When you zoom in, it almost looks like a real snowman. Christine insisted it needed a carrot nose. Thank goodness for Baby carrots!

On another day when we were having possible ice, Angela attempted to take the kids to the Library. To avoid the previously outlined Texas-ice-driving maneuvers the police and fire department had placed their vehicles to block all bridges in Temple.  Angela could not believe it! but then again she had not seen the morning commuters a few days earlier!

8 things...

8 tv shows i watch
- Once Upon a Time
- Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
- Downton Abby
- Project Runway
- Modern Family
- Studio C
- Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
- Blue's Clues

Favorite Restaurants
it's temple... there are only 8 restaurants here.

8 Things That Happened Yesterday
1. After a gruelling 18 days on, Jeff finally had a day off work so I got to sleep in :)
2. Went to Target. Bought milk, frozen jamba juice packets, sudafed, and 6 bottles of contact solution (buy 3 2-packs get a $5 gift card AND used up our pre-tax heath card) looked for mouse traps but Target only had the small dinky ones.
4. played candy land and memory... well Christine played and Daddy kept Jacob from eating the pieces. Daddy finally started sneaking in Chocolate Mountain cards to the top of the card pile to end the game sooner because was winning the battles of wills.
5. Daily wrestling match. After bathtime getting Jacob into a diaper and pajamas is IMPOSSIBLE. He is the world's strongest baby. This involves two parents, one holding down as many limbs as they can while the other tries to squeeze a onesie over the monkey's head. All the while Jacob squirms and rolls over and usually manages to crawl about 10 feet away in about 2 seconds. If you think we are exaggerating and just inexperienced parents, Janie once helped the "daily wrestiling match" and began shouting "You WILL loose! I have had SIX CHILDREN. I WILL WIN!!!"
6. Jeff studied for his upcoming boards
7. Played outside for the first time in two months. Enjoying the 70 degree weather after that miserable cold front we barely survived last week.
8. Made fajitas for dinner, vacuumed the house, and cleaned the bathrooms. very fun stuff. Oh and we finished watching the Hobbit. Only took 3 days because Jeff kept falling asleep.

8 Things I am looking forward to
1. Sleep training jacob. He is 8 months old and still wakes up at night. uuuuuuuggggggg He's been sick and teething and we took a trip to Utah last month that really threw off his sleeping. I am SO ready to get 8 hours of uninterupted sleep!!!!
2. Vacation in february. Jeff has a whole week off.
3. Frozen coming to dvd. Saw it with Christine in the movie theatre while Jeff watched Jacob. So. much. fun.
4. Warm weather. We are tired of the cold temperatures. We are ready for Spring, and playing outside and going to the park!
5. Planting our garden. We have had many attempts and always failed. Maybe for once we will actually be able to grow something.
6. Once Upon a Time to come back on in March. 3 months off? what? after a big cliff hanger?! I am so impatient.
7. Project Run and Play starts tomorrow. looking forward to some inspiring creativity. I've been in a little sewing slump.
8. Jacob being a little bit less of a trouble maker. If he wasn't always getting into trouble I might have a chance to find my sanity again.

8 Things on my wish list:
1. A little end table for the living room. I want to paint it Emerald green
2. The next set of conference cds to listen to during Jeff's commute
3. French curve. I just got an intimidating book on pattern design.
4. Jacob to sleep through the night
5. Frozen on DVD
6. A new dishwasher. The dishwasher that came with the house is so loud and it doesn't wash the dishes very well. It's always knocking over the cups that end up filled with water at the end of the cycle
7. A new flat screen TV. We have a pretty old TV. My sister gave it to us when she got a new TV. (and she's already replaced that TV) She got the TV used from the thrift store. So we are it's 3rd owners. Its so old it has the color and tint knobs on the bottom. Did I mention the wood paneling?
8. A day off. I love my children, but a whole day off would be bliss. It would do wonders for my skin... and sanity, and grocery budget because I eat my stress in chocolate. expensive chocolate.