What does Santa prefer?

I'd forgotten that I'd seen Santa out and about before Christmas...just checking on a few things. Thanks for reminding me, Crystal. Santa must have quite the garage.

Picture a Christmas

Christmas Eve in Springville. We had a very nice lunch followed by a bit of gift giving. Ryan pulled himself up onto Grandpa's leg and decided to have a little conversation.

If you can't picture it, Evan is trying to eat it. He's not playing peekaboo.

We had a nice white Christmas. Very peaceful. Unfortunately, most of us were sick. We slept in, didn't have much of traditions at all. I did make orange rolls for Evan and myself(the only two up at the time).

Our Christmas decorations were not elaborate this year. I didn't even have the energy or time to put up the tree. Luckily, we did hang our stockings. Which are beautiful. Thank you Mom! If you hadn't made one for Ryan and sent it to us, I don't know if I would have even hung the rest.

Our pile of gifts from our dear family members became our tree on our table. It was a pile of love in my mind. Oliver and I decided we didn't need to do gifts for ourselves or for the boys this year and it turns out we didn't have to. Even though we draw names in our families, we were still thought of by others and I hope they all know how much we love them.

We did open presents...at 2pm. Sometimes its nice to not have children old enough to care about presents.

Count the Cars! Thanks Pop! These are so cool!

And, of course, the best part of opening presents? The filling! The paper! The trash! Who cares about toys & clothes & a box full of pacifiers?

Across the sea, in Bethlehem,

Lord Jesus came to Earth.

As Samuel had prophesied

And angels sang his birth.

Hosanna, Hosanna,

Oh, let us gladly sing.

How blessed that our Lord was born,

Let Earth receive her King.

"Samuel Tells of the Baby Jesus" p.36 Primary Children Songbook

Christmas Lights

Oliver and I like to look at the lights that people decorate their houses with. This year we were discussing what we would do when we have a house of our own. How will we decorate the outside of our house? What about you? What do you do? or what do you hope to do? Icicle lights? Wreaths? Candles? White lights? Blue? Red? Green? All of the above and more? Inflatable lawn decorations? Giant Santa on the roof? Manger scenes? Nothing? We drove by a house the other day with luminarias lining the walk and the porch. But not just any luminarias, they were milk jugs and it looked like colored LED lights instead of paper bags with candles. It was cool. I was promised to have a husband who would get out on the roof to decorate the roof line. I honestly don't know what our house will look like. I like icicle lights. I hope to have a nice big window in which I can put a Christmas tree.

This year we decided to see the Christmas lights at Thanksgiving Point. They do a little drive through park thing, which was overpriced in my opinion, but whatever. It was still fun.

From the waving polar bear,

to the penguin falling off the igloo,

to the parachuting reindeer, the boys slept through it all.

Despite all the beautiful lights depicting Santa land, I think I was most grateful for the end of the little drive. Paintings depicting the birth of Christ were on each side of road with a poster reading the verses of a Primary Children's Songbook song titled "The Nativity Song." The last verse is the following:

See the sweet mother, Mary so fair,

Joseph who guided the donkey with care.

See the dear baby of Bethlehem,

Little Lord Jesus, the Savior of men.

Merry Christmas!

Language of Love

This post comes out of the process of having two children and doing the unfortunate thing of comparing them. I love both of my children, but I do think about things and this thought has crossed my mind. Its a matter of really thinking whether I am a mother or not. Yes, we have two children. We take care of them. We love them. I gave birth to them. But with this comparison of the two of them, I'm realizing just how quickly Ryan is developing and realizing that he will eventually be able to do things that Evan does not or will not do.

"Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language."-Dale Carnegie

I have been a mother for a little more than two years now and have not been called "mom" yet except by those who are not really my children. Do you think that being called something makes you that person? Here's a little story. When I first met Oliver, my roommate thought his name was Rob and had an entire conversation with him, continually calling him Rob instead of Oliver and he never corrected her. This led our entire apartment to call him RobOliver(once we found out his real name) and to this day there are still some of our friends who call him Rob because that is how he had been introduced to them. But the other thing about this story is that in those situations with those friends, Oliver would respond to the name Rob. He became Rob. Yes, he was still Oliver and the two were not different personalities, but it was a part of his identity.

One of the privileges of my job is that I get to work with the residents and with the RAs and get the same training that they do. We focus on lots of things for the age group we work with, but that also applies to most things in life, relationships, situations that extend beyond BYU 2008-2009 year. We talk about identity and how we develop identity. The RAs are required to know their resident's names; they get to take a quiz on all of them. Why? because if they can name them on a piece of paper, then when they see them on campus, in classes, in the hall, in their apartments, they can say "Hi, Susie Lou" and it makes it a little easier for that person to transition into being away from home & out of their comfort zone and hopefully won't get lost in the shuffle of craziness we call student life. This applies to everything, when someone remembers your name, don't you feel just a little bit more important and involved, than if they forget or don't know your name?

So that long winded paragraph was about how I live in a house with a husband whom I can't talk to 24 hours a day(maybe only half that) and two boys who speak in guttural sounds. :) I was thinking how cool its going to be to hear Ryan say "Mama" one day and then thinking about whether Evan ever would.

Luckily, these two gorgeous happy boys have a different way of saying Mom and saying I love you. Just like every mother gets to figure out with their new child, they have their own way of sharing their love. Whether its from the biggest smiles you've ever seen greeting you when you walk back into the house, or the tight squeeze you get around your neck. Sometimes its shown in the way that they won't let you put them down. They can't say "Mom, I just need to be held right now" but boy do they say it with their body or the giant scream once you do set them down followed by quiet calm when you pick them back up. It can be as simple as Evan coming over and laying his head on my knee for two seconds(the longest amount of sitting stillness unless he's asleep) or them just crawling to you.

So I definitely look forward to the day when I actually hear the words "Mama" or "Daddy" and my heart will melt. At the same time, I'm grateful that I am still they one they want when they are tired and that I am their security in a crowded room. I love how great it feels to have a head laid on my shoulder. This totally makes me lead into another thought process of intimacy, but this is enough for today. My two adorable and fast growing children are below. Now I need to see if its possible to wrap Christmas gifts while they are awake.

Another Superhero in the Making

Big Boy

Another big step for the young one.

This is because Vicky mentioned something about watching to see what he can do next to be aware for her little guy. Well, here you go. He can sit up by himself!! and he's so roly poly that he has just figured it all out so quickly. He can sit up and fall down without hurting himself and reaching for things he wants and...I am just so amazed. It's interetsing to see him hit these typical markers because Evan hits atypical markers and they really are completely different children. But they are both adorable and make us happy. As for Evan, he got a late birthday present from my parents that really makes him look like a big boy:

I know this may sound mean, but he was trying to get the backpack so much that he kept turning in circles like a dog chasing its tail. It kept us laughing for a while. But he looks so big with a back pack on his back!

I love my boys!

Thanksgiving in Illinois

One thing I'm grateful for? Eternal families! Because I love spending time with my family. I love spending time with Oliver's family as well, but for Thanksgiving I was able to be with all of my siblings for the first time in 4 years. The only sad part was that it was only for 1 day. I really like these people. The Lord must have known this could and would and should happen: family members liking each other so much that they want to spend lots of time with each other.

So Oliver and I made the strange decision to travel to Illinois by car. In case you were wondering between the Friday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after, our car recieved 3050 new miles added to the odometer. It was good because we actually took our time and didn't try to drive it in one shot which was different than times past. But it was long and tiring and unfortunately we weren't feeling so hot by the time we got home, but it was worth it to see my family whom I love.

I didn't bring out my camera on Thanksgiving itself, but here are some other photo highlights of our vacation.

On the first night of our drive, we stopped and stayed at a motel in Grand Junction, CO. And Ryan decided to show that he is growing up and can get up on his hands and knees. Throughout the week he continued to try and go forward instead of backwards.

Guess what we stopped and saw in Goodland, KS. That's right! A giant Van Gogh replica! Yay for random bits of art in the world: The Big Easel project

Ryan decided he really liked his uncle Mitchell. This is them bonding on Monday night. He really liked alot of people on this trip, and I think many people liked him too--he's very snuggly. Pop, Casey, Grammy, Aunt Kris to name a few.

A few other things that we didn't get pictures of but discovered last week: Evan getting upset when anyone attacks his mom(attacks as in tickling, which is a bonus for me! This even applies to Daddy attaching Mommy), pitch black bedrooms are awesome for Evan going to sleep which leads me to apologies for not getting any outside pictures of the house I grew up in to show off my underground house. I didn't get a group picture, but I've decided to steal the following picture from my sister Jo:

Man, I love these people. Unfortunately missing Mike who has to take care of his job responsibilites for Black Friday, but wow. And there were still around 30 other people at this massive celebration. My contribution involved cutting out leaves and providing them for individuals to write what they are thankful for and that's when I realized that Oliver and I will probably never agree on one thing: Oliver is grateful for mountains. His comment was: You never know how much something is a part of you until they aren't there anymore. This is funny because on the drive out, as we got into the eastern part of Colorado, I started to breathe easier and relaxed alot just because of the lack of mountains and the ability to see for miles. Mountains are a part of Oliver and cornfields are a part of me.

This last picture is a view of Wyoming on the drive home. It's like the world decided after Thanksgiving, that it really is winter(as we drove past Vail, Colorado BEFORE Thanksgiving, 7 were filling the mountains with fake snow) or as Oliver put it "the earth decided it was FULL."

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you are all reminded of what you are thankful for and continue to celebrate these happy feelings and share your blessings through the Christmas season.

Leaves!

As I was walking home from the Central Building, I saw this spot and couldn't resist the beautiful weather(it was 60 today!), the sun, or the leaves. So I ran inside, got Ryan & Evan and had a photo shoot with the cutest little boys ever...even if they don't always cooperate. I believe it was a 30 minute break well spent away from work. Besides, by the time I was done with my meetings afterward, I would have had absolutely no light to work with.

Here are my cute boys: Undirected hugging and its crazy that the grass is still green...

This is the best laughing grin from Evan.

Here's the best smile from Ryan
Genuine laughter--What fun leaves can be!

And a warm fall day can be so thought provoking...

Crazy 8s

Last, but not least, the tag of 8s.
RULES
1. Post rules on your Blog
2. Answer the six "8" items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment

8 FAVORITE SHOWS
1. Ugly Betty
2. America's Next Top Model
3. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
4. Mythbusters
5. Studio 5
6. Rick Steve's Europe
7. The Cosby Show
8. The Rachael Ray Show

8 THINGS I DID YESTERDAY
1. Watched White Christmas
2. Delivered Rice Krispy Treats
3. Went to Community Standards...thrice
4. Took a long bath
5. Made cookie bars
6. Took out the trash
7. Talked to my parents
8. Took a nap

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TO
1. Being with everyone for Thanksgiving
2. ROAD TRIP! (A little less exciting with two children, but still good)
3. Being in Illinios
4. Creating some Thanksgiving crafts--A thankful tree and maybe some others
5. A relaxing vacation
6. Getting organized
7. Christmas shopping
8. Oliver finishing school

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS
1. Los Hermanos
2. Chili's
3. La Gondola
4. La Buona Vita(the long lost Italian place)
5. La Dolce Vita
6. Steak'N'Shake
7. Giardino's
8. Panda Express

8 THINGS ON MY WISH LIST
1. SLR Digital camera
2. Couch(a full length one)
3. New clothes
4. Understanding of Angelman Syndrome & how to live with it
5. To be a better mom/wife/sister/daughter/ & friend
6. An organized mind
7. Cute haircut
8. Financial prowess

8 PEOPLE TO TAG
1. Anna
2. CJ
3. Emily in AZ
4. Emily in UT
5. Holly
6. Kristen
7. Laura
8. Sherie

Lucky 7 Tag

7 Things I Can Do:
1. Sing, not well, but I can do it.
2. Spell--most of the time
3. Spend forever looking at art(paintings, sculptures, architecture, photography)
4. Get really engrossed in a book and have to finish it in a few days
5. Watch Christmas movies!!(Oliver said I could)
6. Swim
7. Dream about a clean house

7 Things I Cannot Do:
1. Get up in the morning and work out(despite my great goals a few months ago)
2. Stand waiting in long lines
3. Plan meals--luckily, I don't always have to
4. Remember to put Evan's boots on him every day
5. Play the left hand on the piano
6. Watch a basketball game on TV
7. Remember all the dances I learned in my country western swing class

7 Things That Attracted Me to Oliver:
1. His smile
2. His blue eyes
3. His laid back attitude
4. His love for kids(he taught primary in our ward when I met him & I still have a little fish that he had made as a visual aid in one of his classes)
5. His friendship
6. His humor
7. He has a good sense of direction...I don't even think he knows that was one of his endearing qualities.

7 Things I Say Most Often:
1. "I don't know"
2. "Evan! NO!"(It's sad but true)
3. "Just go to sleep"(another sad reality)
4. "Ollie, can you hold him?"
5. "We need to clean the house"(And in that case, I only half mean you)
6. "I love you"
7. "He's so CUTE!!"

7 Celebrity Admirations:
1. Tom Hanks.
2. Johnny Depp
3. Robin Williams(That guy can act in any role!)
4. Bill Cosby
5. America Ferrera
6. Big Bird
7. Bob Villa...

7 Favorite Foods:
1. Ice cream...anything with chocolate
2. Gnocchi ai funghi(gnocchi with mushrooms & a tomato/alfredo mushroom sauce that is no longer attainable because the restaurant is now gone)
3. Torpedoes! from La Gondola
4. Green bean casserole
5. Mashed potatoes
6. The Cannon Center's chocolate chip cookies
7. Oriental Chicken salad--a new favorite

7 People to Tag:
1. Anna-Lisa
2. Kendra
3. Shayla
4. Deanna
5. Lori
6. Vicky
7. Nola