Just the Parents

I don't hardly ever post anything on Craig and I on this blog. It's our family blog and Craig and I never seem to make it into any of the pictures - or any of the stories that are told. I need to do better about that. We're part of this family too and we should get a little screen time every now and then :) Anyways, in light of this recent realization . . . . .

Craig had a birthday! He turned 29 back on the 8th. He told me he didn't want me to blog about his birthday. But I'm going to anyway. :) His birthday wasn't that great to be honest with you. I think he didn't want me to blog about it because he didn't really care to ever remember it. His birthday fell on a Sunday. Lately our kids have been very well behaved at church and we have actually been able to make it through the whole hour and ten minutes of sacrament meeting without taking them out into the hall. This was NOT the case on Craig's birthday. Mallory decided to have a COMPLETE meltdown. I don't even remember what it was for, but WOW. She was screaming so loud that even after Craig had taken her out into the hall you could still hear her in the chapel! So he took her into a classroom where she continued to scream and cry for the next 30 minutes. Mallory refused to get control of herself! Craig finally pinned her to his chest into a little ball trying to get her to calm down. Mallory was so hysterical she couldn't even speak. Between sobs she was trying to tell Craig that she couldn't breathe. I'm sure most parents have seen this type of cry. . . . . the one where you have to sit there and tell your child to breathe. . . .and you end up blowing in their face to get them to inhale. Clark is VERY attached to Craig right now. So when Craig walked out of the chapel with Mallory at the beginning of her tantrum, Clark started screaming uncontrollably as well. I ended up out in the hall with Clark screaming - not as bad as Mallory. And it wasn't long before Chase realized he was the only one left sitting on the church bench and he joined us out in the hall.
We have church first thing in the morning so this was not a great start to Craig's birthday. He was pretty frazzled after finally dropping Mallory off at Primary. The rest of church went well up until the last 10 minutes. I was holding Clark when he peed through his diaper and clothes and onto my dress. He spent the rest of church without pants on. After church we all got to take a much needed nap. Mallory woke up from her nap first and she came into our bedroom to wake us up. She wanted a piece of candy and I told her she had to go potty first. This caused another complete meltdown. To the point where she lost control of her bladder and peed from our bedside, through our bedroom, into the hallway, into her bedroom, and into her closet. I told her to go to the bathroom. Why she headed for her closet I do not know. So we now had a trail of pee running through most of the upstairs. Lovely, more pee. So Craig gets out the carpet cleaning machine(a great investment!)we have and starts cleaning the upstairs. I got Clark up and took him downstairs to play with Chase. About 15 minutes later Clark blows out his diaper and gets poo on the carpet! I go up to inform Craig that when he's through cleaning the carpets upstairs, a section of the downstairs will need to be cleaned as well. At this point his special day isn't really feeling too special! So he ended up cleaning carpets for an hour and a half while I prepared dinner. I cooked him a roast and potatoes for his birthday. At least that turned out good! He loved it! And the kids ate their dinner in COMPLETE silence. We looked at each other halfway through the meal and asked each other what was going on? Things had been absolutely crazy and now our children seemed to be mute? We welcomed the break from the noise and complimented them on their good behavior at dinner. I was going to bake brownies for Craig's birthday. He didn't want them. I think he was a little crushed about how badly his birthday had gone that he didn't even want dessert. So we just put the kids right back into bed after dinner. It was 7:30 by this time and Craig was ready to call it a day! Craig wanted a memory foam topper for our bed for his birthday. I had ordered it online and it didn't end up arriving until after his birthday. So Craig had a crappy birthday and no presents to open. I felt bad. Our mattress is cheap and isn't the greatest so Craig had been wanting something to help him get a better night's sleep. We've now had it on the bed for a little over a week and WOW!! It's great! We have both been sleeping better and we don't wake up with sore backs and necks anymore. And I hope I don't jinx myself here, but Craig has stopped snoring. I used to wake up 2 and 3 times a night and have to kick him to roll over and stop snoring. Since we have had this lovely mattress topper I have not woken up once to him snoring. Not once! It's a miracle! It has cured his snoring! Anyway, I felt bad that Craig had to spend his birthday dealing with unruly children and cleaning carpets. He didn't want his picture taken on his birthday so I snapped the one above a few days ago and snuck it on here :)It was one for the books. . . . .

As for me, I am now sporting a new hair color. It's been blonde for a long time and Craig has been begging me to go dark for quite awhile. Plus it saves money, so it was a no brainer. It was a shock at first, but I'm starting to get used to it. When I first came home with the dark hair Clark didn't recognize me. I picked him up and he freaked out! You can see how light my hair was in the picture of me and Craig in the sidebar to the right. So here's a couple pictures of the change:

DAREDEVIL

Here is a dear sweet picture of our baby Clark: Cute, huh? I guess he's not technically a baby anymore. He's 15 months. But I still tend to think of him as my baby. At least until I saw him do this yesterday:

When I first turned around to see this little boy standing on top of his Leap Frog learning table I think I sucked in about a gallon of air! How in the world did he get up there? Notice there are no other toys around the table that he used to climb on to get up on top. He merely used himself. And he accomplished this feat with a toy in hand. Notice the train in his left hand. He had to have done this somewhat one-handedly! Not only that, the center of this learning table is raised and the outsides slant downwards toward the ground. Clark is standing on the sloping edges of the table. And he balanced there just fine. Not a single care. Like he's on top of the world. Today I caught him trying to jump from the couch onto this same toy! Who does this kid think he is?

I started thinking about the absence of fear this child has and all the other "feats" he has recently accomplished that have made me catch my breath. I decided to catch a couple of them on video to document his fearless behavior. Clark started walking 2 months ago. And after catching him do this:

for the first time 2 weeks ago . . . . apparently he thinks he already gone pro on the whole walking thing.

No one showed him how to do this. No one taught him to get down the stairs this way. He figured it out all by himself. Does your 15 month old walk down the stairs like a normal person? Granted he is holding onto the stair rail bars, but he's WALKING down the stairs!! I know some 2 year olds who still will not WALK down the stairs. They still scoot down on their bums. Not this kid! And then there's this method:

Mallory would be the one that instigated this approach down the stairs. But Clark wasted no time in figuring out how she does it. He giggles all the way down. I think we have a thrill seeker on our hands. I foresee many visits to the ER with this child. He thinks he's invincible! Chase and Mallory were not nearly as fearless or daring as Clark is at this age. This is all new to me. Not once did Chase or Mallory ever climb out of their crib - or even ATTEMPT to climb out of their crib. I'm predicting Clark to be a different story. Not only do I think he will attempt it, I think he will succeed. At the rate he's going anyway . . . . with the whole "I like to participate in dangerous activities that freak my mother out" campaign he's running. These are JUST three of the fearless instances that have happened around here lately from our little Clark. The inspiration for Clark's name was Clark Kent . . . . . .Superman. At this point I think we named him after the wrong superhero. We should have named him Matt - after Matt Murdock. You know . . . .the Daredevil. . . .


*Disclaimer: Lest you judge too quickly and make a bad mother out of me . . . .I do watch my "daredevil" son as best I can. There are times when my back is turned for a few moments such as while cooking dinner, changing a load of laundry, helping one of my other two children use the bathroom, or heaven forbid I have to use the restroom myself, etc., etc. Clark seems to have a sixth sense about when my back is turned for those few moments. It is at these times that he decides to pull his freakish, seemingly pre-meditated stunts. I love my child and positively re-direct him toward safer methods of play when I catch him participating in unsafe activities. Including maneuvering the stairs in a safe manner.

We've Got Spirit. . . .

Yes we do! We've got spirit how 'bout you?


GOOOOOOOOOO CARDINALS!!!

Have You Heard?

There's a new version of the alphabet song! Here's a video of Mallory singing her ABC's. Pay close attention to the very end. Mallory is very possessive of whose ABC's they are. And don't be offended when she disinvites you to sing with her next time. . . . .

Children, Children What Do You See?

What are they looking at?













THE SNOW!!

The snow has been so fun! We are loving it! Yes, it's quite a bit colder than what we are used to, but it's great! The kids love to watch it fall and are constantly begging to go play in it. Everytime we go outside to go somewhere Chase is the first one to pick up a snowball and isn't shy about throwing it at anyone! He's even hit random strangers in public with snowballs. He got the missionaries real good one night. It's probably not the best thing to throw cold, wet snowballs at the Lord's servants, but they were really good sports about it and started throwing them back at our little snowball machine boy! The kid's got good aim too! Mallory's favorite part about the snow is catching the falling flakes on her tongue. And Clark likes to swat at the snow. He waves his hand back and forth and makes excited noises as it falls!

The snow doesn't tend to stick in huge piles here. Sometimes a light layer will stay on the grass for a few days, but the sun always seems to melt it away too quickly! We had a cold front from Alaska move through last week and it got REALLY cold here. The high was 17 degrees one day. When I took Chase to pre-school that morning it was only 11 degrees outside! 11 degrees people!! That's just too cold. We've gotten to the point where the 40's feel great; we only need a sweatshirt when we go out. We completely bundle up for temperatures in the 30's - hats, scarves, mittens, the whole deal. It's not too bad. The 20's are pretty cold. My big winter coat I bought when I got here doesn't cut it for temperatures in the 20's. Anything less than 20 we hibernate inside becuase it's really just disgustingly cold outside! You can't hardly breathe when the wind blows in your face. We had stalactite icicles hanging off the bumpers of our cars last week. When Chase's pre-school class plays outside he always tells his teachers he's freezing. They call him their little Arizona boy! Our bodies have started adjusting to the difference in temperatures. But we are hoping for thicker blood next winter! The snow really is pretty. When everything is covered in white it makes the earth look very pure and clean. Somehow it brings a peaceful feeling. It's been worth all the shivers to appreciate God's creations covered in blankets of white.

Here are some recent pictures of snow play. Chase was at school when I took these so it's just Mallory and Clark. The bottom pictures are of a pond in our complex. We normally feed the geese that come to sit in the water here. But right now it's half frozen over and snow sits on the ice. I love the picture with snow on the fence posts!

Christmas 2008

This Christmas has been very different than Christmases in the past. It was our first Christmas alone. Out here all by ourselves. Usually we go to about 4 houses on Christmas Day visiting family and eating food and opening gifts. It's crazy, busy, and fun, but we are exhausted at the end of the day! (As well as the kids who miss their naps!) We knew this Christmas would be a bit more relaxed and less scheduled.

Mallory was the first one up. She got up at 5:50am. The kids have been sleeping in until about 8 or 8:30am so I really didn't expect our day to start so soon! I tried to get her to go back to sleep until Chase and Clark woke up, but she wouldn't have it! It was fun to see her eyes filled with the anticipation of finding gifts from Santa downstairs! To let the boys sleep a little longer I had her "help" me put makeup on and do my hair. The distraction only lasted so long and we made enough noise that the boys woke up. Our tradition is that we all go see what Santa brought together, as a family. The kids were so excited!

Chase did end up getting his goat. Chase wants to be a farmer when he grows up. Well, technically he wants to be a "cow-milker". But he would love to be a farmer and take care of animals. I think that might have something to do with why he wanted a goat so bad!
And Miss Mallory has been OBSESSED with Rudolph this year. I don't know what got her started on Rudolph, but that's all she talks about. She can sing the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer song almost word for word. So she was ecstatic when she saw Rudolph sitting next to her stocking. He even sings his own theme song if you squeeze his ear. We can't wait till Rudolph runs out of batteries. If we have to hear that song one more time. . . . . .
Clark didn't really have any requests for Santa this year. He loves toys that light up and sing songs so Santa brought him a fun little Leap Frog table. Clark was really more interested in the candy that Santa stuffed in every one's stockings. He definitely has a sweet tooth! I actually posted a cute video of him teasing Craig with some M&M's that Santa left. It's 2 posts below if you want to check it out :)


We got Chase and Mallory those bouncy balls with the handles on top that you bounce around the house on. I loved these things as a kid! I gave them a proper demonstration on how to bounce around. It was a workout! I was out of breathe after bouncing back and forth across the house a few times. Wow, I'm out of shape! Chase picked up on it right away and loves it, but Mallory is a little too short for her ball. She's going to need to grow a few inches to bounce on hers!


Another hit was the umbrellas that Santa brought the kids. It rains here at least 3 days a week. When it rains - it rains all day! A nice, steady rain. So umbrellas are actually a necessity here. The kids have been begging for their own umbrellas lately. So we let "Santa" take the glory for fulfilling that item on their wish list! Here's Mallory with her Ariel umbrella:
Who's cuter? Mallory or Craig?
We went to the movies and saw Bolt in 3-D. Chase loved it! Mallory cried all the way through it. I guess all the stuff jumping out at her was a little scary. She would shrink down onto the floor of the movie theater and put her hands over her ears and cry! She didn't like it very much. We didn't have any family's house to go to so we came home and took naps and played games with the kids. The missionaries came over in the evening for pie and ice cream. And we've just tucked the kiddies into bed. We missed being with our families. We got to talk to every one on the phone, but it's not the same as being there. Nevertheless, it's been a fun and exciting day with the kids. I'm a little bit sad though. The days leading up to Christmas seem to be more fun than Christmas Day itself. I love the anticipation and having something to look forward to! I guess what we have to look forward to now is making our list of New Year's resolutions. . . . . oh boy, oh boy. . . .

Christmas Outfits

So every year we get our kids a formal outfit for Christmas. It was a family tradition for me growing up. It's good to get extra dressy every now and then! Here are the kiddos in their outfits:

CHASE
I can't hardly get this kid to smile nicely for a picture! Doesn't smiling look painful for him?!

MALLORY
I couldn't pass this dress up! It was a smokin' deal on sale too!

CLARK
Couldn't get him to hold still for a picture. So I had to snap the picture with him walking around.