As 2009 Draws to a Close

There are only about 6.5 hours left of 2009. It’s been a good year overall, but we have dealt with some unique situations this year. We dealt with 3 weeks of furloughs for Dan, but in the end, he still has his job and the company he works for is really busy right now. We moved and took on some serious deferred maintenance problems. We knew we needed to clean and paint our new house, but we also encountered roofing, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical problems. We think we’ve solved those issues! I got granite countertops in the kitchen and the wild, bright colors have been painted over! While moving is a big adjustment in itself, we have fabulous new neighbors and Nolan adjusted to his new school easily! We tried our hand as landlords and quickly decided that we are not cutout for that profession. We learned how the legal system protects “renters” but eventually, after jumping through all the hoops, will help you get your property back. We learned that stuff is just stuff, damage can be repaired, and that lost rent is just that. We know what is important and grateful for that knowledge.

Jonathan and Nolan earned straight A’s in school. Miles learned to walk and has become very verbal. Nolan played lacrosse and cruised in the pool. Jonathan completed in Knowledge Bowl and Math Counts. Jonathan went to EFY. Miles dances to any beat. Jonathan got his braces off and Nolan meets with the orthodontist January. Nolan began playing the violin. Jonathan continued playing the clarinet and saxophone. Both boys discovered that classical music is cool and are looking forward to going to the symphony in 2010. We all have been healthy. Dan wasn’t seriously injured in his bike vs. car door accident. We had lots of extended family time this year… 4 family reunions! The boys loved their whitewater rafting experience this summer. I think we've come to appreciate each other more this year. The big boys seem to enjoy hanging out with each other at last.

While I am happy to see the end of the challenges that 2009 brought to us, I am grateful for all the blessings and opportunities we had. My wishes for 2010 include health, family bonding, peace in our home and around us, and a sold house in Pleasant Grove!

Snowman

It’s been snowing A LOT for the past 24 hours. This was supposed to be a fast moving, “occasional” snow showers storm, but it seems to have gotten stuck on top of us. We’ve shoveled about a foot of snow from this storm. Luckily, it’s light, fluffy snow, but it’s still snow and still has to be shoveled! Miles loves the snow. He also loves his snow boots! He’s always happy to come out in the snow while we shovel. Sometimes he “helps” shovel with his own little “ub-ble”. Sometimes he likes to wander off. So long as the sidewalks have been shoveled, he will take himself for a walk. The other day he wandered 4 houses down the street before Dan made him come back. He loves snowmen right now. He love pictures of snowmen; he loves his wind-up walking snowman. This snow has been too fluffy to make into a snowman though. But after Dan shoveled the deck off, the snow compacted as it fell to the patio. It compacted enough that Dan was able to make Miles a little friend!

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Miles now knows all the actions to "If You're Happy and You Know It" and he almost showed off the actions. My favorite is when he does "nod your head".

Big Beautiful Eyes

There's this book called My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes. Yes, 'Jing likes to hide in boxes, but so does Miles. I caught him peeking out the hand-holds on a Costco diaper box. Wow! He has big, beautiful, brown eyes!

My Toe

Isn't it pretty? Man, my feet are ugly.

Random Ramblings

Last night Miles was parading around the basement with a flag and smacked Jonathan in the head with it. Jonathan responded by calling his 14-month-old brother an "idiot". That brought out the "mama bear" in me and made me mad. Jonathan is off his standard sleep schedule and can't deal with life. Guess what he's going back to tonight?

Yesterday I wasn't watching where I was walking and kicked a table that was in a weird place in the family room. I broke my middle toe, left foot. My favorite EMT is in California for Christmas Break and wouldn't come back here to tape my toe for me. I bet it heals with a bump because I had to tape it myself. :(

I laughed so hard today in Sharing Time that I thought I was going to die! There is a class of 5-year-olds that is funny-naughty! Every week they do something that makes me laugh and feel grateful that I do not teach that class! This week, Sammy was asked what his favorite church song to sing was (and for this little guy, specifying church song is necessary!). Sammy was having a hard time coming up with a song. "Snowman" song was suggested to which he replied, "No Way! I HATE that song". Well, he wasn't able to come up with a song before his good buddy Brigham shouted out "Just sing something already"! It was hilarious.

Today I said good-bye to my Sunbeam class. They've been a riot to teach and I've loved almost every minute of it. As of now, I am the nursery leader for the youngest kids. Miles will join me in there soon!

My Gift to ALL the Boys

This year I decided to make Jonathan and Nolan fleece NASCAR pajama pants for Christmas. Thanks to my mom, they turned out just fine. I told Jonathan the story of "Pumpkin Saves the Pajama Pants" and he thought it was really funny (I followed the directions, but somehow the legs became the waist/crotch and the waist/crotch became the legs! I called my mom to bail me out and, via the phone, she was able to do just that!). Anyway, I finished Jonathan and Nolan's pants and showed them to Dan who told me that ALL the boys needed them and that I needed to make Miles a pair. Well, I had leftover fabric, so I did. Then I got to thinking that Dan said "ALL the boys" and that meant he needed NASCAR pajama pants, so I made him a pair too!

Do you like Dan's new biking jersey? I found it for a killer price and bought it as a joke for him! It is so not Dan!

Grown-up Christmas 2009

The magic of Christmas for Dan and I comes from watching our boys. We love to see them excited and appreciative for their gifts. The best part of yesterday had to be the fact that Jonathan and Nolan got along all day. That was a great gift for us. Coming in at a close second place was that Jonathan, on his own, decided that he was going to be in charge of Christmas dinner. No, he didn't make us mac-and-cheese! He made, from start to finish on his own, homemade pizza, including the dough and the sauce. He even cleaned up after himself. Thanks, Jonathan!

Miles and Christmas

Of course, Miles didn't care about Christmas. I knew he wouldn't so I broke one of my rules and didn't wrap his presents! See?
Dan handed him a present from his stocking, and he preferred looking at one of his old books. He did like his Woody and Jessie figures from his stocking.

He did try to help unwrap one present, but when he saw that all that was under the paper was a corrugated cardboard box, he didn't care.

He was interested in what was inside the box that was inside the corrugated box though!
After presents time, Miles got busy helping Dan assemble the Big Brother's Christmas gift... the ping pong table with more than 200 screws!
The most amusing thing that I will remember about Miles and Christmas this year is his reaction to one of his gifts. Miles got a "Peter the Pirate" Jack-in-the Box. He is terrified of it. He tenses up and gets nervous when "Pop Goes the Weasel" is playing and jumps out of his skin when "Peter the Pirate" pops up. It's really funny. This morning, I reintroduced Miles to "Peter the Pirate" and after being scared by it again, he wanted me to close the lid. I did and then handed it back to Miles who took the Jack-in-the-Box and put it back under the tree and told it "All Done", both in English and in ASL. Too funny!

Nolan's Christmas

Nolan was our early bird and was up around 7:30 a.m and wanted to open presents. I told him he had to practice the piano before he could open anything. He told me to "get real". Nolan was most excited about his 2-liter bottle of Coca Cola and getting Mario Kart for the Wii. As soon as "presents time" was over, he disappeared downstairs to the Wii and we didn't see him again until he was hungry!

Jonathan's Christmas

There is too much to say about Christmas to do it in one big monster sized post! Jonathan had a great Christmas! He didn't get dragged out of bed until 9 a.m. He was age-appropriately mellow about opening his presents. He was really excited to get a U of U sweatshirt and the rest of the books in the Darwin Awards series. He spent most of the day reading his books instead of playing Wii or ping pong!

Christmas Eve 2009

Parley, Bona, and Lynn came over for soup, salad, and Skype! We had Baked Potato Soup, Pasta Fagoli Soup, Bread bowls, salad, and Lynn's homemade ice cream. Then the Belnap's Skyped with Steve and his family in Japan. After the Skype session, we sang a few carols, and that was that! A simple evening!

Pre-Christmas Escape!

Last Tuesday through Thursday we went on our annual Pre-Christmas escape to Midway. I love to go before Christmas because it forces me to be ready for Christmas early which means I avoid the Christmas panic on Christmas Eve. We had a great time. We watched the U of U and the BYU Bowl games, went sledding and swimming, and slept in! All the boys went sledding, including Miles. One run, Miles bonked into a ledge and went flying up in the air, flipped over, and landed face down in the snow. He wimpered for a minute then was fine. The Big Ones made a big sledding run with a jump and a banked turn.

The pool is always a big hit! The boys love to go back and forth between the hot tub and the pool. Yes, it's all indoors! This year Miles got to go swimming too. He liked jumping in, doing "Zippy Zip" in the pool and bouncing all over the pool with Dan. But, I think his favorite thing was showering off!

More Music Performances

I thought Jonathan's music performances were over for 2009. So far this school year, he had a band performance in October, Jazz band in November, and in December... a clarinet recital, the winter Jazz, Percussion, and Band concert, the Oak Canyon Jr. High Symphony performance, and a Spanish class saxophone performance. Today is my boys' last school day before winter break and Jonathan is performing 5 times at school today. He's playing the sax for the B1 foreign language classes at their culture festival, the clarinet at the seminary talent show, and the Jazz band is playing for all 3 school assemblies. Crazy day!

More Dancing

If you're tired of my dancing videos, just skip over this one, but be warned, you're missing out! This clip features Nolan with Miles as his back-up dancer!

Easier Said Than Done

I need to let it go, but I can't when it keeps rearing its ugly face. Every time it does, I get mad again and yet, there's nothing I can do about the whole mess. I'm talking about our nightmare "renter" situation. It's been a month since we legally obtained possession of our Pleasant Grove house again. A month ago, the constable's office went into our house with his gun drawn to forcibly remove the renters, I mean "occupiers". Luckily they were gone, but they left a lot of stuff and a mess behind. We boxed up their junk, spent hours cleaning the house, patched the walls and door, painted like crazy, and paid over $1000 in carpet cleaning/repairs to get their dogs' urine out of the carpet. We legally had to store the "occupiers" belongings and had to notify them that they had 30 days to reclaim their stuff, or they no longer owned their stuff. The man immediately emailed us back and basically said, using colorful words, that he wasn't coming back for anything. The lady requested her girls street-legal scooters and then had the juevos to ask me what else was left behind because she really didn't know. I ignored her email and figured that if she really wanted her stuff, she would make the arrangements to come get her stuff. I heard from her yesterday... the pick-up deadline, and of course, blah-blah-blah, tragedy again, and she needs more time to get her stuff. I don't want her stuff. It really would be easier for us if she would come get it. It's just so annoying that the rules, legal, societal, or whatever, never apply to this family and they always have a crisis that precludes them from following the rules and everyone needs to accommodate them. Technically, their crap is mine now. I don't have to do anything to help her out. But, I'm not an ogre. We've given her an additional 47 hours and 59 minutes to get her stuff from off my driveway. She sent a very nice email last night thanking us for being nice; that's fine, but I really just want this family OUT OF MY LIFE!!! Go away. Get on with your life. We've moved on... they need to do the same. It just makes me mad whenever they contact us. We've forgiven their sizable debt, not pursued them in the courts, and haven't bad mouthed them to the old neighborhood. Why can't they just move on and leave us alone?

A Classic Tantrum

Miles has mastered the art of the tantrum. The other night, around 10 p.m., Miles was dressed and, in our minds, ready for bed. It was dark outside and once the sun goes down, it gets cold! None of that mattered to Miles; he wanted to go outside! He was told "no", but he really, really, really wanted to go outside. He let us know that he was not pleased that he was not getting his way.

The Boys Babysat!

We left Miles home with the "Big Boys" for the first time last night! Dan and I went to a neighborhood Christmas party and Jonathan and Nolan babysat Miles! They did great! We were gone about 2.5 hours. During that time, they helped Miles watch all of the my blog videos then they watched "Rats" movie. The "Big Ones" said Miles wasn't "too bad", but when Miles heard our voices, he sure came running upstairs fast. Nolan now says he doesn't mind babysitting, but would sure like to be paid for his service!

Fashion Statement and Jumper!

Miles has a style of his own! All of my boys have gone through a "boots" phase, but Miles seems to be starting his really early! He loves his snow boots! Actually, right now, he is taking a nap, in his feety-pajamas and wearing his snow boots. He also loves his jacket that Uncle Scott's family gave him. The other day, he insisted on wearing his jacket and boots with his pajamas... wow! What a look!

Miles is also obsessed with jumping. He wants to jump so bad! He practices multiple times a day. He's actually managed to get air twice so far. Both times he actually jumped, he has had a crash landing! Soon he'll have it all figured out because his motto seems to be "earlier and better than my brothers did it".

She's Back

I was hoping the Christmas tree would have lost its appeal to 'Jing this year, but no...

The Christmas decorations are a disaster this year. Between Miles and the cat, everything from the floor to my waist level has been attacked. The ribbons and beads have been pulled off the trees. The "in reach" ornaments are down. The santas have been hauled from room to room. I'm okay with it now and as stuff gets "moved" I'm putting it away instead of back out. I usually leave "Christmas" up through New Years, but this year I may start packing it up Christmas afternoon! By the way, Miles loves Baby Jesus, so much, in fact, that he's missing from several of my nativity sets... Miles the Hider strikes again! Hopefully I'll have all the Baby Jesus figures rounded up by Easter!

Jonathan's Winter Band Concert

Jonathan had his band concert last week. He played with 3 different groups. His percussion group played a bunch of holiday songs on their bells/metal xylophones. That was, well, interesting.... imagine 36 kids playing bells that aren't quite together. His other 2 groups were much better! Jonathan had a big solo in the Jazz band song "Tequila". He played his sax with the Symphonic band as well. Tonight he is playing his clarinet with the orchestra class; then concerts are through for a while! Jonathan has such nice tone on his instruments. I've never been a big fan of the sax because I hear it played loud and "honky". Jonathan sound was so smooth... even in "Tequila".

The Dud Santa

Aly and I took our youngest kids to the mall today to have a visit with Santa. There was no waiting line! The Santa there was such a dud though. I handed Miles to him and warned him that I thought Miles was going to cry. His response was "oh great". I handed him Miles and, as if on cue, Miles started to cry. I took a couple of pictures and then Miles started arching his back to get away from Santa. Santa started "freaking out" and saying "I can't hold him! He's arching his back!" Whoever heard of a Santa who can't hold a child! Anyway, it was amusing! I took a video clip of Miles' visit too... unfortunately, I forgot and held the camera the wrong way, but you'll get an idea of how the visit went!

My Little "Elper"

I guess Miles has been watching me work at the Pleasant Grove house! Yesterday, when I was cleaning the scuff marks off the doors and walls, Miles started handing me wipes. Later on, he got his own wipe and "cleaned" a wall and said "Elp! Elp!". Well, his enthusiasm for "elping" has carried over to today. On his own, he found a wipe and "cleaned" a section of a wall for me at the Lindon house today. (It will sure be nice when I don't have to distinguish between the two houses!)

First Orchestra Concert

Nolan is in the Rocky Mountain Elementary Orchestra. He's been playing the violin since October! He really likes it and is pretty good and getting the basics down... he'll be leaving the beginner group and joining the intermediate group in January. The orchestra is run by volunteers and they meet on Monday afterschool for an hour. I think they sound pretty good for a grade school orchestra!

Miles Gets Down

Miles is our dancer. The other night, he brought a DVD to Dan and wanted him to put it in the player. The DVD turned out to be a bunch of (annoying) Disney 'Tween music and Miles found a song that he really liked! He danced and danced to "Mambo #5". Yes, he is dancing and not just off balance!

Thanksgiving 2009

Turkey Day has come and gone, but I guess it deserves a mention at least. My mom and dad flew in for the holiday. They stayed with us this time. The big day started with my parents doing an early morning run to Kmart to do some Christmas shopping and to take advantage of the Pre-Black Friday sale at Kmart. Dinner was at our house this year. There were 15 of us... Mom, Dad, Dan, Me, Jonathan, Nolan, Miles, Aly, Rob, Avery, Zane, Cole, Amy, Leslie and Pieter!. We were missing Shalyn this year as she was in California. We had all the usual things... turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry stuff, rolls, green salad, corn, and green beans. Then it was dessert time! Pumpkin Pie! Apple Pie! Chocolate Mousse Pie! Berry Pie! Lemon Cream Cheese Pie! Pecan Pie! Pumpkin Cheesecake! Yes... 7 desserts for 15 mouths, and not everyone ate pie! Yes, we had leftovers. I love pie for breakfast! What a day! Oh, I learned that you can cook mashed potatoes up to 2 hours ahead of time and put them in a crock pot to keep them warm and they still taste yummy and the last minute panic of "are they ready" is avoided!

The rest of the Thanksgiving weekend was spent working on our Pleasant Grove house. Nail holes were patched; almost the whole house got painted; the range got degreased; the downstairs bathroom and master bath shower got disinfected; carpets got cleaned AGAIN; smoke detectors were installed; ceiling fans dusted... lots of progress was made, and soon the house will be ready to put on the market. We aren't cut out to be landlords!

My dad also managed to find a project to help us out with at the Lindon house. He took down this ugly bi-fold door that went between the kitchen and living room. Miles thought that watching Grandpa was fascinating and he wanted to help!

Big Pancake

At least 340 mornings a year, Jonathan has a chocolate chip pancake for breakfast, which he eats with his hands. Usually I make him one big pancake in my 8" pan. The other day I got silly and made him a "monster-sized pancake" on my 12" skillet! I wrote him a special message with chocolate chips. The size of the pancake must have overwhelmed him... he ate it using a fork and knife! Since this morning, the boys have been more specific when requesting a pancake size... mini, normal, or huge!