The End of the Beginning

(Otherwise known as the second half of January)

Well, after an extremely busy November and December, January ended up being a really nice, relaxing month.  Pacing our work on (and specifically spending on) the house has forced us to take a nice breather and chance to get back into a routine around here.

Eliot:  He's gone through a little progressive growth spurt the past couple of weeks and is suddenly crawling with his stomach off the ground (sometimes), cruising, and climbing the stairs.  The stairs are a little scary since the only way he knows how to go down, is falling.  We'll work on that.  He also has started shaking his head "no" when he wants to be funny.  Super cute.  His upper teeth have grown to rabbit proportions and are also very cute.  He's still not eating many solids, and hasn't been his cheerful self since he came down with a cold Thursday. Ira caught it Saturday, and I caught it today.  Since the boys' noses are like faucets and their coughs hacking, we decided to stay home from church and let Ant represent.

Ira:  Grumpy with his cold.  But besides that he's been really fun.  He's really into pirates and dragons as of late.  We showed him Peter Pan after the pirate infatuation began and now I am constantly finding a hanger in my hand and being called Captain Hook.  Social skills have not exactly come....naturally.  He growls at guests, and when he saw a few other little boys at the Library this week, he decided to play dragons with them.  Of course he didn't explain what he was doing when he started running after them roaring.  He came back to me fairly quickly and said, "He said I was a bad boy."  Hmmm perplexing.   He has however had a really fun time with the little preschool coop we've been participating in.

Anthony:  He had a conference in Toronto for 5 days, keeping him busy.  The rest of us survived without him but were exuberant at his homecoming.  He also had some fun presentations to attend yesterday at U of M.   He feels like my knight in shining armor every night he comes home.  ....does that imply I need to be rescued from my children?  Let's not dwell on it. :)

Sharon:  I got a church calling as "Morning Out Co-coordinator," which means another sister and I organize play dates weekly for sisters with or without kids.  I received the calling two days after getting stir crazy and venturing out in blizzard-like weather to take the kids to the Museum of Natural History.  We couldn't find any parking closer than a half a mile, and as we walked I kept getting "you are a crazy lady" glances from people or comments like, "Wow, you're a brave woman to bring them out in weather like this."  Anyway, I'm really excited about the calling.  It's pretty perfect, since obviously we enjoy getting out no matter how inconvenient, and have lots of ideas of where we'd like to go.
  We've also been busy getting together with fun people.  In the past 7 days, we've had friends over for dinner 3 times.  There are a couple of guys I worked with from BYU in our ward, so we invited them over with their cute families for Indian last Sunday.  Friday we had the Elders over for dinner, and yesterday some good friends from our last ward dropped by while their house for sale was being viewed.

  So, that's pretty much it.  Life is good and busy.  Have a good week everyone!
 
 

The Big 3

The past few weeks have been nice as things have calmed down.  Now that we're moved into the house and are taking a break from major house projects we've been able to get back into a routine of normalcy a little.  

Last week we enjoyed celebrating Ira's 3rd birthday!  He chose a train theme, and after inviting some old friends from the ward we just moved from, I decided on a whim to send an open invitation to our entire new ward.  According to RSVP's we had 45-50 people come, but it may have been more than that with uncounted siblings and spouses.  It was really fun, and PACKED.  Below are some lessons learned from the experience, for my own party throwing record.  Don't feel bad for skipping or skimming.   

1.  Our house isn't the tiny apartment we're used to, but 50 people is a little over sane capacity.  :)

2.  If you are going to make a train cake again, add a face.  I probably spent 3 hours on this bad boy (the fondant was being uncooperative), and when Ira saw it, he looked totally disappointed.   When I asked him what was the matter, he said, "Where's the face??"  So in about two minutes I added a little face and he was suddenly in cake heaven.  You can see it below if you squint really hard. 

 2.  It doesn't matter what the cake looks like, just as long as it has Oreos stuck on it.  Those things must be like preschooler cocaine.  You would've thought that some kids' lives depended on getting a cookie piece or not.

 3.  Having kids make their own pizzas is a great activity...for about 3-10 kids, not 30.  Actually they all seemed to enjoy it.  This lesson is more for the sanity of the host.

4.  Our fire alarms are extremely over sensitive.  They went off about 6 times.  Hurry and get an over the range microwave with a vent and fan.

5.  Repeat Balloon Pit activity.  Although we felt a little bad that no-one really had a seat, or that our hanging rod wasn't even up in the closet for people's coats, there are a few benefits to having no furniture when throwing a party this big.  The Balloon Pit was one of those.  Every time I went down to check on the kids, there was probably about 20 of them going wild with the balloons.

 

6.  Also repeat painter's tape train tracks, moving box "round-house" and "box-box carts" for kids to sit in and drive around the tracks.   

7.  Less successful were the structured games I had planned earlier for a smaller group.  Pin the Engine on the Train, and Train Train Caboose will work well another year for 3-10 kids...not 30. 

 8. A homemade pinata is a fun, frugal, way to take care of party favors.  We used boxes left over from the move, and filled it with 8 lbs of candy.  Since we were too lazy to work out the logistics of hanging and beating it with a stick, we played Hot Pinata, which means with 3 year olds, I passed it to one girl and she dropped it on the ground spilling the goods everywhere for the taking, which is what all the other kids were hoping she'd do.

 All in all, I think the party went o.k.  It made me really excited to get to know people in our new ward.  There are loads of married students with cute kids.  We know a couple of them from BYU, and are already getting to know some others.  And since we moved just minutes out of our old ward, we feel blessed to have our old friends so accessible. 

 Ira was excited to get some sugary cereal for his birthday as well as a tiger bank (for the initiation of allowance getting), and of course a few train toys. 

Eliot has been a trooper.  He just got his 4th tooth and has been kind of grumpy lately.  We're trying to teach Ira not to try and pick up Eliot or move him around using his neck.  

In other news, we've quarantined ourselves for the past two days.  Friday night we went to bed feeling pretty normal, but then Ira threw up several times between 12:30 and 3:30, and now each of us has gotten the bug to some extent...all accept Eliot that is.  Finger's crossed.  I still can't get that kid to eat solids, even when his stomach is normal.

I'm preparing a lesson for a little preschool coop/ "joy-school" that a couple of friends and I are starting.  I forgot how easily enthused I am about lesson planning for this age group, and just teaching in general.  It'll be fun. 

So that's life.  We're keeping many of you in our prayers.  

Peace out!

  

Christmas in Utah

Happy 2013!

The Holidays have been a much needed break for us.  We absolutely loved being back in Utah.  Family is just the best.  Need I say more?

Jean cracked up Ira for most of our Christmas Eve Fondu dinner.  Mmmm.  I'm still dreaming of that Caramel Fondu. 

Soccer in the Hopkinson basement. 

Ira can be a little anti-social at times, so it was good to see him bonding with the cousins.  

 But I think he enjoys rough-housing a little too much at times.

We three trumpets.

Grandma and Grandpa Arave soaking in the chaos and fun of the Christmas Eve festivities. 

Eliot's crazed expression Christmas morning. 

 It was especially early Eastern Standard time.

We didn't have much luggage space for presents and we were a little worried about our lack of presents for Ira, but he was in heaven with his marshmallow pop.  Ah the simple pleasures.

I was really blessed to be able to catch up with some Francis cousins, old room-mates, an amazing mission companion, and a childhood friend while in Utah.  I'm too lazy to get the pictures off my phone now, so we'll post those next time along with a good house update. 

In other news...

 Ira's really been into cutting paper lately.

and bath time.

Eliot is now 9 months and still not really eating solids.  He finally completed a jar of baby food, but it took him 4 days!  He's more likely to eat chunks of normal food, but that is still only taking up a tiny fraction of his diet.  Hopefully his 3rd tooth that just came in will help him make the adjustment. 

He's been into standing up using really unstable items for support...empty moving boxes, really light folding chairs, moving dishwasher parts.  It's a little dangerous.  He's surviving though.

We are officially moved into the house and it feels great!  We're excited about our new ward, and also the fact that we're still close to our friends in our last ward.  Life is good.  Many of you with health concerns are in our prayers!  Get healthy everyone.   

Stress, Progress, and Recess

Alright, it's been about 2 months so I'll try and let the pictures do most of the talking.

Halloween

Eliot was a caveman, easily mistaken for Tarzan unless you see him with his brother.

Ira refused to wear his hand and foot claws, the shirt and pants I made him.  But if you're going to pick 2 parts of the costume to wear, you may as well pick the head and tail. 

The House

We finally closed on the house in late October and have been working on it ever since.  

Living Room Before

During

After (floors and gray paint)  

The gray is a little more purple than we expected, but it'll do.

The Kitchen Before

During

Look at all that wasted space in the corner!

During still.  

Cabinets are being installed this week!

The storage space is going to be much more accessible and effectively used, and I'm going to dance all around it as I cook. :)  

Kind of creepy and cute artifact we found under the cabinets, along with some dusty toys and a cigarette butt.

Family Room Before

During

 . 

During still

We've been really blessed to have some visits from family.

Paul and Valine came and helped us get a TON done.  It was a huge help, and really good grandma and grandpa time for the boys.  

Then the Romeros came on their way back from a family reunion.  I failed to get any really good pictures, but here's at least proof that they came.  They were extremely good sports with my bad hostessing, since I've been a little overwhelmed with the house and worried about the boys being sick.  In fact I think they did most of the cooking and dish cleaning!  You guys can come back any time!...and I promise to be a better hostess next time. :)

 Anthony's Movember celebration shot.

Yep, he's a cutie.

Thanksgiving

 We celebrated with our good friends the Hostetlers.  Carmen had just had their baby a week earlier.  Yes, one week!  But with her mom there to take care of them, they insisted on having us come, so we brought lots of pies and goodies, and enjoyed among other deliciousness  their bacon wrapped turkey.  Mmmmm.

 As soon as I got the camera out, I heard little squeals of joy and could feel these cute little eyes staring at me.  Eliot loves being photographed and pretty much every thing else.  Since last post he's grown two teeth and have become extremely mobile.

 Here are the boys in "disguise."

So, that's pretty much life.  We've been kind of busy to the max.  In fact, I can't think of another time I've felt so behind in almost every area of life.  We didn't get around to picking raspberries before they froze.  Instead of carving Halloween pumpkins, we painted Thanksgiving pumpkins.  Our routine that usually includes the library, park, playdates, exercise, good nutrition, and healthy sleep habits is all somewhere on the spectrum between "Out of Wack" to "Non-existent."  But it's also been really fun, and things will calm down soon.  We have been blessed immensely the past couple of months and are ready to play lots this next month.  Bring it on December!