Watabe's

As Promised

2012-01-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

Why have I just discovered my newest sister-in-law's blog? Well, she did a post about our beach trip, which I know is like so mid-2011, but I did promise that any blog post I found containing anything to do with us would be copied and pasted here. And heaven knows I will likely never do my own beach posts, so here is another blog-lifted beach post from a different perspective.

Side Note: My kids are hilarious. Just today they have each cracked me up.

Harrison at dinner when I said anyone who eats a strip of bell pepper will get a quarter. "Mom, that is not very motivating for me." (He's 7)

Elizabeth at church while I was holding her and rubbing her back and I asked if she could tell how much I loved her said, "Yes, but I'm not positive or negative that I love you." Also when Nate commented that my outfit looked a lot like something a friend at church would wear (quite a compliment in opinion) Elizabeth said, "Except that she always has on a little yellow. Like yellow shoes or a yellow necklace." It's true, this friend does wear lots of yellow accents. Crazy that my 5 year old would notice that.

Johnny has added to his knock knock joke repertoire. Thus far it's just been "Knock, knock." We say, "Who's there?" He says, "Cow." We say, "Cow who?" He says, "Moo!" Well as of this morning he has added "Monkey/Ooh, ooh, ahh, ahh" and "Frog/Ribbit." We've never even taught him that a frog says ribbit. I think he learned it from his favorite show that he requests in his best DJ Lance voice "Yoooo Ga Ga." But seriously, how many not-even-two-year-olds do you know that make up and tell knock knock jokes? Glad to see we've got another entertaining extrovert on our hands. Really don't know what we'd do with a shy kid!

Ok, don't forget the link about the beach! Quick, someone else blog something about us so I don't have to!

The Pattern Continues

2011-12-09T22:06:00.000-08:00

I told y'all if anyone posted anything relevant to me I would snatch it up and put it on this here blog. Thank goodness some people in my life have not fallen off the blog bandwagon like I have, so that there can occasionally be activity on here. My best friend, Kelly, just posted about our latest get together, which took place at The Y. Before I give you the link, here are my thoughts.

1) The longer I'm away from BYU the more I love it. I enjoyed going there (although some of the darkest days of my life were there too), but the older I get the more obsessed and compulsed I get about my kids going there. Hence, taking the children to BYU as much as possible for the indoctrination process to really take affect. Taking them to BYU sporting events, buying them BYU paraphernalia, getting them treats at the bookstore candy counter, taking them bowling at the Wilk. It's a calculated plan, people.

2) Why do I want them to go there so bad? Honestly, I was thinking about it the other day and I realized it's because I made some of the best friends of my life there. I have talked to people who hated BYU and the difference between our experiences is that they didn't have great friends. I truly think the friends you have in any stage of life can make it or break it for you and thankfully I had friends that made it for me. I'm sure I could have met amazing people wherever I went, but I wouldn't have met Kelly or Reyna or Sarah or (man, I shouldn't start naming names) and I wouldn't be the same if they weren't part of my life.

3) I noticed on this last trip that my increasing love for BYU is directly proportional to my increasing hatred toward the U. I didn't really have strong feelings against the U while I went to BYU. I only know a handful of people who went to the U and I adore them all. But I feel it is my moral obligation as a Cougar to hate those Utes. Hate is a strong word, especially for a Cougar. Let's say despise. And not really the Utes per say, as much as the institution itself, of which I know nothing about. Basically, I'm admitting that I blindly despise the University of Utah because I feel like I should. When I see that red, my blue blood starts to boil just a little. I guess that's what a rivalry is all about.

3) I was astounded that I agreed to eat at J Dog's. It was Nate's idea and he assured me that I would like it. I do not eat hot dogs. Ever. But I do eat Polish sausage, occasionally. Let's be clear that there is a vast difference between the two. It still scared me though, because it had a lot of the same properties as a hot dog. I just kept telling myself that it was not a hot dog. Honestly, I don't exactly know what hot dogs taste like, but this thing was delicious. I could only finish half because it gave me a horrendous stomach ache. But it was delicious, nonetheless.

4) The highlight of the visit for me was when we crammed into Kelly's van to drive back from J Dog's to campus (about a block). Nate was taking the rental car to Price to trade it out for a van (We hit a deer on the way to UT and had to get a rental until today, actually. See how I'm using these posts to get in little bits of information?) Anyway, this left me car less so we all crammed into the van and I sat shotgun with Kelly on my lap. Now if putting a few too many people into a car just to avoid a little extra walking doesn't bring back memories from the good old days of college, I don't know what will.

5) I had to hold myself back from obnoxiously screaming out one of our old shenanigans when I first saw Kelly at the bookstore. Man, we had some fun times back then. I'm sure our fellow students at the time were not enjoying our antics nearly as much as we were, but they probably didn't make a best friend for life in the process either. Love you so much, Kell Belle! It was so good to see you and your darling kids!

6) My face is excessively red in one of the pictures because I was blushing about something. I do not think of myself as one who gets embarrassed easily, but someone needs to tell the blood vessels in my face that because I blush like crazy over things that are not that big of a deal.

7) Don't ask why my children are incapable of making normal faces in pictures. I really do not know.

This is why I don't blog anymore, because I get on here and I ramble and stay up way too late cracking myself up with my pontificating.

Anyway, here's the link:
http://erikandkellyahlander.blogspot.com/2011/12/chelle-belle.html

Bloglifted Baby Shower

2011-11-14T18:18:00.000-08:00

I'm noticing a pattern here. . .

One of our dear friends is having a baby and we were thrilled to celebrate with her. I enjoyed working together with some friends to throw her a shower. Brittany was the mastermind of the whole thing, as usual. I must say, I'm having a little post shower let down. It was fun to plan, set up and attend.

And I guess my blog has deteriorated into posting links to other people's blogs that involve me. I need to hire a personal blogger. Just as soon as I'm done hiring a housekeeper, a nanny, a chauffeur and a personal shopper.

In other news, Oprah's life class really helped with my withdrawals. Not that I even watch it that much, but knowing she's there waiting for me on my DVR really helps. And I'm counting down the days till the Breaking Dawn premier. I'm going to the midnight showing for the first time! I thought that being 32 and a half and having three kids would be the perfect time to start acting like an irresponsible teenaged girl!

Anyway, here's the link to the shower. It's hard to believe, but it was even more beautiful in person. http://birnel.blogspot.com/2011/11/this-weekend-we-celebrated-one-of-my.html

See you next time someone blogs something that I can post on here!

Blog-lifted Beach Week

2011-09-20T15:02:00.001-07:00

It's somewhat of tradition now that I just blog-lift my sister-in-law's beach week posts. I always say I'm going to do my own and never do. So this year, let it be known that this is all you're gonna get as far as a report from beach week goes. In fact, at the rate I'm going, this could be all you get for a while!!!

It was another wonderful week at the beach. Well, other than Johnny's screeching that Kate mentions in her post. He's outgrown that, thankfully! He did an awful lot of screeching, and crying and making me a nervous wreck around the ocean and pool. I was longing for trips past and future in which all my kids could swim and I could relax!!! Harrison has always LOVED the water, so he was endlessly entertained, as evidenced by his crazy dark tan. Elizabeth could swim this year, which was so nice. If she wasn't swimming she was having a blast with Gwen and Emi. Being with my family was so fun. We ate and relaxed and ate and swam and ate and played games and ate and read and ate and watched some great TV and ate. My kind of vacation! In fact, I could use a little of that right now!

Click here for Kate's beach week post:
Once you're there also click "newer post" to see our family beach pictures.

O, How I Miss You!

2011-08-30T12:20:00.001-07:00

I know I have fallen off the face of the blogosphere, and with all the catching up I have to do this is the most random thing to blog about. But I miss Oprah. I mean I really miss her bad. Like one of my best friends moved away. I didn't notice it as much over the summer because it's always reruns in the summer anyway. And the days have no structure. But now that school has started, I'm really feeling the void. I know the season wouldn't have started yet if there were going to be one, but it would be around the corner. I have nothing to look forward to. 4 o'clock rolls around and I glance longingly at the big, dark, quiet TV screen missing my friend. It really is so sad to me. The end of a long relationship that spanned the decades of my life. Over, just like that.

It's not helping that we are in the barren dessert that is end of summer TV. Design Star and Project Runway just aren't enough to keep me going through an entire week. Any suggestions of a good Oprah replacement or shows I should be watching right now? I know, this is SO pathetic! I'm trying to read books to entertain myself, but reading makes me awfully sleepy!

Maybe I should catch up on this blog with my extra time! Until then, thanks for all the good times, Oprah. You are dearly missed.

My Karate Kid - A Full Circle Story

2011-04-09T15:15:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, Harrison became totally obsessed with the original Karate Kid movie. I mentioned it briefly in another post. He watched it and then Karate Kid Part II (where Daniel San and Mr. Miyagi go to Japan) over and over and over again. He was very upset that we hadn't named him Daniel, said he wanted to marry a girl with the last name Laruso (Daniel's last name) when he grew up so he could change his last name to Laruso and started bringing his papers from school home like this:

These movies made him even more in touch with his Japanese side. He started begging me to get him a gi (karate uniform) and sign him up for Karate. I told him we could borrow his cousin's gi and hoped that would suffice.

Several months later, the obsession was still going strong and his birthday was coming up so we decided to have a Karate Party. I was actually really excited about it. Doing a theme that had something to do with his heritage (and my past) was fun for me.

The invitations looked like a gi top with a black belt. They were addressed in Japanese and English. On his birthday Nate took Harrison and his best buddy Logan to see the new Karate Kid movie while I got ready for the party. They got back just in time. Thanks to Ashely for using her special printer to cut out freezer paper for me to make headbands for all the boys and a shirt for Harrison. First the kids decorated the drums I had made. I wanted each kid to have one of the drums that you spin between your two hands to use during the "tournament" that we were going to have (this is part of Karate Kid 2 in the big fight scene at the end). I searched on-line and it was going to be too expensive to get each boy one. So I got creative. Nate said thought they were ghetto -- I thought they were very innovative. I took an empty yogurt container, threaded it with strings with a bead at the end, stuck a pencil through the bottom, glued a piece of card stock over the top and spray painted the whole thing red. Then we went outside for the tournament. The boys spun their little drums when it wasn't their turn. We had two boys go up against each other at a time and balance on a garden brick in the crane pose. It was a little too easy for them, but still fun. The first kids to fall got yellow belts, the next round got green, then brown and the winner got a black belt (I just used wide ribbons for the belts). Next the boys broke boards (balsa wood from the craft store). They each got to kick one and punch one. It was very exciting. Then we had a chopstick relay. They had to run down, pick up a marshmallow with chopsticks, and run back. They didn't exactly get the concept of a relay, but that's okay! After opening presents, a friend from church who is an advanced martial artist came over and taught the boys some cool moves! After working up an appetite, we had a Japanese feast. Menu: Tonkatsu (breaded, fried chicken cutlets), rice, ramen, edamame, and watermelon. They ate with fun kid-friendly chopsticks that they got to keep. They had Ramune soda, a favorite from Japan, that has a marble in the top that you have to push down into the bottle in order to drink it (it gets stuck in the bottle, not a choking hazard). Pretty neat! We barely had time to eat the Japan flag cake at the end. Elizabeth and Johnny donned their traditional Japanese outfits for the party. I love this picture because if you look closely you can see what stages their teeth were in at the time. Johnny's two little bottom teeth and Harrison's big top teeth starting to grow in. We love our Karate Kid! (Notice the darling shirt that Logan gave him -- he didn't hesitate to change right into that in the middle of opening presents!) Traditional birthday kiss picture! We hadn't gotten him any presents, knowing he was going to get lots from his friends. On a whim, I called and signed him up for Karate classes from a business card that he had brought back from the rec. center one day and continually hounded me about. Little did we all know that would turn out to be the most expensive and time-consuming gift he ever got from us!!!

Here's the full circle part -- Karate has now become our life. I should have known when we found out the dojo is run by a family where the Dad is Japanese American, the mom is white and there are 2 teenage boys. Do you think Harrison could be any more enamored with this family? All that in common, plus a love for karate -- it was a match made in heaven. So he now goes to three classes a week (four for the last few months because he had a lot of make-up classes to do). I am seriously considering getting a small side job to pay for all of it. It's insane how quickly we got sucked in and next thing we knew it we were buying a bo staff, sparring gear, paying for belt tests and tournament fees. Crazy. I've really got to stop complaining about it though because I'm giving Harrison a complex. He tells me, "Mom, I know karate is taking over our life and taking all of our money. I hear you telling your friends on the phone all the time." He's also been a little pre-occupied with money lately and doesn't understand why we don't have more cash. I keep trying to explain to him about the bank and credit/debit cards, but he doesn't get it. At one point he said, "Mom, I know why you and dad don't have any real money. It's because it all goes to karate." I have reassured him that I'm happy to spend the time and money as long as he loves it and is willing to be responsible about getting ready on time, and that I'll stop talking about it (good thing he doesn't read this blog!)

Anyway, a few weeks ago he had his first tournament. He was going to participate in traditional forms (kata) and sparring. I really, really wanted him to do well. For him, and honestly for me too. I needed all this time and money to feel worth it. Honestly, I had an unhealthy desire for him to win. I didn't used to consider myself competitive, but the older I get, the more I realize I kind of am. Nate had been practicing sparring with him every night for a few weeks leading up to it. In class he had been beating most of his teammates, but I had no idea what the other competition would be like. First they did the forms and it was really hard to tell how well he did compared to the other kids (all looked about the same to me). He ended up getting 4th place, which is the lowest you can get and still get a trophy, anything lower gets a medal. Here they are presenting him with 4th. I was happy with that and so was he. But when we went to get it from the trophy table, we saw the 1st place trophies and I could tell he wanted one of those really bad (takes one to know one). I knew no matter what, now that he had gotten a trophy -- a little taste of victory -- the karate bug was just going to get stronger. There was no way he'd want to quit anytime soon. Maybe the GAP is hiring.

Then it was time for sparring. I was a little nervous about watching my baby fight with other kids (they do wear protective gear, but still), until he won his first round. Then in the second round he had to go up against a very tough, big girl and I went all cobra kai on him and had to keep myself from yelling, "No mercy!" It was a very close round, but he beat her in sudden death. The third round was a pretty easy win but I was still about to have a heart attack. It was so intense. Can't you just feel the intensity as his sensei coaches him during a time out? So in the last round he had to go up against his best buddy from his own team, Richard. Well, that was a little awkward. I've gotten to be friends with his mom and we had been cheering each other's kid on up to that point. The parents all told each other it was a win-win and acted like we didn't care which way it went, but my thespian skills from high school weren't doing me much good at that moment, because I really wanted Harrison to win. It was a very close fight. They were very evenly matched and it really could have gone either way. If it had ended 30 seconds sooner or later, it would have been a different story. But it ended while Harrison was ahead and he won!!! I was so excited, but trying really hard to down play it and be gracious. When I went over to him right after he said, "Who won?" So innocent. You can tell he was pretty in awe of his trophy. It was almost as big as Elizabeth. He carried it from room to room for the next several days. He was pretty mad I wouldn't let him take it to church and school. Most of you probably know how girl crazy Harrison is. On the way home he said, "Mom, this tournament wasn't exactly like the one in the movie. When Daniel San won Ally ran out onto the mat and kissed him on the lips. But Gabriella (the darling girl he has a crush on in his Kindergarten class) wasn't even at my tournament." Oh well, the huge trophy will have to suffice for now, buddy!

I actually have mixed feelings about the trophy. On one hand, I am so happy that all of his (and our) efforts paid off and that he has something to show for it (a very cool something for a six year old). On the other hand, I don't want him feeling like he needs a giant trophy everytime he does something good. We've had talks that some of the most important things in life never result in trophies. But all in all, I'm really glad his first tournament was a great experience.

Who knew that showing him that movie last year would bring us to this point? Now who can help me think of a movie to show him about a kid who loves reading, is really nice to his siblings, and is super helpful around the house?

Two Pink Parties, One Long Post!

2011-02-05T21:57:00.001-08:00

While we were in Virginia for the holidays we celebrated Elizabeth's 4th birthday with my family. My brother's wife, Wendy, offered to make a cake and host a surprise party for her. She really went all out decorating with all sorts of pink and princess things!

Nate had Elizabeth playing at a nearby park and when we were ready, we all hid and they came in.

She was just chatting away (as usual)

and then she was surprised (and a little confused and scared).

Her little heart was beating so fast when I hugged her.

I think she felt pretty special.

Wendy had thought of all sorts of cute details, like these clip-on earrings, fit for a princess.

They decorated sugar cookies.

They played pin the tiara on the princess (princess drawn by Amy, Andrew's girlfriend.) Notice that the pillow pets were also in on the fun.

Harrison, Gwen, Emi and Elizabeth. We wish we could have cousins at all of our birthday celebrations. Cousin Max was being shy but we were happy to have him, K.C. and Suzanne there too!

Then we had the darling and delicious cake!

Look at these cute party-g0ers. Cousins, Blake, Beau and Johnny.

Thank you, Wendy for making such a fun family party! You really went all out and we appreciate it so much! It definitely could have sufficed, but Elizabeth has know for a year that she was getting her first friend party this year. So I had to deliver. I did push it off until the very end of

January (I'm glad I did, everyone was sick the weekend I had thought about doing it).

Elizabeth wanted a pink party and I was more than happy to make that happen. I LOVE having boys and there are some really amazing things about being a mom to boys. But let me tell you, I'd much rather throw a pink party than a Spiderman party!

The invitations went out (thanks Tamara for giving me your leftover triangles!)

And then the big day arrived. I spent all day making sure the house looked like it had been hosed down with pepto bismol!

(Thanks to Tamara for the banner too!)

One of these days I will learn to master party prep while maintaining a happy attitude. Unfortunately, this wasn't the day. And of all people to take it out on, it shouldn't have been the birthday girl when she didn't want to cooperate for pictures. But it was.

Thankfully she is quick to forgive and forget. (Thank you Brittany for letting us borrow the girliest, pinkest outfit ever!)

The little girls all looked so pretty in pink (as instructed on the invitation).

For almost an hour the girls quietly sat and beaded pink necklaces. I wasn't sure how long it would take and if I had enough things planned. Let me tell you, if you want an activity that is calm, make necklaces! Ten little girls focused and entertained! (Too bad I didn't think to take pictures until almost all of them were done.) I also had them make a shrinky-dink charm to go on the necklaces. I wish I hadn't done that part. They weren't that into it and it ended up being too complicated and time consuming on my part. Lesson learned.

While another mom and I slaved away on the charms, Nate entertained the girls in the other room. They played "Pink, pink, pinkalicious."

And pin the tiara on the princess made another appearance. (Mina, I needed you there as my photographer! I hardly got any action shots!)

Then it was time for the cake. Wendy really raised the bar of what birthday cakes should look like (usually my kids get a half-heartedly decorated 9X13). I don't know if she wanted to one up her last cake or if it was because she was 4, but she insisted on a "4 layer cake with pink skin and white polka dots." Well, I wasn't about to attempt that. So I hired a girl in our ward who makes cakes to do it. Kristina made Elizabeth's vision come to life and it was a big hit! Yummy too, strawberry cake with vanilla frosting.

This picture cracks me up because one of the other girls was trying to blow out the candle and you can tell that Elizabeth is perturbed.

We gave her another chance and she was much happier.

She looks so satisfied.

I finally had some time to take pictures. Here are all the silly girls eating cake!

So, you might have noticed that one of Elizabeth's friends looks like she could be her twin. This is a friend from Karate. The big brothers are in karate and these little girls play while we wait. She is half Japanese too and they seriously look so much alike, it's crazy!

I made each of the girls a flower clip for their treat bag. They are pretty easy. . .until you make ten of them!

They also got a pink pencil, a lip gloss ring and lots of pink treats that they picked out themselves.

They really got a kick out of making their own treat bag and actually took less candy than I would have given them.

At the end we got a picture of the fam. Don't mind Harrison's pose. That's his new favorite trick in pictures.

Our traditional birthday kissing picture!

This girl better feel loved after TWO great parties! We really do love and adore her so, so much! It is so fun having her in our family! And I'm glad to be done with birthday parties for 18 months until Harrison's 8th! (I'll post his Karate party from this summer next -- I really do have big plans for catching up on this blog).

Striking Resemblance

2011-01-25T14:40:00.000-08:00

Harrison is doing a project on orangutans. During our research I noticed a striking resemblance between baby orangutans and my babies.

Namely, the hair.
I was laughing so hard that tears were forming in my eyes.

Good thing they're not redheads.

Wish I'd Thought of That, Carrie Underwood

2011-01-17T01:40:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me knows how much I HATE DRIVING. It scares me bad and I fear it will end my life one day. Add snow to it and I hate it more. Last Wednesday didn't help this fear of mine one bit.

Snow packed neighborhood roads + A rushing mom on autopilot = Expensive life lessons

Thankfully, I was in the car alone and I'm fine. I wasn't going fast enough to get hurt. Just too fast for snowy roads. Usually the snow here melts after a day. It had been colder and the snow had been around for a few days. I was getting more and more comfortable with it. I was rushing to pick Elizabeth up from dance and totally in my own world (NOT on my cell phone, didn't even have it in the car -- wish I had!) I was thinking about a friend in need and next thing I knew I was fishtailing. I did not know what to do -- all the advice I'd ever been given about how to drive in snow immediately left my head. I had the thought, "What would Nate do? Nate would know how to handle this." I overcorrected three different times and realized too late that I was going to hit a parked black 4-Runner. My thoughts were "Nate would definitely not have gotten himself in a position to hit this car. I hope the air bag doesn't come out, cuz that hurts. I'm glad none of the kids are in here. This is going to be expensive." You'd think with enough time to think all those things I could have not hit the car, but time is a funny thing in those situations. It goes so slow, but so fast at the same time.

So a nice, older European man stopped to see if I was alright, and ended up giving me a short ride up the street to my house. I called Julie (Elizabeth's dance teacher, my dear friend). She came over and was awesome to help me figure everything out. My neighbor, Joanna, was really helpful too. She took Harrison to school for me and then took Elizabeth to her house for lunch and playing. I got everything squared away with Geico -- left a detailed apology note on the 4-Runner with the claim number so his car would get taken care of (he was gone at work all day). Side note, this poor guy had his car totaled in his driveway four years ago by a teenager running from the cops. Who is unlucky enough to have two cars wrecked while parked in front of their house? Don't worry his car is not that bad this time -- he hasn't had it fixed yet, so I get to drive by it several times a day and feel awful that I did this.

Anyway, the tow truck came and we got a rental car. The first estimate was $6, 300 but they hadn't taken a good look at the engine yet. Thankfully our deductible is only $500. Our premium will likely go up. But thank goodness for insurance, right? We hit a deer in Utah last Christmas and have been so grateful in both cases for deductibles, rental car coverage, etc.

So the lessons are:

1. DRIVE SLOWLY IN THE SNOW -- no matter how used to it you are, no matter what kind of car you have and not matter how many wheel drive you have

2. Buckle your kids up even on the little neighborhood roads -- in snowy areas ESPECIALLY on the little neighborhood roads. Our famous line is, "Hurry up and get buckled, we're almost on the big road." Well, here the big roads are safer because they get plowed.
Confession: On the way to dance, Elizabeth was having trouble with her buckle and I told her not to worry about it because we were just going around the corner to Julie's. I don't think she would have been seriously hurt if she had been in the car unbuckled when I got in the wreck, but she definitely would have been thrown around and traumatized. I'm so glad none of the kids were in the car. It would have made it even more stressful. So now I'm that mom who won't leave the driveway until all the kids are buckled.

The next day as I was driving through the snow very slowly in the Civic, "Jesus Take the Wheel" came on the radio. This song has always felt a little trite to me, and I feel a little sac religious when I say this, but the story of the song was very close to home and I thought, "Man, I should have tried that!" Even though I didn't think fast enough to go for that option, I really do feel like we were blessed because it could have been so much worse. It's just an expensive, annoying lesson, but I got it! Hopefully it can save someone else from having to learn the hard way!

Christmas Outfits, A Christmas Miracle & The Big Man

2010-12-28T23:45:00.000-08:00

Because Elizabeth grows so slowly, she has lots of Christmas outfits that still fit (parts from all of them since her first Christmas). We find things that coordinate for the boys and look Christmasy at church for the whole month of December. Here are the outfits from 2009.

Elizabeth's outfit from 2008 looked great with Harrison's outfit from 2004, which fit Johnny perfectly.
Here are the pictures from the Santa visit. I forgot to upload the one of all three of them. I'll add it later. Elizabeth had accidentally told the Santa at the church party that she wanted a Barbie. She kept asking me to remind her to ask this Santa for a Princess Umbrella. She remembered all on her own.

She said she wanted to wear red and white to match Santa, so this is what we came up with.
Johnny had the typical baby's response to Santa.

I mentioned the Pillow Pet incident in my last post. Harrison was thrown off because when he told Santa he wanted a Pillow Pet, Santa asked which one and then named a few. Harrison had been teetering between a panda and a dog. Well, Santa named off a few including the dog. He did not mention the panda, so Harrison took that as meaning the panda was not an option. Grandma went out and purchased the dog the next day and the panda is sitting in her basement waiting to be returned to Bed, Bath & Beyond.

We had a bit of a Christmas miracle that day. We had to go to a different library because I didn't sign up in time for our local library. It was 30 minutes away. Well, we left his school uniform sweater there accidentally. He and I were both pretty upset about it. Him because it meant he'd have to tuck in his shirt (he loves the sweater because you don't have to tuck it in) and me because going back to get it would be a major pain especially at this crazy time of year. Later that day I was helping in his class and in walked a parent with his sweater. I was stunned, confused and very happy! It turns out that another parent from our school had been at the library and seen the sweater with the school logo on it on the floor. She brought it to the school and because I had written our name in it, they brought it straight to his classroom. Yeah! These are the Christmas outfits from 2007. Elizabeth's 12 month skirt still fits. Harrison's tie still fits (getting a little short) and a friend was selling Johnny's outfit at a garage sale that was from the same collection. So, so cute! Nate didn't get the memo about wearing grey and red, so he was the photographer.

Little Two Fingers looking quite spiffy. Of course, he wanted nothing to do with the hat during church. None of my kids have tolerated hats.

We're at my parents in Virginia right now having so much fun!!! If I have time I'll do some posts from here. Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday!

Ebenezer & I

2010-12-21T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to report that I've been in a very Scroogey mood this month. I'd really love to blame it all on my naughty children, but I know it's too little organization and too much procrastination that have lead to a very stressful Christmas season this year. Which has lead to one too many one AM bedtimes for Mommy.

Tired, cranky, stressed out Mommy + overly excited about Christmas children = extra naughtiness.

Which only makes Mommy worse and it's a vicious cycle. Add the pressure of an Elf on the Shelf witnessing the whole thing and you've got one ugly scene. (How many times have one or more of us yelled in an ugly voice, "Buddy can see you right now. He's going to tell Santa!")

I have felt really bad about the lack of Christmas Spirit around here this year. There has been some concerted effort, there really has. And there have been some nice moments. But amidst
-a child breaking one my beloved, irreplaceable Christmas dishes
-Nate having to miss his off Friday and work Saturday last week
-poor decisions on my part such as going to Great Clips on a Saturday in December with all three kids by myself (exact opposite of Heaven on Earth)
-spending a full week stressing over making Shutterfly books that we had coupon codes for and working until literally the last minute before the codes expired only to find that it was "limit one per household"
-having the tree stand break which lead to a "TIMBER" situation
-getting up extra early to try to meet our 2009 goal of being to church on time for once and then spending 20 minutes searching for Elizabeth's shirt which I remembered was in the car after giving up and doing a last minute outfit change (alas, the goal was not met)
-Elizabeth cutting the neighbor girl's hair again and them not being very happy with me
-and all of the other normal stresses of getting ready for Christmas, getting ready to go out of town, and life with 3 kids in general
I have not felt very merry.

Now, I am not sheltered or self-absorbed enough to think that any of these things truly qualify as having a hard life or tough times during the holidays. But I have still let it get to me. I have lashed out at everyone in this house besides the baby. And then the motherguilt sets in and I just feel worse.

Fortunately, we had a few turning points last week. The first was when I finally found our Sesame Street Christmas CD. It is copied from a record from my childhood. It is an integral part of Christmas at our house. I love it and my kids love it and I could not find it until last Monday night. They usually listen to it as they fall asleep every night in December. Once we started listening to that it started to feel a little more like Christmas.

The next night, when the guilt of only reading the kids one of the Christmas stories from my extensive collection got to be too much, I was determined to read them another book before bed that night. It was way too late for a story, especially a long story, but I wanted to read them my favorite Christmas story, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey. I knew it was a sad story and would probably make me cry a little, but by golly, I really wanted to read it. Little did I know that all the pent up emotion had me a little on edge and I could hardly get through the book. I had to stop several times and gain composure as I choked out this heartbreakingly touching story. My kids were pretty perplexed as to why Mommy was balling during the story she had declared her favorite just minutes before. They asked if they were Happy Tears. No no, these are sad tears. But don't worry, there's a happy ending to the book. 30 minutes later the children were nestled all snug in their beds with visions of sad mommies dancing in their heads.

Some might not enjoy a good Christmas Cry, but I think it was just what the Dr. ordered. The next morning brought snuggles and giggles in bed

and later an impromptu performance of Silent Night at the piano by Harrison and Elizabeth. (The video didn't work on Blogger, so here's a link to Youtube).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvEvJe9DYac
Now if that doesn't make your heart grow three sizes, I don't know what will.

Thursday was pretty awful again. You can't expect teary story times and sibling singalongs 24/7, people. But that night I did some serious repenting and had a new determination to make this final week before Christmas better than the last two had been.

Friday we went to see Santa. It went really smoothly and was very enjoyable (other than the part where Harrison told Santa he wanted a dog pillow pet instead of the already purchased unbeknownst to him panda pillow pet). I helped out at Harrison's class Christmas party. Nate took Elizabeth on a date to see Christmas lights at these special gardens (all his idea, so sweet). Saturday Nate took Harrison snowboarding all day. I'll tell you what, spending a day as a single parent is a lot easier if you're down a kid! Plus, for the first time all month, we had absolutely nothing on the calendar. The three of us stayed home, in our PJs ALL day! I wrapped presents while watching the newer Miracle on 34th Street that I'd never seen (cried again -- I swear something is wrong with me). Sunday was church and it was the first time we've been in our ward on the Sunday before Christmas (we're usually with family at their ward). I really liked being with our own ward family and sharing the special spirit of Christmas with them. We did a gingerbread house in the afternoon (with a kit, of course, there's no way I'd do one from scratch at this point) and had a really yummy dinner. Then kids and I drove around and delivering Christmas gifts and looking at lights.

Soon we're off to Grandma and Grandpa's and then the fun will really begin. My point is, better late than never, Ebenezer and I aren't seeing nearly as much of each other lately. Next year, I will do as much as I possibly can to eliminate "bah humbug" from my vocabulary by planning ahead, simplifying and letting go of the crazy notion that my family will suddenly be blissful and angelic just because the calendar says December.

Daddy/Hubby Celebrations

2010-11-10T13:42:00.000-08:00

June brings two special holidays. I thought it fitting that Nate took the time to teach Harrison how to play Chopsticks on Father's Day. Really sweet. They play it often (last night was the latest) and each time Nate teaches Harrison a new variation. I'm thrilled they share a love of and knack for music.

We went to a BBQ at the Birnel's, whose backyard makes me drool. At one point the kids did an impromptu performance of "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home" from the trampoline. (I originally wrote "from the tramp," instead of "from the trampoline" but that would be an entirely different kind of song :)!) It was pretty darn sweet.

Daddy's little girl.
"Little Big Man" (Used to be Little Man until Johnny came along).

Each of the four daddies had a baby!

My friend gave me a great idea for a Father's Day gift. I had each child plan a date with Dad. They picked an activity and a treat. Then we got gift certificates for each thing.

Then it was our 9 year anniversary. We went to Texas de Brazil (an all you can eat Brazilian BBQ place) and ate ourselves silly. We brought the kids because kids eat free. Between that and the coupon, it was just a little more expensive than a typical night out for all of us.

It's at a nice outdoor mall and they had a little street fair set up. These alpacas were interesting.

They waited outside while a enjoyed shopping at NY&CO (it was fun to discover that we have one of those in Colorado.)

It was a fun night. The other day Harrison asked when our 10 year anniversary was. I said next summer and he said, "I have a great idea of what we can do to celebrate. Let's have a movie night and push the couches together!" (Something Nate and the kids do about once a month on a weekend night). He was disappointed/slightly insulted to hear that we're planning on going on a trip without the kids instead!

A Passtime

2010-11-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

This summer Harrison tried baseball for the first time. After practicing in the back yard with dad, they graduated to the batting cages. (Please note tongue stuck out in concentration, inherited from mom who inherited from grandma who inherited from great grandma).

The practice paid off. See the ball? He made contact consistently.

Fielding? Not as fun! Especially considering it was always hotter than you-know-where.

After the first game and we went to the park by the fields. Here's my cute girl.

And my cute boy.

Some post-game Father/Son playtime.

We had Rockies tickets from Nate's work. At the last minute I decided it really wouldn't be that fun to take a baby to a baseball game (especially with the threatening weather -- check out that ominous sky). Plus even without the baby excuse, I'm usually bored once all the treats are gone. So I got the kids decked out in their purple, met up with Nate and sent them off.

Elizabeth was asleep for the pass off (too bad you can't see her Rockies shirt).

They left shortly after they arrived. So basically, they had a fun train ride into the city and back. One of the kids enjoyed this adventure and the other didn't. Can you guess?

Ah, baseball. A somewhat fun passtime. I don't know about favorite.

Backyard Fun with Friends

2010-10-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

We had a playdate with Andrew and Hudson and they showed my kids how to use their imaginations and play outside. We did stuff like this all the time as kids, but my kids don't. Am I suppossed to teach them? Hopefully arranging playdates with other kids will do the trick!

These were their "Animal Houses." The used just about every plastic container I had and most of our plastic animals. It was great. Kept them entertained for a long time!
Here's Elizabeth with our neighbor/BFF Natalia. It's a cross-cultural relationship. Natalia gives them all sorts of Polish food (mostly candy) and we give her some Japanese food, like these Spam Musubi. She liked it. My kids also think they're learning Polish. They often tell me, "Mom, I know how to say bum in Polish. Bum."

They had matching dresses that they were both growing out of, so we did a photoshoot one day. Let me tell you, having a neighbor close in age to your child is the best thing ever! They have so much fun together and get along great (most of the time!)

Johnny in June

2010-10-27T09:38:00.001-07:00

I love this baby so much I have to hold myself back from squeezing him too tight, kissing him too hard and/or smothering him with syrup and eating him right up!
Do you blame me? And look, he sits up . . .
. . .momentarily.

Unfortunately, his older brother is not as good at holding himself back from expressing his love. And behavior like this. . .

. . . can leave a mark to prove it.

Yes folks, that is Johnny's 1st (and hopefully only) hickey.

Given too him by his overly adoring brother.
Johnny also became enamored with himself when he finally noticed his reflection in the mirror on his swing.

It's official. We're all in love!

Tiny Town

2010-10-26T07:11:00.001-07:00

The week we got back from Hawaii (way back at the beginning of June) I tried to ensure that my kids wouldn't be too let down by keeping them busy with lots of fun activities. By the end of the week I was exhausted and the kids were ungrateful, but let's just remember it as being really fun!

We drove up into the mountains to

Later on in the summer this very train had a big accident when it derailed and sent 15 passengers to the hospital. Thankfully that didn't happen the day we were there!

We had fun with the Koenigs and the Johnsons.

Elizabeth's pants were falling down all day as evidenced by this classic picture!

Posing in front of her favorite house. The pink one, of course!

5 more June posts to come and then we're on to July!

I will catch up, I will catch up, I will not derail like the Tiny Town Train!

Let's Play Music

2010-10-23T21:23:00.000-07:00

As always, I've got so much catching up to do, but I've got to start somewhere. So I'll start with a plug for our music class, in hopes of winning a giveaway.

You may have noticed the button for our Let's Play Music that I've had on my sidebar for a while now. One of my dear friends, Jenni, is a teacher for their amazing music program. It teaches kids a ton of music theory and technique through play. Harrison has learned so much in the year and 2 months that he's been going to music classes. Music has always come to him naturally, so I am thrilled to build on that and get him started at a young age. I will put Elizabeth in too, but for different reasons. She is not as musical, but I've already seen her come a long way just from listening to Let's Play Music CD's and watching Harrison practice. I am learning so much too!

Check to see if there is a Let's Play Music teacher in your area! You'll be so glad you did.

P.S. I vow to do at least one post a week until I'm caught up.

Back to School!!!

2010-09-12T16:07:00.001-07:00

So after the longest summer of our lives (May 21- September 7), school finally started. There were some really fun vacations (Hawaii, Virginia Beach), some really fun holidays (Father's Day, 4th of July, Harrison's Birthday, Labor Day), and some run of the mill summertime activities (park, pool, free movies, library, etc). But when the children weren't being entertained by yours truly, their activity of choice was fighting. And I had had about enough of that. So I was more than ready for school to start.

We kicked it off last Sunday with our First Annual Watabe Family Back to School Feast. I gathered ideas from a few friends (and virtual friends) and this was the result. It started with an invitation taped to their door that morning inviting them to the feast. They were asked to wear "nice" clothes and come with ready with a goal for the school year.

The kids were very excited as they watched everything get set up for "the celebration."

We started with a toast to a great school year.

Please note Elizabeth's idea of nice clothes. A hand-me-down brown corduroy jumper in size 5T, aqua polka dot tee shirt, and lip gloss.
The menu: Stuffed Shells with Italian Sausage, Artisan Bread, Spinach Salad, and Cupcakes. Thoughts on the menu: I wanted something nice that the kids would eat. That's a very short list to choose from. I had only made this one other time and had forgotten how labor intensive it was. Between making bread, cupcakes, salad, the main course and decorating, I was getting a little frazzled. At one point, Nate said if I was going to act this way this would be our first and last Back to School Feast. So, I took a few deep breaths, plastered a smile on my face and pressed forward. Next year I will definitely simplify the menu. I'm thinking Salmon. They like it and it's super easy.

During dinner we talked about our expectations for the school year. Harrison was ready with his goal and then we helped him elaborate on it. Elizabeth's goal cracked me up. So typical. I had forgotten (repressed?) that Nate was starting school again too, so he also set a goal. After one week of school I can report that we have all done a good job. Elizabeth's teacher even said, "She's such a great helper." To report a little more accurately, I have only gotten Harrison to school on time, not Elizabeth. But pre-school is not as important, right? I'll work on that this week. And I'm going to add a "happily" to the first one too, because I really need to work on that.
The kids had been introduced to Silly Bands the day before and were very enamored with them. My friend gave me a pack of "Back to School" ones that we busted out that night. They got to pick two and then we said if they did a good job they could pick another one each Sunday.

Please note Harrison's belt. He only wears belts to church, but he came up with this as part of his "nice" outfit. Cute.

When we remembered Daddy was starting school, Harrison lent him his crown. He wore it while doing the dishes.

During dessert we talked about Priesthood blessings in preparation for their Back to School Father's Blessings. The kids were very reverent and listened very closely during their blessings. It was a wonderful evening and next year with my simplified menu (read: better attitude) I'm sure it will be even better.

So two days later, we started! Here's Elizabeth in her first day of school outfit that I purchased at the eleventh hour.

Can you tell how excited she is?

She was psyched about her backpack and felt like such a big girl.

Miss Leigh had taken pictures from the Open House and made cute little flowers for the garden.

Here she is with "Buzzy" the mascot of "Busy Bee Pre-School."

That afternoon Harrison started at the new Charter School, SkyView Academy. Here his is in his uniform. Now I know the shirt is supposed to be tucked in.

His teacher, Mrs. Alm, who we already love.

Kindergarten Take Two. . .and Action!

So, I'm happy to report that I think we made the right decision about repeating Kindergarten. First of all, 5 out of 20 kids in his class are repeating (I guess I wasn't the only one who saw a golden opportunity in moving to a brand new, more rigorous school).

My second reason is a little bit of a brag fest, but after all the negative reports I got (and passed along) last year, I feel very justified in sharing. He came home the 2nd day and told me he had gotten silver on his behavior chart. He said that's the best you can get and he was the only one in the class that got it. I really hoped this was accurate information. Sure enough, the next day the teacher confirmed and told me what a fabulous job he was doing. This was such a contrast to last year when on the 2nd day of school the teacher had to pull me aside and talk to me about Harrison's poor behavior.

I was so thrilled, proud and relieved. Harrison felt really good about it too. He said, "Mom, last year it took me until October 25th to have a great day and this year I had a great day on the 2nd day of school!" (I don't know if it was exactly October 25th, but it did take a really long time, and even after that it was never consistent). Then he said, "You know what helped me have a great day? That blessing Daddy gave me." So heart-warming.

I'm hoping and praying that he continues to do well. I am so thankful for a fresh start. I really think that being older and more mature will be to his benefit throughout his school career.

I MAY be a little behind

2010-08-28T07:24:00.000-07:00

Always trying to catch up. . .Here are some of the highlights from May.

Elizabeth's 1st Dentist appointment. She did great!

Harrison is an old pro. He's been to the dentist several times this year. . .takes after his mother.

Our friends had a Cinco de Mayo party. We dressed up (notice the penciled in eyebrows and black lip liner -- please excuse the blatant stereotyping).

The kids ready to do the pinata. Notice Elizabeth's authentic Mexican dress. That was my sister Laura's when she was little. I had a matching red one that we lost at the beach.

Youngest to oldest. Harrison is a little out-numbered in this crowd. He doesn't seem to mind, and I'm sure he'll appreciate being friends with all these cute girls more and more over the years!

Enjoying the loot!

Harrison wanted Popsicles for his class as an early birthday treat, since he would not be in school for his summer birthday. He loved the girls in his class. He would call them "my girls." "My girls really like it when. . ." So funny. The one in the grey shirt was definitely his favorite. We've met her at the park and free movies several times this summer. It gives me hope that he is drawn to such a sweet, calm girl.

Spring Soccer came and went.

I went through a garage sale phase and found Elizabeth some really cute clothes.

Harrison went on a field trip to the farm.
Harrison graduated from Kindergarten (This was his undergrad Kindergarten. He'll be receiving a Masters Degree in Kindergarten next year.)

We loved Mrs. Leisemeyer and Mrs. Kozmata!

What a big, handsome boy!

Mina hosted an ice cream celebration for all the LDS kindergartners who go to the school. 3 are missing and 4 from our ward go to another school. That's 15 total. This gives me great anxiety, because there are only about 6 who will be in Kindergarten with him next year and only two of them at the same school. Once again, Harrison with all the ladies!

Elizabeth at Miss Julie's end of year Dance Review.

Harrison couldn't resist participating a little. Suddenly this picture following all the pictures of him with all the girls makes me a little uncomfortable. I assure you, he is full of testosterone and aggression, loves making gassing noises with various parts of his body, and is very much all boy.

I liked her hair.

Some documentation of the Karate Kid obsession. He started labeling all of his school papers as Harrison Laruso (For those non-Karate Kid experts, that's the main character, Daniel-San's, last name). He told me that he was going to marry a girl with the last name Laruso so that could be his new last name. He was a little disappointed when I explained that's not how it works.

I also found "Miyagi's" in random places. As in Mr. Miyagi.

I will continue to try to catch up. I think I can, I think I can. . .

Beach Week (Cop Out Edition)

2010-08-23T12:56:00.001-07:00

Kat(e) has beat me to posting about the beach, yet again. Just like the last two years, I will put a link to her blog. Unlike the last two years, I will end up doing my own post at some point. Hopefully I won't just cop out and call this good. Until then. . .
http://familyharrison.blogspot.com/2010/08/harrison-beach-week-2010.html

Thanks, Kat(e)!

Halfway to a Year!?!

2010-08-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

Where have the last six months gone? My little guy is half a year old. Crazy. Here's a little review of the last 6 months. (Sorry the lighting is so bad on some of these -- I was trying to not use the flash and then realized that unless you have a good camera and great natural light you really ought to stick with the flash!)

The older he gets, the more he can do, so the more poses I do. Hence, the 6 month picture overload!

And just to drive the point home that he's really growing up fast, Johnny busted out an army crawl on Saturday. Life will never be the same again! Here's a video. Try not to get a neck cramp while watching it!

Johnny has been such a sweet addition to our family. By far the easiest transition (zero to one was hardest for me). He is such a smiley guy. He is definitely the most vocal of our kids -- he strikes up "conversations" all the time and makes all manner of noises. He gets a little upset when no one is paying attention to him (mostly between his afternoon nap and bedtime, when I'm busy doing dinner and what not). The kids just adore him and love to make him laugh. I can't get enough of kissing his squishy cheeks and staring at his darling face. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Love that kid.

Harrison Family Beach Portraits

2010-08-12T07:19:00.000-07:00

I promise we've done more than just go to the beach this summer. I have several yet-to-be-written posts to prove it. Until then, we spent the last week with these people, some of my favorites in the whole world.

My family in Sandbridge, Virginia. This was our sixth Harrison Family Beach Vacation and it did not disappoint.

When babies are added to the family, we do family pictures. First two rounds of babies we stressed over buying matching outfits, hired professional photographers, and didn't really love the pictures. We've added three baby boys to the family this year, so it was time for pictures again. This time we told all the girls to bring a white skirt and some solid shirts, meant to tell all of the guys to bring khaki pants (oops! -- they all had some except Trav, oh well) and white shirts, and then we threw it all together the morning of. We used the timer on Kate's camera with a tripod and were quite happy with the results. I think we'll go the lower stress/no cost route from now on.

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids.

Our Family.

My older brother, Matt and his wife Wendy, with their kids, Gwen, Emi, and Blake.

My younger brother, Travis, with his wife, Kate and their baby, Beau.

The core Harrison Family.

These two cuties in their matching shirts (okay, so we still did some matching!). We gave the baby boys mobster nicknames. "Johnny Two Fingers" (said with mob accent "Two Fingas") -- earned his name for obvious reasons. And "Little Beau Blue." Little because he's HUGE (he's just one month older than Johnny, but outwieghs him by 3 pounds and probably as many inches). Blue because of his big blue eyes. Not pictured is "Blake the Snake," which just sounded like a good ganster name.

Little Beau Blue liked to kiss/maul Johnny Two Fingas every chance he got. Two Fingas was unphased.

I'm going to catch up on the rest of the summer and then actually blog the beach trip for the first time ever. I say I'm going to every year, but I really mean it this time.

Time to Catch Up

2010-07-18T21:12:00.001-07:00

I've been very busy and had some things on my to do list that were higher than "catch up on blog". Now that those things are done, I will proceed to the next item.

One of the projects I've been working on is the "Beach Book" from our Harrison Family Beach Trip 2009. For the past few years, I've made my mom a photobook as a gift for each of our vacations. I never got around to last year's. You see, I've been a little preoccupied since that trip with 1)Pregnancy and 2)New Baby. Since we're only 2 weeks away from Beach Week 2010, I figured I better get it done. Having two of these things hanging over my head would be enough to do me in. Let me tell you, these books are a labor of love.

Seeing as how I never blogged about this trip, or the last beach trip -- but I have spent countless hours on the books -- I'm just going to put links to the books and kill two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, I think you need a Snapfish account to view them and they may take a minute to download. So these links will only be for the real die hard followers of this blog (all 2 of you).

Here's the book from 2008:
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/projectshareewelcome/l=9911538009/p=863181279512683863/g=53750223/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

And here's the one I just finished from 2009:
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/projectshareewelcome/l=9911640009/p=935181279514641693/g=53750223/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

Also, if you want to see the most hilarious party that we attended last night (and believe me, you do), go here: http://birnel.blogspot.com/2010/07/old-man-is-30.html

Farewell, Hawaii

2010-06-25T22:40:00.000-07:00

You're probably heaving a sigh of relief. This is the last of the Hawaii posts.

We'll start off with one random picture (taken by Shelby at some point in the trip) of each of my loves.

Sunday, June 5

We went to church one last time in the morning. Then we went to the beach to have Shelby take some family pictures for us.

Here are some pictures I took of the kids. If you're wondering why there are so many more of the little girl, keep in mind that she is by far the most cooperative subject (and even then, I'm using the term cooperative quite loosely). Exhibit A: This is the first picture taken, right when we arrived at the beach.

Really? Tired of this already? Come on, give me a little smile.

Here's the willing subject. Yes, that's a much more accurate description than cooperative. Willing. Always very willing.

"Girls in white dresses. . ." (Had Fraulein Maria lived near an ocean I'm sure "Frolicking on beaches" would have made it into the song somewhere).

I really love that both her top and bottom teeth show when she smiles big.

Too bright for little brother too (maybe it's a boy thing?).
Now the family pictures. I have learned from previous experience that beach pictures tend to have wind problems and a sun in the eyes problems. (In fact, outdoor pictures in general have proven to have wind problems and sun in the eyes problems for us).
So we made some sacrifices. Sacrifice #1) Michelle opted for a side pony instead of lots of frustration with hair in the face. Sacrifice #2) Harrison's smile. As soon as we moved out of the shade, it was trying to smile through tears for this little guy.

To borrow an analogy from Cher in Clueless -- These pictures are a bit of a Monet. From far away they're OK, but up close they're a big old mess.

Actually from far away, I love them. And the mess part, well, that's just reality. So I love them anyway.

That afternoon Rachael & Shelby made us a full on luau for dinner. Kahlua Pig, Chicken Long Rice, Somen Salad, Pineapple, and Butter Mochi for dessert. It was a delicious way to end our trip.

We were very sad to say goodbye to the Colmans. Did I already say that staying with them made the trip so much more meaningful (and less expensive)? We are so, so grateful.

We took a red eye back home. The kids did great again. They slept on the plane, but were awake during the lay over in the middle of the night. We were all exhausted the day we got back. Harrison was very unhappy to be back in Colorado. He never adjusts well to coming home from vacation. I pointed out how pretty the mountains are and that they don't have mountains in Hawaii. He said, "Ya, but they have beaches, and geckos, and trampolines. And they do have mountains, Mom." Tu chet. But not mountains with snow. And lots of people here have trampolines. And we have air conditioning. And dry air. And an affordable house. And great public schools. I guess when you're little, none of those things matter. I'm just saying -- I LOVED visiting Hawaii, but I'm happy to live in Colorado!

Kailua Beach

2010-06-22T16:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday, June 5

We were all getting sad that the end of our trip was approaching. This was our last full day. The kids played in the morning. Throughout the trip they loved playing with their cousins -- jumping on the trampoline, playing Sorry, basketball, baseball, and dress-up.

For our last beach trip, we decided to go to Kailua Beach, their local beach. I loved Kailua town. It's a fun little downtown with shopping and restaurants. The beach was nice too. Except, we saw a rat climbing in the bushes and that about did me in. (Intense fear of rats. I'd kill endless amounts of spiders and hold multiple snakes over being anywhere near a rat.)

Boogie boards make great baby shades.
Sleepy girl. We were all getting up around 6 AM everyday (jet lag + sleeping with the windows open = no sleeping in). She usually sleeps until 8 or 9, so I figured by this point she had lost almost two whole night's worth of sleep.
We decided we better let Johnny get in the ocean at least once on our trip. He seemed a little overstimulated.
But he sure was cute in his swimsuit.

Nate, Harrison and Maya swam out to that island in the background.

Brothers

Sissie

This one hand in the air pose was a favorite of hers on this trip!

Gecko! I love geckos. They are so cute and they eat bugs!

In all my trips to Hawaii I had never tried Shave Ice. So we finally got some on the last day. We went to the shop that President Obama always goes to when he visits. It did not disappoint.

That night our niece, Shelby, who is staying with the Colmans while she's on summer break from BYU, watched all the kids while Rachael, Christian, Nate and I went out. We got yummy "plate lunch" (plate dinner?) to go. We considered taking it to eat on the beach, but it was pitch dark and the idea of eating on a pitch dark beach that I knew a rat lived at was too much for me. So we took it to eat at by a fountain in downtown Kailua. It was fun and a nice way to spend our last night there. We came home and had our nightly ritual of eating Melona Bars (for the last three nights at least -- why did we not discover these earlier in the trip??!!) and playing Bananagrams.

Waimea

2010-06-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 4

In the morning we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. The kids loved watching the koi fish.

Did you know it takes a pineapple over a year to grow? Makes me cherish it a little more before I devour it.
Speaking of cherishing. . .
The pineapple we had in Hawaii was the sweetest ever.
Speaking of the sweetest ever. . .
Thankfully it wasn't too hot that day.
Speaking of hot. . .
I need to say something about precious.
Because, speaking of precious. . .

Alright, enough of that.

Here we are about to board the Pineapple Express. The train takes you out into the fields. It was a nice relaxing ride and I was seriously struggling to stay awake (this train ride cost $14, don't you dare fall asleep), and then we literally derailed and that woke me right up. We all had to get off the train and wait for the guys to come put it back on track. I thought they should give us all a free pineapple for our inconvenience. They thought one small piece of CANNED pineapple would suffice. (What??!! I know it's the Dole plantation and all, but canned is so inferior to fresh and why waste all that canning effort when you could just bust open a fresh one?) It really wasn't an inconvenience though, it actually made it one of the more exciting and memorable train rides I've ever taken with my kids. Probably still not worth $14. (I'm noticing some patterns in these posts. I was tired a lot in a Hawaii, and I'm cheap!)

Later that day we met the Colman's at Waimea Bay. Which could also be called Mormon Bay. We saw so many members there (it is close to the PCC, BYU-H, and the Temple, so no wonder). Lots of BYU shirts, modest swim suits, clean cut hair do's, no tatoos, and just that happy glow. I always have really good Mormon radar and it was going off like crazy.

Maya just loved Johnny the whole trip.

Mermaid tails.

Daddy/Uncle No No (somehow Uncle Nay Nay morphed into Uncle No No on this trip) provides endless entertainment.

Granty and Harrison

Nice muscles!

The Little Mermaid

Nanny McPhee

Sleeping Beauty

The most accurate pictures of what I did on the beach. Nate, on the other hand, does stuff like this.

Then he talked Harrison into climbing up the rocks to jump off.

He commented later that on this trip he really enjoyed that Harrison is finally at an age where they can do things that are really fun together.

I was impressed he was brave enough to do this. I know it doesn't look that high, but it took me years to jump off the low dive at the pool. I would have never even considered doing this when I was 5. Didn't even consider doing it at 31. I mean, someone had to watch the babies.

Speaking of mothering duties. . . look at this mother leading her line of ducklings off the beach.

This was not planned. But it is the perfect snapshot of what the end of each beach day was like. Come on kiddos, time to go home.

Not without stopping for dinner first. Garlic shrimp from the shrimp trucks for those whose pallets can appreciate such fine dining. McDonald's for the rest of you fools. Whoa baby, I could use some more of that garlic shrimp right about now.

Hanauma Bay & Waikiki

2010-06-15T08:42:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, June 2

We started the day off by going to the Swap Meet. It's official -- I'm not a swap meet kinda girl. Too hot, too much walking, I don't love to barter, all the junk starts to look the same, and you have to pay to get in. The kids were not thrilled with it either.

Purchases: Ukulele for Harrison (He was dying to have one).

Really cute Hawaiian print dress for Elizabeth (After looking at every stall, poor Nate had to walk back to get the one I wanted and then walk back again to get a smaller size -- while we all sat in the air conditioned car. He's a saint that way. He didn't even bat an eyelash. I would have been really ornery about it.)

Tee shirts for both kids. This was when it all really started to fall apart. It took us way too long to pick out 4 shirts for $10. Johnny was hungry, hot and tired. We all were, actually.

Turns out they sell almost all of that stuff at Wal-Mart, which is air conditioned and you don't have to pay to get in.

Later that day we went to Hanauma Bay, which wasn't my favorite for a lot of the same reasons. You have to pay to get in (all the other beaches are free, but this is a wildlife reserve so I guess they can charge) and too much walking!!! Especially if you get lost and go the wrong way. And even more so if you fall asleep on the way and are really cranky when you get there. That was me, not the kids.

After all the waiting and walking and paying, it was really pretty. Nate, Harrison and Faith snorkeled.

While Sis, Baby, and I did our usual chillin' on the sand.

You walk down a huge hill to get there. Which of course means you have to walk up a huge hill to get back. I was DREADING it. The walk down had been bad enough with carry all sorts of heavy stuff and complaining kids. (And a mom who wanted to thrown her own little fit but somehow held it all inside. Like I said, very cranky.) But after some nice relaxing time by the ocean, we were all rejuvenated. With bribes of cake and ice cream for all who could make it up the hill without crying and the encouragement of singing songs the entire way up, we made it happily. A miracle indeed. This picture doesn't really do it justice, but the view was spectacular.

I wondered if people thought the girls were twins. Kell, I was in your shoes for a few hours.

The cake and ice cream bribe was awarded in honor of Nathaniel's 11th birthday! Guava cake -- a local delicacy. Very delish!

Thursday, June 3

In the morning, we went to Boots & Kimo for the much acclaimed Banana Pancakes with Macadamia Nut Sauce. So yummy. My goal is to figure it out so we can enjoy it here on the mainland. Then we went to Don Quijote (A Japanese market, naturally. Didn't the Spanish name give it away?) This is where we first encountered the culinary highlight of our trip -- MELONA BARS. I think these amazing melon-flavored ice cream bars deserve a post of their own. They're that good.

That afternoon we went to Waikiki. After being spoiled by the less crowded local beaches, Waikiki was way too touristy for us. Note the long line of teenagers in the background that I refereed to as "Spring Break 2010." They were pretty entertaining with their teenage drama. Especially the part where one of them got really ticked when Harrison got sand on her towel. Her friends tried to calm her down and remind her that he's just a kid. But she said she would have never done something like that when she was his age. Hopefully her detailed memory is still intact when she has a child at the beach someday.

This was the one and only time I got in the water on the whole trip. The stars were all aligned -- it was hot enough, the water was calm, there were no blue bubbles, and probably the most motivating factor of all. . .nature called.

As long as Johnny has his fingers, he's a happy guy.

PCC & Temple

2010-06-14T08:23:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 31st

We did a lot on Memorial Day, but for some reason didn't take many pictures. We went to Nathaniel's baseball game. Then back to Sherwood Beach for a barbecue with some of their best friends (loved them!). Unfortunately, more of our group fell victim to the dreaded blue bubbles, so that was our list visit there.

Johnny played with this ball (one of the first times he really held on to something like that -- although I didn't get any pictures of him actually doing it).

Faithy loving Johnny.

Tuesday, June 1

We headed over to Laie to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. On our way there we saw "Chinaman's Hat," which they show in Karate Kid II (What, you haven't seen Karate Kid II at least 50 times? Well, come on over.) We stopped to take some pictures. See that island out in the background?
I'm always up for a cheesy pose.

After going to Foodland to buy Elizabeth some "slippers" because she forgot her shoes, and eating "plate lunch" at L&L, we went to the PCC.

Here's Harrison concentrating on doing the poi dance.

See us in the background?

Looking at the fish while waiting for the Samoan show to start (loved that show -- very funny).

Harrison showing off his latest lost tooth. The picture doesn't do justice to how snaggle-toothed he looked. I called him Nanny McPhee until we pulled out the other one.

Trying to fish. No luck.

Getting a tattoo from one of the Fijian girls.

Some thoughts on the PCC.

*It's really expensive -- but knowing you're supporting students of BYU Hawaii helps it sting a little less.

*There's not enough time to do everything. They do give you a bounce back pass, but do you really want to drive all the way back to the Northshore and spend 2 days there? Especially considering how expensive it is, they should just open earlier (it doesn't open until noon). So you have to pick between watching shows and doing activities. Selfishly, I chose to make everyone watch the shows. Even if you do choose to skip the activities, there's really not enough time to watch all the shows (unless you plan very strategically, which we didn't). So we skipped the Fijian show and watched the Hawaiian one instead. Bad idea. It was BORING and the main guy was so derogatory. We thought that being the host island, it should have been the best show.
*It's probably best suited for upper elementary kids and older. My kids remember it more fondly than I would have thought based on their reactions at the time. Speaking of the best age to enjoy the PCC -- I hadn't been there since I was 13. I guess when I was 13, I wasn't as boy crazy as I remember being, because I think I would have had much fonder memories of the place (don't get me wrong, I did like it at the time, just didn't appreciate it as much as I could have). Shirtless, muscular island boys everywhere you look? The ideal age for a girl/woman to go to the PCC? Probably 17.

*Man, I love that Poly spirit. Especially the "happy people of Samoa" as they kept referring to them. The Tongan show was hilarious, it had Nate laughing so hard he was crying and was Harrison's favorite part of the whole day. The Mauri show was more serious, but really impressive. I could watch the hula type dancing all day long -- how do they get their hips to move like that? Harrison and I are still trying (pretty darn cute to watch him), but we can't get it down.

*Could have skipped the I-MAX movie. It was awful. Would have been much better to just show the old school Johnny Lingo movie. Then we went just down the road to BYU Hawaii. Didn't get out or take pics - kids getting too tired. A little farther down the road is the temple. It is closed for renovation (it was closed when we went on our honeymoon too -- bummer!). But the grounds were beautiful.

Cemetery & Pali Look Out

2010-06-13T13:17:00.001-07:00

Sunday, May 30

After going to church, we wanted to do some Sabbath appropriate activities. First we visited the cemetery where Nate's maternal grandparents are buried. I had forgotten that Nate's mother's father's name was Hisashi. Now the "Hisa" part of Johnny's middle name, Masahisa, has even more meaning!

Here's Harrison posing by great-grandma's grave. The "Moto" in his middle name, Masamoto, is after her.

(Don't mind the white haze in all of our pictures. We finally realized the lens was dirty, three days into our trip.)

It was nice to visit the cemetery the day before Memorial Day. Every grave had beautiful tropical flowers on it.

Us and the Colmans

The cousins

Some sweet Father/Son moments

Elizabeth took a quick liking to Auntie Ray Ray on this trip. She had just woken up from a nap and would only be comforted by one person. On the way home we went to Pali Look Out. Nate described it as "this place that's really windy." Until you're in a place that's really windy, you don't realize how fun and entertaining it is. We had lots of laughs and took lots of pictures.

Bellows Beach

2010-06-11T19:56:00.001-07:00

Nate reminded me of one very important detail I failed to mention about the plane trip.

Back up nine years to us flying to Hawaii for our honeymoon. A young couple asked us if we minded splitting up so they could sit together, because they were on their honeymoon. Feeling a little sorry for them we explained that we were also on our honeymoon, so no, we didn't want to split up.

On United, they play the "Halfway to Hawaii" game. They tell you how fast you're going, how many miles the trip is and how fast the head wind is and then you're supposed to estimate the exact time (to the second) that you'll be halfway to Hawaii. Well, I was very proud, when my husband won the game! I mean I knew he was kind of a nerd on the inside, but this was impressive! Unfortunately, the prize was a bottle of wine. Since we don't drink, we gave it to the other honeymooners. But I got the real prize of spending eternity with such a brilliant guy.

When they announced the game on this flight I really put the pressure on Nate. I wanted him to be 2 for 2. He was a little nervous that he wouldn't be able to do it again, but my confidence in him was very strong. They had improved the prize, an Israel Wakawakawhateverhisnameis CD (huge Hawaiian guy who sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World Medley). More than the CD, I just wanted to know that my man still had it (mathematically). I told him to do the math and then we'd use our 4 entries to make estimates around his answer.

So he did (although I had to remind him how to do long division - I'll tell you what, nothing improves your basic math skills like teaching elementary school for three years!) He came up with two answers. So for my entry I figured out halfway between those two, rounded to a nice palindromic number 12:22:12 PM.

Throughout the flight I kept wondering when they were going to announce the winner. Finally at the end they did, and I'm sure you can guess whose name they called. Yours truly in seat 31D, only off by 20 seconds! I was beyond thrilled. I don't know why I get a little competitive about things like that. I was thinking, "Ya suckas, I'm married to the best numbers guy out of two entire airplanes full of people! And he doesn't even look it!" (Okay, the Asian part, yes. The nerdy part, most definitely not.) I was so proud of Nate, and had to give myself a little credit for helping with the long division and guessing such a visually pleasing and accurate answer. It was a great way to start our trip.

Saturday, May 29

I should mention that we were able to watch Nathaniel, Maya, and Grant each play baseball while we were there. This was great because Harrison had just started his first season of baseball, so he got to see how the game goes. The only picture I got of this part of the trip was one Harrison took at the field.

In the afternoon, Rachael and I went to Costco. You can learn a lot about a place by visiting their Costco -- every macadamia nut creation you can imagine, a way better produce section, many more Asian treats, plus a live band out front.

The men and kids went to Bellows, another beach near their house.

Harrison has LOVED the water since he was a baby!

He takes after his dad. Elizabeth is more of a stay on the sand kind of girl. Takes after me.

When the poor thing finally ventured in to the water, she got stung by a "blue bubble." (Portuguese man-of-war). When we got the call at Costco, I felt so bad for her, but was also kind of glad I wasn't there, because I knew it would take her a while to get over it.
The report was that she did indeed whine/cry about it for three hours.

The happier members of the group!

ALOHA

2010-06-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

Last summer, Nate's sister, Rachael and her kids came to visit. We had a great time and decided that we would visit them this summer. Visiting them is much more exciting than visiting us, because they live in Hawaii. So Nate set out on a deal-hunt for cheap tickets. He found United's "Denver Deal of the Decade" and boy, was it. We got our tickets to leave the day after we thought school got out (in typical Michelle fashion -- I was uninformed and school actually ended a week earlier.) We had considered going in August. I'm so glad we went in May (no A.C.)

Nate and I had both been to Hawaii several times. His mom is from there, my family stopped there on our way to or from Japan a few times, and we went on our Honeymoon there almost 9 years ago. This trip was different for me because I saw Hawaii from a local perspective rather than that of a tourist. It was so fun to stay with family -- it definitely added more depth to our trip and made it extra fun for our kids to have cousins to play with. We don't get to see enough of the Colmans, so it was really nice to spend so much time with them. It also saved us a boat load of money, which we're very grateful for.

For posterity's sake, I am going to document our trip day by day. Feel free to stop reading the never-ending Hawaii posts whenever you get bored, jealous, or any mixture of the two :).

Thursday, May 27 -- Ready to go!

Johnny's first plane ride.

All three kids did really well on the 7 1/2 hour plane ride. WAY better than I had imagined.

Friday May 28 - Johnny found his feet the first morning we were there.

Harrison loved the Venus Fly Trap,

which has A LOT of food choices there in the tropics (read -- Michelle didn't love the bugs).

Friday we went to Sherwood Beach (15 minutes from their house). Johnny enjoyed Sherwood, and every other beach we visited on our trip, from this seat.

Elizabeth and Faithy got along quite well (most of the time!)

Cute cousins!

Friday night we went to a graduation party for a girl in their stake. Apparently people go into debt and/or sell their cars to fund these things (true story). There were tons of people there and even more food. The culture is so food oriented. It's my kind of place. Although, if I stayed much longer, I would have needed to invest in a mu mu.

The other cultural difference we noticed at the party was all the cheek kissing. It was nice to feel the warmth and love from everyone. I had to laugh picturing that happening in our ward. I just can't envision getting and/or giving kisses to my bishop, or my friends' husbands.

There were two live bands at the party. They were both great! They did Hawaiianized versions of lots of great songs, including a favorite of mine "Brown Eyed Girl." Here's my brown eyed girl with one of my brown eyed boys at the party.

Stay tuned (or don't) for lots more Hawaii posts.

A 4 Month Birthday Present!

2010-06-08T16:58:00.000-07:00

Johnny turned 4 months old today. I should put a picture on here, but we just got back from Hawaii and I have a million other things that need to be done.

Johnny gave me the best present ever for his 4 month birthday -- he slept through the night! Not only through the night, but from 1o:30 PM to 10:15 AM!!! Granted, he's got jet lag and is recovering from a red-eye flight, but still! We were actually nervous and kept checking on him -- plus, the milk just kept on producing, so I was more than ready for him to wake up.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up that he'll continue sleeping through the night. But the fact that I know he's capable of it is a major success! He's been my worst night sleeper, by far, but I kept telling myself that it wouldn't last forever! There's light at the end of the tunnel. Hurray!

Why We Shave Our Kids' Heads

2010-05-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

First of all, for the record, Justin Bieber is actually 16. That makes me feel a little bit better. I found that out when I was rewatching his Ellen interview, which should probably make me feel a little bit worse.

Now on to the subject at hand.

Our kids always come out with "male-pattern baldness." They get this from Nate. I wish I had a baby picture of him to scan in. Thankfully, Nate has a nice, thick head of hair now. So if they continue to take after him in the hair department, they'll be lucky. But it's starts out pretty rough. With Harrison, I kept waiting for the front to grow in and catch up with the back. I waited. . .

. . .and waited. . .

. . .and waited. As his hair got longer and longer -- everywhere but the front.

Finally, after his first birthday, Nate convinced me to let him, "trim up the back." I still don't know if this was an accident or if he purposely did a horrible job so that he could just shave the whole thing, but this was his idea of "trimming up the back."

So, we took a few more pictures of our wispy-haired boy,
and then. . .

. . .0ff came the rest.

And we had our first "shorn pup." It took some getting used to and I morned his long wisps, but eventually I realized he looked much better this way. Especially when we got such positive responses from people. Looking back, we regretted waiting as long as we did to give him this new do.

Then along came Elizabeth, who took this look to a whole new level. With darker hair and much more of it, we had a situation on our hands.

I tried to distract from the "mad scientist look" with headbands.

It really didn't help her case when my mom came to visit and it looked like this the first time she saw her on that trip.

Definitely a mix between George Castanza and Kramer.

So my mom and Nate ganged up on me shaved her head. She was only 3 months old. And she was a she. With a shaved head.

Again, it took some getting used to. And it wasn't as well-received by the public as our son's shaved head had been. But honestly, scroll back up to those crazy pictures and you have to admit, it looks better.

I still tried using headbands as a distraction.

This time around, especially since he's a boy and it's totally acceptable for boys to have buzzes, we told ourselves that we would not let it get as out of hand as it did with the first two. Nate's been a little trigger happy though. He's been bugging me to shave it for over a month now. I'll admit, sometimes it did stick up funny in the back.

But sometimes it laid flat and didn't look bad, like last night, in his "before" pictures.

The bald spot in the back is how Nate finally convinced me it was time.

So, we have ourselves another shorn pup.

Again, it is taking me time to readjust. But I'm sure it will look better in the end, now that it has a chance to grow in more evenly.

I just wish I had given in sooner. We're leaving for Hawaii soon, and now he's going to be bald in all the pictures. If we had done it two weeks ago, it would have grown in a little. Nate says he'll just look like all the other Hawaiian babies.

Elizabeth pointed at his head and said, "This is Daddy's fault." Yep. For better or worse, it is definitely Daddy's fault. The problem and the solution.

Got a Fever

2010-05-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

There is definitely something wrong with me. Why am I watching Justin Bieber videos on You Tube at 11:15 at night?

I had hardly heard of the this boy before last week. Couldn't have picked him out of a line up. Then he was on Oprah. Harrison was awe struck and a new obsession was born. I could hear him watching it over and over again the next morning and several times a day since. Then he was on Ellen monday and American Idol tonight. Now I'm finding myself becoming a little obsessed.

Baby, baby, baby, ooh really is pretty catchy, he can definitely sing, and he is just so stinkin' cute. I find myself in a bit of a Taylor Lautner situation, except this kid is only 15. So, it's a cross between more of a motherly love/isn't he adorable/how proud would I be if that were my son and jealously of my 13 year old sister, who can crush on him if she wants to (and why wouldn't she want to?) without feeling like a creepy old woman. Seriously, there are so many more heartthrobs now than when I was growing up. Boys way more talented and better looking than all 5 New Kids on the Block combined.

I could live without the wannabe rapper vernacular (I honestly cannot stand when people put on accents like that) and the turrets-like hair flip.

But other than that -- Baby (in the most literal sense of the word), you smile, I smile.

A Look Back at April

2010-05-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a look back at the pictures from last month that didn't make it into a post of their own.

Johnny Boy's 2 month pictures.

The sweater outfit my mom gave him that I love! He's gotten really good at smiling!

My 100% Hapa kids! Nate's sister, Rachael made all the grandkids these shirts for Christmas. "Hapa" means half (or mixed) in Hawaiian. They are definitely 100% Half.

I mentioned Harrison's obsession with Japan (thanks to Karate Kid). Well, that has also got him obsessed about how Japanese everyone is. There is a boy in his class who is a quarter Japanese, and he is fluent in Japanese, so Harrison often says, "I wish I were a quarter Japanese and then I could speak Japanese." He also can't believe that I'm not at all Japanese since I can speak some Japanese and write in Japanese. He often asks me if Johnny is "Full Baby." And when he will be "Half Baby." So funny.

I thought it was so funny how he fell asleep with his hand up. He never did relax and put it down.

Power to the people!

The kindergartners did animal reports. Harrison's was on the Polar Bear. We all learned a lot about Polar Bears. I also learned a lot about patience.

Harrison had his recital for Let's Play Music. He did a great job playing his bells and singing.

Silly girls at playgroup!

Bathtime!

The Birnels, who are friends of friends, recently moved here and have become friends of ours. Brittany is quite the party thrower. Elizabeth had the privilege of attending Stella's Fairy Party and came home with a head to toe fairy outfit. Thanks, Brittany, for supplying Elizabeth's Halloween costume months in advance!

To see more details from this amazing party and lots of other great stuff, go to Brittany's Blog here. Elizabeth is the one in the denim dress.

I love it when babies fall asleep in someone's arms (preferably mine). Notice the little drool drop. . .

. . .and down it goes.

Harrison rediscovered "Jay Jay's Movie" an independent film that Uncle Jayson stared in called "Big Dreams Little Tokyo." This further fueled his love for anything Japanese. When Jayson and Victoria drove through, Harrison wanted to get a picture with "Jerome" on the screen and in person. (Notice Harrison is wearing a "gi." That Karate Kid post is coming up next!)

Elizabeth looks much more like Auntie Victoria than her own mother. They don't even share any blood!

That was the rest of April, fools! (said in best Mr. T. voice).

Mother's Day: Sickly Sweet

2010-05-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Sickly: I spent Mother's Day in bed with the flu. Threw up, chills, fever, head and body aches. What a sad day to miss church (the kids singing, the great talks and lessons on mothers, the chocolates they pass out (don't worry, Nate had strict instructions to get one for me and bring it home)). Plus, we had a lunch appointment AND a dinner appointment. We don't get invited over for meals all that often. Twice in one day? And I had to miss both. Sad.

Sweet: A breakfast in bed plan. After I threw up in the wee hours of Mother's Day, Nate said, "I guess you probably don't want breakfast in bed?" Harrison and Elizabeth came in very excited in the morning. Harrison said, "I woke Elizabeth up." When asked why, "To make your surprise breakfast." The mere fact that they all had a plan was very touching. I told them I'd take a rain check.

Then they presented me with one of Nathan's famous homemade cards that I love. On my b-day, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, and our Anniversary, he makes me homemade cards on the computer. They are funny. Nate did a dot to dot for Elizabeth so she could write her name. Harrison wrote his own note, part of which said, "I like being your sunshine." So stinkin' sweet. That was the highlight of the day.

Sickly or Sweet? You decide: Nate got me a gift that is right up there with "The Drumming Monkey." For those who don't know that story, it would definitely require a post all it's own. The good part is, this one only cost $2, not $40. It's a pair of pewter key chains, one boy and one girl, who have magnets in their lips, so they kiss. He got it on one of his "deal" websites, and it came all the way from Singapore. He's going to keep his keys on the boy and I'm going to keep mine on the girl. If our keys are ever close enough to each other, they might just kiss. Now, if that's not the most romantic thing you've ever heard of, I don't know what is. (There needs to be a special font indicating sarcasm).

Sweet: The kids brought some cute creations home from church. They showed much care and concern for me throughout the day. Taking time to feel my head to see if it's hot, get me anything I needed, ask me if I wanted to take a nap, and talk in really sweet voices to me. At one point Harrison said, "Mom, why don't you lie down right here and I'll go get you a glass of ice water." Adorable.

Post Script: I failed to mention that Nate was also very sweet to take care of the kids all day, even though he started to feel sick in the afternoon.

Also sweet: I lost 4 lbs. in about 36 hours. Nothing like a good stomach bug to help you lose the baby weight. If I can keep those off (which is not likely), I'll only have 10 to go. Plus the 7 or so that I gained before I got pregnant. But really, any weight loss, in any way is highly appreciate around here. Note to self: Do NOT gain 40 pounds next pregnancy. Seriously, if I'd gained my typical 25, I'd be more than done by now!

I guess the day was pretty fitting considering Motherhood in general is definitely a little sickly and a lot sweet.

Dear Mom,

2010-05-09T04:00:00.000-07:00

You've been there to welcome us all into the world. First me, and then my children.

Thank you for being there then and always. Morning, noon, night, middle of the night, I know you're there with a listening ear and a helping heart. I'm so grateful for you.

Here's and interview for you from E. (Elizabeth), H. (Harrison), and M. (Michelle)

What's Grandma's name?
E: Grandma. What's her real name? Harrison. No, her first name. Grandma.
H: Karen
M: Mom

How old is Grandma?
E: 20
H: 54
M: 54 (for 3 more days)

What do you love to do with Grandma?
E: Play. What do you love to play with her? Her.
H: When she's awake she makes breakfast and then she wakes me up.
M: Talk, laugh, cook, shop

What's your favorite thing about Grandma?
E: Her putting on her make-up.
H: When she reads me books.
M: Her example of how to be a wonderful wife and mother.

What is Grandma good at?
E: Making stuff what gets broked.
H: Sewing
M: Homemaking (Not just cooking, cleaning, sewing, and decorating, but also making those in the home feel loved)

How many kids does Grandma have?
E: 1. Who's that? Katy.
H: 6
M: 6

What's Grandma's favorite thing to do?
E: Sew
H: Go to the beach house with us.
M: Spend time with her family. (So, Harrison was right)

What's your favorite thing that Grandma has ever given you?
E: Putting me to bed.
H: When it was Valentine's and she gave us that candy that her family had made with her.
M: Life. Love. A testimony. And some pretty cute jewelry.

What's the yummiest thing Grandma makes?
E: Chocolate milk
H: Eggs and the new Slim Fast
M: Ooh, that's hard. Cinnamon rolls. (She's taught me to make a lot of the same stuff, so I picked something that I don't make myself).

Why does Grandma come visit us?
E: Because she loves to and we invite her.
H: Because she loves us.
M: They're right, but also to help us and lend her support to us.

What do you want to say to Grandma for Mother's Day?
E: Happy Mutter's Day
H: I love you
M: Mom, I love you so much. I love that my kids love you too. My appreciation for you grows with each child I have, because I gain a greater understanding of how much you sacrificed for us. You're the best mom and grandma ever! Happy Mother's Day!

One Fish, Two Fish, DEAD Fish, Blue Fish

2010-05-02T18:58:00.000-07:00

We've learned some hard life lessons at our house this week, at the expense of our first beloved pet, a fish named Zutsie.

Harrison got Zutsie for his 5th birthday. Yours truly did a decent job keeping Zutsie's bowl cleaned out (only about once every 2-3 weeks, but it seemed to be enough), and kept Zutsie alive for 9 months. I even rescued him from the disposal (thankfully it was off) a few months ago after he fell down there during one of his cleanings. This week when cleaning out the bowl as the main source of entertainment during playgroup (those 3 year old girls can't get enough of watching me clean out that fish bowl), I saw that we were out of the chemicals that make the water safe for fish. I had heard other people say that they didn't use chemicals and their fish were fine, so I decided to risk it.

Later that day, I noticed that Zutsie seemed like he was struggling. I fed him some food and hoped that work perk him up. That night, I found good old Zuts at the bottom of his bowl, belly up. I quickly decided against the thought of sparing the kids from the pain with a switcheroo, because they need to learn that death is part of life. I just didn't realize it would be as painful as it was.

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of Zutsie alive. Here he is dead, with part of a ripped dollar. Harrison said he ripped the dollar and put it in there because he was mad at Zutsie for dying.

He was eager to flush Zutsie down the toilet, but then when it really came time to do it, he got pretty upset.

This broke my heart. I really had no idea he loved the fish that much. Although, I have always known that he is a very sentimental, sensitive boy, so I wasn't that surprised.

Nate and I both talked to him about death being a part of life. Everyone and everything has to die. And that we would be able to see Zutsie again when we die. I assured him that we would go to PetSmart the next day and get a new fish. He decided that we would name it Cookie Monster Masayuki (Uncle Jay Jay's middle name) Watabe.

On our way to PetSmart he said, "I'm going to pray that Zutsie has a good time while he's dead and that he'll be safe and sound while he's dead."

Despite my attempted persuasion, Harrison insisted on getting a white (and in my opinion, very ugly) beta this time. I told the sales girl what had happened and she said that she has betas and doesn't use chemicals and they are fine. She said ours was probably just used to the chemicals and so when we stopped he couldn't handle it. She said if we started off without the chemicals we'd be fine.

Thank goodness PetSmart has a 14 day money back garuantee on their fish, because that sales girl was wrong. Dead wrong.

This time I decided to let Harrison wait and figure it out himself. At one point he asked if Cookie Monster was sleeping. Then his uncle, who the poor fish was named after, and who has never had much tact, came in and said, "I think that fish is dead." After a moment of confusion and disappointment, Harrison said, "I'm not that sad because we only had Cookie Monster for like one day."

We took the body and receipt back (because that's what you have to do) and this time I convinced Harrison to get another blue one. This one blows Cookie Monster out of the water in the looks department. By the way, why the only fish we owned that wasn't blue got the name Cookie Monster is beyond me.

This one is named Daniel-San Masanatto Watabe. Allow me to explain. Harrison gets a bit obsessive with movies/shows. We've gone through a Cars phase, a Little Einsteins phase, a Toy Story Phase, a Spiderman phase, a Bakugan and Ben 10 phase, and most recently a Karate Kid phase. I need an entire post to adequately illustrate the love and admiration Harrison has for Daniel, Mister Miyagi, Karate, and all things Japanese. Hence the name Daniel-San (said with accent). Now about the Masanatto. I think I've mentioned the Masa tradition going on in Nate's family. Every boy gets Masa paired with something else as their middle name. Well Harrison's favorite Japanese food is Natto (fermented soy beans -- smells and looks as nasty as it sounds, so I have yet to try it), so he has lovingly paired this up with Masa to make the name Masanatto.

We also added a plant to the mix this time. I must say the whole things is looking better than ever.

Let's just hope we can keep this one alive. I'm getting tired of going to PetSmart and I really like him the best of all -- although Zutsie will always have a special place in my heart.

Tonight Elizabeth said, "Harrison, don't worry, you'll get to see Zutsie again in Heaven." Harrison said, "Elizabeth, fish's heaven is the toilet, the trashcan, or the pet store. They don't go to real heaven."

Wherever fish heaven is, I'm hoping Daniel-San won't have to go there for a long, long time.

Easter

2010-04-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

The week before Easter Elizabeth came home from church and said, "Jesus was dead for 3 hours. That's a long time." She's so funny. Every week when I ask her what they learned about in nursery she says, "Jesus. Again." (in a somewhat exasperated tone). One time she said, "I don't know why we always learn about Jesus." :)

Anyway, we had a condensed version of Easter this year because everyone left that day. Nate's parents left in the morning and mine left after lunch.

Here are the baskets. A friend of mine gives her kids new swimsuits in their basket every year. We have two beach trips coming up, so I borrowed the idea this year. The big hit, however, was the cotton candy.

I had forgotten that my mom always made us bunny shaped pancakes on Easter morning until I saw her doing it for my kids. Traditions are fun!

We said goodbye to Obaachan and Ojiichan. Again. (This is our third time saying goodbye, because their mission keeps getting postponed. It gets easier each time because we feel like they aren't really going. But they finally have a date. Sad for us, happy for them. At least the sooner they go, the sooner they'll get back.)

We dyed eggs and made white chocolate lollipops with an Easter lollipop mold.

The only bites they took of the bunnies were in this picture. Nate and I polished them off later.

We went to Tibbitts to watch the morning session of conference and continue with the festivities. Julia and I hid the eggs. The kids enjoyed hunting for them despite the chill in the air.

One of the shirts I got Nate for his b-day. He looks pretty handsome in it if I do say so.

My mom and Cindy are the ultimate homemakers. Here they are in action.

One last picture before we leave for the airport.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in a little bit of funk that all of our loved ones were gone. I'm sure the massive amounts of sugar consumed didn't help.

But it was a lovely Easter. It's always wonderful to take extra time to reflect on the Savior and all He's done for us.

Blessed

2010-04-15T14:27:00.000-07:00

Count your many blessings, name them one by one.

1. Harrison

2. Elizabeth

3. Jonathan

The list goes on and on.

We have been very blessed to have all four grandparents attend all of our childrens' baby blessings. We didn't think it would be the case this time, because Nate's parents were supposed to be on their mission. So we were trying to make it work with my parents' schedule. The best weekend for them was the weekend of Easter and General Conference. Since there was conference instead of normal church, we had to do it in our home. We decided to do it on Saturday, between conference sessions.

Nate's parents have had problems with his dad's paperwork and so they have not left for their mission to Japan yet. They called Friday to wish Nate a happy birthday and casually asked when we decided to do the blessing. Feeling horrible that we had never told them (because they were supposed to be in Japan) I said it's tomorrow at 1 o'clock. Nate's mom immediately started figuring out how they could arrange things to get here in time for it. We were touched that they were willing to drop everything and drive the 8 hours here for the blessing. They left at 4 AM Saturday morning and made it with an hour to spare.

My parents and Katy had been in town all week. They were a tremendous help getting everything ready for the blessing. They helped us clean and straighten the whole house and did a lot of baking for a delicious dessert spread for afterwords. We had some close friends over and it was indeed a special occasion. We are so thankful for friends and family, especially that both sets of grandparents were willing and able to make the effort to be here.

Jonathan's middle name, Masahisa, is after Nate's middle name, which is after his dad's name, which is a combo of his parents' (Nate's grandparents') names. Masao + Hisako = Masahisa. So it was extra special that Ojiichan could be in the circle to bless Jonathan Masahisa Watabe.

I also feel very blessed to have a righteous, priesthood-holding husband who did a wonderful job blessing our baby boy.

Nate's parents brought our nephew, Caleb, along. His middle name also happens to be Masahisa.

We borrowed this precious blessing outfit from our nephew Beau, who had just been blessed in it the weekend before. It looks almost identical to the outfit Harrison wore for his blessing that had also been worn by my brother, Andrew.

So many amazing blessings! Most of all the gospel of Jesus Christ, which makes it possible for these most precious family members to be together forever.

Some Things to Smile About

2010-04-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

We had lots of things to smile about last week! My Mom, Dad and Katy came to visit for their Spring Break. It's fun to have them around and the kids love it when family visits! They were so helpful with everything from cooking, to cleaning to rearranging the living room. Katy and my mom put in some serious effort to get Johnny to smile.

And it paid off. He smiled more last week than ever. We even caught one on camera!

Everyone loved holding Johnny, especially when he was happy (which wasn't as often as we would have liked).

Friday night was always pizza night growing up, so my mom continued the tradition. Elizabeth loved helping roll out the dough.

She got really into it.

Friday was also Nate's 31st birthday. After a long day of snowboarding with friends, he came home to pizza, presents and cake. Johnny was napping, therefore not pictured.

Proof that my dad really was here too.

Unsolicited help blowing out the candles.

Somebody loves his daddy.

Remember my new traditional birthday kissing picture?

Harrison had his first soccer game of the Spring season. He was much more focused this time.

He even had a couple of breakaways all the way down the field and near goals. As you can see in this picture, he runs with his arms straight down by his sides. We need to work on a more athletic looking run.

Nate's parents, and our nephew Caleb ended up coming this weekend (more on that later), so Harrison had quite the cheering section.

Stayed tuned for two other things we had to smile about this weekend. They both deserve their own posts!

Random March Report

2010-03-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all of your feedback on the "H" situation. I have decided to go with the H. I still have a little anxiety over it. We got his birth certificate and insurance card in the mail this week and seeing Jonathan without the H but knowing we're doing Johnny with the H stressed me out a little. Plus, I saw a guy I had a crush on in college on Facebook and had forgotten he spelled Jonny without the H. Needless to say, it will probably plague me for the rest of our lives, but at least the majority of people will spell it right and it won't come up on spell check.

So here is the most recent batch of pictures. In the correct chronological order this time.

He spends the majority of his time in here. THANK YOU to all who recommended the side to side swing. And THANK YOU to all who pitched in for it! He LOVES it and it is a lifesaver for me!

I love how peaceful they are when they're asleep!

Auntie Laura got to visit again for the rescheduled conference she came for in December. We didn't plan to all wear purple this day, but that's how it worked out! This picture was taken with the timer on the camera, hence, it's poor quality.

A better purple picture.

Loving her 3rd nephew.

Elizabeth always wants in on the picture action.

Laura likes to sleep. She and Johnny have that in common.

Kelly sent these cute month by month cards to take pictures with. Here's month 1.

He's quite alert at night.

He's staring at his Daddy. He has smiled for Nate several times (supposedly -- I've only witnessed one of them). He has only smiled for me once. Yes, I'm bitter, considering I'm his life source and all.

I do love watching them together. Nothing like seeing you hubby with your babies.

So for the past two years I've done a St. Patrick's Day "Green Lunch" with friends. Harrison was on a field trip that day, and I didn't want to do it without him (and more importantly, I had a much needed hair appointment that I had trouble scheduling and couldn't bear to reschedule). So I changed it to a dinner and we invited the Jensens. It was so Nate to give thanks for "The Irish" in his blessing on the food.

Menu: St. Patrick's Day Soup (vegetable soup with lots of spinach, blended up so that it's quite green), green bread, Ceasar salad, grapes, green jello, limeade, and chocolate chip cookies with green M&M's.

Harrison's teacher is having a baby, so the day before Spring Break was her last day. A mom who is also in our ward organized a going away party and invited all the moms to come. It's always fun to observe Harrison in the school setting.

We have loved Mrs. Liesemeyer! They were tears all around (her, me and lots of the moms, and later that night, Harrison) about saying goodbye. She'll be back for the fun end of year stuff and thankfully the much loved student teacher, Mrs. Kazmata, is the long term sub!

All we are saying. . .

. . .is give peace a chance.

Speaking of peace.

Seriously.

I loved Harrison in these overalls. Harrison loved Johnny in them. He called him Johnny Overalls. Of course, I loved Johnny in the overalls too. If you haven't noticed, I get a big kick out of handing things down. Especially really cute things.

In typical Colorado fashion we have had spring-like 70 degree weather one day followed by a blizzard the next. A few times. This is March. It's okay, I forgive Colorado, because I adore Colorado. But I won't complain when Spring really comes and stays.

What the H?

2010-03-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

I have a dilemma. Keep in mind I am a major over analyzer and I have A LOT of time on my hands to over analyze these days (someone still wants to eat every two hours all night). Speaking of that someone, the dilemma lies in how to spell his nick name.

We spelled Jonathan without an H because 1)we like it better that way 2)it's already a long enough name and 3)that's how it's spelled in the bible. So we thought that we should also spell Jonny without the H. I was worried that if we did Johnny, then people would assume there's an H in Jonathan. Well, I am having major second thoughts.

Here are my reasons:
1)I think I like it better with the H

2)Everyone assumes there is an H and I don't want to spend the rest of his life telling people there's no H. He will ALWAYS have to spell out his last name, he should at least have one name that people can get right. I like to set people up for success when it comes to name spelling. I am not into creative name spellings like Ashleigh and Jaxon. I like traditional names and traditional spellings. I don't like how Jonny comes up on spell check. Johnny doesn't.

3)All the famous Johnny's have an H. Carson, Depp, Cash, Appleseed, "Johnny Be Good," "Johnny Angel," the mean guy in Karate Kid and my personal favorite, Johnny from Dirty Dancing. As in, "Oh Loverboy, and if he still doesn't answer, I simply say, 'Baby. . .'"

Here's one of my drawbacks (don't worry, I know it's a little crazy). My friend Jenni went out of her way to be sure to spell Jonny the way we were spelling it on the darling nightgown she had made for him with his name on it. I love the nightgown and I love that she made sure to spell it right. Because spelling people's names correctly is important to me. As much as I love the nightgown, I don't know if it's a good enough reason to leave his name spelled that way. Nate assures me that it is definitely not. He is the one who came up with the spelling of Jonny in the first place, but he says he doesn't care how we spell it. I'm sure he just wants me to decide and quit talking about it. Seriously, can you imagine being married to me? I can't.

So that's my dilemma. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time with it. When I think about it I get a pit in my stomach and when I go to write it with the H I can't bring myself to do it because I haven't officially decided yet. I'm sure you can see which way I'm leaning, but I'd love your feedback. I really wish I had thought about all of this BEFORE he was born.

Jonny Boy - Month One

2010-03-10T22:00:00.000-08:00

So as of Monday, Jonny is a month old. This has been one of the longest and shortest months of my life. What have I been up to in the last month? Definitely not sleeping. Mostly feeding this child. He likes to eat every 2 hours. 24/7. Which means I spend about 6 hours feeding him each day. Thankfully the last two nights he has extended his sleeping stretches to 3 hours and he goes right back to sleep after. This is a huge improvement. Up until then, he was usually up from 3 AM to 5:30 or 6 AM and by then my day pretty much started. Needless to say, I'm tired. Upon considering whether or not I would want to trade him for a child who sleeps better, I decided that I was too in love with him to trade him and that I can deal with it until he grows out of it. These are the kinds of things that cross your mind when you've been up with for several hours during the night for several nights in a row. Not that trading them in is an option. But I wouldn't.

I'm not the only one who's head over heels in love with this little guy. So are the kids. They adore him and can't resist kissing him whenever possible. Of course, Daddy loves him too.

At some point I might go back and post the rest of the pics from the hospital, but for now, here's Jonny's first month of life in photos. Please scroll down to the bottom of this post to view them in chronological order. It's been so long since I posted pictures that I forgot to upload them backwards, and I'm not going to take the time to fix it. I'll put the comments for the pictures under them instead of above like I usually do.

We feel like he really started to come into his own look this weekend. He definitely looks like his siblings, but is starting to become more distinct.

I love this darling personalized nightgown that Jenni had made for him!

He's getting more and more alert.

He likes to suck his thumb in this manner.

When the light catches his fuzz it looks blond. Relatively speaking.

She's a sweet big sister and likes to try to make him happy.

Love how they are looking at each other.

Don't know why this picture came in wrong.

Why is the most sleep deprived person in this picture the only one who is not sleeping?

Notice the layer of fuzz that he has on his cheeks. He is a hairy little guy. He still has lots of hair on the edges of his ears.

Harrison is especially smitten.

One day he'll be as crazy as his siblings!

Looks like he's missing the womb.

I love the little drip of milk on his cheek.

Help My Little Bro

2010-03-05T12:45:00.001-08:00

So my little brother, Andrew, has had a pretty charmed life. But, he's a pretty charming guy, so we continue to indulge him. His latest ambition is to win a travel internship this summer. Please go to this link and vote for him as many times as you can. If you want to watch the video, you'll get a glimpse of how we grew up. Keep in mind, being one of the older kids in the family, I only got to partake in about half of these trips.

Please excuse Andrew's toplessness in much of the video. He has a tendency to take off his shirt a lot.

Click here to vote!
http://www.worldtravelerintern.com/member/andrew-harrison/

Thanks!

Photo Shoot

2010-02-20T17:00:00.000-08:00

So, when my sister-in-law had her baby last month, I checked her blog everyday hoping for MORE pictures! I was really disappointed and couldn't figure out why she wasn't posting more often. Then I had my baby and remembered how time-consuming, overwhelming and exhausting it is to have a newborn!!! Thankfully, it is also very rewarding.

I still don't have it in me to upload any of my own pics. But I can refer you to my friend Melissa's photography blog. She offered to take pics of Jonny for her first ever newborn shoot. Of course, I took her up on that offer. This turned out to be the only day of his life that he wasn't sleepy, so after 2 hours, we were lucky to get some good shots. Don't mind my roots. Hair coloring appointments have also been low on my list of priorities.

Click here to see: http://blueprintsphotography.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much, Melissa!

Heeeeeere's Jonny!

2010-02-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is going to be quick because I'm exhausted. Jonathan Masahisa Watabe made his grand entrance at 3:45 PM weighing in at 8 pounds 8 ounces (our biggest baby yet and half an ounce lighter than my birth weight.) He is 20.5 inches long. I only pushed about 8 times total, 20 minutes from the first push to them telling me to pull him the rest of the way out up onto my belly. He's super sweet and so soft. He hardly cried during his first bath. He nurses like a pro and likes his pacifier already! More pics and details to come after I get some rest!

(It's so hard to get a cute new born pic -- we'll keep trying!)

Finally!

2010-02-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

After giving up the wish of having all of our birthdays have 7's in them, I went to bed last night feeling disappointed, yet also had a little gut instinct not to take my sleeping pill because I might need to be alert. Well, I'm glad I didn't because it wouldn't have been good to be groggy around 2:30 AM when contractions started. I laid there and monitored them for an hour. They were 3-7 minutes apart. So I got up and finished packing my bag. My mom woke up and Nate finally woke up. I took a bath and called Kaiser. They said go to the hospital. So Nate and I drove into Denver and I had contractions every 5 minutes on the dot the whole way here. They checked me and I was only a 2. The no nonsense older nurse told me to walk around for two hours and they'd check again, but if I wasn't a 4 I'd have to go home. She wasn't my favorite. We walked around for about an hour until I was in tears from the painful contractions and the thought of possibly having to go home. So we took a little break and the contractions slowed down, which worried me. I was praying SO HARD the whole time that they'd let me stay and I'd have the baby today. We walked for another 20 minutes before it was time to get checked.

It was a new, nicer nurse and she said I was 3 1/2, and she was encouraging me to go home. I plead my case (one day overdue, mom in town wasting helping time, I will probably need to be helped along because I was with my other two, my other two were 8 and 8.5 pounds at this same point, we don't want to keep driving back and forth in the snow, the hospital was not busy so they may as well take me, etc.) She said she'd call the Dr. and talk to him about it. I knew it was all judgement calls at this point and was praying my heart out that they'd have mercy on me. My contractions had slowed way down and I was really nervous they'd try to send me home. I was getting ready to turn on the tears if I had to when she came back and said she decided to skip consulting the Dr. and just send me up to be admitted. She said, "Don't make a liar out of me." I gave her a big hug and told her I'd do my best. She also said there's still a chance they'll send me home if I'm not progressing.

We got to the room and got hooked up to everything and the contractions still weren't that great. I met the resident Dr. who is a young, beautiful girl named Vanessa (I've never met a Vanessa who wasn't beautiful), and she said, "I don't see any reason we'd send you home." I said I definitely agreed and decided I really like her! Then my contractions started to really pick up (probably because the pressure was off now that I knew I could stay.) After a couple of hours they were 3 minutes apart and very intense. I was praying I'd be at least a 4 so I could get my epidural.

They checked me and I was a 5, so they offered the epidural (loved it that I didn't even have to ask). Within minutes the anesthesiologist was in here doing a fantastic job of giving me an epidural. I told him he was my new best friend.

Now I am as comfy as can be. The annoyance/pain of the IV and catheter have worn off (isn't it funny how it hurts at first and then you get used to it?) I am a little itchy from the epidural, but it's tolerable.

They just checked me and I'm a 7. My mom is on her way and we'll probably get to meet Jonny in the next few hours. I've been praying for nine months that this will be my best labor and delivery experience yet, and so far it has been. I am thrilled that I went into labor on my own -- a first for me. Even after my water broke with Elizabeth, they still had to give me pitocin. Maybe I went on my own because I tried every trick I'd ever heard of EXCEPT Castor oil, I wasn't desperate enough for that yet. I got a massage and she worked my pressure points so hard that I was literally black and blue, I bounced on the ball, walked on the treadmill, ate eggplant and pineapple and spicy food (all tips from various people), and tried the oldest trick in the book. But I think the kicker was probably the evening primrose oil capsules that Tamara gave me. I had one at lunch yesterday, one last night and also inserted one (I know, gross and TMI), but hey, I'm in labor now and I was willing to try almost anything! So THANK YOU TAMARA!!! And everyone else who gave suggestions and encouragement. I feel so blessed to have supportive, loving family and friends, modern medicine, good insurance, good nurses and Dr's who are treating me so well (other than grumpy grandma who checked us in) and the power of prayer!

Please pray that things will continue to go smoothly! I'll keep you posted!

Getting Closer

2010-02-04T09:34:00.000-08:00

I don't really get the "nesting instinct," but I have forced myself to do some preparing for the baby.

*I did get a really strong urge to clean and organize my bathroom last week. After 2 hours, I had a big bag of things to throw out and a sprakling bathroom.

*That same day, I finally got out the baby clothes. Styles have changed in the last 5 1/2 years, but I don't really mind, especially for the tiny new born clothes, that are just sweet and comfy anyway.

*Last week we all got haircuts. Elizabeth's is the cutest -- I'll post a picture soon. I really don't love mine, which is an unfortunate thing to have happen the week before you have your baby. I didn't need to feel any uglier, but oh well. Hair grows, and I'll be cooped up in my house for the next month anyway.

*This week I got my list of errands done, stocked up on food and got Harrison started on his Valentines! We also got out all of the Valentine's decorations and Harrison's love for decorating for each holiday is just as strong as it was at Christmas.

* I finally put my book down for a few hours and organized the office. It is a task that constantly hangs over my head and has to be done at least once a quarter. This time, I am determined to follow the "one touch rule" of organizing so the papers don't pile up. It could still use some work in the funcationality department, considering it's an office/craft & sewing room/toy room/guest room. Maybe Mom can help with that.

*I got my pre-delivery pedicure! A must for every expectant mother, in my opinion. The poor girl had to scrub my heels for about an hour to get all the calluses off. They look and feel so much better! I was trying to go for a Valentine's look.

*A big snowstorm is coming to D.C., so my mom moved her ticket up a day, and she'll be here tomorrow! Otherwise, she might have gotten stuck and not made it until Monday. Sooner is definitely better than later. I'm still holding out for Sunday, the 7th though.

*My stomach feels a little strange today. I have a Dr's appt. this afternoon. We'll see what they say. Last week the Dr. said I was, "not what he would call ripe."

The Final Countdown!

2010-02-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, 5 days to go. And I am really hoping to go ON my due date. My mom gets here Saturday and I really want to hold out for her. I'm a mama's girl and I want her in the room. But once she's here, I don't want to waste any of her precious helping time, so then it's go time. Plus, this is silly, but we all have 7's in our birthdays and Sunday would be his only chance to have a 7. I refuse to wait until the 17th!

How am I passing the time? Am I cleaning my house? Organizing the office? Working on a quilt for the baby? Setting up his room? No, all of those things are on the list, but instead I'm reading Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I've heard about them from multiple people and finally had to see what all the fuss was about. Let me tell you, it's a great way to pass the time. All day Sunday (except for 3 hours at church) and all day yesterday were spent on Hunger Games and last night I started Catching Fire. I figure I'll have it done in the next couple of days. I highly recommend the books. The premise is somewhat disturbing, but it's a page turner, easy to read, entertaining, and thought provoking. And a must for me -- there is a love story.

Thanks for all of your input on the swing. At my shower, as part of the group gift I got the Fisher Price Papasan Cradle Swing (swings both ways). We found a great deal on one, so that makes it even better. I'm excited to find out if he loves it as much as I hope he does!

Fingers crossed for the 7th, everyone! I'll keep you posted!

Sissie's 3rd Birthday!

2010-01-30T00:27:00.000-08:00

This is the last of my catch up posts! Yay!

Our little miss turned three at the beginning of the month.

Since she had just gotten a bunch of Christmas presents, I thought it would be fun to have more of an "experience" for her big present. So we went to Build a Bear. Well, as usual where kids are concerned, this "experience" didn't turn out quite like I hoped. One of the main problems was that Elizabeth had never even heard of Build a Bear and had no idea what it was. So there wasn't really any excitement or anticipation involved. In hindsight, I realize I had this big fantasy about how great it would be and how much she would love it. For instance, I had visions of a precious bear or bunny (that's the one I really wanted her to get). Well, the minute she saw Frosty the Snowman, that's all she wanted. My kids love the Frosty movie and so this shouldn't have come as a big surprise to me. I figured, her b-day is really close to Christmas, so it did have some significance, and it was her birthday, and Frosty was on sale, so I gave up on the bunny dream and let her get the tacky, lights-up-and-makes-noise snowman.

Around this time, Nate had to get out of there because the whole thing was just making him sick. I tried to explain to him how it's more about the experience than the actual stuffed animals (of which we've never been big fans), but he couldn't handle it. So he and Harrison went to play video games or something.

Most of you probably know the drill.

You stuff it.

Kiss the heart. Watch it get sewed up.

Wash it.

Dress it.

I was REALLY glad Nate wasn't there for this part. It was even killing me. I honestly spent more on this outfit than I usually spend on her outfits! And that was just for the basics. A shirt and a skirt. The cheapest shirt and skirt they had. We didn't even think about shoes and/or accessories. Maybe it should be spelled excessories.

Not to mention the fact that we were putting a snowMAN in a pink shirt and skirt with rhinestones on it.

Name it and register it. Doing the computer was her favorite part. Of course, she named it Frosty.

And that was the "experience."

Main lesson learned: Wait until your child knows about and is dying to go to Build a Bear before you pay $27 for her to make a stuffed animal.

We had a really busy day, so we quickly made the cake. Here are the traditional kids-licking-the-beaters pictures.

She still talks about how I was upset that I accidentally put the yellow part of the egg in the cake. I was trying to make a pink cake (her request), but I didn't want it to be strawberry (even though I'm sure that would have been fine). So I used a white cake with red food coloring, but then forgot and dropped a yolk in. I was afraid I was going to have a peach cake, so I dug out most of the yoke. I guess all the drama left an impression on her. Disaster averted -- the cake was pink and not peach. I know you're all breathing a huge sigh of relief.

This picture is so Elizabeth.

It is also a great picture to follow the last paragraph.

So after a cousin's baptism and feast, everyone came over to Obaachan's and Ojiichan's for the birthday celebration. There were four little girl cousins, which worked out perfectly with the pack of 4 princess crowns we found at Wally's.

Such a genuine smile.

Much more convincing. Cute Carrissa probably helped bring that out!

Another classic Elizabeth face.

Most of the people in attendance. I'm taking the picture (of course). Nate was dead to the world that whole night. We think he was fighting off an illness or something, he really could not stay awake for more than a few minutes before passing out on the couch again. And Obaachan and Ojiichan were there too, although they aren't in this picture.

Opening some presents. She needed a new "fushy" (squishy, as opposed to hard) baby, because she cut open her last one and removed all the stuffing.
If she repeats this violent act, I will not be replacing any more squishy babies (even though
they are only $4).

Trying out her color wonder set from Obaachan.

Loving all the attention they got from Uncle Andrew. He was so sweet to play games with the kids all night. Catch, Red Light Green Light, and Hide and Seek.

So, I'm stealing a tradition off of a blog I stalk. They take a picture like this every year on their kids' birthdays and I think it's super sweet and cute.

A few notes on this three year old girl. (Knowing me, it will be more than just a few. It's for posterity's sake, for pete's sake. Honestly, I'd just stop reading, if you haven't already.)

She doesn't like to be laughed at ("don't waff" and "no waffing" are frequent demands), or labeled -- even if it's a positive label. If you make any sort of blanket statement about her (you're funny, you're silly, etc.) it is met with an emphatic, "No I'm not. I'm cute and prettiful." Apparently cute and prettiful are the only labels she's comfortable accepting.

She has very recently developed a cute little accent that I can't really describe other than saying it's a funny short a that is most apparent when she says Dad and Pat Pat (Elizabeth has recently discovered the wonderful world of Little Einsteins and Harrison had renewed his former toddlerhood love affair with the show known as Pat Pat in our house). She also says "you see," in the cutest way. I think she gets all of this from our little Polish neighbor girl who is her best friend. Another thing she gets from Natalia is always referring to our house as "our home." "Can Natalia come play at our home today?" She would play with Natalia (who she calls Matalia) all day every day if I let her. It's sometimes "annoning" (as she says it) when she CONSTANTLY want so play with her, but when they are playing (especially when they are playing at her "home") it's really quite lovely. I think every child needs a nice neighbor close to their age. Harrison certainly needs one. I honestly feel I prayed this one into our lives, I'll just keep praying for another one.

Back to Elizabeth. She says r's and l's as w's, in the most typical and darling little kid way (which will only be darling for another year or so and then it's got to go -- by kindergarten at the latest.) It's especially cute when she refers to her buwuddow (brother -- 3 syllables). Speaking of her buwuddow, she has progressed from calling him Heson to Hewwison. She still calls herself Zibis or Zibisamika, if she's including her middle name. The last name is Tahbay (Harrison used to say Ahtahbah). My name is Mi-chel, like a Latino might pronounce it. (Harrison said it Lichelle, like another race might take the name Michelle and adapt it into an original name).
And Nathan is Nafan, in a similar vain as Lichelle. Wow, sorry to get so racial all the sudden.

Have=hag, store=stew, door=dew, toys=taze, boys=baze, girls=gills, kitchen=chicken, paino=plano. I'm sure I'll think of all sorts of other things that she has her own funny way of saying and when I do I'll come back and add them in, because really these are things I don't want to forget.

She continues to be a delight, as she has been since birth. She's fairly easy going and easy to please. She's as rational as a three year old can be. When she's in the mood she can be very helpful and she grasps concepts like the fact that I can't bend over because I have a baby in my tummy. She'll say, "Oh, I get it fo you, because you can't bend ovo because you hag a baby in yo tummy. I'm just a witto gill, and I just hag eggs in my tummy." (This pregnancy has brought on a few pre sex ed discussions).

She can talk a blue streak (is that a saying?). I think she gets that from her Obaachan, her mother and her brother.

She doesn't nap regularly, although she still needs to. So a few evenings a week she crashes around 5. Sometimes she's out for the night (which sickens me when I realize she ate very little lunch and no dinner), and sometimes she's down for three hours and up till 11 (like tonight). Speaking of eating, she doesn't really do much of that. And it shows. She is SO petite. Which I guess is fine, considering she's a girl. I just hope it doesn't effect her brain cells too much. And she needs to grow a bum so her pants will stay on and quit chaffing her poor back melted into legs area, which is always red.

For the record, she does like, blueberries, bananas, pears w/o skin, pineapple, baby ownjies (Mandarin oranges), ramen, pasta (w/red sauce, white sauce, mac and cheese, buttered with parm, plain), rice, nori (seaweed), kikikaka (furikake -- Japanese stuff you sprinkle on rice), meatballs (Italian and Teriyaki), beans and rice, chips and salsa (I attribute these four to being born in Santa Maria), cereal, yogurt, chicken nuggets, fries, potatoes, lasagna, salmon (was just reminded this week that BOTH kids will eat fish -- I am going to start making it more often!), "cold quesodillas" (raw costco tortillas), actual quesodillas, "macaroni" pizza (pepperoni) some breads/rolls, all manner of crackers, chips, pretzels, cookies, candy, fruit snacks, ice cream and any other junk food I've missed (most likely the reason she doesn't eat a lot of "real food.") Notice, not a single vegetable is on the list. I blame her father for that one.

She is definitely my special girl. We're going to have to really stick together since we're about to be outnumbered. Although, both children frequently mention "Annie," our next baby. I seriously hope that we aren't all disappointed. If we are, we'll mostly likely be having 5 kids. But I don't want to say that too loud.

Wait, this is really supposed to be about Elizabeth. I adore her. She makes me laugh a lot, she's so stinking cute in all of her facial expressions and mannerisms. She is a joy and such a wonderful addition to our family. I honestly pray that Jonny is as easy as she has been. Don't get me wrong, she has colored on the couch, the windowsill, and her shirt all this week, and ruined various other possessions of ours throughout her life, she can throw fits, and be grumpy and stubborn, and quite sassy and sneaky, let's not forget the kleptomania (which has actually gotten a lot better), but overall, she's a dream. It's so fascinating how I love both of my children so much, yet so differently. I'm very curious to see how this next one pans out. I know I'll love him just as much as the other two, but it will be interesting to see his personality and how our relationship unfolds.

Holy stream of consciousness. I've literally been rambling on for hours now. The later it gets, the longer I go on. And I don't have it in me to proofread this, so forgive the typos. Give me half a Unisom and put me to bed (it's the only way to go now, with the extra bad, end of pregnancy insomnia).

Happy Birthday, Elizabeth. I love you!

Help - Need Opinions

2010-01-28T10:05:00.000-08:00

Do anyone of you love or hate your baby swing? Why? What is the brand and model? I am looking to get a baby swing for Jonny. (Elizabeth LOVED hers, and then a certain 2 1/2 year old boy sat in it and broke it, so we need a new one). I did research on-line last night until I was cross eyed and still don't know what I want. I'm not wanting a top of the line one with all the bells and whistles, just a safe, reliable swing that works and lasts and doesn't go through batteries too fast (I'm considering a plug in one, but some people say they don't have much power.)

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Bringing in the New Year with my BFF!

2010-01-20T20:24:00.001-08:00

The main reason I agreed to our "Western Tour Christmas Vacation" was that we would get to drive through Las Vegas and see my best friend, Kelly. Kelly and I lived on the same floor in the dorms at BYU and the rest is history. Here are Nate and her sweet husband, Erik, with the Ahlander's adorable twins, Addie & Berklie.

Here are Harrison and Parker waiting to be seated at the yummy pizza place we went to.

I love that our kids' genders and ages line up perfectly. We were thrilled to see how well all the kids got along.

They loved the cotton candy that the restaurant sent us home with.

Silly!

My kids (all kids, actually) adore Kelly and I wish we lived close enough to share more everyday moments like this. P.S. Parker, who was almost 6 could read this chapter book flawlessly. Am I comparing? Yes. Am I jealous? Yes.

We left the kids with a sitter and went to two fun New Year's Eve parties. Fondue was eaten, games were played, sparkling grape juice was sipped, kisses were given.

I've always dreamed that Parker and Harrison will live together at BYU like Kelly and I (and our little brothers, Travis and Brad) did. When they both had on BYU shirts, I thought I should take pictures to hang in their future apartment.

Kelly and I have been through lots of major milestones of life together. We both majored in Elementary Education (took lots of the classes together, student taught at the same school), we graduated at the same time, got married the same summer, taught 3rd grade for three years (one of those was 2nd for Kell), and we both had our first baby boy in 2004. Here we are pregnant for the first time. She was almost due (look how tiny she is!) and I was barely pregnant.

Next we were pregnant with girls. Except, this time she had twins and I only had one. She was 7 months and I was 4 months.

Now we are pregnant with boys again! For once, I am ahead of her (which makes sense considering this is my 3rd child and her 4th!) Here I am at 8 months and she's 4 1/2 months.

Isn't that the cutest little bump? The sad thing is, we both want 4, so she'll be done and I'll have to do it by myself next time! It has been so fun to share all the excitement and woes of pregnancy together. Plus, the experiences of raising children who are the same gender and age.

We had so much fun visiting the Ahlanders! Thanks guys for accommodating and entertaining us. We love you and wish we could see you more!

Here's to a terrific 2010!

Sandy Wego

2010-01-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

Lots of pictures in this post! The kids and Nate were excited to go to "Sandy Wego," as Elizabeth called it. Nate thinks San Diego is the best place on earth. Literally, he has a whole speech about it. I seriously beg to differ, and have quite a speech I could give about that, but I'll spare you. I was really glad that my kids got to spend time with Nate's brother, Tim's, kids who they rarely see.

Watching my husband and daughter walk toward me across the beach was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Tim and Nate having a handstand contest. Guess who won?

Harrison always has and always will LOVE the beach!

A somewhat decent family picture.

I think it was supposed to be a heart that said "luv."

Always wanting to do what her brother does.

Kristen, Uncle Tim and Harrison.

So him!

I'll admit, the beach really does provide endless hours of entertainment.

One day we went to a little amusement park on the beach. Harrison and his cousins rode this bumper car ride over and over!

Kristen and Harrison on a different car ride.

Harrison always needs to warm up to the more daring rides. By the end he was ready to go on this one with Kristen, Jacob and Ian.

He really liked it. (So did Ian, even though he looks kind of miserable here!)

Another day we were supposed to go the San Diego Zoo. I was nervous about this, because it would entail a lot of walking and after the Vegas experience, I knew I wasn't up for that. The plan was to push me in a wheel chair, which I had mixed feelings about. We ended up getting a flat tire and long story short, I didn't go to the zoo. These little monkeys went and had a great time.

Harrison really loved his cousin Ian!

Giving the gorilla a hug.

Daddy/Daughter self-portrait!

Everybody loves Uncle Jayson!

The other highlight of the San Diego trip for me was eating at this really yummy Mexican restaurant, Santana's. I got a carne asada and shrimp burrito that was delicious.

On a completely different topic, I would like to hear if you have an opinion on repeating Kindergarten. Harrison has a late birthday (July) and I was torn as to whether or not to start him this year. I decided to go ahead and try it with the attitude of possibly repeating. Things have been so-so. I get good behavior reports 3 or 4 out of 5 days a week. The teacher says that he has a lot of trouble getting his work done. I enrolled him in a charter school for Kindergarten for next year and just found out today that he got selected in the lottery. It's supposed to be an excellent school. So now I have to decide, repeat Kindergarten at the charter school, or move on to 1st grade in his current school. The other thing about the charter school is that now I have my foot in the door and all of my children would be able to go there. Do I want to pass up that opportunity? It's a two part dilemma. Repeat Kindergarten? Go to a charter school? Let me tell you, this decision is not helping my pregnancy insomnia at all! Any thoughts?

Update, Gymnasitcs & Vegas

2010-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

I have to take a little break from all the catch up posts and do some current events, or I'll get way too behind! I am 37 weeks today. Black is supposed to be slimming. . .I guess there are somethings that just can't be hidden!

Harrison officially lost his first tooth this week. (Not counting the one he had pulled a few months ago.) He was very excited!

I'm a little sad because that seems like such a grown up thing to have happen. Plus, once the big teeth come in, they don't look like little kids anymore. It's the beginning of the funny looking stage until they get all their big teeth in, braces on and then off. I told him he looks like a jack-o-lantern. He liked that and tells everyone.

Harrison and Nate went to Skate City for a fundraiser for school. It was Harrison's first time skating. Despite the serious look of concentration here, he said he had a great time. Nate said whenever Harrison saw one of his friends, he'd try to go really fast. Funny.

Elizabeth has been really sick for a few days. That's always sad, but she's better today. She is very good at playing the part of the patient, needing to be held constantly and carried every where for the first day and a half. At least I was able to get a lot of my book read!

Nate FINALLY sold his Altima this weekend. It has been sitting in front of our house for about 17 months. I have threatened several times to give it away. Not having a 13 year-old, faded, peeling, magenta car parked in front of our house has caused our white trash level to go way down and our property value to go way up. Nate is a sentimental guy and says he feels like he lost a child. I said I feel like I finally took a dump that was a long time coming (I'm afraid my white trash level just rose again with that comment.)

Harrison gave his second talk in Primary today. I forgot about it and didn't end up writing it until last night. We practiced a few times last night and a few times this morning and he was able to memorize the whole thing (granted it followed a pattern and was very basic). I could tell he was nervous and shy about it, but he did the whole thing! I was so proud of him and know he felt good about himself. His theme was, "I Know Heavenly Father and Jesus Love Me."

Alright, back to the vacation posts. The day after Christmas, we rented out a gymnastics place. They all had fun playing around and the former gymnasts got to relive their glory days. Elizabeth liked being rolled around in the donut. It was a hair raising experience.

There are some videos of Nate and Harrison's tricks at the end of this post. I can't figure out how to move them up here.

Straight from the gym we left for Vegas. Jayson and Victoria came with us. Here we are at the lion exhibit at the MGM Grand. There is a glass tunnel that you can walk through and the lion was asleep right overhead. At one point the lion woke up and Harrison shimmied down off of Jayson's shoulders as fast as he could. It was pretty funny.

We went to M&M world, which was kind of fun. I really could have lived without the super lame 3-D movie.

The gem of Vegas is the Bellagio fountain, in my opinion. Here we are waiting for it to start. Unfortunately, walking over a mile to get to it while being 8 months pregnant and having a plantars wart on my foot didn't make for a very enjoyable experience. Neither did the people handing out "advertisements." If you've been to Vegas at night, you know what I'm talking about. Harrison kept looking down and asking "what are those magnets all over the ground?" I felt like the worst parent on earth. Seriously, who takes their kids to the strip on a Saturday night? I guess the kind of people who leave a junkie old car parked in front of their house for a year and a half.

Not only were my kids improperly dressed for the cold, and exposed to lots of pictures of improperly dressed women, but they were also kept up WAY too late! Can you tell I had a bit of a B.A. about this night? The only redeeming factor was that we stayed in the nicest hotel of our entire trip. I took a long bath to relieve my aching feet and body and then had the best night's sleep in one of the most comfortable beds I've ever slept in. You're welcome for the free endorsement, Staybridge Suites.

So here are the video clips from the gym (Keep in mind, this was all the same day. With a 6 hour drive in between. Just trying to put all of my complaining into perspective.) Nate was happy that he "still had it." I always love to see him do his thing.

Harrison wants to be just like his dad.

Only 3 more posts to go and I'm done with this trip!

Christmas All The Way

2010-01-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

There was some confusion at our house about when it was going to really be Christmas. Harrison got it pretty quickly, he knew it was on the 25th. Elizabeth finally grasped that it was just Christmastime not "Christmas All The Way," as she dubbed it. So I give you, Christmas All The Way.

Despite my overload of pictures of Christmastime, I don't have very many pictures of the big day. I guess I was busy enjoying it all, which is probably better. I am a little bitter that my significant other didn't think to grab the camera and document that the little red hen of Christmas really was there that morning to enjoy all of her hard work. I guess that's part of being the little red hen, who really was somewhat of a martyr, and should have just demanded what she wanted (which I usually do and should have done that morning regarding the pictures!)

Nate's brother Jayson and his wife, Victoria spent the night on Christmas Eve. I was glad, because I am a more-the-merrier-especially-on-holidays kind of girl. Otherwise, we would have been alone. The night before I told them all that I wasn't going to make the kids wait any longer than 8 AM to open their presents. I was laying there awake long before the kids (pregnancy insomnia + Christmas excitement = I can't believe these kids are actually still asleep). They finally woke up around 7:30, watched one show (Harrison said, "We better stay in here so Santa will come." I guess he thought we were last on the route or something.) Then at 8, everyone else got up and we commenced.

This is the Santa Stuff. The hit of the stockings were the fun (Hello Kitty and Bakugan) spinning toothbrushes and toothpaste. They got sleeping bags (The practical side of me kicked in and I remember getting sleeping bags one year and being SO excited. They weren't as excited, but we needed good sleeping bags and got a great deal.) Harrison got the "Bakugan Gauntlet Power Strike (basically a $25 calculator that he was dying to have), and a Baukugan 3 pack. Elizabeth got her Sleeping Beauty Barbie and a Dr. set (that she loved as much as I thought she would).

I won't bore you with listing0 off the rest of the loot.

A few years ago Harrison was obsessed with Spiderman and had a Spiderman Christmas. This year he is obsessed with Bakugan and had a Bakugan Christmas. He was pleased as punch. He did get some non-Bakugan things.

Elizabeth got this Snow White dress up from my mom, she likes it. I will say, Snow White is an under appreciated princess. Me theory is that it's because she doesn't wear any pink or have long hair. I pointed out to Elizabeth that out of all the princesses, she looks the most like Snow White. I just remembered, I played the part of Snow White in a play in 8th Grade. Maybe if I show her the video of that, she'll be even more excited about her dress up.

For Christmas breakfast I tried two new recipes. Cottage Cheese Pancakes (sounds a little weird, I know. Had potential, but I think I either didn't do it right or need to tweak it a bit). With Orange Sauce (very yummy - definitely a keeper). Thanks, Megan. Please note who is NOT pictured!

For Christmas dinner, we went to Becky's. She was on a mission to make a fancy roast. Not a pot roast with gravy, but "carved meat" with au jus and horse radish (I'm still developing a taste for horse radish.) We were a little nervous that it was underdone, but it tasted delicious. Funny story about the au jus. She asked me to make it. I got the drippings (sadly, there weren't that many), and was trying to remove the fat. It wasn't going well, so I had the idea to freeze it and then I could pick the fat off the top. The freezer was full, so I stuck it outside (love using outside as a freezer/fridge in the winter). A few minutes later I went to retrieve my limited amount of drippings, and was a little perplexed to find an empty bowl. I didn't know the dog was outside on a potty break. Kaki had her Christmas feast in the form of roast beef drippings (what could be more yummy for a dog?) And our au jus was beef bullion.

Auntie Victoria did the little girls' hair in pony tails (one of Elizabeth's first ever!) and I thought they looked darling. The I remembered why I've never attempted this myself, because she wanted hers removed within minutes.

Wendy found these green sweaters at Banana Republic on clearance for something like $1.47. So she got one for all the guys. The girls happened to have on black. So we did a little couples picture.

And here's the whole gang. Well, as much of the gang as was there for Christmas. Technically it's about half the gang.

Merry Christmas All The Way!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

2010-01-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was a jam packed day. Elizabeth and I started the day by giving ourselves Christmas Pedicures while the boys went sledding.

Then I had to get some pictures of her because I rarely blow dry her hair and when I do I think it looks so darn cute! Here she is holding the Baby Jesus from one of Nate's mom's nativities.

This picture is out of order and blogger is being very uncooperative right now. I can't move it. ARG.

Growing up, we always went to a movie on Christmas Eve, so we carried on that tradition. The kids wanted to see Alvin and the Chipmunks The Squeakle (or Squeak World, as Harrison calls it). Despite Elizabeth needing to go to the bathroom 3 times, we enjoyed ourselves.

I let the kids open one of their presents from my mom when we got home, because I knew they would come in handy while making cookies for Santa. We all loved the aprons!

Santa was really craving peanut butter and chocolate this year.

Nate's sisters and I determined that we wanted the focus of Christmas Eve to be spiritual activities and not cooking and/or "hanging out." So, we decided to keep it super simple and get Panda Express take out. (My family always goes out to eat on Christmas Eve, for the same reason. We do our nice, big meal on Christmas Day.) We loved that there was no prep and no clean up! Harrison polished off almost an entire container of Orange Chicken himself! Fa Ra Ra RaRa!

(Insert Nativity Picture from above!) Next we did the Nativity, complete with Mary & Joseph (Elise & Sterling)

A shepherd and 2 sheep (Bella, Hope and a stuffed animal)

2 pretty angelic angels (Elizabeth and Carissa)

And Three Wisemen (Harrison, Caleb, and JonLuke)

Then we watched a short video of the nativity.
Nate's sister Wendy's father-in-law made her the neatest set of chimes, and all of this music to go along with it that we always do on Christmas Eve. I LOVE this tradition. Although, this year with many more kids than adults (and many of them little kids), the chimes didn't sound quite as lovely as usual. We eventually decided to just sing Christmas hymns. We still missed all the other voices (it's sad when I am the ONLY soprano trying to carry the melody alone), but we felt the spirit none the less. It wouldn't be a Watabe Christmas without Angles We Have Heard On High sung in parts.

Last we sang happy birthday to our brother-in-law Pete (I feel bad, some years we give his b-day more attention than we did this year, but I'm sure he's used to that, having his b-day on Christmas Eve.)

Then everyone went home, we put the kids to bed, did the last minute Christmas prep. (which I found, takes much more than a minute, even if all the presents are already wrapped!) and went to bed! Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!