::it was just a bad night::

Last night was just a bad night, that's all that can really be said about it. It's kind of a long story too, so enjoy the recounting or don't, it's your choice!

Kris left in the afternoon for the airport. Kelly & Lechelle were getting sealed as a family to their adopted baby Boston in the St Louis temple, and we wanted to be there. Unfortunately we couldn't afford to all go, so Kris was the one to be sent.
It was snowing. Freezing and snowing and hailing too. But Kris left anyway and he got to ABQ just fine. That's just the beginning of the story.
His flight was delayed. By at least an hour. The people at Frontier assured the whole flight that they would make their connections --"everything's delayed" they said.
Well, when Kris arrived in Denver, there was no sign of his connecting flight to St Louis. And since he arrived just about when the flight should've left, seems there would've been some evidence of it. But no. Nothing. So he got to wait in a great big line to try to get a different flight. Sadly the next flight he could take was the next morning, too late to make it to the sealing. So since he was only going to be staying out there for one night anyway, he made the tough call and decided to fly back home instead.

in the meantime I was at home with the boys. No big deal, right? It was cold and snowy out, but we were warm and safe in the house. Well......
The first unfortunate thing that happened was that the deadbolt on the front door froze. At least we think that's what happened. It actually got stuck with the deadbolt sticking out and the door wouldn't close. I had to go and get a mallet from the garage and try to force it back into commission. I did succeed in bashing the deadbolt back in, so at least the door would close, but I also got the key completely stuck in the lock on the outside of the door. That was exciting. Luckily the key didn't work at all, and the bottom lock was still working. So we were ok.

So then I got Max to bed and spent a good 45 minutes trying to talk the baby out of crying all night. He was missing Kris's strong arms. He likes the football hold and he's just too big for me to do it right.
As soon as I got him quiet I heard from Kris that he was coming home. His flight back was supposed to be at 9:30. I called Kelly really quick to tell him so sorry that all of us were going to miss everything.
Then suddenly the lights went out. Everything went out--except my poor laptop of course, that just has about 3 minutes of battery life. The poser was gone.
Luckily I know that Max keeps flashlights very close to his bed. I went in to his room and he lent me his monkey flashlight. I told him to come out with his pillow and blankets and nightlight and lie on the couch.
Max watched the baby for me while I found another flashlight. It was very cute, the baby was asleep and they were all snuggled up on the couch.

THEN the security system started to freak out. We have this lame 3rd party bizarre security system installed at the house, and it doesn't even work. It does us no good. The only thing it does do, is when the power goes out it emits this horrible shrieking noise from the laundry room. It won't stop until the contacts are pulled off the battery. And then once the contacts are pulled off, all the fire alarms in the house start chirping at each other. Turns out if you detach the battery enough times trying to get everything to stop, then luckily the shrieking and the chirping all happen at once, YAY!

So we all went to my bedroom and closed the door to try to hide from the horrible sounds. Sultan had decided he was scared to death during all this. I'm not sure why my big fierce dog that scares people turned so wimpy, but it was not helpful. I was already nervous--it was super dark and lonely and I had my little boys to take care of. Sultan was following me so closely that I tripped on him a bunch of times. He also squeezed between me and whatever I was doing. Like when I was brushing my teeth he had to be between me and the bathroom counter. Annoying!

We covered the fire alarm in the bedroom with a towel taped to the wall. It didn't really help. I read Max a few chapters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by flashlight, we imagined that the chirps were coming from birds instead of horrible fire alarms and then he fell asleep.

Kris called and said his flight was delayed until 10:45. Argh. So he wouldn't be home until after 1AM.
I went to sleep, and woke up an hour later to the dog leaning over the baby's bed and breathing heavy in my face. I have no idea what he wanted but he was very persistent. So I figured he needed to go out and we headed out and down the hallway.
When I got to the living room I realized it was FREEZING. I thought the heat just wasn't working. But no, turned out that our french doors had blown open in the crazy wind. I couldn't lock them either before I went to bed because their locks were frozen too. (Don't freak out mom, we're in a very safe area as you know. Besides there wasn't much I could do!) So how long had the freezing wind and snow been blowing into the house? Who knows. Plus it's the coldest it's been all year. Freezing for sure.
It was scary.
Then suddenly I had no phone reception. My phone wouldn't work for about a half hour. I was freaking out. Then the power came back, YAY! So I had to go around turning off lights and all that. Then my phone worked. I called Kris and he was on his way home from the airport.
Then I finally got in bed to go back to sleep and the security system went off again! It had realized the power was on but the battery was disconnected. I almost busted the whole dang thing off the wall. ARGH!

Then when Kris got home the baby needed to be fed (2AM). He usually goes right back to sleep, but of course he had gas problems and so was up for at least an hour.

OH gosh I'm tired. I'd say the evening ended well though. Kris made it home safely and everybody got at least a few hours of sleep. Now we're home and warming up the house with some fires in the fireplace.

Sorry for the LOOOOOOONG story, but it was just such a crazy night. I mean what other silly little things could've happened? Hopefully I'll catch up on my sleep someday.
The most surprising part of it all was how helpful and cool Max was during the whole thing. It was like I suddenly had a big kid who could contribute and help rather than just a baby!
I told him he's going to make a good scout someday soon.

(heres' the future scout with the backpack he got for Christmas and all the "supplies" he fills it with. Always prepared. You can see his awesome monkey flashlight in the middle of the stuff.)

Winter, yuck.

::highlights week six::

I'm very annoyed that I wasn't able to post this yesterday. The power went out last night just as I was sitting down to do it. I'll probably say more about that in a post later. Last night was kind of a comedy of errors, but just not that funny.

Anyway, I'm postdating it to yesterday just to make me feel better.

Week SIX already? Yikes. He's getting huge. This baby is ginormous. Not so much fat as just big and substantial!
Max actually gets to kick off today's highlights. He was just so cute coming home from church in his button-up and Christmas sweater. Adorable.

I had Sandy at home with me during church, and we were wrapping Christmas presents. He evidently thought that was pretty boring.


He's actually in his church clothes too since he and I went to Sacrament meeting and then escaped the den of contagion for home.

Next, more Max and Sand pictures. I just can't help but take them. They're so cute together and the comparison of Max's big kidness and Sandy's babyness are just irresistible, at least to me.

This is the face Max usually makes when he has to hold his screaming brother. "Um, can somebody please help?"
But then Sandy grabbed his finger, and he LOVES that.

And so baby earned himself a kiss.


Then another Sandy on the floor picture.

Extra cute since he's awake, right?

Christmas Eve:
I posted one of these already. We waited all day for Sandy to wake up enough to take a picture of the boys in their Christmas sweaters together. But he never did. Then the sun started setting so we just had to go for it. They're so cute.


And Christmas day, taking a poor nap in his moses basket in the living room while we had fun.

Quite the eventful week for such a sweet small guy. And the rest of us too. Week seven is almost over now. Can somebody tell the train to slow down??

::christmas report pt 2::

I don't ever want these Christmas reports to turn into a big list of gifts received, but sometimes it's hard. We appreciate the gifts that the family sends so much, and I like to express that here! So you'll get to see at least a few of them.
Max loved his suitcase and Star Wars sleeping bag. What a great present Grandma & Grandpa!!

He's slept in it every night since on his bed. I don't know if we'll ever be able to talk him out of it.

We also got some fun pictures that we love from them and a photo book and a family recipe book. Loved them!!


Kari's family sent Max some pieces for his hexbug habitat. This was awesome because he got some other pieces from some other people and so now he has one big enormous fabulous habitat complete with bridge battle. It's very fun.


The bugs are really fun to watch. Lots of times it seems like they really must have minds of their own.
And Cammon & Lorri, omnisciently sent Max big packs of batteries. He was in heaven. One of his hexbugs immediately ran out of batteries, and we were able to start him up again. It was amazing. Nice work guys!!


Gram & Grandpa sent an awesome rainbow tent--you probably saw the youtube video below. It has a tunnel which just takes it over the top for coolness.

My mom has also been working her little bottom off making all her old analog photo books digital. It's billions of hours of work and when she gets done they look amazing. I look forward to getting the next installment of the family photo albums every Christmas, and she did not disappoint. Thanks so much for all the hard work mom!!

Lechelle made us the cutest ties for the boys. Max wore his to church the day after Christmas and it looked amazing!

It's the perfect size! Sandy's is perfect too, see?

I can't wait get him a little button up for church. Then he and Max can match adorably. And best part? I can match too!!

Love it!

We spend the rest of the day playing with presents and each other and eating yummy things like tomato soup and 3 cheese grilled sandwiches, and german pancakes. Mmmmmm.


(No we don't just leave the baby on the table, we were keeping a close eye on him. But he was loving watching Max play with his trucks.)
We were all exhausted by the end of the day, but a good tired. Everybody behaved themselves well and it was a great day. Well, except for little Sandy's hour long screaming fit at the end of the day, but that's to be expected when the day is way too exciting for good naps.
It was a great day, thanks to all the friends and family that contributed to it. We missed you all. We love you, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

::christmas report pt 1::

The best thing I ever did was make Max use an alarm clock a few Christmasses ago. Not so much to wake him up, but to show him when he was allowed to leave his room and come get us. It's worked awesomely for us each year since and we've never been waked up at 4AM (yet anyway). I told Max this year that 7:30 was his time. When the baby got me up at 7, or was it 6:30? He was still out. I fed the baby and showered. I went into his room and checked on him at 7:25 and he was SO asleep. 5 minutes later we heard the alarm go off and seriously 30 seconds later he was in our room, wide awake. It was hilarious. And just proved that all those school mornings where we have to drag him out of bed by his toenails are preposterous!

Boys in the morning, all stripey and sleepy. I can't tell if Sandy's begging me to save him from his big brother with his eyes or not. He actually loves Max and I think it's only going to get better as he gets bigger.

We headed into the living room to see the goodies. It was nice to hear Max's extremely delighted noises as he saw the half size electric guitar we got him and the fun bits of things that Santa left. He was very satisfyingly excited about it all.

I realized the other day that it is just SO darn light here compared to other places we've lived. Even in the winter the sun comes up before 7AM. I was surprised that it wasn't dark when we went out to the living room. It may be the first Christmas I remember where we didn't see the tree lights glowing because of the sun!


Here's Max with his awesome guitar. The half-sizedness of it is very cute, and seeing Max play it is even cuter.

I'm sure I'll have to post more pictures/video of him playing it soon enough.
Here are Kris and Max with matching bracelets made out of bike chains. Max had purchased the bracelet for himself a few weeks ago, and he was dead set on getting Kris one for Christmas. Luckily there were still some left when we made it to the bike store. It is a lucky bracelet after all--or at least so says Max.

Sandy got worn out very quickly and was ready for his first nap. We brought his bed out into the living room so he could still be with us. I don't think he got very good quality sleep, but at least he slept a bit and it wasn't in my lap the whole time.

Plus, he's adorable. I love seeing little ones sleeping with their hands above their heads like that.

And Sultan? Well of course he had to be in on the action. He came right into the middle of the little space on the rug we'd cleared and he lay down. He got himself all comfy on Max's new sleeping bad and fell asleep. It wasn't very convenient for us, but cute anyway.


That's all for now--more tomorrow. I'm regathering my energy after the weekend. Max wished on a star tonight that it would be Christmas every day. I remember wishing that myself when I was little. I don't wish it now though. Once is enough even though I'm always sad it's over.

::for gram::

This video is a combo of showing off a couple of gifts. My mom gave Max the fun tent with play tunnel, and I used my new tiny video camera (the GoPro) that Kris gave me to make the movie. It's near indestructible with the case on it which is why you were able to see the fun footage that Max took. Fun stuff!!

::festive part 2::

Here are some more festive scenes from around here--mostly from yesterday (Christmas Eve!)
Festive sunsets!
From monday:

From yesterday on the way to the methodist Christmas Eve service we attended (which was fun, by the way.)

The color of the sky was so amazing, and the clouds were really low and cool looking.


I showed Max the Santa tracker at lunch and he tracked the big man for the rest of the day. He loved it. I loved how it kept him occupied. I love how the mobile version of google maps got in on it this year--if you searched "santa" the phone would show you where he was. We saw him in Uzbekistan, Saudia Arabia, the Seychelles and Cape Verde. It led to some pretty interesting conversations about geography.

Here are the ornaments I made this year. I try to always make a Max ornament every year for the Grandmothers--and this year we got to add Sandy which made me very happy. I think it turned out cute--not anything too special, but cute!




We read this book together every Christmas Eve. It's a lovely pop-up book and kids love it. It's a tradition that I carried from my home growing up. I found this copy of the book for us at a second hand book store before amazon.com really existed--it was a triumph then! And wow, I just searched it on amazon just for fun, and they're selling used starting at $50. Crazy!
Anyway, we love it and it's fun to remember how I felt reading that same book when I was Max's age.

Boys in Santa hats are quite festive.

This one was usurped from work--the staff each had one and Max was really coveting them. One of the sweet ladies donated hers to his cause and wore it for two days straight.

Boys in Christmas sweaters are even more festive!

I waited all day to try and get a picture of them together where Sandy was awake, but he just had too sleepy of a day.
Max's sweater came from my mom and Sandy's came from Kris's mom. Thanks moms!! The boys looked so cute.

The nativity scene:

This is festive, but I'm just not sure what to say about it. Hmmmmmmm.

Luminarios/farolitos:
Lots of people have these on their houses out here--and especially businesses and big buildings. They're so fun looking and very different. This is a picture of a house on our street. I wish I would've been able to snag a picture of one of the big multi level places downtown for you. Next year.


And last, but certainly not least, my favorite festive activity for the day was Kris getting pooped on. We were trying to hurry and get ready to go to the church service and Sandy just couldn't seem to finish pooping before he got changed. Kris actually went through a couple of diapers and then finally just got a bad angle and was really in the line of fire. He shrieked (in a manly way of course) and had to go and completely change his clothes. Sandy was totally nonplussed, which cracked me up. And of course I took a picture or two even though the light was totally awful.


HAH!!

We've had a great Christmas Eve and a lovely Christmas day. The best part is spending time together as a little family as well as talking to all our loved ones. I hope everybody else had a great couple of days too.
Merry Christmas!!

::festive part 1::

Just thought a fun Christmas Eve activity would be to show you some of the festive stuff happening around here.
Not all of these were either photographed or done today. Just so you know.


This is a fun gingerbread house that Kris helped Max make. Max did all the decorating. The kit was donated by a sweet friend.

The playful penguin race. This thing is super fun, but SO so SO loud and obnoxious. It squeaks and squeaks the whole time that the penguins are climbing the stairs and sliding down the ramps. Thus it is only allowed to be out a few days before Christmas. This results in a few solid days of squeaking penguins, but at least it's fun and hard won entertainment for Max.

Present wrapping with Boys. This was the other day after we went and got Max's present for Kris. They're cute, aren't they?


Our archway of Christmas cards. I love Christmas cards, so I send out a bunch and this year we've gotten a ton back which makes me very happy. I love seeing friends and family's faces up there!
Speaking of, in case you didn't get one, here's our Christmas card. The photo was taken by my friend Renatha in our ward, and I did the card design.

The couch in the desert was Kris's idea, and since he used the Land Rover to get it out there, he's pretty proud of it all. That is essentially our back yard, by the way.
We have another shot from this session up on the wall of the office. People like it.

I have more, but now we have to get ready to go out--Max's school teacher invited us to their church's Christmas Eve service and we're going to go and check it out, along with lights and festivities downtown. We'll be back home for scripture reading, Christmas Eve present opening and not sleeping (Max & Sandy). If I can get the rest of the festivities posted I will!

Merry Christmas Eve--Jingle Bells by Max

Max found the music to jingle bells in one of his books this morning. Merry Christmas.

::go max!!::

Max is doing awesome at karate.
A while back he was awarded a little "most improved" patch for his uniform (we haven't put it on his uniform yet, much to his annoyance). Technically he's not the MOST improved because there are other kids with the same patch, but oh well. He really has improved since he started though, and we're really proud of him. I think the patch applies quite well.

Then yesterday he came out of class with another patch. An exciting one!

I like the dragons. Evidently this is a promotion patch and it means he's making progress towards the next belt!

Isn't this so classic karate--"Here's a patch for you! That'll be $10 mom and dad!!"

We're very proud of him though, and I can't wait until he learns enough to test up to the next belt. It's nice to see him learning something physically challenging and especially we like to see him learning discipline. Now if only it was less complicated to get him to karate after school now that there's the little Sandy. We'll get the logistics figured out though. Eventually!


Go Max!!!