Christmas

I previously wrote about how I had a hard time getting into Christmas and how I miss my family. I have also been thinking about how I get to enjoy Christmas with a different perspective. It's no longer about me, but about my son. While he is still too young to grasp the concept, it was still fun to see him get exited about getting new things and getting to tear paper. I'm sure as Curtis gets older and our family grows I will learn to love this new way of experiencing Christmas.

Today was a low key day in my book. We got up about 8, showered and then got Curtis up and took him downstairs to see his dump truck that "Santa" had brought him.

We then had our traditional cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then opened the rest of our presents. It was fun to see Travis help Curtis tear the paper and open the presents. It is also interesting to see how I have become less selfish since becoming a parent. I suppose that is the way it should be, but I know that it doesn't always happen. Anyhow, after spending time at home we headed to Travis's parent's for dinner, gift exchanging and quality time with extended family. It was a really nice day. Curtis continued to climb on everything and we got a nice family picture! It was great to spend time together.

Revelation

I had a revelation about myself today. But first some background. I have always loved Christmas, but have found myself not being very excited the last couple of years. I have no motivation to put up and decorate the tree. I'm not interested in doing any decorating or baking. I just can't seem to get excited about the season.

Yesterday I was talking with a friend about Christmas growing up and family traditions and it got me thinking. I realized that I miss my family. It sounds so simple, but it didn't occur to me until this morning. What I love about Christmas is spending time with my family, immediate and extended. I'm not one to be sentimental, but I guess it's normal to miss your family during the holidays. The upside is that I get to create new traditions with my family and have great in-laws to celebrate with. :)

Tuckered Out

Not much has been happening lately but I thought that I would share this picture. This is how I found him when I came home from choir practice on Sunday. Travis was grading papers and apparently Curtis was tired. Poor little guy must have been tuckered out b/c he rarely sleeps anywhere but his bed.

Where Do I live?!

The last time I checked, I don't live in Antartica. I don't live in Alaska or Montana. I don't even live in Eastern Idaho. I live in Southwest Idaho and since when does the valley get 8 inches of snow over night!!! And if that weren't enough it just kept snowing all morning!!!

These pictures don't really do justice to what the snow really looked like, but hey, it's the best that I can do.

The snow did bring some fun times, sledding! The slope off our backyard is a great sledding hill! The Adams family came over and had a great time.

Curtis and Bentley got to hang out inside with me. Curtis was fascinated with everyone outside and watched them the whole time they were outside. :)

A Great Day for Curtis!

Curtis amazes me every day. He is such a smart little boy who loves to explore and lean new things/get into new things. This week he had, what I would consider, a kid milestone and a mother's worst nightmare. He found the kitchen cupboards! Mostly he likes the lazy susan in the pots and pans cupboard but he also enjoys the tupperware cupboard.

He hasn't quite figured out just how much fun he can have with pots and pans, but he did what any boy should do and "drove" the pot lid all over the house.

At least with exploration comes learning. He learned last night that the metal pan makes more noise than the plastic lid when thrown on the floor.

My little man is growing up way too fast. He isn't walking yet, but is so close. He hasn't gotten brave enough to let go and walk on his own. He has a walker/car toy that he plays with and walks all over the house. He has also become quite the little climber. He loves to climb on everything! Thankfully most things are still too tall for him, but he has surprised me a time or two. This is one determined/stubborn kid. (hmmm, can't imagine where he gets that from. ;)

Gratitude

I really feel that it's important to take a moment and remember what I do have. It is so easy to get caught up in what I don't have and what I wish I had that I forget all of the many things that I DO have. So here it goes, things that I am grateful for (in no particular order):

• I get to be with my Buddy for eternity
• the cutest son ever!
• I get along great with my in-laws and really love all of them like my own family
• great relationships with all three of my siblings and parents
• a house to live in and food to eat
• I can cook great food and make yummy desserts
• a computer (multiple, actually) that allows me to work from home and stay connected
• friends who love me for who I am (that sounds like song lyrics)
• clothes, while they may not be the latest and greatest they do the job
• a college degree and all of the great experiences that went along with obtaining it
• membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• a testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ and all that goes along with that
• the opportunity and ability to serve others
• intelligence, sensibility and a bit of humor
• co-workers who make the work place a great place to be

I'm sure that there is more, but this has helped me remember that my life is full of great things and I am very blessed. :)

Inspired Ideas

I fully admit that I am not crafty and creativity is not my thing, but I really enjoy looking at what crafty and creative things others make. I came across this amazing compilation of fun and unique holiday crafts. I am in awe of the work that went into putting this magazine together and of all of the crafts inside it. There are some pretty neat ideas and I might even consider making some of them. Maybe if I keep looking at crafty stuff I'll eventually decide to try making some of my own.

Halloween

I am totally willing to admit that I am a Halloween Scrooge. Now, this is no fault of my mother's or a result of some horrible childhood experience. My mom made me some very cute costumes when I was a kid. But, as I have gotten older I have never been good at coming up with costumes and find the idea of knocking on people's doors and expecting them to give you candy is just an odd concept to me. But, now I have a kid and I feel that in all fairness to him I should have a little more enthusiasm. Thankfully I can gradually get there. This year Halloween consisted of going to the ward Trunk-or-Treat and Curtis visiting grandparents and great grandparents. Travis and I did have a chance to leave Curtis with his grandparents and go to my work's Halloween party. It was nice to get out for a bit, but I was super tired so we when the alcohol started freely flowing, we left.

Curtis sporting Travis's wig at the trunk-or-treat.

Curtis the cow! Moooo

All in all it was a low key weekend with a few festivities. I must say though that I don't know what is up with kids these days. (like I'm even old enough to say that, but I am). Sunday night our porch light was off but I could be seen through the window next to the door sitting at the kitchen table eating dinner. Some trick-or-treater rang the door bell. I didn't have any candy so I didn't answer the door. And when I didn't they rang the door bell again! Am I wrong in assuming that if your porch light is off kids aren't supposed to come to the door and PARENTS shouldn't let them? Not to end on a negative note, but come on people.

Boys Will be Boys

It's amazing to me how much of a boy Curtis is. He's only a year old, but man, he knows how to be a boy. Here are a few examples. Last night we went to a pumpkin patch with our good friends, the Jefferies. Curtis could have cared less about the pumpkins. All he payed attention to was the tractor that pulled the hey ride. He kept pointing at it and squealing in delight.



He also enjoyed crawling around the bounce house.



The other example comes from this morning. He spent 1.5 hours playing with his big truck! That is the longest that he has played with anything. He drove it around while making vroom, vroom noises. He tried to stand on it to climb onto furniture. Sadly for him the truck has wheels and it rolled out from under him. He loaded things onto it and then drove it around some more. It was really cute to watch him play for so long by himself and to be such a boy.

Kick Back & Relax

We haven't been up to much lately. Curtis has enjoyed spending time with his grandparents and great grandparents. He learns new things all the time. He tried to put his foot in my shoe the other day and he has had a few moments of standing unaided. He most enjoys getting into everything that he's not supposed to . . . oh, what fun.

Today Curtis cracked me up while he was eating his banana. He was lounging in his highchair with his foot propped up (after he had pulled off his sock) chowing down on his banana.



Later on in the day I was folding laundry when Curtis came over and carefully climbed into the laundry basket. He just sat there and watched the tv. Eventually he started throwing the clothes out of the basket and waited for me to push him around.



The lesson I learned from Curtis today was that it's ok to just kick back and relax and enjoy each moment as they come. Pretty soon my Little Monkey will be too big to fit into a laundry basket and won't be happy just chowing down on a banana.

Tender Mercies

Travis has the sweetest grandparents. They have considered me their granddaughter since they met me. It means a lot to me b/c I have been without a grandpa for 17 years. Unfortunately, over the last couple of years his health has not been great and has quickly deteriorated over the last 8 months or so. It had gotten so bad that he had gotten violent and was admitted to an adult psychiatric ward in a Salt Lake hospital. The situation was such that we thought that we would be going to a funeral a few months ago. But, the Lord had other plans. There was a team of doctors that spent a week or so observing and evaluating him and they determined that he was over medicated. Within a couple of days of changing his meds he was a whole new person. Over the last month or so I have heard from various family members what a new person he is. Hearing about it and seeing it are two very different things.

Grandma and Grandpa have come up to the farm to stay for a month and Curtis and I went to see them yesterday. Grandpa really is a whole new person. He speaks at a normal pace, walks on his own and spent the day out working on the manure spreader. Travis tells me this is the Grandpa that he remembers growing up and had almost forgotten what he was like.

I am grateful that Grandpa is still with us and is 100 times better than I have ever known him. I look forward to Curtis getting to know his great grandparents and them getting to see him grow up. :)

Happy Birthday Curtis Boy!

*disclaimer* I'm not eloquent in writing, or talking for that matter, but am going to do my best to express myself.

Memory is a funny thing. I don't have that great of a memory, in my opinion, but I remember clearly everything about the day Curtis was born. I won't share any details, but it was quite the day.

But this day was far from eventful. Poor Curtis started the day by getting 4 shots! It was time for his 12 month immunizations and a flu shot. He hated it, but got to have some chocolate milk when he got home. :) He then spent the rest of the day napping and hanging out with me. :)

The night before his birthday was quite fun though. We had a birthday party!! We invited a few friends and family. Curtis "opened" his gifts. Mostly I dumped gifts our of bags or helped tear the paper. He throughly enjoyed the truck and cars that his Grandam & Grandpa Edwards gave him.

After presents we sang to Curtis and he got to eat his cupcake! He thoroughly enjoyed it and hardly made a mess. :)

It was great fun and I can't believe that Curtis is a year old! He is such a smart little boy. He amazes me every day at the things he does. He crawls up and down the stairs, loves to throw things down the stairs. He loves to play with his car and make "vroom vroom" sounds. He pulls himself up and likes to cruise around the furniture. I think that it will still be a few months before he starts walking, which is fine by me. :) I love my sweet, happy boy. I have enjoyed these past 12 months and look forward to all of the adventures of the next year!

FFA Scholarship Auction

I have come to love being part of such a tight nit community. Travis was born and raised in the little town of Kuna, ID. It's not so little anymore, but it is still a tight nit community. And this community pulled together for another hugely successful Kuna FFA Scholarship Auction. Every fall the FFA puts on a free dinner, silent and live auction for the community. The items auctioned are donated by local business, community members and FFA students. There is everything from home grown potatoes, cloth children books, homemade quilts, chickens, BSU and Vandal baskets (those create quite the bidding war), work benches, and the list goes on. It is a fun family activity and a great way to support the FFA. I vowed that I wasn't buying anything this year b/c our budget is pretty tight, but I caved a bought a sweet Christmas present for Travis. I just couldn't help myself. :)

Curtis wore his dad's favorite shirt and thoroughly enjoyed chocolate milk and ice cream!

My little monkey is getting so big! (he'll be 1 next week!)

I love his halo!

Chocolate Cake!

I came across a recipe for a three layer chocolate zucchini cake at Purple Chocolat Home and thought that it sounded great and looked like it would be easy enough to make. I decided to have my niece, Sammi, help me while I watched her and her sister Bentley. Sammi and I made the cakes during the babies morning naps and then made the frosting and frosted it while they took their second nap. Thought you might like to know that we didn't ignore the little ones to make a cake. :)

Granted, mine didn't turn out as pretty as theirs, but it sure tasted good.

It was great fun. Sammi thoroughly enjoyed making the cake with me and getting to lick beaters and scrappers.

She added a nice touch with green and red sprinkles. :)

Even with supervision, Curtis and Bentley sure made a mess! I've never seen so many toys and stuff on the floor. They also emptied off two book shelves filled with movies and cd's! Despite the mess, everyone had a great day!

San Diego and the Wedding!

Sorry it's taken so long to finish posting about our trip, but life is crazy! Well, maybe not crazy, but a little busy. Anyway, after the crazy weekend with Doug, I decided that Curtis and I needed some down time. The poor little guy had gotten very few naps over the last few days and I was just exhausted. We did however take time to go to the beach! It was a bit chilly so we didn't stay long, but Curtis loved the waves washing over his feet as the tide came and went. He however was not a fan of getting sand in his mouth! There was also a nice family next to us that let Curtis play with their toys.

After the beach we got to meet up with some friends of mine from UC Davis and have lunch with them. It was really nice catching up and just amazes me that you can go for years without seeing someone and it seems like nothing has really changed, even though we both have a kid now!

Over the next few days my mom and I helped Shelly finish getting stuff ready for her wedding. It was fun and weird all at the same time. It's one thing to say she's getting married, but it's another for it to be reality. She has always been my little sister and it is hard for me to realize that she is old enough to be getting married! It just doesn't register. I'm sure those of you who have younger siblings know what I'm talking about. We had errands to run, a backyard to get ready for the reception, which turned out amazing thanks to her FIL! He did a great job stringing up the lanterns. I got to give her the wedding night talk. Thankfully she has married friends that had also talked to her. We got our nails done and just had some fun time together. It was also nice having my mom there. We are all great friends and I love it!

Finally the comes and I'd love to say it went off without a hitch, but that would be a lie. Fortunately, nothing catastrophic happened and they did get married, which is all that really matters. The sealing took place in the gorgeous San Diego Temple! It took place almost an hour late due to some poor planning on part of the temple workers. (No worries, I still believe that the church is true, but Travis questions the validity of that temple. :)) B/c of the luncheon that was planned there wasn't much time for pictures at the temple, but the photographer got a few anyway. The luncheon was great! David's family picked a great restaurant and it was fun spending time with my older brother and his family that I rarely see.

The happy couple!

Curtis and his dad!

The reception was great. There was authentic Mexican food! The lady even made homemade tortillas right there in the backyard! Awesome! The cake was about 30 mins late to the reception and I stepped in to help finish putting it together. A friend of Shelly's did the cake and nothing went her way that day. But, it looked fine and everybody loved it.

Travis enjoyed chatting flower with the gentleman that did Shelly's flowers. I didn't get many pictures at the reception b/c I was too busy running around making sure Shelly had a perfect night! And she did!! Mission accomplished! My SIL and some of Shelly's friends even decorated their getaway car and gave them a nice goody basket. (those pics are on my mom's camera)

All in all it was a great trip. I loved seeing and getting to spend time with my family and soak up some California sun, but in the end I was happy to come home. Dorthy was right when she said, "There's no place like home". And it's true, no matter where your home is, it's the best place to be. :)

Boot Camp Graduation: Part 2

Getting to the graduation was an adventure in itself. The MCRD is only 15ish minutes from Shelly's apartment but it took us over an hour to get to the MCRD. We had fun watching all of the traffic craziness. There were two sets of train tracks that were pretty busy that people kept stopping on. There were some crazy intersections that people kept stopping in the middle of. People not going to the graduation really couldn't get to where they needed to go. Big semi work trucks were honking up a storm to get people out of their way. The funniest was the car in front of us. They weren't aggressive at all. Finally the driver and passenger got out of the car and traded places. My brother was ahead of us a bit and asked Shelly if they were having a Chinese Firedrill. Unfortunately, neither of the people in the car looked like they were having any fun. In fact, the woman, who had been the passenger, looked furious. Needless to say, she got the job done much better than the guy with her. We eventually made it to the MCRD and got good seats in the bleachers.
The graduation was very nice. They had a few speakers, the Marine Band played a few numbers and the recruits marched around the parade deck. The poor recruits had to stand in formation the entire time, over an hour, in the sun. One of the guys in Doug's platoon actually passed out! He started to stumble forward and the guys next to him had to grab his arms and hold him up until some of their superiors could come and take him off the parade deck. We talked to Doug about it earlier and it turns out that it was the Commander's son that passed out! Doug just couldn't believe it! I'm sure that he's not going to live that one down. The medics managed to fix him and he was able to return to his platoon for the inspection march and the end of graduation. After the graduation ceremony, Doug went and picked up his bags and then we took some pictures.


A relaxed Doug and his luggage.

Doug and Michael making Shelly feel short.

The whole Halladay clan (minus Travis)

Once we were done with pictures Doug insisted that we go to In'n'Out so that he could have a 4x4, animal style fires and a strawberry milk shake.


It was gone in under 5 minutes. But I guess that they are only allowed 4 minutes to eat in boot camp and apparently he is still in that habit.

All in all, it was a great time. It was great to see Doug and see how much he has grown. I also got an update from my mom that he went to church with her and bore his testimony in sacrament meeting. I really hope that he has had a change of heart and has found his testimony and that he will continue to strengthen it.

Boot Camp Graduation: Part 1

As stated before the first part of this trip was to go to Doug's boot camp graduation. It was two great days, aside from it being a little warm and getting sunburned. Thursday was Liberty day. This is the day before graduation when the family and loved ones get to see their marine and he tgets to show them around the base. The days starts with The recruits doing a run in their short little shorts and then the families watching a presentation while the recruits go change. We were late getting there and missed the run and decided to skip the presentation and just go sit in the grand stand and wait the 20 mins for the recruits to come back. For whatever reason the 20 mins turned into an hour! I thought that marines were supposed to be punctual! Fortunately, Curtis was being a happy camper.

Anyhow, they eventually came and we got to see Doug in formation with his platoon. That was cool. Then they were released and we got to give him BIG HUGS! This was really special for my mom because Doug wasn't too fond of my parents when he left for boot camp. But he wrote my parents every week while in boot camp and really had a change of heart. He went to church every week, which is big because he hadn't been going for some time. It was just really great to see the change in him.


First thing on the agenda for Liberty Time was to go to the luncheon that LDS Branch put on for the recruits to show their appreciation for their sacrifice to serve their country. It was a great lunch and Curtis thoroughly enjoyed it too. I fed him some lunch and then he decided that he wanted to eat the ketchup coated hot dog bun. He ate the whole thing!


After lunch the recruits participated in a cake cutting tradition where the cake is cut with a ceremonial saber and then the oldest marine feeds cake to the youngest marine to make sure it is edible. The cake was deemed edible so we all partook.


After lunch, we went and did some shopping. Doug wanted to buy things for the family and he needed some clothes and he wanted a lap top. Really I think that he was just excited to have money and to spend it. Fine by me! He bought Curtis a cute little dog that he spit up chocolate cake on before we even bought it. That's my boy. Doug was also very excited about getting to eat a cheese and berry danish!



It was a great day and very enjoyable to see Doug and hang out with him. He's grown a lot; emotionally and spiritually and maybe even a little physically. But he will always be my Juggie.