Wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas

A Very Merry December 2010



Chrissy and Ryan had raked the leaves in my parent's yard, and kindly invited us over to have Frankie play in the leaves with Jarek and Tayden.

Frankie is loving having lots of stuffed animal buddies in his bed with him right now.

We made gingerbread houses at Kennadi's house. We had bought a kit on clearance last year, and we added our own touches.

Frankie's Halloween addition to the Christmas decorations.

His favorite Christmas movie this year was The Muppet Christmas Carol. I think it's my favorite, too. I had a ray of inspiration one day when I was needing to get some work done and Frankie was sad I couldn't play. I said, "Do you want to watch a Christmas movie that has spooky GHOSTS in it?"

You should have seen the look on his face.

As we were in transit in the car on Christmas Eve, Frankie sighed and said "I wish we could go Trick or Treating on Christmas, too."

We made not one, but TWO batches of Christmas sugar cookies this year. I had another stroke of genius (must have been a good month for me) and thinned the frosting out enough that the cookies can simply be dipped, and then decorated with sprinkles. (As opposed to trying to spread the icing on with a knife or use decorating bags.) It makes the final step about 1,000 times easier.

Now I will confess that the first time I put Frankie in his new little suit outfit, he stepped back from me and I started crying. Only a little. He looks so grown up and so tall. But also so handsome. On this day before we went to church, Frankie and I watched some Nativity movies. (Jeremy was at meetings.) Frankie was all about making sure our Nativities were set up how he thought they should be this year.

A few days before Christmas a big package came in the mail for Frankie. It was a huge Hot Wheels track/garage set from his cousin Angie and her parents. I couldn't believe how well this toy held his attention. He sat and played with it for hours. We are so grateful for all the gifts we receive - it really does mean a lot.

We had Christmas party at my Mom's on the 23rd. The kids acted out the Nativity for the first time in a few years, I was excited that Frankie got to be a part of it. He was a very knightly Wise Man. I guess the Nativity pageant is one time it's good that my family has more boys then girls.

After the pageant the kids opened their presents, Frankie got 2 Cars he doesn't have yet, he was stoked. Then we decorated cookies, and the kids dispersed while the adults played some Cranium. My poor Daddy had shoulder surgery in December, and still wasn't feeling to spry at Christmastime. We also got our cool present from Christina and Ryan's family: it's a picture board thing which I just realized is hard to describe. Basically you can change the pictures in and out of it very easily. I will redo my walls someday and show it to all of you.

Christmas Eve at Jeremy's parent's house. The tradition at their house is that the youngest has to distribute all the presents. Jerm is so excited that Frankie is old enough to do this now. And Frankie enjoys it too. He also followed around the room and was right next to, and often helping, whoever was opening a present. Nick and Ali gave Frankie a fish tank lamp. That is my kind of fish tank. Frankie will tell people "we don't have to feed them or clean it and the kitties can't kill them!"

Nick got Alison a new wedding ring to replace the one that was lost with her purse in November. I was taking pictures and didn't realize until later that Frankie was the one that nabbed it out of the box. Sorry, Ali. And the new ring is very pretty, if you were wondering.

We had a bit of a Toy Story Christmas this year. Santa brought Frankie movie-size versions of the main Toy Story Characters, (although Buzz is the only one that talks,) and a Lego set: Pizza Planet Rescue Mission. The Lego set is what he asked Santa for when he sat on Santa's lap. He loved the character dolls more then I would have expected. He wanted to take them everywhere for a few weeks, and he still plays with them quite often.

The Lego house was from Grandma and Grandpa Anderson the night before. Frankie was so sad when we got back to our house on Christmas Eve that we didn't have time to set it up and play with it that night. So he left Santa a note with the cookies asking Santa to set it up. Santa's a pretty nice guy.

It was a happy Christmas morning. The other present highlight for Frankie was a Penguin Pillow Pet, from Great Grandma Schulz. I was very excited that Santa brought me new slippers. Can you see my old ones? They are masking taped together so that my toes wouldn't flop out.

As luck would have it, Mayzie, Tayden, and Jarek all got penguin Pillow Pets too.

Jeremy got me the "Just Dance" game for the Wii. I had been requesting a game of this sort so that I could exercise to it. We had a great time on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day giving it a go. I also bought myself Just Dance II on my birthday, and I have been exercising to them. It's so much fun.

I had one of my best birthdays - real or half - ever this year. Jeremy took the day off and watched Frankie while I got to go shopping and to lunch with my Mom and sisters. We hit the Target Christmas clearance, it was good fun. After I got home I had time to take a nap, and then Jeremy and I went to the temple, out to dinner, and shopping to get my new game. Later that night Frankie was very distraught that I didn't have a birthday cake. So we made some little ice cream treats in our fancy cups, and each blew out some candles after he sang happy birthday to me. It was adorable. It was a happy day with family, I felt really remembered and loved. I reflected a lot on how blessed I've been this past year.

As is tradition, Frankie and Kennadi opened their presents from each other together. This year it ended up being after Christmas, and I ended up having some serious Camera user error with our point and shoot. I'm not really sure what I was thinking.



We finished the year with a dusting of snow on all the hills. This day the light was perfect, but by the time I got out there it wasn't as great. Nonetheless, beautiful. We don't see this contrast very often.

Home for the holidays

All is safely gathered in

Guess how many pictures I took of Thanksgiving? None. It was kind of nice in a way.

We had an early dinner at my Mom's on Friday, because my niece had to go to Primary Children's for chemo during Thanksgiving week. She has been so very brave and is doing as well as could be expected. I need to talk to them and find out if it's okay if I say more at some point.

On Thanksgiving day we watched the parade, lazed about, and went to dinner at Jeremy's parents later on.

The next day we went up to the cabin. It was quite difficult for us to decide if we should go or not. My sinus junk turned back into a cold again, and Frankie's been fighting it, too. But I don't like the mentality of not doing things because I'm sick. Not at all. So away we went. We got to chill, watch movies and play games, and go cut down our pretty Christmas Tree.

On Sunday we decorated the tree. This time of year makes me even more in love with my little family. I am blessed beyond measure.

A belated Thankful list:

In addition to the things always at the top of my list (Jesus Christ, my family, my experiences, the beautiful world, jobs, house, food, etc) - I'm grateful for:

-Being well enough to:
    Play with Frankie
    Exercise
    Clean my house
    Put up Christmas Decorations
    Go to the cabin and enjoy it
-The awesome doctors who I've been blessed with this year
-I ran into a teacher Jeremy and I both had in high school. I haven't seen her in years. She remembered we were married, and even that Jerm had once upon a time been majoring in psychology. I don't know why, but it made my day, and made me realize I need to be better at truly remembering and being considerate of others
-Even better, when I told her we had a four year old, she didn't ask "are you going to have some more?"
-This picture of Bingley: Oh my heck, it cracks me up

-Mormon messages videos. I've made lds.org my home page, and I've noticed a difference in my time management and my general feelings throughout the day
-Hope for the future. I can't think about it too hard, because I don't know exactly what it will be. But I have much faith it will be happy no matter what
-Watching Frankie play, he is genius at setting things up in an aesthetic manner, he makes little displays of all his toys

-The Carl Bloch exhibition at the BYU museum. I haven't been yet, but we are going to go at some point and I'm looking forward to it immensely. The museum owns the painting below. When I saw it a few years ago it literally moved me to tears. I can't wait to see more. (You have to reserve tickets, which are free, online ahead of time if you want to go. But you should, oh you should.)

-Jeremy's "Nearer my God to Thee" piano piece he played in church on Sunday
-The faith, love, and service of our family and friends
-How pretty my flowers were this year. They all just froze, but I'm going to get some pansies to make me feel better
-Red and gold at Christmastime
-Frankie's insistence that we take a picture "with our whole family, and my snowmen family, with the timer" after we were done with the tree. We even got the cats to hang out for a minute

-Getting the rest of the Christmas decorating done. I forget what a project it is from year to year
-Jeremy's last clinical for the semester was yesterday! I want to type about 10 more exclamation points, but I'm going to restrain myself

-Lastly, the fact that my kid is becoming a little man. The things he does and the things he remembers lately amaze me. Today I took him to play at Grandma's. He said that he wanted to go to the door by himself, like I was dropping him off for school. It's been close to a year since we used to drop his cousins off for school sometimes. It made me smile and made my heart ache at the same time.

(Here's a few more of his 4 year old pictures from a few weeks ago.)

And on this farm

 The week after Halloween we had our annual trek to Staheli Farms with Jeremy's parents and Nick and Alison. This year Sam and Aubree and kiddos also joined us for a while. Last year we went during the day, and I think we'll aim for that again... but Jeremy's schedule wouldn't allow for it this time. Halloween doesn't feel officially over until we go to the farm.

They keep adding more and more every year, including a pig race this year which was hilarious.

It was cold. Can you tell looking at everyone?

 "Scary Pig" (as Frankie named him the first time we went when he was 2) lives on!

Or at least his clone. Or offspring.

Kennadi and Frankie braved this rope swing thing, which made me a little nervous. It wasn't the safest set up ever. 

This was another new addition this year, rubber ducky races with water pumps.

This is Halloween

Halloween was a big deal at our house this year. We started celebrating it a few days before Frankie's party at the end of August, and I let him keep the decorations up for another week or so after Halloween was over. My favorite decoration this year, which I swear I took a picture of, but can't currently locate, was a bunch of 4x6 size foam pieces which Frankie adorned with his foam Halloween stickers. They are really great stickers: haunted houses and such in bright colors. We lined them up below the shelf in our living room.

I have a lot of pictures and not as much time, so Picasa collages are helping me out with this:

Our first official festivity was making sugar cookies. Sugar cookies are one of Frankie's favorite things. I've decided I'm going to be brave and help him make them more often.

Then we carved pumpkins with Kennadi. It took Frankie quite a while before he would brave getting the guts out of his pumpkin, but eventually he did. He drew the face on his for me to cut out.

Frankie's pictures of our creativity. He cracks me up with his photography. It is a serious business to him.

A few days before Halloween Frankie got to don his official (improved) ghost costume to join Tayden and Jarek for their ward/neighborhood Halloween carnival. He was amazing at the bean bag toss, and all of the boys loved the little train ride. Since Christina works for the college, she had heard about a trunk or treat hosted by the sports teams. The college kids were really cute, our favorite was the football team that had this 70's van all decorated. 

 Then we went and visited Grandma at the high school, for more trick or treating. Frankie ended up being the first child the high school kids saw. They thought he was really cute, and consequently he ended up with far too much candy. My favorite moment was when a girl wanted to pull him into her choir class, and it was nuts for me to see Mr. Moore, formerly my choir teacher and student council advisor, standing in front of the class. My nephew Hunter was in the class and came over to give Frankie a high five.

Finally the day had arrived! There was a Halloween party at my Mom's with his cousins. Mayzie had planned some cute games including a treasure hunt and a pumpkin roll. I love the group picture, they all had such cool costumes.

Trick or treating Grandma's neighborhood, and getting a Halloween present from Jeremy's parents. Please note the picture in the top corner, even though it is tiny. Frankie really liked the Halloween decorations in this yard and wanted us to take a picture. The flash revealed flamingos, garden gnomes, and silk flowers. Awesome.

A dream is a wish

California Day 6: The Happiest Place on Earth.

I'm one of those people who love Disneyland. It's not necessarily the rides that get me excited, it's the pure brilliance of the atmosphere. How someone like me who notices aesthetic flaws cannot find a one. It's the awesome musicians you can listen to if you know where to look. The faces of happy kids everywhere, and the understanding nod to the parents of the not so happy kid. Only one day in Disneyland is almost painfully short. But it was still good fun.

We participated in the Day of Service Promotion, so mine and Jerm's tickets were free this day. Frankie was/is too young to participate, but they still gave him a button so he wouldn't feel left out.

As to be expected, Frankie thoroughly enjoyed the Haunted Mansion. It's currently Nightmare Before Christmas-tized, which I prefer because it's less gory this way. We hit this side of the park in the morning, and for whatever reason it did not get busy over there until lunchtime, we nearly walked onto every ride we went on. 

Tigger and Pooh. I know the character pictures are the total cliche, but I love them, and I love remembering how excited Frankie was to see all his buddies.

Pirates Lair/Tom Sawyers Island.

I couldn't resist the comparison. I think I might make Frankie sit here and take a picture on every trip to Disneyland from now on. He'll love that when he's 14.

There were adults on this trip, I promise! Here we are having a lazy moment while the children ran wild on the island with minimal supervision.

While we were waiting for the Jedi Training show to start, I got these great pictures of Frankie making faces at me and wearing my hat. He was all stoked to try and be chosen to be in the show, then when the people came out and actually started choosing kids, he wanted nothing to do with it.

Jerm said Frankie was NOT a good driver.

One of the main things Frankie wanted on this trip was to see Buzz, and have Buzz salute him. I was worried that seeing Buzz would not be possible. I even tried to wrangle it out of an employee when he would next be coming out. As luck would have it, I saw Buzz right as he was walking to his designated photo spot, I yelled to Jeremy, who was kind of far from me, and he came over with Frankie. We were the 3rd ones in line. Woot. Frankie was somewhat intimidated by how big Buzz actually was, but in the end warmed up to him. Having this work out so well honestly gave me some sort of second wind that day. I had just started to feel very worn out before it happened.

Frankie got his second wind in the form of a nap in the stroller. He actually fell asleep staring at the box of Toy Story Figurines that he spent the rest of his money on, and he must have had sweet dreams of them because he slept for 1.5 hours. 

After Frankie fell asleep we broke from the group. For some of that time we were with my parents, and Hunter who didn't want to go the the Tiki Room. I confess it's been years since I've been to the Tiki room. We hit the penny arcade, where the men-folk had a grip challenge competition. I am proud to say Jeremy won, sorry Daddy.

Later, as the masses were lining up for the parade, we took Frankie to Toon Town, and to see Mickey at Mickey's house. I highly recommend going to these places during the parade. We had the run of the place, Mickey's house was almost a bit eerie so empty. And we still got to see the end of the parade as we were walking out.

Later we had another bit of luck and also saw Mickey in his Halloween costume.

I was supposed to be in this picture too, but my Father was having an extremely difficult time with our camera, despite me walking over to help him several times. To avoid causing a riot I finally ran over and just took one of my boys.