Christmas 2008

Finally posting again...

When we went to Grandma's house for our week-long break, the children discovered some new Grandma toys, Zoomorphs. They provided hours of entertainment for Megan, Ian, and Erin.

We got a bit carried away playing around with Picasa's new collage feature, so here is the remainder of our vacation mostly in collage style (click on any to enlarge).

Christmas Eve at Tyler's and Andrea's House

More of the food (per Janell's request):

Christmas Morning at Grandma's and Grandpa's House

Christmas at Grandma Tsukamoto's House




Christmas Day party at Aunt Nancy's House

We neglected to take very many photos here. Sorry. I guess we were too busy eating and socializing. Here is Grandma Young waxing eloquent with a Christmas reading as she started off the traditional family program. Megan and Ian both played their piano recital pieces, Grandpa played his guitar, Uncle Frank played the harmonica, and Brad accompanied the singing of carols.

We were glad to be in a nice warm house during the snowstorm that hit later that night.

Visit with the Garrards

Chris' folks came to town for Christmas at Janet's house. We visited them Friday afternoon while Megan and Ian were attending the Nutcracker with Grandma Tsukamoto. Unfortunately, "Muffin" (Chris' nephew) was napping during our visit, so we didn't get to play with him. Cute photos of him can be found here.

Sledding with the Bucherts at Sugarhouse Park

We sure miss these guys!

Happy Holidays from our Family to Yours!

Dallin's First Christmas

Dallin and his family traveled south to SLC for the holiday celebrations this year. His first surprise was Grandpa Young's new large stainless steel sink in the laundry room. We discovered it was the perfect size for bathing a 3-month-old. As you can see, Dallin enjoys bathtime very much now as opposed to when he was 3 weeks old.

Dallin visited many people, did his job of acting cute, and wore himself out. He slept in a crib for the first time, but it only lasted for one nap.

He met Great-grandma Young (his only living great-grandparent) for the first time at the Christmas Eve party held at Tyler's and Andrea's home 8 days away in Daybreak. Great-grandma held him most of the evening and thought he was the perfect baby (naturally!). She missed out on the long drive back to Grandma Young's house where he screamed the entire way, but rest assured, the 8-day joke about Daybreak isn't so exaggerated.




Christmas morning, Dallin's siblings woke everyone else at 7:00 a.m. sharp. Dallin was so tired from the previous party that he slept in a few more hours. When he finally joined us, Erin helped him open his presents, one of which was a stuffed lion that he enjoyed chewing.






















Dallin got dressed and then went to Grandma Tsukamoto's where he received a new stroller! He promptly tried it out and gave his approval for comfort rating.

He partied and napped again at Great Aunt Nancy's for Christmas Day.

Dallin posed for many pictures throughout the week--we had to make sure we had proper documentation of his first Christmas.

Our final day in SLC, Dallin's first tooth (lower left incisor) popped through. Later that day we went sledding at Sugarhouse Park with the Bucherts. Watching everyone else sliding down the hill and walking back up was tiring work.

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

In between Church meetings, home teaching visits, and a Stake meeting last Sunday, we were able to squeeze in a little time for celebrating Kevin's birthday. The smoke from the candles on his favorite homemade applesauce cake this year nearly set off the fire alarm! He did blow out all the candles in one breath, but he realized after that he had forgotten to make a wish.

Here is the handsome birthday boy with his favorite children and some presents:

In our quest to be more environmentally conscious, we made him some cloth napkins (thanks to a sewing link from Amanda's site). We used fabric scraps from April's former projects which accounts for the variety of prints. Now we just need about 3 times as many...maybe for his Christmas present? For some reason, we go through a lot of paper napkins (part of it is due to Erin's quirk that she can only wipe her face once with a clean napkin and then she needs a new one).

Megan drew him this amazing Asian pit viper picture, and Ian gave him a coupon book with 4 copies of each coupon. He's already redeemed one for "Tidy Living Room."

Due to our snowstorm, we've had some hungry birds in the neighborhood. We love to watch them from our living room and kitchen windows. We have observed sparrows, finches, chickadees, juncos, and an adorable nuthatch feeding. If anyone out there still needs an idea for a great Christmas present, get a birdfeeder and seed, a pair of binoculars, and a bird guide--guaranteed entertainment for many hours!

Here is our festive Rudolph. Check out her color coordination! Erin chose the color of paper for the headband part all by herself. She's been very cute wearing her antlers for several days now.

For Fans of Star Wars & John Williams

I came across this while blog hopping and it was too good to not share with our readers.

Snowing Hair?

Monday morning we awakened to a thin layer of snow covering the ground. The children have been so anxious for snow that they immediately went out to play in it.

Ian and Erin worked on a snowman, and Megan made a tortoise. We are supposed to get another storm this weekend, hopefully with more snow.

Having been inspired by friends who recently donated to Locks of Love and since it is a season of giving, April chopped more than a few inches off and donated for the second time in her life. She was needing a trim anyway and decided to take the plunge. Needless to say, it was a bit traumatic. She did the cutting herself so that she couldn't get upset with Kevin for taking too much off. Kevin evened things up afterwards.

And to be silly, we decided to see what Dallin would look like with hair.
He sat patiently through the late-night ordeal.

It's December!

We are lacking snow still, but the Christmas celebrations have begun. Last week for our Family Home Evening, we got a Christmas tree and decorated it. Our house smells nice and woodsy--at least in the living room. In the kitchen it smells more like spaghetti, as April made a huge batch of homemade sauce, which she then pressure-cooked in quart jars to store in the pantry (minus what we left out to enjoy this week).

Tuesday morning, thanks to Dallin, we were up bright and early and enjoyed this beautiful sunrise.

Friday night was our ward Christmas party (sorry, no photos), and Saturday night was the annual Brodie Herpetology Lab Christmas party. This party always promises a lot of yummy food, though the composition of the menu has changed over the years. In the past there were some avid hunters in the group and we enjoyed lots of wild game dishes, whereas now several of the dishes are vegan (but still delicious). Judy Brodie lulled Dallin to sleep early on, and he snoozed in the back bedroom while we ate. Megan and Ian played quietly with friends and Erin mainly explored every corner of the house in search of candy bowls. Kevin saw Dr. Brodie's new hobby of cutting and polishing rocks, and April had a chance to visit with the Pfrenders and Judy. After dinner the spirits started to flow, beginning with the annual "lizard liquor" tradition. Several years ago, one of the students gave Dr. Brodie a bottle of Chinese vodka with a lizard in it . He keeps refilling the bottle, but apparently in spite of repeated dilutions it still tastes rather nasty. Needless to say, we are glad we don't drink so we receive no pressure at all to uphold this particular tradition.

Dallin is now 3 months old, and he likes to hold his head up looking around. He especially likes staring at the lights on the tree. He's a strong little baby and rolled over for the first time just tonight (7 Dec)! We caught the second roll on video for proof.

Grandma Young sent the children some darling Christmas clothes. Thanks so much! We love them. We tried to get a cute photo for Grandma, which was an exercise in patience for the parents and children alike. Two of the children were being rather difficult (and Dallin wasn't one of them). Here is one of our favorites from the 30+ attempts. Thank goodness for digital cameras and the delete button!

Happy December!

Season of Gratitude

Our family just celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, complete with family, friends, and delicious food. We are indeed grateful for the abundance with which we have been blessed. We're also grateful that we've enjoyed such a peaceful weekend compared to this time last year.

We thank Grandma Tsukamoto and the Wallis family, who joined us for our turkey dinner this year. We ate and ate and ate some more. Then we visited, played, and were enlightened by Mr. Bean's Holiday. Vive la France!

We thank the children for giving us all the joys (and challenges) that come from being parents.

We're thankful for hair! It appears it's time for all the girls to donate to Locks of Love. Meanwhile, Dallin is trying hard to grow some of his own. (Sorry Amelia, but we HAD to include this photo for your sake...)

We thank Prasad and Gaya for a delicious Sri Lankan dinner they brought over to our house Saturday night. And they let us keep all the leftovers! (Ian was the photographer for this photo, and Dallin was napping.)

And we thank our independent, energetic, and strong-willed cat girl for not cutting any more of her own hair and for not having any more accidents requiring stitches.

Epilogue: What happens when Dad puts children to bed