Cookie Contractors

Joseph doesn't like gingerbread. Nope, not even your family's secret recipe that has been passed down for generations. Not your grandma's famous recipe that even people who don't like gingerbread like. I have never found a gingerbread that he has liked. He does, on the other hand, love sugar cookies. Who doesn't, really? So his solution to the gingerbread dilemma is to make sugar cookie houses at Christmas. And they really are yummy. Because sugar cookies are more crumbly than gingerbread, we always keep it very simple. The kids had lots of fun decorating.

A few Caleb tantrums later...

... we have the finished product! Complete with fishpond and a skeleton Santa (leftover Halloween candy).
I thought Joseph and the kids did a fantastic job! I didn't help. I was somewhere else at the time, probably wasting time on the internet or maybe napping.

And, here they are, having a great time devouring all their hard work, something that wouldn't have happened if we had used gingerbread.

Since we've been in Utah...

... we have visited Temple Square.
It was very cold. Joseph and I switched coats so I could wear the Baby Bjorn inside his big coat. My coat didn't work so well for him, but he was easy for me to find in the crowds! Emily cried the whole time because she hates being cold. I thought she fit in well with this Asian nativity though. It was so nice to visit Temple Square and see all the beautiful lights. That is definitely something I have missed since moving to Austin.


... a hand-made dragon has attacked a 1000-piece puzzle of the Taj Mahal.
Joseph and I have always really enjoyed doing puzzles together. We have never attempted a 3-d one before, but it wasn't as difficult as we were afraid it would be. Grandma spent many hours sewing this impressive dragon for one of the grandkids. Between the puzzle and the dragon, this photograph represents many hours of work.


... Elinor has been dressed up and cooed over as the Little Mermaid.
Joseph really hates the Little Mermaid movie. He figures it has little good to offer our children - scantily clad mermaids and a dangerous message: disobey your father (because at 16 you know better than him) and do what you want because in the end everything will work out for you. Its only redeeming feature is the music.


... Caleb has discovered and embraced his inner cowboy.

... Emily and Elinor have discovered and embraced their inner Cooperness.
What better way to spend time as a family than playing Rampage together? Destroying buildings and devouring pedestrians has always fostered family togetherness in my experience.


... Elinor has decided that she wants to be a smiley, talky baby.
She has so much to say. We love it.


... Caleb has helped out a lot with shoveling snow.
See? He's cleared the whole yard of snow! And he's always happy to help.


... We've had a winter cookout in the freezing cold.
Elinor stayed toasty warm in this snow suit I found for her (for $8!!). The kids had a blast playing in the snow and mud while I yelled at them to stay clean. Emily learned that fires are good for warming hands that have been frozen by playing in snow without mittens. After we went inside Emily could not stop gushing about how much she loves to have a fire and eat outside at Grandma's house.


...We have preserved our bedtime ritual of singing songs together.
Emily and Caleb will know all the songs when they move up into Primary! We are trying to foster a love of music in these guys. I think it is working.

Six Years!

It was our anniversary today. I cannot believe we've been married for six whole years!
It ended up being a pretty busy day. We left the house at 6:30 to go to the temple first (gotta take advantage of close temples in Utah!), then, after grabbing a quick bite to eat, we went snowshoeing around 10 am. We love having family close by to take care of the kids!
Snowshoeing was really fun, especially since it is something we can't do in Austin. It was so nice to spend some time alone with Joseph without worrying about bundling the kids up and keeping them fed and happy.
Joseph is so fun to be with. He is creative and spontaneous and is always up for trying something new. I suggested hiking to a hill and then turning back, and he immediately suggest climbing up the hill to slide down before heading back. I don't know how I am so much of a boring grown-up that I didn't see that as the obvious thing to do as well! It is nice to have someone to keep me from being too serious.

After snowshoeing we put the kids in bed for their nap. I visited some friends from high school while Joseph started packing to go home. Then we went out to dinner together. We were planning to go see Tron afterward, but we were so wiped out we just stayed home. It was a fun day though. I love being reminded of how lucky I am to have married Joseph.

Snow Day!

We didn't have a super white Christmas in Utah, but we did get a good snowfall a couple of days before. The Cooper family declared an official snowday and we all bundled up to go outside and play. It was Caleb's first experience with deep snow and he was pretty overwhelmed. Maybe because it was up to his thighs and he couldn't walk. Or maybe because he's a sissy Texan and can't handle cold weather.
The first project to get started was a sled slope for the kids. It worked out pretty well, although Caleb wasn't sure he liked it.
He was pretty unsure about the snow all around.

He just wanted to show it who was boss and use that power to muscle it around.

Emily loved it though! And she loved being able to dress up in pink snow gear. Like a princess.

The next big project was a giant snowman. I rolled the head, Joseph and one of his brothers rolled the two bigger balls.
We all worked on it a little.

The snowman was a happy fellow. Joseph spent a lot of quality time with him. They had an especially good relationship.

We all loved that guy.

A winter trip

So, we decided to drive to Utah this year. Airplane tickets are just too expensive and we can never justify paying for tickets for babies when they are offered for free, so we would have been flying with two lap children and one toddler in her own seat. Sounds pretty nightmarish to me. I guess driving for 20 hours with three kids three and under sounds nightmarish as well, but that is the option we went with.
It was an adventure, let me tell you. We left a little late in the day, so were planning to stop for the night in Albuquerque. Unfortunately, snow got heavy about thirty miles before we got there, so we decided to find a hotel room in Moriarty, New Mexico. Even more unfortunately, we saw the last rooms being given away at the three hotels we stopped at. We were told ahead of time that the other hotels were already full. No room at the inn for us, eh? The eastbound interstate was closed and we worried that westbound would close soon. We had seen several flipped cars and jack-knifed semi trucks already along the road and were nervous to continue. However, Joseph and I talked over our options and decided to keep driving. So, yes, we drove from Austin to Utah nonstop. And through some pretty terrible weather, at that. Curse you, Moriarty!

And, um, Merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you all had a fun-filled day!

I should never name blog posts...

... because I never have cohesive, well thought-out blog entries.
Anyways, let's get to it!

I think I might starve my kids. The other day when I finally got lunch on the table, this is how Caleb felt he had to eat it:
Yes, he is holding half a bagel and a chicken nugget in one hand and a banana in the other. And eating all three at the same time.

You would never guess he and Emily are related, based on their eating habits. (That's probably a difficult way to hypothesize family relations anyway, but even more so with these guys!) Emily mostly survives on a liquid diet of milk, milk, milk, a little water when I say no more milk, and then some more milk. Here we forced her to take a bit of delicious tortellini. She held it in her mouth through the rest of dinner, through a car ride, and into the family activity for the night. Disgusting! Then Joseph picked her up and wouldn't let her play until she swallowed it.
You can see it in her cheeks here.

The family activity for that night was a live nativity put on by a nearby church. They had baby animals in a petting zoo for the kids and then a musical nativity play, in which the characters rode on live donkeys and camels. Mary almost fell off and had to abandon ship (donkey) during our play, and one of the camels didn't want to kneel down so a wise man ended up having to jump. Other than that, the animals were cooperative.

This picture's a little fuzzy, but it was the best one I could find. Our kids are super bundled up because I thought that the 10th of December would offer us up some cooler weather. They were both pretty sweaty so we ended up stripping the coats off and they were happy and comfortable in their long-sleeved shirts. Note the guy in the background wearing a sleeveless shirt. Crazy Austin weather.

Here's an update on the Elinor size. She's pretty much huge and looks like a chubby baby Emily clone with spiky hair. We love this little girlie!

Another favorite quote of the day

Emily: "Daddy's Belle and you're Chip and I'm that one that doesn't have a face. Is that okay?"

And yes, I am feeding these into Blogger as they are happening (while Emily is "napping").

Favorite quote of the day

Emily: "I taked a nap while I was awake, Mom! Was it long enough?"

Musings

I decided to go off chocolate for the month of November to see if it made a difference in Elinor's temperament. But also to see if it would make a difference in the excessive maternal fat stores my body seems to think are beneficial.
I braced myself for a bitter battle. I really thought it would kill me. But you know what? No cravings, no slip-ups, no problem. I am proud to report that I made it through the entire month of November without eating any chocolate. And I think it did help Elinor. And probably me too. Should I try for December now?

While my mom was here she took the kids to Toys R Us and let them pick a toy each. Caleb chose a broom. I thought this was nice because it was cheap and would keep him from hassling me for the broom when I'm sweeping. Well, he lost broom privileges about a day after he gained them. The reasons for his desiring a broom became all too clear after several incidents involving him, the broom, a crying Emily, and a time-out in the corner.

A couple of days ago it was Sunday and we went to church. Church is hard for us. Even harder when Elinor has a massive blowout while she's nursing so she not only soils her own dress, but my light-colored shirt as well. I came prepared with a change for her, but I had nothing for myself. Maybe I should start keeping a back-up outfit in the car. So for the rest of church I refused all offers to hold the baby and kept her firmly positioned right over the mustard colored stains adorning my clothing. When it came time for choir I hid myself behind the piano before handing the baby off. Quite an embarrassing ordeal, I must say. But you mothers out there understand, right?

Grandma's Visit

We were lucky enough to have my mom visit from New York last week. She had a lot of trouble with her flights being canceled or delayed which shortened the trip by about a day, but we still had fun while she was here.
We spent a morning at the children's museum. The kids loved that.


Then we walked to Whole Foods for some lunch. This was quite a challenge since we only had a single stroller. Emily ended up holding Caleb on her lap while my mom pushed and I carried Elinor in the baby carrier.
Caleb would not let go of that apple juice bottle. I'm pretty sure he had it in his mouth for 10 minutes straight.
We spent a lot of time shopping and eating -- good times for all!
Thanks for visiting, Mum!

Sort of Sinister

So, speaking of black, the other day I was making playdough for the kids and Emily requested black. Our black food coloring is a paste instead of a liquid and is pretty old. As I was adding it to the dough it wasn't mixing in very well. I thought this was because it was so old so I kept adding more... and more... and more. Then, when I took it out of the pan to knead it, it did mix in. My hands were purple and green for a couple of days after that and really ugly. But look at this awesome, very very black playdough! I never had black playdough when I was a kid, but if I did, I would have wanted it to be like this! It's like an absence of color and matter here on our table. We've got our own black hole!

Caleb likes happier, sunny colors. He chose yellow.

There's something sinister about this inky black substance.


And, here's the follow-up of random day to day pictures.

Elinor's hair is still standing up as tall and proud as ever!
She's starting to worry about how this will affect her future,
as you can tell by the look on her face.

Emily has been napping on the couch since she and Caleb don't nap well in the same room.
When she is sleeping, this little boy really misses his playmate.
Here he has clambered up on the couch to be near his big sis.

Elinor's baby gym is wholesome entertainment for all three kids!
This kept them occupied while Joseph and I worked on dinner.