Helping Out

Look how helpful my Emily is! I am so glad I won't have to go through and sort and shelve all these books that she pulled out one at a time to throw on the floor (while asking Caleb, "Is THIS one your favorite?").
Aww, rats.

Still Learning to Walk

Both-hands-in-your-pockets weather is a dangerous time for young kids.

It was a pretty hard fall - she cut up her gum pretty good too and complained that her teeth hurt, but I think they are okay.

The drive home

The drive home from Utah was a little wild. Overall, the experience was twenty times better than the drive to Utah, but there were some hiccups. First off, we had to leave a couple of days later than planned because of a crazy storm. We still packed everything up the night before, got up early the day of, but then stayed in Utah after Joseph came back in from attempting to shovel the driveway only to find that it was solid ice. We took advantage of the few extra days to go to Deseret Book and Seagull Book since we don't have those in Austin, and driving around town was a crazy experience. It was sort of like driving on an ice skating rink. A little Zamboni work and we probably could have ice skated to the store with less trouble than we had driving. We discovered, upon arriving, that many stores were closed for the weather anyway.
We did finally leave town on the 31st of January. Roads were still pretty scary - it had been a wet slushy snow at first, followed by an immediate freeze that lasted several days - and we didn't have chains. Luckily we got through Utah and frozen, miserable Colorado, and it was smooth sailing from there on out. We stopped in Albuquerque where we had a hotel reservation so as to avoid any possible mishap in that area again. Since we booked ahead of time we got a great deal on a nice room. The kids had a blast running around and stretching their legs and were so cute sleeping in that bed together. We set up Elinor's pack-n-play in the closet.



Joseph and I brought a Martinelli with us to toast the new year (at 10:30 pm). Good times. :)

More driving the next day, through much milder weather. It was sort of fun to cart 6 inches of snow on the roof of our car through New Mexico and a lot of Texas. We got a few funny looks from other travelers.
Here are some of the windmills we passed that I thought were really neat. You can sort of see them.

Dinner break at Taco Bell.
Overall, a pretty fun family trip. I wouldn't want to do it every day though.

Nap Time

Caleb is a bad sleeper. Always has been, and I suspect he always will be. Today we got frustrated enough that we pulled Caleb out of his bedroom and tied him up on the couch.
He seemed confused but oddly resigned to this consequence.
A few minutes later:
Why didn't we think of this ages ago?

Modern Art and Serious Eating

It all started with a duck.

A little more work,

and a little more time,

equals a modern art table cloth, courtesy of the kiddos.

Here are the artists, in all their cow-kid glory.

Hard work means hard eating. One little cowboy *really* likes apples. It was a big apple too, now all gone, core and all.

New Family Rule...

... no painting on the baby.

Christmas catch up

I've blogged a lot since Christmas, but I have not yet recorded how the big day actually turned out.
While we were in Utah, I was lucky enough (through some pushing and planning by my mother) to meet with and hang out with my three sisters. Brother is in Arizona or we would have done some stuff with him too. We were able to go out to dinner at a pretty delicious but really weird Thai restaurant - they forgot to give us plates. Who does that? My mom also sent some Barnes and Noble money for us to take and spend. You know how I love books! Anyway, my sister Michelle brought some presents for the kids and wanted to be there when they opened it, so we had a little pre-Christmas celebration with my sisters. The kids were so excited. Emily didn't want to wake up at first, even after we picked her up, told her there were presents, showed her the presents, and were speaking loudly and closely at her. Then Joseph took her outside into the brisk (temps in the teens) winter weather and she was awake in an instant. And she was enthusiastic about the present opening prospects.
Here is a picture of everyone in the midst of the chaos. (For you, Mum!)
Sarah's got Elinor and Steph's that black smudge in the back on the bed.

Another pretty much identical picture:
Steph's still a black smudge and Caleb has disappeared.

And here they are with joyous and excited faces.
Hmm. I wonder where Emily came up with the idea of being a princess when she grows up?

The real Christmas started out slowly. The kids were up before seven, but no one else was. So Joseph and I got them dressed, gave them milk, fed them breakfast, read scriptures... pretty much killed as much time as we could. Joseph put Elinor in a stocking for some Anne Geddes style pictures, minus the nakedness, contentedness of the baby, and the fancy camera.
Yeah, Elinor didn't like that set-up so much.

Emily, with her ever-present crown and earrings, did though. She told me she would teach Elinor to be a princess too when she gets older. It looks like Elinor is studying Emily and her princess-ness on her own though.

Finally the rest of the household started to rouse, so we opened stockings.
Elinor had been freed from her baby trap by this point. And then it was time to head off to my parents' house. Yeah, the kids had been up for a couple of hours by this point, but no present opening had taken place yet.

So, here we all are at my parents' place. I love these pictures with the twinkling Christmas tree and the excited little kids.


After breakfast with my parents we headed back to Joseph's mom's house for presents. It was so fun to see the kids so excited about what they received!

It was sort of exhausting though. Caleb was feeling it.
We had a Christmas party with my parents that evening, and then our little family presents in Austin when we got back home, but I think I have told enough of our Christmas story for now. It was a fun time. We love being able to spend holidays with family! What a great trip!

Conversations with a three-year-old

Emily: Mama, would you like some food?
Me: Sure, as long as it's yummy!
Emily: Okay. Let's see... a little bit of baby and a little bit of rock and a little bit of dragon and a little bit of Christmas tree and a little bit of carrot.
Me: Is that my food?
Emily: Yes. Let's mix it up...

***
Discussing career options in the bathtub -
Me: Emily, what do you think you'd like to be when you get older?
Emily: Um, I don't know.
Me: You could be a chef or a doctor or a teacher...
Emily: ... or a princess!
Me: Or a firefighter or a mommy...
Emily: ... or a princess!
Me: Uh, okay. Caleb, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Caleb: grunt
Me: How about a teacher or a police man...
Emily: ... or a duck...
Me: ... or an author or a scientist...
Emily: ... or Santa Claus!
Caleb: Yeah!!
Emily: You want to be Santa Claus?
Caleb: Yeah!!
Me: I guess it's settled then.

I'm glad my kids aim high. :)

Nursery Nativities

A difference between my Emily and my Caleb:


I guess Caleb got a little hungry during nursery. And that purple wise man got confused and is following the wrong star.

Elinor's Blessing

While we were in Utah we were able to bless baby Elinor. We loved being able to do this with so many members of our family present. I thought Elinor looked darling in her little blessing dress.

Emily and Caleb came to offer their congratulations/words of advice.

This family picture came about because I was trying to take a picture of Joseph and Elinor and Emily kept jumping in at the last minute and ruining the picture. Finally I let her stay and called Caleb over too and this is what we got.

One of the previous attempts: