Vacation 2013: Day 1 and 2 - Drive Drive Drive

Back when we moved to Texas we had several guidelines for how to make the drive less traumatic for the kids. We'd once been on a 15 hour road trip to Arizona with some of Brandon's family.  Our niece who was 6 months old at the time screamed for hours once the sun went down.  It was pretty awful and we wanted to avoid that with our own kids.  So when we drove to Texas we decided we'd only drive during the day and we wouldn't drive more than 10 hours every day. 

We followed those guidelines pretty well until the Jeep broke down on the New Mexico/Texas border.  When Lindsey came to rescue us she drove almost 10 hours straight with her two little kids in the car.  Then we drove all through the night to make it to Fort Hood in time for Brandon to sign into his unit.  And then the next week we had to go back for the jeep.  On that trip we drove the 7 hours to the border, fixed the jeep, and then turned around and drove the 7 hours back.

From those experiences we learned that our kids are fine riding in the car through the night.  In fact it was a little bit easier because they just slept.  We also learned that long hours in the car aren't any worse than shorter trips.     

Veronica's blessing day and name

Veronica was blessed on Sunday in our ward in Texas.  We thought about waiting to have her blessed until we were in Utah, but that thought only lasted about two seconds.  We couldn't think of anywhere in Utah where it would make sense to have her blessed.  Brandon's parents have moved away from the ward he grew up in, and my parents are service missionaries in a Spanish Branch in Magna,  We still have a lot of friends in our branch, but it just seemed weird to invite ourselves and all our family back to the branch for a baby blessing. And we didn't want to have her blessed in someone's home.  

Ultimately we realized that we LIVE in Texas and so that is where Veronica should be blessed.  We have a lot of friends in our ward that were able to attend.  We also invited some of Brandon's co-workers and a lot of our neighbors - especially the ones who were involved with Veronica's birth.  We thought it was only fitting that they should attend her blessing.  And best of all, my sister Lindsey was able to drive up and be there too.  

Even though most of our family couldn't be there in person they were there in spirit.  Veronica wore the dress that my mom wore when she was christened in the Lutheran Church as a baby.  I liked thinking about my Grandma who picked out the dress.  My Aunt Diane also wore the dress.  All three of my sisters were blessed in that same dress.  (I was blessed in a dress that my Aunt Karen made for me.  That I haven't been able to find for a few years.)

Since the dress represented my family I asked Brandon's mom to send something to represent his side of the family.  She sent a flowery hair bow and a bracelet with a pendant that Veronica can also wear when she is baptized and married.       

Our neighbor Ange came to our Sacrament to see the blessing with her family.  We were so honored that they would come.  Linda, who was also involved with Veronica's birth, wanted to attend but she was sick and didn't want to spread any germs.

 Lindsey's husband John had to work so he couldn't come.  That meant we didn't have any "real" family members stand in the circle with Brandon during the blessing.  But we had some friends from the ward stand with him.

After sacrament meeting we stayed for the other two meetings.  Rocklond went to primary and Knoxx went to nursery with his cousins.  Lindsey and Viktoriia came to my Gospel Principles class that I teach every week.

 After church we went back to my house and had a little party.  Brandon and I had stayed up until 2:00 am (again!) cleaning the house and prepping the food. It was all worth it when Viktoriia walked into our house and said, "it's so clean!"

It really was super clean.  The girls and I had even washed the walls and polished the furniture during the week.  They had fun helping me get everything ready for "Vewonica's Party."

We served little make your own deli sandwiches, chips and dip, crackers and cheese, banana bread, strawberries, and pomegranate punch.  All the food was really yummy.

I'm so glad Lindsey was able to come.  She helped me out every step of the way while I was pregnant with Veronica.  It was nice to have her come to a party at my house instead of her coming to be the care taker.

The kids had fun eating the food.

Many people from the neighborhood came to our little party.  It was the second time we had a ton of people in our house because of Veronica.  Only this time they were all invited.  One of Ange's boys said, "last time I was in your house I was helping clean it after you had your baby."

Many people held Veronica.  She fell asleep in Ange's husband Jason's arms.

Lots of shoes by the door is always a sign of a good party.

The kids all had fun playing loudly in the toy room.  The new buckets were a big hit.  They are my new favorite thing because they hold so many toys.  The toy room cleans up super fast now because I just have to throw all the toys in the buckets.

The party was lots of fun.  Brandon and I have missed hosting parties.  And you Salt Lake City people shouldn't feel left out, because we are hosting a second party at my parent's stake center in Kearns.  If we are friends on facebook you should have an invite.  If not, e-mail me at 51centadventures at gmail dot com and I'll give you the info.

For those of you still reading, here is how we picked Veronica's name.  We wanted to continue our roman numeral trend.  So again we were thinking of names that started with C, D, I, L, M, V, and X.  Before we found out her gender I wanted the baby to be a boy. I thought it would be nice for Derrick to have a friend.  But all I could think of were girl names.  I really liked the name Melia, but we have a friend named Melia so it didn't fit the "we can't know anyone with the name" criteria.

When Brandon went to the JRTC in May I was re-reading Mistborn and Brandon was reading Hero of Ages.  The main character of those books in a girl named Vin.   We really like her character and decided that if our baby was a girl we would want to name her Vin.  But Vin Illguth sounded too much like "vanilla."  So we started looking for a name that Vin could be a nick name for.

One day Brandon and I were talking about the Veronica Mars movie that will come out next year.  I am a HUGE Veronica Mars fan.  Brandon said, "you know, I've always liked the name Veronica.  Even before I knew about the TV show."  I thought about it for a second and I knew that was the right name.

Her middle name was even easier.  I'd asked for suggestions for names on facebook.  My friend Joseph commented that IV was the Roman Numeral for 4 and this was our fourth child so we should name her Ivy.  I didn't like it as a first name, but I LOVED it as a middle name.  Ivy is short so it balanced out the 4 syllables and 8 letters in Veronica.  And it goes with the nature theme that the twins' middle names, Skye and Brooke, have.

So that's how our little Vin got her name.  Maybe she'll marry a man with a last name that starts with N and her initials really will be Vin one day.

Our Early Christmas Eve and Day

I know I've told this story before, but this is my blog so whatever.  

Back when Brandon and I were dating he made sure I would be okay with being a pilot's wife.  He told me that he would most likely be out flying on birthdays and holidays.  He asked me if I'd be okay with that.  My response was something like, "That's just fine with me.  I think Christmas Day is a let down anyway."

We always planned on telling our kids that we had a special deal with Santa Claus.  That since Daddy had to work on Christmas Santa would deliver our presents on a different day.  We even did that three years ago when we celebrated Christmas on the 27th of December.  

Well this year we decided that Santa's special deal applies to families who are traveling over the holidays. So we "signed up" to have Santa deliver presents to our house on Saturday the 14th.  That way we wouldn't have to worry about bringing all our presents with us to Utah and back.  Also we didn't want to miss out on any of our Christmas Day traditions when we were staying at someones house. 

We went to see some holiday lights for Our Christmas Eve activity.  We drove out to the Army owned Belton Lake Outdoor Recreation Area or BLORA where they have over 100 moving Christmas light displays.  This is a bad picture of the entrance. Our camera isn't that great at night photography.  

We didn't want the kids to fall asleep in the car on the way there so we turned on Polar Express on the DVD player.  Charlotte fell asleep anyway.  When we got to the BLORA I gave all the kids a candy cane to eat while looking at the lights.  Charlotte wouldn't wake up until I put the candy cane in her mouth.  She perked right up as soon as she tasted the sugar.

The lights were pretty cool to look at. They had a nativity scene, the 12 days of Christmas, and a lot of silly ones with Santa and his reindeer and elves.

This one was of a helicopter.

At the very end we went though a tunnel of dancing lights.  It reminded me of the trip to Toontown in "Who Framed Rodger Rabbit."  Brandon said it was like ludicrous speed in "Space Balls."

Here is a still picture of what it looked like.

Lydia fell asleep on the way home.  Derrick and Charlotte stayed awake.  I was worried that Charlotte wouldn't go to sleep because of her little nap.  I needed her to sleep so I could work on the doll house.  But my worries were in vain.  Charlotte told me she needed to go to sleep so Santa could come.  Then she went into her room and never came out again.  I wish that could happen every night.  

Brandon and I went right to work on the doll house.  He did some things with it and then started wrapping presents and getting the stockings ready.  He had so much fun making the stockings look cute.

Then we traded and I wrapped some presents while he finished up some things on the house.  It was around 2:00 am at this point and I was doing an even more terrible than usual job wrapping the presents.

Then we put everything out under the tree.  I can't believe how many presents we ended up getting for our kids.  A few weeks ago our neighbor Silvia brought over a HUGE bag of high quality toys for the kids.  She also gave us a three piece play couch.  We could have pulled of an awesome Christmas for the kids with just those toys.  But we also qualified for the on post Santa's Workshop that is available to children between the ages of 6 months and 12 years old.  We were able to pick out 2 toys, a book, a stocking stuffer, and a stuffed animal for each of our three older kids.  On top of all that we had some gifts that we bought, and the doll house.  Oh and our neighbor Ange brought a few presents for the kids too.

On Christmas morning our living room went from looking like this . . .  

 . . . to this

We had a lot of fun opening presents.  The girls loved ripping the wrapping paper.  Derrick, on the other hand, could have cared less.  He just played with his pink vacuum.  Then he got out the laundry basket and pushed that around.  I traded him the laundry basket for one of the new blue baskets that we bought as a present so we could use our laundry baskets for their intended purposes again.  He pushed that around for a while.  We'd give him his presents to open and he'd just put them in the basket and push it around.  It was so funny.

I was really excited for him to open up the present with a toy turtle in it.  Derrick loves to point to pictures of turtles.  I thought he would really like one as a present.  I honestly squealed for joy when I found one at the Santa's workshop. He was a little less enthusiastic about it, but later he gave it hugs.    

The girls liked all of their presents.  They each got a doll with long hair.  When they opened those presents they immediately ran into the other room and got their other dolls out so they all could play.

After all the presents were open we started making breakfast.  And by we I mean I fed Veronica while Brandon cooked. We had french toast, sausage, and orange juice this year.

And then we sat around and relaxed the rest of the day.  I told Charlotte that I was proud of her for going to bed and staying there the night before.  She told me, "train didn't come."  Which I guess meant the Polar Express train didn't come get her and take her to the North Pole.  I asked her if she was expecting it to come and she said, "No."

The kids played with all their toys. Here they are after they figured out the turtle could walk.

I love lazy Christmas Days.  The best part of the whole day was that Christmas wasn't really over.  We still have lots of fun things planned, but now we can just enjoy them without stressing out over presents.  For once I didn't feel like Christmas Day was a let down after a months of parties.  I think we might do this every year whether we are travelling or not.

Veronica got a baby doll.  It was in the bag of toys and we figured she'd probably want a doll of her own before next Christmas. She didn't really care about it, but the girls thought it was neat that she had one.  They kept giving it to her all day long.  Here she is flashing one of her beautiful smiles.

Charlotte has had some imaginary puppies for months.  We found one dog in the toy bag and one at Santa's Workshop.  So now she has some real puppies.  She was so excited to get them.  We named the Dotson Hudley after the dog on Curious George.  

Derrick finally noticed all the new toys and had fun playing with them.

We all go candy in our stockings so we binged on that for a while.

One of my presents was a map for our kitchen wall.  Brandon and I put that up along with some art work the girls made when our neighbor Ange babysat them while we went to Santa's Workshop to pick out the toys.

We could have gone to the City of Killeen's Christmas parade, but we were having too much fun doing nothing.  So we made pizza and then watched one of our new movies.

The kids went to bed at a decent time which was good because we had another big day to get ready for - Veronica's blessing day.

The doll house that I wish was my house

I have been BUSY lately.  One of the things I've been working on was to change this . . . 

 . . . into this.

Brandon and I originally wanted to make the girls a doll house from scratch.  Brandon had a lot of fun sketching out designs and figuring out the scale of everything.  But then we decided that it would be too much work for this year.  So we put the idea on the back burner.

Then one day I was playing with the girls in the toy room and we started pretending that the toy shelf shelves were different rooms for a doll house.  We built some furniture from mega blocks and random things we found in the room.  The girls had so much fun playing with the makeshift doll house that I decided Brandon and I could easily make one for them.

I figured they would like a doll house because they kept using the little play kitchen's oven and microwave as bedrooms.

First we had to put a back on the shelves.  The backing board and a two by four board were the only things we bought.  Everything else we already had.

We worked on the doll house after the kids went to bed each night.

Brandon cut the wood and assembled the furniture.

I worked on sewing some blankets and painting everything.

We celebrated Christmas on Saturday so we wouldn't have to bring a lot of presents with us to Utah.  On "Christmas Eve" we stayed up until after 2:00 am to finish the doll house (and wrap presents).  It was worth it though.  I'd been looking forward to working on the doll house all day.

This is the living room.  The "carpet" is some fabric I've had forever, but I've never known what to use it for. I cut it to fit and then glued it with my favorite glue, E6000 glue.  That stuff's not going anywhere. Brandon painted the clock, the picture, and the TV screen. I painted the fish on the TV.  I made the chair over 6 years ago as a final project for an interior design class.  I'm not too happy with the color of the room (I was trying to do a shade lighter than one of the colors in the rug, but it turned out too dark) or with the way the windows look.  I'm planning to make some curtains which should fix both problems.

I was so impressed by this family picture that Brandon painted.  He keeps surprising me with hidden talents.

This is one of the kids' rooms.  I love the bunk bed.  The wall is decorated with scrap book paper.  The rug is made from pipe cleaners that I braided and then sewed together.

This is the master bedroom.  The bed was supposed to fit in the room, but for some reason it doesn't.  I put pretty buttons on the wall as decorations.

I love how this scrapbook paper looks like fancy wallpaper.  I wanted to do something equally fancy for the floor, but I couldn't think of anything.  After I "finished" the house I remembered that I have some white fleece that would look great as carpet.  So I'll have to add that someday.

Another kids' room.  This room has scrapbook paper for the floor.

I don't know what I love the most about this room.  I love the cute little toilet that Brandon cut out with his hacksaw.  I love the mirror from an old compact case.  I love the tub and cabinets that I painted. And I love the "linoleum" that is really scrapbook paper.

This dining room is so perfect.  I want this room for real.  Maybe because it's made out of things from my real kitchen and dining room.  The floor is contact paper from my last apartment.  The chairs are spray painted with the same can that I used to make the color accents in my kitchen.  The table is just painted with toll paint, but I love it so much I want to get a black table when we inevitably upgrade.  I'm also in love with the shape of the table and chairs.  There's something very modern about them.  

Brandon screwed all the furniture - except the couch and beds - to the floor.  That way they wont get broken or lost.  Later, Charlotte and Lydia were moving chairs around our real kitchen and dining room Brandon looked at me and asked, "can I screw our real furniture to the floor?"

This kitchen is so cute I almost can't stand it.  I assumed that Brandon would want to paint the cupboards and everything.  But he put me in charge.  I was intimidated at first, but I tried my best, and did really well if I do say so myself.  It's amazing to me how just a few lines can suggest what the object is supposed to be.  Everything is painted except the burners on the stove.  I used buttons for those.  Brandon meticulously painted the white squares onto the black floor.

Here's a closer view of the kitchen because it's so dang cute!

The girls LOVED the doll house.  They started playing with it right away.

I had such a good time doing this project with Brandon.  It's been a long time since we were able to put our heads together on a project like this.  I'm glad to see we haven't lost our touch.