Pre-Christmas catch up

Today is kind of the last lazy day of we have left for the year.  In the next week and a half we will celebrate Christmas, bless Veronica in church, host a party for her at our house, and pack up to visit Salt Lake.  Things will be busy, busy, busy!

I have a bunch of pictures and random things from the last 6 weeks that I want to blog about.  I figured I better post them all today before we start doing all the big Christmasy things.  So sit back and enjoy the recap.

Our tree has been up since the beginning of November.  It's been kind of weird to have it up that long - especially since the leaves on the trees outside didn't really change colors until December - but it's also been fun.  The kids love it. 

We don't have a lot of ornaments on the tree because I don't want the kids to break them. So we've been making kid appropriate decorations for the tree.  Here are some little trees we made.

We've had to go to the hospital twice for some things.  One time was for a follow up audiology appointment for Veronica.  (Silly girl couldn't pass her hearing test when she was a newborn because her ears were too gunky) Its kind of a long walk from the parking lot to the doors so I put Veronica and Derrick into the double stroller and then had the girls hold on to the handles.  We got a lot of stares, but it worked really well.

Here are Brandon and the kids in front of the hospital.

Brandon took the Honda to get the alignment fixed.  The girls wanted to go with him so he took them along.  They dropped the Honda off and then walked over to Hobby Lobby and explored the ENTIRE store together.  He bought them each a little bird house for a dollar.  The girls were so excited to get those bird houses.  We painted them as our project a few days later.  

Here is a random picture of Veronica.  She's such a cutie! (Oh and she can hear just fine.  She passed that follow up hearing test right away.)

I volunteered to be in a small choir for a Christmas Concert at church.  We sang With Wondering Awe.  When I volunteered I thought, "how hard can it be, its just a Christmas hymn."  But when I saw the arrangement I realized I was in a little over my head.  There were ahhhs and notes higher than I usually sing.  Add that to the fact that I can't read treble clef (I played the string bass so I know bass clef really well) and I had to work hard to learn my part.  Here I am trying to learn the ahhs part.  The concert went really well.  I hope to get around to writing a separate post about it later.      

Charlotte snuck out of her room and fell asleep like this in the toy room one night.  I love how she first lined up all the links on the window seat.

I got this idea from Pinterest. I put our graduation tassels into clear ornaments.   

We made "baby turkeys" at story time at the library.  The girls insisted that we hang them up in the kitchen with our big turkey that has been up all year.

Our Christmas cards and newsletter are finally all done.

One evening I lay down to take a nap when Brandon came home from work.  I woke up to a silent house.  EVERYONE was napping.  Here's how I found Lydia.

I couldn't find Charlotte at first.  I was about to start panicking when I finally found her in my closet.

Even Brandon was asleep.  It's like a sleeping spell had been cast on the house.

Brandon moved the table into the living room one Saturday so he could mop the dinning room really well.  The kids couldn't resist it.

They all would jump from the table onto the couch.  Derrick is normally cautious about things like this, but even he joined in on the jumping.  You should have seen the mischievous look he got in his eyes the first time he saw Charlotte jump.

Brandon had to get an official photo taken for his Warrant Officer application packet.  There is about a two month waiting list to be able to get one of these photos done.  But Brandon's commander gave him a letter that let him schedule one right away.  It was another of the many small miracles we've had in relation to his application lately.  

When Brandon came out in his ASU's Lydia said, "You look like a pilot!"  

It happened to be another really cold and rainy day so Brandon wore his overcoat for the first time.  I teased him and said it seemed like I had a member of the gestapo in my house.

The girls like to use our shoes as cars.  Here they are driving their blocks around.

And here they are playing in a box.  For some reason we are still planning on giving them real toys for Christmas.

Lately I've started doing dishes by hand.  Somehow it's just easier that way right now.  Charlotte and Lydia love to help.  Sometimes they even demand that I leave them alone.  My evil plan is working.

The weather here was gorgeous on Tuesday and Wednesday.  The girls went out to watch the garbage truck go by and ended up chasing butterflies in our front yard.

It was 80 degrees outside and it was a shame to go back inside so we ended up weeding the flowerbed and dividing up the irises.

We found worms and the girls held them for the first time.  We also saw a little lizard.  We even found a marble and a little plastic dog buried in the dirt.

Derrick was napping pretty much the whole time.  Veronica spent a lot of time outside in her chair.

Here's what the flower bed looked like when we were done.

And then the weather swung the other way and dropped below freezing.  We have ice on our lawn that hasn't melted in two days.

Here's Lydia showing her "clapping hangers" to Veronica.

Veronica loves here chair, but she also loves to stretch out on the carpet.

Brandon and I are working on converting the toy room shelves into a doll house.  I'll do a whole post on it once it's done.

The girls and I tried out that salt dough ornament recipe that everyone keeps pinning on pinterest.

The picture in the pin has a handprint painted to look like Santa.  We made ours into snowmen.

The girls loved painting them.

Brandon made chocolate chip and candy cane cookies for our movie night treat.

We had movie night with our neighbors who we were babysitting.  Our kids love playing with them.  

I put an ornament into the girls' stockings every day.  Once they change into underwear for the day they can get their stocking down and pull out their ornament.  Then we put the ornament up on the wall.  This has been a really fun tradition for us.

Okay I think I'm caught up.  And just in time too.  We're going to do our "Christmas Under the Tree" traditions tonight.

Love Story: Part Four - December

Brandon and I were set up on a blind date at the beginning of September of 2006.  He kissed me three weeks later, but then told me he wasn't interested in a romantic relationship.  We spent all of October getting to know each other as friends.  He kissed me again at the beginning of November.  By the end of the month we were an official couple.  

Brandon knew that I wanted to marry him, but he wasn't ready for that kind of commitment yet.  And neither was I really.  I was content to enjoy life as his girlfriend for a while.  

I'd stopped writing in my journal after our "second first kiss" so I don't have a good record of what we did every day in December.  I did retroactively fill in a calender with important relationship milestones so at least I have something to jog my memory.  

That calender is pretty blank for the first week of December.  I'm sure we spent most of our time doing homework together.  The semester was winding down and there were papers and projects to complete.  

We went to Salt Lake for the weekend and I tagged along to his extended family Christmas Party.  I worried that it would be awkward to be introduced as "Brandon's Girlfriend" but everyone was really nice. 

The next week was finals week.  Every morning Brandon and I met up at his apartment and then walked up the steep hill on 700 North to get to campus.  We'd eat the free breakfast that the LDS institute provided during finals week.  Then we'd split up and go take tests or study.  I also worked a few hours at my job.  At the end of the day we'd meet back up at Brandon's apartment.  

Finals week was always a weird week for me.  On the one hand it was extremely stressful because of all the tests.  But on the other hand it was really fun because the regular class schedule was over.  Aside from worrying about our respective tests, Brandon and I had the most free time we'd had all semester.    

One night we used our new-found free time to try to make pine needle air freshener out of real pine needles.  We chopped up pine needles that we found outside and then boiled them.  Then we strained out the water from the needles using coffee filters that we bought for the project.  Brandon put the water into an old hairspray bottle that he just happened to have.  The spray really did smell like pine needles, but the scent didn't last very long.     

As far as I remember we both passed all of our classes that semester.  I remember the look on Brandon's face when he found out he'd passed his College Algebra class.  It was the only college math class that he passed on the first try.  (Though he'd always get an A on the second - or third - tries.)

At the end of the week we celebrated the end of school by decorating Brandon's apartment for Christmas.  I wanted to buy a Christmas tree, but I didn't want to set it up at my apartment.  I'd asked Brandon if I could set it up at his apartment.  He said yes and bought the lights.  After Christmas when we took the tree down we put the tree in his closet.  I told him, "remember, if we break up it's my tree."  And he said, "well they are my lights."  (And we remind each other of that every year.)

I also bought some sparkly ball shaped ornaments because I'd always wanted to decorate a tree with fancy balls.  As a final touch we cut snow flakes out of the coffee filters.  Decorating a tree together was more than just something fun to do.  In a way it was a symbol of our growing relationship.  We were starting our own holiday traditions.

The Saturday after finals week we went on a date to Ogden Utah.  My brother Billy had a high school symphony concert at Weber State University.  We planned to do things in Ogden during the day and then see the concert that night.  We both knew this was kind of an important day.  We'd spent hours and hours together every day the past week.  If we could make it through an all day date together without getting sick of each other then we'd know that we had a pretty good relationship going.

We started out the day at the Ogden Train Museum.  I've always kind of had a thing for trains.  When I was in high school I'd walk to and from school via an illegal short cut on a train bridge.  I loved the view from the train tracks.  Some days I'd hear the train whistle and so I wouldn't get on the tracks.  I'd watch the powerful train go by from the sidewalk that was about 15 feet below the tracks.  Once I was driving in the evening and I had to stop for a train at another part of the tracks.  It was dark and so the train had it's light on.  I was impressed by that bright light and the big train chugging by right in front of my car.  I couldn't believe how magnificent the train looked.  It made me feel small.    

Brandon didn't know I liked trains, but he knew it was a fun museum.  We played around on the large trains outside the old train station and then we went inside to see the model trains.  I was enchanted by the little model train that chugged it's way through the different displays.  I was like a little kid as I followed the train around.  Brandon thought my enthusiasm was cute.

After we finished up at the museum we drove to a park and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in Brandon's car.  This was the first of many times we would save money by bringing our dinner from home instead of eating out at a restaurant.

Then we drove over to Weber State University and met up with my parents, my sister Lindsey, and her new boyfriend John.  Lindsey and John had met on the 11th of November.  They'd recently become a couple.  My parents took this picture of the four of us.     

The concert was great (Billy's concerts are always great), but even better was the fact that Brandon and I weren't sick of each other yet.  In fact as we got back in the car to drive back to Logan Brandon thought of something we could do to extend our time in Ogden.  He drove to downtown Ogden and parked the car.  Then we walked to the Christmas Village.  I never even knew about the village.  I was so impressed by all the cute little displays.  Once again I was like a little kid running around and getting excited.

Our relationship had survived a week of constant togetherness and so we continued to spend as much time together as possible.  School was over so all we had to worry about was work.  I worked 20 hours a week as an office assistant and Brandon worked putting together bikes for Smith's MarketPlace.  When we weren't working we'd relax by watching our favorite TV shows on DVD.  I was introducing Brandon to Veronica Mars and he was acquainting me with MacGyver.

On Thursday the 21st, Brandon was in charge of an activity at the church.  We planned to leave for Salt Lake as soon as the activity was over.  Brandon set up a projector and we watched Muppet Christmas Carol.  We turned out to be some of the only people there.  Most everyone else had already skipped town and gone home for the holidays.

We continued to see each other a lot when we were in Salt Lake.  Our parent's homes were only about 15 minutes away from each other so it was easy to get together.  We went Christmas shopping together some days.  Brandon invited me to his family's Christmas Eve party.  I brought my brother Billy and sister Emily along with me.  We had fun playing Christmas songs on the chimes.  Billy impressed everyone by being able to play three chimes and still keep up.

I felt awkward staying the whole time at the "family" party so I left early before the traditional dancing around the Christmas tree.

Brandon and I got together the next day and exchanged gifts.  He'd bought me slippers with rubber soles so I could wear them when he walked me home from his apartment every night.  I bought him a page a day Far Side Calender.

The days after Christmas were spent seeing different things in the Salt Lake area.  One day we went to the Clark Planetarium.  Another day we went to see the lights at Temple Square.  We went to Dee's and ate with Brandon's brother Bryan and his friend Jake.  (Apparently that was their hang out in high school.)

Towards the end of the month we went on a walk at the Jordan Parkway.  We started talking about our thoughts on marriage.  We'd talked about it before, but this time it seemed more serious.  I told Brandon that I'd like to get married in May or June.  He said that he didn't want to get married until September.  I was a little crushed that he still thought we needed to wait 9 more months before getting married.  I remember getting back into his car and wondering if he would ever want to commit to anything.

On New Years Eve we spent the evening watching movies at his parent's house.  After midnight we got into his car to take me home.  Brandon's car had "cancer of the electrical system."  Sometimes it wouldn't start and we'd have to wait 5 minutes before trying to start it again (this was always a great opportunity to makeout.)  The car didn't start and so we sat and talked.  Brandon asked me, "what should our goal be for the New Year?"  I replied with, "to get married."  And he said something like, "we'll see."

Click here to find out what happened next.

Camping in November

When Lindsey and I started making plans for our Thanksgiving get together she suggested we go camping.  That sounded really fun to me because it meant the kids could run wild outside.  

The girls were excited about the idea and kept asking me when we were going to go camping.  When I finally got the camping equipment out they played with one of our camping mats for days. 

We spent Thanksgiving night at Lindsey's house.  That was good because Brandon ended up getting really sick and got to experience life as a bulimic for a few hours.  I went to a CVS pharmacy and picked up some pepto-bismal for him.  The regular size was all sold out.  I guess he wasn't the only one with stomach trouble.

The morning of Black Friday Lindsey took Viktoriia to some of the stores so she could see how crazy Americans are about sales.  I stayed home with the kids and we all watched Dumbo.  Charlotte found this little stuffed animal of Dumbo and played with him and acted out scenes from the movie while it was playing.  Here he is visiting his mommy in the cage.

Brandon was feeling better and helped out with the kids.

Here's Veronica asleep on the floor.  I'm such a great mom.

Viktoriia finished up shopping and Lindsey picked her up.  We had a quick lunch of leftovers and then finished packing up and headed out on the camping trip part of our weekend.

We'd talked about camping on the beach in Galveston, but all the camp sites were gone by the time we came up with that idea.  Instead Lindsey booked us two sites at Lake Sommerville which is about an hour away from Lindsey's house and 2 hours away from mine.  Each site only cost $10 which was an amazing deal.  They were large and pretty much right by the water.  Lindsey said it was better than what Galveston would have been like.

Veronica hung out on the picnic blanket while we set up the tent.

All the kids ran around between the two campsites.  There was a Hispanic family that was leaving as we set up.  One lady said, "muchos ninos."

We let Lindsey borrow our little so they would have enough room for all 5 members of her family.

The kids all had fun being outside.

 Derrick was really happy to wander around.  He followed me back and forth as I brought things from the car to the tent.

 Lydia started collecting leaves, acorns, and rocks.  She'd make me put them in my pocket.

 Dinner was hamburgers and hot dogs.  We didn't have any hamburger buns.  FYI it's hard to plan for a camping trip right after Thanksgiving.  It's hard to figure out what food you'll need.  And Black Friday makes it difficult to just run to the store to pick up anything you forgot.

I love how similar Derrick and Knoxx look.  It's like having twins without the constant stress.

They even shared drinks the way Charlotte and Lydia used to.

We had worried that it would be really cold.  Monday the weather had been so cold and rainy that early morning PT training was cancelled at Fort Hood.  Brandon's unit and most other units were told not to report to work until 11:00 am.  Lindsey had spent two very cold days sightseeing in San Antonio with her kids and Viktoriia.    But every day it got a little warmer and a little warmer.  So by the time we went camping the weather was pretty perfect. As you can see we are all in short sleeves in this picture.    

Duck hunting season is going on right now.  The hunters can shoot at dusk and dawn.  We could hear lots of gun shots.  Lots of ducks kept swimming up to the beach by where we were because hunting wasn't allowed near the camp sites.  The girls and I went to see them.

Our cooler was full of left over Thanksgiving food to take home.  The pecan pie got a little squished so Brandon and I decided that we had to eat it.

 Lindsey wanted a picture of us together.  The night before we'd skyped with my parents.  I'd remarked that it was so cool that we could be sitting on the couch together and talking with my parents.  I'm so glad that we live close to each other right now.

The girls and I went on a long walk to the bathrooms.  The girls have been doing a really good job of potty training. I was amazed at how well they kept it up while we were at Lindsey's house.  But I knew they weren't ready to go diaper-less while camping.  So I put them in pull ups.  We went up to the bathroom to change them into diapers for the night.  We watched some people play volley ball while the sun set.

Lindsey took this picture of Brandon and Derrick watching the sunset.  

The bathrooms were nice and heated.  When we got done in there I saw Brandon and Derrick on the lake shore so we walked over to meet up with them.  The lake water was amazing.  It was so still.  It looked just like a sheet of glass and reflected the sky perfectly.

Somehow I promised Charlotte that we would go to a beach after Veronica was born.  (I pretty much used the fact that I was pregnant as an excuse to not do anything the last few weeks.  Once Veronica was born Charlotte started reminding me of all the things I could do now that "you's not have a baby in you's tummy.")  Charlotte and Lydia were so happy to finally be at a beach.  They kept quoting lines from a little book we have about a girl who goes to a beach.  They'd say, "handfulls of soft yellow sand" and "big smooth stones."

Here is a video of the kids throwing rocks.  Notice how still the water is.

Here are some ripples on the water.

We walked back up to the picnic area and discovered that everyone - including Veronica had disappeared.  I thought Brandon had been in charge of her and he'd thought she was with me.  Fortunately, Lindsey had her.

Our kids were all crying so even though it was only 6:00 we decided it was time for bed.  This was the part about November camping that I had been dreading.  I was worried about what we would do with the kids in a tent until they fall asleep.  We ended up singing Christmas songs and telling stories about Christmas's when we were little.  It took a LOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG time but eventually all 4 kids were asleep.

Throughout the night Derrick and Veronica joined Brandon and me in bed.  I had a little difficulty figuring out how to nurse Veronica while laying down.  I had a hard time feeling like she was warm enough and getting enough fresh air.  But eventually I figured something out and was able to sleep.  Brandon wasn't so lucky.  He said, "Derrick isn't exactly a soft teddy bear. He's a wiggly, muscular boy."

But as always, "joy cometh in the morning."  I took this picture of the sunrise when the girls and I went up to the bathroom.

It was the morning of Brandon's 31st birthday.  I let him sleep in.  Here he is snuggled up with Veronica.  Derrick is the lump under the sleeping bag behind him.

Lindsey made us all hot chocolate, eggs and sausage, and pancakes.  We had planned to put whipped cream and candles on a pancake for Brandon, but he didn't get up in time.

It was cold so Derrick and I snuggled.  Later I took him and Lydia up to the heated bathroom for a diaper change.  Derrick had a really poopy diaper that had leaked onto his double pajama layers.  I didn't know what to do at first.  But then I noticed that Lydia was still wearing two sleepers.  So I cleaned Derrick up and put him in one of Lydia's pink sleepers.  He looked silly, but he was warm.  

We packed up the tents and then in was time to go home.  The cousins were all sad to say goodbye.

As we drove away I remembered back to January when Lindsey rescued us when our car broke down.  I remember driving past Lake Sommerville with her on the way to Houston.  She'd pointed it out and said, "sometimes we come here and go boating."  At the time relaxing and having fun seemed like foreign concepts.  I couldn't imagine that 11 months later we'd go camping together and have a great time.    But that's exactly what happened.