Temple Square Outing

'Twas the Friday before Christmas and all through the messy house, the mama said, "let's go to dinner downtown and see the Christmas lights at temple square."  The little baby brother said, "goo goo ga ga."  The little sister said, "Can I go in the temple?," and the big, bearded, grumpy dad said, "Rio Grande."

We got all loaded up and headed in town.  We went to eat at the Rio Grande Cafe and it was extra delicious because we haven't been there for a while.  Jack was a little fussy during dinner, but Molly did pretty good and even ate a few tastes of beans.  Yum!

We went back to the car, put on more layers, blankets, and got in the stroller.  We were headed for the train!  We walked past all the freezing people waiting to get inside the homeless shelter, through the Gateway, and onto the train.  Molly loved the train and was very excited to ride it.  She gave up riding in the stroller, though, once we got off the train and the rest of the adventure was a struggle between walking and crying to be carried.  She refused to ride in the stroller.

We did a quick trip through Temple Square and the Main Street Plaza.  It was super crowded.  Molly screamed.  James was mute.  Jack kept kicking his blanket off.  Mama thought, "why do I try to do things like this."  The phone rang and it was Parker.  He and Willie were also at Temple Square with a group of kids and wondered where we were.  They found us and we said hi for a minute.  Molly had had enough and it was time to go.  The train ride back to the Gateway was fun for Molly, but now Jack was done, cold, and crying.  We made it back to the car . . . and came home.

It is a good tradition, but perhaps next year will be a bit more fun.  Oh well.  The lights were pretty.  The food was yummy.  And, the children are cute even when they scream.

Christmas Party Saturday

Party #1

On Saturday December 15th we added to our Christmas festivities by attending 2 family Christmas parties.  The first one was the Binggeli party hosted by James' Aunt Suzanne.  She lives in Plain City and as is tradition for all Binggeli Christmas parties, it snowed that morning and we wondered if we would make it.  Once we left the Salt Lake Valley, there wasn't much at all and our trip was not a big deal.

The after brunch activity was something like Sumo Santa (I don't know if that was really the name or not).  It included dressing up 2 participants (James and his uncle AlDon) in Santa's red long-johns and then stuffing them to the fullest with balloons.  I thought it was a contest to see who could hold the most balloons, but once they were all stuffed it became a wrestling contest to see who could pop each other's balloons first.   

Grandpa finding the open rear flap in uncle AlDon's red underwear and shoving in balloons.

James, his big balloon belly, and chicken legs.

Jarrell also finding the rear flap and doing some dirty work.  

Finished Santa ready to rumble

The sparring begins.

Party #2

We came home for a few hours, then we loaded up again and headed north.  This time we were going to my uncle Gregg's church in Layton for the Petersen Family party.  We had soup and bread bowls, the kids played basketball and then minute-to-win-it games. We had musical numbers. I talked to cousin Travis about his educational plans.  Everybody had a great time.  Everything was decorated in blue.  I forgot to take my camera.  It was a great evening, though.

Molly's Christmas Program

Molly did a great job in her school's Christmas program.  Her part was the very first line . . . "'T'was the night before Christmas and all through the house."  She'd been practicing it for quite some time and did a good job.



Molly has great people who love her and take care of her every day and she loves her two-year-old friends  Emily, Jude, and Westin (sitting next to her).  I'm very grateful for Spartan Station!

Crazy blue eyes waiting for the program to start

Molly waiting patiently for the other kids to finish their parts

After the program, Santa was waiting to let all of the kids sit on his lap.  Molly waited very cautiously for her turn and when that time finally arrived, this was her reaction.  Oh well.  Would we really have expected anything differently?

Christmas is Coming

The goose is getting fat. Please put a penny in the poor man's hat. If you haven't got a penny, a half (or hafe) penny will do. If you haven't got a half (or hafe) penny, may God bless you.

 Things worth mentioning lately . . .

• Car Seat Woes - Molly hit the 30 pound mark and since she absolutely hates riding in her car seat lately, we decided to up her status to the booster style chair with a back.  Yep, she hates that, too.  The only difference is that now when she's screaming she can wiggle out of it!  Great!  This afternoon I actually said, "If you don't stop crying, you'll have to change back to the baby seat."  Then, I went in the house and brought it out to the garage.  She stopped screaming (at least until she knew we were far enough away from the house that we weren't going back).  I asked James, "Is this how it is going to be for the rest of our lives? Every time Molly tries something new she will do it kicking and screaming?"  He said, "Yes, unless it is her idea."  Great, again!
• Jack! Jack! - Jack is cute and happy.  I hope he stays that way forever.  When you say his name and try to get his attention, he just grins from ear to ear.  Sometimes he'll even flap his arms at you like he's going to fly away.
• Santa Claus - Molly is interested in Santa this year.  She was bummed that we had to send back the movie, "Brave" which we netflixed last week.  When she wanted to watch it this week and we didn't have it, I told her that maybe Santa would bring it to her.  Now anytime someone asks her what she wants for Christmas or what Santa is bringing her, she says, "Brave."
• New Day Care - This week, Jack started with a new family to be tended during the day.  So far things look pretty good and though he hasn't been napping very well, he seems to be happy!  As with all change comes a bad case of guilty mom syndrome.  Sigh.  Oh well.
• The Fence - We got a text from our renter last weekend telling us our fence at our townhouse bit the dust in a bad windstorm.  James spent every evening this last week over there trying to fix it.  He had to put in new posts on the section which totally blew over (but was able to reuse the panels) and then sured up the other posts that are likely fragile and rotting away.  I don't really like having a rental unit.  We'd like to sell it, but that is probably a few years off still.  Our renter would like to extend his lease 6 months, though, which is nice for us because then we don't have to find anyone new.
• Hunter Basketball is 2-2.  They beat Hillcrest on Thursday night pretty convincingly and then struggled against Juan Diego (or Judge Diego as I decided to call them tonight) on Friday.  They really should have had the Judge Diego (where is Dora, Diego?) game, but ran out of gas, made a few too many mistakes at the end, and just got outplayed/outcoached when it mattered.  Oh well.  This week is Logan on Wednesday and Lehi on Friday.  Hopefully they can at least stay .500.
• Go Utes! - Utah Basketball, though not beautiful, is starting to look at bit better.  They ALMOST had BYU at the Marriott Center the other night, which is as close as they've come in many moons.  I think the Utes may finally be on the mend.
• Christmas at Grandpa's - For Christmas, my Grandpa gave us (all of the grandkids with kids) some money to buy our kids something for Christmas from him.  His instructions were to buy something nice, wrap it up, and bring it to his house so the little kids have something to open when they get there on Christmas.  He said he was sorry that Grandma didn't teach him to shop for things like that, but that it was important to him that they have an actual present to open.  I figured I'd get my kids clothes since that's the first thing my Grandma would have bought for them.  I tried to find something that looked like outfits she would buy.  My qualifications were that the outfits were cute, stylish, and NOT something that I would typically buy for them (because my usual qualifications are that it is practical, a good deal, and they can wear it for the maximum amount of time).  I hope what I bought them would be "Grandma Approved."

Doctor Visits

On Thursday, Molly, Jack, and I went to visit Dr. Havlik.  It was Molly's 2.5 year check up and Jack's 6 month check up.  Here are the results.

Molly - 
Height - 36 in (51%)
Weight - 31.1 lbs (74%)

• Molly got to wear this cool little Looney Tunes hospital gown.
• She turned into shy mode and would only answer some of the doctor's questions and when she did speak she whispered.
• She passed all the developmental questions including that she knows at least 6 body parts, she can share, at least half of her words can be understood, she can walk up stairs unassisted, etc.
• Molly was very sympathetic to Jack getting his shots.  She cringed in pain when he got poked and then said over and over again, "it's ok, Jack, it's ok."  She was worried and very concerned.
• Here ears look good, but I didn't realize until after we finished that I didn't ask about whether her last tube was still there or not.  One had fallen out at her last visit, but he didn't say anything about it this time.

Jack - 

Height - 27.75 in (87%)

Weight - 20.25 lbs (88%)

Head - 17.7 in (81%)

• Jack is really noisy and just yelled most of the visit.
• He thought the paper on the exam table was the coolest thing ever and wanted to take it with him every time I lifted him off the table.
• He passed all of the developmental questions except that he doesn't roll over.  He does pass things from one hand to another, reach for a toy in front of him, follow your voice, smile, know his name, etc.
• Jack has had really bad skin that has flared up over the last couple of weeks and Dr. Havlik said it is just Eczema.  We'll keep putting stuff on it.

It was a good appointment.  It was a little crazy to take them both, but since their birthdays are both in May, we will likely be doing that again for the next couple of years.  It's ok, though.

After we left, Jack zonked from the stress of getting shots and Molly and I went to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  She zonked on the way home and then all three of us had a nice nap once we got home (we played hookie and didn't go back to school for the last hour or so of the day - it was nice).

Here are some videos of my crazy children from last week.