Foot Tattoos

Daddy still travels occasionally, and the children are always excited when he comes home.  They usually mark the occasion by doing something fun.  In this case, they got foot tattoos from daddy.

Kari started it.  Daddy trapped her foot, and because he always has a pen in his pocket, he decided to "show her" by writing on her foot.  Of course, everyone else wanted one after that.

Kelsey didn't want anything on her feet.  I think, if she did, it would be something about her drink addiction.

Dylan wanted a dragon.

And Kaitlyn got a butterfly.

It reminds me of the primary song "I'm so glad when daddy comes home..."

..."Glad as I can be!  Clap my hands, and shout for joy, and climb upon his knee!"

Or, in our case, just climb up on him!  Love daddy!

PS- for my LDS friends: It was 2 weeks, 1 week with a sick toddler, and 1 week of doing nothing before I got another calling.  I am the new assistant compassionate leader.  For my non LDS friends, that means when someone needs something (for example meals for a new mom, food for a funeral, a ride to a doctors appt), I call around until the assignment is filled.  It means I don't have a regular Sunday responsibility (which is weird), or a regular responsibility at all.  Sometimes it will be busy, and sometimes it won't.  It also means I get to go to the grown up Sunday School class instead of teaching one of the primary classes...  We'll see how well I pay attention now that I no longer have an excuse (Kelsey is in nursery).  Wish me luck :)

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning the kids woke up and we made them all go potty and wait before we turned them loose.

Santa brought my children some foam swords.

And they were well received.

He brought all kinds of other things too.  I won't bore you with everything.

Just a few highlights.

Kelsey got some loud stuff of course...

But she seemed to like the swords too.

Kari got a marker maker.  She has only made a few colors thus far, but she seems to really like it.

And of course there was candy in the stockings...  Aunt S was nice enough to share with the rugrat.  The chocolate is around her mouth.  Unfortunately, what is around her nose is scrapes from where she bit it on a walk the previous day.

And then take some cute, chocolaty pictures.

Unfortunately, cousin Kelly was sick (what a way to start Christmas morning, right?  With the up-chucks!), so in an effort to keep Pa from getting sick, they headed out to our house.  We said we were willing to chance it (since she had no fever and we didn't know what it was) in exchange for a few more days to hang with cousins and friends.

It was kind of a weird virus, and unfortunately all the kids (except Kari miraculously) got it.  I washed sheets that week more often than I had the whole dang year.  However, we did have tons of fun, so it might have been worth it :)

I think that is the end of the official Christmas posts.  I hope your season was fabulous, whatever/however you celebrate!

Christmas Eve

Because the TV was delivered on Saturday, we had to stay home and play with it, and have a movie night.  We didn't end up heading down to Pa's until Sunday morning.  We hung out Sunday and Monday with cousins, grandparents, great aunts and uncles.  At Pa's house, it is tradition to use actual socks for stockings and the kids look forward to decorating them each year.  In retrospect, we should have done this before it was practically bed time, but hey!  It's Christmas.  What is bed time at Christmas?

I wasn't about to let Kelsey decorate her own stocking, but she crawled up in Uncca D's lap, and "helped" while he did cousin Kelly's.  For Kelsey, we just reused the one from last year.

Daddy helped Dylan make his perfect.

Ashley's was quite artistic :)

While I had my camera out, I went in the other room to get one of Pa.  I have very few pictures of him smiling, but when I asked him to cheese it up for me, he gave me a ridiculously humorous smile.  Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough to get THAT on film, but I got this good one right after as we were all giggling :)

Kelly wasn't particularly interested in decorating a stocking, so it was a good thing she was being taken care of .

After stockings were done, it was time to open presents.  In hubby's family style, they open all the presents from each other on Christmas Eve night.  It was noisy and messy, and I won't bore you with all the details.

This year, hubby and I were careful to select presents that we could "claim" to give to the kids on Christmas Eve.  I am pleased to report we made good choices and the kids really liked their presents :)  Kaitlyn, my little budding photographer, got her own point and shoot camera.  Kari got a magic trick set with all kinds of props and a wand and hat.  Kelsey got a book from Shutterfly that features just her and Dylan (I made one of the girls before  Dylan was born, and he wondered where "his" book was).  Dylan got a pack of green army men.  He immediately opened them, and has already lost a few I am sure.

Problem was, he took a nap earlier in the day, so he stayed up until almost 1am playing with them.  It made for a tired Santa the following morning :p

New TV

It's kind of a long story.  Hubby got it into his head that he wanted a newer, bigger TV.  And if you don't know hubby, once something is in his head, it is hard to get it out.  Since our current TV was still functioning, I told him he could, so long as he paid with his "own" money (birthdays, "allowance", etc).  While we were out in UT, my brother and sister began talking about their quest for a new TV as well and checking all the Black Friday ads.  Together they plotted, and found the perfect buy: a 55" flat panel Vizio from Sams club.  I volunteered to get it (since we have a membership, and they don't).  While reading the Black Friday ads, we noticed it didn't specify a start time, so I stayed up until midnight oh one, and added two to my cart for the advertised price.  I checked out without any problems, and we were the proud owners of a new TV by 12:05.  It was a surprisingly easy process.  I kept track of the tracking number, and was fairly excited to announce to hubby that his new toy would be delivered only 5 days later.  He was just a little bit excited.

We have plans to build ourselves a new TV stand, exactly to our specs of course, but I told hubby he couldn't do that until the rest of our house list was done (I'm hoping to motivate him).  For now, we just modified our current TV stand (which we modified before this.  Originally, it was 8 feet wide with other shelves on each side) by taking off the top part.

It was easy to set up, and looked nice.  Here's the bad news.  We got a defective one (thankfully Piko and Jonoman's worked).  It started as a black line about 12 inches wide down the TV.  After a day, it grew to about 24 inches, which was half the screen, just not right in the middle.  You can see the stripe of blue on both sides (one is significantly smaller) where the TV was working.  The black in the middle showed no picture, and the black on the sides worked, it was just in a smaller mode for the picture.  

Samsclub.com would take the return back no problem, even pay for return shipping.  They would also exchange it, but it was out of stock online, so we would have to wait until it came back in stock before we could do that, and that could be a few-several weeks.  Here's where we get frustrated.  They had the exact same TV in my local store, it just had a different item number (and box) because it was sold in store vs. online.  While I could return the item in store and get my money back, I couldn't exchange it in store without paying the difference.  When speaking with the manager, he said it was because they were different parts of the same companies, and the money didn't transfer or something.  Quite frustrated with the "store policy".  Since we had moved the big heavy TV downstairs, we didn't want to bring it back up, so we relegated the children to the portable. Luckily, it has two screens :)

It took a few weeks, and a few phone calls.  We finally got word they weren't going to restock our item online (but we still couldn't exchange it in store).  Not quite happy.  I spent about an hour on the phone and finally found a manager who was willing to do more than read off the script and actually try to help.  After trying out various options, hubby finally decided to go up in size (a 60" instead of a 55"), but Ms. Dee (the manager) gave him a steep discount (taking it down to the Black Friday price).  They came and picked up the broken one, and shipped the new one.  Done!

I followed the tracking number just as diligently this time to discover that it was set to be delivered on Monday while we were down at Pa's house for Christmas.  While I feel like I live in a safe neighborhood, I didn't feel like I could realistically leave a 60" TV on my front porch for 5 days and expect it to still be there when I got home.  With heavy heart, I called FedEx and asked to postpone the delivery until we were scheduled to be home.  Saturday morning, hubby took the kids to run some last minute errands (translation: get my Christmas gifts from the kids) while I stayed home and finished packing and loading.  By some miracle, FedEx pulled into my driveway 2 days before the original delivery date and 6 before the rescheduled delivery date, and dropped off the TV.  While I am happy about this now, it occurs to me that they had no way of knowing if I would be there, so they should have paid attention to the actual scheduled delivery date...  Oh well.  I told the delivery guy that if hubby was home, he would have kissed him :)  Note the manual on the side, and the smile on his face.  He couldn't even look up from all his programming to smile AT me.

It looks nice on the wall.  And our new TV stand will be higher to get out of prying hands reach as well as over tiny, constantly moving heads.  It has all kinds of cool functions that I am sure I don't fully understand.  We plugged in the antenna we bought years and years ago and get a few channels.  Our old TV would have needed a digital converter that we never got around to buying.  This also has wifi, so it connects to our router.  This is a big deal because my SIL got us a years worth of Amazon Prime for Christmas, and hubby and the kids have been watching cartoons and older movies through the Amazon app.  My current favorite app is the Pandora Internet Radio one.  I turn it on to classical for background music, or the Disney channel for the kids to sing and dance with.  I turned it on during dinner last night, and all the kids danced and sang.  It was very Cosby-esque.

For reference...  It is a monster!

Apparently, for Kelsey it isn't quite big enough.  Silly girl likes to sit close still.

While I was initially quite frustrated with Sams, and I STILL don't like the policy, I was finally able to find someone actually willing to help.  The TV is huge, and fancy, and HD (which takes some getting used to).  While my BIL and SIL were here over the Christmas break, they also sold us on Chromecast, which is another favorite.  The TV has an app for Hulu Plus (which I don't have and don't pay for), but not regular Hulu.  So the projecting ability of the Chromecast allows me to still watch Hulu on my big TV without having to pay monthly.  Score!  I officially feel quite teched out.  And I am sure I still don't understand everything it can do.  But one more thing for hubby to be happy about...  Score! :)

PS- Speaking of scoring, we "projected" the BCS National game on the big screen.  The loss wasn't any easier to take on the big screen, but at least we weren't huddled around the laptop.  War Eagle!

Bokeh

I don't blame you if you don't know what bokeh is.  I didn't know what it was until I got my big girl camera and started researching these things.  In my simple mind, it is the blurry stuff behind someone in a picture.  Technical definition:  Bokeh, which is pronounced bow-kay or bow-keh, refers to the wonderful out-of-focus light and shapes and colors you find in the background of many photos taken with a digital camera. It is created by light and glass (in your lens) and distance and wind and focus.

I admired the blurred background in some pictures before I got my camera, but could never get it with a point and shoot.  It was actually one of the reasons I was interested in a DSLR.  I think I first came across the strange phenomenon here while surfing the Pioneer Woman's website.  Then, after I got my camera, I somehow found this while surfing around and vowed to try it when Christmas came.   The second link came from a blog written by a woman named Amanda.  Go look at it.  It's pretty cool.  I'll wait.

Amanda proceeded to first post some pretty cool pictures (IMO), and then give detailed instructions on how to get similar ones.   She made it look so easy!  So I made a quick "hood" for my camera, and dashed to my craft stash to gather my punches.  Turns out, I don't have many.  Just one of a teddy bear and one of an elephant.   First, I tried just getting the out of focus look on the lights, and I think those turned out alright.  Here are the bears.  Notice how each individual light looks like a teddy bear.

And here are the elephants.  Again, note how each individual light (esp towards the bottom) looks like an elephant.

Then, I gathered my model and tried to get some classic bokeh in the background.  Those didn't turn out too horribly either.

 Hello Kelsey!  Peek a Boo :)

 Background lights off?  Check.  Super cute, cheesy grin?  Check.

But I could never put the two together.  I could never get my camera's aperture to go as low as hers.  And I didn't notice until now that she increased her shutter speed...  Doah!  Maybe I will have to try again next year.  With a model who will stand still longer :)  Just wanted to show you some cool techniques, even though I utterly failed at them :)  

My Christmas Tree

I feel a bit silly buying a real tree every year.  It is just a waste of money.  But they smell so good, and look so good, that in my little mind, it might be worth it.  This year, we had to wait until later in the day to decorate the tree, so Kelsey was already in bed, which, to be honest, may have made the process a bit easier.  It was Dylan's turn to put the star on.

Then the obligatory picture in front of the tree.

Funny Kaitlyn Pose :)

Later on, I played with the settings on my camera and got this shot.  I kinda like it :)

Kari and I also got this shot :)

2013 wrap up:

This year hubby was promoted from Assistant Project Manager to Project Manager.  This allowed us to sell the old truck, and upgrade to a new one.  He is very busy doing the office stuff, as well as some of the field stuff, for his new project, which is located less than 2 miles away from Disney World.  While we didn't do a ton on the house this year, we did manage to organize and clean up the workshop outside.  Hopefully he won't have that many excuses now :)  He still struggles with headaches, and now a herniated disc in his back, but loves to be active and run and do things.  His love of horses hasn't changed, and he keeps re-arranging the budget to fit one in someday.

I enjoy spending my time blogging and occasionally getting the crafty bug.  I started working out last year, and did really well for about 9 months (enter vacation, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc).  I lost almost 20 lbs, and hope to be able to keep it off this year.  I stay at home with the two younger ones, and spent a few months last year watching another little boy as well.  I want to be more social, but that requires cleaning, so we'll see if we can manage more of that this year.  I also got a fancy new camera this year, and have really enjoyed taking pictures with it.

Kari finished 2nd grade and started 3rd.  She is a crazy voracious reader and got 3rd place in the school wide spelling bee this year (more on that later).  She is super smart and loves math.  She has lots of friends at school and enjoys doing Activity Day Girls at church with other girls her age.  She shares a room with her little sister, and most of the time they get along well.  She also got glasses this past year, and is amazed at how much better she can see.  She hates sitting still to have her hair done, but got her first pair of heels.  She played softball earlier this year but is currently taking dance with her little sister.  However, I predict more sporty things in her future.

Kaitlyn concluded kindergarten and started 1st grade.  She is pulling in straight A's and S's, but struggles a little bit with talking.  In all honesty, I am not sure she struggles with talking so much as with volume.  The poor girl doesn't have a whisper setting.  She is more of a follower than a leader, and is struggling a bit with Kari's new found activities and freedoms that she has to be patient for.  She started dance this year (her first after school activity) and is a pretty good at it!  She is a strong sense of fashion, and we still regularly argue about what she can wear (weather appropriateness or matching-ness).  She is also completely a girly girl.  She loves having her hair down and/or done, and wearing jewelry and dresses.

Dylan is all boy.  All.  Boy.  Everything is lined up.  Everything fights.  He doesn't realize how strong he his, and pushes too hard when he plays.  He is a picky eater, and doesn't really like sweet things (if I didn't carry him for 9 months, I wouldn't think he was mine).  This fall he will be starting kindergarten, so I probably need to spend some time with him learning letters and numbers.  Although, I am pretty sure he knows more than he shows me.  We haven't tried any organized sports with him, but he loves to play and run outside.  And to hang out with his dad.  And to get dirty. Though the previous two things are often linked.  He no longer takes naps on a daily basis, but still "enjoys" quiet time.  He is also a teaser, and butts heads with both Kelsey and Kaitlyn.

Kelsey is a stinker.  She is loud, which means most of the time she gets what she wants in an effort to keep her quiet.  She definitely has an attitude, and I fear her "terrible twos."  She has an opinion about everything and has no fear expressing it, even though we don't always understand.  She is starting to string 2 words together and can copy most things you say.  She climbs and pulls, and can get to things she shouldn't.  She eats everything, from broccoli and soup (good) to wax and paper (bad).  She is growing well and it is fun to see her in her sister's outfits.  Everyday she grows up both excites me and makes me sad.  I guess it is time for me to find a rental baby.

This year had ups and downs (of course), but over all was quite good to us.  We hope this year will be a positive one for us as well, holding lots of good people, good food, and good fun!  May your new year be as good as you hope it will be!

Pa's Christmas Tree

After Thanksgiving dinner, it was time to decorate the Christmas Tree.  Does she look excited?

Kari and Ashley made up a secret handshake while they were together.  It was probably 30 moves long, and required all kinds of hand gymnastics.  They loved it :)

Cousin Taylor was so helpful with the ornament hooks.  He assured me that is boy band haircut did not affect him in the slightest.

One ornament at a time, they slowly decorated the Christmas tree.

Kaitlyn had to color coordinate all the ornaments.  Which is interesting, because she can't coordinate her outfits....

Sometimes, counterbalancing was necessary.

His smile says to me "obligatory picture".

I love that they turn to each other for help so often!

He could totally be in a boy band!  His smile also says to me "obligatory picture" with a hint of amusement.

Being the tallest there, he had to help us shorties with the tallest parts of the tree.  Again, counter balance points were occasionally required.

It was a beautiful tree, and helped to direct Santa Claus right to our doorstep!