Trevor Gets His Arrow of Light

Trevor is 11 now and that means no more cub scouts. It's bitter sweet. Boston came in the day Trevor went out and you should see Boston's enthusiasim for cub scouts. He is on fire trying to pass off as much as possible and I hope he doesn't burn out. At pack meeting on Thursday, Trevor earned his Arrow of Light award, his Webelo, and said good bye to cubs. He has a large group of boys his age and a majority of them have birthdays in the fall and December, so he was able to be with most of them the entire time. They are such a great group of boys and I am grateful he has them for examples. And, that he is such a great example to Boston too.

Meeting Santa (again) and Preschool Party

That Santa (or his helpers) are everywhere this time of year. Gage and Mallory got to talk with him again at Gage's Preschool Party on Tuesday. The mom putting on the class party made aprons for each of the boys in the class and had all sorts of fun going on.  Ms. Bobbie, Gage's teacher, had gifts galore for the kids and their moms. It was a great way to start off a three week break! 

Meeting Santa

Boston was excited and was one of the first in line at the ward Christmas Party to meet the big guy. Gage found another family in the ward to stand in line with and made himself at home with them. Gage showed Santa our elf and thanked him for sending him to us.  Mallory ran away afraid, but came back for the candy cane that was offered.  And, Trevor...well, Trevor is 11 and just hung out with his friends.  

Boston's Baptism

It was sweet and simple. It is nice to have a second one to plan because you realize after going through the first one (Trevor's) that really it's about the spirit that is there and not a big program. Trevor gave a talk/testimony on Baptism and Zane spoke about the Holy Ghost. We just had a few friends there, Grandma Betty and Papa Ben along with the Bishop. Boston was smiling the whole time and liked that the water was warm.

Giving Thanks

I wish I had a picture of us all dressed up in our Sunday Best for Thanksgiving Dinner. It really did happen, but there is a good reason for it. It wasn't what I would have initially picked for an ideal Thanksgiving, but it turned out to be a perfect meal in practically every way. We are kind of sparse on family out here. We haven't always been, but with my mother in law selling her house and traveling around to visit her children for the holidays, my brother and his family moving to Spain for a few years, and with Zane's grandma moving to the Mesonic Home for seniors, there remains my father in law and his wife. They don't like to do much for the holidays, but we asked if they would like to join us for Thanksgiving Dinner. They had a better idea that involved us joining them at the Galt House (a beautiful downtown hotel on the River) for dinner. My father in law said it was Sunday dress and my kids groaned a bit. But, it turned out to be such a treat. It was at the Rivu, one of those fancy white table cloth restaurants. The menu was a traditional Thanksgiving menu which was served family style and we even got sent home with the leftovers. The best part of all - my kids were well behaved. That was a lovely sweet miracle that I am grateful for. I am grateful for so many things this year besides children that sat still for a nano second, but on that day, that was enough.

This Saturday...

Giving Thanks Preschool Style

From what I have heard the Thanksgiving Feast at Gage's preschool is a big deal. They asked several weeks ahead of time just how many guests from each family were coming. They set the tables up with namecards and placemats. Each teacher was in charge of their own tables. Gage's teacher, Ms. Bobbi, did an excellent job.  She had a special turkey placecard for Mallory, pilgram place settings for Zane and I and even made Gage his own turkeys out of sugar free Oreos for his place setting. The kids sang songs in pilgrams and native american costumes and we all had a nice Thanksgiving lunch.  

Mallory's First Haircut

Be warned, this new hair cut is pretty severe. And, for the record, it was given to her by her five year old brother. I knew they were quiet upstairs for way too long. To say I freaked out would be an understatement. But, after a bit of perspective and a hairstylist that helped Mallory make a pretty good recovery with a comb over, we are all doing much better. I was trying to figure out why I was so upset about the incident besides the initial shock of the situation I had found. Did I care so much about my little girls looks? Did I think Gage hadn't listened to anything he had been taught? Was a five year old supposed to know better? Did I worry about what everyone would think of not only the hair cut, but judge Gage as well? I think it was a combination of all these. So, when I asked Gage why he did it he said, "Her hair was always in her face and I asked her if she wanted me to help her with it and she said 'yes.'" Well, we still had a long discussion about who uses the scissors and who cuts hair, but in the end I realize that he was trying to help, but just not the right way (in a really really wrong way). I am gaining perspective and I think the Lord keeps throwing things at me to see how I will react with my children. Someday I am going to be able to see the hindsight in the front as I approach the situation. It's a slow process. But, for now, at least I recover (semi) quickly. So, here are some photos of my very beautiful girl. We kept telling her that all day because she kept saying, "It's not ugly, it's pretty." Yes dear, your hair and you are very very pretty.

on the mend by that night

Oh, and mom, can you please knit her a few little hats?

Now He's 5, Not 4 1/2

Gage's pinky fingers have been bent down since this summer. We just noticed it one day and he said they didn't hurt, but they looked awfully uncomfortable. We finally took him to a hand specialist and the doctor said it was trigger finger which can occur in people with diabetes. The doctor told us that eventually it would become very painful and was surprised that it didn't hurt Gage yet. Last Tuesday he had them operated on and the entire staff at the Hand Clinic were amazed that Gage so easily let them put an IV in his arm and just watched them do it. That made his recovery so much easier because he didn't have to recover from being knocked out as well since he had the IV. It was a quick surgery which only took 25 minutes for both fingers and we were able to go home by 10 am. He was in his pjs all day, but he kept sneaking out to play with his friends and to try and ride his scooter. I kept reminding him that he had just had surgery that morning, was on codine, and had stitches in his hands and probably needed to rest. He has to have them wrapped up for two weeks and says they feel great. The pinkies can now stand straight up so he can finally hold up five fingers when he tells people his age (5) instead of four and a half fingers!

Before the surgery
A few hours after surgery. he will have to work on stretching them over the next few weeks.

He made this that day because i made him stay in the house. He wanted to go out and play right away. Mean old mom thought he should probably rest after all that he had been through that morning plus he had some drugs in his system!

Halloween

It was simple and sweet (and slightly freezing). We ate KFC, made it half way around our neighborhood, and enjoyed the spoils and a little hot chocolate when we came home.

Field Trip to the Fire House

All the way to school that day Gage noticed all the yellow buses we passed. He would say, "I bet that bus is going on a field trip." Maybe. It was his first time he was going on a bus and I think he was a bit excited. I got to go with him on the field trip to the McMahan Firestation. The firemen did a great job at showing these kids so many exciting things. They dressed up in their fire gear to help eliminate any fears the kids might have of them in these get ups. Once the fireman put on the mask, I was a little scared. One fireman climbed up the huge extension ladder and I got got nervous just looking at him. Then, all the kids got to spray the huge fire hose. Highlight of the day!

DisneyWorld

I said for a long time that I didn't think we would ever go to DisneyWorld. I didn't think we were DisneyWorld folks. We were Disneyland people And, if you know how much I dislike big crowds then you'll understand my love of the Land and my fear of the World. But, when my parents asked us to go with them to Orlando way back in January for a trip for the next October, I had quite a bit of time to make amends with the World and actually get excited about the whole thing. And, it lived up to all my expectations and my family's expectations as well. It was awesome. We dragged my parents around those 4 parks for 6 days and just had one day to rest. We loved being with them and I hope they recover from us. I still think we only skimmed the surface of all the parks and would love to go back to Epcot and just meander through all the little alley ways, restaurants and stores even though we went there 2 times (and some of us went 3 and 4 times). We fell in love with all the Pixar stuff at Hollywood Studios and were willing to get Fast Passes for Toystory Mania that wouldn't get us on the ride for 5 hours because it was that much fun. I was amazed at the effort it took to get in to the Magic Kingdom - park car, take tram, ride monorail (or boat), and then finally you are at the front gate to the park. It is huge and I didn't love the Fanstasyland there as much as my Fantasyland at Disneyland. I guess I just have too many fond memories of that classic set up. But, other than that, it seemed very similar to Disneyland. Gage had no fear when it came to rides and if they would have let him get on Rock n' Rollercoaster he would have been on it. I guess he will have to settle for Tower of Terror and Expedition Everest. Boston (and really all of the kids) loved pin trading. Mallory collected all the princess pins and would go up and ask all by herself to trade with the employees. She even slept with her lanyard on. Trevor learned that although he had the guts to go on a lot of the intense rides, he paid for it afterwords! So, we sat at lunch around the table yesterday discussing when the best time to go back would be. You could say we're hooked.