Dance & Twirl with the Birthday Girl

Maggie is six!

As per tradition, Maggie got to open up her family gifts before school. We broke with tradition, however, to let her open her first gift before getting dressed. . .

Look at that first photo again. This girl needed a new robe. My favorite part of giving this gift was that right after she opened it she got so excited and just lunged at me for a hug, exclaiming, "A new robe! Just what I wanted! Thank you!!!" I knew she wanted one but had been a little nervous she'd be disappointed at it not being a toy.

She made out alright. She got a LiteBrite (who knew they still made those?) from Nana & Gumpin and lots of Fancy Nancy books from both grandparents. Maggie is becoming a very proficient reader and Fancy Nancy fits her just right. We also gave her a set of cards that gives step-by-step directions for drawing "Fantasy Creatures," like fairies, unicorns, elves, and ogres. Maggie is quite a good artist; she wants to be an art teacher when she grows up.

Her other gift from us was a pair of ballet slippers with long ribbons, perfect for wearing to her ballet-themed birthday party that afternoon! Here she is, moments before guests began arriving, all decked out in her best ballet outfit:

Adah also donned the requisite leotard and tulle, and the not-so-requisite silly face:

All of Maggie's friends came in their own tu-tus (although there was one flapper. . . . ?). They played "Pin the Ballet Shoes on the Ballerina" (seen behind Maggie below), "Ballerina, Ballerina, How do you dance?" and "Ballerina Says." In the last two games they essentially got to choose silly ways of dancing and poses to strike and others had to follow. There was also plenty of Classical music playing for freestyle spins, twirls, arabesques, and grand jetes.

Here's the ballet slipper cake. I narrowly avoided my first foray into fondant-making by spotting Bubble Tape in the check-out aisle. It worked perfectly for ribbons.

The birthday girl loved it all!

She had such a great time that she crashed on the floor just before 7:00--wearing a new tutu that one of her friends gave her.

Happy Birthday, Mags. We love you!

Clowning Around

I neglected to mention one of my best Christmas presents from Damon. He got me BALLOONS! Lots of long, skinny balloons for making balloon animals. Or swords & flowers. That's what I'm best at.

This summer, my sister-in-law, Cotton Candy the Clown, taught me how to make a few different balloon sculptures. I hadn't done any of it since then, but I told Damon I wanted to do more, so he got me a variety bag of balloons, an air pump, and a how-to book. We've have had lots of fun since then. Adah's actually quite good at bending and twisting the balloons into recognizable creatures--probably as good as I am, if not better. Gunnar loves giraffes and swords. Maggie likes flowers.

Here's a flower I made. We orginally thought that the variety pack came without green(!), but last time we pulled them out we discovered that the "black" balloons were really black, purple, dark blue, & green. Now I can make flowers with green stems, which is so much more respectable. Respectability is important in balloon art.

And now, word of my novice skill has gotten out. I've been suckered into my first ballooning gig at the library in April. Adah is going to help me out and I've requested that they look for at least one more amateur to keep up with the crowd. I better start twisting!

Holly's View

Holly's view on the world has changed quite a bit in the last month. At Christmas time she was creeping along the floor on her tummy. By the end of the week at my parents' house, she was pretty much crawling. She had mastered it by the first week in January.

She's now exploring the whole house, discovering wires in every nook & cranny and finding anything left on the floor by her siblings. We're all having to exercise greater diligence, and speed when opening the dishwasher.

It didn't take her long to master the single stair in our house, which she was already working on while still creeping. It was pretty comical at first because she'd get up on the step on her tummy with her legs still hanging off behind her. Then, with nothing on which to push off, she'd just kind of squirm there for awhile kicking her legs. It's no problem for her now.

Sitting up was the other skill she acquired at my parents' house. The girls set Holly up with all her Christmas gifts for the photo below.

She is such a smiley happy girl. We love the way she makes the rest of us laugh, especially when she gets super-excited and wiggles her head back and forth really fast. (We really gotta get that on video.) She's adorable. Can't you tell?

We Want Gunnar for a Sunbeam

On January 2 Gunnar officially entered primary at church. He is in the Sunbeam class.

Now I know he looks all studious--he's holding The Book of Mormon--and ready to go, but so far he's had a little trouble adjusting. I teach the gospel doctrine Sunday School class for adults, and as I was teaching the first lesson of the year I could hear Gunnar down the hall outside his old classroom wailing , "Nursery's not for babies!" Damon was trying to convince him that big boys go to primary and nursery is for babies. I had to have someone shut the door.

Gunnar has done a little bit better each week, but so far Damon has had to stay with him at least during sharing time and singing time. He likes going to his actual Sunbeam class. Fortunately, the same week Gunnar and several of his nursery cohorts moved up to primary, one of their nursery leaders and her husband were called to be the Sunbeam teachers. They are helping ease this transition, although bribery . . . er . . . an award system may soon come into play.

Visiting SLC

In the late afternoon the day after Christmas, we set off in our minivan for Salt Lake City to visit my parents. After a lot of events that brought my parents to White Salmon in 2010 (Holly's birth, family reunion, Adah's baptism), it was time for us to head in their direction. The girls hadn't been there for over 18 months and Damon hadn't been since Gunnar was a newborn!

We left with our tire chains on board, just in case, but traveled on clear roads the entire way. We overnighted on the Oregon-Idaho border in Ontario where, after Gunnar's week of feeling lousy, we got the best night's sleep we'd had for over a week. That gave us a bit of a late start, but we were much happier travelers and rolled into my parents' underground condo parking garage in the late afternoon of Monday, December 27.

The next day we headed out on a geocaching adventure at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. Perhaps it sounds like a strange place to find "treasure," but it's the location of the graves of most of the presidents of the LDS Church and the subject of a rather intricate geocache.

I still don't really know how the GPS devices really work or what you do to geocache (I've got Geocaching for Dummies from the library), so I'm not going to explain this very well. I spent most of the time at the cemetery either helping Gunnar calm down (some stone lions kind of freaked him out and he still wasn't feeling 100%) or nursing Holly in the car, so I missed out on much of the action. Essentially, we had a long list of directions that led us from one headstone to another where we had to use clues on each stone to determine the coordinate of the next site. For example, the directions might tell us to use the number of letters in the name of the prophet's birthplace, or the third digit of the year he died, or something like that.

In the end, only Maggie, Damon, and my dad completed the whole course. The rest of us chickened out, mainly due to the cold. We came in two cars anyway, so my mom and I took everyone else back home while the troopers stayed until the end.

Later that evening, we went to Temple Square.

We ate dinner at the Lion House, a former home of Brigham Young, before setting out with hundreds of others to view the holiday lights still on display.

Adah really wanted to see all the floating lights on the reflecting pool. She remembered them from our last visit three years ago...and probably a little bit from the Church's Joy to the World Christmas DVD.

Gunnar wanted to see the "big statue of Jesus," meaning the Christus statue in the North Visitors' Center. He'd seen some pictures of us visiting there about 18 months ago. The kids were really sweet and I sat with them on the floor at Jesus' feet. When I suggested that we go, they all wanted to stay a little longer. Even though there were throngs of people crowding the area, the children could feel the quiet peace that comes when thinking about Christ. I loved being there with them and knowing that my children are beginning to understand the feelings of the Spirit.

The rest of our week was spent shopping--the kiddos had Christmas money burning holes in their pockets, okay maybe I did, too--movie-watching (we all saw Tangled in the theater), and visiting some friends and my brother Pete. Damon and I went out with some of my high school friends one night and the six of us visited some Boston friends one afternoon. My parents earned big points for babysitting twice in the same day so that we could go to the temple in the morning and then out to dinner that night. And, Damon earned big points by taking the 3 big kids into the city to ride Trax, visit the library, and in general have a day on the town while my mom and I (with Holly) had our own shopping day.

In all, it was a great trip and I'm so glad we could go...especially for the New Year's Eve Chinese dumplings the night before we left. We wished we could have been there a little longer, but with the way the holidays fell this year, the girls had to be back in school on January 3. Thanks for a great time, Nana & Gumpin!

Big News. And I mean BIG.

If you didn't notice, I named the blog.

And you thought I never would.

It only took me--what?--two years.

CHRISTMAS!!!

Christmas day begins for us at 7:00 a.m. (well, that is if you didn't have to wake up earlier to nurse a baby, ahem), which is when the children are officially allowed to come in and wake us up. At that time we read the story of Christ's birth in Luke 2 so that we can start the day remembering the reason for Christmas and giving thanks for that most important gift from our Father in Heaven.

After that...it's on to the presents!!

Each year we are overwhelmed with the generosity of our family that causes our under-the-tree space to be overflowing with gifts. Each year I think I'm going to tone it down a bit--and I actually felt like I did this year--and the under-the-tree space is still overflowing. We really do feel blessed to be able to provide so many wants for our children and to receive so many nice things from family.

Here's the tree before Santa Claus arrived. It was already pretty loaded. In addition to filling our stockings, Santa Claus typically brings one gift per person or a joint gift for the whole family, which is what he did this year, so this photo pretty much represents what was under our tree Christmas morning.

Santa Claus brought us the "McMillan Family Geocaching Kit." It's the black case that Adah is holding in the photo below. It came with a GPS unit (around Adah's neck) and a log book (in Adah's hand) for recording geocache finds. Santa included directions for several local geocaches, and in this photo Adah and Maggie were suited up to go out with Damon Christmas afternoon. They are wearing hats from Grandma and Grandpa and fleeces from Aunt Dana and Uncle Jotham. Maggie is sporting a lovely over-the-shoulder bag that she colored herself with markers that were included in the gift from me. (I feel like I'm narrating a fashion show. Did you get that from my tone?)

Back to the geocaching...we don't really know much about it and have checked out Geocaching for Dummies from the library. We think it will be a fun family activity that will get us outdoors and exploring more of the Gorge.

Below is the only photo taken during gift-opening and there's not even any wrapping paper in it! Everyone is checking out the clipboard I made for Gunnar.

In my family growing up, every year when all the gifts were opened, we gathered around the tree with all our presents--wearing any gifted clothing over our pajamas, different shoes on each foot, if necessary, etc.--for a single photo of all the Christmas loot. I think Damon and I have only gotten that organized for a photo ONE year since our marriage. I keep thinking it will happen, but it hasn't yet. The photo below is of most of Maggie's loot, which just happened to end up looking like a neat little display on our blue chair. The hat and fleece you already saw. She's wearing new slippers. She also got a new Sunday dress, some new shirts, Mad Libs for kids (we had to explain those to the girls), some puzzles and art things.

Gunnar got a hard hat and a set of toys that he can take apart and put together with his own battery-powered drill. That was a big hit with the whole family on Christmas day. Holly was just enjoying all the activity.

Speaking of all the activity...here's a nice "aerial" shot of the Christmas mess. The girls both got digital cameras. That was a highlight for them as they've both really been wanting their own.

Gunnar got a magna doodle and some Thomas the Train tracks--another big hit. Behind Maggie in the photo below is a stage that Damon made for her. It is really nice. He did such a great job. She got a ballerina doll to go with it. I should really do a post with some of the stage shots she took of her dancer with her own camera. They had a whole photo shoot.

Adah's big gift was in the big brown box with the silver bow in the first picture (above). It was an aquarium for her first pet! (More on that in a later post.)

Christmas breakfast: We always have sticky buns. This year the girls helped me prepare them before they went to bed on Christmas Eve. Many years I nearly forget to make them until it's late and I'm about to get in bed. Since they got a head start of several hours this year they had plenty of time to rise and the dough had ballooned by morning. They were our best yet. We have them with the Martinelli's apple juice that Santa always leaves in our stockings.

I stayed inside in my pajamas for most of the day helping the kids figure out their new toys. As mentioned in a previous post, Gunnar was not feeling too well. We had to stop mid-gift-opening to give him some medicine and he didn't have much of an appetite for most of the day (see empty plate above). Poor kid. He did enjoy playing with his presents.

In the evening some friends stopped by with some pan y jamon (bread and ham) and joined us for tamales. It was a very casual dinner, which I loved, after a very casual day. Damon and I ended the day sleeping on our new memory foam mattress pad, which was just one of the presents under the tree for Damon from me. One of the great gifts Damon gave me was a nice note telling me I'm a good mom and deserve a break, accompanied with a gift card to the movie theater, some cash, and some invitations for inviting a couple of friends for a girls' night out.

It's been a few weeks, but now it doesn't feel like it's too inappropriate, so: Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Catch-up: Crafty Times

The girls had a whole week off school before Christmas. We had time for a fun little craft: candy cane reindeers. The kids made these for themselves and for taking to some of their friends. I remember making them with my mom when I was younger, so I credit her with this idea.

Pipe cleaner antlers, pom pom noses, and googly eyes on candy cane bodies--put it all together with a little hot glue and voila. At first the girls wanted them all to have brown antlers and red noses, a la Rudolph, but since we also had a selection of fruity candy canes in non-traditional colors, we got creative with our pipe cleaners and pom poms, too.

Gunnar loves orange. He was not loving life that week, however.

He was feeling pretty sick the day we made these (December 23), with what we thought was an ear infection. Since doctors are not routinely giving antibiotics for ear infections these days, we didn't rush him into the doctor. Rather, we waited to see if it would resolve on its own. He spent a couple of days with a sore ear, a fever, and obvious discomfort. We had a party the evening after making these reindeer and Gunnar ended up sleeping on the floor through the whole thing! Poor kid. He perked up on Christmas Eve (see below), but relapsed a bit during gift opening and then the morning after Christmas, so that he and I went into the ER Sunday morning where he was diagnose with swimmer's ear! It was essentially caused by a plug of earwax that created a moist space that resulted in a very irritated eardrum. Some special ear drops acquired en route to Salt Lake City (more on that later) seemed to do the trick.

Back to our Christmas crafting . . .

We don't own Christmas stockings. It's something we've just never purchased. Damon and I couldn't ever find any that we both liked, and then we just kind of decided to wait. We created a Christmas Eve tradition to fill this gap. We make and decorate paper grocer bag stockings. (Notice happier Gunnar during this rebound--or Tylenol-induced respite?)

The whole family gathers 'round the table with glitter, glue, yarn, sequins, markers, crayons--the supplies vary each year--to create a new masterpiece for Santa to fill.

It sounds like a lot of fun, right? Yes and no. We enjoy it, but it does often create a bit of a stressful mess on a day when we tend to also have other fun plans. Part of our reason for never purchasing stockings was my own anal desire to have them all match or coordinate in some way. As long as I knew we might be adding children to our family, I hesitated to make any purchases for fear that later on I couldn't add to what we had. So, now that Holly is here and we feel that our family is complete, you can look for new (reusable) Christmas stockings to debut next year. In fact, I think I've convinced my mom to knit them for us. We just need to choose our yarn!

Christmas Goodies

Growing up, every year my Aunt Donna gave our family sugar cookies. Now, we were always a chocolate family, but all of us loved her sugar cookies. They are good. Since marrying and living away from home, I've not wanted to let my holidays pass without some of Aunt Donna's sugar cookies, so I make them myself.

This year I didn't do much holiday baking at all, but I did make time for the sugar cookies. Decorating them is always a family affair.

I forgot, though, that the kids usually lose interest after decorating (and eating) only 2-3 cookies. Since the recipe makes 4-6 dozen (depending on the size) it leaves a lot of decorating for the parents. We don't eat them all, though. No way we could have. We give them out to neighbors and friends.

On the flip side, this year we seriously CLEANED UP when it came to receiving Christmas goodies. They just kept coming and coming. We got treats from people who have never given them to us before. New friends who've moved in since last Christmas brought us treats. And each gift had multiple kinds of treats. Whew! We love treats. Don't get me wrong. But we just couldn't keep up! We had to actually put several dozen (yes, that's how many) cookies in the freezer.

The plate below actually shows the DREGS of this platter's former self. Oh, and do you see the other plate in the background. This probably represented merely 1/4 of what we received.

To reiterate: we love treats. Do not take any of the above as complaining. It is merely commenting. Keep 'em coming, friends!!

Christmas Catch-up: Getting the Tree

I think we've officially made it a tradition to go to the same "u-cut" Christmas tree farm for our tree each year. This makes 4 years. Last year I told you all about this small-town spot where you can just drop your money in the box if the owner isn't there. When they are there, there's a fire burning and candy canes for the kids. Last year, the fire wasn't quite as necessary. We got to choose our tree under sunny skies. This year, the skies were white with snow. All the more festive, right?

Here we are in front of the winner. It looks a little Charlie Brown in this photo, I must say. It turned out to be one of our smaller trees, but it did the job nicely--well, nearly. It wasn't quite sturdy enough on top to hold up the star. All the ornaments fit, though just barely, and there was plenty of room for the "loot" underneath. (My brothers and I always looked for that feature in a tree.) Okay, back to the event:

Holly had the best deal on this excursion. I found myself wishing I'd worn my parka, as the coat I did wear was merely water resistant and I ended up with wet shirt sleeves. Holly got to ride in the backpack under a rain cover. Although her view might not have been the best, she stayed warm and dry. We did end up losing that pacifier, though, so I guess she wasn't totally secure.

Gunnar wanted to help cut it down. Maggie also took a turn at the saw. I think Adah had already high-tailed it back to the bonfire and candy canes by this point.

Father and Son with their conquest:

I just love the tradition of the Christmas tree. I love choosing it and decorating it together as a family. It has always been one of my favorite parts of the season. I hope my children enjoy it just as much and will have fun memories of the times we spend doing it.

My Homemade Christmas

This year I handmade many of my Christmas gifts. I'm pretty excited with how they turned out and wanted to share them on the blog. However, I couldn't very well post any of them before the recipients opened their presents. So, now that the holiday is over, I can do a little bragging and show off my handiwork. The wreath above was not a gift, but it was handmade. I make a wreath with fresh-cut greens every year. I think this was one of my better ones, although I don't think the photo shows it off.

Gunnar got a pillow made from two pairs of favorite outgrown pajamas. Each side of the pillow is a different fabric.

I made jewelry for some little girls in my life: my niece, Cassie, Adah, and Holly got bracelets; Maggie got a necklace.

I made two bibs for my nephew Braden, who turned 1 a week before Christmas. The photo didn't turn out, but take my word that the button on the Monopoly railroad bib is a big silver button that says "conductor" on it.

I love Mod Podge. I've made lots of cool projects with it before, and I had a lot of fun this Christmas creating some neat decoupage gifts with magazines and Mod Podge. Gunnar got a clipboard. Adah, Maggie, and I made our own about a year and a half ago. Mine hangs on the back of the pantry and holds our meal calendar and grocery list. The girls use theirs as lap desks in the car and other places, so I thought it was time for Gunnar to have his own. Damon and I flipped through magazines to find things that Gunnar loves. This is really an expression of Gunnar at age 3:

My other two Mod Podge collages were on journals. The first was for my sister-in-law Joette, and the second was for my mom. They are both journalists (I guess that's not the right word-- they aren't reporters; they keep journals.) as well as journalphiles (now that word I just made up--they love notebooks and journals). This time Adah and Maggie helped flip through the magazines to choose pictures that they thought their aunt and Nana would like. These were really fun to make.

Now, I can't give you the bottom line price on these gifts since some of the recipients will be reading this. But, you can see that many supplies were to be found cheaply or I already had on hand, so this route definitely helped our Christmas budget. They all took a little time, but they were simple and enjoyable to make, especially because each one was so personal, and that's really why I did it.