Christmas 2008

Another year has flipped by like a page in a book. We really had a great year. I love family traditions and we are still figuring out what ours are. I come from a family that really had no regular traditions. So, I've brought none to our relationship. The ones I suggest come mostly from things I've seen on TV. My husband comes from a family that loves traditions, so he doesn't have to worry about me fighting him on any suggestions. His mother loves traditions, and we (his parents, and bother and sister's families) all live within a few blocks from each other. So she suggests things for the whole family and we all do it together. That makes 2 grandparents, 5 couples, and 11 grandchildren, soon to be 14.

One of our regular traditons is the Christmas Tree Hunt. The friday after Thanksgiving is for shopping and the saturday after is for tree hunts. Jake and I actually have decided to do fake, pre-lit, but we still love to tree hunt for grandma's tree. We play in snow if there is some and we take a lunch, hot cocoa, some ATV's, a chainsaw, and of course an arsenal of guns(not for shooting the tree). Then we help grandma string popcorn and cranberries while watching it's a wonderful life or whatever other Chrismas show. She loves any and all of them, even the one's starring Steve Gutenberg.

This year we added some new traditions. First we always deliver treats to neighbors, but this year we decided to do it while caroling and on a hay ride. It snowed on us and we knew very few of the lyrics to entire songs. Also, we changed our annual Christmas eve party from great grampas house to grandmas house, so we had more control over the party activities. We had a nice dinner, the extended family exchanged gifts between cousins, kids, and granparents, we had the annual homemade pinata, and this year we added a live nativity play with the grandchildren (super cute). Also many of us (Jake and I included) decided to start a chrismas eve Pajama tradition.

Christmas Day was for the kids to open the gifts from us and from Santa. Jake gave me a gift that he kept at his mom's in order to completely surprise me (which he did.) He gave me a Vita mix blender which I have been talking about ever since the kids and I spent about a half an hour standing at the demonstration at Sam's Club. The demonstrator made smoothies, and soups, and ice cream and we just kept on eating. Seeing my kids slurp down a smoothie made with fruit, carrots, and cabbage and ask for more, sold me. Now I just have to buy some fruit and carrots and cabbage.

The holidays seem over now but we are still partying. Caleb was born on new year's eve, so I still have to decide how I want to do his birthday party and bring in the new year. Then in mid January we are doing a week long So. Cal. theme park tour with the whole family, the same 23 people minus his siter and brother in-law who do not have children yet. I don't think this will become an annual tradition, but it should be a lot of fun and offer a lot of memories. Or at least a lot of pictures and stories for posting.

Facebook Frenzie

After much coersion, Amy and Jeff Gabbitas finally convinced me to join facebook. I must also credit Amy with convincing me to make a blog. I should definitely thank her, because it's all been great fun. Even though I really didn't need any help to clean my house less. For those of you who have not yet joined, you definitely should. It's fun, like a blog but a little more interactive. It doesn't require as much creativity, but for me that's a good thing. It doesn't require constant updating, so it should take up less time. But I spend more time viewing, since I have access to the pages of more people. I have discovered that adding to your friends list is similar to collecting trading cards. It's kind of addicting and there is a tendency to compare one's list size to others.

One interesting phenomenon is that almost my entire list consists of people whom I've met in Bakersfield. I have been reflecting today on the implications of that fact. There are several possibilities. One might be that I was a very likeable person back when I lived in Bakersfield and since then not so much. That is possible. Another is that Bakersfield people are very into joining facebook, and people I know from other places aren't participating. A third option is that Bakersfield is populated by very friendly, social, and fun people. That one is very possible. I'm sure there are other possible reasons, but the fact remains that I really like people from Bakersfield.

Utah is a lot more family oriented. Especially my rural neighborhood. Everyone in my ward has extended family in the ward, usually several generations. We spend all our time and do all our activities with my husband's family. It seems that is the way it should be, but I do miss having close friends to do things with. But I'm glad for my kids that they will be tight with their cousins. I used to not feel like I fit in with my in-laws but it's getting a lot better with time. They are getting used to my quirky ways and I am finding joy in having some family traditions. In Bakersfield people seemed to have a way of treating friends and even strangers as family. I know this for a fact because I was often the stranger. I haven't found the same to be true around here, but perhaps that's because I now belong to such a close family and so does everyone I now. We don't have many strangers, I can count the non-members that live in my ward boundary on one hand. So of course we know those few and they get a lot of attention.

Today is my birthday by the way. I've gotten really bad at celebrating my birthday. I'm in such a hectic, frenzied state of life, that I actually forgot it was today until Amy reminded me. I was going to plan something special for myself to give my husband a break from trying to please me. (I'm not good with surprises which has scared him away from trying.) I had a few ideas, but then a Work Christmas party and a school dance recital were both scheduled for today. I may still plan something for myself for friday, but it sounds like a lot of effort and makes me tired thinking about it. The holidays are kind of a lousy time to have a birthday. Unfortunately all of my kids were born during the holidays. I do work really hard to make birthdays special for them anyway. And that is one more reason that I forgot mine was today.

Bako weather, in Utah?

Okay, maybe I was a bit premature in my wallowing about snow and cold. We had one storm and I was gearing up to expect more of the same from now until spring. But this is a picture of my 3 yr old and her neighbor friend today in our yard, just about one week before Dec. It's 62 degrees outside. Of course they like to wear their swimsuits inside even when there is snow out. I am loving this weather, but also feeling a bit guilty when I know people are praying for snow and rain for watering crops and drinking.

I truly am a "beaner"

Is it possible that mexicans are genitically inclined to desire beans in their diet? I believe it is so. Here is my proof. Recently Jake and I were on a diet that we followed so closely we only ate what was listed on the program at the exact times suggested, even the recipes were provided. When we stopped the diet, a month and a half later, we allowed ourselves to indulge in the foods we had been missing. One of the first things I wanted was a bean burrito. I want a bean burrito right now and it's 9am.

My grandmother (the mexican one) served refried beans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with homemade tortillas and a side dish she called sopita, which I think means little soup. But it was actually a pasta dish. It was much like mexican rice but it was made with fideo noodles. One meal was only different from the other with the main dish. Beans and tortillas with eggs for breakfast and beans and tortillas with enchiladas, tacos, or tamales for dinner.

For her homemade tamales, beans, and tortillas I think I would drive to Wasco, CA right now. But she has left this world many years ago and taken her recipes with her. This post is making me hungry. I think Christmas is making me want her tamales. For those of you gringos who don't know: tamales and Christmas go together for mexicans. I don't know why because I am only half. I think you have to be a full blood to get access to details such as those. My dad told me a joke about it once, that it was so that mexicans had something to unwrap. He loves mexican jokes, as long as he is the one telling them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I have just recently discovered something about all of the big holidays that are clumped together from Oct 31st through Jan 1st. They were created as a diversion to get people through the winter. Being from Bakersfield, CA where there is no winter, I always just thought they were for fun. But now that I live in a place that half the year seems to me like an uninhabitable wasteland, I realize I need Christmas Carols to convince me that it is actually a winter wonderland. I had never seen real snow when I first came to Utah and 15 years later, I still haven't warmed up to the idea. During my college years I discovered snowboarding to divert my attention from the discomforts of the local weather. Now that I have small children, I don't get to the slopes much but I celebrate the holidays more than ever before. So, as much as some people are peeved by celebrating Christmas too early, I'm startng now. I very much enjoyed creating a Christmas Carol playlist. I searched through all my favorites, listening to different versions. I chose about 25 songs (I couldn't narrow it down to less). And while I was at that website only 36 viruses loades onto my computer. I have a real love/hate for the playlist website.

In Their Own Words

When I first started this blog I decided it was because I don't keep a journal; so, I need to use it to jot down things I want to remember. Like all kids, mine have come up with their own interesting words for things as they've learned to speak and here are just a few.

Lydia: for grandma and granpa she would say maga and paga. All animals were named after the sounds they make (i.e. a cat was a meow and a cow was a moo.) Other than that she was always very articulate. As a matter a fact before I weaned her at a yr old, when she was hungry she would let me know by saying "Nurse?" I knew it was time for the weaning. Although she was always average size, at 2 yrs everyone thought she was incredibly small because she spoke like she was much older. I even remember one person asking me if she was 5. Poor Caleb was more normal but I worried that he was slow because of the comparison.

Caleb: for grandma and grampa he would say damna and ompa. Lydia was "yaya" and yellow was "lello." It took us awhile to discover that he needed tubes in his ears and he wasn't hearing well, because he mispronounced for a long time calling himself taleb and most words starting with "D". He loves corndogs, but he always called them a hot dog with a stick on it. Of course the "st" was replaced with "d" and people always looked at me with a concerned look on their face when he asked for one. He also did a very interesting thing with "R's" that reminded me of scooby-doo: yogurt was rogrit and bananas were branas. The cutest thing (and he still does this) is for hungry and thirsty he says he's eaty and drinky. Today he said, "I want the glass really full because I'm really drinky" and I thought I need to write this down.

Lily: She often shortened things to the last syllable. Lydia was "eeya" and Caleb was "dub." Which is so cute that I often called him dub. She still replaces "L" with "Y" and calls her sisters "yiya and yucy." And if you ask her to say her name she'll say, "I'm not yiyee, my name is pink princess." Lily would replace most all of her consonants with "D." So only I could decode her language. People would just look at her and then to me to translate and I would be surprised that I knew.

Lucy: is 1 yr old in a couple of weeks. She doesn't really say anything yet. She is my first child to speak like Trixie from the story Knuffle Bunny. She actually sounds like she's saying "aggle flaggle klabble." She talks in fulls sentences and paragraphs like she is saying actual words and we all should understand.

Back In The Saddle

I couldn't let everyone believe that we dropped out of P90X for good. We started up last monday and have been going strong all week. For any of you who were considering giving it a try. I recommend the program highly. It was hard to restart once stopping, but so worth it. Monday I felt twenty times healthier. It gives me a rush to get up early and work out hard. After a three week pause, I was completely out of shape again. Today I can barely lift my arms or sit down. I also lost all the fexibility I had gained, which wasn't much for a normal person, but I can't usually touch my toes.

We made some adjustments to make the program fit more comfortably into our lives, mostly with the diet. Rather than following the recipes completely we decided to just follow the food group allowances. We use some of the recipes still. Also, we started over from the beginning for the excercise, but for the diet we've blended the fat shredder witht he energy boost plans.

It is important to realize that this is not a weight loss program. The company is called "beachbody" and the main goal is tighter everything. The ab ripper, yoga, jump training, and bum and thigh programs are wonderful and the most intense I've ever done. When I'm focusing on arms, shoulders, and back, the program seems like it's more for guys but I have to remind myself that it is that kind of thinking that makes it commonplace for women to have relief society arms (AKA: saggy, flapping triceps).

Of costumes and candy

With all the thinking that I gave to a costume for Jake and I this year, I went to my sister-and-law's at 10am the morning of and just barrowed a few things to make quick costumes. Costuming four children took all of my halloween strength. Assembling costumes is a lot more work than just buying them premade. Next year I vow to go to the next step and actually pull out the sewing machine to make good costumes.

We had a lot of fun and the day went very fast. The morning was taken up with last minute costume finding, getting everyone dressed and getting Lucy a nap. The afternoon zipped by with getting Caleb to preschool and helping out at Lydia's school halloween party. In the evening we attended the ward halloween party (thank goodness dinner was provided because there was no time to cook anything), the ward trunk or treat and a little neighborhood trick or treating. It was a long day of costumes and candy and as much as I like the holiday, I was quite relieved when it was over.

We have an interesting "day after halloween" tradition. It's called "go candy wild." Other than keeping wrappers picked up, we have absolutely no rules. Candy for breakfast and candy all day long. It makes our children sick and grumpy, but it cures them of their love for candy. And it makes the post halloween candy supply go very fast. They get a little wreckless and they start tasting them and throwing them away after a couple of second. They share with neighbor friends. They do trades in which they really do not get a very good deal. All of this sounds pretty bad, but it ends in my favorite result, which is to have no more candy. We used to ration it out in a healthy and responsible way but it lasted forever that way. This way it is all gone in a couple of days. Yeah.

confessions of a P90X dropout

This program really was well suited for me. There's a part of my personality that is very militant and I do well in situations of structure and discipline. My husband...not so much. He hated waking up early and he hated eating the same meals repeatedly. Having a menu planned out made it easier for me in some ways to shop and cook, but the meals weren't designed around a family of six with four picky little eaters. I usually made something different for the kids; so, making two seperate meals all day, every day was a lot of extra work and I hated when we slept in and then forced ourselves to workout after putting the kids to bed. Our results physically were very impressive, especially for my husband. He made great progress in the first 30 days. But it was taxing on us and it seemed that we were starting to be always on edge and fighting over little things that we normally wouldn't.

After a month and a half we really did have to take a break because Jake got the flu and couldn't stand up, let alone do strenuous excercise. We also quit the diet because it's so much protein and food that, without the excercise to put the nutrients to work, it seemed like over eating. Since we were taking a break, we decided to let ourselves indulge in all the things that we had been missing most. That was last week and we planned to start again on monday (four days ago.) We restarted the diet on monday, but the getting up and excercising didn't happen. After two days of not excercising, I decided to let the diet go again also. I think that we have been happier and less stressed since the break and that makes restarting not so desireable. With me, it's all or nothing. I need to set a restart date and do it 100%. I told Jake we should just wait til Jan 1st, but he says he wants to start right away. Right away is not a date in my thinking. Right now I'm just waiting for him to lead because he is very busy at work. He just called me and I told him the title of this post. He was surprised and said we didn't drop out and that we are starting again on monday; so, I'll be interested to see what happens.

Sleeping like a baby

Only a 2 yr old would consider this to be an acceptable place to spend the night.

Date Night

After enslaving ourselves for a month and a half to P90X, Jake and I decided to treat ourselves to a night out. We started by seeing the new, politically provocative and clearly consertive movie "An American Carol." The reviews had me so curious. They were so biased by liberally critics who couldn't see past their offense. I was apalled that they weren't capable of doing their jobs and actually review the movie as a movie. Now, I believe I can do what they could not and give it an unbiased review. I was not offended by it, but it was not good. It was basically "The Naked Gun," but even less funny. There were a few laughs, like when they made fun of country music and ineffective terrorists, but some jokes were right out of "Naked Gun." I'm happy to support them because I am a conservative and I am opposed to monopolies in general like the hold liberals have over the entertainment industry. But I could have mailed them the amount of the tickets and saved my time. I think they spent about two hours coming up with the plot and made up the script as they filmed it. The Christmas Carol was done pretty well in the movie "Scrooged" but barely recognizable in this.

Next we put our names on the hour long waiting list at Toucanos and decided to spend the time shopping at Riverwoods. This was quite a distubing shopping experience. Being plus sized for almost a decade, I haven't really gone shopping. It's not as fun and who wants to spend much on clothes that you really don't want to own in the first place. Now that I am getting fit, I decided to give the latest fashions a try. We went into Ambercrombie and Fitch and The Buckle. Here's the news. I am still too fat to shop in those places. But I'm very close, I almost had the jeans buttoned. The girl said they had bigger sizes somewhere, but I told her I wouldn't want those sizes (because that's not my goal)and she quickly understood. So I began to shop for Jake. I was surprised to discover that the lastest look at the buckle for men is gay and homeless. To be more specific, tight in the behind with flair legs, very decorated pockets with buttons, and lots of holes and shredding. The look at Ambercrombie and Fitch is homeless pornstar. Not a pair of jeans without holes in the place and enormous posters of shirtless guys with their pants pulled down so far that it doesn't seem anatomically possible that I wasn't viewing full frontal nudity. I had only two choices to stare searchingly or avert my eyes. Of course you know my choice. Now the price is amazing and sad at the same time. Who is paying $150for a pair of jeans that are full of holes. Is this proof that we may be over due for a financial depression? Can we just not throw our money away fast enough? I know to some of you I simply sound old and out of touch, but if you've ever stepped away from a situation and then were surprised when you returned to it, like maybe an ongoing t.v. show or something. I feel like this is what is happening.

As for Toucano's, it turns out that we may have caught the flu from our children, so even that part of the night was difficult to fully enjoy. We were a little worried about straying from our diet but it's okay because the binge was quickly followed by the purging. So, we dieted the old fashioned way.

Daddy Daycare

I asked Jake to feed the baby some spaghetti and meatballs the other day as I headed out the door. He just put it on her tray and let her have at it. Then he took these pictures. Why am I surprised? At least it was all cleaned up by the time I came back and these pictures are the only proof of it.

Spirit Week at Lydia's School

This week was spirit week at Lydia's school. The first day was nerd day. I walked around the house looking for mismatched clothing and anything else that looked goofy. It was fun. Then, after I sent her off, I started to worry that maybe she would be the only one in the first grade to dress up. I remember as a kid, having the "what if no one else dresses up?" concern in the back of my mind. She let me dress her, putting her full trust in me. Quickly I came up with the excuse that maybe she needs a jacket and I decided to drive to her school and take a picture of her so that she wouldn't be alone that day. Maybe if I supported her by making a big deal of how much fun it is, it would be fun. I got there and half her school was dressed up including, of course, her teacher. My worry was for nothing.
The next day was rock star day. I had made a trip to the store for a few things for this day and the next, which was pirate day. She loved her rock star stuff and didn't want to wash her hair until the very end of the day even though the paint was burning her scalp. If she decides she wants pink hair when she becomes a teenager, I have no one to blame but myself.
Today, at the end of pirate day she said to me, "I think my friend Lewis' mom loves him more, because he had way cooler outfits." That made me laugh out loud, which she didn't understand.

30 days later

Many of you know that my husband and I have begun a new excercise and diet program called P90X. We have converted our garage into our P90X room. All you need is dumbbells and pull up bars. When you take on this 90 day challenge it becomes a big part of your life. It's a whole program. The word diet usually implies cutting down on eating. That is not the case with this program. One thing I've learned is that you cannot do the excercise without the diet. I skipped dinner one night because I was so busy being in charge of a ward activity. The next day I could not get through a single set of 25 of anything. I felt so dizzy, I had to stop in order to not fall over. In this program you start to view food as fuel rather than as something that your mind wants but isn't good for your body. When you fill your gas tank nobody ever thinks, "Maybe it would be better for my car if I only put in half a tank."

The results are mostly in strength, muscle tone and energy level. I have lost only 4 pounds. We measure 8 different places. I have lost one half inch everywhere, except one whole inch in my hips. My husband has lost 4 inches in his hips. I considered including before and after pictures and I may still after 90 days, but even though I see a big difference in the pictures, I am still not ready to post bikini shots of myself on this blog. The best results are that my body fat percent has gone down 5 percent, from average range to athletic range. My goal is to go down at least 8 more.

My Brilliant Scheme

Lydia was having difficulty adjusting to a new school. She began to act out in class, hoping that the result would be that she return to her old school. I told her she needed to try harder to like this school. I promised her that if she behaved well in class and recieved a sticker from her teacher every day of the week, she could give me a makeover on the weekend. She chose that out of many offers to take her out for a special day with me. As you can see, the plan worked beautifully.

Home On The Range

For those of you who have not visited us, these are some pictures of our home and yard. We have plenty of yard for large gathering, so reunions are welcome. These pictures were taken in the spring when our flowers were in bloom. Since these pictures were taken, we have purchased and planted 23 trees on our property. We often spend vacation time working in the yard rather than actually going on vacation, because we still have several large projects that are now only drawings and ideas, including a playground and a large barn. I don't think any animals are in view in these pictures, but there are about 30 cows and about a dozen horses roaming around behind that barbed wire fence. They belong to various people in our extended family.

The Wild, Wild West

New to blogging

We have had a great summer. No long vacation this year but many fun day trips.
Our newest family pictures were taken in front of the waterfall at BYU. We have taken family pictures about every other year since we've been married, but these feel special because they are the first to contain our complete family. It's really hard to get four kids to smile at the same time, but I really like these pictures anyway.