What sledding is all about

Bree and Mason had never had the privilege of sledding, but they're getting old enough to know when they're missing something good. We finally made the trip up to the mountains to visit my cousin Kellianne's family and play in their abundant snow. Getting the kids dressed in snow pants, coats, gloves, and boots proved much more difficult than I had anticipated. There were complaints and tears, and we almost didn't make it outside at all. But, we explained, getting suited up was a necessary part of sledding.

Getting to the sledding hill was quite a trek. Even short distances are cumbersome when you keep sinking in 4-foot snow. There was some whining, and the adults tried to give the kids rides as best we could (I carried Riley inside my coat the whole time, which is also why I'm not in any sledding pictures!). But walking in the snow is part of sledding too. Then the kids didn't want to climb up the hill. We explained that you have to climb up in order to sled down. Chad and Aaron showed their physical prowess and carried or pulled kids up the hill. Their smiles and shrieks as they sped down the hill on their sleds made everything worth it. The hot cocoa afterwards made it worth it too.

We had a great time visiting Kellianne, Aaron, Jenna, Kenzie, and Caleb (Kenzie and Caleb are close to Bree and Mason's ages). We crashed a birthday party that their friends were throwing at Peter Piper Pizza. We enjoyed free pizza and cupcakes, and our kids had tokens to play games and ride the mechanical tractor (so generous of perfect strangers!) Our kids thought they had never experienced anything so amazing! Bree got to sleep on the top bunk, and the adults chatted the evening away over Jiffy Pop. I fell in love with the beautiful neighborhood and life in the mountains. We'll definitely be taking advantage of our cousins' hospitality again soon!

Terrible/Terrific Two

It has not really been my experience that the age of two is necessarily terrible. Mason may be a little crazy at times, climbing and jumping off of anything he possibly can. He has a new bruise every other day to show for it. And he is much more stubborn than Bree was. But he's more of a cuddler. He loves his siblings. And, most importantly, the screeching that started when he was about 15 months old has greatly decreased. "Speech" is increasing instead, and although he is difficult to understand, we are under the impression that he is of adequate intelligence.

So Mason turning two is exciting. We're looking forward to a year of improved language skills, potty training, and lots and lots of sports-themed play time. He loves the soccer ball ("hocca bah") he got for his birthday, and is completely obsessed with his new baseball glove; he wears it everywhere, and falls asleep with it on. We draw the line at wearing the glove at the table, but Mason's become a pretty big fan of food (not that you could tell by looking at the skinny kid), so it's not a big battle to take it off to eat.

We celebrated with a couple friends and a Mickey Mouse cake (it turned out cute and "vintage" looking...true black and vivid red frosting is beyond my grasp). Of course, Mason doesn't really eat cake. But that didn't bother the rest of us. Bree was more than happy to eat Mason's share.

I'm trying to be like Jesus

I've only been the Primary chorister for a few weeks, but today the Primary kids were scheduled to sing something in Sacrament meeting. They had already been working on learning the sign language to "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus" so I just reviewed that with them, then took all the credit today when they sang so sweetly. Of course, I had to scramble to learn the sign language so I wouldn't look like a fool up there...but check out this page at LDS.org! They have a ton of videos with someone signing to the music so you can learn it! Sure beats trying to learn sign from a book; I remember being a Primary kid, and our leader trying to teach us from a piece of paper...it wasn't pretty. Funny how I still remember how unprepared she was.

Snow day in the desert!

We've lived in the high desert of Arizona for almost four years now, and we've gotten a couple dustings of snow since moving here. This, however, was our first really good snow day. We woke up to about three inches of snow everywhere, and it was still snowing! Mason and Bree were so excited--they've never played in the snow in their lives, which, frankly, is a little sad. I bundled them up as best as I could without proper snow gear. They have coats, but no boots or snow pants or gloves. So we did the plastic bag thing over their feet, and vinyl gloves over Bree's mittens (Mason wouldn't allow those). We probably spent as much time prepping for the play time as we actually spent in the snow! They got a kick out of the snowman--I was so excited that we had enough snow on our little patch of lawn to make a decent one. All day long Mason kept pointing out the window saying "So-man!" All in all, a pretty fun snow day. And beautiful too! The snow stuck around all weekend in fact, and wreaked just enough havok so that we were without phone or internet for almost a week. We're just thankful for cell phones, and at least we had electricity!

Reading Challenge Update

I haven't been reading as quickly as I'd hoped. Maybe if I set a goal to read one book a week, in addition to the children's books I read to my kids. Right now, I stand at 21.1 points:

• 1.1 points for reading 11 picture books
• 10 points for City of Bones, a book that takes place in a city I'd like to visit (New York)
• 10 points for City of Glass, a book about war (okay, so it's fantasy war, but still war)

The whole point of this challenge is to get me to branch out into genres that I wouldn't normally dabble in. Right now I'm reading My Cousing Rachel, a mystery first published in 1951. Then I'll take on David Copperfield, which, at more than 800 pages, will earn me a whopping 25 points. And, since I've never read one of Dickens' novels before, I thought I'd start with his own personal favorite.

Right Now

Right now I'm SO over:

Diapers, diapers, diapers. This particular variety is the cheap White Cloud brand found at Walmart, of which Mason wears a size 4. Mason will be turning 2 in a couple weeks. I do not expect potty training to happen any time soon based on his level of interest in the little potty in the bathroom. Changing a smelly diaper this large takes rubber gloves and a gas mask. And although Riley's diapers are so tiny and non-smelly thus far, the soiling frequency is enough to drive me crazy. Not to mention that we figure it costs us at least $2.00 a day to keep that little guy's tush dry.

"Mommy, can I have a snack?" I hear this once an hour. Do I not feed you enough? Is your stomach seriously that small?

Chad, when Riley is crying: "Do you think he needs to be changed? Does he need to be fed?" Gee, let me turn on my x-ray vision/ESP to look through the bedroom wall into the baby's diaper, and simultaneously read his mind to ascertain the reason behind the crying.

Laundry. I can no longer get by doing laundry once a week. And I hate to fold laundry. Wait, let me re-phrase that: I hate to fold little tiny clothing in massive quantities. What's the point? Bree is always changing her outfit, and the other two spill, spit up, or in some other way soil their clothes so frequently, that the hamper fills much too quickly for my liking.

Insurance companies. Ours is threatening to not pay for the kids' last Rabies shots, which are very expensive. Maybe they think preventing our kids from getting Rabies is optional...

Right now I'm into:

Princess Cake and Cookie flavoring. I have finally found how to make my cookies taste just like the ones I crave from Subway! This is it. I bought some online, at the advice of my chef-friend, and this flavoring truly does the trick. I just replaced half of the vanilla called for in my White Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookie recipe, and voila! I'm in love.







My new phone. I was never big into text messages in the past, but now for some reason I can't resist flipping out that cute little keyboard and sending someone a message. Plus, it's red. Gotta love cell phone companies and the way they hook you for two more years with a new phone.







Using the pressure cooker my parents got me for Christmas. Yesterday I cooked a lemon-herb chicken and potato dinner in 8 minutes. Gotta love that.





Exercising with the Wii Fit Plus. Chad and I have an ongoing competition to see who can maintain top score on the Hula Hoop challenge.

Preschool with Bree and her friend Calan. Here's a snippet from their conversation today as they traced their K's:
Calan: "Why do you always say we have to dance together?"
Bree: "Because you're the prince and I'm the princess."
Calan: "Well, I don't really like dancing."
Bree: "Well I do."
Calan: "I don't."

7 Weeks

Riley smiled at me today! I'm pretty sure smiling at 7 weeks beats my other kids and their smile-stinginess. Now if he would just hold that smile still for the camera...