December Recap, Continued

We made it to the Ward Christmas Breakfast this year for the first time in 10 years. S and O were shepherds in the Nativity and S sang a song with his friend at the microphone.

H and J enjoying breakfast:


Mom and H


Little shepherd O, who carried around a snorkel as a shepherd's crook all week in preparation:


S sang a duet with a friend. I tried to post a video of it, but it was taking forever, so I'll try again later.

After the Breakfast and Nativity J wanted to try out a few of the 4-wheeling features of the new vehicle.

We drove to Saratoga Springs and beyond to get our FJ up snowy foothills.

Here is J, looking pleased with himself:


This is what the kids thought of it:

O and H loved it -- the bumping around, the loud noises issuing forth from the FJ. S? Not so much.

The view outside the ride was much better:

That little truck-shaped dot is in fact a truck that tried to get up to where we were, but failed.

And the mighty little vehicle itself, looking all rugged and manly:

December Recap

December was a month of firsts for our family. A brief recap before we get into the specifics:

Bowling
Nativity solo (and ward Christmas Breakfast, for that matter)
4-wheeling
Skiing
Fires
Hosting Christmas

Let us begin with bowling...

We took the kids bowling for a Family Home Evening at the beginning of December. The last experience I had bowling was when I was 8 with a church youth group. I remember that I didn't like it and hadn't been since. We didn't know what to expect.

Here we are having dinner. H looks wary.


Here is the most experienced bowler of the family. He really liked the feature on the monitor that told how fast the ball went, so speed became his goal.


Here am I. That look of astonishment is disbelief that I actually knocked down some of the pins and didn't get a gutter ball. (This was my 4th or 5th turn. The others were all gutter balls. Yeah!)


S preferred crouching down, setting the ball on the floor, and pushing it.


O was more of the "fling it" type bowler. This is a rare occasion that he stuck around to see where the ball ended up.


H was very happy. Jumping, clapping, yelling, dancing. Bowling for H was awesome!

A good "first" and definitely not a "last!"

He's D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S

My little S spelled down his whole class today to win their spelling bee with the word "dangerous." Tonight I'm one proud mama.

Family Pictures, Part Mommy

Me and the Monkeys...

H & me


O (There is no picture of O and me because he was done with family pictures by then. The last picture of this post was a stretch -- you can tell.)

S, H, and me

My three sons

Family Pictures, Part Daddy

J with the boys...

Just H



J & O


J & S





All my boys

Alone Again

J left this afternoon for Idaho where he'll be until Friday night. It broke my heart to have H writhing in my arms, screaming for Daddy while J drove away. He has been gone A LOT. When he left I thought I was going to go crazy. The Monkeys all decided to switch their volumes to VERY LOUD and fight through dinner. Aaahhhh!!!

But then, dinner was over. H went to bed. S, O, and I had a brief Family Home Evening. O went to bed. S went to bed. Quiet reigns, sanity is restored. O blessed bedtime!

In the immortal words of Dr. Seuss:

Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.

I'm thankful for "another one" with my little monkeys. My heart is full of love for these boys. And their dad? Well, before I can really miss him, he'll be home again too.

Family Pictures, Part I

A couple of my favorites...

Sweet little H

That look is so O

a B&W of S

A fun one of us all

And the one that'll be enlarged for our wall:

I like how J is the focal point of this picture. I could paint a wall the color of his eyes!

This one's for you, Mom!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving at our home was a nice relaxing day.

J went shooting in the morning with Grandpa Lundgren and various males from that side of the family. He came home fairly oozing testosterone. He's a really good shot.

While he was gone we made pies, played, and sat and looked at the Christmas tree that I had set up the night before. When he came home I went for a 5-mile run in gorgeous weather. I haven't run that far since the last week in September (I know -- pitiful), so it was hard at first! It got easier after about 3 1/2 miles, though, so I felt pretty good by the time I got home. Just in time to shower and go to Grandpa and Grandma Lundgren's to put back all the calories I had just burned off. So worth it, though.

Dinner was so good. We also were able to go outside and watch the Atlantis and the space station meet up. That was really cool.

Thanksgiving weekend passed by very well. The best part of it is that I've rediscovered UNO. S and O are both old enough to understand and play with me, and even J played a couple hands of it with me before we went to bed last night. It's the best card game ever invented. I'm thankful for UNO.

More seriously, I'm grateful for all of my blessings. I'm awed and humbled by how much the Lord has given me -- J, the boys, the Gospel, great health, family, stable employment, incredible friends, my right to choose for myself the way I want my life to go. I'm excited for Christmas, which for me is just an expansion and continuation of Thanksgiving. It's truly the best time of year to be thankful and to show gratitude through love and service. Woo hoo! Holidays, here we come!

O turns 5!

I can't believe my little O is already 5! He opted for an "Army Party" this year. Here is his cake:



The number-shaped cookies are a tradition I picked up from J's Grandma Squire. I think she put a cap on the age, so she wouldn't be making cookies for all of the grands and great-grands, but I got them for a few years at least! They are birthday-person specific, so the whole plateful is for the birthday-person to dispose of as he/she wishes. O asked for his in blue this year:


Another tradition from J's side of the family is the "You Are Special Today" plate and cup. O requested crepes for breakfast and hot chocolate for his cup:

Yes, that is my man blowing up the balloons with the air compressor. He thought he was being manly; I thought he was being lazy. That's why I blew up the Spiderman Bop Bag O got from Grandma and Grandpa Kim all by myself. Was it worth the light-headedness to make a point? Sure it was!

O in action blowing out the candles:

In addition to the bop bag, he got a remote-control car from Grandpa and Grandma Lundgren and a skateboard from his crazy parents. He's been asking for one for two years, so we finally caved. I'm anticipating a broken limb or something pretty soon.

Pilgrim

Tuesday was Early American Day for the 3rd Graders. They were encouraged to dress up as an early American, so S went to school like this:

Not bad for putting it together in an hour the night before.

Early

The Holidays started early for our family this year. G & G Kim showed up on our doorstep on Thursday -- three days earlier than originally planned. We didn't tell the kids that they were coming, so I was silently giggling as I listened to O's reply to my suggestion that he see who was pulling in our driveway: "It's just S, isn't it?" followed two seconds later by the shriek, "It's Grandma and Grandpa!!! Mom! H! Grandma and Grandpa Kim are here!!!"

When S arrived home, Grandma presented the Monkeys with gifts -- a book and a notebook each:

The next day they were able to participate in our family pictures (more on that later):

They even had a sleep-over in the front room on Friday night with all the boys. J and I had a great little date night of our own in our room watching the most recent episodes of "Glee" and "The Office."

On Saturday after my mom and I bought gifts for O's birthday and our kids' Christmas, S, O, J, Grandma, and Grandpa went climbing:
,

and then to Pirate Island. While there, they celebrated O's upcoming birthday by getting balloon animals:

They even had one made for H, who stayed home with me to nap. During those three hours of nap and blessed solitude I made 2 quarts of pumpkin ice cream, one pumpkin pie, and 4 dozen cookies. It was a great afternoon.

On Sunday morning after cramming a turkey into my crock pot, our little family left for church. Grandma and Grandpa stayed home to enjoy the quiet. When we burst in the door three hours later we were greeted by the wonderful smell of Thanksgiving.

At 4 o'clock on Sunday, we had our Thanksgiving dinner. Turkey so tender it fell apart, mashed potatoes, corn, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls made from scratch, rice, kim chee, and home made root beer (a brief bragging post on the dinner to come):

O and Grandpa bonded, Grandma was adored (as always!), and we began our holiday season with a bang just a few days early.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

(On a side note, I really liked having Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday before. I actually had forgotten that Thanksgiving wasn't over yet and was puzzled for a minute at the grocery store today as to why there were so many turkeys left in the freezer thing. For me, now that S is out of school for the rest of the week, it's like the week-long vacation after Christmas! I love it!)

Thanksgiving Dinner

I don't usually brag about my accomplishments, really because they are few and far between, but I'm really pleased with how Thanksgiving dinner turned out.

Let's reminisce...

10 years ago J and I had our own little Thanksgiving Dinner. Well, that was the plan. In reality, we choked down a few pieces of charred, burnt turkey and swallowed some cold, lumpy potatoes. Poor J -- newly wed, sitting down to a horrendous dinner, probably wondering if that is to be his fate when it comes to food for the rest of his life. Brave, patient J.

So we took a 10-year break from doing our own Thanksgiving Dinner.

Back to the present...

I don't know why more people don't cook turkey in the crock pot. It's magic. The only drawback is that the turkey comes out so tender it falls apart and is not browned and pretty, but who cares? When the white meat is as tender as the dark and just as juicy, pretty doesn't matter. At least not to me, but that's the way I roll in general -- function over fashion. Anyway...

The rolls came out great. I know this to be true because it's all my pickiest eater ate for dinner. He easily devoured 4 rolls in one sitting. We don't need to reminisce about my bread making attempts -- they're better forgotten!

My mashed potatoes have been extremely popular fare ever since I invested in a potato ricer. Go get one today -- totally worth it.

And the rice and kim chee? Standard side dishes for any extra-special holiday meal if you grew up in the Kim household. Easter ham + rice and kim chee. Christmas duck + rice and kim chee. Thanksgiving turkey + rice and kim chee. It's not a major holiday without rice and kim chee. If you're brave enough to try it, join us for Christmas and experience dinner Kim-style!

That's all. Oh yeah, the pumpkin pie and pumpkin ice cream rocked. End of dinner-bragging.

I Admit It

I saw that vampire movie last night. An awesome friend and I went and sat in a theater with not as many fawning teenage girls as we had expected, more guys with their ladies than we expected, and the best seats in the house (who doesn't like to put their feet up on the bar?). And the movie? Six words: so much better than the first.

J had initially wanted to come with me, which I thought was pretty brave of him, but upon considering H's developing cough, I decided that we'd better not inflict that on a sitter and turned down J's date proposal. I think he was disappointed. He started watching some trailer of it he found while I was across the room texting my afore-mentioned awesome friend. Can I just say that it is much more embarrassing to listen to the trailer than it is to watch it? I thought he was trying to shame me out of going. Try it sometime -- just listen to the trailer without watching it. It's mortifying. But somehow I survived the shame of that acoustical experience, went to the movie, and enjoyed it well enough to stop making fun of Kristen Stewart's one facial expression, the minority couple, and the oohs and ahhs when Jacob took off his shirt that echoed around the theater. It was pretty good. I might have to see it again. I admit that I went to see Twilight twice -- the second time because I had to make sure it wasn't as awful as I thought it was the first time (it was). This one I'm going to see one more time because I liked it. How's that for a girl whose next threadless.com acquisition has to be

?

Nap Time

Today I put H down for a nap. After an hour or so I thought I'd just go check on him. He was so quiet, so I expected to find him peacefully curled up in his blankets, fast asleep. Instead, I opened the door to a buck-naked H standing in the middle of his room looking like this:

He had climbed up his chest of drawers, pulled down the wipe container and the baby powder . The wipes were strewn all over the room and the baby powder was dumped into little piles on the floor and rubbed all over his body. He even managed to get his back. What an amazing kid.

Jump!

I know I should enforce a "no jumping on the furniture" rule, but then we would miss little gems like this:




And this:

A Delightful Decade

Ten years ago today I married this man:



He's been out of town this week and I miss him considerably, so I will not launch into a list of the wonderfulness of the past 10 years (They've been incredible!) I will not tell you how amazing he has been as a husband and father (A-MAZING!) I most definitely will not even attempt to express my love for him (I think I'm addicted to him -- in a good way.) I don't want to make you, my dear readers, vomit. Instead I will just say that marrying him when I did (November 6, 1999) and where I did (Mt. Timpanogos Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) was the best decision of my life.

Happy Belated Halloween!

Halloween started for us this year on Thursday when S wore his ninja costume to school (sans mask) for Storybook Character Costume Day. Inspired by S, O and H wore theirs when they went Visiting Teaching with me. On Friday our ward had its annual Trunk or Treat, complete with chili cook-off and costume contest.



By Saturday we were Halloweened out, but we had to pay the requisite visits to Grandpa-Great, Grandpa Judd (actually that was a surprise visit and this

is all we saw of him, though we heard him inside talking up until we knocked), and Grandma and Grandpa Lundgren. Grandma Lundgren took the boys trick-or-treating around her neighborhood and added to their candy stash.



That night the Great Pumpkin came to our house, collected the boys' candy, and left them each a book. S got the first Fablehaven, O a Dr. Suess book, and H a board book about the USA. I can put up with all the sugar if the Great Pumpkin comes.

Did I Speak Too Soon?

Proudly bragging to J about H's 3 successful days in training pants backfired on me yesterday and this morning in a big way. The 3 wet bottoms we dealt with yesterday were nothing compared to the gift he deposited this morning. We're back to diapers for a while, but I see a tiny pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. 7 1/2 years of diaper changes will soon come to an end -- I can feel it! (Knock on wood!)

Snip!

O is so proud of the haircut he gave himself yesterday. What kind of a mother would let her son walk around with scissors? Uh, yeah -- me. To be fair, he's really quite responsible with scissors most of the time. It's just the fluke day here or there that he decides things need a trim. We've had to discard a few t-shirts that he ventilated back in the summertime. I thought he was over his snippy little habit, but I guess not! Maybe his head simply felt too hot. It happens a lot with dark hair, just attracting all that sunlight up there. When I told him we'd have to buzz his head, he shrieked, "No! Don't cut it all! I want it to look good!" Yes, Son, so do I. Today I did the honors, and he looks pretty good. Even he, master stylist that he is, acknowledged that I did an okay job.