Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Rocky Mouth Cyn ~ June 2010

We took a short and quick hike up a small local canyon to celebrate the still-cool weather and get outdoors on a free afternoon. It was a big hit. Mason loves throwing rocks, and a place called "Rocky Mouth" is perfect for that. Claire loves being outside.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Mother's Day program

One joy of being a M.O.P. is the annual Mother's Day program. Mason's teacher asked him some questions about me and filled out the questionnaire then they read all of them out loud in a small presentation to the parents. They sang a couple of songs and made us a little keepsake with their hand prints. All in all it was a good day. Plus, Mason didn't totally out me like my friend's four-year-old outed her by saying that she likes to dump water on him.

I Know My Mother Well

by: Mason

1. My mom looks prettiest when "it's happy mother's day".

2. My mom's favorite food is "toast".

3. My mom's eyes are "green".

4. My mom likes to "work at our house".

5. She is happy when "I'm being a good boy".

6. My mom is "29" years old.

7. If my mom could go anywhere she would go "for a walk with me".

8. Her best friend is "Kristi".

9. Her job is "to kiss".

10. I love my mom because "she's wonderful".

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Penguins

We went to the aquarium to see the new penguin exhibit sometime in April. Apparently, as far as photojournaling goes I sucked March right up. Anyway, so we went; we pushed through the large crowds of unruly children and their annoying parents; we saw penguins from afar. The end. I still think I deserve a medal for not running any cars over in the parking lot, but it was a close call and a sore test of my self-control.

Regardless, the kids had fun and that's what counts, yeah?

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Hot Springs Aren't That Hot in April

We busted out the trailer and took a trip up to Crystal Hot Springs last April. We discovered Claire is a fish and splashed and played until the rain drove us away. Uncle Paul joined us and much fun was had. Claire, by the way? A total fish. I think she wishes swimming lessons started earlier than age 3. But that's another post -- I'm not to the summertime catch-ups yet.

Mason is nothing if not a typical kid - we drive all that way and all he wants to do is play in the rocks and dirt.

Dinner - french bread pizza made in the trailer oven. Camping Lite has some benefits!

Mason hearts Mom's camera.

Baby Claire loves walks. And her toes.

Alan and Mason diverted from our walk to wander the nearby train tracks. They found this "squished money" and put some "normal money" down. Mason plans to go back and find the ones we put next time. I don't know how he plans to prove it was his money, but regardless of that, we'll be along for the ride.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Making Our House a Home

We've lived here for seven years you say? Well, that's enough out of you. We finally invested in a couch worth sitting on and I used that as motivation to paint. I have some grand aspirations to put up some wall-stuff (a shelf, a sign with my favorite Mother Teresa quote, etc.) but it hasn't happened as of yet. But hey, we haven't made it to the one-year mark since we painted so I still have hope.

I ended up going with a blueish-gray color called Agave. I love this color and I only love it more the longer we go. I can't remember the name of the tan I selected, but it's a bit darker than I intended. I read that a beachy palette is 'calming' so that was my goal (because we could use a calming influence, right?) but I think I ended up somewhere closer to desert than beach.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Crafting for Valentines

I came up with a little project to do for Valentine's Day, thinking it would be good if Mason and I did a craft or something together. See, when Claire was first born and I was personally waist-deep in the newborn "eat, poop, cry, sleep" cycle, I was so tired that I wasn't up for much. I'm afraid to admit that a lot of the interaction Mason and I had for a while was playing MarioKart on the Wii during Claire's short, frequent naps.

So by the time that had worn off last winter or so, I started itching for something undigital (is that I word? More importantly, do I care?) to do and stumbled upon this. I decided it would make a great gift for grandmas....probably in 2011 because we actually finished them much later than Valentines Day 2010. Sorry, grandmas.

Gather the following supplies (and a preschooler anxious to paint):

-wooden picture frames in desired size; we did 4"X6" openings. They came in a two pack. Bonus!

-acrylic paint in desired colors (Lilac and Holiday Red for us)

-dirt cheap sponge paintbrushes you can toss when you're done

-lots and lots of conversation hearts

-glue - any kind. I used hot glue.

-resin finishing spray (unless you want to dip all of it in resin. I didn't.)

Cover the world in newspaper. Set the kid loose with the paint.

Separate out the damaged hearts. Snacktime! He ate the reject pile. It saved me from disposing of it.

Draw glue on picture frame, one line at a time, and set hearts as straight and consistently as possible. Keep going until...

Voila! Candy-coated frames. I then took these (and some of the newspaper) outside to the porch and finished them off with the resin spray. It said it would take 24 hours to dry, but outside in the wind it took about an hour. I didn't get anything fancy, like a gloss finish, for the spray so it didn't change the look at all.

I bought some glass (our frames didn't come with it) to put inside and maybe this year I'll get pictures taken of the kids for Valentines Day and pass the whole thing on to the grandmas. Nothing like crafting AND finishing in a timely manner.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Making a Memory (Board)

I got crafty and never posted it. You would think I would've been proud of one of the four things I made for my house and posted the how-to before the Christmas letter mass production. But 'tis not so. At least I'm posting it now, right?

So, I had a blank spot on the wall in Claire's room and had a lot of trouble deciding what to do. I wanted to do something that involved photographs in a cute way. I now see how stupid that was considering the photographs we have are all digital and rarely printed. Whatever. I'm also considering making one for a Christmas card display. Yay, another post!

Okay, so here's what I decided: it's a memory board. There weren't so many of them available in stores this time last year, and the ones on etsy are horribly over-priced. I considered joining and selling because they turn that big of a profit. It cost less than $10 to make, but I no longer have exact prices. Sorry. The O/C blogger in me is a little bit ashamed.

I set out, armed with Google and a desire to make something cute for the ladybug. Here's the website I started with. I disagreed with some of his/her directions and went my own way. I think it worked out.

-16" X 20" stretched artist's canvas

-2/3 yard cotton fabric in a cute pattern

-2/3 yard polyester batting (in a sheet)-4 1/2 yards woven ribbon

-Buttons (see notes)

-upholstery thread and a tapestry needle

-staple gun

How-to:

1. Cut fabric into a 20-inch by 24-inch rectangle and iron.

2. Cut two 16-inch by 20-inch squares from batting. Stack on artist's canvas. Place fabric over batting. Carefully overturn canvas so you're working on the backside.

3. Staple fabric to frame of canvas, in approximate one-inch increments, pulling fabric tightly as you go. Fit should be snug but not so tight it distorts the pattern on the fabric. Fit fabric to corners carefully, folding as necessary to make it fit.

4. Attach ribbon in an X shape. Staple one end of ribbon, pull tightly across the canvas and staple the second end. Do two corner-to-corner, then arrange next ribbons parallel to the X to form diamond shapes.

5. Using upholstery thread, sew buttons through all layers at intersections of ribbon. Tie ends of upholstery thread tightly.

Notes:

-Yes, I can iron. Somewhat. Impressed?

- Use whatever size of canvas you want. My favorite is 16X16. You can usually find the canvases in two-packs at any craft store for fairly cheap.

-Stretchy ribbon is really, really hard to work with for this.

-I could never get the shanked buttons in the original directions to work properly. I sewed regular four-hole buttons on and then had Alan cut the shanks off so I could hot glue them on for the decorative effect.

-He/she suggests pulling the ribbon taut but not tight; I disagree because if it isn't tight the pictures or whatever you put on it will slip through.

So it worked out well enough that this board contrasts nicely with the curtains I (my mother-in-law) made a few months later. More on those in an upcoming post.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Guns 'N Hoses

For the eighth straight year, Alan played in the annual Guns 'N Hoses charity hockey game. This year, they split the proceeds (which in the end, was a pretty awe-inspiring total!) between a few different places, most notably to the family of a Millard County deputy who was killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop just a few weeks before the game. It was, to me, a great mark of the success they have had, that they could just react to such a tragedy with aid. That has always been their goal and it is impressive to me that, even through something this small that has become huge, they have reached it. I know they'll keep striving to help more public safety officers who are the victims of nothing more than doing their job.

The games are always lots of fun and full of good-spirited trash-talking. At the end of the day, everyone has to go back to work where they basically play for the same team. But the firefighters still won. You would think I would experience some difficulty in loyalty there. Since I started my job, police officers hold a special place in my heart.

Yeah, no difficulty. I hope our firefighters win again next year.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Hangin' at Home

One thing I re-learned about having a small baby in the house is that it's virtually impossible to make plans on a regular basis. Things like long feedings, multiple naps a day, and trying to have a set bedtime make it really difficult to even leave the house sometimes. And sometimes the best laid plans get tossed to the side when someone hasn't had a quality nap and they're really cranky.

Throw that into the mix of Mason having school three mornings a week, and mom and dad's insane work schedules, and it meant we spent more time in 2010 doing something a little unfamiliar to us: hanging out at home. Whether it was some combination of three or all four of us, we spent a lot of time in our yard and our home. We read books, we played games, we watched movies and television shows and went for walks. We really became fans of the new local library and got a subscription to Netflix. The kids love splashing in the bathtub together. Over the course of the year, we remembered that we really are each other's favorite people. We genuinely like each other, and that's a pretty important thing at the base of any family life.

Mason also developed a love of photography. I have lots of pictures (I know I posted about this once before) of noses, the ceiling, blurry pictures of Sir Topham Hat from Thomas, and closeups that are nothing but Claire's bright blue eyes. But more important than pictures are the inside jokes, the learning moments, and the innumerable memories of two kids laughing their heads off while they learned fun new (and sometimes not parent-sanctioned) ways to entertain themselves.

30Jan2010

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Our Hard-Workin' Daddy, January 2010

From R-L: Matt, Ryan, Alan

There was a group of promotions to various positions and all their wives came out for the badge pinning.

Which means all their wives got pictures of them standing there fidgeting- except me. Alan doesn't really fidget much.

In the middle of January, we had the opportunity (really, just mom did -- the kids had the opportunity to hang out with grandma) to watch Alan formally accept his promotion to Engineer with the fire department. They had a badge pinning ceremony that he was super glad I didn't a) take pictures of or b) poke him with the pin because those badges are pretty sharp.

He has worked so hard at the fire department and the flight agency, always studying and practicing, taking classes, setting goals and always trying to find a way to be better. He approaches his job with humility, respect for his co-workers (not to say that he doesn't have a comfortable brotherhood there, because they are all totally troublemakers), and constant excitement. His love of his job is a really fun thing to watch, and his jobs are a huge part of his life. We consider all of his co-workers family and we are so grateful to be part of this crazy world that has changed our whole life. It makes a huge difference and a happy family when dad is happy at work - as old-fashioned as that may sound.

Plus, we aren't entirely sure Mason realizes that it's a special thing he gets to see fire engines and helicopters when he visits dad at work. Both of Alan's jobs are a little bit of boy heaven, regardless of the age of the boy.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter: Snowmobiling trip, January 2010

We started off the year right (well, at least according to the boys): we went with Alan's side of the family to a little cabin for some snowmobiling and hanging out. Alan's cousin Corby is a HUGE outdoorsman (like the word 'huge' doesn't do him justice, seriously-- he is way into any manner of outdoor activity; being that he is a dad of four little ones, he is also really good at planning for kids during all these activities) and brought a small snowmobile along so Mason could drive it himself. Big hit.

We played games, ate tons of food and enjoyed quality family time before everyone went their separate ways--which we'll get to in subsequent posts. Here are the pictures! (In random order because I still am not sure how blogger uploads this junk.)

The frosty view from upstairs of our cabin.

Baby Claire, all bundled up and ready to go.

Hey look! We were all sitting still and looking at the same camera.... almost.

Alan being...himself. Paul being a fun uncle.

Mason was a little skeptical on the first go--grandma and grandpa had to help convince him it was okay.

Mason and his dad, all ready to go.

Mason was not necessarily excited. In the end, he loved it so much he napped ON THE SNOWMOBILE.

Mason got the camera; mom fed the baby. The trip summed up in two sentences.

Mason got the camera. Again. Sorry, Paul and Leah.

Corby and the kid-sized snowmobile were a huge hit.

Our 2010 Family Christmas Letter

So I made two executive decisions. The first was that I'm not going to stuff our Christmas cards with Christmas letters like I normally do. I am far too lazy to try condensing this crazy year down to one page, find the paper, print it, fold it, and yada yada yada.

The second was that I'm going to actually post on the blog and utilize it as our Christmas letter.

So starting from now until Christmas, I'm going to use each day in December to catch you up to speed on what we've done this year. I'm going to leave a link to this post at the very tip-top of the blog so if you're new here and you were referred here by the note in our Christmas cards, you'll know where to look first. If I get really ambitious with this goal, I'll come back and link to every day I post in this spot so it's like a one-stop sort of deal. Don't hold you breath on the last one. As you can tell I have not been blog-ambitious in a long, long time.

So tomorrow's post will just start in January 2010 with the things I've meant to post but haven't done and will go chronologically through the year. I hope you all enjoy it and I hope I keep up with it.