Lucy Jane Turns TWO!

January 23, 2010                                                          January 23, 2012

Lucy Jane had her second birthday! She had a wonderful birthday complete with Charlie being able to spend the whole day with her. Charlie is by far her favorite person in the world so it was a nice blessing that he did not have school on her birthday. She started her morning by opening a couple of gifts from Grandma.

I love the picture on the right because the boys are playing with her Sesame Street toy (she really does love it too) and she is reading a book, so Lucy.

 

It was a chilly day so I loaded the kids in the van and we went to Chuck E Cheese! We got there shortly after it opened so we had the place to ourselves for a good hour. Everyone had a great time and won lots of tickets. Matthew was very reserved about spending his tokens so we had to all help him out at the end. After Chuck E Cheese we stopped at Sam’s for lunch where everyone happily ate.

The boys helped me decorate her cake while she slept (they advised) and she was very happy with the results.I drew a huge blank on dinner but Seth saved the day with Chocolate Waffles and Vanilla Cream Sauce (which mysteriously looked and tasted like frosting). I did bring out some oranges to add a little nutritional value.

We picked up the bear (minus the overalls) at the Chelsea Teddy Bear Factory in Michigan over a year ago. Lucy never had much love for the bear so I had the brilliant idea of turning it into Corduroy who she LOVES. I’m happy with the results (even though it took twice as long as I expected) but unfortunately Lucy has no interest in him. Oh well, I’m sure eventually she’ll  love him, what’s not to love? Maybe a purple pocket would help?

I believe Charlie summed it up the best on her birthday when he exclaimed, “Oh we just love Lucy so much, don’t we?” Yes we do! We love having this little girl as part of our family and it’s been fun to see the spice a little girl has brought. She is talking up a storm and has followed the lead from her brother by announcing every evening at the dinner table that, “my tummy hurts!”  She has discovered the wonderful world of books and would let me read to her all day. If I ever sit down on the couch for a minute she will start to pile books on top of me. I’m thankful for this love because she spends less time climbing on chairs and getting into things. She loves cucumbers and apples and prefers to eat apples whole just like her brothers (she must be a third child because I am sure I never would have allowed Charlie to eat a non cut-up apple at 2).

I’m excited for all the fun this next year of life will bring her (a new baby bother/sister and potty training)!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Rockville City hosted a Chinese New Year party complete with parade on Saturday morning (21st). Of course the ONLY real snow we have received this year came that morning. We braved the weather and took the kids to see the parade of which the Chinese dragon was the best part(I forgot the camera). They hosted some kids activities above the library but it was too crowded so we took the dragon masks home to decorate.

The Boys were excited to get outside and FINALLY play in the snow, who new it would take until the end of January for this to happen?

Sesame Street Love

Seth’s Grandma sent us an old school Sesame Street book and Lucy became completely obsessed with it and all the characters.  It was even missing the last few pages and the binding was in a bad shape. In an effort to keep sanity I thought to get some more Sesame Street books from the library. Unfortunately our library had NO Sesame Street books that didn’t revolve around Elmo (Elmo wasn’t even in the book we had).

Then came our Relief Society “Soup n’ Swap.” They hold this event every January where people sign up to make delicious soups and everyone brings things in their home they don’t want anymore. They organized all the stuff in the Relief Society room while we were eating and then we all went in to find a few treasures (I was actually hoping I wouldn’t find anything because we already have enough stuff). Look what I stumbled onto!!!!!

They are all in MINT condition!! Two were published in 92’ and the rest in 80’! The book in the corner, “Look What I Found!” is actually the book that started the obsession in the first place except this copy has the last three pages in tact!  I can’t even describe Lucy’s euphoria when she saw the books the next morning (she wasn’t even that excited Christmas morning).  We have read them all many times and her favorite characters are Ernie, Big Bird, and the Count.

A 65 degree day in January!

We took the kids back to the Native American Smithsonian Museum because we only had time to use the restroom the last time we were there. The highlight of the museum was watching a father and son team carve and paint a real totem pole that was going on display the following week. I asked him what he does if he makes a mistake and his reply was,“I hide them, of course.” The kids also enjoyed playing in the “Kids Discovery Center” where they built an igloo.

 

The best part of the morning was walking around downtown in the warm weather where we shed our coats and jackets.  It felt like spring with all the millions of runners and the green grass.

We swung by the Botanical gardens on the way back to the car and were very impressed. The plants were beautiful and we even found a coco bean plant. It was hard not to just reach over and pick off a pod as a souvenir. 

Random pictures of Lucy’s awesome bead-head in the morning!

The thumb is back.

Seven weeks after severing his tendon and five weeks after surgery, Seth got his thumb back (and his ability to change diapers and wash dishes). Thankfully, it hasn’t caused him a whole lot of pain but he did get really tired of all the questions. Seth isn’t really into getting attention but when you are wearing a fancy brace like that with a tension string, you get a lot of attention. His thumb is doing really well and he has most of his mobility back plus a really cool scar.

Before

After

Beyond Christmas and New Years!

I think the week after Christmas is about the greatest week that ever existed!  I loved it because Charlie was home, Seth’s work schedule was “relaxed” and we didn’t have to do the morning rush. We didn’t really go anywhere and I think there were a couple of days the kids stayed in their pjs all day long. We also read and re-read all the new books and played lots of games!

All I wanted for Christmas was a date night with Seth. I found a clipping in the paper advertising “Pride and Prejudice” the play at a small theater in Bethesda (It played through the holidays). I clipped it out and hung it on the fridge and then after a few days I made my request very specific to Seth.  He came through and our seats were great and cheap and he even arranged all the babysitting. They have a “young patrons” price bracket so if you are thirty or younger you can get $10 tickets! The play was really well done and I know from all the chuckles that even Seth enjoyed it. My favorite characters were Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Collins. I wasn’t a huge fan of Elizabeth but good old Darcy made up for it.

On New Year’s Eve we all engaged in some “deep cleaning” and organizing. I love Christmas but I love putting all the extra stuff away as well! That evening we decided to eat-out at Café Rio. It was a Saturday night and the place was nearly empty. Every time we have gone there before we have seen someone from our ward and the tradition continues. Just as we were sitting down with our food, two families from our ward walked in. After we returned home we frosted mint brownies and talked about goals for the new year. My goal was something very superficial and then Charlie announced that he wanted to read the whole Book Of Mormon before he is baptized. Once again, where did he come from? I think it helps that the primary made a challenge to all the senior primary kids to read it by the end of the year. Of course he’s already made a lot of progress but he is about to embark on the “Isaiah chapters” so we’ll se if he can keep up the pace.  

Since we were finally all well, we all got to go to church together on New Years Day.

I love the New Year and the weather has been so temperate here that I’m hoping the January/February blahs will pass right over this house.

Our First DC Christmas!

We missed being with our families for Christmas but the memories of the crazy travel, weather, and sickness from last year made us grateful for our quiet calm Christmas.  Christmas was on verge of spiraling downward when Matthew threw-up shortly after we put him to bed Christmas Eve. He said he didn’t feel well but thankfully he went back to sleep  (we did think it was a little ironic that the last time this event happened was on the eve of Charlie’s birthday party). While cleaning up Matthew’s “incident” I began to realize I was not feeling all that well myself. I went to bed early hoping all would be well in the morning. Thankfully Matthew was perfect in the morning and his Christmas was a dream come true. I did not fare so well and spent most of the day sleeping or huddled under the Christmas blanket. Who gets the stomach flu on Christmas day?  But then again, Seth was home to be the parent and the kids were completely entertained with their toys!

The kids made gifts for each other this year (Pictured on the left) and it was nice to see them more excited about giving than getting. Charlie made marshmallow guns out of PVC pipe (we used a lot of PVC this year) and Matthew “mod-poged” a collage of pictures onto a notebook for each sibling. I actually forgot about what Lucy should give her brothers so in the end they got a pack of bubble gum from her which they treasured.

This is “the tent!”  It actually worked and I’m very happy with the final product. I don’t think I would have made it if I had realized the timely nature of all the sewing and gluing, but thankfully it worked!!!  This never would have happened without the Pythagorean theorem, Netflix, and my dear husband who was a great cheerleader and sacrificed a tendon in his thumb while constructing the PVC structure (only a few more days until he can take his brace off)! The kids love it and they have already spent many hours playing in it. (we have it set-up in our basement)

Showing off their new bikes!

Thankfully, the stomach bug I had was quick and I was up and going the next day. This worked well because Seth and Lucy were both down with it the day after Christmas. It was strange to see Lucy so lethargic. She was either asleep or lying on the couch the whole day. This is very out of character for her but it gave me somewhat of a break.  Eventually we all got well and still had lots of time for playing new games and reading new books!

My favorite memory of Christmas was Christmas Eve when we sat around in a circle as a family and read the nativity story. I was given an amazing nativity binder that has the story all printed up with corresponding pictures of each event and song. It’s hard to see your kids grow up but it’s a blessing to be able to teach them the sweet basics of the gospel and have them understand:)

Graham Cracker houses and the National Tree!

We continued our tradition of making graham cracker houses every Christmas Eve Eve. The Halgrens and Lees joined us for the fun and I think we finally learned from all of our mistakes so the decorating was enjoyable (we didn’t preform the houses in advance last year and it was impossible to get them to stay up).  Lucy missed Henry who was home sick with Scarlett Fever (and his dad) but everybody who came had a grand time decorating and playing.

James should have received an award for “best construction.” His house included a sleigh and Rudolph made out of candy!

 

On Christmas Eve morning, we ventured into the city to take a look of the National Christmas tree. The weather was beautiful and it was strange to think it was Christmas eve with the blue skies and green grass.  The tree was a little disappointing and reminded me of something out of “Whoville.” The real fun was the large train set they had at the base of the tree. Our boys could have stayed all day to watch the trains. They also have 50 plus trees surrounding the National Tree that are decorated for each state. We enjoyed finding all the state trees we had connections to. 

L-The tree and Washington Monument   R- Us in front of the White House.