Becca's 3rd Birthday!

 

Today was Becca's third birthday. My baby is 3! Amazing! We had a nice day. I had to go grocery shopping, so I let Becca pick out a toy to buy. She chose those crazy 'velvet posters.' She LOVES to color with markers. She ended up getting 4 posters to color and a big handful of new markers to color with. It was heaven. Of course, after a few minutes of coloring she asked Anna to take over and color for her. Anna was pleased with that.

 

For dinner Becca begged to go to Sweet Tomatoes, William's favorite place in the world. We had a good time. After eating a little salad together we let her open some of her gifts. Then we ate a little desert and headed home to open the rest of the presents.

 

She was really happy, especially with the magnetic dolls from Grammy. We had a little trouble getting her to bed in the end. I made her a batch of GF, DF, EF pumpkin muffins with frosting. But they were still hot at bedtime. So she got all ready for bed and then headed back down to try one. She loved it. At least until the frosting was gone. But that's how she feels about any cupcake.

William in the Airport

William really wanted me to film this and post it online. Here it is! I say in there that it's at the SL airport, but it was really here in Portland.

Christmastime 2010

We didn't take a lot of photos during our trip to Utah at Christmas. It wasn't that we didn't enjoy seeing our family. We just all ended up sick. Really sick. I'm still sick as I write this a month later. Several of the family members were sick when we arrived and we took it over. Anna and I got sick a couple days after Christmas. Fevers, coughs, runny noses, body aches. It was pretty miserable. We took a lot of tylenol and cough syrup and did a lot of resting.

 

 

While Anna and I were miserable, Kip took William and Becca to do things with the family, like this trip to the Mrs Fields Cookie Factory. They had a good time.

The flight home was tough. We all were congested. Our ears were miserable in spite of the gum.

I got my first experience flying next to someone who was terrified of airplanes. It was interesting trying to help him relax. I've never been afraid of flying. I've always figured that I am such a bad driver that statistically the chances of me getting hurt on a flight are way lower than the chances of me getting hurt in the car. And so far I've almost exclusively hit stationary things. And flying is so much faster than driving. Yeah, I'll take an airplane ride over a cross-country road trip with young kids any time.

We made it through the flight just fine, although we were a lot later than we should have been after having to wait through plane de-icing. It was good to get home and continue to recover.

Christmas 2010

 

We had a nice Christmas Morning. We forced William to let us sleep in until 8. He counted the minutes from 7 on, then burst into the girls' room to wake them up. Down we all went and opened gifts.

 

Becca was thrilled to get chocolate in her stocking and thought it made a great breakfast.

 

That afternoon, we packed our stuff and headed to Utah. We got in a little late, just in time for another gift-opening ceremony. It was great to see all the family.

Thanksgiving in Utah

We started our drive to Utah on the 19th of November. We drove all evening and stopped in eastern Oregon at midnight. We found a hotel and settled in for the night. The next morning we slept in then headed off on the second leg of our drive. We got to Kaysville that evening, just in time to soak in the parent's spa before heading to bed. We spent a quiet Sunday there and on Monday headed to the Children's Musuem at the Gateway to spend some time with Kip's mom. We all had a great time.



On Tuesday the rest of the family arrived in Utah - Aunt Robin and her kids, and Aunt Wendy and Uncle Willem and their reformed stray dog. Plus, we had a 'blizzard.' At least, that's what the news predicted it to be. In the end only 3 inches of snow fell and it wasn't that terrible.



We did another trip to the Children's Museum on Wednesday. Uncle Craig met us there with his two older kids.



Thanksgiving day went well, with a lot of good food in spite of my random dietary restrictions. The GF pie crust was wonderful, if you wanted something as a cement substitute. The insides of the pies were still good without it.

Been Booed?

At Halloween, we were Booed. I debated for several days who to pass it on to. The rules state that you must act quickly, but I'm not good at that. Finally I decided on two neighbors, one a church member and one not. I made the cookies and plated them. After getting the kids to bed, I slipped out of the house and over to the next-door neighbor (non-member). Their house was mostly dark, but a light was on in the upstairs master bedroom, so I knocked loud and ran for it to hide behind one of the trees in my yard. I waited for a while but they never came. So I headed across the street to hit the next neighbor. They didn't seem to answer either, although they have teen-agers, so they were probably just out. I went home feeling like a cookie-dropping failure and started cleaning the kitchen. A few minutes later the phone rang. It was the next-door neighbor.

"Was it you?" she asked.

"Maybe," I said, not wanting to outright admit to it, but figuring it was pretty obvious. She told me what had happened.

When I "pounded on the door like a mad-man," their 2 golden retreivers had totally gone ballistic. J. came downstairs to see what was up and, looking out the window on the door saw no one there. The dogs didn't stop and the knocking had been pretty demanding, so he started to think the worst - someone was prowling around their house. He checked all the doors and then called the neighbor one house down, a guy with military training and equipment. J. told R. his fears and asked the neighbor to come check things out. R. gathered up his gear and headed over. He did a full circuit of the house before coming up the front porch and observing the plate of Halloween sugar cookies. He had quite a laugh. Then, he knocked on the door and showed them to J.

So, is doorbell-ditching to leave treats a "Mormon" thing?