Resolution Time

I decided since New Year's Day is right around the corner, it's time to start thinking about goals. I have always had trouble with goals. I think not being able to keep goals is my punishment for not taking the Young Women program seriously. I never got my medallion. This year I have some serious goals to achieve. Here is my list, one for Jeff, and I was even kind enough to come up with some for the kiddies.

My Goals
Eat better (Less goodies)
More service
Worry less
Have more fun

Those are nice and vague so that they can be nearly impossible to complete.

One for Jeff
Stop being so sweet. You are making me look bad. Just kidding. You can keep being sweet. I love it.

Nicky
Go to bed without crying
Wear own clothes (I am in a phase where I like to wear Andy's clothes)
Stop pushing, pulling, gouging or otherwise harming my brother in secret or in plain sight
Share my room with my brother consistently
Become potty trained

Andy
STOP Breastfeeding
Sleep all night
Sleep in own bed all night
Sleep in own bed all night while sharing room with Nicky
Begin to expand tastes to other foods besides Cheerios and chips
Walk (Andy did not start walking for Christmas as previously predicted. We are still waiting.)

I wonder if I am setting myself up for failure here? Any advice on achieving any of these?

I'll Be Walking for Christmas

Last Christmas Andy was two months old. I used to hold him by the Christmas tree at night when it was quiet and think about the baby Jesus. Andy was so quiet and peaceful that I was reminded of the newborn baby Jesus. I was thankful to have a baby boy and to be reminded of the Savior in that special way.

A year later, Andy is not the quiet newborn anymore. He is still mellow but he is developing a little personality. I was telling one of my friends that I felt sad that I am not as excited for Andy’s milestones as I was for Nicky’s. I call it the second child syndrome. I find myself still more excited with Nicky not because I like her more, but because she is the older child always doing the "new" thing. I seem to forget how old Andy is and what he should be doing. I don’t think we have as many pictures of him and I didn’t even let him sit with Santa at our ward Christmas party. I just figured he wouldn’t like it. Now I feel sad that he didn’t even get a chance at the picture, with a crying face or otherwise.

So I am taking the opportunity to remember a few of our favorite things about Andy. He has always been really snuggly and only started moving around 10 months. I think it was because he was so content being held and maybe he felt safer because Nicky desires to rough him up when he is within range on the floor. He still likes to snuggle. He loves to sit with me and put his head against my chest and watch TV. He loves TV and will watch anything we are watching. We don’t watch all the time but he is up for it whenever it is on. He makes kissy sounds with his mouth in the morning and I know he wants some smoochies on his big soft cheeks.

Andy loves to go outside and to the park especially. He says the word, go in such a cute way. He has such a husky boy voice and he says, “GOOOO” while he is climbing up the stairs and while he goes down the slide. When we get home from the park, Andy likes to ring the doorbell before we go in. If we don’t let him, he gets really mad.

Every morning he likes to get in bed beside his daddy and play jungle gym with Jeff’s body. He will climb under and over anything that he can and he likes to get up in Jeff’s face and make noises.

Andy has just started standing by himself and making attempts at walking. He has taken a couple of steps but has not mastered the concept. I think his present to us for Christmas will be that he will be an upright boy and moving on his feet. I am a little sad to let my baby go but excited to see our “Big Boy” be a real big boy.

As I contemplate our second Christmas with Andy, I no longer have the newborn to remind me of Jesus. However, I have the hope in my heart that during Andy's life he can remind those he is close with of the Savior through his choices, actions, and kindness. I know that is every mother's hope for her child and that is my hope for my Big Boy.

A Pregnancy Scare or Disappointment

Last night was a bad night with the kids. One of the worst we’ve had in a long time. So to make a long story short, I just got up with both of them around 3:30 a.m. and we were up for the rest of the day. For the last week I have been feeling fluish and this morning I was extra tired so I decided I must be pregnant. These are things you must decide when you are delirious from lack of sleep since my form of very strong birth control has a failure rate of .01 %. So on my way to the library this morning, I took the kids over the CVS to buy a pregnancy test. On the way, I was imagining how things would work with having a 3rd one. “At least it will not ruin the summer as it will be born in September or something.” Then I was trying to think of what color of van I wanted. I also thought it would be nicer to go in to my OB who told me to never have kids again with an, “oops” instead of an, “oh yes we recklessly planned for this pregnancy. We planned for me to be on bed rest, have blood transfusions, and put my life in danger.” So after all my day dreams I decided it must be true and went in to buy the test. I must say I love the look I got from the lady behind the register when she saw what I was buying and how old my two kids are. After all my little daydreams, it was almost a little disappointing when the test was negative. Not that I even had in mind to have a baby right now, but somehow it didn’t seem so bad. I couldn’t figure out if it was a scare or a disappointment. Jeff definitely considered it a scare and reminded me how we don’t even sleep in our bedroom right now and none of us (excluding Nicky) have had a decent night’s sleep in over a year. Sometimes I surprise myself with what I am ready to put up with if a little “accident” should occur.

That's Poppycock!

The new CVS pharmacy had a deal going where you could get a $25.00 gift certificate when you got a new prescription filled. Since the kids need prescriptions all the time, we have racked up the bucks at the CVS. Every time I send Jeff out with the kids he makes a trip to CVS and goes on a shopping spree for junk foods. Jeff says he needs to “stock” the house with some snacks. I try to remind him that the snackers around here really need to eat more apples and grapes. Anyhow, he came home the other day with two bags of Poppycock. We had a good chuckle about the name because it sounds a little naughty and Jeff is a pervert. I reminded him that it is British English terminology and means, “that’s nonsense.” Probably you would hear a British old lady say, “that’s poppycock!”

Now it may seem random, but Poppycock got me thinking about my Grandma Peck. She had a penchant for all things Poppycock and Fiddle Faddle, especially around Christmas. I guess I like thinking of Grandma this time of year because she is an example of a person who lived like it was Christmas all year round. I remember that you had to be careful about what you admired or played with at Grandma’s house because Grandma would give it to you. Grandma always had a stash of cookies in the skinny cupboard above her kitchen sink. She wondered if the grandkids loved her or the cookies more because the cookies were the first thing we wanted to see when we came in the house. I love you more Grandma. I loved the way her soft cheeks felt when I kissed her. They were a combination of soft, wrinkled leather and smooshy jello. She kept the house around 85 degrees in the winter so that you were removing layers down to the bare minimum while you visited. I loved the way she forgot that she had already told a story and retold it again adding more exaggerated and exciting details. There are many things I love and miss about Grandma. I hope that when I am a Grandma, I can be remembered like she is for the way she loved her family and her giving personality. So Grandma, whilst I eat my Pecan Poppycock, I am thinking of you. You are my Christmas angel and are always in my heart.

Make sure to listen to this audio file. It's Nicky's contribution to this blog.

Singy Girl and Funny Boy

Last night at the Christmas Party, the primary children were doing a couple of songs for the program. When they went up to the stage, Nicky asked to go up too. She is so into singing. We had some friends with us that have a daughter, Reagan, who is Nicky's age. Reagan wanted to go up on the stage too. So there they were on the front row, trying to sing a long and do the sign language to Silent Night. Too cute!

Here is a picture of Nicky with Santa Claus. I couldn't believe how excited she was and she asked for a kite. Santa said, "Are you sure you don't want anything more extravagant and expensive?" Funny.

Here are some unrelated pics of Andy in his socks and diaper. He cracks us up lately with his funny climbing and yelling.

I think he is practicing for that Russian dance in the Nutcracker here.

Christmas Cards

The only time I look forward to getting the mail is in December. In December I find Christmas cards amongst the bills and junk mail. I love Christmas cards and the pictures of my family and my friends and their families. I put them on the refrigerator and every time I walk by I feel so happy. I love sending out our cards too. While I address my envelopes I think of each friend or family member. I remember the way that they touched my life, made me happy, or helped influence me to move in a better direction. Life is funny in that friends come and go. It is kind of like they are characters in a novel that is one's life. When old friends move away there are always new friends to come. It is almost like certain friends were meant for a special time period in my life. I hear it is sad but common for a lot of people to lose touch with friends as they get married and move away. I have had the experience of losing touch with some friends as well moving away from family. I love that at Christmas, there are the cards to remind me of many friends from the past as well as current friends. I remember how blessed I am that I have family and friends in my life.

Something is Not Right in Utah

Over the weekend, Nicky kept using the phrase, “something's not right” when she was trying to go to sleep. The first night, “something was not right” with her blanket, fingers, toes, etc. The second night, she cried and cried because “something was not right with Mommy’s hair.” This one made me laugh although I should have been offended because I just paid fifty dollars for my new layered hair cut. I guess we’ve all had the feeling that “something's not right” and I had that feeling too when I visited my family in Utah over the weekend.

Something was not right with Jeff not being there. The second day I called him and told him that I was in a depression without him. I didn’t just miss him because he is a big help with the kids, but just everything in Utah reminds me of him for some reason. I missed my J. So he flew in Friday night and everything was better. He got there just in time for the first snow of the year Saturday morning. Nicky thought the world was a snow cone and was eating snow the rest of the trip.

Something is not right with my niece Jackie dating and having boyfriends. How did she grow up so quick?

Something is not right with my 13-14 year old niece and nephews (BG, Desi, and Jordan) thinking of me as an “older” momish person. It seems like yesterday that I was in junior high and I can remember when they were all born. Where does the time go?

Something is not right with Grandma Dee (my mom). We all know this but I was surprised when she came up from behind me when I was giving Nicky and Andy a bath and poured toilet bowl cleaner in their bath with them. I quickly got them out and restored clean water without making too big of a deal about it. Guess she was trying to give them a bubble bath or something. I miss talking to my mom and she has gotten a lot quieter lately. I wonder what she thinks about when she just looks around. She had a moment of craziness throwing a ball with the grandkids. She got the meanest look on her face when she was throwing. We were all laughing so hard at her expressions. My goodness, where is that rage coming from?

With Nicky

Evil, throwing the ball face.

Something is not right with all the crazy Christmas decorations in Lehi. But that is one of my favorite things about Utah. Everything is so tastefully done in San Diego where we live. I love how people just get all creative even if it is tacky. Here are a couple of my long time favorites. The shooting star and some other concoction.

Something is not right in Utah when Kip, Heather, kids, Gregg, Todd, and Kelly are all out-of-town. I missed seeing you all. We had fun with Gregg’s kids and Amber and kids. Amber made the most delicious dinner of honey baked ham and scalloped potatoes and S’s rolls. Jeff hasn’t been that well fed in months. We love spending time with Amber and kids. Something wasn’t right when we had to leave them all behind at Temple Square. We love you guys.