Mechanic-in-law

Earlier this month we started to have trouble with our mini-van.  We took it to the repair shop and learned we needed a new radiator.  After getting a quote for parts and labor, I sent a quick text to my brother-in-law Seth asking for a second opinion, "does this seem appropriate?"

I expected him to write back, "yep, bite the bullet and pay the bill."

Instead, he essentially responded, "no way, fly me up and I can get it done for a quarter of that price."  Good joke, right?

Would you believe that it actually ended up being less expensive to buy him a plane ticket to fly up from California (with a new radiator in his checked luggage) than the original repair quote?  Plus (plus!!), he brought my sister, Katie, and their two little girls with them (ages 22 months and 4 weeks - so they both fly free).  So, not only did we save money on getting the car fixed, we also got to visit with the Harps for the weekend and meet their brand new baby, Piper!

I like to think it was a win-win situation because Katie and Seth were celebrating their 5-year wedding Anniversary that weekend and had wanted to do something different and fun.  We watched their girls while they spend Saturday evening exploring downtown Seattle and trying not to freeze their California bums off.

They arrived Friday evening and left Monday, so it was a short trip.  I had wanted to do a few touristy things with them, but Mother Nature had other ideas.  A snow storm blew in Saturday night, so we spent our time playing in the snow instead.  

Seth taught Bryce and Aubree how to build a snowman and have a proper snowball fight.  They idolize him.

Thane chased Anna around the yard until she decided she'd had enough of snow and was ready to go back inside.

Adorable baby Piper fell asleep every time I held her and found a permanent place in my heart.  

Despite the fact that Katie is super-woman (did I mention Piper was only 4 weeks old?), we still managed to wipe her out.  Late nights playing games and talking will do that.  

Oh yeah, and of course Seth fixed our van perfectly.  I guess he's superman.

Now I just need to continue my genius plan to get them to move up here and be my neighbor...

Snow Fun and s'NOw Fun

Seattle only gets snow about one or two weeks a year, which I generally consider to be just the right amount to enjoy, without having to deal with it on a regular basis.  Since snow is a relatively rare occurrence, when it started to snow last weekend, the kids were delighted.  And since this year we actually have proper snow gear, it actually was rather delightful to get out and play in the fluffy white stuff.

It took a few days to build up a tolerance and understanding of how to play in the snow, but after three or four days, we finally managed to stay out and play for a couple hours (most days we'd top out at 30 min. to an hour - we still have some Florida left in us, I guess).

Aubree and Bryce's favorite activity was throwing snow balls at each other, a remnant of their time with Uncle Seth (more on that soon).  Aubree could also frequently be found eating snow and building snow castles.  Thane did great the first few days, but as the snow drifts got deeper, he got frustrated that he couldn't keep his footing and kept falling down.

Unfortunately, the good times were not destined to continue.  Wednesday night the temperature warmed up just enough that instead of snow, we received significant amounts of freezing rain.  We woke up to find all of our trees coated with at least an inch of ice on every branch.  After eating breakfast, the kids and I were looking out the window at all the crazy looking trees and bushes, when, CRASH!, right before our eyes (and only 3 feet away), the tree in our front yard fell (roots and all) onto the ground.  Thankfully it fell away from the house and didn't hit any people or property.  Bryce's immediate response was to cry.  Not because he was scared, but because, as he stated, "I really didn't want that tree to fall."  My immediate response was to think, "it's days like these when I'm really glad we're just renting."

Also, since Seattle doesn't get snow often, when snow does come, the whole city essentially shuts down.  Snow plows? What are they?  So, from Tuesday on, Mark was working from home.  That started out really well (the kids didn't know he was home), and got progressively more difficult for a variety of reasons.  After the tree fell on Thursday, Mark came running upstairs and commented, "what do we need to do to prepare for a power outage, because with this weather, it's bound to happen."

Within a couple hours, his prediction proved true.  The first day without power wasn't too bad, I guess.  We have a gas fireplace that we could turn on when it got too cold and bundled up in lots of blankets.  Of course, we had cold cereal for dinner, but we were relatively safe and warm.

Though outside our home might have looked a little like it had been hit by a hurricane, Mark and I realized that the biggest difference between losing your power due to a Florida hurricane compared to an Washington ice-storm, is that in Washington there's a very simple trick to save all your fridge and freezer food from spoiling - put it outside.

The storm continued that night, albeit more mildly.  I spent many hours laying awake listening to trees crack and fall.  In the morning we discovered all the trees in our backyard looking suspiciously like weeping willows.  The power was still out and the kids and I had been cooped up* in the house since Monday (because all of our regular activities had been cancelled and the roads were impassible).  Mark braved the roads to work and I decided we were going to get out and do something no matter what! (*As a brief aside - this week taught me an important lesson: no social interaction makes Erin a very grumpy and unmotivated person).

So we trekked to Target and had (a hot!) lunch and gathered what additional supplies we might need for an extended power outage.  When we returned home, we were thrilled (beyond thrilled), to discover the power had returned.  Hurray!!!  Hurray for power!!  Oh, I feel like such a spoiled wimp, but I really, really like electricity.  Some people in our ward are still without power and I feel so bad for them (and I'm also really thankful it's not us).  Regardless, I'm pretty much done with snow this year.  

Christmas Day 2011

Once I learned the "truth" about Santa, I immediately enlisted myself as "Santa's helper."  I loved staying up late on Christmas Eve helping my mom wrap presents and set out piles of gifts (because, even if everyone isn't getting much, with 10 people in the family, there were always piles of presents).  There was nothing I liked more than seeing the living room sparkling in the glow of the Christmas tree lights, filled with festively wrapped presents, and somehow, alive with joy and excitement.

Fast forward twenty years - nothing much has changed.  

Christmas Eve, when the kids are nestled snug in their beds, is still one of my favorite times.  While Santa may not figure strongly in our celebration (I still haven't quite decided what I want to think/do about that part of Christmas...this year I didn't put "from Santa" on any of the gifts, and nobody noticed or commented), there is still a strong element of anticipation and surprise.  

For starters, with the exception of gifts we receive in the mail from family and friends, I don't put any other gifts under the tree before Christmas morning.  Part of that is because the boys are still small and I don't entirely trust their ability to refrain from unwrapping said gifts, but the main reason is that I love the dramatic shift from "hardly anything" to "full to bursting."  I love the amazement I see in my kids' eyes when they come into the living room first thing Christmas morning and are greeted with a transformed and entirely wonderful sight.  I like it so much, that I even send Mark to bed before I'm "finished" so he can have some of the surprise too.  Although, this year, I had a midnight helper, who apparently couldn't wait till morning to see the wonderment.

Since Christmas fell on Sunday this year, we felt we needed to be a little more proactive in making plans for how the day might progress.  Since church began at 11, we worked backward and determined that the kids could get up at 7 and open presents for an hour.  Then we'd stop for breakfast and get ready for church and finish opening gifts when we got home from church.

Of course, the kids were all up before 7, but we managed to (just barely) hold them back till the appointed time.  Due to a poorly timed potty break, I missed witnessing the moment they saw the transformed living room.  Devastating (silly, I know, but it really made me sad).

First, we always open stockings.  I love stockings!  It's so fun to fill them with little treasures and treats; little, usually simple things that might be meaningful to the receiver.  

  Even Grandma and Grandpa had stockings and it was great to have them celebrate the day with our little family.  On Thane and Bryce's Christmas pajamas, it reads, "What Santa Doesn't Bring Me, Grandma Will," and boy was that ever true!  

Once done with stockings, we progressed to opening gifts one at a time, from youngest to oldest.  Thane had no problem figuring out how to open his presents - he tore in with a toddler's delight and energy.  However, once he got the present unwrapped, he was more interested in throwing away the wrapping paper than in the gift itself.  He took his "job" of throwing away everyone's wrapping paper very seriously.  He's his father's son.

Thane's favorite gifts were probably bath toys (including replacement bath drums for the ones that finally met their demise after 5 years of loyal service).  Though, he also loves the Legos (Duplos) we added to our (vast) collection and his Wedgits (a seriously cool toy).

Thane spent most of the present opening time wandering from person to person asking for snacks and treats.  When he came to me asking for a package of fruit snacks, I happily unwrapped one, only to hear from Mark, "I already gave him two packages."  Then Grandpa piped up, "I shared one with him too."  Then Aubree, "me too!"  Clever little beggar.

Bryce greeted the morning with pure delight.  Everything thrilled him.   He got a bright orange beanie in his stocking and promptly put it on his head and left it there all morning.  His favorite gift was a fabulous Viking ship from Grandma and Grandpa Winters (don't be confused if he tells you he got a pirate ship, he won't be persuaded that it's actually a Viking ship).  He also loves his new Car Mat/Rug and plays with it all the time.

By now, Aubree's a professional when it comes to Christmas morning.  She orchestrated handing out all the presents (and quickly discovered that I'd wrapped each person's gifts in their own special wrapping paper) and helped coordinate who was next in line to open a gift.  She was properly excited with all her gifts, though she certainly had favorites, including: a snow globe, a container full of fancy rocks, and new books, nail polish and chapstick from her cousin, Cambrie (who knows exactly what Aubree likes).

My favorite gift was a picture frame from my amazing sister, Kira.  She put a quote on the frame from Alma, "We do not doubt our mother's knew it."  I've always wanted to put that quote on a board or a wall, but on a picture frame where I can put my kids' picture too??  Worlds better!!  Kira's a genius!  I cried when I opened the gift, it's so perfect.  I'm going to hang it in my bedroom where I will see it everyday as a reminder of what I hope my kids can one day say about me.

Surprisingly, we finished opening all the gifts just before 8 am.  I remember it taking 2 full days to open gifts when Aubree was younger.  It's amazing how much different it is to have older kids setting the tone and providing the example.  Thane didn't seem to get overwhelmed at all.

It was a very good day.

A Stitch in Time

Yesterday evening, Bryce and I were cuddling and chatting on the rocking chair trying to put a happier ending on a frustrating day.  When a pot of boiling water called me to the kitchen, I set him down and he bounced off to play with his beloved car hauler.  

Not one minute later a heard a thump, then a Scream.  You know, the kind of Scream that stops a mom's heart and clearly communicates, "something is seriously wrong and there's probably blood."  

And blood there was.  Lots of it.  I could tell he'd hit his mouth, but it took a while to figure out where the actual wound was.  Were teeth missing? Did he bite through his lip?

Eventually we determined all his teeth were intact, and he hadn't (quite) cut all the way through the skin just under his lip, but I wasn't sure if he needed stitches or not.

Enter the Best Home Teacher in the World.

Our wonderful home teacher just happens to be an Endodontist.  I called to ask if he would stop by to let us know if he thought we needed to take Bryce in to get stitches.  "Sure," he replied, "I'm on my way home from work, I'll be there in a half hour."

While we waited, Bryce sat on my lap whimpering in pain, bravely holding a washcloth with ice on his mouth.  To distract him, I told him a story about when I cut my finger and had to have stitches (okay, in retrospect maybe that wasn't the best story to choose to distract him, but it was the first thing that came to mind).  When I finished, he whimpered again and asked for another story.  "Do you want a happy story this time," I asked.  "No," he whispered, "one about getting hurt."

So I told him about cutting my forehead open doing somersaults when I was his age, and about my little brother Daniel getting his finger bit by our parrot, and (by special request from Aubree) about my little sisters Katie and Lauren driving a truck into a tree when they were 6 and 3.  Great entertainment.

By the time our home teacher arrived, the bleeding had mostly stopped and the swelling had subsided and I was hopeful that he wouldn't need stitches after all.  

The Expert thought otherwise.  "That's deep," he determined, "he could definitely use a couple stitches." Then he laid out our options.  1. Do nothing (not advised). 2. Take him to the ER or Insta-care where they'll probably wrap him to a papoose board to hold him down to do the stitches. 3.  Go to our home teacher's office where he would sedate Bryce and do the stitches himself.

Seriously?!?  Didn't I say he was the Best Home Teacher in the World?!

A few hours later (had to wait till it had been 6 hours since Bryce had eaten) he came by with another Endodontist in the ward (his partner) and picked up Mark and Bryce and they went to his office and Bryce got 6 stitches.  Through the whole ordeal, Bryce was so calm and brave.  

When he got home he was half-loopy and yet, strangely lucid.  He couldn't keep his eyes open, but asked, "can I have dinner, please."  He could only handle applesauce and yogurt and had to be fed carefully since his mouth was numb (which was confusing for him).  At one point, Mark remarked, "you won't remember any of this tomorrow." Bryce immediately sat up, opened his eyes completely and said resolutely, "I WILL!"  

And, impressively, this morning he remembered many details and he's largely back to his normal self.

Hurrah for amazing and skilled Home Teachers who go above and beyond the call of duty, and Hurrah for little boys who heal quickly.

P.S. I think what happened is that Bryce was pushing his car hauler and it stopped and he kept going, which is a fairly common occurrence, only this time his face got the raw end of the deal.

Pre-Christmas

It's a week into the new year, so I better get busy and finishing writing about the end of 2011.

*I recall some years when my kids saw Santa no less than five times.  This year they only caught a brief glimpse of the Jolly Fat Man at our Ward Christmas Party. We did manage to get the obligatory Santa-lap-photos of Aubree and Thane (who, surprisingly, didn't cry), but Bryce refused to get closer than two feet.  I'm not bothered.  I decided it's just not worth the trauma to make my kids sit on a stranger's lap for a photo op.

As we stood in the short line to meet with Santa, I remembered that Santa would ask the kids, "what do you want for Christmas?"  I knew what Aubree would answer (an American Girl doll), but it occurred to me that Bryce was totally unprepared for the question.  I bent down to explain to him what he could expect, but the line moved quickly and too soon it was our turn.  Sure enough, after speaking to Aubree, Santa turned and asked the obvious question to Bryce, "what do you want for Christmas?"  Bryce was stymied.  First, he looked at me confused, then repeated Aubree's answer, "a doll?"  Finally, he stated, "I'll be happy with whatever I get."  

*Another favorite Christmas tradition is decorating gingerbread graham cracker houses.  Truth is, I don't like gingerbread and am too lazy to bake it, so we've always just used graham crackers with moderate to minimal success.  This year, thanks to Pinterest (amazing), we learned the Secret to using graham crackers to make fabulous, sturdy (lazy-mom approved) houses.  Want to know the secret (this could seriously change your life)?  

Forget frosting or royal icing, the trick is white chocolate.  Oh yes! Melt up a little white chocolate, pipe it onto your crackers (I used a plastic baggie with a small hole cut in one corner), stick the crackers together (I even found a graham cracker house pattern!), wait a couple minutes, and (Tada!!) perfectly solid structures.  Genius.  

We waited until Grandma and Grandpa Winters came to town to make our houses so we'd have a better adult to kid ratio.  They made houses with us last year as well and were thrilled with the improvements this year.  

Aubree and Bryce probably didn't notice too much of a difference, because they were too interested in eating the candy carefully decorating their structures.  Is there a better way to use excess Halloween candy?

Thane was asleep again  (poor kid) during our decorating, but don't feel too bad, because he certainly didn't get left out of the demolishing eating of said houses.

* We started another new tradition this year - the Minivan Express.  I got the idea from my spectacular friend, Holly, and have been wanting to try it for years.  One night we put the kids in their pajamas and got ready for bed as usual. 

However, once they got to their beds, they each found a ticket good for passage on the Minivan Express.  We loaded into the van and each kid (and the grandparents) got a cup of hot chocolate (sippy cups for the kids, we're not totally insane), and we drove around nearby neighborhoods admiring Christmas lights.  The kids were thrilled.  Definitely a keeper.

* I already wrote about our plans for Christmas Eve, and I'm glad to report that the scavenger hunt went well.  We invited the Missionaries over for a big dinner and to share in the festivities, and tried hard to spoil them in honor of my brother, Ian, who's serving a mission in Africa (hoping that someone was likewise spoiling him).