Bryce is Eight, Eight is Great!

Bryce recently had his eighth birthday.  This boy has his moments of wildness and obstinance (I might have threatened not to let him turn eight if he didn't stop talking like a baby and whining), but for the most part he is kind, thoughtful, hard working, and good-natured.  

In the weeks leading up to his birthday, Bryce had oodles of ideas of different things he wanted to do to celebrate.  One idea he floated was to have a "baking day," where we'd spend his birthday baking treats then deliver them to friends.  As with most of his ideas, I smiled and nodded, and assumed it would soon be discarded in favor of the next big idea.

I was only slightly right.  After evaluating all his ideas, Bryce came to me with a detailed plan for "baking week."  He had identified specific families he wanted to anonymously deliver treats to - two families per day for the entire birthday week.  He also made a list of the different treats he suggested we should make.  

Yes, this was a lot of extra work, but when your kid wants to spend his birthday week serving others, how can you say no to that??  We made cookies and muffins and bread, labeled each plate "Birthday Boy Bakery," and specified Bryce as our designated door-bell ditcher.  Loads of fun!

*****

Since "8" is not a birthday party year in our family, it usually means we get to go out to dinner as a family.  Instead, Bryce asked if we could spend an afternoon at Tinkertopia.  Tinkertopia bills itself as a "creative reuse center."  Basically, you pay for 90 minutes of building anything you can imagine, with every possible doodad or doohickey at your disposal. 

I let Aubree stay home from school the Friday before Bryce's birthday.  After letting Nellie get a morning nap, we stopped to visit Aunt Kat, then headed to Tinkertopia.  The kids loved it!  Graham's a little young and could've used more assistance, but Aubree, Bryce, and Thane really enjoyed the unrestricted access to tape, glue, paper, and materials galore.

 

Bryce's birthday fell on a Saturday this year.  I think birthdays should always fall on Saturdays; it was wonderful!  We started the morning off with a visit to the doughnut shop.  Each kid got to choose their very own.  

No, this is not a trick of camera angle - Aubree and Bryce chose doughnuts as big as their heads. 

 

 Thane and Graham weren't too far behind them.

Since it was Saturday and Mark was home, Bryce was able to open his birthday presents first thing.  Earlier in the month I'd assigned him a journal topic, "write about what you want for your birthday."  He surprised me by making a three page wish list.  Some of the items were pretty funny - toothpicks, a pet worm, an extension cord, edible seaweed...

 

We ended up getting him a set of Magna Tiles.  He was pretty thrilled.

I need to take a moment to note that generous Thane spent a good chunk of his own money getting gifts for Bryce.  Thane loves to give good gifts.

 

*******

In the mid-day, the boys both had soccer games.  The sun came out just for Bryce's birthday, and he enjoyed playing and sharing cupcakes with his teammates. 

As soon as we got home from soccer, it was time to hustle down the street for our annual neighborhood Easter egg hunt.  I will include details of this hunt in another post, but for now, let's just say it was lots of fun and we teased Bryce that it was all for him.

Bryce, Aubree, & Asher

And still our day wasn't done.  Soon the Harps arrived to have a birthday dinner with us (tacos, per Bryce's request), and soon after that another of our good friends arrived for cake and ice-cream.

 

It was a long, happy day full of friends, fun, and lots and lots of treats - just as Bryce had planned.

An Interview with Bryce:

Favorite Color?: "Green"

Favorite Candy?:  "Skittles"

What do you want to be when you grow up?: "A pet shop owner because I like pets."

Where do you want to go on your mission?: "South Carolina, right next to Florida."

Favorite Primary Song?: "Gethsemane"

Favorite Animal?: "Giraffe"

Favorite Movie?: "Finding Nemo"

Favorite Thing to Do?:"Play Geo Trax"

Favorite Food: "Tortellini"

Best Friends?:"Skye, Charlotte, & Asher."

Favorite Book?: "The Rescuers Down Under"

Favorite Toy?: "Geo Trax"

What makes you happy?: "Playing with family."

Favorite thing to do with Mom?: "Cuddle"

Favorite thing to do with Dad?: "Play board games."

What do you do really well?: "I think I'm a good sport on games.  Pretty good."

What makes you laugh?: "Tickles"

What’s the best time of day?: "Depends on the day.  Sometimes bedtime, sometimes getting treats."

What are you afraid of?: "Sometimes I'm afraid of sounds like thunder."

What do you like to do with your family?: "Play"

What do you love to learn about?: "I like Story of the World.  That's history."

Where do you like to go?: "I love going hiking."

If you had one wish, what would it be?: "To have an everlasting wallet."

What would you do if you had $1,000?: "Pay my tithing.  Then I would buy a battery powered Lego train. I don't think my mom would let me, but I would buy a dog."

What is your favorite song?: "Hey Mr. Record Man" (actually titled "Download This Song")

What do you hope you can do before your next birthday?: "I hope I can score a goal in soccer in a game."

Sister Trip Addendum

After I published my last post about our Sister Trip, my sisters sent me a few more pictures to add and reminded me of a story we want to remember.  

Here's Emily with Embree and her queen's sceptor during our garage sale exploits:

 Here's a group of us at the (not) Super Bowl party at G'ma Joni's:

That night, we played another game I neglected to mention - Catch Phrase.  However, instead of having the typical 2 teams, it was every woman for herself.  When the buzzer went off, whoever was holding it was officially the "Loser," and had to claim it accordingly...

Seeing the grandma's as "losers" was particularly entertaining.

Sisters Trip 2016

After Nellie was born, I started to feel a tug to go visit my grandparents in Southern California.  I mentioned the feeling to Katie, and she exclaimed, "I've been feeling the same way!"

Together, we began to make plans to take our babies and go down for a quick weekend visit.  As our plans progressed, we thought, "We should invite our sisters!"  To our joy, all of our sisters and our Mom were able to commit to the trip (sadly, our sisters-in-laws were not able to make it this time)!  

The Sunday before we left, I got a phone call from my Aunt Amanda's husband.  My first thought was that something was majorly wrong, but he quickly reassured me that all was well, then asked "would you mind if I surprised Amanda and got her a ticket out to join you for the weekend?"

Let me back up a second... Amanda is indeed our Aunt, but she's the same age as my sister Colleen, so four years younger than me.  She also happens to be one of our very favorite people, so you can imagine my response to her husband, "Would we mind?!!  Of course not! Please, please, PLEASE send her! A million times, YES!"

By this point, our simple weekend visit to grandparents had turned into a full-fledged sisters+ getaway.

Katie and I met up at the Seattle airport Thursday evening for our flight down to SoCal.  We joked about how people seeing us with our babies in tow likely thought, "Oh, how hard to have to travel with a baby!"  While we were thinking, "This is so easy to only have our babies!"

It was wonderful to travel with a sister; It made things like potty breaks totally manageable.  Jordyn slept most of the flight down, but there was way too much new to see for Nellie to cooperate and agree to sleep.  She didn't cry, but she wanted to be up and looking around. 

We didn't get into SoCal until quite late, and we still needed to get our luggage, get our rental car, and make the long drive to our grandparent's home.  This was the point that Nellie's lack of sleep started to get ugly.  When we finally got the rental van and strapped her and Jordyn into their car seats, it was 11pm and we hoped that they'd both sleep soundly for the 90 minute drive.  They had other ideas.

 

Such sad, sad sounds, and sad, inconsolable babies! G'ma Lis jokingly suggested we should "change the station."  If only it were that easy!  When we got to Grandpa Bunker's we said quick, happy hello's to our sisters and aunt who had arrived before us, then we all crashed into our respective, and very welcome beds.

The next morning, we began our real vacation.  This vacation was not of the "adventure" variety, but rather the "renew relationships" kind.  We got up, chatted for a while, went out for a beautiful 70+ degree walk, then came back for more talking and story telling.  

We enjoyed a mini-photo shoot with Nellie, Jordyn, and Amanda's baby Embree (who is only four days younger than Nell).  Leaning tower of babies!

 

Amanda and I have already decided that Embree and Nellie are destined to be best friends.  I mean, look!  They're already holding hands!  They bonded over shared baldness. 

We spent the rest of the day just as we'd begun, talking, playing games, and listening to stories from Grandpa Bunker and Grandma 'Lis.  That was a driving motivation for this trip - to get a chance to hear stories from our grandparents.  I'm trying to convince them to write a blog to record their memories and stories.  It would be easier if we lived closer and could be more hands-on in facilitating that project.

We offered to take our grandparents out to dinner, but they insisted that a meal at home would make talking easier, and so they made us a delicious roast and potatoes dinner.  We spent hours after dinner playing games, laughing, and eating way too many peanut M&M's and nuts.
Kira introduced us to a hilarious YouTube video that provided the go-to phrases for the rest of our trip... "we bounced OUT... "Not TODAY!" (Here's the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9TrTY-VSDQ)

Saturday morning we all got up at very un-vacation-like times in order to meet our Aunt Emily (a.k.a. the Garage Sale Queen) for adventures in yard sales in Simi Valley.  We made quite the caravan - three cars full of ladies and babies!  One garage saler went so far as to ask, "If my current marriage doesn't work out, is there someone in your family I can marry?"

After bargain hunting all morning, we made a quick stop for In 'N Out, then met up with Grandma Joni and went to watch my 12-year old cousin Kennedy play a basketball game.  My young Simi cousins are outstanding athletes and we really enjoyed providing Kennedy with a huge cheering section.  One of her teammates asked her, "Did you bring a daycare with you?!"
Kennedy turned out to be one of the most pleasant surprises of our weekend.  Though only 12, she is remarkably mature, articulate, and enjoyable to be around.  She returned with her family to spend Saturday evening with us, but on her own chose to spend all day Sunday with us.  By the end of the weekend we claimed her as an honorary sister (she has four brothers and no sisters)!

 

Saturday evening we all got together once again for a family party at Emily's. We'd stopped at Costco earlier that day (not the most brilliant move on our part, as it was the day before the Super Bowl and Costco was predictably nutso) and stocked up on pastas and salads.  Everyone feasted and moved from group to group talking and catching up and making new memories. 

Emily with Embree and Nellie

When it was time for bed, Katie, Lauren, and I took our daughters out to sleep in Emily's RV.  (My boys still speak fondly of the few nights they spent in this RV when we were last in California for Lauren's wedding.)  This time around, Simi was in the middle of a raucous visit from the infamous Santa Ana winds.  We were quite literally rocked to sleep.  

We had a happy, lazy Sunday morning getting ready for 1pm church with Grammy Joni.  Grammy was thrilled to have a whole row of family joining her for sacrament meeting.  Of course, the babies were somewhat less than cooperative, so a lot of us ended up in the foyer!  After church we gathered for an impromptu photo shoot.  Sisters! Mothers! Grandmothers! Granddaughters! Cousins! Great Grandmothers! Aunts! Nieces! Love all around.

 

We spent the afternoon and evening at Grandma Joni's.  Someone turned the Super Bowl on in the family room, but only a couple people cared to pay attention.  The rest of us gathered around the kitchen table or the garden patio, talking and snacking.  

As it got later, we all squeezed around the kitchen table for a memorable night of games.  We played a three-round name game in which everyone writes down a bunch of names of well-known people or characters.  The first round is a bit like Catch Phrase, where people give clues to their team and the team tries to guess the person listed.  The next round (using the same list of names), people can only use one word to describe the person listed.  The final round becomes charades.  One of the most challenging characters of the night was given by 6th grade Kennedy - Queen Hatshepsut, which promptly became another running joke.  The whole activity lent itself easily to hilarity.

At the conclusion of the name game, we were fairly certain nothing could match that activity in enjoyment. Colleen suggested a Telephone-type game where one person writes a sentence, then passes their paper to their neighbor.  The neighbor draws a picture of that sentence, folds the original sentence down, and again passes the paper to their right.  This continues on (everyone has a paper), until the paper is full, then the papers are all opened and shared with the group.  Once again, the game proved to be a hit.  So much laughter!  So many wonderful memories!

All too soon the night was over, and we said our sad good-byes to family we wouldn't see again the next morning.  We decided that Sister Trips should be a more regular occurrence.  The current plan is to go on a sister's trip every time a sister turns 40 (Amanda is also an honorary sister!).  That sure will help take the sting out of turning the big 4-0!

The next morning most of the sisters returned home, but Katie and I headed South to spend an extra day with friends.  First, we made a way-too-brief visit to one of my dear friends (and personal trainer) from Florida, Jenni.  She has a fabulous job in a hospital, and we got to spend a precious hour catching up.  Sometimes, these short visits only make the missing worse.

Then Katie dropped me off at McKell's house in Huntington Beach (and she went on to spend the night with her friends).  McKell moved just a year ago from Washington and it was lovely to get a chance to visit with her.  The weather turned summer-like just in turn for our visit, so we spent the evening at the beach!

The water was frigid, but the view was gorgeous and we had lots of fun seeking out shells.

We stayed for the sunset before heading home for an amazing dinner.  One of my most favorite things about spending the night with friends is getting the chance to stay up late and talk about meaningful things.  My time with McKell did not disappoint!

The next morning we had just enough time to go for a long walk in the 80 degree sunshine (and I'll admit I realized that Washington is a great place for me - 80 felt too warm!), before it was time to head to the airport and officially end our spectacular trip.

Katie and I arrived at the airport at the exact same time.  Once again, Nellie refused to sleep, but what can you do?  At least she didn't cry or scream.

As we flew, I glanced down at the scene below me and almost exclaimed, "Look!  There's snow! Those must be high mountains!," before I remembered, "Duh! It's still winter!"  Five days in California and I thought it was summer!  

It was quite gorgeous in Seattle when we returned, though.

 

The trip was everything I'd hoped it would be.  On the home-front, Mark took care of everything. He took two days off of work to take care of the kids.  He fed them, took them to co-op and to spend time with friends.  The kids loved having him as their primary caregiver.  When I got home, Thane asked, "You're back already?  How fast does time go?!"

Makes My Heart Happy

A year ago my sister Katie and her family moved up to Washington.  I love, love, LOVE having them close!  They live about 45 minutes away, so we don't see them all the time, but we make it a point to get together fairly regularly.

I especially love that our kids get to spend time with their cousins and establish strong relationships.  They generally manage to have lots of fun together.

 

Aubree's often the odd-lady out because she's so much older than the rest of the crew, but she and Anna have bonded over barbies, dress-up, and being the oldest girls.  They are similar in build and clothing preferences (though Anna is more fashion-conscious), so that works out well when Aubree passes clothes down to Anna!

I also really enjoy being able to get together on birthdays. I grew up with cousins who lived super close, and I always loved having family birthday parties. 

Anna's birthday, 2015

Another unexpected, yet amazing benefit of having Katie live nearby, is that I was able to witness the birth of baby Jordyn! 

Katie went into labor late the evening before her due date.  I put Nellie in the van and drove up to meet her and Seth in the hospital (Nellie screamed the entire drive).
Some of the nurses and on-call doctors weren't sure Katie was "really" in labor and wanted her to walk around to see if she continued to progress.  Seth was generous enough to allow me to take over walking the halls with Katie (I believe there was a Suns game on TV).

Nellie was just nine weeks old at this point, so my own labor and deliver was plenty fresh in my mind.  I kept thinking, "I'm so glad it's you and not me!"  

Katie however, even when a serious contraction would hit, assured me, "I really enjoy labor and delivery!"

An excellent nurse went to bat for Katie (telling her quietly, "I'm NOT going to let them send you home"), and pretty soon she was admitted into her own room.  The walking around had helped Katie make some progress, and had also helped Nellie crash in my wrap.

Once in the room, Katie and Seth laughed and joked.  When a contraction came, Katie would become quiet and focused, but otherwise remained calm and light-hearted.  Soon, the doctor came in to break her water.  There was meconium in the fluid.  

We expected contractions to begin in earnest, but they continued as they'd been coming.  Another half hour went by, and then Katie's water REALLY broke.  I began to have a strong sense of deja-vu - everything was happening just like Nellie's birth!

Katie told the nurse, "I'm feeling pushy," so the doctor came in to check her.  "You're only at a 6," the doctor warned, "don't push."  Then the doctor left.  

I texted Mark, "Katie's labors are JUST like mine!  She's at the point where she wants a cold compress on her head."  I figured she had another intense 30 minutes till baby made her debut.

I was wrong.

Just a couple minutes later, Katie whimpered, "I'm sorry, I have to push."

The nurse whipped around just in time to catch baby Jordyn!

A few seconds later, the doctor rushed in.  "Why didn't you call me?"

-"There wasn't time!"

-"I was only standing in the hallway!"

 

Unbelievable.  Katie is a labor and delivery champion!  Did I mention this was totally un-medicated?

I imagine Katie might remember this experience differently.  Regardless, it was absolutely miraculous and something I will never forget.

And now Nellie and Jordyn can be the best cousin-friends ever!

Baby Snuggles

When I wrote in my last post that Nellie doesn't like to sleep, I should have been more specific - she doesn't like to sleep alone.  She is usually pretty willing to nap while I'm holding her and sleeps great at night tucked tightly in my arms.

I spent the first month of her life trying to get her to stay asleep when I laid her down. By the time she hit two months, I gave up.  I was spending all my time in a maddening no-nap dance, and we were all worse off as a result.  

Instead, my Moby Wrap became a permanent accessory and Nellie spent the next two months nestled happily inside.  Suddenly I was semi-functional again!

I've spent the last couple months slowly weaning her from the Moby and teaching her to nap in her crib.  We are making great progress, but I will be getting serious about helping her learn to fall asleep and stay asleep on her own this month (I think 5-7 months is an important window of opportunity for learning good sleep habits). 

At night, Nellie is still sleeping in my arms.  I often hear people say that they don't like sleeping with their babies, or that they can't sleep well with a baby next to them. I can understand their opinions, but it's definitely not true for me.  I ADORE sleeping with my babies.  It's one of my most favorite things, and what I anticipate missing most once we are past the baby stage.  I never sleep more deeply or more contentedly than when I have my baby in my arms.

 

That being said, Nellie is at the point where she needs to go to sleep in her own bed.  I'm looking forward to having my evenings back, but I will miss my sweet baby snuggles.