Dr. Reid is going to keep us healthy.
“Annie” is going to sing and dance into the sunset!
Halloween: A Doctor and Annie
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Category Archives: Holidays
Easter
On the way home from Grandma’s house last night, where some “bunny” had left candy-filled eggs, a sleepy boy asked, “When we get home, can we search the house to see if the Easter bunny came?”
“No,” I said. “It will be late and I know he didn’t come to our house too.”
“How can you be so sure?” he asked.
(And this is where I decide it’s time to ruin his childhood. Really, Santa I don’t mind, but the whole Easter bunny thing really is silly to me. Bunnies don’t even lay eggs. Why isn’t it the Easter chick? Why do we have to pretend it is any one other than me, going in the other room which he saw me do to put the candy he saw me buy in to hiding places?)
So I answer:
“Because I’m the Easter bunny.”
There was silence for a few seconds. Was he surprised? Was he devastated? Then….
“How do you get to all the houses to leave all those eggs?”
Easter Pictures
For Easter, I spent some time with my mom and dad. The light was perfect in the music room and I got some adorable pictures of Caroline. These are some of my favorites!
Siblings
Why I don’t get a lot of pictures of both of my kids
Cutie Patootie
Piano Player
Daddy!
Mommy’s Girl
See more Easter pictures on Flickr.
Christmas Time
More videos. I hope to find time to write something for you too but not right now. We’ve enjoyed our holiday time with family. Here are some videos of Paul swimming and Caroline doing was she does best, eating bananas.
And sorry, apparently I always try to get her to sing “If you’re happy and you know it!”
Paul’s Holiday Christmas Program with Cornerstone Co-Op
Paul’s computer skit is at 28 minutes. Paul’s singing begins at 48 minutes. This is very long, and sorry for the ads, which is what youtube does if it is this long.
I have to say, I am not a fan of the rock-n-roll type of worship service. But at least they called this a “performance” instead of a worship service! Paul enjoys being a part of this co-op, and I know it’s been a good experience for us. I look forward to seeing where we go in the future with this group! There is a lot of potential.
Paul’s Christmas Primary Talk
Paul’s assignment was “Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” He told me what to write and I wrote it verbatim. Then he read it. (Yes, he actually read my sloppy cursive/print combo writing.) He didn’t want to change anything. He had to draw a few pictures himself because he knew just what he wanted and did not find the picture he liked! I found his picture of the king sitting on his throne telling people to pay taxes to be amusing.
I was proud to hear my son bear his testimony to his primary peers yesterday!
P.S. Yes, there are Nauvoo pictures and videos to show. But with Christmas decorating, working on making Christmas presents, getting sick again, and a failed computer hard drive and the necessary re-install and recovery, it’s been a busy few weeks.
Spotlight on Caroline, Age 9 Months
While we were in Nauvoo, Caroline turned 9 months old!
Caroline loves people. She can be surrounded by toys but if there is not a person nearby, she will not be happy. She wants to be with people. Most of the time, it doesn’t matter who it is. If the person is smiling, Caroline is too. When she sees someone new, she’ll stop what she’s doing and wave “hi.” It even sounds like she says “hi” to them! Her big brother is one of her favorite people to watch. Even when she’s just waking up, if she hears her brother’s voice she is very excited and looks around for him. Caroline is a social creature. There is an exception: if Mama is in the room, she wants Mama and no one else! Not even Daddy is desired if she is sleepy: she wants her mama.
Caroline loves music. Caroline laughs and cheers and claps her hands when music begins. I’m begining to notice that she really does want that lullaby before bedtime. She loves to “sing” along during hymns at church, she loves to listen to Paul’s creative songs just for her, and she loves to hear Daddy play the piano. This is child who will treasure music in her life, even more so that Paul did as a baby and now as a child.
Caroline loves moving. Whether she is clapping her hands or army crawling to an attractive item or squirming and dancing to a song, Caroline likes to be a part of things. If she is down on the floor, she wants to stand. If she’s standing, she wants to move around the table and grab that shiny thing over there.
Caroline is petite. She’s in the 30th percentile for height and still 15th-20th percentile for weight. She’s 16 lbs and some odd ounces, and she’s rounding out like a baby should. But she is definitely not a fat baby. She is perfect sized, and I love that she still loves to cuddle. She fits in the corner of my arm just right.
Caroline is awake. She does not want to nap, and never has. But she’s getting better at letting herself fall asleep. Somehow we spoiled her and for a while she would not sleep without being held. She’d scream if she was put down! She wanted to nurse if she woke in the night and it was quite exhausting because she’d scream otherwise. If something was going on around her, she would not fall asleep. She’d stare at the moving TV screen til past 10 p.m., but she would not go to sleep. It was exhausting just watching her droopy eyes.
Caroline likes bling. Glasses, belt buckles, earrings, necklaces, shiny stickers, shiny keys: if an object is shiny or bright, Caroline makes a bee-line for it! It will probably end up in her mouth. The other day at a restaurant, Daddy handed her a few dollar bills. Caroline, amazingly, did not put it in her mouth. She had this look of amazement as she looked at Daddy and looked at the money and turned it over and over, amazed that she was able to hold it. She did the same with his credit card. But that did end up in her mouth. Dangerous! Let’s not love bling and money too much, dear little girl.
Caroline loves to nurse, and food is okay sometimes too. Some days, Caroline could not care less about food. She just wants to nurse. And now she does not even want a bottle anymore. But she is starting to expect food more and more. Yesterday she was very excited to eat food.
I love my darling girl. I can’t believe she’s nearly a year old already. I hope we can treasure these baby days a little longer … and that she does not start walking quite yet! She’s so cuddly and adorable, I love her.
Note: all videos recorded by big brother Paul during our Thanksgiving road trip.
Happy Thanksgiving!
We have decided to run down to Nauvoo for the holiday. But we do want to wish you a happy holiday. Paul made a video about the pilgrims based on some things we learned together. Enjoy watching his video here.
It’s a very long video because there was a lot to learn! Caroline makes a cameo appearance at about 6 minutes in.
Halloween
I’m only 13 days late, right?
BOO!
Cake Walk Time
He stayed at the cake walk until he won, 10+ minutes.
The Lion Sleeps Tonight!!
This wasn’t Halloween. But it was Caroline’s first ride on a horse!! Hooray for the free ride at the supermarket!
Christmas Activities
One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to update this page with family pictures in the same month in which the activities took place, starting with Christmas 2011. I especially want to be better since I posted 50+ pictures a month of newborn Paul and I want Caroline to feel she’s just as special a newborn.
I intended to post these pictures the last week of December. And yet, here I am well in to the new year, waiting for Paul to go to preschool to do so.
At any rate, Christmas was wonderful this year. I baked cookies and fudge to enjoy for a month and to give away to neighbors. Paul was incredibly excited to countdown until Christmas and he enjoyed the activities we did.
Before Christmas, I was able to attend Paul’s preschool holiday party. I haven’t attended any of his parties before so it was fun to be there to help and take pictures, etc. This was a rather chaotic party; I wonder if preschool is always like this? At any rate, they had some carnival games, a few craft projects, and then a gym floor covered in bath sponges that were called “snowballs.” They were encouraged to have a snowball fight. Put 20 kids aged 3 and 4 in a room and tell them to have a snowball fight? Um… Paul reacted much as I would have. He threw a “snowball,” then watched people for a while. Then threw another. It was a bit intense.
Here are some of the best pictures of my little guy. The full album of the preschool is on flickr with a guest pass.
Reindeer bowling
He's proud he knocked some bowling pins down.
We are low-key about presents (I do not want to raise a spoiled or greedy child who says “I want that!” for every toy he sees). I gave him a (plastic) kids microscope, books (which is what he asked for), and an inflatable globe, among some other smaller things. Grandpa Sorenson gave us a book of silly stories that he wrote and Grandma gave him a Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle. Grandma Peggy sent Trio blocks, which along with our Legos, have given me lots of time as Paul slips downstairs to create yet something else. (YES!)
We enjoyed the true spirit of Christmas. At the beginning of the month, he loved selecting some clothes for a “poor boy” from the library’s giving tree and talked for days about the boy who was too poor to get his own clothes. (He was particularly excited because the boy was FOUR just like he is so he knew just what the boy would like.) He loved selecting gifts for his cousins (we do a family gift rotation among my siblings). He loved the excitement of wrapped presents and waiting for them. I don’t think he was tempted to open them, he just loved shaking them and counting them and wondering. He was fascinated by the mystery of magical Santa (although *cough* the reindeer forgot to eat the reindeer food that Paul left on the front step. How’d I know he’d check that FIRST?! even before looking under the tree?).
And most importantly, Christmas was, for our family, about the true meaning of the season, the birth of our Savior. I love having Christmas on Sunday, because then church reinforced the real meaning of the season. I wish we had services every Christmas morning, but of course, that’s not how it works.
The not-so-materialistic goals we have worked well this year: we got to church at 10:30 and someone asked him what he got for Christmas.
“Ugh….I forgot.” he responded. (But he did remember to say that the reindeer forgot to eat the reindeer food he left for them…). So, at any rate, I know Christmas for Paul was not about the presents. Mission accomplished!
We also got to spend the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa and Paul’s Sorenson cousins. It was lots of fun to watch the kids playing, and it was great to gather with family on a special day.
After Church Christmas Day
31 weeks pregnant
Cousins
Grandpa Reading The Grinch
Merry Christmas!