Back from the Slack

Hello, everyone! I've been a super blog slacker and now I'm trying to redeem myself. The latest:

1. We took a really fun trip to St. George and ended up having an impromptu family reunion involving Caroline, Justin, Afton and Cheryll. We also got to spend some great time with our friends, the Moores and the Hayes. Snow Canyon was gorgeous, the weather was perfect, and we found some new yummy places to eat.

2. Atticus has been a walking champ for almost two months now. He turns on the gas when he hears the bathroom door open since that is easily his favorite room in the house. But ramps or inclines still make him a little tipsy. He loves to say "this," "no no," "dada," "mama," "ball," "up," "daga" (doggie), and some other words that I would remember if he weren't my third child.

3. Emerson and Stella are truly in the throes of a love-hate relationship. Luckily it's mostly love and they play these great imagined-scenario games for hours together. When it's the hate relationship, though, they literally hate EVERYTHING about each other. My favorite complaint from Emerson as he was grumpily emerging from bed one morning, "Stella has such an ugly way of breathing." But they really are amazing and Stella loves to say prayers in which she thanks Heavenly Father for the United States of America, the President, the Holy Ghost, etc.

4. We've had some tragedy with extended family, and while I don't think it's appropriate for me to talk too much about it on a public blog, I just wanted my family to know how thankful I am for how they've handled it. Sometimes tragedy truly does bring out the best in people. Kevin, my biggest brother, is an exceptional person and I love him so much.

Happy Birthday Atticus!

Well, it's official -- Atticus is one year old! I can't believe it's gone by so fast and I know that's what everyone says, but it's really true. He says "Mama" and "Dada" and "no no" and crawls all over and walks all over (on his birthday really taking lots of steps without help) and yet I still expect him to be a little lap baby who needs to be held and nursed all the time. He's so sweet and snuggly still, regularly holding absolutely still for a back scratch an nuzzling his face into our chests as we put him down to bed. We had a little party for him at each grandma's house and then a little cupcake party with a few friends. He decided chocolate cake is a great face and body paint as well as a wonderfully squishy substance for molding.

Otherwise life continues to roll along as usual, only a severe longing for the end of this gray and smoggy winter to end growing more intense by the day. Emerson and Stella are thriving, learning and growing so fast that we can barely keep up. As I was reading to Stella last night, she turned pointed at the word orange, looked at me and said, "That's a bossy 'r' so it's going to say 'or'." Emerson's ability to sound out and write words is amazing, and we can't believe how clearly his penmanship has gotten. In the last couple of weeks we've had a few sunny days when they could play outside without coats and they've cherished every chance to soak up the sun. It makes a really beautiful picture, these curly-headed cuties stooping over to scratch in the dirt as the afternoon sun reflects off their faces. We are lucky.

Happy Holidays

We've had a wonderful month or so. First, we headed down to St. George for a little pre-holiday chill out time. The kids got to play with their cousins who happened to be down there at the same time, and they particularly enjoyed a little red-rock hike together. Emerson did a four-mile bike ride with dad, I did some good running, and we visited our wonderful friends the Moores.

When we came home, Tad's siblings got in town from California and Washington state. Emerson and Ethan discovered hours of mutual lego-building bliss and went to a Jazz game, Stella got her fill of Sullivan and Karina, and Karina got to play with both of the babies almost as much as she wanted. Afton is truly an amazingly cute little girl and it was so fun to see more of her. Of course it goes without saying that we had an absolutely delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Cheryll's, followed by some great pie at my mom's house. We had some darling family pictures taken, thanks to Cheryll's thoughtful gift of matching sweaters and dresses for all the grandkids and to her neighbor, Roseanne's skills with a camera.

The following week, Stella had her first preschool program. I showed up to watch and noticed a peculiar pinkish tint to her hands as the kids all waved during their first song. Then as Stella took the mic (completely unabashedly as the first kid up), I realized that her face and hair were purplish. My darling little girl had decided on the program day to smear her face and hair with paint during class and despite the teachers' best efforts at scrubbing, she remained pigmented. What more fitting way to capture this stage of her life than to show her covered in paint, singing her heart out and eagerly jabbering into the microphone?

Earlier this week we got our largest Christmas tree yet -- too bad our front room doesn't grow with our trees. After we'd trekked to the lot in sub-freezing temperatures, dragged the tree inside and gotten it standing, we decorated it as a family. For the first time ever, our kids (the older two, anyway) were actually more of a help than a hindrance. They loved decorating and seeing the ornaments they hadn't since last year. And today we got to see Emerson's kindergarten Christmas program. It was one of the most adorable things I've ever seen, all those kids singing, reciting poems, and playing instruments in unison while wearing hats they'd personally made. Emerson really enjoyed it and was so proud of himself.

Atticus has decided crawling isn't really his thing, except for very short distances. He's more of a walking man and he's decided to work on it for hours each day, much to my back's detriment. He has two little teeth and loves to make this little scrunched smile face to show them off. When I scratch his back or tickle his neck, he goes completely mellow and just soaks it up.

We hope you all enjoy this Christmas season and want you to know that we know He is our savior and redeemer. We are so grateful for his life and his sacrifice for us and enjoy this time of year when we can reflect on our blessings. Merry Christmas!

Halloween Birthday Mountain Fun

As you can see, the kids have had a fun month. Halloween was just absolute fun craziness resulting in ridiculous amounts of candy. Stella was Tinkerbell/Fairy Princess/Fairy/A Fairy Tale depending on how she felt. She got so into the character, twirling and striking a pose at preschool when it was her turn to tell about her costume. Emerson was Optimus Prime, but this picture represents the only time he was willing to wear his mask. His parade at school was so fun to see, especially since little sister paraded with his class, holding the hands of several classmates. Atticus was a reluctant Yoda who was more than happy to attend all of the chaotic celebrations.

Emerson turned SIX -- ahhhhh! He had a really fun party at the pool where he and his buddies wrestled energentically on an inner tube. He's reading like a champ, loving kindergarten, and absolutely exploding with energy at all times.

Stella had her first parent-teacher conference (hillarious since it's preschool) and it was a pure delight for Tad to attend. Her teacher basically told Tad that Stella is just pure joy, that she plays with boys and girls equally, participates in every activity, and makes everyone feel good. Seeing her in action in class definitely brings a smile to our faces.

Atticus is on the verge of crawling and is truly frustrated by it; he's constantly trying to reach things and bonking his head and face as he throws himself toward them. He truly is a bottomless pit when it comes to eating and he babbles and babbles all day long. His latest joy is grabbing Emerson (the long-suffering big brother) by either side of the face and literally sucking on his nose, cheeks, etc. as he squeals delightedly.

Disneyland Bonanza

Thanks to Grandma and Aunt Caroline, we just enjoyed a fun and crazy trip to Disneyland with the extended May family. We had two fun-packed days in Disneyland, including a character breakfast at which Stella nearly dissolved when she met both Snow White and Jasmine. The kids loved Splash Mountain (which Stella got to ride with a little help from some rolled-up socks crammed in her shoes), the Monorail, Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, and the Jungle Cruise. Here is where we edit out Stella's disastrous first day which included a shiner from a tumble off the hotel's bunk bed, a scratched other eye due to blowing debris, a bloody nose from rubbing said irritated eye and face, and a three-hour nap in the stroller amidst Disneyland chaos. Why did it take us several hours to request Tylenol at the first aid station and thereby return our little girl to normal? I have no excuse.

But back to the good stuff. Tied with Disneyland for cool-ness is the beach we visited thanks to Aunt Caroline's super planning. Little Corona beach was perfect -- great waves, sand, tide pools, scenic beauty, and very few people. Emerson fearlessly picked up sea snails while Stella

fearlessly dodged waves with Tad. The kids

had so much fun with their cousins and aunts and uncles that they were literally in tears as we left California for home. Shortly thereafter we parents were nearly in tears as we realized our flight home was delayed three hours and we wouldn't get home until nearly two a.m.. But traveling with Tad and Cheryll was truly a blessing and between stair-racing games and good storytelling we somehow made it through with relatively few freak-outs.