Christmas #2 with Larsens

We continued with some Larsen family traditions for our Christmas celebrations this year.  On Christmas Eve we went up to Bountiful and enjoyed soup for dinner followed by the Christmas Pageant and a small talent show.  Grandma Larsen keeps adding to the Christmas Pageant costumes and script.  There was even a star this year!

 Jason, Leila, and I spent the night over at my parents.  We had the entire family there and it was a full house! We let Leila determine when we got up and going which wasn't until after 8, much to Annie's displeasure.  Santa was good to everyone this year and it took quite a while to get through everyone's piles.  Leila so didn't get the gift idea but enjoyed being in a room she usually isn't allowed in.  She pulled ornaments of trees, played with the nativity, built a small nest out of wrapping paper, clothes, and gifts from everyone's piles.

After a day of resting and play we went back up to Bountiful for Christmas dinner.  I know these get togethers are a lot of work for Grandma Larsen, but I am sure glad she makes the effort to bring us all together so often!

Christmas #1 with Ziebarths

Jason's parents were lucky enough to get 4 tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert this year, so they made arrangements to come up for a visit for a few days.  Since we weren't able to go there for Christmas this year, we tried to celebrate Christmas a little early this year for them.

Thursday night Jason and I joined them at the concert.  It was incredible.  The special guests this year were Alfie Boe and Tom Brokaw.  Boe sang some amazing solos including "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables.  Brokaw narrated a segment that told the story of the Candy Bomber from WWII.  As he told the story, simulated snow started falling from the ceiling followed by candy pieces attached to handkerchief parachutes.  The story ended with an appearance by Gail Halvorsen, the Candy Bomber himself, at age 92.  After the concert we enjoyed some of the lights in Temple Square before calling it a night.

Then on Saturday morning we opened some presents.  Leila wasn't as interested in the wrapping paper as I thought she'd be but she made out with quite a haul of clothes and toys nevertheless.  Ziebarths were kind enough to give us 2 well-stocked 72 hour kits which we've been meaning to get around to putting together for quite a while.

After presents we loaded up and went to the mall so Leila could visit Santa.  When it was her turn, she was more interested in the lights and trees around Santa and it was all we could do to get her attention towards the camera.  No tears though!

We really enjoyed spending some time with them during the holiday season and are already looking forward to when we get to join them in Hawaii in just a few weeks!

Partying 40s Style

This year, Ancestry worked hard to produce the 1940 US Census.  So, when it came time to choose a theme for the annual holiday party, 40s seemed a natural choice.  They had swing dancing, photo ops, a jazz band, yummy food, and great entertainment.  I got all dolled up for the occasion and thoroughly enjoyed myself!

Thanksgiving in Arizona

We hadn't planned on going anywhere for Thanksgiving, but at the last minute my family decided to make the drive down to my grandparents in Arizona and we decided to join them.  Jason couldn't take any extra time off work so we drove as far as Page after he got off Wednesday.  Then, after a sleepless night with baby, we got up before dawn so that we could make it to Eden before the big Thanksgiving meal.  We made it just in time and added to the gathered crowd.  The McKinleys had also driven down so most of the cousins slept out in the garage.  Leila loved being out of the car and ran around constantly.  She also liked looking out the window at their two dogs.  On Friday we drove into Safford for lunch and did a little bit of shopping.  We hit Pima Freeze for some treats and then stopped by the cotton gin for a tour given by the manager (Grandpa Steve).  We stayed in Eden until Saturday morning when we headed into Phoenix to visit with the Perkins and Sorensens.

We got there Saturday afternoon and had a great time visiting (when we weren't chasing down Leila) until the girls wanted to go swim in our hotel's pool.  So we all got our gear on and hung out by the pool for a little while.  Unfortunately the pool was already in the shade by the time we got there so it was a little chilly, but the hot tub was nice!  Leila on the other hand loved kicking her feet in the pool but wanted nothing to do with the hot tub.  She would curl her legs up under her every time I tried to dip her feet in.  When we got back to their house, we made and thoroughly enjoyed some yummy kabobs on their back patio.  The night only ended when Leila was walking around like a zombie child but wouldn't fall asleep.

It was a rough car ride for Leila this time around, but I'm glad we made the effort!

Snow Play

This weekend we've been staying at my parents' house to help housesit/be with Annie while they went to Florida for an early anniversary trip.  And they left just in time too because we got our first big snow storm of the year with a final tally of about 9 inches.  Leila looked out the window at the falling snow and exclaimed, "Wo!  Wo!  Wo!  Wow!"

So I decided to go buy her a snowsuit so that I could take her out for a bit.  Only I didn't want to spend money on one just for this year since I know we won't be going out much.  So I got one big enough to fit next year too and rolled up the sleeves and pant legs.  She looked (and walked) like the kid from A Christmas Story!

She only lasted in 10 minute intervals (and it took three times that long to get her dressed with 3 of us working on it), but she had a blast.  She liked face planting into the snow so that she could eat it (I had trapped her hands with gloves so that was the only way she could get to it).

A (Not-so) Brief Pause for Politics

Yesterday was the day I have anticipated for over 3 years.  Yesterday was the day Decision 2012 FINALLY came to an end!  I am not a politically minded person and this presidential campaign has driven me particularly insane.  All of the mudslinging and bad mouthing had me longing for a candidate like George Washington who was reluctant to serve in office and yet ran unopposed because he was so widely admired.  Don't get me wrong.  I proudly cast my vote last night and am extremely grateful that I live in a country that allows me that privilege.  BUT I strongly feel that the presidential election is way too over hyped  and becoming more so all of the time (chances are good that I'll start hearing about 2016 far sooner than I deem tasteful).

And yet, I am disappointed with yesterday's results.  Yes , I voted for Romney.  However, I am not as disappointed with the fact that he didn't win as I am with the flood of negativity, pessimism, and hostility that swarmed my Facebook newsfeed this morning (obviously the majority of my friends tend towards the same side of the political spectrum as I do).  Everyone is throwing their hands up in the air and exclaiming that Americans just killed the Constitution  and we are all doomed.  There were two statuses that rang true with how I feel:

Wise friend #1-"My proposal: nobody can proclaim on Facebook how our country is ruined unless they can identify their congressional representative and at least one senator.  Calm down the melodrama, take a deep breath, take a look at the Constitution, and realize that a president you disagree with is not enough to destroy the republic or the economy."

The president is just a man.  A man with power?  Sure.  But a man with the power to single-handedly destroy everything that America stands for?  Hardly.  I remember from back in the days of elementary school and School House Rock that the American government is a three-ring circus and "No one part can be more powerful than any other is.  Each controls the other you see, and that's what we call checks and balances."  And yet there are two branches of government that are sadly neglected by the vast majority of American voters.

Wise friend #2- "One of my least favorite parts of political opinion is the extreme hyperbole that so many people take it to-so I don't think one candidate over another would have saved or doomed America.  I think they both want to do what they think is best for the nation, they just both have very different ideas of what that best is.  I know that it was my duty to vote for who I felt best represented my own idea of what is best for us-but the real determination of whether we face damnation or redemption is more completely controlled in how each of us as citizens live our daily lives.  How we contribute for good or evil in our homes, communities and relationships both with people we know and citizens we share this world with makes all the difference.  So I vote to be a positive, responsible and considerate contributor to society in the best way I know how."

No president is, was, or ever will be perfect if only because people aren't perfect.  And the people in the nation they represent certainly aren't perfect.  For example, one of the major points of this election was the national debt.  I will not deny that Obama has substantially added to that deficit, but it's not like he started with an account that was in the black either.  America has been overspending for decades.  I feel that the recent rate of increase reflects the way many individual Americans are spending their money--the amount of individual credit card debt has also risen substantially in the last four years.  Many Americans have adopted a philosophy of "play now, pay later" in their personal finances, doesn't it stand to reason that that would also leak over into government spending?

I also feel that it is important to note that drastic change takes time--often much longer than 4 years.  Abraham Lincoln has gone down in history as the president that freed the slaves and yet it wasn't until decades later that the descendants of that group were granted their civil rights.  More than just laws had to change.  The mentality of the people had to change.  So, if you are unhappy with the way this country is headed, take a look inward and see what you can do to become more like the ideal person you would like to see in the White House.  I have.  And now I've gotten a two-month head start on my New Year's Resolutions!

God Bless the USA!

Pumpkins!!!

It's that time of year again, pumpkin carving time!  Yippee!!!  My family gathered Sunday night to engage in this yearly tradition that has become a mini-art show.

Jason did Edward Scissorhands.

Annie carved a sailboat.

Mom carved Elmo.

I carved Thor.

Jared carved Walt Disney.

Dad started carving a vampire Mickey, but I never saw the final product.  And then we Facetimed with Jori and she showed us all up by doing a self-portrait on her pumpkin!

Annie and Jason finished quickly enough that they got to babysit Leila while I worked on mine.

Jason and I still had 2 pumpkins to carve (from the Pumpkin Festival last weekend) and he was all pumpkined-out so I got to carve two more last night: Belle and Mickey & Minnie!

I'm not sure how this became such a huge tradition for our family, but I LOVE it!!!

Pumpkin Festival

Yesterday I managed to finish all of our Halloween costumes and we decided to celebrate by showing them off at the Heber Valley Railroad Pumpkin Festival.  The festival included activities like picking your own pumpkin, pumpkin decorating, face painting, a haunted train car, and a 40-minute train ride.

We made the trek to Heber and had a blast watching baby run around like crazy (like she always does when she is someplace new).  We picked out our pumpkins but opted to take them home to carve instead of painting them there.  We wandered through the not-so-scary haunted train car. And I enjoyed having people tell us how cute our costumes were (I put A LOT of work into them, so it was nice to have my hard work recognized).  One couple even asked to take our picture for themselves.

Unfortunately, while we were waiting for the train, baby would not sit still, fell down a couple times, and eventually started crying/whimpering and couldn't be soothed.  We thought she was tired because she didn't get her second nap in for the day.  Then we thought she was hungry.  Then we took her costume off in case that was what was bothering her.  Nothing seemed to help.  She didn't really want to be held, but she cried when she walked around too.  We were tempted to see if we could get a refund and just go home, but the train arrived at that moment so we decided to see if the train ride would help distract her.  And it did, sort of.

We loaded up onto the train and she settled in with a blanket on my lap watching Elmo on Jason's phone.  Some witches and mummies came through our car to entertain us and give out pumpkin cookies, which Leila really liked.  As we were going, I remarked that she wasn't really using her left hand much but thought that she was just content where she was at.

When the train ride was over, she started crying again as we were getting off the train.  We snapped one group picture outside the station and loaded her up in the car, at which point she really started letting loose, real tears and all.  We finally got her calmed down and distracted again, but I noticed she still wasn't using her left arm/hand at all.  Something was definitely up.

We got home and did our own evaluation of her arm and decided it was definitely hurting her as she started crying every time we moved it.  We thought it seemed worse around her wrist, but couldn't be sure.  It was helping matters that she was exhausted too.  So we gave her some Ibuprofen and put her to bed.  She fell asleep quickly and I was hopeful that maybe a good night sleep would help her feel better.  But a good night sleep was not to be had for any of us.  Right about the time the medicine was probably starting to wear off, she woke up screaming.

We soothed her, comforted her, and gave her another bottle.  I eventually got her to calm down snuggling with me in our bed while Jason made a late night trip to the store for some more medicine since we had used the last of it earlier.  When he got back we doped her up again and put her back to bed.  Total awake time for her had been about an hour and a half.

This morning she woke up in a happier mood but she still wasn't using her left arm at all.  She'd just let it hang  limply by her side.  I decided it was time to take her to a doctor.  We called the on-call pediatrician and were told that she had probably dislocated her elbow.  He said he would be in the office an hour and a half later and that we should bring her in so that he could take a look.  

She was still in a much happier mood and started using her arm a little bit more as she was moving around and playing during that next hour and a half.  By the time we got her into the doctor and he examined her, she was fine.  Didn't cry or whimper at all.  Doctor said that she most likely had popped it back into place on her own and would probably be fine now.  He did warn us that it was more likely to pop back out of place for the next 6 months so we needed to be extra careful.  He also showed us what to do to pop it back into place should it happen again.

A worrisome night for sure, but I'm grateful everything seems to have resolved itself.  She was using two hands on her bottle again before I put her down for a well-deserved nap.  And now, I may just go join her!