Home for the Holidays

Last year at Christmas time, I was out---to----here----- with a baby in my belly, and my doctors had completely nixed the idea of me doing any traveling.   I was rather sad to miss the holidays back home with my family.  My snow.  My mountains.   My mom’s cooking.  My awesome fire building skills roaring  in the fireplace.  My brother sitting next to me.  My skating rink that I took my first glides on.  My ski runs.   My  green chile fries at my favorite mom and pop joints.  My cold feet and warmed heart. 

My home.

 

  This was Seth’s first time up in the mountains with snow.   The first morning he woke up and spent all of breakfast time yelling out to the glorious white powder and banging on the doors.   He was ready to take on the snow.

As for Kaelan, ask her where she would go if she could pick ANY vacation spot on Earth, and the answer will always be Cloudcroft.  My mountain blood flows in her veins.   She eats every moment of the elevated air right up. 

Let’s break down the trip to make things easier for me.  I mean, come on people….I am sifting through over 480 pictures.   I have to figure out a way to wrap my brain around this or this post will NEVER happen.

FAMILY: 

 

 

We were so happy that Uncle Tommy, Aunt Candice and our sweet little nephew/cousin Austin were able to come and join us at the cabin this year.  The boys had a great time running/crawling around and making the parents crazy with their mad darts to the stairs every two minutes.   We were so happy that neither of them took a dive off the loft area (though that doesn’t mean they did not try), or stuck their heads in the fireplace.   They both survived, and we loved getting to play with them.

“The Cousins”,  (as we lovingly refer to the roughly eleven relative kidlets that meet on the mountaintop a few times each year to reek havoc), never disappoint Kaelan in the entertainment department.   From sunup to sundown, they keep her busy and happy.   One evening, a few of them got together and practiced a musical production of sorts  that they later performed during a family meal.   Cousin Taylor even played along on his clarinet.  It was magical and memorable for all.

 

      

Cousin Krisalyn and Kaelan                 Cousin Rheanna and Seth

Krisalyn and Aunt Sasha

Aunt Alex and Seth

Cousins Kaelan, Krisalyn and Izi

Aunt Seester and Seth

 

Kaelan skating with Cousins Ricky, Gavin and Mikey

I just have to add these photos.   Though are not the best quality, they capture one of my favorite things about living in a place nestled right in the forest.   How cool is it to look right out your kitchen window and see these little guys?

 

SNOW PLAY:

 

The poor little guy really wanted to get out there and take on that snow, but in most places it was well over his head, so mom and dad took him on a few sled runs and then he joined the spectator section back inside the cabin.   You can probably hear me screaming at the photo right now.  “Dad, pull his pant legs down!   It is freezing.”

 

 

 

 

Kaelan and Beatnik Bob the Snowman.  He even had a goatee made from pine needles, and rumor has it he puts on quite a show on open mic nights at the local coffee shop.

Skiing with these two cousins was a trip (to say the least).   On this day, one of the boys ended up riding his ski pony style down a black diamond run because he told his aunt he had been down that run a thousand times, when it turned out he had never attempted it.   I say ski, because the other ski beat him down the hill by twenty minutes when he wrecked and lost it.  He made his little  confession about the run at the crest of the mountain just as we were about to head down it.   I could have strangled that kid.  I won’t say which one it was, but I will tell you he wears a black and yellow Suzuki jacket, and a pair of ski pants with a huge hole in them from riding down black diamond runs while SEATED on his ski. 

I will say they are fun ski companions, though.   I laughed so hard on one run that I actually hit a tree.  Laughing and skiing are never good together. 

Let me state for the record that Seth was not dropped after this picture was taken.  “Ahh!  Grab him, dad.  He is slipping!”.  Did you hear me yelling again?

Skiing, sledding, ice skating, snowball fights, snowman building, snow jumping, snowmobiling.   We did them all.  Sometimes all in one day.   And this is why we love to go home for the holidays.

 

RANDOM:

 

My two little precious ones on Christmas morning.

Tissue paper-the best gift of all!

The boys in their Falcon gear.

I could keep going for days with these pictures.  No seriously, I COULD KEEP GOING FOR DAYS.  I have a lot of them. 

I will end this post now with one final photo of my darling little girl enjoying her time in the snow.

Eeek.  Maybe not that one, let’s do this one.

Much better.

Young Author’s Contest

Brentwood Christian School holds a Young Author’s Contest each year, and it is a pretty big deal.   Several youngins, who went on to become established published authors made their start in this little contest.   It was probably not best mommy moment, but when Kaelan came home and announced she was entering this contest, I may have given her an encouraging smile on the outside, but on the inside I was full of dread.   I pictured the countless sleepless nights ahead of me working on the project with her.  I flashed back to my procrastinating ways and the days of Science Fair projects thrown together the night before their due date, term papers typed and stapled literally minutes before they were to be turned in.   I felt like this project was going to be the death of me.  

For the record, I blame a lot of this type of anxiety and procrastination issues on the rubber cement  fumes I inhaled during the backboard making for those science fair projects.

But really, there wasn’t all that drama.

This little gal had a plot, had a plan, and had  a story she wanted to tell.   She did ALL the writing herself AND the fabulous illustrations.

    She worked on it a little each night for about a month, and the final project was one not only a daddy and mommy would love.   

So did the judges.   A lot, in fact.   She was awarded “Most Outstanding  in Educational and Creative Writing for Elementary”   AND was invited to read her story aloud to an audience at a Barnes and Noble event.

Kaelan with her school librarian,(and award winning author), Sandra Morrow who was so awesomely encouraging during the whole process.

           

So many friends and family members came out to support Kaelan that day.   It was lovely.   I can’t tell you how many people came up to me afterwards in absolute shock that Kaelan is only a Kindergartner.   She read so eloquently, acted so posed, and made us so very proud.

She has NEVER been exposed to rubber cement fumes.  

Again, support for my theory.

   

 

 

 

 Just had to share these photos.  After the reading was over, Kaelan hung around and read to Zachary.   Zach has openly confessed his “crush” on Kaelan, and has asked her repeatedly to please not marry Darian and marry him instead.   Kaelan is always very nice to Zach about it, but she nicely declines his offer.  On this day, just as the audience was getting settled and Kaelan took the stage, I could hear Zach’s voice from across the room announce: “That’s my wife.   She said she won’t marry me right now, but I am going to get a job and have lots of money, so she will say yes.”    The crowd loved that.  

I don’t award her with certificates here on the home front, but she is quite outstanding, folks.  

Month by Month: 9 and 10

 

Month 9

Good gracious.    Did I really never post about these months?   I hate that.   He changes so much, so fast.   I feel like if I don’t document some neat little something he does, by the next month it will disappear.   Heartbreaking.   Except for the pulling a poopie diaper off thing.  That I could live without remembering or documenting.   Let’s just end that thought process here.

9 months old and loving the clothing free lifestyle!   This month you just might have joined a nudist colony if you had the wherewithal to run away and do so.   Diaper changes became more like MMF matches.   You seem to always be much too busy to stop and let us change you.   You crawl around like a madman, and cruise around the furniture just looking for trouble.   If you can find a way out of our grip during changes, RRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrowwwww.   You are gone.   You are pretty easy to locate, however.  Usually, I just head for the book basket and find you sitting and checking out a read or standing at the keyboard in the spare room banging out a tune.  

(You had a little “ring around the bum” in this picture because we gave you some mango to try and confirm if you are allergic.   You are allergic to mango.   Here is proof.)

At some point during this month, a tragic accident occurred that caused your tongue to be stuck outside your mouth.   Maybe it was one of those things we were warned about when I was a child, you know, “If you keep making that face, it is going to freeze in that position”.   Whatever the case, your tongue rarely goes inside your mouth anymore.   The language of raspberries and slobber drips are pretty standard for you.  

You actually love to jabber.   In the car you go on and on telling me all the important things in life.   You repeat…..a lot, which is scary.   We are very cautious of the words we speak  lately.   

New words:

airpaw –airplane

Bandit

Avery

Sister

booka- book (just like Kaelan used to say)

tree

truck

uh-oh

Those are just a few you will say without prompting.   Usually, if we tell you the name of something, you will repeat it.  That means I have to really turn down the volume when I watch my trashy reality tv.   Bummer.

Jabber monkey

Sadly, we did get a confirmation that you have a bit of a hip issue.  It appears your hip joint is popping out of socket (hip dysplasia) on a regular basis.  That explains the weird crawling and turning out when you try to walk.   The doc set us up for an MRI, but because you are hitting milestones, he gave us the option to wait and see how things go over the next few months or do it now.   I am not to keen on knocking you out to take pictures of your insides when I feel like you are not in pain, and it does not appear to be slowing you down.   Time will tell if we need that in the future, but for now, the MRI gig is a negative.

 

We love you, Little Dude.   Now, put your tongue away, please.

 

 

Month 10

Sob.  Sob.    The “chunky monkies” are fading.

That squishy little roll just above the knee is getting smaller and smaller, and I almost can’t get a tickle grip on it.   A little hair is coming in, your face is getting thinner and more mature looking.  

It is happening.  You are growing in to a toddler, and I can’t figure out how to stop this madness.

Your very first Christmas!!!!   You got to experience yet another season in the mountains.   You loved watching the snow fall from indoors, but actually being out in it was not your favorite thing.   The teeth were cutting (when are they not?) over the holidays, so we had a few rough nights.  One evening your temperature went way up, and you gave mom and pop a scare, but we knew the cause when two new teeth popped out the next day and you had no other problems.  That put the count up to 8 teeth!   You enjoyed playing with your cousins, and since you were the youngest kid there (and we can’t trust you to roam free), you were held a great deal during our Christmas vacation.   Perhaps this is why when you got home, you had the urge to take off and start walking.   The hip thing slows you down some, but you made every effort to move around on your feet.  

This month you were also introduced to a lot more table foods.   You love tortillas.   Love macaroni and cheese (not the crappy stuff that gave you a nasty reaction). You could live off of just about any kind of fruit.  You still love yogurt and we have dipped into your college fund to cover the cost of your snacking habit.  

You  started following me all over the house in a racing crawl or cruise this month.   Sometimes your back end gets going faster than your front end, which results in you smacking your forehead on the floor.   Just wanted to mention this in case you see pictures in the future and have questions.

You are infatuated with the trash trucks, so we have often rescheduled our day plans to ensure we are home to see our trash and recycling services take place.  The guys on the truck actually look for you now so they can wave and honk at you. 

Most of your new words involve the outdoors.

sha shu-  trash truck

ball

car

kids

One of my favorite things you said this month was a whispered “don’t touch it”.   On a colder day, I pulled out the space heater and had it stored (off) in the corner of the room.  Every time you got near it, I would say, don’t touch it just to make you aware in case you ever came across one that was actually running.   That is when you started this thing where you just stare at it and whisper, “dontushi”.   You are very serious when you say this.   We think you sound so funny when you whisper….kind of like that little creature on Lord of the Rings.   My precious……….

Walking your sister.  Good thing you are around to help her out.

Dear Seth,

10 Months . . . hard to believe it’s going by so fast.  I have snap shots of you at each month and it amazes me to see the transformations that occur.  Uh Oh became your favorite word . . . next to Dad of course, and new little sounds and activities occur daily.  The gates had to be reinforced to hold you in as well.  Every now and then I see reflections of me in you and it steals my heart.  You got your mother’s beauty, thank God, but I still see me in there.   All the ladies love you to death.  My favorite activity is to take you to the store just to see how others react around you.  Always the ladies.   Beautiful blue eyes dominate your face and that amazing smile of your mother’s shines through.   I love you little man.   Hopefully I can make your new nickname stick.  You mom is pushing back, but I think Tank is very fitting.  Love,

Dad

By the way, that new little nickname????   It’s “TANK”.   

You will thank me later for refusing to let that one stick.

Daddy/Daughter Dance 2012

It’s a tradition, four years in the making.   It is a special little way daddy shows his special little girl not only how much he loves her, but just how special she should be in the eyes of her future mate.

2009

2010

2011

My girl is no longer one to go frolicking in the frilly dresses.   She is happiest digging in the dirt or running with the boys.   I have come to terms with it, but still I find myself  perusing the pink isle in the toy department and begging her to just like one Barbie.   She lovingly tugs my arm and pulls me away to the Legos and Skylanders.   Barbies are not her thing.  

So, you can imagine how thrilled I was with the prospect of picking a dress for the Daddy/Daughter  Dance this year.   Last year, the dance fell on the day I brought Seth home from the hospital, so I was completely out on the whole wardrobe process.  

This year, I figured I was just going to have to send her in a pair of jeans because I had serious doubts I could talk her into a dress.    Knowing we were going out of town for 10 days, and hoping to get the ball rolling,  I mentioned the dance was coming up and that we needed to start looking an outfit.   Okay, she said.  No whines.  No big complaints.    Wow.  Not at all what I expected.

We made our way to the frilly frock section, and I cringed in expectation.   This is where she would fight me.  This is where it will all fall apart.   But to my surprise, she shopped!   She actually SLOWLY worked her way through the racks and stopped in front of one peachy, flowery getup and declared, this was THE ONE.  

I teared up, ya’ll.   Seriously.   It was not the fanciest dress, but it was girly and a little pink and even had a flower, and best of all, she was going to willingly wear it.

Truth be known, I am completely aware that the dress was not the exciting part of all this for her.   She would have worn anything I asked of her.   The thrill was spending this special night with her daddy, and she would go along with whatever to make it happen.   She loves the time she gets with him, and I know the feeling is mutual for daddy.   Maybe she did the whole dress thing for me. 

For whatever reason, she wore her pretty little pink attire and had a magical and memorable evening with her dad.

This is our little neighbor, Aiden.   He saw her outside taking pictures and just came out of nowhere to run up and hug her.  

He also gave her dress a thumbs up. 

And not only did they bring me home this cute little picture with the cheesy prom background, they also brought me some take-out from the restaurant they dined at that evening.

Such sweeties.