December 2007 archive
Inca
Bryan has a favorite restaurant that he loves to visit when he goes home to Kennewick to visit family. This place is called Inca and it has GREAT Mexican food. We didn’t get to go for Bryan’s birthday because of some other plans, but on our way out of town Saturday we couldn’t resist stopping there as our last thing to do in the Tri-cities.
We decided the only way to get the kids to behave at a restaurant was to bribe them. We said they could each have a quarter if they were good in the restaurant. Both Isaac and Micah were thrilled and behaved beautifully. Man, we looked like good parents! Isaac hardly complained about the food, he sat there pleasantly eating, he even ate something. Micah was just about the same. Reece was so happy munching on chips and salsa. I could hardly believe how he loved the salsa. He finished of his own bowl of it!
A small picture of Reece eating salsa, taken with our cell phone
I thought I would order light and just get a small bowl of soup and a side order tamale. Little did I know that the bowl of soup should really have been called a pot. Oh man, it was big. Bigger than my head. Bigger in diameter than Reece is! It was delicious, but so hard to finish. I couldn’t even do it. And my poor tamale.. I only took two bites! How could I not finish something so good? There was just no more room for anything else in my stomach after having consumed less than half of my bowl of soup. Next time I go to Inca, I need to remember that they give huge portions. And just so you know, try the cup of soup instead.
After the meal Isaac and Micah found just how to spend their big money. Outside the bathroom (next to the bar of all places) there were the little treasure tower things where you put in a quarter and hope to get out something good like a gumball, bouncy ball, slime, or fake teeth, etc. They were in heaven. I only had two quarters though, which I now find is a mistake since I actually have three boys. I thought Reece was too young to understand, or even care, but oh no, that kid wanted to put a quarter in just like the others! He’s growing up too darn fast! He never got the quarter, but I have learned my lesson… three of EVERYTHING from now on. Or suffer the consequences.
Posted by Ily on December 30, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
Christmas traditions
This year for December Enrichment at church we had a very special progressive dinner and the theme of the whole event was on Traditions. People shared their Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s traditions with each other and it was quite inspiring. I felt a desire to try and incorporate some of these traditions into our own family traditions and these are the things that were successful for us.
- 12 Days of Christmas: Pick a family to Secret Santa for each of the twelve days prior to Christmas. For the maiden voyage of this tradition we picked a family who needed a secret Santa to supplement their Christmas efforts. The boys had a great time knocking and running away so they could be “sneaky.” Isaac got into it. He loved it. Micah only wanted to participate occasionally. Reece was too young to even let out of the car though he wanted to go too. This family lives in a apartment so it was easier to hide in the stairwells so we wouldn’t get caught. I’m sure we almost got caught numerous times though! The hardest element of this adventure was having something prepared every day to take… I had to be prepared and I often am not! The best part of this activity: it is fun and you know it is making someone’s season brighter.
- Journey to Bethlehem Christmas Eve Dinner: On Christmas Eve eat a picnic dinner such as Mary and Joseph would have eaten on their journey to Bethlehem to be taxed. We had dried fruits, dried meats (AKA beef jerky), oranges and apples, olives, bread, and other picnic foods. The downside: Reece doesn’t get strapped into a high chair so he wanders around stepping in everyone’s food, nibbling off their plates instead of his own, and knocking things down. The plus side: it provided some perspective and a great opportunity to talk about the Christmas story from the scriptures. We actually dressed up in Nativity costumes while we ate which was fun. Another plus is that there are much fewer dishes to clean up after this type of dinner rather than if you cook a turkey and all the fixin’s.
There were lots of ideas shared at the enrichment dinner. Another one I would like to incorporate in years to come is to obtain an ornament each year that reminds us of some big event from that year. There are lots of opportunities to be creative with this one. And then your tree becomes a monument to the years past and brings to mind lots of cherished memories.
This year has been a great one full of lots of blessings. These traditions really make a great way to bring the year to a close with lots of happy memories. I am grateful for the spirit of love that this season brings to our lives and most especially for the gift of the Savior that makes this season possible.
Posted by Ily on December 25, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
Christmas Plans
I just wanted to let everyone know that we’ll be heading over to Kennewick on the 26th and staying until some time around the end of the year. If you will be returning to the homeland as well, let us know and lets get together!
Posted by Bryan on December 23, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
There so much more noteworthy things to write about, but you get to read this.
About three months ago we noticed Reece’s big toenail on one of his feet had turned black like it was bruised really badly. We didn’t know how it happened, but knowing that he is a curious toddler and gets into all sorts of stuff, we figured that he dropped something on his toe and that the bruise would grow out. Then about a month ago we noticed that his toe nail was growing out, but more nail wasn’t growing. His toenail was just growing off. Ewww.
As his nail has grown out more, it was just held on in one tiny place and it was kinda yucky to look at. Morbid curiosity kept me looking at it. It finally happened last night that the last tiny spot it was hanging on by gave up. Reece must have stubbed that sad little toe and there was blood everywhere. The nail was just barely hanging on and I couldn’t bring myself to pull it the rest of the way off so I tried the bandaid approach. The band aid just made him mad, so off it came. I decided footed jammies might be best to catch the offending toenail when it finally came off and they might keep other things from making the toenail swing around.
He seemed happy enough with the whole situation as long as he didn’t have a band aid on his toe. Even the blood last night didn’t phase him. He just kinda looked at it and wanted to touch it and smear the blood around (ewww again).
This morning the nail fell off and the only reason he was uncomfortable was because it was in his jammie foot and scratching his little foot as he moved around.
So last night I felt so queasy about the whole toenail adventure, but now that it fell off and there is no more blood, I am totally fine. I am the one who cleans up all unpleasant bodily fluids when people get sick, but I can’t handle a wimpy little toenail! Weird, but I hope I never have to see a toenail fall off again! It was way grosser than the messiest of diapers and tons worse than watching your kids get vaccinations!
All this proves that I am not super mom. One measly toe nail can bring me to my knees. Can we say “I found my kryptonite?”
Posted by Ily on December 21, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 1 comment
The van hunt begins
Last night we went out on a date. We had the best babysitter ever scheduled and had only thought far enough ahead to know that we were going to dinner at Applebees (we had a gift card from someone…we were excited for a free dinner). Benj and Melinda ended up joining us for dinner so we left all of the boys with Jordan, the best babysitter ever afore mentioned, and headed out for dinner together. We had a great time with them and then had to drop Benj and Melinda back off at our house to get their little guy Jason so they could take him home and put him to bed.
So there we are at home, having gone out and already had a fun time, the kids are in bed, and we have no clue what else to do that night. It seemed a shame to take the babysitter home that early, so we decided to go cruise and see what else we could find. No movies appealed to us enough to pay full ticket price. We already had dessert at the restaurant so going for ice cream didn’t seem practical. Going to a bookstore sounded a bit boring. Finally we decided what would be good. Test driving cars. No kids with us, and no time to get a salesman to work his dazzling magic on us.
The Toyota dealership was closing already, but they let us walk the lot and look in the windows of the vehicles. It was freezing cold and we didn’t last long. We saw enough to know that new vans are expensive and there were no used Siennas anywhere on their lot… must be a popular vehicle (duh).
We didn’t know where the local Honda dealership was so we decided to drive around to find it. What do you know, it was open when we found it. Amazingly, the 2007 Oddessy was a little less expensive than the 2007 Siennas we saw and gets better gas mileage too. Without further rambling about price comparisons, I will just say we test drove an Oddessy and it drove so nicely (gasp, it was so dang nice!). It felt less roomy than our current Dodge Grand Caravan, but it did have eight seats squished in and so many cupholders that they were just in the way. Luckily it was our least favorite color in a car so we couldn’t even be convinced to buy it that night, not even if we were bewitched by the sales guy.
I do still prefer the Sienna so far, but if we get a good deal, I could go for a Honda van someday. We don’t plan to buy a new van yet, maybe in February, but it was nice to go looking when we had no desire to purchase.
Having just replaced the transmission on the van, and having fixed the van door, and having fixed the big dent before that… well, lets just say, our van has had a lot of money sunk into it lately. It would be a little financially silly to go and get rid of it right now… but we sure would have more peace of mind about the vehicle we are driving if we had a Honda or a Toyota vehicle! I like our auto repair shop, but I really am sick of visiting them once a month for one car or the other!
Posted by Ily on December 9, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 0 comments
Me and my crazy ideas
Last week I decided it was time to take a family picture. I toyed around with a bunch of ideas and set up the tripod in the living room and tried a few practice shots. The boys were my models and hard to keep still enough to get a good picture in the lighting we had available in our house. It has been so dark with all the rain (downpour!!!!) that there just wasn’t enough light in the house for a picture. Plus each time I clean up, the littlest boy in our home goes and drags every toy out to make it look very messy.
So I came up with an idea. Ikea, the most awesome new store in town, has lots of living room settings that have no toys, nice accessories, and vibrant colors. I figured if I could set up the tripod at home, I could probably do it at IKEA too.
So we all dressed up and headed to the store. Bryan put up a fight, this type of thing violates his #1 rule of not drawing attention to himself, but in the end he gave in. We took a few shots, and they aren’t perfect, but they are fun. Especially since you can see a few price tags in the background around us. Overall, this was the most memorable photo session ever.
In my efforts to create a family photo with the tripod and the self timer on the camera, I got lots of silly faces like this from Reece and the other boys. This is actually a picture of Reece while he is smooshing his face up to the mesh gate that we use to keep him out of the office. He was pretty cute, but definitely too distracted to get a seriously great portrait of him.
... See my Tabblo>
Posted by Ily on December 4, 2007 | Filed under: Family News | 2 comments
