Mulgarath, Spiderwick and Miles Birthday

Miles has been patiently awaiting his birthday since September, when he endured the pain of watching both his brother and sister enjoy their birthday celebrations. He has been talking endlessly about how he's going to be having a Spiderwick party. I've just been hoping he would change his mind since Spiderwick birthday supplies are a little on the scarce side (my kids might just be the only kids on the planet consumed with the Spiderwick phenonemon).

He was very concerned about how we would find a Mulgarath (the Spiderwick bad-guy) pinata till my sister Elise gave him the great idea to ask Aunt Tierra to make him one. Being the fantastic aunt that she is, and after consulting google as to how to make said pinata, she came to our home one day with this:



She thought it resembled a brown Miss Piggy but. . . her nephew (and his relieved mom) couldn't have been happier! Thanks T!

Now the cake. I didn't think I could pawn that one off on another family member, and after the long-shot of checking with Sams Club for a Spiderwick custom cake (please?), I broke down and began the search for the easiest Spiderwick Cake I could come up with. Again, thanks to a somewhat easy to please 4 year old, we were in business.



Miles had so much fun bashing that pinata (Lola on the other hand, was in tears. All that hard work was to be reduced to gruesome chunks of brown fur?), eating his Spiderwick Field Guide cake, opening presents and being with 1/2 of his family (we so missed the Stokes' side of the family). It was a fabulous birthday celebration!





I love having this little 4 year old person in my life. He keeps me busy and on the verge of insane, but his smile lights up my world. His never-ending conversation reminds me that I am blessed. His love for me gets me through those hard moments. And his teasing ways remind me not to take life so seriously!

Officially Over

I always get so sad, deserting my tree that has served us so well, in the gutter for pick-up. It signifies the end of such a happy time of year. So for now, dear Christmas tree, farewell!

December

When I was a kid, the month of December seemed longer than the rest of the year combined. . . now it seems Christmas is here before I even get a chance to blink! Here are a few of our favorite things from this month:

Decorating the Christmas Tree. . .



Finally getting snow! And then more snow. . . and then more. . .





Writing to Santa. . .



Making a Gingerbread House. . .



Opening new Christmas jammies from Grandma and Grandpa. . .



Acting out the Nativity with cousins. . .



Dressing up for Church. . . this year I was nice enough to not make the boys match. They no longer think that is cool AT ALL.

Temple Square

On Saturday night we were planning on meeting my sister Chelsea and her husband, Marcus at Temple Square for the annual lights trip. As we were rounding up their warm gear, Jackson was complaining that he didn't want to go. He had all sorts of excuses, from wanting to just play at his granny's house to it being too cold but then he topped them all with this one:

"We have lights right here (pointing at the ceiling) and I don't even like looking at them so why would I want to look at the lights at Temple Square?"

OK, you're totally right Jackson. What were we thinking? We went anyway.

Milestones

One year ago, almost to the day, I found myself sitting in an unfamiliar room, with unfamiliar teachers, talking about an unfamiliar thing. . . sending my almost three year old to a disabled preschool. I was working on coming to terms with that word. He was going through test after frustrating test, trying to get to the bottom of his speech disorder. At 3 years old, I was trying to convince these new teachers that yes, he only said about 7 words and well, even that may be a stretch since only I understood them. They told me he would qualify to attend this new school 4 days a week, for 3 1/2 hours each day, riding the bus to and from. He was so little and I wasn't sure I was ready to let him go for all that time. We had to set goals for him to work towards for that first year, one of which was that he would work up to a 30 word vocabulary. I remember blinking back tears and thinking that it would take some sort of miracle to achieve such a simple goal.

Fast forward to today. . . just one year later. I was back in this same room, now very familiar, with teachers that I have grown to love because of their love for my child. We went over the initial goals set and I heard the words, "caught up to the level of a normal 4 year old." In that moment I realized that there was a time, not all that long ago, when I thought I would never hear such a thing.

Such a simple thing: speech. Something taken for granted when babies turn a certain age and pass through all of those talking milestones. Something desperately missed when it doesn't happen.

Today I am so grateful. Grateful for such a miracle to occur in our little world. Grateful to hear the thoughts in my little boys mind. To hear what he wants for Christmas. To hear him pray at night. Little things that I will not take for granted any time soon.

You Better Not Pout. . . I'm Telling You Why!

Oh the Season can be exhausting!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Today my family came up and we went to Preston, ID to cut down Christmas trees. It was so much fun traipsing all over the mountain searching for the perfect pine tree. It even snowed on us for a bit, making it feel just a little more like Christmas.




Jackson took the job of tree hunting a little too seriously. He didn't understand that the little trees on the mountain would actually be HUGE in our house. He cried as we yelled timber and cut down our tree because it just wasn't big enough. When we got it in our house, and the top 2 feet still had to bend under our vaulted ceiling, he said, "oh!"



Lola loved donning her new winter coat, hat and gloves and hiked around like a little pro. She walked most of the way, grinning the whole time. She kept saying over and over that she was in search of a princess tree. Not quite sure just what she was expecting.