We're in Arizona now and having a blast with Brett's family! The Pear Tree was definitely full this Christmas with all of us showing up as a surprise for the big day. We had our own little family Christmas before we drove down. It was a lot of fun watching Hyrum get excited about opening presents. Sadly, I neglected my camera during the whole event. We did get video and I'll post that when I have some time. Here are a few pictures: We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. It's funny seeing Noah in these pajamas, because Hyrum wore these same pj's Christmas morning last year:) He's becoming such a big boy! It wouldn't be a good boy Christmas without big bugs involved!:
Noah's Asleep - The best update ever! So, Brett posted a month ago about Noah's sleeping problems. At 9 months he was still waking up anywhere from 3-5 times every night. So we finally decided to restrict him to a pack-'n-play in the basement with a monitor from midnight until 7, when Hyrum wakes up. We're happy to say that after 3 weeks he finally was consistently staying asleep for 7 hours. . and so we moved him back into the crib. Now for the past 3 nights he's stayed asleep from 8 until about 7! Ahhh, we love having our nights back.
We've had a snow filled weekend. It just gets me more excited for Christmas. We had fun playing out in the snow. Brett and Hyrum built a snowman.Hyrum kissing the snowman:)This is what Noah did. He loves playing in the trunk of the car.After all of the cold we decided to eat out. On the way out we told Hyrum we would be eating a burger and so he started picking his nose. Then we had a long, funny conversation about the difference between boogers and burgers. . . Hyrum didn't seem to get the difference, they're both yummy to him:)
Before Brett and I got married we discussed our thoughts on Santa vs. no Santa.Now that we’ve been married for nearly 4 years and Hyrum is 2 ½ it’s time for me to rethink the subject.In my mind I’ve seen it as Lies vs. Truth and nothing more.I was never taught to believe in the Big Man and as a child made fun of kids who were ‘deceived’ by lying parents.Brett thinks it’s sad, but I think I was given a healthy dose of truth.Despite what backgrounds Brett and I came from I’ve decided to seek out my real feelings on the subject and record it for posterity.
My biggest argument on the subject has been commercialism and how much Christ is taken out of Christmas, leaving Santa Clause more celebrated and credited for all the joy and spirit of the season. I don’t like it at all. I want our children’s first thoughts when they hear Christmas to be the baby Jesus born under a star in a stable a long time ago. And because of His birth we celebrate by giving gifts like the wise men and putting lights on our house just like the star to light the way. With that said, now I need to give myself a reality check. Hyrum has been going to the nursery in our church for about a year now and usually when we talk about nursery or church, the first thing he says is ‘Toys! Play!’. It isn’t Jesus, Hymns, or scripture stories that come to mind. . . in fact it probably isn’t even the second or third thing he thinks of either. Are we doing something wrong? No. Young children just don’t fully understand circumstance or consequence, they understand instances of gratification. It’s in the first eight years that we teach them habit and right vs. wrong, it’s not until later that the dots of understanding connect the why’s of life. So expecting a child in their first few years to get excited about someone they’ve never met and don’t fully understand might be a bit unrealistic. Santa Clause, however, is a happy grandpa-figure that children can understand. They can sit on his lap and listen to his big laugh and tell him about things that will give them instant gratification. I can see the big appeal. I don’t think believing that there is a person that dedicates his life to giving gifts and bringing happiness is bad. It’s a great example for children to learn selflessness from. I’m okay with introducing this kind of Santa to our kids. I’ll go along with the whole reindeer, North Pole, and chimney elaborations that have been created over time as parents dug themselves deeper into something they didn’t know how to get out of. Basically, I’ve come to the conclusion that I believe in the theory of Santa Clause, and will not be opposed to our children learning and getting excited about him as their hearts and minds prepare to learn and understand more about the true meaning of Christmas.
So, someday when Hyrum comes to me and really wants to know if Santa is real my response will be something like this:
The Santa Claus that you know is a combination of many different legends and mythical creatures.A lot of what we know about the real man is taken from Bishop Nicholas of Smyrna. Nicholas lived in the 4th century A.D. He was very rich, generous, and loved children. People knew him by all the joy he gave to poor children by throwing gifts in through their windows.He was a real man that did wonderful, generous things.When he died no one wanted to forget the happy feelings that he gave, so they celebrated and remembered him by doing the same thing for their children.We still do it today.He doesn’t live in the North Pole or have reindeer, but he does live in Heaven with Heavenly Father.People wanted his life to be celebrated forever and so they decided to celebrate him the same time they celebrated the birth of Jesus, because Jesus made is possible for us to live forever.Jesus Christ made it possible for us to live eternally in Heaven.He gave us the greatest gifts that we can ever get, so it’s a great time to celebrate giving and people who give to others.I believe in Jesus Christ, but I also think that St. Nickolas (or Santa Clause) is just as real.St. Nickolas felt the Spirit of Christ as he gave what he had, just as the Savior gave everything he had.So, is Santa Clause real. . . yes! just not in the way that you thought.
I love the holidays! I love the feeling of excitement, preparation, anticipation, and the joy of Christ that just permeates the air as we listen to Christmas music. This weekend we had a neighborhood Progressive Dinner. There were a dozen couples involved and we had so much fun. I was responsible for the salad course for 12 people. I loved getting things all ready. Putting both leaves in the table and using more dishes at once than we've ever used at once was kind of fun. Thankfully, Scott and Cheryl (Brett's parents) were here for our Nephews baptism and so they helped watch the boys. I'm excited to do it next year!
This Monday we decided to take a trip up to Salt Lake to see all of the beautiful lights on Temple Square. Sadly, it wasn't until we got to Sandy that we realized that I forgot to put the Memory Card back in my camera. So, I'm posting a picture from last year. Hyrum loved the train ride from Sandy to SL! The lights were amazing as always. On Tuesday Hyrum kept begging, "ChooTrain. . ride it. . . temple. . again" He's getting a really good grasp on placing words together to make semi-full sentences. It's great to finally be able to understand him. . . most of the time.
It has been a great Thanksgiving weekend. Vacations are always so nice. Brett was able to finish the cold storage shelves, put up Christmas lights outside, assemble our tree inside, put Christmas music on the ipod for me and even stay up all night with his brother to be first in line at Old Navy on Black Friday for a free Lego's Rockband (yes we got it and it's pretty cool. . . feel free to come by and play! Ryan, you can use ours until you get your Wii:) Man, when I write it all down like that it makes me realize that Brett just doesn't do enough around here. . . haha. He definitely earned his Thanksgiving Dinner! Thanksgiving was nice and relaxed. My sister Holly and her husband Jeremy and their youngest came to hang out with us on Thursday. We ate until we were tired and then put the boys down for a nap while we watched Wolverine.We loved making the big feast for Thanksgiving. Brett did most of the Turkey preparation and Hyrum helped me make whip cream to top off our Banoffee pie (One of my new favorites. It's an English dessert that Brett told me about, and thanks to Allrecipes-dot-com, we were able to have. YUMMMMYYY)Today was pretty nice out, so we played outside. Noah is the cutest little bundle when it's cold. We finished decorating the Christmas tree and it get's me so excited for the season. Hyrum has been fascinated by the stockings. I told them they were special big socks for Christmas and so, of course, he insisted on wearing them. Notice how they fit his entire leg!
So, with the sickies happening around here this last week I neglected to mention that NOAH IS 9 MONTHS OLD!!!! He's such a cute little man and it's amazing how fast he's growing and learning. It's crazy to think that Hyrum was right about this age when we conceived Noah! . . . Wow, we were crazy. We're so glad he's part of our family. So, this was by no means intended to be a photo shoot (messy hair, no pants, and crumbs on floor - the real life day), but he was being so cute that I had to show you. Lately, when he's really happy he'll squint his eyes until their shut. . . this is him in action:
We've all been taking turns being sick the past couple of weeks. Hyrum is the cutest little sick boy ever. He complained a few times saying, "Tummy, Broken". He made this 'nest' out of a box that we're letting him play with in the basement. One day while we were playing he just curled up in the nest and fell asleep. So, with being sick not much else has been happening. But we have enjoyed some beautiful sunsets from our deck. I love our view.
We're getting there. . . Noah went down at about 7:30 and woke up around 8:30 (probably because we opened the garage door which is right below his room). Anyway, he was awake so I let him crawl around a little but it became evident that he was still very cranky and not really in a "I just had a nice power nap" so I put him back in the pack 'n play . . . 10 minutes of crying and he was out.He woke up again around 11:30 just before we were headed to bed so Steph gave him one more feeding and put him back to bed and that was the last thing I heard :)
NOTE: I don't even wake up when he's screaming in the room next to me so there's little chance that he'll wake me through a monitor :)
Steph told me this morning that he woke up just once in the night and cried for about 30 minutes and went back to sleep. . . so he's making progress. The goal is to get the 11/12ish to 7/8ish stretch without a hitch for about a week and then we'll bring him back upstairs to his crib. Then if we can expand that to what Hyrum used to do when he was 1 (7pm - 7am) or even something close, the plan is to move the crib into Hyrum's room so that they get used to being in the same room together (since whenever baby #3 comes . . . no that's not even close to an announcment, they'll be moving into bunk beds). Thanks for you're comments and well wishes. . . Stephanie hasn't had perfect nights the last two nights because she's still got a sore throat, but she's definitely not bloodshot anymore :)
So I normally don't post, Steph does such a good job keeping things up to date and interesting on here. But this event was too exciting. Noah will be 9 months old in 4 days and he is such a delight to have in our family. However he's a HORRIBLE SLEEPER :)
The longest stretch he's ever had is about 4 hours and that was a rarity. Usually his schedule is something like this, go down at 8, get up at 10 (feed and go back down), get up around 12 or 1 (feed and go back down), get up around 2 or 3 (sometimes feed and go back down), and often gets up around 5 (the goes back down for a few more hours).
I'm not complaining just trying to help you see how monumental last night was :). We have not let him cry it out like we did with Hyrum because he wakes Hyrum up. So last night we decided to put in a pack 'n play in the play room in the basement (with his heater of course). We set up the monitor so we could hear him in our bedroom (two floors up). He went down at 8 like normal and then woke up around 9:30. We kept him up as close to 11:00 as we could and then put him to bed in his new makeshift nursery. After reading scriptures and praying really hard that Steph and Noah would get a full night's sleep (for the first time since Noah was born). . . we went to bed and when we woke up at 7:00 am this is what we found in the playroom:
SUCCESS. . . he's still asleep. Unfortunately Steph has a bad sore throat and so she still woke up throughout the night, but even with that it was a much better night than she's had in a loooooooong time! We'll keep you posted as we try for two nights in a row tonight!
ADDENDUM:
The night was good for us but may not have been so good for Noah. When he woke up around 8:00 am he was acting confused, and more groggy than usual. That got us thinking maybe he was screaming and we didn't hear him. I checked the monitor and found that the green "link" light was on however there was no sound coming through it (not even white noise). Turns out the monitor tries to be smart, you can set a "sensitivity" level on it and if the noise doesn't exceed the sensitivity threshold then the monitor goes into a silent mode until some noise exceeds the threshold. We did not know this. The sensitivity was set to the lowest setting and after testing it this morning that meant that Noah would have had to basically have his mouth against the monitor and scream for it to "activate" our receiver upstairs. So the poor guy may have been screaming for 6 hours for all we know. Does this make us mean parents . . . I don't think so. Perhaps he "cried it out" a little longer and harder than we intended, but the point is for him to learn to sleep without our aid. . . so I guess mission accomplished :) But lest ye think me heartless we are going to make sure the sensitivity level is set adequately high tonight so that if he's crying we can at least be aware of it.
These are two combination that together can be dangerous. . . but so good for us today. We have almost completed our cold storage shelving. We wouldn't have been able to do it without our concrete nail gun, metal file, saw, and the good old hammer. . . they do however leave a lot of dust and smell. Here's the hero of the day. He did almost all of the work. My job was to keep the boys occupied and safe from scary tools. Once the boys had gone down for a nap I was able to get in on the action. I love tools and getting dirty. Brett took these shots of me chiseling. The smell was so strong that we had to open the windows in the basement. . . which was then freezing. Noah looked so cute all bundled up. Once we get the last little bit done I'll post pictures of the final product.
So, after Brett's piano lessons he said 'let's go bowling'. . . so we did. I had a few gift certificates for Costa Vida, so we had free dinner and a blast bowling as a family. Hyrum LOVED it, but I must admit that more of his excitement came from the lights when you walk in rather than actually bowling, although that was fun too. Here are a few visual displays of our fun:
October has been a big project month for us we've: painted our Master Bedroom a heather blue put up crown molding in our bedroom as well (it was easier to do than I thought) Brett repaired our gutter by replacing a portion of it began work on the shelves in our cold storage (my parents came to visit this past weekend and were able to help us get it started. My dad was a great teacher and help. Hyrum even helped out passing nails. Noah cuddled with Grandma. We finished the other wall of shelves tonight)
Yesterday we had our ward Halloween party. It was a little too exciting for our little Giraffe.Doug Heffernan (Kevin James) on the other hand got a lot of laughs.
It's been a wonderful Halloween! Earlier today we drove up North for my neice, Emma's, baptism. Congratulations Emma!!! We were able to stay and play with the cousins for a little while. It was a lot of fun! Here are some of the cousins in there costumes. Beware of the tiger before prouncing on his prey:
So this isn't the best picture, but it's a funny story. This cupboard he's in is a really awkward size and has a half shelf in the middle of it, so I've never put anything inside of it. Out of no where this week he decided that the cupboard has two purposes: cooking (he kept putting a bag of cheese in and would shut the door, and say 'cooking! cooking!') and hiding (he prefers to hide in there and eat cheese). We've been looking forward to a spook-tacular halloween with some gooey-licious pumpkin carving. Hyrum was most excited about the 'fire' inside. I think he had us light the candle 6 or 7 times so that he could blow it out.
This last weekend we had a quick weekend getaway to Arizona. It was filled with a lot of stuff, like:Seeing great friends.A lot of these (don't worry most people didn't cry through haircuts)Hangin' with our buddies at the zoo.Seeing this giant truck to get a picture with.Staying with cute girly cousins!
And a lot of amazing family pictures. Coming soon.
It's funny seeing Noah in these pajamas, because Hyrum wore these same pj's Christmas morning last year:) He's becoming such a big boy! 
It wouldn't be a good boy Christmas without big bugs involved!:
It's funny seeing Noah in these pajamas, because Hyrum wore these same pj's Christmas morning last year:) He's becoming such a big boy! 
It wouldn't be a good boy Christmas without big bugs involved!:
