Christmas Post

Our three foot tall Christmas tree all ready for Santa to come visit on Christmas Eve. For some reason the bottom half of the lights hadn't been working all season, then they turned on that evening. It was our own little Christmas miracle. We can't wait to get a real tree some year when we have a bit more space.

So, for Christmas this year, I was able to get three days off in a row! It's only the second Christmas day that I've had off since I turned 18. That made it extra fun and special. On Christmas Eve, I spent the morning at the gym and got a good work-out in. After naps in the afternoon, we drove up to Aunt Laura and Uncle Dude's house for a fun family party. Almost everyone was there from my side of the family. Gwen had lots of fun playing with her cousins and we got to eat a yummy ham dinner together. Jonathan and I got a really neat book that my sister Laura put together of our wedding pictures. We have the best wedding pictures but I hadn't really done anything with them and now I don't have to because she did it for us.

On Christmas morning, we couldn't wait for Gwen to get up and finally got her up at 8:30 to open presents. She got some stuffed Muppet babies and some pretend food. Jonathan and I gave each other lots of movies and video games. It was funny because all our gifts were DVD shaped. After opening our presents, we drove in the snow over to my parent's house - yay that they only live 10 minutes away, and made brunch for everyone there. Gwen opened a remote control My Little Pony toy from Grandma and Grandpa and chased the dogs around with it until my sister Heidi and her family came over. We left a few hours later and came home for much needed naps. Jonathan made us a ham dinner and we watched Prince Caspian together and stayed up late. Too bad the only part of the movie that Gwen payed attention to was the big scary battle at the end. I think it gave her nightmares because she woke up crying a couple times in the night and she's had a hard time sleeping since then. I guess we have to be more careful about watching movies at night with her now.

A few days later, the snow finally cleared enough for Jonathan's mom and step-dad to make the trip down from Preston. Still, the normally 2-3 hour drive took them 5 hours. They're so much braver than me. I'd never make that trip in anything but perfect weather. Grandma Elsie gave Gwen a little pretend kitchen to go with her pretend food and it is by far her favorite gift this year. She makes us meals and snacks on it constantly and hides things in it like Hershey's Kisses that she's not supposed to have. We went to lunch that afternoon with Elsie and Floyd and Jonathan's brother Sam and his family. It's always fun to spend time with them and Gwen loves her big cousin Charlotte. It was a fun holiday this year and the best part was that I got to spend so much time with my little girl who is starting to figure out what Christmas is about.
Gwen and her Great-Grandpa Madsen. He just turned 95 this fall.
Samantha, Noah, Kim, and Gwen playing in Noah's room on his big soft bean bag chair. You could fit 2 adults or 25 small children on there.Sam, Kim, and Noah looking so loving and quiet together. This was not always the case during the night though as you can imagine with 6 wound-up kids in the same house.The girls (except Jami who was downstairs). They pushed poor little Noah off his own chair and exerted their "girl power" for this picture. Trust me, he was pouting just off to the side.Mason spent the entire evening watching the Santa tracker on the computer. He'd alert the rest of us each time Santa moved a little closer to Utah.

Gwen-isms

My sister Laura posted about some of the cute things that her almost 3 year-old son says and does these days that make her smile. I thought that I'd borrow her idea and post a few of the cute things Gwen does lately.

Gwen's talking more and more each day. She clams up around company though so don't be surprised if you can't get a squeak out of her. When there's just Mommy and Daddy there though she talks non-stop. Lately, she's been trying out sentences or phrases instead of one or two word commands. This morning she reached up and turned off our bedroom light without using her step stool for the first time ever. (She must have had a growth spurt during the night.) She proudly declared, "Momma, I offed light!" I looked at Jonathan and said that we must be raising a mafia assassin because she had just offed the light. We had a good giggle about that and Gwen said "I funny" and spent the next few minutes turning the light off and on and fake laughing about it. She turns lots of nouns into verbs, too. The other day I was holding her and we were looking at ourselves in the mirror. She looked down at her bare feet and said, "sock me, Momma." She wanted me to put her socks on her.

Gwen's never really been attached to one security item and instead will have a favorite item for a week or two and then move on to something else. This week it's her Elmo pillowcase. She calls it her "Elmo Blankie." She uses it as a seat cover when she sits or wears it as a cape or a dress over her clothes. With Christmas coming I can't wait to see what she settles on next as her favorite.

Gwen LOVES nativities. She calls them "Jesus Houses" and likes to point out baby Jesus and Jesus Momma (Mary) and Small One. Small One is a Disney cartoon about a boy and his pet donkey. The donkey's name is Small One and the boy has to take him to town and sell him because he's getting old and tired. After some adventures with a tanner and some mean auctioneers, Joseph offers to buy Small One so Mary can ride him to Bethlehem. Gwen made the connection all by herself that the donkey in our nativity must be the very same Small One from the cartoon. We have a music box/snow globe nativity that Gwen keeps right next to her bed and watches and listens to as she falls asleep. It doesn't have a donkey on it anywhere, so each night Small One gets to leave the other nativity set downstairs and go sit next to the music box one upstairs to watch over Jesus. Lately, one of the polar bears from my collection has joined Small One. I don't know what that's about.

Fun in the Snow!

It's been snowing off and on the last week, so we've got a few inches on the ground here. This morning (the 18th), we finally took advantage of it and took Gwen out to play. She LOVED it, as you can see by these pictures.
Here are Gwen and Daddy making snow angels, an activity she enjoys this year. Last year when we tried to teach her, she started complaining as soon as we put her down in the snow.
See that humongous smile on her face? That's our happy girl.
After the snow angels, they started piling up snow around Daddy's knees.
There's our dog Boot. She loves snow, too. Some fingers got nibbled when she got impatient waiting for us to throw snowballs for her to bite.
Just a very rough effort at making a snowman.
I don't think there's enough magic in all the hats in the world to make that dance, but Gwen still had fun piling the snow.
Of course, it was even more fun when the pile of snow wound up on Daddy's legs. She LOVED burying him under the snow.

And here it is: Gwen's adorable laugh. I don't need to tell you how much fun she had dumping snow on Daddy's head.
...still laughing at each other.
She was so happy, she kept laughing even when Daddy smothered her with kisses.After that, it was Gwen's turn to be buried. She loved that, too......so much so that when we got home, she had to lay down on the lawn and have Daddy bury her again. He created a monster!

Santa and Big Girl Beds

Gwen got to pick out her very own big girl bed this week. Of course she picked out the one with a doggy and kitty cutout on the headboard. When you put her down for her nap or bedtime you can hear her in her room talking to "Doggy" and "Meow". It's actually been a fairly easy transition for all of us. She loves to climb in her bed by herself and she loves the snowmen sheets that we let her choose at the store. Plus, lots more of her friends fit in this bed. We took down the crib and put it in our room and hopefully when we get it out in February, she won't have a fit thinking it's still her bed.

Some of you got to read my Christmas forward and were probably wondering if the part about our nativity was real. Well, it was and here's proof. This is Baby Jesus in his manger driving the school bus with all the other nativity pieces in it along for the ride.After their tour of our house, they must all be worn out because Gwen takes them out and lays them all down for naps. Even the donkey and cow are laying on their backs with their feet up in the air.Last Friday, we went to the Festival of Trees. It sure was fun. We met Laura and Noah there but were too busy wrestling our two-year-olds to take many pictures. Gwen's favorite part was watching all the pretty dancers. She really loves to dance and would grab Noah's hands and make him boogey with her. We even stood in line to see Santa. This was Gwen's first encounter with him and she didn't really know what to think. She wasn't scared, just unsure of what was going on. The next day we went to a breakfast with Santa at Jonathan's school and Gwen didn't want to go anywhere near Santa.

On another note, Jonathan finished his last final for his Associate degree today. If he did all the paperwork correctly, that means he'll get his associate in art degree for history in the next couple weeks. He does want to go to the graduation ceremony in the spring, so look for your invites in a few months. Now our plans are for him to get a job for the spring and summer so we can save up some money so we can hopefully move in the fall. He'll either go to the University of Utah or Weber State in the fall.

At my OB doctor's appointment last week everything still looks fine. I was super surprised when he said he'd see me again in two weeks. That means we're getting closer to the due date. In fact we only have 10 weeks left. Oh boy, that seems really soon to me.

No Dress!

So, I saw the OB the other day and things still seem to be going just fine. The baby went through a big growth spurt over the last month and is measuring big for how far along I am now. Last month she was measuring a little small. I sure can tell she's bigger and stronger now. I now get to deal with heartburn and it's no longer comfortable to bend over. Plus, her kicks and punches keep me up wen I lay down for a nap or bedtime.

Speaking of bedtime, Gwen has decided to exercise her two-year-old-ness and won't get dressed in the morning. Twice this week, I've had to take her to the gym still in her jammies. At least they're cute jammies.

She how proud she is that she got away with wearing her nightgown and tights all day long? Lately, I've learned the benefit of bribery. She can have a fruit snack if she lets me put pants on her and a sticker if she lets me put a shirt on her. She'll usually put her shoes and socks on by herself if we have a "race" to get them on. Isn't it great how toddlers can encourage creativity?I have been picking up extra shifts to help with Christmas money the last month, so when I had an extra day off this week, Gwen and I took advantage of the super nice weather and went to Wheeler Farm. We had to bring Gonzo and Elmo in the stroller of course because we can't go anywhere without them these days.For some reason they have a ton of baby animals out right now. They have these two foals, a bunch of baby pigs, and a baby cow. There weren't these many babies in the spring. Gwen had come with me to the OB visit and we spent a lot of time talking about our baby - I'm not sure she really gets it, but she's getting closer. She now makes "whooshing" noises randomly through the day (that's what the ultrasound of the baby's heart beat sounds like) and will say "baby whoosh."Gwen's a bit of a chicken when it comes to climbing things, something I'm completely okay with. She wanted help to climb up in the tree house, but then another little boy showed up and she watched how he quickly climbed up to the top and she followed him. It took a little bit of prodding to get her down again, but I think that was partly because she was finally up in the top part where she'd never been before.

My Late Halloween Post

Jonathan's pumpkin carved to look like his favorite anime character from one of his favorite series.

I've been meaning to post this one for a while. We had a fun week of Halloween fun this year. The Friday before Halloween we drove down to Thanksgiving Point and went to Cornbelly's Maze and had fun for a few hours. They had lots of activities for our little one to do. The whole idea of having to drag, carry, beg, and scold her through a maze of corn that might take us hours to get through was not appealing, so we never even went in it. Instead we had fun racing rubber duckies, riding in the cow train, eating lunch, and bouncing. It was super nice weather and it was great to spend some time together just the three of us.This was Gwen's very favorite part. You had to hand pump the water and race little rubber duckies back and forth. Jonathan and I just got to sit and talk in the sunshine while she ran back and forth for over half an hour.They had slides and different things to climb on too. These slides looked fun, but they were all ribbed on the inside too so it kind of rattled you as you went down. I didn't think it was that fun so we only did it once.There were free wagons and that was nice. We didn't get one at first and Gwen kept climbing in other kids' wagons so we knew we had to get one. It made it so we could get to the different areas a little faster though I really think they're for the people going in the maze.The other favorite part for Gwen was these giant inflatable rubber pillows for the kids to bounce on. A few weeks ago she learned how to jump with both feet off the ground so it was especially fun for her. I still won't let her near a trampoline, I've seen too may terrible injuries at my work, but felt that these were safer.

The Tuesday before Halloween we went to the Trunk or Treat party at Grandma Buckholts' ward. It was fun to get to see some of the same old ward members that were around when I was a kid. We got to eat yummy "hot hoop" (soup) and the kids had a fashion show with their costumes. Gwen loved to get up in front of everyone and dance. She even grabbed the microphone and made up a little song and dance pausing to bow every once in a while. She's my little star. Watch for her on American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance some day. I really didn't know that she loved performing so much.

For the real Halloween we went up to Layton to see my sisters and their kids. We had a pizza party with Noah and all the kids boogied to the Halloween music. Then we went trick or treating with Sam and Jami. Gwen really got the whole idea of it too. After hitting her first door she wanted to park herself on the porch and eat the candy she'd been given. I explained to her that we needed to go get more candy and after that she'd yell "need more!" after each house. Still, we only did a dozen houses or so before we decided it was enough.

Jonathan and I dressed up as Mario and Luigi from the Super Mario Brothers video games. Gwen was a flying unicorn.

Addictions

Yes, it's sad to admit it, but Gwen is addicted. It is the very nature of a 2-year-old to be addicted to things and she's no exception. Here are Gwen's latest addictions:

Muppets - anything related to the Muppet Show or any of their movies. She loves them all and has seen all the ones we own except the Christmas ones because I'm waiting to bring those out for a few more weeks. How many of your kids can recognize and name Fozzie, Animal, Piggy, Rowlf, or Gonzo?

Baby Pumpkins - either those squash that look like mini pumpkins or just little pumpkins. She carries them around the house and gives them baths, brushes their "teeth", and puts them to bed. She also bites them and throws them across the room. Yeah, she won't be left alone with her new sibling when she comes in a few months.

Horsies - That's anything she can pretend is a horsie. Recent examples: hangers, step stools, arms of the couch, the broom, the vaccum, Mommy or Daddy, and the edge of the bathtub. She tries to ride Boot, but the dog doesn't like that too much.

The best part is that I actually can't wait to see what comes next. What is in store for our family in the next couple months? I can only handle watching Muppets From Space a few more times before it's going to be "lost" for a while. I know all of you with toddlers are feeling some of this pain. Should there be support groups for parents of toddlers with addictions?

Updates

We went to the park earlier this week and Gwen looked so cute in her Elmo hat I just had to snap some photos. Gwen had gotten hold of the camera - that's why the pictures are hazy.

This is how Gwen says "cheese." She puts her fingers in her eyes and says "cheese" while running toward the camera.
Right after this picture we made Boot go down the slide. Gwen thought that was an awesome idea, Boot not so much.

So, we've had a busy week going to the doctor's. Just for regular check-ups, nothing serious. I saw my OB on Tuesday and found out that everything looked perfectly normal on the ultrasound I had last month. That's always a good thing to hear. The tech doing the ultrasound doesn't really give you any information when she's doing it and gives the results to a radiologist who does the official reading and the results are given to your doctor who later reviews them with you. That's why it takes a while. Anyway, the baby is growing normally and I managed to gain a couple pounds this last month. I really don't want to put on a lot of weight because it's so hard to lose it. I'm still hitting the gym 5 days a week. I do an hour of weight training 3 times a week and an hour of cycling class 4 to 5 times a week. It feels so good to be able to do all that.

Gwen had her 2-year-old check on Wednesday. She's in the 92% for height and weight but seems to be leveling off a little. He was impressed by how interactive and curious she was. He said he's not at all worried about her having autism or anything serious like that. She got her flu shot and didn't even cry. Just flinched a little bit and that was it. She's even braver than her dad. Another fun and new thing we did with Gwen was take her for her first haircut. I was hesitant to have it done because it's the last part of her left that's all baby. We just got it trimmed and evened out in the back and cut some bangs for her so she won't always have hair in her eyes. She was so good while she had it done - just sat and munched on a sucker and was more interested in watching Daddy get his hair cut.

Now time for the usual photo dump. We didn't get any pictures of the actual haircut itself but took them when we got home.

Yes, her hair is still all curly and cute in the back. It's just all one length now.

Weekend Project

This is what our bathroom looked like until this last weekend, it was like this when we moved in. There was this yellow-green-blue wallpaper all over, even over the shower. It wasn't a great idea to put it there because it was really getting moldy and the frequent moisture from bathing was starting to make the paper peel from the walls.

This is now what our bathroom looks like. I made Jonathan spend an entire day removing all that yucky wallpaper and I spent the next day painting and cleaning up. Then I found the cute shower curtain and rug to pull it all together. It's really a huge difference and will hopefully help us sell this place one day. Not bad for a long weekend's worth of work and $100, eh?
Also, before the weather turned a little colder this weekend, Gwen would spend about an hour each afternoon hanging out on our little back porch area. I'd give her a snack and put on the Muppets on her portable DVD player and she'd sit on the steps, dig in our dirt, or pull all my flower heads off the plants. I wish I had gotten a picture of that because she lined them all up on the steps and came and got me pointing to them saying "Petty, Momma". Yes, Gwen it was pretty to see all the flower heads lined up like that. I guess it's a good thing that it's the end of the growing season and it doesn't really matter if my flowers have heads or not.
We went to the Parker's house last night for a birthday dinner for my mom and my grandpa. Gwen had such a great time with her cousins. I was amazed at how well she played with everyone. I don't think she caused any problems all evening.
Gwen was "tickling" all her cousins with one of Noah's Pooh Bears. She has the loudest, best, most contagious giggle in the world. Her biggest cousin, Mason, was the best as getting Gwen to let out her big belly laugh. He'd pretend to fall and she'd just lose it. She loves him so much.
Kim and Gwen had fun practicing catching and throwing the soccer ball.

A Little Sister for Gwen

That's right. We're having another girl. The ultrasound was 100 % sure that we're going to be getting a baby girl in February. She was very cooperative for her ultrasound and held still when they were finding the gender. She was pretty wriggly for the rest of the measurements. I can feel her moving around all the time so I wasn't surprised that she couldn't hold still for them. She also kept waving her hand in front of her face, I think she was waving "Hello" or complaining that we kept pushing in on her with the probe. I think that everything else was normal. I'll find out for sure at my next OB appointment next month. The name we have picked out for her is Emily Marie Rail. That's if I can keep Jonathan from springing a surprise Japanese middle name on her at her baby blessing. Well, it's late and everyone is has been asleep for an hour. I'm going to go join them. I hope no one's up late tonight waiting for this blog entry.

The Dentist

I've been meaning to make this post all week, but then Jonathan got really sick and you know how that goes. He's doing a bit better now. Now that it's been almost 10 days of fevers over 103 and not being able to eat anything harder than pudding, his body is beginning to fight this "whatever-crazy-virus-thingy".

Well, anyway, last week I had an appointment for our little family to go to the dentist. I don't mind the dentist. I think that after a dozen years of dealing with orthodontics dentists are a piece of cake. At least they're not shoving tight fitting braces onto your teeth until you bleed so much you want to throw up. I actually think it's relaxing. Jonathan has different ideas. He rarely saw a dentist when growing up because he'd throw a fit. He has awful dental habits and his teeth really show that. He's MUCH better since he married me. I'm somewhat of a Nazi about our teeth, but he still has lots of room for improvements.

Since Jonathan was running fevers and couldn't even really open his mouth, we canceled his appointment and I took Gwen to our dentist alone. This was her second visit. Her first was at 14 months old and she just sat on our tummies and watched them clean our teeth, then they gave her a toothbrush and watched her brush and called it good. That's what I was expecting this time around but it was not so. At first she sat on my legs - my tummy doesn't like to be sat on these days - and watched them clean my teeth. Then a dental assistant came and got her and took her away to her own room to clean her teeth. I was dying. I wanted so badly to get up and go watch, but they were still doing the polishing on my teeth. I could hear them in the other room though. They put Finding Nemo on the TV and let Gwen pick out her new toothbrush I thought it was a tiger or lion because she kept roaring (she picked a Tigger toothbrush out). When they finished with my teeth I couldn't bare it anymore and had to go see how she was doing. She was just laying back in the chair letting them brush he teeth as she watched Nemo with the headphones on. She kept pointing and asking "whatzat?" and the poor assistant had to keep looking up at the TV to figure out what she meant. Then they tried to use the suction thingy on her and she wouldn't let them. She swallowed the toothpaste instead and declared that she was "Done!". The dentist came in and looked in her mouth for a second and said that her teeth looked really good except that her spacing is pretty close. Most likely, she's going to need braces later. It was so fun to watch her be so grown up and good for the dentist. Sometimes I just can't believe how big she is.

Also, I will be posting again in the next few days because I get my ultrasound on Wednesday evening. We can't wait.

Family Pictures

We went and got our pictures taken together as a family and to celebrate Gwen's 2nd birthday last week. I'm not as diligent as some of my sisters. The last time we had our picture done together was last year. Toddlers change a lot in a year. We couldn't get Gwen to smile in most of the pictures, until we brought out the toys for her to play with. I downloaded these from the Target studio. They did such a great job. It's hard to photograph my little family. Jonathan CANNOT keep his eyes open if he knows it's going to flash. He's learned to keep his eyes open by not looking at the camera, but then he comes across as looking creepy, but at least his eyes are open. Gwen's 2, so it's hard to get her to sit still or look in the right direction. I'm actually very photogenic so I'm not a problem, thank goodness.

It's also Jonathan and mine 3rd wedding anniversary today. I can't believe it's only been three years because it feels like he's always been a part of my life. I can't imagine life without him. He's my best friend and such a good daddy. I love him so much.