O Christmas Tree

For Family Home Evening this week we decided to pick out and decorate our Christmas tree. Joe and I both grew up with live trees and, though the maintenance is a bit inconvenient, I love having the look and smell of a real tree in our home. The day that tree goes up is the day it starts to feel like Christmastime to me. My kids love all the activities associated with this season and to make the most of this one, they insisted on checking out every tree in the lot.
We hid between a few too.

I'm not sure where Chloe picked up flashing the peace sign in pictures but she did that in quite a few of the pictures we took this night. Here are Joe and the kids next to the winning tree.

In years past our trees have been taller but with Adam being the perfect age to be interested in the tree, we decided to go a little smaller this year - less for him to pull over onto himself should he reach it once it was placed on top of something. Funny though, in the excitement to get the tree decorated we forgot to place it on top of our higher, away from toddlers, stand. So far he has kept his distance - it's Chloe and Noah I am having a hard time keeping the tree away from.


So while Joe got the tree set up, Chloe and Noah wrote letters to Santa. Both insisted on cutting out a few pictures just in case Santa did not know what toys they were talking about. Do you think they have a few specific items in mind this year??

While the kids wrote, Adam was happy just wandering. I love his smile.

My least favorite part of having a real tree? Putting up the lights. When I am trying to get the lights evenly spaced and perfect I always wonder why we don't have a prelit tree. I take a breath, remember the irreplaceable smell and keep at the lights.
Chloe and Noah love helping with the ornaments and as they have developed collections of their own, love seeing them each year.

Before leaving the lot Noah asked us if he could put up the start this year. Cutest moment of the night when he asked. He was so excited I let him put up the star before we were completely done decorating.

With the tree and house decorating down, and trips to the Christmas Village and Salt Lake Temple Square, baking days and Christmas parties ahead, this really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Two Little Indians

Besides enjoying a great Thanksgiving day with Hubbard family at my house this year, my kids also got to celebrate the day to be thankful with parties in their classes. They ate yummy food, made crafts, and sang silly songs like:

Gobble gobble gobble

Fat turkey, fat turkey

Gobble gobble gobble

Fat turkey am I.

I'm not made for living,

I'm here for Thanksgiving,

Oh Gobble gobble gobble,

Fat turkey am I.

Doesn't that make a turkey sound so delicious right now?

Following their parties, both kids wanted to show off their Indian outfits, dances, and new Indian names. Two cuter Indians you would be hard pressed to find.

Also, the last video of Adam walking was so short, I decided to add one more. So big!

Videos, Pictures, and Thanks

With each passing holiday, especially Thanksgiving I continue to be more and more grateful for my little family. As Chloe is well into kindergarten, I realize that my days referring to them as little will be behind me in the not so distant future. That constant realization makes me want to remember and savor every moment of my children's young childhood. I provide you a glimpse into their recent silliness, as evidence of what this year I am oh so thankful for.

Stylin hairSoccer Star
A request for a soccer posed picture
Chloe has taken the role as the oldest, and the sister very seriously. She is such a mini momma, and takes her role as my big helper very seriously. She loves her little brothers.

Not only is Chloe a mini momma, she is also a mini diva. Joe and I were dying listening to her making up her own songs on a recent trip tp Grandma's house:

Noah has been going through a bit of a rough streak lately. Almost everything makes him cry/throw a fit, and he has a hard time obeying the first time he's asked. This has caused me a lot of frustration. BUT, this little guy is also one of the sweetest, smartest, and most thoughtful kids you will ever come across. PS, he's funny too. Okay, so I couldn't get the video of him funny to upload, I will post when I do.
Noah got on a kick of the two of us taking pictures together. Smiling with him is something I will never say no to.

There is one last child to cover, can you find him in the picture below?

Ah, yes, there he is, between the wheat and the recycling paper. This kid is into everything.

One of the best ways to get into everything? Walking!!!!! That's right we have a certified walker on our hands:

With each of our kids I have wished for the days when they will take those first cute little steps. Then the day comes and I wonder why I wanted it here so soon. Either way, we are enjoying watching this little guy grow and explore. Dad, also enjoys messing with him, which he takes very good naturedly.

Last but not least I am thankful for this man who, even though he HATES putting up Christmas lights and hates that I like each light to be perfectly set, he still climbs ladders for me to make me happy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

ReCROUPerating

Deja vu. That's what I felt as I sat in a hospital room listening to a monitor beep as it kept track of Adam's oxygen this morning, and remembered the weeks I listened to NICU monitors. The night would have been rough one without the hospital visit given that Noah was so excited that it was his turn to bring the treat to preschool that he kept waking up asking if it was morning yet, and Chloe kept having dreams about wolves trying to eat children that finally landed her on my bedroom floor. Yes, it was one of those up all night nights but what made it worse was what led me to be sitting listening to that familiar beeping - a trip to the hospital for Adam.

Croup. I have heard of children having this seal bark sounding cough and as Joe peeked in on Adam asleep it was the last thing on our mind. Adam had spiked a fever earlier yesterday, but was also feverishly chewing on everything so we attributed the fever to teething and treated it with some tylenol. Around 10:00 PM heard him cry, and it being unusual for him to cry any night I went to check on him and found his breathing very labored and his fever even higher. I then called Joe and asked him to listen to him and we both felt we should take him in to be checked.

Emergency Room. I hate visits to the emergency room. Up to this time in our married/family life, each of us except for Joe has made a trip to this fun part of the hospital. Before Adam's first trip last night, Noah visited it to get stitches after breaking open his chin, Chloe was examined after planting her top teeth into her bottom gums, and I got my ER initiation when I was pregnant with Adam and started having horrible pain. We agreed that Joe would take Adam in while I stayed with the kids. Can you tell how sick this little guy was feeling?

Steroids. Doctors diagnosed that his trouble breathing stemmed from having the croup, and gave him steroids to better open his airway. Most kids over the age of three don't experience much in the way of complications from croup, but under that age, children's airways are so small that they can close off, so the doctors said they would observe him for two hours to make sure the steroids did their job. Unfortunately, they didn't and after the alotted time, Adam was still requiring oxygen and his breathing was not improving.

Admittance. At that point the doctors decided to admit Adam into the hospital. Adam, having wanted nothing more than to fall asleep though this, was suddenly wide awake and entertained Joe as he checked out his prision/crib. Luckily, through the night Adam began to improve.

Sleep. Joe and I switched places first thing in the morning, and as I saw him sleeping his breathing sounded so much better. After some examinations, the doctors determined he could go home and now we all are sitting trying to recuperate from a sleepless night, grateful to have Adam home with us and hopeful that we never have to do this again.

Halloween 2011

We had a very eventful week leading up to Halloween this year. Between ward activities complete with haunted box mazes and the trick or treating day itself, we fit in several family, work, and class parties. The kids loved all the excitement, and I loved getting so many good uses out of their costumes. Chloe, in full princess mode, knew from the moment I asked that she wanted to be Princess Sophia (aka Blair Willows) from the latest Barbie movie, Barbie Princess Charm School. Noah went back in forth between several super heros and finally decided on Iron Man. Adam got the short of the stick this year - we stuck him in one of Noah's old costumes, a bat. He hated that costume though, so he ended up wearing his skeleton pajamas on Halloween night.

Noah had a class party the week before Halloween but Chloe's party was on the actual day. I was asked to help with the different games, but first we got to watch her walk in her first Halloween parade. As a witch, a princess, and a french maid, as well as others I can no longer remember, one of my favorite Halloween memories was getting to run to my mom's car at lunch time to get costumes so we could show them off in our parades, so it was fun to get to see Chloe do something I remember so fondly. On the way to school Chloe told me that she was still trying to decide whether she would wave to everyone or not. Here is what she decided to go with:

The next video is of Chloe's calss singing Halloween songs - I just thought it was cute

Some other pictures from our fun night:

Noah was done with the trick or treating well before Chloe so Joe dropped him off where he loved showing off his candy and posing for pictures.

I finally put my camera away but Chloe was still out well into the night with dad and friends. She later declared this the best Halloween ever

and I declare these the cutest kids ever! Happy Halloween!