Miekka: February 2008 Archives

OH MAN!! It's been almost 4 months since I updated this and a lot has happened.  I'll try and keep this short, but I have a lot of ground to cover.

NOVEMBER

The highlight of November was my sister Amy's wedding.  She married Christian Beckner on November 10th.  It was a beautiful November day.  All the grandkids were dressed in matching outfits and had a great time playing in the fountain at the Temple.  We had a nice luncheon that afternoon and then the newlyweds headed out for their honeymoon at Disneyland.  Amy and I put a lot of work into her wedding cake, it turned out really lovely. 

DECEMBER

December was busy this year because we had both extended families to split our time between.  We had Sinterklaas with my family on the 5th.  We went to see the lights on Temple Square with James' family.  We went sledding at Soldier Hollow in freezing temperatures.  Jacob was sick and spent the entire time fighting against getting into one of the sledding tubes.  Seth loved it though and went down the hill more times than anyone else in the family.  We spent Christmas eve with the Lances.  We had delicious soups and the kids got some pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas day was an extremely busy day.  We opened our presents at home and were just getting ready to head over to my parent's house when we got a phone call saying that my sister Marrisse's water had broken and they were heading to hospital.  It was a big surprise because her baby wasn't due until the first week of February.  My parents rushed over to my sister's house and picked up the other kids and we all met back at my parent's house for a late brunch.  We opened presents again and then after some napping we drove over to James' parent's for dinner.  On the way over we got a call from Aaron saying their baby had been born.  A little girl. She was just over 4 pounds and around 18 inches long.  It was several days before they decided to name her Katrina.  She stayed in the hospital for almost three weeks until she was breathing well and could regulate her body temperature.  It was a big Christmas surprise to have her here, but we are glad she wasn't worse off because she was so early.




NEW YEARS EVE

We had a relatively quiet New Years Eve.  We played games and snacked on finger food.  The kids ran around like maniacs the whole entire time and were worn out by the time we actually celebrated the New Year at about 9:00pm.  We headed home right after to get ready for our trip the next day.

DISNEYLAND WITH THE LANCES

We left for Disneyland on New Years Day.  We drove out with Jeremy and Jared.  John and Courtenay met us there on the 2nd in the morning.  Jenni and Justin flew in that afternoon.  We had a great time.  Seth got to ride on a lot of the bigger rides now that he is over 40 inches.  He had fun showing his Puncles around the park and taking them on the rides that he loves.  His favorite ride this time was Soaring Over California.  Jacob also had a great time except for when he only wanted to be held.  He's getting pretty big now and it takes some serious muscle to carry him around that much.  His favorite ride was riding Dumbo with John and Courtenay. 



JANUARY

After Disneyland we finally got back into a normal pattern again.  The Holidays were fun, but I wasn't too sad when they were over and life sort of slowed down.  We celebrated Jacob's 2nd birthday on the 17th.  He had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday.  We had lots of people over for pizza and cake.  The present pile was taller than Jacob and I don't think he quite knew what to do with them all.  He'd open one and want to play with it right then, but we had to move him on to the next one or we would have never gotten them all open.  His favorite presents were the balls and all the trucks.  I was finding trucks and pieces of trucks everywhere for the next few days.



FEBRUARY

February started out very slow for us and then snowballed into a bit of a frenzy.  It all culminated with James changing jobs and us going on another impromptu trip to Disneyland.  We have annual passes this year and it was the most inexpensive, fun trip we could think of to take in the short time he had off.  This trip was really nice because it was the first trip we had taken with just our little family.  We took everything really slow and only rode on the rides that the kids wanted to ride on.  It was fun to just spend time focusing on the kids.  Seth has declared that this time his favorite ride was Star Tours.  Jacob loved the Tea Cups this time and was more willing to walk or be in the stroller which was a lot nicer for James and me.



STORAGE ROOM REMODEL

We also started remodeling our storage room.  We tore down two walls and will build up two more.  The storage room will be bigger by about 40 sq ft.  The new part will have a bunch of removable and adjustable shelves so that we can get everything off the floor and organized a little better.  This latest project also leads us nicely into remodeling the great room downstairs too, but I'm not sure when or if that project will ever happen.

SETH'S UPDATE

Seth has been making huge strides in his writing and has started figuring out the sounds of letters.  He delights in telling people that he is four years old and will soon be five.  I think he is really going to enjoy school this fall.  I'm not sure if I'm ready for him to be in school, but I guess I'll just have get over it.  He has also developed a love of Bionicle toys from playing with them with his puncle, Jared.  Seth definitely has that growing up attitude where he doesn't want to play with toddler toys anymore.  He also really wants to get bunk beds in his room and have a Transformers quilt on his bed. 



JACOB'S UPDATE

Jacob decided recently that talking is the way to go and has just been talking up a storm ever since.  He talks in full sentences now and is getting easier to understand.  He loves to run and play with Seth.  He also really loves playing with the train set we have.  He will make hugely long trains and tug them around the track.  Jacob has been testing out what exactly it means to be two years old.  He throws temper tantrums and hits people.  He also growls in frustration when he doesn't get his way.  His personality is definitely showing through, because he can also be the sweetest and most helpful two year old.