Blessings from Heaven

Today as we left for the last day of preschool Mason was thrilled to see a layer of snow covering the ground, yep you heard me SNOW. I however commented on how I wasn't as happy to see the snow because I wanted it to be spring. Mason said in his most serious voice, "Mom, Heavenly Father always knows what's best for us." I laughed a little at being put in my place by my five year old and had to agree, "you are right buddy," and then I said a quiet little prayer thanking the Lord for the sweet and smart little boy I have been blessed with, and if you could melt that snow by this afternoon that would be ok with me too.

Two stories about perception.

Last night Max came from the pet store where he had gone with Shane and Mason and told me with excitement about the Nemo fish that he had seen that was the same color as his hair. His language skills are growing so quickly its so fun.

This morning Mason recited to me the story of Little Miss Muffet who sat on her tuffet, eat her courage and waves...

Poor Baby

So I used to say that I was a terrible insomniac, but I've just decided that I just don't need that much sleep, so once again its 5 am and I am updating the blog. Yeah! for you.

So this morning I am thinking of poor Max. Last night I was feeling so good about myself... Dinner was on schedule and cooking, the house was almost clean, laundry from the day was folded, and I was gathering my stuff for the mutual activity that was in an hour and a half. I thought I was so together, which is a feeling I love although I admit I feel its opposite more often than not. So I am feeling great and what happens Max climbs into my lap and says "need a lub" (which means "I need a love/hug" to those of you that don't speak Max). Now those of you that know Max well know that this is unusual for him and my mommy sense was piqued slightly, but I think that my general feeling of togetherness had lulled me into a false sense of security because I was not wholly prepared when thirty seconds later the poor child stood up and puked all over himself and the surrounding area. Poor baby! and poor mama, suddenly that feeling of togetherness went right out the window as I spent the next hour alternately cleaning up vomit and comforting its sad originator, and I was reminded that I think the key to happiness in life in general, but especially in motherhood is planning, preparation, and when despite those two things everything goes South flexibility. Oh yeah and it helps to have a supportive husband who doesn't mind stepping in to play vomit catcher while you head off for the night to complete your commitment to the young women.

Max is usually so busy, it feels strange when he acts so tired and snugly. Although I would never wish away any extra snuggle time I can get with Max. The other day around three o'clock he stood still long enough for this to happen.



Mason and I hardly knew what to do with ourselves being in a house without Max noises.

"Basket head!"

That's what Maxwell shouts every time I get out this laundry basket. (Well if we're being honest he really yells "basset head!") Then he promptly claims it as his own and spends the next hour like this.

Luckily he has a brother that will play right along.

Sledding

Ok what happens when Nicole wakes up at 3:30 am and can't go back to sleep, well the blog gets updated...aren't you lucky?

So over Christmas break Shane stayed home for a week, the kids and I were in heaven. We had a great time doing a good deal of family stuff. One of my favorite days was the day we went sledding. Winter is so long here in Idaho and sometime the kids get so tired of being inside so one day we took them sledding. It was a great adventure, and I got to try out my new lens, and can say that I am in love with the extra zoom power.

This is us arriving at the park, when Mason was a baby my mom gave him the title of "the Little Rajah" which we all used affectionately to describe his universal acceptance of the idea that the world revolved around him and we existed simply to serve his needs. Max has never held the same belief, since he came into a world with sibling competition built right in, but occasionally he gets to be the Little Rajah too. This day he was particularly enjoying being towed around the park on his sled.


Then I watched from the bottom of the hill with trepidation as Shane pushed Max down the very tall hill. Max on the other hand was thrilled.




How could anyone resist a face like this?

Mason went down the hill several times too, and I really have to hand it to Shane because after each slide down the hill, he walked down and collected the sled, and the child involved and headed back up the hill. Honestly I got a good deal being put on picture detail.



Two thumbs up!

But I didn't want to miss out on all the fun so I took a turn climbing the hill with the kids, although I don't think Max enjoyed having me be the head of the entourage since about eight feet from the top of the hill I lost traction and started sliding down.

I eventually had to resort to crawling the last few feet and I only made it to the top when Max got off the sled.

Max was a little put out at being abandoned a few feet from his goal and eventually started sliding back down the hill on his seat.



So I decided to let Shane resume his duties as Sherpa and the fun resumed until Max suffered the first crash of the day.


He was pretty upset by it, until Shane and he worked it out with a promised trip to the playground.




Which involved some snowballs and diabolical plotting against mom.

I might have been caught unaware except that the entire time Max was walking toward me he had this mischievous grin on his face, and was repeating, "Get mom, get mom."

And of course I let him get me, because like I said, really, who can resist this face?

Gingerbread Houses

Before Christmas Shane's mom had the great idea of decortating gingerbread houses. So tonight we had everyone over and deorated houses. Now usually Max is the star of the show when the family comes around and tonight was no exception. Everyone thought that is was completely hillarious how he would cozy up to someone at the table and then start double fisting their candy decorations into his mouth.


That is until some serious work got done on the various houses, pretty soon having Max near your gingerbread house was as about desirable as having Godzilla near Tokyo.



Eventually Michelle was the only person willing to hold him and let him "help" with her house, and you can see how helpful he was.


Just to demonstrate I took a picture of the side of Michelle's house that she did without Max's help

and then the side done with the help of the Max man.

There were some other lovely gingerbread creations made.
Mason's house

Grandma's G's house

and Lynsey's train

Thanksgiving

This weekend we went on a fun trip to Salt Lake to visit my family for Thanksgiving. We had a great time. The kids stayed up way too late, and were fed a great many treats by many an auntie, and had a wonderful time. We spent Thursday preparing a great dinner, that was attended by almost the whole clan. Mandy wasn't able to make it for dinner, but showed up in time for pie and also brought along her clever carrot pie and her friend Adam, who fits right in and is a welcome addition to our family gatherings. At dinner we all shared what we were thankful for. Jimmy tenderly said that he was so thankful for Melissa and that she said "I do" a few short weeks ago. Lana said that she was thankful that her dad had found a job and her puppies, Kris said that he was thankful that the Thanksgiving marathon only included two stops for them this year, (which we were all grateful for too, since it meant we got more time with them), and I said that I was thankful for my family, my new calling in the Young Women organization (since it meant that I was getting to know the good babysitters in the area and therefore Shane and I could go on dates again), and my new computer. We all have a great many things to be grateful for, but I felt especially grateful for my family that day.

On Friday the kids spent most of the day playing, Dylan and Duncan came over for awhile and Mason had a great time playing with all of them. Then as it got closer to evening we ventured out to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. It was beautiful and a fun adventure. Probably the highlight of the evening was when we decided not to try and fight for parking near Temple square and instead parked at Mandy's house and rode the Trax train downtown. Max was so thrilled. When we got on the train his eyes got big and stayed that way the entire time. When it was nearly time to get off Shane told Max we would be getting off in a few minutes and Max stated emphatically "uh-uh."


So after we got off we had to hurriedly distract him. We all enjoyed the lights, but Max was so excited when it was time to go because we got to ride the train again. We drank hot chocolate at Mandy's house and then headed back to Grammy's with some seriously tired boys.

Today we headed home, but not before stopping in for a tour of Brynne's beautiful new house. She has the coolest back yard and I volunteer her for the next summer barbecue. She and Kris have already started painting and beautifying the place even further, it looks great and I am so glad that they were able to find such a nice place to call home.

All in all it was a great Thanksgiving weekend.