Christmas

This year I thought it'd be cool to catch the kids' faces as they first came down the stairs and saw the tree.  It didn't really work - they were too busy smiling at the camera!  Haha.

 Our house was FREEZING and Jaron definitely didn't want to get out of bed.  When he did, he discovered that someone's little fingers had turned our thermostat down as far as it could go and it was 55 degrees in our house.  Jaron spent Christmas morning huddled up by the portable heater in a hoodie and a toque. :)

 The kids didn't seem to mind and opened their gifts with gusto.  The boys got a lot of transformers from our family members and Gracen's theme was Littlest Pet Shop.  Eli also got some superhero things and Alden received some magic tricks.  Grandpa Brunson got the boys fishing poles and they loved them.

 Abe and Kayla had our names in Jaron's family and they totally spoiled us.  I mentioned to Kayla that I'd wished I'd been able to get Gracen a dollhouse.  They brought one (they'd had an extra) and added it to the way too many gifts they'd already gotten us a couple of days later!  All the kids loved playing with it Christmas morning.  Gracen set up house with her Littlest Pet Shops and the boys used their new Spider-Man and Iron Man action figures to "burn the house down."  Haha, further proof to me that the genders are not merely a result of socialization.

 Figuring out the magic tricks.

 Some of the first gifts Gracen opened up were this princess dress up set and this dance leotard from Abe and Kayla.  It was 55 degrees, remember, but she wanted to put them on immediately and spent the rest of the morning looking like this, clicking around in her "heels" and insisting that she wasn't cold.  She didn't take off the leotard for the next two days. :)

 One of my favorite Christmas traditions from Jaron's family is Nerf guns.  I happened to score some for $2 at CVS pharmacy of all places at one of their end of season toy clearances.  Jaron and all the kids had a blast "getting" each other.  My house only suffered minor damage.

 At the end of Christmas day, Eli said, "I can't believe we spent all day just opening presents and playing with our new toys."  Haha, that may be what he did but I spent the day cleaning up tiny bits of paper and box pieces from the kids' mad unwrapping skills.  The cool thing was, we were able to recycle everything from Christmas morning!

P.S. On Christmas Eve we all got to go to the ultrasound to find out that we're having another BOY!  Well, his legs were closed so we're pretty sure we're having a boy. The boys were excited but I think Gracen thinks all babies are girls.  I have been craving saltiness a lot, just like I did with the other kids. Only this time, I like PICKLES!  I have not liked pickles for as long as I can remember but I've eaten almost a whole big jar of pickles in the last few months and Jaron thinks its because of the salt.  I also crave protein.  I cannot get enough meat, eggs, and peanut butter lately! He must be building muscles. :)  Looks to me like he's going to be cute!!

Snow Day!

Last Thursday we woke up to SNOW!  It's been a mild winter so far, just like it was last year.  Factor in the drought we've had for the rest of this past year and I wasn't terribly hopeful that we'd get much snow this year.  However, I still grabbed a few sleds out of "bulky trash" (Kansas City's bulky item trash day when people drive around looking for "treasures") in the spring and I'm glad I did!

 

 The kids were so excited to see snow when they woke up that they got ready really fast so that they could go out before Alden went to school.  It was the last day of school before Christmas break and I was really, really tempted to keep Alden home from school so that he could enjoy it with us. After a few minutes in the snow, I sent him off to the carpool house, though.  Within a couple of minutes my carpool neighbor called to tell me school was cancelled.  Haha, I should have known.  We only got a couple of inches but this IS Kansas.  In Kansas' defense, I went to sleep to thunderstorms and it rained all night before snowing in the early morning hours so beneath the snow was a pretty solid layer of ice.

The good and bad about where we live is that anytime we're out doing something fun we're joined by a bunch of neighborhood kids.  Fortunately I had enough sleds for everyone!

 Lately I often feel like this girl wasn't born with enough fear in her body.  She was as relentless as anyone else at dragging a sled up the hill, jumping on, and heading down, usually head-first.

 She loved it!  But at one point, she rocketed down the hill right into her brothers' bikes.  She hit her cheek and ended up with a big scrape and a bruise that went from just below her eye down to her chin.  She got right back up and kept going, though!

 We got to enjoy this snow for two days.  On the second day, we busted out some sand toys and dug tunnels for monster trucks.

I'll probably be cursing the cold and snow next winter when we live more northern than here but for now, yay for snow days!!

Christmas at Bass Pro

 Since we moved to the city we've enjoyed making part of Bass Pro Shops' winter wonderland part of our Christmas traditions.  We went right after school one day and it was perfect - no lines for everything.

After our fun visit with Santa (see post below), we had fun with the games and activities they have set up for the kids.

 

 They had some new additions this year.  A cute little carousel:

 And a snowball fight tent:

 The snowballs were little fuzzy white fabric balls.  The kids had an absolute blast in here and I told them to enjoy it because it might be the only snowball fight they get this year! (Our weather has been very unseasonably warm.)

After Gracen sat on Santa's lap, I told her that she at least needed to tell him something that he could bring her for Christmas.  She said, "A dress."  The Santa asked her what color it should be and she of course answered, "Pink."  But then she found something else she also wants for Christmas:

Alden's answer for Santa has been pretty steady this year: He really wants an Air Hog helicopter.  Which apparently is a remote control helicopter.  And then he tells Santa that he either wants it for Christmas or when he stops sucking his thumb.  He's been doing an impressively good job at not sucking his thumb and he just might get that Air Hog in the next few weeks!

Eli has now seen Santa four times, if you count our neighbor stopping by all dressed up.  Each time he sits on Santa's lap, his list seems to get a little longer and more elaborate.  When he sat on Santa at Bass Pro, he wanted "a computer, a desk to put it on, an ipod, a remote control helicopter, a bunk bed of his own, and a Spiderman bed."  I told him I'm pretty sure Santa can't fit that much on his sleigh. :)

Santa Picture Three-peat

A few weeks ago I told myself that I should make a list of all the Christmas traditions I wanted to do with the kids and then plan which day to do them on.

Haha, didn't happen.

So with a week left until Christmas, we've been gettin' those traditions done.  We went and saw Santa at Bass Pro Shops again this year.  I was curious how Gracen would do since the last two years' visit to Santa was pretty rough on her:

 

 2010

 2011

And this year, she didn't disappoint:

2012

Haha, we make the best Santa pictures ever.

Gingerbread Houses

We had our friends the Dunlap family over to do gingerbread houses with us.  And by gingerbread houses, I actually mean graham cracker houses.  I've never made gingerbread and I probably never will.  I'm too cheap to buy the gingerbread house kits in the store and I hope I always will be.

 When we were first married, Jaron's mom gave me a fabulous royal icing recipe that we use:

3 egg whites at room temperature

1/2 t cream of tartar

4 c powdered sugar

Beat for 7-10 minutes. Keep bowl covered under a wet cloth so the frosting doesn't dry out.

 Poor Eli seems to have inherited his mother's "my eyes are always half-closed for pictures" syndrome.

 Notice how sparse Gracen's house is?  Yeah, she pretty much ate candy the whole time.

 Alden and Eli's finished products:

 Gracen's and my finished products:

 Since the boys were really good at not eating much candy while they were building, I let them nibble on the houses after dinner.  After a minute, I turned around and this was going on:

 At first, I was so sad because I'd just cleaned up a huge mess from making the houses and the dinner mess.  But then I was happy that I was only going to have to have gingerbread houses around for one night and I encouraged them to go to town.  The aftermath spread from the kitchen to the bathroom to the living room furniture and took me all evening to clean up but it's all over now!

Happy Birthday, Eli!

Eli's birthday is always a little tricky since it's so close to Christmas.  Last year I did it early in the month and it seemed like everyone was done parties and whatnot closer to Christmas.  So this year I decided to wait and all of a sudden, Christmas was only a week away!

I asked Eli if he wanted to do the big neighborhood kid party that we always do or if he wanted to invite just the two friends that he plays with regularly to go out to Chuck E. Cheese's.  It sounded so much easier to do the Chuck E. Cheese thing and I was glad when he chose that option!

Before we left for Chuck E. Cheese we had lunch (Eli chose grilled cheese) and ate cake.  I made a little Spiderman cake:

 We had Spiderman jell-o instead of ice cream.

Then we opened presents.  I felt bad that since there wasn't many friends, Eli didn't get many gifts.  He didn't seem to mind.  The inexpensive remote-conrol car we got him was a hit.

(Notice the tree in the background?  I can NOT keep the kids out of it!  It looked good for only half a day! They can't seem to leave the lights alone so we always have one, two, OR three strands when we turn them on.  Where its situated gives the kids a perfect little nook in the corner and I can't keep them out of it. Several of the bottom branches are permanently bent down now.  Oh well, it looks like this $10 garage sale tree is headed to the dumpster after Christmas!)

 I dropped a whopping $15 on tokens and they lasted the five kids more than an hour and a half.  The place was crazy busy since we went on a Saturday and it turns out I was wrong: Hosting ten kids even in a home as small as mine is actually easier than taking five to Chuck E. Cheese. :)

 But the kids had an absolute blast.  The funny thing is, I can remember riding this ride at my birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese more than two decades ago!

I cannot BELIEVE my little Eli is FIVE!!  At five Eli loves to play superheroes (especially Spiderman) and with cars.  He's an active kid and is just starting to take an interest in reading.  He's been learning to connect the sounds of letters lately and is constantly saying, "Do you know what __ plus __ equals, Mom? __."  Eli is very concerned with the feelings of others and often gives up his share of something so that someone else isn't unhappy.  This morning, for example, he gave up the "baby seat" in the shopping cart at the store after Gracen started crying when he got into it.  He also, as usual, offered me the last bite of his candy from the advent calendar. :)  In primary at church we've been learning a lot about "choosing the right" and Eli often asks me, "Which one is choosing the right, mom?" when he has a choice.  One of Eli's favorite games to play is "packages" where he crouches down, hollers to me that I have a package, and when I come "open" it, he turns into a platypus and makes Perry's chattering teeth noise (from Phineas and Ferb).  Eli loves to play boy things like wars and crashing things.  Whenever it's Eli's turn to choose family night activity, he usually chooses hide-and-go-seek in the dark.  Every night at bedtime, Eli insists that I lay down and snuggle with him for "two minutes" before I go.

We sure love you, Eli!!

Sweet Little Eli

 Sweet little Eli has always been very attached to his Mama, a "phase" that I keep thinking will surely end soon.  He's refused to go to his church class for over a year now.  At first I forced him to go and Jaron would go with him.  Every week it was the horriblly emotional separation for him so after awhile I decided I wasn't going to force him - that he would go on his own when he was ready to go.  That was fine when I was a CTR 7 teacher and he could just come along to my class.  Now that I'm the primary chorister, it's been a little more trying to have my four- almost five-year-old tugging at my skirt while I'm trying to lead and teach music!  

Lately he's been more attached than ever; refusing to go anywhere without me, even to preschool or to friends' houses or to birthday parties.  At the gym he refuses to go to child care and instead sits in the corner of the room while I run on the treadmill.  He's always been a Mama's boy but it's never been this bad.  Awhile ago my father-in-law pointed out that he's had a lot of changes in his short little life (he's lived in two countries and three different states!) and the only constant thing has been me (Jaron often puts in long days).  That insight helped me to have some patience with his need to be near me but lately I've about gone over the edge!  I don't know if it's because Jaron's been gone so much or because over the last few weeks he came and went, then came and went, then came and went again.  Whatever the reasons behind it, it has been a trying few weeks!

Today Eli and I had the opportunity to go to Hallmark to do a research study together.  We dropped Gracen off at a friend's house and went a little early so that we could hit a candy store we knew was nearby.  It was so neat to spend the afternoon with just Eli - that certainly hasn't happened very often!!  He was a little chatterbox the entire time.  He talked the entire drive into downtown.  When we got there, he talked about things he was imagining as we walked along: that the sidewalk cracks would open up and swallow the buildings, that the smeared art on the wall was because a tornado was about to swallow up the buildings in the picture, etc.  He has quite the imagination!  He had a great time being able to pick out whatever he wanted at the candy store. The one-on-one time helped us to reconnect in an unhurried way and I'm absolutely grateful that I got to spend this afternoon with my sweet little Eli!

Being with him reminded me of how a few weeks ago we had walked to Wal-mart (less than a mile from our house).  On the way there, we noticed how much garbage was caught in the trees of the park we walk by.  When we passed a big paint bucket, Eli said, "We should pick up the garbage and put it into that bucket."  I told him that it was a good idea and that we could do it on the way back if we hurried.  So Eli chose not to look at the toys at the store so that we could have enough time to pick up the garbage.  On the way home, we filled the bucket and then some!  I was so proud of my little guy.  Then when we got home, I was telling him what a good choice he had made that day and he said, "Is that like choosing the right?"  Haha, yes it is, Eli!

I sure love my sweet little Eli!

Gone Again!

This morning we dragged the troops from their cozy beds at 4:30 so we could drive Jaron up to the airport.  My brain is too foggy to concentrate on homework so I decided to do something else "productive" instead - write on the blog. :)  Jaron's off to Idaho to spend the week interviewing for JOBS (we've gone way too long without a real job in our family!) - for rural family practice residencies, to be exact.  I'm crossing my fingers that they like him.  Western Idaho is close (enough) to family and Boise sounds like a really nice place to live!

"Wait," you say, "didn't Jaron just get home?"  Why yes, yes, he did.  Right now we are in month 5 of a seven month span where Jaron will spend about 7 cumulative weeks with us.  He's got lots of away rotations in a row and lots of traveling for residency interviews squeezed in between.  The kids are utterly confused.  They'll pray for him to have safety on his trip when he's upstairs sleeping and they're constantly asking, "Where is Dad again?"  Haha.  He will be home the weekend of Christmas but he'll have to drive back to South Dakota (where he'll be at that point) on Christmas day. :(  Each rotation away is a really good opportunity for Jaron to get to know residency programs and for them to get to know him so they're too good of opportunities to pass up.  His being gone so much sure makes us grateful for when he's around!  Jaron's a great Dad.  The kids love to wrestle with him.  Last night he spent a long time playing hide-and-go-seek in the dark with them.  And he's a great mediator when "mean mom" starts to show her face!  We miss him when he's gone but I'll still always be grateful that he's working toward something great for him and our family.

On the homefront, things have been busy and tough at times with short relaxing intervals in between.  We are excited to be expecting a baby in May(!) but having Jaron gone during my sickest weeks was tough.  The kids just so happened to get a stomach flu about 6 weeks ago so they began to see my daily retching bouts as an extension of their stomach flu.  It was amazing to me how oblivious kids can be - I would be turning my insides out over the toilet and Alden and Eli would bang down the door, fighting over something.  Geesh, can't I have a moment?!  I also remember being tired in previous pregnancies but I don't remember being so downright exhausted.  One day I realized that this is the first pregnancy that all my kids haven't been napping.  I'll admit, there were a few Sundays that I bribed the kids with Halloween candy if they'd let me sleep an hour.  Haha, that was only marginally successful.

We are really excited at the prospect of having another little one come to our family!  I feel so honored to get to be a mom.  Without us prompting them to, the kids have long since been praying for another baby to come to our family.  It was hard to keep the news from them but we didn't tell them until Jaron came back from Arizona when I was 13 weeks along.  We told them first thing one morning and Alden said,

"OHHH!  That must be why you're so fat, mom!"

Haha...ha.  He made up for it that night, though.  Jaron and I were heading out to be wined and dined by a residency program here in the city.  Alden asked if we were going to a healthy restaurant.  I told him I thought it was healthy and asked him why.  "Because you need to eat healthy food for the baby, mom."  Sweet kid!  Alden is definitely the most excited for #4's debut.  For Eli and Gracen, it seems to be too far away and too abstract a thing for them to be much affected by the news.

It took more than a year for us to become pregnant this time.  Throughout that year, I'd have moments where I'd be convinced that Gracen might be my last baby.  And then I'd have moments where I'd be grateful that we didn't have one more thing on our plate yet.  Now that we are expecting, I am once again really grateful for the Lord's timing!  Although it's going to take a little stepping up of the effort, I just might be able to finish my degree before baby comes.  If I'm not quite able to, I'll have only one course left and I'll be allowed to take a three month leave of absence.  I'm trying to get done as much school done as I can right now but it's funny how "life" still happens when you're trying to accomplish something. :)

Yesterday we had a year-end appointment with our bishop at church.  He was asking about what's coming up for our family and after we discussed what's going on for us he said, "Wow, a lot of big changes for your family all at once."  And it made me realize that we DO have a lot of big changes at once!  In May Jaron will graduate, I will (hopefully) graduate, and we'll welcome a baby to our family!  Then approximately 5 weeks later we'll pack up our house and move across the country!  Yikes!  Are there any other big family changes we could add to that?!  I guess change is good!

Jayhawks

 We have a couple in our ward at church who are long-time season ticket holders for the KU Jayhawks' basketball team.  Whenever they're out of town on church assignments, they are generous enough to offer their tickets out to others!  A couple of Fridays ago they offered us the pair of tickets.  Jaron was devastated that he couldn't go but, as described in the last post, he's pretty much not going to be here for the entire basketball season!  So I decided to pack up the kids and take Alden to his first basketball game.

 

It was only possible because Jaron's brother, Abe, and his family just happened to move to Lawrence the week before!  Abe just started a double MBA program there.  Abe and Kayla were so super nice to take Eli and Gracen for me so that Alden and I could go to the game.  It made a really late night for all the kids involved so I really appreciated how willing they were to let us impose on them!

Alden and I had a great time.  It was fun to explain some of the rules of basketball to Alden.  He loved the cheerleaders (for their awesome two-tiered moves, of course!) and also had fun calculating the difference between scores.  The Jayhawks have a few great dunkers on their team and that added to the excitement as well. Our seats were right next to the students' seats which was fun because they cheer pretty much non-stop!

Go Jayhawks!

Dustin, Cassy, and Jarom come to visit!

From September through last week, Jaron spent a long seven weeks doing a rotation in Arizona.  He was blessed to be able to stay with his Aunt and Uncle - a financial blessing for us and also a great opportunity for Jaron to get to know them better.  It was a psychiatry rotation at a behavioral health institute and some of the cases sounded fascinating.  It was a L-O-N-G seven weeks for all of us, though, and we were glad when my brother, sister, and brother-in-law decided to come visit us! Their being here really helped break up the loneliness!

Dustin, Cassy, and Jarom made the visit with the primary goal of spending some relaxing time with us.  We went and saw a few sights around the city but we really spent a lot of time at home.  The kids LOVED having adults play with them.  This was a boat that Jarom designed for the boys out of Duplos.  Cassy and Gracen spent a lot of time with the Littlest Pet Shop stuff.

 We did get out to a few stores that they wanted to visit and also a few sites of historical importance to our church that are around the metro.  I was really bad at taking pictures all around.  I did remember to bring my camera on the day we went up to see the temple.  In our church we believe that the ordinances that take place in temples seal families together beyond life here on this earth.  I can't even describe how peaceful it is to have knowledge that I can be with my husband, my kids, my parents, and my siblings forever!!

 Eli was quite enamored with this replica set of the plates the Book of Mormon was translated from. 

We enjoyed our visit so much and it ended way too soon after only five days. It was nice to reconnect with my siblings and to get to know Cassy's new husband, Jarom, better.  Jarom and Gracen became quite the buddies while he was here.  The kids were devastated when we took them to the airport and actually left them there.

Come visit again soon!!

Jaron ended his rotation in Arizona last week and stayed an extra few days to take his USMLE step 2.  Phew!  We are SO glad that test is out of the way!  We're excited to get the results back in a few weeks and are hoping that might open up some more residency interviews for us.  Today Jaron's gone to Georgia to take the hands-on portion of step 2 and then he'll get a few days of relaxation before he's off on his next adventures!  Next week he'll spend several days interviewing at programs in Idaho.  Jaron has chosen to do rotations in South Dakota for December and Montana for January.  These are two of the rural family medicine programs that he's really interested in so being able to rotate there while he interviews is a great opportunity.  We will all be glad, though, when Jaron returns to us for good at the end of February!