Christmas 2008

I've been avoiding updating the blog because Christmas seems like such a daunting entry. I do want to remember and record a great Christmas so I've got to give it a try. You can thank my dad for the phelthora and quality of most of these photos.

I flew down to Utah on the 19th and my parents picked me up at the SLC airport. Since my plane was delayed we hit one of the big storms right at the worst time and it took us hours to get home. I think my dad went 5 mph for about an hour just to get out of Salt Lake. Caleb and I slept a good part of the way. Caleb survived the long drive better than I thought he might. We took a good long break in Nephi for some dinner.

The first thing Caleb was interested in on arriving at my parents house was the pets. Maggie, one of the cats, is the only one that lets him near her. Their two dogs were actually abused by children (we think) with their previous owners and are not good with kids. We have mostly trained Caleb to stay away from them. Luckily my grandparents dog (Tok) is a golden retriever with the typical family friendly personality her breed. However, she is super hyper even though she seven (?) years old. At first she scared Caleb because she is big and out of control then they got to be friends. Caleb still talks about her and whenever he sees pictures of golden retrievers he calls them Tok. While at my parents he learned the names of 3 of the 4 cats. The fourth cat went into hiding an no one saw much of her for our 10 day stay. I don't think Caleb knew she existed (her plan worked). At first Caleb was pretty good with the cats and would pet them and say, "nice." As time went on Caleb got worse instead of better with the animals and near then end all he wanted to do was kick the cats. I have no idea how to really stop this. I've been trying to do time out by holding him if he hits the computer or something (he sneaks up and hits the computer and thinks it's really funny) but it doesn't seem to do much good. Nothing seemed to help with kicking the cats either. Now when he sees a cat he says, "kick." Hopefully this will somehow change over time. In the meantime, the animals at my parents house will not particularly care for toddlers.

Being nice to Maggie.


Playing fetch with Tok.

We arrived on Friday and I think it was Saturday when my mom made cookies with Caleb. I thought these pictures were so cute that I just put a ton in. My sister and I had little cooking sets when we were little and my mom hung on to them. He used the little rolling pin to roll out the dough and little cookie cutters for the cookies. He had such a great time. Andy asked about the pink apron and I told him there was a turtle on the front... :)

Very attentive

I hadn't been able to sleep for about three nights before my trip so I actually just slept a lot on Saturday and Sunday. I also wanted to take advantage of being by my mom and Grammy's sewing supplies to work on the presents I am ever so slowly making for David, Mary, and Caleb. (David and Mary are Caleb's cousins.) We mostly hung out until Christmas. Aunt Katie, my sister, drove up from Cedar City where she is going to school on Christmas Eve. She is working as a pharm tech at the Walmart there and wanted to get in a lot of hours over the holidays to help pay for school. It was fun to have her come. However, she got sick, so she also spent a lot of time sleeping at my parents' house and we didn't see a whole lot of her.

Andy was planning on driving down on Christmas Eve as well, but he discovered the firm needed to file something (sorry can't remember then name of it) and it was due by the 26th. It was an oversight of a number of people and Andy figured out that they needed it and stayed to finish it. He go one hour of sleep on Tuesday night and worked like crazy finishing it. He intended to drive down anyway on Christmas Eve but after he'd packed up he laid down on the couch to call me and realized that he really, really needed to sleep. We all agreed and he slept in on Christmas and drove down in the terrible Christmas storm. Luckily we have a Subaru that does wonders in the snow and he was fine. Everyone kept talking to him about how awful the drive had been and later he told me that the drive wasn't bad at all--it was the brief he had to write on Christmas Eve that was much more stressful. We opened presents without him but I saved out our stockings and some other gifts which we opened Friday. Andy had to take a detour to Wells, NV since roads were closed, but he did get to my grandparents, where we were staying, a little after 11:00. I was so glad to see him.

Friday morning Caleb, Andy and I opened our stockings in bed. Caleb was a pro at the present business.

Here are some pictures of some of the presents we opened Christmas morning. We didn't take any pictures of when we opened presents with Andy.

I feel almost like a bad parent for not having bought Caleb a dump truck sooner. Whenever we go to the pediatrician here in Boise, Caleb plays with a dump truck there and doesn't want to leave. I had planned on buying him a dump truck for Christmas, but my sister told my mom that's what she was getting him so he got his beloved dump truck from his Aunt Katie. We opened it first. Katie was so excited for him to open it, she wanted him to open it right after she got to Ephraim. It turned out to be a good idea to open it first because he was entertained with it the rest of the morning.



Caleb learned about ripping and opening really fast. When Andy made it down on Friday he was surprised to hear Caleb tell him to "rip it" while opening presents.



When Andy comes with me to Ephraim, we stay at my grandparents house because there is more room and Andy's allergies act up more at my house because of the cats. While we've been there my Grammy has seen how much Caleb like to manipulate small objects. He has really liked playing with pegs and other things Grammy has made that involve putting objects in small holes. So she made this mountain for him with seven little hikers. We were all astounded at the time and effort she put into it and Caleb does like putting the little hikers in the holes and he also likes the fact that it's hiking a mountain since he really likes hiking in the mountains.

My mom made Caleb a sock monkey. Caleb loves monkeys (and dogs and cats) and found that his monkey fit well in the dump truck.


Opening another good present. My parents bought Caleb this little farm set at IFA. Andy and I thought it was super cool that my parents bought Caleb a gift fr om the Intermountain Farmer's Association. Caleb loves the farm, especially the tractor and played with it tons while we were in Ephraim.
On Saturday we decided to go tubing on a little hill on Snow College's campus. Caleb helped my dad blow up the tube with a pump and thought it was a great new toy. It took a lot of convincing to get him to don his snow gear and take the tube outside.

First run with Dad. The hill was just the right size for a little guy and a tube.

Next run with mom. (Actually I can't remember who went first...) Caleb loved it! Check out the big grins on both of our faces.



Grammy and Caleb.
When Caleb seemed to be getting distressed I tried running alongside him. I also included this picture as a sort of family picture since I didn't think any of ou r family pictures (see end of entry) were all the best of all of us.

After really enjoying some runs down the hill the bell tower (which we were sledding by) chimed 4:00. Caleb was fascinated. He no longer cared for the snow, the sled, any of us--all he had eyes for was the clock. He kept looking at it and saying, "wa tch clock." I thought watching the clock was really boring, but since grandparents love their grandkids so much, my mom and dad took Caleb up to see the clock a little closer. Andy and I stayed behind to sled some more. The clock lost some of its appeal when it wasn't chiming, but Caleb kept looking at it in anticipation. Lucky for him, it chimes every 15 minutes.

Looking very pregnant in these pictures.


Caleb was getting fussy again so Andy thought he'd entertain him by standing at the bottom and jumping out of the way as we got closer. Caleb thought it was very fun and the smile returned.

The following is one of my favorite runs of photos. Andy and I decided to t ry to fit together, but we couldn't sit up because we're too big (and I can only bend so much). Check out Andy's facial expressions. They are priceless. I'm obviously having a great time




Helping. Caleb loves to help and he says, "helping" very proudly. He and Daddy carried the snow tube around and that was as fun as riding it.


This is one of the cutest pictures of Caleb! He was so proud of himself to be on the tube by himself! He had gotten a little fussy, but as soon as we tried letting him go on his own it was us who had to convince him to go home. We would pull him up the hill then let him go down on a less steep part forging new trail and thus going slowly.


We tried to take some family pictures on Sunday, our last day at my parents. Andy wasn't particularly in the mood and Caleb's attention span is only so long, so this is the best we got.

Me getting Caleb ready for pictures


My Dad showed Caleb how to push the button to make the camera take the picture while the camera was on the tripod and Caleb was intrigued with it. We actually have several pictures Caleb took with his Grandad, but this is one of them.

Grandad, Dad, Grammy, Mom and Caleb

This was about the best shot of everyone. In others, some of us look better, but one person is making a funny face--isn't that the way it is?


On Monday, we drove up to Park City and met up with Dave and Ale (Andy's brother and his wife) who were taking a trip for Ale to go skiing for the first time. We bought a sled and went sledding down a hill at a park and then behind the condo. Caleb loved watching the kids at the park and Tio Dave pushed him around on the sled. He didn't like going down the hill as much because snow sprayed in his face on that sled. Then back at the Condo he wouldn't wear his gloves and got cold. I thought it was great fun behind the condo and if any of you are up there in the winter when there's snow, have fun on the hill behind the house.


Tio Dave and Tia Ale on the sled together.

On Monday night we met up with Sam Major, Andy's old roommate (who I knew as well) who is now a chef in a very nice lodge in Park City. Andy's dad said it was funny to hear the story from three perspectives:

Mine: I felt bad that we didn't get to eat a dinner that Ale had thoughtfully prepared because I told her I was intimidated to cook for a chef and after that we both decided it was better to go out.

Dave's: He ate dinner with a guy who cooked for Will Smith. Will Smith is one of Dave's favorite actors. Turns out he has a place in Park City and ate dinner Christmas or Christmas Eve at the lodge where Sam works. Sam has also cooked for a number of other well known people. As a side note, Will Smith's son is allergic to nuts and so as pastry cook Sam and others were extremely careful to keep certain items nut free that night.

Andy's: We met with Sam in a little town called Oakley outside of ParkCity, where Sam is currently living. It was a little diner that Andy found in a magazine in a drawer in Park City and was very proud of his find. The diner was one of those old ones t hat you often see in movies and it had been moved from RI or NJ (can't remember which) out to little Oakley, UT, and is still in great condition. The waitresses all dress a bit like the 50's and the food was excellent and that's coming from a non-burger-lover. Andy was super excited for his mom and dad to go try it out.

After spending the night in Park City, we lolly-gagged in the morning and watched Family Man or something like that. It was funny because in the movie the guy misses Christmas and forgets their anniversary. Andy had missed Christmas and both of us had actually forgotten our anniversary and my Grammy (who we were still staying with the morning of the 29th) was the first to remind us. A quick side note to our night in Park City. I had a hard time sleeping and my back was hurting. I couldn't seem to get comfortable and felt bad for Andy tossing and turning so much so I moved down and slept the rest of the night on the couch. Dave and Ale left early Tuesday morning to go skiing and I'm sure they wondered a t seeing me on the couch the morning after our anniversary. I didn't even bother to explain and just kept laying on the couch savoring the rest before Caleb woke up.

Tuesday afternoon we packed up, left Park City and headed to Highland, Utah, where Andy's best friend Todd and his wife were visiting family. Todd and Erin got married around the same time we did and had a boy a month after Caleb. Todd, Erin, and Andy also all graduated from law school together and have lots to talk about. We were excited to see how our boys would interact. Caleb has watched videos of Joseph on their blog and loved playing with his toys. But, being the 20 month old that he is, he was possessive of everything so they playing we had anticipated turned out to be more of keeping them apart rather than together...

These next pictures are of Caleb playing at our house with blocks my dad made for him. Caleb made a Christmas tree and told me it was a Christmas tree. I was so impressed I got the camera and took a picture and showed Andy when he came home from work. Andy told me he had taught him that. But it was still pretty cute.

Then Caleb and Andy played knock over the blocks and Caleb thought it was really funny to knock them over with his tummy.