Christmas pictures

We spent Christmas in Savannah this year -- Garrett's parents actually just bought a house in Richmond Hill, just outside of Savannah.  It's a really great house and it fits everyone comfortably, which is nice.

Rylan (Garrett's little bro) and Abby decorating the "kids" Christmas tree.

Christmas morning, waiting to open presents (or, if you're Ellie, eating toys).  Like my new pajamas?  They were comfy.  My hair looks really dark in this picture, but it's the same color in all the pictures - and yes, this is finally, 100% my natural color - all the color is cut out.  It's okay, but... I'll be honest, I'd still rather be a blonde, I think.

Santa brought Abby a Tinkerbell watch - just what she asked for!  

She also got a new toothbrush and now brushes her teeth about 4x a day.

Mess-free paint - the paint only shows up where it should on the picture.  It came with three poster-sized pictures of Disney princesses.  She did them all within two days of coming home, and then today (after completing the last one), informed me that "Mommy, you need to go to the store and buy me more paint and paper."  Umm... sure.

The aftermath

One of the best parts of the day was when Rylan came out of his room dressed in his Wall-E costume.  According to Garrett's mom, he had been working on this costume for weeks and did the whole thing by himself.  He even came out walking all crouched down like that and talking in a weird robot voice.  It was so awesome.  He did a great job and he had been planning this moment for a long time too (coming out on Christmas morning to surprise the little kids).

Watching Garrett's mom carve the turkey.  She always cooks her turkey in the crock pot so that her oven stays free for everything else.  It tasted great.  And yes, that's a HUGE side-by-side fridge and freezer back there... amazing.  But necessary with so many people in the house!

Abby got the cutest little ballerina dress from Garrett's grandma.

That's my signature "making a face at the camera" look. Cute huh?  I got it from my sister Emma.

Sitting around after Church on Sunday.

Jared blessed baby Gavin since everyone was in town.  Gavin is the fifth grandbaby on the Woodbury side and he's so cute.

The ladies

We did a little family photo shoot down by the dock.  I'll share more pics when Garrett gets a chance to edit them. (for some reason this pic might look grainy and Garrett's not home to fix it, so... just click on it to enlarge it and it will look better).  And don't let the picture fool you... it was pretty chilly outside!

Hope you all had a great Christmas, too!  I really missed being with my family but we usually all meet up another time of the year, when it's less chaotic and when traveling is easier.

As nice as it is to come home to the peace and quiet again, it's always a little bit hard to come home from a vacation and settle into real life.

Virginia welcomed us home a few days after with a foot of snow.  I am a little sad that we missed the snow storm (I really love to see snow falling, it's so magical), but I'm glad that Garrett didn't have to be driving to and from work in it.  They also cancelled Church while we were gone, which I was bummed to miss out on (I mean... thankfully we were able to go in Savannah, haha).  (Oh come on, who doesn't like a Sunday off every now and again).  I also discovered that our apartment complex does absolutely nothing to keep people from slipping on the sidewalks leading up to our buildings... no sand, no salt, lots of ice.  Good one.

The girls also got really bad colds as soon as we got home, which has been lovely.  Abby in general seems to get sick (coughing) really easily and it drives me nuts! (I hate sending her to nursery, every single week I hate it).  It's scary too when she gets sick because she breathes so heavily and I just hate dealing with all that stress and worry.  And, this time they were both coughing like crazy... so badly that they each even threw up a couple times.  Yes, it's been so nice around here.  And Garrett hasn't even been around to ease the burden.

Another thing to welcome us back to Virginia was problems with Garrett's work schedule.  Since it's holiday scheduling, he has to cover some call shifts for people on vacation, besides his normal ER shifts.  Unfortunately, someone messed up the scheduling and double booked him twice this week.  And rather than telling him to just skip some ER shifts, they are going to make him make them up, which means Garrett has been working every day this week.  Last night his ER shift ended at midnight, then he had to go back into the ER early this morning and work all day before taking over someone's medicine call tonight and into tomorrow sometime (he was originally supposed to be in the ER from 2-midnight again, but since he had to do call tonight, they made him go into the ER early today.  ::sigh::

Okay, rant over.  I just feel so bad for Garrett sometimes.  I actually had a dream a few weeks ago that the hospital scheduled me to work some ER shifts, because they figured that since I was married to a doctor, I must know the sames things that he knows.  It was truly a nightmare - the kind where you wake up feeling so anxious and you want to cry with relief when you realize it was just a dream.  I can't even imagine the kind of stress that Garrett (and all doctors) feel and it's a burden that I would never want to carry.  And so frustrating, too.  Garrett estimates that about half of the people in the hospital wouldn't be there if they actually took care of themselves.

One of Garrett's fellow interns got stuck at the an airport and we found out that Rob had to take over one of his medicine shifts.  I half-jokingly told Garrett to avoid his phone and email so that he wouldn't get called in, too (because I'm sure he would have had to make up any missed ER shifts!).  Anyway, Garrett was commenting on how lucky this guy was to miss a shift, and I said to Garrett, "Would you rather be stuck in an airport for 2 days, or work a medicine shift?" I barely had the words out before he was saying "airport, easily".

"Umm... what about, stuck in an airport for 2 days with 2 kids, or work a medicine shift?"

"Definitely airport."

And this coming from the guy who starts another month of medicine on Monday.  Let the good times roll!

Well, this has gone from a nice Christmas post to a "whining" post.  Sorry! :) Hope you all enjoyed the pictures.  Like I said, I'll post a few more when (if?) Garrett ever comes home to edit them!

Christmas gifts, part 3

I made a quiet book for the girls this year.

Learning snaps:

Tic tac toe:

Learning buttons:

There's a little toy car in the purple pocket on the top of the right page.  On the left page, the red, yellow and green circles have velcro on the back.

Baking cupcakes.

Counting beads, and a purse.  I'm going to put a little comb and mirror and maybe some chapstick and other fun things in the purse.

Sending mail.  The mailbox has a little pocket on the top to put drawings and letters on.

Learning math (addition & subtraction), and learning zippers.

Matching colors, and weaving

The "gumballs" have velcro on the backs

Learning to tie a bow.

This book was really fun to make.  Before October I had never really worked with felt much, but between this quiet book and my advent calendar, I feel like a pro now.  Felt is really nice to work with because it's stiffer than cotton and it holds up pretty well if you get the nice kind.  Many people online recommend using wool felt but that's really expensive.  I used mostly Rainbow felt.  My mom gave me a big stack of it a couple years ago, and I also bought some on Fabric.com so that I could have more colors and variety.  (If you go that route, just be sure that you order the right amount!  I bought mostly squares (which were about 30 cents each), but I also bought 1 yard of white.  Oh, and I also accidentally bought 2 YARDS of yellow instead of two SQUARES of yellow.  Whoops.  Guess I'll have to find a project for that.

I only made about half the pages I had planned on making because I ran out of book space and time.  Hopefully I'll make a second book in the next year or two.

Christmas gifts, part 2

I originally made this quilt to give my mother-in-law for Christmas, but decided to have it be a birthday present since the kids usually all go in on the Christmas gift for their parents (her birthday is in January).

When my mother-in-law and I were in a fabric store together a few years ago, I asked her to show me some of her favorite fabrics so that I could get an idea of her style.  She pointed out a lot of pretty, bright Fall-ish colors.  Luckily, I already had a big stack of fat quarters in a similar style so I got to work.  I actually started this quilt a couple of years ago.  I wanted to do the whole thing in that triangle pattern, but eventually I gave up and just did a square border.  I was getting really tired of trying (and failing) to match corners.

I finished this quilt last July and almost forgot about it as we were packing for our Christmas trip.  So glad I remembered it since I hate shipping my projects... I'm always so scared they will get lost.

The backing is a vintage sheet that used to belong to my grandma.

I love how this quilt turned out and I hope my mother-in-law likes it!

If you want to see the other quilts I've made for Christmas, click on the links:

Quilts for my sisters and mom, Christmas 2009 (these are probably my favorite)
Quilts for my sisters-in-law, Christmas 2008

Christmas gifts, part 1

I already showed you the Advent Calendar I made for my brother and his family.

On Garrett's side, we had his younger sister and her husband.  They just got married last April, and since they are newlyweds I figured they would enjoy some pictures for their wall.

I got this idea from an etsy shop that I found.  Garrett's sister is from Georgia (obviously) and her husband is from California, and the hearts on the maps are where their cities are.  Garrett actually made them, and I printed them up and framed them.  I really like how they turned out!

Merry Christmas

We hope you are enjoying Christmastime with the ones you love.  We are so thankful for this season of giving and especially thankful for the Reason: our Savior Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas!

Man Shower, the third

During medical school, a lot of our friends had babies.  Obviously the traditional baby showers were thrown for the expectant mothers (particularly if it was their first baby), whether they were having a boy or a girl.

However, I noticed a slight problem. Most of our friends had baby girls first, and some of them had boys second.  And since most people don't get baby showers for their second child (which, in my opinion, is perfectly fine), they weren't gifted many boy gifts (which are much needed, because you can't exactly use girl clothes for boys like you could use boy clothes for a girl.).

So, we had the idea to do a little twist for couples having their first baby boy, but who already had a baby girl -- Man Showers.  A couples shower, directed at the dad in celebration of his first son on the way.  We did our first man shower for our friend Bobby a few years ago, and another for Brian after that.  And I have to say... I'm a bit embarrassed to even link those parties because they were way fancier than my most recent shower, for Rob and Haley.  But, this one I hosted by myself (for the first time) and it was totally last minute since I dropped the ball on the whole thing (sorry Rob!!).  But, it was fun and Rob was surprised, so it was a success I think.

Unfortunately I didn't take a picture but I made a big banner that said "Congratulations Rob, it's a boy!"  We played "Man Shower" games (obnoxious baby shower games that I normally hate, but guys like them so we do them).  I made my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert, which Rob always enjoys.  I invited a couple of their friends who are also interns at the hospital.

 Rob, the guest of honor, "chugging" Dr. Pepper from a bottle.

For the record, this is the game I hate most.  You put melted candy bars in diapers and people have to guess what kind of candy bar it is.  Totally gross and obnoxious, but guys like it.  ::sigh::

Fastening a cloth diaper to a doll.  This was a couples challenge and each person could only use one hand.  Fastest time won.

We also did a nursery rhyme quiz.  It was harder than it sounds. 

And finally, guess the baby food.  We had sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, squash.

It was a fun party and it's a good thing we did it when we did, because Haley was in labor less than 12 hours later and Bobby was born the day after the party!

Congratulations Rob and Haley on your first boy!

Adventing.

So, here's the project I'm sure you were all dying to see.....

I made a felt Advent Calendar.  Actually, I made two of them - one for my brother's family too, since we have them for Christmas this year.

To say it took me a really long time would be a real understatement.  I won't even try to guess how many hours went into these babies.  But I will say this: everything is hand stitched except for the tree.... I machine-sewed the tree onto the white felt.  It was the last thing to do, and I was tired and running out of time.

I think my favorite ornaments are: the white mitten with red heart, the white dove, the peppermint candy, and the red & pink ball ornament.

I also enlisted the help of a little glue gun to keep many of the ornaments together, and then I hand stitched around each different color to give it that look.

The boxes were all hand stitched with a blanket stitch.

Star on top.

It's been fun to hang the ornaments up each day as we count down to Christmas.

Do you have an Advent Calendar?

(Inspiration came from this Inchmark Advent Calendar that I saw two years ago.  I pretty much just copied it to a T!)

Things I learned in the last week.

Sometimes it's okay to stay in your pajamas all day.

The hot glue gun will burn flesh, just like it says. (And incidentally, I didn't realize how often I use that side of my thumb until now.  Ouch!)

Abby will never get tired of watching Charlie Brown Christmas on Hulu.... she watches it once a day and it's so cute.

Ellie can reach that cup of grape juice on the table.

I'm thankful that I still heavily dilute Abby's juice, because it came out of the carpet no problem.

I'm really slow at hand stitching words on muslin (Christmas present... I'll share sometime soon).

When cutting Garrett's hair, a "2" is not the same as a "7".  In happy news.... I will probably never be asked to cut Garrett's hair ever again. (Not that I really minded.... it saves us money!)

The best "toys" are always non-toys: canned goods (great for building towers), ric-rac from my project, a bead tied to the end of a string, Garrett's contact case, mixing bowls, my phone, the piano.

Newborns are tiny.  I always forget just how tiny they are until I hold one. (Yes, Haley had her baby!!)

I LOVE '24'.  Okay I knew this before this week.  I know I've probably said this before but I am SO glad we waited until now to watch it on Netflix rather than having to wait a week between each episode.  I have very mixed feelings every time we watch an episode though: I feel happy and excited, but I also feel sad because we are then one more episode closer to being DONE with the show. (I know, I'm lame.)  Anyway, we just finished season 5.  Only three more seasons to go!  NOOOOO!

Ipads are really fun.  Yes.... we got an ipad.  And before you start thinking that we are high rollers now that Garrett is a doctor... no way.  As part of Garrett's internship, the hospital gives him a $500 credit for "educational purposes".  And since the program also pays for him to take his boards, he couldn't think of any other necessary expenses, so we bought an ipad with the money (got it on Black Friday since it was on sale then, so we didn't have to pay much out of pocket).  And you guys, I am totally lame because I love solitaire more than other games I have found.  Does anyone have an ipad and want to give me some app recommendations??

Surprise parties are also really fun.  I threw Rob a last-minute "Man Shower" (i.e., a baby shower for the dad) on Saturday night.  It was extremely impromptu but we had a good turnout and perfect timing (the baby was born the next day!).  I'll dedicate a post later this week.  Man showers are fun. (please don't take that out of context!)

And, I've recently learned that I have become a really bad typer.  I don't know how this happened because I type a lot.  But it's pretty embarrassing, I probably use the backspace key at least a couple of times each sentence.

Like this for eiintstance.  I won't use the backspace key and you ancan see how bakd it is.  How did this happen?  Whey Iam I jsuch a bad tyeper now?  It's not that I don't know how to spell - I do.  In fact I pride myself on my ability to spell well.  But for some reason I acnt type and it's driving my me insanse.  It's like my fintgers hit keys without mybrain tell ing them to.  Or I miss keys.  And it's not like my fingers are slepping and hitting the wrong keys.  My fingers deliberately khit all the keys I'm hitting.  Please helkp me.

A conversation with Garrett.

Sometimes I feel like Garrett is a bit of a ghost here on my blog.  I talk a lot about myself and the kids, and I guess I talk a lot about what Garrett is up to, but you all don't get the privilege of hearing his side of the story.  So, I decided to do a little interview with Garrett so that you can get to know him better.

But first, a picture:

I tried to get him to smile, but he only said, "You know I don't approve of these kinds of pictures."


(Self portrait - pictures where usually half the picture is someone's arm.... haha.  I think I did a pretty good job, though!)

What made you decide to go into medicine?
I never really wanted to do anything else.  My dad was an influence on my decision, though.  Of course he didn't make me do it, but he was my example.


If you hadn't become a doctor, what do you think you would have done with your life?
Professional video game playing??

Growing up I thought about either becoming a doctor or a pilot.  I always thought fighter jets were cool, but as I got older I realized that that was probably unrealistic, and dangerous if I had a family.


What made you decide on radiology?
I can remember when Rob and I were on that rotation, and we were just talking about the possibilities that could come from technology and medicine and we were really excited about it.  I really liked it.


What are some things you enjoy about your intern year here in Virginia?
The fact that I only have to be an "intern" for 5 months, and the rest of the time "I can just kick it." (his words, people) (talking about his elective months)


What are some things you don't like about intern year?
The other 5 months.  Haha just joking.  I don't like call, let's be honest.  I don't like the fact that every time I hear a beeping noise now, my heart drops with dread (it's the sound of my pager).  And I don't like feeling stupid all the time.  I still have a lot to learn and sometimes that's discouraging.

What do you miss most about Augusta?
The fishing and biking... there were some great bike trails there.  Oh and I miss the Redneck Yacht Club.

(I didn't know what that meant so I asked him to elaborate.  Apparently whenever the guys went out fishing, they felt like they looked like a bunch of rednecks with all their gear and such, so that's what they called themselves)

What are you most excited about moving to Florida?
Being close to family again.  Being done with working as an intern and finally starting what I actually want to do with the rest of my life.


What TV shows do you enjoy watching?
24 (on Netflix).  Modern Family.  Community.  The Office is okay.  Psych is a new favorite.


What is your dream car?
I don't know!  I'm not big into cars.


What kind of food do you wish Hannah made as well as her mom?
I mean... Hannah's bread is good... but her mom makes really, really good (better) bread.


The best thing Hannah has ever cooked for you?
She makes really good homemade pizza*.  And she made really good ribs once.  And cordon bleu for my birthday or our anniversary.

(*He's talking about a pizza I made last week with homemade spinach pesto, mozz cheese, artichokes, yellow pepper, onions, and feta cheese. It was SO good, you should make it too)


If you had $1000 to spend any way you wished, what would you buy? (You can't pay off any loans or buy anything you need.  It has to be something fun)
I'd have to think about that... you know how I am!  It takes me two years to spend a $100 Amazon gift card.

Oh, never mind.  I'd buy a jon boat.  Or a Carolina skiff.


What do you miss most about BYU?
Not the studying, that's for sure.  I do miss the carefree life (pre kids) and lack of real responsibilities.  That, and Tucano's.


If you could get rid of any one of the kids' toys, what would it be?
The one the makes the most noise.  Or the most mess... either one.


If you could have any talent come to you easily, what would it be?
Probably playing the piano.


Would would you do if you had one extra hour of time each day?
Exercising... especially if that one hour was 75 degrees and sunny.


What would you prefer to live near: the beach, a lake, the desert, or mountains?
Probably mountains, because they also have lakes and rivers.


Skiing or snowboarding?
Please.  Skiing.  If I'm going to spend money doing something like that, I'm going to spend my money to ski because I can ski well and I know I'll have fun.  I don't want to spend all that money and spend the day trying to snowboard.  Plus, I once broke my wrist snowboarding (middle school - ish), so I don't see myself trying that again.

Where do you see yourself ending up when you finally get a real job?
I really don't have any idea.  We'll see what the job market looks like.


Naked x-ray or pat-down? (airport)
Depends on how hot the lady is that's doing the pat-down.

(har har, honey!)

Anything else you want my awesome readers to know about you?
No.

Finally, I just want to share something funny that Garrett said a few days ago.  He was reading a bedtime story to the girls called "Baby's Christmas".  It's an old "Little Golden Book" (you know, with the gold binding), and it's just a little story about all the things that Baby got for Christmas... a teddy bear, a kitten, a rocking horse, blocks, a doll... many, many pages of things.  And finally in the last few pages, the book says, "And what did baby get to keep all her toys in?", and I heard Garrett mutter before turning the page, "Let's hope it's a trash can."


Obviously Garrett has a huge love of children's toys.  He loves seeing them everywhere, he loves stepping on them, he loves cleaning them up.  He especially loves the ones that make noise...


(And no, the baby didn't get a trash can.  Baby got a toy box. Sorry, Garrett.)


Anyone else have any questions for Garrett??  I know he loves being featured here, and I'd be more than happy to do a Part 2 if I get enough inquiries.  Ask away!

S.O.S.!!

She really can be a sweetheart.... when it's not time to clean up.

I need advice.

It has to do with parenting and discipline and all that fun stuff.  We are having SUCH a hard time getting Abby to clean up her toys.  Of course, this is a constant battle that starts as soon as kids begin playing with toys, but lately Abby has been especially resistant when we ask her to clean up.  She'll ignore us, or she'll maybe clean up one thing and then get back to playing.  I beg her, I threaten to take toys away (and I do), I yell, and I even threaten to throw toys away (which, I did do once, and that seemed to work but I think that that was a little too harsh.  And don't worry, it was a lame McDonald's toy, not something nice or a gift).  Most of the time she just ignores my requests, or just flat out says, "No."

The reality is, if I continually threaten to take away the toys on the floor for a few days, and if I do take them, eventually (soon) all her toys will be taken away and she will have nothing to play with for a few days.  And then what will she do all day? She has arts/crafts, but she is very bad about cleaning those up too so I'm sure eventually those would be confiscated.  And then what is she supposed to do all day?  I can't just let Ellie play with toys and make Abby sit on the couch all day and watch her.

I am at a loss. Sometimes it works if I threaten to take away watching her favorite show that day, or if I take away snack time, but other times, once I have actually said, "Okay, no Kipper", she STILL won't clean up.  And then what?  Keep taking away privileges one by one?

Sometimes she screams and cries that she wants me to help her clean up.  So, I will get the little toy box and put it in the middle of the room, and I will start helping her, but she'll just watch me.  So I'll stop, then she'll cry that I'm not helping, and it's just a bad cycle.  And in the end, I usually just end up cleaning them all up because I'm tired of having a messy house and a whining child. (And, yes I realize that when I do that, I am only perpetuating the bad habits we have formed here.  That's why I need help!).

So.... all you moms out there who've had three-year-olds, please chime in.... this means you, Emma/Abbie/Brittany/Lauren/Rachelle/Mary/Michelle/Aleasha/mom/grandma... and anyone else who I've forgotten to name, or who secretly reads my blog (you can be anonymous if you want).  And no pressure, of course.  You certainly don't need to comment unless you want to.

Thanks everyone!