Christmas recap

Hi I am Megan and I love traditions.  Haven't figured that out yet?  One of my many is to buy the kids new Christmas outfits to wear to church around Christmas.

And the Christmas hurricane aftermath:

Another year another success story.

A huge ole serving of the true meaning of Christmas

As delivered by my nine year old.

When I became a mother for the first time and held my tiny little boy in my arms I looked down at him and was suddenly struck with the huge responsibility I would have in raising this new little being. It would be my responsibility to teach him to read, write, tie his shoes, have good manners, be a good citizen, and a mountain of other things. Little did I know that wee babe in my arms was going to teach me more about the true meaning of this life than I could ever teach him.

Let me preface this story by saying that I hate DS's - HATE HATE HATE. Sorry to the billions of people out there that I just offended. So, with that being said, Tate does not own one of those "stick your face in these and ignore the world" gaming devices. So, being the resourceful kid that he is, he started saving his allowance to buy one. He has been saving for about 8 months and was five dollars away from having enough money to buy a used one.

Enter huge humbling mother experience:

I was cleaning out some of the girls clothes from their closets and Harper asked me what I was doing. I explained to her that a family that our sister in law know's house had burnt down and they lost everything. They happened to have girls that were our sizes, so I was getting some of the clothes that we have, because we have more than enough, and was going to give them to this family because they don't have anything right now.

We arrived at Bonnie's to drop off the clothes and my little Tater grabbed my hand and said "Mom, I want to give them my money." To which I replied, "Tate, you don't have to do that, you have been saving up for a really long time to buy your DS."

"I know mom, I want too" Is Tate's reply. "Helping people is more important than electronics"

And I am reminded once again how Christ-like little children really are.

Hudson: "Mom what should I wear?"

Me: "Just put on something warm because we are going to be outside."

Hudson: "My Christmas dress?"

Me: "Nice try."

Harper's Skirts

If you've never noticed, Harper really likes dresses.  She usually wears one everyday.  And sometimes more than one.

We initially thought she was wearing five skirts but when we put her to bed, we counted seven.

Outfit entirely made up of skirts.

Peek a Boo

This sweet face anxiously awaits for me as soon as I open the door.  He lifts up the bumpers and starts kicking his legs in excitement when he hears the door start opening.

Superballerina Girl

Superhero day at preschool:

Brothers don't shake hands

Nobody call DCFS on us. I know that a baby sleeping in a bed is completely unsafe but how stinking cute is this? Tate loves his brother and I mean LOVES him. There is nothing that he wants more than for Gideon to be able to share a bed with him. He has been trying to sneak him in his bed with him since he was little. I have had many talks with him about how it is not safe for the baby to be in bed with him. (Note the pillow that is acting as as a railing). But it still melts my heart when I check on the kids before I go to bed and I see the two of them in bed together.

Heartache

My heart broke in 12 pieces yesterday.

Sometimes being a mom is fun. Sometimes being a mom is just downright frustrating and sometimes it is hard.

Yesterday was hard.

I was late coming home from my sisters house which meant Tate got home from school before I did. This is not a big deal for him usually, he just starts his chores or homework. Yesterday he decided to check up on the emails from his website. For those of you that don't know, Tate has a science website that he posts experiments and such that he performs. When I walked in the door, Tate had that "I have been seriously hurt" look on his face. Its the face that a mother doesn't want to see. It's the face that makes my stomach turn inside out and my mommy claws go into hyper mode.

He fell into my arms and began sobbing. As the story goes, some kind soul out there decided to post a comment on his website calling him a dumb A. My "wear your heart blaringly on your sleeve" son could not understand why someone would say that about him or his website.

It was in that moment that I wanted to wrap him in my arms forever. Never to see what the cruel world can offer sometimes. My heart ached for what this tenderhearted boy has in store for himself. He just doesn't understand cruelty. He doesn't get how people can be mean to other people. He has no idea that, sometimes, no matter what you do, people are just mean. It was in that moment I felt so fragile, so helpless as his mother. I wanted to lock him up from that moment on, to keep him just the way that he is, perfect.

When Tommy got home, I was in tears myself. Luckily, he is the level headed one in this relationship and he talked me down from my "I am home schooling my son and he is never getting on the computer again" ledge. He and Tate chatted about the importance of turning the other cheek and forgiving people. It was beautiful and heartfelt and I fell in love with my husband all over again. And I realized that I can't shelter Tate, I can just teach him, love him, and pray that he is strong enough for what this world can sometimes deal you.

Winter Fun

Every year, with the first real snowfall, the kids go charging out into the snow with their snow-man kit (Thanks Mom! - best present ever) and create a 4-hour snow man.

The Farmington Canyon Death Trip

Tate is always talking about the weather towers at the top of the mountain range.  So, about a month ago, we took an impromptu Sunday drive up there.

Little did my kids know that Farmington canyon is not for the weak of heart (and my kids fit that description) because of the non-guardrailed, 45 degree edges.  Favorite things said on the drive up;

• "Slow down dad" (repeated 17 times)
• "I think I am going to faint" (this was our favorite). 
• "Dad, keep both your hands on the wheel"

Miraculously, we survived the drive (and the kids actually enjoyed the vista).

Halloween

Here are the costume pics;

Here is the whole family.

Gideon is our little chili pepper.

Harper was an adorable Arial.

 We tried to get Arial (Harper) to take a picture with Ursula (Steve from work) but she was not keen on the idea.

Hudson as a Unicorn.

Not sure what Tate is?  Get used to it.  Tate typically wants to be something extremely obscure (i.e. a earthbender soldier from Avatar, a random pokemon creature).  This year, he wanted to be a Marine from Starcraft II.  Try finding that at the Grocery Store.

Nice to be loved

Hudson: Mom I want to grow up really big, right now.

Me: But I want you to stay just the way you are, why do you want to grow up so fast?

Hudson: So I can have your makeup and shoes.

Awesome!

Somewhere to go with nothing to wear

Last week Tommy went on a business trip to Florida. He had to leave straight from work to catch his plane. So he took all of his luggage with him in the morning when he took the kids to school at 8:00 AM.

Two hours later when I left the house to pick up Hudson from Kindergarten, I saw this.

Costume Fail

So, Halloween at my work is a little crazy.

As some of you may remember, I did the Geiko Caveman a couple years ago.  This year, I thought I'd go as the Old Spice Guy.  Epic Fail.  The skin coloring I used didn't work at all.  It just gave me an orange glow (Yes, I'm wearing skin darkener in that picture. I'm that white).  Everyone thought I was Michael Phelps.

Here's some of the competition this year from the guys that sit by me (This are only a few);

Austin as the XanGo themed Karate Kid Shower Costume.

Eric as Napolean.

 Kevin as Kevin from Up (his real legs are on stilts under the bird).

Steve as Ursula

I'm rethinking my life and will be back next year.

Jack-O-Lanterns

We successfully conducted our annual Pumpkin carving activity.  There really isn't anything extraordinary to announce.  I'm just posting some pictures.

Here are the kids (Harper's dressed up, as usual).

Visit to Florida

I was able to go to Florida on Business last week and got a chance to visit my big bro, Will and his family.  It was lots of fun (especially when I got to stay another day after missing my flight - oops).  

Ben, Josh, Will and I played some old school Risk (I wiped out Ben before surrendering to Will and Josh).  But Ben took it out on me when we played Starcraft II (He annihilated me).

Good times.

I lent Heidi my camera and she provided several individual shots of all of the girls.  Thanks Heidi.

This is So Annoying...

So, at my work, there are two other people who drive nearly the same car as me.  I still don't know who drives them, but they park right next to me every day.  I can't tell you how many times I've attempted to unlock the wrong car.

Tommy

Bad Hair Day

Our poor girls. They have this amazing curly hair but it can be so hard to manage. Nearly, every morning they wake up with "rat's nest" hair.

Step right up. Step right up.

Barbie Band-Aids have become the hottest commodity in our house.  Ever since Hudson talked me into buying them at the store the girls have had non stop injuries.  Now, anytime the girls fall down or bump into something, I get an immediate petition for a Barbie Band-Aid.  We have to go through a "band-aid worthy" inspection; is it bleeding?  Is the skin actually cut?  Is the blood still visible?

Yeah, pretty sure the box is going to last two more days. 

Reading Frenzy

As many of you know, Tate has a "focus" issue. He gets a bit obsessed with one thing for a period of time. And then he'll immediately move onto something else and drop the previous thing like a dirty rag.

Well, his latest thing is books. He's gone book crazy. In August he read all the Percy Jackson series, and this last month of September, he read six full size books.  In fact, he's already a grade ahead in literacy but he won the reading bingo game they had at school with 36,643 pages read so far this school year (2 months).  The 2nd place kid had read only 3,000 pages.

Don't get me wrong, reading is great, but it's just he gets a little crazy about it. We have to make him stop reading at night (or he'll read all night), and we saw him at his school walking from one class to another with a book up in front of his face (Yah, that kid!).

Our next FHE lesson is going to be "moderation in all things".

The stats

The Gidster is shrinking

Weight 18 pounds 11 oz (70%)

Length 27.5 inches (80%)

Head 17.75 inches (75%)

But he is still a big boy.

Gratitude

Last night we had a lesson on Gratitude and Respect. Here are the kids lists of what they are thankful for:

Harper:

1. Gideon

2. Ava

3. Mom & Dad

Hudson:

1. Tate

2. Sun & Moon

3. Pretty stars

4. Ballet Class

5. Destiny

Tate:

1. Me

2. My family

3. Friends

4. School

5. Teacher

6. Fun

7. Heavenly Father

8. Science

Glad to know Tate knows where his priorities are :)

Characteristics

Obviously, I love each of my children, but one thing that strikes me is there amazingly different personalities.

• Tate was our serious and intense baby. His arms would always be straight and sticking out from his sides at 45 degree angles (we called him our C3P0). He was always so serious and tense. This has translated into extreme focus today. Tate has 100% single focus. Whether that's a video game or a book, he has a one track mind. It has it's pros and cons.
• Hudson was our angry baby. She would get mad all the time (nothing has really changed with that).
• Harper was our observer. She would quietly sit and watch us and everything else for hours. While she doesn't sit and stare all the time now, she is still very observant of details (i.e. who is related to who in the family and recognizing the street that leads to Grandma's house).
• Gideon is our Happy baby. All you have to do is look at him and he immediately brightens his face into a smile. He is so cheerful and loving. I hope he retains that.

They are each their own individual spirit and we love each one of them.

Stickers

Some times sacrament goes much smoother if you just let the three year old do her own thing.

Family Resemblance

A couple months ago, I did a post with each of our kids eyes and it shocked me how much Tate and Harper's eyes looked alike.  I guess I never noticed before how much they resembled each other, but the more I thought about it, the more I think Harper resembles Tate and Gideon resembles Hudson (I Know. Big Shocker; Siblings Look Alike. Wow!).

I dug up a few pictures that aren't the best but do show some of their similarities;

Hudson

Gideon

Harper (Yes. Apparently we only take weird pictures of her)

Tate