Roxy Update

I realize that I have not posted an update about the Roxy situation (mostly because I knew that doing so would make me cry) so here it is.

Roxy officially has a new home. Her owner loves her to pieces and is already spoiling her rotten. Roxy is happy there. She loves the attention and is behaving herself very well (other than jumping the fence and going for a jog around the neighborhood - the new owner was warned of this tendancy to run, but didn't believe us). She is learning new tricks and getting the time and devotion she needs.

Things around here are so much calmer. There is less chaos, less food stolen from children (more realistically, given to dogs by children), and much less dog food comsumed (Roxy ate double what Callie eats in a day). In addition, Callie has been so much better behaved. I think that Callie got used to being "the dog" who was showered with love and attention and at the same time she had another baby to share the spotlight with, she also had another dog to share it with.

I, however, am still a little heartbroken. I know that this was the right choice for our family and for Roxy and I am so happy to know that Roxy is getting what she needs, but I still miss her. I wish that I could have been a better mommy to her and that we had more space and that I had more energy, but I hope that she knew she was loved when she was here. I often still cry when I think that she is gone or when I drive by her new neighborhood or when Chloe calls Callie "Roxy Roo" but I find comfort knowing she is safe, happy and coming back to hang out with us for a whole week this month. Also, the use of my back landing for something other than a dog kennel has been delightful!

All about the Names

If only this post were about "baby sister's" name...

My kids are obsessed with names. I have posted about Morgan's name obsession before, but it has now rubbed off on Chloe, so I have two kids who are little name robots. Maybe it is their social nature or their way of identifying their world by personal association, but they want to know everyone's names.

In church on Sunday, Chloe was babbling on talking to the mice she "borrowed" from Quincy (thanks Ruth!) and she started telling us the names of all her buddies behind us. "Quincy, Asher..." I wasn't sure if Seth knew what she was doing, so I whispered for him to listen and she continued with clarity, "Dylan, Luke, Gage" each time pointing to the corrosponding person. It was pretty hillarious! Meanwhile, Morgan was identifying his favorite people in his Book of Mormon lift-the-flaps book - Ammon, bad King Noah, Lehi, Nephi, Sariah, Joseph Smith, Moroni.

Chloe has really taken to the women in her favorite uncles' lives too. The other day we picked up Jess and Sariah and she said their names excitedly as soon as she saw them come through the door, "Sariah!" "Uncle Jess!" Uncle Michael's girlfriend, Sarah, has been hanging out with us more frequently scine she has been home for winter break, and every time Chloe sees her she lights up and says, "Sarah!" and whenever we see Uncle Michael without Sarah, Morgan asks, "Where's Sarah?" so Chloe asks sometimes too.

She has also figured out how to use this newfound knowledge of names to tease my brothers. Whenever they ask her their names, she calls them the wrong name - she calls Stephen "Uncle Michael" and Michael "Uncle Stephen". You might think she is just confusing the two, but in ALL other instances, she refers to them correctly. She only switches them when they are wanting to test her to make sure she knows their names. We are in for trouble with this little lady!

Of course, Chloe is also very good with the names of everyone in our immediate family. Every morning she takes the time to greet everyone my name. I love the sweet way she says, "Daddy" with a twinkle in her eyes and then says, "Mommy," to let me know that she knows my name too. She pronounces Morgan's name so sweetly and loves to repeat it all day long, "Mo-gun!" And, of course, she has to look for Callie and say hello. She has finally stopped calling for "Woxy-woo" (Roxy) after more than 2 weeks without her around, though. She also enjoys identifying pictures of "Baby Ko-e" (herself), always followed by a smile and the description, "Cute."

Both Morgan and Chloe love to look at pictures of family and friends and identify each one. Morgan loves sitting at the kitchen table to do this with the Christmas Cards that are still hanging on our wall. It never ceases to amaze me that friends and cousins that we haven't seen for months or more are still remembered by name.

Though it kind of wigs me out that my kids are so good with names at such a young age (I am pretty sure this is not normal behavior), it serves as a great reminder to value each person as an individual. The kids don't remember names because it is the socially acceptable thing to do, they do it because they value the person attached to the name. There is so much that I learn from them every day about being more focused on the important stuff - the people in my life, the things that make them happy and spending time together. Hopefully this name-power will rub off on me at some point!

Winter Fun

There is snow on the ground, in the air and on the roads and we have been trying to take full advantage of it before we have to bundle a 3rd child every time we do!

On Boxing Day, we went sledding with Seth's family at Sugarhouse park and had a lot of fun. Morgan deemed me the best sledder ever (since I was the only one who didn't get snow in his face on the way down and I don't go as fast as Seth) and Chloe enjoyed going down the first couple of times as well. After about 4 runs, I was pretty much spent - climbing that hill sure took a toll on my prego body - and then it started to get really cold, windy and snowy, so we were all spent. We made snow angels at the top of the hill and took some pictures and then piled in the car and headed home for some hot cocoa and chili! Mmm!

Morgan got pretty good at making snow angels.Chloe got very cold by the end and was ready to go!

And this is my pregnant profile. I don't think they make maternity snow gear, and if they do, it is really hard to find since there aren't really any "approved" snow activities for pregnant people, so I wore my regular snowpants without buttoning or zipping them and barely zipped my coat over my belly! I will be really glad to fit in my clothes again!

The next day, we went on a snowshoeing adventure with the Banks. They were troopers to go without snowpants and boots, but we got out there and made a snowshoe trip happen! Callie was in heaven running through snow deeper than her and Chloe was giggling the whole time. She loved it as long as we were moving and if Seth stopped, she would say, "Go Dad, Go!"Morgan wore his own snowshoes and hiked the whole time. He did so awesome and he LOVED it! I have decided that there is just nothing cooler than watching your kids embrace something you love and love it too!Our hike was pretty short (which was perfect for Morgan and I) because Porter decided he wasn't a big fan of snowshoeing right then, but we had a great time anyway! You just have to be flexible when you combine kids and winter sports (or anything really)! The weather was perfect and the snow was sublime!

More to come on snowmen and hot chocolate later!

Christmas Morning Magic

I absolutely love Christmas morning! I love that I still get too excited to sleep on Christmas Eve. I love the magic and surprise of seeing what Santa has brought. I love exchanging gifts and realizing that, once again, I have gone completely overboard buying gifts for the kiddos. I love watching the kids open presents and I love that they are so grateful for everything. I guess that is one benefit of getting spoiled rotten - it gives us a huge opportunity to teach gratitude!

Santa brought Seth and I a new camera to replace our other one sustaining water damage from a river trip, so he used it to take some pictures of the calm before the storm (and I am not talking about the storm that created our very white Christmas). :)

The kids didn't wake up until 8:30 (I had been up for at least an hour wondering why they weren't up yet) but the first words out of Morgan's mouth were, "It's Christmas, did Santa come last night?" Here are some pictures of our grand entrance on Christmas morning. Chloe immediately took to the orange Santa hid in her doll stroller and pushed it around the house before exploring anything else. Eventually, I put the stuffed pig from her stocking in the stroller with the orange so she would notice that there was more to Christmas morning than an orange and a doll stroller. Morgan loved his farm and tractor - and was even excited about socks. He loved his polar express train whistle too, until he got sawdust in his mouth. He was pretty excited about opening presents, though, so he was anxious to keep the morning moving (Santa doesn't wrap gifts at our house, so all the wrapped ones were from us to each other - mostly from Mom and Dad to one of the kids). We got lots of games for the whole family to enjoy and a ridiculous amount movies this year. Seth had the video camera in hand all morning and I was behind the lens trying to capture every moment of the magic!

Then it was on to presents from each other. Morgan was excited to have Chloe open her present from him so she could push babies around in that stroller instead of the beloved orange. Seth was very surprised by his Game of Things (especially since he had never heard of it before). The kids both loved their Doctor kits and wanted to take everything out and play with them for quite a while before they would move on to the next gift. Morgan absolutely loved his big tonka trucks for the sandbox! With Seth's crazy schedule, I didn't expect his to do any shopping on his own, so we had discussed and I had gotten some stuff he could "give" me (really if you think about it - he gives me everything I buy since he brings in the $$). He did make time for a little shopping, though, much to my surprise - a giant knuckle bone for Callie (Morgan helped her unwrap it as she salivated anxiously!) and for me, an entire collection of awful, ugly sweaters for the whole family with DI tags still in tact! Yeah, some wives get jewelry or cute clothes, but we want to win all ugly sweater party competitions, so we give the important stuff. He also surprised me with "You've Got Mail", one of my all-time FAVORITE chick-flicks that I have been missing since I moved out of my parents house!

Morgan got to go "shopping" for each of us with his preschool class using reward "bucks" and got us some really hilarious stuff. He got fancy bath soak for Chloe, and crocheted pot-holders and magnet clips for Seth and I - he is so funny! I loved watching the kids explore their new stuff and get excited about playing with it. Morgan was way into his laptop and Chloe really just wanted to push her babies around in her stroller, put them down for naps in their crib, and then back to the stroller for another walk.

We took our sweet time enjoying the morning and didn't get to Grandma Tate's until after 11:30 - even Seth's family beat us there! After our 2nd breakfast at Grandma Colleen's we headed home for naps and found that our electricity was only half-capacity. So, while I attempted to bake and get goodies ready for hosting our families that evening, Seth investigated the electricity situation. Our neighbors had power, so we assumed it was something specific to us and found that the storm had blown our outside fuse box open and gotten it wet, but since NOBODY is open on Christmas day, we were pretty much sitting-ducks until morning. Fortunately, our tree lights and garlands were still working, our bedroom lamps worked, the Wii and TV had power, a couple of kitchen outlets worked so we brought in a lamp for the kitchen, and the stove was working enough to trick me into thinking I could indeed make my rolls, but the oven never actually got hot enough. Unfortunately, the heater, fridge and overhead lights were all out - yay! We made the best of our "Half-lit" Christmas and stayed very warm with the eternally preheating oven, some space heaters and plenty of bodies packed in. The lighting seemed intentional for a "festive and romantic" effect, and (though they didn't rise well) my rolls with strawberry honey butter were still a big hit! Thanks to all of our family for enduring the unconventional conditions and sharing Christmas night with us!

Just FYI - it turns out that it was a problem on the power company's end (due to the storm, I'm sure) because our power kicked back on at 4:00 AM, shortly after Callie started freaking out because the Utah Power guy was poking around our yard. For being one of the gentlest and most tolerant dogs I have ever known, she sure is a good guard dog - NOBODY approaches our house without us knowing. She even barks to let us know about suspicious people just passing by our house - and no, that is not everyone who passes!

Baby...what baby?

I am really close to having 3 kids. In case you haven't noticed the ticker on the right, I am more than 36 weeks. That means that I will be induced in less than 3 weeks. Yep, less than 3 weeks! My body is ready to be rid of this baby girl. The heartburn, the lack of ability to sleep, the discomfort of pre-labor pains (these must get worse with every pregnancy), my aching sciatic nerve and my general ginormousity which is putting a major damper on my winter sports involvement.

My mind, on the other hand, is completely unprepared. If you know me well, you know that I am a planner. I drove around with Morgan's infant carrier installed in my car for more than 3 months, I got stressed out by baby showers that were within 2 months of my due date because I wanted to have everything in its place, Chloe was named (and called) Chloe for many months in the womb, clothes were folded on shelves and in dressers for months before having a baby to wear them, and a selection of "hospital" outfits was pondered long before the big day. This time around...not so. I kept telling myself to get through Christmas before worrying about any baby stuff.

Well friends, Christmas has past, New Year's has past, and this little girl doesn't have a name, clothes are still in an upper cabinet unsorted and unwashed, there is no progress toward the room change for Chloe, I need to buy a bed and dresser and completely overhaul Morgan's closet, I have no size 1 diapers in the house (though the hospital will send me home with plenty, so I don't have to worry about that), no hospital outfits have been chosen or bags packed, and we are less than 3 weeks away! Yikes! Not to mention that it recently hit me that I am going to have 3 kids and only 2 hands/arms/legs/eyes...you get the picture. I am starting to think that I didn't really need a bigger car because we will probably not be leaving the house together for a very long time! The good news is that the blessing brunch menu is planned - that definitely had to be done before the baby was born! Ha!

The kids are getting really excited for the baby though. Morgan regularly asks when baby sister will be coming. He knows that it will involve me going to the hospital, so when we are in the car and he doesn't know where we are going, he always asks, "Are we going to the hospital to get baby sister out of your tummy?"

Today he asked if she was wearing clothes in my tummy...I explained that she is naked, but when she comes out we will put clothes on her so she can be warm. Later in the afternoon he said, "Baby sister is naked in your tummy, mom," very matter-of-factly, as if I didn't know.

Both Morgan and Chloe like to "see" the baby, but don't think she is really there unless my tummy is bare and they can see my stretching skin. Yesterday, Morgan asked me to see the baby, so I lifted my shirt and he saw my belly button, which is currently poking out, pointed to it and said, "Look, mom! I can see baby sister, she is right there!" Chloe likes to show me how you hold a baby and is getting lots of practice on her dolls.

Yesterday, I took some of Chloe's "too small" clothes out of her drawer and Morgan started helping by taking them to the garbage can. As I got them back out of the garbage and out of his arms, I explained that we would be saving these for baby sister since she would eventually get bigger and fit in them. At dinner, Morgan told me, "I have some shoes under my bed that are too small, so I am saving them for baby sister when she gets bigger." What a good big brother he is!

Morgan is also intrigued by the age of the baby. "How old is baby sister today, Mom?" he asks. Each time I explain that the baby doesn't have an "age" until it is born and then it will start at 0 and get older each day. "Oh," he says...minutes later he asks, "Is the baby 1 now?"

So, there you have it. I am ready to have this baby, but I am not ready to have her. Hopefully soon we will be able to call her something other than "baby sister" and hopefully my "nesting" will kick in soon and last long enough to do the dishes, mop the floor and get baby clothes out of storage!

Our Christmas Traditions - Illustrated!

Now that you know all about our traditions, here are some pictures of this year's festivities.

We had our Christmas Celebration at Grandma Becky's the Monday before Christmas. There were so many presents I was worried the kids would be disappointed when they woke up Christmas morning. Grandma Becky, Grandpa John, Grandma Colleen, Grandpa TM, Michael and Stephen (my brothers), Sarah (Michael's girlfriend), Danae (my step-sister), Keath (my step-brother) and our family were all there to celebrate so we had quite the crowd. Morgan got to help EVERYONE open their presents, which he loved! Seth and I got a Kitchenaid mixer from my mom and John and, since that was more exciting for me than him, Seth also got Mario Kart for the Wii. Morgan and Chloe got completely spoiled by all of their uncles and aunt and of course by their Grandparents and great-grandparents. They got some toys and books to stay at Grandma Becky's house and some to take home. The big surprise for them were their cozy coupes. Chloe got a pink princess coupe complete with cell phone and holder and Morgan got a happy songs coupe which we realized was too small for him, so his police car coupe with siren and walkie talkie is on its way. Grandpa John had put the coupes together and they had parked their cars outside of the garage, so the kids got to go out and find them (and ride them around, of course) in the garage. They were so excited!We all had such a fun night spending time with everyone and are so grateful to everyone for all of the spoiling!

On Christmas Eve morning we decided to forgo our annual snowshoeing trip since we would be going sledding and snowshoeing later in the week and we were all a bit exhausted. We met up with my dad and Stephen for lunch at the Pizza Factory, where Michael was our server. After lunch we went to Grandma Bell's house to visit and keep the kids from breaking anything! We then headed back to my house to exchange gifts. The kids loved their presents from Grandpa - a see and say for Chloe and a football for Morgan. Again, we were spoiled - thanks dad!

After naps, we headed to the Tates for Christmas Eve dinner. We had a big crowd there too: Grandma Denese and Grandpa Tate, Laurelin, Bethany, Steve, Amelia, Jess, Sariah, Natalie, Jacob, Shanae, Collin, and our little familiy (that is 16 of us all together in the immediate family and we were missing 6 who couldn't make it - it is almost always a big crowd!). Morgan must have been overstimulated or overfilled with candy and treats because he randomly threw up all over me right before dinner. Luckily I was still wearing my coat, so I could just take it off and be clean, but he had to wear one of Collin's old shirts. Later he also got his pants wet spilling water on them, so he ended up with a blanket tied around his waist. So much for all of us looking festive and matching in the pictures! :) Jess provided poppers (an English Christmas tradition that he grew to enjoy on his mission) - which are basically paper tubes that you pop open to find a little toy and a paper crown. After dinner we did the sibling gift exchange. It was super chaotic, so I didn't get pictures of everyone, but everyone got some great stuff and we had some good laughs! Particularly when Grandma Denese got to open a very creatively wrapped broom, Bethany got a one-of-a-kind portrait of her family painted by Laurelin, Chloe wandering around with her shirt up showing off her belly button and Amelia put the entire collection of bows from Chloe in her hair at once. By the time we finished the gift exchange, everyone was needing to head out, so we didn't do the traditional Tate family nativity reenactment - so sad!

We headed home and opened our Christmas Book - the Christmas Candle - put the kids in their Christmas jammies, sprinkled the magic reindeer food on the lawn and enjoyed the beauty of Christmas Eve bedtime where the kids went right to sleep without a sound or complaint! Seth and I stayed up to wrap all of the presents - I put it off until Christmas Eve because we never have enough room under the tree, I replaced the burned out strand of lights on the tree and cleaned the house and got to bed by 1:30 so Santa wouldn't skip our house. And, of course, he didn't!

Our Little Family's Christmas Traditions

I think that the hardest thing about living nearby all of your family is managing everyone's holiday expectations without letting it entirely ruin the holiday for you. We are so spoiled to have wonderfully understanding and flexible families who have been so accomodating as we have tried to find a way to spend quality time celebrating Christmas with all of them.

Our first Christmas together, Seth and I went dutifully to visit each family on Christmas. By each family, I mean - Seth's Mom, Dad and Siblings, Seth's Grandma Tate, my Grandma Colleen and Grandpa TM, my Mom, Dad and siblings (my parents were still married at the time), my Grandma Bell, my Grandpa Bell, Seth's Grandpa Checketts (in Ogden), and Seth's Grandma Checketts (near Ogden). By the time we stumbled back to our apartment late Christmas night, I burst into tears and told Seth that I would never spend my Christmas like that ever again! We spent 30-45 minutes at each place we went and felt rushed the whole time we were there so we didn't spend quality time with anyone. And...this was before we had kids, so I could only imagine the horror of doing all of that with kids.

Since then, we have changed our "holiday plan of attack". We pick a night the week of Christmas to spend with my Mom and family complete with dinner, gifts, and fun time together. We go snowshoeing together as a "little family" on Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve lunch and gifts with my Dad and brothers and visit Grandma Bell. Then it is back home for naps and relaxing. Christmas Eve night we spend at Seth's parents house where we eat dinner with the whole family, have our gift-exchange and usually read/reinact/watch the nativity story (though we weren't able to stick around long enough for that this year). Then it is home to our house to open a new Christmas book (we get a new one each year) and put on our new Christmas PJ's (for the kids at least) before heading off to bed so Santa doesn't skip our house.

Christmas morning is our "little family" time. We check out all the cool stuff that Santa has left for us, open our gifts from each other, put together anything that needs putting together, eat our Christmas stocking oranges and spend time enjoying one another. Then we get showered and dressed and head out to Grandma Tate's for Christmas brunch where we hopefully see Seth's family. After socializing, eating and finding our stocking there, we head off to Grandma Colleen's Christmas brinch where we see my Mom and family. Seth usually has to go in to work Christmas afternoon, so we hang out at Grandma Colleen's until the kids are ready for naps and then we go home. Christmas night all of the families are invited to our house for games, food and playing with the new toys. This way, grandparents can see what the kids got from Santa, the kids can play with all their new stuff, we can spend casual time with family, and the kids can go to bed when they are ready!

We visit Grandpa Checketts during the week following Christmas since it is such a long drive to Ogden.

I really love our Christmas traditions. I love that we spend quality time with each family. I love that opening presents spans more than just one day so the kids get really excited about every present they get because they aren't on overload. I love that Christmas day is fun and special!

There are a couple of new traditions that I want to try out next year and chances are if I blog them now, I will remember them when we get to that point.

-Christmas Eve Eve family sleepover under the tree. Watch Christmas movies, listen to Christmas music and eat yummy munchies. Leave the tree lit all night and sleep in sleeping bags.
-Christmas Morning quiche. Since we go to 2 Christmas brunches, I have never thought to make Christmas breakfast, but we never end up getting anywhere until after 11 and then we are all starving! Plus the kids don't eat well at Grandma's anyway - too much else to do.
-Leave something out for Santa. We have never been on top of it enough to leave cookies or anything for Santa, but this year we put out reindeer food Morgan got from preschool and it was really fun.

Do you have any traditions that you love? What are they?

A Season of Joy

We have had such a wonderful Christmas season. We had to carve out little pieces of time to celebrate and enjoy our favorite traditions before Christmas because Seth's last final wasn't until the 17th and then he worked 6 12-hour shifts in a row so he could have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. I was equally busy trying to get everything ready for Christmas by myself with 2 kids and a giant belly in tow, not to mention running a freelance national PR campaign for the holidays. Here are some of our pre-Christmas highlights...

We picked out our Christmas tree the first week of December...it looked so much smaller this year on our big car! :)

The annual Tate family Christmas party was on the 13th. We always have it at Grandma Tate's ward since the family has grown too big for any house. Morgan was a darling wiseman in the nativity (which includes duplicates or more of every part and still a rather large audience looking on).

Chloe loved her gift from the gift exchange. She carries her little red purse with her everywhere. This proved to be a wonderful thing when I took her with me to the Dr's office and she sat perfectly in the waiting room and office putting on lipgloss, eating the treats she had stocked and playing with her baby.

I love my house at Christmastime. I love my decorations and want to leave them up for as long as possible.

This year, it took me so long to get everything decorated that I may just leave it all up until the middle of January (though the tree had to come down because it was dead and dry)! Our tree started out beautifully decorated - which I didn't take any pictures of - well-lit everywhere with ornaments staggered and lovely. That lasted about 10 minutes. Morgan and Chloe loved decorating so much that they wanted to keep doing it constantly the whole season long. My snowmen ornaments were grouped into families - all the ear-muff-wearing-ones together with a Mom, Dad, kids and even grandparents.

The mittens were all hung in a row.

And Santa and his reindeer became a favorite toy to fly around the living room so he didn't spend much time actually on the tree.

The first couple of days, I put things back in their spaced and aesthetically pleasing locations, but eventually I just gave up and enjoyed the relization that this is life with kids! My kids like to sort and organize and make logical connections (I wonder where they get that from) so why wouldn't they do the same with Christmas ornaments?

A few days after we got the tree up, a strand of lights right in the middle of the tree burned out - so annoying - and I didn't get up the energy to replace it until Christmas Eve. So, this was our tree for most of the season...

I don't have a picture of my Mom's nativity, but every time we have gone over there during the season, Morgan has been immediately drawn to it. After we left her house the first time, my mom found all of the animals inside of the nativity close to the baby Jesus in the manger. The next time we were over, she watched more carefully as Morgan , again, placed each animal inside the stable, close to baby Jesus. She asked him why all the animals were in the stable and he replied that the animals huddle close to baby Jesus to keep him warm. Every time visiting since, we watch on with happy hearts as Morgan rearranges the animals to keep baby Jesus warm in his manger - the real reason for joy this holiday season!