Dear Friends and Family,

Monday morning before the sun was up I was down at the Health Center getting us all tickets for the swine flu vaccine. It seems a little ridiculous to stand in line from 6:30 on just to get a shot! Tuesday morning we all went back down and took turns getting swine flu and regular flu shots. Kids were glad that they were able to get one of them as a mist. Robyn was very confident about her shot after seeing Jeremy take it without a wince. But there was a whole lot of whimpering and crying going on when the reality of the needle hit. We all celebrated by getting doughnuts before dropping off everyone to school. Krispy Kremes is our very unhealthy reward for doing all those healthy things like shots and cavities filled. Sort of defeats the purpose but keeps our kids happy to comply.

Wednesday Allison told me was one of the perfect vacation days. Sleeping in, stocking up on books at the library, eating hot dogs at Costco and then making pies all afternoon. Love when our house smells all good. Spencer made the cheeseball this year and Allison made her favorite pie - chocolate pecan. That night I went to a 2 hour zumba class fundraiser and wasn't around to realize I forgot to reduce the oven temperature for Allison's pie. So at 9 p.m. I was at the store buying more pecans so I could make a replacement pie in secret. [Side note is that between the library and Costco we went to get Spencer's glasses fixed. They used a different part to fix it. You would have thought he had been mortally wounded and was extremely out of control for quite a while about it. Just when I start to get complacent that his bi-polar is under control, something happens to remind me that I have to be pro-active about preventing such break downs. On the plus side is that after 15 minutes of screaming/tears he started working on controlling his breathing and by 30 minutes he was almost back in control.]

Thanksgiving Day we cooked and went for our annual hike while Jeremy and Taylor kept abreast of the football games. The hike was the easiest and best ever as Robyn (and I) for the first time ever made it to the top waterfall. It makes me realize how physically things are getting so much easier with my kids. Don't have to carry a kid everywhere or worry about diaper bags etc. There are huge perks to our kids growing up. As you might notice Robyn did the 2 mile hike in glitter shoes and a skirt - have to dress to impress!


Jason's family came over and we all feasted and played. Ate pie, Jason grabbed a nap - it was a really nice Thanksgiving.


Cousins stayed with us overnight and Jeremy, Jason and Kelly went up for a photowalk later that evening up in Salt Lake City. Kids had a great time playing with cousins all Friday and then we met up with their parents to go ice skating. Robyn had a little walker to push around the ice and Allison just took off after all her roller skating practice. Spencer had more the kamikaze approach and has the bruises to prove it. After they all enjoyed Red Robin hamburgers and Taylor chirped all the way home over the fries and dip.


Saturday I hosted a baby shower with my friend Allison for my friend Kate. Our girls loved to help make all the food and wanted to be in the thick of opening the door and helping with presents. It was a lot of fun to visit with a lot of my old friends and hear about our old ward and neighbors.


Saturday night Jeremy went over for one last visit to his mom's condo. Tomorrow the contractor comes and anything that is left is being gotten rid of. So our garage is a bit full of things to go through at the moment! Can't believe that this is it. And Jeremy nicely did all that by himself as I went off with a friend to see New Moon with her. We laughed a lot at it and just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Today we broke out the Christmas boxes before church. Our kids no longer are content to wait for me to do all the work - they are in the midst of everything. To add to the pleasure - Spencer trying to sing The First Noel like Bing Cosby ("cause that's how real men sound, Mom!") which was cute the first time but after an hour was like fingernails on a chalkboard, Allison wanting to do everything right now because she just can't wait, literally trying to insert her body into your and Robyn certain that everyone else's job was better than hers and turning her angelic charm on periodically to keep me from kicking her our. So our tree is a little lop sided but it is up and kids were thrilled.

Robyn is showing off her lollipop found on the lollipop tree from LAST year. She still thought it was delicious!

I now know why family traditions are kept up. This week really made me realize how much our kids count on doing things the same way every year. They are the ones informing me about our hike and how there needs to be a cheeseball for Thanksgiving. Or that we need to watch a Christmas movie after pie Thanksgiving day. Or that we need to put the Christmas stories by the fireplace so we can read them every night. Or asking when they get to put their new ornament up for the year. You get the picture. I am amazed at how much they remember and what they put importance on. Its rather heart warming.

Love to you all,

Heather

P.S. Read a GREAT book this week. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Am recommending it to everyone I know.


My friend Kate gave our family these cool placemats for a Christmas present. My kids love them. Robyn explains how it works.