Must Be 18

I just did a ridiculously long post about Christmas, but I wanted to quickly write about something funny Luke said the other day. Out of the blue he asked me if when he was older he would be able to kiss girls. He is the most naive kid and has no clue about most things, so I was surprised. I questioned him a little to find out more, but he immediately clammed up. I told him yes but when he was much older, like 18. He promptly counted to 18 as if that was no big deal. A few days later I was wrapping presents and Luke was out in the garage with Jer. I turned on the TV and watched the end of that movie "You've Got Mail." Luke came back in right at the very end when Meg Ryan sees Tom Hanks and they're walking towards each other in the park. He was watching with interest, so I told him they were going to kiss. He just kept watching and I could see his wheels spinning and then he looked at me and said, "Hmm, must be 18."

Wrapping It Up

Well, Christmas came and went without any blogging on my part. As usual I found myself scrambling at the last minute to get everything ready, but it was fun. I can honestly say I love the chaos of the holidays, and it is fun to have so many chances to see friends and family. I was cursing myself a few days before Christmas though when I found myself standing in a long line at Walmart at 11 pm picking up a few things for Luke's class party...sometimes prior planning is not in my vocabulary. In the last few weeks we've been to family parties for both sides of Jer's family, gone on our annual trip to SLC, and gone to school, church, and neighborhood events. For those who are local, we took our kids for family night to a live nativity at a farm in Nibley, and I thought it was really neat. It was about 2 degrees that night, but they had fires and a hay ride and the kids had a lot of fun. I slacked off the first few events but the last few weeks I've redeemed myself by taking about a million pictures...so here's a rundown of our Christmas season.


After the first few storms, sledding was big at our house. Now we're just waiting to get out of this deep freeze and get some new snow on the ground. Luke and his buddy Max sled down our back hill and off of the retaining wall into the "hole." It's probably not the safest, but they have a blast.


We headed down to Salt Lake with my parents for our annual shopping trip. We really don't do that much shopping, but we always make a trip to REI and this year my mom and I dropped everyone else back off at the hotel to hit the Gateway. (A highlight at REI was when the boys tried out the bikes, which were all chained together, starting a domino effect and taking out a huge line of them. As Jer would say, "that's why we can't have nice things.") We took Trax to Temple Square, and I feared death by trampling. We opted to walk back. Luke loved stomping through the snow. Seth by then was exhausted and fell asleep riding on Jer's shoulders.


I subjected the kids to lots of picture taking trying to get a few for our Christmas card. If you didn't get one I probably didn't have your address, or I'm just a flake.

Luke was in seventh heaven because he got to swim. Jer took the boys the first time and I thought maybe I dodged a bullet, but the second night he insisted I take him. I'll be honest, swimming doesn't have the same appeal it used to. Isn't there a rule somewhere that moms over 30 shouldn't have to get into a swimming suit in the middle of the winter?

Thanks for the fun weekend!

Luke and the other kindergartners did a cute program at school. He and his class were elves.

Luke and his kindergarten teacher. She is awesome. Don't let her grandmotherliness fool you...she's intense. I think she does a great job.

We have poles similar to the one pictured lining our sidewalk and driveway edges. Jer places them there so that once the snow gets really high he can see exactly where the borders are for snow removal. Jer is intense about the driveway and really lets his pickiness shine. He is well known in our neighborhood as a snow nazi, and the thought of anyone driving on our driveway with snow still on it is about enough to send him into fits. Just thought I'd note that.

Christmas Eve at my Aunt Tamra's house. These two were doing some last minute brown nosing when Santa showed up.

Ian has no fear when it comes to Santa.

Seth was an unwilling participant in the nativity this year. He disrobed and refused to put his wise man stuff back on, but I did manage to get this scarf around him last minute. He did like his prop though and spent quite a bit of time blowing into it.

Christmas morning. I tried to booby trap the boys' door with bells, but Luke snuck out like a ninja anyway. He didn't see the presents though. He just headed downstairs where my parents were. When Seth got up Jer and I wrestled him in our bed for about 30 minutes thinking Luke was still asleep (Jer claimed he saw a "lump and a head"). Finally it was time to get up and open gifts. Ian peed through his Christmas jammies, so I was glad I took some pics the night before.

Ian and his retro rocket. My parents stayed over and opened presents with us and then we enjoyed a big breakfast. Everyone was totally spoiled, and it was lots of fun.

We spent Christmas day with Jer's family. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins. I'm sure Tucker and Ian will be good buddies soon. Ian was quite interested in Tucker's hair and spent a lot of time slobbering on it and pulling it. Maybe he wishes he had some of his own.

One last bit of mileage out of those plaid shirts. The boys wore them to church the Sunday before and after Christmas.

I think Ian is telling me "enough pictures already." He did have a sweater vest on but covered it with spit up at church.

We wrapped up the Christmas parties last night with a Pickett get together. Most of the cousins and their kids were there, and it was really fun. Luke was so excited because it was at a gym, and they got to take their basketballs. On the way out the door, he commented that I wasn't wearing "very good shoes for basketball." It's nice when your son is still little and doesn't know yet how incredibly uncoordinated you are at pretty much anything involving a ball. He still thinks I have skills.

With the addition of Ian to our family, 2009 was a really great year for us. I am looking forward to more fun and chaos this next year. I was struggling and worrying a few weeks ago about a few things that were going on with the kids and Jer came home with some advice from an older friend. He said that his biggest regret with his kids was that he didn't "love more." I am really going to try and make that my motto this upcoming year. I think sometimes I need to put my worrying and focus on discipline to the side a bit and just let my kids know how much I love them. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Belated Thanks

I'm burning a little midnight oil here attempting to catch up on all the homework I procrastinated over the holiday, but I wanted to write down a few thoughts of gratitude because I have a lot to be thankful for. So here's a few in no particular order.

• My family. I have been blessed with a great family, including amazing parents, and now I am so blessed to be a parent myself. I certainly wouldn't have imagined myself with three kids five years ago. I know modern medicine and adoption were tools that Heavenly Father used to make me a mom. November was Adoption Awareness Month so between that and Thanksgiving I have been thinking a ton about Seth and his birth parents. Obviously there aren't words that are adequate to thank someone for choosing you to parent the baby they loved and brought into this world, but I am so eternally grateful to Seth's birthparents and their choice to place Seth with us. I can't imagine our lives without him, and I just know he was meant to be a part of our family. I will never forget the raw emotion, heartache, and joy of the day we met with them and brought Seth home. Someday I hope to explain to him just how much he was loved by so many people right from the start. Today I got an email from someone who has no children and has been trying to adopt for three years. That would be so hard. I am so lucky.

Luke and Seth--Thanksgiving 2007

• Jer. He of course fits into the family category, but he deserves a bullet all to himself for being my best friend, the person I most want to spend time with, such a hard worker, and an incredibly supportive husband and dad.
• Where I live. I know I live in the greatest country on Earth, and my little corner of it (Cache Valley) is the best. Thanks to all those who make living in this free country possible.
• The gospel.
• My health.

I could go on and on but that's a good start.

Our Thanksgiving was spent with my family this year at a big dinner at my aunt's house. The food was so good, the kids played great, and it was a fun day. It was such a nice day that Jer and the boys spent the morning going on 4-wheeler and motorcycle rides. (My dad was nice enough to give Jer his old dirt moto, and we also "store" the newer one for him. Jer bought this four-wheeler from his dad a couple of years ago for "plowing purposes.") Luke likes going for a ride but Seth loves it. There's not much he would rather do. Just today we got a big snow and Seth was in seventh heaven riding around with Jer while he plowed the street and flipped some cookies along the way (the snowy day driving kind of cookies).

I got up ridiculously early on Black Friday and went shopping with my mom, aunt, and cousins. The earliness was made even a little crazier when Ian was up all night with an earache, but it was fun anyway. I don't particularly enjoy shopping, mornings, cold, or crowds but on this one occasion it is fun. We divided and conquered and everyone got what they were looking for. You know you started early when you're able to go to every store in town, eat out for breakfast, go home for your baby and back out to the doctor's office, pick up a prescription, and still be home by 11:30 am!

The whole weekend was great and having Jer home for four straight days was awesome. Saturday night we took the kids to Preston for the Festival of Lights. It included fireworks, candy, a light parade, Santa (a scary one in red sweat pants I might add), and a trip to Big J's with cousins so it was a hit.


Notice Luke is only wearing a sweatshirt while everyone else is bundled. He pitched a fit about taking his coat, so I decided to let the consequence teach the lesson. He was quite chilly, so I'm hoping we're done with that argument!