The Beard

Well, I mentioned it briefly in my post about our Halloween costumes, but this atrociousness deserves it's own blog post.

It was sometime mid-October that John came home one day and told me, "I have a birthday present for you..." Now, John is notorious for not being able to keep surprises from me, so I just laughed and said, "you just can't help telling me that you have a surprise for me huh!" He didn't laugh. He just said, "Weeellllllll, I figured you may want to know about it." Huh? Then he proceeded to tell me that my PRESENT would be that he would be shaving his beard. He quickly said it was just going to be a one-time thing... he's always wanted to do it... yadda yadda. Yuck. I was NOT very happy about it and kept complaining about what a horrible birthday present that was. He was very quick to point out that actually, because I hate the beard so much, the fact that he would be shaving it would be a very desirable thing! gggrrrrrr.... okay. You're right. But the three months leading up to it were going to be nasty. I even tried to pull my own version of nasty on him by saying I wouldn't shave my legs for as long as he didn't shave his beard. Well, he became so adept at ignoring my legs that he didn't even notice when I shaved them because their manliness was bothering me more than him. *sigh* It wasn't as easy for me to ignore his FACE. (If you can't tell, I am REALLY not a fan of beards!!)

So with no further ado, here is THE BEARD:

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER






He especially enjoyed poofing it out for an extra level of nastiness...








DECEMBER
I was planning on getting nice family pictures done like the weekend after he told me he was going to start growing this beard out. I was SO frustrated about that because I did NOT want family pictures with his scruffy beard and I REALLY wanted to do some pretty autumn-time pictures. Towards the end he begged me to at least do ONE family picture and I agreed to a friend snapping one for us.


My brother took this one of us together and I will grudgingly admit that it is one of my favorite picture of us together, in spite of that stupid beard.


Interestingly, seeing John with a beard, his mom thought he looked just like her own father.




And then... finally! The thing comes off! He took a couple goofy ones as he was shaving it that are pretty hilarious.






*on a side note... a beard does make for a mightily funny wide-mouthed frog... (the sound is off from the picture in this video, don't know why... but it is still really funny.)

Three Years Old

We went up to Enterprise for Thanksgiving and in the afternoon went out to pick out our Christmas tree.

Look at this little doodlebug. He still just melts my heart!

The next day Joseph got to celebrate his THIRD birthday!! It's so awesome to watch him growing and learning so much. He is one smart little kiddo. I'm pretty confident that he'll be reading before his next birthday. At three years old, he loves playing on the computer at starfall.com, pbskids.org, and sesamestreet.org, as well as playing angry birds on his daddy's new smart phone. His favorite movie is Toy Story and his favorite TV shows are still Ni Hao Kai Lan and Blue's Clues. He's still a picky eater and basically refuses to try new foods. He likes music, singing, reading and playing games. He finally determined to start learning to dress himself and can put on his own pants and underwear all the time. He puts on his own shirts about half the time. The happiest news at this time is that he is potty trained!

For his birthday we sneaked away with his cousin Josh and took them bowling. It was his first time and he really loved it, until about the 7th frame when he accidentally stepped over the line and set off the buzzer. He was done after that.

(sadly, this was the last picture my camera took before it DIED. No, not just the battery, like died died. It's dead.)

Then we took them to the park and they spent the entire time there (like about an hour) swinging. He simply loves swinging. Then we walked around the temple, listened to the choir practicing for the lighting ceremony, climbed the steps, and looked at the nativity.

His grandma made him a cake while we were gone and so he got to open his presents and then blow out his candles when we got home. He was so cute with his gifts because after he had opened them all then he went back to each of them one at a time to play with them.

I had asked my friend to help me get a good picture of him for his three year old picture because he's near to impossible to get a good one of by myself. So she came over with her camera and we set up our own little backdrop. All I wanted was ONE good one... and it took us like 63 shots to get this. But oh how I do love it so much!

I am so honored and blessed to be mommy to this beautiful little boy. I love him so much!

Unlucky

Well, November brought a handful of unexpected and not really welcome surprises for us. First, John got an ulcer in his eye and since we are in between insurances we had to pay for all the care for it out of pocket, including the super expensive drops (like $90) he had to get to clear it up. He seems to get an ulcer about once a year unfortunately.

Next was a mysterious incident with Joseph. He was playing on the floor one night, I was reading, John was on the computer, when suddenly we realized that Joseph was crying so hard he couldn't breathe. He was laying on the floor and holding his wrist, apparently in extreme pain. We tried to determine what had happened but had no clue. Our best guess was that somehow he leaned on it funny and BROKE it... we were certain it had to be broken for how he was acting! He wouldn't let us move it at all and was in a lot of pain. We researched what we could on the internet about what to do and decided to make a homemade splint for the night and called the doctor to make an appointment for him first thing in the morning. (It happened after nine at night, so we didn't want to take him into the instacare since, again, this was all coming out of our pocket.) He was one sad little guy that night.

He finally was able to sleep and in the morning was still completely unwilling to move his arm or wrist. We kept our appointment and the doctor sent us to get some x-rays taken. After examining the x-rays he was sure there wasn't a break, (that was good news) but knew that something was the matter because the pain Joseph was in wasn't matching up with the x-ray pictures. He ended up adjusting his arm for nursemaid's elbow, and we waited to see if it made a difference. After a while, Joseph did start moving his wrist a little, which was more than he had done since the night before, so that was a good sign. They sent him home with a little sling to keep his arm in and by the end of the night, he was completely back to his normal self. Strange little experience there... and an expensive one too!

And the straw that definitely broke us was that I got a speeding ticket, my first EVER, on the way home from school one day. UGH! I was so frustrated about it! Of course, no one is happy about a ticket... but get this. I always use my cruise control while traveling and set it just a few miles over the speed limit. No cop would pull me over for the three miles over the speed limit I'm usually going. Well, I was having a "conversation" with Joseph and briefly considered pulling over to the side of the road, and as I was briefly considering that, I put my foot on the brake, breaking my cruise. I changed lanes, but then decided that it probably wasn't the best place to pull over and that I'd wait until the next exit. The next TWO MINUTES (that's it) found me deeply engaged in "conversation" with my three year old when suddenly I remembered that I had my foot on the gas and I'd better check my speed. I looked down to see I was going 13 over and immediately hit on the brake to reset my cruise, but it just so happened to be at the EXACT moment that I passed a cop who was just waiting to pull over a speeder. Oh how frustrating it was!!! He, of course, assumed I was braking because I had noticed him, which made him all the more determined to write me up a ticket, I'm sure. *sigh* That was a "first" experience that I would rather not have had.

And my lovely ticket definitely ensured that our plans to head up north for Thanksgiving were, sadly, completely out of the window. :(

Kaili

Kaili at 6 months old

She started sitting unsupported at around 6 1/2 months old. And her hair is also lightening up considerably from when she was born.

Kaili is a very happy little girl with a very easygoing nature. She reminds me a lot of how Joseph was at her age. She doesn't seem to laugh a ton, but she smiles lots, makes happy noises a lot and really doesn't cry very often. When she does cry, you know it's because she's over tired, or she just finished a bottle and thinks she wants more.



Kaili at 7 months old





We started noticing that she loves to curl her tongue, stick it out, and sometimes even suck on her upper lip.

Halloween

My friend hosted a fun Halloween party for our friends, but costumes were required. I didn't know what we should dress up as. John isn't really into the whole costume thing at all. But since he had recently informed me that he was going to be growing a beard (and wouldn't be shaving it until my birthday three months later!) I thought of the perfect costume to incorporate his scruffiness. We went as hillbillies! John's blacked out teeth were definitely my favorite!

Our other friends were dressed up as nerds,

the Pacman game,

a bowler and catwoman,

gangsters,

and Facebook and a blind referee. (I'm not quite sure why I didn't get a picture of that couple!) I have to say I really am so grateful to have made so many good friends in this area! We've lived here for three years now, the longest we've lived anywhere since being married, and have made a lot of really great friends. And speaking of great friends, I have to insert this picture of some of my girlfriends. We try to have a girls night every month and it is so much fun to have such great people to hang out with. Can I say that enough!? sheesh!!

Okay, so back to Halloween.

When I was a kid, my mom always made our Halloween costumes and I just loved it! I've kind of had it in the back of my head as something I'd like to do with my kids too... however. There was just one teensy weensy problem. I had NO idea how to use a sewing machine. It's been something I've wanted to learn for a while. I even bought one of my own off craigslist a couple years ago. So this October I suddenly was determined to learn how to use my sewing machine and sew Joseph's costume. He loves the show Ni Hao Kai Lan, so I thought it would be pretty easy to find a monkey pattern that I could make into Hoho from the show.

So that was my project for the month, and it was not only really enjoyable to learn a new skill, but I was also really pleased with how my final costume turned out! But I guess his costume was a little confusing to some because they aren't well versed in Ni Hao Kai Lan and seeing a WHITE monkey. Someone asked if he was a cow, a dog, and my favorite, a teletubby! I replied with some indignation, "He's a monkey!"

I made some peanut butter rice krispie treats (for the first time in our marriage of 7 years!)

before we took the kids out trick or treating. There was one house on the street we went to that had enclosed it's porch with streamers and had a stuffed person sitting by the door holding the bowl of candy. A strobe light was going on the porch and it made for a very eerie feeling. When I saw that house I thought there was no way Joseph would go near it! So when we came close to it, I asked in jest if he wanted to go in there, and to my shock, he said YES!! So we carefully went up together and he got his own candy out of the bowl and we rushed out. He said it was scary, but had a big grin on his face. It really surprised us that he did it, and he even wanted to do it again! It was an enjoyable night. I'm just glad Joseph actually decided to wear his costume! And he still, every now and then, talks about how much fun he had dressing up and going trick or treating.