"Sigh" and "Phew" the Holidays have come and gone

I have pretty much updated everyone on the latest and greatest of the past two months, but for the sake of blogging I'll re-hash a little.

Thanksgiving was spent with Mary, Luke, little Max and Liz.  We had way too much fun together.  Mikelle got more attention than she could ever pray for.  She adores her cousin Max and even Chance got a kick out of him.  The entire week revolved around when our kids were sleeping, but when does life not revolve around that. 



Helping Uncle Luke finish Max's bottle





We pulled off a pretty good Thanksgiving dinner.  There were five pies which we had no hope of finishing and we managed to forget to make any stuffing.  Nonetheless I still managed to put on three pounds, which I promptly lost by eating nothing but cereal and vitamins for a few days.



I am not wearing make-up...



Mary and Liz exercised their collective creative genious (which I am entirely lacking) and decorating my house and my Christmas tree.  It was all beautiful and I got lots of compliments. 

mason jars with ribbons and lights

Gingerbread house from a kit

My birthday/Christmas gift from Mary,
 the other side says Kerns

 

Christmas shopping wasn't too hard this year.  Danny isn't difficult to shop for and Mikelle is way to easy to shop for.  Thanks to Danny hitting a dear and the resulting insurance payout, we had a little extra cash for a decent, but not excessive, Christmas. 

Mikelle spent most of December redecorating the Christmas tree, removing any bells within her reach and putting many ornaments all on the same limb.  It was beautiful once I got over it. 

We overgifted Mikelle on Christmas.  She would have been content with her stocking contents which were all purchased from the Dollar Store.  We had to open most of her gifts for her.  She got some puzzles and some Disney Princess slippers. Her favorites were some mardi gras beads and a fireman hat, again both from the Dollar store. 



Her new table and chairs



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She insisted that she had to take off her PJ's to where her slippers



 Danny got more work clothes like always, and some Patrick F. McManis books that he finished in two days.  We are both enjoying the chess set we got and try to play evey chance we have when our grabby kids are sleeping.  I got a set of Pampered Chef pots and pans.  I love my husband for parting with the dough for these.

We drove to Rexburg for New Year's with Mary and Luke.  Liz and Jess drove up from Utah as well.  We had a great time doing pretty much nothing...ideal!! Chance has caught up to max a little more and they enjoyed staring at each other. 

Mikelle is all about full sentences now and is still rebeling against potty training.  Sigh.  We'll get there I am sure.  Chance grabs anything within reach, and he manages to make a lot of things within reach.  He uses his rolling as a mode of transportation and can get himself from one side of the livingroom to the other in no time. 



Danny reading a gun catalogue with Chance
showing him the gun he will buy him some day



Chance loves Mikelle and smiles and laughs at her more than Danny and I both.  Now that he is a little less fragile they play together much more and both have a great time.  Mikelle is very good at sharing, almost too good.  She gags Chance alot with her plastic food she got for Christmas. 

 

Now its January and things are getting back to normal.  The decorations are all down and I am trying to get organized.  I just finished filling a 3rd tote with the clothes Mikelle has grown out of and already have one half full from Chance.  Unbelievable. Next project is a closet of Danny's full of things he never uses but insists he needs for that one random day ten years down the road.  I love my life.  Really, I do.

Chance's Many Faces

Chance is laughing, smiling, cooing and interacting in all kinds of fun ways.  He even smiles and laughes at his crazy sister.  

He is beginning to gain some control over his hands and is reaching for things that catch his attention

Despite the fact that Mikelle has been a little rough he still loves to be hugged and kissed by her.  She can always make him stop crying when I can't get to him

He is rolling all over the place now and really enjoys being on his tummy...when he is awake.

 

 He holds his head up like a pro and can even reach for things when he is on his stomach.

I didn't think Mikelle developed this fast, so I checked my journal.  She was rolling over at three months also.

 

He is the sweetest little boy and we all adore him.

Holloween and Harvest Fun

This month has been very eventful for our little family.  It started out with the buck hunt for Danny.  He spent all day the first saturday and almost every evening the following week hunting.  He finally ended up shooting a buck in his cousin Timmy's alfalfa field.  It was a decent sized buck, not a "big spread" in Danny's words, but a real fat one.  It hung in our garage, wrapped in a sheet for a week and then we spent a saturday afternoon cutting it up.  Most of it was made into jerky and the rest we cubed and canned.  We had some really good barbeque sandwiches last night, made of venison.  All new for me, but I am keeping an open mind. 

This past Wednesday Danny went Elk hunting with Adam and Aaron and shot a spike elk first thing in the morning.  We took that one to the butcher.  That may sound easy but I had to back a pick-up into a very confined space and lower the 200+ lb elk into the back from its hanging position in a barn.  It may not sound too hard but I was pretty terrified that I wouldn't get in it the bed of the pick up and it would fall out and I would be stuck trying to lift the thing back up. The head if which is sitting out in the garage.  What a life huh? 



sorry if this is little much for the faint of...stomach

Although I didn't get much canning done this year, I managed to put away some peaches, raspberry jam, grape juice, apple pie filling, deer meat, and hopefully some tomatoes.  Not too bad either way.

Despite the fact that it was a hard year for gardens we enjoyed some really yummy stuff.  Mikelle had her first go at corn on the cob and did a great job.  We had some blueberry crepes which also left their mark on her face.  She is such a good little eater.  











she is about to say "smile"



Mikelle helped me carve a pumpkin this week.  She just played in the goopey pumpkin insides the whole time but she enjoyed watching it light. 

 She is fascinated with fire.  I have learned that the hard way while also learning that I now need to "mikelle proof" my kitchen.  She found a small box of matches while I was in another part of the house.  Then she ran to me crying and I found a nicely burned match and a pretty scortch mark on the living room carpet. She was fine, just scared. Close call that we will not be repeating.  That girl is too smart for her own good. 

I took Mikelle and Chance trick-o-treating on Main Street last night.  There were throngs of people and I made the mistake of thinking I could just hold Chance the whole time and push the stroller just in case Mikelle got tired.  She was the laziest little trick-o-treater ever!  Just kidding, she was really intimidated by all the people and didn't feel comfortable getting out of the stroller.  So I had to push her to every door to get her candy while balancing my little bobble head Chance.  I think they both had a good time.  Mikelle got plenty of candy for a two-year-old and Chance was held for an hour straight (second child doesn't get that often).  My back hurts now but I am really glad we went.  I had a lot of fun dressing them up and I got a lot of comments on my chubby pumpkin.   

I was walking around doing some last minute straightening before bed a few nights ago and Chance fell asleep on my should for the first time.  He's not a big cuddler.  I had Danny take a picture.  Sorry the pictures are so blurry my phone needs a lot of light or it doesn't turn out very clear. 

It's a fun time of year.  We got snow on the mountains and flurries in the valley.  Thanksgiving is coming and I love decorating this time of year.  I made a dollar store run and put together a wreath for the door.  From a few steps back it doesn't look like it cost me four dollars.  I love the colors!

Family Update

Not too much has changed since I last posted.  Chance is really growing quickly.  I don't take as many pictures as I would like but have a few.

I'm not sure what the sneer is for.


Mikelle is slowly but surely adjusting to the changes, and I am slowly but surely adjusting to her.  She loves her little brother.  She has had a tough time learning how to play with him and love him without hurting him but she is getting better.  She loves to have him lay next to her.  Sometimes they lay in her crib together or on our bed together. 

Mikelle is pretending to sleep.

Her favorite thing is to have him lay on the recliner with her while she watches a movie.  She asks "Chance lay with you". 

watching Ratatoulle

She ocasionally steals his pacifier

The miracle is that she likes to share her blankie with him...rare.

She is starting to distinguish between "you" and "me".  She likes to tell me that she needs things.  She'll get a spoon and say "I need this".  She just likes to practice phrases that she hears me say.  She is now able to get in and out of the bath by herself.  Last night while I was rushing to get ready for mutual she decided that she needed her blankie in the bath.  I was on the phone when she got out and was dragging her blankie behind her asking me to pick her up.  It was Danny who finally noticed that it was sopping wet.  Although it didn't seem to bother Mikelle we had to wring it out and throw it in the dryer.  She is a lot of "fun" these days. 


   Winter is coming quicker than I would like.  The nights are frigid but we still have a few warm days left.  My tomatoes were partially frosted and so far only one tomatoe has ripened. 

 I planted lots of flowers this spring but only the sun flowers survived, and only one opened before it too frosted. 

A mysterious squash plant came up next to my sunflowers and a lone little squash grew before that plant also frosted. 

Least I had something to show for my gardening efforts this year.  Next year will be better I hope.