Today's news

Natalie's Check-up

Natalie had her one year check up today and got a clean bill of health. She is 18 pounds 3 ounces and 29 inches tall. That puts her at 5th percentile for weight and 25th for height. She is a little bean like all the other little beans. She also started walking a bit over the last few days. First just a step or two and now up to four or five at a time. She still prefers ground transportation, so you'll mostly find her crawling.

Natalie is also learning to express her opinions. Her siblings find this somewhat disconcerting since they are used to a sweet, babyish personality, not the storms that come with the toddler years. Yesterday I showed Camille a sippy cup I'd bought for Natalie. I commented that it was perfect for her because it said "Sugar and spice and everything nice." Camille dryly responded "Yeah, that's because they didn't have one that said 'Booger Snot.'"

Believe it or not, today is sunny and nice. Not above freezing, so our snow isn't going anywhere, but at least the weather isn't compounding the problem with more snowfall. The kids took pity on the Mazda and crawled on top to start cleaning off the snow.

The little curve you see is the very top of the windows,
so you can imagine how much snow is on the roof of the car.

Elise is 'Queen of the Hill."

Today's view of the snow and some of the cleared roof.

'It Doesn't Show Signs of Stopping . . ."

While we were out of town for Christmas, it continued to snow in Spokane. The roads were great on our way home Sunday morning until we got into our neighborhood. That was the scariest part of the whole trip. We couldn't tell from moment to moment whether we were stuck or if we were just moving really slowly. The traction control light was on constantly. When we did get home, there was ten inches of snow on the driveway, which was blocked by a two-and-a-half foot wall of snow from the snowplow. So, we had to dig out before we could even pull the van into the driveway or get to the door. This is what our poor little Mazda looked like when we got home. That is all naturally fallen snow. None of it is built up from plowing or shoveling.

As if that weren't enough, we got eight inches
of new snow today. Brett says I have to stop taking
pictures, because every time I do it snows some more.

Camille standing in front of our Mazda halfway through today's snow.

Sixty inches of snow in 13 days, with more to come on Wednesday.

This is the sidewalk up to our front door.
All these deep piles got even deeper, because . . .

Brett shoveled some of the snow off the roof
to help take the weight of the weaker areas.

One more storm and our mailbox will disappear.

At least someone was happy about all the snow.

It might be a pain, but at least it is beautiful!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Look who's One!

We thought we'd post a few pictures from Natalie's birthday for those who are interested. It was a fun day. More than any of our other kids on their first birthdays, she really seemed to get what it was all about. She was visibly excited about everything and seemed to understand that this was her day.

Look at my presents!

She loved the books Grandma Borders sent.

When you get a cool new toy everyone else feels the need to jump in and mess things up. You can be patient with this for a while, but in time . . .

. . . It just gets old!

Oooh! Caaakke!


Ummm.

It's that frosting hobo look.


Peek-a-Boo!

I wasn't done yet, Dad. Gimme my cake back!


We ended up with a chocolate bathtub ring.

Has it really been a year?

It is tough to believe that it has been a whole year since Natalie was born.

I was sitting in the office a few weeks ago and started playing Christmas music. Suddenly the feelings and emotions of that time last year rushed back as if I was experiencing it all over again. It was a tough time for us. Five weeks on the darned guest bed. No sleep, plenty of pain and all the side effects of the medicine. And I remembered how the Christmas music soothed me and how Heavenly Father was aware of my needs and my family's needs even before I was. I remembered all the people who helped and comforted us. We were overwhelmed by the tender mercies of the Lord.

We are so grateful for Natalie. As hard as that time was, she was so infinitely worth all of it and then some. She is truly a joy.

Holy Snow Day, Batman!

It snowed all day yesterday and we thought we'd come close to Spokane's all time record of 13 inches of snow in 24 hours. Instead, we woke up this morning to find that we'd shattered the record with 17 inches in 24 hours. Last time I checked there was 21 inches of snow on the deck and it is still going. I'm guessing we'll end up with over two feet of snow in around 36 hours. All the pictures I've include are from 7am. Just in case you can't tell, Camille is standing by our Mazda.


All the schools are closed. The city buses aren't running. All church activities were canceled. City Hall is shut down as well as doctor's offices, all non emergency services at the hospitals, etc. And this isn't Portland . . . we're used to the snow. We just don't have the ability to take care of this much of it at once.


Brett did go in to work at 8:30 am. As he plowed the truck into the snow on our street, I crossed my fingers and hoped he wouldn't get stuck somewhere. It was tough going for the first couple of miles, which hadn't been plowed. Brett said it was like a luge with snow walled up on each side of the narrow lane and that only high-clearance 4X4s had even a chance of getting through. But, the last four miles cleared up a bit. He'll be coming home before lunch because 4WD doesn't help if the snow is higher than your tires and you end up high-centered.


In the meantime, the kids are in heaven. Before I'd even finished cooking breakfast, Max had his snowsuit on and was out in the middle of our front yard wilderness. I don't expect we'll see him again other than mealtimes until bedtime. They've already dug tunnels in it and are making snow caves and forts. It is a light, dry snow fortunately, so they can play forever without getting wet or too cold.


We're planning on staying home and having lots of fun today. Our goal is simply to not lose Cameron in a snowdrift. We might need to tie a rope around his waist! We'll work on the Christmas presents the kids are making for each other, make cookies and hot chocolate, play games and read books. And Brett will get to be with us for all of it.


I hope this is one of the best, funnest days of my kids lives. One they'll remember forever.

Elise's Busy Day

Elise had a very busy 24 hours! She had her first full dance recital at 5pm on Thursday. Then her Kindergarten program at 6pm the same night.


The next day, Friday, was her sixth birthday. She was very excited to cut out, bake and decorate Christmas tree sugar cookies. She had a friend over to play for the afternoon. Then, of course, presents and cake and ice cream. I'm a terrible cake decorator, so it amused me that my children thought I was absolutely brilliant for making pine trees out of sugar cones!


We sure love Elise and couldn't do without her!

Words I Never Thought I'd Hear

This is a conversation I heard this morning while Max and Elise were in the kitchen getting ready for school.

Elise: (Obviously unhappy) EWWW! Mommy, Max kissed me!

Max: (Cheerfully) That's because I love you.

Elise: That's disgusting.

No, I wasn't dreaming or delusional. It really happened. If I weren't so hopeful, I'd worry that Max was delirious.

Weekend Events

Columbia River Classic

Saturday Brett ran in the Columbia River Classic in Richland, WA. Our niece, Krysten Stoker, ran the 2 mile race and did a great job. Brett did the ten mile run with his sister Melissa, our family’s crazy but beloved endurance athlete, and her running buddy, Stacia. I cheered them on at the start, then met them at the turnaround to cheer some more and take their cast-off shirts and jackets. This is the longest distance Brett has run. He finished in 1:28:42, 14 seconds behind Melissa. Way to go, Brett!

Watching all these runners during the race was really fascinating. You wouldn’t believe how many of the top half finishers were 50+ years old. Every runner had their own distinctive form. Some looked painfully awkward even though they were among the front runners. Some looked like perfect athletes. All found joy in conquering their limbs and their minds, in subduing the pain of muscle and breath and enduring to the finish line.

Aren’t our bodies miraculous? Amazing.

The Climbing Buddies

While we were at the race, Elise and her cousin Xander decided to do a little mountain climbing at home. Elise dangled a long bungee cord through the stair rails and down the side of the stairs while Xander grabbed on and tried to climb up the stair wall. Predictably, Elise couldn't hold Xander's weight and the bungee cord rebounded onto Xander's poor head. After Xander's two battle scars had been glued shut at the emergency room, Xander told his Mom "That was fun. Can we do it again?" Luckily, these two good buddies are just as close as ever. Xander was very forgiving.



Landen's Baby Blessing

Sunday afternoon, we had the honor of being present as our nephew Landen received his baby blessing. He is such a sweet, good tempered baby. In his blessing he was promised that he would be 'a force for good in the world.' What a wonderful promise.


Here are Ryan, Ronica, Xander and Landen after the blessing.




Natalie vs. the Wood Stove

Later that night, Natalie had a close encounter with Grandma and Grandpa's wood stove and lost. I discovered that I'm no good with burns. I'm an old pro at blood, surgery, staples, trauma of whatever sort. Burns . . . not so much. Initially, it didn't look too bad. In fact, it took us a few minutes to even find where she'd touched the stove. By the time we got home, however, the whole heel of her hand was covered with a blister. The doctor says she will likely heal without scaring. For the next week she'll be running around with her hand and arm bandaged to help keep things clean.


And a Happy Birthday to Brett today, November 11th! He took a half day off since the kids were out of school today. He got to go for a run in the daylight, take his family to a matinée, then came home and grilled steak and opened presents. It was a good day for him and for us.

Have a great day,
Kim

Boo to you, too!

What do a pink fairy, a very large baby, a fearsome Jedi, a highly animated skeleton and a baby bumblebee have in common? Other than the fact that they all live at my house, absolutely nothing. We had some firsts this Halloween.


Elise had her first dance recital. Five little girls all tapping to 'Monster Mash.' The little girl in yellow had a complete meltdown and sobbed through the whole thing. The little orange witch stood in one place with her finger in her mouth. Elise did great, but I've had my share of times where my child didn't perform as expected, so I had lots of sympathy for parents and kids.


Camille is now of an age where she wanted to trick o' treat with her friends rather than go to the trunk o' treat at the church. So, we split the crew up. Brett took Max, Elise and Natalie to the church and Cameron and I chaperoned some young ladies around suburban Spokane Valley. Camille discovered that traditional trick o' treating is a lot more work than walking from car to car in the parking lot! But, she had fun. Although I missed the family being together for Halloween, it was worth it to help her further cement strong friendships with other good kids. The older my kids get, the more I recognize how vital this is.


Cameron, by the way, was amazing. You'd have thought he was a pro, walking up the driveways to the doors by himself, announcing 'Trick Or Treat' and remembering 'Thank You' each time. Rather than being scared of the dark, the costumes or decorations, he seemed delighted by them. Once when he looked up and saw a giant spider suspended above someone's porch, he simply grinned and yelled "YIKES!"



Brett reported that Natalie, Max and Elise had a good time as well. I hear Max spent a lot of his time light saber dueling with our ward's other Jedis.


Thanks for the great skirt, Grandma Borders! Elise wears it around the house pretty much 24/7 except when she has to go to school. She shoves the wand in the waistband like a holster. You never know when you might need some quick-draw fairy magic.


Happy November, everyone. We begin the downhill rush through the holidays.

Love,
Brett, Kim and family

Terror of the Tupperware Drawer

Yep, we've officially reached menace status. My containers are no longer safe in their neatly nested homes. Check out the grin. She is obviously tickled pink about her new ability.

Welcome to our Blog!

Hi everyone and welcome to our experiment. I'm starting this blog on my own, so we'll see how it turns out! Feel free to share any tips on how to make things more user friendly or interesting in the comments. This is definitely uncharted territory for both of us.

Here's how we're all doing:

Brett is a happy man!

He has replacement transportation after the recent demise of our 13 year-old Protege.


He went goose hunting on a weekday! I tease him that he's working on his inner redneck.





Martha Who?
I'm on a beautify my home kick. It is a rare and fleeting mood (like maybe once a year), so I try to take advantage of it while it lasts. Here are a couple of my projects.

• We are putting the finishing touches on our master bathroom, thanks to Mom's help with the curtains. Thanks again for the great tile job, Ken! Still not done with the decorating and some of the finish work, but here's where we are so far.
  

• I actually did some craft-like projects at Super Saturday that may yet appear on my wall.

• I'd been looking for used dressers for a long time to replace the too small, broken down ones that were in Cam and Natalie's closet. While dropping off some clothes to donate at Goodwill, I noticed a guy unloading a big chest of drawers from the back of his van. When I went to ask the Goodwill attendant if I could get a price on the dresser, the man said "Can I just give it to her instead of donating it?" What a deal. It looks brand new, is really cute in the kids' bedroom, frees up tons of closet space and is big enough to hold both Natalie and Cameron's clothes.

Back to School!

Camille loves middle school. (Is it possible to love middle school? I guess so.) Once she figured out how to open the lock on her locker, everything was good. She is babysitting some for us now, which is a wonderful stage of life to be in. :>)

Max is in 4th Grade. He's doing well out of his casts. It was a little scary at first as he struggled to learn to use his new feet, but we continue to see lots of improvement. His feet are narrower now and his legs are straighter as he runs. He's very happy to be relieved of PE restrictions.

Elise feels very mature now that she's in Kindergarten and is reading. She loves to do the dishes. (That was not a typo.) She loves to watch the Star Wars movies. Her favorite character is Jabba the Hut---go figure.


The Cam-man Can

Cameron has made so much progress in the last months. Yesterday he walked quietly beside my shopping cart as I wandered through LinensNThings looking for towels. He stayed right by me, didn't touch anything and waited patiently while I finished my shopping. Wow! I was so proud of him and gave him lots of praise. He has started speech therapy to help with articulation and some language acquisition. Much to our surprise, we have discovered that he has somehow learned more than half his alphabet and even knows some of the accompanying sounds. This photo is of Cam engaged in a rare activity. Some things don't change!


'Cindy-Lou Who, Who was No More than Two'

Natalie is the sunshine in the household. She loves big people food and drink and can get REALLY loud and demanding if we don't share. She has three teeth on top, two on the bottom and is in the process of breaking through three more. She is also standing and cruising along the window seat, so I would imagine that our peaceful existence will be coming to a close soon!


Thanks for taking a look. We sure love you all. Feel free to post a comment and let us know what you think.

Love,
Kim, Brett and Kids