Christmas in the Northwest

Our first Christmas in Washington was a little different from the last few that we've had in Utah. We tried to keep it simple. On Christmas Eve we went to my aunt and uncle's house for a small, low-key party. Before leaving for home, the kids opened their Christmas pajamas from Grandma Yukish.

Atticus was festive in his Santa hat.

He was a pro at unwrapping presents.

Netty was a tired crab, but she stopped throwing a fit just long enough to unwrap her jammies.

Stephie also got new pajamas. This was the first year in a long time that Steph and I don't have a Christmas pajama picture together, but at least we got one with her and the kids.

Santa Claus brought goodies for the five of us, including Grandma Yukish. We took a picture of the loot before getting the kids up.

Visions of sugar plums...

...danced in their heads.

We thought Netty would be crabby after having a restless night, but she was actually quite happy.

Santa brought lots of candy!

And Netty didn't waste any time eating it!

Atticus didn't get candy, but he did get some baby food! He was just as excited!

Santa unintentionally wrapped the presents in paper that matched Atticus' jammies!

Atticus and Hyrum got matching outfits. My cousins confused the two all afternoon.

Pretty sure these two will be trouble-makers someday.

Meeting Santa in Person

For those who don't know, my parents are Santa and Mrs. Claus. They have a business called Simply Santa & Mrs. Claus, and over the holiday season they attend Christmas parties, assemblies, and the like. Over the last month or so, we have had the opportunity to FaceTime with Santa a few times, and Netty learned to say "ho ho ho." Finally, on the Sunday before Christmas, after a full day of church and dinner at my aunt and uncle's house, Netty and Atticus were able to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus in person. Netty was not so keen on the idea, whether it was because she was tired or a little overwhelmed by the bright red suit and white fur.

Daddy and Atticus in their matching ties

HoneyGram holding Netty and Netty holding Atticus -- Maybe not the most reverent of Sacrament Meetings...

Netty catching a nap at dinner before going to Grammy's house to meet the Man with the Bag

"Hey, Netty, where's my candy cane?"

"Don't worry, Atticus, Santa will hook you up."

Atticus took to Santa pretty much right away.

Two of my three most favorite men in the world

"Is Santa nice?"

"Yes, he is."

Claus Sandwich

Snow Day

Snow days in Washington are even more rare than sunny days (if you can believe that anything is more rare in Washington than a sunny day). We are lucky to have one day a year of snow. Less than a week before Christmas we had one of those rare days. Many schools in the area were two hours late.

I bundled her up in several layers.

We built a baby snowman

She loved seeing her footprints. Here's our footprints side by side.

 Her "Randy Moment" - Walking through the snow was not easy, probably from the combination of the 3T snow pants that I rolled under, the boots that are a size too big, the scarf the stuck out too far for her to see the ground where she was walking, and all of the added weight of the layers that threw off her balance.

Her favorite thing outside, even with the snow, is the swing.

Christmas Card

All Moved, Not Settled

We've moved to Washington! After a whirlwind weekend of packing and cleaning (and an insane amount of help from my parents and a few lovely ladies from the Rexburg 2nd Ward), we moved out of our apartment in Rexburg, had a week-long lay-over in Utah, and then moved in with my grandma in Washington. We've already been here two and a half weeks, but I haven't had much time for blogging. We still have more settling to do before we can relax. Stay tuned in the next few days for more updates including pictures!

Blessing Day

I know I'm late in getting these pictures up. Let's just say I've had a full plate and hadn't gotten around to it.

Atticus was blessed the Sunday before Labor Day, along with two other babies in our ward. We took plenty of pictures of the kids, though we didn't realize until after the fact that we didn't get any pictures of our family on that day. I'm a little sad about that. Here are some of the best pictures:

Atticus was a gem for the pictures in what we named his "Joseph Smith suit." He was much happier than Netty was for her blessing day photo shoot.

This was the first time Netty would really hold Atticus for any length of time. That picture of the two of them on the birth announcement.... Yeah, it was photoshopped.

Do they look like siblings or what?

After taking some pictures of the two kids, we took Netty down from the chair to get some individual shots of Atticus.

But Netty didn't like not being part of the camera hype, so she pushed her way back in for another photo-op.

Inside the Cyclone

You know that scene on The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is in her house when it gets picked up by the massive funnel cloud? The wind is deafening, and it's a "swirling vortex of terror" (actually, this is a Finding Nemo-ism, but I think the description fits). As Dorothy is looking out the window, we see cars and people and populated chicken coops, and it's like, "Yeah, we're in this cyclone, but we're in here together, so it's all good."

We are in a cyclone right now. Our moving day is quickly approaching. We will move out of our apartment on Monday, in just under a week. I feel a little like Dorothy. The view is terrifying, but I also have this strange calmness, as if there's a part of me that says, "It's all good. See, look at all the things that you can see out your window. You don't need to panic. No cyclone here." The few images that I can make out clearly are almost enough to make me ignore the roaring wind of stress and pressure around me and give me a false calmness. And the tragedy of it all is that it makes me say, "I have time," when the reality is that I don't have time. This is the same mentality that made high school cross country so hard--I'd take my time so that I was in last place, and then I'd have this incredible burst of energy at the end that I should have been using all along. It was this mentality that saw me through every single semester of college--procrastinating all of the work until the end and then flying by the seat of my pants amid a major mental meltdown. And guess what--I'm doing it again!

In just a week we say goodbye to Rexburg, to home, for an indefinite amount of time. And suddenly the actual moving process doesn't seem to be the real issue.

"Camping" Trip, Day 3

Sarah's family left early right from the campsite on the final morning, but Mom, Dad, and Steph came up to our place to shower and play with the kids one more time before driving back to Utah. Since Atticus was already over a month old and we didn't have any pictures of the four of us, we decided to take advantage of the extra hands and have a photo shoot.

The kids, Netty in particular, were less than cooperative.

***

We were, however, able to get a couple fairly good ones: this one and the one at the top of the blog.

Netty mostly wanted to play.

When it was time for everyone to leave, Netty was excited because she thought she was going with them. But once we walked them to the car and she wasn't allowed to get in the car, she threw a fit that lasted for almost an hour before she fell asleep. She always misses HoneyGram, Papa, and Stephie when they leave.

"Camping" Trip, Day 2

On the second day of our "camping" trip, we spent the entire day on the beach side of the lake. The water felt so good in the blazing heat. Sophie spent most of the time enjoying the sand.

Sophie also spent some time holding Atticus.

Braylin also held Atticus at the beach, and kept saying. "He's so toot (cute)!"

When nap time came, Netty wouldn't lay down and sleep until HoneyGram got down with her.

Braylin eventually curled up on the blanket and fell asleep. When Netty woke up she didn't want to leave Braylin alone.

Braylin woke up pretty crabby, but with so many happy people around him...

... he perked right up.

Atticus slept pretty much the whole day.

Netty started feeding chips to Papa...

...and it became a game.

And she started feeding chips to Stephie too.

Netty loved having all of the room to run around and play, and she spent a lot of time in the water with HoneyGram as well.

Netty warmed up a lot quicker to Sierra on the second day.

After spending all day at the beach, everyone followed us back to Rexburg, and we had a KFC picnic at Porter Park. The kids were all getting crabby at this point, and wanted to play on the toys instead of eat.

I am glad that my children have such loving cousins, and I hope that as they grow they will be great friends.