Merry Little Christmas

We had a pretty low key, nice Christmas. It was a Sullins year, so we spent the day with Charles and Ellen. We were originally also planning on spending dinner with Jeff's brother's family, but they got sick and so we had to go to plan B. We had a leisurely morning opening presents and having brunch (I was happy with my breakfast casserole which was a new recipe), and then Jeff, and Mary, and I went to church while Ellen cooked dinner. Then we came home and rested, and had a nice Christmas dinner.

It was sure nice of Ellen to take over all the cooking so I could rest. Isn't it? I have the best in-laws!

I managed to blow the only part of the dinner that I was in charge of - dessert! For some dumb reason, I didn't think I needed to refridgerate the French Silk Pie and so when I went to cut it, it was very soupy. We decided we better not eat it and risk getting sick. I have NO idea what I was thinking! I'm just going to attribute this mistake to "pregnancy brain" and leave it at that. Fortunately, we had some cookie dough from my neighbor, Angie, that we baked right up and had with ice cream. So that was good.

Here are a few pics:
Mary enjoying her new stroller


GrammE helping Mary open her new squeaker shoes that she got her. Mary loved them immediately so much that she totally undressed right there on the spot to try them on. We heard squeaking the entire rest of the day! I didn't mind it at all. It made me happy.


Charles and Ellen opening the photo tray I made for them with photos of Mary from the latest photo shoot. Too bad I didn't get a pic of the actual tray. Oh well.

Mary with her new stuffed doggie (and GrammE's hat for her dolly - Ellen collects dolls). When we were at IKEA, Mary took to it right away. Jeff wondered about getting it for her, but I kind of discouraged him. But he went back and got it because he knew she'd really love it. Isn't that sweet?


Jeff got his parents Harry Potter scarves.



Christmas contentment. Mary snuggling her new doggie, wearing her new shoes, and surrounded by toys- complete with chocolate smear on face. Does it get better than that when you're a kid?



Can't wait to hear about all of your Christmases too!

Our Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve, we had our annual(or is it biannual?) Murray Christmas Talent Show. We all get together, have soup in a bread bowl and then those who want to can perform a talent.

This year, we met at Catherine and Aaron's home. It was nice to see where they live. We also had Catherine's and my in-laws with us too. So it was a nice big party. Mary was ecstatic the whole night. First she couldn't ever really get over Aaron's dog, Blue. She kept bending down to the dog and yelling, "HI!!! How ARE you???!!!" The dog was just totally patient with her. Then she and her cousin Sheri Anna had tons of fun too. She was so happy, she couldn't have cared less that I forgot to bring her food for dinner. Luckily, Catherine hooked us up with some yogurt.

Here are a few pics.

Aaron juggling for us.


One of my favorite renditions of the night, was Catherine playing Bartok's (?) 4th Invention.


I sang a piece called, The Lamb. I struggled a bit because I was having an allergic and asthmatic reaction to something in their house. I normally don't have asthma, but I do sometimes with allergies or colds.


My nephew Joe watching me sing. : ) He's getting so big. He is starting to go down that wonderfully awkward path of adolescence complete with glasses and braces. Yet, he is still a good looking kid I think. We should all be so lucky.


A really cute pic of Jennifer and Emma.


Hannah's stunning new look!


A really cute pic of Charles and Ellen.


The Robinsons


The Smiths


The Williams


The Sullins


The Murrays (well except of course the ones that were in the other pics: )).

Christmas Time Is Here

We've been busy - as I'm sure all of you have been - getting ready for Christmas.

My Kantorei Christmas concerts are over and went well. I did have to sit down during one song in one of the concerts so I wouldn't faint. But I was okay after that. And Jeff brought Mary to my last concert. I was such a proud Momma and completely distracted by her the whole time - even though she was very well behaved. After we (the choir) entered the church and the audience stopped clapping, I heard Mary yell, "YAY!" and a little laughter in the audience from it. It was pretty cute. And then she decided to conduct the choir from the back - waving her arms widely. She got to see quite a bit of the concert and that made me happy.

Jeff has had the whole week off which has been really great! He saved up his vacation time, I guess. We've been shopping a lot this week and I've enjoyed his help and just all of us being together.

Still have a little shopping to do and gift arranging. But I think it will come together.

Christmas cards have been sent. This year, I still hadn't gotten Mary's 2 year old photos done. So I decided that I would have my friend Eldeen do them and then use one of them for the Christmas card. She has a photography and card business (cardchef.com) and so it made sense to do it this way. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the main photo of the card. Don't you?


We've also been cleaning and cooking and going to parties and things. Here are some pics.

We made sugar cookies. Mary loved wearing a Strawberry Shortcake apron and eating the frosting (of course).



One final vacuum before Christmas. Felt good to have everything clean. Today was the first day Mary was brave enough to actually hold the real vacuum. She liked it!



Mary and me in our tracksuits (my uniform these days practically). I'm definately getting bigger. The skin on my tummy itches from the stretching.



I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. Thanks for following my blog and letting me talk it all out.

I'm in THAT stage of life.

Okay, saying it like that makes it sound as though I'm going through menopause. Clearly, I'm not going through that - being prego and all.

No. I'm in that other stage in life. You know . . . the one where as you are cleaning up a mess in one room, your child is making another one in the next? The one where you have a pile of books to be repaired that have been torn apart page by page hoping that someday you'll get to them, but wondering if it's worth the energy? The one where the baskets that used to hold toys in an orderly fashion, now can barely contain everything being thrown in them and so the stuff inside them hangs and spews out and THAT is actually okay with you????

Yea! That stage.

I know. I know! I just need to not care and relax about this sort of thing. But it drives me crazy!!!!

I can hear my Mom now . . . . She used to say I needed to have a few kids and that would help me not to be so fussy. Or I think the word my family uses is "particular". : )

I also hear her say, "The home is supposed to serve the family. Not the other way around". And it is true. I don't want to be a tyrant in my home making everyone around me miserable because I want the house pristine. On the other hand, too much mess causes misery and contention and chaos and danger.

So I guess I'm trying to figure out where the balance is and where it will be in our home.

I have a childhood memory of playing with one of my friends. She got something on her shirt and got upset because she knew her mother would be upset with her. I remember thinking, "My mother wouldn't care". It was nice knowing that my mother was easy going when it came to things like this. Kids are kids. They get dirty. They cause messes.

True too though, I remember loving to go to other friends homes that were immaculate and had nice furnishings. Funny huh? I have always dreamed of having a beautiful home. Not that our home wasn't clean or nice growing up. It was . . . practical. My parents taught us to work. And we always had Saturday's work charts to complete and if we didn't clean our rooms, my Dad would take things on the floor and we'd have to pay him a dollar to get them back. But we had more traffic - more scoffs on the walls - and less money for nice things. My parents spoiled me with lessons. And I don't regret that. My Mom actually came from a small town and her family had the nicest home in their town. She has told me before that she was actually embarrassed by it as a kid. So my Mom made a choice about how she ran her home. And it was a nice place to be.

Yesterday I was so irritated by how disorderly my house was it caused me to be in the most vile mood and even I didn't want to be around me.

I want you all to know . . . I HAVE relaxed my standards. At any given moment there are toys in every room and that is with me constantly picking up all the time practically. I just can't keep up on it all. I've given up almost completely doing anything for myself and just hope that I can keep the home functional and everyone fairly content.

But I really don't enjoy this part of parenting. Mentally it is hard for me. I'm happier when things are clean, orderly, and beautiful. But I'm TRYING to just realize that I won't be in this stage forever and to enjoy sweet Mary while she is at this wonderful, adorable age.

But I do make her help me clean up (a bit). She doesn't like it though.

I welcome your advice, commiserations, etc. Thank you.

Mary Update

I haven't reported much about Mary lately. She isn't a baby anymore. She is such a big girl. Everyday it seems she has even more hair and though she still fits in 2T, she won't for long. She is speaking more and more now - more sentences. It is cute to hear what she says.

She often says, "Uh oh! Mary!" or "Time out."

Yesterday she said, "Orange Blossom (Strawberry shortcake doll)pigtails too!" - Orange Blossom wears pigtails in her hair like Mary.

When she wants something she'll say, "Raisins?" and I'll say, "Do you want some raisins?" and she'll say, "okay." - Kind of like it was your idea. It's cute.

Last week she and I went to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch and some other ladies who were lunching were saying how cute she was and she corrected them saying, "So beautiful".

She has a favorite book called Cupcake. It starts out, "One day, flour, sugar, eggs, milk, and baking powder were all mixed together and put in a toasty hot oven and Cupcake was born". She often quotes the beginning . . . something like this . . ."One day (with all the proper inflection btw), flour, sugar, eggs, baky pow".

She has also started exercising her will by ignoring her parents on occasion and being disobedient. "Mary, don't throw that on the floor", I say (as she stretches her arm out with food in it). Then she does - and smiles. Then she says, "Time out!" She kind of likes her time outs. They've worked pretty well for us. I just put her in a corner (and we've done it everywhere from church to the grocery store)with her face close to the wall. She can't turn around or talk. She only recently has started crying sometimes when we put her in - usually mid-tantrum and she stays for one minute. She used to put herself in time out just because she wanted to be there. It's working so far. And is pretty darn cute if I do say so myself.


Here are some more pics of our goings on . . .
From the first big snowfall we had


You can eat this stuff!!!


We made a snowman. Mary loves to sing, "Once there was a snowman".


Playing with playdoh and setting a new trend for bonnet wearing : )


Giving Daddy kisses goodbye


Daddy being a good sport whilst being "made up"



So big right? Trying to be just like Momma with the eyelash curler.


Painting her toes


New Birthday Outfit from Annabel (size 3T and it fits perfectly)




Playing with Annabel's new puppy, Lady (named after Annabel's pet nickname for Mary - The Lady Mary). This cute outfit was a birthday gift from Aunt Jenny and family.

)


Doesn't she remind you of me here? In looks but even more so in personality I think.





Sure is fun to have her for my daughter.

Halloween

If you are on Facebook, you probably have already seen most of these pics. But here are a couple more, plus a few details.

Jeff's work puts on a big Halloween party each year. Because of that, I feel like it is worth it to do a little more than what I might normally do for Halloween. For example, last year, I didn't dress up and felt out of place. So this year I did and was glad. Now I just have to get Jeff on board for next year. And oooo ooo oooo maybe someday we can have coordinating family costumes! We'll see. One thing at a time. So we went to that on Friday. Then on Saturday we went very briefly to the ward Trunk or Treat and on Monday, we took Mary out trick or treating for the first time. Of course, I have to say - being the doting mother that I am - how ADORABLE Mary looked in her cute ghost costume. Oh and she was even cuter saying, "Twick or Tweat". We only went to less than ten houses - which was really nice. Not too much candy or too much time out- although, the weather that night was sure nice! It was a really nice Halloween. Jeff and I had sure had fun taking Mary out. My Mom was right - the holidays are just more fun when you have little ones around.

So here are some pics!











And I just had to share this pic with you of Jeff's CEO - the man behind the Halloween party. As you can tell, he gets into it just a little bit! : )


Is that not the most awesome costume you've EVER seen?

HIT

This morning after the usual morning routine and doing the treadmill, vacuuming the downstairs (after Mary poured cereal on the carpet - she isn't supposed to have food in the carpeted areas but regretfully I decided not to enforce it this time), and getting ready (took extra long today b/c I had to wash hair, shave, dry hair) - I was completely exhausted by 11 AM.

Back up now. For about a week now, Mary hasn't been taking her afternoon naps. I always need this time for myself mentally. I usually don't nap myself - I just catch up on things and have some "me" time. But with being pregnant - you know how it is - I've just been tired and really needing a nap myself. Forget that I can't keep up on my house these days or check my email half the time. I just have needed the time for survival. So needless to say - Mary not napping has been difficult on me and really couldn't come at a worse time.

So even though she hadn't been napping, I still had her in her crib for quiet time for an hour. Problem was - I really needed to sleep and couldn't with her happy chirping down the hall. So I'd drag myself to go get her after an hour and I noticed I was not as good with her as I normally am - more snippy and impatient. I chided myself because it isn't her fault afterall.

After posting on Facebook yesterday that Mary isn't napping, I got some good suggestions and I also realized a few things. Firstly, I was putting Mary down to nap almost an hour earlier than I used to because I myself was exhausted. Also I realized that Mary is used to getting more exercise than I've been giving her of late. It has been so cold that we haven't gone to the park and so I've just done the treadmill. But that doesn't really stimulate Mary at all.

So I realized that today and I was determined to try to make sure I took Mary out to get some exercise and also put her down later (and also darken her room - I had tried this before but I did something different this time and give her an incentive to nap).

But - now I'm back to the original story - today at 11 AM - I was so tired and I didn't know what to do because I still had like 3 hours before I wanted to put her down and I still hadn't taken her on any outing. I felt just completely unable to do anything but lay down. So I put on Fantasia for her downstairs thinking that if I could just rest for 1/2 hour even that would help me. I didn't want to do that - not because I'm against videos but because she really shouldn't be left unattended downstairs - there are too many risks. But I was desperate I guess. But I couldn't sleep either because I just felt like I wasn't being a good mom. (I don't know why I didn't think to just put her in her crib for a bit???) So instead I just had a good cry for like a half hour. Jeff called and reiterated to me that I can't leave Mary unattended and somehow all that gave me enough energy to get up and get through to nap time.

I was able to feed Mary lunch and then we went outside and raked leaves and played outside. Mary was considerably helpful in raking the leaves and bagging them surprisingly. And after that she was tired and went down for her nap and actually slept this time!!!! Hallelujah!!!!!! What a blessing!!!

But as I was laying down myself for a nap, I checked my email on my phone. I learned that a fellow Kantorite's husband was in a horrible bike accident that has (at least for now) left him paralyzed from the chest down.

My first thought that HIT me was, "You have nothing to complain about". I felt badly for feeling like my lot was so hard earlier when there is someone out there who has real troubles. Mine are temporary. It is hard to keep this perspective though isn't it?

Truly, I have much to be grateful for. Now if I could just remember that . . .

Mary's 2nd Birthday

This year, we decided against having a birthday party for Mary. Half of my family was out of town, Jeff's folks were trying to leave town, my sister's 40th was the weekend before - it was just too much. Plus with my not feeling 100%, I wasn't looking to make my life any more stressful.
So instead, we just decided to have GrammE and Papa come for dinner before they left town and have cupcakes and a few presents. It was perfect as far as all of us were concerned.

A few thoughts on Mary . . .
I honestly couldn't have asked for a better child. She has always been easy going, predictable, smart, happy, teachable, beautiful, and sweet. I know kids are born with their own personalities and some kids are just more challenging and it isn't even a bad thing - but it can be harder. I guess I feel that God really wanted to bless us for having a child. I know it will probably not always be smooth sailing and I know Mary isn't perfect and also that future children may not be as easy. But for now, I'm just glad that I get to have Mary and grateful for who she is. She is my pride and joy. She is my life.

Here are some pics:
The Birthday Girl

Opening present from Uncle Ben and Aunt Jenny and Fam


It's homemade playdoh and tools to go with it! (Amoung other things - they sure spoiled us!) Mary didn't want to open any other gifts after that. : )



Recordable stories with GrammE's voice from GrammE!


Cupcakes!!!

Cupcake happiness.


Happy Birthday Mary! You have so many people who love you! You are a precious gift!!!