Gingerbread Houses

Lily's cousin Madeline came over to visit on the weekend and Lily was thrilled to see her. She had so much planned to do and play with Madeline. These two mesh together so well. They have similar personality characteristics, likes, dislikes, and their temperaments are quite equivalent as well.

One thing I need to be better about is starting and establishing Christmas traditions in our family. This is the first year that Lily truly grasped the concept of what Christmas is, and because of that Christmas so was so much more meaningful and magical. Watching the awe and wonder in her face when learning new things, participating in new events, trying new things, and opening presents was what made this Christmas extra special. 

Shout out goes to my mom who bought all these cool "extras" to make Christmas more memorable. She bought the Olaf supplies (to make a snowman), Gingerbread house kits (to make gingerbread houses), and supplied Lily with ample opportunities to see lights, open gifts, and read Christmas stories.

One tradition I had always wanted to start was making Gingerbread houses. I thought it was such a long and messy process, but it actually wasn't that bad. Grammy bought a kit that included (real) gingerbread, frosting, and candy embellishments. Had I been in charge of this on my own, I probably would have made gingerbread, bought all the candy, and whipped up frosting. I had no idea that all this comes packaged together for ease and convenience.

The girls loved sneaking more candies into their mouths than putting them on the house. All the adults wanted to make a nice Greco-symmetric home, while the kids cared less about symmetry and design. They just wanted to place one candy on the house and then put two in their mouths. It was comical to watch them try to blame each other for eating candy when they were both engorging and trying to be sneaky about how much they could eat before getting reprimanded.

The excitement didn't last long with the house. Once the candy popping was prohibited, they quickly lost interest and wanted to watch movies instead. I think that gingerbread houses may be more geared towards an older audience, but if it becomes a tradition, then it's something that the kids can look forward to each year!

The remainder of the evening was spent relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Lily loved playing with Madeline. I am so happy to see her playing with her cousin and enjoying the attention that she gets from my family.

I had to sneak this gem of a picture into this post. While we were busy decorating our gingerbread house, Michal made things more entertaining. I have no idea why a basket is on top of his head or why he is attacking me with a spatula. But he never ceases to make me laugh. Every time I look at this picture I still laugh. 

What a wonderful day. What a wonderful new tradition. What a wonderful experience being able to spend such quality time with family.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

Ever since Lily arrived at Grammy's house she had been begging to go and make Olaf. She was dying to play in the snow. However, once we arrived, Lily came down with a terrible cold and a fever. She was so lethargic I was afraid she'd wouldn't get better in time to play in the snow. Once snow falls it becomes harder to mould and play with. Luckily, once her fever let up - we took advantage of a new snowfall to go out and let her play to her heart's content. She was in heaven and was so happy to engage in building her very own Olaf!

She took this process very seriously...

Preparation and rolling the body.

Admiring Olaf's features.

Putting on some touch-ups.

Posing with her new friend.

And of course, Olaf needed a family to join him!

After Olaf had a family, Lily still wanted to play in the snow. So My mom helped show her how to make snow angels. 

After a couple tries, she got the hang of it. But, poor Lily, Badger kept on ruining her snow angels, so she insisted on making more. I don't know what's so enticing to small children about playing in the snow, but they could be out there for hours with just their imaginations! Hopefully this isn't our last time playing in the snow this Winter season. Lily was in heaven and truly felt like she was Queen Elsa out in the snow.

Aquarium

The day after we arrived in Utah, Grammy and Grandpa surprised Lily by taking her and Madeline (her cousin) to the Aquarium. 

We had been there before, but it was rather crowded. This time we felt as if we had the whole place to ourselves. We were able to spend ample time at each exhibit and really appreciate each enclosure. It was breathtaking to just sit and relax and watch fish!

Lily's favorite place was where "Dori" was. Every time Lily ran away or got bored of what we were looking at, she'd sneak on over and watch Dori. Several times I just stood back and watched her wave and talk to Dori. It was so endearing and it made my heart melt that a little toddler could fall in love with a fish! From how much she loved watching Dori, I resolved that when "Finding Dori" comes out next Spring - I will have to take Lily on a Mommy/Daughter date to watch this movie. It gives me warm fuzzies just thinking about it!

With no one else at the Sting Ray station, I for sure thought that Lily would be trying to touch these creatures... but she remained true to character and felt more comfortable watching them from a distance and letting Madeline do all the touching.

And while the sharks weren't that cool...

... the sea turtle was a BIG hit! Lily waved to him everywhere he went.

I attempted to get some selfies with the sharks juxtaposed behind us. I failed. But I did notice that way behind me there is a meeting room with its curtains opened. How cool would it be to rent that room to have your company meetings? You could sit and watch the sharks swim on by... but on second thought, it might be too relaxing and the meeting wouldn't be entirely effective. 

I didn't get many pictures of Marco at the aquarium. It's probably because he was more interested in being held than looking at any fish.

While saying "Hello" to the penguins, Lily tripped and fell down and was not a happy camper about getting her picture taken or seeing penguins. All she wanted was to be held or walk around holding my hand. 

She got her wish and roped her Grandparents into holding her hand. My hands were busy because Marco had fallen asleep, so I was glad there was someone there to be my back-up. 

Every day for the next five days Lily asked if we could go again to see Dori. I think that she liked the Aquarium, how about you? My only wish was that there was an Aquarium, of this size, closer to where we lived so that we could take advantage of it and visit often. 

Thanks Grammy and Grandpa for such a fun morning at the Aquarium! We can't wait to go again!

Going on an Airplane

The nonstop flight from Charlotte to Salt Lake city is absolutely a killer because it leaves at 7:05 in the morning. 

Which means... 

if you have to be to the airport two hours early (5:05am)

and it takes 15 minutes to park the car (4:50) 

and 90 minutes to drive to the airport (3:20) 

and get up and get ready... 

that puts you at waking up at 2:40 am for your flight. 

However, we make it there in about 75 minutes, and since we were being dropped off and not doing long term parking that cut it down to 5 minutes, and we only give ourselves 60 minutes to check in and make it through security. With that in mind, we woke up at 4:00 am and left our house around 4:40 am to make it to the airport on time for our flight. But really, what's an extra 90 minutes of sleep when you're so excited and nervous that you'll sleep through your alarm that sleep eludes you and you stay up way too late packing the night before?

This flight is a killer on the kids too. It just messes up their internal clocks. Usually, Lily just sleeps.. but this flight she had so many wonderful entertainers surrounding her that she couldn't get enough attention!

I always get so nervous for flights because some other fliers can be downright rude about being on a flight with small children. They feel it is an inconvenience for them, and how dare I think to bring small children on a flight because it interrupts their 3.5 hour nap! I must be a terrible mother when my child starts crying, because I obviously don't know how to calm a child whose ears are hurting them. I obviously fail at keeping things quiet so they can fall asleep. It's not apparent to these ignorant fliers that there is so much over-stimulation, light, noise, and air pressure - that instead of taking all these factors into consideration. I just have terrible children.

When, in fact, my children are quite the opposite. They are, for the most part, angels on flights. They want attention, but they also want to move around. Containment is the only problem. The hardest choice is whether or not to hold them (and let them cry) or let them be content and crawl around on a dirty, dirty airplane floor. 

Anyway, I digress. I had the best seat companions on this flight. While going through security, I noticed a cute girl with a College Algebra book in her purse. I said to her, "Too bad you're not on my flight and sitting next to me, otherwise I could help you with all your Math homework." I explained I had a Math degree and she said it would have been so nice to get lucky to sit by someone that could help her. We then got separated in security and went our separate ways.

Fast forward 20 minutes.

I get ready to board and this same Math gal saw we were going to be on the same flight and approached me if I'd like any help boarding the plane with my kids, so I took her up on her offer. She then sat down with me to help me get situated, and said she was going to take her seat once there was a clearing to get to her seat. However, the true seat occupant came along: a cheerful, flamboyantly gay, beautiful young woman. She saw that I was sitting with "Math Friend" and immediately offered to trade places as my "Math Friend" said that she'd really love to sit by me and help. Of course, I'd help her with her math when we got the chance... it only seemed like a fair trade. 

However, I was never able to help her with her Math. Instead, I was fascinated with my seat companion and couldn't ask her enough questions. I found out:

~ her name is Liliana

~ she is 10 of 14 children

~ she is a twin (who is child #9)

~ she speaks fluent Russian: her father is from Belarus and mother from Kazakstan

~ she is 14 years old and has graduated from High School already

~ is in her first semester of college

~ was on her way back home to Oregon and once she got off her flight would be taking a math final

~ came out to North Carolina to help her sister, who has two children, for 9 months while her sister worked at getting her RN degree. Her family rotates and takes turns for 9 months at a time coming out to help her sister. So she won't have to help out again for at least another five years. 

~ is Russian Baptist and doesn't celebrate Halloween

~ and is the biggest sweetheart you'd ever meet.

She was so respectful of everyone, was kind and courteous, conscientious and thoughtful, and beautiful and smart. I don't know how her mother did it with 14 children, but I was so impressed with Liliana that I hope my little Lily can grow up and have as kind of a heart as she did.

The other companion who helped entertain my Lily was Cindy from India. It was harder to communicate with her across the aisle, but she had lived in Italy and spoke fluent Italian, but was now living in India doing mission work. Her mission work entailed yoga and helping enslaved women. What an inspiration.

I felt so guilty for feeling accomplished that I was able to keep my kids under control for a 4 hour flight, when I was sitting next to two extraordinary, exemplar individuals. Their stories were amazing and it made me feel sheepish that I didn't have an impressive resume like they did. 

And finally, when we were to land in twenty minutes - Lily fell asleep. She was exhausted from all the hard work she had been playing doing on Cindy's iPad. 

But once we landed and Lily saw Grammy, it brought tears to my eyes! I said to little girl, "Lily look who I see." She looked around and around and couldn't see anyone, but once she recognized Grammy, Lily's eyes just lit up and she took off in the direction in where Grammy was waiting for us. By the time I reached Grammy her eyes were full of joyful tears and Lily was in heaven. 

While waiting for luggage, I'm pretty sure Lily narrated our reunion twenty times: "I got on airplane to visit Grammy. Grammy cried. I got on airplane to visit Grammy. Grammy cried."

Reunions are my favorite. And even though there were no surprises behind this visit to Utah, I was so grateful to be home, have help, and see my children so excited to spend time with their Grandparents!

Fall Family Photos

In November we decided to splurge and get some family photos. I couldn't be happier with the results. 

Here are some of our favorites (which are almost all the pictures we received): 

We only spent about 25 minutes taking pictures, and that was perfect for us! There were less options to chose from, we finished before kids got grumpy and uncooperative, and my foot was ready to fall off after 2 minutes, so I was happy it didn't take too long (I had a broken toe). 

I seriously wish I had the talent of taking photos... or at least knowing how to use my camera to produce some good photos! I look at pictures like this and am so grateful that others can share their talents with me and capture the personality of our cute little family.