Artwork

Can you tell I'm playing catch up?

Lately Kenna has been my little artist who seems to be constantly drawing a picture of some sort.  I LOVE to see what she comes up with.  Sometimes they are super sweet, and sometimes they are just pure silly and make me laugh out loud.

Here are a few of my recent favorites:

This one says "Welcome to the farm"and below it, "farmer Jake."  In the middle is "Farmer Jake" who is surrounded by his three oldest little farmhands.  What a friendly fella he is- such a nice smile and wave!

Next is "May your winter be warm, Happy Holidays."  Aaah.  I love it:

And we all need a good family portait.  This one is entitled, "We are a happy family.":

And this random little silly one makes me giggle every time I look at it.  It says, "Dad ate too much banana cream pie on Christmas day.":

I'm not sure what it is about these sweet little pictures but they are SO FUN for me!

You know what's NOT fun?  What art I DON'T appreciate?  Well that would be Ty's artwork today.  He fingerpainted the walls.  He fingerpainted the walls (notice that word is plural) with the contents of his diaper.  I'll leave it at that.  Sometimes being a mom really stinks.  Literally.

Who is watching that kid?  Where is his mother? 

Oh, and I almost forgot....

....WE GOT TO SEE GRANDMA SHELLY AND GRANDPA KERRY!  Excuse me, I mean Elder and Sister Otte.  I just love seeing my parents wearing their name tags.   

Home

On January 3rd my dear, sweet Grandmother Otte passed away.  I knew the call would be coming, but of course the finality of it was still a hard one to take.

One of the limitations of mortality is the ability of words to accurately express how we feel.  Words fall so short of expressing the depth and magnitude of what our heart is really feeling.  This holds true for emotions of gratitude and love, or emotions of heartache and sorrow.

When it comes to my Grandma, there are no words to describe the love I have for her.  The memories with her are priceless.  And really, priceless doesn't even come close to express what I really mean.  The time spent with her and the lessons she taught made me who I am today.  And really, I have to include my Grandpa in there as well.  You can't have one without the other.  Oh, how I love them.  Oh how I wish I could pull my feelings out and post them here on my blog so you could really understand.  But then again, I'm certain that we all have someone in our lives with whom we can say, "I know what you mean," even though words fail to accurately describe.  Perhaps that is the true language of the soul.  A language spoken and understood without saying a single word.

Yes, sadness came with my Grandmother's passing, but at the same time a remarkable peace.  I often take a minute to stop and think of the moment she was finally able to let go of her aged body and cross over to the other side.  I wonder how it felt?  I imagine incredible feelings of peace, and light, and a sense of being home.  Grandma was 82.  Her mother died when she was 18.  To be in your mother's arms again after that long?...  Once again, words fail.  Her only daughter died of leukemia when she 7.  I have a daughter who is 7.  To hold your daughter again?  It's an almost overwhelming feeling to imagine.  Overwhelmingly awesome!  How pathetic is that for words?!  And not to mention the myriad of others who most certainly were there to welcome her home.  Speechless, I am.

Her funeral was a beautiful, quaint celebration of a life well-lived.  My sister and I were honored to take a few moments to represent the 7 Grandchildren and share memories of Grandma.  We ended up taking our favorite memories and putting them together in a poem that turned out absolutely perfect.  The only downside to the day was the HORRIFIC weather we had to travel home in.  I think Grandma enlisted some help from the other side to make sure the caravan of funeral-goers all made it home safely!

So thank you, my dear Grandma and Grandpa.  A thank you that someday I will really be able to tell you without a single word when I see you again.  When you are there to welcome me......home.

  

Lemonade

Here is a picture I took of the girls on December 1st:

And here is a picture I took just a month later on January 4th:

What a difference a month can make!  We went from playing with cardboard boxes on the front lawn in a jacket (I believe that green stuff is grass, if I remember correctly) to bundling up and playing with giant icicles in the freezing snow.  Is that something along the lines of making lemonade out of lemons.....?

The Book of The Past Month

Someone help me out here.

It's 2013?  Isn't that supposed to be the year in some kind of sci-fi movie made in the 80's where it seemed so far in the future it would never really come?  And now January of 2013 is already half over?  Oh heaven help me I'm already behind!

It's only been a month since I last posted, yet it seems I could post an entire book on the past 4-5 weeks.  I didn't think our life was all that adventurous, but due to the amount I need to catch up on it seems that apparently it is.  I'm ready for the adventure to slow down a bit.  Guess to catch up we'll take it one chapter at a time.

CHAPTER 1:  CHRISTMAS.  Actually, we'll back up to the week before Christmas. 

'Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house....

....Okay, so really there was nothing cutesy or poetic about the week or so before Christmas at our house.  We were all sick.  Sick sick and sick.  It started with Kenna whose regular old cold turned into croup and earned her a decadron shot at the Dr.'s office.  Anyone recall her stint with croup last May?  You just go ahead and search that in my archives.  You will just love it.  Ya, we were a bit fearful, but fortunately we didn't have an encore presentation of our 6-hour ER visit.  She missed almost a week of school and lost her voice for a month.  Absolutely no exaggeration on that.  However, she is in full voice again.  We can hear her.  LOUD.AND.CLEAR.    

The cold quickly spread to Allie Gal.  It seemed to be the mutated cold which managed to wreak some serious havoc on the poor little lady.  She also missed a week of school.  And just when we thought we were out of the woods she managed to get an ear infection.  Let me just paint a little picture here for you.  Allie really is a sweetie.  We love her dearly.  However when Allie hurts, we definitely know it.  She has a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde syndrome, and we all suffered with the ear infection.  And of course it came on a Saturday night.  A huge and much appreciated THANK YOU to our beloved Aunt-in-law JULIE (oh how we love you) we were able to get an antibiotic.  Allie was finally on her way to recovery.  We thought we all were....

... until my little angels shared the horrific mutation of a cold with their mother.  It was the cold from the underworld which culminated in my dear husband taking 2, count them 2, days off work and taking me to the Dr.'s office.  Once again, an antibiotic came to the rescue.  The beloved z-pac worked its magic on my bronchitis helping me feel a bit human again.  I haven't felt that yucka in a long time.

You can probably guess despite my over-zealous efforts of sanitation, the rest of the gang ended up with the cold.  Fortunately Ty and Lexi didn't seem to get it near as bad, but we managed to clean out a warehouse full of Kleenex.  Absolutely no exaggeration on that.  Jacob was the cold caboose, and compared to the rest of us he got by relatively unscathed.  His halo must burn a bit brighter than the rest of us.  Or maybe he earned his halo taking such good care of the rest of us the angels took pity on him!  Perhaps the angels took pity on all of us because just in the St. Nick of time we were all better and ready for Christmas.

Christmas Eve we ventured to the theater to catch a matinee of "Rise of the Guardians."  We followed it up by a trip to Applebees.  Merry Christmas Eve to me, I wasn't cooking!  After filling our bellies, we slowly worked our way home in a blizzard where we prepared for our traditional reading of the Christmas story out of Luke.  We have quite a cast of characters:

The angels (who most impressively recited nearly the entire angel monologue by themselves):

   
Our Baby Jesus, played by Lexi.  Set design by Kenna.  Never have you seen a more impressive manger:

Don't forget Ty the shepherd!

And of course just use your imagination for me playing the part of Mary and Jacob as Joseph.

The rest of the evening consisted of exchanging family gifts followed up by arranging a plate full of cookies for Santa- complimented by some carrots for the reindeer.  We of course couldn't forget filling a glass of milk to go with it all.   Finally we got the kiddos dressed in their Christmas Eve jammies and off to bed.  The girls were so excited.  But knowing Santa wouldn't come unless they were sleeping, managed to fall asleep before too late.  And really, Santa appreciates that.  She, I mean, He likes to get to bed at a decent time too after he's gotten all his work done.  It is so fun to watch the excitement of little children at Christmas.  It truly takes it to a whole new level.  The girls managed to wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:15 Christmas morning.  I'm sorry to say that their mother made them wait until 7 to head on out to the living room to let the unwrapping begin.  Hmm, actually I'm not sorry.  I have a feeling in just a few short years I won't be able to prolong it even that long.  Oh come on, don't judge, it was still dark!

Let the Christmas madness begin!

I thought I was being such a good wife to give Jacob a new little collection of western movies for Christmas.  Way to go me, I got roped into "enjoying" most of them with him.  I think maybe he belonged to Louis L'Amour's Sackett family in a previous life.

I am happy to say I did redeem myself in the kitchen Christmas Day.  We had a rather delicious Christmas lunch, if I may say so, and then let our bellies settle so we could head out for some sledding.  It was cold, but we had a blast!


 Bundle up the baby.....

Load up the dog....

 And we're off!

Who says you can't go surfing on Christmas in Utah?  Certainly not us!

Yes, let it be known I too got on the sled.  My derriere was frozen upon our return home, but we had fun nonetheless!  We headed home to end the day with a nice cup of hot chocolate.  And a good western, of course.