Keeping Up With the Joneses

We spent most of Wednesday through Sunday in Delta with Marshall's family and had a great time. Here are some of the highlights (captions above the pictures): Took baby ponies for a walk (in their car seats and snugglies) Myles freaked out after waiting in line 30 minutes to see Santa Claus. Mason told Santa he wanted Bullseye (from Toy Story) and Stanley (a train) Myles fell asleep waiting in line to see Santa. Played with cousins at the festival of trees Saw a Christmas tree decorated with deer horns. Kissed the same snow man 10 million times. Played with all the Jones cousins (even the ones not pictures here) Saw a Santa Claus parade and Santa riding in a fire truck Had a tea party with the cousins Stayed up WAY too late playing games (this especially goes for Myles who rarely made it to bed before midnight) Helped Marshall's dad build his new house (okay, this was just Marshall but he worked HARD and decided he is very glad he doesn't do this for a living) Had a fami...

I've been meaning to post on a few cute things the boys have done lately. I always forget to mention them when talking to grandparents, so here they are: * the other day Mason asked me for the pillow that looks like a toilet seat. It took me a while, but I finally realized he meant the boppy (nursing pillow) * whenever I ask Myles "why?" he says "cuz" and then I say "cuz why" and he yells "cuz mommy!" * Mason wanted some of my lotion the other day and I rubbed some on his legs and then he exclaimed "now I really am a girl!" * Both Mason and Myles love bubblebaths. Myles thing recently though, is doing bum-drops in the bath and then doing a fake cry because he hurt his bumb. Mason likes to roll around in the bubbles after the water has drained out and then stands up, moons me, and says "look mom--now I really am a bubble butt". Last time he also put bubbles above his mouth and said that he was grandpa Delta (mustache). * Ma...

Our babysitter put this together with our kids and her 2 boys. Take a look: http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/eCqbLizo7u8TSvsKsxUp

I know that any American readers of this blog will think it horrible that I bypassed Thanksgiving and changed to a Christmas background and focus already. But my Canadian readers will certainly understand that I celebrated Thanksgiving over a month ago and am ready to move on. :)

Merideth, Allison, Brooke, Sarah, Joy, Chris, Carl, Holly Parker, Holly Costar, Christina Goates, Scott Goates, Emily Ricks, Amber Spencer, Jen Leckie, Kira Edmonds, Megan Goates, Amber Swanson, Angela Swanson, and anyone else who has moved in the last year and the address I have for you is wrong, could you please email your mailing addresses to imapsyc@gmail.com ? Thanks!

After an especially horrible night last night of Myles screaming until midnight for Elmo, we decided we need to do a week of Elmo detox to get this out of his system. I remember that when Mason was about the same age we had to do this with Thomas too because he was waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning screaming for Thomas movies (although frankly I find Thomas so much less annoying that stupid Elmo). So, we survived day one of Elmo detox. To be honest, he was at the babysitter's half of the day and I don't know if he watched Elmo there, but when he got home and after dinner he had a minor meltdown insisting on his nightly Elmo fix and I was able to get him through it (Marshall is in Colorado). He went to bed alright and then woke up screaming for Elmo at 9:30PM and I was able to calm him down and make him go back to bed. Mason knows that we are not allowed to say Elmo for the next week and says we can just talk about Thomas instead. Wish me luck!

Myles can not get enough of Elmo. It started with seeing Elmo Live (the doll) in Walmart, and then when we got home we thought it would be fun to see if there are any Elmo clips on YouTube (my kids don't watch Seseme Street because it is during their naps). Well, there are TONS of Elmo clips and since that day Myles can't go an hour without crying for Elmo and dragging one of us to the computer. It has been especially bad this weekend, and he has even gotten up in the middle of the night twice this week screaming for Elmo (we did not give in). Tonight he cried for an hour and a half straight because, after about 4 hours total of Elmo YouTube time today we cut him off. We even tried meeting in the middle with an Elmo Christmas video on the tv, but NO WAY--he wants computer Elmo. We finally put him to bed at 6:30 PM because we figured if he was going to scream he might as well scream in his crib (in his defense, he only got one nap of about 30 minutes today because we have an ...

We just heard back from the pediatrician about all the blood tests Mason got a few weeks ago. The best news is that he DOES NOT HAVE CELIACS!! This is such great news because a diagnosis of celiacs would change his whole life. They also tested for allergies to eggs, wheat, dairy, peanuts, and a few other nuts. The results were negative for everything except peanuts, which we kind of knew he was allergic to already. So now we know there is likely nothing physically wrong with him that is causing him to be so underweight. So the pediatrician still wants us to keep seeing the allergist (which is ridiculous because all he said was "avoid the foods you are allergic to") and to see the gastroenterologist to see if there is anything else keeping him from growing, but more likely he will just have a growth spurt in the next couple of years. So now we just need to keep avoiding peanuts, keep that epi pen handy, and keep trying to get him to eat. Also, the doctor said we were safe to g...

They made hand puppets! I swear, they have the best babysitter ever. I guess their names are Fred and Henry and they did a little puppet show with them.

Last night we got VIP treatment at a Utah Jazz game thanks to a software company that Marshall purchases from (for work). We went up at 5 PM, had a lovely dinner in a box suite (actually a better view than our normal 7th row seats in many ways--much more comfortable), watched a fantastic game that made history (the coach's 1000th win--an NBA record), and Marshall even won a digital photo frame in the raffle. What a great night!

This has been a day of mixed emotions for me. It was the first time I voted in an American election. I guess after 10 years of living in America I finally felt American enough . But it was also a day of feeling anger and frustration build up inside of me as I felt very acutely how different some of my political and moral values are from many of my Utah neighbors. At times since living here I have felt marginalized for having a (much) more liberal leaning than the typical "Utah Mormon". But today after having a conversation with a good neighbor and friend that again accentuated these differences, I returned home frustrated and noticed the I VOTED sticker on my jacket. At that moment I that today MY VOTE COUNTED JUST AS MUCH AS HERS DID. I was not silenced or marginalized, because my voice COUNTED. I realized that even when I stand alone in a sea of people who I don't agree with, I still count. I'm not sure if I'm describing it here as strongly as I felt it, but ...

8 Favorite TV shows: 1) Boston Legal 2) Desperate Housewives 3) Gray's Anatomy 4) 90210 (I know, so embarrasing) 5) Priviledged (what can I say, Marshall is gone Tuesday nights) 6) Private Practice 7) 24 8) Lipstick Jungle 8 Things I did yesterday: 1) Taught my Intro to Counseling Psyc class at UVU 2) Saw a private practice client 3) Cleaned the house after Marshall had been home all morning alone with the kids (he insists that I also say he took them to swimming lessons by himself) 4) Went on a picnic with Marshall and the kids 5) Watched the BYU Football game 6) Watched "Death Defying Acts"--a movie 7) Cleaned out the flower bed 8) Fell asleep on the couch while Marshall watched the U of U v UNM game and stayed there all night 8 things to look forward to: 1) Cruise to the Bahamas in February 2) Christmas in Canada 3) Summer in Waterton 4) Jazz game this Friday (box seats, VIP treatment) 5) BYU v U of U Football game 6) Selling our house and moving into a bigger house 7)...

Halloween got off to a fun start yesterday, with a Halloween party at our neighbor's house. Jeanette used to to be a kindergarten teacher and used all her skills to keep the crazy and excited kids having a great time. Even Myles was totally into it. Getting ready for trick-or-treating. Because we did a practice run at our trunk-or-treat last week, I think Myles knew exactly what he was doing and was really excited. Mason was excited too, but pooped out after the first block or so. He decided his candy was too heavy, so he dumped it into the stroller after every house.I think people gave him more because they felt bad for him that he didn't have any! Myles, on the other hand, had a death grip on his candy that left a red mark to be seen for hours. If it weren't for Myles and his persistance, we definately would have quit after 20 minutes or so, but Myles wouldn't stop! They were so cute trick-or-treating. Myles would stand right in front and hold out his hand when som...