Pictures of the Kids

The weather here has been fabulous! It was 65 degrees on Thanksgiving day. That blows me away! It's almost December and not only has it not snowed, but it's barely been cold at all. So we've been playing outside. These are some pictures of the kids playing in the leaves at R & C's house. We don't have any leaves in our yard, so we borrow their yard. ... One of the pictures is of Elijah with 2 sticks. Whenever he holds sticks he does this wizard-type thing. He'll point the stick in your direction and go "pssst!" like he's casting a spell on you. So I had to get a picture of it.

I remember when I was young that playing in the leaves was fun. But watching it in the eyes of my children -- pure joy.

Oh, the weather. The day after these pictures were taken, it was almost 80 degrees outside. I let Elijah run around in just a diaper. Rob complained and I just asid, "Rob, it's Nov. 10th. Let the kid be naked! It's warm!" We had people over for dinner that night and the kids all ate on the deck outside. It was Nov. 10th! Crazy!

Elijah loves his little brother. He likes to lay down for a "nap" with him. He'll set Teancom on his pillow and get out all the nap stuff -- blankets, etc. It's cute.

And the great thing about being the helpless little brother is pictures like this -- Teancom covered in princess stickers! :)

Picture of Rob

Here's a lovely picture of Rob. :)

Tamra

Family Update

November has been a busy, busy month for us. Our weeks and weekends have been filled to the max with things we had to do and things we wanted to do, too. Plus, we've all been sick off and on, so it's made for some interesting times around here.

Rob and Scouts

Rob has been having fun with the Scouts. Two weeks ago he went on a camp out but didn't get to stay overnight cause I was sick. I called him home cause I just wasn't up to watching the kids by myself because of how I was feeling. But the camp out was fun with the usual instances of shaving cream in kids' shoes and on signs, and kids hiding in the van so they didn't have to clean up. It makes me laugh how different the Young Men and Young Women are. Things are about to change in the ward, though, so the scouting program will be changing anyway. Rob will be going to more camp outs from here on out, which will be great fun for him. I'm a little sad he didn't get to stay the whole time this last time, but it couldn't be helped. I don't mind camp outs at all. I know some wives do. But it's only like 20 hours away from Rob and half of that is sleep time. What's wrong with that?

Excuse Me, Could You Pass the Family Sickness, Please?

I was sick this month immediately after Elijah got over the flu. I thought I was getting the flu, too, but apparently not, which is good. It still knocked me out with a variety of symptoms for about a week. I got my sense of taste and smell back just in time for Thanksgiving. Thank goodness! ... Rob, who was spared all month while me and the kids were sick, has come down with the same cold. He'll probably be coming home early cause he feels pretty crummy. Bummer.

Miciah had an ear infection. Elijah had the flu. Elijah is still cranky, which is weird for him.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great! We spent Thanksgiving Day with R & C and their daughters and their daughters' men. It was way fun. The turkey was EXCELLENT, which is one of the first times I can say I enjoyed turkey. We made pumpkin pies and then ate 2 pies, just Rob and me, in 2 days. Yumm! I think I gained 5 pounds in a single day. :) No holding back this year. Rob had to go into school the day after Turkey Day, so while he was in school the kids and I brought out some Christmas decorations. Miciah and Elijah have been having a grand time playing with the Nativity set we got out. It's my favorite Christmas decoration. We have yet to put up the tree, but that should be happening in the next few days (or Miciah will hurt us!).

CS's Baby Blessing

Saturday we went up to C's house and it was wonderful. Sunday was CS's baby blessing and it was fun to be surrounded by family. I had to take Elijah out in the Primary Room to listen to the blessing cause he was throwing a huge fit. He's still not back to his un-sick self, so he was really really grumpy. He hasn't been napping well since he's been sick, or sleeping well, and it's starting to show. The branch president offered me a piece of candy but said I had to tell him one thing I learned at church today. I told him I learned my kids are better at our own ward than at other people's wards. He said, "Take 3 pieces." :) He's a great man and really really funny. He's the one that always has to tell us as we're leaving the church, "Kids, your parents will give you candy if you cry in the car." Funny.

The Trip Home

We got home last night at 10:00 or so. It was mostly a dang good trip except Elijah was so tired. He woke up in the car about 10 minutes away from home and was out of it. Rob finally took him in the shower and dunked his head in the water so he'd calm down. It worked. But it was a long long 20 minutes of him kicking and hitting and screaming. Elijah has also lost his voice, partly from being sick, and partly from screaming so much. But it's now a cute little raspy voice.

Teancom is an excellent traveller! The 2-hour car ride north was amazing. Teancom didn't sleep for any of it, but he was quiet the entire time! Wow! Teancom is turning into a great baby. Elijah was our good baby before, but I think Teancom is working on stealing that prize. He now goes to sleep on his own. He will get fussy and you can put his binky in, lay him down, and he's asleep in about 5 minutes. It's amazing and wonderful. He doesn't sleep through the night yet, but he sleeps during the night for about a 12 hour stretch. When he's awake he's generally very happy and smiley. He's not an easy laugher, but he'll smile at anything. Teancom also loves to hold his blanket. I wonder if he'll be like Elijah in that regard. I guess time will tell. Teancom is a joy to have and we are grateful he's in our family.

Dates (Woah. Did I say Dates?!)

We went on 2 dates this month without any of our kids! Wow! We haven't been on a date in a long time, especially one without the baby. We went first to see Aida, a musical put on by the Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts. The lead was amazing! And the show was great. I'd never seen it or even heard of it, so it was a pleasure to see. One of the YW in our ward was in it, hence why we went. We saw the closing show, but had we gone earlier, I would have made Rob take me again. It was SO worth it. Rob had seen Aida as an opera in Germany. He saw it in Italian with German subtitles. So I told Rob now he's seen it in 3 languages and 2 genres. How many people can say that?

The other date was a surprise date Rob took me on the day before Turkey Day. He took me out to eat at Panera Bread (my favorite place to eat out at here in Ohio), and then we saw Pirates 2. Sadly, I did not like it near as much as I thought I would for a number of reasons. Rob really liked it, though. I am reserving final judgment on the movie until I see # 3. So for any of you wanting right now to talk me into liking # 2, save it until I've seen # 3. Cause very likely I'll like it after seeing the last movie. But it was nice to go out on a date.

Our next date will be our anniversary date on Dec. 21st. Can you believe it, we've been married 6 years! I'm waiting to see how this year's date will top last year's, though. Last year's ended with Elijah throwing up all over multiple times. Might have been Miciah, too. How do you top that? :) I guess we'll have to see what's in store for us. Rob says he's planning the date and just a few days ago told me we would be going to someone's house to watch BYU play in the Las Vegas Bowl. Wowee! Does my man know how to be romantic or what!? I'm a lucky one.

The Holidays are Upon Us

And then it's the holidays. I can't believe it's almost that time of year again. I feel like I'm just waking up from being asleep for the last year (pregnancy plus recovery), so it's amazing to me the time that feels like it's just slipped away. I have SO MUCH more energy than I used to. I find myself randomly dancing or running, just cause I can and cause I have more energy than what I use up during the day. That's a NICE feeling and a very welcome change.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I talked to a lot of you and told you how grateful I was for each of you (in a very personal way, I've been told ). For those of you I didn't talk to, thank you for being a part of our lives. We love you!

Tamra, Rob, Miciah, Elijah, and Teancom

A Political Comment (I promise there won't be many more)

I usually avoid politics with all my might. I hate feeling like there are no straight answers and like everyone's lying to me, so whose side do I take? I hate that in our elections coming up I have to choose between 2 men, one whom I don't trust and the other that I think is an idiot. I hate that I feel this way even after I have become "informed" and watched debates. I hate that people misconstrue (sp?) the facts just to get a vote. And I hate that I can vote for the other guy but still have to put up with whoever won the election.

But it finally dawned on me yesterday. That no matter what I do, I'm screwed. I thought for a while in my life that to avoid any political responsibility, I could just not vote. Well, that's just a cop-out. So then I thought maybe I'll just find out who I think will lose and vote for him. Cause then I can always say, "It's not my fault! I voted for the other guy!"

But I realized that if I don't like American politics, I should move out of the country. Because the way it's set up, the majority (sort of) wins. And that's who we as Americans, voted for. It isn't that some of us voted for him, it's as if ALL of us voted for him. So even if I voted for the other guy, I am responsible for and to the guy who wins.

So this has made me want to be as informed as possible and vote my conscience. Because it matters. And because in the end I can't say, "It wasn't my fault." There is no way to escape the responsibility (other than become a citizen of Canada!).

There you go. My latest "wisdom" about politics. So vote next week!

Tamra

Another Update with Pictures

Since my updates have been short lately, I thought I'd include a few more fun things that I've left out for the last little while.

Miciah's birthday party

The day of Miciah's party was also the birthday of a friend of ours, CR, who was coming to the party with his kids. I told him on the Monday before that I was going to make him a cake and he said, "I want a Star Wars cake." He was just kidding, of course, but I thought, why not make him one? So I did. Here are the pictures of it. It was awesome! His daughter who is turning 6 in January says she wants the same cake for her birthday. Fun!

The party prompted another friend of ours, DS, to mention that it was his birthday the next Saturday and why didn't I make HIM a cake, too. I reminded him that I made him a cake 2 years ago for his b-day and wasn't that good enough? Apparently not. So I made some cookies for him and took them to his house. We're really good friends with the S's, so I gave him only 13 cookies and wrote a note that said, "I made 28 cookies but got hungry on the way so I ate a few. But at least it now matches your mental age." Waa haa haa. I like having friends I can joke with.

The Primary program

The Primary program for church was this last Sunday. They practiced for it for 3 weeks, and Miciah was pretty freaked out about having to say her part. They gave her an easy one: 5 things she's grateful for and why. I was about to go up to the person running the show (JS, our really good friend (wife of the DS listed above) and tell her it just wasn't working. But J then told Miciah that if she does her part, she gets cookies afterwards, but it's a secret, so don't tell anyone. Miciah was convinced. And she kept the secret. She's good at keeping secrets, actually. So Miciah sat up there the whole time and sang the songs. During one of the songs she looked over at us, gave us a thumbs up and winked. Lovely. She did her part great. She said: "I am grateful for church, the Bishop, Grandma and Grandpa, Heavenly Father and Jesus, and Mom and Dad. I am grateful for them because they make me happy." What a great little talk. The Bishop was so impressed he's thinking about asking her to be a youth speaker in church some time. We'll see if that happens.

Halloween

We invited our good friends, T & S T, over for Halloween night. They came, had dinner with us (we made dinner in a pumpkin, how cool is that?!), and watch "scary movies" with us. We made a list a year back or so of movies that aren't really freaky, but that freaked us out as kids. The list includes The Neverending Story (the part with the wolf!), The Labrynth (need I explain that one?), The Black Cauldron (the green mist), Return to Oz (all those heads!), and The Dark Crystal (the emperor dying and turning into ash). We ended up watching The Black Cauldron, which I don't ever remember seeing as a kid. Rob says it gave him nightmares when he was little. Anyways, the movie was freaky, and I think that as an adult. Yikes! Not sure that's ever going to be on our must-own list. Plus, they butchered the story. I spent a good 10 minutes afterwards explaining why they shouldn't not read the series because of this lame movie. I'm a huge Lloyd Alexander fan.

Miciah

Miciah is a treasure and an asset to our home. She helps clean up and holds down the fort when I'm taking naps. She asks before she gets into things she knows might be iffy. She is my answering service and actually gives me the message. And she's very independent and takes care of herself. The older she gets, the more I find to like about her. And her personality is great. She's now into a stage where she's joking around with us. The other day Rob was folding laundry and had just finished folding a lot of Elijah's underwear. She said, "Dad, there's underwear on your head." Rob put his hand up to check and she said, "Just kidding." It makes us smile.

Elijah

Elijah is a stinker these days! "Eida do it!" That's how he says his name. He's very talkative and likes to yell at me and tell me just what I'm doing that he doesn't like. :) He likes to object every time we want to change his clothes. He's specific about what he wants to wear, or eat, or watch on TV. I have some great pictures of him in the bathtub. He was in the tub, the water was let out, and he refused to get out. So I got the camera to capture the moment. He kind of looked at me like, "What are you doing?" Then he got out, but only after refusing to use any towel but the blue one. Looks like Teancom gets the yellow towel. Our cute little compliant Elijah is now 2. It doesn't work to spank him or yell at him, he usually thinks that's funny. I don't think he has any pain receptors, cause you spank him and he laughs. So we've given up on punishment, pretty much. Cause it doesn't work. But does anything when you're 2?
He's still just as sweet as can be, though, and it's fun to have such a sensitive, caring kid around.

Teancom

Teancom is getting smiley and is starting to laugh. It's fun.

Rob

Rob's mentor guy at school told him he has enough data to publish a paper. Rob is excited, this is a good step.

Me and Rob

Rob and I are going out on a date tonight, with Teancom. We haven't been out for a long time. It'll be fun. And someone else is paying for dinner. How much better does it get?

Okay, that's all the random bits I had stored up. Until next time.

Tamra and family

Halloween Update

I now know why my mother didn't like Halloween candy as much as us kids did. What a pain to have all this candy around! But it's so fun for the kids, I guess that's good.


Halloween was fun. First was the Trunk-or-Treat at church. Miciah's costume turned out okay. The whole time I was dying the shirt on the stove I kept thinking about when Charlie's mom in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was doing the laundry. Stirring this big vat of clothes. I randomly would break into short singing bursts of "Cheer up, Charlie. Just be glad you're you." Though I doubt Charlie's mom was tie-dying shirts.

No one at church guessed what she was. But she loved being the Nile. Hardly anyone else at church was even a scripture character at all. Which bummed me out. Rob was Joseph, as you'll see from the picture of him twirling in my dress. I was Moses' mom. Teancom was baby Moses and Elijah was a horse (a cop-out. We already had a horse costume and there are horses mentioned in the BoM). They were all dang cute. I'm sending pictures of all of them (minus me. I just wore a dorky dress I wear regularly).

Some neighbors gave the kids a huge amount of candy. They also gave the kids some toy pumpkins and the kids think the neighbors are awesome. We like our neighborhood. R & C gave the kids industrial-size Butterfingers bars. Holy coy, have we got candy!

For Halloween night Teancom was a pumpkin, and what a cute pumpkin he was. We even got him to smile for the picture, though it took some doing.

Okay, gotta go. Elijah is throwing a fit cause I'm not showing him enough pictures. Life is hard. :) I'll send a better update later, though what's better than pictures?

Tamra