Christmas Eve 2008

Since we are exactly a month past Christmas Eve, I figured that it was about time I send out some pictures from that night. I can’t promise that I will have Christmas’ out tomorrow though!

Christmas Eve was fantastic this year. This year we decided to start some new traditions for our growing family. We decided to make Christmas Eve all about the Kovar side, and Christmas Day all about the Boyce side of the family. This decision couldn’t have been better. Usually, Andy and I have spent Christmas Day running a never-ending marathon between families, trying to make sure that we get to see everyone on the big day. We are usually dead spent by the time we hit the end. Thinking ahead, we knew that this kind of Christmas wouldn’t be fair on our kids, especially as they were already going to be overwhelmed by much extended family that was new to them. And, Andy told me that Christmas in his family was usually most about Christmas Eve, so the decision came naturally. Our families were both very understanding of the decision. This was probably the least demanding and most enjoyable Christmas season Andy and I have spent in California since we moved to Washington... Of course, a lot of that was because we got to see Christmas through the eyes of our own children too.

So, on Christmas Eve we headed over to Grandpa Kovar’s house, where Uncle Kris was staying also. (The kids had met Uncle Kris the day before, and it was love at first sight. In fact, Charlie is still including Uncle Kris in his stories now.) We got there during Charlie’s nap, and I kept him asleep as long as I could because I knew we were headed into a couple of long days... Lynnae was so excited to be there. Earlier that day we had been at Rite Aid and found that their big stuffed animals were 75% off... So we got one each for Charlie and Lynnae... We couldn’t turn down $2 bears! So she came in with her bear and her blanket and a huge grin. She wanted to open presents immediately, but we explained that usually we visited first. So, we all sat there and visited and had a great time. Then we ate some dinner, Grandpa and Uncle Kris had bought a deli tray, rolls, and salads... Not to mention some awesome guacamole, salsas and chips. It was a perfect Christmas Eve dinner. Grandpa also had restocked his fridge with strawberry milk for Lynnae, which she guzzled all night long. The kids were really excited to hear me say that Christmas Eve was an open munching holiday... Strawberry milk, cookies, candy... I figured if there was a time to let them learn their blood-sugar limits, it might as well be Christmas Eve!

After awhile we read the Christmas story from the Bible and opened presents. Charlie and Lynnae opened pajamas from us. Lynnae got a lot of fun stuff from Grandpa and Uncle Kris, she really enjoys her WallE leapster game and is excited to play with her science kit... (check out that mad scientist grin in the picture with it!) She really got a kick out of hologram glasses that her Aunt Kristina and family had sent over from Belgium... Actually, we all did. When you put them on and looked at Christmas lights, you would see a certain image – like a Santa Clause or a Christmas tree. Lynnae would not take them off all night, and still has them so that she will be prepared for next year. Charlie got a Cars pillow that he loves and a huge train set... They were both super-hyped about everything they opened. Andy got a tool from his dad, Kris got some neat kitchen tools from Kristina, and I was really excited to get Season 4 of Lost on Blu Ray.

After presents, Grandpa pulled out some cakes. (More sugar, why not?) The kids changed into their pj’s and we stayed for a couple more hours to play. Lynnae lost her tooth, and then she literally lost it... We are hoping that Grandpa Kovar didn’t get a fun surprise in his house sometime, but we still have not found this tooth. We told Lynnae that it was okay, because Santa and the Tooth Fairy are best friends, and we were sure they would work something out. We headed out the door for Grandma and Grandpa Boyce’s house, where Aunt Daja and her brood of cousins had arrived earlier that day. Lynnae was most excited to meet Evin and Braxton out of all of her cousins because they are closest in age to her. We told her that they would already be asleep once we got there, but that she would get to meet them when she woke up on Christmas Day. I put the kids to bed, and said good night. And then did the same thing 2 hours later when I heard Charlie. He was saying, “Is Santa here?” Clearly he managed to grasp the concept of what Santa did during the month, this made me even more excited for Christmas day!

Charlie's Prayers

Charlie has begged to say the dinnertime prayer for months now, so he says it a lot. In fact, we have often listened to two prayers before eating because he gets his feelings hurt if someone else says it. Until today, the prayer always went:

"Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for the day. Please bless that this food will be tasty..." And you know how it ends.

Today, for the first time ever, he changed it up. It went:

"Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for today. Thank you for the fog. Please let it snow. Thank you for letting us be together. Thank you for letting me start over. Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for today. Thank you for Lynnae. Thank you for Mommy. Thank you for Dad. Thank you for Charlie. Thank you for Frederick [his stuffed rabbit toy]. Thank you for Frederick's carrot. [LOOOOONG Pause] I love you too. Please help us be happy. And the food will be good for us..." And then the usual ending.

Okay, so there was a lot of pausing between each of these sentences, and the prayer was nearly 5 minutes long. But how cute! This prayer showed me a few things:

1. Charlie is definitely growing up.. his increasing fluency is even finding its way into prayers now.
2. Charlie is learning how to be thankful for lots of things... which is good, because lately he spends a lot of time stomping his foot and throwing mini-fits when I say no about whatever it is he thinks he should do.
3. Charlie is more intuitive even then I give him credit for. "Please help us be happy." That one really, actually, is very appropriate to the times in our family.
4. At least someone is grateful that the fog is here.

Actually, I felt really touched for a moment and I would not be surprised to know that Charlie was hearing answers in his head. The way he paused before he said, "I love you too," was very interesting. My little boy is growing up and getting more personality every day! And isn't it neat that a 3 year old can say things with such simplicity that can touch a 33 year old more than anything else that has happened in a week?

Family Update

I haven't had much time to post in the last week, but I figured I should at least post an update on a couple of things.

I'm sure many people heard the news from Microsoft yesterday regarding their plans to reduce spending, which included lay-offs. Andy's job is safe and he should not be impacted... although he does say that it was a little insane at work yesterday after that news came out! This economy is so unpredictable, isn't it?

As for our family, we've been having some pretty big struggles lately as Lynnae tries to continue her adjustment. It has been a very trying couple of weeks... However, for her own privacy I'm not going to post details here. Just please send us prayers and positive thoughts that she can find her way through her troubles.

We hope that you are all doing well.

A Sunny Sunday

Once we got to California, it was not as warm as we’d hoped. Yes, we had looked on weather.com before we left, so technically we were aware it was in the 30’s there. But still, the shock of it being that cold in our native warm state was a bit much to prepare for. Although it was freezing for more than half of our visit, it was much warmer than the 12-20 degree weather Seattle had been enduring for over a week, and it was beautifully sunny most of the time.

The Sunday before Christmas we went to church in my parent’s ward. They had a great Christmas program like usual. Our kids were excited for their classes – Lynnae remembered that when we went there in July they sang to her twice in primary, once for her birthday and once for being a visitor. She actually talked about it for about a month before we went again. I kept telling her, “You know that they aren’t going to sing to you for your birthday, because your birthday is not in December, right?” Turns out that it didn’t matter, she was perfectly content to be talked to all day by people who wanted to know more about a visitor. Charlie did well in the nursery too. Andy, my sister Liel, and I attended my mom’s Gospel Doctrine class. She does the same lesson every year before Christmas that chronicles the life of the Savior through participants reading several scripture passages and quotes. I’ve heard it three times now, but I still really enjoy it every time. And it is always fun to see the people from my childhood that I haven’t seen for awhile.

When we went home the kids wanted to go outside and play while we were getting ready to eat lunch. It was beautiful outside. My mom has several rosebushes that they spent time inspecting... And generally they just had a good time running around. It was a great Sunday, and the kids were getting more excited for their cousins to come back to Riverside from San Diego, and for their cousins in Arizona to arrive.

After lunch that day we headed over to Grandpa Kovar’s to spend some time with him. More to come...

Back in California

We got to my parents house rather late the day that we arrived, so after a pretty quick visit we all headed off to bed. I was determined not to let us get too off of schedule. (I had made that mistake in July and didn’t want to repeat it!) When we woke up in the morning the kids met their Aunt Keira, Uncle Chad and cousins Adam (5) and Brinly (2) from Chicago. They were all headed off to my Grandma’s outside of San Diego for a few days, so we visited with them for about an hour before they left. Then we had the house to ourselves until Aunt Liel showed up that evening, home for the last winter break she will have in her undergraduate years. The kids, especially Lynnae, really liked Aunt Liel.

One night Liel gave barcode stickers to both of them so that they could be “scanned” and purchased. They thought it was really funny. Lynnae liked Liel so much that she told me, after only one day with her, that she wanted to change her name to Liel. Now, Lynnae has been coming up with all sorts of new names for herself in the last few months... Rebecca seems to be the lasting preference. We keep reminding her that name changes don’t happen frequently, and that when she told us that she wanted to be Lynnae she was making that choice for life. Hopefully she doesn’t pull one of those, “I’ll change my name at school and church anyway and then they’ll have to live with it.” (Like my cousin Amanda, I mean Liz.) Not that I have a problem with Rebecca, it’s a lovely name, but I just don’t think she understands that people just don’t go about changing their name every day. So when she asked if she could change her name to Liel, I reminded her again of our conversation and added, “Besides, don’t you think that’d be rather confusing?” She’s back to talking about Rebecca again, but I digress...

A couple days after we got there my parent’s ward Christmas Party was scheduled. This was perfect because we missed ours due to the trip, and I hadn’t yet had the opportunity to take the kids to see Santa... I knew there would be one at the party. So on Saturday night we all packed up and went to the church. Charlie enjoyed talking to Santa, although Lynnae was perplexed when Santa somehow seemed to know that she must not be making her bed every day. This heightened her worry of receiving coal in her stocking. :) I was happily surprised to see several old friends that I did not expect to be there. Dinner took awhile coming so we entertained Charlie with the candy cane Santa had given him, and Liel entertained Lynnae with some Rock, Paper, Scissors. Now, that takes some patience because Lynnae doesn’t often play fair with that game... Have to give credit to Liel!


Then they had the program, and the primary children sat on the stage while they listened to my Dad read the Christmas story... My Dad’s been the bishop for awhile, I am not even sure how long, but since he was called long after I had moved away, it is still a little weird for me to picture him in that role!

We had a great few days before Christmas. We took the kids to see Bolt with Aunt Liel, really cute movie, and got all of our Christmas shopping done. It was actually positive for the kids to get to meet the family bit by bit, a lot less overwhelming then it could have been!

A Happy Birthday Present for Me

Today is my birthday. I am officially back-to-back 3's now. :) That means that I am pretty close in age to little Charlie, right?

This morning I found out that I had given myself a great birthday present. I officially have ticked off another 10 pounds, and am now down exactly 60 from my starting point! I haven't been able to weigh myself in a month. First we were in CA, and then when we got home our scale battery was dead... and it's an obscure battery that I couldn't find in stores... so I ordered it from Amazon... and then the floods hit I-5 and it couldn't get here... so, today is the first day I have weighed myself in a month and I am down 2 pounds from December 16th!!!

I figure you're allowed to gloat a bit on your birthday, right? 60 down, 19 more to go. And I am finally within a few pounds of Andy too... for the first time in about 12 years! (He decided to go and lose weight at the same time as I did, and has lost almost 20 pounds himself... or I would have passed him months ago. I'm proud of him too, but secretly wish that I COULD say I was finally lighter then him.)

First Flight

Since this summer, we have been preparing the kids for a big trip to California to celebrate Christmas with extended family. Once we made the decision to go by plane, (the other option was train,) we shared the plan with the kids and started to talk about flights with them. Neither of them had ever been on a plane before, and they were both extremely excited... More and more so with each week that brought them closer to Flight Day. About two weeks before we left, both kids started to show another kind of energy as well... Nerves. Lynnae started making lists of what she needed to get on the plane, and fretted about whether I had the right birth certificates. Charlie started acting out. But overall, they were very excited.

The day of the flight, a major storm hit the Seattle area. You might remember seeing the pictures of the two busses that had collided in Seattle? I believe that happened the day after we left. About an hour and a half before we departed, the heavy snowfall began to stick. We had to kick the kids out of our driveway, which has the steepest slope on the street, so that we could load the car and back out. We were glad that we left when we did. We ended up making it to the airport with plenty of time, but the storm seemed to be worsening quickly... And we didn’t want to drive through any worse weather than necessary. Because of how freezing it was... (I can’t remember, but I know it was in the teens,) we were all bundled up in hats, gloves, sweaters and coats... Ready to shed them when we got to California.

At the airport we had a lot more juggling then I used to have when I travelled for work all the time by myself. We are such inexperienced “parent” travelers that we made it all the way into the airport before we realized that we did not have Charlie’s car seat. Andy went back to get it. Luckily, the airport was practically deserted, so I didn’t have to worry too much about how slow we were going. It was definitely a new experience to check bags and get through the security gates. I took Charlie, Andy took Lynnae. It seemed to work well. At the end, one of the TSA employees gave both kids a sticker badge. Charlie was VERY excited about it. He actually managed to keep it nice for a couple of days! There’s a picture below of him showing it off.

We were early enough that we spent time in the central terminal and ate dinner. The kids watched the tarmac with mounting enthusiasm. By the time we got to the gate, Andy and Lynnae clamored over to seats where they could watch the action. Charlie and I watched our plane roll up to the gate and the earlier passengers depart. Then it was our turn. We gathered all of our things and joined the groups of families with small children to board early. (Yes, you’re supposed to be 2 or under... But Charlie had only been 3 for 7 days, so I felt like it was the same thing!) Lynnae took the window seat with Andy in the center. I settled into the window behind Lynnae with Charlie sitting next to me. A very nice, patient and gracious student sat next to Charlie. Not only did she put up with him handing her toys for half of the ride, but she even initiated play with him. We were so lucky, (and not as lucky on the return flight.)

When we started rolling, Charlie started shouting with glee... “We’re moving, we’re moving, here we come!!!” We watch a lot of Little Einsteins, and one of the things they do is pat their laps to get Rocket up into the air. Charlie started chanting, “pat, pat, pat, pat” as we waited in line and finally sped down the runway. Then I joined in and lifted up my hands saying, “Blastoff!” as the front end picked up... Charlie was in heaven. About a second later I heard Lynnae start, “Oh no, we’re going to die. I’m going to die. Help mommy!” So I spent the next 10 minutes with my hand on her shoulder calming her down. Then she was good and looking at the little cars and trees down below.

Charlie and I started watching the Princess Diaries. He fell asleep about 35 minutes in and slept until we were landing. Again... I was lucky. The landing was hard for him because he woke up as his ears were probably starting to bug him. So he whimpered for awhile because he was confused. Once we landed getting our luggage and our rental car was relatively painless. The kids were so proud that they had been on their first plane. They both gave each other Alaska Airline Hot Wheels planes for Christmas, and Charlie thought this was the best toy ever for his ride home.

I’m still making my way through all of the pictures that I took during our California trip... So stay tuned to learn more!

Girl Scout Cookies

When Lynnae first moved here we knew that one of her favorite previous activities was Girl Scouts. We also knew that she hadn't been in a troop for a year, but I didn't really think it would be an issue to get her into a troop around us. I was surprised when I received a response from our local council that there was a waiting list for her age group and no available troops. I figured we would go on the waiting list and a troop would come up.

Well, this summer we went to an Aquasox game and the Girl Scouts had a booth there... I told them that I would be willing to lead a troop if one wasn't available. Within a month I was preparing to do just that. I found out the waiting list was huge, and my coleader and I now lead 15 1st - 3rd graders from 3 local schools in our start-up troop. It has been fun, but also a lot of paperwork!

Me being me, and my coleader being similar, we haven't doled out responsibilities to the other parents. We're a little cautious about making sure everything is done right. So, when we found out cookie sales were coming up, of course we decided that we would handle the Cookie Mom responsibility. We received our training on Tuesday, a few days before the pre-sale started, and now I am just waiting for this pre-sale period to end so that we get to start calculating our boxes, ordering, receiving, sorting, and collecting money.

Lynnae is so excited to sell cookies. She has her heart set on winning a prize. It is fun to see her working on this, and talking with each sale about how much closer she is to her goal. However, I know in the back of my mind, with each box she sells... the other 14 are selling too... and that will mean more ordering, sorting and collecting for me!

Charlie's Chalkboard Accomplishments

I really wanted to give Charlie an easel for his birthday. We had several ideas, but we kept coming back to this one. Almost immediately after we got it, Charlie started to show huge improvements in his drawing ability. Whether it is the big chisel-shaped chalk, being able to better visualize it standing up, or being able to draw bigger... I don’t know. But, Charlie is suddenly spacially more aware and in better control of his hands while writing and drawing.

During December we were working on a different number every day. Once we got the chalkboard going, on the 11th, I drew a big 11 on his chalkboard. Within 2 minutes, he was drawing 11’s too. But that number’s pretty easy. What surprised me was when he picked up on 12 the next day and 13th the day after that. 14 proved elusive, but he also managed to write 15. And not once, but over and over again. He also starting drawing T’s, J’s, F’s, and C’s. I was in awe. He started drawing them on paper too!

Then Lynnae drew a smiley face on the chalkboard one day. And what did Charlie do? Pick it up and duplicate it. His smiley was a little awkward looking... Okay, very awkward looking. But then later that night he drew an entire face. And then he told me that he had drawn Charlie Brown for me. He was drawing Charlie Brown’s during our entire vacation. (I think that it is funny that his Charlie Brown is literally a blockhead.)

This might not seem like huge news for some, but this is a kid that a month ago struggled with the whole concept of why we would draw things. I am so happy with the investment in the easel! He has also painted some pretty cute things!

Travel Blankets for the Kids

Once upon a time I was, at least in my own opinion, relatively crafty. One of my favorite, favorite pastimes is to crochet a blanket. Lynnae would really like me to teach her how to do this. I worry about my patience. I thought it might be a good idea to start out with something less complicated that yields faster results.

A week before we left for California we were shopping at Joann’s. Lo and behold, their fleece blanket kits were 60% off. Lynnae had begged me for these things on at least 3 previous occasions. I kept telling her that they were a bit pricey but that if they ever went on a really good sale we could get them. $8 seemed pretty good to me. So Lynnae picked one out and Charlie picked one out. (Surprise, surprise... Lynnae picked monkeys and Charlie picked Buzz.)

The next day Lynnae watched me cut the strips on her blanket... And she cut about 5 of them herself. I handed her one of the little squares while I was cutting and she made a little doll blanket with it to practice. Then, once it was time to tie, she did about 1/3 of the knots herself. She is very proud of her blanket, and it was very good bonding time for us. I made Charlie’s the next day and he was really happy to see it in the morning.

I told both of the kids that these were their special travel blankets. Since we were moving around so much on our trip... First staying with my parents, then one hotel, then another hotel, then back to the first hotel and finally back with my parents... I wanted them to have something constant and snuggly from place to place. It worked well and the kids love these blankets!

New Advent Calendar

Sometime in October I started to feel nostalgic about childhood Christmases. In particular, I was remembering all of my mom's activities and homemade advent calendar. In November it finally occurred to me that I had no homemade advent calendars, and that I really wanted my kids to have similar memories.

So, on a whim I called a friend that I consider to be crafty and that I thought would also enjoy making an advent calendar. She said she'd like to do it too... so I was off and running to find a project that we could make. What I ended up finding was completely different than what I had originally envisioned, but it looked so cute that we decided to make it. I found it on another blog that has several cute ideas: http://allsorts.typepad.com/allsorts/2007/11/advent-calendar.html.

It didn't seem like it was going to be that much work at first. But after cutting out 50+ pockets from felt took us a few hours, we started to realize that it wasn't going to be quite so easy. We then had to whipstitch them together, freehand our own numbers, and sew on buttons. Then we had to come up with a way to hang them, attach fabric between each one and actually get it on the wall. At the last minute I realized that I hadn't yet thought to make the paper dangles to affix as the days went by. I ended up spending the majority of two days to frantically get this entire project done before December 1st... but, surprisingly, I made it. And now we will have this calendar for the years to come. My goal is to make another advent calendar this summer so that next year the kids can take turns each opening one a day.

Charlie's Birthday Party at the Museum

The weekend before we headed off to California for our Christmas vacation, we celebrated Charlie’s birthday with friends at the Everett Imagine Children’s Museum. We love this museum and have enjoyed a lot of visits there! It just so happened that our timing wasn’t great... There was snow the night before and the day of his birthday party, which prevented several friends from attending because they lived further away. Charlie didn’t seem to mind, he still had a great time... And we had lots of leftover cake for him to enjoy! Most of his preschool friends were able to come, and so did Candice. Carleigh, Joe and Jacob trekked up from Kent, which is about an hour away, and were the first people to arrive... Now that is dedication!

The day of his party the museum was having a Christmas celebration in one of their art rooms. So, after we did cake and presents, the kids ran around in the museum making crafts and just playing. They helped decorate huge gingerbread houses, made gingerbread grams for people in nursing homes and masks. I think the big hit in the museum was the Italian bistro, complete with a huge play kitchen. All in all, Charlie had a great day. He is still telling me, “Mommy, this Saturday is my Buzz Birthday at the museum!” And I have to keep reminding him that it is already over... And that we will have another party for him next year!