Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Meeting Santa

There is a family in our neighborhood that has a train track that runs all over the block. They have these small trains that you can ride on. Each Halloween they put up a haunted train ride. We've gone twice and really enjoyed it. They also do a Christmas ride, but that one isn't open to the public, it's by invitation only. This year we were privileged to get a ride on the polar express.

Here we are getting ready to go. Poor Ammon and his long legs don't really fit all that well on the train.



The first half of the train ride takes you up to the North Pole where you get to meet Santa. It was both kids first experience meeting him. I wasn't sure how either would do. Well, Cormac actually met Santa when he was one. He wasn't too happy about the experience. But that was two year ago.

Azure was just curious. She was the first one of our kids to sit on Santa's lap.




Cormac needed a little bribe. Once he saw the candy cane though he decided to go a little closer.


When Santa asked what Cormac wanted for Christmas he said he wanted a train. My boy is rather fond of trains.


The last half of the train ride takes you through pictures and scenes from the Savior's life. It was a really special experience. We are so thankful to the good people who put on the train ride. We really enjoyed the experience.

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Azure is 10 Month's Old

Our Azure is changing all the time. She still cracks me up daily. One of my favorites is her fake cough. She loves to fake cough. She hams it up. That's for sure.


At 10 months little miss Azure:
~ weighs 16 lbs 3 oz (finally gaining a little).
~ is now 27.75 inches long. Either the last measurement was off (at 26.25 when she was 9 months), or that was one heck of a growth spurt.
~ still has no teeth.
~ loves to play.
~ plays by herself even. I love that:)
~ likes to have her cheek stroked when she's upset.
~ sucks in her bottom lip and sort of sucks on it when she's sad or tired.
~ is not a fan of dolls. At all.
~ actually likes cars, dinosaur toys, and especially loves balls. Maybe she'll play sports.
~ loves to lay all the way down in the tub and splash with both arms and legs. Cormac hates it when she splashes him like this.
~ hates wearing a bow.
~ smiles and flirts with everyone.
~ is still such a happy baby.
~ still just wants Mom on the occasions when she is not happy. That usually only happens when she's really really tired.
~ takes 2 naps still.
~ I'd tell you she's sleeping through the night, but I don't want to jinx it, so I'm not going to actually tell you that:)
~ loves to play with Cormac, or anyone who will play. But especially Cormac.

I think this series of pictures is rather telling of my girl. In the first picture you may notice that she already has one shoe off. Pretty impressive considering I put it on seconds before I laid her down. In the second picture here she is relieved to have both shoes off and to be sitting up.


Sitting is no longer good enough for a girl who has learned to stand with support, so up she goes. Now that her position is more satisfactory she goes after the headband.


It must come off! But it's on pretty good and she can't let go with the other hand or she'll fall. It's pretty hard to get off with one hand.


One last tug and, oh never mind, what's that over there? I'll go back to getting the headband off in a minute. First I need to see what else is around me.


Last little story. We recently took a long trip up to see my folks for Christmas (which was a really good time, except for the drive). It's a 12 hour drive, so to help get the kids some relief when we stopped we made sure to find a play place. At one such stop Cormac and Azure were playing together in the toddler area. There weren't too many kids there so the two of them had that area to themselves most of the time. As I was watching them I realized how comfortable they are around each other. Cormac is rather careless when he crawls and climbs around. Azure is used to being bumped and takes it all in stride. Cormac will occasionally pay attention to her, and she occasionally pays attention to him. Mostly they do their own thing, but they have a familiarity and a rhythm when they play that I realized is so familiar. Then I realized how they are really acting like siblings. Which I suppose makes sense, but it was the first time I had really seen that they are getting to that point. I also realized that if any other kid had been playing around Azure the way Cormac was I would have been panicked and would have removed her from the area, but not with Cormac because they know each other. He isn't too careful, but careful enough, and she is comfortable and used to him. It was very exciting for me to see that they are really starting to become friends. I'm so excited to watch that relationship grow as they get older. I sure love these kids.

The obligatory messy face pictures

It's a rite of passage. You know it is. Every kid needs a picture looking completely messy from a meal. Cormac had his prunes. Azure has her oatmeal. Here she is in all her glory.




She was coated. I tried to clean her up with a wash cloth, thought I had gotten it all, only to discover more later. It took complete submersion in the tub to right this mess. She was happy about it though. Both the mess and the bath.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Plowing the Drive

When we bought our big riding lawn mower (if you've seen our yard you understand why we really needed one) we made sure it had a snow plow attachment. Our little road is private property. Which means it doesn't get plowed. But we've had problems with the plower of late. So rather than plow in the traditional "clear the snow" way, the boys of this family came up with a different solution.

Just pack it down:



The back end of our awesome Christmas present. A new car. It's a Chevy Traverse and we love it.


Cormac was really in Heaven.

Goodbye Great Grandpa

My Great Grandpa just passed away this past November. Yes, you read that right. He was my Great Grandpa. We had 5 generations alive in our family. Pretty neat. Anyway, he was an incredible man and will be missed. But I know he must be so much happier now that he is back with his wife. I wanted to include a few pictures on this blog of his funeral for those who it matters to.

Harlen D. Garrison was a World War II vet. He served as a paratrooper. He raided Hitler's home just moments after Hitler had escaped. Pretty neat history. He was an amazing man. It was really special to be at his funeral. It was an emotional graveside service.











Grandpa's Obituary for anyone interested. Or for me and my kids one day.

Boring post of projects

So I realize that most people won't care about this, but I wanted to post a few of the projects that I've been working on since about August.

I was in charge of the costume contest for the youth Halloween party. I came up with these.

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 I threw a baby shower and made some good yummy things. Like these strawberries. Everyone loved them. I wasn't eating sugar at the time, so I cannot attest to how they turned out, but they were a big hit.

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I also made these chocolate apples. A word of advice, make sure you really thoroughly dry your apple slices. Then serve them soon after the chocolate hardens; they don't last.

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 I have been wanting a growth chart forever. Using a door frame or wall didn't seem wise since we have no intention of staying in our current house forever. I know a lot of people are making these, but I too fell in love and couldn't resist making one. I just used a sharpie and traced numbers I had printed off for those wondering.

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Olivia I have problems with my formatting too. So you can feel better. I didn't want this to be part of the caption, but I'm not smart enough to figure it out. Anyway, as far as I can remember I've made 15 or so hats this last year. And I've made at least 4 pairs of booties or slippers for babies. If I'm remembering right. Here are a few.

This is a flapper hat, but I can't find the pattern I used. Oops.

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This one is just like Azure's sweet hat you've seen on this blog before. Only this is for an adult. And in BYU Cougar Blue per request. Go Cougars.

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 I made one like this for Ammon for Christmas with green instead of the blue. I really like how it turned out. I'll have to get a picture of him in it sometime.

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 School colors for the sweet gal I made this for. Go Timp High.

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My sister is having a baby girl here in the next few weeks. We are so excited to meet Baby Caldwell. I made the new little one this fun blanket.

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 Then I lined the back with Minky material so it would be very soft to cuddle with. It will certainly be warm. Hopefully keep her snug in this ridiculous weather we are having. So so cold out.

Back of blanket via.
Anytime I get out the camera Cormac feels he needs to pose. He says, "Say Cheese." Then he gets in front for me to start snapping. Although he usually gives me very little smile in his "say cheese" expression.


This was one of my Mom's Christmas presents. I forgot to take a picture of the other one. Maybe another time. My sister took a photo of the Idaho Falls Temple (where my parents were sealed), and I repurposed a frame and made a mat to go with it. It turned out beautiful. Anyway, but here's the afghan.

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I made one for my wonderful Aunt Harriet for Christmas also. She does so much for us. So this is one I made for her.

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And a shot without the baby.

On the love seat for scale.
 The last one I did in 2012 and finished up in 2013 was this beauty. It was for The Johnson family (Ammon's oldest sister). We had drawn their names. I really hesitated to make this one since it was in fact their daughter, sweet Deseret, that taught me how to crochet. But I figured why not? Just a testament to what a wonderful teacher I had.

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On the couch for scale
And I wanted to include this one. I did it a little earlier in the year, but I love it so much. It's a baby blanket for a sweet family in our ward who added a baby boy to their family. They helped us so much when Azure was born. We really were indebted to them.

The edging via.

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Bored yet? Sorry. More posts about the kids soon. I know that's why you come to this blog afterall.