Kid stats

I just weighed and measured the girls and here's where they stand:

Lacy: 30 pounds, 39.5 inches tall (26th percentile for weight, 78th percentile for height, BMI right around the 5th percentile about 13.5, which indicates she may be slightly underweight )

Rose: 26 pounds, 33.5 inches tall (66th percentile for weight, 84th percentile for height)

The Story of Stuff

One thing that I'm going to be blogging on here soon is my goals for 2008. One thing I'd like to do is live a more sustainable lifestyle. I found this fact sheet (PDF) from The Story of Stuff website that I'd like to share with you guys. The information is quite alarming. I'm going to be watching the movie Annie Leonard made "The Story of Stuff" hopefully this evening. I'm sure I will be shocked and appalled, and I will go into action. Hopefully some of you guys will also be appalled at what is happening in the world and will join me in living more sustainably.

• In the past three decades, one-third of the planet’s natural
resources base have been consumed.
• In the United States, we have less than 4% of our original
forests left.
• Forty percent of waterways in the US have become undrinkable.
• The U.S.has 5% of the world’s population but consumes 30% of
the world’s resources and creates 30% of the world’s waste.
• If everybody consumed at U.S. rates, we would need 3 to 5
planets.
• There are over 100,000 synthetic chemicals in commerce today.
• Only a handful of synthetic chemicals have even been tested for
human health impacts and NONE have been tested for synergistic
health impacts.
• In the U.S., industry admits to releasing over 4 billion pounds of
toxic chemicals a year.
• The average U.S. person now consumes twice as much as they
did 50 years ago.
• We each see more advertisements in one year than a people 50
years ago saw in a lifetime.
• In the U.S. our national happiness peaked sometime in the
1950s.
• In the U.S., we spend 3–4 times as many hours shopping as our
counterparts in Europe do.
• Average U.S. house size has doubled since the 1970s.
• Each person in the United States makes 4 1/2 pounds of garbage
a day. That is twice what we each made thirty years ago.
• For every one garbage can of waste you put out on the curb, 70
garbage cans of waste were made upstream to make the junk
in that one garbage can you put out on the curb

Christmas Morning at our house, part 2: Opening family gifts

We enjoyed exchanging family gifts. We did it really quickly because we wanted to get over to my folk's house before breakfast was over! Fortunately we didn't have a ton of gifts to open. I've featured a photograph of each of our family members: Dad helping Rose opening one of her pairs of jammies:Lacy opening what probably ended up being a pair of jammies:

Dave admiring his new WSU jacket: (GO COUGARS!!!)
Flexible chopping mats! Just what I've always wanted! Thanks, honey!

Family gifts: Rose received-- two pairs of pink jammies, one new outfit, and a pack of underwear. Lacy received-- two pairs of purple jammies, one new outfit, and a pack of Princess underwear (they're days of the week panties-- how awesome is that?). I got-- a new microwave (installed well before Christmas), flexible chopping mats, a new grater that is really nice, and I Am America: And So Can You! by Stephen Colbert. Dave got-- WSU jacket, nice new casual/dress shirt with a t-shirt that goes with it, IPod docking station, tie bar, massager, and handkerchiefs. Each of the girls unwrapped 4 gifts each, Dave unwrapped 6, and I unwrapped 3. I tried keeping it low key this year, and I think I did a pretty good job.

Christmas Morning at our house, part 1: The Set-up and Santa

This was the girls' big Christmas present. And boy, it was a whole lot bigger than what I expected when I picked it out from the Toys R Us ad! It barely fit in the living room. When the girls are playing with it in their room, it doesn't fit, and actually bends on one side from a chair in the way. But they make do, and put their tiny toy kitchen on the chair (there's a window so they can reach into it!) and call it their kitchen! OK, maybe their 7 year old friend Hannah, who came over today, taught them that, but it sure was cleaver. Anyway, this is our living room, all ready for the girls. Santa doesn't wrap presents in our house. It was fun to just have them run into the living room and immediately start playing with all their new toys! They didn't get a ton, and I got a lot of great deals, so I think we did pretty good this Christmas. The inside of the tent. Lacy got a magnentic paper doll set (Cinderella of course), binoculars, a jewelry box, and a few other things in her stocking. Rose got the animal sets, toy cars, and some books. They both got an Ariel night light.
Lacy was sound asleep, and I needed her to wake up so we could get started with our day. She would not move. But once I said, "I think Santa came!" she popped right up, and started running down the hall! I had to stop her so I could take a picture!
Our Christmas tree with all the presents under it. I only added them the night of Christmas Eve because Rose would try to open them all! But they were in the closet and Lacy saw them for about a week before they were under the tree. I would frequently find her hiding in the closet, just admiring the presents. She's such a silly girl! Anyway, even though she knew they were there for a while, she still thinks all the presents she got were from Santa!
The girls playing with their new toys. They loved what they got!

Look, Mom! Santa brought a banana! Of course Santa can't be you guys, because Dad's allergic to bananas!


More to come later! I will be adding pictures from our family opening presents, opening presents with the Abersolds, opening funny gifts, and Christmas dinner!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

This is what we saw out of my parent's window this evening:

And we got home to this:




I can't believe we actually had a white Christmas this year! Not the magical Christmas morning snow, but golly, snow on the ground at all is a miracle! We were so excited to have snow. I could hardly get the girls to come inside. Rose especially wanted to play in the snow. Hopefully it will stick around so they can play outside tomorrow morning. And hopefully Dave's commute isn't terrible. He may take the truck. It is 4 wheel drive plus we have chains for it. We could barely get the car up the driveway when we got home! In fact, we had to sweep the snow out of the way, and Dave had to get a running start just to get up the tiny little hill we have!

We had a great Christmas. I'll post in a little bit about our Christmas day. Just had to share the white Christmas photos first!

Merry Christmas Eve! Or, the Giant Playtent (oh no!)

We bought a play tent for the girls for their big gift from Santa this year. I thought it was going to be smallish to medium sized. It is huge. We opened it and it took up the entire space in the living room between the couches and chairs. Shoot. I have no idea where it will fit when they play with it. It will be an outside toy this summer, for sure. And maybe on nice days this winter and spring, too! They're going to like it, but Mom would like it a heckuva lot more if it was smaller!

Last night I was having trouble sleeping because I heard a lot of noise outside. I was a little scared so I decided to do the smart thing and walk into the living room, barefoot in my jammies. I looked out to the back porch and saw this:

Yikes! There were actually two of them at one point. I woke Dave up and we watched these guys for about 10 minutes. Dave opened the door a crack and the first one tried coming in! I was ready to run out and get a gun, 'cause it scared the bejeezers out of me! Then Dave had to go feed them (it is the holidays, after all) and I complained that we might have more frequent visitors due to his feeding them!

I guess Lacy is still not well completely. She had a fever last night and was super crabby tonight at Dave's dad's house. But at least she looked cute!

At one point she was crying and whining so much (I think someone told her no and it shattered her!) that the only person that could console her was Jeremy's girlfriend Melissa. Who gave her a french braid.

Rose was really cute with her cousin Allison. They played together as best as two one-year-olds can. Rose liked to give her hugs and was really sweet, most of the time.

We opened some presents over there and the girls each got a book and an outfit, Rose got a puzzle and a Kelly doll, and Lacy got a lap desk and some body wash. We left there around 7 with the girls in jammies, did spiritual time in the car, and it's a good thing we did. They were just tuckered out after Christmas Eve!

Unfortunately only one of these girls stayed asleep (Lacy). The other is finally back to sleep and I'm considering putting her in bed in a minute so I can start setting up for tomorrow. I think Dave is wrapping some of my presents so I'll wait a few more minutes first.

I'm looking forward to Christmas morning! The girls should love their gifts. We will hurry up and get out of here, bring the ginormous princess castle tent thing with us, have breakfast at the Abersold's, and exchange gifts! I still have to finish up a couple details with Dixon's funny gift, but we're ready to go, otherwise. We got Kurt an awesome gift that I won't divulge on the off chance that he actually reads my blog.

Cute Cousins

My sister babysat my girls today so I could do a little holiday shopping, sans kiddos. After I got back, they were playing in an upstairs bedroom. Lacy said, "I'm Mary." I thought she said "married," so I responded as such, to which she said, "No. MARY." And then Regan, her 4 year old cousin, said, "And I'm the ANGEL!" And apparently Turner (2) was Joseph. A penguin was baby Jesus. Awwww, how cute, cousins playing Nativity!

And while I was away, Leslie (my sister) was holding Rose, her back to Leslie's chest, and Cooper (almost 3 months) was also being held by Leslie, in front of Rose. Rose couldn't get enough of him. She kept hugging him. She would reach around and squeeze for about 10 seconds, let off for a few seconds, and become overwhelmed with love for Cooper and hug him again. This lasted until Cooper decided he was overstimulated and needed some space! My Roo is a little sweetie and adores her baby cousin.

And I got the gift of counterspace for Christmas! Dave installed an over-the-range microwave for me yesterday. I was able to clear off two counter sections completely bare and I only have the one by the fridge occupied with unstoreable stuff, such as big canisters of grans and my Kitchenaid.

Funny story while the microwave was being installed... Dave the other day told me to try some jerkey his buddy Bill made. He told me he brined it in some applesauce and some other weird things. He said, "He put a lot of heart into it." Well, I took that to mean it didn't taste so good, but it was a nice effort. I took a bite and Dave told me that I just ate beef heart. I was so mad at him! I hate being duped! While I set the heart jerkey down so I could recover from the deception, he said, "You're not going to be one of THOSE are you? One who likes it until they find out what it is and then won't eat it anymore?" I grumbled but I ate it and even liked it (but don't tell Dave).

Yesterday I couldn't use the stove or oven, since Dave and Beef Heart Bill were installing the microwave. So I got out the ol' Microwave cooking cookbook and made, from scratch, a meatloaf, in the microwave. It called for an apricot glaze. He said, "you're not putting THAT in the meatloaf are you?" I replied, "No, of course not! This goes on top!" "Gross! I am NOT eating that!" I told him this is what's for dinner, and I'm not making anything else, and he'd better eat it AND like it! Bill told Dave, "She does have a point there." I called him a big old hypocrite and said he had better eat the loaf or he'd be one of those guys who has a total double standard and I won't put up with that!

He ate half the loaf. Bow down to the master microwave chef.

O Christmas Tree

Tonight we went to the local Christmas tree farm and picked out a fine Christmas tree! We had lots of fun wandering around the farm, looking at all the trees, and finally deciding on a very lovely tree. Not too big, smells lovely, fairly full and even. And the top is nice and straight. We haven't set it up yet, but I think we'll do that tomorrow night. I'd like to put some lights out tomorrow, too, but Dave is taking advantage of his last day of elk season. He thought he had given that up when he went to help out in Chehalis, but they extended archery elk season until tomorrow. I guess that's what you call good karma!

Anyway, here is our tree, and our cute little decorations. OK, so you can barely see it. It was dusk. I'll have better pictures of it after it's all decorated.

Items of importance, from a 3-year-old's perspective

I'm really mad tonight. I'm having issues with a couple doctor's offices that aren't my fault. And instead of ranting and raving about them and making myself more angry, when I can't even do anything about them until tomorrow when they're open again, I'm going to post something very light and fun, to put me (and you!) in a good mood!

Today I found two purses of Lacy's that she packed with Important Items for some quick trips. I went through them and was going to put the purses and everything in them away, but I thought you'd get a kick out of what she finds important enough to pack up for a trip.

Purse #1-- white satin with pearl handle:
*sparkley purple sunglasses
*cloth baby wipe
*frilly ponytail holder
*pair of plastic Disney princess clip-on earrings
*tiny rubber snake (appears to be a cobra)

Purse #2-- furry purple with "Princess" embroidered on it:
*a toothbrush for both Lacy AND Rose
*wooden block ("L" and "Y" on the sides)
*broken blue beaded bracelet
*giant plastic toy fishing treble hook
*plastic heart-shaped clip-on earrings
*incredibly gaudy plastic "fancy" necklace

Do I have a girly-girl, or what?

It's the Christmas Season!

We're finally starting to feel somewhat better after more than TWO WEEKS of illness in our home. Somehow Dave got out of being sick. That is a first for him! But I'm extremely grateful because he never had to go to work feeling very ill. The girls both had a day of the pukes, and two weeks of coughs and runny noses, with Lacy's case being worse off than Rose's. Of course this is Lacy's first cold and flu season without the extra boost of Mama Milk to keep her going! I almost feel guilty about weaning her for that reason. Almost.

Many of you may have heard of the floods and devastation that has occurred in Lewis County, Washington. Tonight there was apparently a news story about all the Mormons who helped out in the area. All the volunteers from our church wore yellow shirts and were doing everything they could to help out in this extreme time of need. Dave decided to blow off the very last day of elk season in order to go down to Chehalis to help out in some of the hardest hit areas. I only wish I could go as well, but having a nursing toddler means an all-day excursion is not an option for me. It's been 7 months since I quit my job, and I doubt she will fall asleep for anyone else at this point at nap time!

Tonight while driving home, Dave had a strong prompting to go visit a family that lives nearby. He tried to ignore the prompting but it was so strong that he could not. When he arrived at this family's home, the wife answered the door, "what brings you here?" Dave told her, "I'm not sure. I just felt like I really needed to be here." This wonderful sister broke down into sobs and started telling Dave that her grandson was just rushed back to the hospital after being released recently from a four-day stay, for RSV and pneumonia. I was very touched to hear of a situation where the spirit prompted someone to help someone else who needed a shoulder to cry on.

OK, I'm getting close to the end now! If you're still with me, you will be rewarded for coming to the end of this post! We had our ward Christmas party tonight, and I got to dress up my little angels in their Christmas dresses. I must say that my cuties were the best dressed of all the children there. We left the party just after 8 (which is after their bedtime!) and headed home, and both girls were in bed by 9. A late night, but they had a good time, and were sure cute tonight! And I have photographic evidence! Keep in mind that this is after the party (this airheaded blogger remembered to bring our camera but forgot a memory card! D'oh!) and both girls were up past their bedtime. I still think they turned out pretty cute!

Let it snow!

We got really excited Saturday night. It started snowing! This was good for two reasons: 1. Snow is fun, and it's fun to watch little kids play in the snow. 2. Dave didn't have to work the next day, so he didn't have to worry about driving to Seattle in bad weather! (OK, so those of us in Washington know about the downpour and flooding that happened on Monday, so I guess he did have to drive to Seattle in bad weather after all, just not in the snow. And I just discovered that my favorite BBQ joint was destroyed due to the weather! Boo hoo!) We ended up getting at least 4 inches of snow Sunday night. It was really fun watching it dump down on us. I think we got closer to 5 or 6 inches, but the rain had already started by the time we got up Sunday morning.

So Sunday we missed church because we were still sick. But we're not so sick that we can't still have a good time! Mostly we're just contagious, and we don't want to infect the whole ward with this miserable cold that has lasted since Thanksgiving. We bundled up the girls and played in the snow just long enough to build a snowman. That was plenty long for me! Oh yeah, and I took a few pictures!