Christmas Prep

I take a break from all the yuckiness that is STILL hovering around our house (Allie started throwing up on Sunday and is finally feeling a little better today and McKay has had diarrhea since Friday. Jeff has a stomach ache, too, but he's functional. It's really wearing on me.) to bring you some of our Christmas fun. 

The fourth graders at Cherry Hill put on a Grinch program. It was really fun, complete with many costume changes (hats) and lots of songs. Damon happily showed me his Frosty hat.

School got on on Friday, and Jeff went to Arizona for a 259 concert at the Mesa temple. We took the opportunity to decorate our gingerbread house for FHE. It looks delicious!

I love this picture. Carter thought I was taking it of him and gave me a fantastic "cheese!"

This is how it looks today. Maybe a little too delicious? Carter has no self-control.

Carter was really funny when he was sick. He wanted to lay on the couch with his "night night," his blanket and his pillow pet. He would run there when he saw me coming with his "loves." He is feeling great now and back to eating everything in sight.

 I still have a few last minute things to do before Christmas, but we're mostly ready! Now to rid our house of all the germs that have been plaguing us, and we'll be good to go. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas letter and picture for this year.

2011 was a busy year for the Trapnell Family!

Although there was no award ceremony marking the events of the past year, we decided to award ourselves “patches” for our accomplishments.

McKay (almost 9 months) earned the Luck of the Irish Patch when he was born early on the morning of March 17^th. We were thrilled to learn that our “caboose” was another little boy. Since then, he has earned the Happy Baby Patch, which I attribute to the fact that he is a thumb sucker and has learned the art of self-soothing. He also earned the No Child Left Behind Patch, as he is constantly on the move, trying to keep up with his siblings. His favorite place to be, though, is under the kitchen table looking for scraps, and so was awarded the Canine Stand-in Patch for his efforts in keeping the floor clear of crumbs.

Carter (almost 2) earned the Communication Patch for finally starting to put words together in a recognizable fashion. Our family favorite is when he says, “no more monkey jump bed,” which has earned him the Comedian Patch based on the reaction he gets. He also earned the Heavy Eater Patch for his insatiable appetite for any food put before him. The award we are most excited about, though, was the Breathing Easy Patch. After being hospitalized for two nights with croup in February, he hasn’t had any more breathing problems, thanks to the prednisone we keep on hand and dispense at the first sign of croup.

Kyla (4) earned the Mothering Patch, as she has spent countless hours “taking care” of her younger brothers. She also earned the Angel Patch, when we became aware of the angels watching over her more than once. Most dramatically, she put the running car into reverse (with Carter inside) and her pregnant, helpless mother watched as she backed out of the parking lot at Walgreens. Miraculously, she managed to get the car back into drive and returned right back to the parking stall where her mom was able to get the door open and apply the brakes before any damage was done. She definitely had someone watching over her that day.

Allie (6) earned the Tooth Fairy Patch, as she lost five teeth this year, including those two front teeth she is currently asking for for Christmas. She also earned the Bilingual Patch as she started first grade in a dual language class at school. She delights audiences with her rendition of “The Pledge of Allegiance” in Spanish. She also earned the Dual Personality Patch for her ability to transform from a perfectly agreeable and happy child into someone who wants nothing more than to fight with her mother.

Damon (9), in addition to earning real patches in cub scouts, has earned the Circus Performer Patch for his mastery of the stilts. He also earned the Try Anything Patch for humoring his parents as they signed him up for piano, swim team, football, soccer, baseball, basketball and gymnastics in an attempt to find out what he really wants to do (he thinks he will continue with soccer and piano). He also earned the Biggest Helper Patch for all he does for his younger brothers (especially Carter) whenever we dare venture out in public, which isn’t all that often.

Krystal earned the Muscle Building Patch, almost entirely by carrying Carter and McKay up and down the stairs every day. She earned the Eagle Eye Patch because apparently she is the only one who can find anything in the house. Krystal also earned the Chauffeur Patch for all hours she spent driving to preschool, dance, soccer, swim lessons and the library. She also earned the Multi-Tasking Level 1 Patch out of necessity. There just isn’t enough mommy to go around. She is already working hard on Level 2, hoping that at some point she will be able to “do it all.”  

Jeff earned the Responsibility Patch as he bought the orthodontic practice he had been working in for three years. He also earned the Cougar Board Patch as he closely followed all the news about BYU sports. He and Krystal shared in the Honeymoon Part II Patch for the vacation they were able to take, without kids, to Hawaii in October. That is a patch they both hope to earn every year in the future!

As a family, we are happy to report that we are all happy and healthy, and so incredibly grateful to be celebrating another Christmas together, and rejoice in the birth of a baby boy, one who would grow up to be our King. We are so blessed to have so many family and friends to share our lives with, and send our love to you, wherever you might be. Merry Christmas from the Trapnell’s!

Jeff, Krystal, Damon, Allie, Kyla, Carter and McKay

Twosies

 **WARNING-Graphic content!! Stop reading if you are easily nauseated.

Can we just talk about my two littlest loves and how they are causing me to age at a rapid pace? Carter has become Mr. Do-it-Himself, and I am constantly taking him off counters, out of bathrooms and out of trouble. He is so busy! Whether he's filling the toilet with toilet paper or pouring baby powder all over my dresser, he is always doing something. And the only reason I keep him around is because he is so dang cute. He constantly tells me "thank you mom" for everything I do for him. Including putting him to bed. It's my favorite thing in the whole world right now.

McKay thinks he is a big boy. He crawled halfway up the stairs the other night to prove it. He wants to eat everything the big kids eat and is great at making messes. The two boys combined are trouble. Cute trouble, but trouble just the same. I found a safe place for him while I'm getting ready. Although the second time I tried this, he turned the water on and soaked his pants. Sigh.

Last week, Carter was jumping around in the bath tub and got another black eye. So typical. I was worried he might need stitches for the laceration on his eyelid, but Jeff thought he was fine so we let it go. It's healing okay, except when Carter picks at it because it's bothering him. He woke up the next day and his eye was swollen shut. Very nice.

This week, though, has been "fun" for another reason. Carter started feeling sick on Monday. He fell asleep on me at Allie's Christmas program at school. At 10:00 am. That was the first sign that he wasn't feeling well. He hasn't had much of an appetite all week, and on Tuesday the diarrhea started. And so I kept force feeding him Gatorade to make sure he didn't get dehydrated and changed diapers. Repeatedly. 

McKay had been dealing with a nasty diaper rash for weeks and I was trying everything to get rid of it. He was having baking soda soaks, I would use a blow dryer to dry him off between changes (and he'd always pee on me), and I was letting him crawl around naked for extended periods of time. I was trying all kinds of creams and remedies without success. It all came to a head on Wednesday. McKay was crawling around naked and I was busy working on some last minute Christmas cards. One of the kids came running to find me with this little nugget. "McKay pooped on the floor and he's playing in it!" I found just that. And it was disgusting. I got him cleaned up, wiped up the floor and sprayed with Lysol (because clearly I wasn't going to do a full mop job just then). 

About an hour later, I caught a whiff of Carter. He had diarrhea again and was crying because it was irritating his leg. So, right there in the kitchen, I took his diaper off so he could be free. Only this time, there was more than a little squirt in his diaper. I liken it to bowl full of soup. And the diaper had no chance of containing it. Instead, it covered my kitchen floor as I cursed silently in my head. I desperately tried to get this latest mess cleaned up before anyone (McKay especially) found their way into the kitchen. I went through a dozen paper towels and then went for the mop. I mopped the affected area three times and turned the heat up on my potpourri on the stove. Still, though, I could smell it. The next day, the scent lingered. I took out the trash and used my steam mop and STILL I could smell it. It was awful. 

Today, I can't detect any trace of it. And Carter is back to normal, begging for candy and treats. I couldn't be happier. I'm so tired of cleaning up poop. And changing poopie diapers. There's only one problem. McKay had diarrhea tonight. Awesome. 

Ballet

For the past 3 months, Allie and Kyla have been taking a ballet class at the rec center. It was a two day a week class, so it was a fairly substantial time commitment for me (3:30-5:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays), but I knew they needed to experience dance to see how they liked it. I was surprised with how much Kyla complained. And how little Allie did. Kyla's class was pre-ballet and only 30 minutes long. Allie's was 50 minutes and she often had to miss playing at the park (when the weather was nice). But Allie really seemed to enjoy it. Kyla got bored.

Last week, they had their dance "recital." Jeff was late getting there, so I was trying to wrestle with the babies and still take video of their performances (which were all about 1 minute long, thankfully, so we were done in about an hour with the whole thing). It got a little crazy, but it was a fun night.

This is what McKay liked doing. Playing among the chairs.

 

Carter was not happy to be there and especially not happy that he couldn't have my attention.

Damon was a fan of the actual dancing. Surprised?

After the performances, I had the girls pose for a few dancing pics. This is what they came up with.

Overall, it was a fun experience. If they ask to do dance again, I will probably sign them up. If not, I won't push it. They are going to try a gymnastics class in January so we'll see how that goes.

My three boys

Bed time!

When we moved in with Jeff's parents in 2008, we used the bedroom set that was already in their basement. It had belonged to Jeff's great aunt (who didn't have any children) and, although old, was in great condition. I knew the mattress was old, too, and ordered a 3 inch memory foam for my side of the bed to make it tolerable.

When we moved into our new house, his parents let us take the bedroom set because every last cent (and then some) we owned went into the house. We were very grateful. And I continued to sleep 3 inches higher than Jeff (except for those months when I slept in the guest room with my babies, Carter and McKay. Then I slept on my memory foam heaven queen bed).

When I finally moved back into our bedroom when McKay was about four months old, I had a hard time adjusting back to the old mattress. Even with my memory foam, I had a terrible time falling asleep and woke up stiff every morning. I took the memory foam off, just to see what it was like, and it was awful. I mentioned to Jeff what a terrible time I was having, and my subliminal messages started working. He started sleeping terribly, too, and agreed that we really needed a new mattress.

We got started looking, and Jeff decided he wanted to get a new bedroom set, especially since a lot of the deals were when you bought an entire set, not just a mattress and/or bed. Although we found some we liked, there was nothing really great quality in our price range. Furniture is expensive, especially when you want solid wood and not pressed wood! I would have been happy just to get a new mattress for our bed, but Jeff didn't love the headboard and wanted something else. We decided to try to find something that would match the existing furniture we had and just look for a new bed.

We looked and looked and looked and found a few that we thought matched well enough that they would work. And then we walked into Bassett Furniture. There they had a bed that was 50% off, matched almost perfectly, and was solid wood. It was perfect. It was calling our name. And we ordered it. They came and set it up while we were in Hawaii and all we had to do was order our mattress when we got home. 

When I pulled the old bed apart, I realized just how dire our situation had become. We were not sleeping on a king size mattress, we were sleeping on two twin mattresses laying sideways! Not only that, the mattresses were WAAAAY older than I even imagined. When I looked closely, I could see  the year 1926 on the tag. So, we had been sleeping on mattresses from the late 20's or early 30's. Oh, and they were bright pink.

 

You can see the two twin mattresses here. The kids have since turned them into their fort in the basement. Beautiful, yes?

I talked Jeff into the softest mattress I could (BeautyRest pillow top) and it was here November 1st. And although I have no before pic of our bed, believe me, this is a great improvement.

It's hard to tell just how big it is in this pic, but here's a little comparison. It's so tall that it took Carter about a month to realize that he could climb up on his own. 

To solve the problem of old furniture, we got some new hardware for the dressers/night stands.

Before:

After. Much nicer. And looks much newer.

This is the before of my dresser:

And the after of Jeff's dresser. Just a simple clean line. And I love it.

I have to add that I am still trying to adjust to the new mattress. It is super soft and I have no problem falling asleep, but I still wake up a little stiff. That bums me out big time. But hopefully it's just a transition time and I can figure out how to sleep so that I love it as much as I want to!

Addition

One thing I forgot to add about the Riverwoods Lighting (by the way, Angie, the parking was crazy. I didn't even try to get into the parking lot. I just drove north to those offices and parked in a parking lot there. It was about a 5 minute walk, so I was really grateful for the stroller!).

When we got home, Allie told me, "It was not really what I was expecting."

"Oh?," I asked. "Why not?"

"Well, I thought there would be lights there."

Laughing, I said, "There WERE lights there. Lots of lights."

"Well, I thought there would be music there."

"There WAS music there. We stopped and listened to that band play."

She paused, thinking. Finally she said, "I thought we would hold hands singing around the Christmas tree."

She had me there. We didn't do that. Because life isn't a touching scene from The Grinch. But it probably should be.

The Latest

After Time Out for Women, my fam got together for a pic for my mom's Christmas card. I love these people so much. And I can't wait until the next pic, the one with ALL of us in it! Jonny comes home in two months!

Jeff went to Arizona for his "Manstravagana," aka the U of A/ASU game, and the kids begged me to take them to the lighting of the Riverwoods. Five kids out in the cold with no help? Why not! We actually had a really good time. The kids were happy with their free cookies and glow sticks...

...and we'd warm up by the fires whenever we got cold.

There was plenty to see, although the lights didn't look nearly so cool in pictures as they did in person.

And lots of free stuff for the kids.Carter wasn't sure what to make of Kyla's Pooh mask.

McKay was fine as long as we were moving. I think he wasn't too thrilled to be cold, so we had to keep walking and avoid standing in any lines (the other kids were a bit sad to miss out on Santa and the face painting/balloon animals, but the lines were really long). Carter tried to keep McKay happy, but he wasn't often successful.

Thank goodness I had my "new" sit and stand stroller! I could fit four of the kids on it and Damon was the only one who had to walk. It was awesome!

I also wanted to put in these pics from FHE the other night. Our Monday nights are pretty much all the same. We have a quick lesson, where we sometimes feel the spirit, and then Jeff plays Tickle Monster with the kids. They really look forward to it, and Kyla has perfected the "Spread Eagle Choke" maneuver. Carter even likes it, but if Jeff tries to tickle me, he will go into protection mode and cry until Jeff leaves me alone.

McKay has been able to stay out of it so far, and would prefer to stay close to mommy. Can't blame him.

Celebrations

I want to write about Time Out for Women, but I need to steal some pics from my mom before I can do that. So, I'll put that on hold for now and talk about other other celebrations.

I turned 32 on Tuesday. It's fine. Another year, and the first time I haven't been pregnant on my birthday for a while. My big present was a new bed (another post to come soon), so I really wasn't expecting anything else. But I did get this...

(Cookie Dough Delirium cake from Coldstone), and these...

Even for a girl who doesn't HAVE to have fresh flowers, it is fun every now and then to be reminded that someone loves you.

The cake was so good (I may just go have another piece now) and I will probably ask for a Coldstone cake every year now! My mom wanted a pic of the inside so she could see how it was made. Two layers of yellow cake, two layers of sweet cream ice cream with cookie dough, and a cool-whippy kind of frosting on the outside with chocolate shavings and big chunks of cookie dough on top. Yep, my mouth is watering.

I went to dinner at Happy Sumo with my favorite Trapnell ladies (all but Julie, who is in New Mexico). The wait was long (it was Two-for-Tuesday), but so worth it! What a great time, and I was spoiled by my awesome MIL and SIL's.

Last night, Jeff and I went out with his staff to dinner and the preview of Breaking Dawn. I told him that could count for my date this year. It was fun, if not everything I hoped it would be. I just wish I loved the movies. Oh well, still fun.

McKay also turned 8 months (or 2/3rds) yesterday. 7 months came and went without a pic, so here's trying to make up for it.

He looks awfully sad in this pic. I'm not sure why. He loves that moose, though, and is often found in his bed playing with it and the other animal in there with him.

Here's a cuter one.

And here's one of him with his bestie, Carter. Two boys in diapers. Not the funnest, but we are surviving. Both boys have had the runs this week (runny noses that is), and Carter's cheeks sure are chapped. Still, I couldn't resist one of these two friends. They really do love each other, which is awesome to me.

Here are some things McKay is doing at eight months:

He is crawling fairly well, but still resorts to the army scoot when he really wants to get somewhere.
He still has no teeth, but does fairly well eating puffs, cheerios, bread crumbs and random other things he scavenges off the floor (well, that hunk of tortilla I pulled out of his mouth the other day was a different story).
Still has 32 oz of formula a day, plus eats solids twice a day. Hasn't refused anything, but is often too busy to finish the bottle unless I hold him.
Pulled himself up to standing in his crib the other day.
Fell down one flight of stairs twice so I finally put the gate up.
Takes two great naps during the day, but is still trying to figure out how to make it from 3:00 until bedtime without getting too ornery (bedtime is about 7:30).
Almost always wakes up happy and smiles so big when I walk in the room.
Babbles a lot and makes a gargling sound I find adorable.
Gets upset by loud noises or too much activity.
Rarely falls asleep in the car.
Loves giving open mouth kisses (although I don't think he knows that is what he's doing)

I love this boy so much. I love that he is a happy boy and is fairly predictable. He is such a sweet little thing, even though he always smells like spit up.

Honesty

Last month, Jeff and I were getting our temple recommends renewed and had to answer the question, "are you honest in all your dealings?" Interestingly enough, we both had experiences with honesty.

Mine was a small thing. At a caselot sale, I bought several cases of food. Beans, vegetables, soups, chicken broth, etc. When I checked out, I just put one of each can on the belt and told the cashier how many I had of each one. 12 of each, 18 chicken broth. Easy peasy. But when I got home, I found that I had actually taken 24 chicken broth, and short changed the grocery store about $6.00. I knew I had to go back and make up the difference, and so I did. It took me a few days to get there, but there was never any doubt that I needed to do it. I needed to be able to answer the temple recommend question without hesitation. And I think it was a good lesson for my kids to learn (as they accompanied me back to the store to pay the $6.00 I still owed).

Jeff's was a trickier situation. He had made an order with 3M for supplies for his office (brackets, rubber bands, etc). He thought it was about $1000. But the order didn't make it to his office. Instead, he got a message that 3M would be filling another order for him, as their was a problem with the delivery truck. No big deal, he would just wait for the second order. But in the meantime, he got a phone call. A man told him there were several boxes with his name on them left by the side of the road in west Provo. He drove over to check it out. Not only were his boxes there, there were also boxes for many different professionals in the area (the one I saw was for an eye doctor).

The boxes were open and had been gone through, and some of the stuff was unusable, but most of his order was there. Either the boxes somehow fell off the delivery truck, or were stolen from the warehouse and then abandoned by the side of the road. Jeff picked up his stuff and took it back to his office. He talked to his brothers, who all told him that he should just keep the stuff that was usable, as the shipping company's insurance would be paying for his new order.

But then he found out that the order wasn't a $1000 order. It was a $10,000 order. And that was a much bigger deal. He just couldn't, in good conscience, keep all the stuff without saying anything. And so even though he was tempted to profit by about $10,000, he couldn't do it. He called the rep from 3M and explained the situation. Instead of replacing the entire order, 3M just needed to replace the stuff that was damaged.

Jeff said the same thing--that he was so grateful to be able to answer the honesty question in his temple recommend interview with a clear conscience. And even though the extra supplies would have been really nice, that temple recommend was worth a whole lot more.

Moab

We took our yearly trip to Moab for Fall Break right before we went to Hawaii. It is always so much fun for the kids. Not always so much fun for us (we enjoy it, but 7 of us in one motel room is a little much, and sleeping doesn't always happen). I didn't get many pictures, because Allie was having a tantrum about a picture I took of her, and she knocked the camera out of my hand into the sand. It has not been working right ever since. But here is proof that all the kids were there and had a great time.

Greg brought gear to take everyone rappelling. Damon did great and can't wait to go again!

We overloaded the hot tub at the Hampton Inn. Fred and the kids!

Halloween

**Sorry, I'm having some formatting issues with the pics and I'm not going to go to a lot of trouble to change it to make it perfect. Maybe when I'm ready to Blurb...

Jeff and I got home just in time to celebrate Halloween. We carved our pumpkins Sunday night. Nothing fancy this year, just some basic designs the kids came up with. 

Monday morning, I went to the kids school for the Halloween parade. 

And finally, it was time for trick or treating. McKay didn't know what was going on. I think he looked pretty cute, though. Unfortunately, I still don't know whether or not this costume glows in the dark. McKay stayed safely inside Aunt Laurie's house while the other kids trick or treated.

Carter revived the Hamburglar costume I found for Damon when he was 18 months. Strikingly similar with that mask on...

Damon    

                                                                                              

Carter

Just a quick 8 years later, and that little Hamburglar turned into this football player for the Y. I had a heck of a time trying to find a costume for Damon. I thought for sure I'd find one on KSL (where I got Kyla's outfit), but nothing ever showed up. The only thing I could find was a $50 brand new one from the bookstore. That wasn't going to happen. Finally, I found this on ebay for $25 (including shipping) and Tara had shoulder pads to complete the set. I think he looked awesome!

Three cute boys

Kyla was the perfect BYU cheerleader. She was so happy she got to wear makeup. I think she looked adorable! I could have done without the Frankenstein tattoo on the forehead, but whatever.

Allie had makeup on too, and had a cute ponytail with some ringlets. But something set her off (I think she wanted to wear Kyla's tennis shoes because hers are too big) and she cried and cried and all that makeup came off. She wasn't too pleased to pose for her pic. I got her OSU costume on ebay also. I couldn't find another Cougar one, and Allie was happy to be a Buckeye (she was born in Columbus, after all). Mostly, anyway.

We got one good shot of all the kids together. Allie even smiled for this one. 

And then everything fell apart.

Carter had the BEST time of his short life. He was running and jumping up and down with delight when he found out that people were giving out "nanny." It made my whole day, and was worth coming home from Hawaii to witness. He held on to his pumpkin full of candy with a death grip. But he was very sweet to share with anyone who asked.

Damon and David scored quite the haul (which you can't see in this picture). We took the kids to the candy buy back at the dentist yesterday, and Damon gave away about 1 lb of candy. He saved about 10 lbs for himself! Jeff bargained with him, and paid him $8 for 3/4ths of it last night. Now we have our own stash, and Damon doesn't feel like all his effort was for nothing. Allie gave away a little more than Damon (all she had left) and Kyla gave away 2 pieces (all SHE had left)! It was a fun Halloween. Now for the sugar detox...