More Christmas Pics

Actually, this one was taken on Thanksgiving Day. We had Thanksgiving with the Trapnell's, which meant there wasn't a whole lot for me to do (rainbow jello was ready because I had done most of it the day before). So we got everyone dressed up and posed in front of our fireplace. Turned out pretty cute. 

Christmas Eve I tried to get the kids to pose by the tree. McKay was really not in the mood, but this one turned out alright.

We also tried to do a family shot with the camera on timer. We were all ready to go, except for Carter. He was, inexplicably, dancing around in circles with his hands above his head. And try as we might to get him to come over to us, he wasn't ready. This pic snapped just as he was completing a spin. I love it.

He did cooperate for this one, though.

Christmas Eve we spent with the Trapnell's, too. We never take pictures when we are together. I don't know why. Laurie is the only one who ever has a camera so I decided to take Jeff's and snapped a bunch. These are just a few.

Grandpa Fred took all the kids upstairs to play with his trains. The kids love that. I like this picture of Damon and his grandpa as they adjust the engine.

Christmas Day we headed to St. George, where all the lovely ladies were waiting for me with matching pjs. It caused a bit of confusion with the kids, as they couldn't easily tell which one was their mommy from behind. They were often surprised when the mommy they were clinging to turned out to be someone else.

My mom wanted to get a pic of all the grandkids before we left. Some were sick and some were just plain messy, but we did manage to get them all together. We can try again next month when we are together for Jonny's homecoming (yay!).

Top: McKay, Kyla, Allie, Carter, Malakai, Jayda, Maddux and Damon

Bottom: Kenya, Annie, Ella and Kalia

My mom also wanted several pics of the cousins in the tub. I think she plans to hang them in her bathroom. The only time I thought about taking pics was this day when Kenya, Kyla and Annie were bathing together. I tried to get a modest pic of them (appropriate for the wall), and this was the best we could do. I thought it was fun that it was one girl from each family bathing together. Representing the Alofipo's, Trapnell's and Bigler's.

Service

Before Christmas, I was trying to figure out what kind of service project I wanted to do with my kids, to help them get into the spirit of giving. I was listening to General Conference every day after dropping Kyla off at preschool (SUCH a good idea. I got so much out of it) and was listening to President Monson talk about the Provo Tabernacle Temple. He then started talking about a Temple Patron Fund that members could donate money to, which would go toward helping those who want to go to the temple but don't have the funds to do so(I didn't hear that the first time around. I blame the children). I felt the spirit very strongly telling me that this is what we needed to do.

So I began to brainstorm and talked to the kids about it. I wanted them to come up with some ways that they could contribute (more so than just doing jobs for me). We came up with a couple of projects that they could do. 

They spent one afternoon making ornaments for the Christmas tree (using pipe cleaners and tribeads). They made icicles, wreaths and candy canes.

Then we found some cheap flowers and alligator clips and made some barrettes.

One afternoon, Damon, Allie, Kyla and Carter went door to door in our neighborhood, selling their crafts. Damon practiced his speech about how we were trying to earn money for the temple fund and offered to sell the items for 50 cents each. They came home about an hour later with $10 (bless our nice neighbors!). They were pretty pleased with themselves.

I emailed my brother in Argentina and asked how much it would cost for a family to take a trip to the temple (the nearest one to him is in Santiago, Chile) and he told me around $65. So we set that as our family goal.

We also decided to clean out our basement, as we think we may be able to start the process of finishing it soon. I was SOOOOOOO tired of cleaning up all the play food, and the girls are really growing out of that stage, so I convinced them to take it to Kid to Kid and see how much they would give us for the kitchen, the play food, and some other items (exersaucer, stroller, baby gate). We were offered $70. I'm sure I could have gotten more if I had sold each item individually on KSL.com, but we were in a bit of a time crunch with Christmas coming. The kids were happy and so were we. Now we had $80 to give to the bishop on Sunday. What a fun thing to do. I hope it made an impression on them, because it sure made my heart swell when I looked out the window and saw the four of them, bundled up in their coats (back when it was cold), trying to sell their homemade crafts. Probably one of my favorite moments from this Christmas season for me.

Christmas '11

I love Christmas. It is always fabulous, and this year was no exception. Even though Damon had to have the "Santa talk" this year, which made me so sad, it was still magical. (He also had the "sex talk" the same week. More on that later...)

A couple nights before Christmas, we had our annual Journey Dinner. We really need to think of a new name for it, because we don't "journey" anywhere. We just sit at the table, lit by candles, and eat the kinds of foods Mary and Joseph would have eaten (homemade tortillas to represent unleavened bread, cheese, smoked meats, olives, nuts, dried fruits and sparkling grape juice for the wine). It really is a lot of fun and there's something special about eating with all the lights out. The kids really look forward to it, too, and make sure that we do it.

Christmas Eve we spent with the Trapnell family. We all dressed up in red and green for the occasion and I got the four oldest to pose by their new nativity. I finally bought one (I have been wanting one for years) and gave them one piece every day until they had them all. Of course we saved Baby Jesus for last, and talked about how it's not Christmas without Jesus. 

After a ton of fun at grandma's house (I have pictures on Jeff's camera--I'll have to get those off), we came home just in time for the pajama elf to visit with new pjs for everyone. Which, of course, set everyone's excitement level skyrocketing, because it meant that Santa was on his way (we tracked him on an app on my phone that told us EXACTLY where he was. A favorite activity for sure). 

In the morning, the kids were happy to find that Santa had come. Here's the proof.

They patiently waited until 7:00 and then came in to get us. Jeff and I felt like we had been asleep for 1-2 hours at that point (it had probably been more like 6-7), but we managed to wipe the sleepiness from our eyes and get ready for the excitement. 

After the presents were opened, and we went to church, we got ready to head to St. George. I have more pictures from the other camera, too, but here are a couple. 

Kimmy got a lot of Carter's love

And McKay got a nasty rash all over his face.

 Not to mention the strep that was being passed around the house (my two cousins, Kyla and my mom got that one). There were germs everywhere! But that couldn't stop us! We stayed up WAAAAAY too late and played more than a few games of Rummikub and Settlers. We also had a birthday party for my grandparents, who are now 80, which was a lot of fun. More on that later, too. Now we have to get ready for another year. Hopefully the best one yet. 

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!