Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas Eve. I think I may like Christmas Eve more than Christmas. We had all the family here, we played games, we had out big ham dinner. We exchanged sibling gifts. It was fun.

The kids spent some time playing outside, and when they came in, Grandma made them some hot chocolate.

Lydia wore her festive outfit.

See the rosy cheek? Molars are coming in. Oh, and the necklaces are a big hit with Lydia these days. She loves to accessorize.

When everyone went home, it was just about bedtime. Morgan remembered from Christmas's past that he gets to open one present on Christmas Eve, and he was very excited about it. What he somehow forgot, though, was that every Christmas Eve, the present that he got to open, was pajamas. 

 He wasn't very happy. Look at the way he's looking at it. We went through the same thing last year. Silly boy. He got another lecture this year, and so when he opened clothes, or his blanket, the next day, he was much better, and just said "thank-you" instead of "I don't want clothes!"

 But he seemed happy to have them. I got their pj's at Other Mothers, and they didn't have much in Morgan's size, so his are a little snug already.

 Lydia isn't one to pose for pictures yet. I just catch her when I can.

Morgan really wanted to leave out some cookies and milk for Santa, as well as some carrots for the reindeer. So we did. It was never a tradition I had, growing up, but if Morgan wants it, then we'll have it.

When my kids were in bed, my mom brought out a present for the three of her children still living at home, (or living at home again.)
See how eager and filled with excitement we are?

We also got pajamas. I was so excited about it too. I have been wanting/needing some. I wasn't expecting it.
Here they are. :)

Then I played Santa, which I find extremely gratifying.
That night I slept fitfully, as is Christmas tradition. I don't get it. I should be over that by now. I didn't even want to wake up early, like I did when I was younger. Oh well.

Super Lydie!

 Lydie has been doing this thing lately where she insists I give her a cape. I don't know where she even got the idea, (well, she probably saw Morgan do it sometime) and then saw her blanket and made a connection. She gave me the blanket and whined, and chirped, and insisted. I didn't know what she wanted at first, but eventually I tied it around her, and voila! Happy baby.
Oh, and once Lydia was a superhero, Morgan couldn't pass up the opportunity to play too. A cape was also found for me, so we were a regular superhero family. You can call us the Incredibles, if you want.

 

She has begged for the cape on a few other occasions as well. If I take it off, say, to change her diaper, she makes it clear that she wants it back right afterward. Oh, my opinionated girl. She doesn't say a lot, but she knows how to communicate!

My camera shutter hasn't been opening all the way all the time, but I had to get this shot of Lydia before she stopped smiling for the camera, so shutter it is.

 

Then poor Morgan started feeling sick.

Okay, let me tell you about his sick feeling he often gets, unrelated to the reason of the pout in the picture. It is now a daily thing that he complains of chest pain. He says his chest hurts usually when he is eating, but often he doesn't have to eat. He'll cut meals short, due to the pain. I don't know what it is, but it is so frequent now, that I really need to address it. I mentioned it to a nurse on the phone once, but I was also telling her about flu symptoms he had at the time, so it was probably over-looked. I really can't afford a dr. visit right now though. 

Has anyone else experienced chest pain in their children, particularly when they eat or drink something?

 Oh, and Lydia has finally figured out the sippy cup. Bye-bye bottle!

General Update

Things are going pretty well for my family. I guess. Well, they are. I suppose it depends on your perspective. :) My perspective is, we are happy, have our necessities provided for, and are together. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ, and what more do you need?

Back when I was actively trying to find a place to live that wasn't my parents' basement, everything kept falling through, or it didn't feel right, or something went wrong, or people wouldn't answer their phones. Now I believe that we were supposed to stay here a bit longer. It's a blessing, really.  Money hasn't been coming in, due to unemployment, and tenants moving, etc., and I don't know if I would have been able to manage, had I moved out, even if I had a full-time job.
I know how it must look. I'm a mooch, right? I'm lazy, I live at home, don't have a job, my mom cooks my food, I'm just plain not motivated, right? Yeah, I got dealt a rotten hand, but you just gotta roll with it, and being a single mom means you go out and get a real job, right?
Well...usually? But I have to do what I think is best for my kids, and right now, I think that they would be most benefited by having a more available mommy. I've never wanted to be a working mother, and while I know that that is often necessary, I'm going to fight it. And right now, it makes sense to me to live at home, pay cheap rent, and be a full-time mom, part-time writer.
Not having a job has also allowed me to finish writing my next book. In fact, why didn't I write a blog post about that accomplishment? Yay, my next book is written! I'm in the editing stage, and you know, I'm really excited about this book. I read a lot of YA and Juvenile fiction, so I like to think I have a fairly good idea of what sorts of books sell, and are popular, and I honestly and truly believe that Skye Bloo can be very successful, given the right publisher and marketing. I don't usually like to toot my own horn, but this story is good. I feel like I was Divinely inspired while I thought of it, and wrote it. (Not that it's Spiritual in nature, just that it could be a blessing to me to allow me to stay home with my kids.)

In January, I'm going back to school. Just the Community College. I think I'm pretty close to my associates degree, and so I'll just get that, in generals, for now. I'm really excited about starting school. I'm going to take a creative writing class, communications, humanities, and Spanish 2. Oh, and also come January, I will be watching a couple kids 3 days a week.

I've started attending mid-singles activities. I'm younger than the 31 you're supposed to be, but I don't fit anywhere else. Plus, my bishop really wants me involved, (hence a mid-singles rep calling.) What I wasn't expecting was the male attention. Like, I have it. I have never ever been one to attract males, but I feel very noticed at the few functions I've gone to. I kinda like it. :) However, when the person noticing looks older than my dad, I'm not too hip on the attention.

I've been thinking a lot lately, about my past year. I feel like I've come a long way. Last year I was angry, bitter, and very cynical. I was also fairly certain that all men were scum. This year I have a new appreciation for the Atonement, because of the blessing of forgiveness, because of the blessing of peace, because of the blessing of happiness. Oh, and I'm thinking now that only the majority of men are scum, but not all. :)
I'm optimistic for my future. I don't know what it will hold, but it will be okay, no matter what. Because of the Atonement. I will be more educated, I will be more confident, I will choose to be happy. My kids will be with me, and I will do what I can and make the sacrifices I need to, in order to be the best, most available, Mom that I can be.

And thus ends my soliloquy.

Another Ison Christmas Party

Last Monday we went to the annual Ison Christmas party. Morgan had been extremely excited. I got this shot of Morgan and Grandpa Nelson hanging out.

One of the first things we did was the Christmas bells with the carols.

But the exciting, anticipated, event was Santa. Morgan's face was magical when Santa walked in.
Lydia got to go sit on Santa's lap, and she wasn't afraid of him. Good girl. I was using the video camera, so I had Morgan get her with the still camera.

She got her very own brush and comb from him. She loves brushing her hair.

Morgan sat on Santa's knee and had a good conversation.

Morgan got Finn McMissle from Santa. He loves it.
It was a surprise when Arielle got called up to sit on Santa's knee. I had to get a picture.

Then there was another surprise. Grandpa Nelson got to sit on Santa's lap!

We also did a white elephant gift exchange for the adults. I came home with some cute Christmas tree ornaments and some caramel candy. Lucky me!
Thanks, Ison descendants, for the good time!

Makin' cookies

My kids like to help out in the kitchen, whether it be to help Grandma make dinner, or Mommy make dessert, or whatever.
The other day we made cookies. I had a child helping on each side. This is how I learned how wide I look from behind.

Morgan helped stir...

Then we spooned the dough onto the pan.

Lydia was a great help with sampling the finished product.

Yummy.

Morgan logic

It's been too long since I've done a Morgan quote blog post, and I'm afraid I'll have forgotten too many. I put a lot on facebook, so I can look back on my wall a little to find some, but there are so many I don't write down. Shame on me!

Yesterday, Morgan and I were speaking about eternal families, and great-grandparents, and how big our family was. Morgan said something about how, "And we get to be with all our ancestors." I was surprised, because I had no idea he knew the word and application of ancestor. I agreed with him, and told him he was right. Then he said, "Yeah, our and-sisters and our and-brothers." HAHA!

Driving in the car yesterday, Christmas music was softly playing, but it was otherwise quiet. However, when I am in the car with Morgan, I usually have to almost yell before he can clearly hear me. I was thinking about something I did/said a few days before, that I found embarrassing. Outloud, I laughed and said, "I'm so stupid." Morgan perked up, "You are?" I said, "yeah," and he said, "Then why are you laughing?" Good point....

A few nights ago when Morgan and I were disagreeing about bedtime, in frustration he said, "I wish I was your dad!" And now that is something he often says when he doesn't like my rules. 

After Morgan sneezed in my face, I gave him a little lecture about covering his mouth. His response? "I would have dodged."

It's so fun to see the world through Morgan's eyes. I just love him. 

Just some pictures.
Lydia has a baby and some string cheese. Makes her happy.

Another thing that makes her happy is making messes, and playing in drawers and cupboards. She kindly brought the rolling pin to grandma, from the kitchen drawer.

Oh, this was the other $6 dress from Other Mother's. It's still a bit big, but that is much better than too small.

Dimetrodon

By raise of hands, how many of you know what a dimetrodon is? Right, right, it is a dinosaur. It looked something like this.

By raise of hands, how many of you, at age 5, could make a very passable rendering of a dimetrodon with a couple of colored pencils?
I don't think I could have.
By raise of hands, how many of you have a 5 year old son who can?
*my hand is up*

Morgan drew this.

He had some help. You know those tutorials that show you step by step how to draw something, like, straight line here. Next step, funny shaped circle here. Then a little line coming from that. You know. When I use those, I end up with a picture of straight lines here or there, funny looking circles, and other lines coming from different places. When Morgan uses them, he ends up with a picture of a dimetrodon. Go Morgan!

Thanksgiving at our house was celebrated on Wednesday, since it was our off year. My brother and his wife celebrated with her family this year, and my kids and my sister's kids were with their dads this year. So Wednesday it was.
The family all arrived in the morning, and the playing and noise commenced.
New baby Ezra came, and Lydia got to hold him. She LOVED holding him, and cried when her turn was over.

We had a busy morning. Well, some of us did. I helped in the kitchen with the ladies.

Chris got the good job.

The kids ran around playing and making big messes and big noises.

Casey hid.

Dad napped. On accident.

Who knows what Cameron did.

As it got later, fingers started finding things to munch on while we waited for the turkey. Morgan got caught with a roll.

Dinner was nice. Strangely, I think my favorite dish this year was the fresh green beans.

We played a couple games, chatted, sang, and had a good time.

The next day, Thanksgiving for real, I went to play football with an LDS mid-singles group. There were kind of too many people playing, since another group at the park was invited to face-off against us. Not as fun as it could have been. And I did get shoved to the ground rather roughly by a man on the other team. I didn't even have the ball. I wasn't even near the ball. I guess I just got too close to him or something. Sheesh. Oh well. I met some people, so I don't regret going.

One small step for man, one giant leap for a baby

Lydia is so funny. There is a "game" she likes to play, that she'll do over and over. We have a sunken living room, so you step down to get to it. Lydia likes to climb up the step, inch out to the edge...

The step off.

She's trying to be a big person.
She usually falls down...

But she's happy about. Then she gets up and tries again. And again. Now she is to the point that she'll remain on her feet about 1/3 of the time.
I'm just glad she doesn't try this at the staircase.

How we exercise

This is how we exercise over here.  I lay down to do some crunches, and Lydia jumps aboard. That's okay, I enjoy the extra challenge, and the adorable face I see every rep.

 What I don't love, is when she tries to climb on me when I'm doing the plank. I try hold the plank position for a minute, (kind of like a man push-up, but I rest my weight on my forearms) which is really hard for me already, but when I have the added 24 lbs of Lydia, it's nigh impossible.

Sometimes I like to do some leg workouts like shown below. Morgan gets to participate with that too. It's fun for the kids, and muscle strengthening for me. 

By the way, Morgan was my photographer for these pictures. He tends to hold his hand right over the flash, so the pictures turn out a little funny, but he does a pretty good job.

Climber

 First, a picture of Morgan and me. He's my favorite male.

 Then. Lydia. She loves climbing. We have to make sure to scoot all the chairs in close to the table, otherwise she will get on them. In fact, Lydia is on the dining room table as I type, just chillin', and throwing things off. She climbs everything. Onto the coffee table, where she dances, onto the couch, into the toyboxes, but her favorite is the tabletops.

See how close to the edge she is? Yeah. And the garbage can was put up there temporarily so she couldn't get to it.
My silly, crazy, girl.