Love that Boy!

It is hard enough for a family of six to get a decent family photo, but if John is in the family it is nearly impossible. He spoils/improves (depending on your point of view) pictures by purposely pulling silly faces. In 2007 our attempt at a Christmas card was a fiasco. This year our friend Isa took more than 300 shots which was barely enough because John made a goofy face in all but something like three. One morning I found Bill sorting through the photos and cropping all of John's silly faces. Below is just a sampling.

As he worked in photoshop, Bill kept repeating a line from a poem by Walter Dean Myers. "Love that boy, like a rabbit loves to run. Love th boy, like a rabbit loves to run." Now whenever John does something exasperating, such as rub a glue stick on Zoey's chair, someone in the family says, "Love that boy." I'm often saying "Love that boy" as I take John to time out, which is often.


Today is John's birthday, he is five and we all truly do love that boy. After witnessing an afternoon of John's explosive energy and astounding capacity for destruction, a neighbor boy nicknamed him Nuclear John. An apt name but John has his quiet side too. He loves to be read to and will be still for hours listening to a book. He also grows quiet and focused as he builds with his blocks. He picks me flowers and leaves me love notes on my pillow. I may be blinded by a mother's love, but I think most of John's wildness is simply an enthusiastic celebration of life. John never gives a hug with out a running start. I call them attack hugs.

Love that boy!

Hull's Visit and a Happy New Year

One reason I've found blogging difficult this year is we have way too many photos. Both Bill and Lizzy got new cameras for Christmas. Three cameras in the house make it hard for me to keep track of photos. For instance we had more than 3,000 photos in December. However, this is the sort of tribulation I think I can adjust to. It's nice to have Bill back behind the camera again, check out this great photo he took of Zoey.


Also, the camera came just in time to document the Hull Family's visit. I met Becky in the dorms at the University of Utah in the Fall of 1992, I met Bill the the next day. The three of us have been friends ever since. Becky wrote a great account of their visit in her blog, Holus Bolus.

Reading just a few of Becky's posts will give you a good sense of the Hull family and especially what a fabulous person Becky is. Since the day I met her, I've been trying to be more like Becky. Becky's post is fairly thorough, still there are a few photos I'd like to add.

We celebrated their daughter Helen's 4th birthday during their visit,

as well as our 13th wedding anniversary--both on the same day. We did not draw this heart on the beach, but it was there and it was our anniversary and the sun was setting and why not?

We also had a New Year's eve party with the Hull's, my parents and my brother Mike and his two kids. We took a great picture of Mike that I would have liked to have posted, but he stealthily deleted it from Bill's camera. The Hull's visit as well as my brother's made the whole week after Christmas feel like a party. We loved it. Please come again, soon. And the invitation goes to all of you.

Christmas Highlights

A perk of being a stay-at-home mom is the lack of firm deadlines. As you may have noticed, I've become pretty comfortable with letting things slide; such as posting about Christmas in February. But Christmas is different. You can't procrastinate Christmas gifts. Actually you can, I do almost every year. But it doesn't work very well in fact the results can be traumatic. This is why the week after Thanksgiving I found myself positively dreading Christmas. I just didn't feel like all the stress and excess. So I sat down and wrote a list of what I love about Christmas and I'm not sure how I did it but I stuck to the list and we had a very, merry Christmas. Below is this list illustrated with photos.


1. Christmas Cards
We hang friends Christmas cards in our dining room. I still haven't taken them down because I love looking at all my friends. It feels like a virtual party. Also, I leave them up so there's a place to hang the one or two late cards that arrive each February. I may admire those of you who send yours like clock work on Dec. 1 each year, but I reserve a special place in my heart for those who send Christmas cards late.

2. The Christmas Story --especially when acted out by small children in a Christmas pageant. We participated in two pageants this year. And the first pageant really changed my heart. The real baby Jesus cried and Mary's (Lizzy's) head scarf kept falling off but these things just made the story feel more real. I left truly wanting to celebrate.


3. Christmas decorations The most important being a lighted tree in a dark room, which is even nicer when you have a Grandma to tell you stories.


I always trim a lot of branches off my tree so the ornaments can hang better. This year I used the trimmed branches to make this garland. I added red berries and other greenery from my yard. Yes, I impress myself.

4. Music As I decorated the tree Lizzy got out the hymn book and started playing Christmas carols. Every day I got to hear Christmas music when the girls practiced piano. Their piano recital, which was held at our house, turned into a real party. After the planned program some of the kids went home and got their other instruments. In addition to the piano we heard: cello, clarinet, trumpet and saxaphone. In this photo a father and daughter are playing Pachelbel Canon.

For the last three years, we have gone caroling with our good friends Gary and Joan. Often we sing at a house and then half of the family joins us until it feels like the whole neighborhood is singing with us. Every year, someone cries when we sing to them and not because our singing is so bad. But because it has been too long since someone sang to them.

5. Homemade Gifts At some point, I decided I needed less fuss in my life and I should give up on homemade gifts. I've discovered that while it is much more practical and affordable to buy gifts rather than make them, it is not more fun. This year I had a change of heart, and we made a lot of Christmas gifts. Above is an Elephant towel Lizzy made for Will because he says he's mommy's little elephant.

Lizzy also tie-dyed socks for her friends at school.


Zoey made this button necklace for her teacher.


Zoey also decorated this piggy bank for John. And now we are busily working on birthday gifts for John but they are top secret so you will have to check this blog sometime after his birthday, Feb. 18th. So assuming I continue to follow Ruth-standard time I should get around to blogging about it by... say... next Christmas.