Teacher Gifts
This year I decided to do cookies in a jar for the teachers. I always have a hard time deciding what to do for the teachers since it's not just 2 I have to give to. With Jett's teacher, Cruise's teacher, Cruise's 3 aides, Cruise's speech therapist, and Cruise's bus driver, I have 7 gifts to put together. So I put together Hot Chocolate Cake Box Cookies in a jar. You just get mason jars, devil's food cake mixes, mini chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows. You put the recipe on a little 3x5 card, put a ribbon on it and voila! A gift. For Cruise's teacher, I got a pair of wood mixing spoons that double as drumsticks since he is a drummer. I hope they liked them.
An Epic Playdate
Last Friday, we had Claire over for a playdate for a couple of hours. It was awesome. She and Cruise played in the hammock and then..."Wanna see my lab?" "Oh, I'd LOVE to!" And from there, they made a huge mess doing "science". It was the best. Claire is so spunky and naturally excited just like Cruise. I know of no little girl who would not only go along with Cruise's science stuff, but actually share in the excitement and suggest other experiments they could try. The two of them played and worked so easily together and it was the best playdate I've ever witnessed. I can see why he thinks so much of her. This is the friend Cruise needs. She is just so wonderful and I hope they remain friends for a very long time. In fact, I'm seriously considering an arranged marriage. It was pretty cute; we asked her what she asked Santa for for Christmas and she said, "Nothing. I don't want anything. I have everything I could possibly want." Oh my heart.
Miles is 15 Months
Miles turned 15 months on the 22nd. He is now walking! He's still a little wobbly, but he's getting pretty good at it. He still hates shoes and socks, but I can't really blame him; I hate them too. He has learned how to sign 'more' and says "ah duh" when he's all done. He is good at pointing to things he wants and tries to communicate as best as he can. He babbles a lot and likes to chat up the ladies in Relief Society. He loves Sesame Street the most and cries if you turn it off in the middle of an episode. Ha ha! Stinker.
He loves to swing in the baby swing and the hammock. He is great at hiding things from his bottle, to the remote, to the boys' toys. He is an incredibly picky eater. The only crackers I can get him to eat are fishy crackers. He loves rice, noodles, and will eat meat, but doesn't love it. I can't get him to drink juice or anything sweet. He doesn't like sweets at all. I don't know where this kid came from. But he's a sweetheart.
Christmas 2014
Christmas Eve started with us picking up the house, making cookies for Santa, and then Cruise, Jett & Dave going fishing at Deer Creek. They were gone for about 4 hours, so while they were gone, Miles hung out and I cleaned and got dinner going. Growing up, we always had a spaghetti dinner for Christmas Eve. And as much as I don't like spaghetti, it really is an easy meal to make. So I made some meatballs, garlic bread, sauteed green beans, and the sauce. I had the water on the stove ready to boil, I go to the cupboard and quickly learn that we are completely out of spaghetti for our spaghetti dinner! Luckily Dave was on his way home from fishing so I had him pick some up from the grocery store.The boys returned with the spaghetti and three beautiful rainbow trout. Each of the boys caught one; Dave caught the biggest one which was a little over 13 inches. They all had a blast!
Dave's brother John joined us for Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we read the Christmas story from the Bible and then the madness ensued with family gifts. The boys opened their gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Ybarra. Cruise & Jett both got spy glasses and an I Spy board game. Miles got a little doggy that sings and goes over numbers and letters. Earlier in the week we received a few boxes at our door that had a dehydrator, six cans of freeze dried food for storage, and a really nice emergency kit. Thank you so Grandma & Grandpa Ybarra!
Despite our best efforts to sway John's decision to spend an obscene amount of money on us, he went ahead and did it anyway. He bought Cruise a Zoomer (which Santa already had bought for him, so immediately I was trying to figure out what on earth we were going to do about that), Jett got a giant Star Wars Lego set, he got me some workout clothes from Lulus that should never cost as much as they did, and he gave Dave an equally obscene amount of money. So I felt a little embarrassed to gift him a $15 Starbucks gift card and a bag of spiced walnuts that I had made. Don't get me wrong, I was more than grateful, but I don't like people spending that much money on us, especially when it's a sibling.
Then we had the boys open their presents from us. Instead of getting Cruise & Jett pajamas like we usually do, we got them bathrobes. They already had enough pajamas, so we figured the robes would be fun. Jett got a Batman one and Cruise got a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle one. Miles got some nice fuzzy pajamas that say Snuggle Monster on it. We also gave them each a book: Cruise got one called I Am Albert Einstein, Jett got The Three Ninja Pigs (a spin-off of The Three Little Pigs), and Miles got a board book of Goodnight Moon. We also gave them our old desktop, but we've been having trouble getting the Internet to work on it, so we'll be working on that this week.
My sisters and I rotate who gives to who each year. This year my sister Ruth had me. She got Cruise & Jett a really nice stamp set and Miles got some really cute puzzles. Thanks Ruthie!
My Grandmother got the boys each a $10 gift card to Target. She also gave us a check which pretty much paid for our Christmas Day dinner, which was wonderful. Thank you Grams!
Dave & I decided on not exchanging gifts this year but he cheated anyway and bought me a necklace. In high school, Dave made me a sterling silver infinity necklace in his jewelry class. I wore it every day until one day when Jett was little, I was outside on the grass talking with someone. While I was holding him, he grabbed my necklace and it broke, sending the infinity charm flying into the grass. I spent the evening crawling all over the yard in tears, trying to find it. I never was able to recover it and I was just devastated. So for Christmas this year, Dave bought me a really nice, sterling silver infinity necklace with cubic zirconium stones, and I love it.
For Dave, I made him a little coupon book, which essentially cost me nothing, but he loved it.
After presents, we bathed the boys and had them leave out milk & cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer.
Finally after the kids went to sleep, we went to work on getting the toys out, Miles' car put together which was a huge pain, and Cruise's lab set up. It was a long and exhausting evening. We finally got to bed around 1am, and the boys came into our room around around 5:30. So they stared at their gifts for about an hour and a half until we finally let them open them. Which really says something about their self-control. I was pretty impressed.
The boys had been talking about "catching Santa"; they wanted me to rig something up, like a trip wire, so we could get a picture of Santa. I found a website where you can insert a picture of Santa into a picture, so I took a picture of the living room and added Santa. I showed them in the morning and they thought it was pretty awesome. They were, however, scared that Santa would be mad, but I assured them he still would come next year.
The original plan was to give Cruise the Zoomer he had been asking for for months and a flying car that Jett had asked for. But because Cruise already got a Zoomer, we had to switch things up a bit, which in the end turned out great because Jett decided he wanted a Zoomer as well last minute. So we labeled the Zoomer and the flying car to both Cruise & Jett.
Jett got a toolbox with some tools, a tool bench, a pirate ship kit for him to build, an EasyBake Oven along with a blue apron and an EasyBake cookbook I put together. Dave made Jett's tool bench that he can do all of his hammering and building on. Cruise and Jett both got playdoh, an Imaginext action figure, a Simpsons Lego figure, a peppermint lollipop, an M&M candy cane, and a toothbrush.
The chemistry set was our huge project this year. Cruise had found on-line a $1,000 chemistry set that he fell in love with. It was in a really nice, hand carved wood box and had all the glassware and chemicals you would need for a legitimate chemistry set. Obviously there was no way he was getting that set, so I set out to make one that he would be excited about.
First I had to find a box to put it all in. I wandered around looking at every second hand store trying to find something I could work with but nothing came up. So I stopped by Joann's and took a gander at their wood aisle and decided on a wood crate and two smaller crates half the width and depth but the same length. I figured I could use the smaller two for the doors and attach them with hinges. So I went to the hardware store and got hinges, a lock, and some stain. The doors already had shelves, so Dave had to make some shelves for the main crate. He also needed to cut some dowels to keep supplies in the door so they wouldn't fall out.
For supplies, I bought a student kit on Amazon of plastic ware. I also got him a measuring cup and measuring spoons. I then went on Pinterest and rounded up a bunch of experiments that he would enjoy and that weren't too difficult. I put those in a little booklet for him. From there I gathered most of the ingredients he'd need to do the experiments. The things that wouldn't be very safe for him to play with, I left in my possession, the other stuff I put in his set: glue, baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, dry active yeast, and balloons. I also got him some goggles, rubber gloves, and a lab notebook. It pretty much took forever to put it all together, but it turned out pretty awesome, if I don't say so myself.
For Christmas dinner, we had a 3 bone Herb Crusted Prime Rib with horseradish & au jus, garlic sweet potatoes, oven baked Parmesan asparagus, loaded sweet potatoes, Rhodes rolls, sparkling cider, and for dessert, pumpkin pie and chocolate silk pie. It was amazing, expensive, but amazing. And of course, the boys complained about most of it. Cruise mostly ate rolls and Jett mostly ate mashed potatoes.
Unfortunately this Christmas, I was beyond stressed. And the closer it got to Christmas, the more exhausted and frazzled I was. I got 5 hours or less of sleep every day for the past two weeks. My therapist warned me that if I tried to do more than was necessary, that I could push myself into depression or mania again. It didn't help that I wasn't able to get to the gym for two weeks because Miles had been so sick and Christmas plans were imminent. So here I am, a day after Christmas, completely deflated and borderline depressed. So next year I'm going to have to tone things down a bit and not do as much as I would like to get done. Maybe I'll get to enjoy Christmas a little more next year.
Today, Dave took the older two to Jett's school to go sledding and snowboarding. They had a lot of fun and I think they really needed to get out; they were experiencing a little cabin fever.
I am truly grateful that we were blessed to have such a nice Christmas. I am grateful we were able to get the things the kids really wanted. But I'm even more grateful for my Savior and for the amazing sacrifice not only He, but His mother and our Heavenly Father made. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
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