Snow Days

It snowed all day yesterday, until the night, when it started to ice, and then it snowed all morning today.  Yesterday morning I took kiddos out to play in the snow.  Here they are all ready to go out!

(this picture is a side note....yesterday and today I shoveled our driveway and sidewalk...I am calling it my work out for those days...Anyhow, today I got all the snow off, but you can see from this one place that I kicked at for a bit that I left a huge sheet of ice over an inch thick on the whole driveway.)
Here is Claire yesterday enjoying her time outside...I love how her hair looks in the sun!
Jacob had a good time in the snow too.
The snow wasn't very sticky, so the snowman that we set out to build became a snow toddler...Jacob and Claire were very good helpers and continually reminded me that we needed a carrot for his nose.  I had to keep telling Jacob that we could not give him a nose until we gave him a head.  Anyhow, I only had baby carrots, so it was a good thing that he was so small.  His eyes are blueberries...and as you can see he has an A's ice cream sundae hat atop his head.
We also made snow angels, if you look really close you can see from left to right: Claire angel, Jacob angel, Mommy angel.
This is what the snow toddler looks like today...he got a nice ice coating and a little extra snow.
Maybe we will get out this afternoon, but I am afraid that the layer of ice that you step on first, then sink into later might be too frustrating for Jacob and Claire to walk around in.

Night Terrors

Last night, around 3:30, we woke up to Claire screaming. It's something that occasionally happens, but this time it sounded different. Dani held her for a minute, and brought her into the hall. She had this far-off look in her eyes, then would get a look of absolute horror, have a slight shake, and scream for 10-15 seconds. Then she would calm down for a 10-15 seconds, and repeat. The ceiling and her blanket, which she was holding in her hand, both seemed especially scarey for her. We turned on a light, hugged her, let her be free, and finally, she seemed to snap out of it after 10 minutes or so. With the light on, we noticed that each time she screamed, her eyes dialated. She was so shaken by it all, that she was trembling for 30-40 minutes after, and one eye was more dialated than the other. I think it was 4:30 by the time we went back to sleep.



She woke up again just before 6:30 doing the same thing. This time, we turned on the hall light to try to get her to snap out of it. She would look both Dani and I in the eye, then get that look of horror, shake, and scream. She would then calm, sometimes asking for a drink of water, and then repeat her episode. I gave her a blessing, and prepared myself to take her to the hospital. When I took her downstairs to get our coats on, she finally calmed. Again, it was around 10 minutes (Dani says 5, but I think it was 10, so it was probably some where closer to Dani's number!)



As a side note, I want to express my gratitude for the Priesthood. After the second episode, we were all sitting on our bed, and Claire wanted both Dani and I to say a prayer. She knew she had received a blessing and seemed grateful for it.



Dani tells me Claire had a short episode after her nap today. She remembers being scared and screaming. If we ask what she was scared of, the answers are: mama, blanket, cheek, and vacuum (though that one was not as consistent of an answer and may have been because she IS actually scared of vacuums)



We've experienced what our pediatrician determined to be night terrors with Jacob when he was younger. His would typically come between 11:30 and 12:00, and I remember being afraid of the look in his eyes, which I remember thinking looked very empty and detatched. Jacob's were pretty scary, but Claire's are absolutely terrifying for a parent. These are very different than bad dreams. I know my kids have experienced bad dreams (like your sister biting your ball!), but these are far more traumatizing for all involved! Words cannot adequately describe the feelings Dani and I were having as we watched Claire go through this.



Has anyone else ever experience these? I sympathize with anyone else who has.



I've been reading up on them today, and I found out that 3-6% of kids have them, and adults can have them, too! How is it that our kids get some of the weirdest things? Milk allergies, which they had when they were infants, occur in 2-3% of kids. So, the chance that both kids get both symptoms: about 1 in 300,000! (I thought this post needed some numbers)

Five Years (and counting)

Today is our 5th anniversary and I just cannot believe how fast five years has gone and how much we have done and changed in five years.  I apologize now for the abundance of pictures and that none of them are of the people that you really come to the blog to see, but it is our anniversary and 5 years is a lot of pictures...rest assured that there are many that I did not put on and that I spent a lot more time posting than you will reading and looking.
January 15, 2004 was a very cold day at the Mount Timponogas temple, it was during a long 'inversion' in the Utah Valley and surrounding areas.  We were both so happy that we could not stop smiling and because I had been using those Crest Whitening strips my teeth were pretty sensitive to the cold, so the smiling kind of hurt.  Something that everyone always finds interesting about our wedding day is that both Jared and I went to class that morning (we were married in the afternoon).
These are the shoes I got married in, I bought them for $9 at Target and then added lace laces and sequence and stuff with a glue gun (I wonder where they are now, I would like to have them).  

I loved going through lots of pictures from the adventures that Jared and I have had in the past 5 years.  We have had a lot of fun together and we are such great friends, it is still amazing to me how much more you can love a person after time and experiences together.
This is one of our Red River Gorge cabin with friends trips.
Hiking near Jackson Hole, Wyoming (I was looking for pictures of just us two, but all of our hiking in the past 3 years had kids in backpacks, so at least they aren't looking).
Pizza Tasting party.
A's game in Cleveland.
Murder mystery party #2.
Murder Mystery party #1.
Ugly Christmas Sweater party.
(The bulk of our pictures together were pre-kids/pre-digital/pre-this computer...and I had to take a lot out of the one and only scrapbook I have ever made, so it took a long time, and I condensed them.)  Camping in goblin valley.  Opening night of "The Incredibles."  BYU graduation.  Sand snowman on first Hilton Head Trip.
Angel's Landing in Zion.  Sunlight mountains near Cody, WY.  Boat tour in Chicago.  Mountain Biking in one of our favorite places in Utah.
Hilton head trip number 2.
White Castle Valentines Day #1 (we plan on this year being #2).
Playa Del Carmen, Mexico trip.
Snorkel ready on that same trip.
I think this was for a wedding...but we look nice, right!?!?

Through five years we have enjoyed numerous camping, hiking, mountain biking, snow skiing, and waterskiing trips.  We have finished college, started a career, bought a house, and added two little kiddos to our family.  We have hosted several fun parties for our friends and come up with ideas for several more.  We have been to several family reunions, family and friend trips, and a few trips for just us two.  We have learned that we are terrible painters, ok (but not great) gardeners, and so so fix-it people.  I am so glad I married a man that encourages my sense of adventure and is adventurous, a man that loves the things that I love and loves to learn new things with me.

I am so grateful for the past five years with my best friend and the love of my life.  Jared is an excellent husband and a great father.  He is so supportive and makes me laugh every day.  I love the way it feels to be with him and that I know I can be with him for eternity.  Thanks for loving me back...happy anniversary!

The mind of a 2-year old

We were visiting my parents' house the other day, and Andrew came walking down the stairs wearing a shirt and tie.  The following conversation preceded a major meltdown by Jacob:

Jacob: Andrew go to church?

Andrew: I'm going out with the missionaries

Jacob: Andrew no go on mission!

Andrew: I'm going out with the missionaries

Jacob: ANDREW NO GO ON MISSION!!!

Jacob then had a complete meltdown on the floor.  He was really, really sad.  It finally dawned on us that Jacob was interpreting Andrew going on splits with the missionaries as Andrew leaving to go on a mission, like Taylor (who left this summer to go to Argentina).  Jacob was completely heartbroken to think Andrew would be gone too!

Vivid Dreams

The other night, Jacob woke up screaming, and Dani went in to calm him.  Here's how the 'conversation' went:

Dani: Jacob, what's wrong?

Jacob: (screaming loudly) Cware (i.e. Claire), Cware, Cware BITE it!!!

Dani: Claire bit it?

Jacob: (still loudly) Yeah, Cware BITE it!!!

Dani: Jacob, what did Claire bite?

Jacob: (still loudly) Cware, Cware bite my BALL!!!

Dani: Claire bit your ball

Jacob: (loudly, but quite sadly): Yeah, Cware bite my ball!!!

Dani: Well, I'm sure she's sorry

Jacob: (still sadly): Go get it mama.

Dani: Jacob, balls are for wake up time

That's just one of the recent vivid dreams our children have had recently.  The night after Jacob had thrown up, after he'd gone the entire day without eating and only drinking a little bit, Jacob woke up pointing to the wall and saying, "My food over there!!!"  When I repeated him, he laid his head back down, smiled, and started moving his mouth like he was chewing, looking quite happy.

Claire often wakes up demanding either cake or books, though it's been at least two weeks since one of those episodes.  Jacob woke up last night demanding we take him to Nana's house.  He often wakes up demanding cookies.  He's also woken up yelling, "No Cware" a few times before.

If dreams give a glimpse of what's on Jacob and Claire's minds, it appears it is food, going to Nana's house, and defending their territory!

Happy New Year!

Dani and I rang in 2009 at a Masquerade at one of our friends' house.

We learned of a New Years tradition in Panama where on each of the first 12 seconds of the new year, you are supposed to eat a grape.  It was pretty funny - I think the hosts picked out the biggest green grapes they could find!  A few people (including Dani) couldn't quite hold all 12 grapes!

The third, fourth, and fifth hours of 2009 were spent taking care of Jacob, who was throwing up.  As I was cleaning up some smelly stuff off Jacob's blankets at 4:05 a.m., I will admit to being grateful that he had such good aim and managed to have it all concentrated on 2 blankets, unlike Claire whose late-night illness necessitated changing and washing all her sheets, blankets, and a couple of her stuffed animals!  I guess I was counting my blessings!

In other news, we successfully painted another room, the master bathroom.  It isn't perfect again, and we vowed not to paint another room so we're getting estimates for professionals to do our next painting projects, but we got it done!