Is that Strange?

Jason and I don't know, off the top of our heads, how old we are. We were talking about it the other night and had to seriously think about what year it is and the fact that our birthdays haven't happened yet. So is that strange?

Etiquette Dinner

As mentioned, on Saturday before Valentine's Day, Jason and I were the host couple at a youth Etiquette Dinner. Let me explain first what this means. The Stake youth leaders had couples come and put together a table with the settings and decorations and sat with the kids to kind of mediate the conversation and help the kids know how to have good table manners and things like that.

For the week before, Kristen and I were trying to figure out what we should put on the table. Kristen has white on white plates so we kept trying to think of how to add color to the table.

Hilary has white plates with a red stripe around the edge so I used half of each kind and alternated them.


It was a subtle difference but I liked it. Then Kristen has stem water glasses that we used. Jason had the idea of using candles. We put them on a red plate, tied a fun ribbon around them and spread red rose petals and candy around the table.


We were totally stoked when we found some round red place mats on clearance. They were just what we wanted to have color on the table and gave it a subtle polka dot look (with the ribbon on the candles tying it all together).


Once we got everything set up, we looked around and I liked our table best. Poor Jason had to keep hearing me talk about what I liked best about our table and why I preferred it to all the other ones. I find that when I am planning something, I'm not very good about visualizing what the end result is going to look like. So, when I do it and it turns out well, I'm pleasantly surprised.

The dinner part of the evening was fun too. We had a full table with two boys and four girls and the conversation went well. Generally, it flowed through the whole evening. The end was a little bit funny. They passed out conversation starters and they were all about death. Things like: 'if you had one day left to live, what would you do' or 'where would you like to be buried' or 'what do you want on your epitaph' or 'if you could take one thing to heaven, what would it be'. We thought that was pretty funny.

Then the boys were able to collect the balloons and suck helium. They brought so many home and one balloon didn't fit in our trunk and it flapped spun in the wind. Sadly, it didn't make it home but it was fun to see how far it went.

Valentine's Day

One fun thing about having a holiday on the weekend is that you can really drag the celebrations our to last all weekend, starting on Thursday or so. That's what we did with Valentine's Day this year. I feel like I'm just figuring out how to do holidays with kids. I had gotten out of the habit of really celebrating smaller holidays (when in school, holidays totally go on the back burner) and Valentine's Day has never really been a big one for me. But this year I had Anna and she was totally getting into the whole thing.

Anna adding more sprinkles (it was looking a bit bare) with her lollipop on the side for later. I think her favorite part of the holiday is the candy everywhere.

We went to a little party thrown by a friend here with her mom's group. We played with their toys, decorated bags for cards, decorated cupcakes, and exchanged cards. I heard about it kind of last-minute so I didn't think about getting any cards. Fortunately, the mom who hosted it had some extra so we put our names on them and handed them out. Anna was pretty good about putting the cards into the bags. When we were doing the cupcakes, some one handed Anna a bottle of sprinkles that didn't have a shaker top, it was just open. Naturally, on her first try, the little balls spilled all over the table. I tried to clean them up but as I was putting them back in the bottle, they spilled again. It was a bit of a mess but funny.

Eric working on his cookie

Then on Friday we had a little party with the cousins that don't get to go to school. Again we did that cards and decorated bags. It was cute to have Anna choose which cards she wanted to give to which people. I laid out all of the options and ask which one for each person and she would choose. It was fun. Then we decorated cookies. Ironically, this time Anna was all into putting all of the different sprinkles on her cookie but was never interested in eating it. I don't really know what was up with that.

Anna's well-decorated cookie

On Saturday, Jason and I were the host couple at a youth Etiquette Dinner but that will be it's own post. Sunday was pretty low-key after all of that. We had a simple dinner at home with candles and Jason and I gave each other good quality chocolate (which is all I want on Valentine's day). It was a lovely weekend.

Happy Birthday!

Sunday was Anna's 2nd birthday! This year she got much more excited about it than she did last year. I'm thinking this is not only because she is older but also because she has seen a number of birthdays here are Kristen's house and has a better idea of just how exciting they are.

The festivities started on Saturday morning. We woke up to donuts! Kristen has a tradition in her family that when someone has a birthday, they get breakfast in bed. That morning Nathan had to get up early to take the two oldest boys somewhere and decided to get the donuts for Anna's breakfast. It was greatly appreciated, almost more so because it was unexpected.


That night we had a party combined with my Grandpa whose 89th birthday was on Monday. We had pancakes, eggs, sausage and fruit salad for dinner. As you can tell, breakfast is Anna's favorite meal of the day (she has been known to eat it several times with each person as they wake up). It was a hit. I also got balloons.

Singing Happy Birthday

Blowing out the candles.

She got some great presents (it's so nice when other people get things for Anna so I don't have to) and they all were (still are really) a hit.

I have no idea why it has this random strip at the bottom of the picture.

Jason and I got her a little kitchen. I was thinking of getting her dress-up stuff but then we went to the local children's museum and she spent almost all the time playing in the kitchen and wasn't too interested in the dress-ups. We were able to find it on Craigslist for way cheap and it came with a bunch of dishes and food. It's even nice and small so it fits in our bedroom. I could tell the kitchen was a good call when she would rather play with that than eat her cake.

We also got her a Book of Mormon Illustrated Storybook. We read the first chapter which talks about Joseph Smith and where the Book of Mormon came from. She seemed to pay more attention to our family scripture reading after that. Also, this morning when I was reading my scriptures, she got her book out and started looking at the pictures.

Jacob is such a sweet heart. He wanted to get Anna a present and found these bracelets that he paid for with his own money. She thinks they are great.

Anna loves umbrellas, she can even say 'umbrella' pretty well too. This one is especially fun because it has a duck head on the handle. Between this and the galoshes from Grandpa DeMarco, she is totally set for the rain.

I had wanted to get her a stroller for Christmas but it didn't happen. Now she takes it with her all over the place. Yeah for Aunt Kristen.

She also got two different tutus. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of them yet. She likes to wear them and dance and twirl so maybe I can get a video of that.

The next day (her actual birthday) was more low key. It was spent enjoying her toys. In fact, I had to tell her she could play with her kitchen again when she woke up, finished lunch, got home from church, etc. before I could get her to leave it. I had made such a big cake the night before that we were able to have it again the next night, complete with singing and candles. And she got to eat the cake and ice cream this time. It was a very fun birthday.

Anna's Antics

Sometimes it seems like everything Anna does just cracks us up. Here are some of her most recent antics.


She has a doll that she loves; referring to it as her baby. There have been times when she doesn't want to get her diaper changed, we will change the baby's diaper first and then she will lie down to get hers done. She likes to wipe his bellybutton and even put on diaper rash cream. Well, lately, she has been putting him to sleep in the bathroom. Not surprising since she sleeps in there but still. She will put him in the bathtub, close the door and tell us to be quiet. This morning, she even made pretend crying sound and said he was crying as she closed the door. I asked about the fact that she was leaving him to cry and she said it was so that he could fall asleep. It's never to early to teach your kids about sleep training.


For Christmas, Anna got a really cute puzzle from Jason's parents. It's a princess with different outfits that you can change the skirts and shirts around. The other day, the princess had a red skirt with a pink shirt. She looked at it and said "clash". Naturally, we changed it so that her outfit looked better. Now, if Anna is trying to wear clothes that don't work, I tell her that it clashes and she will let me choose something else.

Ready to go to Grandma's house in the rain.

The other night, while Kristen and I were making dinner, Anna got out a bunch of plates. She wanted to set the table. We were having soup that night so I told her we needed bowls. She got those out instead and put them on the table. Then I gave her the spoons and cups and she put those on too. The best part was that I didn't even have to ask her, she just saw that we were making dinner and did it. Kristen says that's one of the differences between boys and girls.

I think it was that same night Anna said the blessing before dinner all by herself. I have been trying to get her to say it by just repeating what I say but she rarely repeats me. This time, though, I didn't say a thing. We could pick out words like 'Heavenly Father','food', 'bless' and 'amen'. It was way cute and I was really impressed.

As you can tell, I don't put on make-up to clean the bathroom.

In the mornings, I wipe down the bathroom. Sometimes, when Anna is around she likes to help. I give her a baby wipe to wipe whatever she wants while I have my Lysol wipe. She especially enjoys cleaning the toilet. We have this powder you put in the bowl and it foams up, which is way fun. Then there is the fun of using the brush. Sometimes it's hard to get her to stop so I can flush the foam away.

Needless to say, some days it feels like we just laugh at everything she does.

Taste?

Chocolate chip cookie dough, yum yum!

Anna has discovered picking in doughs and batters. She loves it. She will try to pick at every step along the way, including in the empty bowl. All we have to do is get out the mixer and she is asking for a taste. When we make cookies, we have to keep telling her that it's not yummy yet. Once it is, oh man. If we don't watch carefully, she will grab a whole handful at a time.

Happiness ensues

It's not just cookie dough either. Pancake batter, bread dough cornbread batter. I've never been one for these less sweet options but Anna is an equal opportunity picker. I would wonder about it but then we found this picture of me when I was about Anna's age.


Apparently she comes by it honestly.

Columbus and Kirtland

Now that we are done with Christmas and New Year's and having people visiting and all the craziness that goes along with all of that, I can sit down and blog about the trip we took just before Christmas.

Skyline of part of Columbus

Jason and I (Anna stayed home) went to Columbus, OH for 6 days for two job interviews, to drop in on some other firms and to check out the city. We were able to stay with a family from our church that Jason met through the Linked In website. The husband also helped arrange one of Jason's interviews. They turned out to be so nice (it could have gone either way). They have 10 kids but only 4 are still at home. The parents helped us know about places to go to see what Columbus has to offer and we played games with the kids. We even got to sleep in a water bed.

Front of one of the firms we visited

Jason had two interviews the first day and then the second day we just dropped in on a few other firms. I went with him to the interviews and hung out in the lobby then followed them on their tours of the office. It was interesting to see how much I could tell about the places from just sitting in their lobby. Both of the interviews went really well. The general consensus was that if they had work, they would hire him. Jason likes and dislikes things about each one so he doesn't know which one he would prefer.

Open Space in Arena District

Archway saved from the old train station now in the Arena District

Once we got those interviews out of the way, we could play. We spent a bit of time driving/walking around the city. We drove around the university and the downtown and walked around where the arenas are and a neighborhood called the German Village. There we had lunch at a really good deli and the best book store ever. It's called The Book Loft and is the length of a whole block with 32 smaller rooms just packed with books. It feels like they have no more than two or three copies of each book. Each room has different music playing and is a different category. They also have movies and posters and cards. An awesome place to get lost.

Street in German Village (note the brick road)

We were also able to spend our Friday evening there at their science museum. The family we stayed with let us use their membership and the museum was open until 9 that night. We played with the space room, the human body area, the physics toys and rode the unicycle over the lobby. So fun!

Snow (through a screen because it is cold outside)

On Saturday we woke up to a couple of inches of white fluffy snow on the ground. So naturally we decided to drive for three hours up to Kirtland. The roads were all plowed and it wasn't icy so we had a beautiful trip. Neither of us had ever been to Kirtland before and it was a great time to be there.

The visitors center had a nativity display with lots of different styles and sizes. They even had a separate building for the international ones and had them from all over the world.

Whitney Store in Kirtland

After watching a video about the LDS church in Kirtland, we took a tour with a couple of cute sister missionaries. They took us to the N.K. Whitney store where we saw where Joseph Smith lived with his family while they were there. We also saw the room where several of the sections of the Doctrine and Covenants were written down along with the room that was used for the School of the Prophets. The Spirit was so strong in that room, it was amazing. I can totally see why that was where President Monson wanted to go when he visited the area for a short trip. We also visited the Whitney home and the Johnson Inn that was rebuilt and turned into a multi-media area.

Kirtland Temple

After lunch we went over the the Kirtland Temple. It is owned by the Community of Christ (previously the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) and we were able to take a tour. Again we were the only people on the tour and the man who did the tour was nicely chatty. After he learned that Jason was in Architecture, he took us up to the bell tower and we got to look out over the roof line. We also got to go up to the pulpits and see where Joseph Smith sat during the dedication and where Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph and Oliver Cowdrey. Sadly, while it was cool to be up there, the Spirit was not strong like in the School of the Prophets room. Even so, it was so neat to be able to visit those places and feel the Spirit that is still there.

Anna did great for Kristen. I guess it was a little bit crazy the first couple of days while Kristen learned just how closely Anna needs to be watched (there was rice on the family room floor for days) but then things went smoothly. After that, Anna just blended in with the family. Kristen said that Anna wouldn't get sad if they talked about us, just happy that we would be coming home. Once Anna said that when I got home, I would give her hugs (which I did once I got home). Amazingly, she stopped using her binkie while we were away. The first night when Kristen was putting her to bed, she couldn't find it and told Anna that she would just have to go to sleep without it. She did with no problem and didn't ask for it after that. I still don't know where it is. Sadly, after we got back, we had retaliation for a couple of days. It was horrible and I couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with me as a mother (and wished I could find that binkie) but then things calmed down and my sweet Anna was back.

We had a great trip and I can see being happy in Columbus.