Searching for the Silver Lining

At the Nautilus Submarine Museum over Thanksgiving break. Photo credit to Kelly Pluid.

Ryan works a lot. I'm certain many of  your husbands do, too. You'll have to excuse me---I am having a little pity party because I miss my husband. Our kids miss their dad. And it's going to get worse before it gets better (waaah-waaaah, poor Sara! Cue the violins). Everyone pays their dues sometime and Ryan is definitely paying his now. That being said, I have been composing a mental list of the positive side---a silver lining, if you will--to Ryan's job owning him for the next long while:

• Heading to work in the wee hours of the morning means I get the bed and all the blankets all to myself for a few hours early each morning. 
• We never have disagreements about how to raise the kids because he's rarely home when they are awake. I get to make all the child-rearing decisions myself and only consult him when I want to =)
• Because family time is rare, when we do get to be together it is wonderful. I haven't enjoyed ordinary things like car rides and wrestling kids in church this much in my whole life.
• I don't do much laundry for him because he rarely wears anything but scrubs and the hospital washes those bad boys for him.  
• I get full control of the remote after the kids are in bed. The entire Felicity series is queued up on Netflix and ready to be watched. 
• Snack dinners are a staple at our house, and I see nothing wrong with popcorn and carrot sticks or cold cereal for dinner once in awhile. 
• At least we live under the same roof. That wasn't the case with all of his travels last year.

I'm going to take my sister's advice and do my best to keep my chin up. I know that as hard and long as my days are, Ryan's are always harder and longer. And I should feel lucky to have a husband worth missing. 

Madelyn Ruth @ 3.5 Years

Next week our Mads will cross the 3.5 year mark. 

This picture pretty much sums up her personality for me. 

•  Maddie is kind, thoughtful, sticky sweet ("Mom, do you know who I love more than anyone else in the WHOLE WORLD?...YOU!..and Isaac and Davy and Papa..."), feisty, demanding, fiercely independent, determined, and unpredictable. 
• She loves to help out unless it involves cleaning up toys.
• She is as friendly as she was 3 years ago and makes new friends anytime we go out in public.
• She loves to eat just about any fruit, candy, carbs, carbs, carbs, and carrot sticks. She rarely eats anything I make for dinner without a lot of coercion. 
• Like most three-year-old girls she also loves princesses and Rapunzel is her favorite. She wears her Rapunzel dress just about everyday. 
• Her favorite colors are pink and purple and I overheard her tell Isaac that she would be happy if the whole world were pink.

She loves her brothers and loves to fight with them, too. You wouldn't believe how fast she can turn on the water works in an attempt to get her way.

• Maddie is my little sidekick. This past semester I was called to team teach an institute class downtown and she and Davis come with me while Ike is at school  Maddie insists on wearing a dress and tights, too, because I am required to dress up. 
•  She loves school and has recently shown a growing interest in learning how to read. I have been doing lessons with her in the same book I used with Isaac. We are about halfway done with the lessons and I am really proud of how far she has come--it's hard work learning to read (you'll have to turn the volume all the way up if you watch the video--it's a little muffled).

• She insists on picking out all of her own outfits and I usually let her have full reign in that department...even if it means snow boots in the summer or socks on top of her tights. I do, however, make her get dressed if we are going out. She loves loves loves her pjs so this is often a battle with us. Just yesterday, in fact, though I reminded her several times that she needed to get dressed, she wasn't ready when it was time to go. So I made her leave the house in her underpants. She was not happy but she was ready with clothes on in plenty of time this morning =)
• She is still small for her age. In fact, she and Davis currently wear the same size footsie pajamas (2T).

Making a paper countdown chain for Christmas.

Just this morning I had the following conversation with her:

Maddie: "When I am thirteen I am going to be a mama, too!"

Me: "Uhhh...or maybe when you're twenty-three...or even thirty?"

Maddie: "Yeah, or twenty-eighty!"

Me: "Sounds good to me."

She is constantly cracking me up and putting a smile on my face. I will continue to record the funny things that come out of her mouth for as long as she continues to say them!

From the Mouth of My Babe

Three Little Monkeys...

We decorated our Christmas tree last night. As you can imagine, the excitement level was pretty high. The following statements were uttered:

• "Santa will LOVE our tree!" (Maddie said this at least 2 dozen times)
• "This is the best Christmas tree EVER!" (Isaac)
• "It is so beautiful!" (Maddie)
• "I wish I could talk to Santa." (Isaac)

Thanksgiving Highlights 2011

 We were able to spend this Thanksgiving with both friends and family. I am so so lucky to have my sister and her family an hour away from ours, and our friends the Pluids are just a few hours south of us, so they came  up for a few days to celebrate the holiday.

Jackson and Davis. A mix between a hug and a choke hold. These two were fascinated with one another.

My brother-in-law Jeremy is a pilot, so of course he needs a blow-up Santa flying a helicopter. 

Here Brooke is getting lost in These are Special Times: Celine Dion Christmas with the PeeWee. She and Jer were very gracious hosts and the turkey was nothing short of perfection.

I decided it was high time I tackle my decade-long fear of homemade pie crusts. I finally had success and now I'll never go back to the store-bought variety. 

Anything goes on Thanksgiving day around here.

Kelly was a super-friend and tackled Black Friday with me. I never could have got all the screaming deals without her (or my TGI Black Friday app) . Finding a bargain on Black Friday is seriously like a drug. And I'm addicted. It was so fun to hang out just the two of us, even if it was in the late hours of the night!

On Friday we took our kids to the submarine museum in Groton. It was totally worth the hour drive. We were able to tour the very first nuclear powered submarine. I learned that I don't want to live in the claustrophobic atmosphere of an underwater ship. I never knew bunk beds could be so close to each other. 

It was hard to capture in a phone photo just how small and confined everything was.

The biggest hit of the museum (aside from all the control panel buttons that they were allowed to play with to their hearts' content) was this hand-held audio tour guide. Each person was given one so we could listen at our own pace. The kids were in heaven. 

Thanks so much to Brooke and Jeremy for having us over for Thanksgiving--the kids always love to spend time at your house. And thanks to the Pluids for making the trek north to visit us! The kids had a ball getting reacquainted with their friends. Last night Isaac commented to me, "Saying goodbye to Chase was just sad for the whole family." Don't worry, Ike, I'm sure it won't be long before you can say hello again.

Thankful for:

Ryan is thankful for:

• Cinnabon cereal
• my beautiful wife and the time she spends on our family blog
• my kids
• ESPN 3
• Diet Dr. Pepper

Sara is thankful for:

• making pies with my sister and mama. Tears were shed when she left today but thanks to my baby sister's engagement (whoot-whoot!) we will all be together in Utah early next year. February in Utah never sounded so sweet.
• Modern Family and Up all Night. Two most hilarious sitcoms on TV.
• my super-awesome better half and the fact that he'll participate in blogs like this even though he'd rather just watch ESPN 3 on the one night he came home early this week.
• my 3 fun kids and all they teach me about life.
• Picnik.com. My sister recently introduced me to this gem of a photo-editing website. It's photo editing for people who don't know how to edit photos. Helps me make my mediocre photos look a little less mediocre. I am loving experimenting with all the cool effects. My only problem is that now I have the uncontrollable urge to edit every photo I've ever posted on this blog.

 Isaac is thankful for:

• Maddie
• popsicles
• race cars
• Lightning McQueen

Maddie is thankful for:

• princesses
• lollipops
• treats
• all my family

I

If Davis knew what gratitude meant, I think he would say he's thankful for:

• Yo Gabba Gabba (Finally! TV will entertain him!)
• shoes
• books ("po favo, weed a book, mom?")
• yogurt and applesauce
• high fives and hugs ("a hug, a hug" he will say multiple times a day with his arms outstretched)
• cars, tractors, airplanes, and trains.

Happy Thanksgiving!