christmas cheer

nothing like the christmas spirit working its way into the kids' imaginary play... carson and layla spent the morning visiting their "neighbors" (me & addie) and giving them "gifts & treats" (magnets and lego pieces).

merry christmas to all.

soooo tiiiiiiiiiiired....

rough night last night. i was up with carson and layla each once and addelyn at least 4 times (i kind of lost count in my sleep delirium).

naptime is calling. adios.

nativity on broadway

for family night, we had friends and cousins over to act out the nativity (a good kick-start to the christmas season). it was so great.

highlights: a daydreaming joseph (carson), an adorable wears-the-pants-in-the-family mary (macy morton), the gifts-bearing and very shiny wisemen, one of whose final headgear bore a striking resemblance to cindy lou who (layla and polly & amanda morton), a shepherd who dedicated himself to protecting his stuffed cows and horse (lincoln jones), a shepherd who put substantially less time into his costume (paul smart), a roving sheep (logan jones), a beautiful angel bedecked with the mandatory homemade tinfoil halo (ella jones), and a sword-toting innkeeper who almost busted out into song about being forgotten but somehow was able to contain himself (jeremy jones).

the kids were darling and loved it. in fact, they switched costumes and repeated the process several times afterward. the best part: one of the kids handed me my scriptures when they were ready for their second performance, saying, "we don't know the story, but it's in here...will you read it again?" if that's all they learned, that's enough.

oh, and i'm sure you're all interested: we're considering taking this on the road in 2009. national tour. check back for ticket information in february...i'm sure they'll go fast.

carson claus

the other night, carson really really really wanted to dress up as santa so he could give his sisters and cousins presents. unfortunately, he couldn't find anything red to wear. but, since he was blessed with infatiguable creativity and since green is also a christmas color, he was able to piece together a satisfactory santa costume. it went a little something like this (plus his pirate boots, which you can't see here):

somehow, i wonder if the whole "santa" idea really would've taken off if it were modeled after this kind of hodge-podge uniform. discuss.

reflections of a bubble girl

so, tonight i attended the casual guest lecture of a 22-year-old refugee from karen (by burma). he was separated from his family when he was 8 years old and had been moving every few weeks through the jungle to avoid being destroyed by the burmese soldiers. he hasn't seen his family for 14 years (dad & mom, brother & sister). during that time, he was going to "school," which was actually not much more than people coming into the little camp set-ups and teaching them for a few weeks before they had to leave so the government didn't get suspicious. i think he lived with his aunt and uncle at some point in there, but to make a long story short, his uncle was killed by the soldiers, and i'm not sure about the aunt.

he lived through these horrendous things, which, just hearing about them, make me flinch and cry and shake my head and swallow lumps in my throat. but his overall attitude was one of optimism -- like how fortunate he felt to have the opportunity to be here in the u.s., and he joked about how hard it is to learn better english (which, by the way, he spoke very well) because he works on an assembly line where most of the workers speak spanish. smiling: "now, i can even speak spanish un pocito!"

never let me complain again. honestly. i am so blessed to have my little bubble of a life where all i've known is safety and decency and lawfulness and where my "bad" days are ones where layla throws an unwarranted tantrum or carson talks too loud. we're all so blessed.

*stepping off my soapbox now but still reflecting on this*

how could i NOT love these guys?

i mean, really. it would be impossible.

p.s. julie kirby: no words, my friend. no words. thank you.

another update...

i wouldn't use the term "slacker," really, because i've actually been so busy that blogging is the last thing that i have time to do. but it would appear that i have some serious catching up to do.

here goes:

(1) i've made the blog non-private for a while, since christmas cards are being sent out, and our blog address is included. (therefore, swearing and questionable comments should be kept to a minimum. i don't want to name names, marty, but really.) (kidding, kidding.) anyway, if you're new at viewing this blog and want to continue, send me your email address, and i'll invite you. probably go back to private in february or something.

(2.a) thanksgiving was a great break, minus the fact that we were all sick. actually, paul and i were the worst off (which is preferable to watching your kids be miserable, right?). he took the entire week off, and, although it wasn't exactly a vacation, it was great to have him home and hard to see him return to work this past monday.

(2.b) notice that, in the turkeys that the kids made above, layla named hers "brittney." awesome.

(2.c) addelyn is WAY into herself lately. she was totally flirting with her image in the reflection of the toaster right before bathtime, laughing and cooing. and she's trying really hard to sit up and do stuff by herself -- i caught her almost rolling over today (trying to get closer to her reflection in a toy mirror, go figure). she's growing up super fast, and i'm trying to not let her (which, for me, is not typical. i have a tendency to want my kids to be at the maximum level of independence that their age and ability allows).

(3.a) carson continues to love to create and invent stuff. "projects," he calls them. most find their way into the trash within a half hour of their completion, but this was one he was particularly proud of. he made this car (see pics below) all by himself with a shoebox lid, some paper, and some tacks. the kid is so creative and nerdy. (don't know WHERE he gets it from.)

(3.b) layla has some sweet legwarmers and LOVES them. she looks scrumptious in them, too, so i'm all for it. kid-fashion rules.



(4) annual tradition: the smart family christmas tree hunt. we wandered around for a while finding nothing (actually, i found several that i thought were okay, but they didn't meet paul's standards). oh, but carson found a bird's nest in a tree and carried it sooo carefully for the rest of the time. he sacrificed his face, legs, arms, whatever to keep that little nest safe. it's now an ornament on our tree. and layla pretty much hated the entire experience (note photo below), at least until she went back and sat in the warm truck with gramma joyce and a cup of hot cocoa. with the kids back at the parking lot with gramma & grampa, paul and i were able to head straight up the mountainside to find the tree.



(5) we've been busy busy busy, and loving every minute of it, doing christmas projects and spreading christmas cheer. carson wanted to make one of these tie-snakes for everyone in his preschool class. cute, no? (brooke, how can i ever thank you for the awesome tie-snake idea? we've gotten a ton of mileage out of it.)



p.s. on the inset pic above, can you tell which "snake" is carson? (he was so so proud of himself and his grand disguise. nice.)

merry christmas season, everybody.