Merry Christmas!

Things I love about Christmas this year:

The Church's "He Is the Gift" campaign
All the gifts I made/assembled (future post for the sewing blog)
The Christmas lesson taught in RS last Sunday
The kids' matching Christmas outfits (from Mom before Owen was even born)
The round lights on our Christmas tree
The "Angels We Have Heard on High" video done by the Piano Guys and David Archuleta (and some other guy I don't know)
That the gift Camille is most excited about is one she is giving to Owen
All the time Brian has off

We're trying to see how many times Santa can scare Camille.

And no Christmas is complete without random gifts left on the porch from Jane to the Hurtados. This year we got a string of fiber optic dragonflies and a Backwoods Home Cooking cookbook.

A long and kind of boring post

We made it through the long drive over the river and through the woods to Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving. The kids were okay in the car, and we managed to go the whole way there without buying anything except gas on the way. We enjoyed stopping at Grandma Allred's house for the night on the way there. It made a long first day, but Grandma was nice enough to stay up till we got in at 11:30 pm and then feed us before we went to bed. Camille really liked Grandmas's Little People collection. Who doesn't? The second day was supposed to be short, but the eight hour trip morphed into eleven due to kids, traffic, and snowy roads.

I had fun spending time with the family, and Camille had lots of fun playing with the cousins. I'm especially glad Brooke woke up at 6:00 every morning so I could just send Camille down to play with her while I tried to go back to sleep.

The Eastbay Turkey Trot was COLD. Brian and the kiddos chilled out (ha) in the car while we froze running around downtown Wausau. Nine degrees (or was it twelve?) was a mite on the chilly side.

Brian took a picture of the this random guy that Camille kept calling Grandpa.

Sorry. Brian didn't see any of the other runners in our family.

Russell photo bomb

In the past twelve months we have made the trip to Wisconsin four times. I don't know why I felt compelled to go for Thanksgiving after just being there in August, but I did, and we went. We'll probably take a little break and not go back for awhile. We are also to the point where we will probably not travel for holidays very much anymore.

Dad sent us home with the hind quarter of one of the deer he got. We had the fun experience of butchering it ourselves.

We got our Christmas tree up. It is ridiculously bushy around the bottom and seemed to swallow up all the lights, so I bought more. I'm trying out white lights on the tree for the first time. The verdict is still out on whether I prefer white or colored more.

It is also lost a lot of needles when I was putting the lights on (and pulling them off again).

Well, there is my monthly update.

A budding artist

In the past couple months Camille has gone from scribbling to drawing recognizable things. She drew this family portrait tonight. Can you guess who is who? I'll give you the hard one since no one will get it--the blue one at the bottom right is Camille's monkey.

Happy Halloween

I don't really have too much to say other than Camille threw a huge tantrum after getting back from trick-or-treat because we wouldn't let her eat all her candy right then. Is this what we have to look forward to every year?

What's been going on around here

Camille finished her little tumbling class today.

 They gave the kids medals and fruit snacks at the end. Why is it that every children's program must include some sort of final recognition or graduation ceremony? She enjoyed the fruit snacks at least.

We had our little Halloween lunch today.

Candy Corn Fruit Cups

Witches' Brooms

Hot Dog Mummies. Bet you can't guess which ones Camille made.

 We finally replaced the globe willows that fell two years ago. Retrospectively, it was a blessing that they fell the way they did. We got rid of two big, messy trees for free, with only minor damage. I'm still grateful for the Elder's Quorum for saving the day and helping to take down the trees. Anyway, we got a sensation maple for the front yard and a Kieffer pear tree for the backyard. I don't know that I've ever eaten a Kieffer pear, but the tree was appealing because it is self-pollinating and it only cost $12.50. The maple tree only cost $20.

Owen Turns 6 Months

Here's a post just about my Owen boy (since someone else tends to dominate the blog space).

Owen turned 6 months yesterday. 

 He just started solids and has enjoyed it a lot so far.

He can roll both ways, but he really doesn't do it often. He can sit unassisted for small amounts of time, like 15 seconds, and only when he wants to.

Owen still wakes up several times a night, but he's easy to get back to sleep. Most of the time when he wakes up he just lies in his crib making shrieking noises for awhile.

He loves to talk and laugh with anyone who will give him attention. 

 Everyone loves him for his happy, content personality,

2014 Cougar Run

Camille and I ran in the homecoming race this year. I had been looking for a 5k to run, and this fit my criteria and had kids races too. Whenever I take the kids running in the stroller, Camille spends most of the time crying and yelling to come out because she wants to run, and if she sees me putting on my running shoes, she goes and gets her little princess light-up sneakers so she can come with me. And Camille has told me multiple times that she "wuvs wunning." So I signed her up.

She was "so so excited" for her race.

I think she got scared and overwhelmed by everything that was going on. This is how she ended her race.

I pretty much dragged her the whole second half of the race. At least she got a t-shirt.

Rambling

While some others had a bummer summer, I kind of feel like I've had a bummer fall. When we got back after the funeral, Brian started right in working fall hours, which usually means working a couple nights a week and lots of Saturdays. I was sick for three weeks with a cold, then a sinus infection, then pink eye. Owen also got quite sick with the same cold, Brian got the cold, and Camille got pink eye. Camille also had a fever when she had pink eye and was really difficult to handle for a week. I was barely making it until the kids' bedtime, which got moved up to 6:30 p.m.

I've been missing Mom lately. She was always good to Skype when I was having a hard time and she would always support and encourage me. Dad sent me a birthday card, but I miss opening a card filled with confetti. I wish I would have started doing family history work before she passed away so I could ask her about the people and situations I'm trying to figure out. Having so many records indexed and accessible through Ancestry has made genealogy so much easier, so I'm moving along way faster than she probably did, but still.

I enrolled Camille in a toddler tumbling class. It's been fun for her. The purpose in putting her in the class was more for the benefits of having her out of the house and interacting with other kids and adults than learning to tumble. It's been good, but I don't know if it merits the cost. The only time available was during Owen's first nap, so that's been tough on him.

I enjoyed my birthday. So did Owen, Camille, and Brian. Camille told me "Happy Birthday" about 27 times the past few days.

Church Today

It was a big day at church. Our bishop passed away the day we got back from Mom's funeral, and today the new bishopric was called. There were of course lots of people at church today.

We made it through the sustainings and the blessing and passing of the Sacrament. Camille was kind of wild. At one point I asked her if she needed to use the potty. She said no, and then started yelling more and more loudly. I grabbed her and started to take her out. She began yelling, "Mommy, no me go peepee! Me go shurshwy (nursery)!" over and over. Everyone on our side of the congregation started laughing. Someone asked me if she had been yelling, "Mommy, don't spank me!" Great. I'm glad we could provide the comedic entertainment at church today.

After that episode, Brian was trying to get Owen to sleep. Owen has had a cold, so we were trying to keep him covered so he wouldn't contage everyone and to help him sleep. Brian had put a light blanket over him. It looked like he was nursing Owen, and that started some suppressed laughter again.

I took Camille to nursery and met Brian in our family history Sunday School class. Near the end I took Owen out and fed him. When I came back, class was almost over, and I gave Owen to Brian. Owen coughed, choked, gagged, and then threw up all over Brian.

I decided to take Owen home because he wasn't doing well at this point, plus he was all wet from throwing up. I drove home, leaving Brian to walk home with Camille. I put Owen to bed, and he took a nap. Church ends at 12:00, so I expected Brian and Camille home at about 12:30. It's a 10 minute (1/2 mile) walk for an adult. With Camille, it usually takes much longer because she stops at every rock she sees. They came in the door before 12:15 because Camille ran the entire 1/2 mile.

Family History and some other stuff

Brian and I are taking the Sunday School Family History class again. The teacher goes all out. Each Sunday she teaches about whatever topic the lesson is on by using those research methods to work on the family history of one of the members of the class. It's been neat to see what she dug up about our family tree as well as the other class members'. It's really gotten me into doing family history. I always shied away from it because I thought all the easy stuff had been done and wasn't willing to try to dig into the harder stuff. Wrong. There is a lot to do still, especially on collateral lines on Grandma Allred's side. Apparently, the Spirit of Elijah is alive and well in me. And you know, the hastening of the work is happening.

Related PSA: Before you rush off to the temple because you see a little green temple by someone's name, do a little research and check to make sure it's not a duplicate or some other error!

In other news, we bought a new (to us) car. I'll miss the 40 mpg my old car got, but I've already enjoyed being able to transport large items, sitting without my knees in the dashboard, and having a third row of seats.

Our garden was kind of a let-down this summer. The only thing that did really well was the chard. I gave up on the green beans because they stopped making beans, then after Mom's funeral I was out in the garden and noticed there were tons of overripe beans. I shelled some of them and used the bean part in a soup. We'll hopefully get two spaghetti squash before the plant finally succumbs to powdery mildew. It's held on pretty well though. We have had four tomatoes. There are a ton on the plants now, but I don't know if they'll ripen before the first frost.

Camille has been busy coloring and drawing, trying to undress herself every time I turn around, and reading the four words she can read (big, book, go, no). 

Owen has been busy being cute and not sleeping because we took away his pacifier. He was spitting it out like 10 times a night and crying for it each time. Now he cries whenever he goes in his crib.

Brian has been busy working a lot. He's also been into reading books about life after death and near-death experiences. He and I spend the evenings trying to beat each other to the computer to do family history work. He has enjoyed this season of America's Got Talent and America's Ninja Warrior.

 I've been busy filling out food journals for me and the kids and getting $25 for each one. My favorite has been doing Owen's food journal. Brian helped me make some raspberry jam when I scored a flat of raspberries for $9. We finally got a wheat grinder and I've been liking this KAF recipe for 100% wheat bread without vital wheat gluten or dough enhancer.

Wood Family Photo Shoot

We got our pictures back from our photo session. After all my complaining, the pictures weren't too horrible. There were still some things that I wish the photographer would have done better (like tell me to put my chin down!), but we got at least one wall-worthy family picture and lots of good pictures of Camille. She apparently is the most photogenic of us all. All photos by Jenny Fowler Photography.

This will be the big family picture we hang up

We Went to the Zoo and the Bean Museum

We accomplished one of my summer goals and went to the zoo. It was an adventure.

Don't let the picture fool you. After she said she wanted to go on the carousel, she spent the whole time clinging to me and crying. I even picked a gorilla for her to sit on, but she wouldn't get on it.

This is just a random picture I found on Brian's phone.

Janet, Jacob, and Brooke went to the Bean Museum with us. We thought it was awesome, especially the President Packer display.

Owen sat like this the entire time.

This was Camille's favorite part of the museum.

This gigantic elevator was the adults' favorite part of the museum.