Christmas Break 2018

We had a wonderful Christmas Day.  

Santa got Blake a truck he has been asking for since he saw it in Walmart in September.  Mom didn't want to buy it for Blake because she read reviews about the quality of the toy and she didn't want to spend money on an item that was cheaply made.  It's a good thing that Mom isn't the only one giving kids presents.  😉 Blake has been enamored with the gift for weeks.

We had our first Christmas call with our missionary.  It was heart warming to see our boy while we talked with him.  Seeing his facial expressions, body language and hearing his voice made Mom tear up often.  Josh got teary when his siblings talked with him.  We were able to talk for an hour and a half.  It's a good thing Mom wrote down conversation topics.  Josh has never been a outgoing communicator.  Elder Carlson still has that trait.  In this picture, he and his companion, Elder Wade, are trying to figure out how to make the picture and sound work.

Caleb got a barrel of monkeys in his stocking.  Dad played with him and we all learned that there is actually rules to the game.  Who knew?

During Christmas Break, we had our Clark reunion.  Brad, Carrie, Haylee, and Katelyn came from Texas.  We played games, went to the Festival of Lights, went to a movie, had a New Year's Eve party, attended the multi-generational Clark reunion, and went to the Bean Museum.  

Here's Katelyn with Uncle Patrick.  He made her laugh by doing elephant sounds.

A year later, and Blake is still cautious about the area with the giant ant statues and the spider decoration in the corner.

At the end of Christmas break, the kids were restless so I took them and the Bonney kids to the paleontolgy museum at BYU.  I made a picture taking scavenger hunt and split them into 2 teams.  The winning team got to pick where we got ice cream.  Of course, we got to go to the BYU Creamery.  Yum!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Jammies

 Sibling Gifts

Katie made Blake a "dark grey blue" and orange blanket.  He had hinted for weeks that he hoped Katie would make something like this.  The look on his face says it all.

Blake painted a cork bulletin type board, in the shape of a stegasaurus.  We bought the blank shape at Hobby Lobby.  Blake painted it in colors that he thought Kyle would like.

Caleb made a bunch of hair scrunchies for Katie.

Kyle made a longboard deck in a class this year.  He realized it would be a great present for Caleb.  He bought and attached the wheels and grip paper.  He painted the bottom green (Caleb's favorite color) with a wolf stencil.  

The kids also got their ornament that represents their year.  Kyle got a backpacking ornament to commemorate his first trips.  Katie got a book to represent winning the Storytelling Festival at school.  Caleb got a green bowling ball.  Blake got a Thanos ornament.  

Christmas Season Fun

Decorating the Christmas tree.  I kept trying for a few days to work on the lights on the top part of the tree.  Finally, I threw those strings in the trash and bought some new boxes.

 We got to visit Quiet Santa for the second time.  It is such a great experience.  20 min alone with Santa who is trained in interacting with kids who have sensory processing disorder.

 Caleb had a good time doing bowling this season.  It was fun getting him to laugh for these fun pictures

Best concert EVER!

We got tickets to the Tabernacle Choir on Temple Square's Christmas concert.  The guest was Kristen Chenowith.  She was charismatic and her voice was !!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Caleb had a hard time at church this past month.  He (and his parents) are very excited for the new 2 hour schedule.

Also, can you do this with your legs?

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A wonderful neighbor started a tradition last year.  The neighborhood contributes a few dollars and she assembles kits for each neighbor in the ward.  On the designated night, we light our luminaries and walk the nighborhood.  We are so lucky to live in such a great place.

Caleb's school Christmas concert.  We saw him singing along to most of the songs.

Sister's Trip

When my older sister turned 40, she wanted to go on a trip to celebrate.  She invited us to go to Disneyland with her.  This year was my 40th.  I chose to go on a cruise.  I had never been and my older sister's husband would never want to go with her so we all decided it would be a great opportunity.  And that is exactly what it was.  

Here we are in Texas preparing a trio to sing during the karaoke nights.  Like true musicians, we spents months picking the right song, making sure they key was right, listening to recordings and adjusting the sheet music to the mp3, and practicing our parts.  When we got on the ship, we learned they didn't have that song and couldn't play the file from our cd.  We were bummed but improvised by picking a song they had on their system and pulling off a lame but entertaining performance.  

Our first day was a sea day from Galveston to Cozumel.  We relaxed, ate food we didn't prepare, left our dishes on the tables, participated in a handful of activities they offered on the ship, and giggled our way through the day.  

Our first excursion was in Cozumel.  We chose to relax at a resort that offered food, relaxing beach time, and snorkeling.  

 If you read my first snorkeling experience in Miami, you will understand what a miracle it was for me to try again.  It was a blast and I can't wait to try it again.  

Our second excursion was in Progreso.  We found  local company that catered a day to what we wanted to do.  We had a personal guide that spoke English, had cold drinks in an air-conditioned car, and was a fantastic tour guide.  

We first went to the Mayapan ruins.  My skin felt like the sun was 12 inches from my face and it was only in the 80s.  Boy, my british skin was suffering!

We climed this tower where the "stairs" were bumpy rocks that were much shorter than our Clark feet.  

 Our guide then drove us to a cenote' (underground spring).  I had promised myself that I would swim in the water no matter how nervous I was.  When we approached the hole in the ground, I quickly changed my mind.  After a few minutes, I realized I'd regret not trying.  

It was a very deep cave and we had to climb down these rotted "pirate cave" stairs. 

 Proof!

No, I didn't like it.  

 After the cenote, we drove to this woman's house were she had prepared a lunch of pork tacos.  Her home was clean and welcoming and I realized how lucky I am and how luxurious my life is.  (I really wanted to try her homemade salsa but we had been warned to stay away from any food that hadn't been cooked.) 

This was our guide, Guilmer.  The poor guy had to drive us around, all day, and listen to our non-stop jabbering.

Our last day was another day at sea.  We enjoyed more games, karoake, food, relaxation, and plenty more giggling.

Parting is such sweet sorrow!

Caleb's First Stitches (Warning: Pictures of wound)

We had an adventure last night.  Caleb and Blake have been fighting a lot lately.  Fists and palm smacking have been coming out.  Well, I was getting Sunday dinner on the table and I heard Caleb shriek and then Jeff said, "Risae.....We have a hole in the head."  I ran downstairs and sure enough, Caleb had a deep laceration in the middle of his forehead.  I clamped my had over it.  I told Dad to run and get a cold wet rag.  (Caleb hit Blake, Blake then ran at Caleb in retaliation and Caleb fell and hit the corner of the coffee table.)  

Katie and Kyle jumped into action.  They helped get a wet rag, get his shoes on, got my shoes on while I held the rag to his head, and helped us to the car.  Jeff knew right away that it was not a 1 parent job.  We got to the emergency room. Caleb had been shaking with fear since it happened.  I was worried he was going into shock.  

They got us in a room.  It took them a long time to irrigate the wound with the saline solution.  It was hard for Caleb to lay still while they squirted water on his head.  When the water went down over his closed eyelids, we had to take a few breaks.   Then, they put a numbing gel on the wound and wrapped it with tape for 1/2 hour.  Next, they came in and started prepping for the stitches.  Every time they covered his face with the rag and grabbed his head to stabilize him, he turned and saw them prepping the syringe.  I told them I was 100% sure he wouldn't be able to do this.  They agreed.  They came back in and gave him a shot in his leg with the anesthesia.  (Oh-after I had to force feed him a dissolving zofran anti nausea pill).  He feel asleep quickly and they went to work.  He kept wiggling his hand where they put a heart monitor on his finger.  I told them how sensitive his fingers are and shared my experiences with trimming his nails.  They laughed and then said, "Hey, you should take advantage of the sedation and trim his nails now!"  I looked in my purse and found some clippers.  It was funny to see him still jerk his hands and feet around.  They couldn't believe how he was still fighting that much while under the anesthesia.  

He took a while to wake up and it was funny to see him try to rip off the finger monitor and heart pressure arm wrap.  Then, we had to help him walk to the car because he was so wobbly.  We got to bed around 10:30.  I kept him home from school the next day because I was worried he'd be in a funky mood all day.  He actually did great that day and went to school the following day.  I am so grateful for those wonderful docctors and nurses who were so patient.  

This year's Christmas chain needed to be different.  I decided to make it out of very large strips of paper.  Blake and Caleb had a great time helping me.  

This was the only place we could hang it where it wouldn't hit the floor and we could still access the chain to cut off the last week.