Christmas

We are enjoying December in SoCal. Santa left a little snow on the carpet (two footprints even) by the tree and in front of the chimney. I’m not sure how he landed on the roof, but the packages still made it. The turkey was great, the lefse was awesome (if I do say so) and spending time with family was the best!

Tennille got here late on the 23rd. She will be here until the 2nd, but Charity will leave the 30th. Those two are die-hard shoppers, out trying to find all the Christmas deals today. Last night we took them to Rancho Cucamonga to see the most lit up neighborhood ever. They close down the street to traffic, sell tamales and hot chocolate and go over the top with Christmas lights. One house even uses special paint (and repaints every year) to make their 150,000 lights shine even brighter!

I’ll let the pictures tell the stories.

The kids had a PJ Day this week and enjoyed wearing jammies ALL DAY. They did change into different jammies a couple times, like after they played soccer outside…

Tennille practiced on Signe–she had a tooth that had been loose for a L-O-O-O-N-G time and it needed to come out. Signe was a trooper–her dad was more nervous.

Santa put toothbrushes in the stockings — he must’ve wanted to impress Tennille.

Signe on Christmas morning.

Looking at one exciting new toy on Christmas morning.

Kari showing off the headband Charity and Tennille gave her for Christmas.

I don’t know why the kids were standing in front of a yucky metal pole when there were so many beautiful lights to use as a background–but anyways, hopefully you get a hint of the amazing lights.

A group picture in front of the palm-apple.

A shot of one of our very favorite displays in the Christmas neighborhood–a palm tree lit up to look like a giant pineapple (the universal sign of welcome, right mom?).

Mackenzie & Signe!

Playing on the Leonard’s new drum!

Kari & Maddie–we are watching the Leonard girls while their mom & dad are enjoying a day at Magic Mountain.

Maddie is listening to one of the kids’ new discmans, a Christmas gift from the aunts. They have been a BIG HIT with the kids (and the grownups enjoy the quiet!).

Always learning.

We are officially on Christmas break, but Aunt Charity is here teaching my boys new things anyways. Like yesterday morning as the boys are watching Charity putting on eyeliner:

Boy one: “What is that?”

Boy two: “A sharpie.”

This week.

Here’s a update, I almost said “quick update,” but realized it’s not going to be all that quick. So take a break from all the holiday craziness, grab a cup of hot chocolate or egg nog and you can read about what we’ve been doing.

Sunday we raced home from church and started in on lefse making. It took all afternoon, but we got two batches done, cleaned up the kitchen and headed back to church for the Sunday School Christmas program. The kids did super. Signe had a solo and sang beautifully.

Monday we headed down to San Diego for a school field trip. We toured the USS Midway. We spent the whole day there, looking at all the different parts of the carrier, my favorites were the flight squadron ready rooms. The kids especially loved being able to wear the headphones and carry the hand held control device for the audio tour. They climbed in some fighter plane cockpits and pretended they were on a “mission!” Kari mostly enjoyed a nap in the sling and charming everyone with her bright smiles when she was awake.

Tuesday we brought Kari in for her 4 month well-baby check and immunizations. She is growing–she’s almost 14 lbs. I also spent the day on the phone trying to figure out some unfortunate business in Mayville. Our house there hasn’t sold yet and we had some pipes freeze and burst. It’s not as bad as it could be, but not fun either.

Wednesday was uneventful (well, I enjoyed getting the house cleaned, not the cleaning, but the result). Today we spent the afternoon up in Oak Glen. It was a beautiful sunny day 65-70. It felt like a nice fall day in the midwest–only it’s December.

This weekend we are excited to have Charity come (she flies into Vegas late Saturday night) and officially kick off our holiday!

At the entrance: aye, aye captain!

Josiah said to me, “I think I should be a pilot so I can push all these buttons!”

Signe would make a great pilot too!

Micah could be a fighter pilot!

We took this picture in the chapel for Pastor Randy! We were thinking of you, Mortenson’s!

Morning snuggles.

More snugs.

Kari enjoying the nice December weather today!

Part 2….

And here is what Josiah has been saying:

Papa was talking about the different quality of food, rating it on a scale of one to ten. He started giving examples of some of favorite and not so favorite foods and Josiah asked, “What would a ten be?” Before Papa had a chance to answer Josiah exclaims, “I know, HOT DOGS!”

I don’t know why I bother cooking anything else, if hot dogs are the best there is….

Things we’ve heard…

Kari: spbbblt…..aaahhhhfffbllllsssttpppttt…….uhffffffbbbbbsssspptsstpppppbt….

She’s a genius child….

—————-

Micah: “Thanks for supper dad, even if it wasn’t very good.”

Papa: “Your welcome, even if you aren’t very tactful.”

Micah: “Daa-aaad….I don’t have any tacts!”

(I think somehow he meant tax.)

————–

Signe: “Some kids were doing this to us (she puts her hands on top of her head, palms forward, fingers spread like antlers kinda, and waves them–the typical hand gesture accompanied by a young child sticking out their tongue) and we don’t even know what it means! You know, you and mom keep us pretty protected. We don’t know a lot of things other kids know. We don’t know all the swear words and stuff other kids know.”

—————

Josiah: “Can I play the (insert anything having to do with computer games, video games, Wii’s, xboxs, PSPs etc.)?” Or he is telling us about an elaborate scheme designed to procure the video games/accessories and what he is going to do once he has possession.

fyi…

I find it hard to get in the Christmas spirit. Maybe it’s because I had to turn on the air conditioning in the car today and although I’m wearing a sweater, I have sandals on (no socks). It’s just a little weird to think it’s December.

Dana Point.

Yesterday we went on a field trip to Dana Point, CA. We went to the Ocean Institute. It’s like a school designed especially for field trips. They have many different classrooms and at any point throughout the school year there are several different groups/schools there for educational experiences. My kids did Big Al in the Lab. They learned about the life cycle of the moon jelly and it’s place in the food chain. Then they got to dissect a fish (Pacific Mackerel?). It was 2 hours of COOL! Afterwards we had lunch and then went exploring in the tidepool area just outside the institute. We found lots of rock louse, barnacles, hermit crabs, and snails. It was a wonderful day, despite getting lost and turning an hour drive into two hours of exasperated, white-knuckled driving, forgetting the jelly for the pbj sandwhiches,and Kari peeing all over me, an outfit, and a changing table. Adventure!

The last picture is one Signe took of me late Monday afternoon. I had been reading books to the kids about ocean life (not the most thrilling books) and Kari had fallen asleep in my lap. We had just been to the library so we had a fresh crop of unread books…and so I told the kids to do some silent reading, I leaned over and fell asleep. Hard. I’m glad Signe wasn’t able to get me with my mouth wide open. I guess I needed to catch up after the Dakota trip….

Signe cutting open the fish.

Micah dissecting–which was tough since it wasn’t a left handed scissors.

They LOVED it!

Running out into the water at Dana Point.

Kari at the beach/tidepools.

Looking for critters in the tidepools.

Everyone needs a good nap now and then…

We’re back.

How can one week go so quickly? We are back from “Dakota” (as Californian’s say). We had a great visit! Solveig picked us up on Saturday and took us to my folks’ in Britton, SD. We celebrated cousin Sara’s 4th birthday (a little early) and my mom’s and dad’s birthdays.

Sunday we had baptism. It was so special. Kari was perfect, her eyes got big when the water was put on her head, but no tears. She smiled a big, big, bright smile at everyone on the way back to the pew and slept through all of church! My dad officiated, my mom was the officiating elder, and my brother and sister and their spouses were sponsors. I only wish Papa’s sisters could’ve been there, but they live just too far away! We missed you, Teal and Charity!

After church we had Thanksgiving (with turkey–and LEFSE!) so that on Wednesday night we could have Sletto Christmas Eve (meatballs and LEFSE!). Thursday was actually Christmas Day (which was kinda trippy since the Macy’s Day parade was on tv). Friday we sadly bade goodbye to family but happily visited with some dear friends in Fargo. Saturday came too quickly and we got back on the plane for LAX.

Now we are trying to figure out how we can get in the Christmas spirit when there is no snow (even the stuff on the mountains this morning melted by 11:00am) and temps are in the 60’s. We are looking forward to Christmas cards, Christmas music, plays, lights and all the festivity! Signe is hoping to make flatbread, maybe lefse and we all are especially excited to have visitors. Can’t wait to see you, Charity and Tennille!

Signe and Grammie Sue sang a song for baptism, they did a wonderful job. Aunt Solveig accompanied (in background).

Family picture at baptsim.

Elder Grammie Sue and Pastor Grandpa Terry both took part in the baptismal ceremony.

The cousins–we are at a stage that makes it hard to get everyone to happily look at the camera.

Tonya and Trent are two of Kari’s six sponsors.

The whole group–the kids didn’t exactly get lined up in front of their parents, but at least everyone made it in the picture.

Here is a decent shot at the baptismal gown Grammie Sue made from the cloth she used for the unity candle table at our wedding.

A smile-y shot of Kari in gown and with her beautiful bonnet.

Kari still sleeps quite a bit, even with all the cousin commotion at Grammie’s house.

Before we left for SD, Kari reached a couple milestones: she is rolling over (both ways) and is sitting in the bumbo chair (only for a couple minutes).

Two of the six weren’t so happy, but here are the cousins, showing off their In-N-Out Burger t-shirts.

We enjoyed watching Soren’s “tractor movie” with him, “All About John Deere.” Grandpa liked it too!

Micah and Soren reading together…about trucks of course!

Soren and Josiah playing…trucks of course!

This is one of my favorite pictures from the week. Signe and Sara up to the piano in their pj’s, singing Christmas songs together.

Kari got lots of lovin’ from her cousins, especially big girl Sara Ruth!

Thanks to Trent and Ben, we had a lot of good entertainment with playing the Wii!

California Adventures….

Lest you think it is always “sunshine and roses” here in southern California, I thought I’d complain about our most recent adventures. Misery loves company! First of all, we are battling ants again. We poison them in one spot and they find another place to congregate. It’s quite frustrating but I am getting resigned to the fact that it is just part of life here. Secondly, we have mice. If they ate ants I might be more favorably disposed to them, but they just eat flour, baking soda (seriously), dried milk, pot-holders and garbage. So I’m thinking about getting a cat–won’t Signe be thrilled! Actually we can’t have a cat per our rental agreement…so that’s out. Jer set up three traps last night and caught two mice, so maybe we’ll make a dent in our resident mouse population before we leave for Thanksgiving. Let’s hope the mice don’t change the locks before we get back.

So we won’t be blogging for a bit, since we’ll be in South Dakota with my folks for a week. We look forward to seeing the family and introducing Kari to the cousins, aunt and uncles she hasn’t yet met. We’ll be busy this week getting packed, Jeremiah has work almost every night, and I came down with my third breast-feeding related infection. Needless to say, we aren’t going on any fun field trips this week (well until the trip to LAX at 3am Saturday morning…). We probably should have planned a couple trips up into the mountains to acclimate ourselves to cooler temperatures…but I hope to stay warm by making lefse inside a warm house!

Winner takes all…

Sunday night we had a family checkers tournament. I remember playing checkers with my dad to pass time in the evenings so it was somewhat nostalgic for me. Of course Jeremiah and I disagreed about some rules so we had to look up the official rules on the internet (my kids will never know Hoyle!). Micah ended up sweeping! He beat me, Signe, Josiah and finally Papa. It was impressive. We are looking forward to rematches, we are all going to work hard to beat Micah!

Yesterday was Veteran’s Day and don’t tell the kids, but technically we did not have to do school. Jeremiah had the afternoon off because he usually goes to a high school training room, but of course there was no school. So we picked him up from clinic at noon and headed to the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. We got our first view of the Hollywood sign and got an eagle eye view of the LA skyscrapers/area. We also watched a show in the planetarium and got to see a HUGE telescope. It was a great afternoon!

Championsip game — Micah vs. Papa!

The Winner!

Look closely — you can see the Hollywood sign in the back.

The Griffith Observatory.