Thanksgiving Revisited

Back in November, we went to New York. We visited three of my sisters who all live there, enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with them, and managed to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  I mentioned all this on the blog at the time, but blogger wasn't letting me post any more pictures, so I never did give you the full scoop.  Today I am finally remedying that.

First of all, I should point out that this was all Craig's idea.  If you know us at all, this probably won't surprise you.  Between the two of us, Craig is both the Big Idea Person, and also the Fun Parent.  I'm the one who just wants to stay home and keep things simple.  I'm lucky I married Craig, because without him I'd probably never do anything or go anywhere.  And I'm even luckier because not only does Craig force me to do things like this, he also has a knack for always pulling them off splendidly.  And this was no exception.

We'd arrived at my sister's house the night before, getting in really late, and getting up way too early the next morning because Ryder wouldn't sleep.  So we were exhausted from the get-go.  After helping out with some of the Thanksgiving prep, we took a train into Manhattan that afternoon.  Craig really wanted us to see Inflation Eve, where they blow all the parade balloons up.  But our plans got changed somewhat, mostly because we spent a couple hours standing around Penn Station while Craig sold his iPhone to some guy on the street (who he'd found through Craigslist), and then used that cash to buy the new iPhone.  This was a long and tedious process, but I couldn't really be too put out with him since he actually made money on the deal.  And then he was excited to take all these pictures with his new phone.

By the time that was done, I was beyond tired, and taking the subway with three kids in two strollers into the busiest part of town near the parade was a bit daunting.  Fortunately, several New Yorkers quickly saw our situation and helped haul strollers up and down stairs.  One man even wished me a Happy Thanksgiving as he hurried along his way, a random act of kindness that made me burst into tears.  (Stupid pregnancy hormones.)  Eventually we made it to Tracy's apartment, where she told me to sit down and hang out with Rachael, while Tracy, Craig, and Ian (my brother-in-law) ran out and got food for all of us from the Shake Shack.  Heaven (both the food and the sitting down).

Once we were done eating, it was apparent that the most important thing to do was to put our exhausted children to bed.  We left them at Tracy's and let her do most of the work there, and went and saw Inflation Eve, just the two of us.  That was a good decision, because it was PACKED and I was still pretty tired, too.  If we would have been pushing strollers, I think Craig would have had a mutiny on his hands.  As it was, we enjoyed seeing the balloons, and I took breaks sitting on park benches while Craig obsessively documented the whole thing.

After seeing most of the balloons, we headed to Fiorello's, where we'd heard that they served amazing chocolate mousse.  It was as good as everyone had told us, and I also drank about ten glasses of water while we were there (I guess I'd forgotten to stay hydrated, what with everything going on).  Then we took the subway (now empty, and now stroller free) to Rachael and Ian's place, where we stayed up way too late talking with them before finally going to bed.  (Why are all my sisters so fun to talk to???  It's impossible to ever go to bed at a decent hour when they're around!)

Craig and Ian got up at 4:45 the next morning and headed back towards Tracy's place, where they saved us all space to watch the parade.  Rachael and I slept a tiny bit later, and then went to Tracy's and helped her get the kids all dressed and fed before the parade.  When we found Craig and Ian, we discovered that they had done an AMAZING job of picking out a parade-watching spot for us.  There was plenty of room to sit, we were super close, and to top it all off, the weather was even pretty warm!  We only had a short wait before the fun began!

Notice that Ryder is wearing Daddy's gloves.  His hands aren't actually that big...

Most of the gang.  Rachael (and I) got chairs to sit on, and the rest were on a blanket.  Not bad, not bad...!

If you're six and four, you really can't get a better spot than this!

As Rachael snapped this picture, she commented, "Ah, yes, the two turkeys with the turkey."  Can't argue with that.

Tracy, Ian and Rachael

Kermit blocks out the sun for a moment

I know, I already posted this picture.  But it's worth repeating!

A rare smile from Bentley

Ryder enjoys hitting Daddy...

I have NO IDEA what we were talking about here.  But apparently we had strong feelings about it!

The whole family

Love Kendra's face in this shot...

... And in this one, too!

Right at the end, Ryder got bored and dumped an entire bag of goldfish crackers onto the sidewalk.  Then he proceeded to put them all back in the bag and dump them again.  I'm pretty sure he never ate any of them.  ...I hope.

And Santa!  Wow, that man was jolly!  I don't know how he had so much energy, but he was great!

So the parade was a raging success!  We had great seats, we didn't have to stand outside freezing for hours.  In fact, we weren't even freezing at all.  And we all had a great time.  And I have to give full credit for that to Craig and Ian, who were willing to get there early and save us seats and make it all happen.  Left to my own devices, I would never even have attempted such a thing!

There was one minor mishap afterwards.  Going back to Leah and Brian's, we (just my little family, not Tracy, Rachael or Ian) managed to get on the wrong train.  And the train we grabbed was a non-stop train to Connecticut.  Oops.  So we had to stand there for 45 minutes knowing we were going to the completely wrong state.  That was lame.  But it was also pretty hilarious.  Here we are in Stamford:

Craig said I looked sort of like one of the Beastie Boys.  Maybe if they were pregnant.  But that comment made me love this picture.

The parade had gone so well that all I could do was laugh about winding up in Connecticut.  The train that took us to the right stop came ten minutes later, and we ended up only being delayed by about twenty minutes in all.  So it wasn't a big deal-- mostly it's just something we can laugh about for the rest of our lives.

I'm glad I married someone so fun!

Lessons in Biology... And a Few Good Names.

Ryder woke up from his nap in a snuggly mood, so we spent quite a bit of time wrapped up in the electric blanket together while he sucked his thumb and I chatted with my friend.  It was a nice and cozy way to spend a very cold afternoon. 

At one point the subject of tummies came up, so he was pointing out both his tummy and mine.  I've been trying to get him to understand this whole baby-on-the-way thing, so I pointed to my tummy and asked, "Do you know why mommy's tummy is so big?" hoping I could get him to say "Baby"  (or, as he pronounces it, "Beebee").

Instead, he looked at me, smiled, and said triumphantly, "Daddy!"

Well, yes, I guess we could definitely blame Daddy for the current state of my tummy.  I think Ryder's a little young for that lesson just yet, though.

*     *     *     *     *

And I'll stop keeping you in suspense about names.  The name we've liked best for several months now (although we always point out that until he's born and we've seen him, we can change our minds at any time!) is...   Colton.

I like that name a lot.  I like how it sounds with Smith.  I like that it's not super common (any common name instantly becomes boring when you pair it with Smith), but I don't think it's weird, either.  And I like how it fits with our other kids' names.  ("Kyson" got bumped because it seemed too much like some hybrid of Ryder and Kendra; all names ending in "-ley" get bumped because they share too much in common with Bentley's name, etc, etc.  These things get so complicated!)

So that's our main bet for now-- Colton Smith.

It has a ring to it, right?*

We're not even close to deciding on a middle name yet, although ones we've been considering include Paul, Grant, William, and Wesley...  And Kendra has made the following suggestions: Strump, Looploop, and Glublub.  (She's had a few other doozies as well, but those are the only ones I remember.  I already feel bad for her future children.)




*Okay, okay, if you hate it, you can tell me.  I may or may not agree with you, but I suppose it's better to hear what I haven't thought of now, rather than after he's stuck with it...!

The Name Game

With this poor fourth child, I'm having a harder time taking the naming game seriously.  Craig and I spent weeks trying to justify why we could give him the middle name of "Danger."  (Don't worry, we finally decided that we couldn't.)  And now, my favorite-- it occurred to me that, since we already have a kid named Ryder, it would be hilarious to name this one...  are you ready?... Walker!

But we won't do that either.

But I am awfully tempted.  Walker Danger Smith.  It has a ring to it, don't you think?



And the real question.  You wanna know what we are considering?

Teach Ye the Children

Recently I keep stumbling across blog posts and conference talks addressing the issue of teaching our children the gospel.  I have to admit that it's not something I focus on very much (other than all the daily life stuff that is part of being Mormon).  And while I'm not one to feel overly guilty about my parenting (or much of anything, truth be told), I did fall asleep last night wondering if I should be doing more in this department.

And then reality smacked me upside the face this morning, as I spent ten minutes arguing with Bentley about why he needed to put on clean underwear.  (This has been our standard policy since FOREVER, by the way.  It's not like this was a new thing!)  This was followed by another ten minutes of Bentley complaining because he's not a robot.  Mind you, this wasn't about him wanting to wear a robot costume or something.  He wants to actually BE a robot.  And the fact that he can't be one (or, as he perceives it, that I won't let him), makes him angry. 

And nothing I said seemed to convince him that a) this isn't possible and b) even if it was, it would still be a terrible idea.

So that's where we are right now.  I'm busy just trying to instill a sense of hygiene and how to be a humanoid.  Hopefully teaching my children to be Christlike can be next on the agenda...

Idiosyncracies

You know how we all have those things that we do without even noticing that we do them?  Until someone points it out to you, that is, and then it makes you all self-conscious and you wish they had just left you alone with your weirdness.

I have a bunch, apparently.  It wasn't until I was in middle school and people made fun of me that I realized that I never walked.  Instead, my modus operandi was to skip.  EVERYWHERE.  It was like I was incapable of walking!  And if you're an avid skipper, trying to learn to walk like a normal human being when you're in the throes of middle school and hip development and all that fun stuff.  It's really difficult.  Everyone goes through an awkward phase, but I'm pretty sure that mine was even made even more awkward than most as I tried to keep my pace to an even shuffle without bursting out into my usual joyous (but shameful) skipping.  {Shudder.}


It took a mission companion (who didn't particularly like me) asking me accusingly if I "always made noise" every time I swallowed before I realized that I did indeed do just that!  I guess that could be kind of annoying, especially during companionship prayer time.  But in this case, I don't seem to have any control over it, so I refuse to apologize.  There aren't any other ways to swallow, are there???  I blame my overly large tonsils.  And then hope no one else is being grossed out by me.

Some guy once pointed out that when I eat ice cream, I stick my tongue out.  Who knew?  I never paid any attention.  He thought it was sexy, though, so I never bothered to try and break myself of that habit.  (I've also never asked Craig what he thought of it, mostly because if he did think it was creepy, I'd have a whole new thing to try to not do, and who needs that kind of stress when you're simply trying to enjoy a bowl of ice cream???)

Anyway, with this sore ankle, I've noticed yet another one: apparently, whenever I sit down, I do so by tucking one foot (almost always my right foot) under me and then sitting on that foot.  I have no idea why I do this, or when it started.  I hope it doesn't look as weird as it sounds, now that I'm describing it.  (And does it look even worse when I'm at church in a dress??  Yeeks!)

But I can tell you, that when you sit down on a wooden chair onto your sore ankle, IT REALLY HURTS.  And when you do it several times in one day, you begin to question your own intelligence in a big way.

Apparently, it has taken a sprained ankle for me to see how weird I am.



So what weird thing do you do?  I can't be the only one...   Can I?

But other than that, it was a good day...

99% of Saturday was a really good day.

I got a good night's rest and the kids let us sleep until a decent hour.  I got to go to my friend's daughter's baptism and then met Craig and all the kids at the pool* where they'd just begun swimming lessons (well, just Bentley and Kendra, not Ryder).  And then I worked on cutting out fabric for this project (my job is to cut the fabric, all the rest will be left to more capable hands, lest you wonder whose blog you're reading!) while Craig worked on putting our downstairs back together. 

I should explain about the downstairs: After getting the TV, Craig decided it needed to be mounted on the wall.  This made sense, since sitting on that flimsy plastic stand it came with seemed like an invitation to the kids to just knock it down and break it.  But since we were doing that, it also made sense to just get rid of the TV stand we had-- it was just a cheap thing we'd bought at Wal-Mart and it was already missing one cupboard door and looked pretty shabby.  So the domino effect here also meant we needed to find new places for all the stuff that had been stored in the old TV stand.  Craig got to be in charge of all of that, and he did a great job.  The TV is now mounted on the wall, complete with Craig's old stereo speakers, all our DVDs have been moved to the book shelf next to the TV, all CD cases are in storage.  And while he was at it, he moved the couch back to its proper place (it had been shoved aside to make room for the Christmas tree), vacuumed everywhere, and patched and repainted the holes in the wall from the first attempt at mounting the TV. 

So he worked hard.  While I measured and cut fabric.  And then watched him work hard.  And pointed out pine needles that the vacuum had missed.  (I'm helpful like that!)

Then it was dinner, get the kids to bed, and all that usual stuff.

And then it was time to sit and enjoy our TV!  And as Craig put in a DVD (Moneyball-- I like that movie), I came down the stairs, thinking about being helpful by moving the love sac.  And as I looked at it wondering if it was too heavy for me to move, I completely missed the bottom step, and came crashing down on my foot which twisted to one side making a horrid POP-ping noise.  And I crash-landed on my hands and knees.

And then I burst into tears because my ankle hurt so bad.

(And just for the record, I didn't cry AT ALL when Kendra and Ryder were born, so this isn't just me being a wimp.)

I sat sobbing while Craig got me some frozen peas for it, and then cried a few more tears while he got a bucket of ice water ready.

Lots of icing and elevating and wrapping ensued, while we watched Moneyball.  And I learned that if you're going to sprain your ankle, you should probably not drink an entire bottle of water first, because standing up numerous times to get to the bathroom kind of sucks.  I woke up the next morning, realized that it hurt to sit with my foot resting on the floor, and decided there was no way I could make it to church.  So I spent the entire day in bed or on the couch while Craig did everything for me and the kids.  He was so nice about it, too-- he suggested we should do this once a month so everyone would appreciate how hard I work normally.

And apparently all that rest WORKED!  Because my ankle is doing MUCH better already today.  It's still sore and swollen, but I can hobble around without too much difficulty, and sitting upright is just fine now.  I think it will only take a few more days of babying it before I'm back to good again.

So in the scheme of things, I lucked out-- it can't be a bad sprain if it's healing this fast, and I'm mostly thankful that I didn't land on my stomach and hurt the baby or something.

So overall I'm thankful.  But feel free to wish me a speedy recovery anyway!




*6+ years of living here, and that was the FIRST time I'd made it to the Freedom Aquatics Center!  How did I miss out all these years?

Ah ha!

SPAM! 

I did everything Jen suggested, and tried leaving comments and they still weren't getting to me.  I even added Craig's email address to the list, and HE would get my practice comments, but I wouldn't!  We finally figured out that they were all getting sent straight to spam!  Apparently I never check my spam box-- there were so many non-spam items in there!  People I'd friended on facebook who I figured they'd just ignored me, ALL of your comments, and so much more!  Reading through it, I felt so loved! 

And I also felt bad that I'd been ignoring so many people!  Stupid spam filter.  I don't even know how I did that or if gmail was just being overly helpful.  (Makes me think of this video, actually...)

So, yeah, I think I'm back to getting comments again.  But just in case, I'll keep having them sent to Craig also-- he's very good about forwarding them back to me (although he said his job is to also protect me from any mean comments, so I guess you'd better stay nice!).

Whew.  I'm glad to have that taken care of.  It was driving me nuts.

User Error

All right, apparently I suck at this. 

I'm STILL not getting emails notifying me when you leave comments!!!

I just figured no one was bothering to comment at all, and sort of kicking myself for changing things around.  And then I was messing with the settings on my blog, and noticed the tab for comments "awaiting moderation" and realized there were about six comments just sitting there waiting for me to notice them!

How am I this dumb?  And why is it that I still cannot for the life of me figure out how to make it so that I get that stupid email notification!?!?!?

Who knows how to fix this?  Please tell me!  You just want to email me or call me, though, since comments seem to not be my thing...

Love at Home

I'm going to brag for just a bit.

My kids were SO GOOD yesterday!  I think a lot of it was the switch to morning church (hallelujah!!!), but they all sat quietly through sacrament meeting.  Even Ryder didn't have to be taken out!  And this with us not providing snacks for them!  (That was on purpose, actually-- I'd warned them that with morning church I no longer felt that they would need snacks, so they'd better eat a good breakfast.  And they did!)  After church, we ate lunch together (um, except Craig, the lone person fasting), and then Ryder and I took naps while Craig played with Bentley and Kendra.  And he reported that they had an absolutely delightful time, playing Go Fish, having a talent show, and playing pictionary!

Seriously, it was like roses were blooming beneath our feet or something!

We certainly have good times in our home, but entire days like this are a bit on the rare side, so I want to document that they are possible!  Even for us.  Especially for us, I guess.

I wish I could put my finger on what it was that made this happen so then I could keep repeating it.  I doubt it's any one thing or that it's that simple.  But gosh darn it, I'll keep trying to recreate this bliss for the rest of my life, if I have to!

We really can have a happy home!

Christmas Surprises

Christmas was wonderful.  Singing Christmas songs continually brought tears to my eyes and I enjoyed a wonderful spirit the entire season (blame it on the hormones, but in this case, they were nice tears).  But I'm not going to bore you with all the spiritual stuff because I want to tell you about a couple of the super great presents we got!!!  I'm shallow like that.

Some weeks ago, my Mom and Craig got to talking and decided to get my blog posts all bound up in a book for me.  It was a perfect project for the two of them: Craig did all the work, and my Mom paid for it all and they were both very happy.  Unfortunately, when the finished product came, I saw that we had a box addressed to Craig with no indication of who it was from, and figured it was probably a present FOR Craig and opened it up, intending to wrap it for him and put it under the tree.  In my defense, I told this plan to Craig and he agreed it was a good idea, so it's not like I was being devious or anything.  If Craig would have looked more closely at the box, he would have seen the return address and realized what it was and stopped me.  But he didn't.  And I ended up opening my big surprise about 6 days before Christmas.

Craig was so unhappy!  He'd worked so hard and was so sad that my big surprise was ruined.  The second I had the box opened, he realized his mistake and snatched it out of my hands.  He wouldn't tell me anything about it and hid it away, threatening that I would never see it again.  He had a few days to stew over it all, so that was when he came up with his revenge. He was bound and determined to surprise me one way or another!

He was sneaky about it, too.  He put a present under the tree with this adorable tag:

To: Alanna
From:
Director, Patrice Bentley
Executive Producer, Rex Bentley
Artistic Direction, Craig Smith
 and
Award Winning Author, Alanna Smith

But inside, rather than my blog book, was some book about spies (this was not a coincidence, Craig pointed out) along with a sonnet he'd written (I love sonnets, and he'd put it in iambic pentameter and everything!) about how because I'd ruined my surprise by peaking, I would have to work to get my book.  Then it suggested that I check out the filing cabinet drawers. 

In the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, I found a present, but this one was way too small to be my book.  As I unwrapped it, I quickly discovered that it had been wrapped several times.  Actually, probably at least twenty times.  Most of those layers were done with wrapping paper, but occasionally he'd gotten creative and used yarn, A/C unit tape, cloth & safety pins, and even a plastic bag.  It took me forever to finally get down to the folded up note which contained my next clue: this time I had to go to the crawl space.

Inside the crawl space was a huge box.  Which contained a smaller box.  And then several more smaller boxes (I think 5 or 6, all told).  And then another 20 or so layers of wrapping.  It took me so long to unwrap all these that I had to go to the bathroom before I was done!  The next clue was a bit more obtuse: it informed me that my present was NOT in Craig's car.  I wasn't sure what do with that information.  I tried looking in my car, and got nothing.  So I opened up the trunk of Craig's car and found a present with the words, "This is not your book.  Surprise!"

Upon opening this gift (only one layer of wrapping paper), I discovered a framed portrait from our wedding!  We'd been talking about getting one ever since the big day seven-and-a-half years ago and just never gotten around to it, so this made me burst into happy tears.  What a lovely thing to finally own!  There was also a note that told me to look in Craig's dresser, which was where my book was hiding.

So I ended up being surprised after all.  AND I have a big fat book of all my blog posts from 2011 and 2012.  This probably makes me the biggest narcissist in the world, but I really do enjoy reading my old blog posts, so I'm excited to have them in a more tangible format.  Just those two years took up 300 pages, so I guess that even after five years of blogging, I still have a lot to say!  And Craig promises that we can get the other years published some other day.  (Birthday present for me, Mom?)

So those were my two big presents.  We also got an awesome TV finally (flat-screen, HD, all that stuff)-- we'd never actually bought a TV, but had been on our 5th free one, so this was a big deal for us.  (Lots of thanks to my wonderful in-laws for their generosity!!!)  But this was definitely more of a present for Craig, the film snob, than for me, who is still quite happy watching movies on VHS. 

In any case, we were both very happy with our Christmas presents.

And now, I can start deleting pictures off the blog posts and making room for new ones!  So if you want to take one last look at all the pictures from 2011 and 2012 (but honestly, you probably don't), get cracking because they're disappearing soon!  And be prepared for an onslaught of new pictures!!!