Ryder's Baptism!!!

Ryder turned eight in November, so we needed to plan his baptism.  My parents were planning on coming to see us in January, so I was hoping that Ryder would be okay postponing his baptism until then, but this was something that I felt needed to be handled delicately.  I didn't want to force him to wait on this momentous occasion if that wasn't what he wanted to do.  So I carefully asked Ryder how important it was to him that people came to his baptism.  And he totally surprised me by announcing that the person he MOST wanted to come was his cousin Eliot.

This made things even more complicated, because Leah and her family aren't members of our church, so I wasn't sure that Leah would even want to come.  Also, Leah has been very leery of making the trip all the way to Charlottesville with her kids, and hadn't yet come to see us in the 3 1/2 years we've been living here.

Fortunately, Leah was very gracious about all this and agreed to come, but only if we could do it during Christmas break.  We were happy to make that happen.  And when my parents learned that Leah would be coming, they were happy to change their plans and come at Christmastime, also!  So that was all set.  And then, we got the also-happy surprise that Craig's brother and his family would ALSO be coming for Christmas, so suddenly we had a whole TON of family in town for the holidays AND for Ryder's baptism!

And then, just because nothing can ever be easy, our bishopric changed the times for our church meetings for that Sunday, forcing us to re-work the timing on our own plans and it was at that point that I turned into a complete stress case and came down with an awful cold (I always get a cold right after a choir concert-- it's like my body refuses to be sick until that's over with) and I never did manage to get my house cleaned up for people or anything.  Ah, life!  We were so busy trying to figure out what TIME to hold Ryder's baptism, that it wasn't until the day before that it dawned on us that we needed to plan the talks and food and all that other stuff as well!  D'oh.

But we got there.  And everyone came.  People from our ward came, too, which was really nice, considering they had to come to our far-away building twice on the 23rd of December.  I really appreciated them being willing to do that.  We actually had to set up more chairs, there were so many people there!  And the whole thing was absolutely beautiful.

And Brian took pictures for us, so I have way better quality than you would have seen from my phone!  Enjoy!!!

Bentley's comment on this picture: "It looks like Ryder and I actually like each other!"

Look at these cute cousins!  (Also, we were very proud of Eliot for overcoming his fear of buttons and wearing that shirt for us!)

Eliot and Theo

The Madden family (Thanks for making this possible, Leah!!!)

Smiths, Maddens, and Bentleys, oh my!

There was only one hitch in the whole day.  And if you're really looking closely at that last picture, you might be able to figure it out...?  Craig left his cell phone in his pocket.  And walked into the baptismal font that way.  Buh-bye, phone.  That killed it.  And since it was a work phone, it meant Craig was phone-less for the rest of the break, which was sort of a pain.  (But also meant he was WAY less distracted than normal!)

Thank you to SO MANY PEOPLE for coming to Ryder's baptism and making it such a special day for all of us!

December Activities and Pictures

SO many things going on all month!!!  Here's all the stuff we were doing before family rolled into town!

For being in kindergarten, I thought this was a pretty fantastic rendition of Elephant & Piggy!

And of course Camille had to copy him!

Meanwhile, Ryder was busy making snowflakes!

One night for Family Home Evening, we acted out the Nativity.  It was a bit wild, as you can tell!  (I got to be the mean Inn Keeper!)

I made Ryder wear this goofy shirt, so he threw his sports coat on over it!

Still having fun with Quinn!

Colton's class had a gingerbread party that parents and siblings were all invited to!  Camille was SO excited!  And I was super impressed with how organized the teachers were!  A splendid time was had by all!

The teachers even went around snapping pictures for you on your phone so you could be in the pictures AND so you wouldn't get your phone all sticky!

Bentley got some weird disco light that attaches to your phone, so we had a dance party!

More gingerbread: for our church party, they had a gingerbread contest and Craig got very excited (and competitive)-- he taught himself how to do that kind of icing just for this AND he won for Most Creative!  Yay, Craig!

The actual party was very busy for me.  I'd tried to plan it so I wouldn't have to bring much, but that never works out, and I found myself transporting an enormous ham, chopped tomatoes, Bentley's gingerbread house, four kids, plus dropping off band cookie dough for Bentley's fundraiser on the way!  Ugh!  (And Craig was bringing his own gingerbread house and picking up Kendra along the way!)  And then once we were there, I was the MC, so that kept me on my toes, too!

The kids got to do a nativity, so here's Ryder as a Wise Man!

And Kendra as an angel!

See Colton being a sheep?

And Bentley was NOT in the nativity, since he's no longer in primary.  But he got to be on Santa's Elf Squad with his buddies, so that was adorable!

Possibly the worst Santa costume I've ever seen, but the kids still had fun!

 The church party was on a Friday.  Thursday had been dress rehearsal for my choir concert, and Saturday was the actual concert day (with shows at 2:30 and 7:30 and then a big party after).  So this was another really busy weekend!

And my Christmas concert!

This year our centerpiece number was Bach's Magnificat, which was amazing!  And we sang another song my Mortimer Lauridsen and his son attended, so that was cool!  And then, obviously, we sang a whole bunch of Christmas music (Ding Dong Merrily on High, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, O Come All Ye Faithful, Once In Royal David's City, the Candelight Choir).  Perhaps even more special to me, I've gotten to be really good friends with the girl I sit next to in choir, and it's just been so much fun!  We got ice cream after the concert and headed over to the party together-- I've been surprised at how much harder it's been to make friends here than it was when I lived in Manassas, so when I actually make a new friend, I'm truly grateful!

Crazy Weekend

The weekend of December 7th had a few crazy activities for me in addition to buying a townhome and trying to clean it from top to bottom.  First of all, my friend Vangie was taking over as host of the Manassas II White Elephant Gift Exchange/Ugly Sweater Party!  That was the evening of the 8th, so as soon as I was done pouring vinegar all over everything in the townhouse, I hurried home, and showered and drove myself to Manassas.  I met up with a bunch of my friends in Cafe Rio and had dinner before heading over to Vangie's lovely new house for the party.

Best. Party. EVAH!!!!

And oh my gosh, that party is so fun!!!!!  I missed it last year, so it was even better getting to be back again this year!

The only things putting a damper on the evening was that I still smelled vaguely of vinegar, and I was kind of nervous because I was going to be speaking the next day at Stake Conference*.  I might have tried to spend the night at one of my friends' homes, but with this looming on the horizon, I figured I needed my normal shower and makeup routine!  I also knew I couldn't stay too late gabbing with my friends if I was going to get any sleep at all and not look like a zombie for this talk.

So-- because I have the best luck in the whole world-- right as the party was ending, I checked my texts and THEY HAD CANCELED STAKE CONFERENCE!  The weather forecast predicted lots of snow, so they just canceled everything.

SO I GOT TO STAY LATE TALKING WITH EVERYONE AND I WAS SO HAPPY!!!!!

And when I finally did drag myself away, and climbed into bed at 1:30 in the morning, it didn't even matter because I could sleep as late as I wanted the next day!!!  And as if that wasn't fabulous enough, the weatherman totally nailed it and we got about a foot of snow!  So school was canceled for several days and life was just wonderful!

Camille always manages to look crazy!  (I have since bought her snow pants, too, lest you be concerned.)

Bentley's friends are weird...

The sledding hill!

Those snow days also gave Craig some time to get more cleaning done at the townhouse, so that was a real blessing for us.  We needed that extra bit of time.

So my stressful weekend ended up being mostly totally fun!  I am SO glad I got to see my Manassas friends again!!!

(This one was several days later after a lot of the snow had melted.)

*For my non-LDS friends, Stake Conference happens twice a year and is when you have a whole bunch of congregations in one area all meet together-- in our case, 10 congregations, with the talks being broadcast to several different locations.  I don't get scared very easily, but the prospect of speaking in front of THAT many people did have me intimidated!

Adventures in Real Estate

Long time readers may or may not remember, but we owned a rental unit up in Manassas.  But, it turns out that once we moved to Charlottesville, that was a big pain.  And it got significantly worse once our renters divorced-- all the stuff that the husband would normally fix, our tenant now wanted Craig to stop by and fix.  A leaky toilet is no big deal for Craig, unless it's two hours away.  Then suddenly he'd find himself trying to decide if he had time to make the drive, or if it was worth it to pay a plumber (gasp!) to take care of it.  That wasn't ever very fun.  The divorce also made things complicated for our lease agreement, since the husband no longer wanted to be on the lease, but the wife didn't technically make enough money to pay rent herself.  (Now ex-husband swore he'd continue to help her, he just didn't want his name on the lease, but that's a tough thing to hold someone to...)

So we felt stuck.  And on top of it all, they hadn't been particularly kind to our condo, and in order to get it ready to sell, Craig was going to have to put in several weeks' worth of work replacing all the flooring and re-painting everything.

As we always do, we hemmed and hawed for a long time, and ultimately ended up selling it to our tenant.  That felt like a win-win: we didn't have to kick her out of the place, and Craig didn't have to fix it up!  So that was great.  Except, as is also always the case for us, nothing is ever easy and while she was supposed to buy it in May, she had trouble getting the grant money she needed for the down payment, and didn't actually close until September.  It took so long that we'd figured it wasn't going to happen and were quite shocked when we were suddenly informed of our new closing date.

This was important because we were hoping to do a 1031 Exchange, which basically means you have to jump through a bunch of IRS-decreed loopholes in order to defer paying capital gains on the property.  This can only be done by having a Qualified Intermediary hold your money (for a fee!  He's basically the complete OPPOSITE of a bank!) and you have to designate which property you'll be buying within 45 days of the closing date on the original property, and then actually closing on the new property within the next 180 days.  (Those of you who have bought a house ever should be saying-- Wait, why is there so little time to find the property and then SO MUCH time to close on it???  What idiot came up with THAT rule???  That's the IRS for you!)

Anyway, the whole thing was very stressful and reading about it is probably boring you to tears.  Sorry about that.  All you really need to know is that ever since the middle of September, I have been frantically looking at real estate.  Camille has been my little buddy throughout this process, and she has become quite astute.  (Ask her about the place with the bubbled up flooring!  She was NOT a fan!)  We have also pulled Craig's parents in to babysit so he could come along, too.  We have worked everyone around us to the bone in this pursuit!  We made several low-ball offers on places, much to our realtor's horror, before realizing that for reasons I don't understand, those don't work here right now.  And after much anguish we finally actually bought a place.  It's a little townhouse in Crozet (the town just west of Charlottesville) and it's lovely.  If I had to, I could live there quite happily.  (It would be crowded with all the kids, but we could make do.)  (Here's the link, if you're nosy like me and love to look up people's homes!)

We closed on December 7th, and I'm pleased to say that it was THE smoothest closing we have EVER had on a home!  The seller fixed everything we asked them to, and then a few extra things to boot!  Nobody bought an $80K truck the night before closing!  (Hey-- maybe we should have bought a truck!)  All documents were turned in and ready in time!  Our lender didn't suddenly decide that the house was only in "fair" condition, forcing Craig to sneak in and repair things before we'd even bought it!  Amazing!

So that was great.  Except we suddenly had a townhouse on our hands that we needed to clean and find a renter for as fast as possible.  In December.  And, while the townhouse is lovely, it had a bit of a smoky smell leftover from a regular houseguest who was a smoker (but always smoked outside!  unless it was cold!).  So we had a lot of work to do.  In December.

Because, you know, things aren't busy enough in December, who wouldn't want to take on a project like this?!?!?

So on December 8th, we had a family cleaning party.  With all the windows and doors open.  Our kids hated it so much.  (But it gave us a great object lesson on why they should stop leaving our own door open all the time!)  We wiped down all surfaces with vinegar and washed all curtains.  We replaced light bulbs and scrubbed lighting fixtures.  (Apparently smoke is drawn to them because of the heat, and then sticks to the bulbs and heats up every time the lights are on?  Charming, right?)

I'm so glamorous when I'm wiping down every single surface with vinegar!

Nicotine on the back of the toilet tank.  And this is just the stuff that DIDN'T get into her lungs!!!  Don't smoke, kids!

Kendra actually makes those gloves look not like a serial killer!

Craig painted the master bathroom (a favorite smoking spot for this outdoor smoker) and also replaced the fan in there, which was also covered in nicotine.  Camille and I spent a morning hanging out there while the carpets were cleaned. 

Anyway, long story slightly shorter, we got it cleaned up.  We found a great renter.  He just moved in today.  No one mentioned that it smelled smoky.  HUGE sigh of relief.

Now I can get back to posting about the FUN things we did in December!  Like this crazy snow storm...!

Craig counted eight deer behind our townhouse eating grass through the snow! 

HodgePodge + Thanksgiving Post!

How did I never post about Thanksgiving! I have SO much catching up to do on this blog!!! So I guess I better get right to it...

Halloween never really ended around here...!

Ryder pulls awesome faces

The kids put on a play for me that involved Ryder being a dragon, Colton being a zombie, and Camille putting up with their shenanigans!

These three are weird.  And messy!

One morning the sun was shining through the frost at the top of Carter Mountain

For Thanksgiving, we drove up to southern Ohio to spend the weekend with Rachael and her family!  They moved to Marietta in the summer and have been LOVING the change after spending 7 years in Harlem.  (Rachael bought herself a mini-van and enjoys large, spacious parking lots!  She also enjoys NOT having shootings in her neighborhood!)  We were excited to see the house they're renting and get a quick tour of the town, which is very cute.  And, as always, we mostly just enjoy hanging out a lot!

Colton and Nolan playing together

Harrison is just so cute!

As always, Bentley claimed a drumstick!

As we were about to leave, we realized we needed at least one group picture to prove we were there!  And it actually turned out pretty good!

UVA Messiah Sing-In

I've documented it pretty well here just how much I love attending the Messiah Sing-Along at the Kennedy Center each Christmas.  This year we have a TON of family coming for Christmas, which I am BEYOND excited about.  We also have Ryder's baptism on the 23rd (which is a big part of why so much family will gathering here)(that's also the day of the Kennedy Sing-Along).  So I really can't do both.

So it was time to try something new: the Sing-In at UVA's Old Cabell Hall!

This was the 51st year doing this, and the first year that my choir director would be conducting the Sing-In (in the past he's played the harpsichord!), so that made it a little more fun for me.  Also fun, I was able to sit with my friend from choir, so I was singing along with someone I usually sing with!  Craig was a little nervous, because they seat everyone by their part, so he couldn't sit with me like we usually do.  (There is no choir in the world in which basses sit next to sopranos.)  But he lucked out and was sitting behind five of the basses from my choir (who all performed Messiah two years ago, right before I joined!), and even he admitted that it was a lot easier singing his part with all them so close.

This was very different from the Kennedy Center one-- the orchestra was made up of volunteers who just showed up that day along with all the singers, so they were a little rough.  And there was no professional choir to pull everyone along: we all would either sink or swim together!  And unlike the Kennedy Center, this felt a little more like a rehearsal.  Michael wasn't afraid to stop us and make us try something again.  (He once corrected the sound we were making and then on our second try exclaimed, "That was a lovely sound!  Now imagine how great it would sound if you sang with beautiful rhythm, too!"  Such a Michael thing to say!)

But it was still SO MUCH FUN!  I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and even though we had to pay for tickets, that was still cheaper than parking at the Kennedy Center, and it only took a couple hours total, rather than taking the entire day.  So that was a win!

Just to make it even more of a date night, Craig and I left early and stopped at Panera for dinner and hot chocolate.  We spent the whole time there on our phones shopping Amazon and got all our Christmas shopping done.  It was a GREAT way to spend an evening!

There's a very blurry photo of us at Old Cabell Hall!

The hardest thing now will be deciding which one we do next year!

Parental Pride. Sort of.

Recently Colton loves to sing the Hallelujah Chorus.  This thrills me no end.

Unfortunately, he thinks it's from Captain Underpants.

Oh, well.


On a related note, my sister Leah (whose sons are 8 and 3) found out that Dav Pilke, the man we have to thank for Captain Underpants, lives on Bainbridge Island!  Who knew?

Camille Quote

Today in church Camille turned to me and asked, "Does Jesus love everyone?" and of course I told her Yes.  And then, very loudly, she said, "He loves me because I'm so cute!"

That is one confident little girl we're raising!

Car History

When I finished my undergrad degree, my parents gave me the option for my graduation gift of either keeping the car they were letting me use, or they said they could buy me a laptop.  I already had a (crappy) computer and access to computer labs on campus, and couldn't imagine going back to not having a car, so the choice was an easy one.  So it was that in 2003, I became the proud owner of a 1991 Honda Civic (and a bachelor's degree in English!).  It basically looked like this (but with a tiny blue stripe all around it and a sun roof):



And I loved my car.  It was my baby.

When Craig and I got married, he had a car, too, so we towed the Honda and drove his car (and a tiny U-Haul van) across the country.  That drive pretty much finished off his Oldsmobile, and we quickly replaced it with our mini-van, and suddenly the Honda was Craig's car to drive, and I drove the mini-van.  And that worked just great for me, but it was a little rough for Craig.  Because, even though my Honda was a great car, it most certainly did NOT have air conditioning.  Because you don't really NEED A/C in Seattle, where we'd originally bought the car so many years ago!  Not like in Virginia.  Craig never complained about that, but it couldn't have been fun.

But we he managed.

Then, the day after I brought Kendra home from the hospital, Craig's parents called us with an idea.  They were purchasing a new car and would be trading in their old Saturn.  They asked if we would like to switch cars with them, we could keep the Saturn and they would trade in my Honda.

The advantage to this was pretty obvious: the Saturn was a few years newer (a '95 to my '91) and IT HAD AIR CONDITIONING.  There wasn't really any comparison.

Still, it killed me.  I'd just had a new baby and did NOT want to be making hard decisions just yet.  And besides, the Honda was MINE.  IT was my baby!  But now I had two babies to be taking care of and Craig needed something to get him to and from work that preferably wouldn't leave him drenched in sweat.  We said Yes to the trade.

We took the Honda for one last spin.  I no longer drove it very often, and when I slid behind the wheel, I didn't notice that Craig had left it parked in 1st gear (rather than reverse, like I would have done) and I promptly rammed it straight into the parking curb.  Craig looked at me and asked, "Are you sure you're okay with this?"  I nodded, admitted that was just a dumb mistake, not me trying to sabotage things.  And that was the last of my Honda!

The Saturn, I should explain, was a teensy bit of a pain.  It was the most stripped down model that Saturn made: no power locks, no power windows, no power steering.  Nothing.  Only that lovely, cool air conditioning.  But since I hardly ever drove it, that really wasn't my problem.

We worried it wouldn't last long.  Hondas have a reputation for longevity, but I don't know if the same can be said of Saturns.  We told ourselves that if it made it 6 months without any major repairs we would assume that we'd made the best choices.

But it turned out to have been an excellent choice, because that car lasted.  It lasted and lasted.  Occasionally it needed some repairs.  I seem to recall some expensive transmission work while we were in Manassas.  But for the most part, it was extremely forgiving.  The kids, literally, tore it to shreds.  Pieces of the ceiling would hang down.  When we gave rides to the neighborhood children, they were amazed to learn how to "roll down" a window with a crank.  It got so old that Craig's co-workers would tease him about it.  But it still it ran for us.

But finally this year, it was time.  The poor car was leaking oil AND coolant.  We took it to our (much loved) mechanic and he said it needed a new radiator.  And since the company Saturn ceased to exist, it was getting harder to find parts.  We'd had that car for nearly 11 years (easy to keep track of, since it's the same as Kendra's age!)  And we just decided that it. was. time.

Craig had been searching on all the car apps for what he felt would be a good, reliable replacement car and when he found a good one at a price he liked AND had a day off, he jumped on it.

So we no longer have a 1995 Saturn.

We've come full circle and are the proud owners of a 2015 Honda Civic.

Goodbye Saturn, hello Honda!

Craig loves his new car.  He loves having power windows and power steering and power locks.  He loves that it's a bit zippier than his old car.  And it makes me happy to see him so happy.  (And I love driving it when I'm running errands without the kids!)  Life is good

And just because it made me smile, the other day I found an Oldsmobile, just like the one Craig took me out on our first date in, parked next to my huge van.  So I had to snap a picture of it.

It's like they're old, curmudgeonly friends together!