Christmas Thoughts

While preparing for a talk, I read several articles about whether Christ was really born in December and why Christmas is celebrated then. I found it very interesting, but not really important. I once heard someone comment that they had stopped celebrating Christmas when they learned it was originally a pagan festival*. That struck me as very sad. Why stop celebrating the birth of Christ simply because the origin of the celebration day is a debated point? I find that irrelevant. The important part is that we celebrate the birth of Christ. We can and should celebrate the birth and life of Christ all year long. There is no reason to limit our celebration to the generally accepted “birth day” of the Savior. Christmas is a wonderful reminder of the spirit we should carry all year round. Christmas time is often associated with service opportunities and unusual acts of kindness. Why are these acts of kindness unusual? Why not be kind all year? Why don't we watch for service opportunities, be kind and helpful without limiting such behavior to the holiday season? Let's act this way all year long. Remember that we represent Christ in all we do and always try to act as He would.

*For those who are unfamiliar with the pagan traditions, here is the general idea: the pagans celebrated during the darkest time of the year to appease the gods so the sun would return. When the Christians decided to celebrate the birth of Christ during this season, it is generally believed they were trying to replace the pagan festival with a proper celebration to help convert and retain the pagans to Christianity. Since nobody knew the exact day of the Savior's birth, the leaders of the Christian church felt they could name any day to celebrate.

First Horse Rides

I figured there's been too much about me lately so I need to get some more cute pictures of the girls up for everyone to see. These are from while we were visiting my family before Thanksgiving.

Cora riding with Uncle Roy. She loved it. She loves every animal she can get close to.
Ruby tried really hard not to take a horse ride. To get her on the horse Grandpa held her and Ray stood on the opposite side of the horse. Ruby went to Roy only because he was closer to Ray.
Here is Ruby after she rode around with Uncle Roy for a few minutes. I think she really did enjoy it, once Ray and I were out of sight.

Cora with Paco. She would get her hand really close, then pull it back and look up with a big grin. I don't think she ever quite touched him.

Guess how many...

dead deer showed up at my house on Wednesday night?

The correct answer would be: Five.

WARNING: Dead deer pictures follow. If you do not care to look at pictures of dead animals, please stop reading now.

Ray's deer:These are the LAST three deer Ray got this year. He got two earlier in the season. That maxed out the number of deer he is allowed to shoot in one year.

Greg's deer:
Our friend Greg has been hunting with Ray this year. These are his last two deer. He got one earlier.

Ray and Greg are currently in the process of cutting up the meat. I do my best to stay out of it all. Cooking it is my part, I guess.

Discussion on a Haircut

This is to quickly answer a few questions I've gotten about the new 'do.

First of all: I love it!! It is so easy, quick, and mostly out of the reach of the girls, which is exactly what I was needing right now. I was a little nervous because my hair has never been this short before, but I'm really glad I got it cut.

I didn't measure how much I cut off. I didn't save any, either. But I did think about it. Then I remembered that I am not an organized saver of things so what in the world would I do with a chunk of my hair?

Beth cut it. She's really quite amazing at cutting hair. She cuts her own all the time.

Because of this haircut I purchased my first hair dryer. Ray asked, "You just cut off all your hair, why do you need a hair dryer now?" I've even considered getting a curling iron, but I probably won't. I mean, this cut is really easy without curling it, why add extra time when I don't have too?

I can't get Ray to give me his opinion. I know he likes long hair. He told me he didn't want me to cut it. He finally gave in, sort-of, with the comment, "Just don't look like a boy." Now the most I've gotten out of him, when I asked him directly if he liked my hair, was, "Yes and no." He wouldn't expound on that. Oh, well, I like it and I'm very glad I cut it.

The Snowless Globeless

A tale of Meg's stupidity

It's that time of year when the Christmas decorations come out. Meg was excited as she opened the box of decorations and pulled out the first few. No tree yet, the ornaments will have to wait. The nativities, those can come out now. Hmm... where would the stockings go this year? Oh, there is the beautiful snow globe, that can definitely come out now. This would only be the second year the snow globe was part of the decorations, it was a gift from her sister just last year. One or two more things would do it for now. Meg being the practical person she is, wanted to take the fewest number of trips possible from the storage room to the living room. So, she carefully held the snow globe while balancing other items around it. Crunch. What was that? It couldn't be the snow globe, she was being so careful. Alas, as she looked down into her hand she realized water was flowing from a large crack in the globe. Luckily, knowing her own propensity to break things, she had stored it in a large zip-type freezer bag. The bag was holding the gushing water quite well. The only bright point in an otherwise forlorn situation.

Meg was very distraught. Angry with herself for not carrying the snow globe by itself. Very upset because she really liked the snow globe and was excited to decorate with it. After a therapeutic cry, she decided to see if it was in any way salvageable. It was quite easy to break out the rest of the glass. Only one small piece of anything else was broken. Superglue fixed that. She was able to save everything except the snow and the globe. So now it is a snowless globeless:

It's just not the same.

What do you think?

Sorry the pictures aren't great. I was trying self-portraits.

Is anyone else thinking Ralphie's brother?

I also see penguins:

What do you do if...

the tab on the diaper breaks just as you are putting the diaper on the baby?

Mommy solution: throw the diaper away and use a new diaper, it's not like it happens everyday.

Daddy solution:
That's right, duct tape.

Halloween

I finally downloaded my Halloween pictures. Here are the girls:
Any guess as to what Ruby's costume is? I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to be and I thought it very odd that the face was on the back of the head.

Random Phone Call

I'm sharing this because I found it all rather entertaining.

This morning I got a phone call from a cell number, no name associated. This was the basic conversation:

Me: "Hello," pause, "Hello?"
Caller: "Hi?"
Me: "Hi."
Caller: "Who is this?"
I hate when people try that, especially when they call me.
Me: "Who are you?"
Caller: "I have this number in my phone under 'House' and I thought it was my house. But I guess not."
Me: "I don't think so." Honestly, do you not know your own home phone number? Don't they make you memorize that when you're in kindergarten? Maybe this is the real problem with cell phones.
Caller, still trying really hard to have this be the right number: "Do you know anyone named Bob?" Name changed to protect the idiot.
Me: "Bob who?"
Caller: "Bob Jones."
Me: "No." Do you really think asking it that way will make it so I don't know that's your name?
Caller: "Okay, thanks."

Now, to make it even better, a few days ago this same number called our house at approximately one o'clock in the morning. I didn't wake up to it, and by the time Ray answered the person had already hung up. So when Ray came home for lunch today I told him about this conversation.

Ray's response: "Bob Jones? That name sounds really familiar. I think he called about the house." That would be the house we sold last month. "He wanted to rent. He said he would call back in a month or two to see if we hadn't sold it yet." That would explain why he put the number in his phone under "House." But apparently Bob Jones doesn't have any memory of this. At least I have an explanation if he calls back.

Fun Pictures

This is the girls sitting on the pillow I used to use to nurse them. They have gotten a lot bigger in the last year.

Cora playing in the box that birthday presents came in.










Cora lounging in the toy basket and eating rocks. Cora is our rock collector. She always manages to find rocks when we are outside. One day she was playing on the ground and I had set the diaper bag next to her. I obviously wasn't paying much attention to what she was doing because a few days later I found a collection of rocks in the side pocket of the diaper bag. Yes, I was carrying several rocks in my diaper bag for two or three days. Like my diaper bag needs any extra weight.

I just thought this picture of Ruby was too cute not to share.












I don't know why I put shoes on the girls anymore. They take them off before we can go anywhere. Also, the girls are learning to climb. Ruby climbed up into the window from the couch. She was quite proud of herself.

Hair: Styling 102

That's right, folks, I'm moving onward and upward in the baby hairstyling world. I'm so good at one ponytail, that I thought I'd try two:
I may need to work a little on symmetry. But I'd say it's not too bad for a first try. Especially if you consider the patience and attention span of a one-year-old.

Try two was a little more symmetrical.











Since I'm getting so good, I thought I'd try a side ponytail while I was at it:











Okay, the side ponytail was entirely accidental. I was just lucky to get any ponytail in before Ruby squirmed away.

Gratitude

I've decided I need to focus more on what I'm thankful for and less on the difficulties that face me each day. I was talking to my sister, Jenn, this afternoon and we decided to start a gratitude blog on which we can write down the things we are thankful for each day. It's our little experiment to see if we can make ourselves happier just by focusing on the positive. If anyone would like to join us, you are welcome. Just e-mail Jenn or me and let us know you're interested. Anyone can read and comment. Perhaps you can find more things to be thankful for, too.

One Year ...

has passed and we're still here to tell about it. I'd say that's quite an accomplishment!

Here is the rundown on the birthday celebration.

In a fit of insanity, Daddy and Mommy gave the girls this:
Very important side note: it was mostly Daddy.
The girls are still figuring it out. They love it if Daddy or Mommy are running it. The girls would rather play with the end where the balls are than hold onto the handle. That is quite alright with Mommy.

Daddy took the girls outside to play while Mommy worked on making cakes. They just sat in the pile of leaves and were perfectly happy. That is until Cora sunk down so far that the leaves were over her face. She didn't care for that at all.









Now, about the cakes. I had some great ideas for what I wanted to make for the girls but I ended up having no time to make cakes. It just didn't work out well. So, instead of making a cake from scratch, which I normally do, I used a cake mix. That proved to have two problems: first, a cake mix doesn't actually make very much cake and second, cake mix cakes are not meant for anything other than being eaten out of the pan they are cooked in. Also, my frosting came out a very strange consistency, I don't know why. It was too runny and nothing I did made it any better. Since my time was limited I decided to just make balls. They ended up sort-of ball shaped. Ruby's was falling apart before I could even get it all together. The frosting kind-of ran off the cake. It was great. At least they tasted good. Here's a picture:
Now for the fun part, letting the girls eat the cake:









Both girls just poked at the cake for a while. Cora first figured out that it was sweet. So she would rub her hand in the frosting then suck on her fingers. She finally decided to try picking up the whole cake. It fell apart and made a good mess. Ruby didn't ever try much with hers. Ray got impatient and tried to help her make a bigger mess. She didn't care for it.

The end results.









Here's a picture of the girls with all their gifts. Everything behind them is from their Grandma (Ray's mom). Aren't those dresses just darling? I'll have to get pictures of them in the dresses one of these days.

For those who are still with me. The girls had their one-year checkup. Height and weight-wise Ruby is around the 25th percentile, but her head is in the 76th percentile. Cora is fairly average and normally proportioned.

The girls are doing really well. According to the doctor, they are the best looking twins she sees. She really did say that and I know these girls aren't the only set of twins she sees. They survived their shots. I survived taking them to a doctor's appointment all by myself (Ray was out of town).

Hair: Styling 101

It's a good thing my children are still in that stage where they are cute no matter what their mother does to their hair. Hopefully by the time they outgrow this stage they will be able to do their own hair.
Ruby's hair really isn't quite long enough to put in a ponytail, but I figure if I have Cora's hair up and not Ruby's people will really think she's a boy.

Back story on the afghan

I am notoriously slow at getting wedding gifts created for my siblings. Lil wanted to be sure that hers was done before she got married. So we made a deal that she wouldn't get engaged until after the afghan was finished. It took a lot longer than I intended, but now it's finally done. She is free to get engaged at any time.

Random stuff I've been meaning to post for a while

These days it is awfully hard to get anything done without "help." It is especially hard to empty or fill the dishwasher, which is what I was trying to do when I took this first picture. The girls kept getting into the dishwasher and so I came up with the ingenious idea of using the stroller to block them from getting into the kitchen. After a bit Ruby was crying her very angry cry and when I checked she was stuck under the stroller, she managed to back out on her own. A little later she made it into the kitchen by pushing the stroller forward a little and slipping in behind it. I fixed that problem by putting the brakes on. The third try she made it all the way under the stroller and into the kitchen. Just look at the very sad face she has. I gave up at that point.

When Cora gets angry she will crawl away and pout. Although she will sometimes pause, look back at you, and scream. This picture was taken one day after she threw a fit that wore her out completely. Her nap didn't last long, though. As you can see Ruby was headed towards Cora as I took the picture and it only took one hit on the head to have Cora screaming again.

I just thought this picture of Cora was too cute not to share. If you look closely you can see her little teeth.

The girls love to push the stroller around the living room. The basket is just the right height for them to hold on to. They will push until they run into something and get frustrated because they can't move anymore.

One day I was in the kitchen and the girls were playing in the living room. When I stepped into the living room to check on them I couldn't find Cora anywhere. There aren't that many places she could have gone because I had all bedroom and bathroom doors closed and the gate was on the stairs. I was getting concerned when I heard a slight noise from under the table where we keep the carseats. This is what I found:
She had gotten stuck and just sat there sucking her fingers until I happened to come along and find her.

Ruby is much easier to find when she gets herself stuck. She doesn't sit quietly and wait. Although, I still had a little trouble finding her the first time she got herself stuck here:
She was crying like mad but I didn't think to look under the crib. I walked right past her and thought it strange that the crying then seemed to be coming from behind me. She goes under there to rescue toys that have been thrown under or dropped from the inside the crib. Other furniture she has gotten stuck under: kitchen chairs, living room chairs, high chairs, and our bed. Basically, anything even remotely tall enough for her to get under. Now that she's walking she doesn't get stuck under furniture quite as frequently, I assume it is because she's not seeing the toys that are under the furniture.

Lil, it's done...

...and you know what that means!! :-)