2010 Giant Year-End Wrap-up

I just want to say from the get-go that even though this post says it is written by Amy, it was really written by Josh. I don't want you to get us confused or anything.

Secondly, I would like to add that we are sorry. I don't know what happened. Maybe the holidays happened, maybe having a special needs child happened and maybe us just being flat up lazy happened. We don't want to be those people who just write a blog once a quarter. So we are sorry. So I am proposing this "contest." Stop right there if you think I am about to tell you about a prize we are giving away. There are no prizes on this blog. I am not Design Mom. But here is what I will do: For every comment made on this post by a different person, I will write one blog entry between now and the end of February. If none of you comment, I still may write a post. And it 74 of you comment, I will write 74 posts. I can't promise they will be good, but they will be there. It's like our own little kickstarter, right here on the blog. But instead of giving me money, you just have to comment. (Note: Monetary donations are still accepted.)

So if you don't want to see 1 million pictures of our kids - skip ahead. The last time we wrote anything was at the beginning of October, which means we have a lot of holidays to cover.

I love Octobers in Oregon. Doesn't this picture look like it is from a postcard?! Except maybe for the under-paid migrant workers unloading the pumpkin truck? Like all good hipster families, we have fallen for the hype of going to pick our pumpkins at a pumpkin patch instead of getting them at Albertsons. What I love about the pumpkin patch that we go to is that really they have already picked all the pumpkins and they are just sitting out in a big field - it's not like we are picking them off the vine, but somehow we feel connected to our agri-roots.

When we got home, the kids freaked out about the gross innards of the pumpkins, leaving me to do all of the gutting. When I was a kid, if you wanted to boob about your pumpkin guts being slimy, you didn't get a pumpkin. Somehow my kids are wannies, and somehow I am a pushover.

This year instead of going to the super-ghetto Halloween Carnival at Jonah's kinda-ghetto school, we decided to try the Halloween carnival at our gym. Something felt right about eating doughnuts and jolly ranchers while people above me were running on treadmills. Jonah was a lovely skeleton,

Noel was Darth Vader. This was a huge victory. Last year he put on a pirate hat literally 30 seconds before we left to go trick or treating.

And Lila was a super cute cheerleader. She is really a super cute anything, but I like that she is on Team Daddy. Amy and I do like to pit her against one another. We are always asking who she loves more. For the record: usually it is me.

Here we are on a nature walk with Jonah and a giant leaf. You know us; we are always hiking and walking and exploring nature.

For some reason on this walk, any time the camera pointed at Lila, she would do some super odd pose. Sometimes she would kneel in the leaves and sometimes she would just hold her head in this weird way. Oh well, she is still cute.

Look how cute those two are? Really...I am a lucky man.

October was over. November came, blah blah blah. We had Thanksgiving. It is a quiet affair at our house. Just me cooking 1 MILLION THINGS all by myself and then eating. Here was dinner:

Roast Turkey. Cranberry Sauce. Mashed Potates and Good Grave. Green Been Casserole (ala Trader Joes.) Roasted Asparagus. Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Pomegranate and Vanilla Butter. Homemade Rolls. In case you are wondering, it was delicious. Except for the brussel sprouts. They sucked. Thanks, Flay! (Let's be honest - it was probably my fault.)

December - time to get the tree. Luckily, we grow Christmas trees in Oregon, so we cut our own. This tree took us about 30 seconds to find and it was pretty much the most beautiful, most fragrant tree ever grown. It was perfect. I have no idea what is going on with my face here.

Yeah, I can drag a tree. I'll admit - I don't know why this picture was included. Since Amy was the one who started this post, she picked the photos.

This is about as good as it gets when you try and get all three of my kids to pose together. They are pretty cute...

Our kids insist each year that we do a gingerbread house. And it doesn't help when you can buy the whole pre-assembled house from Costco for like $9. But here's the thing - gingerbread house are really gross. Who wants some food item sitting out on your counter for 1 month getting dusty and sticky and scary. Why is that festive?

Lila was in a particularly willful mood the morning we tried to take cute pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes. She screamed and yelled every time we tried to get her to look at the camera. Luckily we got this charming shot that looks like she is gazing at the Christmas tree as Christmas dreams and wishes run through her head. I am sure if this photo had a sound track, it would be of Lila screaming "NOOOOO!!!" at the top of her lungs. Let's just believe in the magic.

Jonah has been taking violin lessons lately from a friend of ours in the ward. He is pretty cute about it, even though he gets grumpy when he has to practice. No worries - we follow the Tiger Mother's philosophy when it comes to practicing. We know Jonah doesn't want to practice. But who cares. He is 6. He doesn't get to decide to do what he wants.

Amy had a piano recital scheduled for her Piano Studio, so we decided to lump Jonah in and have him play the violin. He seemed to do great - at least, the video Amy managed to shoot looked that way. I was dragging my screaming 4-year old out to the car to eat a donut and watch Elmo videos. Asperger's + sitting quietly while a bunch of people play the piano = meltdown.

That apron really flatters my figure. This is us making Santa's Christmas cookies.

Christmas Eve was very much as Norman Rockwell envisioned it. All of the children cuddled on the couch and shared their testimony of Jesus. Or, Jonah read the Luke 2 account while Lila and Noel screamed and hit each other.

Lila liked to be a terrorist and take over the whole nativity. No one was placing ANY shepherds in that stable without her say so. I am pretty sure that she was the one that added the zombie and dinosaur to the nativity a few weeks ago.

They finally settled down for some story books with Mom. (I think we had already put Lila to bed at this point, which always makes accomplishing anything 100 times simpler.)

The next morning was fun and chaos. Jonah's favorite present was this stuffed Kirby that Santa got REALLY last minute for like $8...why do kids always love the most random gifts the most, and are somewhat unimpressed with the gifts that you spent a lot of time thinking about and planning?

Noel got a camera that connects to his leapster - it is quite cute. When he uses it he likes to say the types of nerdy things that apparently I say when I am videoing things, trying to get people to narrate what is going on. "So, Dad, where are we now? What are we doing here?" Do I really sound that nerdy?

Lila was a cute stinker - and Amy was thrilled to get to finally buy some girl toys. Like a tea set (but don't worry - we call it a hot chocolate set because we live the Word of Wisdom! That's a lie. We call it a tea set. But we do live the Word of Wisdom.) Here she is opening Sing-A-Ma-Jig. Have you seen these things? They are messed up crazy creepy. And delightful.

Phew - are you bored yet? That was a lot of catching up. Don't forget - leave your comments to force me to write more blogs between now and the end of February! Or don't...maybe no one reads this anymore since we haven't updated since October and you probably forgot your password. Time will tell.