Christmas Vacation

Well, technically, it's not Christmas vacation yet, but we have already had our holiday visitors come and go.

My Mother AND my Grandmother came to my house! This was quite the treat for us. Grandma hasn't been on a trip like this in many years, and I still can't quite believe that she actually came this far to see me. Talk about over the river and through the woods. She took a shuttle for 4 hours from Cedar City, UT to Salt Lake, then she flew the RED-EYE with my mom to New York, took a commuter plane from New York to Boston, took a cab to the train station, and then the commuter rail train from Boston out to my neighborhood. Incredible. It makes me tired just thinking of it. I just put them back on the plane this morning and they haven't even left New York yet as I write this - still a long way from home.

I do know what a big deal it is to make that kind of effort to travel, and so her visit meant so much to us. The girls and I were absolutely spoiled the whole time they were here (I mean, come on - TWO Grandmas at the same time?!) They took us shopping, on outings, showered us with Christmas and gifts for my birthday. They helped us make Christmas cookies and a gingerbread house.

(Is there sugar in it? Then, YES!)

They even took me to see the New Moon movie. Seriously, I went out on Friday night with my mom and my grandma to a vampire romance movie!!! (they've both read the books too... crazy!)

We packed so much into 4 days that I can hardly remember what we did. I wish we had a little more down time to just hang out and play, but it felt so wasteful to sit around when my grandma hadn't ever seen this part of the country and when there were so many fun things to go and do. We did our best to get her around to a few places in the freezing cold.

I think my top 3 favorites had to be:

1- visiting Orchard House (again) with the women who taught me the same life lessons that were taught in the Alcott house (and the little women who need to learn them.)2- taking my grandma to see The Nutcracker ballet, for the first time in her life. It was also Hattie's first time.(four generations of Heyborne family girls)

(two little Christmas angels)

3- sitting around sipping orange tea and nibbling on Christmas cookies late at night after the kids went to bed. This (sipping tea and chatting) is something my mom and I always do whenever we stay with each other. It's something I definitely miss when she leaves.

(then, we'll snuggle...)
I loved listening to Hattie and Grace talk to their grandmas. They were so happy to have them here. There's so much that you just can't duplicate in a phone call or over a skype chat. You just have to visit people in person, and I'm super glad to have had a visit. Thanks Mom and Grandma!!! Miss you already.

A virtual Christmas Card

Just realized that we put our blog address on our paper Christmas cards and people might be checking out our blog. (or, maybe you have better things to do with December.) Either way, we owe our virtual friends a virtual Christmas greeting too!

We wish you a Merry Christmas,
and a Happy New Year!

(apparently, this is the only decent picture of the 4 of us this year. New Year's resolution: take more pictures with whole family.)

Much love,
David, Michelle, Grace, and Harriet

A few more thankfuls:

To finish up the Thanksgiving weekend, I thought I'd comment on our trip "over the river and through the woods" to eat Thanksgiving dinner with family. Or, shall we say, over MANY rivers and through MANY woods? Our weekend was packed with lots of "thanks" and "FULL"s.

We made the trek to Pittsburgh to be with David's brother, Brian, and his family. David and Brian love being together, Wendy and I get along famously, Grace and Jeremiah grew to be fast and inseparable friends, the teen-agers graciously entertained Hattie, and the dogs even have fun with their doggie cousins, so we all had a great time. These are the things I was most thankful for:

*a very reliable and nice car with a luggage box on top to travel in
*getting there and home safely and in under 12 hours each way
*kids being pretty darn good in the car on the way
*dogs also being extremely good the whole time
*my gut instinct that Grace had strep, almost as soon as we got there
*my insistence to take Grace to a minute clinic for a strep test
*antibiotics that were finally granted to us, allowing Grace to feel better before leaving and also to go to school tomorrow
*my kids' cool taste in music allowing me to listen to my own playlist in the car
*beautiful, traditional, Thanksgiving dinner made by the whole family (Wendy - turkey and potatoes, Clare - desserts, Alec - stuffing, Jeremiah - rolls, Me - random side dishes)
*eating Thanksgiving dinner with family
*chances to go on lots of outings - Fantastic Fox movie, dinner, Frick museum
*Grace and Jeremiah playing endlessly and happily with each other
*getting up early enough to nearly avoid the New York traffic on the way home today
*the brain power to think to bring lots of paper towels, wipes, and plastic bags, especially for the return trip (our little Hattie seems to be prone to car sickness. ugh.)
*very few squabbles in the car, even when I took a turn driving
*the gps and the iphone (ok, so I don't want my own iphone, but I do love that David has one when we travel.)
*I am also thankful for the start of the Christmas season. I love it.

(the kid table)

(the big people table)(Brian and David checking out a sun dial at The Frick)(Jeremiah, Grace, and Harriet doing an I Spy scavenger hunt in the green house at The Frick)(Hattie should have asked Santa for her own iphone)(Grace says "the sun is in my eyes!")

one quick thankful

Before I do my last one for the month, I want to put in one quick thankful post about our little outing in Boston last weekend. I have wanted to see The Old North Church (you know, one if by land, two if by sea) the whole time I have lived here, but have never made it to that part of Boston in 5 years. Thanks to some great new friends who live in the city, and who graciously hosted our family for a fun afternoon and night, we were able to eat lunch in their awesome neighborhood, see the Museum of Science, and eat dinner in the Italian NORTH end, where we fortuitously walked right past THE OLD NORTH CHURCH! YAY!! Thank you Jon and Elisa! You are definitely the coolest. I am thankful for new friends, and for kids who are old enough to explore Boston!

(my little brainiac)

(the mommy/biology teacher couldn't pass by the cool DNA without a long pause)

(my little bird watchers found stuffed varieties of all their favorites, I didn't have the heart to tell them they were all dead)

(and FINALLY, the Old North Church. ahh....)

Being Thankful

A friend of mine posted on facebook that "counting your blessings does NOT mean making a list of your personal property", or something like that. While I agree with her that we should be thankful for MORE than material possessions, I'm sure God doesn't mind that we are also thankful for the STUFF we have too. We sure have a lot and I know so many who don't. I know we're lucky and blessed in lots of ways.

But, truly, infinitely more than personal possessions, these are a few things I am most grateful for:

A very, extremely awesome husband who makes a pretty darn great Daddy too:
Two little princesses (Grace, you ARE a princess whether you like it or not, and Hattie thrives in her princess role):

Two adorable, sweet, loyal doggies:

(I am especially grateful for their current health after a scary month.)

An incredible and loving family:

(forgive the old, outdated, and blurry picture, but it's the only one I've got)

And friends. If I posted one picture, I'd have to post a hundred, so I won't even try, but I have the most amazing friends. You know who you are. Whether it's only little comments on facebook, or people who call and text me, those I see a few choice times a year, or those who live near enough to enjoy things like vacations, dinner, book group, and other outings with, I love my friends.

I think that's what it all boils down to, right? The creatures in our lives are the real stuff that blessings are made of. And, I'm thankful for every, single, one.

the cutest kids

Sorry folks, I got 'em - the cutest kids in the universe. Yours are cute too, but mine are definitely the cutest. Too bad for you.

I just got the school pictures back. I couldn't believe how beautiful the photos were. Since they go to different schools, they had different photographers. I worried that one would turn out and the other wouldn't. Both were amazing. I was going to post them, but I think I'll wait until I've mailed them to the fam first. I've got other evidence to prove my point though:

Hattie is simply delicious (I have wanted to eat her alive since she was a baby):

(helping momma rake the leaves and haul them up the hill)
(Hattie getting her yellow belt after her first karate test last week.)

Grace is just downright gorgeous:

(Grace finally earned that purple belt!)

(Grace celebrating w/best friend Eamon - they got to test for purple belts together.)

(although, now that Grace has lost that first top tooth, she's maybe got one more notch in the cute column and may have lost one in the super model category. it doesn't help that she makes these strange faces!)

What's that saying "there's a reason they're so cute..." Let's just say that it is absolutely true at our house lately. The cute factor has to be HUGE to outweigh the sassing your mom, not doing what you're told, and fighting with your sister, factors. They're as tough as they are cute, and with the karate skills in the mix, you might need to think twice before letting the cute take you over.

The V Dog

Our funny, smart, sweet, loyal, Velvet dog, has survived another near death experience. Let's see, she's nearly died of chocolate consumption, nearly given up on as lost, and nearly chewed her way through the 220 line to the a/c in our old house just to name a few. Well, she really wasn't "near death" this time, but she was saved from a sooner demise than she might have met.

Last week, we took her in to have a lump on her lower abdomen aspirated to see if it was one of the common lipomas (fatty tumors) that older dogs seem to get. So far, she's had one tested and Shadow has had 2 and all 3 have come back as something not to worry about. I really hoped that this one would as well, but when the vet came back from looking in her microscope with that "this doesn't look right" speech, I knew it wasn't good.

To be sure she was right about it, our vet sent off a slide to an outside pathology lab to be tested. We found out on Thursday that Velvet definitely did have a cancerous tumor. She's 11.5 years old, so she's not exactly young, but other than this she is a super healthy, happy, energetic dog. We were hoping she'd live at least a few more years before having to deal with this kind of thing.

The surgery was expensive, not out of the ball park, but expensive enough to consider carefully that we can't start a string of such actions. We decided to do it once, hoping to cure her of this cancer in one shot.

Velvet went in for surgery yesterday. They got the whole tumor and think that she probably won't need more treatment. But, still they sent off the tumor to be analyzed to be sure. We're really hoping that it's a done deal and that we've bought her a few more healthy years.

(no one likes to be a cone head)

(gee, thanks for the cute haircut for the holidays!)

In the mean-time, we've found a couple more lumps on Shadow. I hardly dared call to take her in to find out if they were more lipomas or something to worry about as well. She's 2 years younger, so I'm hoping they are just the same as the others she has. We'll find out next week.

All said and done, we've started a season of years that I have dreaded for a while. Aging pets are a constant worry and heart-ache. It's so hard to have to keep evaluating their quality of life vs. quantity of life left vs. our emotional attachment vs. the cost to do anything about it. These dogs have been with us nearly our whole marriage and are definitely part of our family. Grace and Hattie have never known life without them. I just hope we can keep them healthy for a few more years without too much intervention.

We love you V-Dog! Get better and go fetch the ball some more!

(Velvet and Shadow playing tag last Saturday - before surgery)

p.s. - got the results today (Wed)... the tumor was malignant and is likely to return, but had not yet spread. So, we're in the clear until it comes back. Hoping it won't be back for a long time.

The Halloween Post

Well, my friend Jared, just reminded me that it is NaBloPoMo, which means National Blog Posting Month and you're supposed to try to blog every single day for the month of November. I've already blown it since it's November 2nd. Since I've only got one post a month for the last 2 months, I'll just try to do better this month and get a few more in, but there's no way I'll get to it every day.

So, for the first one, we'll do the Halloween report:
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, might be second to Christmas. I love candy, I love dressing up, and I actually love spooky stuff (a little less now than I used to.) Now that I have kids, I also love seeing them get excited about their costumes, going pumpkin picking, and helping them eat their candy! (ok, I'm trying very hard this year not to raid their buckets and stick to our leftovers from only having 2 families come trick-or-treating to our door.)

We started the holiday off with the wARd trunk-or-treat. I just couldn't top my costume from last year (Sarah Palin - scariest AND funniest thing in October 2008.) Then, when David announced over the pulpit in sacrament that "we'll see if my wife can out-do her costume from last year," the pressure was just too much. I totally flopped and used someone else's idea to be a facebook page. It was kind of a cute idea, but Hattie wanted me to hold her all night because she was scared of everyone dressed up, so I had to take off the white board hanging around my neck. David, who seriously couldn't care less about Halloween, does not dress up unless I make him and I was too tired this year, so we were sans costumes.The KIDS though, were totally thrilled with their costumes. It was a squeaker to try to find what they wanted though. Grace wanted to be a tiger and Hattie wanted to be a pumpkin. Turns out that the costume companies make animal costumes for kids up through the 5T size and pumpkin costumes for babies up through the 2T size. Well, I needed a size 6 tiger and a size 4 pumpkin!! I finally found a size 4 pumpkin (definitely on the small side though) and Grace had to settle for a size 5 tiger and deal with it being a tad too small too. If I had the sewing skills and the time, I might have been able to solve the problem myself, but when Old Navy has totally nice costumes for $15, you just can't justify the $30 at the fabric store and the endless hours of sewing. Kudos to all those moms who make costumes every year!

Our town schools here don't celebrate the holidays. I can see not doing the religious holidays, but come on - Halloween?! So, poor Gracie did not get to wear a costume to school or have a school Halloween party. (They do a "pumpkin activity day" which means a pile of worksheets with a pumpkin theme and I think they got to weigh a pumpkin for math.) I let her wear her face painted like a tiger in protest though.

Hattie's pre-school did do a Halloween party. Oh, wait, excuse me, a "Fall Harvest Celebration." But, they did let the kids wear costumes and since her pre-school is part of a high school, the kids got to trick-or-treat through the offices of the high school. Her party was a total blast. I've never seen so many Halloween crafts! Our dining room table is covered with them now. (actually, now that I look at them, I guess Grace did do a couple of crafts at school too...) In the grand tradition of my children, Hattie was the only girl in her class not dressed up as some sort of princess. Hattie is even my daughter who LIKES princesses! Grace wouldn't be caught dead in a princess costume.

Halloween evening started out with some pumpkin carving. The kids drew their own designs on the pumpkins and I did all the knife work.

(Grace, the tiger, looking fierce with her "two faced" pumpkin)

Poor Daddy caught the flu either from the trunk-or-treat, or from church that weekend, so he was DOWN for Halloween. We left him to man the door which wasn't too hard considering a grand total of 7 kids/2 families. Don't worry - we didn't pass out swine flu with our candy. I made sure it was a sanitary situation.

I took the kids out. It was a nearly perfect evening with 70 degree weather and a spooky full moon with some wind that kept blowing wispy clouds in front of it. Our neighborhood scarcely has any kids at all. No one trick-or-treats around here, and very few turn on their lights to hand out candy. There are about 3-4 houses with older couples nearby who literally wait all night for our kids to show up and are so excited to see Grace and Hattie. Now that the kids are older though, I knew that going to 3 grandma houses wouldn't quite cut it. Grace's 2 best friends live in little cul-de-sacs nearby, so I told her that we could go visit them, take them a treat, and possibly do a few houses in their circles. I had no idea how perfectly my plan would work out! Grace's friend Corey and siblings had just headed out to the neighborhood when we pulled up. So, Grace and Hattie got to do the whole neighborhood with them.

(Haley, Corey, Brady, Grace, and Hattie)

Then, we headed over to Eamon's house quite a bit later, expecting to find that he was already done, but he had just headed out as well, so we caught up with him and did their whole neighborhood too!

(Eamon, Grace, and Hattie)

I would never have let the girls do so many houses in multiple neighborhoods if they were being greedy about "how much candy." But, they never once mentioned getting more candy, they just LOVED going with their friends. They wanted to do "more houses" because they just love running up to the porch and ringing the doorbell. It was seriously such a fun time to get to see the kids trick-or-treating with friends on a street filled with kids!

By the time we got back to our house and went to the grandma houses, they had almost given up on us and thought we weren't coming. I felt so bad - they had seriously prepared and waited for Grace and Hattie all night! Well, we WERE on the tail end of the town-announced Halloween holiday hours of 5-8pm.

(Grace and Hattie trick-or-treating at "Grandma" Jeanne's house. It's nice to have adopted grandparents when yours are more than 2000 miles away)

(walking down our dark empty road - I love Grace's tiger tail from behind)

Hattie was SO TIRED. She came home and immediately fell asleep on the couch in her costume.

Whew! Check off a successful Halloween! I think my kids are at the perfect age range right now to understand the holiday, for everything to be super fun (just a little bit scary), and not be too much work (like the hauling the baby around years.) I'm so looking forward to Christmas for the same reasons.