Adelaide's Crawling

Watch out world!

Michael's Birthdays

What a kid! Michael is such a precious little boy. I can hardly believe he's now a big four year old. We are so blessed to have him as a son. He is so smart and so creative and so sweet and such a "good worker." He loves to help and to be involved in anything and everything. He loves doing crafts and simple experiments and is super-excited about our little garden. He is really into "outer space" right now and can name and describe all of the planets. He is already learning to read simple sentences using phonics (e.g. "The hot dog fell off the log.") And, he has already leaned to ride the bike (with training wheels) we got him for his birthday.

We were visiting family around Michael's birthday, so we ended up celebrating it three times. When I asked him what kind of party he wanted, he said he wanted a "monster-dragon-dinosaur-ghost party." In the end, the monster-dragon-dinosaur-ghost theme proved less important than the colors --everything had to be red and yellow, or orange, "because red and yellow make orange."

Party at Nana's:

Party at Grandma's:

Party at Home:

Sadie is as fun and funny as ever.

Adelaide is just about 8 months old now. She has been creeping on her belly for months, and wobbling around on all-fours for over a month. We've been expecting her to start crawling "any day now" for a long time, but she just hasn't gotten it. Today, sitting among our toy-srewn playroom, I finally realized why: she has no motivation. "Why go over there, when I have plenty of toys to chew on and play with right here?" Maybe we should start our nightly cleanup again? . . .

Months ago, I made a huge batch of Black Bean Soup. After eating it for several days, I froze the remainder in some small tupperware containers. This week, I decided to take a night off cooking and reheat the soup for an easy dinner. I emptied three containers into a large cooking pot, put the lid on, turn the stove on low, and let it defrost while I played with the kids outside. After 10mins or so, I came back in to check on it. It was starting to turn liquid, so I stirred it a little and went back outside. After another 5 mins or so, I came back in and realized that the smell emanating from the pot didn't quite match what I had remembered the soup smelling like. But it looked fine, so I stirred it again and went back outside. After another 5 mins., I came back in and knew something was just not right. I finally recognized the smell, and it wasn't black beans. It was chocolate. Apparently I had combined 2 containers of black bean soup with one container of chocolate pudding that I had completely forgotten about. When I mustered up the courage to taste it, it wasn't all that bad. I had heard of people making black bean brownies, so I decided to let it finish cooking, serve it to the kids and see if they liked it. It was a good plan, I think, only I forgot that chocolate burns --quickly! The next time I came in to check on the soup, what I smelled was not chocolate black bean soup, but burnt-chocolate black bean soup. I didn't bother tasting it this time. I pitched it and started making stir-fry.

Cute Videos

Just some cute videos to go with the last post.

Sadie always keeps us smiling. She loves her pink pajamas, or her "jumpsuit,"



and her pink tutu.




Michael, the Not-So-Automatic Leaf-Compactor.

Tons of Pictures

Sooo,I thought I had already posted all the pictures from Christmas, but apparently, I hadn't, so here is Christmas with the Comptons, plus a lot of pictures that are just too cute to not share.  (Sorry, I forgot to rotate a bunch of these.)

Birthday:

I finally got smart about birthday cakes.  In the past, I have always made a normal, "big" cake for everyone's birthdays which is always waaaay too much cake for all of us to eat before it goes bad. So this time, I made a bunch of little tiny cakes. We made one into the birthday cake, and froze the rest for future chocolatey enjoyment (see below).

Christmas at home:  For the first time, we celebrated Christmas in our own home this year. All of Matt's family were kind enough to oblige us by coming to our house this year, and WE LOVED IT! 

The kids were mesmerized by Grandpa's skills playing Angry Birds.

Chocolate for breakfast --Yum!

It didn't take Ada long to find the really cool toys to play with.

The day after Christmas, Aunty Sarah and Uncle Ben babysat for us so Matt and I could go see the King Tut exhibit at the museum of art. It was really cool: full of actual artifacts from his tomb. They didn't let us take pictures inside, but these were only slightly less cool.

Christmas at Nana's:

New Year's weekend, we went down to Nana's to celebrate Christmas with them.  As always, the most exciting part was the stockings.

The kids enjoyed a little fishing . . .


One of Michael's favorite pass times right now is digging in dirt and finding rocks, each of which he proclaims to be some sort of fossil. He has found fossilized cats, squirrels, fish, shells, etc at our home, along with various bits of dinosaurs here and there. While at Nana's, Michael "discovered" a whole dinosaur skeleton.  I thought he was pretty clever.

What Christmas is complete without making a gingerbread house?

Lake Tahoe:
Matt's firm had a business meeting in Nevada, and since one of the partner's has a house out there, he kindly invited me to come along and go skiing. Matt LOVES to ski, so of course we jumped at the chance to go skiing together. We made all our flights, picked up our rental car, and headed up into the mountains.  Everything was going great, until after dinner when Adelaide started vomiting all over the place and then went limp. She didn't have any fever, so I thought maybe she was just exhausted from getting up at 5:00 a.m., staying up late, and not getting any really good naps in.  Then someone suggested it may be altitude sickness. We did a quick Google search and learned that it is especially dangerous for young children. She fit all the symptoms so we rushed her down to the valley as quickly as we could. We rented a room at a hotel in Carson City (next door to a huge casino), and thankfully by the next morning she was better. We didn't dare take back up in the mountains, so the end result was that I stayed at the hotel with Adelaide for two days while Matt took care of business and got two half-days of skiing in. . . . Not exactly the vacation we had planned, but at least our little girl was okay.

The last day, we did a little hiking in the hills around Carson City. --It wasn't as high an altitude, and the view was beautiful.


Raking Leaves:
  Having been raised out in the country, no one ever cared what our yard looked like.  So, this is the first year that I have experienced the joy of leaf raking,

and raking,

and raking.  We have filled over 40 bags by now, and the sweetgum tree is still far from bare.




Cute Pictures of the Kids:

Surprise!

I am so blessed to have such sweet children!

The kids loooove to play trains.

Michael loves to help me unload the car.

What a boy!

Finally a picture showing off her two little teeth.

She is sitting up really well now and rolling all over the place. She scoots backward really well, forward not-so-well, and can just barely make it up on all-fours. I'm pretty sure she'll be crawling within a month.

Sadie is such a little girl. She loves everything pink and is especially enamored with her pink tutu right now. She want to wear it all the time, every day.  And she loves to dance. (See video clip to follow.)

Here she is sporting her first hair cut!  Not that it was all that long; it was just getting a little strageley-looking, so this is an improvement.

Michael loves to climb trees and has claimed this one as his "tree house."


Sitting pretty.

A Very Merry Christmas

Wow. What a year this has been!  It has been so very hard and so very wonderful.  This year's highlights include:

Michael turning 3
Michael getting potty trained
Matt finishing law school
Matt looking for a job
Jennie giving birth
Adelaide being born (three weeks prior to)
Matt taking (and passing) the Bar
Adelaide being extremely dairy-intolerant (and very cranky until)

Jennie learns to live without dairy
Matt finding the perfect job at Clearman Prebeg, LLC
Sarah turning 2
Jennie house hunting (with Michael, Sarah and Adelaide all in tow)
The whole family moving
Buying our first washing machine (Oh, happy day!!!) and first lawn mower
Kids loving the novelty of having a backyard (with their own dirt pile! . . .Thank goodness for the washing machine!)
Jennie putting up Christmas lights for the first time
Having Christmas in our own home for the first time

Having wonderful Family and Friends who love and support us continually, and whom we love so dearly!!!

Our lives are overflowing with blessings great and small. The Lord has led us down a rocky path these last few years, but we are finally beginning to see the blessings of taking the road less traveled.  But one of the greatest blessings remains constant --the love we feel from each of you.  We love you all, think of you often, and pray for your welfare and happiness.

Have a blessed and happy Christmas!

Love,
Matt, Jennie,
Michael, Sarah & Adelaide

Holi-daze

So it's been a while since I've had a chance to update the 'ol blog. Downloading and looking through all the pictures on my camera, I realized it's been two very full months. So following is a quick run-down of the holidays and other momentous occasions our family has enjoyed.

 Sarah's Birthday
We held Sarah's 2nd birthday party at the park close to our house. Lots of friends came to celebrate with us, but this little girl had eyes for only one "person" . . . 

 her "Thomas Cake."  She insisted on a Thomas-the-Tank-Engine cake for her birthday, and I had a lot of fun making it. Sadly, the day was warm enough that the frosting melted really fast, but it was cute while it lasted.

Sarah Compton and Sarah Turner: could have been twins?  A friend from BYU moved into our ward about a year ago and, oddly enough, has a daughter named Sarah.  Their birthdays are just a week apart and they even look similar: same height, same fair skin, same blue eyes, same strawberry-blond hair, etc.

Halloween

Of course, we made our annual Jack-o-lantern. This year, for some reason, Jack succumbed to black mold rather quickly and within a week turned into a black, mushy, grotesque mess.  Fitting for the holiday, perhaps, but still really disgusting. He didn't even make it to Halloween; we had to toss him early.

 For trick-or-treating, Sadie was a blue dragonfly. Michael wanted to be a fireman again, but in all the craziness of packing for our move, I couldn't find his costume. So, we whipped up a super-fast robot costume out of a yet-empty box, aluminum foil,  packing tape, and glow-bracelets.

 The Move
Sorry, no pictures of the action. It all happened so fast, I totally forgot to take pictures. With the help of my parents, brother, sister, and a neighbor who owns a moving company we got almost everything moved in one evening. Then, it was just a matter of unpacking, putting away, and cleaning. 

In all the commotion, Adelaide learned to find comfort in sucking her thumb.  Both Matt and I were thumb-suckers, so it had to happen to at least one of our children.  As soon as she started sucking her thumb, she started sleeping through the night. Hooray!

Michael is such a good boy. He is always eager to help with anything and everything. His favorite compliment is to be told that he is a "good worker."  The week we moved in, I bustling around trying to put things away. I had unloaded the dishwasher but hadn't had time to do the dishes. Suddenly, there was Michael in the kitchen doing the dishes for me. I was amazed.  Considering he is only 3 1/2, he did a really good job too!

Solid Food
Adelaide is now almost 5 months old, and I started her on baby food this month. This is a picture of her first experience; she sloppily, but happily, gobbled it down. She now eagerly anticipates her "solid" meal each day.

Matt, Esq.
Here is Matt getting sworn and becoming an official, fully fledged lawyer.

Matt's 33rd Birthday
Mmmmmm . . . Birthday ice cream.

Thanksgiving
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my everyone in both of our families. We spend several days with my folks. The whole family was there.  My mom put me in charge of keeping all the kids occupied, so I planned lots of different activities.  Here we are making Thanksgiving posters.

Here we are on a fossil hunt.


"Turkey Olympics" included funny face contests, relays,

 a ball fight,

and, everyone's favorite, a pie eating contest.

Hyrum was the victor and Kylie came in a close second. Cole made a good showing and certainly came out the messiest, thanks to Uncle Stephan.

 
 I think the kids' favorite thing to do was feed the animals.

Nana and Popie had lots of baby ducks and chickens to pet and cuddle.

 Aunt Alison has adopted one of the chickens and taught it to sit on her arm.

We also spent several day with Matt's family and enjoyed another Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma Lamm's house. (Sorry, I forgot my camera.) It was lovely to see everyone there.

Sadie got a few belated birthday presents, including this cute tutu. She loves everything pink, so it was a big hit.

Other Events of Note
One of Sadie's birthday presents was a "little pink  potty."  We're taking a very relaxed approach to potty training this time around.--She can use it when she wants . . .and when I have time to supervise . . . so it's not very often.  But here she is sooo proud after a big "success."

We've been having lots of fun fixing up the house. My parents gave us an old desk and shelf that needed repainting. I finally gave up waiting for some time without the kids around, so I got everything out, took a deep breath, and said they could help.  We had lots of fun and they didn't get nearly as messy as I thought they would. . . . The paint job isn't perfect, but there are more important things.

Last weekend, Matt bought our very first lawn mower. The whole family, minus Adelaide, got to help push the mower.

 The kids couldn't wait to decorate for Christmas, so everything is out and up.

I grew up in the country and we never bothered with Christmas lights. All my adult life, I've lived in apartments. So this was the first year I got to put up Christmas lights on the house.  It was actually really easy because the original owners, long ago, screwed in little hooks all around the eves. I thought it was brilliant.