Parties and Primary Program

It’s been a busy week and a half for us. Last Friday there was a huge Christmas party at the Salt Palace for all the people that are working on designing and building the new Trax and commuter rail lines. (Jarl is working on the utility design for the Airport Line.) The party filled the Grand Ballroom and there weren’t enough seats for everyone. Jarl and I had a good time. I especially enjoyed seeing so many of the people I worked with at UTA.

Thursday was Jarl’s work party at a posh restaurant at the Hotel Monaco downtown. We had a four course dinner that cost a lot per person. It was nice. We ended up at a table with three other Mormon couples with kids so we had something to talk about instead of not knowing what to say to each other.

Friday night Jarl and I went to dinner with the other counselor in the bishopric and his wife, Brother and Sister Martin, and then went to the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert—well we tried to. We had a miscommunication about what time the concert started and such and ended up having the doors closed on us because there weren’t anymore seats. We spent the next half an hour looking for Brother Martin who was parking his car and didn’t have his cell phone with him. Then we caught an hour of the concert in the Tabernacle (it isn’t nearly the same as being in the Conference Center). Jarl and I then cut out a bit early to avoid the traffic and get home. The best part about the night was that the kids slept over at Jacobson’s so Jarl and I went Christmas shopping Saturday morning and now we’re just about done. That takes a lot of the stress off.

Saturday noonish we took the kids to Target to buy presents for each other. That was lots of fun. They did a good job of coming up with their own ideas of presents for their siblings. After that we ran into my parents at Sam’s Club. Makayla loved having my dad carry her around on his shoulders and Jacob liked walking around with my mom. Then Jacob and Makayla talked my dad into standing in line with them to see Santa at Sam’s and pay $5 for them and Kaley to get their picture taken with Santa. That gets me off the hook of taking them to the mall to see Santa, very nice.

We missed the Ward Christmas Party last night because Jacob didn’t take a nap in the two hours we gave him to do it yesterday. He wouldn’t go to sleep the night before at Jacobson’s until 10 so he was one tired, grumpy, moody boy. It was nice to stay home as a family instead of being at the party. Jacob did miss out on chocolate milk and cookies as a consequence for making the rest of us miss the party.

Today was our Primary Program. The kids knew the songs pretty well and sang louder than I did so I feel successful (I’m the chorister). All the kids in the Primary did a much better job of staying in their seats than Jacob and Makayla did. Makayla’s part was “I came to earth as part of a family. The family is ordained of God.” Jacob wrote his own part and gave the whole thing by himself except for the very last half of the last line. He said, “This summer me and my sister got adopted. Later we went to the temple. Me and my sisters put on white clothes and played awhile until it was time to go to Mom and Dad where they were waiting in the sealing room. We knelt at the alter and held hands and I was sealed to my forever family. I am happy because I get to be with my family forever.” This little talk had quite a few people tearing up and was really sweet. He did such a good job.

Jacob continues to be Jacob. He loves school and is learning “Nuttin’ for Christmas” to sing at the school sing along next week. His ears haven’t worked very well this last week so I’m hoping this week will be much better. He’s now learning the sounds the letters make and numbers 11 through 20. He has no troubles with his letters, but the numbers are really hard for him. He just can’t seem to get 8 and 9 right even though we’ve been working on them forever. We now have those numbers hanging up around the house to help him. He also knows about 25 sight words which is pretty cool.

Makayla spent most of this last week sick. She missed school everyday but Monday and didn’t really like that. She continues to exercise her independence and negotiating skills. It’s exhausting to butt heads with her all day long. But she’s also very sweet and really enjoys being snuggled and read to.

Kaley is turning into a terror. She knows that drawers and cupboards open and she loves getting into them. She loves making messes and does it almost constantly. She’s also figured out she can reach up onto some of the furniture and pull things down. And she’s discovered she can yell when she’s displeased. We strive diligently to keep the doors to the bathrooms closed and to keep her contained to one drawer in the kitchen that she can play with but she continues to push all limits. We finally had to switch out the nightstand in her and Makayla’s room because she kept pulling it over on herself. She’s walking all over the place as long as she has furniture to hold onto. But she’d much rather crawl than learn to walk to get from place to place. She’s a busy kid and continues to delight us. Kaley was also quite sick this last week but seems to be just about better.

We pulled our Christmas tree out Thanksgiving weekend and finally got it decorated last Monday. The decorations around the house have been going up slowly and are just about done. Jacob asks everyday if we can hang up the stockings. Hopefully we’ll get that done tomorrow. I’ve been hesitating because I still don’t have Makayla’s made (let alone Kaley’s). But we’re working on it and will hopefully finish it this week. I don’t think we’ll get the lights up on the house this year between the below freezing temperatures and the snow. Tuesday afternoon I measured us at 10 inches of snow. Last night’s rain depleted much of that but it looks like the snow is here to stay for awhile.