Talent Show

On Feb 14th there is a Primary Activity day and they are doing a talent show. We've been discussing what Ali might do. Here are some of the things she's suggested:

Gymnastics
rolling her R's (like when you speak Spanish)
"filling the room full of thick, thick fog" and then being able to "look through it"
doing a dance while Mom and Dad play the piano
acting out "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
telling jokes
rolling her eyes (I think she means crossing them but...)
reading a poem
painting a picture

We're still not sure which of these she'll do (if any) but I didn't want to forget all of her ideas.

Christmas 2008

We had a very fun and exciting Christmas. This year it was Grandma and Grandpa King's turn to put up with us. We were a little sad that none of my (Sarah) siblings could come with their families but we had a great time! Grandma and Grandpa do a great job making things magical. It took us twice as long to get to their house as usual due to the snow but it didn't dampen anyone's Christmas spirit. We took turns picking Christmas carols and then everyone sang them. I was surprised and impressed at how many carols Ali knew all of the words to. I guess it pays off to start listening to Christmas music in October. Andy was a gem too- sleeping the whole time.

As soon as we arrived, Grandma had everything ready to decorate cookies for Santa. Ali decided that Santa would "probably be freezing" by the time he got to our house so instead of serving him the traditional glass of milk, she decided to serve hot chocolate. She wrote him a note explaining how to make the hot chocolate. It was so cute! We didn't help her with format or spelling. Here is a picture of the note.
Carrying on the King family tradition of new PJ's on Christmas Eve. Here is a picture of Ali with some of her loot. Santa brought her "Congo drums" (aka Bongo drums), Over The Hedge DVD, a CD case for her room and lots of candy. Andy slept through all of the gift opening. He woke up around 10:00 or so and then we started opening his gifts. Here he is with his haul. Santa brought Andy some rattles, new binkis and new bibs. Ali was really cute as she helped open Andy's gifts. She was excited for him to open her gift first. She gave him a rattle and a little brother bib. She even helped him put it on. I love this picture. The look in Ali's eyes says it all.

This moment of bliss didn't last very long, though. A few minutes later, Andy pulled his feeding tube out and we had to rush to the emergency room to get it put back in. As we were looking over our Christmas pictures/videos, we discovered that John inadvertently got Andy pulling the tube out on video. You can see how he manages to get one hand under it and then a few seconds later has it gripped with the other hand and is pulling. You can tell it's hurting him so he moves his hands toward his mouth for comfort which just makes him pull harder. Sad! Here it is (it's not gory, don't worry):



After our brief detour at the ER, we came back, had a beautiful Christmas dinner and eventually got around to opening Andy's presents again. This time it was much more successful. Andy was pretty sore and tired after all of that. He did get in some good playing time with his new toys before he conked out. The good news is that his Christmases will only get better from here, right?

Ali also got an Easy-Bake oven and was so excited when we were finally able to find the right kind of light bulb for her to bake. She made us a "double decker" yellow cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. She was so proud!

Here are a few other random pics from Christmas:

John got the extended version of Lord of the Rings on DVD. (John- I will remove this picture from our blog for the small price of a 30 min. back massage. The ball is in your court. Hee Hee Hee) He also got a huge book of BYU football facts and memorabilia. Ali trying on Gma's new snowmobile garb. Ali being silly.

December In Review

December was kind of a crazy month for the Love family. Here are some of the goings on:

Grandma and Grandpa Love came for a visit so they could be here with us during Andrew's second open heart surgery. This was the first time they were able to hold him. Ali was thrilled to have them back! Andrew's second open heart surgery went great! He was in ICU for only three days and was home after six. And then it snowed! Ali was so happy to be able to play in the snow. This is how much snow we had on Sunday, Dec. 14th. They cancelled church and school on Monday because of it. And then it snowed some more: (This is after the third time shoveling. The first two times we totally cleared the walkway. The third time we gave up and just did a small path.) School ended up being canceled for a whole week and no church for two. Luckily we have great neighbors and Ali played with Meredith everyday. Ali and I decided to try making some melted chocolate lollipops. It was fun and we learned some tricks for next year. We forgot to take pictures of the finished products but here are some of us having fun with the leftover chocolate. Chocolate lipstick...mmmmm! We had a great December. I'll add the Christmas pictures at a later date.

Andrew's Four Months Old

We can hardly believe how wonderfully our lives have changed over the last four months. We decided to celebrate Andy's four month birthday with a big feast- turkey,stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole...the works. ;)
Andrew seems to be getting so big to us but when we see other babies his age, he's still a little guy. Everyone who passes us asks how old he is. I can tell they are surprised when I say four months rather than four weeks. Here are his current stats:

10.81 lbs (.58 %tile)
23 in (1.58 %tile)
head circumference is 14 in

A lot happened during his fourth month of life. First smile, first cold, first (and hopefully last) bout with pneumonia, first cardiac cath, first Thanksgiving, first Halloween, first trip to the pumpkin patch, first giggle.
Here is the much anticipated video of his giggles. (I had to break it up into three files because it was too long. The third is not so much giggles as it is smiles and a chance to hear his voice.)








He's changed so much-
One Month Old

Two Months Old

Three Months Old

Four Months Old

Curses to Judy Blume

Last night while I was in the middle of a presidency meeting and John was at choir practice, Ali decided she wanted to try something she'd read about in a book. So, after she wrote a letter to Santa, she went into my bathroom, found the supplies she needed and went to work. Here is what John found when he got home and went to give her a kiss goodnight: Don't you love the look on her face? She KNOWS she did something wrong and is just waiting to see how mad we are.
So, after my presidency meeting ended, John told me I needed to look at the pictures he took. He gave no information other than, "They're not good pictures." By this point he'd already washed her face and she was waiting for me to go up and talk to her. (BTW- it's after 10 PM) Here's how the conversation went: Me- "Ali, is there something you need to tell me?"
Ali- "About what?"
Me- "About what happened to my lipstick."
Ali- "OH. [long pause] Well, um... will you forgive me for using your lipstick, I'll try not to do that anymore." (Before you get too impressed, she says this line for everything she does wrong. It's not like she just came up with it. It's a memorized speech.)
Me- "Why did you use my lipstick?"
Ali- "Because I wanted to have freckles."
Me- (Slightly moved thinking she wanted freckles to be more like me)"Why did you want to have freckles?"
Ali- "To be like Andrew in 'Freckle Juice'. I was going to draw them on with a blue pen but then I decided to use lipstick instead. Then I wanted to see what it would look like with blood coming out of my face- but not for real."
I can see that we are going to have to screen her books a lot more closely from here on. What's next? Worms for an after school snack??

Fall on the Farm

This year we tried visiting a different farm to get our pumpkin. So instead of driving for 45 minutes, we drove for 10 and found ourselves at Baggenstos Farm. It was pretty cool. We got to go on a tractor hayride out to a little field with a ton of pumpkins just waiting to be chosen. Ali was excited to show "Bubba" all about picking the best pumpkins.
Here was his response:
As usual, Andy slept the whole time in the sling. This made it a little trickier to get a cute picture of the kids at the pumpkin patch.
It didn't take too long for Ali to find the perfect pumpkin.
It was just a little too heavy for her to carry by herself...
so Dad saved the day and carried it for her.
After a quick round of pumpkin bowling the kids insisted on posing as farm animals.

Halloween Fun

We had a great Halloween this year. Ali got to attend her first elementary school festival and was on cloud 9. For the festival she dressed as a clown. Inspired by a knitted hat that John's coworker gave Andrew, he decided to be a pumpkin. Originally it was going to be a jack-o-lantern but Mom never got around to "carving" him. Andy slept the whole time.

Ali posing as a clown.

Ali and Andy after the school party.

There is nothing to say about the following pictures except that John was responsible.

On Halloween, Ali decided she no longer wanted to be a clown saying she was afraid people would laugh at her. I asked why she thought they would laugh at her and she said it was because clowns are funny. I guess she didn't want any more attention than any other kid would get. Anyway, we went through several options (Cheryl Crow, rock star, roadie, rock star's manager, princess, chinese girl, witch, doctor, nurse, knight, hula girl...) and FINALLY settled on chef. Her restaurant was called "Ze Bananas" (said with a thick French accent).




Andy didn't go out for candy but I had to have a picture of him in his costume on his first Halloween. So, just before we left to go home, I put him in the pumpkin suit. Obviously he wasn't pleased and no amount of discussion would persuade him of the need to document this special occasion.

John and I went to a costume birthday party. We spent weeks trying to decide what to wear and five minutes before the party started John received inspiration. OK, maybe I exaggerated a little bit but I think his idea worked out really well.
Meet John Halpert and Sarah Beesley:
(from the TV show "The Office") I had a hard time keeping a straight face with John doing his impressions.