Christmas Cards

There's a first time for everything, right? This is the first year we've put our Christmas card online in a digital format. My first attempt was a total fail. So here we go again.

If I had mailed a little letter with our Christmas card this is what it might have said.

Albertsen Family Follies of 2010

Putting in a backyard for the first time and ordering a little too much rock only to realize you wish you had done a few things differently and now you want to remove some of the said rock and get more of a different kind.

Getting a dog.

Barbie doll cake.

Loosing the dog while on vacation in another state and not keeping his collar on at all times.

One year old climbing on everything...and falling off everything.

Tap shoes.

Four year old dance class.

Christmas lights on our house.

Attempting to post my Christmas card online.

This is just a highlight of the things we look back on and might do differently. 2010 has been a good year of family trips, visits from family and friends, the graduation from infancy to toddlerhood, and learning to read just to name a few.

We do our best to be aware of the blessings around us and are so grateful for the experiences we've had over the past twelve months. We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

Christmas Spirit

Aint no party like a ward Christmas party, or something like that. We got it done early and mostly painlessly. They had two photo opportunities. One room was set up with a backdrop for family pictures and then when Santa came the kids could get a picture with him. Right before it was our turn for family pictures Noelle disappeared into the pack of kids that run amuck at all ward party function. She was soon returned crying with report that she fell. As usual we underplayed it and told her she was fine, but I had to give Boo the "look" because she had a bloody lip and we didn't need wailing to ensue right before we had to take a picture. Crisis averted from underplaying the situation. Thank goodness.

We sang some Christmas carols, had a couple narrators and other musical numbers. By far my favorite was the twin 13 year old boys that played an awesome piano duet. I hope my kids play the piano some day. After the program the special guest arrived. I think Noelle may have gone through the line more than twice. I only know of two times, but it could have been more. Look at her posing with Santa. So funny.

We weren't sure how Sis would do, but she didn't mind Santa. She told him a few things that only magic Santa ears would be able to interpret.

She even did well sitting with Santa alone, until he started creeping her out. I really couldn't blame her.

Santa looks like he's handing her off because she stinks or something. So funny. Hope you all make it to see Santa. And I especially hope that Santa brings Noelle the AquaSand. She wanted it for her birthday and we mysteriously forgot to buy it, so we told her to ask Santa for it. That was in March. She's been holding out hope for a long time and has yet to divert from that gift idea.

Putting it all together

Noelle: "Is auntie your sister and uncle Daniel is your brother?"
Me: "Yep."
Noelle: "Oh, so just like Reggie is my brother and Sydney is my sister?"
Me: "Yeah."
Noelle: "Oh, I think everyone should have a brother and a sister."


Or a dog.

Thank Goodness for These Girls

In this month of thanks, I should not forget how happy I am for these little girls, but mostly their moms. Every week we have a little play group for two and half hours and it is by far the highlight of my week. I also love that there is actually a span of ages here so they don't get to see much each other at preschool or church and it makes playgroup that much better. Thanks for playing each week and giving the moms a small break.

GO UTES!

Ever since our departure from Utah in 2003 we've been the minority Utah fans and you know what that's a hard role to assume. Mostly because the people who care are BYU fans and they tend to be SO hardcore that they must tell us several times over that its a good thing we were friends before they knew we went to the U. (no lie, I've gotten this on several occasions, no matter where we've lived.) So in my non-anti-BYU way, I really hope that Utah wins today and the next week and the next. I will wear my red dress on Sunday in support and not get crazy in any BYU fans' faces or make up any excuses as to why my team might be better. You know why? Because I won't have to.

Things to be Thankful For

Last Day of Animal Class

For the last installment of animal class the theme was 'Animals of unusual size or color.' So let's start down the list of things we saw and touched.

First up, a blond skunk. So strange. It had the reflex to put its tail up when frightened, but rest assured the stink glands were removed. Interesting tid bit, there is no vaccine for skunks against rabies, therefore they couldn't let this skunk roam around the room freely for precautionary purposes.

Now I know you can't tell by this high quality picture I took that this is no ordinary rabbit. No sir, this is a Flemish Giant Rabbit, which can easily reach 30 pounds. That's about the same size as my four year old. There were two and they were only eight months old and they were big.

Noelle is holding a floppy ear rabbit that was the nicest little thing. Much better than the nasty guinea pigs.

Sis was a good helper at brushing the bunny. She was so gentle and very fixated on that activity.


She would do a couple of brush strokes for the bunny and then a couple for herself and then back to the bunny. Reminded me of Noelle in the goat pen at the Phoenix Zoo a couple years ago.

Last but not least, this strange lizard named Raspberry. I can't remember what kind it is, but I know it stores water in its cheek pockets and fat in the belly pockets. And of course Noelle was all over the slimy creature. Definitely not a trait she got from me.

There were many new guinea pigs to hold and cry over as well as two very mischievous white ferrets. Apparently they're famous, but it wasn't a movie I was familiar with.

Halloween 2010

It was a pretty spectacular Halloween around here. Bigger than we usually do. Noelle was Ariel from The Little Mermaid. During the three days of festivities she did her best to wear her new costume out. I predict that Sis will not be wearing that as a hand-me-down only because I really don't think it will last that long. Noelle's hair was courtesy of a neighbor-friend who's house I was at as a costume was being returned. I took one look in the bag and knew that was what we had been looking for the whole time. It was perfect. Noelle was pleased as punch with her Ariel attire.

Sis was a ladybug. She was a cute little, determined, ladybug. She gets a little more feisty each day and is learning to hold her own. The only problem is that she and Noelle fight already and Sis is a hair puller and a biter.

Look at the fear on Noelle's face as she has to hold on to Sis' hand for the picture. She's worried she's going to get bitten, because that's what usually happens when you grab onto this baby. All Sis wanted to do was run away. Such a stinker.

Noelle's preschool had a little Halloween day and for the last few minutes they put on a show for the parents. The little guy in white on the right was pretty darn funny.

I had to add this picture of the Captain Jack Sparrow. He was sitting next to Noelle and kept poking at her with is foam sword and dagger. He then said something to the fact that he's Jack Sparrow and he's allergic to mermaids. Too funny.

This picture of Noelle is a couple days before Halloween. She wasn't feeling too great at the beginning of the week and I was worried she wouldn't feel well enough for all the festivities. She pulled through and seems to be feeling better. Poor kid, just look at that pitiful look on her face.

My inner dutch girl

My inner dutch girl thinks this bike is the bomb. I can just imagine riding around with my ragamuffins in the bucket and Reggie in a basket on the front. Oh the looks we'd get. It would be awesome. Check out the other Madsen Bikes here.

Delighting in the Spooky Season

(scary face)
Noelle is getting ready for Halloween. She's been prancing around in her costume that I made by accident. I hadn't at all intended to make a costume for her and her mind was ever changing on what it was exactly that she was going to be for Halloween. First she was going to a spider, which is her go-to costume idea every year or so it seems. Then she got hooked on the idea of being a tiger. A tiger, what the? Where would I come up with a tiger costume that didn't look like she was trying to be sexy or cool. She's four, the cool factor has yet to fully set in and I'm not about to facilitate such things. I already have to put up with being told things aren't "rock n' roll" enough as it is, however I could figure out tiger if I had to. Needless to say we went to the fabric store, looking for something unrelated to Halloween costumes, and found this great green fish scale looking material. My mind went into dress-up mode and so we bought a yard.

(the wind on Halloween)

It sat in the bag until Noelle remembered we bought it and then it was turned into a skirt, cape and whipping toy for Reggie. I figured I'd better hop to it and make that dress-up mermaid fin. It was great for about two seconds until Noelle wouldn't wear the leotard with it and wanted her own set of seashells on top. So we went back to the fabric store and snatched up a few things and two Sis naps later we had a full on mermaid costume. The only problem was getting it off Noelle long enough for it not to be worn out by Halloween. Boo somehow managed to convince her to hang it in the closet until then.

In the meantime we're working on Reggie's costume and well Sis gets the hand-me-costumes that Noelle wore. Its either that or she can be a bag of jellybeans for the next five years of her life like I was.

To add to our spookiness we've done our best and adding bats to our walls and of course a ghost. This ghost project has been on my list of things to do for a couple years and I finally got around to buying all the supplies. I haven't figured out how I'm going to store Casper. Sure wish I had a basement for my junk.

October also marks the time of year for our annual family photo shoot. Stay tuned for more pics. Sis did a good job until it was time for her nap and Noelle just wanted to strike serious poses (if you can't tell from the above photos.) I might go for round two later today to see what we come up with. Happy haunting in the meantime.

Animal Class - Week 2

This week was Australia week and to be completely honest it was a little bit of a let down. Sure there was animals there that I'd probably never see that up close, but they weren't as tame as last week's brood.

There are not pictures this time, because I'm lame like that. But we saw a Blue Tongue Skink, a Sugar Glider, Brush-Tailed Bettong along with the Paca babies and a new heard of guinea pigs.

The good part = less crying when it was time to leave.
The bad part = skinks can carry salmonella. Yuck.

Next week is North America and we get to meet a skunk. Stay tuned.

Camping 101

This past weekend we went camping in the Tonto National Forest at a place called Bear Flat. It was a nice to get away from the cacti and see pine trees and other green foliage. Clearly this is a place popular for fishing as we encountered many day visitors but managed to be the only over nighters brave enough. Or maybe its stupid enough. Either way we had a nice time together and our kids seemed to also enjoy the change of scenery.

Reggie thought it was great to be able to wander in the wilderness. So much so, that he wandered off and made friends with some of the fishermen. Don't worry, because Boo already did that for you, we found him two minutes later bouncing all around the strangers doing his best to be adopted into their family.

This is pretty much the epitome of what our kids did the whole time. Noelle thought it was cool to throw the fine-grained soil into the air to make "magic." This was not especially pleasing to the dad when she would do it next to our tent and it would waft into the windows.

The water was nice and chilly. Almost take your breath away chilly.
I'm not sure what's up with this pose, but it was all she was willing to do for a picture.

It rained pretty much all night long and so we woke up to Noelle's second favorite thing to play in, mud. Sydney managed to find any sort of rock or acorn to put in her mouth. As a result she looked like so. Stinkin' cute if you ask me.

For any friends out there thinking about going camping with small children I offer up a small list of things to consider for your trip to the wilderness.

1. Take rope. It comes in handy if you need to tie up a wandering dog or a toddler that wants to play in the fire pit.

2. Setting up the tent you had to borrow in your living room the night before sounds overly ridiculous, but helps get the eye rolling out of your system when you have to do if for real.

3. Invest in an air mattress or some other sort of sleeping pad that doesn't require MacGyver skills to inflate. If you're like us it tends to be more along the lines of MacGruber.

4. Think through every scenario so that you don't forget crucial things like plates. Its very hard to prepare any meals without plates. Or clean out a fire pit without a shovel.

5. Pack a few extra clothes for your kids and let them go wild. You will both be much happier when they occupy themselves in the dirt for long periods of time.

6. If at all possible, opt out of sleeping with the baby. And better yet opt out of baby on shared air mattress. You might find yourself airborne at some point when co-sleeper gets up in the night and you find yourself trying to make sure baby doesn't roll off, or get squished in the meantime.

7. Do not let your mind wander off into any worst case scenarios. Because that sound you hear probably isn't a murderer in the woods and you don't sleep very well.

8. Pack more food than you might actually consume in a 36 hour period. You'll all be happier that way.

9. If you have to make a quick stop at RadioShack for your trip out of town, chances are you're not going to be happy. I'm just sayin'.

10. Have a tent that is large enough for two families even if you are only a four man troupe. Having space inside the tent is essential. Save that body heat business for the Himylayas.

Miracle of Miracles

After nearly 18 months of living in our house, we finally installed our microwave. Thank you Uncle Scott for coming to our house for a visit and leaving us with such a lovely looking kitchen.

(Scott and Boo making a plan)

See that metal thing on our wall? We had no idea what it was for and no instructions on how to install our microwave. We also thought for some reason that the microwave we had would be much to large for the space and would hang too close to the stove. Wrong. Then we had to change the fan so that it would blow the right direction for the set-up we have. We never would have thought to undo a few screws and flip it around.

The crookedness of this picture is funny for some reason. Maybe because I don't claim to be much of a photographer and seriously its just a picture of my stove. I keep looking for a faint image of the Holy Mother to appear so that I can confirm that it really is a miracle.

Since installation, we have had a couple of people ask us if we got new appliances. We laugh it off and just answer honestly, that we finally put our microwave where it's supposed to be.

As a side note, it also cleared off a fair amount of counter space and has made for much less clutter in the obvious places.

Animal Class

Our town does a great job at offering many different things for families and kids to do. We've taken music classes and swimming lessons and now we're doing an animal class. Its strange, but very cool at the same time.

This week we learned about animals from South America, all in the rodent family. We might as well play with the rodents that other people have, because we'll never have our own. That spotted animal is called a Paca. I hear they're kind of tasty. That crazy thing is only three days old.

Noelle fell in love with the Guinea Pigs. She cried buckets when it was time to give it back.

This is Tutu the African Crested Porcupine (See here for more information)

Sydney thought that Quinn the Patagonian Cavy was pretty spectacular. Those two followed each other around the room for a long time.

Next week we'll be learning more about animals from Australia.

One More for Good Luck

Why not discover more crafty people in the blogosphere? Another crafty friend of mine is doing a give away. She does clever things to recycle clothing, makes cute baby gifts, and she does awesome sketch work.

So in the spirit of give-a-ways Baby Night Night Boutique is giving away a hand drawn portrait to one of her lucky readers.

Go check her out and become a follower today.

A Sweet Surprise

Some friends of mine have a great little Etsy shop that makes custom jewelry. Its called The Pretty Poppy. If you're looking to give a nice personalized gift they do great work.

As an added bonus you should visit their blog and enter their rockin' give-a-way they are hosting through October 5th. Click on the image to advance to their blog. Good luck to all who enter. I'm pretty sure I'm going to win.

Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My

This weekend we took Noelle to the circus. Three rings of ghetto glory. My past experience with the circus is summed up with Ringling Bros. This circus experience really can't be compared to such fine acts. Our circus had about ten performers, total. The same girl that was painting faces before the show and during intermission was also the contortionist, the amazing Ruby Red and I'm pretty sure about ten other things.
Although the number of performers were few, they did a great job. The elephants were awesome and the camels, I swear, were dancing to the music. We were entertained and Noelle didn't know the difference. My how surprised she will be when she sees the Ringling Bros. for the first time.

Tough Decisions

When we finished potty training with Noelle, which I swear it feels like it was only a few months ago (I mean nights included,) I really thought that there couldn't be anything left that would be so darn agonizing and hard. Then she started pre-school and I thought my life had been changed forever, for the good. She was in school with kids she loved and doing little crafty projects and learning how to write her name and for a while the world was on its axis the way it should be. Unfortunately the stars always find a way to become unaligned and then we have to come up with a new plan because the same old thing just isn't cutting it. Noelle still loves school, and her teacher, but my gut tells me she needs more than that. You see she comes home and shows me what she's done and all I can imagine is that she blew through it in two seconds and then played the rest of the time. I might be mistaken, but she needs some sort of academic challenge. We're past colors and numbers and shapes. She needs to figure out what numbers represent and start learning some sight words.

So after much discussion, and a lot of emotional gut pangs, we decided we'd pull her out of her current pre-school class and try something different. She of course doesn't know this yet and won't be happy come November. I'm terrified. What if I screw her up? What if....we're not friends at the end of this experiment? (When Noelle is mad at me she tells me we're not friends, but that she still loves me. Nice huh?)

So with some encouragement from other moms doing the same thing we're going to give it a go. My goal is that she'll be a strong reader by this time next year and that she'll understand that when you have five cookies and your dad eats two, you'll only be left with three.

And all you who might be worried she won't be socially fantastic, don't worry your pretty little minds. We'll find some creative social outlets for her through playgroups and other things we have planned.

The Blog

I've considered committing blog suicide. Its grown a little old and really my life merits nothing exciting. I should go back to the two family dwelling in Massachusetts that practically wrote blog entries for me. Between the folks I found on public transportation and our wacky neighbors I was full of stories. I'm still deciding. In the meantime I found this article about writing blogs. Ten good things to think about.

While you read that, I'm going to go get Sydney a drink of water so that she doesn't have to suck it out of the AquaDoodle pens.

The Blanket

Yesterday I threw Sydney's blanket into the wash because it smelled of all things gross. She spotted it in the laundry hamper and tried to pull it out, at which point I hurried and put it in the washer. Since she and Reggie are my shadows they followed me into the laundry room when I went in to change it to the dryer. Knowing she would want the blanket if she saw it I threw it to the very back of the dryer. Well she spotted it in there too and practically climbed in just to reach a corner of her wet blanket. So I hurried and shoved all the wet laundry that she'd pulled out to get to the blanket back in and turned the dryer on and this is what ensued after. I didn't catch the part of her standing at the door of the dryer trying to open it, but you'll get the point.

Summer 2010

Well school has started and playgroup is set and we're just trying to get our lives back into some sort of routine so that we can function in the world again. Although, it sounds like summer is over its still a hefty 110 and humid thanks to the monsoon season here in Arizona.

First and foremost I should let you all know that we did indeed find our dog (aka brother) Reggie. After a 24 hour spree of life in the fast lane we found him at the pound in a kennel with some chiuauas that looked as if they'd had their way with him. That also might explain his hysteria as we walked away because the lady didn't have a key with her. Reggie learned some tricks in the slammer and passed kennel cough around to all his friends, even though vaccinated. We later found out a nice lady picked him up, or should I say he jumped in her car, and then called us to let us know she had found him. I'm pretty sure she found him in the front yard of my parent's house. Whatever.

So now that life has slowed a bit here's a recap of our summer for anyone who cares.

This is our family at the "bucket pool." We spent many days here for swimming lessons and as a way to get out of the house for a couple hours a few days a week.

Sydney celebrated her first birthday. She preferred smashing the cupcake more than eating it.

We ventured to Utah for the greater part of July. As we rolled into town we came across these hobos. Somehow they all share some resemblance.

We celebrated the Fourth of July in style with the whole neighborhood at the 19th annual neighborhood parade. It was good to see old friends and strange to see kids I used to babysit all grown up. Makes me feel old.

Noelle really liked the Utah Museum of Natural History. Although the dinosaur bones were really cool, I think she liked the mineral section and the bugs the best. She was even brave enough to hold a live Madagascar cockroach. Yuck!

The girls had fun splashing in their grandmas' backyard pools. This is just one of those times.

This is Noelle's "I'm dead" face.

We ventured to Island Park with some good friends and had a fantastic time away from the heat and noise of day to day life. It was so beautiful up there. Jenny always spoils us with good food and lots of Play-doh time.

Sydney and Cal at Johnny Sack's cabin at Big Springs.

Noelle didn't want to go so she just sat on the log pretending she couldn't hear me talking to her. She must have been contemplating the things of the world.

When we got back from Idaho we went to Cherry Hill with Grammy and the cousins. Noelle had so much fun and even went down the big dragon slide and wasn't afraid. She told Boo that we were cheerleaders all the way down.

A zen moment for Noelle. This was all her.

Later in our travels we visited This is the Place Monument. The sky couldn't decide if it should rain or shine, so it did both on and off. First it would pour then sun, then pour again. We just made sure when we heard thunder that we were at a house with a porch.

Grandma and Grandpa bought old fashioned candy from one of the stores and Sydney thought it was the best thing ever.

Noelle and Sydney with Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Ted

As we were leaving we spotted this cute old wagon that needed its picture taken. So we plopped the girls on there and the end result was pretty cute. These two sure love each other.

In celebration for Pioneer Day we ran a 10k that winds through Salt Lake. Each of us has run it several times throughout our lives, but this was the first time we'd all run it together. We all did pretty well too. For doing so well I awarded all of us with a bagel medal. It was pretty funny.

On our trip home we missed the first turn toward our destination, so we ended up going up through Brian Head and stopped at Cedar Breaks to take a look. That's a really nice drive for anyone looking to take a little road trip. Reggie didn't like the winding road up the canyon and ended up barfing all over his kennel and the car, but it was worth the views.

And that's the end. Stay tuned for Fall 2010, which might be my next post at the rate I'm going.