December 2020 Part 2

 UGH... Blogger loaded this photos backwards for some reason so I'll be starting at the end of December and going backwards through time to the middle in this post. Sorry.

New Years Eve we last minute ended up going up to Tiff and Todd's. Ashley wasn't feeling well but Jared and some of his kids joined us for a glow stick Karaoke sing and dance party. It was really fun. We went up around 7:00 and stayed until midnight.  We had Martinelli drinks, vegan cheese fondu and chocolate fondu and a bunch of things to dip. I made artisan bread. 

The day before Dad left, we installed the SATECH smartcell flooring in our exercise room.  We ran out of material and couldn't finish it but Dad could tell how much I wanted to finish it soon and shipped the rest of the stuff to us and Chris and I finished it ourselves a week or two later. 

Chris got some paint on him from spraying the ceiling. It was way more time consuming that we thought but it looks really good and was faster than rollering/brushing it.  When you take into account the sides of each beam, and around pipes and all the nooks and crannies in the ceiling its a lot more surface than you'd think and the new spray paint attachment for our air compressor worked good it's just gravity fed so trying to spray the ceiling means the paint doesn't run through it easily in that upside down position so it just takes time to get the paint in the right spot to spray. 

Dad came to our rescue and helped us figure out a bunch of the wiring. It was WAY trickier than we thought. The wiring in place beforehand wasn't very intuitive and had some funky things not put right. But now Chris knows a lot more about electrical work! We took out the two florescent lights and installed 4 canned lights and combined two separate lights into one circuit and cleaned up a lot of the junk wires now that we'll have an exposed ceiling and not drywall it in. This was an idea Chris got off of Jess and Ryan's exercise room. It helps us get as much height as possible in the low ceiling space which Chris needs when he's running on a treadmill. It was a brilliant idea. 

We took some days off working on this project just before Christmas. We've been working on it pretty hard trying to get to the point that we can install the floor when my dad's in town over Christmas break. Drywall done. Ready for mudding then paint!

Alec turns 14. This was a pretty low key birthday for Alec. We weren't doing a friend party and his got his main present on his half birthday this past summer: a bike. So after opening up a few smaller things in the morning, Alec made a comment that it felt like his birthday was already over (just a few hours after waking up). I surprised him last minute with having some of his Betteridge cousins come hang out and also last minute, sleep over. They played games, video games and ate some of Alec's favorite snacks: vanilla wafers and Wethers caramels.  He requested a raspberry vanilla trifle for his cake and I was happy to oblige.  

Alec is really growing up. He's totally a teenager with the mood swings and sullen independence / i-don't-care-about-anything attitude that goes with it.  Its fun to watch him take charge of his life and stay after school for things he's involved with. Sometimes, its to finish work for a class, but mostly its to work with his lego robotics club, or ultimate frisbee, or in the spring it'll be archery and his technical theater class. He's really amazing with building things and coming up with awesome engineering feats. He has a special relationship with Max and Theo.  He's so patient with them and plays with them and genuinely seems to enjoy their company. He has good friends he plays Mine Craft with and his involved with his Teacher's Quorum Presidency. He's willing to bring bread for the sacrament and set things up on the weeks that we attend church.  He's been a trooper as we've tried to figure out the right kinds of medication to help us make his ADHD diagnosis that we got in the fall work for him. I've come to understand that this condition is not a failing or a broken condition... it just means his brain is wired DIFFERENTLY.  And there are ways to use this different way of thinking to his benefit and really show what an amazing brain and soul he has.  He's continued to excel with the Alto Saxophone and is also starting to play by ear some favorite songs on the piano. He likes Hamilton music, big band music, any music from his favorite video games.., like MineCraft. We love Alec!!

Christmas Day was different in that we didn't get together with any family or go anywhere. Some of us stayed in our Pjs all day. We had a fancy turkey dinner. It was a lot of preparation but having NOT had anything like this for Thanksgiving the month before, it was fun to prepare it and delicious. The eating of it always goes by super fast though. 

Funny thing about this year is that the kids didn't wake up until after 8:00. I guess we stayed up pretty late the night before and it was dark or something, I don't know. Chris and I were upstairs waiting for them for a while. We even had time to put together a breakfast casserole that we didn't plan on making.  The kids all got scooters from Santa and a lego set from us. We also surprised the kids with a Nintendo Switch!!! We saved it for the very end and it was fun to see their shocked faces.  Christmas Eve we did a virtual nativity with the Betteridge extended family.  Our part was how the Book of Mormon prophesies tied into the nativity story and we showed Nephi's vision of a virgin bearing a son, and Samuel the Lamenite and Nephi praying for the sign of his birth to be given to spare the lives of the believers.  It was different and crazy in new way. Not crazy because of a lot of relatives in one house but crazy in an our-kids-have-been-stuck-with-eachother-for-too-long-they-fight-and-whine-constantly kind of way. Also I had really high blood sugar numbers that I think I finally determined on Christmas Eve was due to a yeast infection.  I was really emotional and in a bad mood and felt bad and guilty for not being peacefully, spiritual, and happy on this special day.  We forgot to take pictures in our jammies before putting Theo to bed, so we quickly got him back out of his crib for 3-4 pictures. Then we put him back to bed and got Max to bed and the kids settled downstairs when we remembered we forgot to record our song for Mom and Dad's present. So we brought the kids back up and tried to sing the song only to discover that the piano accompaniment Tiff and I had worked hard to record 2 weeks before had gotten recorded over by mistake only that afternoon.  So we started recording it a'cappella. Max heard us singing and started crying because he was missing out on something. So we re-recorded it with him in it and I tried to look happy and not totally annoyed with kids contentious behavior and the other unexpected problems.  We also had recorded individuals retelling family history stories that they'd researched and presented. Alec chose to to a lego stop motion video which he was still putting the finishing touches to Christmas Eve night after bedtime.  I always wish for a quiet spiritual moment to bear testimony with the kids about the miracle of having a Savior on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and its so hard to get it. The kids have recently been fighting me on gathering and being quiet during spiritual family moments. Maybe someday I'll figure it out? My gift to Jesus this year is a pretty big project. I've been adapting the 10 chapters in my Emotional Resilience book into 43 FHE lessons directly suited to the interests and ages of my kids. I have each lesson outlined and even little prizes/handout toys and badges with a hand designed logo for each chapter. We'll have weekly challenges and jewels they can add on to their badges and individual journals we will decorate so they can keep track of their efforts. We were going to hand out the journals Christmas Day and have a nice devotional about it but it never happened. We'll save that for the New Year, I guess. 

Chris showed the kids how to make candy canes! We haven't done this for years. We didn't have corn syrup so we substituted honey for it and you could really taste the honey in them. 

We tried to gather 'virtually' in small groups with the Betteridge Family over the Christmas Break. The kids and I made a bunch of different batches of jello play-do and we met at a park one cold cold morning to give it to mom to give out to all the grandkids under the age of 7. Then we planned a time to all play with the play dough together over zoom. It was really cute to see all the kids and what they liked to do with the play dough. 

This funny pictures shows what a good appetite little Theo has. He is often the first one at the table and the last. 

I tried a new version of Challah bread this year. We rolled up cinnamon sugar in the snakes and then braided those together for a cinnamon swirl challah bread. It. Was. SOO GOOD.  Definitely a repeat. 

The older Betteridge girl cousins gathered for a nutcracker night. We got matching nightgowns for them all and the ones in UT tried on Tiffany and Mary's old point shoes and the ID cousins took turns doing their ballet recital pieces for us. Then we watched the Royal Ballet's Nutcracker 2019 performance together while we snacked on treats. I made baklava and cookies and Ashley brought yummy fruit and GF pretzels and Tiff brought some flavored nuts etc. It was really fun and the first time we've seen some of these cousins in person for a very long time. Tiffany's family had COVID and were finished quarantining so I felt it was fairly safe to get together with them. 

December 2020 Part 1

I've been attending an Emotional Resilience Class as a sort of trial run in our Stake as part of the Self Reliance courses offered through the church. It has been life changing.  I've started to develop the skills necessary to be more prepared to handle all the crazy emotions that assail me all day long.  I want to turn the course into a bunch of FHE lessons for my kids.  Being able to bounce back quickly from life's challenges is a skill they'll need. 

Crazy picture of the Rice Christmas-Treats that were so HARD (note to self: old marshmallows will not soften with heat... or at least they will go right back to being rock hard directly after they cool) that the pressure from the knife as we tried to cut them made the glass pan EXPLODE. Like across the room. In millions of pieces. Amazingly, neither Max, Alec or I were cut at all despite being directly beside/above it.  

Max went to the dentist for the first time! He's cried the past two times kids have gone and he didn't get to go too. He was nervous and didn't answer any words to any of the hygienists questions, he'd only nod or shake his head... but he never complained or cried, he just went along with everything. He didn't like the sucky straw and wouldn't give permission for her to use it more than the first time.... until the very end when she didn't ask for permission, she just told him she'd use it just real quick and he did great with it. He's such a brave boy. 

Every night this December we did a pretty good job of doing a couple advent things. We'd open a little treat and read a scripture from the wall hanging advent that Grandma Dixie made us years ago. We'd also read what the Light the World invitation would be for the next day and talk about anything we did for it that day.  Sometimes this evening time together was really sweet. One of our favorite LightTheWorld activities was to make 2 plates of cookies and let the people we deliver the first plate to, choose who we give the second plate to. 

Max turns 3!!! What? He's getting so old.  This is the first year that he understands what it means to be his birthday. Its been so fun to see him be more obedient and able to communicate better a little. He's not QUITE as curiously destructive as he has been since he was about 18 months. He LOVED getting breakfast in bed for his first time.  Chris and I did some shopping online on Black Friday for most of the Christmas/brithday gifts and I just decided this was the year to get a big pedal tractor ride on toy. I've wanted to get one for each of my kids when they were this age but the price tag has always been a factor. I don't know if its because without any travel plans or family get-togethers because of the pandemic, but we felt like if there was ever a year to splurge a little on gifts, it should be this year. 

He LOVES the tractor. He sat on it and drove it around the house almost all day long. It wasn't for another few weeks that we would notice all the scratches on the wall from the bucket scraping off paint!! Its now an outside toy like we meant it to be. 

Max can recognize his name and button buttons. He can throw and jump and somersault and jump on the trampoline with the big kids. He can sit quietly and look through books and loves to watercolor and play with cars. He likes to build garages for his cars with dominos and do puzzles. He loves to sing the "I love you, and you love me" song. He tricks me into singing it all the time by coming up to me nuzzeling his head into me and says, "I love you, mom" and I inevitably say back, "I love you too, Max" and then he says, "Want to sing it to me?" He likes to boss around Theodore and watch Paw Patrol. His favorite color is red and likes to talk about his friends and cousins even if he's only played with them once or twice. He thinks the world of our next door neighbor, Keith Teuscher and would escape out of the house to go visit Keith if he was out on his riding lawn mower, or tractor. Max is independent, assertive, a good communicator, loving, observant, coordinated, sensitive, and just as cute as can be. We love Max!

The last week of school in the elementary school went to an online version because of a rise in COVID cases. Gwen and Freddy missed out on saying goodbye to friends and teachers before the winter break but were troopers in figuring out all their assignments. It wasn't NEARLY as hard as it was last spring, but there was still some yelling and frustrating confusion occasionally. 

Freddy turns 7! I've said it before that 7 is one of my least favorite ages. My kids have proven to be a little more less inclined to obey and more inclined to whine and tease and do whatever they want. Freddy isn't a huge exception to that observation. He is still a sweet cuddle-er and wants to snuggle most evenings, or during home church, or any scripture study or family dinner or movie night. He is still incredibly exuberant - bouncing off the walls. He's really come to love reading, and loves to color pictures, craft, and play Mine Craft. He's barely starting to independently play with neighborhood friends and is always a good play mate. He is the SWEETEST big brother and almost always shares his food or toys or book or whatever with the little ones. He almost never gets physically with them in a negative way....unless you count forcing cuddles and hugs on them!

He had one friend come over after lunch (one benefit to online school!) and they painted boxes to make drive in movie cars then got tickets and bought concessions with fake money.  They watched Spiderman into the Spider-verse. 

His cake was SUPER specific this year. He wanted two dinosaurs fighting with blood and trees and grass in the background. I tried my best. Also, after having Max get such an awesome big present with the tractor, I worried that Freddy wouldn't think the Heeley's wheely shoes weren't awesome enough to be the main gift, so I sent Chris to the store the morning of to find a giant teddy bear. He totally came through and when Freddy came upstairs from his "drive-in" movie to see the bear on the table with his other presents was such a surprise. He LOVES that bear and sleeps with it on top of him every night. His permanent cuddle buddy that is ALWAYS game for cuddles.  Freddy kept asking us, "Where did you hide this?" haha. We never told him it was a last minute purchase.

 

Sort of last minute we decided to make Grandma Dixie a quilt for Christmas. Jess sewed all the squares together and then everyone helped hand embroider everyone's name on a square in their own handwritings. Some of my kids even did the embroidery themselves: Alec, Charlie and Gwen. Then Jess came over and we tried to randomize the squares to look good and sewed the top together, then Jess had a friend quilt it for us over the weekend and she sewed the binding on herself. It was so hard to not say anything to Dixie about it before Christmas!

Grandma teaching Gwen how to braid Challah Bread and Freddy how to roll it into 3 snakes. 

We decided to start on the exercise room and open up the wall from the sewing nook to the play room. If we're not going anywhere for Christmas, we're just going to have tons of time on our hands right? 

Ah! This was cool. So Chris got this random email from one of Mark Rober's interns at Stanford asking Chris if he'd be willing to help with an upcoming YouTube video dealing with billiards. I guess the student had found Chris' work on billiards and the simulator and agent he made when he was in grad school at Stanford and won first place in the worldwide CS Billiards competition in China just before Charlie was born.  So after a few exchanges back and forth and mentioning how much the kids love Mark's videos he had a virtual meeting scheduled with Mark where he offered to talk with the kids for a bit at the end. We didn't tell the kids about this at all and left it up as a surprise. I was trying to keep the kids quiet downstairs so we were playing ping pong together when Chris walked in and said theres someone he wants them to meet and showed Mark Rober on his GoogleMeet screen! Haha. The kids were like silent and finally said, "Is that Mark Rober??!" it was so funny. Mark was super nice and tried to get the kids to talk about their interests and whatnot for a few minutes. It was really fun. They were all beaming ear to ear for a good few hours after that.

We watched Ollie and Miss P for half a day so Kayla and Eddie could attend a funeral/graveside service for Kayla's Aunt who passed away. It was a really sad situation and had been a huge burden, emotionally, for Kayla and her family. We were glad to actually see some cousins IN PERSON and be able to help them out and hopefully show support and love to our sweet, dearly loved Aunt Kayla and Uncle Eddie. The twins weren't really fans of us at first but we eventually broke through and Chris had them laughing out loud at his juggling skills at the end.