Denver

The day after Christmas, my mom, dad, Judah, Mayah, Liam, Lily, and I loaded up my cousin's van, braved the icy roads, and made our way to Denver. My older brother, Jeremy, lives in Denver with his wife, Shana. My sister, Jenny, lives in Montana with her husband, Aaron, and her daughter, Madeline. Denver is about a twelve hour drive from Iowa and Montana, so the Criswell family made plans to meet up there for Christmas this year.

This is a photo of all of the cousins. Madeline, Liam, Mayah, and Judah all got shirts with pictures of Lily's face on them. It was hilarious. My favorite is Judah's shirt because Lily's face resembles that of Aunt Jemima.

This is Madeline with her daddy, Aaron. We visited the Denver Aquarium on Tuesday. Maddie thought the loud parrot was pretty funny. Lily barely left Maddie's sight the entire trip.

This is Liam and I before he fell asleep. I like this picture because it shows how much my little blue-eyed blonde child does NOT look like me. Who is this kid?

Judah, Maddie, and Mayah were looking into a huge tank with sharks and other giant fish when a scuba diver swam up to where they were standing. She stood there and did sign language-like motions to them for about five minutes.

I love how blue Liam's eyes are in this picture next to my mom's shirt.

We got presents for the kids to open at the hotel. The three middle grand kids got Super Why costumes. Judah is Super Why, and Madeline and Mayah are Princess Pea. Judah wore his mask and cape the entire twelve hour trip home.

Jenny picked up tights out of Target's dollar aisle for Maddie and Mayah. Mayah loved them: one for her legs and one for her head. She was cheese-ing it up big time.

Jenny also bought the kids a Curious George Zoo board game. It was a lot of fun. Part of the game is to put on a mask and "escape" from the zoo. This is my pig mask.

We swam a lot while we were there. This picture was taken after swimming one day (this is the excuse I give you for my children all being semi-naked, when in reality, they are always naked.). It cracks me up that Lily, Jer, and my dad are making silly faces as was requested, and all three of my children are glued to the television. Ahh family time...

And finally, more television. I think the best part of the vacation for my children was that the tv was on the entire time we were in the hotel room. I hope that is not all they remember.

Catching Up

Wow, it has been almost a month since my last blog. I'm gonna be honest...I forgot about you. Yep. I did. I will, therefore, try to catch you up on the life that you have been dying to read about. Here we go....

December was a crazy month. I am no closer to my goal of weight loss because I made it to the gym ONCE the entire month. Will is up nearly every morning by 5 to be at work or wrestling practice, and I am not about to be up by 3:30 or 4 just to get a workout in. Will gets home in time to take a quick rest and leave for practice but not long enough for me to get a workout in. He then gets home around 6:30 PM, which is usually my first chance to just rest from a full day of home-making. Could I workout in the evening? Yes. Do I have the energy or desire to workout during my first chance in the day to rest and be with my husband? No. It is all very discouraging. My sister-in-law promised to come over three times a week in December to watch the kids so I could go work out and made it once.

Two positives to end my weight loss goal topic: 1. Wrestling will be over at the end of February!! 2. I requested a twelve time pass from the "expensive gym" in town for Christmas. This gym is better than my gym because it provides childcare for $2 a kid and has classes. The passes expire January 31, so I will be motivated to get in there and use them up!

On to other news:
Christmas is over. Here is a quick recap of how we spent our holiday...Last Sunday, we traveled to Grinnell for Will's dad's family Christmas. This Christmas consisted of eating turkey sandwiches and opening presents. The kids went sledding with Uncle Shawn, which I believe is going to become an annual tradition. The kids got some great toys, and Will and I came away with a water bottle and a lottery ticket each.

Our next Christmas party was with Will's family on Christmas eve. We got together with the family and opened presents and then had soup. Everybody drew names for our Christmas exchange this year, which was a nice change for my bank account. I got aforementioned pass and Will got a wrestling jacket. We would usually go to our church's Christmas Eve service on this night, but this year it was canceled because of the weather. Bummer.

We spent Christmas day at home, which was the first time we had ever been home in the morning to open presents. It was a nice change! I will write more about our day later...my kids are getting hungry, and I have avoided them for long enough.

Maybe I will even find time later today to write and post photos. Maybe.

The Meaning of Christmas

Every other Tuesday, I bundle up the kids and drag them to Story City for a program called MOPS. MOPS stands for Mothers Of Preschoolers and is a gathering of moms who have children who are not yet in school (in case you didn't guess from the title:). Most larger cities have a MOPS group, including Ames. I don't go to the Ames group because it is once a month during the evening, and there is no childcare provided. What's the point, right? If I am going to invest time into something, it is going to be something that gets the kids and I out of the house during the day. More than anything else, I am going to this group to drop my children off in their daycare center for two hours. The kids get to play, eat a snack, and learn a lesson about God. It really is a great program for the kids. Judah made an ornament today:We officially have one ornament on our tree...yes, we have a tree. The Owens Family has never braved a tree before. When Judah was one, we went to a friend's house where Judah pulled an ornament off of their tree and took a bite. The ornament shattered inside his mouth and cut him to pieces. I have since been too scared to put up our own tree. This avoidance approach has worked well for us up until yesterday. I guess four is the magic age when kids start to realize that we are the only ones not doing something. Judah has been very interested as of late in decorating any and everything, so he was jazzed when I got our tiny hand-me-down tree and said we could decorate it. Don't get me wrong, I am still playing it safe. Our tree is up off the ground, on top of our blanket chest. It is decorated by garland and beads...and now one ornament. Merry Christmas.

Back to MOPS...

Judah moved up to the four to five year old room last time and was not pumped about it. He is at least a foot shorter than every one in the class, which I am sure is intimidating, and he had to leave his bff, Zoe, behind in the three year old room. Today when I dropped him off, I was a bit worried that he would remember how miserable he was last time. We walked in to find them all playing with play-doh, and some kid says, "Hey, look! It's Judah! Hey, Judah, remember how you don't like us??" Come on, kid! Luckily it didn't phase him because there was play-doh to be manipulated.

I still haven't gotten to my favorite part of the experience. I walked into his classroom at the end of the session, and his teacher said, "Judah, tell your mama what God wants for Christmas." Judah responded, very enthusiastically, "A MIRROR!"
I was a bit confused and looked at his teacher for an explanation. Her look told me that she was surprised by his answer. "Judah, what was in the mirror?"
He thought about it. "Me?" Then he gained a little confidence. "Me, Mama! God wants me for Christmas!"
On the way home, I told Judah to let Mayah and Liam know that God wants them for Christmas.
"No, Mama. He just wants us for Christmas...my classroom."

I think the meaning of Christmas may have gone right over Judah's head.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

Julie Andrews could be heard on my radio this morning. I don't share a joy for any of her favorite things. What a bunch of nonsense...whiskers on kittens..snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes? You had better believe if there was a snowflake caught on my eyelash , I would be blinking that thing out like crazy.

Regardless of how much the things in this song annoy me, it did get me thinking about some of my favorite things. I have compiled a list of some of my favorite things about my kids.

I love...

• how the first thing Liam does in the morning when I lay him down to change his diaper is blink. He gets the biggest smile on his face and blinks two or three times while I blink back. It seems to be a secret Liam language, and I love it.
• that Mayah apologizes when she runs into furniture or other inanimate objects. She very clearly says, "Sorry, Babe". I love that she doesn't stop to address the offended chair but continues to walk as she apologizes.
• that Judah's body parts talk to him. His penis "tells" him that it is time to pee. His tummy "tells" him that it needs cookies. He encourages his booty to "PUSH" while sitting on the potty (even in public restrooms).
• how well my children sleep. I have been blessed with sleepers.
• that Judah tells jokes that make absolutely no sense and that Mayah laughs hysterically at the "punch line". I love that they are both seeking attention in different ways.
• hearing Liam coo from the back seat. He is seated so he can see Judah and Mayah, and sometimes I think he is trying so hard to just talk to his family.
• that Judah says really funny (and sometimes inappropriate) things without even knowing it. Today he kept yelling at Mayah to "eat his nuts." I had to have him repeat himself four times before realizing that he was pretending to be a squirrel.
• how my children love people. I have somehow raised children who jump out of my arms to go to the nursery or to be held by people they may or may not recognize. Mayah is famous for sitting in random laps at the library during story time. Last week at church, Judah ran into the middle of a random group of young men and grabbed a guy's leg. I walked up to the group and asked the guy if he knew my son. None of them had ever seen him before. After prying Judah from the guy's calf, I asked Judah what he was doing. "I needed a hug." I love him.
• how loved they make me feel. I have raised cuddlers, which I adore. Judah tells me at least ten times a day that we are best friends and "I just wanna be with ya, Mama."

Okay, so there are definitely more things that I love about my kids. These are just a few of my favorite things.

Cold

I am sitting inside my warm house today, looking out the window at the frosted grass. In about an hour, I will have to bundle up the kids in their winter gear, force them into their freezing car seats, drive to the high school, struggle with them into the gymnasium, and then prepare to do it all again. I hate cold. I really really HATE cold. Here is a list of things that are allowed to be cold: ice cream, soda, perishable items, ice cubes, hmmm...I will add to the list as I think of more.

I don't hate winter. Winter is fine. I am even ok with icy roads. If it could be 70 degrees out while I am driving 20 mph on the icy roads, I wouldn't complain. I don't like the way my cheeks feel when the wind pierces them. I don't like the way my fingers and toes become numb. I don't like that I can't jump in my car and drive to get some milk without ten minutes of preparation. I don't like that I force my children to stay inside all day because lugging three small children around in these conditions seems unbearable.

Why do I live in Iowa if I am such a whiner? It is because of you suckers. I have a proposal. Let's sell all of our assets and pool our money together to buy an island. This is for you, family, friends, and church. You all have to come. You can also invite your friends and family, but if they can't come it is okay, because I will be there to keep you company. Our lives can be exactly the same, only without the misery of December, January, February, and sometimes March. It will be nothing like a commune, and I won't force you to drink kool-aide. It will be more like the Dharma Initiative (only without the smoke monster, the natives, or Ben).

Who's in? Come on..give me something to hold on to this winter..even if it is a load of crap.

I hate cold.