I had to hone my cake-decorating skills (or practice) before making Abby's 1st birthday cake in two weeks. Here's the result...I just had to brag!
PS--Thank you, Becky, for your tips! I couldn't have done it without you!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Infuriatingly Hilarious
The following exchange has happened repeatedly over the last few days:
Abby walks over to the oven/stove and tries to reach the knobs to turn on a burner which happen to be at the perfect height. She reaches up, looking at me the entire time, waiting for me to respond.
Michelle: No, Abby. That's not safe.
Abby: Yes! (huge smile)
Michelle (with the addition of her mean face): No, Abby. Don't touch.
Abby: Yes! (huger smile)
So I walk over to her, take her hand, and we walk to another place in the kitchen. Since this only happens when I'm making a meal and she loves to be in the same room, I usually distract her with pots and pans or the magnets on the fridge. Then, after a few minutes...
Abby walks over to the stove, smiling and looking up at me. She reaches up, looking at me the entire time, waiting to begin again.
Michelle: No, Abby. That's not safe.
Abby: Yes! (huge smile)
Michelle (with the addition of her mean face): No, Abby. Don't touch.
Abby: Yes! (huger smile)
Michelle: No, Abby. That's not safe.
Abby: Yes! (huge smile)
Michelle (with the addition of her mean face): No, Abby. Don't touch.
Abby: Yes! (huger smile)
That happens at least one more time. By the way, Roy is sitting on the couch most of the time this happens and is laughing his head off because he can see the thrill Abby gets from this game.
If I didn't love her so much, this would be a huge pain. But she is too funny to be mad at. In fact, inside I'm laughing but I have to play mean.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Thoughts at Midnight
Abby and I were up for a while last night. Teething? Sick? Nightmare? Who knows, but this is the first time she's been up for more than a couple minutes in well over a month so I'm not complaining. Sleeping is not her most promising talent. But the couple hours together gave me time to think about several random topics, some of which I thought would be funny to post.
Roy has a final today that has 40 multiple choice questions and an essay. Instead of using a bubble sheet for the multiple choice section, the professor is having them type out "I choose A)" and then writing out what A says. And, by the way, there may be more than one correct answer. And in addition, law exams don't usually have the options A) sometimes, B) always, C) never. It's more like full paragraph answers. Why he chose to administer the test that way, we'll never know, but we've had a good laugh about how tired Roy's fingers are going to be at the end of the three hour exam.
There are some time periods that I am happy to say that I survived and actually enjoyed: high school (I know you are all thinking the same thing); childbirth (but really, I was very very blessed and it didn't take a long time--I was just very anxious to meet my angel); meeting my in-laws (disclaimer: they are not scary at all, but all the stories from friends meeting their future in-laws and just the whole idea of meeting the parents of my fiancee, no matter who they were, was an intimidating prospect. And of course the "meeting the parents" went great and I love them); many months of not enough sleep while I was huge-pregnant and when Abby was little (she is more than worth it, but really, over a year of not sleeping through the night in total? That's a long time!); student teaching in DC (it was a different world, but I'm grateful for the experience because I learned a whole lot); the several days in recent months where there have been at least 4 children ages 2 and under at my house at the same time (I am more and more grateful that Abby was not a twin or triplet). And the list could go on. But in summary, there are hard things that we experience in life. It's just funny that we appreciate them after we see why we lived through them and how they have effected our lives today for the better.
I already feel bad for our second, third, fourth, etc children. No, this is not an annoucement. We practically follow Abby around with our camera. And that's just not going to happen no matter that we love them just as much as we love Abby. It's just that I only have 2 hands and those hands are going to be very busy with two or more children. So this is an apology in advance.
I have written in my journal for what seems like my whole life. I remember my parents giving us a lesson about the importance of journal-writing and making a big deal about giving us our very own journal. We all took to it quickly and I think we all still faithfully write in a journal. Good job, Mom and Dad! I was thinking about some of my early journal entries that were just so silly: "I woke up at 6:48. Jeff V. got his name on the board. It was a good day." Glad I captured the real important things! But really, at the end of the day when I can just reflect and write whatever I want because no one else will read it, it is the perfect few minutes of me-time (that doesn't happen very often anymore) and a great way to de-stress and get ready to go to bed. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me a productive tool to record my day and reflect on my goals.
And lastly, on a more spiritual note, I have been thinking recently a lot about how much I love Abby and how excited I get when she conquers a new skill. You all know that I brag incessently about all she can do! :) I think that my love for her and my joy in her success is just a tiny piece of what God must feel for us as we grow and become better people. It's humbling to think that He is willing to share His very choice children with us, the people who are our friends, family members, and the people we are around each day.
Roy has a final today that has 40 multiple choice questions and an essay. Instead of using a bubble sheet for the multiple choice section, the professor is having them type out "I choose A)" and then writing out what A says. And, by the way, there may be more than one correct answer. And in addition, law exams don't usually have the options A) sometimes, B) always, C) never. It's more like full paragraph answers. Why he chose to administer the test that way, we'll never know, but we've had a good laugh about how tired Roy's fingers are going to be at the end of the three hour exam.
There are some time periods that I am happy to say that I survived and actually enjoyed: high school (I know you are all thinking the same thing); childbirth (but really, I was very very blessed and it didn't take a long time--I was just very anxious to meet my angel); meeting my in-laws (disclaimer: they are not scary at all, but all the stories from friends meeting their future in-laws and just the whole idea of meeting the parents of my fiancee, no matter who they were, was an intimidating prospect. And of course the "meeting the parents" went great and I love them); many months of not enough sleep while I was huge-pregnant and when Abby was little (she is more than worth it, but really, over a year of not sleeping through the night in total? That's a long time!); student teaching in DC (it was a different world, but I'm grateful for the experience because I learned a whole lot); the several days in recent months where there have been at least 4 children ages 2 and under at my house at the same time (I am more and more grateful that Abby was not a twin or triplet). And the list could go on. But in summary, there are hard things that we experience in life. It's just funny that we appreciate them after we see why we lived through them and how they have effected our lives today for the better.
I already feel bad for our second, third, fourth, etc children. No, this is not an annoucement. We practically follow Abby around with our camera. And that's just not going to happen no matter that we love them just as much as we love Abby. It's just that I only have 2 hands and those hands are going to be very busy with two or more children. So this is an apology in advance.
I have written in my journal for what seems like my whole life. I remember my parents giving us a lesson about the importance of journal-writing and making a big deal about giving us our very own journal. We all took to it quickly and I think we all still faithfully write in a journal. Good job, Mom and Dad! I was thinking about some of my early journal entries that were just so silly: "I woke up at 6:48. Jeff V. got his name on the board. It was a good day." Glad I captured the real important things! But really, at the end of the day when I can just reflect and write whatever I want because no one else will read it, it is the perfect few minutes of me-time (that doesn't happen very often anymore) and a great way to de-stress and get ready to go to bed. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me a productive tool to record my day and reflect on my goals.
And lastly, on a more spiritual note, I have been thinking recently a lot about how much I love Abby and how excited I get when she conquers a new skill. You all know that I brag incessently about all she can do! :) I think that my love for her and my joy in her success is just a tiny piece of what God must feel for us as we grow and become better people. It's humbling to think that He is willing to share His very choice children with us, the people who are our friends, family members, and the people we are around each day.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
O, Christmas Tree!
Inspired and excited to decorate for Christmas by our tree decorating in Williamsburg, we put up our decorations and tree last week. Even with some extra help from Abby moving and removing ornaments, it looks pretty good!
Thanksgiving, Part II
One of the newer traditions that Grandma and Baba Z have is to plant a tree for each of the grandchildren. So the parents get to pick out a tree that captures some of the personality/interests/looks/etc of the child. Since we're really mean, Roy decided that we should do a Christmas tree. Abby, if you ever read this, yes, your father chose that we do a Christmas tree solely because you were born at Christmastime so if you hate having a Christmas birthday and your tree is icing on the cake for hating it, please please please blame Dad. That said, Abby's tree was planted at the beginning of November and we've been really excited to see it and take pictures with it. Grandma Z had the fun idea to decorate the tree each Christmas and I must say it was a pretty genious idea. The following pictures show us all working on it (even Abby was a helper) and the finished product. It especially looks gorgeous at night! 
We started decorating with the lights. I'd never used net lights before so it was awesome that it took about one minute plus a minute of tweaking to light the whole tree! And here is Abby helping with the ornaments. We had to tie a ribbon on each to hang them. We got a cool outdoor pack of ornaments from Costco: all red and silver with polka dots, stripes, and swirls. It looks really striking against Abby's Alberta spruce.
The finished tree gets a lot of approval from Abby (the clapping), but does still need a little bit rearranging (picture 3). Good thing the ornaments are shatter-proof!
Sorry for keeping everyone waiting (Sarah) for part II...we've been a little crazy around here! Hopefully these pictures will tide you over for a little bit!
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Thanksgiving, Part I
We had a really fun Thanksgiving in Williamsburg with about half of the Zwahlen clan. We did some Black Friday shopping (thanks to Grandma Z watching Abby), spent a day with Roy's best friend from when he was 7 (wow, there were some good stories shared...those two were trouble!), and just got to relax. It was very fun! Abby even learned a new word while she was down there: "Hi sa" (which is "Hi Zach", her 2 year old cousin) who she loves to follow around. And, random though this is, the other words she says are mama, da, ba (bath), a duh (all done), and momomo (which sounds pretty close to mama, but it really means more). Well, the real reason I'm even posting today is to show off one of her Christmas dresses. She matches her Freebairn cousins...so cute!
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Our Week
Formula for how to be the coolest parent ever (or cheapest parent ever):
Go to Walmart and buy a pack of 100 balls and a under-the-bed storage box + Pour balls into storage box + Put child in storage box =
To gear up for the big BYU-Utah rivalry football game, Roy and Abby got warmed up with watching a little BYU basketball. Abby is hardly ever cuddly and doesn't really like to sit still for long so the fact that she kept going back to sit on Roy's lap and enjoy a couple minutes of the game deserved documentation. The following pictures are taken about a half hour apart.
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