Turkey Day

We drove up to Bountiful to have Thanksgiving dinner with my John relatives in the clubhouse at my grandmother's apartment complex. My brother Matt chose to sleep in a friends' dorm room until 2 PM and not bring his phone with him, so unfortunately, he got left behind. Ah, the life of an 18-year-old boy. Sad day for him, but I was actually kind of happy because Ben and Hillary came in my car with me and kept me awake as I drove. 

When we got there Sadie went out to play on the playground with her cute second cousin Olivia. Within 10 minutes Sadie was calling her "Liv", "Livie" and even called her "Livie Lou". Sadie and Olivia were hilarious together. Sadie did not stop giggling for 3 hours straight. Olivia is mild-mannered and well-behaved and Sadie is pretty much the opposite. Most of the time Olivia was happy to follow Sadie's lead, but at one point Olivia told Sadie to "stop it", because she was getting a little too wild. My cousin took a bunch of pictures of the girls playing. Here are a few.

 

 

 What the toddlers did instead of eating dinner

 Eating their extra cookies stolen from the dessert table (after they had each been given one from Grandma)

Meeting Santa

On Tuesday I was looking for something fun to kick off the Thanksgiving break right. I decided to check out the lights at the Riverwoods and then use the free carousel ride coupons I had for the Provo Beach Resort. Mimi, Paco and Whitney came along. 

 (Blurry people, but a good illustration of some of the light displays)

 When we got there we found out that not only were the lights gorgeous, but Santa was there! I am definitely not one to bring my child to see Santa before Thanksgiving, but he was giving out free little toys and you know I was all over that. My pictures are terrible quality because I only had my phone with me.

 Lou was impressed by Santa from her stroller

 Sadie loved the "sparkle" (flashing) icicle lights

Then Sadie got to ride the carousel twice. While the rest of us were eating ice cream Sadie took Paco and explored the rest of the Provo Beach Resort. After watching the bowlers for a while she quite confidently strode up to the lanes, picked up a ball, and threw it. Luckily I stopped it before it really went down the lane but I was surprised that she even able to lift it.

All in all it was a great night. I thought about hiding this gem of a holiday activity from all of you. It is super cheap and fun. Free to walk around and see the lights and the different artistic fire pits. Free live music. Free Santa (and you can take whatever pictures you want- in fact, they don't even have someone there to take pictures and put pressure on you to buy them). Free gift from Santa. Free carousel ride (with a coupon- but it is only $1 normally). 

What's a blog post from me without some sarcasm or complaining? Too bad this turned out to be the best activity of the whole break. The fun level significantly dropped since Elise and I both got sick and Daniel has been in Arizona all week. I swear Sadie senses that I don't feel good and she has been horribly behaved the past couple days. 

Grateful

 This Thanksgiving I am especially grateful for the life of Holland Cottle. Her unexpected death has really, really affected me. I am not sure if it is because Nick and Lexie are some of our closest friends, or that I have daughters the same age as Briz and Holland, or maybe that up until now our married lives have seemed so parallel to the Cottles (starting with those 3 months we lived together as married couples- hilariously weird but actually fun) or just the plain fact of how tragic her passing is. Probably a combination of all of them, but in any event, I have spent a lot of time crying and thinking about Holland and her family.

In my blog post about my trip to Portland for Holland's funeral I laid out 3 general ways I wanted to change my life. These changes came about from all the different thoughts and feelings I had in the week or so after Holland's death. In order to accomplish these changes I have set individual goals related to each one. I started small, with at least one goal attached with each of the 3 things. I tried to set goals that would make an impact but not be too big and too outside myself that I wouldn't do them. Like if I set the goal I wasn't going to make fun of Daniel anymore I would fail within the first 10 minutes. Each day I record at least one thing I did that day to meet my goals. I'll give you one example: "11/9/2011- Stayed completely patient while at the doctor's office and had to wait an hour and a half to see her. She was delivering a baby so there really wasn't anything they could do to speed it up. It was crazy how much more calm and patient Sadie stayed when I wasn't tense and annoyed. She was really good and just played with toys the whole time. Never thought about how me getting annoyed with other people makes Sadie feel/act. (be more kind)" As my current goals become more routine I will set more goals relating to these 3 changes. Maybe I will mention them again in the future so you all can hold me accountable.

So we are exactly 3 weeks into these goals and I have already seen changes. I think the biggest change has been in Sadie's behavior. Daniel tells me I attribute too much to these goals, but I totally disagree. Many of my goals are related to parenting and my relationship/interactions with my girls. One of the goals is to leave the TV off completely when Sadie is awake. It's not like I was letting Sadie watch a ton of kid's shows before, but we almost always had the TV on in the background. We aren't going cold turkey; she is allowed to watch one tv show and one movie each day if she thinks of it and asks, which she normally doesn't. We have DVR so we can just record any shows we want to watch after Sadie is in bed. My original thought with this goal was just that we watched too much tv in our house and it was one way I could keep my family closer (change #3). The effect of this goal has been that I am so much more present and engaged with Sadie (and Elise too). Now that it is off I really play with my girls, not distracted, half-watching HGTV play. I give them close, one-on-two attention. This, in combination with a few other goals has worked wonders with Sadie's attitude.

I don't write this post to brag. I do not qualify for bragging rights in any area of my life (except maybe my Boggle skills- I am really good at Boggle). I write this post to recognize that Holland has pushed me to make these changes- some that I realized I needed to make, others that I didn't. It's really too bad that it has taken a tragedy like this to get me going, but I will always be grateful for Holland and the changes she inspired me to make in myself and my family.

Randoms

Just some random pics from recent weeks I wanted to include on the blog.

Attending Daniel's first game of the season

 Note Sadie resting her elbow on Ben's shoulder

 Elise destroyed the protective paper on the exam table so I put her in her car seat/stroller while we waited

 Sadie entertained herself by finding every single measuring tape (even one the nurses had been missing for weeks)

 Painting pumpkins (never mind that it was after Halloween). Note Sadie's sweet point

A happy girl

Seriously, The Last Park Blog Post...

...until next spring! The other day it was sunny and 60 degrees so I took the girls to the park after work. I caught some great pictures. Sadie promised me she wasn't going to cry when we left. Broken promises from her already.

Sadie insisted on wearing the headband she made in nursery that week

Elise's reaction every time the wind blew

Wes Doug Max

Meredith followed the John women tradition of birthing our firstborn 3 weeks early (that tradition being me and now Meredith). She had been telling me the past couple months she felt like she was going to have him early but I told her to push it out of her mind. Well, she was totally right! After a long 24 hours or so of labor at the hospital, Weston Douglas Maxfield was born on Saturday, November 19th.

We are so incredibly thrilled he has joined our extended family. He's adorable. I want to hug and kiss him. I really don't think I'll be able to wait until April to meet him.

The Newest John Baby

We got to hang out with Lauren for a few hours on Monday. The Johns were in town for the wedding of Carrie's sister, Emily. They had a little free time and all my siblings came over to meet her too.

 

The toddlers pretty much ignored Lauren and picked up right where they left off a couple months ago- playing with the grocery cart of food.

Uncle Ben

Sadie stopping to give some kisses

Aunt Alicia

She looks like a feminine version of Will to me, but I am really not qualified to offer an opinion. I didn't meet Will in person until he was 5 months old. It's really hard to guess what a newborn is going to look like.

A sweet picture

BTW....Meredith is in labor RIGHT NOW so Lauren won't be the newest John grandbaby for long...

Princess Dance

 

Sadie's little friend, Ella, had the best birthday party ever. The invitation had Disney Princesses on it and Sadie was immediately hooked on whatever it was that piece of paper meant. She got it in her head it was a princess dance and told me she was going to a princess dance for Ella's party the entire week leading up to it. We actually went to Disney on Ice with a little group of girls and moms (and Ella's dad and aunt too). 

 

I was nervous because Sadie fell asleep on our way to the party. She opted to play in her crib instead of nap that day so we were starting off the evening exhausted. I needn't have worried because I think it's safe to say that this show is in the top 5 events of Sadie's whole life. She was captivated, almost in a trance, the entire time. I couldn't get her to respond to anything I said or did.

I could only get this shot of the back of Sadie's head watching Tinkerbell fly. I can't really blame her. The show was really entertaining. I found myself singing along a little bit and getting into it.

The costumes during the Lion King scenes were awesome. They had the animal figures on wires attached to their arms and when they skated it moved the animal up and down. They reenacted the scene where Mufasa is killed. It was slightly unnerving, but it looked super cool. Each skater had two wildebeest heads, one on each shoulder, and they skated close to each other, chasing Mufasa and Simba. I was too distracted by it to get a picture.

Towards the end of the show Sadie got very concerned with where Ella was and insisted that she sit right next to her. She just happened to glance over as I was trying to get a photo of her focused on the show, sitting between the Dunns.

 

Happy 3rd Birthday, Ella! Thanks for inviting us!

Fall Fam Pics

 I pretty much forgot Janica had taken family pictures for us last month until she sent them to me the other day. I think I pushed it out of mind because I knew there would not be a single decent picture due to the fact that Sadie was her usual, difficult self and Elise was unusually fussy. I am happy to say I was wrong. I love a lot of them. 

Janica was running a special a few months ago where for $40 (yep, you read that right- $40), she would come to your house and do a lifestyle shoot. Essentially, she would take pictures in more of an everyday setting doing everyday things and all we had to pay for was the film and film processing. I jumped on that as quick as I could because a) I am the cheapest person ever, b) Janica is both a friend and a great photographer and I prefer friends taking my picture, and c) Sadie is more herself in familiar surroundings. For our pictures we read books in Sadie's room, played on the guest bed in Elise's room, and played with bubbles in the front yard. Here are a few of my favorites. I might share more in other posts.

 (The main reason I included the one above on the left- why are Elise's pants pulled up to her chest? I blame Daniel, he got her dressed that day)

 (Love this one- reading Sadie's favorite, A Fly Went By, with Sadie yelling "DOG!!")

 

 Thanks for the great pictures Janica. Sorry you gained nothing but the memories of trying to get my kids to cooperate.

6 Months

My newborn is closer to 1 than 0. That's weird. I guess she isn't my newborn. Maybe someone (besides her parents-she already ignores us) should inform her that when you are 6 months old you don't wake up 4 times a night.

Official 6 month photo

Elise is still a sweet girl. Still loves to be held. When she is not behind held, she is always on the move. She will not stay put when you put her down. She rolls and rotates on that tummy all over the place, but no real crawling yet. She also enjoys saucing it up in the exersaucer.

Lately she has taken to grabbing our faces or hair while she eats a bottle. She loves to grab Sadie's hair at any time- especially if Sadie cries. She is slowly improving on her baby food eating skills.We are trying to convince her to actually drink water from a sippy, and not just play with it. No luck so far. One of Elise's favorite things in the world is the sound of plastic crinkling. It follows that her favorite toys are wipes cases (mostly empty for loudest possible crinkling) and grocery bags.

Size stats time. It seems our little girl has not grown in 2 months. Either that, or they messed up measuring her 2 months ago. With her height stunted, she has gone from the 90th percentile to the 60th. Dang you, elusive 27 inch height. Some day she'll get there. She weighs 16 pounds, which is just about exactly 50th percentile.