2003
Ryan and I were married two days after Christmas. It was a busy, overshadowed Christmas. Who cares about Christmas when there's a wedding to finalize?
2004
Upon arrival at the Columbus airport on December 23rd, we learned the power was out at my parents' house. It came back on 4 days later. It was a cold, hungry Christmas.
2005
We drove from Provo to Boise to spend Christmas with Ryan's family. It was my first Christmas away from home, and despite everyone's valiant efforts to make me feel at home, loved, welcomed and comfortable, I spent most of Christmas Eve and Day crying.
2006
My dad got a new job December 15th in St Louis, so we returned to Columbus for our last Christmas "at home." Each child was assigned to go through all their childhood belongings and clean out. Anything we wanted, we took with us. Everything else went to Goodwill. It was a sad farewell to the only house I ever remembered living in.
2007
We booked a flight to Portland for Christmas Day - in September - and received an automated voicemail on Christmas Eve informing us that our flight had been canceled and we'd been automatically rebooked for the 26th. Ryan spent 24 hours on the phone with non-English speaking customer service reps (think "Outsourced") striving to rebook us.
2008
Collin was admitted (at 4 days old) to the hospital pediatric unit for 25 hours of blue-light incubating. The staff was awful, the nurses were worse, and the doctors... you can't imagine.
2009
We had just finished remodeling our dining room, and our entire house was caked in an inch of dust. I finally put up our Christmas tree on the 23rd, but we left town on the 24th to head to my parents' place. Ryan had a little stomach bug too, but it wasn't too bad. This was our best Christmas by far.
2010
See "Billiards & Barfing" post. 'Nuf said.
Better luck next year?
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Billiards & Barfing
(title courtesy of my brothers)
Barfing
Unfortunately, our Christmas story this year would be incomplete without a little recap of our stomache bug. Collin got real sick Wednesday morning (luckily not on his birthday), and after four hours of cleaning up puke, I was exhausted. But he took a good nap and seemed to be better, so we headed to St Louis on Thursday morning. I can't remember the details, but he threw up several more times while we were there, including once after a 48-hour respite at the dinner table with everyone present.
To make matters worse, Ryan and I both woke up ill on Christmas morning. Ryan seemed to get a milder form and rebounded rather quickly, but 36-week-pregnant me is still feeling ill effects almost a week later. I am so glad my mom was around to help with everything; I know I couldn't have taken care of Ryan, Collin and myself.
It was awful, to say the least. I think this picture of Collin says it all. He spent the better part of a week in his pajamas. When both pairs were in the washer, he was in his swishy running pants. We spent a lot of time just laying around with bowls nearby. We were one tired, sick bunch. Luckily, it looks like we managed to keep the germs to our little family, and hopefully no one else will find whatever horrible thing Collin brought home.Christmas
Christmas Eve was pretty mellow. Our family tradition is to listen to "The Tape" - now on CD - which tells "The True Story of Christmas." We turn off all the lights, light a fire, and sit around the Christmas tree and listen to the biblical account of Jesus' birth. I remember doing this each year for as long as I can remember.
Here are Collin and I listening. Can you tell I still felt well? After putting Collin to bed, we had appetizers, another family tradition.
Little did we know it'd be our "last meal."Despite the germs, Santa still braved the storm to visit us Christmas Eve. Collin received a tool bench and tools from Santa, a matchbox car parking garage set from Ryan and I, lots of fun stuff including a car beanbag chair from his 'Nello grandparents, and MegaBloks with a Caterpillar dump truck from his Nana & Papa Williams. It was quite the haul.
Sadly, Collin was only awake 5 hours all of Christmas Day (Grandma woke him at 11am, napped him at 1:30, and put him to bed at 6pm), and I was far from interested in snapping photos of him playing. Hence, this blog has a vast shortage of photos. Sorry. He really did like his gifts, and he's still enjoying his "new toys" here at home.Billiards
My parents have grown concerned that their house will become boring to visit, so this Christmas Santa brought them a new pool table.
Until recently, they've had the missionaries living in their basement, so this area has never really been used. Now we can have hours of fun down there! 
Don't let my mom fool you; she creamed them all in a game the first night we were there. It was sweet. 
The table also came with a table tennis cover, so we can play ping-pong too. Ryan was in heaven.I hope you all had a merry Christmas. Enjoy the new year!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Two Years
Well, it has come - Collin's 2nd birthday. I can't hardly believe it. He is definitely acting more and more like a preschooler though, so I guess I can't say it has come as a complete surprise. 
Doesn't he look all ready to head to school? One hand in his pocket and the other on the lunch box. Sweet.
Last Sunday he wanted Ryan to pull a chair over to the counter for him to see, like he does when I cook. He said, "I want watch Dada cut apples." Yeah, I'd call that one good sentence. He starts lots of sentences with "I want," "I like," "I watch," etc. It is so nice for him to actually be able to tell me what he wants instead of whining (though we do still get a lot of that) or grunting (a little bit of that sneaks its way in when he's tired too). Everywhere we go complete strangers comment on how chatty he is. My favorite was the saleslady at the JC Penney in Seattle, "Wow, he talks a lot. Does he say anything?" So I guess his pronounciation could use some work, but I understand most everything.
He loves all forms of transportation (hence his room decor): trains, cars, trucks, buses, bulldozers, diggers, "dump cars," etc.
I thought this would be a good place to insert a picture of the collage Ryan made for his room. It's opposite the road wall we painted. Cool huh?
He also likes anything his mom or dad has - mechanic/woodworking tools and kitchen gadgets.
I guess that should give you some hints about his Christmas and birthday gifts...
We had a little get-together at our house on Saturday night. He was sooo excited.
He kept saying, "Collin, birthday, cupcake" all day. I rented two movies from the library - Thomas the Train and Elmo birthday movies. He quickly learned about blowing out candles. But I guess I forgot to tell him to wait to blow until after the song is finished.
(Pardon the sideways video; I don't know how to flip it.) After Ryan relit them twice during the song, the other kids were so cute to help him out, "NOW you blow out the candles."
I think the opening of presents was good practice for Saturday.
I think it may quite possibly take all day to get everything open on Christmas though. But he'll be the only child there, so I guess we'll have nothing better to do. He was so excited to play with everything... except for the dinosaurs that were in this box - he climbed into my lap cuddling, and said, "All done dinosaurs." Yep, still a bit of a wuss. (Though today it was the first toy he wanted to show to his friends who came over to play, so I guess he's over the initial shock.)
Happy Birthday, Big Boy! We love you.
Doesn't he look all ready to head to school? One hand in his pocket and the other on the lunch box. Sweet.
Last Sunday he wanted Ryan to pull a chair over to the counter for him to see, like he does when I cook. He said, "I want watch Dada cut apples." Yeah, I'd call that one good sentence. He starts lots of sentences with "I want," "I like," "I watch," etc. It is so nice for him to actually be able to tell me what he wants instead of whining (though we do still get a lot of that) or grunting (a little bit of that sneaks its way in when he's tired too). Everywhere we go complete strangers comment on how chatty he is. My favorite was the saleslady at the JC Penney in Seattle, "Wow, he talks a lot. Does he say anything?" So I guess his pronounciation could use some work, but I understand most everything.
He loves all forms of transportation (hence his room decor): trains, cars, trucks, buses, bulldozers, diggers, "dump cars," etc.
I thought this would be a good place to insert a picture of the collage Ryan made for his room. It's opposite the road wall we painted. Cool huh?He also likes anything his mom or dad has - mechanic/woodworking tools and kitchen gadgets.
I guess that should give you some hints about his Christmas and birthday gifts...We had a little get-together at our house on Saturday night. He was sooo excited.
He kept saying, "Collin, birthday, cupcake" all day. I rented two movies from the library - Thomas the Train and Elmo birthday movies. He quickly learned about blowing out candles. But I guess I forgot to tell him to wait to blow until after the song is finished.(Pardon the sideways video; I don't know how to flip it.) After Ryan relit them twice during the song, the other kids were so cute to help him out, "NOW you blow out the candles."
I think the opening of presents was good practice for Saturday.
I think it may quite possibly take all day to get everything open on Christmas though. But he'll be the only child there, so I guess we'll have nothing better to do. He was so excited to play with everything... except for the dinosaurs that were in this box - he climbed into my lap cuddling, and said, "All done dinosaurs." Yep, still a bit of a wuss. (Though today it was the first toy he wanted to show to his friends who came over to play, so I guess he's over the initial shock.)Happy Birthday, Big Boy! We love you.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Yuki
Collin loves snow, particularly snowmen. 
Here he is not particularly well-clad during our snow-in in Seattle.
We got a good amount last weekend, and he's been in heaven since! If only I enjoyed it as much as he does...
Here he is not particularly well-clad during our snow-in in Seattle. Since Collin was quite young, he and Ryan have looked at pictures in a Japanese cartoon book and learned new words.
- "go" is the number five
- "ame" is rain
- "neko" is cat
- "inu" is dog
- "waki" is armpit
- "ashi" is foot
- "naka" is belly
But his all-time favorite Japanese word is yuki. Apparently yuki means snow, but Collin also uses it for snowmen.
He loves snowmen books. 
He loves to build snowmen. (Yes, our decor needs some work.)
He loves snowmen images on the computer - where he readily points out the yuki's carrot nose, coal eyes, and color of "necklace."
He loves snowmen tearing and pasting from the ads we get in the mail. 
He loves his "yuki bus" full of snowmen Christmas decorations.
He loves his snowmen stuffed animals - who must need a snack occasionally.
Collin loves to color yuki.
Collin loves to color yuki. And he loves to "push yuki" with Dad too.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Pregnancy Pics
Here are some pics of me with Pregnancy #2...
at 33 weeks
at 29 weeks
at 33 weeks
And for a little comparison, here I am at 38 weeks with my first pregnancy.
Yes, I am in for a rude awakening. It seems that I'm already as big as I ever got... and I have 6 weeks to go!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Thanksgiving in Washington
Though this is a long-belated post, I wanted to document our trip to visit the Williams-side of the family the last week or so.
Traveling
We started our trip Friday night (the 19th) and drove to St Louis and stayed with my parents. We watched football on Saturday with them before they dropped us at the airport. They are always so good to keep our car (free parking!) while we are gone.
Our first flight was pretty uneventful, and Collin even got his own seat. The second flight was a little more traumatic - sitting on the tarmac for almost an hour with Collin chanting "apple juice" and "up in the skies" while waiting for the fog to lift and for the plane to be de-iced was a bit rough. But Collin did finally curl up with Ry (it was 2am our time) and fall asleep towards the end.
Our return trip was about the same - one flight with Collin in his own seat and one flight in Daddy's lap. Unfortunately, Collin didn't fall asleep until we were waiting in baggage claim for his carseat. Oh well.
I'd say all in all, he was quite a good little trooper. He did have some issues with kicking the seat in front of him, and we did get some dirty looks despite our best efforts. It was our last flight with him flying free (which can also can be read as 'our last flight with him without his own seat'), and he was so flexible with all the rules and such. I was so proud of him.
Side Story: I'd like to make a little plug for Frontier airlines. I hate flying - I hate TSA; I hate all the lines; I hate the waiting and delays; I hate the rude passengers; I hate the rude airline employees; I hate the '3-ounces in a ziplock' rules; I hate the metal detectors, body scans and patdowns... Should I go on? I haven't been happy with an airline in at least 10 years.
But Frontier shocked me this time. First, they filled Collin's sippy with apple juice, which was far more than I expected - he wasn't a paying passenger, and it held far more than the little cup they handed to Ryan or me. But the REALLY awesome thing is that we each (yes, each of the 3 of us) got at least one warm chocolate chip cookie on each flight. Yeah - not only did they not skip the pretzels/trail mix/peanuts crap, but they gave us ooey, gooey chocolatey cookies. Oh, and they were FREE. They didn't nickel and dime us with paying for our drink (Direct Air to Myrtle Beach) or for a stupid bag of chips. So, FLY FRONTIER!
Seattle
On Monday morning Ryan's parents both had to work, so we rented a car and drove to Seattle to see his sister's new place. Unfortunately, the weather was far from cooperative. Apparently it never snows in Washington (not a flake all of last winter), but each time we travel there the snows seems to follow us! A curse. In fact, they got a good six inches in Vancouver and Seattle, and we drove through it all.
You see, in places that don't get snow, they don't own snow plows. Additionally, the drivers DON'T HAVE A CLUE what to do on snowy/icy roads, and both of these conditions add up to a total disaster. It was a stressful drive up there, and it really wasn't much better two days later when we returned. But we were safe and we didn't crash the car, so I guess I shouldn't complain.
The saddest part is that we were pretty much snowed in at her house the whole time we were there, and we didn't get to do any tourist-y things. I guess there's always next time. On the other hand, it was nice to get to actually see all the remodeling that we had heard so much about. It is a great house.
Other than getting to see Megan's "new" (80-year old home that they totally gutted and remodeled in the last 8 months) house, the main highlight of the Seattle part of our trip - for me! - was getting to see my good friend from back in my BYU days. We did Elementary Education together, and then taught 6th grade together (different schools though) our first year out. She was pregnant with her first that year (now he's a kindergartener!), and I continued teaching several more years, but we've kept in touch via blogs, email and Christmas cards over the last 6 years. Anyway, she now has 3 kids and stays home with them in a suburb of Seattle, and we popped over to her place Wednesday morning before heading back down to Vancouver. It was great to see her and her adorable kids. Miss you, Melissa!
Turkey Day
Of course, a Thanksgiving trip wouldn't be complete without stuffing ourselves to the gills with delicious turkey, stuffing, potatoes, beans and corn, and warm rolls covered in homemade jams. We also had a table-full of homemade pies for dessert. Yum! Ryan's sister (plus husband and 3 kids) from Boise joined us, as well as Ryan's sister (plus husband and 2 kids) from Seattle. We also were able to have his parents (duh, it was their house), his grandma (who lives down the road but is in a different ward), and Ryan's aunt (plus her husband and two high-school aged kids) eat with us. It was all delicious, and we did indeed "stuff ourselves to the gills."
Cousins
There were a lot of kids around this trip. You can imagine the busy-ness and noise. Collin did much better than I thought he would, but as it inched towards naptime or bedtime each day, he would whine for "Nana's car" (interpretation: "Get me out of here!"). Since I was usually in need of a little break from the chaos too, we'd usually head downstairs to the tv room and sneak in a 30-minute Elmo movie. It seemed to do the trick to restart Collin, and he was usually rearing to head back up to the toys afterwards. 
He was a little afraid of his youngest cousin (who turned one in August) who has learned how to fend for himself and often times takes the much bigger kids down by grabbing their shirts from behind and flinging them to the ground. You can imagine Collin's shock the first time that happened!
He did end up becoming quite the pal with his cousin who's about 6 months older than him. I think he really missed all of them after they all took off for home, and we still had another day left. The house was so quiet; he didn't know where they'd all gone!
One of the major benefits of us being the first to arrive and the last to leave is that we got Nana & Papa all to ourselves for one day on each side of the trip. Collin obviously doesn't get to see his Williams' grandparents much, and they really spoiled him with all the attention.
Black Friday
I'm not a Black Friday shopper. I know you've read about our Craig's List-ing, frugal crafting, garage sale-ing, trash digging, and Cat classify-ing, but no deal is good enough to get me out of my warm bed and fight mean-spirited crazies.
But I was going quite stir-crazy by Friday, so we headed to IKEA. It wasn't that busy (they weren't having any ridiculous sales) and since we don't have an IKEA close to us, we wanted to check out what they had. We were able to buy an extension pack for Collin's train set he got last year for Christmas (it was all that would fit in our luggage).
Our real goal though was really to scout the place out to see if it was worth taking the van up to Chicago one Saturday for furniture or something. All in all, it was just a way to get out and about.
Stardust Diner
Saturday morning we all went to Uncle Tracey's diner. He bought it a few years ago, and I just love the ambiance. It's the classic 1950's silver, railway car-looking building with advertisements for toothpaste and "Uncle Same Wants You" posters on the walls. I just love diners like that, and the fact that it's his uncle's makes it a 'must' for every trip.
If you live or travel to the Vancouver/Portland area, stop in - It's in Camas. Oh, and the food is delicious too!
Ohio State-Michigan Game
I was pretty sad when I found out we'd be watching our Big Game Thanksgiving weekend instead of the weekend before, but it turned out good in the end. Go Buckeyes! We even went and bought all the stuff to make Buckeyes and they were a real hit with the family, who'd never tasted homemade peanut butter cups. They had Ryan and I do all the work, but they helped with the consumption. I did have the one condition that each person swear their allegiance to my team before eating, but none of them seemed to mind.
Four-Wheeling
What would be a trip to Nana & Papa's without some time on the Four-Wheelers? It was cold and either rainy or snowing the whole time we were there, so the only adult brave enough to take the kiddos out was Papa. I also managed to pull a muscle in my belly the first day we were on the road (lugging luggage?), so I wasn't quite up to all the jostling they offer (I did survive the week by buying an expensive belly band). Collin was a little terrified at first, but I think he loved it still the same.
Conclusion
We had a great trip. Collin slept great (always a worry of mine when we are on the road in different places), and he was super flexible. It was great to see all the family, especially since it will be quite some time before we venture "up in the skies" with two children. Thanks for Nana & Papa, Megan & Chris, and Grandma & Grandpa for each hosting us for a night or two... or lots! We love you guys!
Traveling
We started our trip Friday night (the 19th) and drove to St Louis and stayed with my parents. We watched football on Saturday with them before they dropped us at the airport. They are always so good to keep our car (free parking!) while we are gone.
Our first flight was pretty uneventful, and Collin even got his own seat. The second flight was a little more traumatic - sitting on the tarmac for almost an hour with Collin chanting "apple juice" and "up in the skies" while waiting for the fog to lift and for the plane to be de-iced was a bit rough. But Collin did finally curl up with Ry (it was 2am our time) and fall asleep towards the end.
Our return trip was about the same - one flight with Collin in his own seat and one flight in Daddy's lap. Unfortunately, Collin didn't fall asleep until we were waiting in baggage claim for his carseat. Oh well.
I'd say all in all, he was quite a good little trooper. He did have some issues with kicking the seat in front of him, and we did get some dirty looks despite our best efforts. It was our last flight with him flying free (which can also can be read as 'our last flight with him without his own seat'), and he was so flexible with all the rules and such. I was so proud of him.
Side Story: I'd like to make a little plug for Frontier airlines. I hate flying - I hate TSA; I hate all the lines; I hate the waiting and delays; I hate the rude passengers; I hate the rude airline employees; I hate the '3-ounces in a ziplock' rules; I hate the metal detectors, body scans and patdowns... Should I go on? I haven't been happy with an airline in at least 10 years.
But Frontier shocked me this time. First, they filled Collin's sippy with apple juice, which was far more than I expected - he wasn't a paying passenger, and it held far more than the little cup they handed to Ryan or me. But the REALLY awesome thing is that we each (yes, each of the 3 of us) got at least one warm chocolate chip cookie on each flight. Yeah - not only did they not skip the pretzels/trail mix/peanuts crap, but they gave us ooey, gooey chocolatey cookies. Oh, and they were FREE. They didn't nickel and dime us with paying for our drink (Direct Air to Myrtle Beach) or for a stupid bag of chips. So, FLY FRONTIER!
Seattle
On Monday morning Ryan's parents both had to work, so we rented a car and drove to Seattle to see his sister's new place. Unfortunately, the weather was far from cooperative. Apparently it never snows in Washington (not a flake all of last winter), but each time we travel there the snows seems to follow us! A curse. In fact, they got a good six inches in Vancouver and Seattle, and we drove through it all.
You see, in places that don't get snow, they don't own snow plows. Additionally, the drivers DON'T HAVE A CLUE what to do on snowy/icy roads, and both of these conditions add up to a total disaster. It was a stressful drive up there, and it really wasn't much better two days later when we returned. But we were safe and we didn't crash the car, so I guess I shouldn't complain.
The saddest part is that we were pretty much snowed in at her house the whole time we were there, and we didn't get to do any tourist-y things. I guess there's always next time. On the other hand, it was nice to get to actually see all the remodeling that we had heard so much about. It is a great house.
Other than getting to see Megan's "new" (80-year old home that they totally gutted and remodeled in the last 8 months) house, the main highlight of the Seattle part of our trip - for me! - was getting to see my good friend from back in my BYU days. We did Elementary Education together, and then taught 6th grade together (different schools though) our first year out. She was pregnant with her first that year (now he's a kindergartener!), and I continued teaching several more years, but we've kept in touch via blogs, email and Christmas cards over the last 6 years. Anyway, she now has 3 kids and stays home with them in a suburb of Seattle, and we popped over to her place Wednesday morning before heading back down to Vancouver. It was great to see her and her adorable kids. Miss you, Melissa!
Turkey Day
Of course, a Thanksgiving trip wouldn't be complete without stuffing ourselves to the gills with delicious turkey, stuffing, potatoes, beans and corn, and warm rolls covered in homemade jams. We also had a table-full of homemade pies for dessert. Yum! Ryan's sister (plus husband and 3 kids) from Boise joined us, as well as Ryan's sister (plus husband and 2 kids) from Seattle. We also were able to have his parents (duh, it was their house), his grandma (who lives down the road but is in a different ward), and Ryan's aunt (plus her husband and two high-school aged kids) eat with us. It was all delicious, and we did indeed "stuff ourselves to the gills."
Cousins
There were a lot of kids around this trip. You can imagine the busy-ness and noise. Collin did much better than I thought he would, but as it inched towards naptime or bedtime each day, he would whine for "Nana's car" (interpretation: "Get me out of here!"). Since I was usually in need of a little break from the chaos too, we'd usually head downstairs to the tv room and sneak in a 30-minute Elmo movie. It seemed to do the trick to restart Collin, and he was usually rearing to head back up to the toys afterwards. He was a little afraid of his youngest cousin (who turned one in August) who has learned how to fend for himself and often times takes the much bigger kids down by grabbing their shirts from behind and flinging them to the ground. You can imagine Collin's shock the first time that happened!
He did end up becoming quite the pal with his cousin who's about 6 months older than him. I think he really missed all of them after they all took off for home, and we still had another day left. The house was so quiet; he didn't know where they'd all gone!
One of the major benefits of us being the first to arrive and the last to leave is that we got Nana & Papa all to ourselves for one day on each side of the trip. Collin obviously doesn't get to see his Williams' grandparents much, and they really spoiled him with all the attention.
Black FridayI'm not a Black Friday shopper. I know you've read about our Craig's List-ing, frugal crafting, garage sale-ing, trash digging, and Cat classify-ing, but no deal is good enough to get me out of my warm bed and fight mean-spirited crazies.
But I was going quite stir-crazy by Friday, so we headed to IKEA. It wasn't that busy (they weren't having any ridiculous sales) and since we don't have an IKEA close to us, we wanted to check out what they had. We were able to buy an extension pack for Collin's train set he got last year for Christmas (it was all that would fit in our luggage).
Our real goal though was really to scout the place out to see if it was worth taking the van up to Chicago one Saturday for furniture or something. All in all, it was just a way to get out and about.
Stardust Diner
Saturday morning we all went to Uncle Tracey's diner. He bought it a few years ago, and I just love the ambiance. It's the classic 1950's silver, railway car-looking building with advertisements for toothpaste and "Uncle Same Wants You" posters on the walls. I just love diners like that, and the fact that it's his uncle's makes it a 'must' for every trip.
If you live or travel to the Vancouver/Portland area, stop in - It's in Camas. Oh, and the food is delicious too!
Ohio State-Michigan Game
I was pretty sad when I found out we'd be watching our Big Game Thanksgiving weekend instead of the weekend before, but it turned out good in the end. Go Buckeyes! We even went and bought all the stuff to make Buckeyes and they were a real hit with the family, who'd never tasted homemade peanut butter cups. They had Ryan and I do all the work, but they helped with the consumption. I did have the one condition that each person swear their allegiance to my team before eating, but none of them seemed to mind.
Four-Wheeling
What would be a trip to Nana & Papa's without some time on the Four-Wheelers? It was cold and either rainy or snowing the whole time we were there, so the only adult brave enough to take the kiddos out was Papa. I also managed to pull a muscle in my belly the first day we were on the road (lugging luggage?), so I wasn't quite up to all the jostling they offer (I did survive the week by buying an expensive belly band). Collin was a little terrified at first, but I think he loved it still the same.Conclusion
We had a great trip. Collin slept great (always a worry of mine when we are on the road in different places), and he was super flexible. It was great to see all the family, especially since it will be quite some time before we venture "up in the skies" with two children. Thanks for Nana & Papa, Megan & Chris, and Grandma & Grandpa for each hosting us for a night or two... or lots! We love you guys!
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