Family Pictures (December 30th)

Auntie Emily and her family came down from Idaho on Tuesday, December 30th, and for the first time in 2.5 years our entire Heiss side of the family was in the same state. So we met up for family pictures, naturally.

We went to a place in Lehi called Camera Shy (they also have a location in West Jordan but Lehi was a more central meeting place). They did a good job for a decent price and we got the rights to the pictures, which means I can put them here:

The whole clan

Probably am

I know I'm still a week behind but I had to write down my very favourite thing about Benjamin lately and that is the verb "am."

He uses it in place of is, do, and have (but only as a pronoun-verb...like a proverb), so he doesn't often use it just as a verb but uses it in place of a verb already used.

"Me want candy!" he'll say.

"We don't have any candy," we'll answer.

"Yes, we am!" he'll say.

He'll also say things like, "Me am so sleepy!"

Sometimes he'll even just say, "Am!" in answer to a question.

On the last leg of our flight home we had a fancy-schmancy plane with video screens on the back of the seat (our other planes either had drop-down screens or no screens). Both Miriam and Benjamin were fascinated by them and happily watched the map of our flight the entire journey because I wasn't about to pay for a movie (and we only had one set of headphones anyway).

We also got to watch the safety presentation before the flight (which is what gave the kids the idea of watching a movie in the first place). When it was over Benjamin asked, "Me watch nuzzy movie after blast off?" (because planes totally blast off).

"Probably not," I said.

"Pobby am," he said, lifting his eyebrows convincingly.

And it was adorable.

And, as it turns out, he says it every time I say, "Probably not!"

(Not that I checked (I totally checked)).

We have this little friend...who might be eight now, but whatever...who said hilarious things when he was little and we'd babysit him (Tham—it's Tham) and we still say them, including but not limited to:

• "No not!" and "Yes do!"
• Brudda Heith (Brother Heiss)
• Tootie Babash (Cookie Monster)
• Bive me a tiss (give me a kiss)

Then, of course, our own kids started talking and there are things Rachel and Miriam said that we still say at our house:

• Sangwich (sandwich, Rachel)
• Princels (pretzels, Rachel)
• One-an (another, Miriam)
• Anything else hilarious they've ever said (like Miriam's "el-arious!" for example)

I have a feeling that Benjamin's little "pobby am" response will forever live in infamy as well.

Sunday, more snow and sledding (December 28 & 29)

We went to church with Andrew's parents this week. Miriam and Rachel both went to their classes without protest--Miriam went happily because she enjoys meeting new people and Rachel went swallowing her tears because Andrew made a deal with her that if she didn't cry when she went to her class she could watch Doctor Who that night.

"How about I don't have to go to my class and I get to watch Doctor Who?" she asked.

"I don't think so," Andrew said.

Benjamin chickened out at the nursery door, too. It was so sad. He seemed excited about the idea of going to nursery after sacrament meeting but when we went to drop him off he melted into a little puddle of a boy.

"No, Mommy," he whimpered, tears welling up in his eyes. "Me not go nursery."

Grandpa wandered the hallway with him until he felt better and then brought him into Sunday School. It's probably good he didn't go to nursery because he just started getting his little fever rash, which probably is a good reason to stay out of nursery. So he hung out with the grown ups during church.

It snowed quite a bit between Sunday and Monday. I'm not sure how many times Daddy and Grandpa took turns shoveling the driveway and front stairs. A friendly neighbour drove his little ATV around with a snowplow attached to the front, so we didn't have to worry about the sidewalks, which was nice.

I went out with Rachel and we tried to make a snowman but it was so cool that the snow was all powdery and wouldn't clump nicely. We made a big pile of snow, hoping to make a big enough pile to make a slide, but got too cold before we could finish.

A few other neighbours braved the cold and made a few pathetic snow piles like ours, but no one was able to make anything big enough to be much fun.

But then ATV guy came back out. He used his blow to make a big hill for the kids and another neighbour brought out a slide and the kids had fun sledding in the yard. I sent Andrew out with the camera because it was so cold (about 20*F or -5*C), though Monday wasn't even the coldest day we've had here. It's gotten down to 5*F (-15*C), which was a nice, healthy reminder that we should never move norther ever again. Brrrrr!

Here's Rachel and Benjamin taking a turn on the hill:

Museum of Ancient Life (December 27)

On our way back up to South Jordan on Saturday we stopped by Thanksgiving Point to visit the Museum of Ancient Life (or, as Benjamin calls it, The Dinosaur Museum). We've driven back and forth from South Jordan to Orem so many times the past few weeks and every time Benjamin sees the big dinosaurs on the side of the building he wants to check it out.

We get in for free with our Life and Science Museum pass, so we dragged my parents along for the adventure.

In the lobby we ran into a familiar face. My friend Courtney (who was in my ward when we moved to Calgary when I was nine, and then was in my ward when we moved to High River shortly after she did, and then who was my roommate for a summer at BYU--which meant we were in the same ward again, and who's first baby was due around the same time Benjamin was (but who was born the day before Benjamin was discharged from the hospital)) had forgotten her daughter's coat and had come back to get it just as we were getting there!

It was so good to see her, especially since I didn't end up meeting with any friends this trip. (We were planning on it but then everyone got sick and...we just didn't).

Post-Christmas Cookies (December 27)

The girls had fun making post-Christmas cookies with Naanii. Benjamin participated a little bit, too, but he still wasn't feeling great so the girls did most of the work.

Do you wanna build a snowman? (December 26, 2014)

On Christmas day it snowed and snowed and snowed. We had plenty of snow to play in when we woke up on Boxing Day morning and it was the perfect consistency for building a snowman. Naanii and Bumpa don't have much of a yard anymore but Andrew, Benjamin, and Rachel managed to cobble together a snowman anyway.

Poor Miriam had been outside playing before they started the snowman building process but had run in crying because she'd lost her boots in the snow. She'd wandered into a patch of fresh, untrampled snow and the snow was so deep it went over the tops of her boots, filled them with coldness, and then sucked them off her feet. She ran up to the house barefoot and miserable.

"Okay," she said, as I peeled cold, wet clothes off of her, "I vote snow is horrible!"

My sentiments exactly.

Everyone else seemed to have fun, though! Here's Benjamin enjoying the snow, wearing Miriam's hat and gloves because she wasn't going to:

Christmas afternoon with the Laytons

Our first stop in Utah County was my Auntie Judy's house for a family lunch.

I'm dreaming of a...

Since we bought our plane tickets...in October...the girls have been dreaming about snow because we'd be going to Utah (greatest snow on earth, right?).

It snowed the first morning Miriam, Benjamin, and I were there, but not very much. And then it was super warm. Ridiculously warm. Light jacket warm. Warmer than it was at home in North Carolina warm. So obviously there was no snow.

But on Christmas morning we woke up to a decent (by southern standards) blanket of snow. After opening presents, the kids bundled up with Daddy and Gampy-dad and headed out into the snow (I didn't bundle up and snapped a few pictures, but then I went back inside).

Christmas morning with the Heisses

I think the plan was that Grandpa and Grandma were going to get up and go downstairs to wait with the girls--who undoubtedly would be excited for Christmas morning--while Andrew and I slept soundly on waited for Benjamin to wake up and then we'd call it Christmas morning. That's what I thought the plan was. Instead what happened was this...

Grandpa got up and went downstairs. Miriam was the first one to wake up. In her words they, "watched Bible videos" while Grandpa read his scriptures (I believe he put on some videos depicting the nativity for her). She started getting a little bored and wound up in my room, shaking me awake.

"Oh, no! Miriam!" I said. "You're awake! You must have gotten up earlier than we bargained for. Is Rachel awake?"

"Yes," she said.

"Oh, dear! She's not in the living room, is she? You guys need to stay out of the living room until we can all go in there together. Go downstairs; I'll be there in a minute."

I got up and went to the bathroom. Because pregnancy.

And while I was in there, my girls tromped up the stairs. Miriam--and Grandpa, from what Miriam tells me--woke Rachel up and dragged her out of bed. She was not happy about it. But there were presents to be had and now the girls were upstairs, one excited, one grumpy, and both ready for some Christmas cheer. So we woke up Andrew and Benjamin just as Grandma was getting out of the shower.

Benjamin's usually pretty cheerful about being woken up because he thinks sleep is evil. His attitude is usually along the lines of, "Oh, did I drift off there? Thanks for rescuing me from my nemesis, Sleep." Also, there were presents.

We opened our stockings before breakfast.

Christmas Eve: The Krampus Strikes

We spent a relatively quiet Christmas Eve day at Andrew's parents' house. My mom, David, Josie, and Grandma Layton joined us for dinner, along with Grandpa Frank, Katharine, Todd, and Kayl. We had the traditional beef and green chili burritos (Karen's family tradition) for Christmas Eve dinner and then my grandma was ready to go home.

She's been going downhill relatively fast the past couple of years. She's spent her whole life taking care of everyone else--raising her seven children, helping to run the family business, and then taking care of my ailing grandfather until his death. After he died it's like she hasn't know what to do with herself. She's suffering from dementia quite badly now and after my mom and I got her inside her house (it took a few minutes to convince her to go through the proper door because she's was sure she could open the garage with the code--but, of course, she couldn't remember the code) and helped her settle into her living room (finding light switches and showing her where my mom'd left Christmas presents) we turned to go and Grandma said, "Thanks for coming to see me."

"You're welcome," we smiled. 

We hadn't come to see her at all. We'd only been in her home for a couple of minutes. It had been she who'd come to see us.

Grandma Layton with me, my mom, Josie, and my kids