Visit with Santa and Happy Birthday Audra!

If you still believe in Santa you might want to skip this post ;)

Okay, let me just start of this post by explaining that we are not a "Santa believing" family. Before we got married Roy approached me with the opinion that we should not do santa in our house. It was one of our first fights and I was pretty upset about it. But he gave me his reasons and it convinced me. Well, so far it hasn't really been an issue. Last year Rae didn't mention Santa much and we were going to be at my inlaw's house and they do a big celebration Christmas Eve (German tradition) and there isn't a big "let's wake up Christmas morning and see what Santa brought!"

This year, however, we've been telling Rae that Santa is just a character, like Barney, and her presents really come from her family. She agrees that the Santa at Christmas parties is just someone dressed up in a costume, but she still believes there is a real santa out there that has a sleigh, reindeer, goes down chimneys, you have to be asleep before he'll come, all that stuff. I guess she watches a lot of tv and reads a lot of books that put these ideas in her head. It's not like we're going to try to avoid all of those "outside influences" all month long!

So, anyway, we just casually mention that all of that stuff is pretend but we aren't really pushing it because it'll probably just make her believe more. Next year we are doing Christmas alone, so it'll be our chance to really discuss it. But this year we get to enjoy that child-like imagination and excitment about Santa but we know we haven't put it all in her head ourselves. :)

(I totally don't have strong feelings about this subject. It's not like I think all the other parents out there are bad bad parents that 'lie' to their children. I just think Santa is too big of a deal at Christmas and there's no reason for kids to be told that he exists when he doesn't. I want Rae to understand that we give her gifts to show our love for her, not that Santa gives her gifts becasue she was good all year - which is never true!)

ANYWAY, on to the point of the post! Last week there was a math department hoilday party and santa came. Rae was so excited but got so nervous when she sat on his lap. She could hardly make eye contact and wouldn't speak to him. Blaise, on the other hand (who I thought would refuse to get near santa) was so excited and talked to santa and wasn't nervous at all. Of course we forgot our camera but someone took pictures of the kids:




I wish we had our camera to get a video of how cute they both were in their different reactions. They'll have another chance tomorrow at the ward Christmas party so I'll remember the camera this time!

By the way, the math deparment party was great! It was nice and casual and small and there was great food and they even had a couple of students upstairs to entertain the kids. Santa (who was a math professor) had a small present for each kid and when they sat on his lap the department secretary would tell him the child's name and how old they were, so it was all very relaxed and personable. No rushing. We had the chance to talk to a couple that used to live in Solano Park (our old apartment complex) 18 years ago when the husband was doing graduate school! What a small world! Anyway, it was fun.

Today is my sister-in-law Audra's b-day. She's a pretty amazing gal. Hope you have a great birthday Audra!

More of the cute kid

Here's a video of us singing Happy Birthday to Blaise. As you can hear, he was singing along. He got phone calls from Oma and Granny and Papa and when they sang to him he sang right along!





It is "warmer" today and most of the snow has melted, so we actually played outside for a little while! (It sure does help when there is no wind!) Rae got to ride her bike and Blaise got to push around the baby stroller. We colored with chalk on the sidewalk and made shapes in the snow with our sand toys. It was so nice to be outside (even if it was only for 20 minutes) and now the kids are a little less crazy and playing together nicely. I hope it's sunny and not windy again tomorrow! Only 5 more days and we are out of here!

My sweet sweet Blaise

My special Christmas present




This kid brings so much joy into my life. This morning he woke up at 4 and I let him come to bed with me in hopes of some more sleep. Roy slept on the couch last night (he wasn't in trouble, he just does that sometimes) so in the morning Blaise and I got to cuddle and have some fun in the bedroom while we waited for Rae to wake up. I was cuddling him and I looked at the clock and it was right about the time he was born. It was a special moment. :) He's such a special little boy. Here's a little list of things that make him so fun:

-Blaise's favorite food is PB and honey sandwiches. He'll get them both out and ask for one at least once a day. If I won't let him have a sandwich he'll settle for a spoonful of pb.

-He loves to sing. He may not know all of the words but he won't let that stop him! And he doesn't just sing, he'll sing deep when it's supposed to be deep, he'll hold notes when you are supposed to hold them...he gets really into it.

-Rae has taught him so many fun things. He knows how to count to 10. He knows a lot of his colors and now he's learning his letters! He can recognize almost half of the letters in the alphabet. It's amazing how much they can learn when they have an older sibling.

-When we take the sacrament at church he calls the bread "chicken" and takes as many pieces as he can get his hands on.

-He loves to make us laugh. He makes faces, noises, says funny things...just loves to be silly.

-He loves Barney but doesn't really sit through a whole episode. But at the end when Barney starts singing "I love you" he runs back into the room and sings too. Usually he'll get a stuffed animal for the "with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you" part, or he'll use me. He also really likes "Super Why".

-His favorite books is Dr.Seuss's "Foot Book". His favorite part is the "more and more feet...24 feet!" Roy taught him to say it in a really cute way.

-If you see him in his room reading to himself it means he is pooping.

-He loves cars and Little People toys. He plays with the dollhouse almost everyday and likes to take all the Little People pieces to church and in the car.

-I need to get this on video for you to understand, but he's got the cutest way of saying mama and dada right now. I can't even explain it, I'll have to get it on video.

Anyway, these are just some of the things that he does on a daily basis that make him unique and fun and make my days happy! He's had a good birthday so far and can't wait for cupcakes tonight! (BTW, I'm totally cheating on the cupcakes. I was going to make some but I realized I didn't want 2 dozen cupcakes in my house! So I bought a box of Little Debbie cupcakes! Both kids are so excited and won't even miss the real thing!)

Birthday celebrations

There will be another birthday brag this afternoon for Blaise, but for now here are a few pictures of our celebrations so far:


We picked Roy up from work after a day of office hours and final proctoring (no fun on your birthday) and took him to Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. After wards he took a nap on the couch for a bit and then we had "birthday cookie". He got sugar free oreos for one of his birthday presents, so while the rest of us ate ice cream sandwiches he enjoyed his cookie. :) Then we got the kids to bed super early and watched Dark Knight. Fun stuff.

This morning Rae started helping Blaise open his presents as soon as she got up! I let him open the one from her but made him wait till Roy woke up for the others. Rae got him a stuffed elephant. He got a car ramp thingy from us and a Little People Dump truck.







Next up - cleaning the house, a nap for the birthday boy and then cupcakes!

Birthday Brag!

Today is Roy's 29th birthday! I thought I'd post a few pictures of him that you've probably never seen before. You all already know that he's a wacky guy.

Did you know he can raise only one eyebrow?


Burning his tie on his mission. Nobody told him you were supposed to take the tie off first!




Can I just tell you how awesome this guy is? Since it's his birthday I get to brag about him and you all have to read it! :)

You all probably know that Roy is super smart, but he still has to work really hard to succeed. At UC Irvine it was a little easier for him and he graduated Summa Cum Laude. When he started graduate school he realized he was with some of best of the best so he'd have to work extra hard because he always has to get the best grade. He worked hard and finished graduate school in just 4 years! Now, in his first teaching position he's working his butt off to do his best. This is a whole new experience for him. He has to figure out how to manage his time to plan lessons, help students and teach math in a way that is interesting. He's also having to be more social and outgoing than he has ever had to before and he's doing a wonderful job. These past few weeks he's been so busy with his regular duties plus applying to jobs for next year. He goes to school from 9-5 everyday, comes home and plays with the kids, gets them to bed and then gets back to work till around 2 in the morning. Then the next day he does it all over again. And he never complains! He even comforts me when I complain about never seeing him! He's an angel.

Oh, and those jobs he's applying to for next year? He's doing me a big favor and applying to a lot of places near North Carolina because he knows I'd love to live near family.

Most of you probably think Roy's really quiet. Well, he is around most people. But when he gets really comfortable with you he'll chat your ear off and makes a lot of funny jokes! Oh, and he has great taste in movies - he loves action, Shakespeare, and the occasional romantic comedy. Poor guy - the new Batman movie comes out today and he doesn't even get to watch it because he has finals to grade. (His birthday always lands around finals time, so he never gets much of a celebration!)

I could go on and on about him. He's so good with the kids. Even when he's exhausted he'll wrestle with them, bathe them and read them stories every night. He used to do dishes every night but I've taken over that chore because he's so busy. He cleans the guinea pig's cage every week for me even though getting her was my idea and now I resent that idea. He's not super "manly" but he tries to fix things when can find out how on the internet. :) I like that even when something doesn't come naturally to him he tries to do it anyway. Anyway, he's an awesome guy and we all love him a ton! Happy Birthday honey pie!

That kid

I told Blaise to find his sippy cup because it was time for a nap. He responded "Noooo, it time for play. Play play play all day!"

Man I love that kid.

So ticked - UPDATE - NOT TICKED!

Update:
Okay, so after a few comments on my post this morning I decided that I should probably complain to someone, so I looked at my receipt for a number to call. I had my receipt that had my customized order and then stapled on top was a receipt with my order number and order total. I looked closely at the top receipt and realized it wasn't mine! They had stapled the wrong receipt. I didn't notice earlier because I didn't really have a reason to look at it, and when it was given to me I was in a hurry to get out of there. Also, I had another receipt that was for my credit card payment.

Anyway, I figured they had looked up the wrong order and hopefully my order was actually in the store. So I went back to Walmart (just to clarify, this was the Picture Me studio inside Walmart, not the Walmart photo center) and my pictures were there! Hooray! Still a little incompetence on their part, but I didn't notice the mixup either, so I wasn't mad about that part. I'm just glad I got my pictures!

Previous rant:
I went to Walmart today to pick up our family portraits. Nope, not there. They were supposed to come in yesterday but apparently there was some problem and they had to re-order them and they won't be in till the 17th!! The 17th!! The day after we leave! ARGH!!! I showed my disappointment to the lady telling me this, but I didn't want to complain too much. I mean, problems happen and sometimes things don't turn out right. But what if it was someones fault and they deserve to be complained to? And if it was a mistake or problem on their part, shouldn't they do something to make it better? Like, rushing my order? It is really going to take an extra 12 days to get my order?? What the heck. I feel like I should complain to someone but I don't know who, or whether or it would do any good or whether it would even be a reasonable thing to do. I hate confrontation, especially when I'm not sure if it is justified.

Anyway, just had to vent about that. Sorry everyone, I had planned to sit down tomorrow after church and do all our Christmas cards and send a family photo, but I guess that's not going to happen. I guess you'll get a New Years Card. And sorry mom and MIL, no family picture from us this year. I guess I'll have to mail them. Maybe I should make the studio mail me my pictures when they come in. Man, I'm so ticked.

Some random stuff

The snow melted Monday and Tuesday. It came back Wednesday and melted a lot yesterday. Fresh fresh snow isn't too bad. Melting snow that re-freezes is bad. But then once it melts off your car and porch it isn't too bad again. We're getting used to it all. I know the worst is yet to come.

Here are some pictures of Rae playing in the melting snow. She loves to eat the snow and throw it at people. I played with her for a while and then I went inside to be warm and watched her from the window.

Happy Birthday Levi!

Dude, can't believe you are 30! Ack! That means Roy will be 30 next year. When did we all get so old? :) I bet mom can't believe it even more!

Anyway, hope you have a great day!

72-hour kits

UPDATE: I was feeling so overwhelmed by this project this morning! But I dropped Rae off at preschool and when I got home I just felt like I knew where everything should go!! I just starting putting everything where I felt like it should go and finished it up in about 45 minutes. Now I have a nice supply of stuff in my van (change of clothes, enough food and water for about 2 days and all the supplies and tools we would need if we were stranded.) and then I have two small backpacks with food, water and supplies in each of them. And then I have a huge huge backpack with extra supplies and extra food. Each backpack is light enough for me to carry and they are all sitting on the floor of the playroom closet ready to be grabbed if needed. (Someday I'd like them to be in the front closet, but that's not going to happen till all of our winter stuff is out of there) I am so excited. I really feel like they would actually be useful if we had an emergency, whereas before it would have been like "uh, yeah, we have all that stuff, somewhere". Anyway, if you do have any suggestions on things you think should be in a 72 hour kit that people don't usually think about, let me know! I'm still working on having copies of things and all that stuff, but for now I have the basics! Woo hoo!

POST FROM EARLIER: Okay, so I have a few different 72-hour kits that I have collected in the past couple of years. They have never been very organized. Today I dumped everything out on my bed and I'm trying to figure out what should go in each bag. Should each bag have a little of everything in case we get separated? Should all the food go in one bag and supplies to in another bag? What sort of stuff should I keep in my van? I finally put together a change of clothes for each of us, should I keep that in the van? I get so overwhelmed when it comes to 72-hour kits. Ugh. What ideas do you have that have worked for you? I need help or my bed is going to be covered with waterproof matches and canned tuna forever and I need to sleep on it! :)

Two weeks from today....

....we will be getting on an airplane and flying to California! Woo hoo!!!

Big news!

My baby brother Bryce just got his mission call. He's going to Madrid Spain. While writing this I talked to him on the phone and he leaves for his mission on April 1st. (Good April Fools joke!) This is the last of the Jeppson clan to go on a mission! Pretty crazy!

I know you are all tired of hearing about the weather, but can I just say:

I HATE SNOW!

Our van doors were frozen shut this morning. Our windshield wipers were frozen in place. It was 20 degrees outside when we left for speech. Our front porch is not covered, so there is snow up to the front door, which means that when we walk into the house we either get our snow covered shoes on the carpet or slip on the small square of linoleum in our entryway. Most of these things could be solved by a GARAGE! I really don't think snow would bother me as much if we just had a garage to park in and to take off wet clothes.

Anyway, I'm done with my rant. The snow is still beautiful to look at and it will be fun to play in occasionally, but I'd still rather live somewhere else! :) And now I'll try to talk about the weather less often! Maybe I'll talk about pregnancy instead ;)

More snow

If you haven't checked my blog in a day or two you'll have to scroll down and see the many posts from the past few days.

It snowed all night and is still snowing a bit. So we had a good amount of snow to play in this afternoon. (yes, I know it's Sunday, but it's our very first snow of the year!) Blaise was inside napping, so the rest of us went out to play. The snow was great for building a snowman. All you had to do was start rolling a ball! We didn't get it very balanced though, so it fell down shortly after we got a picture.

Then we had a snowball fight and got too cold and went inside. We definitely need some real snow clothes - like waterproof mittens! And I really really wish we had a covered patio or garage for all our wet clothes! It was fun to play in the snow - now winter can be over!

The view from our front porch this morning before church.


You can see all our paths from where we rolled the snow




After the top two pieces fell off.

It's back!

Yes, here it is, your favorite thing about Christmas: dancing elves! I expect to see this on everyone's blogs by the end of the week! :) (yes, a good waste of time on a Sunday morning. Hmm, maybe I should be getting ready for church) BTW, it snowed a ton last night and now I get to experience my first "get the kids to the car in their church clothes" morning!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

It's snowing, it's snowing, our electric bill is growing...

Well, it's still not real snow, nothing that is sticking or anything, but still exciting for all of us. It is supposed to snow all night. Luckily our heater is working, kind of. It's acting weird, but keeping us warm enough. I'll call our landlord again on Monday. (I talked to him on Tuesday but the heater had started working again)

Some snow is interesting. A few times playing it will be nice. Sled a few times, build a few snowmen, and then head to Blythe and Vegas and warm up!! Then back here to enjoy it again a few times and then I don't know what we'll do! Let me know if you want to come visit and play in the snow!

EDITED TO ADD:

It is sticking now! The kids and I went outside for a few minutes and made a few snowballs. Rae loved it, Blaise was annoyed.

Some Thanksgiving highlights

Our day started with an 8 am trip to a nice, empty Walmart for Thanksgiving day doughnuts! (We might have to make that a tradition) We wandered around for a while enjoying the quiet store and looking at stuff we don't usually have time to look at. We got home and ate doughnuts, drank chocolate milk and thought about when we should start the turkey.

The weather was gorgeous , so we tossed the turkey into the oven around 11 and headed to Thousand Hills State Park to appreciate some nature. It was gorgeous and the kids had a blast playing at the playground and throwing rocks into the lake. Rae had fun walking on the rocks and figuring out which rock she could safely step on next. It was great, and it was so nice to be outside! I think I might take the kids back today since the weather is nice again.







We got home and cleaned up a little and finished up "dinner/lunch". I cooked my first turkey and it turned out great. The kids were not impressed with cranberry sauce. We made jello jigglers for dessert, cut into shapes with Christmas cookie cutters and topped with cool whip. It was a great, no fuss dessert! Oh wait, except that Blaise fussed when he finished his whipped cream and didn't want to eat the actual jello! :)


Then Roy passed out on the couch in a typical Thanksgiving day manner. I don't think it was from eating too much but just from overall exhaustion from his busy life. Later on he watched a bit of the "big game". Okay, not really, but he did watch some hockey! Rae and Blaise played the computer and we all just lounged around waiting till it was time to go to bed! For dinner we each had a roll and then the rest of the pie I had bought for dessert. The kids were asleep by 6:30!


Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day! Oh, did I mention that Rae does in fact have pinkeye? In both eyes. And Roy has it too. Luckily we still had some drops left from last time, so we are just using those instead of going to the doctor (don't judge me) It now looks like Blaise has it too. It is a huge struggle to get Rae to open her eyes for eyedrops every three hours. We have to literally pry them open. Ugh. It's almost time for another dose. But if we are going to be sick on Thanksgiving, pinkeye is a nice simple illness to have! :)

You know that pie I bought for Thanksgiving?

It is halfway gone. I didn't eat it alone. We had it for dessert Sunday night and last night. Luckily there's still plenty if we want to eat it for Thanksgiving, but Rae said she wants jello for dessert instead. We are going to make jello jigglers. I'm looking forward to it, I've never made them before. We have a bunch of Christmas cookie cutters that we'll use to make fun shapes.

Rae might have pinkeye. She had some goop in her eye before bed last night and then this morning her eye was red and a little crusty. But there hasn't been any more goop so far today, and it's getting less red, so maybe it's just irritated. I hope it doesn't get worse. We are supposed to go to Columbia tomorrow for some CiCis, Target and the mall.

I woke up this morning and realized our heater wasn't working. It was 60 degrees in our house. Brrr! I called our landlord but I haven't heard back from him yet. Hopefully we'll get it fixed today or we'll be in for another cold morning tomorrow! We used space heaters to take the chill off this morning, but it's supposed to be even colder tomorrow.

Yesterday I decided that I wanted my house to be really clean for Thanksgiving. Even though we aren't having company, I got the house "company clean". It feels so good. We'll give it a good vacuum tonight and then hopefully be gone all day tomorrow so it won't get dirty again! I want to have a nice, relaxing, clean Thanksgiving weekend! I might even get fancy and use nicer dishes for our meal and maybe light some candles! Anything to make up for the instant mashed potatoes, right? ;)

Anyway, time to try and get Blaise to take a nap. It's a struggle lately, but everyone is much happier if he naps. And I've started a new 30-minute quiet time with Rae, so life is lovely around 1:30 in the afternoon! :)

A few lessons I learned today

Lesson #1:
Do not take your kids to Walmart more than 3 times in a week. They will be horrible and will not want to sit in the shopping cart. Also, do not shop on Saturday afternoons or the week of a holiday. Grumpy kids and crowded aisles are a bad combination.

Lesson #2: Ignore "sympathetic, I'm sorry you have such bad kids and are such a bad mom" looks while shopping at Walmart. Okay, maybe that's not what they are really thinking. Just ignore everyone around you and try to do the best you can to control your kids.

Lesson #3: It is okay to take your kids to McDonalds every once in a while when you don't want to make lunch. Or dinner. Or snacks. And when you take above-mentioned crazy kids after your trip to Walmart, continue to ignore "maybe if you didn't let your kids drink soda at McDonalds they wouldn't be so crazy and misbehaved!" looks. Can you tell I'm a little self-conscious lately?

Lesson #4: To avoid having crazy kids when you get home from the above activities, take them to the park on the way home. It may be 40 degrees outside, but this is as warm as it is going to get, so take advantage of it. Also, you should always have gloves in the car because they will come in handy at the park.

Lesson #5: My kids can last longer in the cold than I can. I don't know if they adjust easier to climate changes or if they were running around more than me so they stayed warmer. Or maybe they just ignored the cold. All I know is that after 20 minutes I was ready to go. But they had fun and got some wiggles out.

Oh darn

I spent the past few days thinking I am 16 weeks along. Then I realized just now that I'm just 15 weeks. Bummer. It's like when you go the whole day thinking that it's Friday but it is really only Thursday. Bummer.

La la la....

Gas is down to $1.67 here! We just filled up our van and it only cost 30 bucks! Woo hoo! I am so flippin' excited! Now I don't have to feel so guilty when I want to go to Columbia all the time.

We got our family picture taken today. So glad to have that out of the way. I also bought my very first turkey today. A whole turkey. Wow. I'm not sure how it is gonna go cooking it, but it was so much cheaper to buy than a "ready to put in the oven" turkey or a turkey breast, which is what I wanted to buy. Last year Lindsey and Seth visited Davis and brought a turkey and it seemed easy enough to cook, so I'm going to give it a shot. I already have some oven bags from when they visited, now I just need one of those big roasting pans. And we picked up all the fixin's for our turkey dinner. We'll be doing:

-Turkey (with lots of butter for Roy to spread on his)
-instant mashed potatoes (since we all prefer them to real ones)
-corn on the cob (Rae's request)
-a can of green beans (Blaise's request),
-"stove-top" stuffing (I'm the only one that will eat it)
-jellied cranberry sauce (just because it's tradition)
-homemade rolls (to make up for the instant potatoes)
-I'm thinking of attempting gravy, but none of us really care for it, so I might not even bother

And for dessert - we got a frozen chocolate pie that looks so delicious that I might eat it tonight and replace it on Monday! :)

Am I missing anything?

Nice and simple, not too much work but still all the tradition. Should be fun.

I still haven't taken a picture of myself with my new haircut. I really liked the way I looked in the portraits we did today, so I'm feeling more confident about my choice of bangs. For a while I wasn't sure whether I liked them or not. But today all I did was blow-dry my hair and it looked really nice in the pictures. I'll try to remember to take a picture soon.

Anyway, hope everyone has a nice weekend a nice Thanksgiving!