Alright, alright, I'll blog, and it will be long and tiresome....

I don't know why blogging is such a difficult thing for me. It could just be that lately everything has seemed like a chore, or a drag; I think it has to do with this awful winter weather. Its so depressing and un-motivating. We're stuck inside most days because its either too cold, too snowy and icy, too polluted, or we're too sick. Sigh. That doesn't really give me an excuse for all of those months before winter that I didn't blog either though. Maybe I just feel overwhelmed by having too much happened or not enough to write about. But I'm finally stir crazy enough that I have to do something and an ultra long blog post might be that something. I guess I'll do a summary of miscellaneous stuff that has happened. Feel free to skim, or read it in bits and pieces, because it is going to be looooooong.

~Let's see, my last post was in August so that's a big gap. We were supposed to be losing the internet, but after several calls to let them know we cancelled our service, one rep finally said, "I guess you're just lucky" -because 7 months later we still have internet. No complaints here as long as they don't back charge us. I mean, we told them fair and square we weren't paying for it and they didn't ever come to shut it off. I'm reminded of a Brian Regan take on the opposite-getting service rather than shutting it off-but its somewhat applicable and pretty funny:

~In October, Kelly had to take a mandatory trip to New York over fall break. We were a little annoyed that they only let us know about it a month in advance and that the student was responsible for the expense of the trip, which wasn't cheap when you're on a tight college budget. But through blessings and miracles it turned out and I think Kelly actually enjoyed it. The trip was for their final semester project, which Kelly is working on now. They visited several major architecture firms and iconic buildings and then some places where they could chose to design a project of their choice. I'll get to more on Kelly's later. Here are a few pictures he took while there, I'm sorry I don't know the names of the buildings, maybe Kelly can come back and fill those in later. (I also apologize for my complete lack of ability to make pictures look good on here.)

Radioactive milk, gives you a healthy glow:)

~ For Halloween, Asher was a Mad Scientist. He kept the mad part most of the night, but the scientist part of his outfit didn't last long because he was angry and cranky. We got an old white dress shirt from DI for his lab coat and Kelly singed off one sleeve and put a bunch of burn holes in it. Then we dusted his face with black powder, leaving circles around his eyes so it looked like he was wearing goggles when his experiment exploded. He had a couple of radioactive uranium and plutonium rods in his lab coat pocket and some nuclear something or rather in his bottle, it was pretty cool how it glowed. Unfortunately he didn't cooperate for any pictures so these are the best we got.

"mmmm, plutonium"

~We enjoyed a lovely fall in November, as well as our first big snow storm. Asher wasn't too fond of the snow once he got it on his hands, but at least he didn't drown in it. I don't have a picture of it, but we also celebrated Kelly's birthday on the 22nd (which was also Thanksgiving). We had an awesome time going out to dinner later that week with Kelly's twin brother Aaron and his wife Krystal while Kelly's parents watched all the kids. I'm determined to make sure it becomes a birthday tradition because it was so nice.

~I don't know why but I have always had a fascination with Jewish culture and tradition. May be my ultra-Jewish name, or somewhere in my ancestry there is Jewish blood. At any rate, we had a little Hanukkah party this year at the beginning of December with some of our good friends from BYU that we have stayed in touch with. We had some traditional Hanukkah fair-which means mostly fried stuff, and it was great. We had Sufganiyot (jelly filled doughnuts), Latkes (fried potato pancakes) Challah bread (braided bread with a lot of egg in it) Hanukkah honey cookies (in the shape of dradels and menorah) and some soup on the side. We had a great time, though I'm sad we didn't quite get around to playing dradel. Next year for sure.

~Later in December we made a trip to Temple Square to see the lights with Kelly's parents and brother's family. It took us about 45 minutes to find parking, but I'm glad we went. The kids had a good time and it was good to see the lights again after so many years of not going. We also celebrated my birthday on the 21st with pizza, cake and ice cream in our little house. I think there were 15 of us in all, but it was a lot of fun and I was glad to be surrounded by loved ones on my birthday.

~This year for Christmas we went down to Springville to be with Kelly's parents and his brother Aaron's family. We did a non-traditional, traditional dinner. In other words we had foods that the Savior may have eaten in his day. We had roasted salmon, pitas, hummus, olives, dried fruit, veggie salad and nuts. It was amazingly filling and certainly delicious. It was so nice to not have turkey again, but more than that I really felt like it helped us focus on the meaning of the celebration more. It was reverent and peaceful rather than a bit chaotic and stressful and over filling. After dinner the children did a little Nativity, it was so cute. They never go perfectly, but seriously, we're all expecting to be entertained rather than reverent and thoughtful when the actors are all under 5 years old, right? Christmas morning was nice and quite. We got Asher a little indoor jungle gym that he climbs on for probably 3 hours a day if not more. We got a great deal on KSL and its the best thing I think we've ever purchased. Asher was more interested in the little bow on it at first, but then he realized what a cool thing it was and has been climbing on it ever since.

~ For Christmas, my sisters and I decided to have a photo shoot done of all the grand kids on our side, there are only 4 so it wasn't too much of a hassle to get done and they turned out pretty cute:)

~ That brings us to January and 2013. The first big thing was that we made the decision to have Asher's tonsils and adenoids out, as well as tubes put in his ears. He has been a snorer his entire life, but it was getting to the point that it was alarming because he started having apnea and it was painful to listen to him breath; and at almost 2 years old he was still unable to sleep through the night because he kept obstructing and waking up. I think the poor child hasn't had a complete REM cycle his whole life. Following the trip to the ENT the first week of January, he strongly recommended taking them out and we made an appointment for that coming Friday. We were obviously nervous and had second thoughts, but in the end we figured any benefit would be worth it. And my goodness we are so glad we did it! It has been almost a month and he made a speedy recovery. I still can't believe how well he is breathing. I am used to being able to hear him snoring from almost anywhere in the house, but now I have to physically put my hand on him to tell sometimes (yes I still go in and check on him). He sleeps through the night now-HOORAY! and I think he is starting to grow a little. I am just so grateful that we went through with it and were led to have it done because I know it was the right thing to do and that it will bless him for the better as he grows.

~The second big thing for January is that it brings us to Kelly's last semester!!!! He really hit the ground running with this one, being overwhelmed from the start with project deadlines and work, but he is pulling through. He suggested we make a paper chain, so the other day when he was at school I tackled it. I hid it on top of the curio because I thought it would be more discouraging than helpful because it is sooo long. But Kelly is very optimistic, and the 10ft thing is now draped from our ceiling getting a little shorter each day. I am so excited for him to be done-probably not as much as he is, but the end at least is in sight. I am going to try and start a series of posts cataloging his major projects from the last 3 years as they sadly go so unappreciated given the amount of time I know he has put into them. So look forward to that if it keeps snowing and freezing around here. I promise they won't be long posts like this one:)