Introducing...

Renn

6lbs, 8oz

20.5"

He is so tiny. 

 I love this picture because you get an idea of his size in proportion to my hands.

Snarly baby faces are my favorite.  He makes this face when he is in a piranha like feeding frenzy.

He loves his hands and clings to me like a little monkey. He won't allow for swaddling because he sleeps with his hands tucked up by his ears in peaceful contentment.

You are sleepy just looking at this.  Aren't you?

The Name

Jed and I have problems picking a name.  You think nine months of being pregnant would be ample time to figure this out.  It's not.  I feel like you have to see the baby to pick a name. Also, in the course of pregnancy I change my name partiality 100 hundred times.  What sounds like a good idea on a Monday is a bad terrible curse by Tuesday.  Every child we have had is not named until the twelfth hour.  Social security/birth certificate officials breathing down our necks.  The pressure.  I also feel like a name has to have a reason.  Not necessarily a meaning but a reason.  Here is the reason for Renn's name.  I'll start with his middle name.  It is an initial that stands for Jed's middle name, both of Jed's grandfathers and my maternal grandfather.  Renn will be representing all the clans.  Now on to why we chose Renn.  I never would have thought of this name on my own.  Renn's birth story was a bit of a whirlwind and amongst the chaos I thought I heard one of the attendees in the OR addressed as Renn.  It clicked, a light bulb went on.  Later I asked who in the room had been named Renn.  No one.  I had mistaken the name with another close to it.  The name had been revealed!  This is why it takes me so long to make decisions.  I wait for the bolt of lightning to strike.  (Yes-shopping with me is a nightmare.)  While in the hospital Jed and I talked about other names we were considering but this one just felt right.  I think Jed is still holding out that I will cave and name him Eddie after all but no.  Oh and Elise is none too happy that we were calling her baby "Lehi" by that other name.  Her exact words went like this, "Why you call my baby Lehi, Renn!"  A couple of months ago she named him Lehi and isn't letting it go easily.  We also found that with a little combining and shortening, Renn could be a derivative of my maiden name and Jed's mother's maiden name.  Even better.  

Jack's Ski Adventure

Winter X Games+Jed's Ski Trip to CO=Jack Wanting to Learn How to Ski

The last weekend in January, Jed took Jack up to Brian Head and enrolled him in ski school.  I was afraid.  I remember when Jed "taught" me to snowboard."  I still have the bruises and it was 15 years ago!  Jack did much better. Even in blizzard conditions he loved it and "only wrecked one time!"  Jed videoed him going down the mountain and my heart skipped a beat when I saw how fast he was going.  One word-trees.  

The above picture is with his instructor and class.  

Jack is the third from the left.

 

Lots of fog.  Good thing my boy has orange pants.

Hopping off the ski lift.  Jack's on the left.  

He told me he liked the ski lift.  

Clearly he is not my child.

"I didn't need poles mom, dad did..."

I'm glad this was a good experience for both of them.  Jack learned something new successfully and Jed has a skiing partner now.  Next CO trip Jed, well, I'm pretty sure Jack is under the weight limit for carry-on??  I loved the excitement in Jack's voice when he called me afterwards, it made me forget the Pandora's box we may have opened!

Elise is the Ruler of the World

Holding her self-portrait.

I don't know where to begin.  She rules.  Listen...

-"I am going to pump your guts..." 

(Home Alone, maybe not such a good choice for a 3 year old)

-"You want me to pound you!?"  

(Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, also not a good choice.)

-Playing with the neighbor boy "T" also three

T:  You're a baby

E:  Indignant "I not a baby, I is a big girl, I wear panties, SEE!!!"  

And then she pulled down her pants in the middle of the road for the whole neighborhood to see her big girl panties.

-While at a farmer's market in Las Vegas and peacocks are strutting around calling "hellllp, hellllp" (tell me you think that's what it sounds like they are saying too)  "WE CAN'T HELP YOU!!!"

-While driving on top of a fly-over bridge in 'Vegas.  "Daddy don't fall off, I'll scream like a girl, WAIT, I IS a girl!!!"
-She has had a baby in her tummy since October and his name is "Gobble." She talks about him, loves him, and pets him every day.  She has also bought him clothes and eats special food (extra treats) just for him.  One morning I went to get her out of bed and she told me "oh my baby is hurting me."  Today she was happily playing with her toys and then suddenly out of nowhere stopped and got a big face and put her hand to her belly and said "OOO he's kicking me."  She has been telling everyone he is coming out when mommy's baby comes out.  I don't know what sort of exorcism Jed and I will have to perform to make that happen, but I'm hoping a trip to Wal-Mart to buy a dolly on our way home from the hospital will solve the problem errr condition.  

Notice how most of these sentences have caps and exclamation points.  Jed and I are seriously thinking we need to have our ringing ears checked.  She has one volume and never. stops.  Precious little pet. Life would be so dull without her.

A New Year

Cheers 2015

We let the kids stay up until 10:00ish, gasp, and gave them Martinelli's.  Jack's got a taste for it now.  We hope, unlike someone, he never drinks 6 bottles and flies off the mesa, rubber burning, in desperate search of a commode.  I don't know who that might have been!?

On to Resolutions;

Jed-piano 3 times a week (his teacher is kind-of the problem with keeping this resolution.)

Joshlyn-memorize a certain something I have been wanting to for a long time

Jara-25 AR points

Jack-"Eat good food to grow big muscles"

Elise-Clean up toys

We let them decide their own resolutions and talked about our goals from last year.  I love to see the progress they have actually made from year to year and how often it exceeds their expectations.  Jed and I, our progress isn't always so evident.  

2014 Re-cap

I asked Jed New Year's day "so was 2014 a good year or a bad year?"  

Jed:  Ever the optimist, "it was a good year."

Me;  Ever the realist.  "Well, what about.......this.....this...this."

Jed: " It was good because all year's are good, sometimes bad things happen, but you learn more from the bad than the good, and that makes it good in the end."

Perspective.  I'm glad he has it.  My world is happier because of it. I think I will forever think differently of "bad" years/moments...but maybe only in hindsight.

Happy New Year!

Santa

skeptical

magical

hopeful

 (and maybe a little fearful)

Merry Christmas!

What, you don't have a light-up flamingo too!?  

What happens when I leave Jed in Wal-Mart. Alone. In charge of Christmas lights.  The flamingo gene is strong Grandma Wheeler! 

The Nativity. 

A tradition we have tried to do the last 3 years.  I always feel an extra bit of peace through this activity.  Even if the star was leaping across the couch and the angel was griping about her halo and the wiseman was singing "we three kings" in an alarmingly deep voice.  

The grand opening.  

What Christmas means to Jack. (read a couple posts back)

A cupcake maker!  

The joy of puzzles

And most importantly her very own bike she was very concerned had been forgotten.

Here are a few other moments about this busy month...

-Elise was at a magical age this year, once she met Santa at the ward party and decided he wasn't so "horrible," (she woke up the next morning "I like Santa now") she penned letters, made sure the cookies were out, told us "Merry Cismas" every night at bed time and decorated every. single. door in the house with striped bakers yarn.  She also made sure that the inflatable Santa (to go with the flamingo of course) was up and running every night.  

-We all came down with the death cold.  Three weeks later I can finally hear out of my left ear again and have stopped coughing at night.  Elise and I got hit the worst.  Elise is still coughing.  Due to our disease ridden state we stayed home just the five of us on Christmas Eve which is a first ever.  Dinner was a little lonely.

-Speaking of dinner...Jed brought home the glorious ham.  I'm hoarding the left-overs in the freezer.  Saving them for a good time.  I love ham so, so much but after four straight days of it 

we started oinking and losing the desire for meals.  

-I accidentally bought Jed the ugliest pair of Ronald McDonald basketball shoes ever.  Nailed it.

-I knocked over the tree at midnight on Christmas Eve.  I was sick, exhausted from procrastinated assembly and clumsily set the 11 foot, ornamented, live-with-a bowl-full-of-water, beauty careening through the living room with a splendid crash.  The presents were all laid out and Jed was in the shower.  He was met with hysteria.  Thankfully he is calm and good with a broom and cleaned up my disaster while I tried to explain to Jara that Santa had not desecrated the tree or broken through the roof. eek

-I was crafty and made 30 neighbor gifts, two different friend gifts and truly enjoyed doing it, I love creating but the house looked like a tornado went through it and I'm not sure anyone had lunch that day.  Jed was home, maybe he fed the little people I don't know, I was up to my neck in wrappings and trappings.  Next year I really will complete my projects in a summer month over the course of days and not hours.  Probably not, but it's a nice idea anyway.

-I also dedicated one whole day to the production of the ward Christmas party's alfredo sauce.  Enough alfredo for 200 people, no problem.  No one got sick so I deem that success.  However, I threatened Jed that he would suffer pains of death if he ever let me volunteer for something like that again.  My rational mind constructed that somehow it was all his fault.  

Traditions-Gingerbread Houses

When I was little I always wanted to make a gingerbread house.  (In an era before pre-made kits.)  When I was in 5th grade our teacher made one with every one of us in our whole class.  My dreams were fulfilled.  I made my mom keep that shack for at least three years!  I make them now with my kids but this would not be happening without the Wilton special from the grocery store.  Bless those mother's who make homemade gingerbread houses, I can barely handle the kit and every year I find one that requires less and less effort.  This one was pre-assembled!  Even the kids recognized the value and lack of swearing this would bring to the experience. I love to bake, but I do not like to assemble things that are supposed to resemble structures.  

Jara taking her designing/decorating very serious.  The other two just like sitting on the table.  My favorite part of house making is the sheer joy this little tradition brings them and the anticipation they build up for it.  

Elise letting everyone know how it feels when your house doesn't cooperate with the building plans.  She will make a good contractor.  (In case you were wondering, you are still witnessing joy, just in the form Elise likes best...bossing.)

Jack's favorite contribution is eating the candy.

My frosting skills are limited.  Jara will be good enough in a few years to take over.  

On New Year's we have big plans for the house.  We are going to blow it to shreds.  I never quite know what to do with the crusty thing. It seems cruel to just throw it away and unsanitary to eat it.  One of my cousins shared the second half of her gingerbread-house-making tradition; you take it out on New Year's and use it for target practice.  Problem solved!