Waters Top 10 of 2010

10. We moved to Syracuse NY and bought a house!!

9. We flooded our new house, and took out a huge section of ceiling.

8. Bailey was our Sunbeam this year. She kept busy with preschool, swimming lessons and ballet. She is getting bigger and smarter every day.

7. Kari started teaching piano lessons.

6. Avery went through a phase of throwing everything away, including our brand new GPS. Luckily, she grew out of it. Now she finally, finally, growing hair.

5. Mike fixed the ceiling, only to have a toilet leak ruin it one short week later.

4. Kari shoveled her very first driveway ever. She wasn’t very happy about four feet of snow in four days. She did a lot of shoveling.

3. Mike turned thirty!

2. We drove all over the country. We drove to Chicago, Washington D.C., Reno, SLC, Nauvoo, Ithaca, Syracuse more than once

1. Mike graduated medical school and started his orthopedics residency!

Gloria

Bailey and Avery have loved learning Christmas songs this year. My personal favorite was the two of them singing, "Angels we have heard on high." Avery singing the glorias is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. She sings them all the time- in the car, around the house, and in her crib (when she is supposed to be taking a nap). Here is a video of them singing their favorite Christmas song (taken with Mike's new camera):

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started at 7:30am. Lucky for us, Bailey didn't let the excitement get her up too early. However, since Avery was still sleeping, she had to wait. She ran downstairs and brought up her stocking. Inside, she found a new pair of earrings, a giant lip gloss, and three head bands. Bailey was a sweetheart, once she saw her stash she announced, "Since I have three head bands, I'm going to give one to Avery, and one to you, Mom."

Once Avery awoke, we headed downstairs, but Mike pulled a classic, "Wait! I'm not ready!" One of the things I remember about Christmas as a child was my dad always making us wait. First, he had to get dressed. Then, he had to make sure the camera was ready. Then... who knows what. I laughed when Mike was doing it too.

Finally, finally, it was time to open presents.

I love this picture. Bailey is so excited about her new zhu zhu pets. I'm glad she was so easily pleased... 

Bailey was thrilled to finally get a pillow pet. She has a few other big stuffed animals, including a pillow pet like duck from last year. I tried to tell her she already had one, but she wasn't convinced. Her duck didn't fold up like other pillow pets. I asked her why she wanted one. She said, "Because it's good for travel." Oh, really. I asked her where she learned that. "From T.V." Of course.

The girls were super excited about all their new toys and books. Avery's favorite present was the giant lip gloss (the green object in her hands in the above picture). That lip gloss did not leave her hands or purse (which is also always carried around) for a whole week, until it was gone. Maybe next year she'll just get lipglosses. (:

I surprised Mike with a Flip camcorder. Well, it was kind of a surprise. I told him there was no way we could afford it, but I went and asked parents to contribute instead of buying him a gift. I got a great deal on an amazon.com black friday sale, and wrapped it up. I figured he wouldn't be able to guess what it was because it was in such a small package. When I put it under the tree, he announced, "It's a camcorder!" I told him it was way too small, trying to through him off. He wasn't convinced. He, too, had seen a a tiny camcorder "on T.V." I'm beginning to think we watch too much T.V. around here...

I got the cheese making ingredients I wanted. Yes, I know, it sounds kind of weird. Oh well. I'm excited to give it a try.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!

Our little shepherds

This year, we celebrated Christmas a little bit early. Mike had to work on Christmas day, of course, but he did have Thursday off. So on Wednesday night, we had our Christmas Eve dinner. For the last few years, we've done a Shepherd's dinner and read the Christmas story from the scriptures. Here are our little shepherds:

We ate our Shepherd's dinner on a blanket, and talked about being both sheep and shepherds. It is a fun family tradition (picked up from ward friends in Columbus.) After that, we opened up Christmas pajamas, drank hot russian and had treats while Bailey and Avery ran around like crazy.

Bailey had been excited about Christmas in years past, but this was the first Christmas that she could hardly wait. She made sure Santa had cookies and milk, and that we put enough carrots out for ALL the reindeer. She was adorable!

Before she headed to bed, she asked us if Santa still left presents if she saw him. We told her he did, so less than a minute after we put her down, she was sneaking out, looking for Santa. We told her to at least wait until we went to bed to look for him, but that didn't stop her from making three more sneaky trips before she fell asleep at nine.

In case you are interested, here is the recipe for out Christmas Eve dinner:

Shepherd's Dinner

Serves at least 12

10 chicken breasts

Rub with garlic and sprinkle with Lawry Season salt

3 to 4 c red potatoes diced (not peeled)

2 c sweet potatoes peeled and dices

2 c cooking apples sliced

3 c carrots, peeled and sliced

2 c celery

1 c raisins

1 c craisins

1 c pecans chopped coarsely

2 bunches green onions chopped

2 tsp cinnamon

Tear parchment paper into squares.  Place chicken in center.  Toss all other ingredients together.  Heap veggies on top of breasts.  Bring 4 corners up and tie with string (twine, kite string).  Put bunches on cookies sheet for one hour at 350 degrees.

Sauce:

1 c beef broth

1 c cream of mushroom soup

½ c orange juice concentrate

½ c currant jelly

¼ tsp minced garlic

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp onion salt

1 tsp dried basil

½ c melted butter

Mix above ingredients together, heat, and serve warm

Polar Express

This year, we took the girls on a train ride to the "North Pole." They had a fun time riding the train, eating treats, and seeing Santa Claus.

Well, Bailey saw Santa. Avery was less that thrilled with the idea...

First Snow

The beginning of December brought the first snow of the season. Bailey and Avery could not contain their excitement. When they woke up (at 6:30am I might add), they immediately wanted to play in the quarter inch of snow that had collected on the deck. Here they are in their snow things, ready to play:

Please note that it is still dark outside! They didn't want breakfast or anything before they headed out to the snow.

In case you're wondering, we've had a total of six feet of snow already. Four feet of those where dumped in four days. It was snow like I have never seen it before. Bailey can't get enough of it, but poor Avery has had a hard time walking around in such deep snow. Syracuse really is a winter wonderland!

The night shift

Last week Mike got his first taste of working nights. And he didn't like it. As it turns out, it's really hard to sleep during the day, every day, because of your bodies' natural rhythms. Consequently, Mike did not get a lot of sleep. The rotation was also stressful because of an unusually high number of patients. It was a vreally long week.

Bailey however, had a totally different perspective. Here is the conversation we had one night:

Bailey: "Is Dad working nights again?"
Me: "Not this week."
Bailey: "Does Calvin's daddy work nights?"
Me: "No, Calvin's daddy isn't a doctor. He's an engineer. He never has to work nights."
Bailey: "I'm so glad my daddy's not an engineer!"
Me: "Why?"
Bailey: "Because then Dad would never work nights!"

I think Bailey loved the night shift because at least Mike was at home. Even if he was just sleeping, I think she liked having him close by.

Avery's Spike

With my recent running class, I've been sporting a lot of pony tails lately. (It's hard to fit in a run every day). This had led Bailey to wearing a lot of pony tails too. Poor Avery didn't want to be left out. One morning, she came up to me with a brush and a hair band, and asked for a pony tail. Well, at two, she still doesn't have a lot of hair, so this is what we came up with:

I absolutely love it! And Avery does too. She calls it her "spikey pony tail." She has gotten a lot compliments on her spike, and I think it's here to stay.

Trunk or Treat

This year, the "big" night of Halloween was the ward Trick of Trunk. Our little Pocohantas' (?) had a blast. Here are a few of my favorite moments from the night:

Avery playing the donut eating game! I think this is too hilarious. Bailey would not even try- she did take a donut off a string to eat, but wasn't up to eating it without hands. Avery didn't even end up eating it after we took it off for her, but it was too funny to see her try. (I tried to convince Mike to join in, but he would only do it if I would do it. I just wanted to laugh at him, not be laughed at, so I declined. Oh well.)

Bailey and Avery both loved the face painting. Can't you see that it her smile?? I am realized surprised that Avery even went for it, being the shy girl that she is. By the end of the night, both girl had butterflies on their faces, and Avery even went back for a bat.

Here is my beautiful family! And here is Avery's new past time:

I love October, and all the fun fall and Halloween activities it brings. I'm sad to see it go!

Carving Pumpkins

One of our favorite traditions is carving our Halloween pumpkins for family home evening. This year was no exception, except that a squirrel or skunk got to our pumpkins before we did.

We didn't let that stop us, and the girls had a great time digging out the pumpkin seeds. Bailey wanted to save a few for her to plant. 

Unfortunately, Bailey remembered that she got to take her shirt off during pumpkin carving last year, so there aren't really that many appropriate pumpkin carving pictures of her. That's a tradition that needs to end... (:

 

The girls picked out what kind of faces they wanted, and for some reason, I got to be the mouth designer. They wanted scary, but I'm not quite sure that's how they turned out. 

However, my favorite, and scariest, moment of the night was when Avery was reaching for a little knife we had on the table (little relative to another knife we had out). Mike immediately jumped on it, and told Avery that knifes were dangerous, and were for mommy and daddy only. Ever the comedian, Avery replied, "But Daddy, that is a baby knife." Oh, the perspective of a two year old. 

In the end, the wildlife won, and the pumpkins ended up a smashed mess, but they were cute while they lasted. Even bitten and smashed, the girls were sad when we put them in the trash. Good thing we'll do it again next year.

Dress Rehearsal

I figured it was finally time to update the blog... so here goes. 

This year, since we decided not to go trick or treating on Sunday, I tried to cram as much Halloween into October as we could. Here are some pictures of my twin Pocahontas princesses at the Disney Store Halloween dress rehearsal:

They were too enthralled with the pile of stuffed animals to actually turn around and let me take a picture.

Avery, once again, wouldn't actually look at the camera... It's amazing we walked out the store without actually buying anything.

And this is Bailey doing the wave so graciously taught her by the Disney Store employee who was leading the parade. She looks just like a princess. (:

Pumpkin Patch

It wouldn't be fall if we didn't go to a pumpkin patch. This year, we went with Bailey's joy school class on a field trip. As with all things school related, Bailey took this very seriously. She asked me if we were going to ride a bus, and why everyone didn't leave at the same time as us. They girls had a great time climbing on pumpkins, playing in a corn box (a sand box full of corn), getting lost in a maze, using a porty potty without me (I don't do porty potties!), and of course, picking out a pumpkin. 

 

 Surprisingly, Avery did get in the corn box, but only for a few minutes.

I wanted to get a cute picture of the girls in front of this beautiful sunflower patch. However, Bailey was off running around with a friend, and Avery would only give me grouchy faces.

 

Our first Waters family attempted campout

On Friday night, we decided to go camping. Bailey has been wanting to go camping forever, so with Mike's last few days off, we found a campsite, got ready and headed out. Online, I had found a site that was by one of the fingerlakes. We were excited for a beautiful view.

But when we got there, this is what we saw:

Our campsite was right next to the lake. A stone's throw away. And I wasn't happy about it. I was really nervous that Bailey or Avery might be get a little too adventurous, or maybe just a little too close. Needless to say, I was extremely diligent about knowing where they were every second. It was a very pretty view, but it was scary, and not the wooded campground we were expecting.

It was, luckily, a very warm September day. However, it was also very windy. Poor Avery was terrified. She could not stand to be in the tent when the wind was blowing. In fact, she was screaming. A lot.

The campsite was also right next to a playground. While we were playing there, we made a terrible discovery on Avery's head. Mike pulled tiny black bug after bug after bug out of  her hair. Yes, we found lice.

It's not exactly what you want to find out when you're planning to sleep all together in a tent where everything will have to treated. But, we decided there was not much we could do about that night, and that we would try to have a fun campout anyway.

When it started to get dark, we made a campfire. We had a great time roasting hot dogs, and marshmallows. It looked like our campout was going to be salvaged.

But then it was bedtime.

Bailey and Avery would not go to sleep. Every time one of them was almost asleep, the other one would wake them up. I threatened ("If you guys don't go to sleep we're going home!" "Nooooooooooo!"). I cajoled ("It's so much fun to sleep in a tent!" "I want to go home!"). And finally, after two and a half hours of this, we packed up and went home.

Unfortunately, I was planning on taking all of our camping pictures in the morning because the sun was in such a terrible place.

These are the only pictures I have of our failed campout. Mike and I decided we would only talk about the fun things we did while we camped, instead of the bad. Maybe next time (if there is a next time) it will be better.

And now we have to deal with lice!!!